By Jane Smith

Sand lost to 2017’s Hurricane Irma on the beaches of Ocean Ridge/Boynton Beach, south Delray Beach and north Boca Raton will be restored starting about Feb. 5.
The projects will be paid for using federal tax dollars authorized by Congress in June under the Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies Act. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will oversee the work.
The approximate cost for restoring the Ocean Ridge/Boynton Beach and Delray Beach sand is $13.7 million, according to the Army Corps. Those three beaches will receive nearly 800,000 cubic yards of sand, equal to the amount needed to fill about 250 Olympic-size swimming pools.
The work will be divided into two parts: Delray Beach and then Ocean Ridge/Boynton Beach. Each will take about 30 days to finish, working around the clock.
“Ocean Ridge will follow Delray. It should get going the first week of March and again wrap up in roughly 30 days or four weeks,” David Ruderman, Army Corps spokesman in the Jacksonville office, wrote in a Jan. 10 email to The Coastal Star. “These dates and timelines may slip forward or backward depending on the weather and mechanical/technical issues, but that is the plan.”
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. of Oak Brook, Illinois, will dredge the sand offshore and then coat the southern coast of Delray Beach, from Casuarina Road to the city line with Highland Beach.
In Boynton Beach, heavy equipment will be stationed at Oceanfront Park. That beach, about 1,000 feet long, will receive extra sand.
The contractor also will restore about 3,000 feet north of Oceanfront Park and about 2,000 feet south of it. Both parcels belong to Ocean Ridge.
A second contractor, Weeks Marine Inc. of Covington, Louisiana, won the $12.8 million contract for the Boca Raton work. Staging will begin in mid-February with the project to be complete no later than April 30, Ruderman said.
The same Great Lakes dredge hired to restore sand in Jupiter will float down the coast to restore the Delray and Boynton/Ocean Ridge beaches. It can’t move in rough seas, said Tracy Logue, coastal geologist with the Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management department.
Once sea turtle nesting season begins March 1, extra steps are required, Logue said. These include hourly nesting surveys, relocation of or the creation of safe zones for nests affected by construction, and limited lighting at night.
The last step is intended to avoid excessive illumination of the water’s surface while meeting federal standards for construction lighting at night.
“Weather and sea conditions have a lot to do with how fast the work can be done,” said Christine Perretta, whose D.B. Ecological Services monitors sea turtle nests in that Boynton Beach/Ocean Ridge area.
She expects to be called to a pre-construction meeting in mid-February to review the plan for dealing with sea turtle nests.
Leatherback turtles can nest in months outside the traditional nesting season of March 1 to Oct. 31, she said.
“They usually allow work on the beach in the early part of the nesting season. The peak begins May 15, then all work on the beach must cease,” Perretta said.
The monitoring will occur at night if there’s nesting activity, Perretta said. “Monitors will be allowed to move the eggs out of the construction area or create a safe area around the nest that the construction equipment won’t disturb.”

By Jane Smith

Ocean One, a development that Boynton Beach approved nearly three years ago, has received a one-year extension of taxpayer incentives from a reluctant Community Redevelopment Agency board.
Without the extension, the approximately $4.1 million of taxpayer money would have expired on Jan. 16.
“We are all disappointed,” said investor Davis Camalier, who has owned the property since early 1999.
The CRA board members voted unanimously on Jan. 6 to extend the taxpayer incentives for one year, with a six-month update on the progress of finding buyers or investors.
Ocean One already has received development extensions from the city to March 2, 2023, because of governor-declared emergencies for the opioid and zika crises, red tide along the coast and various hurricanes. These declarations allow developers to extend their project timelines.
The approximately 3.5-acre parcel sits at the northeast corner of Federal Highway and Ocean Avenue. The first phase of the project is planned to be an eight-story residential complex with 231 apartments on Federal Highway, just south of Boynton Beach Boulevard.
As part of the incentive approval, the developer also will build 8,765 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, create 50 public parking spaces, construct the complex to green-building standards, hold a job fair and make a diligent effort to hire city residents and contractors for the construction. The incentive money is to be spread over eight years.
To square off the lower portion of the 3.0-acre parcel in 2015, Ocean One requested a CRA-owned sliver of approximately half an acre that borders Boynton Beach Boulevard. But Ocean One wasn’t willing to pay much for that land.
“We have been taken advantage of,” said Christina Romelus, a CRA board member. “We sold the (half-acre) for $10 and have watched property values increase.”
The half-acre piece is now valued at $532,613 by the county property appraiser. At the time of the sale in December 2015, that land was appraised at $480,000.
In exchange for the land at a nominal fee, Ocean One had agreed to build a public plaza by Jan. 20, 2021.
“We are not asking for an extension of the public plaza timeline,” said Bonnie Miskel, Camalier’s attorney. She did not say when the public plaza would be built.
Prudential Life Insurance had been on board to underwrite the 231-unit apartment project but then pulled out, Miskel said.
“In April, my client entertained the idea of selling the property through Newmark Knight Frank Florida,” she said. The Boca Raton firm put together a glossy, four-color multipage guidebook on the property and the apartment market in downtown Boynton Beach.
About 1,300 packages went out and “three serious buyers are negotiating with my client,” Miskel told the board. She declined to reveal the amount spent on the marketing.
The would-be buyers all asked that the taxpayer incentives be extended because downtown Boynton Beach apartment rents are lower than those in Delray Beach and West Palm Beach, Camalier said, though the construction costs are the same.
“I want to keep the communications open between us,” Camalier said.
Romelus thanked him for that statement. “I didn’t know that you were marketing the property,” she said.
Romelus said that residents of the adjacent Casa Costa and Marina Village developments “are looking at your property and saying why isn’t anything happening.”
“They are my constituents. They flood my inbox with emails. I need you to understand that and to be more transparent.”

Councilman Edward Shropshire awaits a decision from the Lantana Town Council on Jan. 22 on whether it would appeal a judge’s ruling that kept him on the ballot. Beside him is a Lantana resident, Catherine Phillips Padilla. Tim Stepien /The Coastal Star

