By Jane Smith

After more than a decade of study, Delray Beach is ready to redesign the first block of Marine Way.
On Sept. 17, four city commissioners awarded the Wantman Group of West Palm Beach the $1.1 million design contract — with a condition.
They want the staff to work with the four affected property owners to “have a meeting of the minds,” as Mayor Shelly Petrolia called it. “Either side can’t have everything.”
Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson voted no to the contract award because she says the project is being rushed and wants the property owners to be more involved.
The redesign will bring a higher sea wall, a promenade that connects Veterans Park to Marine Way through an underpass beneath the Atlantic Avenue Bridge, a stormwater pump station at the south end of the block, roadway and utility upgrades and pedestrian lighting. Wantman will also obtain necessary permits from state, federal and local agencies.
The estimated $16 million work is set for the 2023-2024 budget year, using penny tax money, according to the city’s capital improvement budget passed on Sept. 17.
The removal of mangroves was one issue that spurred discussion.
“Removing the mangroves will allow us to get the permits faster,” said Missie Barletto, deputy director of Public Works. “We’ll have to replace them somewhere else on a three-for-one basis.”
The idea of mangrove removal irked Deputy Vice Mayor Bill Bathurst.
“There should be a way to have them and not turn the Intracoastal Waterway into a bathtub,” he said. “How much longer would it take to get the permits if we saved the mangroves?”
Mangroves protect shorelines from damaging winds and waves, and they help filter pollutants. They also serve as nursery areas for fish.
Everyone agrees the first block of Marine Way floods during heavy rains and high tides.
On Sept. 3, the block was under nearly 3 feet of water. Hurricane Dorian’s strong winds were swirling offshore, pushing ashore brackish water from the nearby Intracoastal Waterway. King tides, the highest of seasonal tides, made the rising water even higher.
The water was so high that resident Genie DePonte and friend Gayle Clark used a kayak to travel the block.
City Attorney Lynn Gelin called the flooding “a health and safety issue.”
DePonte and Adam Bankier, two of the four property owners on the block to be redesigned, spoke during public comment.
“It’s my little bit of paradise with the mangroves,” DePonte said. “I bought my house with the dock. It’s an eminent domain issue when you take real property from the residents.”
The Palm Beach County Property Appraiser includes docks when assessing the taxable value of properties. But the office does not break down what percent of a taxable property value comes from the dock.
Bankier, who said Intracoastal water has flowed through the first floor of his property, also pointed out that the city is using tax dollars to remove his dock. “Why can’t public money be used to rebuild them?” he asked.
Clark, who lives nearby on Northeast Seventh Avenue and spends a lot of time on Marine Way, said she is fond of the mangroves and greenery. “We need to save the charm of Marine Way,” she said.

Retired pilot and Ocean Ridge resident Neil Hennigan at home with his dog, Potter. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Brian Biggane

Neil Hennigan, chairman of the five-person sewer/septic committee appointed by Ocean Ridge to explore options for a town-wide conversion to a sewer system, is no stranger to public service. He previously served on two similar boards and sees great value in the work of such volunteers.
“It’s extremely rewarding,” said Hennigan, 71.
Practically speaking, Hennigan said, “it’s beyond the scope of a town staff that is less than the number of fingers on your hand” to take on such a project in addition to its normal workload.
“The cost of just getting a consultant would make your eyes water,” he added. “Some of that will still be necessary, but to find the best practices of other towns who have gone through the same thing, we can provide that, and do it in a way where we don’t have to say one thing is better than the other. We can at least be able to say you have what you need to make an educated decision going forward.”
In his view, the current Ocean Ridge commission is more welcoming to volunteers such as himself than it’s been in the past.
“This community is tremendously gifted in the abilities and experiences of those who live here, and many of us have the financial ability to give our time and experiences freely. We don’t want to run for office, or have an agenda. We have to help the town solve some of its issues by using us.”
Hennigan served in the U.S. Air Force and spent 35 years as a United Airlines pilot. He and wife, Zoanne, moved to Ocean Ridge in 2002.

Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How has that influenced you?
A: I was born in the United Kingdom and emigrated with my parents, to Canada first, [where we] lived in Toronto. Crossed over and lived in Niagara Falls and Rochester, N.Y. each for a year. My dad was a bricklayer, so he worked his way south, left the family in Rochester, and when spring came, we moved to Washington, D.C. I went to high school there, then the University of Maryland.
Coming from an immigrant family, education was the name of the game. We were never well off when I was growing up. I was the oldest of three children. I put myself through college, ended up joining the Air Force during the Vietnam era, though I didn’t serve there. I became a pilot and after eight years in the Air Force got a job with United Airlines, where I was a commercial pilot for 35 years before retiring in 2013. My family’s background is Irish, and even in the UK, being Irish means being a second-class citizen. After the war my dad tried very hard to start a business and never got any financial support. So, my dad got a sponsorship out of Canada and went there on his own. He left me and my brother, who was 1, with our mother for another year until we could follow him. It was an odyssey.
I saw how hard it was for my parents to make ends meet. You just know what they did for you. And I can’t let it go; it’s the person that I am. I was the first in the family to be college educated, made it into the Air Force and became an officer. But my dad taught me the value of a hard day’s work. There’s nothing wrong with getting your hands dirty. My mother was as stoic as they came. Both of them were just classic. And my dad, he’s the core of who I am.

Q: What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: In my second year of college I got a job working for an engineering company that did road design. It was a public entity supported by the petroleum industry and it was located on the campus of the University of Maryland. They were looking for somebody to work in a laboratory part-time, and I was treated as faculty, so I could arrange my classes so I could work two days a week and go to school three days a week. I did that for three years of college and through that was able to be at the leading edge of computers.
By the time I was ready to graduate, I was still going to be waiting six months before I went to the Air Force, and I was taken on as a research associate. That has followed me my whole life, because even after leaving the Air Force, in the two years before I joined United, I was hired as a research scientist and worked for NASA for 21/2 years while I was furloughed. I used those skills in the Air Force also, doing R&D flying and as a project manager. I got to round out my skills [at United] as more than just a pilot, and I’ve maintained my interest in computers all these years. I still remember bringing home my first IBM PC and have had my head in that ever since.

Q: What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A: I’m a task person, and the joy of flying is, you do your homework, you study, and when you do your job it has a finite beginning, a finite end, and you can evaluate whether you did it well. I always found that enjoyable.
I’ve been to London 50 times, but only one day at a time. It’s always, what is the next thing I want to do there? I’ve taken advantage of that. We still travel extensively, and I’ve tried to get my children to do the same.
My advice? Don’t get pigeonholed by a job or be afraid of coming to a crossroad. Life is a journey, so take it. If you can go left or right, and it comes down to it, flip a coin. Don’t be defined by this one thing you do. Find out what kind of person you are or develop the kind of person you want to become.

Q: How did you choose to make your home in Ocean Ridge?
A: We were fortunate that both our sets of parents lived into their 90s. They were here, so we decided it was time to not do it long-distance [from California] anymore. My family was in Sarasota and hers was in Pompano Beach. We looked from the Florida Keys all the way up to St. Augustine. I liked the west coast of Florida, because it was quieter, and we didn’t like how busy Fort Lauderdale and even Palm Beach were.
We made an offer on a place in Jupiter, and one day my daughter came in and told me to turn on the TV, and it turned out to be 9/11. I watched the second tower go down and they were speculating what airline it was, and I saw it was United Airlines. I told my wife United is going to go bankrupt; we were in trouble and this would take us to bankruptcy.
So, we got out of that [deal] and a friend of mine told me about a little community called Ocean Ridge. We came here and found it great.
Q: What’s your favorite part about living in Ocean Ridge?
A: It’s unobtrusive, people leave us alone. It’s small enough you can get your arms around it. It’s close enough you can get anything you want. There are great people here. Good friends, good neighbors, good community.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: When I was a kid my dad would get me an almanac, or a big coffee table book, Headline Stories of the Last 100 Years — things to pique your interest. I started a long time ago to grab a volume of the Britannica and start browsing.
Now all that’s on the internet. So, my favorite book has become Wikipedia. I get up each morning, I read the news, and it will take me on a divergent story where I want to know more. And off I go. I always want to know how things connect and Wikipedia works that way.

Q: What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?
A: I still listen to classic rock, and I’m still part of the Woodstock generation. That ain’t going to change. I still like Jimi Hendrix; Crosby, Stills and Nash; Eric Clapton. We’ve got great speakers in the house and it can get loud.

Q: Have you had mentors in your life?
A: The formative person in my life is my dad, and the person who tempered it all is my wife. She came from a different type of family. I grew up with no relatives here; later on, I got one cousin who came. I didn’t have aunts, uncles and births, those things, and you’re sort of the outsider. I met her in college, and she had a 180-degree different background. Her family took my family in, including my parents. She took me from being extremely introverted, so where now I can masquerade as an extrovert. That’s important. And it’s lasted 49 years.

Q: If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?
A: I’d say Henry Fonda in Grapes of Wrath. That’s what my life was like.

