I moved to Ocean Boulevard in Delray Beach in February 2000. Back then the water was a beautiful Bahamian aqua blue, crystal clear much of the time.
I am not sure which year, but Delray Beach “replenished” its beach, starting 11/2 miles north of our beach. After the first season, the sand that was used for replenishment, which was light brown, moved south and completely changed our water color. There was some silt from this brown sand, but not too bad, as the water would clean in a day or so, after a storm. But the frequent aqua blue was gone. 
Now, some years later, Delray again replenishes and this time with gray sand loaded with silt. Today the water is never as clear as before the first replenishment.
I now live in Highland Beach and we have both Delray’s two shades of sand and silt, plus with the southeast wind that prevails here, we have all Boca’s sand and silt, also!
Bottom line, what that ship [“Unusual ship is surveying sand on ocean floor for future projects,” Coastal Star, April 2019] should have been looking for was some sand that matched the white, pure sand that we had in 2000.
No more off-color sand that contains silt. Tallahassee does not care, so we have to require the use of sand that will return our water to aqua blue and crystal clear.
It’s out there, we just need someone who cares about the people’s environment.
This off-color sand and too often murky water is not good for tourism.

Fred Taubert
Highland Beach 

Contrary to Richard Lucibella’s angry advertisement in The Coastal Star, this paper has been the voice of the people and represents nearly all of the Ocean Ridge residents. As always, The Coastal Star got the story right, reporting that attorney Richard Slinkman characterized Lucibella as “a sad, little, entitled man who feels that, because he is wealthy, he is above the law and doesn’t need to take responsibility for his own improper actions.”
The quote captures this story in a nutshell.
Good reporting, no malarkey.
Terry Brown
Ocean Ridge

By Dan Moffett

Ocean Ridge commissioners went to a goal-setting workshop thinking their biggest challenge was rebuilding the town’s drainage and wastewater systems.
Then Police Chief Hal Hutchins told them how desperately relations between his officers and residents need rebuilding.
“Right now, unfortunately we’re at a breaking point and I need to come up with a solution to fix the problem,” Hutchins said.
The chief asked the commission to spend about $20,000 to equip his officers with body cameras so their encounters with residents can be recorded.
“There is an air of distrust of the police in the town of Ocean Ridge,” he said during the April 18 workshop. “I continue to hear that. I have been receiving complaints against officers from members of the community that I believe are probably directed at a specific group of officers, for whatever reason.”
Hutchins said he polled his officers and they unanimously supported getting body cameras. He told the commission he “never felt that it is more necessary than now” to use the recording devices.
“I would say the officers are not feeling well and safe in their job,” the chief said.
Mayor Steve Coz and Vice Mayor Don MaGruder echoed the same response to Hutchins’ request: “It’s disturbing.”
Commissioner Kristine de Haseth said giving police the cameras was a way of giving “a vote of confidence” to the department.
“I want that message to be very loud and clear,” de Haseth said. “Because the small faction in this town that is being divisive and disruptive is shameful and I’m embarrassed by it and it should not be affecting morale.”
Relations between residents and police have been strained since October 2016, when Ocean Ridge police arrested former Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella at his home after a shooting incident. Lucibella accused the arresting officers of overreacting.
On Feb. 1, a six-person jury found Lucibella guilty of a lesser charge of misdemeanor battery but cleared him on felony charges of resisting arrest with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer. Lucibella is appealing the misdemeanor conviction. One of the arresting officers, Nubia Plesnik, is suing Lucibella in civil court, accusing him of battery and claiming injuries.
Commissioners agreed to put Hutchins’ request for cameras in the 2019-20 budget discussions. Coz said the commission also “should discuss some form of communication” with residents to improve relations with police.
In other business:
• The commission unanimously agreed to raise acting Town Manager Tracey Stevens’ salary to $108,000 and building official Wayne Cameron’s to $91,000, effective immediately. Commissioners also approved an immediate $6,500 raise for each of the town’s two police lieutenants and approved a raise for their lead full-time maintenance employee to $51,000.
• Stevens said the town expects to have about $600,000 in uncommitted funds for the next fiscal year that could go toward capital projects.
Town Engineer Lisa Tropepe gave the commission a list of 22 possible storm drainage projects to consider, totaling about $180,000. Among the highest priority are improvements to Spanish River Drive and the Inlet Cay neighborhoods.
“We’ve decided we’re going to put a lot of money toward drainage,” Coz said.
Tropepe also recommended beginning a maintenance program for the town’s 143 fire hydrants.
• MaGruder proposed paying $22,246 — Ocean Ridge’s share of a vulnerability assessment study — to the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact. The study results would help the town develop a long-term plan to defend itself against sea rise, he said.

ABOVE: Boat owners at the Delray Beach Municipal Marina’s 24 slips were supposed to have moved their boats by May 1 to make way for renovations to the marina. BELOW LEFT: Marty Shapiro lives with his dog, Kosmos, on a trawler named Valkyries. BELOW RIGHT: Carlos Nin with his 50-foot Riviera powerboat. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Willie Howard

Boat owners were making plans to leave the Delray Beach Municipal Marina in mid-April as the city prepared the aging marina for a yearlong renovation that will include raising the sea wall to alleviate tidal flooding on Marine Way.
The city told owners of boats moored in the marina’s 24 slips to leave by May 1, even though the start date for construction remained uncertain.
As of mid-April, the city was reviewing bids and negotiating with contractors for the job, according to Tom Mueller, project manager for the Wantman Group, an engineering firm that designed the marina renovations. Permits for the work are in hand, Mueller said.
The marina overhaul means boat owners must find new homes for their vessels, and in some cases themselves, for at least a year.
Bill and Prudence Bains have lived on their 39-foot Carver at the city marina for eight years. They plan to have their boat hauled out for service at Murrelle Marine in Lantana, then head north to visit relatives in Rhode Island.
Bill Bains said he and his wife hope to move their boat back into a slip at the city marina after the renovation is complete. “Delray’s a nice town,” Bains said.
Carlos Nin, who lives in Delray Beach and enjoys spending weekends on his 50-foot Riviera powerboat at the marina, said he would move his boat east across the Intracoastal Waterway to the Delray Beach Yacht Club, but not until the May 1 deadline.
Nin said many other tenants at the city marina plan to move their boats to Suntex Marina in Lantana.
Marty Shapiro, who lives on a trawler named Valkyries at the marina with his dog, Kosmo, is using the marina renovation as an opportunity to feed his wanderlust.
Shapiro plans to take his boat to the Turks and Caicos Islands north of the Dominican Republic after spending a few months preparing for the journey at Suntex Marina.
Like Bains, Shapiro hopes to return to the city marina after renovations are complete — but only if the city doesn’t raise his rent too much beyond the current monthly rates: $22 a foot for a regular slip or $23 a foot for one of the eight live-aboard slips.
The city has not yet set prices for slips after the renovated marina reopens, said Delray Beach Parks and Recreation Director Sam Metott, whose department operates the marina.
Opened more than 80 years ago, the city marina has deteriorated in recent years, according to a summary of the marina renovation plans on the city’s website.
Pilings supporting the 704-foot sea wall and 10 finger piers have been compromised — problems compounded by exceptionally high tides in recent years have created an “aggressive saltwater environment” in which water rises over the top of the sea wall and waves from passing boats roll onto Marine Way.
Mueller said the marina’s rebuilt sea wall will be about 2 feet higher than the existing sea wall and will be comparable to the newly elevated sea wall at nearby Veterans Park.
In addition to the higher sea wall, the marina renovation will include new floating docks, new electric service for boats, new lighting, new landscaping, wireless internet service for boaters and a new sewage pump-out station near the center of the marina.
“It can only add to the value of the whole city,” said Earle Myers, a Delray Beach resident who enjoys walking on Marine Way by the marina. “Who comes to Delray and doesn’t walk along the Intracoastal?”

