By Brian Biggane

The woman charged in the November hit-and-run death of a South Palm Beach woman has multiple DUI offenses and has been driving without a valid license for the past seven years, according to court documents.

Amneris Ramos, 43, listed as homeless, was booked into the Palm Beach County jail April 16 and charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving death, tampering with physical evidence, and driving with a suspended/revoked license.

Her bond was set at $100,000. She was still incarcerated as of April 25, according to the jail’s online booking blotter. Her arraignment was scheduled for May 2.

According to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office report, Ramos, who was driving a black 2016 GMC Terrain northbound on State Road A1A, struck and killed Hatixhe Laiqi, 73, at 6:03 p.m. Nov. 10, around dusk.

Laiqi, a resident of the nearby Barclay condominium, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The following morning, the report said, a “Good Samaritan” spotted a damaged car parked in Boynton Beach, bearing evidence that it had struck someone, and notified police.

The front driver’s side of the SUV had extensive damage, including to the bumper, headlight, fender, hood, windshield and sideview mirror and was determined to be the same vehicle that struck Laiqi.

The investigating officer said Ramos had wiped down the hood and had thrown the side mirror toward a nearby lake in an attempt to destroy evidence.

Ramos has not been licensed to drive since 2017, the report said. “She has amassed suspensions and revocations for multiple DUI offenses, driving without a license, driving offenses, and failure to pay,” the investigating officer reported.

Palm Beach County court records show Ramos was adjudicated guilty of driving under the influence in May 2021 following an arrest in Boynton Beach a year earlier.

The probable cause affidavit said Ramos admitted to driving the vehicle when the accident occurred.

“She gave specific details, which would have only been known to the driver,” the investigating officer said. “She also described her travel path following the crash. The synopsis of events given by [Ramos] were substantiated by tag readers, video surveillance, and [her] cellular telephone records.”

Speed limit lowered
The hit-and-run upset town residents, who two months later packed a meeting with Florida Department of Transportation engineer Jonathan Overton. The speed limit has since been lowered in the town from 35 mph to 30 mph and several signs have been erected urging drivers to be careful and share the road.

Mayor Bonnie Fischer reported at the Town Council’s April meeting that lowering the A1A speed limit has been well received in town, but there remains a strong desire among residents to install a crosswalk. The town has none.

FDOT has proposed adding one just south of the town line at the north end of Lantana Beach, which would require the cooperation of Lantana. Because Fischer considers the existing crosswalk at the Ocean Avenue intersection to be very dangerous, she spoke to Lantana’s mayor and town manager and “they were very interested” in the idea, she said.

Fischer, Overton and Lantana officials met in late April to further address the issue. Fischer was expected to report on that meeting at the May 14 Town Council meeting.

Regarding the speed limit change, PBSO Sergeant Mark Garrison said the first statistics regarding traffic stops and tickets would also be available at the May meeting.

The body of a 32-year-old man found March 17 on the South Palm Beach shore has been identified and an autopsy report shows that he died of natural causes — an asthma attack.

The body of Maximiliano Lujan-Rodriguez, 32, of Palm Springs, clad in a shirt, shorts, socks and shoes, was found near the Mayfair House Condominiums on the 3900 block of South Ocean Boulevard.

He was found face down in the sand, just beyond the water line, at 7 a.m.

A subsequent toxicology report found that he had no drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of his death. The “punctate abrasions” found on his body were determined to be caused by postmortem contact with the sand, the autopsy report says.

Lujan-Rodriguez, who had turned 32 just seven days prior to his death, had a history of bronchial asthma and often forgot his medicine at home, the autopsy report says.

— Anne Geggis

Legislative wrap-up — State Rep. Mike Caruso and Sen. Bobby Powell, both of whose constituencies include the town, gave a 40-minute report on the recently concluded legislative session at the Town Council meeting in April. While their work was significant — Caruso sponsored seven bills that passed and Powell two — none of it involved the town. Both said they would be willing to pursue funds for the Town Hall project.

Bird sanctuary designation being eliminated — Two ordinances submitted by the Code of Ordinances Committee were approved on first reading without discussion, one of which would repeal a provision designating the town as a bird sanctuary. Committee Chairwoman Elvadianne Culbertson said it never should have been designated as such as it doesn’t meet the necessary criteria.

— Brian Biggane

By Steve Plunkett

With Gulf Stream officials saying they’re close to a deal to get water from Boynton Beach, its longtime supplier Delray Beach has issued a drop-dead date — June 17, 2025 — to get off its system.

Gulf Stream and Boynton Beach elected officials have not approved — or even seen — a proposed contract yet, and connecting the municipalities’ water pipes could take a year or more.

Nevertheless, on April 24, Delray Beach City Manager Terrence Moore sent Gulf Stream a “Notification” by certified mail that the relationship will end next year.

“The town has been on formal notice of the city’s intention not to renew the agreement since May of 2022, if not before. Despite the city’s repeated forewarnings to the town, the town has refused to acknowledge the city’s position and has intentionally failed to take action on behalf of its residents,” Moore said in the letter to Gulf Stream Town Manager Greg Dunham.

Moore alerted Delray Beach city commissioners to his stance in his April 26 weekly update to them, adding that “current and long-term water utility operational functions do not support service delivery to other municipalities.”

With the city starting to design a new water plant, he said, “future accompanying infrastructure and water resources need to likewise support current and future demand solely for the Delray Beach corporate limits.”

Gulf Stream officials did not anticipate Moore’s message.

“It was surprising and inconsistent with the conversations that we’ve had,” Assistant Town Attorney Trey Nazzaro said.

As recently as April 12, Nazzaro had told town commissioners that it looked like the town would renew its 25-year water agreement with Delray Beach. But Dunham and Nazzaro continued to negotiate with Boynton Beach and on April 18 Dunham told Moore that the town planned to switch.

“We’re right on the precipice” of reaching a deal with Boynton Beach, Nazzaro said.

In an interview, Moore said that Delray Beach had “graciously” supplied water for the past two years despite not having an agreement with Gulf Stream.

“I’m very gracious … with everybody, including them,” he said.

But it will take at least 12 months after an agreement with Boynton Beach is signed for new pipes to be installed from Seacrest Boulevard to a Gulf Stream transfer point at the Federal Highway entrance to its Place Au Soleil neighborhood.

“I’m sure we’ll be able to work amicably” with Delray Beach, Nazzaro said.

Gulf Stream would have to pay $2 million for the new connection. It is considering getting a loan for that plus additional millions to finance its ongoing road and drainage projects.

The new arrangement should also provide Gulf Stream residents with better water pressure because the Boynton Beach water plant is closer to the connection point, Nazzaro said.

Moore said Delray Beach anticipates growing by 7,000 more residents, whose water payments will more than offset the money it receives from Gulf Stream’s 660 or so households.

“That’s not a concern,” he said.

Delray Beach has supplied Gulf Stream with water at least since 1976. It also provides fire rescue services for the town and until August 2022 handled its building permits.

Dunham said the first meeting with Moore on the water contract was in August 2022 and that Gulf Stream asked if the city would consider offering a rate less than the 25% surcharge it was collecting. The surcharge is the highest the state allows providers to charge nonresidents.

“The city said the renewal would be at a 25% premium, and encouraged the town to seek a better rate from other water providers,” he said. “It was only at the Delray Beach city manager’s direction that the town started talking with the city of Boynton Beach and its utility department.”

At the April 12 Gulf Stream Town Commission meeting, Nazzaro said Delray Beach is charging the town $3.81 per thousand gallons of water.

“But next year it’ll jump to $4.49 and then the following year to $5.20. So there are some significant jumps because they’re trying to finance the water plant,” he said.

Boynton Beach was talking about a starting rate of $3.75 per 1,000 gallons, Nazzaro said, with increases possible as it improves its infrastructure. That rate would also include the 25% maximum surcharge.

Residents may remember the Bank of America plaza that used to occupy the northeast corner of Ocean Avenue and Federal Highway in Boynton Beach, where this 371-unit mixed-use development is planned. Rendering provided

By Tao Woolfe

Boynton Beach appears poised to approve an imposing 371-unit mixed-use development at the northeast corner of Ocean Avenue and Federal Highway early this month.

