Eight new lifeguard towers, costing $126,000 each, will replace the aging stationary towers in Delray Beach. The new towers have skids so they can be moved when safety conditions change at the municipal beach. All eight were scheduled to be in place by June 4, weather permitting. The towers were built in sections at a warehouse and brought to the Casuarina Road entrance, where they were assembled into a single unit. Once at their locations, the towers were painted, stairs attached and new roofing added to match that on the main pavilion. The towers have impact glass windows and louvered shutters to protect the windows from flying debris and vandalism. Solar panels on the roofs will power lifeguards’ police radios and operate fans in the hot summer months. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

The blaring horns from FEC freight trains and Brightline passenger trains will soon stop in most South County cities.
In Boca Raton, a quiet zone was scheduled to begin at 11:59 p.m. May 30. The city’s website explained: “Residents may still hear train horns in emergency situations or when the trains comply with other railroad rules. … A more appropriate description of a designated quiet zone would be a ‘reduced train horn area.’”
Boca Raton followed West Palm Beach and Lake Worth in their quiet zone designations along the Florida East Coast railroad tracks.
Quiet zone construction can include quad gates or a raised median between travel lanes to improve safety at the crossings. The county’s Transportation Planning Agency is paying for the construction. Individual cities will have to cover the maintenance costs.
When the county’s work is finished, cities then can petition the Federal Railroad Administration about their intent to install quiet zones. Federal officials need 21 days to review the plans and decide whether the safety upgrades are sufficient to allow train operators to stop blasting their horns at the crossings.
In Delray Beach, City Manager Mark Lauzier brought up the quiet zone application at the May 15 City Commission meeting. With commission consensus, he filed the city’s application the next day.
The application was quickly approved, and the city’s quiet zone should be in place by June 2.
Mayor Shelly Petrolia also wants cameras to be installed at the city’s heavily used crossings. She would like to know where else the city needs to install pedestrian and bicyclist barriers, similar to the aluminum rail fence between Atlantic Avenue and Northeast First Street. The city had it installed after a woman took a well-used shortcut across the tracks in 2016 and was killed by a southbound freight train.
On May 9, Lantana and Hypoluxo received their notices that the supplemental safety items were in place.
Lantana began work on the required traffic counts in late May with the hopes of submitting the quiet zone package by June, Town Manager Deborah Manzo said in an email. She hoped the trains along the FEC tracks would no longer blast their horns by late June.
Hypoluxo is teaming with Lantana to submit its quiet zone package, said Hypoluxo Mayor Michael Brown. Hypoluxo has only two FEC crossings and both are on county roads — Miner and Hypoluxo roads.
Boynton Beach will have to wait until midsummer to apply for its quiet zone after asking for four more crossings to receive the extra protection.
“Safety is most important,” Mayor Steven Grant said at Brightline’s new Miami station on a May 11 media trip from West Palm Beach. In January, two people were killed by Brightline trains in Boynton Beach.
Brightline started its West Palm Beach to Miami run the following weekend with low introductory fares. On May 21, the fares rose to $15 each way for regular seats and $25 for special seats that are wider and offer free beverages and snacks. The fares likely will increase in a few months, according to Brightline.
At Brightline’s inaugural stop in Miami, the emphasis was on jobs created and a cleaner environment with fewer cars on South Florida highways.
The express trains travel at twice the speed of freight trains. Since Brightline passenger service began in January, four Palm Beach County people have been killed by the trains, which travel at 79 mph.
“People need to use caution near the Brightline trains,” U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson said at the Miami station.
She said she wrote a letter of support for the passenger line’s federal grant request of $2  million to $3 million for safety upgrades in the three South Florida counties.

Delray Beach plans to have the sidewalk work along A1A finished by the Fourth of July. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

Now that tourist season has ended, MBR Construction has returned to fine-tuning its work along the promenade on the west side of Delray Beach’s municipal beach.
“We wanted to wait until the tourists were gone,” said Missie Barletto, deputy director in Delray Beach’s Public Works Department. All of the work is scheduled to be done by the Fourth of July holiday.
Starting at Casuarina Road, about 160 linear feet of sidewalk was ripped out because the color didn’t match, she said. That area is fenced off until the sidewalk’s scheduled completion in early June.
The Fort Lauderdale-based firm will move its construction work zone from the south to the north end of the city’s beach. Walkers and runners will be diverted to the west side of A1A in the construction zones.
Also, the northbound bicycle lane will be narrowed during the construction. Bicyclists are urged to use caution when riding on A1A.
On-street parking in the work zone will not be allowed. Parking is available in nearby city-owned lots.
Concrete sidewalks at the north and south sides of the main pavilion at Atlantic Avenue also are being replaced.
In addition, 21 new backless benches will be placed along the promenade near the beach entrances between Casuarina and the north end where the knee wall starts, according to the city’s website. More benches will be placed in front of the main pavilion.
Memorial bricks, created as a substitute for those who paid for plaques on the old benches, will be installed at the base of the flagpole during this time.
For questions about the project, call city engineer Isaac Kovner at 243-7341.

Reclaimed water project
The final construction leg of the reclaimed water line is underway on the barrier island. Along with the reclaimed water lines, the city is installing new water, sewer and storm water lines from Lewis Cove south to Del Haven Boulevard.
For walkers and bicyclists, that means parts of the sidewalk and bike lanes along southbound A1A will be closed from Casuarina Road south to Linton Boulevard between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. weekdays through Aug. 31.

By Jane Smith

Midtown Delray received its second City Commission approval in mid-May, which the developers needed to proceed with the massive project.
Now, the Delray Beach planning director will ensure the development team, led by Hudson Holdings, follows the four conditions set in March. The mixed-use complex was approved then, subject to the approval of design changes of three buildings.
“We’re very excited,” said Steve Michael, head of Hudson Holdings. “The project meets everyone’s needs, reflected in the unanimous decision.”
The $140 million Midtown sits at the southwest corner of Swinton and Atlantic avenues, the gateway to the Northwest/Southwest neighborhoods. It will add offices, restaurants, shops, renovated historic houses, residential inns and an underground parking garage on 7 acres.
The complex also is part of the new nationally designated Old School Square Historic District.
In 2014, the southern side received a commercial overlay before Hudson Holdings and investor Rick Marshall bought the two Swinton Avenue blocks.
By the end of the year, Midtown will begin preparing the main block for the underground garage, Michael said.
At the May meeting, commissioners were limited to approving only the design style of three new buildings — the main building on Atlantic Avenue and two side buildings on Swinton Avenue.
Mayor Shelly Petrolia, who voted against the project in March, asked former Mayor Cary Glickstein to review the developer’s new sketches and computer drawings prior to the May 15 commission meeting. “He was adamant and emphatic that the drawings be more detailed,” she said.
In March, while still mayor, Glickstein asked for the team’s historic architect Rick Gonzalez to reduce the height of the Atlantic Avenue building to three stories and to make the buildings more aesthetically pleasing. Another Midtown architect, John Szerdi, created computer drawings from the sketches.
Glickstein appreciated that Petrolia reached out to him. Also in attendance were Petrolia, city senior planner Scott Pape, Michael, Midtown’s lead attorney Neil Schiller, Gonzalez and Szerdi.
“When I asked to see Rick’s design sketches, staff and I saw substantive differences between the sketches and the [computer] drawings submitted to staff,” Glickstein said. “Specifically, the [computer] drawings omitted important, authentic design features that made the buildings far more interesting.”
The changes agreed to include adding more balconies, using softer white paint colors to differentiate the three architectural styles on the Atlantic Avenue building and other revisions.
On May 23, Michael and Szerdi said the changes were made and they were trying to schedule a meeting with the city planning staff.
The revised drawings seem to give Midtown Delray slightly more space, but Schiller and city Planning Director Tim Stillings said that’s not necessarily true.
“Midtown’s site plan has not been certified,” Stillings said in a May 22 email. “There are some inconsistencies with the numbers represented, which need to be reconciled before the site plan will be certified.”

