By Janis Fontaine

Temple Beth El of Boca Raton continues to grow and planned to welcome Rabbi Elana Rabishaw as its fourth full-time rabbi on July 1. She will join the clergy team that includes Rabbis Dan Levin, Jessica Spitalnic Mates and Greg Weisman, Cantor Lori Brock, and cantorial soloists Michelle Auslander Cohen and Jake Harris.
An open house for prospective members will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Aug. 16, at the Schaefer Family Campus at 333 SW Fourth Ave., Boca Raton. Call 561-391-8900 or visit tbeboca.org.

No One Buried Alone rite
The No One Buried Alone ministry will hold a memorial service from noon to 1 p.m. July 6 at Our Lady Queen of Peace Cemetery, 10941 Southern Blvd., Royal Palm Beach. Everyone is welcome.
The NOBA project started officially in May 2011 after the death of a 100-year-old patient at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis.
Father Gabriel Ghanoum, who had been the medical center’s director of spiritual care since 2010, began the initiative to take care of her and other individuals in Palm Beach County who died without known relatives or next of kin. With Adriana Gorrondona at the Palm Beach County Department of Human Services and Our Lady Queen of Peace, the No One Buried Alone ministry was born.
The ministry maintains that every human being deserves a dignified burial. The first compassion service was held at Our Lady Queen of Peace Cemetery on July 27, 2011. In 2013, the remains of 29 infants were laid to rest in the baby section. Last Nov. 13, 171 individuals were laid to rest. Because of the pandemic, more people died and more of them died alone.
Ghanoum told the Florida Catholic: “When we name each person from the list, I say ‘I love you’ because love was absent in their final moments on this Earth. These are our brothers and sisters in Christ, we love because God loves them. That is enough and all that matters.”
No One Buried Alone is an ecumenical ministry open to all regardless of faith or background. To learn more, visit https://ourqueen.org/no-one-buried-alone or call 561-793-0711.

B’nai Torah gets big gift
B’nai Torah Congregation, the largest conservative synagogue in Southeast Florida, announced at the end of April that Boca Raton residents Donna and Gerald Kramer gifted one of the largest single donations the synagogue has ever received. The temple wouldn’t share the exact amount, but the Kramers confirmed that the amount was “seven figures.”
The gift was made in honor of David Steinhardt, senior rabbi at B’nai Torah Congregation, who has held the position for more than two decades. Steinhardt said he was “profoundly appreciative that they have chosen to honor me in such a significant way.”
For more information, visit www.btcboca.org.

By Larry Barszewski

Drivers traveling State Road A1A near the Boynton Inlet can expect traffic delays over the next two weeks because of a bridge repair project that starts Monday, June 20.

Officials are recommending motorists find an alternate route while the Florida Department of Transportation performs concrete spalling repairs on the bridge near Ocean Inlet Park in Ocean Ridge and Manalapan.

Northbound and southbound traffic will be affected on the two-lane road due to lane closures that are part of the bridge work.

The work is schedule from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Friday, June 20-24, and again from Monday to Friday, June 27-July 1, according to an FDOT online construction information site.

The work is not expected to affect the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

Water samples taken between May 14 and 18 show those from (l-r) a Delray Beach home on Delray Lakes Drive, a Delray Beach condo on Dotterel Road, a Boca Raton home on Southwest Fifth Street, and two samples from a Delray Beach home on Sandoway Lane that still has old galvanized pipes on one side of the house and pvc on the other. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Yellow tap water may be safe to drink, but Delray residents are still concerned

By Rich Pollack

The video posted on Facebook by the city of Delray Beach on April 21 appeared simple enough.
For what seemed like the umpteenth time, Delray leaders set out to explain why the city’s water is often discolored, and to once again assure residents that the water is safe to drink.
Instead of quieting down critics, however, the video unleashed a firestorm of negative comments, many taking on a political undertone and pointing fingers at current city leaders.
“Water is supposed to be clear and that’s the bottom line,” says Tracy Caruso, a former mayoral candidate and an outspoken critic of how the city is dealing with water that at times comes out of the faucet with a green or yellow tint. “I’ve never been told to drink a glass of yellow water and been told it’s OK.”
City leaders want to be clear, even if the water isn’t. They agree that there’s a problem with water color, but say they are disheartened by the steady drumbeat from people who are fostering distrust in the safety of the city’s water. The water, which is tested daily, meets or exceeds all government standards, they say.
The only real solution to significantly reduce the yellow and green tints that cloud Delray’s water, say people in neighboring cities who are responsible for having clear water come out of taps, is for Delray to replace its obsolete 70-year-old water treatment plant with one using more up-to-date methods.
That’s on the drawing board but it will come at a high cost, one that residents will initially start to see in their water bills as early as July — while a new plant won’t be up and running for at least four years.

An erosion of trust
How did the color of water become such a hotly debated issue in Delray?
Part of it, city leaders say, is due to an erosion of trust in the city’s overall ability to provide safe drinking water.
Politics, of course, is also a factor, with water quality issues being raised in the last municipal election and expected to be raised in next year’s March election.
“I understand that people may have a trust issue in light of past practices, but in the short term the city has taken necessary steps to make sure the water meets or exceeds all health advisory standards,” says Commissioner Juli Casale, who is up for re-election in March and has been the target of many of the critical comments after she reposted the city’s video. “In the long term, a new water treatment plant is in the works.”
The lack of trust stems from a series of issues that have plagued the city’s Utilities Department in recent years. They include:
• Treated wastewater entering the drinking water supply and leading to a $1 million fine.
• Sludge from the bottom of a water storage tank making its way to people’s faucets.
• A complaint from a whistleblower charging the city failed to report required issues to state regulators.
There also are critics of the city’s water treatment process who are concerned with PFAs, man-made chemicals that some studies show are harmful to humans. The city says the level of PFAs in city water falls below the danger level set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The color of water
At least one utilities director in a neighboring city, who has faced concerns with off-color water before, says Delray would be wise to resolve the color problem.
“Yellow water isn’t going to harm anyone but the perception is that it’s not clean,” says Chris Helfrich, Boca Raton’s utilities director. “You want to be able to drink a clear glass of water.”
Helfrich knows firsthand how important it is for drinking water to be devoid of color. Back in the mid-1990s, Boca Raton built a new water treatment plant, in part as a response to complaints about discolored water.
That plant, which uses membranes to filter out color-causing particles as well as other impurities, has helped the city achieve a level of between 4 and 5 color units in its water, which is well under the maximum 15 color units included in the EPA National Secondary Drinking Water Regulations standards. Those regulations set non-mandatory standards for 15 contaminants, including color, chlorides, iron and odor.
Delray Beach, which also supplies water to Gulf Stream, reports its water coloration hits as high as 12 units. Boynton Beach has two treatment plants, with its east plant that also supplies Ocean Ridge having a level of 8 units, while water from its west plant has a level of less than 1 color unit.

The city of Delray Beach is working on plans to replace its 70-year-old water plant. A new plant could cost more than $130 million, and residents are likely to begin paying for it through higher water bills starting this summer. Photo provided

The different processes
Delray Beach’s plant uses a lime softening process to treat water and filter out most of the impurities, but it does not remove nearly as much color as the Boca and Boynton plants.
In Boca Raton, a portion of the city’s water is treated with a lime softening system similar to Delray’s, but then the water is combined with water that is treated using a membrane filtration system that removes more of the impurities.
Boynton Beach’s two treatment plants use different technologies, according to Utilities Director Poonam Kalkat. The east treatment plant uses lime softening combined with an ion exchange system that pulls impurities out of the raw water. The city’s west plant uses a membrane filtration system similar to that used by Boca.

