By Mary Thurwachter

Lantana has prohibited medical marijuana dispensaries since December 2017. But the issue resurfaced this summer when a local businessman asked the Town Council to reconsider and enact an ordinance allowing the pharmacies.
Reconsider, it did, but the town confirmed its original stance on the subject, again saying “no” to medical marijuana dispensaries.
Making the pitch to allow dispensaries was Dave Arm, owner of Lantana Fitness at 700 W. Lantana Road. He said the issue was about attracting 21st century vendors in a town that desperately needs good retailers.
“It’s obvious conditions are tough for brick-and-mortar properties,” Arm said. “We can see that at Water Tower Commons.”
Arm argued that medical marijuana treatment centers are well-capitalized by major national corporations, are attractive and provide good jobs in the community.
Arm is president of the Lantana Chamber of Commerce, but was not speaking in that capacity.
“We talked to people in Boynton and Lake Worth Beach and they’ve had no issues with crime,” Arm said of two places that allow the dispensaries. “Why should we have to drive to another town to have our prescriptions filled?”
On the other hand, the topic struck a sour note with residents, with dozens of them showing up to express their views during the discussion at the June 28 council meeting, and again when the subject resurfaced at the July 26 meeting.
In addition, Mayor Robert Hagerty said he received about 20 emails from residents who opposed the change.
When the final vote was taken, three council members (Mark Zeitler, Malcolm Balfour and Hagerty) voted against medical marijuana dispensaries. Hagerty said he was following the will of the people, who through their comments, both in person and via email, opposed the measure.
Voting in favor of the dispensaries was Karen Lythgoe, who said they offered an opportunity to fill some vacant storefronts with “good, attractive businesses.”
Lynn Moorhouse, who attended the meeting via phone, got disconnected before the vote was taken.
Residents said ample dispensaries were nearby and Lantana didn’t need its own.

Digging into reserves

The town will not raise its tax rate, continuing with $3.50 per $1,000 of taxable value. However, deficits approaching $5 million in both the general and utility funds will require the town to dig deep into its reserves to balance the budget.
Why such large shortfalls?
“The current draft consists of significant one-time capital improvement projects,” Finance Director Stephen Kaplan said. “Within the utility fund, we have projects pertaining to drainage, water main replacements and water treatment plant improvements accounting for over $3.5 million.
“In the general fund, police communication center equipment upgrades is included at an estimated cost of more than $320,000.” Other expenses include library renovations and furniture, money to fix Sea Pines flooding issues and adding a new officer to the police department.
The town had hoped to add an assistant town manager, but scrapped those plans to save money.
Public budget meetings are set for 5:30 p.m. Sept. 13 and 5:30 p.m. Sept. 23 in the council chambers, 500 Greynolds Circle.
In other action, the town:
• Approved a salary of $140,000 for interim Town Manager Nicole Dritz. Previously the director of development services, Dritz is also an applicant for the full-time position vacated by Deborah Manzo.
• Authorized use of the grounds of the Recreation Center, 418 S. Dixie Highway, for a “Summer Twilight Market,” 5-10 p.m. Fridays from July 9 to Sept. 3. Restrooms are available inside the center. The market may return to Bicentennial Park next fall.
• Learned that the library would move to the Recreation Center in early August as the library renovation begins.

This peacock — described as ‘quite a handsome one’ — showed up about a year ago. Photo provided by Susie Bowman

By Ron Hayes

Ann McGlinn-Work hesitated, pondering, trying to remember.
“I think it goes back to a little over a year ago,” she decided. “All of a sudden it just appeared on the island. No one knows where it came from or how it got here.”
At first, no one knew the proper pronouns with which to address him or her, he or she, either. But a year later, the peacock from nowhere has settled in, to become one more friend and neighbor Hypoluxo Island’s humans greet, feed and photograph on their walks.
“In the beginning, we thought it was a peahen,” McGlinn-Work recalled.
A female peafowl is a peahen, the male a peacock.
After Susie Bowman spotted the peafowl near her house on Lagoon Lane, she posted some stunning photos on the island’s Facebook page.
“Oh, it’s a male,” Bowman concluded. “I read up on it.”
Maura P. Powers, a zoologist at the Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society, studied one of Bowman’s photos and agreed.
“It’s a peacock,” Powers reported, “and quite a handsome one at that.”
Or to be more specific, the Hypoluxo Island peafowl is Pavo cristatus, native to India and the most cosmopolitan of three species.
“The easiest way to distinguish the two would be to look at the color of the bird’s neck and head feathers,” Powers said. “The boys have a brilliant blue hue from their head to their shoulders.”
Like so many of us Floridians, peafowls are not native to the state. Most historians theorize the birds were introduced here in the late 1800s, when they were considered a status symbol.
However they arrived, they have stayed, with peacock flocks — called a “pride” or “ostentation” — having been reported from Cape Canaveral to Miami, and especially along the Gulf Coast.
“I heard there’s a community over on High Ridge Road,” Bowman said, “so we think maybe somebody brought an egg over to our island.”
Now the bird seems to have made himself at home, strutting about McKinley Park or perching atop the lion sculptures at the entrance to a home on Southeast Atlantic Drive.
This was probably a major flight for a peacock, which doesn’t fly much higher than the lower branches of a tree, and the birds are not generally aggressive.
“But they can be defensive,” Powers noted. “If you leave them alone, they will probably leave you alone.”
They can be loud, assaulting the ears with a loud, piercing honk when they’re startled.
“One of the neighbors has suggested we trap him and get rid of him,” Bowman said, but this seems to be a minority view. Most of the peacock’s new neighbors seem more eager to feed than exile him.
“My husband, Gene, leaves blueberries out for him,” McGlinn-Work said. “He’s not a fan of the strawberries or raspberries we leave out. I see him eating cat food off a porch. He looks like he’s being very well fed on the island.”
One islander is reportedly feeding him Cheerios, which he also accepts.
The Palm Beach Zoo is home to a peahen named Sally Ride, after the first American woman in space. For a while there was talk of a naming contest for the island’s peacock, but it hasn’t gone anywhere, McGlinn-Work said.
“I’ve heard Penny the Peacock, for the alliteration,” she said. “My husband and I called him Michael Jackson because he does a really good moonwalk when he gets excited. He puts up his tail feathers and all his down gets fluffed up and he kicks his butt at you and does the moonwalk.”
Moonwalking or not, the peacock seems to be on the move. He’s been spotted from the northern end of the island south to Point Manalapan, and now Publix, at the corner of A1A and East Ocean Avenue.
“I saw him in the Publix parking lot,” McGlinn-Work reported. “I think he’s probably trying to find a mate.”
Bowman agreed.
“When the plumes come in, that’s to attract a mate,” she explained. “He’s been paying a lot of attention to the ducks on the island. He’s trying to buy them a cocktail, but they won’t have any part of it.”
One theory being tossed around is that because the coronavirus kept more residents home, perhaps wildlife have felt more comfortable emerging.
“Or perhaps more time spent close to home has led people to become more observant of the wildlife around them,” Powers suggested. “Personally, I’m hoping for the latter.”
Wherever he came from, however long he stays, the humans of Hypoluxo Island have welcomed him, one more flash of color in a colorful community.
“I love him,” Susie Bowman said, speaking no doubt for many. “I love seeing nature. That’s what’s so great about Hypoluxo Island. We have foliage and canopy, but we have little bits of nature, too, and he always puts a smile on my face.”

