Players who plan to take part in Literacy Links include (l-r) Amy Brewer, Leanne Adair, Brenda Medore and Ginny Barbary. Photo provided

By Amy Woods

The CEO of the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County is hopeful that, following a challenging year of postponed and canceled events, its annual golf tournament will be a success.

Literacy Links is scheduled for June 11 at Palm Beach Par 3 Golf Course. It usually takes place in April.

“We’re going to miss a few people, but we’re still going to have it,” Kristin Calder said. “We have a good response so far.”

The tournament drew 50 players last year and raised $35,000. It was moved to November because of the pandemic.

“The important part of all this is adaptation,” Calder said. “People love this event, so we wanted to have it.”

Proceeds will provide adults and children in need with links to literacy programs that will help them succeed in school and life.

One of those programs is Building Better Readers, targeting third-grade students who read below their level. Hundreds of volunteers are recruited and trained to be reading tutors and then dispatched to homes and schools.

Another program is Literacy AmeriCorps, through which college graduates serve as reading tutors for adult learners and at-risk youths.

Another beneficiary will be the Glades Family Education program, which serves the Belle Glade, Pahokee and South Bay area. It offers adult literacy, children’s literacy, monthly parenting-skills workshops and weekly Parent and Child Together activities.

“It really serves that community well in terms of tutoring and reading,” tournament Chairwoman Nancy Vera said. “I firmly believe it needs to start at a young age — the love of books. I know that was one of my favorite times with my kids, that hour or two before bed reading.

“Reading is dear to my heart, so it’s something that’s important to me,” Vera said. “I feel what we do as an organization is important for our community.”

If You Go
What: Literacy Links golf tournament
Time: Registration 7:30 a.m., shotgun start 8:30 a.m.
Date: June 11
Where: Palm Beach Par 3 Golf Course
Cost: $200 per person, $700 per foursome
Information: 561-279-9103 or www.literacypbc.org

(l-r) Polly Joa, Susan Lissner Weege, Sallie Howell, Carol Coleman, Cody, Mickey Austin Farley and Zoanne Hennigan. Photo provided

The Ocean Ridge Garden Club’s season wrapped up with the installation of 2021-22 officers and recognition of those who made the best out of a challenging year. Officers were sworn in by the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs district director and given musical-themed miniatures. The luncheon at last enabled members to see each other face-to-face and was organized by club President Mary Ann Cody.

(l-r) Florida State Attorney Dave Aronberg, U.S. Rep Brian Mast (R-Fla.), U.S. Rep Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), Tri-County Animal Rescue President Suzi Goldsmith, Pope, former Congresswoman Donna Shalala, American Humane CEO Robin Ganzert, Weishel and Palm Beach County Commissioner Robert Weinroth.
Photo provided by Capehart

There are an estimated 2,700 dogs actively serving in the U.S. military and another 700 deployed overseas. But for the most part, the courageous canines have not been given credit for their heroic acts on and off the battlefield. So philanthropist Lois Pope, in partnership with American Humane, dedicated the American Military Hero Dog Monument. The monument was designed by sculptor Austin Weishel, who said it honors ‘the everlasting and unbreakable bond between canines and the valiant warriors of our armed forces.’

Eric Viner and Niki Knopf with event sponsors Eda and Cliff Viner. Photo provided

Men who make outstanding impacts on the community through their philanthropic efforts were honored at Florence Fuller Child Development Centers’ 19th annual event. This year, a total of 20 male volunteers enjoyed an outdoor movie-style festivity with music and food trucks. ‘After the challenging year we’ve all had, the work of volunteers was more important than ever,’ said Ellyn Okrent, Fuller’s CEO. ‘It was a great pleasure to recognize the outstanding honorees and nominees.’

Suzanne Klein, Beau and Edna Meyer-Nelson.

Mercedes Casanova Mottek, Scott and Batmasian. Photos provided

More than 125 pooch-loving advocates filled the outdoor courtyard for an inaugural event that raised money for Tri-County Animal Rescue, specifically for subsidizing veterinary care, surgeries, X-rays, dental procedures and other medical needs. Honorees included Marta Batmasian, Andrea Kline and Constance Scott. ‘TCAR believes that all pets should remain healthy in their homes, not forced to neglect treatable medical and dental issues that can escalate out of control, causing unnecessary pain and loss or even surrendered to shelters due to lack of funds,’ board Chairwoman Sharon DiPietro said.

Patricia Ramudo and Andrea Virgin get ready to install drywall. Photo provided

Habitat for Humanity South Palm Beach County’s female-centric fundraiser brought in more than $225,000 thanks to 150-plus volunteers who wielded hammers and other tools to put roofs over the heads of people in need. ‘It is so gratifying and inspiring each year to witness the power of mission-driven women, stepping out of their comfort zones and rolling up their sleeves to make a profound, indelible impact on one family for generations to come,’ said sponsor Tom Moraca, of Moraca Builders.

Lt. Austin J. Haynie, Navy pilot, has returned from a seven-month deployment on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, aircraft carrier 71. Austin joins his grandfather Neil Haynie, trading in his military F18 Super Hornet to fly grandpa’s Piper to Fort Myers. Twenty-five years ago he rode in the baggage compartment. Austin, 28, is a fourth-generation pilot, and Neil credits Austin’s ability to his superior training. Photo provided

