By Steve Plunkett

Gulf Stream and litigious resident Martin O’Boyle have settled three lawsuits — over a dock he built without permission, a conduit buried in his front yard during the utilities undergrounding project and his demand for $30,000 in legal fees on another case.
“Basically, they’re walk-away settlement agreements,” with the lawsuits dismissed and each side paying its own legal bills, said Hudson Gill, the town’s outside attorney. “The cases are dismissed with prejudice,” meaning O’Boyle cannot refile his claims later.
The town’s insurance will cover Gulf Stream attorney’s fees and costs in the first two cases, but the town will pay its fees and costs in the third, Hudson said. O’Boyle is liable for the legal bills on his side.
Attorney Jonathan O’Boyle, who handled the negotiations for his father, declined to discuss the outcome.
Mayor Scott Morgan said the settlements “appear to be in our favor,” and Assistant Town Attorney Trey Nazzaro, who worked on the cases, said, “Correct.”
The legal expenses the town will pay come from a lawsuit Martin O’Boyle filed in 2020 that said Gulf Stream, by filing a federal racketeering claim and other state actions against him in 2015, had reneged on an earlier settlement in which both sides promised not to sue.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, action came after town officials said they fielded more than 1,700 public records requests from O’Boyle and former resident Chris O’Hare in the two years after the 2013 settlement, and said the two men filed dozens of suits against Gulf Stream in state and federal courts. The town spent more than $1 million to handle the records requests and pay legal bills during that time.
The RICO lawsuit was later dismissed in federal court.
In the dock case, O’Boyle began applying “informally and formally” for a permit to build over the water in April 2017. In 2019, town commissioners rejected an appeal by O’Boyle to let him build a “promenade” 30 to 36 inches higher than his sea wall and extending 12 feet into the canal behind his yard, unanimously agreeing that the structure should comply with the building code for docks.
Town code prohibits docks wider than 5 feet.
The dispute hit a flashpoint in November 2019 when O’Boyle, lacking a building permit, had 20 concrete piles installed behind his house, at 23 Hidden Harbour Drive. Gulf Stream obtained an emergency order that Thanksgiving from a circuit court judge enjoining O’Boyle “from any further construction activity on the proposed water structure without approval.”
O’Boyle later got a permit for a 5-foot-wide dock and removed the piles for the extended structure.
In the settlement, he agreed to install no more than two lights on the dock, and they may not project light more than 4 feet above the dock’s surface.
The lawsuit over the utility conduit involved empty piping that was left in an easement 6 feet underground after O’Boyle in 2014 complained that it was on his property. The town relocated the planned conduit to an easement off O’Boyle’s property.
The offending conduit broke when contractors tried to pull it out and town officials decided to leave it buried rather than dig a costly trench to reach it, according to court docu-
ments.

By Tao Woolfe

Chief James Stables has stepped away from the Fire Department and into the fire as Boynton Beach’s interim city manager.
His appointment comes at a tumultuous time for the city, which is struggling with discontent within its Black community and stalled efforts to bring its downtown to life.
Stables, Boynton’s fire chief for a little more than a year, was awarded the city’s top job on April 25 at a special meeting of the City Commission.
The commission’s unanimous vote on Stables came days after it voted 4-1 to fire longtime City Manager Lori LaVerriere during an emotional public meeting.
It remains unclear exactly why LaVerriere was fired after 10 years on the job, but she had been criticized lately for a lack of diplomacy and the city’s failure to protect itself on the stalled Town Square downtown development project.
For her part, LaVerriere said city managers serve with the knowledge that their jobs can end when political winds shift.
“This isn’t a shock. The world will go on. I’ll be fine,” she said.
She added, however, that the employees who served along with her should remain.
“You have an amazing, professional staff. Let them flourish and do their good work. Let them help you.” In a related development, Police Chief Michael Gregory, who had been chief since July 2018, resigned on April 22.
He said in a published statement that he was leaving to “focus on other areas,” but both he and LaVerriere had been lightning rods for anger from the Black community in the months after a 13-year-old boy was killed during a Dec. 26 high-speed police chase. The boy, Stanley Davis III, crashed his dirt bike at 85 mph on North Federal Highway with Boynton Beach Police Officer Mark Sohn in close pursuit.
Members of the youngster’s family, friends and supporters have crowded into subsequent City Commission meetings asking repeatedly for the city to fire those responsible.
Sohn was cleared of all charges in late March by a Florida Highway Patrol investigation. FHP concluded Davis was unlawfully fleeing an attempted traffic stop and going 85 mph in a 35-mph zone.
The Boynton Beach Police Department is still conducting its own investigation.
In early April, commissioners asked LaVerriere to look into whether a merger with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office would benefit the city.
LaVerriere reported back to the commission that the sheriff’s proposal was not yet completed. Stables will be expected to follow up on that report.
Many residents at the special April 25 commission meeting spoke out against a PBSO merger. They asked that the city work instead to improve the existing Police Department and root out bad officers.
Stables was chosen from among three candidates for the job. The others were David Scott, the city’s director of economic development and strategy; and Joseph DeGiulio, Boynton’s assistant police chief.
The city commissioners asked all three men how they would build back trust between the city and the Black community.
Communication is the key, all the candidates said.
Stables said his credo of listening to everyone equally is especially important now.
“We’re dealing with numbers of people impacted negatively,” Stables said. “We must be more nimble and responsive. I will be looking to see how to get out in front of things.”
The chief said his years of managerial and emergency preparedness experience made him suited for the city manager job, but added that he was honored to be considered among such a strong candidate pool.
Before taking the helm at the Boynton Beach Fire Department, Stables served as chief of fire departments in Johnson City in Tennessee, and Palm Bay and Ormond Beach in Florida. He was district chief in Brevard County from 1992 to 2000, and began his firefighting career in Wilton Manors, where he was a fire inspector and volunteer firefighter in 1985-86.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Barry University in Melbourne, and is working on his master’s in public administration — also from Barry, according to his résumé.
Stables supplied to the commission letters of support that praised his leadership, team-building, managerial and communication skills.
Stables is “an accomplished chief officer” who “continues to embody the desire to serve through strong leadership values and behaviors indicative of a selfless public servant,” wrote Gregg Lynk, former Palm Bay city manager.
Members of the Boynton Beach City Commission agreed.
The commission itself has been in flux since March, when two term-limited incumbents left their seats. Two new commissioners — Angela Cruz and Thomas Turkin — were elected in March. Another seat opened when Ty Penserga left his District 4 seat to run for mayor, a job he won.
The commission on April 19 chose Aimee Kelley, a paralegal and wife of a Boynton police captain, from among several contenders to fill the year left on the District 4 term.
In explaining why he chose Stables, Penserga cited the breadth of experience.
He added that all three men have been exemplary at their jobs and he hopes that Scott and DeGiulio will continue in their respective roles.
Woodrow Hay, who initially indicated that he would vote for Scott, ultimately joined his colleagues and voted for Stables.
“All three men could have done the job, but at the end of the day, the right decision was made,” Hay said after the meeting. “It’s important that we show a united front going forward.”
Nonetheless, Hay was the lone dissenter in the vote to fire LaVerriere. Was it loyalty?
“I am loyal as long as the person is doing the work,” he replied. “She had been doing the work, and had done a lot of good for the city.”