Concerns about historic elements
Even with the changes, Petrolia and new Commissioner Bill Bathurst had a hard time approving them.
“I was up on the dais and looking out to historic preservationists in the audience,” Petrolia said after the May 15 meeting. “But we were not approving the project, just the changes in the architecture of the three new buildings.”
Bathurst sat on the city’s Historic Preservation Board when it twice turned down Midtown Delray last year.
“How much do we have to compromise to have our historic structures renovated?” Bathurst asked at the May 15 meeting.
“We’re at odds with ourselves,” he said. “We have rules for the historic district and rules for the commercial overlay. In a historic district with contributing structures, visual compatibility standards should apply. But they don’t in this project.”
The new Swinton Avenue buildings sit to the north of some of the city’s most historic houses: the 1902 Cathcart House and the 1912 Rectory, which leases space to the Yaxche Tearoom. The 1902 home of the city’s first mayor, John Sundy, is in the next block.
New buildings in a historic district can have only one architectural style, according to city rules, John Miller said in December when Midtown Delray made its second appearance at the city’s Historic Preservation Board. Miller chairs that board.
But Midtown’s main new building on Atlantic has three styles: Mediterranean Revival, Anglo-Caribbean and Art Deco, allowed under rules for the commercial overlay.
“We need to take our historic districts seriously,” Bathurst said on May 15, “and decide what we want as a city.”
Plus, he said, “They are taking out 200 trees.”
Deputy Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson, who voted for the project in March, said, “The developer has bent over backwards and is meeting the city’s rules.” She likes that Midtown Delray has promised to hire local people for construction and other jobs.
In March, Midtown Delray agreed to four main conditions:
• Secure site plan approval that includes two alleys abandoned by the city.
• Establish a $100,000 historic preservation grant for Frog Alley, West Settlers and Old School Square Historic District prior to receiving its first building permit.
• Post a $1 million bond to guarantee vertical construction within two years on the main block.
• Create a jobs program prior to receiving its first building permit. The program includes requiring subcontractors to hire Delray Beach workers for bids, provide mentorship opportunities, provide bonding assistance to small local companies and establish job fairs for the Northwest/Southwest areas. The city manager must approve the program before it begins.

Hudson exits two other projects
Hudson Holdings walked away in April from the historic Gulfstream Hotel in Lake Worth and the Linton Towers office complex in Delray Beach. The new owner is a former partner in both projects, CDS International Realty. Vitamin kingpin Carl DeSantis and his chief assistant Bill Milmoe own CDS.
The two parties traded lawsuits in the past six months in state court and then in federal court when CDS filed a racketeering lawsuit against Hudson Holdings. The agreement settles the lawsuits.
Both parties were pleased with the outcome, according to an April 19 release on PRNewswire.
The Gulfstream renovation approvals expire in September 2019, according to Lake Worth staff.
Schiller, who represents Midtown Delray, expects it to be a catalyst project.
“It will inspire thoughtful, walkable development not just in that area,” he said at the May 15 meeting, “but throughout the city.”

A bulldozer breaks ground on the Atlantic Crossing project last month. Jane Smith/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

Sophisticated saxophone sounds beckoned attendees under a tent at Northeast Seventh Avenue and First Street — the future home of Atlantic Crossing.
Fruit-infused water, along with bowls full of fresh fruits, individual blueberry and apple muffins, and slices of banana bread helped to create a fresh start for the early May groundbreaking.
The $300 million complex of residences, offices, stores and restaurants was at least a decade in the making — maybe two, said Jeff Edwards, president and CEO of the Edwards Cos., an Ohio-based development firm.
The original owner, real estate investor Carl DeSantis, brought in Edwards as its development partner in 2012 for the complex that sits at the prominent corner of Federal Highway and Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach.
In 2015, the development team sued Delray Beach, Edwards said. The two sides reached a settlement last spring that resulted in an access road off Federal Highway into the project, traffic calming efforts for the Marina Historic District and Palm Trail neighborhoods, and other conditions.
The Palm Trail entrance at Northeast Seventh Avenue already is closed to vehicular traffic with a series of bollards and large planters. Pedestrians and cyclists can still make it through on the sidewalks.
“We’re ready to get started and be a good neighbor,” Edwards told the gathering. “We won’t let anyone down.”
Mayor Shelly Petrolia was cautious. “It’s exciting, but there still are concerns,” she said. “We fought long and hard to get to this point.”
DeSantis sold the project to Edwards in June 2016 for $38.5 million, but he remains involved in the nearly 9-acre project through a $16.5 million loan on the eastern half that houses Atlantic Plaza. He did not attend the groundbreaking ceremony. His right-hand man, Bill Milmoe, was there.
“We are re-imagining two city blocks,” said Don DeVere, Edwards vice president. “In the next few years, we will transform the area.”
Atlantic Crossing will have 82 luxury condos, 261 high-end apartments, 83,000 square feet of office space and 76,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
The first thing passers-by will notice is the excavation of the underground parking garage on the northwest part of the project, DeVere said. The groundbreaking ceremony featured a bulldozer pushing loads of dirt, instead of officials digging into the soil.
DeVere said the water from the excavation will go through a highly regulated process before it is drained into the Intracoastal Waterway.
Edwards will begin the excavation by June, even though it still needs Florida Department of Transportation approval for the access road from Federal Highway and the driveways along Northeast Seventh Avenue, which is now a private road, DeVere said. He called the applications “formalities.”
Delray Beach Vice Mayor Adam Frankel, who is on his second go-round on the commission, told the 50-plus attendees at the groundbreaking what he said in 2009: “If Carl DeSantis wants to spend a quarter of a billion dollars in our downtown, then we should send a limousine for him to pull the building permits.”
According to its settlement with the city, Edwards is obligated to pay $125,000 for traffic calming efforts in the Marina Historic District. The money is not due until two buildings on the southeast corner are finished. That’s estimated to happen in summer 2019 at the earliest.
But district leaders don’t want to wait until then. They met with the city manager in late May to urge the city to find a way to pay for the improvements this year. The traffic calming items include medians, a traffic circle, sidewalk bump-outs and speed bumps.

Chris Evert’s estate on 5 acres in west Boca Raton is on the market for about the same amount she paid for her current home in Boca’s Sanctuary. Photo provided

By Christine Davis

Retired tennis champion Chris Evert’s house is for sale. Her 12,000-square-foot estate on 5 acres at 8563 Horseshoe Lane, in west Boca Raton, has a tennis court, of course. But it also has putting greens, a nine-car garage and two guesthouses. The asking price for the house with a championship pedigree is $4.99 million, and listing agents are Katia Reisler of Douglas Elliman and Rebecca Spooner of Siemens Group Realty.
Evert, 63, who won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, does own another home in Boca Raton. In 2016, she bought a 4-bedroom home in the Sanctuary on the Intracoastal Waterway for $4.9 million.

Michel Jacober, co-founder and co-owner of Allen Flavors Inc., paid $12 million for an estate at 750 Lake Drive, Boca Raton. The sale was recorded on May 3. The property was owned by Interchange Four Properties, a New Jersey limited liability company led by William T. Juliano of the real estate firm Delco Development. It last sold in 2006 for $8,738,915. Joseph Liguori, Carmen N. D’Angelo Jr. and Gerard Liguori of Premier Estate Properties represented the seller. Rosalind Friedland of RE/MAX Properties represented the buyer. It was last on the market for $12.95 million.

Tyco’s ex-chief financial officer, Mark H. Swartz and his wife, Karen, sold unit 101 at One Thousand Ocean, at 1000 S. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton, for $5.4 million. The sale was recorded on May 7.
Mark Swartz and Tyco’s ex-CEO, Dennis Kozlowski, went to prison after being convicted in 2005 of defrauding the company’s shareholders of more than $400 million and giving themselves a chunk of change in illegal bonuses.
Records show Karen Swartz paid $5.156 million for the condo in March 2013, almost a year before Mark Swartz was released from prison.
Douglas Elliman agent Senada Adzem represented the seller and United Realty Group represented the buyers, Felix and Dianne DeHerrera. Felix DeHerrera is the chairman and majority owner of mortgage banking company Alterra Home Loans.

British millionaire Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust and Education Endowment Foundation, sold his estate at 3545 N. Ocean Blvd., Gulf Stream, for $14.25 million to Gulf Stream Ocean Properties FL LLC, which lists a San Francisco address. The sale was recorded on May 3.
Lampl listed the 14,000-square-foot estate on 1.96 acres for nearly $21 million in April 2017. The asking price was reduced to $14.95 million in March. Nicholas Malinosky and Randy Ely, agents with Douglas Elliman, represented the seller, while Candace Friis of the Corcoran Group represented the buyer.
Records show Lampl’s Sutton Co. paid $5.145 million for the waterfront estate in October 1997. A notice of commencement filed in 1999 lists Lampl as the owner.

William Powers’ home at 901 S. Ocean Blvd. in Delray Beach sold for $26.75 million. Photo provided

Miami Worldcenter co-developer William Powers sold his 2.13-acre waterfront lot at 1020 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan, for $14.475 million to Paul and Victoria Saunders in April. Powers bought the property in December 2017 for $13.5 million. Paul Saunders is the founder of the Richmond, Va.-based investment firm James River Capital Corp., and Victoria is a faculty member of the Chrysalis Institute cultural learning center in Richmond.
In an earlier transaction, on March 20, Powers sold a property at 901 S. Ocean in Delray Beach for $26.75 million to QCRE VII LCC. In this transaction, Powers was represented by Devin Kay of Douglas Elliman and the buyer was represented by Nicholas Malinosky, an agent with Douglas Elliman. Powers listed the property for nearly $29 million in October.

