Ocean Ridge Town Commissioner

*Don MaGruder - 316

*James A. Bonfiglio - 247

Nan Yablong - 167

Richard Bajakian - 163

Note: Unofficial results

Boca Raton Mayor

*Susan Haynie - 6,410

Alfred Zucaro - 5,298

Boca Raton City Council Seat A

*Scott Singer - 8,038

Patty Dervishi - 3,297

Boca Raton City Council Seat B

*Andrea Levine O'Rourke - 5,576

Andy Thomson - 4,593

Emily Gentile - 1,364

Note: Unofficial results

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach will host its first sea turtle talk at 9 a.m. March 29 at the Northern Trust Bank at 770 E. Atlantic Ave.

The program is geared to barrier island residents to help them understand why the lights at night need to be lowered during the sea turtle nesting season that started March 1, said Ana Puszkin-Chevlin, the city’s sustainability officer.

The programs highlights are: Turtle lighting compliance by Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton; the Delray Beach dune landscape management plan by Rob Barron, former chief lifeguard for the city and now its dune management consultant; and an overview of the beach master plan by the city’s consultant on the project.

The program will last about 90 minutes. The Beach Property Owners Association will provide the refreshments. Public parking is available on the north side of Atlantic Avenue, adjacent to Veterans Park. Questions or to RSVP, send an email to: puszkinA@mydelraybeach.com.

Also on March 29, at 10 a.m., Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein will host a kick-off event for the beach promenade work along Ocean Boulevard. The program will take place at the pavilion where Atlantic Avenue meets the beach.

By Steve Plunkett

The trial of former Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella will be at least three months later than first scheduled.

Circuit Judge Charles Burton will hold a calendar call in the case at 9:30 a.m. July 21, according to a notice of hearing posted March 8.

Lucibella, 63, is charged with felony battery on a police officer and resisting the officer with violence. He also faces a misdemeanor count of using a firearm in his backyard while under the influence of alcohol. He has pleaded not guilty.

Assistant State Attorney Danielle Grundt and Lucibella’s defense attorney, Marc Shiner, both told the judge they could not question all the witnesses by April 10, the trial’s original start date.

“As such, the parties agree additional time is needed to complete discovery and prepare for trial,” Shiner said in a stipulated motion.

Shiner also waived Lucibella’s right to a speedy trial.

Ocean Ridge police went to Lucibella’s oceanfront home Oct. 22 after neighbors reported hearing gunfire. They confiscated a .40-caliber handgun and found five spent shell casings on the patio.

Lucibella resigned his vice mayor and town commissioner positions Dec. 7.

By Steve Plunkett
    
The Jewish congregation that caused a stir when it received City Council approval to build a towering synagogue and an Israel museum on Palmetto Park Road east of the Intracoastal Waterway fears it may not get title to the land.
    In papers filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court in February, the Chabad of East Boca Raton says it was promised the 0.84 acres at 770 E. Palmetto Park Road by Irving Litwak, a devoted congregant who set up a land trust that acquired the parcel in 2009 for $2.7 million.
    But Litwak died Nov. 25 before transferring the land to the Chabad, and officially the property’s owners remain the co-trustees of Litwak’s TJCV Land Trust. Already, Litwak’s son, Harris Litwak, described in the lawsuit as an agent of the trust, has emailed Boca Raton officials to see if the city would like to lease the parcel for a parking lot.
    The trustees “are fully aware of Harris Litwak’s activities” and have “refused to withdraw or repudiate the lease offer,” the Chabad’s suit says.
    “Such completely inconsistent action is an anticipatory repudiation of the Land Trust’s agreement to convey the property to the Chabad,” it says.
    Rabbi Ruvi New, the Chabad’s spiritual leader, was out of town and could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit.
    In 2008, Irving Litwak executed a “direction of beneficiary” to the trustees ordering them “to transfer the property for no consideration, as a charitable donation” to the Chabad for the establishment of a synagogue. “Such transfer shall occur no later than five (5) days following issuance of a permit by the city for the construction of a Chabad shul upon the property,” the document said.
    The 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach decided in November not to review a Circuit Court decision that overturned the City Council’s approval of the synagogue/museum. The lower court had ruled that a museum was not a permitted use on that part of Palmetto Park Road after real estate broker David Roberts, whose offices are across the street, objected to the plan.
Since then, Chabad officials have had several meetings with Derek Vander Ploeg, the project architect, to prepare a revised site plan for construction of the synagogue without the museum component, the lawsuit says.
The Chabad alleges breach of contract and asks a judge to order the trust to turn over the property.
“The Chabad spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in architectural fees, legal fees, and other professional fees (as well as costs for maintaining the property), in the good faith belief that the trust was holding the property for the benefit of the Chabad and would complete the transfer of the property to the Chabad once the city of Boca Raton approved the use of the property for a synagogue,” the suit states.
The Palm Beach County property appraiser says the land has a market value of $1.5 million.
Harris Litwak’s email to the city, dated Jan. 2, says the parcel “has sat for way too long.”
“We would like to lease it to the city as a parking lot/park setting for the benefit of local business, beachgoers and any others situated to take advantage of what has become inadequate parking in east Boca Raton,” it said. “We are under new management and are eager to both do business and assist with the parking situation at this location.”
The site originally held the 1927 Giles House, home for three decades to La Vieille Maison restaurant. The home was bulldozed in 2011 after Irving Litwak fought an attempt to give it a historic preservation label.

