Rosa and Robert Martinoff with granddaughters Davynn and Ella participate in a PJ Library Mitzvah event. Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine

Each year, the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, like thousands of other Jewish organizations worldwide, celebrates Mitzvah Day, a day of good deeds. This year, two events are planned.

The popular Super Sunday Phone-a-thon returns, an initiative co-chaired by Jeff Bovarnick. Its theme, “Calls Connect Community,” will have phones ringing in Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Highland Beach as hundreds of volunteers reach out to thousands of community members.

The message they’ll share: Whenever and wherever our Jewish family needs us, from down the street to across the globe, our community is there to help. The event is a morale builder for both the callers and the called.

Breakfast, snacks, dinner and raffle prizes add to the festive atmosphere. Volunteers are asked to sign up for shifts from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. or 4 to 6:30 p.m. March 15 at Zinman Hall on the federation campus at 9901 Donna Klein Blvd., Boca Raton. Teens can receive community service hours for their volunteer time. To reserve your spot, visit jewishboca.org/supersunday, or contact Marc Fishman at 561-852-3169 or marcf@bocafed.org.

The second event is a family event combining charity, Legos and games. Families are encouraged to join PJ Library, a Jewish engagement and literacy program, for a Lego Mitzvah Project from 2 to 3:30 p.m. March 15.

Families are asked to bring their PJ Library or other tzedakah boxes to donate. Kids get to help build a giant Lego tzedakah box, and games with prizes are planned. Reservations are required via www.jewishboca.org/pjlibrary, 561-852-6080 or pjlibrary@bocafed.org.

Tea time at St. Gregory’s
The Church Women of St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church are inviting the public to their annual tea from 2 to 4 p.m. March 14 at the church at 100 NE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton. Tickets are $35, and proceeds will support the organization’s in- and out-reach efforts to help people less fortunate. Parking is free. Call 561-350-5964 to purchase tickets or for more information.

Passover dinner made easy
Henry’s, a South Florida staple for nearly 20 years, has an easy option for Passover dinner, eat in or take out. The eatery will offer families celebrating the holiday a Passover prix fixe dinner as well as to-go dinner options.

A traditional four-course Passover dinner with matzo ball soup or split pea soup, gefilte fish, chicken liver mousse or beet salad, and choice of entrees and desserts, is $45, served from 5 to 9 p.m. both nights. For reservations, call 561-638-1949.

To celebrate at home, ask Henry’s to pack up Passover to go. With a la carte items, you can tailor your meal to your family’s tastes. Orders must be placed by April 3. Pickup is April 8 or 9 by 3 p.m. Henry’s is in The Shoppes at Addison Place, 16850 Jog Road, Delray Beach. For catering, call 561-602-7324.

Pope-a-Palooza
Enthusiastic volunteers are organizing a huge celebration of all 38 years of Saint John Paul II Academy graduating classes with a reunion weekend April 24-25 in Boca Raton.

The event — Pope-a-Palooza — will kick off April 24 with an alumni welcome happy hour on the Saint John Paul II Academy campus. Individual classes are planning after-parties at local bars and restaurants to follow.

But the highlight happens Saturday, after an alumni Mass, at Mizner Park Amphitheater in downtown Boca Raton. Live music by the Resolvers, Uproot Hootenanny and Groove Thangs is planned, and the opening act, Wolfhawk, features academy alumni Kevin Ross (’86) and Jay Brandt (’95).

Food trucks, Islamorada Beer Co. beverages, a VIP sponsor section with an open bar and some surprises are planned. Tickets are $30 through March 31, $40 after.

Mike Fimiani of Boca Raton and Cathy Silk of Delray Beach, both class of ’83, the first class to graduate, are spearheading the planning. “I had a great experience in high school, and I made many of my friends for life,” Fimiani said.

Sure, it’s an excuse to get the gang together, but it’s also Fimiani’s way of giving back. “This will be the largest gathering of alumni, teachers and staff in the history of the school,” he said, “and we’re all excited about getting everyone together, but we do need help.”
Class captains to help spread the word are sought. If you can help, or for more information, visit www.popeapalooza.org.

Bobby Kane, 3, of Ocean Ridge and his mother, Lynsey, hand-delivered flowers to about 300 Unity School students with a card on each bud that read, ‘Because everyone deserves a flower on Valentine’s Day.’ ‘I think he’s a sweet kid with a big heart,’ said middle school director Barb Ferguson. ‘He came around and hand-delivered the carnations dressed in that adorable bow tie and outfit. Just spreading love and kindness.’ Bobby is in teacher Nilda Torres’ orientation class, the youngest class at the school. Photo provided

A wall of sliders is a focal point of the Great Room, allowing inside and outdoor activities to casually coexist. The room has a 10-foot fireplace.

Florida custom home builders Bertino & Associates designed and developed this new construction with thoughtful attention to detail, inside and out, to present Florida seaside living at its finest. White oak floors, walls of sliders, soaring ceilings and calming color schemes combine to make the home an open concept prepared for formal entertaining or simple family gatherings.

A formal dining room is a first-floor feature near the gourmet kitchen, pantry and wine center.

This two-story home with 7,537 total square feet has five bedrooms, five and a half baths, a separate guest house, an oversized three-car garage and pool and spa on the grounds, all within steps of the Intracoastal and the beach. The open kitchen has a porcelain waterfall island and state- of-the-art amenities with Thermador appliances.

19 Hudson Street, Ocean Ridge, is just a few steps from the beach and Intracoastal waterway.

The main level continues with an executive office, VIP guest suite, full laundry room and a family entrance complete with lockers. The first-floor master suite has an extraordinary bath with Grohe fixtures, separate vanities, a spa tub and steam rain shower. Full-size slabs of porcelain and natural stone create a true spa-style retreat.

First-floor master suite is an oasis of luxury with French doors to pool and garden.

Upstairs are two spacious en-suite bedrooms and a huge game room/TV room with a bar. An expansive veranda overlooks the pool and can be used as another space for entertaining.

Outdoors are covered patios encompassing the pool and spa and a well-designed summer kitchen. The garage is separate from the main house and has a spacious storage room. Above it is a guest house complete with all the necessities.

Clean lines and timeless, classic style are the design hallmarks of the property.

Offered at $3,800,000. Call Val Coz, Douglas Elliman, 900 East Atlantic Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33483, 561-386-8011, valeriecoz@gmail.com

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 houses.

Arden Moore’s newest pet, Rusty, is an adopted cat who used to perform on stage with animal trainer Samantha Martin and the Amazing Acro-Cats. Photo provided by Suzanne C. Grim

By Arden Moore

With the exception of my orange tabby, Casey, whom I selected from a shelter five years ago, every cat and kitten in my life since childhood has shown up unexpectedly.

This is in contrast to the dogs I’ve adopted. Each one — except Cleo, who was found wandering the streets with no ID tags or microchip — was thoroughly vetted by me and temperament tested before being welcomed into the family.

For those of you who have cats and dogs, does this sound way too familiar?

So, why am I surprised that I flew home from a major conference for shelter workers and cat rescuers in January with a new orange tabby kitten named Rusty?

This is no ordinary kitten. Sure, like far too many young felines, he had a crappy beginning. He was found as an orphaned, hungry kitten in a dumpster in Georgia. He needed two medicinal baths to rid the fleas covering his body. He had to be bottle fed and kept warm in a makeshift incubator to regain his health and strength.

