By Rich Pollack

With sea turtle nesting season now under way, Highland Beach is moving forward with steps to keep nesting females and their hatchlings in the dark.
This month, members of the town’s Planning Board will review a proposed ordinance designed to reduce the number of bright lights shining on the beach that force some turtles to make unintended U-turns and crawl back to the water after coming ashore.
Town leaders are hoping to have the ordinance in place by early April.
“The proposed new ordinance gives the town more teeth to encourage residents to be aware of the need to protect sea turtles,” said Joanne Ryan, who runs the turtle monitoring program in Highland Beach and is the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s permit holder.
Awareness is a key goal of the proposed ordinance, which would replace one that is vague and difficult to enforce.
“Right now our ordinance is just a few sentences long,” said Highland Beach resident Barbara James, who for many years led the turtle monitoring program and who is still involved in the program. “The new ordinance is more specific and should have a positive impact on our endangered and threatened sea turtles.”
One species listed federally as endangered is the leatherback, the largest turtle in the world and one of the first species to nest during turtle season in South Florida, which stretches from March 1 to Oct. 31.
At least one leatherback has already nested in Delray Beach, and James said she has seen another close to shore off Highland Beach.
Nesting turtles and their hatchlings face a slew of challenges, from predation of hatchlings and habitat destruction, with bright artificial lighting being one of the easiest problems to address.
Bright lights, ranging from those coming from condo parking lights or camera flashes, can spook a nesting turtle. Lights from as far away as the west side of State Road A1A can also confuse hatchlings that are naturally attracted east to the water by the light of the horizon.
Ryan and others say that Highland Beach residents are doing a good job of restricting bright lights during nesting season but that the new ordinance should be helpful.
“Most of Highland Beach is very turtle-friendly,” Ryan said. “But it’s enough of a problem that we want to do something about it.”
That’s where the proposed ordinance comes in.
Broken into two parts, the ordinance includes restrictions on new construction and remodeling as well as on existing properties.
Under the proposed ordinance, people building on beach-facing properties will be required to use amber, orange or red lights instead of bright white lights on exterior lighting. Fully shielded lights and downward directed lights will also be acceptable.
There are also restrictions on lights coming from inside a home under construction, with light screens, shades or curtains required. In addition, glass windows on new homes or apartments facing the ocean will be required to be tinted to reduce light by 45%.
“With construction and remodeling, this ordinance will allow us to be more proactive,” said Jeff Remas, the town’s chief building official.
The proposed ordinance, which also addresses walkway lighting as well as pool area and parking lot lighting, fills gaps left by the vague current ordinance that restricted town officials to offer only vague instructions to people building or remodeling homes.
The proposed 11-page ordinance also provides similar requirements for existing homes and buildings, which Remas says can in most cases be addressed by replacing bulbs or providing light shields, although there will be cases where additional steps will need to be taken.
The building official, who also oversees code enforcement, said that one of the issues that surfaced in the past is building lights being left on unintentionally either by construction crews or because they were on a timer not adjusted for nesting season.
In most cases, those issues are reported by people on the beach before sunrise and are rectified quickly after contact with owners.

By Sallie James

BOCA RATON — She was a military wife who traversed Europe with two young children. A trailblazing lover of native plants who authored a book on Florida wildflowers and an adventurer who once talked her way into a party in France to meet renowned artist Pablo Picasso.
Longtime Boca Raton resident Arlene Adams Schuyler died at home Jan. 1 of natural causes. She was 95.
Mrs. Schuyler was born on Aug. 3, 1927, in Kingston, Pennsylvania, to Adele and William Adams. She attended school in Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, and then studied art at Pratt Institute in New York City. She later attended the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg, Austria.
In 1955, she married Army Capt. Francis “Frank” Schuyler of Miami. The couple moved to Munich, Germany, in 1959, where they eventually adopted their son and daughter, said Mrs. Schuyler’s son, Cortlandt.
Cortlandt and his sister, Victoria, spent much of their youth hopscotching around Europe as a result of their father’s military career. They lived for different periods in Munich; Naples, Italy; Nice, France; the Alps of Switzerland, and in San Francisco before settling in Boca Raton in 1971.
Mrs. Schuyler was preceded in death by her husband, who died of a heart attack on Feb. 13, 1998.
Arlene Schuyler was an early advocate of using native plants in landscaping and wrote and illustrated a paperback, Wildflowers — South Florida Natives, which was published in January 1982. She sold the books for $8 apiece, her son recalled.
“The book was beautiful,” he said.
Cortlandt Schuyler remembered his mother as a free spirit who supported the feminist movement, encouraged childhood entrepreneurship and took chances for adventure, like the time she went out of her way to meet Picasso.
Cortlandt said he was 5 years old when his mother and her friend drove him and his sister to Picasso’s home in Nice. They parked their old Volkswagen on a hill and walked up to his house, hoping to get in. They did.
“My sister and I sat in the back of this old VW they had and they went down and visited his home,” Cortlandt said. “Somehow they got in. I think he had something going on down at his house.”
He recalled his mother as a staunch supporter of his childhood money-making endeavors that included everything from reselling candy bars from the drugstore on the school bus, to delivering newspapers or working at a local hotel.
“When I was a little tiny kid she would double whatever I would earn. When it got to like $50 she had to stop,” her son recalled.
“She was very, very well-spoken, very, very educated. A big reader,” Cortlandt said. He said she enjoyed nature shows on TV, educational channels, watercolor painting and always books, books, books.
“She loved her independence and liked doing her own thing,” her son said.
Burial will be at Arlington National Cemetery, alongside her husband. She is survived by her two children and four grandchildren: Molly, Serena, Kyle and Celia. Glick Family Funeral Home in Boca Raton handled arrangements.

BOCA RATON — Marjorie Louise Altier died in the early morning of Feb. 17 at the age of 94.
She was born in Pennsylvania on Dec. 19, 1928, and graduated from West Pittston High School. She married Joseph Altier in 1954 and they had three sons. In 1961, the Altier family moved to Florida and opened Boca Raton’s very first jewelry store, Altier Jewelers.
For over 50 years, Marge and Joe ran their business side by side in the growing town of Boca Raton. Mrs. Altier served clients of every level, and Altier Jewelers became a cornerstone within Boca Raton’s community with a reputation of honesty and trust.
Mrs. Altier dedicated her life to her husband, her family and her business. She loved to dance the nights away with Joe at the Boca Raton resort, and greatly enjoyed their travels to Europe, Asia and Africa.
Mrs. Altier was preceded in death by her husband, Joseph, and her son William. Mrs. Altier’s name and legacy will continue to live on through her sons Alex (Debra) and Joe, eight grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, brother Kenneth Howell, sister Jean Renfer, and her cherished dog, Princess.
A funeral Mass was celebrated on Feb. 25 at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Boca Raton. Entombment followed at the Boca Raton Mausoleum.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the George Snow Scholarship Fund at scholarship.org.