By Mary Thurwachter

Mark Allen Zeitler, a candidate for the Group 3 seat on the Lantana Town Council, got what seemed to be celebratory news on Jan. 15. He was informed by town staff that the man he thought would be his opponent, council member Edward Shropshire, had not qualified for re-election. That meant Zeitler, who did qualify for election, would automatically fill the position when Shropshire’s first term expires in March.
But Zeitler didn’t rush to pop open the champagne — a wise decision as it turned out, because that news, as he had suspected, was too good to be true.
“I’m a wait-and-see person,” said Zeitler, 63. “I knew he was going to court,” which is exactly what Shropshire did. The town, Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Link and Zeitler were named as defendants.
Less than a week later, a circuit judge ruled that Shropshire, 67, could remain on the ballot, despite the fact he had not turned in the petitions from registered voters necessary to qualify.
Shropshire said he believed he had qualified after he turned in the certificate of qualification given by Link’s office to Nicole Dritz, the town clerk, before the Dec. 13 qualifying date and that she did not tell him otherwise. Dritz had two jobs at the time — clerk and development services director, a job to which she had been appointed after Dave Thatcher left in November. She now is no longer the clerk.
The snafu leading up to the ruling began after an anonymous concerned citizen made a public records request to look at the Lantana candidates’ qualifying documents and discovered that three of the four candidates (Philip J. Aridas and Karen Lythgoe for the Group 4 seat, and Zeitler for the Group 3 seat) had filed all necessary paperwork. Shropshire’s documents were missing petitions from registered voters, although he did have a certification from the Supervisor of Elections Office saying that he had the petitions and they had been verified.
After the citizen brought this discovery to the attention of the town clerk, Shropshire was told that his name would not appear on the ballot. And Zeitler was informed he won by default.
In Circuit Court, Judge James Martz ruled in Shropshire’s favor.
During an emergency Town Council meeting on Jan. 22, Town Attorney Max Lohman announced the judge’s decision and asked council members (minus Shropshire, who recused himself for obvious reasons) whether they wanted to appeal. Based on Lohman’s recommendation, they voted not to appeal.
Lohman said that by “enforcing the code and getting the result from the court … the town removed any specter of appearing that the town administration favored an incumbent. We did the same thing we’d have done if it was anybody else.”
Dritz’s telling the candidate he was good to go “was a mistake that could have been significant, but for the court’s ruling,” as Zeitler would then have been named winner.
It’s noteworthy, Lohman said, “that the opponent (Zeitler), also named in the case, did not attend any of the hearings and did not have legal counsel attend any of the hearings. So, at this point, it seems to me appealing the case would almost be as if we were pressing forward that individual’s interest. … I think the result of the court still preserves the interest of the public and the town.”
Zeitler, a political newcomer, said he got last- minute notification for the initial hearing on Jan. 17, and wasn’t able to be there for work reasons and didn’t have time to determine whether he needed counsel. He hadn’t done anything wrong, he said, and didn’t know what he could add to the proceedings. He did, however, suspend his campaign, held up on ordering lawn signs and stopped taking political contributions.
The judge, Lohman said, doesn’t believe that this ruling in any way favors Shropshire. “He did acquire the petitions and in all aspects other than physically submitting them to the clerk, met all the requirements and qualifications.”
The clerk is not responsible for correcting errors in paperwork, Lohman said, but the clerk is responsible for verifying that candidates have submitted all the required documents before informing them that they qualified.
When Mayor David Stewart asked Lohman whether the town was setting a precedent by voting not to appeal, Lohman said, “No, sir, it does not.”
The identity of the concerned citizen was not revealed. No logs are kept of people who come to view public records. “Under law … you are not permitted to require their name, to ask them why they want to see it or anything of that nature,” Lohman said.
After the emergency meeting, Shropshire said he was pleased with the result. He said he thought the county’s certificate of qualification was all he had to turn in to the clerk. “All I really wanted was that the people of Lantana had a chance to decide,” he said.
Zeitler said he was OK with the outcome, too. “This way the voters will decide,” he said.
But regarding correctly filing qualification documents, Zeitler said of Shropshire, “Everybody else got it right and he has been through this before. Makes you wonder about his competence.” The election is March 17.

By Mary Hladky

Frustrated municipal officials are pressing state legislators to give them the power to regulate the use of plastic bags and Styrofoam containers.
They want to take action to protect the environment, but a 2008 state law prevents them from enacting local laws that would discourage or stop residents from using products that do not fully biodegrade and kill sea animals that ingest them.
The effort was launched in October by the Town of Palm Beach, which banned single-use plastic bags and Styrofoam containers in June but was forced to reverse course in August after an appellate court upheld the state law.
The town repealed its ban after receiving a letter from the Florida Retail Federation and the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association noting the court ruling and warning of a possible lawsuit.
Town officials now are seeking support for a recently introduced state Senate bill and companion House bill that would repeal measures in the state law that prevent local governments from regulating single-use plastic bags and polystyrene, best known by the brand name Styrofoam.
The Town Council passed a resolution in October asking the Legislature to vote in favor of the bills, started a petition on change.org seeking support for the bills, and enlisted Thomas Bradford, former town manager of Palm Beach and Tequesta, to drum up support from legislators and other cities, towns and counties.
“It is not a partisan issue,” Bradford said. “It is about doing something for the environment.”
But it is also yet another attempt by local governments to take back control of matters now regulated by the Legislature. Local officials maintain the Legislature is stripping them of governing powers that are enshrined in the state constitution and known as “home rule.”
“There is a larger issue. It is the attack on home rule and the limitations that have been placed on cities from enacting regulations we feel are appropriate to our individual, specific needs,” said Palm Beach Deputy Town Manager Jay Boodheshwar.
“Having a one-size-fits-all policy is not appropriate,” he said. “The plastic ban is just one example.”
Boca Raton, at the urging of City Council member Monica Mayotte, passed a resolution similar to Palm Beach’s on Jan. 14, a day after hearing passionate presentations about the harms caused by plastics from representatives of Oceana, an ocean conservation advocacy organization, and the Surfrider Foundation, which advocates for oceans and beaches.
The nonprofit Boca Save Our Beaches urged residents to tell council members they support the resolution.
“This is first and foremost a home rule issue,” Mayotte said. “This is the first step.”
Delray Beach passed a resolution in November, Gulf Stream passed one in December and Ocean Ridge in January.
“We’re not supporting the Town of Palm Beach’s efforts at prohibiting plastic straws or plastic bags or anything like that,” said Gulf Stream Town Manager Greg Dunham. “We’re just supporting Palm Beach’s efforts at overturning the state’s preemption of towns and cities to do that on their own.”
“The state chips away at (home rule) every chance they can,” Gulf Stream Mayor Scott Morgan said. “We need to protect our own ability to make our own ordinances, respond to our own residents. …”
Bradford doesn’t know how many other cities and towns have passed resolutions because they often do not let him know when they do. But he thinks there is significant support for the effort.
“These state legislators think they know what the local constituents want, when in reality it is the cities and counties that know,” he said.
Local governments have been fighting to regain home rule for years, but every year more bills are filed that would preempt them from taking action on issues of local concern.
“It is an issue every single year. It is the same thing this year,” said Richard Radcliffe, executive director of the Palm Beach County League of Cities. “It is always ‘we know better than you.’ There are things that need to be done on a local level.”
A January report by Integrity Florida, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute, said the trend began in 1987 when the Legislature passed a law that prohibited local regulation of firearms.
“Since the 1987 firearms law, the appetite of the Florida Legislature to preempt local actions has grown enormously,” the report states.
From the 2017 though the 2019 legislative sessions, 119 bills were filed that contain some form of preemption, although only 11 of them became law.
The number increased each year, with 36 bills filed in 2017, 38 in 2018 and 45 in 2019. One month before the bill filing deadline for the 2020 legislative session, which began in mid-January, 16 bills had been filed, running the gamut of issues.
It is clear “there is a concerted and strategic effort in the Florida Legislature to strip local government of its power to act on a wide variety of issues,” the report states.
One of those is the regulation of vacation rentals that for years have drawn complaints from neighbors about out-of-control parties, loud noise and traffic.
The Legislature has been hostile to allowing local governments to set rules for them. In 2011, lawmakers prohibited cities from regulating short-term vacation rentals. In 2014, the Legislature relented a bit, allowing local governments a small amount of control.
Since then, more bills have been introduced to take away local government authority. While those bills stalled, new ones have been filed this year that would prevent local governments from enacting any regulations.
Garnering much attention last year, the Legislature banned local governments from regulating vegetable gardens on residential property.
Even if this year’s effort by local governments to regulate single-use plastic bags and Styrofoam does not succeed, the issue is not likely to go away.
Coastal cities and towns are keenly aware of the harm caused by plastics that break up but do not biodegrade in landfills, rivers and the ocean.
Sea birds, fish, turtles and other marine life ingest it and die. Or they get tangled up in the plastics, leaving them unable to eat or swim.
A report from the World Economic Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation said that by 2050 the oceans will contain more plastic trash than fish by weight if nothing is done.
The Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton drew national attention in October when it posted a photo on Facebook that went viral of a baby turtle that died after washing ashore. A necropsy found that the hatchling had ingested 104 small pieces of plastic.
From the standpoint of local governments, the one bright spot in the battle over local control came last year when Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill that would have blocked them from banning single-use plastic straws.
Delray Beach is among the cities that have since enacted plastic straw bans. The ban, effective Jan. 1, imposes a $100 fine for the first offense. Hospitals, nursing homes, schools and private use are exempt.
“In fact, the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation has encouraged Florida residents, schools and businesses to reduce plastic straw use,” DeSantis wrote. “Under these circumstances, the state should simply allow local communities to address the issue through the political process. Citizens who oppose plastic straw ordinances can seek recourse by electing people who share their views.”

Jane Smith and Steve Plunkett contributed to this story.