Q: Who/what makes you laugh?
A: My Boston terrier, Potter. What’s typical of dogs, I could literally walk out that door, go to the mailbox, and when I came back it’s like he’s seeing a long-lost friend of 20 years.

By Dan Moffett

Briny Breezes has fallen behind on maintenance for its sewage lift stations, and that means some unexpected costs for the Town Council.
Town Manager Dale Sugerman told council members during their meeting on Sept. 26 that Harvel Utility Construction, Briny’s infrastructure contractor, says cleaning and inspecting the town’s seven lift stations will cost about $5,000.
Repairs to two fire hydrants are expected to cost about $2,000 more. Ocean Ridge had a similar problem earlier this year with its fire hydrants and ended up spending around $100,000 to get dozens of units back in good working order.
Beyond those expenses, Sugerman said, it will cost another $4,000 to buy a new pump for one of the stations. The cost of installation has yet to be determined, he said.
The council unanimously approved spending the money to make the repairs. The work is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
In other business:
• The Ocean Ridge Police Department officially took over as Briny’s law enforcement services provider on Oct. 1, replacing the Boynton Beach Police Department.
Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins told the council he is urging Brinyites to register with the CivicReady mass alert service. It allows residents to receive real-time emergency information by email, text or voice message.
Ocean Ridge joined the service this year, and Hutchins said it was invaluable in getting information out during Hurricane Dorian. The service is free and residents can sign up by using the link on Ocean Ridge’s website: oceanridgefl.regroup.com/signup.
• The council approved two new fees for the new fiscal year. One is a $25 administrative charge for checks to the town that are returned by the bank because of insufficient funds.
The other new fee is a penalty of $10 per business day for contractors or residents who are slow to turn in permit applications to the corporate office after receiving emergency approval for repairs.

About 20 Briny Breezes residents and friends gathered at the Memorial Fountain on Sept. 11 to remember those lost in the 2001 terrorist attacks. Seven flags, including one from the New York City Fire Department, were flown around the fountain. ABOVE: Briny residents Barbara and Roger Klink recently developed a relationship with members of one of the New York stations that lost firefighters. Roger Klink is a retired firefighter from Ohio, where he served for 26 years. Barbara Klink grew up in New York. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Iguana droppings are a major source of concern for residents. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Stephen Moore

Iguanas have become as big a part of the South Florida landscape as sunburned snowbirds. The invasive reptiles are here, they are staying and there are a lot of them.
Coastal towns and residents are grappling with how to deal with the critters, which feed mostly on vegetation, can be harmful to infrastructure by burrowing beneath sidewalks and seawalls, and leave droppings everywhere.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission offers suggestions on how to control, not eliminate, iguanas from individual private property and town- or city-owned public lands.
If people want to kill the creatures, it’s OK by the FWC, but it must be done humanely. A permit is not needed.
“The general guideline is to end the iguana’s life instantly — suddenly and without any suffering,” Zoo Miami animal ambassador Ron Magill told the Sun-Sentinel in February. “Hitting the iguana on the head with a shovel is OK, as long as you aim correctly and kill it in the first stroke. Hit it more than once and you could be charged with a crime.”
The FWC recommends the following:
• Shooting the animal with a captive bolt gun (pellet gun) and then decapitating it.
• Stunning the iguana with a yard tool, followed by decapitation.
• A carbon dioxide chamber, if you plan to eat the iguana meat.
• Anesthetic halothane, isoflurane or sevoflurane administered by a veterinarian.
• Cervical dislocation on small juveniles only.
But no firearms can be used. Florida Statute 790.15(1) states that any person who knowingly discharges a firearm in any public place or on or over the right of way of any paved public road, highway or street, or over any occupied premises, is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree. It is punishable by 12 months in jail and a $500 fine.
Animal cruelty is a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable with a year in prison, a fine of $5,000, or both.
Iguanas are typically found in wooded areas with lots of shrubbery, usually near water. They are cold-blooded and become much more active in warm weather.
Ocean Ridge’s Jimmy McAndrew, 73, got interested in trying to control iguanas on his property two years ago.
“My then 97-year-old mother-in-law came in the back door and told me there was a dinosaur in the backyard,” McAndrew said. “That’s when I got involved. The iguanas had dug nests in the yards of the properties to my left and right and there were droppings all over my deck.”
He hired Iguana Control, based in Coral Springs.
“They are very good, very helpful,” McAndrew said. “I haven’t been there in five months, but they had taken about 40 iguanas off the property. They trap and shoot them. They are good to work with and I like them. In fact, I think it would make a good business to go into. It is no small matter here. It’s a big problem.”
Ocean Ridge Town Manager Tracey Stevens said that municipality also hired Iguana Control.
“There were many complaints about the iguanas being very destructive and about feces being everywhere — in pools and on seawalls,” Stevens said. “The company is using pellet guns and traps. They caught 91 iguanas between Jan. 7 and the end of March. And they got 83 in July. They are doing a good job.”
Some other factors can limit the negative impact of iguanas.
Bryan Mudd, 53, is a licensed alligator trapper who gets many calls on nuisance iguanas. He said the weather has a lot to do with the problem.
“What we need is a good cold snap,” said Mudd, who lives in Boca Raton. “It’s been nine years since we had a good freeze. That is one reason why there are so many of them. When it freezes, the iguanas either freeze or become paralyzed — often falling out of trees — and appear dead.”
If you don’t want to wait for weather, the FWC says you can trap iguanas on your property and humanely kill them. You cannot relocate them. State guidelines make homeowners responsible for any animal caught in traps. All traps must be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Property owners can also fill in holes to discourage iguanas from burrowing. Hanging wind chimes and compact discs with shiny surfaces may also annoy iguanas and make them leave your property.
The FWC also suggests using wire mesh screening to create a barrier around plants and installing chicken wire at least one foot beneath the soil around your fences or seawalls to prevent iguanas from digging underneath them.

By Mary Thurwachter

An effort spearheaded by Hypoluxo Island resident Media Beverly persuaded the Lantana Town Council to change an earlier vote on the intensity of new streetlights.
On July 8, the council approved an agreement with FPL to switch out its high-pressure sodium streetlights with 4,000-Kelvin energy-efficient LEDs, or light-emitting diodes. FPL will cover the expense and the change would save about $1,000 in annual energy costs.
While a conversion was still in the works, the town on Sept. 9 changed its vote on the whiter 4,000K lights, opting instead for 3,000K lamps, a more yellow light.
Council members agreed to reconsider the matter after Beverly provided them with information she had collected, and council members had a chance to talk to residents and do further investigation.
Mayor Dave Stewart, for example, took a road trip to check out comparable streetlights in Juno Beach, Highland Beach, North Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and Boca Raton.
Last month, council member Lynn Moorhouse said that since the vote was first taken, he had learned that a light of that intensity (4,000K) does a lot of harm to humans, animals, flowers and fauna and was not a good fit for Lantana. He said the town had received a one-sided story from FPL when the July vote was taken and wanted to hear the other side of the story. He got that in September.
Beverly, who spent several months researching the street lamps, insisted the 4,000K lights would not be in the best interest of residents and would destroy the ambience on Hypoluxo Island. She gave council members and town staff packets of information she had accumulated through her research and rallied her neighbors to fill the council chambers on Sept. 9.
She also encouraged other residents, many of whom spend summers elsewhere, to email the town to express their objections to 4,000K lights.
One of the reasons council members chose 4,000K lights was they maintained the higher intensity lamps would be better for safety.
But Beverly said her research concluded that brighter lights do not guarantee better safety, but can enable criminals to more easily identify high value targets, including contents of homes and well-lit vehicles.
“They won’t need flashlights which alert others to their presence, and it’s not only easier for us to see them, but easier for them to see us,” she said.
Beverly cited a study in Chicago that showed a correlation between brightly lit alleyways and increased crime and a Los Angeles study that found crime increased 0.1% with each 1% of increased light.
“In Illinois, three times brighter lighting was installed with crime fighting as the principal function,” Beverly said. “Over a six-month study in an eight-block test area, nighttime violent crime increased by 32% and property offenses were up 77%.”
In Lantana, Beverly said, that “would translate to our violent crimes increasing from 65 to 85 and property offenses increasing from 128 to 226 based on our numbers over the last 12 months.”
Among those who opposed the 4,000K lights was Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center and a founding member of the International Dark-Sky Association, Palm Beach County.
An expert on LED lighting, Rusenko said blue light (4000K lights contain more blue light than 3000K) at night is environmentally destructive, increases the hazardous impacts of glare, especially in older adults, is a security risk due to the loss of night vision, and disrupts normal Circadian rhythms in humans (with potential unknown health issues).
Before the Sept. 9 vote was taken, Beverly urged council members to “remember that all of us will be stuck with the decision you make here tonight for the next 10 years, so please don’t turn our neighborhoods into well-lit prison yards like they did in New York.”
By a 4-1 vote, the council approved the lower 3,000K lights townwide, except for about 80 streetlights along Dixie Highway and in other places in town where they thought brighter lights would be beneficial for safety reasons. Town staff will work with FPL to determine where those 80 lights will go.
Council member Phil Aridas said safety of residents was a primary concern and maintained that the 4,000K lights, as recommended in July by the police chief, were the right choice. He cast the lone dissenting vote for 3,000K lamps.

