By Thomas R. Collins
As you enter Boynton Beach from the north, the alluring Peninsula development greets you — a shiny new collection of townhomes and condos.
It’s just about to open its doors to happy new residents.
Peninsula
Waterbrook Peninsula LLC
30 townhomes, 40 condos
Project status: Abandoned, in foreclosure
Or it was, anyway.
Getting its timing all wrong, the project got whacked by the market and is in foreclosure. It’s 90 percent built, but its prospects are uncertain. It’s “stale and dead,” city Planning Director Mike Rumpf said.
“We hope it gets purchased and resurrected by someone,” he said, a map of the city’s zoning plan on a wall next to him.
With hardly any other choice, he looks on the bright side.
“That’s the only one of its kind that got caught, trapped, so far along,” he said. “In most cases, they didn’t get off the ground to begin with.”
But there are plenty that never got off the ground. Vacant lots sit up and down road — perhaps the very spine of the city.
The economy, as it has throughout the city and elsewhere, has frozen the landscape in time. Land that was cleared, with high hopes of dazzling new condos and shops, just sits there.
Hard-hit highway key to city’s future
The Federal Highway corridor in Boynton Beach might be one of the hardest-hit spots in the county, though. It is central to the city’s redevelopment efforts.
In 2001, the city approved a development plan for the road. It’s a “wedding-cake shape” plan — as Rumpf puts it — with the tallest and most intense development near Boynton Beach Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, and lower tiers of development extending north, south and west from there.
Pieces of that plan have come to pass.
Marina Village
Related Cervera Realty Services
349 condos/rentals
25,000 sq.ft. commercial space
Project status: Completed, residential occupied.
Marina Village, a condo project at Boynton Beach Boulevard and Federal, was finished before the market bust and sold out within a year, said Lorraine Freed, Palm Beach County manager for owner Related Cervera Realty Services.
“It’s still doing great,” Freed said. Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency Director Lisa Bright said Marina Village’s residential units are fully occupied.
Promenade
Panther Real Estate Partners
22,200 sq. ft. retail/restaurant
318 condos
Hotel units (unspecified)
Project status: Unknown
Next-door, where Boynton Beach Boulevard meets Federal Highway, the towers of the Promenade development are nearing completion. The status of the “top of the wedding cake” project is unknown. According to Bright, developers had commitments for 40 percent of the space when construction started two years ago, but she doesn’t know where it stands now.
“Their biggest thing is: Will their people sign on the dotted line for the contracts,” Bright said. She described the project as “for our downtown, absolutely critical.”
Las Ventanas
Epoch Properties
43,361 sq. ft. of office/retail
20 townhomes & 404 rental apartments
Project status: 70 percent complete, now leasing
At Las Ventanas, which is 70 percent built, leasing started in May. The occupancy rate is up to 15 percent, said Buck Anderson, who oversees Las Ventanas for Epoch Management. That’s on target with what they’d hoped, although they had to bring their price points down 10 percent to 15 percent, putting rental rates at $1,050 to $1,700 per month. “We don’t have any buzzards flying over our heads. So we’re OK for now,” Anderson said.
Still, a drive along the road can be a dismal affair.
Gulfstream Mall
Thirty-six Hundred Holdings
166 residential units
19,000 sq. ft. commercial space
Project status: Residential plans abandoned. Now zoned commercial.
At the south end of town, at Gulfstream Boulevard, Gulfstream Mall sits ringed by opaque fencing, with cracks in the asphalt parking lot, empty windows and crumbling facades. A plan for 166 residences and 1,900 square feet of commercial space is a lost dream.
Owner Thirty-Six-Hundred Holdings asked for a return to a zoning of only commercial space, considering how hopeless new residential development seems these days. In January, city commissioners granted that right to the developer.
500 Ocean/Arches
Southcoast Partners
40, 596 sq. ft. of retail
378 condo units
Project status: Plans abandoned
A little north of that, at the southwest corner of Ocean Avenue and Federal, another gigantic piece of land sits surrounded by construction fencing. The mixed-use project that was planned for the old downtown area is no longer planned.
Looking toward a change in the market
Federal Highway in Boynton Beach is still considered positioned for success once the market turns around.
Bright said there’s already been a jump in requests for more money from the CRA, but the agency’s ability to chip in has been hampered. The budget, which gets its money from new development, has been cut 10 percent and 23 percent the last two years. Other than that, the CRA has been trying to find tenants.
“Like any good sales person, we run down every lead and try to do everything we can,” Bright said. Anderson, of Las Ventanas, offered: “I think this is going to be a big growth area.”
But for now, director Rumpf has to settle for small victories. There’s the application that came in recently for a marina project at the north end of town — but when that would get built is anyone’s guess. There is the apparent success of the Gulfstream Gardens townhouse project north of Gulfstream Boulevard, which is “getting over the edge,” he said.
“Even now, given the economy, we have people coming in asking questions, trying to package things, trying to explore opportunities,” he said. “People have land — and they don’t want to sit on it.”
There’s only a bit of truth to the legend that Ilona Balfour chained herself to a spreading ficus tree to protect it from destruction.
“I only threatened to tie myself to that tree,” she says in the lilt of her native South Africa.
“I had to sign a document that I wouldn’t protest anymore.”
Balfour, of Lantana, lost that battle, but she continues, at age 72, to keep fighting the good fight. And because of Balfour’s efforts, and those of neighbors Elizabeth and Rod Tennyson, an abandoned garbage dump along the Intracoastal Waterway is today the Lantana Nature Preserve. About 10 years ago, there were concerted efforts to develop the 6½-acre tract just north of Ocean Boulevard. “But we went down there and fought and rabble-roused and got every fisherman involved,” Balfour recalls.
Today, the preserve boasts native vegetation and is home to myriad critters and wading birds. There’s a little walking path so folks can stroll amid nature.
Alas, the ficus is gone. “It wasn’t considered native,” Balfour says with a tinge of regret. She and her husband, Malcolm, a former associate editor with the National Enquirer, moved to Hypoluxo Island in 1972 and since 1975 have lived in a house just west of the preserve.