The developer also wants the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to approve an $11.5 million subsidy for the project, using tax incentive funding revenues (also called tax increment revenue funding).

The project known as Ocean One, estimated to cost $170 million, is not new to the city. One smaller version proposed several years ago had 358 apartments, 12,075 square feet of retail and a 120-unit hotel.

That proposal was revised last year to one with 371 rental units, 25,000 square feet of retail space, 21,000 square feet of green space, and another 36,000 square feet of sidewalks and paved areas that will include public plazas with outdoor seating.

The complex also will boast a parking garage with 90 spaces set aside for the public, as well as 70 commercial spaces. Too much traffic and too few parking spaces are the two biggest complaints residents lob at city officials whenever new developments are on the horizon.

Those criticisms surfaced again at the April 9 CRA board meeting at which the Ocean One plan was discussed. The board postponed a vote on the matter until a special hourlong CRA meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. May 7— just before a City Commission meeting that same night.

The developer, Miami-based Hyperion Development Group, has asked the CRA for a TIF subsidy up to a maximum amount of $11.5 million over 15 years.

Hyperion has said the property will offer tenants a lap pool, a fitness area, a pickleball court, two public plazas and a courtyard.

Timothy Tack, the CRA’s assistant director, told city commissioners who make up the CRA board that an evaluation done of the developer’s request for TIF funding determined it “appears to be generally in the range of reasonableness.”

TIF payments amount to a portion of the increased taxes accruing from a project’s increasing property values, taxes which under state law are then paid to the CRA. The funding is used by CRAs to pay for additional projects in a designated redevelopment area. Hyperion wants the CRA to use a portion of those revenues generated by its project to subsidize the project’s costs, making the dollars unavailable for other CRA projects.

Bonnie Miskel, attorney for Hyperion, said the developers had been meeting with residents and business owners to hear concerns and work on solutions — especially those centered on parking and amenities.

Miskel has said the developer is not responsible for the city’s parking problems, but his willingness to work with the neighbors resulted in the promise of 90 public spaces and the addition of amenities that everyone can enjoy.

“Let’s be part of the solution. This is a really exciting project,” said Hyperion Chief Executive Officer Rob Vecsler. “We love Boynton Beach.”

But not all the city commissioners seemed convinced of the project’s merits.

“This building does nothing for me in terms of attractiveness,” said Commissioner Woodrow Hay. “I’m not convinced. I want more.”

Commissioner Thomas Turkin agreed.

“We should have negotiated further,” he said, adding that he would like to see a reduction in the TIF amount; public parking spaces preserved in perpetuity; and that residents from nearby Marina Village be given a seat at the negotiating table.

“My biggest fear is that we’re getting something worse” than the earlier proposal, Turkin said.

The public, too, seemed skeptical.

“This project involves more rental and not enough office space,” said longtime resident Susan Oyer. “What does this project add? Where are the jobs and hotels?”
Harry Woodworth, another longtime city resident, said the project should be sexier.

“If you’re going to give that much TIF money, you’ve got to ask them to give something that would make people get off the highway,” Woodworth said. “Get a little more creative.”

In answer to residents’ suggestion that more office space be added, Miskel said office space is languishing on the market these days. She also said the public parking spaces would remain public, unlike some complexes where public parking expires after a set number of years.

Vecsler said he would love to add a hotel, but the financing simply would not work right now. He added that the smaller scale height — eight stories, rather than the 15 stories previously allowed by the downtown zoning code — helped to make the project friendlier.

“It’s a transformative project,” Vecsler said.

Some of the commissioners’ hard feelings about the project stem from the failure of the site under its original owner, Davis Camalier.

Camalier had also negotiated a TIF agreement for his project, but that lapsed after several extensions when he failed to start construction. As a result, the 3.7-acre site has been vacant for years.

In 2018, the CRA sold a half-acre parcel of adjacent land to Camalier for $10. That land, valued now at more than $500,000, allowed the project to extend north to Boynton Beach Boulevard.

The city had negotiated that the developer would, in turn, build a small park on the site, but neither it, nor the apartment complex, ever materialized.

Rena Abrams, age 102, has lived at the Carlisle in Lantana since her husband died in 2010. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Growing up in New Jersey between World War I and World War II, Rena Abrams did just about everything right. She studied hard, earned two college scholarships and worked five jobs to help out her family during the Great Depression.

Then midway through her senior year at the women’s branch of Rutgers University, two girlfriends introduced her to their brother and everything changed.

“When I opened the door, I saw this handsome lieutenant in his officer’s uniform and I thought I would drop, and I just about did,” said Abrams, a 102-year-old resident of the Carlisle in Lantana. “I saw him for the next five days and then he went back to his base in Louisiana.”

He called her on the pay phone in the hallway of her dorm every night and when the holidays rolled around invited her to take the long train ride to visit him in Louisiana. After a week together, he asked her to marry him, and knowing he would soon head off to the South Pacific, she accepted.

“He was in one of the first groups of navigators going over there and at the time half of them were coming back dead, so I decided I couldn’t miss this chance,” Abrams said. “I decided to drop out of school and wait for him and when he came back, if he ever did, we would marry.”

Arthur Lawrence Abrams would go on 26 missions and survive them all. Rena went back home, took midterm exams and then left school to wait. When Abrams returned, they were married and remained so until he died in 2010.

“We had a wonderful life together, a lifelong love affair that never ended,” she said.

The couple had three children, including Nancy Ellen Abrams, a prominent author, Fulbright fellow and Woodrow Wilson designate whose husband is renowned astrophysicist Joel Primack; Judy Hollier, who is a member of the board of directors of a community garden initiative in Philadelphia; and Peter, who works in computers and lives in Philadelphia.

— Brian Biggane

Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A: I grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and went to Battin High School, an all-girls school, and then the women’s school at Rutgers University. My father gave me two dollars every week to live on, so I got five jobs to earn extra money and as a result I wrote my papers at midnight every night and never got to sleep before 2 a.m. My father did well before the Depression, but then it hit and he lost everything, so I needed scholarships to go to school and got them.
I dropped out of college midway through my senior year to get married, but when my youngest child was in kindergarten I went back and finished my degree and also got my master’s in social work and psychology. I thought of going on to get a Ph.D., but it was hard because my husband was a very accomplished lawyer and we had dinner parties and such for his clients. And it was a 45-minute drive each way to Rutgers.

Q: What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: After I got my master’s degree I worked in social services for a number of years. I was a very good social worker, but there’s not too much help you can give your clients. It’s a difficult field.

Q: What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A: Good luck. You have to be lucky to find a job you can live on. I look at all the people who work in our building and they can’t afford to live in this area. They have to drive long distances, way inland, pay for the gas, the time involved. Some commute more than an hour each way. It’s pitiful, bad news. I don’t know what they’re going to do about it.

Q: How did you come to live in Palm Beach/Lantana?
A: We bought a small apartment at the corner of Lake Avenue and A1A in 1982, very close to the ocean. There were no big buildings at that time and we had a great view. On the corner was a Howard Johnson’s, and they made great sandwiches and 36 flavors of ice cream. Our apartment was right next door so it was very convenient.
We had a two-bedroom apartment and all our family and friends wanted to come visit, so we decided we needed a bigger place. We looked up and down the coast and nothing stood out, but they were building a new building, the Oasis, at 3120 S. Ocean Blvd.
We walked in and I thought I would drop dead. It was just spectacular. At that time there was nothing else on the beach. We had the most magnificent view. It was 3,000 square feet, three bedrooms and four bathrooms, and a whole private dining room, and the views were north, south, east and west. ... You could sit on the toilet and watch the sailing ships go by. We lived there until 2010, when my husband died.

