By Thom Smith
      
    Lights, camera — and lots of action.
    But what would you expect at a 20th birthday party for the Palm Beach International Film Festival?
    It seems only yesterday the festival took its first cinematic breaths, as organizers and fans held theirs while waiting for a certain director or actor to confirm — sometimes gasping when they did, sometimes crying, sometimes laughing as stories unfolded on screen.
    The full breadth of emotions no doubt will be on display March 26 at Muvico Parisian 20 at CityPlace in West Palm Beach as festival President Randi Emerman snaps the clapperboard for Welcome to Me. The dark comedy, starring Kristen Wiig, James Marsden, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack, was directed by PBIFF veteran Shira Piven. Her first feature, Fully Loaded, won “audience favorite” in 2011. An opening party follows at Revolution.
    The festival closes April 2 with Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young, starring Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as a middle-aged couple whose lives are upended by a disarming young couple, played by Amanda Seyfried and Adam Driver.
    In between, fans will be treated to 12 world and 15 U.S. premieres, plus shorts, documentaries, presentations and lots of already and soon-to-be familiar faces.
    In the summer of 1974, Rock Your Baby sold more than 11 million copies. Recorded at the legendary TK Records in Hialeah, it became the first great disco hit and was Rolling Stone’s record of the year. The singer was George McCrae, son of the first African-American cop in West Palm Beach.
    On March 28, the festival will screen The Record Man, which chronicles TK Records and founder Henry Stone. McCrae will be presented the key to West Palm Beach by Mayor Jeri Muoio. Jimmi Bo Horne, another TK artist, also from West Palm Beach, will perform.
    The evening will be a homecoming of sorts for documentary filmmaker Mark Moorman. Before his film Tom Dowd & the Language of Music was nominated for a Grammy and For Once in My Life won the audience award at SXSW, Moorman was a volunteer with the Palm Beach festival.
    More music: A candid documentary, Nat King Cole: Afraid of the Dark, is set for March 30 at Muvico Parisian 20. The famous singer’s daughters Timolin and Casey Cole will attend the screening and a reception. 

The gallery space at Benzaiten Center for Creative Arts in Lake Worth.
Photos by
Tim Stepien/
The Coastal Star

By Lucy Lazarony

    A historic Florida East Coast Railway depot near downtown Lake Worth has been transformed into a new creative arts center.
    Named for the Japanese goddess Benzaiten by founder JB Berkow, Benzaiten Center for Creative Arts opened its doors on Jan. 23 with nationally renowned glass artists Shelley Muzylowski Allen and Rik Allen putting on a riveting, 3½ hour, glass-blowing demonstration.
    “We had about a thousand people coming through,” Berkow says of Benzaiten’s opening night event, which also included a mini art fair of Lake Worth artists and galleries as part of Art Synergy, which runs in coordination with Art Palm Beach.
    “It was perfect timing for us,” says creative director Rick Eggert, who ran his own glass-blowing studio up in Stuart for 10 years before coming to Benzaiten.

Center director Rick Eggert (front) works with colleague David Peterson to produce commissioned glass works at Benzaiten Center for Creative Arts.

    The 14,500-square-foot arts center, at 1105 Second Ave. S. in Lake Worth, includes a 4,500-square-foot glass-blowing studio, a 6,000-square-foot metal foundry and a 2,000-square-foot gallery and gift shop.
    The gallery, gift shop and glass-blowing studio are open, while the foundry, which will be able to pour 69,000 pounds of bronze per year, is scheduled to open by the end of 2016.  
    “We’re dedicated to providing services to all professional artists in the area,” says Berkow, an artist and sculptor who owns Rosetta Stone Fine Art Gallery in Jupiter.  
    “Also a big part of our mission is educating the public of what goes into making a fine piece of art.”
    Berkow wanted to provide a foundry on the east coast of Florida that would allow artists to rent studio time to create their art and provide classes and tours to the public.
    “But I also like the idea of glass blowing because it’s sexy and a lot of people are into it,” Berkow says.

The bottom of a goblet is torched as the final step in the process.

          Local artists are already renting studio time and creating pieces of art in the center’s glass blowing studio.
    “We’ve only been open two weeks and we’ve been pretty booked so far,” Eggert says.
    At least one night a month, there will be a live art demonstration open to the public and there also are plans for an art movie night and art poetry night at Benzaiten.
    Group tours for six or more people begin in March. And people are welcome to come by and visit the gallery and gift shop and observe artists working in the glass-blowing studio or hot shop.  
    “There is going to be a $6 admission per person if anyone wants to go back to watch the glass blowers and be in the hot shop,” says Anita Holmes, Benzaiten’s executive director.   
    There also are plans to coordinate tours and classes with McMow Art Glass, also in Lake Worth.
    Gallery hours are from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.  
    The gallery features bronze sculptures by Berkow and Gil Bruvel, glass sculptures by Eggert, Shelley Muzylowski Allen and Rik Allen, Steven Funk, Zac Gorell, glass studio manager David Peterson and ceramic sculptures by Woodrow Nash.
    “In the gallery, fine works of art are available for sale,” Eggert says. “We have some very affordable things, too.
Everything here is made    by hand.”
    A gift shop with glass pieces made at the studio — including paperweights, bowls, vases and hearts — are priced from $15 to $75.
    Hot shop hours for artists, classes and studio rentals are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
    A parking lot behind the arts center can be accessed from Third Avenue South.
    For more information, on membership, donations, sponsorships, tours and classes, visit benzaitencenter.org.

