After seeing a Letter to the Editor in The Coastal Star, Sandy Roder hosted an ‘iPads for Autism’ fundraiser at her Manalapan home on Jan. 24. More than 30 guests attended, raising $10,000 for the autism program at Lantana Middle School. Pictured (l-r): Shelia Hammond;  Dr. Jody Thomas, autism teacher at Lantana Middle School; Lantana Middle School Principal Ed Burke; Lantana Middle School speech pathologist Carrie Barressi and Sandy Roder. Photo by Tim Stepien

St. Joseph’s Episcopal School recently had its annual LAPS event, hosted and planned by the Parent Organization. This event echoed the theme this year on campus — ‘live green,’  healthy living for the body and the community. Parents Rob and Aline LaBar, owners of the Boynton Beach Cross Fit Center, sponsored the obstacle courses for the event; and Boynton Beach Vice Mayor Bill Orlove acted as master of ceremonies. Monies raised from the yearly event help finance school programs and infrastructure improvements on campus. 

Pictured: Amid a group of participating students and parents, Orlove, back row center, is flanked by St. Joseph’s pastor, Rev. William Stomski
and Head of School Tami Pleasanton.
Photo provided

Students at Gulf Stream School were treated in January to an international buffet as one of four hot-lunch days presented by the parents. Teachers use the meal to spin off lessons on the various countries and their ways of life, but for both kids and adults, the food is the highlight. Pictured, from left:  Bettina Young, Lucia Segal, Nicole Mugavero and Kim Flittner were among parents who volunteered to bring food and supplies to the special lunch.  Photo by Jan Norris

Enjoying lunch at The Living Room in Boynton Beach are (standing, l-r) Hedy Latimer, Judy Zeidel, Eileen Hertz, Susan Schechet and Sandy Jones; and (seated, l-r) Joan Ball, Diane Motta, and Angela Smith. The women — who live in West Palm Beach, South Palm Beach, Lake Worth, Manalapan and Ocean Ridge — get together once a week for lunch, followed by a friendly game of tennis at Phipps Ocean Park Tennis Center in Palm Beach.  Photo provided

Ryan and the Rockers band members (l-r) Chuck Henderson, Ryan Heidinger, Kenny Glass and Rit Johnson take the stage at Johnnie Brown’s in Delray Beach in late January. Photos by Kurtis Boggs

By Steve Pike

John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time at St. Pete’s Church in Liverpool, England; Duane Allman hung around FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., for more than a year before the legendary Swampers session musicians made him their guitar player; Bruce Springsteen met Clarence Clemons when the latter was playing at Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, N.J.
Chuck Henderson and Ryan Heidinger? The duo first met at the Gulf Stream Golf Club on A1A. And while they’re not world famous rock stars, they’re band – Ryan and The Rockers – has since 2007 developed a faithful following and solid reputation from such diverse venues as Johnnie Brown’s in Delray Beach to the aforementioned Gulf Stream Golf Club.
“What brought us together was the Beatles,” Henderson said of his musical partnership with Heidinger. “We’re both big Beatles nuts and we would sing Beatles songs together.”
That must have caused quite a stir in the pro shop and bag room at Gulf Stream Golf Club, where Henderson has worked as director of outside operations for the past 17 seasons and where Heidinger has worked in the pro shop and bag room arriving from Kentucky in search of a golf-related job in 2007.
“I had been playing music since I was 17,” said Henderson, now 48. “Ryan wanted to play but had never been in a band. He was very green but very smooth vocally.”
The duo tried out some songs and when Henderson showed Heidinger some videos of his previous band called “Tribute,” each knew they needed a band of their own. Thus Ryan and The Rockers were born one April night at a gig at the home of a member of the Gulf Stream Golf Club.
“I was scared to death,” Heidinger said. “I don’t think I ate for two weeks, I was so nervous.”
“They were really surprised Ryan and I could play,” Henderson said of that first-night audience. “They gave us the benefit of the doubt. The music wasn’t that great because it wasn’t all that well rehearsed at that point. But they liked us because they saw Ryan and me up there.”
With band mates Rit Johnson (guitar), Mark Gold (keyboards) and Kenny Glass (drums), Henderson (bass guitar) and lead singer Heidinger cull their music from an eclectic playlist that includes everything from Frank Sinatra to the Ramones. Much of the music on the playlist, of course, depends on the venue. For places such as Gulf Stream Golf Club and the Country Club of Florida, it’s the 1950s and ‘60s. For places such as Johnnie Brown’s and the Old Key Lime House in Lantana, the sound reaches into the 1980s.
“It’s just grown and grown,” Henderson said. “About two years ago we became something of a fever on the island. We were a little younger than they were used to seeing. It worked. Ryan is good looking and he was up there singing and shaking it.   Pretty soon we were booked at all the sister clubs of Gulf Stream, the Country Club of Florida and last year even the Jupiter Island Club.”
Heidinger, 30, plays solo several times a year at the Old Key Lime House and the band generally plays twice a week January through April and once a month the remainder of the year. Ryan and The Rockers have two public appearances in February – at John Bull English Pub in West Palm Beach on Feb. 4 and Feb. 17 at Johnnie Brown’s.
“Every single gig this band has played at, we’ve always been asked back,” Henderson said. “We’ve been fortunate the members have supported the group for all these years.”  
Keyboardist Mike Gold.

By Christine Davis

    No muss. No fuss. Unlike many interior decorators, Suzanne Rheinstein prefers to keep decor pretty, comfortable and simple.
    Sharing the development of her design style, she’ll be speaking at the Crest Theatre in Delray Beach on Feb. 15 on  “At Home: A Style for Today with Things from the Past,” sponsored by the Grass River Garden Club.
    Her book by the same name was published in November 2010, and is now in its fifth printing.
    Rheinstein’s personal journey started in New Orleans, where she was born. Her mother was an owner of an antiques store, so, she said, she’s always had an interest in architecture and its history.    But with a major in English literature, she started off in a different direction, working for CBS News in Washington, D.C.
    “Then I moved to Los Angeles, where I was a nonfiction television producer, making documentaries, industrial films, food shows and talk shows,” she explained.
    But then she married, and when her daughter was very little, she took a hiatus from that career, eventually changing direction completely. She opened Hollyhock in Los Angeles, selling antiques, her furniture designs, mirrors, card tables, night tables and “lots of interesting things,” she said.
    “I’ve always been interested in how people live. Through the years, as a member in my book club, I’d always pick up on the buildings and interiors in the books I read.”
    She does love antiques, she admits, but she doesn’t choose to live in a period room.
“I like beautiful old things used in a cleaner, more contemporary way.
    “It’s kind of relaxed living, but not at all sloppy.”
  

