By Dan Moffett

After months of debate and deliberation, Ocean Ridge has a new ordinance in place that it hopes will regulate homeowners’ installation of storage sheds and quiet disputes among neighbors.
The ordinance, which the Town Commission passed with a 4-1 vote on Oct. 5, distinguishes between two general varieties of sheds: those larger designs that will require building permits to put up; and those often prefabricated models that now will require only an administrative review to install.
Town Manager Tracey Stevens said the new regulations aren’t meant to infringe on homeowners’ rights or signal a wave of shed policing. They are, however, intended to give officials a way to respond to an increasing number of complaints from residents, most often unhappy next-door neighbors.
“The town will enforce this ordinance just like any other ordinance on the books,” Stevens said. “It isn’t the goal of our code enforcement officers to go around looking for code enforcement issues. Most of the code enforcement cases are complaint-based.”
To fall into the category that needs no building permit, a shed must have no plumbing or electric and must not exceed 100 square feet or 7 feet in height. The ordinance prohibits sheds from being installed in front yards or waterfront setbacks, and they must maintain a 5-foot rear property line setback and at least 3 feet on the sides. All sheds are required to drain only onto the owner’s property.
Only one shed is permitted for each lot and must be screened from the view of adjoining properties.
For a shed to satisfy the administrative review requirement, a town building official must inspect it to certify it conforms to standards and is property anchored and installed.
“The last thing it is ever intended to do is to be adversarial,” Mayor Kristine de Haseth said, arguing that town officials needed the guidelines to help resolve shed disputes among neighbors.
Vice Mayor Steve Coz voted against the ordinance, saying it was likely to penalize homeowners with smaller lots and failed to grandfather-in existing sheds. He argued that if sheds cannot be seen by neighbors, and if there were no complaints, then restrictions are unnecessary.
“If you’re really going to get serious about this, then you should wait until there’s more people in town,” Coz said, noting that seasonal residents should have had the opportunity to weigh in on the issue.
Before commissioners voted, the Planning and Zoning panel considered the restrictions for weeks. The ordinance also provided new definitions and regulations for homeowners’ dune crossovers, setting uniform sizes and clarifying placement restrictions. The rules permit only one dune crossover per parcel.
In other business:
• Because of COVID-19 restrictions on large gatherings, the town will not hold its annual holiday event at Town Hall in December. Instead, plans are in the works for a parade through town featuring Santa Claus, Stevens said.
• Town Attorney Brian Shutt announced in October he was stepping down to take a job with another law firm. Shutt has done legal work for the town since 2016, after serving nearly 20 years as an attorney for Delray Beach. The West Palm Beach law firm of Torcivia, Donlon, Goddeau & Ansay, which is under contract to represent Ocean Ridge, has not yet named a permanent replacement for Shutt.

By Steve Plunkett

Talking points from the presidential contest are filtering down into this year’s rematch between state Rep. Mike Caruso and challenger Jim Bonfiglio.
The barrier island residents’ statehouse race in 2018 was decided by a scant 32 votes. Republican-leaning District 89 stretches along the coast from Boca Raton north to Singer Island.
Caruso, a first-term Republican, warned South County voters in September that Delray Beach was “defunding the police” by cutting $421,121 from the department’s budget.
“Once crime takes hold in Delray Beach, it will spread to all corners of South Palm Beach County,” Caruso said.
Democrat Bonfiglio fired back, calling Caruso’s email “reckless and irresponsible.”
“Representative Caruso, who brags about his Forensic CPA credentials and tenure as a former Delray Beach Police Advisory Committee member, failed to talk to (Police Chief Javaro) Sims and instead fear-mongered for political gain,” Bonfiglio said.
Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia, a Democrat, also weighed in, saying the $421,121 was “for overtime no longer needed due to canceled events.”
“Representative Caruso’s misleading statements and unfounded attacks on our City Commission and police chief are greatly disappointing,” Petrolia said.
On his campaign website (electmikecaruso.com), Caruso also supports cutting taxes, extending sales tax holidays and helping small businesses cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
Bonfiglio, meanwhile (on jimbonfigliofordistrict89.com), lists Medicare for all as an “ultimate goal” and promises to work for a state law requiring a permit to purchase a gun and banning the sale of military-style weapons. He also wants to raise Florida’s minimum wage from $8.65 to $15.
Caruso, 62, says he wants to safely reopen the state’s economy and get people back to work. “It is incumbent on all of us to do our part by following CDC and state guidelines as well as getting tested if you believe you are sick,” he said.
Caruso, an accountant in Delray Beach, also has a local legislative office in Boca Raton.
As of Oct. 16, the latest numbers available, Caruso reported collecting $397,461 in campaign contributions and spending $319,591.
Bonfiglio, 67, is a lawyer and sat on the Ocean Ridge Town Commission from 2014 to 2018, the final eight months as mayor. He had $348,914 in campaign contributions through Oct. 16, including $77,500 in self-loans and $6,000 in in-kind donations. He had $285,105 in expenses.
Early voting continues from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Nov. 1 in Boca Raton at Sugar Sand Park, Spanish River Library and Florida Atlantic University; in Delray Beach at the Delray Beach Community Center; in Boynton Beach at the Ezell Hester Community Center; and other locations across the county.
Election Day is Nov. 3.

Jody Sorrels stands amid dance props at her shuttered studio in Boynton Beach. She hopes to teach somewhere else.

By Mary Hladky

When Jody Sorrels closed her Boynton Beach dance studio on March 17 because of the coronavirus pandemic, she expected to eventually reopen.
But she struggled to figure out how she could change her teaching style to keep her students safe. They would have to be socially distanced, with no hugging or holding hands.
Even if she took all precautions, Sorrels still worried about the possibility of a student contracting COVID-19 at the studio.
Her family’s health concerns also weighed on her. Her husband, Scott, is a kidney transplant recipient and her son, Joshua, had a kidney transplant on Sept. 6. Reopening could expose them to the virus and jeopardize their lives.
Sorrels finally decided the reopening just could not happen. The studio she owned for 20 years at 1700 Corporate Drive is now permanently closed.
“It is like a death in the family,” she said. “I am mourning my studio. It was my dream to open it. This is not the way I wanted to close it.”
Miss Jody’s Place to Dance is one of many small businesses felled by the pandemic.
Data on business closures is sparse, but it is clear that closures are mounting.
The online review company Yelp said in mid-September that 97,996 businesses across the United States had permanently closed as of the end of August, a 34% increase since its mid-July report.
In the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area, 1,949 permanently closed as of July 10, including 417 restaurants and 285 retail businesses. By the end of August, the number had risen to about 2,600, Yelp’s data shows. Not all businesses are listed on its site.
U.S. Census “small business pulse survey” data released on Oct. 1 showed that 1.5% of small businesses in Florida permanently closed in the last week. Data released in early September showed that 0.9% had closed in the last week.
A review of information posted on the websites of some south Palm Beach County businesses shows that closure does not necessarily mean the company is out of business. Some are relocating, possibly to get better rent deals elsewhere or to reduce rent costs by moving into smaller spaces.
A number of businesses operating in multiple locations are scaling back. For example, Le Macaron French Pastries has closed its store on East Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, but its store in Boca Raton’s Mizner Park is open.

For rent and for lease signs are commonplace in Delray Beach.