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach’s outside counsel responded to fired City Manager Mark Lauzier’s demand for $500,000 in severance and damages with an April 15 letter that read: “Mr. Lauzier’s claims are wholly without merit.”
Even so, the letter gave him an opportunity to clear his name before the City Commission. As of press time, he had not responded.
Lauzier, who was fired unanimously by city commissioners on March 1, had attorney Isidro Garcia of West Palm Beach send an April 5 letter to Mayor Shelly Petrolia.
The letter alleges that Lauzier was fired during a “sham hearing” that was not properly noticed, was based on a “fraudulent audit” and that his rights were violated.
The letter also said the firing might have been done in retaliation for Lauzier’s disallowing the city to pay for the airline ticket of Petrolia’s son to accompany her to Tallahassee.
Lauzier is seeking a total of $500,000, including $279,200 of benefits consisting of 20 weeks of pay at his last salary, COBRA health insurance payments for one year, and earned leave, sick and vacation days.
The Lauzier letter alleged that the March 1 meeting was not properly noticed. The City Charter requires a 72-hour notice period from the time the meeting is called and the vote to terminate.
City Attorney Lynn Gelin delayed the start of the March 1 meeting by 15 minutes to satisfy the 72-hour requirement.
The audit was a report made by the city’s new internal auditor, Julia Davidyan. Voters approved the auditor’s position in March 2016, but she was not hired until August 2018.
In February, she wrote “Concerns at the Top,” a report documenting several concerns about Lauzier that she had observed.
Davidyan presented her findings to city commissioners individually and to the City Commission on March 1, consistent with the City Charter, attorney Brett Schneider wrote to Garcia.
Schneider’s response also states that Lauzier’s rights were not violated under the 14th Amendment because he was given sufficient opportunity to clear his name at the March 1 meeting. Schneider also said the city is willing to allow Lauzier to appear before the commission for “the specific purpose of clearing his name.”
As to the whistleblower charge, Schneider wrote: “Mayor Petrolia was specifically told that she could purchase tickets and other items for her husband/son using the city’s credit card, provided she reimbursed the city for said charges (which she did).”
Petrolia traveled to Tallahassee for Palm Beach County Days on March 5 and 6, the opening days of the Florida legislative session. Her 15-year-old son, Anthony, accompanied her because he was going to be a legislative page for that opening week. Her husband also is named Anthony.
Despite the city’s position that Lauzier was not wrongfully terminated, Schneider also wrote that the city is willing to participate in pre-lawsuit mediation with Lauzier.
Delray Beach is suggesting that professional employment mediator Jeff Grubman or Robyn Hankins lead the mediation effort, Schneider wrote.
Lauzier made $244,000 annually as the city manager. He was Delray Beach’s highest-paid employee.
In another Lauzier-related situation, city staff met with India Adams, fired from her position as assistant city manager in early March.
Adams has hired attorney Carrie Robinson of Boca Raton to ask for 90 days’ severance pay as well as payment for her unused vacation and sick time. Adams was an assistant city manager whom Lauzier recruited from his former office in Tacoma, Wash.
The city’s outside counsel sent an April 23 letter to Adams’ attorney stating the city’s position that Adams “was terminated for official misconduct and/or for reasons that make severance pay unavailable.”
Reasons cited include: falsifying a salary memo for Vince Roberts in order to receive authorization to pay him significantly more than the minimum pay for that position; abusing her leave privilege by taking at least 80 hours off without using her accrued leave hours, and influencing the assistant director of the Neighborhood and Community Services Department to hire her brother for a paid summer internship.
Even so, the city is willing to negotiate a severance settlement that is mutually agreeable, according to the letter.
When Adams first came to the city in January 2018, she was an assistant to the city manager. Her salary was $82,350, plus benefits. On Aug. 1, Lauzier promoted Adams to be assistant city manager, raising her salary to $120,000.

A building code change approved by the Manalapan Commission could allow three single-family homes to be built on the first eastern lots north of the Boynton Inlet. Rendering provided

By Dan Moffett

Manalapan commissioners took a first step toward opening development on the town’s southern oceanfront by approving building code changes that would allow primary residences east of State Road A1A.
The code changes have a narrow impact, affecting only seven lots, divided by the highway, and adjacent to the town’s entrance at the Boynton Beach Inlet. Palm Beach developer Jeff Greene owns three of the lots and wants to use them to build homes along the ocean.
Manalapan’s traditional building pattern in that zoning sector has allowed primary residences on the Intracoastal side of A1A, and only beach houses, cabanas and decks on the east. The new building rules commissioners approved for setbacks and lot coverage reverse that existing pattern.
Greene and other property owners had argued that most of their land mass was along the ocean, so it made no sense to force home construction on slivers of lots along the west side of the highway. The town’s zoning board agreed.
The commission voted 4-1 for the changes during the town meeting on April 23, with Commissioner Hank Siemon absent and Mayor Pro Tem Jack Doyle voting no. Doyle had voiced concern about potential storm damage. The state does not allow construction of sea walls in that part of town, so sand dunes will provide the only protection for houses and the road.
The last word on what development will look like in the area will come from the state. The Department of Environmental Protection must approve the final building plans of projects, and construction could be many months away.
“At the end of the day, our job is to represent the community of homeowners and properties and protect the town,” Mayor Keith Waters said. “We are doing that. I think this is something that will be good for the town and certainly good for the homeowners. I don’t see any negative effects.”
Waters said because of the lots’ history and location, plans to develop them are likely to undergo “greater scrutiny” than with parcels elsewhere in the town. He said the commission intends to make sure that construction “is in keeping with the character of this community.”