By Steve Plunkett

Former Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella wants the 4th District Court of Appeal to vacate his February conviction of misdemeanor battery and tell the judge who sentenced him to enter instead a judgment of acquittal or give him a new trial.
Lucibella, 66, was found not guilty of resisting arrest with violence but guilty of misdemeanor battery, a lesser charge, instead of felony battery on a law enforcement officer. He was ordered to pay $675 in court costs on Feb. 21.
The charges stemmed from an Oct. 22, 2016, altercation in Lucibella’s backyard as Ocean Ridge police investigated phoned-in reports of gunfire. Officers Richard Ermeri and Nubia Plesnik and Sgt. William Hallahan responded.
In an initial brief filed Sept. 16, Lucibella’s appeals attorney, Leonard Feuer of West Palm Beach, states that Circuit Judge Daliah Weiss erred by not issuing a judgment of acquittal and by denying motions for a mistrial, largely repeating points that Lucibella’s defense team made at the trial.
“The motion for JOA argued the officers, who were investigating a misdemeanor, were trespassing on Lucibella’s property when they entered his enclosed backyard. Thus, the officers could not be engaged in a lawful execution of duty,” Feuer wrote. “Further, the alleged ‘resistance’ amounted to Lucibella stiffening his arm.”
Feuer also complains about prosecutor Danielle Grundt’s asking Ermeri whether Lucibella ever gave a response or explanation for why he had a firearm or why shells were present, to which Ermeri responded no.
“The question and answer amounted to an impermissible comment on Lucibella’s right to prearrest silence and shifted the burden of proof to Lucibella. The remarks directly addressed Lucibella’s right to possess a firearm, which the question itself cast in a negative light, as if Lucibella needed to explain his possession of a firearm at his own house,” Feuer wrote.
Coming next in the appeal case will be a response to Feuer’s brief by Senior Assistant Attorney General Georgina Jimenez-Orosa.
Between the arrest and Lucibella’s trial, Ermeri was promoted to sergeant and Hallahan retired.
Plesnik has filed a civil lawsuit accusing Lucibella of battery and negligence. She testified at his criminal trial that she missed reporting for police duty for several months because of shoulder problems caused by his actions.

By Jane Smith and Mary Hladky

IPic movie theaters in Delray Beach and Boca Raton remain open two months after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
But iPic Entertainment founder and chief executive Hamid Hashemi has abandoned efforts to persuade Delray Beach officials to allow him to open a restaurant on the third-floor terrace of the luxury theater that opened earlier this year just south of Atlantic Avenue between Southeast Fourth and Fifth avenues in the downtown.
The Downtown Development Authority board gave conditional approval for the restaurant in mid-August. But the company did not seek the approval it needed from another city board, which would have made a recommendation to the City Commission.
The terrace will remain vacant, City Attorney Lynn Gelin said in late September.
IPic also had not moved its headquarters from Boca Raton to Delray Beach.
The company had promised to relocate its headquarters within 180 days of the office space receiving a certificate of occupancy. The office space, which is part of the 4th and 5th Delray project that includes the theater, was still not ready as of late September.
IPic’s bankruptcy case is moving at a fast pace, as the company seeks to restructure its debt or find a buyer.
On Sept. 13, Delaware U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein approved bidding procedures for the sale of iPic’s assets.
She set an Oct. 11 deadline for potential buyers to submit bids, with an asset auction to be held on Oct. 17. A sale hearing to authorize the sale of assets is set for Oct. 28.
IPic launched in 2010 with a new concept: luxury theaters with reclining seats, quality food and drinks brought to patrons, and pillows and blankets. The chain grew to 16 theaters in nine states.
But in the years since, theater patronage has decreased nationwide and larger theater chains copied iPic’s dine-in option and reclining seats.
IPic’s financial problems worsened in the first quarter of this year and on July 1 it missed a $10.1 million interest payment due to the Teachers’ Retirement System of Alabama and the Employees’ Retirement System of Alabama.
IPic sought bankruptcy protection on Aug. 5 and its stock was delisted on Nasdaq. The stock traded on the over-the-counter market at 48 cents per share as of Sept. 24.

By Jane Smith

A cut-through from the Trader Joe’s plaza to the Delray Place South retail center on Federal Highway in Delray Beach was approved in early September with one condition.
Under a “look-back” condition, the developer must re-evaluate the traffic exit pattern on Tropic Boulevard one year after the project is finished.
If the exiting traffic falls into the “failing” category when connecting with Federal Highway, “the property owner would pay at his cost for the improvements to make it work,” City Attorney Lynn Gelin said at the Sept. 5 commission meeting.
The proposal with more details about the look-back provision has to return to the commission for approval.
The traffic provision is a final step in what’s been a complicated approval process.
In 2016, developer Joe Carosella had proposed renovating the Delray Place South. That plan was rejected by the Site Plan Review and Appearance Board and never brought to the commission.
Carosella now plans to revitalize a 22,045-square-foot retail center on 1.78 acres between Eve Street and Tropic Boulevard. The cut-through across Eve Street would connect Delray Place North, with its popular Trader Joe’s grocery store, and his new center, Delray Place South. Trader Joe’s traffic theoretically could travel through the southern plaza and exit on Tropic Boulevard with a traffic light at Federal Highway.
This plan was approved 4-2 by the site plan review board on Aug. 14 after it heard comments from more than 40 people during a nearly four-hour hearing.
Carosella hired attorney Bonnie Miskel to represent the project. Miskel is a name partner in the Dunay, Miskel and Backman law firm in Boca Raton. To promote the project’s chances for approval, he also hired Mary McCarty to lobby for it. McCarty is registered with the county to lobby in Boca Raton and Delray Beach. She’s a former Delray Beach and county commissioner, who served prison time for honest services fraud related to her county role.
Miskel came up with the look-back provision.
At the next commission meeting on Sept. 5, Mayor Shelly Petrolia had wanted to appeal the Aug. 14 approval to review the proposed cut-through across Eve Street, but she lost by a 3-2 vote. Commissioner Ryan Boylston voted with her to appeal the decision.
The others agreed to allow developer Carosella to proceed and do a look-back in one year.
Then, one day before the next commission meeting on Sept. 17, Moskowitz, Mandell, Salim & Simowitz, a Fort Lauderdale law firm representing Carosella, sent an eight-page letter to the city detailing the reason the Sept. 5 commission vote was final and stating that a revote should not be allowed at another meeting.
At the Sept. 17 commission meeting, Gellin advised commissioners that a revote on Delray Place South would not be allowed. Because it was an appealable item, the vote and revotes needed to have happened on Sept. 5, she said.
The lack of an appeal opportunity stunned Petrolia and commission watchers. “I’ve never seen the commissioners not agree to appeal an item when one of them wants to discuss it,” said Mitch Katz, a former city commissioner.
“It’s a deal with the devil when you let a developer run your city,” Kelli Freeman, a board member of the Tropic Isle Civic Association, told The Coastal Star after the meeting. She had hoped to have a chance to sway the commission, but now feels the residents were outgunned by Miskel and McCarty.
Nancy Harris, who has lived in the Tropic Isle neighborhood for more than 30 years, said, “Residents have no voice in this project.”
Petrolia agreed that the residents were not heard when the commission appeal was denied. She also said that Miskel and McCarty had pressed the developer’s case to the commission. Both sent emails, called and met with city commissioners and Site plan review board members.
Tropic Isle residents also are concerned about traffic jams on Linton Boulevard and South Federal Highway.
“During rush hour, northbound Federal Highway from Linton Boulevard backs up to the Boca line,” said Mike Hanuschak, president of the Tropic Isle Civic Association.
At the Sept. 17 commission meeting, Hanuschak talked about proposed changes being discussed for the Plaza at Delray at the northwest corner of Federal and Linton. A Publix grocery store and a Duffy’s fast casual eatery are in the center.
The changes call for retail and restaurant buildings to line Federal and Linton and then condos or apartments would be built behind them, Hanuschak said. He predicted that would bring even more traffic to the congested area.
Officials at Heitman, a Chicago-based real estate investment group that owns the 45-year-old plaza, could not be reached.
Former Tropic Isle resident Valarie Loomer said her family moved away earlier this year because of traffic congestion.
“We didn’t like the overdevelopment,” said Loomer, who has a 12-year-old son. “We liked living there for 10 years and even considered adding a second story to our home.”
They now live in Texas and are considering buying a second home in Hillsboro Beach.
“Delray Beach needs to consider whether it wants to have families or be a vacation destination for second-home buyers,” Loomer said.

