Restaurant owner says it will move across Ocean Avenue into Paloma Mexican Restaurant space
Staff and customers flank Hurricane Alley owner Kim Kelly (center). The restaurant is likely to be shut at least until spring as it awaits construction of a new home. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Update: On Sept. 3 Hurricane Alley — which must close at its current location by the end of September — announced that it would not be moving into The Pierce project to be built in downtown Boynton Beach as has been planned for close to five years. Instead, it will be moving across the street to the south side of Ocean Avenue and take over the existing Paloma Mexican Restaurant site while keeping the Hurricane Alley name.

"The owner of Paloma Restaurant and I came to an agreement where I would take over his existing restaurant and allow our Iconic Hurricane Alley to have a new home," Hurricane Alley owner Kim Kelly said in a Thursday morning Facebook post. "Carlos Alvarez, Owner of Paloma was an angel sent from heaven, and it was the perfect timing for both of us. Between his team and mine, we were able to secure a deal quickly."

In the Facebook post, Kelly called the new location Hurricane Alley's " new forever home" and said she hopes to open at the new location at 510 E. Ocean Ave. around Thanksgiving.

Editor's Note: The below story, which appears in The Coastal Star's September edition, went to press before Kelly's Thursday announcement. 

Hurricane Alley Raw Bar and Restaurant, left, will be moving across East Ocean Avenue to the Paloma Mexican Restaurant site, right, (the terra cotta facade). Photo provided by Google maps

By Jan Norris

Hurricane Alley Raw Bar and Restaurant, a favorite for locals on East Ocean Avenue in Boynton Beach, will be closing Sept. 25 — at least until spring — while developers build it a new home just north of its current space.

The finality of the closing of the restaurant’s home for the past 30 years — though long-expected after the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency approved a mixed-use development for the land in 2021 — still hit owner Kim Kelly hard. She posted on social media on Aug. 25 that she received an email from her landlord, Affiliated Development, giving her 30 days to vacate.

An emotional Kelly was taken aback by “the sudden notice,” as she called it. “They never put it in writing that I’d have to close before they broke ground.”

She said, “It was implied that I’d still be open until they broke ground. I knew I had to move, but they haven’t even broken ground.”

Her current building is to be demolished to make way for The Pierce project, 115 N. Federal Highway, which Affiliated is building. It will be on the west side of Federal, from Ocean Avenue to Boynton Beach Boulevard, extending westward to the Florida East Coast Railway tracks.

A September 2024 phasing plan given to the city shows the building’s demolition preceding project construction.

That construction is expected to take 21 months, but Kelly’s restaurant — which developers have agreed to build first near the tracks on Boynton Beach Boulevard — could move into its new space in the spring, on a temporary partial certificate of occupancy through the city.

The city will do what it can so the restaurant reopens with minimal delays, Deputy City Manager Adam Temple said in an email to The Coastal Star.

“We remain committed to continuing to assist and expedite the construction of The Pierce project to ensure that this longstanding business can open as quickly as possible, with minimal interruptions,” Temple wrote.

Jeff Burns, Affiliated’s CEO, said Kelly has been in all the meetings where a possible timeline was discussed. The project is large, with many moving components, Burns said, and a firm timeline for any part of it is elusive.

“She always knew there would be closure. Until we had all the permitting, we couldn’t give her a date,” Burns said. As soon as the company could finalize the timeline for demolition and groundbreaking, it sent the notice, he said.

The lengthy approval process that started in 2021 was delayed most recently by the city’s settling a lawsuit with a third party, Burns said. Once it was settled, the project’s funding had to be renewed.

That happened in July, with Boynton Beach agreeing to fast-track $7 million in tax increment financing, which gave Affiliated the green light to proceed with the project.

The eight-story, $105 million complex will have 300 apartments and 17,000 square feet of retail space, along with a parking garage. Hurricane Alley’s new space is designed as two stories with a central bar and patios on both levels.

It is not possible for it to stay open during construction, Burns said, calling it a “massive safety concern.”

He said his firm is committed to working with Kelly.

“We will do everything in our power to mitigate her move,” he said. “We designed her new restaurant for free. I’ve honored my deal with the rent we negotiated five years ago. She’s getting the deal of the century.”

Kelly was emotional, saying she can’t comment on “a lot of things.” But she denied the verbal agreement of only 30 days’ notice, and said the groundbreaking date “was moved several times. From August to September to October.”

When asked if the move to The Pierce will happen, she said, “That was the plan. Right now I’m just trying to process this sudden notice. We have to do whatever is right for our business, the employees and the community.”

While planning a closing day party, she said mostly she worries for her workers and their livelihood. Since the closing was announced, Kelly said many local restaurateurs have come forward offering potential jobs for workers — and fundraisers are being planned to offer additional support to her crew during the downtime.

“I will survive,” Kelly said. “The community is rallying around me. I will come back stronger.”

***

Business Spotlight by Christine Davis

The Boynton Beach Historical Society’s book, now available on Amazon, has 40 vignettes from residents covering the city’s history from the 1940s to the 2000s. Cover image provided

The Boynton Beach Historical Society’s new book, The Boynton We Remember: Stories, Photographs, and Memories from Our Community, arrived on Amazon in mid-August, with the society scheduling a book launch for 1 p.m. Sept. 26 at the Boynton Beach City Library.

Lantana resident Janet Naughton, the society’s secretary and former president, said the book was meant to come out in 2018 to celebrate the historical society’s 50th anniversary, “but it was put on a back burner.”

Naughton got it moving again in March.

“We only had a few stories that were passed along to me, and I said, ‘Let’s make it happen,’” she said. “We just asked for personal recollections and photographs through our Facebook group and our entire program list of members and friends.”

As a result, “the book has 40 vignettes, all varied, from the 1940s to the 2000s,” she said. “Many photos come from the local history and archives housed at the Boynton Beach City Library. The Boynton Beach Historical Society and the library have been collecting Boynton history for over 50 years and are thrilled to have published this book of voices.” 

The initial reception for the book was rewarding, Naughton added. “I confirmed that 105 books were shipped to individual buyers through Amazon during the first six days after the book’s release. It’s proving to be popular.” 

And now, people are asking for a second volume, she said. “All of a sudden everyone has a story.”

The book’s list price is $20. Proceeds will support the historical society. 

With 250 members, including 27 Life Members, the society holds monthly meetings from October through April. It will present a Highwaymen art show and sale in January and Naughton will lead history tours of Boynton Beach, local cemeteries and historic sights. For more information, visit boyntonhistory.org/events.

***

The sale of 1960 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan, previously owned by Stewart Satter, now appears complete, with the second portion of the 4-acre lot recorded on July 30.
Florida Realty LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, with a post office address in Walnut Creek, California, bought the south side of the property for $34.4 million. Florida Realty has the official corporate mailing address for The Larry Ellison Foundation and The Lawrence J. Ellison Revocable Trust. Previously reported, WeatherTech founder and CEO David F. MacNeil purchased the northern half for $32 million in June.

***

The Novelly Dynasty Trust II, with the family members of late oil executive Paul Novelly as trustees, sold a 17,020-square-foot home at 200 W. Coconut Palm Road in Boca Raton’s Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club for $22.12 million. The buyers are a trust that belongs to Jeffrey and Christine Hardin, owners and co-CEOs of the construction firm Straticon. First Horizon Bank provided them with an $8.5 million mortgage. The home is sited on 1.04 acres with 298 feet of frontage on a canal that leads to the Intracoastal Waterway.

The property last sold for $10.9 million in 2008. Serhant agent Gary Pohrer held the listing.

***

John R. Hargrove and his wife, Mary Cheryl Hargrove, sold their home at 1642 Sabal Palm Drive in Boca Raton’s Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club for $21.5 million.

The buyer was 1642 Sabal Palm Trust, with attorney Jose L. Lorenzo as trustee. The seven-bedroom, 9,370-square-foot home is sited on a 0.37-acre lot along the golf course. The

Hargroves bought the property in February 2025 for $6 million.

David Roberts of Royal Palm Properties represented the sellers in the deal, while Caron Dockerty of Douglas Elliman worked with the buyer.

***

VS Boynton LLC, managed through Birmingham, Michigan-based ValStone Advisors, sold The Opal at Boynton Beach, an assisted living facility at 1935 S. Federal Highway, for $15.1 million. The buyer was Boynton Beach Propco LLC, associated with New York-based Cammeby’s International Group, led by Daniel Kunstlinger and Eli Schron.

The 127-unit, 87,683-square-foot facility was built on the 4.34-acre site in 1989. It includes nursing care service, on-site dining and a pool. The property last traded in 2016 for $6.7 million.