The stuff in the water
On its website, Delray Beach explains that the color of finished water is determined in large part by the raw water it draws from the aquifer. That water contains what Boca’s Helfrich refers to as organic particles — minerals as well as residuals of vegetation in the water.
“Things decay over time,” he says.
Some Delray Beach wells have fewer organics than others, but state and federal restrictions limit the city’s options when it comes to pumping.
“Finished water color is greatly influenced by the color of the raw water from the wells running at the time,” the city’s Utilities Department said in an email response to questions from The Coastal Star.  “The City is not allowed to only pump raw water from the wells with the least amount of color.”
Another factor that can affect water color is the age of pipes that bring water from the city’s connection to a property. Those pipes, which are the responsibility of property owners, can be galvanized steel that rusts and can cause discoloration in water, especially in older dwellings.
The Coastal Star recently drew water from a home built in 1937 that had galvanized pipes feeding the kitchen sink, but PVC pipes, installed during an update, feeding the bathroom sink. There was a noticeable difference, with the water from the kitchen faucet having significantly more color.

Testing the water
The discoloration in the water leads to further distrust of the water treatment process as a whole. Critics like Tracy Caruso question the daily testing process that the city conducts in-house to ensure water quality.
“One of the mistakes is that there hasn’t been enough oversight,” she says, adding that she would like to see outside government agencies more involved in the testing of water.
In fact, in a letter to Delray Beach Utilities Director Hassan Hadjimiry, Caruso’s husband, state Rep. Mike Caruso, offered to reach out to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to assist if needed.
In the email to The Coastal Star, the city said that its testing process is overseen by state regulators.
“The Florida Department of Health has observed samples being collected, that are then sent to outside laboratories,” the city said.  “In addition, the water utilities laboratory participates in proficiency testing every year and auditing every two years to maintain its certification.”
For his part, Boca’s Helfrich says the in-house process used by most water treatment facilities is very reliable.
“There are too many checks and balances to skew the data,” he says. “I can’t fathom a way to cheat without getting 10 people involved.”

Water bills going up
Delray Beach city leaders are still developing plans for a new water treatment plant and have not decided what type it will be.
Whether the city goes with a plant like Boca’s or one like Boynton’s, Casale says residents can be assured that the plant will have a system that filters out color. Early estimates are the project could cost somewhere between $130 million and $145 million.
Where that money will come from is still something the city needs to figure out. Federal and state grant money and other funding most likely will be available to help.
Water users will be picking up much of the cost as the city prepares to raise its water rates. City commissioners plan a final vote on the proposed rates in June that would raise the bill of the average user, calculated to be a resident using 6,000 gallons of water a month, from $57.85 to $75.66 monthly by 2026.
That still would keep the city rate, which hasn’t been raised since 2009, below that of neighboring cities. But former Delray Beach City Manager David Harden, speaking before the commission, said those numbers don’t tell the whole story.
He’s concerned the increased costs will be far more for homeowners who don’t have access to reclaimed water to irrigate their lawns. He said the monthly $72 bill he paid at his former home on Swinton Avenue would jump to about $164 a month in 2026 under the new rates.

The impact of rhetoric
While plans for a new plant are being developed, both Tracy Caruso and Casale are hoping to see the messages the other is sending out toned down.
“The first thing they need to do is stop putting out information saying water with color is normal,” Caruso says. “Yellow or green water is not normal.”
Caruso said she also is concerned that some city leaders, including Mayor Shelly Petrolia, have encouraged residents to purchase water filtering systems if they’re unhappy with city water.
Casale says she is worried about the impact some of the rhetoric from the other side is having on residents, some of whom buy bottled water rather than drink what comes out of their faucets.
“It’s very upsetting seeing people purchasing water they could not afford because they were being told they should not drink the water,” she says, referring to tap water.

Related story: Along the Coast: Advantages for homeowners hard to see in new insurance rules

By Joel Engelhardt and Mary Hladky

Florida condominiums will be required to retain reserves to pay for structural defects under a bill passed May 24 during the special legislative session in response to the Surfside building collapse that killed 98.
The bill, added without notice in the session devoted to insurance reform and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 26, also requires condos to undergo structural inspections as they age. 
But the reserve requirement appeared to be the sticking point in March, when legislators failed to pass a bill during the regular session. 
While cities and counties could have required inspections, as Boca Raton and Highland Beach did in the fallout from Surfside, they can’t order condominiums to keep enough money on hand to pay for them — or for subsequent repairs.
“We can do everything we can do, but we can’t do that,” said Richard Radcliffe, executive director of the Palm Beach County League of Cities. “So it’s wonderful that they did that.”
Under the bill, condos and co-ops three stories or taller and within 3 miles of the coast must have a “milestone inspection” 25 years after opening and every 10 years thereafter. The first inspection for those farther from the coast would be 30 years.
In a review of property records last year, The Coastal Star found that 90% of the 348 condos along the barrier island from South Palm Beach to Boca Raton are more than 25 years old.
Buildings that opened before July 1992 would have until the end of 2024 to do their first inspections. 
The initial Phase 1 inspection would be visual. If no signs of structural deterioration are found, a more in-depth Phase 2 inspection is not required. 
But if there are signs of trouble, the next inspection would be more intrusive, including the option of chipping away at columns to determine structural integrity.
Those inspection reports must be distributed to every condo owner, be posted in a conspicuous place on the property and published on the association’s website, under the law.
It requires a reserve study that includes a physical analysis and a financial analysis, with the latter spelling out how much money is required to meet repair needs. 
“At a minimum, a structural integrity reserve study must identify the common areas being visually inspected, state the estimated remaining useful life and the estimated replacement cost or deferred maintenance expense of the common areas being visually inspected and provide a recommended annual reserve amount that achieves the estimated replacement cost or deferred maintenance expense of each common area being visually inspected by the end of the estimated remaining useful life of each common area,” the law says.
If an association fails to complete a structural integrity reserve study, it is deemed “a breach of an officer’s and director’s fiduciary relationship to the unit owners.”
Board members can be sued if they breach their fiduciary duty.
Emily Gentile, president of the Beach Condo Association of Boca Raton and Highland Beach, generally supports the legislation, but has concerns about the sudden financial burden on those condos that do not have healthy reserve funds to finance repairs.
The bill repeals, as of Dec. 1, 2024, the ability of condo associations to waive the funding of reserves or to collect less reserve money than needed to make repairs. Many condos waive reserves, with the result that no money is available to fix problems and owners can face hefty special assessments to cover the costs.
While it’s very important to maintain adequate reserves, Gentile said, the requirement “is another financial burden on condominiums.” It could be lessened if condo boards are given more time to build up their neglected reserve accounts, she said.
The fiduciary provision makes it even more important that condo associations insure their board members, she said. Gentile also noted that condo units attract fewer buyers when there is ongoing litigation. The bill requires disclosure of inspection reports to potential buyers.
Despite her concerns, Gentile said condo boards should accept the changes.
“You have to stand up and say this is what we need to do to make sure we are OK,” she said.
By requiring inspections for coastal buildings after 25 years, the state law is slightly more stringent than Boca Raton’s ordinance, which requires inspections after 30 years. 
When Boca passed the law in August, shortly after the June 24 collapse of Champlain Towers South, Mayor Scott Singer said it was important to act quickly to enhance safety rather than to wait for the state to act. 
But Singer said then that he would be willing to revise the city’s ordinance so it would not conflict with state law. After the legislation passed, he said he anticipated a thorough review of it before decisions are made on what action the city will take.
“Our goal was to take proactive measures,” he said. “I am glad the state has reacted a year after we have.”
Boca Raton launched its building certification program in January when it sent out notices to 14 associations saying their buildings must be inspected. Additional notices would be sent out at three-month intervals until the owners of all 191 buildings that meet the city’s criteria for inspection are notified.
Inspections in Boca must be conducted by both structural and electrical engineers. If repairs are needed, the building owner must submit a repair plan to the city within 30 days.

