Beach renourishment: Renourishment is a modern term used for sand replacement on beaches that have lost sand to erosion or storms. Replacement sand comes from offshore dredging near the beaches or is trucked in from inland Florida mines.
Breakwater: A structure protecting a shore area, harbor or basin from waves. It can slow erosion rates landward, but often exacerbates erosion seaward, altering shoreline and water dynamics.
Dunes: A mound, ridge or hill of drifted sand along the coast. They are considered the best defense against beach erosion.
Groin: A shore-protection structure, usually built to trap littoral drift or retard erosion of the shore. Its length may vary from tens to hundreds of meters extending from a point landward of the shoreline out into the water. Groins may be classified as permeable (with openings through them) or impermeable. Groins, like breakwaters, are controversial.
Jetty: A structure built out into the water to restrain or direct currents, usually to protect an inlet or harbor entrance from silting and shoaling, not to protect shorelines from erosion.
Littoral drift: Shores are generally considered fluid and ever-changing because of littoral drift, the sedimentary material moving parallel to the shoreline in the nearshore zone by waves and currents. Littoral currents run parallel to the beach and are usually caused by waves striking the shore at an angle.
Revetments: Structures that cover sloping shores or river banks to absorb the energy of incoming water as a defense against erosion. They can be rocks or concrete, and even wood.
Surge: Storm surge is produced by water being pushed toward the shore by the force of the winds around a storm. The wind trajectory around Hurricane Sandy led to the development of large, long-period northeast swells — estimated to be as high as 20 feet at the Palm Beaches. This rise in water level can cause extreme flooding in coastal areas, particularly when storm surge coincides with normal high tide.

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 | Stopping sand loss is a complicated business

Who is taking action?: Local officials sign on to beach management agreement | Quotes from local officials

By Cheryl Blackerby
In the months after Hurricane Sandy, community leaders looked at severe damage to beaches and worried about how to pay for it. Then they made frantic calls to state lawmakers.
State Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, walked the beaches, listened to residents at community meetings, and fielded questions from Boca Raton City Council members about the possibilities of state and federal help.
Getting federal money can be a frustrating and often futile process, but Hager persevered.
“One area I visited in Delray Beach, for example, I saw 50 feet of dunes washed away, and the repair was to be quite costly,” he said. “Working with the city of Delray Beach, the Army Corps of Engineers and Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection, I was able to assist in the restoration project being completed in a timely and efficient manner.”
Because the federal government did not recognize the damage as being an emergency, he said, the coastal communities were not able to receive federal funding.
“But working with the Florida House and Senate last session, several of our beaches were able to receive state funding,” Hager said. “This included $1,114,000 for Ocean Ridge, $550,000 for Singer Island, and $790,000 for Boca Raton, and a commitment from the chair of the Environmental Appropriations Committee to work on more funding in the upcoming budget for Palm Beach County’s coastal communities.”
State Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, had worried about beach damage long before Sandy.
“In 2007, I convened a meeting along with then-Sen. Jeff Atwater, to discuss how the cities, counties and state could work together on shore protection issues. Unfortunately, as mayor of Lake Worth, I had very little pull and the effort failed, largely due to lack of interest from the Department of Environmental Protection,” Clemens recalled.
“Fast forward to 2011, and subsequent to my election to the Florida House, I met with the DEP to pitch the idea of treating these issues holistically, rather than one crisis at a time.”
The result was the pilot program called the Beach Management Agreement.
“When complete, the project will boast an optimum beach profile that will allow the county and municipal partners to react more quickly to storm damage, dramatically reducing the wait time on permits,” he said.
Other efforts weren’t so successful. “Also this year, the state increased the beach nourishment budget, although the House did not meet the Senate in fully funding the program,” Clemens said. “(But) I’m proud of the work we did in focusing on this issue in the Senate.”
On Jan. 3, former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel was sworn in as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The next day she helped pass bipartisan legislation that provided disaster relief to areas devastated by Hurricane Sandy.
“Passing this aid represents a big step forward because people are hurting and communities are trying to rebuild,” she said.

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 | Stopping sand loss is a complicated business

Who is taking action?: Lawmakers discuss storm recovery efforts | Quotes from local officials

By Tim O’Meilia
The mid-Atlantic coast earned all the headlines last October when Hurricane Sandy pulverized the New Jersey coastline, blacked out Manhattan momentarily and flooded New York City subway tunnels.
Nearly forgotten was the $30 million in damage to Palm Beach County public beaches and structures, plus more than $6 million to damaged and demolished private sea walls in Manalapan and thousands more to dune crossovers and condo beaches when Sandy brushed by the county.
Perhaps there’s not much coastal cities can do to defend against rare, catastrophic events like Sandy — other than cross fingers and say, as Ocean Ridge Town Manager Ken Schenck said, “We hope it doesn’t happen again” — but local, state and federal officials were already creating a long-term approach to protecting South Florida beaches.
The result is the so-called Palm Beach Island Beach Management Agreement, officially signed in late September by an array of officials. Eighteen months in the making, the BMA is a unique, first-time regional approach to beach management.
The concept is to establish an inlet-to-inlet examination of coastal needs — in this case, the 15-mile shoreline between the Lake Worth and Boynton inlets — instead of the typical project-by-project approach.
“It’s essentially a gigantic conceptual permit that covers multiple projects and multiple applicants over a regional scale,” said Danielle Irwin, a deputy director in the state Department of Environmental Protection, who spearheaded the effort.
The plan is not to start from scratch to get approval for each beach restoration or dune improvement project, but to establish a regional framework so that work can be permitted more quickly and with a broader eye toward its effect regionally. “The goal is healthier beaches and better resource management,” Irwin said in a June statement.
Irwin had hoped to get the five municipalities along the coast to sign the deal, plus Palm Beach County and various state and federal agencies.
The cities were needed because ongoing funding is necessary to pay for long-term monitoring of beach width, hardbottom and sea turtle nesting. The idea was that the state and federal marine, wildlife and other agencies could agree to use the same data in determining approval of projects.
“For the first time in history, local, state and federal agencies are working together,” said Irwin, only half-joking.
However, Manalapan, Lantana and South Palm Beach balked initially because none had a project included in the BMA. Lake Worth did not become involved in the discussions.
But when Palm Beach agreed to pay for monitoring for the four towns — about $360,000 annually — approval by the others was no longer needed. Palm Beach County is paying the remainder of the estimated annual $472,000. Palm Beach stands to gain the most from the BMA, since its four already-approved projects are included.
A $561,000 environmental study is under way for a $3 million to $5 million project that would install seven submerged groins and 75,000 cubic yards of sand between the northern boundary of South Palm Beach and the former Ritz-Carlton Resort, including the Lantana public beach.
If the project is approved, it could be included in the BMA and permits for the periodic replenishment of sand later could be approved more quickly and with less expense.
Although money from Palm Beach County and Palm Beach is committed toward the long-term monitoring and towns are committed to paying their share of any approved projects, the state and the Army Corps of Engineers are not committed to contributing.
The South Palm Beach-Lantana project would depend on a 50 percent share by the state.
“The state is a party to the BMA,” said South Palm Beach Town Manager Rex Taylor. “But they’re the only ones signing on with no financial commitment.”