But talk about a cat comeback. By 6 months, this loves-to-learn, sweet little guy was performing on stage with renowned animal trainer Samantha Martin and the Amazing Acro-Cats in New Orleans for three weeks in December.

In mid-January, Martin brought Rusty and some other members of her feline troupe to The Acatemy conference in Dulles, Virginia, where we both were speakers. My talk was on “Fear Free Pets” — how to use low-stress handling on kittens and cats in homes, veterinary clinics, shelters and in vehicles. I also taught a veterinarian-approved cat first aid/CPR class with the help of pet safety cat Casey, who has been my teaching assistant for nearly five years.

Martin and I have been friends for many years. She has a knack for finding talent in strays and shelter animals. Her go-to training tools are a target stick and a clicker, plus plenty of treats and positive-reinforcement praise.

Clicker training involves “marking” a desired behavior like a sit or sit up with pressing down on a metal clicker as soon as the act is done and then immediately handing over a treat and eventually pairing that act with a phrase, such as “Good sit.”

Targeting involves using a long stick with a round end to direct an animal to move from one place to another. In the case of Rusty, it meant he sat on a mark on stage before a sold-out audience and then leaped through a hoop and landed on another platform. Again and again.

So, at the conference, Martin shared her dilemma. She already has a pair of talented 2-year-old orange tabbies in her troupe and needed to find a home for Rusty that would continue to challenge his brain and fuel his desire to learn.

“Arden, I know all that you do with Casey all around the country,” she began. “I know that Rusty would be a great addition to your classes and your home. I just don’t want him to go to a home where he would sit around all day and be bored.”

That was all it took for me to say yes. It is rare to adopt so young a kitten who has so many talents and social skills. Another bonus: Rusty really loves other animals. He quickly made friends with Casey as well as my dogs, Kona and Bujeau, and our senior cat, Mikey.

About 10 days after adopting him, I brought Rusty to one of my Pet First Aid 4U classes — along with my seasoned team of Kona and Casey. Students were able to practice proper hand placement on Rusty to perform simulated kitty CPR and even wrap his front leg in our how-to-bandage-a-bleed demo. Yes, he purred the whole time.

He also came racing my way when I whistled.

So, what are the plans for this young, gotta-perform feline? I will continue to expand his trick repertoire and expose him in positive ways to all types of scenarios, such as riding in a pet stroller, walking on a leash and meeting people of all backgrounds and accepting being held.

When he turns 1, I hope he will join Kona and Casey and become a certified therapy pet who will entertain kids in schools and animal shelters, as well as residents in memory care centers.

Rusty is no ordinary kitten and my promise to him is that he will live an extraordinary life.

Please share how you came to adopt a special cat or dog and how that adoption has enriched the pet’s life and your own. Send them to me at fourleggedlife@gmail.com.

More about the Amazing Acro-Cats
This circus troupe of domestic cats — plus a groundhog, a few rats and other small animals — was founded by animal trainer Samantha Martin. The group also includes the Rock Cats, a feline musical band. Based just south of Atlanta, the Amazing Acro-Cats tours and performs throughout the United States. This is a nonprofit group that donates to animal shelters and lives its motto: “Saving Cats One Click at a Time.” Find more information and show dates at www.circuscats.com.

Arden Moore, founder of fourleggedlife.com, is an animal behavior expert and host of the Oh Behave! show on petliferadio.com. Learn more at www.ardenmoore.com.

Grigol Kranz and Pam Casanave coach groups split into grades 1-5 and 6-10 at St. Andrews Club. Casanave is a regular in Boca’s Ballroom Battle. Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine

Hair bows fly, ties flutter and laughter resonates off the windows overlooking the ocean as dozens of kids follow instructor Pam Casanave and her assistant Grigol Kranz in basic dance steps.

The ladies are in white gloves and party dresses in shades of rose from blush pink to blood red. The gentlemen wear suit jackets and ties. As they struggle to learn steps and avoid each other’s toes, Casanave and Kranz move between them, gliding and smiling.
When they let the kids loose for a game of “musical hearts,” they twirl and bop with abandon.

This is the dance portion of cotillion, a two-hour class that combines etiquette advice and dance instruction to build social skills and enforce gracious behavior.

The class, 60 kids from first to 10th grades, meets about 10 times between September and May at St. Andrews Club in Gulf Stream. Casanave, a professional dancer, choreographer and instructor from Boca Raton, started the cotillion classes through her company, Dance With Pam, last year with the encouragement of local moms.

Casanave is well-known in the dance community. She and her husband, Jean-Marc Casanave, owned Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Boca before he died in 2016.

Casanave continued to dance, choreograph and teach at her own school while focusing her talents on the annual Boca’s Ballroom Battle, which pairs amateurs with professionals to raise money for the George Snow Scholarship Fund. She helped grow the event into a huge success.

Casanave coached Literacy Coalition CEO Kristin Calder when she competed, and when Calder’s kids, Harrison, 16, and Caroline, 12, aged out of their cotillion classes after the eighth grade, Calder suggested Casanave and cotillion might be a perfect fit.

Casanave came up with a curriculum and hit the ground running in 3-inch heels last year.

For teaching purposes, the kids are split into two groups, grades 1-5 and 6-10, and each session carries an etiquette topic. For Valentine’s week, the topic was “magic words”: please, thank you, I’m sorry, excuse me, may I, and hello.

“Introductions show we’re friendly and courteous,” Casanave says.

Good manners open doors that even the best education cannot by using the universal principles of kindness, politeness and grace. “Parents want to raise kind and compassionate children, and manners serve us very well,” she says.

Dancing with actual touching takes a little getting used to, but dance’s similarity to sports helps.

Kranz, a ballroom dancer and personal trainer, coaches them: Stay loose, bend your knees, finish the movement, pay attention to your partner.

Instructors Pam Casanave and Grigol Kranz lead youngsters and teens in dance and etiquette classes at St. Andrews Club in Gulf Stream. Photo Provided

The kids represent different schools — Saint Andrew’s, Gulf Stream and Oxbridge — which they like. Margaux Bonutti, 12, goes to Gulf Stream and is more comfortable in cleats on the soccer field, but really enjoys the dance lessons. Her 15-year-old brother, Marc, who goes to Oxbridge and is interested in aviation, says, “At first I was hesitant about coming to class, but now I appreciate the things they’re teaching us and I look forward to it.”

Caroline Calder loves music and theater, so she can’t learn enough dance, and Gracie Robinson, 12, who rides horses three times a week, thinks cotillion is bringing out her personality. Among the younger kids, the attention span is shorter, but the lessons are there. Amelia Grandic, 7, in a sequined top and fuchsia tulle tutu, nibbles cookies post-dance and stops talking about her guinea pig to offer this dance (and life) advice: “It helps if you follow the directions.”

But Amelia’s brother, Thatcher Grandic, 9, in his navy-blue blazer and no-nonsense glasses, sees the big picture. He says the purpose of good manners is to make others feel comfortable. He says good manners are about treating strangers like friends.

The Gulf Stream student, who likes math, is not sure what he wants to do when he gets older, but says, “I’d like to do something that helps the world.”

And that is the epitome of good manners.

