John J. Murphy (right), an elected county committeeman in New Jersey for 20 years, was sworn in March 27 succeeding Robert Evans in Manalapan’s at-large Seat 2 post. Evans did not seek re-election after serving four years on the commission.            
    “I’ve always been interested in government and been involved in county and municipal government all my life,” said Murphy, 77, who has lived on Point Manalapan for eight years.         
     Two other commissioners, Louis DeStefano (left) and Howard Roder, were unopposed for re-election.
    Murphy, a college dropout, formerly owned the largest school bus company in New Jersey, where much of the school busing is farmed out to private firms. He still owns a small taxi and limousine firm.  A familiar face at commission meetings, Murphy said the town faces no burning issues, although the town’s water operation is a concern.            “It’s a nice town in which to live and I want to see it stay that way. Stability is very important,” Murphy said. “I’m not looking to blow my own horn, but I can do the job.”
                                            — Tim O’Meilia

By Steve Plunkett

    The intrusion of unwelcome outsiders into Manalapan has only gotten worse in Vice Mayor Donald Brennan’s eyes.
    “The beach is a war zone,” Brennan declared at the town’s March 27 commission meeting.
    Brennan said an armed robbery in Ocean Inlet Park in December and two more incidents since then also involving guns had him “very, very worried.”
    “I personally was recently in a confrontation with somebody on the front of my property who took the position that the beach belongs to everybody and get out of my face,” Brennan said.         

“What am I going to do — pack up, go back to my house, call the police? By the time I call the police they’re gone.”
    The week before was also disturbing, Brennan said. First he saw law enforcement officials with dogs on chains going through the bushes.
    “And then to come back at 10 o’clock at night,” he said, “and be confronted by a group of young people who refuse to move — what’s my choice? Pick up my cell phone when they surround your car, tell them I’m going to call the police when all I want to do is get into my house, close the gate, double-lock the door and make sure that no one’s coming through it? Not a good thing.”
    He said the outsiders break into beach houses and take furniture “to the other end of the beach” to use.
    “It is not a safe place to send children down to. The encroachment of a lot of visitors, which are entitled to do it because of the public access at both ends, has created a vastly different climate than what I thought I was investing in here,” he said.
    Brennan said he knows townsfolk are weighing the pros and cons of switching to the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office for police services, but that any change is months away.
    “We’ve got to be doing something now,” he said.
    “I think what you’re saying is more boots on the ground 24 hours a day,” Mayor Basil Diamond said.
    Diamond noted that the three gun incidents took place south of Manalapan, in the county park or adjoining Ocean Ridge. “But nonetheless that’s too close, no matter what,” he said.
    To prevent issues during spring break, the Sheriff’s Office posted special weekend enforcement details at the inlet and on the beach, Police Chief Carmen Mattox said. The extra patrols ended March 25.
    Brennan said the conflicts extend to the Intracoastal side of Manalapan and the cove near the county park.
    “An armada of small boats, young people doing what young people do, have created an atmosphere of confrontation between residents and visitors,” said Brennan, who has lived in town for 12 years. “And this is a dramatic change in what this community was when I came here.”
    Commissioner Louis DeStefano, who is separated from the park by just two houses and has been in Manalapan for 21 years, said confrontation is not the answer.
    “I’m down on the beach frequently,” he said. “If I don’t say anything to anyone, no one in all of the time I’ve been here — I’ve been on the beach a thousand times — there’s never been a problem.”
    DeStefano said other residents may have different expectations of how the non-residents who flock to the cove and beach areas should act.
    “Those people by and large don’t bother anyone. They’re families. They get a little rowdy sometimes. They play their music a little loudly,” he said. “I’m not saying there are no problems, but this is a matter of perception.”    

By Margie Plunkett and Tim O’Meilia

    The Ocean Ridge police chief has started the search for a new officer to bolster a force the chief said has been understaffed due to a medical leave.
    A posting at the town’s website said applications for the position, which has a salary of $47,953, would be accepted until April 20.
    The Town Commission, which had said no during the last budget rounds to hiring a police investigator, moved to back Chief Chris Yannuzzi, who argued he couldn’t keep three officers on the road because of the short staff.
    The manpower issue arose after news that the officers on Ocean Ridge’s police force successfully negotiated their first contract with the town through collective bargaining. Commissioners approved the agreement at their meeting early in March.
    Under the contract negotiated with the Police Benevolent Association, police officers will receive a $1,000 one-time lump-sum salary adjustment and the town agreed to pay 100 percent of health insurance, including the $2,000 deductible for each.
At the urging of Vice-Mayor Lynn Allison, commissioners also approved by a 3-2 vote, a one-time $1,000 boost for 12 town employees.
    “We’re appreciative of the police and we’re also very appreciative of our staff,” said Allison. “I’m bringing it back for consideration because I feel very strongly there should be parity between the staff and police.”
The cost of extending the benefits to staff, who did not receive a raise this year, is $12,918.
     Those commissioners who opposed the move, however, said the discussion should wait until the next budget-setting season. “In terms of appreciation, our staff is very well compensated, including wonderful benefits and an excellent total compensation package,” said Commissioner Zoanne Hennigan.
Commissioner Ed Brookes said the decision should wait until budget discussions this summer when positions could be evaluated. Allison and new commissioner Gail Aaskov approved the increase, Hennigan and Brookes opposed it.
    Newly elected Mayor Geoff Pugh, who was the swing vote, said the town employees hadn’t had a raise in three years. “I think the people of Ocean Ridge, for $12,000 can handle a one-time bonus, or increase, and be done with it.” he said.           

