The third annual Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum benefit turned out to be another extraordinary success that took guests on a tour of downtown’s eclectic establishments to sample dinner by the bite and sip specialty drinks. A total of $27,000 was raised.
ABOVE: Rick and Kathy Qualman and Ralph and Terri Williams with Don and Patty Krebs.

Morgan and Dawn Zook, Lindy Harvey and Joyce and Thom DeVita.

Kristen Ross, Jacqueline Reeves, Nic DeSiato and Kimberly Rosemurgy.
Photos by Barbara McCormick

The Jones Field came to life with students, families and faculty members, and food, fun and fellowship as youths participated in games, indulged in ice cream and competed in the QR Code Scavenger Hunt with iPads and iPhones. More than $2,300 was raised in support of the school’s Annual Fund.
TOP: Students Ashley Patrick, Lucy Ream, Naya Nelson, Katie Trainor and Katie Tuimala.
BOTTOM: Computer teacher Carol Cunningham and students participate in the QR Code Scavenger Hunt. Photos provided

Six Boca Raton residents will receive OPAL (Outstanding People and Leaders) Awards from the Rotary Club of Boca Raton at a ceremony in January.  The club sponsored a reception in anticipation of the event to announce the names of recipients and the award categories.  Honorees are Gary Peters (philanthropic leadership), Irving Gutin (medicine and health care), Anthony Comparato (Vanguard Award for business and community service), Karen and Howard Weiss (community service) and Cecil Roseke (Lifetime Achievement Award.) Photo by Dale King

Soroptimist International of Boca Raton / Deerfield Beach welcomed more than 300 guests to its awards ceremony. Merrilee Middleton, 93, Boca Raton Center for Group Counseling founder, received a lifetime achievement award.
TOP: Cynthia Cummings with Klarissa Kitchen, winner of the Women’s Opportunity Award.
BOTTOM: Sponsor Patricia Rooney with Jacqueline Reeves, winner of the Volunteer Award. Photos by Barbara McCormick

Impact 100 members Tina Smith, Lisa Morgan and Peg Greenspon welcome members and guests to a wine and cheese membership event with featured speaker Pam Figoras of The Parent Child Center. The center was Impact 100’s first grant recipient in 2012.  Figoras spoke on how the $100,000 grant was transformational for her organization’s trauma team, which provides immediate, on-site care for children suddenly removed from their homes due to repeated abuse and neglect. Photo by Sherry Ferrante

The Place of Hope at the Haven Campus benefited from a special event that introduced more than two dozen women to the nonprofit organization’s mission and newly acquired facility. Arlene Hyman organized the stylish affair, and a portion of proceeds from sales that day were donated to the cause. TOP: Kimberly Witzenberger, Elissa Spiro, Marsha Rubin and Lori Schecter. BOTTOM LEFT: Brenda Lewenstein, Arlene Hyman and Meri Pifko. BOTTOM RIGHT: Mona Pruzan, Gwen Rubin and Sheila Lozowick. Photos provided

The Hanley Center Foundation’s young professionals organization, Mangrove Group, closed out the summer season and started a new one with a trditional clambake. The event was attended by more than 50 supporters, both new and old, and helped raise $3,000 for substance-abuse treatment programs. Photo: Committee member Steven Colamarino with Chairman Clark Appleby. Photo provided

The seventh annual reception raising awareness and money for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation offered auction prizes, including an autographed football by former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula. ‘We raised over $3,000 this year with a very passionate community and ongoing partnership with New York Prime,’ said Shana Overhulser, president of Page One Graphics, the event’s sponsor. Photo: Overhulser with Scott Berger, general manager of New York Prime. Photo by Janis Bucher

Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown was awarded the Jurist of the Year Award by the Palm Beach County Justice Association at a sold-out dinner reception. The award is given annually to a Palm Beach Circuit Court judge who personifies excellence in preserving justice and professionalism during trials.
LEFT: Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Catherine Brunson, Circuit Court Judge Lucy Chernow Brown, Fourth District Court of Appeal Judge Carole Taylor and Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Scher. Photo provided