By Jane Smith

More than two months after the city received a proposed $1.8 million fine over its botched reclaimed water program, the Delray Beach legal team was still negotiating a settlement with the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County.
“There is no set time” for the city to respond to the proposed consent order, Alexander Shaw, Health Department spokesman, wrote in a June 21 email to The Coastal Star. He also wrote in a July 26 email that the city met with Health Department leaders in person on July 7, and they “continue to have constructive negotiations with each other.”
He declined to reveal the substance of the negotiations.
City Attorney Lynn Gelin and two attorneys from the Lewis Longman & Walker firm make up the city’s legal team.
“Negotiations are ongoing,” Laurie Menekou, the publicist hired to answer media questions about the city’s reclaimed water program, wrote in a July 28 email. “There is no additional information to share at this time.”
The City Commission will have to approve the final agreement with the state.
The Health Department contends that Delray Beach’s reclaimed water program was flawed since its start in 2007.
The city created a step-by-step implementation manual, but never followed its own instructions, which called for annual inspections of each connection site and an ongoing cross-connection control program, according to the Health Department.
That’s why the Health Department wants the city to publish a public notice acknowledging it “cannot assure utility customers that the drinking water produced and distributed met the standards of the Safe Drinking Water Act for the period from inception of the reclaimed water service beginning in 2007 to the time reclaimed water was deactivated on February 4, 2020.”
The city will have to publish the notice in a newspaper, in its utility bills and on its website, according to state rules.
The proposed fine does not include the $21,194 that the Health Department spent on the investigation, as of June 21.
During an extensive review with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in the spring, the departments determined that assessed penalties are more in line with fines that were in effect in 2018.
As a result, the proposed fine of nearly $1.8 million is lower than the nearly $2.9 million proposed in January in a draft consent order. The individual fines also were reduced as a result of the joint review.
Of the 11 violations cited, eight were deemed to be major and carry civil penalties of $5,000.
The city was cited for 12 years of not following its own program of annual inspections. It also submitted false reports saying annual inspections had taken place. The civil fine total is $60,000, at $5,000 per year.
In addition, Delray Beach was fined for missing 576 backflow preventers. The devices are needed on the drinking water pipes to prevent the reclaimed water from flowing back into the drinking water.
The Health Department is proposing fines of $2,229 per location, for a total of $1.3 million.
For submitting false information in December 2018 when a cross connection was discovered at 801 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach should be fined $5,000 for not reporting that people were sickened. No names or job titles are mentioned in the consent order.
A cross connection happens when reclaimed water lines carrying highly treated wastewater for lawn irrigation, but not safe for human and pet use, are wrongly connected with drinking water pipes.
The city also failed to report to the Health Department about a 2019 cross connection discovered at 120 N. Ocean Blvd. In addition, Delray Beach did not issue a public notice of the cross connection found there. The Health Department wants to fine the city $10,000 total or $5,000 for each violation.
The civil penalties total $1.4 million. The Health Department wants to add a 25% charge for the city’s history of noncompliance. The nearly $1.8 million total was recommended at the start of initial negotiations, according to the document.
The Health Department was made aware of the problems in January 2020 by a South Ocean Boulevard area resident’s call.
That led the city to shut down its entire reclaimed water system and seek Health Department approval before turning on the reclaimed water for that location.
In 2020, Delray Beach spent more than $1 million to fix that system. The city can’t use the money spent fixing the system to offset the fines, according to the Health Department.
Another investigation of the reclaimed water program ended in May without finding a past or current city employee, department or outside vendor solely responsible.
As a result of that critical review, the city said it will educate its water customers about what reclaimed water is and its allowed use — only for lawn irrigation.
In addition, the Utilities Department started documenting all customer complaints or inquiries and tracking them in the city’s computerized maintenance management system. Utilities staff will be trained in the proper documentation and inspection reports required by the regulating agencies over reclaimed water.

Uncertainty about illnesses

The county Office of Inspector General became involved last August at the request of the Health Department. Health officials were “concerned that city staff and/or elected officials concealed and/or misrepresented their knowledge,” according to the OIG report.
The Health Department could only issue civil fines. The OIG can forward its results to the State Attorney’s Office for criminal prosecution.
The OIG investigated what the city staff knew about the illnesses from the December 2018 cross connection on South Ocean and whether they were reported to the Health Department as required.
The OIG “was unable to determine whether the reported illness was actually caused by the city’s drinking water,” according to its report. No elected official or current or past city employee was found liable.
But an unnamed city staffer identified in the report as a whistleblower submitted a lengthy rebuttal to the OIG findings based on a review by Public Management Services Inc., a firm the city hired in 2020 to independently review the system.
According to that review, a March 2019 meeting was held by an ex-assistant city manager with various department heads and the project’s consultant representative. They discussed the December 2018 cross connection.
Because no medical or hospital records connected the illnesses with the reclaimed water, the illnesses were not reported to the Health Department. The ex-assistant city manager determined no more action was needed without medical or hospital records connecting the illnesses to the reclaimed water.
“It was not the city’s job to determine this but to report it” to the Health Department, the whistleblower said in the rebuttal. The whistleblower did not attend the March 2019 meeting.

Robin Austin of Ocean Ridge, a retired ad agency owner, is now a mosaic artist. This 3- by 5-foot image of Mick Jagger is titled His Majesty. Austin assembled hundreds of little photo squares to make light, shadow and colors in the portrait. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Robin Austin spent 30 years in marketing, working for some of the top firms in the world before starting his own, Fusion 5, then selling it for a handsome profit in 2003.
Not yet 50, Austin then faced the obvious question: What next? He didn’t have to go far to find out.
“I had always been intrigued with mosaics,” said Austin, 67. “I remember one done by Heineken of a tulip field in Holland, and all the mosaics were of tulips. I said, ‘That’s so boring.’
“So I’m literally lying in bed and saying, ‘What if you did a mosaic where the mosaic is telling a story? And what if it’s something fun?’
“I figured there had to be so many artists doing this. So it was, let’s find out, and to my absolute astonishment nobody was doing it. So I decided to become an iconic mosaic storyteller … a visual celebration of the icon.”
Austin used the TV series Breaking Bad as the theme of his first piece, a birthday present to his son James. Soon after came one of Princess Diana, then Nelson Mandela and Mick Jagger.
Using a computer and Photoshop, he used 3,500 tiny photos in a celebration of David Bowie.
Now his pieces number more than 100.
The Ocean Ridge resident entered six into a minor art show in Miami and, with the help of a story in Venue magazine, his work was picked up by three galleries.
“They got what I was doing,” he said. “They said, ‘You are shamelessly commercial.’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ And now I’m in art galleries all over the world.”
Austin also invented a golf putting aide called EEZ-Read that was named “Best New Product” at the 2008 PGA of America Merchandise Show.
He and his wife of 32 years, Mickey, moved to Ocean Ridge three years ago. He’s a huge fan of Leeds United and the England soccer team and enjoys walking the beach and cleaning it up.

— Brian Biggane

Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A: I grew up in Yorkshire, England, in Leeds, which is 200 miles north of London. I was born in 1954 so the ’60s had a profound effect on me. In television, movies and music it was an incredibly interesting time. In the ’50s the icons were movie stars and by the ’60s it had changed completely. It is the music, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones; it’s fashion, it’s Carnaby Street, it’s Flower Power. There’s a rejection of conventions, like the Vietnam War. And by 1975 … look at The Rocky Horror Picture Show. That would have been totally unaccepted in the ’50s.
So this all affected me very much. It was an era of fabulous, and I was like ‘Wow.’ So now when I can celebrate it in my art, I so enjoy doing it.
That was a time when a lot was happening. I went to an English boarding school and then I went straight into business.

Q: What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: I met Tom Bauer, the head of Procter & Gamble in Europe at the time, and when I met him with friends in the south of France he said, “This boy should be in advertising. He’s creative, he’s fun.” So he arranged for me to be introduced to an American ad agency and it was a square peg in a square hole. It came easy to me, I had an outgoing personality, I was well-educated and well-mannered, so it really suited me.
I was in Stockholm with Young & Rubicam and they offered me jobs in London and New York. Here I am, 26 years old, and I hear “New York, Madison Avenue.” I’m young and single, so off I went. I worked really hard, moved up the ladder, and another company, MCA, came along and doubled my salary before I was 30.
Then in 1993 we founded our own company. We saw a changing marketplace and identified a new problem, and created Fusion 5. Our tagline was “Innovation Out of Insight” and we were very cutting edge. I was very proud of the innovative work we did, that really influenced and changed companies’ directions. We sold the company in 2003.