Q: What is your favorite part about living in Lantana?
A: Six years before my husband died, he developed dementia and I took care of him. But he was over 6 feet tall and it got to a point I couldn’t do it by myself, so I found a place to take care of him, the Vi at Lakeside Village in Lantana. I could visit him frequently because it was a 10-minute drive. My family worried about me being alone in that 3,000-square-foot place. There were only two apartments on my floor and in the summer the owner of the other one went home, so I would be alone. I decided to move here to the Carlisle because I had friends living here.
I’ve had a wonderful life here since 2010. It’s really beautiful, I’ve got lots of good friends. Now a lot are dead, but I sit at the table with people that I care about. They’ve become part of my family, and I’ve become a part of theirs. And I take Bobbi Horwich’s fitness classes five days a week.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: I read constantly, not with my eyes but my ears. The program Books on Tape is a lifesaver, so I read hundreds of books. My latest was a biography of the actress Hedy Lamarr, who was not only an actress but a brilliant scientist. She was fabulous in the movies, but scientifically she co-created [technology] still used today.

Q: What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?
A: I like classical music. I’m not familiar with most modern music.

Q: Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A: I had a professor in college named Weston La Barre with whom I was very close. He was also a very good friend. When I was deciding whether to leave and get married during my senior year, he sat with me and we analyzed the situation. It was nice to have someone who cared about me that much to help me come to a decision.

Q: If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?
A: I think maybe Meryl Streep. She’s a great actress.

Q: Who/what makes you laugh?
A: Good wit. Having a good sense of humor. I believe I have one. My husband, along with high intelligence, he had both great wit and humor. We had many good laughs together.

By Sallie James

OCEAN RIDGE — Charles L. Lea Jr. was a high-profile venture capitalist whose boyish grin and infectious charm could put anyone at ease. A consummate gentleman with an unusual ability to make others feel heard, Mr. Lea died on April 3 at his home in his sleep after a brief illness. He was 96.

Born on Dec. 2, 1927, in Richmond, Virginia, Mr. Lea grew up in Baltimore, where he graduated from St. Paul’s School. He enlisted in the Army and served overseas in the Pacific at the end of World War II, then headed to college in 1948 after his discharge.

Mr. Lea attended Kenyon College in Ohio, then graduated from Cornell University in 1952. Years later he served as a member of Cornell University alternate investment committee at the Johnson School of Business. He was also a member of the Cornell Council.

Mr. Lea began his business career as an assistant to the president of Bessemer Securities, working in New York City from 1953 to 1961. Then in 1961, Mr. Lea became a partner of F.S. Smithers & Co., where worked until 1969.

In 1970, Mr. Lea became managing director of New Court Securities, the primary investment vehicle for the Rothschild family in the United States. He remained there until he joined Dillon Read in 1981, retiring in the late 1990s.

One of the highlights of his career included bringing Federal Express from a fledgling company through the venture capital process to its first public offering.

He met his wife, Kathleen, at work. They had known each other for years before they married on Dec. 1, 1984. Mr. Lea was an adventurer who loved sailing, golfing and traveling.

He was a true redhead and an impeccable dresser.

“Everybody loved his laughter and loved his smile. He was charming,” Kathleen Lea said. “He tried everything and he was good at everything.”

Mr. Lea was a co-founder of the National Venture Capital Association where he served two terms as president. He was recognized in “Who’s Who in America,” “Who’s Who in Finance and Industry,” and “Who’s Who in Venture Capital.”

He was a former chairman and governor of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland; the former chairman of the investment committee of the Shore Health Systems, a hospital complex in Easton, Maryland, and a member of the investment committee of the Mid-Shore Community Fund. Mr. Lea was also an appointed governor of Washington College, of Chestertown, Maryland.

But despite his impressive, high-profile finance background, Mr. Lea was humble and approachable.

“He was not an intimidating person at all. He was very bright and he was always under the radar. He was not up there in your face,” Kathleen Lea said.

Mr. Lea was beloved in Ocean Ridge, where he and his wife had lived since August 2008. In December 2022, the town issued a proclamation in celebration of his 95th birthday.

“Charles always had this boyish grin and a kind word for everyone. He made everyone feel heard, respected and liked,” said neighbor Kristine de Haseth, a former Ocean Ridge commissioner.

“Whether it was someone new to the island or the trash collector or someone from the Ocean Club who walked their dog regularly on the island. He really tailored his remarks to the person — he would really take the time.”

His wife said their romance ignited one night in New York when he called her up and said he was attending a function and needed a date. The rest was history.

“We traveled a lot. He had to go to Japan several times a year. We went to Africa one time and he went horseback riding. I rode in the jeep and he rode the horse,” she said, laughing.

Another time they went camping in Idaho. The adventures were unforgettable.

Mr. Lea was sharp and engaged to the end.

“The night before he died he talked to a neighbor about local politics,” his wife recalled. “He was always interested in the news and read a lot of books on world wars. He always found common ground with whomever he spoke.”

He is survived by his wife, Kathleen, in Ocean Ridge; two daughters from a previous marriage, Hilary Lea and Emily Lea Boudreault (Stephen); grandchildren Colin Bernard and Catherine Bernard; and niece Elizabeth Oswald.

He was preceded in death by two sisters.

Lorne and Sons Funeral Home in Delray Beach was in charge of arrangements. A celebration of life will be in Newport, Rhode Island, in the fall.

OCEAN RIDGE — Avid skier, gardener and party host Carol Burrow of Ocean Ridge died April 3, surrounded by her husband and children. She was 70.

Born Aug. 15, 1953, in Washington, D.C., she spent most of her life in South Florida and graduated from South Broward High School in 1971.

Mrs. Burrow was married to the love of her life, Bob, for 52 years and together they had two children, Jessica and Andy.

Carol and Bob started their own business where they worked together for 35 years before retiring in 2006.

Mrs. Burrow was a wonderful woman who loved her family and friends dearly. She was known as the “cool” parent and could host one hell of a party. She loved going water- and snow-skiing and was at every sporting event for her kids. She loved to dance and was a great cook. She loved being a member of the McCormick Mile Beach Club as well as the Ocean Ridge Garden Club.

The last 15 years of her life was a tough battle. She fought every day to be here for her family. Her strength and courage were unwavering and truly inspirational.

She is survived by her husband, Bob Burrow; son, Andrew Burrow; daughter, Jessica Helmer; brother, Lee Gantz; and grandchildren Jacob Burrow, Zachary Burrow and Grady Helmer.

— Obituary submitted by the family

By Ron Hayes

DELRAY BEACH — Kathleen Bell was the power behind the phone.

When readers called to report that The Coastal Star had failed to appear in their driveways, she reassured them we would not fail again. When they called to praise us, she passed the praise along. When retailers called to advertise, she connected them with a salesperson.

She ordered our supplies. She made sure everyone got paid.

And when chaos threatened, she remained calm, assisted by Pippi, the office cat.

The paper’s office administrator for the past 10 years, Ms. Bell died April 5. She was 73 and lived in Delray Beach.

“Kathleen brought a much higher level of organization to our bookkeeping and elevated our customer service,” said Jerry Lower, the paper’s publisher. “Occasionally her wry sense of humor would surface and trigger welcome laughter in our little office.”

Ms. Bell was blessed with both a soft voice and a dry wit. When reporters and photographers dropped by the office, she liked to maintain the fiction that the sleeping Pippi was her feline co-worker, reporting with a straight face on the cat’s workload and conversation.

Kathleen Therese Bell was born on June 25, 1950, in Mitchell, South Dakota, and grew up in Florida.

“She was also the keeper of family stories,” recalled her youngest sister, Maureen Kussler.

Their mother missed Kathleen’s high school graduation in Jacksonville because she was busy giving birth to Maureen, 18 years younger, in Fort Myers.

“Kathleen used to say that I was her high school graduation gift,” Kussler said.

She liked chocolate, books and being in charge.

“And she was good at it,” her sister said. “She cultivated many lifelong friendships and was really good at keeping in touch with people.”

Ms. Bell learned the art of telephone diplomacy in the early 1970s, while working as an assistant to editor Malcolm Balfour at The National Enquirer.

“She was the best thing that ever happened to me there,” Balfour recalled. “In those days the paper had a horrible reputation and people didn’t want to talk to us, but she could get anybody on the line. And then she’d demand they be polite. She was just dynamite, and I had the highest respect for her.”

