By Steve Plunkett

The town of Gulf Stream is “regretful’’ it wasn’t able to stop a Walmart from being built across the street in Boynton Beach the way homeowners in Delray Beach apparently were, its town manager says.

“We’re still trying to apply pressure,’’ Town Manager William Thrasher said after the retail giant pulled rezoning and site plan applications in late September for the former Ralph Buick site on South Federal Highway in Delray Beach.

Gulf Stream Mayor William Koch Jr. plans to send a letter outlining the town’s concerns: that the Boynton Beach store not be open around the clock and not allow motor homes to park there overnight, that more landscaping be installed to buffer the site from its Gulf Stream neighbors and that the store put more emphasis on in-house security.

“If these could be enhanced upon or attained, it would be a great benefit, in my opinion, not only to our residents but to that entire section of Federal Highway,’’ Thrasher said.

Bob Ganger, president of the Gulf Stream Civic Association, monitors the Boynton Beach project because of its nearness to Place Au Soleil in the mainland part of town.

“Wal-Mart is known for having a pretty high crime propensity,’’ he told town commissioners at their September meeting.

Delray Beach neighborhoods close to the proposed store in their town — on Federal Highway just south of Linton Boulevard — claimed a ‘’huge victory’’ in a joint e-mail from the Tropic Isle Civic Association and Tropic Bay Condominiums.

“This was never a ‘done deal’ and was a very tough fight from the outset. Each and every effort on the part of local residents was critical in achieving the end result,’’ said Kelli Freeman and Ray Kempf, the leaders of the two groups.

By Tim O’Meilia

That’s how a revolutionary looks in Gulf Stream or coastal Delray Beach.

Meet Bill Luke, surgeon, pilot, medical missionary, model wooden ship builder, champion croquet player and — on Nov. 13 — the newest member of the Hall of Fame of the Croquet Foundation of America, based in West Palm Beach.

He’s the guy who roused the neighborhood against him in Delray Beach when he dared try to build a croquet court, which brings in a decidedly unruly crowd

He’s the guy who battled the establishment at the St. Andrew’s Club in Gulf Stream for years to build a nouveau croquet lawn.

It’s these uppity malletheads you’ve got to worry about. Pretty soon, the place will be overrun with wooden balls and manners.

That fact that there is a National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach — much less anywhere at all — is due in no small part to the maverick from Cape Cod. Luke was a major financial donor for the center, which was built in 2001 when the association had nowhere to go.

By then Luke had already built an impressive resume in the sport he first took up when his wife, Joan, pestered him into taking lessons at the PGA National Golf Resort in Palm Beach Gardens in the mid-1980s. A few of their British friends puttered about in the sport.

The Lukes were smitten. They began taking trips along the East Coast, playing in tournaments and filling their bookshelves with trophies. There’s no prize money in croquet. The only cash is what competitors spend to play.

“It’s all about the silver,” said Luke, referring to the trophies.

Luke, now 82 and nearly immobile with ALS, describes croquet as chess on a lawn. Unlike backyard croquet, wickets in the competitive game are barely an eighth of an inch wider than the wooden ball. Tactics are as important as talent.

He can barely speak now. His son, David, helps translate. He moves about with the help of a motorized chair and communicates through a remarkable software program that allows him to swiftly spell out words with the swish of a computer mouse.

“It’s a mental game,” Luke said of croquet. “You have to think four or five shots ahead. It involves shot-making skills and mind-boggling strategy.”

The Lukes tired of the drive from Gulf Stream, where they retired in 1985, to Palm Beach Gardens. So in 1990 they bought two lots off Thomas Street in nearby Delray Beach on which to build a croquet lawn.

Presto! Neighborhood interlopers. Nearby residents immediately organized, protesting what they thought would become a social club with attendant noise and traffic.
Eventually, despite numerous code violation citations, the basketball-sized court was approved by Delray Beach.

“That was more difficult than opening a brothel,” Luke said later. Many of the protesters became converts to croquet.

Luke suggested naming the short street leading to the court Wicket Way but he said city officials turned him down. It’s now called Luke Lane.

The Lukes turned their sights to building courts at the St. Andrew’s Club in Gulf Stream where they were members. The club had earlier tabled the idea — for a decade.

It was a rather sticky wicket. “The usual response at cocktail parties was, ‘What the #*&^@ is croquet?’ ” Luke wrote later. The Lukes pressed on, underwriting the cost of courts in 1996. Four years later, the sport had caught on so well that St. Andrew’s was host
for the International Golf Croquet Championships.