Jay and Alice Finst relax on the bench they donated at the north end of Delray Beach. It bears a plaque (below) that Alice says reflects the beach ambiance and reminds the couple of watching their sons surf there.  Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Future of markers in doubt as Delray Beach begins master plan for shore

By Jane Smith

    They bought benches and brass plaques beside the city’s public beach as timeless remembrances of family members who so enjoyed their time by the sea. Many of the 50 or so markers are dedicated to departed loved ones.
    But that might end in April.
    That’s when Delray Beach will begin work on its $3 million beach master plan, a project in the works for over eight years. The 1.25-mile promenade west of the dunes will have wider sidewalks and similarly designed shower poles, benches, trash/recycling containers and signs to replace the current hodgepodge of styles.
    The city plans to honor the marker memorials, said John Morgan, head of the Environmental Services Department. The names will be carved into brick pavers forming the flagpole base near Atlantic Avenue and the benches returned to those who paid for them.

    Some longtime residents think the plaques should be left in place, or incorporated into the new beachscape.
    “The beach is saturated with sun lovers and requires no additional enticements,” longtime Delray resident Alice Finst said at the Feb. 7 commission meeting. She said she paid $774 for the plastic-composite bench with a plaque. She also bought a silver buttonwood tree that would be planted near the bench. They were installed in 2009.
    The Finst family marker depicts palms and a surfer. “They provide an ambiance of the most fun small city,” she told commissioners.
    She chose the north end of the beach because that’s where she watched her boys surf. “I usually stood,” she later recalled, “on the bench or sea wall to see them.”
    When she paid for the bench, Finst said, “I was told it would be a permanent location and the bench would not be removed.”
    Albert Richwagen, who runs his family bicycle shop in the city, suggested recycling the plaques for use on the new benches.
    “When my father passed, I also bought a bench in the south end for people to use to take their shoes off before going down to the beach,” he told commissioners.
    While the Finst family bench is in good condition at the lesser-used north end, Richwagen’s bench sits at the more heavily used south end. The rusted L-shaped brackets connecting the base of his bench to the concrete slab are broken. Richwagen said he replaced the stainless-steel straps several times since he bought the bench a few years ago.
    Bob Victorin, president of the Beach Property Owners Association, which spearheaded the beach plan, bought a bench with a plaque across from his Ocean Place condominium some two years ago. He paid $900 and the plaque reads: The Victorins since 1972.
    “It’s an emotional thing,” he said. “It serves no purpose for the city to disturb that. The old plaques can go on the new benches.”
    Both men admit they signed agreements allowing the city to move the benches at any time.
    “We will retrieve all the benches and hold them until we can notify the family,” Morgan said. “We will deliver the bench if the family wants it.”
    As to whether the new metal benches can have plaques, that’s a commission decision, he said.
    At the Feb. 7 meeting, Commissioner Mitch Katz said he liked the idea of putting the old plaques on the new benches.
    But Mayor Cary Glickstein wants to see uniformity at the beach.
    “Some of (the markers) are on benches and some in the ground like headstones, but none are uniform,” Glickstein wrote in an email. “This is a public beach — not a cemetery — that we have gone to great lengths to improve.”
    He said millions have been spent to improve the beach-side through renourishment programs and the dune management system that is widely regarded as one of the most successful in Florida.
    The last piece, Glickstein said, is the pedestrian promenade.
    MBR Construction of Fort Lauderdale was chosen in January with the low bid of $2.3 million. The city also paid EDSA Inc. of Fort Lauderdale $425,000 to design and secure permits and oversee construction.
    A ground-breaking ceremony will be held in late March, Morgan said.

    In other barrier island news, work will start in April on the Gleason Street and Venetian Drive crosswalks on Atlantic Avenue.
    Because they travel across a state road, the crosswalks are controlled by the state Department of Transportation. The department does not allow pavers to be used in its roadways. Stamped concrete is preferred. The $366,000 cost will be paid by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.

Three votes is all it takes to change the course of history in most of our coastal towns. Think about it: Riverwalk Plaza in Boynton Beach, iPic and Atlantic Crossing in Delray Beach, the termination of a police chief in Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes’ switch from Ocean Ridge to Boynton Beach police service. These all happened on a 3-2 vote.
    I’m thinking a lot about this vote count as we gear up for the March 14 municipal elections. With the exception of Manalapan, which has seven commissioners, it takes only three votes to change (or protect) our way of life on the island.
    Granted, cities like Boca Raton seem to be keen on unanimous votes and towns like Gulf Stream and Highland Beach rarely split their votes. Still, all it takes is one election to change things. And not just on the national stage. One election can force extremely local changes as well.
    Keep this in mind as you attend candidate forums and talk with your neighbors this month. What issues are at the heart of why you love where you live? Maybe it’s the beach and maintaining our shoreline. Maybe it’s assuring levels of emergency service to the island.
    Maybe it’s making sure house sizes don’t destroy the ambiance of our neighborhoods. Or maybe it’s overdevelopment or traffic or sober homes in residential neighborhoods. All of these things — and more — will be on the ballot March 14.
    How candidates stand on these issues matters far more than which clubs they belong to or with whom they are friends or how they look. It’s not a popularity contest. We are voting for people who will represent our concerns.
    Ask hard questions. Educate yourself on the impact of zoning issues and comprehensive plans and changes to town charters. These are at the heart of preserving, creating or destroying the way we want to live along the coast.
And keep in mind that all it takes is a 3-2 vote.

— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

      DELRAY BEACH — Marcus W. Smith, 82, of Delray Beach, Florida and Prouts Neck, Maine, died peacefully on Feb. 27. He is survived by his devoted wife of 31 years, Alexandra White Smith, his five children and their spouses: Marcus W. Smith Jr. of New Canaan, Conn., Christopher H. Smith of Denver, Colo., Mary Deborah Smith Janeck of St. Helena, Calif., Jeffrey C. Smith of Locust Valley, N.Y., Peter S. Smith of New York City, nine grandchildren, and three stepchildren: Alexandra S. Maurer of Freeport, Maine, Anita S. Pellet of Wilson, Wyo., and Robert E. Strawbridge IV of San Francisco, and six step-grandchildren. In addition, Mr. Smith is survived by his older sister, Mary Elizabeth Smith Brennan, and older brother Brewster Holmes Smith.

      Mr. Smith was born in Pontiac, Mich., on March 29, 1934. He graduated from Cranbrook School, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 1952, and Dartmouth College in 1956. He was a member of the board of trustees at University Liggett School, Grosse Pointe, Mich., from 1976-1984. Mr. Smith was president of Smith-Morris Corp. from 1965-1985. He was the director of alumni (New York, New Jersey, and New England) for Fairview Recovery Services.

      Mr. Smith was a trustee and vice-president of the Prouts Neck Association, commissioner of roads and police, treasurer of the Charles E. Thomas Memorial Library, committee member of the St. James Episcopal Church, and chairman of the Post Office (Prouts Neck). He was on the board of the Crossroads Club and the C.R.C. Recovery Foundation, both in Delray Beach. Mr. Smith taught the Haitian children at Paul’s Place in Delray Beach.

      Mr. Smith was a member of the Gulf Stream Bath and Tennis Club and the Little Club, both in Gulf Stream, the Prouts Neck Country Club in Maine, and the Yondotega Club in Detroit.

      Memorial services will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 188 S. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach, Florida on March 8 at 4 p.m., and St. James Episcopal Church, Prouts Neck, Maine, on July 8.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Crossroads Club, 1700 Lake Ida Road, Delray Beach, FL 33445.

— Submitted by the family

By Dan Moffett

South Palm Beach’s long-awaited beach stabilization project will become longer awaited still — unless the town is able to close an easement deal with oceanfront homeowners very soon.         

The town has until March 8 to persuade a dozen property owners to sign a letter allowing contractors access to a five-eighths-mile stretch of beach so construction has at least a chance of beginning this fall.         

Town Manager Bob Vitas says this is the absolute last in a series of deadlines that have come and gone as the property owners balked at getting onboard. He remains confident they will endorse the plan.
    “I think we’re good,” Vitas said. “We’re going to get it done.”
Project manager Kimberly Miranda of the county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management concedes that starting construction this year is a long shot. She says the bureaucratic hurdles ahead are daunting, even if South Palm Beach gets its easements approvals soon.
“Providing exact construction windows is difficult at this point since we are still in the process of obtaining permits,” Miranda said.
A more reasonable starting date is November 2018, she said. But even that could be pushed back if South Palm Beach can’t convince property owners to  cooperate.
Vitas and Mayor Bonnie Fischer have gone door-to-door for the last year making the case for the project. Fischer has said that “false information and misunderstanding” have complicated the sales job.
    Condo boards have worried about giving away access to their land for 50 years, the term of the agreement. The most recent holdup has been a dispute over liability issues. At least a half-dozen condominium associations have expressed concerns over who would be responsible for possible accidents, injury or damage done by contractors.
To allay those worries, county attorneys in February added a clause to the easement agreement that indemnifies property owners from liability.
If South Palm Beach can’t satisfy its requirements for the north end of the project, then Lantana’s municipal beach will suffer the consequences on the south end — though the town has already signed off on easements and has been supportive of the plan.
Because the project is designed and permitted as a continuous stabilization strategy, without South Palm Beach’s involvement work couldn’t begin on Lantana’s beach groins because of engineering and administrative issues.
“It’s engineered as a single project with the seven groins positioned to assist each other,” Vitas said. “Separating it just won’t work. If you tried, you’d have to start over with a new design.”
Starting from zero means potentially long delays, Vitas said, and Lantana Mayor Dave Stewart agrees. “If South Palm Beach doesn’t get on the train, I don’t know when we would start,” Stewart said. “You’d have to start from scratch with permitting. It could delay the project for a year or more.”
The good news for Lantana is that the town doesn’t have any money at stake. Because its beach is public and the town is allowing particularly useful access for county contractors, Lantana doesn’t have to pay anything for the project.
    The stabilization, which will cost roughly $5 million to construct, has been in the works since shortly after Hurricane Wilma tore up the beach in 2005.
The project calls for constructing seven groins — concrete panels supported by concrete piles — buried in the sand, perpendicular to the shore, stretching some 75 feet into the water. The groins begin near the northern South Palm Beach boundary and go as far south as the end of Lantana’s Municipal Beach. Four of the groins would be squarely within South Palm Beach, one on the Lantana-South Palm Beach line, and two others on Lantana’s beach.
The federal government will pay 50 percent of the construction costs, the county will pay 30 percent from its tourism bed tax, and South Palm Beach will have to cover the remaining 20 percent, and also spend roughly $200,000 a year to bring in sand to keep the groins buried.
If all property owners sign off on the easements, then county officials can move forward and issue work orders for contractors. Federal and state officials can then approve the final administrative details to set the project in motion.
    Fischer and Vitas are clinging to hope that work can begin in November and be done before turtle nesting season starts in March 2018. Vitas said some condo boards have signed the revised contract.  
Miranda has been studying the town’s beach since Wilma hit. She said access to the beach is essential to keeping the project alive. 

