By Jane Smith

Delray Beach city com-missioners were pleasantly surprised on April 13 to learn that 91 people had applied to be the next city manager.
The commission plans to set a deadline for applications during its May 4 meeting.
The position became open in November when the commission fired George Gretsas by a split vote. The search for applicants was announced in mid-January.
At the April 13 workshop, Human Resources Director Duane D’Andrea said his staff winnowed the 91 applicants down to 26 people who met the minimum qualifications.
The 26 then were divided into four groups, based on their professional experience. The four categories are:
• City manager experience in a full-service city.
• City manager experience in a limited-service city.
• Assistant city manager experience in a full-service city.
• Applicants who had served as a strong mayor or city administrator in a strong-mayor city.
D’Andrea defined a full-service city as one that has its own police and fire departments.
The top five choices were shared with four of the five commissioners. Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson was unavailable and did not receive the information.
Two commissioners who had proposed that interim City Manager Jennifer Alvarez get the job were on opposite sides of the discussion on the quality of the applicants.
Deputy Vice Mayor Adam Frankel said, “With the five choices that I reviewed, I could not select any of the five.”
Commissioner Ryan Boylston, though, was bullish on one candidate. “The list of accolades was a page long,” he said.
Boylston said the city received good applications. For leads on more candidates, he recommended that D’Andrea talk with Laura Simon, the Downtown Development Authority executive director, to find other Florida cities that are well run.

By Dan Moffett

Like many South Florida municipalities, Manalapan is struggling to keep its building code in line with a fast-changing world.
A statewide construction boom, coupled with new flood elevation standards from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have forced the Town Commission to overhaul code requirements that have been on the books for decades.
The issue in Manalapan is captured by a picture that has become familiar along the state’s coastline: a new home sitting significantly higher than the existing, older homes beside it.
Mayor Keith Waters describes it as “almost a stairstep.”
FEMA, in response to rising seas, has issued guidelines that set 100-year flood elevations substantially higher, and this is changing coastal neighborhoods.
“The most significant impact this has on Manalapan properties pertains to flood insurance rates and minimum building pad elevations going up,” says Thomas Biggs, the town’s engineer from Mock, Roos & Associates.
“Many homeowners contemplating major renovations or structure replacements desire to construct their new homes above the 100-year flood stage to protect their families and investments. … Unfortunately, Manalapan has existing building codes in place that restrict the heights of new construction.”
Raising heights of new construction unleashes a whole new set of complications and unintended consequences. One result can be that storm drainage from the higher, new construction floods onto the lower, existing properties next door.
The solution Biggs proposed to Manalapan is to allow higher retaining walls along the side property lines to keep the stormwater flow on the higher lot.
During its meeting on April 27, the Town Commission unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance that will change the town’s building rules for retaining walls.
“We certainly anticipate that there’ll be variances to what we do,” Waters said, acknowledging that the commission can’t contemplate every situation ahead. “But we’ve established a baseline. It’s a starting point.”
Town Attorney Keith Davis said the code revisions to comply with FEMA will have no impact on the size of houses but will allow construction to move higher.
“The only thing that is changing is the height of the dirt they are sitting on,” Davis said of the houses.
Commissioners have more work on codes ahead. Docks are going through a similar period of change as seas rise and building trends follow.
Town Manager Linda Stumpf said at the next meeting, May 25, she will bring proposals to the commission for new language regulating dock and boat lift construction.

By Mary Thurwachter

With Town Manager Deborah Manzo’s imminent departure, the Lantana Town Council has begun its search for her successor. Manzo, who began working for the town in 2012, announced in March she had accepted a position as administrator in Okeechobee County. Her last day will be June 19.
In the meantime, Development Services Director Nicole Dritz was appointed to serve as interim manager, working beside Manzo to learn the ropes.
The council also agreed to choose a selection committee, hire a search firm, look for a recruiter, advertise the position and talk further about how to best include residents in the selection process.
“Nicole has the experience and has worked under Debbie,” council member Lynn Moorhouse said at the April 12 meeting. “I recommend she be moved up to work under (Manzo’s) wing because she’s still got all the information about this town that is extremely valuable.”
That would help in the transition, Moorhouse said. “And, if down the road we go ‘this is really working out nicely,’ if we wanted to leave Nicole in that position, could we do that without going through the search and interviewing process?”
That could be done, Town Attorney Max Lohman answered. “A search isn’t necessarily required and you could promote from within.”
However, council member Mark Zeitler said he thought the town really ought to do a search.
“We’re looking for a town manager that’s got some experience. Nicole is right now tied up with her building services.”
Moorhouse said he had no issue with a search.
“We’re not going to find somebody between now and June 19. You don’t want to put somebody new in here who doesn’t know the town. … I can see this really going to pot June 19 if we have a stranger we’re still interviewing.”
Once the council hires a search firm, the process would take several months before the position is filled, Manzo said. Having an interim manager in place would be wise, she said.
“Nicole has been the town clerk before,” Manzo said. “She’s also been the interim library director and helped out and did projects and public works when we were going through changes with the director and assistant director. She has a variety of knowledge that would be useful.”
At the town’s April 26 meeting, the council agreed to hire Colin Baenziger & Associates executive search firm — the same company Lake Worth Beach has employed to find a replacement for its departing city manager, Mike Bornstein — for a cost not to exceed $26,500. Lantana’s search will be limited to candidates within the state.
Mayor Robert Hagerty said that the town had received a letter from Bornstein, who was Lantana’s town manager before Manzo, expressing an interest in the Lantana job. Bornstein announced his resignation from Lake Worth Beach in April.
In other action, the Town Council:
• Created a new position in the development services department to be paid for by the building and permitting fee restricted reserves. The job, with salary and benefits costing $87,845, would require the employee to inspect construction sites for compliance with town and state laws. Ú

By Jane Smith

After canceling the celebration last year, Boynton Beach will host its Fourth of July event at the city’s Intracoastal Park, commissioners decided April 20.
To ensure social distancing of 6 feet, Boynton Beach marketing staff recommended limiting attendance to 3,500, requiring a ticket system and installing fences and gates, said Eleanor Krusell, the city’s public communications and marketing director.
She added that no children’s activities or play areas will be available, another precaution against the spread of the coronavirus. Fireworks will be set off from a barge in the Intracoastal Waterway.
In 2019, Boynton Beach police estimated that 6,000 people had packed the waterfront park for the Independence Day event, Krusell said.
Delray Beach will hear options for Fourth of July festivities at the May 4 City Commission meeting. Lantana plans to shoot off fireworks on July 4 at the town’s Bicentennial Park while celebrating its centennial. Boca Raton will not host an Independence Day event this year.
Boynton Beach marketing staff had wanted to hold the July 4 fireworks at the city’s Oceanfront Park. Doing so, they suggested, would allow two linear rows of viewing, on the beach and on the boardwalk.
The fireworks would be set off on a barge in the ocean that would add $9,000 to the cost.
Boynton Beach owns the Oceanfront Park beach, but it sits within Ocean Ridge and is subject to that town’s rules. The Ocean Ridge town manager told her counterpart in Boynton Beach that it was unlikely that town commissioners would agree to give the city a special-event permit for the fireworks.
Ocean Ridge has canceled all events because of the pandemic, said Lori LaVerriere, Boynton Beach city manager.
“Rule it out this year,” LaVerriere said.

