The Spirit of Giving Network Holiday Gift Drive Collection Party took place at the home of Bob Sheets and Debbie Linstrom (above), where, in a single evening, hundreds of gifts poured in and more than $7,000 in cash was donated to support the annual outreach event. In its 11th year, the program works with 60 nonprofits in the community to provide toys for 4,000 needy children. Photo provided

Florence Fuller Child Development Centers’ Wee Dream Ball raised a record-breaking $480,000, which will help ensure the 625 children at the Boca Raton facility have access to early-childhood education, programs and health screenings. Photo: Committee members Jay and Karen Foreman.
Photo provided

By Tim Pallesen
A Trader Joe’s grocery store and eight restaurants might be too much to squeeze onto a 10-acre site near the Linton Boulevard Bridge, a city advisory panel says.
The developer of the proposed Delray Place project east of Federal Highway on the south side of Linton Boulevard will scale back the project after the city’s Site Plan Review and Appearance Board rejected its site plan by a 5-0 vote on Dec. 12.  Board members voiced concern after the developer told city staff that the California-based Trader Joe’s might be a tenant.
“In California, it’s a nightmare getting into Trader Joe’s,” board member Rustem Kupi warned.
“Trader Joe’s will be a mess if that’s who comes in here,” board member Jason Bergman agreed.
Delray Place’s site plan requests 130,000 square feet of commercial space that includes two anchor stores, a bank and the eight restaurants in a line along Linton. “We think the site is too small for the amount of commercial space here,” city planner Ron Hoggard said.
The developer, Retail Property Group Inc., also is asking the city to approve a reduction in required parking spaces (from 524 to 453) plus reductions in open space, landscape and setback requirements.
After SPRAB rejected that proposal, the developer got board approval a week later to submit a revised site plan in February or March. “They’ve agreed to address our issues,” Hoggard said.
The developer declined to comment about Trader Joe’s. But Hoggard said the popular boutique grocery chain was described as a “potential tenant” during his talks with the developer.
Trader Joe’s opened its first Florida store in Naples two years ago. More stores are planned in Sarasota, Gainesville, Tallahassee and south Miami-Dade County.
Residents living near its possible Delray Beach location protested when the developer told Hoggard delivery trucks would arrive at the grocery store as early as 5 a.m.
Ron Kolins, an attorney representing 14 Tropic Isle residents, requested a 12-foot buffer wall to be built and a ban on truck deliveries before 8 a.m.
Neighbors also want outdoor music to be banned at the restaurants and no outdoor food served after 9 p.m.
“A restaurant, while an enjoyable place, brings a lot of noise and impact,” Kolins told the advisory board.
“Delray Beach has been very sensitive about the impact projects have on neighbors,” he said. “I’m asking you to live up to that.”
Neighbors and board members agreed at the Dec. 12 meeting that the site now zoned for offices needs to be redeveloped, but with smaller buildings and more parking.
“That intersection requires something special,” board member Jose Aguila said. “But this developer missed an opportunity by jamming the site.” City commissioners approved rezoning for Delray Place on first reading on Nov. 13, but they also expressed concerns about the developer’s site plan, which the commission still must approve.     

Australian pines along A1A are part of Gulf Stream’s signature look. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Tim O’Meilia
    
The hammock of dense growth will remain along A1A in front of the old Spence property in Gulf Stream — noxious non-native plants included — and Australian pines will be planted to make the foliage even thicker.
    Town commissioners struck that compromise Dec. 14 between advocates of replacing the exotic plants with the town’s beloved Australian pines and nearby residents who favored keeping the natural hammock now in place.
But the plans may be scrapped if state road officials insist on an 18-foot-wide “clear zone” for driver visibility along the three-lot stretch of the new Harbor View Estates. Until recently, an 11-foot clear zone has been the standard elsewhere in Gulf Stream and along A1A. The wider zone would not leave enough room for the Australian pines. The town has appealed the right-of-way ruling.
“We want to make a statement that this is what Gulf Stream is,” said Commissioner Bob Ganger. “We intend to make Australian pines the signature tree on our A1A corridor from south to north.”
Nearby residents, including two members of the town’s Architectural Review and Planning Board, opposed the pines.
“This exercise to keep Australian pines seems almost unanimously opposed by the neighbors,” said planning board chairman Scott Morgan, who lives nearby. “The problem is it upsets the natural foliage of southern Gulf Stream.”
Australian pines have long been a favored species in the town. Noted architect Addison Mizner is widely believed to have brought the fast-growing species to the area in the 1920s.
In 1991, the town’s civic association donated $5,000 to a Save Our Trees effort. A special act of the state Legislature approved in 1996 allows the town to maintain and plant the trees along A1A between Pelican Lane and Sea Road because of their historic value to the town.
The species is among many on the list of invasive, non-native plants that must be removed under Palm Beach County regulations when a property is redeveloped. The regulations do not apply to state road right-of-way where the pines would be planted.
“Your brand is important, and, for better or worse, Australian pines are part of our brand,” Ganger said.
The town’s original plan called for 14 non-native species to be removed from the clear zone, including Brazilian peppers and tropical almonds. Other native species would replace them, along with 10 to 60 Australian pines.
Seaside Builders, which is developing the six Harbor View Estates lots, has agreed to pay for the installation. Behind the clear zone is a 10-foot buffer on private property and behind that will be planted buttonwoods and other species to block the Harbor View privacy wall along A1A.
Morgan feared that “then you’ve got trees like soldiers lined up like a military formation.”
With the commission’s unanimous approval, the exotic plants will not be removed and other new species will not be installed. The pines will be planted irregularly along the stretch to look more natural. Landscape architect Dave Bodker said the pines would grow up through the present vegetation without difficulty. The town grows its own Australian pines because they can no longer be sold by commercial nurseries.
The project could take several years if state road officials approve the clear-zone waiver from 18 to 11 feet.
Town Manager William Thrasher has proposed removing five Brazilian peppers and six almond trees along the west side of A1A and replacing them with 40 to 60 Australian pines.         