By Joe Capozzi

Agreeing they probably are paying more than the land is worth, town commissioners voted to spend $1.5 million to preserve 9 acres in a mangrove-filled lagoon north of Town Hall. 
“Even if we might be overpaying for this piece, it’s a good thing for the town,’’ Commissioner Martin Wiescholek said at an April 12 commission meeting. “It’s our future and it sets the right tone for Ocean Ridge to say we are environmentally oriented and we want to make sure this town stays the way it is today.’’ 
A week earlier, the town was under contract to buy the land for nearly $2 million from the William Priest Family Trust, a deal contingent on two appraisals.
But commissioners saw the appraisals for the first time just hours before they were scheduled to consider the purchase for the first time at their regular meeting April 4. One appraisal was for $1.4 million, the other $800,000, for an average of $1.1 million that prompted commissioners to postpone a vote and direct the town manager to renegotiate with the owner over the next week.
Those negotiations settled on $1.5 million, which the commission unanimously approved at a special meeting April 12, just days before the purchase contract was set to expire. 
“I hate to see us spending this kind of money. I think we probably are overpaying by $300,000 to $400,000, but it’s the right thing to do,’’ said Commissioner Steve Coz, who led the call to renegotiate the price. 
“If a developer goes in there and develops property, we will then as a town get sued for not providing proper drainage for houses on this island.’’
The 9-acre parcel borders a 3.3-acre sliver to the east owned by Waterfront ICW Properties, a company that’s been fighting the town and nearby condos in court over its plans to build a road and residential homes in the lagoon.
Town officials were careful to avoid mentioning those legal battles in detail. Instead, Town Manager Tracey Stevens promoted plans to rezone the land to conservation/preservation from its current residential use as part of a long-term strategy to possibly open the area for recreation. 
Palm Beach County and Spanish Creek LLC have already applied to the town for the same zoning change on land they own immediately south and east of the 9 acres the town bought from the William Priest Family Trust. 
The $1.5 million to purchase the land was taken from the town’s reserves, reducing the emergency budget to $5.8 million. Town officials hope to recoup some or all of that $1.5 million by applying for grants and seeking assistance from entities such as The Nature Conservancy.
“With the mitigation rights that could potentially exist on that property and could potentially be sold off, I think we have an actual opportunity of recouping our money,’’ said Wiescholek.
Most of the 25 residents who attended the April 4 meeting to voice support for the purchase returned April 12 to cheer and clap when the commission approved the purchase.
“I’d be willing to give up a few bucks for it,’’ said former Commissioner Terry Brown. “We need to move forward and not squander any opportunity to demonstrate that we’re a government that can do something important for the people and protect our natural areas.’’
In other business:
• In a commission reorganization vote April 4, Kristine de Haseth and Susan Hurlburt swapped positions. Hurlburt was voted mayor and de Haseth was voted vice mayor. 
• The commission endorsed the voluntary “Combat Automobile Theft” program. Participating residents will each apply a special reflective sticker to the back of their car. The stickers give Ocean Ridge police officers consent to make traffic stops between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. to make sure the vehicle is not stolen.
“Once the officer turns the lights on and attempts to pull the vehicle over, if the vehicle stops we know it’s a resident. If the vehicle takes off, we know it’s stolen,’’ Chief Richard Jones said. “It’s just one more method to give us the opportunity to reduce crime.’’  
• Commissioners voted to spend $14,000 to remove an abandoned sailboat that washed ashore in March after being damaged in a storm.

By Joe Capozzi

Ocean Ridge town commissioners in June will consider new proposals by a citizens task force for safety measures on and around Old Ocean Boulevard.
Old Ocean Boulevard runs nearly a mile from Corrine Street in Ocean Ridge to Briny Breezes, east of and parallel with State Road A1A. Segments of the Ocean Ridge stretch offer unobstructed views of the ocean, attracting crowds of walkers, bicyclists and skateboarders, along with vehicles.
The task force, convened early this year at the suggestion of Mayor Susan Hurlburt, met twice in April and presented the following safety recommendations to commissioners May 2: 
• Install removable speed humps (not speed bumps) on Adams Road and Beachway Drive — two east-west streets that connect North Ocean Boulevard and Old Ocean Boulevard — and on Old Ocean from Beachway south to Tropical Drive, a stretch that currently has no stop signs. 
• Add signage stating “Residents Only/Local Access Only” at Corinne and Thompson streets, Adams and Beachway. 
• Paint a center line down the length of Old Ocean as a visual reminder for vehicles and bicycles to stay to the right.
• Clear the 5-foot right of way along Old Ocean, in particular the east side of the road where overgrown vegetation doesn’t allow space for pedestrians to move to the side to avoid oncoming traffic. 
• Consider lowering the posted speed limit on Old Ocean to an unusual number that would catch the attention of drivers, such as 13 mph or 16 mph.
The recommendations are just the latest round of ideas for enhancing safety on the road, a topic that has been debated off and on at least since 2007 when a traffic study referred to Old Ocean as the “Jewel of the Town.’’ 
But as nearby developments in Boynton Beach send more and more walkers, bicycles and vehicles onto Old Ocean, many town officials and residents say it’s past time to finally implement a safety plan.  
“Our hope is that the recommendations we listed, along with continued education and enforcement, will ultimately change behaviors and help improve public safety on our ‘Jewel of the Town,’’’ task force chair Carolyn Cassidy told commissioners. 
Cassidy and several other task force members asked commissioners to discuss the recommendations immediately, so the town could earmark money for the safety measures when work starts on the next budget. 
Commissioners, though, said they wanted to think about the proposals first and then discuss them in June at a meeting where other residents could offer ideas. 
Town officials plan to come up with rough cost estimates for the recommendations for commissioners to discuss at their next meeting, at 5 p.m. June 6. The town’s first budget meeting is the same day at 2 p.m.

The George Bush Boulevard bridge reopened without ceremony late on the afternoon of April 29. It had been shut since March 3 after getting stuck in the up position. The bridge then underwent repairs and three weeks of tests. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Joel Engelhardt

After a nearly two-month closure, the George Bush Boulevard bridge reopened April 29 once new parts were installed and testing completed.
While supporting the county’s work to get the bridge back in service, Palm Beach County Mayor Robert Weinroth said he could do nothing to help make sure the public stays better informed about the capability of county bridges. That’s because bridge inspections are almost entirely exempt from public disclosure for security reasons under state law.
After the county said it would cost $1,100 to publicly release a redacted version of a single inspection report, with no guarantees of any useful information, Weinroth said he would leave questions of public access in staff’s hands.
“I’m not an engineer,” he said. “I can’t say if that’s appropriate or not.”
Weinroth has said the George Bush Boulevard bridge, which opened in 1949, is in line for a $1 million evaluation to see if it needs to be replaced. A new bridge is projected to cost $45 million. He said the money could come from the federal infrastructure bill passed by Congress and lauded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a mid-March appearance at the bridge.
Weinroth withstood criticism from residents angered by the need to drive a mile south to Atlantic Avenue or 3 miles north to Woolbright Road to get around the stuck bridge. 
It had stopped working March 3 after damage to a main shaft and gear system, officials said. The shaft had to be custom-built and, after three weeks of testing to make sure the bridge was aligned correctly, it reopened, the county said in a news release, adding “intermittent bridge closures are to be expected as continued monitoring is planned.”
“You have to have a certain amount of tolerance that these bridges get old. Things wear out. We all have to accept that,” Weinroth said. “For a county of 1.5 million people, I think we’re doing a pretty decent job of taking care of the needs of our residents.”
To make matters worse for drivers, about a mile of George Bush Boulevard from Northeast Second Avenue to State Road A1A has been undergoing a $2 million face-lift since July 2021. The work, which includes resurfacing and new sidewalks and bike lanes, is expected to go on until summer 2023.
Both the county and the state, which own a total of 11 South County Intracoastal bridges, freely provide a single-page bridge inspection cover sheet, which shows the date of the inspection, the age of the bridge, the bridge’s score on two measures and a check box to indicate whether the bridge is functionally or structurally obsolete. 
The six county-owned bridges are at Palmetto Park Road, Woolbright Road, George Bush Boulevard, Linton Boulevard, Ocean Avenue in Lantana and Camino Real in Boca Raton.
The five state-owned bridges are at the Boca Raton Inlet, Spanish River Boulevard, Atlantic Avenue, the Boynton Inlet and East Ocean Avenue in Ocean Ridge.
None of the bridges was marked as structurally obsolete in inspections dating to 2018.
The George Bush Boulevard bridge had by far the lowest “sufficiency rating,” at 48.5%.
A bridge with a sufficiency rating below 50% is considered eligible for federal replacement dollars. The ratings run from 0% (poor) to 100% (very good) and take into account structural adequacy, whether the bridge is functionally obsolete and level of service to the public.
None of the other bridges had sufficiency ratings below 60% and one, the East Ocean Avenue bridge in Ocean Ridge, topped 90%.
Five of the bridges — Atlantic Avenue, Boynton Inlet, George Bush Boulevard, Palmetto Park Road and Camino Real — were marked as “functionally obsolete.” That could mean the bridges don’t have enough lanes or are too narrow, may be drawbridges on congested roads, or may not have enough space for emergency shoulders or bike lanes, County Engineer David Ricks wrote in an email. 
Camino Real travelers endured a 16-month closure in 2018 and 2019 as the county refurbished the 1939 structure. Upon completion, its sufficiency rating jumped to 73.1% from 37.5%.

