ABOVE: Parade founder Maury Power and Dennis Gallagher with Porkchop the piglet, 1988

LEFT: Colleen Rolfes Beckner and ‘Papa’ Joe Rose march in 1978. Photos courtesy of Delray Beach Historical Society

BELOW: Kevin and Mary McCarty ride in the parade, also in 1988. Photo provided

Manager of Delray gala says it’s his last

By Mary Thurwachter

This is the time of year when fans of the Delray Beach St. Patrick’s Day Parade give a tip of the derby to Maury Power, the Irish saloonkeeper who founded the legendary procession in 1968.
A Chicago transplant, Power donned a tailcoat and top hat and carried a shillelagh to make an impromptu march down Atlantic Avenue in honor of the patron saint of Ireland.
“I’m Maury Power,” he would say to onlookers. “Come down to my bar and have a drink.”
The farther he walked, the more people would join him.
Since he died in 1996, people often bow down in front of large photographs of Power that are carried in the parade, said Pat Robinson, a friend and business owner who has been in 33 parades.
Local lore claims Power, who owned Power’s Lounge, carried a pig on his historic first march. Truth is the tinted green porker became part of the tradition a few years later. No one is sure exactly why.
“I think it was just something that, at the time, made perfect sense,” said Power’s nephew Terry.
The first piglet, Porkchop, instantly became a crowd pleaser. Porkchop has had many successors, many of them predictably hefty — including 200-pound Patrick, a star in the 2011 parade, and his predecessor Petunia, the potbellied pig famous for her fancy ruffles and sparkly tiara.
Occasionally, some of the pigs strayed from the parade path.
“Sometimes they would run free and into a store,” said David Cook, owner of Hand’s Office and Art Supply. “Some of them got so fat that they had to ride in the back of an SUV.” Animal activists protested the pigs’ involvement.
Two celebrity pigs are being driven down from Jacksonville for this year’s parade, and, while they won’t be painted green, parade manager John Fischer of Code 3 Events Inc. expects they’ll be costumed appropriately. “One of them is quite portly and won’t be able to walk the whole route, but he can ride in a stroller,” he said.
This year’s parade, which begins at 2 p.m. March 17, is the 50th and may be the last one, according to Fischer, a retired captain with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.
“It’s been a rollercoaster ride with the [city’s] special events policies — the fee structure, pricing, what have you,” said Fischer, who has managed the parade for five years. “We’re a nonprofit, not a business. Maybe a large, corporate-level entity can afford these prices. But I don’t see a nonprofit coming in and being able to afford the fee structure. That’s why we have to respectfully bow out.”
The estimate for this year’s parade is $65,000.
“We’ve been given a $50,000 sponsorship by the city, which means we’re responsible for $15,000,” Fischer said. “That is a far cry from what we got hit with last year when we were given an estimate of $56,000. But on top of that there were hidden costs that were mandated on us like $14,000 for barricades. That wasn’t in the contract. That was a side mandate that we had to have.”  
On top of that, Code 3 had to pay about $1,500 for insurance and a few other costs.
New Delray Beach City Manager Mark Lauzier said comparing costs from last year to this year is complicated and the side-by-side comparisons are not apples to apples.
“For example, barricade costs were paid separately by the promoter last year and we had to add those costs to create the comparison,” he said. “That said, the cost increase is 9 percent and approximately $6,200. Of that amount, service fluctuations are the main reason for the change. Assuming personnel costs increased at plus 5 percent, to obtain that portion of the cost increase yields a rough guess of $2,500, but that’s really hard to determine.”
Lauzier said the decision on continuing the parades is a matter for further discussion.
“After this year’s event where I will get to experience the parade firsthand, I will be talking to the fire chief, because it is a great promotional and community-building event opportunity that I believe he would be interested in continuing. No decision on that yet, but we will be talking soon after this one ends.”

Huntington Resort of Delray entered a giant papier-mâché leprechaun in the 1986 St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Photo courtesy of Delray Beach Historical Society

Despite financing concerns, Fischer says this year’s parade will be special. Three members (maybe more) of Maury Power’s family have agreed to be grand marshals. Maury’s cousin James Power is flying in from Ireland. Terry Power, a nephew from Safety Harbor, will be there, as will Katie Power, Maury’s granddaughter from Delray Beach.
As they have for the past three years, organizers have injected the nonprofit organization Honor Flight into the front wall of the parade. Sixty or more World War II veterans in their Honor Flight wheelchairs will be pushed by police officers and firefighters.
“There hasn’t been a dry eye on the street when the veterans go by,” Fischer said. “People are crying their eyes out, in a good way, just looking at that visual of veterans being treated with such honor and respect.”
When the veterans reach the parade review stand, on the second story of 32 East restaurant across from Old School Square, former interim City Manager Terry Stewart (now city manager in Arcadia) will sing the national anthem.
Also at that location at Swinton and Atlantic will be two fire department ladder trucks hanging a 20-by-30-foot U.S. flag. Those two will be part of a 12 ladder-truck team from fire departments from Miami up to Martin County.
Several large fire and police bagpipe bands are coming in from places like Long Island and Washington, D.C.
“I tell people it’s not all about the firefighters, it’s not all about the police, you’re going to see the rest of society behind them — your schools, your civic groups, organizations, businesses, nonprofits, arts and entertainment, everything from A to Z,” said Fischer, a bagpiper himself.
In conjunction with the parade, a St. Patrick’s Day Festival will be March 16-17 at Old School Square. “The festival is a major fundraiser for the parade,” said Fischer, who has rallied firefighters, police and drum and bagpipe bands to participate since 2009.
The crowds have grown beyond expectations since then. The all-time high came in 2012, when an estimated 100,000 people watched and celebrated.

2012 crowd out of hand
“It was scary how many people came,” Fischer recalled. “It was like Times Square on New Year’s Eve.”
The liquor consumption was out of control and there was a shortage of portable toilets. Downtown business owners were not happy.
“With all the drinking and the 85-degree heat, people were falling over like Weebles,” said Cook, a former member of the city’s Downtown Development Authority. “As a merchant, you can only take so much public urination. It just got out of hand.”
To remedy the predicament, parade organizers didn’t ask for an open container waiver after 2012.
“It caused a little bit of an uproar in town,” Fischer said. Red Solo cup protesters showed up at City Hall. But the brouhaha subsided after a while.
The liquor ban irked Robinson, owner of The Man of Steam carpet cleaning business. “We used to be able to drink in front of stores and they put the kibosh on that. It used to be fun.”

Parade manager John Fischer is also a bagpipe player.

File photo/The Coastal Star

After 2012, crowd size decreased — between 40,000 and 50,000 attended last year’s parade. “But the quality increased,” Fischer said. “Businesses were saying ‘now I’ll sponsor, contribute.’ So that’s what it did in a good way. It attracted more families. It improved the cultural value, with firefighters and cops coming in from five different countries.”
Bringing in first responders from different states and countries has boosted tourism revenue, Fischer said.
“These people are coming here and getting hotel rooms,” he said. “That speaks to economic impact. If you talk to the tourism council, they’ll tell you what heads on beds means. Once you start killing tourism in your town, for whatever reason, whether it be a handful of merchants on the avenue that are complaining bitterly against shutting that street down, they’re not looking at the big picture.”
While everyone agrees the parade has been the source of merrymaking, not everyone thinks the current incarnation is better.
“It has turned into a firefighters’ convention,” said Mary McCarty, a former city (and county) commissioner who appeared in several parades on behalf of the Village Pub, where she was a bartender in the 1980s. When the parade ended, she said, people would pile into Power’s Lounge for corned beef and cabbage, and drinks of course.

Less local ambience
“It used to be a small-town, community thing,” McCarty said. “It was good fun and something everybody looked forward to. But it got so big and a lot of locals don’t go anymore.”
Robinson said the parade at which he carried his two small sons years ago has lost its luster. He remembers when the parade entry fee was a $50 donation. “Now they want your first born and a bunch of legal stuff,” he said.
The business-class entry for a float currently starts at $425 depending on size (nonprofit donations begin at $100).
“This is the price charged by the organization before us,” Fischer said. “And when we took the parade over, the parade costs were around $35,000 — now it’s $65,000.”
After Maury Power died, Ed Gallagher, owner of a former downtown nightclub called City Limits, took charge until 2007, when Nancy Stewart’s company, Festival Management Team, took the reins. Fischer’s Code 3 Events took over after the 2013 parade.
Since Code 3 officially took over, more than $12,000 has been given to first responder nonprofits, Fischer said. “And we have devoted over $1.2 million worth of personal volunteer time, and cash out of pocket, putting together the parade and running it. This has afforded the platform for many other local, national and international nonprofits to showcase themselves and get their word out.”
Robinson didn’t go to last year’s parade, although he may attend this year’s. He has many fond memories.
“For years, our float was the entertainment,” he said. “We had a deejay and at the end of the parade we would put the flatbed in the parking lot behind Power’s and people danced. A good time was had by all.”
For several years, he hired the Florida Brass drum and bugle corps to come down from Lakeland. They played iconic Irish tunes like Danny Boy.
Before Maury Power died, Robinson was charged with cleaning up Power’s Lounge, at the railway tracks (now the site of Buddha Sky Bar), the day after the parade. “I wore my boots because there was 2 inches of slop covering the brown and white plaid carpet in the back room.”
The raspy-voiced Maury Power, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, would be in the pub with Robinson as early as 6 a.m. And Power always offered his assessment.
“Jesus, kid, we had a hell of time,” Power said to Robinson.
And they had a hell of a lot of company.

