Drop the “interim” in Boynton Beach Fire Chief Ray Carter’s title. He’s permanent now.
    In a release last month, Boynton interim City Manager Lori LaVerriere announced that Carter will take over the job, including overseeing how the department might shift one of its fire stations to Ocean Ridge.
    Carter took over in April when Chief William Bingham retired. The 61-year-old career firefighter joined Boynton Beach Fire Rescue in August 2004.
He had served with West Palm Beach Fire Rescue from the beginning of his career in 1972 until 2004.
    Carter shepherded the city’s Fire Department through a difficult budget process last year, eliminating six fire rescue positions to help the city close a budget shortfall.
And he’s been working with officials from Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes that contract with Boynton Beach for fire rescue services to find a way to keep a station in close proximity.

— Angie Francalancia

By Emily J. Minor
    
Feeling old, like you’ve lived in Florida since the beginning of time?
    Think again.
    Human bones unearthed at an ocean-side estate construction site in Delray Beach are those of an adult and an adolescent and are probably about 1,000 years old, said one of the archaeologists who studied the remains.
    Bob Carr, executive director of the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy Inc., said they studied both the “teethware” and the suturing of the bones — basically the connectivity at the joint where two bones come together — and decided the bones are at least 1,000 years old and might even date back 3,000 years.
    Carr, whose nonprofit has been around since 1985 and works to research and preserve archaeological sites for historic documentation, said researchers think the remains might belong to members of the Jeaga tribe, Native Americans who lived in Florida until about the 1700s.
    The Jeagas lived mostly from southern Palm Beach County, north to the Indian River.
    “We’re really not sure,” said Carr, who studied the bones with another conservancy archaeologist, Dr. Ryan Franklin. “We’re not sure they’re the same people because they could be their ancestors. We just don’t know.”
    The discovery of the human remains, including the femur bones and skulls, briefly stopped construction at the site in the 900 block of South Ocean Boulevard back in December 2010. While Florida has its share of archaeological finds — a lot of the ones in South Florida are in the Jupiter area — it’s still both unusual and unsettling to accidentally come across human bones.
    In the hours after the discovery, the construction site was taped off as police considered a possible murder on their hands. Authorities quickly realized the find was more historic than nefarious, and the remains were handed over to experts for examination.
    “Human remains are not often encountered during construction, but they are encountered more often than most people think,” Carr said.
    Once the bones were studied, Carr said they were returned to the site and reburied. Under state law, the Miccosukee and Seminole tribes establish the rules for preservation of Native American remains and usually, unless there are extreme circumstances, the bones are returned to where they were found, said Daniel M. Seinfeld, a senior archaeologist with the state of Florida.
    The thinking, Seinfeld said, is that someone intentionally buried the body there, and that’s where the bones should always remain.
    The waterfront estate on A1A isn’t done yet, but builders have said they would build some sort of plaque or remembrance to mark the findings.                                

The Beachcomber Family Center for Addiction Recovery resembles an apartment complex or mom-and-pop hotel. Joe and Jim Bryan run the center, founded in 1976 by their father. The spartan rooms are paneled in Dade County pine.
Photos by Jerry Lower

By Emily J. Minor

Sometimes they pull into the parking lot, a hidden patch of concrete that can handle about a dozen or so cars, lock up and amble on in.
“Got anything for rent?” they might say.
“People are always stopping here looking for an apartment,” says Joe Bryan.
But the living that goes on at the tiny Beachcomber Family Center for Addiction Recovery just south of Briny Breezes isn’t the kind of easy beachside living you’d want to seek out unless you have to.
Here, tucked into paradise, is a long-established recovery center — small and intimate, yes, but offering the same kind of programs that have been proposed to the south by Caron Treatment Centers, and which are drawing a vocal reaction from neighbors.
Since 1976, Bryan and his family have been helping addicts on this property through a 28-day recovery program that starts with breakfast at 6 a.m. and lights out at 11:30 p.m.
There are no TVs. Patients don’t have cars or computers, and visitors are kept to a minimum.
“They’re very low-profile,” says Elayne Olinger, who has lived next door for 30 years. “There’s never been any problems at all that I can think of.
“They’re good neighbors.”
The days for his clients, says Bryan, consist of breakfast, a peek at the sunrise, yoga, group meetings, lunch, more group meetings, dinner, another group meeting and perhaps an evening of outdoor games. There’s no pool or tennis court, but there is a small outdoor gym and a shuffleboard court.
From the road, the rehab center looks like an apartment complex or a mom-and-pop hotel.
Rooms are simple, with Dade County pine walls, but the grounds are lush and rather meticulous.
“The most noise here is if they’re outside playing cards or something,” says Bryan, whose dad, James — himself a recovering alcoholic who lost touch with his young children during a spell on Skid Row — opened the Beachcomber in 1976.
“I built the fence mainly to keep people off the property as opposed to keeping people in,” says Bryan, the center’s director.
Situated on a small piece of land about one block from the Atlantic Ocean, the Beachcomber has eight cottages, an office, a meeting center and a main house — where Bryan lives with his wife and four kids, when they’re all home.
He says he has no qualms about his family living there. Reunited with his alcoholic father — by then, sober — when he was about 8 years old, Bryan says he grew up around addicts in a treatment center. His father worked at one.
James Bryan died in 2005, and now Joe Bryan and his brother, Jim, run the center.
By industry standards, the monthlong program at Beachcomber is affordable at roughly $13,900 and is the kind of place accessible to the middle-class, Bryan says. They take insurance, so their patients are often firefighters and schoolteachers, nurses and police officers.
After all, addiction knows no boundaries.
Bryan, who says he came to Florida in 1980 to go fishing with his dad and never left, says through the years they’ve helped nearly 7,000 patients. There are 10 staff members, five of them licensed therapists, and two workers are always on site at night, he said.
While the Beachcomber is small and inauspicious, Bryan knows that the public reaction to recovery centers can be harsh. He has not talked to the proponents from the Caron Treatment Centers; actually, Caron is where his father worked for many years before opening the Beachcomber. But he knows those unfamiliar with treatment and recovery are often frightened by the notion of even visiting a center.
“These people are just like everyone else,” he says, simply.
Bryan says he understands people’s timidness about the recovery process, but he also says good centers can make for good neighbors.
The nearby rental properties, he said, have attracted more police calls than the Beachcomber ever has — something longtime neighbor Olinger also said was the case.
Says Bryan: “Most people don’t even know we’re here.”         