Having fewer and better pieces of furniture offers an elegant, relaxed approach to decorating.  Photo by Pieter Estersohn

 To create a relaxed look, she suggests having fewer but better pieces of furniture and decorative items.
“Rather than buy 10 things, take that sum of money and buy one thing, and you won’t have so much clutter. There’s certain simplicity to that. I’ve gone into a client’s home and have just taken things away, and the room feels calmer and more welcoming.”
    That goes for her table, too.
    “When I have people over, I often serve Southern food, something simple and delicious rather than overly fancy — like shrimp with grits.
    “And don’t put too much on the plate, either,” she added. 
    She’ll cook with fresh vegetables from her garden, and she’ll use leaves and branches in bowls for decoration.
    “I grow citrus in pots, and in the winter, I cut the branches and put them in bowls,” she said.
    “And for a centerpiece, one time I took a collection of little vases that I had and I foraged in the gardens for herbs and forest-y kind of flowers,” she said.
    In her Hobe Sound client’s home, she painted the floors light colors, which is great for bare feet, she said. And although the living room is elegant with some antique pieces, there are comfortable upholstered sofas with ottomans that can be used to stack books (or to rest your feet).
    It’s all about “pretty” and “comfortable,” but don’t forget the drama.
For example, the antique console she used in her client’s foyer is very old and the paint is peeling, but that just adds to the appeal, and sitting atop it is an old clock, a stage prop, which is interesting, but not too serious.
    Gardens, of course, are of special interest, too. She’s traveled to many here and abroad and is on the board of the Garden Conservancy, which seeks to save America’s exceptional gardens and eventually open them to the public.
    Concerning gardens, she prefers something with a little architecture, she said. So, start with a plan. She’ll use clipped hedges, but she’ll combine them with vines for a looser look.  “I like contrast, she explained. On her Florida client’s outdoor table, she used a centerpiece of bromeliads, which she thinks are interesting. In front of the high hedge are potted brugmansias.
    Rheinstein’s book At Home: Style for Today with Things from the Past, is priced at $55.  To buy it from Hollyhock, go to www.suzannerheinstein.com/books/                                      

If you go
Suzanne Rheinstein’s talk, ‘At Home: A Style for Today with Things from the Past,’ is sponsored by The Grass River Garden Club, a member of the Garden Club of America.
When: 2 p.m. Feb. 15
Where: Crest Theatre at Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach.
Cost: $50, which includes refreshments after the event.
To make reservations or for information, call 276-0189.

The club also has a free Gardeners Fair that same day, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., in the Ocean Breeze Room at the Crest Theatre, featuring native plants, unique arts and crafts and tools related to gardening.

Davis Gaines, who performed the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera more than 2,000 times on Broadway as well as in Los Angeles and San Francisco, will perform a series of songs from the musical for guests of this year’s Bethesda Ball. Gaines will sing alongside Teri Bibb, who played the character Christine opposite Gaines on Broadway.
    Their song list will include: The Phantom of the Opera, Think of Me, All I Ask of You and The Music of the Night.
    The Los Angeles Times describes Gaines’ concert performances as “the juxta-position of a boyish charm with a big, theater-filling voice, a dramatic way with song and an always-intriguing musical program.”
    Tickets to the ball are $350 per person and can be purchased online at  www.BethesdaHospitalFoundation.org. Proceeds support Bethesda’s Center for Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery.

If You Go

57th Annual Bethesda Ball
Date: Saturday, March 3, 2012
Time: 6:30 p.m. cocktails and silent auction; 8 p.m. dinner and dancing
Location: The Breakers, Palm Beach
Entertainment: vocal performances by Broadway star Davis Gaines
Cost: $350 per person; purchase tickets online at  www.BethesdaHospitalFoundation.org
Black tie preferred

Bethesda Ball Golf Tournament
Date: Friday, March 2, 2012
Time: 1 p.m. start with a cocktail reception following play
Location: Breakers West golf course
Cost: $250 per person
To register: call  737-7733, Ext. 85490

ABOVE: Bethesda Memorial Hospital opened in 1959 with 70 beds and 32 physicians.

Firstborn remains impressed with hospital | Phantom of the Opera theme | Meet the Co-Chairs

By Paula Detwiller

As supporters of Bethesda Memorial Hospital clink cocktail glasses at the 57th Annual Bethesda Ball next month, they’ll be celebrating an important milestone. It’s been 65 years since a group of dedicated local residents formed what would become the Bethesda Hospital Foundation and began the push to build a much-needed acute care hospital to serve southeast Palm Beach County.
    Gulf Stream Mayor Bill Koch Jr. was one of those dedicated citizens. Koch, now 91, has served on the Bethesda Hospital Foundation board continuously since it was founded in 1947. As the fundraising arm of this busy, nonprofit medical institution, the foundation has kept Bethesda Memorial Hospital operating and growing, year after year.  
    “Just like Jack in the Beanstalk,” Koch says. “From a little bean in the ground to a huge stalk! We’ve climbed a lot of leaves to get up to where we are now.”
    To put that into context, consider life before Bethesda Memorial Hospital was constructed on South Seacrest Boulevard in Boynton Beach. The nearest hospital for folks in Gulf Stream, Delray Beach and Boynton Beach in the 1940s was in West Palm Beach, and the fastest way to get there was via Federal and Dixie highways. When Koch looks back, he remembers anxiety and dread.
    “There was no local hospital to have our children in,” Koch said. When his wife went into labor with their first child, Koch made the 20-mile trek to St. Mary’s Hospital with a racing pulse, his wife screaming in pain. Once there, they learned it was false labor. “And of course, she wasn’t giving birth, so I’d bring her home again and wait for the next time.”
    Koch says many babies were born in the backs of pickup trucks. On-the-job accidents were a boss’s worst nightmare.
    “Guys would get hurt out there on the farms, and you’d have to load them up in the back of a truck and drive them to the hospital yourself. We had no ambulances, no paramedics, no nothing.” The severely injured often died en route.
    Koch says wealthy residents living along the coast worried about surviving heart attacks. African-Americans living inland worried about surviving, period; medical services for blacks in the years before the civil rights movement were extremely limited.
    “We kept talking about it, and we finally said ‘we’ve got to have a hospital,’ ” Koch said. “We needed and wanted to serve everybody. That was a given.”
 Hospital District Secretary-Treasurer Catherine Strong snips the ‘ribbon’ (surgical gauze) at the Jan. 24, 1959, dedication of Bethesda Memorial Hospital. Others pictured, from left: Emory J. Barrow, first and longtime chairman of the Southeastern Palm Beach County Hospital District Commission; Merrill F. Steele, M.D., founding Administrator; Chief Engineer J.R. O’Neal; Commissioners Col. Andrew L. Faben; Mrs. Charles Spalsbury; and William F. Koch Jr., president of the Gulf Stream Hospital Association and master of ceremonies for the historic event.