By Margie Plunkett
    
Thanks to anonymous donations, the Ocean Ridge Police Department is getting a new police car that had previously been cut from the budget.
The commission in December accepted the donation of $30,000 from the Ocean Ridge Support Group, which was made by the anonymous donors, for the purchase of a 2013 Ford Explorer for the police force.
“We have a terrific opportunity for the Ocean Ridge residents,” Chief Chris Yannuzzi said at the Dec. 3 meeting in announcing the donations earmarked for the police car.
Up to $5,000 would be taken from the contingency fund to cover any additional money needed for the car.
When asked by Commissioner Zoanne Hennigan the identification of the donors, Yannuzzi said, “The folks wish to remain anonymous,” although he indicated it was multiple people.
He also pointed out that purchases made possible by the support group become the property of the town.
Yannuzzi’s request for two new police cars outfitted with laptops — to the tune of $68,000 — was not financed as commissioners worked to balance what’s been an ever-tightening budget.
“We’ve had the opportunity to drive the car,” Yannuzzi said, “and it handles unbelievably.”
Gulf Stream has also ordered one of the SUVs but hasn’t gotten it on the road yet, he said.
When resident and former Commissioner Betty Bingham suggested that any cash left over after the purchase could be put in a separate fund, Dr. Lynn Allisson, who was acting as mayor for the evening, pointed out the money was designated only for the car.
    The two police cars were proposed for purchase in the last budget season and survived a couple of rounds of cuts. By the end of September, however, they became casualties of budget-cutting.
In separate business, Town Attorney Ken Spillias noted that in a letter to the commission, former Mayor Ken Kaleel indicated that he had been asked by Ocean Breezes LLC — which was before the commission several years ago — to represent the group on a site plan.
    Spillias said because of the time that has lapsed, he did not view it as detrimental to the town. Commissioners directed the staff to prepare a letter of informed consent allowing the representation.   

The Lantana Police Department will be getting two 2013 vehicles this year — a Dodge Charger pursuit car and a Chevy Tahoe 1500.
Total cost for the vehicles is $47,971 — $21,401 for the Dodge, $26,570 for the Tahoe. Another $36,702 will be spent for painting and adding police decals and emergency lights, radio, graphics and video equipment to the cars.
At its Dec. 10 meeting, the Town Council also gave the  thumbs-up for the Police Department to buy a backup generator for $37,650.
The old generator needs repairs, and parts are not available. The town will spend another $3,350 to hook up and install the generator.
Money for both cars and the generator had been set aside in the budget.  
                 — Mary Thurwachter

    A walk along Manalapan’s beachfront is a dramatic illustration of the adage, “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.”
    Towering steel seawalls riddled with huge, rusted, Swiss cheese-like holes lay bowed seaward before eroded pits where lawns, patios and pools once stood. Where one of these failed seawalls connects with another of newer construction, the strain of the connection is obvious: In some cases it forced the collapse of the neighboring wall.
    In the aftermath of local wave damage and flooding generated by Hurricane Sandy, discussions of coastal armoring and beach renourishment have become topics for heated discussion among individual homeowners and community leaders.
    These discussions are essential. When it comes to beaches, seawalls and bulkheads, we all have a lot to learn. There’s private vs. public, seawalls vs. dunes and the impact of rising sea levels on the beachfront and along the Intracoastal Waterway.  
    Why do we need to spend our sunny days in paradise studying these issues?  Because they affect our safety, our property values and any hope we might have of passing along our barrier-island home to future generations.
    Whatever is done in one town will impact the others. Until we all get together and find common ground with a barrier-island master plan for coastal preservation, we will be subject to the whims of nature.
    The time is now, and we can’t afford to be cheap. Unless we are prepared to let our beaches, dunes and bulkheads go au naturel, it’s going to take money. We need to educate ourselves to make smart decisions, devise plans and guidelines and then intelligently execute on those plans.
    Anyone who believes that you can live in paradise without paying for it is the weak link in our chain.