— Obituary submitted by the family

By Mary Hladky

With a five-story residential project on East Royal Palm Road facing intense opposition from neighbors, the City Council has delayed a vote on whether to approve it and asked the developer and project opponents to try to iron out their differences.
They will have two months to do so before the council considers the project again on May 8.
“I hope this is productive and we are not just kicking the can down the road,” said Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke, who will be term-limited out of office this month.
343 Royal Palm LLC has proposed a five-story, four-unit luxury condo that would be built between the nine-story 327 Royal Palm condos and a nine-story assisted living facility now under construction.
Each condo, with about 4,300 square feet, would occupy an entire floor and would have a rooftop terrace. Eight of 10 parking spaces would be in a ground-floor mechanized garage that, for each condo, would lower one car below ground so that a second car could park on top.
The project has been approved by the Community Appearance Board and the Planning and Zoning Board. City staff said it met all requirements for building in the downtown and recommended council approval.
But residents of 327 Royal Palm, who have formed Neighbors for Thoughtful Boca Development and hired an attorney, turned out in force for a Feb. 27 Community Redevelopment Agency meeting.
Among their many objections, they said the 0.17-acre, former single-family home site is too small for the project. They contended it is not compatible with the neighborhood and violated their privacy rights by being too close to their building. They also asserted that a rooftop generator would cause noise pollution and expressed concern about where residents would park if the garage malfunctioned.
Project attorney Ele Zachariades said the developer would be willing to enclose the rooftop equipment to reduce noise, but otherwise said the project met all city requirements.
Noting that the building would be shorter and smaller than neighboring buildings, she said 327 Royal Palm is the one that is “out of character” for the neighborhood.
But faced with the deluge of complaints, the council delayed its decision in hopes a compromise would materialize.
In other business, the council approved a resolution requested by O’Rourke, a strong proponent of the arts, that gives an additional designation of “Avenue of the Arts” to a section of Northeast Fifth Street between Federal Highway and Mizner Boulevard in Mizner Park. Adding that name to the street will cost less than $500.
The additional name is intended to reflect the original vision for Mizner Park as a cultural mecca, as well as its current clustering of arts venues including the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the amphitheater, the Studio at Mizner Park and the proposed Center for Arts & Innovation performing arts complex.
• With long-serving City Manager Leif Ahnell retiring next year, the city has begun the process of finding his replacement.
City staff is developing a request for proposals from recruiting firms, and expects to select a firm this summer to conduct a nationwide search. Council members will make the final selection.
Ahnell ascended to the city’s top job in 1999 after serving for nine years in other positions.
Council members have been fretting about Ahnell’s looming departure for years. The current and previous councils have held him in high regard and have consistently given him high marks in annual evaluations.
Council member Monica Mayotte floated the idea of selecting Deputy City Manager George Brown to replace Ahnell at a Feb. 13 meeting, citing his institutional knowledge and experience.
“I think George is our heir apparent,” she said. “I think we ought to give him the opportunity to take the helm when Mr. Ahnell retires.”
Brown declined to comment on whether he would accept the promotion. As of late February, Mayotte said she had not spoken to Brown directly about the matter, and other council members have not commented on the idea.
• Two therapists who challenged a now-repealed city ordinance that banned the highly controversial use of conversion therapy on minors have accepted the city’s offer to in effect settle the litigation. The city will pay Robert Otto of Boca Raton $50,000 and Julie Hamilton of Palm Beach Gardens $25,000 and a portion of their costs and attorney’s fees. The amount of those costs and fees still must be decided. That is expected to end the litigation.
The city made its offer in January after a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the ordinance violated the therapists’ free speech rights and the full court declined to reconsider that decision. The therapists accepted on Feb. 9.
The therapists’ challenge to a similar and also repealed Palm Beach County ordinance was still being litigated as of late February. Ú

The components that make up the traffic signal controller cabinet for the interchange were visible as adjustments were made on the opening day of use.

The intersection is in the flight path for planes landing at Boca Raton Airport.

FDOT employees and contractors wave to other workers while using the covered walkway that runs through the middle of the overpass.

Related: New Glades interchange puts motorists on other side of road

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The interchange opened Jan. 30 amid traffic barrels likely to remain to some degree until May. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Related: Last-minute push readies interchange

By Steve Plunkett

State transportation officials urge motorists to do three things to navigate the new Diverging Diamond Interchange at Glades Road and Interstate 95:
Slow down as you approach the interchange from either highway.
Follow the markings on the pavement and the signs and signals overhead.
Do not depend on a GPS for up-to-date directions.
“I wouldn’t rely on the GPS. It’s definitely not going to work at least for the first week or two,” said Ariam Galindo, senior project manager for the Florida Department of Transportation.
The Boca Raton interchange, the first of its kind in Palm Beach County, allows the two directions of traffic on Glades Road to temporarily cross to the opposite side of the roadway, which lets drivers turn left onto the interstate with no oncoming traffic.
It was scheduled to open at 6 a.m. Jan. 30, but rain fell overnight and workers had to wait to let the asphalt dry before placing final adhesive road markers and to fine-tune the timing of traffic signals.
Vehicles finally cruised the new configuration about 3:15 p.m. at speeds the FDOT found troublesome.
“Reminder: The speed limit is 35 mph” through the interchange, it said via Facebook and Twitter at 10 a.m. the next day. “FDOT is working with the (city) to optimize signal timing so that traffic can flow as smoothly as possible.”
Navigating the new interchange is “easy,” project spokeswoman Andi Pacini said.
“When driving straight through the new interchange, go through the first traffic light, staying in the lane that you’re in. The lane will guide you to the opposite side of the road. And before the lane crosses back to the right side of the road, you will encounter that one other traffic signal on the other side,” she said.
“If you’d like to take the right turn onto the I-95 entrance ramp, use the right- turn lane just like you do now.
“And then, when turning left into the I-95 entrance ramp, stay in the left lane and just follow that lane through the first traffic light to the other side of the road. And then before getting to the second traffic light, you would turn left onto the entrance ramp,” she said.

An FDOT video that gives a behind-the-steering-wheel view of the new lane pattern is at www.d4fdot.com/pbfdot/glades_road_diverging_diamond_interchange.asp
The new interchange sports a separate pedestrian bridge over I-95 in the median of Glades Road, shorter pedestrian crosswalks with flashing lights at the I-95 ramps, 7-foot bike lanes each way, 18 new signal mast arms and five new overhead sign structures.
Cameras help synchronize the interchange’s traffic signals to “facilitate the smooth crossing of traffic, alleviate traffic delays and congestion … and reduce crashes at the interchange,” the FDOT said.
“We’ll have eyes on it around the clock,” Pacini said.
Traffic signals at a diverging roadway operate with fewer signal cycles. The new-style interchange also reduces the number of “conflict points,” where drivers see oncoming traffic, from 26 to 14.
Yamila Hernandez, a consulting engineer on the project, said state and city transportation officials are working together to fine-tune how quickly the lights change.
“The signal phasing is going to be probably a trouble-shooting exercise as we progress,” she said. “We’re going to be monitoring traffic and verifying how everything works and we can tweak it as we go along.”
The interchange is prepared if a hurricane knocks out electricity. Backup generators on automatic transfer switches were installed at the interchange to power the traffic signals in case of any outage.
Although the diverging interchange is open, construction is not completed, the FDOT said. A fourth lane in each direction on Glades Road will be opened once additional work is done, and a final layer of asphalt, which will result in a smoother road surface, still needs to be placed. Finally, the construction area around the entrance and exit ramps will remain cluttered until May.
Work started in March 2021 on the new interchange. The overall project, which includes express toll lanes from south of Glades Road to south of Linton Boulevard, is set to end this year at a cost of $148 million.
Florida opened its first Diverging Diamond Interchange in Sarasota in 2009. “We’re a little late to the party,” Pacini said.
Future diverging interchanges are planned for I-95 interchanges at Lantana and Hypoluxo roads.