A plaque embedded in the lawn at St. Andrew’s notes that the courts are dedicated to the upstart Lukes.

The couple preached the croquet gospel up and down the East Coast. Luke and a friend resurrected the Cape Cod Croquet Club in Falmouth, Mass. He won the Massachusetts singles title in 1994. They built a home in Cashiers in mountainous western North Carolina and were hosts for tournaments at the Chattooga Club there. Luke won titles for four consecutive years.

“One of the great things about croquet is the many wonderful people you meet. Joan and I never went to a tournament without meeting a new best friend,” Luke wrote. “I have many great memories and not a single bad memory.”

When the National Croquet Center opened, the locker rooms were named for the Lukes, although he suggested the lavatory be dubbed “Luke’s Loo.” He has been a member
of the board of the nonprofit Croquet Foundation of America.

he has a great passion for croquet.”

Meanwhile, although officially retired, Luke helped organize doctors who made six trips to Central America to treat people who seldom have access to medical care.

Luke began noticing the early symptoms of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) in 1998 while he was still playing competitively. Occasionally he would lose his balance. He began limping.

It wasn’t until 2002 that the diagnosis became official. Luke gave up croquet, flying, boating and other pursuits. Joan died in 2005.

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive, degenerative neurological disease. The muscles become weak and waste away. “In time, the voluntary muscles of respiration fail, reducing vital capacity, resulting in pulmonary failure and death,” Luke wrote matter-of-factly about the affliction.

“ALS in most cases does not affect cognitive functions. The mind remains alert while trapped in a useless shell — the cruelest of diseases,” he wrote.

Those with ALS typically die in three to five years. Luke has lived with it for 12. He has made use of the time by becoming an advocate for research. He has testified three times in Washington and remains active in local support groups.

“Although I am pretty much an aphasic blob in a wheelchair, I remain as active as I can,” he wrote.

Luke said he was shocked when he learned of his nomination to the Hall of Fame. “My first reaction was no as I didn’t think there was a chance of it happening,” he wrote.

Hayes says otherwise. “He has been one of our irreplaceable members. It would be a big error not to have Dr. Luke in the Hall of Fame,” she said.

When he is inducted Nov. 13, he will be among friends in a gentlemen’s sport he helped to grow. Some kind of malcontent he is.

New signs that warn boaters of speed limits and note the possible presence of manatees in the Intracoastal Waterway could be months away from being installed.

The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission has plans for several new signs throughout Palm Beach County’s portion of the waterway — including some in areas not currently marked — based on a 2006 study of intracoastal boat traffic. But FWC waterway unit planner Shaun Davis said a variety of problems are keeping the signs away for now.

“We’re trying as hard as we can to get it going,” Davis said. The $100,000 project needs permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard to proceed, and then the signs must be ordered.

The sign delay comes on the heels of a deadly year for manatees. In all of 2009, 429 manatees were killed by weather, boaters and other causes. But 2010’s severe cold weather alone killed 246 sea cows, for a total of 640 through the end of August, according to FWC records.

While many of the signs Fish & Wildlife plans to install will replace those already in place warning boaters of speed limits and manatees, others are intended to cover previously unmarked portions of the waterway, according to Paul Davis, an environmental manager at
Palm Beach County’s Environmental Resources Management Department.

For example, “one area is at Woolbright Road,” he said. “There’s not a zone there, but there will be. It’s not enforceable: There’s no signs.”

The county’s Manatee Protection Plan pays for more than 2,300 hours of extra patrolling along the coast during manatee season, he said, but that doesn’t include the Intracoastal Waterway, which is the jurisdiction of the FWC.

The plan calls for the county to devote $200,000 to pay for the extra patrolling, via overtime for existing marine patrol officers from 10 law enforcement agencies. The money isn’t on the chopping block, although Palm Beach County government officials have been
wrestling with how to shrink their budget as property values drop, decimating county revenue.

Although budget cuts mean Delray Beach is cutting its marine patrol, that isn’t one of the county’s partner agencies for manatee protection.

FWC’s Davis said while there is a delay in the Fish & Wildlife signage, the effect on manatees won’t be very noticeable.

“There are signs there already,” he said, and it’s irrelevant to boaters why they are being asked to slow down, whether it’s for safety reasons or to avoid harming manatees.