By Steve Pike

    Talk about killer real estate. Ocean Ridge resident Terry Halfhill’s third self-published novel, The Briny Brotherhood, tells the purely fictional story of living, killing and dying in Briny Breezes as the book’s different characters plot to gain control of the 42-acre oceanfront community.

    The Briny Brotherhood isn’t based on the much-publicized 2007 failed $500 million attempt by an investor group to buy Briny Breezes as much as it’s inspired by the plan. That is, the book’s main characters are drawn from the personalities of Halfhill’s fishing buddies, and much of the action takes place at the Gulfstream Texaco station on A1A, just across from the Briny Breezes park office.
    Halfhill also weaves other familiar coastal communities’ names and landmarks — including Nomad surf shop, Old Key Lime House, Banana Boat and The Coastal Star — throughout the 325-page novel.
    Despite the true-to-life characters and locations, the book’s plot, Halfhill emphasized, is pure fiction.
    “There’s nothing true about it,’’ said Halfhill with a slight smile.
    In the original attempt to buy Briny Breezes, “Nobody died,’’ Halfhill said. Conversely, in The Briny Brotherhood the first body drops within the book’s first seven pages.
    It’s funny how synchronicity works. Halfhill’s brush with death in a 2010 motorcycle accident in Pennsylvania was the impetus for his becoming an author. Actually, Halfhill, who has a doctorate from the University of Tennessee, had for years published research articles in the fields of psychology and business prior to the accident, which nearly cost him his left leg. It was during his recovery that Halfhill decided to enter the world of fiction writing.
    In fact, the first draft of Halfhill’s first novel, Copperhead Road, was written from his hospital bed.
    “A lot of philosophy in that one,’’ said Halfhill, who still has a steel rod in his left leg. “I think in my state of mind, I was struggling with some of that. I was bored with everything and couldn’t care less.’’
    Halfhill’s second novel, The Rally, published in 2012, tells tale of a 17-year-old boy coming of age in the world of bikers in Sturgis, S.D.
    The Briny Brotherhood, which was released in early February, was written this past summer.
    “Basically I was underemployed last summer and I just started to write,” Halfhill said.
    The result is a fast-paced, humorous, slightly profane read that should entertain even those unfamiliar with the coastal communities area.
    True to the book’s plot, The Briny Brotherhood currently is available only at the Texaco station.

By Hap Erstein
ArtsPaper Film Writer

Remember when the Palm Beach International Film Festival was born? Believe it or not, that was 20 years ago, and the eight-day celebration of movies from around the world that begins on March 26 will “dazzle and surprise our audiences like they’ve never seen before,” according to the festival’s president and CEO, Randi Emerman.
Some 130 films — features, shorts and documentaries — will unspool at venues throughout Palm Beach County, including 12 world premieres and 15 United States premieres. Filmmakers and screen talent, including the remarkable young subject of the Oscar-winning Boyhood, Ellar Coltrane, will be in attendance, as well as songwriter George McCrae.
Independent director Shira Piven, whose career has been nurtured by PBIFF, will open the festival with her latest feature, Welcome to Me, and director Noah Baumbach closes it with his new film, While We’re Young, following a retrospective of his body of work.
Perhaps the most tangible evidence of the festival’s financial health is the announcement that it will be acquiring the darkened Plaza Theatre in Manalapan as a year-round venue, to show films, hold seminars and other educational events, as well as renting out the space for live theater.
Just as the festival has matured over two decades, so have many of the filmmakers showcased here. For instance, Piven’s first feature, Fully Loaded, was in the 2009 Palm Beach festival and it won the Audience Favorite Award. She has since been back with a documentary, and now she returns in the coveted lead-off spot with Welcome to Me, a story of good luck that evolves into a compelling and darkly humorous drama. Featured in the cast are Kristin Wiig, James Marsden, Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack. Director Piven will attend.
Emerman describes it as a “quirky comedy. I don’t know how Kristin Wiig stays straight-faced throughout this movie. I couldn’t imagine being there and not laughing.”
The bookend of the festival will be Baumbach’s While We’re Young, an exploration of aging, ambition, and success whose cast includes Amanda Seyfried,  Naomi Watts, Ben Stiller, Adam Driver and Charles Grodin. During the week, such Baumbach films as Kicking and Screaming, The Squid and the Whale and Frances Ha will be screened.

