Charles, Julie and Ellis Milling assumed the roles of Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus during last year's drive-thru Nativity story at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Boynton Beach. This year’s guests again will drive through campus and use a prayer sheet to follow along. Christmas hymns and carols will be broadcast between stations at the Dec. 24 event. Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine

If you’re planning your holidays, don’t forget the reason for the season. There are in-person (and virtual) church services and more this year, thank God (ahem).
For the second year, St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Boynton Beach will host a coronavirus-safe, family-friendly, drive-thru telling of the Nativity story through a series of vignettes with live actors and maybe even some animals.
Here are the details on St. Joe’s pageant and other local holiday programming:

St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church — 3300 S. Seacrest Blvd., Boynton Beach
Christmas Eve drive-thru Nativity story: 4-5 p.m. Guests drive through campus and use a simple prayer sheet to follow along. You can download it at www.stjoesweb.org. Christmas hymns and carols will be broadcast between stations. There is also a stay-in-your-car Communion station at the end.
Christmas Eve Unplugged outdoors: 6:30 p.m. Live music by St. Joe’s unplugged musicians, and a service with Eucharist. Seating is provided or bring your own.
Christmas Eve indoor mini-concert: 9:30 p.m. followed by 10 p.m. Eucharist, similar to a midnight Mass, with organ music and vocals by the Rev. David Clyle Morse. Masks required.
Christmas Day service: 9:30 a.m. with Morse playing the organ and leading Christmas carols. Masks required.

Advent Lutheran Church — 300 E. Yamato Road, Boca Raton
Christmas Eve: family service 4 p.m.; contemporary service 6 p.m.; traditional service 11 p.m.
Christmas Day: 10 a.m. service

First United Methodist Church — 625 NE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton
Christmas Eve: early service 5 p.m.; traditional service 7 p.m.

St. Lucy Catholic Church — 3510 S. Ocean Blvd., Highland Beach
The life-size Nativity will be on display through the holidays, beginning Dec. 8.
Christmas Eve Mass: 7 p.m.
Christmas Day Mass: 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.

First Presbyterian Church — 33 Gleason St., Delray Beach
Christmas Eve:
“Carols and Candles”: 5 p.m. with the Rev. Greg Rapier and a time for the children.
Traditional candlelight service: 7 p.m. with Dr. Doug Hood delivering the message and a time for the children.
Traditional candlelight service: 9:30 p.m. with Hood.
All services will also be livestreamed on the church website.
Other events:
• Deacons Christmas Tree: The deacons are accepting $25 donations to purchase gift cards for under-resourced children at five local agencies: Achievement Center for Children & Families, Adopt-a-Family of the Palm Beaches, Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse, Boys and Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County, and Milagro Center.
• Holly House Gift Shoppe: Find handcrafted gifts made by the Holly House Ladies, a ministry of the church, from 10 a.m. to noon Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 19.

St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church — 100 NE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton
Christmas Eve:
Christmas pageant/service 4:30 p.m.; choral Eucharist and sermon 7:30 p.m.; music prelude 10:30 p.m.; choral Eucharist and sermon 11 p.m.
Other event:
• Holly-Versary holiday brunch and celebration: 11:30 a.m. Dec. 12. The most popular event of the Christmas season at St. Gregory’s is back with brunch, auctions and family fun, including adult-supervised crafts for children. Get tickets ($15-$280) at www.eventbrite.com.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church — 188 S. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach
Christmas Eve services: 5, 7:30 and 11 p.m.
Christmas Day: 10 a.m. service
Other events:
• A Festival of Lessons and Carols: 3 p.m. Dec. 12. The Chancel Choir performs. Freewill offering. https://musicstpauls.org.
• A New Year’s Eve concert, 4 p.m. Dec. 31, will feature the Delray String Quartet.

By Janis Fontaine

Soon greetings of “Merry Christmas” will echo through malls and churches, schools and neighborhoods. But some of our neighbors may be coming to terms with the loss of a loved one this Christmas. How will they navigate the first Christmas and New Year without their family member or friend?
Churches — and synagogues and mosques, all houses of worship — are in the grief business. Most offer bereavement counseling and support of some kind.
Some churches, like St. Vincent Ferrer of Delray Beach, offer a 15-week grief support program through GriefShare, a national organization that has local leaders all over the United States.
Darin Lueken of Boca Raton and a group of about five other volunteers facilitate the program twice a year at St. Vincent Ferrer, and during the holidays the group offers a special two-hour seminar, called “Surviving the Holidays,” which is open to anyone.
This year’s seminar was last month. It attracted 10 people, plus one virtual attendee. “We tell them we are sorry for what brought you here, but we’re glad you found us,” Lueken said.
The abbreviated seminar uses a book and expert videos to convey the messages of compassion and healing. Its content is also available on the GriefShare website.
“We introduce ourselves and show a video. We’ve learned that how a person responds to the video really depends on where they are in their grief journey,” Lueken said.
Lueken and his family began a grief journey seven years ago after Lueken’s 14-year-old son died in an accident while on vacation. Lueken’s sister reached out to her pastor, who introduced Lueken to GriefShare. When he returned to Florida, Lueken completed the program at Spanish River Church. It helped him so much, he became a volunteer in his own version of paying it forward.
Fifteen weeks seems like a long time to commit, but Lueken says grief doesn’t keep track of time. “Grief is the difference between losing a limb and breaking a bone,” he said. One can heal but the other is never really the same.
The group considers all loss the same. One of the rules is that “we don’t weigh losses,” Lueken said.
Everyone sympathizes with the loss of a child, but the loss of a spouse after 50 years of marriage seems “so common that people don’t see it the same way,” Lueken said. “Everybody reacts with compassion to the loss of a child.” The group finds compassion for every loss.
Another rule is confidentiality. This allows people to share more intimate feelings, Lueken said.
And that’s about it. Grief is an individual process.
“One thing we tell people is to take ‘should’ out of their vocabulary,” as in “you should go” or “you should feel,” Lueken said.
He recommends that if you do venture out to a get-together and it’s too much, “have an exit strategy planned.”
GriefShare’s goal is to provide practical tools that will help you going forward because grief tends to stick around. “The first month or so you’re in shock, then the world normalizes, and people go back to their lives, but you don’t. We help people who are mourning realize that’s going to happen,” Lueken said.
He hopes they will leave with better tools for coping.
St. Vincent Ferrer plans to start another 15-week session in early January for members of the church. This will be a blended event offered both in person and virtually.
A special program called “Widows and Widowers: Dealing with the Loss of a Spouse” is planned from 1-3 p.m. Jan. 9.
The church also has a collection of books that can be of great comfort during times of grief.
Lueken says the program’s success has been noticed by the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach and it plans to roll out GriefShare at other churches. Volunteers are always needed.
For more information about GriefShare at St. Vincent Ferrer, visit www.stvincentferrer.com.
To learn more about GriefShare, including other local churches that offer it, visit www.griefshare.org.

