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Grass River Garden Club Co-President Susan Lyons presents a $6,000 check to Nature Center Executive Director Patrick Moorehouse recently at the nature center in Delray Beach.
Photo provided
The new beach cruisers come in designer colors. The coaster brakes and comfy seats make them popular for ‘CEOs to surfers.’ Photos by Tim Stepien
By Paula Detwiller
Delray Beach native Terri Lambert loves her pink beach-cruiser bicycle with the wicker basket and floral-design bell on the handlebars. But don’t be misled: This is not a little girl’s bike, and Lambert is not a little girl. She’s a grown-up who happens to have a passion for beach cruisers.
“It’s a way of life,” Lambert says. “And I’m getting another one. I ordered a Lilly Pulitzer limited edition. Go to the website and check it out.” Sure enough, Lilly Pulitzer’s online catalog shows an adult bicycle in “very limited quantities” with a turquoise and black seashell-print frame, a pink saddle, and pink-rimmed whitewall tires.
Designer color schemes represent the latest trend in beach cruisers, those uncomplicated bicycles that have been part of Florida’s beach culture for decades. Modeled after the classic one-speed Schwinn cruiser bike introduced in the 1930s, beach cruisers are currently enjoying a surge in popularity, especially in coastal communities.
“Seventy percent of my rental bikes are cruisers, because that’s what people want,” says Albert Richwagen, co-owner of Richwagen’s Bike and Sport in Delray Beach. The allure: a comfortable, carefree ride. With wide tires, no hand brakes or gears to worry about, and a cushy seat, cruiser bikes are the signature of a casual, laid-back lifestyle. They’re also perfect for an aging population.
“Adults will come in and say, ‘I want to buy a mountain bike,’ ” says Richwagen. “I tell them, ‘Your head may say let’s go mountain biking, but your butt will say no, let’s not.’ I put them on a cruiser bike, and they’re off and having fun. You can ride a cruiser all day long, anywhere.”
Not just for paperboys
Richwagen, who literally grew up in the bike shop his father opened 50 years ago, has witnessed all of the trends. He says cruiser bikes sold well in the early days, thanks in part to the surfer movie Gidget. Then came Sting-Ray bikes with banana seats and ape-hanger handlebars; 10-speed racing bikes with skinny tires, narrow seats and hand brakes; mountain bikes with beefy frames and fat, nubby tires; and then the “hybrids,” offering comfortable upright seating with a less bumpy roll.
Through the years, Richwagen says, the one-speed cruiser bike with its classic cantilevered frame could always be spotted in Florida beach communities. But an innovative design change eight years ago gave the beach cruiser wider appeal — and, like the redesign of the classic Volkswagen Beetle, Baby Boomers sat up and took notice.
California-based Electra Bicycle Co. shifted the seat back and the pedals forward on its “Townie” bicycle introduced in 2003, allowing full foot placement on the ground while sitting on the saddle, and full extension of the legs while riding. The company’s “flat foot technology,” since adopted by other manufacturers, made cruiser bikes feel safer and even more stress-free.
“I’ve seen steady growth of beach cruiser sales in recent years,” Richwagen says. “It used to be only guys rode bikes. Now women want them, too.” He points to his shop’s row of candy-colored “personality bikes” adorned with decals of hearts, peacocks, cherries, and polka dots.
For the guys, there are bikes with hot-rod paint jobs and tattoo imagery: skeletons, flames, racing stripes.
There’s even a hobbyist club called FreakBike Nation, with an active West Palm Beach chapter. “These guys take beach cruisers and chop ’em up, then add long forks, shark fins, 4-inch tires, you name it,” says Richwagen. “The more outlandish, the better.”
Beach cruiser bikes, like the ones seen near Delray Beach’s Hurricane Lounge, are modern interpretations of the classic Schwinn one-speed bike.
Cruisin’ to the pub
Another local group, organized by pink-cruiser-owner Lambert and her friend Bo Eaton, does a beach cruiser pub-crawl through Delray Beach about once a month.
“We start at Boston’s on the Beach,” explains Lambert’s niece, Kerri Hussey, “and we work our way west along Atlantic Avenue, hitting Deck 84, Hurricane, Falcon House, Tryst and the Bull Bar.”
Like the bikes themselves, this rolling barhop has grown in popularity, with the latest outing attracting more than 40 riders.
“From CEOs to surfers, that’s who riding these
bikes,” Eaton says.
Where to buy
Relentless Bicycles
702 Lucerne Ave.
Lake Worth
(561) 547-1396
www.relentless
bicycles.com
The Electric Experience
1047 E. Atlantic Ave.
Delray Beach
(877) 360-9979
www.theelectric
experience.com/store/bikes
Richwagen’s
Bike & Sport
Cruiser Bike Sales, Service, Rentals
298 NE Sixth Ave.
Delray Beach
(561) 243-BIKE
www.delraybeach bicycles.com
Bike America
3150 N. Federal Highway
Boca Raton
(561) 391-0800
www.bikeam.com
The Palm Beach Coralytes synchronized swim team performed a water show themed ‘Synch In The Big Easy’ at Aqua Crest Pool in Delray Beach. Mom Nancy Kelly (left), Lauren Atchison, Anna Beckwith, Sara Moran, Katrina Figueroa and Kaitlin Kelly (11-12 age group). Photos by Tim Stepien
By Emily J. Minor
In the evenings when she finally gets home, 11-year-old Lauren Boylan says she’s “just plain tired.”
And that’s probably an understatement.
The pre-teen — who was born in California, raised in Paris, moved to Switzerland and recently was transplanted to South Florida — doesn’t spend her after-school hours texting or catching up on Facebook. She’s not stretched out in her girlie bedroom, giggling on the telephone over what happened that day at school.
The daughter of Stephen Boylan and his wife, Daphney Antoine, Lauren is part of the Palm Beach Coralytes, the competitive synchronized swimming group that has been drawing in women of all ages for the past 26 years.
Athleticism. Sisterhood. Team work. That’s what Coralytes is all about.
That, and fun.Evelyn Dowling, 83, of Palm Springs, knows firsthand about all these joys. She’s been involved with the group since the Coralytes began in 1985. They’re based out of the county pool at the Aqua Crest Pool complex in Delray Beach.
“I had never done synchro before,” Dowling says now, about getting involved. “But I’m a fast learner.”
Today, Dowling still competes in the bracket that includes octogenarians.
Just how many 80-year-olds are out there competing?
“Usually there are just a couple of us,” she says.
For Lauren Boylan, the decision to join was paved by Antoine, her stepmom, who went searching for something both inclusive and athletic when they found out Lauren would be moving from Switzerland to South Florida last July. The family lives on the eastern edge of Boynton Beach.
Antoine checked out schools, eventually deciding the international baccalaureate program at Carver Middle School was probably the best fit. (And it turns out, it was.)
But since Lauren had grown up abroad, Antoine said she wanted something extracurricular that wasn’t singular, like the ballet Lauren had studied as a young girl.
“When my friend told us about the synchronized swimming, I just thought it sounded perfect,” Antoine said. “The minute she got into the group, she was accepted. No questions.”
Lauren said she “had no idea how it would go.”
“At the start, nothing’s really easy,” she said. “But after the first meet, it was good.”
Linda Coffin, a Coralytes mom who also joined the competition when her daughter joined two years ago, helps handle the team logistics — the public relations, and what-not. But she also swims. And it’s a good workout, considering that when you are a synchronized swimmer, you never touch bottom.
