Mary Kate Leming's Posts

Along the Avenues: Marking the life of Elwood's founder

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 14:45

By Thom Smith

    Just like old times … with one big exception. No Elwood.
    Michael Elwood Gochenour had left this world a couple of weeks earlier, but on the night of June 15, which would have been his 60th birthday, his spirit was alive and, as friends who gathered in tribute noted, he no doubt was enjoying the moment.
    “Tonight and tonight only, good evening, Elwood’s,” Delray Mayor Woodie McDuffie declared as he opened the celebration at Johnny Brown’s, which had been Elwood’s until Gochenour sold it two years ago.
    Gochenour died at home, alone, May 30. The East Hampton Star in East Hampton, N.Y., one of his former haunts, reported it was a ruptured esophagus and that he had been ill for some time. A friend at the memorial gathering said oxycontin was involved. At press time, the county Medical Examiner’s Office had not yet released the cause of death.
    But the crowd that turned up at Johnny Brown’s was there to celebrate a life, not mourn a death.
    Jim Jackson, former news anchor at WPBF-Channel 25, was a radio disc jockey when he first met Gochenour in the ’70s in Richmond, Va. He lived in a turn-of-the-century row house that had been converted to a duplex.
    “The ceilings were really high, and really narrow stairs led to the second floor,” Jackson recalled. “It was really a long climb up those stairs. At the top, I walk into the living room, and right in the middle is Mike’s Harley.
    “He’d ride it up the stairs every night because he didn’t want it to get wet or dirty. We became fast friends.”
    In Richmond, Elwood was known as “Oakie.” He was a photographer and a good one, Jackson said, who’d built quite a reputation among the Long Island social elite.
    He’d also been a magazine art director and owned a used car business in Richmond, then tended bar and ran a barbecue restaurant in Amagansett, N.Y., where his curly blond locks earned him the nickname “Frampton.”
    On June 19, old Long Island friends gathered to pay tribute at Stephen Talkhouse, his old haunt in Amagansett.
    The resuscitation of the gas station that became Elwood’s in 1993 cost Gochenour $100,000 and the city Community Redevelopment Agency chipped in $25,000 for the historic preservation.
    “He`s very creative. He delivers an incredibly high quality product,” then CRA Director Chris Brown said. “We encouraged him to come downtown because we needed more food establishments.”
    That creativity dialed a wakeup call for sleepy Delray.
    “He really changed the avenue,” friend Jay Chavez said. “He brought it to life.”
    “He opened without a liquor license,” Elwood’s brother Dave said, “so he gave away the beer and sold the chips.”
    Bikers and beach types, old and young, came for barbecue, beer, rock ‘n’ roll and Elvis tributes.
    Two years ago, Elwood sold the joint for a reported $2 million to Pittsburgh-based Primanti Bros., which reopened it as Johnnie Brown’s, as in Addison Mizner’s pet monkey.
    But Michael couldn’t stay away. A few months ago he announced he was bringing Elwood’s back at 301 NE Third Ave., once occupied by The Annex and Two Thirds Tavern. It was a noble effort that departed quietly just days after Michael.
    He left thousands of grieving friends who knew they’d lost someone special.
    “He never met a stranger,” brother Dave said with a grin, and then added, “We have to move on.”
                                     ***
        While the second Elwood’s is history, the Back Room Blues Bar is into its fourth incarnation. John Yurt got the bug in 1992, opening on West Atlantic then moving to East Atlantic, back to West Atlantic and for four years on Dixie Highway in north Boca.
     That ended last November, but Yurt prefers singing the blues, not crying them, so he jumped at a vacancy in Congress Square on the southwest corner of Congress and Atlantic.
    It’s the farthest west that Yurt has pitched his tent, but he has more space, food and lots of music. JP Soars and the Red Hots (mostly Tuesdays) and Junior Drinkwater and the Westside Blues Band (Wednesdays) are the house bands. Savannah-born Eric Culbertson comes in July 2, and on July 30 Yurt’s grand opening party will have 10 bands going from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m., $5 cover. (860-4679).
                                                                                                          ***
     Imagine the legendary Ira Sullivan playing in a garage. Well, not actually where cars park, but in an area with 130 seats — it’s air-conditioned — in the parking garage by Old School Square. Sullivan’s June 11 show sold out and the sponsoring Creative City Collaborative expects vocalist Dana Paul (July 9), saxmen Ed Calle (July 23) and Turk Mauro (Aug. 13) and Brazilian vocalist Rose Max (Aug. 27) to do the same. Advance tickets are $20, reserved tables for six, $150. (243-7129)
                                                                                                ***

     Four decades ago, the builders of The Bridge Hotel, just inside Boca Inlet, had ambitious plans that included a casino. Slots, roulette and other games of chance still aren’t legal in hotels, so the present owners have put much of the hotel’s $2 million renovation into entertainment.
    In addition to the great view, Carmen’s restaurant on the top floor offers a supper club for dining and dancing. Wednesdays are set aside for Jazz, Bossa & Blues. For just a $10 cover, South Florida’s best singers and musicians perform, while you eat, drink, dance, talk — or listen. Recent acts included Nicole Henry and Anthony Corrado.
    Latin jazz guitarist Jorge Garcia and Grammy-winning violinist Federico Britos perform July 8, and a week later, it’s two shows for the price of one with sax man Michael Kennedy and pianist-vocalist Hal Roland. (368-9500).
                                                                                                   ***

    Lake Worth now has The Hideaway (129 N. Federal Highway), offering live and recorded jazz and dancing in a century-old building every day but Monday from “Swing Time Happy Hour” at 4 p.m. until close. It’s the musical love child of Ada Litt and her partner, Reggie B. (540-4411)
                                                                                                    ***

    The announcement in 2003 by legendary restaurateur Daniel Boulud that he was bringing a restaurant to Palm Beach was met with more than a little skepticism. After all, big names chefs had failed before, most notably Charlie Palmer’s Aquaterra.
    Now, it seems everyone loves Café Boulud, even the naysayers. Credit goes not only to Boulud, who demands the best, but to the people who work for him, such as Zach Bell, the executive chef in Palm Beach from the start.
    On June 15, Boulud announced that Bell is leaving and will be replaced by another veteran, Jim Leiken. Both were at his side and surrounded by staff.
    Unlike so many restaurant changes in South Florida, this one is amicable. Bell, who grew up in citrus country west of Orlando, will become executive chef at Addison Reserve, a 700-home country club development west of Delray Beach. He confessed he and wife, Jennifer Reed, former Boulud pastry chef who runs The Sugar Monkey in West Palm Beach, want more family time.
                                                                                                       ***

     Down the road in Lantana, the pot continues to boil. We reported last month that Leo Balestrieri was putting his upscale Italian concept Apicius to rest, turning over the Ocean Avenue boite to new managers who would open Bar Italia.
    Now for the rest of the story. . . Balestrieri has brought in new investors from New York. He’ll retain some control, but will turn his attention to a new restaurant — possibly called Harry’s American Bar — in Palm Beach, just north of Tiffany.
       But there’s more ... A partner in Bar Italia is Mark Militello. An original member of the Mango Gang, which created a culinary identity for South Florida, he cut his relationship with David Manero at The Office in Delray in the spring of 2010, headed south to Trina on Lauderdale Beach and then was going to create Cabo Blue, a grill and tequila bar in the new Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort.
    But, as of mid-June, it’s Bar Italia. Modified menu, he says, that will feature lower prices. Can’t wait till Militello and Balestrieri disagree. Think Vesuvius.