Highland Beach resident Burt Firtel says his own experience with forgetting his phone in his car was the inspiration for development of the Don’t Forget app. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

Like many people his age, Burt Firtel didn’t always harness the technology he held in his hand.
In fact, he’ll tell you that about the only time he looked at apps on his cellphone was when he went to remove them.
Today at the age of 83, Firtel may be one of the nation’s oldest inventors of a cellphone app, one that not only saves people unnecessary steps but also one that can save lives.
Firtel is the creator of the Don’t Forget app, a verbal warning system that reminds people getting out of a car to remember to take their phone, their groceries or even the baby in the back seat, before they get too far.
“This app can save users time, frustration and even tragedy by verbally reminding drivers to grab stuff that can escape their mental checklist,” he says, explaining that the app can be customized to provide specific instructions. “From babies and dogs to your cellphone, glasses and wallet, Don’t Forget’s customized verbal alert can easily be edited as needed and it can be a lifesaver.”
Firtel, of Highland Beach, is perhaps an unlikely app developer, having little background in product development and even less in harnessing technology.
If necessity is the mother of invention, then in Firtel’s case, convenience would take a close second.
At least two or three times a week, Firtel says, he would step out of his car, catch the elevator to his fourth-floor apartment, prepare for bed or a task and then search for his cellphone. It was then he remembered that he had left it in the car.
“You have to go down to get the phone, then back up,” he says. “I just wondered, ‘Why doesn’t somebody invent something that tells you that you left something in the car?’”
He turned out to be that someone.
Early in the pandemic, when he put his golf game on hold, Firtel went to work and found nothing on the market that was quite what he envisioned. Working with patent attorneys and engineers, he developed a device that could be installed in a car or by the entrance to a home and did exactly what he had in mind.
When he consulted his grandsons, JD and Max, they reminded him that an app would probably be a better way to go, since everybody has a cellphone these days.
Considering that option, Firtel met with a software engineer and the Don’t Forget app was created. The app, which connects to cellphones through Bluetooth, comes loaded with five common items, but gives users the option to delete any of them or add others important to them.
In addition to the app, Firtel has patents pending on a device that can plug into a port under the dashboard and another that uses a motion detector in the home to remind users to take what they need.
To market the app — which costs $5.95 a month — to a national audience, Firtel and his two tech-savvy grandchildren traveled to the Las Vegas area in January and set up a booth at CES, formerly the Consumer Electronics Show, which is billed as “the most influential tech event in the world.”
Longtime show watchers speculated that Firtel — likely the sole octogenarian exhibitor this year — may have been the oldest vendor in the show’s 50-plus-year history.
His lack of technical acumen worked to his advantage in developing his app.
“My not-so-savvy tech deficits actually came in handy — they kept me pushing to ensure Don’t Forget was easy for anyone, any age to quickly download, customize and use as it is,” he says.
Firtel invested his own money in development of the app and says he absolutely would do it again.
“My invention didn’t come to me because I’m a tech genius,” he says. “I just asked the question after always leaving my phone in the car. It’s a practical invention.”
Firtel is the author of a golf novel, The Legend of the Cap, which he hopes will be part of his legacy to his grandchildren, along with the app.
“Age doesn’t matter when it comes to ideas,” he says. “I hope other seniors with an idea and a spark remember that this time is called our golden years for a reason.”

For more information about the Don’t Forget app, visit dfdontforget.com.

Mayor Scott Singer cuts the ceremonial ribbon that stretches along the crosswalk on State Road A1A at the Yacht and Racquet Club of Boca Raton. Residents of the club and other members of the Beach Condo Association thanked Singer and the city for negotiating to take over the project from the Florida Department of Transportation, allowing it to be finished a couple of years sooner. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Mary Hladky

As Boca Raton police held back traffic, an enthusiastic crowd of beachside residents spanned A1A while Mayor Scott Singer cut a ribbon to recognize the completion of a project that added crosswalks along the busy thoroughfare.
The Jan. 12 event at a crosswalk in front of the Yacht and Racquet Club of Boca Raton capped more than a year of effort by the Beach Condo Association of Boca Raton, Highland Beach and Delray Beach and other beachside residents to improve pedestrian safety.
“The beach and BCA are so excited to have these safety precautions put in on the beach,” said BCA co-president Emily Gentile as she thanked city officials for making the improvements.
“When you ask for something, we do our best to respond,” Singer told the group.
Data gathered by the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency show that residents’ concerns about safety are justified.
During the five years ending in 2022, there were 133 crashes along the 2.5-mile stretch of State Road A1A between Palmetto Park Road and Spanish River Boulevard. They resulted in one fatality and three serious injuries. Twelve of the crashes involved bicyclists and six involved pedestrians.
Because A1A is a state road, the Florida Department of Transportation should have been the agency to take on this project. But FDOT officials told the city that if they agreed the work should be done, it would not start until 2025.
City officials and the BCA agreed that wasn’t soon enough. So the city negotiated with the state to take over the project at a cost of about $260,000.
The result is 11 new crosswalks between Highland Beach and Deerfield Beach. Pedestrians who want to cross can press a button to activate flashing lights alongside the road that alert motorists to stop.

People use the new crosswalk as they clear the road after the ceremony. A push of a button activates flashing lights (on pole at top right) that signal vehicles to stop. ‘I think it’s terrific,’ says resident Joan Epstein. ‘The cars come along so fast on A1A.’

“I think they are fabulous,” said Boca Towers resident Gilda Resnick. “It is a wonderful thing and overdue.”
“I think it’s terrific,” said Joan Epstein, a Yacht and Racquet Club resident. “The cars come along so fast on A1A.”
Immediately after the brief ceremony, it appeared that the lights, officially called rectangular rapid-flashing beacons, were working as intended. Pedestrians at several of the crosswalks activated the lights and motorists stopped to let them cross the road.
The project was completed just as pedestrian and bicyclist safety is drawing greater scrutiny in the county.
Data presented by the FDOT at the Dec. 15 Transportation Planning Agency meeting showed that bicycle and pedestrian fatalities in Palm Beach County have increased over the past five years, while those in Broward have generally decreased, with the most substantial drop occurring from 2021 to 2022.
Broward, with a population about 25% greater than Palm Beach’s, saw 64 fatalities from 2021 to 2022, while Palm Beach had 62.
The data alarmed some TPA governing board members.
“What is Broward County doing that we are not?” asked Jupiter Mayor James Kuretski. “Why are we going in the wrong direction?”
“These statistics are alarming,” said county Vice Mayor Maria Sachs, who asked for a report in six months to see what progress is being made to educate the public and improve roadway engineering.
TPA Executive Director Valerie Neilson said a report would be presented to the governing board on Feb. 16 that would provide more information on pedestrian and bicyclist injuries and fatalities and give a better sense of whether the county is making progress on reducing them.
Without more information, those speaking at the meeting could not provide solid answers on why Palm Beach County is faring poorly compared to Broward.
FDOT District 4 Director of Transportation Development Steve Braun said Broward is several years ahead in implementing safety programs.
They include Complete Streets, an approach to planning, designing and maintaining streets to reduce risks for drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists and transit riders, and Vision Zero, a national campaign to improve safety with the goal of eliminating all severe injuries and fatalities on the roadways.
The Boca Raton City Council unanimously approved a resolution on Oct. 25 that designates Boca as a “Vision Zero city” and directed staff to create a plan to achieve that goal.

