GULF STREAM — Jefferson Feigl Vander Wolk of Gulf Stream and Osterville, Mass., died peacefully on June 14 in Boynton Beach. He was 87.
He is survived by his devoted wife of 60 years, Betty Brown Vander Wolk; his daughter, Hope Morrison Vander Wolk of Santa Fe, N.M.; his sons Philip Jefferson Vander Wolk of Santa Fe and Peter Walton Vander Wolk of Richmond, Va.; as well as seven grandchildren.
Mr. Vander Wolk was born in Springfield, Mass., on June 16, 1930, and reared in nearby Longmeadow. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Babson College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business and later sat on the board of trustees.
Mr. Vander Wolk was stationed in Big Spring, Texas, as a flight trainer in the Air Force. While there, he began his real estate development company and eventually parlayed his business sense into owning and operating a variety of successful businesses, including the Inn of the Governors in Santa Fe and the Waterway Cafe in Palm Beach Gardens.
As the employer of thousands over his lifetime — many of whom remained with him for decades — he treated his workers as partners by listening to their advice and distributing to them a handsome share of profits generated by their efforts.
Inspired by the teachings of William Edwards Deming, an American statistician credited with much of the economic rebirth of Japan after World War II, Mr. Vander Wolk wrote and published The Workplace Where Everyone Wins later in his life, illustrating his own business journey and his unique style of management.
Mr. Vander Wolk was known for his distinctive looks, his unwillingness to live in a house he didn’t design, the convertibles he drove while negotiating a legal pad and a No. 2 pencil in hand, his propensity to be the last to leave a party, his larger-than-life personality and his ability to move well on his feet, whether in black tie on the dance floor or playing net on the tennis court. He enjoyed offshore sailing, golf, socializing, dining with his wife and flying.
In the 1970s he built his own helicopter, powered by an Evinrude 235-horsepower outboard engine. Throughout his adult life, he owned and piloted a variety of aircraft, most notably his next helicopter, which he owned for 30-plus years and in which he liked to buzz his friends’ houses.
A good friend to many, Mr. Vander Wolk enjoyed spending time with like-minded people of all stripes and could often be found at one of the clubs with which he had affiliations, including the Gulf Stream Bath and Tennis Club, the Gulf Stream Golf Club, the Wianno Club, the Beach Club of Centerville, Massachusetts, the Hyannis Yacht Club and the New York Yacht Club.
Undeterred by most obstacles, Mr. Vander Wolk, the Dancing Bear, made magic happen when most others said it wasn’t possible, and will be sorely missed by many people.
He was preceded in death by his mother, Edith Powell Vander Wolk; his father, Walter William Vander Wolk; both of his brothers, Walter William “Bill” Vander Wolk Jr. and Donald Powell Vander Wolk; as well as by many of his dear friends.
The family will celebrate his life with a gathering from 4-6 p.m. at the Wianno Club in Osterville on July 29. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Achievement Centers for Children and Families, 555 NW Fourth St., Delray Beach, FL 33444, or online at achievementcentersfl.org.

— Obituary submitted by the family

By Ron Hayes

BRINY BREEZES — Roy Miller was a child of the Great Depression who never forgot its lessons. You don’t throw broken things away, you fix them. You work hard and appreciate what you have.
“I remember once when I was cooking,” his son Roy Jr. recalls. “I put too much food on his plate. He ate it, and then complained for three days that I’d given him too much food. But he ate it. You didn’t waste anything.”
Mr. Miller’s friends and neighbors benefited from that lesson every Monday morning as he circled the town of Briny Breezes in a pickup truck, collecting recycling bins. In 2014, his volunteer service helped the town score the highest per-capita recycling rate among South County’s coastal communities.
Mr. Miller, who suffered a stroke in October, died on June 17 at Trustbridge Hospice in Lake Worth. He was 92 and had lived in Briny Breezes since 1985.
“He was very, very personable and loved to tell stories,” said his son, who lives in Lantana. “He was a leader. He didn’t want to be a leader, but he was a take-charge kind of guy.”
Roy Vernon Miller was born on July 28, 1925, in Brockton, Mass.
As a teen, he worked at Walsh’s Ice Cream stand in the city’s expansive D.W. Field Park. Also scooping ice cream that summer was a boy named Ralph “Buddy” Magnuson, who had a sister named Rose, known to all as Sunshine. Roy was 17. She was 10.
Roy and Sunshine Miller, who married in 1950, would have celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary June 25.
Leaving school in the 11th grade, Mr. Miller worked as an usher at Brockton’s Colonial Theatre before joining the U.S. Navy in 1943. He served as a gunner attached to merchant ships, and after being discharged in 1945 went to work for Plymouth Rubber Co. in Canton, Mass.
In 1968, he retired and the family moved to Athol, Mass., where he worked for a local contractor, doing industrial cleaning and painting.
In Briny Breezes, Mr. Miller was very active in Curtain Raisers, the town’s amateur theater company, writing and acting in several productions.
The family still laughs at the time Mr. Miller suggested the group might put on a burlesque show.
“We’re not going to strip!” the women exclaimed.
Mr. Miller had to explain that a burlesque show offered mildly risqué humor, but nudity was not required.
In 1995, his friend and neighbor, Don Hebert, got him a part-time job at the St. Andrews Club.
Joined by another neighbor, Gene Robey, the trio dubbed themselves “The Over the Hill Gang,” and for the next 22 years, Mr. Miller worked, often seven days a week, washing and rebagging golf balls he’d gathered from the practice range.
“At one point, Roy quit, and they told him he had to come back because everyone liked him so much,” Hebert recalled. “I just loved working with him, and I don’t know anybody at St. Andrews or in Briny Breezes who would have a bad word to say about him. He was a great and compassionate man.”
In addition to his work at the St. Andrews Club, Mr. Miller took on part-time jobs caring for residents’ homes when they went north for the winter.
“He did a lot of things,” his son said. “He loved music, that’s why he did the plays. But most of the time he worked hard all his life.”
In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Miller is survived by another son, Robert, and a grandson, Adam, of California.
A memorial service in Briny Breezes will be scheduled after winter residents return.

This new 10,000-square-foot home on Enfield Street in Boca Raton takes advantage of the view of the Intracoastal and is a finalist in HGTV’s online Ultimate House Hunt 2018. Photo provided

By Christine Davis

A new Boca Raton house at 899 Enfield St., exclusively listed for sale by Kathryn Gillespie, an agent with Illustrated Properties, has been selected as a finalist in HGTV’s international Ultimate House Hunt 2018. The $11.5 million home, developed by Mary Widmer of JMW Florida Properties, is one of 12 worldwide properties to be chosen for the “Waterfront Homes” category.
The six-bedroom, eight-bathroom, 10,000-square-foot home, designed by Ron Rickert of lntelae LLC and built by Ed Clement of Sabre Custom Homes, features 202 feet of Intracoastal Waterway frontage, a media room, club room, office, two 50-foot docks, an infinity edge pool with a spa and a four-car garage with a lift. The contest is a promotion held at HGTV.com through July 17, and winners are decided by online votes. To vote, visit hgtv.com/design/ultimate-house-hunt/2018-hgtv-ultimate-house-hunt/waterfront-homes.

At $19.88 million, the estate at 6161 N. Ocean Blvd. set a sales record for Ocean Ridge. Photo provided

Freedom Mortgage Corp. founder and CEO Stanley Middleman and his wife, Roslyn, bought a new estate home at 6161 N. Ocean Blvd., Ocean Ridge, for $19.88 million. The sale was recorded June 14. Represented by Nick Malinosky and Randy Ely of Douglas Elliman’s Sports & Entertainment Division, the seller was Ocean Ridge 6161 N. Ocean LLC, managed by Donna M. Sotillo in West Palm Beach. The property previously sold for $6.15 million in 2013.
The new five-bedroom, 13,542-square-foot home was built on the 1.55-acre site last year. Features include white-oak wood and limestone tile flooring, designer wall-coverings, impact glass windows and doors, generator, two garages, security system and smart-house technology.
The selling price set a record for Ocean Ridge. The previous record was $13.635 million for a property at 6125 N. Ocean Blvd. in February 2016, also an Ely and Malinosky listing.

