By Cheryl Blackerby

DELRAY BEACH — Carl Smith spent most of his life putting smiles on the faces of those around him.
At Miramar Gardens in Delray Beach, he was known as the easygoing golfer and tennis player whom everyone called “Doc” — the guy with the one-liners about Notre Dame football.
“He used to tell people that there were only two important Catholics in the world,” said his son Dana Smith. “There was the pope. And then there was the quarterback of the Notre Dame football team.”
Before moving to Delray Beach in 1982, he spent most of four decades taking care of the smiles in Trumansburg, N.Y., where he established a flourishing dental practice after coming home from World War II.
“He was a real people person,” Dana Smith said. “He enjoyed the company of others and had many happy tennis matches in Delray.  He loved it when they called him Doc.”
Carl Richard Smith died Dec. 3 in Delray Beach at the age of 93. His wife, Virginia, “Ginny,” died in 2007, shortly after they celebrated their 60th anniversary.
The two met in France during the war. She was a Red Cross nurse and he was an Army Air Corps dentist.
“Mom went back to Seattle after the war, and dad went back to New York,” said Dana Smith. “She was quite independent. She got into a car and drove all the way to Trumansburg to find him. She did and that was it. They were together from then on.”
Doc and Ginny married in San Mateo, Calif., in 1947 and returned to Trumansburg to raise five children, all of whom survive: Dana (Roxanne) Smith of Trumansburg; Eric (Maria) Smith of Ligonier, Pa.; Paul (Robin) Smith of Bend, Ore.; Mike (LaJuana) Smith of Los Angeles; and Beth Smith (Mike Lambert) of Eugene, Ore. The couple leaves eight grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and one step-great-grandchild.
Doc Smith earned his bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame and went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania’s dental school. One of the family’s special retreats was a cottage on Cayuga Lake, one of the Finger Lakes, where they enjoyed summer vacations together with friends.
Doc Smith played tennis well into his 80s and followed Notre Dame football until the end.
There are no services, but friends can make memorial contributions to St. James Catholic Church, P.O. Box 709, Trumansburg, NY 14886. For more information, contact Ness-Sibley Funeral Home in Trumansburg, (888) 534-5446.
Family members plan to gather sometime next summer for a memorial celebration of Doc’s life.

By Margie Plunkett
    
The first choice for the Delray Beach city manager position was picked for the “fresh eyes” he’d bring to the community — and chosen over the inside candidate.
City Commission voted Dec. 11 to enter contract negotiations with Louie Chapman Jr., who has been town manager of Bloomfield, Conn., for 19 years.
    But Commission will further investigate unsolicited information on questionable behavior in the candidate’s current position while simultaneously negotiating his contract, the commissioners agreed at their Dec. 8 workshop.
    Included in the start of negotiation are a salary of $160,000, car allowance of $400 a month and temporary housing costs of up to $1,500 a month and capped at $9,000, according to Commission consensus at the workshop meetings. They are scheduled to discuss the contract again at their Jan. 3 meeting.        If commission ultimately approves Chapman’s employment contract, he will succeed City Manager David Harden, who is retiring this month after 22 years. An interim manager will be named to take over after Harden leaves and prior to the new manager’s start.
    Mayor Woodie McDuffie said that unsolicited information came to the Commission after its Dec. 11 vote for Chapman. The sources said that Chapman had moved his girlfriend in with him using a city vehicle, according to the mayor.
    He also asked a member of the police department to remove the head of Human Resources at his city and to escort her out of the building because he no longer could deal with her and wanted her gone, according the mayor’s account of the source’s report.
The police officer declined, because he said the woman hadn’t done anything.
    The allegations fueled discussion among commissioners about whether and how it should be vetted. Vice Mayor Tom Carney pointed to whistleblower statutes and said, while allegations under those cir-cumstances may not always be true, they are taken seriously.
“There are things we have to do to make sure we are confident on our decision,” Carney said, adding, it’s better to address the questions now than later.
    The workshop meeting followed by a week the meeting at which Commissioners chose Chapman above a candidate already at work in the Delray Beach City Manager’s office.
“Delray Beach should really have a manager who’s been a manager,” said Carney at the Dec. 11 meeting, adding, “It’s important that we have fresh eyes here.”
    Chapman, previously assistant city manager in Charlottesville, Va., beat out Delray Beach Assistant City Manager Doug Smith for the position. Carney, along with Commissioners Angeleta Gray and Al Jacquet, supported Chapman, while Mayor Woodie McDuffie and Commissioner Adam Frankel favored Smith for the experience and knowledge he has of Delray Beach.
    “Delray Beach Florida, has a lot of different issues than Connecticut,” Frankel said. “One thing I failed to mention: Every staff member who I spoke to is behind Mr. Smith.
    “We’re at a time in Delray where this could be a lot of transition. A lot of senior staff is facing retirement. It’s too much upheaval for me.”   
Jacquet, who said, “We need new blood,” countered that Harden was an outsider when he was hired into the position. “like him or not, the city has moved forward.”
Several commissioners — both for and against Chapman — said his stand on pensions raised cautionary flags.
“The one concern I had was his position on pensions,” Jacquet said. “With that being said, we five are the ones who are tasked with the responsibilty to make policy decisions. It does not matter what Mr. Chapman thinks about pensions.”
Commissioner Carney said he too asked Chapman about pensions. “He said his job would be to implement the views of the Commission.”
Mayor McDuffie raised two issues: That Chapman repeated several times that he would not “clean house,” which caused the mayor concern that “he doth protest too much” on the topic.
The mayor also described a second issue, which he said was a domestic dispute in which no charges were filed. Commissioners pointed out that the townspeople did not demand Chapman’s resignation and he remained in his position for 10 years after the situation.
The newly selected city manager has a master’s in planning from the University of Virginia and a Bachelors from Norfolk State University.
Chapman was among four candidates Commission brought in for interviews at the beginning of December.  
                                            