By Dan Moffett

A month into the new year and a new decade, Briny Breezes has a new administrative staff in place at Town Hall.
Council members approved resolutions appointing William Thrasher as town manager and Sandi DuBose as deputy clerk during the Jan. 23 town meeting.
Thrasher is no stranger to Brinyites, having worked for 21 years as manager of neighboring Gulf Stream. He retired three years ago, but was lured back by Briny’s part-time position that will enable him to split time between homes in Boynton Beach and Andrews, North Carolina.
“It’s very feasible in this day and age with electronics to work remotely,” Thrasher said of his plan to work from North Carolina during the summer months when the town’s business slows. “I feel I can accomplish the task.”
Thrasher told the council during a December interview that “management concepts seem to be universal” and what made him successful for two decades in Gulf Stream is likely to be effective in Briny.
“I’ll keep my eye out for projects but I believe there’ll be a time period where I’ll have to learn this community better,” he said of his short-term approach. “I’ve got to get to know the residents and how they might think and analyze things.”
A little over a year after leaving Gulf Stream, Thrasher served a three-month stint as Highland Beach’s interim town manager while commissioners searched for a permanent replacement to Valerie Oakes. Before coming to Gulf Stream, Thrasher worked as financial director of Pahokee, and his experience with budgets is another reason council members approved his hiring. His annual salary is $37,500.
DuBose, a Delray Beach resident, takes over as Briny’s part-time clerk after working four years as clerk for the city of West Palm Beach golf advisory committee. She also spent nine years as an administrative assistant for the city of Lake Worth.
A native of Austin, Texas, DuBose was the council’s choice from dozens of applicants who applied through indeed.com. The clerk job pays $22 an hour.
The two Briny positions came open last fall when Manager Dale Sugerman and Clerk Maya Coffield announced they were resigning, citing a growing workload and inadequate pay.
In other business, the council voted unanimously to hire consultant Erin Deady to help the town win approval of its comprehensive plan amendments from the state.
Town Attorney Keith Davis said state officials want changes to the plan that reflect Briny’s vulnerability to flooding and assess the potential consequences of rising seas. Davis said failure to comply would put the town at risk of losing grant money that could go toward flood mitigation.
Davis recommended Deady, a certified planner and attorney with an environmental law practice in Delray Beach, to “shepherd the plan through” the state requirements. The council approved paying Deady up to $6,000 for the work.

By Dan Moffett

After nearly six years of legal conflict over the fate of an Ocean Ridge lagoon, residents of the Wellington Arms Condominium and developer William Swaim might be close to ending hostilities.
Both sides agreed to a settlement last year during court-ordered mediation, and their lawyers are trying to work out the complicated details of an easement agreement that would allow the residents to use their docks and access the waterway behind their condos.
Details of the settlement have not been disclosed, and neither Wellington Arms residents nor their attorney responded to requests for comment.
Swaim’s Waterfront ICW Properties owns two lots in the lagoon — submerged land he claims reaches under the condominium’s boat docks. The developer has demanded the condo owners remove their docks, so he can build single-family homes, and filed suit against the Wellington Arms in 2015.
Swaim, in an email sent to The Coastal Star, said the dispute with the condominium was “amicably settled” in the mediation, and he cited a subsequent court ruling last summer that upheld his ownership claims to the lagoon land.
“Last July we prevailed in a four-day trial against the State of Florida quieting title to all our property in Ocean Ridge,” he wrote.
In that trial, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Donald Hafele ruled that the mangrove-rich lagoon was largely man-made and was not navigable in its original state some 180 years ago. That decision recognized Swaim’s lots as buildable land that isn’t protected as sovereign by state statutes.
Hafele’s ruling against the state has a potentially significant impact on other cases Swaim has pending, one of them a suit against the Town of Ocean Ridge in which he seeks easement access to his lots across property the town owns behind the Town Hall building.
From the outset, Swaim has asserted that the lagoon is not a pristine natural wetland but rather a construction project by the Army Corps of Engineers, which dredged out the area decades ago for mosquito control.
Hafele relied on so-called “ancient documents” — arcane surveys and maps — from the 19th century to determine that the lagoon was largely a creation of man, not of nature. At the time Florida became a state in 1845, records show that the lagoon was not a navigable waterway, the court found.
“The 1872 Official Township Plat was made prior to any of the man-made changes shown in this record, is the only survey or sketch in the record supported by detailed field notes, and was made by surveyors who were directed by the federal government to identify and meander navigable water bodies,” Hafele wrote in his opinion.
“The absence of any indication of a water body anywhere near the location of the disputed property, and the absence of meander information with regard thereto, creates a significant hurdle for the (state) to overcome.”
The state is appealing Hafele’s ruling.
Last August, a mediation session between Swaim and the town failed to resolve their dispute over the right-of-way access behind Town Hall. None of the current town commissioners was in office when the lawsuit began.
The town’s public position has been a wait-and-see approach that deferred action to the state and its South Florida Water Management District, as well as the Army Corps of Engineers, which have not granted Swaim permits to build. Commissioners have said that, without permits, the request for the right of way is essentially moot.
Residents and environmentalists have been horrified at the thought of someone ripping out mangroves and trucking in fill to turn the wildlife-rich lagoon into a construction site and another Florida development.
Swaim has maintained all along that he is a developer who wants to “follow the process.”
“Nothing will be done without permits,” he has said, “and anything that needs to be complied with will be complied with.”

The second phase of the beach master plan was finished in early January, including this amber-colored lighting along the promenade sidewalk. The lights, which are shielded from the beach side to protect sea turtles, are on timers and most go off at 10 p.m. But the lights near the Atlantic Avenue pavilion are on until 2 a.m. Minor fixes to the second phase will be complete by mid-February, said Gina Carter, Delray Beach spokeswoman. The $3.7 million project included nautical fencing to protect the dunes; the promenade lighting between Harbor Drive and Casuarina Road; and six renovated crosswalks. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Mary Thurwachter

Measures paving the way for an apartment complex at the Kmart Shopping Center narrowly won approval at the Jan. 13 Town Council meeting.
Another close vote came last September, when the owners of the 18.6-acre site at the northwest corner of Hypoluxo Road and South Dixie Highway received initial approval to change the town’s future land use map from commercial to mixed-use development. That day, the ordinance passed after its first reading by a 3-2 vote, with council members Lynn Moorhouse and Ed Shropshire voting no.
At that time, Kmart, which anchors the shopping strip, hadn’t revealed plans to close. But after Christmas, the store announced it would shut its doors Feb. 17.
The council, after the second reading in January, voted 3-2 (with Moorhouse and Shropshire again voting no) to change the land use map from commercial to mixed-use development. On a first reading the council approved a zoning change for the property as well. That vote was 4-1, with Shropshire the lone dissenter.
“I’m concerned about density,” Shropshire said. “This project is not appropriate for this area. I can’t be in favor of it.”
But Lantana Mayor Dave Stewart worried what would happen without some kind of update for the worn shopping center, built in the mid-1970s.
“I look at the alternative of what happens when Kmart is gone and it sits there,” Stewart said of the empty store. “This is what bothers me. It’s zoned commercial and you just don’t know what can come in there.”
Stewart said he would rather give the shopping center owners “a shot to have a presentation of some sort that’s going to be palatable to everybody. I’m just going to tell you: It’s not going to be 200 units. That’s not part of what I envision. I don’t envision everything else. I need to see the details. But this is the first step to get the car off the assembly line.”
While council members made it clear they do not favor a 200-plus apartment complex, they were open to considering plans smaller in scope and density. A site plan has not yet been put forward, although preliminary drawings that had been shared at a neighborhood meeting were shown to the council on Jan. 13.
“We can’t submit for a site plan unless we get these approvals,” said Cushla Talbut, an attorney from Greenberg Traurig representing the center’s landlord, Lantana SDC LLC. “We have had a neighborhood meeting on Nov. 12 where we shared some initial site plan concept renderings. But that’s all we’ve done at this point.”
The idea, Talbut said, is to “take the Kmart parcel and to redevelop it to multifamily residential, while doing some updates to the commercial facades where the Winn-Dixie is and where the Lantana Pizza shopping center is located.”
The preliminary plan for the Kmart section of the parcel shows five four-story residential buildings with 209 units and elevators, Talbut said. The drawings also show a clubhouse, pool and 508 parking spaces.
“The other component to this is the update to the commercial facade,” Talbut said, showing before and after images of the Subway along Hypoluxo Road and the middle area of the center, south of Kmart. “These would have very modern, clean lines and a neutral palette for a kind of coastal beachy feel that goes with the town of Lantana,” she said.
Attorney Ryan Bailine of Greenberg Traurig, also rep-resenting the center’s landlord, said drawings were shown because “we thought that our initial architectural concepts, specifically the new facades and how we would bring back the commercial component, were really, really good. We thought that staff as well as the residents would like the reconceptualized commercial component and that’s why we felt that we put our best foot forward from a design perspective, so you all had an idea what we’re looking at.”
Council members expressed worries about traffic congestion at the proposed development.
“You’re going to have to come up with some creative way to move traffic around,” Stewart told developers. He also said he didn’t want to see the strip mall follow in the footsteps of other once-vibrant shopping centers in the county built in the 1960s and 1970s.
“I will not support anything that is not top shelf and I feel is going to be good for the residents of Lantana now and in 40 years,” Stewart said.