But the delay worries Ronnie Svenstrup of Highland Beach. As it is, she said, many boaters ignore the signs that are in place and go far too fast. Their speed creates wakes that endanger people in the water, deteriorates mangroves — the pods of which provide one of manatees’ favorite foods, and property damage.

“We need more patrol in this area — more enforcement of the laws that they have,” said Svenstrup, whose condo overlooks the waterway.

Svenstrup, who is chairwoman of the Highland Beach Beaches and Shores Advisory Committee, is a boater herself. Her concerns, she said, have nothing to do with curtailing boaters from using the Lake Worth Lagoon. “I don’t want to stop anybody from having fun,” she said.

She’d like to see a restriction on wave height in addition to the speed limits and for others on the water to report speeding boaters. “If we had more people doing that on the weekends you would see people would start to operate safely,” she said. “Manatees would benefit. People would benefit. Property would benefit.”

While some manatees may be here now, the manatee season in south Florida is Nov. 15 through March 31, said Paul Davis.

Like snow birds, manatees crave the warmth of the waters here as water temperatures in other parts of the state cool.

“They’re snow-mammals, I guess,” he said with a laugh.

By Mary Jane Fine

Patrick McGlamery wasn’t nicknamed Squid for nothing. A water-baby who learned to swim at three months, he surprised no one when he dived into life guarding just out
of high school. He joined Boca Raton’s Ocean Rescue Department two decades ago
and rose to lieutenant after a dozen years.

Midday on July 18, waves ramped up a rip current that pulled Nicholas Donev under, in front of Lifeguard Tower 17, a usually quiet stretch of beach just south of Spanish River Park. McGlamery, just returned from lunch, was manning that tower.

One of the 215 men and women who guard Palm Beach County’s 47 miles of shoreline — and the lives of those who enjoy them — McGlamery knows the stereotype of his profession: sun-bronzed hunks who collect a paycheck for eight fun-in-the-sun
hours of sunbather admiration. He’s quick to define his job with the tongue-in-cheek one-liner: “a job that’s boring, punctuated by incredible bursts of activity.”

His more serious assessment: “Every day is different, unlike a desk job. The tides are always different. The wind is always different. It’s almost a matter of finding your Zen, just relaxing and enjoying what’s around you.”

On this day, what was different was Donev, a football player at Olympic Heights High School, out celebrating his 16th birthday with friends. A yellow caution flag was flying, but the moderate risk it signaled couldn’t predict the sudden waves that caught Donev and his buddy, Michael Maldonado, just on the far side of the sandbar, intensifying the until-then modest rip current.

McGlamery had kept his eye on the boys. When he spotted one “apparently going after” the other, he radioed a rescue, then launched himself into action. Within seconds, he was shoving a floating device to Maldonado. But Donev had vanished.

Statistics on drowning deaths vary, depending on the source, but according to B.J. Fisher, director of Health and Safety for the Virginia-based American Lifeguard Association, the U.S. records about 3,800 drowning deaths annually, including both ocean and pools.

wavelets. This is the slow season, those lazy, hazy, less-than-crazy days of late summer after the kids return to school and before the snowbirds descend.

At Tower 5, lifeguard supervisor Bob Black scans the water, where one woman bobs up and down close to shore, and a kayaker paddles out but not too far. “As you can see, it’s really calm out this morning. There are no sea pests, no jellyfish or nothing,” says the genial Black. “Today, I think we’re gonna be sittin’ and sweatin’.”

This is not a complaint.

“Whenever I think about being bored,’ says Black, “I think that in a couple of months I won’t be.”

The county’s beaches are guarded 365 sometimes-boring-sometimes-not days a year, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. But a lifeguard’s day begins even earlier, says Bob Taylor, Delray’s Ocean Rescue superintendent. Supervisors start at 7, everyone else at 8. They assess the day’s weather and water conditions; get rescue equipment ready — the watercraft and ATVs, the foam-filled and hard-plastic rescue buoys, the paddleboards and backboards and first-aid gear. They must be EMT-qualified within a year of hire.

And hiring, Taylor says, got easier when the economy got tougher, making better-paying jobs scarce. Now, he gets “dozens and dozens” of applicants for jobs that begin at $12.79 an hour. In the multipart test, a grueling physical challenge eliminates most: “We’d have to go rescue them,” says Taylor.

Rescues, of course, are lifeguards’ huzzah! moments, but avoiding danger is the real goal.