By Margie Plunkett
    
A group of downtown restaurant and bar owners wants to revise the city’s noise ordinance after it became apparent several are in violation of newly adopted requirements.  
Members had asked City Commission for 60 days to come up with more fitting noise regulations.
    The group met with a consultant, the Downtown Development Authority, attorneys who drafted the city’s ordinance and code enforcement officers in an attempt to come up with a better noise ordinance.
    Group members had differing opinions on how noise should be regulated and didn’t reach a consensus in a meeting held Dec. 17, according to Burt Rapoport of Deck 84.
    About 30 people attended the five-hour meeting, he said, and the group plans to meet again after the holiday to determine what it wants out of the ordinance. They’ll come back to City Hall after that meeting.
    At City Commission’s Dec. 4 meeting, Mayor Woodie McDuffie said of the city’s ordinance, “It would appear practically, that what we’re requiring is almost undoable.”
    Commissioner Adam Frankel said then that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving he had received an email from Rapoport about his surprise about the ordinance and the public hearings that were held.
    Several establishments noted that they had no knowledge that the public hearings on the issue would be held, the commissioner said.
    The new ordinances impose penalties for first offenders of $1,000 for excessive noise.
    Delray Beach’s police chief said that his department could issue warnings rather than tickets until the issue is worked out.                                                  
                                            

Trevor Zankl, 7 (left), makes a move during chess at Gulf Stream School in his first-grade class as Hunter Presson, 6 (center), peers over to watch his move. Libby Volgyes/The Coastal Star

By Libby Volgyes

    Juliana Papera eyes her opponent’s moves with the calculating experience of a chess player far beyond her years.
But she has the politeness of a 7-year-old who knows her manners.
“You’re so good at this, Reece,” she compliments her opponent.
The game plays out as she watches carefully from the floor, where they play with 4-inch pieces of indestructible plastic.
“But you’re probably not thinking about what my move is,” she cautions him.
The game proceeds at Gulf Stream School, piece after piece taken with the uncontained glee of first-graders on a Friday.
“All you need is to take my king. But that’s impossible!” she says.
Gulf Stream School has been teaching chess the past three years. Among the first-graders learning one recent morning, six have chessboards at home and one has a private chess tutor.
“Certainly they use a lot of their chess knowledge when they’re solving their math problems,” said Nicole Hoffman, the first-grade homeroom teacher. “It’s the highlight of their week. They adore chess.”
Jake Julien, 7, who has a tutor, likes how the queen can move in any direction and also likes the “en passant” move. He knows exactly who has the most points at any given time and enjoys playing chess with his parents, “but usually beat(s) them.”
Bruce Perrotta of Wellington is the chess instructor who comes to the school to work with the students each week. He learned the game when he was 9 or 10 and travels to teach at different schools throughout South Florida. He also teaches dance and is retired from semi-pro football.
“The game itself, the rules are more complicated than your average kids’ board game, but you take them in bites,” he said. “You teach them concepts in bite-size pieces. As they become comfortable with that, you begin adding on. For example, take kindergartners. The first concept is moving, who gets to move first. Then you experience the pieces and how they move.”
Down the hall, the kindergartners study chess every week for 20 minutes.
“They’re just so eager to learn, and they remember so much,” kindergarten teacher Deb Handler said. “They’re such sponges, and they want to learn it all.”
“Chess promotes the idea of logical thinking, of planning, of understanding, of giving in order to get,” Perrotta said. “Of coordinating a team, of overcoming obstacles. It’s basically built around a simulation of conflict in life, so the idea is on understanding how to approach conflict and gain confidence in solving problems to create success.”
Karen Awaida, 5, reminds a classmate how the different pieces move.
“Only that one can jump because horses can jump,” she says, pointing to the knight.
Karen plays with her brother Stefan, 8, who competed last year in a chess competition — winning three and losing two matches. Stefan plays on his iPad a few times a week as well as with his sister.
“I take it hard on her, just to give her a lesson,” Stefan said. But the lessons seem to be working, as she surely and deftly maneuvers the pieces around the board.
That is, until the lesson’s over.
Then it’s time for snacks and recess.                                     

Eighth Grade Poetry Contest winners (from left) Gus O’Hare (Gulf Stream), Luke O’Carroll (Ocean Ridge), Morley Wyler (Ocean Ridge) and Remy O’Hare (Gulf Stream) display the pictures that served as the inspiration for their poems. Unity Middle School language arts instructor Jeanette Perrella comments: ‘It was very interesting to see which paintings inspired the students to write. The class’s true individuality and creativity were apparent in their writing.’ The first- and second-place winning poems are reprinted below.

BEAUTIFUL THOUGHTS
Morley Wyler, ‘13

The day is crystal clear
Not a single cloud is near
The pond is peaceful and full of life
The colors that fill the water are as sharp as a knife
The wind blows softly through your hair
All you can do is sit and stare
The lilies look as soft as silk
Their colors are as creamy as milk
A man sits on a bench on a peaceful day
Living his life away
The sun beating in the sky
No one asks him “why?”
Not a single worry does his mind chase
Because of the stillness of this enchanted place
The water lilies grow, and never cease to inspire
Never does his mind of this lovely scene tire
As the man looks at the pond, he thinks of his life
He thinks of his two young children and his gorgeous wife
And the day turns into night.


BLUE HORSE
Remy O’Hare, ‘13

Riding alone under a desert sky
A million stars shine down on my
Friend and teacher who I have always admired.

I think I know what he would say
When asked the most important question of the day.
“Listen to your heart, stay close to your friends,
Protect the weak and fully live your life until it ends.”

“For life sometimes is filled with sorrow and pain
So let the clouds and rain come again.
Life will always be sweet and beautiful.”

This makes my heart so full
To share with others and raise their spirits high
And with them travels the spirit in the sky.

What better way to spend one’s life
To ignore the anxiety and strife
To know it’s there but you choose to see
Only the good things God has given me.

