As tax revenue spiked, so did push for services  

By Rich Pollack and Larry Barszewski

As a member of the statehouse’s Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman says she has seen numerous examples of overspending by municipal governments and the apparent misuse of taxpayer dollars. 

“What was most surprising to me was the actual number of municipalities throughout the state who failed their own taxpayers by excessive spending and by failing to support budget expenditures with proper documentation,” she said. “There is excessive spending throughout Florida in several municipalities.”

With a proposed state constitutional amendment coming before voters in November that could dramatically cut the amount of property tax dollars filling municipal coffers, a fresh focus on local government spending has emerged. 

The challenge is that what is wasteful spending to some is money for necessary services to others. 

Republican Gossett-Seidman supports and voted to put on the ballot Amendment 3 this November, which will increase the state’s homestead exemption — from $51,411 this year to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028 — if 60% of voters agree. Proponents say the increased exemptions will force governments to be more efficient and help curb unneeded spending on nonessential services. 

Opponents of the amendment say the increases will handcuff local governments as they attempt to provide services that residents need and want. 

State Rep. Rob Long, a Democrat who previously served on the Delray Beach City Commission, says that there is lots of talk about government waste by state leaders but not a lot of details. 

“There are always ways to optimize things in government but there needs to be a discussion that focuses on real data and specifics,” he said. 

What to provide?

Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney, who is at odds with his fellow commissioners over their proposed tax rate increase in his city this year, has pushed for fiscally responsible city budgets, saying that municipalities must always prioritize core services. 

“The core function of government is to provide public safety and good infrastructure,” he said. 

That translates into providing money for police and fire services, water and sewer services, and ensuring roads and other public property are well maintained. 

Still, Carney — who has not publicly said how he will vote on Amendment 3 — says governments cannot simply rule out spending in other areas. 

“You never retreat from core function but if you can demonstrate the value of other enhancements and they contribute to the success of the city, then those are things you should pursue,” he said. 

An event that brings recognition to Delray Beach and that helps make the city special, for example, might be worth spending money on, he said. 

In an opinion piece that appeared in the Palm Beach Post in July, Carney wrote that should Amendment 3 pass, he thinks his city will be able to weather what he calls more modest revenue growth. 

To do so, he says the city would need to delay non-essential hiring, push back lower priority capital purchases, consolidate administrative functions, prioritize the order of projects and “closely review overtime, contracts and discretionary spending.”

Carney, in the opinion piece, pointed out that Delray Beach’s general fund budget and spending grew significantly during the years when property values increased substantially. 

And it wasn’t just Delray Beach. 

Tax revenues rise

A Coastal Star analysis found that property tax revenues in 10 southern Palm Beach County coastal communities increased significantly in recent years. The analysis used Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports and other published financial documents from the municipalities. 

In Boca Raton and Delray Beach, property tax revenues nearly doubled from 2016 to 2025 — a jump of $65 million in Boca Raton and $47 million in Delray Beach — and more than doubled in Boynton Beach.

In contrast, the Consumer Price Index and the Municipal Cost Index — a measure that looks at the change in government costs and not household ones — generally grew between 35% and 40% during the same time.

However, the MCI and CPI wouldn't take into consideration items like population growth, new services, added employees and one-time expenditures.

The coast’s smaller communities also saw large  property tax revenue increases during that time, with Lantana’s tax revenues increasing 180%, going from $2.6 million in 2016 to $7.3 million in 2025. Other hefty increases ranged from a 61% jump in Highland Beach to a 102% increase in Manalapan in the years looked at. 

Only Gulf Stream’s 25% increase was under the change in the CPI and MCI. 

The outlier is Briny Breezes, which saw a substantial decrease in its property tax collections over the same period. That was due to its unique position as a town and a corporation — and a decision several years ago to shift a greater portion of the town’s expenses from the town’s budget and onto the corporation’s budget, both of which are paid for by property owners there.

Lantana’s huge increase, meanwhile, was directly related to the town’s 2022 decision to raise its tax rate 7.1% — even though taxable values in town that year increased 15.8%. 

Council members moved forward with the increase despite resident opposition. Taxpayers complained about many things — including how frequently the town bought new vehicles — but then-Council member Lynn “Doc” Moorhouse said the town was turning a corner and needed to make up for past neglect. Not raising the tax rate would lead to the town’s infrastructure “going to crap again,” he said.

Among the items included in Lantana’s budget that year were 5% cost-of-living raises for regular employees (7.5% to 8.5% COLAs for police), making a part-time lifeguard position full time, and adding hours for part-time library employees to provide better service to patrons.

Budget, employee impacts

Not surprisingly, the extra revenues local towns and cities were collecting corresponded with bigger operating budgets, with nine of the 10 South County municipalities reviewed seeing their expenditures jump between 72% and 99% between 2016 and either 2024 or 2025.

The only municipality with a substantially smaller expenditure increase was South Palm Beach, up 28%. 

The extra spending included more employees in most municipalities, including police and fire rescue positions. 

Most of Highland Beach’s 49-employee increase between 2016 and 2025 can be attributed to the town’s decision to create its own Fire Rescue Department, while South Palm Beach’s drop from 13 employees to four over the same period is due to that town’s decision to shut down its own police force and hire the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office for service.

Both are examples of municipal governments trying to determine the best and most affordable ways to deliver public safety services to their residents.

Salaries and benefits are typically the biggest part of a city or town’s operating budget. Officials must balance residents’ demands for good service and to be kept safe against the increased costs that come with a larger workforce.

In Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Boynton Beach, growth in each’s overall workforce outpaced growth in their public safety areas from 2016 to 2025, with total staff positions increasing 23% in Boca Raton, 19% in Boynton Beach and 15% in Delray Beach.

Employee costs, especially in the public safety personnel area, have mushroomed. 

In Highland Beach, for example, police officer’s pay increased 61% from 2019 to 2026, with sergeant’s pay increasing 68%, according to Town Manager Marshall Labadie. 

The pay increases are needed in large part because there is stiff competition for qualified police officers among local departments, which are also competing for personnel with the PBSO. 

“This is an essential service in a competitive market,” said Long, whose district covers portions of coastal southern Palm Beach County, including parts of Delray Beach and Boynton Beach as well as Gulf Stream, Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes. 

A quick Google search showed that starting salaries for police officers in the area that were in the mid-to-high $40,000s in 2015 are now in the low $70,000s or higher. 

Local government leaders point out that other costs associated with employees, including health insurance and pensions, also continue to increase. 

Municipal hiring practices were on the minds of legislators proposing the property tax referendum, said Gossett-Seidman, whose district includes Highland Beach and Boca Raton.

“We suspected that when funds were available before and after COVID that cities rushed out to hire personnel,” she said. 

Other budget items

Cities and towns are facing some of the same skyrocketing bills as their residents, such as the cost of property insurance. There’s also the increased cost of maintaining municipally owned property and infrastructure.

“Everything costs more now,” Long said. 

Highland Beach’s Labadie says officials also face the challenge of meeting the expectations of residents who want quality services.

“It’s difficult for elected officials not to spend money on what residents are demanding,” he said. “It’s challenging.” 

Ocean Ridge Mayor Geoff Pugh, who plans to vote against Amendment 3, said it isn’t because he doesn’t want to pay less in taxes.

He said it has more to do with the quality of life people seek out in coming to Ocean Ridge — and probably other coastal communities as well.

“People expect to have certain things paid for and to have a certain way of life,” Pugh said. “They expect the amenities they get. ... They want the service to remain as it is today. 

Another thing higher tax revenues provided coastal communities is the ability to have more savings on hand.  Local governments have been putting more money into general fund reserves, which can be tapped for disaster relief and for budget stabilization.