In downtown Delray Beach, a Downtown Development Authority inventory started in early May showed that 55 ground floor spaces were empty along Atlantic Avenue between State Road A1A and Northwest Fifth Avenue and along Northeast Second Avenue as of Oct. 9, said DDA Executive Director Laura Simon.
The number of vacancies is much higher than normal, she said.
She estimated about 15% of those vacancies are related to COVID-19. Reasons varied for the others. Some were vacant before the DDA started its inventory. Some of the others had decided not to renew a lease and moved to another part of the city or to a different city. She didn’t know if rent costs were a factor in those decisions.
If non-essential businesses had not been shut down in March, she said the city possibly would have lost only a few of those businesses.
In a second conversation 12 days later, Simon said three businesses had opened downtown, and three more planned to open. “That is good news,” she said.
The turnabout in the downtown’s fortunes was completely unexpected since 2020 was expected to be a “stellar year,” she said.
“On March 13, we went into full crisis mode,” she said. Since then, the DDA has taken steps to help businesses. That includes letting the public know which businesses are open or offering take-out meals, providing information on business assistance programs and generally “being a lifeline for our business community.”
The DDA also plans to implement a business recruitment plan.
National business organizations are sounding the alarm that the situation is dire, worsened because federal financial assistance to businesses has run out.
The National Restaurant Association said on Sept. 14 that one in six restaurants, nearly 100,000, are closed either permanently or long term, with nearly 3 million employees still out of work. The industry is on track to lose $240 billion in sales by the end of the year.
A U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey in July found that 70% of small businesses were concerned about financial hardship due to prolonged closures and 58% worried about having to permanently close. Two-thirds feared they would have to close again or stay closed if a second COVID-19 wave occurs.
Business groups are intensely lobbying Congress to approve additional economic relief, but as of late October no deal was in sight.
“Unless Congress acts there is no opportunity for these small businesses to access another round of (Paycheck Protection Program) funding or even the employee retention tax credit,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President and chief policy officer Neil Bradley said on Sept. 1.
The need for congressional action is “critical,” said Dennis Grady, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches. “It would behoove us if politics could be put aside and a next round of PPP would come out.”
Businesses are in a “can we survive another day mentality,” said Troy McLellan, president and CEO of the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce. While he thinks Congress will eventually act, the uncertainty leaves business owners to grapple with “how many weeks and months can I hang on.”
But it’s too late for Stacy Silvestri, owner of five Calico Corners fabric stores in Florida and whose grandfather started the company in 1948.
She shut down her Jacksonville store in July and was holding liquidation sales for her stores in Vero Beach, Stuart, Orlando and at 170 NW 20th St. in Boca Raton in October.
The stores were struggling pre-pandemic as her parent company did not allow her to sell online and fewer people are sewing or interested in custom fabrication.
But when Silvestri reopened after a two-month closure in the spring, customers were leery of in-person shopping and her employees in high-risk groups were nervous about returning to work.
“We got to the point where we had to close them,” she said. That leaves about 65 employees out of work.
“That has been the hardest part, for the employees and the customers,” she said. “It was a very difficult decision to make.
“We had an outpouring from our customers of being very sad,” Silvestri said. “We have a lot of customers who have been very loyal for years.”
Not all Calico Corners stores are closing, with three on Florida’s west coast and others owned by the parent company across the country still in business.

Jen Scoz and Hawk Stillwind closed House of Zen Dali, which they ran for a decade on Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Jewelry designer Jen Scoz also decided it didn’t make sense to keep House of Zen Dali in Delray Beach open since profitability had declined after she reopened in May.
She and co-owner Hawk Stillwind closed their store, at 424 E. Atlantic Ave., in August after operating it for 10 years. Five employees lost their jobs.
“I felt OK with it,” Scoz said of the decision. “I felt it was the right thing to do. If you are not being supported in what you are creating, it is time to move on.”
But her loyal customers “were really, really sad to see us leave,” she said. “We were such a stable and beautiful and spiritual part of the community.”
Scoz said she will continue to design and create, although “I don’t know what that looks like yet,” she said in late September.
Sorrels also was deciding next steps in late September. She expected she would teach at another local dance studio.
But launching a new studio once the pandemic is under control is not an option.
“It would be like opening from scratch,” she said. “I can’t put my family in financial jeopardy to do that.”

A late green sea turtle laid this nest Sept. 24 on the beach in Gulf Stream. The eggs were expected to hatch in about 60 days from then. Sea turtle season officially ends Oct. 31 and begins again March 1.
Photo courtesy of Sea Turtle Adventures

By Larry Keller

Navigating the perils of ocean pollution, watercraft, high tides and other hazards, sea turtles are concluding another robust nesting season on South County beaches.
“I think overall it was a good season,” said Joseph Scarola, senior scientist at Ecological Associates Inc., which monitors Delray Beach’s 3-mile shoreline.
Turtle nest monitors in Highland Beach, Boca Raton and elsewhere along the South County coast said much the same.
Three species deposit tens of thousands of eggs on local beaches — loggerhead, green and leatherback turtles.
Nesting season is March 1 to Oct. 31, although some species may venture ashore before or after those dates in very small numbers. At Highland Beach, for example, two existing nests likely won’t produce hatchlings until sometime in November, said Barbara James, who has the marine turtle permit there.
Leatherbacks are the largest sea turtle species and few of them dig nests on South County beaches, preferring oceanfront somewhat to the north. Only 13 leatherback nests were tallied on Boca Raton’s 5 miles of beaches, compared to 18 in 2019, said David Anderson, sea turtle conservation coordinator at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, which keeps tabs on nests there.
That decrease was more than offset elsewhere, however. Last year a record number of 15 leatherback nests were found in Delray Beach. This year saw a new high with 21, Scarola said.
It was a similar story along a 3-mile expanse of beaches in Gulf Stream, Briny Breezes and a portion of Ocean Ridge. Nest monitors from Sea Turtle Adventures located a record-high 19 leatherback nests there. That topped the previous high of 16 nests in 2009, said Jackie Kingston, the nonprofit’s president and founder.
Green turtles are an anomaly in that they nest locally in much greater numbers in odd-numbered years than even-numbered. Last year, a record number of 393 green turtle nests were recorded on Boca’s beaches.
This season’s 132 nests are more aptly compared to the total in 2018, when only 19 nests were counted, or 2016, when there were 38 nests. In fact, this year’s count is a record for an even-numbered year, dating back to 1988 when nest numbers were first tabulated by Gumbo Limbo.
“We jokingly like to say it was a high low,” Anderson said.
Maybe there was an influx from Delray Beach. Green turtle nests there dropped from 58 in 2019 to 42 this year, Scarola said.
Kingston’s 3 miles of beach saw similar results to those in Boca Raton. She said “it was a high low year to our surprise … more greens than we expected for a low year.”
Loggerheads are the most prolific nesters on South County beaches. This year’s 756 nests fell short of last year’s 913 in Boca Raton, but exceeded the 686 nests found in 2018. “It was an above-average year,” Anderson said.
In Delray Beach there were 285 loggerhead nests this year — five shy of last year’s record high of 290, Scarola said. Like Anderson, he said numbers are preliminary, but unlikely to change much.
Although South Florida didn’t suffer a direct hit from a hurricane this season, Hurricane Isaias still managed to “wipe out a lot of nests,” Scarola said. In all, 76 nests were lost to erosion or inundation in Delray Beach this year, compared to 61 last year, he added.
On Boca Raton’s beaches, 108 nests were lost. About 80% of that was due to Isaias and high tides, and 20% to foxes and raccoons, Anderson said.
High tides that reached the dunes also adversely affected Highland Beach’s nests, James said.
Turtle monitors also assess the number of false crawls — instances where tracks indicate a turtle came ashore and then returned to the sea without nesting. Factors such as people on the beach at night, too many lights nearby and unsuitable sand can cause a turtle to delay laying eggs.
All three species had similar false crawl rates as last year in Delray Beach, Scarola said.
In Boca Raton, turtles that came ashore to make a nest returned to the sea more than 60% of the time, Anderson said. They almost always return to try again, he added.
It’s too soon to know the full impact of this season’s temperatures on hatchlings’ gender. FAU professor Jeanette Wyneken’s ongoing research has found that hotter temperatures during sea turtle incubations result in vastly more female hatchlings. In the past two years, she found no males at all in her samplings on Boca’s beaches.
However, a small sampling of hatchlings from two loggerhead nests this season offered encouragement. “We did find some males,” Wyneken said.