Building buy a no-go
In other business, Town Manager Linda Stumpf told the commission that efforts to negotiate a deal to buy the vacant bank building at Plaza del Mar have failed.
Stumpf said a New York-based buyer has offered the full $1.6 million asking price for the former BB&T building — a number that’s higher than the town is willing to go.
Commissioners had hoped to buy the property and use it as headquarters for Manalapan’s expanding Police Department.
“There were two offers on the table, and theirs was substantially higher than ours, with no contingencies,” Stumpf said. “The price was well above our appraisal.”
The sale was expected to close before May 1, and the new owner will inherit at least two potential complications.
Because decades ago a service station operated on the site, there may be environmental contamination problems from buried fuel tanks. Also, last year the town placed a moratorium on business development at the plaza. No work can go forward on the property until the commission lifts the moratorium.

By Jane Smith

MBR Construction won the bid to construct the second phase of the master beach plan for Delray Beach.
That phase includes beach promenade lighting and intersection improvements between Casuarina Road north to nearly George Bush Boulevard. The project is supposed to be finished in seven months.
Commissioners approved the Fort Lauderdale firm’s bid on April 16, even though at $3.3 million it was about $800,000 more than the bid from West Construction of Lantana.
The reason?
On April 3, West Construction was sent a “non-responsible letter” by Jennifer Alvarez, the city’s purchasing director.
The letter listed three major problems with the first phase of the NE Second Avenue project:
• Construction was completed six months behind schedule with numerous change orders.
• Sidewalks were not wheelchair-accessible under federal guidelines.
• Paperwork was not produced to close out the project with the city and the Florida Department of Transportation. FDOT owns State Road A1A, which lies just west of the municipal beach.
West Construction also was the successful bidder on the city’s eight lifeguard stands. That contract also had problems, Alvarez wrote:
• Construction was completed three months behind schedule with numerous change orders.
• Problems were found, including the installation of non-specified stainless-steel hardware when the contract specified 316 grade stainless steel, and roofs were not installed to the specification within the scheduled time.
“Therefore, West Construction Inc. is deemed ineligible for award,” Alvarez wrote.
The second phase of the beach master plan was on the April 16 consent agenda, meaning it was not discussed before the commission voted on all the consent agenda items.
Also on the April 16 consent agenda, commissioners approved hiring Mathews Consulting of West Palm Beach for $256,000 to monitor and inspect the work of MBR for the second phase of the beach master plan.

By Dan Moffett

Briny Breezes council members are considering hiring a private security firm to work with police as the town prepares to seek applicants for a new law enforcement contract.
Briny’s contract with Boynton Beach police expires on Oct. 1, and Town Manager Dale Sugerman told the council he hopes to advertise for bidders on a new deal this month.
Alderwoman Kathy Gross said the council should explore hiring private security guards to improve the town’s policing and maybe save money.
“Looking at what we have that happens here in Briny, I don’t see why we actually pay this much money for law enforcement to come around occasionally and not be here all the time,” Gross said. “So they can’t even see the things going on.”
Gross said Briny has problems with nonresidents parking in private driveways and using the swimming pool. Whereas police are reluctant or unable to deal with some of those annoying issues, private security guards might be more effective.
Gross suggested the council look at paying less for police and using some of the town’s security budget to hire private guards.
Sugerman said that the town could hire a private firm, but that wouldn’t substitute for certified police protection.
“The dilemma is private security firms do not have what are called police powers — the ability to arrest,” he said. “That can only come from a law enforcement agency.”
State law limits municipalities to contracting only with contiguous jurisdictions for police service. So for Briny Breezes, the only options are with Boynton Beach, Ocean Ridge and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
Council President Sue Thaler suggested the town consider looking at a mix of services, using a private firm to supplement the work of a public agency. Manalapan, Hunter’s Run and the village of Golf are among South Florida municipalities that use some level of private security.
Town Attorney Keith Davis advised the council to go forward with advertising for law enforcement services. Davis said when applicants come forward, the council will have the chance to question them on specifics about their enforcement limits and working with private firms.
In 2016, Briny ended a three-decade relationship with Ocean Ridge’s police when the town signed on with Boynton Beach’s department, agreeing on a three-year contact for $618,792. Boynton’s price was roughly 11 percent lower than what Ocean Ridge proposed for virtually identical services.
Boynton Beach patrols the town six times daily, not including responses to residents’ calls, according to Capt. Chris Yannuzzi. So the department on average sends patrol cars to Briny close to 200 times each month.
Some Ocean Ridge commissioners have expressed regret about losing the Briny contract and support trying to win it back. Boynton Beach has about 155 sworn officers who police roughly 75,000 people; Ocean Ridge has 16 full-time officers who police 1,700.

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach city commissioners conceded in mid-April that the diesel-spewing trolleys would have to operate on Atlantic Avenue for another two months. If they hadn’t, First Transit would have stopped driving the city trolleys on April 30.
The reason: The fixed-route contract with the Delray Downtowner won’t be ready until mid-May at the earliest. The cost: $80,000, which will be paid by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to First Transit.
The free trolleys have operated every year since 2006. Two trolleys operate on one route, which has 23 stops between the Tri-Rail station on Congress Avenue and the municipal beach. The route travels through Delray Beach’s downtown business core of Atlantic Avenue.
When the trolley service abruptly stopped last fall, city commissioners received complaints about employees not being able to get to work, according to the backup materials provided to the commission for its April 16 meeting.
The Downtown Development Authority and business community stressed that tourists would not have access to free trolley services previously provided, the backup material also stated.
The extra time granted in April is needed to allow the city’s CRA staff to finish negotiating the contract with the Downtowner team. That group promised three vans with 14 seats for the fixed-route service. The vans, which would be powered by propane gas, would be decked out to look like surfboards with a fin on each roof.
The vans will stop at the Old School Square garage to pick up passengers who want to go east and eventually to the beach.
That stop would create a park-and-ride situation for passengers from outside the city, a Downtowner principal said in March.
That route will not travel east on Atlantic into the often-clogged downtown core. Instead, the vans will go north on Swinton Avenue, make a right at Northeast First Street, stop at the OSS garage and then continue east on Northeast First Street to Federal Highway.
The city also wants to provide a marketing/transition plan for the new vehicles and the stops, according to Laura Simon, the DDA executive director. She spoke about the plan at the DDA’s Downtown Town Hall on April 17.
The Delray Downtowner team was also awarded the point-to-point shuttle service contract in March.
Under that contract, the firm will lease nine global electric motorcar vehicles, with four picking up passengers in the CRA area at any one time while the others recharge.
That area includes Atlantic Avenue from Interstate 95 east to the beach and one block north and south along A1A.

