* Ocean Ridge will hear a PBSO proposal at 6 p.m. May 8 at Town Hall.

By Steve Plunkett

    The proposal to switch police services to the county sheriff got Manalapan neighbors talking, but town commissioners fear much of what’s being said is wrong.         

    “We are suffering from a dearth of facts. We are suffocating under a barrage of views and misinformation,” Vice Mayor Donald Brennan said at the April 24 commission meeting, a day after a standing-room-only workshop.
     Commissioners ordered Town Manager Linda Stumpf and Police Chief Carmen Mattox to report back on where Manalapan is now, what security issues it faces now and going forward, and if there is a gap, how the town can fill it and how much will it cost.
    Mayor Basil Diamond summarized the options: Go with the Sheriff’s Office, which says it can do the job for $1.17 million a year, or stick with the Police Department, which has a $1.4 million budget this year.
    Other possibilities Diamond included were increasing the number of Manalapan officers, increasing their compensation and adding a beach and marine patrol. Other issues include whether to hire a consultant, whether to put the proposal up for a vote by residents, or whether to postpone the matter until October.
    “There isn’t a point in having another workshop just to do what we did yesterday,” Diamond said.
    Stapled copies of a letter from the mayor, one from police officers and 55 pages of emails from residents were available at the workshop. Attendees included the mayor and two commissioners of Ocean Ridge, which will hear a sheriff’s proposal for that town May 8; Ocean Ridge’s police chief and lieutenant; three officers from Boynton Beach, which also has requested a bid from the Sheriff’s Office; and two representatives of the Police Benevolent Association.
Diamond’s letter warned that the emails held “misrepresentations” showing the writers have “a lack of understanding of the proposal or simply want to appeal to emotion rather than engage in a rational thinking process.”
Police officers support the switch.
    “The town has postponed negotiations with the PBA and the officers have been working without a contract for almost two years, meanwhile we continue to slide further down the pay and benefits scale as our surrounding police agencies move ahead of us,” the officers’ letter said. “The fact is the Sheriff’s Office can add additional hours to our patrol time and provide our officers with a much higher pay rate and benefits package.”
    Brennan said Manalapan was three different communities when it comes to crime: the homes along State Road A1A, those on Point Manalapan and the commercial properties at Plaza del Mar and the Ritz-Carlton.
    “You’re going to have a point of view depending on what your street address is,” Brennan said.
    A 2011 police log showed the ocean zone had 7,107 events while the point zone had 1,245.
The bulk of the ocean calls were for construction site checks (1,155), traffic stops (2,168) and traffic enforcement (835). But ocean residents also experienced 24 of the town’s 27 theft cases last year, all seven of its vandalism cases and its only fight.
    “It has not changed from a security standpoint for the better,” Brennan said.
    Mattox said Ocean Inlet Park just south of town had been the scene of four recent “gun-involved” incidents as well as an attempted sexual battery the weekend before. To solve the problems, he said, he would need a marine patrol and “more feet on the ground.”
    Commissioner Louis DeStefano said the county’s decision to transfer Marine Patrol operations from Ocean Inlet Park to Peanut Island had not helped the situation.
    “The Marine Patrol station closing in my mind sent a message,” DeStefano said.
    Sheriff’s Maj. Dan Smith emphasized that his proposal, first presented in February, was not a takeover.
    “We’re not actively going out and trying to drum up business,” he said. “We’re not here because we’re trying to take you over. That’s not how it is at all. We’re here because we feel we can offer you the service.”
    Smith said “crime in Lake Worth is about cut in half” after the Sheriff’s Office put 13 officers on patrol instead of seven.        Resident Peter McLean asked commissioners to put the question up for a vote by residents. Former Mayor Kelly Gottlieb echoed his request.
“I do feel this is a vote that should be taken by the community,” Gottlieb said.
    But Diamond said the Town Charter put that responsibility on the commission.
“There are a lot of emotional components to it. We want to provide what our residents feel they need, but part of being a commissioner is showing leadership,” he said.
The mayor asked Smith to explain the differences between the sheriff’s proposals to Manalapan and Ocean Ridge.
The proposal to Ocean Ridge, “price-wise, cost-wise was very similar to what we have here,” Diamond said. “But it provided for 10 officers in Ocean Ridge and we have eight.”
The Ocean Ridge plan is $20,000 less than Manalapan’s.
Smith said how many calls for service each town has and what types of calls they are determine how many officers are needed.
“And also the actual comparison of pay for the police officers that are working there,” Smith said. “You have higher-end salaries.”
    In related business, commissioners authorized Stumpf to buy a $28,000 Dodge Charger police car. The Charger will be the department’s first of that brand.
    The town last year bought two Ford Crown Victoria cruisers, the last year Ford made them, so it could save money transferring police equipment from old Crown Vics. The Crown Vic equipment does not fit in a Charger.       