A five-bedroom, 7,486-square-foot home at 3501 N. Ocean Blvd. in Gulf Stream sold May 31 for $13.88 million, according to public records. A Florida limited liability company managed by RKivest LLC and signed by architect Rustem Kupi, Delray Beach, was the seller, represented by Corcoran Group agents Candace Friis and Phil Friis. The buyer, 3501 North Ocean Blvd. LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, was represented by Corcoran agents Dana Koch and Paulette Koch.
Kupi’s company acquired the site for $9.25 million in March 2015 and completed the new home in 2017.

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, LP announced in June the $23.68 million sale of 900 Broken Sound Parkway, a 115,986-square-foot, Class A office building in Boca Raton. The Holliday team represented the seller, a partnership between Mainstreet Capital Partners and an investment fund managed by the Davis Cos., a Boston-based commercial real estate development and investment firm. Holliday also represented the buyer, a partnership between local investors and a national investment fund that has selected NAI/Merin Hunter Codman to provide management and leasing services.
Built in 1989, the five-story building was most recently renovated in 2015 and is 79.4 percent leased to tenants that include CSL Plasma and Geosyntec. The Holliday investment advisory team representing the seller included Hermen Rodriguez, Ike Ojala and Tracey Goo.

Sofa Partners and Manuel Vergara secured a $20.6 million construction loan for 111 First Delray, a 70-unit, five-story condo project on Southeast First Avenue. Trez Forman Capital Group, a joint venture between Forman Capital and Vancouver-based Trez Capital Group, is the lender.  The development team, consisting of two families, which include Felipe and Manuel Vergara and Rafael and Daniel Rincon, paid $9 million for the property in 2015. A year later, Sofa Partners launched sales with Nestler Poletto of Sotheby’s International Realty. Ranging from one-bedroom to three-bedroom units priced from the $500,000s to about $1 million, 60 percent are sold. Construction is underway and it’s set to open in April.

The Keyes Co.’s Illustrated Properties acquired Palm Beach County Realty Group of Boynton Beach on June 13. The deal adds 23 agents to Keyes’ Manalapan office at 230 S. Ocean Blvd. The Boynton Beach firm, led by Robert Sauer Jr. and Mary Prince, was founded in 2011. It closed more than $20 million in sales last year.
“After meeting with Keyes CEO Mike Pappas and Senior Vice President Steven Reibel, it became clear to us that Illustrated would give our agents the support, dedication and vision they need to grow their business,” Sauer said.
Pappas said: “The addition of Palm Beach County Realty Group and the firm’s talented agents to our family is another example of the tremendous impact we have enjoyed from our 2016 alliance with Illustrated Properties.”

Based on a report from the Realtors of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale, the sales of single-family homes ranging from $400,000 to $599,999 showed a 14 percent year-over-year increase in May, while home sales of more than $1 million decreased by 0.8 percent. Overall, closed sales decreased 2.7 percent, with cash transactions down 12.1 percent and the median sales price up by 5.7 percent to $354,000.  The median time to contract increased 2.1 percent to 49 days. Active listings decreased 2 percent and the supply of inventory remained the same at 4.9 months. “The numbers for May reflect what could be a trend toward a leveling out of the market,” said Jeffrey Levine, president elect of the Realtors of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale. 

Jose Antonio Fernandez, a tennis player and coach originally from Chile, has joined the sales team of Silver International Realty as a real estate agent. His grandfather and mother also were tennis pros, and his uncle Patricio Cornejo was a top professional and played on Chile’s Davis Cup runner-up in 1976.
Fernandez played on the ATP Tour for 12 years, reaching a career-high ranking of 202 in 1991. He was a member of the Chilean Davis Cup team from 1986 to 1992. He became a coach after retiring, and Steffi Graf was one of his students.
“Due to his international background, he is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, German, English and he has some knowledge of French and Italian,” Realtor Christel Silver said. “Because of the fact that he is currently living in the Sunshine State, he decided to help his friends in their search for investment properties in the region.”
Silver International Realty is at 55 SE Second Ave., Delray Beach.

John Campanola, an agent from New York Life’s office in Delray Beach, was one of the sponsors of a TED Center event, “An Evening With Shining Stars Annual Gala,” which was held at the Delray Beach Marriott.
The Center for Technology, Enterprise and Development in Delray “is a nonprofit charitable and educational Community Development Corporation organization [that] understands the challenge of achieving economic sufficiency for new and existing businesses,” he said. “The center has an ambitious outreach program to develop entrepreneurial skills and inspire others to do the same.”

Boca Raton residents Roy Metzger and Gissel Ellington recently opened Pool Scouts, a pool maintenance and services company. The two aim to provide top-notch services to the neighborhoods of Highland Beach. Prior to opening Pool Scouts, Ellington began her own business, Stressless Movers. Metzger worked as a vice president of sales for global financial services.

Get ready and get hungry for the Boca Chamber’s second annual Boca Restaurant Month in September. Three-course meals will be offered at reduced prices, with lunches priced at $21 to $25 and dinners priced at $36 to $40. For a list of participating restaurants and to view menus, visit www.bocarestaurantmonth.com. The Boca Chamber’s partners for this event include the city of Boca Raton, Open Table, Boca Center, Town Center at Boca Raton, Discover the Palm Beaches, General Growth Properties and Boca magazine.

The Festival Management Group announced that the South Florida Garlic Fest will be featured on the Cooking Channel’s Carnival Eats Season 6 premiere, Garlic Angels, at 9 p.m. July 15. Wellington’s Bacon & Bourbon Fest will be featured in the program’s 2018 fall season.

The Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative’s new app at VisitDelrayBeach.org, designed in partnership with Visit Widget, offers an interactive way to explore Delray Beach events, restaurants, attractions, hotels and points of interest. Users can plan trips on their computers, then download the app and go
mobile with the plan. “See a beach activity you don’t want to miss? Click ‘Join’ and the event will be added to your plan,” said Stephanie Immelman, executive director. “Want to invite some friends? Share your plan with them directly or via social media, email or SMS.”
Find the app by going to VisitDelrayBeach.org and clicking “Plan Your Visit.”

Time for a staycation? The Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative encourages you to check out hotel summer deals in Delray Beach.
Colony Hotel & Cabana Club is offering a $119 nightly
rate through October 2018. Crane’s Beach House Boutique Hotel and Luxury Villas offers a 20 percent discount. 
Delray Beach Marriott offers 20 percent off for Florida residents or 10 percent off all suites. Delray Sands is offering up to 20 percent off, plus breakfast for two. Fairfield Inn & Suites is giving a free $20 gas card earned per night, plus a Florida resident rate.
Hyatt Place is offering 15 percent off. Parliament Inn is giving the seventh night free. Residence Inn is giving Florida residents 20 percent off. All deluxe room bookings at The Seagate Hotel & Spa include a hot stone massage and Wright by the Sea is giving 15 percent off all oceanview apartments. 
For more information on hotel summer specials, go to VisitDelrayBeach.org/summer. To see restaurant summer specials, go to VisitDelrayBeach.org/eats.

Crane’s Beach House Boutique Hotel and Luxury Villas was named to the TripAdvisor Hall of Fame, an accolade granted to businesses that have won the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence for five years in a row.
Based on guest reviews, it also won the #Lovedbyguests Award from Hotels.com and it made the Expedia Insiders Select List as judged by Expedia travelers’ experiences.
Crane’s is a repeat recipient of the Florida Superior Small Lodging Association’s Donald A. Dermody White Glove Award for housekeeping excellence and exceptional service.