“Our kids used to wade across the water at low tide and go play in the vacant area. Then there were plans to put in a driving range or a shopping center. The town felt it needed to sell the dump to make some money.” That’s when Balfour and the Tennysons decided it was time for a little “rabble rousing.” They marshaled the residents, badgered local and state officials, and saved the area.
“Lantana’s just a little fishing village where everyone knows everyone.”
Today, Balfour serves as a director of the Nature Preserve board.
“You think there isn’t much in there. But when you go in, there’s a lot there. There’s possums and raccoons and other little animals.”
She hints, not very persuasively, that her fighting days are over. “We just want to keep the peace and not alienate anybody. I’m done with the fighting.”
She’s worked to get the children of the neighborhood and town involved and now the preserve is part of the local elementary school curriculum.
Balfour volunteers working with children as a guardian ad litem with the county, which, like the effort to save the preserve, has its ups and downs. But the rewards, she says, outweigh the disappointments.
Judy Black, a fellow director, friend and president of the Hypoluxo Island Property Owners Association, says Balfour “does a tremendous amount for the community.”
“She has a wonderful sense of humor. If there’s a cause involving people or animals or birds or trees, she’s involved.”
Ilona Balfour was nominated to be a Coastal Star by Judy Black, president of the Hypoluxo Island Property Owners Association.Read more…
By Margie Plunkett
Gulf Stream will pay $286,250 annually for fire rescue services provided by Delray Beach, an 80 percent increase from last year and an amount some argued should have been higher.
During a special meeting late in July to approve the contract, Mayor William Koch offered perspective on prices of fire services: In 1947, Gulf Stream paid $500 a year for fire services. In 1939, it cost $12 for a fire call.
And from another angle, consider that Gulf Stream is wrestling with a budget shortfall next fiscal year — like most municipalities, thanks to the housing market plunge — of $125,000, roughly equal to the difference in the price of the new fire contract and the $159,000 paid last year.
The rise in the final fire contract doubled from the 40 percent increase in a $229,000 contract Gulf Stream commissioners earlier approved after Delray Beach submitted it before commissioners there had reviewed the agreement.
The price tag on the new 10-year contract, which includes a yearly cost-of-living adjustment, will not climb again when Delray Beach hires another firefighter to fully staff Fire Station No. 2 — the primary firehouse for Gulf Stream. The premature contract would have.
Station No. 2’s rescue transport is idle after its paramedic team was transferred to the understaffed fire engine. While that raised the status of the engine’s rescue capabilities, the closest available rescue transport from other stations now joins the No. 2 engine in response to Gulf Stream calls.
Delray Beach Town Manager David Harden said during his City Commission’s July 7 meeting that the initial contract offered did not incorporate the city’s investment in fire station facilities and its capital investment. The latest pact adds a 25 percent surcharge for those costs. “Probably all of us have struggled with this a great deal,” said Commissioner Fred Fetzer. But in the end, he called it “logical.” Mayor Woodie McDuffie said, “I believe this is fair and equitable, something we can justify” and, as Fetzer had pointed out, substantiate by law.
Commissioner Adam Frankel argued the price should be higher. The Gulf Stream fire contract equals $399.79 per capita, which Frankel said was more than $200 less per capita than any other locale. “It’s important to be fair with our neighbors, but it’s low,” he said. “I think we have to respect the budgets of our neighbors, but we have to respect our budget, too.”
Harden, though, said Briny Breezes pays a per capita rate of $524 for fire services and Ocean Ridge pays $429. He also pointed out that Delray Beach doesn’t have a fire station in Gulf Stream.
Gulf Stream Mayor Koch spoke at the Delray Beach meeting, graciously telling commissioners, “Thank you for considering our problems,” reminding them of the bonds the two cities have shared throughout the years and noting the contributions Gulf Stream residents make to Delray Beach in spending and philanthropy. The increase in the fire contract is great and it doesn’t take into account that Gulf Stream doesn’t require costly specialized services including hook-and-ladder equipment and chemical trucks, Koch said.
“We just need good personnel, ambulance service and a fire truck. Most of our calls are false alarms.”
Read more…
By C.B. Hanif
“District 84 goes all the way out to the Glades, so I have to do a lot of traveling,” said former Delray Beach Commissioner Mackenson Bernard. He’ll be doing a lot more if he wins the Florida House of Representatives seat he is seeking.
“Mack” Bernard has resigned his commission seat to run for the state House district that stretches from North Palm Beach to West Palm Beach and the Glades.
With the July 28 qualifying deadline looming, two other Democrats had announced their intention for the Aug. 25 special primary election: Former state Rep. James Henry “Hank” Harper Jr. and Riviera Beach Councilman Cedrick Thomas.
The short-notice primary was needed after Republican Gov. Charlie Crist crossed party lines to appoint then-District 84 Rep. Priscilla Taylor to the District 7 Palm Beach County Commission seat from which Addie Green, the only African-American member, resigned in April citing health concerns.
Bernard, originally appointed to the Delray Commission in 2008 to fill Brenda Montague’s term when she resigned, planned to finish the remainder of the term to which he was elected in March, then seek term-limited Taylor’s District 84 seat.
But the University of Florida law and Atlantic High School grad, who was raised in Delray after coming from Haiti at age 10, said, “Timing is everything. If I don’t take that opportunity now, I don’t know if I will ever get that opportunity (again).” No Republican is expected to enter the race in the African-American and Democrat-dominated district. In that case, the election will be won in the dueling-nicknames primary as “Mack” and “Hank” muster votes during the summer doldrums.
West Palm Beach business consultant Harper was a legislative aide and District 84 rep before losing a commission bid. During his July 14 campaign kickoff he cited his experience, his fifth-generation roots and focus on creating jobs.
Attorney Bernard, who would have to move into the district by the Sept. 22 general election date, said his own experience, understanding of the issues and ability to work with people across lines make him the best choice.
