St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church members Quinn Doyle, 11, and Deena Rizzo, 7, have fun on the bumper cars during the 45th Annual St. Vincent Ferrer Parish Festival in Delray Beach on Feb. 24.
Kurtis Boggs/The Coastal Star

By Emily J. Minor

Stephanie Schappert, 18, started running because it was all in the family — everyone was doing it — and she got lucky.
She’s good at it. And she likes it.
“A lot of people have always thought that we were pressured into running, but that was never the case,” says Schappert, who graduated from Pope John Paul II High School last year and has a full track and cross country scholarship this year at Villanova University.
“I guess I just saw how much fun they (her brother and sister) had with their teams.”
Indeed, if researchers wanted to study the genetics of family athleticism, the Schappert family DNA would be a good place to start.
Ken Schappert, her dad, was a competitive runner in college, also running for Villanova. Stephanie’s brother, Kenny, 28, ran for the University of Tennessee. Sister Nicole, 24, first competed for Wake Forest College, and then Villanova.
And the mom in this coastal Delray Beach household is no slouch. Jane Schappert was a competitive college swimmer for … yes, Villanova.
“I guess it was the eight years of track meets and cross countries I went to with my brother and sister,” Stephanie Schappert says. “I think I’ve watched more than I’ve participated in.”
The baby in the family, Schappert is more than a bit humble. A distance runner who especially loves to compete in the mile and the 800-meter, her personal record is 4:51 for the mile and 2:10 for the 800. In high school, she won six state titles. And this month, she’s one of three area high schools students under consideration for the Palm Beach County Sport Hall of Fame as the Student Athlete of the Year.
The award will be announced at the March 25 banquet and Schappert is up against two Glades football players: William Likely, who plays for Glades Central High School; and Kelvin Taylor, who plays for Glades Day School.
The college freshmen won’t be able to make the dinner and ceremony at the Palm Beach County Convention Center. She’s caught up with her freshman year at Villanova, everything from classes to workouts to traveling for competition.
At Pope John Paul, Schappert worked mostly with coach Kevin Brown, said head coach Nate Robinson. “The last two years, he trained her pretty much himself,” Robinson said.
And now that she’s competing at the college level, Schappert says the dynamic from those days when she trained with coach Brown is completely different.
“I went from training on my own, to being on a team with a bunch of girls and training with a pack,” Schappert says. “I love it. I love my coach. I love my team.”
Still, old habits are hard to break — especially good ones.
“I miss my high school coach and teammates,” she said, “but this is just such a different experience.”                           

Former Boca Raton  Mayor Bill Smith and his wife Bonny,
were decked out in matching shirts at the George Snow Scholarship
Fund’s 19th Annual Caribbean Cowboy Ball on Jan. 28.

Jason Walton, chief of staff at Lynn University, above,
and Jessica Corneille, below, a 2007 Snow Scholar and a
kindergarten teacher at Forest Park Elementary School,
were also on hand. Photos by Tim Stepien

Boca Raton, FL --- The George Snow Scholarship Fund's Nineteenth Annual Caribbean Cowboy Ball and Auction kicked off the 30^th Anniversary of the George Snow Scholarship Fund on January 28th attracting over 580 "cowpokes" for a foot-stompin' good time.

The event, which honored Robin and Charles Deyo with the Fund's Annual "Community Service Award," and The Boca Raton Regional Hospital with the Fund’s  Annual “Corporate Community Service Award; " raised approximately $137,000 to be applied toward higher education scholarships and programs designed to assist worthy students in our community.

A major contributor toward the Caribbean Cowboy Ball's financial success was the live and silent auction, which features gifts and services donated from many local and regional businesses and organizations.  Many people walked away with one of a kind sports memorabilia, exciting golf packages, dinner at their favorite restaurant, and fantastic trips, living up to its reputation “As the Best Darn Auction in Boca Raton. "

Tim Snow, president of the George Snow Scholarship Fund, said, "We are deeply grateful to each of the companies and organizations that contributed items for our auction. 

Kelly Barrette and Raymond Jones distribute signs around their coastal Delray Beach neigh-borhood to protest the planned upscale recovery houses for people with drug and alcohol addictions. Photo by Jerry Lower

By Tim Pallesen and Antigone Barton

As Delray Beach moves aggressively to restrict addiction-recovery houses amid single-family homes, the threat of a legal battle increases.
The City Commission will decide this month whether to limit how often rooms can be rented in single-family neighborhoods.
The city’s outside attorneys are advising whether a request by Caron Treatment Centers to house wealthy, recovering addicts on Seaspray Avenue can be denied.
And a city official says Caron lacks a necessary landlord permit to operate another sober house on Ocean Boulevard.
“If they do any of this stuff, they’re going to get a lawsuit,” Caron Executive Vice President Andrew Rothermel warned.
Meanwhile, residents living near the two, ocean-side million-dollar homes that Caron intends to convert into upscale recovery houses, are working to sabotage Caron’s marketing promise of recovery in “anonymity and discretion.”
Three large signs decorate the lawn across the street from 1232 Seaspray Ave.
“Caron, your business is NOT WELCOME in our Single Family neighborhood …” the largest one reads.
“Paparazzi Welcome Here! We’ve got our eyes (and our lenses) on you!”
Neighbor Kelly Barrette has passed out some 100 additional signs that urge neighbors to “Just Say No” to transient housing.
“It’s a single family residence community,” Barrette said. “It’s the constant turnover of people who we never get a chance to know. It’s a transient issue.”
Those signs have spread across coastal Delray Beach and are posted across the street of another house Caron purchased at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. as well as along Nassau Street to the south, where Caron was once rumored to be eying a house.
Caron has said its clients will receive all their clinical treatment at its facility in Boca Raton.   
But Caron’s assurances that the “boutique” center would offer “exclusive services” and house wealthy, elite and “discerning” clients paying upward of $60,000 a month has done little to comfort neighbors, Barrette said.
“Like having Lindsay Lohan in there was going to make it better,” she said.
Rothermel insists that Caron will maintain the values of the neighborhood. He asks that neighbors, “let us prove to them that we’re going to be good neighbors.”
He said one house would be for recovering men, the other for women. He added he hoped clients would be moving in by the end of this month.
Neighborhood resident and attorney Mindy Farber said she is concerned that Caron, citing federal regulations, won’t disclose the names of the clients or the nature of the problem being treated.
“They’re not saying if it’s sexual predators or people who are registered sexual offenders,” she said. “It’s one thing to be a friendly neighbor; it’s another not to be told who your neighbors are. It’s totally creepy.”
It’s also an issue that seems increasingly likely to end up in federal court.
Last month, the city hired its Miami and Washington, D.C., law firms after coastal residents learned in December that Caron was buying houses near the ocean.
City commissioners asked the city’s planning and zoning board to review a proposal to lower the number of times that bedrooms can be rented in a single-family home from six to three times a year. The planning board has recommended only two rentals per year.
That proposal is scheduled to be back before city commissioners on Feb. 7 after outside attorneys review its legality.
“We are running absolutely everything by outside counsel now,” assistant city attorney Terrill Pyburn said.
The Miami law firm of Weiss Serota Helfman Pastoriza Cole & Boniske and the Washington, D.C., legal and lobbying firm of Patton, Boggs and Blow were hired to determine whether the city’s laws can be tightened to restrict either the number of the unrelated people or length of stay in a house.
A lawsuit would pit the same two attorneys who battled over Boca Raton’s attempt five years ago to restrict sober houses. Boca Raton was sued when it said no more than three unrelated people could live in a single-family home.
The federal lawsuit resulted in a judge reaffirming that recovering alcoholics and drug addicts have protection under the federal Fair Housing Act and Americans with Disabilities Act.
The judge ruled in 2007 that Boca Raton’s limit of three patients created a “disparate impact” on patients. Attorney James Green, representing the American Civil Liberties Union, had argued that sober house patients have a greater chance of recovery if more patients are in the house.
The judge lifted his injunction after a procedure was adopted in which treatment providers can request a “reasonable accommodation” to allow more than three patients in a sober house. That procedure is followed now in both Boca Raton and Delray Beach.
Rothermel warns that Delray Beach will lose in court, too, if it attempts to restrict recovery houses in other ways.
“The politicians are clearly pandering to property owners east of the Intracoastal Waterway,” he said. “They can’t restrict sober living. They can veil their actions, but they’re clearly discriminatory under the Fair Housing Act. The city is going to waste a ton of time and money.”
Green now represents Caron. The city’s lead attorney is Matthew Mandel, who represented Boca Raton.
Caron on Dec. 19, requested a reasonable accommodation to allow seven clients to live in a five-bedroom, $3 million house at 1232 Seaspray Ave. it purchased last month. The city has until early this month to decide whether to grant the request and if it denies, Caron has 30 days to appeal to the City Commission.
A reasonable accommodation waiver has already been granted to Caron to house seven patients at 740 N. Ocean Blvd.
But a city official says that Caron can’t open the house until it gets a permit required for anyone who rents residential property.
“They will be required to have a landlord permit,” said Lula Butler, the city’s community improvement director.
Rothermel disputes that Caron needs such a permit. “Our patients are not renting real estate,” he said.
City officials early last year approved the reasonable accommodation request for 740 N. Ocean Blvd. without asking Caron for the address.
The planning and zoning board recommended at its Jan. 23 meeting that an address be required for future applications.
“We’re trying to come up with something that makes it difficult to operate in single-family neighborhoods,” board chairman Cary Glickstein said of the city’s efforts.
“Caron is exploiting something the fair housing and ADA laws never intended to allow addicts perhaps with criminal records to live there,” Glickstein said. “It’s just a matter of time before this gets shut down.”
And however long that takes, residents vow, the signs will remain posted. “This is a statement we felt like we needed to make,” Barrette said, “to make sure they continue to hear us.”                                            