About 40 vendors sell fruits, vegetables and other goods in Boca. Linda Haase/The Coastal Star

By Linda Haase

Anyone who knows Emily Lilly can tell you where she spends Saturday mornings from November to early May.

It’s the same place she’s been for the past 23 years — the Boca Raton Greenmarket. Lilly, who has been the manager since the venture began, is dedicated to bringing farm-to-table produce, artisan products, delicious food — and more — to customers in a fun, relaxed ambiance.

The market, which runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through May 9, has a sweet spot at the Boca Raton City Hall grounds, where it relocated after 20 years at Royal Palm Place. There are plenty of trees to provide shade and a stage-like area for musical entertainment.

Variety is key at this market, which has about 40 vendors, says Lilly. In other words, expect the unexpected. Looking for cranberry beans? They’re front and center, along with more than 80 kinds of herbs and spices, lemon peel strips, made-to-order guacamole, jackfruit, gargantuan carrots, truffle burrata, aromatherapy necklaces, organic butterfly pea flower tea and even root beer-float-flavored finishing butter. (Mix it with sriracha and simple syrup for a to-die-for glaze for chicken wings, ham or ribs.)

Be sure to stop by the Broward Beekeepers Association booth, where experts share information on the importance and quirks of bees. (Who knew honeybees have two stomachs or that a queen bee can lay more than 2,000 eggs a day?)

Arrive early and join the free one-hour yoga class, then cool off with coconut water served inside the freshly carved out fruit. Wander around and you’ll discover lush flowers and plants, Mediterranean food, nuts galore, fresh-squeezed juice and more, including a soothing hand wash at the La Cure booth.

Expect a line at “the fish guy” booth, where customers exchange recipes and pleasantries while waiting up to 30 minutes for the coveted smoked fish dip, stone crab claws, homemade mustard sauce, fresh fish and other ocean delights. The market began with a mission, explains Lilly: “to offer produce from farm-to-table with nothing in between.” It evolved, adding local artisans showcasing their products, music and more.

Now, it’s also a Saturday morning destination for the entire family, including the family pup. As for the future? Lilly has one desire. “I’d love better weather on Saturdays. This year it has been horrendous. It does not make for a good outdoor venture.”

New Sunday market

Can’t get to the greenmarket on Saturdays? Or want to double your weekend fun? Head to the newly opened Florida Fresh Market at Mizner Park from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. The market may continue year-round, organizers say. At the south end of the center, between Lord & Taylor and Yard House, the market features a fresh produce center along with local vendors highlighting prepared foods, jams and jellies, breads, local honeys, unique artisan items and more.

“We are excited to offer our guests yet another reason to visit Mizner Park,” says general manager Dana Romanelli Schearer. “With our many offerings and beautiful outdoor space, Mizner Park lends itself to Florida Fresh Market events, especially during the milder South Florida months.”

Ron Campbell painted the yellow submarine for the Beatles’ animated film of the same name. He contributed about 12 minutes of the finished product. Photo provided

Update: Cartoonist cancels Old School Square appearance | Beatles on the Beach Festival postponed

By Ron Hayes

When the second annual International Beatles on the Beach Festival hits Delray Beach on March 26-29, you’ll hear from more than a dozen Beatle imitators — and one Beatles illustrator.

You’ll hear The Bertils from Sweden, The NoWhere Boys from Colombia, Beat and Shout from Brazil and Estefy Lennon, a female John Lennon tribute band from Argentina.

You’ll hear “McCartney Mania,” with a full orchestra, and even a performance by Micky Dolenz, former drummer for those “prefab four,” The Monkees.

Also promised is a display of artwork by the some of the Beatles at the Cornell Art Museum in Old School Square, where you'll have a chance to meet and hear Ron Campbell, but he won't be singing Yellow Submarine.

He helped draw it.

Campbell was 28 and already a veteran cartoonist when he drew sketches used to animate many scenes in the beloved feature cartoon, Yellow Submarine.

It was Campbell who helped bring the Sea of Time sequence to the screen, the Chief Blue Meanie and his sidekick Max, and of course, “Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D.,” the Nowhere Man.

Before that, he’d animated the hit Beatles TV cartoons back home in his native Australia, and afterward he’d go on to work on Scooby-Doo and The Smurfs, the Flintstones, Jetsons and Rugrats.

Beloved characters all, but when Campbell appears at cartoon festivals, sharing his memories and selling his artwork, the cartoon characters who draw the biggest crowds are the ones based on four real human beings.

“I’d say it’s 50% Beatles,” Campbell says. “With the Beatles, you not only get the attraction of cartoons, you also have the love of the music.”

A graduate of the Swinburne Art Institute in Melbourne, Campbell was already established, animating Beetle Bailey and Krazy Kat cartoons when his director, Al Brodax, called in the middle of the night. He’d just sold a new show. Would Ron like to direct it?

“What show?”
“The Beatles.”
“Al,” Campbell told him, “insects make terrible characters for a children’s show.”

This was in 1964.

“I was a serious young man listening to classical music,” Campbell says, speaking from his home in Arizona. “This was hundreds of little girls drowning out the music, so I hadn’t taken a second’s notice of it. But I quickly learned.”

The Beatles cartoon TV series ran for four years at the height of Beatlemania, and in 1967 Brodax called again, asking Campbell to contribute to the upcoming feature film.

By then, he’d moved to California, worked for Hanna-Barbera’s Smurfs series and opened his own company, Ron Campbell Films.
He helped complete about 12 minutes of the finished Yellow Submarine film, work that took about eight months.

“I didn’t even mention it when I was giving my bios and stuff,” he says.

But the rock band he hadn’t paid attention to in 1964 didn’t go away, and the psychedelic cartoon he’d help draw still draws praise and fans.

“That’s because their rock ’n’ roll music is good,” he says. “It’s varied, it’s rich, it’s not monotonous, and every song is different, with magical phrasing in it.”

Campbell turned 80 in December. He’s retired now, traveling to Beatles shows about once a month. But while the Beatles and Yellow Submarine have endured, the art of hand-drawn animation that he mastered has faded as Pixar and Disney’s computer-generated imagery has taken its place.

“CGI belongs to the young people,” Campbell says, without bitterness. “It’s got nothing to do with me. CGI is cold, but with great story lines and beautiful design and very expressive production. Computers can do things no human being can hope to do. But hand-drawn work has a softness and pleasantness that computers can’t capture.”

By now, you’re no doubt asking what all who come to his exhibits ask. Ron Campbell drew John, Paul, George and Ringo, but no, he never met them. “I’m sorry,” he tells the fans, “but you can’t shake the hand that shook the hand.”

And surely his favorite Beatles song must be Yellow Submarine?

“Here Comes the Sun,” he says. “And I like Hey Jude. It reminds me of Ravel’s Bolero. But a favorite? That’s impossible.”

If You Go
What: Beatles on the Beach
When: March 26-29, with music events March 27-28
Where: Old School Square and Cornell Art Museum, Delray Beach, and other venues around town
Admission: $29.50 a day for general admission, $89.50 for concert VIP or $152.50 for weekend VIP. VIP tickets cover entry to all events.
Info: www.beatlesonthebeach.com
Meet Ron Campbell: The artist will paint, talk to visitors and show his work at the Cornell Museum from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 26-28 and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. March 29. Admission is free.