By Steve Plunkett

Resident Martin O’Boyle and town officials are girding again for a court battle — this time over how much O’Boyle’s attorneys should be paid in a public records case they won.
O’Boyle’s legal team tallied up its costs at $61,800 and offered to settle the debt for $35,000, Gulf Stream’s outside attorney, Robert Sweetapple, told town commissioners April 12.
Commissioners rejected the settlement offer after Sweetapple told them an expert who reviewed the bills decided even $35,000 was not reasonable. He said he would argue Gulf Stream should pay $10,000.
“At the O’Boyle Law Firm, in their billings, there are over one dozen time keepers who put in billing on this matter — over a dozen,” Sweetapple said.
“On this small public-records case,” Mayor Scott Morgan said.
Sweetapple said the firm, which is headed by O’Boyle’s son, Jonathan, said it worked 44,000 hours compared to 8,700 hours the town’s legal team needed.
“It appears to me to be a classic case of churning,” Morgan said.
But Sweetapple acknowledged the town might not win its argument.
“There’s always a risk that a judge is just going to, you know, split the baby,” he said.
An April 23 hearing to decide the fees was postponed after Elaine Johnson James, another O’Boyle attorney, told the Circuit Court judge there was not enough time to prepare following the Town Commission’s decision to fight. Among other conflicts, James had been subpoenaed for a hearing that day on the validity of a divorcing Gulf Stream couple’s prenuptial agreement.
“The imminent Easter weekend, and the schedules of the parties, their counsel and the witnesses make it impracticable to complete the discovery and report on the issues as to which there is disagreement before April 23, 2019,” James wrote in her motion.
The hearing will be rescheduled for some time in August or September, Judge Edward Artau said.
Last December, the town and O’Boyle resolved nine other lawsuits between them, with Gulf Stream admitting that it violated the state’s Public Records Act in four cases and paying O’Boyle $15,000 to drop the remaining five.
Both sides are negotiating how much O’Boyle’s attorneys will be paid in the four cases settled in his favor. Each party is paying its own legal bills in the five dismissed suits.
The nine cases were all that were left of 44 lawsuits that arose from more than 2,500 requests for public records by O’Boyle and fellow resident Chris O’Hare, town officials said. The town and O’Hare signed a settlement in 2017.
In other town business on April 12, a Comcast subcontractor told commissioners that work to connect homes via underground conduits would take until the end of June. Previously he had estimated he would finish in April.

By Dan Moffett

Delray Beach developer Anthony Pugliese III has lost another court decision in his fight to avoid paying $23.1 million to the estate of Subway restaurant founder Fred DeLuca.
On April 10, the 4th District Court of Appeal rejected without comment Pugliese’s request for a new trial in the case of the failed partnership with DeLuca that once had grandiose plans for building a sprawling eco-city named Destiny on 41,000 acres near Yeehaw Junction.
West Palm Beach attorney Rick Hutchison called the appeal court ruling “definitive and the end of litigation” in what was a 10-year legal battle between the two businessmen. DeLuca died of leukemia at 67 four years ago, and his wife, Elisabeth, continued his case.
In 2015, Pugliese pleaded no contest to fraud and theft charges after admitting in court depositions that he created sham companies with phony addresses and fake invoices to siphon off about $1.2 million of DeLuca’s money. Pugliese served four months of a six-month jail sentence.
Pugliese and DeLuca had accused each other of fraud, with the developer suing the Subway magnate for $5 billion in civil court. Pugliese blamed DeLuca for an illegal financing scheme that allegedly profited him more than $20 million.
Each accused the other of stealing Destiny’s money and using it for lavish personal expenditures. But the courts have sided with DeLuca.
In 2017, after a five-week jury trial, a Palm Beach County circuit judge ruled that Pugliese should pay $4 million for breaching a contract with DeLuca and another $8.7 for civil theft. The balance of the $23.1 million bill, roughly $10.4 million, goes to cover DeLuca’s legal fees.
Pugliese, 72, could ask the Florida Supreme Court to consider the case but the terse rejection by the appeals court makes the prospects for getting a new trial seem unlikely.

County Commissioner Robert Weinroth (left) toured property next to the development site with residents and county engineers. He says the county is working to identify and consider fixes to potential drainage issues. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

The pace of construction has picked up for the Gulf Stream Views townhouse development in recent weeks, and so has the project’s pursuit of required permits and government approvals.
On April 25, Palm Beach County building officials rejected an appeal submitted the day before to the Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals by four residents of the County Pocket.
Karl Hoffman, Paul Lambert and Glenn and Marie Chapman, citing concerns about drainage problems for neighboring properties, asked the county to issue a stop-work order for the project “until a comprehensive stormwater master plan and funding strategy can be approved for the area.”
The county attorney’s office denied the request without comment.
The same week, project engineers for the developer submitted a revised flooding map for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The map identifies the site between Briny Breezes and the County Pocket as an area with a 1 in 500 annual chance of flood hazard, a favorable assessment that would allow the project to go forward.
The current FEMA rating is a 1 in 100 annual chance of flood hazard, which would stop the development from getting a certificate of occupancy.
If FEMA accepts the revised map, then a 120-day period of public comment begins before the designation becomes official.
On April 9, newly seated District 4 County Commissioner Robert Weinroth inspected the construction site, along with county zoning and engineering officials, and Briny Breezes Council President Sue Thaler. Residents from Briny Breezes and the County Pocket told them about their concerns that the project will cause drainage problems in the neighborhood.
“I think one of the things the town recognizes is that their infrastructure is very old,” Weinroth said afterward. “As we did that tour, we recognized that even the drainage that was in place was not properly maintained.”
He said it’s “unfortunate” that the historical use of the development’s lot as a drainage field would not continue, but the county is listening to residents.
“I think the county is working with the town to try to identify the drainage issues there to see what can be done,” Weinroth said. “But as far as the landowner that’s doing the development, I think they’re doing what they can to address the drainage on their property.”