Other events
Two local churches will have GriefShare “Surviving the Holidays” events in December:
• Cason United Methodist Church, 342 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach, will host its seminar from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Dec. 11. Contact Julie Burton, GriefShare leader, at 561-445-0731; www.casonumc.org.
• FBC Lantana, 1126 W. Lantana Road, will host its seminar from 9 to 11 a.m. Dec. 11 with Pati Baker as leader. For more info, call 561-588-3341 or visit www.fbclantana.com.

Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at fontaine423@outlook.com.

Karen Chambers, DNP, APRN, an assistant professor in the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, assists a patient in the FAU/Northwest Community Health Alliance’s Community Health Center. Photo provided by Alex Dolce

Florida Atlantic University and Northwest Community Health Alliance’s Community Health Center, with the West Palm Beach YWCA, recently received the 2021 Community Collaborators Award from Nonprofits First Inc.
Among the honorees were two from the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing: Karethy Edwards, associate dean of academic programs and executive director of the health center; and Karen Chambers, an assistant professor. They received this recognition for their efforts to lessen health care differences among women from minority groups with limited access to quality care.
The West Palm YWCA refers its clients to the Community Health Center.

— Christine Davis

Delray Medical Center now offers a new scalpel-free treatment for Parkinson’s disease tremor patients. The treatment uses sound-wave energy to treat brain tissue at the source of the tremor. No surgical incision or anesthesia is necessary, and patients may experience immediate and significant reduction in their hand tremors.
“This technology is a game changer in our community and for those seeking the very latest in cutting edge technology for neurologic care of Parkinson’s disease,” said Dr. Lloyd Zucker, chief of neurosurgery at Delray Medical Center.
Separately, Zucker led a clinical trial on brain tumors at Delray Medical Center with a team from Mount Sinai Hospital, and the study was published in the Journal of Neurosurgery.
It focused on fluorescent-guided surgery for glioblast-omas. The process gives surgeons the ability to see in a different wavelength of light that would otherwise be invisible to them. By combining this ability with the special dyes that glow in those wavelengths, surgeons can more precisely target cancerous tumors and avoid injury to normal tissues.

— Christine Davis

By Joyce Reingold

There’s a follow-up question to last season’s conversation starter — Pfizer, Moderna or J&J? — on the tip of many tongues: Are you boosted?
Dr. Daniel Goldman is.
“Last Monday, because I’m 68, I got my flu shot in one arm and I got my Moderna booster in the other,” the chief medical officer at Bethesda Hospital, part of Baptist Health, said in early November.
He is among the legions of U.S. residents who’ve already rolled up their sleeves for a third time for a dose of Pfizer or Moderna, the mRNA coronavirus vaccines.
Later in November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded the pool of people eligible to receive a Pfizer or Moderna booster shot to include everyone 18 and older who received a second dose at least six months before.
The CDC also signed off on a second dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for adults at least two months after the first dose and said using different vaccines from the original doses is OK.
Read much more about eligibility at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/booster-shot.html and consult your doctor if you have concerns.
“I can tell you that boosters are very important,” Goldman said. “One of the early findings of that was from the Israeli experience. They were very aggressive about vaccinating with the Pfizer vaccine. And after about six to eight months, they had an increase in cases. It turned out antibodies were low, and they needed to do the booster. So, they jumped on board actually before most of everybody else.”
Goldman says the delta variant surge in the U.S. telegraphed the need for a booster: “Most of the patients we saw were unvaccinated. But there were patients that were vaccinated who got it, particularly older patients and some immunocompromised. So, that was the trigger that maybe we needed to do something, too.”
Dr. Rosa Marin, who practices internal medicine in Boynton Beach, says her older patients are “very willing” to be vaccinated and many have headed straight to their pharmacies for boosters as the CDC now recommends for people 50 and older.
But with some patients who haven’t received boosters, Marin has taken a different approach. For those who originally received the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, she offers a blood test introduced by Quest Diagnostics in February to measure antibodies to the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
She uses the results to help gauge patients’ potential post-vaccination immunity status.
“When I found out that you could do the IgG (Immuno-globulin G) titer for the spike protein, I said, well, let me try it with some patients and see what happens after they get vaccinated. And I can tell you, as the months progress since the last dose, they do drop immunity.
“And so, depending on how much it has dropped, I will tell the patients to go and get a booster,” she said.
Marin explained that test results fall on a numerical scale: “From 0 to 1, there is no immunity but from 1 to 20, a person is partially immune.” She said she might advise a patient with a reading at the higher end of the scale to wait a month or two before getting the booster.
Though she and other health care providers are offering this test, Marin points out that the CDC does not sanction its use for this purpose.
In a May 19 statement, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said, “While a positive antibody test result can be used to help identify people who may have had a prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, more research is needed in people who have received a COVID-19 vaccination.”
But what they do know for sure is that the vaccines are working, the doctors said.
“Let me tell you, I really recommend the vaccinations because I’ve had patients with breakthrough COVID and they have done very well,” Marin said. “Some of them have not even required monoclonal antibody treatment. I’ve only had one patient who required it.”
In early November, there were five COVID patients at Bethesda, a dramatic and hopeful drop after delta’s surge. But Goldman said that “we shouldn’t relax.”
“I think we have a lot going on. We have flu season coming and they’re predicting a hard flu season. I would encourage everybody to get their flu shot as well as their booster.
“We all pay attention to the science, and the University of Miami team that has predicted all these surges is actually predicting another surge in early December. And we’ve seen surges after the holidays,” Goldman said. “But even if you get vaccinated, even if you get boostered, you still need to mask and do social distancing and be responsible.”

Joyce Reingold writes about health and healthy living. Send column ideas to joyce.reingold@yahoo.com.

