Ralph Papa gives painting tips to Boca Raton resident Trish Kahn outside his studio in Delray Beach. Photos by Tim Stepien/
The Coastal Star

By Lucy Lazarony

    They meet. They paint. They chat and exchange ideas.  
    They capture the diverse beauty of Palm Beach County’s natural and historical settings amid the ever-changing light.
    And three hours later, they leave with works of art.
    They are the Palm Beach Plein Air Artists, and all levels of painters are welcome to join them on their next meet-up.
    “There’s a magic to it,” says artist Ralph Papa of painting outdoors with fellow artists. “It’s a great joy and a great feeling when you come back with a work. And even if you’re not happy with the work, you still have the memory of the day.”
    Plein air is French for “open air,” and the term is used to describe the act of painting outdoors.
    Papa, who teaches at the Delray Beach Center for the Arts, organized a plein air meet-up group centered in Delray Beach in 2010.  

Boynton Beach resident Diane Hagg paints a street scene during a plein air painting session at PapaGallery Studio in Delray Beach.

    Artist Donna Walsh established a plein air group for watercolor artists called the Palm Beach Plein Air Artists around the same time. Walsh was gathering painters on Tuesday and Papa’s group was meeting up later in the week and on weekends.
    They decided to merge the two groups under the name Palm Beach Plein Air Artists back in May.
    “I really like just being outside and painting,” Walsh says. “It’s always more fun with more people. It’s a pretty active artist community in Florida. It’s a good way to meet people and talk to people.”  
    And plenty of people who happen to be passing by stop and say “hello” to the artists.
    “People enjoy seeing artists out painting. They always come over to talk to you,” Walsh says.
    And the Palm Beach Plein Air Artists, whose premier sponsor is the Palm Beach Watercolor Society, really get around.
    They meet every couple of weeks to paint locations all over Palm Beach County, from sculpture gardens and historical homes to busy downtown settings, from nature preserves and parks to the west to beaches and inlets along the coast.
    Locations captured by Palm Beach Plein Air Artists’ brushstrokes include the gardens of the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, the historical Dubois House at the Jupiter Inlet and the Delray Beach Center for the Arts during the Delray Affair.
    Painting outdoors in South Florida can mean dealing with ants and mosquitos, heat and humidity and, come summer, booming afternoon storms.
    “It’s part of the challenge,” Papa says. “Sometimes the most difficult circumstances that you’re involved with create the greatest paintings. And you’ll remember the obstacles you overcome.”
    As for the rain showers of summer, Papa says he enjoys painting when a storm is on its way.
    “I actually love the summer,” Papa says. “You get the afternoon storms, the excitement of a storm brewing off the ocean.”
    And when a storm arrives, you dash for shelter and keep painting, Walsh says.
    “Even if I can’t complete a painting outside, just the experience of being there. There’s a challenge with the light, ever changing,” Walsh says. Visitors to the area are welcome to join the Palm Beach Plein Air Artists for meet-ups during their stays in South Florida. Their next meet-up is Aug. 19 at the Boynton Beach Mangrove Park. To join, visit their website at www.meetup.com/palmbeachartists/.
    And Papa checks out other plein air meet up groups whenever he travels.
“If I go to a new area, I Google plein air and some of the locations,” Papa says.
 “It’s a great way to meet people with similar interests and exchange ideas, and you can do it all over the world.”

Artist Melanie Wadman paints during the Delray Affair in April. She had only recently started plein air painting.

Palm Beach Plein Air Artists
 
Where: Boynton Beach Mangrove Park, 700 NE Fourth Ave., Boynton Beach
When: 9 a.m. Aug. 19

For more information and to RSVP, visit the website www.meetup.com/palmbeachartists/.

Norah Long as Judy Garland in Beyond the Rainbow, at Arts Garage in Delray Beach. Photo by Amy Pasquantonio