FORT LAUDERDALE : Intense beach development without building up a vegetative buffer offered little resistance when Sandy overran A1A in Fort Lauderdale. 2012 photo by Susan Stocker/Sun-Sentinel

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: Stopping sand loss is a complicated business

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

By Cheryl Blackerby
“Permanent solutions” was the continuing theme at coastal community meetings, where residents faced multimillion-dollar bills for beach replacement sand after Hurricane Sandy. What, they asked, could stop the sand loss and the need for expensive and frequent beach renourishment?
But a permanent solution may be elusive, say experts, because beaches are not permanent.
Coastlines are constantly moving with the moon, the tides, the littoral drift, and the certain storms on future horizons.
“Beaches are a very dynamic habitat,” said Michael Stahl, a senior environmental analyst for the county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management. “Littoral drift, or longshore current, is the natural movement of sand along the beach, driven by wave energy.”
But in the final analysis a year after the disastrous ocean surges of Hurricane Sandy, there was indeed a surprising beach defense that stood the test of Sandy — sand dunes, nature’s own fortification of barrier islands.
In Palm Beach County, as well as New York and New Jersey, long-established sand dunes with native vegetation saved beaches and the houses behind them.
The well-developed dunes at the Municipal Beach and neighboring oceanfront houses in Delray Beach generally withstood the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 as well as Hurricane Sandy and protected houses and A1A.
Far-sighted officials started pumping sand onto the beach and building dunes in 1973 as a desperate measure after the ocean crept up to and often washed over A1A.
But the crucial second step in the dune development came in 1984 when the city called in Robert Barron, owner of Robert Barron Coastal Management and Consulting, to plant sea oats and other native beach vegetation.
“We planted a 6-foot strip of sea oats the entire length of public beach, 6,840 feet, for $22,000. Today, that strip has expanded on its own to 100 to 150 feet wide, and has captured sand and widened the beach,” Barron said.
The slender 5-foot-tall sea oat is a powerful force of nature underground. Plants form networks of interlocking roots 5 feet deep and hundreds of feet long — a sand stabilizer that would be difficult for engineers to replicate.
In addition to sea oats, Barron planted 20 species of native vegetation that has grown to over 60 native species. “It’s taken on a life of its own,” he said.
Barron is now working as a consultant in Miami Beach and planting native species on dunes on 8.6 miles of beach. He is using Delray Beach’s Municipal Beach as a model for that project.
But there are places — including beaches on Singer Island, Palm Beach and South Palm Beach — where dunes and even beach renourishment are not options because the beaches are adjacent to “hard bottom” exposed rock or coral.
Dunes do release sand, indirectly creating a secondary benefit: Dunes act as “feeders,” losing sand into the water, which often comes back on shore as beach.
“That shoreline is protected and designated as essential fish habitat,” said Stahl. “If you heap sand on the shore, it will eventually cover the hard bottom.”
But on most beaches, dunes are the preferred first line of defense, Stahl said. “Certainly any kind of soft approach like beach renourishment and dunes are much better options for shoreline stabilization simply because you’re adding material the beach is comprised of. Anywhere we can build a dune project, that’s preferable.”

DELRAY BEACH: Years of nurturing and building up the dune in Delray Beach shows how a healthy dune can absorb the shock from a storm like Sandy and protect the property built behind it. 2012 photo by Tim Stepien/ The Coastal Star

Hurricane season is not over. Even when we begin to feel a hint of autumn in the air, the tropics can still be cooking up a mess of trouble.
In late October 2012, we tracked a tropical storm that later became a hurricane — one for the record books — as it pounded the eastern shoreline on its way toward landfall in New Jersey.
As Sandy skirted our area, storm surge flooded our lawns and streets as huge waves collapsed coastal sea walls and swept away our beaches. All while the sun was shining.
One year later, most of the damage has been repaired. But “fixing” sea walls and beaches has not been cheap. And where the money and the sand and the solutions will come from when the next storm comes (and it will) has been the topic of dozens of meetings and symposiums during the past several months.
In this edition, Cheryl Blackerby shares what she has learned from these discussions and explains the concerns that will drive our emergency beach planning in the future. With tourism and real estate at the core of our local economy, we must begin exploring long-term solutions to assure continued investment (personal and economic) in our coastal communities.
And the beachfront is just part of the concern. In our November edition we will take a look at what rising sea level means for the future of the barrier island. As FEMA redraws flood maps and construction codes adapt, we will all be pondering the security of our homes and businesses — not only during the high autumnal tides that already flood parts of A1A, Briny Breezes and many Intracoastal Waterway lawns — but also the surge that accompanies a hurricane. Even one like Sandy that arrives while the sun is shining.
Mary Kate Leming
Executive Editor

William Altier (left) and Cutler Altier of Altier Jewelers in Boca Raton are part of the honorary family for the Keep Memories Alive Walk-in-the-Mall event benefiting the Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center at FAU. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Linda Haase
Cutler Altier spent most of his childhood surrounded by fine jewelry. But the glam and sparkle wasn’t what captured his attention. Not at first, anyway. It was a chance to spend time with his beloved grandfather, Joseph, who, along with his wife, Marjorie, founded Altier Jewelers in Boca Raton in 1960.
That was where Altier usually hung out after a day at Addison Mizner Elementary.
“My grandfather taught me the value of hard work, to be a man of your word and the importance of every person who steps in the door,” says Altier, who is passing down those values to his children, Jett, 3, Tristan, 11, and Lilly, 2. “He was a war hero and I looked up to him. He was my hero.”
His bond with his paternal grandparents was especially poignant since they were a link to his father, who died when Cutler Altier was only 12.
He will carry those treasured memories of his late grandfather with him as he and his wife, Carly, and other family members join the eighth annual Keep Memories Alive Walk: Exercise Your Mind, Nov. 3, to benefit Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center.
The center, on FAU’s Boca Raton campus, was a tremendous help to his grandfather before he died last year, Altier says. “When my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, we didn’t know where to turn and Anne (Green) suggested the facility. He went a couple of days a week for about four or five years and he loved it,” recalls Altier, a 31-year-old Boca Raton resident.
“They have the most incredible staff, they are very genuine and passionate about helping others. It is a fantastic place and we are grateful from the bottom of our hearts that he was able to experience it.”
The Altier family is the honorary family in this year’s walk in memory of Joseph Altier.
Altier encourages others to join the walk, which begins at 9 a.m. at Town Center.
Money raised will be used for adult day center scholarships, programs and caregiver support services; last year’s event raised more than $300,000.
The center, part of FAU’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, offers services and programs to individuals with mild to moderate memory disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
“I hope the walk will bring an awareness of the center so people learn there is a wonderful option for people struggling with this cruel disease,” says Altier.
Altier is now president/CEO of Altier Jewelers. But, he says, that position wasn’t handed to him. “My grandparents were old school. If you were working here, you started at the bottom. I started off at the entry level when I was 19 and over time worked my way into heading the business.”

Eighth annual Keep Memories Alive Walk: Exercise Your Mind
To benefit Louis and Anne Green Memory and Wellness Center, sponsored by the center’s Caring Hearts Auxiliary
When: 9 a.m., Nov. 3.
Where: Town Center at Boca Raton, 6000 Glades Road, north entrance
Tickets: Support the walk by becoming a sponsor and/or walking.
For information, call 297-4066 or visit fauf.fau.edu/memories.