Curiouser and curiouser.  Of course, Alice has nothing on David Manero, whose restaurant wonderland in Delray Beach has turned into a nightmare. Oh sure, the restaurants he ran — Vic & Angelo’s, The Office and Burger Fi — seem to be doing fine, but David is nowhere in sight. Which had the Atlantic Avenue rumor mill working overtime with claims that his partners had him banned from the premises and that the FBI wanted him for illegalities — not so, said spokespeople in the West Palm Beach and Miami offices.
    In a rare published comment, Manero told Bill Citara of Boca Raton magazine the parting was “ugly,” but that he’s working on several new concepts, including a Neapolitan pizzeria.
    While Manero usually has attracted all the ink regarding the restaurants, John Rosatti has been the silent partner who carries a big stick. A New Yorker who was one of the top automobile dealers in the country, Rosatti likes big, big, big boats and enjoys a friendly rivalry with old Flatbush buddy and car dealer-boat fancier John Staluppi. So friendly that they created Millennium Super Yachts in North Palm Beach.  
    Rosatti’s personal website, johnrosatti.com, opens with a quotation from Abe Lincoln: “Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.” One acquaintance of Rosatti and Staluppi said recently, “They’re smart and they’re tough; you don’t want to cross either one of them.” But Rosatti’s also regarded as a strong family man and opens his wallet for worthy causes, such as the American Heart Association, Boys and Girls Clubs and in 2002 a gift to the Benjamin School in North Palm Beach of $1 million.
    By the way, out in Laguna Beach, Calif., on the Pacific Coast Highway, a former KFC restaurant (on land previously occupied by a used car lot) is set to reopen in June as BurgerFi. The developer? A 2012 graduate of Dartmouth College, who has family ties to Southern California but also spent summers working in his family’s Florida restaurants, beginning as a server. His name: David Mainiero. (Yes, father and son spell their names differently.) Young Dave told the left coast media he thought it would be a good way to earn money for law school.
                               

Tennis player Colin Fleming reads to local schoolchildren as doubles partner Ross Hutchins looks on at Delray Beach Public Library during a break from the competition at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships across the street. They read to the youngsters, mostly from Banyan Creek Elementary School and the Boys & Girls Club, answered questions, discussed tennis and stressed the importance of working with a partner. They returned to the courts and on March 3 persevered through a 15-13 final set to win the doubles title. Photo courtesy Delray Beach Public Library

***    

The search for a new executive chef at The Omphoy is over almost as soon as it started. To replace Michelle Bernstein, who’s back in Miami, owner Jeff Greene has hired Michael Wurster who’s no doubt just thrilled to be back in a kitchen, any kitchen. Trained at CIA (that’s Culinary Institute of America, not the spy corps), spent time with Alain Ducasse and Thomas Keller and was Chef de Cuisine at Lutece for three years before running his own stove at and Cercle Rouge in TriBeCa and Icon at the W Court hotel.  
    However, as happens in the hospitality business, the W Court closed, so Wurster, 36, signed on to run another closed restaurant, Tavern on the Green in Central Park. That was two years ago. It never reopened, so he comes to the reopened eatery at The Omphoy, now named Malcolm’s after Greene’s son.
    Wurster likes to give American classics a modern twist, using local products. Two previous dishes: sushi tuna with strawberries, cucumber and mojito bubbles and black and white Maine sea scallops, layered with truffles, served with braised artichoke ravioli, chipollini onions, arugula puree and foie gras emulsion.
                                ***
At the corner of Linton Boulevard and Federal Highway in southern Delray something new — and fresh — may be on the horizon. According to merchants in the mall now anchored by Carrabbas Italian Grill, Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine, Panera Bread and Seaview Optical, a complete revamp is planned with the addition of a 20,000-square-foot Fresh Market. Merchants say they’ve been notified of the plans, but mall management referred our call to the owners in Alabama, and neither would comment or confirm.  Would be nice to have an alternative grocery option right across the bridge!
                                ***
Meanwhile, at the north end of Boca, the party continues at Caldwell Theatre Company, even as Artistic Director Clive Cholerton and his brain trust work on a salvation. The Caldwell owes Legacy Bank nearly $6 million on two mortgages. The bank filed for foreclosure, and now the theater’s finances will be controlled by a court-appointed receiver, Scott Brenner of Fort Lauderdale-based Brenner Real Estate Group. Brenner specializes in turning around troubled businesses, and as long as he remains in charge, Legacy will not close it down.  
                                ***

Serena and Venus Williams contend with the breezes on the patio of Apt. 401, the $6.5 million condo Venus decorated at One Thousand Ocean in Boca Raton. Thom Smith/The Coastal Star