By Greg Stepanich

   Something there is in the American character that loves its tragic heroes and heroines, and show business provides several examples of entertainers whose awful life stories have almost obliterated their achievements.
    Judy Garland, who died in 1969 at the age of 47, the victim of an accidental drug overdose, has become in the years since her death a touchstone of a classic film (The Wizard of Oz) and a patron saint of the LGBT community, among other things.
    Finding the story of this singular American performer beneath those other hypes is part of the task William Randall Beard set himself when he wrote Beyond the Rainbow: Garland at Carnegie Hall, for the History Theatre of St. Paul, Minn., in 2005. The play came the following year to Manalapan, where it was presented by Lou Tyrrell’s Florida Stage.
    Tyrrell has brought the piece back this year to his new endeavor, the Theatre at Arts Garage in Delray Beach, where it opened July 19 and is running through Aug. 11.
     “We’re trying to present the human being beneath the icon. The piece is so beautifully written by Randy Beard to clearly illuminate Judy’s life, and her struggles with an industry that celebrated her to be sure, but exploited her just as much. And I think that’s well-conveyed in the play,” said Tyrrell, artistic director of the Theatre at Arts Garage. “And it shows how an enormous talent shone through all of the challenges of her life, and how unfortunate it was that she wasn’t able to have the support without all of the damage that came along with that exploitation.”
    The play is built around Garland’s Carnegie Hall comeback concert in 1961, which spawned a hugely successful recording that won her a Grammy Award. Beard also takes a look at Garland’s early life, from her days as vaudevillian Frances Gumm to her teenage years in Hollywood. The central role of Garland in the Carnegie Hall performance is acted and sung by Jody Briskey, who created the role. Norah Long plays the younger Judy, including the blue gingham-dressed Garland of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz.
    Two actors play some of the important men in Garland’s often chaotic life — Clark Cruikshank is studio head Louis B. Mayer, second husband Sid Luft and other characters, and Peter Moore’s characters include Garland’s father, Frank Gumm, and third husband ,Vincente Minnelli. Peggy O’Connell takes the roles of crucial women in the Garland universe, including Garland’s mother, Ethel Gumm, and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.
    Director Ron Peluso has staged the play for the unique confines of the Arts Garage, setting it up cabaret-style with characters in the play occupying tables next to patrons.
    “We’ve been able to reconceive it as an Arts Garage experience … The play takes place within the audience structure,” Tyrrell said. “We use the stage for most of her Carnegie Hall songs, but most of the play is played out in and amongst the audience. It’s really exciting.”
    Beyond the Rainbow features 25 songs, most of them classics of the Great American Songbook: Stormy Weather, The Man That Got Away, The Trolley Song, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, That’s Entertainment. It closes with her signature song, Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg’s indelible Over the Rainbow.  A four-piece band led by pianist Jimmy Martin provides the music.
    The show is a “celebration of Judy Garland,” Tyrrell said, a look at an artistic life whose joys and pains were shared with her audiences as much as her performances.
    “Much like our best blues singers, she left it all on the stage,” he said, referencing Bessie Smith in particular. “She didn’t know how to sing otherwise, and when you hear the songs in this play through the lens of her personal struggle, you realize how and why she sang as emotionally as she did, and why we responded so viscerally to her talent because of that.”
    Beyond the Rainbow runs at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $30-$40. Call 450-6357 or visit www.artsgarage.org.

Also this month: Clive Cholerton continues his concert presentations of musicals at Palm Beach Dramaworks, which last month featured Mitch Leigh’s Man of La Mancha. From Aug. 7-18, Dramaworks will present a concert version of Company, the 1970 Stephen Sondheim musical that helped cement the composer’s reputation as a wry observer of the social scene who could write equally compelling lyrics and music.
    The score is one of Sondheim’s most admired, winning six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, for songs such as Being Alive, Side by Side by Side, You Could Drive a Person Crazy and The Ladies Who Lunch. It’s the story of a bachelor named Bobby (“Bobby is my hobby and I’m giving it up,” as one of the lines goes), a commitment-phobe who observes his married friends as he tries to come to a decision about his way forward.
    Shows in the Musical Theatre Masters series are presented at full length, with reduced staging and instrumental accompaniment. Tickets are $35. Call 514-4042, ext. 2, or visit palmbeachdramaworks.org.

    Music: Fort Lauderdale’s Symphony of the Americas presents a Summerfest series of concerts each year, mostly with performances in Broward County. But one of the last programs of the festival takes place Aug. 3 at the Crest Theatre at the Delray Beach Center for the Arts.
    Joined this year by I Musici Estensi, a Milanese chamber ensemble, the orchestra is presenting a wide variety of short works, including the prelude to Verdi’s opera La Traviata, Purcell’s Fairy Queen suite, a fugata by Astor Piazzolla, Arensky’s Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky, a concerto by the Baroque Italian composer Evaristo Felice dall’Abaco and the finale of the Dvořák Violin Concerto.
    Also on the program, set for 7 p.m. at the Crest, are two premieres by contemporary Italian composers: Lorenzo Turchi-Floris’ Suite for String Orchestra, and Guido Galterio’s Remembering Naples. Tickets are $25 and $40 for VIP tickets, which includes a reception with the musicians after the concert. For more information, call the Crest at 243-7922, ext. 1.

Meanwhile, the Boca Raton Symphonia, which has changed its name to The Symphonia, wraps up the city of Boca Raton’s free summer concert series at Mizner Park on Aug. 11 with a concert called From Bach to Bernstein. Led by Florida Atlantic University director of bands Kyle Prescott, the concert will include the Italian Symphony (No. 4 in A, Op. 90) of Felix Mendelssohn, the overture to Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro, some of the Brahms Hungarian Dances, and lighter pops selections, Prescott said. The concert begins at 6 p.m. at the Mizner Park Amphitheatre. For more information, call 544-8600.

Later in the month, also in Delray but a couple blocks south on Swinton Avenue, the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church’s own Baroque ensemble, Camerata del Re, presents a program called The Old and New, in which Baroque instruments will be heard in music of that period and contemporary works. The concert is at 3 p.m. Aug. 25, and tickets are $15-$20. Call 278-6003 for more information.

    Art: The summer months, for many businesses, are the months in which budgets are stretched by employing intern labor. It’s a mutually beneficial process, and at the Norton Museum of Art, the interns are permitted to curate an exhibition while working there.  
    The intern exhibition, which opens this month and runs through Oct. 17, is called Little Boxes: Vernacular Architecture from the Collection, and features artists’ looks at the kinds of dwellings people have created. Artists such as Ansel Adams and Yinka Shonibare are seen in the exhibit, which includes mixed-media installations, paintings and photographs.
    The four interns this summer are Karly Etz, a Denison University graduate who is pursuing a master’s in art history at Penn State; Luna Goldberg, a rising junior studying visual art at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass.; Eli Heller, a rising senior at the University of California, Irvine, studying art history and literary journalism; and Laura Hildenbrandt, a University of Florida graduate who will be working on a master’s in art history and museum studies at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
    For information, call 832-5196 or visit www.norton.org.