Joshua Smith trapped this 6-foot-long iguana west of Lake Worth Beach. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Joe Capozzi

Air rifle in hand, the hunter spotted his target on a tree branch over the shoreline some 30 yards south of the Briny Breezes marina.  
It’s the kind of shot Joshua Smith has made countless times in his four years as an iguana trapper with Nexus Nuisance Animal Services. But on this sunny May afternoon, his crafty target sensed danger.
As Smith approached, the bright green lizard slithered up the branch and out of the trapper’s jurisdiction. 
“He’s no longer on (Briny Breezes) property,’’ Smith said, conceding momentary defeat.
His disappointment wouldn’t last long. By the end of the week, he would bag a dozen iguanas in the common public areas at Briny Breezes. It was a modest haul compared with the 100 he dispatched from a community west of Boca Raton, but they’re all part of a seemingly endless bounty for hunters.

Using an all-terrain vehicle and an air rifle, Joshua Smith pursues a green iguana in Briny Breezes, near the Intracoastal Waterway. LOWER RIGHT: Smith later used a long pole and snare to capture this juvenile, which he estimated was a year old.

Across South Florida, suburban areas have been under siege from the invasive green iguanas, creatures native to the Caribbean and first reported in Florida along the southeast coast in the 1960s.
The lizards, which have no known domestic predator, are free to multiply and grow from finger-length hatchlings to bulls the size of small alligators. Their appetite for foliage, flowers and vegetables has turned residential walkways, swimming pools and golf courses into iguana-size Jurassic Parks.
Beyond what’s visible, Ocean Ridge Town Manager Tracey Stevens said, “iguanas pose a threat to the town’s infrastructure, as they dig burrows that erode and collapse sea walls, sidewalks, foundations, berms and canal banks.’’ 
“They cause damage to landscape vegetation which is important to maintain in an effort to battle the heat island effect which contributes to sea level rise.’’ 
Ocean Ridge has had a removal contract for town property with Tom Portuallo’s Iguana Control since 2018, and the $19,200-a-year deal is money well spent considering the millions of dollars in damage the critters can cause if left unchecked.
“They’re like ants, rats and roaches. They’re everywhere. They’re here to stay,’’ Portuallo said.
There’s also the problem of iguana poop. It’s everywhere, too, and it’s been known to transmit the infectious bacterium salmonella to humans who inadvertently come into contact with it.
And there’s evidence indicating iguanas are posing a threat to native and endangered species of tree snails and nickerbean, which is a host plant of the endangered Miami blue butterfly. 
“It will be a forever problem, really,’’ said Portuallo, who launched his company 14 years ago. “What we try to do is control them.’’ 
Controlling the “forever problem” is the shared mission of dozens of trapping companies that have set up shop in recent years, from Iguana Snipers and Iguana Police to The Iguana Guy and Iguana Busters, which also lets the public (for a fee) accompany its trappers on iguana hunts.
At Iguana Control, business is so brisk that Portuallo is about to launch a sister company. In June, Iguana Chum will offer fishing bait made from the thousands of lizards bagged by Iguana Control’s trappers from Key West to Jensen Beach.

A green iguana blends in well to the green fronds of a cabbage palm.

Like all nonnative reptile species, green iguanas are not protected in Florida except by anti-cruelty laws and can be humanely killed on private property, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. 
“I know they didn’t choose to be here, but they can cause a lot of damage and can end up costing people a lot of money,’’ Smith said. 
Briny Breezes hired Smith’s Nexus Nuisance Animal Services for one week in May to get a handle on “our small but growing iguana problem,’’ said Michael Gallacher, general manager of Briny Breezes Inc. 
It’s the first time the co-op has hired an iguana trapper. 
“We have been lucky, as many waterfront communities are overrun by these animals,’’ Gallacher said in an email to shareholders in May. 
But with more and more iguana sightings along the town’s riprap sea walls, it’s important for the corporation “to eradicate this issue before these animals take over and cause further damage,’’ he said.
Smith said his fees can range from $50 to $200 per visit.
Knowing that a female iguana can lay up to 100 eggs, “it pays to eliminate them as soon as possible before the area along our sea wall is infested with these reptiles,’’ Gallacher said. 
Other coastal municipalities from Boca Raton to South Palm Beach say they don’t have a problem with the reptiles and do not contract with iguana removal companies.

Iguana Control trapper Alejos Serna checks out a stand of trees for his prey near the parking lot of Oceanfront Park.

Humane killing legal, but not easy for hunters
Smith and Portuallo said their companies humanely and lawfully exterminate iguanas with pellet shots to the head or neck from air rifles.
But it’s not always a turkey shoot. Iguanas are skittish and agile, posing a challenge for some hunters.
“They can run, they can climb, they can swim, they can hold their breath underwater,’’ Iguana Control trapper Alejos Serna said as he patrolled the trees near the parking lot of Oceanfront Park one day last month.
“The only thing they can’t do is fly, and thank God for that,’’ he added.
The largest ones — they can grow up to 6 feet from head to tail — will put up a fight.
“If you corner one the wrong way, they’ve got a very strong tail they can whip you with,’’ Smith said. “Their nails are very sharp and their teeth are even sharper. I have been bitten, scratched, whipped with the tail more than I would like to admit.’’ 
Perhaps most vexing, trappers say, is that iguanas are not dumb.
As trappers make their rounds, iguanas seem to wise up and attempt to avoid them, even at distances at which they otherwise wouldn’t budge if a walker or jogger approached. 
As a result, Portuallo and Serna said, trappers sometimes take different routes on patrols of the same locations or even cover their trapper uniforms with raincoats.   
“It’s like he knows who I am and saw me coming,’’ Smith said after watching the iguana skip town up the tree branch and out of Briny Breezes.
Walking toward the north end of the Briny Breezes marina, Smith ran his fingers along bright hibiscus blooms. “This is their favorite food,’’ he said. “This tells me the problem here isn’t too bad.’’
A few minutes later, he noticed something on the sea wall behind an Ibis Drive home. Upon closer inspection, the suspected iguana turned out to be a harmless mermaid, a statue sunbathing in front of Darlene Lozuaway’s mobile home. 
“That’s not an iguana. You leave her right where she’s at,’’ Lozuaway said with a friendly laugh as she watched Smith from her back porch. 
Smith was voicing surprise about the town’s slim-to-none iguana pickings over the past hour, about to call it a day, when he spotted a bright green target on the sea wall along Flamingo Drive. 
It wasn’t very big but it was an iguana. To avoid posing danger to homes behind the sea wall, Smith chose not to use the air rifle. 
He grabbed a 21-foot extension pole with a fishing-wire snare at the end. The iguana seemed oblivious to the noose brushed against its head and then looped around its neck.
Smith gave a quick yank, and the lizard flipped and flailed as he reeled it in, the first of 12 iguanas the trapper would bag in Briny that week.
“Smallest one I’ve seen here,’’ he said. “It’s more fun with the big ones. They put up more of a fight.’’
He hogtied the front and rear feet with tape and laid the iguana in the bed of his white Chevy Silverado, right next to a cage containing a large bull snagged a few hours earlier west of Lake Worth Beach.
Both iguanas would be taken home, humanely killed and sold to customers who use them as food, Smith said.
Nearly 6 feet long, with the telltale orange color of an adult male displaying its dominance to competing males, the bull iguana dwarfed the small green one. But it represented one fewer iguana for Briny Breezes to worry about. 
Besides, Smith said before cleaning up with a disposable wipe, size doesn’t matter when it comes to eradicating iguanas.
“That,’’ he said, gesturing from the hogtied green lizard to the spiky orange bull, “will grow into that.’’