By Mary Hladky and Jerry Lower

Any hopes that suspended Mayor Susan Haynie might have had of reclaiming her elected office ended Feb. 27 when both her defense lawyer and the prosecutor asked that her trial on public corruption charges be delayed.

In a four-minute hearing Circuit Judge Jeffrey Dana Gillen canceled Haynie’s March 23 trial date and rescheduled it for July 20. He also told prosecutor Brian Fernandes and defense attorney Bruce Zimet to file any new evidence by June 1.

Fernandes contends that Haynie used her position on the City Council to vote on six matters that financially benefited Jim and Marta Batmasian, the city’s largest downtown commercial landowners, and failed to disclose income she received from them or their company, Investments Limited.

Haynie, 64, has pleaded not guilty to charges of official misconduct, perjury, misuse of public office and failure to disclose voting conflicts. She faces more than 20 years in prison.

Haynie, a fixture in Boca Raton politics for 18 years, has not publicly commented on the case since her April 24, 2018, arrest. Then-Gov. Rick Scott suspended her from office, but she never resigned.

If her trial had started March 23 and she were quickly acquitted, Haynie could potentially have reclaimed the mayor’s seat but only until her term of office ends on March 31.

Scott Singer was elected mayor four months after Haynie’s arrest and is seeking election to a full term on March 17 with only token opposition from Bernard Korn.

Four owners are fighting the sale of the Delray South Shore Club, a timeshare that closed in January. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

The cozy 15-unit timeshare closed its doors the Saturday after New Year’s, employees were terminated, and security guards started patrolling the grounds pending the resort’s sale to a Pennsylvania-based developer.
Owners of most of the 765 timeshare weeks at the Delray South Shore Club are no doubt looking forward to the estimated $16,078 payout for each week they owned at the beachside complex.
But four owners, who collectively have seven weeks, are continuing a legal battle to undo the 498-156 vote to sell the resort, alleging that they and fellow unit owners were duped by misleading information and “scare tactics” from the timeshare’s board of directors, maneuvers they say will lead to windfall profits for two directors who live nearby.
“It’s frustrating for us knowing what is happening and being unable to educate the other owners as well as work through the slow legal system,” said Jacqui Derrick, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
The suit originally sought to block the Aug. 5 vote authorizing the sale of the complex at 1625 S. Ocean Blvd.; it was amended to focus on alleged breach of contract by the timeshare association and alleged breach of fiduciary duty by the two directors, barrier island residents Kenneth MacNamee and Robert Deutsch.
“It’s a real family place, and it’s really important that the city of Delray, and other places too, know what these jerks are doing,” co-plaintiff John Runyon of Minnesota said.
Derrick and her husband, Bob, also a plaintiff, live about an hour’s drive from Atlanta and own four timeshare weeks. William Miller of Boca Raton is the fourth plaintiff.
In their lawsuit they assert that the resort’s Declaration of Condominium requires unanimous consent of all unit owners to terminate the timeshare.
Members of the board of directors, who are now called termination trustees following the dissolution of the timeshare, assured the other owners that their attorney, Seth Kolton, is “vigorously defending against the plaintiffs’ baseless claims.”
Kolton argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed partly because MacNamee and Deutsch as members of the board of directors are statutorily immune from personal liability. But Circuit Judge Howard Coates Jr. denied Kolton’s motion on Dec. 20.
MacNamee would tell The Coastal Star little about the case.
“As the defendant in the lawsuit, I look forward to my day in court to set the record straight. Until then, I have ‘no comment,’ ” he said in an email.

ABOVE: Sara Clendenin, 32, who had been coming to the Delray South Shore Club since she was in her mother’s womb, makes a final visit with her boyfriend, Dan Sophie, and her mother, Pat. BELOW: Arlene Stuckenbrock of Chicago and Reed Owen sip Bloody Marys. Stuckenbrock had been coming to the timeshare since 1982. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

MacNamee and Deutsch won seats to the seven-member board in November 2018, the same month they learned they had won a sealed-bid auction arranged by the board to buy 23 association-owned weeks.
Paul Widemer, a former director, questioned MacNamee’s and Deutsch’s qualifications to be directors before the election, saying MacNamee “does excel in being disruptive and obnoxious.”
MacNamee, who lives on a canal three lots off the Intracoastal Waterway, then went to Widemer’s home in Lantana and took pictures. “I don’t know your business background and acumen,” he replied to the 86-year-old widower’s email, “but given your domicile situation, you don’t appear to have been very successful, certainly not in my league.”
The board president sent copies of the email exchange to all owners.
Last February the board notified unit owners that the association had received two unsolicited offers to purchase Delray South Shore. In the same mailing, the board posed a one-question survey: “Do you have any interest in selling Delray South Shore Club? Yes or No.”
The board says “a majority of owners responding to the survey” expressed interest in selling, by its count 272-260. But the plaintiff owners insist the outcome is reversed if you subtract the 23 votes MacNamee and Deutsch acquired in the November auction.
In the subsequent Aug. 5 vote, owners were asked whether to terminate the timeshare and warned of future renovations of up to $2 million.
The board’s mailer stated the case this way: “Simply stated, if the vote passes: DSSC will be sold, and you as an owner in good standing will receive approximately $16,000 for each week that you own. … If the vote fails: You as an owner will likely have an additional expense of $2,000-$2,500 per week that you own, which may be spread over a few years.”
MacNamee first invested in Delray South Shore in 1984 and by 2011 he and his wife, Mary, had acquired a total of eight weeks for $22,548, according to the plaintiffs’ research of property records.
They bought seven more weeks for $3,500 on March 6, 2018, and sold one the next day to Deutsch for $1,000. MacNamee added another week to his holdings that July for $10.
Deutsch’s purchase qualified him to run for a seat on the board that fall. In the association’s November auction MacNamee bought six weeks for $4,560 and Deutsch bought 17 weeks for $11,725, the plaintiffs say.
They also find it suspicious that four of the eight auction winners were on the board of directors.
By their math, MacNamee stands to get $337,638 for his $29,618 investment while Deutsch will convert his $12,725 of timeshare weeks into $289,404.
A subsidiary of U.S. Construction Inc., the Philadelphia firm that bought the Wright-by-the-Sea hotel for $25 million in 2018, submitted the $12.3 million winning offer for Delray South Shore. The lawsuit delayed the deal’s planned Jan. 6 closing.
The other offer, for not as much, came from Delray Beach-based Seaside Builders LLC.
U.S. Construction is also a partner in developing Gulf Stream Views, a 14-townhome project just south of Briny Breezes.
The plaintiffs’ lawsuit says MacNamee and Deutsch breached their fiduciary duty “by knowingly, intentionally and maliciously promoting the sale of the association and self-dealing only to seek a windfall profit from their recent activity of purchasing … many foreclosed units within the association well below market value.”
Jacqui Derrick grieves over the loss of “the average man’s vacation beachside resort” and fears Berkshire by the Sea, at 126 N. Ocean Blvd., may be the next target of developers. The Berkshire board of directors notified owners in 2016 that its timeshare ownership arrangement would expire in 2021 unless they amended the bylaws, “just like what our BOD did to us with the same type of wording. Interesting.”
Runyon, 74, bought his two timeshare weeks in 1999 for $5,000 each and faithfully paid his maintenance fee, which he said was $749 a week last year.
“My goal is to preserve Delray South Shore,” he said. “To those of us who don’t see it the way the speculators see it, this is Florida of the ’80s.”
During the timeshare’s final week, guests basked in the sun, walked the beach and congregated in the cabana, but the mood was bittersweet.
“I love this place,” said Sara Clendenin, 32, of St. Louis, who first visited the timeshare while in her mother’s womb. “We come here every year and know all of the people here. They’re like a whole ’nother family you get to see each year.”
Nancy Fooks from New York, who came on New Year’s Day to say goodbye to the friends and the place, admitted she had been crying over its looming closure.
And Arlene Stuckenbrock of Chicago, who had been visiting the club since 1982, recalled watching her son playing as a child from her patio seat.
“I always had the 52nd week of the year, and sometimes the first week of the year. I won’t be able to do that anymore,” she lamented.

