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Manalapan: Town keeps tax rate steady

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 13:52
Manalapan will use a tax rate for 2012 no higher than this year’s — $2.80 per $1,000 of taxable value — even though that will generate almost $186,000 less because property values declined.
    Town Manager Linda Stumpf’s budget proposal called for the $2.80 rate, but she recommended town commissioners use the rollback rate, $3.03 per $1,000, which would raise the same total as this year, in case something unexpected happened during budget workshops.
    But commissioners agreed the $2.80 rate was enough.
The rate cannot be raised at future meetings without mailing each property owner a notice.
    The proposal includes a 2 percent raise for town employees, who have been under a salary freeze for three years. It also eliminates one employee, the police support services manager. Dan Koenig, who held that position, will take a vacant police dispatch job, Stumpf said.
    The Town Commission will have a budget workshop at 10 a.m. Aug. 18. Public hearings on the budget will be at 5:01 p.m. Sept. 15 and Sept. 26 at Town Hall.
— Steve Plunkett
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Along the Avenues: Expect to be Spoonfed at new downtown Delray eatery

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 13:30

 

By Thom Smith

He’s ba-a-a-ck on Atlantic Avenue, and Glen Manfra can’t wait for the birth of his new baby — that will be Spoonfed. Actually, he’s already in the nursery with a foster child … Pop Up …, a moderately priced mixed bill of popular dishes with Italian overtones. The Pop Up baby itself is a fill-in for the failed Atlantic Ocean Club, and sometime in mid-August, it will go out with the bathwater.
Manfra will shed no tears.
Spoonfed has an early September due date, and Manfra, who’s nurtured more than a few culinary offspring in the last 25 years, wants it to be his pride and joy.
Some history: Last winter, Larry Lipnick, a Washington, D.C., real estate investor, acquired the three-story space on the northwest side of the FEC tracks at Atlantic Avenue and opened Atlantic Ocean Club on the ground floor and Buddha Sky Bar upstairs. After four months and lots of staff turmoil, he shuttered the Ocean Club, although the Sky Bar, with its sushi-fusion menu, seems to be holding its own through the slower summer.
Rather than leave a dark space on the ground floor, Lipnick hooked up with Manfra, who’d been working in Anguilla but yearned to return to Florida. The Long Island native, who trained in Manhattan, first came to Palm Beach in 1989 to open Bice. Then he and some of the Bice gang hooked up with the heavy-hitting investment team of Revlon boss Ron Perelman and Howard Gittis first to open Amici and then Galaxy Grille in Palm Beach, Lido Mare on Singer Island and Savannahs on Long Island.
Manfra made his first stop in Delray in 2001, cheffing at Sopra, David Manero’s first venture on Atlantic. Manero went on to open Vic & Angelo’s and The Office, both a meatball toss away from Pop Up/Spoonfed, but he and Manfra parted ways.
Prior to the Anguilla gig, Manfra had done some personal cheffing in Palm Beach and on some yachts. Lipnick’s offer couldn’t have been better timed.
“It was beautiful,” Manfra said of Anguilla,” but it’s a long way off and I’ve got a family up here. I love Delray. It’s much younger than Palm Beach, much more fashion oriented; definitely a lot of style going on and it’s very eclectic. There’s not a lot of Atlantic Avenues around.”
Pop Up has allowed Manfra a trial run for new menu items and products from new purveyors.
“The summer is when I can experiment,” he said. “Then when we open Spoonfed, I know what I’m playing with.”
One of his toys has ties to childhood: his grandmother’s croissant soufflé cooked in a cast iron skillet and soaked in a crème brûlée, with fresh fruit on the side. He’ll keep his favorite Italian recipes and the homemade pasta, and he’ll add some dishes he discovered in the islands and even toss in a few favorites from Miami Beach delis such as The Rascal House.
His playground will break new ground — open 365 days a year, not only for lunch and dinner but also breakfast.     
“I can’t wait to do breakfast on the avenue,” he said. “Just like John G’s. Four-egg omelets, almond-crusted French toast, carafes of coffee on the table. German puffed pancakes. Fresh fruit on side of the plate.
“Hash browns, blintzes, old Yiddish dishes — I’m trying to pull every breakfast I know, from everywhere I’ve been.
“I just wish Delray would let me stay open 24 hours, “but the city has a shutdown at 2 a.m.
“Maybe down the road. I’d love to be the first.”
                                         ***
        Now that the women’s World Cup is over, soccer fans are turning their attention to Boca Raton for a few games, at least. magicJack, Boca’s surprise, last-minute franchise in Women’s Professional Soccer, features seven members of the women’s national team, including player and newly named head coach Abby Wambach and goalkeeper Hope Solo (no relation to Han Solo).
magicJack’s new owner is as controversial as his players are talented. Palm Beacher Dan Borislow bought the Washington Freedom, moved to Boca and renamed it magicJack for the internet telephone device that made him millions. He’s often seen tooling around Palm Beach on his $30,000 Can-Am Spyder RT, a three-wheeled motorcycle. He’s also a fan, and even played the game.
Only three regular season home games remain, all of which will be played at FAU’s soccer stadium.
New Jersey’s Sky Blue Soccer comes to town Aug. 6, led by U.S. National Team player Heather O’Reilly and Swedish player of the year Therese Sjögran. Four days later, it’s the Western New York Flash with four-time world player of the year Marta and Satellite Beach’s own Ashlyn Harris. Expect the largest crowd ever to watch a soccer game in Palm Beach County.         magicJack will close out the regular season Aug. 14 against league-leading Philadelphia Independence. For ticket info, go to www.ticketmaster.com.
                                         ***