                                                                                                        ***
    Down in Boca, another new restaurant, Philippe Chow, takes over the old III Forks spot on East Palmetto Park Road. Chow has made quite a name for himself with his Philippe eateries in New York and Miami Beach and    has some high-profile followers, including Oprah Winfrey and Paris Hilton.

         One of his South Beach investors — who is also taking a stake in the Boca venture — is former Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning.
    Another familiar name is that of Philippe Restaurant Group CEO: Stratis Morfogen is the younger brother of 32 East Executive Chef Nick Morfogen. Some wags already are punning “the Morfogen the better.”

                                                                                                            ***
    Head Football Coach Howard Schnellenberger says construction of FAU’s football stadium is ahead of schedule and under budget. Paying for it just became a little easier, thanks to a gift of $2 million from Richard and Barbara Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation. They’ll get an acknowledgement on the scoreboard.
    The university will kick off its 50th anniversary celebration with a “50 on the 50” fundraising gala in the stadium on Oct. 29. The $250 tickets will go to scholarships.
    Although FAU didn’t enroll students until 1964, the Florida Legislature approved it in 1961, so school officials are tying in that year with the stadium’s opening. Alumni are asked to share their experiences at fau.edu/50th.
   ***
               Steve Weagle’s annual Red Cross bike ride is over, but the money’s still coming in.
    “The last figure I heard was $50,000,” the Channel 5 weather anchor said of his 11th annual trek that starts in Sebastian and wraps in Boca.

       Weagle modified his tour this year to stop for the first time in Delray Beach at Old School Square. The ride was so effortless, helped by favorable winds and temperatures, that Weagle and his four cycle-mates arrived more than an hour early and refreshed with a beer at Bru’s Room.
    A surprise this year was a visit during Weagle’s stop at CityPlace by American Idol’s Taylor Hicks, a big Red Cross supporter who helped with tornado relief in Alabama.
                                     ***

Sold! And considering the real estate market, both the anonymous buyer and the seller, boxing promoter Don King, got good deals.
Sales price: $15.95 million for two homes on adjacent lots on 300 feet of beach in Manalapan. King was asking $19.95 million, down from a 2009 price of $27.5 million, but considering King — actually his late wife, Henrietta — bought it for $14.3 million in 1999, an 11 percent return is better than a short sale.
Jack Elkins of Engel & Volkers handled the sale. All parties agreed not to identify the buyer, but local real estate sources say the new owner is not someone with ties to the Palm Beaches.

Email Thom Smith at thomsmith@ymail.com.

Jan Norris contributed to this report.

Editorial: Plastic litter a lethal ingredient in ocean life

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 14:30

When the tide is low and the sand is damp and made for walking, there’s nothing I love more than taking a long, long stroll along the shore.
    I’ve lived near the beach for more than 25 years so my house is a testament to my love of the shore: seashells and beach glass fill jars and windowsills.
    I’ve found curious items during my walks — some printed with foreign languages, some seemingly tossed overboard and a few obviously of an illegal nature.
    But it seems that these days, the thing I find the most is plastic: sheets of Visqueen, wrappers from bags of ice, water and soda bottles, lengths of rope (all sizes) and lots and lots of straws.
    As I walk along this time of year and count the turtle tracks, all I can think is how these items must appear floating in the ocean. No doubt, they look a lot like jellyfish and other favorite turtle food. How many endangered turtles succumb to these deadly apparitions?
    Thankfully we have local groups who voluntarily pick up trash from our beaches. But they depend on volunteers and can’t be on all of our beaches with any real regularity. They are to be applauded, but what they pick up is just a drop in the sand pail of the plastic that washes ashore each day.
    Also to be applauded is the Delray Beach Commission. At its June 21 meeting there was discussion on a proposal to allow sales of bottled water at the municipal beach. Luckily, we’ve elected officials who use that beach and understand concerns about plastics on our shores and in our ocean. They voted this down.
    As one person, it feels naïve to believe I can make a difference: I’m trying to reduce my plastic consumption. I recycle. I find littering to be abhorrent and I’ve started picking up the plastic I find along the shore.
    Still, I hang on to the idea that maybe I can save one turtle, and maybe that one turtle will return to lay her eggs, and maybe those eggs will safely incubate in dry sand.
    And maybe on my morning walk I’ll find the signature waterfall of tiny hatchling tracks heading back into the sea.

— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

Lantana: Town afloat in history as it reaches 90th

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 14:11

Left: Ye Tower Restaurant was a landmark along Dixie Highway in southern Lantana. Paul Dunbar operated the restaurant from 1925 until it was torn down in 1987. Photos courtesy of the Lantana Historical Society

By Liz Best

When the red carpet rolls out July 2 at the town of Lantana’s 90th birthday bash, residents will celebrate knowing that they have bragging rights to a pretty sizable chunk of Palm Beach County history.
Lantana was home to some of Palm Beach County’s earliest settlers. They populated the areas now known as Hypoluxo Island, Lantana and Manalapan.
The first settlers began arriving in 1842, after Congress passed the Armed Occupation Act at the end of the Seminole Wars. In 1887, the Lyman family — considered to be Lantana’s founding family — arrived and built a home on what then became Lyman Point. This home is now the location of the Old Key Lime House restaurant. The family patriarch, Morris B. Lyman, later opened a store called the Indian Trading Post and a post office in 1889 where he became the postmaster.
No history of Lantana would be complete without mention of the Barefoot Mailmen, who delivered mail from Palm Beach to Miami, on foot and by boat. The walking distance was a 66-mile route along the shore.
According to a 1959 Miami Herald article by Theodore Pratt, it took three days for the mailmen to make the often dangerous trek.
Lantana Town Manager Mike Bornstein has walked the route of the Barefoot Mailmen, and says it’s a daunting experience — but fun, at the same time.
“You just get a sense for what it was like,” he said.
The first school was built in 1894 at the east end of Lantana and Osborne roads, and moved by June 1903. After the 1928 hurricane, which blew the roof off the school, it was again moved in 1929 to where it stands today, on the property of the current Lantana Elementary School. The building now serves as a center for migrant workers and as a museum.
The old school was what sparked Rosemary Mouring’s interest in joining the Lantana Historical Society when it was established in 2003.
Now — with Mouring as the current president — the Historical Society is working to refurbish the Evergreen Cemetery, which has 18 marked graves dating from 1892 to 1950. Among those graves are sailors killed in the shipwreck of the S.S. Inchulva in the 1880s, as well as an unknown black family, believed to have been killed in the 1928 hurricane.
Money, of course, is an issue.
“We are trying to raise $27,000 to fix the fence at the cemetery,” said Mouring. She adds that Evergreen Cemetery is listed among the National Cemetery Archives.
Trying to save A. G. Holley Hospital, built in 1950 as the state tuberculosis sanitarium, also is a priority for the historical society.
The 100-bed state-run tuberculosis hospital, which is currently funded for 50 patients, is on land owned by the state of Florida and there is talk of demolishing the building.
Mouring does not want to see that happen.
“If it weren’t for A.G. Holley, Lantana would not be populated, let me clue you,” she said. “That is what brought 90 percent of the people to Lantana.”
Mouring would like to see the hospital building, with its original Art Deco design, preserved and used as a center for Homeland Security, or a Veterans Administration hospital or even a research hospital.
“I want to see it last forever because I see so much potential,” she said.
Bornstein disagrees.
“I’d like to see it torn down, at this point,’’ he said.
A self-described history buff, Bornstein approaches his job as Lantana town manager with an eye on both the past and the future.
“It’s like being in a boat. There’s a lot of drift and you have to adjust accordingly.”
The town of Lantana was incorporated in 1921, with 22 residents voting in the first election. At the time of incorporation, the area of the town was 1 square mile with a population of 100 residents.
Another milestone in Lantana’s history came when National Enquirer publisher Generoso Pope moved the supermarket tabloid’s headquarters to Lantana in 1971. For the next almost 20 years, the Enquirer placed what it called “the world’s largest Christmas tree” at its Lantana offices each year, attracting thousands of visitors. The tradition died when Pope himself died in 1988. The newspaper later moved from Lantana to Boca Raton in 2000.