It’s all about core strength.
Each year, the teams compete at a regional level, Coffin says. This year, three teams comprised of swimmers 11 years old and older are headed to national competition in Washington state.
Coffin says she’s loved seeing the friendships form, in and out of the water, and it’s been great not just for her, but for her young daughter.
“They learn to depend on each other,” she says. “You definitely have to be a team
to do synchronized swimming.”
Former Ocean Ridge resident, Lauren Boylan practices with the Coralytes at the Aqua Crest Pool in Delray Beach.
Sid Walesh traded corporate life for an artist’s life. Boynton Beach City Hall is hosting an exhibition of his work, titled “Metamorphosis.” Works also will be included in an exhibition at the Boca Raton Museum of Art.
A divorced father of two adult sons, he lives on Hypoluxo Island.
Photo by
Lauren Loricchio
Sid Walesh of Hypoluxo Island hasn’t worn a tie or a watch in 12 years. He has traded the business suits and 10- to 12-hour workdays for an artist’s life, with flexible hours and much more casual attire.
But it is readily apparent that Walesh hasn’t lost the intensity, focus and sense of organizational structure that made him a successful businessman in the first place. He has simply poured it into his art.
You see it in the four cocoon-like ceramic spheres marching along a carefully cantilevered cedar beam, each sphere opening a little more than the last to reveal a developing orange sphere-baby. Titled “Metamorphosis,” Walesh’s abstract sculpture could be a metaphor for his own life, symbolizing his post-retirement transformation from woodworking hobbyist to award-winning ceramicist.
After his retirement, Walesh enrolled in art school. “I took classes in painting, photography, jewelry, drawing — I did one of everything,” he says. But ceramics was the medium he liked best. “It gives you more freedom,” he explains.
With freedom came experimentation — and an emerging talent for turning ideas into artwork. The idea for “Spla,” Walesh’s multi-piece ceramic sculpture depicting falling raindrops frozen in time, came to him one day and “it was a challenge just to do it,” he says, “to show that it’s possible to take something that’s not fluid [clay] and make it appear that way.”
The piece is one of three Walesh sculptures on display at Boynton Beach City Hall until July 14.
Walesh’s work has been displayed in juried art exhibits in South Florida for the past 12 years and has won numerous awards. His “Sea Spirits” sculpture was recently selected from a field of 1,800 submissions to be exhibited at the Boca Raton Museum of Art’s 60th Annual All Florida Juried Competition and Exhibition, which runs from June 28 through Sept. 11.
Having developed his own artistic talent, Walesh — who gives his age as “50-seventeen” because it keeps him thinking young — is helping other adults develop theirs. When he’s not working on his next project, he can be found teaching classes in clay sculpture and ceramics at the Boca Raton Museum Art School.
— Paula Detwiller
Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A. I grew up in Two Rivers, Wis., a small city on Lake Michigan, during an innocent and peaceful time. We didn’t lock our doors and milk was delivered to our home. My parents owned a meat market/grocery store and taught me their work ethic. My Dad was a butcher known for his bratwurst and sausage, Mom was a terrific baker who made coffee cake and crescent rolls. I’m proud to be a son of a butcher and a baker.
I started college at Case Western Reserve University wanting to be an engineer and ended up with an MBA from the University of Wisconsin. My early life experiences provided a foundation for me to carve my own path through life.
Q. How and when did you become an artist?
A. One of my hobbies was working with wood, making furniture and simple sculptures. After I retired, I earned a vo-tech diploma in woodworking and took art classes at Penland School of Art in North Carolina and Palm Beach State College. That training helped me develop more complex artistic sculptures.
While my early sculptures were well-liked by family and friends, my work as an artist was validated when my sculptures won awards in juried art exhibits and finally when I sold my first piece. My training and work as an artist has allowed me to teach clay sculpture and ceramics classes at the Boca Museum Art School since 2002.
Q. What other careers have you had, what were the highlights?
A. My work career included a variety of administrative positions at several colleges and universities in Wisconsin and Florida. My most difficult job was trying to save a financially troubled private college in Wisconsin. Ultimately, I had the unique experience of closing it “with dignity.”
My most rewarding work was as a founder of the New World School of the Arts in Miami. I served on the planning team and developed the financial, staffing, facility and enrollment plans to deliver the intensive arts and academic curriculum for the new school. That school is now 25 years old and thriving, with high school and college programs in the visual and performing arts.
Q. What advice do you have for a young person pursuing a career in the arts today?
A. Push yourself to work beyond your comfort zone. Be inspired by the work of other artists, but don’t copy it. Create your own unique original art. Study hard in all of your classes, so you can have a good day-job that provides the resources to pursue your art.
Q. Tell us about your art.
A. My art is inspired by the dramatic texture of Vincent van Gogh paintings, the abstract sculptures of Henry Moore, and the kinetic art of Marcel Duchamp. In creating my sculptures, I build on a thought or message. Each piece clearly says something to me and my challenge is to convey that message to the observers.
I try to create unique sculptures, some with complex engineering in design and construction that prompts the viewer to figure out not only what it means but also how it was made. My works incorporate color, texture, and reflectivity.
It pleases me to observe viewers as they study my sculptures and see their reactions.
Q. How did you choose to make your home on Hypoluxo Island?
A. My childhood home was on Lake Michigan and I always wanted to live on the water again. Finding a home on the Intracoastal Waterway fulfilled my dreams.
Q. What is your favorite part about living on Hypoluxo Island?
A. Location, location, location. It’s living on an island, with incredible sunsets in my backyard over the wide water of the Intracoastal and the ocean beach just minutes away. There are many popular restaurants nearby (Dune Deck Café, Old Key Lime House and Lantana Ale House) and easy access to the coastal communities from the Palm Beaches to Boca Raton.
Q. What book are you reading now?
A. The instruction manual for my new printer-copier-scanner. Can’t wait to see how it turns out. When I finish that, I’ll start The Bracken Rangers, by Robert Allan Stevens. It’s a factual portrayal of the realities of life as a soldier during the Civil War.
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
A. My playlist for both inspiration and relaxation includes the singers and songwriters of the ’70s. I enjoy the classic ballads of artists like Harry Chapin, John Denver, Roy Orbison, Bobby Goldsboro, Jim Croce, Elvis and The Beatles. I play some of that in my art class; my students note that most of it is by members of the “dead musician’s society.”
Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
A. I try to follow an inspirational quote from Vince Lombardi: “Only three things should matter: your religion, your family and the Green Bay Packers, in that order.” I paraphrase that as “Values first, then family and friends, then all the rest.”
If you go
Now through July 14
Sid Walesh sculpture exhibit “Metamorphosis,” “Spla,” and “Tripodious Wilma”
Boynton Beach City Hall lobby
100 Boynton Beach Blvd. (at Seacrest Boulevard)
Lobby hours: Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
June 29 through Sept. 11
Sid Walesh sculpture exhibit
“Sea Spirits”
60th Annual All Florida Juried Competition and Exhibition
Boca Raton Museum of Art
Opening reception on June 28, 6 to 9 p.m.
Exhibit opens to the public June 29.
Museum hours:
Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.
First Wednesday of every month, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The old Boynton Beach high school’s hallowed halls could someday become home to a hospitality establishment, a group of small businesses or even another education provider — and commissioners are pushing to make that happen sooner rather than later.