Ryan Graham, 6, of Delray Beach is a study in concentration as he fills his K-Cup with potting soil and seeds. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

Erin Donahue’s dog ate her homework.
Before she could eat it herself.
    Barkley, the family’s Shar-Pei mix, romped into the back yard one day and dug up all those tomatoes and chives, the rosemary and basil that Erin had planted so lovingly and tended so loyally.
    This would embarrass any seventh-grader, but it’s especially awkward for the co-captain of the K-Cup Crusade at St. Joseph’s Episcopal School in Boynton Beach.
    “He’s just a puppy,” she explained, protectively.
    And the K-Cup Crusade continues to grow.
    The idea blossomed after Erin attended the Solid Waste Authority’s 3R (Reducing, Reusing, Recycling) Ambassador summer program. Urged to apply what she had learned to a service-learning project to promote “living green” at school, she was sitting at the breakfast table one morning when inspiration struck.
    “My parents were making coffee in a Keurig machine,” she recalled, “and I realized they were perfect little pots to hold a seedling plant.”
    Keurig cups, for those who still swear by Mr. Coffee, are the small, prepackaged plastic containers, slightly larger than an individual serving of cream, that are loaded into Keurig machines to make a single cup of coffee.
    Erin’s mother, Michelle Donahue, is St. Joseph’s development director. When she heard her daughter’s idea, the project quickly developed.
    Parents and teachers, students and administrators are collecting K-Cups as if they were rare postage stamps. And every second Tuesday of the month, they’re put to work.

Lucy Ream (right) and Sophia Rex tag-team the weeds that grow between the rows in the school garden.

    For nearly an hour, the first- and sixth-graders pair off beside the school’s 10-by-60-foot garden, where tomatoes, eggplants and green peppers are well on their way to a harvest.
    With the older kids lending a hand, the first-graders scrape coffee grounds into compost buckets, and the K-Cups are set aside to be washed and planted with seeds.
    “My biggest challenge is to teach them it’s OK to get their hands dirty,” Michelle Donahue laughed. “Put your hand in the dirt and feel it! Touch it! It’s OK!”
    In addition to germinating seeds for their own school garden, the students are packaging the cups with dirt pellets and seed packets to be distributed at school and community events.

First-grader Ryan Fellowes labels his seedling cups.

    And next year they’ll send the packaged K-Cups to students in New York and New Jersey to help communities affected by Hurricane Sandy replant school and community gardens.
    So far, the students have collected about 820 cups, with a goal of 2,000 in mind.   
    On a recent Tuesday afternoon, the philosophy of “Living Green” had clearly inspired the students.
    “Green means to keep the world healthy and be good to the world,” explained Ryan Graham, 6, of Delray Beach. “I’m planting … ” He frowned. “Let me think  … cucumbers and watermelons.”
    Watermelons? In such a tiny coffee container?
    “It’s going to grow up,” he said with confidence.
    “I’m learning that you should help the Earth stay healthy and pick up garbage,” said Sophia Rex, 6, of Boynton Beach, as she packed a K-Cup. “I’m planting everything there is. If you saw it, you’d be amazed.”
    The K-Cup Crusade is only one project in a school-wide “Live Green” program. In time, the students’ garden will be harvested and the tomatoes, eggplants and green peppers used in meals, which in turn will yield a cookbook.
    The school has elections for its “Live Green Council,” as well as “Green Ambassadors,” who carry leftover fruits and vegetables from the lunch table to the compost bin.
    And the message seems to have taken root.

Alyssa Gangale is one of the co-chairs of the Boynton Beach school’s K-Cup Crusade.

    Erin’s co-captain of the K-Cup Crusade is Alyssa Gangale, 12, who organizes exhibits and talks that highlight the school’s “Live Green” projects.
    “We never had a recycling bin at our house,” she confessed. “Until now.”      
    For more information, visit www.sjeslivegreen.org.

Daniel Herrick, who lives at St. Andrews Club, got his MBA while serving in the Navy for 20 years. His long civilian career in finance included stints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

     Daniel Herrick doesn’t look 92. He doesn’t act it, either, as he describes the events of his life in vivid detail.
He calls himself “one of the luckiest people I know,” and good luck is a recurring theme as he recounts his 20-year naval career and subsequent success in business.
During World War II, he served on the USS Lansdowne, a destroyer stationed in the South Pacific. “They called it Lucky L,” he says. “We were never hit.”
He was transferred to Hawaii, then to Miami at war’s end — lucky warm-weather assignments for a kid from New Jersey.
“They sent me down to Miami and gave me what’s called a ‘spot promotion’ to lieutenant. I was all of 25. This was at the Fifth Naval District, and I was in charge of petroleum products for the ships in the Florida area,” Herrick says.
“I lucked into getting an apartment in Miami, which in those days was very difficult, and mine was right on Biscayne Bay with sailboats going by. And there were a lot of girls in Miami. I thought, ‘boy, this is the duty!’ ”
Other lucky transfers included Guam — “I lived in a quonset hut on a cliff overlooking the harbor, with a dog, a piano and an American girlfriend” — and later San Diego, where he and his first wife had a home on Naval Air Station North Island.
Years later, after a divorce, Herrick was assigned to work in personnel at the Department of the Navy in Washington, D.C. Being a single man, one of his extracurricular duties was White House aide, helping President and Mrs. Truman host dinners and receptions.
“I would be at the head of the receiving line, introducing guests to the president and first lady,” he says. “The Trumans were nice as could be. They treated me like family.”
While in Washington he met and married his second wife, a member of the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). He attended Harvard Business School and earned an MBA on the Navy’s dime — another stroke of luck that helped launch his post-Navy career in finance.
Now divorced a second time but happily retired at St. Andrews Club, Herrick stays active swimming, spending time with family (two grown daughters and six grandchildren), and traveling around the world.
Last year he cruised with friends from Hong Kong to New York aboard the Queen Mary 2.
And it appears his famous luck is still holding: after taking up croquet at age 91, he was given the “rookie of the year” award.          
— Paula Detwiller