By Tim O’Meilia

A divided Ocean Ridge Town Commission approved a $5.6 million town budget that will require dipping into town reserves for more than a third of a million dollars but keep the tax rate at the current level.
    Commissioners split over spending $53,000 on a 3 percent cost-of-living increase for nonunion employees and more than $238,000 for a wish list of new computers, three new vehicles, a second full-time maintenance position and salary boosts for some police employees.
    “I’m very pleased,” said Commissioner Gail Adams Aaskov. “Residents are still paying the same millage rate and I’m all for that.”
    Commissioners Zoanne Hennigan and Ed Brookes were opposed to taking $343,000 from town reserves to balance the budget.
    “I don’t think we can be happy as a group taking 10 percent of our reserves to balance the budget,” Brookes said.
    Hennigan wanted to carve $132,000 from the budget by cutting the cost-of-living increases, the maintenance position and a police car, bucket truck and beach all-terrain vehicle.
    “Their current pay is well within guidelines for towns like us,” Hennigan said of the employees’ cost-of-living boost, referring to a statewide salary survey. The town’s unionized police will get a 3 percent raise next year in the new budget.
    “I’ve been in private business for 27 years. It comes down to how much you get paid,” said Mayor Geoff Pugh. “Do we want to pay a little more for experience to retain the people we have? The raise is not outrageous.”
    The new budget, which went into effect Oct. 1, adds $238,000 from a town wish list that includes $61,000 for computer equipment, $16,000 for  a second police car, $22,000 for a maintenance position, $14,500 for an ATV and $20,000 for a used bucket truck and $36,000 for additional raises for the police chief, lieutenant and two dispatchers.
    “Are we nickeling or diming this?” said Pugh over the maintenance position. “This is not Fellsmere. This is Ocean Ridge. People have a little higher expectations.” Pugh and other commissioners agreed to cut the ATV and the bucket truck, saving $34,500, but no one else supported the cut.
    “It’s clear there’s not a will to do this,” said Brookes of his effort to eliminate dipping into reserves to balance the budget.
    Commissioners also split over the tax rate by a 3-2 vote. The $5.35 per $1,000 of taxable property value matches this year’s rate.
    “By setting the millage rate the same is really a tax increase. That’s not keeping the tax flat,” Brookes said, because town property values increased.
    The owner of a home with a taxable value of $1 million after exemptions would see a town tax increase from $5,350 to $5,570 if the property value increased by the average 3.87 percent in Ocean Ridge.

By Tim Pallesen
    
Delray Beach commissioners approved a slightly lower property tax rate for this year.
    The rate of $7.16 per $1,000 of assessed value for the city’s $98 million operating budget, is 3 cents below last year’s rate of $7.19. Another 35 cents per $1,000 is added for debt service.
    But the tax rate decrease will be offset by a 6 percent increase in property values across the city.
    Commissioners approved a budget Sept. 17 that gives a 4 percent salary increase to all city employees except police and fire employees, who are in contract negotiations.
    Police and fire costs equal 58 percent of the city’s operating budget. Money was approved for four additional police officers.
    The largest increased expense in this year’s budget is the increase from $8.1 million to $9.7 million that the city must pay to fund the police and fire pension fund.
    To cut costs, the city has only $500,000 to repair and upgrade aging city buildings. “This is really frightening,” Commissioner Angeleta Gray said before commissioners approved the budget.
    New City Manager Louie Chapman Jr. described this year’s spending plan as a “transitional” budget until he has time to evaluate the performance of city employees and departments. 

A Coastal Star Special Report:

Hurricane shows just how fragile our shores are

Sand is finite: A lexicon of sand

Dunes vs. Sea walls: Natural vegetative dunes may be best defense | Stopping sand loss is a complicated business

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

By Cheryl Blackerby

Hurricane Sandy had a diabolically ironic name. In October 2012, Sandy stole millions of tons of sand, washing it off Florida’s beaches and from underneath beachside condos, and carving five-foot cliffs where there had been gently sloping shores.
Floridians learned two hard truths about sand: It’s expensive and it’s finite.
In the year after Sandy, there has been much hand-wringing over what will happen to Palm Beach County beaches in the future, where new sand will come from and who will pay for it.
The mammoth Superstorm Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record measured by diameter with winds spanning 1,100 miles, skirted Florida as a Category 1 hurricane.
Floridians’ relief that the storm had bypassed them was short-lived. Sandy reminded them of a word that would change the way they would look at hurricanes in the future: surge.
Sandy didn’t do its damage with high winds or torrential rains, but rather with large swells and powerful ocean surges.
The wind trajectory around Sandy produced what meteorologists call an optimal fetch, a phenomenon that led to the development of large, long-lasting northeast swells that battered the South Florida coast. The storm peaked the weekend of Oct. 27.
The pounding surf led to large breaking waves, some estimated as high as 10 feet at Miami-Dade County beaches, and 20 feet or perhaps higher at the Palm Beaches.
The second-costliest hurricane in U.S. history ultimately caused $68 billion in damages on the entire Eastern Seaboard, and most of it came from surge, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In Palm Beach County, the total damage to public beaches was estimated at over $30 million. “This includes sand losses at every one of our beaches in addition to structural damages at our beach parks,” said Leanne Welch, program supervisor of Shoreline Enhancement and Restoration for the Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Resources Management.

Where’s the money?
To repair Sandy’s damages, towns and government agencies scrambled for money from a variety of sources including county reserves for emergency repairs to county parks and the South Lake Worth Inlet jetties; the “Beaches” funds (funded by tourist bed taxes), state funding and federal appropriations.
“No FEMA money was available for the Sandy impacts. The federal money came through the Flood Control and Coastal Emergency appropriation by the Army Corps of Engineers,” Welch said.
Beach preservation groups popped up and commenced meetings, including Protect Our Beaches — which signed up 24,000 members within weeks — Save Our Seacoast, and the Florida Coalition for Preservation. The Delray Beach Property Owners Association attracted record attendance with discussions about solutions for beach erosion.
And Sandy raised a two-word specter that further horrified coastal residents — sea rise.
What would happen to the beaches if sea-level rise, caused by climate change, further depleted the beaches? Suddenly, symposiums and meetings on the subject, such as the Sea Level Rise Symposium in July at Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, founded by Palm Beach billionaire Bill Koch, attracted standing-room-only crowds.
Coastal cities that had depended on federal and state money for beach replacement sand for hurricane-damaged beaches in the past found that money had dried up, particularly after the colossal damages from Sandy in New York and New Jersey. Now, small towns faced multimillion-dollar hurricane damage bills.
“There’s going be a big grab for federal money with the issues in the Northeast,” said Art Koski, the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District acting director, after Sandy. “The city is looking for FEMA money. But I don’t think we have the strength politically.”
Historically, the federal government had paid for about 70 percent of beach restoration, Koski said, which left 30 percent to be paid by state, county and local governments, but in the future the entire cost may fall on local governments.
This was particularly troubling to the district board, which reimbursed the city of Boca Raton $2 million, in addition to a partial reimbursement of $2 million already paid, for a beach restoration project that took place several years ago. The board didn’t anticipate paying for additional beach restoration projects for another five to 10 years. Yet, board members were faced with substantial costs for more beach destruction.