Commissioners put City Manager Kurt Bressner together with the consultants who just mapped future possibilities for the school so that the two can start developing a request for proposal to find a buyer or partner for development of the landmark.
City leaders were eager to get on with the process after Kevin Greiner of consultants IBI Group said he had turned up potential investors or partners, including TD Bank, in a limited test of the market. “I really want to fast forward to getting something done here,” said Mayor Jose Rodriguez following the presentation.
The report, by IBI and REG Architects, recommended the city:
• Develop the school using third-party financing rather than city funds
• Decline to develop the project on spec, and
• Balance economics with opportunity when selecting the final development option.
Hospitality, office redevelopment and culture and the arts were likely uses of the building, according to IBI, which noted, among other things, that the unique gymnatorium offers entertainment, conference or banquet potential.
Unlikely uses were residential real estate, retail development, public service or industrial, the group said.
In addition to the gymnatorium, the property’s strengths are its unique design, gateway location, unique public assembly space and architecturally unique interior spaces, Greiner said during the presentation.
The challenges: Demand remains sluggish, vacancy rates are high, property values are low and lease rates are low.
Greiner also urged commissioners to start the design and zoning process for the building right away to avoid delays when a potential developer is found.
Police building discussed
In a separate development issue, commissioners asked staff to bring back more information on two sites for a new police headquarters: one, valued at $14.1 million, on High Ridge and the other, at $14.8 million, at Ocean Breeze East on Northeast Sixth Avenue and Seacrest Boulevard.
The staff was also directed to bring more information on which of the city’s properties could be sold to help finance the project; and to find out what the price is to appraise the properties.
The city has been debating moving its Police Department, which has grown out of its current digs next to City Hall.
The staff also put together financial scenarios for the Police Department to buy some time by staying in its current location. The alternatives ranged from $4 million to $24 million.
The lowest project would buy the city 10 years, and include replacement of carpet and ceiling tile, but no build out, said Jeff Livergood, director of public works and engineering.
The second option would buy the city 20 years and cost $14 million. It would include safety components such as a sprinkling system to battle fires, air conditioning and plumbing work and expansion of space.
The $24 million would allow for construction of a three-story police annex on the site currently occupied by Fire Station No. 1. That would provide the Police Department’s space needs for the next 30 years, Livergood said. Ú
They praised the long-time city manager and thanked him for his years of service.
“I take my hat off to Kurt Bressner, who has given us like 11 years of service — the longest of any city manager in Boynton Beach,” said Commissioner Woodrow Hay. “I’m sad that he’s gone, but glad that he’s moving on with his family.”
That sentiment plus gratitude for Bressner’s contribution echoed throughout the evening meeting. Bressner’s resignation is effective June 15.
“Although I will no longer be city manager,” Bressner said in a statement, “I look forward to doing what I can to continue to build a strong and vibrant community.”
He said the decision to leave the city was not an easy one.
“There are other personal goals that I want to accomplish and the timing seems just right for me and my family.”
— Margie Plunkett
Mayor Jose Rodriguez volunteered his time on May 21 along with more than 25 volunteers to paint the exterior of Boynton’s City Hall. Considering the current fiscal budget for the community he asked for volunteers to help hold down costs. Photo by Lauren Loricchio
PALM BEACH — Weldon Yeager was in Michigan on business when a passing stranger gave him a seat on the Ocean Ridge Town Commission.
In the February 1990 election, both Mr. Yeager and Vera Klein, an 18-year veteran, garnered exactly 269 votes each.
To break the tie, a Boynton Beach city employee named Ken Hall, who happened to be in Town Hall at the time, was asked to pull one of two envelopes out of a blue plastic bag from the Gap store.
Hall turned his back and chose the envelope with Mr. Yeager’s name inside.
Mr. Yeager, who died April 30 at 88, went on to serve Ocean Ridge for the next six years, including two as vice mayor and one as mayor.
“He had a lot of wit,” said his widow, Beverly White Yeager. “He was smart. Everyone said he was a gentle, kind guy, and he certainly was with me.”
During his time in office, the commission hired both Bill Mathis, who served twice as town manager, and Police Chief Ed Hillery, who retired after 17 years.
“I recall him to be a very efficient commissioner who was well-respected in the community,” said longtime Town Clerk Karen Hancsak. “He was very knowledgable and was definitely an asset to the town while he served. After he moved to Palm Beach, he would periodically stop by Town Hall to say hello and it was always a pleasure to see him.”
Weldon Osborne Yeager was born July 26, 1922, in Hillsboro, Ohio. A graduate of Wayne State University, he served in the Army Air Forces during World War II.
Active in Republican politics, Mr.Yeager once served in the Michigan state Legislature and was appointed director of that state’s Workman’s Compensation Department by Gov. George Romney.
In 1994, Mr. Yeager built a 14,000-square-foot home on an ocean-to-lake lot in Manalapan, but never moved in, choosing to live in Palm Beach instead. In 1999, the home, inspired by the architecture of Villa Vizcaya in Miami, was sold to boxing promoter Don King for $7.8 million, at the time the second-highest home price ever recorded in the town.
In addition to his widow, Mr. Yeager is survived by a son, Mark Yeager; a stepson, David Gilman; three granddaughters, one great-granddaughter, and a brother, David.
A graveside service was held May 3 at Roselawn Cemetery in Tallahassee.
Memorial gifts in Mr. Yeager’s memory may be made to the Royal Poinciana Chapel, 58 Coconut Row, Palm Beach, FL 33480, or Hospice of Palm Beach County, 5300 East Ave., West Palm Beach, FL 33407.
GULF STREAM — Sara Shallenberger Brown, the widow of the former chairman of the board for the company that makes Jack Daniel’s, Southern Comfort and Old Forester, died at her Kentucky home in April. She had just turned 100 years old.
Mrs. Brown was a vibrant and eclectic philanthropist who loved her family, a good horse race, and giving time, money and influence to her beloved environmental concerns, said longtime friend and part-time coastal resident Alex Campbell.
“She’s probably the smartest lady I’ve ever known,” said Campbell, who saw Mrs. Brown at her 100th birthday celebration in Louisville, Ky., a few weeks before her death.
“I’ve been with some smart ones, but I’ve never met anyone as smart as Sally.”
Born in Valdez, Alaska, on April 14, 1911, Mrs. Brown was the daughter of Ina Dowdy Shallenberger and U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Martin C. Shallenberger. Raised in various European Army posts, such as Serbia, Greece and Austria, she was the granddaughter of Ashton Cockayne Shallenberger, a longtime member of Congress and the former governor of Nebraska.
Campbell said he met Mrs. Brown when she was a young woman attending her beloved Sweet Briar College in Virginia, an institute she continued to support all her life.
Her husband, W.L. Lyons Brown, was the former chairman of the family-owned Brown-Forman Corp. Mr. Brown died in 1973.
But many years before his death, Mrs. Brown and her husband fell in love with the Gulf Stream area in Florida. The couple was instrumental in establishing the Gulf Stream Bath and Tennis Club and Campbell said Mr. Brown was the club’s second president. His wife was equally supportive, pushing the club’s growth toward what it has become today.
After Mr. Brown’s death, Mrs. Brown branched out with her philanthropy, supporting major national environmental concerns back in the day when “green” was certainly not a household word.
“She loved so many things,” Campbell said. “You’d think that everything she was on was her favorite charity.”