Festival highlights
At presstime a month away from the festival, it was still evolving, but here are some highlights so far:
• The world premiere of Any Day, about an ex-fighter finding redemption from his troubled past, with cast members Kate Walsh and Tom Arnold confirmed to attend.
• A special screening of The Record Man, a documentary on Henry Stone and TK Records. •  The return of The Jewish Experience, a collection of current, cutting-edge Jewish/Israeli-centric films, including two world premieres, an official Oscar  submission (Bulgarian Rhapsody), and an Ophir (Israel’s equivalent to the Academy Awards) nominee for Best Film (Is That You?).
•  Coltrane, who grew before our eyes over a 12-year-period in Boyhood, will be honored at the festival with its Shooting Star Award.
•  In a tribute to the late Michael Clarke Duncan, fondly remembered for an appearance at PBIFF several years ago, there will be a screening of his last movie, The Challenger, about a Bronx boxer trying to fight his way to a better life. Writer-director-star Kent Moran will be in attendance and “Michael will be here in spirit,” adds Emerman.
The festival hopes to open its permanent venue in Manalapan’s Plaza del Mar later this year, after sprucing up the theater and making necessary equipment installations. “We will show films there throughout the year,” says Emerman. “It’s a great space. It gives us a home year-round.”

Contributed by: www.pbartspaper.com

The registration deadline to participate in the Great Give Palm Beach & Martin Counties is March 30 at 5:00 p.m. This year’s exciting, 24-hour online fundraiser will start on May 5 at 5:00 p.m. and end on May 6 at 5:00 p.m. Hosted by the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties, United Way of Palm Beach County and United Way of Martin County, the nationwide event is designed to raise as much money as possible for local nonprofits in a single day. The Great Give is open to all eligible nonprofits in Palm Beach and Martin counties. Last year’s event raised $2.2 million for 330 organizations. This year is expected to be even bigger. Register on www.GreatGiveFlorida.org.

Read the RICO case

By Dan Moffett

     The Town of Gulf Stream has rolled out the heavy artillery in its legal war against residents Martin O’Boyle and Christopher O’Hare, filing a class-action RICO lawsuit Feb. 12 in U.S. District Court.
     The 48-page federal complaint alleges that the two men engaged in a conspiracy to exploit the state’s public record laws and extort settlements from the town and other municipalities and organizations around the state.
     O’Boyle and O’Hare, the suit says, “filed frivolous public records requests and lawsuits” against hundreds of governments, businesses and organizations, and then demanded attorneys’ fees and costs, “resulting in a profit windfall” that funneled through The O’Boyle Law Firm in Deerfield Beach.
    O’Boyle’s son, Jonathan, a Pennsylvania lawyer, is among a half-dozen attorneys and employees of the law firm named as co-defendants in the suit.
    A central figure in the town’s case is Joel Chandler, who worked for Martin O’Boyle last year as executive director of Citizens Awareness Foundation Inc. (CAFI), a group that collaborated with The O’Boyle Law Firm to file the records requests. Chandler had a falling out with O’Boyle after a few months and has been publicly critical of CAFI and the O’Boyles. Chandler was not named as a defendant in the suit.
     Gulf Stream officials say they have fielded more than 1,700 public records requests from O’Boyle and O’Hare during the last two years, and the two men have filed dozens of suits against the town in the state and federal courts.
     Joining Gulf Stream in the class action is Wantman Group Inc., a West Palm Beach engineering company, that also claims to have been victimized by frivolous records requests and settlement demands.
    The extraordinary step of filing a RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations) suit allows the town and the other plaintiffs to seek triple damages and legal fees from the defendants. Gulf Stream officials say the town has spent more than $1 million to handle the records requests and pay legal bills during the last two years.
     Mayor Scott Morgan said the town also will pursue its case against O’Boyle and O’Hare at the state level, calling on the State Attorney’s Office and Florida attorney general to act against the two men.
     Morgan said that O’Boyle and O’Hare had abused the state’s public records laws and engaged in “a conspiracy of sorts to advance actions that essentially do nothing other than shake down municipal agencies.”

    O'Boyle and O'Hare deny any wrongdoing and accuse the town of violating records laws.