***

True Floridian Realty’s FurBaby Group is a sponsor of the EJS Project Golf Classic at Westchester Country Club in Boynton Beach, which will take place on Oct. 17. The EJS Project is a nonprofit organization that provides a safe space for Palm Beach County teens, and all proceeds from the tournament will benefit its teen leadership and development initiatives. To register, become a sponsor or learn more about the event, visit ejsproject.org/golf-classic-2026/.

***

Florida Atlantic University’s Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters presents “Created Equal: America’s 250-Year Constitutional Journey,” with Yale law professor Akhil Reed Amar, at 2 p.m. Sept. 18 at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Boca Raton campus. Amar’s talk will be based on insights from his book, Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840-1920. To purchase tickets, which are $20, visit fauevents.com.

***

The Greater Lantana Chamber of Commerce is offering its Leadership Program, which is designed to educate, connect and empower small business leaders. This seven-month experience — one day a month, starting Sept. 23 and ending March 25 — includes behind-the-scenes tours, hands-on projects and direct access to the people and places shaping the region.

Applications are open and spots are limited to 40 people. The price is $350 for members and $400 for nonmembers. To register or for more info, email lantanainfo@lantanachamber.com or visit lantanachamber.com.

***

The League of Women Voters of Palm Beach County will host a free Election Expo from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 28 at the Palm Beach State College Gymnasium, 4200 S. Congress Ave., Lake Worth Beach. This nonpartisan event is designed to help voters be informed before they cast their ballots this year. The league also plans to host events where voters can meet and hear from candidates running in races for school board and judicial, municipal, state and national offices. For more details, visit LWVPBC.org.

Recently, the league announced it has a new leadership team. Janet Elinoff, now president, is a wealth management adviser and chair of the league’s speakers bureau. The second vice president is Debbie Oistacher, a retired educator and league member since 2022. Mary Sue Donohue is secretary. She is a retired attorney and a league member since 1979. The treasurer is Melissa Gannon, manager of financial planning and partner at Castle Wealth Management. 

***

AffordableHousing.com and the Delray Beach Housing Authority gave away 650 children’s backpacks with school supplies at their annual Backpack Giveaway in July. “Safe, affordable housing is just one piece of the puzzle for the communities we serve,” said Richard Cupelli, founder and CEO of AffordableHousing.com. “Education plays an equally vital role in creating pathways to opportunity and lasting equity. When we invest in children, we empower families, and in turn, build stronger, more resilient communities.” 

***

The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous selected 14 middle and high school teachers and Holocaust center personnel from five states to participate in its 2026 European Study Program in Poland. Among them was Julie Gates of Loggers’ Run Middle School, Boca Raton. The program, which includes visits to concentration camps, ghetto sites and Holocaust memorials, is designed to help educators learn about the Holocaust experientially so they can present it in an insightful way to their students and colleagues.

***

The Research Park at Florida Atlantic University recently reported $610 million in annual economic impact across Palm Beach and Broward counties for 2025. Companies in the park generated $445 million in direct expenditures, which produced an additional $165 million indirectly. The Research Park is home to more than 49 companies in industries that include aviation, AI, healthcare, medical and life sciences, software and cybersecurity.

Ventures in the park supported 1,505 jobs and produced $174 million in labor earnings, with an average annual salary of $115,768.

“In addition to supporting research and collaboration, the Research Park at Florida Atlantic is a workforce engine that creates high-paying jobs, brings groundbreaking technologies to our community, and prepares the next generation of innovators,” said Andrew S. Duffell, president of the park.

***

The Golf Club at The Boca Raton will reopen in late fall following a comprehensive $25 million reimagination of its 18-hole course led by architect Brian Silva. The project also will deliver a new practice facility, 53 rebuilt bunkers, a fully modern irrigation system, and two new places to eat: Greg’s on the Green and Greg’s Grab & Go.

Silva’s design asks more of a golfer, he says, with “greater challenges on some shots than the previous course had. Angles are very important in golf course design. It really opened up the possibility of making a course for all caliber of players and making a course for the contemporary game.”

Play is available to members of the club, their guests and resort guests.

***

Basis Industrial, an owner and operator of industrial and self-storage assets headquartered in Delray Beach, recently expanded its executive leadership team. Anthony Scavo is now CEO and managing partner and Nisha Patel is its chief operating officer. Daniel Weinstein now serves as founder, chairman of the advisory board and investment committee member; Jay Massirman and Stephen Garchik serve as co-chairmen of the advisory board and investment committee members; and Aubrey Strul serves as a member of the advisory board.

Send business news to Christine Davis at davis9797 @gmail.com.

 More late-night options coming in renovated historic buildings

Patrons jam the bar for happy hour dinner and drinks at Barcelona Wine Bar in Sundy Village. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jan Norris

With the openings of Double Knot this summer and Barcelona Wine Bar earlier this year, the $21 million Sundy Village has more downtown Delray Beach diners making their way westward on the city's popular Atlantic Avenue.

The 7-acre project is transforming the historic area southwest of the Atlantic Avenue and Swinton Avenue intersection with restaurants, retail and office space — anchored by the historic Sundy House, the project’s namesake, on its southern border. 

The project could also spur an expansion of the bustling downtown’s entertainment district. 

Sundy Village’s current businesses would benefit from the noise standards and hours of operation that would change if the area were designated part of the entertainment district, and it could also be a draw for future businesses.

The City Commission is holding talks with the public and businesses in the surrounding area about the idea.

Sundy Village’s first phase brought roughly 100,000 square feet of office space and 30,000 square feet of retail and dining space to the area just east of the city’s library, police station and county courthouse complex on West Atlantic Avenue. A 268-space underground parking garage also is operational.

Barcelona Wine Bar, originally of Colorado, and Double Knot, of Philadelphia, are attracting diners, along with Baya Bar.  A craft brewery and more are preparing to take up other spaces in the project that spreads a block west of Swinton — from Atlantic Avenue south to the Sundy House at Southwest First Street.

Already neighboring businesses are pleased.

“We are thrilled. It’s absolutely beautiful,” said Elizabeth Grace, founder of The Buzz Agency public relations firm that’s been in the building west of the project for 16 years. “It elevates our area of Delray.”

Before the project arrived, there was a check cashing store, a vape store and little to attract other businesses, she said.

“We’re very glad to see them go.”

The project’s seaside town design features bright white concrete, landscaped courtyards and walkways between buildings, with balconies and French doors on upper levels.

 “I think everybody’s very happy with it and how it turned out,” said John Miller, director of operations for the Delray Beach Historical Society. 

The first phase of Sundy Village, map, above, at the corner of Atlantic and South Swinton avenues in downtown Delray Beach, offers about 100,000 square feet of office space and 30,000 square feet of retail and dining, below. 

Block 61, as it is known, is part of the Old School Square Historic Arts District, which is both locally recognized and on the National Register of Historic Places. This means modifications to the structures must follow preservation codes.

Years of back and forth with the developer, the city and historic preservationists resulted in the project that will be completed during a second phase.

“It’s been a long process of proposals” over the years, said Miller.

The project began with Hudson Holdings in 2014, and then transferred to Pebb Capital, the current owner, in 2019. The plans underwent significant changes over the years, Miller said, satisfying the preservation group that the adjacent homes and structures would be maintained and upgraded.

Hudson first proposed a four-story building, and wanted to move the existing homes on top of a parking garage using artificial landscaping. After the City Commission objected, that changed to three-story buildings and an underground garage, and the vintage structures are now at ground level as before, Miller said.

These include the former rectory of the Methodist church, built in 1912, the 1903 Cathcart house and others on the block.

The City Commission on Aug. 18 approved allowing outdoor dining until midnight at Sundy Village’s historic structures next to the new buildings. 

The dining will be on decks, porches and patios that were constructed around the buildings as part of the project, said Mike Covelli of Covelli Design Associates, the project’s agent.

“Everyone has seen the evolution of this project. Bringing some night dining into the area will actually bring more people in,” Covelli said. “If anything, it will be a catalyst for other redevelopment in the area.”

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream is among restaurants now open or set to open in the refurbished historical buildings on Swinton Avenue. 

Among the restaurants planned for the historic buildings are The Taco Stand, Delray Craft Brewing, Maman cafe, and The Drinking Pig. Van Leeuwen Ice Cream is already open in one of the buildings.

“If you haven’t seen the renovations, this is the part of Sundy Village I think that everyone can universally be proud of, and it’s taken a lot of work,” Delray Beach Development Services Director Anthea Gianniotes said.