7960343485?profile=originalWhile soccer is packing in the crowds at FAU, football season isn’t far away, which raises some questions:
No. 1: How will the Owls do this year? A: Could be dicey. Head coach and Ocean Ridge resident Howard Schnellenberger says the quarterback is key and hopes to pick one no later than 10 days before the Sept. 3 opener at University of Florida. If they survive the Swamp, they get Michigan State a week later and Auburn two weeks after that.
No. 2: Asked if he had the energy for his 11th season at age 77, Schnellenberger, FAU’s first and only head coach, said, “If I didn’t, I’d already be gone.” Athletic Director Craig Angelos says he won’t make a decision until the season is over.
No. 3: How’s the stadium doing? Still ahead of schedule and under budget, school officials boast.
As for specs, it seats 30,000 in the grandstand, 24 suites, 26 loge boxes, more than 1,000 open-air premier club seats and more than 4,000 priority club seats. Suite, loge and premier club seat holders can relax in an air-conditioned, 8,000-square-foot premier club or a covered, 16,000-square-foot outdoor priority club. By the way, premium seats (not just for fat-cat boosters) are wider.
The student-and-band-only section is in the south end zone. Student tickets are free.
Elsewhere, most season tickets are $135 and $150. That covers the entire east stands, north end zone and the west stands to the 5-yard-line at the north end. A seat on the 50 can be had for $385.A seat in Section 205 Row Z will set a die-hard Owl fan back $1,480 while one in Loge 306 C will go for $9,560.
But then, this is Boca.
First home game is Oct. 15 against Western Kentucky. The stadium also will play a big role in FAU’s 50th anniversary celebration Oct. 29. Meanwhile, Fanfest on Aug. 20 should offer more answers.
                                         ***
       7960343654?profile=original Frying the knot.  Ritz-Carlton Chef Ryan Artim has handled a few weddings in his day, but none more significant than his own in mid-July. Artim and Jill Klein, a music director, actually let the gang at Breakers West handle the wedding feast, but for the rehearsal dinner he relied on home cooking, literally.
The menu: Gulf shrimp cocktail with tomato horseradish sauce; Romaine lettuce salad with avocados, tomatoes, cucumbers and balsamic basil vinaigrette; steamed middleneck clams with drawn butter; papaya marinated skirt steak with horseradish cream and chimichurri; roasted chicken with homemade barbecue glaze, herb roasted potatoes, green beans with applewood-smoked bacon; seasonal fruit; warm chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookies, peach and blueberry cobbler.
For wines, they chose home state productions: Clover Hill Winery from Pennsylvania and Firelands Winery from Ohio, including a toast with Firelands’ Raspberry Riesling Champagne.
Not surprisingly, Artim ran short of time, but help was close by — his dad, Edward Artim Sr., his groomsman, Georg Hoehn, executive chef at Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City, Jill’s family friend Cindy Rich and her aunt Jean Ross, who sliced the peaches.
“Thanks to the help of our family and friends, we were able to prepare a delicious and memorable rehearsal dinner,” Artim said before heading somewhere to the south for the honeymoon.
                                         ***

Since Nick Morfogen arrived 15 years ago, 32 East has ranked as one of the best restaurants in the Southeast. But he’s not the only family member in the business.
This month brother Stratis, a veteran of the New York and more recently Miami restaurant scene with partner Philippe Chow, will open Philippe in Boca Raton. The casual version of Chow’s Manhattan showcase will take over the former III Forks site on East Palmetto Park Road.
Morfogen has some big investors who could make for a star-studded opening: Alonzo Mourning, ex-Miami Heat, Jerome Bettis, ex-Pittsburgh Steelers and still-active hoop stars Chauncey Billups, New York Knicks, and Al Harrington, Denver Nuggets.
Chow is one of two dozen chefs from Boca to Palm Beach participating in the March of Dimes’ Sixth Annual Signature Chefs Auction, Sept. 9 at the Boca Raton Resort & Club. Exquisite wines and spirits, sumptuous samplings from Signature Chefs, and auction dining packages. Call  684-0102.
                                         ***

Heading north. As we reported earlier, Angelo Elia, owner of Casas d’Angelo in Fort Lauderdale, Nassau and Boca, had been looking for months for the right spot to bring the Angelo name to Delray. He finally found it just south of Atlantic on Seventh Avenue — the old Carolina’s Coal Fired Pizza space. He hopes to have D’Angelo Trattoria open by summer’s end, with a gelato shop to follow soon after.
                                         ***

    As of Monday, Aug. 1, Boston’s on the Beach is closed. That means Red Sox fans will have to watch the pennant race elsewhere, but if all goes according to plans, Boston sports fans should be able to resume their routine in early November.
    Owner Ocean Properties has seized the opportunity offered by the late summer doldrums to make major renovations to the popular beachside watering hole.
    “The whole place is already gutted,” Manager Mark DeAtley said two days into the project. “Downstairs will still be like the Boston’s of old, but upstairs will be completely redone, similar to our restaurant in Sunset Key.”
    Gone is the Bermuda Inn immediately to the south, but it will be replaced by a new tiki bar and lots more parking, DeAtley said. The company also is using the time to give Boston’s extensive collection of sports memorabilia “some much-needed TLC.”
    “We’re just preparing for the next 30 years,” DeAtley said.
                                         
        When John G’s announced that the restaurant would move to the space formerly occupied by Callaro’s in Manalapan’s Plaza del Mar,  Callaro’s kept its name alive by offering a limited takeout menu from its sibling Riggins Crabhouse in Lantana. Owners are looking for a new space in Lake Worth. They found three, but one has already sold. The only hold up for the other two is bank approval, so we could see a new Callaro’s by New Year’s.