Mounts Botanical Garden, West Palm Beach, wants your used and vintage garden tools and landscape items to sell at its Vintage Garden Thrift Shop opening this fall.
Think rakes, shovels, gardening books, statues and more.
To schedule a donation pickup, call (561) 233-1763. Every donation receives a 501 (c3) tax deductible receipt.
— Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

Manalapan was especially hard-hit when days of pounding from Hurricane Sandy undermined sea walls at more than 20 homes.
Many complained that poorly maintained sea walls at one property caused the sea wall of their neighbors to fail.
2012 photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

A Coastal Star Special Report:

Hurricane shows just how fragile our shores are

Sand is finite: Sand becoming a precious commodity | A lexicon of sand

Dunes vs. Sea walls: Natural vegetative dunes may be best defense

Who is taking action?: Lawmakers discuss storm recovery efforts | Local officials sign on to beach management agreement | Quotes from local officials

By Cheryl Blackerby

                  In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, many seaside residents were suddenly interested in armoring the coast to prevent beach erosion and damage to homes.

                  In emotional meetings across Palm Beach County, residents and experts discussed the pros and cons of breakwaters, groins, revetments and sea walls. Most of the news was bad. Sand, it turns out, is difficult to hold onto.

                  But there are, indeed, ways to capture sand. A breakwater or groin can corral sand behind a beachside house, but most likely will starve sand to the south. And the neighbors to the south will not be happy about it.

                  Breakwaters in Florida, such as those around Peanut Island in the Intracoastal Waterway near the Lake Worth Inlet, are offshore structures made of rock limestone or granite that run parallel to the shoreline.

                  “They are usually an engineered structure built to specifications, not just a pile of rocks,” said Michael Stahl, a senior environmental analyst for the county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management.

                  Stahl and his department designed breakwaters for a beach on Singer Island, where near-shore fish habitats prevented beach renourishment.

                  But they were unable to get permits from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers because of the potential for obstructing sea turtle nesting.

                  “And anytime you restrict sand movement from north to south, you introduce the potential for down-drift impacts. You essentially relocate sand from one section of the beach to another section,” Stahl said.

                  Groins run perpendicular to the shoreline and accumulate sand on the up-drift part of the structure. The groins just south of the Boynton Inlet retain sand on the south side of the inlet.

                  “The drawback is they act as a dam to moving sand. Down-drift beaches are being starved of sand which results in additional groin structures being built to the south and the result is a groin field, a series of groins to trap sand,” he said.

                  And there’s the same problem with nesting turtles. “In Ocean Ridge, the turtle hatchlings next to the groins have to be caged to prevent the hatchlings from getting trapped in the rocks,” Stahl said.

                  But breakwaters are a good option when compared to sea walls, he said. When you build a sea wall you are saying goodbye to a beach.

   “The big drawback is that the beach erodes in front of the wall, and there is a deflation of sand, which then allows the waves to reflect off the walls carrying the sand with it. You are essentially accelerating the erosion,” he said, adding that the waves will eventually undermine the wall itself.

                  Shore engineers don’t like to see the intermittent sea walls built by residents along the shoreline in Manalapan, Palm Beach and other places. “We would prefer not to have an armored shoreline like that. There’s a loss of sand and a loss of turtle habitat,” he said.

                  Residents have the right to build sea walls, but they must get permits from the DEP. Homeowners are responsible for maintaining them. When residents lose sand because of their sea walls, their neighbors may also lose sand.

                  Revetments, sloping shores covered with rock or concrete, are an old-school beach armor that almost no one is considering. Delray Beach city officials tried expensive “waffle revetments,” interlocking concrete blocks on the beach in the 1960s, which kept people off the beach and eventually collapsed under crashing waves.

Neighbors standing on a Highland Beach condo parking lot watch as waves scour the dunes at neighboring homes.

Related story: Delray advocates ready to fetch allies for dog beach

By Steve Plunkett

                  Boca Raton already has Mizner Bark, its wildly popular park for dogs. Now it will cordon off part of the beach at Palmetto Park Road and State Road A1A so canines can splash in the surf.

                  “It’s a pilot program. Let’s see if it works, and we can take it from here,” Deputy Mayor Susan Haynie proposed at the Sept. 24 final budget hearing.