Jerry Lower contributed to this story.

By Charles Elmore

For all the headlines about rising seas, king tides and other climate threats, homeowners in most cities and towns across southeastern Palm Beach County stand less prepared than they were eight years earlier when it comes to flood coverage from the National Flood Insurance Program, records from the program show.
Fewer folks have NFIP policies in nine municipalities in the region, compared to three cities with more.
In Delray Beach, residents shed about 10% of NFIP policies between 2012 and 2019. Boynton Beach residents with policies dropped almost 30%. Policy counts fell more than 40% in Briny Breezes.
After years of NFIP rate increases and added surcharges, some homeowners chose not to renew policies if, say, they were not required to carry flood coverage by a mortgage lender.

Briny Breezes resident Linc Musto said he dropped flood insurance for about four years, but resumed coverage after Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas in 2019, narrowly veering from Florida.
“Seeing the widespread devastation in the Bahamas made me realize what we would have faced had its path brought it over to Briny,” said Musto, 85, who worked in the insurance business for more than 50 years.
Paying premiums for flood insurance “might be painful for the homeowners, but it does leave them vulnerable if they don’t have it,” said Jim Wrona, a Realtor with POSH Properties in Ocean Ridge.
The average flood claim runs about $43,000, federal officials say, but crucially, it requires a flood policy to collect. A standard homeowner policy does not cover flooding caused by rising water from lakes, rivers, canals and the ocean.
NFIP, backed by the federal government, accounts for all but 3% to 4% of flood policies in the county, though private insurers have recently ramped up efforts to underwrite more flood coverage. 
Florida residents buy the most NFIP policies of any state by far — about 35% of the nation’s total. But a common refrain heard around the state is that Florida has received only a little over 7% of the NFIP’s payouts during the past four decades. Records show that hundreds of thousands of Florida’s homeowners over the last decade have balked at shelling out more as debts piled up for disasters occurring largely in other states.
The average annual cost of an NFIP policy, including various surcharges, pushed past $1,000 nationally by 2019, federal reports show.
Pricing can vary over time as flood maps are updated and redrawn, and the cost for an individual home can vary widely from the average. John G. Backer, one of the owners of the Gracey-Backer Inc. insurance agency in Delray Beach, recalled an example where the premium was $500 for one property and $5,000 for next door.
“There’s a lot of sticker shock,” Backer said.
In effect, some homeowners choose to self-insure, meaning they watch what happens with flooding threats in their neighborhoods over time and decide whether to shoulder the financial risk themselves.
Flood policies come on top of standard home insurance costs that are in some cases rising even faster, to protect against threats such as fires, hurricanes with high winds and plumbing leaks.
As of December, the average cost of a standard policy climbed above $3,000 annually for the first time in Palm Beach County for Florida’s second-largest insurer, state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp.
“At this rate,” said homeowner Marie Berman in Boca Raton, “no one will want to buy in South Florida as insurance is way out of whack. I think this is a huge issue that will affect property values in a huge way.”

Rates being analyzed
Difficult financial decisions for homeowners are likely to get tougher in the months ahead.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees NFIP, announced that beginning on April 1, renewal premiums will increase an average of 11.3%. That does not include the effects of proposed risk-based pricing, postponed to 2021, which could raise costs even more for some property owners in places designated to carry higher risks. Others could see lower costs.
“FEMA continues to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the proposed rating structure planned for implementation and effective as of Oct. 1, 2021,” an agency spokesman said. “It is premature to speculate on any changes in premium rates.”
The NFIP remains the dominant player in a realm of insurance where private companies have historically feared to tread because risks are so high. Private insurers have recently dipped a cautious toe further into flood insurance waters, and Backer said he has begun selling more policies from private carriers.
As of Sept. 30, 2019, there were 4,564 policies from private insurers providing a property’s primary source of flood coverage in Palm Beach County, up about 33% from 3,424 a year earlier, according to data supplied by the industry-funded Insurance Information Institute.
The group’s Florida representative, Mark Friedlander, said the data available to him did not show the cities or ZIP codes where the policies were located.
Private agents and companies can also sell and administer NFIP policies through established programs. 
Nationally, the number of NFIP policies has decreased from 5.7 million in 2009 to fewer than 5.1 million as of June 30, 2019, federal records show.

Measures may lower costs
Several local cities are taking steps to strengthen seawalls, improve drainage systems and otherwise reduce flooding risks in ways that can help lower NFIP premiums for their residents.
In December, for example, Delray Beach announced its improved Community Rating System score would save residents about 5% on NFIP policies, or about $450,000 citywide.
In early January, Ocean Ridge Town Manager Tracey Stevens reminded residents that FEMA scheduled an open house for Feb. 4 and 5 in West Palm Beach for property owners to see the latest flood maps and discuss their options.
Ocean Ridge had fewer NFIP policies in 2019 (1,243) than it did in 2012 (1,301), though records show a slight uptick from 2018 (1,237).
Boca Raton, Gulf Stream and Manalapan showed a slight increase in 2019 NFIP policies compared to 2012. Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Briny Breezes, Highland Beach, Hypoluxo, Lake Worth Beach, Lantana, Ocean Ridge and South Palm Beach registered fewer NFIP polices in that span.
In early 2020, thousands of local homeowners can decide how a flood policy looks in the light of a new year.
“As flood events are one of the costliest disasters each year, FEMA reminds homeowners that anywhere it can rain, it can flood,” a FEMA spokesman said. “On average, 1 inch of rain can cost nearly $25,000 in repairs.”
Federal officials say they’re trying to apply the latest and best technology to the problem.
“FEMA’s goal is to make flood insurance significantly easier for agents to price and sell policies, and in turn, help customers better understand their flood risk and the importance of flood insurance,” the spokesman said.

Public open house on flood insurance
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is hosting a public open house Feb. 4-5 in West Palm Beach on flood maps and rates. No appointments are necessary and members of the public can drop by at any time during two three-hour windows.
Where: Mary V. McDonald-Wilson Center, 1505 N. Australian Ave., West Palm Beach
When: 4 -7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4, and 9 a.m.-noon Wednesday, Feb. 5

Waves from boats’ wakes wash over a sea wall and stir up the Intracoastal Waterway in Delray Beach. The city said it would ask the state to consider rising sea levels in setting lower speeds. Some residents have built higher walls but are still concerned about potential property damage and want a no-wake zone. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Intracoastal residents want city to defy state to lower boat speeds

By Jane Smith

Palm Trail residents are asking Delray Beach city commissioners to take action against rising tides and seas and reduce boat speeds on the portion of the Intracoastal Waterway that runs beside their street.
In the stretch between the bridges at George Bush Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue, slightly less than a mile, residents see weekend boaters zipping by. The speed boats kick up wakes, which crash into and over sea walls and enter backyards and city-owned pocket parks, streets and drains.
The waterfront residents want to see a no-wake zone year-round across the waterway to protect their property and the city property, but the state controls the speed limits in the Intracoastal.
“You have to challenge the archaic rules that don’t take into account what others see as a crisis worldwide,” George Walden told commissioners at their Jan. 16 meeting.