 Mary Kate Leming, Editor

The razorbill, a seabird that usually travels no farther south than the Carolinas, was a common sight off the Boynton Inlet during the middle of December. Beach erosion and other disturbances brought on by Hurricane Sandy are thought to have prompted the razorbills to fly south.  
Photo by Rick Schofield

By Cheryl Blackerby

    Long before President Obama said in a September speech that climate change was not a hoax, South Florida mayors and other government leaders were talking to scientists and legislators about global warming.
    In 2009, local government officials in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties formed the South Florida Climate Compact, a partnership they said was created “to tackle one of, if not the, most important issue facing our generation.”
    One of their findings: Sea levels are projected to rise 3 to 7 inches from 2010 to 2030 in Key West, according to calculations by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. By 2060, sea levels will rise 9 to 24 inches. These and other calculations showed the enormous risks not only to people in Key West but to the 5.6 million residents in these four counties, many living at low elevations.
    At the compact’s annual climate summit, Dec. 6 and 7 in Jupiter, officials shared new scientific evidence and anecdotal experiences from Hurricane Sandy, which underlined the need for planning.
    “Sea level rise is happening. People who say climate change is not happening are burying their heads in the sand,” said Fred Beckmann, director of public works for the city of Miami Beach. He showed photos of flooded Miami Beach streets, which had never flooded, and drainage systems that were overwhelmed by the storm surge.
    “We have to ask the hard questions now. What are we going to protect? What do we do for surge protection?” he said. “We need to act now. We need to add flexibility to the storm-water system, we need to look at future water storage, and we need to raise seawalls.”
    The message from the summit’s featured speaker, Dr. Heidi Cullen, chief climatologist for Climate Central, a nonprofit science journalism organization headquartered in Princeton, N.J., was sobering.
    In July, two comprehensive climate science reports were released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, she said. Using indicators such as the amount of greenhouse gases in the air and melting glacial ice, the reports demonstrated how global warming is already shifting the odds in favor of some extreme weather and climate events, such as the Texas drought and heat wave of 2011.
    “We’re not talking about 50 years from now, but now. The new normal is warmer and wetter. These are tough issues,” said Cullen, author of the book The Weather of the Future. She is a lecturer at Princeton University; a senior research fellow at the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania; and was the first on-air climate expert at the Weather Channel.
    Hurricane Sandy has changed our ability to talk about this issue, she said, adding that polls show most New Yorkers believe climate change caused the hurricane.
    “Extreme weather events have quadrupled. Experts predict more extreme weather, and more simultaneous events,” she said. “The kinds of extremes we see now are a pale shadow of what we will see in the future.”
    The U.S. has had record high temperatures. Record highs should equal the lows, she said, but now we have twice as many record highs as record lows since 2000.
    Cullen noted that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city will rebuild with climate change in mind. We can’t wait for predictions to come true, and react to disasters, she warned. Local governments have to plan for them.
    The dikes in the Netherlands are an example of planning for epic flooding disasters. They fortified the country for a 1-in-10,000-year event, which most people would think is extreme, she said. But the alternative is one most residents don’t want to do — move people out of high-risk areas. Communities will have to do a lot of soul-searching in coming years to decide what to do, she told community leaders.
    And while planning for the worst, they should be working to avert disaster by reducing greenhouse gases. Communities can take steps together, such as providing green public transportation, she said.
    The Florida Keys will be affected first by climate change, she said, which Keys officials didn’t doubt.
    “The sea level rise is quite recognizable in the Lower Keys,” said Monroe County Mayor George Neugent. “We’re having to elevate roads that used to be high and dry. We’ve been set back by the Bill O’Reillys of the world. This is very important. We can’t even build dikes to protect us.” The highest point in the Keys is 12 feet, with most people living below 4 feet, he said.
 Matti Bower, mayor of Miami Beach, said her city is working on a master plan and is taking sea rise into account. Beckmann of Miami Beach said 90 percent of the seawalls are privately owned. “What happens when you tell people they have to raise their sea walls?”
    “We’re concerned,” Cullen said, “about the economy and jobs, but we can care about this issue and still care about other things. And we can fix things that help right now and will help in the future.”                 