Mayor Tom Carney said the reuse of the once-deteriorating structures has given the area a boost.

“Most of you remember what these were like before,” Carney said. “It’s been a great, such a positive development for that part of Swinton and that part of the city.”

In a later phase, the 1902 Sundy House, named for Delray’s first mayor, John Sundy, will reopen as a hotel and restaurant. 

The 1902 Sundy House, named for Delray’s first mayor, John Sundy — who served when Delray was a small town and “Beach” had yet to be added to its name — will be refurbished as a hotel, restaurant, bar and event space in the second phase of the project.

Sundy Village already is 90% leased, according to its website.

Office space leased in the three-story building includes the headquarters for Pebb Capital; Vertical Bridge, the largest private owner of cell towers in the U.S.; Digital Bridge, one of the largest international infrastructure investment firms; and Dragonfly Scan, a medical company that moved from East Atlantic Avenue.

The second phase of Sundy Village is expected to be completed by early 2027. 

The city says the Boca Raton police headquarters has outlived its useful life. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Project offers revisions after voters rejected previous plan

Related story: New chief settling in, promises no ‘sweeping changes right off the bat’

Note: The Community Advisory Panel is holding another community session on the Boca Raton Police Services Complex from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 2 at the Downtown Library, 400 NW Second Ave., Boca Raton

By Mary Hladky

Since nearly 55% of Boca Raton voters in the March 10 election rejected financing the construction of a new police campus, city officials have regrouped, reconsidered and recalculated.

Yet the final analysis is largely the same as before: The city badly needs to replace its 40-year-old, 35,000-square-foot police station that housed 145 police personnel in 1986 and houses 331 today. With so little space, police operations are now spread out over five buildings.

One difference this time around is that city officials have mounted a stronger public outreach campaign to explain to residents why the facility is needed, let them ask questions and provide feedback. The city’s Community Advisory Panel is assisting in getting input.

But officials have acknowledged that many residents saw the last project iteration as a boondoggle, with a main building that Save Boca branded as a Taj Mahal.

So they have slashed the size of the project from 165,000 square feet to about 90,000 square feet and the cost from $190 million to about $125 million.

The cost number isn’t final since matters such as design are not finalized. But City Manager Mark Sohaney said the cost to taxpayers will not exceed $125 million.

The price tag was cut by reducing building size. The larger building proposed before the March 10 election was based on the size Boca Raton would need in 2046.

The 90,000 square feet is what the city needs today. That would be increased later on as needed, Sohaney said.

With the station financed through a 30-year general obligation bond issue, homeowners still would bear most of the cost. But instead of the station’s costing them $123.74 a year on a property with a taxable value of $475,000, it now would be about $93.

City voters will have the final say on whether the project goes forward during the March 9, 2027, municipal election.

The two locations under consideration are 16.4 acres of city-owned land immediately east of the Spanish River Library and 1.9 acres on the downtown campus where the Building Administration and Code Enforcement (BACE) building now sits immediately north of the current police headquarters.

A survey of residents conducted the first week in August by California-based FM3 Research showed that 56% strongly or somewhat favored building a new police complex, while 34% were somewhat or strongly opposed, with 10% saying they didn’t know.

After residents received more information about the project, the total favorable number jumped to 77%, while total opposition dropped to 21%.

The location of the complex proved more divisive: 64% strongly or somewhat favored the Spanish River location, while 59% strongly or somewhat wanted it to be downtown.

Asked to make a choice, 54% wanted the complex built at Spanish River, 24% wanted it downtown, and 18% opposed a new complex. Five percent didn’t know.

Across all location questions, 49% consistently favored Spanish River, while 36% wanted the downtown location.

City Council members are scheduled to decide the location and scope of the project at their Sept. 22 meeting. If the project gets their blessing, an architect will be selected.

No council members have indicated that they oppose the project. But when it was discussed at a July 27 meeting, Deputy Mayor Michelle Grau and Council member Stacy Sipple, both of whom were backed by Save Boca in last March’s election, said they wanted to know more about what residents would like to see.

Two people who spoke at the meeting also said they wanted to hear more from other residents.

Council member Jon Pearlman, the Save Boca leader also elected to the council in March, advocated for keeping the police headquarters at its present location on the downtown campus.

At a community outreach session on Aug. 5, the general consensus of about 75 people in attendance was that the Spanish River location was acceptable.

However, they also wanted a substation in the downtown. City staff has accepted that and proposed a one-story, 9,000-square-foot building there.

The Spanish River site is appealing to city officials because the city already owns the property and can avoid the cost of buying land. Its size leaves room for expansion.

It’s also located in what city officials now consider to be the central part of the city with good access to major roads such as Interstate 95.

City officials have tried to dispel concern among some residents that the Spanish River location will cause slower response times to emergency calls.

Police officers, they say, operate out of zones and remain there during their shifts. The headquarters location will have no impact on response times, which for emergency calls are four minutes or less, they said.

Preliminary conceptual plans presented in July for the Spanish River site show a two-story main building, two additional buildings for evidence and storage and rolling assets, a firing range and a central energy plant that will provide power in the event of outages.

If the downtown site is selected, the main building would be six stories, including a four-story garage. Space for evidence and storage, rolling assets, firing range and energy plant would be incorporated into that building.

One negative of a six-story building is that it would be 10%-12% more expensive to build, officials said.

The city wants to be able to move ahead quickly with this project because construction costs continue to rise. Officials expect they can build far more now with the money they are allocating than they will be able to even a few years from now.

Note: The Community Advisory Panel is holding another community session on the Boca Raton Police Services Complex from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 2 at the Downtown Library, 400 NW Second Ave., Boca Raton

This South Palm Beach dock is the source of a dispute with Lantana, which says it controls the water. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Patrick Sherry and Larry Barszewski 

The waters between Lantana’s Hypoluxo Island and the town of South Palm Beach are roiling with a dispute between the two towns that could be heading to court over which town controls dock permitting in the channel.

Lantana officials say they may sue their neighbor, with whom they thought they had good relations, over South Palm Beach’s effort to exert control over the permitting of docks for that town’s condos in the channel that Lantana says it has  jurisdiction over. 

The South Palm Beach Town Council at its Aug. 11 meeting approved an ordinance that affirms its permitting jurisdiction over docks, sea walls, piers and other waterfront structures within its boundaries.

That led the Lantana Town Council to call a special meeting on Aug. 17 because it says those structures would be built in water it controls, so permits for those structures must be issued by Lantana.

The new Intracoastal Waterway fight — which has its origins in a 70-year-old dispute between the two towns — has been brewing since last September, when Lantana approved a permit for a dock construction at the Concordia West condos in South Palm Beach, only to rescind that permission in November. The construction of the dock there continued and Lantana has been seeking since then to have the new structure demolished.

Lantana Town Attorney  Max Lohman argued that the only waters South Palm Beach has jurisdiction over are on the ocean side of the town. He criticized that town’s ordinance as contradictory, claiming the language simultaneously does not establish new permitting requirements while prohibiting the construction of waterfront structures without a permit.

“Honestly, I am dumbfounded, genuinely,” Lohman said. “People rarely surprise me, but this actually surprised me.”

Preparing to sue

Before the town can take South Palm Beach to court, Lantana officials need to initiate a state-required intergovernmental conflict-resolution process, which its council approved on a unanimous vote. The town’s dispute with the Concordia West and East condos, at 3555 and 3560 S. Ocean Blvd., also continues, and officials said there are at least seven others that could construct a dock in what Lantana says is its jurisdiction. 

“This is a situation where we have to react to this and deal with it,” Lohman said. “Otherwise, you’re just going to have docks thrown in the water over there, and we’re going to be buying multiple lawsuits.”

But South Palm Beach officials are just as adamant that any permitting of docks or other structures for South Palm Beach condos should come from their town.

“My message to the town of South Palm Beach is that we have no option but to vigorously defend the right of our residents, for those property owners that live by the water to wharf out,” Mayor Rafael Pineiro said. “We have no choice but to take a position that we are a municipality, we will exercise our rights, and I will defend their right to do that. I don’t think we have a choice.”

South Palm Beach says it has zoning control over docks like this one, seen from the roof of Concordia West. The wooden dock, which Lantana says should be demolished, has a floating kayak launch. Hypoluxo Island is visible across the channel. 

A channel with a history

South Palm Beach Town Manager Jamie Titcomb said Lantana was not “playing nice” with permitting, so the recent ordinance was an attempt to take back control as he said South Palm had before 1994. He also cited an attempt by both towns in 1994 to settle the dispute, but the effort ended without an agreement.