Sand running out
After Sandy, there was another shock besides the costs of beach restoration. Coastal residents found out their offshore sand wouldn’t last forever.
Dredging can only be done in a narrow ribbon of shallow water between shore and reefs. On the other side of the reefs, the water drops off too deeply for even the biggest dredges.
Florida municipalities were pitted against each other in what became bitter debates over sand. Miami Beach was running out of offshore sand after Sandy and Miami-Dade County officials looked longingly at the sand off the coast of Jupiter, whose residents and city officials loudly voiced their disinclination to share.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hosted public hearings in Martin and St. Lucie counties, which have a surplus of sand in federally designated waters, for a proposed renourishment project that would use Treasure Coast sand to repair Miami-Dade beaches.
“Miami has gone to great lengths to exploit its resources. Don’t solve Miami’s problems here,” said Martin County Commissioner Sarah Heard, whose irritation was echoed by legions of Martin County officials and residents.
“Miami decided over-development was good for business, and they exploited the environment, and they’ve used up all their sand,” Heard said.
Martin County on the other hand has been what Heard calls an “extraordinary steward” of its resources. “We have four-story height limits. We have setbacks that are great, and we protect our wetlands. Our resources are finite and we need to protect them for long sustainability.” She said commissioners have been told they have enough sand for about 50 years of traditional dredging.
This isn’t the first time Miami has gone after Martin County sand, Heard said. “Miami proposed this about six years ago, and Ken Pruitt (Florida state senator at the time) said ‘over my dead body’ and it went away.”
She had strong words for counties to the south: “If we allow Miami, Broward and Palm Beach County to steal our sand, we have less protection for our barrier islands.”
Farther south, cities including Delray Beach have been concerned Miami may look their way.
“We heard from the Corps that those folks to the south of us are not interested in the sand we have here,” said Paul Dorling, planning and zoning director for Delray Beach. “We don’t know why. Could be color or texture. But for whatever reason, we’re glad they’re not interested.”
“Miami doesn’t have our plentiful reserves of sand,” said Richard Spadoni, executive director of Coastal Planning and Engineering in Boca Raton, the company that administered the Delray Beach renourishment project.
“Miami may have to borrow from the Bahamas at some point. They are close to depletion.”
But Delray Beach’s sand reserves won’t last forever either, Spadoni said. “Sand does not come back into the borrow holes, and we are depleting the sand. But Delray will be OK for the next 40 or 50 years.”
That estimate relies on no more Sandys and that sand is dredged only at 10-year intervals.
At some point, experts agree, Palm Beach County’s offshore sand will run out. When that happens, officials say the available options will be to bring it in on barges from the Bahamas or truck it in from inland Florida mines, both highly expensive undertakings. And who will pay for it?

By Tim O’Meilia

    Despite their unhappiness with spending far more than other coastal cities in a two-year dispute over funding the Palm Beach County Inspector General’s Office, Ocean Ridge commissioners decided to retain their town attorney to handle the case.
    “At this point, with a couple of more months to go, it’s probably worth retaining you to go forward,” Commissioner Zoanne Hennigan told Town Attorney Ken Spillias at the Sept. 10 Town Commission meeting.
    The other commissioners agreed, although no formal vote was taken.
    In August, commissioners questioned why Ocean Ridge had paid $16,510 in legal fees through April in the legal battle with Palm Beach County, three times more than any other South County municipality in the suit.
    Fourteen county municipalities sued in 2011, claiming they are being double-taxed if the inspector general’s budget is paid by both Palm Beach County and the cities.
    The commission considered withdrawing from the suit or hiring the law firm of Corbett, White & Davis to handle the suit. Corbett, White represents five other towns in the dispute.
    “We’re not going to walk away from it at this point. We’re in it,” Commissioner Lynn Allison said of the suit. “On the other hand, we don’t want to continue spending all that money.”
    “It seems like we’re doing all the heavy lifting financially,” Commissioner Ed Brookes said. “(Trela White) did some of the work pro bono.”
    Spillias said White’s firm charges $190 per hour, compared with his $205. “In terms of raw numbers it was more,” he said. “In terms of legal services provided, I suggest you were not out of whack.”
    Most of the pretrial work in the case has been completed, Spillias said. The dispute is set to go to trial, although another request for a summary judgment may be filed first.
Spillias said his firm, Lewis, Longman & Walker, would not be part of the
trial, but would continue to review filings.
    In other business, commissioners:
    • Released a lien on the Delray Beach property of imprisoned businessman Joseph Romano so the sale of his oceanfront home at 6011 N. Ocean Blvd. in Ocean Ridge could be completed. Romano is serving 15 years in New York on a business conspiracy conviction. More than $50,000 remains in escrow for two liens for building code violations on the Ocean Boulevard property. Romano was cited in 2009 for not having a pool barrier and in 2010 for erecting columns without a permit. The new owners are expected to ask for a reduction in the liens.
    • Adopted a public participation policy to meet state law. The policy, similar to the town’s current rules and modeled after those of Manalapan, limits speakers to three minutes, forbids yelling and “boisterous” activity, forbids speaking directly to individual commissioners and requires cellphones to be silenced.
    • Tentatively agreed to give right-of-way varying from 15 to 40 feet along Old Ocean Boulevard, just south of Beachway Drive, to the four property owners along the stretch. Town officials say the town does not need the land and said it would be expensive to maintain. The owners have agreed to take the swath of land, some of it overgrown, and provide easements to the town. Town officials will research the best method of transferring the land.
    • Decided not to give retiring police Sgt. Eve Eubanks a $1,000 bonus because it violates policy approved last year that allows only 20-year employees to get the bonus. Eubanks worked 15 years. The commission approved the bonus in June, but had to reconsider it since it was not in the form of a resolution.

By Tim O’Meilia

    The long-necked, long-lived streetlights Gulf Stream had hoped to install along State Road A1A came at an equally long-lasting price — $315,000.
    The 35 cobra-headed black poles would have been fitted with energy saving LED lights. Compare that with Florida Power & Light’s gray concrete poles topped with traditional sodium vapor lights.
    Now, compare the price: $315,000 vs. $0.
    “Too much money,” Mayor Joan Orthwein said of the more elegant and more eco-friendly cobra heads.
    Instead, town commissioners unanimously decided Sept. 13 to scratch the custom-made poles and go generic. FPL will supply and install the lights at no cost.
    Commissioners had hoped to refit all 88 of the town’s street lights with six-sided lantern-shaped lights, but the taller, long-necked variety must be installed on A1A because of their required distance from the street. And the $700,000 cost was far above the $380,000 anticipated.
    The town’s interior streets will get 53 lantern tops fitted with LED lights with three brightness settings for $400,000. They’ll be installed as the town begins putting its power, telephone and cable lines underground this month.
    In other business, commissioners:
    • Approved unanimously a $3.5 million budget that boosts the tax rate by 19.4 percent, from $3.10 per $1,000 of taxable property value to $3.70. The budget includes $288,000 for the first phase of street lighting, $162,000 to repay the town’s reserve fund and a 2.5 percent pay hike for employees. The owner of $1 million in taxable property value this year would pay $600 more next year, if his property value remained the same. But values in Gulf Stream increased an average of 5.4 percent, so the added tax would be more.
    • Approved unanimously a development agreement with resident Martin O’Boyle that permits him to remodel his property on North Hidden Harbour Drive under the building code as it existed in 1981 except for dock and canal structures. The deal is part of the court settlement of 21 of O’Boyle’s 22 lawsuits against the town following the March denial of his request for a 25-foot-tall entryway and others changes. O’Boyle also received $180,000 and an apology from the town. O’Boyle removed paintings and signs from his home criticizing town officials. O’Boyle and the town are negotiating the final lawsuit over the cost of public records requests.
    • Learned that Town Manager William Thrasher had negotiated a new five-year agreement with Waste Management Inc. for residential garbage pickup for $135,000 annually. Ú