Gulf Stream has relied on reserves to pay for infrastructure and road improvements taking place the past several years; Ocean Ridge has used reserves to support the cost of replacing aging water pipes; and Highland Beach used $4 million from reserves to build a new fire station when it started its own department.

Some local government leaders have said they will consider tapping into reserves to continue some non-core services if Amendment 3 passes. But they know they must be careful to use those reserves for one-time expenses and not to support ongoing costs such as employee salaries.

Show me the waste 

One example of possible excessive government spending that came before the state audit committee, Gossett-Seidman said, included an audit that found a small North Florida community paid its town manager — who lived 130 miles away — $11,500 mostly in mileage reimbursements for travel to and from the town and to conferences. The manager spent only 69 days out of 755 workdays in the town, according to the audit. 

The committee also heard about controversial purchases of 11 pickup trucks for $635,000 in Daytona Beach that drew concerns about overspending and lack of adequate documentation to prove that expenses were only for when the trucks were used for city business, she said.

Gossett-Seidman said that while there are other examples throughout the state, she does not know of any serious issues among South County municipalities.

It could be that little things adding up lead to the perception of spending that’s out of control.

For example, Gossett-Seidman said, consider redundancy and the general belief that tasks that could be handled by one person often are being done by two or three. 

Carney says local governments will have to decide if the money they’re spending brings value to the municipalities and benefits taxpayers footing the bills. 

“It’s their money,” he said. “We need to be the best stewards of taxpayer dollars.” 

Revisiting spirit of 1976, history buff beholds pet rock, dad’s letter, more 

 Winnie Diggans Edwards, above, rode her bike as a child 50 years ago in Delray Beach and today, below, is executive director of the city’s historical society. Photo provided and Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Related: Celebrating our History: Inn-side story

By Holly Baltz

In the summer of 1976, a young Winnie Diggans — perched on the green banana seat of her bike, streamers fluttering from the handlebars — explored all of Delray Beach.

She remembers watching the fireworks on America’s 200th birthday over Lake Ida from the roof of her house.

Earlier that day, civic leaders and residents had gathered at the city’s community center to celebrate and look to the future. They buried a time capsule amid the sweltering heat.

Fifty years later, now Winnie Diggans Edwards attended the July 4 ceremony in which the capsule was dug up. 

“It was a big shock when I was up on the stage,” said Edwards, executive director of the Delray Beach Historical Society. “Commissioner (Angela) Burns said there was a letter here from Roy Diggans.”

Diggans, her father, was Delray Beach postmaster in 1976 and had contributed to the capsule.

Some of the items recovered from the time capsule buried on July 4, 1976,  include a $2 bill, postage stamps, various pamphlets and a cassette tape that recorded the observance. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Other items in the capsule included a pet rock, a phone book, a city budget and numerous letters and booklets from local organizations, including the Delray Beach Voter’s League and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority. The items were on display at the Delray Beach Historical Society’s Cason Cottage throughout July. 

The pet rock had been a gag gift at Christmas 1975 for people who complained of the costs and time to care for live animals. It retailed for $3.95 and came in a tiny box that looked like a pet carrier.

A $2 bill,  just reissued for the bicentennial, was found, as were a student handbook from Carver Middle School, a letter from the Delray Hebrew Congregation, and the schedule of events for the ceremony. 

“It’s not unusual that he would have donated the letter,” Edwards said of her father, considering his best friend, Ken Ellingsworth, manager of the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, asked him to do so, according to the letter.

A letter from Roy Diggans, who was Delray Beach postmaster in 1976, lists the names of the postal employees at the time. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Roy Diggans said in the letter that he thought it would be appropriate to list the 60 employees of the Delray Beach Post Office, and he did. Along with the letter were three stamps showing the Spirit of ’76, the famous painting of a fife player and two drummers of the American Revolution.

Some of the items, which were mainly paper, had water damage, said Kayleigh Howald, the society’s archivist. But the good news was they had no bugs.

Mayor Tom Carney holds up a battered toy Volkswagen Beetle that was in the capsule. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The treasures were buried in a metal box, in the shape of a large computer tower.

Howald retrieved them on a recent Monday and arranged them on tables as she figured out how to display the items. 

She said they were not the only time capsule items in the historical society archives. Another came from the city’s Diamond Jubilee in the 1980s.

Workers and others inspect the time capsule after its excavation from in front of City Hall before the July 4 opening. Photo provided

‘The simple life’

Delray Beach in the 1970s was still small and sleepy. Its population was half the 72,000 residents it hosts today.

“The simple life in a little seaside town was normal to me,” Edwards said.

She said Delray had a few restaurants she and her family went to. She rode her bike around Lake Ida with her friends, fished, played a lot of tennis, “four days a week,” and spent a lot of time at church, St. Paul’s Episcopal on Swinton Avenue.

During that hot summer of 1976, they “lived at the beach” where her dad liked to fish.  

Edwards remembered visiting Underground Atlanta that year, where her dad bought her a large book with replicas of the founding documents for the country. She said she kept it all her life then donated it to the historical society a few years ago.

‘Pride in the successes’

On July 4, 1976, about 500 officials and residents from Delray gathered in the Civic Center gymnasium to hear a “brightly sunburned” U.S. Rep. Paul Rogers speak about the country’s beginnings, according to a story in the Palm Beach Post the next day.

“We can take pride in the successes and in the failures because we have used those failures to change our way of doing things,” the Democrat said. 

Rogers would end his 24-year congressional career just a few years later in 1979. He was a co-sponsor of the Clean Air Act of 1970 and National Cancer Act of 1971. He also had signed the so-called Southern Manifesto in 1956 in his early years in Congress, opposing racial integration of public places. 

Rogers attended 10 events that day in Palm Beach and Broward counties, thanks to the recent completion of Interstate 95 from Palm Beach Gardens to Miami.

Florida House Minority Leader Bill James and County Commissioner Robert Johnson also attended, but James had to leave early for another gathering.

The Palm Beach Post made only a mention of the time capsule. 

It said the city received two gifts that day. One was a plaque mounted on a coral boulder presented on behalf of the 1,150-member Beach Homeowners Association — “our tribute to those adventuresome migrants from the North who envisioned a paradise along these rugged shores,” said J. Watson Dunbar in presenting the plaque.

The second gift, from the Rotary Club, was a miniature Liberty Bell, one-fifth the size of the original, but built by the same manufacturer, the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London.

The story went on to say that the city buried a time capsule of gifts for its residents 50 years into the future.

Coming back home

Edwards was a native of Delray Beach, essentially, having been born at Bethesda Hospital in Boynton Beach. 

She went on from those sleepy summer days to attend college in Texas, start her career in Boston and work in California as a creative and marketing director. 

The Diggans family came to Delray Beach in 1920 where her father also was born. Her grandfather Leroy Diggans was the first president of the city’s Chamber of Commerce and postmaster in Delray for 30 years. Her father helped found the historical society in 1964. Roy Diggans died in 2001 at age 73.

As often is the case with elderly parents, Edwards came back when her mother became ill. Edwards got to spend more than a decade with her mother, Betty, until she died in December at age 97.

In the meantime, Edwards went to work for the historical society, eventually becoming executive director. 

“The joy of my career is being able to do this for my dad and for my hometown,” she said. “We stay on top of current events and put history into that conversation.” 

Cloister at 100 endures as monument to Addison Mizner’s dream deferred

The Cloister as it appears today, 100 years after it opened in 1926. It’s now one of five hotels at The Boca Raton. Photo provided  BELOW RIGHT: The main entrance to the hotel was simpler in 1926. Photo provided by Boca Raton Historical Society

Related: Celebrating Our History: Treasures from a simpler time unearthed in Delray Beach capsule 

By Holly Baltz

Nearly 50 years before the vision of a certain Imagineer put Florida on the map as a year-round resort destination, Addison Mizner wanted the same thing as he built his “dream city” of Boca Raton.