By Tim O’Meilia
    
The next time a minimal hurricane threatens to slosh ashore in south Palm Beach County, most coastal residents won’t be ordered to flee.
    In fact, evacuation of the barrier islands from the Palm Beach Inlet to Boca Raton won’t be considered until a storm puffs itself up to Category 2 strength with the threat of a strong storm surge.
    Across Palm Beach County, that means that nearly 138,000 people who in the past would have been encouraged to find other shelter in a Category 1 hurricane can now stay home and ride out the storm.
    The exceptions are those who live in mobile homes — that’s you, Briny Breezes residents — substandard housing or in extremely flood-prone areas. They still will be ordered to leave by emergency officials.
    “We don’t want to unnecessarily evacuate anyone,” said county Emergency Manager Bill Johnson. “With evacuation, there’s the problem of traffic congestion and the possibility of getting caught on the road in a storm.”
    Based on the newest technology, emergency managers have drawn five new evacuation zones, replacing the current two. Although the zones are tied to hurricane strength categories, the rules aren’t hard and fast. Evacuation zones are based on storm surge and flood likelihood, rather that wind strength.
    That means a storm coming from across the state from the west, like Wilma in 2005, might require fewer evacuations than a hurricane of the same strength from the east, since the storm surge from the western storm would presumably be less.
    “The rule is: run from surge, hide from wind,” Johnson said.
    Topography maps dating to 1982 and based on old-fashioned surveying sticks have been replaced in recent years with laser-guided measurements that have cut the margins of error from 5 feet to 6 inches.
    The redrawn maps are then updated with the National Hurricane Center’s latest computerized model runs of individual storms to give managers far more precise information on timing and storm surge on which to base their evacuation decisions.
    The result is less “err on the side of caution and evacuate” and more fact-based evaluation.
    “From a public safety standpoint, and that’s what counts, we have more pinpoint, more accurate information to make decisions down to the neighborhood level,” Johnson said.
    The result: no one but the exceptions (mobile homes, easily flooded areas) evacuates under Plan A (Category 1). Last year, all of the barrier island residents would have been ordered out.
    Evacuations don’t kick in until Plan B (Category 2), when barrier island residents and a few others would be asked to leave. Still, 64,000 fewer people countywide would have to find other shelter than under previous plans.
    Only in a Plan E evacuation (Category 5) would more people be forced to leave than is required now. It would have the largest effect in Boca Raton, where nearly all of the part of the city south of Glades Road and east of Interstate 95 would be evacuated.
    One of the problems in past storms is that many people refused to leave when ordered, believing they knew their local flooding likelihood better than the emergency managers.
    Johnson hopes the more precise and more locally based decisions will result in better response from the public.
    “I think we’ll see better compliance which, to me, is the ultimate goal,” he said.
    The new hurricane evacuation zones won’t have any effect on flood insurance premiums, said emergency managers and insurance analysts.
    The new maps used by Palm Beach County aren’t the same ones used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency on which flood insurance premiums are based. For one thing, FEMA’s maps are decades old, although many are being updated.
    Evacuation maps based on storm surge don’t necessarily reflect other flooding possibilities, insurance analysts said. “Evacuation maps have little effect on the actuarial tables derived from FEMA’s flood zone maps,” said Michael Barry, vice president of the Insurance Information Institute, a nonprofit, industry-based agency.
    So, the new evacuation maps may save an Ocean Ridge resident the price of a hotel night in Orlando, but not a reduced flood insurance premium.          

By Ron Hayes

On Dec. 1, 1953, somebody in Lake Worth said, “Let’s put on a show!”
Six decades later, the Lake Worth Playhouse is still putting on shows.
That first production was Springtime For Henry, and theater-goers had to climb three flights of stairs to the City Hall auditorium to enjoy the 1931 farce in non-air-conditioned discomfort. There wasn’t a lot to do here in 1953.
When the curtain opens on the community theater’s 60th anniversary season July 5, playgoers will see Hairspray, followed by The King & I, The 1940s Radio Hour, The Drowsy Chaperone, The Foreigner and finally, Barnum.
In the 60 years between Henry and Hairspray, the Playhouse has produced 340 plays and musicals — everything from A Streetcar Named Desire to The Odd Couple, Annie Get Your Gun to Annie.
And the audiences have kept coming, so loyal that in 1975 the theater bought the 1924 Oakley Theatre building at 713 Lake Ave. for $60,000 and renovated it with a $15,000 Bicentennial grant. The first play in the new home — the oldest building registered by the county’s Art Deco Society — was The Last of Mrs. Lincoln.
“This is not Mom and Pop putting together a show on a shoestring budget,” says Theresa Loucks, the theater’s marketing director.
Indeed, if the words “community theater” make you think of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in a barn, think again. “Nonprofit” does not mean inexpensive.
The Lake Worth Playhouse has an annual budget just under $1 million, but no endowment. The small band of about 20 full- and part-time salaried employees are paid from ticket sales and a few grants.
And Rodgers & Hammerstein don’t care that you’re a nonprofit, largely amateur playhouse. The rights to put on a popular musical, for example, are sold by the theater’s seating capacity, multiplied by the number of scheduled performances.
Fifteen shows at the 300-seat Lake Worth Playhouse total 4,500 seats, whether or not those seats are sold. Simply buying the right to put on a classic musical can cost $20,000 to $25,000. And then the musicians have to be paid.
Still, the ticket prices range from $23 to $32.
“It’s real Broadway theater on a dime,” says Loucks. 
An actor auditions for this summer’s production of Hairspray on the Lake Worth Playhouse stage, which was filled with sets for a production of The Music Man. Photo by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

     The heart of the effort is the 250 men, women and children who volunteer every year to act, sing, dance, paint the sets or work the lights. For free.
The woman in charge is Jodie Dixon-Mears, who came to the theater as a high school student in 1980. Now she’s its artistic director.
“Basically, I’m the producer,” she explains. “I bring in the director and choreographers. I oversee everything that has to do with bringing the show to opening night.
But my biggest challenge,” Dixon-Mears says, “is finding people who will volunteer their time without any monetary payoff at the end.”
One of them is Michael McKeich, a telecom analyst for Palm Beach State College by day and the theater’s treasurer, stage manager, lighting technician and occasional thespian by night.
“You have to commit to eight weeks of rehearsals and three weeks of shows,” says McKeich, who drives from his home in Royal Palm Beach. “That’s 300 hours from beginning to end.”
Starting as a backstage volunteer in 2004, his moment of glory came last year, when the role of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Annie was suddenly, unexpectedly vacant.
“I came on at the last minute,” McKeich says, proudly. “They told me, ‘Don’t worry about blocking, someone will just push you around in a wheelchair.’”
And he was hooked.
“You do it all for free,” he says, “and your paycheck is the applause.”
The playhouse will mark its “Diamond Year” with a gala celebration at the Palm Beach Zoo next March, but before then, Dixon-Mears has one play and five musicals to put on, starting with Hairspray.
“I’m keeping my fingers crossed,” she says, “because the cast is half black, half white, so I need actors. And then for Barnum I have to find circus performers.” She sighs. “Stilt walkers, fire-eaters, gymnasts, jugglers … tightrope walkers!”
But the show must go on, and at the Lake Worth Playhouse it always has, for 60 years.
“In the 1950s and ’60s and ’70s, there was not a lot to do in Palm Beach County,” McKeich says. “Now there are a lot of entertainment options. But we’re still here.”                      

For more information, call 586-6410 or visit www.lakeworthplayhouse.org.