By Mary Hladky

Still smarting over its financial obligations to the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District once again is seeking to control how much it must pay.
District commissioners unanimously voted on Jan. 3 to notify the city that they will hold a Feb. 21 public hearing when they are expected to vote on a resolution to cap payments so they do not exceed the $2.3 million owed this fiscal year.
“We are not trying to get out of the obligation. We are trying to cap it,” said Commissioner Robert Rollins Jr.
The CRA was created in 1980 to breathe new life into the then-moribund downtown. Its first major project was the development of Mizner Park.
A 1986 interlocal agreement between the district and city obligated the district to make payments for acquiring, operating and maintaining park and recreational facilities in the downtown.
It was amended in 1989 to allow the CRA to use the district payments to pay off $68 million in bonds that financed the Mizner Park project.
District officials last raised the payment issue in 2020 when they sought to stop making them altogether, saying the money would be better spent on improving the many parks it operates.
They contended that since the Mizner Park bonds were paid off in 2019, they should no longer be obligated to make the payments.
The City Council swatted down that request. “Obligations are obligations,” Mayor Scott Singer said at the time.
The district has revived the issue now as its annual payment has jumped from $1.4 million to $2.3 million and could increase further.
“Our contribution has gone up significantly,” Commissioner Craig Ehrnst said. “For us, it is a significant fee.”
In addition, in 2020 the CRA was expected to cease to exist in 2025. But over the last two years, City Council members have discussed possibly extending the CRA’s life, which would mean that the district’s obligation would live on.
District officials now acknowledge that they can’t simply stop paying the CRA, but say they are allowed under state law to cap future payments.
Assistant City Manager Chrissy Gibson said city officials will be better able to comment on the district’s request once they hear what is said and decided at the Feb. 21 public hearing.
But she noted that the city’s position remains that the state statute cited by the district applies only to CRAs created after 2006.
The district’s public hearing will be held in conjunction with its regular board meeting in its office at the Swim and Racquet Center, 21618 St. Andrews Blvd., at 5:15 p.m.
In other business, district commissioners reelected Erin Wright as chair, Rollins as vice chair and Ehrnst as secretary-treasurer for calendar year 2023.
And Briann Helms, the district’s executive director, said she will ask commissioners on Feb. 6 to approve a “soft opening” of Ocean Strand Park on State Road A1A with a ribbon-cutting to follow once signs are installed. The district is waiting for city approval to install the signs, she said.

By Mary Hladky

The City Council has shot down an ordinance proposed by Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke that was aimed at preventing controversies like the one that enveloped a planned automated parking garage in the downtown.
The ordinance would have established procedures for processing proposed amendments to the city’s zoning code, comprehensive plan and the ordinance governing downtown development.
Its intent was to get City Council input on such amendments early in the development approval process, rather than waiting until the council was about to vote on them.
The change was touted as a way to improve efficiency and save both the city and developers time and money. If a council majority opposed an amendment, developers would not spend time pursuing one and city staff would not have to vet it.
The current process is “backwards,” O’Rourke said at a Jan. 9 meeting. The ordinance is “an additional streamlining effort to get things in the proper order. I think it is a very positive improvement.”
But other council members did not buy in. The main objection was that three of the five council members could kill a good idea at the outset before it had been vetted. “I do think it will stifle innovation and being visionary,” said council member Yvette Drucker.
Council member Monica Mayotte said that rather than streamlining the city’s process, it would delay final decisions.
O’Rourke withdrew the proposed ordinance at the next night’s council meeting, citing the lack of support.
The poster child for the problem that O’Rourke was seeking to prevent arose from Compson Associates’ proposal to build The Aletto at Sanborn Square in the downtown. Originally proposed as a high-rise apartment and office project, it now features only office space.
Aletto included what would have been the first fully automated parking garage in the downtown.
Developers already could build automated parking garages after getting city approval. But Mayotte sponsored an amendment to an existing ordinance that would have created a presumption that developers have a right to do so, making it easier for them to get approval.
The amendment drew concerns that the council was bending to a developer’s will, and discussion of it spanned four city meetings. Council members eventually conceded they had not handled the matter well.
Adding fuel to the fire was that the amendment was written by the project’s architect, although he had been asked by city staff to do so.
Because Mayotte had sponsored the amendment, city staff did not vet it. Mayotte said at the time that she had expected staff members to do so and was dumbfounded that they hadn’t. She wants staff to be required to do so in the future.
The parking garage since has ceased to be an issue. The Aletto developer and architect now plan to build a conventional garage.
While O’Rourke’s effort failed, city staff has moved forward with its own efforts to streamline the city’s notoriously complicated and cumbersome development approval process.
The council on Jan. 10 approved a 74-page ordinance that Development Services Director Brandon Schaad described as “our most significant streamlining legislation to date” and “the most significant progress in the ongoing land development code rewrite to date.”
In the last three years, the council has approved at least 15 ordinances intended to make the process simpler, clearer and more efficient.
Among many other things, the new ordinance allows the city manager, rather than the council, to approve minor site plan amendments for new buildings or additions up to 50,000 square feet.
In other business:
• The council by a 3-2 vote approved a resolution requesting that Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Link conduct the March 14 city election.
Since there are no contested City Council races, the only matter on the ballot will be a city charter change proposed by Mayor Scott Singer that would increase the terms of office for mayor and council members to four years from three years.
O’Rourke has repeatedly objected to holding the one-issue election, saying “it is not money well spent.” New council member Fran Nachlas, who also voted no, has opposed the change that would benefit her with a longer term.
The cost of the election is not yet known, but the city has budgeted $225,000 to hold it.
• The council unanimously approved an ordinance that revises the city’s building recertification program so that it is consistent with a state recertification law passed after the city adopted its own law. The revisions are minor.
The city required buildings to be inspected to determine if they are safe two months after a Surfside condominium collapsed in 2021, claiming 98 lives.
The city has identified 191 buildings that meet the criteria for inspection. The first inspection reports were due to the city on Feb. 1.

The New Florida Follies dancers go through a dress rehearsal Jan. 14 at the Countess de Hoernle Theatre in Boca Raton, the day before their 2023 debut performance. The Follies range in age from 50-somethings to 94 years old. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Sallie James

Highland Beach resident Holly Budney spent most of her professional career managing theater productions from backstage, so when she tapped her way into the spotlight with the New Florida Follies last month, the occasion was momentous.
Her dancing debut with the glitzy troupe marked the first time in more than 40 years that she found herself on the other side of the curtain. And performing for a crowd and bowing to applause that erupted from an audience of her own fans was a thrill.
“I hope I can do this for another 30 years and maybe I can,” Budney said, laughing. “As a first-timer I was really welcomed into this sorority of dancers who help you be the best you can be.”
At the tender age of 65, Budney may be on to something. She’s one of the most junior dancers of the high-stepping troupe whose membership includes 50-somethings, 60-somethings, septuagenarians, octogenarians and a 94-year-old retiree who can do the splits on stage and get back up herself.
The cast includes former professionals from the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, June Taylor dancers, NFL cheerleaders, Las Vegas and Latin Quarter showgirls and a range of amateur dance lovers for a total of 38 dancers.
The members dazzle in showy costumes, matching wigs, shimmery stockings and snazzy tap shoes. And, boy, can they dance, whether it’s tap or jazz.
Backstage, there’s a flurry of activity as dancers scurry amid racks of feathered costumes, trays of accessories and fancy shoes. Wigs, makeup, makeup brushes, mirrors, tissues, duct tape and hats clutter dressing tables near more dress racks loaded with sequined finery.
On stage, iridescent blue and fuchsia streamers swirl in circles around dancers’ bodies, creating a pinwheel effect.
“It’s an absolute circus,” Budney confessed with delight during a recent dress rehearsal. “I have always been behind the scenes directing, coordinating costumes and coordinating sets. I feel like I am back in seventh grade doing my seventh-grade dance club.”
The Follies 2023 show — Magic, Music & Mystery — kicked off Jan. 15 with a performance at the Countess de Hoernle Theatre at Spanish River Community High School in Boca Raton. Five other shows are scheduled in February and March at three locations in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
The nonprofit organization raises money for charities that benefit kids, primarily through contributions to the Children’s Diagnostic & Treatment Center in Fort Lauderdale; Make A Wish Southern Florida Inc.; and Ukulele Kids Club Inc.
To date, the New Florida Follies has raised more than $800,000, said director and choreographer Cheryl Steinthal, a former Rockette.
Steinthal, 68, joined the group in 2015 as a dancer, which she continues to be. She is hoping more “young” people like Budney join the Follies so they can keep the dance group going for a long time.