The revised area flood map sent for FEMA approval would give the construction site a 1 in 500 annual chance of flood hazard as opposed to the 1 in 100 annual chance of surrounding areas shown in blue. Map provided

New Jersey-based NL Living wants to build 14 townhomes on the 2-acre parcel south of Briny Breezes Boulevard that for decades has absorbed runoff from the neighborhood.
Last month, contractors began installing 79 catchment chambers, designed to capture up to 84,000 gallons of storm-water and then release it slowly underground. Project engineers have assured residents the development will hold all the stormwater that comes onto it.
Rachel Streitfeld, the Miami-Dade County lawyer who represented the four pocket residents, isn’t so sure. Streitfeld called the county’s decisions to give the developers permits “erroneous, dangerous and injurious.” She requested an expedited hearing to argue the residents’ case — which the county denied.
Streitfeld said the project presented an “egregious incompatibility with the surrounding existing residential communities.”
Cited in the appeal request was an analysis by Jim Bolleter, an engineer with Ecology and Environment Inc. of Wellington, whom the residents hired.
“Regardless of how Gulf Stream Views handles their drainage,” Bolleter wrote, “increasing the site elevation is anticipated to worsen the flooding problems to the north, south, and immediately west of the site since stormwater from the surrounding area has less surface area to percolate into.”
Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, organized the tour with Weinroth and other officials. She said the coalition does not oppose the project, but it does want residents’ concerns to be taken seriously.
An event to raise money for legal fees has been organized by neighborhood residents and will be held 4-9 p.m. May 25 at Nomad Surf Shop.
De Haseth, who is also an Ocean Ridge town commissioner, said the county can’t simply tell residents “sorry, your neighborhood’s old, so we’re done here.” She said there’s still time left to deal with potential problems.
“This is the beginning of a conversation,” she said. “It’s not the end of a conversation.”

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach businessman Billy Himmelrich filed his lawsuit too early against the city, a circuit court judge ruled on April 26.
Judge Jaimie Goodman ruled that Himmelrich and his business partner’s Bert Harris claim was premature, “not yet ripe,” because the partners had not filed an official plan to build more than three stories in the downtown when the city rejected the plan.
Himmelrich texted “No comment” on April 30, when asked whether he would appeal. He and his partner have 30 days to appeal the ruling.
The Bert Harris Act, a state law, protects individual property rights. It allows governments to change their land development rules and requires written notice of the change be mailed to the affected property owners.
Delray Beach sends its notices via the U.S. Postal Service regular mail.
“The Florida Statute notice requirements do not require confirmation of receipt of notices,” Tim Stillings, Delray Beach’s development services director, wrote last year in response to how the city tracks the notices. “When we send notices, we keep a record of the mailing labels.
Stillings was not employed with the city when the downtown height restriction was passed in 2015.
Himmelrich, who attended the 2015 hearings on restricting the height, said he and his business partner were not notified in writing, as required under the Bert Harris Act.
In May 2018, Himmelrich and his business partner had sued the city for $6.9 million to be able to build four stories on their parcels just east of the Old School Square Cultural Center. They own two parking lots and two buildings that house Tramonti and Cabana El Rey restaurants. Both restaurants have long-term leases that expire in 2024, Himmelrich has said.
Then-City Attorney Max Lohman, who was not with Delray Beach in 2015, brought forth a settlement agreement last fall that called for carving out the Himmelrich parcels from the downtown. At the time, he said the settlement is not about the merits of the case but “about certainty.”
On Sept. 25, the commission took its first vote, 3-2, for the settlement. Lohman then canceled the city’s motion to dismiss the hearing, set for Oct. 19.
But on Oct. 9, when commissioners heard from the public, they voted 3-2 against settling. Mayor Shelly Petrolia and Commissioners Bill Bathurst and Ryan Boylston voted for letting the judge decide the merits of the $6.9 million lawsuit.

Highland Beach resident John Ross galvanized voters’ opposition to proposals that called for spending up to $45 million on improvements along A1A. ‘No was the message,’ he said of the idea for the shirts. ‘It just said it.’ Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

John Ross didn’t plan to start a movement in Highland Beach. He just wanted to bring people together in opposition to town plans to spend up to $45 million of taxpayer money on improvements along State Road A1A.
In the process of fighting City Hall on one issue, however, Ross’ grassroots Committee to Save Highland Beach has done something larger — bringing people from throughout the town together to get involved in local government.
“Our goal is to restore democracy to Highland Beach,” said Ross, who is credited with helping to overwhelmingly defeat three ballot initiatives linked to the A1A improvements.
At 71, the six-year Highland Beach resident — along with a few friends — came up with the idea of sending out daily email blasts urging residents to vote “no” when they went to the polls in March.
They were surprised by what happened next.
“I thought I would send out a couple of emails and everyone would be annoyed and that would be the end of it,” said Ross, whose first email blast went out early in January. “Then it caught fire.”
Ross continues to send out emails — although no longer on a daily basis — to nearly 1,100 addresses of Highland Beach residents. He organized a community forum last month featuring two residents who were hoping to be appointed by the Town Commission to a vacant vice mayor seat.
In light of Ross’ professional background, it’s not surprising he became involved in local government.
Before retiring, Ross lived in northern Virginia where, among other things, he worked for companies that created information technology services for local and state governments. In New York City, the company he worked for helped develop systems to process 30,000 parking tickets a day.
“I made my living helping governments become more efficient,” he said.
He has a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration and served as a political consultant for a short time.
Soon after arriving in Highland Beach, Ross was recruited to serve as first president of the newly formed Highland Beach Coastal Democratic Club. His interest in government led him to make an unsuccessful run for an open Town Commission seat. He finished a distant second in a four-person race.
“That was stupid,” he said. “I am a terrible candidate.”
He doesn’t plan on running for public office again. “It was horrible.”
Ross displayed some marketing skill with a campaign to stop the town’s A1A projects with signs that simply said “No.”
When signs were taken down, he asked people to write “no” on shirts.
“No was the message,” he said. “It just said it.”
During public comment at a Town Commission meeting, Ross appeared at the podium wearing a “No” shirt that his wife, Maxine, had made for him. Asked to cover it up because Town Hall is a campaign-free zone, Ross instead took off the shirt, and while audience members chuckled and cheered, he put on a plain shirt he had brought with him.
He made his point while making people laugh.
“It’s all for mental health,” he said. “If you don’t have a sense of humor, what good is life.”


Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A. I grew up and went to school in Brooklyn, N.Y. Only the strong survived growing up in Brooklyn back then.

Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A. Fried burgers in a 15-cent burger joint. Painted houses. Worked in the men’s shelter in New York City. Political consultant many years ago. Developed and implemented large-scale information technology systems for governments at all levels, as well as some of the world’s largest financial services firms and became chief information officer of a $12 billion IT firm. 
I was at my best leading projects with a prominent West Coast financial services firm, and a leading New York City-based bond rating agency during the financial crises of 2008. Also, I fully integrated the IT infrastructure of a multinational IT consulting firm for the firm I was CIO of on day one of its acquisition. 

Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today? 
A. Take your time, and be yourself. Happenstance will take care of the rest.

Q. How did you choose to make your home in Highland Beach?
A. We found the right ambience in a dog-friendly town that was convenient to the things we liked. I cannot imagine living without a dog.