Crowds line Lake Avenue under the new marquee of the Lake Worth Playhouse. Photo courtesy of the Lake Worth Playhouse

The playhouse’s building was erected in 1924 as the Moorish-style Oakley Theatre. Photo courtesy of the Lake Worth Playhouse

School is still in session, but the auto transport trucks have been loading up for weeks and the clubs have been busy with their end-of-season gatherings.  
Summer must be just around the corner.
    You may think those of us who stay here during the summer months will be taking it easy, sipping piña coladas poolside while you’re away. Sounds good, but instead many of us will be busily involved as our towns make decisions that ultimately may have an impact on your winter lifestyle.
    Preliminary property tax numbers will soon be shared with towns and final numbers will be available by July 1. Budget hearings typically begin soon after, as these numbers tell our towns how much money they can expect to fill their coffers in the coming year. As a result, most municipal planning decisions happen over the summer in the wake of these state-required budget deadlines.
    Manalapan, Ocean Ridge and our neighbors in Boynton Beach have recently requested proposals from the Sheriff’s Office that may save our towns money — while also changing our “Mayberry by the Sea” character.  Faced with the fiduciary responsibility of their elected positions, our councilmen and women have some tough decisions to make.
    It is important to have your voice heard on your town’s budget, and to be informed when you do. You can stay up-to-date on budgets and other issues with The Coastal Star in either of two easy ways: by mail (our subscription form is on Page 26) or online at www.thecoastalstar.com.
    We’ll be around all summer. We hope you’ll stay in touch — and informed.

— Mary Kate Leming
Editor, The Coastal Star

Barbara D’Errico is retiring after 20 years of supervising the Briny Breezes Memorial Chimes. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

Ring out the old! Ring in the new!
Barbara D’Errico had just moved to the community in 1992 when she offered to serve on the committee that oversees the Briny Breezes Memorial Chimes. Twenty years later, she’s stepping aside to welcome a new belle of the bells. “I’m 80 years old,” says D’Errico. “It’s time for new blood.”
The new blood is Nancy Aceto, 56, a third-generation Brinyite who inherits a memorial fund that has seen residents’ donations transform a primitive loudspeaker system into a sophisticated electronic carillon.
Six days a week, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., the park’s electronic bells chime the hour.
Sunday mornings they call the faithful to nondenominational church services. And every day at noon and 6 p.m. three familiar melodies echo over the park — maybe Beethoven, maybe the Beatles. Maybe the Notre Dame fight song.
“Most people request Danny Boy,” says D’Errico. “We have a small group of Irish people here who are very proud of their heritage.”
Long before Danny Boy rang from the roof of the auditorium, back when Briny Breezes was little more than a seasonal campground, residents were summoned to Sunday services or the office’s single telephone over a loudspeaker positioned in the trees.
“Mr. Jones, you have a call!”
That system was disconnected in 1971 to eliminate the overhead wiring, and swiftly missed. Sunday wasn’t Sunday without the sound of music.
One day, Abe VanOosten, a director, and resident Charles Stimets were lamenting the loss.
Beginning in the early 1960s, a memorial fund collected donations in memory of departed loved ones.
Over the years about $500 had been raised, and none of it spent. They decided to spend some.
Stimets bought a tape recorder and rigged it to play music through a new loudspeaker on the auditorium’s roof, the wiring underground.
Stimets was named trustee for life, and held the post until 1997, when he returned permanently to Vermont and D’Errico took his place.
His system endured until November 2011, when residents’ generous donations replaced the old analog tape recorder backstage in the auditorium with a brand-new Schulmerich Bells Digital Auto-Bell Instrument with Digital Signal Processor.
Oh, what a difference $16,272.70 makes!
In addition to the hourly chimes, digital memory cards hold about 2,000 songs, of which D’Errico has programmed about 300 to play in three- or  four-day intervals.
Sunday mornings still ring with sacred music, but now Christmas carols echo each December, Irving Berlin’s Easter Parade each spring, Stars and Stripes Forever on the Fourth of July and college fight songs during football season.
“Personally, I love September Song,” says D’Errico.
Donors to the memorial fund are welcome to make requests, she says, but few do. The family in whose name the gift is made receives a gold-embossed card, the donor a thank-you note.
Now Nancy Aceto, who favors show tunes, will take the donations and sign the cards.
“I’m honored,” she says. “But Barbara’s promised to be my consultant.”
Incidentally, the electronic bells that chime the hour in this tiny mobile home community are a digital recreation of a slightly more famous bell hanging in a clock tower high above London’s Houses of Parliament.
Yes, England can take pride in the knowledge that Big Ben plays the same tune as the Briny Breezes chimes.
And don’t worry about Barbara D’Errico. The bell has tolled on her trustee years, but she won’t be without music. Her cell phone plays the opening bars of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.              

       The Briny Breezes Memorial Chimes ring out from this electronic equipment.

Because of a reporting error, The Coastal Star incorrectly reported that Greenacres has a contract with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office for police services. The error appeared in the April edition in a story about a Sheriff’s Office proposal to Ocean Ridge.

Actress June Lockhart signs an autograph for Coastal Star photographer Tim Stepien after the Silver Screen Splash brunch that was held at The Lake Pavilion in West Palm Beach on April 15. Stepien was named after Timmy in the Lassie TV series in which Lockhart starred. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

Ocean Ridge and county pocket residents Greg Juisly (left), Chris Dick, Scott Hargash and Jim Connolly sample the brews at Delray’s Old School Beerfest on April 21. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Thom Smith