A six-week paper chase
The Coastal Star engaged in a six-week exchange with county spokespersons, attorneys and engineers to review inspections since 2015 of all Intracoastal Waterway bridges between South Palm Beach and Boca Raton.
Even though six of the bridges are county-owned, the state pays consultant TranSystems Corp. to conduct the inspections. Payments for inspecting Palm Beach County bridges, which undoubtedly include more than those six bridges, since July 1 have topped $336,000, a state spokesman said.
Both the county and the state provided the bridge inspection cover sheets. When asked why they wouldn’t provide the entire report with redactions to avoid exposing the confidential security information, as the county does with other public documents, county spokeswoman Nicole Ferris cited state law and pointed to what the bridge inspection consultant wrote on the cover page: “Only the cover page of this report may be inspected and copied.”
However, state law doesn’t say anything about providing only a cover page of a bridge inspection report. The state law, passed after the 9/11 attacks, exempts from public review “building plans, blueprints, schematic drawings and diagrams” that “depict the internal layout and structural elements of a building, arena, stadium, water treatment facility, or other structure.”
In late April, six weeks after The Coastal Star’s initial records request, Ricks provided an estimate that it would cost the newspaper $1,025 plus another $62 for redacted paper copies of the most recent inspection for the George Bush Boulevard bridge, a 414-page report chock full of schematics.
Without any assurances the nonexempt information would provide anything useful, The Coastal Star declined.

By Larry Barszewski

A pair of oceanfront homes were burglarized in April:
• A family residence in Ocean Ridge where the suspect stole at least $2,000 and made his way upstairs to a bedroom where a baby was sleeping;
• A vacant house in Manalapan on an ocean-to-Intracoastal Waterway lot, where one of the suspects told police he brought in a bed and had been squatting there for days.
Police made arrests in both the cases, including of a suspect in Manalapan who ran into the ocean and swam away. It took a few days to catch the Ocean Ridge suspect, who made a mostly clean getaway, but then returned to the area the following night — setting in motion the events that would lead police to his doorstep.
“This is very unusual,” Ocean Ridge Police Chief Richard Jones said of a burglary of an oceanfront home in his town. “It does not happen very often. I can only think of two or three in the last nine years.”
There were no known connections between the two break-ins, Jones said. “Every homeowner should take personal security seriously and lock their doors, set their alarm and call the police immediately when something suspicious occurs,” he said.

Family fright in Ocean Ridge
Ocean Ridge police arrested Zachary Jarod Herring, 20, of Boynton Beach, charging him with unarmed burglary of an occupied dwelling and larceny grand theft in the April 20 break-in shortly after midnight of the home with an address in the 6000s of North Ocean Boulevard, court documents show.
The homeowners were asleep in the house with three grandchildren, ages 6 and 3 years old, and 8 months old, unaware of the burglar. It was another family member, who was in Miami at the time, who received an alert and video triggered by a security camera that had been set up in the baby’s bedroom.
The video showed the burglar near the baby’s crib, while other house security video a short while later captured him fleeing out a side door, running across the back of the property and jumping off a 6-foot-high sea wall toward the beach to make his escape.
He appeared to be wearing a white hoodie, face mask and gloves. He had taken credit cards and cash from a purse in the butler’s pantry near the side door, police said.
A Boynton Beach police K-9 unit was unsuccessful in finding the suspect around the house and a Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office helicopter crew wasn’t able to spot him.
But the next night, a security guard stopped Herring for walking on the sea wall of the house next door to the burglarized home.
Ocean Ridge police came and conducted a field interview, with Herring telling them he had come to the beach on his bike to clear his head. He showed police where he had left his bike near the Edith Street crossover and they allowed him to leave after taking down his personal information.
The detective working the burglary case later determined that, after the burglary, the suspect had dragged a bicycle from behind the house to the Corrine Street beach crossover. A woman the next day found some dumped credit cards from the burglary near the crossover. The detective also realized the suspect and Herring had similar physiques.
With that information, the detective determined Herring was a suspect and went to his home to talk with him, only later finding him at his job. Herring was arrested after confessing to the crime, police said.
The report said he “went on to explain how he comes to this area a lot to admire the homes and he got the idea he might be able to go inside one. He stated he went into the home and when he saw children in the home he left.”
The family estimated $3,000 was taken. Herring told police he had taken about $2,000 and that he hadn’t spent the money. Police recovered $1,400 that Herring had on him and $615 he turned over to them at his home.

Manalapan squatter charged
Manalapan police were alerted to suspicious activity April 13 at a vacant house on the ocean and determined a burglary was in progress, Police Chief Carmen Mattox said in a report to town commissioners.
Two women were taken into custody in front of the house with an address in the 3000s of South Ocean Boulevard, a five-bedroom, 6.5-bath house that sold for $9.85 million last year and is slated for redevelopment.
Two male suspects fled and were apprehended with help from the Sheriff’s Office and police from Ocean Ridge and Lantana, with one of the men trying a water escape.
“Dispatch supervisor [Michelle] Mackey was monitoring the cameras during the event and observed one of the suspects on the beach,” Mattox wrote in his report to commissioners. “She notified the units on scene of the location and that the subject was in the ocean. The Sheriff’s Office helicopter located the suspect and followed him until he swam ashore and was taken into custody.”
The two men arrested were Reinaldo Chirino, 30, of Lake Worth, and Yoannes Aleman Jimenez, 45, of Palm Beach Gardens. Chirino told police he went into the house and had been living there for about three days, according to a copy of the police report filed in criminal court.
“During questioning, Chirino admitted to entering the residence through an unlocked door approximately three days prior,” the police report says. “Chirino stated he had smoked marijuana laced with cocaine inside the residence. Chirino stated he brought two box springs and mattress into the residence to sleep on.”
Police said the house’s northwest window had been forced open.
Chirino was charged with unarmed burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, possession of cocaine and resisting an officer without violence. Jimenez was charged with unarmed burglary of an unoccupied dwelling.
The women in front of the house, ages 35 and 33, were arrested on outstanding failure to appear charges, according to Sheriff’s Office jail
information.

By Larry Barszewski

Work is underway to bring better water pressure to Manalapan’s oceanfront homes through the installation of a new water main underneath the Intracoastal Waterway from Point Manalapan to the beach.
The long-planned project should take about eight weeks to complete the crossing and the new main should be in operation in October if no unforeseen delays occur, town officials said.
Residents who haven’t left for the summer may have to deal with some headaches, including the sound of drilling as the pipe is installed, having a metal plate in the road until the project receives all its signoffs, and the blocking of some Intracoastal-side docks as the 10-inch pipe is laid out along the west side of Ocean Boulevard before installation.
“You’ll all hear about the metal plate on the road,” Town Manager Linda Stumpf warned commissioners at their April 26 meeting.
The pipe crossing the Intracoastal will run between 1660 Lands End Road and 1550 S. Ocean Blvd., just north of the curve on Ocean Boulevard.
Town commissioners approved a $628,267 contract in January for the project with DBE Utility Services out of Loxahatchee, which submitted the lowest of three bids for the work. Mock Roos & Associates, a West Palm Beach engineering consulting firm that was paid $68,000 by the town to put together the bid specifications and review those received, will also be paid up to $100,000 to handle administration of the contract.
“It’s a good project and a needed project,” Mayor Keith Waters said. It will provide better water flow to battle fires at beach properties. It’s not replacing any underwater lines, but will be an additional one, Stumpf said.
Divers began doing a subaqueous vegetation survey of the pipe’s projected path in April and the pipe project itself was set to begin the first week of May, she said.
Besides the time it took to get permits for the work through the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies, the town had problems securing the necessary easements until 2020, when Commissioner Hank Siemon agreed to an easement on his property at 1660 Lands End Road. As part of the agreement, Siemon was able to build a dock before finishing construction of his residence at the site.
The town is going to have to let other rules slide for Siemon during construction, because officials say they’re working with a very small site and will have to take over its whole south side — up to 10 feet over the easement — during construction.
Siemon will be allowed to park three vehicles in front of the green fence on his property because he won’t have space on his lot. He’ll also be in line to receive a construction extension because the water main project is forcing him to delay installation of a septic system, pavers and other items.