By Steve Plunkett

    Motorists on A1A will encounter a traffic snag two weeks before the Ocean Avenue bridge closes March 18.
Resident G. John Krediet is building a private pedestrian tunnel under State Road A1A that will close the highway to all but local traffic for up to five days beginning March 5. A temporary shell-rock lane will be built west of the road at 1780 S. Ocean Blvd. for emergency vehicles and neighbors.
    “There will be police stationed at both sides of the road when the road is closed. It’s one of the requirements,’’ Town Manager Linda Stumpf said.
    The tunnel will be near the southern end of the parcel and handicap-accessible, with access ramps nearer the center on both sides of the road. Cranes will maneuver 25-ton tunnel pieces into position.
    “We’ll do as quick a construction project as possible,” Krediet’s tunnel contractor, Ed O’Leary, told town commissioners at their Jan. 24 meeting.
    O’Leary said his company has built two similar tunnels, one that took four days and one that took four-and-a-half. Crews work round the clock, he said.
    “There’s a chance it can be done in three, but in all realistic and being optimistic, four days is about your average,” he said.
    A1A will be opened one lane at a time for the following two or three days while the road is resurfaced.
    Commissioners’ fears that the tunnel would be too close to the neighbors were eased by hearing that no neighbors had complained about the proposal.
    “We want our constituents to have what they want. We just want to protect them from one another,” Vice Mayor Robert Evans said.
    Stumpf said the state Department of Transportation would not allow the tunnel work to occur after the replacement of the Ocean Avenue bridge begins.
That project is planned to take two years and will detour motorists headed for the mainland to go north to the Lake Worth bridge or south to the Ocean Avenue bridge in Ocean Ridge.
    Krediet, the chairman of CF Capital Corp. and former CEO of Sparkling Spring Water Holdings Ltd. of Nova Scotia, bought the 1.9 acres in 2010 for $4 million, according to county property records. He plans to build a beach cabana after the tunnel is completed.      

    The owners of the Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn — the only commercial property in South Palm Beach — have taken the 58-unit motel, restaurant and bar off the market.
    The two-story motel has been in foreclosure since February 2011 and was listed on loopnet.com, a commercial real estate sales website, for a reported $12.95 million. The website has listed it as off the market since Jan. 27.
    PNC Bank is trying to foreclose on a $3.4 million loan. A Palm Beach County circuit judge ordered the motel into receivership in October but the Paloka family, the motel’s owners, has appealed to the 4th District Court of Appeal.
    The Palokas, through Kosova Realty, bought the motel in 2003 and have twice sought approval from the town to build a 14-story, then a 10-story condominium-hotel. Both applications were turned down by the Town Council after prolonged discussions.
    In 2010, town voters took the right to make zoning changes from the council and required a town-wide referendum. Kosova sued the town last year but later withdrew the suit.
— Tim O’Meilia

The current Lake Worth bridge (above) was built in 1973 to replace the concrete bridge built in 1937 (below).