Schoolhouse Children’s Museum celebrated its 20th anniversary in October with a ribbon cutting and butterfly release. Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine

The Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, like the rest of the community, is bouncing back from the coronavirus pandemic. Cleaning protocols remain in place — the museum closes for cleaning from 12:30 to 1 p.m. daily — and reservations are highly recommended, but there are a lot of new activities and things to see.
“It’s an exciting time,” said Executive Director Suzanne Ross. “We’re still very sensitive to safety so we are open at reduced capacity.” Visitors without reservations could be turned away, Ross said, but “we’ll do everything we can to accommodate people.”
The pandemic did give the museum time to undergo some improvements and upgrades, with more on the way. One big addition for little hands is Toddler Cove, designed for ages 3 and younger. It’s full of “manipulatives,” Ross says, like the gear table and lots of puzzles, and everything is carpeted and soft-surfaced, thanks to a grant from the Henry Nias Foundation and Vicki Tate, one of the foundation’s leaders.
Coming soon is Mangrove Manor, which will allow kids to explore three levels of mangrove growth from the ground up, with interactive challenges on each level. At the top level, domes will re-create sounds of the beach and mangrove forest.
Mangroves are protected in Florida because they are so important. They help stabilize the coastline ecosystem and prevent erosion, filter pollutants, improve water quality, nurture our estuaries and provide a habitat for wildlife. Impact 100 provided funding for the installation.
Ross also said two popular events will return in 2022. The Princess and Superheroes Day will be back (“bigger and better than ever”) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Jan. 29 at Centennial Park & Amphitheater, 120 E. Ocean Ave.
The museum’s annual fundraiser, the Schoolhouse Bash, will be April 8 at the Arts & Cultural Center at 125 E. Ocean Ave.
The museum just celebrated its 20th anniversary.
The building can trace its roots to 1913, when it was one of the first schools in Boynton Beach.
It closed as a school in 1990 but continued to be used for community programs. In 2001, it opened as the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum & Learning Center and after 20 years it remains a rarity.
It is one of the few children’s museums in South Florida, Ross says, and the only one that provides an interactive, hands-on learning environment with the history of South Florida as its theme.
It’s designed to let kids explore dozens of jobs from store owner to physician’s assistant. But for kids, job one is play.

If You Go
The Schoolhouse Children’s Museum & Learning Center is at 129 E. Ocean Ave., Boynton Beach.
Hours: 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and 1-4:30 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday. The museum is open for members only from 9 a.m. to noon the second and fourth Mondays of the month.
Admission: Free for members and babies younger than 1; $6.50 kids and adults; $5.50 ages 62 and older. Free admission for active-duty military and up to five dependents. Museums for All (EBT card required) pays $2 each for up to four family members.
Reservations: Because of the coronavirus, reservations are strongly recommended at 561-742-6780 or www.schoolhousemuseum.org. Masks are recommended.

Chess catching on in Delray
Chess guru and all-around nice guy Willie “James” McCray, the founder of James Chess Club, joined forces with the Delray Beach Police Department for a Cops and Kids tournament at the Delray Beach Community Center on Nov. 6.
“We had 21 tables and they were all full with players,” McCray said. “Participation was overwhelming.”
Next up is Chess on the Beach from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 29 at the Pavilion on Atlantic Avenue at A1A. “It’s a beautiful location, and we’re expecting a full house,” McCray said.
Everyone is welcomed, whether you love chess or just want to learn the game.
James Chess Club meets from 5 to 6 p.m. Thursdays and noon-2 p.m. Saturdays at the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum, 170 NW Fifth Ave., Delray Beach. Call or text McCray for more information at 561-352-7145.

Delray Beach Commissioner Juli Casale with Petunia, a rescue cat she adopted. Delray commissioners voted in October to create a TNVR program, which stands for trap-neuter-vaccinate-return, for roaming cats in the city. BELOW: Before a cat is returned, its left ear is snipped so it is easily identifiable as having been neutered and vaccinated. Photos provided

By Arden Moore

The cats sharing the home of Delray Beach City Commissioner Juli Casale answer to the sweet names of Pip and Petunia. Both were rescued as strays and now enjoy a purr-filled life inside the Casale home that also includes a pair of cat-accepting canines named Henry and Emily.
Pip is the one who inspired Casale to step up and take action to aid community cats roaming the streets of Delray Beach. About four years ago, she spotted Pip as an orphaned kitten dodging traffic on a four-lane road and managed to pick her up and adopt her.
“She was so tiny that I had to feed her formula and now, she likes to sleep curled under my arm,” says Casale. “My other cat, Petunia, is like a dog who greets you at the door, follows you around the house and is always on my desk next to me when I work.”
In October, the city commissioners unanimously voted to earmark $25,000 to create a TNVR program. TNVR stands for trap-neuter-vaccinate-return and involves collecting unowned, roaming cats, getting them vaccinated and spayed or neutered and then returning them to their locations.
Each cat’s left ear is surgically cut at the tip by a veterinarian as a universal sign that the cat has been spayed or neutered and does not need to be re-trapped.
The city is working with the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League and Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control, as well as teaming up with local cat TNVR groups to round up these felines.
“My daughter, Kiki, and I feed cats in five locations and many of them have been TNVR and rub up against your leg for affection,” says Casale. “It’s estimated that there are between 7,000 and 11,000 stray cats in Delray Beach. This is a health and safety issue and simply, the right thing to do.”
Paul Bates, who heads the community outreach TNVR program at Peggy Adams, says, “Our records show that the city of Delray Beach has had a long-standing issue with cat overpopulations. Over the past 10 years, we have provided TNVR to more than 2,000 cats from the city of Delray Beach.
“We also know that there are a lot of community cat advocates in Delray Beach who regularly feed colonies. Some of these community cat advocates have been very vocal on social media and believe the county needs to provide more for the free-roaming cats.”
An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 free-roaming cats live in Palm Beach County. If they can reproduce, those numbers can skyrocket and pose health risks because the newborns also are not vaccinated.
Bates reports that his shelter performed 3,839 TNVR surgeries in 2020 and as of October, had done 3,646 TNVR surgeries this year.
These free-roaming cats are called community cats and fall into two categories: feral and stray. Feral cats live outdoors in cat colonies and are generally not socialized and do not readily accept being handled by people. Strays are cats who are lost or abandoned pets who are friendly and can be handled safely. Some of these cats develop trust with people, like Casale, who volunteer to feed them.
Casale hopes the TNVR program begins this month. Local volunteer groups who do TNVR in Delray have offered to help. So has Brian Clancy, president of a nonprofit called Purrzilla Cat Rescue that is based in Boynton Beach. He estimates that he has done TNVR on about 10,000 community cats since 1996.
“Purrzilla’s mission is to help solve the crisis of unwanted community, feral and stray cats,” says Clancy. “We have cat feeding stations in different communities and I have a good army of fosters who help some of these cats get adopted.”
Bates welcomes the action by Delray Beach’s city leaders.
“Juli is very fond of cats and has rescued a few,” says Bates. “My hope is this will set an example for other cities in the county to do the same.”

Arden Moore, founder of FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, author, speaker and master certified pet first aid instructor. She hosts Oh Behave! weekly on PetLifeRadio.com. Learn more at www.ardenmoore.com.

Learn more
Peggy Adams Rescue League offers an online TNVR master class that consists of eight short videos and covers the basics of how to humanely trap, manage and reduce the outdoor cat population. For more information about TNVR efforts and other programs at the Rescue League, visit www.peggyadams.org.