Prevention ideas
Here are steps residents can take to deter green iguanas from frequenting their property, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission:
• Remove plants that act as attractants.
• Fill in holes to discourage burrowing.
• Hang wind chimes or other items that make intermittent noises.
• Hang CDs that have reflective surfaces.
• Spray the animals with water as a deterrent.

Welcome to hurricane season.
If you’re new to the area you may have recently encountered your first flooded roadways, rising groundwater and canceled windstorm insurance.
Add to that mix La Niña holding in the Pacific, a slowed Gulf Stream, a warmer than usual loop current and the National Hurricane Center’s 2022 predictions, and it’s looking like we’ll be saying “weather channel” into our TV remotes soon.
Luckily in mid-May, we had Saharan dust. Seriously: Dust from Africa can suppress hurricane formation.
If this all sounds confusing and alien, it won’t soon. Our South Florida season of storms is just beginning. You’ll be a hurricane pro by November.
If you’re staying for the summer, you should know that along with rising temperatures and humidity this time of year come government budget workshops. This is when they’ll talk about how to spend your tax money.
You might want to attend. This is the critical time for individuals and governments to plan for the possibility of storms.
So, for all you novices, here are some storm lessons learned from past seasons:
• The electricity will go out. Get a generator. Put gas in it — and your car. Be sure you’ve got propane for the grill. You may need to grill all that food thawing in your freezer. And remember, ATMs, gas stations, pharmacies and grocery stories all need electricity to operate. Get what you need in advance.
• Sewer systems have electric pumps that power lift stations. If you don’t want to receive “do not flush” notices from city hall, push your elected officials now to make sure they’ve got enough working generators to keep things flowing.
• Residents of the barrier island are often asked to evacuate. It’s not so much because there’s fear of the ocean sweeping us all away; it’s because once trees and utility lines come down, it takes a while to clear roadways for public safety. In other words, paramedics won’t be able to get to you. Leave the island, go to higher ground. Especially residents of Briny Breezes. Don’t be stubborn. Leave.
• Trees will fall down. Driveways and roads will become impassible. Check with your municipality to make sure it has an adequate contract with a company that can quickly begin clearing the roadways. The sooner this happens, the sooner you can get back on the island.
• Expect roads to have standing water for hours. Clear the storm drains in your neighborhood — including the one at the end of your driveway. Don’t contribute to the flooding.   • Fill the freezer with water jugs. It’s not so much that there may not be water (although there may not be if systems get contaminated), but you’re going to want ice. Trust me.
• Charge your smartphone, tablet and tools and consider backup options, such as a car charger for your phone. Once the storm passes, communication is critical and a dead battery is worthless.
• Don’t let your elected officials deplete their reserve accounts. It’s a complicated and expensive process to recover from a storm. The federal government usually comes through with assistance, but it can take years for funds to be approved and delivered. Your municipal staff needs access to cash to pay overtime and get life back to normal for residents.
But don’t just take my word for it. Check at your city or town hall for vital hurricane preparedness information. And don’t be afraid to push your elected leaders on being prepared. Hurricanes can be survivable, but they aren’t cheap. Our elected leaders shouldn’t be either.
Stay safe.

— Mary Kate Leming
Editor

Joanne Ryan stands on the fresh tracks of a loggerhead in Highland Beach. Ryan manages the collecting of sea turtle nesting data and is an avid photographer. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jan Engoren

Even before sipping her first predawn coffee each day, Joanne Ryan is already compiling data on her team’s counting of sea turtle nests and hatchling rescue efforts and sending it off to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
As the Highland Beach permit holder and principal officer for the FWC for the past year, Ryan is in charge of the sea turtle program along the town’s 3-mile stretch of beach, coordinating volunteers and overseeing the day-to-day operations. 
“I decided to step up when Barbara James, the previous permit holder, stepped down after 15 years,” says Ryan, a Delray Beach resident who works full-time as a portfolio accountant for a property management company. “It’s a bit of a challenge — you need to get up early, rain or shine — but so rewarding once you do.”
Ryan says that Highland Beach “is very turtle friendly. The residents are very receptive and helpful. If we report a lighting issue, it gets handled. I’m proud and happy to have access to the beach and work as guardians for these threatened and endangered sea turtles.”
Almost 70% of the nation’s sea turtles nest on Florida’s beaches. These volunteers try to help the one out of 1,000 hatchlings that makes it to adulthood and returns to the beach to lay eggs.
The eggs incubate for 60 days and when they hatch, volunteers can aim hatchlings toward the ocean if they get disoriented.
Between March 1 and Oct. 31, Ryan and her team rope off the nesting areas of sea turtles; document the crawls and whether or not they result in nests; record the hatches; inventory the number of nests; track the progress of the turtle population and whether it’s declining, and so on.
One of Ryan’s goals for the group is to incorporate as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
A photographer and boater, Ryan, 64, was always interested in nature and the outdoors, where she enjoys time with her husband, Steve, a carpenter and volunteer with the Coast Guard.
In high school she dreamed of becoming a National Geographic photographer before being persuaded by her parents to look toward business.
She grew up in Yaphank on Long Island, where her grandparents were potato farmers, and she was a member of the Long Island Beach Buggy Association. Along with her cousin, she spent many summer nights camped out on the beach.
It was her cousin who first put a camera into her hands.
To this day, Ryan brings her camera to the beach, where she photographs the turtles, the sunrise, the ocean and other wildlife. She hopes one day to sell some of her images.
“When I explain our conservation efforts to people, they say to me, ‘You’re very passionate,’” Ryan says. “I’m passionate about preserving our environment, ridding the oceans and beaches of plastic and making a difference through education and raising awareness.”
Gardening is another of Ryan’s passions. A certified Florida master naturalist through the University of Florida’s master gardener program, Ryan learned from naturalist Steve Bass, former director of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.
She also admires Melissa Groo, a wildlife photographer and conservationist who combines her photos with stories to raise awareness about the natural world and the species that inhabit it.
Ryan first met her husband after an evening softball game, at the raw bar Dirty Moe’s Oyster Boat in Boca Raton. They had rock shrimp and beer back when a pitcher of beer was $3.95, and a glass of wine could be had for $1.75.
Dirty Moe’s is gone, but the couple, now married 33 years, have two rescue cats, Storm Serge (named after a character in the Tim Dorsey mystery books and because he followed them home like a “storm surge”) and Lucy (named after “Lucy the Leatherback Turtle”). The couple are without a dog for the first time in 30 years.
James, who held the Highland Beach permit for 17 years and worked with Ryan for 12 of them, says, “Joanne’s commitment to nature and the environment is a win-win for the future of the all-volunteer sea turtle data collecting group.”
What drives Ryan in her volunteerism is the conviction that she’s making a difference.
“It can be a struggle to get out of bed at 5 a.m., even on a good day,” she says, “but once you’re out and hit the sand and beach and see the sky and water, it’s beautiful. I consider it an honor to do this work.”
She quotes an old volunteer adage, “Volunteers don’t get paid because they’re worthless, but because they’re priceless.”