If You Go
The Delray Beach
St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival
When: Festival is in Old School Square 5-10 p.m. March 16 and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. March 17. Parade starts at 2 p.m. March 17
Route: Runs on East Atlantic Avenue from the Intracoastal Waterway bridge to Northwest Fifth Avenue.
Cost: Free to attend the festival or watch parade.
Information or to donate: www.stpatrickmarch.com

By Dan Moffett and Mary Thurwachter

Up and down the coastal communities, from the condo walls of South Palm Beach, to the mobile homes of Briny Breezes, to the old polo homes of Gulf Stream, a common question resonates from neighbor to neighbor.
“When is that Publix going to open in Manalapan?”
No one has heard it more than Stephanie Young, the marketing director for Manalapan’s Plaza del Mar, where a $10 million renovation is nearing completion, anchored by the supermarket chain’s new 28,000-square-foot store.
Construction is on schedule and so is a grand opening in June.
“Publix gets the keys to the building in June,” Young said. “And everybody can’t wait. We’re all very excited.”
The excitement of new development along the coast isn’t confined to Manalapan. A half-mile north, South Palm Beach is awaiting the opening later this year of a 30-unit luxury condo building at 3550 South Ocean, the site of the old Hawaiian Inn hotel. With unit prices between $2 million and $6 million, the project could increase the town’s tax base by 30 percent or more.
“It definitely will raise property values,” said Mayor Bonnie Fischer, “and boost sales in other buildings more actively than we’ve seen in a number of years.”
The project is a joint venture by New York-based DDG and developer Gary Cohen’s Boca Raton-based Paragon Acquisition Group, and Fischer says the developers have “tried very hard to accommodate the town” during construction.
Christine Mang, who lives next door in the Tuscany condominiums, said the 3550 is a welcome improvement over the dilapidated hotel. Recently the developers offered to install a Japanese garden as a buffer for Tuscany residents.
“The Hawaiian, the Ocean Inn, was falling apart,” Mang said. “Anything will look better there than what we had before. Will it increase the value of our property? I would say yes.”
South Palm Beach Councilwoman Stella Gaddy Jordan hopes the stylish architecture of the 3550 will inspire neighboring condo associations to renovate their 1970s-era exteriors.
“I hope that seeing the modern design will make some of our other buildings want to modernize, too,” Jordan said. “It’s a good thing for our town.”

Two projects boost Lantana
Meanwhile, across the bridge in Lantana, a fishing village with small-town appeal is growing and becoming even more appealing, Mayor Dave Stewart says. Two potentially transformative projects are underway. The larger one, Water Tower Commons, a 72-acre retail and residential project east of Interstate 95 on Lantana Road, is expected to bring shops, restaurants, offices and residential units to the town.
“Water Tower Commons will be a gateway to our town and the whole surrounding area,” Stewart said. “The development will be a great employment center for businesses and a place where people can live, work and play in the community.”
The second major project, Aura Seaside, a high-end apartment complex north of Hypoluxo Road on the east side of Dixie Highway, will offer 248 rental units and 10,000 square feet of office space. The 10-acre waterfront property, across from the Kmart Shopping Center, was home to the Cenacle Spiritual Life Center for 52 years. Trinsic Residential Group is the developer.
“Aura Seaside is very near total completion and it will be a great addition in the eastern portion of our town,” Stewart said. “It can have a positive effect for the Dixie Highway corridor.”
Lantana Chamber of Commerce President Dave Arm is full of optimism about both developments.
“The new residential developments at Water Tower Commons and Aura Seaside are welcome additions to Lantana,” Arm said. “We’re hoping that these modern, upscale communities will attract many young, affluent individuals and families to our town.”
Arm said Lantana’s small-town seaside image will be “enhanced by an influx of new people who will appreciate the charm of the town. We hope that many of them will eventually purchase homes and set down roots here.”
Water Tower Commons is the biggest development in Lantana’s 96-year history, according to David Thatcher, the town’s development services director. The site plan for the residential portion was approved in January and permit applications are expected in a month or two, Thatcher says.
The project, on the site of the former A.G. Holley tuberculosis hospital, is from Lantana Development, a partnership between Southeast Legacy and Wexford Capital. The residential portion of the project, on 16 acres, is being managed by the Related Group, a leading private developer with 40 years of building and managing high-quality communities throughout the world. Ten years ago, the Related Group built the Moorings about a mile away along the Intracoastal Waterway in Lantana.
“The addition of a company like the Related Group for the residential end, based on their history, should have a positive effect for not only Lantana but all the surrounding areas,” Stewart said.
Construction on the retail portion of Water Tower Commons is about a year behind schedule, in part because of the challenging retail environment, developers say. But construction on the first phase of the residential portion, to include 360 apartments in 14 buildings, will begin this year.
“It’s exciting to see these projects, as well as many other new sites that are planned or already under construction on Lantana Road and Dixie, including the new stores at the Winn-Dixie/Kmart center on Dixie and Hypoluxo,” Arm said. “The seaside fishing village nature of Lantana will remain intact, while this commercial and residential construction attracts new businesses and residents, and increases the tax base of our town.” 

Customized Publix welcome
Manalapan’s Publix is expected to draw significant numbers of shoppers from Lantana and other communities across the bridge. Winning approval for the store wasn’t all that easy for Kitson & Partners, the Plaza del Mar landlord. It took more than a year of haggling with Manalapan commissioners and residents to agree on the supermarket’s architectural details and operating rules.
“The addition of this industry-leading grocer to the property has been critical to the redevelopment of Plaza del Mar,” said Tom Hoban, president and chief investment officer at Kitson. “We at Kitson & Partners would like to thank the town of Manalapan, its residents and Publix for their hard work. Without everyone’s cooperation and collaboration this would have never become a reality.”
Manalapan Mayor Keith Waters helped broker final concessions from Publix over sign designs last summer, and the town gave the project the green light.
“The grocer is creating a unique store to this market that does not exist in its portfolio today,” said Kitson retail Vice President Matt Buehler. “It’s not a stock set of plans that came off the shelf.”
Besides adding the Publix, Kitson will give the mall a sweeping facelift, adding dozens of royal palms and new LED lighting. The plan is to turn a struggling plaza into a trendy boutique mall with an equally trendy boutique grocery store that appeals to high-end shoppers such as those in South Palm Beach’s 3550 condo.

John Miller prepares a Key lime pie with his sons Luke, 13, and Jack, 15, at their Delray Beach home. The boys’ brownies won first place at last year’s Real Men Bake. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

The chairman of the Delray Beach Historic Preservation Board grows a Key lime tree in his backyard, just like the one his parents grew in their Swinton Avenue yard.
Last year, Chairman John Miller used the limes to make mini Key lime tarts in the Real Men Bake contest. He won second place. His two sons, who had helped him in previous years, baked their own dessert. Their s’mores brownies won first place.
“It was the cuteness factor,” Miller said of his sons’ victory. “We bake two or three times a week.”
Miller met his wife, Karen, because his co-worker was so impressed with his baking abilities that she introduced him to her college friend.
That’s when he learned women like men who can bake, he said.
Miller, 50, is still pondering what to make for the March 19 event at Old School Square. He has to bake 200 pieces for the eighth annual Real Men Bake and Rock at the Sock Hop.
The Delray Beach native reminisces about his carefree childhood, filled with biking to the beach, fishing in Lake Ida for bass and bluegills, and painting in the annual Halloween contest on Atlantic Avenue. Each child received a 2-by-3-foot section of storefront window to paint, he said. The painters were judged by age groups.
Miller serves on the Historic Preservation Board to help preserve that small-town feel. “People are moving here because of the way the city looks,” he said. “It’s important to preserve that.”
The board twice turned down the Midtown Delray project last year. In June, Miller said, “It results in the Disney-fication of Delray, allowing an artificial, contrived, homogeneous, sanitized and oversized development right in the middle of our most significant historic district.”
Midtown Delray would sit on South Swinton Avenue in the southern half of the Old School Square Historic Arts District and include the Sundy House, home of Delray Beach’s first mayor. Less than 2 percent of the city’s properties are part of historic districts, Miller said.
“If we can’t save this historic district, we might as well resign our seats on the board,” he said in December.
Miller became a local history buff because his great-grandfather and grandfather were Delray Beach mayors. His great-grandfather was the first volunteer fire chief in the city.
“I like to be involved,” he said. “I prefer to stay behind the scenes, not run for office.”
He belongs to the Delray Beach Historical Society and co-chaired its 2016 Fish Tales! exhibit.
“I provided a lot of fishing insight,” Miller said.
He lent old photos and old fishing equipment for the exhibit and built display tables that the Historical Society still uses today.
Miller owns a 25-foot SeaCraft center console boat with his brother. “We usually have fresh fish a couple times a week if the weather is good enough to go out,” he said.
Miller, who works for 3M Inc. in Delray Beach, also served on the city’s comprehensive plan steering committee. In 2016, he was among a group of 20 people invited to apply because of their knowledge about the community. The city will use the plan to map out how it wants to grow in 13 areas, such as housing, historic preservation and education.
He hopes his boys will catch his volunteer spirit.
“I try to involve my sons,” Miller said, “but my wife keeps reminding me that we don’t have to sign up for everything.” 