Following up last month’s announcement on the auction and sale of William “Tom” Gerrard’s house at 1960 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan, on April 21, the deal did close on May 21, and the selling price was $13.5 million. Gerrard’s ocean-to-lake home had been most recently listed for $24.5 million by agents Robert Temelkoski of Bowen Realty and William McManus of the Fite Group. On and off the market since 2010, it was initially listed at $34.5 million. According to DeCaro Auctions International, bidding by approximately 10 bidders started at $10 million, and was over in 10 minutes. According to public records, the new owner is Jean Christine Thompson, listed with a Dallas mailing address. She was represented by Douglas Elliman agent Steven Solomon, who works out of the Boca Raton office. Last month, he told us: “She saw the value. Sometimes she keeps the properties she buys and rents them out. Others she picks up and sells. I believe she’s going to resell this house.”

Kaufman Lynn Construction celebrated the opening of its new Delray Beach headquarters at 3185 S. Congress Ave. in April. For almost 30 years, the firm has worked on structures that include the Mizner Park Cultural Center in Boca Raton and various buildings for Broward College, Florida Atlantic University, Palm Beach State College, Florida International University, Miami Dade College and Pine Crest. It recently topped out construction on Aloft Hotel and Condominiums in Delray Beach.

Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach is closed for business to accommodate a $135 million renovation. With architect Leo Daly and interior designer Martin Brudnizki, the renovation includes a remodeled pool deck, a second pool, redesigned guest rooms, first-floor guest rooms with extended balconies, and a new restaurant and renovation of the oceanfront restaurant and bar. New landscaping will be designed by Fernando Wong.
Property records show Acore Capital Mortgage provided the financing through refinancing an $80 million mortgage from Sachs FS Limited Partnership and Palm Beach Hotels LTD as well as an additional $55 million in financing.

John Tolbert, president and general manager of the Boca Raton Resort and Club, was named business leader of the year at the Boca Chamber’s annual business awards luncheon in May at the resort. Others recognized included Ami and Arnie Zak, owners of Unique Gifts and Premiums, small business leaders of the year; and Bluegreen Vacations, business of the year.

The Delray Beach Housing Authority recently honored two staff members. Rose Clay, who has worked with the authority since 1988, was presented with the Longest-Serving Award. She has served as account clerk and property manager and currently is a housing counselor to senior residents of Lake Delray Apartments and Village Square Apartments.
Jakeleen Fernandez received the Employee of the Year Award for her work in overseeing the construction, quality control and compliance reporting for the Lake Delray Apartments. 

Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee was ranked among the top 10 wildlife parks in the United States by USA Today’s “10Best” Reader’s Choice contest in May.
Lion Country Safari is home to the largest herd of zebras outside of Africa, one of the largest herds of giraffes in the United States and a large herd of rhinos with a long history of breeding success. Lion Country Safari is at 2003 Lion Country Safari Road.

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

The law may affect local beaches in decades to come, if rising sea levels change the line between wet sand, which is public access, and dry sand. The latter is not open to the public along areas of private property. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Amid confusion about new law, beachgoers likely to see no sudden changes in enforcement

By Dan Moffett

As if separating public and private beach rights weren’t contentious and confusing enough, a new state law signed by the governor in March adds another layer of complexity to Florida’s long-running quandary.
What’s clear is that House Bill 631 is probably the most controversial and misunderstood measure to come out of the 2018 legislative session.
Champions of public beach access rights have called it a travesty. Some municipal officials have criticized it as an infringement on home rule. Some waterfront property owners have complained that it doesn’t go far enough.
“This law has caused a lot of confusion,” said South Palm Beach Mayor Bonnie Fischer. “People aren’t sure what it means.”
What coastal residents in Palm Beach County should understand is that Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a bill that is narrowly focused, has limited impact and, most important, changes nothing about beach access as it exists today.
“We don’t see any substantive impact on the town of Ocean Ridge,” said Town Manager Jamie Titcomb. “Our beach areas are defined and determined.”
The same goes for coastal communities throughout the county, their officials say.
Some law enforcement authorities, however, believe HB 631 could have the unintended benefit of making it easier for them to enforce the line between public and private beach. The law specifically cites the mean high-water line as a standard, reaffirming an ambiguous and shifting boundary that over the decades has been routinely misunderstood and contested.

People at the Lantana public beach see a new sign in the dry sand at Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa. A new law addressing beach access takes effect July 1. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

The Florida Constitution says the wet sand area below the mean high-water line is considered public and state-owned. The dry sand above it is private. Roughly 60 percent of Florida’s beaches are adjacent to private ownership.
Manalapan has no public beaches and has struggled for years to keep interlopers from wandering off the wet sand onto private property. Police Chief Carmen Mattox says language in the new law affirms how his officers are patrolling the town’s beachfront.
“I believe the new law delineates what part of the beach is public and what part is private property,” Mattox said. “It confirms Manalapan’s beaches are private.”

Law built on ‘customary use’
The thrust of the new law, which goes into effect July 1, prevents county and municipal governments from enacting “customary use” ordinances that allow public access to private beach property without first getting approval from the courts.
The Florida Supreme Court has recognized the principle of “customary use” rights when the public has a tradition of use that “has been ancient, reasonable, without interruption, and free from dispute.” In other words, historical precedent can matter when it comes to determining access.
There have been only a few customary use beach ordinances passed in the state’s history, according to the Florida League of Cities, and those have been in three northern counties: Volusia, St. Johns and Walton. No South Florida government has made a serious attempt at passing one, league officials say.
Once the new statute goes into effect, it will require a judge’s sign-off on these relatively rare local laws that have sprung up along the Panhandle and the northeast coast.
It was an ordinance in Walton that prompted the legislature to act this year. Some prominent Panhandle property owners, among them former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Republican political adviser Karl Rove, complained about a local customary use ordinance and filed suit.
Rep. Katie Edwards-Walpole, D-Plantation, who sponsored HB 631, said the new law strikes a balance between public and private rights.
“The legislation does not privatize public beaches nor does it impact the public’s ability to enjoy public beaches,” she told legislators.
While the law abolishes Walton’s ordinance, it leaves intact all others, those passed before 2016.
The law mandates that, from now on, any city or county that wants to enact a customary use beach ordinance must first get a judge’s approval and make the case in court.

Future sea level rise could muddle interpretation
The Florida Wildlife Federation, the Florida Association of Counties and the Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to beach preservation, vigorously opposed the bill, arguing it was an alarming precedent that was sure to cause confusion — which it surely did.
Here’s how the Surfriders put it: “This bill is bad. It makes it harder for local governments to protect beach access for the public, it’s confusing and damaging for local tourism economies, and it sets a bad precedent. That said, unless you are in Walton County, it should not cause immediate changes in beach access or your ability to utilize the beach.”
That last sentence is critical for towns such as Ocean Ridge, Manalapan and South Palm Beach, where beach access has been questioned. There are no immediate or foreseeable changes to any beach activity: From renourishment projects to sunbathing to morning walks, everything is as it was before HB 631.
The law’s most significant impact in Palm Beach County could come years or decades from now, if rising seas shift the demarcation lines between wet sand and dry sand, and muddle public-private access.
Future government councils and commissions will find it more difficult to invoke the customary use doctrine to sort out changing boundaries on the beaches, parties on all sides agree. The new law will shift some of the decision-making from municipal officials to judges.

Carol Myer takes classes at Beyond Fitness in an effort to slow the progression of Parkinson’s.Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Sallie James

Carol Myer was never much for exercise, but now the petite blonde boxes three times a week, lifts weights, does yoga and walks.
She hasn’t become a health nut. She’s fighting for her life.
Two years ago, the Highland Beach snowbird was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, an incurable, progressive neuro-logical disorder characterized by tremors, limb rigidity and gait and balance loss.
Twenty years ago, the diagnosis was grim.
But not today.
Best known as the disease of Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox, Parkinson’s can be slowed by vigorous exercise, doctors have theorized. So, Parkinson’s patients everywhere are packing a punch.
“I’m not giving in to this disease,” said Myer, who participates regularly in the “Rock Steady” Parkinson’s boxing program at Beyond Fitness in Delray Beach. “You can’t turn back time, but you can hold off what is yet to come.”
Programs such as Rock Steady are giving Parkinson’s patients hope by improving their quality of life through a boxing-based fitness curriculum.
According to the national Parkinson’s Foundation, approximately 1 million people in the United States and 10 million worldwide have Parkinson’s. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rates complications from Parkinson’s as the No. 14 cause of death in the U.S.
“We don’t have clinical evidence that [exercise] is associated with a slower progression, but there is a lot of evidence from studies that people have improvements of symptoms,” said Corneliu Luca, assistant professor of neurology at the University of Miami and director of the school’s brain stimulation program. “We think vigorous exercise is much better than something that is slow. Twenty years ago, people were not aware of the beneficial effect of exercise” for people with Parkinson’s.
According to the Rock Steady website, Parkinson’s patients lose physical skills that are best improved by boxing workouts. And boxing is one of the most physically demanding sports, the website states.
Inside Beyond Fitness, the finger-snapping beat of the song Macarena is punctuated by the “thump, thump, thump” of gloved fists as people in the gym connect with leather bags. A Rock Steady class is about to start, as a group of mostly older adults sidles into the brightly lit space. They place their gear bags on a bench and head for a row of speed bags.
“The way I see it, I struggle with some things every day, but I am a lot more ahead than I would be if I wasn’t doing Rock Steady and other exercise,” said Pompano Beach resident Jim Emmerich, 64, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2014. “You have got to have a positive outlook. You can’t feel sorry for yourself.”