A concrete reef dart plunges into 500 feet of water off Palm Beach Inlet on Oct. 22. The 40 reef darts — concrete poles on heavy bases — added by the West Palm Beach Fishing Club bring the total to 110 at the deep artificial reef site. Photo provided by West Palm Beach Fishing Club

By Willie Howard

The West Palm Beach Fishing Club expanded its deep artificial reef project in October with the addition of 40 “reef darts,” or concrete poles on heavy bases, placed in 500 feet of water east of Palm Beach Inlet.
The additions bring to 110 the number of darts placed at the artificial reef site since the fishing club began the project in 2019, creating the deepest artificial reef in Florida.
Reef darts are made from old concrete power poles. They weigh 8 to 10 tons each and rise up to 45 feet from the bottom.
One goal of the deep reef project is to create habitat that will support overfished species of deep-water snapper and grouper. It also makes use of old concrete poles that might otherwise wind up in a landfill.
Fish attracted by the deep reef darts so far include a variety of sharks — bulls, tigers, hammerheads and a great white — along with snowy grouper, dolphinfish (mahi mahi), amberjack and tarpon.
Find the deep dart reef site east of Palm Beach Inlet (aka Lake Worth Inlet) at: 26/46.086 N and 79/58.164 W.
For locations and other information about artificial reefs throughout Florida, visit https://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/artificial-reefs/locate/.

Boynton/Delray and Boca set holiday boat parades
The Boynton Beach and Delray Beach Holiday Boat parade is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 10.
Decorated boats will line up near the Ocean Avenue Bridge in Lantana and proceed south along the Intracoastal Waterway to the C-15 canal (Boca/Delray line.) Parade watchers are asked to bring unwrapped toys for Toys for Tots and wave flashlights to call over a designated toy-collection boat.
Viewing locations include the Banana Boat, Two Georges and Prime Catch restaurants, as well as Intracoastal Park, Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park and Jaycee Park.
For more information, contact Mercedes Coppin at the Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, 561-600-9097.
In Boca Raton, the holiday boat parade is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 18.
Decorated boats will line up at the C-15 canal and proceed south to the Hillsboro Bridge.
The city is offering bleachers for viewing at Red Reef Park, but parking is limited.
No viewing will be allowed this year from Silver Palm Park or the Wildflower property, which are closed for construction.
Bridges at Spanish River Boulevard, Palmetto Park Road and Camino Real are expected to remain closed to road traffic for extended periods that evening so boats can pass through during the parade.
For information on entering a boat in the Boca parade, contact special events coordinator Amanda Liebl at 561-393-7967.

Sea wall repair, new docks on way at Ocean Inlet Park
Construction began in November on the renovation of Ocean Inlet Park Marina, located on the Intracoastal Waterway just south of Boynton Inlet.
The first phase of construction is expected to be complete next fall. First-phase work includes repairing the sea wall, removing the old fixed docks and installing floating day-use docks to provide boater access to Ocean Inlet Park.
Slips for long-term boat storage will not be available until after the second phase of work is complete.
Owners of boats stored at the marina’s 20 slips were required to move out last spring.

Sailfish release events
Ongoing: Sailfish Cup began Nov. 1 and runs through May 31 in four zones along Florida’s east coast, from Fernandina Beach to Key West. Details at www.sailfishcup.com.
Dec. 4: Dust ’Em Off Sailfish Warmup tournament. Details and registration at www.dustemoffsailfish.com.
Jan. 6-7: 85th annual Silver Sailfish Derby. Captain’s meeting Jan. 5 at West Palm Beach Fishing Club. Awards dinner Jan. 8 at Sailfish Club of Palm Beach. www.westpalmbeachfishingclub.org.
Jan. 14-15: Operation Sailfish. Kickoff party 6 p.m. Jan. 12 at Sailfish Marina, 98 Lake Drive, Palm Beach Shores. Take a Hero Fishing Day Jan. 13. Awards Jan. 16. www.bluewatermovements.com.
Jan. 21-23: Buccaneer Cup. Teams fish two of three available fishing days. Captain’s meeting 5:30 p.m. Jan. 20 at Viking Yacht Service Center, 1550 Avenue C, Riviera Beach. Awards Jan. 23. https://buccaneercup.com.

Willie Howard is a freelance writer and licensed boat captain. Email tiowillie@bellsouth.net

This 84-unit building in Palm Beach has undergone a substantial concrete renovation this year. Photos provided

This fully renovated one-bedroom and one-bath unit is a modern masterpiece. It is available turn key so you can start living the Palm Beach life.
In addition to the stunning decor, you will find hurricane impact sliding doors throughout, electric blinds, smart home features and high-end appliances.

A light-filled and generously sized, modern design in the living room.

The condo has a covered and open balcony that overlooks the well-kept grounds and pool beyond.

Additional important updates include newer air conditioner, electric, plumbing and hot water heater. This four-story Intracoastal Waterway building has undergone complete concrete restoration in 2021, has one assigned parking space and unit-dedicated building storage and private deeded beach access.
It also offers a full-time manager and concierge. All this plus a majestic and serene Slim Aarons-inspired pool area, gym, community kitchen and gas grill.

Offered at $499,000. Michael Kramer, Realtor, Sotheby's International Realty, 340 Royal Poinciana Way, Suite 337, Palm Beach, FL 33480. 561-659-3555, michael.kramer@sothebyshomes.com

The light-infused bedroom is spacious and has a walk-in closet and en suite bath.

The kitchen features modern appliances, subway-tile backsplash and sleek design.

Each month, The Coastal Star features a house for sale in our community. The House of the Month is presented as a service to our advertisers and provides readers with a peek inside one of our homes.

Salty Dog Paddle held a Dog Friendly Ugly Sweater Contest at Death or Glory in Delray Beach on Nov. 28. Salty Dog Paddle hosts an evening at the end of each month at the restaurant as a way to raise money for severely injured rescue dogs. Scroll down to see some of the adorable dogs and their great sweaters. 