Part I: Florida's environmental disaster hits the beaches

By Willie Howard

Environmental groups are ramping up the fight against plastic pollution in the ocean with campaigns featuring images of entangled birds, littered beaches and research showing that tiny, harmful particles of plastic are entering the food chain.
    Their goal is as large as the ocean plastics problem itself: steering convenience-oriented consumers away from bags, cups, straws, food containers and other plastic products that often find their way into the water.
    The battle is being waged at the national level through organizations such as the Ocean Conservancy and locally through conservation groups such as the Sea Angels, the Palm Beach County chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and Beach Guardians Atlantic Coasts.
    “The issue cannot be resolved without a change in perception regarding its scope, origin and the part we each contribute towards helping or harming the coast,” said Linda Emerson, founder of Beach Guardians Atlantic Coasts.
    “It’s changing behavior,” Emerson said. “It doesn’t take much to keep a couple of reusable bags in your car and take them into Publix.” And releasing a balloon into the sky, she said, is just like dropping it in the ocean.
    Plastic pollution is easy to spot. Just walk along the beach.
    Volunteers with Sea Angels routinely find plastic bottle caps, straws, bottles, bags, cigarette filters and broken pieces of plastic during monthly beach cleanups near Boynton Inlet.
    Monofilament fishing line and Mylar balloons are also common finds, especially when the seas are rough, Sea Angels founder Robyn Halasz said.
    But there’s a more subtle plastics problem in the ocean: chemical pollution that occurs when discarded plastic products break down or enter the ocean as “microbeads” used in beauty products such as exfoliating face cleansers, which often contain polyethylene.
Microbeads go straight from bathroom drains into the food chain, bypassing traditional sewage treatment plants, according to studies cited by the Plastic Soup Foundation.
    Some marine organisms can’t distinguish between food and microplastics (defined as plastic pieces measuring less than 5 millimeters). Microbeads found in personal care products are typically smaller than 1 millimeter — or about the same size as fish eggs, which mean they look like food.
Scientists suggest that toxins absorbed by the microbeads can be eaten by fish, then passed on to humans and wildlife.
    Some 660 marine species are negatively affected by ocean debris, and about 70 species have been harmed by the ingestion of microplastics, a study published for the Convention on Biological Diversity showed.
    A female whale that mysteriously died after swimming into an industrial tributary of the Chesapeake Bay last year was found to have a plastic DVD case in its stomach. The plastic case had lacerated the whale’s stomach, preventing it from feeding.
    Eleven manatees have died in Florida after eating some type of plastic that caused an obstruction of the digestive tract, according to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.
    The FWC does not track the systemic effects of plastic ingested by manatees, but pieces of plastic have been found in the digestive tracts of 219 dead manatees in Florida, said Brandon Basino of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg.
    Sea turtles often mistake deflated balloons for food and eat them, which can be fatal.
Florida law forbids the release of 10 or more balloons in a 24-hour period if the balloons are filled with a gas lighter than air, such as helium.

Plastic found in the gut of Cilantro,  a turtle that died in 2012. Provided by Gumbo Limbo Nature Center

    Balloons and plastic fragments are often removed from the digestive tracts of sick sea turtles, said Kirt Rusenko, a marine conservationist at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.
    About two-thirds of the sea turtles that are treated for plastic ingestion survive, said Rusenko, who directs the Boca Raton Sea Turtle Conservation & Research Program.
“Whenever we do necropsies on sea turtles, unfortunately, we’ve noticed there’s plastics in all of their stomachs,” Rusenko said.
About 44 percent of sea birds eat plastic, according to a study by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.
    Because plastics are entering the food chain and people eat seafood, environmental groups are warning consumers about the effects of plastic on human health.
    “What goes in the ocean goes in you,” warns the Surfrider Foundation’s Rise Above Plastics, or RAP, awareness campaign.
    The Surfrider Foundation notes that the same qualities that make plastic durable also make it “an environmental nightmare.”
    Plastics degrade into small pieces when exposed to waves and ultraviolet rays, but research shows they can leach toxic chemicals into the ocean in the process.

Locals promoting
awareness campaign
    Environmental groups in Palm Beach County are campaigning against plastic products used every day by consumers.
    “Awareness is our biggest weapon against the hoards of plastic pollution already infecting our environment,” said Jaimie Hamilton, who chairs the RAP campaign for the Surfrider Foundation’s Palm Beach County chapter.
    As part of its campaign, Surfrider’s Palm Beach County chapter is offering consumers branded reusable bags and reusable water bottles as well as tips for avoiding plastic in their daily routines.
    Drew Martin of Lake Worth, conservation chairman for the Sierra Club’s Loxahatchee Group, avoids single-use plastic food and drink containers as well as plastic eating utensils.
    “When I go out to dinner, I take a Tupperware or permanent container to bring home leftovers,” Martin said. “When I go to a picnic, I take my own metal utensils, plate and cup. I travel with a metal bottle that I reuse.”
    Halasz of Sea Angels said she and her husband reuse straws when they receive them and often drink directly from cups. They do use reusable straws with reusable cups.
    Halasz says she shops with reusable bags, including produce bags, and asks for paper if she forgets her shopping bags.
    “If we can bring it to the counter with our own two hands, we can carry it out without a bag.”
    During beach cleanups, Sea Angels volunteers use buckets instead of plastic bags to carry rubbish, and they recycle as much of the trash as possible.
    Halasz said she and her husband won’t take home food from restaurants in polystyrene containers. They simply leave the leftovers at the restaurant instead.
    “There’s a lot people can do,” Halasz said. “It’s just getting them in the habit.”
    The Ocean Conservancy, the conservation group that organizes the International Coastal Cleanup held in September, launched the Trash Free Seas Alliance in 2012 to stop plastics and other forms of garbage from reaching the ocean.
    Corporate partners include The Coca-Cola Co. and The Dow Chemical Co., a major plastics manufacturer.
    “The alliance unites industry, science and conservation leaders who share a common goal for a healthy ocean free of trash,” the Ocean Conservancy’s website says.
“Members seek to reduce, and, where possible, reinvent products and services that damage ocean wildlife or ecosystems.”

