Cars can reach the museum from the east when Ocean Avenue is torn up. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

Playtime hasn’t stopped even as work continues on building Boynton Beach’s new Town Square.
The Schoolhouse Children’s Museum & Learning Center is open throughout construction of the municipal facilities, with signage to remind visitors.
“There’s no question that our operations have been affected by the exciting project that is Town Square,” Suzanne Ross, executive director, told the City Commission in February. “So far, we’re holding our own.”
While first-quarter visits were down about 6 percent when compared to the same period in the previous year, the museum also received two grants totaling $37,000, Ross told the commissioners.
“That will allow the museum to end the first quarter in the black,” she said.
The city-supported museum sits on Ocean Avenue between Seacrest Boulevard and Southeast First Street. In the current financial year, the city will give $255,169 to the museum, up slightly from the previous year.
Boynton Beach also owns the 1913 schoolhouse building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A nonprofit, Boynton Cultural Centre, runs the museum. It now is the only open building on that block.
The museum, open Tuesdays through Saturdays, provides interactive play with a mix of local history for young children, ages 3 to 8.
“We want them to play and wonder,” Ross said.
On April 29, the city is scheduled to begin tearing up that Ocean Avenue block as part of the $118 million Town Square, a 16-acre project that will create a downtown. New water and sewer lines will be added, along with stormwater drainage lines before the road is built up and paved.
The roadwork will be done in two phases, said Colin Groff, assistant city manager in charge of the Town Square project. The western half will be done first, then the eastern half. He estimates the work will be finished by July 5.
“We will add signs, move signs, to make sure the public knows the Schoolhouse Museum is still open,” he said.
Banners recently were added to the Town Square construction fences at key intersections along Boynton Beach and Seacrest boulevards, Ross said. A banner in front of the museum reads: “Come play with us! Open during Town Square construction.”
“The city supports us financially,” said Joy Woodworth, a museum board member who lives in Boynton and is a retired college educator. “It makes sense that when they close Ocean Avenue they would direct patrons to us.”
The city’s old high school, which sits just west of the museum, is planned to open later this year as a cultural center. Arts and dance classes will be held on the first floor and an auditorium will occupy the second floor. The renovation will cost $11 million.
The 1927 high school is on the city’s list of historic properties.
Boynton Beach partnered with E2L Real Estate Solutions to create Town Square, which will have office and retail and restaurant space, apartment buildings and a hotel in the second phase. The total project cost is estimated at $250 million.
Across Ocean Avenue, the development team is building a four-story City Center to house the city departments and library.
In the meantime, the museum board is planning its annual fundraiser for April 11.
The event at Benvenuto Restaurant in Boynton Beach will honor Nain and Curtis Weaver. The couple attended elementary school in the building and were among the museum’s founders, Ross said.
The Weaver family raised dairy cows on land near Boynton Beach Boulevard and Military Trail.
The fundraiser, titled “Schoolhouse Bash — Too Cool for School” runs 5:30-9:30 p.m.
“It’s a dinner dance with a twist,” Ross said. Attendees are encouraged to wear clothes from their favorite era of school, although it’s not required.
“It’s not a formal event, not even semi-formal,” she said. “We just want people to have fun.”
Tickets are $125 each and are available at SchoolhouseMuseum.org.

The Rachel K Goodwin, a specially outfitted 121-foot research vessel, is working in advance of planned beach renourishment in Delray this year and in 2020. Photo by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Stephen Moore

Jim Gammon and his wife, Margo Stahl-Gammon, are not ordinary South Florida beach lovers. They treasure the view from their beachside condo in Gulf Stream.
And when something upsets this scene, they want to know why.
On March 16, a strange-looking vessel appeared on the horizon. The Rachel K Goodwin is a 121-foot ship registered in the United States. It has a large, U-shaped extension on the stern with an iron beam across the top. This device seems to hold a litter of pulleys and ropes. It has been zigzagging less than a mile offshore up and down the coast, from just north of Briny Breezes to Highland Beach.
“We thought it was a fishing boat at first,” said Stahl-Gammon. “And we thought they were pulling seine nets. But then we found out it was surveying the sand in the area.”
Delray Beach has contracted with Aptim Environmental & Infrastructure, LLC to survey the ocean floor for two beach renourishment projects, set to begin in November 2019 and October 2020. The chartered boat serves as a marine platform to assist in data collection tasks.
The survey effort, which includes the contracting of the boat, costs approximately $670,000, according to Cynthia Fuentes, the manager for both renourishment projects.
“It arrived the second week in March. The boat is surveying the floor of the ocean by dragging it. The extension on the boat has a bunch of pulleys that are used to drag the floor of the ocean,” said Fuentes, the engineering division chief in the city’s Public Works Department.
“It tells us about not only sand, but reefs and other ecological aspects of the ocean floor. We will also drill into the floor to see how deep the sand is.”
Jim Gammon said that during the first days, “we tracked its path on our computer and it was 500-800 yards off shore.”
Fuentes said the work is doing no ecological damage.
“I can understand the concern for the environment,” she said. “Our office has received many calls about the boat and what it is doing. Right now all we are doing is dragging the bottom to see where the sand is. After the calls, we posted on our Delray Beach Facebook page information about the boat and what it is doing.”

The graphic traces the ship’s zigzags.

The Facebook post reads, “Ahoy, Delray Beach! Over the next few weeks, you might see this boat in the ocean waters off our city. It’s actually a hydrographic survey vessel that will be going back and forth gathering information the city needs about the ocean floor as we prepare for a possible beach renourishment project.”
Stahl-Gammon worked for the Army Corps of Engineers in Hawaii from 1988-1993 and was manager at the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge from 2000-2011. She is familiar with renourishment projects.
“We are concerned about the effects this renourishment project could have on our environment,” she said.
“How would it affect turtle nesting, the reefs and plants on the dunes? We have a natural ebb and flow of sand that has been working in this area for a long time. The Anastasia Rock Formation is also a concern since it attracts lots of fish.”
Anastasia runs from South Palm Beach to Jacksonville. The Blowing Rocks Preserve in Jupiter-Tequesta is part of it.
Brian Choate, the Corps of Engineers project manager for Palm Beach County, said the project is safe.
“There is usually no ecological damage done to these environments,” Choate said. ”All these projects are licensed and permitted through all the pertinent agencies. And if anything does go wrong, we work to mitigate the damage.”
Fuentes said the survey should finish by April 30 “if the weather cooperates. We lost a few days due to high winds.”