“I want to thank the citizens of Delray Beach for their graciousness in letting me have the opportunity to serve,” he said, adding that the all-white-male commission should replace him with “someone who has a different voice to address the needs of the community. I worked closely with the commission to do that.” Delray Beach is accepting applications to fill City Commission Seat No. 4. Applications will be accepted beginning Aug. 11 until 5:00 p.m. Aug. 25 in the form of a letter of intent and resume to be submitted to the City Manager’s Office. For more information, call (561) 243-7010.
Read more…
By Ron Hayes
Detour ahead.
Designs are currently being drawn to replace the Ocean Avenue bridge in Lantana, probably within the next two or three years.
“Sometimes we build a new bridge next to the existing one so traffic can keep flowing, then take down the old bridge,” says county bridge superintendent Barry Meve, “but in this case we’re going to put the new bridge right where it is now, so it won’t be passable during construction.”
Built in 1950, the current Lantana Bridge has a 12-foot vertical clearance. The new bridge will rise 21 feet, and could cost between $25 million and $40 million, Meve said.
“But now that times are getting tough, a lot of these bids are coming in low,” he added.
The construction will probably take between two and three years, he said.
However, Meve emphasized that nothing will be settled until the final design is ready.
In the meantime, he reports that seven of the eight drawbridges operated by the county have been equipped with hurricane-resistant glass. Only the Palmetto Park Road Bridge, which has slanting windows, remains to be done.
Why should the average citizen care?
“We used to have 20 people running around putting up shutters and taking them down again,” explains Meve. “And if it wasn’t a real storm, FEMA wouldn’t compensate us for the overtime.”
Read more…
By Nirvi Shah
Several government agencies have sued the governor and other state officials over a growth management law they believe is unconstitutional and will foster unbridled growth, with local governments powerless to control it.
The Community Renewal Act, which passed easily in the House and Senate, was proposed to spur economic development and signed into law by Gov. Charlie Crist in June. Those who advocated for the law said it would allow more development, because permitting would go more smoothly and lead to more construction jobs. The law eliminates the state Department of Community Affairs’ authority to oversee projects of regional impact in much of the state.
That kind of oversight, in part, led to the evaporation of a developer’s proposal to buy Briny Breezes in recent years. The state did not warm to the deal because of concerns that proposed waterfront high-rises would overwhelm the surrounding area.
Led by the city of Weston in Broward County, the governing bodies of Key Biscayne, Cutler Bay, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Fruitland Park, Miami Gardens, Parkland, Palmetto Bay and Lee County sued Crist, Secretary of State Kurt Browning, Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, over the new law in early July.
“Despite strong and vocal disapproval from numerous Florida cities and counties,” Weston City Manager John Flint said, “the Legislature passed and the governor signed this bill, essentially dismantling 30 years of growth management and now allowing relatively unrestricted growth without concern for taxpayer issues.” But the lawsuit takes less issue with the substance of the bill than with its constitutionality.
The state Constitution says the Legislature can’t adopt one law that tackles many unrelated subjects. Aside from growth management, the new legislation includes language about security cameras at private businesses and affordable housing.
Another constitutional provision limits “unfunded mandates,” which are new laws that don’t come with a way to pay for their enforcement. If a bill passes each chamber with at least a two-thirds vote, the Legislature can get around this requirement, but that didn’t happen, and there isn’t a source of funds to pay for local governments to revise their growth plans in accordance with the new law.
Read more…
Town Attorney Ken Spillias will review Ocean Ridge’s options — including re-annexation of Briny Breezes — to guard against the effects of Senate bill 360, development legislation that maximizes density along the east coast. The legislation raises concerns because it removes responsibility from a developer to provide roads to handle increased traffic, among other things, Commissioner Terry Brown explained. That, combined with the possibility that Briny Breezes could be sold in the future following its failed deal, raises threats of development that could flood A1A with traffic, the commissioner said.
Brown brought up the issue at the last commission meeting after a Weston group invited the town to kick in $2,500 and join its lawsuit over the bill. Brown suggested commissioners consider “a hostile takeover” of Briny, although he later said that, following President Obama’s lead, he’d like to “recalibrate” his choice of words. The commissioner explained he didn’t intend that Ocean Ridge should embark on a hostile or aggressive action, but that a merger could be in the best interest of both cities.
Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes — along with the south portion of Manalapan — were part of the town of Boynton until Ocean Ridge became a separate town in 1931.
— Margie PlunkettRead more…
By Margie Plunkett
Water rates won’t go up before this fiscal year is out — but that’s only because Briny Breezes absorbed the costs of a steep increase from Boynton Beach. Residents might want to brace themselves for times to come. “We’re trying to deal with it this year,” said Mayor Roger Bennett. “An increase would come next year.” Water provider Boynton Beach boosted rates 49 percent — 60 percent including the utility fee — to Briny Breezes effective May 1, Bennett said. Even though Briny Breezes usage went down 600,000 gallons in May as summer kicked in, the monthly bill nearly doubled to $7,000 compared with May 2008, he said. The added water costs spill over into Briny Breezes’ tight budget, one which compares favorably to other municipalities but is still subject to recessionary revenue and expense pressures.
“We’re not going to have enough in the budget to cover all of it,” Town Clerk and Alderman Kathy Bray said at Briny Breezes’ May 28 meeting. “We’ll have to cut other areas.”
Resident and Gulf Stream Town Clerk Rita Taylor noted, “Everybody’s rates are going up. There should be no problem to increase the monthly bill to the corporation. It always pays to budget ahead with utilities, because you never know when this comes up.”
Briny Breezes Inc. Board Member Don Faron, who attended the meeting, said, chuckling, “Let it be on the record that the corporation doesn’t have any money to pay for the increases.” When the town decides it needs to pass the increase on to the corporation, he said, keep in mind it’ll take three to four weeks minimum to approve a special assessment and get it to residents.
Other towns and the county have already raised water and other fees for residents. In Lantana, for instance, the minimum monthly water rate rose to $19.06 from $18.15 in June. Palm Beach County hiked water prices in April, including an 11.75 percent increase for drinking water and wastewater, which replaced a 15 percent surcharge imposed last year, the county’s Web site said.