By Ron Hayes

LANTANA — The Friends of the Lantana Public Library has about 150 dedicated members, but all would agree that when Sid Patchett died on Sept. 18, that library lost its best friend.
And he didn’t even live in Lantana.
Five days a week, from September 1996 when he was named its director until earlier this year, Mr. Patchett commuted from his home in Miami’s Coconut Grove, working to offer in quality what the little town library couldn’t provide in quantity.
“Our shelf space is so limited we can’t hold more than 24,000 volumes,” he would say, “so we don’t stock multiple copies of the bestsellers. We use our limited budget to create the thinking person’s library.”
As the motto atop the library’s website boasts, this is “A Place For Serious Readers.”
Instead of a dozen new Stephen King novels, Mr. Patchett bought The Princeton Guide to Evolution. Every library has Wilkie Collins’ classic Victorian mystery, The Moonstone, but Mr. Patchett bought the author’s lesser known works as well.
He was partial to anything published by The University of Florida Press and made sure the magazine collection included The New York Review of Books.
At the Sept. 23 Town Council meeting, Mayor Dave Stewart called for a moment of silent prayer in Mr. Patchett’s memory.
“Sid made the library what it is today,” the mayor said, “and he will be sadly missed.”
Friends of the Library President Teresa Wilhelm praised Mr. Patchett’s management and vision.
“The Lantana Public Library is a one-of-a-kind institution, and so was its director,” she said. “Leading a team of faithful volunteers is no easy task. However, Mr. Patchett was able to keep things moving along on a daily basis like a well-oiled machine. His admiration of literature produced the bountiful and varied collection of books in our library.”
Sidney Arthur Patchett came to Lantana from his birthplace in Utica, New York after a long and exotic journey.
While earning a degree in Latin American history at the University of Miami, he worked as a page at the Miami Public Library, then receive his degree in library science from Florida State University in 1968.
Joining the Peace Corps after graduation, he was sent to St. Lucia to set up a teachers college library there. On St. Lucia, he spotted an ad for a library on Papua, New Guinea, and spent three years at the University of Papua from 1975-78, then went on to Malawi, where he met his wife, Katrina “Trina” Patchett.
After eight more years in New Guinea, he returned to Florida and the University of Miami, where he earned a law degree in 1988, but never took the bar exam.
When the Carteret Savings & Loan collapsed in 1995, the town of Lantana bought the building at 205 W. Ocean Ave. The library, which had been run out of the women’s club, now had its own address, and Sid Patchett found his niche.
“It was really his cup of tea, a new library where he could start and build a collection,” Trina Patchett said. “He wanted it to be an excellent library with a wide range of titles.”
Mrs. Patchett declined to reveal a cause of death or her husband’s age. “Maybe it’s because I’m English,” she said, “but I just don’t think it’s necessary.”
In a 2015 interview, Mr. Patchett was asked if a library that values The Princeton Guide To Evolution over the latest Stephen King thriller might risk being called elitist.
“Probably!” he exclaimed. “And we don’t give a tinker’s dam. We don’t think it’s elitist. We think it’s an opportunity to serve upward-striving people.”
In addition to his wife, Mr. Patchett is survived by a brother, Michael Patchett of Black Mountain, North Carolina; and a niece, Chavela “Vela” Robin. He was predeceased by two sisters, Phyllis “Hiddy” Doren, and Judith “Dugan” Patchett.
The family plans a private celebration of his life.
Donations in Mr. Patchett’s memory may be made to the Friends of the Lantana Public Library, 205 W. Ocean Ave., Lantana, FL 33462.

BOCA RATON — Ted Withall was born on Nov. 20, 1918, in El Paso, Texas, to Sam and Katy Withall. He died Aug. 8 at the Boca Raton Hospice, at age 100.
He was born just nine days after the end of World War I, when his father was discharged from the Army and he moved his family back to California.
Ted Withall was a man of many talents.
His high school athleticism led him to college sports where he not only pitched for the freshman baseball team at San Diego State College, in his hometown, but he also became the No. 1 player on the freshman tennis team.
After four years at San Diego State, Mr. Withall transferred to the University of California at Berkeley. After earning his bachelor’s degree and before he put in a year of graduate studies, he took the time out to serve from 1942 to 1946 as a member of the United States Air Corps.
His talent and love for tennis led to a lifelong career when he began to teach tennis to celebrities in and around Beverly Hills.
Mr. Withall’s other love was greatly influenced by the big-band era. He performed in nightclubs and on Hollywood Studio radio shows where he entertained audiences with his gift of song.
In 1947, while at the famously romantic Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, Ted met the love of his life. It was love at first sight, when Mr. Withall spotted a beautiful young woman, Helen Garey (from Big Bow, Kansas), walking into the powder room. He boldly followed her inside and they were married just 10 days later — a marriage that would last for 70 years. Helen died in 2017 at the age of 93 and Mr. Withall missed her dearly over the last two years.
From 1951 to 1956 Mr. Withall’s career took him to upstate New York, where he succeeded Pancho Segura (ranked No. 1 in the world in 1950) as tennis pro at the Concord Hotel, where he taught during the summer months. He taught in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, during the winter months.
The couple gave birth to daughters Robin in 1952 and Lisa in 1955 and moved to Boca Raton in 1957. Mr. Withall succeeded Fred Perry at the Boca Raton Hotel & Club and was the residing tennis pro for 13 years. He worked at the Hollywood Golf Club in Deal, New Jersey, from 1960-1969 in the summer months.
He left the Boca Hotel for the Tennis Club in Fort Lauderdale and then went to the Beach Club in Palm Beach during the mid-70s for several years. He was offered a vice presidency at the indoor Tennis Club of the Palm Beaches and was head pro at the St. Andrews Club in Gulf Stream.
Mr. Withall joined the U.S. Professional Tennis Association in 1950 and was president in 1972. He was also the first president of the Florida PTA and was among the first members to be honored as a master pro. He was also the first member to be inducted into the Florida PTA Hall of Fame.
Mr. Withall’s busy work life brought him to many interesting places, where he made lasting friendships on and off the court. His strong work ethic, his attention to detail and his competitive spirit are remembered by the many tennis players who were lucky to have been mentored by him.
His inspiration and guidance greatly influenced his grandchildren, with his grandson, J.J., following in his footsteps as an accomplished tennis pro and his granddaughter, Erin, a talented singer.
He is survived by his daughters, Robin Cox and Lisa McCusker; his grandchildren, J.J. McDonough and Erin McCusker; and his great-grandchildren, Kane and Van McDonough.

— Obituary submitted by the family

By Mary Thurwachter

The Lantana Town Council approved a change to the comprehensive land-use plan that could pave the way to replace the Kmart-anchored shopping center with apartments.
A petition asking for the 18.6-acre site at the northwest corner of Hypoluxo Road and South Dixie Highway to be changed from commercial to mixed-use development was filed by the center’s landlord, Lantana SDC LLC, represented by Miami attorney Ryan Bailine.
“Big-box stores are dying,” Bailine told the council at its Sept. 23 meeting. “With the rise and convenience of online retail, big-box stores, like the Kmart, are scaling back their brick-and-mortar operations because they are not finding the same type of economic vitality experienced in prior decades.”
The Lantana Kmart has a long-term lease, Bailine said. “But if it does decide to shut its doors, finding another big-box tenant for the Kmart building will be difficult given the current economic climate for these types of uses.”
Bailine said his client sees an opportunity to take the worn shopping center, built in the mid-1970s, and work toward an appropriate mixed-use development project known as Lantana Village.
The conceptual master plan proposes to redevelop the Kmart parcel (other parcels included on the land-use plan change are the shopping center anchored by Winn-Dixie and the northernmost small shopping center) with up to 279 residential units. Three out-parcels — containing Bank of America, Dunkin Donuts, Burger King and a Fuel for Fit — are not part of the application.
The only other mixed-use development project in Lantana is Water Tower Commons, which Bailine said “has been hugely successful in attracting a high-end multifamily developer, which only further demonstrates the town’s unmet need for more multifamily projects.”
The vote to approve a change to the comprehensive land-use plan won by a 3-2 margin, with Mayor Dave Stewart, Phil Aridas and Malcolm Balfour in favor and Lynn Moorhouse and Ed Shropshire against. If the proposal is approved after a second hearing at a future meeting, rezoning will follow.
“I’m hearing about apartments next to a Winn-Dixie and backed up to a railroad track on a busy road, and that doesn’t sound like a place for high-quality housing,” Moorhouse said. “I wouldn’t want a place next to a Winn-Dixie.”
Bailine said the vision is to build a marketplace and multifamily housing with top-notch amenities.
“I’m not an architect, so I don’t know how the site would lay out,” Bailine said. “I do know that there are a number of high-quality builders who are interested. I can tell you that, with your support, we will come back to the town with what we believe is a very thoughtful and code-compliant proposal to redevelop this with a market rate rental community.”
He said a site plan would come up for council approval before any building is done.
“If we change this, we can’t unchange this, and I have no idea what you’re going to put there and neither does anybody in this room,” Moorhouse said.
Shropshire questioned whether the proposal’s scale was reasonably related to the neighborhood’s needs. He also mentioned the town’s increased water usage, wondering if a large rental community would overly tax the town’s utilities.
Stewart said he was concerned about traffic and overall impact. “I am also concerned that the shopping center needs to be updated,” he said. “It is ready for a change.”
In other business, the town:
• Approved a special exception use to the mixed use zoning at Water Tower Commons to allow for a gas station with restaurant and convenience store.
Ken Tuma, representing the developer, said the station would not be accessible directly from Lantana Road but that customers would need to drive into Water Tower Commons to reach it on the southwest corner of the property.
The exception will apply only to mixed-use properties with at least 25 acres. Water Tower Commons has 73 acres.
• Adopted a tax rate for fiscal year 2020 of $3.50 per $1,000 of taxable value — which represents a 6.7% increase from the rollback rate of $3.28. Next year’s total combined budget is $19,988,983.