By Rich Pollack and Michelle Quigley

    It was just a few months ago, following high-profile mass shootings across the country and deadly confrontations in which civilians or law enforcement officers were shot, that police officers in Ocean Ridge began noticing something they hadn’t seen before.
    “We encountered more people who were carrying a weapon following those events,” Police Chief Hal Hutchins said. “It wasn’t any one thing. It was a culmination of several things.”
    Hutchins says the number of times his officers encounter individuals with firearms, either in their cars or on their person, seems to be winding down as fewer national incidents that might instill insecurity are reported.  
    His observations, however, raise questions about whether more people in Palm Beach County are in possession of firearms than just a few years ago and, if so, what impact that increase might have, both positive and negative.
    The bottom line is that there’s really no way of knowing for certain if there are more people with weapons in our communities. That’s largely because Florida does not require gun owners to register their weapons. In fact, state lawmakers — influenced by a strong gun lobby —  have made it clear they want to keep it that way.
    Here’s the way the current law reads: “No state governmental agency or local government, special district, or other political subdivision or official … shall knowingly and willfully keep or cause to be kept any list, record, or registry of privately owned firearms or any list, record, or registry of the owners of those firearms.”
    To get an idea if there is a growing number of gun owners in Florida, and specifically in Palm Beach County, however, The Coastal Star looked at the number of concealed weapons permits issued to those with Palm Beach County addresses and those living in Florida. In addition, the newspaper looked at the number of background checks done by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on those purchasing firearms in Florida.
    There are challenges to drawing a conclusion that there are more guns in the county or the state based on those statistics alone because there are many gun owners who do not have permits, nor do they need them.
    Florida does not require you to have a permit in order to legally have a gun in your home. You can also have a gun in your car without a permit as long as the firearm is safely secured and not readily available for immediate use.
    The data collected through public records, however, show a dramatic increase in the number of background checks done in Florida in the last 10 years as well as a significant increase in the number of concealed weapons permits being issued in Palm Beach County in the same time period. Everyone who purchases a new gun must submit to a background check, even people with concealed weapons permits. Those permit holders are each allowed to carry firearms in a concealed manner, either on them or in close proximity to them.
    In 2007 there were 32,446 concealed weapons permit holders in Palm Beach County, representing 2.5 percent of the county population. By 2016, according to statistics compiled by the Florida Department of Agriculture, which issues the permits, that number had nearly tripled to 97,215, representing about 7 percent of the population. The number of concealed weapons permits represents the total number of people who have licenses at a given point in a year.
    Statewide the number of permit holders increased from 472,936 in 2007 to more than 1.7 million in 2016. It is estimated that close to 8.5 percent of Florida residents now have concealed weapons permits.
    Also tripling during that same period was the number of Florida firearm background checks administered under the Florida Firearm Purchase Program and conducted by the FDLE. In 2007 there were 426,180 background checks conducted but by 2016, that number had ballooned to 1.4 million.
    Background checks are used to ensure that each customer purchasing a weapon does not have a criminal record, hasn’t been legally judged as mentally incompetent, hasn’t been dishonorably discharged from the military, or isn’t otherwise ineligible to make a purchase.
    Although these numbers cannot be construed as a definitive count, both the increasing number of concealed weapons permits issued and the growing number of background checks conducted appear to indicate two things: More Floridians are buying guns and more are carrying concealed weapons.