“We practice preventative lifeguarding here, directing people verbally or with a whistle, Taylor says. “That’s our focus now: to prevent people from getting in trouble rather than fishing them out.”

Black employed that method a couple of years ago when, manning North Tower 2, he noticed two people swimming in unguarded water that hid a rip current. He radioed a rescue and swam out. He’d covered 25 yards before the pair, a mother and 12-year-old daughter, screamed for help. And help was right there.

When McGlamery pulled Nich Donev from under the sea, he detected a faint pulse. Seconds later, on shore, he felt for a pulse again. There was none. Other lifeguards arrived. They did CPR. They did chest compressions. They turned him on his side to let water spill from his mouth. He began to breathe on his own.

Within two to three minutes, fire department paramedics were there with a bag-valve mask that gave Donev 99 percent oxygen with each breath. The paramedics transported him to the hospital, where he made a full recovery.

McGlamery recovered, too. During the rescue, he had little time to think. That night was different. “Every muscle in my body was tense,” he recalls. “I couldn’t eat. I was freezing cold. I had to turn the a/c up to 85.

“It was the first time in 20 years of lifeguarding I knew for sure that, without my intervention, this person would have lost his life.”

Two months later, when the Olympic Heights football team played Spanish River High, Donev had a special fan in the stands: Lt. Patrick “Squid” McGlamery.

Boca Raton: 50 lifeguards. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. every day, year-round. 561-393-7820

Delray Beach: 14 fulltime, 19 part-time lifeguards. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. every day, year-round. 561-243-7352

Boynton Beach: Oceanfront Park: 9 fulltime, 6 part-time lifeguards. 9 a.m.-5:15 p.m. every day, year-round. 561-742-6650

Lantana: 5 lifeguards (also responsible for guarding inshore and offshore coastlines of Manalapan and South Palm Beach). 561-540-5731

Palm Beach County: Includes Atlantic Dunes Gulfstream Park, Ocean Inlet Park and South Inlet, Boca Raton.

Lifeguard staff of 60 year-round and 20 seasonal guards oversees 13 ocean and inlet parks from Tequesta to Boca. Most are covered from 9 a.m. -5:20 p.m.

By Hap Erstein

Despite economic challenges, there are are two new venues on Boca Raton’s arts scene. A completely new art film complex is opening at the end of the month at Florida Atlantic University, and Lynn University’s new theater continues to expand its programming in its first full season.

Take the arrival of Living Room Theatres, four 50-seat luxury screening rooms at FAU, slated to open Oct. 29. By day, they will be used for the school’s film study program, but at night and on weekends they will open to the public with state-of-the-art, digitally projected foreign, independent and classic films.

“In hard times, people need something to entertain them and take their minds away,” explains Living Room co-owner Diego Rimoch. At a ticket price expected to be $9, $6 for seniors and students, “This is really a premium experience at a bargain price,” he adds.

She may be in academia, but she has the instincts of a commercial producer. “I think nonprofit, but I know that the bottom line has to be met.”

Run without public grants, the facility relies completely on ticket sales for one- and two-night concert events and on private donors. “I’ve been very fortunate in getting some very loyal sponsors who have been with me since the very first show that I did here,” says McArt, the former dinner theater producer turned academic. “There is definitely an atmosphere of the arts out there that is at least holding its own.”

Upbeat, but not without concern.

That is the way professional arts institutions describe their view of the season ahead, which they certainly hope will be the last for a while that is riddled with economic challenges.

“The verbal reports that I’m getting from our arts organizations are very optimistic, both with subscription sales and attendance at our museums,” says Rena Blades, president and chief executive officer of the Palm Beach County Cultural Council, the prime support agency for the area’s arts nonprofits. “It’s optimism with some caution over what the economy has thrown at us, mostly
in terms of private donations.”

“The economy is on everyone’s mind right now,” concedes George Bolge, executive director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art at Mizner Park. The museum is closed for $400,000 in renovations, but is expected to reopen Oct. 12. “I think that the arts really represent the great advancements of mankind. And at a time like this, a certain amount of pride in what you’ve accomplished kind of offsets the
weighted-down feeling you get with the economy.”

Now, says Bolge, “You would think it might be difficult for us in a monetary way, but people are flocking more and more to museums.”

“Guys like me, we call in a lot of favors,” Bolge explains. “That way, we can get these spectacular shows, but not at the kind of cost of a retail version.”

“The more carpet I have to replace, the better I feel,” says Bolge. Also being updated is the museum’s security system, which became antiquated over time.