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

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Ocean Ridge: Department veteran says goodbye to island police work

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 13:29
7960342861?profile=originalBy Emily J. Minor

After 34 years as a cop, 22 of them with Ocean Ridge, Sgt. Daniel Tinfina is saying goodbye to law enforcement — and he’s doing it with a tear in his eye.
Sure, he’s a tough guy. Chief Chris Yannuzzi says Tinfina is his officer-training specialist, his “by-the-book” guy.
But even tough guys get misty when they leave something they love.
“It’s a tough decision,” says Tinfina, 56, whose last day is scheduled for Sept. 1. “You develop such personal relationships, so when you make that decision and you know you’re not going to continue your career.
“My retirement from law enforcement is final,” he said.
Nothing’s wrong. Everyone’s healthy, and he’s leaving on a nice note. Tinfina says it’s time to put family first, finally. He and his wife, Rosemary, have two sons, ages 13 and 16.
“It will be nice,” says Tinfina, who is taking a private security job that will allow him to have his summers off. “Law enforcement is one of the worst jobs there is as far as the quality of family time goes.”
A native of Ohio — born in Cleveland and raised in the small town of Macedonia, near Akron — Tinfina attended the police academy in 1977, when he was a young man in his early 20s. He and Rosemary moved to Florida, and Tinfina worked for Greenacres from 1980 to 1984. When his wife grew homesick for family, they returned to Ohio. Moving home, they found, is a sure way to cure homesickness.
The family returned to Florida and, again, Tinfina worked for Greenacres — a city of 35,000 with real urban issues. It was a metro police job, where he reacted to almost constant calls, Tinfina said.
“When you’re young and you’re just out of the academy, you want to go from fight call to fight call,” he says.
But age changes everything.
In 1989, as Ocean Ridge was redesigning its public safety department amid a bit of a controversy, Tinfina got hired as part of Chief Bruce Schroeder’s new team. Immediately, Tinfina, a small town boy himself, fell in love with community policing.
For 19 of his 22 years, Tinfina was also an officer in Briny Breezes; the town has long hired Ocean Ridge for its police protection, except for a small three-year respite.
And it was on a seemingly quiet Sunday morning in January 1990 that Tinfina and Officer Ronald Inman came upon the most horrific crime of their careers.
Horrific, even by big-city standards.
On that quiet winter morning, in a town where even a car burglary is big news, John Raymond Wall attacked three residents with a sledgehammer, bludgeoning one of them so badly she never fully recovered. Inman and Tinfina would later receive broad accolades for how they handled the crime.
It was a morning Tinfina never forgot. “It’s not something you expect,” he says, simply.
What he did come to expect, through the years, was this comforting nature of island police work. Sure, he carries a gun. Sure, there could be a John Raymond Wall around any corner. But being a cop along this stretch of coastline requires more grins than gruffness.
You know most of the guys carry biscuits for the dogs, right?
Tinfina knows when the Smiths are gone for the summer, and when they’re scheduled to get back. He knows all their kids’ names, what their cars look like, where they park. “You’re dealing with the same people on a daily basis,” Tinfina says.
And that makes the goodbyes even harder.
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Gulf Stream: Assessment plan for utilities' burial set

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 13:19
By Steve Plunkett

    Surveyors began measuring the south part of Gulf Stream in mid-July after town commissioners voted unanimously to levy special assessments to put electric, phone and cable TV lines underground.
    Sitting June 30 as the Board of Equalization, town commissioners ruled the non-ad valorem assessment plan developed by consultant Willdan Financial Services was fair.
    “I think the proposal is reasonable and we should make the decision,’’ Mayor William Koch Jr. said.
    “It is difficult to divorce your opinion from your pocketbook,’’ Commissioner Chris Wheeler said. “The whole reason we relied on these experts is to provide that objectivity.’’
    Habib Isaac, senior project manager for Willdan, said the amounts his company proposed were based on actual observation of each parcel.
    “We went through all the streets in town,’’ Isaac said.
    He presented a chart showing, for instance, that parcel size was considered in calculating the added safety and aesthetics benefits, but not reliability, while having a guest quarters added to reliability benefits but not aesthetics or safety.
    That led to sizable differences between different types of dwellings, Isaac said.
    “On average a condo is being assessed roughly 60 percent of a single-family home,’’ he said, or $7,057 vs. $11,907.
    Resident John Caldwell of the Gulf View Club again asked why units in his condo building were being assessed $2,000 more than units in Gulfstream Shores.
    Isaac told him it was because Gulfstream Shores already has underground electric lines from the street to the building and that their meters are already updated.
    After other condo residents complained that they were paying almost as much as some multimillion-dollar estates, Isaac said his analysis did not use property values at all.
    “If you do that you’re really doing a tax in the clothing of an assessment,’’ he said.
    He also pointed out how impartial Willdan was in devising the assessment plan.
    “We’re not contingent on whether this moves forward or not from this point on,’’ he said. “Our involvement is in providing you the report that you have in front of you, and that’s the end of our services.’’
    Some homeowners wrote letters of support for the project, while other condo residents mailed objections.
    “Is there anything that you heard today in any of the comments that would cause you to want to reconsider your assessment methodology?’’ Town Attorney John Randolph asked Isaac.
    “My answer to that would be no,’’ Isaac said.
    “Today is not the first time you have heard the objections that have been raised today, particularly some of the objections that were made by [Gulfstream Shores condo president] Candy Gouwens and by Mr. Caldwell.
    “You’ve heard those before and you’ve given consideration to those kinds of comments in your methodology?’’ Randolph asked.
    “Yes, I have,’’ Isaac replied. “The only one I didn’t give consideration to was the value of the home in relation to the assessment amount.’’
    Town commissioners also voted unanimously to borrow up to $5.5 million to finance the project.
    The first phase of work is from roughly Golfview Road south to Pelican. Danny Brannon, the town’s consulting engineer, said shovels won’t hit the ground until next spring, following the survey phase and putting the project out to bid
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Gulf Stream: County retains tax revenues from ‘pocket’ until 2012