To make sense of what’s happening now, you have to go back almost a century, as detailed in a 1961 Palm Beach Post story.

Lantana’s original borders extended to the ocean, but in 1931 were pulled back to the eastern edge of the Intracoastal. When South Palm Beach incorporated in 1955, it set its boundary as the middle of the channel between the town and Hypoluxo Island.

Lantana took the issue to the state Legislature, which in 1959 asserted that the borders were as Lantana said. 

Is a resolution possible?

Today, South Palm Beach’s situation is similar to one Lantana recently faced with the town of Palm Beach over 15 properties in the northernmost portion of Hypoluxo Island, along North Atlantic Drive.

The water adjacent to those properties is in the town of Palm Beach’s waters. The two towns reached an agreement in June that allows Lantana to process permits for boat docks, piers, pilings, boat lifts, floating docks and related structures.

While Lantana will use its own permitting standards and codes when reviewing applications, the agreement also indemnifies the town of Palm Beach from any claims or liabilities arising from its adherence to the agreement. 

Titcomb was asked if something like that would work between South Palm Beach and Lantana.

“Will we get something like that? I don’t know,” Titcomb said. “I’m hoping we don’t get to the point of litigation, but I’ve expressed to their officials and others that I’m quite confident that on the legal issues we will prevail” because Lantana is interfering with the riparian rights of property owners that are protected by the state.

Lantana sent a certified copy of the resolution to South Palm Beach requesting a meeting for the conflict assessment. That meeting will take place at 1 p.m. Sept. 18 at Lantana Town Hall. If the dispute is not resolved, the resolution authorizes town officials to pursue legal action to protect Lantana’s jurisdiction and authority.

“If things degenerate to the point that we would have to sue another municipality, this is a prerequisite that we must complete in order to move forward,” Lohman said.

Council member Jesse Rivero said, “I hope their attorney and their town manager can maybe talk some decency or some sense.” 

Robert Haughn and Mary Thurwachter contributed to this story.

Displays are meant to educate, not persuade, officials say

Ocean Ridge Hammock Park is among county parks with signs at entrances and parking lots to remind residents that their tax dollars support public facilities. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Related: Amendment 3: Nonprofits on edge over threat to support

By Rich Pollack

So, what’s with these “Thank You Residents” signs popping up in parks and public facilities throughout Palm Beach County and in Delray Beach?

They are, county and Delray Beach city leaders say, part of an educational campaign to remind residents where their tax dollars go. 

And it’s no accident that the signs have been appearing just a few months before voters go to the polls to vote on Amendment 3, a proposal that would increase property tax exemptions but reduce revenues that local governments say are needed to provide a wide array of services. 

“This is an education initiative,” Delray Beach City Manager Terrence Moore said. 

Palm Beach County leaders, who say as many as 500 signs will be going up throughout the county, echo Moore’s comments, saying they hope the signs will fill a gap with many residents not understanding what services and facilities are paid for with tax dollars. 

“We found that not all residents understand how county funding works,” said John Jamason, the county’s interim director of public affairs. 

The county also found that many residents would not be happy paying for services they now get for free, including parking at several beaches. 

Residents became outraged after learning that county leaders had planned to charge $3.20 an hour to park at several county-owned parks, including Gulfstream Park near Gulf Stream and Ocean Inlet Park at the Boynton Inlet. 

As a result, the county changed course and decided to keep parking free for residents at several parks — provided they get a free permit — but charge others $4 an hour at those parks beginning in October. 

Moore and Jamason point out that the signs don’t take a position on the amendment. 

Counties and cities are prohibited from using public funds to advocate for or against ballot issues or constitutional amendments under Florida law.  

“This is education, not advocacy,” said Moore, adding that his city has been holding Town Hall meetings to help residents better understand how budgeting and municipal finances work.  

While the county has been placing signs in parks and in front of libraries — and has plans to put some on roads and bridges — Delray Beach’s effort is much smaller. 

Just a handful of signs in the city are posted in parks and in front of City Hall, and Old School Square has a banner. 

The city has also employed social media to remind residents where their tax dollars go, using about six different images, including one of a police boat with a reminder that public safety and emergency management are funded by property taxes. 

Voters could make it harder to get municipal funds

Related: Amendment 3: Signs remind residents of where their tax dollars go to work

By Rich Pollack 

It was a good day for the eight nonprofit organizations that came before the Delray Beach City Commission in August seeking a renewal of funds to help them keep doing their work.  

Commissioners, after hearing presentations from organizations including Arts Garage, Achievement Centers for Children and Families, Spady Museum and the Delray Beach Public Library, agreed to spend more than $3 million to support the eight organizations and the services they provide to the community.

While representatives from the nonprofits were pleased to receive the grants, they left with a cloud of uncertainty in the air, knowing that there may be far less money available next year — if any — should voters approve a state constitutional amendment that would expand homestead exemptions and leave municipalities with far less revenue. 

Amendment 3, which goes before Florida voters in November, would expand the current $51,411 homestead exemption to $150,000 next year and $250,000 the following year. Already local governments are looking at ways to make up revenue losses should the amendment get the 60% voter approval needed for passage. 

Nonprofit organizations are also keeping a close eye on the referendum, knowing that local governments will prioritize core services if belts need to be tightened. 

“If cities are faced with having to make spending cuts, discretionary grants and contracts for cultural programs will be the first to go,” said Steven Abrams, a former Palm Beach County commissioner and Boca Raton mayor.

What municipalities give

In coastal southern Palm Beach County, larger cities tend to give grants to nonprofits while small towns do not. The exception is Highland Beach, which gives a $2,500 contribution to the Highland Beach Sea Turtle Team, a volunteer-based nonprofit organization. 

Delray Beach will fund eight organizations in the next fiscal year, with the library — one of only two larger-city libraries in the state that are nonprofits — drawing the largest donation of about $2.27 million total. The remaining seven nonprofits each receive less than $275,000. 

Boca Raton in its current year’s budget allotted just over $500,000 for 75 nonprofits, with the largest donation being $37,000 to Boca Helping Hands. 

In Boynton Beach, each commissioner is allotted $6,000 a year in discretionary funds — or a total of $30,000 — that they often use to support nonprofits. 

In addition, the city will provide about $40,000 to a handful of nonprofits and  cover more than $280,000 of operational costs for the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum. 

Funds already shrinking

For cultural organizations, which have seen state cutbacks in the arts over recent years, a reduction in grants from local governments could impact programming and lead to a reduction in staffing. 

Most will have to do what local governments will have to do: Look at cost savings and search for other revenue sources. 

 “We will have to evaluate every program again, determining whether we can afford to continue each one,” said Marjorie Waldo, Arts Garage president and CEO. “We will have to figure out if we can do more with less. We will call on our community to continue to support our efforts. And of course, we will have to pass some of the losses on to the consumer in increased pricing.” 

Looking for support from the community may be a challenge for many nonprofit organizations since there is already stiff competition for every philanthropic dollar and it is likely to get worse. 

“There’s not enough philanthropic dollars left to fill the gap if government funding goes away,” said Jeff Perlman, a former Delray Beach mayor and now executive director of the Carl Angus DeSantis Foundation, which funds nonprofits in Palm Beach and Broward counties. 

Foundations, Perlman says, are already feeling pressure.

“Losing support from local governments is going to add to an already strained situation,” he said. 

Compounding the growing demand for services from nonprofit organizations is a cutback in federal government funding, especially in the human services area. 

“The pie for funds is getting smaller and the demand is getting greater,” said Mike Donohue, communications and external affairs manager for the Florida Nonprofit Alliance. “There’s a higher demand for services and less money to fund those services.”

Donohue said that a reduction in municipal government funding will also put more pressure on nonprofits. 

“People need to consider that when public sector services are cut, people will look toward nonprofits,” he said.

Potential impacts

Donohue’s organization, which focuses on supporting and helping to strengthen Florida’s statewide nonprofit community, recently surveyed members and found that almost 90% of those responding said they expect greater competition for other funding sources should Amendment 3 pass. 

The survey also asked the 83 nonprofits that responded how they would adjust to a reduction in revenue should the amendment pass, with 65% saying they would cut programs or services or turn clients away. 

Of those that responded, 54% said they may have to reduce services and 51% said they would have to delay expansion plans. Close to 50% said they might have to tap into financial reserves, while 32% said they would leave vacant positions open. 

Beside the direct impact a cut in municipal funding could have on nonprofits lies an indirect impact on those organizations’ abilities to get federal government funding as well as funding from foundations. 