The Lantana Historical Society and the Lantana Chamber of Commerce contributed to this story. For more information on the historical society, visit www.lantanahistoricalsociety.org or email LH_Society@bellsouth.net.

Lantana historical timeline
1885 — The famous Barefoot Mailman route from Palm Beach to Miami was established. E.R. Bradley, the first Barefoot Mailman, had lived in the Lantana area since 1877.
1889 — Morris B. Lyman established the first business in Lantana, a mercantile located on a dock on the south side of Lantana Point. Indians traded at the store until 1910. The first post office was also established with Lyman serving as postmaster.
1894 — The first schoolhouse was built at the north end of Lake Drive.
1896 — The railroad came to Lantana and a packing house located west of Lake Osborne shipped produce, four cars at a time.
1921 — The town of Lantana was incorporated, with 22 people voting in the election. The first two mayors were women: Ellen Anderson and Mary Paddock.
1925 — The first bridge was built linking Lantana to the beach. Prior to that, going to the beach involved a boat trip and a hike through a mangrove swamp.
1950 — A.G. Holley State Hospital opened as the Southeast Tuberculosis Hospital.
1971 — National Enquirer moved its world headquarters from New York City to Lantana. The paper moved to Boca Raton in 2000.

Historic sites in Lantana
Lyman-Chafin House, 122 S. Lake Drive, built in 1887; it is the oldest house located on its original site in Palm Beach County.
M.B. Lyman House, 302 E. Ocean Ave., built in 1889. Now is the Old Key Lime House Restaurant.
William A. Hall House, 228 E. Ocean Ave., built in 1914.
Lakeshore Cottage, 210 N. Lake Drive, built in 1915.
Nellie King House, 127 S. Oak St., built in 1925.
Single-story house, 202 N. Lake Drive, built in 1925.
Single-story house, 318 S. Lake Drive, built in 1925.
The Ulas Piper House, 306 Atlantic Drive SW, built in 1925.
Ye Tower Restaurant, 916 S. Dixie Highway, opened in 1925.
Mary B. Lyman House, 209 S. Lake Drive, built in 1927
Casa Contenta, 314 N. Lake Drive, built in 1929
Single-story house, 814 S. Lake Drive, built in 1939.

Meet Your Neighbor: Walter A. Clarke Jr. — Lantana

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:59

Walter Clarke of Lantana hadn’t planned to be a career military man. He hadn’t planned to receive medical training, and he never dreamed he’d become an Army surgeon’s assistant, performing amputations and “playing God” in a Mobile Army Surgical Unit during some of the bloodiest battles of World War II. But that’s the life he fell into. And he accepted it all, good and bad.
Now 94, Clarke’s memories of his service during World War II are dimming a bit, but the details he supplies are still as sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel.
The ambulance runs to retrieve soused soldiers sliced by razors in North Carolina bar fights.
The close-range blasts from enemy tanks that crept up on his MASH unit in Koblenz, Germany, leaving him “stone deaf” for an entire week. And the ransacked, five-bed hospital he and his medical team stumbled upon in Libramont, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge.
“The Germans had taken all the doctors and medical supplies,” Clarke recalls. “There were four nuns there with the mother superior. The nuns said to Doc and I, ‘How would you like to have dinner with us?’ We thought great, a home-cooked meal! Well, they took an apple, sliced it very thin, cooked it in some fat, and served it up. They only had one apple to feed the five of them and us.”
Clarke’s unit restocked the tiny hospital with medical supplies and gave the nuns Army-issue B rations (dehydrated bouillon cubes). They used the hospital to shelter and treat wounded soldiers, with the nuns working as nurses.
Today Clarke shares these stories with fellow veterans at his current residence, the Carlisle Palm Beach retirement living community in coastal Lantana.
Does he ever wish his life had turned out differently?
“I’m 100 percent glad the way things turned out,” he says. “But we all feel the country isn’t patriotic enough these days. The veteran is just put aside and forgotten.”
— Paula Detwiller

Q. Where did you grow up and go to school?
A. I was born in a little hamlet in northern New York called Standish. There was a smelting plant there, and my father worked in the production of pig iron for World War I. When I was about 6 or 7, we moved to Crown Point, N.Y.

Q. How old were you when you went into the service?
A. It was 1937 and I was 20 years old. After high school I couldn’t find work — it was still the Depression — so my buddies and I decided to enlist in the National Guard.
I became an ambulance driver in the medical unit of the Guard. It was supposed to be a three-year enlistment.
Then, in 1939 when World War II started, the Army federalized us and we were called up for a year’s training to qualify as full-time soldiers.
Well, we all got through that, and you know what happened on Dec. 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor. That was my 24th birthday.

Q. What happened next?
A. I was sent to Paris, Texas, to train draftees to become medical personnel. I went to officers school and learned medical administration. They were short of doctors during the war, so they took the top IQs, myself included, and gave them special medical training to become a battalion surgeon’s assistant. I was sent to Fort Dix, N.J., to assist with surgeries.
By then we were getting casualties from Africa and also from Europe. We worked 12 hours on, 12 hours off, 7 days a week, doing everything from brain surgery right on down.
In 1944, I was shipped out on a convoy to England and served in the European theater as a surgeon’s assistant for the rest of the war.

Q. What is your strongest memory of the war?
A. The number of patients I took care of.
I probably saved 5,000 to 7,000 soldiers and also saw to it that another 7,000 or 8,000 were buried in Europe. On the positive side, I delivered five babies while overseas.
I also have horrible memories of arriving at a concentration camp just after the Germans had shot almost all the prisoners and left.
It was a sub-camp of Dachau. The ovens were still going, and only a few emaciated people were still alive.
We took care of them, gave them food. Most of them were so weak they could hardly move.
It was a shock to me, even after everything I’d seen in the war. That’s something you don’t forget.