Hannah Wickins, CEO and founder, gets kisses from her dog Chase, 4 1/2, who is listed as the playground administrator on Dog Activity World’s website. Photos by Rachel O’Hara/The Coastal Star

By Christine Davis

Hannah Wickins operates her dog retreat on this philosophy: A tired dog is a happy dog.
After months of trying to get the drainage system right, the 20,000-square-foot Dog Activity World is open in the former Home Expo space in Boynton Beach. The center features upscale daycare, boarding, grooming, training and a photo studio.
“I tried to see the world through the eyes of a dog,” Wickins said.
Her clients and their owners love it.
Taz, a 7-year-old Lab mix, had a breakthrough day in mid-September. Initially shy, Taz played with another dog that morning. And the center has the video to prove it.
His owner, Michael Jacobson of Ocean Ridge, was so grateful he bought a doggie ice cream for Taz.
Frank Guerrieri of Delray Beach heard about the center from his veterinarian. In September he started to bring his 3-year-old Jack Russell terrier, Penny, and his 4-month-old Australian shepherd, Tucker, for doggie day care.
“The dogs are worn out when they leave,” Guerrieri said happily.

Carissa Muth gets a tail wagging from Scooby Jack, 1 1/2, with some sweet words while he plays at Dog Activity World, a day care and boarding facility.

Mark Prendergast, owner of a chocolate Chesapeake Bay retriever named Rip, heard about the center from a friend who worked for a vet. The Lantana resident was pleased to see that the center is air-conditioned.
“I couldn’t be happier,” said Prendergast, who drops 3-year-old Rip off at 6:30 a.m.
Aspiring to be a Disney World for dogs, Dog Activity World already has boarders. Staffers spend the nights to ensure someone is on-site 24/7.
The day care hours are roughly 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays.
Dogs need up-to-date vaccines and are tested for their temperament. Instead of grouping them by big and small dogs, caretakers sort them by activity level and age. Portable 4-foot-high fencing creates partitions.
Each dog receives a break-away collar for when the play becomes rough.
For more information, call 340-3740 or visit www.dogaw.com.

Pearlmark Real Estate Partners, a Chicago-based investment firm, has closed on a $44.65 million preferred equity investment to continue development of Atlantic Crossing, a mixed-use project in Delray Beach. The developer is the Edwards Cos., a Columbus, Ohio-based real estate firm. The funds will go toward completing the project, which is to include 82 luxury condos, 261 apartment units, 83,000 square feet of office space and 73,000 square feet of retail along with 444 parking spaces on 9 acres at Atlantic Avenue and Federal Highway.
The investment was originated by Pearlmark and made on behalf of Pearlmark Mezzanine Realty Partners IV, L.P. and an institutional co-investment partner. Previously, a $110 million construction loan was secured from Fifth Third Bank, Huntington Bank and Santander Bank. 

BRH Plaza, LLC bought residential and commercial units of King David Kosher Hotel Condominium & Spa, 2901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, for $11 million last month, according to public records. The registered agent of BRH Plaza is Miami investor Jack Avid. The sellers were Ancon Management Corp., Boca Raton Plaza Holdings Corp., Ancon Transportation Corp., Plaza Beverage Corp., and Boca Raton Plaza Management Corp. 

Gold Standard of Care of Greater Palm Beach County sold a 70-unit senior housing facility, Colonial Assisted Living, at 6026 Old Congress Road, Lake Worth Beach, for $6.155 million in late August. The company, led by Michael Verbitsky, had purchased the property in 2014 for $3.9 million. Records show that the buyer, COPB Estate LLC, secured a loan from Bank Leumi for $6 million. 

Manalapan broker Jeffrey Ray reported hot summer sales in real estate, closing a cool $45 million June through September. The highlight, recorded Sept. 23, was a 2-acre, ocean-to-Intracoastal estate owned by David and Margaret Lumia at 1340 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan, which sold for $27 million to Villa Del Balbianello, a Florida LLC led by Eric Thompson of Towson, Maryland. In 2008, the Lumias bought the property for $10.25 million.
The spa-like luxury compound includes a 24,054-square-foot Mediterranean-style main estate and a four-bedroom tennis pavilion with 5,306 square feet. Amenities include a large dock, tennis courts, a 30-by-50-foot infinity-edge seaside pool, a rock waterfall, and a loggia with a fire pit. Ray represented the Lumias, and Whitney McGurk and Liza Pulitzer of Brown Harris Stevens represented the buyer.
Two more September closings involved the Lumias. Recorded on Sept. 24, David Lumia paid $4,932,500 for a waterfront home at 501 S. Atlantic Drive on Hypoluxo Island, buying it from the Octavia Neptune Revocable Trust. Ray represented David Lumia, and the listing agents were Jack Elkins and Bunny Hiatt of William Raveis South Florida.
And recorded on Sept. 10, Margaret Lumia, represented by Ray, bought a six-bedroom house at 1003 Rhodes Villa Ave. on the Intracoastal Waterway in Delray Beach for $5,617,500. The seller was Michael Walsh, who was represented by Nick Malinosky and Randy Ely of Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
Starting off Ray’s summer closings, a 3,376-square-foot, completely renovated condominium in Villa Nova, 3505 S. Ocean Blvd., 10-N, Highland Beach, closed June 28 for $1.6 million. Ray represented the buyer, John Gvodas Jr. Scot Karp, an agent with Premier Estate Properties, represented the sellers, Raj and Maureen Marken. Both agents said this represented a record-breaking sale for the boutique, 24-unit oceanfront complex.

Developer Robert Fessler sold a waterfront estate at 3777 N. Ocean Blvd., Gulf Stream, to Maryland car dealer Jack Antwerpen and his wife, Dolores, for $18.5 million on Sept. 9.
Fessler paid $7.6 million for the house in 2017 and then renovated it with Palm Beach builder Fair Dinkum and Smith and Moore architects. Antwerpen owns Antwerpen Auto Group, a group of 13 dealerships in Maryland, according to its website. The couple financed the Gulf Stream deal with a $13,875,000 loan from Toyota Financial Consumer Solutions.
Candace Friis of the Corcoran Group and Helene Jefferson of Treasure Coast Sotheby’s International Realty were the listing agents. Christy Larrimore of Engel & Völkers Delray Beach represented the buyers.

Executives Curtis Watkins, Jennifer Wynne, Joseph Marzilli and Stanley Clark — tied to two West Palm Beach-based trucking companies, CGW Transportation and Goodrich LLC — bought the 12,774-square-foot waterfront estate at 300 E. Key Palm Road in the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, Boca Raton, for $12,105,000 on Aug. 30.
Previous owners Doris and Neil Gillman bought the home in 2017 for $12.4 million.
David Roberts, with Royal Palm Properties, represented the seller. Jonathan Postma, with Coldwell Banker, represented the buyer.

Another waterfront property listed by David Roberts, at 324 E. Coconut Palm Road in the Royal Palm club, sold for $6,175,000 on Sept. 16. The sellers were Gary and Videl Rack, and the new owners are Michael and Michelle Hagerty. Gary Rack, who owns Racks Fishhouse & Oyster Bar in Delray Beach, bought the property in 1998 for $1.45 million. Michelle Hagerty’s family owned White Rock Distilleries. Earlier this year, she and her husband purchased an adjacent home at 312 E. Coconut Palm Road for $12.5 million. The Hagertys were represented by J.P. DiMisa with Douglas Elliman of Boca Raton.

Atlantis resident Amy Snook has won election as the Women’s Council of Realtors president-elect for Florida for 2020. Snook is a partner in the All About Florida Homes team of Lang Realty, along with co-partner Noreen Payne of Delray Beach. She has been practicing real estate and title insurance for 17 years and is the Florida state secretary for Women’s Council of Realtors. Snook is also a director of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale, and a director of Florida Realtors. 

Michelle Jackson, business development manager of Get Dry Inc., won the Boynton Beach Professionals’ first recognition award, which will be given out on a monthly basis. “This is a new award created to honor the member who has done the most for the group and the Boynton Beach community,” said John Campanola, chairman of Boynton Beach Professionals. “Michelle has been tirelessly working to promote the group and all of its members.” 

Nancy Flinn of Delray Beach has joined the board of directors of Community Caring Center of Palm Beach County. In recent years, she served on the boards of directors of the League of Women Voters of Palm Beach County, Arts Garage in Delray Beach, Symphonia of Boca Raton, and the Villas of Ocean Ridge.