In other news, the town welcomed a new clerk, Kathleen Dominguez, a Florida native and Lantana resident who worked for the town of Palm Beach for five years, most recently as town clerk.
She has a bachelor’s in public communications from Florida Atlantic University and is a certified municipal clerk.
Dominguez, 38, is married, the mother of a 3-year-old, and has two schnauzers.
“My husband and I purchased our home in Lantana in August 2013,” she said. “We love the laid-back feel of the town, the parks and our safe quiet neighborhood.”

By Jane Smith

Boynton Beach Fire Station 1 won’t be finished until March 31, city commissioners heard at their Jan. 21 meeting.
The reason for the setback of about five weeks is delayed delivery of an elevator and impact windows.
Only three companies nationally build elevators, said Colin Groff, assistant city manager in charge of Town Square. Every project that is more than one story needs an elevator, and with the national building boom there is a shortage, he said.
The fire station sits on Northeast First Street and will serve northeastern Boynton Beach and the barrier island towns of Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes.
City commissioners and other officials are eager to see Town Square finished.
They are hoping the $250 million project creates a downtown — with a mix of municipal buildings, a cultural center with a banquet hall, a museum, apartment buildings, a hotel and parks. The city’s estimated share is $118 million.
The roughly 16-acre site is bounded by Boynton Beach Boulevard on the north, Northeast First Street on the east, Southeast Second Avenue on the south and Seacrest Boulevard on the west.
The combination city hall and library building is scheduled for completion June 22, Mark Hefferin said at the commission meeting. Hefferin runs E2L Real Estate Solutions, the development company that oversees construction of the civic buildings.
“We are racing to have the city ready for the centennial celebrations on July 4,” Hefferin said. Boynton Beach plans to celebrate 100 years on Independence Day.
The renovation of the cultural center in the historic high school also is delayed because of the elevator delivery problem, Groff said. It won’t be finished until late March.

Garages also delayed
Commissioners also received an update from the private developer that is building parking garages on the south and north sides to serve city workers, city hall patrons and visitors.
The south garage won’t be ready until November, said John Markey, head of JKM Developers of Boca Raton.
“The buck stops with me,” he said. He explained that his company had difficulty getting construction costs from contractors last year. “Without that set of numbers, no lender was willing to close on the loan,” Markey said.
The garage construction won’t start until early March, he said. The delay means two buildings — the cultural center and combination city hall and library — will open without adequate parking.
Markey plans to offer temporary parking in the lot just east of the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum. His firm bought the lot from the city to build apartments on it.
Some commissioners thanked Markey for his candor. But they seemed resigned to the delays and complications.
Groff said delays are bound to occur with a big project. Most were built into the schedule, he said.
Markey’s firm will have to provide temporary parking, according to its contract with the city, Groff said.

By Sallie James

DELRAY BEACH — Longtime Delray Beach resident and construction executive Armand Burton Mouw, a former city commissioner and community activist known for his upstanding character, died Jan. 11 not long after a cancer diagnosis. He was 92.
The Delray Beach pioneer founded the premier home-building construction company of Hawkins & Mouw Inc. in February 1956. The company morphed into Mouw Associates Inc., a name associated with many signature projects, including construction of the $90 million Bethesda West Hospital in Boynton Beach. Mr. Mouw also helped pave the way for the creation of the city’s historic district, which includes Old School Square Cultural Arts Center.
“He was a man with a gracious heart and a strong intellect. He was a man’s man, faithful to his God, and a hard worker. He loved his community and his family,” said the Very Rev. Bernard J. Pecaro, rector at St. Martin Episcopal Church in Pompano Beach, who became friends with Mr. Mouw in 1990.
The two met at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach, where Mr. Mouw served on the vestry and attended worship regularly. At the time, Pecaro was a single father and a Navy reservist who was a new assistant rector at the church. A year later in 1991, when Pecaro was called to active duty at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Mr. Mouw and his wife, Catherine, cared for Pecaro’s 14-year-old daughter for about six months.
“They did a wonderful job,” Pecaro recalled. Later, when Pecaro decided to remarry, Mr. Mouw stood as best man in his wedding. Their friendship was cemented forever.
“He was a close friend and counsel to me. He was a very wise man. I will miss him,” Pecaro said.
Mouw Associates controller Robin Watkins remembered the company owner as a kind man with a tireless work ethic whose name was synonymous with honesty and integrity. The snowbird loved his job and came into work for several hours a day when in town, despite his advanced age, until April when his health began to fail, she said.
“He was the kind of person if you got into trouble, he would absolutely give you a second chance,” Watkins said. “He was so respected in the community and loved by so many people.”
Mr. Mouw was born on Sept. 13, 1927, in West Palm Beach. He attended Colgate and Western Michigan colleges, ultimately earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Florida in 1949.
He married his first wife, Audrey, in 1951 and they had four sons: Joseph, Gregory, Michael and Richard, who goes by Rick and is now president of Mouw Associates.
The pair later divorced. He married Catherine in 1977 and the couple adopted a son, Andrew. Mr. Mouw had a sixth “unofficial son,” Paul, whom he also considered family.
Mr. Mouw served in the Navy in 1945-1946 and the Army from 1950 to 1952, where he worked as a mathematician alongside German V-2 rocket scientists.
Mr. Mouw also served as national director of the Associated General Contractors of America in Washington, D.C. He was named the Florida East Coast AGC president in 1973.
He received numerous awards and recognitions for the work he did for contractors in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, receiving the Distinguished Builder award in 1992. He was inducted into the Construction Hall of Fame at the University of Florida.
He was also very civic-minded. Mr. Mouw was elected to the Delray Beach City Commission in November 1990 and served until March 1993 at a time when the city was gearing up for major redevelopment.
“He was a very visionary person, the great voice of reason,” said former Delray Beach Mayor Tom Lynch, who held office from 1990 to 1996. “I convinced him to run for the City Commission. It was at a time when we were going through a lot of financial issues and union issues. He did a great job.”
Lynch said the two met in 1985 when the city formed a Community Redevelopment Agency to address blight. Mr. Mouw served on the CRA board four years, he said.
City activist Frances Bourque recalled the staunch support she got from Mr. Mouw when she started work on what would eventually become the Old School Square Cultural Arts Center.
“He thought it was a beautiful fit for the city. He was a genuinely good-to-the-core human being. I will miss him forever,” she said.
Rick Mouw said his father’s life was grounded in integrity. He recalled searching for old contracts for past projects dating to the ’60s and ’70s and being unable to find them. When he asked where the paperwork was, Mr. Mouw told him there was none.
“It was all done by handshake during a time where a handshake was as good as a contract,” Rick Mouw said.
“He was strict but fair. He had a big heart. Everyone was equal until you proved otherwise. He was open to everyone.”
The devoted family man was proud that his construction company employed three generations of Mouws: He, Rick and grandson John had all worked together.
“He was brilliant, but he was kind and he did not ever make you feel that you were not the one who was brilliant,” Bourque recalled.
Mr. Mouw is survived by his wife, Catherine, five sons and numerous grandchildren. Services were held on Jan. 18 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be sent to the hospice Trustbridge of West Palm Beach.