After a year in the making, and many more developing the concept, Due South Brewing is ready to begin pouring in earnest. With another weekend of positive reviews at Delray’s Old School Beerfest on April 21, founder Mike Halker has begun production at South County’s first commercial craft brewery.
    “We’ll have our grand opening on May 12,” Halker said of his facility on High Ridge Road in Boynton Beach. “We’ll be brewing five types to start.”
    Due South’s monthly production of 3,500 gallons is barely a drop compared to voluminous Bud or Corona, but Halker is confident he can win over anyone who likes his beer with a little TLC. A caramel cream ale has been testing well, but Halker said Due South’s Category IPA (India Pale Ale) also is going down nicely and hoppier Cat 4 and 5 versions are on the way.
    A firm believer in the social benefits of beer and brewing, Halker also will pour samples from other craft brewers at the open house. To handle the demand, the 1,000-square-foot bar area is now stocked with samplers, 12-ounce short pour glasses, and a newly arrived shipment of 1,000 pints. For details on the open house, go to www.duesouthales.com.
                                              ***
    Closer to Boynton’s center, another surprise: Cuthill’s Backyard. The mailing address, 511 NE Fourth St., is more like an alley, half a block west of Federal along the railroad tracks. As the website suggests, “Look for the green lite palms.”
    Formerly home to Tiki Tavern, it’s pretty much an outdoor bar, with misting fans, a sizeable parking lot, a stage, lots of tables, beach sand and a kitchen in a glistening Airstream trailer.
    But before you think greasy bar food, consider that all the food is fresh and locally grown. The Kobe beef sliders (3 for $13) are certified Kobe. The sesame seared tuna steak ($15) is brought in daily.   
    The stage stays busy with music just about daily. Recent acts included Grateful Dead tribute band Crazy Fingers, Allman Brothers tribute band The Marshall Brothers with special guest Mike Allman (Greg’s son) and country star Amber Leigh.
    But the mysterious R.H. Cuthill has bigger plans. Out front on Federal in a small storefront, he plans a fine-dining restaurant. To the north of the bar, he plans a wine bar, a Mexican restaurant and a country-western dance hall.
                                              ***
    Down on East Ocean Avenue, the old Ruth Jones cottage has survived its six-block move and, if all goes as planned, will open in mid-June as The Little House that city officials hope will revive the downtown area. Chrissy Benoit, who opened Havana Hideout in Lake Worth, signed the lease on April 16. She plans a back-to-basics menu with prices under $10 and lots of draft beers.   
                     ***                        
    Let’s not forget the raucous Old Key Lime House, nestled along the Intracoastal’s western shore on Lantana’s Ocean Avenue. Owner Wayne Cordero needs more room and wants to enlarge his parking lot by about 50 spaces on a lot he owns to the immediate west.
    But that property, about one-third acre with a house built in the 1920s, is zoned residential. The Lantana Town Council seems inclined to rezone it, as do some of the Old Key Lime House’s neighbors, who also are urging the town to make empty lots on North Lake Drive available for parking. To arguments that the house was “historical,” Cordero countered that it was “hysterical” and in bad shape. He assured council members that he would not enlarge his building or add seating (now limited to 318).  
                                              ***
    Tight squeeze for Benny’s on the Beach. By a 3-2 vote the City Commission extended for 10 more years the lease for the café and bait shop on the Lake Worth pier. Under the previous lease, Benny’s paid the city 7.5 percent of its gross revenue, about $185,000 a year. The new lease gives the city a flat $240,000 a year. Suzanne Mulvehill and Christopher McVoy argued that it should be put out to bid but were outvoted.
                                      ***       
    In Delray, the new Sandbar Rhum Shack outdoor bar on the south side of Boston’s on the Beach opened with SRO on Friday the 13th. Not a blade of grass in sight nor any weeds, for that matter — the entire area is covered with packed sand that, unlike the beach variety across the street, is not supposed to blow away, wash away or stick like glue.
    “It’s kind of an adult sandbox,” GM Tom Walsh said with a smile, noting it’s only for the 21-and-over crowd. “If people want a big meal, they can eat inside and then come out.”
    A limited snack menu will be offered, and patrons can build their own mojitos or whet their whistles with 12 draft beers or two dozen bottled varieties.
    A small stage will accommodate low-key entertainers, who, as with the food, will not compete with the action inside Boston’s. When necessary, guests can avail themselves of new restrooms, labeled “Inboard” and “Outboard.”   
                                              ***
    The line of students hoping to get a seat in the gym at Florida Atlantic University stretched across the main road then snaked back and forth across the lawn next to the student center. Those who finally made it inside to see and hear President Barack Obama were mostly enthusiastic, unusually polite for college students and unbelievably patient. Applause greeted anyone with a suit who entered the arena from beneath the giant flag, even the White House staffer who attached the presidential seal to the front of the lectern.    
    On one wall hung a banner emblazoned with “An America Built To Last,” a presidential goal that could have been borrowed from a Ford commercial or possibly from a Grateful Dead album.  The crowd didn’t applaud it, but they did give FAU President Mary Jane Saunders a big hand as she noted that FAU, the most diverse of Florida’s universities “looks like America.”  They clapped for Student Government President Ayden Maher as he led the Pledge of Allegiance and for sophomore Rebecca Guillaume after her rousing Star Spangled Banner.
    No special treatment, by the way, for FAU trustees such as Tom Workman, Anthony Barbar and Dave Feder, who were squeezed into a corner of the bleachers behind the stage. Recently retired football coach Howard Schnellenberger also had a bleacher seat, directly behind the president, where he snapped lots of photos on his cellphone.
    Obama urged congressional support for increased student assistance and for his proposed “Buffett rule” — no connection with Jimmy. He made one sweep around the gym, hand-to-hand with hundreds leaning over the barriers and then barely an hour later he was gone.
    The presidential visit was the first to FAU since Lyndon Johnson helped dedicate the school in 1964. (Coincidentally, one person who shook LBJ’s hand was 19-year-old University of Miami student Bill Moss, the West Palm Beach city commissioner who died March 28.) Yet, surprisingly, no one knows why or how the White House picked FAU.
    FAU’s University Relations office speculated that it was convenient, almost on a straight line from his fund-raising stop in Palm Beach Gardens to another at the Diplomat Resort in Hollywood and finally at a private home in Golden Beach. But nothing definite.
    When the White House was queried, staffer Joanne Rosholm sent this reply: “It’s not entirely uncommon that we would pick a place like FAU that can hold a large number of people who want to see their President speak. Beyond that, I don’t know that there’s much more to say!”
    So there …
                                             ***
    On the road again … Michelle Bernstein, just departed as executive chef at The Omphoy in Palm Beach, is headed back to the Palm Beaches from her Miami nest, but only for one night. Bernstein, who hosts Check, Please!, the restaurant review show on WPBT-Channel 2, has expanded her repertoire to include road trips.
    On May 15, 150 guests paying $125 each, will visit five restaurants in Boca. After appetizers  at Sushi Rock on Yamato Road, the group will board buses for stops at Josephine’s, Bogart’s, Casa D ‘Angelo and The Tin Muffin Café. Co-hosting with Bernstein will be popular radio host and vintner Paul Castronovo. Proceeds support production of the show. To sign up, go to wpbt2.org.
                                              ***
    Smart cookies. And tough. No better way to describe Rena Blades and Cynthia Allen Gracey, who received Women In Leadership awards at the Kravis Center May 3.  Presented by the Executive Women of the Palm Beaches, the awards recognize women who have distinguished themselves as professionals, as leaders and as community servants.
    As CEO of the Palm Beach County Cultural Council, now based in Lake Worth, Blades is well-known throughout the county for overseeing the council’s unprecedented growth, securing new funding, expanding services and strengthening cultural organizations.
    On the other hand, Gracey, who lived in Delray before moving recently to Palm Beach, has worked in the background for more than three decades to empower women. Despite dealing with CMT, a chronic neuromuscular disorder, she has practiced law, raised two sons, been a caregiver to her parents. Oh, yeah, and to raise consciousness and create a supportive network where women could feel safe, share experiences and grow together, she also helped found Executive Women. A fitting résumé for the group’s Inspirational Leadership Award.
                                              Terri Cooper (left) of Delray Beach samples the bouquet of her friend Michael Budd’s wine during the Fifth Annual American Fine Wine Competition at the Boca Raton Resort & Club on April 19. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