By Jane Smith

The much-anticipated public hearing for suspended City Manager George Gretsas was delayed for another month by a unanimous vote of the Delray Beach City Commission at a special hearing Oct. 21.
Gretsas has hired new attorneys to represent him at his termination hearing, now set for 10 a.m. Nov. 20.
The new attorneys, hired on Oct. 20, are Thomas Ali and Stuart N. Kaplan, of the Stuart N. Kaplan law firm in Palm Beach Gardens.
Ali called and sent an email to Lynn Gelin, city attorney, on the morning of Oct. 21. Gretsas’ attorneys requested a two- or three-week postponement to prepare for the hearing. But the earliest time the city’s outside labor counsel, Robert Norton of Allen Norton & Blue, had available was Nov. 20.
In early summer, a different attorney at the same Coral Gables law firm had investigated bullying allegations against Gretsas. Suzanne Fisher, who resigned from her assistant city manager position on Sept. 7, made the accusations.
Allen Norton & Blue issued its report July 3, finding that Gretsas’ behavior toward Fisher was retaliatory and Fisher’s bullying allegations were corroborated by other city employees.
Gelin recommended against pursuing the bullying charges because they would divide the city staff into two camps: for Gretsas or against him.
The new attorneys representing Gretsas agreed that his city manager salary of $265,000 and benefits package worth more than $50,000 would end on Oct. 23. Gretsas was receiving that compensation since he was formally suspended June 24.
Commissioners wanted to stop paying Gretsas while also paying an interim city manager. Jennifer Alvarez, purchasing director, was elevated to the interim city manager position on June 24. During her tenure, she will make $189,500 a year and have a $500 monthly car allowance and $100 cellphone allowance.
“The city failed to turn over a significant amount of public records, some of which I requested almost two months ago,” Gretsas said in a text message sent on Oct. 21. “The documents that I have requested include public records that the Mayor has been storing on her private devices.”
On Oct. 22, Mayor Shelly Petrolia said she has turned over everything.
She is also seeking an opinion from the county’s Ethics Commission. She had called the commission on Oct. 19 to see whether she could participate in the hearing.
Possible conflicts were alleged by Gretsas’ attorneys. They said the vote on Gretsas’ employment status could benefit Petrolia in her own investigation by an outside agency.
Three of the city commissioners agreed Sept. 22 to have Petrolia investigated on whether she improperly directed the interim city manager, possibly violating the city charter.
Petrolia, though, said the Ethics Commission gave her a verbal OK to participate. “But now that we have more time, I will go back and ask for a deeper review,” she said.
City commissioners will act as the judge and jury at the Nov. 20 hearing in commission chambers. The basis for the hearing will be a 38-page report compiled by Julia Davidyan, internal auditor. She interviewed 31 current and former city employees. Davidyan also reviewed numerous emails, the city charter and Florida laws.
In the investigation report given to city commissioners on Oct. 9, Davidyan found Gretsas had “disregarded the city’s interests and policies in the areas of personnel, purchasing and information technology.”
She also found that Gretsas had possibly violated Florida’s Open Records law. His private server did not allow access for the city’s Information Technology Department or city clerk, who needs to pull documents to fill public record requests, Davidyan found.
Any questions brought up outside of the report’s seven possible violations will be considered irrelevant, Gelin told commissioners on Oct. 20.
In 2019, Davidyan also investigated Mark Lauzier. He was fired as city manager on March 1, 2019.
On April 29, 2019, Lauzier sued the city on two counts. The first count claiming whistleblower status was dismissed and lost on appeal in February to the Fourth District Court of Appeal.
The wrongful termination count is headed for a jury trial, expected to start in February, Gelin told commissioners. Ú

By Steve Plunkett

Former Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein is cobbling together a deal that would add a new street to Place Au Soleil with 14 homesites, including two on the Intracoastal.
The Gulf Stream Golf Club and the Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND)would swap acres to create the new development, just north of Place Au Soleil. The developers also hope to buy the homesite at 2900 Avenue Au Soleil but are still in negotiations, Town Manager Greg Dunham said.
In a tentative site plan that Gulf Stream’s land-use consultant is reviewing, the new street is labeled Water View Lane. That drew an objection from Commissioner Donna White, who lives in Place Au Soleil.
The neighborhood’s original developers took inspiration for naming streets from a rainbow they saw while surveying their land purchase, she said. They decided “to name the streets after the colors of the rainbow,” White said, listing Cardinal Circle, Tangerine Way, Canary Walk, Emerald Row, Orchid Lane and Indigo Point.
White said the Water View developers should pick a “colorful” name to go with the rest of Place Au Soleil.
Separately, Dunham reported success in having FIND clear some trees and other growth from its large parcel on the south side of Place Au Soleil after he threatened to take the agency to a special magistrate hearing.
“We’ve been having difficulty with them maintaining the vegetation that comes right up to the fence line,” Dunham said.
In other business in September and October, the town:
• Approved a property tax rate for 2020-2021 of $3.76 per $1,000 of taxable value, the so-called rollback rate that will generate the same revenue that Gulf Stream collected the previous year. Town employees will get a 4% cost-of-living pay raise.
• Promoted police Lt. John Haseley to the rank of captain. Haseley joined Gulf Stream’s Police Department in September 1992, became a sergeant in 2000 and lieutenant in 2016.
• Approved a variance to allow the Little Club to enclose a space on the west side of the clubhouse for an employee lounge and locker room. The lounge will come up to the property line, but was acceptable to all 10 owners at neighboring Las Casitas. Ú

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach commissioners passed a $151.4 million budget on Sept. 22 by drawing $5.2 million from reserves and making $2.76 million in cuts.
The reserves will be used to pay for one-time expenses, including a $150,000 generator for the information technology department, $953,605 for the city’s share of the Homewood Boulevard reconstruction joint project with the county’s Transportation Planning Agency, and a replacement air-conditioning system for the police headquarters at $400,000.
The major cuts came from stopping the city’s free transportation services in the summer months, saving about $500,000; postponing software improvements in Development Services that would allow online filing of permits, saving about $1.05 million; transferring $1 million dedicated to economic development to the general construction fund, and reducing police overtime, saving about $421,000.
Police Chief Javaro Sims said the overtime cuts will not harm police services. City special events have been reduced because of the coronavirus restrictions against large gatherings. That reduction led to fewer overtime details for city police.
After the commission’s Aug. 11 workshop when commissioners had asked for more cuts, interim City Manager Jennifer Alvarez had suggested layoffs might be needed to balance the budget. But by the final budget meeting it was determined that no employees would be laid off or forced to take furlough days.
The coronavirus impacts have hurt cities nationwide by reducing income from parking meters, street valets, sales tax dollars and bed tax money.
Delray Beach just restarted its meters downtown on Sept. 18. They had been turned off for six months. In addition, the commission granted reprieves to valet operators for the rest of the year.
The budget includes $39,000 for salary increases for the commission and the mayor. The raises will go into effect after the new commission takes the dais in late March. The annual commissioner salaries rose to $24,000 from $9,000 and the mayor’s salary increased to $30,000 from $12,000.
That is nearly a 300% increase. The commissioners said they recognized the timing was not ideal when everyone was cutting back because of coronavirus concerns. They also said their salaries are much lower than those of elected officials in nearby Boca Raton and Boynton Beach.
Plus, they agreed that if the economy does not turn around in January, they could always postpone the raises.

Lawsuit against broker reflects tide of adversity businesses have faced

By Mary Thurwachter,
Larry Keller and Jan Norris

When news hit the streets of a court case filed against one of the county’s foremost restaurant brokers — one who once managed a block of struggling shops on Ocean Avenue — no one in Lantana seemed particularly surprised.
While the broker, Tom Prakas, dutifully collected shop owners’ rent each month after he became manager in March 2016, he stopped turning over the money to the property owner 18 months later and used the cash as his personal repository, according to a series of jarring admissions in a sworn deposition.
Prakas spent the money for pricey family vacations and expensive dinners at restaurants, and doled out thousands of dollars to his family, according to a lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court. The allegations stem from an eviction lawsuit over $343,000 in unpaid rent. A judge evicted Prakas in 2018.
This news was no shocker to Dave Arm.
“This is an old story,” the Lantana Chamber of Commerce president said. “We’ve known about this, but it finally hit the papers.”
Prakas, Arm said, “has probably been the most successful restaurant broker in South Florida. He’s the go-to guy if you want to buy a restaurant, sell a restaurant, lease property, or buy property and put a restaurant in. He’s the guy. For some reason, he decided he wanted to control this property. He went to Burt Handelsman (who then owned the property) and came up with this idea of doing a 99-year lease.”
The property — a collection of small, colorful old shops on the north side of the 200 block of Ocean Avenue — became Lantana Village, and Prakas put up a sign so everyone would know. But the sign disappeared a few years ago along with Prakas’ dream of turning Ocean Avenue into Lantana’s version of Mizner Park, Arm said.
Only three shops are currently occupied: Mario’s Ocean Avenue, Oceano Kitchen and Jeannie’s Ocean Boutique. The vacancies are a mix of recent closures and buildings that were empty when Prakas arrived.
“There was a hair cutter, but she’s gone,” Arm said. “Set back in there was a little smoothie café, but that’s closed now.”
Arm said one of the features of the Handelsmans’ real estate program “is they really never fix anything up and they never sell anything.” The shops between Oceano and Mario’s are “really dilapidated,” he said.
“They’ve been empty since I’ve been in Lantana,” said Arm, who arrived in 2006. “Tom (Prakas) came up with the idea of getting a master lease on the whole thing, trying to fix up and lease out those shops in the middle that are empty, and also control the leases for Mario’s and Oceano Kitchen and the clothing store,” Arm said. “Apparently Prakas had no idea how code works and how parking works and what the story is in Lantana.”