   Today, Bethesda Memorial Hospital continues to fulfill its original mission of offering medical care to the indigent and the affluent alike. From humble beginnings with 70 beds and 32 physicians, the hospital has grown into a 400-bed, full-service medical facility with more than 550 physicians in more than 40 specialties. And another full-service hospital, Bethesda West, is under construction at Boynton Beach Boulevard and U.S. 441, set to open next year.
    Revenues from this year’s 57th Annual Bethesda Ball will support the main hospital’s Center for Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery, which includes a surgical robot and a first-in-the-state simulator needed for in-house training.
The Bethesda Hospital Foundation was established originally as the Gulf Stream Hospital Association in 1947 to support Bethesda Memorial Hospital.
The Foundation is raising funds through its “Caring for Our Community Campaign” to maintain and enhance Centers of Excellence including the Bethesda Heart Hospital, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Cornell Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine, Driskill Endovascular Center, Center for Women & Children, Orthopaedic Institute, Center for Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery and the creation of Palm Beach County’s newest hospital, Bethesda West, set to open in 2013.                           

Today, the hospital has 400 beds and more than 550 physicians.

As chairs of the 57th Annual Bethesda Ball, Deborah and Harry Sargeant III of Gulf Stream are excited to be raising money for the hospital’s Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery equipment and training.
    “This equipment can see three-dimensionally inside the human body,” Deborah says. “Robotic surgery makes the doctor’s job so much easier, it dramatically reduces recovery time, and there’s less chance of complications arising compared to traditional surgical procedures.”
    Deborah and husband Harry, who works in the oil and asphalt shipping business, would like to see more of the community get behind Bethesda Memorial Hospital. “It’s an amazing resource right in our backyard,” says Deborah, who serves on the executive committee of the foundation board of directors and is a past co-chairwoman of the hospital’s Women of Grace Luncheon.
    “We thought it might be a nice change to do a ‘destination ball’ this year, incorporating a golf tournament the day before,” Deborah says. “We’re hoping that brings in more people from out of town and raises awareness of the ball among a broader demographic.”

Betty and Fred Devitt Jr. of coastal Delray Beach began attending the annual Bethesda Ball in the 1960s. More import-antly, though, they have devoted years of their free time to Bethesda Hospital itself.
    Fred Devitt, an attorney with Devitt, Thistle & Devitt, is vice chairman of the Bethesda Health Care System Board of Trustees and has been a member of the hospital board of trustees since the early 1990s. Also in the early ’90s, Betty Devitt, a real estate agent for The Corcoran Group, served on the board of the Bethesda Hospital Association (later renamed the Foundation).
    Those years of service are being recognized this year by the selection of the Devitts as honorary chairs of the 57th Annual Bethesda Ball.
    “Bethesda always tries to stay current with medical technology, and we need to keep doing that,” Betty Devitt says, underlining the importance of the foundation and its fundraising events.

ABOVE: Jeffrey Errol Snow, the first baby born at Bethesda Memorial Hospital, yawns while his mother, Mrs. George Bernard Snow, receives an engraved sterling cup presented by Mrs. O.R. Tergesen, president of the hospital auxiliary.

By Paula Detwiller

    Jeffery Errol Snow of Boca Raton became an instant celebrity the minute he emerged from his mother’s womb on Feb. 16, 1959. He was the first baby born at brand-spanking-new Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach.
    “That’s my claim to fame. I haven’t been able to top it,” Snow says.
    Flashbulbs illuminated his first days of life as the hospital shared the good news with the community. It was the beginning of a new era. Until then, many expectant mothers in southeast Palm Beach County relied on midwives to deliver their babies. Now they could relax in the knowledge that licensed obstetricians and a clean, safe birthing facility were close at hand — not miles away in West Palm Beach or Fort Lauderdale.
    Snow, who will be 53 this month, doesn’t remember his welcoming ceremony, of course. But he remembers getting his wrist rebuilt at Bethesda when, at age 18, he jumped off the third floor of a building. “I was a bit of a daredevil,” he explains.
    His next visit was in 1993, when his own child, first-born daughter Savanna, was delivered at Bethesda. Reflecting on the hospital foundation’s 65th anniversary, Snow mentions the people who are “still working to make that hospital the valuable asset it is.”
    “It’s impressive how Bethesda cares for the indigent as well as those who can pay for the best care in the world,” Snow says. “That’s my love for the hospital: They’ve accepted the challenge of taking care of everyone.”

Gulf Stream School’s “Havana Nights: An Evening at the Tropicana” Underwriting Chairs (l-r) Jenn Forman, Lisa White, Therese Snyder and Sarah Foster are planning a fundraising party in February at the home of Therese and Barron Snyder in preparation for the April 21 event to benefit the school. Photo provided

2011 Laugh with the Library: (l-r) Becky Walsh, co-chair; Mark A. Peterson, Bank of America  (platinum event sponsor); Comedians Angela Manfredi & Eddie Brill; Brenda Pumillia, Private Jewelers (platinum event sponsor.)
The 2012 Laugh with the Library, Chapter 6 event is planned for Feb. 3 at the Delray Beach Marriott featuring stand-up comedian Sebastian Maniscalco. All money raised will be used to enhance programs and materials for children and teens at the Delray Beach Public Library. Tickets: $150. Doors open 7:30 p.m./Show at 9 p.m. 266-0775.
This years’ Platinum level sponsors include Bank of America, Cheney Brothers, Marriott Delray Beach, Private Jewelers, Ocean Properties, The Coastal Star, the Sun-Sentinel and Joseph and Tandy Robinson for their continued support. Silver and Bronze level sponsors include Harry and Deborah Sargeant, The Microgiving Foundation and Florida Power & Light. Other major contributors include: Searcy, Denny, Scarola, Barnhart & Shipley, Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market and Printers Choice. Photo provided

By Steve Plunkett

City Council Member Constance Scott was effectively reelected Jan. 25 when challenger Bill Trinka officially quit the race just two weeks after filing to run.