Update: Citizens group sues city over density approval for Atlantic Plaza II

By Tim Pallesen

    Coastal residents near the proposed Atlantic Plaza II project remain concerned after Delray Beach commissioners narrowly gave developers the OK to build 40 units per acre last month.
“The density is resolved. Everyone is satisfied with the number of housing units,” Barr Terrace resident John Papaloizos said. “The concern now is over the mass and scale of the project.”
Papaloizos says his group, Save Delray Beach, will file a lawsuit against the controversial project even though the Beach Property Owners Association decided not to sue after commissioners voted on Dec. 4.
“We’re happy to see the density reduced, but we still have some concerns,” beach owners president Andy Katz said.
The developer originally asked for 51 housing units per acre. The reduction to 40 units per acre was necessary to win a 3-2 commission vote for a conditional use permit.
Mayor Woodie McDuffie joined Commissioners Adam Frankel and Angeleta Gray to approve the lower density. McDuffie said office space included in the multi-use project will attract young professionals to high-paying jobs in the downtown.
Vice Mayor Tom Carney and Commissioner Al Jacquet voted against the density request, saying it should be cut more.
The Dec. 4 vote came after a second marathon public hearing where neighbors objected to the traffic that the $200 million project would generate on East Atlantic Avenue near the bridge.
Developers want to build 79,000 square feet of office space and 80,000 square feet of restaurants and retail in addition to 356 apartments on the north side of Atlantic Avenue east of Federal Highway.
    The developer negotiated during the Dec. 4 hearing with neighbors north and south of the project site to win their support. The developer will pay to close Northeast Seventh Avenue and install traffic calming to the south.
But Save Delray Beach still plans to file its lawsuit to meet a 30-day deadline after the commission’s Dec. 4 vote. “We still believe it’s too big,” Papaloizos said.
The developer will ask the city for site plan approval this year.
Katz said the Beach Property Owners Association will review the site plan application to decide whether to object, as the coastal residents group did at the two density hearings.
“We want the project designed to be attractive for residents to see when they come over the bridge,” Katz said. “The bridge is our connection to the rest of the city.”      
    Atlantic Plaza II project manager Don DeVere met with neighbors on Dec. 17 to discuss a possible compromise prior to site plan hearings. Three architects who live near the project suggested modifications to preliminary designs.
“Most of their comments were in line with what we believe the design issues to be,” DeVere said. “We’re putting forth an earnest, good-faith effort to respond quickly to community feedback on design.”
Papaloizos described the two-hour discussion as productive. “But the developer doesn’t want to give up square footage,” he said. “The city master plan says this project must be compatible with the surrounding neighborhood. The developer said nothing to put people at ease.”
Neighbors remain concerned about traffic congestion after DeVere said large delivery trucks to restaurants and other businesses would enter on East Atlantic Avenue rather than Federal Highway.
DeVere will meet with opponents again in late January before submitting a site plan application.
“How do you scale down a very large project into the scale of Delray?” DeVere asked in explaining the challenge.
“We really want this project to be something that we all can be proud of,” Papaloizos said. “That’s our rallying cry.”        

By Tim O’Meilia
    
A proposed inlet-to-inlet approach to beach restoration and management will cost small coastal towns $4,000 to $19,000 a year with no promise that a beach protection project would be approved.
    The pilot project proposed by state environmental officials is the first of its kind in the state to take a regional approach to beach management rather than evaluate each individual project. It’s also designed to streamline the state and federal permitting.
    After meeting monthly since May with local town and Palm Beach County officials to craft an agreement, state officials will visit council meetings in February to seek approval of the basic five-year, 33-page agreement.
    “We’re 90 percent there, folks. We’re down to the fine-tuning,” Danielle Fondren, deputy director of the state water resource management division, told municipal officials, environmentalists and engineers at the final
meeting Dec. 6 in Palm Beach.
    “This allows us to take the blinders off our eyes and take a longer look at beach management. We’re not looking narrowly, we’re looking regionally, more realistically,” she said.
    The contract would cover projects along the 15.7 miles of shoreline between the Lake Worth Inlet and the Boynton Inlet, and would require the coastal towns — Palm Beach, Lantana, South Palm Beach and Manalapan — to share in the annual cost of monitoring hard-bottom, sea turtle behavior and physical beach changes, including dunes.
    The monitoring is key to accelerating approval of projects because the basic information needed for state and federal permits would already be on hand.  
    Three previously approved projects — all in the town of Palm Beach — would benefit most from the agreement, mostly from accelerated permitting.
    Two proposed projects — at the south end of Palm Beach and in South Palm Beach and Lantana — are in the middle of environmental impact studies after previous proposals to install breakwaters and groins were rejected over environmental concerns.
    The towns would pay for the annual monitoring regardless of whether a project is eventually approved for that town.
    Fondren proposed two assessment methods, one based on the percentage of shoreline and the other on the percentage of critically eroded beach, as established by regulatory agencies.
    State officials estimated the monitoring costs at $472,000 a year, not including about $50,000 more in the first year. Under either method, Palm Beach would pay the vast majority of the cost.
    While the costs to Lantana and Lake Worth would be similar, Manalapan would pay more than $80,000 based on shoreline alone but only $4,725 based on eroded beach. South Palm Beach would pay $5,670 under the shoreline method and $19,372 under the eroded beach version.
    “Is Manalapan likely ever to have a project? No,” Fondren said. “Are they going to have benefits? Yes.”
    Manalapan Town Manager Linda Stumpf said there is little reason for her town to sign. “We have no projects. We won’t have any projects,” she said.
    Only 12 one-hundredths of a mile of Manalapan’s shoreline is classified as critically eroded, all in front of the Ritz-Carlton resort. Stumpf said the resort’s management had no interest in footing the annual bill.
    Other officials acknowledged that the monitoring would benefit future projects. “I know the difficulty in getting permits. If this helps expedite permitting, it’s a good thing,” said South Palm Beach Councilwoman Bonnie Fischer.
    Lantana Town Manager Debbie Manzo said she would leave the decision to her council but recommend an annual cap of $5,000.
    If some towns refuse to sign the agreement, Fondren said, the project may be dead.
“Right now, I consider it an all-or-nothing thing. If not everyone signs, then we lose the benefit of the regional approach,” she said.
    She said she hoped that Palm Beach County could be persuaded to pay a share of the monitoring. The county spends $42,000 a year on monitoring individual projects between the inlets now.
The agreement has not gained the support of environmental groups.
Dan Clark of Broward County-based Cry of the Water said too many questions remain, especially regarding turbidity monitoring while projects are under way.
    Fondren insisted that the regional approach is better. “None of the regulations have been compromised or weakened. In fact, they’re strengthened by the beach management agreement. We’re testing a wider area. We’re going beyond what we normally would require.”                       