By Mary Thurwachter

After an hourlong discussion with robust input from residents, the Lantana Town Council unanimously agreed on April 12 to reimburse former Mayor Dave Stewart for legal expenses he incurred defending an ethics charge.
The charge stemmed from a sexual harassment allegation made by Catherine Phillips Padilla, who accused the former mayor of asking for sex in exchange for his approving speed bumps on her street six years ago. Stewart was exonerated by the Florida Commission on Ethics in 2019.
Stewart’s legal expenses included $41,699 for attorney’s costs and $5,302 for private investigation charges, for a total of about $47,000.
Finance director Stephen Kaplan said attorneys from the town’s insurance pool (Public Risk Management) said that Stewart’s court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees are to be reimbursed under Section 111.07 of the state law. Investigative fees, on the other hand, are at the council’s choice.
Most residents who spoke on the matter favored paying Stewart for both attorney and investigative costs.
“I do believe the investigative fees are a part of the lawsuit,” said Hypoluxo Island resident Media Beverly. “The attorney’s fees and the costs should be reimbursed. The investigative fees are clearly part of that. And, because Mr. Stewart as mayor was exonerated during the ethics proceedings, I believe there should be full reimbursement for both.”
Another island resident, retired lawyer Erica Wold, agreed. “There’s clearly precedent for this. And basically, legal representation is very impossible without incurring the costs of an investigation. You have to put this in perspective. Stewart was mayor for over 20 years. He took us from debt to $9 million in reserves. He had an average salary of $500 a month, which for over 20 years, is about $6,000 a year. That’s about $120,000.
“Now he just incurred $47,000 in connection with being a mayor. Over 20 years and this complaint comes and he was clearly cleared of it. Frankly, common decency dictates that you reimburse him.”
Chamber of Commerce President Dave Arm said the private investigator was needed and should be paid by the town.
“This all happened because Dave Stewart was mayor and somebody decided they didn’t want him to be mayor anymore,” Arm said. “It could happen to any one of you. And as people have said, you’ve got to make sure that the town has his back. He did a great job.”
Hypoluxo Island resident Bob Fritts said that failure to approve the legal expenses would discourage people from running for political office. “If the town doesn’t have your back when you’re exonerated, who is going to want to take the chance again?” Fritts asked council members. “In today’s political environment, this could be one of you six months from now.”
Two residents asked that the council delay action on paying the expenses because they wanted more detailed explanation of the attorney fees.
Jennifer Wink, who said she represented the residents of James Place at 1206 S. Lake Drive, wanted more transparency in the attorney fees. “They would like to know if it could be tabled and they can do more research, because while this may have been going on for a long time, many people were unaware that this was an option.”
But the Town Council said it was ready to act and followed the advice of Town Attorney Max Lohman.
“But for former Mayor Stewart’s position as being mayor, such a complaint could not have been levied against him and the costs were necessary and incurred in the course of the defense of the matter,” Lohman said. “For that reason, I offered you the opinion that, while I believe it is still up to your discretion, I encourage you to reimburse the costs.
“I believe there is very solid case law that supports the claim for reimbursement of those fees. It would seem manifestly unjust to require the mayor to litigate the town to recoup fees that he only incurred because he was the mayor. The investigative costs were part of that.”
As to what Wink referred to as “a vagueness” in attorney fee charges provided in the agenda packet, Lohman said that a detailed synopsis under the circumstances would be voluminous.
“When you have a case that goes on this long, the bills end up being quite detailed and long and so he did a synopsis,” Lohman said of Stewart’s attorney. “Knowing it was going to be submitted for an agenda item, I suspect that one of the reasons the attorney just did the synopsis was not only to keep the amount of paperwork brief, but also when you do billing and you are representing a private client, those bills are attorney-client privilege due to the content of the bills. It is not uncommon for an attorney to redact portions of the bills quite extensively.”
Lohman added: “For the amount of time this case went on and the amount of hourly rate that was being charged, $40,000 is not a lot of money.”

Separate from interchange work, construction slows southbound morning traffic between Linton Boulevard and the Congress Avenue exit. The work in each direction will allow for toll express lanes to connect with those in Broward County. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

From Linton north, expansions necessary to ease backups have uncertain start dates, face fight for funding

By Joel Engelhardt

When traffic engineers peered into their crystal ball in 2015 to study Interstate 95 interchanges from Delray Beach to Palm Beach Gardens, they saw a major need. 
Not just a need to add lanes to handle ever-growing traffic on the major north-south highway.
They saw 17 interchanges of 17 studied between Linton Boulevard and Northlake Boulevard where congestion is expected to get so bad that traffic would spill over onto the main highway and cross traffic would be forced to wait longer and longer to let vehicles enter and exit the highway.
The $1.7 million study by consulting engineers Kimley-Horn put into motion a plan that could reshape the interstate over the next 10 years, with $450 million in projects teed up, even as the state rebuilds the Glades Road interchange and adds express lanes from Boca Raton to Linton Boulevard.
Five of the 17 interchanges studied are in South County, and the work on one of those five is already done. Atlantic Avenue opened in April after a two-year, $5.2 million project to split traffic on westbound Atlantic so that the two far right lanes are separated and drivers can choose northbound or southbound entries to 95.
No work is expected on the remaining four South County interchanges until October 2024. After that, plans call for construction to start on a South County interchange every year through 2027. 
The Boynton Beach Boulevard interchange, with a $61 million total project cost, is scheduled first. Next are the $28 million Linton Boulevard job, scheduled to start in October 2025, the $40 million Woolbright Road job in 2026 and the $97 million Gateway Boulevard reconstruction to start in 2027.
But those dates are far from fixed. 
Most of the interchange projects in the five-year plan scheduled to be approved in June by local officials on the Transportation Planning Agency, including Linton and Woolbright, are stuck in a logjam of projects likely to be spread out over years.
Picture a field of horses jockeying for position at the start of a race. The issue is too many projects, not enough money. 
The plans are refined every year, based on predicted revenues from an ever-changing catalog of federal programs, changes in design, or decisions to make a project cheaper or more expensive, said Nick Uhren, executive director of the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency, which acts as a liaison between state transportation planners and local elected officials. 
Uhren said that Florida Department of Transportation officials “match up funding dollars with each program and hope that the Sudoku puzzle fills everything in.”
“If cost goes up, they have to delay. ... Sometimes projects get accelerated. … We’ve got four or five years to figure out if there are better ways.”

Toll lanes south of Linton
The interchange improvements will compete with other I-95 projects, including adding a new lane on the interstate in each direction south of Linton Boulevard. That would allow for paid express lanes on the freeway, a step already taken in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. 
Work is well underway on express lanes from Southwest 10th Street in Deerfield Beach to Linton. One example is the rebuilding of the Clint Moore Road bridge over I-95, which is closed through summer 2022.
The express-lane project, with a construction price tag of $250 million, is split into two parts, with a rebuild of the Glades Road interchange in Boca to be completed in 2023. The state plans a diverging diamond interchange, which is considered safer because it reduces the number of left turns.
The state has not set aside any money in its five-year plan to continue express lanes north of Linton to Indiantown Road, although a future needs plan lists the expansion as a $2.6 billion task. 
Instead, highway spending north of Linton in Palm Beach County during the 2020s is concentrated on upgrading the interchanges, the key choke points where traffic stops on major east-west roads to let cars get on and off the highway.
If nothing were done, the 2015 master plan found, all 17 interchanges would fail to flow smoothly by 2040. The only interchange between Linton and Northlake that the consultants didn’t examine is the direct flyover to Palm Beach International Airport between Belvedere Road and Southern Boulevard.
South County projects have fared well in recent years, with completion of the Atlantic Avenue interchange in Delray Beach and a new interchange at Spanish River Boulevard in Boca Raton and work underway at Glades Road.
Smaller jobs, such as adding or extending turn lanes, have been completed at Woolbright, Lantana, Hypoluxo, Blue Heron and 10th Avenue North.

Other projects lined up
FDOT records show construction would begin on five major interchange projects over the next four years, with two starting in October 2022, two the next year and one the following year.
Those projects — at 6th Avenue South and Belvedere Road in 2022, PGA Boulevard and Indiantown Road in 2023 and Boynton Beach Boulevard in 2024 — would cost $103 million combined.
PGA and Indiantown are not among the 17 interchanges studied by Kimley-Horn, since they are north of Northlake Boulevard.
Seven projects worth an estimated $277 million are bunched up with tentative construction dates spanning two years at the end of the five-year planning period.
As Uhren explained, meeting that schedule is unlikely. His agency published a list in March that assigned construction start dates to the projects, but even that report refers to the dates as “a snapshot” that “can change frequently.”
Three of the seven projects are in South County: Linton and Gateway boulevards and Woolbright Road. Gateway is in line for the most work, with plans to widen it to four lanes in each direction over the highway and to add turn lanes onto the highway entrance and exit ramps.
Linton would be widened, with new lanes added to the highway as well. At Woolbright, a $12 million “interim” job expanded the lanes for vehicles waiting to enter the highway, both eastbound and westbound. That project ended in 2019. But a bigger $40 million job calls for more turn lanes and extended highway entrance ramp lanes. Final conceptual designs were due in April, although construction isn’t contemplated until 2026. A separate $1.46 million project to add a right-turn lane on eastbound Woolbright at Seacrest Boulevard is scheduled for 2021-22.
The others are at 45th Street, Hypoluxo Road, Northlake Boulevard and Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard. Gateway already was pushed back a year from the fifth year of the five-year plan to June 2027, according to the TPA “snapshot” schedule.
As federal gas tax revenues drop because of a decline in travel during the coronavirus pandemic and a rise in fuel-efficient vehicles, the most likely scenario is that no more than two or three projects would move forward in a year. 
Barring a major push for more road money from Congress, the rest would get pushed further down the road. 
The 21 local elected officials who sit on the Transportation Planning Agency board can proclaim priorities, but final decisions are made by FDOT officials, weighing projects and special highway revenues both statewide and in the department’s District 4, which spans Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties.
So which job goes first depends on revenues, project cost and readiness as much as on needs determined by local officials.
Three of the seven — Northlake, Linton and 45th — are now scheduled for fiscal 2026, which ends in July 2027. The others are slated for fiscal 2027.
If those all go forward, 10th Avenue North would be next, scheduled to start work in October 2027, a year before Lantana Road.
Also on the books for October 2028 is a new $108 million interchange at Central Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens.
While construction on Southern Boulevard would not start in the 2020s, FDOT plans to spend $17 million on designs and land buys to prepare.
Blue Heron and Okeechobee boulevards are not even tentatively set for construction in the 2020s but FDOT officials point out that some money has been spent on both already.
Blue Heron got a $1.2 million facelift in 2017, with the addition of left-turn lanes at the off ramps and an extended left-turn lane at Garden Road.
Okeechobee got a $1 million injection for an eastbound right-turn lane.