Arts organizations may be watching their pennies, but they are not compromising on the quality of work they are presenting. “I haven’t seen our organizations sort of dumb down at all,” reports Blades. “I’m certainly not seeing it from our theaters.”

Like most organizations that depends on subscriptions or memberships, the Caldwell has seen a drop in those numbers. “I think that’s the area that gets hit the most, and it is not just the economy,” notes Cholerton. “People are less willing to commit to all four shows. They will still come out, but they’re
going to be more selective.”

Adding to the challenges that arts institutions face today are the difficulties of fundraising, particularly from the public sector. “The grants, of course, are disastrous,” says Bolge candidly. “The state and the county constantly cut the granting monies back.”

He mentions that seven years ago, Florida awarded $30 million to its resident arts organizations. This year, that figure will be $7,000, putting the state 49th in support of the arts.

No wonder the performing arts groups and museums are looking elsewhere for so-called “unearned income.”

The Caldwell has had some breakthroughs in that regard through the bolstering of its board of trustees. “Now people from the business world are approaching me, because they’re looking for opportunities to meet other people and develop business for themselves,” says Cholerton. “So now we have the ability to go to their businesses and say, ‘Hey, can you do a sponsorship of a production?’ ”

The already busy arts program at the Highland Beach Library had received a major boost, thanks to a windfall bequest from patron Sanford H. Goldstein, who left the facility $100,000 upon his death in July 2009. Library director Mari Suarez put the money into renovations of its multiuse community room, now renamed for Goldstein.

“We put in a new wooden floor, a new state-of-the-art sound and light system,” says Suarez with pride. “It is now a first-class state-of-the-art facility. I don’t think any library has this.” Harder is figuring out is a way to increase the number of concerts and art exhibits in the room. “My goodness, that room is occupied almost every single day of the week, but you can always increase by juggling the times,” she adds.

Ask Joe Gillie, longtime executive director of Delray Beach’s Crest Theatre, about his outlook for the season and he responds quickly with one word, “Excellent.”
He adds, “We are just trying to hang on and provide the services that we’re known for,” plus an increase in the arts complex’s educational component, like its new expanded photography classes. “People in this community are being more cautious with their dollars, but the arts are important to them.”

Even the Caldwell Theatre Company, which struggled this summer with two new plays that were sparsely attended, is increasing its programming and reaching out to new audiences. “We created Club Caldwell, a cabaret in our beautiful lobby, and starting it off with (local songstress) Avery Sommers for a night,” says Cholerton. “The hope is to attract the people who are not necessarily
traditional theatergoers that we can convert into that. If you are more creative with the way you do things, you can get by in times like these.”

Perhaps Cholerton sums the situation up best. “When you get into tough times, if you look at it from a different way, you can see a way around it. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it when you’re in the middle of it, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

By Margie Plunkett

The direction Boca Raton council gave its city manager on where to locate the new library: Two blocks north from the current building at the former Causeway Lumber site.

The council favored the new site 3 to 1, and made its wishes known after a Sept. 13 public hearing and years after voters approved a new library.

A one-story Library Commons facility won after the public and commissioners contemplated one- and two-story buildings as well as if the Florida East Coast railway would use the old library as a train station in the event the new passenger rail plan ultimately succeeds.

The selection was made over several options offered up by PGAL Architects, including renovating the old library in stages so that it could remain open throughout construction. The library is at 200 NW Boca Raton Blvd.

Seven years ago, according to Betty Grinnan, chairman of the Committee to Support a New Downtown Library, residents voted to build a new 52,500-square-foot library.
“There is no question the Causeway property — Library Commons — is supported by the library community.”

The largest facility option offered by the architect was 12,000-square-feet smaller than the size voters gave thumbs up to, said Bob Keltie, chairman of Boca Raton’s Library Advisory Board. He favored the Library Commons plan for several reasons, including that the one-story building under consideration would mean lower operating costs and 14 percent less construction time and would make management of library events easier.

Dissenting council member Anthony Majhess questioned a campaign of unsigned emails from Library Commons supporters, calling it “disingenuous” and wondering “if the
lobbyists are registered with the city as required.”

His concerns about the new location included whether Boca Raton would end up financially supporting the old library as an unused “mothball” building. “If it’s not fit for library patrons, I would imagine it would not be fit for others,” Majhess said.

The corner property with a two-story building would be more attractive, he said, noting concern that the parking lot, which could be shared with the possible train station, would be more of a hazard for children and others visiting the library.

