The Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County’s King David Society kicked off the season with a briefing by guest speaker David Makovsky, of the Washington Institute’s Project on the Middle East Peace Process. Those who contributed $25,000 or more to the federation’s annual campaign attended the event at the home of Jeff and Barbara Feingold, chairs of the society. Photo: (from left) Selma and Dan Weiss, with Florence Brody.
Photo by Jeffrey Tholl

Members of a local Red Hat Society stopped for lunch recently at John G’s in Manalapan. The chapter has members from the Boynton Beach area. Photo provided

Coastal South County residents tied a bow on their gift giving at the 12th annual Caridad Center fund-raising gala. The event raised more than $252,000 to support the center’s free medical, vision and dental clinic serving the uninsured and low-income populations of Palm Beach County through a network of more than 400 volunteer doctors and healthcare workers. Photo: (from left) Sami and Norma Dahger and Penny and Gary Kosinski. Photo provided

A business meeting started off the proceedings with library board President John Burke (left) giving a State of the Library address. The re-election of board members and the nomination of new ones followed. After the vote, Alan Kornblau (right), the library’s director, talked about the vision of the library, and guest speaker Robert Ganger (center), vice chairman of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, discussed Delray Beach’s past, present and future. Photo provided

Carmel Pasquale and Peter Baranoff enjoy the 20th Annual Caribbean Cowboy Ball held on the ocean in Boca Raton. The boot-stomping event helps to raise money for the George Snow Scholarship Fund.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

A crowd gathers to mark the dedication of Tranquility Park in honor of longtime Manalapan resident Phyllis DeStefano. The park includes a gazebo, a walking path and a dog fountain.

Phyllis DeStefano kisses her son Louis DeStefano, who financed the park’s construction. Residents also buried a time capsule at the park, which is behind the town library.
Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Feb. 25-28: Shop for merchandise among the more than 30 vendors from across the country to help benefit the substance-abuse-treatment programs and outreach services of Wayside House. Special preview event is 6-8 p.m. Feb. 25. Cost is $75. Boutique is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Feb. 26-28. Cost is $5. Call 278-0055, Ext. 126 or visit www.waysidehouse.net.
Photo: (from left) Spring Boutique committee members Sandra Powell, Barbara Whittaker, Gay Bridges, Barbara Backer, Betsy Ortlip, Pat McElroy, Nancy Boardman, Karen Sywolski, Ellen Rubel, Doli Rodriguez, Judy Wheatley, Missie Corey and Susan Duane. Photo provided

By Tim Pallesen
    
A citizens group has sued  Delray Beach, saying its density approval for Atlantic Crossing violates the vision for Delray to always be “a village by the sea.”
    City commissioners approved 40 housing units per acre for the East Atlantic Avenue project formerly known as Atlantic Plaza II on Dec. 4. The developer still needs site plan approval before construction can begin.
    The lawsuit claims the Dec. 4 vote was inconsistent with the city’s comprehensive plan that calls the central business district and surrounding neighborhoods the core of a charming village to be preserved.
    “We hope the developer and the city will work with us to design a project that preserves the charm of Delray Beach as a village by the sea and keeps the small-town feeling,” said Ralf Brookes, the attorney hired by the citizens group Save Delray Beach to file the lawsuit.
    Neighbors on both sides of the Atlantic Avenue Bridge fear the multi-use project will cause traffic congestion. Opponents met with Atlantic Crossing project manager Don DeVere on Dec. 17 to discuss possible revisions to the project. But the developer ended informal talks when Save Delray Beach filed its lawsuit on Jan. 2.
    “We think it’s unfortunate that the lawsuit was filed,” developer spokesman Bill Morris said.
    But attorneys have continued to work toward a possible settlement of the lawsuit. Brookes said Atlantic Crossing requested design drawings by three local architects working with neighbors. Those drawings were given to the developer on Jan. 22, he said. “We are trying to incorporate as many of their ideas and suggestions as possible,” Morris said.
    Morris said developer architects will address the concern that delivery trucks to restaurants and stores would enter the multi-use project from East Atlantic Avenue to reach loading docks.
    “We hope we can resolve this lawsuit,” Morris said.
    Save Delray Beach organizer John Papaloizos said the lawsuit was filed on Jan. 2 to comply with a court deadline 30 days after the City Commission vote on Dec. 4.
    “The lawsuit is a way to get our voices heard,” Papaloizos said. “We hope we can settle with developer.”
    The goal is for the developer and opponents to agree on a design before the Atlantic Crossing project goes before the City Commission for site plan approval.
    If approved, the $200 million project would have 356 apartments, 79,000 square feet of office space and 80,000 square feet of restaurants and retail shops.                              