Chip Biays met Ms. Bell in 1981, when she served as matron of honor at his marriage to her best friend, Carol Wershoven, whom she’d met in 1969 while Carol was her teacher at Marymount College, now Lynn University.

“Carol was the only one to call her talented student Kathi,” Biays said, “and both the name and quirky spelling endured.”
Later, Ms. Bell went on to earn a master’s degree in English at Florida Atlantic University, and spent most of her professional career in property management.

“She was as comfortable around the conference table discussing architectural renderings and plat surveys as she was in a graduate seminar or cooking class,” Biays added.

Working for the Arvida real estate corporation in the early 1980s, she met Kathy Assaf when both volunteered at her alma mater.

“We just hit it off,” Assaf said. “We had the same view of life. Both Catholic and very religious and concerned with doing things in a prayerful manner.”

That friendship endured, and when Ms. Bell was released from the hospital after surgery for a benign brain tumor in January 2023, Kathy and her husband, Ron, welcomed her into their Boca Raton home until she’d recovered.

“It was fun, we had a good time,” Assaf recalled. “And then the last time she was in the hospital, near the end, I brought her a rosary from the Holy Land. She had it clutched in her hands and would mumble the prayers along with me.”

Ms. Bell was predeceased by her mother, Cathleen; her father, Michael; and two sisters, Michelle and Suzanne. In addition to Maureen Kussler, she is survived by her sisters Monica and Julie; her brother Geoffrey; several nieces and nephews; and Pippi, the office cat.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 1 p.m. May 3 at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, 840 George Bush Blvd., in Delray Beach.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to any of her favorite charities: Lynn Cancer Center, Lourdes Noreen McKeen Residence, Christ the King Monastery, Fisher House

Foundation, the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County or the Florida Press Foundation Community News Fund.

By Mary Thurwachter

Lantana may allow five-story buildings on Ocean Avenue.

The decision is likely to be considered, at least, in the year ahead as the town grapples with redeveloping downtown, specifically four parcels on the north side of the road owned by sister-and-brother Marsha Stocker and Steven Handelsman.

The topic came up during a visioning session the Town Council and staff had on April 19 at the Finland House. Similar sessions have been held for the past two years and are a way for leaders to focus on priorities in advance of budget discussions.

Town officials have wanted to spruce up Ocean Avenue for years and have been frustrated with the declining condition of the 12 cottages between Oak Street and Lake Drive.

Last September, some progress on the project was reported by Nicole Dritz, Lantana’s development services director, who said the vacant cottages, once home to restaurants and shops, were headed for demolition.

The siblings, who inherited the properties after the death of their parents, Burt and Lucille “Lovey” Handelsman, owe the town more than $850,000 for code violations for the ramshackle buildings. But they’re interested in a land lease and looking for a developer to build a mix of apartments, shops and restaurants.

Being flexible about building heights, the officials say, could be helpful in negotiations with developers.

No votes could be taken at the visioning workshop, but council members agreed by consensus that they were willing to consider bending on the town’s current three-story height limit. Council members also said they would be open to changing parking requirements and will consider forgiving all — or part of — the fines owed.

The council had consensus agreement on several other proposals as well, including looking into a possible land swap with the old bowling alley property owned by developers

Michael and Tony Mauro at 200 N. Third St. and three town-owned properties on the Intracoastal Waterway at 202, 206 and 210 N. Lake Drive. The 1.1-acre Third Street parcel is adjacent to the town library and could be used to build a community/recreation center, Town Manager Brian Raducci said.

“We’re waiting on appraisals and if we want to do this, we may have to take it to the voters,” he said.

If the swap goes through and a recreation center is constructed, the current community center on South Dixie Highway would be redeveloped.

With the new master plan in mind, the town will also look at rebuilding the pavilion and Dune Deck restaurant at the public beach. To that end, the town will investigate private partnerships to help finance the costly project.

A few council members said they would like to explore construction of a fishing pier, although Town Attorney Max Lohman warned permits may be difficult to secure and that the town may need to redo its charter.

Other proposals up for consideration include adding docks at Sportsman’s Park, bringing in a kayak vendor at Lyman Kayak Park, expanding library hours to include Saturdays, adding a splash pad at Maddock Park or Bicentennial Park, resurfacing stamped concrete sidewalks on Ocean Avenue, and adding lighting to the beach parking lot.

By Mary Thurwachter

As Lantana’s population ages, the number of people with Alzheimer’s who leave their homes and wander aimlessly is on the rise, too, Police Chief Sean Scheller says.

Finding those folks quickly and returning them to safety is a concern for his department, which just received a new tool in that effort.

Last month, the Town Council agreed to purchase an Axon Air Skydio drone for $26,598. The funds will come from American Rescue Plan Act money.

Finding lost elderly people isn’t the only way Scheller said his department will utilize the equipment.

“The uses of this drone will be monumental,” he said. “We can also use it when looking for a fleeing felon and other dangerous individuals, and also monitoring community events in our town.”

The drone will be helpful for emergency management, too, he said. “If we know a storm is coming, we could use drones to go around and take videos on town properties before and after the storm.”

Two officers are licensed to operate law enforcement drones.

In addition to the drone, the police will get 50 Motorola Interoperability radios for $381,091. ARPA funds are also being used for this purchase.

The radios will replace outdated handheld radios that are out of warranty.

By Anne Geggis

An estate that fetched the heftiest sum ever paid for a Florida residence — and was bought by the world’s fifth-wealthiest person — likely will be getting two new buildings and losing another.

The Manalapan Town Commission unanimously agreed to allow the owner of 2000 S. Ocean Blvd. to proceed with plans to tear down a boathouse and build two, two-story structures — a 10,000-square-foot “guest house” and a studio of nearly 4,000 square feet. The two-parcel lot totals nearly 23 acres, including a 7-acre sanctuary known as Bird Island.

The property has been known as “Gemini” and the “Ziff estate” in the past.

The main house is a 52,396-square-foot structure — roughly 21,000 square feet of it under air — that dates back to the 1940s. The house is unique in Manalapan because it is situated on both sides of State Road A1A.

Three tunnels go under the road to connect parts of the house split by the road. It wouldn’t be allowed to be built today, said Matthew Scott, a lawyer with Greenspoon Marder LLP, representing the owner.

The main house’s position on both sides of the road triggers an automatic requirement that a variance from town development rules be sought any time that changes to the current setup are proposed, according to town officials. The plans also include a detailed inventory of the property’s trees and plans to relocate existing Copernicia palms.

“Our client purchased the property with an eye of being a good steward over the property, improving it,” Scott said. “And so this is a first step in that larger stewardship goal.”

The ocean-to-Intracoastal Waterway property is owned by Florida Realty LLC, according to records. The company, however, has the same California address as the Larry Ellison Foundation. Ellison is the founder and chief technology officer of the software giant Oracle.

Since 2022 when he bought the estate, Ellison, said to be worth some $142 billion, has advanced from eighth-wealthiest person in the world to fifth wealthiest, according to Forbes magazine.

The results of his upgrades to the property will be out of sight, Scott promised.

“The property section is below the grade of the road — something else that could never be done today,” Scott said.

As a result, Scott said, “nothing will be visible to the town or the neighborhood for that matter.”

No questions were asked of those representing the applicant and the variance was approved without any discussion among the commissioners.

The proposal now advances through the regular building approval process.

Bridge-raising changes sought — Assistant Town Manager Eric Marmer said he would ask the U.S. Coast Guard to confine raising of the Ocean Avenue Bridge in Lantana to scheduled times and halt boats weekdays during morning rush, 7 to 9 a.m., and late afternoon, 4 to 6 p.m. He said the traffic snarls from the raising of the bridge could have emergency vehicles stuck in traffic and unable to attend to an emergency over the bridge.

Bicycle packs policed — Town police conducted bicycle traffic enforcement on four consecutive weekends from March 23 to April 14 and issued a few citations and a half dozen warnings for those not following the law. Hundreds of cyclists were observed those weekends following the law correctly, moving into single file when vehicles approached them from behind, according to reports.

Two warnings were given to people who said they were from abroad and were not familiar with the correct side for cyclist traffic.

The patrols were done in response to “constant” complaints about the bicycling packs, said Police Chief Carmen Mattox.