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

This month’s Coastal Star mailbag included one letter with a photo and a question for readers: Do you know these flashy dressers?
Coastal Star reader Mary Wollney of Lantana sent in this photograph, which she took sometime between 2008 and 2011, of three unknown but hard-to-miss men she spotted golfing at Palm Beach Par 3.
“They explained that they get together in their distinctive colorful garb to remember one of golf’s most admired sportsmen, Payne Stewart,” Wollney wrote.
Stewart, who often wore similar clothing on the golf course, died in a plane crash in 1999.
Wollney thought it might be fun to see whether anyone can identify these dapper dressers.
If you know these men, please let us know! Send an email to news@thecoastalstar.com.

What is wrong with the Delray Beach commissioners?  They have as a whole completely ruined the award-winning small town of Delray Beach. It has been ruined and they are all to blame. 
With their approved overdevelopment, the city has, in a mere couple of years, turned into a big city like Fort Lauderdale, and no one except the tourists is happy about it.  The commissioners should all be ashamed of themselves and if they allow the overdevelopment to continue east of Atlantic Crossing, they should all be run out of town!
There have been so many overwhelming mistakes that they have made in governing this town — overdevelopment being the worst and then the fiasco with Delray’s water system and now the Cornell Art Museum in Old School Square.
Again, what is wrong with their heads? The Boca Museum of Art has conducted the finest exhibits, lectures and classes in the whole county. It would have been an overwhelming win for Cornell to have been managed by the Boca Museum of Art.  One of the commission’s main reasons for shooting itself in the foot was that they didn’t want someone from out of town running this institution.
Well, since Delray Beach government hasn’t managed to do anything right in the past five to 10 years, it would have been a safer bet and one that all of us would have benefited from.
Drain the swamp!

— Susan Hansford
Delray Beach

Honoring the fallen

Memorial Day, once known as Decoration Day, began after the Civil War to remember the fallen of that conflagration. It now honors all who have died in military service to the country. More than 100 people gathered at the Delray Beach Memorial Gardens Municipal Cemetery to honor men and women who have died in service to the military.

Jayne Morrison, a member of Boca Raton American Legion Post 277, prays during the ceremony’s invocation. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Honor guard commander Jacquie Sandoval leads the Delray Beach Fire Department in a presentation of the colors. She works in the Highland Beach fire station.

Delray Beach American Legion Post 65 chaplain Bill Stanton places his hand over his heart during the playing of taps.

Boy Scouts from Troop 301 in Delray Beach unfurl a flag before it is raised, and then flown at half-mast, at a ceremony in tribute to the nation’s war dead.

Related story: Along the Coast: Condo reserve rules, inspections become law

By Charles Elmore 

Days before the June 1 start to hurricane season, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed what he called the “most significant reforms to Florida’s homeowners insurance market in a generation” as home and condo owners struggled with dropped policies and runaway rates rising sometimes 30% or more.
But legislators in southeastern Palm Beach County questioned how well the plan’s touted consumer benefits stand up to scrutiny, from rate relief to roof rules.
Insurers are getting access to a new $2 billion taxpayer fund to help them cover claims, but GOP legislators rejected amendments from Democrats to tie that to a rate freeze or cut.
“We are giving $2 billion in general revenue, so it’s basically a corporate bailout,” said Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach and an attorney. She called it “reasonable” to make sure customers get something out of it.
The companies taking advantage of the temporary state reinsurance layer must refile rates to reflect that during one of the next two years. Bill backers said they could not provide any average or projected savings for consumers, and cautioned that at any given insurer, overall premiums could still rise, though perhaps less than they might have otherwise. They said it may take time, but the important thing is to stabilize the market.
“I think we can say we did everything we could to drive down rates,” said sponsor Sen. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, who owns an insurance agency.
Also in the package: a provision that insurers cannot drop policies just because a home’s roof is 15 years old or older. Supporters cited that as an example of how the insurance industry was giving up something in a balanced approach to legislation.
At first glance, “it looks good,” said Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, a mediator and lawyer.
But she asked Boyd during late May’s special session: Can’t insurers simply cite another reason, such as they think they have too much concentration of risk in a certain area, and not renew the policy anyway?
Boyd did not deny it.
“Insurance companies have marketing and underwriting guidelines they employ all the time,” he said.
Polsky said that sounded like a rule with “no teeth.”
On the other hand, she said, insurers were getting a wide array of things they wanted in the bill, such as measures making it harder to sue them for acting in “bad faith.” 
Industry officials have blamed what they call abusive lawsuits for driving up costs. A string of companies have gone out of business or are in danger of losing financial ratings in a crisis that has accelerated this year.
But Sen. Gary Farmer, D-Fort Lauderdale, said a big problem lies in state regulations, which allow owners to divert money to affiliated companies and maintain low capital requirements, $15 million. He called that a “joke.” His amendment to double that to $30 million was defeated.
Another rejected proposal: Consider allowing last-resort insurer Citizens Property Insurance Corp. to insure homes worth more than $700,000. That matters in a market like Palm Beach County, where home values have been soaring, particularly near the coast. If state-run Citizens is shut out from a growing share of the market, that can leave homeowners with few options aside from “surplus lines” companies, whose rates are not regulated by the state.
The package revives a safe home program that offers grants up to $10,000 for measures to retrofit homes against hurricanes. It pays $2 for every dollar the homeowner spends for approved purchases. Palm Beach County is within the geographic area eligible for the program, but it is only available for homes with insured value up to $500,000 and the program was not ready to take applications at the time the bill passed.
One option that could lower premiums is a new roof deductible, but it comes with some risk. If the roof does need fixing under certain conditions, the consumer could be on the hook for an amount equal to 2% of the policy dwelling limits or 50% of roof replacement costs. For a $400,000 home, that could mean $8,000 out of pocket.
In the end, legislators labored for assurances the package would help their constituents.
“What is the guarantee I can take back to Palm Beach County that we are going to decrease their premium at all?” said Sen. Bobby Powell, D-West Palm Beach.

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach commissioners have not settled on a plan yet for how best to use the Cornell Museum of Art at Old School Square during the fast-approaching summer season.
Following a May 17 commission workshop on the subject, City Manager Terrence Moore was to meet with the Community Redevelopment Agency’s executive director and Arts Warehouse manager about their ideas for the museum, then report back to the commission at its June 14 meeting.
The commission has been considering a “Summer of Delray Arts” idea suggested by Commissioner Ryan Boylston that would give local nonprofits a chance to provide displays in the museum’s four galleries.
Many questions remain, including how displaying at the Cornell would affect the organizations’ finances.
At the workshop, Deputy Vice Mayor Juli Casale questioned the cost to set up the exhibits, the hours the Cornell would be open and whether the Cornell would charge an entrance fee.
Vice Mayor Adam Frankel, who previously met with CRA Executive Director Renee Jadusingh and Arts Warehouse manager Grace Gdaniec in February about their interest in running the Cornell this summer, wants the emphasis to be on local cultural and arts groups.
“We have so many nonprofits in our city. Let’s showcase them, giving a six-week exhibit for the Spady,” Frankel said, referring to the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum.
But Casale said displaying at the Cornell might not benefit the organizations because each one has its own building to create displays.
Boylston said: “You are minimizing our arts and culture community.”
“I have been begging for a workshop for nearly one year,” Boylston said. “It’s criminal not to explore turning over the Old School Square campus to our arts and culture community.”
The commission has been trying to figure out what to do with the Cornell museum since it voted 3-2 last August to end the lease with the former Old School Square operators. The commission gave the former operators 180 days’ notice to leave, ending a 32-year-long relationship in February.
Frankel and Boylston voted against ending the lease.
At their April 5 meeting, commissioners narrowly rejected allowing the nationally known and accredited Boca Raton Museum of Art to handle the Cornell’s operations.
The city will host a charette at 6 p.m. June 23 in the Fieldhouse to gather long-term ideas for the Old School Square campus, which has five venues — including the Fieldhouse and the Cornell — at Atlantic and Swinton avenues.