Breaking the lease
Prakas began deviating almost immediately from terms of a 49-year master lease (with a 49-year option) that he signed in March 2016 for the shops known as Lantana Village. The owner of the properties was Love Lantana Point LLC. Real estate magnates Burt and Lucille “Lovey” Handelsman and their son Steven each had a 33% stake in the company.
The lease stipulated that Prakas — via his own company called Lantana Village LLC — would pay $18,450 a month. The rents he collected from the shops’ subtenants were to cover his own monthly rent on the master lease, as well as taxes, insurance, utilities, repairs, maintenance and the like.
Prakas, however, paid only $15,000 a month from April 2016 through March 2017, and stopped paying any rent at all beginning in October of that year. He purportedly collected $16,000 to $20,000 per month from the tenants. Even when he paid his own rent, he sometimes paid late and sometimes bounced checks, according to court records. He also failed to pay other costs such as insurance and property taxes.
Love Lantana Point sued Lantana Village LLC in January 2018 and sought to evict Prakas and recover unpaid rent and taxes. Prakas, his wife, Donna Gibson, and a son, Nicholas, were later added as defendants for alleged fraudulent transfers and civil conspiracy.
Prakas contends the rent was too high — in part because of insufficient parking — and that he had a verbal agreement with Burt Handelsman, his longtime friend, to pay the lesser amount. The lease, however, stipulated that any amendments had to be in writing.
Meanwhile, the Handelsmans were in the throes of a complex divorce starting in March 2016. Nearly 90 family businesses — including Lantana Village — were among the marital assets contested by the couple. Burt Handelsman, 92, tried to keep the Lantana properties and continue with Prakas as the master lessee.
A judge eventually awarded the properties to his ex-wife and their three children. They are now managed by daughter Marsha Stocker. Prakas said he attempted in vain to reach a settlement with her.

Henry Olmino, who opened Mario’s in 2015, says the restaurant has had good relationships with members of the Handelsman family. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Tenants weigh in
Word of Prakas’ legal problems also came as no surprise to chef Henry Olmino, owner of Mario’s. Because of the ongoing lawsuit, Olmino didn’t want to comment, but he did say he was happy with the relationship he has maintained with Burt and Lovey Handelsman initially and currently their daughter Marsha.
“By the time Prakas took it over as manager everything was done,” said Olmino, who opened Mario’s in 2015. “We were at full roll and all I did was write him a check every month. I have a triple net lease, which means if something breaks, I fix it. So all he did was come by and pick up the rent.”
Olmino began paying rent directly to Handelsman’s wife and children (or Love Lantana Point) after the Handelsmans informed him that Prakas hadn’t been turning over the rent to them. And that’s just fine with Olmino, who says he has a good working relationship with his landlords.
While Olmino was able to weather the Prakas reign, a former tenant was anything but pleased with the former manager.

Good Vibes Acai Bar was one in a string of businesses in this location. The owner feels she was driven out. Photo provided

“We were driven out against our wishes,” said Tara Huber, owner of Good Vibes Acai Bar and smoothie café. “Tom Prakas became our new landlord in April 2016 and by the end of 2017 he succeeded in destroying everything we built and drove us out officially. Due to current litigation, I can’t speak of all the particular things Tom did to us at this time, but I feel telling the truth in short about why we left is no secret to many who know us.”
Huber said she couldn’t understand why Prakas was making it so difficult for her to stay in business. She thought she and her family had created a wonderful community together and brought life to that end of the street. “We assumed we would be his key benefit to helping him build the Lantana Village he often spoke of. 
“We soon found out exactly why,” Huber continued. “His underlying motive and purpose of driving us out was because he loved our concept and all we had built and wanted it for himself and his children to claim the glory of it.”
Prakas nearly tripled Huber’s rent only to gift the shop to two of his sons, Alex and Aristotle, for a fraction of what Huber was paying, she said.
The sons opened a vegan shop, the Current Café, that sold acai bowls and smoothies. Prakas reimbursed them for expenses they incurred to spruce up the property, he said in a deposition.
The Current Café closed in January 2019. Huber had moved her business west to 6169 S. Jog Road in Lake Worth in 2018.
Dak Kerprich, creator of Pizzeria Oceano, was on the block before Prakas arrived but sold his restaurant in early 2017 to Jeremy Bearman, who rebranded it as Oceano Kitchen. Prakas brokered the sale.
“We were not there that long with Tom,” Kerprich recalled. “I introduced Tom to the town of Lantana. That’s when he kind of figured out what they were doing with that property. I introduced him to Dave Thatcher (Lantana’s former director of development). I’ve known Dave for years.
“I worked with Thatcher when I opened up Oceano, then Burt (Handelsman) actually opened up two (parking) spots for me,” Kerprich said. Parking on the avenue has long been an issue.
“I’m probably the only one in the world who can’t say anything bad about Burt,” Kerprich said. “I’ve never had a problem with him. I paid my rent. I liked him. I like listening to him: He’s very interesting — a pleasure to talk to.”
Kerprich also said Prakas was an interesting guy. “You have to take him with a grain of salt. He basically told me what he wanted to do with the block and I told him I was ready to move from Pizzeria Oceano.”
Unlike Olmino, Bearman has a regular lease at Oceano Kitchen. If something has to be repaired at the building, landlord Love Lantana Point pays for it.
“What happened between Tom and Burt,” Bearman said, “was obviously a lot of scheming. It ended up pretty much a bad situation for everyone that was involved. Definitely cost us money in lawyer fees and all the rest of that.
“We don’t have any problems, nobody comes around and asks us anything,” Bearman said. “We do OK with what we have. Nobody’s told us we have to go find other parking.”

Parking issues
“Basically, the empty shops have no parking,” Arm said. “Oceano Kitchen has some parking spots and Mario’s has some parking spots. The parking spots are basically given by the landlord to the tenants to control so they can fulfill the code. So, say Mario’s needs 40 parking spots, it left no spots for these stores. You can’t have a store with no off-street parking. I don’t know if he (Prakas) didn’t know that going in or didn’t research it or thought he’d be able to get around it.”
Prakas, 63, went to the Lantana Town Council on Sept. 26, 2016, to ask for a shared parking agreement that would allow the empty shops to share a town lot on the west side of Dixie Highway on Third Street with Mario’s. But that didn’t work out.
In May 2019, the town did significantly reduce the parking requirements for downtown businesses, and Mario’s, which offers valet parking, no longer needed the town lot. In fact, Olmino said Mario’s never once parked a car on the town-owned lot since he signed the lease for the lot in 2015.
While there is an ongoing debate about whether Ocean Avenue has a parking problem, Arm said he doesn’t think the code is restrictive anymore.
Mayor Dave Stewart adds: “Of course, on Friday evenings and when there are football games and when people go out to the restaurants, yes, parking is at a premium. But every resident can go purchase a parking permit for one year for $36 plus tax and they can park at any spot, anywhere without having to pay a meter — anywhere along Ocean Avenue (where there are no meters), or in the kayak park, Bicentennial Park and Sportsman’s Park where there are meters. I believe we have provided ample spaces for them.”

Prakas’ side of the story
Being a real estate broker, Prakas was hardly a novice at leases and contracts. He says he sold Handelsman millions of dollars of property over the years. When he was young, he worked in the restaurant and bar industry for his parents. By age 21, he opened his own establishments, accumulating 28 restaurants and nightclubs throughout Ohio, Georgia and South Florida. He shed them all in the 1990s, he says, and switched his focus to commercial real estate.
Yet in a pair of sworn depositions, Prakas was fuzzy on details about his bank accounts, said he failed to put agreements in writing and couldn’t explain some of his expenditures.
He contends that Burt Handelsman agreed to the $15,000 in reduced rent until he resolved the parking issues. “I never could get the parking settled,” he said in one deposition.
But he also agreed to the lease even though he said two to four of the structures were so shabby that it would be more economical to tear them down. Prakas said he spent $30,000 on awnings, decks, landscaping and painting the structures. His lease should have been around $10,000 a month, he said.
“It was a bad decision,” Prakas said. “I made a bad deal.”
Handelsman vouched for Prakas’ account. “He didn’t pay the rent that was stipulated in the lease because I said he could take an allowance,” Handelsman said at a court hearing in July 2018. “I made a management decision, what’s best for the company. He was putting back buildings that were falling apart. He was spending far more money than he or I even contemplated that he was going to need.”
In the fall of 2018, Circuit Judge Howard Coates Jr. ordered Prakas to deposit almost $343,000 into a court registry for unpaid rent. Prakas said under oath earlier that he had held onto the subtenants’ rents that he received. But none of the money was paid, and interest is accruing.
Instead the Prakas family treated Lantana Village income as though it was “their personal piggybank,” attorney Jeffrey Fisher, representing the Handelsman children, said in a court filing.
“All told, the Prakas family has conned Love Lantana out of hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Fisher wrote.
The entire family — Prakas has six sons and two daughters — spent Thanksgiving and Christmas 2016 on visits to Atlanta, staying at a luxury hotel in the city’s swanky Buckhead area.
Prakas conceded that his son Nicholas — who he said managed Lantana Village for him — repeatedly spent tenants’ rent on personal expenses such as airline tickets, Uber Eats, Starbucks and Domino’s Pizza.
He also acknowledged transferring Lantana Village rent to his wife but said it was to repay a loan she made to Lantana Village. There is no promissory note, he said.
And Prakas transferred Lantana Village income in what he said was “a very small amount” to a Delray Beach building on which he held the master lease. The owner: Burt Handelsman.
“You made a conscious choice to pay yourself and your family members rather than the rent, right?” Fisher asked.
“Well, yeah,” Prakas said.
Prakas, who hasn’t held leases on Ocean Avenue since 2018, was hesitant to comment on the litigation.
“It was a rent thing,” he said. “It was a negotiation. I was trying to renegotiate the lease and got embroiled in the middle of a family battle with the Handelsman family, with the father. That’s all I can say. It’s a Greek tragedy. There are three sides to the story — yours, mine and the truth. They only told one side.”
A trial date has not been set.