Q. What is your favorite part about living in Highland Beach? 
A. I like the small-town feel of the place. It’s remarkable for a town in the middle of Palm Beach County. And the people I meet are generally smarter than I am.

Q. What book are you reading now?
A. Two: Low Chicago, which is actually a group of short stories set in a common alternative reality, and Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, which is the story of a Silicon Valley startup gone terribly wrong.
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax? 
A. Very eclectic taste in music, from rock to reggae to Broadway and classical. I’m a big fan of Gilbert and Sullivan and Toots and the Maytals. I sort of forgot how to relax some time ago, but I’m most relaxed fishing.

Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions? 
A. “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,” which is also a fine album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. Several. Some great teachers and coaches and a few extraordinary bosses and colleagues. But I don’t think I’ve made many life decisions — just sort of one thing leading to another.

Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
A. John Belushi.

ABOVE: Arnie Kass of Boynton Beach has been lawn bowling for more than 10 years and is a member of the Delray Beach Lawn Bowling Club, which plays at Veterans Park. The club dates to 1963. BELOW: A wooden board with players’ names serves as a schedule of matches. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Brian Biggane

In Delray Beach, lawn bowlers have history on their side, pickleballers have the numbers, and the City Commission and Parks and Recreation Department are caught in the middle.
Widely considered the fastest-growing sport in the United States, pickleball has quickly built a strong following in Delray Beach, with membership of the Delray Beach Pickleball Club growing to 271 in just 18 months since it was founded in November 2017.
The city has responded to that growth by converting two tennis courts at the Delray Beach Tennis Center to eight pickleball courts, and providing access to indoor courts at Pompey Park on weekdays and outdoor courts at both the community center and Catherine Strong Park.
But with 50-60 players showing up on a daily basis at the parks, club members packed a city workshop in January to demand more.
The city’s solution: Veterans Park, where a few shuffleboard courts sit idle adjacent to a 120-by-120-foot tract used by the Delray Beach Lawn Bowling Club that could be converted to as many as a dozen pickleball courts.
Needless to say, the lawn bowlers — who number 50-60 during the winter months and 35-40 in summer — aren’t happy with that prospect.
“I wish them well,” lawn bowler Richard Flater said, “but they can go anywhere. This is the only place we have.”
“The goal is to be able to accommodate both groups,” said Parks and Recreation Director Sam Metott, who became point man on the project recently when Suzanne Fisher was promoted to assistant city manager. “We can’t put them both in the same spot.”
A plaque hanging in the Veterans Park clubhouse dates the origin of the Lawn Bowling Club to 1963, when John F. Kennedy was president and Delray Beach was a sleepy beach town. The game’s popularity in England and its onetime colonies such as Australia, New Zealand and India has meant that visitors from all those countries have made the trip and played at Veterans Park.
The game has also made its mark in French-speaking parts of Canada, prompting dozens of Québécois to make winter homes in south Palm Beach County.
Howie Herman is one club member who can attest to the game’s appeal.
“The reason I came to Delray in the first place is because of this club,” Herman said. “We were looking for a place to vacation, came down for a couple weeks, I started bowling with this club and I bought in this area.
“We shop in Delray Beach, we eat in Delray Beach. Will I continue to live here if they take it away? I can’t say that. We might move to the west coast (of Florida) to have a club.”
Therein lies a bigger problem. While pickleball courts seem to be popping up everywhere, the only other lawn bowling club south of Sarasota is in Naples.
Flater said converting the club to pickleball would be a cultural setback.
“Do you want to keep the Colony Hotel, the Sundy House, places with a little bit of history, or do you want the latest fad to dominate? We’re trying to make that argument,” he said.
Glenn Kessler, who took over as president of the Delray Beach Pickleball Club in March, has his own arguments.
“When they played the U.S. Open in Naples in 2016, they had 600 players,” Kessler said. “In 2017 they had 1,200 players, and in 2018 they were up to 2,300, coming from 48 states and one guy from India. So, the sport is just exploding, and my sense is Delray wants to be part of that explosion.”
And while Delray Beach has become a world-renowned tennis mecca, the city has expressed a desire to go even further.
“We’ve really been trying to make Delray not just a tennis town but a racket sport destination,” Metott said. “We do a number of events now, on the beach for beach tennis, and obviously pickleball just keeps exploding. More than 40 people play at the Tennis Center every single night, all weekend long, and they can’t get enough.”
One difference between the two sports is noise. While the rolling of balls toward a jack — a white ball about the size of a cue ball that is identical to the one used in bocce — barely makes a sound, the clack-clack-clack of the plastic pickleball off plastic rackets could change the image of what has always been a peaceful park on the Intracoastal, not to mention annoy tenants in a multistory condo just across the water. The city has commissioned a noise study and Metott said its results could be a game-changer.
“I don’t see them accommodating pickleball with the noise,” Lawn Bowling Club President Richard Marcus said. “There are big objections from the building across the way.”
The pickleballers, who have been told the transition will be made by the end of the year, are undeterred.
“We’ve measured it out, measured how many courts we think we can get in, and we’re really excited,” Kessler said. “We’ve tried to run kids’ programs and all, but having a site like that helps. Our whole effort is to give back to the community. We just gave $1,000 to Habitat for Humanity, and we want to get more kids involved, families involved.
“But there is absolutely no ill will toward the lawn bowling people. We would very much like to get them out on the pickleball court so we could convert them.”
Some of the lawn bowlers admitted to having tried it but prefer their game.
“Some of us can’t play pickleball,” club member Joe Miele said. “This is a game for people in their 70s, 80s, even 90s.”
Metott said his most recent conversation with the lawn bowlers was in early April and that he remains optimistic a resolution can be found.
“We wanted to look at different options and they were very open to getting their needs filled,” he said. “There are some potential options there for them. They were very big-picture looking. They said they can play on grass, and they like clay, so they were very flexible.”