Q. After the war, what did you do?
A. When the war in Europe ended, we were supposed to come home briefly, and then go off to Japan. But the atomic bomb stopped the war in Japan.
I was sent to Fort Benning, Ga., for infantry officer training, then became commander of an infantry company in Ticonderoga, N.Y.
My final position with the Army was in military support for civil defense in New York. I was stationed in an underground shelter in Albany designed for the governor and his staff in case of attack.
I retired as a full colonel at age 60. After that, my wife and I took several cruises and just enjoyed life. Mildred was my high school sweetheart and we had five kids together. She passed away just before our 50th wedding anniversary. Since then I’ve had two other wives and both have died.

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. Yes. Capt. Specter, who was the C.O. [commanding officer] of my original medical detachment. He taught me how to train our enlisted men in medical procedures. Specter was always the one who knew about unusual cases.

Q. How did you choose the Carlisle?
A. My wife and I lived in two or three other facilities but weren’t crazy about them, so I thought we’d try the Carlisle. I’m very happy here.

Q. What is your favorite part about living at the Carlisle?
A. I live among friends and acquaintances. I’m the commander of the veteran’s club here.
We pick up other veterans from the VA who are in wheelchairs and take them to the Golden Corral for lunch. We also give them $10 chits to buy underwear and socks at their PX.
Our club has get-togethers on the military holidays and we enjoy a lot of camaraderie.

Q. What music do you listen to?
A. I like the old love songs and the old wartime songs like Mademoiselle from Armentières.”
We have happy hour at the Carlisle at 3:30 in the afternoon, and the girls [residents] get to singing the old songs and playing the piano.

Q. Who or what makes you laugh?
A. Oh my gosh — most of these girls here at the Carlisle! We have wine at dinner every night, and each of us takes a turn bringing the wine.

Gulf Stream: Late annexation objection voted down in Boynton

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:55

By Steve Plunkett

    A Boynton Beach city commissioner’s saber-rattling over the March annexation caught town officials by surprise and caused weeks of uneasiness in Town Hall and the former county pocket.
    Boynton Beach Commis-sioner Steve Holzman started the dust-up June 7, saying a 2004 interlocal agreement between the municipalities should have blocked the annexation. Further, he said, if Boynton Beach had annexed the property instead of Gulf Stream, it would have taken in $14 million in property taxes over the life of the agreement.
    “We should be compensated for that money. This is not moot. … It’s a simple violation of the agreement,’’ said Holzman, whose district includes the St. Andrews Club just north of town.
    His comments jolted Gulf Stream.
    “Is there any possibility that it could be nullified?’’ Thomas Hill, manager of the annexed Ballantrae condominiums, asked town commissioners at their meeting later that week.
    Mayor William Koch Jr. didn’t mince words June 21 when Boynton Beach took up the issue of whether to rescind the interlocal agreement, renegotiate it or sue the town.
    “We’ve always worked together,” he said. “It’s just beyond my past dealings to hear such a thing.’’
    Koch and his wife led a Gulf Stream entourage that included Town Attorney John Randolph, Town Manager William Thrasher, Civic Association President Bob Ganger, Ballantrae attorney Ken Spillias and a handful of concerned residents to the Boynton Beach meeting.
    “I think this issue is pretty clear,’’ Holzman said. “Simple enough, we’ve upheld our part of the bargain and unfortunately the other side of the agreement has not.’’
    But Randolph said Gulf Stream had worked hand in hand with Boynton Beach officials for more than a year, when then-City Manager Kurt Bressner told city commissioners the town wanted them to rescind the agreement so it could annex the 16.6 acres.
    “When this came to you back in May 18, 2010, all cards were on the table. Now I’m surprised that anyone here is surprised by any of this,’’ Randolph said. “You saw our report. You saw our advertisement for annexation. There was nothing hidden.”
    Thrasher said Gulf Stream anticipated tax revenues of $200,000 a year from the annexed pocket.
Koch said fears of a too-large beachfront development prompted the annexation.
    “We wanted to have an interlocal agreement that either we would annex it or you would annex it, but it would be low-density, six units per acre. It’s in that agreement. That was our goal — to preserve the barrier island,” Koch said.
    Spillias said pocket residents had sought out Gulf Stream over Boynton Beach.
    “They certainly could have come to Boynton Beach — this is no disrespect to Boynton Beach — but they are surrounded by Gulf Stream and that is the town they feel a part of, and they asked to become a part of, and their vote was 100 percent to become a part of,” Spillias said.
    Boynton Beach Mayor Jose Rodriguez told his colleagues he and Bressner had met several times with Gulf Stream officials.
    “They did bring this to light that they were going to take this action. We certainly said that we had no objections at the time,” he said. “In hindsight it probably should have been brought to the commission earlier than it was, for approval before the annexation vote actually took place.”
    Nevertheless, Rodriguez said Boynton Beach should be a good neighbor, a sentiment shared by Vice Mayor Bill Orlove and Commissioner Woodrow Hay. The vote to rescind was 3-2, with Holzman and Marlene Ross against.
    Boynton Beach continues to provide water and sewer service to the pocket with a 25 percent surcharge.                                 Ú

Delray Beach: Downtown parking is focus of city efforts

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:53

Delray Beach commissioners this month will review parking changes as part of a study implementation intended to address Downtown Development Authority concerns about the growing number of restaurants along Atlantic Avenue.
    The DDA called for a moratorium on new restaurants in March in an attempt to keep the mix of businesses in balance, but City Manager David Harden said staff was working on a different approach.
    The staff’s parking plan discourages restaurants by boosting the required number of parking spaces, and therefore costs. It would require restaurants — except in the Pineapple Grove Main Street area — to increase parking from six spaces to 12 spaces per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area up to 6,000 square feet, and 15 spaces per 1,000 square feet over 6,000 square feet.
    The plan removes parking requirements that had been used as a redevelopment tool, according to Scott Aronson, parking management specialist.
    The parking ordinances, which would also include other changes in the “in-lieu” system of parking, are scheduled to come before commissioners July 5 and July 19.
                — Margie Plunkett