Colleen Sturgess, owner of Beyond Fitness in Delray Beach, offers encouragement at the end of a Rock Steady class (above) and urges on Jim Emmerich (below), who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2014. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Emmerich combines workouts at different gyms with exercises at home to keep moving. It’s working. The 6-foot retiree’s trim, fit physique and spry movements are tributes to his hard work.
“I can ride the exercise bike and lift weights for 45 minutes. That is medicine. The whole idea is yeah, I got PD, so what?” he said. “I am lifting weights, boxing, lifting heavy bags. The residual effect of all this lingers 24 to 48 hours.”
Whack! The black, column-shaped boxing bag shook and twirled as Emmerich laid into it with a boxing glove. Whack! The bag swung and wobbled as he landed another punch. Smack! A nearby boxer pummeled another bag with the same focused fury.
“Fighting back is what the program is about,” said Colleen Sturgess, who owns Beyond Fitness and teaches the Rock Steady program. “I like this program because it gives people hope. If someone is having a down day or their medication might be off, everyone supports them and encourages them to do their best. They get to be their friends.”
Sturgess holds a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and health promotion. She got certified to teach Rock Steady in Indianapolis and hasn’t looked back.
During class, she includes memory exercises, balance exercises, stretching and small talk. Because the disease can cause some patients’ voices to soften, Sturgess occasionally has her students shout. It can also affect memory, so sometimes they count in a foreign language.
At the end of class, they do a cheer of solidarity, putting their hands in a circle, one on top of the other, and shout, “Rock Steady!”
“We’re a family,” Sturgess explained.
Delray Beach resident Richard Levine, 65, has been battling Parkinson’s for eight years. The working neuroradiologist is a regular at Beyond Fitness but he goes for more than just exercise.
“It’s a brotherhood and sisterhood. To have a roomful of people with Parkinson’s disease is good for me,” Levine said. “You make friends. It’s very nice to have a bunch of people walk into the room and say, ‘It’s good to see you.’”
Personal trainer and physical therapist Craig Marks trains Parkinson’s patients at his gym — the Parkinson’s Fitness Center of South Florida — and thinks the future is bright for those who once had little hope. His father — who died in 2005 — was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1994. Marks learned then how intense exercise could work magic and worked out vigorously with his dad to help make his life better.
Today, he applies those same principles to others with Parkinson’s disease.
“Movement is key. Does it work and help everybody with Parkinson’s? No. But it’s about 72 percent improvement with the people who come in on a regular basis and follow up with their exercises at home,” said Marks, whose gym is at 12565 Orange Drive in Davie.
Emmerich works out regularly with Marks. Together they do squats, dead lifts, lunges, step-ups, kickboxing and heavy bags.
“Craig put a picture of me up on Facebook and the caption was, ‘Jim says F-U to Parkinson’s,’” Emmerich chuckled. “I don’t have Parkinson’s. That’s my attitude.”
He admits he fell apart when he was first diagnosed. Then he found out about the value of intense exercise and began healing himself.
“I said, ‘Is this a death sentence for me?’ [My doctor] said Parkinson’s doesn’t kill, but there’s no cure,” Emmerich recalled. “Parkinson’s is all about the chemistry in the brain. There is not a good balance of dopamine being released; exercise can generate that dopamine.”
That’s where boxing came in.
But treating Parkinson’s also involves medication, which can be tricky to get right. Too much causes severe shaking. It’s trial and error to get the right balance, Emmerich said.
Angela Wensley, 70, of Delray Beach, has been battling the disease since 2007 and is fierce in her unwillingness to let it own her. She calls the right mix of meds and exercise the “Goldilocks zone.”
She relies on a movement disorder specialist to adjust her medications periodically, so she can get on with her life. And then of course she exercises. As much as she can.
“Ten years ago, people went from mild to severe in a decade, and that is the way it was until about 2010-2012 when people got the exercise craze,” Wensley said. “I had gotten on to this in 2007 and found I was able to slow the progression. Now the floodgates have opened and people with Parkinson’s disease are exercising like crazy.”
Wensley shares her journey with others in a Parkinson’s e-newsletter she writes.
Whack! Wensley’s punching bag spun and twirled. Sweat glistened on her skin.
“I am going to enjoy my life as long as I can. I know eventually it’s going to get me,” she said wryly.
Wensley attends Rock Steady in Delray Beach as much for the exercise as the moral support. She always leaves with a smile.
“We love each other. We understand each other. We have bonded with each other. It’s better than a support group because we are all in it together,” said Wensley, a retired materials engineer. “It’s like being part of a team, but a team we are really invested in. We are fighting for our lives and we are winning.”
Myer agreed wholeheartedly.
“I know people are really frightened of this, but I don’t look at it that way,” Myer said. “You can run away from a bad marriage, but Parkinson’s disease you have to face. And I don’t think you necessarily have to face it with fear, but rather the desire to do whatever it takes.”
She added, “I do know you have to live in the here and now. So it takes me a little longer to get out of the car — so what? I can still wear high heels and go dancing. I hope other people can look at it and say, ‘I can deal with that.’ ”

For information about the Rock Steady program or to find a class, go to www.rocksteadyboxing.org

For information about the Parkinson’s Fitness Center of South Florida, visit www.parkinsonsfitnesscenter.com. 

Uncertain months ahead as deposed mayor faces corruption charges

By Mary Hladky

Over a dizzying two weeks in April, Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie was reprimanded and fined for ethics violations, arrested on state corruption charges, withdrew from the District 4 Palm Beach County Commission race and was suspended from office by Gov. Rick Scott.
The sudden downfall of Haynie, a mainstay of city politics for 18 years who was aiming for higher office, threw the city into political turmoil and will have major repercussions.
The city moved swiftly to fill the mayoral void, elevating Deputy Mayor Scott Singer to the top job for now. City Council members expect to pass a resolution at their May 8 meeting to set Aug. 28 as the date of a special election to choose a mayor who will serve until the end of Haynie’s term of office in March 2020.
Singer has announced he will run for mayor, and he will have to resign from office at the time of the special election to do so. If he loses, Singer will be off the City Council.
Other mayoral candidates are lining up, including former Planning and Zoning Board member Glenn Gromann.
With Singer now mayor, his City Council seat is vacant. Other council members anticipate they will temporarily appoint someone to the council by late May or early June, with voters deciding a permanent replacement on Aug. 28.
Singer and council members Andrea O’Rourke and Monica Mayotte have called on Haynie to resign, but as of the end of April she had not. Even so, her April 27 suspension created a temporary vacancy.
City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser said the city charter and state statute set out the steps the city is taking to fill it.

City carries on amid uproar
City officials have taken pains to assure residents that the political tumult is having no impact on city operations.
“The city is bigger than one person” and will continue to provide “world-class services,” Singer said after he assumed his new role.
Haynie was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on April 24 and released about 90 minutes later on $12,000 bail. She will be arraigned on May 24 and faces more than 20 years in prison. As of May 1 she had not spoken publicly since her arrest.
“Ms. Haynie wholeheartedly and completely denies the allegations, which we plan to fight in court to the fullest extent,” her attorney, Leonard Feuer, said in an email to The Coastal Star on the night of her arrest.
Stunned council members were in the midst of a regular meeting when word spread that Haynie was absent because she was at the jail.
“I find news of this as I sit up here as beyond upsetting,” O’Rourke said.
“We are all surprised, flabbergasted … ” Singer said.