    What a party! Overflow crowd. Shari Gherman, president of the American Fine Wine Competition had to add two tables — for 20 last-minute oenophiles — in the Grand Ballroom at the Boca Raton Resort & Club’s Mizner Center. Alan Kalter, with a week off from announcing for David Letterman, kept the crowd informed. Saxman Dayve Stewart and The Vibe rocked the 400-plus guests at $310 each, plus whatever they spent at auction.
    Bam! Emeril Lagasse put on a show as he prepared roasted filet mignon, brown butter gulf blue crabmeat, local mushroom fondu, spring field peas and black truffle butter sauce. Bam!
    At auction, Theodore Bryant bid $15,000 for a dream dinner to be prepared at his home by several top area chefs, which helped bring the tally to $60,000 for Diabetes Research Institute and the Golden Bell Education Foundation.
Since it is the American Fine Wine Competition, there were winners: The 2009 Castello di Amorosa Il Passito Reserve Late Harvest Semillon, North Coast and 2009 La Follette Manchester Ridge Vineyard Pinot Noir, Mendocino Ridge, were judged the best white and red, from more than 600 entries.
    Pity the judges. A lot of sipping, spitting and rinsing for the 25 experts who spent two days at a hotel sampling the 600 candidates in 12 categories.
    “They lock you up in a room and you try wine for two days, flight after flight,” said judge Stephanie Miskew, whose Glamorous Gourmet blog is found at www.stephaniesavorsthemoment.blogspot.com. “The split us into groups of four judges. We tried all the wines in our group, made our notes and then got together and tried to come to an agreement.
    “You definitely need to pace yourself.”
    But late into the second day, as the judges drew closer to consensus, the tension began to dissolve. “There definitely was more sipping than spitting,” she said.
                                              Achievement Centers board member Barbara Murphy (right) of Gulf Stream watches the fashion show with Katherine Montana and John Lofquist, both of Delray Beach, during the Proper Affair runway show at the Boca Raton Resort & Club on April 18. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

    A day earlier, 350 guests had a Proper Affair at the Boca Resort. But instead of tête-à-tête, the night was devoted to prêt à porter, as they bought raffle tickets, vied for silent auction items and bid on high-end fashions from Boston Proper that were modeled by spirited volunteers.
The local grass-roots project raised $160,000 for the Achievement Centers for Children and Families, a Delray Beach foundation that supports 700 low-income children.

Thom Smith is a freelance writer. Contact him at thomsmith@ymail.com.

The view of the construction site from one neighbor’s driveway used to be blocked by a banyan tree, vines, shrubs and other vegetation. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett
    
Forget the day-in, day-out clank-clank-clank of bulldozers leveling the more than six acres of the former Spence estate. And the clouds of dust? Don’t even ask.
    So when a developer chopped down a towering banyan tree on the land he is turning into a six-home subdivision, residents descended on Town Hall.
    The tree’s branches spread more than 30 feet from the center in all directions, shading Hidden Harbour Drive, as well as Nancy Touhey’s driveway.
    Touhey said an “ear-piercing” chainsaw woke her the morning the banyan was felled.
    “I have pictures showing what has happened to the canopy,” she told Gulf Stream commissioners at their April 13 meeting in a Town Hall packed with residents. “The canopy is … most areas are gone.”
    Resident Tom Murphy, a lawyer, shared Touhey’s dismay.
    “I am familiar personally with how fastidious this town is with something as simple as the color of a door, and yet one of the last, great beautiful parcels of land in this town is a scar right now,” Murphy said.
    Developer Seaside Builders LLC promised the Spence property’s Hidden Harbour neighbors it would maintain the canopy over Hidden Harbour Drive to get them to agree to its subdivision plans. It told the town it would leave a 15-foot buffer along the access road rather than the required 3-foot buffer to shield neighbors from the project.
    The banyan was not in that buffer, although its branches shaded a large section of it.
    Right after the meeting, Commissioner Fred Devitt III, Town Attorney John “Skip” Randolph and Town Manager William Thrasher went to the site to inspect the tree clearing. That afternoon arborist Dave Bodker counted all the trees in the buffer zone to make sure none had been harmed.
    In a report to Mayor William Koch Jr. and commissioners, Thrasher said that at a subsequent meeting with town officials, Seaside developer Tom Laudani proposed to add native canopy trees to the area left open by the banyan’s removal once land is leveled in late June. The developer will also pay Gulf Stream for water from a hydrant to keep dust to a minimum. Previously Seaside was pumping from the Intracoastal Waterway.
    The canopy was not the only point of contention at the April 13 meeting. Resident Bill Boardman said there is a perception that Gulf Stream is “overly compliant” with the development process.
    “We need a revision of these codes. There’s no question about that,” Boardman said.
    “We have our hands tied with this,” Vice Mayor Joan Orthwein said. “They [Seaside] did nothing illegal. We followed everything by the book.”
    Laudani, through his Harbor View Estates LLC, bought the Spence property for $5.6 million in October. Koch’s real estate firm listed the parcel asking $6 million. Koch recused himself from the subdivision vote. Orthwein, who has an active real estate license with Koch’s firm, also did not vote.
    Bob Ganger, chairman of the Architectural Review and Planning Board, said his panel was devising changes to town ordinances on subdivisions, house designs and even “hammerhead” roads. The Seaside project will have a hammerhead road to reduce the number of driveway exits.
    “One of the things that we’re looking at is the notion of not permitting a large sub-development to change the contour of the land,” Ganger said.
    Representing the Delray Beach Preservation Trust, architect Dan Sloan suggested a historic preservation board be empowered “with the idea of keeping your historic fabric intact and not losing it to overly intense development.”
    The home that Seaside razed was built around 1937 by Seward Webb Jr., a grandson of William Vanderbilt, once the richest man in the world. Webb’s widow sold the estate to typewriter heiress Gladys Underwood James.  It was designed by noted Palm Beach architect John Volk.
    Residents also complained that the town could better alert them to meetings with important agendas.
 “We have to be more informed,” Jim Walton said. “The way that you find out that there’s a meeting is you have to walk over here [to Town Hall] and look on the board. That’s ridiculous. We all have emails.”
    “You know what,” Orthwein said, “the commission meetings are always the second Friday of the month,
9 o’clock, always, every month.”                                   