South Palm Beach: Drought prompts tight water-use restrictions

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:51

By Tim O’Meilia

    South Palm Beach now has two water problems: too much salty ocean water from the east and not enough treated water from the west.
    While erosion from the ocean has been an ongoing concern, a dwindling supply of water for drinking and lawn sprinkling has cropped up with the continuing drought that began in October.
    As a result, the town’s 28 condominiums and four single-family homes and the Town Hall have been placed on severe water-use restrictions by the city of West Palm Beach, which supplies potable water for the town and for neighboring Palm Beach.
    Beginning June 13, West Palm Beach officials limited lawn watering to four hours a week. Buildings with odd-numbered addresses may water from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. Wednesdays. Even-number buildings may water the same hours on Thursdays.
    Meanwhile, most of the rest of Palm Beach County and South Florida are on a two-day-per-week watering schedule with 36 total hours of sprinkling allowed.
    The reason is that West Palm Beach is the only water utility that relies on surface water — Lake Okeechobee — for its water rather than on a well system.
    The water level in the lake is so low that the lake can no longer feed the L8 canal, the starting point of the 40-mile journey the city’s water travels from the lake to the Grassy Waters Preserve, the city’s water catchment area. The water then moves to Clear Lake and Lake Mangonia before it reaches the nearby water treatment plant.
    City utility officials told city commissioners that the system could run dry of water in 22 days. To avoid that, West Palm Beach plans to buy water from Palm Beach County and draw from a city well field to ease the crisis.
    The city also asked state environmental officials for permission to tap the L-8 reservoir. Approval was given so long as the city is able to keep salt levels low enough to meet state standards.
    South Palm Beach officials have sent faxes to all the condominiums and erected several yellow, “severe drought” warning signs at the north and south entrances to town along A1A, said Police Chief Roger Crane.
    The town also is supplying door-hangers to condominiums to ask residents to conserve water. The town’s local access television channel — Channel 95 — and the town website list the restrictions.
    Mayor Donald Clayman said his condominium, Southgate, had already received a warning notice from the police, who enforce the restrictions in the town. “We hadn’t been able to switch our timer yet,” he said.
    Initially, there was some confusion about which days to water. Multi-unit buildings that have more than one address must water on Thursdays. But that wasn’t spelled out in the West Palm Beach notice. None of the town’s buildings have more than one address, so the rule does not apply, Crane said.
    The chief said residents also were concerned about washing their cars, which often become encrusted with ocean salt spray. Car washing is allowed on porous areas only, but few condominiums have space for that.
    Town officials were uncertain about the fine schedule for violators. West Palm Beach allows one warning then a subsequent violation draws a $75 fine, a second violation is $125 and the third or more cost $500.
    Crane said the town would abide by the South Florida Water Management District fine schedule, but the water district leaves the fines for residential violations up to the individual municipality.

South Palm Beach watering

• Odd-numbered addresses from 4 to 8 a.m. Wednesdays.
• Even-numbered addresses 4 to 8 a.m. Thursdays.
• Hand-watering with a single hose of stressed plants is allowed for 10 minutes daily on the scheduled watering day.
• Vehicle is allowed on porous surfaces only.
• New landscaping may be watered at any time on the day it is installed; 4-8 a.m. on any day except Friday for two to 30 days after it is installed; and 4-8 a.m. on any day except Sunday, Tuesday and Friday from 31 to 90 days after it’s installed.
Source: City of West Palm Beach

South County municipalities
• Odd-numbered addresses, before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays.
• Even-numbered addresses, or sites with no street address, before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m. Thursdays and Sundays.
• Landscape irrigation using reclaimed water is not restricted.
• Vehicle and boat washing is allowed anytime.
• Golf courses must cut usage by 15 percent.
Source: South Florida Water Management District

Manalapan: Tough trade-offs needed to trim police budget

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:49

By Steve Plunkett

Town commissioners struggled with reshaping the Police Department — or at least budgeting less money for it — in their latest strategy workshop.
    “We have a force and policies which would support a community two to five times the size of ours,’’ Vice Mayor Robert Evans said in a report to his colleagues after he studied the department.
    Evans noted Manalapan’s force is almost the same size as Gulf Stream’s, 10 vs. 11, but because Gulf Stream has nearly twice the residents its per capita cost is lower.
    He suggested eliminating one officer through attrition, then monitoring the number and severity of crimes to make sure they did not increase. The trade-offs would be in other areas, he said in his report, including number of stops, types of stops and stops at night.
    “One of the policies we would be giving up is that of two men on duty each shift,” he wrote. “Although we have not had this policy most of the history of Manalapan and I don’t believe it is a safety issue, we must recognize this may be initially contrary to some residents’ preference.”
    Commissioner Howard Roder suggested cutting the department’s lieutenant position, saying too often when cutting staffs, it’s the foot soldiers that go rather than their supervisors. But other commissioners said they should give Chief Clay Walker a budget number and let him decide how to meet it.
    At Evans’ request, Walker devised a schedule that uses just seven officers, but said at the meeting he was not happy with it.
    “I don’t think it’s good for the residents, I don’t think it’s good for my officers,” he said.
    Ocean Ridge Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi, listening to the meeting while his town presented a bid to take over Manalapan’s police dispatching system, cautioned commissioners not to expect Ocean Ridge to provide backup to one-officer shifts on a routine basis. His force’s priorities are to Ocean Ridge residents and to Briny Breezes, which contracts out for police services, he said.
    Commissioners took no action but directed Town Manager Linda Stumpf to develop a budget for fiscal 2012 assuming no changes to the Police Department.
    Several times during the discussion of his report, Evans admitted he had put himself out on a limb.
    “This is why politicians always get consultants to make these recommendations,” he
said.

Supporters organize with aim to buy WXEL-TV

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:46

By Jenny Staletovich

    A group of WXEL-TV supporters, including its president and CEO, its chief fundraiser and area education and media executives, have until Dec. 31 to work out a purchase agreement to buy the station from Barry University before the sale is opened to other bidders.
    “We’re very optimistic,” said WXEL President and CEO Bernard Henneberg said. “There are people here who want to keep WXEL local. They don’t want us to go away.”
    Henneberg said he first approached the university about a management-led acquisition after the state Board of Education agreed in December to grant a controversial lease transfer of the radio station to Classical South Florida. The Federal Communications Commission approved the transfer of the license — sold for $3.85 million — in May.
    At the time, local supporters objected to the sale, saying it put control of the station in the hands of a media giant and signaled the end of local programming. Classical South Florida is owned by Minnesota-based American Public Media, the nation’s largest operator of public radio stations.
    Barry and Classical South Florida, however, argued that CSF was the best choice for the community and believed splitting the licenses gave both the beleaguered radio and television stations the best chance of surviving.
    At its June 10 board meeting, Henneberg laid out his plan to trustees and asked for exclusive rights to negotiate and raise $2.5 million to purchase the TV station.
    Barry had purchased the station — started 40 years ago to educate local migrant workers — in 1997 when its value had shrunk to $350,000. Over the years, the university pumped $5.3 million into both the radio and television stations before Barry’s trustees decided it no longer fit the school’s mission and started entertaining buyers.
    In 2004, New York’s WNET-TV teamed up with the Community Broadcast Foundation as its community-based partner to buy it, but the deal fell through when the FCC failed to consider the license application.
    At the time, Barry spokesman Michael Laderman explained, the university “took a little time off” until Classical South Florida surfaced as a suitor for the radio station.
    Over the years, potential buyers emerged but never led to a sale.
    “We’d had the usual suitors for radio and TV, which included the Radio Broadcast Foundation, Nova and FAU. The School Board of Palm Beach County had shown interest, but it was always for radio and TV and from our end, we didn’t feel there was a suitable suitor for both radio and TV except WNET.”
    Ultimately, Laderman said, trustees want the buyer who will secure the station’s future.
    “Bernie knows as well as anybody that we’re looking for the best suitor, the best entity on behalf of the community,” Laderman said. “That’s why we chose CSF to oversee the radio. And that’s why we haven’t rushed any of our decisions as to who we’re going to sell the licenses to in the past seven to eight years.”
    Henneberg said his group has formed a nonprofit corporation and created a board that so far includes David L. Jaffe, Lynn University’s dean of the College of International Communication; Judith Garcia, head of the Palm Beach County School District’s education network; Dick Robinson, founder and chairman of the Connecticut School of Broadcasting; and philanthropist Barbara Sherry.
    They are still assembling the board and launching the capital campaign.
They hope to snare a major gift to offer donors a matching grant. They need to raise at least $2.5 million to purchase the station as well as working capital and money to purchase some equipment.
    So far, Henneberg said, no real competitors for the station have stepped forward.
    The Community Broadcast Foundation, the group that had teamed up with WNET, “commented they don’t want just the TV. They’ve been quiet,” he said. “A couple of other groups were in contact. They want the license, but they’re special interest groups and we don’t want them to be a part of the board.”
    Henneberg said anyone interested in contributing to the capital campaign could contact the station at 737-8000.