By Dan Moffett

When he interviewed for the mayor’s opening in February, Gene Adams told Briny Breezes council members he would bring energy to the job and improve relations with the town’s neighbors.
“Overall, I think I’ll be an active mayor,” he said.
It took Adams only a month to make good on his word.
The new mayor spent his first weeks in office representing Briny at a League of Cities meeting, introducing himself to Ocean Ridge officials and discussing with them common problems such as drainage and sea rise.
“It’s about building relationships and listening,” Adams said.
The council on Feb. 28 unanimously selected Adams to fill the unexpired term of Roger Bennett, who died unexpectedly earlier this year. Council members then reappointed Adams to a full one-year term in March.
At 54, Adams is one of the youngest mayors the town has had. Gerry Devine was 38 when he was appointed to the position in 2013, but he held the office for only five weeks. In 1963, Hugh David, Briny’s first mayor and the town’s founder, was 41 when he took the job and then held it for 34 years.
Adams, whose wife, Christina, has served on the council since 2015, has lived in Briny for five years and served as vice president of its board of directors for two years.
“For me, being mayor comes down to two key areas,” Adams told the council. “Since it’s a non-voting position, you don’t make decisions. But it comes down to leadership and it comes down to representation.”
Adams said he wants to help guide council members through difficult issues the town faces. He said 30 years of working in the corporate world — he currently oversees dozens of employees as a senior director at Target stores — has developed his leadership abilities.
Adams said he has learned about representation through service on several civic boards, and through work with the Broward County Emergency Operations Center and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“I’m used to leading people through tough decisions,” he said.
Keith Black, another Briny board member who led a council committee that wrote the job description for town manager, also applied for the mayor’s position. The council appointed Black to a position on the Planning and Zoning Board.
In other business:
• On March 28, the council voted 4-0 (with Kathy Gross absent) to shut down Briny’s website at least until June to protect the town against lawsuits over compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
During the past two years, hundreds of governments throughout the state have faced suits over aging sites that didn’t accommodate screen reader software for visually impaired people.
Town Manager Dale Sugerman said the town will track residents’ reaction to the shutdown over the next few months, and then council members will decide whether to invest in upgrading the website or eliminate it.
Said Town Attorney Keith Davis: “There’s nothing that requires a local government to have a website.”
• Sugerman said construction has resumed on the Gulf Stream Views townhouse project south of town.
Palm Beach County building officials have approved developers’ permits on a conditional basis after stopping construction earlier this year. Developers still need FEMA to sign off on a flood map for the site. Completion of the six-building, 14-unit project is targeted for early next year.

Tom Lynch is chairman emeritus at Plastridge Insurance, which has been in the family since the late 1940s. His sons, Connor and Brendan, now run the agency. Tom has spent 50 years in the insurance industry. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Charles Elmore

Celebrating a 100th anniversary qualifies as no mean feat for any business in South Florida, but it’s hard to beat Plastridge Insurance’s claim for being dialed in to Delray Beach’s history: Its phone number was 1.
So it appears in telephone directories into the late 1940s: “Phone No. 1. Established 1919.”
Dialing was easy, maybe. Picking up? Not always a picnic. Everything from Depression-era business failures to a host of unrelenting hurricanes pounded the region over the decades.
“Florida was just a terrible place to do business because of catastrophes,” said Tom Lynch, 71, Plastridge’s chairman emeritus and a former Delray Beach mayor.
Yet in a place where a lot of people came and went, as did plenty of schemes to make a buck in paradise, the independent insurance agency planted itself and thrived.
Lynch himself is celebrating 50 years in the business as he turns over executive roles to his sons.
“To me, when you think of everything that’s happened in that 100 years, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, a Great Depression, several recessions and so much else, it’s really amazing,” said Connor Lynch, who now serves as the agency’s CEO with brother Brendan as president.
“I think we fit this kind of class of insurance agencies that is no longer in existence: in between mom-and-pop and big brokerage. One of the things I like is having such a strong community connection.”
Today the agency counts about 100 employees and $16 million in revenue, with offices in Boca Raton, Palm Beach Gardens and Stuart as well as on Northeast Sixth Avenue in Delray Beach.

The agency in the 1970s. Photo provided

Some things have changed over time. Once personal home and auto policies claimed a hefty share of the business, but now about 70 percent comes from commercial customers, such as condominiums, apartments, hotels, restaurants, and assisted living facilities, Tom Lynch said.
Though the agency’s roots remain firmly local, it is licensed in some 30 states, recently quoting a proposed policy in Hawaii, Connor Lynch said.
The challenge for an independent agency in South Florida particularly can be serving as the middleman lining up coverage from different insurance companies, not just one company that has “captive” agents. Disasters from the killer storm of 1947 to Hurricane Wilma in 2005 made legions of underwriters flee Florida’s risks like so many palmetto bugs at the snap of a kitchen light.
Tom Lynch recalls times when, for example, if he wanted to cover a hotel near the coast for $1 million, he had to do it by getting 10 policies for $100,000 from 10 separate companies.
The agency’s roots lie in an era before air conditioning and even before many local towns and cities had incorporated within their current borders.
Agent Amis Plastridge wrote policies in New England, where $600 of coverage on a home might cost $4.80 a year and require a special clause for a wood-burning stove, records from the time show. Then he set off for South Florida. He founded an agency in 1919 with partner Pierce Brennan in what would become Delray Beach.

A 1919 land auction in Delray drew quite a crowd. The boom coincided with the opening of Plastridge Insurance. Photo provided by the Delray Beach Historical Society

In those early days, when the town was called simply Delray, the Bijou theater hawked four silent-movie reels for 10 cents. Abraham George’s store sold yard goods, button hooks and shoelaces. Some 1,051 souls were counted in the 1920 census.
But the region was on the verge of a huge transformation in which the insurance business would matter a lot to buyers, builders and lenders. Suddenly a place known for pineapples and other produce was being pitched as a playground for the well-to-do.
“People realized they could make a lot more money in real estate than selling pineapples,” said Kate Teves, archivist with the Delray Beach Historical Society. “The land boom in the 1920s completely transformed Delray Beach and Florida forever.”
In time, that would be followed by a collapse in land prices and a depression, but the agency plugged along.
By the late 1940s, though, Plastridge’s son Robert had enough. Storms proved unrelenting, including a 1947 monster with winds up to 145 mph in the days before hurricanes were named. It killed 15 in Florida, tore off roofs around the region, including that at Hialeah racetrack, and went on to take 51 lives, many in and near New Orleans. He sold the agency to Tom Lynch’s father-in-law, Paul Speicher, and the business has remained in the family since.
The hand-off was a package deal. “When he sold him the agency, he also sold him his home and moved to Georgia,” Tom Lynch said.
When Tom Lynch eventually took control of the business in the 1970s, he kept the Plastridge name even as the business acquired other insurance agencies. The name was familiar to people, he figured.
Continuity would become a hallmark in more ways than one. Today he proudly points to employees who have remained with the agency for more than 30 years.
That mattered to clients such as Luke Therien, owner of the Banana Boat and Prime Catch restaurants in Boynton Beach. They have been doing business with Plastridge since 1978.
“We kept the relationship with Plastridge because it was such a family business,” Therien said. “We had a giant royal palm come down on the roof during Wilma. We lost awnings and our main air conditioning system. We were really scrambling at that point. Tom Lynch was the very first one there from Plastridge. He knew who to call at the insurance companies to get things done quickly, and it paid off.”
Therien admired what he saw as Lynch’s strong sense of civic responsibility as a mayor of Delray Beach, chairman of the Palm Beach County School Board and board member of the state’s last-resort insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., among other roles. Lynch currently serves as the mayor of the village of Golf.
All that may have something to do with why customers kept calling. Even when the number was more than 1.
“Their ability to grow and evolve and keep their feet planted locally for 100 years has been an amazing feat,” said Jeb Conrad, president and CEO of the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce.