    When her tennis game is on, few players want to be across the net from Venus Williams. Just ask last year’s Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova after her loss at Key Biscayne on March 23 or Aleksandra Wozniak, who had match point two days later and couldn’t convert, and then Ana Ivanovic, who took the first set and then could win only four more games.
    Not bad for someone who was diagnosed last year with Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disorder similar to lupus that causes fatigue and joint pain. But anyone who’s ever watched her play or played against her knows one sure thing: Venus is a fighter.
    She took time off from tennis. She adopted a vegan diet. She began a drug regimen to determine which are effective. She has her sights set on qualifying for the Olympics in London. But in June she’ll turn 32, and she knows her competitive days are numbered, so Venus is focusing more on her life away from tennis.
    Just as she and sister Serena demolished barriers on the court, she aims to break artistic barriers with V Starr, her decade-old interior design firm in Jupiter. She’s done work for pro athletes who live in South Florida; model homes residences in Delray Beach and Palm Beach Gardens; a Miami hotel; the athletic center at Howard University in Washington and even the set for Tavis Smiley’s PBS show. Nevertheless, it has all been relatively low key, until last month’s grand slam introduction at One Thousand Ocean, luxury 52-unit condo on Boca Raton Resort & Club property on Boca Inlet.
    To push the 12 unsold units, LXR President of Development Jamie Telchin threw a party where residents and prospective tenants could mingle in an unfinished penthouse and also see Unit 401, Venus’ contribution to the seascape: 4,971 interior square feet, another 1,289 on the terrace, four bedrooms, 4½ baths and $6.45 million with Venus’ furnishings, $5.95 million without.  
    For Venus, who studied at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, design is organic and a matter of trust. “V Starr is me and nothing happens that isn’t my style,” she said. “And my style is that you can’t do something just because you want to. You have to have reason; it has to be functional; it has to be beautiful.”
    While she had to start at the bottom, just as she did in tennis, Williams concedes she had some advantages in the design game because of her name.  
“Because of my high profile, people say OK we’ll talk to her, but that doesn’t mean they’ll let me do the job,” Williams said. “But once they meet me and my team and really see the picture, they realize this is really serious design, that we can do the job.”   
    Asked how much of her competitive nature from tennis did she bring to the design world, Venus answered, “All of it.”
    Game on.  
                                ***
    It’s festival time. More events than you can shake a stick at, and enough to satisfy just about everyone’s needs. First up is the Palm Beach International Film Festival, although its south county presence is limited this year.  The festival opens April 12 at Muvico Parisian in CityPlace with a screening of Robot & Frank, a Sundance entry starring Frank Langella. It wraps April 19 at Cobb Theatres in Downtown at the Gardens with a screening of Sassy Pants (Haley Joel Osment and Anna Gunn).
    A lifetime achievement award will be presented to actress June Lockhart at Silver Screen Bash at The Lake Pavilion on the Waterfront in West Palm Beach on April 15. Lockhart, who became a cult figure as Maureen Robinson in Lost in Space, is 86 and still acting. She co-stars in the comedy Zombie Hamlet, which will have its world premiere at PBIFF. The film also stars Shelley Long, who will attend.
    In south county, short films will be screened at the Lake Worth Playhouse’s Stonzek Theatre on April 13, 14 and 15, and at Delray’s Debilzan Gallery on April 15. Several documentaries are scheduled for Mizner Park’s Cultural Arts Center:  Money and Medicine and Genius on Hold (April 13); Lunch Hour, Free China: The Courage To Believe, True Gods Have Bones (Los Dioses De Verdad Tienen Huesos), Crocodile in the Yangtze and Happy You’re Alive (April 14); My Mother’s Idea, a student film showcase, John Portman: A Life of Building, Violins in Wartime, Follow Me and a local film showcase (April 15). Tickets are $10, $7 for students and seniors, $60 for the opening night party, $40 for the closer. Festival packages range from $150 to $500. Visit www.pbifilmfest.org.
                                ***
    This year’s Delray Affair, April 13-15, promises to be golden. After all, the post-Easter, season-ending street party is celebrating its 50th anniversary. New this year: a Delray Beach history booth and two covered beer gardens with live entertainment at Old School Square. Lots of good free entertainment. Those waxing nostalgic for affairs two decades ago when the hottest local band was InHouse, should drop by the street tent at 11 a.m. Saturday, when ex-InHousers Gin Blische and Andy Stein take the stage.
    The beer tents, by the way, will stay up through April 21 for the Old School BeerFest. The early evening bash — 4-8 p.m. — will feature more than 50 craft beers, 15 food trucks, and live music with The Dillengers and The Resolvers. It’s a fundraiser to support free Friday night concerts at Old School Square. Tickets are $30 in advance, $40 at the door; VIP $75 and $85 and space is limited. Call 243-7922.  
                                ***
    Across the lawn, the little idea that could is a year old. Quite frankly, the Arts Garage has taken off, a maelstrom of human expression — art, theater, concerts, movies and of course, artists.  
    “We were hoping,” Executive Director Alyona Ushe said of the Garage’s success. “ It just speaks to the great need, and to the sophistication of the audience we have here in South Florida. From the beginning it was our plan to attract as many programs as possible, and to be all encompassing. It’s the space itself. It’s warm and cozy, yet edgy. It has its own pulse.”  
    On April 28, Delray’s Arts Garage will celebrate with a birthday party with food, wine, an auction, saxophonist Ed Calle, cabaret performances by The Garage Girls and some surprise performers.  For tickets — $75 single, $125 per couple — and sponsorships, www.artsgarage.org.
                                ***
    SunFest is just around the corner with an entertainment lineup that includes the Marshall Tucker Band, Snoop Dogg, Herbie Hancock and Counting Crows. Hard to believe this is the 30th festival. Opening in 1983 as a replacement for the Royal Palm Festival, it lasted 10 days, no admission was charged, and fans were entertained by the likes of Washboard Bill and the high-wire derring do of Carla Wallenda.
    A year later, the buzz was jazz with Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, Ramsey Lewis and Herbie Mann, but change was in the wind as the first pop group, The Association, appeared.   
    The inaugural attracted about 100,000; in 1991, organizers became concerned when crowds exceeded 350,000.  Recent attendance has settled under 300,000 and a day pass is still $30 before April 28, $35 at the gate, and an advance 5-day pass is $61. Rock on.
                               ***
    When the first settlers arrived more than a century ago, the water was a major attraction. That hasn’t changed. In fact, it may be reinforced with the opening a few weeks ago of Lake Worth’s Snook Islands Natural Area. The project affects 100 acres of wetlands in Lake Worth just east of the Lake Worth Municipal Golf Course that were just about ruined in the 1920s. Dredging and filling killed off the mangroves and native wildlife that was replaced by Brazilian pepper and Australian pine.
    But thanks to a $1.9 million restoration project, the bad flora is gone, the mangroves and wetland habitats are back, the dredged holes have been filled, seagrass planted and oyster beds created. And the public can take advantage of the improvements thanks to a new 590-foot fishing pier, a 545-foot boardwalk, floating boat docks and kayak launch.
Now, if the city can hold a steady course on the $6.7 million restoration of the beach casino …