Boynton Beach voted 3-2 at its April 21 meeting to raise water rates to its customers, a move that will generate $4.27 million for the rest of this fiscal year and $8.6 million next, according to the meeting minutes. The base cost of water was boosted to $10.77 from $4.84 for its residents. Combining base rates and fees adjusted for usage, a 5,000-gallon-a-month user would pay $49.82 under the new rates, up from $37.27 previously, according to Boynton Beach.
As non-residents of Boynton Beach, Briny Breezes pays more than residents. Anyone outside of the city pays a 25 percent surcharge — except for Ocean Ridge, said Peter Mazzella, deputy utilities director of Boynton Beach.
Ocean Ridge, the only outsider that owns its water system, is responsible for maintenance and replacement costs, he said, while Briny Breezes and other outsiders are not. Ocean Ridge retained the rights to the water mains when it became a separate city from Boynton Beach in 1931, Mazzella said.
Boynton Beach’s higher water tab was due to water restrictions set by the South Florida Water Management District, the economy’s effects on residential and commercial development and a rise in the cost of materials for water treatment, according to the city’s Web site. And prices could have gone higher had the city’s utilities department not postponed about 20 percent of its capital improvement program.
Despite the increase, Boynton Beach’s water still costs less than in Lake Worth or Delray Beach, the site said.
Read more…
By Nirvi Shah
While the roads along the Delray Beach coast are torn up, the temporary inconvenience will soon give way to a long-term change in residents' water-use habits.
The ripped-up strip of the coast from Atlantic Avenue north to Beach Drive is the fifth section of the city being fitted for pipes that will carry filtered wastewater for use on lawns and other purposes, aside from drinking, said Victor Majtenyi, deputy director of public utilities.
"If we can get their irrigation done on reclaimed water, that will be a big help in off-setting our use of potable water," he said.
He estimates this part of the project alone will keep at least 230,000 gallons of drinking water from being sprinkled on lawns each day. If more grant money becomes available, the next phase of the project would be from Beach Drive north to George Bush Boulevard along the coast. That part of the water reclamation work could keep another 720,000 gallons of drinking water off residents' yards.
"Funding is going to be the issue," Majtenyi said.
The current South Florida Water Management District grant of more than $1 million requires the pipe now being laid to be in place by the end of August. It could be another two months before the roads are back to normal, however.
Eventually residents will be required to connect to the web of pipes that carry recycled wastewater. They should be getting notices of that in the next few months. Majtenyi said the cost to homeowners should be small and will be subsidized by the city.
Delray Beach started its wastewater reclamation project in 2003, adding pipes to different parts of the city as grants were secured from the water management district. If more grant money becomes available, a city masterplan calls for eight more phases of water reclamation work.
Each customer added to the reclaimed water system gets the city one step farther from building a new water plant for drinking water that might require the expensive conversion of salt water into fresh water, he said.
"Plus, it's the right thing to do," he said, because filtering wastewater and putting it on lawns keeps sewage out of the ocean and from being injected deep underground.
Further south, Boca Raton has been working on its own recycled water project since the mid-90s. Some 977 customers tap into the system now, including some especially large water users -- golf courses. The plant now processes about five million gallons of wastewater a day, but it can handle twice that load. The city has plans to expand the project's reach to more customers.
Boca Raton says their project has saved over 10 billion gallons of drinking water since their water reclamation project was put in place.
Read more…
By Linda Haase
Although Boynton Beach city commissioners applauded fellow Commissioner Jose Rodriguez’s budget proposal, which would set the tax rate at $6.53 per taxable value, they approved a tentative tax rate of $7.30 per $1,000 of taxable value at their July 21 meeting.
“We can always go down but we can’t go up (once we approve it),” said Mayor Jerry Taylor, who indicated he would be looking for ways to reduce the 7.3 rate. “I need time to verify your numbers and if we can do what you say with that budget, I’d vote for it.”
Under the proposed millage of 7.3 there wouldn’t be any layoffs and there would be money for a controversial new police and/or city hall complex.
“We don’t know at this point if we would be using an existing building or building a new one, or if it would be just a police station or a police and city hall complex,” said City Manager Kurt Bressner.
“But we need to get the proposals in so we can see how much it will cost and if we want to move forward.” One proposal is an estimated $21 million stand-alone station which could be built on city-owned property at the corner of Gateway Boulevard and High Ridge Road, adjacent to Fire Station No. 5.
Commissioner Woodrow Hay said he was in favor of looking at projected costs “with no obligation to accept proposals.”
Rodriguez took a stronger stand on the issue: “I think we can do it all and get the millage rate to 6.5. That’s my challenge to the city manager.” Rodriguez’s proposed tax rate, which cut $1.17 million from the budget, included money for the police station.
Commissioner Ron Weiland disagreed. “This is not the proper time to do this,” he said. He also indicated that the city needed to “look at restructuring some departments,” saying that even if the city balances the budget this year, the tough times aren’t going to be over soon.
A public hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 14 to discuss the budget and tax rate.
Read more…
By Ron Hayes
A visitor from Georgia was killed and a Boynton Beach woman received multiple minor injuries when their cars collided in Ocean Ridge early July 18.
Luci D. Menegolo, 55, of Kennesaw, Ga., was driving north on Ocean Ridge Boulevard about 2:12 a.m. that Saturday when her 2008 Nissan SUV veered into the southbound lane as she was negotiating the curve at the Boynton Inlet, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
She collided head-on with a 2007 Chevrolet sedan being driven by Cherry M. Cheek, 49.
Menegolo, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was thrown from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.
Cheek was treated and released at Delray Medical Center.
Investigators suspect Menegolo was drunk, but a Sheriff's Office spokesman said alcohol impairment results will not be available for “a couple months.”
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By Margie Plunkett
Don’t like to carry change? Beach-goers in Delray Beach will soon have a new option to pay for parking in several area lots and on A1A: a smart card.
The smart card — as well as credit cards and change — can be used in the $148,303 parking system that was newly installed and operating in beach-area parking lots as of June 26. The city hopes to make the smart cards available in August.