How to fill empty shops?
Arm said the Chamber and all of Lantana would like to see something happen and get some businesses into those empty shops.
“I’m not certain how it could be done. It’d be great if something could open up there, if the owners of the property could make that happen,” he said, referring to the Handelsman family.
Alan Ross, whose Shades of Time sunglass shop across the street at 214 E. Ocean has been on Ocean Avenue for 26 years — the first several years in one of the vacant shops the Handelsmans now own — said people have to be realistic about the street’s potential.
“I don’t know what the intentions are of the people that have that property,” Ross said. “In my opinion, 25 years later, this isn’t a street that has a lot of walking traffic at all. You have to have the willingness and/or ability to make yourself a destination with a product that works or you’re just not going to do business.
“I’ve seen businesses come and go and the reason they’ve come and gone is they didn’t do the upfront work they should have done to investigate what the street and its potential was or is.”

Max Weinberg, drummer for Bruce Springsteen, keeps a drum set in the garage of his Delray Beach home. He joined the city’s Planning and Zoning Board this year to serve his new community. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Max Weinberg has spent much of his adult life splitting time between being the drummer for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and serving as bandleader on Conan O’Brien’s late-night talk show. But through it all, he has retained a keen interest in real estate, architecture and city planning.
So it may not be surprising that, after some urging from friends, Weinberg earlier this year applied for and was appointed to a position on the Planning and Zoning Board of his new hometown, Delray Beach.
“What you try to do as a drummer is keep the conversation going,” Weinberg said. “So as a Planning and Zoning Board member I’m trying to keep the municipal planning conversation going. And it’s tough.”
Weinberg, 69, started drumming when he was 6 and, at 23, was hired by Springsteen after answering an ad in the Village Voice. One of the high points of their association, which continues to this day, came in 1984 with the release of Born in the U.S.A., an album that spawned a record-tying seven Top 10 hit singles and prompted Springsteen to later say, “Max was the best thing on the record.”
In 1993, a chance meeting with O’Brien resulted in Weinberg’s hiring as bandleader on O’Brien’s late-night show. Weinberg put together a band — The Max Weinberg 7 — and that relationship lasted until 2009.
Weinberg moved to Palm Beach in 2015 before heading to Delray Beach in March 2017. His first meeting with the Planning and Zoning Commission was Sept. 21, so he’s still navigating the territory. So far, he’s relying heavily on a 20-year comprehensive plan titled “Always Delray” that came out just last year.
“My interest is to serve the very diverse constituencies who not only are the residents of Delray but who have a vested interest in Delray,” he said. “You have to make sure everybody in the city is being served, and I’m not so sure that’s being done.
“I’m at a time in my life where enough people asked me to get involved that I finally said yes. My professional activities are curtailed, just like everybody else’s,” he said of the coronavirus pandemic, “and I don’t see that changing much during my (two-year) term as a board member. I hope that’s not the case, but I’m not super-optimistic.”
Weinberg, an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band, has been married for 39 years to Becky, a former history teacher. The couple has two children: Ali Weinberg Rogin, a senior producer of foreign affairs for PBS NewsHour in Washington and wife of Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin; and Jay Weinberg, a drummer with the heavy-metal band Slipknot.
Weinberg’s other accomplishments include authoring a book, The Big Beat: Conversations With Rock’s Greatest Drummers, which profiled Ringo Starr, Levon Helm and others; graduating from Seton Hall University at age 38 after a lengthy hiatus due to his band work, and being honored by Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for his work with that organization.
— Brian Biggane

Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A: I was born in 1951 in Newark, N.J. We moved to the suburb of Maplewood, N.J., and then to South Orange, N.J. Maplewood-South Orange shared a school system and it was top notch.
I graduated from Columbia High School in Maplewood in 1969. In high school I played drums in the marching band, the concert band, stage band and orchestra, so my day was filled with music.
The opportunities back in the ’50s and ’60s for playing music locally abounded and gave me a chance to grow as a player. As a consequence, I was already in a band when the Beatles broke big in 1964. My teen band was sort of the local “stars,” if you will.

Q: What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: Although I have served as an actor and late-night bandleader for many years, and written a book about my favorite drummers called The Big Beat, the professional accomplishment of which I’m most proud is my 46-year association with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band.

Q: What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A: Recently, I received an honorary doctorate from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and was asked to speak a few words to the graduates. They asked for some career advice. Well, any career, especially today, is so tough and likely to change over the course of one’s working life. But I do believe that it helps to be the first one to arrive on the job and the last one to leave. You’re probably not going to love every working moment, but one should gain a sense of reward from that component of life.

Q: How did you choose to make your home in Delray Beach?
A: My wife, Becky, and I have lived in New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. We chose to live in Delray Beach after several years in another Palm Beach County town for the small-town scale and the extremely friendly and diverse population that comprise the city.
As a newly appointed Planning and Zoning Board member I hope to be able to make a difference in helping to maintain this unique human scale ambience, preserve the best of what Delray offers, particularly architecturally, and improve the rest for all the constituencies comprising the city.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: My interests are pretty diverse. Most recently I finished The Age of Eisenhower, as I have felt a need to fill in the blanks of my childhood, particularly the widespread misconception that the 1950s were such a “placid” decade. That period was anything but.  
I’d also recommend Freedom’s Forge, which tells the story of FDR and America’s response to the growing dangers of World War II, a conflict for which in 1937 the United States was ill-equipped and unprepared to wage. This book could be a primer for how we need to face our current challenges and those in the future.

Q: What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?
A: I listen to Sinatra to relax — what else? What music do I find inspiring? Bruce Springsteen’s new album, Letter to You, is my go-to at the moment. Bruce’s stories are real and uplifting and the E Street Band is my musical North Star. Beethoven works well for me as well — and Pavarotti. I’ll get into a heavy Beatles marathon from time to time — no one’s done rock better except for maybe Chuck Berry.

Q: Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A: My father, Bert, was a huge influence, as was my mother, Ruth. They had great values — discipline, strong work ethic, willpower, dignified posture — everything a family needed to get through hard times, and there were certainly a few of those.

Q: If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?
A: Paul Newman, of course, but that would have been unlikely. More likely — Harold Ramis or Eugene Levy.

Q: Who/what makes you laugh?
A: I’m a latecomer to Seinfeld but recently we’ve started at episode one and I find it hysterical and so true. Conan O’Brien and Robert Smigel taught me so much about comedy when I was on TV all these years. I still find them both hysterical. Conan: Smart guy, smart humor!

Q: Do you have a favorite cause? If so, why is it so important to you?
A: Save the Chimps in Port St. Lucie is a marvelous sanctuary for these lovely, yet powerful creatures. We support them and also have been longtime patrons of The Gorilla Foundation. I cry when I see the injustices perpetrated on the human species’ closest relatives.  
The Golden Rule should be extended to all animals, as it’s heartbreaking to witness the effects of climate change on defenseless creatures, let alone we humans.  
Take a look at the iconic photograph Earthrise and embrace the reality that we are killing our unique habitat. One doesn’t need to be an astronaut to marvel at what we’ve been given and are so in danger of losing.
Apart from the preceding I am a strong supporter of preserving our architectural past. Whether public buildings like the destruction of New York City’s Pennsylvania Station between 1963 and 1966 or locally and most recently, the misguided demolition of legendary Sarasota School architect Paul Rudolph’s historically recognized Biggs House on Seabreeze Avenue is distressing to say the least.
I serve on the board of the Delray Beach Preservation Trust and, whether or not one is a fan of a particular architectural style, once they’re gone, they’re gone. And our collective physical history suffers the consequences.