Photo by Tim Stepien

By Tim O’Meilia

    In the mid-1910s, when Lake Worth city fathers figured it was time for a handsome wooden bridge to reach the city’s new piece of beachfront and its soon-to-be-built casino and bathhouse, they raised the money the old-fashioned way.
    They bumped up the property tax.
    It’s not clear from old records and newspaper accounts what the quarter-mile bridge cost to build, but it was wide enough for automobile traffic and was one of the longest toll-free bridges in the country at the time.
    Until then, and as far back as 1913, visitors to the beach had to take a ferry from a long pier that jutted into the waterway from near where Bryant Park stands. The cost: a nickel.
    The ferry was how construction workers moved the 1,700 feet of pine and 17,000 shingles across the lake to build the original two-story casino. According to the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, the upstairs was used for dances, while downstairs were dressing rooms and a dining room.
    After the bathhouse burned down, the Brelsford family, area pioneers, gave oceanfront property to the city of Lake Worth, which had none. The wooden bridge soon followed.
    When the Lake Worth Casino and Baths opened in 1922, they included slot machines — until they were outlawed in the 1930s.
    Beaches, gambling and a new bridge were tactics used by local politicians to attract visitors and new settlers to the booming South Florida coast. Sound familiar?
    The Lake Worth bridge, unfortunately, was somewhat star-crossed. At least, whenever a hurricane crossed.
    The 1926 hurricane ripped out 200 feet of the east end of the bridge. In its July 30, 1926, edition, the Palm Beach Independent gave a brief but remarkable account of one episode during the storm that begs for more detail: “Mr. Mark, bridgetender, had to be forcefully taken from his post by Earl Reid, L.W. Barker.”
    Repairs took more than a month. Work later began on adding a pedestrian walkway to the bridge after residents complained that the bridge was so narrow that they were forced to walk single file in front of and behind cars to cross. Neither motorists nor pedestrians approved of that arrangement.
    The hurricane of Sept. 16, 1928, later calculated to be a Category 4, nearly demolished the bridge. That 150-mile-per-hour killer storm moved west to the Glades, where Lake Okeechobee’s shores sloshed over, drowning nearly 2,500 people.
    Former Lake Worth resident William Stafford gave The Palm Beach Post an account often retold by his grandfather, William M. “Chief” Stafford, publisher of the Lake Worth Herald.
    The elder Stafford drove across the bridge to the casino to photograph the surf, but the wind-whipped sand made it impossible. He drove his 3-ton 1926 Hudson sedan back across the wooden bridge, waves breaking over it.
    Damage to the bridge was so extensive that repairs were still ongoing more than a year after the hurricane. The work cost more than $25,000 and efforts to replace the pedestrian bridge and lights were abandoned as too expensive.
    Discussions began immediately to replace the “the old and dilapidated wooden bridge,” as it was referred to in the press, and a new concrete drawbridge was finished in 1937. It was state of the art in a time when Intracoastal Waterway bridges at Southern Boulevard, Blue Heron Boulevard and Lantana were all wooden.
    Said local historian Bill McGoun, a retired editorial writer for The Palm Beach Post: “The only thing I recall about the ’37 bridge, which was the bridge when I was growing up in the ’40s and ’50s, was that it was lit by first-generation sodium-vapor lights that had the unfortunate side effect of making everything look yellow, including people.”
    The bridge lasted until 1973, when a $4 million four-lane replacement was completed, its western landing just south of its 1937 ancestor. It was the tallest single-leaf bascule bridge in the state. The east and west ends of the ’37 bridge were left as fishing piers.
    The bridge underwent a $4.6 million rehabilitation in 1997. Last year, the remnants of the old ’37 bridge were demolished and a new fishing pier built as part of a $2 million Snook Islands Natural Area project.     

BOYNTON BEACH — Their first restaurant back in 1936 was a tiny place in Briny Breezes. “I think it was only about four seats,” remembers Dorothy McNeice, somewhat of a local historian.
“You could come in and get sandwiches and of course they were famous for their mile-high lemon pie.”
    McNeice even has a postcard. Somewhere.
Through the years, the restaurant long known as Lucille and Otley’s — named after the wife and husband who ran it — grew, and grew. In its heyday over on Federal Highway in Boynton Beach, the faithful would drive from as far away as Miami to line up for a meal inside the place with the fantastic service and great food.
    Otley Scott died 10 years ago, but his beloved business partner carried on with life.
    Now she is gone, too.
    Marie Lucille Scott died Jan. 10 after a stroke. She was 98.
    “She’d do her baking early in the morning and seat people in the afternoon,” remembers longtime friend and caretaker Carole Volkman, who moved to Florida in 1968 to escape the cold Canadian winters and began working at the restaurant almost immediately. “She was always a people person.”
    Born in 1913 outside Atlanta, Mrs. Scott moved to Florida when she was in high school.
Within the decade, she’d married Otley Scott and the couple had set off on their first business adventure: the small pie shop. Within a decade, they needed a bigger place and moved right next door in Briny.
    Sure, you could grab a bite of lunch, but it was always the pies that people loved.
    Apple and pecan. Coconut cream and chocolate. Lucille Scott did all the baking and then she’d put on some fresh clothes and serve hungry customers another family specialty: creamed chicken over biscuits.
    Volkman said sometimes they’d serve several thousands meals a day.
    The Scotts retired in 1978, handing the business at 1021 Federal Highway to their son, Jerry. Two years later, he was lost at sea during an ambitious sailing excursion.
    One of the Scott’s grandchildren took over for a while, but the small-town success story had run its course and Lucille and Otley’s closed in the summer of 1998.
    When Volkman thinks back, she loves picturing her starchy waitressing uniform. They were pink, with gathered skirts, and the short-sleeved blouses were adorned with big buttons and little rosebuds.
    The rosebuds had special meaning since Lucille Scott would cut fresh roses from her own garden and put them on the tables almost every day.
    Volkman worked at the restaurant for 32 years and remembers both the Scotts as generous and loving, but it was Mrs. Scott she grew most fond of.
    One of Volkman’s favorite stories is the day she was hired. Volkman had just moved to Florida — she hadn’t even seen the ocean yet — when she saw the line outside Lucille and Otley’s and stopped to check things out. Lucille offered her a job, right then and there, instructing her to put on one of those pink uniforms and report for duty that very afternoon.
    “I needed a job, so I did it, never realizing where we would end,” Volkman says now.
    And where it ended was this. The old restaurant became a city senior center, which today bustles with plenty of activity. Lucille Scott used to be a regular for the Thursday afternoon dances. After Otley Scott died in 2002, the family reached out to Carole Volkman, asking her to help care for their mother.
    “Her daughter called me and asked if I’d like to come stay with her,” remembers Volkman, “We could always talk about things that happened at the restaurant, and I always felt good about that,” she said. Volkman lived with Lucille Scott as her caretaker for the next 10 years.
    Lucille Scott “was a remarkable lady,” says Volkman.
    Lucille Scott is survived by two daughters, Julie Kemp of Boynton Beach; and Celia Weatherhead of Moreland Hills, Ohio. Besides her children, Mrs. Scott is survived by two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
A memorial service is being planned at the Ocean Club of Florida in Ocean Ridge, possibly for a date in late March, Volkman said