‘’After deep personal reflection I am suspending my campaign for City Council,’’ Trinka announced at the council meeting the night before. ‘’While I wish to remain a voice in the community for matters in the downtown area, as of right now all events and appearances related to my campaign are canceled.’’

Trinka, a retired Boca Raton firefighter and 40-year resident, said he learned self-reliance from his father and felt extreme discomfort asking other people for help in the campaign.

‘’I don’t have to be up on the dais to make a difference,’’ he said after signing candidate withdrawal forms at the city clerk’s office.

It was Trinka’s second quick reversal in January. He was reappointed to the Downtown Boca Raton Advisory Board on Jan. 10 only to resign five days later for his City Council run. Trinka said he ‘’probably’’ will reapply for a seat on the advisory board.

This will be Scott’s second three-year term on the City Council. She is also chairman of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.

Still to be decided in the March 13 municipal election is the race between incumbent Anthony Majhess and challenger Frank Chapman. Majhess, a Palm Beach County firefighter, is seeking a second term. Chapman, a political newcomer, has a law degree and is president of the Boca Pop Warner Football League.

By Antigone Barton

       Decorated with photos of the “calming Atlantic Ocean,” a brochure for a proposed residence for recovering addicts promises: “You can’t get more private than this — gated and secure with no signage. Anonymity and discretion set the tone . . .”

    But if the Caron Foundation, a nonprofit addiction treatment organization, gets city permission to open a  luxury sober house on Seaspray Avenue, it may not be able to keep that promise there.

    Right now, three large signs decorate the lawn of the house directly across the street from 1232 Seaspray Ave.

    “Caron Your Business is NOT WELCOME in our Single Family neighborhood . . .” the largest one, a weatherproof, roughly 3-by-4-foot poster says.

    “Paparazzi Welcomed Here! We’ve got our eyes (and our lenses) on you!” another one says.

     The third, and smallest, says “No transient housing!”

     Signs with that last message also stand in front of every other house on the street, and are Seaspray Avenue residents’ response to a planned residence for affluent recovering addicts in their neighborhood.

    The sign sums up the unifying theme of residents’ objections to the plan, said Kelly Barrette, one of the neighbors who had distributed close to 100 signs in four days during the third week of January.

    “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.”

       The planned residence is seen as blight on a quiet and close-knit residential street.

    Caron has said that its clients will receive all their clinical treatment at its facility in Boca Raton. But its assurances that the “boutique” center would offer “exclusive services” and house wealthy, elite and “discerning” clients has done little to comfort neighbors, Barrette said.

     “Like having Lindsay Lohan in there was going to make it better,” she said.

     Not one neighbor has turned down a sign, she added.  

     George Whitney of Nassau Street, who was alarmed at what turned out to be a false report of plans for a sober house in his neighborhood came over to “see what was going on” on Seaspray Avenue. He found a group of Seaspray neighbors discussing Caron.

    “It affects every street, because it opens the door to similar businesses,” Barrette said.

   “If it was any business,” insisted Beach Drive resident Steve Alport, “I’d be against it.”

  The neighboring town of Gulf Stream,  “doesn’t even allow Tupperware parties,” another in the group mentioned.

    The nature of this particular operation, though, has clearly galvanized a street tucked off AIA where neighbors know each other, said Mindy Farber, a neighborhood resident and attorney.

    Caron’s application in front of the city’s Planning and Zoning Department asks for “reasonable accommodation” that would allow more unrelated people to live together than the three allowed by current zoning.

    The application seeks to house up to seven people in the five-bedroom, $3 million house. Caron has said the clients would pay up to $60,000 a month for a minimum two-month stay.

   It also cites federal regulations that it says prohibits disclosure of the name of the client and the nature of the problem being treated.

     “They’re not saying if its sexual predators or people who are registered sexual offenders,” said Mindy Farber, a neighborhood resident and attorney. “It’s one thing to be a friendly neighbor; it’s another not to be told who your neighbors are. It’s totally creepy,” she said.

    Farber, who has served as vice president for the American Civil Liberties Union chapter in Montgomery County Maryland, says the signs are protected by the First Amendment.

   The neighborhood’s response has pitted “civil libertarian against civil libertarian,” she said. Caron’s pending application for “reasonable accommodation” in the neighborhood   was filed by West Palm Beach attorney James Green, known for his many years of work on ACLU cases.

    “The signs themselves may be protected by the First Amendment,” Green agrees. But he adds the future residents of a future Caron residence — wherever it may be — are protected as well by the Fair Housing Act. 

     Delray’s Planning and Zoning department has until Feb. 2 to make a decision on Caron’s application. If it denies the request, Caron has 30 days to appeal the decision to the City Commission.

    The signs will stay as long as a house for recovering addicts is planned on their street, Seaspray residents say.

    “This is a statement we felt like we needed to make,” Barrette said, “to make sure they continue to hear us.”

Staff Report

     A group of beachside homeowners is mailing a flier to every house in eastern Delray Beach that outlines its efforts to prevent a clinic from housing large numbers of people in recovery in single-family neighborhoods. The mailing also urges residents to contact state and federal lawmakers to support the effort.

    The Beach Property Owners Association (BPOA) said that nearly 2,000 houses east of the Intracoastal Waterway and about 200 on the west side will receive the mailing during the week of Jan. 16.

    “We’ve had so many questions sent to us in e-mails and phone calls, we wanted to keep our membership informed,” said Andy Katz, vice-president of the BPOA board, which represents some 500 property owners.

  The mailing, expected to cost the BPOA about $3,000, explains the BPOA’s as well as the city’s efforts in the past several weeks to prevent the Caron Foundation from operating transient housing, known as sober houses in the rehabilitation trade, in single family neighborhoods near the ocean.