In other news at the April meeting, commissioners:
• Approved new requirements eliminating the use of parking cones along construction sites and the use of stones or other devices that inhibit parking in swales in front of properties. The rules also limit which properties can have anti-parking devices in front of them at or near construction sites to the following: the actual site, the immediately adjacent properties on either side, and the properties across the street from them.
• Approved construction permit extensions for 1685 Lands End Road and 115 Spoonbill Road, the latter in part because the project’s general contractor died after the permit was pulled. Commissioners plan to approve tighter restrictions on granting extensions because they’re concerned about the negative impact long-term construction has on neighborhoods, but they’re continuing to hear from homeowners who say pandemic-related supply chain interruptions are still making it difficult to meet permit deadlines.
• Authorized the special master in code enforcement cases to hear appeals of code liens and fines and to grant reductions if warranted. Previously, property owners had to appeal to the Town Commission to try to get penalties reduced.
• Tentatively approved an increase in the time property owners have to complete work under a building permit or town-approved special exception or variance, seeking to make the deadlines more reasonable and to reduce the number of items coming back to the commission for extensions. The proposed change would increase the length of a building permit to two years instead of 18 months, and variances and special exceptions to one year, instead of six months.
• Heard from Police Chief Carmen Mattox about attempts to beef up the security presence at the guard house to the town’s Point section. In his report to commissioners, Mattox said there have been complaints about the private security firm not having a strong enough presence at the guardhouse. The guards can’t stop vehicles because it is a public road, but Mattox said he is working with the firm to have guards stationed outside the guardhouse to make them more visible. The firm wants the town to install bollards to protect outside guards from being hit by vehicles, he said.

Katie Barr MacDougall of Boca Raton founded HaitianArt.com to buy and sell art. Louis Rosemond’s Tree of Life in Eden Twilight hangs in her living room. MacDougall is semi-retired but calls Haitian art a passion that will last the rest of her life. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

A visitor walking into Katie Barr MacDougall’s historic home in Boca Raton’s Riviera neighborhood is immediately surrounded by impressive Haitian art.
Louis Rosemond’s vibrant Tree of Life in Eden Twilight is a focal point in the living room, while Claude Dambreville’s Morning Market is the dining room’s dominant image.
MacDougall’s favorite artist is Henri Rousseau, so it is obvious why the Florida Atlantic University graduate with degrees in art history and computer science is drawn to the colorful, naïve paintings.
“It is my passion,” she said. When she discovered Haitian art, “I made it my quest.”
MacDougall, a city resident since her parents moved to Boca Raton in 1970, opened her first art gallery in the Fifth Avenue Shops plaza in 1989, and later opened another gallery on Delray Beach’s Atlantic Avenue.
Hurricane Wilma in 2005 destroyed that gallery, prompting her to concentrate on her online gallery HaitianArt.com, which she established in 1992.
While she is semi-retired now, MacDougall said she will not give up acquiring and selling artwork.
“It is a labor of love and something I can do for the rest of my life,” she said. “I never intend to retire from Haitian art.”
Although best known for her galleries, MacDougall also has long been active in civic affairs. “If you love where you live, you must be involved,” she said.
She was among about a dozen people who contributed to Al Zucaro’s BocaWatch blog that styled itself as a watchdog scrutinizing the City Council and what many residents perceived as overdevelopment in downtown Boca.
By filing complaints with local and state ethics commissions, Zucaro played a key role in the downfall of former Mayor Susan Haynie, who was removed from office by then-Gov. Rick Scott in 2018 after she was arrested on public corruption charges.
After Zucaro shuttered the blog later that year, many members of his BocaWatch team, including MacDougall, launched the BocaFirst blog to maintain their voice in city affairs.
It remains active, with MacDougall interviewing people involved on matters of public interest. She describes BocaFirst as less political than BocaWatch, focusing on issues residents care about, and said it does not endorse candidates for City Council.
BocaFirst recently wrote extensively about a proposed assisted living facility at 2 SW 12th Ave. Neighborhood residents feared that city approval of the ALF would clear the way for more such facilities to be built in single-family neighborhoods, and strongly lobbied the City Council to reject the project. City staff has determined it should not be approved.
MacDougall filed or joined lawsuits in a battle that began in 2015 against construction of a synagogue and Israel museum at 770 E. Palmetto Park Road that would have been a new home for the Chabad of East Boca. Nearby residents contended the project was too large and tall for the location and would overburden streets with traffic.
In the end, the synagogue and museum were never built.
“It wasn’t the happiest time in my civic activity,” MacDougall said. “People made it into an anti-Semitic thing.”
There was no such animus, she said. Residents did not oppose a synagogue, but objected to such a large-scale development.
“We were suing the city over a questionable zoning change,” she said.
As president of the Riviera Civic Association — which encompasses about 450 homes in the Riviera, Por La Mar and Sun & Surf neighborhoods — MacDougall now is involved in efforts to improve East Palmetto Park Road, especially the section from the Intracoastal Waterway to A1A.
In a presentation to the City Council last year, she cited safety problems caused by the absence of crosswalks, the lack of bicycle lanes, narrow sidewalks that hinder walking and the need to move on-street parking.
Council members subsequently made improvements to the roadway a city priority, but no changes have been made yet. One complication is that stretch of road is controlled by Palm Beach County, so the city can’t act on its own.
MacDougall said the civic association is keeping up the pressure and is in talks with the county as well. Members also are involved in a related push to improve Palmetto Park Road from Federal Highway to Fifth Avenue.
Of all these efforts, her galleries are closest to her heart.
“It has been really, really rewarding,” she said. “I have seen money going into the hands of artists. I feel good about it.”

— Mary Hladky

Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A. Early childhood education was in Brooklyn, New York, Palm Beach Community College and Florida Atlantic University. Areas of study, art history and computer science.

Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A. During my FAU days, I worked at the Wildflower, later at C.O.R.E. International, a computer hard drive company. I also spent many happy years managing Gay’s Perfumery in Royal Palm Plaza. In 1989 my [now deceased] husband, Tony Barr, and I opened the Haitian Art Collection in Boca’s Fifth Avenue Plaza. That site is now a Panera Bread.
My work with the Haitian artists has been the most rewarding aspect of my career — the clients were an added bonus. It’s a little-known fact that collectors of Haitian art are some of the most interesting people in the world.

Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?  
A. It can’t be all about you: Your career has to be one that impacts others in a positive way. Keeping that thought front and center will help you do great things.

Q. How did you choose to make your home in Boca Raton?
A. My parents moved the family to Boca’s Golden Triangle in 1970. I’ve chosen to remain in Boca Raton because this town feels like family to me. Sometimes dysfunctional but lots of love.

Q. What is your favorite part about living in Boca Raton?  
A. Besides the people, I would have to say being close to the ocean and seaside amenities, golf, biking, boating, etc. — plus having great restaurants and entertainment close by.

Q. What book are you reading now?
A. Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers.

Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?  
A. Inspiration and relaxation, I’ll listen to chill-out music, something like the Café del Mar collection. For fun, it has to be Talking Heads, Tom Petty or Snow Patrol.

Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?  
A. “Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty and wisdom will come to you that way.” — Christopher Hitchens

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. My art history professor, Kathleen Russo PhD. Her enthusiasm for the subject was like a shot of adrenaline. Also, the supervisor of air traffic control at Port-au-Prince International Airport, Fred Brisson. Fred convinced me to open a Haitian art gallery in Boca.

Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
A. Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman 2020). Why not?!