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 13:16
By Steve Plunkett
   
Town police have patrolled Gulf Stream’s newest 16.6 acres ever since annexation of the once-unincorporated pocket took effect March 15. Delray Beach, which contracts out fire-rescue service to the town, has answered calls for help.
But Gulf Stream has not received a penny of property taxes to pay for the additional workload. Town Manager William Thrasher has been negotiating with Palm Beach County —  without success — for part of the taxes that pocket residents have paid.
“They are not very cooperative at this time point,’’ Thrasher said.
And he will have to keep asking the county to share the tax revenues in the coming budget year.
Pocket residents are still on the county’s tax roll and won’t be placed on Gulf Stream’s roll until Jan. 1.
Thrasher has estimated the pocket will generate about $200,000 in property taxes for the town, but he could not include that sum in the budget he proposed for fiscal 2012.
He recommended that commissioners adopt a tax rate of $2.93 for each $1,000 of taxable value, which would raise the same total dollars as the previous year.
“I want to clearly state, I do not believe that number is high,’’ Thrasher said.
The 2011 rate was $2.87 per $1,000 of taxable value. Gulf Stream’s total taxable value dropped 2 percent, from $666.7 million to $652.8 mil-lion, Thrasher said.
The annexed pocket, bordered by Sea Road on the south, County Road on the west, St. Andrews Club on the north and the ocean, will add about $69 million to the town’s tax base.
Even though the consumer price index rose 3.9 percent, Thrasher proposed raising salaries of town workers only 2.5 percent. His proposal also includes an additional $15,035, or 5 percent, for a scheduled increase in the fire contract with Delray Beach.
Commissioners rescheduled their next meetings for 9 a.m. Aug. 16 and 4 p.m. Sept. 15. They will hold public hearings on the budget at 5:01 p.m. Sept. 15 and Sept. 22.
In other action, commissioners voted to spend up to $5,000 on a study with neighboring towns of how to share services to reduce costs.
“I think that the smaller communities, we should get together,’’ Mayor William Koch Jr. said. “We’ve got to move ahead and look for other ways to survive.’’
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Delray Beach: Study requested before changing restaurant incentives

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 13:00

By Margie Plunkett

    The restaurant sector has retained its place on Delray Beach’s most-wanted list.
    The commission unanimously turned down an ordinance to remove parking incentives from some Atlantic Avenue restaurants that would have doubled the parking they’re required to supply as well as boosted costs. The panel called for study of the issue, noting that it was moving far too fast for one that impacted such an important segment of the city’s business.
    The ordinance was not intended to eliminate restaurants but to encourage retail and diversity of use on Atlantic Avenue, Planning and Zoning Director Paul Dorling said, “This incentive has been extremely successful.”
    A targeted business once wooed by the city, restaurants have multiplied to the point of saturation in downtown, according to some estimates. The proliferation of restaurants led Delray Beach leaders and staff to consider withdrawing the parking incentives used as lures to help attract restaurants since 1993.
    But Steve Cohen, among the voices of investors, restauranteurs and residents at the public hearing Aug. 2, thought otherwise. “It punishes restaurants,” said the lawyer and investor. If the city passed the ordinance, it would lose the project that he and a tenant together will have sunk more than $2 million in — as well as the 75 jobs it would have created.
    Proponents said removing incentives would not stop restaurants from moving to Delray Beach. “They might not go to Cluster 4, but they will go somewhere,” said Fran Marincola.
    Restaurants on Atlantic Avenue from Swinton to Northeast and Southeast Fifth avenues would have been  required to have twice the number of parking spaces as previously, bringing them in line with regulations throughout the city.
    The ordinance was intended to discourage conversions of retail space to restaurant uses, Dorling said, adding that the city would follow-up with incentives for retail retention and expansion to encourage a mix of businesses dowtown.        Eateries smaller than 6,000 square feet would have been required to have 12 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet — up from six previously. Restaurants larger than 6,000 square feet would have been required to have 15 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet.
    Cost would effectively rise for restaurants because if they can’t furnish the required parking, they pay in-lieu parking, which costs $15,600 per space on Atlantic west of the Intracoastal Waterway, $18,200 per space east of the ICW; $7,800 for areas including within the Pineapple Grove Main Street area and $4,000 in the West Atlantic Neighborhood.
    Mayor Woodie McDuffie, who called for study of the restaurant parking move, said “I haven’t heard of one person who hasn’t gone downtown because there are too many restaurants.”
    He argued that while the restaurant business was flourishing in Delray Beach, retail was suffering everywhere. He pointed to areas like Boca Raton and CityPlace and Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, where dead downtowns, large retailer turnover and even a contest to give away retail space, pointed to the current environment for that sector.
    The mayor, however, said he was willing to suport even the same ordinance after the issue had been studied and if it was well-planned.
    In other Delray Beach news:       

7960342300?profile=original• Commissioners are interviewing candidates to fill the unexpired seat of Commissioner Fred Fetzer, who resigned effective Aug. 1 for personal and health reasons. Fetzer served the commission for 5½ years. The commission selected to call a special meeting prior to their regular Aug. 9 workshop to make a selection, The panel must appoint a new commissioner by Aug. 16 or, if not successful, hold a special election.
    The following submitted applications for the vacant seat by the July 29 filing deadline: Jay Alperin, Patricia Langley Archer, Jason Dollard, Kelli Freeman, Al Jacquet, George Kallai, Jayne King, Kurt Lehmann, Christina Morrison Pearce, David Stein and Shelly Weil.
    • The city approved a proposed tax rate of $7.19 per $1,000 of taxable property value, the same as last year. The city can still lower the rate, but can’t increase it as it works to finalize its budget.
    In recommending the rate, City Manager David Harden said his objective is to reduce the rate to $7.15 and make up the balance with a fire services assessment. Negotiations were authorized July 12 with Burton & Associates to study a fire services assessment in Delray Beach. Burton bid $35,000.   