Walden

Walden, who lives on the Intracoastal, plans to raise his sea wall by 15 inches to combat the rising tides and keep his property from sliding into the waterway.
The commissioners, though, decided to take a baby step in that direction.
The city attorney will draft a resolution urging the state to consider the rising tides in their boating speed regulations. “We are preempted from drafting an ordinance regulating boat speeds,” City Attorney Lynn Gelin said.
Even so, some commissioners are leaning toward lowering the boat speed limits.
“We have new issues,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said at the meeting. “Higher tides were not an issue just five years ago.” She wants to pursue “the low-hanging fruit” that she said should not be difficult to change.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission enforces boating speeds and ensures wildlife safety in the Intracoastal.
To include rising tides would be a lengthy, multi-step process, FWC regional spokeswoman Carol Lyn Parrish said.
“The data on the rising tides and king tides has to be there to support restriction of the speed zones,” she said.
FWC maps show boat speeds in the waterway through Delray Beach are limited to 25 mph from Oct. 1 to May 31. The other four months, boat speeds are capped at 30 mph.
Year-round, a 50-foot-wide slow-speed buffer exists on both shores of the Intracoastal.
In addition, boats must maintain idle speed from 300 feet north to 600 feet south of the George Bush Boulevard bridge and slow speed with minimum wake from 300 feet north of the Atlantic Avenue bridge to 500 feet north of the Knowles Park boat ramp.
But boaters go faster than that on weekends, Walden, who lives north of the Atlantic Avenue bridge zone, said in a Jan. 17 memo to commissioners.
“I would invite each and every one of you to sit at my dock on any given weekend to view firsthand the reckless disregard of most boaters,” Walden wrote.

Jill and Eric Schifferli live on Palm Trail and have raised their sea wall by a foot to combat wakes. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Jill Schifferli, who lives on Palm Trail and is president of the Palm Trail Homeowners Association, agrees. “Many residents have raised their sea walls,” she said at the Jan. 16 meeting.
They see the damage from the brackish Intracoastal water in the city’s pocket parks at the end of the streets. When boats go zipping by, residents can see the water bubble up through the drains near the waterway.
After the Schifferlis raised their sea wall by 12 inches, Jill and her husband, Eric, planted native Florida grasses that are salt-tolerant because the tidal flow killed their other grass.
“We want the city to help us with our situation by reducing the boat speeds,” she said. That also would reduce property damage for the city pocket parks and streets, she added.
Steve Plamann, who lives off the waterway on Northeast First Court, is nonetheless affected by rising seas. He said that during Hurricane Dorian last year, tidal water flowed onto his street. “It was the highest I have ever seen,” said Plamann, who has lived there for about 30 years.
Residents who live along the east side of the Intracoastal on the barrier island support lower boat speeds, said Bob Victorin, president of the Beach Property Owners Association.
“We met with the Palm Trail group to discuss this issue,” Victorin said. “Manatee protection is another reason for a low-wake zone.”
Manatee season runs Nov. 15 to March 31. Deaths of manatees have been rising in Florida, Jill Schifferli said at the meeting. In 2019, manatee fatalities from collisions with watercraft were up 10.5% over those in 2018. In 2018, there were 124 deaths; in 2019 the number rose to 137.
Manatees, the state’s official marine mammal, are a protected species in Florida. Also known as sea cows, they are aquatic relatives of the elephant. They often have scars from being run over by boat propellers.
For all those reasons, Palm Trail residents continue their quest for lower boat speeds.
“We implore you to take the necessary next step to create and pass an ordinance designating the area between Atlantic and George Bush a No Wake, Slow Speed area,” Walden wrote on Jan. 17 to the commission.  
He then wants the commission to send the ordinance to the FWC for its approval.
“And should FWC decide to reject the commonsense approach of Delray Beach, I would recommend that the mayor drive (literally) the issue directly to the governor’s office to be appealed and overridden as shortsighted, archaic and out of touch with the realities of 2020.”
Mayor Petrolia agrees about the importance of considering rising tides in the boat speed limits.
“It’s a difficult situation that needs to be looked at. Rising tides should be included when determining boating speeds,” she said Jan. 19.
“We may need to pass it through our sustainability officer and then through the new resilience officer in the governor’s office.”

Paige Kornblue Hunter and her husband, Andrew Hunter, will chair the Rhinestone Cowboy Ball, a Feb. 29 event for the George Snow Scholarship Fund. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Margie Plunkett

She brings a lot of Boca Raton.
He brings a lot of Texas.
Together they seem perfect to serve as honorary chairs of Boca’s 2020 Rhinestone Cowboy Ball, a Feb. 29 fundraiser for the George Snow Scholarship Fund.
Paige Kornblue Hunter, former WPTV NewsChannel 5 anchor and reporter, and her husband, Andrew Hunter, are the Boca Raton residents chairing the event, whose theme is Boots and Bling.
Paige will also be the emcee.
Andrew commutes to Dallas for a four-day stint each week at the oil and gas company Guidon Energy, where he is a drilling adviser and managing partner.
In addition to having a presence in different states, the two devote time to their family, many charities, their children’s school and their careers.
Ask them how they get it all done, and Andrew will answer. “We live life to the fullest.”
Paige adds, “We don’t sit much.”
A Boca Raton native, Paige, 39, went to St. Andrew’s School and received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan. Her first job out of college was at a TV station in Lake Charles, Louisiana. After that, she returned to Palm Beach County to work at WPTV.
Andrew, 37, is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and received a degree in petroleum engineering from Louisiana State University.
The two got together seven or eight years after Paige had returned to Palm Beach County. She was invited back to Lake Charles by a friend who did the weather there. The weather friend was married to a good friend of Andrew’s. That couple set up a Mardi Gras ball blind date for Paige and Andrew, who at the time was working on an offshore oil rig. Andrew picked up Paige at the airport and they headed to the ball. Before long they were engaged.
Paige took a break from TV news at WPTV, and the couple settled in Dallas. They were married in 2011 at the Boca Raton Resort & Club, where Paige’s parents were married in 1975 — and where the Rhinestone Cowboy Ball is being held this year. They lived full-time in Dallas, fixed up a home and had three children there.
They moved back to Boca Raton in 2015. The catalyst for the move was that Paige’s mother, Andrea Berry Kornblue, was battling cancer. “We came back to help her in the fight,” Paige said. Mrs. Kornblue, who died in 2018, was a longtime member of the Junior League and volunteered with many organizations.
The Hunters stayed in Boca Raton, swayed by the lifestyle. “We love it,” said Andrew. “The lifestyle’s so good, especially with kids, that it’s worth it to commute. We have three days a week on the beach with the family.”
Paige is a member of the Junior League and volunteers for organizations such as Boca Raton Regional Hospital, Food for the Poor, American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society. She and Andrew got involved in 2008 with the George Snow Scholarship Fund, which since its inception in 1982 has awarded more than $12 million in educational grants.
Paige’s father, Dr. Edwin Kornblue, who was the first dentist in Boca Raton, knew George Snow, she said.
Andrew is president of the Dallas Fort Worth Chapter of the American Association of Drilling Engineers, an organization that has granted $560,000 in scholarships to engineering students across the country.
Meanwhile, Paige wants to put writing back in her life and by Feb. 1 will have launched her own website and blog. “I miss the writing, getting out there and telling some stories,” she said. Her website will be www.PaigeKornblue.com.
The Hunters have three children: Maya Blue, 7, and twins Clay and Cody, 5. They attend the A.D. Henderson University School at Florida Atlantic University, where Paige is a room mom for both classes and Andrew is on the school board.
Other family members are also nearby. Both Paige’s father and Andrew’s father, Chuck Hunter, are in Boca Raton.
Family and friends are the most important thing in their lives, Andrew said. “We have a very diverse and wonderful group of friends around us. We both like to socialize and surround ourselves with great people.”
Said Paige: “We both like to have fun and live for the day.”