— Anne Geggis

By Steve Plunkett

Briny Breezes Inc. will pay 70% of the cost of police and fire rescue services in the next budget year, just like it has this year.

Susan Brannen, president of the corporation’s board, told town aldermen at their April 25 meeting that her board unanimously approved repeating the financial arrangement “in exchange for a lower millage rate.”

“Just wanted to let you know,” Brannen said.

“This is what we asked for, so we should be happy,” Alderwoman Kathy Gross said.

“I’m happy,” Town Manager Bill Thrasher responded.

Thrasher had said at the March meeting that he planned to keep the tax rate the same as this year’s $3.75 per $1,000 of taxable value. If that rate is eventually adopted, the owner of a mobile home valued at $150,000 would pay $562.50 in property taxes.

It’s early in the budget cycle though, with the aldermen planning to have their first budget workshop in June and approving a final property tax rate in September.

The money juggling does not translate into savings for residents. Briny Breezes Inc., the co-op that leases land to the mobile homeowners, will again offset the 70% pledge by charging residents higher annual assessments.

Last fall was the first time since 2009 that the town did not levy $10 per $1,000 of taxable value, the maximum allowed by state law. The maneuver will give Briny Breezes room to raise taxes, perhaps back to the $10 rate, to repay millions of dollars in loans it expects to take out to finance sea walls, drainage improvements and new streets to fight sea-level rise.

In prior years, the town used the maximum tax rate to enable residents to take a higher deduction on their federal tax returns.

At the meeting, aldermen also accepted the 2023 annual audit of the town’s finances by accounting firm Caballero Fierman Llerena + Garcia LLP.

“Overall a clean report. Nothing of significance to report today,” said Andrew Fierman, one of the firm’s partners.

The first of the 14 homes in the Bluewater Cove development sold in March for $4.8 million. Photo provided

By Christine Davis

The 14-home Bluewater Cove development on the north edge of Gulf Stream’s Place Au Soleil has notched its first sale, and at least five more properties are spoken for.

Off the market is 2911 Bluewater Cove, on the north side of the street just past the entrance. County property records show the sale took place on March 13 and was recorded on March 19 with a price of $4.8 million.

“Buyers have moved in and are loving it there,” co-listing agent Linda Lake of Corcoran Group’s Delray Beach office said in an email. The single-story, Bahama-style home has 4 bedrooms, 4½ baths and a 2½-car garage.

Also off the market at Bluewater Cove are both properties on the Intracoastal Waterway. Lake said the two parcels are “under agreement” with construction starting in approximately six months. A new sea wall will be coming soon, she said.

And there are reservation agreements on three dry-lot properties, she said, with clients working with the developer on their interior design selections.

Lake said the model home next door at 2913 Bluewater Cove is being furnished with completion expected in June.

The builders anticipate starting on four new spec homes in late May with completion dates approximately 12 months from the start date, Lake said.

The spec homes already are listed with asking prices of $4.04 million to $4.07 million. Bluewater Cove is to the east of Federal Highway, just north of Gulfstream Boulevard.

Lake and Corcoran colleague Kelley Johnson represented seller Bluewater Cove-Gulf Stream LLC; LoKation agent Alexandria Lopresto represented buyer Augustus Sun LLC of Chelsea, Michigan.

— Steve Plunkett

***

Boynton Bay Preservation, part of Related Group, sold Boynton Bay Apartments, 1785 NE Fourth St., Boynton Beach, for $53 million. The buyer is Boynton Bay Apartments LLC, an affiliate of Delray Beach-based Smith & Henzy Advisory Group.

The Boynton Bay Apartments affordable housing community, with 18 two-story buildings comprising 240 apartments, was built on the 21.4-acre site in 1991. It last traded for $48 million in 2022. The Housing Finance Authority of Palm Beach County provided the buyer with a $47.35 million mortgage with an 18-year maturity and a $10.65 million mortgage with a 2.5-year maturity. 

***

Mikhail Avrutin, owner of the Baltic Hotel Group, which operates hotels in Eastern Europe, and Olga Avrutin Schackler, a marketing executive at L’Oreal, sold their 9,692-square-foot home at 444 E. Alexander Palm Road, Boca Raton, for $28.45 million.

The new owner is a trust named for the address, with Boston attorney Brian Monnich as trustee. In the Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club along the Intracoastal Waterway, this new home was developed by Sarkela Corp. and designed by architect Randall Stofft and Firm D Editors. Adam Elmer Jr. and Marie Mangouta, of Fortune Christie’s International Real Estate’s the Worth Group, represented both the buyer and seller.

***

A new spec home on the Intracoastal Waterway at 480 E. Alexander Palm Road in the Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club, Boca Raton, sold for $26.5 million. The seller, represented by David W. Roberts of Royal Palm Properties, was 480 East Alexander Palm Road Trust, with attorney Jay M. Sakalo as trustee. The buyer, represented by Ina Bloom of Compass, is 480 EA Land Trust, with Robert G.W. Laute of New Jersey as trustee. The 8,921-square-foot, six-bedroom home was developed by SRD Building Corp., with P&H

Interiors as the interior designer. The lot was purchased for $7.75 million in 2022.

***

G. Robert Sheetz, a member of the family that owns the Sheetz convenience store chain, sold a six-bedroom, 10,673-square-foot home at 415 E. Alexander Palm Road in the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, Boca Raton, for $25.92 million.

It was purchased by the Source Energy 111 Florida Land Trust, with West Palm Beach attorney Tasha K. Dickinson as trustee. David W. Roberts of Royal Palm Properties brokered the deal.

Built along a canal leading to the Intracoastal Waterway by Gulf Stream-based Wietsma Lippolis Construction, the home features a six-car garage, two reflecting pools, a club room with a bar, a 900-bottle wine room, an infinity-edge pool, an elevator, a firepit, a summer kitchen and a dock.

Sheetz still owns the home at 1992 Royal Palm Way, which is listed as his homestead property.

***

Michael Henning Tuchen, the CEO of San Francisco-based facial-recognition company Onfido, and his wife, Sarasina Okiani Tuchen, sold their ocean-to-Intracoastal Waterway home at 973 Hillsboro Mile, Hillsboro Beach, for $18.4 million. The purchaser is Real Estate 1925 Land Trust, with Martina Velez in Hollywood as trustee. Chad Carroll with the Carroll Group at Compass represented the seller in the deal, while Svetlana Izgarsheva with Miami VIP Realty worked with the buyer. The five-bedroom, 10,846-square-foot home features a club room, a golf simulator, a wine cellar, a fitness room, a summer kitchen, a pool and a 70-foot dock with a boat lift. It last traded for $16.59 million in 2021.

***

New data from researchers at Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University indicates overvalued housing prices in many markets in the country are starting to decline and move toward stabilization.

But South Florida — Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties — remains an area of concern, with housing prices continuing to trend up, as shown in the universities’ Top 100 U.S. Housing Markets monthly index.

Of the top 100 metros measured, “South Florida is exhibiting something that the other housing markets are not,” said Ken H. Johnson, Ph.D., real estate economist in FAU’s College of Business. “Area home prices are rising faster than normal. Over the past several months prices are once again on the path for double-digit annual appreciation.”

This fact is compounded by two additional worries, he added. “Rents are flattening out while home prices are going up and that should not be happening. Flattening or lowering rents favor lower home valuations.

Also, the price-to-rent ratio — that’s the average price of the typical home in an area divided by the annual rent of that property — is very high, favoring renting over ownership, all else equal. When you combine these three things, it makes me worry about home prices in the area.

“Do I think we will have a significant crash? No. But I do expect a correction. It is very likely area prices will experience minimum property price appreciation or even slight price declines in the near future. This slowdown will eventually bring home prices back in line with the area’s long-term pricing trend.

“Something is currently amiss in the South Florida market. Perhaps there are issues with the data — missing transactions or inaccurate rents. But this seems unlikely.”

Johnson believes that rather than buying a home now, it might be better to wait.

“Renting and reinvesting typically outperforms buying and building equity in a home, but not by very much. Thus, it might be wise for families in South Florida to consider renting and reinvesting monies that they would otherwise have invested into homeownership at this point.”