Holly Budney (center) is a new member of the New Florida Follies. Budney, 65, of Highland Beach, had a career managing theater productions before stepping out on stage last month.

As a new member, Budney found that performing was an adventure made easier by the savvy backstage dressers who made sure the quick costume changes worked, even though at times it was all a “bit scary.”
Steinthal said dancers like Budney are exactly who the Follies are hoping to recruit.
“We want to bring in young, vibrant people so we can keep this legacy going on forever,” Steinthal said.
P.S. The New Florida Follies have a secret: Dancing keeps them young and dancing keeps them going.
“I never would have imagined at this time in my life I would be dancing on stage the way I am,” said Steinthal, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020 and went on to perform after braving surgery and chemotherapy.
“We feel that dance keeps us vibrant, keeps us alive, keeps us going. If you get dizzy you sit down. You stop feeling dizzy, you get up and dance again. That is the way we really work. We won’t let anything stop us.”
Budney hopes her tap-dancing routines work the same magic for her in years to come, and connect her with the apparent fountain of youth her dance sisters have discovered.
“Theater and dance have been my passion since forever,” Budney said. “It’s funny, because when you are 65” in this group, “you are a kid. It’s so much fun.”

If You Go
What: New Florida Follies
When: All shows 2 p.m.
• Feb. 5, March 19 and March 26 at Countess de Hoernle Theatre at Spanish River Community High School, Boca Raton
• Feb. 26 at Township Center for Performing Arts, Coconut Creek
• Feb. 19 at Lillian S. Wells Hall at The Parker, Fort Lauderdale
Tickets: $35
Information: 305-596-7394, www.TheNewFloridaFollies.com

By Rich Pollack

Time is running out for Highland Beach residents who want to make their mark on the town.
After Feb. 10 town leaders will no longer accept design ideas for gateway signs at each end of the town, all part of a contest meant to encourage residents to get involved in Highland Beach.
With the response to the contest not as enthusiastic as Vice Mayor Natasha Moore had expected, entries coming in this month might still have a chance at being selected as a finalist before town residents vote on the winner.
As of the middle of last month just under a dozen entries had been submitted. Those entries, Moore said, include hand-made drawings as well as photographs of entry signs of other communities.
“This is an opportunity for residents to make an improvement in the town,” said Moore, the driving force behind the initiative.
The contest was born out of concerns about how the existing entry signs are all but falling apart.
“They’re made of wood and they’re rotting,” Moore said.
Although the town could easily ask for outside bids from commercial artists and designers, town leaders chose to get input from residents first.
“There are a lot of creative people in town,” Moore said.
People who are interested but have yet to submit designs can send their entries via email at townsign@highlandbeach.us or just drop them off at the town clerk’s office.
All entries will be reviewed by the Town Commission on Feb. 21 and finalists will be selected. Residents will then have until the end of March to choose their favorite.
Moore said town leaders will than work with a sign contractor to develop the concept.
While there isn’t a monetary award, the creator of the winning entry will have bragging rights and be named on plaques that will be placed near the entry signs.
“You get to claim it as your own,” Moore said.

By Mary Hladky

In an effort to end protracted litigation over a now-repealed ordinance and a blocked effort by a landowner to build a single-family home on the beach, the City Council has authorized their attorneys to attempt to resolve the cases.
Council members voted unanimously on Jan. 24 to make “offers of judgment,” which under the federal rules of civil procedure can be used to encourage case settlements.
One case involves a 2017 city ordinance that prohibited the use of conversion therapy on minors.
Many other cities and counties have passed similar ordinances, including Palm Beach County, whose ordinance was also challenged.
Conversion therapy seeks to change a person’s sexual identity or sexual orientation. It is denounced by many professional medical organizations for causing depression, hopelessness and suicide.
After a heated legal battle, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the city’s and county’s ordinances unconstitutionally violated the free-speech rights of two Palm Beach County therapists, and the full court declined to reconsider that decision.
The city and county decided not to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court out of concerns that an adverse ruling there would jeopardize other conversion therapy bans in cities and counties outside the 11th Circuit’s jurisdiction.
The city and county quickly repealed their ordinances to forestall additional litigation.
But that failed to end the legal brawling. The case was remanded to the U.S. District Court, where the therapists are aggressively pursuing an amended lawsuit.
Under the offer, the city would pay Robert Otto of Boca Raton $50,000 and Julie Hamilton of Palm Beach Gardens $25,000, and a portion of their attorney’s fees.
Helene Hvizd, the County Attorney’s Office appellate practice chief, declined to say if the county would make a similar offer, noting the county does not comment on pending litigation.
Otto and Hamilton are represented by Liberty Counsel, whose website says the firm is “advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the family through strategic litigation.”
Attorneys representing the therapists did not return a call for comment on the offer.
In the second case, Natural Lands LLC has long wanted to build a 48-foot-tall, 8,666-square-foot single-family home on land it owns on the beach at 2500 N. Ocean Blvd.
The proposal caused a public outcry and prompted Jessica Gray, who then lived nearby, to found the group Boca Save our Beaches.
The City Council voted not to grant a variance allowing construction east of the city’s Coastal Construction Control Line on July 23, 2019.
Natural Lands sued in U.S. District Court. In its amended complaint filed in 2020, Natural Lands contends that over eight years, the city erected roadblocks and took action intended to defeat its efforts to build the house, including requiring repeated reviews of its variance application to cause delays and diminish the value of the land.
As a result, the land “has been stripped of all economic and beneficial value,” the suit says.
Natural Lands wants the court to determine that the city has taken its property without just compensation, determine the proper compensation and award it, along with attorney’s fees and costs.
The suit also contends that Mayor Scott Singer and council members Andrea O’Rourke and Monica Mayotte made statements that they would not approve a variance, but did not recuse themselves from casting votes.
The city’s offer would pay Natural Lands $950,000, with that amount including Natural Lands’ attorney’s costs and fees, and Natural Lands would deed the land to the city. The lawsuit states that Natural Lands paid $950,000 for the property in 2011.
Natural Lands attorney Keith Poliakoff did not return a call seeking comment on the offer.

The station opened Dec. 21 as Boca buyers led a surge in ticket demand. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Mary Hladky

On Dec. 6, the promised end-of-year opening of Brightline’s Boca Raton station looked like a deadline certain to be missed.
Construction workers were hard at work on both the station and parking garage, whose interiors were works in progress. Heavy equipment was in constant motion. Paved walkways had yet to be installed. The station sign was on the ground, wrapped in plastic.
But just two short weeks later, the $56.2 million complex was largely completed and ready to accommodate passengers.
“How about a brand-new station for the holidays?” Brightline President Patrick Goddard asked a cheering crowd at a station ribbon-cutting ceremony on Dec. 20, one day before the long-awaited rail service began.

The ribbon-cutting for the new Brightline station included (l-r) Milton Segarra, chief marketing officer for Discover the Palm Beaches, City Council member Yvette Drucker, Mayor Scott Singer, Brightline President Patrick Goddard, state Sen. Tina Polsky, City Council member Monica Mayotte and Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke.