Scott Singer is now mayor and plans to run for that position in August. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Haynie was charged with four felonies and three misdemeanors by the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office public corruption unit, including official misconduct, perjury in an official proceeding, misuse of public office, corrupt misuse of public office and failure to disclose voting conflict.
The investigation began in March 2017 when the State Attorney’s Office received complaints that Haynie used her position on the City Council to vote on matters that financially benefited James Batmasian, the city’s largest downtown commercial landowner, and failed to disclose income she received from him, the arrest affidavit states.
The investigation found that Haynie failed to report $335,000 in income on disclosure forms required by the state, including $84,000 from Batmasian or from his company Investments Limited, from 2014 through 2017.
Of that total, $45,000 came from rent paid to Haynie for a property she and her husband, Neil, own in Key Largo.
The Haynies formed Community Reliance, a property management company, in 2007. The company managed Tivoli Park, a 1,600-unit apartment complex in Deerfield Beach. Batmasian and his wife, Marta, own 80 percent of the Tivoli Park units, and five of six Tivoli board members work for Investments Limited, The Palm Beach Post has reported.
Community Reliance earned between $10,057 and $16,490 a year between 2014 and 2017 from Tivoli’s master association, according to the arrest affidavit.
“This amount is well below the expected income for managing a property of this size, which would normally command an income of nearly $150,000 to $200,000 a year,” the affidavit states.

Haynie denied company work
Haynie told investigators that she had no involvement in running Community Reliance and another company she and her husband started, Computer Golf Software of Nevada Inc., and derived no income from them.
But subpoenaed bank records revealed she wrote two checks to herself from the Community Reliance account totaling $5,300 and received $72,600 from Computer Golf Software.
During 2016 and 2017, Haynie cast four votes that benefited Batmasian, the affidavit states, although none of them were on significant matters.
Haynie left Community Reliance in 2016 and announced in December that her husband had ended his business relationship with the Tivoli Park master association.
Haynie was in the crosshairs of the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics months before the State Attorney’s Office investigation came to light.
The ethics commission launched its investigation of Haynie on Nov. 2, one day before The Post reported that the Tivoli Park master association had paid Community Reliance.
That probe corroborated The Post’s key findings but also unearthed an additional, and more direct, financial link between the Haynies and Batmasian.
Community Reliance was paid at least $64,000 in 2016 and 2017 for installing security cameras at several properties owned by Batmasian, including Royal Palm Place in downtown Boca Raton, according to the commission’s investigative file. Investments Limited made the payments to Community Reliance.
Haynie did not disclose that before voting on matters involving the landowner.
Haynie has denied that she acted improperly and said she requested in 2013 an Ethics Commission opinion on whether she should recuse herself from voting. The opinion said she could vote.
But the opinion was narrowly written and was based on a specific instance in which Batmasian was neither the applicant nor the developer of a project coming to the City Council for approval. In other instances, he was the applicant or developer.
Mark Bannon, the ethics commission’s executive director, said Haynie should have understood the opinion to mean that she should not vote in such circumstances.
“The advisory opinion said [Batmasian] was not the developer or applicant, which tells you when he is the developer or applicant, you can’t do that [vote],” Bannon said.
In a settlement agreement reached on April 16, Haynie admitted to violating the county’s ethics code and agreed to pay a $500 fine — the stiffest fine the commission could levy — for failing to disclose a conflict of interest. The commission dismissed its second allegation that Haynie misused her public office.
The settlement states that Haynie “believes it to be in her best interest to resolve the issues contained in the complaint and avoid the expense and time of litigation in this matter. Accordingly, (Haynie) admits to participating in and voting on matters that gave a special financial benefit to a customer or client of her outside business and she accepts a letter of reprimand.”
The criminal charges against Haynie caught many unawares.
“It was shocking,” O’Rourke said. “No one had any idea this was coming down.”
But BocaWatch publisher Al Zucaro, a Haynie adversary whom she defeated in last year’s mayoral race and who has called on her to resign, knew an investigation was underway last spring.
He said the state attorney’s public corruption unit investigators interviewed him not long after he filed a complaint about Haynie with the county’s Ethics Commission. He also filed a complaint with the Florida Commission on Ethics, and that case may be ongoing.
Speculation about why Haynie has not resigned is rampant in the city, and Zucaro posited that her thinking is that she can enter into an agreement with prosecutors to plead no contest to the charges with a judge withholding adjudication. By avoiding a conviction, she could then return to office.
But Frieser seemed to squelch that possibility at an April 30 meeting held to discuss procedures to hold a special election.
A no contest plea with a withholding of adjudication or suspension of a sentence is deemed a conviction, she said, and if Haynie is convicted, Scott must remove her from office. If she is acquitted, Scott must reinstate her.

2016 anti-corruption law

The state’s case against Susan Haynie on official misconduct charges could be bolstered by an anti-corruption law passed by the Florida legislature in 2016.
The law removes the requirement that state prosecutors prove the accused acted “corruptly” or with “corrupt intent.” Instead, prosecutors only have to prove the suspects acted “knowingly and intentionally,” a lesser burden of proof.
Elected state attorneys across Florida endorsed the bill, saying they needed the change to better prosecute public corruption. It was unanimously approved by both the Florida House and Senate.
The bill was based on recommendations contained in a 2010 Statewide Grand Jury report titled “A Study of Public Corruption in Florida and Recommended Solutions.”
Haynie is charged with three counts of official misconduct, perjury, misuse of public office, corrupt misuse of public office and failure to disclose voting conflict.

Susan Haynie

Susan Haynie during a 2017 Boca Raton City Council meeting. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Haynie, 62, has long been a fixture in Boca Raton politics.
A 45-year city resident, she is a graduate of Lynn University and holds certifications in traffic engineering studies from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Northwestern University.
She began her career as an engineering analyst for the city and entered politics in 2000, when she was first elected to the Boca Raton City Council. She was forced out by term limits in 2006 and returned in 2008. Haynie became mayor in 2014 and was re-elected in 2017, when she defeated BocaWatch publisher Al Zucaro.
Setting her sights on higher office, Haynie announced her candidacy for the Palm Beach County Commission last year to fill the seat held by former Boca Raton Mayor Steven Abrams, who is term-limited. She withdrew from that race on April 24.
Haynie is a past president of the Florida League of Cities and Palm Beach County League of Cities.
Haynie has chaired the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency (formerly known as the Metropolitan Planning Organization), the Florida Metropolitan Planning Organization Advisory Council, the Southeast Florida Transportation Council and was appointed to the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.
Before her election to the City Council, she served on the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment and Planning and Zoning Board. Haynie has been a member of numerous civic and charity organizations.
Haynie is a licensed general contractor and community association manager.
She has two children of her own and three stepchildren with her husband, Neal Haynie, whom she married in 1995.

Lisa Rome Steiner practices yoga to help with her back pain. Here, she does the dancer’s pose under the eye of a Hindu deity. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

Were it not for severe back pain, Lisa Rome Steiner might never have discovered yoga.
Now a well-known instructor who leads 13 classes a week as well as yoga fundraisers for local nonprofits, Rome Steiner remembers when she was in constant pain as the result of four herniated disks that came after three decades of running.
Fearful of surgery, Rome Steiner took the advice of a friend who suggested she give yoga a chance.
“I went in trying to heal my back and then I came to realize the emotional and spiritual benefits,” she said. “The nice part of yoga is that these benefits sneak in.”
After going to yoga classes for 10 years, much of that while working in a leadership role for a financially focused magazine, Rome Steiner, 53, quit her job and, a few years later, began leading yoga classes.
Certified to teach for the last three years, Rome Steiner trained under Jimmy Barkan, creator of the Barkan method of hot yoga, which is taught around the world.
In addition to teaching regularly scheduled classes, Rome Steiner leads yoga fundraisers and this month will help to recognize national Mental Health Awareness Month by hosting an event benefiting Boca Raton’s Faulk Center for Counseling.
Set for May 20 at the Barkan Method of Boca Raton, the event includes a yoga class, as well as vendors. There is a $25 fee with all proceeds going to the Faulk Center.
For Rome Steiner, supporting nonprofit organizations ties in well with yoga and specifically with the Faulk Center, which provides free and low-cost mental health services to children and families.
“Yoga is a tool that helps Faulk Center clients and others to better handle stress, anxiety and life’s challenges,” she said.
Over the past three years, Rome Steiner has helped raise more than $12,000 for the Alzheimer’s Association, Hope Gel Foundation, Girl Up and Best Foot Forward. 
“Helping others gives you a feeling that’s better than money,” she said. “It’s a feeling of having the chance to make people a little happier, and that makes the world a better place.”
Rome Steiner, who is from a small town in western Massachusetts, graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and landed a job with a British bank as a financial analyst specializing in utilities.
Following a chance meeting on a train, she was offered a job by the publisher of Institutional Investor magazine and soon began a 21-year career in the publishing industry. During that time, she and her husband, Barry, settled in Boca Raton, raising two boys who are now in college.
“It’s weird that I became a yoga teacher because I was always very goal-oriented,” she said.
One of the students in the Boca Raton class Rome Steiner teaches happened to be Vicki Katz, CEO of the Faulk Center, who knew about the fundraising events her instructor hosted.
“Lisa’s a great teacher and she’s been very supportive of her friends in the nonprofit world,” Katz said.
Recognizing the connection between yoga and the center’s mission, Katz asked Rome Steiner if she would host a fundraiser in May during Mental Health Awareness Month.
“The whole practice of yoga is very much a part of mental health and wellness,” Katz said.
Besides raising money, the May 20 event will help raise awareness for the Faulk Center and the mental health programs it provides.
The center will also bring attention to mental health programs in the community during a butterfly release set for 5:30 p.m. May 17 at the Faulk Center for Counseling, 22455 Boca Rio Road, Boca Raton. There is no charge for the event but donations are appreciated. 