Manalapan property owners are working together to fix their failing seawalls. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Tim O’Meilia

    While oceanfront residents scramble for permits to rebuild their collapsed seawalls, the Manalapan Town Commission is considering establishing seawall standards for both ocean and Intracoastal Waterway properties.
Commissioners voted unanimously to ask their longtime coastal engineering consultant, Taylor Engineering of Jacksonville, to give them the price for a three-phase proposal that would eventually lead to public hearings on specific seawall standards.
    At the insistence of Commissioners David Cheifetz and John Murphy, town officials also will seek a proposal from a second engineering firm.
    At first, the commission had hoped to quickly develop seawall standards and certification rules, but discussions with Commissioner Donald Brennan, the commission’s appointed representative, made clear that the process will be lengthy.
    Although the state Department of Environmental Protection approves seawalls, no hard-and-fast standards exist. “The state agencies are concerned about the natural beach and marine life, not about protection of property values and building codes,” Brennan said.
Meanwhile, owners of four properties along the ocean where seawalls and upland property were damaged when Hurricane Sandy swept past off-shore in late October succeeded in obtaining emergency state permits to rebuild their walls. Four more permit applications are pending, according to state Department of Environmental Resources spokeswoman DeeAnn Miller.
    Seawalls of at least 15 properties in the mile-long stretch between the old Vanderbilt estate and Chillingworth Curve sustained damage approaching $2 million. Entrepreneur David Lumia organized 11 of them into single group to obtain permits and rebuild more economically, although not all of them have applied yet.
    Lumia flew architects, coastal engineers and construction officials to Tallahassee in his private jet to meet with state environmental officials. The group originally had a Dec. 28 deadline to obtain emergency permits to replace the walls, but state officials later extended the deadline until Jan. 27.
    Later applications will take a more costly and longer 90-day path to get permits.
    State officials agreed to allow the new seawalls to be a foot higher than previous ones, but they must be located in the same place, said Stuart Lepera, co-owner of Lands End Developers, which is performing work for many of the landowners.
    Lumia and engineers are convinced that a single seawall will withstand nor’easters and other storms better than individually built structures.
    In most cases, the storm surge topped the seawalls, saturating and adding weight to the land behind the walls and causing them to collapse seaward.
    Other seawalls that were in disrepair and failed also contributed to the collapse of neighboring seawalls.
    Although the new seawalls will be erected before the town can establish its own standards, Brennan said that “what is being constructed is what would probably be approved in the future.”
    Most of the town’s oceanfront seawalls were built in the 1960s, and the town oversaw repairs in 1965 and 1985. But some homeowners objected to a $1.8 million repair bill in 2001, and in 2003, voters left seawall upkeep to the individual owners.
    “The ones that failed were the ones Taylor Engineering identified back then, for the most part,” Brennan said.
    Taylor will submit a cost estimate for inventorying the seawalls in town and their shape, an estimate on the costs of armoring the shoreline against storms of varying strength and an estimate on the cost of writing the seawall standards.
    “This was an unprecedented nor’easter — given the full moon, maximum high tides, and tremendous wind from the northeast — that affected South Florida to New England,” Brennan said.                          
    “This is a game-changer. It’s in everyone’s best interest to minimize the likelihood of future damage,” he said.

By Tim O’Meilia
    
For the second time in two years, the Manalapan Town Commission rejected bids from outside agencies to handle the town’s police dispatch services.
Both neighboring Ocean Ridge and Lantana submitted proposals well under the town’s $241,600 annual dispatch costs, but Point Manalapan residents called for the dispatch center/gatehouse at the entrance to the point to continue to be manned 24 hours a day.
Hiring guards to man the center would add $122,000 to $148,000 annually to the cost of outsourcing the dispatch services, town officials estimated.
“I was surprised at the amount of money involved,” Town Commissioner David Cheifetz said. “Given the spread between the two costs, I suggest we stay (with our own dispatch).”
Commissioners voted 5-1 to continue their own dispatching.
“Looking clinically, it’s a $100,000 savings that will appreciate over time,” said Commissioner Donald Brennan, who opposed keeping the service.
He suggested that using the dispatch center as a police substation where officers would be there occasionally was a better solution.
“With the cost of the gatehouse, it’s obvious to me that we stay as we are,” said Commissioner Bill Quigley.
During the last two meetings, Point residents said that having the gatehouse manned, even if by unarmed dispatchers, discourages crime on the south end of Hypoluxo Island.
“I think it would hurt property values if we didn’t have a gatehouse,” said Point resident and former Commissioner Tom Thornton. “To me, it’s a wash.”
Ocean Ridge’s bid added to first year implementation costs was $204,800. Lantana’s was $240,100. Staffing the gatehouse would cost another $130,000 or so. The town’s estimate to continue with dispatching was $241,600.
    The second year, without start-up costs, Ocean Ridge would cost $153,300, Lantana $207,200 and Manalapan $248,800.
Under questioning, both Manalapan Police Chief Carmen Mattox and Ocean Ridge Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi said police response time to calls should not be affected by farming out dispatching.
Two Manalapan police officers urged the commission to consider their strong working relationship with the Lantana and South Palm Beach police departments.
Manalapan and South Palm Beach use each other for backup, and Manalapan officers are familiar with Lantana officers since they drive through part of Hypoluxo Island to reach the point.
Three full-time and four part-time dispatchers handle the town’s handful of 911 calls and about 400 non-emergency calls per month.
The cheaper contracts negotiated by neighboring towns for dispatch services prompted commissioners to seek proposals. South Palm Beach pays Lantana $54,000 annually, and Gulf Stream pays Delray Beach $54,000.
Previously, Manalapan handled South Palm Beach calls, but Lantana underbid the town several years ago.   