By Jane Smith

When barrier island homeowner Michael Marco next appears before the Delray Beach Historic Preservation Board, he will have to convince the members that demolition — followed by reconstruction — is allowed on his historic house at 212 Seabreeze Ave.
After a four-hour-plus special magistrate hearing on Feb. 24, Marco was cited for failing to obtain a demolition permit. The magistrate said he would wait to determine the amount of the fine until after Marco appears again before the preservation board.
On April 27, the city confirmed that Marco is paying $10,000 for a fast-track review of his plans for the house. The money covers the review by an outside architect and city administrative costs. This process is available to any homeowner or developer, said city spokeswoman Gina Carter. All that remains of the historic Sewell C. Biggs house is the steel skeleton.
The 1955 house was designed by Paul Rudolph, the father of the Sarasota School of Architecture style who later became dean of the Yale School of Architecture. Biggs was the house’s original owner and commissioned Rudolph to design it.
The city’s chief building officer shut down the job site on Aug. 5 because more than 25% of the house had been removed. Marco was cited on Sept. 20 for failing to obtain a demolition permit. He contested the citation, sending a decision to the special magistrate.
By the time of the special magistrate hearing in February, tensions were high between the city staff and Marco’s team.
“The actions are irreversible and irreparable,” Michelle Hoyland, the city’s preservation planner, said at the hearing. She found out about the destruction in early August when talking with another applicant, not from a phone call or email from Marco or his contractor.
The city’s hired expert, architect Richard J. Heisenbottle, agreed. “The construction drawings did not show the demolition plans, just showed the proposed plans,” he said at the Feb. 24 hearing. “No one can wave a magic wand and make the original home in the earlier photograph reappear.”
Heisenbottle, of Coral Gables, has been hired by the city in the past on preservation matters and is heading the restoration work on the historic Seaboard Air Line train station.
Delray Beach paid Heisenbottle $10,000 to review all documents about the Biggs house since its local historic designation in June 2005. Heisenbottle said the Rudolph-designed house could continue to be listed on the city’s register of historic places if the contractor followed the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s guidelines for reconstructing historic buildings.
“It would be appropriate for the board to review the property’s individual listing on the Local Register of Historic Places following the reconstruction — if approved,” Carter wrote in an email to The Coastal Star. “This would give the board an opportunity to review the completed project to ensure it was executed according to plan.”
Others, though, say it cannot remain because too much of the original design has been removed. Doing so would set a precedent for owners of other historic homes.
John Miller, who has chaired the Historic Preservation Board in two separate stints, said, “Technically, they can go to the board and ask for retroactive approval. I don’t think they will get it.”
Miller, a Delray native, is president of the city Historical Society board. His great-grandfather and grandfather were Delray Beach mayors.
He does not see how the Rudolph-designed house can stay on the city’s register of historic places. “It’s a replica, not the original,” Miller said.
That’s also the reason that Kelly Barrette, vice president of the Delray Beach Preservation Trust, does not think the house can stay on the local register.
“It’s not really preservation. It’s just an homage to the architect,” said Barrette, who lives near the house and walks by it daily with her dog.
For Kelvin Dickinson, the chief executive of the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation in New York, reconstructing the house to meet today’s building codes and hoping to call it a Rudolph design is wrong.
New homeowners would be assuming they know how Rudolph would react to today’s construction issues. That’s not possible, Dickinson said.
For that reason, the foundation’s website states: “The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation will not support such a rebuilding as an authentic Rudolph design. … The original residence will remain ‘demolished’ in our project list.”
Marco, though, sees it as a “fundamental philosophical difference with purists who want to restore a home to a museum where no one lives. No one wants to live in a structure that is not up to code and unsafe.”
In an April 14 telephone interview, Marco insisted the reconstruction is justified for his historic home, as Heisenbottle, the city’s expert architect, said at the Feb. 24 hearing.
If the Rudolph house stays on the local register, Marco can get property tax abatements on the improvement costs for 10 years.
His plans called for restoring the entrance on Vista Del Mar Drive, and he received Historic Preservation Board approval to add a 5-foot-deep swimming pool in front of the house. He also demolished the non-historic additions, designed by the late Delray Beach architect Bob Currie.
Rudolph designed the house as a two-story structure with an open living space on the ground floor. Marco wants to enclose that ground-level space in glass.
The second floor was not air-conditioned, relying on glass panels and louvers to allow breezes to cool the interior.
Marco’s contractor removed the old glass and louvers as part of the demolition. “That is 100% of the Seabreeze side and 80% of the Vista Del Mar side,” Marco said.
The east and west sides had tongue and groove wood siding that was completely rotted, Marco said. The siding had to be discarded.
Soon after paying $1.4 million for the Rudolph house in February 2018, Marco wanted to change it. In July 2018, he went before the Historic Preservation Board and said there was no need for a demolition plan. But on an Aug. 27 site visit last year, Heisenbottle found the steel frame and the second-floor framing as the only features being preserved and restored. Everything else is being replicated.
The proposed work should have been done to preserve and restore the original defining characteristics of the house, according to Heisenbottle’s Sept. 15 letter to the city.
Marco came to the Feb. 24 special magistrate hearing with his attorney, Michael Weiner, and his expert architect, Roger Cope. They all said the construction plans submitted to the city indicated what they intended to do with the historic Rudolph house.
“My client informed the city and the board through his plans that he was removing four sides,” Weiner said. “When you carry out the plans for a Rudolph house, this is what happens.”
In mid-April, Marco said, “The city calls it a demolition. I call it reconstruction.”

By Rich Pollack

Delray Beach drinking water customers on the barrier island are likely to see fewer disruptions to their service once a yearlong $1.8 million project wraps up this summer to replace or strengthen 40-year-old water mains below the Intracoastal Waterway.
Over the past five years, the city’s utilities department has experienced several water main leaks requiring emergency repairs on the four aging pipes under the Intracoastal.
In an effort to improve the effectiveness of those pipes and reduce the need for unexpected and sometimes costly fixes, the city in May 2020 gave construction crews the green light to add two larger pipes under the waterway and potentially line three existing smaller pipes for backups or future use.
The ductile iron pipe material “has anti-corrosive properties. However, given the full saltwater installation and the age of the pipes, these pipes are past their useful service life,” then Deputy Director of Utilities Victor Majtenyi wrote in a March 3, 2020, memo to city commissioners.
As part of the project, two 12-inch iron pipes — a 500-foot line from Northeast Fourth Street to Beach Drive and an 800-foot line from Southeast Eighth Street to Bauhinia Road — have already been replaced with 16-inch high density polyethylene pipes.
Those pipes were assembled above ground on one side of the Intracoastal Waterway and then pulled under the water in a pre-drilled path.
Two 12-inch pipes, which remain 10 to 12 feet below the Intracoastal Waterway, will be lined if video camera results determine feasibility. Another 12-inch pipe from Dogwood Drive to State Road A1A — south of Linton Boulevard — will also be lined if practical.
Video inspection of all three 12-inch mains is expected to be completed by the end of May and the project is scheduled to be completed by the end of July.
“Once completed the work being done on this project will be invisible to residents and visitors, but it is an important part of the city’s continued commitment to improving and maintaining its infrastructure in order to provide safe and reliable water to our customers,” city spokeswoman Gina Carter said.
A fourth water main under the Intracoastal, from Southeast First Street to MacFarlane Drive, was not included in the project due to easement issues. It is expected to be included in future projects.
The mains bring treated water from the city treatment plant just west of Swinton Avenue.
Also not included in the project are pipes carrying reclaimed water for irrigation to the barrier island from the South Central Regional Wastewater Treatment plant on Congress Avenue at the Boynton Beach and Delray Beach border.