Construction on a new library could begin in July 2011 on the Causeway site and take about a year and a half, with completion between August 2012 and March 2013, according to PGAL Architects’ anticipated schedule.

Another season is upon us, and that’s cause for celebration.

As writer Hap Erstein underscores in his report on the state of the arts in eastern Boca Raton and Highland Beach, our cultural leaders are cautiously optimistic in these times of economic strife.

Cautious optimism — that’s a sensible approach.

Find ways to grow, as Florida Atlantic and Lynn universities have done, with new film and performance spaces.

Celebrate the space you’re in, as Caldwell Theatre has done with a new cabaret series the theater hopes will bring in new audiences.

Take a gift and run with it, as Highland Beach’s library has done in updating its gallery and performance space.

Or take stock of what you’ve got, and spruce up your digs, as the Boca Raton Museum of Art is doing in its $400,000 renovation.

As this month’s Season Preview edition of the Palm Beach ArtsPaper shows us, there is much to savor. From art to music, theater to literary events, southern Palm Beach County has it all.

Festival of the Arts Boca, which for several years has brought together internationally renowned musicians and authors, has the potential of being the area’s largest cultural event, when it happens March 5 to 12 in Mizner Park.

And that’s in addition to concerts by Florida Atlantic University’s critically acclaimed Klezmer Company Orchestra and choral ensembles. Patricia Fleitas, director of choral studies at FAU, says it is her mission “to take our FAU choral program across Florida and even outside the United States.”

That’s a nice thought, and it’s a far cry from the southern Palm Beach County of my youth, when FAU had no vocal program to speak of, Caldwell Theatre’s home was in a mall and the Boca Raton Museum of Art was a small space on West Palmetto Park Road.

Making all those changes took vision.

And I’m hoping our cultural leaders have the vision to take their institutions on their next steps into the future, whatever it holds.

— Scott Simmons,

Managing Editor

By Thom Smith

Mustard and ketchup. Bees and honey. Beer and pretzels. Abbott and Costello. The Miami Dolphins and Boca Raton. They just naturally go together.

Lots of Dolphins alums live in the area. Hall of Fame center Dwight Stephenson recently competed in Boca’s Ballroom Battle dance contest. Former running back Keith Byars coaches at Boca High.

But the relationship to Boca is nearly half a century in the making. Way back in 1966, when Joe Robbie put the team together to play in the American Football League, where did the Dolphins practice? At St. Andrew’s School, which also is where the movie Paper Lion was filmed in 1967, thanks to Dolphins and former Detroit Lions Coach George Wilson. (Also
take note that Paper Lion proved the springboard to fame for three future stars: Alan Alda, Lauren Hutton and Alex Karras (who actually came close to becoming a Dolphin).

Times have changed. Pro football may have been big money back then, but now the stakes are huge, both inside and outside of the stadiums. Boca’s mantra: When the Dolphins are away, the Dol-Fans will play … at Mizner Park.

The Dolphins and the city have teamed up to produce “South Florida’s biggest away-game parties” every time the Fins play somewhere else. Several thousand fans are expected at noon on Oct. 17 for the third party of the season and organizers hope the game against the Packers in Green Bay goes as well as the first two, against Buffalo and Minnesota.

“It was great; we had more than 1,500 show up for the Minnesota game,” event publicist Jon Kaye said. “The restaurants were extremely happy. Uncle Julio’s had more than 400 covers.”

Admission is free; so is parking. Special guests will include Dolphins alumni, some conducting clinics for youngsters, the Dolphins cheerleaders and the T.D. Fins Force. Large-screen TVs will be set up around the park so fans can watch the game; games and
bounce houses are set up for the kids while adults can compete for memorabilia, game tickets and travel packages; area restaurants offer game specials. For details, go to www.downtownboca.org.

Boca has another Dolphin link — Howard Schnellenberger. Now head coach of the Florida Atlantic University Owls, Howard first came to South Florida as the Dolphins offensive coordinator when the team went 17-0 in 1972. He later led the University of Miami to its first national championship and built Louisville into a national power.

The Owls are slowly working their way up the ranks. With its bid to the New Orleans Bowl in 2007, FAU became the youngest program to play a bowl game in NCAA history. Now playing their 10th season under Schnellenberger, the Owls have just attained another major goal, not on the field, but in the offices of the state’s Board of Governors. On Sept. 16, the board approved FAU’s plan to finance a $70 million, 30,000-seat stadium complex with 20 luxury suites plus student housing and a retail area.