Q. Where did you grow up and go to school?
A. I grew up in Montclair, N.J., and graduated from Montclair High School. I attended the University of Virginia, planning to become a lawyer. While there, I joined the Navy ROTC. Well, I got my college diploma on June 15, 1942, and on June 30, they commissioned me as an ensign in the Navy Supply Corps, and I went on active duty. I was sent to a destroyer in the South Pacific called the USS Lansdowne. I caught up with the ship on Dec. 30, 1942, in Noumea, New Caledonia. I was 21.
Q. What professions have you worked in?
A. At the end of the war, I left the Naval Reserves and joined the full Navy. Over the next 20 years, I worked in naval supply operations and personnel. At one point, the Navy sent me to Harvard Business School to get an MBA, so I was well-equipped to work in finance when I got out. My first civilian job was with the W.R. Grace Company. I later became chief financial officer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. I was there 17 years before being recruited to join the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., as their CFO. I retired for good in 1995.
Q. How did serving in the military during WWII change you?
A. It made me grow up from being a boy to a man. Before that, I’d never had any real responsibility. I’d worked as a waiter at the country club during the summer, but that was about it. So to be sent to a destroyer and all of a sudden be in charge of a group of men and have to set up an office and order supplies and food for the ship — that was completely new.
Q.  What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?
A. I have said this to my grandchildren: I think young people, when they get out of college, should do a couple of years of service to their country, in the military, the Peace Corps, some kind of government service. It’s a way of maturing that helps them as well as the country.
Q. How did you choose to make your home in St. Andrews?
A. A high school classmate of mine had a place here, and about 25 years ago he invited me down for a couple of days. I thought, “Boy, this is a nice place, the lawns are so green and well-kept, and the buildings are all freshly painted.”
About 25 years later, after my friend had died, I had occasion to come back here, and by gosh, the grass was still manicured, the houses were still painted nicely. After renting here for a while, I decided to buy a unit and fix it up.
Q. What is your favorite part about living in St. Andrews?
A. The people are nice. I swim a lot, and I’ve taken up croquet, so I like the pool and the croquet courts. And I like to walk on the beach, which is just across the street.
Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. Yes — one of my professors at Harvard Business School, Gen. Georges Doriot, a Frenchman … in the U.S. Army. He owned the first venture capital company in the U.S. He was a maverick who didn’t use the typical Harvard Business School “case study” approach to teaching.
Doriot liked to get our creative juices flowing. He’d make us think of a new idea for a business every single week. One time my classmates and I came up with the idea of a flat television set that you’d put up on a wall. In those days, that was pretty far-out thinking! But now we have it.
Q. What book are you reading now?
A. The Admirals, by Walter Borneman, about the five-star admirals who won WWII at sea. And I just finished a good book by David McCollough called The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris.
Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
A. Richard Burton. He [could] play anybody and … [had] wonderful taste in women.
Q. Do you have a favorite quote?
A. The chief justice of the United States, Oliver Wendell Holmes, was walking down Constitution Avenue one day with his law clerk, and two pretty girls walked by. Holmes leaned down to his law clerk and said, “I wish I was 75 again.” I think that’s a wonderful quote, and I feel that way, too, sometimes.       

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Our hours are hit-and-miss, but your best bet to catch us is from 10 am-6 pm, Monday-Friday.

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During the month of December, all proceeds will be donated to the Community Caring Center in Boynton Beach.

Happy Holidays!

By Tim Pallesen

 Delray Beach commissioners narrowly gave Atlantic Plaza II developers the OK to build 40 units per acre on Tuesday night.

    But Papaloizos said support for a lawsuit remains strong. “I think we will end up in court,” he said.

Related photos/story: Aging seawalls no match for Sandy’s overtopping waters | Graphic: How the seawalls failed

By Tim O’Meilia

    Medical supply entrepreneur David Lumia and his wife, Margaret, were in their Manalapan carriage house on the west side of State Road A1A when Hurricane Sandy blustered north just offshore in late October, pushing surge after surge of waves landward at the worst possible time — during autumnal high tides just before a full moon.
    “We felt seismic activity. The land was moving,” Lumia said.
    “What was that?” his wife asked.
    “Waves,” he answered.
    Across A1A, where his oceanfront home was being renovated, the seawall had collapsed. His back lawn slid down beyond the wall in sheets. The asphalt driveway fell away in giant, cookie-shaped bites.
    The story was the same — and worse — up and down the mile-plus stretch of A1A between Chillingworth Curve and the old Vanderbilt estate. The seawalls protecting at least 15 of South Florida’s priciest properties were severely damaged.
    Worse, the oceanside pools of two homes collapsed, and the foundation at the corner of one of those homes was undermined. The week before Thanksgiving, a small Bobcat front-end loader was hauling concrete slabs and pushing sand behind the fallen seawall at New Age musician Yanni’s home on South Ocean Boulevard.
    With the pool already lost, workers were trying to protect the corner of the house, where the foundation already was exposed. His was the hardest-hit.
    No one has totaled the damage to private property, but the cost to replace the seawall alone could top $2 million, based on a ballpark estimate of 2,000 feet of damage at $1,000 per foot, according to structural engineers and government officials.
    Countywide, the damage to public beaches and property tops $24.5 million, based on estimates calculated by officials of the Army Corps of Engineers, state environmental protection and county officials, who walked the length of the coastline.
    Lantana lost its lifeguard tower and beach walkover, which will cost $44,000 to replace, and damage to a stairway and ramp in Ocean Ridge at the Boynton Inlet cost $24,000, said Dan Bates, deputy director of the county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management.
    About $150,000 worth of damage was done to the railing at the Boynton Inlet jetty and to the sand transfer plant, mostly electrical. “The plant held up quite well,” Bates said. “It’s a good thing we built it like a lighthouse.” The plant was briefly offline.
    The Ocean Ridge beach suffered $3 million worth of damage due to erosion but was due to be renourished next winter anyway. The sand trap in the inlet will be pumped onto the Ocean Ridge beach in February. The town has approved $23,000 to be spent on repairs to the town’s seven beach crossovers.
    Farther south, Delray Beach, scheduled for renourishment in February, had $2.5 million worth of damage and Boca Raton beaches lost so much sand that it will cost $7.5 million to replace, Bates said.