Delray Beach resident Rose Ross never imagined writing and publishing a novel at age 74. And when she did, she was surprised at how well it was received. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

When Rose Ross sat down to write a fictionalized account of her own growing up in the Bronx as the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, it’s fair to say her expectations for how it would be received were low.
“I didn’t think anyone would want to read it, other than family and friends,” said Ross, 75, of coastal Delray Beach.
When she completed the writing, those she worked alongside at writers workshops at Old School Square pushed her to get it published. She demurred.
“I don’t think this is a book for everyone,” she said. “I’ve always known that. But the response I’ve gotten from people of all ages is unbelievable.”
Titled Lila, the book sprang from a screenplay she had been working on. The screenplay had 14 characters; the book ultimately had three: herself, her dear friend Lila and a fictional boy named Michael who was invented as a go-between for the two.
Her decision to write it in the first person, as it turned out, made the writing easy. “Once I started that format, it moved,” she said.
Upon putting the book up for sale on Amazon in 2020, she reached out to everyone she knew to promote it and was able to schedule readings at places such as the Delray Beach Public Library and on book clubs on Zoom. And it took off.
“I just figured I’d have a reading, some people would show up, and we’d go out and have a wine afterward. That’s all I expected. But it came out to be so much more.”
She didn’t expect it to have a male audience, but it did, as she learned one day when a man in her building approached her with tears in his eyes.
“He says my book brought him back to an incident in his life when he was growing up in the Bronx,” she said. “Of a kid he bullied, and treated so poorly. When he was reading my book, he said, ‘I should have been nicer to that kid, because your Michael, the main character, was who that kid was.’ So I got reactions like that.”
When she’s not writing — and now she’s doing a screenplay that has been in the works for years — Ross keeps busy pursuing the other arts.
“My loves are theater, dance, concerts and film,” she said. “I’m a real film buff.”
So much so that when the old Regal theater in Delray Beach, which used to show many foreign films, closed down, she launched a five-film series in her building before it was interrupted by the pandemic. She hopes to resume it whenever life returns to normal.
— Brian Biggane

Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A: I was born in Germany in a displaced persons camp and immigrated to the United States in October 1949. Our first apartment was in the South Bronx, and then when I was about 10 we moved to DeKalb Avenue, around the Gun Hill section of the Bronx. Our neighborhood was pretty diverse, with a mixture of survivors of the Holocaust, American Jews, Italian, Irish. I went to elementary school there and then went to the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan, where I majored in drama.
It was at Performing Arts that my life changed. I discovered people from every background and religion. It was a world where you could be as different as you wanted to be, take on different personas each day if that suited you, and no one looked at you funny. It wasn’t always easy, but I walked away from that school and carried the lessons I learned with me to this day. Plus, it was fun!
In the movie Fame, which is based on Performing Arts, there is a famous lunch scene where everybody dances and sings. That was pretty much the way it was in real life.

Q: What professions have you worked in? Of what professional accomplishments are you most proud?
A: Once I realized that I was not a very good actress (if I had to do it all over again, I would have chosen to be behind the camera), I decided that I needed to discover new ways to move ahead in the world. It wasn’t until I married that I started to get involved in activities that truly shaped the person I am today.
One, of course, was adopting my two children from Seoul, Korea — Sarah Noell Ross and Edward Michael Ross. They are today 39 and 38 and wonderful human beings. I am very proud of them.
When we moved to Westchester, I felt the need to get involved and became an active volunteer. I started as a literacy volunteer at a men’s prison in Westchester and worked in soup kitchens for the homeless.
When we moved to Columbia County in New York, I became an auxiliary member at our local hospital, chaired the hospital ball for four years, creating unique venues, raising attendance from 150 to 850. From that experience, I made successful fundraisers for two theater companies where I was a board member and for the Chatham Film Club, which hosted the Film Columbia Film Festival.
Through the Chatham Film Club, I met Courtney Hunt, a screenwriter and director who moved to Columbia County. She started a screenwriting class that I attended, and I discovered my new passion, writing. One year later, my first screenplay opened up the new screenwriters contest at the film festival. I later collaborated on a play adapted from an original script and joined a writers group that enriched me as a person and a writer.
In Delray, I joined the Writers Colony at Old School Square run by Barbara Cronie and became friends with another remarkable group of people. They guided me, and I owe them everything. Their support enabled me to achieve something I never imagined — writing and publishing a novel at age 74!
In 2020, a longtime friend of mine, Carolyn Schroth, and I created a film series on social justice called “Thinking Out Loud 2020.” We partnered up with St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and the Delray Beach library.
Our first season had an unexpected attendance — a Q&A was held after each screening. The conversations between the audience and the panel of invited professionals were thought-provoking and intimate.

Q: What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A: Never give up. Seek out people that are committed like you. In regard to writing, find a writing group that you are comfortable with, be open to feedback.

Q: How did you choose to make your home in coastal Delray Beach?
A: My friend convinced me. She promised me that Delray was as close to Columbia County as you could get, only with palm trees.

Q: What is your favorite part about living in coastal Delray Beach?
A: The beach, the Intracoastal, the richness of a community that was unexpected for me. And life is much easier without snow and ice!

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante, author of My Brilliant Friend, which is part of the Neapolitan quartet. In many ways, her perception of the adolescent journey to adulthood inspired me to write Lila the way I did.

Q: What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?
A: Motown, Eric Clapton, Billie Holiday and anything by Luciano Pavarotti.

Q: Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A: I have been fortunate to have met some extraordinary people in my life and am grateful to each one of them. My mother was an amazing woman who taught me what kindness and humanity was, and my husband, Edward, for his constant support.

Q: If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?
A: As a young girl, not sure. As an adult, Meryl Streep or Helen Mirren.

Q: Who/what makes you laugh?
A: My husband makes me laugh every morning, day and night.

Related Story: Commissioners want to partner with developer, but fear getting burned

By Larry Barszewski

A developer’s commitment to build a downtown park was the only leverage Boynton Beach commissioners had regarding a moribund redevelopment project that received a $480,000 half-acre of city land in 2016 for $10. Even that leverage wasn’t much.
The Community Redevelopment Agency can’t get back the sliver of land it sold and probably wouldn’t be able to do anything with it if it did. But commissioners say the land was valuable to developer Davis Camalier because it allowed him to extend his Ocean One mixed-use development site on the east side of Federal Highway north to Boynton Beach Boulevard.
Camalier has received previous extensions to delay park construction from the commission, acting as the CRA board, because development plans for the site are in flux. If a park is built and the site’s design changes, all the improvements might have to be ripped out.
Commissioners didn’t necessarily want Camalier to start building the park now, but they have been interested in charging him for another delay in its construction. They haggled during their March CRA meeting on what Camalier should pay and doubled Camalier’s $10,000 offer to $20,000.
But rather than pay the $20,000, Camalier told commissioners at the April 13 CRA meeting he was moving forward with the park’s construction. CRA attorney Tara Duhy noted that without a new agreement with the CRA, Camalier was “technically” in default because the park construction was supposed to start a year ago and had previously received extensions only until March.
Camalier disputed that, saying it was a non-issue and that he was not in default on any agreement.
“I’m happy to go build the park. Is that what the city wants me to do? I’m happy just to go do it and I’ll start tomorrow. It’s ridiculous,” Camalier said. “Whatever you all want to do, it’s good with me. You default me, default me. I don’t think that’s appropriate.”
The discussion left several commissioners confused.
“I’m still a little perplexed as to why we’re going forward with building this park. I thought the whole intention was to not do that,” Commissioner Christina Romelus said.
“I really don’t like the idea of bringing in trees and all that kind of stuff and potentially down the road you’re going to have to tear it all up,” Commissioner Woodrow Hay said. “I mean it just doesn’t make much sense.”
Commissioners voted down a motion to give Camalier another 30-day extension to avoid default, but they also didn’t vote to hold Camalier in default now. Mayor Steven Grant said staff would have time to meet with Camalier to discuss the situation and potential options.
“The majority of the board wants to work with Mr. Camalier and discuss with him the best thing for the future of the downtown, and that may not be building a park,” Grant said.