By Joe Capozzi 

Tempers flared at a South Palm Beach special magistrate’s hearing April 21 when the town attorney challenged a private structural engineer over the severity of sea-wall erosion at the Dune Deck condominium.
The erosion issues were first brought to the condo’s attention in 2018 by structural engineer Bijan Parssi, whose report at the time recommended repairs “to maintain the structural integrity of the sea wall.’’
In March, a concerned Dune Deck resident notified the town that repairs had still not been made. The town investigated and cited the Dune Deck for code violations. 
At a special magistrate hearing in March, a condo official said no repairs could be done until after sea turtle nesting season, which ends Oct. 31. At the town’s request, special magistrate Amity Barnard gave the Dune Deck one month to send the town a letter from the Department of Environmental Protection confirming the no-work order. 
But a month later the condo sent the town a DEP letter that only generally outlined state laws about nesting season without mentioning the condition of the sea wall at the Dune Deck. 
At the April 21 hearing, Parssi and a condo attorney disputed the town’s contention that the building was unsafe — a contention Dune Deck officials did not dispute at the March hearing, which Parssi attended without offering testimony.
Town Attorney Aleksandr Boksner read the conclusion of the 2018 engineering report in which Parssi described “numerous areas of corroded steel throughout the entire sea wall’’ along with a need for repairs “to maintain the structural integrity of the sea wall.’’
When Boksner told the special magistrate the conditions are “unsafe,’’ Parssi and a condo attorney took issue with that interpretation.
“I am telling you it is not unsafe. It is not going to come down. It needs to be repaired. We have said that it needs to be repaired,’’ Parssi said. “If it was unsafe, I wouldn’t be standing here today.’’
Boksner pointed out that no repairs have been made in the four years since the report was written. “And here we are today, saying ‘Oh, it’s not that bad. It just needs to be repaired,’’’ he said. 
Raising his voice, Boksner continued, “And, yes, I am making an argument that it is structurally unsafe. It was structurally unsafe in 2018 and it is more so now, sir.’’ 
Parssi retorted, in a louder voice, “Do you have a structural engineer license?’’ 
The two men talked over each other for a few seconds before the special magistrate interrupted and said, “Let’s take it down one level.’’ 
At the end of the debate, Barnard slapped at least $3,300 in fines on the Dune Deck for failing to comply with a previous order to seek state permission to repair an eroding sea wall during sea turtle nesting season.
If the DEP determines the repairs can be made during sea turtle nesting season, Barnard said, there’s a chance the $100-a-day fines can be reduced or eliminated. 
The town has been trying diligently to address condo repairs since the Champlain Towers collapse that killed 98 people in Surfside in June. Over the past 10 months, three other South Palm Beach condos have been cited for erosion problems, all of which have been repaired. 
Speaking about the Dune Deck case, Boksner told the special magistrate, “The town does not want to have a situation where, God forbid, something were to happen.’’
Earlier in the April 21 hearing, Boknser said, “Considering how we are over four years and no work has been done, in the event something were to happen … that would ultimately be a very, very big problem.’’
Barnard also expressed unease about the condo’s failure to formally submit an application to the DEP for repairs. 
“How much longer is it going to take to get through the process is my concern,’’ she said. “I’m not an engineer but if there is a safety concern, that is a serious thing. The fact that there was a report that said there needed to be maintenance and there has been no maintenance in four years and the condition on the sea wall is the same as it was back then, that’s concerning.’’
The case is scheduled to be reviewed again by the special magistrate on May 19.

By Joe Capozzi 

The latest renderings of a new or expanded South Palm Beach Town Hall received mostly positive reviews April 29. Architects offered rough estimates of $5.6 million to build a new two-story structure and nearly $4.2 million to renovate and add to the existing building.
In renderings shown at a Town Council workshop attended by 20 residents, the renovated version calls for a new interior with the main lobby at the side of the building facing South Ocean Boulevard instead of on the west side as it is now.  
The version showing a new Town Hall calls for putting the building farther to the west, with council chambers on the second floor overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway. The east half of the property would be devoted to parking. The main entrance would be on the east side of the new building, with a covered drop-off area.
The architectural firm of Synalovski Romanik Saye will return to the council by summer with new renderings reflecting April 29 suggestions from residents and council members. One popular suggestion was to put the council chambers on the first floor, since many residents in town are over the age of 65. 
Town Manager Robert Kellogg said he’d offer the council detailed financing options for the project in late May. He said he was confident the town could pay for either a renovated or new Town Hall without raising property taxes. 
That’s because the town has over $1 million now in Building Department revenue and $732,000 from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. On top of that, the town has over $500,000 from its share of a half-cent sales tax, levied by Palm Beach County, and is expected to collect at least $500,000 a year from that tax over the next five years. 
In addition, the town has applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a $1.5 million grant.
Mayor Bonnie Fischer asked the architects to try to include in the next round of renderings an option with commercial space that the town could lease for the operation of a restaurant or cafe, which would emphasize the new building’s focus as a community center. 
In other business:
• West Palm Beach’s utility director is scheduled to attend the May 10 council meeting to review the latest water quality testing results. West Palm Beach supplies water to the town. 
The review comes about a year after the city reported that its water had an unacceptably high level of the blue-green algae contaminant cylindrospermopsin and posed a risk to physically vulnerable customers. It took the city eight days to alert customers about the problem. 
A recent letter about the latest test results, from Feb. 8, indicates “things are improving significantly,’’ Kellogg said. 
• Councilman Robert Gottlieb said Palm Tran, the Palm Beach County transportation service, is looking into the possibility of establishing “bus to the bus” service in South Palm Beach. “From your house to a bus for $2 then $2 to get on the bus,’’ he said, adding that Palm Tran is doing a similar plan in the Glades communities.
• A new ordinance, passed by unanimous vote April 12, will require owners of commercial vehicles blocking sidewalks to provide flagmen or hire off-duty police officers to direct pedestrians safely around obstructions. The town emailed a copy of the ordinance, proposed by Vice Mayor Bill LeRoy, to condo managers.
• The town is seeking volunteers to study the town code and make recommendations for changes. Residents interested in serving on the Code Review Committee should contact Town Clerk Yude Davenport at ydavenport@southpalmbeach.com no later than 4 p.m. June 30.
• Gottlieb was named South Palm Beach voting delegate for the Palm Beach County League of Cities.
• The family of Lenny and Florence Cohen has pledged to pay for the annual ice cream socials for the next 10 years, Fischer said. Florence Cohen died April 3, two weeks after a Town Hall ice cream social held in honor of her husband of 73 years. Lenny Cohen, a longtime resident who started the ice cream socials, died Dec. 7. 
• A wine and sliders event at Town Hall is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. May 6.

OCEAN RIDGE — Theodore “Ted” Charles Ritota of Ocean Ridge died April 24 at Bethesda Hospital East in Boynton Beach, where he was in hospice care after suffering an intracerebral hemorrhage. He was 67.
Ted Ritota was born Oct. 18, 1954, at Columbia Hospital in South Orange, New Jersey, to John Patrick and Dolores Anita (Cirillo) Ritota Sr.
Growing up, Ted attended Our Lady of Sorrows and Newark Academy schools, graduating from Columbia High School in South Orange. Attending the University of Colorado in Boulder, he developed a lifelong connection to the snow-covered mountains and love of skiing. His senior year of college had him and his best friend, John Kimmel, with a pretty empty schedule, which in turn made it possible for them to go skiing for days on end. These were to be some of the best years of his youth.
His next step was attending Fairleigh Dickinson Dental School in New Jersey.
His love of sailing led him — and his brother, John Ritota Jr. — to South Florida to set up a dental practice, Delray Dental. They were in their 43rd year of practice.
The brothers were best friends — not only as partners in Delray Dental, but also enjoying fishing, golfing, vacationing and sporting events together.
In 1987, Ted bought his home in Ocean Ridge where he and his wife, Lisa, raised three daughters who always made him proud. Along with his other passions, Dr. Ritota loved the town of Ocean Ridge and Ocean Ridge loved him.
Growing up, Ted’s family had a vacation home on the Jersey Shore in Deal where he spent all of his summers. This is where he would make some lifelong friends and memories. He was an avid sailor of Hobie Cats from a young age and continued with this when he moved to Florida, spending most weekends taking his children and wife out for joyrides up and down the coast, snorkeling off the boat or just cruising. It was truly his happy place.
If the conditions weren’t right for sailing, you could find him sitting at the beach reading the latest Stuart Woods book while listening to the Beatles, Grateful Dead or Springsteen.
Dr. Ritota’s other passion of snow skiing, in particular helicopter skiing in British Columbia, Canada, led him to meet the love of his life, Australia native Lisa Marshall.
He would propose to her in 14 days, marry in 11 months in Australia and, for the next 31 years, build his life with her in Ocean Ridge.
Lisa always said that when she first laid eyes on her “Teddy” all those years ago, it was his beautiful smile and dark brown eyes that caught her eye. His deep American accent helped a little bit, too.
Heli-skiing remained a big part of the couple’s life. Dr. Ritota would go on to become an integral part of Canadian Mountain Holidays. Annually Dr. Ritota took 100 or more physicians and dentists to Canada for continuing education while enjoying the great outdoors. He made these trips for over 30 years. He was also working on his next CMH million-foot suit, having already earned eight — a huge accomplishment.
To those who knew Ted, his sense of humor was infectious. A life-of-the-party guy, with a big smile, he was a lover of good food — his favorite being Italian. He treated others to his special homemade red sauce and hot pepper sauce, which were fabulous. People couldn’t help but love him.
The couple celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary in February. They had just returned from an “empty nest” ski trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, a week before his passing. It was one of the best trips they’d ever had.
Dr. Ritota is survived by his wife, Lisa; daughters Brianna (partner, Ivan) of Australia, and Vanessa and Giorgina of Ocean Ridge; mother, Dolores Ritota of Boynton Beach; brother, John (June) Ritota of Delray Beach; sister, Dee Ritota of Myrtle Beach, S.C.; and nieces Olivia Ritota, Kaylah Gittleman and Shayna Gittleman. He was preceded in death by his father, John Ritota Sr.
Ted was a wonderful son, husband, father, brother, brother-in-law and uncle to all his family and a friend to many. He will be missed by all who knew and loved him.
A celebration of Dr. Ritota’s life will be held at the Ritota home on Sunday, May 15 at 5 p.m.