If You Go
What: 2020 Rhinestone Cowboy Ball
Benefits: George Snow Scholarship Fund, one of the largest foundations to offer scholarships to students in South Florida
When: 6 p.m. Feb. 29
Where: Boca Raton Resort & Club, 501 E. Camino Real, Boca Raton
Tickets: Start at $250
Info: 561-347-6799 or www.scholarship.org/events-2/#CB

I’m happy to report that we’re making progress with reducing the use of plastics in the distribution of The Coastal Star.
Beginning next month, we are partnering with Publix Super Markets to improve the delivery of newspapers in the northern third of our circulation area.
If you live in a single-family home in Manalapan or on Hypoluxo Island, you’ll begin receiving your paper in the mail in March. Same goes for readers in Ocean Ridge who live north of Woolbright Road.
By switching to mail delivery we’ll be able to reduce the number of plastic sleeves we throw into driveways and eliminate delivery of wet newsprint.
In some neighborhoods it means that police officers and property managers won’t have to pick up and discard copies when residents are away.
The mailed editions of the newspaper will feature monthly promotional materials from Publix. These same editions will be hand-delivered (as usual) to the condos and townhomes in this geographic area — including South Palm Beach.
There shouldn’t be any delay in delivery. If all goes well, we’ll still get you your newspaper on the first weekend of the month.
We’re excited about this sponsored mail delivery of The Coastal Star.
We hope you enjoy the upgrade to our delivery system, as we look forward — over time — to expanding the practice to the rest of our delivery area.
Please thank Publix for helping us reduce the amount of plastic we’re using along our environmentally fragile coast.
And if you have questions or concerns, do contact our publisher, Jerry Lower, at publisher@thecoastalstar.com.

— Mary Kate Leming,
Editor

By Steve Plunkett

Town officials are considering some quick short-term fixes to prevent ruts from forming along and water from ponding on roadways in the core area.
Gulf Stream is in its second year of a 10-year capital improvement plan to replace water mains and rebuild streets. This year’s work focuses on the water main along the northern section of State Road A1A.
But Town Manager Greg Dunham alerted town commissioners at their Jan. 10 meeting that Gulf Stream’s engineering consultant is developing a plan to tackle minor drainage and pavement edge repairs this year.
“You all know about the areas where ponding and rutting alongside the road have been occurring,” Dunham said.
The problem areas are on Polo and Lakeview drives and Gulfstream, Old School and Banyan roads.
Mayor Scott Morgan embraced the idea.
“It seems wise to try to address the issue of very narrow roads, particularly Gulfstream, and water pooling at Polo if it can be done relatively inexpensively and relatively quickly,” the mayor said. “We feel that expanding Gulfstream Road, particularly on the east side going all the way up, putting a curb down on Lakeview and addressing this Polo piling of water because of the elevated drainage area will make a significant difference to the town quickly and pretty inexpensively.”
Dunham said possible solutions are adding curbs at corners and expanding pavement a foot or so “to prevent rutting from parked vehicles or cars running off the edge of the pavement.”
Other fixes could include putting a stone or rock shoulder along a street’s edge, cutting a swale and resodding it to direct runoff away from the road, removing grass in front of drainage inlets and inlet aprons, and adjusting drainage inlet tops and gates or saw-cutting and raising the road where settlement has occurred.
“One of the best examples of that is the big inlet down at Old School and Polo that always has water ponding around it that can’t get into it,” Dunham said. “So one way to address that is to take the lid off, actually cut the box and lower it so the water can get into it.”
Commissioner Paul Lyons, who lives on Polo, said he was “very much in favor” of the proposal, which engineering consultant Baxter & Woodman will flesh out for the commission’s Feb. 14 meeting.
Planning for the reconstruction of Polo, Gulfstream and other core roads is scheduled for fiscal 2021 in the capital improvement plan with reconstruction work done in fiscal 2022.
Commissioners also discussed a white SUV that is parked almost year-round on a town right of way along Polo Drive. Rather than draw up an ordinance to regulate overnight parking, they directed Dunham to contact the property owner to try to resolve the issue.

The ordinance, which is up for a final vote Feb. 3, would limit artificial turf to back and side yards and ban it in front yards such as here on A1A. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

The long-running sports dispute over whether natural grass or artificial turf is the better surface has spread into Ocean Ridge.
But the town’s debate isn’t about games. It’s about front yards.
While updating Ocean Ridge’s building codes last year, officials decided to restrict the use of plastic grass to ensure aesthetic standards were maintained.
The result was an ordinance that came before the Town Commission for a first reading Jan. 6 that lays down some tough and detailed rules for installing synthetic yard surface.
Specifically, Town Attorney Brian Shutt, who wrote the ordinance with the help of the Planning and Zoning Commission, says the law “provides that synthetic turf would only be allowed in the rear or side yards, not to exceed 25% and not visible from the public right of way. Synthetic turf would be allowed in between brick pavers, not to exceed 4 inches in width, and would not be counted toward the 25% maximum amount.”
Shutt said he also “added language to provide that with existing yards with artificial turf, the turf will be allowed to remain until it is repaired or replaced in an amount that is greater than 50% of the total.”
There is also a sunset clause that requires the homeowner to replace the turf after 10 years. Most artificial surfaces are under warranty for between six and eight years, officials say, so the reasoning is the surface won’t last 10 years anyway.
Commissioners approved the ordinance on a 3-1 vote with Mayor Steve Coz on the losing side and Commissioner Phil Besler absent. The ordinance comes up for final approval on Feb. 3.
Coz argued that the new rules were an intrusion on homeowners’ rights. He said the town should at least allow artificial turf on front yards if it is screened from the street by hedges, walls or landscaping. Coz said the turf would also help the town’s drainage problems by reducing the use of sprinklers.
“I do not agree with this ordinance whatsoever,” the mayor said. “If we pass this, what’s next? I don’t particularly like the look of artificial turf, but it’s a private property issue for me.”
Ric Carey, a planning and zoning commissioner, said the panel worked on the ordinance for months and examined other communities’ laws, some of which were more restrictive.
Carey said the intent was to preserve for Ocean Ridge “the lushness of it, the verdant nature, the sense that it’s a coastal paradise. We didn’t feel artificial turf met that criteria.”
John Zessin just installed synthetic grass at his Old Ocean Boulevard home and it has drawn compliments from neighbors and commissioners. Zessin thinks turf is a good solution for yards close to the ocean where salt and sand make it difficult to grow natural grass.
Moreover, he told commissioners, contrary to perceptions, turf is an environmentally sound solution. After all, it requires no water, pesticides or herbicides, and needs no mowing by machines that pollute the air with exhaust. Also, Zessin said, his lawn is made from recycled plastic.
“At what point does this overreach stop?” he asked, imploring the commission not to inflict invasive rules on homeowners.
Commissioner Kristine de Haseth, in strongly supporting the ordinance, said she would be willing to make it even more restrictive.
“This is a community character issue,” she said.