Related Story: Downtown dilemma: Start building new park or give up on idea for now

By Larry Barszewski

Two large undeveloped Federal Highway properties sitting across from each other in downtown Boynton Beach have some city commissioners suggesting that the two owners team up on their building plans.
Not all commissioners welcomed the idea, though, given that the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency owns the 2.6-acre site at 115 N. Federal Highway on the west side of the street and private developer Davis Camalier owns the 3.5-acre Ocean One parcel at 114 N. Federal Highway on the east side.
The CRA purchased its 2.6-acre property to the north of Hurricane Alley Raw Bar and Restaurant three years ago for $3 million. Camalier’s Ocean One property received site plan approval in 2017, but nothing has been built on it so far.
“I’m open-minded to things, but I’m just cautioning and going on the record that a stalled-out, financially unfunded project across the street does not sound like the type of thing I want to tether to our 115 project that we own,” said Commissioner Justin Katz, referring to the CRA site by its street address.
“I just want to make sure we don’t start to create the narrative that these two projects are symbiotic,” Katz went on. “I don’t want to tether them together, because now in order to make 115 work, we have to make the project across the street work, and that has been a difficult lift.”
Commissioners, acting as the city’s CRA board, plan to seek development proposals for the CRA site, but they also told staff at the CRA’s April 13 meeting to meet with Camalier to discuss what a working relationship might look like.
Commissioner Christina Romelus said having Camalier as a partner would not take away any of the CRA’s rights, but working together could help prevent “piecemeal” projects. A partnership could create “a general master plan for that Federal Highway area,” she said.
“I think the first step is just knowing that we have an equal partner that is willing to work with us here on this and is not going to be an adversary or is not going to railroad us in the process,” Romelus said. “We’re not going to give away anything. We’re not going to sell anything. Our property is still our property. His property is still his property. And if anything isn’t working out the way that we’re seeing it work out, we squash that and we move on with our original proposal.”
Camalier, who made a rare appearance at the CRA meeting “to really try and put our minds together” and “approach how we develop” the two sites, grew frustrated as the night wore on over concerns raised about his inclusion in the CRA’s efforts.
“I came here tonight to simply say I’d like to try to work together. So, you all can work with me or you can go take your marbles and go work on your own,” Camalier told commissioners. “It’s up to you all. I’m an investor. I want to maximize my value, my asset. I think working together, creating an important place, is the focus of this message.”
Camalier’s representatives have said Ocean One’s original plans for a mixed-use development, including an eight-story, 231-unit residential complex, are no longer economically feasible and other alternatives are being considered. The project was supposed to receive about $4.1 million in taxpayer money to help with costs, but that potential has now expired.
Still, commissioners want to see Camalier succeed because the Ocean One property is seen as a critical part of the downtown’s overall redevelopment.
Camalier is also an important player because he owns the Boardwalk Italian Ice & Creamery site adjacent to the CRA’s 115 N. Federal Highway property. Commissioners are hoping to add adjacent parcels to the CRA site to make it more attractive for potential development. The Boardwalk site is particularly significant because of its prime Federal Highway frontage.
The CRA site is already set to expand. Commissioners at the April CRA meeting agreed to purchase an adjacent parcel to the north of the CRA property, which will give the site access from Boynton Beach Boulevard. The closing for the .29-acre property at 508 E. Boynton Beach Blvd. won’t take place until November.
Commissioners agreed to a $915,000 purchase price. The CRA is putting down a $100,000 deposit and will pay the balance with money budgeted in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.
The property is the Boynton office for Urban Design Studio. It was formerly the home of Miller Land Planning Consultants, headed by Bradley Miller. Miller joined Urban Design Studio a year ago and is on the development team of one of the groups seeking approval to build on the CRA site. Six groups submitted letters of interest last year in the CRA site, with most suggesting mixed-use projects with office and commercial space and several hundred apartments or condos.
Commissioners decided in December to put together their own suggestions for what they’d like to see built on the property. They received public input through an online survey in February.
They’re now considering a two-pronged approach that would solicit proposals for the site and look at each developer’s qualifications to get a better idea of who is likely to be able to bring a project to fruition.
The ideas commissioners supported include:
• Mixed use, with retail, office, grocery and residential units.
• Incorporation of open space, plazas and enhanced green spaces, including expansion of Dewey Park on Ocean Avenue.
• Public parking in excess of development requirements.
• Transportation amenities, including those for buses, trains, bikes and ride-sharing.
• The inclusion of more adjacent properties into the site.
Because of the problems in getting Ocean One built, commissioners want additional protection included in any agreement. Ocean One received a half-acre sliver of CRA-owned land — at the time valued at $480,000 — for a nominal $10 price. Commissioners said any agreement for the current property should include a reverter clause that gives the property back to the CRA if construction does not start by a certain time.
The CRA also lists the average value of CRA-owned properties at $64 a square foot, placing the site’s value at $4.4 million.

By Dan Moffett

Briny Breezes is preparing to hire a special magistrate to resolve code disputes with homeowners when all else fails.
Though cases of noncompliance are rare, they have been troublesome for town officials and staff during the last three years.
On April 22, the Town Council gave unanimous final approval to an ordinance that defines eligibility for magistrates and clarifies their role. 
Council members also accepted Town Attorney Keith Davis’ recommendation on whom they should hire: Kevin Wagner, who has worked as a magistrate in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and Tequesta.
“I’ve worked with him, and I don’t know anyone who’s better suited,” said Davis, who also has served as a magistrate for West Palm.
In 2018, the council voted to authorize using magistrates to resolve code disputes, rejecting the alternative of appointed citizen review boards. But until April, the town didn’t have clearly defined qualifications or rules for how the magistrate hiring and use should operate.
Magistrates typically are retired judges or experienced lawyers who work as freelance, independent contractors on an “as needed” basis. They usually earn about $175 to $250 an hour.
Briny needs the services of a magistrate only a few times a year. The overwhelming majority of code cases are settled quickly without dispute or complaints, officials say.
In other business:
• Town Manager William Thrasher had a mixed report on replacing the town’s aging, leaky water mains.
The good news for the council is that the Briny corporation is willing to contribute as much as $80,000 toward the project.
But the not-so-good news is that the town likely will need to hire an engineer and probably won’t be able to piggyback onto an existing Gulf Stream contract because of legal complications.
Using the Gulf Stream contract would have allowed the town to cut through red tape and proceed with hiring a contractor to do the work quickly. Mallard Drive has had a rash of water main breaks recently and repairs likely are also needed elsewhere in town.
Thrasher said he’s confident the project will move forward despite the hurdles, and the council is expected to discuss the plan at its next regular meeting on May 27.
• The council unanimously approved the first reading of a new sign ordinance that officials hope better aligns the town with corporate rules and addresses concerns about protecting free speech. The ordinance restricts signs’ size, placement and hours of display, but steers clear of content.

By Jane Smith

A retired deputy fire chief in Boynton Beach has sued the city after her face was altered in a mural displayed briefly last June in the new Town Square fire station.
Latosha Clemons was the city’s first Black woman to be deputy fire chief. Her boss, Glenn Joseph, was the city’s second Black fire chief. Both of their faces were whitewashed to render them indistinguishable.
They were part of the Community Heartbeat mural, a collage of firefighters in action and at city events with a red heartbeat line running through it.
Clemons, 48, retired on March 1, 2020, after nearly 24 years of service with the city.
A Boynton Beach native, she filed the lawsuit April 9 against her former employer, claiming defamation and negligence.
The city does not comment on open lawsuits, city spokeswoman Eleanor Krusell wrote April 22 in response to a question from The Coastal Star.
City Manager Lori LaVerriere, in a public statement issued June 4, said: “I sincerely apologize this occurred and will take every measure necessary to ensure this never happens again.
“Please understand that this unfortunate incident is not indicative of our values.”
On June 6, LaVerriere fired the public arts manager and removed the fire chief as part of her investigation into how the mural became altered.
The new mural with Clemons’ face was revealed in early November.
Joseph was removed from the revised mural at his request. He did not want to be in the mural because he had worked for Boynton Beach for only a few years before retiring.

HIGHLAND BEACH — Dorothy Jeanne Echeverria, a town resident who co-founded its turtle program, died April 15. She was 96.
Born June 6, 1924, in Utica, New York, the girl known as DJ graduated from New Hartford High School and attended Cornell University before enlisting in the U.S. Navy. It was during that time that she met and married Jose Echeverria, who was enlisted in the Marine Corps in San Francisco.
They were married for 67 years before Mr. Echeverria died at the age of 91.
During their life together, Jose and DJ lived in nine countries on five continents and visited many more. They lived 47 years in Highland Beach.
Always embracing people wherever she was, Mrs. Echeverria became fluent in the languages and learned the cultures of each country she lived in. She was an accomplished hostess, entertaining presidents and ambassadors of many countries alongside her beloved Jose.
DJ as a child and young woman was involved in dance, horseback riding, choral, sorority, golf and other sports. 
Among their accomplishments later in life, the Echeverrias started the ongoing Highland Beach turtle program and were involved for more than 20 years.
The Echeverrias were God-fearing, proud Americans and instilled that pride in their children.
Mrs. Echeverria is survived by her son, Dale, and his wife, Jude; her daughter, Sue, and her husband, Michael; granddaughter Suzanne and her husband, Raul; grandson Michael and his wife, Kaitlyne; and great-granddaughters Olivia and Emma. Also surviving are her sister Suzanne Davis Warren and nephews David and Peter and their families.