If You Go
What: Real Men Bake and Rock at the Sock Hop fundraiser (including hula-hoop contest)
When: 6-9 p.m. March 19
Where: Old School Square Field House, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach
Sponsor: GFWC Woman’s Club of Delray Beach
Cost: $35
Benefits: Local nonprofits that serve women and children
Tickets: www.RealMenBake.eventbrite.com

By Mary Hladky

Steve Homrich watched with growing unease over three nights as young people arriving for parties at his neighbor’s home left rubber on the road while doing doughnuts on his street.
Then Friday night rolled around.
“My wife said, ‘Oh my God, look out the window,’ ” he said. “Groups of 10 and 20 kids were walking down the street to the house. They kept coming. My wife stopped counting at 300.”
That night’s party in June was big — with about 500 guests — and loud, complete with a DJ.
When police arrived, the kids scattered, with some jumping over the fence into Homrich’s yard.
Homrich learned that his neighbor, Thierry Chevrier, had rented out his Boynton Beach waterfront home on Northeast 15th Place through the vacation rental company HomeAway.
Chevrier, who could not be reached for comment, told Homrich he thought he was renting to an 84-year-old writer.
The actual renter secured the reservation with a stolen credit card. Chevrier’s house was trashed and some of his property stolen.
“It is going to become a bigger and bigger issue,” Homrich said of vacation rentals. “You feel you are living in a desirable area, and then you very well may end up with a rental property next to you. To me, it changes the character of the neighborhood completely.”
The vacation rental business is growing rapidly. Pegged as a $30 billion industry in the U.S. two years ago, it is forecast to top $36 billion this year.
As the industry has grown, so have complaints from neighbors about vacation renters partying into the early morning hours, jamming streets with cars and disrupting the quality of life in once-quiet residential neighborhoods.

State wants to set rules
Yet the state Legislature has been hostile to allowing local governments to set the rules for vacation rentals. In 2011, lawmakers prohibited cities from regulating short-term vacation rentals. The legislation, though, allowed cities that had put regulations in place before 2011 to continue to enforce them.
In 2014, the Legislature relented a bit, allowing local governments to adopt vacation rental ordinances that addressed issues such as noise and parking. But cities still could not prohibit short-term rentals or regulate their length or frequency.
This year, bills have been introduced in the state House and Senate that would take away control from local governments.
A Senate bill, introduced by Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, would prohibit local governments from setting rules for short-term rentals and give that power to the state. Vacation rental companies support the bill.
It originally would not allow cities to enforce rules they set before 2011, but that has since been removed.
A House bill, introduced by Rep. Mike LaRosa, R-St. Cloud, prohibits cities and towns from adopting ordinances specific to vacation rentals.
“I think it is horrible,” Homrich said of the proposed legislation. “That just seems to go against what local cities are all about. They are about making sure single-family neighborhoods stay single-family neighborhoods.”

Vacation rentals surge
Meanwhile, the vacation rental business keeps getting bigger in Florida.
Airbnb, one of the best-known companies, posted 75 percent year-over-year growth in the number of Florida guests in 2017, with 40,000 hosts in the state renting their properties to 2.7 million guests and earning $450 million. In 2016, 32,000 Florida hosts rented to 1.5 million guests and earned $273 million.
Airbnb now has 2,300 hosts in Palm Beach County, up from 950 in 2015. Airbnb rented to 72,500 people last year and earned $17.1 million, up from $9.5 million in 2016, according to the company.
For years, vacation rental companies billed themselves as giving regular people a way to earn extra income by renting out a spare bedroom. At the same time, the companies offered a far less expensive and potentially more interesting alternative to hotels.
Indeed, many media reports told of hosts earning relatively modest amounts, but enough to stave off foreclosure during the Great Recession or to take a vacation.
But over time, the nature of the business began to shift.
Investors snapped up properties for the purpose of turning them into full-time rentals. The hotel industry, feeling the heat from vacation rentals and going on the offensive, released a report last year that said vacation rentals had become big business, with many hosts renting out entire homes. Hosts listing multiple homes for rent are the fastest growing segment of Airbnb’s business, the report by the American Hotel & Lodging Association said. Airbnb disputed the findings.
The vacation rental bills are among a flurry of proposed legislation that city officials say is attempting to strip them of governing powers that are enshrined in the state constitution and known as “home rule.”

Cities try to defeat bills
The effort so concerns the Florida League of Cities and Florida Association of Counties that they have made defeating the bills a top priority.
“We have dealt with this for many years, but this is the year it is the most pervasive,” said Richard Radcliffe, executive director of the Palm Beach County League of Cities. “We have had statements from legislative leadership that they feel they know better what is good for cities and people than we on the local level do.
“The bottom line is you can’t legislate a neighborhood from Tallahassee. That is what we do.”
Ocean Ridge Town Manager Jamie Titcomb agreed that the effort to strip cities and towns of the ability to regulate has intensified this year.
“There is a full-court press to preempt local government from matters we deal with on a daily basis. It is more ramped up than I have seen in the past,” he said.
“We aren’t worried about a person renting out a room,” added Titcomb, whose town prohibited rentals of fewer than 30 days before 2011. “We are concerned about the preemption of local codes, zoning and quality of life regulatory matters that impact our residents.”
With the Feb. 14 massacre of 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland consuming much of the oxygen in Tallahassee, the fate of the vacation rental legislation was not clear at the end of February.

Cities’ rules vary
Delray Beach has pre-2011 rules that do not allow a turnover in home occupancy more than three times a year and require a property owner who rents to get a landlord permit that costs $75 a year, said Michael Coleman, director of community improvement.
Boynton Beach has no regulations on short-term rentals. Boca Raton’s pre-2011 rules do not permit short-term rentals for less than six months. First-time violators can be fined up to $1,000 per day and repeat violators up to $5,000 per day.
Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein said his city’s regulations, enacted before vacation rentals were widespread, fall short of what is needed to monitor and control the rentals. As things stand now, state law severely limits the ability of his city and others to do more.
“What we do have is inadequate to protect single-family and multifamily properties from de facto hotel uses,” he said in an email. “Private property rights should not supersede the reasonable expectations people have for the quiet and peaceful enjoyment of their homes, and cities should be able to regulate and restrict … abuses of zoning laws.”
The proposed legislation, he said, “is irresponsible, reflecting ill-advised views of legislators, many of whom live in rural areas that have no appreciation for why well-run cities don’t need Tallahassee to impose their will or tell us what’s best for our citizens.”
Boca Raton’s code would appear to have strong enough teeth to keep people from renting through vacation rental companies.
But a look at Airbnb’s Boca Raton listings shows that quite a few are, apparently because they don’t know the rules or don’t care. The company declined to say how many hosts it has in Boca Raton or other south Palm Beach County cities and towns.
Rentals available in mid-February ran the gamut: a spare bedroom, a detached guesthouse and even an entire waterfront mansion.
Airbnb has similar listings for properties in all of southern Palm Beach County’s cities and towns. Listings for its competitors such as HomeAway and VRBO add to the tally.

Complaints alert cities
Boca Raton spokeswoman Chrissy Gibson said the city has not received many complaints from neighbors — the chief way Boca Raton and other cities learn of problem vacation rentals.
City records show one vacation rental code violation in 2014, 16 violations in 2015 and seven in 2016. Total fines levied were $105.
If cities want to be proactive, they can do some sleuthing on their own by looking at the rentals listed online by vacation rental companies.
But Marc Woods, rental housing inspector for Delray Beach, said “it is difficult at best” to get information this way that would allow the city to take action.
Airbnb, for example, does not list the exact address of its rentals or the property owner, making it very hard to figure out if the owner is in violation of city or county regulations.
Delray Beach does not keep statistics, but Woods said he investigates 35 to 40 complaints about vacation rentals a year, and additional investigations are handled by code enforcement officers.
“A lot of vacation rentals are not a problem,” Woods said. “Some of them are a terrible problem.”
Complaints, he said, often arise from large parties on patios or pool decks, and the size of the problem “seems to be proportionate to the size of their pool deck.”
While cities and towns battle noise and crowd complaints, county and state officials have other concerns.

Some taxes shirked
Many hosts do not pay the tourist development tax, or bed tax, and sales tax due on rentals, because they are unaware that they should or just don’t want to. The vacation rental companies have not done so on their behalf.
Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon has sued the companies twice. In 2012, companies including Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline and Travelocity agreed to pay the county $1.9 million.
She sued again in 2014, alleging Airbnb, HomeAway, TripAdvisor and CouchSurfing International failed to register as rental dealers and did not pay the bed tax of 6 cents per dollar owed on short-term rentals. A trial date will be set in May.
“We are going to trial,” Gannon said. “We are not looking to settle.”
Her office also is doing outreach to homeowners to educate them on their obligation to pay the tax, which has improved compliance. Beginning in May, vacation rental owners will be able to register their properties and pay bed taxes online.
Counties have long been frustrated that bed tax money was going uncollected. But Airbnb’s tough stance against helping began to soften in 2015. In April, both the Miami-Dade and Broward counties’ commissions approved deals with Airbnb under which the company will collect the 6 percent Miami-Dade tax and the 5 percent Broward tax from its hosts and remit the money to the counties every month.
The tax deals were expected to bring in at least $6 million annually to Miami-Dade and $1 million to Broward. Both counties plan to seek similar deals with other home-sharing platforms.
The agreements don’t require Airbnb to release any information about hosts or their addresses and don’t require payment of previous uncollected taxes.
Thirty-seven other counties in Florida also have such deals, but not Palm Beach County. In an op-ed to The Palm Beach Post in May, Tom Martinelli, policy director for Airbnb Florida, pressed Gannon to follow suit, saying it would ease the county’s burden of collecting the taxes.
In response, Gannon said she is “willing, even eager” to do so, but could not agree to keep host and property location information confidential. That, she said, gives Airbnb a competitive advantage over its rivals. More important, without that information, she can’t check to see if Airbnb is paying all it owes.
Airbnb also reached an agreement in 2015 with the state Department of Revenue in which the company collects the state sales tax from its Florida hosts.
In 2017, Airbnb turned over $33 million in sales tax revenue to the DOR and $12.7 million in bed tax revenues to the 39 counties, the company said.