By Liz Best

DELRAY BEACH — Devoted wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and dear friend to many, Ruth Houseman Thompson died peacefully at her home in Delray Beach on Christmas Day, 2011. She was 93 years old.
    Mrs. Thompson was preceded in death by her husband, Thomas “Tim” Thompson, and a daughter, Ann Thompson.
A longtime resident of both Delray Beach and Boca Raton, Mrs. Thompson was a member of First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach, where she served as a deacon for the past several years.
    She was beautiful, gracious and a faithful devoted friend, according to those who knew her.
    “She was a wonderful and gracious lady who was always smiling,” said the Rev. Jo Garnett, associate minister for senior activities at First Presbyterian. “She was lovely, both inside and out.”
    Dr. Ted Bush, who was the long-time pastor at the church until his recent retirement, agrees.
    “Ruthie was deeply devoted to her family as well as her faith,” he said. “I don’t know that I met anyone who didn’t love her. She accepted people just as they were. She was very gracious. And she had a unique ability, that when Ruth spoke, people listened.”
    Mrs. Thompson is survived by a sister, Mary Goodwin, of Gaithersburg, Md.; a daughter, Judith and son-in-law, George Lowman, of Wilmette, Ill.; a son, Thomas M. Thompson Jr. and daughter-in-law, Patricia, of Houston; seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
    A memorial service was held Jan. 28, at the First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Main Street Ministries at 5100 Travis St., Houston, TX 77002.

By Emily J. Minor

    BRINY BREEZES — Carolyne Lanxon Kelley, who began coming to Briny Breezes with her husband and children to visit her mother back in the 1960s, died Jan. 18 after a five-year fight with cancer. She was 84.
A lifelong musician with a beautiful soprano voice, for years Mrs. Kelley was also key in producing many of the spectacular chorale productions in Briny Breezes. Back in Toledo, Ohio, where she lived for many years, Mrs. Kelley would captivate members of Toledo’s First Unitarian Church with her well-known soprano solos. She also gave lessons to many promising musicians.
    “She had a love for music that she carried with her her whole life,” said her husband, Harold.
    Mrs. Kelley died at their home in Briny Breezes after going through chemotherapy treatments several years ago, then enjoying a remission, he said.
    “It came back,” he said, simply.
    A native of Newburgh, N.Y., a young Carolyne met Harold Kelley in 1945 when he was a cadet at West Point. Mr. Kelley said there were so many young cadets swarming the town that a hostess was hired to arrange dates for them, and that’s how he met his wife of 65 years: on a blind date.
    Mrs. Kelley’s mother, Catherine Ford, had bought a place in Briny about 50 years ago, so the Kelleys and their three children had long visited here. But the couple began coming to Briny on a regular basis in the 1980s and have lived in town since Mr. Kelley retired as a civil engineer and lawyer in 1994, he said.
    Together, the couple enjoyed visits from their children and grandchildren, but they also enjoyed square dancing, he said.
    “We were into square dancing for a long time and it created a lot of friends for us,” he said. “But she did all kinds of musical things with Briny and with others in the community.”
    Mrs. Kelley attended Julliard School of Music in New York, and enjoyed performing until just last year.
    The Kelleys also actively supported reading education, endowing two reading rooms at the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library that carry the family names.
Along with her beloved music, Mrs. Kelley was keenly proud of the role her family had played in America’s formative years. Her mother’s family was prominent in New Windsor, N.Y., and their two homes were used by George Washington and Henry Knox in 1782 when the Continental Army wintered there. Mrs. Kelley, whose family supplied food, firewood and other support to the troops that winter, was eventually a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
    In addition to her husband, Mrs. Kelley is survived by their three children: Kathleen Putnam, of Moorestown, N.J.; Kristen Scheibert-Mizell, of Midland, Mich., and Keith Kelley, of suburban D.C. The Kelleys also have eight grandchildren.
    Florida services were held the week after Mrs. Kelley’s death. The family requests local donations be sent Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation, 5300 East Ave., West Palm Beach, FL 33407.