By Tim O’Meilia

    Briny Breezes’ neighbors can rest easy. The oceanfront town-mobile home park has scotched any thought of high-rise condos and oceanfront hotels and will focus on a more low-key future — at least for now.
    The nine-member board of the corporation that owns the park unanimously decided April 11 not to pursue the proposal by a Long Island developer to buy the park at a price to be named later.
    “We did not have enough information on the sales price or the cost that would be incurred for going through all the permitting,” said Briny Breezes Inc. President Mike Gut.
Gut said he relayed the board’s decision to Kean Development Co. of Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.,  and the park’s commercial attorneys, Duane Morris of New York.
    Kean had offered to pay the cost of seeking all the governmental zoning and land use changes with the promise that Briny would sell at a price based on appraisals done when the permitting was completed.
    But if the shareholders —lot owners hold shares in the corporation — didn’t like the price “Briny would be on the hook for those expenses,” Gut said.
    There was no discussion of the issue after board member Tom Oglesby read a prepared statement saying that Briny was not a distressed seller, the economic climate was not right for negotiations and the park would have no option on the sales price.
    Oglesby said the park shouldn’t assume the developer’s business risk. The vote was applauded by most of the 50 or so residents at the season-ending meeting.
    Duane Morris has a March 2013 deadline to bring offers to the shareholders before its contract with the park expires. The law firm will have to absorb $500,000 in legal fees unless a sale is completed.
    “I think everyone is sick and tired of dealing with it,” said resident Tony Dugan. “We’re not selling anything. We’re not entertaining anyone coming in here [even] if they have $400 million.”
    Earlier at the meeting, 19 lot owners submitted a petition urging the board to reject the proposal, saying that plans for repairs of seawalls, roads and other infrastructure are on track.
Pursuing the sale “would have turned the park into chaos,” said resident Paul Sullivan, recalling the turmoil of five years ago when shareholders agreed to sell for $510 million. The deal later fell through. “I think the park in general is very happy with the decision. I think the board acted very responsibly.”
    John C. Kean made a presentation to park residents last month, saying his firm would not pursue zoning changes without the guarantee that Briny would sell later.
    “I thought Mr. Kean was very professional,” Gut said. “We appreciated what he presented to us.”
    The decision pleased longtime sale opponent Tom Byrne. “The interesting thing is, whether you’re for or against the sale, the people in Briny are tired of being under the cloud of uncertainty. At this point, we just want to move on,” he said.
    Moving on means deciding the park’s future. The corporation’s strategic planning board is considering the costs of updating the park’s seawalls, roads and buildings. The town is rewriting its comprehensive plan with an eye toward allowing more hurricane-resistant buildings such as modular homes.
    “Whatever will be done will be done over a period of years. The bulldozers aren’t coming in tomorrow,” said park strategic planning board member Linc Musto.
    With one exception: Shareholders are voting by mail now whether to spend more than $30,000 for repair of the Flamingo Drive seawall. Beyond that, the committee is trying to develop a long-range maintenance plan, including the eventual replacement of the five Quonset huts.
    Musto said the changes probably will not require any special assessments.
    The town has an April 2013, deadline to complete its comprehensive plan, which hasn’t been substantially altered since 1989.
    The major changes being considered include loosening the restriction of only mobile homes in the residential areas to allow modular buildings, which are more insurable, up to two stories high, especially on the larger west side lots.
    The planning board also is studying an A1A business corridor that could allow small stories, low-rise condos and residential rentals.    
Public hearings will be held in the fall.                             

Briny Breezes Alderman Kathleen Bray resigned April 27, saying her husband’s out-of-state job prevented her from devoting the time necessary to serve the town.
    Spending time with her husband, Larry, in Pennsylvania forced Bray to attend several meetings by conference call in the past year.
“When I’m not here, I don’t have a feel for what’s going on in the town,” she said.
    Bray was appointed to the council in August 2008, ironically, after her husband, an alderman, resigned for a certified public accountant position in Pennsylvania. Bray was town clerk, pro tem for three years and helped assemble the town’s annual budget.
    “I am going to miss it terribly,” she said. “Our son is still here and I’ll be back checking on things. I hope to retire here.”
    The council is accepting applications for the vacant position, which it may fill at its May 24 meeting. Resident Sue Thaler has filed a letter of interest.
— Tim O’Meilia

By Tim Pallesen   
    
The Caron Foundation can’t sue Delray Beach for denying a Seaspray Avenue sober house because the request hasn’t been officially denied, an attorney for the city argued in court.
    The surprising twist came during an April 16 federal court hearing where the city also argued that Caron can’t claim a loss of income because it hasn’t placed recovering alcoholics and drug addicts into a second house where the city has given approval to operate.
    Federal Judge William Dimitrouleas promised to rule on Caron’s request for a preliminary injunction “as soon as I can” after the hearing in Fort Lauderdale.
    Caron claims the City Commission violated federal laws on Feb. 21 when it approved three ordinances to make it more difficult for treatment providers to operate and on Feb. 22 when Caron says the city refused its request to open a sober house at 1232 Seaspray Ave.
    “We contend that the city had no reason to deny us other than the hostile and organized community reaction to our attempt to locate in an affluent area near the ocean,” Caron attorney James Green told the judge.
    Green claimed public comments by Mayor Woodie McDuffie and Planning and Zoning Board Chairman Cary Glickstein show the city is intentionally discriminating against recovering alcoholics and addicts.
    “We are willing to do all in our power to control the proliferation of these homes,” McDuffie said in a Feb. 1 email that Green gave the judge.
    Glickstein strongly urged commissioners to oppose sober houses before their Feb. 21 vote. “It is a cancer in this town,” he said.
    But Matthew Mandel, an attorney representing the city, countered that Delray Beach is only trying to regulate transient housing. “The ordinance is not discriminatory because it applies to all single-family dwellings,” he argued.
    Mandel said the city is waiting for Caron to provide medical justification for its request to house seven clients at the Seaspray address. “They haven’t gotten a final decision from us,” he told the judge.
    Caron wants the city to pay $55,000 per client in monthly damages because it can’t open the Seaspray house.
    But Mandel countered that Caron has another house at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. to place its clients. “They have to explain how they’ve had that house available for a year and not put one person in there,” he said.
    Dimitrouleas questioned the $55,000 monthly cost for treatment. “What if you can never get seven people who can afford to pay?” he asked.
Green said Caron has “more than enough” wealthy clients.
    The judge encouraged the two sides to discuss a settlement, suggesting a compromise that would allow five rather than seven clients in the house.
    “It wouldn’t crush me if you all got together and came up with some reasonable settlement,” Dimitrouleas said.
    But such a settlement appears unlikely.
    The nonprofit treatment provider didn’t get a response when it wrote city officials on April 2 offering three incentives if Delray Beach would allow it to place seven clients at the Seaspray house.
    The nonprofit Caron offered to pay property taxes on both its houses for five years, waive its claim for damages and attorney fees, and pay for classes on prevention of bullying, alcohol and drug abuse in six Delray Beach schools.
    Green also asked Mandel to discuss a settlement after Monday’s hearing, but the city’s attorney declined.
    If Dimitrouleas doesn’t grant a preliminary injunction, Green said, Caron will either appeal that decision or prepare to argue for a permanent in-junction at a future hearing. 