After a well-received pilot program last year, the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority has revived the Downtown Safety Ambassador Program, with two ambassadors providing security and hospitality services from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
They are patrolling downtown, the Pineapple Grove Arts District and south of Atlantic one block.
Partner organizations include the Police Department Clean and Safe Unit, Fire Department, Community Improvement and Downtown Clean and Safe Unit, and the Homeless Task Force. 
The DDA is managing and overseeing the program.

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

Commission wants to close
loopholes in building code

A proposed nine-bedroom, 11½-bath home helped trigger a review of Ocean Ridge’s building code. Rendering provided

By Dan Moffett

Ocean Ridge commissioners have taken the extraordinary step of halting new construction until they can close loopholes in the town’s building code that could allow the approval of large, potentially commercial residential projects — sober homes, for example.
On May 7, the commission unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance that calls for a temporary moratorium on permitting and development orders.
Mayor James Bonfiglio says the shutdown “is not a property-specific action” but rather a “work in progress” intended to address building issues that the commission has confronted for months.
“We’re not trying to ban any home,” Bonfiglio said.
While Ocean Ridge hits the pause button on builders with new projects, the hope is the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission can come up with recommendations that will tighten building rules and allay fears of sober homes for the long term. But the early returns on that aren’t particularly encouraging.
During a meeting in late May, P&Z board members expressed frustration over their lack of expertise for tackling such a complicated and legally perilous undertaking — one that comes with a maze of unintended consequences. Even the smallest change can set off a chain reaction of collateral problems.
“You do one thing and it bites you on the other hand,” said Chairman Gerald Goray.
“Everything that comes up, there’s 10 things more that come up with it,” said board member Penny Kosinski. “At what point are we spinning our wheels?”
“You can’t cherry-pick,” said Mark Marsh, an architect on the panel. “One thing has a ramification on another thing.”
Town Engineer Lisa Tropepe agreed: “Unintended consequences. Those two words are huge.”
P&Z members decided to request help from the Town Commission. They want commissioners to hire a certified planning consultant to guide them through their deliberations.
Town Manager Jamie Titcomb said Ocean Ridge already has a contract for other work with Kilday & Associates, a West Palm Beach urban planning firm, and the Town Commission could consider bringing Kilday on board at the June 4 commission meeting.
A pivotal event could come two weeks later, however, when the commission and the P&Z board hold a joint workshop on potential code and ordinance changes — perhaps with a planning expert at the table — beginning at 8:30 a.m. on June 18. Titcomb warned the participants to keep a long block of time open for that one.

Proposal for huge home sparked response
The flashpoint that lit the fire under commissioners to approve the moratorium was the submission of a concept review application for a nine-bedroom, 11½-bath home at 92-94 Island Drive South.
John Lauring, the Massachusetts businessman who owns the property, told commissioners during a special meeting April 30 that he and his family have been spending winters in Ocean Ridge for 22 years.
Lauring said he opposes the moratorium because it is unfair to large families. He said 63 people are in his immediate family, and he needs the nine bedrooms to accommodate them.
Lauring said the idea that the family home would become a sober house “is far from the truth.”
Bonfiglio told Lauring the town isn’t using the moratorium to target specific projects but rather concerns over “shortcomings in our code that we need to address.”
In recent years, numerous South Florida municipalities — among them Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Boca Raton — have experienced the legal complications of trying to regulate the spread of sober homes. Some municipalities have learned a costly lesson in the courts about infringements on individual property and privacy rights.
Bonfiglio and the commissioners said the P&Z board should review four issues related to large homes: onsite parking requirements, drainage impact, septic tank limits and whether the structure’s entrances and exits are adequate for evacuations during fires or other emergencies.
Vice Mayor Don MaGruder said the town should take into account the impact of sea level rise when considering how to change its rules for the long term.
“We need to look down the road and see where we’re going to be in four or five years,” he said.
Part of the town’s move toward a longer view on development rules includes the hiring of a full-time, in-house certified building official. Commissioners unanimously approved Wayne Cameron for the position during the meeting on May 7.
Cameron, a building official in Palm Springs, has 30 years’ experience in construction inspection in South Florida. He holds a bachelor’s degree in public safety administration from St. Petersburg College and will start in Ocean Ridge at an annual salary of $74,500.

Longtime residents fill in gaps, share stories of Delray Beach history

Wise Elder Circle members Wanda Machek, 79, and Roy Simon, 87, pore over vintage photos in an effort to identify people in the images. The Delray Beach Historical Society started the group this year. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

Lonnie Cook Jr. was born here in 1932, and except for a few years in Cleveland back in the 1950s, he lived all his 80 years in Delray Beach.
He owned Hand’s Office Supply store for nearly 50 of those years, and he was a founding member of the Delray Beach Historical Society.
When Lonnie Cook died on May 2, 2012, he took a lot of Delray Beach memories with him.
But he left a lot behind, too — enough to fill two big boxes with photographs and yellowed newspaper clippings.
In November, Mary Ellen Cook delivered those boxes to Kate Teves, archivist at the historical society her late husband had helped to establish.
“Go through them,” she told Teves, “and take what you want.”
The archivist began exploring the artifacts.
“I know most of the main families and the oldest photos,” Teves recalled, “but some I couldn’t identify.”
We should go through all this with people who grew up here, Teves thought. People, say, 79 and older.
And so, on the first Monday in January, Mary Ellen Cook and a few old friends gathered around a table in the society’s Ethel Sterling Williams Learning Center and got to work.
The photographs brought back memories, the memories brought back stories, and the stories brought back Delray Beach of decades past.
The group met again in February; by March it had grown to a dozen or more, and the Wise Elder Circle was born.
“These people know Delray Beach backwards and forwards,” Teves said. “It’s important work, and we just love eavesdropping as they tell their stories.”
Let’s eavesdrop.
On this Monday morning in March, a plate of raisin bread and cheese has been set out, along with a pitcher of tea and boxes of black and white photographs.
Squinting into a magnifying glass, Roy Simon, 87, is scrutinizing a Delray High School reunion from the 1960s, pad and pencil by his side. Of 23 men and women in the photo, he’s identified five so far.
“I think that’s me,” says Wanda Machek, 79, who was born on Southwest Seventh Avenue. “But it’s the ugliest dress.”
She takes up another photo.
“Know who that is? That’s Vera-Ellen. She was a very popular movie star back then. She probably came for the Gladioli Festival.”
Simon abandons the high school reunion to admire Vera-Ellen.
“That would be … ’48 … ’49. Maybe the 1950s,” he decides, and they both pause a moment to remember the lovely Vera-Ellen.
She starred with Bing Crosby in White Christmas and danced with Gene Kelly in On The Town. But how many remember Vera-Ellen today?
Time flies, and fame is fleeting.
“Hey, Jerry, what kind of fish are these?”
Another photo is tossed across the table to Jerry Kern, 81, who was teased for being a Yankee when he arrived here as a teenager in 1948.
The photo, taken on Dec. 9, 1956, has caught Capt. Bill Keane on the Boynton Inlet Dock, posing before a massive catch.
“That’s kingfish and mackerel and dolphin,” Kern says, and pencils this information on the back.

ABOVE: Betty Diggans uses a flashlight to take a close look at an old image during a meeting of the Wise Elder Circle at the Delray Beach Historical Society. The group’s main task is to identify the people in the photos. BELOW: An invitation to the circle’s next meeting.