By Christine Davis

The big reveal for the new iPic Delray movie theater, the city’s first new movie theater in 40 years, was held last month for media and friends.
A showing of 2019’s best picture, Green Book, and a live magic show kicked off the theater’s premiere.
Built by Hamid Hashemi, CEO of iPic Entertainment and creator of the Boca Raton Muvico Theater in 1999 (now owned by Cinemark), the Delray theater marks the 16th iPic nationwide.
“Delray hadn’t seen a new theater in decades,” Hashemi said. “There was a void. We wanted to bring a new form of entertainment to the downtown area. There’s nothing like it here.”
There are eight screens in the building at 25 SE Fourth Ave., with a total of 429 seats. Most of these are in pods — the arrangement of dual leather recliners separated by a swiveling table. A curved partition surrounding each one provides semi-privacy among the booths. Down in front, accommodations are arranged with easily accessible seats for people with disabilities.
Service at all seats includes food and drink delivery, pillows and blankets and complimentary unlimited popcorn.
The theaters also have stages for performing arts and are intended as a “social destination,” promoters said. Oversized contemporary art and green installations by up-and-coming artists chosen by Hashemi fill the lobby spaces in the four-story building, which will house offices and stores, and cover the curved walls around the 326-space parking garage. Valet parking is free to moviegoers for a three-hour time slot.
A cocktail bar is in the lobby area, with food such as lobster rolls, fillet sliders, buttermilk fried chicken and spicy tuna on crispy rice available from a Dine in the Dark menu designed by Sherry Yard, iPic’s chief operating officer. She also oversees the menu at Tanzy restaurant in Boca’s Mizner Park iPic. A rooftop lounge is being considered for the future.
Hashemi also announced he is moving iPic Entertainment headquarters from Boca Raton to offices above the new theater.
Tickets and showtimes are available at ipic.com. Moviegoers can sign up for special access membership programs there, too.

Don’t worry, your favorite spot for crime hasn’t gone far. Just head over to the Delray Beach Public Library, 104 W. Atlantic Ave. There in the library’s retail space, you’ll find Murder on the Beach Mystery Bookstore at its new location.
The independent locally owned store, specializing in mystery, suspense and thrillers, opened in 1996 in Sunny Isles Beach before founder Joanne Sinchuk moved it to Delray Beach in 2002. She and store owner David Wulf both said that they love Delray and are happy to keep Murder on the Beach “in the most fun small town in the USA.”
On the library’s part, “we are thrilled to have them as our new tenant,” said Karen Ronald, the library’s executive director. “There is an exciting synergy between the library and the bookstore. We both attract people who love to read and appreciate great stories. We look forward to celebrating the great joy of reading and collaborating in the future.”
When the Delray Beach Public Library opened in 2006, the retail space was occupied by the Cookbook Café. Most recently, The Buzz Agency operated out of the space from 2012 until fall 2018, when the public relations firm consolidated and moved to its Palm Beach office.

Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business announced a new three-year executive doctorate in business, with focuses on accounting, economics, finance, information technology, management or marketing. To be launched for the fall semester, the program will be offered on weekends with concierge service, and will include face-to-face lectures and presentations, along with supplementary online materials. For information, visit business.fau.edu/masters-phd/phd-program/executive-phd/.

The public is invited to watch the Boca Chamber’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy investor panel competition at 4:30 p.m. April 10. High school students will pitch their business ideas to industry leaders for the chance to win startup money during the program’s annual Shark Tank event. It will be held at Office Depot, Inc., 6600 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton.

The Douglas Elliman Real Estate team of Randy Ely and Nicholas Malinosky of Delray Beach and the Senada Adzem team of Boca Raton were named Pinnacle Club winners for making more than $1 million in commissions in 2018. They were honored during the company’s awards ceremony last month at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, CT.

Douglas Elliman Real Estate acquired Manalapan-based Scott Gordon Realty in February. Founder and CEO Scott Gordon has been a Palm Beach County condominium marketing and sales specialist since 1987. He and his wife, Mindy Gordon, with their team of real estate agents, will continue to work at 270 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan.

Claire Sheres recently joined Douglas Elliman Real Estate at 444 E. Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton, as executive director of luxury sales.

Real estate agents Steven Ochoa and Stephanie Vorcheimer have joined the Posh Properties team at 103 NE Second Ave., Delray Beach. Ochoa, originally from Barranquilla, Colombia, has lived in South Florida for 19 years. Vorcheimer, who grew up in New Jersey, moved to Florida in 1986.

Richard and Eileen Tang purchased the 7,629-square-foot home at 1405 Lands End Road in Manalapan for $5.5 million. The sale was recorded on March 4. The sellers were Thomas and Loren Donino, who bought the property for $6.1 million in 2008. Richard Tang works for Element Capital Management, according to media reports. Previously, he headed North America sales at Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Jack Elkins, with William Raveis South Florida, represented the seller in the deal, and Paulette Koch and Dana Koch of the Corcoran Group represented the buyer.

The Delray Beach City Commission granted final site-plan approval in March for Ocean Delray, the condominium development planned for the Wright by the Sea site at 1901 S. Ocean Blvd. National Realty Investment Advisors and US Construction Inc. plan to demolish the hotel in late April and start construction of the 19-unit Ocean Delray, with an expected end date set for the fourth quarter of 2020. IMI Worldwide Properties is handling sales of Ocean Delray’s units.

Noreen Payne, a partner of the All About Florida Homes team of Keller Williams Realty, was named 2018 Director of the Year by the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce. Noted for her leadership and commitment to the chamber and the city, she has worked with the chamber’s board members and staff to develop and implement strategic goals focused on service. Payne is the chamber’s vice chair of programming.

Evan Golden holds his Apogee Award as the area’s top chief marketing officer of the year. Photo provided

Evan Golden of The Berman Law Group, which has an office in Boca Raton, has been honored by South Florida Business & Wealth magazine with a 2018 Apogee Award as chief marketing officer of the year. The award recognizes his dedication to his occupation, industry and community.
“We incorporate so many local nonprofit organizations in our marketing endeavors and events that desperately need exposure and awareness, so it’s very fulfilling and meaningful work,” Golden said.
Among his professional achievements, Golden was nominated for the Real Men Wear Pink campaign supporting the American Cancer Society. He was also recognized as a South Florida Young Leader in Philanthropy by Simply the Best magazine.
He is the on-air talent for Eye on South Florida, a video production company covering charity events in South Florida.
The award ceremony was held at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale.

Attorney Jay D. Mussman received Day Pitney’s 2019 Coleman Award last month, in recognition of his service and dedication to pro bono work. Mussman, a senior counsel in Day Pitney’s Boca Raton office, leads the law firm’s pro bono efforts in Florida and personally provides pro bono services through the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County’s Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, which assists individuals involved in tax controversies with the IRS.
He volunteers with the school district of Palm Beach County, serves as a community board member of the Financial Literacy Advisory Board, and works with Law Without Walls through the University of Miami School of Law.
Day Pitney LLP has more than 300 attorneys, in Boston, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C.

David Dweck’s Boca Real Estate Investment Club celebrated its 25th anniversary in February, with more than 100 guests attending. Money raised from the event will go to Boca Helping Hands, and to send an American military member to Israel through Heroes to Heroes. Dweck, with developer Frank McKinney, conducted an auction that raised money to build 10 homes in Haiti for the Caring House Project Foundation.