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach will immediately notify affected customers of any reclaimed water issues following a critical review from the county Office of Inspector General.
Also as a result of the report, released May 6, the city will educate customers about what reclaimed water is and its allowed use being 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.
Interim City Manager Jennifer Alvarez defended the city from the inspector general's broad criticism of upper management and elected officials knowing about illnesses stemming from reclaimed water on the barrier island in December 2018.
While a since-retired water and sewer manager might have known about the illnesses, there is no evidence that he told the utilities director, Alvarez wrote in a response included in the OIG report.
The Office of Inspector General became involved last August at the request of the Palm Beach County office of the Florida Department of Health. 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 began investigating the Delray Beach reclaimed water system in January 2020 but 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 and whether they were reported to the department as required. "During our investigation, (the OIG) was unable to determine whether the reported illness was actually caused by the citys drinking water," according to the report.
But an unnamed city staffer identified in the report as a whistleblower submitted a lengthy rebuttal to the OIG findings.
The staffer talks about a March 2019 meeting convened to discuss illnesses from the crossed connection found in December 2018. A crossed connection occurs when reclaimed water pipes are mistakenly connected to ones for drinking water. Reclaimed water is highly treated wastewater suitable only for lawn irrigation.
At the meeting various department heads, a former assistant city manager and the project consultants representative determined no more action was needed without medical or hospital records connecting the illnesses to the reclaimed water, according to Public Utility Management Services Inc., a firm the city hired in 2020 to independently review the system.
However, the whistleblower's rebuttal said, "It was not the city's job to determine this but to report it (to the Health Department)."
The whistleblower also alleges the city destroyed paper call logbooks from late 2018. A barrier island resident called to say his family became ill and he thought it was from drinking tap water. The operator on duty notified the then-water and sewer manager who said he would handle it, according to the whistleblower.
When The Coastal Star made a records request for the logs, Utilities Department leaders asked the whistleblower for a copy of them on Nov. 26 because "the documents were thrown out-- this was openly discussed," the rebuttal said. The city staffer told them they were required to report the lost records and later turned over a copy on Nov. 30.

Even the most visionary and creative individuals build on what came before. They construct new ideas from their surroundings, often using knowledge gained from their own experiences.
The most brilliant minds plotting out the future of the world understand that lurking around the edges of any “big idea” is the framework of history.
That is why The Coastal Star plans to use the coming months to tell the tales of times and places gone by in our community. It’s always been part of our mission as a newspaper to share stories of our past to help guide our future.
As our elected officials spend the summer months budgeting for the challenges that come with aging infrastructure and rising seas, it seems like a good time to remember what came before.
History is a relative term in South Florida — Ocean Ridge and Manalapan are turning 90, Lantana will hit 100 come July. Mere infants compared to Boston or London or Paris.
Still, middle age presents its challenges with leaky pipes and cracked foundations.
It’s a good life along the coast, but it can be a hard one. Not all of our history is pleasant to recall.
So as our cities and towns budget for improvements that will carry us all forward for the years ahead, this newspaper hopes to spend the summer bringing our readers remembrances of our past.
We hope you’ll like reading these stories as much as we enjoy talking with historians and archivists and all the people who still remember the days gone by. And we hope learning about our past will give us all a foundation on which to build a framework for the enduring future of our community.
If you are heading north for the summer, you can stay informed by mailing in a $25 check and the subscription form found on page 23 in the Around Town section of this paper. You can also read each edition online at www.thecoastalstar.com. Membership is free.
— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

C. Spencer Pompey, a teacher and coach, and Frank T. Hearst carry the Carver Eagles mascot in front of the school. Photos provided by Spady Cultural Heritage Museum

New plans for Carver won’t dim grads’ memories

By Larry Keller

It’s been more than a half century since the final bell sounded at Carver High School. Chain-link fencing encircles the beige and boxy two-story buildings now, but to former students, the dowdy appearance belies the profound impact the school had on their lives and their community.
Before Palm Beach County schools integrated, Carver was the only place where Black students from Delray Beach and beyond — most from low-income households — could attend high school. It offered the prospect of a better future, but it was much more than a school.
“It was the only place for us as a people to gather,” says Paula Rocker, Class of 1966. “That was the center, not just for education, but for all the things that impacted the Black community,” such as neighborhood meetings and talent shows.

As buildings on the campus deteriorated, the county School District announced plans to raze them a few years ago. Preservationists succeeded in getting the district to spare the administration building and cafetorium, and it also plans to refurbish the gymnasium.

Students take a typing class.

At the same time, the district plans to build a complex to provide a medical and technical career-oriented curriculum. It will be called Village Center, with a new 20,000-square-foot building and modular classrooms. Plans call for the gymnasium to be reconfigured as a multipurpose arts facility capable of seating 500 people.
Work is scheduled to begin this summer and be substantially done by next year.
Carver is considered historic for the age of its buildings, the architect who designed them and the luminaries in the Black community associated with the school. But its cultural impact during segregation is particularly significant.

Students gather in the library at Carver High School in Delray Beach in the 1950s.

Teachers were pivotal, not only in school but alongside parents in instilling life lessons. It was like having an additional parent — because teachers lived in the same segregated neighborhoods as their students.
“The teachers treated us as though we were their children,” Lorenzo Brooks, a 1960 graduate, said in a documentary, Old School, produced by the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum in Delray Beach more than a decade ago.
“The teachers were the same people that sat next to you in church, and that you saw when you went to the supermarket,” Rocker says. “When your teacher reported to your parent that you were misbehaving, woe be unto you. The values that many of us have today were instilled by our parents and our teachers at Carver.”
That oversight extended even further, says Ernestine Holliday, a 1959 graduate who spent her career as a home health aide.
“Everybody was your parents. Your parents would go off to work at 6 o’clock in the morning … but there were other eyes” watching children, she says.
And when kids went to school, they had better be dressed and groomed smartly. “If you went to school and you needed your hair combed or deodorant, that was addressed, but it was addressed in a loving manner,” says Rocker, a retired AT&T call center manager and adult education teacher.
Granvill Dorsett, president of the 1966 class, agrees. “We knew there was a stigma being African-Americans. We had to change the narrative. We made sure we were well-dressed, well-spoken and well-behaved.”