The famed architect, after bringing his distinctive Mediterranean Revival style to the Everglades Club and more than 30 homes on Palm Beach in the mid-1920s, wanted to make his mark with the “first tailor-made city in the world.” 

Its centerpiece was the 100-room Ritz-Carlton Cloister Inn, an ultra-exclusive, $1 million hotel, which opened 100 years ago and was slated to entertain guests year-round. Today, it is one of five hotels at The Boca Raton and fulfills one of Mizner’s dreams as visitors flock there from not only around the nation but the world.

“The next step is to keep the Florida populous with happy, contented visitors in June as in January,” Mizner told the Miami Herald in March 1926, a month after the Cloister Inn had opened and in announcing a campaign to improve Florida’s roads to bring tourists to the state. “The time is right for us to branch out as a 12-month’s resort instead of being regarded merely as a winter playground.”

A planned community
Until Mizner cast his eye south, Boca Raton was a small farming community.

But that started to change in 1925 when Mizner and his brother Wilson formed the Mizner Development Corp. and bought 2 miles of waterfront property on what is now the Intracoastal Waterway with 18,000 acres adjoining it. 

Everything from boulevards to waterways to villas, gardens and golf courses would be coordinated, an early planned community of the kind that would dominate the South Florida landscape a century later.

Mizner had the money backers to bring it to reality: Sen. T. Coleman du Pont of Delaware, the Vanderbilts, England’s Duchess of Sutherland, steel magnate Henry Phipps of Pittsburgh and U.S. Rep. George Graham of Philadelphia — all connections he’d made in Palm Beach.

Mizner would design Boca Raton’s City Hall and an Episcopalian Church where he installed another brother, Henry, as rector. He planned golf courses, to be designed by the most famous course architect in the country, Donald Ross, as well as an airport.

Plans for Camino Real called for a grand boulevard — 219 feet wide and at least 20 lanes.

Even the corporation’s headquarters, at the corner of Dixie Highway and Camino Real, was considered a work of art, fashioned after El Greco’s house in Toledo, Spain.

And finally, Mizner would design about 40 homes nearby in the Floresta section of town.

A resort takes shape
Situated on the shores of Lake Boca Raton with a natural inlet and the ocean beyond, the inn would feature yachting, golf, aviation, polo and tennis.

The hotel, the smaller one of two slated resorts, took shape swiftly after 22 weeks of construction despite workers’ wading in waist-deep water through almost impassable vegetation. 

Extra care was taken by all to present the most pristine appearance.

Even the lake was beautified. Trees were removed to foster a glass-like surface. A cement factory on site produced “great slabs of granite-like material” in order to “bulkhead the four-mile circumference,” according to a Miami Herald story days after the opening. Mizner also planned to widen and deepen the inlet.

The architect and real estate man aimed to attract year-round travelers with the balmier temperatures coming off the Gulf Stream.

He planned to build his own $1 million castle on a small, man-made island in the north portion of the lake with drawbridge — but it was not to be.

The dining room in 1926 was inspired by a 15th century hospital in Catalonia. Photo provided by Boca Raton Historical Society

The magical first night 
The crown jewel of Mizner’s community held its swanky opening on a Saturday night, Feb. 6, 1926.

Guests signed a bound leather guest book that survives under glass at The Boca Raton today. Mizner cleverly placed parchment paper on the pages of what was then a contemporary songbook of Gregorian hymns, according to an article in Architectural Digest, and it gave the appearance of Old World Europe. 

The elite of the upper crust attended. 

They were “jeweled to the hilt and furred to the teeth,” wrote historian Henry Kinney, according to an article on the Florida State Archives website, floridamemory.com. 

“Royalty, Wall Street wealth, the most famous film stars of the day and the ranking hierarchy of Palm Beach and Bal Harbor rubbed shoulders in the throng,” he said.

Dinner was served at 9 p.m., with dancing and grand tours to follow. 

Called the most expensive hotel ever built, the inn featured vaulted ceilings, 14-karat gold columns and rooms that cost as much as $10,000 each to furnish.

The guests included philanthropist Mrs. Vincent Astor, prominent investment banker Edward Stotesbury and novelist Theodore Dreiser. 

A luxurious design
The prized feature of the inn was its tower, patterned after La Giralda tower in Seville, Spain, and supervised personally by Mizner. He designed room at the top to see the Atlantic Ocean, Lake Boca Raton and surrounding “tropical country.”

Mizner’s own objects d’art adorned the public areas.

Guests entered through a large Romanesque stone arch and great Spanish doors with images at the top of Queen Isabella of Spain’s shield on one side and King Ferdinand’s on the other. From there, they passed into a 1,600-square-foot lobby that was two stories high.

Atop “snow white plaster walls,” as one newspaper described it, was a balcony around the second floor. 

A lantern hung in the middle under ceilings with hand-carved beams as guests stepped onto the red-tile floor.

The hotel’s lounge projected over the water with stained glass windows. The arches of the actual cloisters (covered open-air walkways) overlooked the lake. 

The Cloister’s cathedral dining room has an ornate ceiling and columns that were originally overlaid with gold leaf. When the hotel was built, the $1 million price tag earned it the moniker ‘the most expensive hotel ever built.’ Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The dining hall featured 13th century loggia beams resting on giant columns, which were 35 feet tall and inspired by a 15th century hospital in Catalonia. Spanish hand basins lined the walls.

Each guest room was furnished differently. A number had private elevators. A West Palm Beach Mizner furniture factory contributed 220 beds, 120 telephone stands, 100 dressing tables, 110 mirrors, 100 writing tables, 210 three-drawer dressing tables and 350 dining room chairs with two antique cupboards.

The dream unravels
It was a beautiful beginning. But soon after, Mizner’s vision began to unravel.

Already, in the fall before the inn opened, Florida’s land boom was beginning to bust. 

Tourists came to visit in the off-season but found few restaurants open and markets without much that was fresh.

Six months after the inn opened, the Hurricane of 1926 sealed its fate. 

Hariette Gates and Mary Driscoll at the resort in 1927. Photo provided by Boca Raton Historical Society

In spring 1927, the Mizner Development Corp. went under bankruptcy protection. Later that year, one of its original investors, wealthy utility company owner Clarence Geist, paid $71,500 and assumed $7 million in debt for the inn, oceanfront property, homes and administration buildings.

After $8 million in renovations and 300 more rooms, the Cloister Inn reopened in 1930 as the Boca Raton Club. In 1944 real estate and theater entrepreneur J. Myer Schine bought the club for $3 million and opened it as the Boca Raton Hotel and Club.
In 1988 the property became known as the Boca Raton Resort & Club. MSD Partners acquired the property in 2019 and dubbed it The Boca Raton.

One day short of seven years after the opening of his exclusive hotel, Addison Mizner died in his apartment on Via Mizner in Palm Beach, of a heart attack. It was 1933, during the Great Depression, and he was penniless. 

Forty-five years after Mizner’s crown jewel opened, Walt Disney’s dream came to life in Orlando in 1971. Part of his genius was putting the resort in Central Florida where the heat wasn’t as bad as in South Florida and mosquitoes were fewer.

Walt Disney World’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa hosted Mizner’s Lounge from the hotel’s opening in 1988 until 2019, when the resort changed it to a Beauty and the Beast theme. 

A loggerhead sea turtle hatchling struggles to make its way over a thick bed of sargassum in late July at Red Reef Park in Boca Raton. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jan Norris

Poor babies! Turtles, that is. 

Hatchlings are crawling out from a record number of nests this year, but they’re having a tough summer trying to navigate the growing piles of sargassum at the shoreline to reach the ocean. 

The mounds of brown seaweed, stretching for miles along the coast, affect beach visitors, too. 

The sun-baked, decaying seaweed — and the debris and organisms that tumble in with it — stink.