The groundbreaking ceremony is set for Oct. 16 at 4 p.m. with a tailgating party to follow. Construction equipment already is on site. University officials hope the stadium will be ready next fall.

“The stadium will provide a wonderful opportunity for us to come together as a ommunity, building traditions and enhancing the university experience,” Schnellenberger said.

Soon, however, the school administration will have to make another big decision: a name for the stadium. Schools name buildings for donors, mascots, famous graduates, noted Americans. De Hoernle is everywhere in Boca; so is Mizner; Lynn, too!

It shouldn’t be called the Owls Nest because the original residents of FAU dig holes. Save “The Burrow” for a campus rathskeller. I’ll throw my two cents in right now and propose a simple, obvious solution that recognizes the one person who’s put FAU sports on the map. Call it Howard’s House.

Boca, of course, is loaded with restaurants, so naturally they want to put the word out so they can draw the customers in. On Sept. 14 and 15, Mizner Park hosted Tastemakers, a progressive tasting of food and drink samples at 10 of its prime eateries: from shepherd’s pie and mac and cheese at Dubliner to Asian spiced duck taco at Max’s Grille. Great deal for $25 a ticket, and most of the 1,200 guests, double last year’s turnout, didn’t mind that service at some restaurants was a little slow.

At $100, the price was a bit higher for the Fifth Annual Signature Chefs & Wine Extravaganza, Sept. 24 at The Boca Raton Resort & Club, but then the bash featured 31 restaurants and benefited the March of Dimes. Gourmet finger food at its best, served by some of the area’s top chefs, fine wines, an auction of special dining experiences from the chefs — ah, heaven.

And to top it off, the crowd wished happy birthday to Henrietta de Hoernle, who was honored for her contributions to the community. It was her 98th.

www.bocahistory.org.

***

Come to the Cabaret, as mounted at Caldwell Theatre by Entre’Acte Theatrix, a new production company from Palm Beacher Vicki Halmos. The show will run from Oct.
14-24. Halmos’ goal is to “give emerging talents from South Florida the opportunity to get those critical professional theater credits before contemplating a move to New York, or any other larger arena. Unfortunately, professional performing opportunities for these young artists are relatively scarce in our area, in comparison to other municipalities around the country.”

Kimberly Dawn (KD) Smith, a protégé of the late Broadway wunderkind Michael Bennett, who a recently handled a local production of Hair, will direct and choreograph.
Call 561-241-7432.

Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place are home to new restaurants and new concepts

Happy hour here draws bar patrons for signature cocktails and half-price appetizers. The restaurant swings after dark, when the indoor-outdoor bar sees the action, and the music is ramped up for a club-oriented crowd.

By Jan Norris

The pest from the Pacific Ocean called a lion fish could soon be called dinner.

Scott Hardin, exotic species coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said marketing the predator that’s attacking native fish on South Florida reefs as an edible seafood is entirely plausible.

“I really don’t know what it tastes like — I’ve never eaten them — but yes, they’re edible. Plenty of people have. It’s actually part of the management strategy used in the (Caribbean) islands,” he said.

The lion fish, one of a number of fishes in the Scorpaenidae family, is now a concern on reefs off Palm Beach County. A nonnative species introduced largely by saltwater aquarium owners, the fish has no natural predators here, Hardin said. Environment watchers are afraid the fish may take over natural habitats and decimate reef fish populations if left to multiply,
so fisheries staff members are training others — divers and anglers — to catch
and destroy any lion fish they find.

Compounding the problem is that the fish is venomous — its long spines give those who touch it a sharp sting, similar to that of a severe jellyfish sting, Hardin said. “In most cases, it’s not fatally venomous. You don’t want to get stung by them, or spined as it were.”

Anglers and divers, groups that the FFWCC are working with to catch the fish, must be taught how to handle them safely; this may deter their being sold as a food fish in seafood departments anytime soon.

Beachgoers have little to worry about however, Hardin said. “They’re saltwater animals. We know they’ve gotten to near-shore waters — they can hang around bridge pilings and rubble around them — but typically they’re on the offshore reefs.”

Nobody has a clue as to the current population, but the growing number is troubling. “We’ve got something that can eat a lot of stuff. They’re indiscriminate about eating reef fishes,” Hardin said. “They reproduce after two years, then can reproduce many times a year, constantly pulsing out eggs in their unique reproduction method.”