Outside help boosts compliance
For cities and counties at a loss on how to get hosts to comply with vacation rental regulations, private industry is offering solutions.
Delray Beach is considering contracting with Host Compliance, a Silicon Valley company founded in 2015. Gannon has used Host Compliance and two other similar companies but does not have contracts with them.
Host Compliance says it can identify which properties are being used as vacation rentals, ensure that renters and hosts comply with local ordinances, can increase vacation rental tax collections and free up city and town staff for other priorities.
The company uses big data and algorithms to gather information, although humans check the results.
Its clients in Florida include Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Hallandale Beach and Monroe County, but none so far in Palm Beach County.
A May memo drafted by Jamael Stewart, Delray Beach’s assistant director of community improvement, said Host Compliance would charge the city about $18,000 a year.
Host Compliance founder and CEO Ulrik Binzer said cities and counties get back five to 10 times what they spend to hire his company through increased collection of sales and bed taxes and fees for permits.
“Cities that wait for the phone to ring [with a complaint] are not having a lot of luck with compliance,” Binzer said. “Cities and counties that have decided they want to do something about it will actually make money.”

By Jane Smith

The big reveal for Town Square will come March 13.
That’s when Boynton Beach staff will unveil the final cost to residents and the prices the city-owned parcels will fetch from developers to build apartments, a hotel and a public parking garage, City Manager Lori LaVerriere told city commissioners on Feb. 20.
At the same meeting, commissioners approved changing the land use and rezoning of seven city-owned parcels in the 16-acre Town Square project area by 4-1 votes. They also approved the master plan for the project by a 4-1 vote.
Town Square consists of four blocks, bordered by Boynton Beach Boulevard on the north, Seacrest Boulevard on the west, Southeast Second Avenue on the south and Northeast First Street on the east. The project will hold the historic high school, the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, a combined City Hall and library building, and a parking garage.
A new Fire Station No. 1 will sit just outside the project on the east side of Northeast First Street.
Commissioner Mack McCray voted no three times because he doesn’t think the city has the money to do the ambitious project, estimated to cost $133 million.
Boynton Beach plans to issue private equity bonds that it will pay off in 25 years, said Colin Groff, the assistant city manager leading the Town Square project.
The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency received county approval in January to use tax dollars to build the city hall and a fire station. Its share will be $81 million over 25 years, just before the agency will sunset.
The plan calls for the current library to be demolished. At the Feb. 20 meeting, resident Herb Suss said the library is a fairly new building and pleaded with commissioners not to tear it down. “That’s a no-no,” he said.
The library has leaks, said Vice Mayor Justin Katz. It would be more costly to fix and move City Hall to another site than it would be to demolish the library and build a combination building that houses City Hall and the library, he said.
Before the library is demolished, the city will have to find a temporary location. The historic Woman’s Club building was considered initially. But it does not have enough parking, and the historic nature of the building would make it difficult to do renovations needed to house the library, Groff said.
The city is looking at five sites, Groff said in late February. In addition, he is trying to find a 5,000-square-foot building near the current library for people who walk to the library to use, he said.
The historic high school renovation is expected to be finished in August. The city received a reprieve in December when the 4th District Court of Appeal dismissed a 4-year-old lawsuit. Architect Juan Contin sued the city over its decision not to let him go forward with a plan to turn the high school into an events and destination center. He lost on the lower court level.
The appellate review board did not issue an opinion, which means Contin cannot appeal the decision to the Florida Supreme Court.

By Jane Smith

The Riverwalk Plaza redevelopment is on hold at the southeast corner of Federal Highway and Woolbright Road in Boynton Beach.
The owner of Josie’s Ristorante in the plaza is jubilant that the owner, Isram Realty, will let the restaurant stay in its place at the northern edge of the 9.8-acre complex. Riverwalk sits south and west of the Woolbright Road Bridge.
“I met with him last week,” owner Stephanie Setticasi said in mid-February. “He will build around us.” The Boynton Beach restaurant has about 10 years remaining on its lease.
Isram Realty Chairman Shaul Rikman could not be reached for comment. Isram had planned to demolish the main building in the shopping plaza and build a 10-story apartment project in its place.
Luke Therien, the Prime Catch restaurant owner, confirmed the developer’s deal with the neighboring restaurant.
Therien was negotiating with Isram to trade .25 acre of mangroves along the Intracoastal Waterway for 50 guaranteed parking spaces for his diners. Therien’s family owns the land under the waterfront restaurant and adjacent property.
“Josie’s wanting to stay means a different parking agreement will have to be worked out,” Therien said. “Josie’s will get some of the parking spaces that we were supposed to get.”
New plans for the apartment building will have to be submitted to Boynton Beach’s planning and zoning division for review.
“A revised site plan — for either minor or major review — would be required only if the plan details actually changed,” said Michael Rumpf, planning and zoning director. “A simple change like moving internal square footage around, or even entrances can require at least a minor — administrative only — review. Multiple, minor modifications would be common for this size of project.”
He said one criterion for determining whether a change is minor or major is if the change presents a 5 percent increase in the project’s square footage. Such major changes would need approval from the city’s planning and development advisory board, which makes recommendations to the City Commission, according to Rumpf.
It’s unclear at this time how substantial a change the new plans would entail.
The approved plans include a 10-story, U-shaped apartment building with 326 units, along with 41,970 square feet of retail space. A 2020 completion date was anticipated when plans were submitted to the city in December 2015.
Harry Woodworth, a former president of the Inlet Communities Association, hopes the public can be part of the review process “in a meaningful way.” As president of the homeowners association, he attended many Boynton Beach meetings where he felt residents’ input was ignored.

It’s election season. Learn about your candidates and be sure to vote.
I wish it were that simple. It never is. This year the battles are already heating up and the mud of misinformation is getting thick. As a result, I’d like to clarify a few things about The Coastal Star:
• We don’t do candidate endorsements. Never have. Never will.
• This month there are campaign signs in front of our office. We didn’t put them there. Our landlord has allowed them and we made it clear all Ocean Ridge candidates are welcome to place their signs in the easement.
• Although a lot of information is passed along to the newspaper, we don’t write about it without verification. We use news judgment to decide what to pursue, but are less likely to chase anonymous tips.
• We have an editorial policy of not publishing articles that might be detrimental to a candidate in the month of the election, because it’s impossible for a candidate to respond in our pages if he or she believes we’ve made a mistake. Stories first reported in the daily news media, however, we will follow— if we think the information is of value to voters.
• We do our own public records requests. No one does these for us. We also pay our own legal bills.
• There are three principal owner/partners of The Coastal Star: myself, publisher Jerry Lower and sales manager Chris Bellard. Lower and I live and vote in Ocean Ridge. Bellard lives and votes in Delray Beach. We do not contribute to local candidates, nor do we campaign for them. You won’t see us at “meet the candidate” events. We take salaries from the newspaper and believe the integrity of our publication is at stake if we allow our personal preferences to show.
We do vote, of course; that’s our constitutional right.
• The other owners of The Coastal Star, Delray Beach residents Price and Carolyn Patton, are minority investors in our newspaper. They have long been politically active in Delray Beach and contribute to local campaigns. They do not draw salaries and are not involved in story selection or placement and do not play a role in our day-to-day operation.
• The other people who work with us are independent contractors, not employees. They do not make editorial decisions at the newspaper. If they want to work on campaigns, put yard signs up or have bumper stickers on their cars, they have the right to do that.
We do our best to cover elections fairly and accurately. Nothing in our approach has changed since The Coastal Star began.
Unfortunately, this year our newspaper is being misrepresented around town and on social media. Some of these uninformed postings can be written off as the general blood sport of local election politics; others are blatant attempts to undermine our reporting.
We stand by our reporting. That’s the bottom line. In light of today’s “fake news” environment, I believe we must not only be accurate and fair in our reporting, but we must also be transparent in how we conduct our business. I hope this helps explain how our newspaper approaches local elections.
If you have questions, email me at news@thecoastalstar.com.
You’ll find candidate profiles and related stories here: South Palm Beach, Ocean Ridge, Delray Beach, Highland Beach and Boca Raton.
Get to know your candidates and on March 13, go out and vote.

— Mary Kate Leming,
Editor

By Dan Moffett

After 12 years of planning, lobbying and debate, South Palm Beach Town Council members say they’re now having second thoughts about staying in a county project to install concrete groins in the hope of stabilizing the town’s eroding beaches.
“This is turning out to be a long project to the answer ‘no,’ ” Mayor Bonnie Fischer said. “We’re just being realistic here. I think it’s about time we looked into something else.”
Until expressing her doubts during a Feb. 27 workshop on the project, Fischer had been a vocal supporter of the groin plan since joining the council seven years ago.
Other council members concurred with her changing viewpoint.
“I seem to get a feeling from the crowd that the current plan isn’t acceptable to our constituents,” said Councilwoman Stella Gaddy Jordan after listening to a steady stream of residents’ complaints for nearly two hours. “They elected us to do their bidding.”
Vice Mayor Robert Gottlieb said the town should take a step back and reassess alternatives: “Let’s look at the options.”
The project, which was first conceived after Hurricane Wilma ravaged the town’s beaches in 2005, calls for installing a network of groins from South Palm’s northern boundary to the southern end of Lantana Municipal Beach. The plan’s $5 million price tag is to be split among the state (50 percent), Palm Beach County (30 percent) and South Palm (20 percent).
The reversal in the town comes after a rising tide of opposition and negative developments in recent months. Among them:
• Manalapan Mayor Keith Waters has said his town is opposed the groin plan over concerns it will interrupt the natural southward flow of sand and damage the town’s beaches. Manalapan’s commissioners have said they’re willing to take legal action to stop the project.
“The county does not want to pit municipality against municipality,” Fischer said. “I understand that.”
• The Concordia East condominium in South Palm continues to refuse to sign an easement agreement with the county to allow workers on its beach, fearing legal liability or opening the door to public access.
• The Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa has joined Manalapan in opposing the use of groins.
• County environmental managers are still trying to obtain all the necessary permitting from state and federal officials and may not be able to meet the intended November start date to complete work before turtle nesting season. If managers miss the deadline, the project would be pushed back another year.
• Increasing complaints from residents about the appearance of concrete structures on the beach and the cost to the town.
Joseph Chaison, a county engineer, told residents during the workshop that installing structures is “the least preferred” option for fighting beach erosion, but South Palm Beach has no good choices. Because the town’s shoreline has a hard bottom and the water already reaches some condos’ seawalls, a traditional renourishment plan would be difficult. The sand might wash away as soon as it’s dumped.
Julie Mitchell, the county’s environmental program supervisor, told the council the county would “continue to work with you to develop a feasible alternative” if the town decides to pull out of the groin plan and try something else.
“At some point a decision has to be made as to whether to go forward with this project,” Mitchell said.
Fischer said the council will consider its options and get back to the county.
In other business, Police Chief Carl Webb is taking a medical leave of absence and will be away from the department “for weeks,” a spokesman for the town said.
Sgt. Mark Garrison, a 17-year veteran with the town, will fill in as chief until Webb returns.
“Chief Webb wants to thank all the residents and friends who have wished him well and offered their support,” the spokesman said.