By Angie Francalancia
    
Boynton Beach’s downtown fire station that helps serve Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes will be brought back up to full staffing, thanks to a two-year grant that the Boynton Beach Commission agreed last month to accept.
    Boynton Beach will hire seven new firefighters with the $967,000 grant, which will cover the cost of their salaries and benefits for two years. The city had cut its crew last year to save money in the 2011-12 budget. Boynton Beach had applied for the grant issued through FEMA last summer, according to Fire Chief Ray Carter.
    “This will help us bring our staffing levels in Station No. 1 up to full bore,” Carter told the City Commission.
    Because Station No.1 is in Boynton Beach’s downtown directly across the Ocean Avenue Bridge, crews from Station No. 1 handle most fire rescue calls to Ocean Ridge. But because a crew was removed from the station in the wake of the staff reductions, more calls had been answered from stations farther away, causing a slight increase in overall response times. Although average response times never climbed above the standard of eight minutes referenced in the cities’ contract for services, several individual calls had taken longer to get fire-rescue crews to the scenes, according to analysis from Ocean Ridge Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi.
    “In a word, fantastic,” Yannuzzi said of the news. “It’s a great opportunity for Boynton, and the trickle-down effect is great for Ocean Ridge as well as Briny Breezes.”
    Ocean Ridge Town Manager Ken Schenck said he was hopeful that Boynton Beach will be able to maintain the staffing levels beyond the two years.
    “Hopefully, with increases in property values, they’ll be able to keep funding the positions,” Schenck said. Ocean Ridge’s contract for fire-rescue service runs through 2016. “Actually, the contract is good for both of us,” Schenck added. “I think our contract goes a long way to help pay for it, (Station No. 1).”
    Deputy Fire Chief Greg Hoggatt said Boynton Beach expected as many as 400 applicants for the seven positions, including many recent fire academy graduates. While the hiring process will involve several steps, including written and practical tests as well as interviews, Hoggatt anticipated accelerating the process to have it completed in about a month, he said.
    The new firefighters all won’t be placed at Station No. 1, though.
    “We’ll move them to different places where there’s a balance of seasoned officers,” he said. “We’ll balance it across the three shifts to ensure that they get good supervision,
good guidance and good
training.”                                  

By Tim O’Meilia
    
More than two years after collective bargaining began, the seaside towns of Manalapan and South Palm Beach signed three-year agreements with their unionized police departments in January.
    While similar in length and many other details, the contracts differ vastly in wages.
    Manalapan’s eight union members will receive 7 percent pay raises retroactive to Oct. 1, 2011, and another 3 percent retroactive to Oct. 1, 2012. They’ll receive another 2 percent increase in October and 3 percent more in October 2014.
    South Palm Beach’s five officers will get a one-time $1,500 bonus. They’ll receive a $1,000 bonus in October or have the right to reopen wage talks.
    Another major difference is that Manalapan officers’ raises are increases to their base pay while South Palm Beach’s are not.
The rate of base pay is significant because it’s used to calculate an employee’s future pension benefits.
    Manalapan town commissioners approved the agreement by a 5-1 vote Jan. 22, the same day South Palm Beach council members unanimously approved their deal.
    “The majority of the commissioners felt our officers’ compensation and benefits had fallen relative to other communities,” Manalapan Mayor Basil Diamond said after the meeting. “We used to be in the top one, two or three (in pay and benefits). We had fallen to the middle. It was felt we should bring the officers back to what they were.”
    The starting salary for a Manalapan police officer is $43,677, 15th among 25 police departments in Palm Beach County, according to an annual survey done by the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association. The PBA represents the police in both towns.
    Dissenting Manalapan Commissioner David Cheifetz said the commission should not have accepted the union’s second proposal.
“The Town Commission should have been more aggressive in negotiating the contract. We’re setting the stage for additional problems in the future,” he said.
    Manalapan commissioners did not plan for the wage increase in this year’s budget and will have to dip into reserves for the $49,000 needed.
    The town’s other 22 full-time employees, including those who work in the water department, received 2 percent raises last year and a 3.5 percent lump-sum increase this year.
    “The non-union employees will not be happy,” Cheifetz said.
    South Palm Beach’s contract talks went to impasse, then to a special magistrate before a face-to-face council-union negotiating session resulted in a tentative agreement in October. A misunderstanding over whether officers could go to lunch across the bridge led to more delay.
    South Palm Beach officers had not received a pay raise in four years, like other town workers, as the town dealt with budget problems resulting from a 40 percent decline in property value in the town since 2008.
    South Palm Beach union members said they were pleased they would have the chance to seek an increase to their base rate of pay next year, if they wished. Initially, the union sought a 1 percent pay increase to their base pay.
    According to the PBA survey, starting officers in South Palm Beach earn $40,500, the fourth-lowest among 25 departments.
    In December, the Town Council decided unanimously against giving the town’s other six full-time workers a bonus to match the police.   