By Tim O’Meilia

    Before Manalapan Commissioner Howard Roder could make a motion to fire Town Manager Linda Stumpf, the other commissioners quickly gave her a 5-1 vote of confidence Dec. 18.
    “I want to consider other candidates for the position of town manager,” Roder said, less than 24 hours after emailing his complaints about Stumpf to other commissioners.
Roder had little chance to enumerate his complaints about Stumpf before Commissioner Louis DeStefano leapt to her defense and moved to retain her.
“I feel we’re fortunate to have her as town manager. She works all hours and has always been available to the Town Commission,” said Mayor Basil Diamond, who votes only in case of ties.
    Commissioner Bill Quigley, who served on the commission through four of the last five town managers, said, “I have never seen a more professionally willing person. I think it would be travesty if we lost her.”
In his email, Roder complained that Stumpf overstated how much the town would save if the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office replaced the town’s police force, that she misstated police statistics and inflated crime statistics, among other things.
“I realized the information being supplied was not fully researched, misleading or manipulated. I am not saying that this was done purposefully or maliciously,” he wrote in the email.
“You’re cherry-picking some errors, some factual, some typos,” DeStefano told Roder. “Your aim is to find fault and make an issue of it.”
Commissioner David Cheifetz said sloppy paperwork didn’t negate how well she handled the Sandy storm crisis, during which oceanfront seawalls were damaged.
Stumpf called in state officials to walk the beaches and arranged for several meetings with affected homeowners.
Commissioner Donald Brennan bemoaned the public discussion of Stumpf’s performance. “I make a plea that we have to de-escalate the public display and the exchanges because it’s unproductive.”
Stumpf, former administrator in Palm Beach Shores and Mangonia Park, was hired as the town’s finance director in 2003. She was appointed interim town manager in October 2010 and was hired permanently two months later. She earns $105,000 a year.
She said nothing until the vote to retain her was taken. “Thank you very much for that,” she said.  

By Tim O’Meilia
    
Kathy Clark had been a police dispatcher for the Boca Raton Police Department for 18 years and was taking college courses to become a paralegal when her dad asked her for help.
Could she fill in as a dispatcher in Manalapan? Her father was Manalapan Police Chief Ralph Meadows. How can you say no to dad?
“He got me to come here temporarily. Temporarily lasted 24 years,” Clark said with a laugh.
Clark, who turns 65 this month, retired Jan. 1, after working under four police chiefs over the years.
The daytime dispatcher hidden behind the computer terminals and locked steel door that everyone calls the Point Manalapan gatehouse won’t be Clark any longer.
“I got to know a lot of residents over the years. I hear when they’re sick. I know when they’re gone. I’ve gone to their funerals,” she said.
“A lot of people have been very good to me, and I’m going to miss a lot of them,” she said. “A couple of people told me I can’t retire.”
Born in West Virginia, Clark came with her family to Florida when she was 11, and she lived mostly in Lantana. She graduated from Lake Worth High School and worked as a telephone operator while she studied law enforcement. Boca Raton hired her in 1970.
Clark will have more time to devote to remodeling her home with her significant other of 21 years. She has a son and a grandson. She will also spend more time working on her family genealogy and researching the history of Lantana and Manalapan.
She is one of the founders of the Lantana Historical Society and volunteers at Yesteryear Village at the South Florida Fairgrounds, where the original bridgetender’s house for the Lantana bridge is preserved.
Clark was recognized for her years of service at the Dec. 18 Town Commission meeting.
    She said Police Chief Carmen Mattox has asked whether she would fill in as a dispatcher if the need arose. “Maybe I’ll get the itch,” she said, making no promises. “It’s a good little town.”       

The Delray Beach Preservation Trust dedicated its message to the future in December, a time capsule that won’t be opened for a century.
The capsule, which is housed in the lobby of City Hall and celebrates the city’s centennial, contains photos of Delray Beach and more.
Dan Sloan, who spoke on behalf of the Preservation Trust before the commission at its Dec. 4 meeting, said the capsule included his organization’s newsletter, newspapers, photographs and information about the Franklin House restoration as well as from Delray Now and Then — a project that included interviews with every living mayor of Delray Beach.
The items in the capsule are documented, so town officials and residents of tomorrow “will know what’s in there in the future before they open it,” Sloan said.
The capsule also holds a coloring book with drawings of buildings significant to the city and information on the Preservation Trust’s double matching grants program.
Technology, of course, is part of the time capsule, which will hold artifacts including an iPod and an incandescent light bulb. Sloan pointed out the latter will be obsolete in just a year or two.
— Margie Plunkett