There’s hope they may become dinner for other reef fish, though. “A couple have turned up in some Goliath groupers, and a lot of folks think those fish will eat them,” he said.

Hardin finds this new intruder an educational challenge. “All our other exotic predators have been on land or [in] freshwater. This is really the first marine animal we’ve dealt with, and we have yet to talk to a lion fish expert. They don’t have any natural enemies on this side of the world, so not that much is known about them. We’ll be learning as we go.”

Residential trash collection rates will fall as of Oct. 1 after commissioners voted to reduce them about 3 percent. Despite the rate cut, many commercial users will see costs go up, because the Solid Waste Authority raised disposal charges, according to a memo from City Manager David Harden to commissioners.

Waste Management will lower total monthly fees for residential service to $12.62 per unit from $13.02 previously. Total fees for rear-door pickup will drop to $22.14 from $22.87.

Commercial fees vary more widely than residential, but a commercial user with a two-yard collection once a week, for example, will rise to a monthly charge of $93.60 from $90.61

— Margie Plunkett

By Tim O’Meilia

South Palm Beach police officers are following the lead of those in neighboring Manalapan and will join the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association.

The town’s five rank-and-file officers voted unanimously last month to have the PBA as their collective bargaining unit, the first union in the town’s 52-year
history.

Mayor Martin Millar, a retired police officer and firefighter, said he expects the first thing the union will ask for is more officers, something the mayor said he will support.

The Town Council last month reduced the force from 10 to eight in the budget year that began Oct. 1. One slot has been unfilled for about a year and an officer was fired last month. The police chief, captain and lieutenant are not included in the union.

Millar was the only council member to oppose the budget, partly because of the police cuts and partly because he wanted a smaller budget to reduce taxes.

Millar questioned Police Chief Roger Crane about the diminished force. “It would be nice to have the extra officers to have the nights covered by two officers,” the chief said.

He juggles the schedule, using the police captain and lieutenant to make sure two are on duty until midnight. “So far it’s been working out,” he said.

“We have as much protection and backup as we need but if you want to add a ninth guy, I’ll take him,” Crane said.

It’s likely the town will hire a labor attorney to deal with any proposals made by the union.

By Steve Plunkett

Coming to your mailbox as soon as this month: a straw ballot asking whether the town should spend $4.6 million to bury electricity, cable TV and phone lines.

Town commissioners unanimously agreed at their September meeting that Town Manager William H. Thrasher should draw up a ballot question much like the straw polls Jupiter Island and Jupiter Inlet Colony used.

Jupiter Inlet Colony households endorsed their project by a 3-1 margin, said Dan Comerford, its vice mayor. The straw ballots went out in August and had to be returned by Sept. 8.

“We’re putting together the work documents right now,’’ Comerford said. His town’s project is set to start the first week of January and be operational in August. Power lines and poles would be removed by the following October.

“The beauty of it is, everything is going to be brand-new, everything is state-of-the-art,’’ Comerford said.

Still being determined in Gulf Stream: each household’s actual cost and whether the town will borrow the money through a bond issue or from some of its wealthier residents.

Mayor William F. Koch Jr. prefers asking residents to help rather than pay bankers’ fees.

“That’ll save us a lot of money and let the people here have first crack,’’ Koch said.

Residents will likely be able to pay the entire cost up front rather than with interest over time, Thrasher said. Already a bank and a resident have contacted him interested in lending the money, which he said will make Koch happy.

“The mayor wants to make this a community event,’’ Thrasher said.

Comerford said he tells Jupiter Inlet Colony residents to determine how long they’ll be living in town and to check with a tax adviser before deciding whether to pay the entire bill at once, especially since interest rates are low.

“Most of the people in town could afford to pay it, but most I suspect will not,’’ he said.

TOP: What is believed to be the original Delray Beach pavilion is seen on July 4th, 1916. The runners in the photograph are holding small American flags. This structure existed until the 1926-28 hurricanes.

MIDDLE: Volunteers built the “classic” pavilion in 1929 with money raised in the community. It was destroyed in the 1947 hurricane.

BOTTOM: The current pavilion is south of where the earlier ones were located at the corner of A1A and Atlantic Ave. According to Dottie Patterson at the Delray Beach Historical Society, “The previous location made a beautiful view looking east from the bridge as the pavilion was framed by colonnades of tall Royal Palms.” Photo by Jerry Lower
Postcard and historical photographs courtesy of the Delray Beach Historical Society.