By Thomas R. Collins

The decision by Caron Treatment Centers to spend millions of dollars to buy two large houses near the ocean in Delray Beach is designed to expand the organization’s addiction-treatment offerings.
It could also be seen as a shrewd business decision.
The genesis of Caron’s venture into luxurious, beachside residences for clients undergoing treatment — called the “Ocean Drive” program — lies in the 1990s. That’s when changes to the insurance industry and the dawn of managed care “decimated treatment benefits,” said Andrew Rothermel, an executive vice president and the president of Florida operations for Caron, which has headquarters near Philadelphia but has treatment facilities in Boca Raton and elsewhere.
After that, nonprofit Caron ended its contracts with insurance companies, choosing instead to rely only on self-pay and gifts from donors for its operations, and to charge people on a sliding scale according to their income, Rothermel said recently.
That has put more pressure to find revenue other ways. And the treatment of rich clients is a way to do that, Rothermel said. It also will mean “more money in the bucket” for “charity care” for financially struggling addicts, he said.
“That provides more care to the people that need it,” Rothermel said.
Caron is seeking an exception to Delray Beach’s limit of three unrelated people who can live together in a single-family neighborhood. The clients, as many as 14 at a time in the two beachfront homes, would undergo treatment at Caron’s treatment center in Boca Raton.
The ocean-side venture is just another segment of the big business of addiction treatment in South Florida, particularly Delray Beach.
The treatment industry ranges from halfway houses in lower- and middle-income neighborhoods — Delray Beach is a nationally known halfway-house hotbed — to the big-gala and big-name philanthropy scene of nonprofits such as Caron.
Laura Lee Chapman, who runs nine halfway houses in Palm Beach County with the for-profit Stepping Stones LLC and is familiar with the recovery business, said, “It can be very big with making money.”
The finances can even work out more favorably for a nonprofit, like Caron, than a for-profit business, because of the ability to accept tax-deductible donations and grants, Chapman said. Perhaps not surprisingly, she is starting a nonprofit group.
“I would actually make more money with a nonprofit than I would with a [for-]profit,” she said. “You give yourself a salary and you get paid from the grant money.”
Caron’s Ocean Drive initiative — with clients paying $60,000 a month and expected to stay two or three months at a time — is big revenue-generator because “people are willing to pay for it,” Rothermel said.
It’s a new focus for Caron — affluent clients who are highly functioning in their career and their lives, but who also need an intensive clinical addiction program.
A Caron brochure promises “preeminent addiction treatment” that’s “individualized for the most privileged client,” in which “paddle boarding, kayaking, yoga and quiet walks or runs on the beach are all part of the healing process.”
Caron officials have said they’re not seeking the celebrity client and that program rules put a premium on anonymity.
The venture will give Caron access to a niche market.
“It’s a very narrow level of care, but there’s no one else doing it,” Rothermel said.
Adi Jaffe, an addiction psychologist in Los Angeles who runs the Web site  www.allaboutaddiction.com, said changes to medical insurance provisions — putting it on a par with physical care — might lead to the spread of even more treatment centers, including in South Florida.
Plus, health care reform will likely mean insurance to a “huge new pool of people looking for treatment,” he said.
The impact remains to be seen, he said.
“That really depends on what the treatment centers that currently exist do,” he said. “There are many treatment centers that are operating far below capacity right now.”
Whether treatment-related facilities continue to spread or not, it remains a big business, particularly at Caron, where this month’s $500- to $1,000-a-plate fundraising gala at Mar-a-Lago features honorary chairman Donald Trump, football great Joe Theismann and entertainment by comedian Richard Lewis.
At Caron Foundation of Florida, in the 2009-10 fiscal year — the latest for which information was available — and the national Richard J. Caron Foundation, salaries and compensation make up more than 40 percent of the total expenses, tax documents show.
That is  less than it was at the West Palm Beach-based Hanley Center in 2009-10, the year before Caron bought it. That year, Hanley’s salaries and compensation accounted for 55 percent of the expenses, records show.
Rothermel said he wishes Caron’s percentage were higher.
“I wish we could pay our staff better,” he said. “The more staff we have and the more highly credentialed staff we have, the better our treatment’s going to be and the better our long-term results are going to be.” He said it’s a staff-reliant business that delivers “an intensely personal product.”
Caron’s president and CEO, Douglas Tieman, made $522,000 a year in 2009-10. At least seven other officers are paid more than $200,000 a year at Caron, which has about 800 employees. Rothermel made $245,000 in fiscal year 2009-10, the tax documents show.
Rothermel said those salaries are comparable to other top officials in the industry. Before the acquisition by Caron, the top official with 254-employee Hanley made $335,000, the records show.
In the same year, the head of the nonprofit cultural group Society of the Four Arts, with 33 employees, made $314,000 a year, tax documents show.
“We try to be below the 50th percentile, based on a ton of different factors,” Rothermel said. “But at the same time, if we lose a senior person, it is very, very hard to replace that person.”
Caron’s charity care was about $10 million in the last year tax documents were available.  Rothermel said the goal is $16 million this fiscal year.
He said the Ocean Drive venture would generate $1 million to $2 million for new charity care.
Rothermel said Caron also provides boosts to the local economy, with $5.7 million in salaries to local staffers, $5.8 million spent with community vendors and 3,200 hotel nights booked in the last fiscal year, many by families visiting those in treatment.
Mary Renaud — president of the Beach Property Owners association, which represents the Delray Beach barrier island and is opposing Caron’s plans — said the financial details don’t matter to her.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re making a profit or a loss,” she said. “It’s that they’re running a business in a single-family neighborhood and that’s not allowed in Delray Beach.”
Bob Ganger — head of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, which is also challenging the proposal — said the business aspect of Caron is directly linked to the amount of disruption that might come to the neighborhood.  
It makes business sense to maximize income per renter and to stay fully occupied, likely meaning a rapidly revolving door of tenants.
“That’s basic Economics 101,” he said. And the result is that “your neighbors are whoever happens to be in the home at any given time.”    