Saltwater Brewery founders Bo Eaton, Peter Agardy, brewmaster Bill Taylor, Chris Gove and Dustin Jeffers stand on the second floor of the barn-like, 1952-vintage building, formerly the site of the Rustic Rooster furniture store in Delray Beach. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jan Norris
    
From grain to antiques and back to grain. That’s the story on the old feed store west of the interstate on Atlantic Avenue.
    It’s there that five men enthusiastic about craft beer are building the Saltwater Brewery, jumping into the craft brew movement taking off in South Florida.
    “This is a great building, and has sentimental value. And, well, my dad needed a tenant in it,” says Chris Gove, whose family has invested in the brewery with time, money and the building.
    Gove is the financial planner; Bo Eaton, the marketing arm and investor; Peter Agardy, the artist behind the ocean-inspired labels; Dustin Jeffers, one of the brewers; and Bill Taylor of Montana, the brewmaster.
    “We all bring different strengths to the project,” Gove said. He, Eaton and Agardy have been friends since childhood, growing up around Gulf Stream. All are avid surfers or fishermen, and one a retired Navy diver — thus the Saltwater name and tagline: Explore the depths of beer.
    But it’s beyond a slogan. “The saltwater and ocean-based theme is really a lifestyle down here,” Eaton said. “We think it’s a perfect fit for the area.”
    The craft brew phenomenon has saturated other parts of the country, but Florida is ripe for the trend, Eaton said.
    The west coast of the U.S. in particular is heavy with the small breweries that produce unique beers, Gove said. He was working in San Diego in the financial market, and says numbers show there’s a craft brewery for every 32,000 people out there, while Florida has one brewery for every 450,000 people. “But the numbers are changing, we’re getting more here all the time. There are something like eight being built right now down here.”
South Florida has another factor in its favor: retirees. “The generation who started the craft brew movement are now ready to retire down here,” Eaton said. The appeal of the climate, beaches and saltwater lifestyle goes hand in hand with their beer.
The coast, reefs and ocean are used in the logo and marketing as well. “We’re taking a recipe, matching the beer styles with the art and incorporating all our ideas,” Agardy said.
    At the brewery his paintings on easels ringed the offices upstairs overlooking the tanks.  Ocean scenes and coastal landscapes represent the different styles, from lighter blond ales to bold Scotch ales. These will be incorporated on their labels, along with other merchandise they’ll sell at the brewery.

Exploring the depths
    Agardy designed an ocean and coastal ecosystem chart with water tints that correspond to the styles of beer they’ll be making.
    Eaton said it’s an educational tool as well as a marketing addition. “It goes along with our ‘Explore the depths of beer’ tagline. You can look at the chart, and say this end represents the coastal area, lighter water at the shallows and a little bolder as it deepens. Get into the reefs, and the water is a little darker, and deeper. In the deep ocean, you’ll see the lighter blue water as the lighter flavor but still high alcohol, and of course, in the depths, the biggest flavor and high alcohol content beers.”
    The first six they’ll brew are South End Session Ale, an extra pale ale — lighter-alcohol content with citrusy overtones; an India pale ale called Screaming Reels with big hop flavors; Stinger IPA, a double IPA that’s even hoppier than Screaming Reels; Sea Cow Milk Stout, a roasted malt brew with a creamy mouthfeel; a Belgian blond ale called Bonafide Blonde — a yeastier brew; and the Flying Scotsmen, a Scotch ale for those who like dark, high-alcohol beers.
    Jeffers said while he and Taylor are responsible for the recipes, every man had input into the final flavors. “We all have different styles we like,” Gove said.
    “But Peter is the experimenter. We call him the ‘monk.’ ”
    Jeffers is a seasoned home-brewer who wants to venture into some other flavors and styles beyond the basics — in due time. Taylor, a retired Navy diver, will guide the team in the basics, bringing his talents as a professional brewer for 17 years in Montana to Saltwater.
    “We wanted to start with beers that are popular and familiar and get these down before we get into some of the other unique beers. We plan to incorporate different local flavors then we’ll branch out into different styles,” Jeffers said.
    They’ll also brew seasonal beers in small batches, such as pumpkin ale to kick off the fall season. They plan to launch at Halloween and will begin brewing early in October, with a production of 560 kegs (known as half-kegs in the industry) every two weeks.
    The beers will sell for $5 to $7 a glass for the higher-volume beers, with a portion of sales benefiting ocean-based conservation and cleanup charities.
    Distribution to restaurants and retail will come eventually, but slowly, Eaton said. “We want to grow sales organically first here at the brewery. We want to focus on the locals and get the community behind us — we want to be Delray’s brewery.”
    Their competitors — Funky Buddha, Tequesta Brewing Co. and Due South — have welcomed them, Jeffers said. “They’ve been great — giving us tours and telling us anything we need to know. It’s a great community, really — everyone is really helpful and they share their knowledge.”

Taking a tour
    While they were still constructing the brewery, they offered a tour of the facility. The brewery is built around the giant gleaming stainless tanks. Four 40-barrel tanks soar to the top of the Dade County pine building, where a catwalk will allow brewers access. Four smaller steam-powered tanks are for fermentation and propagating their own yeast.
    A grain room is in the back — 1,200 pounds of grain is used per batch of beer, so it will see action as it did in its days as a feed store, Gove said. No roasting will be done on site; grain and malt suppliers are lined up. The lab/offices for the brewers are off to one side. Other offices are upstairs.
    The tanks are not the typical conical ones seen in most breweries. “The cones are inside,” Gove says. “These are dual-jacketed and internally cooled because of the South Florida heat,” he said. “We’re the only ones around that we know of with this type of tank.”
    A special carbon filtration system for the water is being added, he said.
    They expect the brewery to become a hangout, and have designed the space not taken up by production for mingling and relaxing. Up front will be the lounge with televisions and a jukebox. The long main bar faces the floor-to-ceiling window separating the brewing room from the public. Tours and brew classes will be offered, and pairings held in the lounge.
    At one end of the bar is a growler filler — a special tap that bottles and seals beer in a 750 ml. bottle for take-home drinking.
    “We’ll have dedicated parking spaces out front just for those who have growlers, so they can get in and out quickly on their way home from work,” Eaton said.
    Also out front, along Atlantic Avenue, will be their version of a beer garden — one with a tropical theme. “We’re in South Florida, and it just makes sense to do a tropical beer garden,” Eaton said. A Brazilian mahogany fence will separate the traffic from the brewery, with coconut trees and tropical plants to help buffer the sound. Picnic tables, a shuffleboard court, and areas for bocce and cornhole games are part of the outdoor space.
    While no hot foods can be sold per law, popcorn and special pretzels and other snack-type foods will be available. For special pairing events, foods will be catered, Gove said, “And food truck events are on the list.”
    Saltwater Brewery is scheduled to open around Halloween, though “anything can happen,” Gove said.
For now, they point visitors to their website, Saltwaterbrewery.com.