The noxious smell is from a toxic hydrogen-sulfide gas the rotting weed gives off that with lengthy exposure can cause headaches, watery eyes and nausea. 

“I’ve never seen it like this,” said Ryan Lillicotch. “Do they clean it up?”

He and his wife, Argentina, visiting from Washington, D.C., were walking along Delray Beach with nephews and nieces who had just arrived from Argentina.

Dozens of feet wide and more than 7 feet deep on the south side of the Boynton Inlet, the rotting sargassum gave off an odor so intense it followed a Coastal Star photographer back to his car.

The sargassum ran the length of the curving shore in an unbroken line, with more washing up as the tide pushed in. 

Neat piles of freshly raked seaweed were stacked at the vegetation line high on the dunes in intervals.

“What do they do with all this?” Argentina Lillicotch asked. “Could they use it to spread around elsewhere as organic matter?”

The seaweed may be tilled into the sand as a soil enrichment for dune plants, but procedures for preparing it for use elsewhere are impractical.

“I guess it’s food for the fishes,” Ryan Lillicotch said, “but it’s a mess for the people.”

Sargassum is a natural occurrence in the Atlantic Ocean that has its greatest onshore impact during the spring and summer. The seaweed, floating in the ocean, is deposited on Florida beaches by wind and currents as it travels up the Gulf Stream.

“We get heavy sargassum every summer,” said Jennifer Cirillo, director of Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation. 

The problem is exacerbated because the onslaught of seaweed coincides with turtle nesting season.

The sea algae tends to accumulate most heavily in the county on the beaches south of the town of Palm Beach, she said.

Lines of the brown, tangled weed are visible from the air up and down the coastline as well as in the water, where the healthy grass appears as yellow mats, floating in miles-long patches throughout the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean.

While found all along both Florida’s coasts, it worsens along the southern tip, with the Keys particularly hard-hit this time of year.

Sargassum’s presence is complex: It’s beneficial for providing food sources and hiding places for small fish, crustaceans and sea turtle hatchlings, who float along with it in the water to the Sargasso Sea or Azores. When it washes ashore, it can aid beach renourishment efforts and dune stabilization.

But piling up as it has this summer, it impedes hatchlings heading out into the ocean, and deters visitors looking to enjoy the sand and surf. 

Patricia Diaz, a Delray Beach resident, comes to the beach to sunbathe occasionally.

“It’s bad,” she said. “You can’t walk along the beach.”

Diaz says seaweed has always been present in summer, but she doesn’t remember it being this heavy in previous years. 

“It used to be more natural. I don’t know how they’re going to get rid of it.”

While the seaweed has affected tourism numbers, there are only a couple of beaches that show fewer visitors than last year at this time, said Cirillo.

“It could be weather, or other factors, too,” she said, though the heavy seaweed, especially in South County, “definitely has had an effect.”

Ocean Inlet Park in Boynton Beach had 93,700 visitors in June, down 2.65% over last year. South Inlet Park in Boca Raton showed a 17.6% drop over last June, with only 18,758 beachgoers.

Palm Beach County has added warning signs at county parks, like at the Boynton Inlet.

Dealing with the mess

The county has a “hands-off” approach to sargassum, because of the benefits to dune retention, and to avoid turtle nest disruption.

There’s an economic reason, too. In years past, the county cleaned beaches regularly, using tractors pulling rakes. But in 2002, Cirillo said, “Money for cleaning was cut from our budget.” The figure was $90,000.

But in early July, the state made the county aware of a reimbursable grant program to help clean beaches.

“They’d be willing to reimburse $100,000 in one season to work with sargassum cleanup. They’re trying to work with us,” Cirillo said.

The South Inlet Park and Ocean Inlet Park county beaches were raked once in June, she said.  

Crews in Delray Beach and Boca Raton are more proactive, raking the seaweed regularly — but even then, it still piles up.

The seaweed “season” doesn’t stop till early fall.

In a mid-July interview, Cirillo said the county is now monitoring Gulfstream Park for seaweed. “There’s quite a bit in the water,” she said.

It gets pushed onto beaches there and because of wind and tide patterns, she said, “it tends to not get washed away or leave in tidal currents.”

It’s usually left alone, or raked only slightly to provide pathways for rescue personnel and beach visitors, with a goal of leaving turtle nests undisturbed.

If “heavy, heavy mats” stay on shore, the county gets a permit to clean the beaches.

The county works with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to rake up and till the seaweed under the sand. There, it stabilizes the sand dunes and nourishes vegetation that helps hold the sand on land. Turtle nests are monitored carefully.

Condo owners and single-family homeowners wanting beaches cleaned in front of their property must pay private concerns to do the work. 

For example, South Palm Beach Mayor Rafael Pineiro said in a Town Council meeting that the condos in town are collaborating with Beachkeeper Inc. to have the beach raked three times a week and blend the weed into the sand, coordinating with wildlife agencies.

Lantana is raking its public beach twice a week, or on an as-needed basis, said Marc Fichtner, chief of Lantana’s Ocean Rescue Division. The Town Council’s decision to rake represents a policy shift. The beach is only 250 yards wide, in front of the Dune Deck Cafe.

Working with the agencies that protect the turtles and other beach wildlife, the town has permits to rake, he said.

A beachgoer lounges among turtle nests at Red Reef Park. The nest numbers by July had set records for Boca Raton beaches. 

Big year for nesting

So far, there’s been no effect on the turtle nests from either the tilling or the seaweed mounds on the beaches, according to Dave Anderson, the sea turtle conservation coordinator at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton. 

“The mother turtles are 300 pounds or more. They have no trouble plowing through it. They may be deterred, and turn around and come back later.

“But what we see is a normal pattern.”

This is his 20th season monitoring turtle nesting in a 5-mile area north and south of the Boca Raton Inlet.

It’s a banner year for nesting in the county overall, he said.

“Leatherbacks broke our all-time high of 43,” Anderson said of the Boca Raton count.

Before the end of July, loggerhead nests also set a record on city beaches. The previous record, 1,075 nests, was broken July 25 when this year’s count reached 1,077.

From nest to ocean

While there’s no count of how many baby turtles make it from the nest to the ocean, Anderson said his staff works on percentages and estimates the success rate.

“We take an inventory of eggs in the nest and the percentage that hatch,” he said.

The sargassum mounds do work against the tiny turtles — especially those that hatch in the daytime.

“It’s always been a concern for a lot of the beach patrols and those who are going out in the morning and seeing hatchlings tangled in the sargassum,” said Dr. Sarah Milton, chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida Atlantic University.

In 2013, her department researchers performed an experiment to test the hatchlings’ ability to climb over a mound of seaweed and get to the ocean.

Not surprisingly, the babies crawled more slowly up the seaweed piles. While they didn’t show distress at the end of the climbs, the seaweed slowed them significantly.

The researchers found in a previous study that sargassum had to be 30 centimeters high — about 1 foot — before hatchlings were altogether deterred.

But getting tangled in the mounds created another problem: The hatchlings were easy pickings for opportunistic predators such as crows — especially in the daytime — despite the camouflage.

“Most do hatch at night, but if they’re stuck in it and can’t get across, then they can die from heat and dehydration, or get picked off by predators,” Milton said.

A crow scurries away with a sea turtle hatchling at Red Reef Park.

Crows and shorebirds are attracted to the seaweed because of other creatures in it.

While it appears more crows are at the beach now, Milton said, “I hadn’t heard that. But the seaweed brings crabs and dead fish and other food with it. It’s like putting in a bird feeder. It doesn’t mean there are more birds — it just means they’ve found a food source.”

Anderson says his turtle patrol volunteers shoo the birds when possible. “But crows are smart. They’ll fly off with a hatchling, bury it near the shoreline and keep hunting.”