Rich Draper, co-owner of the Ice Cream Club, reminisces with Kathy Willoughby at his Manalapan shop. Photo by Jerry Lower

By Ron Hayes
    Here’s the big scoop.
    Thirty years ago, two former fraternity brothers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign opened a little ice cream store in Manalapan.
    Rich Draper was a finance major, Tom Jackson had a degree in economics, and their Ice Cream Club was the first tenant in the brand-new Plaza del Mar.
    When Draper and Jackson dipped their inaugural scoop on Jan. 8, 1982, that corner of East Ocean Avenue and A1A was home to a Flagship bank. Across the street stood a private club called La Coquille.
    The Flagship bank is SunTrust now, and the La Coquille club building has been replaced by the Ritz-Carlton hotel. But the Ice Cream Club is still there, still owned by Draper and Jackson, and their success is the sweetest scoop of all.
    In addition to that cozy little shop in Manalapan, today’s Ice Cream Club is also an 18,000-square-foot manufacturing plant off High Ridge Road in Boynton Beach, where a staff of 55 produces about a million gallons of all-kosher ice cream and frozen yogurt every year. Seven trucks drive 30,000 miles each month to satisfy orders from 500 retail customers throughout the eastern United States.
    And vanilla, chocolate and strawberry have been joined by Twixie and Choc ’n’ Awe, Snickelicious, Pirate’s Plunder and their trademark flavor, Garbage Can. Two hundred flavors to choose from!
    How did these ambitious young men from Illinois wind up dipping ice cream here? They knew they wanted to start a business. But what? And where?
    Jackson had worked in a pizza parlor in college. Or what about cookies? Candy? Ice cream?
    “I was doing commercial leasing at the time, and heard about this center being built in Manalapan,” Draper remembers. “South Florida seemed like a good place for ice cream.”
    Now, would they merely buy the ice cream, or make it themselves?
    “And then we met a guy at a Chicago trade show who sold ice cream makers.”
    But what to call the business?
    “Manalapan had sign restrictions that were really tight,” Draper says “so we needed something short.”
    Driving around the area, he noticed private clubs, tennis clubs, golf clubs.
    The Ice Cream Club!
    They waited a year for the plaza to be built, then did the inside painting, sanding and varnishing themselves.
    “I was making ice cream in the store and letting the customers try it,” Jackson says.
‘Fish Eyes’ flamed out
    Early on, they made up flavors, willing to try anything.
    Coming back from the bars in college, they used to patronize a guy who sold hot dogs with everything on them — mustard, onions, ketchup, relish. He called his concoction The Garbage Truck.
    Draper and Jackson started with a vanilla base and added seven candy bars — Three Musketeers, Snickers, Baby Ruth, Nestlé bars, Hershey bars, Heath bars and Reese’s Pieces — along with some chopped peanuts. They dubbed it The Garbage Can.
    “But we didn’t know anything about the seasons in Florida,” Draper recalls.
    That first summer, their dipping dipped; but come December, and the snowbirds, it revived. The business grew, and the flavor list grew.
    Mexican Hot Chocolate — dark, with cinnamon, cayenne pepper and mini-marshmallows.
    Winter Holiday — white chocolate with chocolate-covered cherry cups and cherry ribbon.
    Elephant Ears — vanilla swirled with peanut butter and chocolate chips.
    Alas, not all the flavors caught on.
    “I came up with one that had lollipop chips in it,” Jackson remembers. “We called it Fish Eyes.” He chuckles. “Nobody liked the name.”
    Licorice never took off, either.
Growing, but still a family
    Two years after their debut, Draper and Jackson opened a second, larger store in North Palm Beach, and in 1985 moved into wholesale production and sales.
    One snowbird was a young woman named Heather, who was brought to the Ice Cream Club by her grandfather whenever she visited from New York. Today, she’s Heather Draper, and the company’s director.
    “Rich and I met on a blind date set up by our attorney,” she laughs. “When we were dating, Rich would bring over my favorite, Stellar Coffee, every time.”
    That’s a rich coffee ice cream with fudge and mini dark chocolate coffee cups.
    Over the years, The Club has been voted “Best Ice Cream” by Palm Beach Life magazine, Palm Beach Illustrated, The Palm Beach Post, The Miami Herald and South Florida magazine.
    In 1992, those glowing reviews and growing business found them moving into the 18,000 square-foot plant in Boynton Beach.
    “Every ingredient that we can buy from Florida, we do,” Heather Draper says, “except the candy bars. Those we have to bring in.”
    Jim Cummins, 40, was a student at Atlantic High School when he started scooping ice cream at the store. Today, he and Coleman Kelleher, 38, lead a team of seven workers. Every day from 5 a.m. until 8 p.m., their crews make ice cream. About 1,500 three-gallon tubs a day.
    Ask Cummins which of the 200 flavors he prefers to eat at home, and his face betrays a man trying to be diplomatic.
    “We make 20 to 30 different flavors a day,” he says, “and every one has to be sample tested.”
    “It’s a great place to work,” he says. “A lot of places are more corporate; we’re more family.”
    Or maybe a club.
Thanks from the thin
    Except for a few mandatory evacuations during hurricane season, The Ice Cream Club hasn’t closed in 30 years.
    “We just want to thank all the great customers up and down A1A who’ve been so supportive over the years,” says Draper.
    And yes, we know what you’re thinking now, and the answer is no.
    Rich and Heather Draper, Tom Jackson, Cummins and Kelleher are not, by any stretch of the imagination, fat.
    In fact, both Draper and Jackson are strikingly thin.
    “We eat ice cream every day,” Jackson says.
    Draper nods. “I don’t consider it anything other than regular food,” he says. “To me, ice cream is the fifth food
 group.”           

                           Workers mix flavor dots to create Cotton Candy flavor ice cream at the Ice Cream Club’s Boynton Beach plant.

Ice Cream Club founder Tom Jackson (left) stands with sales manager Jim Cummins, company director Heather Draper and co-founder Rich Draper at their plant in Boynton Beach.

Workers make about 1,500 three-gallon tubs of ice cream a day that are sold to more than 500 retail customers across the country.
Photos by Jerry Lower

The big bully. The mean kid. We always knew them when we saw them.
    Generations of parents helped their children face the school bully, and surviving their attacks came to seem a rite of passage to adulthood.  
    Somehow, though, the tough-it-out attitude gave bullying a veneer of acceptability, a “real world” behavior to be tolerated, particularly in politics.        

     I’ve worked for bullies myself in the past and believe that the behavior can spring from many sources: fear and insecurity, blind ambition and, most commonly, a generally toxic workplace environment.
    The toxicity of the work-place came to mind in January when Boynton Beach Mayor Jose Rodriguez was charged with unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior, solicitation to commit unlawful disclosure of confidential criminal information and obstruction of a law-enforcement officer. The charges stem from his alleged interference in a police investigation — of  him — regarding domestic abuse.
    Those are the legalities. In my layperson’s mind, though, the charge could simply be called criminal bullying.
After spending over three years attending Boynton’s council meetings, I’ll attest to the long-simmering toxic stew — shouting, personal attacks, condescending treatment of the public from the dais and dug-in political divisiveness on issues critical to the city’s future. If the charges are proven to be true, this toxic history likely fed the alleged behavior the suspended mayor is charged with. Sadly, there are plenty of bullies in Boynton Beach.
It’s this toxicity from which our other towns and neighborhoods should take a cautionary lesson.
Delray Beach comes immed-iately to mind. The transient/rehab housing concerns are ones where everyone involved must remain on the high road to be successful. If neighbors begin criticizing neighbors, the neighborhoods fighting to retain their single-family character will be threatened on multiple fronts.
    Keep the issue alive with elected officials, let the legal process progress and take the opportunity to get to know your neighbors.
But avoid the toxic stew of unfounded rumors and allegations. Don’t stoop to name-calling — don’t stir the stew.