Apparently, photos from the Delray Beach Gladioli Festival are plentiful. Mary Ellen Cook has found a smiling Gladioli Queen from 1952.
“Shirley Craig was around that year,” she recalls, “but it might be Dorothy Steiner.”
Yes, that’s Dorothy Steiner. Cook herself was in the pageant. “Oh, but I was just a contender,” she says, modestly. “We waved from the float. But we had fun.”
Roy Simon is making progress in his quest to name all 23 attendees at that long-ago high school reunion.
“Dorothy Steiner was Miss Florida in 1956,” he says, “and third runner-up in the Miss America contest that year.”
He frowns. “Or it might have been ’57.”
He’s close. It was 1957, but Dorothy Steiner was the fourth runner-up.
The morning’s work is going nicely now, names are being matched with faces as archivist Teves moves around the table, eavesdropping and taking notes.
“This is about communicating with the community and the people who grew up here,” she says. “The town has changed so much and so quickly, but history is never finished.”
And then Zicky Simon, Roy’s cousin, arrives.
Zicky is 94, and in January he finally retired after 61 years from the local Chevrolet dealership where he started work on Jan. 4, 1957. He’s the oldest elder here this morning and may have the sharpest memory.
Scanning the table, he spots Jerry Kern.
“I sold Jerry a new 1963 Chevy Corvette with the $90 Sebring silver option,” he announces.
“I still have it,” Kern calls across the table. “I crank it up every few weeks and it still runs good. The odometer shows 90,000.”
“It cost $5,050,” Zicky remembers.
“Well, I went to the West Palm Beach auto auction out at the fairground five years ago and saw one for $115,000,” Kern adds.
“I made $35 off the sale,” Zicky laughs.
And like a subtle shift in the wind, the memories become stories.
Barbara Kern, 81, born on South Federal Highway in 1937, has found a photo of Jimmy Smith, whose parents owned the jewelry store by the Arcade Tap Room on Atlantic Avenue.
“I had my tonsils taken out over the Arcade Tap Room,” says Kern, Jerry’s wife.
“Dr. Kenneth Davis,” Roy Simon interjects. “Or was Kenneth his son? I only knew him as Dr. Davis.”
One time when he was a boy, Simon recalls, his father was riding a horse on some land out by Hidden Valley Road where they kept about 200 head of cattle and a snake shocked the horse and the reins pulled his father’s finger off.
“Dr. Davis wanted to amputate, but Dad wouldn’t let him, so he sewed it back on in our living room,” Simon said. “That must have been … the 1940s. It was during the war. After a while he got his feeling back in that finger.”
Mention of the war reminds Roy’s cousin Zicky of the time he was sure he saw a German submarine off South Ocean Boulevard.
“I was riding my bike and it was so close, a half-block close to shore,” he exclaims. “They were on the deck having a ball.”
And so the morning slipped toward afternoon. Photographs. Memories. Stories. When the group started to disperse, most of the raisin bread and cheese was still on the plate, but Roy Simon had identified 19 of the 23 young men and women at that Delray High School reunion so long ago.
“This is a good idea,” Zicky Simon said. “The memories come back, you know?”
Betty Diggans, 90, who came in 1947 to take a job at The Colony hotel, agreed.
“It’s just great fun to share memories with old friends,” she said, “and every once in a while we have surprises.”
Suddenly she remembered the time that horse died out on Lone Pine Road.
“Well, they decided to bury it in the lot next door,” Diggans began. “This was in the early 1970s. They drug the horse over and dug a hole, but they miscalculated the depth of the hole, so the horse’s four hooves were sticking up out of the ground. And rigor mortis had set in!”
A sly smile spread across her face and her voice grew softer.
“Well, they had a remedy for that,” she said, “but I won’t tell you how they did it.”
For information about the Wise Elder Council, call the Delray Beach Historical Society at 274-9578 or email Kate Teves at archive@delraybeachhistory.org.

By Jane Smith

Free parking in downtown Delray Beach is coming to an end.
In late May, the city started installing 32 smart parking kiosks on Atlantic Avenue from Fifth Avenue west to Swinton Avenue. One block north and south of Atlantic also will have metered parking.
The changes were in anticipation of the City Commission’s second vote set for June 5 on paid parking along Atlantic Avenue. The times and rates were still to be determined.
Paid parking in downtown Delray Beach has been discussed for more than a decade.
On May 28, Dede Tanzer, 66, wondered why the change was being made. “They overbuilt this small town by allowing a movie theater, hotels and large restaurants to come in,” said Tanzer, a retired choreographer and theater critic.
“Why can’t the city be content with the extra property tax dollars from those projects?” she asked.
Tanzer sat outside Starbucks at 205 E. Atlantic Ave. with her companion, Steve, who would not give his last name. “It’s a way to get more money for the town,” said Steve, 68, a retired architect.
Both have lived in Delray Beach for five years.
Steve suggested the city use Lanier Parking employees to monitor the parking spots to keep the vehicles from staying more than two hours and not install the paid parking system.
At the May 15 commission meeting, new Public Works Director Susan Goebel-Canning suggested a parking fee of $2 an hour between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. The maximum parking time would be two hours.
Warnings would be given for the first 30 days of the program, Goebel-Canning said. She also estimated revenue from paid parking would be $1.36 million in 2019.
Mark Denkler, a past chairman of the city’s Downtown Development Authority and a shoe store retailer on Atlantic, said he would like to see the meters operating between noon and midnight at an initial rate of $1 per hour. He also wants to see a grace period for people who want to run into a store for a quick purchase. The city’s former chief financial officer is in favor of paid parking as a way to diversify the city’s revenue from property taxes.
“It will not deter visitors,” Jack Warner said. “Once passed, I support the city manager having the authority to raise the rates to $3 an hour and change the hours without returning to the commission.”
Delray Beach has two public parking garages. Under the proposed parking plan, they would be free on Sundays and a flat rate of $5 would be charged 4 p.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday.
Overnight parking will not be allowed in the garages and city-owned parking lots.
But commercial real estate broker Christina Morrison said parking overnight should be allowed for those who “imbibe too much and want to take a taxi or Uber home.”
She also recommended cameras be installed in the garages to improve safety.
“You need at least three hours to have dinner on Atlantic Avenue,” said Vice Mayor Adam Frankel.
At Gary Rack’s Farmhouse Kitchen Restaurant in late May, Angelita Nicolas, 37, was enjoying a late breakfast. Nicolas agreed with Frankel about extra time needed to eat at the city’s downtown restaurants. “You need at least four hours to include wait times for The Office, City Oyster and Max’s Harvest,” she said. She owns a medical supply business and used to have a boutique in Pineapple Grove.
Frankel also wants the city to meter its surface lots and have parking in the garages be free, as Boca Raton does in its Mizner Park shopping district.
The city parking lots are scattered throughout downtown with a variety of time limits, from two hours at the East Railroad and Village lots to nine hours at the West Railroad lot.
Commissioner Bill Bathurst said signs directing people to the city-owned parking garages and lots will be important. He also wants to see the city charge the same rate on both sides of the Intracoastal Waterway. On the barrier island, the hourly parking rate is $1.75.
“We’ve been working on this forever,” said Mayor Shelly Petrolia.
She also wants to see passes available for city homeowners to park anywhere because they already pay property taxes, along with monthly employee passes for parking in garages.
Petrolia said she was worried the paid parking plan may push visitors’ parking into the neighborhoods north and south of the downtown, creating problems there.