City, county and state officials gathered for the event were thrilled that the station is now a reality, three years after City Council members approved a deal that allowed the station and garage to be built on 1.8 acres of city-owned land and one year after construction began.
“This is a historic moment for Boca Raton,” said Mayor Scott Singer. “We are going to be seeing the benefits of this for decades.”
Connection to a modern rail line running from Miami to West Palm Beach, and then to Orlando in 2023, will help local businesses attract employees and will bring visitors to the city’s cultural institutions and restaurants, Singer said.
Early signs point to strong local interest, Goddard said.
When Brightline announced the station’s opening on Dec. 15, “our website saw the most traffic we have ever seen,” he said. “The majority of that interest was in the Boca station.”
Seventy percent of advance bookings through the end of December were from Boca residents, he said. “We are very optimistic about this system being of service to this community.”
Troy McLellan, president and CEO of the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce, is among Brightline enthusiasts.
“It is a huge moment for us, for sure,” he said. “It gives the ability for employees … to get to their workplace without having to get on I-95. It provides accessibility to a broader and larger workforce.”
McLellan noted the large number of corporations based in Boca. “Our members need access to more employees,” he said. “Brightline does that in one of the best ways possible.”
In launching the service, Brightline is offering one-way tickets starting at $10 through January. A round-trip to and from Fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach costs riders a total of $20, and a round trip to Miami costs $25.
The daily parking rate for the 455-space garage is $7 for riders who purchase parking with their train tickets. Parking for those who do not purchase in advance, or who don’t intend to ride the train, is $6 for one hour up to $15 for three to 24 hours. The station includes electric vehicle chargers. Dedicated parking spaces for patrons of the adjacent Downtown Library are free.
A new station in Aventura also was scheduled to open on Dec. 21 but was delayed until Dec. 24 while construction inspections were finalized. Brightline now has five South Florida stations. No more will be added, Goddard said, and his company is now focused on rail service to Orlando, a project that is 88% completed.
Peter Ricci, director of Florida Atlantic University’s Hospitality and Tourism Management program, said it is logical that Brightline built stations in Boca and Aventura.
“They were chosen, in my opinion, very strategically and make sense,” he said. The Aventura station is near the Aventura Mall, with high-quality shopping and nearby first-class hotels. Similarly, Boca has the Town Center mall and The Boca Raton and Waterstone resorts.
The Boca station is located at 101 NW Fourth St., immediately east of the Downtown Library — a four-block walk to Mizner Park. To make that walk more inviting and pedestrian-friendly, the city spent $3.9 million on improvements along Northwest First Avenue and Northwest and Northeast Second Street, including shade and palm trees.
For those who want to skip the walk, Brightline is offering two on-demand Brightline+ electric golf carts to transport people to the downtown.

A waiting area for passengers. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

At 22,000 square feet, the Boca station is Brightline’s smallest. The Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach stations are 60,000 square feet, and Aventura’s is 34,000 square feet.
Yet the Boca station offers the same amenities as the other stations, including free high-speed Wi-Fi and separate lounges for regular and premium-ticket riders. It includes MRKT, an automated convenience store offering snacks and drinks, and complimentary food and drinks for premium customers.
The station does not have full bar service for regular passengers, but Goddard indicated that could change.
The station also has kiosks where passengers who did not book online or on the Brightline app can purchase tickets.
The main difference is that the Boca station is on one floor, so riders need not go up an escalator or elevator to the lounges and then back down to board the train.
Trains will run more frequently during peak-travel morning and evening hours, generally once every half-hour or hour. At other times and on weekends, the trains will run about every other hour.
Schedule information is at www.gobrightline.com.
Brightline paid $30 million of the station cost, while the city paid $9.9 million for the parking garage. The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the city a $16.3 million grant in 2020 to partially fund the project.
According to Brightline’s most recent financial report, the rail line in 2022 carried 944,030 passengers as of Oct. 31. Revenues for that period totaled $23.5 million.
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted Brightline to halt operations in March 2020, with service resuming in November 2021. Ridership was up 23% for the month of October compared with October 2019.

Marina Kapulovska, with Rotary Club president-elect J. Gerry Purdy, shows appreciation during a club fundraiser for her.
Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Mary Hladky

One week after Russia attacked Ukraine, a family fleeing the war contacted Marina Kapulovska for help. And then another family called.
Since then, the Boca Raton resident and Rotarian working in tandem with the Rotary Club of Boca Raton has helped 28 Ukrainian families resettle locally.
The efforts of the former Kyiv resident, who emigrated to Florida in 2000, are as varied as transporting Ukrainians from the airport, helping them enroll their children in school and sponsoring them so they are able to change their visa status in order to work.
Yet in a twist of fate, it is now Kapulovska who needs help.
A Dec. 18 fire ravaged her Boca View condo. Kapulovska, her son, Maxim, and granddaughter, Michelle, escaped unharmed, but all their belongings were destroyed.
Her fellow Rotarians rushed to her aid, hosting a Dec. 29 fundraiser and setting up a GoFundMe page that has drawn large and small donations exceeding the original $10,000 goal.
“She is a very modest, humble person who is low-key. She is just a lovely person,” said Vanessa Havener, a former Rotary Club of Boca Raton president.
“The irony of this tragedy happening to her is she is in the exact same position as the people she has been working so hard to help.”
Kapulovska, a Coldwell Banker sales associate who is now a U.S. citizen, deeply appreciates the support she has received.
“I am extremely grateful to them,” she said. “For the first three days, I was in shock. I couldn’t think straight on what I should do. When I found out my fellow Rotarians had stepped forward to help, my heart was crying.”
Kapulovska’s supporters who arrived for the fundraiser at Prosperity Brewers saw at the front door a portrait of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by renowned Boca Raton-based artist Yaacov Heller that he had donated for an auction.
The crowd gathered at an outside patio, nibbled light bites and listened to a band assembled by Rotary past president and auctioneer Neil Saffer.
“We will play you anything you want except ‘Burning Down the House,’” quipped Saffer, who also recognized “the kindness and generosity of this community, this family, this Rotary group and all of you.”
Attendees included Rotary president-elect J. Gerry Purdy, who wanted to help Ukraine when war broke out. But with the nation’s needs so vast, he decided the best thing one person could do was host a recently arrived Ukrainian man in his home. “I can help one person get settled here,” he said.
Deputy Mayor and Rotarian Andrea O’Rourke also attended. “We are here to do whatever we can to get (Kapulovska’s) feet on the ground,” she said.

The Dec. 18 fire at Marina Kapulovska’s Boca View condo destroyed the family’s belongings. She lived there with her son, Maxim, and granddaughter, Michelle. They escaped after Kapulovska noticed smoke coming from a closet.