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

A rendering of Delray Villas by the Sea shows one and two-story cottages.

By Christine Davis
    
Most new homes developed on the ocean are mammoth, fashioned to please buyers looking for ultra luxury estates with umpteen square feet, multiple master suites, dens, libraries, media rooms, what have you.
    But that’s nothing like commercial real estate entrepreneur Patrick Lynch had in mind for the new home he’s building for himself at 2225 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach.
    He had his eye on an oceanfront parcel with 16 units — single-story vacation homes, called Cote d’Azure, built in 1945.  “It was so overgrown, nobody knew they were there,” he said.  “But I didn’t want a mansion. I thought I’d renovate them, live in one of the units, keep an adjoining cottage for family and friends, rent the rest and create a village atmosphere.”
    Neighbor Marc Musa had bought the property in 2002 for $9 million and in June of 2009 his proposal to build an 11-unit primarily glass condominium on the 1.7 acres of oceanfront property was approved by the city. That approved site plan expired in 2010, according to Delray Beach senior planner Candi Jefferson.
    “He kept it as rentals, and at one time had wanted to build a big mansion on it,” Lynch said.
    Instead, Musa put it up for sale, and when “the price came down to where it made sense,” Lynch bought it. Last November, he paid $4.1 million for it, and he immediately started to realize his dream, Delray Village by the Sea.
    “Patrick called me up and asked me if I would drop over and meet him at his new property,” said Delray Beach architect Roger Cope. “I said, ‘Give me 30 seconds.’
    “I was ultra excited when he told me where he wanted to take it.”
    Most potential buyers would have knocked everything down and started from scratch, noted Cope, but not Lynch, who had hired Cope previously to renovate and expand his current home, a 1930s-era cottage on Nassau Street in Delray Beach.
    “Vintage homes have more character,” Lynch said. “We need to remember the past. With the mansions that have been built, the face of Delray Beach has changed.”
    Cope, who also feels deeply about preservation, added, “We would rather take the bones and the history and the conception that somebody else had for the property in 1945, embrace it and improve on it.
    “There’s a very famous city in the Panhandle, Seaside, and we will be a slice of Seaside.”
    At first, he and Lynch envisioned two rows of one-story cottages, but the project has evolved, Cope said. Now they plan to alternate between two-story, 1,600-square-foo,t two-bedroom and two-bathroom units and one-story, 760-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bath units — 14 units in all — with lots packed into them.
    “They are cute,” Cope said. “We didn’t want homogenous. We’ll have a multitude of architectural styles, color schemes and materials.”
    “Nantucket architecture,” said Lynch. “Anglo Caribbean, British Colonial and Key West styles.
    “It was cottage-y before and it will still be cottage-y — tongue-and-groove volume ceilings, balconies, Hardee-Plank siding.
    “Mine will be the Nantucket style and will have marble and wood floors, board-and-batten paneling, wainscoting, portholes, five-tab shingles on my roof. It’s going to be almost mauve — the same color as my house on Nassau Street.”
    The buildings will keep to the original footprint, and because the land slopes, second-floor units will capture views of the ocean.
    Cope listed other architectural features and details: decorative aluminum shutters, solid mahogany entry doors, ipe-wood decking, along with a sprinkling of sleeping porches, dormers, copulas and fireplaces. The community will have a pool and Lynch will have a pool. “We’ll have white-picket custom fences with pineapple cutouts,” envisioned Cope. “Each cottage will have a miniature private courtyard and we’ll have three different landscape concepts to go with each unique architectural style and we’ve retained a dune specialist to consult with us on dune vegetation and landscaping.”
    So, stay tuned! “We think it will take a good solid twelve months, so they will be ready spring 2013,” Cope said.     