Slimming down for summer. Those of us who grew up in northern climates are quite familiar with the annual spring diet to prepare for swimsuit season. Of course, in Florida every season is swimsuit season. So here there’s no escaping the inevitable squeeze into an elasticized sausage casing if you’re a woman who wants to get into the ocean. It’s just a fact of modern life.
So is the drop in revenue your community newspaper faces, in common with other local businesses in the summer months.
But it’s something we at The Coastal Star anticipate and adjust to — while still providing you with the news and information you need to be an informed resident.
This summer we are trying a new diet. As our part-time residents go north for the summer, we plan to shrink a size or two.
What you’ll find is that our Home, Health & Harmony section will fold into our Around Town section, and each of our columnists will take a well-earned vacation for at least one month until season begins anew. So, your paper will be a little thinner as it lands in your driveway, but there will be no shortage of news — especially during the critical municipal budgeting season.
And you’ll still find plenty of interesting and well-written stories about people and places in our communities, plus valuable information about places to visit and things to do. Equally important, you’ll find summer deals from our advertisers, as well as continued listings for all the beautiful real estate along the coast.
So, we will be a little slimmer this summer, but that may only make our newspaper look even better as we take a little time to enjoy the beach — and everything else our sliver of paradise has to offer.

— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

Mary and Bob Isenbek spend Tuesdays at the Boca Raton Historical Society and Museum, cataloging its holdings and learning more about their new home. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

When most people glance at the Boca Raton Resort and Club, they see a luxury hotel that has hosted celebrities, world leaders and high-powered business executives.
When Bob and Mary Isenbek look at the Boca Raton Resort and Club, they see history come alive.
“We see what it was, not what it is,” says Bob, who along with Mary has been volunteering at the Boca Raton Historical Society and Museum since shortly after arriving in South Florida in 2012. “You start to look at things differently.”
History lovers from back in their days living in New York, when they would visit museums and historical cemeteries, the Isenbeks have immersed themselves in the history of Boca Raton through their volunteer work at the museum.
They can tell you about early Boca Raton pioneer Frank Chesebro, whose diary they helped transcribe, and they can rattle off the names of the owners of the landmark Boca Raton resort as if they knew each one personally.
“I even know why it’s pink,” Bob says. Pink was the favorite color of Hildegarde Schine, whose husband, J. Myer Schine, owned the hotel between 1944 and 1955. It was painted pink in about 1950. Since walking through the door of the historical society six years ago — arriving as visitors and leaving as volunteers — the Isenbeks have taken on a variety of tasks, mostly working with museum Curator Susan Gillis.
“We refer to Mary and Bob as the ‘A-team’ around the museum,” Gillis said. “They assist with cataloguing our collections, help build exhibits, staff major events, tote and fetch donations and supplies, and decorate for the holidays. My department couldn’t function without them.”
The Isenbeks have gained an understanding of Boca Raton’s history that draws them closer to the community they now call home.
“Even though they are New Yorkers, they now know more about Boca Raton history than many of the old-timers,” Gillis says.
Mary Isenbek says that through history, their connection with Boca Raton has gotten stronger and she encourages others who migrate to become absorbed in their communities.
“It connects you to the present,” she said.
Mary, 68, and Bob, 70, have been married for 46 years and are residents of San Remo Club, along State Road A1A. Their connection with the historical society came in handy when the community decided to celebrate its 50th anniversary last year. The couple, working with the museum’s collections, researched the history of Boca’s San Remo and found photos that were taken when it was being built, as well as other photos from over the years.
They put together four large storyboards detailing the history of their community, which were placed on display in San Remo.
In addition to working in collections at least every Tuesday — where they have spent time cataloging photos from the Boca Raton News and identifying those in the images, along with working on other projects — the Isenbeks volunteer at the Boca Express Train Museum, also operated by the historical society.
Bob serves as the station manager, greeting adult visitors to the two 1947 Seaboard Air Line streamlined rail cars, while Mary works with children coming for tours.
In addition, Mary makes jewelry — often from shells she collects on the beach — and sells them in the museum gift shop, with the proceeds going to the organization.
For the Isenbeks, working with Gillis and uncovering some of the mysteries of Boca Raton’s history has become more than just a way to satisfy curiosity. It has become an important part of their lives.
“I like that we’re always learning something,” Mary says. “That’s what keeps us young.”
Says Bob: “History is an addiction. Once you’re hooked on it, that’s it.”

Boynton Beach city employees work May 24 to repair a water main break that disrupted traffic at Ocean Avenue and A1A and forced the city to stop water service to about a dozen Ocean Ridge homes. They patched the pavement and put up a barricade until the road could be repaired. Photo provided by Tim Laflin

Ocean Ridge says Boynton hasn’t shared plan for dog beach

By Dan Moffett

Former Ocean Ridge Commissioner Ed Brookes said he got nowhere trying to persuade Boynton Beach to drop the idea of creating a dog beach at Oceanfront Park when he attended the city’s commission meeting in May. Brookes criticized town officials for not going to the meeting and voicing their opposition.
Town Manager Jamie Titcomb and Mayor James Bonfiglio said they can’t oppose what doesn’t exist. They’re waiting to hear what Boynton’s plan looks like. So far, the city hasn’t gone beyond discussion. Ocean Ridge’s ordinances prohibit dogs on the public beach at any time, and the Town Commission has steadfastly maintained that’s not going to change, no matter what Boynton Beach decides.

Resident offers possible bargain on license plate recognition cameras
Ocean Ridge resident Finbarr O’Carroll and Police Chief Hal Hutchins are working on a proposal for license plate recognition cameras that could save the town tens of thousands of dollars.
O’Carroll, a telecommunications executive with the Kerry Group, thinks he might be able to install a camera system as part of a test program for $13,000, roughly $200,000 less than retail estimates.
An enthusiastic Town Commission told Hutchins to work with O’Carroll and bring a proposal to the June meeting.

Let’s not get caught up in the minute differences of HB631.
Let’s simply look at its intent and why Karl Rove and Mike Huckabee want to control the land in front of their million-dollar mansions. They want to own the sand and not allow other people to use the beaches in front of them. They want to privatize the beaches for their own personal use. They feel entitled since they paid so much money for their homes.
I will gladly serve as the plaintiff against Palm Beach County for a courageous lawyer who wants to bring forth suit by forcing the county to stop paying with my tax dollars for the patrolling of these private beaches. Let the new owners pay for their private security to drive up and down the beach.
I want the county to stop using my tax dollars for anything related to the sand renourishment. After all it now belongs to the oceanfront homeowners; let them pay for it out of their pocket. Create a special taxing district to collect money from them for the expenditures of owning a beach.
The legal issue it raises is for police departments such as Ocean Ridge, which have patrolled the beaches and posted signs “No this and no that on the beach” when in fact Ocean Ridge PD has no jurisdiction over these beaches. They are either Florida state or private properties.
Yet another piece of legislation from this governor and his cronies giving public land to the 1 percent and letting the 99 percent pay for it.
And to those who argue nothing will change in the near future … this is the stepping stone to exactly what you fear it will do. It does not stop here; it simply laid the basis for what is to come.

Martin Wiescholek
Ocean Ridge

By Dan Moffett

Weeks of lingering rain in May have delayed construction and pushed back the opening of the new Publix store at Manalapan’s Plaza del Mar from early June to late July.
But the good news is all that rain will help a revised landscaping plan to take root and grow dozens more palm trees and even beds of graceful, flowing breeze grass and some lovely potted Crinum lilies.
The influx of areca palms behind the stores — 77 of them from Pahokee — comes in response to residents’ complaints about the 20-foot water tank workers installed on the plaza’s south side to raise water pressure enough to satisfy fire code requirements.
The plaza’s developer and landlord, Crossman & Co. and Kitson & Partners, believe the long row of 20- to 25-foot palms will go a long way toward concealing the tank from next-door neighbors at La Coquille Villas.
Mayor Keith Waters agrees. “I think it’s going to very adequately deal with this problem,” Waters said during the Town Commission meeting May 22.
The substitution of the Crinum lilies for pygmy date palms in the front planters and the addition of beds of breeze grass are aesthetic changes to the plan.
Last year, Kitson talked about a June 8 target date for the Publix grand opening. Vice Mayor Peter Isaac says the word from the landlord now is that the target opening is July 28, but that could easily slip into August should tropical rains continue.
In other business, after a spate of car thefts, commissioners in January unanimously approved a plan to expand the Police Department’s number of full-time sworn officers to 12. The expansion is proving more difficult than expected.
Chief Carmen Mattox said the town has “had two setbacks to obtaining full staffing.” One veteran officer has resigned, and Mattox said another was let go after he “failed to perform at an acceptable level” during the department’s field training program.
He said the town has nine full-time officers and three open full-time positions. Despite the staff shortage, Mattox says he is still able to keep three vehicles on patrol during night shifts.
Last year, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office donated a used 21-foot flat boat to Manalapan police for patrolling the Intracoastal Waterway, particularly the area around Bird Island at the Boynton Inlet. Waters said the boat patrols have drawn praise from residents.
“I’ve had a lot of good comments,” the mayor said. “People are glad to see that Manalapan is in the water.”