“It’s difficult to get federal funding without showing you have local government support,” Abrams said. 

The former mayors also point out that vetting by local governments of a nonprofit gives other funding sources an additional layer of comfort knowing that the organization has value.

One of the questions that has been raised by some who favor the amendment is whether local governments should be funding nonprofit organizations. 

“It’s a viable argument,” says Perlman, who added that he’s heard that concern raised over the years.

Nonprofits fill voids

Both he and Abrams, however, point out that in many cases the organizations receiving tax dollars are providing services that would fall to local governments if the not-for-profits were absent. 

“The thought was that by providing a service that didn’t already exist, the city wouldn’t have to provide that service or deal with the fallout of not having it,” Perlman said. 

Abrams points to Boca Raton’s funding of the Mae Volen Senior Center, saying that means the city does not need to have its own senior center. 

The same could be said for affordable child care with the Fuller Center in Boca Raton and the Achievement Centers for Children and Families in Delray Beach, which provide services to meet a need that the cities then don’t have to fill. 

Should local governments need to cut their support of nonprofits, the determination of how that will be done is still up in the air. 

Boca Raton Mayor Andy Thomson said his city will have a tough time helping nonprofits because the amendment limits how tax dollars can be spent — focusing primarily on core services, a category that nonprofit organizations do not meet. 

“Historically, we have always been, I think, pretty generous giving out funds on that,” he said. “It may be more difficult now.”

Delray Beach leaders will also have to decide what organizations to support, if any, should the amendment pass.

“There will be tough decisions that will have to be made,” City Manager Terrence Moore said.

Children’s Services Council

In addition to getting municipal government support, many of the nonprofit organizations in the area that provide services to support children receive their funding from the Children Services Council of Palm Beach County, which is a taxing district that receives funding directly from property taxes. 

More than 90% of its revenue comes from local property taxes and helps the council fund more than 700 organizations that strengthen the health and well-being of children and families throughout the county. 

Should Amendment 3 pass and the homestead exemption increase to $250,000 in two years, the Children Services Council would lose about $26 million, or about 15% of its budget. 

The council and many other organizations are in the process of planning what steps to take to continue funding children’s programs should the amendment pass. 

“We are working diligently and thoughtfully to determine how to protect the services families depend on,” said Lauren Zuchman, the council’s chief communications and partnership officer. “A reduction of this size will inevitably affect programming, but it is too early to say what that might look like.” 

Downstream effects

Abrams, the former Boca mayor, believes that cuts in funding to nonprofits by local governments would have their greatest impact on low-income families as well as others who need community support. 

“If local government isn’t supporting human needs, then nonprofits have to make up the difference,” he said. “Human needs don’t go away.” 

Arts Garage’s Waldo takes a broader view and sees the impact of cuts to nonprofits — especially the arts — as having a potentially negative economic effect. 

She said that Arts Garage generates about $3.8 million in economic impact annually and serves more than 13,000 patrons, including those who visit area restaurants, hotels and other businesses.

“We are partners in making our town the special magnetic place that it is because the work generates returns beyond our doors,” she said. 

Mary Hladky contributed to this story.

Boca Raton Police Chief Jared Phelps observes the swearing-in ceremony in his honor on July 30. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Related: City mounts campaign to support new police HQ

By Mary Hladky

As he settles into his role as Boca Raton’s police chief, Jared Phelps is enthusiastic about his new position.

“This is a dream job,” he told residents at an Aug. 5 community meeting.

Asked by City Manager Mark Sohaney at another community meeting on Aug. 19 what impresses him about the city, Phelps said it is community commitment.

“We have a plethora of individuals who are committed to making sure the quality of life stays as high as we can have it,” he said.

Sworn in as police chief on July 30 after the city conducted a nationwide search, Phelps is still learning about the department and its culture. So he is not yet ready to announce any departmental changes.

“I don’t believe in coming in and making sweeping changes right off the bat,” he told The Coastal Star at the Aug. 19 community meeting. “I believe in making educated changes, incremental changes because these are sustainable and not just turning the cart upside down and saying, ‘yeah, we are doing this.’

“I’ve got to have buy-in from everybody, and they need to understand why we are doing this so that they see the value.”

Phelps is a 31-year law enforcement veteran who previously served as police chief for Jacksonville, North Carolina, and before that rose through the ranks to become deputy chief of the Prince William County Police Department in Virginia.

The father of two adult children learned about policing early on. His mother was a dispatcher with the Prince William County department in 1976 and became an officer two years later. She later became an officer and sergeant for Northern Virginia Community College.

“She instilled in me … that it is about doing things the right way, treating people with dignity and respect,” Phelps told residents on Aug. 19. “To me, that is what law enforcement is all about.”

Phelps arrives at a possible time of change for the department.

Voters will decide in March whether the city will build a new police complex to replace the aging building on the city’s downtown campus that the department outgrew years ago.

Last March, voters defeated a proposal to pay for a new complex on 16.4 city-owned acres immediately east of the Spanish River Library.

Since then, city officials have scaled back the cost and size of the project, and hope voters will now look favorably on it.

Phelps said he heard no negative comments from residents attending the two community sessions about building a new facility.

“I see a lot of heads shaking ‘yes’ when we talk about this,” he said.

A new facility is badly needed, he said, and he sees part of his job as helping educate voters on why that is the case and how the cost has been reduced.

“Ultimately, it’s going to be the voters’ call,” he said. “All I can do is educate. That’s what I am trying to do. Educate our community on what our need is so that they can make an informed choice on what they want.”

His preference is to build the main facilities at Spanish River as well as a downtown substation.

The Spanish River location is large enough to allow for future expansion as the city grows. Yet many residents and business owners also favor a downtown presence, he said.

Phelps supports Sohaney’s recently unveiled initiatives to help the homeless while also improving community safety.

They include adding four police officers in the downtown, hiring a community resource coordinator and creating a Quality of Life Working Group.

Homeless persons “have a right to be in a park,” he told residents. “They don’t have a right to commit crimes.”

But arrest isn’t always the right approach, he said. Making resources available to help them can decrease what could otherwise be repeated problems.

Summer in South Florida seems to take forever to end.

Kids may be back in school, the autumnal equinox may be just a few weeks away and Halloween pop-up stores may already be open for business, but summer’s muggy, sweltering days still cling to us like a T-shirt drenched in sweat after just a few minutes of yardwork — with no relief in sight.

We’ve endured the heat and sargassum, kept a wary eye out for weather systems working their way through the tropics, and slathered on sunscreen by the bucket. Come October, the sargassum may have ebbed, but we’ll still be dealing with the heat and humidity — and we’ll still be looking out for hurricanes.

They should give out merit badges to those of us who have soldiered through summer’s miserable weather and not sought the refuge of a northern vacation (though we’re not in the same league as the pioneers of a century ago, who managed to survive summers here without the air-conditioning units that have become a ubiquitous part of the landscape).

However, we must also ’fess up: It isn’t all bad. It is so much easier getting reservations at popular restaurants in the summer. And many of them have special deals to make the meals a little easier on the wallet.

Divers took advantage of the super-popular lobster mini-season at the end of July, and fishers here in September get first dibs on snook.

It’s even a little easier on the roads, with traffic not quite as bad as when the snowbirds return and tourists arrive en masse.

But road projects, which were once targeted for the less-populated summertime, are something drivers now can’t get away from no matter what time of year it is. That includes the just-starting Federal Highway construction project in downtown Boca Raton that will last more than a year, and work on underground water pipes along State Road A1A in Ocean Ridge that will be stopping traffic there intermittently for pretty much the rest of the year. Not to mention the ongoing work around the Interstate 95 interchange at Boynton Beach Boulevard.

This year, the tropics may be quiet, with current predictions still indicating a mild hurricane season (although it only takes one to make for misery) — and possibly some not-so-royal king tides.

So, while South Florida’s summer won’t be over for a while, maybe you can catch a deal when you’re out to dinner or catch a snook when you’re out on the water — or fishing from a dock, bridge or beach — and maybe we all can catch a break weatherwise.

Any of those could help cure any lingering summertime blues.

— Larry Barszewski, 

Editor

Gregg Strandberg, a volunteer mentor at Boca Helping Hands, stands outside his home in Highland Beach. As a retired CEO, he connects students in vocational training with professionals in their fields. ’What stands out about Gregg is his patience, compassion and commitment to meeting each student where they are,’ says Trina Chin Cheong, director of Workforce Development at Helping Hands. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Kathleen Kernicky

When electrical trade student Azrael Class needs professional guidance or advice, he turns to Gregg Strandberg, a retired CEO who volunteers as a mentor at Boca Helping Hands.