Small children ride a float sponsored by a nursery. Some teachers worked on farms to supplement their incomes.

Some students were bused to school from outlying farms miles away. “Most of them studied hard because they didn’t want to make that a lifetime of having to work on the farm,” Holliday says. “There were some kids that didn’t start school until they were 7 or 8 years old. They were behind, but they didn’t want to remain behind.”
Her own father was a migrant contractor during the summers when school was out. He’d take families to farms as distant as North Carolina and upstate New York, where they would harvest crops and be provided housing. Holliday would return to Carver High as late as October or November, she says.

History dates to 1896
Carver’s roots date back more than a century. In 1896, Colored School No. 4, on what is now Northwest Fifth Avenue, opened to serve Black children. It later was renamed the Delray County Training School.
Solomon D. Spady, a onetime student of agricultural scientist and inventor George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute, became a teacher and the principal at the school, grades 1-8, in 1921 at Carver’s urging.
In 1937, the school moved to Northwest Eighth Avenue. It was renamed George Washington Carver High School, with grades 1-12.

Spady — a revered civic leader — was still principal, and he also taught wood shop and agriculture courses. Some of his students cultivated crops on 10 acres that were sold to the public. These school grounds are now the site of S.D. Spady Elementary School.

Carver moved again to Southwest 12th Avenue and Southwest Fourth Street in 1958, and became a grades 9-12 school. When Palm Beach County desegregated schools, Carver merged with Seacrest High in 1970 to become Atlantic Community High School.

The Delray Full Service Center is now in a portion of the old Carver campus. It provides adult education instruction and will continue doing so at the new Village Center.
The renowned architect of Carver was Gustav Maass Jr. He designed houses throughout the town of Palm Beach, commercial buildings on Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach and railroad stations in Florida, including the historic Delray Beach Seaboard Air Line Railway Station in 1927.
Much of Maass’ original design at Carver is gone now, and preservationists hope to obtain money to restore it. Ideas for use range from a trade school, to an adult education center to a culinary school.
But first they need the School District to relinquish ownership of the administration building and cafetorium it wants to renovate. No action from the district is expected, however, until June 2022.
And they want the Delray Beach City Commission to add the structures to the city’s register of historic places, making them eligible for grant money and ensuring their long-term protection.

C. Spencer Pompey (right) coached the Carver girls basketball team in 1953. The school’s sports teams excelled.

At Carver’s final location, the tenure of another towering figure in the school’s history began. C. Spencer Pompey was a coach, a teacher and a civil rights activist. He protested Delray Beach’s whites-only beach in the 1950s and was involved in the filing of a successful class action a decade earlier to eliminate disparities between white and Black teachers’ salaries. The plaintiffs’ lawyer was a young Thurgood Marshall from the NAACP. He later became the first Black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lois Martin knew firsthand about teachers’ poor pay. After graduating from Carver in 1946, she went to college, then began teaching at her old school in 1950. She supplemented her $2,000 annual salary by picking beans at a Boca Raton farm during the Christmas holidays, she said in the Old School documentary.

Cherished memories
Carver students and the entire community were proud of the school’s extracurricular activities and events, especially the football and other athletic teams, and the marching bands. Carver’s football prowess was such that the school won several state titles in the 1960s. Even white folks ventured over to watch the Eagles play.
Football “was one of the things that kind of kept us together,” Dorsett says of the students.
So did the promise of decent jobs if they finished school. Students were told that with a proper education they could return home to become teachers themselves, Rocker says. And the school’s industrial arts courses also provided an incentive to graduate.

Carver High students take part in a graduation ceremony.

“You left there with a trade — cosmetology, carpentry, masonry, agriculture,” Rocker says.
Only nine of 127 seniors in his Class of 1966 didn’t graduate, says Dorsett, a Vietnam veteran and National Guardsman who is a retired utility mechanic for the city of Delray Beach. “The families stressed education … because they knew it was about economics” — financial betterment, he says.
“It was important because our parents were born back in the early 1900s,” Holliday says. “They weren’t allowed to get an education because most of their parents were sharecroppers and they had to work. For them, their children getting an education was important because they weren’t allowed to get one.”
Holliday is unconcerned about saving any of her alma mater’s buildings. But, she adds, “I wouldn’t trade Carver for anything.”
To others, like Dorsett and Rocker, those buildings are a vital and visible link to a cherished past.
“The love that I feel when I talk about Carver High School, it’s almost like the love I have for my son,” Rocker says. “That’s where the caring, not only for me, but for all of the students there began.”

The Delray Beach water treatment plant, a few blocks south of downtown, has not received a major upgrade since the early 1990s. The city says it has improved cleaning and other maintenance at the aging plant, and is watching for trouble more closely than ever before. Google Maps image

By Rich Pollack

Faced with persistent concerns from residents about drinking water quality, Delray Beach city commissioners are considering replacing the aging water plant built almost seven decades ago.
During a meeting last month, interim City Manager Jennifer Alvarez and Utilities Director Hassan Hadjimiry outlined the steps that the city will take as it prepares to replace or extensively improve its water treatment plant, built in 1952 when Delray had only 6,500 residents and Harry S. Truman was president.
With the green light from the commission, city staff members will begin assessing current and future needs and costs, a process that could mean it will be six years before a new plant is working — if commissioners continue to support that option.
“All of us on the commission are excited about moving forward,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said. “We want to bring our water quality to the next level.”
During the presentation to the commission, Alvarez and Hadjimiry pointed out that it has been at least 25 years since the plant received a major upgrade, while also showing that most surrounding communities have already upgraded their water treatment facilities.
“We are definitely overdue,” Petrolia said. “People are wanting to have better water quality here and I think it’s time to take it to the next level.”
Others on the commission shared the mayor’s enthusiasm for moving forward with veteran water systems manager Hadjimiry leading the effort.
“I am sure our residents are most anxious to see this happen,” Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson said.
In presenting a case for a new plant, Alvarez said that several maintenance improvements have been made, but even so, much of the equipment in the plant is more than 50 years old and the technology and monitoring systems are outdated.
“We need a new plant in five to 10 years,” Alvarez said.