Original cottages are gutted prior to renovation. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

By Angie Francalancia

Any efforts at moving Boynton Beach’s downtown fire station to Ocean Ridge are “on hold” and may remain so for perhaps months as Boynton Beach continues to try to sell three parcels of property that affect the city’s space needs.
The Boynton Beach City Commission rejected the single bid it got on one of the three parcels and agreed to change the city’s rules for sale of disposable property so it can enlist a real estate broker rather than use only a bid process.
Boynton Beach Fire Chief Ray Carter said the decision means “we’re basically on hold” regarding any moves for Station #1, the primary station for calls from Ocean Ridge.
The move had been discussed late last year as a solution to finding space for Boynton Beach’s cramped police department. And it would insure that the coastal towns that contract with Boynton Beach for fire rescue service retain a fire station able to provide a quick response.
For Boynton, the move was prompted by the possible sale of one of the parcels — a half-acre property now being used as storage for the police department, Carter said.
Boynton city officials also had been eyeing Station #1 located adjacent to police headquarters in the municipal complex for an enlarged police evidence room, and during budget talks last year, discussed closing the station at Boynton Beach and Seacrest boulevards. That move would have extended response times to parts of Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes, which contract for fire-rescue services with Boynton Beach.
At the same time the Boynton Commission agreed to try to sell its properties, it agreed to begin discussions with Ocean Ridge to house Station #1 at Ocean Ridge’s Town Hall. Ocean Ridge had sent schematics of its Town Hall building and garage to Carter for analysis.
But that’s where efforts to move Station #1 into Ocean Ridge stalled.
“It’s going to be a lengthy process, if it happens at all,” Carter said. “If we move to Ocean Ridge, their facility needs to be suitable, and it’s not now.”           

Bruce Anderson volunteering at Palm Beach State College. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

By Steve Pike

    John F. Kennedy once said: “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”
    Bruce Anderson was living that belief long before JFK entered the White House. The Gulf Stream resident continues to live by those words. Anderson, who retired from Bell Laboratories some 21 years ago, is providing leadership and learning as a tutor in the math lab at Palm Beach State College’s Lake Worth campus.
    It’s a post-retirement job that for the 70-something Anderson is more passion than work. It’s a way of passing on the leadership and learning he’s gathered as a soldier, engineer, world-class sailor and teacher.
    The math lab at PBSC is used by students — most of whom are between ages 25 and 35 — to help them prepare for accredited math courses they need to graduate. Anderson is paid a small stipend for the 30 hours per week he’s put in since this past August, but the real reward is helping the students accomplish their goals.
    “You’re talking about mature people, many of whom have families and one and sometimes two jobs,” said Anderson, a father of three grown children who lives with his wife, Muriel, whom he affectionately calls “Murt.”
    “I’ve long believed that a job without vision is drudgery,” said Anderson, who also is a bit of philosopher, fond of spinning phrases and short stories that have meaning. “If you can’t see what you’re doing has a meaning and a purpose to it, it’s just grind. These people have a vision and they have a focus on what they want to accomplish. My attitude is, we can’t let people like these fail.”
    Failure has never been an option for Anderson, who was introduced to teaching as a graduate student at Ohio State University. Anderson chose grad school over the U.S. Olympic sailing team in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
    “I went to school on the G.I. Bill (after serving in the Korean War) and they gave me an instructor’s position in the math department,” Anderson said. “I was the youngest guy in my class. All the other guys were World War II veterans who had stayed in the military. They wanted to get some grad degrees for the next level.
    “It was very satisfying but I had no interest in being a teacher. I was going to be the guy in a gray fall suit. Corporate America was holding out it arms.”
After working briefly for a small electronics firm, Anderson landed with Bell Labs — the research arm of AT&T.
    “I was surrounded by exciting people doing exciting things,” Anderson said.
    Nothing classified, mind you, although Anderson did work on a project at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where he was nearly arrested for accidentally walking through the wrong door.
    “It was supposed to have been a locked door,” Anderson said with a chuckle. “All of a sudden I was told to get face-down on the ground. I was asked, ‘What are you doing here?’ I told them I was just stretching my legs. Never a dull moment.”
    Following his retirement, the Andersons moved from their Morristown, N.J., home to their current home along the Intracoastal Waterway. After she recovered from a severe illness, Murt encouraged her husband to get back into teaching. Bruce Anderson started out his second career at teaching math and physics at Fort Lauderdale Christian High School and then at Pope John Paul High School II in Boca Raton.
    “I thought high school was the perfect spot,” Anderson said. “Nobody cares what you did before the age of 15; and by time you’re 25 your life is pretty well fixed. Don’t have to do everything right; you just avoid doing something tragically wrong.
    “By the time you are 25, you’re that hobo walking down the railroad track with a stick over his shoulder and a bag at the end of it. That bag represents what you’ve got between your ears and those railroad tracks are heading toward tomorrow.”
It was at Pope John Paul in 2006 — his final year — that Anderson led a group of 12 students as they built a working hovercraft. That hovercraft, which the students drove over the football field, serves as the blueprint for Anderson’s teaching philosophy — a real-life lesson of why math is still relevant in today’s age of instant answers.
    “When I’m asked the question, ‘Why do I need to know this?’ I can give them an answer other than it’s just in the curriculum,” Anderson said. “What it’s really all about isn’t pushing formulas around the table; it’s how you deal with failure. Are you going to bounce back or throw in the towel?
    “When we built the hovercraft, [the students] had to figure out things like thrust over lift, the control system, the safety issues and the building materials. They had to design it and build it.”
    And therein lays Anderson’s goals for his student on the PBC math lab — whether they’re in a prep class or a calculus class.
    “Calculators today can solve very sophisticated rocket problems,” he said. “What is the force needed to accelerate a projectile up X number of feet? You can put in some data, push a button and here comes the number. Is that an educated person?
    “My view is if you don’t understand what’s happening — force, acceleration, gravity — you don’t really understand the issues. You’re a technician and pushing a button. There’s a need for those people but unless they can understand the problem, what are they going to do if they get a problem that doesn’t fit the algorithm in the computer? Can you really think about it? How do you design something? It requires some pretty sophisticated background.”     