Photos by Rachel S. O'Hara/The Coastal Star

Robyn Angell and her dog Wesley, 11, attended the Dog Friendly Ugly Sweater Contest put on by Salty Dog Paddle and Death or Glory on Sunday, November 28. Angell and Wesley moved to Delray Beach 5 months ago and they are both very happy to have escaped the cold weather of New York, especially since Wesley does not like wearing sweaters. Photo by Rachel S. O'Hara

Robyn Angell and her dog Wesley, 11, attended the Dog Friendly Ugly Sweater Contest put on by Salty Dog Paddle and Death or Glory on Sunday, November 28. Angell and Wesley moved to Delray Beach 5 months ago and they are both very happy to have escaped the cold weather of New York, especially since Wesley does not like wearing sweaters. Photo by Rachel S. O'Hara

Lucy, a 4-year-old Great Dane, could not find a sweater that fit her so she donned a festive handkerchief instead for the Dog Friendly Ugly Sweater Contest put on by Salty Dog Paddle and Death or Glory on Sunday, November 28. Photo by Rachel S. O'Hara

Meagan Del Valle and Danielle Tuccillo, both of Boynton Beach, dressed up in their best ugly holiday sweaters and brought along Leo, 10, to have some fun at the Dog Friendly Ugly Sweater Contest put on by Salty Dog Paddle and Death or Glory on Sunday, November 28. When asked about where Leo’s sweater was, Tuccillo replied, “He already comes with a sweater!” Photo by Rachel S. O'Hara

Ace, 2, and Kona, 5, donned their finest ugly sweaters for the Dog Friendly Ugly Sweater Contest put on by Salty Dog Paddle and Death or Glory on Sunday, November 28. Their owners, John Wagner and Amanda Merrigan of Lake Worth saw the event advertised and were excited to get into the holiday spirit with their dogs. Photo by Rachel S. O'Hara

By Steve Plunkett

The state planned to start collecting tolls on Saturday, Nov. 13, for motorists using the Interstate 95 express lanes between Glades Road in Boca Raton and the Cypress Creek Road exit in Fort Lauderdale.

The newly implemented tolls in what state transportation officials call “managed lanes” will be collected electronically using a SunPass or any other transponder that Florida accepts. Drivers must have an active account with the transponder properly affixed to the windshield.

Entrances for the I-95 southbound express lanes are located south of Glades Road and south of SW 10^th Street in Deerfield Beach, and exits are located north of Hillsboro Boulevard in Deerfield Beach and north of Cypress Creek Road.

I-95 northbound express-lane entrances are located north of Cypress Creek Road and north of Hillsboro Boulevard, and exits are located south of SW 10^th Street and south of Glades Road.

“Managed lanes enhance safety, optimize traffic flow, and provide more reliable travel times for longer, regional trips,” Andi Pacini, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Transportation, said in a news release.

Tolls fluctuate based on how many vehicles are using the interstate. Overhead electronic signs in advance of an entrance will show destinations and the corresponding toll, giving motorists time to choose whether they want to use the express lanes, Pacini said. If the toll decreases after entering the express lanes, motorists will pay the lower amount until they reach the next decision point. They will never pay a higher toll than the rate displayed on the sign.

For more information on the project, visit its website at www.95express.com.

Note: Events are current as of 10/28. Please check with organizers for any changes.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6
Annual Veterans Day Parade at Cultural Plaza, 414 Lake Ave, Lake Worth Beach. Honors the 100th Anniversary of Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 11 am. Free. 586-1600; lakeworthbeachfl.gov

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7
2021 Palm Beach County Veterans Day Parade at West Palm Beach Waterfront, 101 N Clematis St. 2 pm. Pbcveteranscommittee.org

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11 
Veterans Day Observance: Honoring All Who Served at Countess de Hoernle Park, 1000 Spanish River Blvd., Boca Raton. Free breakfast for veterans in uniform or presenting military ID; $5 suggested donation for others, benefits South Palm Beach County Habitat for Humanity’s Veterans Build initiative. 9 am. 393-7807; myboca.us/specialevents

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10556 Annual Veterans Day Program at Veterans Memorial Park, 9400 W Palmetto Park Rd, Boca Raton. Procession of colors, guest speakers, patriotic music. Free. 9:30 am. facebook.com/pbcparks

Veterans Day Ceremony Honoring Our Veterans at Veterans Park, 802 NE 1st St, Delray Beach. 9:30-11 am. 243-7010; mydelraybeach.com

Veterans Day Event at South Palm Beach Town Hall, 3577 S Ocean Blvd. In honor of all who served. 10 am. Free. 588-8889; southpalmbeach.com

Veterans Day Ceremony & Concert at Mizner Park Amphitheater, 500 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. Musical procession performed by Ft. Lauderdale Highlanders, Boca Raton Community High School NJROTC, & Boca Raton Police and Fire Honor Guards, with musical performance by the Boca Raton Community High School Band; Veteran Resource Fair; free lunch for veterans in uniform or presenting military ID, $5 donation for all others; Krescendo Brass performance; food/beverage available for purchase; no coolers/outside alcoholic beverages permitted; rain or shine. 11 am-2 pm. Free. 393-7967; myboca.us/1467/Veterans-Day

Veterans Day Celebration at Veterans Memorial Park, 411 N Federal Highway, Boynton Beach. Boynton Beach veterans & the city honor all who have given of themselves to serve our great country. Noon-1 pm. Free. 742-6236; boynton-beach.org

Special Lecture - Tomb of the Unknown Soldier: A Century of Honor, 1921-2021 presented by Philip Bigler at Flagler Museum, 1 Whitehall Way, Palm Beach. 2 pm. $20/veteran; $38/non-member; includes museum admission. Reservations: 655-2833 x10; flaglermuseum.us

Clay Pape, a worker at Delray Beach Memorial Gardens, marks a place for a headstone. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Joe Capozzi

The hearses and cars kept coming. 
Under a cloudy October sky, they crawled in groups through the gates of Delray Beach Memorial Gardens Municipal Cemetery about every half hour on a recent Saturday.
As one burial service ended, the next group arrived, a constant coming and going of grief that seemed to have, much like the pandemic responsible for most of it, no end in sight.
“Before the pandemic we averaged three or four a week. Now we’re doing 10 a week,’’ said cemetery crew leader John “Clay” Pape (pronounced like poppy). “For a cemetery of this size, it keeps us really busy. I lose track of time, to be honest with you.’’  
Ever since COVID-19 started killing people in Palm Beach County in March 2020, cemeteries and funeral homes have struggled to keep pace.
Among the busiest is Delray Beach Memorial Gardens, where the number of burials has jumped nearly 60% the past 18 months or so, an increase Parks Director Sam Metott attributes to the pandemic.

Curtis Wise, a city worker at Delray Beach Memorial Gardens, watches after assisting a mourner over a high curb prior to a burial.