      But following a meeting with a Caron representative on Thursday, Jan. 12, Katz said the non-profit drug and alcohol treatment center said it intended to proceed with plans to house up to 14 recovering alcoholics or drug abusers in million-dollar-plus beach-area houses, despite the recent outcry from residents.

       Andrew Rothermel, Caron’s Florida chief operating officer, told Katz and other BPOA members that Caron had purchased two beach-area houses where recovering alcoholics or drug abusers could stay during treatment.

    They would be “highly motivated patients of influence and affluence,”  according to a fact sheet Rothermel gave the BPOA members. They would receive clinical counseling at Caron’s Boca Raton facility and would use the houses only for meals and rest, according to the fact sheet.

  Each patient would have a private bedroom and bath, with six in one house and eight in the other. The stays would be for 60 days or longer, but patients would not have their own cars and would be driven for treatment in unmarked vehicles, the fact sheet stated.

    Pennsylvania-based Caron came under intense public outrage and scrutiny last month when word leaked out that it planned to operate as many as two ocean-side sober houses to assist wealthy business executives, actors and athletes fight their addictions in well-appointed comfort.

      The city last spring approved Caron’s request for a sober house at 740 N. Ocean Blvd. to house up to seven recovering addicts. Caron bought the house through a local attorney in March 2011 for $1.6 million.

      On Dec. 19, 2011, Caron sought a second “reasonable accommodations” waiver of the city’s ordinance that limits to three the number of unrelated people living in single-family neighborhoods. That house is believed to be at 1232 Seaspray Ave., which had been on the market for $2.995 million. The house was sold early in January, but the buyer has not been revealed.

   Caron has refused to divulge the addresses of the two houses it purchased, claiming to do so would violate the medical confidentiality of addicts in recovery.

  The BPOA mailing said that the city has 45 days to study the Seaspray Avenue request to allow up to seven unrelated people living in the house while they are in recovery. If the city limits or rejects the request, Caron has 30 days to appeal to the City Commission.

    The BPOA has urged the city to limit the number of unrelated “renters” who could live in a house during the course of a year as well as limiting the number of times a house could be rented from six times per year to twice annually.

     “We believe this will reduce the damage done to stable single-family neighborhoods due to transient use,” the flier says.

      The BPOA also suggested that in medium density residential districts, (RM), where there are “effectively, no limits on turnovers,” that a maximum number of six rentals per year be enforced.

     The organization notes that rehab house operators have been able to “trump” local zoning ordinances by applying for “reasonable accommodations” waivers as provided under the federal American with Disabilities Act. Courts have ruled that addicts are disabled, and thus protected under ADA.

    BPOA leaders urged residents in the mailer to ask their federal and state lawmakers to find a solution.

     “We believe a fair and compassionate balance can be achieved between the mandates of the ADA and the interests of families in protecting their homes and neighborhoods.”

    But Rothermel told The Coastal Star last month that courts have consistently sided with the rights of recovering addicts when cities attempted to restrict where they may live.

     “They suffered in court and spent a tremendous amount of money fighting it,” he said.

The Great Outdoors turned out to be a great classroom for 25 seventh grade Gulf Stream School students who accompanied their teachers on a three day Everglades adventure. The outdoor classroom provided lessons in many subjects and inspired poems and essays.

Gulf Stream School seventh grade students beneath the cypress trees at Clyde Butcher’s studio.  Photos by teachers Bryan Cook and Megan Bogert

Everglades
This place
smiles at you
with a brown, transparent smile
and white, misshapen eyes.
This place
is accepting
of others;
it helps you forget
all the bad times,
and gives you new,
better memories.
This place
is more than
just a habitat.
It’s a wake-up call
for what we could be losing.

— Maddy Uible
Jupiter

Airboat ride

When the driver moved the boat, he glided over lily pads like he was flying. The noise when he went full speed was amazing; he moved the boat so swiftly, and it made a deep, loud hum.

— Ingrid Marinak
Delray Beach

So much for the eyes to see
Smells of dirty water surround the air
The chilly nights and cool breeze
Made us so cold that we went stiff
Frozen with excitement
and the wonders
Of all there is in the living Everglades.

— Quinn Fender
Village of Golf

Everglades poem
Sole crunching white oyster shells
We walk toward the murky water
The cool day revives our burning muscles and aching bones
The kayak is our home for hours and time slips away into
The tender green colors on the trees and the almost lack brackish water from the mangrove leaves.
There is a salty smell to the air
Not knowing what is beneath us, creepy feeling washes over me
Until I listen to the peaceful noise of my oar lightly stroking the water
White majestic birds fly above us.
Like giant squawking parrots in our kayaks we slice through the tranquility of the Everglades.

— Kaitlyn Hart
Delray Beach

Kayak Trip
We paddled those waterways for hours,
We got wet from the splashes of our mates,
We felt the sun on our faces,
We felt mosquitoes on our arms and legs.
It felt so real.
— Kyle Sipp
Ocean Ridge

Sweatshirts are wet from splashing,
My cold feet are numb,
Soothing orange sunset blanketing,
The cold December night.
— Isabel Pearce
Gulf Stream

The water is like a thin sheet of shimmering glass
And underwater is a whole different
World of wildlife with
Predator and prey.
— Connor Hopkins
Delray Beach

The mangroves seem to walk out into the water.
The saw grass sways in the blowing wind.
The water is still as glass,
The wind flows through the air.
As night comes the crickets chirp,
Then sunset happens.
— Garrett Sargeant
Gulf Stream

The sky’s blue, turning grey, taking cover
Water murky, muddy footprints left behind.
Trees wholesome, whines our trespass.
— Roman Pugliese

The sun was departing and night was approaching
We were wet and cold, our shoulders aching from paddling
But we were having fun
It was an adventure
We have never done something like this before
And will never forget it
— Ingrid Marinak
Delray Beach

The Everglades
Everything is better on a kayak,
Especially watching the sun setting
In the Everglades.
It was a great experience to see this
Beautiful once in a life time opportunity.
Surrounded by people we’ve known forever,
We all had a great time paddling and seeing this beautiful scene.
— Kiara Warren
Boca Raton

Billy Swamp Safari
There were so many different bugs and birds flying around me with all different colors mixed into them. I was so jittery but happy to be in such a wonderful place.
— Kaleb Fernandez
Gulf Stream

Gopher turtles amble along slow as molasses
While a lone cougar paces back and forth,
Looking ready to pounce.
Intruders intimidating the parrots,
By trying to make them speak,
While baby gators bask in the sun.
— Kiara Warren
Boca Raton