By Betty Wells
    
A state senator says he will find a way to get a second, clearer, attorney general’s opinion about whether it’s legal for community redevelopment agencies to fund projects for nonprofit organizations.
    Sen. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Wellington, who chairs the joint legislative audit committee, made the statement in the wake of the findings of an audit of the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency. Audit results were released Sept. 12.
    Of 19 citations, the primary one questioned the authority of the agency to fund nonprofits.
    When Abruzzo ordered the audit last spring, it was to review how the CRA is spending its funds — specifically, whether it’s legal for the agency to give money to the Arts Garage, a nonprofit music and theater venue. The request came in a letter from Delray resident Gerry Franciosa.
    An opinion issued in 2010 by former Attorney General Bill McCollum said CRA grants to “promote tourism and economic development, as well as to nonprofits providing socially beneficial programs, would appear outside the scope of the community redevelopment act.”
    Abruzzo said on Sept. 27 that he’s going to seek a clearer ruling. The Delray Beach CRA and other CRAs have continued to fund nonprofits since the 2010 opinion.
    “I believe for the good of all CRAs across the state, I need to get a very clear opinion,” Abruzzo said. He said he would discuss it with the state auditor, and use the proper channels for seeking clarification.
    The joint audit committee hearing on the Delray Beach CRA audit is scheduled for Oct. 7 in Tallahassee.
    Abruzzo said that he was “very concerned and alarmed about the audit. Nineteen findings is an unusually high number of findings.”
    But, he said, “Most likely, the CRA will have adequate time to fix them. The procedure is we give them 18 months and then check back.”
    Of the citations, the primary issue was the CRA’s giving of funds to nonprofits. The other findings included how the agency leases space from the city, purchases property and administers grants.
    The CRA answered each one of the findings, noting for the majority that the issue was already addressed, or would be.
Abruzzo said that the findings support his request for the audit in the beginning — and that Mayor Cary Glickstein’s criticism of the review at the time was unwarranted.
“The mayor acted extremely negative about this,” Abruzzo said. “I feel that the mayor, by facts now, was very much off base.”
Glickstein in response said that Abruzzo would laud “nineteen findings of improper use of paperclips,” that the audit was politically motivated and that the state should review why an audit that found nothing substantailly wrong was performed in the first place. The CRA uses funds for nonprofits based on the advice of its own lawyer, Glickstein said. “Whether we need another opinion to clarify that, I don’t know.”
Glickstein said Abruzzo has not been honest about the origin of the audit, but “it doesn’t benefit our CRA to get into a dog fight.”
    CRA Executive Director Diane Colonna and CRA Commissioner Bill Branning bristled at the notion that the agency has committed any major errors.
    “(Abruzzo) is continually bringing up that ‘19 is so many, 19 is so many.’ Well, Riviera Beach had 25, and Daytona Beach had 22,” she said of audits of other CRAs.
    “After three auditors examine every piece of paper and spent four months doing it, finding 19 things is probably to be expected.”
    Branning said, “If this was a test, where we could score 1 to 100, I would say our staff scored 93.”
    Branning said the auditors found “no misconduct, no mismanagement, no fraud, no misuse of money. Our staff is professional and the one goal is to make Delray Beach a better place.”
    Colonna also said that the procedure following the hearing would be that the CRA would have 18 months to correct the findings.
    She declined to comment on Abruzzo’s statements about seeking a new attorney general’s opinion on CRA funding of nonprofits.

By Tim O’Meilia
    
South Palm Beach Town Clerk Janet Whipple didn’t want the blubbering or the farewell hugging.
   She didn’t want her resignation letter distributed before the Sept. 24 Town Council meeting. But Town Manager Rex Taylor insisted the council be informed.
Whipple, who planned to retire in 2014 anyway, resigned effective Nov. 8 to take a part-time position as town clerk of Loxahatchee Groves — “an opportunity for part time employment has come my way that I would be foolish to turn down,” she wrote in her resignation letter.
    Since she was hired in January 2008, Whipple has helped guide the seaside community through the turmoil over the Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn and the resulting tumultuous town elections.
    For nearly six years, she has made the two-hour round-trip drive from her Pahokee home to South Palm Beach. In her clerking career, she has worked in Ocala, Jupiter, Pahokee and Delray Beach. She was head of the county’s town clerk association and earned her master municipal clerk certification.
    And she was right about the blubbering:
    “I am happy for you but you will be missed,” said Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello.
    “It is with great trepidation that we accept this resignation,” said Councilwoman Stella Jordan.
    “Loxahatchee Groves has made a very wise choice,” said Mayor Donald Clayman.
    “Janet will bring a great deal of background to them,” said Councilman Robert Gottlieb.
    “It will no longer be the Brad and Janet show,” Town Attorney Brad Biggs said in reference toward two main characters in the Rocky Horror Picture Show film.
    And finally: “Janet has gone out of her way to be helpful to me. It’s a big loss for the town,” said Councilwoman Bonnie Fischer.
    In other business, the council:
    • Supported signing an inlet-to-inlet beach management agreement with the state, Palm Beach County and other coastal towns if the town of Palm Beach signs the agreement absorbing the costs of the annual monitoring of beach width, hardbottom and sea turtle nesting.
    • Approved unanimously a “public participation” policy for town meetings that limits speakers to three minutes, forbids boisterous comments and addressing individual council members and bans cellphone interruptions. The policy is required by state law.
    • Approved unanimously a $2.1 million budget beginning Oct. 1 that holds the tax rate at the current level of $4.32 per $1,000 of taxable property value. The town will dip $27,000 from reserves to balance the budget. At the Sept. 17 public hearing, Jordan proposed reducing the tax rate to $4.29, but got no support from other council members. 

By Mary Thurwachter

    There’s a Lantana bridge opening party on the horizon, but you can’t circle the date on your calendar just yet. The reason? No one knows exactly when the new Ocean Avenue Bridge will open.
    Lantana officials would like to set a date, but the bridge is county-owned, so Palm Beach County officials will determine when the $32 million span opens. That will depend on when construction wraps up, expected to be sometime between Nov. 15 and Dec. 1.
    Crews are working nights and weekends to assure work is finished before the Dec. 6 target date.
    At its Sept. 23 meeting, the Lantana Town Council learned it might have as little as a week’s notice of the bridge opening date.
Nevertheless, party plans are proceeding. Town staff said they had been in touch with Zambelli about fireworks to be launched from a barge in the Intracoastal Waterway. Also in the works are live bands, food, a ribbon cutting ceremony and a “First ___ Over the Bridge” parade.
    So, for now, stay tuned.
    The old bridge, open for 62 years, closed in March 2012. Construction on the new span, 11 feet higher than its predecessor, is expected to reduce by about 40 percent the number of times the drawbridge opens for boats.
    Council members considered a request from the Lantana Chamber of Commerce to combine the bridge party with its annual Winterfest celebration at the town recreation center on Dec. 6. But the notion was nixed because of the opening date uncertainty.
    “I can’t see how we can combine them,” Mayor Dave Stewart said. “Once the county opens the bridge, they’re not going to close it again for a party later. When the bridge is open, it’s open.”
    In other action, the town agreed to sell a triplex at 111 Prospect Road. The property, given to the town from Palm Beach County, has an appraised value of $30,000, although town officials expect the land alone is worth more.
    Earlier this year, the councilmembers talked about providing the building to the Lantana Historical Society if the organization came up with a business plan and money to do some of the many needed repairs to the house. But in a Sept. 3 letter to the council from the Historical Society, President Rosemary Mouring said the organization was no longer interested in the building.
    “We feel that it is not beneficial for the Society to take on the project and do all the work that this property needs, especially in light of the restrictions placed upon it by the town,” Mouring wrote.
    Town Attorney R. Max Lohman said the town did not need to put the proposal to sell the house on the ballot, since it was a gift from the county.
    The property will be sold
“as is.”