By Margie Plunkett

    The new beach pavilion in Delray Beach is $23,700 closer to completion.
City Commission received a check in that amount as a community donation to build the replacement pavilion — a contribution that now totals $59,165 for the structure that will mark the start of beach master plan implementation, according to the Beach Property Owners Association.
    The BPOA presented the check to support the pavilion in April, raised from its second fundraiser, Delray’s Got Talent: The Encore. The first donation — for $35,465 — was made by the BPOA about a year earlier.
    “Thanks to everyone who helped out — residents and businesses who have helped from the beginning on the beach pavilion and master plan,” said Mary Renaud, BPOA president, when presenting a giant check at the April 17 commission meeting.
    The thank-you list was long, including architect Bob Currie of Currie, Sowers, who donated the designs for the pavilion. Renaud also noted that an unnamed builder is willing to contribute part of the work.
    The design of the pavilion is much the same as when it was first presented to the BPOA as part of the beach master plan, Currie said. There have been changes, such as the planned canvas roof has been replaced with an aluminum roof to better withstand the elements, he said. Stripes will still grace the roof, he said.
    The pavilion is hoped to be completed by the start of the tourist season. “We hope to get started in the next six months,” said Linda Karch, Parks and Recreation director. “The goal is to have it done by November.”
    Before the city can get under way, however, the state has to sign off on the project and Delray Beach will bid it out. The city is awaiting word from the state. While Karch estimated the pavilion at a cost of roughly $150,000, the BPOA’s website lists it as $240,000 in total.
    “The final cost will actually be lower since we have also received offers from local contractors and businesses to contribute landscaping, labor and other materials,” the BPOA said.                                            

By Margie Plunkett

The fire tax apparently is still too hot to touch in Delray Beach.
The assessment fee made its way back on the City Commission’s agenda as an item that would allow the property appraiser’s office to include it on tax bills if needed to support the budget next year or later.
But commissioners voted the move down 3-2 after discussing both the fee’s sensitivity as well as its possible necessity.
“I don’t think we’re quite ready to discuss it even in the form of approaching the property appraiser. We need to do that in more of a public discussion,” said Commissioner Tom Carney, after pulling the item from the April 17 consent agenda, where items are typically voted through without discussion.
 Pulling consent agenda items allows commissioner discussion before a vote.
A fire tax, which had earlier been planned to generate more than $3 million in revenue for this year’s budget, met with strong public opposition when it came up for public hearing and a vote in January.
The fee ultimately was defeated and commissioners embarked on midyear budget cutting to compensate for the unrealized funding.
But as commissioners enter a new budget-planning cycle, discussion arose at an earlier workshop meeting concerning making preparations in the event the city determines it has to turn to the fire tax this year or next.
“My view is that because this item is so contentious, it warranted a discussion of what we are going to do,” Carney said at the later commission meeting.  “It may not be the right time to allow any enabling legislation.”
Carney was joined by Commissioners Angeleta Gray and Al Jacquet in voting against the move. Both said that enabling the fee would discourage the effort to find cuts in the budget. Gray added: “I am not in favor of any new taxes.”
“I’ll vote for this to put the mechanism in place,” said Mayor Woodie McDuffie, noting that, if need be, by allowing the property appraiser’s office to include the tax, it could save the city $25,000.
As the city prepares for its annual budget exercise, the mayor, who pointed out that commissioners have had to cut from the budget for the last six years, reminded residents they are welcome to participate in meetings and discussions about the budget.                  

By Tim Pallesen

    The owner of the Seagate Hotel and Spa has offered $7 million to buy the struggling Hamlet Golf and Country Club.
    “We feel it’s a win-win for both sides,” said E. Anthony Wilson, chairman of the Seagate Hospitality Group, after making the offer to country club members on April 16.
    The purchase already has been approved by the country club’s board of directors. Members will vote this month on whether to accept it.
    Seagate would get golf and tennis opportunities for both its hotel guests and members of its private Seagate Beach Club at the closest private country club to downtown Delray Beach.
    Wilson told club members their 300-acre country club on Atlantic Avenue west of Interstate 95 would be renamed Seagate Golf and Tennis at the Hamlet if the sale is approved.
    He envisions corporate business meetings and special events such as weddings at the 38,000-square-foot clubhouse, which has a ballroom capable of seating 350.
    Club members spent $10 million in 2007 to renovate the clubhouse and make improvements to their 18-hole golf course and eight tennis courts.
    Memberships in the country club have been mandatory for owners of single-family homes at the Hamlet since 2003.
    Homeowners must pay a $30,000 initiation fee, plus $15,300 in annual dues. An additional $3,500 annual fee was added in 2007 to pay for the $10 million in renovations.
    Hamlet residents still will be able to purchase memberships to play golf and tennis if the sale is approved.
The club has 206 resident members and 65 non-resident members now.
    But country club president Bill Redman said Seagate’s offer is attractive to Hamlet residents because memberships would no longer be required for homeowners.
    “Mandatory memberships made sense years ago particularly for the smaller clubs to get members,” Redman said. “But nobody foresaw the economic downturn.”
    Golf communities built decades ago have struggled across South Florida since the downturn in the economy and collapse of the housing market that began five years ago.
    Residents at the Hamlet and other such communities also have grown older.
    “It wasn’t considered that people would age and their needs and desires would change,” Redman said. “A lot of people now in their 80s are not able to enjoy golf and tennis as they used to.”
    The weak housing market combined with the mandatory golf memberships made it particularly difficult for homeowners to sell their houses in the Hamlet. The club offered discounted memberships to homebuyers under age 62, but got little response.
    Hamlet homeowners objecting to the mandatory memberships have filed a series of lawsuits against the country club.
    “If the country club is sold, the litigation is likely to go away,” Redman said. “The sale would open us to everybody who wants to live in our beautiful community.”
    Under the terms of the sale, existing club members would each be required to pay $20,000 to retire the club’s $11 million debt to Wells Fargo Bank.
    Seagate is offering a number of incentives to encourage country club members to vote in favor of the sale.
    “There’s no charge to be a social member at our beach club,” Wilson said.
    The opportunity to dine overlooking the ocean at the British Colonial private club, at 401 S. Ocean Blvd., usually costs a $5,000 initiation fee plus $1,500 in annual dues.
    Hamlet club members would also get discounted room rates, use of the 6,000-square-foot fitness facility and charging privileges at the 162-room Seagate Hotel and Spa, located at 1000 E. Atlantic Ave.                           