Coastal disaster declared
    Florida Gov. Rick Scott has declared most of Florida’s east coast a disaster area, allowing state permits for beach and seawall repairs to be issued quickly and without cost. He also has urged the federal government to declare a disaster, which may free up Federal Emergency Management Agency money for repairs to federally financed beach projects, such as the one in Ocean Ridge.
    If the coastline is declared a federal disaster area, private beachfront owners also can apply for help.
    Meanwhile, government officials have urged Manalapan oceanfront owners to band together and replace the seawall as a single entity because it will be easier to obtain permits and most likely will reduce the cost.
    It’s an approach ocean residents did not take in 2003 when town voters took Manalapan out of the seawall-management business. Until then, the 1.6 miles of seawall — whose approval the late mayor and town commissioner LeRoy Paslay managed to push through the state Cabinet in the 1950s — was managed by the town. Paslay, who invented the printed circuit, among other things, designed the seawall.
    The town oversaw repairs in 1965 and 1985, paid for by the landowners, but balked at the estimated $1.8 million repair cost in 2001. Some wanted their own engineers to examine the walls; others didn’t like the price.
    Left to manage their own, “some homeowners maintained their seawalls and some did not,” said Manalapan Mayor Basil Diamond, who was a commissioner in 2003. “Some seawalls failed because adjacent seawalls failed.”
    Lumia is determined to ensure that doesn’t happen again. He’s organized eight adjacent oceanfront residents, including Yanni, and is looking for more. “It behooves us to have one seawall and one permit,” he said.
    Stewart Satter, the CEO of Consumer Testing Laboratories and owner  of three oceanfront properties, is organizing homeowners south of Lumia’s group. “We didn’t have catastrophic failure, but we had a lot of sinkholes,” he said.

Quick response saves fees
    Under the state’s emergency declaration, permits are free if homeowners apply within 30 days to replace seawalls in exactly the same place. In a meeting with homeowners and state officials at the Manalapan Town Hall on Nov. 13, Lumia lobbied for a 3-foot-taller wall.
    A mechanical engineer by trade, Lumia believes waves topped the walls, soaking the land behind it, and the resulting weight was too much for the seawalls to withstand from behind.
    Later in the day, state coastal official Tony McNeal said a 1-foot-higher wall could be approved without challenge. A higher wall or a second, tiered wall behind the first might require a longer and more costly permit process, he said.
    “We’ll take whatever you give us,” Lumia said.
    At least two owners got on-the-spot permit approval. The La Coquille Club representative made a drawing of a replacement staircase to the beach on a sheet of paper and got an immediate OK.
    Meanwhile, Manalapan commissioners are considering paying $20,000 to hire an engineering firm to establish seawall performance standards for all seawalls in town, including bulkheads around Point Manalapan. The standards could require an engineer’s certification every five years.                                 

LEFT: Homeowners, property managers and state coastal officials toured a few properties, including the home of New Age musician Yanni, that had extensive damage.   

RIGHT: DEP official Tony McNeal examines portions of the failed seawall supports.

LEFT: An exposed portion of seawall shows the effects of years of corrosion to both the steel and concrete cap.

RIGHT: Properties south of the old Vanderbilt Estate’s massive seawall suffered considerable damage after Hurricane Sandy.

Although the worst seawall damage was felt between Chillingworth Curve and the old Vanderbilt Estate in Manalapan, many other private oceanfront properties between Palm Beach and Boca Raton experienced damaged walkovers and beach erosion. Palm Beach County estimates storm damage to public property at more than $24 million.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

A crowd of well-wishers gathers to watch Ryan Butts release Cindy in the Atlantic Ocean. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

Giving the turtle a name was easy. Giving her back to the sea took months.
    On July 28, a loggerhead turtle arrived at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center without a name, without a left flipper, without much chance of surviving.
    Two fishermen had brought her to the city marina in Pompano Beach that Saturday night. A shark had taken the left front flipper. Her right flipper was nearly severed and, judging by the teeth marks, her head had been in the shark’s mouth.
    “Sea turtles are usually only attacked if they’re already sick or injured,” explained Ryan Butts, the center’s turtle rehabilitation coordinator. “They float when they’re sick or injured, and that makes them vulnerable, so it’s amazing she got away.”
    Butts and his team of volunteers named their patient Cindy, and nursed her for the next three months. Her right flipper was sutured, her blood drawn to monitor glucose levels, her wounds cleansed daily and treated with honey, a natural disinfectant and antibiotic.
    And then, on Nov. 15, Cindy went down to the sea again.
    “You almost feel like your children are going off to kindergarten for the first time,” said Butts. “There’s a certain sadness, but that’s overshadowed by the happiness and pride you feel.”
    Can a turtle conquer the ocean waves without a left front flipper?
    “They learn to adapt with very little problem at all,” he said. “The propulsion comes from their front flippers, with the rear used for steering, so Cindy will use her right rear flipper to compensate.”
    As he spoke, a camera crew from television’s National Geographic Wild channel scurried about, filming the preparations. In town to record a segment about the center’s new artificial reef tank, they had happily found themselves able to document Cindy’s release as well.
    Nearby, a dozen children lined up to sign a Bon Voyage poster:
    Enjoy the seas.
    Take care.
    Good luck.
    We will miss you.
    Cindy is the man!

Ryan Butts (left) and assistants used a kiddie pool on a landscaping cart to transfer Cindy from her blue plastic home to the ocean.

    Shortly before 4:30 p.m., Butts and three assistants lifted her out of the blue plastic tank that had been her hospital room and placed her on scales. Cindy had come to the center weighing 115 pounds. She was leaving at 130.
    Transferred to a green wading pool atop a cart, they wheeled her out of the rehab center to an ATV, climbed aboard and drove away, followed by other ATVs and the National Geographic crew.
    Traveling slowly, the cavalcade rolled into the parking lot and through the gate, crossed North Ocean Boulevard to Red Reef Park, and climbed the dunes.
    On the beach below, nearly 350 men, women and children — especially children — awaited her arrival, alerted by the Friends of Gumbo Limbo.
    Cindy remained unimpressed by the attention.
    “There’s a sandbar not far offshore,” Butts said, “so we may have to give her a little nudge.”
    As he spoke, a black thundercloud sailed in from the west.
    Butts and three or four volunteers lifted Cindy from her wading pool and placed her gently into the rising tide as the crowd broke into cheers, hoots and applause.