Her love for nature and preservation put her inside the boardrooms of many prominent organizations, including the Nature Conservancy, the Audubon Society, the Garden Club of America and the American Farmland Trust. She was a founding member of the Kentucky chapter of the Nature Conservancy and was key in developing Louisville’s Waterfront Park.
Still, while Mrs. Brown loved her old Kentucky home, she continued to return to Florida as often as she could, Campbell said, and visited Gulf Stream regularly until about a year before her 100th birthday.
Survivors include her four children, 12 grandchildren and 29 great grandchildren.
Campbell said she died peacefully, of natural causes. “When you get to be that age, I don’t think you need an excuse to die,” he said.
Funeral services were held May 4 in Louisville, which is where Mrs. Brown is buried.
The best part about being home is just that, being home. The family room with the soft couch and comforting backyard view.
The sound of car tires on the front driveway.
Her own bed, finally.
And while most things are rather the same — Her beloved dog, Max, is right there under the coffee table. Husband, Kevin, is padding around, somewhere. The whole gang was just over for Easter dinner — in the same breath, everything’s different.
“What matters is the relationship with your family and your friends,” says former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty, who just spent 22 months in federal prison for honest services fraud.
“It was a gift to have found that out,” she says.
If there were ever a time to first meet McCarty, it might be now. Once considered to possess two of the sharpest political elbows in town, she seems softer today.
Happier. Lighter.
And it’s not just the 40 pounds she lost walking most evenings at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, round and round the outdoor track, the fresh air keeping her company.
“I think I’ll be a better person,” McCarty says. “The best part of my life is yet to happen.”
Released from prison on March 24 — in short, she was sent there for failing to disclose years of free hotel stays, mostly in Key West (including during times when the hotel firm approached the county for their business) and voting on bond business given to her husband’s employer — McCarty’s journey from powerful politico to federal inmate number 73341-004 has been clearly surreal. (So surreal that she once stood on a Miami tarmac shackled, wrist to wrist, ankle to ankle, just admiring the sky.)
If all goes as planned, she’ll be eligible for home custody mid-May. That will mean no more five nights a week at the halfway house. In September, she’ll be eligible for probation.
That’s when the re-invention will really begin.
McCarty says she will never run for office again — right now, she can’t even vote — but would love to run somebody’s campaign.
The former commissioner sat with The Coastal Star inside her home one recent Friday evening. She’s still a federal prisoner, but each weekend she’s allowed to leave the Salvation Army house on Military Trail in West Palm Beach for about 53 hours. On weekends, she’s confined to home and someone from the halfway house calls the McCarty’s landline, willy nilly, day and night, to make sure she’s there.
And she’s always right where she should be.
Isn’t it tempting to take a quick walk? Pop over and say hello to the new neighbors? Zip down and peek at the ocean?
What could it hurt?
“I broke the rules once and I ended up in federal prison,” she says.
There’s no arguing with that.
They’re opting for stronger.
The power couple that met in Fort Lauderdale back in 1977 when she was a cocktail waitress and he was a bartender isn’t much of a power couple right now. Kevin has started consulting work as a strategic corporate planner.
They still own two homes: the coastal Delray Beach house and their home in Maine. McCarty, 56, says they’ve accumulated more than $700,000 in debt.
But they’re still a couple.
In June, they’ll celebrate 31 years.
When The Coastal Star first contacted McCarty to see if she would talk with us, she was reticent. “I’m not really doing interviews,” she said.
But here’s the thing.
If you rise up to become one of the most powerful Republican politicians in South Florida, get way too comfy in your padded chair, break some ethics laws, get caught and go to prison, aren’t you supposed to change? And shouldn’t people know about it?
In her opinion: She’s more patient, more empathetic, less judgmental.
And she’s less controlling — although, she can’t help suggesting that Kevin comb his hair before they sit down for the newspaper picture.
“It’s good to have her home,” he says, smiling.
When she got out in March, McCarty was dropped off at the tiny airport in College Station, Texas.
She stepped from the prison car wearing real clothes. Since she wasn’t considered a flight risk, she would fly home without a federal escort.
Knowing this would be the setup, Kevin had come out so the two of them could fly back to Florida together.
It was the first time they’d been alone, without guards, in 22 months, and he met her in fine form: There he was, a real sight for her sore eyes, with not only a hug but two sausage-egg McGriddles and a caramel latte.
Other travelers could not have known the emotion packed into that one, lousy airport meal.
The nightmare really was starting to end.
Although her life is still ruled by restrictions, some normal privileges are creeping back.
She has a cell phone. She’s allowed to drive. And she’s working for what she says is minimum wage, answering phones and doing light office work for a family friend, Delray Beach lawyer Reeve Bright. She can’t leave the Delray office during the workday, so friends come to her for lunch.
She’s booked well into the month.
“It’s pretty incredible how nice everyone has been to us,” she says.
You don’t go through something like this without bruises, some of them deep, some of them still very sore.
In Palm Beach County, McCarty was the third commissioner in three years to go to prison for honest services fraud. Former Commissioners Tony Masilotti and Warren Newell have completed their sentences.
In McCarty’s case, she says friends she thought would stick by her didn’t. Others came out of nowhere. In Bryan, McCarty always got the most mail.
“It was unbelievable,” she says. “People’s mothers wrote to me.”
And speaking of mothers …
The oldest of six children, McCarty says her fall was especially hard on her own mother, Jeanne Ray, who always pulled herself together quite nicely and visited regularly in Texas.
“What a crazy journey my life has taken,” says McCarty, smiling faintly when she says she’s the family’s first felon. “And the story is still being written.”
Coastal mayors will meet for lunch this month to see how they might help one another, share or contract out police and other municipal services and perhaps trim town budgets in the process.
Basil Diamond of Manalapan began contacting his counterparts to the north, south and west right after he was sworn in in March. Meanwhile, Ken Kaleel of Ocean Ridge invited Diamond and the mayors of Gulf Stream, Briny Breezes, Lantana and South Palm Beach to a get-together with him May 26 to meet one another.
“We have some new guys on the block,” Kaleel said of Diamond and Mayor Donald Clayman of South Palm Beach, who also just won a first term after serving as acting mayor for three months.
Kaleel said the main reason for the luncheon was social, “because not everyone knows one another,” but that common concerns would likely be discussed.
Manalapan commissioners, for example, continue to look for ways to reduce their police budget, currently $1.04 million a year, perhaps by taking over police duties for South Palm Beach and Lantana’s portion of Hypoluxo Island or having them taken over by Ocean Ridge or the county sheriff.
Diamond was disappointed with a brief phone call he had with Clayman.
“He did comment that he thought that everything was perfect in South Palm Beach and he didn’t want to consider making any changes,” Diamond said. “But I think that if we get to the point that we have some specific changes or proposals of common interest that we can make, that might change his position.”
Kaleel, on the other hand, was “extremely interested” in working together, Diamond said.
“He said to me that everything’s on the table. If we can find a more efficient way to solve municipal problems, be more efficient, he’s eager to do it,” Diamond said.
Manalapan wants to cut its budget 25 percent by 2013 and to match or beat Gulf Stream’s per-capita police and fire finances by 2017.
Manalapan residents each pay $5,720 a year on police, dispatching and fire services; Gulf Stream’s pay only $2,345, Manalapan Town Manager Linda Stumpf said.
Stumpf’s compilation showed Palm Beach residents pay $2,918 a year on police, fire and dispatching; those in Ocean Ridge pay $1,091 and those in South Palm Beach pay $614.