***

The exterior of Beach House Gift Boutique has a tropical coastal feel. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Janet Kysia Nadeau and her husband, Deziel Nadeau, owners of Boynton Beach’s A Pink Princess, a boutique in a pink-painted building that carried toys, dolls and some girls’ apparel, have renovated their 1930s-era building and opened their new business as a coastal-colored retail store, Beach House Gift Boutique.

Located in the same historic building at 1120 S. Federal Highway, their store now carries women’s clothing, shoes and jewelry, as well as tropical gifts and coastal home goods curated by Kysia Nadeau, who is a longtime retailer.

“I have a love for coastal products and I think the women in the area have a need for them,” Kysia Nadeau says.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. For more information, visit https://beachhousegiftboutique.com.

People knew A Pink Princess, which opened in 2000, as “the pink house north of Woolbright,” Kysia Nadeau said.

Earlier businesses at this location, according to Janet DeVries Naughton, past president and archivist of the Boynton Beach Historical Society, included the Lee Manor Inn bed-and-breakfast (circa 1935), a branch of Boca Raton Federal Savings & Loan (1975), and Era United Realty (1990s).

“The three-story building was originally the main dining room for Roland and Elsie Owens’ Depression-era Lee Manor Inn,” DeVries Naughton said. “The expansive property with seasonal rental cottages extended from U.S. 1 to the Intracoastal Waterway and had its own orange grove.

“It was an old-time Florida tourist court and has long served as a landmark in Boynton, with its signature banyan trees. The neighborhood to the east and Colonial Center to the south were all part of the original lush property. Mr. Owens’ daughter, Alice, married Paul Dreher, namesake of the Palm Beach Zoo at Dreher Park.”

***

Roomeightstudio.com, an online boutique offering a collection of clothing, jewelry, home accessories and skin care products, has opened its first brick-and-mortar location in a 1,000-square-foot space at 325 NE Second Ave., Delray Beach.

Founder Ashley Catronio’s curated denim collection includes brands such as Citizens of Humanity, Moussy Vintage and Amo.

The Room Eight Studio store also carries jewelry by Zoe Lev, Agent Nateur skin-care products, and Madeworn T-shirts. Pledged to a climate commitment, the store is establishing its own carbon-neutral shipping processes for online orders.

Room Eight Studio is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more info, call 561-908-2448 or visit www.roomeightstudio.com.

***

BrandIt Hospitality’s Bounce Sporting Club debuted in Delray Beach in March.

Designed by Garrett Singer Architecture + Design and located at Delray Beach Market, Bounce occupies more than 5,000 square feet, accommodating 300 guests indoors and 100 on its outdoor patio. It is a combination sports bar, restaurant and nightclub.

Executive Chef Sean Olnowich’s menu features a refined twist on modern American cuisine, with dishes like mac-and-cheese bars, local wahoo ceviche, Bounce Smash Burger, and its signature wings, complemented by six house-made sauces.

Bounce Sporting Club is at 33 SE Third Ave. Hours are Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. For more info, visit https://bouncesportingclub.com/delray.

***

Boca Raton-based Windward Risk Managers, the management company behind Florida Peninsula and Edison insurance companies, launched Ovation Home Insurance Exchange in April.

“Ovation will be greatly beneficial for both homeowners and agents in Florida, by providing new dedicated capital, additional capacity, and coverage options for Floridians at competitive prices,” said Paul Adkins, CEO of Ovation.

The company planned to start selling policies through its existing agents across Florida in the second quarter of 2024. It also plans to participate in Citizens Property Insurance Corp.’s clearinghouse program, which was designed to encourage policyholders to seek coverage from private insurers rather than relying on Citizens for coverage.

***

DigitalBridge, a digital infrastructure investment firm, is moving its corporate headquarters with 300 employees, from 750 Park of Commerce Drive, No. 210, Boca Raton, to the Sundy Village campus and has leased a 79,141-square-foot office at 100 SE First Ave., Delray Beach. DigitalBridge’s building is scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Send business news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com.

By Brian Biggane

Long after being identified by authorities, the driver of the car involved in a fatal hit-and-run crash in South Palm Beach was booked into the Palm Beach County jail Tuesday morning.

Amneris Ramos, 43, of Boynton Beach was charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving the death of another, tampering with physical evidence and driving with license under suspension.

A Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office investigation determined South Palm Beach resident Hatixhe Laiqi, 73, was crossing State Road A1A around dusk on Nov. 10 when Ramos, driving a 2016 or 2017 GMC Terrain in the northbound lane, crashed into her. Ramos fled the scene but was identified within days.

Laiqi was pronounced dead at the scene, just north of the Barclay condominium where she lived, and the incident resonated with residents, who packed a meeting with a Florida Department of Transportation engineer two months later. The speed limit has since been lowered in the town from 35 mph to 30 mph and several signs have been erected urging drivers to be careful and share the road.

Efforts to install a crosswalk at the south end of town are ongoing.

Police and emergency rescue officials at the scene of the Jan. 4 crash on State Road A1A in Gulf Stream. The driver of the 2020 Kia Soul (right) crossed over the center line and hit a pack of cyclists heading in the other direction. Photo provided

By Anne Geggis

The three traffic citations a Lantana woman received after driving her 2020 Kia Soul into a pack of cyclists on State Road A1A in Gulf Stream in January — injuring three critically — won’t leave any marks on her driving record after a judge dismissed them April 3.

The judge’s ruling came after the Florida Highway Patrol officer who wrote the tickets for Betty Ann Ruiz, 77, did not appear for the April 3 hearing. The dismissed citations would have carried a $116 fine for failing to have proof of insurance, $166 for driving unknowingly with a suspended license and $166 for failing to keep to a single lane.

A report on the crash shows that Ruiz was not tested for drugs or alcohol after the incident. It attributed the crash to “seizure, epilepsy, blackout.” Ruiz, who court records say attended both a March 20 pretrial hearing and the April 3 hearing, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Five people were taken to the hospital as a result of the crash and the sheer number of casualties prompted a discussion throughout the coastal areas about the tight space drivers and cyclists share. Several municipalities have pledged to find a way to make the scenic route safer for cyclists.  

One of those critically injured, Diego Rico, 37, of Coconut Creek, said that no investigators contacted him to hear his view of the crash that broke his femur, dislocated his shoulder and shattered his pelvis. He expects that his injuries will keep him out of work for another two months.

“Literally, they are leaving us with nothing,” said Rico, who had 20 stitches to his knee and 39 staples to his hip and racked up medical bills totaling more than $1 million.

An FHP spokeswoman referred questions about Trooper Andy Ong’s absence from court and the citations’ dismissal to the State Attorney’s Office [Update: On Wednesday, the FHP spokeswoman said she was later told by Ong's supervisor that Ong was on approved leave the day of the hearing]. A spokesman for State Attorney David Aronberg said that the office doesn’t get involved in noncriminal cases.

The crash report on the Jan. 4 predawn incident found that Ruiz was heading south when she crossed the center line of North Ocean Boulevard alongside the Gulf Stream Golf Club course.

The most severely injured person had to be revived before being taken to Delray Medical Center via the county’s medical helicopter. He was released from the hospital nearly two months after the crash and has not fully regained his ability to walk and talk, Rico said.

Rico said that Ruiz has never contacted him or any of his fellow bicycle club members. He was part of the club Galera do Pedal, which is Portuguese for “Pedal Guys,” that regularly cycles along A1A from Deerfield Beach to Lake Worth.

“She never tried to get in touch with us or say or do anything,” Rico said. “She’s acting like she’s not at fault.”

That Ruiz is not being held responsible in any way rankles Michael Simon, president of the Boca Raton Bicycle Club.

“It should be taken seriously, especially with something like this,” said Simon, whose law practice is focused on civil litigation and corporate transactions. “Even if she had a medical incident. She shouldn’t have been on the road to begin with.

“She shouldn’t have been driving with a suspended license — we learn that in driving school,” Simon said. 