— Obituary submitted by the family

By Eliot Kleinberg
 
OCEAN RIDGE — In small towns, leaders wear more than one hat. Gail Adams Aaskov was a condominium manager, a real estate broker, a longtime commissioner and mayor, and a newspaper publisher. Often at the same time.
Mrs. Aaskov, who died March 30 at age 86, also published The History of Ocean Ridge in 1995, the year she first joined the commission in the barrier island municipality of about 1,600.
“This book may be small, but so is our town,” she wrote in the foreword.
“When I moved here, I could not find anything on Ocean Ridge,’’ Aaskov told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1998.
The book, just 80 pages, had an initial run of 500 copies, which sold out. A second edition was published in 2000 and an updated reissue came out in 2015.
“Gail was our resident historian. She was committed to the town in terms of its history and in terms of its future,” former Mayor Ken Kaleel said April 11.
And Betty Bingham, a longtime friend and herself a former elected official, said, “When she saw a need, she would do what she could do to fill a need. But she did it quietly.”
Gail Adams, born in June 1935 in Connecticut, graduated from Aurora College — now Aurora University — near Chicago. Living in Illinois and Connecticut, she worked and raised two daughters. In 1975, after a divorce, she moved to the town of Palm Beach.
She became a counselor at the Broward Correctional Institution, a maximum-security facility for women. There, she once witnessed two male guards beating an inmate, her daughter Cheryl Adams said from New York.
“She reported them,” Adams said, “and it pretty much ended her career.”
She later transferred to the Lantana Community Correctional Center, where she met center manager Walter “Bud” Aaskov Jr., who would become her second husband.
Gail Aaskov got her real estate license in 1980. In ensuing years, she lived in the Boca Raton, West Palm Beach and Delray Beach areas.
“She was in real estate. I think she was into buying things and moving in,” daughter Sharon Adams Poore said from Massachusetts.
The last stop: Ocean Ridge.
“She liked that it was a smaller town,” Poore said.
In 1993, the Aaskovs built a three-bedroom home on a canal off the Intracoastal Waterway. Around the same time, Gail Aaskov opened her own company, Ocean Ridge Realty. She also began a 25-year tenure as manager of the Crown Colony Club condominium complex nearby.
“She was one very determined lady,” said Denise Medina, who worked at the real estate office for about 15 years. “She ran a tight ship. She had a heart of gold.”
Aaskov was elected to the Town Commission in 1995 and reelected in 1998 and 2001. Three times, her colleagues designated her as mayor. She also served as president of the Ocean Ridge Garden Club.
She lost a re-election bid in 2004. She served on the town’s Board of Adjustment until she was returned to the commission in 2012. She was re-elected in 2015 but was voted out in 2018.
Over the years, one big campaign issue would be Aaskov’s role as publisher of a newspaper that at times featured stories about her and her campaign. From 1996 to 2008, she operated the Ocean Ridge Reporter, a free monthly whose profits were donated to the Public Safety Department.
Aaskov had to recuse herself any time the town discussed the strip on the 5100 block of North Ocean Boulevard that held just five units, including her real estate office. The five tenants — which at that time included The Coastal Star — were the town’s only commercial entities. The strip was converted to apartments and Aaskov moved across the street and later to a spot on Boynton Beach Boulevard.
In 2013, Aaskov self-published Signal 5. The book — the title is police code for murder — detailed the 2006 slayings of Serena Gomez, a popular former deputy town clerk and police dispatcher, and her husband, former town police officer Joe Gomez. Police in Eustis, about 25 miles north of Orlando in Lake County, said Serena was killed along with Joe, then a Eustis officer, by another Eustis officer who also killed his own wife and finally himself.
In August 2019, Bud died. Around the same time, Gail closed down her real estate business. By then, Gail’s daughters said, her health was failing, and the family moved her to Massachusetts. She was at an assisted living facility at the time of her death.
Mrs. Aaskov is survived by her two daughters and five grandchildren. Services were private.

OCEAN RIDGE — Harold  E. Hollnagel, devoted family man and company founder, died April 17. He was 84.
Mr. Hollnagel was born to Harold and Esther Hollnagel on Dec. 22, 1937, in Milwaukee, and went on to become founder and CEO of Mechanical Industries Inc. in Brown Deer, Wisconsin, where he put to use his inventiveness and love of mechanics.
His hobbies included downhill skiing, fishing, Indy car racing, celebrating his German heritage, and spending time with his family and friends at the Milwaukee Country Club and the Milwaukee Yacht Club.
He was an active member of Saint John Lutheran Church in Glendale, Wisconsin, and supporter of the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Six years ago, he and his wife, Judy, made Ocean Ridge their permanent home.   
Mr. Hollnagel is survived by his wife of 62 years, Judith “Judy” Hollnagel of Ocean Ridge, and their son David, daughter-in-law Christine and granddaughters Julia and Elizabeth Hollnagel of Ocala.
Visitation will be held on May 21 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. at Wisconsin Memorial Park Chapel of the Chimes, 13235 W. Capitol Drive in Brookfield, with a funeral service at 11:30 a.m. and the entombment to follow the service.
The Bruskiewitz Funeral Home in Milwaukee is assisting the family with the arrangements. Obituaries and condolences can be found on its website, ForestHomeFunerals.com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, 1801 N. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton, Florida 33432.

— Obituary submitted by the family

The Kolter Group, a Delray Beach-based real estate development firm, partnered with the End Ocean Plastic Foundation to clear plastic and other trash from the beach. ABOVE: Some of the nearly 100 corporate employees gather behind the foundation founders, Miles Julien (far left) and Jake Julien (far right), and their father, Bobby Julien, CEO of Kolter. BELOW: Kolter employees bag trash from the dune. Photos provided

ABOVE: Lake Worth Beach resident Aaron Barnes, one of the founders of the local branch of the Surfrider Foundation, sorts through trash collected by volunteers at the cleanup and education event hosted by the Ocean Ridge Garden Club and the Town of Ocean Ridge. More than 100 people attended, including the 30-plus who spent a good share of the morning picking up trash on the beach. Volunteers representing 11 environmental organizations put up educational exhibits.
LEFT: David Anderson and his 4-year-old son, Thomas, act like surfers in an exhibit the Surfrider Foundation created out of recycled plastic bottles. Anderson is the sea turtle conservation coordinator at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.
Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Joe Capozzi 