A seagull takes to the air with a hatchling, also at Red Reef Park. 

People to the rescue

Beachgoers finding hatchlings stuck in the weeds in the daytime are encouraged to take them to Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.

A cooler on the front porch has a poster instructing rescuers how to leave the turtles inside.

“We encourage people to utilize it if they find hatchlings in trouble,” Anderson said. It’s not illegal to rescue hatchlings, especially those picked at by crows, or tangled in the weeds.

“Most likely, it’s daytime and the babies are exhausted. They’ve been out all night, and are too exhausted to make that swim. They have a better chance once we get our hands on them,” he said.

“We evaluate them — rinse them off, examine them and deem them healthy enough to be released at night, or we take them to the rehab center at the Palm Beach Zoo.”

Sea Turtle Specialists, a newly established rehabilitation center at the zoo, is run by Whitney Crowder, former sea turtle rehab director at Gumbo Limbo.

Hatchlings crawling for their lives already have survived nest attacks from predatory animals — foxes, raccoons and coyotes digging up nests to eat eggs.

At night, the yellow-crowned night herons pick them off once hatched.

But with more people monitoring the turtles, and increased awareness that includes restrictions on light pollution, the turtles have a better chance each year, Anderson said.

“Everything’s beachy on our end.”

The seaweed-turtle-human situation isn’t really a problem for beach lover Larina Maldonado, either.

A Delray Beach resident, she comes to the beach often.

She’s sitting on the sand on a July morning, “to get some peace; clear my head.”

To her, the seaweed is just part of nature. “It really doesn’t bother me. I’m a big respecter of habitat. I’m just visiting — this is someone else’s home.” 

Robert Haughn contributed to this story.

The past year has been a blur. It’s not that time flew by too quickly. Cataracts were the culprits.

It was like someone dropped a cheesecloth shade over my eyeballs. Extremely annoying. Very difficult to see. Driving became impossible. I walked around the grocery store unable to make out labels or prices. 

I covered Lantana meetings and although I was seated only a few rows from the front, I was unable to discern the expressions on council members’ faces. If they were rolling their eyes (and I’m not saying they were), I wouldn’t have known.

I know I spent too much time at the computer, but doing that became almost painful and I was sitting way too close to the screen. I came close to giving up writing and editing, a career I have enjoyed for decades.

I spent a few months near my family in Wisconsin and, while I might not have been able to see the worry on their faces, their anguish was audible. “Aunt Mary,” my nephew said, “why are you always looking down?” 

My eyes felt more comfortable when they were closed, so, I often looked down or closed my eyes. 

Adding to my misery, I suddenly found a new nemesis: atrial fibrillation, a common heart rhythm disorder where chaotic electrical signals cause the upper chambers of the heart to beat rapidly and uncoordinatedly. 

I hadn’t heard of A-fib before, but fortunately for me one of my nieces is a cardiac nurse practitioner with decades of experience and connections in the medical community. She may have saved me from a stroke. 

She took me to the ER because my heart was racing faster than stock cars at the Daytona 500. I was so exhausted, I couldn’t walk 20 feet without wanting to stop and rest.

When it comes to health issues, I’ve lived a charmed life. I don’t get sick and I haven’t had to take a prescription drug until I was hit with this weird combination of cataracts and A-fib. So, this mess hit me hard. 

People kept saying this was all part of growing old. They told me that “old age ain’t no place for sissies,” as Bette Davis famously said. To which I replied: “Hello, my name is Mary, and I am a sissy!”

The A-fib resulted in a few hospital stays and postponed my return to Florida, which meant I missed a doctor’s appointment, delaying cataract surgery for several months. I ended up having to find a new ophthalmologist and found a great one in Boynton Beach. My eyes were still too dry and again surgery had to be delayed. It took several doctor visits, hot compresses, a couple of amniotic patches and a bucketload of drops to get my eyes ready for surgery.

But this story has a happy ending. In June my cataracts were removed, and new lenses were placed on my peepers. I’m happy to report that I can see again! I can drive again. I can also see all the wrinkles on my face and all the dust on my dashboard. 

I’m so grateful every single day. I am thankful for my doctor, my supportive family, friends and colleagues who drove me to and from appointments, listened to me whine and kept me in their prayers. It all helped. Because now, my vision has been restored! 

Oh, and my ticker is behaving, as well. My heart is back in rhythm and so am I. 

This has been a transformational year. With my new 20-20 vision, I look forward to seeing what the future has in store for all of us. Eye surgeons are my heroes. Cardiologists, too.

And I will never — cross my newly ablated heart — take my vision or my normal resting pulse for granted. 

— Mary Thurwachter, Managing Editor

Emanuel Jackson Jr. (center), founder of the EJS Project, is surrounded by summer camp students. He launched the youth development nonprofit in 2014 to provide teens with academic support, mental health counseling and career training, including paid internships. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

In the midst of tough times, Emanuel Jackson Jr. found his life’s mission. 

Dealing with medical issues, having just lost a beloved parent and having a newborn daughter weighed heavy on Jackson, who was trying to get by on just $729 a month in disability payments. 

Still, Jackson moved forward with his dream of creating a nonprofit organization that empowered teens in ways that went beyond traditional mentoring programs. 

“To me, it felt like a calling,” said Jackson, who named his program the EJS Project, after his late father and his guiding light, Emanuel Jackson Sr. 

Jackson’s vision led to the creation in 2014 of a south Palm Beach County organization that has served thousands of teens and that is now receiving national recognition as a vital youth engagement program.

That recognition increased in July when Jackson was in Denver to be presented with the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Award at the National Education Association’s Human and Civil Rights Awards Dinner. 

It is a big deal.

In recognizing Jackson, the organization of educators highlighted the broad scope of his program and its impact not just on the teens but on the community. 

“For over a decade Jackson’s EJS Project has provided 5,000 Palm Beach County teens with academic tutoring, workshops that provide mental health support, and career prep that includes paid internships,” according to the announcement of the award on the NEA website. “EJS not only gives young people a sense of worth, but also strategies for making a positive impact on the future of those around them.”

The dinner was part of the organization’s annual massive NEA Representative Assembly, which draws about 6,000 to 7,000 delegates from across the country.

“I felt like I met every one of them,” said Jackson, who knew he was receiving the award but was surprised by how many people attended the ceremony. 

Those who are familiar with Jackson and with the EJS Project are not surprised at all by the recognition he and the program are getting. 

Jackson will tell you that there are several ways the organization gives kids a leg up — from helping them improve their grades to helping them prepare for college or whatever their futures hold. 

Perhaps the result he is most proud of is helping the teens boost their confidence so they can achieve more than they might think they can. 

“Show kids you love them, show kids you care and challenge them, and the result will be a kid who feels they’re capable of achieving their dreams and showing up as the best version of themselves moving forward,” he said. 

A key ingredient to that, says Jackson, who grew up in Delray Beach, is providing a safe space for the teens where they can talk openly among themselves and always feel comfortable. 

“Every day when we pick kids up from school, they get a hug and are asked how their day was,” he said. “We often respond to what might be lacking because they don’t always know what they’re missing but we do.”

Jackson initially meets with teens and their parents before they enter the program, which is capped at about 100 enrolled teens at a time. 

Teens are asked what they hope to achieve and goals are set. The kids are then held accountable for making sure they follow through on their efforts to achieve those goals. They could be asked to leave the program if they aren’t actively taking steps to meet their goals.

“By the time our kids get to college, they’re more focused,” Jackson said.

Fairness and consistency are the secret formula to working with the teens, he said. 

While Jackson is proud of the EJS achievements, he is always looking forward to making a greater impact and asking what more can be done for the kids and the program. 

He’s also hoping to expand to meet demand. 

“When parents and teachers see the maturity and confidence boost of our students, they want other kids to benefit,” he said.  