Emma Imperatore and Valentina Autiero show the Gulf Stream Town Commission possible new locations for duck crossing signs. BELOW RIGHT: Prototype they drew two years ago. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

Thanks to the determined efforts of two Gulf Stream School fourth-graders, signs will soon go up on Sea Road and south of the school warning motorists to watch out for ducks.
Armed with a letter of approval from their head of school, Valentina Autiero and Emma Imperatore returned to the Town Commission’s chambers on May 13 after making their initial presentation in March 2020, mere days before COVID threw off the commission’s calendar.
“We are here because two years ago I saw a Muscovy duck get hit by a car on Gulfstream Road,” Valentina said. “I thought the idea to install a duck crossing sign on Gulfstream Road might help.”
The girls wrote letters to The Little Club and two homeowners, seeking buy-in for the placement of signs on Gulfstream Road, as well as contacting the head of school.
“Congratulations on a wonderful idea for having duck crossing signs in the town of Gulf Stream. I applaud your desire to protect our area’s wildlife,” Cathy Abrams, the assistant head of school, wrote on Head of School Gray Smith’s behalf. “We look forward … to finding a place that has maximum visibility.”
The homeowners were against putting the signs at the front corner of their properties, saying that might interfere with backing out of their driveways. Instead, they proposed the school grounds and police station as better locations.
“We thought that was a good suggestion,” Valentina said.
Despite many requests, the girls did not receive a response from The Little Club, which the ducks frequent, Valentina reported.
“We appreciate your support and thank you for your time,” she concluded.
Mayor Scott Morgan, who in 2020 counseled Emma and Valentina to contact the club and the school, applauded their “dedication and perseverance.”
“More importantly, you’re involved in what is our true democratic process, bringing an issue of your concern to a body that can respond to it and hopefully help with that,” Morgan said. “I think it’s an admirable effort by you two young 9-year-olds.”
Added an enthusiastic Commissioner Paul Lyons: “I think it’s a great idea!”
The next step for the girls will be meeting with Town Manager Greg Dunham to determine a final design and site locations.
In other business, commissioners welcomed newly appointed Thom Smith to the dais. Smith replaced Commissioner Donna White, who has her Place Au Soleil home up for sale and is moving out of town.
Commissioners also voiced concern about the condition of Little Club Road, a private thoroughfare that is maintained not by the town but by its owners, The Little Club and two condo complexes — the Hillside House and St. Andrews Club.
“I think it’s an embarrassment to the town,” Morgan said. “Anyone who goes to The Little Club or goes to the St. Andrews tennis courts or visits Hillside House thinks it’s a public road, and it’s just in terrible shape.”
Commissioner Joan Orthwein agreed. “Also on that road they’ve let the landscape grow out far into the road, which I find dangerous,” she said.
Town officials will explore getting the road’s owners to deed their right-of-way to the town.

By Mary Hladky

After years of steady growth, the taxable values of Palm Beach County properties have surged in a reflection of the white-hot real estate market and a spike in new construction.
 All southeast county municipalities saw impressive gains, with Manalapan’s estimated 26.5% jump, Ocean Ridge’s 16.5% and Boynton Beach’s 15.1% outdistancing the rest.
Those three were also the only southeast coastal communities to outperform the countywide figures, which had taxable property values increasing by an estimated 13.6% from 2021 to 2022, up from 5.8% in the previous year.
Boca Raton’s taxable values rose 12.7%, up from the previous year’s 3.8%. Delray Beach’s went up 13.4%, an increase from 5.4%.
 Briny Breezes’ rose by 13.4%, Gulf Stream’s by 12.3%, Highland Beach’s by 10.8%, Lantana’s by 13.4% and South Palm Beach’s by 8.7%.
In releasing the numbers on May 27, Palm Beach County Property Appraiser Dorothy Jacks pointed to new construction and the demand for real estate.
“Demand for properties of all types continues to grow,” she said. “Both commercial and residential markets have seen an increase in value and new construction.”
The rise in residential values is due to the influx of new Florida residents and limited supply of homes, while hotels, multi-family apartment complexes and warehousing all saw value increases, she said.
New construction countywide totaled $4.3 billion, up from the previous $3.2 billion.
Meanwhile, as demand for housing continues to exceed supply, home prices are through the roof.
The county’s median sale price hit a record $601,000 in April, up 29% from $466,000 in April 2021, according to Broward, Palm Beaches and St. Lucie Realtors.
“Properties are coming off the market almost as soon as they are listed,” Carlos A. Melendez, the organization’s president, wrote in an April report. “Our median time to contract is an astounding nine days.”
The property appraiser’s numbers are estimates that are based on market conditions as of Jan. 1, 2022.
They will be revised at the end of June, when they will be submitted to the state Department of Revenue. The numbers will change as the Property Appraiser’s Office adds more properties to the tax roll and makes final calculations, but the estimates give a good idea of how taxable values fared.
The results are good news for municipal leaders as they head into the time of year when they finalize their budgets for the new fiscal year.
Local governments use taxable values to calculate how much property tax money they can expect. They then set their annual budgets and tax rates.
An increase in taxable values means they will collect more money from property owners if they keep their tax rates the same as the previous fiscal year.
Elected officials can increase the tax rate even though taxable values have risen, but they typically are loath to take that politically problematic step. They often opt to decrease the rate a small amount so they can say they have done so, even though property owners actually will see a tax increase.

Jayne Malfitano has been with HomeSafe of Palm Beach County since the 1990s. Its Boca Raton facility houses and supports survivors of child abuse. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

From her desire to become a candy striper as a teenager, to earning a degree in sociology, to her long-standing role with HomeSafe of Palm Beach County, Jayne Malfitano of coastal Boca Raton has lived a life of caring for people in need.
Malfitano first became involved with HomeSafe in the early ’90s and served on the board of directors from 2001 to 2007. She was a driving force behind HomeSafe’s establishing group homes in east Boca Raton in 2002.
“My role is just to let people know about HomeSafe, and that I believe it to be a worthwhile place to put your money and put your love,” Malfitano said.
Recent contributions have included $5 million from the Stoops Family Foundation and $1 million from the Bernstein Family Foundation.
Launched in 1979 as the Council on Child Abuse and Neglect of Palm Beach County Inc., the program soon became known as Connor’s Nursery in West Palm Beach, where families and babies with HIV issues would receive treatment. It became HomeSafe in 2011.
“We had volunteers who would come and hold the babies, and adults would get the drugs they needed,” Malfitano said. “But after the HIV drugs addressed that issue, it became more of a place where children who were sexually abused or had other needs would come.”
Soon it became apparent that one failure of the foster care system involved those children who were badly damaged and placed in facilities where they were being locked away from the rest of society.
“HomeSafe gets these children very specific, individual therapeutic care,” Malfitano said. “There’s nothing else near us that provides this.”
As part of its Healthy Beginnings program, HomeSafe also has volunteers serve as hospital liaisons who meet with the parents of newborns in Palm Beach County. The goal is to address parents’ needs and put the children on a path to being ready to start kindergarten at 5 years old.
HomeSafe works with the Department of Children and Family Services as well as the court system and even individual families to find candidates for its programs.
“Some come from families who don’t know what to do next with this child,” Malfitano said. “They bring them to HomeSafe, and the people who work there — loving, compassionate, caring people, because it’s not an easy job — work with them and some have been able to go home.”
HomeSafe has several facilities throughout Palm Beach County and has helped nearly 1,500 children and families over its 43 years in operation.
“I don’t think this will be a problem that ends soon, so I think we’ll see more homes — some call them shelters — for kids,” Malfitano said.
In addition to her HomeSafe duties, Malfitano is president of the Harcourt M. and Virginia W. Sylvester Foundation, which offers grants to a wide array of charitable and educational outlets.
Malfitano’s husband, Chris, whose career has included jobs in advertising and government, has also launched a nonprofit, Second Chance Initiative, in Boca Raton. It works with women whose histories include drug abuse or prison time. The goal is to teach the women skills they can use to find full-time jobs.
“It’s just another wonderful way of giving back,” Jayne Malfitano said.
The couple enjoy traveling and have two children: Jeff, 35, who recently moved from California to Naples, and Clare, 30, who resides in New York City.