By Margie Plunkett
    
Universal Beach Services Corp. nearly saw 30 years of cleaning the sands of Delray Beach come to an end in the undertow of a low bidder. Commissioners, however, finally awarded Universal the contract after it protested that the beach couldn’t possibly be cleaned for that low price.
    Universal of Delray Beach was the middle of three bidders for the beach cleaning contract, offering to do the job for $94,896 annually. Beach Raker was the low bidder, with a $57,000 annual offer and the Beach Groomer came in high at $450,000 a year.
    The city now pays Universal $79,000 for three days of cleanup each week, but the new bid expanded that time to five days each week.
    Universal Vice President JoAnn Peart, who together with her son, Clayton, owns the company founded by her late husband, John Frederick Peart, brought a protest in November claiming the city gave the low bidder an unfair competitive advantage.
    “First, the winning bid included points for extra services which were not part of the bid requirement or request,” according to Peart’s protest.
    “Secondly, the city has failed to consider that the alleged winning bidder cannot possibly provide the services required at that bid amount,” Peart wrote in the protest letter.
    The Parks and Recreation Department recommended the Beach Raker bid because it was low, but also in part because the Pompano Beach company planned to use a different method of cleaning that would pick up trash as small as cigarette butts and bottle caps, according to a memo from the Ocean Rescue and Parks and Recreation directors.             
    “The problem with using such equipment is that it also removes all sea shells and other naturally occurring small items from the sand,” the memo said. A few years ago, the Parks staff saw the equipment demonstrated and decided against it.
    The memo concludes the city’s action on the low bid put Universal at an unfair disadvantage “because they were not given the opportunity of submitting a bid using this equipment,” staff said, noting Universal said it would clean the beach using the same equipment if the city wanted it to.
    The staff did a price comparison with other cities that Beach Raker served, observing that Delray Beach seemed to require more of its contractor and that Beach Raker’s bid was about 40 percent less than it charged its other cities.
    “We have had bad experience in the past with contractors who underbid a contract and either gave poor quality service or ultimately walked away from the contract altogether,” the memo said.                            

By Mary Thurwachter

    The Imperial House lost its beach stairs to Hurricane Sandy in October and has plans to replace them. But first, the South Palm Beach co-op needed — and received — a go-ahead from the Lantana Town Council.
    A six-story, 58-unit building adjacent to Lantana’s public beach, the Imperial House has been fighting a slowly encroaching ocean for years, and the stairs are just the latest wound.
    The stairs are being moved to the west side of the Imperial House beach entryway that has one foot between Lantana’s beach and the Imperial House.
    Bonnie Fischer, president of the co-op and a member of the South Palm Beach Council, appeared at the Lantana council meeting on Jan. 14 to ask for a 3-foot easement onto Lantana’s beach for the wooden stairs.
    “I believe this (the yellow pine staircase) is the best solution,” she said. The stairs would provide access for co-op residents and any legal fees would be charged to the Imperial House.
    Lantana council member Tom Deringer asked if Lantana residents would also have access to the stairs.
    “Absolutely,” Fischer said.
    But other council members didn’t want that because that would involve walking over sea oats.
    “I don’t want to encourage people to cross over and destroy the dune,” council member Lynn Moorhouse said.
    Moorhouse, Mayor Dave Stewart and council member Phil Aridas voted yes to the easement. Deringer voted no, since he wanted public access to the Imperial House stairs and his colleagues nixed the idea.
    In other business, the Town Council got an update on replacing the lifeguard tower swept away by waves generated from Hurricane Sandy.
Town staff has been working to get a permit from the Department of Environmental Protection to build a temporary lifeguard stand.
Designs for the new tower are being sought, as is insurance money to pay for the new tower.                        

By Cheryl Blackerby

Dredging of Boynton Inlet, and some structural repairs due to damage from Hurricane Sandy, is scheduled to start in mid-February, but won’t affect public access.
“We had some minor damage in the sand transfer plant at the inlet,” said Dan Bates, deputy director of Palm Beach County Environmental Resource Management. “We were able to get it back working pretty quickly. Some of the stainless steel railing got damaged, as well as some of the panels on the floor of the jetty.”
The concrete panels, which weigh 2,000 pounds each, were meant to move, and they worked as designed to relieve pressure during the storm.
Sandy dumped sand in the sand transfer plant but not in the inlet itself, Bates said. “A good amount of current kept it pretty clean. Every time we dredge the trap, we also dredge the channel and the Intracoastal Waterway.”
Beach-compatible sand from the dredging will go to Ocean Hammock Park. The sand that’s not compatible, mostly rock material, will go to an artificial reef adjacent to the sand trap, and the smaller pieces will be discharged into Half Moon Bay Hole, a deep hole in the Lake Worth Lagoon.
“It’s a pretty small-scale dredge, and won’t take long to do the work. We’re not closing the jetties. People will still be able to go there,” Bates said.  
The total cost of the dredging and repairs is $2.5 million, paid for with grants from the Florida Inland Navigation District and by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the city of Boynton Beach and Palm Beach County.
Most of the work will be done by Palm Beach Marine through contractor Center Marine. The Boca Inlet needed no repairs from Sandy, just the usual removal done by the small dredge that works there all year, Bates said.                 