— Mary Kate Leming
Editor

Sea Angels founders (l-r) Rod and Kathy Silverio and Robyn and Mike Halasz prepare for a cleanup event at the Boynton Beach Inlet in late January. The group aims to remove litter from the beaches with a ‘minimal carbon footprint and without disturbing the local wildlife,’ according to Mike Halasz. Photo by Kurtis Boggs

By Allen Whittemore

    “Mike and I have been beach-goers forever, but they just kept getting dirtier and dirtier until we did not want to go anymore,” says Robyn Halasz, co-founder of Sea Angels, a project dedicated to environmentally sound beach cleanup projects.
    In 2005, Robyn and her husband began cleaning up Ocean Inlet Park beaches around the Boynton Inlet, and wanted to do so without using plastic bags, throwaway gloves or anything else that would add to the existing trash problem.
    They also began looking for any existing groups to join, but could not find one that was doing things the way they wanted. In March 2011, they partnered with Kathy and Rod Silverio to create the Sea Angels.
    “Robyn and I had a vision that we could clean the beaches with a minimal carbon footprint and without disturbing the local wildlife,” says Mike Halasz. “We contacted the Solid Waste Authority, who have been very supportive, and added specialized recycling bins to those already at the park.”  
    One is a monofilament bin for the old fishing line that they constantly find on the beach.  “It is such a problem,” Robyn says. “We find birds caught in it, and it also kills the turtles that eat it. I am so proud to say that people are really using these bins.”
    When filled, these bins are emptied and the line is sent back to the manufacturer Berkley, which recycles it.  
    Another pet project is the cigarette butt recycling program. Mike said, “You would be amazed how fast we can find thousands of cigarette butts. Diseases can also last for days on discarded ones.” Additional bins have been added to accept and recycle these as well.
    “I have also found needles with blood on them, drug vials, car engines, shotgun shells and whole IV systems … it can be really scary what you find,” Robyn said.  
    On the last Saturday of each month, volunteers gather at Ocean Inlet Park for a two-hour cleanup session.  “Volunteers have come from as far away as Australia,” Mike proudly says. “And they are hard core, they see our passion and it gets them motivated. We cover the entire park.”
    Each volunteer has a reusable plastic bucket and a pair of grabbers to do the work.  Everything is sorted and much of it is then driven to the SWA transfer station, all at no cost to the city or county.  
    “We are saving taxpayer dollars and we don’t take any city money,” Robyn says.
    Their efforts have made a large impact. The town of Ocean Ridge has already presented the Sea Angels with a proclamation appreciating the work that they are doing.  
    The Sea Angles have plans for an upcoming reef cleanup, and would like to see their model used by other municipalities. “My goal is to go national one day and international the next,” Robyn says.  
    Mike adds, “This is a social project, a social experiment.  We hope to provide greater understanding in the community.
    “We only clean up two beaches in South Florida; imagine the overall problem.”
    For more information, visit www.seaangels.org.              

By Tim O’Meilia
    
A former Lantana police officer was sentenced to three years in prison Jan. 10 after pleading guilty to stealing cash from Hispanic men during traffic stops.
    Mark Ott, 36, pleaded guilty to three counts of targeting Hispanic men during the robberies and was ordered to pay $1,780 in restitution to the victims by Judge Stephen Rapp in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
    Ott was arrested in May as a result of a joint undercover sting operation by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, the State Attorney’s Office and the FBI.
    Ott admitted that while he was on duty between February and May he stopped several Hispanic men as they left check cashing stores, asked for their identification and confiscated between $35 and $400 from each.
    After Ott stopped an FBI agent and his son, the police agencies ran a sting operation. He was arrested after he pulled over an undercover Sheriff’s deputy and an FBI agent, took $400 in photocopied bills but kept $150 before letting the men go. The money was found stuffed in Ott’s tactical vest.
    Ott resigned after his arrest. He was a Lantana officer for five years and worked as a police dispatcher before that.      

By Jan Norris

Lots of activity in local restaurants. Star chef Michelle Bernstein has left The Omphoy as restaurateur. Official word from her publicist didn’t elaborate beyond saying she’s leaving effective Feb. 1 and that, “She and husband/partner David Martinez continue to own/operate Sra. Martinez, Michy’s and Crumb on Parchment in Miami.”
Unofficially, she and her chef Lindsay Autry, who’s competing in this season’s Top Chef show on Bravo TV, weren’t happy about treatment from The Omphoy’s new owner, Jeff Greene. The billionaire and once Senate candidate has moved into the hotel with his family while his Palm Beach home is being renovated. According to a report on Forbes’ website, he treated the restaurant staff as his “domestic servants,” and not in a kind way, the report says. The spa, Exhale, which also operated as an independent service at the resort, will also close this month.
Chef Roy Villacrusis has exited Kapow! Noodle Bar in Boca Raton after creating the menu for the new spot from the Rodney Mayo and partners (Dada-Delray Beach) group in Mizner Park. Villacrusis left amicably after the partners decided to change the concept and menu. He’s now “carefully” looking, he said, for a partner with a unique food interest that matches his own to open elsewhere.
Glen Manfra also has picked up his toque and moved on. The chef who first started the Pop-Up restaurant on Delray’s Atlantic Avenue, which later morphed into the all-day SpoonFed to favorable reviews, is a free agent.
Manfra said he and the AEG Group, which also owns Buddha Bar upstairs, had different ideas for the restaurant. “I really like this area, and it’s a shame it didn’t work out, but I wish them well,” Manfra said. He said he’s exploring several other venues locally and out of state.
Bar Italia (formerly Apicius Ristorante) in Lantana has changed hands and is now called Tapas. It appears that the small-plate concept with a more wallet-friendly menu will replace the Italian “enoteca” high-end menu at the original restaurant.
We learned at presstime that Dolce Vita, the wine bar in Lake Worth, has closed — a loss to downtown Lake Worth. No word on why the doors are shuttered or if they’ll reopen elsewhere.
Delray’s Cugini will go more clubby once another Italian/new American, 75 Main Restraurant and Lounge, soon takes over. The Southhampton, N.Y., import comes from former Nello (New York) manager Zach Erdem. The Hampton’s version of 75 Main, set on a main shopping avenue with outdoor seating, is similar to Delray’s site.
Park Tavern is now open in Worthing Place on Delray’s Atlantic Avenue. It’s from the restaurateurs behind Cut 432, the steakhouse.
Brandon Belluscio, one of three active partners, says, “It’s an American tavern, focused on farm fresh, local and sustainable foods whenever possible.”
On the menu are prime rib, spaghetti and meatballs, salmon tartare, Maine lobster pot pie and other moderately-priced diner favorites, he said. Another partner, Anthony Pizzo takes the lead in the kitchen, he said. “We have a beautiful front yard,” Belluscio says – it faces Worthing Park.
Belluscio’s name may ring a bell with Boca Raton diners — he and his father were behind the splashy Catch 22 on Federal Highway.               

Jan Norris writes about food and restaurants at www.jannorris.com

By Tim O’Meilia

    While the Ocean Avenue Bridge is rebuilt beginning in mid-March, Lantana’s Hypoluxo Island residents may see the strobing blue lights of a Manalapan or South Palm Beach police cruiser first when they call for law enforcement help.
Officials in the three waterfront towns that use the bridge most often are crafting a formal agreement to ensure that Lantana’s island residents get a quick police response even if the closest Lantana patrol car is on the west side of the bridge.
    “If for any reason we’re not present to get there immediately, (South Palm Beach and Manalapan) have agreed to be first on the scene and secure the site,” said Lantana Town Manager Michael Bornstein.
    The “memorandum of understanding” will refer to alarms and other serious calls rather than routine requests for assistance, said South Palm Beach Police Chief Roger Crane.
    Manalapan would answer calls south of Ocean Avenue, since it would have to travel through that section to reach Point Manalapan. South Palm Beach would handle calls north of Ocean.
    The agreement will have to be ratified by the councils of all three towns. The coastal towns and other police agencies are already parties to mutual aid pacts that ensure backup from nearby agencies.
    Although there had been discussion among Manalapan commissioners of Lantana paying for the first response, officials have decided the agreement is virtually a tradeoff.
    Manalapan police officers often make use of Lantana’s marine patrol boat. Lantana also dispatches police calls for South Palm Beach.
    “We’ve always worked well together,” Bornstein said of the three municipalities. “Our residents share many of the same businesses, services and roads. It behooves us to work together.”
    Bornstein said the town doesn’t have the financial ability to station a car on the east side of the bridge permanently. The Hypoluxo Island neighborhood will remain part of the Police Department’s routine patrol.
    The closing of the bridge may even be good for crime stats on the island, since it will be more isolated. “We don’t anticipate it to be a problem. We anticipate that crime will be even less,” Bornstein said.
    Crane said island residents should see no disruption in fire-rescue service either. Whenever the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue vehicle at Station 38 at the Manalapan Town Hall is called out, another will be dispatched immediately to fill in from Station 91 at the Lantana Town Hall or Station 35 on Lake Worth Road.
    Currently, the backup vehicle is not sent to fill in until 20 minutes after the first call, Crane said. The closed bridge makes the more immediate dispatch necessary because the trucks must use the Lake Worth Bridge or the Ocean Avenue bridge in Boynton Beach.