For more information on the Faulk Center, call 483-5300 or visit www.faulkcenterforcounseling.org.

If You Go
What: Yoga Fundraiser for the Faulk Center for Counseling
When: 2:15 p.m. May 20
Where: Barkan Method of Boca Raton, 2240 NW 19th St.
Who: Lisa Rome Steiner will lead the yoga class.
Cost: $25 minimum donation
Info: BarkanMethod.com, 750-4400.

Mom loved animals. The first time I ever saw her cry was when the kitten she’d saved with every-three-hour eyedropper feedings was hit by a car as he strutted home from a week of tomcatting around the neighborhood.
I was a teenager.
One of the last times was when I stopped in Briny Breezes to pick her up for a doctor’s appointment and found her watching The Incredible Journey. The classic 1963 film follows three displaced pets finding their way home through the Canadian wilderness.
I was in my 50s, and by then Mom’s advancing dementia had her determined to return “home.”
The place locked into her memory wasn’t in Florida, so the kids all agreed to honor her wishes and help her move into assisted living near my sister back in Illinois.
We packed up her heavy, handmade china cabinet, her other sparse belongings, and a ceramic cat I had given her that lingered by her porch as a garden statue.
My sister’s rental van carted these items north as my husband and I helped Mom pack a small suitcase and get her large yellow cat, George, into a carrier.
Worried that the vast, busy Atlanta airport would confuse her, I flew the first leg of the trip with my mom — and then stood helplessly at the gate as she struggled to lug the cat carrier down the jetway. But my heart was lifted when a flight attendant engaged my tiny 80-year-old mom in conversation and carried George onto the plane for her.

She made it safely “home” and even in her decline was able to keep her buddy George as she moved from the ALF into a memory care facility. While she was able, she would carry George around
Mom’s cat has found its way back home.                 to visit the other residents.

I, too, love cats, and in this setting it was easy to see the comfort that animals bring, especially to those who are lonely.
Mom has been gone for several years now, and George, too, has died. My sister is retiring and moving to Florida.
When she texted to ask if I wanted her to bring me Mom’s ceramic garden cat, I had forgotten about that old statue. But there was no hesitation in my decision.
The heavy, oddly shaped cat-replica with a broken paw now holds court near the goldfish pond in my yard. He looks comfortable there — like he’s returned home.
I have a feeling that Mom approves.

— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

By Rich Pollack

Just weeks after praising Town Manager Valerie Oakes’ performance and giving her a raise, Highland Beach town commissioners voted at their meeting May 1 to fire her, effective immediately.
In a 3-2 vote, with Mayor Carl Feldman and Commissioner Peggy Gossett-Seidman dissenting, commissioners agreed to terminate Oakes’ contract, which paid her a base of $139,000 a year plus benefits.
“I personally have lost confidence in our town manager,” Commissioner Rhoda Zelniker said. “I think it’s time for new leadership at the top.”
Vice Mayor Alysen Africano Nila, who was elected to the commission in March, agreed with Zelniker, as did Commissioner Elyse Riesa.
“We really need strong, experienced leadership,” Africano Nila said. “I feel it would be the best thing for the town.”
Riesa said she thinks the town needs a manager with more experience than Oakes, 32, a former town clerk, and pointed out that the past two town managers were appointed from the town’s workforce.
“This is about the town and doing what’s right,” she said.
Feldman, who has been on the losing side of several 4-1 votes since the March election, disagreed.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Feldman said. “Valerie is a well-respected employee. I’ve never heard a resident complain about her, I’ve never heard employees complain about her.”
Commissioners agreed to have Town Clerk Lanelda Gaskins serve as temporary town manager. Zelniker suggested the town look for a retired city manager who could serve as interim during a search for a new town manager.
The discussion of the town manager’s performance was added to the commission agenda during the opening minutes of the meeting. Few residents in attendance had any idea it would be brought up.
Many of the residents who were at the meeting said they were surprised and upset.
“What they want to do is micromanage the town, and they don’t know what they’re doing,” said Carol Stern, the wife of late Commissioner Lou Stern and a former chair of the town’s planning board. “They’re going to run the town into the toilet.”
Others praised Oakes, who has been popular with employees and with residents.
“She’s been one of the best town managers that I’ve seen,” said resident Tim Burnich, a former chair of the Code Enforcement Board. “We’re going to be looking into a possible recall for certain commissioners.”
Also critical of the commission’s vote was the Rev. D. Brian Horgan, pastor of St. Lucy Catholic Church, who said he received a half dozen calls from residents after news of Oakes’ termination spread.
“To lose Valerie is to lose a very important link in the chain in Highland Beach government,” he said. “She worked tirelessly to build bridges instead of building walls.”
Horgan praised Oakes for serving the town faithfully and admirably.
“It’s almost as if an air of sadness has crept upon us,” he said. “I don’t believe some commissioners are acting in the best interest of the town. There are some that don’t understand the concept of service.”
Horgan said that even before the recent meeting, residents had asked him questions about the commission.
“They see some commissioners acting on a personal agenda,” he said.
Oakes’ firing comes just a few weeks after another surprise personnel move in which commissioners asked that Town Attorney Glen Torcivia be replaced by another member of his law firm, Pam Ryan. Discussion of that issue was also added to the agenda at the beginning of a commission meeting without public notice.
Within minutes of the vote, Oakes had packed up her office and was surrounded by employees as she walked to the parking lot. Some were in tears.
An employee for nine years, Oakes started as a deputy clerk and has been town manager since February 2017, having served as interim town manager after the September 2016 forced departure of then-Town Manager Beverly Brown.
Oakes has a severance clause in her contract that says the town must pay her an estimated $55,000. Also, the town must pay for six months of health insurance and accrued and unused vacation and sick leave.
Oakes said she plans to spend time with her two children before returning to work.
“I’ve truly enjoyed serving the community of Highland Beach for the last nine years,” she said. “I’m proud of the work that’s been accomplished during my time as town manager.”

The day after the Manalapan commission meeting on April 24, much of the south and east sides of the water tank had been concealed by a planting of areca palms. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

For two years, Manalapan officials have been trying to get a Publix built at the town’s Plaza del Mar, and the residents of La Coquille Villas next door have had plenty to say about the plan.
They have commented on the color palette for the Publix facade. They have offered tasteful font options for signage.
They have weighed in on the proper lumen limits for lighting and on environmentally sound choices for landscape buffers.
With the Publix scheduled to open in June, La Coquille residents figured every design detail had been taken care of.
The last thing they expected was to wake up one morning and see a shiny 20-foot metal can looming over their tennis courts.
It turns out the water distribution system at the 30-year-old plaza doesn’t generate enough pressure to meet fire suppression safety standards.
In order for the Publix to comply with fire codes and get inspectors’ approval to open, workers had to hastily construct a water storage tank to raise the pressure to acceptable levels.
And the corrugated steel structure could be there for two or three years, officials say, until the town can upgrade the distribution system and replace pumps for the plaza.
Town Manager Linda Stumpf said the plan was for Kitson & Partners, the plaza’s landlord, to plant dozens of 25-foot palm trees along the property’s southern boundary to conceal the 20-foot tank. Much of that was done by the day after the April 24 Town Commission meeting.
“What I would have much preferred is a short version of that [tank] versus a tall version of that,” Mayor Keith Waters said during the meeting. “We want to make sure that it is not visible in any way, shape or form.”
Waters said the town will try to have the tank painted — color palette to be determined — to make it less visible and promised that the commission would make sure the camouflage efforts satisfy residents.
Herb Newman, a longtime La Coquille homeowner, told commissioners that he and his neighbors understand that their property abuts the back of a shopping mall, and they don’t mind that. Newman said, as far as he is concerned, the tank can stay there forever — as long as he doesn’t know it’s there.
“We want assurance that when development is done, that we do not see the back of Publix and we do not see the water tank,” Newman said. He told the mayor La Coquille wants no more surprises.
Waters said the tank would soon disappear from view.
“Our job is to represent the community, and we’ve heard loud and clear that this is not acceptable,” he said. “So we are not going to rest until everyone is OK with this.”