By Margie Plunkett

Ocean Ridge’s dispatchers have saved the town time and money by writing post-911 dispatcher certification training — a curriculum that was just approved by the Florida Department of Health.
Dispatch coordinator Jessica Simpson and dispatcher clerk Brandi Gonsman developed the curriculum despite challenges including staff shortages, according to Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi, who during the January meeting commended them to the Town Commission for their work.
The team created the 254-hour course for the mandatory training, a move that will save $800 for every new employee, as the town doesn’t have to pay to train them elsewhere.
The in-house training saves time also for current employees, who no longer have to go out of town for the course.
As a result of Simpson’s and Gonsman’s work, “the Ocean Ridge Police Department Dispatch Center now has a state-certified 911 Public Safety Telecommunications Training Program,” Yannuzzi wrote in Ocean Ridge’s January newsletter.
“Such a proud distinction places us among less than a handful of certified training centers in Palm Beach County — all much larger agencies — and one of less than 150 such centers throughout the entire state,” the chief wrote.
“It’s another star in the crown of Ocean Ridge,” Mayor Geoffrey Pugh noted at the commission meeting.
In other town business:
• Commissioners anticipate voting during their February meeting on a $1,200 donation to the Sea Angels beach cleanup volunteer group.  
“We have given a donation to the Sand Sifters (volunteer beach cleanup group), but never have given to the Sea Angels,” said Commissioner Zoanne Hennigan. “We’d like to donate $1,200.”
• The Police Department will check out the price and other details of surveillance cameras that Yannuzzi said could be placed at the bridge and at the entrances to town.
• Commissioners decided not to limit to $2,000 the amount of retirement bonus for employees.
Previously, they voted that employees will receive $100 for each year of service at retirement.                              

Frances Hansen is the new executive director of the Delray Beach Historical Society. Rich Pollack/The Coastal Star

Clarification: A story in the February edition incorrectly implied that new Delray Beach
Historical Society Executive Director Frances Hansen did not complete her
studies while in England. Hansen has a Masters degree in Egyptology/Classics
as well as bachelor's degrees in biogenetics and ancient history with a
minor in ancient art.

By Rich Pollack
    
If all had gone as planned, Frances Hansen would have completed her studies in Egyptology at Oxford and used her degree in biogenetics to extract DNA from mummies.
    But family issues and the unexpected twists and turns of life brought her back to the United States. Ultimately, she arrived in Florida where the daughter of an opera singer who performed with the Metropolitan Opera and an appellate judge being groomed for the Supreme Court, settled down with her British husband.
    Using her background and her love for history, Hansen worked as both a volunteer and a professional for the Palm Beach County Historical Society. She also took on the responsibility of building archives for a local family that traces its roots to America’s founders.
    Last month, Hansen began the latest chapter in her own history, taking on the role of executive director of the Delray Beach Historical Society.
    The newly recreated job — a position vacant for several years — comes with the responsibility of wearing many hats, with perhaps the biggest challenge being to revitalize the organization through increased community interaction and involvement.
    “This is going to be an exciting time for us,” said Jane Orthwein, historical society president. “Frances has a lot of great ideas and a lot of energy to implement them.”
    Already on Hansen’s “to do” list are plans to broaden community access to the society’s archives, carefully built and cared for by former archivist Dottie Patterson, who retired in December after more than two decades.
    Also on the agenda is a plan to increase programming to bring visitors to the historical society’s three key buildings, including the historic 1915 Cason Cottage Museum, the 1926 Florida Bungalow and the Ethel Sterling Williams Historical Learning Center.
    “The real mission of this organization is to protect and preserve the history of this wonderful seaside community and to find ways to breathe new life into it,” Hansen said. “The organization was created as a service to the community.”
    A lecture is already in the planning stages for March at the Cason Cottage, tied to a special exhibit about the Kennedys. Also in the works is a family event centered on the history of the barefoot mailmen that will be held in April as part of a joint effort with the Palm Beach Historical Society.
    Going forward, visitors can expect to see more special exhibits coming out of the wealth of information stored in the society’s archives.
    Hansen says she hopes to have themed events throughout the year and will be opening up the 1926 bungalow to community organizations for event rentals.
    “We’re a historical society,” Orthwein said, “but we also want to look toward the future.”
    Finding someone to help the society grow its membership and build on its existing strengths was a challenge for the organization, she said.
    “We were looking for someone to replace Dottie as our archivist and we also were hoping to find someone to help us administratively,” Orthwein said. “We had no idea we would find it all in one person.”
    Contacted about the job by Bob Ganger, a former historical society president also active in the county historical society, Hansen said she was impressed by board members and others she met before she started the new job.
    “This is a wonderful organization with a heart and soul,” she said.
    For her part, Orthwein said she was impressed with Hansen the first time they spoke.
    “The minute I met her, I knew she would be perfect for the job,” Orthwein said. “She has proven to be
unbelievable.”                           