Town aims to mitigate effects
    The $33.2 million project officially began Dec. 20. The Miami-based contractor, GLF, has placed a pair of trailers in Sportsman’s Park and fenced off sections of that park and Bicentennial Park that will be used to store equipment and material for the work. The boat ramp will remain open, but some parking will be lost.
    “The contractor is allowed to move equipment in so long as the bridge stays open,” said Luis Costa, engineer for EC Driver, the consulting firm overseeing the construction. “You might see more activity in the coming weeks.”
    When the bridge reopens in October 2013 — barring storms, delays and other problems — it will be 11 feet higher in the center, have both shoulders and pedestrian lanes on both sides and a fishing pier beneath the west end.
    The 1950 bridge was a dozen years past its design life and more and more expensive to repair. Demolition is scheduled to begin March 19, the day after Lantana holds an “End of the Bridge” party.
    Planned by the town and the Chamber of Commerce, the party will feature a “parade of sorts,” Bornstein said, featuring “the last … [something] to cross the bridge. Maybe the last guy pushing someone in a wheelbarrow. We’re asking people to come up with ideas,” he said.
    “We want people to know the downtown will still be open even after the bridge is closed,” he said.
    Although Palm Beach County will erect signs directing traffic north to the Lake Worth bridge, Bornstein also has asked for signs saying that individual businesses on East Ocean Avenue remain open. “We’re still exploring our options,” he said.                    

By Steve Plunkett

Boca Raton and Delray Beach are tracking a bill in the Florida Senate that would establish rules for a “sober house transitional living home.”
The proposal by state Sen. Ellyn Setnor Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, would require supervision of the residents of such a home, require that it comply with standards of occupancy set by the local government and provide restrictions on the provision of onsite substance abuse treatment services.
Boca Raton City Manager Leif Ahnell said the city has “significant concerns” with the bill, SB 1026, as does Delray Beach, “because it would significantly alter how sober homes are treated and make them a lot more possible in our community.”  Ahnell said he and his Delray Beach counterparts are monitoring the bill’s progress in Tallahassee.
“We may be writing letters in opposition to that bill, to the League of Cities, who’s currently supporting the bill but we don’t believe understands it, depending on how it gets amended,’’ Ahnell told City Council members at their Jan. 24 meeting.
Council Member Michael Mullaugh said the county League of Cities does not support Bogdanoff’s bill, “but they haven’t been able to convince the state people.’’
“So we want to be careful in the letter to make it clear that the Palm Beach County League of Cities does understand … this bill is no bill at all,’’ Mullaugh said. “It’s truly a disaster.’’
In a letter dated Jan. 23, Delray Beach Mayor Woodie McDuffie specified his city’s concerns. The bill, he wrote Bogdanoff and the Florida League of Cities, provides that “treatment, including ‘Detoxification,’ may take place in single-family zoning districts.”
The bill would also allow a sober house in single-family districts to have up to six unrelated residents, McDuffie complained.
“Based on the foregoing, we believe that if Proposed SB1026 passes, it will be more harmful than helpful,” McDuffie concluded.
 The state League of Cities downgraded its position on the bill from “Support” to “Watch” in its Jan. 27 Legislative Bulletin. Bogdanoff sponsored a similar bill in the 2011 legislative session; it died in committee.
In the 2010 legislative session then-state Sen. Dave Aronberg introduced an amendment with input from Delray Beach and Boca Raton that would have prevented a sober house from opening within 1,000 feet of another sober house. The amendment was later dropped on a point of order.                 

By Steve Plunkett
    
WPBT’s Evening With Jim Lehrer this month gives top billing to the longtime PBS news anchor and presidential debate moderator, but Gulf Stream Mayor William Koch Jr. comes in a close second.
The Miami-based station will present Koch with a Lifetime Service Award for his commitment to public broadcasting. Koch has been on Channel 2’s board of directors more than 30 years, he said.
    Koch downplayed the honor. “They had to find some sucker to be up there,” he said.
    The mayor said he was first drawn to what he considers a “pioneer” station because he wanted to work with its station manager and president, George Dooley. Public broadcasting, Koch said, “is something that was needed and still is.”
     WPBT said Lehrer, 77, will discuss his latest book, Tension City, a nonfiction work about the presidential debates, and give attendees a ringside seat to some of the epic battles of the last six presidential elections.
    A ticket to the event, to be held Feb. 22 at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, is $250.
A similar event for the station’s Miami-Dade County supporters will be Feb. 23 at the Coral Gables Country Club, where real estate magnate Herbert Tobin, another WPBT board member, also will receive a service award. Ticket information is at www.wpbt2.org/lehrer
    Lehrer joined PBS in 1972, teaming with Robert MacNeil a year later to cover the Senate Watergate hearings. In 1975 they began what became The MacNeil/Lehrer Report and in 1983 The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, the first 60-minute evening news program on television. When MacNeil retired in 1995, the program was renamed The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. It became PBS NewsHour in 2009.        

By Steve Plunkett
    
Water bills in Gulf Stream will have a new $30 charge every two months to save up for future repairs.
    “Basically what we are recommending is that we immediately begin billing an additional base fee,” Town Manager William Thrasher told commissioners at their January meeting.
    Mayor William Koch Jr. agreed a reserve fund for water repairs was needed sooner rather than later.
    “It’s something we’ve got to approach. It’s not going away,” Koch said.
    Thrasher said Gulf Stream has only $1 million in reserves in its general fund and $100,000 in the water fund. The replacement water main along State Road A1A between Pelican Lane and Golfview Drive in 2006 cost $1.6 million, he noted.
    Thrasher said the extra fee will generate about $66,000 a year, which will reduce the town’s need to borrow when another water main breaks.
    Consultant Earl Harvel inventoried Gulf Stream’s water mains and determined 78 percent of them were installed in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. Their original 100-year life expectancies have been compromised by soil conditions and changes in the town’s treated water, he said.
    Thrasher said 2.5 miles of water main is more than 50 years old and 1 mile is more than 60 years old. Their remaining life expectancy is at most 20 years, he said. Replacing them would cost approximately $4.5 million, he added.
    The general fund reserves are down to $1 million after the town used them to pay its share of the underground utilities project. Thrasher had asked for up to $450,000, but told commissioners the town’s actual portion turned out to be $351,000.                                 

Robert Rookie, 21, of Delray Beach checks out the Stanley Cup at Boston’s on the Beach on Jan. 19. The trophy and a few Bruins (2011 champs) are on a national tour. Photo by Kurtis Boggs

By Thom Smith

Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. Forthwith, insofar as most of January was swallowed up by political palaver, and a weary populace doth need more time than that allotted to allow our better nature to let the rhetoric, bombast and hyperbole ooze our pores, his majesty the king proclaims that the lowly month of February shall be extended to six weeks.  
    P.S. The king will make it up to March later, probably by shortening August, which is too hot anyway.