Ocean Ridge resident Joelen Merkel hugs Chief Yannuzzi following the Jan. 15 special meeting. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Hear contested telephone recording

By Dan Moffett

The simmering feud over beach security between Ocean Ridge Town Commissioner Richard Lucibella and Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi came to a full boil in January.
    By the time passions cooled, the dispute had burned both men. The chief was out of a job, and the commissioner was facing a recall effort launched by the chief’s supporters.
    Yannuzzi agreed to resign after three commissioners voted to pursue his termination if he didn’t. A standing-room-only audience packed Town Hall on Jan. 15 as the commission approved the terms of Yannuzzi’s resignation, and the chief thanked dozens of well-wishers for speaking in his defense.
    “It is greatly appreciated, beyond belief,” he told his supporters. “Did I make a mistake? Yes, I did.”
    Yannuzzi conceded that he misinterpreted the law governing recovered stolen property when he investigated how a Broward County woman’s credit card turned up on the deck of Lucibella’s oceanfront home in November. Because the credit card was found on private property, Lucibella had no obligation to turn it over to local police. Yet, during a phone conversation, the chief insisted that Lucibella give him the card.
    Perhaps Yannuzzi’s costlier mistake was recording the eight-minute call without Lucibella’s knowledge. A furious commissioner threatened to go after the chief’s job because of his harassment.
    “Found property on my property is mine,” Lucibella said.
    “You want to play this will battle? I’ll tell you what, Monday, the first week of the month, I’m going to make a motion that we let you go, that we separate. I don’t think I have a second. I probably don’t have three votes. But I only have to win once, chief. I’ll make that motion every single month.”
    Lucibella’s anger grew after learning that the chief had taken the recording to the State Attorney’s Office, the Inspector General’s Office and the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics. Lucibella described Yannuzzi’s behavior as a “combination of J. Edgar Hoover and Barney Fife,” and pushed for his termination.
    Florida statute allows law enforcement officers to record telephone conversations when “the purpose of such interception is to obtain evidence of a criminal act.”
    Yannuzzi said he believed recording was necessary because the case involved theft and stolen property, though he concedes he did not recognize the legal importance of the card turning up on private land.

Commissioner Richard Lucibella has been publicly critical of the police chief for several months.

    Lucibella and his supporters said recording the call was overkill, unwarranted and an attempt to undermine a town commissioner.
    Commissioner James Bonfiglio described the matter as “a created crime by the police chief” and accused Yannuzzi of breaching the separation of powers between the commission and Police Department.
    Town Manager Ken Schenck agreed, and recommended the chief’s firing to the commission.  He also faulted Yannuzzi for low morale within the department, though Schenck had given the chief only one written evaluation since he took over in 2010 — and that rated his performance “outstanding.”
    Yannuzzi, 58, joined the Ocean Ridge department in 2006. As chief, he has been instrumental in several multi-agency police efforts, including a project to implement license tag cameras on the barrier island.
    “Over the past few weeks there has developed a contentious situation between the police chief and one of the commissioners. This has escalated so that it is creating problems in the daily duties,” Schenck wrote to commissioners in recommending termination. “Unfortunately, I don’t see the conflict ending and I’m not sure where it’s headed. It is not a good situation for the workplace.”
    Vice Mayor Lynn Allison and Commissioner Gail Adams Aaskov sided with the chief and voted against termination; Mayor Geoff Pugh and Bonfiglio agreed with Lucibella. And Yannuzzi’s fate was sealed.
    “I think it was justified for the manager to take the action that he did,” Pugh said, and called the chief’s behavior in the Lucibella matter “egregious.”
    Lucibella said he did a Google search to locate the woman who owned the card and reported the matter to the Davie Police Department. The commissioner said he learned the Visa card was stolen at a Costco in Broward and deactivated by the owner, who instructed Lucibella to cut up the card. He said he did.