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Delray Beach/Gulf Stream: Delray votes to raise Gulf Stream fire fees

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 12:51

By Steve Plunkett   

Delray Beach will charge the Town of Gulf Stream about $38,000 a year extra for fire-rescue service to Ballantrae condominiums, the 4001 North Ocean project and other recently annexed parcels.
    Delray Beach city commissioners voted 3-1 to raise Gulf Stream’s annual fee almost 12 percent to $353,321 from the previously agreed-upon $315,580 which already was $15,035 more than the town paid this year. They also decided to make the increase effective March 15, the date of the annexation.
    “I think we’re being as equitable as we can possibly be,’’ Delray Beach Mayor Woodie McDuffie said at the Aug. 2 meeting.
    Gulf Stream annexed the unincorporated county pocket in March, bringing 16.6 acres and at least 90 registered voters into the town. The area also has a sizable contingent of snowbirds.
    Gulf Stream’s population was 786 in the 2010 Census, taken before the annexation.
    The first year’s and the first full year’s fire-rescue increase will not be due until Dec. 2012, after Gulf Stream collects its first property taxes directly from the annexed area. The properties are part of the county’s tax base until Jan. 1.
    Gulf Stream commissioners still have to accept the increase.
    Delray Beach funds three-fourths of its $20 million fire-rescue budget with taxes from its 64,000 residents. The rest comes from Gulf Stream; Highland Beach, which will pay the city $2.96 million to protect its 4,300 residents; and ambulance fees.
    Also Aug. 2, Delray Beach commissioners accepted a $595,982 Homeland Security grant to pay the salaries of four firefighter/paramedics for two years at Station 2, which also serves Gulf Stream.         That station’s fire engine has not been fully staffed like the city’s other engines, meaning it had to wait for backup when first on the scene.
    According to Assistant Delray Beach Fire-Rescue Chief, Russ Accardi, the ambulance is currently  staffed from 8 a.m.- 8 p.m., Monday-Friday. With the new grant, “the ambulance will be staffed 24-hours, seven days a week,” he said. The grant stipulates that Delray Beach must pay at least the third year of the four salaries.

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Boynton Beach: Family-owned gas station giving way to a new PNC branch bank

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 12:47

By Angie Francalancia

    Woolbright U-Gas, one of the rare gas stations that still offers auto service, is closing, soon to be replaced by a PNC Financial Services branch.
    PNC has signed a 20-year lease for the land with Anagnostakis Inc., the family-owned corporation that has owned and operated Woolbright U-Gas, on the corner of South Federal Highway and Southeast 15th Avenue, since 1991. PNC will build a 3,300-square-foot branch with three drive-through lanes on the property. 
    The Planning and Development Board of Boynton Beach recommended approval for the bank’s site plan late last month. It goes before the Boynton Beach City Commission on Aug. 16.
    The change doesn’t mean the Anagnostakis family won’t be servicing the community’s cars, though. It just means George Anagnostakis, who grew up in the gas station business alongside his father, won’t have to run between two business locations. George Anagnostakis is down the street from the U-Gas location at Chuck’s Auto Repair at 520 Industrial Ave.
    “We bought Chuck’s Auto Repair because we knew in the future what this property would be worth,” he said. “For my father, now he can retire,” George Anagnostakis said.
    Mihail “Michael” Anagnostakis, his wife, Angeliki, and three children, moved to South Florida in 1973. He opened his first service station in Broward County. A machinist by trade, Michael Anagnostakis always offered auto service at his stations, even after business trends eliminated most mechanics from modern gas stations. The senior Anagnostakis stopped working on cars in 1998, but by that time, son George could repair anything.
    “I grew up in the gas station business,” George Anagnostakis said. “I worked from the age of 7 years old. Every Saturday I was washing windows for tips. Everything I learned as a mechanic, I learned from him,” he says of his father. George’s sister, Katina, has been the one greeting customers behind the counter for the past couple years.
    The date of the station’s closing is not set, as PNC has about 12 months to decide when it will raze the old station and begin construction.
    The new branch will be built to LEED, or Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design, standards — a bit of an irony considering the property was once contaminated. The Anagnostakis family had to clean the property after they purchased it from Shell in 2003, George Anagnostakis said.
    “It’s come full-circle now,” George Anagnostakis says. I have the new shop, and we’re building up the business. My father can retire. I’m sure he’s going to be coming around here,” he said of Chuck’s, where there are five bays for bodywork as well as auto repairs.
    “With the craziness in the oil market, you know we survived because of the garage,” George Anagnostakis said.
George went to school for training as the auto industry instituted more and more computer technology. And he invested in the necessary diagnostic machinery, he said. “I went to school, but there’s nothing like learning hands-on,” he says.
    Michael and Angeliki, who return to their native Greece annually, will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in Crete, surrounded by family this summer, George said.
    “Thank God he has peace of mind now,” he said.         

7960342470?profile=original

George Anagnostakis stands with his father, Michael, in one of the family’s auto shops when George was a boy. Family photo

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Lantana: Town wants old bridge to have future under water

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 12:33
By Tim O’Meilia

From bridge to rubble … to reef? Maybe, if financing can be found.
The town of Lantana is trying to persuade county officials to spend an additional $300,000 and use the crumbled parts of the soon-to-be demolished Ocean Avenue Bridge as an artificial reef.
Lantana doesn’t have the cash, but Town Manager Michael Bornstein wants Palm Beach County to take on the extra expense.
 “We are going to encourage the County Commission to keep the old bridge in Lantana,” Bornstein said, to encourage a thriving fishing habitat.
The extra cost may be possible since bids for the bridge came in lower than expected July 12 — the highest just above $29 million, below the previously estimated $32 million cost. The contract is on schedule to be awarded Sept. 13.
The cost of the two-year project to replace the 61-year-old bridge includes a $500,000 fishing pier that will run beneath the west end of the bridge and protrude into the waterway.
Preliminary work is scheduled to begin Dec. 1, but the bridge will not be closed for demolition until mid-March. The new bridge, 11 feet higher than the current structure, is scheduled to open in October 2013.         
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Boynton Beach: Users of old Boynton High School will encounter big cost