The new Pay-N-Display system meters multiple spaces from 14 machines in parking lots on the west side of Ocean Boulevard, including Atlantic Dunes, Anchor Park and Sandoway Park parking lots, according to City Engineer Randal L. Krejcarek. After parking has been paid for, the meters dispense receipts that are put inside the car on the driver’s side corner of the dashboard. Receipts show when time paid for starts and ends. The Pay-N-Display meters replace single meters in beach-area lots, Krejcarek said. One of the benefits of the new system is that it eliminates tickets written in error because the patron entered the wrong parking space number in the machine.
Visa and MasterCard credit cards can be used to pay for parking, as well as exact change in coins; the machines do not accept paper money.
The smart card option is brand new to Delray Beach. Parkers will be able to get credit-card sized smart cards that are loaded with $5, to pay for parking on the new system as well as single meters on A1A. The cards can be replenished at some of the multi-space meters, City Hall or the Visitors Center at Atlantic Avenue and Ocean Boulevard.
The smart card is used like a credit card to pay for time in the multi-space meters, which deduct payment from the card and then tell the parker how much money is left on the card. The meter prompts the resident on what to do. To pay on a single meter, the resident inserts the card into a slot on the meter, and the card automatically starts paying the meter in increments of 25 cents. When the resident reaches the time desired, the card is pulled out of the meter.
The single meters are being modified to accept the smart cards.
The meter will let residents pay only for parking that is allowed in the space. If the space allows parking for two hours, for instance, the meter will deduct no more than two hours of time from the card.
Read more…
By Thom Smith
A cursory glimpse at Boynton Beach east of U.S. 1 conjures up images of Tombstone, Ariz. — billed in an old TV Western as “the town that refused to die.” Yep, it’s slow in Boynton, but it’s not dead yet.
Ginny Foot is shuttering the Art of Framing on Ocean Avenue (July 24), but not because of the economy.
“I still have loyal customers from Ocean Ridge, Manalapan, Gulf Stream and Boynton,” she said. “I see ’em in the grocery store and tell ’em ‘Your frame’s ready.’ But I’m ready to retire. I’ve been here 28 years.” Ginny tried to sell the business for several months but found no takers, so she’ll down her shingle and take a few more walks to the beach with husband, Bob, the local bridgetender.
“We’re not going anywhere,” she said. “This is a neat place to be.”
A few doors away in Ocean Plaza, Art-Sea Living is preparing to clear out. Not closing, mind you. Just moving from one bridge view to another.
“We’ll have a lot more space,” employee Terry Esposito said of the September move next to Jo-Ann Fabrics in Riverwalk Plaza at the corner of Woolbright Road and Federal Highway.
“This is a cute spot and we hate leaving the plaza, but it’s a matter of economics. We have a sign up at the new place and we’re already getting calls from new customers.
Art-Sea offers a little bit of everything related to art and the sea: fine art by prominent Florida artists, custom jewelry, gifts and art classes.
Minor Skate Shop also departed recently for a free-standing building on South Federal — the better to avoid collisions between acrobatic skateboarders and unsuspecting pedestrians, but Cafe Frankie’s remains, as does Sushi Jo, Pirate Divers dive shop, Cynthia’s Hair Color & Design, Fancy Flamingo boutique, Fran’s Sew-n-Sew & Dry Cleaners and Nail-Know-How, which was voted the best nail salon in Boynton in ’07 and ’08.
Friday night revelers in Lake Worth better be on their best behavior Aug. 21, and perhaps should bring along a few extra bucks to buy beers for city commissioners who’ll be on the prowl. Members of the commission will assemble at the library at 9 p.m. for a walking tour of downtown.
They won’t be looking so much as listening; they’re gathering information for a proposed noise ordinance that would set measurable limits of 85 decibels from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. and 65 decibels from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. The present ordinance allows enforcement officers to “decide” what is “loud and raucous.”
OSHA considers 90 decibels a safe level for eight hours of constant exposure. A gunshot can reach 140 decibels, a loud rock concert can hit 115, normal conversation ranges from 60 to 70 and a quiet library measures out at 30. Commissioners will discuss their findings at an Aug. 25 workshop.
Despite the summer doldrums, Delray Beach city commissioners have noticed the impact of Il Bacio, which they jokingly called the “new City Limits” at their July 14 workshop. City Limits was a live music-dining-drinking landmark for years, then closed, then moved across the street, then closed again last spring. Now Il Bacio, which opened May 6 in the old City Limits space, has picked up the mantle with daily happy hour specials, Ecstatic Thursdays, and the latest, Sunset Sundays, with live reggae and drink specials, and two for $21 three-course dinners Wednesday to Sunday from 4-7 p.m..
Just across Atlantic, jackhammers have been ripping out most of the guts of what was Louie, Louie Too. If all goes well, sometime in November, when a significant other calls to ask where you are, you can honestly say, “I'm at The Office.”
That’s the name for the next restaurant from David Manero, who opened Vic & Angelo’s next to the tracks, has another in Palm Beach Gardens and DeVito (as in Danny) in South Beach. Manero described The Office to New Times as “very California in style … imaginative American with Asian influences … the ultimate gastropub.” The guy on the jackhammer offered a simpler description: “a fancy burger joint.”
Thanks to former Manalapan resident Bren Simon, the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach in Manalapan doubles as a museum with its fascinating collection of European art. So what better to stimulate the senses than to check out the art in the five-star hotel’s public areas and then enjoy a bargain lunch.
The Ritz’s Temple Orange casual restaurant with an ocean view is offering three-course lunches for $20.09. Executive Chef Ryan Artim is offering roasted tomato gazpacho or classic Caesar salad, followed by grilled salmon club or grilled churrasco-marinated filet with warm potato salad and capped by vanilla crème brulée or tiramisu. Three-course dinners can be devoured for just $35.
Part of the Palm Beach Restaurant Summer, a joint effort by some of Palm Beach’s prime eateries to generate summer action, has been extended through September. The $20.09 and $35 specials are offered by Bice, Cafe Boulud, Cafe L’Europe, Charley’s Crab, the Leopard Lounge at the Chesterfield, Coco (dinner only), Flagler Steakhouse and The Seafood Bar at The Breakers, The Ocean Bistro at The Four Seasons and Renato’s. Chow down!