Briny Breezes: Fees may be needed to boost revenue for town

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:45

By Tim O'Meilia

The corporation that operates in tandem with the town council has agreed to pay one-third of the $30,000 it has been withholding from the town in a dispute over the town’s total budget.
The $10,000 payment covers June through September and the corporate board will consider the $30,000 in next year’s budget, corporation park manager Steve Best told the town council at the June 23 meeting.
The town has long supplemented its property tax revenue, its primary source of money, with money from the corporation. Town aldermen were stunned earlier in the year when the corporate board voted twice to withhold the money.
Corporation President Mike Gut said earlier this year that the town was paying too much in legal fees and that everyone was feeling the economic pinch.
“The corporation withholds funds if they don’t like what the town council does,” said Alderman Kathleen Bray, formerly the town clerk.
The corporation earmarked this years’ partial payment to pay legal fees toward a possible dispute with Boynton Beach over the cost of water, a surcharge neighboring Ocean Ridge does not pay. Briny Breezes buys water and sewage service from Boynton, while Ocean Ridge buys only water.
The town council voted to put any Boynton action, including a possible lawsuit, on hold and see whether negotiation with whoever is hired as Boynton Beach’s next manager will reduce the water charges. They also discussed possible user fees for contractor services and individual water hookups to the town’s mobile homes as ways to make up any future shortfalls if the corporation continues to withhold money.
Best said the corporation board would likely put $30,000 in the budget for next year but the board would wait to see the council’s stance with Boynton Beach first. “It’s a little presumptuous to say they we’ll be in the same position this year as we were last year,” he said.
In other business, the council:
• Voted unanimously to challenge the U.S. Census Bureau over the number of housing units in town. The census counted an even 800 mobile homes but the town only has 484 by a house-by-house count. The town will not challenge the census population figure of 601.
To challenge the housing unit count, the town will rely on documented electrical connections and the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s figures to make its claim.
• Agreed unanimously to ask its current outside auditor for a quote for next year before deciding whether to seek proposals from other firms.
The town paid Alberni, Caballero and Co. of Coral Gables about $10,000 last year for the state-mandated audit. Alderman Lowen Poock, a retired certified public accountant, said the audit should cost about $6,000. Ú

Graduation: Gulf Stream School

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:43

Katarina Theresa Sperduto signs pillows with classmates after her eighth-grade graduation ceremony held June 10 at the Gulf Stream School. Photo by
Lauren Loricchio

A salute to area graduates: High School

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:30

Left: John Doyle, son of John and Andrea Doyle of coastal Boca Raton, graduated from Boca Raton High School. John was one of the 2011 State Science Olympiad Champions, a Science Pathfinder nominee and a National AP Scholar. He plans to study biomedical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

LISA SLOMKA
School: American Heritage School
Hometown: Lantana / Hypoluxo Island
Parents: Dr. William and Imelda Slomka
College: Notre Dame
Major: Architecture
Special Recognition/Achievements: Salutatorian, National Merit Finalist, AP Scholar with Honor.
Career Path: Architect

JENNIFER DONNA ZINK
School: St. Andrew’s School
Hometown: Ocean Ridge
Parents: Gregory and Carmen Zink
College: Georgetown University
Major: International Political Economy
Special recognition/achievements: Salutatorian, Georgetown University and John Carroll Scholarships, William Orr Dingwall Foundation Scholarship, Cum Laude Society, Headmasters List, AP Scholar with Honor, National Merit Commended Scholar, USA Water Polo and National Swim Coaches Water Polo Academic All American 2009, 2010, 20121, Five Varsity Letters, St. Andrew’s School Booster Club Outstanding Scholar athlete award, Pathfinder nominee for History/Political Science, Princeton Book Award (premier scholar in junior class), Joseph E Gould Prize for Excellence in AP U.S. History, Founder and President of St. Andrew’s School Chapter of Becca’s Closet, president of St. Andrew’s School Community Service Board
Career Path: I am undecided as to what job I will have after graduating from college. However, I would like to work on Capitol Hill or continue to law school where I can study international law.

A salute to area graduates: College

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:30

Left: Katie Coz and her brother Joey Coz (rising junior at College of Charleston)

KATIE COZ
College/Field of Study: Sewanee, University of the South, BA Economics
Hometown: Ocean Ridge
High School: St. Andrew’s School
Parents: Valerie and Steve Coz
Special recognition/achievements: Sewanee Equestrian Team, vice president of KO sorority, president of the Business Club at Sewanee
What’s next: I am traveling to Spain in July to visit friends in Madrid and to go to Pamplona for the running of the bulls. I will have job opportunities in Washington, D.C., in the economics/analysis field.

Left: Jay with his sister, Annie a 2009 Trinity College graduate.

JAY FAZIO
College/Field of study: Southern Methodist University, Dallas, with a major in Public Policy
Hometown: Delray Beach
High School: Episcopal High School, Alexandria, Va.
Parents: Kathy and John Fazio
Achievement: He graduated on time in the allotted four years!
What’s next: In the process of moving to Washington, D.C. Would like to find a job relating to the defense industry.

KATIE MARSH
College/Field of Study: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill/ B.S. in Psychology, second major in Exercise and Sports Science
Hometown: Ocean Ridge
High School: St. Andrew’s School
Parents: Janet and Mark Marsh
Special recognition/achievements: NCAA Division I swimmer at UNC-CH, Networking Committee Chair of the UNC-CH Psychology Club
What’s next: research assistant at FAU in Jupiter in Developmental Psychology for summer, then GRE’s and graduate school