By Brian Biggane

GULF STREAM — Pete Dye, a longtime Gulf Stream resident who along with his wife, Alice, designed some of the world’s most iconic golf courses, died Jan. 9 in the Dominican Republic, where he had a home. He was 94.
Mr. Dye and Alice, who died last February at age 91, split time for many years between their modest residence in Gulf Stream and a home in Indiana.
Gulf Stream Town Commissioner Paul Lyons, a Polo Drive neighbor of Mr. Dye, noted his death at the Jan. 10 commission meeting. “He’ll be genuinely missed,” Lyons said. “I consider myself fortunate to be in a community with such great people.”
Mr. Dye was a member of Gulf Stream Golf Club and served on its Greens Committee for many years. The club issued a statement: “Mr. Dye was a longtime honored member of Gulf Stream Golf Club who did a wonderful job renovating the golf course in 2012-13.”
Mr. Dye designed more than 100 courses around the world. In South Florida his credits include Delray Dunes in Delray Beach, Palm Beach Polo in Wellington, Dye Preserve in Jupiter, Loblolly Pines in Hobe Sound, and the Dye course at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie.
His crowning achievement may be TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, home of The Players Championship and best-known for its island green on the 17th hole.
Born Dec. 29, 1925, in Urbana, Ohio, Paul “Pete” Dye Jr. was traveling with his family as a young boy when their car broke down. While waiting for repairs, his father, Paul, wandered to a nine-hole course nearby, hit some shots and fell in love with the game. He built his own nine-hole course in Urbana, and Pete spent much of his childhood working and playing there.
Mr. Dye became a top amateur player, winning the state high school championship and medaling in the state amateur championship before joining the military at age 18. He was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where he got to know famed designer Donald Ross, who had crafted courses at nearby Pinehurst.
Mr. Dye enrolled at Rollins College in Winter Park following his discharge and met Alice Holliday O’Neal, who would become his wife in 1950. He sold insurance for a time, becoming a million-dollar salesman before he and Alice turned their attention to golf course design in 1961.
After some modest successes, they accepted an offer to work on a tract of land near Indianapolis that became Crooked Stick Golf Club, which was completed in 1967 and hosted the PGA Championship in 1991 and the U.S. Women’s Open in 1993.
Soon afterward, Jack Nicklaus, then in his late 20s, received an offer to design a course in Hilton Head, S.C., and asked Mr. Dye for help. The two teamed up and produced Harbour Town Golf Links, which became and remains an annual mid-April stop on the PGA Tour.
Nicklaus has always credited Mr. Dye with his help in getting started in the design business and was profuse in his praise on Twitter the day of his death.
“It was Pete who inspired me to start designing courses more than 50 years ago, and in so many ways I owe my second career to him,” Nicklaus wrote. “Dye was the most creative, imaginative and unconventional golf course designer I have ever been around.”
Mr. Dye was unique in the business for never taking pen to paper in the design process, sometimes sketching an idea on a napkin and then getting his hands dirty — often driving a backhoe or an earthmover himself — to get the job done.
A major influence occurred in 1963 when he was in England to play in the British Amateur. He and Alice took the opportunity afterward to visit courses there and in Scotland and drew inspiration from famed designer Alister MacKenzie, incorporating railroad ties, pot bunkers and small greens in future designs.
Said NBC commentator Mark Rolfing: “His design legacy reminds me of Arnold Palmer’s golfing career: unique, authentic, willing to take bold chances. And, with credit to his beloved wife and partner, Alice, he never deviated from his identity.”
Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2008, the unassuming, amiable Mr. Dye spent much of his time in his later years in Gulf Stream with his succession of dogs, all named Sixty, named for how much it cost him and Alice to buy the original, a German shepherd, along with a collar and leash.
Recalled Lyons, the Gulf Stream commissioner: “I’m sure that many who have been here recall Pete, in the old days he would be walking Sixty, his white dog, down the street, and he did it twice a day to the golf course and he’d walk the golf course. And then later on he’d be in the golf cart with Sixty and he’d be all wrapped up.
“He was an iconic gentleman who excelled at something he loved, (and) that was designing golf courses. But what he really did wasn’t design golf courses, he loved moving dirt! And that’s really what he did. He understood how to move dirt on a golf course to make it an experience.”
Mr. Dye was also preceded in death by his brother Roy and sister Ann Doss. He is survived by sons Perry (Ann) of Colorado and P.B. (Jean) of Ohio, both successful golf architects carrying on the family tradition. Like their parents, they are members of the American Society of Golf Course Architects.
Also surviving are two granddaughters, Lucy Dye (Erik) Bowman and Lilly Dye (Ross) Harmon, and two great-grandchildren, Brooks and Margaret Harmon.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to International Circle of Friends Inc., 12012 South Shore Blvd., Suite 208, Wellington, FL 33414 (www.internationalcircle.org).
A celebration of life will be held at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana, on May 28.

By Dan Moffett

A proposal to begin a “sticker identification” program for vehicles in South Palm Beach got a stormy reception during the Town Council’s meeting on Jan. 14.
Councilman Mark Weissman said he brought the idea forward as a way to get more residents involved in the town’s activities, not to invade their privacy.
“It is a voluntary sticker program,” he said, “and a way to show hometown pride by putting a sticker on your car.”
Weissman hoped that having residents register at Town Hall also would be a way of accumulating contact information that could be invaluable to officials when emergencies such as hurricanes require mass notifications.
But those who attended the meeting would hear none of it.
“Too much Big Brother!” one resident shouted.
“I won’t put stickers on my car,” said another.
“We all hate this,” yelled another.
“I feel this is absolutely ridiculous,” said Ellen Salth. “I really feel this is a waste of time and energy. If you need names and email addresses, there’s another way of getting them.”
Vice Mayor Robert Gottlieb said he was willing to consider the idea because it was a voluntary program. “But I don’t like stickers either,” he said. “I wouldn’t use it myself.”
The proposal died on a 3-1 vote, with Weissman the lone supporter and Councilwoman Stella Gaddy Jordan absent.
In other business:
• Mayor Bonnie Fischer said there is still a good chance that the town could begin a beach renourishment project this spring. But it’s up to officials from the town of Palm Beach to make it happen.
For the sand plan to go forward by the April target date, project managers have to get the remaining easements they need to access the beach and hire a contractor. Fischer said the work has to be completed before the beginning of peak turtle nesting season in May.
Palm Beach earned final approval from federal officials in January for its $32 million project and is set to begin dredging this month off Midtown Beach.
The South Palm part in the $770,000 collaboration plan between towns would come after the Midtown work is done. It calls for hauling hundreds of truckloads of sand — dredged by Palm Beach contractors — to South Palm’s beach from a Phipps Ocean Park staging site. That could take three weeks to complete.
• Palm Beach County has added seven-day, east-west Palm Tran bus service from Lake Worth Beach to Wellington, and Gottlieb is hoping to add a stop in South Palm Beach to the route. He said the determining factor would be if Palm Tran officials can find a spot in South Palm or at Lantana Municipal Beach to turn buses around.
• The council has scheduled a 7 p.m. workshop for Feb. 26 to discuss what to do about renovating, repairing or rebuilding Town Hall.