Obituary submitted by the family

OCEAN RIDGE — William “Bill” Poist died April 7. He was 81.
Born on June 11, 1939, in Hanover, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Krug and J.E. Poist, he grew up excelling on both basketball and tennis courts.
But tennis was his lifelong passion, and it was tennis that provided him with so many treasured friendships and experiences.
In high school, young Mr. Poist lettered in varsity basketball and tennis. He received scholarship offers, which ultimately took him to Ohio Wesleyan University. He played basketball his freshman year, but ultimately, he devoted himself to the tennis team.
  He racked up unprecedented victories, winning conference, regional and NCAA tournament matches and titles, culminating with his induction into the Ohio Wesleyan Athletic Hall of Fame in 1971. He finished his college career with a record of 47-5 in singles and 44-3 in doubles. 
Prior to graduation, he took six months off from college to receive instruction at the tennis training facility run by Chris Evert’s father in Fort Lauderdale.
He studied abroad at The Institute in Perugia, Italy, where he hoped to play tennis. But, after weeks of record rain, he headed to Milan, then spent the winter in Lech am Arlberg, Austria, where he worked as a night porter in a small hotel and skied during the day. Finally, when the snow melted, he headed to England to play tennis.
Upon obtaining his undergraduate degree, he pursued a master’s in public relations at Boston University, while spending his summers as tennis director at the Corinthian and Eastern yacht clubs, where he also developed a passion for sailing. 
Besides enabling him to crew on racing teams up and down the East Coast, sailing was a passion that he and his wife shared during their courtship. 
Mr. Poist was grateful for the ability to play competitive tennis well into his late 70s. At the four nationally sanctioned tournaments held annually by the United States Tennis Association, he won gold, silver and bronze ball prizes over the course of his career.
He also played in tennis tournaments in Europe, South America and Asia through the International Tennis Federation.  In 2015, when he was 75, he had the distinction of being the ITF’s No. 1-ranked player in his age category in the world.
Mr. Poist began his career in public accounting in 1966, working for a small CPA firm in Westminster, Maryland. From there, he worked with a consulting firm in Washington, D.C., helping doctors, dentists and other medical professionals with tax services and counsel on various issues.
In 1974, he started his own tax, financial and professional consulting firm, Management Consulting for Professionals, while also earning a master’s in taxation and his CPA accreditation.
For almost five decades, Mr. Poist truly cared about and fully engaged with his clients. He laughingly, but lovingly, referred to himself as a “financial psychiatrist,” listening to each client with consummate grace. Mr. Poist remained fully engaged in his tax practice right up until the end.
Mr. Poist is survived by his wife of nearly 47 years, Ann Alexander, and son, Jamie Poist, both of Ocean Ridge. He is also survived by his sister, Barbara Poist Huston, and her husband, James Huston; by nephews James Huston and his wife, Vicki; Sean Huston and his wife, Gen, along with their children, Jack and Libby, all of Hanover, Pennsylvania.
His wisdom, wit and wry smile will be sorely missed by his clients, friends and family. A celebration of his life will be held at a later date.
As per his wishes, Mr. Poist was cremated on April 12.  Lorne & Sons Funeral Home, Delray Beach, is in charge of arrangements.
Donations may be made to York Adams Community Tennis Association, 225 Bowman Road Rear, Hanover, PA 17331, or to the charity of your choice.

 Obituary submitted by the family

By Larry Keller

The scope of the criminal health care and wire fraud case against Delray Beach osteopathic doctor Michael Ligotti is so vast that his trial has been set for May 23 of next year — nearly two years after his arrest and seven years after federal and state agencies began investigating him.
The federal government intends in pretrial discovery to produce billing data and files for more than 10,000 patients treated at Ligotti’s defunct Whole Health medical practice in Delray Beach, and more than 50 sober homes and substance-abuse treatment centers.
Patients’ identities must be painstakingly protected, “making redaction of all patient identifying information burdensome and time consuming,” prosecutors and Ligotti’s lawyer stated in a joint motion filed in U.S. District Court asking for the distant trial date.
Prosecutors also plan to review bank records of at least 51 accounts related to Ligotti, Whole Health and other entities and credit card statements, according to court documents. The number of records to be reviewed is “voluminous,” the parties say, and a trial may take weeks.
Ligotti was charged last July with fraudulently billing private insurance companies and Medicare of around $681 million, for which they paid $121 million over a span of nine years. A federal grand jury indicted him in December on charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud and money laundering.
Ligotti is free on a $1.5 million bond that requires him to be electronically monitored and observe a curfew.
The government alleges that in addition to operating his medical practice, Ligotti became the medical director of sober homes and treatment facilities and orchestrated a scheme whereby he profited from unnecessary but lucrative urine and blood tests of insured patients.
Meanwhile, in February, Ligotti and his wife sold for $5.1 million the seven-bedroom home on Seagate Drive in Delray Beach where they lived with their three children. That’s less than the $5.7 million at which it was listed, but well above the $3.3 million they paid in 2014.
The couple had two mortgages totaling about $3.8 million on the house. An agreement stipulated that after the mortgages and any other encumbrances were paid, net proceeds would be placed with the U.S. Marshals Service because the property would otherwise be subject to forfeiture if Ligotti is convicted.
A second six-bedroom home owned by the Ligottis on one acre in Delray Beach is on the market for $850,000, with the same provisos as the other house if it is sold. The building that housed Ligotti’s medical practice has been for sale for several months.
In another development, Ligotti has replaced his original attorney with Jose Quiñon of Miami. Quiñon’s clients have included Medellin cartel co-founder Carlos Lehder, Miami-Dade politicians accused of corruption and police officers and attorneys charged with an array of crimes. Ú

An overhaul of The Seagate Hotel & Spa in Delray Beach will be completed by late 2022. The redesign is spanning all three local properties, including the Beach Club. Photo provided

By Christine Davis, Jan Norris, Mary Thurwachter and Mary Hladky

Owners of Delray Beach’s Seagate Hotel & Spa will renovate three of their local properties by late 2022, with an eye on attracting a younger traveler, according to hotel management.
“Our goal is to capture the energy of the classic Florida resort, transporting guests to another time and place,” said General Manager Koji Akaboshi. The hotel is currently managed by Long Weekend Hospitality Group, formed in 2020. It was opened in its present version in 2009 on East Atlantic Avenue by the HHC Atlantic LLC.
The renovation is set to be complete by fall 2022, with renovations taking place over the next two years.
Work on the Seagate Beach Club, a three-minute trolley ride south of the hotel on A1A, will be done at the same time. Although it’s a members-only club, hotel guests can use the beach, pool, cabanas and a small restaurant there.
All the features of the resort will be upgraded from the current British Colonial design to a modern classic Florida beachside resort for a deluxe experience. Robert McKinley’s studio in New York was chosen as the designer for the resort project. McKinley’s vision of Delray as an “authentic, laid-back beach town” is driving the design.
Delray Beach is experiencing a revitalization as a destination and the hotel hopes to be an inviting space for locals and travelers alike to connect and enjoy themselves, according to Akaboshi. "Our goal of the renovation project is for the hotel to offer its signature standard of luxury while incorporating a laidback beachside vibe, offering guests a comfortable place to feel at home," he said.
All 154 rooms will be remodeled, opening up the standard hotel room to be suite-like with more space to move around and an upscale design. Public spaces will be redesigned, taking away the marine theme. The landscaping also will change.
The hotel exterior will have no architectural changes. Balconies will remain on 141 of the rooms.
In the meantime, the Seagate continues to make staff and guest health a priority. A new 150-point procedure in partnership with EcoLab is in place to provide safety for both. The Seagate Country Club in west Delray Beach will get a free-standing wellness center as well as a golf performance center and new indoor-outdoor restaurant, along with a resort-style pool. Golf course upgrades have begun.
A price tag for the project wasn’t disclosed.

NOTE: The above item was updated April 30 due to previous incorrect information provided by Dada Goldberg, the hotel's public relations team in New York.