The somber task of handling that surge has fallen to a handful of dedicated workers in the city’s parks department: cemetery manager Yasemin Kacar, Pape, Curtis Wise and Chad Sweatte. (Another cemetery worker, Daniel Stubbs, helped, too, before he recently left the city.) 
They often work seven days a week in a scramble to keep pace with a continuing cycle of duties at the nearly 40-acre cemetery between Interstate 95 and U.S. 1, south of Atlantic Avenue and north of Linton Boulevard.
They poke metal probes into the earth in search of new burial plots. They dig graves with backhoes and shovels. They set up tents and chairs for grieving families. They lay fresh sod across the dirt over the newly buried. 
They erect gravestones, too, but not as promptly as they’d prefer. Manufacturers are so busy, there’s a six-month delay, Pape said. 
“It’s to the point where a couple of weeks ago the suppliers of the concrete vaults said there’s a shortage,’’ he said, explaining how vaults go into the ground first, then the coffins go into the vaults, which are topped by lids and dirt. “They’re rushing the vaults out now.’’
The pace ebbs and flows. Nine one day this summer. Just one the other day. Twin brothers killed by COVID-19 were among the six buried on that October Saturday when cloudy skies threatened rain. 
“It was going crazy since the beginning of COVID, then once people started getting vaccinated, it went down for about three or four months,’’ Kacar said.  
“I was like, ‘Oh, thank God, these vaccines are working.’ Then once it mutated and it became delta, it went right back up to where we are.’’
Through Oct. 19, the number of burials this year was 208, on a pace that will be close to the 247 burials in 2020. There were 179 in 2019. 
If not for the break earlier this year, “we would have been well at last year’s numbers by now,’’ Kacar said on Oct. 19.
In other South County city cemeteries, the pace of burial hasn’t been as busy as Delray’s.
Boynton Beach had 168 burials each in 2019 and 2020 and 127 through Oct. 15 of this year. Boca Raton had 68 in 2019, 91 in 2020 and 68 through Sept. 28.
“They told me in Fort Lauderdale they have a three-week waiting list to get buried. That’s how backed up they are,’’ Pape said.
The sizes of the cemeteries and the availability of burial plots in public and private cemeteries might help explain the different burial trends.
“If folks don’t already have a plot or they don’t want to do a mausoleum, we don’t have an in-ground box for them to buy at the moment,’’ said Boynton Beach City Clerk Crystal Gibson. 
Funeral homes in the area have been overwhelmed, too, Kacar said.
“I spoke to one funeral home (director) and he was telling me he was thinking about getting a refrigerated truck in the back of his premises because he doesn’t have enough room to store the bodies,’’ Kacar said. 

Crew leader Clay Pape prepares a place of burial.

At Delray Memorial Gardens, the man responsible for digging most of those graves is Curtis Wise, a 29-year veteran at the cemetery. He said the pace has been so busy that the city had to replace a backhoe that kept breaking down. 
Among the buried are his friends and relatives.
When Wise found out the coffins of two aunts who’d died of COVID-19 were scheduled for interment at Delray Beach Memorial Gardens, he couldn’t bring himself to dig their graves. Pape did it for him. 
“It bothers me,’’ said Wise, who unwinds after work by putting on headphones and listening to motivational speeches by the pastor Eric Thomas. “But I’ve been here for so long it’s like I’m numb to it.’’ 
As busy as the pandemic has kept the crew and the other city workers who pitch in to help, it has brought out their best. 
Though exhausted from the work’s physical demands, they still make time to show compassion and dignity to the grieving. 
“They’re the unsung heroes,’’ said Amy Hanson, assistant parks and recreation director. “They do all the hard work and they do it quietly and with dignity.’’ 
On the Saturday morning with six funerals, Wise helped push a mourner’s wheelchair across the grass and guided an elderly woman with a walker over a curb and into the shade of a graveside tent.
It is often up to Wise and Pape to gently remind relatives to limit the number of mourners to 10, keeping with CDC guidelines. This is something most grieving families don’t want to hear.
And on busy days, they’ve had to delicately referee the funeral processions, asking anxious families for patience while other families linger in their struggle to say final goodbyes. 

Fresh graves await markers at Delray Beach Memorial Gardens. Delivery of markers is running months behind.

“Sometimes it can get overwhelming. It can wear on you,’’ Pape said. “You don’t know them, but you know what they’re going through.’’
The crew also directs traffic, which can be tricky when stretch limos require several back-and-forth maneuvers to negotiate hairpin curves along the cemetery roads.
“It definitely is going above and beyond,’’ Mayor Shelly Petrolia said, praising the crew.  
On top of all of that, the workers have tried to keep up with ongoing maintenance, removing damaged fencing and installing fresh landscaping. Lately, the back fence has been lined with steel cofferdams, which prevent sugar sand from rushing back in on the workers as they dig graves.
“We’re very proud of this team,’’ Metott said at a City Commission meeting on Sept. 13 when the cemetery crew was recognized for its work during the pandemic. 
“This team has stepped up,’’ he said. “They’ve worked long hours without days off and with a lot of extras that go into a situation we all have been challenged with. This team was the front line for that.’’ 
Wise didn’t set out to be a cemetery worker when he joined the city’s parks department. On his first day of work, he was asked to help out at the cemetery, which was shorthanded at the time.
He said he liked the seclusion and serenity that came with the job and asked to stay.
“There really ain’t nothing to like about burying people, but it is peaceful here a lot of the time,’’ said Wise, who shares a home with his sister, a nurse at Delray Medical Center. 
On a short break in October, he gestured toward the bright yellow backhoe on which he spends much of his time. 
“That’s a new one,’’ he said. “I had a smaller one when the pandemic started. But with the amount of work that we were doing, it kept busting. Some problem with the hydraulics.’’
Just before going back to work, he looked down at the brown soil of a fresh burial topped with a scattering of cheerful flowers. 
“We’re so busy, I can’t put grass on the graves. I don’t like that,’’ he said. 
But with so many more funeral processions expected to crawl through the cemetery’s gates in the coming days, the sod would have to wait.
“Now we’ve got to get started digging again.’’

Related Story: Highland Beach:Commission wants lesser role for town in high-rise inspections

By Joel Engelhardt

After months of work to hammer out a condo reinspection program in the wake of the Surfside tragedy, Palm Beach County commissioners decided last month to do nothing and wait for the Florida Legislature.
In a rambling hourlong discussion Oct. 19, commissioners weighed in with a variety of reasons for backing off the approach developed over months by county and city building officials and endorsed by a county advisory board. 
Commission Vice Mayor Robert Weinroth, who represents the South County barrier island, called the proposal a “grandiose scheme” and argued that the system of inspections was fine before Champlain Towers South collapsed on June 24, killing 98 people.
The system still works, he said.  
“I don’t want our residents to think that if we take it slow in implementing a grandiose scheme for having reinspections and recertifications that we’re going to be doing anything to put their lives in jeopardy,” he said, later adding, “I don’t want to see us put a system in place that is going to be so cumbersome that it’s going to miss the mark.”
Standing by the proposal developed under his group’s leadership, League of Cities Executive Director Richard Radcliffe said the building officials who helped write the plan always knew it could be superseded by the state. 
“We came up with a very wonderful, thoughtful work product that we will make available to anybody who wants to use it,” Radcliffe said in an interview. “We stand by our product.”
Cities still can move forward with the approach, which gained the backing of the county’s Building Code Advisory Board in September. It would require experts to inspect buildings 25 years and older east of Interstate 95 and 35 years or older west of the highway, a more stringent standard than the 40-year requirement in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Champlain Towers had stood in Surfside for 40 years when it collapsed.
The county’s decision had industry support, said Michelle DePotter, CEO of the Associated General Contractors’ Florida East Coast Chapter. “I like where you all are going,” she told commissioners about the decision to wait until March, when the Legislature’s two-month session ends. “That is where the AGC’s focus has been.”