Chad Ruggiere, vice president of business development and marketing, announced that The Big Apple, 5283 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, has undergone a $5.5 million transformation into a mini-mall. It has new signage, landscaping and parking lot, and its interior design was created to be like the streets of New York City. The building, comprising 35,000 square feet, will house more than 65 specialty shops.

The Altman Cos., developer of rental apartment communities, partnered with Habitat for Humanity of South Palm Beach County for its 2019 Home Builders Blitz. And a blitz it was. Donating more than $180,000 in materials and professional labor, The Altman Cos. broke ground on the Delray Beach Habitat home just east of I-95 on Feb. 13, and construction began March 11, with its completion set for the end of March. The house will belong to a single mother, a registered nurse, and her son.

Athena’s Fight Club, a new gym franchise for women and children of both genders aged 13-15, will celebrate its grand opening 6-9 p.m. April 17, at 127 NW 13th St., Suite 2, Boca Raton.
Classes will include resistance band training, motivational exercises and boxing exercises. The first 100 members may enroll for free and will receive a $100 gift bag filled with boxing gear.

Jan Norris contributed to this column.

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

By Mary Thurwachter

If it seemed to you that traffic was more congested, lines to see attractions were a little longer and reservations at your favorite restaurants were a bit tougher to get last year, there was a good reason. Palm Beach County experienced record-breaking visitation numbers in 2018, according to Discover The Palm Beaches, the county’s tourism marketing organization.
Year-end hotel performance data, released in late February, show 8.02 million visitors came to the county from January to December. That was an increase of 1.7 percent over 2017 and marked 10 consecutive years of tourism growth. And all those visitors generated a record-high $7.4 billion in economic impact to the area, supporting more than 70,000 jobs in the county.
A large share of the county’s tourists came to South Palm Beach County.
“The confirmed hotel developments under construction in Delray Beach (Aloft, Courtyard, The Rey) and Boca Raton (Mandarin Oriental) are vivid examples of the success of our tourism development strategies and the trust by investors in our tourism economy,” said Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO for Discover The Palm Beaches. “These properties, coupled with our southern cities’ commitment to visitor-friendly activities and urban renewal, will add more options for our visitors to experience in South County.”
Pesquera says he is proud to see the growing visitation numbers in the southern region, and throughout the county.
“The increases validate that our strategic marketing and group sales efforts toward creating the ‘endless season’ are working — and that excitement motivates our team to attract even more visitors here,” he says.
One South County resort enjoying the rise in visitors is the Seagate Hotel & Spa in Delray Beach.
“In the lead up to our 10-year anniversary this fall, across the board, the Seagate Hotel & Spa witnessed an upward trend in 2018,” says William Sander III, executive vice president, director of operations and general manager.
“The Seagate Spa and The Atlantic Grille led the way for the property as a whole. The continued interest and excitement for both outlets as we reach our decade mark can be attributed to the awards and accolades that the Seagate Spa continues to receive and the standard of quality that the Atlantic Grille upholds with its service and bespoke culinary offerings.”
Compared to 2017, the Seagate experienced a moderate to slight increase in the transient room nights and an overall room occupancy increase in 2018, according to Sander.
“We attribute the increase to a stronger, growing economy and the consistent quality service provided by the Seagate Hotel & Spa that has created a solid, steadfast foundation of repeat guests,” he says.
Another destination reporting an upswing in visitors last year is Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa in Manalapan.
“2018 was a terrific year for us,” says Nick Gold, Eau’s director of public relations. “There are several factors that we attribute this to, including the allure of Palm Beach. Many visitors want to come for the history and beauty of the area, as well as to visit friends and family.”
Occupancy levels at the resort were especially strong, Gold says. “As a new luxury brand in Palm Beach — we celebrated our fifth anniversary in July — we are still building our brand and pride ourselves on our strong service levels, repeat guests and outstanding reputation in the market.”
What propelled the visitation rise overall in the county?
Pesquera says the expanding meetings and convention market, a strengthened marketing plan and positive news media exposure were major drivers.
In February 2019, Discover The Palm Beaches launched a new marketing and leisure sales representation in five international markets: Mexico, Argentina, Germany, Canada and Colombia — added to existing representation in Brazil and England — with the goal of increasing visitation from these countries. 
Last year, international visitors increased by half a percent to 749,000, with significant growth from the U.K. (9 percent to 39,000 visitors), Brazil (3 percent to 29,000 visitors), and Colombia (5 percent to 22,000 visitors).
Domestic visitation grew 1.2 percent to nearly 4.5 million visitors from outside Florida. Visits originating within Florida grew 2.8 percent to 2.8 million visits, with Orlando showing the strongest growth with a 13 percent increase for the year.
Glenn Jergensen, executive director for the Palm Beach County Tourist Development Council, says that long-term economic strength is building and shows that collaborative tourism strategic efforts of the council and Discover The Palm Beaches are working.
“The Palm Beaches are on an unprecedented trend of leisure, arts/culture, sports and meetings/convention tourism successes, and we’re aiming to become a year-round travel destination,” Jergensen says.

Proponents of the “Vote No” group that were stationed at the polling station in Highland Beach on Tuesday to inform voters of what was at stake before they cast a ballot. Ken Murphy, right, shares information with resident Bill McGrath prior to him voting. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

In a record turnout, voters in Highland Beach overwhelmingly defeated three referendums that would have given town leaders the go-ahead to spend up to $45 million on improvements along State Road A1A.

In the race for an open Town Commission seat, newcomer Evalyn David gathered 37 more votes than incumbent Elyse Riesa. With the margin of victory just about 1.9 percent, ballots will have to be rechecked and certified on Friday before the result can be official.

One of the big stories of the election was the huge turnout, driven in part by the referendum questions and the efforts by opponents to drive support for their cause.

By the time the polls closed at 7 p.m. March 12 more than 2,000 of the town’s 3,712 voters had cast their ballots either in person or by mail.

The 54 percent turnout this year far surpasses the previous record 1,240 votes cast last year, which represented about 34 percent of the town’s registered voters.

Vote totals

Bond referendums

Commission race

Voters were asked to give commissioners permission to issue up to $16.55 million in bonds for a storm water improvement project, up to $11.25 million for improvements to the Ocean Walk multi-use corridor and surrounding areas and up to $17.2 million to place utility wires underground.

Only 6 percent of those casting ballots voted yes for funding of the storm water project and yes for underground utilities, while only 5 percent voted yes for the multi-use corridor improvements. 

“This was a very big vote,” said John Ross, one of the founders of the Committee to Save Highland Beach, which led the opposition to the bond items. “It was an overwhelming rejection of half-baked plans.”

Ross said he was surprised by the number of residents who voted against the bond issues.

“We knew we were going to win, but we didn’t expect this kind of thing,” he said.

Town Commissioner Barry Donaldson, the most outspoken supporter of the proposed improvements, believes he and other members of the Progress Highland Beach political action committee – formed to support the referendum items – were hindered in their efforts by misunderstandings of the issues.

“I would say we had a difficult time trying to change misconceptions,” he said.