Trip to Clyde Butcher’s studio
These glades hold frightening possibilities of a threatening alligator. This threat is soothed by the pleasant sounds, smells and lights of nature.
— Ryan de Haseth
Ocean Ridge

As the day fades and night approaches,
the sky shifts into an amazing watercolor portrait.
With rippling shades of vibrant oranges and hot pinks,
the sky electrifies.
The clouds dance like an assembly of graceful ballerinas,
escorting the sun down to rest for the night.
In this moment of awe,
the true complexity of the sky is revealed.
As if a new dimension has been formed, the sky unweaves,
displaying the beauty that is hidden throughout the day.
And before you can comprehend the sheer power of the sight,
the sun has set.
The sky once again returns to its usual state,
and all you can see for miles is an empty, star-filled sea of black.
— Isabel Long
Lantana

Day Two
It was only about 9:15 [p.m.], but it felt so late. I fell asleep during the movie. Sullivan had to wake me up and I walked barefoot back to my room.
— Helen Huisinga
Gulf Stream

Wildlife
As this beautiful summer day slips away with the sun beating down on me.
I soon catch another large, brightly colored fish and that is enough for me.
I go up on the bank and call it a day.
It can’t get any better for me,
Cause I am the alligator.
— Kaleb Fernandez
Gulf Stream

Final Thoughts
If my parents ever ask me where we should go for a trip, I am going to say let’s go to the Everglades.
— Kaleb Fernandez
Gulf Stream

The Everglades,
For it will not last forever.
If you listen you can hear
Glades smoldering, pleading,
Dying breath, begging us to reflect.
— Roman Pugliese
Gulf Stream

The holidays are over. It’s a new year, full of promise and possibility. Is 2012 the year you improve your personal health and harmony by shedding excess pounds?
    If the answer is yes, you’ve come to the right place for inspiration. We rounded up five area residents to share their impressive weight loss stories. Our “biggest losers” reinforce the fact that, no matter how old you are, the key to losing weight — and keeping it off — is to go slowly, eat healthy food, and exercise regularly. So long, fad diets.

By Paula Detwiller

Jane Hebert
Retired nurse,
Briny Breezes
            
Jane’s stats
Age: 77
Original weight: 260
Current weight: 155
Words of wisdom:
Get the support you need, so you learn to discipline yourself.

LOST 105 pounds

Jane Hebert,
Briny Breezes
Two years ago, Jane Hebert made a New Year’s resolution to lose 100-plus pounds.
“I couldn’t walk from here to the pool across the street without stopping,” she says. “My doctor told me, take off weight or you won’t live much longer.”
So Hebert, then 75, went back to Weight Watchers — and this time, she made a pledge to attend weekly.
“I had joined Weight Watchers a few years earlier and lost weight. I said, OK, I can do this by myself now. But no, I gained it all back and then some. I realized I need that support — and it has really paid off.”
Over a two-year period, Hebert lost 120 pounds, slimming down from 260 to 134.
“By weighing in each week and hearing the stories of others, you are giving and getting moral support. It keeps you on the ball,” she says.
After she lost the first 25 pounds, Hebert began a daily walking routine. She walks four miles a day around her neighborhood with the help of her New Balance walking poles. She no longer needs high blood pressure medication, sleeps very well, and has shrunk from a size 26 to a size 12.
Her husband and doctor couldn’t be happier.

Vanessa Lovvorn
Maintenance worker, Delray Beach
            
Vanessa’s stats
Age: 32
Original weight: 345
Current weight:  241
Words of wisdom:
If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you’re right!

LOST 104 pounds

Vanessa Lovvorn, Delray Beach
When her father was diagnosed with lung cancer, Vanessa Lovvorn wisely stopped smoking. But over the next year, as her dad slowly died from the disease, she gained 100 pounds. Her weight hovered in the mid-300-pound range over the next 12 years.
Desperate, Lovvorn consulted a psychiatrist. He talked her out of lap-band surgery and gave her a series of homework assignments: eliminate your addiction to soda (she was drinking two 2-liter bottles a day); stop biting your fingernails; and begin following a weight-loss plan
Check, check, and check. By mid-2011, Lovvorn’s weight went from 345 to about 300. She began working with a fitness trainer and a nutritional counselor at Level 5 Fitness and Conditioning in Delray Beach. She has lost 104 pounds over a 17-month period, and plans to lose at least 60 more.
“I’m never going back to the person I used to be,” she says. “I’m happy now. I can actually look in the mirror and say I love who I am. That’s the difference.”
Lovvorn credits her “army” of supporters, including her family and trainers, for keeping her motivated. A diet of small, frequent meals emphasizing protein and complex carbohydrates has helped Lovvern tame her sweet tooth.
“If I do crave something sweet, I’ll have 2 tablespoons of sugar-free, fat-free chocolate syrup in a glass of milk,” she says. “But I don’t get those urges very often. I work so hard in here, I don’t want to self-sabotage.”

Zach Rogers
Internet engineer,
 Boca Raton
            
Zach’s stats
Age: 22
Original weight: 192
Current weight:  149
Words of wisdom: It’s all about what you put into your body.

Zach Rogers,
Boca Raton
    When Zach Rogers decides to cheat a little on his dietary plan, he’ll have a couple of reduced-fat Oreos and some almond milk. Reality check: other guys his age are wolfing down Big Macs and Mountain Dew.
At 22, Rogers has committed himself to “clean eating” — lean protein, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats — and building his body at Fitness Now gym in Boca Raton.
“I lift weights five to six days a week. And if I’m not lifting weights, I’ve got a date with the Stairmaster,” he says.
Rogers was a skinny kid who ballooned up in high school, according to his mother, Bonnie, a personal trainer. He weighed 192 upon graduation, but he didn’t like what he saw and shrank himself to 124 pounds within a year. Mom worried he was becoming anorexic, and pointed him toward the gym.
“After I lost the fat, I wanted to build up the muscle,” Rogers says. He’s now a buffed 149 pounds with a mere 11 percent body fat. He eats eight small meals throughout the day to fuel his workouts and keep burning calories continuously. He is philosophical about his motivation.
 “Looking better is one thing, but the feeling you get from accomplishing something like this, knowing that you’re on the right track, every day that you wake up, every healthy meal that you put in, it’s priceless.”