By Ron Hayes
HYPOLUXO ISLAND — Jenny Bremanis’ son had a theory about his mother’s longevity.
    “In New Jersey, her house had a basement, two floors and a walk-up attic,” Jake Bremanis recalled not long before her last birthday. “She got a lot of exercise.”
Mrs. Bremanis dined with about 20 friends at La Cigale in Delray Beach when she turned 101 on Oct. 1. She died Jan. 17 at JFK Medical Center, where she had battled a serious infection for nearly a month.
    “Finally, there was nothing they could do,” said her daughter, Biruta Ditrichs, with whom she lived. “She passed away peacefully.”
    Born Jevgenija Emsins in Latvia, Mrs. Bremanis arrived in Germany’s American zone in 1945 with her husband, Jekabs, whom she married in 1935. Mr. Bremanis died in 1976, and she never remarried. Of their five children, one died before the war, another while they were traveling. A third, Andre, died in 2008.
    In 1950, the family settled in New Brunswick, N.J., where she worked as a seamstress for Bond’s clothiers for 20 years.
    “I was always working,” she told those who asked about her long life. “I bake rye bread, cake, sewing and working real hard all the time.”
    Even at 100, she kept busy knitting slippers, which she gave away to friends and visitors. “I’m still working!” she boasted.
    Mrs. Bremanis never lost her European accent, but embraced American culture.
    “Elizabeth Taylor was her favorite actress,” recalls her granddaughter, Dana Kunkel, “and General Hospital her favorite soap opera. She hated bananas, but ate one every day because she knew it was good for her. She never wore pants, always dresses and skirts, many hand-sewn. And she ate sushi for the first time several years ago — and loved it.”
    In addition to her daughter, son and granddaughter, she is survived by a daughter-in-law, Valda Bremanis of Gulf Breeze; four other grandchildren, Lyn Bremanis-Conway, Andrew Bremanis, Denis Ditrichs and Inge Houghton; and eight great-grandchildren.
    She was buried beside her husband, Jekabs, and son Andre in North Brunswick’s cemetery on Jan. 21. Brown’s Funeral Home, Lantana, was in charge locally.
    The family asks that donations be made to Hospice of the Palm Beaches.

OCEAN RIDGE — Greg Cunningham, 64, of Ocean Ridge, died Jan. 17 at his home.
Greg lived life with salt water in his veins, choosing to spend his entire life in, on, or around boats and the water. In his youth, Greg spent summers on Cape Cod, Mass. learning to race Beetle Cats and Wianno Seniors, eventually working on commercial fishing boats and ferries out of Hyannis, Mass.
He enrolled in the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and served a short stint in the U.S. Merchant Marine. He graduated magna cum laude from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, and worked for a time in the insurance industry in Boston. However, the sea continued to beckon and he moved to the Caribbean to enjoy a more nautical life as a charter captain.
Always seeking to chart his own course, Greg rebuilt a 30-foot sloop and spent three years circumnavigating the globe under sail.
He then began to focus on a career in the yacht design, management and sales industry. Greg began working with a family of avid boaters and for 18 years ran, designed, built, and managed their fleet of private yachts. More recently, he had been working in yacht sales in southern Florida, spending as much time as possible with his son onshore and offshore.
Greg is survived by his son, Gregory J. Cunningham, Jr., of Boynton Beach and his nephew, Edward A. Cunningham, IV, of Boston.
Arrangements for a memorial service are being scheduled for a later date.
Obituary submitted by the family.

Centenarian Athena Scangas (left) is joined by her daughter Kathryn Diamond at the La Coquille Club as her birthday cake is lit with 100 candles. Photo by Tim Stepien

By Allen Whittemore
“Greek food. I ate everything my mother ever made, and she was Greek.”
So says Athena Scangas, describing the secret to a long life as she celebrated her 100th birthday on Jan. 22 with a safari gala at La Coquille Club. All of the attendees wore something with a leopard print, her favorite pattern.  
“The music was Greek, the food was Greek and amid the toasts and celebrating, everyone had a great time,” according to her daughter Kathryn, who lives here with her husband, Basil Diamond, the mayor of Manalapan, and Athena.
“Mom has so much energy; she danced all night until the musician had to finally stop at 10:30. Friends and family had come from as far away as Massachusetts to wish her a happy birthday.”
“The party was like a wedding,” said Scangas,” there were so many beautiful things on the tables.”
Scangas was born and reared in Lynn, Mass., in a Greek section of town and that heritage is a strong part of her life. Her mother reared Scangas and her brother singlehandedly because her father died when she was just 5.
“Mother really showed me how to raise a family, and how to stay focused.”
Scangas met her husband, Paul, from the same part of town, and together they built the West Lynn Creamery into a booming family business.  Paul Scangas was later named “Massachusetts Man of the Year,” a fact Scangas still is very proud to share.
“We were married during the Depression and did not have a car for 13 years, so we went everywhere in the milk truck. He was such a smart businessman, but such a kind person as well.”  
During WWII, Scangas volunteered with the Red Cross and spent four years contributing her sewing talents to the war effort. “It was so great to be a part of that time,” she remembers.
After the war, the Scangases went to Greece and adopted two girls from “a really nice foster home in Sparta.” Her other daughter, Joan, still lives in Massachusetts. Scangas now has three grown grandchildren and is looking forward to great-grandchildren.
The Scangas family began coming to Florida in the mid-1950s, initially settling in Miami. They loved going to Hialeah Park to watch the thoroughbreds run, and then go out to dinner.
Slowly she moved farther north, living in Boca Raton during the winter months.  
Now she lives in Manalapan full time, coming north because Kathryn was here with her “wonderful son-in-law, Basil.”
At 100, she has no plans of slowing down and still loves spicy food.
“In fact,” Kathryn says, “we had to tone the food down for the party because she likes her food spicier than the rest of us.”
“She has been a wonderful mom, “ Kathryn added. “I am the luckiest person in the whole world to have a mom like this … I wouldn’t have it any other way.”                                    