 Oh, the curse of February. Even with a bonus day this year, we still won’t have enough time to deal with everything. From the Allianz Golf Championship through Valentine’s Day to the Boca Heart Ball and beyond, Febmar, as the new month will be known, is packed.
    Not only will the Allianz Championship bring the world’s best senior golfers to Boca’s Broken Sound Club from Feb. 6-12, including local heroes Mark Calcavecchia, Bruce Fleischer, Nick Price and Bernhard Langer; defending champ Tom Lehman; and legends Tom Watson, Ben Crenshaw and Hale Irwin, but the tournament will offer something for everyone. Annika Sorenstam, arguably the greatest woman golfer in history, will host an executive women’s brunch, a private clinic and a women’s pro-am on Feb. 7.
    For those who appreciate the social nature of golf, Grapes on the Green returns for the third year. If you think golfers are just into beer, think again. Wine is big, with many of the pros promoting their own labels. For a ticket ranging from a basic $85 solo to $750 for the Fuzzy Zoeller VIP package for four, patrons can sample varietals from such pros as Sorenstam, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Fred Couples and David Frost plus appetizers from Carmen’s Top of the Bridge, WaterColors, Max’s Harvest, Max’s Grille, Broken Sound Club, Frank & Dino’s, Assiago del Forno, Ruth’s Chris and Morton’s, among others.
    As a special twist this year, the reception, a benefit for Boca Raton Regional Hospital, will overlook action on the second day from a pavilion between the driving range and the 18th green. For more info, check out www.allianzchampionship.com.
                                   ***
    Speaking of bottles, the Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan is celebrating Valentine’s Day with its own version of Spin the Bottle and a dining experience that’ll offer Seven Minutes in Heaven several times over.
    The lowest price for a bottle in the Ritz’s wine wall is $65, but guests taking a $65-spin may win a bottle valued up to $225, then enjoy it at dinner … either in the Temple Orange restaurant or one of the resort’s eight oceanfront cabanas.  
    A candlelit aphrodisiac dinner for two in the Temple Orange dining room offers tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad, beef Wellington with au gratin potato, buttered asparagus and porcini mushroom sauce, plus white and dark chocolate fondues, chocolate bark, red velvet cupcakes, cappuccino, chocolate-covered cherries and even Whoopie Pies. Price: $130 per couple or $225 with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot.
    Snuggling is not only permitted but encouraged in the cabanas, where dinner begins with chilled seafood delicacies (citrus-poached shrimp, Wianno oysters, caviar and stone crab), continues with a second course of heirloom beets with Loxahatchee goat cheese, avocado and micro basil; then a dual entrée of chateaubriand and lobster with buttered asparagus and sweet potato mash. For dessert: chocolate souffle, chocolate crème brulee and chocolate molten cake, plus cappuccino. Guests can canoodle by the fire pit with after-dinner libations and simmering conversation and take home a Valentine treat for two! Personal server and champagne included — $600 per couple. Reservations, obviously, are a must.
                                    ***
    If you can’t wait for Valentine’s Day for that love life boost, consider that the ancient Greeks and Egyptians — and some present-day experts — have considered garlic an aphrodisiac. So why not start the weekend before with the Delray Garlic Festival at Old School Square. The “Best Stinkin’ Party in Town” offers garlic in every shape and form, competition to crown the 2012 “Garlic Chef,” plus a little music to boot. The entertainment bill this year includes Uncle Kracker, Andy Childs, G. Love & Special Sauce, plus a Sunday full of tribute bands playing the music of Billy Joel, Bon Jovi and Journey. Admission is $10 per day and proceeds — $350,000 so far — benefit local youth education and arts organizations. To “Eat, Drink, Reek!,” go to www.dbgarlicfest.com.   
                                    ***
    It seems only yesterday that Donna McKechnie won a best-actress Tony for her performance in A Chorus Line in 1976. Since she’s brought down the house more than a few times, it’s only fair that she open one. On Feb. 17 and 18, she’ll inaugurate the new Plaza Theatre in Manalapan, recounting her remarkable career in her one-woman show, My Musical Comedy Life. In his review of her show, New York Times critic Ben Brantley wrote: “She remains the essence of the heroic drive that A Chorus Line celebrates.”
    With the Plaza, Alan Jacobson, who has mounted regional productions for two decades, is taking a shot at a permanent site in the space formerly occupied by Florida Stage. He aims to offer lower-than-average ticket prices and provide a wide range of entertainment with broad appeal.
For McKechnie’s show, opening night tickets, including post-show reception are $55; second night $39. McKechnie also will hold a master class reception prior to second show. Reservations required. (561-585-2683).
                                    ***

    Another star with more than a little Broadway experience returns for a second season, albeit a little bit off the beaten track. John Davidson brings his dinner-and-a-show back for a second year, every weekend in February and March at Atlantis Country Club. The package is $48. (965-5788 or www.AtlantisDine.com).
                                    ***
The nominations are out, and the Oscars (as always) are a hot ticket. To satisfy your red carpet fix, the Palm Beach International Film Festival is again hosting Oscar Night America, the official academy sanctioned viewing party. Admission to the Feb. 26 bash in Boca’s Mizner Park Amphitheater is free.  A red carpet will be rolled out for guests, who can bring a chair or blanket to watch the telecast on a giant screen, bid for silent auction items and buy official Oscar souvenirs. Food and drink will be available for purchase. VIP tickets, $100, include choice seating, a buffet and complimentary drinks, commemorative poster and programs. (www.pbifilmfestival.org or 362-0003.)
                                    ***

     Check out the tats, the piercings, the hip-hop attire, the coolness. Cool as ice. Yet, deep down inside, Rob Van Winkle, popularly known as Vanilla Ice, is a regular guy. Oh, sure, he likes fancy cars and loves the night life, and he remains active in show business. In December he played Captain Hook in a British pantomime production of Peter Pan, but if he hadn’t knocked pop music on its derriere with Ice Ice Baby way, way back in 1989, he could very well be an automobile mechanic or a carpenter.
    In fact, he is a carpenter, of sorts. In his DIY Network TV series, The Vanilla Ice Project, entering its second season, he renovates homes in Wellington, each episode dedicated to a different room in the house. Tying in with his latest project, he’s hooked up with Capitol Lighting in Boca and Habitat for Humanity for its Making Lives Brighter campaign. Through Feb. 28, anyone who donates old lighting fixtures to any Capitol store will save 10 percent on new fixtures and a tax deduction from Habitat.
    “Twenty years ago I would never have dreamed this,” Van Winkle said during a recent stop at Capitol’s Boca Raton showroom to publicize the campaign. “I can’t believe it’s all happened. It amazes me. I’m blessed.
    “I hope we can branch out on the show and go to other areas. I’d like to do something in Palm Beach or Boca. I have friends there.”
    Van Winkle autographed a curvy chrome lamp at Capitol that will be put up for auctioned on eBay to raise money for Habitat for Humanity and to publicize the opening of its Delray Beach “re-store” at 1900 N. Federal Highway on Feb. 18.
                                    ***
    Come on, all of you big strong men … and women, too!, to Lake Worth Playhouse on Feb. 19, because what once was old is new again. A coalition of local nonprofits has assembled some of the area’s top performers including Tracy Sands, Matt Turk and Rod MacDonald to perform The Music of Phil Ochs at 2 and 7 p.m.
    Ochs, a prolific singer-songwriter in the ’60s in what was then called the folk era, never charted a hit, but such compositions as There But for Fortune (a hit for Joan Baez) and I Ain’t Marching Anymore became anthems for the anti-Vietnam War movement. In 1976, a depressed Ochs hanged himself, but his legacy lives thanks to documentarians such as Ken Bowser, whose film Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune premiered on PBS’s American Masters Jan. 23, and Ochs’ sister Sonny, who will narrate the concerts. For tickets, $20 and $25 in advance, $26 and $30 at the door, go to www.LakeWorthPlayhouse.org.    
                                    ***
    Palm Beach may be the ball capital, but Boca has its share of society galas and the season is heating up. The Building Hope Gala, Feb. 4 at The Polo Club of Boca Raton, will celebrate 30 years of work by Food for the Poor. Its goal: Raise enough money to build 100 residences and a community center and begin an animal husbandry project in Deuxieme, Haiti. Tickets: $225 (888-404-4248).
    A day later at the Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan, Christopher Kennedy Lawford will speak at the annual spring luncheon for the Comprehensive Alcoholism Rehabilitation Programs. Tickets: $150-$500 (844-6400, Ext. 228).
    Before all the other hospitals in South County, there was Bethesda and its foundation is celebrating its 65th anniversary at The Breakers March 3 with the “Phantom Ball,” featuring a performance by Broadway Phantom Davis Gaines and co-star Teri Bibb. Tickets: $350 (737-7733).

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

Ellen Glendinning Frazer Ordway was photographed taking a photograph in 1938.