By Ron Hayes
    BRINY BREEZES — Gertrude Dombroski started spending her winters here in 1953 and became a permanent resident in the early 1980s.
She left, from her own bed, at 6:35 p.m. on Nov. 28, holding her daughter’s hand as I’ll Be Home For Christmas played on the stereo.
She was 95 and always claimed that Briny was “the closest thing to heaven.”
    “She loved the clean air,” recalled her daughter, Candy Alexandra, who shared her home. “There was nowhere on Earth where you could open your door in the morning and smell the salt breeze. In the early days, everybody knew what everyone else was having for supper because all the windows were open.”
    Born Gertrude Koskulitz in Hazleton, Pa., on Dec. 29, 1916, she was one of eight children, all of whom she had survived.
    In 1940, she married Ted Dombroski, who died in 2001 after 61 years of marriage. The couple were in the amusement business.
    In addition to her daughter, she had a son, also named Ted, who died in 2007.
    Although she did not attend college herself, Mrs. Dombroski stressed the importance of education, and both her children earned doctoral degrees.
    Her son held a doctorate in behavioral psychology from the University of Houston.
    Her daughter has master’s degrees in music education and music therapy from the University of Colorado and Florida State University and also earned a doctorate in early childhood development from Nova Southeastern University.
    “I got my love of music from my mother,” she explained. “We didn’t have a radio in the car, so I’d ask her for a song and she’d sing it. She used to wake us up by singing any cheerful song that came into her mind, or else she’d make one up.”
    Despite having suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis in her early 30s, Mrs. Dombroski taught herself to walk again and recovered so much agility that friends and neighbors in the park were astonished by her vitality.
    “She used to run all over the place,” remembers neighbor Terry Kline, who met Mrs. Dombroski when she was 90. “She was the most amazing woman, running around all over the place. My dog, Madison, always loved her because she gave him treats. Whenever I took him for a walk, he only wanted to go next door.”
    A funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. on Jan. 9 at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach.
Her daughter requests that no flower or monetary donations be made. “Just say a prayer for her,” she said.

By Emily J. Minor
    
OCEAN RIDGE — Henry “Hank” Gribensk, 60, a veteran of the U.S. Army who many years ago used his opportunities in the military to get off drugs and turn his life around, died Dec. 5.
Mr. Gribensk was a well-known and well-loved property manager at two island condominium complexes, Crown Colony and Ocean Walk — where he also lived.
    Rhonda Gribensk said her husband had been diagnosed with liver cancer about a year ago, and had declined rapidly in the last few months.
    A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Gribensk was the third of four children. The son of a Brooklyn produce driver, Mr. Gribensk was closest to his grandmother, who lived with the family. “You know how those big Italian families are,” said Rhonda Gribensk.
    After his grandmother’s death, Mr. Gribensk dealt with the loss by turning to drugs, eventually developing an addiction to heroin, Mrs. Gribensk said.
    “He went to rehab — a really hardcore rehab that straightened him out,” said Mrs. Gribensk, who met her husband about 15 years ago at the bowling alley in Boynton Beach, where he worked then as the manager.  “Then he went into the military,” she said.         “He loved the military. He did have a really hard life, but the military is what really changed him. After that, he was like a different person.”
    The Gribensks had been married eight years and Rhonda Gribensk said he was the kindest, most loving man she’d ever met. “He treated me like a princess,” she said.
    To the residents of the two complexes where he worked, Mr. Gribensk was the go-to handyman who could fix just about anything. “He was the greatest guy in the world,” said Patrice Mahon, who lives at Ocean Walk. “He was always happy, and would do whatever you asked him to do.”
    She said she had visited with him on the afternoon of his death at his Ocean Walk condo.
    Mr. Gribensk was buried at South Florida National Cemetery, the veteran’s cemetery on U.S. 441. Mahon said there were more than 50 people there.
    “I looked around and, if it had been raining, there were too many of us to fit under the canopy,” she said. “It was very nice.”
    Mrs. Gribensk said her son-in-law, Michael Roper, has been hired to take her husband’s job and manage the property at Ocean Walk.
    Beside his wife, Mr. Gribensk is survived by their blended family of six children and 10 grandchildren. Mrs. Gribensk said all the grandchildren adored him, and called him “Papa.”

Park Ranger Gery Moran puts out barricades after sunset to close off a portion of the parking lot at the Boynton Inlet. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Margie Plunkett

    Ocean Inlet Park has gotten a new tenant — and its parking lot is being closed off from dusk to dawn in response to increasing concerns about crime there.
A Palm Beach County Parks employee is now housed at an apartment at the Inlet park, and barricades are being put in place each evening to close off the parking lot, according to Ocean Ridge Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi.
Permanent gates will be installed at the park for the routine nightly closure, he said.
The Ocean Ridge Police Department met with county parks personnel, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Manalapan officials Nov. 29 to discuss crime and loitering at the park. The meeting was in response to a letter sent to the county parks department by Manalapan Police Chief Carmen Mattox, according to Yannuzzi.
“The joint effort is an excellent example of the cooperation that exists among these government entities,” Yannuzzi wrote in his town’s newsletter.
Even while the parking lot is closed at night, there is still access for fishing and the marina all day and night, he   said.       