The Meating Place owner Del Valeriay with some of his team (l-r): Brett Fournier, manager Jack Baitz, Erick Andersen and Joey Baitz, Jack’s son. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

Sometimes there were moments when he wondered how much longer he’d keep the business. Tastes were changing, the market for quality meats coming and going, everyone looking for bargains. His three children had left for other pursuits. Some of his longtime customers were gone now.
That was in 2010.
A decade later, Del Valeriay still owns The Meating Place, still comes in mornings to make sure his top quality meats are top quality, still greets the customers he’s served for 52 years.
Valeriay is 82 now, and the butcher shop is still at 277 E. Palmetto Park Road. He’s owned it for 42 years, and worked there a decade before that.
“We’re in business more than 50 years now,” he says, “and we’re very proud that it’s our passion for quality and service that keeps bringing our customers back.”
When the doors open at 9:30 a.m., Valeriay has the full trays lining the display cases — the Delmonicos and the New York strip, the porterhouse, the prime ribs, short ribs and sirloin burgers. A little farther along you’ll find the lamb from Colorado and the veal from Wisconsin.
“You have to have the passion for the business in you,” he says, surveying the display. “If it’s not 100%, go on to something else.”
Valeriay was born with it in him, 100%.
His grandfather slaughtered beef in Italy before emigrating, then he and Valeriay’s father owned shops in Meriden, Connecticut.
In 1968, Valeriay came to Boca Raton and went to work for a fellow named Sal Santelli, who had opened The Village Butcher, the town’s first meat market, in 1963, and later The Meating Place.
Ten years later, he bought the business from Santelli and has owned it ever since.
“He was a good friend,” Valeriay says. “He’s gone now.”
In 1993, Valeriay opened another Meating Place at Yamato and Jog roads but sold it in 2013.
The original shop on East Palmetto Park Road is still basically the same as when he bought it, but the town around it isn’t.
“When I was first here, there was nothing,” he says. “Now look. Nine-story buildings all around us.”
He shakes his head, still amazed by the changes he’s seen.
“I remember going to pick tomatoes at a place called U-Pick over where Spanish River High School is now,” he reflects. “Strawberries and tomatoes.”
The Meating Place is a family business in which the employees, unrelated by blood, have become family through longevity. The manager, Jack Baitz, 63, has been here 36 years. His twin brother, Mike, has been a meat cutter and counterman for 15.
They were born on Christmas Day, Jack first by 10 minutes.
“We’re mirror twins,” he says. “Mike’s a lefty, I’m a righty. He has girls, I have boys. He’s mechanical and I’m better at cutting meat. He’s boisterous and I’m more on the quiet side.”
Jack takes credit for the market’s prepared food business.
“When I first came here I said, let me try some ham salad,” he recalls with pride. “That was the first thing I made, and we went from ham and chicken to tuna and crab salads.”
Today, the cases are full of prepared meals — chicken Parmesan and cacciatore; stuffed shells, peppers and cabbage; shepherd’s pie and beef stew. All the cooking is done in the store, using the same high-quality meats they sell.
“I might even do some jambalaya,” Jack says. “Today I’m doing meatloaf.”
One item you won’t find? Veggie burgers.
“I’m a meat eater,” Valeriay says. “But everything in moderation. I eat meat twice a week, and I don’t order meat in restaurants.” He shakes his head. “When you handle the best, you don’t need the rest. I eat fish in restaurants.”
For the past year, Jack’s son Joey, 25, has been here too, learning the business.
“The most important lessons I’ve learned,” he says without hesitating, “are know your stock and know your customers.”
The Meating Place has been knowing its customers for a long time.
“We’re taking care of the kids’ kids now,” Valeriay says. “You know the customers’ names and their dogs’ names.”
Jack nods. “One lady I’ve seen pregnant with four kids over the years,” he says, “and now the kids are finished with college.”
Sal Falcone likes to think his business has been around a long time. He and his brother, Vinny, opened their V&S Italian Deli at 2621 N. Federal Highway in 1985, but The Meating Place gives him pause.
“We buy all our ground beef from there to make our meatballs and lasagna,” Falcone says. “We can’t find anything better in the marketplace. And I love that name, The Meating Place. It’s a great pun, and it’s so true. The people who come in all know each other, so it really is a meating place and a meeting place.”
But how much longer?
Del Valeriay wondered back in 2010, but it doesn’t seem to concern him these days.
“I’m semi-retired now,” he says. “At 82, I think I deserve it. I swim, and I don’t drink or smoke. No desserts, no candy. My mom lived to be 93, and I have her genes.
“How much longer? I leave that up to the Lord.”

By Christine Davis

The Boynton Beach Mall may halve its retail space and add apartments, hotels and offices. Under a proposal filed for the 108.3-acre site by landowners, the redeveloped mall would include 1,420 multifamily units, 400 hotel rooms, 629,000 square feet of retail, 65,000 square feet of general offices, 65,000 square feet of medical offices, a 20,000-square-foot fitness center and 10,000 square feet of fast-food restaurants.
The mall currently has 1.15 million square feet of retail and movie-theater space. The Cinemark theater and a church would remain, and open space would be increased by 6.7 acres to 23.3 acres of new pedestrian and public spaces. The proposal, considered by City Commission on Dec. 9, will be up for final approval on Feb. 18.

In December, a joint venture between Investcorp and The Preiss Co. secured a $71 million refinance loan from Square Mile Capital Management for University Park, a student housing complex near Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. The 11-acre complex, with 159 units in eight four-story buildings at 135 NW 20th St., was completed in 2015.
The joint venture partnership of Rosemurgy Properties, Giles Capital Group and Lewis Rental Properties sold University Park to the joint venture in 2016 for $70 million, as part of a three-property sale for a combined $105.25 million.  

Harold V. Groome Jr., the chairman of Groome Transportation, purchased Thomas and Toni Mendiburu’s home at 484 S. Maya Palm Drive in Boca Raton for $11.5 million. The sale was recorded on Dec. 23. The six-bedroom home, with 131 feet fronting the Grand Canal, was built in 2018. David W. Roberts with Royal Palm Properties represented the seller and buyer in the deal. Groome Transportation provides airport shuttle services at 13 airports.

Grafton Street Capital, led by Sean Posner and Jed Resnick, and Halstatt Real Estate Partners, developers of 3621 S. Ocean in Highland Beach, sold townhouse No. 3 to JHJ Family Trust, managed by trustee Jeffrey Herzog, for $6.05 million. The sale was recorded on Jan. 6.
Also recorded on Jan. 6, the development group sold townhouse No. 4 to Christin and Joseph Kohls for $5.75 million. Joseph Kohls was a senior managing director of Guggenheim Securities’ health care investment banking group, and previously was co-head of global health care investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
The development, which consists of two buildings with three units each, is represented by Jennifer Kilpatrick of the Corcoran Group. The buyers’ agents in these sales were the Senada Adzem team, Douglas Elliman Real Estate, for townhouse No. 3, and Kerry Warwick of the Corcoran Group for townhouse No. 4. Two townhomes are listed for sale through Kilpatrick, and one unit is offered for resale through the Senada Adzem team.

Race car driver Vincent Khristov has listed his Delray Beach home for $2.495 million with Michael Prettitore and Derek Barra, agents with Douglas Elliman. Khristov, who drives for the Dallas-based Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport Team on the U.S. Formula 4 circuit, has competed in 42 races as a professional.
His residence at 943 Fern Drive is a newly renovated contemporary home in the Tropic Isle community. With almost 5,000 square feet under air, the four-bedroom home fronts 90 feet on a wide canal off the Intracoastal Waterway. Features include an open floor plan, cathedral ceilings, marble and porcelain floors, an oversized loft and a large pool.

Group P6 has launched sales for Royal Palm Residences, a 48-unit condominium with three nine-story buildings at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East Royal Palm Road in downtown Boca Raton. Royal Palm Residences will have three- to five-bedroom units, with 2,425 square feet to 7,168 square feet, priced from $1.75 million to $3.9 million.
The Boca Raton-based firm RLC Architects designed Royal Palm Residences, and Suffolk Construction will be the project’s general contractor. The project is expected to break ground in June, with completion in 2022. One Sotheby’s International Realty is handling sales and marketing.

A 41,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market opened Jan. 29 at 680 Linton Blvd., Delray Beach. This is Palm Beach County’s fourth Whole Foods store. One percent of the store’s net sales during the first four days were to benefit community partners Delray Beach Children’s Garden, CROS Ministries Delray Beach Food Pantry, The Milagro Center, Jacobson Family Food Pantry and Healthier Delray Beach.

FSB Menswear, noted for its Italian product line, will close its Ocean Avenue store in Boynton Beach on March 31, ending nearly 50 years in business here. The company, known for its slogan, “You enter as a customer and leave as friends and family,” is taking a sabbatical to reflect on its next business venture.
“I wish only the best to the (Boynton Beach) business community, of which I was proud to be a part for all these years,” said Giovanni Marquez, operations director. The news release said the company planned to maintain its website to stay connected to “20,000 faithful shoppers worldwide.”
“We are not quitting and we’re not retiring,” the release said, “but rather will be reinventing and refreshing.”