                  The park, modeled after Fort Lauderdale’s successful Canine Beach, will be open perhaps four hours three evenings a week and two hours early Saturday mornings. City Manager Leif Ahnell said dogs would be limited to an area in South Beach Park north of the Palmetto Park stairs.

                  Setting up the pilot program will cost $15,000. Ahnell had not decided on further details of the program.

                  “I think it’s a great idea, and I think it seems almost everybody owns a dog,” council member Anthony Majhess said.

                  Fort Lauderdale’s dog beach, 100 yards wide and patrolled by a park ranger at A1A and Sunrise Boulevard, is open for four hours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. City residents pay $30 for a one-year permit for each dog; nonresidents are charged $45. A one-weekend pass is $7. The permits also allow dog owners to walk their pets on the sidewalk west of A1A in the early mornings.

                  “The 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. is a very popular time for people to walk their dogs, especially in the summer in the heat,” council member Constance Scott said, urging Ahnell to add a morning slot.

                  “And it’s a time when our beach is not used much,” Haynie said.

                  City and county residents now pay $55 a year for a windshield sticker to park at South Beach Park. The sticker also allows city residents and those in the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District to park at Spanish River and Red Reef parks. Mizner Bark is free for city and beach-park district residents; nonresidents pay $265 a year for a permit.

                  Jupiter is the only municipality in Palm Beach County that currently allows canines on a section of beach. Parking is free at the county’s Carlin, Ocean Cay and Juno Beach parks at either end of the town’s 2.5-mile dog-friendly stretch.

                  Haynie also asked about putting a temporary restroom at Mizner Bark but balked when Ahnell told her it would cost $62,000 for a “trailer-type” facility.

                  “There’s certainly much more inexpensive options, but I don’t think they’re quality-type. They’re more for construction activities,” Ahnell said.

CANINE BEACH, Fort Lauderdale
Days: Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays year-round
Summer hours: 5 to 9 p.m.
Winter hours: 3 to 7 p.m.
Location: 100-yard section of beach from Sunrise Boulevard at A1A north to Lifeguard Stand No. 5
Fees:
· Annual permit: $30 per dog (city residents), $45 per dog (nonresidents)
· Temporary passes: One-weekend permit (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) - $7 per dog

DOG-FRIENDLY BEACH, Jupiter
Days: 365 days a year
Hours: sunrise to sunset
Location: 2½ miles along A1A from crossover 25 (north of the Juno Beach lifeguarded area) to 59 (south of the Carlin Park lifeguarded area)
Fees: none

Related story: Boca's canine beach time is goal of pilot program

By Dan Moffett

                  Dog advocates in Delray Beach are planning to turn loose roving packs of petitioners soon in a campaign to persuade the city to open part of its beach to four-legged bathers.
                  Several similar efforts to create a Delray dog beach have fizzled since 2004, when the Palm Beach County Commission shut down a 600-foot strip of sand south of Briny Breezes that man and dog had shared for years.
                  Mary Yuhas, one of the new movement’s organizers, thinks the outcome will be different this time. She has legal counsel. She has supporters willing to knock on doors. She has two corgis with high hopes. This time, she thinks the dog-beach dog will hunt.
                  “We have an attorney who’s drafting the petition right now and making sure it’s right,” Yuhas said. “We’re going to have team captains who organize groups to go into different neighborhoods. It’s a large effort and it might take six months, but it can be done.”
                  The last attempt to advance the dog-beach cause failed in 2007 when supporters had trouble getting the 6,000 signatures of registered city voters needed to put the issue on the ballot.