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 12:30
By Ron Hayes

    How do you persuade someone to spend about $5 million?
    Commissioners pondered the question at their July 5 meeting as they heard a staff report on the future of the historic 1927 Boynton Beach High School building.
    The city has made clear its interest in seeing the 28,000-square-foot landmark on Ocean Avenue preserved and renovated. Now they must prepare a “request for proposals,” in essence a statement to potential buyers that details just what’s being offered.
    At the meeting, interim City Manager Lori LaVerriere brought commissioners the results of a monthlong analysis of the school’s potential uses.
    First, she said, the city staff recommends limiting the building’s use to either an educational or banqueting theme; a multi-tenant model with a single landlord leasing space for individual offices; or a multi-based use with arts and culture as the common theme.
    Staff also recommends that the school be offered either for sale or lease, with the vacant lot to the west of the building, along Seacrest Boulevard, included as potential parking space.
    But it was the money that got commissioners talking.
    Anyone who buys or leases the building would have to spend $4 million to $5 million for renovations.
    To entice prospective parties, staff suggested that the city might begin “immediate” engineering and architectural design services to stabilize the building’s core and shell.
    “By doing so,” the staff wrote, “the city shows commitment to the project.”
    Estimated cost: $250,000.
    Furthermore, the staff recommends that the city offer to waive and pay up to $100,000 in fees, such as building permits.   
    Commissioners pounced. Pay to stabilize the building, or waive the fees, they seemed to agree, but not both.
    “The question,” said Mayor Jose Rodriguez, “is how do we incentivize them to spend four to five million.”
    “What price do we ask to sell it out and out?” wondered Commissioner Woodrow Hay.
    “Have them submit an offer,” LaVerriere responded. “I wouldn’t want to put a number out there.”
    At one point, Hay expressed support for the $250,000 expenditure for architectural services.
    “We’d get half back,” LaVerriere noted, presumably if the permit fees were not waived.
    “Let’s get it all back,” Commissioner Steven Holzman countered.
    After Commissioner Bill Orlove made a motion to spend the $250,000 in lieu of waiving the fees, LaVerriere pointed out that securing that money could take as much as five months.
    “Well,” said Holzman, “why not just waive the fees? That’s an incentive.”
    And then there was the vacant lot to be dealt with.
    “Do you want to offer that?” LaVerriere asked.
    The vacant lot, it was noted, is not really vacant. A lush and venerable tree stands smack in the middle.
    “The community wants the tree to stay,” Orlove said.
    “Our goal is to save the building and the tree,” Rodriguez agreed.
    “Our goal is to save the building,” Orlove concluded, “and the tree is up for discussion.”
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Meet Your Neighbor: Gerry Pagano — Delray Beach

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 12:25
7960341686?profile=originalGerry Pagano is the kind of guy you’d like to meet at a party when the conversation turns to “What do you do for a living?” His career has taken him from the cockpit of an Army helicopter in Vietnam to the controls of Palm Beach County’s air ambulance program. In between, Pagano spent several years directing commercial jets through the crowded air space above South Florida’s three major airports.
In other words, he’s got some great stories to tell.
These days, Pagano helps save the lives of accident victims and others who need an airlift to the hospital. As the director of medical transport and aeromedical facilities for the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, he keeps the county’s Trauma Hawk medical transport program running safely and efficiently. He also regularly pilots the helicopters.
Pagano played a key role in setting up the nonprofit medical transport program in the early 1990s. He helped obtain its air carrier operating certificate, purchase its two Sikorsky S76-C+ air ambulances, and spearhead construction of the Trauma Hawk hangar facility at Palm Beach International Airport. Under his leadership, the aeromedical program has provided care and air transport services for an estimated 12,000 traumatically injured or ill patients.
“It is very moving when someone who was severely injured and transported by Trauma Hawk visits our facility later to thank us for the care they received,” says Pagano.
Each Trauma Hawk flight crew includes at least one commercial instrument-rated pilot, a Florida-licensed registered nurse who is also a state-certified paramedic, and an additional state-certified paramedic.
Critically injured patients are flown to one of Palm Beach County’s two trauma centers: St. Mary’s Medical Center or Delray Medical Center.
Now in his 21st year with the Trauma Hawk program, Pagano is proud of the team he has hired and trained.
“This is definitely a team effort,” he says. “We have respect for one another and for the risks inherent in our jobs. That’s why our motto is Safety First.”
Pagano, 61, lives in coastal Delray Beach with his wife of three years, Karen Pagano (owner of Glimpse Eyewear in the city’s Pineapple Grove district) and their little dog, a Maltese named Jake.

— Paula Detwiller

Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A. I attended Durham High School in Durham, Conn., and after graduating went on to the University of New Haven until leaving for military service.
Durham is a typical small friendly town where family, friends and community are most important. Growing up in the small town environment is certainly one of the factors affecting my decision to live here in Delray Beach.

Q. How did you become involved in the Health Care District’s Trauma Hawk program?
A. I was employed with Fire Rescue when the Health Care District’s Trauma Hawk program was getting started.
My experience and background qualified me for a pilot position and of course I accepted this opportunity with enthusiasm.

Q. What’s your favorite part of the work you do?
A. Flying, and in particular, helicopters, is a wonderful occupation.
When combined with life-saving air medicine, the personal feeling of accomplishment is tremendous. I couldn’t think of a more rewarding career. And while all the responsibilities of the job are extremely fulfilling, the life-saving aspect takes priority in my heart.

Q. What other careers have you had, and what were the highlights?
A. I did military service in the U.S. Army as a helicopter pilot with a tour in Vietnam. I later helped my father set up and operate a sewing factory in Connecticut.
The pride I felt from delivering a clothing product that was the best in the business was what I most enjoyed. I also worked as an air traffic controller for the FAA’s Air Route Traffic Control Center in Miami. I enjoyed the action and excitement of controlling fast-moving aircraft in a relatively small area and holding a conversation with 20 airlines captains at the same time.

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. Unfortunately, my dad passed away when I was fairly young, 38, but he had a tremendous effect on me. Although he was tough at times, he had a way to get things done and make everyone feel great about the smallest accomplishments. He was also an extraordinary problem-solver in his field, and I watched him resolve problems often that I would never have thought possible.  This has always inspired me to never give up no matter how daunting the task.

Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
A. Earl Nightingale’s quote, “We become what we think about.” When it comes to setting and reaching goals, I don’t know of a more powerful statement.

Q. How did you choose to make your home in Delray Beach?
A. I had the desire to move to Florida and after visiting Delray, I decided this was where I wanted to be. I moved here in 1988.

Q. What is your favorite part about living and working in this area?
A. Each day when I come home from work, I truly feel like I’m on vacation.

Q. Who or what makes you laugh?
A. My wife, Karen! I also get a kick out of Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers on the Saturday morning Car Talk radio program.

Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
A. Harrison Ford, who’s not only a good actor but also a helicopter pilot.
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Bethesda Next's Lite Bites Event: Bethesda Memorial Hospital, Boynton Beach

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 12:17
7960342266?profile=originalTandy Robinson, Sean and Michelle Donahue and Stacey Hallberg were guests at Bethesda Next’s Lite Bites Event held July 13 at Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach. More than 100 guests enjoyed the evening with ‘dinner by the bite’ from area restaurants. The event raised $5,000 for the Bethesda Hospital Foundation. Winner of the “Lite Bites” award went to Slainte Irish Pub in Boynton Beach.
Photo provided
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PR Yak Yak: Crane's BeachHouse Hotel & Tiki Bar, Delray Beach

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 12:10

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Jennifer Sullivan and Ann Margo Peart attend the fifth annual PR Yak-Yak held July 21 at Crane’s BeachHouse in Delray Beach. Co-hosted by the Gold Coast PR Council and PRSA-Palm Beach, the event drew more than 80 local marketing, media and public relations professionals and netted about $1,400, which was split evenly by both nonprofit organizations.
Photo provided

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Gulf Stream: Mayor Koch surprised with commendation

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 11:45
7960340463?profile=originalBy Steve Plunkett
   
    A surprise addition to the Town Commission’s July agenda made the mayor’s day.
“I’m here this morning not seeking a variance, not seeking an appeal, not seeking an exception,’’ state Rep. Bill Hager said after commissioners ended a lengthy public hearing on exactly those topics. “I bring only positive greetings from the Florida House of Representatives.’’
    Hager then read into the record a tribute to Mayor William Koch Jr. he had prepared for the Florida House celebrating the mayor’s being “selflessly dedicated’’ to the residents of Gulf Stream.
    The proclamation noted Koch was appointed commissioner in 1956, elected as mayor in 1966 and will mark his 45th continuous year as the town’s leader later this year.
    It also said Koch, 90, was an Air Force pilot-bombardier during World War II, a mosquito commissioner and one of the first paid lifeguards for Delray Beach.
    “Well, they had some good-looking girls back then,’’ Koch recalled of his lifeguard days, adding afterward that besides being paid $75 a month he got to leave school at noon to head for the beach.
    The tribute noted Koch was one of the founding members and still a director of Bethesda Memorial Hospital, as well as a business owner, opening his real estate firm in 1956.
    Koch, the tribute concluded, has served the community “with integrity, respect, and honor and has proven himself to be a true public servant.’’
    “Thanks for all your services,’’ Hager said as he handed Koch the document.
    Hager originally planned to surprise the mayor at the June meeting when he updated commissioners on what the House achieved this year. But a family emergency made Koch miss the meeting without enough time to reroute Hager.
    At least one other Florida mayor has served longer than Koch but not continuously. John Land, also 90, became mayor of Apopka in 1949 until a 1968 defeat. In 1970 he was elected again and has stayed in the mayor’s office ever since. In January he celebrated his 59th year as mayor.                          
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Ocean Ridge: Residents' generosity acknowledged

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 11:30

Margie Plunkett and Mary Kate Leming

What a jolt to Ocean Ridge commissioners, who found a defibrillator at each of their chairs on the dais at the start of last month’s town meeting.
The brand-new machines weren’t intended as commentary on the liveliness of Ocean Ridge monthly meetings, however. They symbolized the town’s good fortune in receiving not one, but two generous gifts that made possible an abundance of the emergency medical devices used to restart a lifeless heart.        

The town presented a certificate of appreciation to residents Albert Naar and Judith Kelly at the July meeting for their $9,065 contribution  to purchase seven Automated External Defibrillators for the Police Department.
The two had discovered the need to replace aging defibrillators in the department’s annual report.     As it turns out, while awaiting delivery of its new AEDs, the town learned it had also been awarded a $9,065 grant from Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation to purchase seven defibrillators, and was only one of two police agencies to win the award in Florida.  
With the two donations, the town would have had 14 AEDs — one per police officer, more than one per police car and about one for about every 120 residents.
To prevent the loss of the grant money, however, Naar and Kelly allowed their contribution to be used for other Police Department needs, Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi said in a monthly newsletter. “It was a pleasure recognizing them at the Town Commission meeting and, coincidentally, the new AEDs arrived the same day.” 
The 2011-12 budget notes the residents’ donation as being used to help pay for a Computer Aided Dispatch system for the Police Department from USA Software with a total price of $100,386. 
Commissioners at their Aug. 1 meeting approved using $72,000 in 2010/11 budget funds to buy the CAD. The balance is from donations, including Naar’s and Kelly’s.       

“We have a very generous citizenship that contributes” to police equipment, Yanuzzi said. Most contribute through the fundraising efforts of the Public Safety Support Group. It’s more rare for a large donation be made outside that effort, Yannuzzi said.
The support group raises in the vicinity of $30,000 or $40,000 a year for the Police Department, the police chief said.
When Naar and Kelly heard that their donation duplicated the grant, they said, “You’d be nuts to turn down the Fire House Subs grant” and put their money toward other police equipment instead, according to Yannuzzi.
Other police items authorized by commissioners to be purchased with the 2010/11 budget at the August meeting were an advanced authentication system, two security cameras, upgraded security system hard drive and a police vehicle.
While still operating in the 2010/11 budget, commissioners have been working on next year’s budget.
They’ve approved a tentative tax rate of $5.30 per $1,000 of a home’s taxable value at their July meeting, with the intent to lower it, if possible, before final approval.
The rate can be decreased at this stage, but cannot be raised. The current tax rate is $5.15 per $1,000.