A manatee sighting in the marina at Briny Breezes drew onlookers in late January.  In addition to eating some lettuce offered by one of the residents, the manatee rolled on its back and lapped up fresh water squirted from a hose.
Photos by
Jerry Lower

By Jan Norris
In our quest to help coastal residents replace businesses that will be cut off once the Ocean Avenue bridge in Lantana closes next month, here are those that can fill in for customers using the Lake Worth bridge.
These are just a few of the restaurants on this strip, so venture across and explore all the businesses just across the lake.

Eats
For a bakery replacement, there are several options in and around downtown Lake Worth.
The J Street Bakery (9 N. J St.) offers breads, quick-breads, scones, cakes, cookies and other mainstream treats as well as those suitable for those on restricted diets.
La Bonne Bouche (516 Lucerne Ave.) is the French bakery/café for croissants and pastries, as well as lunch and dinner.
TooJay’s  (419 Lake Ave.) also has a take-out bakery and a deli, as well as an eat-in café serving three meals daily.
For your morning macchiato or espresso, there’s the indie coffeehouse, Mother Earth Coffee and Gifts (410 Second Ave. N.), or Starbucks (514 Lake Ave.).
Another breakfast-lunch casual is the diner-like Pelican Restaurant (610 Lake Ave.), with an almost-secret Indian dinner offered by reservation on Friday nights only. Bring money; it’s cash-only here.
For casual fare, albeit not waterside, there are a number of possibilities, including Dave’s Last Resort (632 Lake Ave.), a community watering hole/sports bar with its sibling open-air bar, Igots Martiki Bar (702 Lake Ave.) across the street.
Tacos and a few other Latin-inspired foods are on the limited menu at Havana Hideout (509 Lake Ave.). Patio seating is the draw here for enjoying a drink outside behind a green screen of tropical plants.
For a true Caribbean/Jamaican menu, try Jerome’s  Caribbean Restaurant (1412 Lucerne Ave.).
Steak and seafood is at the newly opened Callaro’s (717 Lake Ave.). The menu is familiar with some changes. It took over the old L’Anjou spot after moving from Manalapan.
Want a water view? You’ll need to stay on the ocean side and choose the Bistro at the Four Seasons (2800 S. Ocean Blvd., Palm Beach) out by the pool, or Michelle Bernstein’s MB at the Omphoy (2842 S. Ocean Blvd., Palm Beach).
Next to City Hall find Bizarre Ave Café (921 Lake Ave.), a tapas and wine bar where the interior furnishings are for sale. Upstairs, they hold wine dinners and offer live entertainment occasionally.
There’s pizza and upscale-casual Italian at Couco Pazzo (915 N. Lake Ave.), with two sides of the restaurant — a dining room and the more casual bar room with TVs — serving nightly.
Upscale Italian is found at Paradiso (625 Lucerne Ave.) with chef Angelo Romano; a separate wine room is available.
Traditional Italian meals are at Rustico Italiano (701 Lucerne Ave.), with “Chef Nino” dishing up familiar family favorites.

Groceries
A new Publix serves this area (214 N. Dixie Highway), with food, wines and pharmacy.
The weekly Lake Worth Farmers Market is Saturdays (through April) 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the park along the water on the northeast side of the Lake Worth bridge, where fresh produce, meats, seafood, pickles, baked goods and  more are sold.

Sports and fishing
The Lake Worth Pier (10 Ocean Blvd.) and Lake Worth Bridge side areas are places to throw in a line, and there’s surf casting from the beach.
Bait’s available on the pier at Lake Worth Pier Bait and Tackle.
Another option is Perk’s Bait and Tackle shop (307 N. Fourth St. in Lantana).
For personalized diving trips, or diving courses, contact Dive In Adventures (290-0303); they recommend several reefs nearby.

Services
Need flowers? Try the Lake Worth Villager (1616 S. Dixie Highway).
To send packages, the U.S. Post Office at 720 Lucerne Ave. is your best bet.
The Chevron at 602 S. Dixie Highway or Hammer Petroleum at 102 N. Federal Highway provide fill-ups. For oil changes and such, try the Lake Worth Auto House at 1106 Fourth Ave. S., or General Auto Repair at 514 S. H St.
Get the car washed at the colorful Tropical Car Wash, 828 N. Dixie Highway.
The Lake Worth Library is at 15 N. M St., across from a nice park for reading in the sunshine.
As for drug stores, there’s the CVS at 101 N. Dixie Highway, or Tru-Valu Drugs at 101 N. Federal Highway (or the aforementioned Publix). Walgreens is at 531 S. Dixie Highway.
Professional photography services are found at Tazzy Vue Photography, 829 N. Federal Highway.    

The Palm Beach Plein Air (fresh air) Artists converged on the grounds of the Old Key Lime House in  Lantana recently for a painting meet-up.  

ABOVE: Stan Dornfest of Boynton Beach adds finishing touches to his oil painting.