                  The same objections that helped kill the idea then are still around today.
                  “The dogs aren’t the problem. It’s the humans that come with them,” says Sandra Dezelan-Axelband. “I think dogs should be allowed to go everywhere. I know how to train the dogs. But how do we train the humans? That’s where it breaks down.”
                  Dezelan-Axelband, who runs Dezzy’s Second Chance Animal Rescue in Delray Beach, says you just can’t depend on people to clean up after their dogs and to make sure they behave.
                  “These dogs get a bad rap that they leave poop on the beach,” she says. “But it’s the human who doesn’t pick it up that’s to blame.”
                  Andy Katz, president of the Beach Property Owners Association of Delray Beach, says even if you could train the humans, there just isn’t room to set aside for a dog beach.
                  “We have 1.8 million visitors a year to our beaches and they are much more frequently used for a whole variety of activities,” Katz said. “The beach is much more heavily used than would make sense for a dog beach, which typically are in more isolated areas.”
                  Katz says the city already has a problem with people who, when the lifeguards are off duty, sneak their dogs onto the beaches and don’t clean up. People caught with their dogs on the city beaches currently face fines of $50 or more.
                  For Yuhas, a freelance writer, the issue largely comes down to what kind of city Delray Beach wants to be. She believes it should be dog friendly and more like Jupiter, which for roughly 25 years has managed to keep up one of the few dog beaches in the Southeast with a minimum of complaints from the public.
                  “I talked with people in Jupiter,” Yuhas said. “They said this is about the kind of town we want to be. All we’re asking for is a piece of beach, not the whole beach, for people who would like a place to see their dogs frolic.”

Designating dog-friendly beach areas would prevent the need for owners to bring their pets to the beach ‘illegally,’ such as these sunrise visitors to Delray’s beach. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Delray Beach native Daisy Sundy Earls — granddaughter of Delray Beach’s first mayor, John Shaw Sundy, and daughter of Benjamin Franklin Sundy, one of Palm Beach County’s earliest commissioners — was in town recently for a short visit. While at the home her grandfather built in 1902, now the Sundy House restaurant and hotel, Earls recalled Delray Beach’s early years when her father would make breakfast by the ocean with his camping stove and when her aunts, Addie and Sadie Sundy would hold bonfires on the beach. ‘Back then this was a town where your mother would say goodbye to you in the morning and not see you again until 5 p.m.,’ she said. Now a resident of a small town in Texas, Earls also recalled the war years in Delray Beach when she and other residents were called upon to climb to the top of the old Seacrest Hotel — where the Marriott Delray Beach now sits — and keep a lookout for enemy warcraft.
Rich Pollack/The Coastal Star

Related story — Highland Beach: Town delays call on 911 changes

By Tim Pallesen

                  Delray Beach has asked Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue for a price quote to take over fire-rescue operations in the city.

                  The concept is supported by the union for city firefighters, who face possible cuts in their city pension benefits.

                  Under the concept, city firefighters would become county employees. The county would operate five Delray fire stations and a sixth station that Delray now operates in Highland Beach.

                  The request for a price quote was made by Delray Beach Fire-Rescue Chief Danielle Connor in a Sept. 4 letter to County Fire-Rescue Chief Jeff Collins.

                  The City Commission hasn’t discussed the request. Connor said it originated when the firefighters union “reached out” to Mayor Cary Glickstein.

                  “Fire-rescue is a significant part of our budget, with its associated pension and capital costs,” Glickstein explained. “It just makes good sense to understand our alternatives.”

                  Delray Beach is spending $22.4 million for fire-rescue this year and proposing to spend $23.6 million next year. Public safety costs are the city’s largest expenditure. A $1.9 million increase in what taxpayers pay to police and fire pensions is the biggest cost increase in this year's proposed city budget.

                  Fred Angelo, vice president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 2928 in Palm Beach County, said the union previously supported takeovers by county fire-rescue in eight other Palm Beach County cities.

                  “The concept is a viable option that’s been used successfully by many local municipalities suffering from economic downturns and budget issues,” Angelo said. “A merger with Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue often provides more resources for emergency response.”

                  Connor said she expects a county response this month. She has requested two months to analyze the county offer before making a recommendation to city commissioners.

                  “We’re trying to see how their services compare so the city can get the best financial bang for its buck,” she said.

                  Delray Beach now also provides fire-rescue services to Highland Beach for $2.9 million this year in a contract that expires in 2017 and to Gulf Stream for $389,540 this year in a contract until 2019. In her letter, Connor asked the county to also explain how it would provide fire-rescue services to those two coastal communities.

                  Glickstein stressed that Delray Beach is under no obligation simply by requesting a quote so it can compare costs and services.