Hand’s, a family-owned business in downtown Delray Beach for more than eight decades, will close for good by Father’s Day, June 20. The store, which began as a bookshop, sells office and art supplies, cards and gifts, souvenirs and stationery.
David Cook, whose family has owned the iconic Atlantic Avenue store since 1964, made the announcement on April 19. He said he would need to vacate the property by June 30.
Steve Cohen, the new owner, will give the building a complete remodel with new plumbing and wiring and a new roof. No word yet on what businesses will occupy the property, which currently houses Hand’s Hallmark and office and art supply stores — and space formerly home to Vince Canning Shoes, which shuttered last summer after 68 years.
Cohen, a property manager, owns other buildings in the area, including the one that houses El Camino Mezcal & Tequila near the corner of Northeast Second and Atlantic avenues.
As with many other small businesses, Hand’s saw its revenue dip during the last year, by about 30%. But the store isn’t necessarily closing as a result of the pandemic, said Cook, 58.
“It’s more just the right time in everybody’s life that’s involved,” he explained. Plus, he received a good offer for the real estate. According to the Clerk of Circuit Court office, the property sold for $11.5 million on April 19.

N. Ocean Capital 707B, a Delaware corporation, sold a six-bedroom oceanfront home at 707 N. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach, to Jak Ftl LLC for $15.995 million. The sale was recorded on April 7.
The selling entity is managed by NRIA N. Ocean 707 Manager LLC, which is run by Rey Grabato, president and CEO of National Realty Investment Advisors.
Jak Ftl LLC is managed by Jdk Partners Management, a Florida corporation managed by James Klotz, co-founder and president of FMSbonds.
This sale followed one in February in which actor Kevin James paid $14 million to a company linked to National Realty Investment Advisors for a six-bedroom oceanfront estate and guest house in the 300 block of North Ocean in Delray.
The 707 N. Ocean property was purchased in 2017 for $6.5 million, and NRIA with U.S. Construction built a new five-bedroom, 7,490-square-foot home, designed by Randall Stofft. The home was listed by Deborah and Steve Haines with IMI Resort Properties.

Richard Wackenhut, an heir to the security firm founder George Wackenhut, purchased the home at 191 West Key Palm Road, Boca Raton, for $12.825 million from Lisa J. Leder as trustee of the Lisa J. Leder Revocable Trust. The sale was recorded on March 23. Leder, under the Centre V Revocable Trust, purchased the home for $9.2 million in 2011.
Built in 2010, the 10,367-square-foot house, on a half-acre lot, features 150 feet of waterfront and deep-water dockage, according to the listing. The home hit the market in October, with a $13.495 million asking price.
Senada Adzem Schweitzer with Douglas Elliman represented Leder, while Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates represented Wackenhut, according to Realtor.com.

Down the road in Broward County, 1007 Hillsboro Land Trust purchased the home at 1007 Hillsboro Mile in Hillsboro Beach from Thomas S. and Michelle Murphy, for $22.985 million. The sale was recorded on March 23. Evan Grayer, a trustee for the 1007 Hillsboro Land Trust, is the co-founder of New York-based Simple Networks. He was formerly the senior vice president of broadband for DirecTV Latin America, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The Murphys bought the house in 2013 for $9 million. Joseph G. Liguori, Gerard P. Liguori and Carmen N. D’Angelo Jr. with Premier Estate Properties represented the sellers, and Karen Bellows of Florida Luxurious Properties represented the buyer.
Built in 1996, the 16,049-square-foot, six-bedroom house is on a 1.06-acre lot with 161 feet of beach and Intracoastal frontage.

Douglas Elliman real estate in its quarterly reports noted “record highs for pricing and sales but with chronically low listing inventory” for Delray Beach and Boca Raton. Jonathan J. Miller, CRE, CRP, prepared the reports.
In Boca Raton, for luxury single-family listings, the average sales price was $5,178,756, a 48.8% increase over last year, and inventory fell year over year for the eighth straight decline to a new low of 118.
In Delray Beach, luxury single-family prices set a record for the average sales price, which was $3,928,825, a 35% increase over last year, and the listing inventory fell to 67 from 87, a new low.
In Manalapan, “price trend indicators were skewed higher by the surge in sales size as listing inventory could not keep up with sales levels.” A metric from that report: Manalapan average sales price was listed at $25.7 million, a 516% increase over last year, with an active inventory of four. 

Day Pitney LLP, with a trusts and estates practice, announced that it will expand its East Coast presence through a merger with Rhode Island-based law firm Howland Evangelista Kohlenberg LLP.
This merger follows two others: Day Pitney first expanded to Florida in 2016 via a merger with trusts and estates boutique Chapin, Ballerano & Cheslack, with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach. Day Pitney then expanded its Florida presence via a 2019 merger with Richman Greer, with offices in West Palm Beach and Coral Gables.
The firm now has 20-plus attorneys and four offices in the state.
Howland Evangelista Kohlenberg was founded in 2014 by former Edwards Wildman Palmer (now Locke Lord) attorneys. In addition to Renée A.R. Evangelista and A. Max Kohlenberg, the following attorneys will join Day Pitney: Emma D. Becker, Claire N. Carrabba, Joshua R. Caswell, Leigh E. Furtado, Dana T. Pickard, Joshua Simon and Pamela Veasy.

The family of James Batmasian, Boca Raton’s largest downtown commercial landowner, has made available $100,000 for grants that will go to 15 small businesses and entrepreneurs in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
The grants are aimed at businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. The first-place grant will be $20,000, second- and third-place grants will be $10,000, and the remainder will be $5,000 each.
A panel of local business leaders and Boca Raton and Delray Beach city officials will review the applicants to select finalists.
Winners, who also will receive coaching from the Batmasians and other executives, will be announced by May 15. The deadline to apply was April 15.

Boca Raton-based Florida Peninsula Insurance announced that Michael Williams was hired as vice president of claims and litigation. Prior to joining Florida Peninsula, he was a claims executive at Aon Reinsurance Solutions. He also has served as the chief claims officer of AmWINS Specialty Auto, as well as held claims and consulting roles with Nationwide Insurance and IBM Global Business Services. 

Rick Maharajh, president and CEO of RM Logitech, a technology and IT distribution firm, won the Boynton Beach Professionals’ recognition award. “This award was created to honor the member who has done the most for the group and the Boynton Beach community,” said John Campanola, chairman of the group. “Rick has been tirelessly working to promote the group and all of its members. He is an ardent networker throughout Palm Beach County and especially Boynton Beach.”  

Through a competitive bidding process, the Palm Beach Solar Co-op selected Goldin Solar to install its solar panels. The group, which has more than 60 people, is free to join and open through the end of May to new members who are homeowners and business owners in the county. As a group, co-op members will learn about solar energy and leverage bulk purchasing to ensure competitive pricing and quality solar installations. To join the co-op, visit https://coops.solarunitedneighbors.org/coops/palm-beach-county-solar-co-op/

Jan Norris, Mary Thurwachter and Mary Hladky contributed to this column.

Send business news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com.

BOYNTON BEACH, FL --- (April 6, 2021)  On Tuesday, April 6 beginning at 5 pm, Floridians 18+ may visit boynton-beach.org to make an appointment to receive a free Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. One thousand appointments will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Boynton Beach Fire Rescue will be administering the vaccines at the Ezell Hester, Jr. Community Center (1901 N. Seacreat Blvd.), a state-approved vaccination site.

The City of Boynton Beach received the supply of vaccines from the Florida Department of Health, in conjunction with Palm Beach County.  It is anticipated that the City will continue receiving 1,000 vaccines weekly throughout the summer, and the City’s appointment portal will re-open each week when vaccines are available (with a rotating schedule that includes closing every four weeks to administer second does to those who have already received their first dose).

Those without online access may utilize the computers at the Boynton Beach City Library (100 E. Ocean Ave.) during regularly scheduled hours;  staff will be available to assist.

“Over the last two weeks, we have vaccinated 1,280 individuals at the Hester Community Center,” according to City Manager Lori LaVerriere. “To ensure equal vaccine distribution throughout our community, we enlisted local faith-based organizations to help us identify those that needed assistance making appointments.” In addition, 165 vaccines were administered at the Boynton Beach Senior Center.

In the event of appointment cancellations, the City has created a Vaccine Stand-By list. Those who sign up will be contacted only in the event that there are leftover doses, and should have the ability to arrive at the Hester Community Center within 30 minutes of being contacted. More details, along with a sign-up link and a list of frequently asked questions, can be found on the City’s vaccine FAQ page.

For more information, contact the City Manager’s office at 561-742-6010.

By Mary Hladky

Former Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie, who was charged with public corruption in 2018, pleaded guilty to lesser charges on April 1.