Type, cost to be determined
What type of plant the city will build and how much it will cost will depend on a number of variables — including the city’s ability to access enough raw water to meet demand. A reverse-osmosis plant, for example, would require more raw water than a plant with more commonly used treatment methods such as membrane filtration, filtered media or a combination of technologies.
Hadjimiry said the city will want to look at the best way to remove contaminants already prohibited by government agencies as well as those that may become more tightly regulated, include PFAs, synthetic chemicals linked to some health issues.
A study would still be needed to include population projections, what water usage demands would be put on a plant in the future and what size plant would meet the city’s needs. The city would also need to develop a timeline for the project.
“We need to determine what is the best type of plant to take us into the next decade,” Petrolia said.
The existing facility has a treatment capacity of about 26 million gallons per day and usage averaging about 14 million gallons per day.
The city’s current population of about 70,000 has added about 10,000 residents in the last 10 years, according to worldpopulationreview.com. Moving forward, Alvarez said, the city will continue with a rate study that could encourage conservation and bring usage down.
The staff will also review a Water Supply and Treatment Feasibility Study done by Kimley-Horn engineering firm in 2019 that recommended the city go to a reverse-osmosis system. That study estimated the cost of building a new plant would be between $132 million and $144 million, but Petrolia believes those numbers might be on the high side.
During their presentation, Hadjimiry and Alvarez displayed a chart that showed plants built by other South Florida communities from 1991 to 2006 with price tags ranging between $40 million and $80 million in estimated 2025 dollars.
The city will also look at funding sources, including potential grants, and will examine the feasibility of creating a public-private partnership as one funding option.
Moving forward with the project, Deputy Vice Mayor Adam Frankel said, is a high priority for Delray Beach.
“It’s one of those things that needs to be put on the top of the list,” he said.

Liz Bold, her daughter Capri, 14, and her husband, Bill, at their Delray Beach home. The mother and daughter spotted three runaway boys on State Road A1A in Delray in January, and the family fed, clothed and comforted them for a few hours before police returned the youths to the Children’s Place at Home Safe in Boca Raton. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Larry Keller

Call it a mother’s intuition. On a late Sunday afternoon in January, Liz Bold and her daughter Capri, 14, were walking south on A1A, a few blocks from their home in Delray Beach, when they passed three young boys on a bench.
“I noticed there were no adults near them,” Bold said. The boys then began walking north beside the busy road.
“They were clearly too young, in my opinion, to be walking on A1A with no adults. So I said to Capri, ‘Let’s turn around, I want to follow them.”’
Unknown to Bold, the trio had taken off from the Children’s Place at Home Safe in Boca Raton earlier that day. That’s a place for the care and treatment of abused, neglected and abandoned children.
Boca Raton police issued an alert to other police agencies along with photos of the boys. But here they were in Delray Beach, about 5 miles away.
When Bold and her daughter caught up to the boys, she began chatting with them. “The youngest one blurted out, ‘We don’t have anywhere to go tonight. We’re homeless,’” Bold recalled.
They confessed that they had run away, saying they were unhappy with how they were treated by Home Safe staff.
What ensued was a family drama of compassion, generosity and ultimately frustration at being unable to do more for three runaways, ages 9 to 12.
“I realized … they probably were hungry, so we went over to BurgerFi … and I brought my husband in to try and formulate a plan,” Bold said.
Bill Bold arrived and found his wife buying burgers and milkshakes for the boys.
“We were thinking maybe we should bring them back to our house,” Bill said. The boys advised against that, worried that he might be accused of kidnapping. “They were street smart,” he said.
One boy provided Bill with his mom’s phone number, so he called her, but she could not have cared less. “She gave me the name of a social worker,” he said.
After several more phone calls, it was clear his only option was to call police. Reluctantly, he did.
“We didn’t know what else to do. We didn’t want to leave them on the side of the road.”
Bill gave his phone number to the boys, and he and Liz assured them they wanted to remain in their lives. The boys were dressed poorly, so the Bolds took them to a nearby store and bought them flip-flops and clothing items while they awaited police.
“The lady in the store started crying too. I think she gave us a good discount because we told her what was going on. Everybody was pitching in,” Bill said.
When Delray Beach police arrived, it had been about four hours since the boys left Home Safe.
“They were really nice guys,” Bill said of the officers.
As the boys were about to be driven back to Boca Raton, “they all asked us for hugs,” Bill said.
“My daughter and I were bawling after the police took them away,” Liz added.
The Bolds — who have four children — never heard again from the boys. For weeks, they tried to figure out how they could see them again for a movie or a dinner.
But no programs were in place that permitted this, and the coronavirus pandemic made it out of the question anyway, they were told.
“We told them we were going to stay in their lives. I have so much guilt right now about that,” Liz said.
“They were charismatic kids,” her husband added. “They were excited about life, but they were also troubled. It was just heartbreaking, the entire situation.”
He’d “love to mentor them or be in their lives, if there is some creative way.”
The Delray Beach Police Department praised the Bolds for their actions, but the couple insist they did nothing special.
“I think it’s what is expected of us as human beings,” Liz said, “just to help our fellow human beings.”