By Steve Plunkett

The town has enough money to replace its worst water mains and rebuild frequently flooded streets without raising taxes or borrowing money.
With help from Town Commissioner Paul Lyons, Gulf Stream finance administrator Rebecca Tew developed a 10-year budget for the capital improvement project that will leave residents with $4.9 million in reserves after the work is completed, down only about $580,000 from an expected $5.5 million cushion this fiscal year.
Mayor Scott Morgan called the numbers “eye-opening.”
“I talk to residents all the time, and the main concern with this project is the fear of assessments and additional financial responsibilities,” Morgan said.
The plan calls for work to be done in five phases, with the town taking a year to develop construction designs and get permits, then having the work done the following May through November.
First to be tackled would be the northern core area: Bermuda Lane from Sea Road to the south end, Gulf Stream Road from Sea Road to Banyan Road, Old School Road from Gulfstream Road to the cul-de-sac, Oleander Way from Banyan to the north end, Polo Drive from Old School to Banyan, Wright Way from Old School to the cul-de-sac, Sea Road from Ocean Boulevard to Gulfstream Road, North County Road from Ocean to Sea Road, and Banyan from Ocean to the cul-de-sac. The work would be designed in 2019 and constructed in 2020.
The 2021-22 cycle would cover Place au Soleil repaving on Tangerine Way, Emerald Row, Orchid Lane, Indigo Point, Canary Walk, Cardinal Circle and Avenue Au Soleil.
In 2023-24 the project would shift back to the southern core, with work on Oleander Way, Polo Drive, Lakeview Drive, Middle Road, Golfview Drive, Gulfstream Road and Palm Way.
The remainder of replacing the water main along State Road A1A would come in 2025-26; repairs to Hidden Harbour and Pelican Lane would end the project in 2027-28.
Tew told commissioners at their April 13 meeting that she split the core work into two phases with the Place au Soleil work in between to let money build up for the southern core area rather than borrow money or raise taxes to do the core first, then Place au Soleil.
“We thought, why do that if your town doesn’t have to do that,” Tew said. “It just made more sense to break those projects out and kind of give us … two years to recover.”
Commissioner Joan Orthwein agreed. “Why would you borrow it if you have it?” she asked.
The finance plan, which commissioners took home to review, assumes that Gulf Stream will keep property taxes at the rollback rate through 2028 and that inflation will be 3 percent each year. It also includes money for new police cars, replacement computers and other routine capital expenses.
Morgan was relieved.
“I was always under the impression that this was going to require direct borrowing or a bond issue — the sums were so high. But the way you are budgeting it and staging it, monies are collected in-house and can be used over time,” Morgan said.
Mathews Consulting engineer Joe Kenney told commissioners in March that the water mains and streets would cost $10 million to fix. Another firm had estimated $8 million in 2012. The pipes are approaching the end of their 50-year service life. Improved technology means the replacement pipes should last 100 years.

By Jane Smith

Coastal residents who live near the FEC tracks will have until at least late June to continue listening to loud train horns from Brightline passenger trains and FEC freight trains.
In mid-April, Brightline said its subcontractor was diverted to Miami to complete safety upgrades before its train station would open there. That news meant the quiet zone work was delayed in five South County cities: Lantana, Hypoluxo, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Boca Raton.
Brightline simulated service, testing without passengers, began in late April between Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
The quiet zone construction can include quad gates or a raised median between travel lanes to improve safety at the crossings. The county’s Transportation Planning Agency is paying for the construction. Individual cities will have to cover the maintenance costs.
Once safety features are installed, the cities can petition the Federal Railroad Administration about their intent to install quiet zones. Federal officials then need 21 days to review the plans and decide whether the safety upgrades are sufficient to allow train operators to stop blasting their horns at the crossings.
“During that time, final inspections take place and warning signs are posted at crossings to indicate that trains do not blow their horns,” said Malissa Booth, spokeswoman for the county TPA.
Brightline officials had promised last summer that the quiet zone work would be finished before the express passenger service started.
But in January, Brightline service began between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale at speeds up to 79 mph in Palm Beach County. In mid-April, the quiet zone work was finished in West Palm Beach. That city then applied to the federal agency for quiet zone approval and allowing the trains not to blast the horns when traveling to the West Palm Beach station.
“It is important for the public to understand that quiet zones replace the routine blowing of train horns,” Booth said. “Conductors always have the option to blow horns as they deem necessary. There still may be occasional train horns.”
Since Brightline passenger service began, four Palm Beach County people have been killed by the trains. Two men, one in Delray Beach and one in West Palm Beach, were deemed suicides. Another woman was killed trying to beat the train across the tracks in Boynton Beach; a male cyclist also was killed in Boynton Beach after he rode around the down crossing gates.
Brightline runs 22 passenger trains daily between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale in both directions starting at 6 a.m. Freight trains run along the Florida East Coast railway primarily at night. South County coastal residents who live near the FEC tracks often complain about the loud horns.
In downtown Delray Beach, the city is trying to balance the safety needs of Atlantic Avenue visitors with the noise level endured by downtown condo and apartment dwellers.
Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia favors petitioning the federal agency to install quiet zones. Too many residents live in condos and apartments downtown for the city to ignore their noise complaints, she said.

As part of its research of U.S. 1, the Transportation Planning Agency held walking workshops in Boca Raton and other cities. File photo by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

After more than a year of study and hours of research, the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency has come up with a draft report for improvements to 42 miles of U.S. Highway 1 in Palm Beach County.
The 176-page report focuses on roadway improvements that can make travel along the corridor safer for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists. It also focuses on creating a branded express bus service that would be safe and convenient for people using public transportation.
“Our core goal was to improve the corridor for all users and make it safer,” said Valerie Neilson, the Transportation Planning Agency’s deputy director for multimodal development and the project manager.
The draft of the U.S.-1 Multimodal Corridor Study, scheduled to be presented to the agency’s board this month, includes dozens of recommendations for improvements that could be implemented by the Florida Department of Transportation. The agency also makes improvement recommendations to municipalities along the route.
A blueprint of sorts, the plan is just one of the first steps in a long process that would include reviews by other agencies and could take several years before many of the most extensive recommendations could be implemented.
“We need to do further analysis,” Neilson said.
In looking at roadway improvements along the corridor, the staff members and consultants behind the report recommend changes such as connecting sidewalks in areas where there are gaps and creating bike lanes where they don’t exist. The report also looked at areas where landscaping could provide shade for pedestrians as well as those using public transportation.
In some cases, the study recommends reducing speed limits to enhance safety and in other instances recommends reconfiguring roads to make room for bike paths and walkways.
On the stretch of U.S. 1 from Camino Real to Southeast Mizner Boulevard in south Boca Raton, for example, the study’s authors recommend the roadway be narrowed from six lanes to four lanes to make room for on-street parking and a protected bike lane. In coming up with the recommendation, the team considered many factors, including projected traffic volumes along the roadway in 2040.
In some areas, the team does not recommend lane changes but does suggest narrowing landscaped or green areas to add two-way bike paths on either side of the roadway.
In some cases, the report recommends that bike paths be buffered from traffic by a structure or barrier.
In areas where lanes would be reduced — including sections of U.S. 1 in Hypoluxo and Lantana — approval from local municipalities would be required, in addition to consent from FDOT.
Neilson said while the study was being conducted, the team found areas where improvements could be made that were outside the FDOT right of way, which is the area under study. In those cases the FDOT is making recommendations to the local municipality.
For example, one recommendation to the city of Delray Beach for a portion of the road near Linton Boulevard would be to add trees and landscaping for additional pedestrian comfort.
In looking at public transportation, the report’s authors took comfort and health factors and convenience into consideration when recommending where bus stops along the rapid transit system’s line would be.
Locating a bus stop near a grocery store, for example, would add convenience and perhaps safety for those who use public transportation.
The report also concluded that well-connected bicycle, walking, and transit safety and comfort features can contribute to increased rates of physical activity, which has multiple benefits.
Neilson said after the report is presented to the board, coordination with other government agencies and organizations will continue, as will additional analysis.
To view the report or find out more, visit www.palmbeachtpa.org/us1

By Dan Moffett

It seems certain that 2017 was a record-breaking year for calls from Ocean Ridge to the Boynton Beach Fire Rescue Department.
Just how big a record is not quite so certain.
Boynton Beach Fire Chief Glenn Joseph says his department responded to 292 calls for service from Ocean Ridge last year, a whopping 88 percent increase over the 155 calls in 2016.
Police Chief Hal Hutchins, Ocean Ridge’s top public safety official, thinks that number might be a bit high. Hutchins says his count for Boynton responses to the town last year is 202, a still-robust increase of 30 percent over the previous year.
Why the difference? Town Manager Jamie Titcomb believes there may have been “a change in methodology” in record-keeping when Joseph took over the department two years ago. Hutchins thinks it could be that some Briny Breezes numbers may have gotten swept into Ocean Ridge’s account when Boynton took over policing the mobile home community in late 2016.
No matter, because whether it’s 292 or 202 or something in between, service calls from Ocean Ridge were unusually high. Consider the numbers from the previous three years were 133 (2014), 145 (2015) and 155 (2016). No other South County coastal community has seen a similar rise.
Hutchins says after studying the statistics he found reasons for the increase.
“In review, I did see a pattern of response to a few addresses for multiple medical calls, as well as an increased fire and elevator alarm response to two condo properties, which would have caused a spike in calls for the year,” he said.
Typically in South Florida, nearly 70 percent of the calls to fire departments are for emergency medical services. Fire calls, especially those to significant fires, make up a relatively small percentage of requests for assistance.
Joseph, 55, who was born in Castries, St. Lucia, immigrated to Florida when he was 13 and grew up in Belle Glade. He is a 29-year veteran of the Boca Raton Fire Department who holds a bachelor’s degree from Palm Beach Atlantic University and a master’s in emergency planning and administration from Lynn University.
Joseph says he has confidence in the accuracy of his numbers but believes the 292 “may be an anomaly” that will fall back into place over time.
“It’s something we’ll be tracking,” he said. “The number that’s really important is response time — about 41/2 minutes.”
That’s one statistic first responders on both sides of the bridge can celebrate. Three years ago, the average response time from Boynton to Ocean Ridge was 6 minutes, 19 seconds.