                  “Whatever is proposed will get comprehensive scrutiny,” he said. “This is simply a discussion about options to better serve residents.”

Photo taken before the runoff problems, shows a healthy bed of Johnson’s seagrass. Photo courtesy DERM

By Jane Smith
At the Snook Islands Natural Area — the one touted as an example of what can go right when various agencies and volunteers work together — most of the Johnson’s seagrass is dead.
The county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management also found many of the oysters that once filtered the water in the central part of the Lake Worth Lagoon choked with muck.
Most of the young mangroves carefully planted by volunteers on Ibis Isle in Palm Beach are dying.
The cause? Stormwater runoff from the western areas of the county, including freshwater releases from Lake Okeechobee, and eastern county lawns sending nutrient-laden water into the central part of the lagoon, according to DERM.
The freshwater flows through the C-51 Canal and empties into the lagoon on the border between West Palm Beach and Lake Worth. That canal water changes the brackish quality of the central lagoon, coating its sandy floor with muck and allowing a wood-boring isopod to thrive. The isopod attacks the young mangroves.
The freshwater releases rival what has been dumped into the St. Lucie River, said Ed Tichenor, director of Palm Beach County Reef Rescue. “The only thing we haven’t seen is the toxic algae,” he said.
One of the county’s environmental analysts noted the lack of seagrass when he went out to monitor the Snook Islands habitat.
“In August, I couldn’t even find a blade of grass out there,” said David Carson, the environmental analyst.
But Paul Davis, division director at the county department, is more measured. He counters that a recent study found 5 percent of the Johnson’s seagrass still surviving on the Snook Islands. He also defends the $26.2 million spent restoring the Lake Worth Lagoon as worth it, despite the recent problems.
The money came from county, state and federal sources.
“There still will be these episodes of runoff, but with components in place, the lagoon can come back,” he said.
In August 2012, Tropical Storm Isaac dumped as much as 18 inches onto the western areas of the county, creating another sustained high-volume discharge into the lagoon. With little time to recover, the seagrass is at its lowest coverage since monitoring began in 2000.
The Johnson’s seagrass was the first marine plant to be listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. It is a food source for manatees and sea turtles — the “coastal canary” that indicates the health of the lagoon.
What will happen this winter when the manatees return and are hungry? Tichenor wonders.
The mangroves provide habitat for young goliath grouper that are spawned off the shores of Boynton Beach, he said. Every August, when goliath grouper spawn around the MV Castor wreck, the Boynton Beach area becomes a tourist attraction for scuba divers, Tichenor said. The grouper can weigh up to 800 pounds. Harvesting goliath grouper is banned by state and federal regulations.
“We are trying to solve the problem at its source,” Davis said, “by redesigning the plumbing of South Florida.”
His department is working with the South Florida Water Management District, state agencies and municipalities to do this.
“We need to find a better way of getting water off the land, finding locations to store it or treat stormwater runoff,” he said. “We need to realize we are in this together, what we all do on our lawns (affects the stormwater runoff).”
In October 2012, the county passed a fertilizer ordinance regulating its use in the areas outside of cities and towns. Most municipalities, Davis said, have adopted similar ordinances to protect the county’s ground and surface waters. Banned activities include: Fertilizing when there is a flood warning in effect or blowing the fertilizer and grass clippings into the street where they will be washed into the stormwater system.
Another problem comes from septic tanks. The towns of Ocean Ridge and Manalapan don’t have a centralized sewer system, he said. “It’s the cost of fix vs. other projects,” he said.
The amount of seagrass should be known by March. Divers are mapping the seagrass in 1,000 different locations in the lagoon with a goal of the field work finished by the end of October, Davis said. Then it will take a few months to turn that data into maps.
The county department used to rely on aerial surveys for mapping. After Tropical Storm Isaac came through and the runoff increased, Davis said they couldn’t tell from the photos where the seagrass was.
This fall, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will survey the oyster beds in the central part of the lagoon.
“They need to stop the releases,” Tichenor said, “but there is no way to stop it.”
For now, there is the Lake Worth Lagoon Management Plan available at lwli.org.