By Margie Plunkett
    
The Delray Beach Parking Management Advisory Board voted unanimously to recommend to city commissioners a metered parking system on downtown Atlantic Avenue, intended to shift longer-term parking onto secondary streets, lots and garages.
    The board adopted a plan based on smart meters to allow patrons of downtown merchants enough time to shop, yet turn over the parking so that spots are available to short-term parkers. The system also was intended to encourage visitors who want to stay longer — say for lunch, parking or a stroll — to park off the main drag.
    From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., motorists could park up to two hours on Atlantic Avenue, with an hour free parking and then $2 for the remaining hour in the area west of the Intracoastal to Swinton Avenue and from North Second Street to South Second Street, according to the plan.
    From 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., the fee would be $2 an hour, with no time limit.
    The price of parking would be reduced as motorists parked away from Atlantic. Secondary street parking would be $1.50 an hour; lots, $1 an hour; and the garages would be free or a nominal fee, under the board’s recommendation.
    The panel also recommended adjusting the system based on seasonal changes and to provide employee and resident parking programs.
    Smart meters would serve multiple parking spaces and make it unnecessary to locate a meter at each parking space. The technology provides several features, including the ability to be adjusted for parking times or prices as needed.
    The recommendation, subject to commission review and approval, was tentatively scheduled to be presented at the commission’s May 8 workshop meeting.
    The wide-ranging discussion touched on possibly tapping merchants for part of the cost of operating a metered system through an assessment district, as well as a plan that would have paid parking in lots collected by an attendant rather than meters.
    Chairman Fran Marincola earlier pushed a plan that would cap daytime parking on Atlantic at one hour — but parking would be free, noting he was talking to merchant David Cook of Hand’s Office & Art Supply, who was in the meeting audience. “Merchants want to say we have free parking,” he said. “You can get your business done in an hour. If I need more time, I have to park on another street or in the garage.”                                      

A Leatherback sea turtle returns to the ocean after depositing her eggs at first light on the beach in Gulf Stream on April 6.
Photo by Joan Lorne, Sea Turtle Monitor

South Palm Beach Town Council member Stella Jordan (left) and Mayor Dr. Donald Clayman chat with residents Sherry and Charles Downey while eating ice cream during the South Palm Beach Ice Cream Social in mid-April at the South Palm Beach Town Hall. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

The span on the west side has been removed as demolition continues on Lantana’s Ocean Avenue Bridge. Its replacement is expected to open in two years. Photo by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Tim O’Meilia
    
The on-again, off-again breakwater plan for South Palm Beach’s eroding beach may yet have a faint heartbeat of revival.
    Palm Beach County commissioners are set to discuss the future of beach restoration after other local and state officials said they want to consider an inlet-to-inlet approach to solving beach erosion.
    “Instead of each town asking for an individual plan, we would develop a plan to establish a regional approach, from the Palm Beach Inlet to the Boynton Inlet,” state Rep. Jeff Clemens told the South Palm Beach Town Council on April 24.
    The beach protection plan would involve an agreement among the local oceanfront towns between those two inlets, including Palm Beach, Lake Worth, South Palm Beach, Lantana and Manalapan, as well as Palm Beach County.
    The idea would be to develop beach profiles along the coastline in the plan so that when state officials consider approvals — and perhaps financial support — for each section, the studies need not be done again.
    “It deals with the problem holistically rather than asking each town to come up with their own plan,” said Clemens, who added that state Department of Environmental Protection Deputy Secretary Jeff Littlejohn likes the regional approach.
    County commissioners shot down plans in February for a series of groins and breakwaters along a 1.3-mile stretch of coastline including South Palm Beach when they killed a Singer Island groin plan.
    Commissioners said the Singer Island jetties would not do enough to halt erosion, might disrupt the natural southerly drift of sand and might interfere with sea turtle nesting. Similar concerns would apply to the south county project, which would cost an estimated $15 million to $25 million.
    South Palm Beach already had spent $111,000 as its share of a half-million-dollar environmental impact study when the project was halted.
    County environmental officials also said they would end even dune restoration efforts because the sand washed away too quickly.
    South Palm officials continued to lobby county commissioners in hope of salvaging the work already done on the environmental study for possible future use.
    Town officials were uncertain about the new approach. “We’ll see,” said Councilwoman Bonnie Fischer about the regional approach.
    Town Manager Rex Taylor was concerned that starting over with the wider plan would cause more delay than simply reviving the current effort.
    In other business, the council delayed a decision on buying a new police car after Councilwoman Stella Jordan said she wanted more information on the maintenance record and warranty on the 7-year-old Ford Crown Victoria that the town wants to trade in.
    “Other towns are keeping their cars longer than we keep ours,” Jordan said, referring to North Palm Beach and Lantana, among others. “It’s our taxpayers’ money, it’s not ours. I don’t know that we have enough information to make a decision.”
    The town would get an $1,800 trade-in on the police cruiser, which has 47,000 miles on it. A new Dodge Charger would cost $23,654.
    Mayor Donald Clayman appointed Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello to research the purchase. The council considered buying a new police car during last fall’s budget session but decided against
it.