By Rich Pollack

A year-long State Road A1A improvement project through Highland Beach and part of southern Delray Beach has been delayed and now isn’t expected to start until late May or early June.

In an email to elected officials in both municipalities sent out late Friday, Florida Department of Transportation officials said that the $3.3 million project was expected to begin this month but was delayed and rescheduled “based on the latest coordination with the contractor.”

The project, which is expected to result in major traffic delays, will now most likely continue through summer of next year and perhaps longer.

Included in the project is the repaving and widening of A1A from Linton Boulevard to the Boca Raton line. It will also include 5-foot-wide bicycle lanes on both sides and significant drainage improvements through much of Highland Beach. 

One area where the improvement will be most noticeable will be at the intersection of A1A and Linton Boulevard.

For years, Highland Beach leaders and residents have complained about the lengthy backups caused by a long line of cars turning onto the Linton Boulevard bridge from northbound A1A.

The new project will more than triple the length of the left-turn lane from 75 feet to 275 feet.  The turn lane now accommodates only about three cars. That will expand to about 11 cars once the work at the intersection is complete, meaning that few cars will be blocking traffic heading north through the intersection, FDOT representatives say.

Highland Beach Town Manager Marshall Labadie believes that while there will be much disruption, there will also be visible benefits once the project is complete.

“My hope is that all the frustration resident experience will be well worth it when we have a newly paved road, a better intersection at Linton Boulevard and improved drainage,” Labadie said.

Delray Beach police search Black men parked at the beach in 1956. Officials did not allow Black people on city beaches until 1962, slowly relenting in the face of negative national publicity. Photo provided by Delray Beach Historical Society

How coastal cities have dealt with written remnants of Jim Crow era

By Anne Geggis

Laws that kept Black residents separate were recently found still on the books in South County, leading Boynton Beach to a symbolic ordinance-burning and Delray Beach to considering how to banish the ghosts of its segregationist past.

This comes decades after Delray Beach stopped using a portion of Ocean Ridge for Black bathers to take a dip because they were restricted from city beaches. It’s happening 51 years after court supervision of Palm Beach County school integration efforts ended.

But debate remains about whether sanitizing city codes is anything more than an empty gesture. In Boca Raton, the discriminatory ordinances disappeared back in the 1990s with no notice taken at all.

Boynton Beach residents gathered in February to march to Sara Sims Park for the burning of copies of three racist ordinances. Photo provided by City of Boynton Beach

Boynton Beach Ordinance 37 and Ordinance 47, both passed in 1924, defined a “Negro District” and a “White District.” Another, 1933’s Ordinance 136, kept Black residents from crossing certain boundaries at night — a “sundown law” that bears a resemblance to rules passed in thousands of other U.S. municipalities, according to scholarly research.

The three discriminatory laws were discovered during a series of community forums.

“I could not believe they hadn’t been repealed already,” said Boynton Beach Mayor Ty Penserga, recalling what came out of forums funded by the Unity Project of the Mellon Foundation, and the subsequent research into the history that activists and senior citizens recalled.

Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, routinely tells his students to read a city charter from back to front and write about what they find.

The exercise sometimes yields surprises, he said.

“What makes this stand out is that we’re now so far into the Civil Rights era that it is somewhat shocking that this wasn’t discovered at some point before,” Jewett said.

Delray Beach sundown law
Delray Beach also had a sundown law passed in 1938 that originally kept Black people west of Northwest/Southwest Third Avenue, according to Delray Beach Historical Society research. The sundown law was repealed in 1963, but an earlier law, passed in 1935, was recently found on the books as city staff investigated the possibility of designating Frog Alley — a neighborhood Black pioneers settled that runs south of Atlantic Avenue between Southwest Sixth and Southwest Fourth avenues — a historical district.

That law, Delray’s Resolution 146, designated Swinton Avenue as the dividing line for where people were limited from occupying buildings, based on race, except for servants’ quarters. And no repeal of it could be found, according to Michelle Hoyland, principal planner for the historic preservation division of the Planning and Zoning Department.

“It says … there was no business to be completed by Black folk on the east side of Swinton … no buildings to be owned,” Hoyland told the City Commission at a Feb. 20 workshop meeting. “This to me is something that’s unacceptable, but I think it’s great that it’s been uncovered so we can give it the attention that it deserves.”

A historian’s perspective
Susan Gillis, curator at the Boca Raton Historical Society, said cities throughout the area passed the same sorts of laws, especially in the 1930s and 1940s.

“The thought, going along with the Chamber of Commerce, was that this is what our visitors want,” she said. Places like Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale also allowed the recording of property deeds with restrictions that the property never be sold to Jews.

And, during that period, it wasn’t unusual to see a hotel advertised as “restricted” — meaning not open to Jewish people, Gillis said.

These practices and racially restrictive ordinances were rendered unenforceable by federal laws. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and then the Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Still, Boynton Beach’s willingness to confront the remnants of its racist past brings it a little closer to realizing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream, said Bryce Graham, vice president of the Florida chapter of the National Action Network, speaking at a Feb. 20 Boynton Beach City Commission meeting.

“Out of a mountain of despair comes a stone of hope,” Graham said, quoting King. “And so this gives this community hope.”

Other speakers see an empty gesture in purging what are already remnants of another time. Some speakers at a March 5 meeting suggested Delray Beach write an apology.

“I want you to acknowledge that strategic or structural racism is not a thing of the past,” said resident Chuck Ridley, 66, who has worked on the West Atlantic Redevelopment Coalition and other grassroots organizations. “The fact that government bodies no longer can legally discriminate does not mean institutional racism has ended.”

Mayor Shelly Petrolia said she agreed that the city did need to do more, a sentiment her colleagues echoed.

“We would be making a decision on the fly tonight and I don’t know that would be appropriate for something as important as this,” Petrolia said.

Whatever happens in Delray Beach, Charlene Farrington doesn’t see cause for celebration, like the block party that Boynton Beach had for burning copies of its three ordinances on Feb. 24 at Sara Sims Park.

“I don’t see it (repeal) as an accomplishment,” said Farrington, executive director of the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum. “I see it as something that never should have happened in the first place. But it did. And now it’s time for those who can … to put it in its place in history … like racism and Confederate statues and slavery. It belongs in history.”

‘That wall’ in Boca Raton
Ironically enough, Boca Raton’s code that confined its Black population was repealed without any discussion of its significance. If a 1956 rewriting of the city zoning code didn’t do it, Ordinance 3971, passed in 1991, did. It states that any past ordinance not included in the new code was hereby repealed — and that one was not included.

Steven Abrams was deputy mayor on the Boca Raton City Council back then and just starting his political career.

“I would’ve made a speech, I would have been loving it,” he said. “I’m glad we caught it then and it’s being recognized now.”

Still, relics of the line Black residents were not supposed to cross remain on the landscape — walls in both Delray Beach and Boca Raton still mark the divisions of the past. Marie

Hester was born in Boca Raton’s Pearl City, and few of the Pearl City residents she’s known over her 76 years recognized that the wall was backed by words written in an ordinance.

The wall is still there behind industrial buildings at the corner of Northeast 15th Terrace and Dixie Highway.

The same kind of wall along Lake Ida Road behind Mike Machek Boy Scout Park once stood for the same reason in Delray Beach, Farrington said. The walls were concrete reminders of the enforced separation.

“People were afraid of that wall,” said Hester, who returned to Boca Raton after decades of working in federal agencies, including the Library of Congress. “Your parents would tell you, ‘Stay away from the wall.’”

Now, as of last December, Pearl City is listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service. And the wall is going to stay as a reminder, Hester said.

“Of what my grandparents came through,” she said.

Jordan Nichols and Bill Simons gauge the plan’s suggested channel as too shallow. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

After plan blindsides Hypoluxo Island, lagoon project won’t touch channel after all

By Mary Thurwachter

Bonefish Cove, a long-planned effort to bring a chain of three mangrove islands and oyster reefs to the central Lake Worth Lagoon, encountered stormy waters last month. The stir-up occurred just as construction was about to begin — after some Hypoluxo Island residents realized the project could cut off their boating access to the Intracoastal Waterway.