Some go their own way
Boca Raton already has put similar requirements into place and Highland Beach may do so later this month.
Other cities were waiting to see what the County Commission would do before taking action, Radcliffe said, especially cities farther west with fewer high-rise buildings and little ocean impact.
On the barrier island, where a Coastal Star review found 300 condos built before 1990 from South Palm Beach to Boca Raton, some town managers say they’ll now bring the proposal to elected officials.
South Palm Beach, with 26 pre-1990 condos, is likely to consider the League of Cities proposal at its Nov. 9 meeting, Town Manager Robert Kellogg said.
Ocean Ridge, which has 29 such condo buildings, will hear it too, Town Manager Tracey Stevens said, but she didn’t know when.
Gulf Stream, which has 19 condos built before 1990 and relies on Delray Beach for building oversight, had been watching the county to see what it would do, Town Manager Greg Dunham said. 
“We always pay attention to what is happening in Tallahassee, but even the county is looking to the state for uniform rules this first session after the Surfside building collapse,” he wrote in an email. “Now that the county is out of the picture for the time being, we will be working with our building officials at Delray Beach to determine whether we should proceed with something now or wait to see if the state will take up this issue when they are back in session.”
Boca Raton already took action, establishing rules on Aug. 24 that call for inspections of buildings taller than three stories after 30 years and then every 10 years thereafter. It exempts single-family homes and duplexes.
The city estimates that it has 242 buildings that meet the criteria and it will take four years for them to all be inspected. The city would hire an engineer, code enforcement officer and an administrative staffer to oversee the program at an annual cost of about $253,000.
Highland Beach gave initial approval in October to require inspections after 25 years, with reinspections in some cases as soon as seven years later. The town says it has 80 buildings that fit the criteria.
In both cases the inspections would be conducted by private-sector experts, not city inspectors, an approach taken by the League of Cities as well.

Relying on condo residents
While experts insist that structural defects are likely to be hard to detect and in some cases invisible to the naked eye, commissioners said they were comfortable knowing that if anything is amiss, residents will let them know.
“We had a system in place where inspectors were going out, they were responding to complaints, they were seeing, on their own accord, systems that required remediation and that system is still in place today,” Weinroth said. “We need to make sure we don’t put a system in place that’s going to obscure our ability to do what we’re doing right now, which is to identify the problems.”
He argued that the county doesn’t have the staff to oversee inspections and the private sector doesn’t have enough engineers to meet the demand.
“We don’t have enough structural engineers and electrical engineers to even go out there and do this in the next five years,” he said. “And we know that Miami-Dade and Broward are sucking up all of that talent right now because they see the problem as being in their backyard.”
Additionally, commissioners worried that cash-strapped condo boards would be unable to find the money to make necessary repairs. 
“I hate to put a system in place that, again, is going to overwhelm our resources, it’s going to overtax our residents with special assessments that they’re not going to be able to afford,” Weinroth said. “We already have a problem with affordable housing right now. We’re just going to make it more unaffordable.”
The fear, he said, is creating such a big system of reinspections that a potentially catastrophic situation would go undetected.
“I would not like to see us wind up obscuring a problem by putting so many people or so many buildings on an inspection list that we miss the two or three that really need our attention,” Weinroth said.
In Surfside, an inspection showed the need for $15 million in work at Champlain Towers South in 2018, but the work was only just getting underway when the building collapsed.
Commissioner Maria Sachs, who represents the western portions of South County, also backed waiting for legislation but worried that the Legislature would accept a Florida Bar suggestion to shift liability for structural failure to the municipality. 
“We don’t have the funds, we don’t have the engineers, we don’t have the inspectors, we don’t have the staff, and the last thing we need is to go forward without a full contingent of inspectors with the idea that we can have liability if anything collapses because somebody missed something,” she said.
While she supported waiting, her husband, condo lawyer Peter Sachs, told the Boca Raton City Council in August that he supported Boca’s decision to put reinspection rules in place.
“There is no greater responsibility elected officials have than protecting the safety of the residents,” he said, calling Boca’s proposal a big step toward doing that.

Danielle Hurley of Boca Raton picks out pumpkins with her 6-year-old twins, Cameron and Leighton, at Cason United Methodist Church in Delray. The annual sale benefits the church’s mission and outreach programs. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Philanthropy is a way for those of us who have, to share with those in need. Charitable giving is critical to living in a balanced society. We should give not only to address suffering, but also to eliminate the sources of that suffering.
It’s one thing to feed children’s hunger to learn by reading them books; it’s another to ensure they have the skills to read books on their own.
Here at The Coastal Star we devote multiple pages each month to promotion of the people and organizations that serve our less-fortunate neighbors. Our Around Town section includes stories about philanthropic organizations, lists of upcoming events and “celebrations” photos that illustrate our residents involved with giving back to the community.
Most months, the Coastal Star feature story that shares space with this column on Page 2 is about a local philanthropist.
Until early 2020, a reliable way for charitable organizations to raise money was to host in-person events. The coronavirus pandemic halted these events for at least a year, and the uncertainty dented many organizations’ budgets going forward.
While we know the pandemic lingers, this month we are making a special effort to encourage you, our readers, to dig a little deeper and help financially support these organizations.
Inside this edition, we are debuting our Philanthropy Season Preview. Our cover story celebrates the creative ways that organizations have been able to not only survive the effects of the pandemic, but also increase their outreach to the community.
Inside the section, you will see paid story and advertising combinations funded by a few organizations, or their donors, to further tell their stories and promote their fundraising events.
Thank you for taking the time to consider a philanthropic gift during this month of Thanksgiving. The generous nature of the residents of the South County coastal communities is one of the many reasons I love living here.