The origins of the fire remained under investigation at the end of December. Kapulovska said she was getting ready to go to church when she saw smoke coming from a closet. Her son and a neighbor tried in vain to put out the blaze before firefighters arrived.
The only thing she managed to salvage was a folder filled with important documents. “Thankfully, I have my papers,” she said.
Kapulovska first learned about Rotary, an international organization that provides services to others, when she visited two clubs in Kyiv. She knew then, she said, that she would like to be involved with the organization.
“I always have loved to volunteer,” she said. “I cannot imagine living a meaningless life. I need to give.”
She joined the Rotary Club of Boca Raton, the oldest of four Rotary clubs in the city, about 31/2 years ago.
Kapulovska connected the Boca club to one in Kyiv, and after the Russian invasion the Boca Rotarians held a fundraiser for the Kyiv club to help finance its assistance efforts.
Through a friend in Kyiv, Kapulovska heard about the mother of an infant who needed a special formula but was not able to get it as she sheltered from attacks in a subway station, Havener said.
Boca club members notified their counterparts in Kyiv, who located the mother and provided her the formula and other items for the baby.
While Kapulovska initially wanted to help people in Ukraine, she turned her attention to those arriving in South Florida when they reached out to her.
“We saw lots of need here,” she said. “People are still coming from Ukraine.”
Other club members have drawn on their own connections to help.
“We all have our networks,” said Havener, who will become governor of the Rotary district that spans from Palm Beach County to Brevard County in 2024. “Collectively, we have been able to clothe and house people.”
Mariana Oprea, a member since 2001, knows the owner and property manager of an apartment complex who quickly agreed to make units available to the refugees.
The owner of Cynthia Gardens “does it out of the goodness of her heart,” Oprea said. “They had available apartments. It was better to give them to those in need.”
That’s where Kapulovska and her family moved temporarily at the end of December.
She sees her own disaster as small compared with what her war-torn and devastated countrymen are facing.
“Please pray for Ukraine,” she said.

To help, visit: www.gofundme.com/f/marina-maxim-michelle-kapulovska

The family during happier times. Photos provided

Related: Voters to decide on adding fourth year to council terms

 By Mary Hladky

City Council candidate Christen Ritchey has withdrawn from the race, allowing Marc Wigder to win election to Seat B without opposition.
As a result, all three contests that would have appeared on the March 14 municipal election ballot are already decided. Mayor Scott Singer won a final term and Fran Nachlas filled the seat vacated by Andy Thomson when no candidates filed to run against them.
But the election will be held, with only one item on the ballot. It is a city charter change proposed by Singer that would increase the terms of office for mayor and council members to four years from three years.
In brief email responses to questions about whether the election would still take place, Singer said that ballots already are in the process of being printed.
Asked if he is concerned that voter turnout could be light with no council races at stake, Singer said it might be high.
“As always, I encourage people to vote,” he said.
The 2021 election with two council races on the ballot cost the city just under $259,000. A city spokeswoman said the city does not yet have cost estimates for the March election.
Ritchey said she withdrew from the race on Dec. 20 to focus on her two children, ages 7 and 9, and her law firm, which recently completed a three-way merger with the New York firm Schwartz, Sladkus, Reich, Greenberg and Atlas, and a local attorney’s practice.
“It was a difficult decision,” she said. “I have really enjoyed the experience. It is not the right time for me.”
Ritchey said she will continue to be involved in the community and plans to be a candidate in the future.
In the meantime, Ritchey said that she supports Wigder and told him she would assist him in any way she could.
“Marc Wigder is just going to be great for Boca, so I know I am leaving this campaign and the city of Boca in good hands,” she said.
Wigder said Ritchey told him of her decision to step aside. “I would be pleased if we could work together on issues that are important,” he said. “I am very appreciative she wants to continue to be involved.”
Wigder will take over the seat now held by term-limited Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke. He is a real estate attorney with his own practice in Boca Raton and is a founder of Greenhouse Offices, an office building, and homebuilder GreenSmith Builders.
The top issue he has campaigned on is managing the city’s growth. City leaders need to “start thinking long term” and make sure growth is managed carefully and pragmatically, he said.
“The question is not how we build Boca, but how we re-envision Boca,” he said.
A related issue is traffic congestion. He wants emphasis on sustainable development projects that allow people to live near where they work to lessen the dependency on vehicles.
Other matters that top his list are maintaining the high level of city services and public safety and keeping the tax rate low.
He also noted a new state law, passed after the 2021 collapse of a Surfside condominium, that requires condos to maintain adequate financial reserves to make repairs.
The law will increase costs for many condo owners and is a significant issue at homeowners association meetings he has attended, he said.
Wigder said city officials must consider “how we can help them navigate this process.”
Both Wigder and Ritchey said they oppose extending City Council terms to four years. Ritchey said she “would rather see the city spend its resources in other ways” than on this election.
Wigder said a three-year term is adequate, but he does see some merit to a longer term.
“Personally I was not in favor of it, but I do see a logic on both sides,” he said.

By Mary Hladky

With few residents voicing opposition, City Council members have approved amending the city charter to increase their terms of office from three years to four.
But voters will have the final say. The change will take effect only if a majority of voters support it in the March 14 municipal election.
The longer council term was proposed by Mayor Scott Singer, who said that of the state’s 25 largest cities, Boca Raton is the only one that does not have four-year terms. Of the 50 largest cities, nearly all have such terms, he said.
According to the Florida League of Cities, 35% of all cities have four-year terms, 27% have three-year terms and 38% have two-year terms.
Singer said that if council members stand for election less frequently, they would be better able to focus on city issues.
“You would get more focused on policy, less on politicking,” he said.
They also would gain more time to bolster their expertise on city matters, he said.
The change would be particularly beneficial now, he said, because the city is about to lose the experience of its highest ranking officials. City Manager Leif Ahnell, Deputy City Manager George Brown and City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser are expected to retire within the next few years. Deputy City Manager Mike Woika retired last summer.
Only two residents opposed the idea at the Dec. 13 council meeting. Brian Stenberg, who lost election to the council in 2021, pointedly asked whether residents were clamoring for the change and who would benefit from it.
Singer’s proposal also drew opposition from the BocaFirst blog. One writer noted that no recent council candidates have campaigned on the issue. “This is politics pure and simple — it will be politicized,” he wrote.
Another wrote that more frequent elections result in council members staying in touch with voters’ concerns, while a longer term would make them “lazy towards voter interests.”
That writer also said Singer, who won reelection on Nov. 8 when he drew no opposition, stood to gain by getting a one-year extension on his term if voters approve the change.
But Singer and all other current council members, except for Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke who is term limited from seeking reelection, would get four years in office under Singer’s proposal.
Fran Nachlas, participating in her first council meeting since she also won election in November when she was the only candidate who filed to run for the seat vacated by Andy Thomson, said she could not support a change that would benefit her.
She said she had received more than 20 emails from residents urging her to vote no, at least some of which apparently came from those responding to a BocaFirst request that readers tell council members that they oppose the longer term. No one, Nachlas said, asked her to vote yes.
O’Rourke also opposed the change, saying that council members should be knowledgeable about the job when they run for office and should not need a longer term to improve their effectiveness.
With council members Monica Mayotte and Yvette Drucker joining Singer in support, the proposed charter change passed with a 3-2 vote.
In other business, the council unanimously supported a resolution, requested by O’Rourke, urging the Florida Legislature to designate a section of Glades Road between Dixie and Federal highways in the Pearl City neighborhood as Lois D. Martin Way.
Legislative action is needed because Glades Road is under state jurisdiction.
The effort to rename part of the road was spearheaded by Developing Interracial Social Change, or D.I.S.C.
Martin, a teacher and community leader, died Jan. 9, 2022, at the age of 93.
She was well known for her volunteer work on city boards and organizations including Boca Helping Hands and Habitat for Humanity. She also led efforts to obtain a historic designation for Pearl City. The Lois Martin Community Center at Dixie Manor in Pearl City is named in her honor.