Lab tutors begin teaching math with an attitude change

                     Palm Beach State College helps approximately 3,000 students each term (fall, spring and summer) at the Student Learning Center on its Lake Worth campus. Besides tutoring, the learning center helps its student population (from 120 countries around the world) develop independent learning skills necessary for college success.
    The Math Lab has three full-time learning specialist supervisors; nine part-time learning specialists; one developmental lab specialist; two office assistants; and 31 tutors.
    “It’s (tutoring) is not for everybody, but if a couple people can get happy with it and make a contribution, then so be it,” said Gulf Stream resident Bruce Anderson, who has served as a tutor in the Math Lab since August.
    The Math Lab’s subject matter runs the gamut from noncredit prep work for such things as how to overcome math anxiety and how to study, to credit work to prepare students for upper level courses and graduate work.
    “The Math Lab is designed to tutor people one-on-one and in small groups,” Anderson said. “We call them ‘mini-classrooms.’ ”
    One of the lab’s goals, Anderson said, is to get the students — many of whom are between the ages of 25 and 35 — to understand that math is something they can learn and understand, despite what they might think going into the lab.
    “We want to change your attitude,” toward math, Anderson said. “I tell them, ‘I guarantee if you put in the effort, we’ll get you across the bridge. I’ll personally make the commitment. I don’t work miracles but I’m here for    you.’ ”
    To become a member of the tutorial staff at the Math Lab, Reading Lab or English Lab at Palm Beach State College, contact Yoshua Carhuamaca in the lab at 561-868-3208.
Each tutor applicant must go through an interview process, and if, accepted, can work up to 30 hours per week at an hourly wage, depending on experience.

— Steve Pike

By Steve Plunkett

Gulf Stream’s project to bury electric and other utility lines is at least two months behind schedule even before a shovel hits the ground.
Consulting engineer Danny Brannon told town commissioners at their March 16 meeting that he is already in the middle of designing the south half of the project, but Florida Power & Light Co. has not designated one of its engineers for the project.
“FPL’s delay in getting us an engineer assigned is going to end up probably costing us two to four months,” Brannon said.
Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc. both have designated engineers to work with Gulf Stream, Brannon said.
The town has spent $231,000 so far on the project, he said, and from here on out, “activity is going to be much more intense.”
Putting FPL, cable TV and phone lines underground will occur in two phases, south of Golfview Drive first, then north. Landscaping in the first phase originally was supposed to be removed starting in April and the project finished in September 2013.
Now the finish date could be postponed to January 2014.
Brannon said the overlap of the phases meant the north half of the project might still be on schedule, with completion targeted for March 2014.
“Do you see prices going up any time soon?” Vice Mayor Joan Orthwein asked.
Brannon said two years ago contractors were bidding low just to stay in business, but many of them have disappeared.
“The ones that did stay have some work, but they don’t have a lot of work,” Brannon said. “We’re still in a competitive pricing situation.”

Commissioner sworn in
Earlier in the meeting, Commissioner Garrett Dering was sworn in to fill the remaining two years of former Commissioner Chris Wheeler’s term. Dering was appointed to the position in October after Wheeler sold his house in Gulf Stream; no one filed to oppose Dering in the March election.
Town Clerk Rita Taylor quickly administered the oath of office.
“The last time you did this, the next thing you said was here are the issues you need to know about,” Dering joked.
When first chosen, Dering had 17 days to prepare for a vote on subdividing the historic 6-acre Spence property into six single-family parcels.

Sophia Isaac (left), Chairman of the Library Volunteers, counts stacks of books to be purchased by Manalapan resident Jeff Solomon (center) as library volunteer Betty Howson awaits the final tally at Manalapan’s  J. Turner Moore Memorial Library book sale on March 10. Mr. Solomon purchased $233 worth of books.  Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

Breakers on the Ocean was purchased by Ocean Properties Ltd last month. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By  Tim Pallesen 
    