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Delray Beach: Seacrest High School Sports Reunion

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 11:30

7960341267?profile=originalMore than 200 former Seacrest High School (1949-1970) athletes, coaches, faculty, cheerleaders and others attended a July 8-10 reunion.

 

LEFT: Delray Beach Mayor Woodie McDuffie, jokes with event organizer Dr. Carey J. Snyder (center), and Mary Ann Price Jensen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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LEFT: Rick Rhoden (class of ’71), professional golfer and former MLB All-Star pitcher, speaks during festivities.
Photos provided

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South Palm Beach: Cuts to music program may help budget

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 11:27
By Tim O’Meilia

South Palm Beach music lovers will no longer have a choice of two nights to watch their favorite performers, as the town’s cultural committee decided to cut the traditional back-to-back performances to a single night for each artist in its winter music series.
The committee also will concentrate on local talent for both the music and lecture series to cut travel expenses and help put the cultural program in the black.
“Tickets for the music series have been down, so we decided to go to one night instead of two,” said Jeff Stein, co-chair with his wife, Ruth, of the town-sponsored cultural series held in the Town Hall council chambers.
“Perhaps this will get the demand up and we can go back to two nights,” Ruth Stein told the Town Council at the July 26 meeting.
The Steins are adding a musical comedy act and a doo-wop band playing oldies from the ’50s through the ’70s to the five-artist program. Pianist Robert Sharon and his chorale will return, as will soprano Reyna Cargill.
“We tried to think outside of the box and hopefully get a little more interest in the program,” she said.
The lecture series will continue its two-night per speaker format but concentrate less on world affairs. This year’s six-speaker program includes a one-person Eleanor Roosevelt play as well as talks on the upcoming presidential campaign.
The cultural series was calculated to lose $7,000 this year after factoring in honoraria, travel expenses and ticket sales in a $44,900 budget. The proposed 2012 ledger forecasts a $1,000 profit on a $19,500 budget.
The savings would help reduce the 2012 budget proposed by Town Manager Rex Taylor by 9.3 percent to $1.7 million.
Council members voted unanimously to hold the tax rate at the same level as this year: $4.32 for each $1,000 of taxable property value. But because property values have dropped again, a typical condominium owner will be paying less in town taxes.
The owner of a $100,000 home with a $50,000 homestead exemption would pay about $215 in town taxes. The rate does not include fire-rescue, school, Palm Beach County or other property taxes.
For the fourth year in a row, town employees will not receive raises. In fact, the town’s bottom line will benefit by more than $63,000 as a result of the Florida Legislature’s decision to require public employees to pay 3 percent of their salaries toward their pensions. Previously, the town paid for 100 percent of the pension contribution.
The budget was reduced another $22,000 because the maintenance employee works part-time only.
The town anticipates spending $15,000 more in legal fees for negotiations with the police union, the Police Benevolent Association. The town and the newly formed police bargaining unit have had two meetings but no contract has been proposed yet.
If no changes are made in September, the town will dip into its $2.4 million in reserves for $58,000 to balance the budget.  This year the town anticipated spending $175,000 in reserves.
In other business, the Town Council:
• Set public hearings for the budget for Sept. 6 and Sept. 20 at 6:45 p.m., with adoption of the budget and final tax rate on Sept. 20.
• Changed the council meeting dates in November and December to Nov. 15 and Dec. 19, a Monday.
                                       


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Briny Breezes: Town and board work to ease strain

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on August 3, 2011 at 11:17
By Tim O’Meilia

    The Briny Breezes Town Council and the corporation that owns most of the town took steps during July town budget meetings to ease the tensions between them.
    The council and the president of Briny Breezes Inc. discussed signing a contract that would guarantee the corporation pays 30 percent of the fire-rescue and police services for the 2012 budget year.
    While the corporation traditionally has contributed a similar percentage, the board members withheld $30,000 this year in a dispute over legal fees the town was paying. Later the corporation agreed to pay $10,000.
    Corporation board president Mike Gut and park manager Steven Best attended budget hearings and asked questions so Gut could better explain the council’s reasoning to his board in the fall.
    “I want to thank you for being very upfront with regard to sharing your information with us,” Gut told the council at the July 14 budget workshop.
    Town residents will again pay a tax rate of $10 per $1,000 of taxable property value, the maximum allowed by state law. The council approved the rate July 28. The council depends on the corporation to supplement town income, since property taxes — the town’s main source of revenue — don’t cover the town’s operating costs.
    “We were hoping we could reduce the rate, but I see that it’s nearly impossible,” said Alderman Pete Fingerhut.
    The council tentatively agreed on a $601,176 budget for next year, about $13,000 more than this year’s. Property tax revenue is forecast to be up about $9,000 because Briny is one of the few Palm Beach County municipalities that saw its property values increase.
    The town will pay Boynton Beach $293,202 next year for fire and rescue service, a 4 percent increase under their contract. Water and sewer charges, also from Boynton Beach, are expected to go up 5 percent.
    The town’s contract with neighboring Ocean Ridge for police service will remain at $185,000 for the next two years.
    The automatic fire-rescue increase prompted council members to begin serious consideration of joining other coastal communities in forming a joint fire department. Discussions have just begun among the towns.
    The council will begin charging a $50 fee to contractors who work in the town, a move that will net about $1,500. A fee for re-inspections of permitted work may be instituted as well to offset administrative costs.
    The council will hold public hearings on the budget at 5:01 p.m. on Sept. 9 and Sept. 22, with final approval on Sept. 22.                                                          
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