Thom Smith is a freelance writer. Send news items to him at thomsmith@ymail.com.Read more…
DELRAY BEACH — Delray Beach is taking a unique approach to finding new revenue streams for the city to replace tanking property taxes: a contest. To win a $500 grand prize, $300 second prize or $200 third prize, all you have to do is come up with an idea for bringing in new income that’s easy to put in place and doesn’t increase taxes.
The contest, co-sponsored by the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, was established after long-time Delray Beach resident and Budget Task Force member Robert Moore donated $1,000. “This will give our residents the opportunity to analyze the current financial crisis and become engaged in the process,” said Chamber President Bill Wood in a statement.
“We look forward to the submissions.”
Entries should be about 500 words, include name, address, phone number and e-mail address. They can be:
• E-mailed to bwood@delraybeach.com
• Sent through regular mail — postmarked no later than the entry deadline of Aug. 21 — to the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, 65-A SE Fifth Ave., Delray Beach, FL 33483; or
• Dropped off at the Chamber.
Winners will be announced in September.
City residents are eligible to enter, as are city employees except Budget Task Force members, city commissioners and their families, the city manager and the judges.
— Margie PlunkettRead more…
By Margie Plunkett
Delray Beach has a new set of rules in place for transient housing, limiting the number of unrelated people who can live in a household in single-family areas as well as the number of times a property can be leased, among other things.
Commissioners passed ordinances after a second public hearing July 7 that brought out another round of landlords, sober-house owners, single-family homeowners and other residents to defend their points of view. The debate focused largely on sober houses, but residents in single-family neighborhoods also complained of group homes occupied by college students and others, which bring an inordinate amount of traffic and strangers to the neighborhood. And residents questioned whether the city could enforce the new rules any better than the old. Mayor Woody McDuffie made clear, “It’s not about recovering addicts, it’s about unscrupulous landlords.
“There are facilities in Delray Beach to be admired: They’re not the people we’re talking about,” McDuffie said. “Recovering addicts are welcome in the city of Delray Beach. We’re pleased and proud that when they get through treatment, they become contributing adults. We can’t tolerate unscrupulous and profit-mongering landlords who abuse the people in the homes.”
He referenced a statement made during this and a previous public hearing by the chair of Delray Beach’s drug task force, Pat Archer, who said, “There are no halfway houses in Delray Beach operated in residential neighborhoods. Sober houses are unlicensed and unsupervised.” Supporters of sober houses spoke of how without them they would not have recovered from addiction, and how the good citizens in one halfway house volunteered to help a neighbor when needed.
Meanwhile, residents pointed out that the city had not succeeded in enforcing earlier ordinances limiting unrelated people in a single-family house to five.
“Enforce the codes you have,” said resident Caroline Zimmerman, who noted a house in her neighborhood: “It’s not a drug house, it’s a crack house. They pretend they’re a drug house. It’s up to you all to enforce these things.”
And another resident, James Garn, said, “I’m not against sober houses, I have a problem with transient houses. I know houses where they have 15 people in the house, collecting $150 per person.” And, he added there are sober houses claiming homestead exemption.
City commissioners quickly told him he should report homestead fraud when he encounters it.
A recent report by the city Budget Task Force said there were 493 rented houses in Delray Beach that receive some form of tax exemption. Adding them to the tax rolls could result in $376,710 in added revenues annually for the city, the report said. The task force also said there were more than 1,000 rental properties that didn’t have landlord permits; this, if confirmed and corrected, could result in $54,250 more revenue for the city.
At the public hearing on transient land uses, a statement by Father Chip Stokes at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was read that reiterated his contention the new rules discriminate against unrelated adults who live together, college students, gay and lesbian people, farm laborers and the poor who consolidate for cost savings, as well as the sober-house community. “It is wrong on too many levels,” the statement said. “It should not be passed.”
The group of ordinances, passed on first reading in June, addressed transient housing by defining family as no more than three unrelated people; updating terminology to conform with the state; and prohibiting transient residential uses in single-family and planned residential developments, but allowing them in medium density residential districts. They also limited the number of times a single-family home can be rented to six times annually and provided for regulation, including permitting, permit fees and revocation of permits.
Read more…
By Jan Norris
The only way to beat the stifling summertime heat is to pull up a piece of shade by the pool and act like you’re on vacation.
That requires only sunglasses and a cool drink in your hand. Clothing is optional.
There are a number of watering holes in our area to find libations, if you’d rather buy than build a decent drink, but these recipes are so good, you’ll want to add them to your repertoire.
To honor The Coastal Star, the bar staff at Caffe Luna Rosa in Delray Beach came up with the spectacular blue beauty — the Coastal Star. Though it’s not served on a bed of sand with seaweed, you’ll feel like you’re breezing along on a sailboat next to beautiful beaches as you sip this luscious concoction. (They’re an exclusive at Caffe Luna Rosa and cost $9.)
The Coastal Star
2 ounces Van Gogh North 44 huckleberry vodka
1/2 ounce curaçao
2 ounces Kennesaw Natural Lemonade
ice cubes
sugar for rimming glass
lemon wheel for garnish
Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice; pour into martini glass rimmed with white sugar. Serve with a lemon wheel or wedge.
Tim Bauer of Delray Beach’s Falcon House suggests two coolers packed with a punch. A Cayman Lemonade is actually made with 7-Up and gin. The Falcon Lemonade is fresh lemonade and a berry-flavored vodka.
Cayman Lemonade
1.5 ounces gin
splash of Triple Sec
splash of peach schnapps
equal parts to fill glass:
cranberry juice
7-Up soda
lemon wheel to garnish
Shake all ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice. Serve in a tall cooler glass over ice with a lemon wheel garnish.
Falcon Lemonade
2 to 3 lemon wedges
½ teaspoon granulated sugar
1.5 ounces Van Gogh North 44 acai-blueberry vodka
splash of club soda
mint sprig to garnish
Muddle the lemons with sugar in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Add cubed ice and vodka. Shake well. Pour over ice in a cooler glass and finish with splash of club soda. Garnish with mint sprig.