Ocean Ridge Police Chief, Chris Yannuzzi, gestures toward Commissioner Richard Lucibella and Town Manager Ken Schenck while addressing a crowd at the special commission meeting at which his resignation was accepted. Schenck had recommended his termination earlier in the week. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Conflict follows beach feud
    Yannuzzi and Lucibella have carried on a long-running feud over how the town should police its beaches, with the commissioner accusing the chief of not doing enough to enforce the law and stop trespassers — presumably like whoever left the card on his deck.
    “It’s no secret that I’ve been a critic of Chief Yannuzzi,” he said. “But I bear him no ill will.”
    Lucibella said he was “proud” of his stand during the phone call, and the chief was wrong to make a “clandestine recording.” He said Yannuzzi had all he needed the first two minutes of the conversation and was trying to bait him.
    Under terms of the separation agreement the commission unanimously approved, the town will pay Yannuzzi about $82,000. The chief left office Jan. 16, but his resignation will take effect on March 1. He will receive $10,400 in severance pay and another $43,800 to do consulting work for the town as a civilian for the next five months. Yannuzzi will get about $28,000 more in vacation and unused sick pay.
    As part of the deal, Schenck will put a “positive evaluation” in his file. Both sides are to refrain from disparaging comments, and more important, Yannuzzi agreed not to file suit against the town. However, the courtroom door was left open for Lucibella and Yannuzzi to take legal action against each other, or for Lucibella to act against the town.
    Town Attorney Ken Spillias said the settlement agreement excludes Lucibella from giving up his right to sue, as the commissioner requested.
    “There have been so many inaccuracies, misstatements and out-and-out lies that I don’t have the time, the ability or the desire to address them all,” Yannuzzi told the commission in accepting the deal. “I can tell you that on the day of this incident I was dealing with a citizen, not a commissioner.”
    Though the commission’s vote for the settlement package was unanimous, Allison and Aaskov still opposed the chief’s termination. Aaskov called the dispute “an embarrassment to the town,” and Allison wondered why Schenck’s complaints about Yannuzzi’s performance had surfaced all at once.
    “I still don’t understand — why not a reprimand or a grievance?” Allison said of the decision to remove the chief. “Why we went from zero to termination, I don’t understand.”
    Nan Yablong, who circulated a petition to recall Lucibella, said dozens of residents had signed: “We’ll get all the signatures we need.”
    The commission unanimously approved Lt. Hal Hutchins as acting police chief until Yannuzzi’s resignation takes effect in March. Hutchins will become interim chief then, and he says he’s interested in keeping the job permanently. Commissioners said they will consider him, but also plan to conduct an outside search.

Hear a recording of this story 

By Ron Hayes
 
    How would you describe a map of Africa to a blind person?
    How would you explain a chart of the fluctuating U.S. economy to someone who cannot see that chart?
    How would you talk like a pirate?
The Gladys Davis Pavilion at Florida Atlantic University does not look like the sort of place where these weighty questions are pondered. To be honest, it used to be the university’s police and parking services building. As pavilions go, it’s small and nondescript.
But every Tuesday through Saturday, six hours a day, men and women, young and old, arrive here to tackle those questions.
    Since 1997, the Davis pavilion has been the Florida home of Learning Ally, a national, nonprofit organization that records books for people with visual impairments and learning disabilities.
    FAU is paid $1 a year for letting Learning Ally use the building. The nearly 100 volunteers who serve two-hour shifts in seven recording booths get nothing.
    “I don’t have a specialty,” says Lois Dwyer of coastal Boca Raton. “Last week I finished a middle school science book on weather, and my next chapter is a college-level U.S. history book that covers 1900-1910.”
A 32-year veteran of IBM, Dwyer came to Learning Ally three years ago when the company asked employees to mark its 100th birthday by volunteering somewhere for eight hours during the year. Through a friend, Dwyer found Learning Ally, and she’s been there every Tuesday ever since.
    “I really enjoy it,” she says. “It gives me satisfaction in that I’m helping someone who wants to better themselves, and for whatever reason they learn aurally rather than visually.”

Dedicated volunteers have
audience of thousands
But let’s rewind the story a bit. After World War II, the G.I. Bill guaranteed a college education to all returning veterans — some of whom had been blinded in the war. They couldn’t read Braille. They didn’t have anyone to read for them.
    Anne T. Macdonald, a member of the New York Public Library’s Women’s Auxiliary, heard their frustration. In 1948, she and her auxiliary colleagues turned the library’s attic into a makeshift recording studio and Recording for the Blind was born.
    In 1995, Recording for the Blind became Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, to reflect the growing number of users with learning disabilities.
Since 2011, it’s been Learning Ally. Today, more than 70 percent of its users are children and adults with learning rather than visual disabilities.
    The recordings that began as 6-inch vinyl disks, then cassettes and compact discs are now downloadable audio files.
    Nationally, about 5,000 volunteers contribute 6,000 new titles a year to a library that’s passing 80,000 books.
    In Florida alone, those titles reach about 5,500 learners, including 4,000 students in public and charter schools, where free access is required by law. Another 1,500 household members pay $119 a year for the service.
    “But for that, you can take 10,000 books if you want,” says Doug Sprei, the organization’s media director. “Our service is heavily focused. More than two-thirds of our books are core curriculum texts. Virtually any book a student needs from kindergarten through 12th grade, we have. Plus some popular reading for kids.”
   In other words, the faithful volunteer readers who arrive at FAU each week are not passing the time with Gone Girl or Marley & Me. They’re reading aloud, very carefully, from the same books millions of students fall asleep over every night.
“We need conscientious dedication,” says production director Sonia Hedrick. “The books are assigned by our ability, so if I don’t have someone who can read Latvian, we’re not going to record a history of Latvia.”