The Palm Beach County Business Development Board has made note of South County kudos reported in Florida Trend’s December 2019 issue. They included findings by Vanessa Caceres in U.S. News that half of the hospitals listed for “Largest Hospitals Around the State” in the Southeast category are in Palm Beach County: Delray Medical Center — 493 beds in Delray Beach; JFK Medical Center — 486 beds in Atlantis; St. Mary’s Medical Center — 460 beds in West Palm Beach; Bethesda Hospital East — 401 beds in Boynton Beach; and Boca Raton Regional Hospital — 400 beds in Boca Raton.
Florida Atlantic University was highlighted for launching a master’s degree in artificial intelligence.
Out of 20 restaurants that won “Golden Spoon Hall of Fame” awards in the Southeast, these are in south Palm Beach County: Casa D’Angelo, La Nouvelle Maison, Louie Bossi’s Ristorante Bar and Pizzeria, TwentyTwenty Grille, The Grove and Salt7. 

Jessica Steinweg is the new director of marketing and communications at Delray Beach’s Old School Square. 
Previously, Steinweg was at BrandStar, a brand-marketing agency in Pompano Beach, where she oversaw marketing promotions for the company and for its TV programs.

The South Florida Science Center and Aquarium was awarded $100,000 through the Stiles-Nicholson Foundation to increase STEM education for Palm Beach County students, centered around a goal to expand robotics programs through the nonprofit FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.
This award is in addition to a recent $50,000 STEM Equity Community Innovation Grant received by the Palm Beach County School District from FIRST, which advances science, technology, engineering and math education.
The Palm Beach County School District, the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium, and Green Mouse Academy have already begun to implement a FIRST Lego League program expansion for pre-K through grade-four students, to provide robotics equipment labs, curriculum, training and coaching.
This year’s FIRST global robotics theme challenges students to imagine and create a building that solves a problem and then use Lego robotics to design and program their Boomtown Build.   

The Florida Prepaid College Board recently lowered prepaid plan prices by $1.3 billion, which will benefit 224,000 customers. The price reductions, which apply to plans purchased since 2008, were due to successive years of lower-than-anticipated tuition and fee increases.
Nearly half of the customers have refunds available, totaling more than $500 million. The remaining plans will have lower monthly payment amounts.
Open enrollment is Feb. 1 through April 30. Families can enroll in a prepaid plan for free, a $50 savings, by using promo code EARLY50 through Feb. 29.
Families can use the prepaid plan online tool (www.myfloridaprepaid.com/prepaid-plans/plans-and-pricing/) for information on plans and payment options.
Those eligible to receive refunds or reductions received notification from the board in January. For information about how a plan was affected, go to myfloridaprepaid.com/lowprices.   

Boca West Children’s Foundation is partnering with the Junior League of Boca Raton’s Diaper Bank to raise awareness that diapers are as essential as food and shelter for infants and toddlers.
On Feb. 18, the two organizations will set out to collect 50,000 diapers to aid underserved families in Palm Beach County. Drop-offs can be made at the league’s Vegso Community Resource Center at 261 NW 13th St.
“Our mission is to help local kids in need, and with the cost of diapers being prohibitively high for many families, the Diaper Bank is such an impactful way to help,” said Pamela Weinroth, executive director and chief operating officer of the foundation. “When families have limited funds, keeping an infant in diapers becomes a luxury.”
For information about the foundation, call 561-488-6980 or visit www.bocawestfoundation.org.
For information about the Junior League, call 561-620-2553 or visit www.jlbr.org.

The Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Delray Business Partners leads group set a record for collaboration under the leadership of its chair, Jan Kinder. During 2019, the 35 members of the Delray Business Partners generated more than $165,000 of gross sales by doing business with one another as well as by referring their colleagues in the group to other potential clients.
“At each meeting, members are encouraged to exchange business leads — potential clients or customers for other members of the group,” Kinder said. “In effect, their contacts become your contacts; their customers can become your customers. Members also rotate making short presentations about their businesses.”
For more information, contact the chamber’s Kristopher Fisher at 561-278-0424, or visit www.delraybeach.com.
For information on the Delray Business Partners leads group, visit https://delraybusinesspartners.com.

The Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce partnered with the Dolph Map Co. to publish a Boca Raton street map, which will include a member business directory section. The chamber will distribute the map and include a link to it on its home page at  www.bocachamber.com. ;

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

Event Chairwomen Rosemary Krieger and Anne Vegso. Photo provided

By Amy Woods

The shelter’s statistics say it all. Four hundred women and children received emergency housing last year while another 750 received referrals to other resources because the facility was at capacity. Outreach services increased 32%. Programs for community education, professional training and violence prevention grew 136%.

In all, Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse helped more than 15,000 residents in 2019.

“The number of people demanding our services is at an all-time high,” said Pam O’Brien, AVDA’s president and CEO. “For the last three years, it has been that way.”

O’Brien, who is gearing up for her organization’s annual fundraiser, the Heart of a Woman Luncheon, on Feb. 26, said the Me Too movement has empowered more women to come forward and report abuse.

“I think that the conversation nationally about intimate-partner violence is so prevalent today that it’s made people more comfortable reaching out for help,” she said. “They know they’re not alone, and our numbers show that.”

Proceeds from the luncheon will benefit AVDA’s 24-hour crisis hotline and 32-bed apartment complex in addition to the services and programs mentioned above.

“We have had a tremendous outpouring of sponsorships for this event, which has already exceeded our expectations,” O’Brien said. “I’m grateful for the support from the community.”

Audrey-May Prosper is the keynote speaker. Prosper will share her shocking story of survival, what she learned from it and how it led to a lifelong mission of helping others like her thrive in the aftermath.

“She speaks as a woman who has lived through something horrific,” O’Brien said. “Her focus will be on the positive and making the best of a scary situation and moving past it.”

The luncheon begins at 10:30 a.m. with a mix-and-mingle, a silent auction and a luxury raffle. A community service award will be presented to Kol, an 8-year-old golden retriever certified by Golden Paws Assistance Dogs and owned by Jane Eisenberg.

Therapy dog Kol will be honored for work at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Photo provided

The two spent nearly four months at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland following the 2018 mass shooting there.
“I have been very involved in AVDA for many years, and it is an organization that is close to my heart,” event Chairwoman Anne Vegso said. “We’re just wanting this event to be the best ever.”

Chairwoman Rosemary Krieger agreed.

“We want to make this the best yet,” Krieger said. “We want to acquire sponsors, and we want to be out there telling people why we’re here.”

Send news and notes to Amy Woods at flamywoods@bellsouth.net.

If You Go

What: Heart of a Woman Luncheon

When: 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Feb. 26

Where: Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, 2425 W. Maya Palm Drive, Boca Raton

Cost: $175

Information: Call 561-265-3797 or visit

www.avdaonline.org

Cathy Sauer and her brother Bobby Wollenberg run Nina Raynor, their family-owned business in downtown Delray. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Nina Raynor has a new address, but the same personal service and showstopper dresses

By Joyce Reingold

On a Saturday afternoon in January, a customer arrives at Nina Raynor, Delray Beach’s special occasion women’s clothing boutique, carrying a dress she’d recently purchased. A club event is hours away and although she loves the dress, she’s having second thoughts about whether it’s right for the party.

Store associates show her a small selection of options. After a few try-ons, an accessory tweak and a discussion about shoes, the woman leaves the store smiling, her original purchase on her arm.

“They’re just great,” she says of the Nina Raynor team. “And so patient, listening to me obsess.”

That kind of personal service, no-pressure sales environment, and singular garments that look like works of art are some of the reasons Nina Raynor is Delray Beach’s oldest clothing store in continuous operation.

In December, the boutique opened its doors for the 62nd season at a new location: 210 NE Sixth Ave.

The shop, which traditionally operates seasonally from October through June, was a presence at its previous location, 1031 E. Atlantic Ave., for 29 years. Last year, Ocean Properties, the building’s owner, announced plans to repurpose the space, according to Bobby Wollenberg, who operates the family-owned boutique with his sister Cathy Sauer.