By Tim O’Meilia
    
Boynton Beach may be interested in buying Manalapan’s water system even as the town prepares to replace more than three miles of aging distribution lines that will cost more than $3 million.
    Town commissioners unanimously approved a request by Boynton Beach at the Sept. 24 meeting to evaluate the town’s system, which includes well fields and a reverse osmosis treatment plant on U.S. Highway 1 in Hypoluxo.
    The commission appointed a water task force in the spring to examine how to deal with the small system that serves 880 customers in Manalapan and in the Town of Hypoluxo.
    “It’s very expensive to run for such a small customer base,” said Town Manager Linda Stumpf.
    The utilities budget is $2.5 million annually, but the town will have to sell bonds or borrow $3 million to $4 million to replace old cast-iron and concrete asbestos lines along State Road A1A, on Point Manalapan and across the Intracoastal Waterway connecting the two. A $210,000 design has already been approved.
    Manalapan water customers pay some of the highest rates in the area. The monthly base rate begins at more than $33 and the cost per 1,000 gallons of water will rise to $2.34 in 2014. Boynton customers have a base rate of about $11 and pay about $1.55 per 1,000 gallons.
    “We’ve done all we can do to streamline operations,” Stumpf said.
    The task force investigated whether to sell the system to a private investor, to another public entity or recommend the town continue operating the system itself. State law discourages private ownership.
    Although town officials approached several other public agencies, only Boynton Beach, which already has an emergency interconnection with the Manalapan system, showed any interest.
    Stumpf told commissioners Boynton Beach is concerned about salt water intrusion in its own well system. Manalapan drilled two new wells two years ago and its reverse osmosis system is designed to treat brackish water.
    Manalapan may still have to pay for the rebuilt distribution system even if Boynton Beach makes an offer, but spreading the cost over a much larger customer base would still save Manalapan residents money.
    In other business, commissioners:
    • Again bickered over an individual commissioner’s right to contact outside parties on the town’s behalf. Mayor David Cheifetz told Commissioner Howard Roder that he improperly talked with Plaza del Mar management over disabled access and with the town’s insurance firm over claims. “You contacted outside parties without the permission of the board,” Cheifetz said. Roder replied that he did not need permission to ask questions. He denied speaking to the insurance representative, although both Stumpf and Town Attorney Trela White said that insurance claims specialist Bill Ritzmann told them Roder had called and left a voice mail. Roder insisted he had not tried to contact Ritzmann. “He’s a liar,” Roder repeated numerous times, often in a loud voice. “I’m tired of being called out for every goddamn thing that I bring up,” he said.
Former Commissioner Bill Quigley said the commission antics have made the town the laughingstock of the area. “There’s a better way to solve this without having every meeting be confrontational,” he said.
    • Approved a $3.6 million budget that will hold the tax rate at the current $2.90 per $1,000 of taxable property value without having to dip into reserves. Roder dissented. 

In a rendering of the west side of A1A, a combination of building heights and uses could provide a unifying effect to the community. Drawing by Digby Bridges

By Tim O’Meilia
    
Someday, the main street of Briny Breezes could be dotted with winding vias leading to a small grocery, a bakery, a coffee bar, a hairdresser and other small shops.
    On a second level may be administrative offices, a small theater and perhaps a library with courtyards between.
    On the third, perhaps small offices and on the north end, a 20-room inn or some apartments. And more courtyards.
    Beneath it all, 158 underground parking spaces and 34 street level spaces on the south end. In all, buildings of varying heights but none taller than 43 feet. Move the gas station a block north.
    It’s all just one man’s vision, a seed of what the State Road A1A corridor through Briny Breezes could look like.
But that man is well-known architect Digby Bridges, whose firm had a strong hand in remodeling Worth Avenue and Royal Poinciana Way in Palm Beach.
    “This is an absolute gem of a property,” Bridges said of the 3.8 acres of land on the west side of A1A. He’s well familiar with it. He lives nearby in Ocean Ridge. “I’m surprised a lot more developers haven’t been begging for this.”
    Bridges doodled his ideas in his spare time, he said, and brought them to the September meeting of the Briny Breezes Planning Board to give them an idea of what could be done under the town’s new comprehensive plan.
    Board members were careful to say Bridges’ ideas were only that — ideas. Even when the final version of the comprehensive plan is completed and approved, probably early next year, any move to change Briny would have to come from the corporation of homeowners who own the 43-acre town and mobile home park.
    State and regional planning agencies have asked the town to be more precise in its density and height dimensions for the town.
    The new plan would allow traditional one- and two-story single family homes, a commercial corridor of small businesses and low-rise multistory condos and rental units on the west side of State Road A1A.
    Bridges’ vision focused on that westside corridor.
    The planning board decided to ask the corporation if it would like to hear Bridges’ presentation of what Via Briny could look like.
    “You’ve planted a seed with us,” Planning and Zoning Board Chairman Jerry Lower told Bridges. 


    (Editor’s Note: Lower is publisher of The Coastal Star.)

By Mary Thurwachter

    In its 16 years on Lantana’s beach, the Dune Deck Café has earned a reputation as a breakfast, lunch and brunch spot with good food and marketable ocean views. If owner John Caruso has his druthers, the swimsuit-friendly restaurant and tiki bar will remain for many years.
    But the Dune Deck’s future at the beach is not a done deal. The town is considering issuing formal requests for proposals for the beach concession lease in the next two years.
    Caruso’s lease is good through December 2017, and he has asked the Town Council to extend it for five more years with the continuation of the yearly payment schedule negotiated with a previous Town Council.
    Mayor Dave Stewart, at the council’s Sept. 9 meeting, said putting the beach concession out for bids was the right thing to do. The current lease, Stewart said, gives the Dune Deck space for about $6 a square foot, far less than the going price of about $30. The town provides the café with insurance, 30 parking decals and pays for trash collection, water and wastewater. The café is responsible for janitorial services for the beach restrooms.
    “You can’t even lease a warehouse for $20 a square foot,” Stewart said.
    Caruso said comparisons to other beachfront eateries aren’t fair.  “Everything isn’t black and white in numbers,” he said. Thousands more people go to Lake Worth Beach, he said, and the Dune Deck is not under air.
    “I have to pay a lot in advertising to bring people in,” Caruso said. ”Lantana doesn’t even have a beach half the time and I’ve got a flooded parking lot.”
    He also has to deal with the bridge being closed (until the end of this year) and parking meters that often don’t work.
    But all of those issues will be taken care of before his lease expires. The town is putting in new parking kiosks and working on the parking lot flooding problem.
    The current lease, negotiated with a previous Town Council, has Caruso paying $2,229 monthly (plus sales tax) this year and a little more each year until 2017, when he would pay $2,509  monthly (plus sales tax) for his 12-month lease.
    “We took a rat-infested building that was an embarrassment and created something to be proud of,” Caruso said. “I invested $80,000 of my own money (to get started),” he said.  “All those improvements over the years, I paid for. I always put back into the restaurant. Are we successful? Yes. Is it a gold mine? No. We are subject to the weather. We are very familiar with adversity.”
    In a letter to Town Manager Deborah Manzo, Caruso said he plans to add restrooms (currently customers only have access to town restrooms) and has purchased new chairs and tables to give the café a facelift.
    “If you want to increase certain things, absolutely,” Caruso said. “As long as we work together.”
    Stewart said he had to look out for all 12,000 residents of the town. “It is time for us to put this out for proposals,” Stewart said. “That takes the emotion out of it.”
    Caruso and Manzo plan to meet to discuss possible price adjustments. 