Obituary — Kenneth Charles Ellingsworth

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:19

Kenneth Charles Ellingsworth, life-long resident and ambassador for Delray Beach as the executive director of the city’s Chamber of Commerce for more than three decades, died May 29. He was 84.
Mr. Ellingsworth gave tirelessly to his home town, his son recalled, and served on numerous local and regional boards and panels, including six and a half years on the City Commission in the 1990s.
He was one of the founding members of the Delray Beach Historical Society. “Dad was proud of the city‘s history and he always had an interest in preservation,” recalled his son, Howard Ellingsworth, a third-generation Delray Beach native.
The elder Mr. Ellingsworth also was instrumental in transforming the Delray Affair into the giant art and craft festival it is today, by far the largest annual event in the city, drawing tens of thousands to Atlantic Avenue toward the end of the tourist season.
The Affair’s roots were in agriculture, when farmers brought their goods to town to market, but Mr. Ellingsworth helped change the direction to give a boost to local merchants in Delray Beach, his son recalled.
Mr. Ellingsworth was born on July 30, 1926, at his family’s home in Delray Beach. He graduated from Delray Beach High School in 1944 and then served in the Army Air Force in England and Europe from 1944 through 1946.
After the service, he attended Florida State University, where he was graduated with a bachelor of science degree in business administration in 1951.
After graduation, he worked at various jobs, including several years with the Commercial Credit Corp in Jacksonville and Lakeland, before accepting in 1959 the post as executive director of the Delray Beach Chamber, where he served for the next 33 years until his retirement.
As a youth, he loved the beach. He told his children of how excited the entire town would get when the “blues were running.” “The sharks would herd them toward shore, and Dad and the others caught them by tossing in a hooked line with a white rag on the end of it. The blues would strike at anything. The whole town would come down to the beach for a big barbecue,” Howard Ellingsworth said.
In his capacity as executive director of the Delray Chamber, Mr. Ellingsworth was a founding member or participated in the founding of the Delray Economic Leaders Political Action Committee Council of 100, Leadership Delray Beach, Atlantic Avenue Association, Delray Art League, the Florida Tennis Championship and the Delray Beach Historical Society.
He also was active in local government, serving on the city commission for six and one half years, including two as vice mayor. He also served as chairman of the South Central Regional Waste Water Treatment and Disposal Board, the Metropolitan Planning Board, the Delray Beach Housing Authority and chairman of the Delray Beach Charter Review Committee.
He served on the boards of the Florida Chamber of Commerce Executives, Discover Palm Beach County, Leadership Palm Beach County, Palm Beach County Development Board, the committee to bring Florida Atlantic University to Boca Raton, Delray Beach Library Association, Atlantic Avenue Task Force Committee, past president of the Delray Beach National Little League and past chairman of the Delray Beach Sister Cities Committee.
Mr. Ellingsworth was awarded the Expanding & Preserving Our Cultural Heritage Community Service Award and the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce Life Achievement Award.
His wife of 52 years, Elizabeth, died in 2009. Mr. Ellingsworth is survived by sons Howard Ellingsworth, Gray Guthrie, Lee Guthrie and Grant Guthrie; daughter Lindy Edwards; granddaughters Sofia Ellingsworth and Lauren Guthrie; grandsons Coleman Ellingsworth, David Roland, Jr., Wells Guthrie, Scott Guthrie, Gray Guthrie, Jr., and Brian Guthrie; four great-grandchildren and his brother, Norman Ellingsworth.
Services were held June 11 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Delray Beach. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made in his memory to the Delray Beach Historical Society, 3 NE First Street, Delray Beach, or to St. Paul’s.
— Staff Report

Obituary — Doris B. O' Leary

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:14

By Tim O’Meilia

SOUTH PALM BEACH — Doris B. O’Leary, a gracious New Englander who lived in South Palm Beach for more than half a century — by all accounts longer than anyone else in town — died May 28. She was 102, perhaps the oldest person in town.
Mrs. O’Leary and her husband, Arthur, plunked down cash for a condominium at the Imperial House, which hadn’t been built yet, in about 1960. That pre-construction purchase served the New England transplants well.
The couple never moved from their Imperial House home. Her husband died in the late 1970s and Mrs. O’Leary carried on for decades, attending condominium association meetings faithfully and worshiping at the First Presbyterian Church in Lake Worth.
“She was a real lady, always elegantly dressed and fashionable,” said South Palm Beach Councilwoman Bonnie Fischer, an Imperial House neighbor who knew Mrs. O’Leary for several decades.
Mrs. O’Leary enjoyed lunches out, always carefully coiffed and well-dressed, friends said. “She was always smiling and acknowledged everyone she met,” said Mary Ann Kreidler, whose parents knew Mrs. O’Leary well. “She was the picture of decorum and fashion.”
Her neighbors threw a Founders Day roof-top party a couple of years ago. Although she never needed glasses or a hearing aid, her memory had begun to slip. She was asked how old she was.
“Oh, no, tell me again,” she said. Told she was 100, she replied, “Isn’t that just awful.”
“She always looked like a million dollars,” said Fischer, who added that Mrs. O’Leary appeared to be decades younger than her age. “You would never guess than she was 100.”
Even though she never swam in the Imperial House pool, she donated money to buy a pool heater.
Mrs. O’Leary was born in Kensington, Conn., to Clarence and Jennie Baldwin. Her father, a steel company executive in the early decades of the 20th century, sent her to the LaSalle Finishing School in Boston.
She is survived by two nieces, several cousins and one godchild. Memorial services were held June 4 at Dorsey-E. Earl Smith Memory Gardens Funeral Home in Lake Worth. A number of her Imperial House neighbors attended.

Obituary — Ides Makris

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:12

By Ron Hayes

    OCEAN RIDGE — Ides Makris loved to travel.
    “That was her hobby,” remembers her husband, Geris. “Italy, France, Athens — you name it. She said, ‘Live life to the fullest.’ We have a picture of her on the Amalfi coast, leaning over the railing overlooking those azure blue waters, and her scarf is blowing in the wind.
    “That was her.”
    Mrs. Makris, a resident since 2001, died June 9, after being diagnosed in December with amyloidosis, a rare disease in which proteins develop in an insoluble form and congregate in organs or tissues.
    “It’s an insidious disease,” her husband said. “I’d like to help make people aware, because it’s often misdiagnosed as heart disease.”
    Mrs. Makris was born August 29, 1952, in Port au Prince, Haiti, and came to New York City as a child.
    In Manhattan, she worked as a banker for Citibank, before moving to Miami in 1974. She was a branch manager for SunTrust banks and later served as a private banker for wealthy clients.
    “Her clients were her passion,” her husband said.
    In addition to her husband of 38 years, Mrs. Makris is survived by three children, Geris, Nicholas and Erick, all of Ocean Ridge; a granddaughter, Sabrina; and siblings Leslie Thomas, Pierre Thomas, Marie Audain Kaufman and Myrna Craig.
    A funeral Mass was held June 18 at St. Mark Catholic Church in Boynton Beach, followed by her interment at Our Lady Queen of Peace in Royal Palm Beach.
    The family asks that contributions in her memory be made to the Boston University School of Medicine, Amyloid Research Fund, attention: Dr. David C. Seldin, 72 E. Concord St., #K-503, Boston, MA 02118.

Obituary — John Joseph Wurster

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:10

By Emily J. Minor

    OCEAN RIDGE — John Joseph Wurster died knowing the Colonel’s secret recipe.
    “He knew it, he really did,” said Wurster’s widow, Josephine, the granddaughter of Kentucky Fried Chicken icon and founder Harland Sanders.
    “I don’t know it, but he did mix the spices for my grandfather.”
But while Mr. Wurster claimed that well-protected company secret, it was his work ethic, sense of humor, kindness and love for family that is being recounted now.
    Mr. Wurster died June 12 of a heart attack. He was 75.
    “He was a gentle giant,” said Mr. Wurster’s daughter, Cynthia, of Wellington. “Everybody was afraid of my dad because he was tall and had a deep voice. He was quiet. He was an observer. And he worked very, very hard.”
    Josephine Wurster says she met a young John Wurster back in 1954, as she and a girlfriend walked down Louisville’s Bluegrass Avenue, bundled up against the cold. Mr. Wurster and some buddies drove by in a Model-T, she said, and offered them a ride.
    That summer, she went to visit her mother in Salt Lake City and her new boyfriend wrote her every day.
“I still have all those letters in my cedar chest,” she said.
    The couple were married a year later, in August 1955.
    It was also around this time that Mrs. Wurster’s grandfather was starting his fried-chicken business. John and Josephine Wurster moved to Florida in 1959 and helped the family establish new KFC restaurants around the state.
    A pilot who had earned his wings through the Civil Air Patrol when he was just 17, Mr. Wurster would fly himself around Florida, making deals and setting up restaurants, his wife said.
    He’d also mix the spices.
    The couple had been married 55 years, and had lived in the same house in Ocean Ridge for 32 years, she said.
    In addition to business and family, John Wurster loved boating, said his wife.
    “He was a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful man,” she said. “He was not only loved, he was respected as a wonderful human being.”
    Besides his daughter, Cynthia, Mr. Wurster is survived by three other children: John Joseph Wurster, Jr., of Palm Springs, Calif.; Harland James Wurster, of Palm Beach Gardens; and Christopher Francis Wurster, of Boynton Beach. He is also survived by four grandchildren.
    Services were held June 25 and family members ask that any memorials be sent to Hospice of Palm Beach County or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Obituary — Vivian Krick Hill