Nearly 350 well-wishers braved the surf and an impending downpour to watch Cindy return to the ocean.

    Butts followed along in the surf as the turtle swam into the waves, then south.
    Out on the sandbar, a lone nature photographer named Ben Hicks kept watch.
    Moments later, as the first fat raindrops fell, he raised an arm and signaled to Butts.
    Cindy had passed the sandbar under her own power.
    She was gone.
    She was home.                                     

Before the meeting, more than 80 people gathered in front of City Hall to protest the proposed density of Atlantic Plaza II. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Related story: Dec. 4 decision might, or might not, be last word

By Tim Pallesen
    
Atlantic Plaza II developers will cut back their proposed density after hitting a wave of protest from residents in eastern Delray Beach.
    “We’ll try to come back with something less dense,” developer Jeff Edwards promised after a marathon Nov. 13 public hearing where the Beach Property Owners Association joined opposition to the multi-use project on Atlantic Avenue east of Federal Highway.
    Atlantic Plaza II was seeking city approval for 442 apartments and condos, 79,000 square feet of office space and 80,000 square feet of retail space. The City Commission will review a scaled-down proposal when Edwards returns on Dec. 4.
    Coastal residents joined homeowners living north and south of the proposed $200 million project to voice concern about an increase in traffic congestion on East Atlantic Avenue. 
    “This will affect traffic on the Atlantic Avenue Bridge,” Beach Property Owners vice president Andy Katz warned commissioners.
    “If traffic becomes a stranglehold, it will keep backing up until it is almost impossible to get over the bridge,” said Benita Goldstein, a bed-and-breakfast owner north of the project.
    Some coastal residents fear that police and fire-rescue vehicles might be unable to cross the bridge.
    “This is our gateway to the beach from downtown,” real-estate agent Judy Craig said, warning that coastal residents would be forced to detour to alternate bridges at George Bush and Linton boulevards to reach the mainland.
    “This is total madness that would destroy our quality of life,” said Craig, who gave the council a petition signed by 813 residents opposing the project.
    An overflow crowd warmed up for the Nov. 13 public hearing by carrying “Too Dense for Delray” protest signs during a rally outside City Hall.
    Steve Blum, a candidate in the March council election, led the chant: “Hey. Hey. Ho. Ho. Atlantic Plaza has got to go.” Blum was later kicked out of the hearing by Mayor Woodie McDuffie for his behavior.
    Speakers at the four-hour hearing were split over whether Atlantic Plaza II would benefit the city.
    Greg Weiss, the economic development chairman for the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, called the project “a much-needed investment for the future of Delray Beach.”

Property owner Carl DeSantis explains to the crowd and commission his views on the value of the development.

    Rexall Sundown founder Carl DeSantis acquired the 9-acre site and partnered with Ohio-based The Edwards Companies to develop it. Local developer Bill Morris acts as their consultant.
    McDuffie and Commissioner Adam Frankel thanked the developers for proposing to spend $200 million to help redevelop the downtown business district.
    “This project is important for business development growth because it closes a gap between the Atlantic Avenue business district and the Intracoastal Waterway,” city economic development director Vincent Nolan said.
    McDuffie, Weiss and Nolan all applauded Atlantic Plaza II also for bringing much-needed Class A office space to attract businesses to the downtown.
    “We need professional people like attorneys. This project brings us the office space we’re looking for,” McDuffie said.
    Atlantic Avenue shopkeepers joined in the praise.
    “It’s going to be the jewel in the crown of Delray Beach,” said Lee Harrison, owner of the Blue Anchor Pub across the street from Atlantic Plaza II.
    “This is progress,” jeweler George Kientzy added. “We’re not a little village by the sea any longer. We’re an international destination.” Kientzy & Co. is located two blocks east of the proposed project.
    The city’s planning and zoning director defended the proposed density.
    “Density should not be the issue,” Paul Dorling told commissioners. “It’s really about how well the building is designed.”
    Atlantic Plaza II is designed like a tiered wedding cake, with building heights ranging from three to five stories. The project would have underground parking in addition to a five-level parking garage. The developer has pledged $500,000 to enhance Veterans Park to the east along the Intracoastal.
    As an example of poor design, Dorling showed commissioners a photo of the 12-story Barr Terrace condos across the waterway where residents are vehement against the project.
    “There isn’t one person in the building who isn’t worried,” homeowners president Emma Betta said. “Emergency vehicles already have a difficult time getting down Atlantic Avenue. That’s a huge concern if we have more traffic backup.”
    One resident, John Papaloizos, hired attorney Ralf Brookes, who recently won court approval for a referendum to overturn the Boca Raton City Council’s approval of a 378-unit apartment project in that city’s downtown.
    “Citizens are not happy with this project,” Brookes told commissioners at the hearing. “Their objections will be sustained in court.”
    Faced with opposition from residents on both sides of the bridge, commissioners asked Edwards to redesign the project with fewer apartments and condos.
    “The density is too high,”Vice Mayor Tom Carney said. “You need to significantly reduce it.”
    “I honestly believe you will come back with something that’s OK with all of us,” Commissioner Al Jacquet assured Edwards.
    “We can work together,” McDuffie said. “I think you’re awfully close.”                         

At press time, Atlantic Plaza II was scheduled to come back to City Commission on Dec. 4.
    The commission can either approve or deny the developer’s conditional use request to allow for building heights approaching 60 feet and a density of about 51 residential units per acre.
    If the request is denied, “the matter is settled and the file is closed,” according to Delray Beach senior planner Scott Pape.
    The developer does, however, have options, including to scale back the mixed-use project to a residential density and building height that does not require conditional use approval, Pape wrote in e-mailed comments.
    While the developer has options, the City Commission’s decision cannot be appealed within the municipal body. The only recourse to the commission’s decision is through the judicial system, according to the planner.                            