SEPT. 21 King tides and strong swells from tropical weather started the king tide season off with higher-than- expected flooding.

ABOVE: A stranded motorist calls for a tow truck after her car stalled out on Ocean Avenue in Ocean Ridge.

OCT. 19 Offshore breezes combined with king tides for more flooding.

ABOVE: Alex Granda slogs through flood waters as he works at Deck 84 restaurant in Delray Beach.
BELOW: Lia Schultz prepares to recover the trash can that floats in front of her home in Briny Breezes.

Photos by Jerry Lower/
The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

A relationship that has flowed faithfully for 60 years abruptly ended on its anniversary in September.
The long-running water partnership between Manalapan and the Town of Hypoluxo died for the foreseeable future, after Hypoluxo switched to Boynton Beach Utilities for services.
About 2,200 Hypoluxo residents, roughly 550 accounts, are getting their water from Boynton now. The change has been in the works for the last three years, since the Hypoluxo Town Council unanimously voted not to renew the Manalapan contract — originally signed in 1960 — when it expired on Sept. 1.
“We just can’t compete with what they’re offering,” Manalapan Town Manager Linda Stumpf said.
Boynton is promising Hypoluxo users a 25% reduction in their monthly bills and charging them the same preferred rate as in-city residents.
The fast-growing Boynton utility serves close to 120,000 customers and is looking to expand further. Manalapan has about 250 accounts remaining and is searching for a replacement for the roughly $1.2 million annual revenue stream Hypoluxo brought to the town.
“We’re looking for someone, and there’s been some interest,” Stumpf said.
Meanwhile, both towns are trying to settle on a price for the infrastructure Hypoluxo is taking over. Manalapan still owns the network of pipes west of the Intracoastal Waterway and wants roughly $1.2 million to give them up. Hypoluxo has submitted an appraisal that puts the value at around $490,000. An independent appraisal is in the works. “Hypoluxo has put $1 million in an escrow account for us while the appraisers are trying to agree on a value,” Stumpf said.
In other business, the Town Commission has unanimously approved two ordinances with provisions that shift review authority for building projects from Manalapan’s appointed boards to commissioners.
The changes give the commissioners the discretion to sign off on dock design plans and other building code issues without waiting for recommendations from the Planning and Zoning or Architectural commission. Input from the review boards is no longer mandatory.
The intent is “to streamline the review processes for both applicants and the town,” according to language in the ordinance passed to restructure the role of the planning board.
Another purpose is to prevent delays caused when a review panel is unable to meet because of absences that prevent assembling a quorum.
“It’s because of the way we’re structured and the way people are in or out of town,” Mayor Keith Waters said before the July 28 vote. “We’re trying to expedite to some extent the things that come before the commission. Sometimes it may take two or three months to get everybody together because people are not necessarily here 12 months a year.”

By Rich Pollack

Following through on inquiries from state regulators, Delray Beach’s Utilities Department is finishing up efforts to clean water storage tanks that had not been properly maintained in at least five years, while at the same time it takes steps to enhance maintenance procedures and improve drinking water quality and aesthetics.
“Our goal is to assure that people will be happy with their water and we’re hoping we can also further improve the color of the water,” said Utilities Director Hassan Hadjimiry.
Since September — when the Florida Department of Health began investigating Delray’s failure to inspect and, if necessary, clean water storage tanks at required intervals — the city has completed cleaning of its north water storage tank and last month completed cleaning of its 2-million-gallon south water storage tank.
Cleansing of another south tank, which holds 500,000 gallons, was scheduled to be completed by the end of October and cleaning of the city’s clear well — a tank that contains water as it moves through the treatment process — is set to begin in early November. That cleaning will take up to three weeks.
Once that project is completed, Delray Beach will have cleaned all of its water storage tanks and will be in compliance with state regulations that require water storage tanks to be inspected and cleaned at least every five years.
The city is still awaiting results of the state health department’s investigation into the storage tank cleaning, as well as an investigation into an issue Delray Beach had with reclaimed water commingling with drinking water.
Those issues are also the focus of an inquiry by the Palm Beach County Office of Inspector General, which will make recommendations for corrective actions, should they be needed.
Hadjimiry and his team are already a few steps ahead of that investigation, having instituted several new processes and procedures.
In recent weeks Hadjimiry has implemented a new method of tracking tank inspections and cleanings, with the process now becoming the responsibility of the department’s regulatory compliance division. Additional maintenance activities are being tracked through a public-asset management program that tracks projects to completion.
Under Hadjimiry, who came to Delray Beach from Palm Beach County Water Utilities in June, the department also stocks critical parts so they’re on hand if needed and the city has vendor contracts in place to provide parts and service on short notice.
The department is also in the process of hiring a new water plant manager, filling a position that has been vacant since May.
“We’re going to do the most we can do for the overall quality of water,” Hadjimiry said, reinforcing his contention that the city’s drinking water is safe and in compliance with state and federal regulations.
One of several projects the Utilities Department has planned going forward is a study of ways to improve the aesthetics of the water coming out of faucets. An often-repeated complaint from residents is that Delray’s water is discolored, frequently with a yellow tint.
Hadjimiry said he hopes to further improve the color through a combination of processes. “I want to see if we can bring up the color of the water,” he said.
Also in the works is a study to see if the city can provide an extra level of disinfection into the water treatment process, one that goes beyond regulations and is currently used by the Palm Beach County Water Utilities department.
The city Utilities Department recently completed cleaning of the aerators used in the water treatment process and Hadjimiry is expected to ask the City Commission to approve spending $900,000 to replace filters that are critical to the treatment process. Ú

By Jane Smith

At the end of October, the Florida Department of Health was still waiting for complete information on some barrier island reclaimed water installations in Delray Beach.
More than three months have passed since local DOH environmental leaders met with Delray Beach utilities and legal staff to review 13 possible violations in the city’s reclaimed water program.
“The department expects the report to contain a full accounting/inventory and compliance history of all reclaimed water connections,” wrote Jorge Patino, water and wastewater administrator at the Florida DOH. “Any omissions may be construed as reporting violations.”
That Sept. 21 email to the city Utilities Department director seemed to be about the South Ocean Boulevard customers who were allowed to switch back to potable water for irrigation after having been converted to reclaimed water.
Delray Beach requires its water customers to switch to reclaimed water for irrigation when that service is available in their neighborhood. Reclaimed water is highly treated wastewater that is suitable only for irrigation and not human or pet consumption.
Patino was alerted to the latest issue by Christine Ferrigan, a Delray Beach utilities inspector, who sent a Sept. 15 email to the environmental health director and the local DOH legal director.
Ferrigan was hired in June 2017, six months before the city contracted with Lanzo Construction to install the reclaimed water system in the southeast portion of the barrier island.
Ferrigan had claimed whistleblower status in 2008 after she was fired from Boca Raton’s water department. She sued the city over the firing. Ferrigan and her attorneys received a settlement from the city’s insurance company the day before the trial started. The city did not admit any wrongdoing.
In her email to the DOH, Ferrigan wrote about a Sept. 11 meeting with city Utilities Director Hassan Hadjimiry and the department’s compliance manager, at which she said she was told “to remove all history of several locations that have shown prior reclaimed violations/cross connections.”
Ferrigan explained that the properties were located along South Ocean Boulevard and had converted back to potable water for irrigation.
A cross connection discovered there in December 2018 triggered this year’s review of the citywide reclaimed water program. A woman who lived in that area called the local office of the Florida DOH on Jan. 2 to say she was not adequately informed of the 2018 cross connection. A cross connection happens when drinking water pipes are mistakenly connected to reclaimed water pipes.
In the fall of 2018, many South Ocean property owners said they and their pets were sickened by drinking tainted water.
Hadjimiry, though, saw the Sept. 11 meeting differently.
“Part of the discussion with Ms. Ferrigan was to clarify what information is to be reported on the cross-connection inspection form,” Hadjimiry replied via an Oct. 19 email sent by Gina Carter, city spokeswoman.
Ferrigan was told to list her observations in the field on the day the cross-connection inspections were conducted, including previous inspections, he wrote.
“Any additional information gathered in the field from customers or other sources pertaining to the history of the site’s connection — which was not specifically inspected and verified by Ms. Ferrigan on the date of inspection — should be included as an attachment to the inspection form with a note on the form to see the attachment for additional information,” Hadjimiry wrote.
He declined to give a time when Ferrigan would complete her inspections and write the reports about the properties no longer connected to the reclaimed water service.
“The Utilities Department is working closely with FDOH on completing the required information,” Hadjimiry wrote.
Separately, the South Central Regional Wastewater Treatment plant used the outfall pipe in Delray Beach twice in the first 20 days of October to send treated wastewater into the ocean. Those discharges are allowed under a 2009 administrative order from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
When the plant needs to use the outfall pipe, reclaimed water is not available for Delray Beach water customers who live east of the interstate.
The first occurrence happened on Oct. 1 during heavy rainfall in Boynton Beach and Delray Beach. The reclaimed water system shutdown lasted a week.
The second took place on Oct. 20, and reclaimed water service had not been restored before press time.