“Over the past year, his guidance, advice and encouragement helped me become a better version of myself,” said Class, 21, a second-year vocational college student pursuing a career as an electrician.

“The books he recommended helped me learn lessons, helped me grow, build new habits and see things from a different perspective.”

Strandberg, 62, of Highland Beach, is the founder and former CEO of Filterworks USA (now known as Autotality). Under his leadership, the Deerfield Beach family business grew into a nationwide distributor of automotive collision repair and service center equipment such as frame-straightening systems, bench racks, paint booths and ventilation systems.

Strandberg connected with Class last year at Boca Helping Hands, a nonprofit serving Palm Beach County with food assistance and workforce development programs. Helping Hands provides hot meals to anyone in need and a pantry bag program for low-income families.

It helps students like Class attend accredited vocational centers where they train for sustaining careers in areas such as healthcare, construction, information technology and others.

Strandberg, a licensed general and mechanical contractor, enjoys being a mentor. He arranges for Class to meet with other business owners who can offer advice or perspective and may be helpful in his future career.

“You’re there to give someone a boost and help them achieve their career goals,” he said. Strandberg also has worked at Helping Hands’ warehouse, assembling bags of food from the pantry and handing out turkeys and meals at Thanksgiving. “I love having an impact on our neighbors who are experiencing challenges and need some help,” he said.

Helping Hands’ focus is serving the community’s immediate needs for food assistance and future needs in career development.

“Let’s feed the folks who need help now and help folks in job development to learn a skill and a trade that will help them to feed themselves and their families later on,” Strandberg said.

After living in Boca Raton as a child, Strandberg returned upon graduating from the University of Georgia, where he “definitely knew” he wanted to go into business.

He opened Filterworks USA in 1988. His wife, Nancy, did the interior design work for most of their clients. Their daughter-in-law and son worked there.

He sold the business in 2018 and stayed on as CEO for three years before retiring and serving as chairman of the board.

Married 37 years, the Strandbergs have a daughter, Jensen, and a son, Cole, and two young granddaughters. He volunteers between trips to New York to visit his daughter and granddaughter.

Strandberg arrived at Helping Hands in 2023, one of more than 300 volunteers who help assist more than 40,000 clients each year.

Opened as a soup kitchen in 1998, the agency provided more than 3.5 million meals across five distribution sites in Palm Beach County last year, according to its website, bocahelpinghands.org.

“I heard great things about this organization and its impact on the community,” Strandberg said. “It was easy to get involved when my schedule started to free up. And I was impressed with what I saw there.

“It was such a welcoming environment … and to see how everyone was so absolutely efficient and committed to the cause. I can’t say enough about it.”

Trina Chin Cheong, director of Workforce Development at Helping Hands, said volunteers like Strandberg play a vital part in the organization’s success.

“Since Gregg joined as a job mentor, he has fully embraced the opportunity to support our trade students as they navigate their journey toward becoming apprentices,” Cheong said.

“What stands out about Gregg is his patience, compassion and commitment to meeting each student where they are. He takes the time to listen and understand their needs. His willingness to invest in our students makes a lasting difference.”

“Helping Hands is caring about their community and caring about their neighbors,” Strandberg said. 

“There are endless opportunities to help.” 

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or call 561-337-1553.

John Pacenti won the Journalist of the Year competition in the 2026 Sunshine State Awards sponsored by the Florida-based Society for Professional Journalism, including for work he did for The Coastal Star.

The award, presented Aug. 29 in Fort Lauderdale, was for 2025 stories done while Pacenti was covering Delray Beach, Ocean Ridge and Manalapan for The Coastal Star. He left the paper in May to join the USA Today Network-Florida; his work now appears in The Palm Beach Post.

The award also covered work he did for the Key Biscayne Independent and for South Florida Business & Wealth.

His entry included Coastal Star stories about beach erosion, state threats to home rule, social media use in local politics, Delray Beach’s fight with the state over its Pride intersection, and a whistleblower complaint concerning Delray Beach code enforcement. 

By Steve Plunkett

The Palm Beach County inspector general has mildly rebuked town officials’ record-keeping in two complaints about the Lantana Nature Preserve but dismissed two other complaints for lack of evidence.

In a 49-page investigative report issued in April, the Office of Inspector General said it opened an investigation in 2022 after receiving complaints from an unnamed town council member and from resident Media Beverly.

Specifically, the office investigated whether the town improperly dissolved the Lantana Nature Preserve in 2016, whether it inappropriately used funds received earmarked for the preserve from The Carlisle assisted congregate living facility, whether it hired a contractor without making sure that the contractor had registered with the town or had insurance, and whether it made sure the contractor obtained a permit before removing a protected gumbo limbo from the preserve or the tree was replaced.

The upscale Carlisle next door makes an annual payment to the town of at least $40,000 with yearly adjustments to maintain the preserve.

Investigators for the inspector general looked at numbers from fiscal years 2020 and 2021 and decided there was not sufficient documentation for $32,000 spent on maintenance each year, labeling the total $64,000 as “questioned costs.” 

Deborah Manzo, town manager in those years, told them “that she calculated indirect costs based on information provided to her about staff time and equipment used.”  

Eddie Crockett, the town’s public services director, told investigators the $64,000 represented “non-itemized or administrative” costs of maintaining the Nature Preserve.

The report concluded that the allegation that funds from The Carlisle were inappropriately used was “partially supported.” 

Investigators also could partially support the allegation about contractor Ask Russ LLC registering with the town before doing landscaping work at the preserve and having the proper insurance.

 “The OIG found no evidence that Ask Russ registered with the town as required, but the OIG did not identify a town policy or procedure requiring specific insurance for this work,” the report said.

After reviewing town ordinances and interviewing Manzo and Mary Lacorazza, a former member of the Lantana Nature Preserve Commission, investigators concluded that they could not support the allegation that the preserve commission was improperly dissolved.

Similarly, they could not confirm that Ask Russ needed to pull a permit to remove the gumbo limbo tree. Crockett sent the inspector general photos of the tree “after it was blown over during a storm,” the report said.

“This activity (removing a broken tree from blocking the walking trail) did not require certification from an Arborist and therefore did not violate an ordinance,” Crockett wrote the office. 

In the end the OIG recommended that the town:

• Establish a dedicated accounting structure for the Nature Preserve so that all related revenues and expenditures are recorded and tracked together.

• Verify and document, before contract execution and before the work begins, that all hired contractors be properly insured in accordance with applicable town ordinances, and that the documentation of these actions be retained. 

• Adopt written policies and procedures requiring contractors performing tree trimming, tree removal or related work in the Nature Preserve to maintain adequate insurance coverage in an amount specified by the town before work begins and throughout the contract term.

In a May 5 response, current Town Manager Brian Raducci said the town concurred with all three recommendations and would take steps to implement them. 

Maria Rios, Lantana’s new town clerk, was sworn in on Aug. 27. She previously served as deputy town clerk and assistant to the town manager for three years.

As part of the town administration team, she assisted departments throughout the organization.

Rios, 29, lives in Broward County. Outside of work, she enjoys singing, going to the movies and working out at the gym.

“I’m very thankful for this opportunity and excited to continue giving my best to the town and our community,” she said. “I truly enjoy serving our residents and supporting my coworkers in any way I can, and I look forward to continuing to contribute in my new role.” 

Rios replaces Kathleen Dominguez, who resigned in June after serving as clerk since January 2020. Since July 2023, Dominguez had worked remotely from Nashville, Tennessee, where her husband is employed.          

                                                                              — Mary Thurwachter

I want to begin by saying that I respect the South Palm Beach Town Council, our town manager and our staff. The town is fortunate to have people who care deeply about this community.

I am asking for one careful, forward-looking step — that we explore whether a negotiated merger with the town of Palm Beach deserves an independent feasibility study.

This is not a request to dissolve our community or erase our identity. It is a request to determine whether our identity could be strengthened by combining governments and obtaining Palm Beach-level services.

South Palm Beach is about a half mile long. State Road A1A is our only public road. We have no municipal police department and instead contract with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. We have no public beach. 

Yet we maintain the full administrative, legal and legislative structure of a separate municipality.

A merger could offer residents direct service from the town of Palm Beach Police Department, stronger building and code-enforcement resources for our predominantly condominium and cooperative community, and greater expertise in coastal protection, beach restoration, drainage and king-tide resilience.

Palm Beach would also gain substantially. Everyone entering Palm Beach from the south travels through our community. A merger would give Palm Beach greater coordination over safety, traffic, landscaping, signage, code standards and the appearance of the entire A1A corridor.