Former Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella confers with his lawyer Marc Shiner before his trial date was set for the week of Aug. 20. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett and Steve Plunkett

It could be close to the second anniversary of the shooting incident in his backyard before former Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella finally gets the day in court he says he’s wanted for so long.
On May 24, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Meenu Sasser scheduled Lucibella’s felony trial for the week of Aug. 20, adding three months to the delays and postponements that have dogged the case.
Both sides told Sasser that the trial itself is unlikely to move quickly.
Lucibella’s defense attorney, Marc Shiner, said he had a number of witnesses and experts to call, including one from out of state.
Assistant State Attorney Danielle Grundt told the judge the prosecution expects to need extra time to screen jurors. “We expect jury selection to take a little longer than usual because of the media attention on the case,” Grundt said.
Lucibella’s first trial date was set for April 10, 2017, but then was postponed three times before the end of the year after Shiner and Grundt said they needed more time to question dozens of witnesses who may be called to testify. Virtually every official in Ocean Ridge has been included on the potential witness list at one time or another.
In April, Shiner asked Sasser for another delay because of an injury, a torn calf muscle.
Lucibella is facing felony charges of battery on a police officer and resisting an officer with violence — as well as a misdemeanor count of using a firearm while under the influence of alcohol — stemming from the shooting incident at his oceanfront home on Oct. 22, 2016.
Responding to reports of gunshots, police found Lucibella and Ocean Ridge police Lt. Steven Wohlfiel on Lucibella’s patio. Police described the men as “obviously intoxicated” and found a .40-caliber Glock handgun at the scene. Both men denied firing the weapon.
A scuffle broke out between Lucibella and two responding officers, Richard Ermeri and Nubia Plesnik. The town subsequently fired Wohlfiel, and Plesnik sued Lucibella for injuries she said occurred during the altercation. Shiner has accused police of overreacting and using excessive force.
Lucibella, 64, has turned down a plea deal proposal from prosecutors, saying he wanted his “day in court” to clear his name.
Sasser, who this year transferred to the circuit’s criminal division from the civil side, is highly regarded by officers of the court. Last year, for the third year in a row, she received the top number of high marks from the 188 attorneys who participated in the Palm Beach County Bar Association’s evaluation of judges.
After the hearing, Lucibella said he could not predict whether the recent spate of school shootings might color jurors’ perceptions of people who own guns.
“It’s going to come out that it was a police officer that fired the weapon, not me. Does that help or hurt? Who can know?” he said.
“On the other hand, we’ve also seen a huge rise in reported police abuses and overreach,” Lucibella continued. “Will that taint the jury pool? Unknown.”
Despite the uncertainty of going to trial, Lucibella said he believes in the justice system.
“I’m confident, when a jury hears the facts, I’ll not be the party worrying about the future,” he said.

By Noreen Marcus

The court-appointed lawyer for double-murderer Duane Owen has promised to appeal a judge’s order that imperils Owen’s attempt to get off Florida’s Death Row.
Palm Beach Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley’s May 9 ruling does not move Owen any closer to turning his death sentence for the murder of 14-year-old Karen Slattery into a life sentence.
Kelley decided that no reasonable jury would have shown leniency toward Owen if the panel had been correctly instructed according to today’s standards. The heinous, atrocious and cruel nature — abbreviated in legal terms as HAC — of his crime was too well established, the judge found.
“While this court is not tasked with weighing the evidence of HAC, the court must determine based on the record whether a properly instructed jury would find beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of HAC in the killing of Karen Slattery. There is no doubt that a rational jury would so find,” he wrote.
Owen, 57, was convicted of two horrific murders in Palm Beach County two months apart and 34 years ago.
On March 24, 1984, he broke into the Delray Beach house where Slattery was babysitting. Owen stabbed her 18 times and raped her before escaping.
On May 28, 1984, he used a hammer to kill Georgianna Worden after breaking into her Boca Raton home. Worden, 38, a college instructor and mother of two, also was raped.
The next day Worden’s body was discovered and Owen was picked up elsewhere on a burglary charge. Police in Boca Raton and Delray Beach worked together to link him to the homicides.
Owen had already been convicted of killing Worden and sentenced to death when he was tried for killing Slattery. The jury recommended death with a 10-2 vote and the judge imposed the death penalty.
In recent years that 10-2 split verdict has become a problem for prosecutors. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled two years ago in Hurst vs. Florida that Florida’s capital sentencing process was unconstitutional because the judge — not the jury — effectively decided the convict’s fate.
Since then the Florida Supreme Court has applied the Hurst ruling to require resentencing in some newer cases, using June 24, 2002 (the date a related case, Ring vs. Arizona, was decided) as the cutoff. And now a unanimous jury verdict is required to impose the death penalty.
The Worden case was too old to qualify for resentencing under Hurst; the Slattery sentencing qualified.
Still undecided is whether a Hurst violation in a split-verdict case can be overcome by a finding of what is called harmless error. That was the basis for Kelley’s ruling, and experts say it’s likely to wind up in the Florida Supreme Court, and perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court, for a final determination.
Karen Gottlieb, co-director of the Florida Center for Capital Representation at Florida International University, is not involved in the Owen case, but she has been following it closely.
Gottlieb said she thinks all Florida Death Row inmates who qualify on the merits under Hurst should be resentenced.
“It’s just basically wrong to have a dividing line based on a particular date,” she said. “The Florida statute didn’t become unconstitutional on June 24, 2002. It’s the same statute it was before and the same statute it was after that date.
“It gets confusing when we look at the facts and say nobody wants him to avoid the death penalty,” Gottlieb said of Owen. “I think everyone should want him to have a constitutional death penalty proceeding. It comes back to the rule of law.”