Diamond said he will keep calling his mayoral neighbors and hopes to meet individually with each one before Kaleel’s May 26 powwow. “So I think were making some progress in that direction,” he said.
Manalapan to improve police interactions
The cost of services is not the only hurdle facing Manalapan’s Police Department. Its chief just revised hiring procedures and took steps to improve how officers treat people following complaints from several residents and a task force investigation.
“We will try to meet everyone — residents, strangers, even criminals maybe for a few seconds — in the most polite way that we can, as long as we can control the situation and ensure safety for everyone involved,” Chief Clay Walker told Manalapan commissioners at their April meeting.
Walker also said he was assigning two senior officers to handle code enforcement duties and casting a wider net for applicants by using Internet job sites.
The changes were recommended by Town Commissioner David Cheifetz after he and residents Jack Murphy and Peter Isaac reviewed the Police Department’s recruitment and training procedures. Isaac the previous month had said he and his wife were not treated with proper respect during a code enforcement action.
“I think this whole thing could be a template for how we deal with issues in the future,” Cheifetz said.
Cheifetz noted that police officers receive extensive training in law enforcement but little guidance in code enforcement skills. “This situation is exacerbated with younger officers, who may not have had the life experiences to enable them to deal [with] the subtleties of code enforcement issues,” his report said.
Isaac had said a junior officer handled his code enforcement case.
Walker said he has changed the department’s application package to state that five years experience is preferred. “Hopefully, this will encourage more officers with prior experience to apply,” he wrote in a response to Cheifetz’s report.
Besides recommending that the best officers be assigned to code enforcement, Cheifetz and his team said the rest of the staff should get lessons on how to better deal with such incidents.
The suggestion did not sit well with Commissioner Louis DeStefano.
“If you have to train someone how to talk to residents in a polite way, you’ve got a problem to begin with,” DeStefano said. “I don’t think you should train somebody to do that. They have to have that to begin with.”
Municipal police and fire costs
Town Number Cost per resident
of residents for police, fire
and dispatch
Gulf Stream 720 $2,345
Lantana 9,704 $717
Manalapan 406 $5,720
Ocean Ridge 2,700 $1,091
South Palm Beach 3,200 $614
Source: Town of Manalapan
The Case of the Controversial Emails is over.
“I am absolutely reversing the punishment and supporting the finding that some punishment is necessary,” said hearing officer Kenneth Stern, a recently retired Palm Beach County circuit judge.
“But I feel that given all the facts and the history of this lady, a relatively minor offense is involved, a reprimand, a written reprimand in the file for one year is more than adequate certainly,” Stern said.
Watching Stern, Sliney, Brown and Brown’s attorney go over the case at Stern’s office in late April were former Mayor Jim Newill, Public Works Director Jack Lee, who took a half-day of vacation to support his co-worker, and nine others from Highland Beach.
The controversy appeared to have begun July 15 when Brown by mistake forwarded a joke to Town Manager Dale Sugerman, her supervisor. The email praised Canadians for being not politically correct atop a collection of non-PC billboards.
Sugerman investigated and found offensive jokes, including one using the N-word and alluding to President Obama. Town policy forbids employees to send or receive defamatory materials at work.
Sugerman decided to suspend Brown for a month, but she had 10 days to appeal.
The Town Commission intervened and told Sugerman to give Brown a written reprimand instead. Sugerman argued he could not do that until a hearing officer reviewed the appeal; the commission suspended him with pay for five months.
Tensions began earlier
Brown’s attorney, Erika Deutsch Rotbart, told Stern during the hearing tensions between the clerk and Sugerman started months before the billboard email was sent and involved unflattering rumors at Town Hall.
“After it came to the town manager’s attention that there was some form of gossip about a particular employee [and him]... his attitude toward Beverly changed,” Rotbart said. “Her (Brown’s) performance evaluation was not nearly as good as it had been previously.”
In a rebuttal to the evaluation, Rotbart said Brown insisted she was not involved in the rumors: “You stated that someone on the commission told you that I was dispersing gossip to them,” Brown wrote. “In order to clear my name, I contacted legal advice to see if there was any way to take a sworn deposition from the commissioner as this is an untrue statement.”
Shortly after Brown responded to the evaluation, the email probe began, Rotbart said.
“She felt as though he was finding any excuse and using this email — good, bad or otherwise — this email as something to try and, if you will, kind of hang her with,” Rotbart said.
Rotbart complained that Sugerman did not mention the rumors or the issue of possible retaliation in his official investigation, and she noted Brown had immediately told friends to send jokes to her personal email account.
“So she is reacting to the fact that, whoops, she got caught,” Stern said before telling Rotbart to focus on whether what the town manager did was unduly harsh.
Rotbart said it was.
“It wasn’t that we were saying, ‘Oh, she didn’t do this,’ “ Rotbart said. “She was apologetic, she understood the concern, she put people on notice not to do it. And, as far as we were concerned, either a verbal or written reprimand under the circumstances was more than appropriate.”
Did punishment fit the offense?
Sliney agreed the issue was whether the punishment fit the crime and said they also had to determine the best way to resolve the case.
“This matter has actually been probably one of the most difficult matters that I have been involved with since I have been the town attorney, which I have been for a long time,” Sliney said. “The matter has really put a pall over the town and it basically has divided many people in town.”
Sliney said he had given Stern Sugerman’s predetermination report, copies of Brown’s emails and an excerpt of the Jan. 4 commission meeting regarding the suspension. He noted the motion directing Sugerman to rescind the suspension passed unanimously, but left out the later vote to suspend him was 3-2.
“The best resolution of this matter is to follow that [unanimous] recommendation and to have a written reprimand placed in the town clerk’s file to resolve this matter and end it for once and for all,” Sliney concluded.
“Do you agree with that?” Stern asked Brown’s attorney.
“We do,” Rotbart replied.
“Well, so do I,” Stern said.
Positive evaluations
“One of the things that struck me,” Stern continued, “was the very big concern that the Town Commission had for Ms. Brown and an appreciation for what they obviously feel is her very fine work,… but also to the fact that she is undergoing right now treatment for a serious illness. …
“They made a big point, and one that should be made, that stress imposed on Ms. Brown, severe stress, could undermine the treatment,” Stern said.
He cited cases in which other judges ruled that even traditional punishments could be considered cruel and unusual when a prisoner’s health changed.
Stern also said the emails were inappropriate but tempered his critique.
“We can disagree with ethnic stereotypes but when we see a joke that invokes those, sometimes the joke is so darn funny that we laugh and then regret the fact that we laughed because we know the stereotype is not true or not fair,” he said. “I suspect that that’s the case with Ms. Brown with the kind of history she has placed on the record here as a very conscientious person.”
The conference room in Boca Raton erupted in applause when Stern announced his ruling.
“I’m glad it’s over with. It was an embarrassment,” Brown said afterward.
Newill, whose wife accompanied Brown to breast cancer treatments and who lost his re-election bid after Bernard Featherman made the email controversy a campaign issue, said he had no comment.
Stern, who admitted to Brown he had laughed at the Canadian billboard jokes, told her she is “obviously a fine employee. They’re lucky to have you.”
Expenses continue to grow
While Stern’s decision ends the case, bills continue to mount. Stern’s hourly rate was $375. Highland Beach also has retained Robert Critton Jr., a West Palm Beach labor attorney, to review its contract with Sugerman at rates of up to $400 an hour.
Brown said she had not decided whether to ask Highland Beach to pay her attorney’s fees.