Palmsea condo residents Carmine (foreground) and Bob Scalia watch a dump truck and bulldozer work on a project that calls for delivery of up to 1,000 truckloads of sand to the dune line of South Palm Beach. As the project progressed in the cousins’ backyard on April 21, Carmine said, ‘I hope this is a once-in-a-lifetime event for us.’ Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

Hundreds of truckloads of dredged sand arrived from Palm Beach in April, bolstering South Palm Beach’s dune line and buffering condo buildings from the relentless seas.
For Mayor Bonnie Fischer, it has been an often excruciating and frustrating journey that at times seemed impossible to complete.
Fischer has spent more than 10 years pushing the project. She attended dozens of meetings and environmental conferences, made hundreds of phone calls and twisted more arms than an army of chiropractors to get the work done.
But the most important thing she did was make a friend — former Palm Beach Mayor Gail Coniglio.
“An engineer told us, ‘If it wasn’t for the relationship between their mayor and your mayor, all this would never have happened,’” Fischer says. “That touched my heart.”
Coniglio and her council allowed South Palm Beach to purchase as many as 1,000 truckloads of sand that Palm Beach dredged as part of the town’s extensive beach renourishment project.
And when things got tough, Coniglio was unwavering in her support for her southern neighbors. Two years ago, Palm Beach County abruptly pulled out of a project to install groins on the South Palm beaches, citing rising costs and objections from communities to the south.
Conigilio stepped in to offer South Palm Beach a piece of her project. It will cost the town somewhere between $700,000 and $900,000, money that has been saved in reserves for years to repair the beach.
Fischer is the first to admit it’s not a perfect solution. One strong storm could wash away much of the work.
“The groins would have been a better option,” the mayor says. “I was really disappointed that didn’t happen. But we had two options left — do this, or do nothing.”
Finding some sort of strategy to deal with the eroding beachfront became an inescapable issue in South Palm Beach in 2005 when Hurricane Wilma tore through Florida.
By the time the hurricane left Palm Beach County, South Palm Beach’s coastline was devastated and several condo buildings had nothing but battered seawalls to stand up to the relentless waves.
It took more than 10 years to actually develop the groin plan with the county and win the approval of state regulators. The original cost for deploying the network of a half-dozen concrete sand holders on South Palm’s beaches was estimated at $5 million. The state was to pay half, the county 30% and South Palm 20%.
By 2019, however, that price tag ballooned to something closer to $10 million and the county abruptly pulled out of the project. It didn’t help that both Manalapan and the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa threatened to sue over allegations the groins would steal sand destined for their beaches.
The Town of Palm Beach offered its alternative a few months later — a much more modest plan but one that was clearly more practical. Rather than a beach stabilization project, Palm Beach offered a dune restoration project, with sand and sea oats restoring what nature had eroded away.
It’s not a small paradox that South Palm wound up getting more help from Palm Beach than its own residents. Despite years of trying by Fischer and three city managers, South Palm Beach never did get all the easements it needed from condo associations and homeowners to work on the beach. They, too, lawyered up, expressing worries about damage liability and opening access to the public.
In the end, Palm Beach gained access to haul in the dredged sand on its side of the border line between the two towns.
Fischer said that the contributions of Robert Weber, Palm Beach’s coastal program manager, were invaluable. Weber effectively became South Palm’s project manager and saw the work through.
After five terms in office, Coniglio decided not to run for re-election in March. Fischer said she’s grateful Coniglio stayed long enough to help her friends in South Palm Beach.

By Dan Moffett

The South Palm Beach Town Council unanimously approved refunding to customers some $455,000 in improper sewer charges assessed since 2016. The town expects all customers to be compensated before November.
The remittances are the result of an audit by the Palm Beach County inspector general that found the town did not adequately give public notice to rate increases during that period. The inspector found “no indication of willful misconduct” in the action.
Town Manager Robert Kellogg, in his response to the county watchdog, wants the inspector to extend his audits to monitor the “franchise agreement holders to determine if the proper amount of fees are being remitted.”
A franchise agreement is a negotiated contract between a municipality and a utility service provider that grants the utility the right to serve customers in the city’s jurisdiction. South Palm Beach has franchise agreements with Florida Power & Light, Florida Public Utilities and Waste Management Inc.
Towns such as South Palm Beach collect tens of thousands of dollars a year from these utility fees. The concern is that adequate oversight is lacking.
“We don’t have the capability to audit those fees,” Kellogg said. “But the inspector general does. It would be a great service to municipalities to look into this.”

Delray Beach Fire Rescue responded to 667 calls last year within the Delray city limits from the station in neighboring Highland Beach. One ladder truck and one rescue wagon are currently assigned to the station. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