By Mary Hladky

The city’s building recertification program will not need major changes to be consistent with state legislation approved by lawmakers in May.
Boca Raton enacted an ordinance requiring buildings to be inspected to determine if they are safe two months after a Surfside condominium collapsed in 2021, claiming 98 lives.
While the state was expected to enact legislation after the Surfside disaster, Mayor Scott Singer did not want to wait for that to happen. He said city residents needed protection as soon as possible, but he would be willing to revise the city’s ordinance later on so it did not conflict with state requirements.
City staff has analyzed the legislation and the City Council is expected to vote this month on staff-proposed modest revisions to the city’s ordinance.
While the city’s ordinance applied to “threshold buildings” more than three stories high, the state law specified condominium or cooperative buildings that are precisely three stories or taller.
Both the city and state required inspections of buildings that are 30 years old or older, and subsequent inspections every 10 years. But the state also mandated inspections of 25-year-old buildings if they are within 3 miles of a coastline.
The city imposed penalties for failure to submit a repair plan and to complete required repairs, but did not state a timeline. The state requires repairs to begin within a year after submission of an inspection report.
The city ordinance also will be amended to say that if a building owner fails to submit proof that needed repairs for substantial structural deterioration have begun within the required time frame, the city’s building official will decide if the building is unsafe for occupancy.
The city has identified 191 properties that meet the criteria for inspection, although some of those include multiple buildings. Single-family homes and duplexes are exempt from its recertification rules.
The city’s recertification program was launched one year ago when the first batch of notices went to 14 owners that their buildings must be inspected. Those inspection reports are due to the city by Feb. 1.
Additional notices have since been sent out every three months.
The ordinance divides the city into four zones, with buildings on the barrier island receiving the highest priority for review. The other zones run from the Intracoastal Waterway to Dixie Highway, Dixie Highway to west of Interstate 95, and farther west of I-95.
Each zone was further divided into four groups based on building age in order to stagger inspection report due dates.

Dr. Maria Chadam checks the eyes of one of the 12 Kemp’s ridley turtles that were flown from Cape Cod for treatment at Gumbo Limbo. Andrea Jelaska, a sea turtle rehab technician, holds the turtle.

By Tao Woolfe

Dr. Maria Chadam peered into the eyes of a struggling Kemp’s ridley turtle, checking with her penlight to see how much damage the little reptile had suffered in its struggle to come ashore.
An assistant held the young turtle with both hands, like a sandwich, so the veterinarian could check for ulcerated sores, breaks in its carapace, and signs of dehydration.
The exam was one of the last and most crucial steps in an extraordinary turtle rescue effort that began on the beaches of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and ended — at least for now — at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.
The rescue took place on a Sunday night just before Christmas. Twelve young Kemp’s ridleys, the world’s smallest, rarest and most endangered sea turtles, were flown by private plane from the New England Aquarium to Pompano Beach Airpark.
The flight was arranged by Turtles Fly Too, a volunteer organization of more than 450 pilots who donate their time and aircraft to rescue missions around the world, said founder Leslie Weinstein.
Members of the rescue team from Gumbo Limbo then transported the turtles by van to the nature center, carrying them inside the facility in cardboard banana boxes supplied by the aquarium.
“Most of them have pneumonia and are very sick,” Chadam said. “We might lose a few of them.”
The Kemp’s ridleys — named for Richard M. Kemp, a fisherman and naturalist from Key West — were among more than 500 turtles stranded in Cape Cod Bay in November, said Sarah Perez, a senior biologist with the New England Aquarium.
The turtles, which are born in and around the Gulf of Mexico, migrate north as they follow the Gulf Stream, Perez said. They like to forage for food in the warm, summertime waters of Cape Cod Bay.
But as winter sets in and water temperatures quickly drop below 60 degrees, the turtles try to swim south but are unable to navigate around a hooked land mass barrier known as the “arm” of Cape Cod.
They become “cold stunned” and unable to swim, Perez said. By the time they wash up on the beaches they are often ill and very weak. In that state they are often hit by boats or attacked by predators.
The stunned turtles are collected from the beaches by volunteers from Massachusetts Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. Many of the animals are transported to the New England Aquarium in Quincy, Massachusetts, where they are cataloged, warmed and, often, treated for pneumonia.
“We transport many of them to secondary facilities because we just can’t take care of them all,” Perez said. “We tend to send them to the same facilities every year.”
Gumbo Limbo, with its survival rate of 80%, is one of those trusted facilities.
Although she could not say definitively that climate change is responsible for the increasing number of stranded turtles, Perez did say that Cape Cod Bay and the Gulf of Maine are among the fastest-warming bodies of water in the world. They attract turtles that have trouble adapting when the water turns cold.
“This year we had 509 [cold] turtles. It was the third-largest intake we’ve ever had,” Perez said.
At Gumbo Limbo on the night of the rescue, the turtles were measured and weighed, given intravenous fluids and antibiotics, X-rayed and treated for wounds.
Over the next few months the turtles will be given more antibiotics, fluids and vitamins and rehabilitated in tanks with water temperatures at about 73-75 degrees.
They probably would not eat for several days or even weeks, Chadam said. “Their systems have completely shut down from the cold.”
At the end of the long intake process — facilitated by Gumbo Limbo’s specially trained rescue crew — the turtles seemed to spring back to life when placed in the water.
Chadam warned, however, that although they were swimming energetically by the end of the evening, not all would survive.
“Sometimes we lose the liveliest ones. When we do necropsies we find their lungs are just black,” she said.
By New Year’s Eve, three of the 12 rescued turtles had died from injuries, illnesses and exhaustion from their long journey. The other nine, however, were swimming in their tanks and were eating well, according to Shelby Hoover, a member of the Gumbo Limbo rescue team who was monitoring the young turtles over the holidays.
Hoover said the turtles have had hundreds of visitors since their arrival just before Christmas. Among the visitors were Jim Rose — the Turtles Fly Too pilot who volunteered to fly the turtles South in his Piper aircraft ­ — and his family.
The turtles will continue to receive antibiotics for pneumonia and other diseases, intramuschular injections of fluids, and small, gourmet meals of shrimp, squid and fish.
During the coldest days of Christmas week, the turtle tanks were draped in tarps and some of the reptiles were brought inside, Hoover said.
Whitney Crowder, the nature center’s sea turtle rehabilitation coordinator, said once the turtles are nursed back to health at Gumbo Limbo, they will be released in waters near Volusia County.

The turtles were given ID numbers and names; Apple Strudel had part of its shell bitten off by a fish but was doing well at year’s end.
Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

A history of care
Gumbo Limbo’s turtle conservation efforts began in the 1970s when Gordon Gilbert, the nature center’s founder, conducted nighttime turtle walks to teach local students the importance of preserving marine life, Crowder said.
“Even back then, the city of Boca Raton understood the importance of sea turtle conservation, and a plan was formed to try to preserve Boca’s 5 miles of beach and 20 acres of Intracoastal hammock,” Crowder said. “Through the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, the sea turtle program at Gumbo Limbo would slowly continue to grow and improve.”
In 2010 the turtle rehabilitation facility was opened and shortly thereafter a cold snap hit Florida, which stranded nearly 5,000 endangered sea turtles. More than 175 were treated and released by Gumbo Limbo.
“Our facility was originally constructed to admit roughly 30 sea turtle patients annually with seven treatment tanks,” Crowder said. “Currently, we have 12 rehabilitation tanks and we treat over 100 juvenile-to-adult sea turtles and 100 to 1,000 or more hatchlings and post-hatchlings annually.”
Many of them are Kemp’s ridley turtles, which have a parrot-like beak, grow to be about 100 pounds and live 30 years or more. They reach maturity at about 13 years, Crowder said, adding that the latest rescues are only a few years old.
They are members of the genus Lepidochelys, which also includes the olive ridley sea turtle.
The rescued Kemp’s ridleys can be seen each day at Gumbo Limbo from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. except Mondays, when the center opens at noon.