The Banana Boat, directly on the water, has a number of chill-down drinks. Here’s their mango-flavored bay breeze. There are three simple ingredients — easy enough for any amateur.
Mango Bay Breeze
1-1/4 ounces mango schnapps
Equal parts:
Pineapple juice
Cranberry juice
Shake ingredients together with ice in cocktail shaker. Serve in a rocks glass with cubed ice and a cube of fresh mango or pineapple to garnish.
Martinis are the bar’s top sellers at Callaro’s Prime Steakhouse in Manalapan — it’s a steakhouse thing. But the bar there features a number of summery drinks that go beyond shaken or stirred. Check out the creamy, complex Fantasy Island.
Callaro’s Fantasy Island
Equal measures of:
Crème d’ banana
Galliano liqueur
Amaretto Di Saranno liqueur
Bailey’s Irish Cream
Coconut rum
Measure all ingredients into a cocktail shaker, shake with ice and pour over ice in a cocktail glass.
At the Old Key Lime House in Lantana, bar manager Danny Hooker pours up a slice of pie in a glass with the Key lime martini. Have crushed graham crackers on hand.
Key Lime House signature Key lime martini
1.5 ounces vanilla vodka
1 ounce Keke Beach Key lime liqueur
1 ounce pina colada mix (bottled or homemade)
1 ounce fresh orange juice splash of fresh lime juice
crushed graham crackers for rimming glass
lime wheel for garnish
Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice; pour into a martini glass rimmed with graham cracker crumbs. Serve with a lime wheel.
Jan Norris is a local food writer. Read her blog at www.jannorris.com or E-mail her at jan@jannorris.com.Read more…
After hearing from town residents struggling to pay increasing utility bills, Lantana commissioners voted July 27 to not change the existing millage rate as part of their 2010 budget — charging Town Manager Michael Bornstein with finding other ways to fill a $341,000 deficit. The vote was 3-1 with Mayor David Stewart dissenting. Councilmember Lynn Moorehouse was absent.
Public hearings for the final 2010 budget were set for September 14 and 28.
Also at the meeting:
• The commission approved a request by owners of the Carlisle senior living facility, to convert 20 independent care units to assisted living. The Carlisle, at 450 E. Ocean Ave, would still have the same total number of units, but the new mix would be 80 assisted living units and 230 for independent living.
• Approved an interlocal agreement with the Town of South Palm Beach for police dispatch services
• Approved a five percent increase in business taxes.
— Margie Plunkett and Mary Kate LemingRead more…
By C.B. Hanif
It’s something that any congregation — or, better yet, group of congregations — can do.
This time it’s the Delray Beach Interfaith Clergy Association.
The idea germinated from photocopies of Peace Notes. And the note scribbled across them: “Could we do something like this here? Interfaith Harvest.”
One of the headlines in that spring 2006 issue of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program newsletter read, “Shared Thanksgiving, Montclair Presbyterian Church, Oakland, California.”
Beneath a photo (caption: “A spirit of celebration filled the hall”), a single paragraph told the story: “When Tinka Larsen proposed an Interfaith Harvest Dinner, some thought the idea too ambitious. Her enthusiasm proved contagious and the commitment was made. Over 180 people from Montclair, the Kehilla Community Synagogue, and the Islamic Cultural Center gathered on Nov. 13. Christians, Jews and Muslims planned and cooked together, decorated and cleaned up together. Conversations buzzed around the room as diners exchanged names, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers. Prayer and food, story and song were enjoyed. A member of each congregation shared a version of the creation story. A spirit of Thanksgiving was truly present.”
Well, it’s not too early to replicate that idea across America — and anyplace else where people could use an excuse to express gratitude, share good food and get to know fellow citizens of this planet.
The Rev. Elizabeth Hill, of the Church of the Palms, UCC, shared those photocopies during the Delray association’s May meeting. She formerly had been part of that Oakland congregation. And since it was she who had written the “could we?” note, she had just volunteered to help the Interfaith Harvest Dinner happen.
Hill served on a similar committee two years ago when the Delray group hosted Jewish, Christian and Muslim women on their The Faith Club book tour promoting mutual understanding. At her new committee’s first meeting July 2 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, she said everyone she had asked had agreed to help. No date or venue was set. But there was consensus for an open and peaceful atmosphere for learning and sharing, one particularly inviting for youths rather having them nodding off to adults’ monologues.
The Delray Beach Interfaith Clergy Association is one of many interfaith groups doing good things that we’ll keep telling about here.
Montclair’s idea apparently wasn’t too ambitious. But congregations can be as ambitious as they like.
So do try this at home. And tell us what you’re planning — and when. Who said Thanksgiving was the only time to show appreciation for life, and for each other?
C.B. Hanif, former news ombudsman and editorial columnist for The Palm Beach Post, is a freelance writer, editor and media and interfaith consultant and speaker. Contact him at cbhanif@gmail.com or see his blog, InterFaith21.com.Read more…
Caption: Manalapan resident Oblio Wish demonstrates Gyrokinesis: a low-impact body conditioning system developed in the mid 1980s by a former ballet dancer with the New York City Opera. A yoga teacher, her Kundalini name is Simran Kaun (the Woman Who Prays to God). Her birth name is Oblio, after her grandmother. Photo by Timothy Rivers
Oblio Wish, of Manalapan, is a slim blond ex-model turned Kundalini yoga teacher who follows this mantra: Look good, feel good and be happy.
It works for her. And that’s the feeling that emanates from her yoga studio, tea bar and clothing boutique, Gyrotonic Sat Nam in West Palm Beach.
With impeccable taste — she’s designed clothing for the likes of Stevie Nicks and other entertainers — she includes doing makeup and personal shopping as part of her services.
“I have a flair for clothes,” she says. “I know what looks good on people and what they will feel comfortable wearing.
“That’s my talent. I pick up clients’ mood, and suggest something. ‘Oh, I love that’ is what I hear.”
She admits to being shy and dyslexic, and appreciates being with others who have non-judgmental attitudes.
“I like my environment to be relaxed. My clients don’t have to have their nails done perfectly. They don’t have to buy anything, either,” she adds.