After almost 30 years of paying Delray Beach millions of dollars for fire and medical rescue services, Highland Beach is calling it quits and moving forward with plans to start its own fire department.
At a meeting last month, town commissioners voted unanimously to notify Delray Beach of plans to terminate the contractual agreement — with a price tag of about $5 million a year — with a required 36- month notice effective May 1.
“We know we can deliver better service to our residents and we know we can do it at a lower cost,” Mayor Doug Hillman said. “There is no reason in my opinion to stay with Delray fire.”
During the next three years Highland Beach will work out the details of starting a fire department almost from scratch, something that apparently hasn’t been done in Palm Beach County for at least three decades.
The move bucks a local trend in which smaller communities such as Ocean Ridge, South Palm Beach and Manalapan have been paying for services from larger departments, including Boynton Beach and Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.
Although Highland Beach commissioners have said they would be amenable to renegotiating, Delray Beach commissioners signaled during a meeting last month that they don’t see that as an option.
“It doesn’t appear there is room for negotiation as far as our commission and our fire chief are concerned,” Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia said following that meeting.
The city’s position apparently has not changed in the wake of Highland Beach’s decision to end the relationship.
“I think the time for negotiating has passed,” Delray Beach Fire Chief Keith Tomey said after learning of the decision. “Highland Beach wanted to cut $1 million from the contract, but that isn’t feasible.”
Delray Beach Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson said she respects Highland Beach’s decision to move on.
“As much as we’d like to continue the relationship, the agreement isn’t working for both parties anymore,” she said. “I wish the town of Highland Beach success.”
Although Highland Beach officials repeatedly said they were happy with the exceptional service they receive from Delray Beach, town leaders balked at the costs they said were unsustainable.
The town currently pays about 40% of its annual operating budget, or about $5 million a year, for services from Delray Beach, a cost that was expected to increase by about $300,000 each year.
The current cost per call, Hillman said, is extraordinary.
“Every time someone from Highland Beach dials 911, it cost Highland Beach $7,000 to send that truck out to service the call,” the mayor said.
Tomey said measuring cost per call is a “distorted way” of looking at emergency response.
“We have to be fully prepared with staffing, equipment and training for any and all emergencies in each area,” he said. “We aren’t making widgets, we are saving lives and property.”
While a consultant estimated that Highland Beach could save as much as $2.5 million in operating costs in five years after starting its own department, the town will have to incur significant start-up costs between $7 million and $8 million, Hillman said.
Tomey said Highland Beach officials likely will be surprised by the actual costs.
“I think the town commissioners have been misinformed about the costs of creating and running a fire department,” he said. “There are a lot of things the consultant left out and a lot of things that the commissioners aren’t considering. They simply don’t know what they don’t know.”
At the same time, Delray Beach will have to find ways to fill the estimated annual income of almost $6  million Highland Beach would have to pay if it stayed beyond the next three years. The department also will have to figure out how to respond to the calls within Delray Beach that the Highland Beach station covers now.
That number was 667 in 2020, according to Highland Beach’s consultant.
Tomey said he’ll work with the City Commission, city staff and fire rescue staff to address those issues.
“My goal is for no firefighter to lose a job,” he said. “Those 667 calls will still need to be answered.”
Vice Mayor Johnson doesn’t see the coming challenges as insurmountable. “With Delray being the city that it is, I’m confident that we’ll be able to work it out,” she said.
Petrolia said she is confident the city can find ways to fill the gaps by moving personnel to meet area demands.
“Maybe we have to look at making our department more efficient,” she said.
Petrolia said she understands Highland Beach’s concerns, but does not think it’s fair for Delray Beach taxpayers to subsidize Highland Beach.
“Their millage rate is about half of ours,” she said.
She and Tomey both said that Delray Beach does not make any money as a result of the agreement, which calls for Highland Beach to pay for the cost of staffing a town-owned station with a full complement of 22.5 personnel.
During presentations to both the Highland Beach and Delray Beach commissions, Tomey pointed out that Highland Beach is considered part of the Delray Beach service area and as a result has access to all of that city’s resources should they be necessary.
He said his department provides Highland Beach with “the gold standard of medical care and fire service.”
Privately, however, some Highland Beach commissioners have argued that the town could be even more responsive to the needs of residents if it had its own department and didn’t respond to calls in Delray Beach.
While one ladder truck and one rescue wagon are currently assigned to the Highland Beach station, town leaders point out the consultant report includes the town having two rescue wagons, a ladder truck and an engine at the station.
With the additional apparatus fully staffed, a Highland Beach department would respond to simultaneous calls more quickly. Under the current arrangement, a second rescue truck usually comes from over the Linton Boulevard Bridge to handle simultaneous calls in the town.
Highland Beach commissioners recognize the amount of work and number of decisions ahead before the town is ready to launch its own department, but they say they are committed to making it work.
“The No. 1 objective and the No. 1 key point is the health and safety of our residents, not the savings,” Hillman said. “We will spend whatever we have to spend to make sure our residents get the best possible service.”

By Rich Pollack

A former town commissioner, the former director of Florida Atlantic University’s School of Public Administration and an attorney with experience in a regulated industry are among the five residents chosen for Highland Beach’s new Charter Review Board.
Charged with reviewing the town’s charter and making recommendations, the board was selected during a commission meeting last month and includes a member of the town’s financial review board and the former mayor of a Maryland village.
“This is an excellent Charter Review Board because it is so well rounded,” said Mayor Doug Hillman. “The individuals have varied backgrounds that will blend together well.”
The mayor said that it will be important for the panel to view the charter as a constitution for the town and consider how it will affect the town for years to come.
“They have to think down the road,” he said.
Following the board’s review and acceptance of recommendations by the Town Commission, some or all of the proposed changes will be presented to the voters in a referendum.
The board, which is expected to begin meeting this month and to conclude by August, will take a close look at the town’s founding document, which addresses everything from the makeup of the commission to term limits. It also will address the town’s controversial spending cap, which requires voter approval for most projects costing $350,000 or more.
Those selected to serve on the board are:
• Barry Donaldson, an architect who served as a town commissioner for a year.
• Steve Katzki, a financial adviser and the former mayor of Drummond, Maryland.
• Ron Reame, a member of the town’s Financial Advisory Board who owned and operated several businesses in the information systems and financial loan areas.
• Eve Rosen, an attorney who served as general counsel in a regulated industry.
• Khi Thai, a professor emeritus at FAU’s School of Public Administration and that school’s former director.