ABOVE: Workers prepare a socially distanced, pod seating layout at Old School Square in Delray Beach for the return of its Friday Concert Series on Oct. 23. The first concert featured ‘The Long Run: A Journey Through the Music of the Eagles.’ BELOW: The 100-foot Christmas Tree was assembled in October. Because of COVID-19 precautions, the city will not have a tree-lighting ceremony and it canceled the holiday parade.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The revised Community Heartbeat mural commissioned for the windows of Boynton’s new fire station returns faces that had previously been removed. Rendering provided

By Jane Smith

As Boynton Beach maintains its role as a public art supporter, the city is juggling three arts-related issues.
In August, city commissioners hired a Boca Raton events firm, Zucker & Lewis Media Group LLC, to produce its fifth International Kinetic Art Festival. The firm will be paid $40,000. Next year’s festival is slated for March 6 and 7, instead of the first weekend in February. The extra month will give the event firm more time to find artists and organize the festival.
Boynton Beach also is on its second search for a public art manager. One candidate, selected in early September, dropped out at the last minute when she received a better offer that the city could not match, Kathryn Matos, assistant city manager, said on Oct. 8.
And in early November, the city will unveil the restored Community Heartbeat mural to be placed on the lobby windows of the new fire station in town. City commissioners and others will be invited to a small ceremony.
The juggling situation was created in early June after Debby Coles-Dobay, the city’s public art manager, was fired when she was blamed in the whitewashing of the faces of two Black fire chiefs from the Community Heartbeat mural. The mural is a collage of firefighters in action and at city events with a red heartbeat line running through it.
The change created an uproar in the local Black community at the same time as international racial unrest was growing over the May 25 death of George Floyd. The Black man died while in the custody of Minneapolis police.
The Boynton Beach mural was taken down on June 4, two days after it was installed and one day after the soft opening for the fire station.
From June 4 through 6, City Manager Lori LaVerriere interviewed Coles-Dobay, Fire Marshal Kathy Cline and then-Fire Chief Matthew Petty. “Coles-Dobay admitted that changing the skin color was her idea and decision,” according to the draft notes of Human Resources Director Julie Oldbury, who was present during the interviews. The original notes were hand-written and difficult to read.
Coles-Dobay denies the allegations in the HR notes: “I did not want any changes to be made to the mural. Fire Chief Matthew Petty and Fire Marshal Kathy Cline directed changes to be made. Documents were provided and approved by city officials,” Coles-Dobay wrote in an Oct. 18 email to The Coastal Star.
In late April, Cline and Petty were involved in last-minute discussions about the mural, according to Oldbury’s notes. Both said they wanted to have blurred faces of the 39 firefighters shown in the mural.
Cline, who had not seen the mural, expressed concerns about seeing identifiable firefighters in the station lobby. The mural “would then create a ‘why is this person on here, why am I not on here?’ issue,” she said.
Cline also objected to the mural because as the city’s fire marshal she is responsible for fire safety. The mural’s placement in the fire station’s lobby windows was not letting enough light through to see inside the building or out onto the street, she said.
In addition, Oldbury’s notes reflect that Petty said he had concerns about the circumstances under which the two Black chiefs left the city. He asked, “Is that pressure? No, that’s me voicing my concerns before I’m being requested to give an approval.”
Petty admitted he failed when he replied to an April 23 email from Coles-Dobay about the mural, “Looks good, approved, moving on.” He said he had not looked at the latest rendition of the mural before replying.
On June 6, Petty and LaVerriere agreed he would step down as fire chief.
Since then, the city Arts Commission on June 11 decided to try to restore the original mural. Releases were sent to all 39 people in the mural asking for permission to use their images.
Thirteen responses were received. Twelve approved of having their images in the mural and one did not.
The city’s second Black fire chief, Glenn Joseph, who retired in November 2019, asked that his image be removed. Joseph did not want to be in the mural because he had worked only a few years for the city.
Former Deputy Fire Chief Latosha Clemons, who is Black, did not respond to the second request. She sent a text message to The Coastal Star on Oct. 5, saying, “I had consented when I issued the photo to be on the mural and also when I stated that little Black girls can pass by and see who they can become.”
Clemons, a Boynton Beach native, grew up in the neighborhood adjacent to the fire station. She still lives in that area after retiring in March with nearly 24 years of service.
The reprinting of the mural will cost about $1,400, Nicole Blanks, public art assistant, told the Arts Commission members on Oct. 8. In addition, Matos told the members they will receive invitations to the mural unveiling.
Also on Oct. 8, Matos received recruiting ideas for the public art manager position from the Arts Commission members. She said the city received about 100 applicants for the opening, but most were not qualified.
“If you’re only getting two serious candidates out of 100 submissions, maybe the ad wording can be improved,” said Martin Klauber, an alternate member.
Member Susan Oyer said, “Our position is so unusual that it requires the person to be knowledgeable about public relations and marketing, along with knowing about art and public art. Maybe advertise in New York City?”
For the kinetic art festival, Valerie Zucker, a principal in the events firm, came to the September meeting of the Arts Commission to hear its ideas. Her firm has an extra month to plan for the event.
Submissions are due Nov. 1. Highlights will include the formal dedication of Ralfonso’s kinetic piece, Reflections. It sits at the northeast corner of Seacrest Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, serving as the gateway feature to the city’s Town Square redevelopment.
Zucker hopes that Ralfonso will attend the VIP reception on March 5. In addition, she wants to have companies sponsor some of the programs, such as the kinetic sculpture kits for kids.
“We’re not reinventing the formula for the kinetic festival,” said Courtlandt McQuire, Arts Commission chairman. “Art will bring the people.”
He said Coles-Dobay made a lot of the decisions, from the artwork displayed to the type of music played. “Now, we will work with Valerie.” Ú

By Dan Moffett

The town of Briny Breezes has been running on a largely improvised collection of rules and regulations since its incorporation as a municipality in 1963.
That could change next year after the March election.
Briny voters will get the chance to approve amendments that would give the town a formal charter with detailed guidelines, definitions and procedures for governance.
The Town Council, during its Oct. 22 meeting, unanimously approved an ordinance putting the amendment on the March 9 ballot, culminating six months of review and deliberation, led by Town Attorney Keith Davis.
A citizens charter review committee, chaired by former Alderman Bobby Jurovaty, met multiple times through the summer to put together the proposed charter. Other members of the committee were Jim Phillippi, Karen Wiggins, Susan Atlee, Suzanne Carroll and Jerry Lower, publisher of The Coastal Star.
Most of the new document simply restates practices that the town already has in place. Two of the most noteworthy changes are a measure that makes the job of town clerk an appointed position, rather than elected, and a section that defines the role of the town manager, a position the Town Council created three years ago.
The proposed charter also outlines procedures for the recall and removal of elected officials and clarifies the role of the nonvoting mayor position.
In other business:
• The council unanimously approved during its October meeting a new policy for satisfying large public records requests that require extensive work by town employees. The policy allows 15 minutes of employee work at no charge for requests, but if more time is required, the town now will charge the requesting party a service fee based on the employee’s hourly pay.
Town Manager William Thrasher said some recent extensive record requests have forced him and Clerk Sandi DuBose to lose too much time from doing the town’s necessary work. They are the only employees in Town Hall and both are part-time.
Thrasher said the new policy is modeled after those used in neighboring communities.
• The Town Council has scheduled its regular monthly meetings for Nov. 19 and Dec. 17 to adjust to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Both are to begin at 4 p.m.