— Margie Plunkett

Marg Williams plans to donate part of the proceeds from her handmade necklaces (worn above) to benefit women’s heart health organizations. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes
    
No, it’s not breast cancer.   
    In fact, heart disease is the leading cause of death among American women, according to the Harvard Medical School.
    Women are 10 times more likely to die of heart disease than breast cancer.
    Women have a 50 percent greater chance of dying during heart surgery than men.
    While men usually experience crushing chest pain during a heart attack, women describe indigestion, nausea, difficulty breathing or fatigue — symptoms easily  misdiagnosed.
    And more than 40 percent of American women do not survive their first heart attack.
    Marg Williams knows this very well. She’s one of the fortunate 60 percent who did survive, and now the Ocean Ridge business owner and craftswoman wants to use her talent to help save others across America.
    At her jewelry and clothing boutique, MARG of Pepper Pike, at 811 George Bush Blvd. in Delray Beach, Williams sells an assortment of blouses and shoes, leather goods and jewelry. But she has one necklace of pearlized glass and gold-filled tubing that fuels her dreams.
    “I want to string this particular piece across America for women’s heart health,” she says.
    Not literally. Her goal is to sell enough of the 17-inch necklaces to create a symbolic chain across the continent.
    The necklaces, which she makes herself, sell for $68, of which Williams will donate $5 to groups that serve women’s heart health, such as JFK Medical Center or the Cleveland Clinic.
    “I’ve learned that life is precious,” she says, “but I’m not finished living, and I want to do something for others who have heart problems.”
    Now 63, Williams was diagnosed with tachycardia at 23. At 47, she had an unsuccessful cardiac ablation in an attempt to correct the irregular heartbeat.
    Two years later, she had a silent heart attack and received a pacemaker.
    Today, she sees her internist, Dr. Adel Sidky at Bethesda Memorial Hospital, every three weeks and lives with a defibrillator in her chest.
    “I have wire leads from the defibrillator on either side of my heart to keep it beating,” she says. “I’m like a robot.”
    But she remains both youthful and upbeat, stringing new necklaces at home while watching TV and working with her husband, David, to spread the word about heart health.
    “So far, we’ve raised about $400, which we’ll probably donate to the local chapter of the American Heart Association,” reports David Williams.
    That’s a long way from a nationwide necklace, but Marg Williams’ heart is in the right place.
    “Even if we just make it across Florida, I’d be happy,” Williams says. “I just want to give back because I’ve been lucky. Very lucky.”                  
    For more information, visit  www.necklaceacrossamerica.com.

By Thomas R. Collins
    
Plans to make Boynton Beach Boulevard a prettier — and, very possibly, narrower —  street have entered the design phase, city redevelopment officials say.
    Part of the beautification effort is to make the main thoroughfare, with two lanes in each direction, into more of a main-street-type roadway, possibly with one lane in each direction between Seacrest Boulevard and Federal Highway. That, officials hope, will make it an inviting atmosphere for pedestrians, and help businesses there as a result — although some businesses have cast a wary eye on the idea.
    Other changes might include better signage, burying utility lines and more opportunities for sidewalk dining.
    “We’re just trying to create our little downtown area,” Community Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Vivian Brooks said. “It’s fairly walkable, but we want to make it so people do walk it.”
    Last year, the CRA board agreed to pay Kimley-Horn and Associates $56,400 to study the idea.
    The CRA sent the Florida Department of Transportation a description of what it hopes to do to change the roadway, along with its traffic projections on why it would work.
    The concept of taking a major four-lane road and eliminating two lanes of it might not normally seem like a wise idea, but Kimley-Horn’s traffic planners justify the move by saying that the county’s population has shifted westward and alternate routes are available.
    Ocean Avenue, Woolbright Road, and Northeast 10th Street would take on most of the traffic that would avoid a narrowed Boynton Beach Boulevard, the traffic planners say.
    By 2035, the planners say, Boynton Beach Boulevard’s traffic would fall by 2,000 cars a day, to about 14,600, because drivers would avoid it. Plus, the road already falls within “traffic concurrency exception areas,” a common designation for downtown streets that allows slower-than-normal speeds for the sake of a more urban experience.
    The DOT recommended some fine-tunings to the CRA’s analysis, but said the proposal doesn’t interfere with any long-range plans.
    “They were very technical comments, very minor,” Adam Kerr, a Kimley-Horn transportation engineer, said at the last CRA meeting.  “In general, they’ve been very supportive.”
    Officials have said that narrowing the road is not a definite part of the plan yet. But Brooks said DOT’s response was a significant step.
    “We want to be fairly sure that FDOT is OK with what we’re thinking,” she said.
    The city’s downtown is “missing the boat” when it comes to having that signature avenue, she said.
    “When you come down Boynton Beach Boulevard, what you see are concrete poles and wire and mostly paving — and it’s not inviting,” she said when the Kimley-Horn agreement was approved.
    At the same meeting, business owner Valerie Pleasanton, of Ace Hardware on Boynton Beach Boulevard near Federal Highway, said that the idea of narrowing the road is misguided and that “it feels that you have a target on us and you don’t want us there anymore.” Her business is “a direct result of the cars,” she told the CRA board.
    “Beautification” and “pedestrian-friendly” streets, she said, “sound really  excellent, but the end result is less traffic coming down that boulevard. And that means less dollars in our pocket and that means I cannot afford to run a business in downtown Boynton Beach.”                                      Ú