    Writing an obituary is, simultaneously, among the easiest and the hardest assignments any reporter receives.
    Telling the story of a life involves the basic who-what-where-when-and-how that most journalists know is required for news stories. And writing obituaries is a form of news reporting. That makes writing obits a pretty straightforward assignment for experienced reporters like those at The Coastal Star.  
    What makes it especially interesting is the opportunity to explore a life from start to finish and hopefully, find threads of experience that bring the reader some insight into the life and personality of the deceased.  
    Because obituaries are often kept as mementoes to pass along to future generations, we seek out family members to talk with about the life story we are telling. They are our primary source.
    We then try to find co-workers and friends who will supplement the family story with remembrances that may have been outside the scope of the family. These are our secondary sources.
    When a question or conflict arises between accounts, we defer to the family.
On occasion, even the family members don’t remember the individual the same way, and we need to find ways to deal with those sensitive issues.
At least once we have decided to not publish an obituary because of a family dispute. And on a couple of occasions, the family asked us not to write about their loved one, even when friends and colleagues begged us to write a tribute.
    So, as you can see, writing obits can be tricky.
    This past month we published an obituary containing information about an individual’s past that some members of the community found too sensitive, and thought we ought not to have published.
    We are sorry the deceased’s neighbors were not comfortable with our writing about this person’s past drug use. But his widow had no qualms in sharing this information.  She was proud of how he’d turned his life around. She was our primary source.
    Our staff comes from all walks of life. A handful have stumbled as they’ve made their way along life’s path.
Those who have fallen and gotten back up are proud of their recovery — as they should be. It takes guts to look addiction in the face and wrestle it to the ground. It takes courage to start a new life.
    If the life story of one man can show by example a way out of a bad situation for just one reader, then isn’t that a gift that transcends the grave?
I think it is.
 

Mary Kate Leming,
Executive Editor

Sophia Isaac is head of volunteers at the J. Turner Moore Memorial Library in Manalapan. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Christine Davis

What do super-organized volunteers get? More work! But that’s OK with Sophia Isaac, head of volunteers at the J. Turner Moore Memorial Library in Manalapan.
    “I’m such a book person, if you like. Communication, articulation and knowledge fascinate me and has dominated my life,” says Isaac. “When my husband, Peter, and I moved here, I started to volunteer at the library. Manalapan is a great little town and the library is the community center and heart of the social scene.”
    That was a few years ago, when Mary Ann Kunkle was librarian. “I like things to be organized, and the lady who was head of volunteers, Eileen Hunt, was standing down at the time,” Isaac explains. “She did a fabulous job and no one volunteered to take her place.” So at that point, Kunkle asked Isaac to head up the volunteers.
    It’s hard to say just how much time organizing takes, Isaac says, because the library is open during season only three mornings a week and during the summer, it’s open only on Friday mornings. However, during season someone has to open the library on Saturday mornings (that would be Isaac); someone has to assist the librarian with checking books in and out (that would be Isaac or one of the six on her volunteer committee); and someone has to set up for library evenings on Thursdays (ditto).
    Currently, there are three speakers scheduled for the remainder of the library’s lecture series: On Feb. 21, angler and former Channel 12 reporter Tom Twyford will speak on environmental enhancement efforts in the Lake Worth lagoon; in March (date is not set yet), Chris Papatheodorou will make a presentation on Mount Athos; and on April 11, sports fishing enthusiast A.C. Brooks will speak about his books, including Foul Hooked and Dead on the Dock. The time is set at 6 p.m.
    For speakers, “The committee and I ask our residents to make suggestions, and we will look to see what’s possible and make the call,” Isaac says. Same goes for what books are bought.
    Also, she and her committee members figure out what books to decommission and they arrange to sell them along with donated books at the annual book sale on March 16. Proceeds go to the library.
    Everyone is welcome at the library’s book club meetings on the third Wednesday of the month at 3 p.m. year-round — a committee member is in charge of it. Movie night is at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 7, March 7 and April 4. This year, the work of Alfred Hitchcock is featured. “Since the new movie came out about Hitchcock’s life, we thought it would be interesting to look at one director, and access what he’s done,” she says.
    In addition to her library work, Isaac sings soprano at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church in West Palm Beach; she’s on the board and a member of Les Girls, which has members from 40 different countries (Isaac is from England); she’s a member of a French-speaking luncheon group; and she has been active in Red Cross.
    Isaac, in her early 60s, has worked as a human resource professional and interior designer. Although she’s not a great sports enthusiast (the sports-fishing talk was not her suggestion, although she thought it was a good idea), she enjoys swimming and walking. When she’s not busy doing all these things, she likes to visit a daughter, who lives in Vero Beach, and her other children — two daughters and son — who live in London.
    You may also find her reading poetry. She highly recommends her recent read, The 100-Year-Old Man who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, by Jonas Jonasson.
    Town Clerk Lisa Peterson has served as library director since last year, taking over for Kunkle who stepped down after 15 years. “I don’t know what I would do without Sophia,” Peterson says.  “She’s invaluable. She’s wonderful, has a great personality and is good to work with.”               