Owners must take precautions
    Most people in law enforcement or who study the gun issue believe there are pros and cons to having an increasing percentage of the population with concealed weapons permits.
    “It’s a double-edged sword,” says Marc Woods, a former Delray Beach police officer with 30 years’ experience who now works for the city’s code enforcement division. “Having armed responsible citizens is not a bad thing.”
    Where problems arise, Woods believes, is when gun owners do not follow precautions designed to keep themselves and others around them safe.
    “If you’re not a responsible gun owner, there could be problems,” he said.
    Hutchins agrees.
    “If you are carrying a firearm for lawful purposes, that’s not a bad thing,” he said. “If you want to be a firearms owner, however, you have to accept the responsibility that comes with it.”
    Thomas Gabor, a former professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa and author of a recently published book, Confronting Gun Violence in America, says recent national surveys show that while the majority of people don't feel safer with more guns in their community, there are some who do.
    “If it makes them feel more safe, then I guess that’s an upside,” he said.
    One problem with having more guns in a community, however, is the increased possibility of those guns falling into the wrong hands.
    A study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh and released in late 2016 found that almost 80 percent of perpetrators of a crime were carrying a gun owned by someone else.  
    The study also discovered that more than 30 percent of the guns recovered at crime scenes by police in Pittsburgh had been stolen and 4 in 10 of those guns weren’t reported stolen until after police contacted the owner.
    In other words, many owners weren’t initially reporting that the weapons had been taken or were unaware that they were missing. It should be noted that unlike Florida, Pennsylvania does require a person to have a permit to carry a gun in a vehicle, which would make a person who had a gun stolen from a car but didn’t have a permit reluctant to report the theft.
    There are 10 states plus the District of Columbia that require gun owners to report when a weapon is lost or stolen but that is not the case in Florida or Pennsylvania.
    “If a gun is initially stolen, there’s a better than even chance it’s going to be used in a crime,“ says Gabor, who now makes his home in South Florida.  “From the time of that theft, the gun is in the hands of someone who has already committed a crime.”

Guns stolen from cars
    In Palm Beach County, where there have been several rashes of car burglaries affecting just about every community, law enforcement officials say leaving a firearm unsecured in your car could lead to the weapon’s being used for illegal purposes.
    “The chance it will be used in another crime is fairly high,” Hutchins says.
Some of the weapons taken from cars, according to Lt. Scott Privitera of the Delray Beach Police Department’s investigative division, are kept by the thieves. Others end up being sold on the black market.
“If they chose to sell them, they’re as good as cash,” he said, adding that prices can vary depending on how eager the seller is for money.
    Just last month, Delray Beach police discovered that 38 vehicles in an area from Federal Highway east to State Road A1A were broken into on the same night.
    In 2016, Delray Beach police reported 20 guns taken during auto burglaries, up from 15 the previous year. In all but four of those cases, the vehicles involved were unlocked.  
So far this year, Privitera said, the department has recorded five or six more thefts of guns from unlocked vehicles — none of which occurred during the one-night crime spree in February.
Those numbers could be even higher, Privitera says, since police know that crimes in general — including burglaries to vehicles — are often underreported.
Larry Rosensweig, former president of the Seagate Neighborhood Association where some of the most recent car break-ins occurred, was surprised to hear that so many gun were left in unlocked cars.
“That’s shocking,” he said. “It’s hard to believe that people are so careless that they leave a gun in a car that’s not locked or secured in a garage.”
    According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, which polices the unincorporated portions of the county, there were 199 firearms reported stolen from vehicles in 2015. That number rose to 311 in 2016.
    In Boynton Beach, the number of guns reported stolen from vehicles dropped in 2016, with 35 reported last year and 39 reported in 2015.
    “If you want to own guns, you have to be responsible and not leave them unsecured in your car,” says Woods.
    Gabor, the criminologist, believes there is also a correlation between gun ownership and shootings by police and of police officers. With more weapons available — legally and illegally —  there’s a greater likelihood that criminals will be armed. In some cases, he says, officers may be quicker to make a decision because they fear the person they’re dealing with could have a weapon.
    Hutchins says that because of national incidents where officers came under attack and because of a perceived increase in the number of weapons in the community, officers have to be more observant and guard against complacency when making traffic stops, investigating alarm calls or handling any other routine incidents they encounter on a daily basis.  
     “We have to be hyper-vigilant,” he said.

Vehicles are never a good place to store firearms
If you must store a firearm in your vehicle, here are safety tips from Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins:  
• Avoid leaving a weapon in your vehicle overnight or whenever the vehicle is unattended.
• Make sure your car is locked and your firearm is out of plain sight if you need to leave it in your vehicle.
• If you must keep a weapon in the car, make sure it is secured in a gun safe that is mounted to the vehicle.
• Avoid storing your weapon in a glove box. Even locked glove boxes are not truly secure.
• If you must carry a firearm in a vehicle, always ensure that it is not accessible to children at any time.
The best place to store a weapon in your home is in a locked gun storage area.

Marie Soltis at the Briny Art League studio with her painting of a blue heron at Wakodahatchee Wetlands.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Artist Louise O’Brian holds one of her paintings outside her Briny Breezes mobile home in the 1940s. Photo provided

By Ron Hayes

Quiet, please. Artists at work.
The men and women in Pat Columbus’ mixed-media class at the Briny Breezes Art League are bent over desks, gently working their canvases, so Marie Soltis speaks softly.
“When I first saw everything that went on,” she recalls, “it was like an art colony to me. Most everybody here is highly motivated. They don’t want to just sit around.”
Soltis is a former art director at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., who taught watercolor painting here for seven years, until failing vision forced her to stop.
She is 82 now. When the Briny Breezes Art League was born, she was 15.
That was 1950, when this tiny town of mobile homes was still a seasonal campground. Roland Stebbins, the retired head of the University of Wisconsin’s art department, started teaching about 20 aspiring amateurs in a storage building where the local beauty parlor stands today.
Two years later, the group held its first art show, a casual celebration of its efforts. A year later, the classes moved to an old cottage, which served until 1967, when the current swimming pool was installed. For the past 40 years, the league has met in a Quonset hut behind the beauty parlor.