By Jane Smith

The Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency board members have expressed reservations about taking parking spaces in exchange for money for the proposed Ocean Avenue Residences and Shoppes along Federal Highway.
The development team for the proposed project on the property that had housed the temporary city library has suggested providing the city with 120 public parking spaces in a multistory garage instead of paying the $3 million that the CRA spent acquiring the land at 115 N. Federal Highway.
“We’re not getting our $3 million up front,” Steven Grant, CRA board chairman, said about his concerns at the board’s Oct. 13 meeting. “We don’t need garage parking there.”
He suggested the developer could make scheduled payments over time.
Board member Justin Katz also expressed concerns about the project.
“This board has not approved of anything specific here,” Katz said. “Maybe we should get community input before we put out the request for proposal?”
Grant said he talked with William Morris, one of the developers of the proposed Ocean Avenue Residences, about the project.
Morris also was involved with Worthing Place, a residential development in downtown Delray Beach. When Morris talked at the Aug. 11 Boynton Beach CRA meeting, he touted the success of Worthing Place.
But, when Grant visited the project recently, he did not see it as anything special. “It had two vacant lots next to it,” Grant told his fellow CRA board members.
Grant said he also talked with developer Davis Camalier, who owns the land and building that is rented to the Boardwalk Italian Ice & Creamery at 209 N. Federal. Camalier said he had not talked with Morris, according to Grant. 
“These are adjacent properties not involved but affected by the upgrade,” Grant said. “They are street-facing properties.”
Earlier in the meeting during public comment, Kim Kelly, owner of the Hurricane Alley restaurant on Ocean Avenue, said she had collected 4,000 signatures to oppose the project. She suggests building a hotel on the site to help the CRA’s nearby marina.
Morris and his partners want to turn the alley north of Kelly’s restaurant into a pedestrian walkway. If that happens, Hurricane Alley will lose most of its parking, Kelly said.
The CRA board did not take any action Oct. 13. Even though a 90-day window for the developer to see whether anyone else is interested in the property will not be expired by the Nov. 10 meeting, board members asked Executive Director Michael Simon to make sure the Ocean Avenue Residences development team attends.
The project would have 229 residential units, 18,000 square feet of commercial space and a parking garage with 544 spaces on 2.6 acres. The estimated cost is about $65 million. The developers want to include Dewey Park, a city park on Ocean Avenue, as its green space.
On Aug. 11, CRA board members unanimously accepted the Ocean Avenue Residences’ letter of intent. They gave the development team the 90-day window then. CRA rules require issuing a request for proposals if more than one letter of intent is received. As of the Oct. 13 meeting, no one else had submitted a letter, said Simon.
“By November, we should know more about train transit locations,” Grant said. The property sits next to the Florida East Coast railroad line that the Brightline express train used before the company suspended service in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Two other board members also said they remain flexible and want to see what is proposed.
One of them, Woodrow Hay, said: “We want to have some kind of train station there. Where are the citizens with their plans? I’m not in a hurry, but I would like to have all the cards on the table.” Ú

By Mary Thurwachter

Despite a robust boost in property values — an increase of $78 million to $1.21 billion for the new fiscal year (including $14.4 million in new construction), Lantana will still need to pull $37,937 from reserves to balance its $20 million budget.
“We are not allowed to print money, we are not allowed to not have a balanced budget,” Mayor Dave Stewart said during the final public budget hearing Sept. 23. “So, in layman’s terms, if we didn’t go into reserves, or have them to get that money, we could be losing one in personnel, one police officer or someone like that along the way. So, we’re going into reserves for that amount, which is minimal in the scope of things.
“It’s nice that our councils for the last 20 years have tried to take a fiscally responsible approach,” Stewart said. “We haven’t had to lay anyone off and we haven’t had to stop services, we haven’t had to do any of that because we’ve been able to keep money in the reserves and act fiscally responsible.”
The money collected from property taxes amounts to about 20% of what it costs to run the town, Stewart said. Other money comes from gas tax revenue, sales tax sharing, revenue sharing from the state and various grants.
The tax rate is the same as last year, $3.50 per $1,000 of taxable value — which represents an increase of 5.58% from the rollback rate of $3.3151 necessary to fund the budget.
Employees will get a 1.5% cost-of-living raise and may be entitled to merit raises up to 5% based on annual evaluations.
The town will add a detective and another dispatcher for the Police Department. And part-time staffing hours will be increased at the town library.
From its share of the 1-cent sales tax, Lantana will spend $9,000 for a deck at Sportsman’s Park, $129,000 for improvements at the beach, $120,000 for a playground at Bicentennial Park and $453,000 for upgrading roads.
“Next year we will be paying off our debt for all except about $65,000 and we’re finally paying off our 1998 revenue bond,” Stewart said. “The money we borrowed in the early 2000s for the water plant, the money we refinanced for new water and sewer lines, the money we borrowed for all the road paving we did in the early 2000s, all of that will finally be paid off.”

By Mary Thurwachter

The Lantana Town Council voted unanimously to purchase body cameras for the Police Department.
“We are lucky in that we have a very good force,” council member Karen Lythgoe said at the town’s Oct. 26 meeting. “People I have met are very courteous, caring, very professional and I would like to be able to protect them because I know there are people who are out there who will skew the truth.”
The cost of body cameras for five years is $364,520, according to Police Chief Sean Scheller. Along with the body camera equipment, Scheller said he would need to hire a civilian employee at an additional cost of $67,000 (including benefits) to manage what the chief calls a “labor intensive process.”
More than half of the 23 municipalities in Palm Beach County that have their own police departments are already using body cameras, according to a recent Palm Beach County Justice Commission survey.
Lantana has an agreement with Axon Enterprise, Inc. (formerly Tazer), which provides Tasers and supporting software and management. Axon included 35 cameras, docking stations and new Tasers in the $364,520 quote.
In other news, the town:
• Authorized a one-time $34,240 ($400 per employee) pandemic pay compensation for its staff.
• Asked Town Attorney Max Lohman to research what it would take to set up a nuisance abatement board to deal with frequent illegal activities (drugs, prostitution and aggravated assaults) at motels on Hypoluxo and Lantana roads.

The Centennial, a 16-foot sailboat, will be installed in Lantana's Bicentennial Park. Rendering provided

By Mary Thurwachter

Lantana council members considered four proposals for artwork to mark the town’s 100th birthday next spring before settling on a 16-foot sailboat sculpture appropriately called The Centennial.
The sculpture, which will light up at night, will be on permanent display in Bicentennial Park, with an unveiling during the town’s centennial party on April 24.
The sculpture was designed by Aphidoidea, a Los Angeles- based creative collaborative led by Jesus “Eddie” Eduardo Magaña and his wife, Paulina Bouyer-Magaña.
It will be constructed by Southern Custom Iron and Art, a Boynton Beach company headed by artist and metal fabricator Joe Hernandez and his wife, Ashleigh, CEO and cofounder, who live in Atlantis.
“With a history of a fishing town, the sailboat is a symbol of tradition, community, livelihood and exploration,” Eddie Magaña said. “The traditional sailboat is composed of two sails, the head sail which provides direction, and the mainsail for power and propulsion. These dual elements break up the horizon and create a constant change in the composition as the artwork can be seen from different directions.
“We believe the concepts of community, character and nautical elements that resemble the history and character of the town provide a wonderful opportunity to create a sculpture that reveals and elevates the town of Lantana,” Magaña said. “The location at Bicentennial Park is also the ideal scenario for the sculpture as it provides an opportunity for both locals and visitors to engage and admire the commemorative sculpture.”
Ashleigh Hernandez said data from the Lantana Historical Society provided through the library was used for inspiration.
“We started with the 100-year-old history of Lantana, which includes the Lyman family,” she told the council on Sept. 14. “We found Lantana was not navigable with anything other than a sailboat. And so the sailboat represents the very beginnings of Lantana when the Lyman family founded the town.
“We have seven bricks or pavers as part of the artwork that represents the Lantana flower and the colors of Lantana, because the town was named after the lantana flower.”
Benches to accompany the sailboat sculpture will feature old-style compass roses with north, south, east and west inscribed on them.
The cost of the sculpture — made of either marine grade aluminum or stainless steel and capable of surviving hurricane-force winds — could be as much as $100,000.
Other proposals with a sailboat design came from Agata Ren and Peter Garaj and Eulises Niebla and Juan Grillo. The fourth design featured a sailfish and was submitted by artist Norman Gitzen.
“We have four fantastic, great proposals here,” Mayor Dave Stewart said before a unanimous vote gave the contract to Southern Custom Iron and Art and Aphidoidea. “Every one of them is that top-shelf type of quality. I don’t know how we can go wrong with any of them.”
In other action, the town approved a $48,750 contract with StarGroup International, based in Lake Park, for the design, production and printing of Lantana’s centennial book. The hardcover books will be given to residents during the town’s 100-year celebration in Bicentennial Park next April.