That is especially timely as South Palm Beach prepares for a new corridor-planning effort. Palm Beach has experience in place-making, refined public design, street-tree management, drainage and coastal resilience. One coordinated government could give this gateway the consistency and long-term care it deserves.

Our existing Town Hall property could also become one of the greatest benefits of consolidation. Today, only approximately one-quarter of the building serves as community swing space, and that same room must function as the council chambers. Under a merger, much of the administrative space and the sheriff’s substation would no longer be required.

The building and grounds could become a true community pavilion and waterfront civic park, with Intracoastal access and expanded space for the classes, meetings and gatherings our residents value. We would not be giving up Town Hall. We would be giving more of it back to the community.

Nothing could happen without negotiation, full financial analysis and separate approval by the voters of both towns.

I respectfully request that the council authorize nonbinding discussions with Palm Beach and obtain a scope and cost for an independent merger feasibility study.

— Matt White

South Palm Beach

By Brian Biggane

After sitting empty for the past 20 years, a group of Delray Beach lots on North Federal Highway abutting Gulf Stream’s Place Au Soleil community will be the site of 47 new townhomes.

The Delray Beach City Commission approved the project proposed by Ultra Luxury Townhomes LLC by a 3-1 vote at its Aug. 18 meeting, after agreeing to reconsider the project that died on a 2-2 vote in July.

Mayor Tom Carney, who previously was involved with the project and whose brother has an investment in the project, recused himself from the votes.

Commissioner Tom Markert, who opposed the reconsideration, ended up being the swing vote for approval, while Commissioner Juli Casale, who cast the deciding vote to allow the project to be reconsidered, ended up voting against it again.

Commissioners Angela Burns and Judy Mollica supported the project in both votes. 

The project, which involves 39 two-story structures and eight that will rise three stories, will be adjacent to Place Au Soleil, the only part of Gulf Stream on the western side of the Intracoastal Waterway. The property sits just north of a golf cart business on the east side of the highway. 

Commissioners have strived for years to fill that space with a commercial property, but presenting attorney Neil Schiller argued that national studies have shown that the presence of a Walmart nearby is a significant deterrent to commercial development. Schiller said the Walmart at Federal Highway and Gulfstream Boulevard is just 0.29 miles from the property.

In November 2022, an attempt to rezone the property from general commercial to automotive commercial to house a proposed auto dealership was rejected by the commission.

The city’s Planning and Zoning Board in May recommended approval of the four waivers proposed by Ultra Luxury only to have the commission reject that proposal at its July 14 meeting. Further changes made include curbing the sidewalks, coloring them for a visual separation, and providing speed bumps.

Schiller’s team stated there is precedent for the residential project on North Federal since the commission approved a similar one known as the Tropics for the west side of North Federal just south of Ultra Luxury’s lots. While that project was approved in August 2024, the land has yet to be cleared.

Among those attending the meeting and offering support was Gulf Stream Town Manager Trey Nazzaro, who said his Town Commission passed a resolution in support of the project at its previous meeting and asked him to convey that support.

“We believe it is consistent with the area, beneficial to our Place Au Soleil homeowners, and a few of them are here to offer their support,” Nazzaro said.

Nazzaro said the town had previously opposed the petition to rezone the property as automotive commercial because that wasn’t consistent with its homeowners’ wishes.

“We voiced very strong opposition and believed it made an impact,” he said.

Neal de Jesus, who said he represented a former owner of the property, said he and the owner previously had an offer to sell the property to developers who wanted to fill it with a strip mall but decided against it.

“If we developed a strip mall there, with an estimated 15-18 units,” that would mean 15-18 dumpsters behind them, he said. “Knowing the city allows those dumpsters to be picked up at 6 a.m. seven days a week, that was just the wrong thing to do. So, in consultation with the owner, we decided it wouldn’t be right, so we decided to sell the property to the current owners.”

By Jane Musgrave

A legal battle Manalapan launched to keep sand from being swept south from its shores has been delayed and it’s likely the long-running dispute will get bigger.

In what is shaping up to become a battle of coastal communities, Ocean Ridge in early August said it wanted a chance to contest Manalapan’s efforts to reduce the amount of sand that is pumped south from a transfer plant at the Boynton Inlet.

The action by Ocean Ridge prompted Administrative Law Judge Francine Ffolkes to cancel the five-day hearing that was set to begin Aug. 24 to give the town time to prepare its legal arguments. The hearing has been rescheduled for January.

By then, other municipalities are likely to join in to block Manalapan’s efforts, predicted Ocean Ridge Mayor Geoff Pugh.

“It literally makes no sense,” he said of Manalapan’s quest to curb the operations of the plant, which has pumped sand from one side of the inlet to the other for nearly 90 years.

“Any town whose residents use that inlet for navigation should be up in arms about it,” Pugh said, specifically mentioning Boynton Beach, Lantana and Hypoluxo. Operations of the transfer plant are critical to keep sand from blocking the inlet, which would make it impossible for boaters to get in or out.

Ocean Ridge was unaware of the complaint filed by Manalapan until it was contacted by a reporter from The Coastal Star. Once alerted, it filed legal papers, saying it wanted to join Palm Beach County and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in opposing Manalapan’s claims.

The delay will give Ocean Ridge time not only to prepare its legal arguments but to alert other municipalities, Pugh said.

In the complaint, Manalapan claims that the state agency in 2025 shouldn’t have given the county permission to increase the amount of sand that is pumped from the inlet to Ocean Ridge and beyond. The new 10-year permit wasn’t properly vetted and Manalapan was given no chance to weigh in, it claims.

For years, erosion has been a problem in Manalapan, its attorneys claim. Taking additional sand will accelerate it.

“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,” wrote attorney John Fumero, who was hired to represent the town in the dispute.

Manalapan Police Chief Jeff Rasor says the Tesla Cybertruck given to the department by an anonymous donor has so far exceeded expectations, but how long the electric vehicle lasts compared with gas-powered cars remains to be seen. Design image provided

By Jane Musgrave

Roughly three weeks after the Manalapan Police Department put a donated Tesla Cybertruck on the road, Chief Jeff Rasor said he was impressed with the performance and cost savings of the latest eye-catching addition to his fleet.

“The vehicle has out-performed all of our expectations,” he told town commissioners at a meeting on Aug. 11. 

With the Cybertruck using roughly $4 in electricity during a 12-hour shift, instead of $40 in gas, the financial benefits are obvious. Further, Rasor said, the department won’t have to shell out cash to change oil, replace belts or do other maintenance that is needed to keep gas-powered cruisers patrolling town streets.

The Cybertruck has other surprising advantages, Rasor said. “It has better handling, better brakes and the back seat is good,” he told The Coastal Star.

Still, he said, while he likes the Cybertruck that was received from an anonymous donor, he hasn’t decided whether to go all-electric.

There is a sizable difference in upfront costs. A new Cybertruck costs about $11,000 more than the roughly $50,000 price tag on a Chevy Tahoe or Ford Explorer that the agency typically uses. All of the vehicles also need another $20,000 for police upgrades, like sirens and lights.

The difference disappears once cost savings are considered. But, Rasor said, there are other considerations.

“The biggest question for anybody is longevity,” he said.

Since the small agency is the first in the state to use a Cybertruck for regular patrols, Rasor is doing his own analysis about whether the switch makes sense.

The agency keeps its gas-powered cruisers for eight years. Whether the electric truck will be able to sustain the heavy demands put on a police car, remains to be seen.

The average person drives about 10 hours a week. A police cruiser is on the road for 40 to 50 hours each week.

“I have to give it about six months. That’s when you’ll see what kind of wear and tear there has been,” Rasor said. “Then I can make a decision on the next vehicle.”

In the meantime, the officer who was assigned the strange looking, tank-like car is enjoying the notoriety.

“A lot of people want to take pictures of the vehicle,” Rasor said. “It’s a head turner, I’ll tell you.”

By Patrick Sherry

Dog owners and their pets going to Lantana’s Maddock Park should prepare to be inconvenienced as the town expects to move forward with constructing accessibility improvements there later this year. 

The Town Council on Aug. 10 unanimously approved entering into a grant agreement for the project, which will include a new ADA-compliant concrete walkway to replace the existing mulch trail in the dog recreation area. 

Palm Beach County is providing the town with a $379,210 Community Development Block Grant for the project at the park, 1200 W. Drew St.  

The design for the project is nearly complete. The agreement needs to be finalized, and the council must still approve a construction contract for the work to begin. 

During construction, parts of the park will be closed. 