The EJS Foundation depends on the community so it can provide services to teens and accepts donations from individuals and foundations. It also depends on fundraising events. 

Site visits — EJS is currently housed at 3300 S. Seacrest Blvd., Boynton Beach — are always encouraged and welcome.

To learn more, visit ejsproject.org. 

NOMINATE SOMEONE TO BE A COASTAL STAR 

Send a note to news@thecoastalstar.com or call 561-337-1553.

By Patrick Sherry

Lantana officials say their proposed fiscal budget is business as usual, with the approval for the fifth consecutive year of a maximum tax rate of $3.75 for every $1,000 of taxable value.  

The Lantana Town Council unanimously approved the tentative property tax rate at its budget workshop on July 13. Staff developed the town’s proposed total $32.4 million budget using the council’s priorities of maintaining infrastructure, continuing beautification projects, responsible development, attracting and retaining valuable employees, continuing to attract businesses along Ocean Avenue, promoting community engagement, supporting the library, resuming dune restoration and enhancing public safety. 

“These are the same priorities we’ve been using for the last really several years, and the reason why we use them is because, for the most part, they really work well,” Town Manager Brian Raducci said. “They’re broad enough that they can be adjusted, and they’re all-encompassing.”

The town’s general fund revenues are projected to be about $19.1 million, and increasing property values are expected to generate an additional $495,000 without a rise in the property tax rate. The general fund covers the cost of the town’s day-to-day operations, supported by property tax revenues. 

Staff proposed $551,000 in capital spending in the general fund that will go toward town improvements, fund the town library and pay for police equipment. Also included in the proposed budget is a 3.3% cost-of-living adjustment for employees and a merit increase of up to 4%. 

“We try to propose a budget that makes sense that we can support without overburdening and overtaxing the residents,” Raducci said. 

The council will set the town’s solid waste assessment in August and will vote to adopt the final budget and tax rate in September. 

Mayor praised for lobbying of Tallahassee — Florida League of Cities President Holly Smith of Sanibel presented Lantana Mayor Karen Lythgoe with the Home Rule Hero Award during a meeting of the Palm Beach County League of Cities in Palm Beach Gardens on July 22. 

The award is given to local leaders who go above and beyond to protect the rights of cities and towns to make their own decisions. During the 2026 legislative session, Lythgoe worked to ensure Lantana’s voice was heard in Tallahassee, advocating against bills that would have impacted local zoning, business taxes and community autonomy. 

— Mary Thurwachter

Ocean Ridge landowners will pay $5.40 for every $1,000 of taxable property value to fund next year’s proposed $11 million town operating budget, according to a preliminary tax rate approved July 8 by town commissioners.

The preliminary tax rate, which is the same rate the town has charged since 2023, is set with the idea that it can be reduced during budget hearings in September but not increased, said Town Manager Michelle Heiser.

While the tax rate would remain unchanged, the town will collect about $1 million more in property taxes — a roughly 6% increase — during the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. To collect the same amount of money it did this year, except for taxes from new construction, the town could impose a reduced tax rate of $5.08 for every $1,000 of taxable value.

In addition to daily operating expenses, the town plans to spend $4.6 million on construction projects.

The proposed tax rate would find the owner of a house, with a taxable value of $1 million, paying $5,400 for town services next year. If the town held steady on spending, that homeowner would pay $5,080, a savings of $320.

That doesn’t include the extra money landowners will pay because of property value increases. The assessed value of homesteaded property can only increase by a maximum 3% a year, according to state law. However, the assessed value of  commercial property and second homes can increase by as much as 10% annually.

The first of two budget hearings, to give town residents a chance to comment on the proposed budget, will be held Sept. 14.

— Jane Musgrave

Ocean Ridge police officers, family and officials celebrate after several of the officers were honored for their professional achievements. FRONT (l-r): Town Manager Michelle Heiser, Sgt. Jimmy Pilon, Officer Matthew Powers, Officer Mario Galluscio with his wife, Christine, Officer William Ranta with his wife, Lauren, mother, Suzanne, and children, Mia and Billy Jr., Chief Scott McClure, Officer Debra Boyle with therapy K-9 Dash, and Officer Aaron Choban. BACK ROW (l-r): Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy, Mayor Geoff Pugh, Vice Mayor Steve Coz and Commissioner Ainar Aijala Jr. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Ocean Ridge Police Sgt. Jimmy Pilon on July 8 was honored by town commissioners for the second time in a year for police work that helped solve crimes in other communities.

In May, he stopped a car in the 6800 block of North Ocean Boulevard that had a defective headlamp. 

After smelling marijuana, he searched the car and found a loaded Glock 29 semiautomatic pistol and ammunition. Tests showed the gun was linked to shootings in Lake Worth Beach, West Palm Beach, Miami Gardens and Boynton Beach, where a young woman was shot in the head. 

In March 2025, a similar traffic stop led to the arrest of a juvenile who was involved in shootings in Boynton and Delray Beach.

 “We’re going to start billing other jurisdictions for all the crimes you’re solving in all these other towns,” joked Police Chief Scott McClure.

In addition to Pilon, Officer Matthew Powers was honored for receiving the Distinguished Service Award for Enforcement from the Safety Council of Palm Beach County in June. 

In a year, Powers conducted 1,128 traffic stops, issued 829 traffic citations, 655 written warnings, and made 17 arrests for traffic-related offenses. 

Two other officers — William Ranta and Mario Galluscio — were honored for saving an elderly man’s life in April by administering a department-issued automated external defibrillator. 

— Jane Musgrave

Lanette Bosch Gustafson, a 20-year Ocean Ridge resident who serves as an alternate on the town’s Planning and Zoning Board, has been appointed to a seat on the Town Commission.

Gustafson replaces two-term Commissioner David Hutchins, who died in May at age 78. Nominated by Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy, Gustafson was unanimously selected by town commissioners at their meeting on July 8.  She is to be sworn in in August and will serve until March 2027.

A commercial real estate capital markets adviser, Gustafson acknowledged she hasn’t been active in town affairs because of work demands.

“The P&Z board kind of prepared me for town service,” she said before commissioners voted on her nomination. “I think I’ll do a good job.”

While Vice Mayor Steve Coz thanked others for submitting applications, the town clerk said none were formally filed. “The vacancy was filled by suggestions of the commissioners themselves,” the clerk wrote in response to a public records request.

Cassidy said Gustafson will be a welcome addition. “She’s smart and thoughtful,” Cassidy said. “I think she’ll bring refreshing new ideas to the commission.”

— Jane Musgrave

By Rich Pollack

Among growing concerns about the homeless, especially in the downtown area, Boca Raton City Manager Mark Sohaney has introduced a multi-pronged effort that includes stepped-up enforcement of vagrancy laws and a coordinated approach to connecting those in need with available services.

Unveiled during a July 24 City Council workshop meeting, Sohaney’s proposal includes adding four police officers in the downtown community redevelopment area and hiring a community resource coordinator who will serve as the linchpin in overseeing homeless outreach efforts.

Sohaney also highlighted existing efforts on the law enforcement side of the approach, including continued implementation of a trespass ordinance and transitioning park rangers from the parks department to the Police Department.

Outreach initiatives under the proposal include keeping two community outreach police officers, continuing coordination with nonprofit service providers and county homeless outreach staff, creating a Quality of Life Working Group made up of community leaders, and establishing a quarterly homelessness and quality-of-life dashboard to track and report progress.

“No single policy, ordinance or program will eliminate homelessness,” Sohaney wrote in a memorandum to council members. “However, by combining public space management, outreach, service coordination, accountability and regional collaboration, the city can continue making meaningful progress while preserving the quality of life that residents, businesses and visitors expect.”

Under the proposed plan, Sohaney asked the City Council to approve funding for the additional downtown police officers — two for traffic enforcement and two as designated homeless liaisons — bringing the total number of downtown officers to eight.