By Mary Thurwachter

Lantana is revising its parking requirements for restaurants, reducing the number of parking spots by slightly more than half in an effort to attract more businesses to the downtown.
At its April 8 meeting, Town Council members voted to decrease the number from 25 spaces per 1,000 square feet gross floor area to 12 spaces.
For fast food restaurants, the number of required spaces will go from 10 spaces per 1,000 square feet GFA to four, with a minimum of 25, plus seven queuing spaces for each drive-through window with at least four before the menu board.
“We proposed to change the parking requirements for restaurants because staff and our attorneys believe they are too high,” said Town Development Director Dave Thatcher.  “The businesses also feel that way. Most all the restaurants have said that too.”
Not everyone favored the changes — both Mayor Dave Stewart and council member Phil Aridas voted against the measure. But Malcolm Balfour, Ed Shropshire and Lynn Moorhouse voted for the changes.
For years, the town heard complaints about a lack of parking on Ocean Avenue, but Moorhouse said plenty of spaces are available. He said he eats on the Avenue often and has never had a problem finding a parking space.
“We are not, as people think, a place where you have no place to park,” Moorhouse said. “If you’re desperate, go to the tennis courts. Yes, you have to walk a block. Big deal. It’s good for your health. I am so pro this because I don’t want to see a ghost town, which we have now.”
Besides several existing restaurants and a few businesses, there are many unoccupied small buildings on the Avenue.
Lantana Chamber of Commerce President Dave Arm lobbied for the ordinance change and agreed with Moorhouse’s assessment.
“We don’t really have a parking problem in Lantana,” Arm said. “You can go out on a Friday night or a Saturday during season and find a spot at the Kayak Park, at Bicentennial or Sportsman’s parks or use valets.
“I love Lantana, as you all know, and I love going out to eat in Lantana, as you can probably see,” Arm said as he rubbed his stomach. “We have a restaurant renaissance going on in the town right now.
“Oceano Kitchen has gotten national attention for the quality of their food. Mario’s Ocean Avenue is a very popular spot with locals and tourists and is busy off season as well as on. And the Old Key Lime House is an international tourist destination written up in travel magazines.
“If that’s all we want, we can leave this regulation alone because no other restaurant can open up on Ocean Avenue if we don’t change the parking requirements.”
Arm referred to a survey Development Director Thatcher did that revealed parking requirements in most municipalities in Palm Beach County are less stringent than Lantana’s.
“This should put us in line to allow businesses to open,” Arm said.
Vice Mayor Balfour said the town was known for its many good restaurants.
“I really feel that this is something we should consider,” he said of the parking changes.
Shropshire said he thought it would “be wonderful to have more restaurants, to be a destination and still maintain a small-town feel and yet have all kinds of interesting and fun places to visit.”
But Mayor Stewart said he doesn’t like changing ordinances just because of one or two businesses. “And this, I believe, is going in the wrong direction,” he said.
Aridas said the changes would be a convenience for the restaurants but would eventually pose an inconvenience to residents.
“I’m up here with the support of the residents and I have to vote for the convenience of our residents. I can’t support this.”

In other business, the town approved spending up to $30,000 for fireworks from Zambelli Fireworks for the Fourth of July.

OCEAN RIDGE — Dorothy Stumfoll Henck died April 12 at her home in Stamford, Conn. She was 64.
She was born Feb. 22, 1955, in New York City.  She and her older sister, Kathy, were raised by Robert and Gertrude Stumfoll in Fair Lawn, N.J. 
On April 16, 1977, she married Robert Edwin Henck in Scarsdale, N.Y. After moving to Stamford in 1979, Mrs. Henck worked more than 20 years with Tooher-Ferraris Insurance Group.
Stamford is also where they reared their two sons, Robert and Ryan.
For the past 10 years, she and her husband, Bob, split their time between Stamford and Ocean Ridge. 
Mrs. Henck enjoyed spending her time reading, watching classic comedies (Mel Brooks and Monty Python), and she loved watching the sunrise. Her natural kindness and sense of humor are what drew people to her. She lived her life by the golden rule. 
Mrs. Henck is survived by her husband, Bob; sister and husband, Kathy and Jack Stone; her son Rob and his wife, Madeline; grandson Owen; and son Ryan and his wife, Alyssa.
Obituary submitted by the family

The Thomas Street station pumps water back into the Intracoastal Waterway through an outflow pipe nearly a foot wide. It toggles on and off for three-minute bursts when water levels are elevated during high tide and heavy rain. The city has set aside $892,500 for a short-term improvement to the station in the next 18 months. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach residents who live along the Intracoastal Waterway know when the Thomas Street pump station has stopped working: The stormwater drains overflow or the high tides overwhelm the system and flood Seabreeze Avenue with water 6 to 10 inches deep.
The city higher-ups say the pump station has failed annually for the past few years. But longtime residents say the pump station fails more frequently. The latest malfunction happened in March.
“I think it has happened every few months since the last hurricane,” said Terry Max, a dentist who has lived at the base of Thomas Street for 22 years.
That hurricane was Irma, which passed over southern Palm Beach County in 2017.
Each time, Max calls the city’s Utilities Department.
“They are trying to do everything they can,” Max said. “But I’m not happy about the water in the street. And it’s going to get higher with sea level rise.”
The water often collects on the lawns and in the driveways on the northern end of Seabreeze, which is lower than the southern end, where it intersects with Atlantic Avenue. No residents said water ever got into their homes.
When Seabreeze is flooded, dog owners must take other routes when walking their pets, especially smaller breeds with short legs.
Delray Beach staff and commissioners know they have about 10 years to act. Then, the Intracoastal waters are forecast to rise over the current sea walls and flood city land and private property.
About 20 miles of sea walls are held privately while the city owns just 1 mile.

Station listed as top priority
At its strategic planning session on April 26, the City Commission ranked its capital improvement priorities from a top 10 list created by department heads. The top four were deemed both important and urgent.
The Thomas Street pump station was first, followed by a new fire station on Linton Boulevard that will be hurricane-hardened to serve as an Emergency Operations Center. The third priority covered adding sidewalks, making others wheelchair accessible and resurfacing roads.
“It will take $7 million to make the sidewalks wheelchair accessible,” said Missie Barletto, deputy director of Public Works.
The fourth priority was water and sewer improvements, Barletto said.
That next level of projects covers the Osceola Park neighborhood; Tropic Isles roadways near the Intracoastal where groundwater is seeping up through pipes; Pompey Park, and the municipal golf course. The Tropic Isles project calls for the pipes to be lined and the four miles of roads rebuilt.
The other two priorities that department heads listed didn’t make the commission list: a new City Center and water treatment issues in the study phase.
“The problem will be sticking to them,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said of the priorities, noting that the city will receive pushback from supporters of the projects that were ranked lower. She also said priorities often change when emergencies happen.

In reaction to a station failure in March, the city has a worker sit in a pickup and monitor a temporary pump that now backs up the permanent one behind shrubs at Thomas Street.