The food court proposed a block from the nearly complete iPic in downtown Delray would have 30-some vendors on the ground floor and event space and parking above. Rendering provided

By Jan Norris and Jane Smith

If its plans are approved, the Menin Development Co. will bring the food hall trend to Delray Beach’s downtown.
The retail developer announced a proposal for the Delray City Market at the former Metropolitan condo site east of the railroad tracks on Southeast Third Avenue, saying it will complement the new iPic theater under construction a block east.
“The existing Metropolitan did not make sense economically,” said Marc Yavinsky, executive vice president of Menin Development.
In December, a Menin division paid $4.6 million for the acre site behind the SunTrust Bank building.
“We always wanted to do a food hall,” Yavinsky said. “Delray Beach has a thriving food and beverage culture. Food halls are the latest trend in dining, where a family can go, every person picks what they want and everyone sits down together to eat.”
Menin has hired Dennis Max, noted South Florida restaurateur, to help design and choose vendors for the hall. His name is reflected on Max’s Harvest in Pineapple Grove and he partnered in Max’s Social, a craft bar and grill on Federal Highway that was replaced by Death and Glory.
The four-story site will be on a scale comparable to Grand Central Market in Los Angeles and, to an extent, Quincy Market in Boston, both of which were researched for the Delray project, Max said.
The 120,000-square-foot building is being designed by Miami architect Jose Gonzales, who also is designing Menin’s Ray Hotel, a project recently approved for Pineapple Grove. Max also is working with Menin on the restaurants going into the hotel.
Delray City Market is “a perfect location and scenario,” Max said. “We have a keystone location in east Delray. We’re fully visible from the avenue.”
The first floor will be the food hall, featuring 30-plus vendors with spaces in the 600-square-foot range, all food- and drink-related, Max said. Seating will be strategically placed throughout, inside and outdoors.
A mezzanine open to the hall below is designed as an event space, with full demonstration kitchens and a bar, ideal for receptions and cooking classes, he said. Live entertainment will be set up there.
Meant for both locals and tourists, the food choices will offer something for everyone. Max, who has owned numerous acclaimed full-service restaurants, says it’s the way people are choosing to dine today and fits a modern lifestyle.
A mix of made-to-order counter service businesses and fresh food retailers — such as a butcher, cheesemonger, chocolatier, baker and produce seller — will be the vendor profiles, he said. The focus will be on locally owned foods and businesses, with no chains involved.
“It’s an incubator for young, emerging chefs,” Max said.
He noted that some of the hot restaurateurs on both East and West coasts have backgrounds as food truck owners who have gone through food halls and eventually opened brick-and-mortar spaces of their own.
Full bars will be set up; an on-site craft brewery also is planned.
The 200 parking spaces on the top three floors will benefit the food hall and help out businesses nearby, Max said. An enclosed rooftop garden growing vegetables, greens and herbs for the restaurants below is proposed.
Menin will submit a site plan package to Delray Beach by the end of June, Yavinsky said.
If plans are approved, the plan is to break ground in the fall.
“This will be a fresh new place for Delray,” Yavinsky said. “It’s a hot trend. It will be curated to be a destination place.”

The rainy season along Coconut Lane began with weather more fit for ducks than humans. Exacerbated by Subtropical Storm Alberto, rain totals the last weekend of May ranged from 2.19 inches in parts of Delray Beach to 8.80 inches in parts of Boynton Beach, according to the National Weather Service. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

The Briny Breezes Town Council has narrowed the field of applicants for town attorney to four law firms and will hear presentations from the finalists during a special meeting on June 14.
Among the contenders is John Skrandel, who has held the position for the last five years, succeeding his father, Jerome F. Skrandel, who served Briny for 38 years after becoming its first town attorney in 1975. He died at 84 in 2013.
Despite the long relationship with the Skrandels, some residents and council members have complained that the town’s legal bills have risen too much in recent years. Last summer, the council decided to advertise the position and seek proposals from other providers.
The town heard from seven firms by December. One dropped out of the running recently. During a special meeting in May, the council eliminated two others, Bradley Biggs of Wellington and Weiss Serota of Coral Gables. Biggs, a solo practitioner like Skrandel, fell out of favor because some council members believe the town would be better off hiring a larger firm. The council rejected Weiss Serota as too pricey after it submitted a flat rate proposal of $4,000 a month.
The finalists are:
• Caldwell, Pacetti, Edwards, Schoech & Viator of West Palm Beach. The firm has represented the Indian Trail Improvement District, Northern Palm Beach County Improvement District and the town of Lake Clarke Shores. It proposed charging Briny $225 an hour.
• Davis & Ashton of West Palm Beach. Keith Davis, the firm’s principal, is town attorney for Manalapan. Other clients include Tequesta, Atlantis, Mangonia Park, Palm Beach Shores and Royal Palm Beach. The proposed fee to Briny Breezes was about $170 an hour or $2,500 a month flat rate.
• Nason, Yeager, Gerson, White & Lioce of Palm Beach Gardens. The firm has represented Riviera Beach, Port St. Lucie and municipal clients in Martin County. The proposed rate for Briny Breezes is $180 an hour or a $2,500 a month flat fee.
• Skrandel proposed continuing to charge Briny $185 an hour. The town is his only municipal client, and he has been philosophical about the council’s opening his position to other applicants: “It’s something lawyers go through from time to time.”
During the June special meeting that begins at 2 p.m., each firm will have a half-hour to make a presentation and answer questions. The council will have some added leverage as it considers its options.
Council President Sue Thaler says that Briny’s legal bills have been steadily falling this year, coming in roughly between $600 and $800 per month, compared with some as high as $3,000 to $4,000 last year. The reason? Hiring Dale Sugerman as the town’s first manager in January. Thaler said Sugerman has been doing the administrative work that would have gone to Skrandel in previous years, and so the new position is saving money.
“The fact that legal fees decreased substantially validates our belief that he would do a lot that we previously used the attorney for,” she said of Sugerman.
In other business:
• Sugerman told the council during its meeting on May 24 that he is making progress negotiating with Boynton Beach utilities officials to get in-city water rates for Briny. The town currently pays Boynton an average of about $16,400 per month, and that could fall to roughly $14,300 with in-city rates. It figures to a savings of about $40 per year for each customer.
• The town is cracking down on scofflaws who refuse to get permits for work on their homes. With a unanimous vote, the council approved a resolution that doubles permit fees to penalize homeowners who ignore the building rules.

By Rich Pollack

Retirement has been a lot harder than Bill Thrasher thought.
The town manager in Gulf Stream for 16 years retired in April 2017 after 21 years of working for the town. But last month he rejoined the workforce to serve as Highland Beach’s interim town manager.
“Retirement is hard work,” Thrasher said. “It’s difficult, but I am getting better at it.”
It may be several months before Thrasher, 70, gets to hone his retirement skills again.
In the meantime, he’s running the day-to-day operations in Highland Beach, filling the spot left open early last month when town commissioners voted 3-2 to fire Valerie Oakes.
Thrasher, who started immediately after being selected on May 21, will be paid the equivalent rate of the $139,000 annual salary Oakes was receiving, based on the amount of time he is on the job.
In being selected on a fourth ballot, Thrasher beat five other candidates, including some who are well known in the area.
Among the candidates were former Delray Beach City Manager David Harden and former South Palm Beach Town Manager Bob Vitas.
Barry Feldman, who spent 21 years as the West Hartford city manager in Connecticut, finished second. Other candidates were Taylor Brown, the former city manager of Mary Esther, Fla., and, Joanna Cunningham, town clerk, public information officer and passport service manager in Greenacres.
Thrasher, who read about the job opening in The Coastal Star, said he is looking forward to leading Highland Beach through a transitional period.
“I figured I could help the town,” he said. “I got into local government for the purpose of serving people.”
For several commissioners, Thrasher’s knowledge of Florida and his connections to many working in government and the private sector were a selling point, as was his experience in a town with similarities to Highland Beach.
“I think he’ll serve us very well,” said Commissioner Peggy Gossett-Seidman. “I think he can let the whole town breathe a collective sigh of relief.”
She said Thrasher’s management style, which emphasizes collaboration, will benefit the town.
“The best organizations are led with teamwork,” Gossett-Seidman said.
Those who worked with Thrasher say he makes decisions and suggestions with the best interests of his town in mind.
“He’s very conscientious about how any of his recommendations are going to affect not just the commission but also the people in town,” says Rita Taylor, the longtime Gulf Stream town clerk. “He will be a good manager anywhere he goes.”
Thrasher’s knowledge of coastal and beach issues and his work with Florida Power & Light officials and Florida Department of Transportation leaders also were a plus for some commissioners, because the town will address issues involving those organizations. Some commissioners also cited his experience in the business world as a benefit.
Thrasher and Highland Beach Town Clerk Lanelda Gaskins may also need to call upon any relationships they have with the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office, should a fledgling recall movement gain traction.
Leaders of that movement, taking aim at eligible commissioners who voted to fire Oakes, said they held an organizational meeting with more than a dozen residents attending.
Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher says recall elections are rare, and progress is often derailed by the stringent requirements set down in Florida law.
During a Town Commission workshop meeting late last month, some residents referenced the recall effort while questioning the decision to fire Oakes.
Others, however, said they supported the decision and think the town needed a change in leadership.
“We elected a new commission to give us the change we needed to bring us into the future,” said resident Jane Perlow, who later praised Thrasher. “We now have an experienced professional strong town manager to carry out the commission’s policies going forward.”
Commissioner Elyse Riesa, who voted to hire Thrasher on the final ballot, said she was pleased with the quality of all the candidates, but what set Thrasher apart was his experience helping Gulf Stream find a new town manager after he announced his retirement.
Thrasher set up a process that helped narrow the candidates to a list of finalists brought to the Town Commission.
Thrasher said he is not interested in taking the Highland Beach position permanently but that he would help the town find a permanent manager if commissioners ask.
That Thrasher came out of retirement to help Highland Beach as interim manager came as no surprise to Taylor, Gulf Stream’s town clerk for 28 years.
“I figured he wouldn’t stay idle for too long,” she said. “He’s the kind of person who needs to be involved and to have something to put his mind to.”