Donaldson said the Town Commission will have to go back to square one to determine the next steps.

“We basically have to hit the reset button,” he said.

Had the referendums passed, all three projects would have been done in conjunction with the Florida Department of Transportation’s plan to make improvements to A1A three to five years from now.

The three proposed projects divided the town — and the Town Commission — and led to packed commission meetings filled with boisterous outbursts and personal verbal attacks aimed at commissioners favoring the bond issues.  

Opponents of the bonds argued that the costs were too high and the improvements weren’t needed. They also voiced concerns about a lack of details and the long-term impact that large amounts of debt would have on Highland Beach’s ability to borrow money in an emergency.

Donaldson and other advocates argued that the projects would resolve issues that have been discussed for decades.

Both David and Riesa, who were competing for the lone open commission seat that carries a three-year term, came out against the bond issues.

David said she felt good about the results but was waiting to see the result of the review of ballots.

“I feel we ran a good clean race,” she said. “What will happen, we’ll wait and find out on Friday.”

Riesa, who served two years on the commission after filling an open seat, ran on her experience, while David said it was time for “fresh thinking” on the commission.

“I will be at the swearing-in ceremony to wish Evalyn well,” Riesa said.

Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office

(Unofficial results)

Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office

(Unofficial results)

Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office

(Unofficial results)

STORMWATER IMPROVEMENT PROJECT

Shall the Town be authorized to issue bonds, in one or more series, in an aggregate principal amount not exceeding $16,550,000, bearing interest rates not exceeding the maximum legal rate, maturing within 30 years from their respective issuance, payable from unlimited ad valorem taxes and/or other revenues to finance stormwater improvements, including drainage, removal/conversion of ditches, pipes, water quality treatment, a multiuse path, roadway improvements, and landscaped infiltration areas.

Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office (Unofficial results)

OCEAN WALK MULTIUSE CORRIDOR PROJECT

Shall the Town be authorized to issue bonds, in one or more series, in an aggregate principal amount not exceeding $11,250,000, bearing interest rates not exceeding the maximum legal rate, maturing within 30 years from their respective issuance, payable from unlimited ad valorem taxes and/or other revenues to finance roadway improvements, complete streets elements, park and recreational improvements, and gateway monuments; such bonds shall be issued only if the stormwater improvements are voter approved.

UNDERGROUNDING UTILITIES PROJECT

Shall the Town be authorized to issue bonds, in one or more series, in an aggregate principal amount not exceeding $17,200,000, bearing interest rates not exceeding the maximum legal rate, maturing within 30 years from their respective issuance, payable from unlimited ad valorem taxes and/or other revenues to finance undergrounding of electrical, cable, and communications utilities, and street lighting improvements along all public streets in the Town.

Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office

(Unofficial results)

QUESTION 1: Shall Ocean Ridge amend its Charter to address various housekeeping and administrative issues relating to qualifying periods, forfeiture of office, commencement date of Commission terms, date of Election, qualification of electors, form of ballots and correcting spelling errors?

Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office (Unofficial results)

QUESTION 2: Shall Ocean Ridge amend its Charter to clarify Town Managers are not required to be residents; modify the votes required to appoint, remove or compensate Town Managers; provide the Town Manager with authority to hire and remove employees, without confirmation or appeal by or to the Commission, but requiring Commission approval for termination of the Police Chief, and delete the requirement that a suspended Police employee is entitled to a Town Manager hearing

QUESTION 3: Shall Ocean Ridge amend its Charter to modify the selection of Mayor and Vice-Mayor; to modify Commission vacancies, forfeiture of office, the filling of vacancies and to add a provision on suspension from office; to increase Special Meeting minimum notice requirements; and to provide that three affirmative votes, by the Commission, are required for any approval?

QUESTION 4: Shall Ocean Ridge amend its Charter to provide that a Commissioner may not serve more than three consecutive terms, of three years each, unless there is, at a minimum, a period of one year at the end of a term in which the person does not serve as a Commissioner?

Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office

(Unofficial results)

Traditional beach renourishment techniques do not work well with the rocky hard bottom partially visible in this 2017 image of South Palm Beach. The neighboring towns of Lantana and Manalapan to the south are concerned that groins would prevent sand from making its natural migration to their beaches. The Coastal Star/Google Map

By Dan Moffett

For nearly 13 years, Palm Beach County and South Palm Beach have worked together on a controversial plan to use a network of concrete groins to relieve the town’s chronic beach erosion problems.
They spent $1.7 million and devoted countless hours to the joint venture, consulting with scientists and engineers, lobbying politicians and state officials, and twisting the arms of skeptical residents and neighbors.
Now, months before construction of the groins was scheduled to begin, it appears the project is dead in the water.
On Feb. 5, the county sent a letter to the state Department of Environmental Protection officially withdrawing a request for the permits needed to move forward. County environmental managers say the project has grown too expensive to make sense anymore.
“We have determined that the project is cost prohibitive,” said Michael Stahl, deputy director of the county’s Environmental Resources Management department.
What was envisioned as a $10 million plan a decade ago has ballooned now to something closer to $25 million, Stahl said. Though the state has promised to cover half the cost, the new estimate is a deal breaker for the county, which would have to pay 30 percent, and for South Palm Beach, which would owe the remaining 20 percent.
Still, the county and Mayor Bonnie Fischer say they would continue to negotiate in an effort to persuade the DEP to take a more favorable view of the project.
Fischer said the town was “exploring other options” but no decisions are at hand. “We’re never going to quit. We’ll keep fighting for our beach.”
Stahl told the South Palm Beach Town Council on Feb. 12 that the DEP has made two new permit requirements that will be virtually impossible for the county and town to afford.
Because the groins might do environmental harm to the rocky hard bottom that runs along the South Palm Beach shoreline, the state is requiring the construction of an artificial reef covering close to 8 acres offshore to mitigate any damage. That alone would cost millions.
Perhaps more daunting and more expensive, however, is the long-term requirement to keep neighbors happy.
The town of Manalapan threatened to sue the county and South Palm Beach to stop the project and was joined in the mounting legal offensive by the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa. The opponents believe the groins would interrupt the natural north-to-south flow of sand and cause erosion of Manalapan’s beaches.
Because of Manalapan’s complaints and threats, the state wanted the county and South Palm Beach to commit to repairing potential beach damage south of the town. Stahl said the newly conceived state standard for claiming damage is relatively generous: Any public or private entity with a beach less than 45 feet can make a case for sand replenishment, and the county and South Palm would be on the hook for that.
“This is a condition that could result in perpetual placement of sand,” Stahl said. “It gives anyone the right to order a survey and demand corrective action.”
The potential legal liability for South Palm Beach could bankrupt the town, officials say.
Manalapan Mayor Keith Waters, who said for months he was committed to “taking any means necessary” to stop the project, said the town had to protect its beaches.
“We didn’t have a choice,” Waters said after the Feb. 26 Town Commission meeting. “We got specific reaction from the entire community, from the Eau and from people on the ocean. They felt that it was going to have just an immediate impact on their beach.”
Waters said his town tried to negotiate with South Palm Beach and the county but was unable to find a solution or dissuade the project’s supporters from moving forward.
Threatening to sue was the only option, he said.
Town, county left reeling
“I know it’s not easy for anybody to take this news,” said Deborah Drum, the county’s environmental resources director. “We don’t take it lightly. We’ve all invested a lot of time and resources and funds to get to this point. This isn’t where we wanted to end up.”
As for a Plan B for South Palm Beach? There isn’t one.
Because of the rocky bottom along the town’s five-eighths-mile shoreline, traditional sand renourishment techniques do not work. Stahl said the county made a half-dozen attempts between 2003 and 2009 to haul in sand and place it on the town’s beach, but with nothing to hold it in place, the wave action washed it away within months.
The county also wanted to protect Lantana Municipal Beach, the public access sandwiched between South Palm Beach and Manalapan. The town of Lantana was essentially a silent partner in the county’s plan, with no financial requirements because of its public beach access.
After Hurricane Wilma tore up the shoreline in 2005, officials turned to stabilization with groins as a last resort that might hold sand and protect not only the beach but condominium sea walls — and, in the face of sea rise, the condominiums themselves.
“Everybody has to understand that we’re dealing with a dynamic medium,” said Fischer. “You’re talking about looking at a beach project over 12 years.”
South Palm has a “continuously wet beach,” she said, and issues that are truly unique. Fischer said just as the storms and tides would come and wash sand in and out of the beachfront, the DEP seemed to shift positions constantly.
“There were a lot of stipulations and roadblocks, and meanwhile everything (on the beach) is changing every day,” Fischer said. “The county was constantly inundated with requests for additional information. ... This has been a highly regulated issue.”
To date, the county has spent a little over $1.3 million on studies and permit applications for the project, and South Palm has paid about $330,000. The number of staff hours invested in the effort is incalculable.