By Tim Pallesen

    Delray Beach is asking the state to regulate sober houses after the city failed in its own effort to prevent the Caron Foundation from opening two coastal houses for recovering addicts.
    Delray Beach and Boca Raton will share the cost for a Tallahassee lobbyist to persuade legislators that the state Department of Families and Children should license and regulate sober houses.
    “Let’s start this from another angle,” Delray Beach Vice Mayor Tom Carney said of the issue for coastal residents in the city’s upcoming mayoral campaign.
    Carney faces another coastal resident, Cary Glickstein, in the March 12 election for mayor.
    “Tom as a commissioner failed to get any results,” Glickstein said. “Now, as a candidate for mayor, this is his priority all of a sudden.”
    The City Commission at Carney’s urging agreed to pay $15,000 to hire Joe McCann, senior vice president of the Tallahassee lobbying firm Ballard Partners, to be the city lobbyist. Firm owner Brian Ballard is the brother of former County Commissioner Mary McCarty.
    McCann will meet with legislative committee leaders before the April legislative session to gather support for state licensing and regulation of sober houses.
    “The real issue is the proliferation of sober houses that don’t give you the treatment that they promise,” Carney said. “Government’s role is to make sure businesses in the community do what they say they’re going to do.”
    The Florida League of Cities, also concerned about sober houses in residential neighborhoods, has proposed less costly legislation because it doubts the legislature will pay for DCF enforcement.
    “The law won’t be changed just for Delray and Boca,” Glickstein said. “The more economical way is to get other cities on the same page.”
    Glickstein became a figure in the Caron Foundation’s lawsuit against the city when a federal judge said his outspoken comments showed Delray Beach was discriminating against recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. Glickstein, the planning and zoning board chairman at the time, had called sober houses a “cancer” on Delray Beach.
    “The key is not to be the loudest, but rather to be the most effective,” Carney said, as the mayoral campaign heats up with sober houses still a concern for coastal residents.
    Federal housing laws prevent discrimination against recovering drug addicts and alcoholics.
Both Glickstein and Caron Foundation attorney Jim Green cautioned Delray Beach that federal courts could overturn a state law to regulate sober houses, just as a federal judge blocked Delray Beach ’s attempt to do so.
    “The fact that Delray Beach is attempting to spearhead state legislation with its history of discrimination against people in recovery would be viewed with suspicion by the federal courts,” Green said.              

By Cheryl Blackerby
    
Despite extensive damage from Hurricane Sandy, Delray Beach’s beach restoration project, part of a routine 10-year renourishment plan, is still on track for February.
    The cost will be only a little more than the projected $9.2 million because of Sandy’s damage to the 1.9-mile stretch along the Municipal Beach, says Dan Bates, deputy director of Palm Beach County Environmental Resource Management.
    The city has received reimbursement funding authorization of more than $4.02 million from Palm Beach County and the state Department of Environmental Protection to complete the project.  The remaining $5.2 million will be paid by the city of Delray Beach.
    More money may come from Washington. “It’s going to be up to Congress,” Bates  said. “Obviously there are some very heavy losses on the East Coast.”
    But the Army Corps of Engineers inspected Delray Beach’s beach after Sandy and agreed with the county’s assessment of the damage. “We estimated around $1 million in damage and the Army Corps of Engineers agreed with our assessment,” he said.
    Representatives from FEMA, who toured the beach after Sandy, also agreed with the assessment.
    “FEMA took that information back to Washington. We hope to get an emergency declaration from the president. After that we can qualify for FEMA funding for the coastline,” Bates said.
    Countywide damage from Sandy totaled about $24 million, he said. “Funding for that loss may come from a separate appropriations bill from Congress. It’s still unknown whether we would be included along with the Northeast. We are at least on the list. That’s a step in the right direction,” he said. He stresses that federal participation is still unknown.
    The sand for the Delray Beach project will come from offshore, and the site has been identified and permitted. The project should take only a month, weather permitting. “The dredge is very efficient and high-volume,” he said.
    The renourishment project will occur along the beach just north of Atlantic Avenue  and south to Linton Boulevard. The last renourishment project in Delray Beach was completed in 2002 by the city as part of the scheduled 10-year cycle. Additional fill was added after the three hurricanes in 2004 and 2005.
    “The project is expected to provide upland protection to area roads and properties and improve the recreational opportunities, environmental conditions and sustainability of our world-class beach,” according to a city statement.
    Delray Beach has a long history of beach restoration, starting in 1973 after long-term erosion had destroyed virtually all of the beach and dune system. Regular maintenance of sand restoration since then has been designed to optimize recreation and storm protection. The city also has re-created a dune ecosystem along the Municipal Beach, which includes pioneer species such as sea oats and a “back dune” of scrub vegetation.
    The same dredge used for Delray Beach will be used for the Lake Worth Inlet; the county will dredge the inlet first before moving to Delray Beach. There’s no start date yet for Delray Beach.
    The Army Corps of Engineers also approved the county’s assessment of damage at Ocean Ridge’s beach, and renourishment is planned for a year from now.                        

By Margie Plunkett

    Delray Beach commissioners gave first approval of a rezoning that would allow a shopping center on the southeast corner of Linton Boulevard and South Federal Highway, despite an outcry from the waterfront neighborhood behind it.
    The approval, however, was intended to move the proposal to a second public hearing, commissioners said, even though the panel noted reservations about the site plan of the Delray Place development planned for the property.
The second public hearing is scheduled for Dec. 11.
    “I think the property needs to be rezoned,” Vice Mayor Tom Carney said at the Nov. 6 first reading and public hearing. “At the same time, I don’t think we can ignore the effects of whatever we put there on the abutting neighborhood.”
    The corner is currently zoned for offices, but the developer is planning a shopping center and row of restaurants that would back up to the waterfront homes of the Tropic Isles neighborhood.   
    There seemed to be widespread agreement that the area needs to be revitalized, but some neighbors and lawmakers see the plan for the site as too dense for the property and the neighborhood.
    The back of the shopping center and restaurants are near the yards of residences — and the property owners have said that the noise from patrons dining, as well as the truckers delivering merchandise, would destroy their “peaceful enjoyment” of their homes.
    The Delray Beach staff did not recommend the project — although it does favor the zoning change.
    “We don’t think that relief is appropriate for all these things, that the intensity is too much and [the developer] should try to comply with the requirements,” said Delray Beach planner Ron Hoggard.
    “I, like my neighbors, would like to see business thrive in this area, but this is too intense,” said resident Steve Camp.
    Ron Collins, representing a Tropic Isles residents group, said, “I’m here to ask one thing to you: As this application proceeds through your process that you protect the quality of life.”
    Asking that commissioners defer on the project, Collins said, “The proposed plan shows [the developers are] completely insensitive to the impacts it has on residents, and too many major issues remain unresolved.”
    Speakers at the public hearing also worried about the traffic pattern — because delivery trucks would make U-turns to get into the development, and would have to cross traffic as they exit.