The plea deal calls for her to serve no jail time, but she will be on probation for 12 months. During that time, she can not seek elected office, according to court records.

Haynie, 66, was present in court before Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Gillen when she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of misuse of public office and failure to disclose voting conflicts.

Prosecutors dropped four felony counts of official misconduct and perjury, and one other misdemeanor..

Had Haynie gone to trial and been convicted, she faced more than 20 years in prison.

“I want to convey my sincere apology to all the citizens of Boca Raton for my actions and any negative light that my case cast upon our city,” Haynie said in a statement today to Boca Raton residents.

 “Throughout my personal and professional career, I have prided myself on taking responsibility for my conduct and performance,” she said. “The citizens of Boca Raton should accept nothing less than the highest level of ethics from their elected officials. I failed to live up to that standard and today, accepted responsibility by entering my guilty plea.”

She will not seek public office again, even after the conclusion of her probation, Haynie said.

Bruce Zimet, Haynie’s criminal defense attorney, has repeatedly said in the past that she would not accept a plea deal.

The decision to do so “was made because there was a reasonable offer from the State Attorney’s Office,” he said.

Noting that the counts alleging corruption were dismissed, Zimet said, “She never would plead to a felony or misdemeanor involving any allegation of corruption. This was framed as a quid pro quo case and that never happened. Any plea deal that involved that would be a total nonstarter.

“There was no corruption from her,” he said. “Her vote was never sold.”

In charging documents, prosecutors contended that Haynie used her position on the City Council to vote on six matters that financially benefitted James Batmasian, the city’s largest downtown commercial landowner, and failed to disclose income she received from him.

The investigation by the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office found that Haynie failed to report $335,000 in income on financial disclosure forms, including $84,000 from Batmasian or his company Investments Limited, from 2014 through 2017.

Before her arrest, the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics, which also investigated her for voting on matters that financially benefitted Batmasian, reached a settlement with her in which she was reprimanded and fined for failing to disclose a conflict of interest. A second allegation that Haynie misused her public office was dismissed.

The Florida Commission on Ethics found probable cause that Haynie violated state ethics laws in eight instances, but that case has been on hold while the criminal case proceeded. Kerrie Stillman, a spokeswoman for the state ethics commission, said the outcome of the criminal case has no bearing on the ethics case.

In cases where probable cause has been found, the commission must either hold a full evidentiary hearing, or the commission advocate and Haynie’s ethics attorney could reach a settlement agreement, she said.

The state commission found that Haynie failed to disclose income, acted to financially benefit herself and her husband, and improperly voted on matters that benefitted Batmasian and his wife, Marta, without disclosing a conflict of interest.

Batmasian was not charged by state prosecutors.

During the waning days of his presidency, Donald Trump issued a full pardon to Batmasian in an unrelated matter.

Batmasian, a Republican donor, served eight months in prison in 2008 for failing to pay the IRS $253,513 in payroll taxes for employees of his real estate company. He reimbursed the government the full amount owed.

Haynie was a fixture in Boca Raton politics for 18 years, and her arrest shocked residents and City Council members who learned about it when she turned herself in to the county jail while the rest of the City Council was meeting on April 24, 2018.

“We are all stunned, flabbergasted…” now-Mayor Scott Singer said at the time.

Former Gov. Rick Scott suspended her from office, but she never resigned. Singer was elected mayor on Aug. 28, 2018 for the remainder of Haynie’s term and has since been re-elected.

“She plans to move forward and put all this behind her,” Zimet said when asked about Haynie’s plans. “She is vibrant person who has a lot to offer her community. She plans to enjoy her life in the years to come.”

The lushly landscaped 15.65-acre Ziff estate and the sanctuary known as Bird Island are located just north of the Boynton Inlet. The mature landscaping is the result of decades of work in native plant restoration and conservation efforts. A golf practice area is on the east side of A1A. Google Map image

By Dan Moffett

Billionaire internet entrepreneur James Clark is on the verge of becoming the favorite son of Manalapan, where his stature has risen in recent days.
“We will welcome him with open arms,” said Mayor Keith Waters. “We’re looking forward to getting to know the family. They will get a warm greeting from Manalapan, that’s for sure.”
Why such an outpouring of affection?
Clark, a founder of Netscape and a half-dozen other influential tech companies, is widely believed around Manalapan to be the mystery buyer who paid $94 million last month for the storied Ziff estate.
Waters and other town residents say they are delighted that Clark is taking over what many townspeople believe is Manalapan’s signature property.
A lush, 15.65-acre estate that stretches from the Atlantic to the Intracoastal Waterway at Manalapan’s southern entrance, the Ziff land is an exceedingly rare remnant of Florida’s distant past.
“I don’t know anything like it on the East Coast,” Waters said. “It is certainly unique.”
Until recent weeks, Manalapan had resigned itself to losing the property to development. A year ago, Ziff family heirs petitioned the Town Commission to divide the estate into four lots to expedite sales. Commissioners grudgingly said yes.
The family had tried for six years to sell the estate as a whole, first listing it for $195 million, then steadily dropping the price to $115 million last year with Sotheby’s International Realty. There were no takers.
Then abruptly on March 8, an entity called The 2000 S. Ocean Trust appeared on Palm Beach County courthouse records, showing a deed transfer on the land for $94.17 million, along with a separate recording of a $200,000 sale for nearby, uninhabited Bird Island. Because commissions and other costs often are omitted from courthouse filings, it is likely the total sale price was over $100 million.
Someone like Clark is exactly what people in Manalapan were looking for — a single buyer who takes on the whole Ziff property, someone who appears intent on living there, and above all, someone who isn’t a developer.
“The buyer doesn’t want his name disclosed right now,” said a person close to the Ziff family. “That’s what they’ve told us. But we understand the estate won’t be divided.”
Selling the land as a whole negates the agreement the commission made with the Ziffs last year to subdivide it, and anyone who makes that happen is going to be very popular in Manalapan.
“We were caught totally by surprise,” Town Manager Linda Stumpf said. “No one saw it coming. But commissioners are extremely pleased to have a sale like this — whoever the buyer is.”
Multiple sources in Manalapan identified Clark as the buyer but declined to comment until the deal goes public. Neighbors and officials say they’ll wait.
West Palm Beach attorney Ronald Kochman is listed as the trustee for the sale. Kochman declined to discuss Waters’ comments about the buyer or other details of the sale: “We do not comment to the press,” he said in an email to The Coastal Star.
Waters said the town had heard from “a couple developers” in recent months who were interested in building separate projects. He says he believes Clark intends to maintain the property as a family residence.

The hope is the striking canopy of trees draping over State Road A1A will continue to grow there too.

The view of the Ziff estate that most people see is of the tree canopy over State Road A1A. The estate straddles the highway. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

“We are very, very happy to have this kept as a single property,” Waters said. “It is unique to the character of our community. As far back as I remember coming to Florida, I remember driving through that canopy.”
Clark, 77, is no stranger to big-ticket deals. He sold a 5-acre ocean-to-lake estate in Palm Beach for about $90 million in 2018 after originally listing it with Sotheby’s for $137 million two years before. A relatively quiet off-the-market transaction, it was — like the Ziff deal — minimally recorded in public records.
Waters said he has “crossed paths with Clark” several times in the past and believes the new relationship between him and the town “will work out very well.” Manalapan, the mayor said, “is a little quieter option than Palm Beach.”
Besides founding Netscape and helping to develop its web browser, Clark had a hand in the development of myCFO, WebMD and Silicon Graphics Inc. Forbes magazine lists his net worth as $3.4 billion. He is married to Kristy Hinze Clark and has four children.
The Ziff estate has 1,200 feet of ocean beach and another 1,300 feet along the Intracoastal. It has a main house, a guest house, manager’s house and two ocean cottages — totaling some 33 bedrooms, 34 bathrooms, 13 powder rooms — with a couple of golf holes. It was originally known as Gemini — Latin for “twins” — because its layout spans both sides of A1A.
Publishing magnate William B. Ziff Jr. and family bought the estate in the 1980s and have preserved a botanic garden with 1,500 species of tropical trees and plants. For a time decades ago, it was considered the most expensive residence in the country.
“No one is going to feel sorry for our family,” Dirk Ziff, heir to the estate and eldest of the three sons, told the Manalapan commission a year ago, lamenting the difficulty of finding a single buyer and requesting permission to divide the property. “We’ve tried really hard to sell it. “We’re uncomfortable coming forward. We want clarity. We want resolution,” said the 56-year-old scion. “There’s an economic reality here that I’m not ashamed of.”