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:08

DELRAY BEACH — Vivian Krick Hill, a resident of the Cambridge condominium since 2000, died May 27. She was 77 and had been a seasonal resident since 1990.
Mrs. Hill was born in Bryn Mawr, Pa., and was a graduate of the College of William & Mary, where she earned a degree in sociology and met Roger W. Hill, her husband of 54 years.
During the 1980s, Mrs. Hill served two four-year terms on the township committee of Chatham, N.J. The Hills also were residents of Blairsville, Ga., before moving to Delray Beach.
Mrs. Hill is survived by her husband and three children: Mary, of Atlanta, Ga.; Polly, of Chester Township, N.J.; and Danny, of Culpepper, Va.
A memorial service was held June 2 at First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach, where the Hills were members.
In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to Hospice by the Sea, 1531 W. Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton, FL 33486.
— Staff Report

A final bow for Florida Stage

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 29, 2011 at 13:00

By Scott Simmons

The one-time cultural jewel of Manalapan is gone.
Florida Stage rang down its final curtain in June, nearly two decades after it came to Plaza del Mar and one season after it left the barrier island for the Kravis Center.
The theater company was known for its derring-do in developing new works. That’s something most companies cannot afford to do.
But Florida Stage did it for 24 years.
For the company’s founder, Louis Tyrrell, that 24-year run “really was a dream come true, frankly. Any of us who has an aspiration for a career in theater, what we hope for is the opportunity to do the work we want to do when we want to do it.
“And to share it with the community over time, so that the contribution you make to a community can be part of the cultural personality of that place.”
And after the last of the applause, for a matinee performance of The Cha Cha of the Camel Spider, cultural leaders are bereft.
When he heard about Florida Stage’s decision to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, William Hayes shut himself away in his office and wept.
“This was a role model and had been going on for 20-plus years,” says Hayes, producing artistic director at Palm Beach Dramaworks, in downtown West Palm Beach. “It was risky. They were gutsy and they took that risk.”
“It was very, very shocking. It was entirely unexpected. It was just like a bomb coming out of nowhere really,” says Clive Cholerton, artistic director at Boca Raton’s Caldwell Theatre.
Cholerton said he had always looked up to the company.
“Oddly enough I was at their very last show. And I shook Lou’s hand and told him how much I enjoyed his show.”
It’s a void that will be felt on a national level, the men say.
Rena Blades, president and CEO of the Palm Beach County Cultural Council, agrees.
“Really, I think, this was a very unusual arts organization. They were not just performing art on stage, but also creating new art with each one they did,” she says. “Creating new art is risky, and glorious and admirable.”
Playwrights who were guided by Tyrrell and Florida Stage will vouch for the inspiration they received at Florida Stage.
“The wonderful thing about Florida stage is/was that they would commit to doing a play often with world premiere productions,” says Andrew Rosendorf, the company’s playwright-in-residence, and creator of last year’s season opener at the Kravis Center, Cane. “It doesn’t mean there’s a finished product, but [it’s an opportunity] to put it up and see where they are.”
Actor Michael McKeever says Florida Stage helped him develop his career as a playwright.
“There’s no question about it. It’s a major loss to the theater world,” says McKeever, who lives in Davie. “To the national theater scene, Florida Stage was one of the best and most committed regional theaters when it came to new works.”
McKeever should know.
Two of his plays, Running with Scissors and The Garden of Hannah List, received world premieres at Florida Stage. Running with Scissors has been produced in Germany, with plans in the works for a European tour, says McKeever, who is readying his latest work, Stuff, for a world premiere this month at Caldwell Theatre.
Florida Stage seemingly came a long way over its 24-year history.
It began in 1987 as The Theatre Club of the Palm Beaches, which presented plays at the Duncan Theatre Second Stage at what is now Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth.
The Theatre Club became Pope Theatre Company and moved to Manalapan in 1991. After the theater ended its relationship with benefactor Lois Pope in 1997, it changed its name to Florida Stage.
The company moved to the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse last summer and had hoped to develop new audiences there.
But that never happened.
Subscriptions dwindled, and the company listed $1.5 million debt.
The company had sought subscription renewals for next season right up to its last performance.
Its summer performance, a return of the musical Ella, also was canceled, and Kravis Center CEO Judy Mitchell says people who bought tickets to the show through the Kravis Center’s box office can choose tickets to a show in the Rinker, Persson Hall or the Gosman Amphitheatre.
Blades says Cultural Council members will offer coupons or vouchers to those who renewed subscriptions for next year.
As for Tyrrell, he is taking time to reflect on his career, and is looking ahead to what’s next.
“I don’t think I have an interest in starting another company, “ he says, citing the ups and downs of the business side of theater.
“We’ll see what opportunities I’m given,” he says. “Now I have to consider offers from others doing the plays that they choose.”
Still, he look back with pride at Florida Stage.
“I’ve had such a good run at it and feel so damn lucky.”

Florida Stage Declares Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

Posted by Mary Kate Leming on June 6, 2011 at 16:00

By Hap Erstein, http://www.pbartspaper.com/

Next week, Florida Stage was supposed to launch its 25^th anniversary season, beginning with the return of the musical biography Ella and continuing with a slate of world and regional premieres.

But the operative words are “was supposed to,” for the West Palm Beach company devoted exclusively to new work filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and ceased operations with the scheduled end of the run of The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider on Sunday.

In a statement, the theater cited “several critical financial challenges” facing the organization, including a marked downturn in subscription sales for the 2011-2012 season, “negligible” ticket sales for Ella and a lack of response to intensive fundraising efforts. These all contributed to accumulated debt of $1.5 million, insufficient funds to continue operating and a decision by the board of trustees to close the theater.

Not mentioned among the factors in the bankruptcy decision was Florida Stage’s move last summer from its former home in Manalapan to the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse. Although that move resulted in a saving of $200,000 in rent and utilities, substantial numbers of subscribers were unhappy with the new venue. The subscriber base shrank at the Kravis for this past season to less than 2,000, compared to more than 7,000 at the company’s high point.

In making the announcement, producing director Louis Tyrrell praised the theater’s patrons.

“The reason we were able to birth so many new plays that have gone on to thrill and astonish audiences around the country. For having to draw our curtain, we are heartbroken.”