Dan Castrillon
Insurance company executive, Delray Beach
            
Dan’s stats
Age: 42
Original weight: 305
Current weight:  255
Words of wisdom: Set a goal, and stop eating for sport.

Dan Castrillon,
Delray Beach
“I like to call it a consumption awareness program,” says 42-year-old Dan Castrillon, regional manager of the Scirocco Group insurance company in Delray Beach.
He’s talking about the healthy food choices he learned to make as a participant in last year’s “Your Best Fit” weight loss challenge. He lost 31 pounds during the competition and subsequently took off another 19 pounds by applying what he learned.
“I basically stopped eating for sport,” Castrillon says. “If we had pizza for dinner as a family, I would sit down and eat a pizza — you know, a large pizza all by myself. And I would have three or four beers with it. So it got to a point where I said, that’s just ridiculous. Now I’ll have maybe three slices of pizza, and I stopped drinking beer entirely. I switched my drink of choice to vodka and soda.”
Before his weight loss, Castrillon had achy knees, got winded climbing a flight of stairs, experienced fitful sleep, wore 44-inch waist pants, and worried about keeping up with his 4-year-old son. Today he runs two or three times a week, has more energy, wears a 38-inch waist, and his knees no longer hurt.
“Set a goal,” he advises. “You’ve got to know where you’re going in order to get there.”

Taryn’s stats
Age: 27
Original weight: 165
Current weight:  115
Words of wisdom: Throw out your bathroom scale. It can really mess with you.

Taryn Shea Loughran, South Palm Beach
When Taryn Shea Loughran received a photo of herself from a friend a few years back, it just didn’t register.
“I’m thinking, why is this woman wearing a bikini? It’s way too small for her,” Loughran said. “Then it struck me: that was me. I couldn’t believe how much I had let myself go.”
A former high school athlete, Loughran decided then and there to lose weight and shape up. She gradually left her diet of Kraft macaroni and cheese, hot dogs and cinnamon buns behind to construct her own “clean eating” program of whole grains, lean chicken and fish, along with superfoods such as asparagus, grapefruit and blueberries.
She joined the YMCA and began working out. In four years’ she lost 50 pounds, sculpting her body in the process to become a fitness competitor and model. Now 27, her muscular physique appears in the same magazines she used for inspiration when her weight loss journey began.
Loughran stresses the slow, steady approach. After all, she didn’t go from a size 14 to a size 2 overnight. As a fitness coach herself at The Gym in Manalapan, Loughran enjoys motivating others.
“If you watch what you eat, do cardio workouts and resistance training, that’s the triple threat,” she says. “That’s going to get you into your dream body.


Paula Detwiller is a freelance writer and lifelong fitness junkie. Find her at www.pdwrites.com.

View slideshow of remodeling.

By Christine Davis
    
Candy and Mason Heydt have put the finishing touches on their super-cute cottage at 705 SE Atlantic Drive, Hypoluxo Island, the one that they’ve been renovating for the last six months. And they are very happy to put their toolkits away.
    That totally redone kitchen was a real bear, they say.
    “We wanted to keep the kitchen,” Candy said. “It had great personality. Some brick. Real Mexican tile floors and hand-painted tile in the countertops.”
    “And because we wanted to save it, it was the biggest challenge we faced in this cottage,” said her husband, Mason, with screwdriver and an unhinged cabinet door in hand.
    “I have 80 hours into this,” Mason added, gesturing. “I took the cabinets all apart, stripped and sanded them, added new hardwood where needed, then reinstalled and repainted them.”
    If you’ve ever done any stripping and sanding, you’ll know exactly what he’s talking about. Renovating a kitchen can surely unhinge a homeowner/handyperson who has taken on the project.
    “One day, I came in and asked Mason, ‘What can I do to help you?’ He handed me a mask, safety glasses and sander, and said, ‘Here. Do the inside of the cabinets,’” Candy said. “That wasn’t the kind of help I was talking about.”
    The tile floors were acid- washed and resealed and the refrigerator, which used to be freestanding, has a new home, recessed nicely into a space taken from an adjoining closet.
    Also, the Heydts knocked out a portion of the kitchen wall going to the living area to change the traffic pattern and they added doors to the outside and the new laundry, a space they stole from the garage.
    “The laundry room is now directly accessible to the kitchen and a complete room unto itself,” Mason said. “It’s a very nice space and even has backyard views.”
    Concerning the rest of the house, the old jalousies have been replaced with hurricane-rated windows, which brought in much more light, Candy said.
“It’s made a world of difference, changing the whole look and feel of the house.”
    Now, hardwood floors go all through the house, are on the same level and have been refinished. In the living room, the fake fireplace is gone.
    Plumbing has been redone. Old wallpaper has been stripped off — that was quite a job, since some was double thick. And two new central air-conditioning units have been put in place.
    In the bathrooms, tubs have been repainted, ugly hanging ceilings have been taken out, but not the interesting tile and fixtures.
    “We tried to keep some of the old features because we wanted it to feel like a cottage. We’d like people to say, ‘Wow this is like Old Florida, but it’s all clean and new looking,’” Candy said.
    Maintaining the character of the house is what it’s all about, Mason added. “So much of it was already in place, like the corner windows in the master bedroom.”
    Outside, new awnings are in place, new garage doors have been installed, and the pool is sparkling, set in a 950-square-foot, tumbled-marble deck and pretty landscaping.
    Speaking of landscaping, removing all the old junk took two dump trucks four days and $5,000.
“That was a big effort,” Mason said. “Then the land had to be filled, leveled, graded and sodded, with new sprinklers.”
    Cleaning out the backyard made it huge, Candy said. “And we deliberately landscaped around the border for a big lawn.”
    “To take a total disastrous backyard — one of the worse I’ve ever seen — and turn it into a lovely spot with a pool, patio and lawn for the kids to play sports, that was gratifying,” Mason said.
    The Heydts, who live in a cute cottage they’ve redone on North Atlantic, have listed the house with Diana Reed of Illustrated Properties for $749,000.
    The Heydts have really captured the look and feel of classic Old Florida cottages, Reed said. “It’s got lots of charm: the pretty backyard, new pool, the original hardwood floors, the new roof. It’s really cute.”            