People gather for the Briny Breezes Art League’s Beaux Arts event, ‘Vin et Fromage,’ in 1987. Photo provided

The studios have come and gone, the students and teachers have come and gone, but the art shows endure.
On March 18-19, the 65th annual Briny Breezes Art League Show will display the members’ work in the town’s community center and art studio. Some paintings will touch you with their sincerity; some will dazzle you with their mastery.
Marion Roddin joined the league in 1990, enrolling in a watercolor class to fulfill a childhood dream. Twenty-seven years later, she’s still painting.
“I don’t want to brag,” says Roddin, 79, who summers on Long Island, “but I charge a lot, $50 to $200. And in New York I get more. I sold in East Hampton this year. I have doctors.”
Which may sound a bit like bragging, until she leads you along the wall to Five Parrots, a lusciously bright portrait of five orange birds posed against a gloriously green background.
“I matted and framed it myself, too,” Roddin adds, and yes, you think, those parrots could indeed sell for $200.
If they do, it might not be the first time.
Along with 65 annual art shows, the league has also acquired a legend.
Back in those early days, the story goes, one lady’s loving husband secretly bought her painting for $20, added a zero, returned it to the exhibit — and the painting immediately sold for $200.
No one alive today can prove this did not happen. And so the story goes. And goes.  
Over the years, the league’s ambition expanded. From January to March, classes are now offered in mixed media, acrylics, pastels, collage and oils.
When Mildred Miller, a retired fashion designer and illustrator, began teaching oil and acrylic painting in the mid-1950s, her lessons were free. Today, students pay $50 for four weekly classes of about two hours each.
One artist whose work you won’t see at any price is Sandy Dietzel, 69, who signed up in 2013.
“Nope,” she says, adamantly. “I’m not good enough.”
She’s laboring over a mixed-media work, a Halloween cat mask taped to a canvas and covered in papier-maché for painting.
“I joined to meet new people. I just wanted to try it,” she explains, “and what I’ve learned is how hard it is. I force myself to look at details more now. When you look at a flower, you don’t notice all of it.”

Pat Columbus teaches Andy Neureuther during a class at the Briny Breezes Art League.
Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Students arrive for their first class expecting to learn how to paint. Pat Columbus teaches them how to see.
“If you want to do a cloud,” says Columbus, 66, a graduate of the Ontario College of Art who has taught acrylics and mixed media since 2013, “look at a cloud.”
Here’s a silver teapot on a red tablecloth, she tells them. What color is the teapot? Black, white and gray, the students decide.
“But they don’t notice the red cloth reflecting in the silver teapot,” Columbus says. “Most people can paint. It’s teaching them how to look at light and dark and the contrasts and combinations of colors.”
As Columbus’ students huddle at their desks, a lone painter stands at an easel in the back of the room, dabbing at a small, 8-by-10 canvas.
“I’m a dabbler,” says Michael Coppola, 56, who sells real estate up in Portsmouth, N.H., and dabbles when visiting his parents down here.
Today the dabbler is dabbling at a swirl of whites and blues with a touch of green and red that might be a sky.
“It’s probably going to be a landscape,” he says. “I do two or three at a time because the oils take so long to dry.”
Sometimes he gives his work away, sometimes he sells.
“I paint for the fun of it,” he says. “What I’ve learned is that when you think you’re done, you were usually done 10 minutes ago.”
Beginners, intermediates and advanced, for 67 years residents of the campground that became a mobile home park and then a town have joined the art league to learn the art of painting. Along the way, they’ve learned the art of friendship, too.
Mildred Miller taught oil and acrylics from the 1950s until her death in 1997.
Now her daughter, Janice Vizino, teaches watercolors.

Janice Vizino holds a painting by her mother, Mildred Miller, who taught 60 years ago.

“You wouldn’t believe the friendships,” says Vizino, 86. “People become very close. I had a heart attack Thanksgiving week and people were here every day, bringing me hot meals. The club means as much to me for the friendship as the artwork.”
Vizino’s home is adorned with her work, new and old. Dolphins leaping, an array of endangered species, tigers, turtles and birds. A vase.
Her mother taught 60 years ago, and now she teaches.
 “Painting is very restful to me,” she says. “I put on some nice quiet music and I paint for hours. I’ll work from about 10 a.m. until lunch, and then I’ll paint some more.”
And what, you ask, have all those years of painting, all those classes, all those canvases taught her?
She doesn’t hesitate for a second.
“Patience.”

If You Go
What: 65th Annual Briny Breezes Art League Show
When: March 18-19
Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Where: 5000 N. Ocean Blvd., on A1A just south of Woolbright Road
Admission: Free
Info: Call Michael Coppola at 603-365-6040.