AJ  Brockman with his service dog, Dre, a Labrador retriever that has been nominated for top honors at the American Hero Dog Awards. Photo provided

By Arden Moore

    Last year, I celebrated my Oct. 6 birthday in style — by getting a birthday hug from ageless animal advocate and actress Betty White on the red carpet at the annual American Hero Dog Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
    I was there covering the event as host of the Oh Behave! show on PetLifeRadio.com and could not think of a better memory maker for my birthday than to be among people and dogs that every day make a difference in the lives of so many.
Getting a hug from Betty, who has been a guest on my show, proved to be the best birthday gift I’ve ever received.
    This year, I hope to return — not for a hug from Betty White — but to cheer on a pair of new friends I’ve met in the pet world: digital artist AJ Brockman and his service dog, Dre. These Palm Beach County residents are among the finalists for consideration for top-dog honors at this event sponsored by the American Humane Association.
    The deadline for public voting for finalists occurred right around press time for this month’s issue of The Coastal Star, so I am being optimistic that AJ and Dre are indeed among the honored finalists.
    But even if they are not, their tale illustrates the power of a can-do attitude, the ability to motivate others and the importance of maintaining a playful sense of humor.
    Let’s start with the humor factor. Take a peek at Dre’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/DreHeroDog) and you will see the two of them sporting matching handlebar mustaches. Brockman’s is real; Dre’s is not. But this 4-year-old, 72-pound black Labrador trained by Canine Companions for Independence assists Brockman with daily activities and much more — Dre has become his best friend and partner in unleashing smiles to others.
    And their can-do attitudes speak volumes. Brockman, age 25, was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a degenerative disease that parked him in a wheelchair by age 2. Yet he has earned a bachelor’s degree from Digital Media Arts College and has become a successful artist of digital paintings and operates the Single Handed Studio (www.singlehandedstudio.com).
    “I’m pretty much a paraplegic except that for the few inches of movement I have in my left hand,” says Brockman, of Palm Beach Gardens. “I can always count on Dre. If I’m working on an image on the computer and my hand slides off the mouse, Dre is there to nudge my hand back. He opens doors for me, gets the phone if it rings and can even fetch me a beer from the refrigerator. He is my buddy, my best friend.”
    I invite you to check out some of Brockman’s diverse artwork on his studio’s website. He blends impressionism with realism in his pieces that capture life in South Florida. His work has attracted a faithful following, including attorney Phil DiComo of Loxahatchee.
    At the law office of Haile, Shaw and Pfaffenberger in North Palm Beach, where DiComo works, visitors are treated to not one but five original works by Brockman, including a large digital banyan tree aptly named MacArthur Majesty.
    “This piece by AJ is the first thing you see when you walk in and it is beautiful,” says DiComo. “It appears to be moving. We love AJ’s work and we are planning on getting two more pieces from him.”
    Finally, there is the ability of Brockman and Dre to motivate and inspire others. DiComo recalls watching this duo at a leadership event last October for high school juniors.
    “At the luncheon, before AJ was set to speak about careers in digital media, he and Dre were hanging out with the high school students and you could see that they had an immediate connection with those students. And, then when he spoke, he immediately put everyone at ease.
His work demonstrates that his limitations haven’t really limited him. His attitude is phenomenal. He and Dre received the highest ratings by the students among all the speakers that day.”
    I agree. The minute I started speaking with Brockman for this column, I felt like I had made a new friend. And, it was great to hear Dre occasionally “speak up” with a friendly bark.
    Brockman best describes himself not as disabled but as being differently abled. You can bet I will be among those rooting for him at this year’s American Hero Dog Awards — and beyond.

American Hero Dog Awards    

Each year, the American Humane Association sponsors the American Hero Dog Awards to celebrate the special positive and inspiring bond between people and their dogs. The event honors dogs that unconditionally aid people in many ways, from being service dogs to being military dogs and much more. The contest has eight categories of heroic dogs.  This year, the event will be Oct. 5 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. To learn more, visit www.herodogawards.org.

Arden Moore, founder of FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, editor, author, professional speaker and master certified pet first aid instructor. Each week, she hosts the popular Oh Behave! show on PetLifeRadio.com. Learn more by visiting www.fourleggedlife.com.

By Tim O’Meilia

Ocean Ridge town commissioners will consider giving town employees a 3 percent raise, buying two police cars, a tree-trimming bucket truck and an all-terrain beach vehicle, and replacing the town’s outdated computer system — all in next year’s budget.
Also on the agenda for a July 31 budget workshop meeting were raises for the police chief — the lowest-paid in Palm Beach County, according to a salary survey — the lieutenant and two dispatchers and hiring a part-time beach patrol officer and a second full-time maintenance worker.
The $5.5 million budget proposed by Town Manager Ken Schenck and Town Clerk and Treasurer Karen Hancsak is about $180,000 more than this year’s budget and already includes the employee raises, one police car and $100,000 in street and drainage improvements on Inlet Cay, Thompson Street and Spanish River Drive.
Commissioners set a tentative tax rate of $5.50 per every $1,000 of taxable value for the year beginning Oct. 1 but said they intended to reduce it before final budget approval in September. The current tax rate is $5.35.
Homeowners would pay slightly more for garbage and trash collection — $228 for single-family homes (up $3) and $159 for apartments and condos (up $2).
The 3 percent employee pay increases would match what the unionized rank-and-file police officers will receive under their union contract approved in May. Commissioners had indicated earlier that they intended to match the increase.
Paying for Schenck’s “wish list” of computers, a bucket truck, a second police car, an ATV and a pay boost for non-unionized employees would tack another $200,000 onto the budget.
That would require increasing the tax rate from the current $5.35 or dipping further into the town’s $3 million in reserves to balance the budget.
At the July 24 budget workshop, Commissioner Ed Brookes asked for a more precise cost-benefit analysis of the proposed expenditures.         