“I’ve discussed with the town manager some alternate closure techniques … but we have options on what we can do,” said Vanessa Holloway, Lantana’s contract and grants administrator.

Staff suggested completing the project in parts, so only a portion of the park will be closed at any given time. 

The agreement will take effect on Oct. 1, and the project will need to be completed by Dec. 31, 2027. Town officials will send out notifications for when closures will begin once construction starts. 

By Patrick Sherry

Lantana’s solid waste and recycling collection fees are going up — but they’ll still be a good deal compared with some of the town’s previous charges for the services.

The Town Council unanimously approved the new rates at its meeting on Aug. 10. Rates for a single-family home, mobile home, and small multifamily buildings will be $361.44 per year per unit, an increase of $14.16 annually from the current rate. Larger multifamily buildings will see their rates rise $5.88 per year per unit, to  $191.76. This solid waste assessment is in addition to the county’s assessment for landfill and transfer station use. 

In the 2023-24 fiscal year, the town switched haulers to use Coastal Waste and Recycling of Florida, which at the time gave residents about $75 off their tax bill. 

“I’ve been living here all my life, even when Lantana collected trash — Coastal is by far the best,” Mayor Karen Lythgoe said. 

Town documents show the proposed rates are still lower than what they were before Coastal was hired. In the 2021-22 fiscal year, the assessment for single-family homes, mobile homes, and small multifamily buildings was $11.76 more than the newly approved rate and $44.40 higher for larger multifamily buildings.

In total, Lantana expects to receive about $1.69 million in revenue from the new rates, covering 6,005 residential units. 

Town still faces major costs for aging  treatment plant

By Jane Musgrave

While Manalapan residents face an 18% water rate increase in October, that could turn out to be a bargain compared to what may lie down the road.

Like other utility systems throughout the country, Manalapan expects to be forced to upgrade its water treatment plant to meet federal regulations that require utilities to remove so-called “forever chemicals” from drinking water supplies by 2031.

Added to the town’s woes is that the plant is old and needs an estimated $10 million to $12.5 million in improvements, not including those that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could require.

Further, six years ago, it lost 65% of its revenue when the town of Hypoluxo ended its 60-year contract with the town, electing to get water for its 2,200 residents from Boynton Beach Utilities instead.

“It’s almost like a perfect storm of factors (i.e. losing Hypoluxo, insane inflationary period, and EPA regulatory requirements) are all hitting at the same time,” Manalapan Town Manager Eric Marmer wrote in an email.

Hoping to get the best deal for its ratepayers, the town is shopping around to see if it would make more sense to follow Hypoluxo’s lead and find another utility to provide water service for the town’s 425 residents and business owners.

Preliminary results aren’t good.

Palm Beach County Water Utilities said it would cost Manalapan at least $36 million to connect to its system, the town’s utility consultant told commissioners at their August meeting. 

That is more than double what it is expected to cost to upgrade the existing 92-year-old plant that last underwent major improvements in 2006.

John Cairnes, senior project manager for engineering consultant Mock Roos & Associates, said other nearby utilities weren’t surveyed.

Commissioners asked him to contact Lantana and Boynton Beach utilities to determine how much they would charge to provide water service to the town.

Efforts are also underway to find ways to increase revenues if the town opts to upgrade its plant, Marmer said

Town officials are exploring whether South Palm Beach may want to switch its water service to Manalapan and whether Hypoluxo could be lured back, he said.

Mayor John Deese said all possibilities should be considered. “But we want to protect our water system so we don’t have to rely on someone else,” he said.

Manalapan isn’t alone in dealing with the looming expense of removing the cancer-causing forever chemicals from its water supply.

Rules, requiring water plants to remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, were enacted by the EPA in 2024. The chemicals are in thousands of manmade products, such as non-stick cookware, microwave popcorn bags and stain-resistent carpets, and major contamination has been linked to the use of firefighting foam.

Delray Beach is spending an estimated $280 million to build a new, larger water treatment plant. An estimated $140 million of that is linked to the cost of removing forever chemicals.

Riviera Beach is spending an estimated $400 million on a new water treatment plant to address a host of issues, including the federal regulations.

“The whole country is dealing with it,” Marmer said.

The Town Commission signed off on the 18% rate hike to assure the plant remains in good financial health. 

A 2025 rate study recommended the 18% increase — following an average 80% rise the commission enacted last year — be phased in over three years, but commissioners decided to accelerate that schedule.

Water rates for the town are based on pipe size and usage so the increases will vary. The larger the pipe size, the greater demand on the system. Nearly all Manalapan residences are served by either a 1-inch or 2-inch pipe.

According to the rates, shown on the town’s website, those with a 1-inch pipe are paying a base price of $171.83 a month. An 18% rise would increase those bills to $202.75 when the new rates take effect. Under the original plan to spread the remaining increase over three years, those customers would have been paying $182.14.

Those with a 2-inch pipe, who are paying a base price of $532.75, would see their bills jump to $628.64 instead of the $564.76 they would have been paying with the recommended three-year increase.

Customers also are billed for how much water they use. That, too, would increase 18%, according to the rate plan.

Before last year, there hadn’t been a rate increase for 11 years.

During that time, the cost of labor, chemicals, equipment and other expenses skyrocketed, Marmer said.

“When the town finally completed a rate study, it became clear that rates had fallen significantly behind the actual cost of operating the system,” he said. “The increases adopted by the commission were intended to correct that imbalance and put the utility back on a financially sustainable footing.”

The rate study didn’t take into consideration the cost of possible upgrades needed to deal with forever chemicals.

“So, unfortunately (this) will not be the end of rate increases,” Marmer said. 

Sloshing through knee-deep water is commonplace in areas of Briny Breezes during king tides. The flooding is expected to occur starting this month. 2022 The Coastal Star photo 

By Ruth Santana

They’re images coastal residents have gotten used to seeing: Sportsman’s Park in Lantana resembling a lagoon, impassable roads around the Eau Resort and Spa in Manalapan, residents wading through rising waters in Delray Beach, Briny Breezes, Boca Raton — you name the community — to get into their vehicles. 

It isn’t a storm or hurricane that’s typically behind these events.

No, they’re the result of king tides — also known as sunny-day flooding — the higher-than-normal high tides that are possible every fall when a full or new moon is closest to Earth. 

They can cause sea levels to be a foot or more above normal.  

Residents who live along the Intracoastal Waterway or along the coast or canals may face flooding damage from the seasonal events that have gotten worse due to climate change. 

But they might get a break this year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted that this year’s hurricane season will be calmer than normal in the Atlantic Ocean due to El Niño — and the weather pattern could also temper the intensity of this year’s king tides. 

Palm Beach County’s Division of Built Environment Risk Reduction says the 2026 king tides are not expected to reach any flood stage. However, the division singled out two king tide event periods — Oct. 26-29 and Nov. 24-27 — for having the greatest potential for flooding. 

Although it is easy to predict when a king tide will occur due to astronomical alignments, and for research models to determine the baseline of the tide, strong winds or a passing storm can easily turn a minor event into major flooding. 

"Anyone in flood-prone areas should be prepared and should stay alert regardless of the forecast numbers," said Stessy Cocerez, the county's BERR director.

According to the South Florida Water Management District, which uses broader date ranges than the county (which looks at single-day threshholds), the king tide dates for 2026 are: 

• Sept. 8-15

• Sept. 24-Oct. 15

• Oct. 22-Nov. 12

• Nov. 22-29

• Dec. 22-27

Briny Breezes, which has been particularly susceptible to king tides, is taking steps to strengthen its infrastructure and protect against future flooding. The town has been preparing to build a new sea wall and improve its storm water systems.

It has also approved allowing higher home elevations after the Federal Emergency Management Agency updated its regulations for homes in heavy flood zones.  

“The drainage project should start fourth quarter of 2026. … The sea wall will take six months for permits and construction drawings, and afterwards a year and a half to build,” Town Manager Bill Thrasher said.

When asked if the town will be implementing any extra precautions, Thrasher said, “Nothing we can do right now other than encourage people to park in higher locations and encourage residents to implement flood prevention on their own property. It’s not our responsibility to do it for them.”

The  town will continue to implement its usual measures.

“The corporation gives notice of pending high tides and when they are expected to the residents. The police department is notified of parking allowance to avoid ticketing,” Thrasher said in an email.  

Other towns are using social media to keep residents up to date. Ocean Ridge posted on Facebook the expected king tide dates and encouraged residents to take precautions to keep themselves safe. The post ended with “a little preparation and awareness go a long way.” 

Larry Barszewski contributed to this story.