March 30: Artist DUAIV will create a one-of-a-kind painting to be auctioned during Women’s Circle’s 13th-annual fundraising gala. Enjoy dinner, live music, silent auction, raffle and dancing.Proceeds from the event support programs to improve career prospects of culturally diverse, underserved women in Palm Beach County. Time is 6 p.m. Cost is $150. Call 244-7627, Ext. 106 or visit womenscircle.org/gala. ABOVE: (l-r) Shelley Eichner, Sister Lorraine Ryan, Linda Chapley, Sister Joan Carusillo, Marge Blanz, Dee Price, Jo-Ann DiLorenzo and Nelly Mejia. Photo provided

Love of Literacy Luncheon committee members (l-r, in front) Patricia Knobel, Stephanie Kahlert, Deborah Ghostine, Lisa Fullmer, Nicole Pasquale, Laura Silver, (in back) Ken Spillias, Jorgette Smith, Lynn Kalber, Carol Rose, Susan Rabinowitz, Jennifer Cacioppo, Regine Bataille, CEO Kristin Calder and Bettina Young. Photo provided

By Amy Woods
    
The Love of Literacy Luncheon has brought authors to the podium with household-name status. Henry Winkler. Pat Conroy. David Baldacci.
    This year’s keynote speaker is different. Although she has written two best sellers, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and has published more than two dozen literary works, she remains a little off the radar.
    “Kristin and I both had to Google her,” luncheon Chairwoman Bettina Young said, referring to the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County’s chief executive officer, Kristin Calder. “We learned that she is profound, both talented and multifaceted and who writes in a way that is so detailed.”
    Diane Ackerman, of A Natural History of the Senses and The Zookeeper’s Wife fame, will headline the annual fundraiser March 16.
    “The cool thing about her is she’s an award-winning poet and naturalist,” Young said. “Poet and naturalist had an edge to it. It was something completely out of the box.”
    The Zookeeper’s Wife, based on Ackerman’s 2008 book about the Warsaw Zoo in Poland during World War II, will be released in theaters later this month. It stars Jessica Chastain as lead character Antonina Zabinski. Zabinski, along with her husband, Jan Zabinski, saved hundreds of Jews from the Holocaust by sheltering them in zoo cages.
    “It’s not only a read that you want to know what’s going on, but it is so interesting,” Young said.
    Up to 700 guests are expected at the event that last year generated $200,000 for literacy programs in the area, among them ReaderCorps. ReaderCorps is a new youth initiative that awards prizes and recognition to children who organize book drives, participate in read-a-thons and read to younger children or elderly people.
    “Reading is fundamental, and it’s fun,” said Young, who has chaired the luncheon for three consecutive years. “It’s something that really touches me in a personal way.”
    A startling statistic: One in seven adults in the county functions at the lowest level of literacy.
    “It’s not a frou-frou luncheon,” Young said. “It’s a luncheon that gives back. It’s a luncheon where you learn about what’s going on in our community.”

If You Go

What: Love of Literacy Luncheon
When: 11:30 a.m. March 16
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
Cost: $150
Information: Call 279-9103 or visit literacypbc.org

Susan Brockway, Dennis Hudson and Jane Mitchell have joined the board of an organization that manages a $154 million endowment and has been serving the region for more than four decades.
    Brockway is a CPA who worked at a national accounting firm and later as the financial controller for a real-estate developer. Hudson has headed Seacoast Bank since 1998 and serves on the board of the Florida Public Utilities Co. Mitchell built a startup business with her family and invented the first surgical bone drill; she also chaired the board of the Kravis Center for three years.
    “We are extremely pleased to welcome these three outstanding business leaders to our board,” said Bradley Hurlburt, president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties. “They represent the growing diversity of the Palm Beach and Martin county area and will help to guide and ensure the continued strength and growth of our vibrant community through philanthropy.”
The Community Foundation has also announced it will invest $450,000 into nonprofit endowments this fiscal year. Of that amount, 16 winners of the Forever Nonprofit Endowment Challenge will each receive $25,000 in matching funds to establish a permanent endowment with the Community Foundation.
The winners include: Armory Art Center, Boca Raton Museum of Art, CROS Ministries, Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, Delray Beach Public Library and the Historical Society of Palm Beach County.
 The funds for this initiative come from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fund and the Marie Graber Martens Fund.

Boca Helping Hands debuts job-training center
    For nearly two decades, Boca Helping Hands has been known as a soup kitchen and pantry program. Last month, the nonprofit began a new chapter as a job-training center.
    A ribbon-cutting ceremony officially dedicated the Justin D. Webb Training Center at the Boca Raton facility, building a bridge to help clients cross from basic human needs to self-sufficiency.
The center is named in the memory of Justin Daniel Webb from Boca Raton, who spent his 38 years encouraging those around him to reach higher.
 The Webb family played a part in launching this center filled with opportunities for the community and the ability to carry on Justin Webb’s sense of optimism and resilience.
The center is the result of a gift from the Ruth and Hal Launders Charitable Trust, Harry and Marcia Hochman and the Goody Two Shoes Foundation.
The training center will offer classes in computer use, life skills and literacy, as well as health and wellness.

Grant will aid needy kids in Palm Beach County
    Place of Hope has received $5,000 from the Margaret & R. Parks Williams Charitable Foundation, a grant that will be used to support the nonprofit foster-care agency’s child-welfare programs for abandoned, abused and neglected youths on both the Leighan and David Rinker Campus in Boca Raton and the Paxson Campus in Palm Beach Gardens.
    Programs include Homes of Hope, a traditional foster-care program; Genesis and Seven Stars cottages, a pair of emergency-placement and assessment centers; and Joann’s Cottage, a maternity sanctuary for pregnant women and new mothers.
    “We strive to meet the needs of each child who comes into our care by uniquely serving them based on their individual gifts, abilities and experiences,” said Charles Bender, Place of Hope’s executive director.         “Place of Hope is extremely grateful for the support we receive from local foundations, such as the Margaret & R. Parks Williams Charitable Foundation, which enable us to provide the kind of nurturing environment children need to succeed and thrive.”