By Dan Moffett

After receiving the results of an inspector general’s audit in February, Manalapan is moving forward with 21 recommended changes to tighten billing procedures and improve the internal controls of the town’s water utility department.
Palm Beach County’s Inspector General Office examined the utility’s operation during the 2016 fiscal year and cited seven findings that could use corrective action from the town.
The draft audit found no serious problems, but rather housekeeping and enforcement issues that were hurting the utility’s performance or preventing the town from technically “complying with its ordinances and resolutions.”
Town Attorney Keith Davis, in a written response to the Inspector General’s Office, said the town already has implemented most of the proposed changes — even though the town’s “current system is working properly.”
Manalapan has satisfied some of the report’s concerns, he said, by retraining personnel.
Town Manager Linda Stumpf said the town is taking a more aggressive approach to deal with homeowners who aren’t complying with the utility’s rules, one of the complaints in the audit. Out of 253 residences, about 20 water customers still haven’t had backflows inspected and approved. Backflow valves prevent waste water from reversing direction and contaminating drinking water.
“They’ll all get letters saying they have between a 60- and 90-day time frame to get their backflows repaired or inspected, otherwise their water will be turned off,” Stumpf told the Town Commission during its meeting Feb. 27. “That’s the only option I have at this point.”
Davis said in his response that most of the issues cited were commonly seen, minor and easily remedied.
“The findings in the draft report are not outside the realm of normal or typical findings when this type of audit is conducted,” the attorney wrote, “and they are meant to make a good process even better.”
In other business:
• As part of its plan to expand its Police Department, Manalapan is considering partnering with the town of Palm Beach for dispatching and crime scene investigation services.
Police Chief Carmen Mattox said that, because of similar demographics, Palm Beach and Manalapan share many of the same crime problems and it makes sense for them to work together.
“I think Palm Beach is a very professional agency,” Mattox said. “And they have a very outstanding dispatch center.”
The chief said the Palm Beach department has crime scene specialists on hand who could come in quickly and help Manalapan with investigations.
“The other advantage is the information sharing that would be instantaneous,” Mattox said. “We’d be on their radio.”
The chief also said he’s making progress toward screening applicants to fill four new police officer positions. Mayor Keith Waters announced a roughly $420,000 expansion for the department in January after a spate of car thefts.
Stumpf said Stewart Satter, a resident on Manalapan’s ocean side, had sent the town a check for just over $51,000 to the cover the cost of a new Ford Explorer for police. Satter promised to buy the SUV after hearing Waters’ plan.
• Because of inquiries from Point Manalapan, the town will begin surveying residents informally on the possibility of bringing in natural gas service. Three years ago, a straw poll of the 144 residents on the point voted against adding the utility by roughly a 2-1 margin.

By Jane Smith

As Brightline runs its express passenger rail service between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, safety problems recur at grade crossings.
To improve safety, coastal South County cities continue to add quad-crossing gates that meet in the middle to most of the train crossings along the FEC tracks. Once that work is complete, elected bodies could petition the Federal Railroad Administration to have FEC and Brightline trains not blow horns in their cities, creating quiet zones.
In Delray Beach, eight of 11 crossings will get that treatment by the end of April, City Manager Mark Lauzier said. Those crossings are: Northeast Eighth, Second and First streets; Atlantic Avenue; Southeast Second, Fourth and 10th streets; and Linton Boulevard.
The county Transportation Planning Agency (formerly called the Metropolitan Planning Organization) is paying for the upgrades.
In addition to the crossing gates, Delray Beach installed a 4-foot-high aluminum rail fence between Atlantic Avenue and Northeast First Street. The installation followed the August 2016 death of a woman who cut across the tracks and was hit by a freight train.
City Commissioner Shelly Petrolia has asked Lauzier to let the commission know of any other areas where people are cutting across the tracks and a fence is needed.
The $30,644 fence cost could be reimbursed by the agency through its annual grant process, Nick Uhren, its executive director, said at the Feb. 6 Delray Beach commission meeting.
He also asked the commissioners to remind pedestrians and bicyclists to obey the crossing arms when they are down.
“Before the commission meeting, I was at the Northeast Second Street crossing,” Uhren said. “A Brightline train was approaching from the north and another Brightline train was coming from the south. The crossing arms were down and a bicyclist rode around them. Please don’t go around them and try to beat the train.”
Brightline safety issues were raised at a roundtable of mayors and their representatives hosted by U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel in late January. Mayors asked for a meeting with federal officials on the technicalities of quiet zones.
Frankel contacted the Federal Railroad Administration and followed with a reminder letter in mid-February. She was seeking a meeting in the next few weeks.
In mid-February, a Highland Beach man was injured when he stopped his vehicle on the FEC tracks for a red light at Camino Real in Boca Raton when the crossing gates came down. Benjamin Morelli, 90, was unable to get out of his car before it was struck by a northbound Brightline train, said Jessica Desir, spokeswoman for the Boca Raton police.
In Boynton Beach, which had two fatalities involving Brightline trains in January, four more intersections will be getting the quad-crossing gates, said Jeff Livergood, public works director.
The additional intersections are: Boynton Beach Boulevard and East Ocean, Southeast Fifth and Southeast 12th avenues.
The upgrades should be finished in April, he said, and will be paid for by the Transportation Planning Agency using state Department of Transportation money.
Martin Luther King Boulevard, Woolbright Road and Southeast 36th Avenue already have the quad gates, he said.
“I wish that motorists and pedestrians would use good judgment when using our roadways and crosswalks,” Livergood said.
Two lawmakers have submitted bills in the state Legislature that would require train lines that operate at speeds over 80 mph to pay to install fencing along both sides of the track, install crossing arms and pay to maintain what was installed.
Brightline argues that more regulations are unnecessary.
“Brightline has been running PSAs [public service announcements] on local radio and broadcast stations since early last year reminding the public that when you see tracks, think train! And to stay off train tracks,” its spokeswoman said.

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach has a thriving downtown that is the envy of cities nationwide. With some changes, the city could create “a world-class shopping district” that is sustainable through recessions, said Robert Gibbs, an urban design consultant.
Hired by the city’s Downtown Development Authority, Gibbs gave city commissioners the draft results of what he called a “Shopability Analysis” on Feb. 20.
He focused on Atlantic Avenue between the interstate and the ocean. He talked about parking management, retail mix, sidewalks and crosswalks, store signs, parking signs and street furniture such as garbage cans and benches.
Mayor Cary Glickstein asked the overarching question: “How do we protect that which makes us valuable?”
First, Gibbs recommended the city study its parking capacity to determine the number of spaces in the downtown and whether it needs to add more, in terms of a public garage. Then the city should consider a pilot parking meter program for Atlantic Avenue west of the Intracoastal Waterway.
Gibbs likes individual meters because he thinks visitors find them easier to use. The city has purchased parking kiosks for use in the downtown between the waterway and Swinton Avenue.
As to parking fees, he recommended the first two or three hours be free. In the public garages, the lower floors should be reserved for visitors, not valet use, he said.
Parking tickets should be given on a sliding scale. “The first ticket should come with a thank-you card,” telling the visitor that no fine is levied but thanking the person for visiting Delray Beach, Gibbs said.
He also recommends installing unified signs for public parking lots and garages and private valet services to make it easier for visitors to find their way around the downtown.
Another goal suggested by Gibbs would be to enforce the sidewalk clearance of 6 feet west of the waterway. Gibbs said restaurateurs like to encroach on the space, forcing families pushing strollers into the street.
He also advised the city to trim landscaping that encroaches on the sidewalks. Repairing or replacing buckled brick pavers on the sidewalks would allow for a smooth walking surface for pedestrians, he said.
Gibbs said cleaning sidewalks, parking garages and city parking lots weekly would make visitors think downtown Delray Beach is world class.
Three years ago, former City Manager Don Cooper wowed the commission with a similar vision of creating Disney-like levels of cleanliness and safety in the downtown. In February, Commissioner Shelly Petrolia told Gibbs, “you are speaking our language … You know who we are.”
Gibbs wants the city to ban anything that cheapens the downtown and makes it look like a shopping center, such as dark-tinted windows.
Vice Mayor Jim Chard asked about a digital sign for Old School Square, which often has a few events taking place simultaneously in different buildings.
“That sign will downgrade you to a strip shopping center,” Gibbs said. “Plus, if you allow that organization to have an animated sign, you have to allow it for all.”
Gibbs will present a final version of his analysis March 29 at Old School Square.