By Tim O’Meilia
    
If the South Palm Beach police bargaining unit signs a three-year contract in the next month or so, the five members will each get a $1,500 lump-sum bonus.
The town’s other six full-time employees will get zip.
At its Dec. 18 meeting, the Town Council decided not to give the other town workers a one-time pay boost to match the police officers’.
“We made a conscious decision not to do it (during budget hearings last summer),” said Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello. “Come budget time, we’ll look at it. Everyone deserves a raise. It’s about our ability to give that raise.”
None of the town’s 11 full-time employees, including the police, has received a pay raise in four years. The town has lost 40 percent of its property tax base since 2008 during the economic downturn. While property values in other towns inched up this year, South Palm Beach lost another 1.7 percent.
“There is no reason to reopen it at this time,” said Councilwoman Stella Jordan. “I’m saying that because we spent so much time considering it during our budget sessions.”
If all 11 town workers and two part-timers received pro-rated $1,500 increases, it would have cost $19,000, including other payroll taxes, according to Town Manager Rex Taylor’s calculations.
Aside from the five officers, the other town employees include the police chief, captain and lieutenant, the town manager, the town clerk and assistant town clerk/administrative assistant.
Although the council and the bargaining unit agreed to a contract during a five-hour bargaining session in October, the union has yet to vote on the contract.
An apparent misunder-standing over whether police could go over the bridge during their 30- to 45-minute meal breaks prompted an exchange of paperwork before the issue was resolved. The police union members are expected to vote before the January Town Council meeting.        

NOTE: The January 17 public hearing on the Briny Breezes Comprehensive Plan has been postponed until early March based on revisions requested by the town attorney.

By Tim O’Meilia

    More than six years ago, Briny Breezes residents voted to remake the town into a resort including 20-story towers, a 350-room beachfront hotel and rows of three-story condos.
    That half-billion-dollar dream would have created dozens of instant millionaires of modest mobile home dwellers. That deal collapsed in 2007 of its own ambition — state regulators said it was too big for its own good.
    Now, the 43-acre town/trailer park is taking its first steps toward designing a more modest future.
    The town’s Planning and Zoning Board has unveiled a new comprehensive land use plan that would allow more than mobile homes in town. The plan would allow traditional one- and two-story single-family homes, a commercial corridor of town-serving businesses and low-rise multi-story condos and rental units on the west side.
    “Our mission is to give Briny permission to evolve if it chooses to,” said planning board Chairman Jerry Lower.
    The board has scheduled a Jan. 17, 4 p.m. public hearing on the plan at the Town Hall.
    Whatever is recommended will go to the Town Council for approval later. The town has an April 2013 deadline to complete the land use plan, which hasn’t been changed since 1989.
    The land use plan is more concept than hard-and-fast requirement. The plan does not specify building types or heights and refers to stores and businesses only in general terms.
    Regardless of what the Town Council eventually endorses, the shareholders of Briny Breezes Inc., the mobile home co-op that owns the entire area of the town, control any change that actually occurs. Mobile home owners hold shares in the corporation based on their size of their lots.
    “This is a blueprint to permit the corporation to do what it wants, to deviate from just a trailer park, if it wants,” said Mayor Roger Bennett.
    The key component of the plan allows “owners to have the ability, with the corporate board’s approval, to replacing existing mobile homes with one- or two-story residential units that are more storm-worthy and insurable than a mobile home,” Lower said.
    The town has survived the hurricanes and tropical storms of 2004 and later with relatively minor damage.
    Briny Breezes was founded in the mid-1950s as a destination for people who drive travel-trailers to Florida on vacation. The town remains a largely seasonal area.
    The A1A commercial corridor leaves much to the imagination. The only businesses in town now are a hairdresser and a family-run drug store. Suggestions have included a barber shop, an urgent care center and an ice cream shop, all requiring little parking.  
    Briny’s high-rise plans of the mid-2000s drew harsh criticism from neighboring towns fearing increased traffic and congestion.
    “I applaud their efforts. They’re giving themselves the chance to grow and change,” said Kristine de Haseth, chairwoman of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, which vehemently opposed the previous plan.
    De Haseth has attended many of the planning and zoning board’s meetings. “The plan absolutely makes sense to us. We’re delighted they’re actually, after 23 years, starting to self-evaluate and plan for the future.”
    Lower said he sees support from officials in surrounding towns. “I‘ve talked to people in Ocean Ridge and Gulf Stream and they’re excited about the idea of Briny evolving over time, especially the idea of more storm-worthy buildings.”
    The plan has been several years in the making. Rather than hire an outside consultant, the Town Council commissioned Town Attorney Jerome Skrandel, who also has a corporate background, to help craft the plan with the Planning and Zoning Board.
    “I’m very pleased with Mr. Skrandel’s work,” Bennett said. “He has an understanding of the town that an outside firm wouldn’t have.”
    Briny is basing its plan on housing and population figures that are at odds with the 2010 census. While the U.S. Census counts 601 residents and 800 homes — a nearly 50 percent increase of both over 2000 — Briny claims only 417 permanent and 488 homes. The town figures a seasonal population of 924 which could expand to 1,161 by 2015.
    The town has filed an appeal of its housing and population figures.                                                                                              

Editor’s Note: Jerry Lower is the owner/publisher of The Coastal Star and a property owner in both Briny Breezes and Ocean Ridge.