The new officers will cost the city $280,000 per officer while the community service coordinator will cost between $110,000 and $145,000.

Following the presentation from Sohaney and Acting Police Chief Seth Dubinsky, council members voiced support for the plan with the consensus to move forward as soon as possible.

“These are sensible ways to address the issue,” Mayor Andy Thomson said. “The Quality of Life Working Group I think is a great idea. The sooner we can get that up and running, the better.”

Thomson and other council members also voiced their support for the community resource coordinator position.

The city manager envisions that staff member to lead the homeless outreach effort citywide and serve as the city’s primary point of coordination.

The coordinator will also play a key role in developing partnerships with the Palm Beach County Homeless Outreach Team and with nonprofits that provide access to transitional housing, shelter placement, case management and behavioral health.

Following the success of community-based programs in both Delray Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Sohaney sees the Quality of Life Working Group as a tool to improve communication and coordination among various segments of the community, while identifying early concerns.

The group of residents, business leaders, law enforcement officers and other city staff will hold ongoing forums focused on key issues.

In his memo, the city manager identified seven outcomes he said would be used to measure the effort’s effectiveness.

“Staff believe success should be measured not only by law enforcement activity but also by meaningful improvements in public space conditions and service outcomes,” he wrote.

The outcomes are:

• Reduction in recurring quality-of-life complaints;
• Increased compliance with city ordinances and trespass warnings;
• Increased acceptance of available services and referrals;
• Reduction in repeat contacts involving the same individuals;
• Improved perceptions of safety and accessibility in parks, downtown areas and other public spaces;
• Enhanced coordination among city departments, service providers, law enforcement agencies and regional partners;
• Measurable progress toward housing placements, treatment engagements or other long-term service outcomes where data is available.

“While homelessness remains a complex regional challenge, Boca Raton can continue taking a proactive, balanced and measurable approach that protects public spaces, supports residents and businesses, connects individuals to services whenever possible and ensures enforcement remains fair, lawful and consistent,” Sohaney wrote.

Flood relief plans move forward — Four years in the making, work to reduce chronic high-tide flooding on Harbour Drive North in Ocean Ridge will soon be underway.

Town commissioners on July 8 unanimously agreed to award a nearly $500,000 contract to Heavy Civil construction company. With four other companies offering to do the work for $642,000 to more than $1 million, the Boca Raton company was the clear low bidder. Drainage improvements are to begin in several months and are expected to take six months to complete.

— Jane Musgrave

The sand transfer plant located on the north side of the Boynton Inlet pumps a slurry of sand and seawater through a pipe under the bridge, and onto the beach south (left) of the inlet. Photo provided by Google Maps

By Jane Musgrave

After years of claiming Palm Beach County is robbing sand from its beaches, Manalapan will get another chance to persuade a judge to stop the steal.

A Florida administrative law judge will hold a five-day hearing beginning Aug. 24 to decide whether the county, with permission from Florida environmental regulators, is properly operating a sand transfer plant that moves sand across the Boynton Beach Inlet at the southern border of the town.

At a meeting on July 14, Town Manager Eric Marmer encouraged residents to write letters and attend the hearing at the South Florida Water Management District offices in West Palm Beach.

“We need a grassroots effort,” he said of the importance of residents taking action to show how important the issue is to the town.

He also encouraged residents to contact County Commissioner Marci Woodward to enlist her support. When Marmer reached out to the town’s district commissioner, he said Woodward declined to talk to him, saying that county attorneys told her she couldn’t address his concerns because of the ongoing litigation.

After years of complaining about the operations of the plant, the town in January filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Administrative Hearings. 

In its 18-page petition, the town is asking Administrative Law Judge Francine Ffolkes to throw out a 10-year permit extension the county received in 2025 that allows it to increase the amount of sand that is pumped from Manalapan across the inlet to Ocean Ridge and beyond.

Taking more sand from the north side of the inlet will accelerate the damage that has already been done to the town’s fragile coastline, wrote attorney John Fumero, who was hired to represent the town. 

“The increased erosion will diminish the size and quality of Manalapan’s beaches thereby injuring the environment and the natural resources of the state, reducing turtle habitat, (and) diminishing protection offered by the beaches to upland development,” he wrote. 

Manalapan residents will be hurt, he said. The erosion will reduce their “enjoyment of its beaches by degrading the beaches and increasing the need for Manalapan to renourish its beaches,” concluded Fumero, former general counsel for the water management district. 

The extension should have been treated as a major modification by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, he said. That would have spurred an extensive review and given the town the chance to comment on its potential impact. Instead, it was approved as a minor change. Manalapan was given no chance to object, he wrote.

Both the county and the state agency vehemently disagree with the town’s claims. 

A July 10 settlement meeting failed to resolve the dispute, setting the stage for the August hearing.

This isn’t the first time the county and the town have battled over the sand transfer plant since it was built in 1937 — six years after the town was founded. It is well documented that residents in the 1930s and 1940s objected to the plant, Marmer said.

Previous legal challenges the town has filed to modify the operations of the plant have failed. Marmer feels confident that this time the town is on firm legal ground. 

“I think we’ll win the admin-istrative hearing,” he said. 

But Ocean Ridge Mayor Geoff Pugh, whose town’s beaches to the south of the inlet are the first to receive the sand being transferred across it, says not only would Manalapan’s request hurt Ocean Ridge beaches — it wouldn’t help Manalapan’s, either.

“For almost 90 years now, the thing has worked as it’s supposed to work,” Pugh said.

“The sand constantly moves north to south,” piling up at the inlet jetty, he said. 

Any sand transfer reduction would add to the beachfront immediately north of the jetty, but wouldn’t add any sand to the beaches in Manalapan farther to the north, he said. It’s not pulling sand from those beaches either, he said; the sand movement there is all due to Mother Nature.

If the sand is left to pile up at the inlet’s jetty, it wouldn’t just deprive sand to the beaches to the south, but the sand accumulating would find its way into the inlet itself, creating problems for boaters navigating the inlet, Pugh said.  

Larry Barszewski contributed to this story.

If You Go

What: Five-day hearing before administrative law judge begins 9:30 a.m. Aug. 24. 

Where: South Florida Water Management District office, 3301 Gun Club Road, West Palm Beach. 

People can also watch on Zoom. The meeting ID is 890 4077 2846. 

Those who want to watch on their cell phones can call 929-436-2866. 

By Jane Musgrave

Now that Manalapan has the deed for the land for its new Town Hall, it’s turning its attention to figuring out how to pay for the complex.

One likely source of money is donations from Manalapan residents. 

Town Commissioner David Knobel said many of his neighbors want to contribute to the estimated $20 million project so the town doesn’t have to go into debt to build its new digs on the site of a former bank in Plaza del Mar.

A reasonable fund-raising goal? Ten million dollars, Knobel suggested.

The town has already secured an estimated $8 million from Palm Beach County Fire Rescue to help pay for the fire station that will be part of its new administrative complex. Town Manager Eric Marmer estimated the sale of the half-acre site of the existing Town Hall, which likely would be torn down for residential development, would bring in $4 million to $6 million.

He also said that a proposed luxury condominium development near the shopping plaza on South Ocean Boulevard could generate sufficient taxes to pay for the new complex. However, he cautioned, the project isn’t a sure thing.

Also, Knobel said, the $20 million estimate for the new administrative complex doesn’t cover all of the expenses. “It’s not only the building, but we have to furnish it,” he said.

Marmer said he would develop brochures and work with Knobel on the fund-raising campaign.

The town in June paid an initial $2.85 million for the 1-acre site of the former bank that is owned by Salute Realty LLC, of Babylon, New York. The payment came after Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Darren Shull ruled that the town could seize the property by eminent domain. 