LEFT:  The watercolor palette of Leslie Martel of Gulf Stream provides a riot of hues.  
For more information about this fresh air painting group, go to: www.meetup.com/palmbeachartists/www.meetup.com/palmbeachartists/

When Plaza del Mar in Manalapan celebrated its 30th anniversary with a series of events that included fashion shows and musical performances, organizers turned to local chalk artist Jennifer Chapparo to create a vintage postcard effect on the grounds of the shopping center. Photo by Jerry Lower

By Antigone Barton
 
    The beach changes every day. The routine of Delray Beach residents Carolyn Hoffman and her husband does not.
    The Tennessee transplants walk the Delray shoreline at low tide, scanning the sand for trash and treasures.  
They have found, Hoffman says, “a fancy high heel, without the shoe, lots of solo sandals (all sizes and colors), a few bikini tops, an unusual-shaped glass bottle with Japanese characters imprinted on it, way too many helium balloon remains, and of course hundreds of the small plastic hook/tackle bags from fishermen.”
They put the trash in plastic bags to carry off the beach. The treasures, well, it depends. The 8-inch perfect nautilus shell came home with her. And the roughly 7-foot-long, flat-bodied, long-snouted sea creature, that looked up at Hoffman with one bulging eye, from the surf just north of Atlantic Avenue in early January? Well, they settled for photos.
    Hoffman, a retired elementary schoolteacher, saw it first and called her husband, Harry Furrevig, a retired pilot and current fisherman, to have a look.
    “It was a very interesting creature,” she said. He had never seen anything like it. She “let” him hold it for the photos she took.
    “It didn’t smell at all,” she said.
Aside from being no longer among the living, and a 2-inch slash in its side, it was in good shape — no other creature had taken a bite out of it, from what they could see.
    They showed the photos to the lifeguard at Atlantic Avenue who also had never seen anything like it.
They sent the photos to the kids, who “Facebooked it,” Hoffman said, and came back with the probability that it was an oarfish — a deepwater fish that can grown to more than 50 feet long.
    That didn’t stop one news station that picked up the story of their find from conjecturing that it was the “Loch Ness monster,” a friend told Hoffman.
    It remains the couple’s most unusual find, but they continue to stroll the shoreline daily, with appreciative eyes for more mundane treasures. Furrevig is in the midst of collecting enough olive shells to give each of about 100 guests at an upcoming family wedding.
    The nautilus shell — so flawless, Hoffman half expected to see a label saying where it was made when she turned it over — smashed to pieces one day, when the wind blew it off the shelf she kept it on.
    “I wish I had taken a picture of that,” she said. “At least of the pieces.”      

Dorothy Wilson (left) served the residents of Briny Breezes in the office of Briny Breezes, Inc. for more than 30 years.  During her retirement party, one of her gifts was a hand-carved golf cart given to her by Ira and Joanne Friedman (right).  More than 300 residents showed up for the event held at the park’s Ocean Club House. Photo by Jerry Lower

In the late 1990s, internationally acclaimed artist Diana Nicosia of Gulf Stream was waiting at the Rome airport for a delayed flight when she struck up a conversation with a man in a black suit sitting next to her. He turned out to be Cardinal John Foley, a former Philadelphia priest who served for more than 20 years as the Vatican’s chief of communications.
    Nicosia told the cardinal it was her lifelong dream to paint the private papal gardens at the Vatican. He said something like, “Let me see what I can do.” She was later granted her wish, causing tongues to wag in Rome.
    “First of all, I’m not Catholic,” says Nicosia. “Secondly, I’m an American. Every artist in Italy is vying to paint the papal gardens, and the Vatican usually says no.”
    Nicosia (pronounced “nic-OH-see-ah”) says it was one of the most moving experiences of her career. “I kept thinking about Michelangelo,” she says. He had painted the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel nearly 500 years earlier.
    The invitation was just one of many Nicosia has received since she began painting in her 20s. She was invited to paint at Claude Monet’s Giverny in France. The family of Sir Winston Churchill invited her to paint on the grounds of Chartwell, Churchill’s country estate. The Brazilian government invited her to photograph and paint the destruction and re-growth of the Amazon rainforest.
    After Iraqi soldiers set fire to more than 600 oil wells as they retreated from Kuwait in 1991, Nicosia was invited by the Kuwaiti government to paint scenes from that environmental catastrophe. Her series, called “Tides of War: The Oil Fires of Kuwait,” went on exhibit in Kuwait City and Washington D.C. The paintings have been described as “beautiful in an eerie sort of way.”
    Forty-five of Nicosia’s original oil paintings are on display through April 15 at the Cornell Museum of Art and American Culture at Old School Square in Delray Beach. The exhibit, called “The World of Color: Italy, Brazil, France and Kuwait,” features a few of those beautiful yet eerie burning-oil-field landscapes. On the evening of March 14, Nicosia will lecture at the museum, describing the summer she was allowed to paint the Vatican gardens.
    When Nicosia isn’t traveling or working from her studio in Boston, she enjoys painting “the light on the ocean and the beach” from a fourth-floor portico at her Gulf Stream home and studio.
    She is known for her unforgettable, powerful use of color.
    Now in mid-career, Nicosia says for years, the biggest compliment other artists could give her was this: “You know, your works are really powerful. You can’t tell a woman did it.”
    Today, this woman paints six days a week, morning and afternoon, with a break in between to refresh her mind and let the oil paint cure. She believes in discipline.
    “That’s what art is all about. Flaubert had a saying I agree with: ‘Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.’ ”
— Paula Detwiller

10 Questions

    Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
    A. I grew up in New England, in a bedroom community near Boston, and summered in New Hampshire on the lakes. The first town we lived in (from 3 years of age to around 12) was New London, N.H., on Lake Sunapee. I was first influenced in New London by the beautiful and wonderful forests, and I loved looking through the pine groves to the lake. It was a very small town that still had real, vibrant farms.
    I attended Massachusetts College of Art through a merit scholarship while in high school, graduated from Colby Sawyer College and Wheaton College. I attended an atelier founded by Ives Gammell for graduate studies.
    