— Brian Biggane

Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A: I was born in Rochester, New York, went to high school in the suburban town of Pittsford, then on to college at Florida Southern and Nazareth College, which is back in Rochester. Going to a public school was a more diverse experience than a private school would have been, so I got a lot of different thoughts and opinions.
I graduated with a degree in sociology, so I’ve always been on the path of working with and helping people.

Q: What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: I’ve always worked in counseling, but early on didn’t have the educational degree to be a counselor, so I worked as a volunteer. After I got married and raised my two kids I returned to the field and am now the president of the Harcourt M. and Virginia W. Sylvester Foundation, where I am proud of our work with nonprofits. I am also proud of the partnership when I was an active member of the Junior League of Boca Raton with HomeSafe to bring a children’s shelter to Boca Raton. I was guardian ad litem from 1990-95, working with sexually abused children, where I saw children languishing and some of the issues happening in the homes, so HomeSafe and our Boca facility came out of that.

Q: What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A: My advice is to listen, be open to others’ thoughts, and be kind. You never know when you will meet again. I see so many kids who can’t listen to what other people have to say. You may still not agree, but listen. And also, being kind. If I’m rude to you the first time we meet, you’re going to remember that and have a negative opinion of me going forward.

Q: How did you choose to make your home in coastal Boca Raton?
A: My grandparents and dad moved to Boca Raton in the early ’70s and we would come and visit from when I was young. It has always been a second home to me. I met my husband here, at the Boca Raton Ball of all places, and we moved to New York City but moved back down to the Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club in 1986 and have been there since.

Q: What is your favorite part about living in coastal Boca Raton?
A: My wonderful memories of family and friends that we’ve made over the years. It’s such a giving community. Many of the women I’ve met in Junior League have become very good friends, and it’s because we have such a commitment to all of this. They may be involved in something different, but it’s wonderful that we’re all doing something.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: The Boys, by Ron Howard and his brother Clint Howard. It’s like an autobiography that I’m reading for my book club. But what I really enjoy reading is murder mysteries. My book club friends all know that.

Q: What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?
A: When I relax, I like quiet, but I love the Doobie Brothers, and I’m going to see them this summer up in Syracuse, where my husband is from. Michael McDonald is going to be on their tour so it’s going to be great.

Q: Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A: Fortunately, I have had many and appreciate them all. There’s so many people who have taught me so many things. Probably the best mentors I’ve had have been the volunteers I’ve worked with. It’s not necessarily people as much as it is moments that teach you what you need to know.

Q: If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?
A: Sandra Bullock, because she has a great sense of humor. You have to have that when you see the sadness all around you. You have to smile and laugh.

Q: Who/what makes you laugh?
A: Just about everything. Laughter is what keeps the joy in your life. I try to find the humor everywhere. When you see the kids smiling and so happy about something like having their own bathroom, after all they’ve been through, that makes me happy. When you see that, you say: Why am I upset over such little things that really don’t matter?

By Joe Capozzi

In what town officials call “a huge win,’’ Briny Breezes has received a $330,000 state grant to help pay for an ambitious flood and sea level rise protection plan.
The plan is one of 98 projects statewide awarding nearly $20 million through the Resilient Florida Program, including five others in Palm Beach County. 
Delray Beach received $100,000 for a citywide vulnerability assessment and adaptation plan. Palm Beach County received $500,000 for vulnerability assessments in unincorporated areas, but for now the assessment will not include the pocket immediately south of Briny Breezes behind Nomad Surf Shop, or any other areas in the Coastal Resilience Partnership of Southeast Palm Beach County, a county official said. 
For other local vulnerability studies, $192,475 went to West Palm Beach, $105,000 to Palm Beach and $28,500 to Palm Beach Shores.
For Briny Breezes, where the property tax rate is already at the maximum allowed under state law, the grant will help pay for the plans and studies needed to prepare construction-ready documents for enhanced sea walls, an improved stormwater drainage system and other 50-year adaptation measures. 
“It is a huge win for Briny Breezes,’’ Michael Gallacher, president of Briny Breezes Inc., told residents in a newsletter. 
The grant money will function as a reimbursement, so the town will have to spend money on the projects first and then use the grant to recoup those costs, Town Manager William Thrasher said.
Combined with $145,000 from the town and corporation, the grant money will help Briny Breezes complete a sustainability study, using state-mandated modeling, and a stormwater master plan. A townwide survey of underground utilities has already been completed.
The corporation paid $30,000 to the engineering firm Brizaga for a 144-page flooding adaptation plan, completed in April 2021, to get a head start on its strategies.  
“This grant will get us to the next step. It is basically the final step before actually looking at sending out bids. It will give us a picture of how much it might cost,’’ Thrasher said.
“It’s a multifaceted project that’s going to take multiple years to develop. We are fortunate to receive the grant. That also indicates that others believe that we need to be doing similar work,’’ he said.
Though construction costs will be in the millions, Thrasher said he’s optimistic the town will receive assistance from federal and state grants. 
“I believe in the project,’’ he said. “I believe it’s necessary and I believe there will be additional funds granted to the town of Briny Breezes for the re-establishment of its sea
walls.’’
However, in order to be eligible for future assistance, Thrasher told the Town Council at its May 26 meeting that it would be good to create and begin putting money into a reserve fund specifically for the project expenses. Those dollars could be used to meet any matching grant requirements.
Mayor Gene Adams agreed with the concept.
“I do think it’s important for us to start to set aside money because everyone I’ve spoken with talks about cost sharing on it,” Adams said.
The town needs to discuss how it might build reserves — money that’s not there now — to qualify for the much larger grants needed to pay for future work, Thrasher said.
If the grants don’t come through, a future council could designate those reserves for other purposes, he said.

Larry Barszewski contributed to this story.