By Steve Plunkett

Letters of support from Ocean Ridge mayors, neighbors and business acquaintances seeking leniency for Richard Lucibella also exposed a lack of support for the police officers who went to his home and for the subsequent media coverage.
The onetime vice mayor, 65, will spend no time behind bars or under probation for a 2016 backyard altercation with Ocean Ridge police. Instead he paid $675 in court costs.
“Simply put, Rich is a wonderful, kind and good- hearted person. He is deserving of your mercy,” former Mayor Ken Kaleel wrote Circuit Judge Daliah Weiss.
But, Kaleel added, “He has been wrongly vilified by the press and by those who do not know the facts or [are] unwilling to listen. Rich and his family has suffered enough the past few years just by virtue of the travesty of the situation.”
Mayor Steve Coz, who testified that an unimpaired Lucibella did not even finish a “splash of scotch” at a party an hour before the incident, wrote, “I consider the entire arrest and trial of Mr. Lucibella as an uncalled for series of events that already has punished him needlessly for two and a half years.”
Coz’s wife, Valerie Virga, wrote that Lucibella and girlfriend Barbara Ceuleers “have been put through enough punishment and stress already for events that the facts and a jury found did not rise to the level of felonies. And I question whether it even rises to the level of any misdemeanor.”
Added Osprey Drive neighbors Jean and Peter Burling: “We believe as taxpayers that the legal proceeding in your court, and the evening events that led up to it, should have been avoided, and easily could have been had two of the officers present acted in a more professional manner.”
West Palm Beach lawyer Rikki Lober Bagatell, who said she knows Lucibella from his health care business, said “the treatment that he received by the police and the charges that were filed against him were totally disproportionate to what he deserved.”
Not every letter criticized the police and the justice system. Former Mayor Jim Bonfiglio told the judge that Lucibella helped Hurricane Maria victims in Puerto Rico, which he hoped would “shed some light as to Mr. Lucibella’s character.”
Former Mayor Geoff Pugh said he could always count on Lucibella to tell the truth. “Whether or not the truth could be a detriment to himself he never wavered off that fact,” Pugh wrote.

Former Police Lt. Steven Wohlfiel (l-r), Richard Lucibella and his girlfriend, Barbara Ceuleers, and his attorneys, Heidi Perlet and Marc Shiner, leave the courthouse after Lucibella’s sentencing hearing. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Related Story: Current and former mayors, neighbors urged judicial leniency for Lucibella

By Steve Plunkett

Onetime Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella walked out of the Palm Beach County Courthouse after his trial with his bank account $675 lighter and with a dark cloud over his head gone.
The felony case against the Ocean Ridge resident, which lingered in the criminal justice system for 27 months, resolved itself Feb. 21 in comparatively short order:
• Prosecutors called five witnesses to testify; defense attorneys also called five.
• The jury, seated Jan. 28, a Monday, spent barely five hours — including lunch the following Friday — in reaching its verdict: not guilty of felony battery on a law enforcement officer or resisting arrest with violence, but guilty of misdemeanor battery.
• In a 10-minute sentencing hearing Feb. 21, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Daliah Weiss upheld the verdict and ordered Lucibella to pay $675 in court fees and ordered no jail time.
“I am going to adjudicate you guilty of the misdemeanor battery. I’m going to impose standard fines and court costs,” Weiss said as the crowded courtroom erupted in applause.
Contacted days after the sentencing, Lucibella declined to say what he might do next and suggested asking The Palm Beach Post.
“I’ve learned that you guys [at The Coastal Star] have a story line that you stick to and the facts sometimes just get in the way. Until that changes, no comment,” he said.
At the sentencing, defense attorney Marc Shiner told the judge the “sticking point” of the case “has always been [possibly] paying out the money” to arresting Officer Nubia Plesnik, who is suing Lucibella in civil court, alleging he battered her during the Oct. 22, 2016, arrest.
“My client under no way, shape or form is ever going to pay her any money. That’s why we actually had the trial, to be honest with the court,” Shiner told Weiss.
The felony charges stemmed from a confrontation in Lucibella’s beachfront backyard. Police went to his home after getting calls to 911 about “shots fired.” Officers confiscated a .40-caliber handgun and found five spent shell casings on the patio.
An ensuing scuffle left Lucibella, then 63, handcuffed on the ground with fractured ribs and a cut over his eye. Plesnik and Officer Richard Ermeri both complained of aches and pain afterward and went to an urgent care clinic.
Assistant State Attorney Danielle Grundt and Chief Assistant State Attorney Craig Williams called to the witness stand Ocean Ridge resident Sherri Feinstein and David Castello, who was in town visiting his mother, to have them describe the gunfire they heard.
Ermeri, Plesnik and since-retired Sgt. William Hallahan, who also responded that night, told jurors how, in Ermeri’s words, Lucibella was “vulgar, argumentative, aggressive and belligerent” as they investigated. “He was definitely putting up a fight,” Ermeri said.
Ermeri testified that Lucibella poked him in the chest, “a forceful poke — like that,” he said, thumping his police body armor with a finger three or four times.
Shiner and co-defense counsel Heidi Perlet pointed out inconsistencies in the officers’ testimony, such as when Ermeri said the backyard gate was approximately 20 feet from Lucibella’s patio while in a pretrial deposition he said 45 feet.
Witnesses for the defense were Barbara Ceuleers, Lucibella’s longtime girlfriend; Ocean Ridge Mayor Steve Coz, who said Lucibella was not intoxicated about an hour before the altercation; a doctor who treated Ermeri that night; friend and then-Police Lt. Steven Wohlfiel, who was on the patio with Lucibella during the incident; and Lucibella himself.
Ceuleers and Lucibella both painted the officers as the aggressors.
“I was screaming at them to get off him, they were killing him,” Ceuleers testified.
Lucibella said before he was taken to the ground, he persisted in trying to get an alcoholic drink to regain some control over the escalating situation.
“In hindsight I think it was world-class stupid,” he testified.
Lucibella also said Ermeri taunted him after he’d been handcuffed, flexing his neck from side to side like a prizefighter in the ring.
Current and former Ocean Ridge mayors sent Weiss glowing letters of support on Lucibella’s behalf.
“I do not know if you are aware that after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, Mr. Lucibella personally flew desperately needed supplies to the ravaged citizens of the island at his own cost,” Coz wrote. “Do not punish Mr. Lucibella further for what can only be described as a night of blunders, not crimes.”
Former Mayors Jim Bonfiglio, Geoff Pugh and Ken Kaleel also wrote the judge, urging her to be lenient, as did former Town Clerk Karen Hancsak, close Ocean Ridge neighbors, and bankers and doctors who know Lucibella from his work in the health care industry.
Prosecutor Grundt told Weiss that Lucibella “has never been in trouble before” and that probation would serve no purpose.
Lucibella and Shiner both said they were happy with the jury’s findings Feb. 1.
“I’m pleased with the verdict, very pleased,” Lucibella said. Shiner said Lucibella’s suing the town over his arrest has “been an option since day one.”
The misdemeanor battery could have resulted in up to a year in jail with a $1,000 fine. Each felony charge carried a potential sentence of five years in prison.
Originally Lucibella was also charged with firing a weapon while intoxicated, a misdemeanor. But prosecutors dropped that count on the trial’s first day, undercutting Lucibella’s planned defense that he was never given a blood-alcohol or firearms test.
Not having a felony conviction on his record allows Lucibella to get back his license for a federal firearms dealership and a concealed weapons permit; it also lets him run for public office again, Shiner said.