George Snow fund gets $200,000 from Quantum
    The Quantum Foundation has made a $200,000 grant to the George Snow Scholarship Fund to support higher education and scholar services to Palm Beach County high school seniors who are part of their schools’ medical programs and plan to attend college locally.
    The Health Professions Scholarship Initiative was launched in 2015 to help students from low-income families who are committed to careers in health care.
    “It is our goal that through this initiative, we will be able to improve and increase the number of qualified health care providers in the county, while at the same time providing a pathway out of poverty for many students,” said Tim Snow, the fund’s president.
    “This initiative has the potential to have a significant impact on everyone in Palm Beach County.”

Submit your event or listing to Amy Woods at flamywoods@bellsouth.net

Residents and friends enjoyed a beautiful afternoon at the condo’s annual gathering.ABOVE: (l-r) Peter McMullin, Joe and Eveline Kochling and Terrell Cheney. BELOW: Susan Hurlburt and Josee Laperriere. Photos provided by Paul Zaza

In its 15th year, the Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum’s main fundraising event, the annual Boca Bacchanal Wine & Food Festival, will be March 24-25. The celebration begins with the exclusive vintner dinners on March 24, and a spirits dinner followed by Bacchanalia on March 25.

 The vintner dinners
    These dinners are at grand estates and unique historical sites  in Boca Raton. The dining experiences each feature a vintner and chef pairing their wine and cuisine to create a five-course meal. Guests attending the vintner dinners can meet their chef and vintner. Tickets are $325.
 
The community’s party
    Bacchanalia combines food from more than 30 local restaurants with vintners showcasing their wineries’ best — all for attendees to sample. DJ and electric violinist Timothee Lovelock will entertain until 11 p.m. Auction is included. Tickets to Bacchanalia are $125.

Attending vintners and chefs
Vintners
• Chris Silva: St. Francis Winery, Sonoma, Calif.
• Miles MacDonnell: Round Pond Estate Winery, Napa, Calif.
• Claudio Andreani: Ambrogio e Giovanni Folonari, Italy
• Luciano Castiello: Banfi Vintners, Glen Head, N.Y.
• Cuvaison & Brandlin, Napa, Calif.
• David Ortiz, mixologist
 
Chefs
• Brian and Shanna O’Hea: The Kennebunk Inn, Kennebunk, Maine
• Jacob Cureton, Annunciation, and Ryan Haigler, Grand Isle, New Orleans
• Philippe Reynaud: Ocean Reef Club, Key Largo
• Patrick Duffy: The Addison, Boca Raton
• Regina Charboneau: Twin Oaks, Natchez, Miss.
• Annemarie Stenfors: Alma Nove, Hingham, Mass.

Chefs share spinach recipes: Chilled spinach and mint soup

Times and tickets
Vintner dinners: 7 p.m.
Bacchanalia: 7-11 p.m.
Tickets: Vintner dinners:  $325; Bacchanalia:  $125
Info or to buy tickets: www.bocabacchanal.com

Nancy and Caron Dockerty were co-chairwomen of the 11th-annual Laugh with the Library comedy event to benefit the Delray Beach Public Library.  Organizers raised more than $85,000 for children’s-outreach programs at the library.

Comedian Kevin Flynn was the headliner.  

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Peter and Carmel Baronoff were honored at the 19th annual Rotary Club of Boca Raton’s Outstanding People And Leaders gala that recognizes local residents who have demonstrated a commitment to serve their neighbors and the city through philanthropic deeds. The Baronoffs were recognized for their passion for health and wellness. Other honorees included Arthur Adler, Yvonne Boice and Jordan Zimmerman. Proceeds from the event will benefit the club’s scholarship programs. Photo provided

Unicorn Children’s Foundation’s second such event – this year, it had a Mad Hatters theme – was a success. Longtime benefactor Madeline Hillsberg was honored, and in all organizers collected more than $75,000 to help youths with special needs. ABOVE: (l-r) foundation President Gregory Fried, Nicole Shelley, Jeannette Stark, Connie Danluck, Carol Adams, Claudia Baz, Pat Berkule, Jane Cundy, Gwen Taylor, Juliette Ezagui and Sharon Alexander. Photo provided by Mitchell Zachs

Boca Raton Regional Hospital celebrated its 50th birthday — July 17 — early at its yearly affair. Recognized for excellence as a top-ranked regional hospital, the facility has transformed from its founding into an institutional vanguard of medicine. ‘The hospital and its subsequent growth were made possible through the largesse of our generous donors,’ says Mark Larkin, president of the hospital’s foundation. Photos (top-bottom): Terry and Jerry Fedele, Jo Ann and Philip Procacci, Richard and Barbara Schmidt, and Debbie Lindstrom and Bob Sheetz. Photos provided by Downtown Photo