Two commissioners square off to be mayor | RESULTS

Five candidates compete for two commission seats:

Seat 1 | RESULTS

Seat 3 | RESULTS

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said Former Delray Beach Mayor Jeff Perlman contributed to Adam Frankel’s campaign. He did not. Frankel raised $3,000 from five donors associated with Delray Beach real estate investor Carl DeSantis. Perlman was not one of these contributors.

By Jane Smith and Michelle Quigley

Delray Beach voters will select candidates for three commission seats on March 13.
A fourth seat will be taken by residential Realtor Bill Bathurst. Bathurst had no challengers for the position vacated by Jim Chard, who stepped down to run for the mayor’s seat when Mayor Cary Glickstein decided not to pursue re-election.
The new commissioners will be sworn in March 29.
The mayor’s race pits two current commissioners: Shelly Petrolia, who has served five years, and relative newcomer Chard, elected to the commission in March 2017. Both have assembled sizable campaign contributions through Feb. 9, the last period reported before publication.
Chard, who filed for the mayor’s race in late October, has collected $79,200 in donations with no self-loans. Petrolia, who announced her run in August, has reported $106,232 in contributions, including $36,000 in self-loans and matching contributions.
Their supporters often spar on social media.
Some testiness spilled over Feb. 7 at the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce candidates forum at the Arts Garage.
When Petrolia was allowed to go first in the mayoral portion of the forum, she announced that she wanted to talk about a “housekeeping matter.”
She had received copies of an email exchange indicating Chard had seen three questions ahead of time.
Chard sits on the Chamber’s Advocacy Committee, which put together the questions for the forum. As a member, he was part of an initial email string that asked for possible questions. Chard acknowledged receiving three questions from fellow committee member Chuck Halberg, a contractor who has donated $1,000 to Chard’s campaign.
Halberg proposed three topics: addressing the turnover of city staff, finding city tax dollars to support nonprofits if state legislators cramp spending by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, and redeveloping Congress Avenue.
Chard replied: “Great question my friend” in copies of the emails supplied to the media by the Petrolia campaign.
The email exchange flies counter to the Chamber’s secrecy policy over the candidate questions. At the debate, the group sequesters candidates so that they can’t hear the same questions asked in other races. It also takes away their smartphones so no one in the audience can text the questions to them.
The Chamber called Chard’s inclusion on the email string a mistake, but said the three questions would still be asked. Petrolia agreed to continue, saying, “I don’t need the extra time or energy or help.”
In addition to Halberg, Chamber Advocacy Committee members Bill Branning, Jay Alperin, Rick Caster, Jeff Perlman, Cathy Balestriere and Scott Porten have donated a total of $6,250 to Chard’s campaign.

Chard’s support
Chard, a retired business executive, has collected about half of his contributions from developers, their attorneys, architects and commercial brokers.
Campaign contributions are limited to $1,000 by individuals and corporations, under state law.
The developers of the iPic theater project — known as the 4th and 5th Delray project — now under construction in downtown, have given Chard $7,000. When contributions from the project’s attorneys are included, the total rises to $10,500.
Chard has raised $250 from two Old School Square donors, but when some of the Chamber Advocacy Committee donors — who also are Old School Square board members — are included, the total reaches $6,250.
Chard has also amassed $6,000 from Ocean Properties, a Delray Beach hotel owner.
He touts support from public safety groups, with three political action committees donating a total of $2,500.

Petrolia’s support
Petrolia, a residential Realtor, has received $1,000 contributions from both Allen Zeller and his wife, JoAnn Mower. Last summer, Petrolia nominated Zeller, a semi-retired attorney, to the city’s CRA board. His nomination was approved unanimously. Mower is a retired hospital administrator. Petrolia also received $1,000 each from Price Patton and his wife, Carolyn. Price Patton sits on the city’s Historic Preservation Board. Carolyn Patton belongs to the nonprofit Delray Beach Preservation Trust. The Pattons also own a minority stake in The Coastal Star.
Steve Plamann, husband of Coastal Star researcher Michelle Quigley, donated $100 to Petrolia in January.
Other Petrolia contributors include four home builders who donated $1,000 each, four auto-related companies that gave a total of $3,000, and two downtown retailers: Mark Denkler and David Cook gave $1,000 each.
She also received $1,000 from Waste Management Inc., the city’s trash hauler.
Josh Smith, the retired educator whom Petrolia supported last March in his failed run for a commission seat, donated $1,000 to her campaign, as did Ken MacNamee, a retired auditor who often combs the city’s spending practices and notifies the commission of his findings.

Seat 3 incumbent Katz
The Seat 3 commission race pits incumbent Mitch Katz against Ryan Boylston. Both have raised nearly equal amounts of money: $54,956 for Katz and $52,235 for Boylston.
Katz lent his campaign $500, while Boylston lent his campaign $5,000. In addition, when Boylston — founder of Woo Creative — designed his campaign website and provided design services, he set those in-kind donations at $2,500 and $750 respectively.
Katz began campaigning in June, scoring a $1,000 donation from Menin Development Inc., through Rosebud Capital Investment. Menin has made significant investments in downtown Delray Beach, including where the Capital One bank branch replaced the Green Owl restaurant.
For Katz, the largest contributors were restaurateurs; five donated a total of $4,200. Three downtown retailers donated a total of $1,350, with an in-kind donation of $991.20 from the Silverball Museum.
Katz also received $1,000 from Josh Smith, whom he backed last year in a failed commission race. The Pattons donated $1,000 each to Katz.

Seat 3 challenger Boylston
Boylston donors appear to be a carbon-copy of Chard’s. Ten attorneys donated to Boylston for a total of $7,500. That group includes former City Attorney Noel Pfeffer and former City Commissioner Jordana Jarjura, who both clashed with Katz during his first term.
Six Chamber members and a former staff member donated a total of $5,600 to Boylston. Five executives at Ocean Properties, owner of the Residence Inn and the Marriott on the beach, each gave him $1,000.
Match Point, which operates tennis tournaments, donated $1,000 to his campaign. Delray Beach is suing Match Point to get out of a no-bid contract that obligates the city to pay Match Point about $2 million annually.
Boylston’s former Delray Newspaper partners, Jeff Perlman and Fran Marincola, together donated $1,500. Boylston gave up his stake in the newspaper in January when he filed to run for the City Commission.
At the Chamber forum, Boylston and Katz clashed over lawsuits the city was involved in while Katz has been on the commission. One suit involved the Atlantic Crossing developers who wanted their site plan approved. The city won both cases, Katz said.

Three vie for Seat 1
The race for Seat 1 features three men: Richard Alteus, who has a background in public safety; tech worker Eric Camacho, who is running for the first time, and former City Commissioner and criminal-defense lawyer Adam Frankel.
Frankel, who raised $53,550, leads his challengers in donations. Alteus raised $1,500 and Camacho raised $200. Camacho had not yet filed a contribution report detailing donors.
Alteus had four health care-related donors for a total of $500. He lent his campaign $370.
Frankel’s war chest includes $12,700 in legal contributions, including from Joe White, who owns property near the Arts Warehouse. Frankel also raised $3,500 from six donors associated with Delray Beach real estate investor Carl DeSantis. 
In addition, Frankel received $500 from four public safety political action committees for a total of $2,000. The tennis tournament operator Match Point also donated $1,000 to Frankel.

Candidate forum planned
The South County Recovery Residence Association and The Palm Beach County Substance Abuse Coalition are planning a Meet the Candidates Forum for 7 p.m. March 7 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 188 S. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach.

Six candidate running to fill three council seats: Gottlieb, Hall and Hall | Jordan, LeRoy and McMillan | RESULTS

By Dan Moffett

South Palm Beach voters must fill three Town Council seats in the March 13 election, and the winning candidates are likely to play a major role in determining the fate of two ambitious projects that have languished for months.
Veteran incumbents Vice Mayor Robert Gottlieb and Councilwoman Stella Gaddy Jordan are challenged by four political newcomers: Kevin Hall and Mary Alessandra “Aless” Hall, a married couple; C.W. “Bill” LeRoy, and Raymond McMillan.
The two top vote-getters win full two-year terms. The third-place finisher will serve out the remaining year on the seat occupied by Lucille Flagello, who is stepping down. The council appointed Flagello last year to take over for her son, Joseph Flagello, who died suddenly days after winning in the March election.
The stakes are high in South Palm Beach. The town is trying to decide whether to jump-start or abandon a joint project with Palm Beach County to install groins and stabilize the town’s eroding beachfront — a plan that is facing vehement opposition from southern neighbor Manalapan.
Also, the council must decide what to do about the deteriorating Town Hall building. Last year, council members rejected a plan to demolish it and build a new multilevel structure. But how to renovate the old building remains an open question.

The incumbents
Gottlieb first joined the council in 2005 and has, in part or in full, served six terms. A property owner since the early 1970s, Gottlieb believes his long association with the community gives him an edge.
“I know the town well,” he said. “The beaches are the issue here. I would hope we can work things out with Manalapan and get the beach project moving.”
Gottlieb has pushed for lower tax rates as real estate values have slowly risen from recession lows a decade ago. He supports expanding the Police Department and using social media to improve connections with residents.
Jordan is seeking her fifth term in office. During the last two years, she played a leading role in the ousters of Town Manager Bob Vitas and longtime Town Attorney Brad Biggs — and hiring their replacements, Mo Thornton and Glen Torcivia.
She believes the administrative overhaul is working, and that Thornton already has succeeded in tightening financial oversight. During the town’s January meeting, Jordan praised the new manager for “implementing internal controls in just two days” on the job.
“We’re finally in the position of obtaining full transparency in finances,” she said. “That has been my goal since 2010 when I came on the council.”
Jordan, a vocal beach project supporter, says she’s “optimistic” Mayor Bonnie Fischer can get the plan done.