Books get complete
production treatment
    The Beatles had George Martin to produce their recordings. The FAU volunteers have Sonia Hedrick.
A former manager for volunteer programs at Meals On Wheels and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County, Hedrick was feeding Goober, her half-blind shih tzu, one day in 2006. When Goober spilled food, Hedrick picked up his newspaper place mat to shake it clean and her eye fell on a classified ad: “Production director wanted. Must have experience managing volunteers.”
    What do production and volunteers have to do with each other, she wondered.
Hedrick, who called out of curiosity more than professional interest, has been Learning Ally’s local production director for eight years.
    “If our readers are sloppy, this is a problem,” she says. “Our students deserve the best. Mistakes escape us, but we try real hard.”
    Her job is a lot more difficult than simply turning on a tape recorder.
    “We say the book comes in ‘nekkid’ and we create a skeleton on which the meat of the audio is hung,” she explains.
    An online history is created to show what’s been read, how much is left, the hours read, plus pages numbers and chapter headings.
    These are texts for students, so unlike commercial audio books, the reader must be able to find a specific page number or chapter for future reference.
    Not comfortable reading aloud? You might volunteer as a “proof listener.” Every completed book is checked for mistakes before it’s sent to the Learning Ally headquarters in Princeton, N.J., where it’s checked again before distribution.

Brian Saxton records a book at Learning Ally in Boca Raton. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Spoken-word learning
not out of style
    As Hedrick describes the procedure, she’s politely interrupted by a gentleman with an unmistakably English accent, asking how to pronounce “psilocybe mexicana.”
    Brian Saxton, 77, of Delray Beach is a former BBC correspondent who now brings the network’s legendary attention to diction and detail to FAU each week.
    “I heard about this three years ago, and since I’d been in broadcasting I thought maybe I could do something for them,” Saxton recalls.
    “Right now I’m recording a book about drugs, but I read anything they ask. I did one on the American Civil War. I’ve read some children’s books.”
    Doesn’t sitting in a tiny booth, reading textbooks week after week get boring?
    “Not at all,” Saxton insists. “I’m very fond of the spoken word. It’s all iPhones these days. Nobody speaks to each other anymore. They’re all wandering around muttering to themselves. I think listening to somebody tell a story, whether fact or fiction, is more interesting. It’s more human.”
    Which is not to say that every human has the patience for the job.
    “The secret is to be attentive and don’t hesitate to redo it a dozen times if you make a mistake,” says Ken Solomon, 67, who has homes in Washington, D.C., and Delray Beach and volunteers for Learning Ally in both cities. “I did a couple of books for teens. They were pirate stories, so I got to have fun with the voices of the different characters.”
    Pirates are not his forté, though. On this day, he’s recording Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying.”
    Death and dying aren’t his forté, either.
    “Actually, I’m a retired accountant, so they give me a lot of accounting books,” he says with a smile. “When you do accounting books, you don’t worry about being boring.”

    For more information, visit www.learningally.org or call 297-4444.  

     "I understand it’s already been decided.”
     I hear these words far more frequently than any taxpayer or reporter covering town hall should.
    Florida law requires elected officials and government employees to operate in a way that is transparent and accountable to their constituents.
    Yet, I frequently overhear pre- and post-meeting discussions on topics scheduled for public meetings. I hear (and hear about) discussions in parking lots, at fundraising events, at condo board meetings and even, on occasion, right on the dais before and after meetings.
    Most of time, I shake my head and sigh. I know it’s difficult to follow the guidelines and often these discussions don’t have any significant impact on the residents.
    But sometimes they do. Sometimes jobs are lost and careers are damaged. Sometimes projects are approved or killed without public input.
And when this happens the taxpayers are the ones left holding the bill.
    It needs to stop.
    Commissioners need to stop emailing, calling and texting each other about town issues. They need to stop using behind-the-scenes power brokers, spouses or town staff to pass along information on how they plan to vote.
    Town clerks and managers need to stop “polling” commissioners prior to meetings. They should not be discussing how anyone plans to vote on an issue. They should be operating above the personalities and personal agendas of residents and commissioners.
    When they don’t, the taxpayer pays. And it doesn’t matter if the taxpayer (or the newspaper editor) agrees or disagrees with the final vote.
    If “it’s already been decided,” it’s against the law.