Negotiations for a final sale price are continuing. If no agreement is reached, a jury could be asked to determine how much more the town should pay for the land. 

The map shows the on-demand shuttle’s service area. Red is the downtown area, blue is the regular coverage area and green is the expanded area (through Sept. 30).

Boca Raton has expanded the BocaConnect service area for the summer.

Through Sept. 30, riders will be able to take the on-demand shuttle to travel to or from downtown and the barrier island south of the Boca Raton Inlet.

The city launched the EV shuttle service operated by Circuit Transit in 2024. It expanded in 2025 to include the barrier island from the inlet to just north of the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, but not to the barrier island south of the inlet. That changes through Sept. 30.

Rides can be booked on the Circuit app. All trips must begin or end within the downtown area.

There is no charge for trips that both begin and end at downtown locations. Trips that begin or end in the downtown area but go outside that area to other covered parts of the city cost $2, with each additional passenger paying $1, up to a maximum one-way trip of $5.

Hours of service are, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday; 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday; and 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday.

— Mary Hladky

Even though Manalapan plans to spend 26% less on day-to-day costs next year, residents will pay the same property tax rate for town operations, according to preliminary budget figures.

The Town Commission on July 14 set a preliminary tax rate of $3.00 for every $1,000 of taxable value to pay for its proposed $9.7 million operating budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

It marks the fifth year in a row the tax rate has stayed the same. But, because property values have increased, most town residents will see a jump in their tax bills.

The owner of a home valued at $3.7 million after a $50,000 homestead exemption paid $11,100 for town services last year. An expected 3% property value increase, the most allowed by Florida law, would mean the homeowner would pay about $330 more for town services this year.

Property values for commercial property and second homes can increase up to 10% annually, according to state law. Overall, property values in Manalapan went up 7%, reaching $2.6 billion, according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office.

Increased property tax revenues will help make up for a projected $1 million drop in building permit fees, according to town officials. Various planned construction projects were postponed, they said.

The overall operating budget will drop roughly $3.3 million to $9.7 million. Most of the decrease is because the town set aside $2.9 million this year to buy a 1-acre former bank site in Plaza del Mar that will be used for a new Town Hall.

The commission will finalize its spending plan during hearings on Sept. 8 and 22.

— Jane Musgrave

By Jane Musgrave

Palm Beach County residents will have to get annual passes to park for free at 12 county parks, including ones in Gulf Stream, Ocean Ridge and Boynton Beach.

The passes will allow county residents to avoid a $4-an-hour parking fee that will be collected beginning Oct. 1.

While the details are still being worked out, County Administrator Joe Abruzzo said the passes will be easy to get. But, he said, without them county residents will have to pay to park or risk getting tickets.

Parks in the southern part of the county where passes will be needed are: Ocean Inlet Park in Boynton Beach, Ocean Ridge Hammock Park in Ocean Ridge and Gulfstream Park in the County Pocket. 

The passes won’t be good at the county’s South Inlet Park in Boca Raton and R.G. Kreusler Park near Lake Worth Beach, which both have had parking fees in place for decades.

The annual parking passes were approved after county residents flooded Commissioner Maria Marino with emails, blasting the commission’s plans to make them pay to go to the beach.

Marino was the target of their ire because she pushed for the parking fee. While other commissioners said the fees were unfair to cash-strapped county residents, they bowed to her wishes because seven of the 12 beachfront parks are in her north county district.

On July 14, Marino reversed course, saying the 2,000 emails she received convinced her that county residents should continue to enjoy county beachfront parks for free.

“Our residents have spoken,” Marino said, urging the commission not to charge county residents to park.  

The commission had suggested giving county residents a 20% discount, which would have shaved 80 cents off the hourly rate. But, Marino conceded, that concession wasn’t enough.

The parking fee was first proposed to help the commission balance its proposed $2.2 billion spending plan. If all beachgoers were charged $4 an hour, it would have generated $10 million annually. After the commission agreed to give county residents a discount, that amount dropped to $7 million.

By only charging out-of-county residents, the county will pocket about $3 million, Abruzzo said. He said he would take $4 million out of the county’s emergency fund to make up the shortfall.

The county years ago imposed parking fees at South Inlet Park in Boca Raton and R.G. Kreusler Park, which is adjacent to Lake Worth Beach Park.

Boca and Lake Worth Beach officials demanded it. They worried that revenues at their nearby parks would plummet if beachgoers could park at the county parks for free. 

By Patrick Sherry   

Owners of a Pelican Lane home on Hypoluxo Island say that worsening flooding leaves them without road access. They are asking Lantana officials to allow them to keep an access road to give them another route to South Atlantic Drive.

Harry Ehrlich and Heather Brookman, owners of 701 Pelican Lane, halted work on the project after recently receiving a stop-work order from the town. They already built a small access road from their driveway across the nearby town-owned right-of-way adjacent to their property, creating an emergency route during floods. 

At the Town Council’s July 27 meeting, Ehrlich apologized for not getting a permit from the town for the project, but he wanted to work with staff to find some way they could get a permanent easement, license, or variance to keep the access road.

He is still awaiting a decision from the town and is working with town staff to find a solution to the problem. 

When the area floods, the water can block the only route to and from their home. “We had the best of intentions: create safe access, help reduce flooding on Pelican Lane for the benefit of all, update tired landscaping and install a new sprinkler system,” Ehrlich said. 

According to documents submitted to the town, former owner Bob Fritts privately maintained the right-of-way for 40 years. Neighbors have submitted 12 letters in support of the project. 

However, other neighbors were worried about losing more green space on Hypoluxo Island. 

“We’re dealing with a reduction, dwindling of canopies, vegetation, trees and natural open space that helps with drainage,” nearby resident George Huguely said. 

By Rich Pollack

Highland Beach residents as well as anyone passing through town on State Road A1A are likely to see some additional safety improvements soon thanks in large part to an appropriation of $375,000 from the state.

Construction is expected to start this month on the town’s Pedestrian Safety Traffic Improvement Project, which includes major upgrades to the 3-mile walking path on the west side of A1A as well as the installation of in-ground lighting on eight pedestrian crosswalks.

The walking path project will include milling, regrading and repaving the shared use walkway at a cost of $263,260. The town will use $180,420 of state money for the project and supplement it with $82,840 of budgeted town funds.

The improvements to the widely used walking path are much needed, according to Town Commissioner Judith Goldberg.

“There’s a lot of activity and it will now be safer for everyone,” she said.

Part of the problem with the path as it is now, Goldberg said, is that there are a lot of uneven spots that can make it easy for someone to fall.

She knows firsthand about the fall risk, having taken a tumble not too long ago on the uneven surface.

“I was very shaken up,” she said, adding that although she wasn’t seriously hurt, she avoided walking on the path for some time.

The commissioner said that town leaders had hoped that improvements to the walking path would have been made by the state Department of Transportation during a two-year A1A resurfacing project.

When that didn’t happen, the town sought the help of state Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, a Republican who Goldberg said was instrumental in helping get legislative approval for the two projects and helping them avoid the veto of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Pedestrian crosswalk safety has long been a priority for the town, and the addition of embedded pedestrian-activated lights will enhance the effort that has already included flashing beacons — and orange flags that walkers can carry — to improve visibility.

The new embedded solar lights will come with a price tag of $283,920, with $194,580 coming from the state appropriation and the remainder coming from the town.

“The lights will certainly enhance the safety and beauty of our town,” Goldberg said. “Drivers won’t be able to miss them.”

The Highland Beach appropriations were co-sponsored in the state senate by Sen. Lori Berman, a Democrat who also co-sponsored a successful $1 million appropriation request for improvement to the intersection of Swinton and Atlantic avenues in Delray Beach and $375,000 in funding for water line improvements in the Riviera community in Boca Raton.