     Linda Gunn Paton takes a break from helping stuff envelopes at the Junior League of Boca Raton’s offices. Volunteering, she says, makes her feel closer to her community. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Linda Gunn Paton had just gotten married to a man she had met through her community volunteer work, but the honeymoon, well, it would have to wait.
    There were board meetings to attend, committees to chair and events to plan — especially the Junior League of Boca Raton’s Woman Volunteer of the Year luncheon, which she is chairing along with her good friend Jan Kucera.
    Two days after the wedding, Gunn Paton was at a meeting of the Spirit of Giving Network’s board of directors, serving as secretary and taking notes. In fairness, her new husband, Doug, was also there since he’s now board president.
    “Within a week of the wedding, I was definitely back in the thick of things,” she says.
    For Linda Gunn Paton, being in the thick of things — especially if it involves serving the community — is one of her favorite places to be.
    A former president of the Junior League of Boca Raton, Gunn Paton is a longtime Delray Beach resident who earlier this year served as co-chair of the Delray Beach Public Library’s Centennial Celebration Committee. She has been president of the Spirit of Giving Network and serves on the board of the Florida Chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters.
    She also holds down a full-time job, as a senior district sales manager for a large international company that produces and sells eyeglasses, sunglasses and a variety of other products.
    “I really enjoy volunteering,” she said. “It makes me feel close to my community when I give back. I feel like I know it better. I know the small and the big and it warms my heart to know a community inside and out.”
    A Michigan native, Gunn Paton, 46, lives just a stone’s throw from the beach — an area she’s known for quite some time.
    “I’ve been coming to Delray since I was 4,” she said. “My grandmother lived here.”
    After graduating college with a degree in family services and an emphasis on child development, Gunn Paton wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do, so she took a job as a nanny. When the family she worked for moved to Boca Raton, she came with them.
    “Four years later, my friends did a nanny intervention,” she said. “They told me ‘You can’t be a nanny anymore.’ ”
    During her early years here, Gunn Paton decided to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps and the Junior League.
    “I love, love, love what the Junior League does for this community,” she said.
    The feeling, is, of course, reciprocal. The Junior League loves what Gunn Paton does for the community, too.
    “Our mission is promoting volunteerism, developing the potential of women and improving the community,” said Crystal McMillin, current Junior League president. “Linda’s personality draws our volunteers to want to work with her, which advances our mission.  She has always had a passion for our community work and has given countless hours to improve it through her work with the Junior League.”
    Along with Kucera — the co-chair — Gunn Paton is bringing a fresh approach to the Woman Volunteer of the Year luncheon, now entering its 26th year.
    The Junior League of Boca Raton’s largest fundraiser, expected to attract more than 700 guests, the luncheon will be held at Boca West Country Club on Nov. 8. It will feature a punk rock-inspired fashion show and of course the presentation to the Woman Volunteer of Year, selected from 28 nominees.
    “This is such a big event, it would be too much for one person as chair,” Gunn Paton said. “Jan and I have different strengths and together we make the perfect team.”
— Rich Pollack

    Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
    A. I grew up in Ann Arbor, Mich. I was lucky to grow up where people worked together with the university to give back.  My parents were always doing something with our community and still do!
    
Q. What professions have you worked in? What life accomplishments are you most proud of?
    A. I have been in the fashion and luxury industry throughout my career. I am most proud of the current team I have built here in South Florida. Each person I work with has grown and developed and we now have a well-oiled machine in this area.
    
Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?  
    A. Make sure you get a college degree — it is so important today. Then choose a job that makes you happy and one you can grow in. It is so important to love what you do because we spend so much time doing our jobs.
    
Q. What is your favorite part about living in Delray Beach?  
    A. The people — we have such a great melting pot here in Delray Beach, and I love that everyone is friendly and nice.

    Q. What book are you reading now?
    A. The Clifton Chronicles, by Jeffrey Archer. I love the way he writes. I read a lot of fiction!
    
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?  
    A. For inspiration. I am a huge ’80s music fan so anything from that era.  To relax I like ’80s as well …  LOL.
    
Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?  
    A. “In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.” —  Coco Chanel
    
Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
    A. Yes.  Cathy Grazadei, who was my general manager when I worked at Bloomingdales in the Town Center mall. She took me under her wing and helped me develop my management skills.
    Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
    A. My life feels like a movie each and every day so I guess I would want to play myself.

Q. Who/what makes you laugh?
    A. My husband. He cracks me up.

If You Go
What: 26th annual Woman Volunteer of the Year luncheon
Where: Boca West Country Club, 20583 Boca West Drive, Boca Raton
When: Nov. 8
Time: Luncheon at noon, silent auction opens at 10:30 a.m.
Tickets: $95, $125 and $200
Highlights: Selection of Woman Volunteer of the Year from 28 nominees, punk rock-inspired fashion show
Presented by: Junior League of Boca Raton
Committee co-chairs: Linda Gunn Paton and Jan Kucera
Award Sponsor: Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation
More information: www.jlbr.org/wvoy

GULF STREAM — Carl E. Touhey, a lifelong Albany, N.Y., businessman and a winter resident of Gulf Stream, passed away Aug. 25 at the remarkable age of 95.  
    He was a graduate of the Albany Academy and Princeton University (class of ’39).
He ran a stunning race for mayor of Albany in 1973, almost defeating the notorious Albany Democratic machine.
    He was president of Orange Motor Company, which was founded in 1916 by his father, Charles, on a Friday the 13th. Carl always chuckled at that date, quickly adding, “And we’re still standing, still strong.” For over 75 years his various businesses provided employment for hundreds of Albany area families.
    A passionate philanthropist, he felt the responsibility to give back to his community. When asking others to do the same, he had an interesting strategy.  He would say, “How can I get big bucks from this guy? First I need to set the tone by stepping up myself.”  And he did. Some of his favorite organizations were more traditional ones, such as Albany Medical Center, the College of Saint Rose and Saratoga Performing Arts Center. But he also cared about smaller organizations like Capital Region Sponsor a Scholar and the 15 Love Youth Program, and the Achievement Centers for Children and Families of Delray Beach, all of which directly serve families in the community.
    He was also a respected member of several clubs in both the Albany and Delray Beach areas: The Fort Orange Club, Schuyler Meadows CC, Manalapan Yacht Club, The Little Club, and Gulf Stream Bath & Tennis Club.
    Finally, he would always say, “It all comes down to family.”  
    Carl was the son of Charles and Winifred, brother to Frank (Carlo) and sister Alice (Dick Walsh.)  
    He and his wife, Nancy (Downing), shared a great mutual love and devotion. Carl was previously married to the former Lila Latham, the mother of Charles, John, Lila Marie and Virginia. He is grandfather to Evan, Colin, Charlie, John and Brenda and great-grandfather to Kaiya, Olivia and Ava.  
    Carl was an active and surrogate father to his brother Frank’s children: Terez, Frank (West Palm Beach), Eileen, CoCo, Tony (Coral Gables), Patrick, Carl, Justine and Carlo, and his sister Alice’s children: Larry, Natalie, Nick, Carl and Eleanor. Carl was also generously involved in the lives of Nancy’s children: Kathy, George, Peter, Amy, Carrie, Michael, and Mary Katharine (Gulf Stream), and their many children and grandchildren.
    In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Capital Region Sponsor a Scholar, 3 Pine West Plaza, Washington Avenue Extension, Albany, NY 12205 and/or The Achievement Centers for Children and Families, 555 NW Fourth St., Delray Beach, FL 33444.
— Obituary submitted by the family