The challengers
Kevin Hall is the property manager of Palmsea Condominiums. Hall has expressed concern about the “mass exodus of employees” over the past year and thinks the council needs to cultivate a more stable workforce. He also thinks the town needs to do more to control the misbehavior of some short-term renters.
Aless Hall is president of the Palmsea Condominiums Association and has served as its treasurer. Like most Palmsea residents, the Halls are ardent supporters of the beach plan. Aless Hall believes people on both sides of the issue have to engage each other.
“Communication is the key to anything,” she said. “Discussions need to take place and work out differences.”
LeRoy left a real estate consulting career in Peoria, Ill., to settle in South Palm Beach two and a half years ago. He says, if elected, his goal will be to “keep the town as nice as it is” and work closely with the mayor on the beach project.
“The only thing in South Palm Beach that’s not wonderful is the beach,” LeRoy said. “I think Manalapan is against the project because of a misunderstanding. It’s not like other projects they’ve compared it to, and won’t hurt their beaches.”
He favors renovating the existing Town Hall.
McMillan, a 30-year resident of the town, serves on the cultural affairs advisory board and the Code Enforcement Board.
“One of my primary focus points would be continued momentum in regards to shore stabilization and revitalization,” he said. “I also want to be sure that our wonderful Police Department and its dedicated officers will continue to receive the necessary funding to keep our town and its citizens safe.” Council members receive a $300 monthly salary and the mayor $500.

By Steve Plunkett

Standing outside the courtroom, former Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella could not hide his disappointment at having to wait 10 more weeks for his felony trial to begin.
He and defense attorney Heidi Perlet appeared for a calendar call Feb. 20 before Circuit Judge Meenu Sasser, who set a “date certain” of April 30 for the proceedings.
“We were going to get bumped anyway,” Perlet told her client, who is accused of felony battery on a law enforcement officer and two other charges.
“I know that. I was just hoping we could do it in March,” Lucibella responded.
The case of a burglary suspect who sought a speedy trial knocked Lucibella’s original date off the judge’s calendar. Rafael Llovera’s trial took the rest of the week, with a jury finding him guilty of a lesser charge, trespassing, along with battery of the occupant and resisting arrest without violence.
Lucibella’s new trial date is a year and three weeks past the original schedule, which called for the proceedings to begin April 10, 2017.
Lucibella, who also faces charges of resisting arrest with violence, another felony, and firing a weapon while under the influence of alcohol, a misdemeanor, waived his right to a speedy trial when the lawyers needed more time to question witnesses.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Perlet, a law partner of defense attorney Marc Shiner, said the trial will feature testimony from more than 20 witnesses.
Lucibella was arrested Oct. 22, 2016, after Ocean Ridge police went to his oceanfront home to answer neighbors’ reports of hearing gunfire. They confiscated a .40-caliber handgun and found five spent shell casings on the backyard patio.
He and a police supervisor, Lt. Steven Wohlfiel, were both on the patio and “obviously intoxicated,” the officers said. They later determined the seized gun was Wohlfiel’s.
Lucibella resigned his vice mayor and town commissioner positions Dec. 7, 2016.
His trial was postponed first to July 2017, then October, then February and now April.

By Mary Hladky

Ocean Ridge resident Edward Siedle, the president of Benchmark Financial Services Inc., is in line to receive a second major whistleblower award.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission informed him in February that he will receive $30 million for helping it make the case that JPMorgan Chase failed to disclose to wealthy clients that it was steering them into investments that would be most profitable for the bank.
JPMorgan Chase agreed in 2015 to pay $367 million to settle accusations that it improperly guided clients into its in-house mutual funds and hedge funds.
The CFTC award follows a Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision in July to award Siedle $48 million, also for providing information on JPMorgan Chase.
The SEC’s whistleblower award is its largest to date, eclipsing a $30 million award in 2014. The CFTC’s award also is its largest so far, exceeding a $10 million award in 2016.
Siedle has been called the “Sam Spade of money management” and “pension detective” for his work in investigating more than $1 trillion in retirement plan assets, uncovering flawed investment strategies and excessive fees paid to Wall Street firms hired to manage the funds, and plan mismanagement.
“This is great news for consumers and investors,” Siedle said of the awards. “A lot of people were concerned that under the [Donald Trump] administration that our federal regulatory agencies would not vigorously enforce the laws and whistleblower awards may be in jeopardy. These awards make it clear these agencies are open for business and are not backing away from their mission. ...
“That is great news for me and other whistleblowers and great news for the public, too.”
Siedle has filed about 120 whistleblower claims with financial regulators, most with the SEC, he has said. The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act directed the SEC and CFTC to reward whistleblowers who provide information that leads to successful enforcement actions resulting in sanctions of over $1 million. Awards can range from 10 percent to 30 percent of recoveries.
The Internal Revenue Service and Department of Justice also have whistleblower programs.
Siedle, a former SEC attorney who founded Benchmark in 1999, said he has no big plans for the money.
“I certainly feel very fortunate,” he said. “However, I don’t anticipate it is going to change my lifestyle any.”

Three candidates vie for two commission seats | RESULTS

By Dan Moffett

Three candidates for two Ocean Ridge Town Commission seats made their cases to voters during a 90-minute forum Feb. 21 sponsored by the League of Women Voters.
Incumbent Gail Adams Aaskov, a former mayor who is running for her sixth term in the past two decades, offered the steady hand of experience as grounds for re-election on March 13, not only as a commissioner but as a longtime resident and small-business owner.
“I think there’s a lot of things we all agree on about what’s coming and what we should be doing ahead of time,” Aaskov said. “I love Ocean Ridge. I’ve lived here for 25 years. It’s a great place.”
Phil Besler, a political newcomer, told the audience of 125 in Town Hall that his expertise as a certified public accountant for 40 years in New Jersey would serve Ocean Ridge well and benefit taxpayers with budgeting aimed at the long term.
“I know I can increase the reserves of this place,” he said.
Kristine de Haseth said she would bring “new energy” to the commission and also regional connections after 12 years of working with local governments on growth issues as director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation.
“I’m not only uniquely qualified, but those who know me know that I’m pretty passionate,” de Haseth said. “I work hard and I work smart.”
The three candidates agreed that rapid growth in Boynton Beach poses a threat to the small-town quality of life in Ocean Ridge. But the commission is still searching for a comprehensive strategy to deal with it.
“I think all of us want to keep Ocean Ridge a small town but to do that we have to have security,” Besler said.
There was unanimous support for installing license plate recognition cameras. Aaskov said she’s “been pushing for it for years” and will continue to do so. Besler said, besides an LPR system, he supports using private security cameras of willing residents to augment the town’s network.
De Haseth said to maintain quality of life, it’s essential “to make sure our Police Department has the right tools.” LPR cameras are “a good tool but nothing more than a tool.” Going forward, police will need more than cameras, she said.
When it comes to managing beach access and the increasing number of beachgoers from the mainland, the candidates generally want improved signage and steady police enforcement.
Besler favors developing a 20-year strategic plan that takes a proactive approach to pressures from the outside, from Boynton Beach and Tallahassee as well.
“I think our biggest enemy — and I hate to say this — is the state of Florida,” he said. “If we want to maintain a small town, if you look at the regulations they’re trying to pass in the state of Florida, who’s controlling that? It’s the lobbyists, and they’re getting paid by developers and they’re getting paid by big hotel chains.”
De Haseth said the town “made a critical error” in losing the police contract with Briny Breezes to Boynton Beach. She argued that, because Boynton now provides all services (police, fire-rescue and water utilities) to Briny, it opens the door to the community’s annexation and possible development.
Besler and de Haseth are open to imposing term limits on commissioners. “Every town needs fresh blood every once in a while,” de Haseth said.
Aaskov opposes the change, citing the difficulty of finding people willing to serve in a small town and the value of experience and institutional knowledge.
Commissioners serve three-year terms and are paid $1,200 a year.

In the days after the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, students from south Palm Beach County schools, including Boca High, West Boca High and Atlantic High in Delray Beach, conducted walkouts and marches in solemn solidarity with Stoneman Douglas students. Seventeen students and teachers were killed at Stoneman Douglas.

ABOVE: Students pause for 17 seconds of silence outside Boca Raton City Hall during a rally against gun violence.Students pause for 17 seconds of silence outside Boca Raton City Hall during a rally against gun violence. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

RIGHT: (l-r) Elena Gaucher and Olivia Wojtecki, both Boca High seniors, and Carah Phillips, a Palm Beach State College student, show support at the ‘Rally to End Gun Violence in America’ outside Delray Beach City Hall.

BELOW: High school and middle school students gather outside Boca Raton City Hall in a rally against gun violence.