By Tim Pallesen
Coastal cities are studying new flood maps to know how many residents will be paying much higher premiums for flood insurance.
Reforms to the federal flood insurance program raise premiums, phase out subsidies and call for a redrawing of flood maps that might put more homes in high-risk zones.
Owners of winter homes who received subsidies started paying higher rates Jan. 1. Beginning this month, buyers purchasing a previously subsidized home must pay the higher premium.
Owners of primary residences will learn whether they also must pay annual rate increases of 20 percent for five years once new flood zone maps are approved next year.
Officials in coastal communities are trying to decipher preliminary flood-zone maps now. “So far, nobody can figure it out,” Ocean Ridge Town Manager Ken Schenck said.
Dick Tomasello, an engineer hired by the county to compare old and new flood maps along the coast, said many oceanfront homes have been moved into the highest-risk zone. Flood insurance rates will reflect damage that might occur in a hurricane if sea walls and sand dunes are washed away.
“The entire coast shows that the zone has moved inland,” Tomasello said. “Flood insurance is going to be more expensive.”
The Palm Beach County League of Cities has assembled a team of engineers to dispute what executive director Richard Radcliffe described as “grave inaccuracies” in preliminary new maps.
“Until those challenges are laid to rest, the town of Gulf Stream is not able to accurately comment on the effect of the revised flood maps,” Town Manager William Thrasher said.
Manalapan Mayor David Cheifetz said his town also is reviewing the maps to determine the impact.
Congress passed the insurance reforms last year to reduce a $20 billion debt in the program caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Hurricane Sandy increased the debt.
The reforms target older homes built at lower elevations before the original flood zone maps were drawn 30 years ago. Newer construction has been built at higher elevations.
Mortgage lenders require flood insurance if a property is within a high-risk flood zone. The policies pay a maximum $250,000 loss.
Gov. Rick Scott warned last month that real estate sales could be hampered in parts of Florida because of the higher insurance rates.
“In cases where new maps move a property into a flood zone, homeowners may find it impossible to sell their properties to a new owner who will be shocked with the massive premium increases required to secure a mortgage,” Scott wrote Florida’s two U.S. senators.
Sen. Bill Nelson agreed in a letter to other senators. “The national flood insurance won’t do much good if it turns out folks cannot afford the coverage,” Nelson wrote.

By Jane Smith
Are more drug bales washing up recently along South County coastal shores?
The Ocean Ridge police chief and a spokesman for the West Palm Beach office of Border Patrol think so.
Chief Chris Yannuzzi points to two recent incidents. On Aug. 6, 25 bricks of cocaine were bundled into one bale, with a street value of $2.3 million. That bale was turned over to the Border Patrol. On Sept. 7, a bale of marijuana also was turned over to the Border Patrol.
Why did the drug smugglers pick Ocean Ridge’s beach?
“My theory is,” Yanuzzi said, “location, location, location. We are close to the islands,” where he thinks most of the drug bales originate. Plus, during the turtle nesting season, which runs from March through October on the Atlantic Coast, no lights are permitted at night along the shore, allowing drug and migrant smugglers to come ashore undetected.
At Homeland Security Investigations, Edward Thompson, the assistant special agent in charge of the West Palm Beach office, said, “We noted the increase and we are trying to find out whether it is seasonal or something else.”
His office, which now includes Border Patrol, has seen an increase in both drugs and migrants smuggled onto the South County shores in the past nine months to a year. Because it is an open investigation, his agency would not provide any details.
At the Coast Guard office in Miami, details are provided only by the state and by the fiscal year. In fiscal year 2012 (Oct. 1, 2011-Sept. 30, 2012), the Coast Guard recorded 32 events of drug bales washing ashore in Florida.
“Each event could have multiple bales,” said Lt. Cmdr. Gabe Somma. The 32 events were broken down into 26 marijuana and six cocaine, he said.
In the fiscal year that started last October and through Sept. 17, the Coast Guard recorded 61 events, broken down into 37 marijuana and 24 cocaine.
“We’re monitoring the rise, but we don’t see it as significant even though it looks like cocaine events rose four times,” Somma said. “We think it’s because of increased reporting.”
In Delray Beach, beach-goers and workers reported finding cocaine bricks and marijuana packages five times since Sept. 25, 2012, along the city’s lengthy coastline.
The largest find came on April 17, when two workers, using front-loaders to disperse dredged sand on the beach, found a 4-foot broken PVC pipe filled with marijuana packages. The 14 black, cheese-wheel-shaped packages weighed 63.2 pounds, according to police records. The marijuana was valued at $100,000.
Two bricks of cocaine, about 1 kilo each, were found on Sept. 6 and Sept. 19, according to police records. The Sept. 19 brick was valued at $20,000, but no value was listed for the one found on Sept. 6. On March 23, a “very wet” cocaine brick, weighing 3.2 pounds, was found and valued at $40,000.
But in other South County coastal towns, few drug bales or none were reported.
In Gulf Stream, a marijuana bale, shaped like a beer keg, washed up on the beach behind 4001 N. Ocean Blvd., said Chief Garrett Ward. That was the first one he’s seen in five years. It was waterlogged, so they didn’t weigh it. The bale was turned over to the Sheriff’s Office for destruction, he said.
In Manalapan, two incidents of drugs washing up on the shore were recorded in the past two years. On April 30 of this year, a burlap bag of marijuana was found on the beach. It was turned over to Border Patrol, said Lt. Chris Fahey.
In Boca Raton, no drug bales washed ashore in the past five years, Officer Sandra Boonenberg reported after searching police records.