As Briny Breezes Council President Sue Thaler sees it, there was nothing nefarious about her efforts to gather feedback from residents about a hot topic around town — proposed code changes that would help homes adapt to rising sea levels.
The way she did it, though — taking it upon herself to write and distribute a questionnaire without the rest of the council’s knowledge — prompted sharp rebukes from her colleagues and an apology from Thaler. 
The drama unfolded April 28 when Town Manager William Thrasher asked the council what he should do with completed questionnaires that people were dropping off at Town Hall.
“To my knowledge, we have not discussed this,’’ Thrasher said, holding a stack in his hands. “I’m not even sure if this is town business, either.’’
Thaler explained that she wrote the seven-question survey and asked Briny Breezes Corp. to insert copies in the mailboxes of residents. 
A summary at the top of the questionnaire read, “The Town invites your comments and questions’’ about proposed code changes discussed earlier that month at two Planning and Zoning Board meetings. 
“It was at the request of several residents, a handful, who did not know how to give us feedback to the Planning and Zoning Board meetings that have been held,’’ Thaler told Thrasher.
Thaler said she thought it was important for the council to hear directly from residents about the issue, “rather than having people talk about them at happy hour, talk about them at the pool, and we don’t get that feedback.’’
The other council members said she should have at least brought the questionnaire idea to the council for discussion first and then distributed the flyers only if the council approved. Some members said they learned about the questionnaire only in passing from residents.   
“I knew nothing about this,’’ said Alderwoman Kathy Gross. “I feel like I was kind of blindsided.’’ 
“This should not have been put out unless it was from all of us, not just you,’’ Alderman Bill Birch said.
“This being represented as council when it wasn’t (discussed) on this dais is not appreciated at all,’’ said Alderwoman Christina Adams. “We never even voted on it.’’ 
“I am new,’’ Alderwoman Liz Loper said, “but I thought we always discussed things among ourselves before something was put out. I would never go and assume I should put something out without talking to everybody else. I was as shocked as everybody else and I don’t think it was right for us not to have discussed this.’’
Thaler apologized and said she would seek the entire council’s input “if I were to do it again.”  Thaler, who said she notified the town manager and clerk in advance about the questionnaire, attended the two advisory board meetings. She said she was left with the impression that “very few people … understood what was going on and there was a lot of street talk about it.”
She said she wanted the replies to come to the council and Town Hall rather than her personally. “I wanted to be sure we got feedback directly from people ... because I think it is important for all of us as municipal representatives to hear what our constituencies are thinking,’’ she said. 
Here are the questions, some of which Thrasher and council members characterized as leading and biased: 
• “Should the town address current and future flood risk to keep the community safe?” 
• “Should the town allow 3-story structures in Briny Breezes?”
• “Should the town allow underlying support columns at a height more than that required by FEMA to allow storage and parking underneath residential units in space that is restricted and uninhabitable?’’
• “Should the town allow roof heights up to 35 feet?”
• “Should the town allow bricks-and-mortar homes in Briny Breezes rather than modular or mobile homes?”
• “Should the town allow buildup of the ‘dirt’ under a home which could create a ‘bowl effect,’ causing unintended flooding on adjacent lots?”
• “Should the town hold hearings on these major decisions during summer/fall when 75% of owners and residents are gone?”
Thrasher said he was concerned the questionnaire gave the appearance that the Town Council was trying to circumvent the Planning and Zoning Board.
‘’The Planning and Zoning Board would have eventually sifted all this out. They would have had no need for a survey. They are gathering information. They are sensing from the community,’’ he said. “I trust Planning and Zoning to come up with an applicable recommendation to this council when they are ready to do so.’’
Town Attorney Keith Davis said he understood a council member’s urge to act alone, but “there’s still an opportunity for a misunderstanding if something is done unilaterally and your colleagues are not aware of it.’’
“Anything coming from council should come from action of council at a public meeting.’’

By Jane Smith

Real estate developer Michael Marco is pouring millions of dollars into reconstructing a historic home on the barrier island in Delray Beach — a project that was delayed after he ran afoul of city regulations.
“I’m trying not to think about the lost time and increased cost,” he said in April at the historic house site at 212 Seabreeze Avenue that he plans to make his family home. The city shut down the renovation in August 2020 for not having a needed demolition permit and did not allow the work to restart until December 2021.
While the actual construction costs have more than doubled over earlier estimates, some preservationists say the city’s history is incurring a much dearer price. They say Marco — no matter how well-intentioned — is not so much preserving history as he is building a close replica of it.
For them, the history was lost in less than 24 hours in July 2020, when workers removed the glass panels and louvers of the mid-century modern house, leaving only a steel skeleton on the site. Marco did not get a demolition permit, which is required if more than 25% of a home is going to be removed.
The city shut down the construction site for almost 1½ years. In December, the Historic Preservation Board and the City Commission unanimously approved allowing Marco to proceed with his reconstruction of the Paul Rudolph-designed home, while also allowing it to stay on the city’s register of historic homes.
Marco apologized to the board for stripping the house to its skeleton without contacting the city. “We should have reviewed everything with the historic staff before it was done. That was our mistake, a huge mistake on my part,” he said.

Why it could be historic
Rudolph, a pioneer of the Sarasota School of Architecture, was acclaimed for his modernism and later became chairman of the Yale School of Architecture. Marco’s house was one of the few Rudolph designs built on Florida’s East Coast, with most being in the Sarasota and Bradenton area on the Gulf Coast.
The predominantly glass Delray Beach house — built in 1955 before air-conditioning was widely available — was done for Sewell C. Biggs, a Delaware native who collected American art.
Richard Heisenbottle, a historic preservation architect hired by the city to review the Biggs house situation, said it’s still possible for the house to be historic.
If the reconstruction follows the U.S. Secretary of Interior’s guidelines that call for photos and plans of the original design to be used in the redesign, then the reconstructed house can be considered historic, he told the board members.
“We have the documentation that is required by that standard,” Heisenbottle, from Coral Gables, said at the December meeting.
The city originally approved listing the house in its historic inventory in 2005 at the request of the owners at the time, Virginia and Erskine Courtenay. She loved the house because it gave her a feeling of being up in the trees, according to the documents prepared for that designation.
The historic-designation report described the Biggs house as “a significant example of the modernism which swept through the state in the years after World War II. It is an example of the work of a leading American architect, Paul Rudolph, whose testing ground was Florida.” 

Why others say it can’t be
Not everyone agrees the Rudolph-designed home should remain on the city’s inventory of historic homes without an explanation.
“Things can be rebuilt, but it’s not a historic structure,” said John Miller, who has twice chaired the Historic Preservation Board. “Personally, I don’t think it can stay on the city’s list of historic places without an asterisk saying it was a historic structure and rebuilt in the Paul Rudolph style, with the mass of the home not the same.”
Miller, a Delray Beach native, is president of the Delray Beach Historical Society. He became a local history buff because his great-grandfather and grandfather were Delray Beach mayors.
The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation no longer lists the Delray Beach house on its website. Its chief executive has said the new homeowners are assuming they know how Rudolph would react to today’s construction issues — something that’s not possible.
For that reason, the foundation’s website states: “The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation will not support such a rebuilding as an authentic Rudolph design. …The original residence will remain ‘demolished’ in our project list.”

‘Labor of love’ for owner
Historic Preservation Board Chairman Ben Baffer asked Heisenbottle to write a letter to the Rudolph Foundation after the Biggs house is reconstructed, explaining why it should still be considered an authentic Rudolph-designed home. Heisenbottle agreed.
Construction workers have been able to reuse most of the steel beams by sanding them and painting them, a process that took months, Marco said.
His wife, Nina, found the original Rudolph house plans that called for the ground floor to be enclosed in glass.
They will add air-conditioning, but they will not tint the glass to reduce the heat from the Florida sun. Tinted glass was not part of the Rudolph design. The reconstructed house will be about 60% glass.
After the house is rebuilt to look like the original Rudolph design, Marco will apply to the city for property tax abatements for his historic property improvements for 10 years. Marco expects reconstructing the home will take another 12 to 18 months.
His hard costs for the reconstruction now exceed $2 million. In January 2021, GLM Builders estimated the reconstruction cost to be about $920,000.
His soft costs for attorneys, engineers, architects and other consultants are mounting. He even gave up his day job as a residential real estate developer to oversee the daily work at his Seabreeze property.
“It’s a labor of love,” Marco said. “That’s how it makes sense to me.”