The Institute for Regional Conservation received a $10,000 community impact grant from New York Life in support of its Restoring the Gold Coast program, which aims to create community partnerships to teach about environmental advocacy to protect and restore coastal dunes.
The community impact grant program awards grants of up to $25,000 to local nonprofit organizations that are championed by New York Life agents and employees. John Campanola, an agent with New York Life’s South Florida general office in Sunrise, has been a volunteer with the Institute for Regional Conservation for more than five years and serves on its board of directors.

TooJay’s Deli was selected as a winner of the 2019 Restaurant Neighbor Award from the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation for the second consecutive year in recognition of its efforts on behalf of Feeding Florida to end hunger in Florida.
“This honor means so much to the entire TooJay’s team who go above and beyond to raise funds for Feeding Florida,” said Max Piet, president and CEO of TooJay’s and board member for Feeding South Florida. “It’s never been more important to us to rally behind the state’s leading organization in the fight to end hunger.”
And when he says above and beyond, he means it. At one point in one of TooJay’s fundraising campaigns, Piet raised the stakes on World Kindness Day and climbed onto the roof of the company’s Lake Worth Beach restaurant, refusing to come down until $10,000 was raised to help Feeding Florida stock its pantries. The fundraising surpassed $14,000.

The Boca Chamber Gala, set for Oct. 26 at the Boca Raton Resort & Club, will thank its outgoing chair, Susan Saturday of BBX Capital Corp., and welcome its 2020 incoming chairman of the board of directors, Michael Daszkal.
He co-founded the accounting firm Daszkal Bolton in 1992, which has grown from a two-person outfit to a three-office firm that employs 140 people. He serves as a managing partner and as a member of the executive committee.
The gala is open to the public, and tickets ($250) may be purchased at https://web.bocaratonchamber.com/events/Boca-Chamber-Gala-5159/details.

Place of Hope at the Leighan and David Rinker Campus will recognize Boca Raton-based National Council on Compensation Insurance Holdings Inc., as its 2019 Jay DiPietro Hero of Hope at the seventh annual Hope Bash Boca, presented by the Coulombe Family Foundation. The gala will be held at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 2 at Boca West Country Club, 20583 Boca West Drive, Boca Raton. Tickets are $300 each and may be purchased at www.placeofhoperinker.org/event/hopebashtickets.

People with licenses suspended for non-payment can get back on the road thanks to a special program and a day set aside by the Office of the Clerk and Comptroller, Palm Beach County. On Oct. 19, the clerk’s office is authorized to waive collection agency fees for people who pay off their court obligations in full or sign up for a monthly payment plan.
Florida law requires the clerk’s office to turn over unpaid tickets and other outstanding court fines and fees to an outside collection agency if the debt is not paid within 90 days of the due date.
Collection agency surcharges will be waived during Operation Green Light for overdue traffic tickets or criminal court obligations in Palm Beach County. For a driver with a $206 ticket for going 10-14 mph over the speed limit, that amounts to a savings of as much as $91.60.
All four of the clerk’s courthouse locations will be open for Operation Green Light, which will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. They are:
• Main Courthouse, 205 N. Dixie Highway, Room 2.23, West Palm Beach
• North County Courthouse, 3188 PGA Blvd., Room 1203, Palm Beach Gardens
• South County Courthouse, 200 W. Atlantic Ave., Room 1S-124, Delray Beach
• West County Courthouse, 2950 State Road 15, Room S-100, Belle Glade.
Payments will be accepted by cash, check, money order and credit card. A 3.5% service fee will be applied to all credit card payments.
For people who pay their debts or go on a monthly payment plan, their suspended driver’s licenses will be reinstated in most cases. To learn more about Operation Green Light, visit www.mypalmbeachclerk.com/operationgreenlight.

Jane Smith contributed to this column.

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

Correction

A September story about the Sail Inn, a Delray Beach bar, should have said that (l-r) Michael Holzheid now owns both the property and the bar, and that longtime bartender Bastian Raams is now the general manager. Holzheid is interested in historical research on the property and is eager for residents to stop by and share photos and information about the early years of the bar. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

After first proposing a nearly 36% tax increase, then trimming it to a 19.43% hike, commissioners of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District succumbed to pressure from the City Council and kept their tax rate the same.
“But be aware, even if we don’t have a millage rate increase this year, it’s coming,” Commissioner Steve Engel said, anticipating a similar financial squeeze in 2020. “I’m lucky I still have my arms in my sockets they way they’ve been pulled in each direction.”
The tax rate approved Oct. 1 is the same as the previous three budget years, $0.9147 per $1,000 of taxable value, but effectively raises taxes 3.85%. It will give commissioners a $39.5 million budget with $3.5 million in reserves for capital improvements.
The district’s final budget hearing stretched out over six days after Commissioner Craig Ehrnst offered three solutions at what was meant to be the final hearing Sept. 25 and then moved to recess the meeting until Oct. 1 to let district and city officials negotiate his suggestions.
But when the hearing resumed, District Chair Susan Vogelgesang said Florida’s Sunshine Law had kept the two sides from talking.
How to move forward on the district’s planned $19.9 million Boca National Golf Course remains the bone of contention.
Ehrnst proposed the city taking over the golf project entirely — building and operating the golf course while reimbursing the district what it had spent so far, including the $24 million price of the land — or the district building the east side of the course at first and selling a hotel site on the property, then building the 18-hole course slowly, over two to six years.
His third option was to put a referendum on next March’s ballot for a $45 million to $55 million bond to cover the golf course and land purchase plus $20 million to $25 million to build a new Gumbo Limbo Nature Center and $3 million for the district’s share of constructing maintenance facilities at the city’s Spanish River and DeHoernle parks.
“The goal for all three options is no millage change,” Ehrnst said.
Commissioner Erin Wright said she had a “really super productive meeting” earlier that day with City Council member Andy Thomson, who led the city’s opposition to the golf project’s price, and Wayne Branthwaite of the Price/Fazio design team.
“We got together and we did line item by line item and we got the price down. … And it would still be a great golf course for the residents of Boca,” she said. “You all know, if we got the price down and Andy Thomson’s on board, it must be nice.”
Boca Raton resident and golf professional Rick Heard, who helped Wright and Thomson trim the plan, said Oct. 1 the new price tag was $15 million.
Residents and three City Council members filled the Willow Theatre at Sugar Sand Park for the second round of the budget hearing. Thomson and Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rodgers were among three dozen residents who spoke up, with 23 against raising taxes.
The scene was similar to the Sept. 25 session, when residents and all five council members packed the meeting room at the Swim and Racquet Club and spilled into the hallway. Four council members and roughly two dozen other people spoke, only six favored higher taxes.
“I’m really at a loss for words,” Commissioner Robert Rollins said. “After 2 ½, 3 years of dealing with the public, I see a different public here this evening. I wish they’d been out during our deliberations when we were talking about the purchase of the golf course.”
Jim Sumislaski, the Kimley-Horn consultant hired by the city to re-evaluate the district’s efforts, appeared representing the anti-tax views of 75 Boca East Estates homeowners.
“I think the city has come up with a very good offer that you should seriously accept and take,” he said.
Mayor Scott Singer said the city remains committed to having an exceptional golf course for Boca Raton residents.
“Our point of view — we heard yours too — a tax increase is not the only solution. As long as you know that, then we’re here to support you with financing and other resources,” Singer said, adding “We’ll try to all communicate better.”
The council the night before took the dramatic step of approving a resolution declaring its opposition “to the proposed, significant, tax rate increase being considered by the district” and reaffirming its offers to help finance the golf project.
“We’ve seen four things that are falling out right now, and it’s my fear that that’s just the first of many dominoes of other obligations,” Rodgers said, referring to four city-requested projects totaling $811,000 that the district voted in August not to fund. “I’m so upset by this situation; it’s really not right for our residents. It’s ridiculous.”
The city’s communications and marketing division promptly posted the resolution on Boca Raton’s website and noted the time and location of the district’s budget hearing.
A resident of the Boca Teeca condominiums encircling the old golf course complained that she received two emails and a robo-call telling her to show up and oppose the district’s plan.
Rodgers said he had paid for the robo-call with $400 in personal funds.
“I really wanted to get the word out, and I think it worked,” Rodgers said after commissioners voted.
The budget hearing followed a 3 ½-hour joint meeting Sept. 12 of the City Council and Beach and Park Commission that mostly resulted in both sides scheduling another joint meeting for November.
At their first budget hearing on Sept. 11, commissioners reduced their tentative 35.7% tax increase to 19.43%. Only 10 residents spoke, six in support of higher taxes.
Throughout it all, commissioners and council members noted the strained relationship; some compared it to a broken marriage.
“I just really feel very disheartened about how we are going to move forward in this relationship and this partnership when there doesn’t seem to be any cohesion or common ground almost,” council member Andrea O’Rourke said at one point.
“What I see is no room or parallel plan but them going in one direction and us going in the other. And believe me, I would rather see it go like this,” Engel said, holding his index fingers beside each other, “and not as a head-on collision where there’s a car wreck.”