Q: What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A: My advice would be to soak up everything. Knowledge is growth. In the early part just soak it up; don’t take yourself too seriously but have a broad view. Then start evaluating what you really want and are passionate about. The old story holds true: If you really like and believe in what you’re doing, then go off and do it.

Q: How did you choose to make your home in Ocean Ridge?
A: My wife’s parents, Jim and Mary Farley, owned property down here in Gulf Stream and introduced me to the area, and who wouldn’t fall in love with it? You fly from New York and land in Palm Beach and it was just fabulous. You’ve got Palm Beach sophistication up the road, Miami down the road. I can get to London from Miami in one plane ride. So the whole area works for me. And I didn’t come to retire; this is a next chapter of my life.

Q: What is your favorite part about living in Ocean Ridge?
A: The people are exceptionally nice. Young, older, the different walks of life we’ve come from. It’s a 75- to 100-yard walk for me to the beach and I talk to probably five people every day. And they’re fantastic.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: I use audiobooks. But I constantly listen to them. I have a range. I love getting perspective on pop culture and modern-day culture versus 20 or 30 years ago. There are a lot of very good journalists that write pieces in good magazines and then write a book to expand upon that. One I’m into at the moment is the subject of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, which is going to be the wave of the future. The book is Understanding Bitcoin.

Q: What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?
A: All the classics from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. Springsteen. Dylan. Simon and Garfunkel. The Rolling Stones. Music plays a huge part in my life; we have it on all the time. Music is a mood-changer. You get the right music at the right time and it’s fantastic. For inspiration, it’s Sympathy for the Devil. I get cranked up. There are some classics that are timeless.

Q: Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A: Bill Price has been incredibly special to me. I used to work for him and he was a fantastic leader and inspiring manager. He allowed me to open my wings. We started working together 30 years ago, but we’ve remained best friends. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have a mentor like him. Also, in Sweden, Jack Grafstrom, who like me retired from business and became an artist. It was like “Maybe Jack is showing me the way here.”

Q: If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?
A: I really like what I’ve seen of Benedict Cumberbatch. He played Sherlock Holmes, and that’s a passion of mine. My dad used to read him to me when I was a little boy. And Cumberbatch played him really well.
Q: Who/what makes you laugh?
A: My son James, my wife, my dog. Maybe I’m overreacting to the lockdown time, but being with friends, laughing, sharing a good bottle of wine, that makes me laugh and makes me happy.
Also, the original Tom and Jerry cartoons. I used to take the JetBlue flight from New York to Palm Beach and at 11 a.m. there would be an hour of Tom and Jerry cartoons, and people would look at me because I was laughing so hard.

The circular drive for pickup and drop-off is included in architect Juan Caycedo’s vision of what the Boca Raton Brightline station will look like. Rendering provided

By Mary Hladky

Brightline likely will get a green light from the city in August to begin construction of its Boca Raton station and garage.
The city’s Planning & Zoning Board, by a 5-1 vote on July 15, recommended that the City Council approve the $46 million project. The council is expected to take action at its Aug. 24 meeting. Board member Larry Snowden, who cast the lone dissenting vote, said he understands the importance of the station to the city.
“It is a huge, positive impact on our city,” he said. “I recognize it is a game changer.”
But Snowden said he was dissatisfied with Brightline’s presentation to the board that he felt did not address many questions and safety issues.
“What I have seen tonight is not ready for prime time,” he said, without outlining specifics.
Brightline plans a 9,035-square-foot, one-story train station and a 4.5-story, 171,050-square-foot garage with 455 parking spaces. Surface parking will provide another 109 spaces.
The project will be located on city-owned land along the FEC railway tracks immediately east of the Downtown Library.
In December 2019, the city agreed to lease 1.8 acres of its land there to Brightline for 29 years, but with renewals that could total 89 years.
Library patrons will be able to use the surface parking and 64 garage spaces will be reserved for them. The remainder will be available to Brightline passengers and the public.
A $16.3 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant will help pay for the station and garage. Brightline will pay $20 million of the station cost and the city will spend $9.9 million on the garage.
Brightline broke ground on May 10 for a temporary parking lot just south of the library that its patrons will use while the station and garage are being built. It also started work at that time to move the Junior League of Boca Raton’s Community Garden, which is being displaced by the station, to Meadows Park.
Brightline halted rail service between Miami and West Palm Beach in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. It now expects to resume service in the fourth quarter of this year.

By Joe Capozzi

The owner of an oceanfront property that fell into disrepair, sparking complaints from neighbors about rats and debris, will get a discount on code fines from Ocean Ridge. 
But it wasn’t the reduction the owner was hoping for. 
Brookshore Ltd., which owns the property at 6009 N. Ocean Blvd., must pay $116,230 of the original $162,031 in liens stemming from code violations going back at least to 2019, town commissioners agreed Aug. 2.
Brookshore had asked to pay just $50,000, a request that insulted at least two commissioners. 
“I think it is disingenuous, honestly, for a property that is minimally worth $5 million to come in with a 1% offer of $50,000,’’ said Mayor Kristine de Haseth, who initially wanted to reduce the original total by just $19,751, which represents the interest accrued. 
Sam Caliendo, an attorney for Brookshore, said the owner of the company is an elderly man in New York who allowed a friend, Jose Esquivel, to live on the property with the understanding that Esquivel would take care of it. 
“He did not take care of it. We tried to evict him on several occasions,’’ Caliendo said. 
He said Esquivel fell ill and died, then Kenneth Frank, the owner’s son, got involved and started addressing the violations, which started accruing in 2019. The house was eventually demolished and the land cleared.
The property came into compliance in June. But fines started accruing in July 2019. And on Nov. 1, 2019, the town sent Brookshore a letter via certified mail warning the property was “an unsafe structure.’’
When Brookshore’s owner asked Esquivel about the problems, the tenant said “the situation was not as bad as the town thought it was,’’ Frank said, speaking to the council via audio call. “It’s just unfortunate that I am in New York. We could have rectified it sooner.’’
At least two commissioners weren’t moved by Frank’s response. 
“Being in New York, you did not get the pleasure of having our residents parade through and talk about the rats that were infesting their property and talk about the blue tarp pieces flying in their pools,’’ de Haseth said. 
“This situation went on well too long and too many people either turned their heads or did not choose to know what was going on,’’ she said. “All it would have taken was a two-minute stroll into our town in the last five years.’’
Commissioner Martin Wiescholek said the problems had been going on long before the fines started accruing in 2019. 
At one point, the home was boarded up “with the roof half falling in and a blue tarp that got ripped in two hurricanes and was still sitting around to the point where the town was looking into replacing the roof at town’s expense,’’ he said. 
“That to me says, ‘We don’t care about the community. We don’t care that you need to see this, on prime property.’ When the owner doesn’t care enough that the community is impacted by it, I don’t think the community should care if the owner has to pay the fine.’’
Commissioner Geoff Pugh suggested cutting the lien total in half, saying the town has done that in previous cases. Commissioner Steve Coz, noting Frank was now taking responsibility, suggested dropping the fine to $100,000. 
The final $116,230 total commissioners agreed on is the average of what each of the four commissioners wanted. 
Vice Mayor Susan Hurlburt was absent, but a letter from her objecting to the reduction request was read into the
record.

By Joe Capozzi

Ocean Ridge property owners can expect higher tax bills next year. How much higher depends on whether a majority of commissioners follow through on a tentative desire to set the highest tax rate in town history.
In July, the commission voted 3-2 to tentatively raise the tax rate to $5.65 per $1,000 of taxable value to help balance a proposed $8.8 million budget for the next budget year, which begins Oct. 1.
Commissioners Geoff Pugh and Steve Coz voted against the increase after saying they might be willing to consider raising the rate to $5.50 per $1,000.  
For the owner of a home valued at $1 million last year, a rate of $5.65 per $1,000 would add $543 to the tax bill.
If the commission votes to keep the rate at $5.35 per $1,000, taxes would still go up because, based on town projections, property values increased 4.3% over last year to $1.15 billion. On average, the owner of a property valued at $1 million last year would see about $230 more in taxes.
Commissioners can lower the rate and tweak the budget before voting on a final version in September. But if they vote to keep the current rate of $5.35 per $1,000 of taxable value, they’d need to tap $439,404 from reserves to balance the budget, a strategy that didn’t sit well with a majority of commissioners.  
The tax rate has been $5.35 per $1,000 for the past nine years except for 2018, when it dropped to $5.25 per $1,000.
Last year the commission earmarked $706,421 from reserves to cover the expected shortfall. The actual amount used won’t be known until the end of the year, but it could be less than $706,421.
“I think we are being fiscally irresponsible by not considering a millage increase,” Mayor Kristine de Haseth said at a July budget workshop.
“I think the time was long overdue probably about five years ago and the level of service that this town has and demands is going to do nothing but increase.” 
The first budget workshop was held as Hurricane Elsa approached South Florida. The region was spared, but the mayor noted that Elsa was one of the earliest-forming storms on record.
“Given the scare of Elsa, that’s kind of a wakeup call for all of us that storms are going to happen eventually,” de Haseth said. “It’s not the percentage of the budget we have in reserves. It’s how much, how far will those reserve monies go and sustain us.”
Town Manager Tracey Stevens’ proposed spending plan is nearly 6.1% higher than the current budget mainly because of capital improvement projects, bridge repairs, drainage projects “and uncontrollable increases in general operating expenses” such as insurance and retirement rates and raises for employees, she wrote in a memo Aug. 2.
The extra costs add up to $493,656, with $365,000 going to improvements mandated by the Florida Department of Transportation: $240,000 for bridge repairs and $125,000 for replacing street lights on Ocean Avenue.
Also driving the increases are insurance rates in workers’ comp and general liability claims and contract increases for police, fire and emergency medical services.
Stevens’ first proposal called for using $653,540 in reserves. The latest plan, tweaked through four workshops, calls for $216,130 from reserves. 
She reminded commissioners that she expects the reserve fund to be replenished by unused money at the end of the next budget year.  
“Town Reserves have typically increased over the past several years by the end of the fiscal year due to staff turnover, or short-staffing which causes projects to not be completed by the end of the fiscal year,” she wrote.
Commissioner Martin Wiescholek said he is not in favor of tapping too much from the reserves every year. “The prudent thing is to replenish reserves or attempt to,” he said at the July budget meeting. “We are living in a town with a lot of services, we have to pay for it.” 
Public hearings are Sept. 7 and Sept. 21.

Mykal Banta, library assistant director, helps Audrey Vassallo at the monthly Wash & Read at the Laundry Stop. The library gives away cards for the machines and paperbacks. Photos by Bruce Bennett / The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

You’ve probably noticed that libraries aren’t what they used to be.
You might even wonder if they need a new name.
The word derives from the Latin librarius, meaning “of books.”
The Delray Beach Public Library still has plenty of books — 124,067 in print and another 8,574 available for download.
But you can also borrow DVDs, use the free computers, attend a virtual yoga class, or find help preparing a résumé.
You can request a series of “memory kits” with DVDs, flash cards and booklets to help people struggling with memory loss.
And then there’s “Wash & Read,” a library laundry service for homeless people. On the third Wednesday of every month, Mykal Banta, the library’s assistant director, arrives at the Laundry Stop on George Bush Boulevard bearing backpacks and satchels, blankets, laundry detergent, laundromat debit cards and, of course, books.
“We began in November 2019, and we haven’t missed a Wednesday,” he says. “We talked about stopping the program for COVID, but I didn’t want to do that. There’s nothing like putting on clean clothes, especially when you’re homeless and don’t have the opportunity very often.”
On an average Wash & Read Wednesday, five or six men and women arrive. Once or twice a dozen have shown, sometimes only two.
“I’ve never had nobody come,” Banta says.
On this third Wednesday in July three men and a woman appear, carrying their dirty clothes in backpacks or travel bags.

•

Jonathan Neves says the program shows that ‘the library really cares about us.’

Jonathan Neves, 26, grew up in Coral Springs.
“I’m sleeping out,” he says. “I have a tent hidden away in a little forested area. For some it’s tough, but I have a tent and a mat, so it’s not too bad. I wouldn’t say I’m lucky, but it’s peaceful.”
Neves has been living like this, off and on, for four years.
“I struggle with some mental issues,” he says. “I’m bipolar with some social psychosis, animosities. Sometimes I completely freak out.”
Has he no family to help him out?
“Blood family? Not so much. They’re very judgmental and unaccepting. I do have someone who cares for me, but she’s in Costa Rica. We talk on the internet.”
Along with the laundry soap and debit cards, Banta fulfills his librarian job by offering each customer a brand-new paperback novel. The authors are familiar names. Agatha Christie. Lee Child. James Lee Burke. Neves accepts a backpack and satchel, but won’t take a free book.
“I read,” he explains, “but strictly only the Bible. I wouldn’t touch a book except the Bible.”

•

Wash & Read began as a suggestion from Isabella Rowan, the library’s director of programming and volunteers. The idea was to engage a different area laundromat each month, but they couldn’t reach the owners. And then they called Stacey Runfola, who had bought the Laundry Stop at 718 George Bush Blvd. in January 2019.
“Of course,” Runfola said, “I’d be happy to host it every month.”
And she offered to match the library’s contributions.
“Most people who are homeless are not there by choice, but by circumstance,” she says, “whether it’s mental illness or a million other circumstances, so this was an ideal opportunity to help.”
Now the program is funded by a $12,000 grant from the Virginia & Harvey Kimmel Family Foundation. It’s money the library also uses to support the Caring Kitchen food truck in the library parking lot every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and the funds support the shower truck that visits St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church on Wednesdays and Fridays. The shower truck is operated by the Interfaith Committee of Social Services, where Banta serves on the board.

•

Audrey Vassallo, 64, is from Bergen County, New Jersey. Most of the people who have come to the Wash & Read this week are friendly, polite and happy to talk. Vassallo can’t seem to stop talking. She chatters on and on, her brain leaping from one passing thought to the next in an almost acrobatic display of free association.
“I just found out about this. Nutrition is my hobby. I’ve been in Delray two months and three weeks. I sleep anywhere. On the beach. I’m signing up for rental assistance. I was on the rental assistance on the Jersey Shore. I had a lot of falls and injuries when I was 16 and my mother smoked a pack a day and had a slight drinking problem. She’d hit and slap and all that.”
And on and on.
Mykal Banta has been a librarian for 27 years, all of them in Delray Beach. His mother was a librarian before him. Librarians are legendary for shushing those who talk too loudly in the library, but Banta indulges Vassallo’s monologue with admirable patience.
“It’s in a librarian’s nature to help,” he says. “Librarians want to make lives better, to help people enjoy their full potential, and the greater the need, the greater is our need to help.”

•

John Koenig, 40, grew up in Monmouth County, New Jersey. He has been in Delray Beach 10 years and homeless for three because his great need is heroin.
“I’m a heroin addict,” he says. “I’ve been shooting up for 22 years. That’s why I’m homeless. I’ve been in rehab numerous times, inpatient and outpatient, AA, the whole nine yards. And I failed.”
This is his first visit to Wash & Read, which he heard about at the Caring Kitchen’s library visit this morning.

An Agatha Christie novel was among the offerings in July.

“I used to come here and pay and it cost about $10,” he says, waiting to move two loads from the washers across to the dryers.
“I’ve had hep-C and I still drink a half gallon a day of the cheapest, crappiest vodka I can buy.”
Koenig’s eyes are clear and his speech is alert and notably articulate. It’s easy to believe he was in his junior year at Rutgers University when he got arrested for a crime he doesn’t want published and started downhill to homelessness.
“I pretty much sleep wherever I can,” he says. “Anywhere the cops won’t hassle you.”
Sometimes his family in New Jersey sends money.
“And I can make $100 a day on the Atlantic Avenue on-ramp,” he says.
He has been arrested 20 or 25 times — for panhandling, open container violations, narcotics.
“I’ve been married twice,” he says. “I’ve had plenty of good jobs. Houses.”
This week he chooses a free blanket and The Guardian, a John Grisham legal thriller.
“Maybe one day I’ll get it together,” he says.”Who knows?”

•

Brian Williams, 52, is a former roofer who has been living in South County for 36 years and homeless for six.
“I’m an alcoholic, and that keeps me from finding regular employment,” he says. “I’ve had a broken hip and lung cancer. And I’m still smoking cigarettes. It’s a hard addiction to quit.”
Williams has been doing his laundry at Wash & Read since the library started the service.
“I love the library,” he says. “I go there every day to use the computer system to look for work, and I borrow books all the time.”
This week he accepts a free copy of Immortal Angel, by Lynsay Sands.
“I’m a sci-fi geek,” he explains.
Unlike Koenig, Williams insists that he does not panhandle, ever. But he does have a clever technique to help him get money.
“Panhandling is illegal, so I don’t do it,” he begins. “Have you ever heard of The Mandalorian? It’s a Star Wars show, and Baby Yoda is the main character.”
Six months ago, Williams explains, he bought a stuffed little Baby Yoda at Walmart.
“He rides in my backpack.”
Williams parks himself on a bench by the beach with Baby Yoda peeking adorably out of the pocket on his backpack, and when diners leaving Boston’s or Caffe Luna Rosa pass, he humbly asks, “Are you going to eat those leftovers?”
“I don’t ask for any money, but sometimes when they see Yoda they’ll give me a couple bucks,” he says. “Everybody loves Baby Yoda.”
At the moment, Baby Yoda is in the dryer.

•

On the very first Wash & Read in 2019, Stacey Runfola remembers, a homeless man was pulling his clothes out of a dryer when she heard him murmur, “That smells like self-respect.”
No, that simple word “library” doesn’t begin to describe what the Delray Beach Public Library is doing.
Maybe it needs a new name. But what?
“You can tell the library really cares about us by the way they carry themselves,” Jonathan Neves says as he pulls his own clean clothes from the dryer, heading back to his tent in the woods. “The library is a cornerstone of the community.”
The Delray Beach Public Cornerstone?
That would work.

DELRAY BEACH — Judy Craig, mother of two, reader and traveler, died June 4. She was 78.
Born Dec. 8, 1942, Ms. Craig grew up in rural Wayne County, North Carolina. She relocated to Delray Beach in 1986 and became an exceptional real estate agent for over 30 years.
Ms. Craig had a passion for reading and travel. Her library was extensive, with books on subjects from medicine to religion and movie stars to the classics. Her passports show 40 years of adventures around the world.
Ms. Craig was known for her quick wit, her infectious smile and her kind and compassionate spirit.
She is survived by her daughter, Victoria Mitchell, her son, Michael, her sister, Joyce Brock Smith, first cousin, Betty Lee Gray, and her grandson Jason Mitchell and his wife, Heather. She has many second, third and fourth cousins from her hometown.
Ms. Craig is also survived by her longtime friend Lowry Watkins Jr.
Memorial services were held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Delray Beach. In lieu of flowers, donate in her name to a favorite charity or to the American Cancer Society.

— Obituary submitted by family

GULF STREAM — Lynda Scheerer Stokes of Gulf Stream and East Hampton, New York, died June 21. She was 95.
The eldest of Paul and Gladys Scheerer’s three children, Lynda was born on Nov. 13, 1925, and raised in Llewellyn Park, New Jersey. She graduated from the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Connecticut, later becoming a fixture on the Bromley ski slopes in Vermont and joining the ski patrol.
She married John William Tiernan in 1949 and moved with him to Delray Beach in 1954 to raise their family. When her husband died in 1973, she became CEO and chairwoman of the board at Mark, Fore & Strike, the resort wear chain that was a family business. Under her leadership, the company doubled its revenues and launched a direct-to-consumer catalog that would sustain it for years to come.
In 1974 she married Alexander Coxe Stokes of Philadelphia and lived with him there and in Gulf Stream until his death in 1997. Notably, both her husbands were recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross for their service in World War II.
Mrs. Stokes was an avid golfer and won multiple club championships spanning five decades at clubs in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Florida. She had the distinction of shooting her age well into her 80s, and of having beaten both her mother and her daughter in a club final.
Additionally, Mrs. Stokes — who also went by Stumpy, Auntie Car and Gaga — was a highly competitive tennis player, an outstanding bridge player and an absolute shark at backgammon. She was very passionate about family values, love for her country and the dignity of work. She adored her friends, her family and an occasional drink called the “hummer.”
Mrs. Stokes was predeceased by her two husbands, her sister Mary Babcock and her son William Scott Tiernan. She is survived by her brother Paul R. Scheerer Jr., her son Michael Tiernan, her two daughters, Ann Purcell (Kim) Tiernan and Martha Tiernan Ely, her stepdaughter, Sandra Stokes, 10 grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and two step-great-grandchildren.
In her last days she was surrounded by her family, loving caregivers, and a motley crew of beloved characters only she could assemble. She was spirited and resilient until the end.
In lieu of flowers contributions would be appreciated to the CRC Recovery Foundation in honor of her late son, Scott. (CRC Recovery Foundation Inc., 309 NE First St., Delray Beach, FL 33483, Attn: Scott Tiernan Fund.)

- Obituary submitted by family

BRINY BREEZES — Patricia “Pat” Albers Esterman died May 10. She was 89.
Born July 7, 1931, in Cincinnati to Frank and Blanche Albers, and married for 65 years to Harry Esterman, Mrs. Esterman was a devoted mother and homemaker with a professional career.
Before marrying, she was a hairstylist. While raising their five children, she returned to the University of Cincinnati, where she received a bachelor’s and a master’s in nutrition and dietetics. Licensed as a professional dietitian, she worked as an extension agent for Purdue University and for the Women, Infants and Children program. She developed innovative programs and consulted with individuals on nutrition issues. 
Mrs. Esterman was an avid reader. She shared her love of reading with children, volunteering at schools and libraries. While quiet and modest about her many volunteer activities, she took pride in founding a United Way chapter in Franklin County, Indiana, where she resided at the time.
In 1977, the Estermans had surprised their children by moving to an 80-acre farm in Milan, Indiana. Their dream was to be able to live off their farm, its harvests and resources. Besides having a bountiful farm yielding fruits and vegetables, they raised cows and pigs.  
The couple also loved to travel, starting their life together with a honeymoon to Fort Lauderdale. In the 1960s they were founding members of the Travel-A-Go-Go Club in Cincinnati. They flew on numerous trips with their club friends. They invested in a 1970s movie about Coco Chanel and had the chance to meet the actors and tour France.
They had a lifelong love of Florida, returning for many family vacations to Pensacola, the Keys, the West Coast, Orlando, and culminating in their retirement to The Villages and Briny Breezes.  
As a second-generation Brinyite, Mrs. Esterman served on the Town’s Planning and Zoning Board and was a devoted town library volunteer. She treasured the camaraderie and close friendships at Briny Breezes. She and Harry were active in bridge, square dancing, shuffleboard, history club and travel club.
Harry Esterman died in 2016. They are survived by children Sue (Mike) Thaler, Sally (Paul) Lukez, Joyce (Wes) Culbertson, Bob Esterman, and Greg (Michelle) Esterman, as well as six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to the Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at https://medicine.iu.edu/research-centers/alzheimers/giving or Briny Breezes Library, 5000 N. Ocean Blvd., Briny Breezes, FL 33435.

— Obituary submitted by family

By Sallie James

ATLANTIS — He was a devoted father, a savvy businessman and dedicated public servant, but those who best knew former Manalapan Commissioner Thomas Joseph Thornton Jr. say it was his zest for life that made him so unforgettable.
An avid storyteller with a quick wit, Mr. Thornton died June 20 at home in Atlantis from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 75.
“He was kind of the life of the party,” said his wife, Mary Ellen, whom he married in 1972 after they met in Manhasset, New York. “He was an extrovert with a good sense of humor.”
The disease progressed over about six years, slowing him greatly, but he never complained, she said.
Mr. Thornton served as a town commissioner from 2004-2010, and again from 2013-2015 before resigning to move to Atlantis. He was mayor pro-tem his last two years on the commission.
“He was wonderful. We just thought the world of Tom,” said Manalapan Town Clerk Lisa Petersen. “So kind, so gentle, very soft-spoken. Just a gentleman.”
Former Manalapan Mayor Kelly Gottlieb remembered Mr. Thornton as a dedicated public servant who loved what he did.
“He did a fabulous job. He was one of the ones who read his booklet every meeting. Very well respected and professional,” Gottlieb said. “He was soft-spoken, but he would always get what he wanted.”
Mr. Thornton was born on March 31, 1946, in Brooklyn, New York, to Catherine and Thomas Thornton. He attended St. Mary’s High School, followed by the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, and was a die-hard Notre Dame fan for life.
He received his MBA at Long Island University in New York.
Mr. Thornton began his business career at W.R. Grace & Co., a large chemical company in Manhasset, where he worked as assistant to the company president, Peter Grace. He advanced to acquisitions and mergers, then became CEO of Orchard Supply Hardware in California.
He later served as CEO of Mr. Goodbuys, and of the gourmet food pioneer Dean and Deluca in New York City. He also did consulting for Campbell’s Soup, Fauchon, Lindt Chocolate, Junior’s Cheesecake and Kluge Winery.
He completed his career as CEO of Carmine’s in Palm Beach Gardens.
He had keen interest in gadgetry and gourmet foods, bringing home oddities like basil pesto in the early 1990s before anyone had ever heard of it, according to his son TJ Thornton.
“I had never tasted anything like it,” said TJ Thornton.
His two sons say their father’s love of storytelling is among their fondest memories.
“His was a life with a lot of accomplishments and one filled with pride. He had all sorts of stories,” said TJ. “Stories from a life well-lived. Some stories my mom wished that Ryan and I had never heard. 
“But these stories weren’t just for entertainment. The stories heard and the time spent with Dad demonstrated to all of us his resilience, his humility, his intelligence, his amazingly broad interests and knowledge.”
Ryan Thornton remembered a devoted father who did everything he could so his kids could embrace their passions. In Ryan’s case, that was hockey.
“Hockey practice was early, the weather was cold, the rink was outdoors, they were on Saturday and Sunday mornings,” Ryan Thornton recalled. “But he still got me there on time, every time, and he was not only there, but he was present — that’s a big difference. Making new friends in the stands or cheering me along, most certainly embarrassing me with compliments the whole ride home.
“Dad shared his life with us, he was our entertainment, he loved to make us laugh, he loved a good spotlight,” Ryan Thornton added.
Thomas Thornton is survived by his wife; his two sons; and his grandchildren, Alice Marie and Sam Thomas Thornton. Services were held July 16 at St. Edward Catholic Church in Palm Beach.
Memorial contributions can be made to the Parkinson’s Foundation of Florida, 200 SE First St., Suite 800, Miami, FL 33131.

Florida Atlantic University will hold its long-awaited celebration of life for legendary football coach Howard Schnellenberger on Sept. 10 at the FAU Stadium in Boca Raton.
Mr. Schnellenberger, whose accomplishments included coaching the University of Miami to its first national championship in 1983 and founding the FAU football program in 1998, died after a lengthy illness on March 27 at age 87.
Mr. Schnellenberger was an All-America tight end under Bear Bryant at Alabama, played briefly in the Canadian Football League and then started his coaching career at Kentucky. Among his other stops in six decades of coaching was under Don Shula with the Miami Dolphins, where the two played integral roles in the 1972 Dolphins’ becoming the only team in NFL history to go undefeated.
Mr. Schnellenberger built the FAU program from scratch and served as head coach from 2001-11.
Along the way he recruited Joe Namath to play at Alabama and coached dozens of other notable players, including Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar and Vinny Testaverde at Miami.
A number of former players and coaches are expected, but a full list won’t be available until later in August.  
The event will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. and is free to the public.

— Brian Biggane

GULF STREAM — Eileen Simons Giacalone, a longtime resident of Philadelphia, Miami and Boca Raton, died July 26. She was 84.
The beloved wife, mother and grandmother enjoyed putting a smile on everyone else’s face and was always upbeat. She was not shy to tell anyone how much she loved her family.
A former model and business owner (The Second Chance), she enjoyed a second career as an aesthetician and was the owner of many fashionable hats.
Mrs. Giacalone was a great host for parties and was always happy to volunteer when needed. Another great joy for her were her grandchildren, who will always remember her fondly.
She is survived by her husband, Frank Giacalone Jr., and son, Barry L. Simons (Amy, grandchildren Chloe and Dani); daughter, Susan E. Wisely (Scott); brother-in-law Charles Simons (Beth, nephews Michael and David); and brother-in-law Arthur Simons (Jessie and niece Jennifer). She was predeceased by her husband, Alan Simons, parents, Frank and Edith Summers, and brother, Frank Summers.
Friends may make memorial contributions in Mrs. Giacalone’s name to a charity of their choice. 

— Obituary submitted by family

DELRAY BEACH — William Davis Hood, a 48 year resident of Delray Beach, died July 15 from complications of Lewy body dementia, surrounded by family. He was 82.
Mr. Hood is survived by his wife, Carolyn, and six children: Jennifer Zimmerman and husband, John; William D. Hood II and wife, Kirsten, of Boca Raton; Kimberly Trevino and husband, John, of Boynton Beach; Christian Hood and wife, Danielle, of Delray Beach; Ashley Sims and husband, Rob, of Auburndale; and Alexander Hood of Boynton Beach, as well as 11 grandchildren.
He graduated from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, in 1961. In 1975, Mr. Hood started the first discount securities brokerage house in Boca Raton. Then in 1991, he started his own auction house, Bill Hood and Sons Art and Antique Auction, in Delray Beach. He had a passion for playing tennis and coaching. His ultimate joy in life came from his faith, family and friends.
A celebration of life was held at Boca Raton Community Church in the chapel.