Town commissioners sent Sugerman his annual evaluation in February but did not discuss it in public as they have in years past. In March they gave him no raise.
Sugerman’s contract runs until June 30. Commissioners advised him they would not renew his contract and decided at their May meeting to have Featherman and Sliney negotiate a full contract with Kathleen Dailey Weiser. Weiser has been interim town manager since Feb. 22, is paid $6,000 a month and has no benefits other than a car allowance.
Sugerman is collecting $11,667 a month and has a leased Highland Beach car during his suspension.
Commissioner Dennis Sheridan said employee morale under Weiser “is extremely better than it was months ago.’’
Also in employment limbo is Cale Curtis, the town’s deputy finance director. Sugerman last summer planned to hire a finance director, noting that town policy was to promote from within, and delete the deputy position.
Commissioners later told him not to hire department heads until he and they worked out a contract
extension.
Nancy Cudahy Touhey sits with her granddaughters Helen (left) and Mia and her dog, Niña, in her fairy garden.
By Mary Jane Fine
“When the first baby laughed for the first time, his laugh broke into a million pieces, and they all went skipping about. That was the beginning of fairies.”
— J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan
That laughing baby must have lived somewhere near Gulf Stream or, maybe, Albany, N.Y., somewhere, anyway, near Nancy Cudahy Touhey. How else to explain Fairy Garden South and Fairy Garden North, one in each of her backyards and populated with all those little winged creatures and their houses and fences and bridges and tea tables and birdbaths and, oh, all the rest of their Lilliputian lives.
“I’m awaiting a FedEx delivery of three fairies right now, including a baby,” Touhey says, leading the way past two towering ficus trees and a sun-spangled swimming pool. “The baby will probably sit in the playground area, and the other two wherever I feel like putting them. It’s all done by whim.”
Her whims have created this, this 10-by-30-foot patch of fairy-garden-within-a-garden behind Lemon Hill, the Touheys’ 1930s Colonial estate, just off A1A. This is an Irish fairy garden, the houses — none taller than a toddler’s knee — complete with bark-thatch roofs and pebble pathways. The fairy castle sits at the center, back against a veritable forest of palm trees, overseen by the Fairy Queen. That’s she, up on the turret, gazing down at the Fairy Princess who is, herself, fondly watching over an inch-long fairy baby.
Touhey created her Irish fairy garden four years ago, “because of all our Irish relatives, and Michael’s birthday was St. Patrick’s Day.” That would be former husband, Michael Cudahy, son of former ambassador to Ireland John Cudahy. Her original fairy garden came into being two years earlier, on the 160-acre Albany estate she owns with her philanthropist husband, Carl Touhey. The gardens owe their inspiration to a visit she made to a shop on Lake Champlain whose every corner, she says, “was filled with something charming, tiny teacups and little gardens.”
Acquiring the mini-folk and foliage is an ongoing pursuit.
“There’s so much available if you just spend the time Googling,” she says. She found online suppliers of fairies and fairy houses, dollhouse-size tables and chairs and gates and trellises, a teensy dog, a gazing ball the size of a marble, a basket of apples that are each as big as the eraser on a No. 2 pencil. She has found suppliers of miniature junipers and boxwoods, schefflera and bromeliads, bonsai versions of their full-grown relatives.
Granddaughters Lane, 15, and Maggie, 16, wandered through the Delray Affair last month and scored a squirrel, two frogs, a grasshopper and a fish to add to the little world.
Word of the garden has spread through area schools, and Touhey welcomes the children who come to visit it. She serves lemonade and Meyer lemon cookies, all made from the lemon trees just beyond the pool. The little girls, she says, usually rush to the table; the little boys tend to linger at garden’s edge, marveling over the detail of the miniature world.
Nancy Touhey still marvels a lot, too. “I check on it every day and maybe work on it once a week. Once I’m there, I’m there until someone rescues me,” she says, and laughs.
Her delight in her Fairy Gardens is partially her delight in the imagination. She remembers when her son Peter was small and his elementary school teacher told her, “We have to do something about Peter. He tells all these lies, and the other children believe him.” The latest fabrication had been about a pony that Peter said had followed him and was waiting outside.
“I reprimanded the teacher,” Touhey recalls. “I said, ‘It’s not a lie, it’s a story. Why do you try to squelch a child’s imagination?’ ”
She loves to quote her young granddaughter who, after visiting the fairy garden one day, said, “Nanny, the fairies are singing so fast I can’t understand what they’re saying.” Her smile, then, is one of pure pleasure.
“I think you have to have that power of belief,” she says. “It might as well be
fairies.”
On April 6, a 38-year-old Boca Raton man was killed in a collision with a truck along A1A in Delray Beach south of Linton Boulevard. I wish I could tell you more about this unfortunate accident, but Florida statutes don’t allow The Coastal Star to obtain the accident report for 60 days. Delray Beach enforces a law prohibiting access to accident reports for the purpose of contacting the drivers and occupants for commercial solicitation. Makes sense.
There are exceptions for newspapers — but they must meet certain criteria according to the statute and one of these is frequency. Although we are often the only newspaper to cover our local municipalities, our monthly publishing cycle keeps us from gaining access to accident reports before the end of the 60-day moratorium blocking release to the public.
So, when is a newspaper not a newspaper? When the law says we aren’t, it seems. So, until the statutes get up to speed with the changing mediascape, we may not always be able to give full reports about accidents along our main street.
With summer comes a reduction in the number of cultural events in our area. As a result, Palm Beach ArtsPaper takes a break — in print. Instead, ArtsPaper editor Greg Stepanich will write a monthly column featuring the “not-to-miss” events of the summer (this month on page 27) and, of course, continues to update www.palmbeachartspaper.com. In October, the print version will return with a special season preview.
I love that so many of you want to receive The Coastal Star at your northern homes. We make this possible for an $18 (annual or seasonal) subscription. If you haven’t signed up yet, you’ll find a form on page 10. Feel free to mail this in, or drop it by our office before you head north.
We mail these issues via bulk mail, so are at the mercy of the US Postal service. Please be aware that although we publish on the first weekend of each month, you may not receive your copy for a week or more. Of course you can always stay in touch via our Website at www.thecoastalstar.com.
Now back to spring-cleaning. Thanks for sharing my dust!
— Mary Kate Leming, Editor
LEFT: Jeanne Zuidema relaxes with her rottweiler,
Alicia, at their home in Lantana. Photo by Jerry Lower
By Jan Norris
When she retires May 31 after nearly 28 years as a Police Department dispatcher for Ocean Ridge, Jeanne Zuidema’s career is going to the dogs. Literally.
“I have a full schedule with the Rising Start Rottweiler Rescue organization,” she said. “I do fostering with them. Last year, we rescued 26 rottweilers and found permanent homes for them. But we need more foster families.”
But that’s only part of the story of a woman with several careers and interests.
“This (dispatching) is my fourth career,” she said. “Growing up, I wanted to be a teacher, or a movie star. I got to do both.”
In the early 1950s, Zuidema was the star of a children’s program Jeanne and her Magic Farm on Channel 5 in West Palm Beach. After a couple of years of entertaining the local tot set in black and white, she retired, got married and started her own family.
Once her kids were in school, she, too, went back to the classroom as an elementary teacher. That career lasted a decade.
“As a matter of fact, some of my students later became police officers,” she said. She would meet them during her later tenure with the Ocean Ridge Police Department.