“Put a little more detail into it so we can make a decision,” said Mayor Geoff Pugh.
Ridge Road resident Jerry Magruder complained that commissioners were ignoring more significant issues.
“I think we need a very vigilant Police Department. We don’t need computers. We don’t need cars. We need protection for the people,” she said.
She urged the town to station cameras on the town’s two bridges and north and south entrances to the town.
Magruder said she was the victim of a January break-in that caused $100,000 in property damage and $100,000 in lost jewelry.
“Everyone on my street has guns,” she said. “I can’t sleep at night. I am totally frightened.”
Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi disputed Magruder’s claim of four break-ins in the area, saying hers and an attempted burglary across the street were the only incidents since January 2012.
He said he could not verify the amount of damage or the value of the stolen jewelry.
    Yannuzzi said the department is negotiating with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies in collaborating on a camera system that would read license tag numbers.
    He said he hopes to share the $60,000 to $100,000 annual cost with other agencies, so the town would pay $20,000 to $30,000.
He emphasized the cameras were not surveillance cameras, but photograph license plates, allowing police to cooperate with other towns on stolen cars, wanted persons and the like.

The Delray Beach location, scheduled to open in October 2014, will be the fourth new Trader Joe's coming to Florida next year. The California-based company recently announced leases in Boca Raton, Palm Beach Gardens and Winter Park.

— Dan Moffett

By Tim Pallesen  

                  The race has begun between Delray Beach and Boca Raton to decide which city opens a Trader Joe’s first.

                  The California-based specialty grocer announced last month that it will open a store on South Federal Highway in Boca Raton sometime next year.

                  Delray Beach commissioners on July 9 gave zoning approval for a shopping center on Federal Highway at Linton Boulevard where a Trader Joe’s might open in the fall of next year.

                  Delray Beach residents were worried whether they had lost their Trader Joe’s when the company announced its Boca Raton location first.

                  “I’m concerned whether Trader Joe’s is coming,” Delray Commissioner Angeleta Gray asked the developer’s attorney at the July 9 hearing.

                  “There is a certain gourmet grocer that doesn’t want to be named, but you just named them,” attorney Jeffrey Lynne replied.

                  Lynne assured Delray commissioners that Trader Joe’s plans to open in both cities next year. The company declined to comment.

                  “It’s never been a situation of either Delray or Boca,” Lynne said. “A lot of people had their ego and pride hurt that Delray Beach was not announced first.”

                  The Boca Raton location at 855 S. Federal Highway received quick zoning approval largely because no nearby homeowners objected.

                  But the Delray Beach location was delayed for 18 months after a dozen homeowners in the adjacent Tropic Isle neighborhood objected.

                  Delray commissioners finally gave zoning and site plan approval for the Delray Place shopping center after concessions satisfied all the Tropic Isle homeowners except Nancy Schnabel, whose home will have the center on two sides.

                  “My home will have the look and feel of a prison,” Schnabel told commissioners.

                  “I would hate to be those people,” said Commissioner Shelly Petrolia, who cast the lone vote against Delray Place.

                  Other speakers at the July 9 hearing applauded the $30 million Delray Place as a catalyst for redevelopment along South Federal Highway.

                  Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Karen Granger called it “an elegant and attractive shopping destination.”

                  “This is a fabulous opportunity for South Federal to get a gateway,” Tropic Isle homeowners President Kelli Freeman said.

                  “This is huge for our entire city,” Commissioner Adam Frankel said.

                  “This area of Federal Highway desperately needs a catalyst,” Mayor Cary Glickstein agreed. “We need to get something going in that part of the city.”

Please join us at 3 pm Saturday for the grand opening of Colonial Animal Hospital's new location at Federal Highway and Gateway Boulevard in Boynton Beach:

A man that police allege is part of a "pillow case" gang from Lauderdale Lakes in Broward County was arrested on Coconut Lane in Ocean Ridge on the afternoon of July 9 after escaping from  officers during an earlier apprehension.

Damian Presiga, of Britannia Pacific Properties retrieves the Ritz-Carlton lion logo as Gaddi Dominguez takes down the rest of the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach sign on July 1 in Manalapan.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Manalapan: Ritz name change concerns commission, residents | La Coquille evolves from '50s hot spot to perk 

Editor's Note: Hoping new team at 'Ritz' will keep community in mind

Around Town: Eau. Eau yes. Eau no.