By Steve Plunkett
A Democratic precinct committeeman is making his first run for office seeking Steven Abrams’ District 4 seat on the Palm Beach County Commission.
Andy O’Brien, who just moved into the district and sells real estate from a Re/Max office in Boynton Beach, says he would bring a blue-collar perspective to county government.
“It’s about the role of the people — the voters are the boss — and it’s about leadership,” he said after officially announcing his candidacy at a meeting of the Boca-Delray Democratic Club on Sept. 24.
O’Brien, 61, bought a condo in Delray Beach in July after living west of Boynton Beach for 2½ years, spokeswoman Sharon Abramson said. Before that, he and his wife lived on a sailboat and in the Bahamas. Overall, O’Brien has lived in South Florida more than 25 years, she said.
The commission race will appear on the Nov. 4, 2014, ballot.

Abrams, 54, a lawyer, five-term Boca Raton City Council member and three-term mayor, was appointed to the District 4 seat in 2009 and ran unopposed in 2010. Before moving to Boca Raton, Abrams was a law clerk in the White House to President Ronald Reagan and Chief Justice John Roberts. He graduated from Harvard University and earned his law degree from The George Washington University.
District 4 covers the barrier island from the south part of South Palm Beach to Boca Raton and includes parts of mainland Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Boynton Beach.

“Mother Nature was saying a little storm — not even a hurricane at the time — could come through and cause so much havoc. Mother Nature will always prevail. We could learn from the ancient Indians who didn’t build their settlements right on the coast, but further inland.”

— Dave Stewart, mayor of Lantana

“We learned that what Mother Nature takes away, Mother Nature brings back. There was a lot of concern at first, but within a few months, the sand lost to the storm was back in most areas.”
— Kathleen Weiser, town manager of Highland Beach

“While we cannot change the reality that our beaches will always be vulnerable to storms and the natural movement of sand, we can control our ability to lessen the financial impacts and uncertainties through operating efficiencies and planned revenue sources that can allocate funding specifically for our beaches.”
— Carey Glickstein, mayor of Delray Beach

“Our residents felt it was their responsibility [to repair and maintain storm-damaged sea walls] and there’s nothing the town should be regulating.”
— Linda Stumpf, Manalapan town manager

“Florida is the No. 1 land mass in the world in terms of value of property exposed to hurricanes. Let’s all take this upcoming hurricane season with absolute seriousness.”
— Bill Hager, Florida representative, District 89

“Our beaches are important to both natives and tourists alike. Hurricane Sandy has shown us the urgency of the situation. Beach renourishment needs to be addressed now, so future generations can enjoy the pristine beaches South Florida is famous for.”
— Maria Sachs, Florida state senator, District 34

“I know this is a dead issue, but I think breakwaters are our best hope.”
— Donald Clayman, mayor of South Palm Beach