By Steve Plunkett

Gulf Stream’s town manager, staff attorney and executive assistant have settled into new offices in the just-completed Town Hall addition.
“We are all occupying our new spaces. I won’t say we’re completely moved in — we still have boxes to unpack,” Town Manager Greg Dunham said the Friday before Memorial Day.
Dunham, staff attorney Trey Nazzaro and assistant Renee Rowan Basel won spots in the remodeled Town Hall. Town Clerk Rita Taylor moved across the building to the larger office Dunham had; her old space will become the relocated town library.
Dunham said he and Nazzaro had spent the preceding two weeks holed up in the Town Commission chambers while workers finished construction. He expected to have a final walk-through with the contractor shortly after Memorial Day.
“We are really winding down,” he said.
Shelves still have to be installed in Taylor’s former office, but that work is not considered part of the construction project.
May was mostly devoted to interior work on the offices. The green fences shielding the construction from view came down as town commissioners met May 11.
Dunham told commissioners then that Comcast was almost ready to begin putting its lines, which will be upgraded to fiber optic, into underground conduits. Once Comcast does that, its part of the project will take 60 to 90 days.
Workers with Wilco Electric still are burying power lines along County Road and Little Club Road, Dunham said, but Comcast will start on the other side of phase 2. Its first task will be to walk the area to map the precise locations of the conduit, which he said could vary from the plans by up to 15 feet.
After Comcast finishes its portion, AT&T will come to town to put phone lines underground.
Dunham told commissioners the work could be finished sooner if they allow Comcast to work after 5 p.m., something Gulf Stream usually prohibits. Commissioners happily agreed.
“I’d rather see it get done,” Commissioner Joan Orthwein said.

By Mary Thurwachter

An amendment to an ordinance that would allow miniature pigs to live in Lantana squeaked by the Town Council on May 14 — but not without trepidation.
While council members were sympathetic to the call from resident John Park to keep his pet mini pig when the topic first came up in April, further study of mini pigs, or teacup pigs, had the council concerned about how portly the little piggies could become.
Council member Malcolm Balfour shared his remembrance of an issue Key West had with a pig in the past, when Balfour was a journalist covering a story there.
“These pigs grow,” he said. “They grow very, very big. There was a man in Key West who had a pig next door and the pig was enamored with his Harley-Davidson. The pig destroyed the Harley-Davidson.”
There was huge outcry over the issue, he said.
“I’m going to keep my Harley in the garage,” quipped council member Phil Aridas, who supported the new ordinance.
Vice Mayor Edward Shropshire said he had read that little pigs start to get big and by the age of 4 many of them end up going to rescue.
“I just wondered if there’s another way we could go about this,” Shropshire said. “I see the individuals involved aren’t here tonight, but could they have it [pig] as an emotional support animal or something along those lines that would allow them to still keep the pig without us having to go through changing the code?
“I understand this is a lovable pet, but are there alternative ways to handle this? Any well-behaved pet can be an emotional support animal with appropriate documentation from a licensed physician, and that’s from the North American Pet Pig Association.”
But designating a pet as a therapy pig won’t work, said Town Attorney Max Lohman.
“There’s a big difference between an emotional support animal and a service animal,” Lohman said. “Emotional support animals are not recognized by the ADA and you’re not protected by an emotional support animal. People run around doing that all the time like that yahoo who tried to take a peacock on an airplane. There’s a big, big difference and people have abused that to the point where the law doesn’t recognize it anymore.”
Service animals are different, Lohman said. “A service animal assists someone with a legally recognized disability. An emotional support animal is not the same thing under the ADA, so we wouldn’t allow them a reasonable accommodation to get around our code for that.”
Mayor Dave Stewart had also done some research and said some of the little pigs grow to be 180 pounds. At Stewart’s suggestion, the new ordinance will include a weight limit of 35 pounds.
Lohman warned that enforcement could be a problem.
Council member Lynn Moorhouse said he didn’t think pigs make nearly as much racket as a parrot or macaw or other birds. “If this is a small domesticated animal I have no problem with it in the least — unless there are substantial complaints by the Police Department where it’s a nuisance,” he said.
The ordinance will come up for a final vote on June 11. Passage will mean Park won’t have to give up his pet pig or pay a fine — unless the animal tips the scale at more than 35 pounds.

By Mary Thurwachter

A proposal to construct a concrete trail at the Lantana Nature Preserve got mixed reviews from the Town Council on May 14. The discussion prompted the town to look at other ways to rebuild the pathway, including a boardwalk.
Last year’s Hurricane Irma left the preserve and the trail in shambles. Only the front portion is currently accessible.
Town Manager Deborah Manzo proposed a 5-foot-wide concrete trail at a cost of $33,000 for the first phase. The project would be spread over two years, so another $33,000 would be spent next year for a total project cost of $66,000. Most of the money would come from the Carlisle Palm Beach, just east of the 6½-acre preserve at 440 E. Ocean Ave.
As a result of a deal struck when the Carlisle senior living facility was built on land the town owned at the time, the Carlisle pays Lantana $50,000 a year for preserve expenses.
Between $1,000 and $2,000 for the pathway project would come from FEMA, which supports repairs such as this as an improvement or mitigation project. The town’s annual cost to maintain the park is $20,000.
“That [$66,000] seems like rather a lot of money for a path,” said council member Malcolm Balfour, who lives near the preserve. “But something needs to be done. There are so many rocks there. It’s almost impossible to walk through.”
Some council members didn’t like the idea of concrete being used.
“It’s a nature preserve,” council member Lynn Moorhouse stressed. “I have reservations.”
Mayor Dave Stewart asked for other options. “It’s not intended to be manicured like a country club,” he said.
“The shell rock wasn’t working,” Manzo said. “Granite sand was tried and washed away.” Mulch also washes away.
Council member Phil Aridas suggested a boardwalk.
“If it’s boardwalk, it would be recycled lumber, which is very expensive,” Manzo said. Recycled lumber is being used at the beach and holds up better, she said.
Balfour said the town needs to consider where most of the money for Nature Preserve improvements and maintenance come from. “We have to remember that the place is mostly funded by the old-age home and we need to make it comfortable for them,” he said. Since the hurricane, Carlisle residents haven’t been able to get in to enjoy the butterfly garden or other parts of the preserve.
Manzo will bring back all options and prices at a future meeting.
In other news, the council approved spending $51,965 to install new hurricane shutters on the town library. Most of the money will come from a federal grant. The town’s contribution would be $17,321.