Plans call for the outdoor seating area of Gulf Stream School to be converted into a two-story pavilion with three classrooms. Rendering Provided

By Tim O’Meilia

    Gulf Stream School, the only school on the barrier island between the Hillsboro Inlet and Palm Beach, will add three classrooms and revamp a longstanding open-air pavilion beginning this spring.
    The addition will allow the private school to move some upper school classes out of the school library and out of smaller rooms designed for younger students.
    “We are extremely excited about this,” said Head of School Joe Zaluski. “This will improve our ability to provide an excellent education for our students.”
    The expansion will add 4,900 square feet and school officials have budgeted $1.2 million for the project, although the precise cost won’t be known until bids are opened this spring.
    In the heart of the campus, the pavilion where generations of Gulf Stream School students have munched their lunchtime sandwiches and sipped their milk will be demolished.  
    “The pavilion is really a part of the school culture,” said Zaluski. “The students get to go outside, eat their lunch. It’s the centerpiece of where the students congregate.”
    But the demolition of the Crocker Pavilion won’t mark the end of a school tradition.
    In its place will rise a new pavilion with a second story of three classrooms to accommodate fifth- through eighth-grade classes. The pavilion beneath the classrooms will be fitted with sliding glass windows to accommodate the lunches and allow for an air-conditioned space for bad weather or other uses. The new Crocker Pavilion will connect with the two-story building that houses the Benet Library.
    The official groundbreaking is set for April. The bulk of the construction will be done during the summer and school officials hope to complete the work by the school’s 75th anniversary Dec. 7.
    “We’re not increasing our enrollment,” Zaluski said. The school reached its 250-student cap years ago under an 18-year-old agreement with the town of Gulf Stream. “We’re not going to exceed that number. We are committed to small class sizes.”
    Instead, the school is trying to match facilities to its enrollment. “What we had seven or eight years ago was sufficient. Today it’s not,” he said. The school admits 3-year-old through eighth-grade students.
    The Town Commission unanimously approved the site plan, the demolition and several variances Jan. 11 to allow the construction. Greg Young, chairman of the school’s board of directors, assured commissioners that the school was not adding enrollment or expanding on its 2.5-acre campus.
    “I think all of us feel you did one heck of a great design,” Commissioner Bob Ganger told school architect Rene Tercilla, whose firm designed the school’s library eight years ago. The new building fits the Bermuda-style architecture of the school.
    His firm, Tercilla Courtemanche Architects of West Palm Beach, also designed the Bak Middle School of the Arts and the new Palm Beach Gardens High School.
    The school launched a $2.5 million capital drive that includes the expansion, a $1 million addition to the school’s endowment and $300,000 for academic and faculty programs. The school’s parent auxiliary has raised $250,000, Zaluski said, and at least one major gift has been pledged.
    Construction will not begin until the money for the work is in hand or pledged, in conjunction with the school’s no-debt policy, said Zaluski, adding the decades-old policy has served the school well.
    “We’re never raising money to pay off debt,” he said.         

This aerial view from a postcard shows La Coquille in the 1960s or ’70s. To the right is the intersection of A1A and Ocean Avenue.

Our private clubs: An occasional series

By Mary Thurwachter

Jet-setters flocked to Manalapan in 1952 when the La Coquille Club, a modernist masterpiece designed by Palm Beach architect Byron Simonson, made its debut. It was the place to see and be seen.
Members were captains of industry, congressmen, and people whose names made your ears perk up — Huttons, Fords, Vanderbilts, Whitneys and Rockefellers.

Visitors to La Coquille in its heyday might well have seen Esther Williams swimming laps in the kidney-shaped pool. Historical Society of Palm Beach County

They could discover Esther Williams backstroking in the kidney-shaped pool, Ginger Rogers tripping the light fantastic on the dance floor, or the Duke and Duchess of Windsor sipping gimlets in the Tortoise Bar.