    Q. How and when did you become an artist?
    A. At 13 years of age, I declared my intentions to become an artist. I actually realized this ambition in my late 20s.

    Q. What other careers have you had; what were the highlights?
    A. Most notably I was a property and casualty insurance broker. I was able to earn enough money to pursue painting full time. At one time, I juggled two distinct careers: I was fortunate to work in London (in insurance) and had my first major gallery launch in Mayfair. I did not sleep very much in those days!
    
    Q. What advice do you have for a young person pursuing a career in the arts today?
    A. Get proper fine arts training and get business/marketing training. Have sufficient savings so you can pursue your own painting style and have time to prepare a body of work for a show.
    
    Q. Tell us about your art.
    A. I paint in oils, mostly realistic to atmospheric landscapes. I am passionate about landscapes and love to paint them. I am inspired by the play of light on water and also light and shade in fields, gardens. I lived for about 20 years in the southernmost part of Tuscany, the land of the Etruscans. I had Etruscan ruins on my property; the land was on a slope to the sea. Caravaggio died on the beach beside my house. Puccini composed his music in the nearby town. The backcountry was the home of bandits; the coastline was filled with Spanish pirates. It was a spiritual place with a nearby bird and wildlife preserve.
    I paint in a series format, immerse myself in the culture, read lots about the history of the people, and paint. My retrospective 1985–2011 exhibit at the Cornell Museum in Delray reflects my interest in trying to portray the beauty of the land. It’s been my lifelong quest.

    Q. How did you choose to have a home/studio in Gulf Stream?
    A. I wintered in Delray Beach for about 10 years when I was a child. My parents rented on Gleason Street. Later in life I find myself living less than a mile away in Gulf Stream with my husband. We chose to live on the beach in Gulf Stream as our next adventure!
    
   Q. What is your favorite part about living in Gulf Stream?
    A.  The graciousness of the people, the beauty of the land and ocean. The light on the ocean at all times of day and night. It’s still a small-town atmosphere.
    
   Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
    A. Yes, many — and I was fortunate to have them. To name two: Charlotte Curtis, first woman op-ed editor of The New York Times, and Tex McCrary, a great Texan and newsman with CBS, among other accomplishments.
    
   Q. Who or what makes you laugh?
    A. My husband, Arthur, also known as Arturo, and my Persian cat, Percy.
    
   Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
    A. Diane Lane — after all, I lived in Tuscany!


If You Go

Diana Nicosia, “The World of Color: Italy, Brazil, France and Kuwait” will be on exhibit through April 15 at the Cornell Museum of Art and American Culture at Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach.
Hours: 10:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 1-4:30 pm. Sunday.
Admission: $10 general, $6 seniors (65+), $4 students (13-21), $2 ages 4-12, free for ages 3 and younger.
Box office: 243- 7922, Ext. 1
In addition, Nicosia will speak on “An American Painter in Vatican City” at 6 p.m. March 14 at the Cornell Museum Angelique Tea Room.  Cost is $10 and includes an after-lecture reception.

By Tim O’Meilia
and Steve Plunkett

    Manalapan and South Palm Beach town officials think they may emerge smelling like a rose from a dispute with the city of Lake Worth over payments for the operation of a regional sewer system.
    In August 2010, Lake Worth sued its seven municipal partners in the regional system — including Manalapan, South Palm Beach and Lantana — claiming it was owed $7 million for operation and maintenance of the system, dating back years. Palm Beach, Palm Springs, Atlantis and Palm Beach State College also are being sued.
    A consultant hired by the seven entities thinks Manalapan may have overpaid by $12,000 rather than underpaid, Town Manager Linda Stumpf said.
    “That hasn’t been presented to Lake Worth. That’s just our calculation,’’ Stumpf told Manalapan commissioners. “But we’ve believed from the beginning that the numbers that they’ve come up with are excessive.’’
    After a review of the regional system’s records dating to 1997, GAI Consultants of Orlando also told South Palm Beach Town Manager Rex Taylor that the town’s bill will be far less than Lake Worth claims.
    “I would suggest we have substantially refuted and countered the various claims made by Lake Worth,” Taylor told South Palm Beach council members.
    South Palm Beach has set aside $157,000 to pay any judgment or agreement in the dispute. “I don’t think it will approach what we’ve allocated,” he said.
    Although Lake Worth has admitted to faulty record-keeping, it claims the towns have been underpaying for years.
    State auditors recently completed an examination of Lake Worth’s sewer system financial records, but the results are not expected to be released for several months. The seven partners paid for the audit.
    Taylor said the towns hope they can reopen talks with Lake Worth and negotiate a new operating agreement.