After serious discussions among state, federal and Palm Beach County officials — as well as the residents on Hypoluxo Island’s northeast side who will be affected by the project — calm has been restored and the project is moving forward. The center island, which would have been built directly over the channel used for decades by the residents, is being removed from the plans, officials said.

The project, a partnership between the county and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will create valuable habitat for flora and fauna that had otherwise been lost or degraded because of past dredge and fill activities, stormwater discharges and shoreline hardening. The islands — named Bonefish Cove after a popular fish that recently returned to the area due to previous county restoration projects — will be formed using 320,000 cubic yards of sand from Peanut Island.

Although the plan has been brewing for years, it took until mid-February for residents of Hypoluxo Island to get wind of it via a flyer sent to their homes.

Boaters were outraged when they realized the project, about a half mile in length and directly north of Hypoluxo Island, would take away their navigational access to the Intracoastal.

Among homeowners spurred into action was former Lantana Mayor Dave Stewart, who reached out to Town Manager Brian Raducci.

Raducci was unaware of Bonefish Cove, but he contacted county and Army Corps officials to set up a Feb. 29 workshop, giving them a chance to detail the $15 million project and residents an opportunity to air concerns.

The Town Hall meeting was flooded with unhappy residents.

Some worried about a reduction in water velocity and accumulation of more sedimentation in the shallow waters along the shoreline on the northeast side of the island.

Larry Robbins, nicknamed “The Dock Man,” said he built most of the docks in the area and feared the lessening of volume of water coming in and out of the channel. “It really gets choked up at Ocean Avenue,” he said. “You’ve got to keep that area from turning into a sewer.”

Matt Mitchell, county division director for environmental enhancement and restoration, said the project was designed “to provide more sea grass habitat, and there are insular benefits to the water quality.”

“Erosion, shoaling, navigation, all these things are included in the permit process,” Mitchell said. “The islands have a limestone rock ring around them. We would not expect that this material migrates closer to the Intracoastal or east closer to the island.”
But the residents’ main concern was the loss of the passageway to the Intracoastal.

“This is a small community focused on water activities,” said Robert Banting. “Fishing is sort of our theme for the town. Tonight’s crowd is evidence that whatever’s been done — and what you did may have complied with your requirements — was inadequate to inform the people who are going to be affected. We support the environmental benefits of this project, but we don’t support taking away people’s access to the Intracoastal.”

Banting said there had to be “a solution that doesn’t eliminate the environmental benefits and also gives people the right that they had for many years to continue access to the Intracoastal.”

Mitchell said the county had done extensive study and determined that the mangrove islands weren’t going to preclude anyone from getting into and out of the Intracoastal.

“I understand from some comments we’ve received and some phone calls that there may be a historic, preferred route directly across from La Renaissance, but that was not a marked channel or anything that was included in any sort of review,” Mitchell said. “When we went through the process, we were diligent in looking at depth, in looking at navigational concerns and without a marked, known channel, the determination was ‘yes, there are islands coming here, but there is area to the north of the islands that would still allow anyone behind the islands to ingress and egress to the Intracoastal.’”

Jordan Nichols used PVC pipe marked at 1-foot increments to demonstrate the shallow depth of the edge of the alternate access channel first proposed for the project.

Boaters’ concerns
Mitchell’s argument didn’t hold water with the residents. Their point of entry to the Intracoastal is what they call La Renaissance channel, directly west of the Palm Beach condo with the same name. Plans called for the middle of the three islands to be built directly over La Renaissance channel.

Bill Simons and his son Hal have been using the channel since 1996. Simons said he was shocked when he received the flyer two weeks before construction was originally scheduled to start. He recognized what the center island would mean to boaters — losing deep-water access to the Intracoastal. He and neighbor Jordan Nichols, a retired civil engineer who once worked for the South Florida Water Management District, went door to door to sound the alarm.

“Right now, we have a channel over 100 feet wide with no navigational hazard,” Nichols said. “What the county is telling us is our access is up to the north. I scaled it off with bathometric maps and the (northern) channel is only 15 feet wide and it has rocks on both sides, so it’s a true hazard.”

Nichols and others filed petitions with the South Florida Water Management District requesting an administrative hearing to challenge the state permit for the work. But some of those petitions were denied because the requests came after the deadline. The notice for the plan was not published in The Palm Beach Post until March 2, and Nichols sent his request on Feb. 29. But the water management district initially maintained the public notice was the Feb. 14 flyers.

Impact on property values
Stuart Fain, who lives on Hypoluxo Island, said the island has many homes on the east side north of Ocean Avenue and that the loss of Intracoastal access would greatly reduce property values. He met with residents who talked about hiring a lawyer but who held off and were “politely working” with the county. He also reached out to U.S. Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio of Florida.

At a March 22 meeting involving Deb Drum, director of the county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management, county administrators, biologists and engineers and a handful of residents, Fain saw that polite worked.

Here is Simons’s assessment of what transpired.

“After dismissing 5-6 letters (petitions for administrative hearings) on grounds of missing the required deadline, they accepted the fact that the public notice in The Palm Beach Post was on March 2, 2024, and the letters indeed were timely,” Simons explained. “Forcing a hearing would have put in jeopardy the whole project and, of course, the loss of federal money that was funding the project.”

(Residents who asked for hearings have been asked to withdraw the requests.)

“They offered to save the channel and instructed the Corps of Engineers to leave a 125-foot-wide channel unfilled,” Simons said. “They will redraw the islands not to lose any square footage by changing the two outer islands’ size. They will begin filling the northern island first until they redraw the site. There shouldn’t be any disruption of navigation during construction.”

Simons said officials “were surprisingly accommodating as I thought they were going to try to stick to the original plan.”

Drum, in an email to The Coastal Star, said the officials looked for an option that would help to keep the project on track while maintaining the current navigation pathway that residents use.

She said the county has sent a letter to the Army Corps requesting that it sequence the current project to not put any fill in the area identified by the neighbors as their navigation pathway until there is a redesign of the project to avoid that area. 

While Drum wrote that some administrative and technical discussions are still needed with the Corps, “we are confident that we will be able to satisfactorily go through that process to result in a project that meets all of our habitat and resiliency goals while maintaining the navigational pathway that the neighbors have used in the past up to now.”

Reactions to the resolution
“The islanders affected are ecstatic, as you can imagine.” Simons said. “I had already arranged a Tampa law firm specializing in this to represent us pending the results of the [March 22] meeting. It was going to be quite an expense.”

Fain said the state “was fair with us as they should be. We were happy to have U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and Congressman Brian Mast behind us. Jordan Nichols’ knowledge of the system was priceless. Hats off to him. My wife, Martha Fain, was the catalyst to bringing Sen. Scott and Rep. Brian Mast on board.

“This was a victory for everyone on Hypoluxo Island,” Fain said. “Our property and riparian rights should not ever be infringed.”

Stewart was pleased, as well.

“I’m very appreciative of Palm Beach County and the people involved in this project who listened to the concerns of the Hypoluxo Island residents and came up with an amicable agreement to where we don’t lose our deep-water access,” he said. “Jordan really spearheaded this.”

Why the late notice?
Discussions for Bonefish Cove — which is being constructed in the town of Palm Beach north of Lantana’s Hypoluxo Island — began in 2016, so why did it take so long for Lantana residents to find out about it?

County officials said they met with local entities including the mayor, town manager and town engineer in December 2016 and January 2017, and all were very supportive.

Problem was, the town officials they talked to were not from Lantana. Stewart, who was mayor at the time, and Deborah Manzo, who was the town manager, said neither met with anyone about Bonefish Cove. Lantana didn’t and doesn’t have a town engineer. So, clearly the entities were from another town, likely Palm Beach.

In February 2017, the Army Corps released the draft environmental assessment for agency and public review. The document was posted to the Corps website and provided at two county public libraries, the Lantana Road Branch in Lake Worth Beach and the main county library in West Palm Beach. In fact, Lantana has its own public library and it’s likely few, if any, Lantana residents viewed the draft.

The current Town Council first heard of the project after residents contacted Raducci. At the town’s March 11 meeting, council members directed the town manager to send letters declaring their support of residents to the county commissioners and U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel.