Dozens of golfers showed their support for the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County at an outing that included lunch and a silent auction. A total of $25,000 was raised for programs serving children and adults in need. The winning foursome was Craig Tanner, Dennis Drucker, Devin Rosenberger and Luciana Garcia. ABOVE: (l-r) Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County CEO Kristin Calder with board members Robert Mitchell, Nancy Vera, Joe Grant, Regine Bataille, Sharon Hill, Debra Ghostine, Len Gray and Maggie Dickenson. Photo provided
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SeaSpray Inlet Grill enjoys a prime view of Lake Boca Raton at the Waterstone Resort, and has a dock for boaters. Photo provided
By Jan Norris
August is Restaurant Month in Delray Beach, a promotion set up by the Downtown Development Authority to fill empty dining rooms during a usually slow season.
That’s not the case this year, as diners are often seeing long waits at restaurant doors — even with reservations.
Laura Simon, executive director of the DDA, points to an extended season, saying Delray Beach is marking higher tourism numbers this summer, long past the usual time for both visitors and seasonal residents to head North.
“We’re fortunate to live in Delray and with the great work we’re doing together to promote the city, we’re seeing higher hotel occupancy than usual this time of year,” she said.
“It’s also a combination of things that are contributing to the wait times.”
These include good weather, plenty of outdoor seating — still popular with diners — and the variety of choices available within the downtown area.
Simon also acknowledges the diminished workforce, as many hospitality workers go North in summer to work in resorts or sister restaurants. Others changed jobs altogether during the pandemic. That has created a dwindling pool of servers as well as kitchen staff in Delray and across the country.
Some restaurants have begun parsing out seating during busy times to accommodate diners according to their serving capabilities; others are shrinking operating hours.
Ali Carr, who handles the host station and reservations at Lionfish, said early diners have the best chances at snagging seats, while those who prefer to eat at 7 p.m. or later may have an hour or more wait. Large parties are advised to book well in advance.
Popular spots like Elisabetta’s, Rocco’s Tacos, Rose’s Daughter and Caffe Luna Rosa also have long waits, especially on weekends, but they provide a check-in so diners can stroll around the area until they are notified by phone that their table is ready.
“Restaurants are trying to be creative, and encourage reservations well in advance,” Simon said.
The restaurants that are signed up for special prix fixe lunch and dinner meals for the Restaurant Month program have partnered with Open Table to secure reservations for their diners wanting the specials.
Restaurant Month, which offers special menus or discounts for three- and four-course meals, expanded from a weeklong program in years past to a monthlong affair last year, Simon said. Owners whose restaurants had been closed or had implemented restricted capacity appreciated the extra time to showcase their specialties.
“The community likes the opportunity to have that time to explore smaller restaurants or those that aren’t usually in the spotlight,’’ Simon said.
More than 30 restaurants were on the list to participate before Aug. 1, with more being added to the website (www.downtowndelraybeach.com) as word gets around. Newcomers Amar, Lionfish, and Avalon Steak & Seafood are joined by old favorites such as The Office, The Wine Room, The Grove, Rose’s Daughter, Dada, Death or Glory, Deck 84, the Atlantic Grille and Caffe Luna Rosa.
Diners are encouraged to give feedback, and return to support the restaurants they discover in the program.
New at the Waterstone
Many restaurants used the downtime in the last year to renovate or redesign. At the Waterstone Resort in Boca Raton, a $500,000 renovation led to a redo of the site’s restaurant, now called the SeaSpray Inlet Grill, along with the addition of a marina.
It’s now Boca’s only restaurant on the Intracoastal Waterway with docking. Boaters can tie off there and choose from an American grill menu or come for happy hour and eat at the bar. Serving the resort, the al fresco SeaSpray is open for breakfast through dinner daily.
Chef Kelley Randall, who cooked at Venu, The Office, and Vic and Angelo’s, keeps the menu tight with crowd pleasers. Grilled octopus, a mahi Reuben and frutti di mare are among the seafood offerings. The menu has skirt steak, chicken paillard and a pear tortellini in a truffle cream sauce. Several sandwiches fill out the list, as well as a few vegetarian options such as sticky cauliflower appetizer with a sesame-soy glaze.
The waterside brunch has become the place to be on the weekends — expect a wait.
SeaSpray at the Waterstone Resort, 999 E. Camino Real, Boca Raton. Phone 561-368-9500; www.seasprayboca.com.
Fine dining at Boca resort
The Boca Raton, the recently transformed resort, now has the Flamingo Grill as its signature restaurant.
New owners of the 95-year-old property, MSD Partners, L.P. and Northview Hotel Group, are calling the $175 million Phase One upgrade “A New Golden Era.” They joined with Major Food Group to create a restaurant evocative of the fine dining prevalent in the mid-1900s.
The menu created by Mario Carbone and executive chef Will Cox highlights foods familiar to diners but with contemporary twists. Dressed lobster is napped with a French curry aioli and served with pickled green apple, while tomato gazpacho includes watermelon. Entrees include whole branzino and prime steaks along with a half zesty chicken with roasted garlic vinaigrette.
Traditional service includes dinner captains in the main dining room, which is decorated in a tropical theme by the Rockwell Group. Al fresco seating on the veranda, as well as at the bar, is available. An outdoor terrace has a bar with a lighter-bites menu and signature cocktails.
Other restaurants will be added as the resort continues renovations. During the winter season 2021-2022, MFG management plans to open Sadelle’s, a popular brunch eatery with locations in New York and Las Vegas, and others focused on Japanese and Italian fare.
Currently, the Flamingo Grill is open to hotel guests and members of the resort for dinner only, Tuesday through Sunday. Lunch is expected to launch by summer’s end.
The Flamingo Grill at The Boca Raton, 501 E. Camino Real, Boca Raton. Phone 561-447-3000; www.thebocaraton.com.
Pizza goes and comes
The closing of Mellow Mushroom in Delray Beach had some pizza lovers feeling not so mellow, but the space will see new pies soon.
Nick’s New Haven Style Pizzeria and Bar in Boca Raton's Glades Plaza signed on to lease the place at 25 SE Sixth Ave. as soon as the ink dried on Mellow’s exit contract.
Nick’s is known for thin crust, coal-charred, Neapolitan pies, as well as white clam pizzas — and they’re pronounced colloquially “apizza.’’
Loyalists of the coastal city and the unique style with plenty of sauce have kept Boca’s locale busy; the owners are banking on even more exposure close to Atlantic Avenue.
No opening date has been set.
More pies for the Grove
The opening of Izza Pizza in Pineapple Grove has others, notably the vegans, doing a happy dance.
Izza Pizza has both conventional and vegan pies, as well as gluten-free. Plant-based meatballs and cashew ricotta along with cauliflower land on the animal-free list, while the omnivores can relish specialty pizzas such as bulgogi and kimchi, or bacon and onion jam, or pineapple, prosciutto and jalapeño.
Described as a cross between New York and New Haven style, with a thin, crispy crust, the conventional pizzas offered include traditional pepperoni and mushroom. You can mix and match. Order plant-based cheese with the sausage if you choose. They don’t judge.
This is one for the night workers, too. Izza Pizza says it is open 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily.
Izza Pizza, 25 NE Second Ave., Delray Beach. Phone 561-455-2442; www.izzapizza.com.
Vegan smoothies in Delray
A talent executive who helped launch Lady Gaga’s career has opened an outdoor vegan smoothie spot behind a hot yoga studio in north Delray Beach, and is getting rave reviews from her followers.
The products at Joyfull, ranging from a soft-serve dessert to smoothies and lattes, also are organic, dairy- and gluten-free.
Leah Landon, a former smoothie chain vice president, opened the tropical, sand-covered yard this summer. It’s studded with bright benches, chairs and tables, and shaded by poinciana and cassia trees and a few palms.
Joyfull is aligned with Anuttara Yoga Shala in a health and wellness partnership.
Smoothies have oat milk and coconut milk bases. A variety of fruits, berries, plant powders and spices are added for flavors. The soft-serve dessert is oat-milk based and available in house-made waffle cones.
Add-ins for protein and energy boosts and beneficial antioxidants are on tap.
Joyfull, 2219 Seacrest Blvd., Delray Beach. Open 9 a.m.-8 p.m. daily. www.choosejoyfull.com.
In brief
• Talk about pivoting: Burt Rapoport of Delray Beach’s Deck 84 has offered up a number of restaurant concepts over the decades, from American grills to Mediterranean and Italian. The latest in the works is a new homestyle Chinese called Pagoda Kitchen. It is scheduled to open in the Delray Marketplace on West Atlantic Avenue sometime in October.
Rapoport has based it on his former San Francisco Chinese restaurant, Betelnut. Peking duck, bao buns and lo mein will be on the menu, which is described as “comfort” and “neighborhood” Chinese fare.
• New England restaurateurs are buying up space to open eateries in South County. Among them is Meso Beach House, a New York Mediterranean seafood restaurant expected to open in November. It will take over the spacious former Che!!! Argentinean chop house on the Intracoastal off Atlantic Avenue. Che!!! closed in June.
Owner Bobby Khorrami, a part-time Delray resident, closed two restaurants in New York because of lack of business during the pandemic. The Big Apple was particularly hard-hit, with tourism at a standstill and severe restrictions. South Florida, in contrast, is attracting visitors, has low taxes and welcomes businesses. Meso Beach House plans to offer a trendy, modern seafood menu that also includes land fare and vegan offerings.
• Flavor Palm Beach returns after a year’s hiatus in September. The monthlong restaurant program with a fixed-price menu for participating restaurants was slow to take off, said Briana Beaty, the program’s founder.
“The restaurants were reluctant at first because they said we bring so much business, they were afraid they won’t have enough staff to accommodate all the diners,” she said.
They’ve come aboard, she said, with newcomers such as La Goulue and Almond in Palm Beach, True Food Kitchen in Boca, Amar in Delray Beach, and in West Palm Beach, the new Planta. In all more than 40 restaurants have signed up with up to 50 expected. The program benefits the Palm Beach County Food Bank this year. Find the list and information at www.FlavorPB.com.
• Jason Emmett stepped down as president of the Duffy’s Sports Grill chain, and partnered with Carl Berry and Amy Siegel to create Paradigm Hospitality Group. They’ve acquired three restaurant concepts during the pandemic. They own the American Icon Brewery in Fort Lauderdale and Vero Beach, the Agency Kitchen & Bar in the Delray Marketplace, and have taken over the Sundy House in Delray Beach. Expect more from the group, now that the dust seems to have settled.
• Coming to Mizner Park this fall: Pure Green, a smoothie and bowls meal outlet, and Subculture Coffee, a coffee and sandwich shop owned by Rodney Mayo’s group. Look for other dining and shop additions as Mizner undergoes a redo.
Jan Norris is a food writer who can be reached at nativefla@gmail.com
Delray Medical Center recently honored its first two graduates from the Florida Atlantic University Cardiovascular Fellowship at the center: Dr. Priya Bansal and Dr. Haider Al Taii. Under the leadership of Dr. Brij Maini, national and Florida medical director for cardiology for Tenet Healthcare and fellowship director of cardiovascular diseases for the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at FAU, the fellows trained with Delray physicians and nursing staff. ABOVE (l-r): Maini with Al Taii, cardiologist Dr. Houman Khalili, Bansal, and Maggie Gill, CEO of Delray Medical Center. Photo provided
By Christine Davis
The Eugene M. & Christine E. Lynn Cancer Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital has opened the Lynn Cancer Institute at Bethesda — Radiation Oncology, at Bethesda Health City, 10301 Hagen Ranch Road, Boynton Beach.
Boca Raton Regional Hospital, Bethesda Hospital East and Bethesda Hospital West are all part of Baptist Health South Florida. The institute will be under the direction of Michael Kasper, M.D., medical director of radiation oncology at Lynn Cancer Institute.
“We look forward to this partnership that will help us bring state-of-the-art comprehensive oncology care closer to our patients and community,” said Nelson Lazo, CEO of Bethesda Hospital East and Bethesda Hospital West.
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Haroula Protopapadakis Norden was appointed chief operating officer of Boca Raton Regional Hospital, part of Baptist Health South Florida. Protopapadakis Norden is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and served as the 2020 president of the South Florida chapter’s board of directors. She comes to Boca Regional from Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, where she was associate administrator.
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Cardiac and thoracic surgeon Ahmad Hamzah, M.D., has joined Baptist Health Medical Group North. Previously, he worked at Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point in Hudson. Hamzah will see patients at Boca Raton Regional Hospital and Bethesda Hospital East.
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Seif Elbualy, M.D., has joined Marcus Neuroscience Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, as the director of interventional pain management. Previously, Elbualy was director at the Comprehensive Center for Pain Management at Boca Regional. He will see patients at 800 Meadows Road in Boca Raton.
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Mary Elizabeth “Libby” Flippo is now a member of the Florida Board of Nursing, as appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The board has 13 members. It licenses, monitors, disciplines and educates licensees. Flippo is the chief nursing officer for the Palm Beach Health Network, which includes Delray Medical Center, Good Samaritan Medical Center, Palm Beach Children’s Hospital, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, St. Mary’s Medical Center and West Boca Medical Center.
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Dr. Erica R. Podolsky, a general surgeon with expertise in bariatric and minimally invasive surgery, recently performed her 500th robotic surgery with the da Vinci robot at Delray Medical Center.
Podolsky is the medical director of the Surgical Weight Loss Program at Delray Medical Center, where she specializes in robotic laparoscopic abdominal surgery. She also serves as the chair of quality and patient safety on Delray Medical Center’s Medical Executive Committee.
Podolsky’s office is at 4600 Linton Blvd., Suite 340, Delray Beach. Visit DrEricaPodolsky.com or call her office at 561-939-0455 for more information.
For more information about Delray Medical Center’s bariatric and robotic services, call 844-474-8378 or go to www.delraymedicalctr.com.
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In May, JFK Medical Center North campus began performing joint replacement surgery using the Mako robot, which allows surgeons to perform a more customized joint replacement surgery.
“The 3D CT allows me to create a personalized surgical plan based on each patient’s unique anatomy,” said Dr. Lyall Ashberg, orthopedic surgeon at JFK Medical Center North. “During surgery, I can validate the plan and make any necessary adjustments. This allows me to execute the procedure with the highest degree of precision and accuracy.”
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Heartland Health Care & Rehabilitation Center of Boca Raton, 7225 Boca Del Mar Drive, was recognized as a 2021 recipient of the Silver — Achievement to Quality Award by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living. The distinction is the second of three progressive award levels that honor association members across the country that have demonstrated their commitment to improving quality of care for seniors and people with disabilities. The awards will be presented during American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living’s 72nd convention and expo in National Harbor, Maryland, in October.
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Hanley Foundation is offering a series of training at 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Aug. 25. Free and open to the public, the Recovery Leadership Institute Summer Advocacy Training was designed to produce equitable outcomes for people impacted by substance use disorder, including recovery and addiction specialists and leaders, families of people with addiction disorders, people in recovery, and families who have had life-adjusting experiences related to addiction.
The workshops have in-person and online attendance options, and the members of the public can choose which ones they want to attend. All presentation recordings will be made available Sept. 1 in honor of the start of National Recovery Month.
Participants are encouraged to join the livestream or in-person sessions as these sessions are interactive, led by credentialed volunteer instructors. In-person presentations take place at the Palm Beach County HUB at 2120 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach.
To view the remaining workshops and to register, visit Hanleyfoundation.org/public-policy/recovery-leadership-institute/ or contact Clarice Redding Louis, Hanley Foundation’s chief recovery community officer, at Clarice@HanleyFoundation.org.
Send health news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com.
This purr-fect pour has a cat’s portrait. Photo provided
By Arden Moore
Mega coffee chains like Starbucks can offer you many varieties of coffee, but they can’t serve you a latte with a purr. That combination is available only at cat cafés, places to savor coffee and other beverages while interacting with cats up for adoption.
A few years ago, I visited Koneko in downtown Manhattan, where the felines roaming inside come from the Anjellicle Cats Rescue group. Koneko means “kitten” in Japanese.
It was a unique experience that motivated me to seek out other cat cafés to visit. My total is now five, including ones in San Diego, Chicago and a couple in Texas.
But now, you won’t have to leave Palm Beach County to partake in this experience, because plans are underway to open a cat café at the Peggy Adams Rescue League center in West Palm Beach.
“We hope to open our cat café in about a month,” says Rich Anderson, executive director/CEO at Peggy Adams. “We thought our community would love being able to spend time and get to know adoptable cats in a super-comfortable setting, and to do so while enjoying coffee or tea. Each day, a few cats will be introduced to the café and our human guests will also be able to watch cats playing in the adjacent catio.”
This cat café is inside the newly opened Lesly S. Smith Pet Adoption Center, which includes a cat adoption wing, three dog wings plus a new humane education center, a grooming room, veterinarian’s office and much more. In total, the facility is 28,000 square feet and is designed to showcase pets in need of adoption and offer classes and other programs to the pet-loving public.
“Lesly Smith has served as chairman of the board of Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League since 2009, and no person has meant more to the organization or the animals of the community than she,” says Anderson. “It was never Lesly’s intent to see the new pet adoption center named for her. Prior to the launch of the capital campaign, Lesly’s daughter, Danielle Moore, approached us with her wish to make the lead gift in her mother’s honor.”
This new wing with a cat café represents an evolution in how successful animal shelter centers operate. The days of shelters referred to as pounds and found in seedy locations in cities are thankfully disappearing. Surfacing are shelters like Peggy Adams that seek to become community centers that go beyond housing cats and dogs and other companion animals to be adopted.
“So much has changed for the better in the last 20 years nationwide for shelter animals,” says Anderson. “Adoption and foster programs have become so successful that more attention and resources have been able to shift toward programs meant to prevent animals from entering shelters in the first place. Our Safety Net programs — affordable and free veterinary care, our free pet food pantry, behavior training and support — continue to expand.”
Cat cafés exist all over the globe. Honors for being the world’s first belong to Cat Flower Garden, which opened in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1998. The United States has an estimated 140 cat cafés.
And, yes, they strive to have playful feline names, such as The Tipsy Tabby in Newmarket, New Hampshire, Eat, Purr, Love Cat Café in Columbus, Ohio, and Purrington’s Cat Lounge in Portland, Oregon.
Some cafés serve coffee and/or alcoholic beverages. Some offer food, but all offer an opportunity to hang out with cats in a relaxing, living-room like setting.
Quality cat cafés ensure all cats are up-to-date on vaccinations. Think of them as cageless shelters for cats and kittens. They feature cat trees for felines to survey activity from preferred high places as well as cubby holes to nap uninterrupted, comfy beds, toys and much more. Litter boxes are often out of sight, but accessible to the cats.
This enriching environment enables cats to feel safe, relax and display behaviors that may win them forever homes.
Each café has its own rules for visitors, but topping the list is practicing good hygiene by thoroughly washing your hands before and after handling cats, and never picking up a cat, but rather, allowing the cat to come to you.
Until the new cat café opens at Peggy Adams, I will enjoy sipping my coffee inside a ceramic mug sporting the photo of my favorite feline, Pet Safety Cat Casey, who assists me in my pet first-aid and pet behavior classes. And, I will look for new episodes of Call Me Kat airing on Fox this fall, starring Mayim Bialik as an owner of a fictional cat café in Louisville, Kentucky.
Coffee and cats definitely blend well together.
Learn more
For more information about the cat café, the new Lesly S. Smith Pet Adoption Center and other activities at the Peggy Adams Rescue League, visit www.peggyadams.org.
Arden Moore, founder of FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, author, speaker and master certified pet first-aid instructor. She hosts Oh Behave! weekly on PetLifeRadio.com. Learn more at www.ardenmoore.com.
A vaccinated man gives a thumbs up during the Rev. Joseph Dawkins’ campaign to protect his congregation. Photo provided
By Janis Fontaine
For the Rev. Joseph Dawkins of St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Delray Beach, serving the senior community has been a passion since he was a young man. When ambition took him to Dallas and he had to leave his mother behind in Ocala, Dawkins worried.
When she told him a young man, without being asked, had been coming by to mow her lawn for free, Dawkins was first suspicious, then grateful. That man’s act of kindness made such an impression, Dawkins made a commitment to help people who can’t do for themselves. It’s a passion the pastor shares with his wife, Reather.
When the coronavirus came along 18 months ago, it seemed to draw a bead on the population Dawkins was most committed to serving. An unexpected blessing was that the church had already been getting ready to add virtual services.
“We were ahead of the curve,” Dawkins said. “We’d already bought the equipment. We had brought in installers and hired a few experts and we were ready to go.”
The church was ready to reach and be reached on Facebook or YouTube or the church’s website.
But people were still vulnerable. When vaccines against COVID-19 became available to older adults, it became Dawkins’ mission to see that St. Paul MBC’s seniors got the shots. “Our vaccination rate is high among age 55 and older,” he said. “Almost 100% are vaccinated.”
The church accomplished this through a series of vaccination outreach efforts, which initially included helping people register with public health agencies, then hosting a series of vaccination days in April and May in partnership with Meadows Pharmacy.
The church became a state-sanctioned vaccine distribution site, but when the rate of vaccinations fell to a trickle, it became easier to send people directly to Meadows Pharmacy than to host clinics.
Still, vaccination rates among ages 54 and younger in his church community are lower than Dawkins would like: He guessed only about half have taken the shots.
At first the impediments were getting people registered for the vaccine and arranging transportation. But the team solved those issues, almost on a one-by-one basis. Don’t have computer access? We’ll enter the data. Can’t get out of your car? We’ll come out to you. Don’t have an appointment? We take walk-ups. Don’t have transportation? We’ll drive you or find someplace easy to get to on public transportation.
Those were easy problems to solve, Dawkins said. And it’s still easy to register, whether you’re a church member or not. Just call the church to set up your appointment at the pharmacy and “skip the line.”
Today the biggest hurdle is misinformation. But Dawkins deals with this issue the same way: calmly and one on one.
“We went knocking on doors and talking to people sitting under the trees. We tried to explain facts and dispel rumors. It was a boots-on-the-ground effort,” he said.
The Rev. Howard Barr of St. Paul “has a live prayer line every morning from 7:30 to 8 a.m.,” Dawkins said. “He does more than pray. He tries to get the facts out. He answers questions and settles arguments.” With listeners from New York to Dallas, he tries to calm the vitriol of social media and cable news.
But it’s not just negative reporting that keeps people away. Dawkins says some cultural obstacles exist, including a general mistrust about medical procedures.
But right now, Dawkins is excited about another milestone: The church will commemorate 92 years of service to the community in August with a series of events. This will include a celebration on the fourth Sunday, Aug. 22.
Check www.saintpaulmbc.org or call 561-278-7149 for details. The church is at 46 SW 10th Ave.
Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at janisfontaine@outlook.com.
Ruvi New teams up on a video offering a message of love.
You may not know that Rabbi Ruvi New, co-director of Chabad of East Boca Raton, is a talented songwriter. His latest music video, featuring Canadian Hasidic Jewish cantor and singer Shlomo Simcha, is called It’s Never Too Late.
It’s a catchy, upbeat, folk-inspired song, offering encouragement amid the current political climate. Its primary message is one of love, followed closely by the advice “Be proud to be a Jew,” and “Be the leader you were born to be.”
In 2017, New fulfilled his lifelong dream by making Storm the World, an album featuring 12 original songs.
See the latest video at www.StormTheWorldProject.com.
Changing of the guard at Congregation B’nai Israel
It’s the end of an era at Congregation B’nai Israel of Boca Raton. After 27 years, Rabbi Robert A. Silvers was elevated to rabbi emeritus. Generally, the role of a rabbi emeritus involves stepping back and being suitably honored, but Silvers is not in the habit of stepping back. Perhaps he’ll spend his time pursuing his interest in reading and collecting Jewish stories and in Sephardic history and spending more time with his family.
Silvers’ promotion cleared the way for Rabbi Rony Keller, the synagogue’s senior associate rabbi, to become senior rabbi on July 1. Keller, a native Floridian with a degree from the USF, joined CBI in 2017. He has updated and improved the school curriculum, led Shabbat and High Holy Days services and helped restructure the congregation’s bylaws.
Visit www.cbiboca.org for more information on the synagogue and the clergy.
St. Paul’s to hold series of discussions on race
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Delray Beach will host the 2021-22 “Sacred Ground Dialogue Circle,” a program that focuses on anti-racism and reconciliation through small-group discussions.
The 13-session series will begin with an orientation on Monday, Sept. 27 at 7 p.m. Subsequent sessions will meet periodically at 7 p.m. Mondays through March 28.
The program is free but you must register at https://stpaulsdelray.org.
St. Paul’s is at 188 S. Swinton Ave. Call 561-276-4541.
— Janis Fontaine
Garden coordinator Veronica Green pulls weeds from a raised bed to prepare it for the next crop. Photo provided
By Janis Fontaine
On three-quarters of an acre just a block from the Delray Beach courthouse and active Atlantic Avenue is a tiny garden just for kids. In the Delray Beach Children’s Garden, kids can climb trees and rope-ladders, plant and harvest vegetables, make mud pies and mud soup, find friends in a colony of worms, and learn about the importance of green space.
To its founders, the garden is a place to nurture eco-consciousness in children because kids who love nature will want to protect it. It’s their legacy.
But it’s also about having good, clean fun, being a kid and getting wet and dirty. On Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the garden is open to the public for playtime. The garden is closed on Sundays through August but will reopen for play on Sundays too in September. A donation of $5 is requested.
Playgrounds are nice, program manager Veronica Green said, but some have hard surfaces or rubber mulch. Nothing compares to real dirt under your feet, the sweet fragrance of the plants and herbs thriving in the South Florida sun and access to nature everywhere you look.
Green says the garden is about “unstructured play. We added a lot of features to encourage free play.”
A water table with bins and buckets is popular. A wash-away art board with bright tempura paints is ready for creative moments. The worm farm, where delicate red wigglers (Eisenia foetida) make the world’s best fertilizer by eating your nasty old banana peels, is a marvel.
Nooks and crannies throughout the garden provide comfy seating where parents can mingle and enjoy the shade — there’s plenty — while kids make new friends with beetles and butterflies, lady bugs and goldfish. A repurposed rowboat allows for imaginary voyages, and fruit trees yield delicacies such as cotton candy berries and chocolate pudding fruit.
The garden was founded by Jeannie Fernsworth, a horticulturist, and Shelly Zacks, a retired preschool teacher, in 2015. Green is a certified educator through the Eastern Regional Association of Forest and Nature Schools and keeps the trains running on time. She and Executive Director Christina Nicodemou facilitate the classes the garden offers.
Mother Nature & Me, offered every Thursday, is designed for ages 1-5 years. In addition to unstructured playtime, kids have time for arts and crafts and to listen to Ms. Veronica’s story time under the Simon Grass River Chickee Hut. Registration for the class is required and a donation of $10 per child is requested.
Green is also a children’s book author, and her series The Adventures of Veggie Vero features a vegan superhero who rescues animals and teaches children about compassionate living. The books also teach the importance of a plant-based diet, and at the end of each book Green includes a recipe kids can make.
In fall and spring, the garden offers an extensive Nature Education Cooperative for home-schoolers. The 10-week program, for ages 3 to 8, meets weekly for three hours of science, cooking, art, math, language, mindfulness activities, and gardening. The September program is full but registration opens in November for the spring session, which begins in January.
The coronavirus pandemic hit the garden hard, Green said. For almost a year, no children could visit. The garden, which leases its space from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, recently started a Sponsor of the Month campaign.
By paying the garden’s monthly rent ($1,000), sponsors get a beautiful sign in the garden, acknowledgment in the garden’s monthly newsletter, on its website and on social media, and the appreciation of the community.
The Delray Dunes Garden Club sponsored the garden in July. A sponsor is still needed for December. Check the children’s garden website for other ways to help.
Delray Beach Children’s Garden is at 137 SW Second Ave. Visit www.delraybeachchildrensgarden.org.
Casey Kiernan runs toward the finish as the overall winner of the 2021 Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis, an 80-mile open ocean competitive stand-up paddle race. Paddle boarders, kayakers and a wake boarder completed the crossing from Bimini in the Bahamas to Lake Worth Beach. The event raised more than $635,000 to support families affected by cystic fibrosis. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
The gated property has after-beach amenities such as a summer kitchen, an outdoor shower, a full cabana bath and a serene beachfront terrace with firepit.
This serene three-story beach house was artfully redesigned with clean lines and superb finishes. It has a design focused on comfort, convenience and laid-back luxury living.
The house sits on 101 feet of oceanfront and features an executive office with conference room and a complete one-bedroom apartment on the top floor overlooking the ocean.
The high-end, fully equipped kitchen has Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances, and a temperature- controlled wine room for about 1,000 bottles.
A formal dining room on the first floor has a built-in granite-top table with sofa style seating and french doors leading to the oceanfront terrace with a screened-in pool loggia.
Take the elevator to the sumptuous master suite on the second floor, which has a sitting room, an oceanfront balcony, a linear gas fireplace, a morning bar, and a massive walk-in island closet.
The living room with coffered ceiling also has ocean view floor-to-ceiling impact windows.
Also on this level are a gym, two additional ensuite bedrooms and a two-bedroom staff suite.
Fine details such as marble, stone and wood floors, motion-sensitive lighting, a barrel tile roof and updated CBS construction complete the checklist of amenities in this prime location property.
The home is accessed through an enclosed front entry brick paver motorcourt with three garage bays.
Offered at $14,500,000 by Pascal and Antonio Liguori, Premier Estate Properties, 900 East Atlantic Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33483, 561-789-8300.
Each month, The Coastal Star features a house for sale in our community. The House of the Month is presented as a service to our advertisers and provides readers with a peek inside one of our houses.
Condos line A1A at the south end of Boca Raton. A Coastal Star analysis of property records shows 79 condos on the barrier island in Boca Raton. Of these, 61 were built prior to 1982. Google Maps
By Mary Hladky
A proposed Boca Raton ordinance will require buildings 30 years old or older to be inspected to determine if they are safe, with subsequent inspections every 10 years.
The ordinance will apply to buildings that are taller than three stories, or 50 feet, and that are occupied by 500 or more people.
The mandatory inspections must be conducted by both a structural and an electrical engineer, who will identify any deficiencies and needed repairs. They also will say how long it will take to do the work.
Owners will be responsible for hiring the engineers, who would submit reports to the city.
Owners will be given 180 days to complete the repairs, although they would have to be done sooner if the inspection identifies serious problems.
The proposed ordinance was prompted by the horrific Surfside condo collapse that has claimed nearly 100 lives. It will establish recertification standards like those that exist in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, but that Palm Beach County never adopted.
But Boca’s ordinance would be more stringent. Miami-Dade and Broward require recertification when a building is 40 years old.
Other cities and Palm Beach County also are considering ordinances intended to avert a disaster like Surfside’s.
Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer first proposed a city ordinance, and has said that he wanted the city to be the first to adopt one. But he is willing to amend the ordinance if other cities and the county reach an agreement on the best way to make buildings safer so that uniformity exists.
The ordinance will be introduced at the City Council’s July 27 meeting, but no other action will take place then. The council will vote on Aug. 24 and the ordinance will take effect immediately if approved.
Under the proposed ordinance, the city’s chief building official will send a “notice of required inspection” to the owner of a building requiring recertification at least one year before the recertification deadline.
Although he did not have a specific count, City Manager Leif Ahnell said in a memo to the City Council that many buildings will meet the requirements for recertification, creating a backlog.
As a result, the chief building official will prioritize buildings for inspections based on factors such as building age, location, construction materials and number of residents.
By Mary Hladky
In the wake of the horrific Surfside condo collapse, Boca Raton is moving rapidly to enact rules that would require buildings to be inspected for safety.
Mayor Scott Singer said that a new ordinance will be discussed at the City Council’s next meetings on July 26 and 27, and could be enacted in August.
Singer and city staff envision tougher standards than those in place in Miami-Dade County, where licensed engineers or architects must certify a building’s safety or document needed repairs after it turns 40, and then every 10 years after that, to meet recertification standards.
The city doesn’t want to wait until a building is 40 years old to inspect it and start any needed repairs, Singer said.
“By putting in recertification standards, we can provide greater protection and safeguards for the residents than what we already have,” Singer said on June 29.
City staff are hammering out details, but Singer said at a July 13 town hall meeting that certification could be required when a building is 30 years old, or possibly earlier than that.
Also under consideration is requiring certification for all buildings that are at least three stories tall. Another option would be requiring it for buildings of a certain height.
Reporting requirements could be part of the ordinance, such as mandating that engineers must provide the city with building inspection reports.
The ordinance will be limited to building safety. It will not deal with other matters such as condominium reserve funds for repairs or condo board management which likely fall under state control.
The state Legislature may take its own action, but since it won’t be in session again until January, “I thought it was important to move now,” Singer said.
Singer would like the city to be the first in the county to adopt new rules. But as other cities and the county also consider their own rules, he said Boca Raton’s ordinance could be revised if a consensus is reached among governments about the best way to proceed.
“All along I thought coordination and collaboration among governments is a good thing,” he said. “I just knew we wanted to act first and maybe in our acting we are encouraging others to act as well.
“We will work together to harmonize and not have conflicting or confusing regulations,” he added. “The goal is safety and it is a shared goal.”
Miami-Dade created the 40-year recertification requirement in 1974 after the collapse of a 30-year-old office building in downtown Miami that killed seven people. Broward County adopted similar rules in 2005.
Palm Beach County, however, never followed suit. It’s up to condominium boards to make sure their buildings are adequately maintained. In Boca, Singer said the La Fontana condo at 2003 N. Ocean Blvd. is nearing completion of a very costly restoration.
Yet the decision to begin expensive repairs can be fraught, with some condo owners resisting projects that will require paying hefty special assessments.
The board of Surfside’s Champlain Towers South first learned their building needed extensive repairs in 2018. Although its board levied special assessments and arranged financing, work had just begun when it collapsed in the middle of the night on June 24 as many of its residents were sleeping.
The project cost had risen from $9 million in 2018 to $15 million before the collapse, the Miami Herald has reported.
But the scope of the tragedy has pushed Miami-Dade leaders to toughen standards even more. For example, Miami Beach has begun visual inspections of the 507 buildings in the city that require 40-year recertification, according to the Herald.
An analysis by The Coastal Star of Palm Beach County property records shows 73 condo/co-ops located on the barrier island in Boca Raton. Of these, 56 were built before 1982.
An analyis by The Coastal Star of Palm Beach County property records shows Delray Beach has 91 condos and co-ops on the barrier island. Of these, 75 were built prior to 1982. Above is an aerial photo of the south end of Delray's barrier island. Google Maps
By Jane Smith
The city’s chief building official is representing Delray Beach on a countywide task force created in reaction to the June 24 horrific collapse of a Surfside condo building, commissioners agreed on July 6.
The Palm Beach County League of Cities called officials from the county's 39 municipalities together to create rules for recertifying older condos, interim City Manager Jennifer Alvarez said. The first meeting of the building officials was July 2 and the next one will be July 9. Chief Building Official Steve Tobias will represent Delray Beach.
Only two Florida counties — Broward and Miami-Dade -— require condos over 40 years old to be recertified.
“If we need to move quicker than the county, we can do that,” Alvarez said. One reason would be that Delray Beach does not have as many high-rises as its neighbors to the south and north, she said.
The city will send letters to condo associations based on the building’s age, reminding them “that you are in charge of maintenance,” Alvarez said. The letters will be sent by July 9, she said.
Delray Beach, as other cities, inspects buildings only while one is under construction, being repaired or when someone makes a complaint about a condo’s structural integrity.
“I think the city is lax for not having anything,” Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson said. “I don’t want to be the next Surfside.”
In Surfside,officials say 145 people are either missing or dead.
City firefighters assist with Surfside recovery
Alvarez also said the city sent three firefighters to help with the Surfside recovery operation for seven days. They will work 12-hour shifts and the city will be reimbursed for the costs, including overtime incurred in Delray Beach to cover for the firefighters.
Surfside asked the county for 30 firefighters, Fire Chief Keith Tomey said.
By Mary Hladky
In the wake of the horrific Surfside condo collapse, Boca Raton is moving rapidly to enact rules that would require aging buildings to be inspected for safety.
Mayor Scott Singer said that rules will be discussed at the City Council’s next meeting on July 27 and could be enacted in August.
Singer and city staff envision tougher standards than those in place in Miami-Dade County, where licensed engineers or architects must certify a building’s safety or document needed repairs after it turns 40, and then every 10 years after that, to meet recertification standards.
Specifics are being hammered out, but Singer said the city doesn’t want to wait until a building is 40 years old to inspect it and start any needed repairs.
“By putting in recertification standards, we can provide greater protection and safeguards for the residents than what we already have,” Singer said on June 29.
Officials in other cities and the county also are considering similar actions, and Singer expects that building safety regulations could be done regionally or statewide.
But since the state Legislature won’t be in session again until next year, “I thought it was important to move now,” he said.
Miami-Dade created the 40-year recertification requirement in 1974 after the collapse of a 30-year-old office building in downtown Miami that killed seven people. Broward County adopted similar rules in 2005.
Palm Beach County, however, never followed suit. It’s up to condominium boards to make sure their buildings are adequately maintained. In Boca, Singer said the La Fontana condo at 2003 N. Ocean Blvd. is nearing completion of a very costly restoration.
Yet the decision to begin expensive repairs can be fraught, with some condo owners resisting projects that will require paying hefty special assessments.
The board of Surfside’s Champlain Towers South first learned their building needed extensive repairs in 2018. Although its board levied special assessments and arranged financing, work had just begun when it collapsed in the middle of the night on June 24 as many of its residents were sleeping.
The project cost had risen from $9 million in 2018 to $15 million before the collapse, the Miami Herald has reported.
But the scope of the tragedy has pushed Miami-Dade leaders to toughen standards even more. For example, Miami Beach has begun visual inspections of the 507 buildings in the city that require 40-year recertification, according to the Herald.
An analysis done by The Coastal Star of Palm Beach County property records shows 73 condos or co-ops are located on the barrier island in Boca Raton. Of these, 56 were built before 1982.
By Mary Hladky
The taxable value of Palm Beach County properties jumped higher than Property Appraiser Dorothy Jacks estimated in May, defying fears that the coronavirus pandemic would deal a harsh blow.
The preliminary tax roll that Jacks’ office submitted to the state Department of Revenue on June 24 showed that countywide taxable values increased by 5.8% from 2020 to 2021, just under last year’s 5.9% rise and above the May estimate of 5.05%.
That translates to a total countywide taxable value of $222.1 billion, up nearly $12 billion from last year and including $3.2 billion in new construction added to the tax roll.
This marks the tenth year in a row that taxable values have increased.
Jacks had expected last year that the taxable value of commercial properties such as office buildings, hotels and restaurants would take a hit because of the pandemic.
That proved true but not across the board. Hotels and entertainment venues such as movie theaters and bowling alleys were hit hard, but warehousing remained strong. Restaurants suffered, but fast-food eateries with drive-thru did well.
The commercial declines were offset by an increase in the taxable value of residential properties which began to improve at the end of last year.
“It may be difficult to recall the uncertainty of COVID-19’s disruptions on real estate markets last spring, especially as residential values saw a strong rebound at the end of 2020,” Jacks said in announcing the updated numbers. “However, other sectors continue to recover at a slower pace.”
The valuations are good news for city officials, who now are in the process of crafting budgets and setting tax rates for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1.
City officials use taxable values to calculate how much property tax money they can expect in the coming year. A decline in values would have meant less tax revenue coming in, which would have forced difficult budget and tax rate decisions.
All 10 cities and towns in southeast Palm Beach County realized taxable value gains, although seven saw smaller increases than last year.
Boca Raton was up 3.8%, Boynton Beach 5.2% and Delray Beach 5.3%.
Briny Breezes increased by 10.4%, Gulf Stream 2.5%, Highland Beach 3.5%, Lantana 9.3%, Manalapan 7.2%, Ocean Ridge 4.5% and South Palm Beach 4.4%.
By Jane Smith
Delray Beach city commissioners unanimously selected Terrence Moore to be their new city manager on June 8.
City Attorney Lynn Gelin will negotiate the terms of Moore’s employment contract instead of the city’s outside labor counsel, Brett Schneider.
“I’m confident the process will go smoothly,” Gelin said when Schneider was supposed to be involved. Schneider had suggested Commissioner Ryan Boylston as the commission liaison, but Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson wanted Gelin to do the negotiating.
Gelin agreed and thanked Johnson for her vote of confidence.
Moore impressed the commission during morning interviews when he said he would move into Delray Beach if selected as city manager.
“You only feel the impact of the decisions if you live here,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said during the interviews.
Moore most recently served as the city manager of College Park, Georgia, home of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
That city, he said during the interviews, offers only one-year contracts to its city managers. Instead of concentrating on getting his ninth, one-year contract, Moore said he made a concerted effort to separate from the city.
Originally from the South Side of Chicago, his first break in city leadership came in 1995 when he became the assistant city manager in Deerfield Beach.
The two other finalists for the Delray Beach position were Michael Bornstein, former city manager in Lake Worth Beach, and Leonard Sossamon, former interim city manager in Port Richey.
By Mary Hladky
Boca Raton officials have canceled a planned July 4th “Fabulous Fourth Celebration” that would have been held at Countess deHoernle Park.
The announcement on the city’s website said the cancellation was a “difficult decision” and thanked residents for their “patience and understanding.”
The city indicated a virtual event would be held instead but did not announce specifics.
The city has sponsored numerous virtual events since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Most recently, the Recreation Services Department hosted a Memorial Day ceremony that residents could watch on the city’s YouTube channel and the recreation department’s Facebook page. The May 31 event also was recorded and could be viewed on YouTube, Facebook, and Comcast Xfinity Channel 20, Hotwire Channel 395 and AT&T U-Verse Channel 99.
State Road A1A at Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach often is jammed with vehicles, and the county Transportation Planning Agency labels it a ‘high-crash corridor’ for bicyclists even though it has bike lanes. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star BELOW RIGHT: Steve Barry, needed extensive rehab after a crash in Manalapan. Photo provided
By Joe Capozzi
The Jeep SUV struck Jerry Mandello first. Its side mirror sheared off a piece of his left ear and launched Mandello and his bicycle into the hedges outside an estate along State Road A1A in Manalapan.
Steve Barry, pedaling south in front of Mandello, was hit next. The SUV smashed into the rear wheel of his black S-Works bicycle, split the bike in two and dragged Barry several yards along the pavement as two other cyclists in their group of four watched in horror.
Mandello, before fetching the severed chunk of his ear from the side of the road (doctors would sew it back on), ran to his friend.
“His bike was a pretzel and his legs were shredded,’’ he recalled. “I’m shaking him. He’s not moving for a while. I thought he was gone.’’
But Barry, a former Navy officer who did reconnaissance river patrols in the jungles of Vietnam before becoming a successful West Palm Beach accountant, might be the epitome of resiliency. A devoted cyclist, he also climbs ice walls in Montana and snowboards from helicopters on unbroken British Columbia powder.
“One tough dude,’’ said Mandello, who snapped a photo of Barry sitting on the curb after he regained consciousness, his legs black and bloody, a slight grin on his face.
When Barry came to, he looked at his legs and saw gashes with exposed bone and shredded muscle.
“It wasn’t pretty,’’ said Barry, who had his football-damaged knees replaced in 2013.
“As I got thrown off the bike, my pedal and shoe stayed on my foot and separated from the bike. The whole frame was broken in half and there were ragged pieces of carbon everywhere. My legs got sliced and diced on the inside because as I went off the bike I must have hit these carbon pieces that were split sideways.’’
The driver of the 1995 Cherokee, an 80-year-old Briny Breezes man, tried to leave the scene, but Barry’s companions blocked his vehicle with their bikes until police arrived.
He was cited for careless driving that day, Feb. 11, 2020. He said he was headed south at 5 p.m. “behind a large line of vehicles when he suddenly heard a thud on the side of his car,’’ according to a Manalapan police report.
He pleaded not guilty. That summer, a judge dismissed the case because a witness failed to attend the driver’s traffic infraction trial, which was held on Zoom, court records show.
By then, Barry was in Big Sky, Montana, going through grueling physical therapy sessions that helped him regain his strength after his wounds were closed with 400 staples and 300 stitches.
“I won’t go back onto the road,’’ said Barry, who mounted the mangled pieces of the bike on the wall of his garage as a reminder. “It’s not worth the risk.”
A1A seen as dangerous
Avid cyclists like Barry have long known that Palm Beach County, in particular the scenic coastal stretches of A1A, can be a dangerous place to ride. But recent statistics show a disturbing trend in fatalities.
Eleven bicyclists were killed in 2020, more than double the number of such fatalities recorded in 2019, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
And with three fatalities through March, the county had been on pace to exceed 2020’s deadly toll. There were no fatalities in April and none through late May.
Legislation awaiting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature may help keep those numbers down. If signed, the proposed law set to go into effect on July 1 will add several safety initiatives, including a requirement for drivers to stay behind bicyclists if there’s no room to pass.
The rise in bicyclist as well as pedestrian deaths is probably part of a national trend related to the coronavirus pandemic.
“You have a lot more people that are using bicycling and walking as their escape from the pandemic lockup,” said Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins. “When you put more folks on the roadways, it becomes more important for everyone to be careful and follow the rules.’’
But following the rules is not something drivers and bicyclists do on a consistent basis.
Though bicyclists and pedestrians represent just 2% of commuters in Palm Beach County, they made up 30% of all transportation-related fatalities on county roadways from 2018-2020, according to the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency.
“These are our most vulnerable users and they’re a large, disproportionate share of the total fatalities,’’ Andrew Uhlir, the agency’s director of program development, said at a TPA governing board meeting in February.
“We are not heading in the correct direction when it comes to safety.’’
Among the deadliest states for bicyclists, Florida has consistently ranked at or near the top. In 2019, Florida’s 161 bicycle deaths were the highest in the nation, 28 more than No. 2 California had.
In Palm Beach County, a 2017 Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Study by the Palm Beach TPA identified 10 “high-crash corridors.’’ Only one was an area frequented by road cyclists — Ocean Boulevard from Thomas Street (just north of Atlantic Avenue) to Linton Boulevard in Delray Beach.
The other nine “high-crash corridors” were in areas where people ride on generally slower bikes.
Riders can be at fault
It’s not always the motorist’s fault.
Bicyclists don’t always wear proper safety gear and don’t always obey traffic laws, taking chances by crossing busy streets against red lights.
“A lot of it we see is no helmet, safety gear missing, no lights at night. Improper clothing, the color of clothing when you ride your bike and dusk or dawn hours,’’ Delray Beach police Sgt. Hannes Schoeferle said.
And on State Road A1A, cyclists sometimes ride in packs, taking up the travel lane. This can happen even if they abide by the law and ride no more than two abreast.
In South County, Delray Beach and Boca Raton have designated bike lanes on A1A, whereas other municipalities have only shoulders of varying widths. The Gulf Stream and Manalapan shoulders are the narrowest.
“Right or wrong — wrong, obviously — at some point the motorist is really getting worked up,’’ Schoeferle said. “It’s an emotional issue, and they’re going to start passing in a reckless manner. This is when we see crashes.’’
In Ocean Ridge, town officials included in a May newsletter for residents a list of bike safety tips in observance of National Bike Month.
“It is incumbent on all of them to do their part to share what’s available for safe travel and according to the law,’’ Chief Hutchins said.
“Are the bicycle packs of particular concern? I would say some of them are. But so are motorists who don’t follow the rules of the road pertaining to sharing the traffic ways with bicyclists.’’
Many bike clubs remind their members about the rules and how cyclists are supposed to obey the same traffic laws that apply to motor vehicles.
Road design a problem
A big problem is the fact that just about all roads were designed for motor vehicles, not for cyclists.
On most parts of A1A, the predominant place for road cyclists on the barrier island, there are no bike lanes. Cyclists are forced to ride on the shoulder, potentially inches from motor vehicles and often over hazards such as sewer holes and traffic reflectors.
“The road is just not built for cyclists,’’ said Kristy Breslaw of Boca Raton Triathletes. “There is a lot of distracted driving. There’s a lot of people not paying attention when they’re driving.’’
Cut off suddenly
On the morning of July 6, 2018, Sandra Prestia was enjoying “a beautiful ride” as she pedaled south on State Road A1A in Manalapan.
Without warning, a white construction van heading north turned in front of her to enter a condo building on the west side of the road.
“I saw white and then I was in an ambulance,’’ said Prestia, a triathlete who has been riding competitively for 11 years.
The impact snapped her bike in two, but that wasn’t the only damage.
“I T-boned him. It was like my face made an imprint in the van,’’ said Prestia, 41, who was rushed to Delray Medical Center with a concussion.
“My top lip was in three pieces. A plastic surgeon had to sew my lip back together. I had bruises on my knees and legs for at least six months.’’
She didn’t break any bones. But the crash resulted in $70,000 in medical bills, most of it paid by her insurance.
The driver of the van stopped to offer help and, according to what the police told Prestia, “he apologized profusely.’’
Still, she can’t understand how he didn’t see her.
“It was 8 a.m. The roads were completely empty,’’ she said. “There was nothing to take his attention away and not to see me. He just turned in front of me.’’
Six weeks later, she was back on her bike.
“Am I overly cautious now? Oh, yeah,’’ she said. “But to stop doing what I love, cycling, I don’t want to live like that.’’
Rules to change in July
Florida bicyclists will get some added layers of protection in the form of safety changes expected to become law in July.
A bill approved by lawmakers in the recent session would require drivers to change lanes when approaching a bicyclist or pedestrian in the travel lane and, if they cannot safely change lanes, wait at a safe distance behind the bicyclist or pedestrian until there is room to pass.
The current law, section 316.803 of the Florida Statutes, requires drivers to be at least 3 feet from a cyclist when passing, but it makes no provisions for waiting if there’s no room to pass. Safety advocates note that few roads in Florida are wide enough for drivers to obey the 3-foot rule, which is why drivers often ignore it and pass dangerously close to cyclists.
The new law — sponsored by Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, with a companion bill sponsored by state Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland — has an educational aspect. The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles will be required to launch a public awareness campaign informing motorists about required safety precautions when passing bikes and pedestrians.
The department also will have to include the precautions in driver’s license educational materials and to devote 20% of the questions for the driver’s license tests to bicycle and pedestrian safety.
“This legislation is probably some of the most progressive we have seen,’’ said George C. Palaidis, a Plantation-based attorney and avid bicyclist who often rides from Key Biscayne to Palm Beach.
“For the first time there is a definition of a bicycle lane in the statutes. And the educational aspect of it is huge. There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done but it’s a giant step in the right direction.’’
A similar incident
Pedaling north on A1A with another cyclist, Rhonda Wright saw a white car pass them.
“I was in the lead position,” recalled Wright, who was about a mile south of the Lake Worth Beach pier on the morning of July 7, 2019.
“And he just turned straight in front of me to go into a driveway.’’
With nowhere to go, Wright slammed the brakes. “I tried to pull my bike down to the right to get out of his way and I went straight into the side of him,’’ she said.
Her bike’s aero bars — an extension mounted close to the center of the handlebar that cantilevers out over the front of the wheel — got caught under the car’s front wheel. Wright was dragged 25 feet across the asphalt before the car stopped.
“My left arm got dragged along the side and I was half underneath his car. I turned onto my bike and thought, ‘I’ve got to get out of here.’ As I flipped myself around, my hand got caught under the car.’’
Her right hand was broken. Her left shoulder dislocated and the labrum was torn. Her helmet was smashed.
“My broken helmet saved me from severe head trauma,’’ said Wright, 66.
She missed two months of work as a home health care aide. She had hand surgery and racked up close to $80,000 in medical bills.
“I can’t hold weights and things like I used to because I have permanent screws and pins in my hand,’’ she said.
She said the driver, “an elderly guy” who worked as a condo security guard, was cited for reckless driving.
“He said he didn’t see us. He was probably in his 80s and I don’t think his peripheral vision was very good,’’ Wright said.
Wright, a triathlete who lives in Boca Raton, still rides competitively but only in races where the roads are closed to motorists.
“I will not ride on A1A because it’s not safe,’’ she said. “You have people out there who have no respect for bikers at all. It’s really a sin.’’
Vision Zero: Safety for all
The Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency is working on ways to protect bicyclists and pedestrians. For one, most new roads in the county are now built with bike lanes.
The Florida Department of Transportation led with changes to its design manual for state roads in the early 2010s and Palm Beach County followed, including bike lanes in its county roadway standards in 2018.
“The TPA Board has also adopted a Complete Streets Policy and a Vision Zero commitment to ensure that all transportation projects funded by the TPA include safe and comfortable facilities for transportation users of all ages and abilities,’’ said TPA Executive Director Nick Uhren.
But more needs to be done, said Robert Weinroth, the Palm Beach County Commission’s vice mayor whose district includes the coastal communities from South Palm Beach to Boca Raton.
He called on local leaders to take “a more proactive approach” aimed at preventing bike and pedestrian accidents, similar to the intense focus investigators give to airline crashes.
“We know statistics don’t fully represent the pain that’s being inflicted on the victims and families of these tragic events,’’ Weinroth said at a recent TPA governing board meeting.
“We need to drill down into these incidents to figure out what it is that is common about these accidents that are causing the carnage on our roadways and what can we do in fixes rather than just continually look at the wrong direction of these trends.’’
Death is a cautionary tale
Steve Brown loved his family, his friends and his bicycle.
He enjoyed back-road biking adventures with his wife, Dana, and riding around his Boca Raton neighborhood and to the beach for exercise. And as the affable co-founder of Brown’s Interiors, he took any opportunity he could to leave the car at home and pedal to a client’s house with a swatch or sample.
On the morning of April 9, 2014, Brown strapped on his bike helmet and set off to see another client. He was bicycling north on the shoulder of Lyons Road around 9 a.m. when a 68-year-old woman driving a minivan lost control and struck Brown from behind. Brown hit the windshield and was thrown onto the sidewalk. He was pronounced dead at the scene, less than 3 miles from home. He was 58.
More than 1,500 people attended his funeral. His death inspired congregants at Temple Beth El in Boca Raton to launch an annual charity bike ride in his memory.
But seven years later, his family remains scarred from the tragedy.
“It affects us every day,’’ said Andrew Brown, a son. “He was head of the family. Head of the business. My mom and him had been happily married for many, many years. They were high school and college sweethearts. My sister was pregnant at the time of the accident, so he never got to see his first grandchild. It was devastating on the family.’’
The driver, Marion Rosenstein, pleaded no contest and was found guilty of unlawfully overtaking and passing a vehicle. Her driver’s license was permanently revoked and she was ordered to complete 120 hours of community service.
In 2011, Rosenstein was cited for running a red light and causing a crash, court records show.
“South Florida can be a hard place to live because it’s so beautiful and you want to bike all day every day, but it’s just … these cars,’’ said Susan Brown Siegel, a daughter.
“I just can’t handle distracted drivers on the road,’’ she continued. “Listen, I know every single person checks their cellphones, but you never think it’s going to be you. I never thought it would happen to my dad. He rode his bike but he wasn’t one of those cyclists on A1A. It was just awful.’’
Brown’s family has been speaking out about the need for better safety measures such as more dedicated bike lanes or even barriers separating cars from bikes.
As for the trend of bicycle fatalities, the Brown family is not surprised.
“The numbers will keep going up because not enough preventive action is being taken and more and more people are using bicycles, especially during the pandemic,’’ said Andrew Brown.
“Unless measures are taken on the safety prevention side, the numbers are going to keep going up. There’s just no way around that.’’
Jim Gammon keeps a filled bucket in his bathroom so he can flush in the mornings, when water pressure is worst. Gammon lives on the top floor of the four-story Gulfstream Shores condomium building (below right). Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Rich Pollack
Jim Gammon keeps a bucket full of water in the bathroom of his fourth-floor apartment so he can flush the toilet when the water stops flowing through the pipes at Gulfstream Shores condominium.
His wife, Margo Stahl-Gammon, fills a pitcher of water each night before they go to bed to have enough to make coffee in the morning.
Not too long ago, Jim Gammon left the apartment in the wee hours, went to the ground-level hose spigot and, armed with a flashlight, put a couple of gallons in a bucket.
“I was able to get enough water so Margo could take a sponge bath,” he said, explaining that his wife was preparing for an early-morning doctor’s visit.
Since late March the Gammons and the other residents of the 54-unit oceanfront community have been struggling to get by without running water or with just a trickle coming out of the faucets almost every day — primarily between 4 a.m. until about 6 a.m.
The inability to take a shower, flush the toilet or even wash hands has become a source of frustration for residents and something that stumps Gulf Stream town officials as well as those in Delray Beach, which provides water to the town.
“This is not a good way to live,” says Harvey Baumgarten, a member of the board of the Gulfstream Shores Owners Association. “We have got to get it resolved.”
Finding the source of the problem and fixing it have been elusive but not because of a lack of trying.
Residents have been working with Town Manager Greg Dunham and Water Maintenance Supervisor Anthony Beltran, who have spent hours trying to figure out what’s causing the low pressure.
“It’s a mystery to us and we’re trying to get to the bottom of it,” Dunham said. “We’re taking this seriously.”
The town, he said, is using the process of elimination to determine what is causing the problem and has reached out to its engineering consultants, who are investigating.
Also involved are the interim city manager and utilities director from Delray Beach, which sends drinking water to Gulf Stream through two interconnects but is not responsible for the pipes inside town limits.
At the same time, the residents of Gulfstream Shores are exploring the possibility of spending more than $40,000 on booster pumps to increase their water pressure.
“We have an obligation to the people in the building that they should be able to get water,” Baumgarten said.
Questions that have town officials scratching their heads include why the problem is limited primarily to Gulfstream Shores and why it occurs at almost the same time every day.
Although the town has received a few complaints about water pressure from some of the residents in single-family homes, officials say the three other multistory residential buildings in town are not seeing a problem.
One theory for low water pressure that residents suggested was that perhaps Delray Beach reduces water pressure coming out of the plant early in the morning. Delray officials say that’s not the case.
Instead they think increased usage caused by early-morning irrigation could be the culprit.
In a written response to questions from The Coastal Star, the city pointed out that water use at one of the two interconnects has risen dramatically.
“Water usage for the Town of Gulf Stream has increased significantly, doubling or tripling at times, when comparing the months of January through April 2021 to the same period in 2020,” the city wrote.
Delray Beach said it is working closely with Gulf Stream to look at irrigation schedules and to determine if the increase in demand has put a strain on the town’s water mains and thus reduced pressure.
One suggestion from Delray Beach is to consider implementing an alternating schedule based on odd or even addresses, but Dunham says Gulf Stream already has those restrictions in place.
The increase in water usage, he says, could be the result of a recent upgrade in which the town increased its water mains from 6 inches to 12 inches, thus requiring more water in the system.
Although the town has not ruled out irrigation as a cause of low water pressure, Dunham says that the two golf courses in town — high-volume users — do not use potable water for irrigation.
For its part, Gulfstream Shores runs its irrigation system between midnight and 2 a.m., prior to the arrival of the low pressure.
The possibility that leaks in the Gulf Stream system are causing the problem is also something town officials are skeptical about.
“There’s no way a leak would cause problems only four hours a day,” Beltran said.
Dunham says the town worked with Gulfstream Shores in the past to help with water pressure issues that were not quite as severe.
In the past, the town replaced one service line off the main going into two lines at Gulfstream Shores with two lines directly off the mains.
That helped residents like the Gammons until late March, when the pressure fell again.
Baumgarten says that most of the residents of the small condo units — valued at between $400,000 and $500,000 — have gone north for the summer but that a sense of urgency still exists to get the problem fixed.
“We want to get it remedied before people come back in October and November,” he said.
By Steve Plunkett
A couple of dozen Comcast customers are holding up completion of Gulf Stream’s tortured project to bury overhead utility lines.
Town commissioners were stunned to learn on May 14 that the cable TV/internet provider needed more time to pull down its overhead lines.
“Another three months and we should pretty much have this wrapped up,” Comcast representative Steve Rosa told them.
Mayor Scott Morgan was clearly frustrated, noting that Rosa said five or six months ago that his crew was almost done.
“AT&T, which was far behind Comcast, has totally completed their work and removed their lines,” he said. “Comcast has been dragging its feet ever since you told us you were about ready to finish.”
The agreed-upon schedule called for Rosa’s workers to disconnect customers who had not set up new underground accounts by March 31. Instead, Rosa said, Comcast had continued efforts to get them to switch from their old overhead-line accounts.
Also, unexpected problems occurred.
“I found a fiber optic that goes to the police station that nobody has a record of,” Rosa said.
Commissioners told Town Manager Greg Dunham to insist that Comcast disconnect the lines from the homes of the laggards and finish removing its lines as soon as possible.
Dunham said he also has to coordinate with Florida Power & Light Co. to take down the telephone poles once Comcast is done.
As recently as mid-March, Morgan said he was “hopeful that sometime in May — or June at the latest” the overhead wires and poles would be gone. Residents originally thought the utility lines would be buried and the poles removed in 2012.
In other business, Dunham said he would revive a “tree farm” behind Town Hall to nurture Australian pine seedlings. Once the seedlings are at least 3 years old they could replace any of Gulf Stream’s treasured Australian pines that become diseased or damaged, he said.
Related stories:
A group on the shore of Lake Worth around 1905. Front, Sarah Hazelwood, Lizzie Gardner, Mabel Tedder and Myrtle Miller. Back, Elizabeth Hazelwood, Arthur L. and Thomas Hazelwood, owner of Hazelwood & Co. store.
All photos courtesy of the Boynton Beach City Library Local History Archives
The Pierce home on Hypoluxo Island, circa 1889. From left, Margretta M. Pierce, Hannibal Pierce, A.W. Garnett, Ed Hamilton, Lillie Pierce and Charles W. Pierce. Hannibal Pierce was the island’s first white settler.
Men work on the first bridge to connect Hypoluxo with Lantana, circa 1925. The bridge spanned Lake Worth.
Mary Gilette Chaffin (1857-1925) reads a newspaper around 1920. She died before the 1928 hurricane damaged the area’s homes.
Students with their teacher, Mabel Wiley, at the Lantana-Hypoluxo School in 1926. Not all the names of students in the photo are included in the archives. But they include, standing, Ruby Sleeper, Hattie Owens, Frances Wickline, Walter Voss, Agnes Neu, a Hathaway child, Melvin Hathaway, Vivian Kitlinger, Harold George, Lewis Ronk, Roscoe Williams and Wayne Smith. Kneeling and seated group includes Lester Geyer, Virginia Frye, Agnes Cafferty, Billy Jenkins, Olin Todd, Bernie McCorkle, Georgia Richner, Marjory Ronk, Thomas George and Tommy Lyman. Two years later the 1928 hurricane destroyed the building.