By Christine Davis

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine received a five-year research project grant totaling $1,738,565 from the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health for a project that uses a new tissue engineering approach.

This research could help in the development of new therapies to prevent and treat cataracts.

The project is focused on identifying the role of lack of oxygen to the cells and tissues in the body, and oxygen on the formation of the eye lens.

In September, Boca Raton resident David A. Goldman, M.D., of Goldman Eye, performed eye surgery using a new type of trifocal lens. It is a high-tech option for people with cataracts to gain clear vision at all distances — near, mid and far — thus reducing the need for glasses after surgery.

An intraocular lens is a tiny, artificial lens. It replaces the eye’s natural lens when it is removed during cataract surgery. There is also a version that corrects astigmatism. While trifocal lenses have been available for years in other countries, they were approved by the FDA in August.

Goldman is a former assistant professor of clinical ophthalmology at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Palm Beach Gardens. His office is at 3502 Kyoto Gardens Drive, Suite B, Palm Beach Gardens.

Watershed Treatment Programs closed its facilities at 4905 Park Ridge Blvd., Boynton Beach, and 200 Congress Park Drive, Delray Beach, in September, laying off 231 workers. The reason, according to news reports: “Unfortunately, due to addiction care industry trends the Watershed has had to close our doors to new admissions.”

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

Linda Prior, Marie Buss and BJ Mays (l-r) wear crocheted baby blankets they created for Holly House at First Presbyterian Church in Delray Beach. Buss is 93 and Mays is 91. On this occasion they gathered at Buss’ house. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Crafters at First Presbyterian of Delray Beach, including some dynamic nonagenarians, keep Holly House hopping as it marks its 50th year

By Janis Fontaine

During the past 50 years, the ladies of Holly House have been praised for giving more than $250,000 to their church, First Presbyterian of Delray Beach, and local charities.

People laud them for the longevity of both their annual rummage sale and Holiday Gift Shoppe, which have raised most of that money. Others speak of their admiration for the women’s creativity and craftsmanship, while bargain hunters marvel at the deals they get on a cornucopia of handmade items the women make and sell.

But more than the money, more than the history and more than the joy of stretching their creative muscles, it’s the relationships that sustain these women. When they lose someone, it’s still a shock. But in the same way many hands make light work, the ladies of Holly House provide many shoulders to lean on.

The women of Holly House gather to make crafts for their Holiday Gift Shoppe, which will be open in October, November and December. Photo provided

Helen Antal, 92, one of the oldest ladies of Holly House, died in August. She was a “Table Lady,” part of a team of versatile crafters who could easily learn new projects. Helen took her place beside Marie Buss, 93, and BJ Mays, 91, every Tuesday, where they brought almost three centuries of handcrafting experience to the table.

And Helen was a top recruiter; she told anyone who would listen how much fun Holly House was. She said, “It’s a way to make new friends and contribute your time and talent to raise money for church improvements.”

Holly House member BJ Mays dresses angels for the Holiday Gift Shoppe at First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach.

It was easy to get BJ involved. She and her husband visited quite a few churches before they found First Presbyterian, and it wasn’t long before BJ found the ladies of Holly House.

Marie was different. She needed coaxing. “I’m not a go-getter,” Marie said, “but Helen welcomed me and got me involved. She made me laugh.”

Their friendship blossomed and they even vacationed together with their husbands, so Helen’s death hit Marie especially hard. But there, right beside her, were her Holly House friends, ready to support her.

Now at home with a back injury, Marie keeps her fingers dancing with a crochet hook, turning yarn to baby blankets and lap robes.

“There are eight ladies who are in their 90s,” said BJ, the youngest-looking 91-year-old ever.

But attrition isn’t an issue. New members, in search of a diversion or friends or to give back to the community, continue to join.
“That’s how God works in our lives,” BJ said.

About 30 women meet for a couple of hours on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Some come every week, others when they can. It’s a relaxed setting, like the quilting bees of the mid-1800s when women would gather to work on one another’s quilts. Bees were also social events where women counseled and encouraged each other. And maybe they exchanged a bit of gossip.

Jewelry items, some of them with coastal themes, are common projects for Holly House crafters.

The ladies of Holly House make more than quilts. They craft one-of-a-kind items, from jewelry to tableware. They have made wreaths from recycled corks and trees from seashells. Knitted, crocheted, painted, sewed, quilted, embellished, repaired or decorated, the results all show the ladies’ magic.

Some women have their own passion projects: Tina Pinto likes to make teddy bears. Animal lover Nancy Crell makes dog treats and toys. The florists have an array of wreaths and trees, coastal decorations highlighting mermaids and plenty of poinsettias and holly berries.

But many items are coastal products intended to be perfect in our homes by the sea all year long, like the all-season lighthouse trees, driftwood crosses, oyster shell wreaths and sandscapes in glass containers.

And that money they raised? It paid to restore the church’s Fellowship Hall and the memorial garden; it purchased custom-made cushions for the pews; it bought a golf cart and new refrigerator; it replaced the steeple blown down during a hurricane; and it upgraded the AV system, bringing better sound to the sanctuary.

Outside the church, the ladies of Holly House have supported Goodwill, Family Promise, Habitat for Humanity, the Haitian Foundation, Dress for Success and Ginger’s Closet. But the group’s grandest achievement came in 2013 when the ladies built their own space to hold Holly House in perpetuity.

Ocean Ridge resident Gina Logan (right) laughs with Delray Beach resident Jane Amme during work on last year’s Holiday Gift Shoppe. The holiday bazaar and the winter rummage sale are Holly House’s main fundraisers. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

If it were a real business, the Gift Shoppe would have failed long ago. “We always charge the lowest price we possibly can,” BJ said.

But it’s not a business.

“The ladies are a sisterhood and the work is a mission,” said member Linda Prior, 76.

And it’s a mission the ladies plan to continue.

There is one thing they won’t do: Ask anyone in the group to analyze her productivity. Those crocheted pumpkins they’re going to sell for $3? It might take the ladies three hours to make one, which seems like a lot.

“How long it takes to make something depends on how much we talk,” BJ explains.

They could work faster if they didn’t talk so much. But the talking? It’s the most enjoyable part.

If You Go...

What: Holiday Gift Shoppe, handcrafted decorations, décor, jewelry, baby blankets and decorations.

Where: Holly House at First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach, 33 Gleason St.

When: 10 a.m. to noon Tuesdays and Thursdays in October and November, beginning Oct. 8, except Thanksgiving Day, and 10 a.m. to noon Nov. 30, the Saturday following Thanksgiving. In December, the shoppe also will be open on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Info: 276-6338 or www.firstdelray.com/grow/women

Columnist Arden Moore is surrounded by Bahamian potcakes, mutts named for the leftover rice in the bottom of cooking pots that islanders occasional feed them. Early this year Moore visited a shelter in the Bahamas that Hurricane Dorian destroyed last month. Photo provided

By Arden Moore

I kicked off this year with a magical vacation to Grand Bahama island, less than an hour’s flight from Palm Beach International Airport. Although I was there to relax, I was also on a mission to tour — and do my radio show from — the Humane Society of Grand Bahama in Freeport, home of friendly dogs and cats affectionately nicknamed potcakes and potcats.

There, I met Tip Burrows, the can-do shelter director originally from Frostproof. She proudly gave me a tour of the facilities that have been weathering economic and Mother Nature storms for 51 years.

Cats and kittens purred and circled me in the new cattery, and happy dogs plopped into a row of “sits” in the open courtyard for me to dole out treats. I marveled at the new exam rooms with X-rays machines, anesthesia machines, updated computers and surgical area.

Then Hurricane Dorian hit on Sept. 1 — the strongest hurricane on record to strike the Bahamas, with sustained winds of 185 miles per hour. This Category 5 hurricane took the lives of people and pets and wiped away the airport in Freeport while pounding the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco for more than 30 hours.

The once fully furnished shelter is now a battered shell of a building. Same goes for the Bahamas Humane Society in Abaco.

“We were not expecting a 25-foot storm surge to reach our shelter, which was not in an evacuation zone,” says Burrows. “Several days before the storm, I was contacted by GreaterGood.org and IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare), who often work together in these situations. But none of us really had any idea that the damage to our shelter would be so extensive and that we would need to evacuate all our surviving animals for health and safety reasons.”

Staff at two local shelters — Tri-County Animal Rescue, based in Boca Raton, and Big Dog Ranch Rescue, based in Loxahatchee — counted their blessings that Dorian just brushed the Eastern coastline. And then they got to work to help.

Suzi Goldsmith, co-founder and executive director of Tri-County, and Lauree Simmons, founder of Big Dog Ranch Rescue, coordinated efforts to arrange for planes and boats to bring about 40 displaced dogs from the affected Bahama islands to their centers.

“But for the grace of God, it could have been us hit by Dorian,” says Goldsmith. “These potcakes knew they had been rescued and their temperaments are marvelous. We lined them up and gave them baths, cleaned their ears, treated them for fleas and ticks and gave them food. Once we get the healthy green light from our veterinary staff, we will put them up for adoption. It was the right thing to do.”