After giving up teaching, she took up the guitar. While learning to play, she taught youngsters.
“It was 1967. Everybody got a guitar for Christmas. So we started a group.” Out of that grew a folk Mass youth group with 40 teens at the Holy Spirit Church in Lantana.
The kids came and went from the group, but for 15 years, a core group of six or eight young people stuck with it. With Zuidema, they formed the New Life Singers and began touring.
“We made a few records with Opal Records,” she said. “The teens who were 13 or so when we started graduated, went on to college or got married.”
Zuidema was newly divorced, and needed to support herself. Now what to do? “My brother-in-law was a police officer, and suggested that since I was so good with people, I would be a natural for the dispatcher job open at Ocean Ridge.”
She applied and got the job — and has been there for 28 years, through four chiefs and numerous calls.
“Mostly we get public service calls. We have time for public service because where other agencies are going from [live] crime-to-crime as it’s reported happening, we get a report of crime after it’s over.”
Petty theft, car break-ins — small stuff that still, in this city, is rare — are the norm.
One disturbing crime on the rise, she said, is domestic calls. “Most of it is related to substance abuse. Very rarely do we get a call in which both partners are substance-free. And, I’d say the stress of the economy as well is having an impact on the number of these calls.”
But the dispatchers are trained to take care of anything. “The most shocking call, I’d have to say, is out of the blue, the phone rings, and I hear the dispatcher say, ‘Is it completely severed?’ Some man had cut his arm completely off with a chain saw. He had left a suicide note and intended to kill himself.”
She also was there when a call came in from a person who had survived after two others in the house died from carbon monoxide poisoning, after accidentally leaving their car running in the closed garage. “You never know what you’ll get when you pick up the phone. You have to be ready.”
Dozens of calls involve lost pets — spurring Zuidema to partner with a police officer to create a Pet File program. “We just issued tag No. 1,000,” she said.
Office Wavell “Doc” Darville and Zuidema started the program in 1997, and a resident paid for the first group of metal tags. Dog (and cat) owners in Ocean Ridge can get a numbered tag for their pet, have a photo of the pet and its owner’s contact information put on file in the Police Department.
“It was traumatic for us, the pets and the owners. We had no kennel here, and we’d have to turn the pets over to Animal Control. There, the animal could pick up any kind of thing. So Doc and I came up with the ideas for the pet tags, with the Police Department phone number on them. We now have a big portable dog kennel and a smaller one we use for pelicans, too.”
This was one of the most rewarding parts of her job, she said, though she loves the public service work and says she’ll miss it.
She’s enjoyed the careers, the people she’s worked with and the variety of work she’s done, but isn’t looking back.
“I’m ready to move on. I was going to try to make it to 70 and 30 years, but I have some health issues. Thank God they’re not life threatening, but I’m definitely slowing down.”
But her idea of slowing down would weary others. Now 69, she plans to travel to her second home in Williston, S.C., to see her son in nearby Aiken. She wants to spoil her only grandson, a 22-year-old who is in a band. “It’s a good thing I have only one (grandchild). I’d have to have a whole bunch of credit cards to spoil them,” she said.
She says she’ll pick up her music once more, as well. “It’s always been important to me.”
And she’ll continue to practice reiki, a spiritual form of healing through touching. “I’ve been practicing on pets, family and friends. I have more clients that are animals than people,” she said.For her spending money, she’ll pet sit. That’s another sidebar. She started by keeping iguanas for her kids’ teachers over the summer vacation decades ago. People found out she’d be willing to keep iguanas, and she’s tended to several over the years.
“I have one now I was only supposed to be fostering that I got 10 years ago. Last I heard, his owner was in Europe. Willie became mine and lives in an outdoor habitat.”
To pet sit as a business just came to her one day, watching Oprah, she said. “She was talking about following your passion. I thought: what is my passion? Animals — I love working with animals. One of the girls who used to work with me had a pet-sitting business, and moved back to Kentucky. She turned her clients over to me, and the rest, as they say, is history.”
It was just one of hundreds of decisions she’s made that got her to this point.
“I have a very peaceful life. But,” she said, “it doesn’t happen by accident. You
have to make the choices.”
If you are interested in volunteering with the Rising Star Rottweiler Organization to foster a Rottie, call: 439-6351, or visit www.rsrr.org.
Julia Walker (l-r), Dr. John Wootton and Rita Ginsky of the Ocean Ridge Garden Club with the native planting at Ocean Ridge Town Hall. Photo provided
The Ocean Ridge Garden Club has installed a native garden at the entrance to the Town Hall.
Why native? Native plant landscaping contributes to the preservation and restoration of our natural heritage. It creates an awareness of the beauty of the plants native to South Florida and it is especially fitting for a public building to be adorned with plants native to the area.
A native garden has benefits beyond the beauty of the plantings.
At a time when we are drought-conscious, a native garden will help conserve water, minimize or eliminate the need for fertilizers and pesticides, and conserve energy resources. Once established, the plants will require minimal maintenance. A native garden also has the added benefit of attracting butterflies and birds.
The challenge in planning this garden was to select plants that could thrive in sometimes-harsh coastal conditions. All of the plants are wind-, salt- and drought-tolerant and suitable for coastal soil. A struggling red cedar was replaced with two 14-foot curved sabal palms. Seven thatch palms were planted between them to complete the centerpiece design for the garden.
The sabal palms are appropriate for the setting of the Town Hall; they are the state tree of Florida and appear on the state flag. A quarter of the grass was removed and non-native plants such as oleanders and struggling plants were replaced with 200 new dune daisies, coonties and dwarf schilling hollies to provide a border and architectural design to enclose the garden.
Two benches have been installed at the entrance to the garden in front of a gazebo-like structure. The shape of their pedestals mirrors the design elements of the cape architecture of the Town Hall. The benches sit atop crushed shells to further add to the native coastal theme. This is phase one of the garden that will continue to be refined. Future plans include plant labels and descriptions of their history and botanical characteristics.
This project owes its existence to the Ocean Ridge Garden Club, which provided the funding, and particularly to Julia Walker, chairwoman of the beautification committee, Zoanne Hennigan, president, Dr. John Wootton and Rita Ginsky. Two generous residents from Ocean Ridge donated the benches. Finally, Bob Glynn of the Delray Garden Center provided the necessary labor, machinery and much of the plant material at cost, allowing this project to become a reality.
— Rita Ginsky
The recently revived and moved Elwood’s in Delray (301 NE Third Ave.) seems to be hitting its stride — barbecue with a Virginia accent and a strong weekend lineup up of regional bands and the occasional national act, including The Dillengers and the HepCat Boodaddies and Johnny Ray’s ‘Elvis Thursdays.’ The locals get their shot on Open Mic Wednesday. Take H2O (above). That’s H as in Steve Hull and two Os, as in Billy and Bobby, the Ott twins. They play jazz. Bass player Hull and drummer Bobby live in Boca Raton. Keyboardist Billy calls Delray Beach home. They’re all pretty much retired, enjoying life and playing music for fun. And a plus for Elwood’s, they have a following: the loafer, khaki and buttondown crowd from beachside. Photo by Jerry Lower
By Thom Smith
NFL. Could be the No Football League this fall if the owners and the players union don’t cool off. Meanwhile, the players have no choice but to stay in shape, and a couple of tons of them were working out together in Delray Beach. Lockout or not, they’re also planning to do something to put the community in better shape with “Grid Iron Greats Blitz Delux” at Delux night club at 6 p.m May 26.