The Tortoise Bar was a tony watering hole that attracted the likes of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Historical Society of Palm Beach County

During one charity party, Henry Ford Jr. and Ethel Merman sang a lengthy,  hilarious duet, according to developer and former Manalapan Mayor William E. Benjamin II. In 1957, Benjamin started the town’s other social club — The Manalapan Club at Casa Alva. That club closed in 1976, but Benjamin continued to live in Casa Alva, which was sold recently.
Benjamin, a member of many social clubs over the years, wrote about all the Palm Beach elite attending the opening night gala at La Coquille in typewritten notes titled “The La Coquille Club is Born.”
“The conception for La Coquille (French for The Shell) is interesting, but first you need to meet the principal players,” Benjamin wrote. “There was Spelman Prentice, whose mother was a Rockefeller and it was sort of a friendly joke that Spelman regretted his name was Prentice and not Rockefeller. His beautiful wife was Lola Pierce, a girl I had known well in New York City and Southampton.”
The Prentices were immediately popular with the in-group, Benjamin wrote. They became close friends with Bob and Winny Bissett.
“Bob was an active and successful real estate broker and his wife was a popular young hostess,” Benjamin wrote.
Lola Prentice became ill with cancer and died a year or so after her arrival in Palm Beach, according to Benjamin. “Her husband (Spelman) felt much indebted to Bob and particularly Winny for their devoted care and interest in finding doctors, hospitals and treatment facilities for Lola. In gratitude, Spelman suggested to Bob that if he could arrange an attractive real estate investment that he would include Bob in it for a portion of the ultimate selling price.
“Bob said he was familiar with a nice piece of ocean to lake property in Manalapan that he thought would be a great spot for a modest motel, and thus La Coquille Club was conceived.”

La Coquille’s concept evolved form beachfront motel to modernist private club. Historical Society of Palm Beach County

The concept soon changed from a modest beachfront motel to a world-class private resort club.
“You can argue as to whether this change was a result of Spelman’s sense of appropriate Rockefeller grandeur or Bob’s realization that the more money spent on the project the greater the value of his future payout,” Benjamin said. “At any rate, La Coquille did become very grand with beautiful buildings and facilities and the finest English china and Irish crystal and French linens.

The high-ceilinged main dining room of La Coquille, seen here in a postcard image from around 1970, was paneled in mahogany.

“Some say so much money was poured into it that it could never make a profit, and indeed it most certainly never did. This led to lengthy disputes between the partners when Spelman decided to sell out and various lawsuits dragged on for years before the property was eventually sold (in 1972) to Bob Evans, who had been president of American Motors in its hey day.”
Benjamin added, “the La Coquille these people created was really a fabulous place with a tall ceilinged elegant dining room paneled with great mahogany panels and an Oceanside pool luncheon area.”
After enhancing the club and adding buildings on the north end of the property, Evans sold the club to Stephen and Patty Harrison in 1978, who ran into financial difficulties.
In 1983, the club held its final affair. Evans bought the club back for $3.2 million in a foreclosure sale and sold it to Norman Groh, a Virginia hotelier, in 1985. Although he obtained permission to build a 230-room hotel on the property, he was unable to secure financing.

The original club was demolished in 1986 to make way for the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach. Historical Society of Palm Beach County

The original club was razed in 1986 to make way for the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach, with the caveat that there would always be a La Coquille Club presence at the Ritz.
Evans had negotiated with shopping center mogul Mel Simon, who built the Ritz-Carlton. The La Coquille Club, which currently occupies a lovely (and recently remodeled) 2,400-square-foot dining room and 600-square-foot terrace on the ground floor, opened in the Ritz in 1991.

La Coquille now is part of the Ritz-Carlton, and the club is open to property owners in Manalapan. Photo courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton

Bob Hutcheon, club manager for the past 16 years, said that the club is open to all property owners in Manalapan. The hotel, he said, was sold to the Lewis family of London six years ago and continues to be managed by the Ritz-Carlton.
“It’s a win-win,” Hutcheon said of the club’s relationship with the hotel. “It’s a fantastic amenity.”
Currently, there are 345 family memberships. Since the Lewis family bought the property, the policy changed so that membership is limited to Manalapan residents, however several long-time members who live nearby were grandfathered in, Hutcheon said.
All members have access to all the hotel’s amenities, from the beach, pool and tennis courts, to the fitness center, spa and restaurants. There are no dues, although members are charged for spa services and meals.
Emmy Haney has been a member of the La Coquille Club since the 1970s, when she and her husband bought a home next door at La Coquille Villas. They still own four villas, but have moved nearby to the Vanderbilt estate (Eastover) — where Simon also once lived.
“We’d come down with our five children and we’d go for big band music on Saturday nights,” she said. “We could get meals sent over, too.”
“It’s a great old club,” Haney, a long-time member of the board of directors, said. “I don’t think people realize what a great amenity we have. I go over often. We (the club) only have a room now, but we have access to the entire hotel and beach — which is especially nice for people who live on the Point.”
Living in Manalapan has many benefits, as Realtors will tell you. Complimentary membership to La Coquille Club is certainly one of them.