‘The current climate is fantastic for sellers,’ says Dave Petruzzelli, owner and partner of Petruzzelli Real Estate in Boca Raton. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Charles Elmore

A surge in home sales few could have imagined in the early stages of the pandemic one year ago is sending a relentless stream of prospective buyers from across the country at virtually every listing they can find in Highland Beach and Boca Raton.
“This is once in a lifetime,” said Carmen D’Angelo, broker and owner of Premier Estate Properties in Boca Raton. “We’ve never had this where there’s been such a demand for high-priced homes.”
A sale this year for $21.8 million in Highland Beach marked the highest D’Angelo knows about in the town, he said.
In southern Palm Beach County, the median sales price jumped 25% for single-family homes in 12 months, with buyers snapping up so many homes the inventory available for purchase plunged 63% in February compared with a year before, according to the Broward, Palm Beaches and St. Lucie Realtors organization.
Fresh inventory tends not to last long. A newly constructed home in Boca Raton’s Sanctuary community, for instance, sold within 30 days of completion for $12.2 million, D’Angelo said.
Properties in Highland Beach’s Ocean Cove neighborhood under contract for $4 million and $3.2 million represent prices 20% higher or more compared to a year earlier, said Brittany Belcher, agent for Lang Realty in Boca Raton.
“The market is going nuts right now,” she said.
Many properties are moving off the market in one to five days after listing, she said.
Homes are frequently selling for about 30% more in Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club in eastern Boca Raton compared to a year before, said Belcher’s mother and partner agent, Olive Belcher.
Most buyers are coming from other states, from New York to California to Georgia, but as pandemic restrictions begin to ease somewhat, more international buyers are showing interest as well, Olive Belcher said.
Shrinking inventories of homes for sale represent one of the few brakes on the frenzy.
But it already has been an indelible 12 months and a head-spinning start to 2021.
“Last year companywide we did $1.5 billion in sales,” D’Angelo said. With only a third of 2021 completed, he said, “we’ve already reached $1 billion.”
Since the pandemic started, buyers have often made decisions without seeing properties in person, relying on online videos, photos and Zoom calls, he said.
“Prices are up, all across the board,” D’Angelo said. “Inventory’s low.”
Nationally, March proved to be the hottest month in housing since at least 2012, according to real estate brokerage Redfin Corp. 
U.S. home prices rose 17% compared to the same month a year earlier.
And the median price climbed higher still in one of the nation’s most incandescent markets, Palm Beach County, rising nearly 18%.
In March, the number of homes sold across Palm Beach County increased 35% to 4,213 compared to a year earlier, Redfin said.
In part, that reflects a bounce from the early effects of the pandemic in March 2020. The first restrictions, closures and lockdowns initially depressed sales and stoked uncertainty and fear about how bad the economic damage might be.
But as working from home became the norm, people from all over the country who had the means to move decided Palm Beach County might not be a bad place to call home. As months passed, a steady increase in interest turned into a tidal wave.
By the fourth quarter of 2020, Palm Beach County led all major U.S. markets tracked by Redfin with a 115% increase in luxury home sales compared to the last three months of 2019. Luxury in this instance means the top 5% of costliest homes in the market, with a median sales price of $1.8 million, though sales of homes across the middle to upper price ranges in the county also registered significant increases.
“The current climate is fantastic for sellers,” said Dave Petruzzelli, owner and partner of Petruzzelli Real Estate in Boca Raton. “On the other hand, it’s frustrating for buyers, since many sellers are receiving multiple cash offers close to, or above, asking price.”
If the buyer is financing, that can be another potential obstacle when trying to compete with cash buyers, he said.
“Between extraordinarily low inventories, low rates, and a greater-than-normal influx of out-of-state buyers, there will continue to be upward pressure on pricing,” Petruzzelli said.
His firm’s last condominium listing on Boca Raton’s barrier island was on the market for only nine days, he said.
Townhouse, villa and condominium sales increased to 63 on Boca Raton’s barrier island in March, compared to 26 in the same month a year earlier, according to data from BeachesMLS that Petruzzelli cited. Single-family home sales increased to six from five.
The average sales price has not necessarily increased in every neighborhood in such a limited snapshot, where an expensive deal or two can skew the average. Still, in Highland Beach, single-family home sales increased to five from one the previous March, and the average sales price increased to $8.4 million from $4 million.
Townhouse, villa and condo sales in Highland Beach grew to 40 from 19 the previous March, with the average price slightly lower at $964,000 compared to $972,000.
Though inventory is getting tighter, pandemic restrictions and rising taxes in other states have pushed many more buyers this way, Petruzzelli said.
“The typical customer we have walk into our office is from the New York/Northeast area with an eye on now making Florida their permanent home,” he said.
Petruzzelli’s own family moved to Boca Raton in 1946, he said. His grandfather opened a real estate office at the firm’s current location on North Ocean Boulevard. He grew up on Boca Raton’s barrier island and has been licensed since 1979.
And this has been a year like no other, he said.
“We have received offers from purchasers without seeing the property via Facetime, some because of COVID concerns, others because they did not want to lose out on the deal,” Petruzzelli said. “It has been an unprecedented year in sales, and until supplies increase or some other cataclysmic event occurs, prices shall remain strong.”

Mike Landis rides his bike east along Palmetto Park Road. The presence of bikes, cars and pedestrians in tight proximity poses safety concerns. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Call for upgrade gets council’s ear

By Mary Hladky

City Council members are being pressed to improve the safety and appearance of Palmetto Park Road, one of the city’s major streets and a gateway to the downtown from the beach.
Beachside residents who live near the intersection of Palmetto Park Road and State Road A1A, and members of the Planning and Zoning Board have advanced ideas for changes that council members will discuss at their May 12-14 goal-setting sessions.
The focus of beachside residents is the section of the road from the Intracoastal Waterway to A1A. The planning board is looking at the span from A1A through downtown to Fourth Avenue two blocks west of City Hall.
Both agree on the need for traffic-calming devices, bicycle lanes, more trees, better walkability and safety improvements.
“It is the grand gateway to our beaches, but not welcoming,” Katie Barr MacDougall, president of the Riviera Civic Association, told the council on Feb. 22 about the eastern section of the road.
In her presentation, MacDougall cited safety problems caused by the absence of crosswalks. She proposed installing them at Olive Way and Wavecrest Way. The city recently added four crosswalks between Federal Highway and the Intracoastal Waterway.
The lack of bicycle lanes creates a big safety issue involving cyclists who use the sidewalks instead of competing with cars on the road.
The narrow sidewalks are another issue, a problem worsened by the recent installation of FPL poles on the south side of the road that eat into sidewalk space. “Walkability is a huge issue,” MacDougall said.
Beachside residents also want to reduce parking on both sides of the road, but MacDougall recognized that would be difficult because there is too little parking to meet demand.