Island dogs, it turns out, can have parasites different from those found in dogs in South Florida, so Goldsmith had to contact veterinarians in the Bahamas to get the right medications to treat Giardia, diarrhea and a parasitic infection known as coccidiosis.
“These potcakes are all doing great inside our isolation building,” says Goldsmith. “They all need to gain weight and are being fed three times a day. They are being spayed and neutered and updated on their vaccinations. And they are happy dogs.”

Goldsmith has endured far too many hurricanes, directly and indirectly. Two years ago, Hurricane Irma teamed up with a tornado to wallop Palm Beach County. The storm destroyed Tri-County’s 2,400-square-foot isolation building. Seven staffers stayed to protect the 200-plus shelter animals during the storm and all escaped without injury. The shelter was without power for a week.

Still, she knew that Houston from Hurricane Harvey and Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria fared worse than Palm Beach County that year. She quickly reached out to pilots of private planes to transport dogs from Puerto Rico to the Tri-County shelter and dispatched trucks loaded with pet food, medicine and bedding to Houston shelters.

This is why I respect and admire shelters for stepping up and helping other animal organizations harmed by hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters.

“We are here for the animals. Always have been and always will be,” says Goldsmith.

Arden Moore, founder of fourleggedlife.com, is an animal behavior expert and host of the Oh Behave! show on petliferadio.com. Learn more at www.ardenmoore.com.

In a moment from the documentary When All That’s Left Is Love, Marilyn Gordon cares for her husband, Sheldon ‘Shelly’ Gordon. He died in 2013, and their son Eric’s film shows how Marilyn coped as an Alzheimer’s caregiver. Photo provided

By Joyce Reingold

Eric Gordon was planning to make a 15-minute film about Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials. When he was finished, six years later, he had created When All That’s Left is Love, a feature-length documentary.

Winning hearts and film festival awards across the country, the movie is an intimate, unflinching look at the love and labor of Alzheimer’s caregivers. It follows his mother, Marilyn Gordon, as she cares for her husband and his father, Sheldon “Shelly” Gordon, in their Boynton Beach home before he died in 2013.

The film also tells the story of the Gordons’ neighbor Arline Rothman as she cares for her husband, Hy, an Alzheimer’s patient who died in 2016.

“I’m just one of thousands of people who are caregivers,” Marilyn says now, downplaying her efforts in caring for Shelly, a manufacturer’s representative known for his sense of humor.

And though modest, she is correct. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that 80% of individuals with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia receive care at home. Annually, 15 million Americans spend more than 17 billion unpaid hours caring for friends and family with dementia.

Being an Alzheimer’s caregiver can exact a punishing toll. As people with the degenerative brain disease gradually lose their ability to function independently, their caregivers are more likely than others to develop anxiety, depression and other illnesses.

Eric hopes his tribute to these caregivers will serve to educate, raise awareness and shine a light on available resources — from clinical trials to support services for caregivers and their loved ones.

The film will have its Palm Beach County premiere at what he calls a community engagement screening from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Oct. 30, at the Movies of Delray, 7421 W. Atlantic Ave.

Events will begin at 9 with a continental breakfast, followed by the screening at 10.

Afterward, Alzheimer’s disease experts will lead discussions in each of the theaters, and moviegoers can browse information tables and discuss resources with representatives from organizations such as the Roskamp Institute and Dignity Memorial, both of which helped fund the film.

The event is free, but reservations are recommended and can be made by calling 305-785-3570 or visiting Eventbrite.com: When All That’s Left is Love.

“I made this film out of love,” says Eric, an award-winning director and producer who earned an MFA in film production from the University of Miami and a certificate in documentary arts from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. “This was a very difficult project to make. I still cry every time I watch this film. Every time, it gets to me.”

As his father’s disease progressed and taxed Marilyn’s physical and emotional endurance, Eric moved home to help her. Today, she says she remembers feeling constantly tired. But Eric says he saw her at a breaking point.

“You can see it in the film. I don’t think you saw it because you loved him so much,” he tells her. “You stopped taking care of yourself. You stopped going to your own doctor appointments. I saw it from being a step back. It was 24 hours a day. I mean, she was beyond tired. She was always doing laundry or always attending to my dad. It was heartbreaking.”

“He had to see or know where I was 24 hours a day,” Marilyn remembers of her husband. “He just needed that reassurance that he wasn’t left alone.”

The Rothman family had similar concerns about Arline’s well-being.

“It was very, very difficult because I saw an educated, wonderful human being deteriorate. And I wanted to actually take care of Hy for the whole time,” Arline says. “But I, myself, was getting sick and my family felt that I could no longer do it. They said, ‘We’re losing Dad and we don’t want to lose you, too.’”

After Hy, an engineer, entered assisted living, Arline visited him daily. She was with him when he died.

“It was a very difficult job for me to do,” Rothman says. “But you know, I often think if I had to do it over again, I would do it the exact same way, because he was a very good person.”

Eric Gordon says he is grateful to Rothman and her family for allowing him access. “I’m blessed they let me into their world,” he says.

“It was difficult,” Rothman says of Gordon’s making the film. “I had to acclimate to it and I just pretended that he wasn’t there. The worst thing for me was at the end, when my husband passed away. I didn’t even know if I wanted that in the video. My husband was a very nice-looking man and the end was just so terrible.”

But if what these women lived and learned can help others, they say it will have been worth it.

“My mom is a true hero and I don’t think she even sees it,” Eric says. “She doesn’t see she’s making a difference in the world. She’s so unassuming about it, but everywhere I show the film, they’re hugging me and crying and saying, ‘Tell your mom I just want to give her a hug.’”

Joyce Reingold has a lifelong interest in health and healthy living. Send column ideas to joyce.reingold@yahoo.com.

We Are Messengers will play Oct. 27 in Boca. Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine

We Are Messengers, a Christian rock band originally from Ireland, brings its Power Tour to Spanish River Church, 2400 Yamato Road, Boca Raton, at 7 p.m. Oct. 27. The band’s release of its eponymous debut album in 2016 earned members a Dove Award nomination for New Artist of the Year.

Darren Mulligan is the lead singer and plays guitar. He’s backed up by his touring mates, Drake Kennedy on bass and synth, Drew Kerxton on drums and Kyle Williams on guitar.

Attendees can expect to hear at least three songs from the debut album: Everything Comes Alive, Magnify and Point to You. In 2019, the band released an EP called Honest, which gave fans the song Maybe It’s Ok. That song was named Breakout Single of the Year at the K-LOVE fan awards. The tour is named for the band’s latest release, the single Power.

Fans of the NBC television show Songland might recognize Williams. His song Getting Started won its episode and was recorded by solo artist Aloe Blacc.

Tickets start at $13 when you purchase a friends-and-family four-pack. General admission is $17 in advance, $20 the day of the show. There are also $35 deluxe tickets that include early entry, the best seats and a preshow Q&A. VIP tickets, $55, include the deluxe benefits plus a meet-and-greet photo op.

For more information, visit https://wearemessengersmusic.com. For tickets, visit www.premierproductions.com/tour/we-are-messengers-power-tour/boca-raton-fl, or call 855-484-1991.

Oktoberfest comes to Boca
Advent Lutheran Church in Boca Raton will host Oktoberfest 2019 from 6 to 10 p.m. Oct. 26 in Advent’s school gymnasium. The evening features German food, beer and music. Tickets are $20. There’s also a cash bar. This fundraiser is to benefit the Freedom Challenge Advent Team. Info: www.adventboca.org/events/

Volunteers sought
Volunteers are needed for the Trunk or Treat event at the Lantana campus of Advent Lutheran Church, 2116 Lantana Road, Lake Worth Beach, from noon to 2 p.m. Oct. 26. Decorate your car’s trunk and stock it with candy for this free event. Email Mark Sloan at MSloan@GoAdvent.org.

Fleming

Heroes of Hope honorees

The Place of Hope, which offers faith-based family-style foster care at the Leighan and David Rinker Campus in Boca Raton, will recognize its Angel Moms program leader Kelly Fleming and employees of NCCI Inc. as 2019 Jay DiPietro Heroes of Hope. The awards will be given at the seventh annual Hope Bash Boca at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 2 at Boca West Country Club, 20583 Boca W. Drive. The event raises money to support foster children in Palm Beach County and features dinner, dancing, live music and entertainment. Tickets are $300, available at www.placeofhoperinker.org.

Peggy Brown, Barbara Sheridan, Anne Mongon, Michele DeGennaro and Highland Beach Police Chief Craig Hartmann. Photo provided

Speaking during an event held by the St. Lucy Council of Catholic Women, members of the Delray Beach Police Department’s detective division addressed an audience of 90 women about the increase in crime via computers and from telephone solicitors. Police said a current scam involves calls requesting prepaid credit cards to pay off false IRS bills or false hospital costs for grandchildren. They advised the women to hang up and report the calls to police and not to provide any personal information.