— Obituary submitted by family

By Joe Capozzi

South Palm Beach Town Council members are poised to take another look at a project they’ve debated for more than five years — what to do with their aging Town Hall. 
Four firms are interested in doing a feasibility study on whether to renovate the existing 45-year-old building or construct a new facility. 
At the council’s next meeting on Aug. 17, Town Manager Robert Kellogg will make a recommendation on which firms to interview. 
The firms that responded to a July 29 deadline for a Request For Qualifications are: CPZ Architects in Jensen Beach, Synalovski Romanik Saye Architects in Fort Lauderdale, Alexis Knight Architects in Boynton Beach, and Song + Associates in West Palm Beach.  
If and when the council votes to hire a firm, it will mark the fourth time in six years, and the first time since March 2020 that the town will debate the future of Town Hall. 
“The can has been kicked down the road for several years and I am hoping with the proposals we get and evaluate, we can make a recommendation to council and move this thing forward once and for all,’’ Kellogg said. 
The existing Town Hall was constructed in 1976 as a public safety building and has evolved with additions built in 1993 and 1996.
The council’s first attempt at dealing with the building’s problems came in 2016 with the hiring of Alexis Knight Architects. The firm spent months studying the building, and interviewing administrative staff and residents, leaving the town with a bill for about $50,000.
The architects’ report filed the next year uncovered numerous deficiencies and code violations, and concluded with a proposal that the town replace the hall with a five-story, $6 million multiuse building.
The council quickly and unanimously shot down the idea as far too extravagant.
A second report, filed in 2018 by North Palm Beach architect John Bellamy for $5,000, recommended “adaptive reuse” of the building. Bellamy cited many of the problems uncovered by Alexis Knight, but concluded that the structure could be upgraded and repaired.
In March 2020, the council agreed to focus on the Bellamy report before the pandemic lockdown scuttled that plan. A year later, as the town started phasing out of the lockdown, officials decided “maybe we ought to take a fresh look at having someone else come in,’’ Kellogg said.
The overriding decision awaiting the council is whether to try to improve the building or tear it down and build a structure from the ground up.
If a new firm is hired, one of its duties will be to reach out to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Palm Beach County Fire Rescue about participating in, and contributing construction money for, the project. 
Seven deputies are stationed at South Palm Beach Town Hall. 
The town gets fire rescue service from county crews stationed at Manalapan Town Hall. An option would be to move them to a new South Palm Beach Town Hall, unless that cost turns out to be prohibitive. 
Fire rescue officials recently told the town the department has no money in its five-year budget for capital improvements. 
Since 2016, the town has spent about $55,000 on studying the idea. But Kellogg said he is confident some form of the project will proceed this time.  
“I think the realization has come that we need to do something with Town Hall,’’ he said. “I know all these council members are very fiscally responsible.’’  
In other business, the council in July set a tentative tax rate of $3.54 per $1,000 of taxable value, the same as the current year’s rate. A budget workshop will be held at 2 p.m. on Aug. 31 and the first public hearing is set at 5:01 p.m. on Sept. 7.

The area is home to the Hurricane Alley eatery and Oyer, Macoviak and Associates insurance agency. Coastal Star photo

By Larry Barszewski

The Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency plans to purchase the Hurricane Alley site and two buildings west of it for $3.6 million, to be part of a larger downtown redevelopment project.
The Ocean Avenue properties, owned by the Oyer family, would be added to adjacent land already owned by the CRA at 115 N. Federal Highway. It would be used in a project that would extend from Ocean Avenue to Boynton Beach Boulevard between Northeast Fourth Street and Federal Highway.
City commissioners, serving as the CRA’s governing board, agreed to the purchase price at the CRA’s July 13 meeting, with a sale likely before the end of the year.
The Oyer buildings at 511, 515 and 529 E. Ocean Ave. don’t have any historical designation, though they are some of the oldest remaining in the city. Harvey Oyer said his grandfather purchased the buildings some 90 years ago and they have since been passed down through the family.
The family has resisted past offers by the CRA to purchase the properties.
“It’s a tough decision for us. There’s a lot of family history there,” Harvey Oyer said. “Emotionally it may be hard to part with, but looking at where the city is today, our vision and our father’s vision was always for the city to be successful.”
Commissioners see the potential projects in the Federal Highway blocks immediately north of Ocean Avenue as critical to downtown’s success.
“This is the Ocean Avenue frontage that is kind of our signature street in Boynton Beach,” Mayor Steven Grant said. “The project that we have moving forward with 115, this would only enhance it such a great deal because of the value Ocean Avenue has on the property as a whole.”
The Oyer properties were appraised at $3.4 million in October. Commissioners are willing to go to the $3.6 million asking price to secure them, saying their value has likely increased anyway over the past nine months.
One concern for commissioners is making sure Hurricane Alley Restaurant and Raw Bar has a downtown home once redevelopment of the block begins. They’d like to see Hurricane Alley included in the larger redevelopment and are hopeful it can be relocated temporarily during construction.
Commissioners also decided they want to entertain as many offers as possible for the development of the CRA property on the block. The CRA is issuing a request for proposals, known as an RFP, to see what developers are interested in building on the site.
Commissioners turned down an alternative offer from Hyperion Development Group, supported by Davis Camalier, for the CRA to skip the RFP process and work directly with Hyperion to develop properties on both sides of Federal Highway north of Ocean Avenue as one project.
Camalier owns the property in the block on the east side of Federal Highway and is in the process of selling it to Hyperion. He received site plan approval from the city in 2017 for a multiuse project there called Ocean One, but nothing was ever built.
Camalier and Hyperion also have leverage because they control a key parcel that the CRA has yet to acquire on the west side, the property that is home to Boardwalk Italian Ice & Creamery, a parcel Hyperion is also buying.
Bonnie Miskel, an attorney who represents Camalier, said combining the properties on both sides of Federal Highway would make for a true gateway project that commissioners have said they want. It would also be paid for almost exclusively by Hyperion, she said.
“The project is a $350 million project,” Miskel said. “In all of the years that I’ve been doing this, I can’t even think of another CRA project where the private developer spent 90% of the money to get the buildings out of the ground.”
Camalier said commissioners should not discount the ability of Hyperion to do a great project.
“They are capable of raising huge amounts of capital,” Camalier said. “This could be our Rockefeller Center in Boynton Beach.”
Commissioners said Hyperion could submit a proposal just like any other interested group — and it might have an advantage because of the property it already plans to buy. They were reluctant to short-circuit the proposal process given the high level of interest from developers. Last year, six separate development groups submitted letters of interest for developing the CRA property on the west side of Federal Highway.
“People are interested in this property. There is a fight to be had for a champion to rise,” Commissioner Justin Katz said. “If everyone believes that competition is good, if everyone believes that a fight is good and will produce the champion, the best person or outfit to do this, the RFP is the only process.”
Only Grant and Vice Mayor Woodrow Hay favored accepting Hyperion’s letter of interest.
“I feel we are missing out on an opportunity here,” Hay said. “I’ve seen RFPs where the best did not rise to the top. We ended up going into litigation as we’re currently doing with Town Square,” a public-private partnership that’s in a dispute over two planned parking garages that have yet to be constructed.
Grant said the ability to have a combined project on both sides of Federal Highway would allow for uses that may not be included if they are done separately. He fears the new proposals will all include large apartment complexes.
“I would want to see office space. I would want to see condos. I would want to see a hotel. I do not want more residential,” Grant said. “We are missing the boat on Class A office space that is needed. It is the combined aspect of the hotel, the residential, the retail and the commercial. I don’t believe anyone else can offer that.”
Hyperion CEO Rob Vecsler said his company may move forward with plans for just the east side “because maybe we believe that waiting on the RFP adds too much uncertainty in timing. We feel the time to strike is now. The iron is hot now.”
The main portion of the CRA property is 1.58 acres it purchased for $3 million in 2018, which is now being used as surface-level parking while awaiting development. In April, the CRA approved the purchase later this year of an adjacent 0.29-acre property at 508 E. Boynton Beach Blvd. — west of Ace Hardware — for $915,000. The purchase of the three Oyer properties, with their 0.41 acres, will bring the CRA-owned portions of the block to 2.29 acres at a cost of $7.5 million.
Commissioners hope to have the RFP proposals in and reviewed, with a winner selected and negotiations completed so that a final contract can be approved at the CRA’s February 2022 meeting. The mayor and two of the four other commissioners are term-limited, so they would like to see their efforts finished before a new board is seated following the March elections.
The CRA’s purchases may not be ended. Besides the Boardwalk Italian Ice site, other privately owned properties in the eastern block include a convenience store on Ocean Avenue at Federal, a gas station at Boynton Beach Boulevard and Federal, and Ace Hardware on Boynton Beach Boulevard.
“We need to keep going and accept that the adjacent property, particularly the convenience store, likely needs to be acquired now,” Katz said. “The acquisition of the Oyer property necessitates the acquisition of the corner parcel now, because then we have the entire Ocean (Avenue) frontage.”