However, she believes that you don’t have to wear your husband’s shirt when you work out. “You can look nice,” she says.
And she does. “I wear makeup and jewelry because I’m at my studio all day. I don’t want to look like a gym rat.”
Sometimes you will find her in simple black. And when she’s teaching Kundalini, you will see her wearing a turban and dressed in all white.
Currently, she spends two to three hours a day working out, but a healthy lifestyle and outlook on life are nothing new.
“I’ve done step (aerobics), and when I lived in Palm Beach, I used to roller skate at 2 a.m. I couldn’t believe that people would go to bed so early,” she said.
“I love to dance and 15 years ago, I became a vegan and got into yoga because I had allergies and wanted to live in a healthier environment.”
When she first started learning yoga, she studied with many famous teachers. At one studio, she heard music and laughter coming from the next room. “I went in and saw they were having fun. They were doing Kundalini and the teacher was Gurmukh (of Golden Bridge Nite Moon, Los Angeles). Gurmukh said, “I’ve got to know about you.’ ”
Kundalini became a way of life and now she finds herself surrounded by practitioners: her gardener, interior designer, doctor and dentist.
Born in Cape Cod, she was raised around Bel Air, Calif. She then moved to New York City, where she did commercial modeling for companies including Coca Cola. That’s where she met her husband, Barry. She moved to Palm Beach 20 years ago.
Shortly after moving here, her kids, she said, met her future business partner, Rick Carroll, also of Manalapan, on the beach.
“He was thin and my children wanted me to feed him.
“He was the one who suggested I open a store, and I did: Oblio’s Dream in Palm Beach and Southampton. I went into business with him.”
At her studio she works with people from 3 to 93 years old. “You don’t have to be hard on your body. Working on Gyrotonic (machines) is a little like swimming, ballet or Tai Chi.” One of her best compliments came from a 6-year-old girl visiting the studio with her mother.
“She said, ‘I feel like I’ve been at a spa all day.’ ”
10 Questions for Oblio Wish
Q. What have been the highlights of your life so far?
A. Meeting and marrying my husband, Barry. My two children, three stepchildren, and six grandchildren.
Q. Tell us one thing your neighbors may not know about you.
A. I’m a neat freak.
Q. How did you choose to make your home in Manalapan?
A. We found our dream — a house on the ocean. We love the little town flavor.
Q. What book are you reading now?
A. TGIT: Thank God It’s Today, by Barry Gottlieb.
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
A. Spiritual music. A favorite is Aquarian Age, by Nirinjan Kaur.
Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
A. “We have so much fear from childhood. We must disconnect from the past so we can have a future.” Yogi Bhajan
Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. Gurmukh, who introduced me to Kundalini yoga and Elaine Chaback (of Woodstock, N.Y.) who took me in when I was homeless after I went through the money I made doing commercials. I babysat her children. Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?
A. Follow your heart, find your passion.
Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
A. Kate Hudson. I like the way she dresses. She’s spiritual, fun and small like I am. I like the kind of men she likes, too.
Q. Who or what makes you laugh?
A. My husband Barry. He has an amazing sense of humor. He still gets me after 27 years.
Read more…
By Mary Thurwachter
Later this year, patrons of the Palm Beach International Airport will be able to zip in and out of airport parking lots settling with SunPass, the prepaid system used on Florida’s Turnpike and other toll roads.
“We don’t have it yet, “ said Casandra R. Davis, community affairs spokeswoman for the airport. “We don’t have a firm date; late 2009 is projected.”
But there’s always something new at the airport, which had humble beginnings as a field with a windsock in 1929, became Morrison Field in 1936 (through the Depression) and served as a military base during World War II and the Korean War. In 1966, a five-building terminal was built. Twenty-one years ago, the current terminal made its debut, tripling the size of the previous building and doubling the gates.
So what’s new today?
A spiffy $64 million long-term parking garage, for one thing. The seven-story garage opened last year and added 3,400 spaces.
Parking rates have gone up, too. As of May 19, daily fees went up a dollar: $7 in park-and-ride, $13 in long-term parking and $17 in short-term parking.
You can buy gum! After a 20-year ban, PBIA sells chewing gum. Paradies Shops, which run the airport’s retail shops, estimates that lifting the no-gum ban will bring in an extra $225,000 a year. Money wasn’t the only motivator. Passengers ask for gum all the time. Davis insists the change hasn’t been the nightmare officials once feared. It’s not ruining furniture and carpet. At least not yet …
You can get pesos for your dollars. A currency exchange, shoe shine and business center have found a home in the terminal.
Stuffed lions and tigers and toys, oh boy! A Kid Zone store and playground have been added. It’s all within skipping distance of the putting green, pool tables and foosball game outside Sam Snead’s Tavern. So there’s a playground for big kids, too!
For those who like to watch the planes take off, there’s a new observation area. It’s got TVs, desks chairs and free Wi-Fi to occupy your time when there’s not much activity on the tarmac.
JetBlue moved from Concourse B to Concourse C. The switch came after the recent completion of three new gates on the east section of Concourse C.
Chili's Too and CNBC News concessions have opened in Concourse C. Chili’s has a separate line for to-go orders, so travelers can fly the friendly skies while munching on baby back ribs.
Extra ATM machines have been installed. Get cash courtesy Fifth Third Bank.
Charge! There’s a cell phone charging station at CNBC News.
Good good good good vibrations (oom bop bop). Feeling tense? Stress relief is available via massage chairs. You get three minutes of chair massage for a buck.
Surf the net. Leave your laptop at home? No worries. Internet access is available at 35 cents a minute!
Bathroom break for companions. Folks traveling with a health aid or helpful spouse can make use of the Companion Care restrooms.
Fight germs. Bathrooms are stocked with antibacterial soap.
Still under construction: An $18.1 million control tower is being built near the airport’s northern border near the Palm Beach Kennel Club. Air traffic controllers are planning to move into the 231-foot-tall tower in 2011.
Mary Thurwachter is a West Palm Beach freelance writer and founder/producer of INNsideFlorida.com (www.innsideflorida.com)Read more…