Eastbound traffic backs up on Palmetto Park Road at Ocean Boulevard in Boca Raton. Palmetto Park Road has no lanes for bicyclists, who frequently use sidewalks, and the area has too little parking to meet demand.

But even if the city wants to act on these matters, the county would have to agree to any changes because that section of the road is under county jurisdiction.
Council member Andy Thomson said he would talk with the county’s Transportation Planning Agency about possible joint funding of a planning study for the road and to figure out a way to pay for improvements.
The city planning board first broached road problems on Dec. 3 and followed up with a Jan. 7 memo to City Council members suggesting updating the road design to include bicycle lanes, enhanced landscaping, more shade for pedestrians, and possible elimination of some on-street parking spaces and reduction of travel lanes from four to two.
“The whole street needs a makeover … to bring it into current times,” said board member Larry Cellon.
Speaking of the need for bicycle lanes, he said, “This is horrible. Boca Raton has higher standards than that. It is dangerous.”
In response, the City Council asked board members for more details on what changes they proposed.
Brandon Schaad, the city’s development services director, suggested that board members take a crack at redesigning the road themselves, using a software tool.
“You caught me by surprise,” Chair Arnold Sevell replied at the board’s March 18 meeting.
“I question the capabilities of this board to lay out streets and redesign Palmetto Park Road.”
The actual redesign would be done by an urban planning consultant, Schaad said. But the board’s conceptual design would help the City Council better understand what the board had in mind.
After mulling this for a bit, the board agreed to give it a go. “Can we see your design first?” Cellon quipped to Schaad.
Cellon jumped into the task with alacrity, presenting his concepts at the board’s April 15 meeting.
His plan’s emphasis was on slowing traffic, adding bike lanes, improving walkability and adding shade trees.
He proposed two westbound lanes and eliminating one eastbound lane. The lanes would be narrowed slightly to slow traffic. The other eastbound lane would be replaced by a center lane reserved for emergency vehicles that could double as an evacuation lane in the event of hurricanes.
One unanswered question was whether fire-rescue personnel would think the emergency lane actually is a good idea.
Four-foot-wide raised bike lanes would flank both sides of the street, and sidewalks would be 10 feet wide. Shade trees would be planted on both sides of the emergency lane, and would be incorporated into the sidewalks.
“It’s a great concept,” said board member Joe Panella. “The emergency lane is cool.”
But he cautioned that Palmetto Park Road should be considered as three sections, divided by Federal Highway and the Intracoastal. One conceptual drawing will not solve the different issues along the three sections of roadway, he said.
Panella also proposed recommending that the council hire an urban planning consultant soon so that planning moves quickly and avoids a “12-year design project.”

By Steve Plunkett

Downtown’s planned Wildflower/Silver Palm Park will have cheaper pavers and fewer trash bins, but City Council members looking to cut costs said they would find money to keep a $395,000 interactive water feature and a $556,000 restroom relocation on the blueprint.
A possible source of cash: the city’s imminent $65.75 million sale of its municipal golf course, Mayor Scott Singer said at the council’s April 26 workshop.
Jennifer Bistyga, the city’s coastal program manager, alerted council members two weeks earlier that construction estimates for the park, on the Intracoastal Waterway just west of the Palmetto Park Road bridge, had jumped to $10.3 million, or $2.5 million higher than the budgeted $8.8 million.
Negotiations with contractor Burkhardt to set up a “field office” at the city’s Municipal Services Complex instead of on-site, plus reductions in scope and profit trimmed $565,000, Bistyga reported.
Council members easily approved saving $433,000 through “value engineering changes” that Bistyga promised would not alter the look and feel of the project. Those revisions included the less expensive pavers, installing 10 garbage cans instead of 13 and seven recycling bins instead of 10, and keeping an existing entrance sign rather than ordering one engraved in stone.
At the April 26 meeting they also agreed to spend only $330,000 on landscaping, saving $203,700, and to install less expensive light poles and pocket $69,800, making the total cost roughly $9 million.
But they balked at city staff’s other cost-saving suggestions. And still to be decided is how much to spend on public art.
Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke called the Wildflower project “an opportunity to provide an amenity of excellence” to residents.
“The city can handle the cost of creating a phenomenal destination,” she said.
Council member Andy Thomson was the only person on the virtual dais to favor leaving the park’s restroom where it is, squarely in the way of the planned connecting walkway, and other reductions.
“Two million dollars right now to add to our budget is a bridge too far,” he said.
But O’Rourke said the council had told constituents they would get certain park features via statements and a sign posted prominently at the site two years ago.
“Let’s move forward, let’s get our promise done,” she said.
The council will vote on the cost reductions May 11. Bistyga said the council’s decisions would also reduce the contingency fund needed for the project, but could not say immediately by how much. Construction work should take about a year, she said.
In other park business, the council authorized Bistyga to apply for a second grant from the Florida Inland Navigation District for the planned renovation of Lake Wyman and Rutherford parks. FIND typically awards grants in the fall.

Boaters of all shapes and ages wade through the shallow waters of Lake Boca Raton,
surrounded by thousands of boats, personal watercraft and paddleboards. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

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Evan Golden sports gold lamé shorts, gold- framed sunglasses and a bathrobe as he dances with other partiers.

Joey Alexander and Madison Arnold do back flips from the roof of a friend’s boat.