Debby Coles-Dubay, Boynton Beach’s public art administrator, engages with a moving sculpture in Lake Worth. Boynton Beach will host the 2013 International Kinetic Art Exhibit and symposium.
Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Mary Jane Fine

    Right up the ramp and around the corner, in the west gallery of the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County’s Robert M. Montgomery Building in Lake Worth, a tall, silvery sculpture invites all comers to shove it, push it, knock it down, if they can. A few steps away, a glass bowl winks with light and tempts admirers to dip a hand in and stir the inch-long blown-glass bulbs that nest there.
    Surprises reward those willing to engage with the exhibits — and encourage them, Debby Coles-Dubay hopes, to seek more hands-on experience with artwork that bows and spins and shimmers and glows and flaps and teeters and otherwise responds to wind or water or sunlight or plain old human touch.
    “This is a preview of our indoor exhibit,” says Coles-Dubay, public art administrator for the city of Boynton Beach, which will host the 2013 International Kinetic Art Exhibit and Symposium from Feb. 8 through 10. “From September through December, we installed outdoor art to stimulate interest in what’s to come.”
    What’s to come is an event billed as both exhibition and education — an introduction for some, a re-introduction for others, to the notion of motion in art, which traces its history back to the early 20th century and the Dada and Constructivist movements. A spin-able bicycle wheel mounted atop a four-legged stool — Marcel Duchamp’s 1913 Bicycle Wheel — is generally considered the first example of kinetic art, art that moves. The form moved onto center stage in the 1950s and ’60s, when it was difficult not to see one of Alexander Calder’s mobiles.

Children interact with the Tangerine Glider, a kinetic art piece of powder-coated steel by John King.  The sculpture is on display on the grounds of the Schoolhouse  Children’s Museum and Learning Center.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

        Right now, in the Boynton Beach Arts District, it’s difficult not to see examples of kinetic art. Dance with the Wind on Ocean Avenue, is just one: A series of polished stainless steel circles within circles, it climbs to a height of 33 feet — the creation of Swiss designer Raifonso, he of the knock-me-down exclamation point. Raifonso, who also has a residence in West Palm Beach and is co-founder of the upcoming exhibit and symposium, created Dance with the Wind for China’s 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
    Nearby, is Mni Iktom, by Boynton Beach artist Sarah Younger, a complex piece that incorporates water, earth, sun and wind — four elements of the Lakota sacred hoop. The Lakota believe that the hoop is broken whenever one violates a law, principle or value of their culture, causing the loss of harmony, balance, beauty and peace. Younger, who will be a speaker at the symposium, uses the work to demonstrate alternative energy.
    “Kinetic art,” she says, “Is definitely a participatory art form.”
    Solar Butterfly, at the corner of West Ocean Avenue and North Seacrest Boulevard, showcases alternative energy as well. The far-larger-than-life butterfly, by New Jersey artist Rein Triefeldt, gently moves its wings, seeking to demonstrate the capturing and use of solar power.
Coles-Dubay and the city of Boynton Beach seek to renew the form’s popularity and the city’s place in the pantheon of art-savvy locales.
    “We decided, let’s not do a typical art fair, let’s do something different,” she says, recalling planning sessions by the city’s Art in Public Places Program. “We want to bring in students, developers, architects. We said, let’s bring in the education component and have the artists talk to the public. They can learn what really went into this; and, to me, that’s the best way for people to learn about art.”

A glass bowl winks with light and tempts admirers to dip a hand in and stir the inch-long blown-glass bulbs that nest there. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

    At the Lake Worth preview, communication and its hinted-at surprises come in the form of that oh-so-now buzzword, “interaction.” The hit-me statue, a 6-foot-tall exclamation point, tilts a little or leans a lot, depending on the vigor of one’s shove, but it always bobs upright again, a sleek, stainless steel nod to the inflatable Joe Palooka punching bag of the 1950s. The glass bowl, when handled, sends light fluttering around its edges and glows orange at its base, as if warmed to the core by attention.
“Kinetic artists are like one-armed paperhangers,” says Barbara Ready, chairwoman of the Arts Commission in Boynton Beach, marveling at the inter-weaving of technology and science, creativity and ingenuity that goes into the work. “They’re always thinking, ‘How do I do this? How do I make that work?’ ”
    The hows and whys and why-nots will be open for exploring during symposium sessions such as “Transition from Tradition” and “Breaking the Barriers.” Youth workshops will coach children and teenagers in making pinwheels and Calder-esque mobiles.
    The idea for everyone, Coles-Dubay says, is to experience art in a different way and find it to be more approachable.
    “You have artists who exhibit art in a gallery or a museum but, often, people don’t feel comfortable there,” she says. “They don’t feel they know enough.”       

IF YOU GO
What: The 2013 International Kinetic Art Exhibit and Symposium
When: Feb. 8-10
Where: Boynton Beach; indoor exhibits at City Hall, the Civic Center, the City Library and the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum; outdoor exhibits on Ocean Avenue and Boynton Beach and North Seacrest boulevards  
Cost: Free for the exhibit and symposium; $30 for kids’ and teens’ hands-on workshops.
More info: Go to www.intlkineticartevent.org.