By Larry Barszewski

More than two years after the coronavirus first surfaced and after more than a year of vaccinations, the virus can still disrupt the workings of local governments.
The Town Commission in Manalapan canceled its May 24 monthly meeting because there weren’t going to be enough commissioners on hand. At least one commissioner had COVID-19 and several others had been exposed to the virus, Vice Mayor Stewart Satter said.
“There would not have been a quorum at [the] meeting due to this,” Town Manager Linda Stumpf said.
The Manalapan cancellation follows a similar situation in Lantana, where an April 25 Town Council meeting had to be canceled after council members were exposed to the virus.
In Manalapan, where commission meetings typically last an hour or less, the cancellation didn’t have major consequences. The only items on the agenda were reports from staff and a public hearing on a proposed ordinance that would give people receiving a town-approved variance or special exception more time to complete their work.
The canceled meeting was a first due to the pandemic for the Town Commission. The town continues to take precautions, strongly requesting that people attending commission meetings and other Town Hall visitors wear masks inside the building. Stumpf said May 23 she was aware of only one current COVID-19 case among town employees.
Of note in Manalapan in May:
• Town officials had to revise trash collection schedules for several days as the town lost two sanitation workers and a supervisor was taken ill, Stumpf said. Three new employees have been hired, she said. Residents are asked to have their trash out on pickup days by 5 a.m. or the night before.
• The Police Department had four vacancies as of May 13, with one officer accepting a job with school police and a sergeant going into the private sector, Police Chief Carmen Mattox wrote in his report for commissioners. Those were in addition to two existing openings.
Mattox said he was processing applications from a retired Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputy and two officers with out-of-state experience. Another applicant is to attend police academy training in June and be available for employment in July, he said.
“We are staffing as manpower allows. Due to staffing shortages, vacation requests are not always approved,” Mattox wrote to commissioners.

Endless, the 43-foot Bristol sailboat that came ashore during windy weather on March 3, was finally removed from the beach in Ocean Ridge on May 4. Numerous inflatable floats and three Sea Tow boats were used to lift and tow the sailboat off the sand. The process took two days and at times drew at least 50 spectators. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Price Patton

DELRAY BEACH — JoAnn Kern Peart, a longtime champion of preserving the charm of Delray Beach’s historic places, died on May 4. She was 72.
She was a native Floridian who spent most of her life in Delray Beach, beginning at the age of 6 months. She attended Virginia Intermont College and the University of South Florida. 
Mrs. Peart worked to preserve Delray Beach’s history by serving as a co-founder, longtime president and board member of the Delray Beach Preservation Trust; president and longtime member of the Delray Beach Historical Society; member of the city’s Historic Preservation Board; and president and member of the Lake Ida Neighborhood Homeowners Association.
During her service on the Delray Preservation Trust, she fought the overdevelopment of a precious segment of the Old School Square Historic District, which contained some of the city’s oldest and most important buildings. Later, she led the two-year effort to get the Old School Square Arts District listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Among the buildings she helped save were the 1924 Cason Cottage on the campus of the Historical Society, the 1924 Willie Franklin House in the West Settlers Historic District and the 1928 Clint Moore House on North Swinton Avenue.
She also chaired the City Commission-appointed Historic Task Team, which helped strengthen the city’s preservation ordinances.
She selflessly gave her time and attention to many causes and to her many friends and family.
For years, she helped manage the family business, Universal Beach Services, founded in 1973 by her husband, John Frederick Peart. He won contracts to clean beaches from the Panhandle to the Florida Keys, as well as contracting with Palm Beach County municipalities and private beachfront homeowners.
The business will continue to be operated by her son Clayton Russell Peart of Delray Beach, who worked for his father and has run the business since 2012. Mr. Peart, her husband of 38 years, predeceased Mrs. Peart, as did her parents, Joe Russell Kern and Ann Sells Kern.
She is survived by two sons, Curtis William (Joanne) Peart of Tamarindo, Costa Rica, and Clayton; a daughter, Ann Margo (Christopher) Cannon; grandchildren Julie Elizabeth Peart, Jack William Peart, John Peart Cannon and Elizabeth Ann Cannon; a brother, John (Patricia) Kern of Juno Beach; three sisters, Mary Kevin Reynolds of Point Pleasant, New Jersey, Kathy Sherrard of Stephenville, Texas, and Janet Kern of McKinney, Texas; and many nieces and nephews. 
A memorial service was held May 13 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Delray Beach.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Delray Beach Preservation Trust and Trinity Delray.

DELRAY BEACH — Dickie McCusker died surrounded by family in his Delray Beach home on May 2, four years after a cancer diagnosis. He was 67.
Dickie was born on Nov. 25, 1954, with a twin sister, Diane, in Braintree, Massachusetts. Parents Richard McCusker and Rosemary Sheehan raised the twins and five more children — Tim, Mark, Kathryn, Michael and Megan (who are also twins) — in Wellesley, Massachusetts. They spent their summers making memories at Oyster Harbors Beach on the Cape.
Dickie moved to Boca Raton with his family in 1965, where they resided in Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club. He attended elementary school at Hillsboro Day School, and then attended Alexander D. Henderson School at FAU. He was a graduate of Boca Raton High School, Class of 1973.
During his younger school years Mr. McCusker played in a garage rock band. He carried this talent with him throughout his life, as he became an accomplished drummer, singer and guitar player.
After high school, Mr. McCusker packed up his VW camper van — along with two friends, Paul Nolan and Jeff Cutts — and set out to explore life on the road, leading the hippie lifestyle characteristic of the ’70s generation. After the many places they traveled, their final stop was Cape Cod, where he worked at his cousin Jep’s restaurant.
Eventually, his journey took him to Boulder, Colorado, where he attended the University of Colorado. He then went on to study law at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law, where he received his Juris Doctor degree. He passed the Florida Bar in 1983 and practiced in the federal courts in the Southern District of Florida. He was also licensed to practice law in Massachusetts.
Dickie met his law partner, Ken Hemmerle, while working in a law office in Boca Raton in 1985. The pair established a law firm in Fort Lauderdale and practiced together for 30 years. He later established a home office in Delray Beach.
Dickie was a champion for the “little guy,” practicing law with integrity, a big heart and a good soul.
What he loved the most in his life were his wife, Lisa, and daughter, Erin. Dickie first met Lisa Withall in high school. Little did he know that she would be the love of his life when they reconnected at a party in Old Floresta in Boca Raton in 1990. After dating for two and a half years, they were married. Three years later they welcomed their beautiful daughter, Erin, into the world.
Dickie was a devoted father spending time with Erin, who was the “apple of his eye.” He was also a wonderful son-in-law, who dropped what he was doing to join Ted Withall for a game of golf or to visit Ted and Helen Withall.
Dickie had a love for life, nature and his music. He was an avid reader, loved to cook, and was a huge foodie. He spent his free time running on the beach and many of those years with his dog, Tybee. He rarely missed a day practicing yoga, his favorite being Bikram.
He continued to perform with his friends and band members Greg Welch, J.P. Goss, Jimmy Pearl, Kenny Ropp, John Gillespie, Michael Biro and Paul Norris up until the pandemic.
Dickie did not miss a beat in living life to its fullest. His energy and fun-loving spirit will be missed by his family and friends.
Dickie is survived by his wife and daughter, Lisa and Erin McCusker; siblings Diane McCusker Dopheide (husband Jeff and daughter Caitlin); Megan McCusker Shalvoy (husband Mike, daughter Meredith and son Sean); Kathryn McCusker Johnston (husband David and daughter Hannah); Tim McCusker (wife Carol Marinelli McCusker); Michael McCusker, and Mark McCusker. Other survivors are cousin Thomas Jeptha Smith, sister-in-law Robin Withall Cox, and nephew J.J. McDonough (wife Elizabeth Ziegenfuss and sons Kane and Van).
The family is grateful to Bertha Prosper of Vitas Hospice for her loving care.
Please join us for a celebration of Dickie’s life from 4 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, June 11 at Chapel 4, 200 SE Seventh Avenue, Delray Beach.
In lieu of flowers, donate to one of Mr. McCusker’s favorite charities:
• World Central Kitchen, donate.wck.org, led by chef Jose Andres, first to the front lines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate and community crises.
• Make A Wish Foundation, wish.org, creating life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.

— Obituary submitted by the family