Ocean Avenue bridge construction, photographed facing west, shows the expanse of the project. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Tim O’Meilia

The new, $32 million East Ocean Avenue bridge is two-thirds complete, and fishermen can relax. The fishing pier planned beneath the west side of bridge is finished except for the railings.
    The $400,000 fishing pier was a late addition to the project.
    Construction is a bit further along on the west side of the bridge where contractor GLF Construction of Miami is using Sportsman’s and Bicentennial parks as staging areas. The bridge approach on the west side has been poured and sidewalk construction is in progress, said Kristine Frazell-Smith, Palm Beach County’s project engineer on the job.
    Drainage has been installed, retaining walls to both the east and west approaches have been built and three deck spans of the bridge have been poured. The east and west bascule piers have been completed, and steel erection on the west bascule span is finished.
    The new bridge will be 11 feet higher than its 62-year-old predecessor. Although it will still be two lanes, the bridge will be wider, with broader driving lanes as well as bicycle and pedestrian lanes. It will allow for 40 percent fewer bridge openings for boats.
    “The project is currently at approximately 66 percent complete and remains on schedule,”said Frazell-Smith.
    That means a late November or early December opening, barring hurricanes and other catastrophes.
Mayor David Stewart says he expects the bridge will open around the first week in December and that the town budget includes $25,000 for fireworks and a bridge reopening party.
“It only happens once every 60 years, after all,” Stewart
said.                                           

By Tim O’Meilia
    
Condominium entrance sign lettering and logos may be a bit larger under South Palm Beach’s new sign code, but Town Council members insist on being the deciders on variances.
    The council agreed to revamp the code at its June 25 meeting, including giving the Architectural Review Board the responsibility for reviewing exceptions, but wants to keep final decision-making for itself.
    “This is the meeting most people come to. Let the council make the final decision,” said council member Stella Jordan.
    The change would have transferred jurisdiction for the sign code from the Planning Board to the Architectural Review Board but given the board final say on sign variance requests.
    “The last place should be the council,” Mayor Donald Clayman said. The other council members agreed.
    The change allows a maximum 18-square-foot sign with logos and capital letters no larger than 13 inches and street numbers 10 inches tall. Previously, 8 inches was the maximum letter height, prompting the council to give a variance to the Tuscany condominium earlier this year.
    In other business:
• Approved a $22,050 budget for the town’s annual music and lecture series. The lectures will run from January to early April, with seven talks, one more than this year. The topics will include world affairs, the Middle East, human behavior and humor in the news. Six performances will be featured in the music series, including pianist Yoko Sata Kothari and five programs arranged by Robert Sharon. Season tickets for each series will remain at $70.
    • Approved a $1,500 donation to the town of Lantana for its $25,000 Fourth of July fireworks and celebration.
    • Agreed to repay the town’s reserve fund $25,000 from the $34,000 settlement of a lawsuit over sewage fees charged by Lake Worth for operating the regional sewage treatment system.                                      

By Thomas R. Collins
    
The town of Gulf Stream can move forward with its efforts to get resident Martin O’Boyle’s murals of protest off his waterfront home, a federal judge has ruled.
O’Boyle filed an emergency request to stop the proceedings, saying his free-speech rights were being violated. But U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said O’Boyle hadn’t shown that he was likely to succeed at trial — one of the criteria required for O’Boyle’s request to be granted.
“At this stage … I don’t think there’s been a likelihood of success on the merits shown,” Middlebrooks said after an hourlong hearing. “Let me encourage you to settle it if you are talking about settling it.”
    The ruling doesn’t mean the town wins the case, only that its code-enforcement proceedings can move ahead, and that the court case will go on as it would have without O’Boyle’s emergency request.
    O’Boyle has been at odds with the town since town officials turned down his request to remodel his $1.6 million home, a project including a 25-foot entryway. O’Boyle says the decision not to grant him a variance for the project was unjust.
    The next thing the town knew, a dazzling display of insulting paintings covered his home.         

And the next thing O’Boyle knew, he was being cited for code violations, with the town saying the paintings amount to unauthorized signs, that they include colors not on the town’s approved list, and that they didn’t go through the proper review process.
    And the next thing the town knew, it was being sued in federal court.
    In testimony at the hearing, O’Boyle said the town’s rejection of his remodeling project has been a hardship. “I hate to use the word ‘horrible,’ but it’s been horrible,” O’Boyle said. “Our house is uninsurable at this point.” He said the windows would have to be boarded up. “They turned down a beautiful retrofit of a home.”
    The point of the paintings?
    “It’s my opinion that they’re out of control, and what I did was lampoon them,” O’Boyle said from the witness stand. “We ridiculed them, that’s what we did.”
    O’Boyle’s attorneys — who included his son, Jonathan, who came down from Philadelphia to make the case — argued that the combination of the town’s ordinances on signage, on the use of paint, and on its review process, unconstitutionally limit speech. Any signs other than real estate signs have to be approved by a review board, according to town ordinances. They said town officials would not be inclined to approve any sign of protest.         Joanne O’Connor of West Palm Beach, representing the town, argued that even if the sign ordinance was found to be unconstitutional — which they say it is not — the paint ordinance is constitutional, so O’Boyle’s paintings wouldn’t be allowed under those rules.
    Town attorneys also said it was too early for O’Boyle to have a court-worthy grievance because a magistrate has not yet ruled that O’Boyle is, in fact, in violation of town codes.
Middlebrooks said “it looks like the sign ordinance might have some problems, frankly,” in terms of limiting free speech, but in the end it wasn’t enough for him to grant O’Boyle’s request.
Town Attorney Skip Randolph said, “We believe the judge was right in his decision.” And he said he’s “always hopeful” for settlements in court cases.
In the two weeks after the hearing, the town has filed a motion to dismiss the case and no settlement talks have been held.
‘‘There’s nothing scheduled,” Randolph said.
O’Boyle’s attorney, Robert Gersham of Delray Beach, said he’s asked the court for more time to respond to the motion to dismiss, so that the actual code-enforcement hearing can be held. It has not been scheduled yet.
Meanwhile, O’Boyle has erected four signs — not paintings on his house. One says “Mayor Orthwein is a BLONDE ‘‘‘that says it all.’” And another: “Town Mgr. Thrasher is a’”followed by a picture of a juggling clown.
    O’Boyle was not optimistic about a settlement possibility.
    “From my point of view, it’s something I would love to see settled,” he said. “But if you want to punch me in the face, the chances of you and I settling aren’t very good. The town clearly wants to fight.”            