By Jane Smith

A former Delray Beach water quality inspector filed a federal complaint against the city on April 18, claiming she was wrongfully dismissed for pointing out problems with the city’s beleaguered reclaimed water program.
Christine Ferrigan, who earlier received Florida whistleblower protection from Palm Beach County’s inspector general, said she was let go in January, five days after she filed a written retaliation complaint against two of her Utilities Department supervisors.
City Manager Terrence Moore said then that Ferrigan’s position was eliminated in a reorganization “done for efficiency and austerity reasons.” However, Ferrigan’s position was the only one eliminated in the reorganization of the Utilities Department, according to her complaint.
Moore sent Ferrigan a Jan. 26 email saying her services were no longer needed, effective immediately. Ferrigan turned in her badge and was escorted out of the building, she said in an April 25 conference call interview that her attorneys also attended.
Her son also was let go from his job in the city’s Public Works Department on March 2. His job loss was described in the complaint as “the City’s continuing agenda to retaliate against” Ferrigan.
The city does not comment on pending legal action, but spokeswoman Gina Carter said in an email to The Coastal Star:
“The City has the unfettered right to organize (and reorganize) its departments in ways that are efficient and fiscally responsible. In the case of Utilities, Director Hassan Hadjimiry chose to streamline efficiencies within his department. The position Ferrigan held was not related to reclaimed water but rather to the City’s Industrial Pretreatment Program.”
Ferrigan, though, said she received approval in the summer of 2018 from her now-retired supervisor, Scott Solomon, to set up the city’s reclaimed water program. Reclaimed water is highly treated wastewater suitable only for lawn irrigation, not for human or pet consumption.

OSHA to probe complaint
Ferrigan’s complaint is filed with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. One of her attorneys, Richard Condit, called it the “first step” in her legal fight with the city.
She is seeking 11 remedies, including back pay, a different position because hers no longer exists, training for staff and managers about whistleblower rights, and attorneys’ fees.
OSHA will conduct its own investigation, including interviewing witnesses and reviewing reports, Erika Ruthman, U.S. Department of Labor spokeswoman, said in an April 26 email to The Coastal Star. The Labor Department oversees OSHA.
Ruthman said whistleblower investigations vary in the length of time. Ferrigan’s attorney, who specializes in such cases, said most last between six months to a year. If either side does not agree with the results, then it can appeal to an administrative law judge, Ruthman said.
Ferrigan, hired in June 2017, often sided with barrier island residents and provided information to the Florida Department of Health after it began investigating the city’s reclaimed water program.
In late 2018, Ferrigan inspected South Ocean Boulevard locations and interviewed residents who were reporting being sickened after the reclaimed water was connected in the area. The city issued a boil-water order for the area in December 2018.
According to Ferrigan’s complaint, the city should have reported the illnesses to the Health Department and let the department investigate whether the water was responsible.
The Health Department investigation began after it received a January 2020 complaint from one of the South Ocean Boulevard residents, who said she did not understand the cross connection that occurred at her house in December 2018.
Cross connections happen when the drinking water pipes are mistakenly connected to the reclaimed water lines.
In February 2020, triggered by the resident’s complaint, the city shut down its entire reclaimed water system to avoid a citywide boil-water order.

Whistleblower status

When giving Ferrigan whistleblower protection in September 2020, the county inspector general wrote that the city’s staff and elected officials “potentially still are being less than truthful in documenting and describing the city’s water problems.”
However, in a May 2021 report, the inspector general was not able to link the illnesses of the South Ocean Boulevard residents to the reclaimed water.
The Health Department’s investigation led the city to sign a five-year consent order Nov. 9 with the department, agreeing to pay $1 million in civil fines to settle issues in the reclaimed water program.
But the same month the consent order was signed, Ferrigan reported to the Health Department concerns of fellow staffers who feared retaliation, according to her complaint. They had been ordered by Hadjimiry to remove information that was required from the city’s database of backflow preventers, the complaint reads. Backflow preventers stop reclaimed water from flowing back into the drinking water supply.
This is Ferrigan’s second whistleblower battle with a South County coastal city.
She claimed whistleblower status in 2008 after she was fired from Boca Raton’s water department. She sued the city, claiming she was let go because of information she provided to state environmental officials about the city’s backflow and cross connection programs.
Ferrigan and her attorneys received a $537,500 settlement in 2014 from the city’s insurance company, published reports said. The city did not admit any wrongdoing.

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach residents could see average water and sewer bills jump more than 30% over the next five years, while the cost for those who regularly use much more city drinking water could double.
City commissioners unanimously approved the increases in a preliminary vote at their May 3 meeting, with the largest increases in the potable water rates. A final vote is expected May 17, when the public will have a chance to comment on the proposed rates.
The average residential water user, who consumes 6,000 gallons a month, would see a combined monthly bill of $75.66 in five years, up from the current $57.85.
Officials say the added income is needed to pay for a new water treatment plant. That plant will cost about $125 million, Daryll Parker of Willdan Financial Services, the city’s water rate study consultant, said at the March 8 commission meeting. The current plant is one of the oldest in the state.
Delray Beach has not raised its potable water rates since 2009, said retired City Manager David Harden, who discussed his concerns with The Coastal Star.
“The rates need to be modified,” Harden said, but the ones proposed “are too high, too fast.”
In January, he and his wife, Andrea, sold their historic home on Swinton Avenue. They used 29,500 gallons a month, mostly for the lawn, he said, because the city’s cheaper, reclaimed water isn’t available for irrigation there.
Their water consumption put them in one of the highest-use residential categories.
Their average monthly water bill was $72.01, Harden said. If they had stayed in that house, their monthly water bill would increase to $164.35 under the proposed rates, he said, raising the water portion of the bill more than $1,100 a year.

By Mary Thurwachter

Just when it looked like construction on Lantana’s library was about to resume, a canceled Town Council meeting on April 25 further slowed the progress.
On the agenda was a $734,227 contract with West Construction, Inc., to complete the library renovation. Work has been at a standstill since late December when it was discovered that the general contractor, Sierra Construction Management & Remodeling of Weston, was operating without a license.
But no vote was taken April 25, of course, since there was no meeting.
A notice on the door of the council chambers, written on the letterhead of Mayor Robert Hagerty, said the meeting was canceled “due to circumstances beyond our control.”
Vice Mayor Karen Lythgoe offered insight on the circumstances, saying in a telephone interview that the entire five-member council, town manager and town attorney had been exposed to COVID-19 during a visioning retreat with department heads on April 22.
“One of the people at the retreat came down with COVID,” Lythgoe said. “We’ve all been exposed, and two other people are showing symptoms of COVID, but negative so far. It was decided we should just call it off.”
Town Manager Brian Raducci said it hadn’t been determined if a special meeting would be called regarding the library contract.
After the town shut down Sierra’s work at the library, at 205 W. Ocean Ave., in December, it sought to turn the work over to a subcontractor, Multitech Corp. However, Multitech was unable to obtain the bonds required to restart the work.
The town then negotiated with West, which had been the second-lowest bidder when the contract was awarded in July. West bid $883,932 then, compared to Sierra’s $723,200.
According to the agenda report for the April 25 meeting, West has agreed to complete the work within 120 days from the date it receives a notice to proceed from the town. Failure to do so would cost the contractor $500 a day.
The total cost of the library is about $277,000 more than originally anticipated. Any funding shortfall will be paid for through the infrastructure surtax funds, other revenue sources or from the town’s reserve funds, according to the agenda report.
The library is temporarily housed in the Recreation Center at 418 S. Dixie Highway.

Visioning retreat
No one from the public attended the morning-long visioning retreat, which was held at the Finlandia House, just steps from Town Hall. The meeting wasn’t recorded, but minutes were taken, Town Clerk Kathleen Dominguez said.
Lythgoe said the retreat was “excellent,” but that the public notifications for events like that could be better. The meeting was noticed on the town’s website with an agenda, Dominguez said.
“I’m thinking email blasts or robo-texting,” Lythgoe said.
“We’ve got to drive traffic” to the website, she said. “We’ve got to get a better website. The website sucks. We’ve been talking about this for two years.”
The retreat allowed the council to hear from directors about their departments, what shortcomings they see and what they plan in the future — and for council members to submit their own priorities, including direction for the upcoming budget, Lythgoe said.
“We were all pretty much in alignment,” she said.