The New Florida Follies performs last month at Spanish River High School in Boca Raton, which will be the site of two more shows, on March 24 and 31. Some women in the troupe dance into their 80s and beyond. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

Just think of all the clichés we embrace in trying to slow down time.
“You’re as young as you feel!” we tell ourselves.
“Age is just a number!” we say.
“Eighty is the new 60!” we hope.
Now meet two Highland Beach hoofers who believe you’re as young as you dance.
Marlene Perlstein, 81, and Jo Schlags, 85, tap, kick, shimmy and strut like they feel about 22 and age is just a chorus line.
And they’re not alone.
At 1:15 p.m. on Feb. 17, Perlstein, Schlags and 32 other women aged 55 to 95 in nearly identical blond wigs stood in the backstage shadows at the Countess de Hoernle Theatre at Spanish River High School, stretching, bending, twisting, turning and straining to touch the rafters. Warming up.
“Reach ’em!” their artistic director, Cheryl Steinthal, demanded. “Reach ’em!”

In 45 minutes, that curtain will part and the New Florida Follies will break into “Fascinating Rhythms, 2019.”
The New Florida Follies is a reincarnation of the Original Florida Follies, founded in 2000 by Cathy Dooley, the owner of a Margate dance academy.
By the time Dooley retired at 89 in 2015, the nonprofit dance troupe had raised more than $825,000 for children’s charities, including Family Central in West Palm Beach and the Children’s Diagnostic & Treatment Center in Fort Lauderdale, which will also benefit from this year’s five shows.
“We’re the older generation taking care of the younger generation,” says Emily Adams, the group’s president.
Five of the dancers are former Rockettes and most have danced professionally.
“We have one woman who’s 95,” Perlstein says. “She doesn’t do much dancing, but she’s up there. And we have a 90-year-old who does a split on stage. They applaud when she goes down, and they applaud even louder when she gets back up.”
The 95-year-old is Vivian Jeffers of Deerfield Beach.
“I used to race walk, now I do Zumba,” she will tell you. “I had a cancer scare a while back and I never missed a rehearsal.”
The 90-year-old is Cindy Trinder of Tamarac, who began dancing after high school in Oklahoma City and joined the Follies in 2006 as a mere 77-year-old. Thirteen years later, she’s still drawing applause with her show-stopping splits.
“I used to do acrobatics, but I had a little accident and lost the split,” she says. “I got the split back, but now I exercise twice a week and do some yoga when I have the time.”
Perlstein started dance lessons in Brooklyn. She was 3.
“Miss Frances and Miss Syd,” she remembers. “They had a neighborhood dance studio, and I was always a ham. My mother was a knitting instructress and I would come into the store and make everyone stop and see my latest routine.”
When she was in high school, the family moved to a chicken farm in Toms River, N.J., and she danced with Dave Rugoff and his Merry Makers. “We got paid,” she says, “once in a while.”
She married Morty, had three children, they became grandparents to five — and she never stopped dancing. In 2015, she joined the Follies.
“When I found out about the Florida Follies, I was so excited because there’s not a lot of opportunities for women our age to perform,” she says. “We go out and greet the audience after the show and they all say, ‘You make us feel so good.’”
Schlags grew up in suburban Detroit, where her mother would close her beauty salon, pack a lunch and take her and her brother into the city for lessons.
By 16 she was dancing with the Civic Light Opera of Detroit. She worked state fairs and club dates with the Miriam Sage Dancers and hit the big time in her 20s, dancing at the fabled Latin Quarter nightclub in Manhattan.
In 2001, she and her husband, Harvey, arrived in Highland Beach, the parents of two daughters and grandparents of twins. Widowed in 2010, she joined the Florida Follies and hasn’t missed a season since.
“I had a right hip replacement last June 4,” Schlags says, “and I was back with my walker in August, watching and taking notes, learning the routines. Then my right heel started hurting, so I went to rehearsals with my boot on. Everybody said, ‘You’re crazy,’ but now I’m back.”
She smiled. “I love the spotlight.”
Now it’s 2 p.m., and the spotlight is about to hit her.
Out front, about 450 men and women are patiently waiting, a crowd from the Follies’ generation. Their treasured dancers are Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, not Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson. Some have parked their walkers and wheelchairs against the side walls, and this is the moment at last.
This is why these 34 women have driven to Coral Springs for rehearsals twice a week. This is why they raised $50,000 to buy the costumes and rent the theater. This is —
Showtime!
Recorded music fills the hall, the curtain parts, the spotlight shines and a chorus line of glittering costumes, hot pink feathers and sparkling smiles kicks off to George Gershwin’s Fascinating Rhythm.
Marlene Perlstein taps her way through That’s How Rhythm Was Born, 78 years after she took her first lesson.
Jo Schlags dances A Salute to the Ziegfeld Follies so smoothly you’d never guess that she used a walker not long ago.
Shall We Dance is a salute to the six Follies girls who are 80 and over. Vivian Jeffers, 95, doesn’t dance, but she stands surrounded by her colleagues, dressed like the Statue of Liberty with torch — and head — held high.
And then Cindy Trinder steps forward to do her split.
The crowd applauds when she goes down, and they applaud even louder when she gets back up.
Out in the audience, Frank Rock of Boynton Beach is seeing the Florida Follies for the first time. A licensed massage therapist, he’s come to watch one of his clients, Nadine Alperin, 64, of Lake Worth.
“I’m just proud to know her,” Rock says. “They have amazing timing and their rhythm is amazing. Especially because of their —” He pauses, frowns, searches for an acceptable word. “Their seniorness.”
Two hours later, these old hoofers with young hearts have frolicked through 11 numbers, with Suzi and Steve Cruz, a singing couple, and the Flashback Four, a doo-wop group, providing the entertainment during costume changes.
The finale is another Gershwin tune, and by now the title is obvious.
I Got Rhythm.
Indeed they do. They got fascinatin’, toe-tappin’, high-kickin’, age-defyin’ rhythm.
The New Florida Follies have two more shows to go, March 24 and 31, and after the curtain falls on their final show, Cheryl Steinthal will give her dancers a month off. But by the end of April they’ll be back in Coral Springs again, twice a week, rehearsing for the New Florida Follies 2020.
Marlene Perlstein and Jo Schlags intend to be there.
“I have osteoarthritis in my left knee,” Perlstein says, “and when I thought I might not be able to dance I was very upset. But I take Advil. I would really miss a lot in my life if I couldn’t dance anymore.”
Schlags, too.
“My kids keep saying, ‘When will you quit?’ And I say ‘Next year.’ But I never do.”
And Cindy Trinder vows to keep performing her nonagenarian splits.
“I’ll keep dancing until I die, until something stops me,” she says.
“I’m not afraid of dying, but I want to feel good while I’m here.”