By Mary Thurwachter
    
For quite a few years, mostly in the 1920s and ’30s, Philadelphian photographer Ellen Glendinning Frazer Ordway chronicled the lives of prominent, wealthy people. Many of them wintered in Gulf Stream, Manalapan and Palm Beach.
    Some of her subjects, members of the American privileged class, had names not widely known. But then there were the Vanderbilts, Mellons, Morgans, Whitneys and Wanamakers.
She brought her camera to luncheons and parties she was invited to, and her pictures would show up in social columns.
    She had her own darkroom, rolled her own film and was a serious amateur photographer, passionate about her work and not looking for fame.
    Her lens zoomed in on the young, modern, well-traveled and well-heeled, often as they lounged around smoking, drinking, chatting and chortling. Ellen Glendinning Frazer Ordway, born in 1900 and known most of her life as Ellen Frazer (her first husband’s name), kept track of her “peeps” in her very own “face book.”
    As a matter of fact, she had many “face books” filled with photographs, party invitations, newspaper clippings and other mementos marking the good times she spent with her friends. Ellen Frazer, who died in 1976, called them scrapbooks.
    Her grandson, Lucius “Lou” Ordway Frazer, calls them historical treasures that chronicle not only society, but fashion and travel, as well. Fifty volumes of his grandmother’s archival legacy are lovingly stored on shelves in his Delray Beach home.
    After his grandmother (he called her Danny) died in 1976, the books were stored in a basement of a family home in Blowing Rock, N.C., for 20 years before he and one of his brothers, Randy, brought them to Florida.
    Last year, after Lou Frazer’s friend Liz Forman, who has a website called The Classic Preppy (www.theclassicpreppy.com), mentioned the scrapbooks to local preservationist and writer Augustus Clemmer Mayhew, Ellen Frazer’s pictures were set on a path for a second act.
    Mayhew, who grew up in Delray Beach and was a friend of Lou’s older brother, David, met with Lou Frazer, reviewed and scanned many of the photographs, and began featuring them in a popular series in the New York Social Diary (http://newyorksocialdiary.com/).
    There are so many excellent images to choose from, Mayhew said, that his series continues into this year. (If you go to the Social Diary’s site, look under “social history”).
    Frazer — whose father was the late Ocean Ridge resident and Mark Fore & Strike co-founder Persifor “Perky” Frazer IV — is planning with Mayhew to set up an exhibition of the photographs later this year (a date has not been set) to help raise money to preserve the collection.
Some of the older volumes are deteriorating and Frazer estimates restoration costs to be about $20,000.
    “Hopefully, some day these scrapbooks will get the preservation they truly deserve,” Frazer said.
    It’s been 35 years since Ellen Frazer died, leaving family and friends with fond and fun memories.
    “She was hysterically funny,” Frazer, director of sales for the Holiday Inn in Highland Beach, said. “She must have died laughing.”
    He remembers visiting her Palm Beach home, Villa Bel Tramonto, a Maurice Fatio designed villa on Banyan Road.
    “She had a monkey named Jocko and a Jack Russell named Jimbo,” he said.
    She taught him how to needlepoint when he was 9.
    He remembers his grandmother as a very generous person, buying presents for everyone she knew at Christmas.
    “All the vendors on Worth Avenue must have loved her,” he said.         

                                   Jane Marvel Scott and Wallace Lanahan visit on the Gulf Stream Golf Club’s west terrace in January 1948.  Jane Scott’s sister Ann Marvel du Pont and her husband, Felix du Pont Sr.,  leased the Whitney-Speer house in Gulf Stream and later bought Villa Tranquilla in Palm Beach. Photos courtesy of Lou Frazer

Ellen Frazer snapped this image of May and J. Gordon Douglas Sr.  during a Sunday lunch in 1934 at the Gulf Stream Golf Club. Mr. Douglas was a stockbroker with E.F. Hutton.

Bob Cassatt was photographed during a Sunday lunch in 1934 at the Gulf Stream Golf Club.  His company merged in 1940 with Merrill Lynch and Pierce, and became known as Merrill Lynch, E. A. Pierce, and Cassatt & Company.

Ellen Frazer has her portrait painted beneath a banyan tree with Jimbo, her Jack Russell, and Jocko, her monkey in the tree, at her home at 241 Banyan Road  in Palm Beach.

Ellen Frazer took her camera with her in 1940 to Casa Alva, where she photographed Mary Marlborough (left), Capt. Robert Wilson, Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, her son ‘Bertie’ Blandford, the 10th Duke of Marlborough, and Ruth Wardell.

People relax around the pool at Gertrude Vanderbilt’s home, Eastover, at 1100 S. Ocean Blvd. in Manalapan.

Commissioners are considering budget cuts and a reconstituted fire fee to make up a $3.2 million shortfall resulting from the defeat of a fire assessment after vehement public protest.
The panel directed City Manager David Harden to work toward a 50-50 split of budget cuts and a new flat or two-tiered fire fee to make up the shortfall. The options will be presented at a meeting Feb. 6.
The move toward compromise came at a Jan. 31 commission workshop meeting.
Harden recommended earlier that commissioners reconsider a new fire fee, hold a new public hearing and adopt the fee. Also up for consideration at the meeting were budget alternatives both with and without cuts to police and fire service, as well as the city’s capital projects.
Mayor Woodie McDuffie, who was absent for the vote on the first fire fee, did not want to go back into the budget to rework it. “As far as I’m concerned, we agreed on the budget, the fire tax was in the budget. It’s disingenuous to think we can run the city and eliminate this.
“If we get shied away by 41 people who were upset with us, shame on us,” the mayor said, later adding, “We have to look at what’s the best thing to do for the whole city.”
McDuffie and at least two other commissioners said they were willing to discuss a compromise on the fire fee, but wanted cuts in the budget.

Fire fee opposition
Residents successfully doused the proposed fire assessment fee with their outcry earlier in the month.
“The people have spoken,” Vice Mayor Angeleta Gray said, before the panel voted down the fee Jan. 17. “We need to find other ways to possibly look at making up our shortfall. I would like to go back to the drawing board. Keep in mind, some of our services will be cut, some of our jobs will be lost.”
The proposed assessment to fund the city’s fire-rescue operation set off alarms among residents, who called it an ill-timed tax that neither residents nor businesses could afford.
They crowded into a public hearing and, one by one urged commissioners to reject the fee that was intended to help balance the city’s ever-tightening budget.
The large turnout was no surprise, a Jan. 27 memo from the city manager said, considering how many people were notified of the fee by the city and “the scare tactics used in some neighborhoods regarding the assessment.”
The staff opinion: “Those who spoke at the hearing do not represent the majority view of our community, but rather a minority of our citizens who adamantly oppose the assessment,” the memo said.
Commissioners directed Harden at the Jan. 31 meeting to look at cuts from fire and police that were among the city manager’s budget options — which included freezing five vacant police posts, as well as possible furloughs for city staff and postponement of funded capital projects.
They asked to try to avoid layoffs and said it was important not to close any of the public facilities.
In addition to the police jobs, Harden had earlier presented options including fire station personnel reductions. Combined, those police and fire cuts equaled nearly $1 million.
    One scenario included 12 furlough days for employees for a total of $786,272; cuts of 29 staff jobs — including two lifeguards and part-timers at Atlantic Dunes park ($149,826); and cancelled fireworks ($35,000) and city-sponsored events, such as the July Fourth celebration, holiday parade and the First Night New Year’s celebration for a total of $160,373.
 The city already is four months into the budget and has spent about $1 million of the shortage already — money that is recommended to be taken from reserves.
 The defeated fire assessment fee was expected to raise $3.4 million for the city’s fire-rescue operations, with the assessment to residents raising $2.7 million of it.
Initially discussed as a flat fee, the fire assessment was pitched at a tiered rate at the Jan. 17 public hearing. The annual fee would have been based on the square footage of improved property, with residents with less than 1,200-square-foot homes assessed at $52.
Homeowners with 1,200 to 2,000 square feet would pay $82 and as a group, were expected to make the largest combined contribution. The next highest tiers were $121, $186 and $263 for square footage starting at 2,000, 3,501 and 5,000, respectively.
Residents would have paid $85 a household for a flat tax, according to a study by Burton & Associates.
For non-residential properties, the fee was $31 for less than 500 square feet and it ranged up to $3,552 for more than 50,000 square feet.
Residents at the public hearing said with the financial pinch of joblessness, underemployment, depressed home prices and costs that are rising across the board, the fee was a burden many couldn’t shoulder. They also repeatedly pointed out that it was clearly a tax, even though it was not included in the millage rate.
“A lot of us have lost our homes, our children don’t even have Christmas gifts. What about the homeowners?” said resident Timothy Boykins. “Enough is enough. You all have lost sight of the people.”
Residents are not able to deal with more and more fees and tax, said Victoria Teal. “Every time, we are told it is a small amount. It is an endless number of small amounts that whittles away at small amounts of income.
“We are not your ATMs,” she said, charging commissioners to live within their budget, which requires line-item cuts.
Another concern voiced: The fee would be included on the annual tax bill and if not paid, it could put residents at risk of losing their homes.
Business people objected as well, noting the fee could be the last straw for those struggling to survive. They also argued that the tiered system based on square footage rather than property value was unfair.
Like many, Neil Cohen, owner of the Delray Chevron on West Atlantic Avenue, said he was a big fan of the Fire Department.
“But the way you’re assessing this special assessment is extremely unfair. Taxes have always been assessed on the property value, not the size. Why should you change this now?” he said, noting he’ll pay what amounts to 30 percent more of his current city taxes. “I’m willing to pay more, but you are putting a serious burden on my business.”
Commissioners voted 3-1 against the fee, but pointed out the struggle to balance the budget and keep city services.
“Nobody up here is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. We want to keep dearly the quality city you know,” said Commissioner Jay Alperin, the lone vote for the fee. “I supported the tier because I didn’t want us to lose the quality of life we’ve become accustomed to. If we reduce $4 million, we’re going to see that.”
Alperin placed partial blame on past commissions that didn’t make the hard choices, giving in to union pressure for higher wages for fire and police personnel.
“We have a delicate balance to provide services expected,” said Commissioner Tom Carney. “One doesn’t realize they don’t have the services until they’re gone.”        