“They decided to expand their office space, so they needed to come into that part of the building,” he said. “Change is difficult, but yet it’s fun and exciting at the same time.”

When customers first learned the store was leaving its East Atlantic Avenue home, they had two main concerns, Wollenberg said. “All they kept repeating was they didn’t care where the store was, they just wanted Nina Raynor to exist. And the biggest request was that it would have parking. … So, I was able to accomplish that. It’s a great location and great parking.”

Fashions have changed, but the mannequin has remained the same over the decades at Nina Raynor. The store is in its 62nd season.
Photo provided

“We are thrilled the store was able to remain in Delray Beach,” Sauer said. “Local businesses are the fabric of a community. They are what make up the unique character of a town but also create a synergy that helps it thrive. For instance, there are people coming to the store that may not have had a reason to visit Delray previously. We direct them to restaurants for lunch or dinner, where to shop for shoes, order flowers, advise them of special events taking place, hotels to stay in. My brother is a huge advocate of promoting business in town, so much so we joke that he is the concierge of Delray.”

Joanne Wollenberg at work in 1991. Photo provided

The late Nina (pronounced NINE-ah) Raynor opened her eponymous boutique in 1958, offering a collection of resort clothing that was largely sportswear-driven. Wollenberg and Sauer’s mother, Joanne Wollenberg, purchased the business in 1983. She ran the store until her death in 2012.

Wollenberg said it was Joanne, a former fashion model, who established the shop as the destination for special occasion clothing.
“She was beautiful on the outside, but she was more beautiful inside,” Wollenberg said of his mother and mentor. “The customers adored her.”

From one millennium to the next, the boutique has helped women select designer clothing for important life events.

“What brings most women in for the first time is a special event. The No. 1 category is weddings, but the bar and bat mitzvahs are a close second,” he said. “Very often we will dress the mother of the bride, the mother of the groom and grandmothers for the same occasion. I would say 50% of the time we’re dressing both sides of the family. We try to make everyone look beautiful for the same occasion.”

Nina Raynor has customers who’ve shopped there for 50-plus years, Wollenberg said. In addition to its local devotees, the shop draws women from across North America. “We have a very large Canadian following and we’re deeply appreciative of that,” he said.

Stella, with Bobby Wollenberg, has been on the Nina Raynor team for over 30 years. Tim Stepien / The Coastal Star

When Gerry Ehrlich of Boca Raton walked past the shop’s signature topiaries and into the boutique for the first time, she was looking for a special occasion dress.

“I was just really impressed by the personal attention they gave to me — how they helped me to find something that not only suited me, but was the right size, color, that sort of thing,” she said. “And I think besides the attitude and the service and then the quality of what they offer, is the fact that if something doesn’t quite suit, if it doesn’t really fit you perfectly, they have a seamstress there … who with a little twitch here and a little tuck there can make something just look like it was made for you.”

Wollenberg said: “We’d rather not sell to you than to sell you something that, a) doesn’t look well on you, or b) that we know there’s already one at your party, your club, etc. Because that’s how you lose customers. We build relationships. We like to think that once you become a customer you’re part of the family.”

In the boutique’s showroom, elegant gowns hang at perfectly spaced intervals. Fabrics are sumptuous to the eye and touch. In the fashion trade, the feel of the fabric is called the “hand,” Wollenberg said.

“When I’m on a buying trip, it’s all about the fabrication. If the hand is not of a certain quality or caliber, then it wouldn’t be chosen for this store because our clients are quite particular — and should be. They’re very much into beautiful fabrications and that’s something we’re known for.”

The details on the dresses also are showstoppers. There are exotic birds hand-embroidered on tulle. Crystal jewel trim on black peau de soie. Beaded lace appliqué. A bodice swathed in hundreds of artistically arranged Swarovski crystals.

Wollenberg describes Nina Raynor’s fashion aesthetic as “beautiful, classic, unique and elegant.”

The shop features designers like Peggy Jennings, who has designed clothes for U.S. first ladies, and Catherine Regehr, known in part for using laser-cut fabrics that move like soft, kinetic sculptures. The shop is hosting trunk shows by these and other designers this season. The full schedule is available at www.ninaraynor.com.

In addition to its evening wear, the store carries accessories and what Wollenberg calls “nice casual” clothing. That’s one of the reasons longtime customer Carole Ann visits the shop.

“I don’t go to all that many formals, so I’ve bought a lot of my sports clothes there,” says the Boynton Beach resident, who asked to be identified only by her first names. “But the main thing about it is they’re very, very warm and friendly. And when you come in, they offer you a Coca-Cola or water. And at Christmas, Bobby’s sister bakes cookies for everybody. It’s that kind of a warm, family feeling.”

Stella and Bobby in 1998. Photo provided

In talking about the business, Wollenberg is hesitant to use the word staff. “We’re a team here, so they’re more like family to me,” he said of his associates. One of those family members is Stella, known to all by her first name, who’s been with Nina Raynor for more than 30 years. She “was my mom’s right arm,” he said.

Laura Simon, executive director of the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority, also cites family as an important value in talking about Nina Raynor’s importance to downtown Delray Beach.

“They are family-owned, provide true customer service and have become a destination for unique fashion and gowns,” she said. “We are thrilled that during their relocation process the decision was made to remain here in downtown Delray Beach and the DDA district. They are a piece of the fabric of the community and a part of our legacy as a small, family-owned business.” 

Cathy Sauer and Bobby Wollenberg with their mother, Joanne Wollenberg, in 2010. Joanne Wollenberg ran the Nina Raynor store from 1983 until she died in 2012. Photo provided

“Mom’s idea about the business was to treat each customer as a guest,” Wollenberg said. “Because without the customer there’s no store, and without a store, no one has a job. So, it’s all about the experience. … We just really try our best to make you feel welcome and special. … Just the fact that someone makes the effort to come here and wants to even look, I mean, that’s an honor.”

Giovanni and Grace Marquez celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a vow renewal celebration. Giovanni vividly remembered the day he met Grace in downtown Pittsburgh in 1967. He was picking up someone after work and noticed Grace as she came out of the building. ‘It was the best part of my day,’ he said. Soon after, he saw her at a dance. He asked her out on the floor, and that was it — a love match! They were married two years later, on Sept. 19, 1969, at Saint Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh. The couple lives in Boca Raton and at Marina Village in Boynton Beach, near their menswear store, FSB, on Ocean Avenue. Both are 73 and agree that the secret to a happy marriage is prayer. ‘A family that prays together, stays together,’ Giovanni said. In their spare time, the couple enjoys the arts, live entertainment, going out to dinner, traveling, spending time with family — they have two grown children — and, of course, dancing. Photo provided

Organizers of the breakfast (l-r) Gloria Sumerville, Lineen Nickel, Jeanne Visentin, Gail Greene and Martha Lowther. Photos provided

Crown Colony Club had a welcome-back breakfast to meet and greet old-timers and introduce new residents. There was an air of camaraderie as everyone enjoyed homemade baked goodies and sipped coffee.

 Keith and Patty Bartlett. Photos provided

Diana Ross with Lois Pope. Photos provided by CAPEHART

Legendary singer Diana Ross wowed the capacity crowd of 600-plus at LIFE’s 26th annual fundraiser with a rousing concert of hits. Guests also laughed out loud as comedian Rita Rudner delivered one-liners. Drinking, dining and dancing followed, all to benefit the Pups4Patriots program for veterans. More than $1 million was raised.

Simone and Dr. Peter Bonutti. 

Luke and Nanci Breedlove, Rick and Suzi Goldsmith and Ashton Breedlove.

Margaret and Gerry Kazma with their daughter, Leigh-Ann Kazma. Photo provided by CAPEHART

What better gift than the promise of love, safety and a better life? That is what American Humane and a powerful group of guests pledged to give animals in the new year. Having led efforts to rescue, shelter, feed and protect millions of earth’s creatures, Robin Ganzert, president and CEO of the organization, led a hope-filled toast to aid more animals in 2020.