The Breakers on the Ocean resort in Delray Beach has been sold for $4,750,000 to the owner of the Delray Beach Marriott.
    Ocean Properties Ltd., which owns more than 100 hotels including 38 in Florida, acquired the beach resort at 1875 S. Ocean Blvd. on Feb. 27, according to property records.
    “They’re going to keep it the way it is now,” said Randy Ely, the real estate agent who represented Ocean Properties in the transaction. “Down the road they may remodel or build new.”
    Breakers on the Ocean was built in the 1950s and purchased in 1973 by Philip and Nance Bernet.
    Bernet, who managed it with her son Marty and daughter Mia after her husband died in 1990, said she decided to sell it so she could spend more time with her grandchildren.
    “It’s been our little oasis,” she said. “When you’re there, you feel apart from the maddening crowd as you look at that azure ocean.”
    The two-acre property has 23 suites, each with a view of the ocean, a kitchen and a living room. A heated swimming pool and putting green are among the amenities.
    Ely said the buyer was attracted to it because of its location. “It’s 200 feet on the ocean in Delray. That says it all,” he said.
    Ocean Properties is a family-owned company founded by Tom Walsh, who operates it with his five children. It has 6,000 employees with offices in Delray Beach and Portsmouth, N.H.
    The company has a history of purchasing historic hotels near the water during sluggish economies.
    Ocean Properties also owns the Highland Beach Holiday Inn and Boston’s on the Beach restaurant in Delray Beach.
    Bernet will continue to operate her HyMa HyPa dress shop on Atlantic Avenue, which she has owned since 1978. “That’s an easier operation,” she said.                                         

By Angie Francalancia

    Renovations at Sunshine Square are more than halfway complete, with several new tenants, including a Panera Bread and TD Bank, anticipated for the shopping center at the southwest corner of Woolbright Road and Federal Highway.
    The enlarged Publix is expected to open in September with 14,000 more square feet than the old building and a more accessible design, according to spokesperson at Edens, the Columbia, S.C.-based, owners of the center.
    Coastal residents have watched this season as the 148,665-square-foot Sunshine Square underwent its transformation, which included creating a new entry off Woolbright to give the center a main drive and better access to Publix.
    The center’s growing pains seem to have affected some merchants and shoppers worse than others, depending upon which part of Sunshine Square they were trying to access. Some seasonal shoppers have been deterred, perhaps by a severe lack of parking and fear of flat tires during construction, merchants have said.
    The new retail building, which will house Panera Bread, is well under construction, but Edens has not named any other tenants who will occupy it. Following its completion, the “main street” and parking will be reconfigured, and lastly the outparcels will be built.
    In addition to improving access for both drivers and pedestrians, the developers are giving shoppers more reason to sit on benches and relax a while. The center will feature an art installation by artist Mark Fuller, whose work dots outdoor locations throughout South Florida, including a few works at Boynton Town Center.
    In September, Publix closed, and the old smaller building was demolished. The new store will be nearly 55,000 square feet.
    Meanwhile, the center has welcomed a couple new tenants, including an AT&T store and a DIY Yogurt. TD Bank is expected to fill an outparcel facing Woolbright Road.                                    

A rebuilt and enlarged Publix supermarket will anchor the renovated mall at Federal Highway and Woolbright Road in Boynton Beach. Rendering provided

Gail Adams Aaskov (right) shakes hands with Ocean Ridge Town Clerk Karen Hancsak after being sworn in as town commissioner on April 2.  Aaskov and incumbent Commissioner Geoff Pugh (rear) were elected to fill two open commission seats. 719 residents cast votes in the March 13 election.  During the commission’s reorganization, Vice Mayor Pugh was selected as mayor and Commissioner Lynn Allison was selected vice mayor.
Longtime Mayor and Commissioner Kenneth Kaleel was honored at the April meeting for his service to the Town of Ocean Ridge.

This year, voters in the sixth biennial Read Together campaign sponsored by the Palm Beach County Literacy Coalition have chosen Last Train To Paradise, by Les Standiford, as the book they hope everyone will read.
The book, available in local libraries and bookstores, chronicles the birth and death of Henry M. Flagler’s Key West Railroad and the changes it brought to the state.
    The Read Together campaign, which kicked off March 30, continues through May 1. For more information, visit www.literacypbc.org   
                 — Ron Hayes

By Mary Thurwachter
    
A week before Lake Worth commissioners unanimously chose Lantana Town Manager Mike Bornstein as the new city manager, colleagues in Lantana braced themselves for his probable departure.   
    Mayor Dave Stewart said he knew the day would come when Bornstein, town manager for 12 years, would move on.
    “Don’t get a big head over this, Mike, but over the past four or five years, our town was not of the size to have the tax base to pay him (Bornstein) what he’s worth,” Stewart said during the March 12 council meeting.
    Bornstein, who will begin his Lake Worth job on April 16, received a $97,000 salary in Lantana, on the low end of what town managers are paid in the county. He’ll earn $135,000 in Lake Worth. Bornstein, 48, will also receive a $500-a-month car allowance, a cell phone, and the city will cover his professional association dues and travel expenses for travel to conferences.
    At the council’s meeting on March 26, Stewart said the town would accept applications for town manager through April 6. A short list of applicants would be ready by the April 9 council meeting and the council, which voted itself to serve as the selection committee, will interview top candidates during a special session starting at 9 a.m. on April 13.
    Stewart anticipates a decision will be made on April 13, however, if more time is needed, another meeting will be held on April 16.
    The town hopes to introduce the new manager at the April 23 meeting.
    For the short time between Bornstein’s departure and the new manager’s arrival, former Lantana Police Chief Rick Lincoln will serve as temporary manager, Stewart said.
    Bornstein began working for Lantana 12 years ago as director of development services. He became town manager two years later.  
    Council members praised him as a consensus builder and innovative thinker.
    “I think Mike Bornstein is the best thing that happened to this town,” council member Lynn Moorhouse said at the March 12 meeting. “Who would have thought to send coconuts to Washington, D.C., to save the post office?” He also praised Bornstein for his efforts in recreating the Barefoot Mailman’s trek and coming up with Lantana Lou Day (Lantana’s answer to Groundhog Day) to promote the town.
    “We’ll miss him and his inventiveness,” Moorhouse said.                          