As a resident of Ocean Ridge for the past five years, I have attended five Town Commission meetings, four regarding my building a home and the fifth to defend what I have built.
And while my purpose for attending the Jan. 6 meeting was to provide my perspective on the environmental benefits of artificial turf near the ocean, what I experienced was more abhorrent than the uninformed review of my building project. Perhaps the parallel of the town overreach of “permitting” my project (Planning and Zoning’s architectural condemnation of my home) should be fully expected — because the leader advocating limits on artificial turf was none other than the P&Z.
In the vote to determine whether Ocean Ridge would allow artificial turf to be installed on future projects, the P&Z made two presentations, neither of which had scientific basis for their recommendation to ban it — not even an admission that artificial turf eliminates a number of environmental concerns, such as fertilizers, pesticides, lawn mower emissions, grass clippings or water usage.
No, their concern was purely aesthetic: They didn’t like the way it looked.
And while a debate can be had about the look of artificial turf, the true issue at hand is your commissioners’ belief that they should control what residents do with their private property. In voting that artificial turf could be used on no more than 25% of your total property, town commissioners have taken the right to control 75% of your private property. You can determine what you do to 25% of your property, but get to pay Ocean Ridge 100% when property taxes are due.
So what else does this council get to determine? Future agenda items are sure to include elimination of palm trees, color of grass allowed, strain of grass allowed, house color choices, approved architectural design and of course, banning of Big Gulps.
Every resident of Ocean Ridge should be concerned about the direction of our elected officials, regardless of where you stand on this issue. Your concern should be the loss of your personal freedom and property rights in Ocean Ridge.
Feb. 3 is residents’ last chance to speak up before the council ramrods this ordinance through. Please attend to voice your concerns.
— John Zessin,
Ocean Ridge

At 6 p.m. on Feb. 3, the Ocean Ridge Town Commission will vote on final adoption of an ordinance severely limiting waterless lawns, an ordinance that will significantly impact the private property rights of every Ocean Ridge landowner. Please come and participate in the discussion: It affects you. 
If Ocean Ridge property owners want to preserve their property rights, Feb. 3 will be the time to come and speak!
— Peter Hoe Burling,
Ocean Ridge

Lantana has had many projects and enhancements completed in 2019. Several water mains have been replaced throughout the town to increase water flow and pressure in many neighborhoods. Numerous streets have been repaved.
On our great beach, the bathrooms have been renovated and a deck has been added to the oceanfront pavilion.
Lantana’s town events were a great success, including Movie Nights at the Beach, an Easter Egg Hunt, Fourth of July Celebration, Haunted Nature Preserve and Winterfest, to name a few.
For the 20th consecutive year, the town was awarded a certificate for excellence in financial reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association. We were also proud to receive an award from the Florida Urban Forestry Council for Tree City USA.
Looking ahead, Lantana will continue its focus on projects to improve and beautify the town, including sidewalk improvements, repaving and restriping of roads, improvements to the Lantana Municipal Beach including an ADA accessible ramp, interior renovations to the library and improving town-owned property. FDOT is resurfacing South Dixie Highway and the town will be planting four landscape islands.
Lantana strives to be responsive to the needs of our residents and to make decisions based on what is good for all in the long term. The Town Council and staff continue to work together toward maintaining public safety and enhancing the quality of life here.
It has been an honor to serve as your mayor for the last 19 years and, in 2020, I will continue the momentum of previous years in striving to make Lantana a great place to live, work and play.
— David J. Stewart,
Lantana mayor

A1A in Manalapan was closed from the Boynton Inlet to Plaza del Mar for more than a hour on Jan. 2 as the Palm Beach County Fire Department responded with 12 units, 24 firefighters and command staff to a report of smoke at a home in the 1100 block of South Ocean Boulevard. The source of the smoke was an unknown electrical malfunction, the department said. No fire was found. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

Manalapan resident Hank Siemon came to the Town Commission and asked for an exception to building codes so that he can put an unusually long dock behind the home he intends to build on the vacant Intracoastal lot he owns.
Because Siemon is also a sitting town commissioner, and because some of his neighbors objected, the request came with its share of complications before the commission approved it.
Siemon recused himself and left the dais during 90 minutes of discussion at the Jan. 28 commission meeting.
His engineer, William Stoddard, explained Siemon’s problem: He owns a 40-foot boat and the channel along the east side of Point Manalapan on Lands End Road isn’t deep enough unless his dock extends well beyond the code’s maximum limit of 55 feet.
In order to safely navigate his vessel in and out, Siemon needs a dock to extend out 85 feet, Stoddard said. Not getting the variance to build out an extra 30 feet would deny Siemon the use of the boat, Stoddard said, creating an unfair hardship — a criterion for code exceptions — that the town should not allow.
Siemon’s next-door neighbors, Barry and Sigrun Haase, oppose the variance. Their attorney, Jason Mankoff, called Siemon’s request “a self-created hardship.”
Mankoff’s remedy? Buy a smaller boat.
“Owning a big boat is not justification for a variance,” he said. “All the other owners have to deal with the same depth. It’s not a hardship. It’s an inconvenience.”
Mankoff said Siemon was “trying to shift any blockage of his view” to the Haases.
Another neighbor, former Mayor Basil Diamond, also opposed the variance. Diamond said the limit was set at 55 feet to keep navigation lanes open in the shallow channel, and said Siemon had “the wrong boat” for the property.
“If we give variances to everybody,” Diamond said, “then you don’t have a code.”
Further complicating the dispute are plans to install a new water main line through an easement across Siemon’s lot at 1660 Lands End Road.
Commissioner Clark Appleby sided with Siemon. Appleby said boaters have had to adjust to “high tides and low tides that have gotten more dramatic” in recent years and the request for a longer dock is reasonable.
“Having a 30-foot extension is not going to have a huge impact on either neighbor’s view, north and south,” he said.
Mayor Keith Waters said the code allows 55-foot docks or docks that extend into 3 feet of water. For Siemon to get his boat into 3 feet, the dock has to go out 85 feet, Waters said.
“If a resident cannot reach 3 feet of water,” Waters said, “that’s the milestone by which a variance can be requested.”
Commissioners decided that the proposed dock would not obstruct navigation channels. They voted unanimously to grant Siemon the variance.
“I think it’s important everybody understands this,” Waters said after the vote. “This body does not make decisions based on friendships. It makes decisions on what this town is supposed to be doing and what we’re supposed to be doing representing this town.”