County officials hail ninth straight year of record numbers

Visitors fill the lobby of the 200-room Hyatt Place in downtown Boca Raton in February. The hotel reported a strong first year; it opened in December 2016. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Arlene Satchell

Palm Beach County clocked another year of record tourism in 2017, welcoming 7.89 million visitors, a 7.3 percent increase from 2016, the county’s official tourism marketing corporation announced.
Discover The Palm Beaches attributed the increase in visitation to more domestic visitors, growth in groups and meetings and innovative destination marketing campaigns that helped bolster community engagement.
“A successful tourism community equates to a thriving local economy, which is why we’re so proud of nine consecutive years of visitation growth in the Palm Beaches,” Jorge Pesquera, Discover’s president and CEO, said in a news release. “This sustained increase reaffirms the area’s continued ability to compete for global visitors, while supporting nearly 70,000 jobs.”
In 2016, Palm Beach County had a record 7.35 million visitors, up about 6 percent from the 6.9 million who visited in 2015, Discover’s records show. By contrast, the county had 4.12 million visitors in 2009.
The repeat record tourism results augur well for job creation and employment prospects for the region’s future hospitality workers, industry specialists say.
“Decreased visitation means decreased jobs,” said Peter Ricci, director of the hospitality & tourism management program at Florida Atlantic University. “For now, our students continue to get hired at outstanding rates surpassing 90 percent. Most are already employed by junior year and simply stay in roles in the industry upon graduation.”
Last year, the Palm Beaches, as the county is dubbed for tourism marketing purposes, welcomed nearly 8 percent more U.S. visitors than in 2016. The destination’s top domestic markets for increased visitation included New York, with 11 percent, or 1.1 million visitors; Fort Lauderdale/Miami with 8 percent, or 808,700 travelers; Tampa/St. Petersburg, with an 11 percent increase, and Orlando, which jumped 4 percent to 516,800 visitors.
Another top growth market was Washington, D.C., which increased 13 percent to 310,400 visitors. Discover attributed those gains in part to the opening of The Ballpark of The Palm Beaches, the new spring training home of the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals.
In 2017, international visitation to the Palm Beaches rose 0.9 percent to 745,000 travelers overall. However, a handful of key markets saw improvements despite lingering economic and currency exchange pressures, namely Canada, at 2 percent; Argentina, 8 percent; and Brazil, 2 percent.
Canada accounted for 321,270 visitors, while Argentina and Brazil accounted for 36,620 and 28,100, respectively.
County hotels were also fuller in 2017 as travelers booked 4.6 million room nights across the destination, an increase of 4.9 percent from the previous year, Discover noted.
The tourism marketing agency said joint partnerships with the Palm Beach County Convention Center and local hoteliers were instrumental in boosting room night bookings for groups, meetings and conventions.
“We are seeing a significant shift in our ability to attract meetings and conventions throughout the Palm Beaches, and particularly citywide events in West Palm Beach,” Pesquera said. “The demand is likely to support additional room inventory in key cities.”
Management at the Hyatt Place Boca Raton/Downtown also heralded 2017 for capping off a solid first year of operations. The 200-room Hyatt Place at 100 E. Palmetto Park Road opened in December 2016 as Boca’s first downtown hotel.
“Hyatt Place Boca Raton/ Downtown had a great finish to our year one,” said Audra Durham, director of sales. “[We’ve seen] strong demand in this market with a combination of robust corporate, extended stay, group and leisure business.”

By Jane Smith

Hudson Holdings was so confident that the City Commission would postpone reviewing its Midtown Delray project that it printed fliers with the new date: March 6.
“In mutual agreement with the City and in the best interest of Midtown Delray Beach, tonight’s hearing has been rescheduled,” the flier copy read, referring to Feb. 6, the date of the regularly scheduled commission meeting. The flier was found on the chamber floor about 6:20 that evening.
“The flier was made ahead of time and was intended to be handed out if we were granted the postponement,” said Steve Michael, a principal of Hudson Holdings. “Someone from our team must have dropped it.”
The agenda item did come up for discussion about 8 p.m., with city commissioners voting 4-1 to postpone the project review to give planning staff time to evaluate three proposed changes and an update to the landscape plan.
Hudson Holdings appealed to the commission after the city’s Historic Preservation Board rejected Midtown Delray’s plans twice last year.
Commissioner Shelly Petrolia was the dissenting vote. She looked out into the chamber and saw it filled with residents who had hoped to speak on the project. “It’s not right,” she said of the delay.
The attorney and expert witness for the Historic Preservation Trust drove up for the meeting from Miami, said JoAnn Peart, the trust president. “They are costing us a fortune,” she said.
Mayor Cary Glickstein said the project had created a wedge in the community.
“If we have somebody that is proffering positive changes, I think it’s incumbent on the commission to give them the opportunity to do that,” he said.
Michael said his team made changes based on input from two community meetings about the size of the new buildings in Midtown Delray. The latest meeting was held Feb. 1 at the Sundy House, a historic building and home to the first mayor of Delray Beach.
The developer is proposing to drop three of five prior waiver requests, said Neil Schiller, an attorney recently hired by Hudson Holdings. Two waivers are for buildings that exceed the city’s building width of 60 feet.
Building 9, on Southwest First Avenue, now will be split into two buildings; Building 8, on Southwest First Street, will be broken into three buildings; and the building facing Atlantic Avenue will now meet the city’s requirement of 30 feet for the fourth-floor setback, Schiller said.
The changes will result in modest square-foot losses for Midtown Delray, according to revised plans submitted to the city.
• Meeting the setback requirements for the fourth floor will result in 1,675 square feet less of office space in the Atlantic Avenue building.
• Splitting Building 9 in half will give the project 800 square feet less of retail space on the first floors of the two buildings. The top two floors of the split buildings will be dedicated to office space instead of residential. That will result in a combined loss of 1,530 square feet.
• Creating three buildings from Building 8 will give Midtown Delray nine residential inn units with a total of 17,832 square feet. Previously, the development had 12 units with a total of 28,057 square feet.
Midtown Delray sits at the southwest corner of Swinton and Atlantic Avenues in the southern half of the Old School Square Historic Arts District. The area is designated a local historic district. It recently was nominated to be on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Historic Preservation Board rejected Midtown Delray primarily because the new buildings at three and four stories would be massive compared with the one- and two-story historic structures. Board members also did not like that the historic homes would be moved twice: once to make way for an underground garage and the second time to move back to their original locations on new foundations.
In addition, the lush landscaping would be stripped off the western side of a South Swinton Avenue block while the underground garage is built. The developer would pay the city $124,050 to compensate for tree removal, down from $139,800 in December when the Historic Board reviewed the project.
Before reviewing the Midtown Delray agenda items on Feb. 6, city commissioners declared the individuals they had communicated with about the project in a process called ex-parte communication.
The usual names popped up: Hudson Holdings, Schiller, Michael, the project’s land-use attorney Bonnie Miskel, Historic Preservation Board Chairman John Miller and board member Price Patton, and Historic Preservation Trust President Peart.
Then, Commissioner Mitch Katz mentioned Blake MacDiarmid, a campaign strategist whom Vice Mayor Jim Chard is using for his mayoral run. Katz said MacDiarmid called to talk about all things Delray Beach and then asked what was controversial. Katz mentioned Midtown Delray.
Chard didn’t mention MacDiarmid in his ex-parte report.
“We don’t talk about commission business,” Chard said. “We talk about meet-and-greets, polling and things like that.”

Price Patton is a founding partner of The Coastal Star.

By Dan Moffett

Early findings from an engineering consultant are helping to explain why the Inlet Cay neighborhood in Ocean Ridge is prone to street flooding.
After studying the drainage system on the 16-acre island, Robert Higgins told town commissioners on Feb. 12 that the 60-year-old network of pipes does not have the capacity to meet today’s standards.
Higgins said current requirements would call for a system of 18-inch and 24-inch pipes. The island network is made up of 8-inch and 24-inch pipes.
Inlet Cay’s capacity to move water off streets is only a fraction of what it should be, he said. “The limitation on the drainage is the pipe size.”
The deficiency all but guarantees that the neighborhood will have a street flooding event during every rainy season.
Higgins said he reviewed four reports from boring samples from recent years, which found significant concentrations of muck and peat in the island’s soil that are compressing slowly over time.
“The structures are not settling because they’re built on pilings,” Higgins said. “But everything else is settling.”
Higgins is expected to make recommendations on improving the system after completing his study this spring.
In other business:
• During budget workshops last summer, the commission decided to add two patrol officers and a dispatcher to the Police Department to help deal with growing numbers of visitors from across the bridge.
Chief Hal Hutchins told commissioners that the expansion was warranted: “The activity levels we’re seeing on the law enforcement side are increasing every day, based upon outside forces that we can’t control.”
Hutchins moved closer to fully staffing the department when the commission approved his hiring of Officers Lequandra Beckford and Aaron Choban, and dispatcher/clerk Brittney Good.
Beckford is a graduate of Glades Central High School and holds an associate’s degree from Palm Beach State College. She was employed as a corrections officer for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and previously worked for the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office.
Choban graduated from Forest Hill High School and Palm Beach State College Criminal Justice Institute. Good graduated from Santaluces High School and is a Florida-certified EMT.
In January, the town hired Wendy Ghamary of Boynton Beach to fill another dispatcher opening.
Hutchins has two more patrol officer positions to fill to reach the full complement of 24 full-time employees the commission approved. The expanded department’s salaries amount to about $1.4 million annually.
• At Vice Mayor James Bonfiglio’s urging, commissioners approved designating Commissioner Don MaGruder to be the town’s point person on issues related to the sand transfer plant at Boynton Inlet.
MaGruder’s task is to monitor a deepening dispute between Manalapan and Palm Beach County over a plan to install seven beach groins in South Palm Beach to slow erosion. Manalapan officials believe the groins would steal sand heading south and damage the town’s beaches.
Manalapan commissioners have suggested they might not continue to cooperate with the sand transfer plant’s operation if the county goes through with the groin plan.
Without the transfer plant, sand can’t move south around the jetty to nourish Ocean Ridge’s beaches.
• Town Manager Jamie Titcomb says residents should plan on sticking around after the next commission meeting on March 5.
The town is planning to honor Mayor Geoff Pugh with a reception marking his 18 years of government service to Ocean Ridge. Pugh decided not to run for another term in the March 13 election.