By Tim O’Meilia
    
With plans for a $15 million to $25 million breakwater project to protect South Palm Beach’s eroding beaches dead in the water, town officials are trying an old-fashioned political method to resuscitate the plan — lobbying.
    When Palm Beach County commissioners killed the plans in February for a Singer Island jetty and breakwater project, a proposal to install breakwaters and groins along a 1.3-mile stretch from Palm Beach through South Palm Beach to the Lantana beach died as well.
    The county was part-way through an $850,000 environmental impact study when the commission voted 4-3 to halt more work. South Palm Beach pays 20 percent of the study and has paid $111,000 over the past five years for erosion work.
    With help from County Commissioner Steven Abrams already assured, town officials are taking aim at nay-voters. Mayor Donald Clayman said he button-holed Commissioner Shelley Vana, who voted to kill the project, during Lantana’s Last  ____ Over the Bridge parade last month.
    He said she gave him a smile and a hug.
    Town Manager Rex Taylor said the environmental study is 75 percent complete. “If you want to do anything in the future, you need the study. It has a long shelf life. It can always be updated,” he said.
    The county has halted dune restoration projects along the beach as well, because the sand washes away nearly as quickly as it’s placed.
    “We’re in a crisis situation here,” said Councilwoman Bonnie Fischer, who lives in the Imperial House, which had to rebuild its seawall last winter.
    Taylor said: “We feel the County Commission didn’t understand the length and breadth of what they did.”
In other business at the March 27 Town Council meeting:
    • Council members Stella Jordan and Robert Gottlieb were sworn in to new two-year terms by U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley. Both were unopposed. Joseph Flagello was unanimously chosen to remain vice mayor.
    • Council members passed an updated set of fees and charges for building permits, inspections, parking tickets and business taxes. Jordan had urged revision of the fees to cover the town’s administrative costs. Latest permit fee to install a satellite dish: $75.         

Al Jacquet, a legislative aide for state Rep. Mack Bernard (D-West Palm Beach) is sworn into Delray Beach Commission Seat 2 as fellow commissioners (standing l-r) Tom Carney, Angeleta Gray and Adam Frankel along with Mayor Woodie McDuffie observe. Jacquet won the seat with 1,850 votes in the March 13 municipal election. Gray was re-elected to commission seat 4 with 2,214 votes.  A charter amendment asking voters whether they wanted to change commissioners’ and mayor’s length of office from the current two-year terms to three-year terms was defeated.
 Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

Delray Beach Mayor Nelson “Woodie” McDuffie is running for the seat of Palm Beach County supervisor of elections.
    McDuffie filed March 22 to run against current supervisor Susan Bucher of Boynton Beach for the next four-year term.
    On Delray Beach’s City Commission since 2007, McDuffie became mayor in 2009. He is currently manager of information technologies for the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser and has 42 years of experience in IT.
    McDuffie’s announcement followed the March election tally in Wellington that incorrectly called two winners. The error has been attributed to a computer glitch.
    “Our citizens deserve to have confidence that our voting process is being safeguarded and properly managed. In addition, for too long Palm Beach County has had a blemished record of voting that has embarrassed the residents of our county and put us in a negative spotlight that hurts our county’s image, our economy and our integrity,” McDuffie said in a news release.
    
— Margie Plunkett

Construction crews install sections of a concrete pedestrian tunnel under A1A at the Manalapan residence of G. John Krediet on March 6. Closed for five days to all but emergency vehicles and local traffic, the road reopened March 9. Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

Manalapan officials scheduled a “special presentation” for outgoing librarian Mary Ann Kunkle, but the guest of honor was a no-show at the March 27 commission meeting.
“Even though she’s not here, we do have a certificate of appreciation for her,” Mayor Basil Diamond said.
    The town also chose a Kindle Fire e-book reader as a going-away present.
    A substitute went to fill in at the library but Kunkle sent her back, saying she would not be attending, Town Manager Linda Stumpf said.
    Kunkle also clarified that she had resigned, not retired, Stumpf said.
    Kunkle was librarian since 2005 and volunteered at the library before that, Diamond said. She also was the first editor of the town’s newsletter.

—Steve Plunkett

Residents could catch a parking break at the beach if Delray Beach follows through on a suggestion by Commissioner Tom Carney.
Carney’s recommendation would push back the start of metering of beach-area parking about an hour and a half on Monday through Thursday mornings, effectively giving residents a break.
    Currently, motorists must start feeding the meters at 8 a.m., but under Carney’s recommendation that would move to 9:30 a.m.
While anyone parking in the area would benefit, Carney reasoned that those who would be most impacted were nearby residents who might want to park to get a coffee or walk on the beach. The change would not apply to beach area parking Friday through Sunday, which may see metering start at 7 a.m. instead of 8 a.m.
Even if the metering hours ultimately change, motorists parking in the area will still be held to a two-hour time limit.
— Margie Plunkett