By Tim O’Meilia

    Gulf Stream will try to renew its long-running contract for garbage pickup without seeking competitive bids.
    Town commissioners agreed with Town Manager William Thrasher’s recommendation to negotiate a new contract with Waste Management Inc., which has picked up residential garbage and recyclable materials in the town for more than 10 years.
    “Their service has been excellent,” said Commissioner Robert Ganger. “I believe they train their people well.’’
    Commissioners voted 3-0 to have the mayor and town manager try to make a new agreement. Commissioners Garrett Dering and Muriel Anderson were absent.
    The current five-year contract with Waste Management expires Sept. 30. The town pays $140,000 annually.
    Thrasher said Waste Management responds quickly to complaints.
“I recommend what I know works, what I’m familiar with,” he told commissioners.
    At least six other Palm Beach County cities, including Highland Beach and Delray Beach, have negotiated trash-hauling contracts recently without seeking competitive bids. Gulf Stream has had inquiries from other companies. After a turnover on its commission, however, Delray Beach is trying to void its deal and seek bids.
    “It is true we might get a better price, but what we can’t verify is the level of service,” Thrasher said.
    If Gulf Stream commissioners are unhappy with the terms of the new contract, they could seek bids later.
    The town has no policy on when to seek competitive bids and never has sought bids for garbage pickup, said Town Clerk Rita Taylor.
When the town discontinued its own trash collection decades ago, the town signed on with County Sanitation, the only major hauler in the area then. County Sanitation was later sold to another firm and then to Waste Management.
    In other business, commissioners:
    • Learned that bids for phase one of the $5.5 million utility burial project are due July 16 and the commission will be able to award a contract at its August meeting. Construction could start in September. The bid specifications include installation of 22 viper-headed street lights along A1A between Golfview Road and Pelican Lane and four 12-foot lantern-style street lights on interior streets.
    • Approved unanimously the division of a 4.7-acre parcel at 1410 N. Ocean Blvd. into three lots and the demolition of a garage and shed. Owner Ralph MacDonald agreed to a drainage plan and to maintenance of a 25-foot-wide landscape buffer with neighbors Billy and Shelly
Himmelrich.­

By Tim O’Meilia
    
In 2012, the town of Gulf Stream had two of the longest-serving elected officials in Palm Beach County. William Koch was in his 47th year as mayor when he died last year, and Vice Mayor Joan Orthwein is in her 18th as a town commissioner.
A year later, Gulf Stream has one of the least experienced commissions on the southeast Florida coast. Now, three of the five members have less than a year’s experience in office, one has 18 months and none has ever won a town election.
    Neither, for that matter, has Orthwein, who is now mayor.
    On June 14, commissioners chose resident Donna White to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Muriel “Mert” Anderson.
    “I’m not coming in with any agenda,” White said. “There will be a learning curve.”
    Join the crew on the learning curve boat. Bob Ganger and Tom Stanley were appointed last August. Garrett Dering was appointed in October 2011. The four green appointees replaced three commissioners who moved away and Koch.
    Anderson, who served eight years on the commission, sold her Place au Soleil home, resigned May 24 and moved to Vero Beach.
    Commissioners voted to replace her with White, another resident of Place au Soleil, a small enclave of Gulf Stream located across the Intracoastal Waterway on the mainland.
    “I know we don’t have (commission) districts, but I really like having someone from Place au Soleil,” said Commissioner Bob Ganger.
    “I’ve heard nothing but compliments about her,” Orthwein said.
    White, a former member of the town’s Architectural Review and Planning Board, was the only resident to show interest in the unpaid job. Despite an ad on the town’s new website, no one else applied.
    She said Anderson told her she might be a good fit for the job, considering her experience as an ARPB member. White, a 10-year resident of Gulf Stream, will complete the remaining nine months of Anderson’s term.
    “It’s harder and harder to get people to volunteer for positions,” White said.          