Organized by Prep and Sports Inc. and Kansas City Chiefs defensive back Brandon Flowers, who played high school football at Atlantic High, the bash will feature several NFL stars and hopefuls as celebrity bartenders. They’ll compete for tips and guests will bid for “dates” with them. Donations will go to programs that help high school athletes in Delray, Boca and Boynton improve their physical and academic fitness.
The Blitz is a kick-off event for Flowers’ Charity Weekend of comedy, bowling, a 7-on-7 high school football tournament and other events from July 7-10. (www.prepandsports.org)
Steffi Graf arrived on the international tennis scene just as Chris Evert was leaving, so tennis aficionados never saw them prime against prime. But come November, we’ll be able at least to see them on the court again. Graf, now married to Andre Agassi and mother of two, has committed to play in the Chris Evert/Raymond James Pro-Celebrity Classic, Nov. 11-13, at the Delray Tennis Center. It’ll be a class act.
Paying his dues … and loving it. In mid-April, Bobby Lee Rodgers was the morning wakeup band at the four-day Wanee Musical Festival along the Suwannee River in Live Oak. On the 27th, he opened for the Avett Brothers at SunFest, then was off to Key West, St. Pete and Orlando, before heading to Lake Worth for a May 21 gig at the Bamboo Room in Lake Worth.
Bobby hails from Augusta, Ga., where he naturally picked up bluegrass and then headed north to Boston, to the prestigious Berklee School of Music, where he became one of its youngest teachers ever, of jazz. In 1999, he formed The Codetalkers, which enjoyed some festival popularity, especially for his guitar work. The Codetalkers signed off for good in 2009, but Rogers and his trio, with a new CD, are still plugging away with a show that offers a little bit of everything.
“I’m having a ball,” he said after his SunFest set. “It was a great crowd, great sound. And I always love playing the Bamboo Room. Can’t wait to get back.”
With the likes of Rodgers and several other top acts, the revived Bamboo is barreling full speed into summer. The lineup includes: Albert Castiglia, May 7; Debbie Davies, May 12; Commander Cody, May 14; Jimmy Thackery & The Drivers, May 28; John Lee Hooker Jr., June 18, and Randall Bramblett, July 9.
In southern Palm Beach County, the trend seems to be two-for-one — two restaurants open for every one that closes. The latest announcement is the arrival in Delray of concept king Dennis Max. He’s taking over Susser’s old Taste space on Northwest Second Avenue and plans a June opening for Max’s Harvest. It’s a farm-to-table approach offering “clean, simple, unadulterated food” from local and regional growers and producers “that lets the land speak for itself.”
Max already has neighborly competition: Turkish owner Numan Unsal has converted an interior design shop into his first U.S. restaurant, and it’s garnering rave reviews. Sefa, which translates as “fare,” as in food and drink, shows a Mediterranean flair … and a fair price.
Tabbouleh, baba ghanouj, tzatziki, falafel, kibbe, kebabs, gyros, pasta, baklava and coffee done right, and the most expensive dishes on the menu are a mixed grill and Mediterranean dorado, both at $24. Most entrees, however, go for $14 to $18. Fridays and Saturdays, Unsal offers belly dancing … not with him, though, he’s in the kitchen.
One restaurateur who seems to continue defying the odds in Delray is David Manero. He’s close to the tracks on Atlantic with Vic & Angelo’s and The Office and now he’ll soon return to the beach scene with BurgerFi at the corner of Atlantic and A1A. Manero knows the place well; before the now departed but delightful Surf Sliders, he had Shore there.
Though it may conjure up gung ho images, BurgerFi has nothing to do with the Marines. Manero talks of the “burgerfication” of America, as if McDonald’s hasn’t done that already. But his fi is high — in quality with grass-fed, hormone-free beef, and all the fixin’s and in price with a 3.5-ounce burger (the Whopper is 4 ounces) starting at $5.47 at the flagship Fort Lauderdale stand. Fries start at $2.77, “real” Coca Cola (made in Mexico with cane sugar), $2.57.
Remodeling continues at a blistering pace as Manero plans a July 4 opening.
And for good measure, look for another high-profile addition to appear soon on the Delray scene. Rumors have Angelo Elia opening D’Angelo downtown in the near future. Elia’s Casa D’Angelo has been one of the top-rated restaurants in Fort Lauderdale for more than a decade, and he’s building a similar reputation at a his Casa in Boca. (No connection to the since departed Cucina d’Angelo, late of Boca Center, or Café d’Angelo, on West Glades Road.) D’Angelo reportedly will offer less pricey variants of Angelo’s Tuscan specialties. Stay tuned.
Up in Boynton, the WalMart is rising faster than a loaf of cheap bread, but the bigger news is barely a mile up the road. After observing the scene in Delray for several years, Clint Reed has decided to give Boynton a shot at Las Ventanas, the huge condo-commercial complex at the corner of Woolbright and Federal. He’s just opened Sweetwater Bar & Grill with plush leather sofas and chairs, craft beers, specialty drinks, upscale bar food and soon a band on weekends.
“I got a lot of my ideas from Tribeca in New York — it’s the hot place now — and San Francisco,” Reed said. “We wanted it to be a little bit more than a gastro pub.”
The commercial side of Las Ventanas isn’t exactly booming: Sweetwater is only the third occupant, but the residences are 81 percent rented.
“We’ve got 1,000 people living here,” Reed said, “plus we’re getting a lot of people from across the bridge.”
Forget Iowa. No way, New Hampshire. The 21st century spawning ground for presidential politics is Florida. Don’t be surprised if someday the Oval Office is renamed the Orange Office, which would be quite apropos if, by some quirk of the cosmos, one particular political noisemaker should take over.
As in Donald Trump. He continues to toy with the media and the American people, some of whom believe all this candidate talk is a ploy to boost ratings on Celebrity Apprentice and some who really believe he would make a great president.
Precedent? At the state level, we’ve had wrestler Jesse Ventura in Minnesota, terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger and “Gipper” Ronald Reagan in California. But no one has become president without holding some office before.
Europe has its version of the Donald. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made millions in real estate and then in the TV business, although Berlusconi is short (5-5, Trump is 6-2), and Trump isn’t saddled with a sex scandal. Berlusconi had hair transplants; Trump, well …
The Donald plows ahead, adhering to the philosophy that you can say what you want about him, just spell the name right. He doesn’t hesitate to steal the spotlight from anyone, be it Rep. Allen West at a Boca Tea Party rally or taking credit for forcing President Obama to produce his “long form” birth certificate.
So is he running, or isn’t he? He won’t fess up, but on at least two recent occasions at his Mar-a-Lago — a true gem of Trump’s remaking — eyewitnesses claim he requested presidential introductions.
Just before taking the stage at a March charity gala, Trump read over the master of ceremonies’ printed introduction, nodded a couple of times, then struck through the last sentence with his pen and wrote, “next president of the United States.”
At the April 15 Palm Beach Centennial kick-off reception attended by Gov. Rick Scott and Tea Party backer David Koch, he suggested to organizers that he be introduced as “the next president of the United States.”
Questions are being raised about Trump’s draft status and the absence of military service during the Vietnam War, his truthfulness about his wealth and his endeavors in pushing for Obama’s birth records. He’ll have to come clean soon, or the advice offered by a former president could ring true: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” — Abraham Lincoln.
Thom Smith is a freelance writer. Email him at thomsmith@ymail.com.