— Jerry Lower, Publisher

Anuj Grover surrounds his desk with reminders of home and the school supplies he donates. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Mary Thurwachter

When it comes to charitable giving, Anuj Grover says he and Mark Corlew, his partner at real estate investment management group Grover Corlew, like to focus on the future.
Before school began, their employees and tenants of the company’s buildings came together to donate backpacks, folders, notebooks, pencils, art supplies and more, to ensure that students in need returned to school prepared for learning.
Palm Beach and Broward counties’ Title I school students and teachers benefited from the donations, which were available through the Education Foundation of Palm Beach County and the Broward Education Foundation.
“Both my business partner and I are products of the Florida public school system and big believers in the public school system,” Grover said. “Back-to-school drives are directly in our wheelhouse for charitable giving. We’ve been doing this for over five years in Broward County and have expanded to include Palm Beach County,” two years ago when the company moved its headquarters to Boca Raton.
According to the national nonprofit Kids in Need Foundation, 90% of teachers surveyed said that three quarters of their students arrived to class without the supplies necessary for learning.
The pandemic drastically increased the need for basic school supplies for students in Title I schools, and the school supply centers in both counties are also reporting low levels of donations this year.  
“As a father, I know just how expensive it can be to adequately prepare a child for learning each year,” Grover said. “Teachers also spend money to buy supplies for their classrooms. We hope to ease the burden with these donations, particularly for those struggling to get by. Every little bit helps.”
Other charities to which the firm contributes include Florence Fuller Child Development Centers in Boca Raton, the Pompano Beach Elementary School art program, the Boys and Girls Clubs, and Channing Crowder toy drive.
Grover, who lives in Boca Raton, grew up in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area and has a law degree from Vanderbilt University and a bachelor of science degree in accounting from the University of Florida.
For more than 20 years, he has been acquiring and developing real estate. It’s in his DNA. Some of his fondest childhood memories are sitting on his dad’s lap learning about investing, he said.
“He was the quintessential immigrant at that time, always saving money. But he was also smart and invested his savings in stocks, land and even an office condo,” Grover said.
When his father was 17, he came to the U.S. from India on a monthlong boat ride and studied at the University of Michigan.
Grover said: “Like a lot of immigrant stories, it’s very similar. Hard to get here. Don’t have a safety net. A lot of hard work. And usually, the investment spent for all your time is for your family.
“My brother and I were beneficiaries of that. It ends up shaping who you are and how you think.”
Grover began his career in Atlanta as a certified public accountant in the Entrepreneurial Services Group of Ernst & Young and later worked as an attorney in the international law firm King & Spalding.
In the 1990s, he transitioned to the investment world, where he held positions at several venture-backed companies. 
He and Corlew have been developing their business partnership for more than two decades. Grover Corlew has amassed more than 2.5 million square feet of office, medical office and retail properties, along with thousands of multifamily units, with a combined value of $750 million.
Grover, 51, and his wife, Meghna, have two children, a daughter Simi, 13, and son Sachin, 11.
Asked what he likes to do when he’s not working, Grover focused on people: “Anything that is spending time with family or longtime friends is always at the center of what I like to do for fun — watching a game, grabbing a meal, having drinks, cheering on the kids — whether it’s lacrosse, boxing, soccer, whatever they’re playing — going for a hike or wrestling with our dog.
“At the end of the day, I’m a fairly social creature by nature. Spending time with people that I like, love or care about and having some good laughs is really what I enjoy.”

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

By Jane Smith

Negotiations are back on between the Florida Department of Health and Delray Beach over violations in the city’s reclaimed water program.
“A few weeks ago, the City of Delray Beach reached out to the Department of Health to try and settle the case again,” Alexander Shaw, a Health Department spokesman, wrote in an Oct. 25 email to The Coastal Star.
But the Health Department is holding onto its option to sue the city.
Shaw wrote, “The Department hopes to have a signed Consent Order with the city, or a lawsuit filed against the city in the coming weeks.”
If the case goes to Circuit Court, the judge could fine Delray Beach a maximum of up to $5,000 per penalty, per day under the Florida Safe Drinking Water Act, Shaw wrote.
When the Health Department issued its proposed consent order on June 3, it wanted to cite Delray Beach for 11 violations. The proposed penalties were for 12 years of not following its own program that called for annual inspections. Fine total for these violations was $60,000.
In addition, Delray Beach was fined for 576 missing devices that prevent the reclaimed water from flowing back into the drinking water. That proposed fine was $2,229 per location, for a total of $1.3 million. Another 25% was added for the city’s history of non-compliance.
“There aren’t any updates to share at this time,” Laurie Menekou, the publicist hired by the city to answer questions on the reclaimed water program, wrote on Oct. 27.
Negotiations had reached an impasse in early October.
The Health Department planned to fine the city a total of $1.8 million for violations in the program. Reclaimed water is highly treated wastewater suitable only for lawn irrigation, but not safe for drinking by humans and pets.
The Health Department also wants the city to publish a public notice acknowledging it “cannot assure utility customers that the drinking water produced and distributed met the standards of the Safe Drinking Water Act for the period from inception of the reclaimed water service beginning in 2007 to the time reclaimed water was deactivated on February 4, 2020.”

Workers are dwarfed by construction cranes while working on the second story of the 10-story apartment building underway in Riverwalk Plaza at the southeast corner of Federal Highway and Woolbright Road. Construction workers are parking their vehicles off site at a vacant .37-acre parcel at 525 SE 18th Ave., according to John Kuntzman, Boynton Beach building official. Approximately 80 workers are parking off site and walking to the Riverwalk job site, he said. Construction of the 319-unit building began in May and is scheduled to finish in about two years. A joint venture of Isram Realty in Hollywood and American Land Ventures in Miami is building the $85.3 million apartment project. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

“Hoping you’ll find comfort in the memories that are yours to cherish always, and strength in the companionship of those who share your loss,” wrote Coastal Star reporter Rich Pollack to me following my mother’s death in 2007.
The handwritten note was tucked into a thoughtfully chosen card — “tasteful,” Mom would have said approvingly. 
I stumbled over this and many other family “Fabergé eggs” while pruning the guest room closets and cabinets. I would recommend this activity to all my fellow septuagenarians.
Those cedar chests and bankers boxes that have been gathering dust in out-of-the-way nooks and crannies are full of memorabilia that unleash waves of endorphins you just can’t get from mahjong, bingo or Netflix. 
Perfunctory thoughts and prayers on Facebook and sad-faced emojis on Twitter are all too easily tapped out on our iPhone keyboards. It’s so much less effort than putting pen to paper and expressing a genuine emotion to a grieving family. Thanks, Rich, for the reminder that snail mail is a timeless gift.

Florence Snyder,
Tallahassee

Note: Ms. Snyder’s mother, Adelaide Snyder, spent 28 years at FAU, handling public information and community relations and writing speeches. In 1980, she was named vice president for university relations and development. She also was executive director of the FAU Foundation.