By Tim Pallesen
    
Coastal residents will be spared louder downtown music under a compromise noise ordinance that three city commissioners say they will vote to approve.
    Restaurants on Atlantic Avenue west of Federal Highway would get an extra hour of louder music on Friday and Saturday nights under the compromise.
    “We’re carving out an area where it’s OK to be a little louder,” said Assistant City Attorney Janice Rustin, after commissioners gave her directions at a June 11 workshop to rewrite the existing noise law.
    The existing law allows police to issue a violation for any noise anywhere in the city that the officer believes is unreasonably loud, excessive or unnecessary.
    The new law would make it easier to tone down late-night noise by outlawing any sound that is plainly audible from 100 feet away after 11 p.m.
    Downtown restaurant owners asked commissioners for a waiver from the 11 p.m. curfew until 1 a.m. on weekends. Residents who live near Atlantic Avenue have opposed it.   
    “We’re striving for a balance that protects the vibrancy of the downtown and also lets residents maintain their quality of life,” Community Improvement Director Lulu Butler told commissioners before the workshop.
    Mayor Cary Glickstein and Commissioners Shelly Petrolia and Angeleta Gray agreed to give restaurants and bars between Federal Highway and Swinton Avenue until midnight on weekends before the tougher noise law takes effect.
Ocean Properties, the owner of the Marriott Hotel, Boston’s on the Beach and the Sandbar, opposes establishing a downtown entertainment district with less stringent restraints.
    But commissioners said the noise law needs to be more protective for residents who live east of Federal Highway near Atlantic Avenue and Ocean Boulevard nightspots. “There are single-family homes in the marina district and east of the Intracoastal,” Glickstein said. “A one-size-fits-all solution is not workable there.”
    “The central downtown core is different from the beachside,” Commissioner Al Jacquet agreed. “We need to tailor this to protect those single-family homes.”
    Jacquet and Commissioner Adam Frankel support allowing restaurants west of Federal to play music until 1 a.m.
Commissioners might revisit what is appropriate for Ocean Properties. “A beach hotel is a tourist destination with different requirements and concerns,” Glickstein
said.                                           

By Betty Wells
    
Luxury movie theaters and hotels are included in four development proposals for the old library property on Southeast Fourth Avenue in downtown Delray Beach.
    Details about the proposals submitted to the Community Redevelopment Agency are not public until they are scrutinized, then presented to the CRA board, said CRA Assistant Director Jeff Costello.
    Costello said, though, that three of the plans offer hotels and two include movie theaters.
    “One has a boutique hotel, and the other two are larger,” he said of the proposals.
    The CRA owns the 1.57 acres where the old library building still stands. The entire development site is within the East Atlantic Avenue Central Business District. The site is about 170 feet south of Atlantic Avenue and is bordered by Southeast Fourth Avenue on the west and Southeast Fifth Avenue on the east.
    A representative of IPic Theaters confirmed that it submitted a proposal. The company opened a high-end theater last year in Mizner Park in Boca Raton.
    Kevin Warner, a Delray Beach resident who said he keeps an eye on what the city spends and does, said his only concern about potential developers would be whether parking would be adequate for what’s built.
    “I would love to have a movie theater that I could walk to downtown,” said the public schoolteacher. “As long as the project that goes into that location has adequate parking, I’m all for it. And I would certainly hope the project is 100 percent financed by the private sector.”
    The deadline for the proposals was June 21.
    Costello said that the projects will be assessed for financial feasibility. He said the planned schedule for action would be presenting the proposals to the CRA board on July 25.        

By Tim O’Meilia

    Manalapan streets would have new street and traffic signs, the Town Hall new air conditioners and upgraded computer software, the police a new patrol car and town employees a 3 percent raise under a preliminary budget being considered by town commissioners.
    But sidewalks wouldn’t be repaired next year, and a $25,000 emergency generator for Town Hall would be put off another year.
    Bottom line, the budget would be $80,000 more than this year’s $3.3 million.
    Although commissioners haven’t yet seen how much revenue the town can expect in the budget year beginning Oct. 1, they met in a budget workshop on expenses June 24, the first of several monthly workshops this summer. The next is at 10 a.m. on July 22.
    Town Manager Linda Stumpf said the salary increase matches the amount that Ocean Ridge, Highland Beach and Jupiter Island will be considering. Workers got a 3.5 percent raise this year.
    Police will receive a 2 percent boost and another 3 percent in October 2014 under a union contract approved in January. They also got 7 percent retroactive to 2011 and 3 percent this year.
    The commission dealt largely with capital expenses, focusing mainly on how to manage the fleet of police cars. Police now have four patrol cars plus cars for the lieutenant and chief. The town manager also has an assigned car.
    Commissioner John Murphy suggested a five-patrol-car rotation to reduce wear by giving the manager’s car to the chief or lieutenant. The manager is entitled to a car or a $400 monthly allowance.
    Police Chief Carmen Mattox proposed that the lieutenant drive whichever of the five cars isn’t on the road. Commissioners instructed Stumpf to calculate which method is cheaper. The commission wants to maintain a schedule of replacing a patrol car every year.
    The commission did not consider Commissioner Howard Roder’s suggestion to cut the police budget by $200,000. Roder said that erroneous crime statistics prompted the commission to add a lieutenant, a clerical worker and part-time beach patrol officers.
    “All that money was based on fear of crime stats that were not there,” he said. Roder has argued that town officials labeled routine traffic stops as criminal offenses to inflame residents’ concerns.
Stumpf said the lieutenant position was already in the budget and that the clerical position was not filled.
    “I think we responded to the needs of the residents on A1A with respect to the beach,” said Mayor David Cheifetz. “I think those beach patrols’ whole purpose is to make our residents feel safe.”
    The $7,500 allotted for new street signs may be an attempt to keep up with the Joneses — or the Lantanas. “Lantana’s signs are much nicer than ours,” said Commissioner Tom Thornton. “Ours are faded, falling down and ugly.”           

By Mary Thurwachter
    
As in many other municipalities, sober houses have been infiltrating Lantana neighborhoods, often to the chagrin of neighbors. In an effort to regulate sober houses — group homes (but not treatment facilities) for recovering addicts — the Town Council, at its June 24 meeting, considered changing the definition of “family.”
    But after discussion, the council decided to take no action on the matter.
    The measure probably would have been little, if any, help in discouraging the onslaught of sober houses, Town Attorney Max Lohman said, adding that, at best, it would be a sideways move.
    “Federal law trumps state law and trumps town law,” he said. “This area is best left alone because it is an indefensible position. Sober houses are covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and courts have routinely struck down regulations in other municipalities as discriminatory.”
    Council members acknowledged that an effort to redefine “family” was not likely to help.
    “Other cities who tried to fight this (in court) have lost their britches,” said Council Member Lynn Moorhouse. “We should take the advice of our attorney.”
    State Sen. Jeff Clemens, who happened to be at the meeting to give a legislative update, weighed in on the issue. He said he was working on more oversight for sober houses and had introduced a bill to require that the Department of Children and Families license sober houses and prevent them from being within 1,000 feet of each other. But his bill never made it out of committee.
    Clemens said he was able to get state money to finance a study on how many sober houses there are in Florida.
    “Hopefully, we’ll know how many there are,” he said. “We need to get a handle on this.”
    At the town’s May meeting, property owners who live near the proposed sober house at 118 N. Oak Ave. (near the Ocean Avenue shopping district) turned out to oppose the sober house. They delivered a petition with 300 signatures of residents who worried about an increase in crime and a downturn in property values if recovering addicts moved into the neighborhood. The discussion on what defines “family” came about as a result of that conversation.
    In other action, the Town Council:
    • Held its first budget workshop on June 10 and scheduled the next one for 5:30 p.m. July 22. The town has kept the same tax rate — $3.24 per $1,000 of assessed value  — for the past 11 years.
    • Delayed until November a decision on whether to allow the Lantana Historical Society a chance to turn a dilapidated, town-owned triplex at 111-115 Prospect Road into a museum. The house needs extensive renovations, including a new roof, electrical wiring, doors and windows.
Council members expressed concerns that the Historical Society may not be able to generate the necessary money to undertake and maintain the project.                                    

By Tim O’Meilia
    
Manalapan town commissioners backed away from proposed seawall standards that would require all seawalls be able to withstand a storm as strong as Hurricane Andrew.
    Prompted by the collapse of ocean seawalls when Hurricane Sandy passed off shore last year,  the regulations would require that seawalls along the ocean or the Intracoastal Waterway built in 2010 or earlier be certified by a coastal engineer as able to withstand a once-in-50-years storm.
    The seawalls would have to be certified within three months and then every five years. Seawalls built in 2011 or later are presumed to be sound and must be recertified every 15 years.
    “You’re putting an obligation on nearly everyone in town to certify every five years,” said Ken Kaleel, representing oceanfront developer Stewart Satter. “How much is that going to cost a resident? You’re asking an engineer to certify work he did not do.”
    Kaleel said town officials did not consider the ramifications and cost in developing the new rules. “If it fails (certification), what’s the cost of fixing it?” he said.
    The new rules were based on those used by the town of Palm Beach and on advice from the town’s consulting engineering firm, Taylor Engineering.
    “The whole reason for this is when we left it up to the residents without oversight from the town, we had no way to deal with someone who is not as diligent,” said Mayor David Cheifetz. “If one fails, it can affect others.”
    Commissioner John Murphy said he would not vote for the new standards until a coastal engineer testified to the commission. Commissioner Lou DeStefano has opposed the town’s setting the standards.
    The standards would require that new seawalls be at least 13.3 feet above sea level. It also sets standards for thickness, length and depth beneath the sand.
    Commissioners postponed a decision until July.
    In other business, commissioners:
    • Agreed to pay Cielo Madera Land Trust $120,000 to settle a lawsuit over building permit fees. The town refused to refund any of $158,000 in permit fees for a planned home at 1020 S. Ocean Blvd. in 2010 because it was not allowed in town ordinances. The house was never built. The settlement reflects fees for demolition inspection and town administrative costs.
    • Approved tentatively a change in building permit regulations to allow fee refunds when buildings are not constructed: 100 percent if applied for within 30 days, 70 percent within 60 days and 30 percent within 90 days. The Cielo Madera Land Trust would not have qualified for a refund because it had not been sought within three months’ time.
    • Learned that replacing asbestos cement water pipes on Point Manalapan and along 1,200 feet of A1A would add $651,000 to a project already being designed. Asbestos in water is not considered a health hazard. The Mock Roos & Associates engineering firm is designing a $3 million upgrade of the town’s water lines along much of A1A and along U.S. 1 in Hypoluxo, which buys water from the town. The lines did not meet water pressure standards for firefighting.
    • Refused to allow Commissioner Howard Roder to read a statement about discrepancies in police officer Wayne Shepherd’s employment record. Instead, Roder’s remarks will be attached to the minutes of the meeting.
    Roder and Mayor David Cheifetz argued over the issue. “Wait, I said. Be quiet!” Cheifetz said, interrupting Roder’s reading. He said the document will be “put into the record.” “I’m going to read it,” Roder said later. “No, you’re not,” the mayor said.            Ú

Progress continues on the barrier island for the city of Delray Beach’s reclaimed water system for landscape irrigation. Here, crews are working on Miramar Drive, between A1A and Gleason Street. Motorists are advised to expect delays and be cautious when traveling through this area as temporary lane closures may occur during construction. Work is scheduled for completion by the end of August.
Michelle Quigley/
Special to The Coastal Star