Artistic director Cheryl Steinthal will hold auditions for dancers in April. Applicants need not have worked professionally, but must have experience in tap and/or jazz styles. For info, call 305-596-7394 or email www.newfloridafollies@gmail.com.

If You Go
When: New Florida Follies, 2 p.m. March 24 and 31.
Where: Countess de Hoernle Theatre at Spanish River High School, 5100 Jog Road, Boca Raton.
Tickets: $30 each, available by calling 305-596-7394, or at newfloridafollies.yapsody.com.

Debra Ghostine of Hypoluxo Island takes on volunteer opportunities like athletic events. She pitched softball in her youth and plays tennis and golf. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Stephen Moore

Volunteering and athletics are big parts of Debra Ghostine’s life. In fact, she approaches every volunteer assignment like an athletic competition — working hard and doing the best she can to get the best possible results.
And she excels at both.
For the second consecutive year, Ghostine is co-chair of the Love of Literacy Luncheon hosted by the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County. It takes place March 14 at the Cohen Pavilion at the Kravis Center. The program, presented by Bank of America, will feature New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard as the guest speaker.
“We love it when people are passionate about literacy,” Ghostine said, “and Jacquelyn Mitchard is that type of person.”
If this event, the Literacy Coalition’s largest fundraiser, needed any more accreditation, Mitchard brings it. She has written 12 novels for adults and seven for young adults. The Deep End of the Ocean was part of Oprah’s Winfrey’s first book club list, in 1996, and was made into a motion picture starring Michelle Pfeiffer.
With 600 people to attract to the event and sponsors and donations to secure, along with raffle gifts and auction prizes to collect, Ghostine’s work is detailed and time-consuming.
“She really knows what she is doing,” said co-chair Bernadette O’Grady, program director at WPTV. “Debra is so easy. She is up for anything. She is not intimidated to call people and ask for donations. She is a go-to, get-it-done mom. She must have a time machine because she is always on the go, go, go.”
It seems as if Ghostine, 54, has always been on the go, go, go. Growing up in New Hampshire, she was a hot-shot softball pitcher for her state-champion high school team. She signed a scholarship to pitch for New Hampshire College, where she majored in business administration.
Now Ghostine, her retired husband, Paul, son, Joseph, 14, daughter, Sarah, 12, and two rescued dogs, Bella and Lucky, live an active, sporting life on Hypoluxo Island.
“Summers always revolve around outdoor activities,’’ Ghostine said. “Water skiing, tubing, fishing, boating to the Bahamas. And of course, there is tennis. I am the co-captain of our recreational tennis team at the Ocean Club. And yes, I also play golf.”
Ghostine’s crusade for civic duty has trickled down to her children. Joseph and Sarah, students at the Gulf Stream School, have started a nonprofit organization called Bones and Me, which donates money to rescue and shelter dogs.
“They are really into it,” Ghostine said. “They have around 8,500 followers on Instagram and Facebook and are looking to go nationwide. We are looking forward to growing and trying to support as many shelters as we can. My kids do not like the idea of dogs not being cared for and not getting homes.”
Her children’s school also receives the benefit of Ghostine’s expertise. She is on the board of directors at Gulf Stream School, in charge of marketing, trustees and events.
But all other volunteer gigs have been on hold lately since she has been busy with the 28th annual Love of Literacy Luncheon.
“It can be almost a year-round job,” she said. “We are always thinking about it and talking about it.”
Her support system is well intact. Literacy Coalition CEO Kristin Calder sees to that.
“I met her through the Gulf Stream School about seven or eight years ago,” Calder said. “And she worked with us on a Literacy Coalition program. I remember she was always volunteering for jobs that nobody else wanted. She was incredible.
“This luncheon is a great place to showcase what we are doing, and it is great to have someone as gracious and friendly and pleasant and cordial as Debra running it.”

If You Go
What: Love of Literacy Luncheon
When: Registration begins at 11 a.m. March 14
Where: Kravis Center’s Cohen Pavilion
Tickets: Start at $150
Info: 279-9103 or www.literacypbc.org

$378 million to keep a city above water. $45 million for renovations along A1A. $25 million to keep sand on the beach. These are a few of the dramatic numbers we’ve seen discussed in our coastal area recently.
The cost of updating our aging infrastructure is not going to be cheap. Retaining paradise is about to get expensive.
Thankfully, taxpayers in Palm Beach County voted in 2017 for an extra 1-cent sales tax. A portion of that revenue will be returned to municipalities over a 10-year period. The money is earmarked for infrastructure: roads, sewers, water lines, fire stations and more.
This will help — a little.
Much of the coastal area was developed more than a half century ago, so we shouldn’t be surprised if roads need repairing or water systems need revamping.
And we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that some of the barrier island land is sinking, or that rising seas contribute to crumbling roadways, bulkheads and seawalls.
And more than ever before, each hurricane season we wait for the “big one” to find out if we have enough of a buffer on the beach to keep buildings from being compromised. We also wait to see if storm surge will overwhelm our water and wastewater systems.
Although the latest proposed price tags for sustainability are eye-popping, remember that our coastline communities account for 16 percent of the property value of Palm Beach County. We have the wealth to protect us from future disaster — if we are willing to spend now for tomorrow.
Fixing infrastructure will not be sexy. It’s likely to be messy as repairs are made. Still, our elected officials need to be unafraid to explore ambitious solutions to our growing infrastructure problems.
In this fiscally conservative area it’s going to be tough to convince everyone of the value of spending for solutions we may not see in our lifetime, but it will be necessary.
Residents in Highland Beach, Ocean Ridge and South Palm Beach have an opportunity on March 12 to elect candidates with the best skills and ability to navigate this increasingly complex and expensive road to the future. Please vote.

— Mary Kate Leming,
Editor