By Margie Plunkett
    
The question for Delray Beach voters this year: Should commission terms be lengthened to three years from the current two years?
    Commissioners voted to add the question to the March 13 election ballot. “The commission is only putting it on the ballot for you to decide,” said Commissioner Jay Alperin.
    If voters approve the new term, commissioners could serve three three-year terms or a total of nine years, compared with the current six-year maximum.
    Lawmakers supported the longer term for a variety of reasons, most notably that the shorter terms don’t allow commissioners to take influential committee seats in organizations like the League of Cities. Additionally, they argued, commissioners are forced to spend a disproportionate time campaigning under the current term length.
    Commissioner Angeleta Gray said after her initial election, she had been asked to consider a  board position for the Palm Beach League of Cities, but quickly learned “because of the term limits, that couldn’t happen.”
    Holding such positions is important to building critical relationships and getting Delray Beach’s issues on the table, Gray said. “By the time you build relationships to do good for our community, you’re gone.
    “It’s important to me that we have time to do our jobs, to put our issues out front and let the league back us,” she said.
    The term-limit debate sparked a call among some for a review of the City Charter, rather than dealing with the issues piecemeal, including the question of term limits.
    “We should look at the whole charter without tearing it apart,” said Christina Morrison, a candidate for the commission seat occupied by Alperin, who is not running.
    Alperin later countered: “It doesn’t require a charter review to make a single item change. You don’t hold up one issue if there’s something you think needs to be addressed.”
    Meanwhile, residents raised concerns that they’d have to endure unwanted commissioners longer. But commissioners pointed out that voters can still oust incumbents at the end of their three-year term — and that recall procedures are still in place.
    “I think six years is enough for a competent and smart person,” said Al Jacquet, another commission hopeful, calling the move the “incumbent retrenchment act.”
    Candidates have until Feb. 7 to file for this year’s election.
    Two seats are open: one, currently held by Vice Mayor Angeleta Gray; and the second, held by Alperin, who was appointed to finish a term after Fred Fetzer resigned for health reasons.
    Gray is defending her seat against only one opponent, Victor Kirson, as of the end of January.
    Alperin’s seat was thus far sought by Jacquet, Morrison, Patricia Archer and David Armstrong.           

By Angie Francalancia

    Delray Beach police have closed their investigation into the April fatality in which a bicyclist was killed on A1A by a truck. The driver was not at fault, and police have no basis to charge him, said Sgt. Richard Jacobson, who oversaw the investigation. They have forwarded the file to the state attorney’s office for review, which is required under state law any time there’s a traffic accident involving a fatality, he said.
    Adam M. Theall, 38, of Boca Raton, died when he collided with the truck at the intersection of A1A and Del Harbor Drive just south of Linton Boulevard.
    “The bicyclist was totally at fault,” Jacobson said. Witnesses said Theall was traveling behind the truck and some cars that were behind it. The truck and cars all slowed when the truck approached the intersection, but the bicyclist continued at the same speed, Jacobson said, passing the cars and colliding with the turning truck at the intersection.
    “The guy should have slowed down,” Jacobson said, adding that bicycle riders must use the same rules as motor vehicles when they ride on the streets. “If he was in a car, would it be proper for a car to pass on the right? No.”
    The truck was a commercial vehicle carrying a roll-off trash bin. Because of the height of the truck, the driver would have been unable to see the bicycle rider once he began the turn, Jacobson said.
    The accident sparked speculation among members of SAFE, a bicycle and pedestrian safety advocacy organization.
 SAFE Chairman Jim Smith had contacted the state Department of Transportation, asking for engineers to investigate the safety of the intersection.
    Although there are bike lanes north of the area, the intersection where the accident occurred has none. In this case, it wouldn’t have made a difference, Jacobson said.
    “It’s very unfortunate. Crashes are normally due to several factors, not one factor. I’m sure if the truck and bicyclist both exercised a greater safety, the accident could have been averted,” Smith said.
    “There’s no doubt that cars violate bicyclists’ right of way, especially where there’s public parking. You see conflict between the motorists who might be trying to park and the bicycles. But a lot of times bicyclists don’t want to slow down. It’s got to work both
ways.”                                  

By Margie Plunkett

    To meter or not to meter, that was the question at two Delray Beach meetings last month intended to generate ideas that will get the city closer to resolving its longtime parking issues.
    More than 50 merchants, restaurateurs and residents turned out for meetings at the community center to share ideas on a year-old parking study and how to manage the busy city’s downtown traffic.
    The parking situation “has been going on for 20 years,” said Mayor Woodie McDuffie. “We need an implementation road map.”
    “This is the second time around for us,” said Fran Marincola, retired owner of the Caffe Luna Rosa restaurant on the ocean. “We had the same thing come up when we put meters on the East. Everyone we asked said, ‘No, I don’t want meters.’ I was against it. We thought it would be the end of the world — but it’s fine.”
    Some insisted that metered parking would kill retail business and wanted free parking at least during the day.
There seemed to be a sense among many that what works for the restaurants and nightlife isn’t necessarily good for the retailers by day.
    Others wanted a system to push the overflow of traffic into underutilized parking garages and many backed the concept of moving employee parking out of prime spots for shoppers and possibly into the garages.
    The garages spurred a discussion on safety and security: Women, particularly, don’t like to walk the garages at night, with some merchants noting that they provide rides to the garage for female employees.
    Marincola wanted to see free parking along Atlantic for an hour, which he contended would double turnover. He also wanted to eliminate employee parking.
    Carole Lynn, owner of Forms Art Gallery, said, however, “You make it impossible to shop more than one hour.”
    Shoppers at Lynn’s store often take more than that time to decide on purchases that can run $4,000 or $5,000. “They don’t want to say, ‘I’ve got to go’ to catch their parking meter before it expires.’
    “We’re a very successful town,” Lynn said. “I don’t want to lose that.”
    Nancy Lierle of Delray News & Tobacco Center said, “Most of my customers are against meters. A lot come to Delray Beach as a destination. Maybe two hours isn’t enough to stroll the blocks and go to all the great shops we have.”
    Marincola’s response: “If a person needs more than an hour, they need to park somewhere else and pay for it.”
    If meters were installed, many indicated they’d rather see “smart” meters, where one can serve 15 parking spaces.
    That would prevent added clutter on already crowded Atlantic Avenue sidewalks as well as add flexibility in how the city would be metered, according to Don Upton, president of Fairfield Index Inc., who was hired by the city to facilitate the
sessions.