Hypoluxo Island
Cottage Source Guide

General Contractor: Mason Heydt
Appliances: General Electric
Windows: Florida’s Best through Alpha Windows
A/C: Carrier through FahrenheitAC
Awnings: Fabricated by X-pert Awnings
Garage Doors: Kobalt
Pool: Pugh’s Pools.
Pool Decking by Deck & Drive
Landscaping: Gonzalez Landscaping and Lawn Service
Roof: Tropical Roofing

Manalapan’s police history
1931 —Town of Manalapan created by Commodore Harold Vanderbilt
1935 — Manalapan creates its Police Department and names Robert D. Wertz police officer and town clerk.
1938 — After being hired as a seasonal police officer, M. Dewey Morris becomes police officer and treasurer after resignation of Wertz.
1955 — Circuit Judge Curtis Chillingworth and his wife are killed in their Manalapan home in one of the town’s most notorious cases.
1958 — Morris totals his town police car and requests a retirement pension. He’s awarded $50 per month for life.
1959 — Police Officer Carl Bretz is promoted to chief of police with a salary of $370 per month.
1962 — Ralph Cummins is named chief.
1964 — Cummins is killed in a car accident on Osborne Road in Lantana. He was 37. At the time, Manalapan had 65 residents. Then Sgt. James Casey is appointed acting chief.
1968 — Sgt. Lawton W. Sauls is promoted to chief after the “untimely death” of Chief Casey.
1973 — John Wesley Schomberg is appointed chief of police at a salary of $138.50 per week. Dispatch was handled through Lake Worth. Officers carried a two-channel walkie-talkie that connected them to Ocean Ridge and Lake Worth.
1973 — The body of Palm Beach Junior College coed Pamela Curry is found buried in an old beach cabana near her aunt’s Manalapan estate.  A gardener at a nearby estate is tried for her stabbing death.
1974 — Ralph M. Meadows is named chief, a position he’ll hold until his retirement in 1993. At the beginning of Meadows’ term, the department shared one gun that duty officers rotated. By 1976 the department had five men on duty.
1976 — Ralph M. Meadows II goes to work as an officer, serving under his father. At the time the old gatehouse serves as police dispatch center. Town Hall and Police headquarters is a single-wide trailer positioned between two sets of tennis courts on the La Coquille Club property.
1990 — Meadows is investigated for alleged ethics violations. Investigation discovers Meadows used the town’s tax-exempt status to buy tires for his grandson, took money from residents for extra services and possibly sold property forfeited in police cases, pocketing the money. It could not be proven whether he misappropriated property because he had destroyed all the police department’s records prior to 1988.
1994 — Wes Smith III hired as police chief
1999 — Smith resigns, saying he’s had issues with the town. Clay Walker hired from North Palm Beach Police Department.
2004 — Walker takes heat from civil libertarians for installing cameras that capture license plate photos of cars driving through town.
2009 — Manalapan Police Department votes to unionize.
2011 — Walker retires.
                                                                       — Compiled by Angie Francalancia and Mary Kate Leming

Chief Clay Walker
Age: 56
Served as police chief since 1999
Life before Manalapan: 21 years with North Palm Beach Police Department
Biggest accomplishments:  Improving Manalapan Police’s use of technology, including automated record-keeping, license plate cameras, and finger print readers in police cars.
Looking ahead: Possibly a new civilian career

Acting Chief Lt. Carmen Mattox
Age: 48
Biggest challenges: Hiring the best officers, soliciting support from town businesses, persuading elected officials to provide the best possible training to the force.

Timeline: History of Manlapan Police Department.

By Steve Plunkett
    
Manalapan Police Chief Clay Walker has added the word “former’’ to his job title.
    It was Walker’s second retirement, the first being when he left the North Palm Beach Public Safety Department as a lieutenant after 21 years to become Manalapan’s chief in 1999. It likely won’t be his last, he said.
    “I’m too young to not be doing something,” said Walker, 56, adding that he was exploring private-sector opportunities. He was given a $10,000 retirement gift and three months’ health insurance. As chief he earned $86,000 a year.
    “Mayor Basil Diamond praised Walker at the Dec. 20 Town Commission meeting for keeping Manalapan’s crime rate low.
    “He has brought our department from a department that was functioning but was not what it needed to be, and over the course of 12 years he brought us into the 21st century ahead of most of the other communities of our size,” Diamond said.
    Walker supervised a lieutenant, eight police officers, and four full-time and four part-time dispatchers. The department’s $1.35 million budget makes up 42 percent of the town’s total expenses.
    Walker said early in his police career he hoped to become a chief.
    “Manalapan gave me that opportunity. I will always be forever thankful,” he said.
    When he took over the department, he said, colleagues asked if he viewed the small-town job as a stepping-stone.
    “There’s nothing more enjoyable than working with a community that you can reach out and touch the individual residents and be successful,” Walker said. “We do so many small things, so many nuances that you can’t afford to do at a larger agency sometimes.
    “It’s been a great ride.’’
    Walker’s last presentation involved his successor, Lt. and now acting Police Chief Carmen Mattox. Both men also worked together in North Palm Beach.
    “I’d like to give him his chief’s badge that he will begin wearing probably about 5 o’clock on Jan. 2,” when Walker’s retirement was to take effect, Walker said.
    The former chief emailed town residents Dec. 2 giving them a month’s notice that he was retiring.
    Walker spent his rookie year with the Clewiston Police Department, where he grew up, after getting a bachelor’s degree in criminology from Florida State University.
His last year was not without friction from Manalapan’s leaders. Commissioner Donald Brennan asked for a cost comparison that showed town residents pay $5,720 per-capita for police services while those in South Palm Beach pay $614.
Commissioner Robert Evans studied the department and asked Walker to devise a schedule that would have seven officers instead of eight.
    Commissioner Howard Roder at one meeting urged that Walker be fired, saying he lacked administrative, organizational and people skills, then at a later meeting suggested trimming the lieutenant position instead of an officer position.
    Commissioner David Cheifetz and residents Peter Isaac and John Murphy examined police hiring practices after Isaac complained he was treated poorly by a younger officer during a code enforcement action. Walker later changed his application package to note that five years’ experience was preferred.
    Commissioners also sought bids for contracting out the police dispatch system.
They took no action after getting only one bid, from Ocean Ridge for roughly eight times what South Palm Beach pays Lantana for dispatching.
The towns have since met four times to fine-tune the dispatch proposal.