By Jane Smith

As Boynton Beach’s dispute with the Town Square private developer went into its second mediation session in early August, frustration over the terms of the contract and missed deadlines showed in the comments of the city’s commissioners.
Although a majority of the commissioners have shared their frustrations, Mayor Steven Grant continues to support the developer, John Markey, and his firm, JKM, despite the drama caused by the firm’s failure to meet deadlines on the promised construction of two parking garages.
Grant, who has a friendly relationship with Markey, has tried to calm the differences. The mayor and Markey are golfing buddies who played together for years, Grant told The Coastal Star on July 21. Markey also watched Grant’s dog while his daughter was being born in late March 2020.
Although all the public buildings in the nearly 16-acre site opened last year, the project still lacks the private pieces of the $250 million Town Square.
Missing are a hotel, new apartments, shops, restaurants, offices and garages to provide parking for city staff, library workers and patrons, and visitors to the renovated historic high school and Schoolhouse Children’s Museum.
In July 2020, on the same day Boynton Beach leaders and elected officials celebrated the city’s centennial with the opening of the new city hall/library building, the commission found out that JKM would not be able to deliver the garages on time, as it had promised.
JKM has since allowed Boynton Beach to park cars on the Town Square land the firm owns, according to a deal worked out by an ex-assistant city manager.
At the July 21, 2020, commission meeting, Commissioner Justin Katz questioned if shoveling more money into the project from the city solidifies the deal or converts it into a city project. “We should be in the position to take the reins back if we are doing everything other than building it,” he said.
The city sued JKM in November 2020, asking a judge to decide whether it had met all terms of the deal. By affirming the city has met its obligations, the suit claims JKM has not upheld its part of the contract and the relationship can be severed. Even if the city wins, JKM will still own the land. The city gave three parcels of Town Square land to JKM. The firm also received nearly $2 million in cash “for considerations,” according to the original March 2018 agreement. The city had an options clause in the agreement that allowed it to buy back the land for $100 a parcel. The options clause was removed in December 2018 after JKM received city approval for its site plans.
At a June 15 commission meeting held one week before the first scheduled mediation session, Katz expressed his frustration again over the contract terms when he called Markey a “property hostage taker.”
Grant disagreed.
“I have a different perception,” he said. “If we can get a better project that we could not have received three years ago, that is something the commission should look for.”
Commissioner Ty Penserga has asked for an investigation of how the deal was created, and Vice Mayor Woodrow Hay requested a workshop to explain how the deal came together. Neither one was on the commission in 2018 when the Town Square pact was made. Each suggestion failed for a lack of support at the June 15 commission meeting.
“Maybe I am taking it a little bit personally,” City Manager Lori LaVerriere told commissioners at that meeting. “There was no action taken on this project in terms of agreements or modifications to any documents without the commission being fully aware of it, voting on it and being informed. I just want to make that clear for the public. Nothing happened in the back room.”
The first mediation session was held June 23 at Boynton Beach City Hall. Markey proposed a revised agreement then, and each city commissioner received a copy of it from the city attorney, Grant said. Commissioners then were supposed to tell the city attorney whether the deal was acceptable.
A second mediation session was Aug. 2 at the law offices of Tripp Scott in Fort Lauderdale. The law firm’s president, Ed Pozzuoli, is the mediator. He also is a former chairman of the Broward County Republican Party and a Fox News analyst, according to his profile on the Twitter social media platform.
The second mediation produced a workable agreement that the City Commission will discuss behind closed doors in mid-August, Grant told The Coastal Star. If a majority of the commissioners support the deal at that session, then the commission would discuss the settlement publicly in September.

Karen Stowe (right), who co-owned the health food store at 1815 S. Federal with her husband, Mark, speaks with longtime customers Nazra Sansur and Dorina Scalia during one of the business’s final days. The store served the community since 1975. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Anthony Barber envisions the 1919 Oscar Magnuson house as only the indoor seating part of his proposed restaurant. He could buy the property, lease it, or the city could consider other ideas for the vacant building. Coastal Star photo

By Larry Barszewski

The only shipping containers ever seen on Ocean Avenue are usually being transported on freight trains rumbling down the railroad tracks that cross the downtown Boynton Beach street.
But if Anthony Barber has his wish, he’ll use up to a half-dozen shipping containers to turn a languishing historic home on the avenue into a restaurant success.
Boynton Beach city commissioners may let Barber take a stab at trying to make something out of the 1919 Oscar Magnuson house at 211 E. Ocean Ave., just east of the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum and Learning Center.
The historic property sits unused and in disrepair in the heart of the city’s redevelopment area, largely because developers have found converting the century-old house to a commercial use to be cost prohibitive.
Barber would have shipping containers as the restaurant’s kitchen and bathroom spaces, reducing renovation costs, while using the historic house and constructing a new outdoor patio for seating dinner guests. The containers are typically corrugated steel, 8-by-8.5 feet and 20 or 40 feet long.
Barber, who previously served on the CRA’s advisory board, would place the shipping containers to the rear of the house and dress them up to blend in with the overall look of the property.
Commissioners, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency’s governing board, agreed to accept a letter of interest from Barber for developing the CRA-owned property at the CRA’s July 13 meeting. That acceptance allows anyone else interested in using the property to submit proposals by the time of the board’s September meeting.
Commissioners will then decide whether to let Barber’s plan move forward, select a different proposal, or decide to reject all proposals and leave the property alone for now.
Barber currently owns Troy’s Barbeque on South Federal Highway in the city. His stepfather, Troy Davis, initially began the business 25 years ago from a roadside stand. Barber is getting set to open a second restaurant on Georgia Avenue in West Palm Beach after a failed 2019 venture in Boca Raton, where Barber said his restaurant at Glades Road and Dixie Highway just wasn’t in a good location to generate business.
Boynton Mayor Steven Grant said he would rather see a mixed-use development — which would bring in more tax revenue to the city — and not shipping containers on the avenue. A mixed-use project would also involve combining several adjacent properties and would be more in character with other planned redevelopment downtown, he said.
“We’re talking about all of these other high-end developments that are coming. I don’t think that the shipping containers on Ocean Avenue is necessarily the best fit,” Grant said. But Commissioner Justin Katz said nothing else has worked so far to get the property redeveloped.
The CRA purchased the Magnuson house in 2007 for $850,000, initially expecting to turn the building into the CRA’s offices. The CRA moved to a different location on Federal Highway instead and has since been unable to get the Ocean Avenue property developed.
The CRA sold the property for $255,000 in 2016 to a restaurant developer, but took back the property two years later after the restaurant project fell through.
“I’m open to exploring this idea, if only because previous attempts to consolidate those lots didn’t bear any fruit,” Katz said. “We’ve had this property forever. It has been worthless.”
Although Barber is interested in buying the property, CRA Executive Director Michael Simon said the site could be leased to Barber with the idea of working his restaurant into any future redevelopment project. Simon is leaving the CRA, having submitted his letter of resignation in June. He plans to leave Aug. 12 following the CRA’s August meeting.
Commissioner Christina Romelus would like to see Barber’s restaurant, which he said would not be a barbecue establishment, be a permanent fixture downtown.
“You have been a local success story that I think is exemplary of what a Boynton Beach business has the capability of doing,” Romelus said. “I want something funky and unique and different, because that’s what Ocean Avenue has to be in order for it to become the vibrant downtown we want it to be. We can’t just create a lot of mixed-use properties all up and down Ocean Avenue and think that’s what’s going to make us viable.”
An adjacent property owner who would like to do his own redevelopment of the property spoke against Barber’s plan.
Brian Fitzpatrick said he has been trying for 35 years to put a development together that would include the property — only to have the Magnuson house be a sticking point for any prospective developer. He said the house should be moved.
“You are not going to find a more willing, flexible individual to do business with. I envision a public-private partnership where the city retains equity,” Fitzpatrick told commissioners. “What I’m offering you is the possibility of creating something great.”
Grant told Fitzpatrick he could submit his own offer if he desired, but he’d probably have to come up with something more substantial if he wants to convince commissioners.
“We’re not going to be sold on possibilities. We want to be sold on realities,” the mayor said.
“We need to have the reality if you want to get a mixed-use project.”