Mary Kate Leming
Editor

Children pose at their desks inside the old Boynton School, circa 1959. Today, the building is home to the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum & Learning Center. Photo provided

By Amy Woods

It’s not unusual for former students of the old Boynton School to stop by the building that now houses the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum & Learning Center. But it is unusual when 250 of them do.
That will be the case Feb. 28 during the Reunion Bash, a day-long fundraiser honoring the kindergarten-through-12th-grade institution built in 1913.
“It actually should be a lot of fun,” said Suzanne Ross, executive director of the museum. “A lot of people do want to come and see their old school.”
Among them: a woman who was a student in the 1930s.
“So if I did my math correctly, she’s how old?” Ross quipped.
The guest list also includes an 83-year-old alumnus who lives in Fort Lauderdale
“As he put it to me, if he’s still alive, he will be there,” Ross said.
Honorary chairpersons are Curtis Weaver, 86, and Nain Weaver, 83, original Boynton Beach residents who attended the school as children, grew up together, fell in love and got married.
The Reunion Bash will feature a daytime event geared toward families with children, grandchildren and undoubtedly great-grandchildren, as well as an evening reception for adults. On tap are costumed characters, school pictures and tours of the building from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and libations, live music and a silent auction of old classroom chairs painted by local artists from 6 to 10 p.m.
Chairwoman Barbara Barlage wants the event to become an annual affair.
“I feel that the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum in east Boynton is one of the most important things we have downtown,” Barlage said. “It’s been influential for Boynton Beach, and what we’re trying to do now is just bring more of an awareness.”
Funds raised will pay for exterior and interior renovations, new exhibits and programming.
“We hope that it’s successful enough that it will be a signature for us each year,” Barlage said. “So it’s kind of an experiment.”

If You Go
What: Reunion Bash to benefit the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum & Learning Center
When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (daytime event) and 6 to 10 p.m. (evening reception) Feb. 28
Where: 129 E. Ocean Ave., Boynton Beach
Cost: Free for daytime event; $75 for evening reception
Information: Call 742-6780 or visit schoolhousemuseum.org or facebook.com/schoolhousereunionbash

Eleven Salon & Spa celebrated its first decade of doing business with an aviation-themed party benefiting Wheels from the Heart. The evening saw more than 550 guests and featured the awarding of a Toyota minivan to Navy Reserve veteran Michele Trinidad. ABOVE: Roxanne Oden and Ben Gardner. Photo provided by Janis Bucher

One hundred fifty of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County’s top donors gathered for an elegant cocktail reception and dinner, where they heard from former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren and U.S. Rep Ted Deutch (D-Fla.). ‘We’re thrilled to pay highest tribute to three groups of our community’s most distinguished local contributors to the well-being and security of our Jewish family,’ event Co-Chairwoman Toby Cooperman said.
ABOVE: Leon and Toby Cooperman, Deutch, Oren and Myrna and Norman Ricken.

Beverly Sallz, William Newman and Betty Kane.

Ed and Freyda Burns.
Photos provided

The council attracted nearly 50 arts fans to the first of two luncheons, this one featuring former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Nancy Brinker. ABOVE: Peg Greenspon, Brinker and council President and CEO Rena Blades. Photo provided by Jacek Photo

The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County welcomed an audience of more than 200 to the series’ second social gathering, titled ‘A Conversation with Two Fascinating Couples.’ The evening featured celebrated photographer Harry Benson and wife and editor Gigi, along with business leader and art collector Wilbur Ross and wife and author Hilary. RIGHT: Linda Rosenkranz and Ellen Wedner. Photo provided by Corby Kaye’s Studio Palm Beach

The YMCA of South Palm Beach County’s board and staff members, along with volunteers, celebrated
the success of the 2014 campaign at a morning event with the theme ‘Stories.’ Guests shared their experiences with the agency and recognized the fact the $380,000 goal was surpassed. RIGHT: President and CEO of the YMCA of South Palm Beach County Dick Pollock poses with Peter Blum, founder of the Boca Raton YMCA, and Donna Angus. Photo provided

Celebrating its first anniversary, Angel Moms, a support group of Place of Hope at the Haven Campus in Boca Raton, welcomed 100 supporters of foster-care children to an event that featured a guest speaker addressing the topic of human trafficking. ‘By providing women with a nurturing place to go and choices for their futures, we interrupt the patterns that lead them to be in vulnerable, dangerous situations,’ Executive Director Charles Bender said. ABOVE: Jeannine Morris and Bonnie Boroian. Photo provided

The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties sponsored an intimate afternoon for donors and supporters.
During the luncheon, Barbara Stark, executive director of the Milagro Center, spoke about the organization’s $18,000 grant from the foundation, which created a new musical-instrument program for disadvantaged children.
ABOVE: Mari Adam, Nadine Allen and Caroline Moran.
BELOW: Brad Hurlburt, president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties, Stark and Sanjiv Sharma. Photos provided by Tracey Benson Photography