By Dan Moffett and Jane Smith

With a 3-2 vote, Boynton Beach city commissioners approved exploring the possibility of opening Oceanfront Park to some level of dog use.
“I’d like to see some middle ground,” said Mayor Steven Grant, who cast a deciding vote at the city’s May 1 meeting. “Saying dogs get zero days a year doesn’t make sense to me.”
Grant says he wants staff to draft a proposal for limited use of the beach by dogs on a trial basis and to bring it back to the commission at its next meeting.
Commissioners Joe Casello and Justin Katz sided with Grant. Vice Mayor Christina Romelus and Commissioner Mack McCray opposed the idea.
“I love my dog but I would not force my dog on anyone,” Romelus said.
Grant said whatever the city ultimately decides to do, it will need Ocean Ridge’s help to do it. And Ocean Ridge, which polices the beach, has made it clear to Boynton Beach that the town’s ordinances prohibit dogs and that is not going to change, City Attorney James Cherof said.
“It’s our beach,” Casello said. “Ocean Ridge can’t tell us what to do.”
Katz said a “well-crafted program” could work and was worth trying at least on a temporary basis. He also was persuaded by the results of an online survey.
Boynton Recreation & Parks Chairwoman Betty Pierce-Roe presented the findings of the advisory board and the results from a resident’s survey about allowing dogs on the beach.
In late March, the advisory board members recommended against allowing dogs at Oceanfront Park.
They voted 5-1 after reviewing the results of a residents’ survey where nearly 70 percent were for allowing dogs on the beach during select days and hours. About 56 percent of the survey takers wanted the dogs to be leashed. Close to 900 people responded to the unscientific survey posted on the city’s website. 
“Our beach is not the right place to have it,” said Charles Kanter, a board member who made the motion. He said the short length of the beach — 960 feet — does not provide enough space for a dog park. The residents’ survey did not specify the beach length available for dogs.
A dog owner, board member Christina Johnson wanted to allow dogs at Oceanfront Park.
“Not that many residents would buy the permits,” she said.
Casello raised the topic in August after taking his dog, Charlie, a Cairn terrier, to the dog beach in Jupiter.
“He really loves it,” Casello said last year.
At Jupiter’s Dog Beach, no permits are required for the 2.5-mile stretch of beach. Lately, Jupiter’s vice mayor has talked about decreasing the beach portion where dogs are allowed.
In December, Grant asked the city’s Parks Advisory Board to poll residents about allowing dogs on the beach at Oceanfront Park.
The park, while owned by Boynton Beach, sits within the town of Ocean Ridge. That arrangement led to an October meeting between Boynton Beach city management and their Ocean Ridge counterparts. The message from Ocean Ridge was clear: Its laws do not allow animals on the public beach. Private beach owners, though, could allow dogs.
Boynton Beach staff delivered that message in December. Even so, Casello wanted to proceed with creating a dog beach at Oceanfront Park.

Workers with Caltran Engineering Group finish mounting a pair of cameras on light poles just east of the Ocean Avenue Bridge in Ocean Ridge. The cameras will be used in a study of vehicle, bicycle and foot traffic. Jerry Lower/ The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

The Florida Department of Transportation wants to know how safe South Florida bridges are for pedestrians and bicyclists so it can begin planning improvements for bridges with the biggest needs first.
Recently, contractors working with FDOT installed cameras on the Ocean Avenue bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway between Boynton Beach and Ocean Ridge to measure pedestrian, bicycle and vehicle usage. FDOT is also taking inventory of pedestrian and bicycle amenities such as sidewalks and bike lanes.
It will then compile the information from the Ocean Avenue project with information collected at 78 other bridges over the Intracoastal in a five-county region stretching from Broward County north to Indian River County.
That data will then be used to determine which bridges should be considered first for pedestrian- and bicycle-safety improvements and which improvements should be applied to which location, according to Thomas Miller, a bicycle and pedestrian safety program specialist for FDOT.
The improvements, Miller said, will be broken down into short-term, mid-term and long-term enhancement.
“Short-term improvements may include installing new or additional pavement markings, and installing new or additional signs,” Miller said.
Long-term projects, for example, could include modifications to existing sidewalks or installing plates over grates on bridges that are difficult for bicycles to cross.
Many of the decisions on what improvements will be made where will depend on an analysis of each bridge to determine whether it can handle additional weight or has space for other improvements.
The project, Miller said, is the result of concerns expressed by residents regarding the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians on bridges over the Intracoastal.
Data collection should wrap up this month; and some short-term improvements could be implemented before the end of the year, Miller said. Mid- to long-term improvements could be incorporated into a five-year work program as schedules and resources allow.

By Jane Smith

City commissioners unanimously agreed to install themselves as their Community Redevelopment Agency board members.
The May 1 vote was a formality. The real work will begin May 7 when the commission meets as the CRA board. That’s when they will vote on the CRA agenda that includes a proposal by Redevelopment Management Associates.
The Pompano Beach-based firm is the CRA’s development consultant for three West Atlantic Avenue blocks. RMA was started by Chris Brown, the first executive director of the Delray Beach CRA. Its employees include Diane Colonna, the CRA’s second executive director.
On May 1, five Delray Beach residents, including two former CRA board members, spoke on the topic with two for and two against the takeover.
Alice Finst asked, “How will it fit together if the commission is the same as the CRA board?”
Former CRA Chairwoman Annette Gray, who is for an independent CRA board, said, “As an individual who chose to volunteer, I didn’t do it for the accolades, but my reputation was tarnished” when the board was dissolved over claims of irresponsible spending.
“As a commission, you set the budget and then told the CRA how it should be spent,” Gray said. “We were required to pay for the nonprofits and give $2.5 million to Old School Square.”
In late April, Mayor Shelly Petrolia sent a letter to Gray thanking her for the CRA service.
Alan Schlossberg praised the commission.
“You really are responsible for the money,” he said.
The CRA has $19.5 million in tax dollars to spend on eliminating slum and blight this financial year in an area that includes Atlantic Avenue, east of Interstate 95. When budget carryovers are included, the CRA has about $28 million.
The City Commissioners were expected to take up the CRA issue at their goal-setting workshop in late April. Because they would not have taken a second vote by the time of that workshop, the city attorney advised that they could talk only about their aspirations of how the CRA should function.
“We ran out of time,” Petrolia said. “We decided it was better to discuss the CRA functions at a commission workshop on May 8.” The discussion then could include whether to expand the CRA board with two citizen members.
At the end of the goal-setting session, the CRA’s first May meeting date was changed from May 10 to May 7 to accommodate Deputy Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson. She will be out of town on May 10 and wanted to participate in the first CRA meeting with the commissioners as board members. The takeover was her idea.
Johnson is frustrated at the slow pace of development in The Set, formerly the Northwest and Southwest neighborhoods, while properties east of Swinton Avenue are thriving.
“Thirty-two years ago promises were made that parts of the city would be rebuilt,” Johnson said April 3. “There’s been no demonstrable development on West Atlantic.”
At the April 17 commission meeting when the first vote on the CRA takeover took place, two women residents spoke against it.
Ernestine Halliday, who lives in The Set, said, “I feel that disposing of the CRA board was a disadvantage to our community.”
Yvonne Odom, a retired educator who lives west of the interstate and runs various youth sports programs for kids living in The Set, asked the commission to reconsider its vote.
“That’s an award-winning CRA. They did everything they were supposed to because they have a lot of money,” she said.
On May 1, ex-CRA board member Daniel Rose said he agreed with the takeover.
He asked the commissioners to wait until the status of the three West Atlantic blocks was decided before deciding to add two citizen board members.
On May 7, Equity Delray will make another pitch for developing the three blocks.