In June, the commission will review its capital improvement projects for long-term fixes costing more than $25,000 and lasting at least five years.
In the current financial year, commissioners have set aside $892,500 for a midterm fix at the Thomas Street pump station.
The station dates to the 1970s, Barletto told the commission on April 26.
“The midterm fix includes redesigning the pump station … so that two pumps can fit in the well. If one failed, the other one would turn on,” Barletto said at the April 9 commission workshop. The well holds overflow water until it is pumped back into the Intracoastal.
The city’s design consultant needs another month to determine whether the well can accommodate two pumps and their motors, stormwater engineer Jeff Needle said on April 23.
If all goes according to the plan, the design and construction process will last up to 18 months, Needle said. The city also would buy a backup pump and a generator to make sure the pumps work during power failures.
Neal de Jesus, the interim city manager who was the city’s fire chief, said Delray Beach needs to buy interchangeable pumps and motors so that when one goes out, the city has another one in stock.
“Right now, we have a lot of this one works here, and we need a completely different one for over here,” de Jesus said at the April 2 commission meeting. “We can’t afford to stock all those pumps.”
He told commissioners that the midterm fix for the Thomas Street station will last between six and 10 years, depending on how fast the sea level rises.
A long-term fix for that pump station, one that will last about 30 years, “is a big-ticket item,” de Jesus said.
“At the time it was put into the capital budget, its cost was about $6 million,” de Jesus said. “Now, it’s closer to $10 million” to pay for four pumps, their motors and an expanded well that can hold the equipment.
“The well that was put in there many years ago was probably too small at the time,” de Jesus said. “Now, it’s too small for the sea-level rise issues we are dealing with.”
The station relies on one 18,000- to 20,000-gallon-per-minute pump. The new stormwater master plan calls for four pumps of that size, Needle said.
If the city expands the well, it will have to pay to remove the groundwater in a process called dewatering from the well next to the Intracoastal and then filter the water before it returns to the Intracoastal, Needle said.
The city doesn’t filter the water now because the midterm fix won’t expand the well, he said.

Since the pump failure on Thomas Street, Delray Beach staff has a bypass system working with rental pumps, Needle said. City employees from its Utilities and Public Works departments work around the clock in eight-hour shifts to make sure the rental pumps are working at high tide.
In March, the city rented large vacuum trucks to remove debris from stormwater drains in area streets.
“The pumps run only at high tide,” said a Utilities Department mechanic who didn’t want to give his name, “I’m a low man on the totem pole.”
Most residents have been courteous, he said in mid-April.
Andy Brown has lived on the northern end of Seabreeze for seven years.
“The city has certainly devoted a lot of resources out here. They are not ignoring the problem,” he said. “Whether it solves the (flooding) problem,” time will tell.
Ann Glaize, who has lived at the intersection of Seabreeze and Thomas for 23 years, said she’s confident the city will fix the stormwater problem. “I love this street,” she said.
Max, the dentist, also loves his location: “Two blocks from the ocean and two blocks from Atlantic Avenue. What’s not to love?”

Jack Taylor, here with his wife, Bernadine, helped found the BBC-8 TV channel in Briny Breezes and led the charge to build the ocean clubhouse. He was also a carver who led the Chiselers woodworking club. Photo provided

By Ron Hayes

BRINY BREEZES — Jack Taylor first visited Briny Breezes in 1974, bought a home in 1984 and threw himself into the life of the town.
Mr. Taylor died March 31 at his summer home in Waterford, Mich. He was 86 and had been in failing health since August.
When autumn came to Michigan, Briny Breezes beckoned.
“He absolutely loved Briny Breezes,” his son John F. Taylor said. “It was his life. He used to say, ‘When the leaves start falling off the trees, that’s it.’” A Quonset hut became home to the Chiselers woodworking club in large part because of Mr. Taylor’s hard work.
The town has its own television station because of his leadership.
As both a member and president of the town’s corporate board in the early 1990s, he led the fight to see a new ocean clubhouse rise from the dunes where its dilapidated predecessor stood.
John Duncan “Jack” Taylor was born in Toronto on July 28, 1932, and raised in Rugby, England. He served in the Royal Air Force and was a longtime member of Rotary International, the Masons, and Christ Lutheran Church.
In the late 1970s, Mr. Taylor invented a battery-powered “pre-alarm” that could be placed behind a plastic shield covering fire alarms. If a prankster opened the plastic cover to pull the alarm, the pre-alarm would frighten him away without setting off the actual alarm.
In 1980, Mr. Taylor was awarded a patent for the invention and the family company, Safety Technology International Inc., was formed. Today STI Inc. employs about 70 people in Michigan and another 30 in the United Kingdom.
That background in security benefited Briny Breezes when Mr. Taylor helped the town establish a system of access cards for the laundry and clubhouse.
He also served as both a vice president and president of the Chiselers woodworking club.
“Because of Jack, we have the Chiselers Club,” said Ira Friedman, a friend and fellow woodcarver. “We had a Quonset hut with nothing in it, and when Jack was finished we had 250 lockers and everything is still in perfect condition. He was a terrific carver, and if it weren’t for him, there’d be no club.”
While serving as president of the club, Mr. Taylor saw the first women admitted to what had always been considered a males-only institution.
“Some of the other ladies will want to join, and really it hasn’t been a problem up to this point,” he told town historian Joan Nicholls in a 1991 interview. “It’s only a problem if we perceive it as a problem.”
In 1998, shortly after the town was hooked up for cable, Mr. Taylor helped usher in its BBC-8 TV channel.
“Chuck Stimets, who was an engineer, asked if I had a camcorder to see if we could hook into the system,” he recalled for The Coastal Star in 2012. “We had no idea what would happen.”
Mr. Taylor fetched his Panasonic VHS recorder and shot some footage of a neighbor lady hanging out clothes. Stimets wired the camera to the cable and, lo and behold, a neighbor lady hanging out clothes appeared on the screen. Recalling his childhood in England, he dubbed the channel BBC-8 after the British Broadcasting Corp., and a tiny television station came on the air, broadcasting Good Morning, Briny Breezes five days a week in season.
While serving as president of the town’s corporate board, Mr. Taylor fought the state bureaucracy to see a new clubhouse built on the same site where its previous incarnation had fallen into disrepair.
“Jack was insisting we were putting it back where it was, and he helped me a lot with the authorities,” local architect Digby Bridges recalled after hearing of his friend’s death. “We became very good friends, and then he helped me a lot with the project. He was a charming man — and a doer. He got things done.”
The new clubhouse opened, where Jack Taylor wanted it, in 1991, and after moving about the park several times, he spent his final days here in a manufactured home nearby.
Neighbor Tim Brady recalled, “He was fantastic, soft-spoken and a good listener. And very positive. Almost everything that happened here, Jack was on the positive side of it in some way.”
Mr. Taylor’s wife of nearly 60 years, Bernadine, predeceased him, as did a son, Mark Taylor.
In addition to his son John F. Taylor, he is survived by two daughters, Margie Gobler and Lori Lynn Taylor; grandchildren Tasha Smith, Tiffany Gobler, Brent Gobler, Trevor Taylor, Aaron Taylor, Todd Taylor, Andrew Redker and Jonathan Redker; great-grandchildren Reese and Cole Smith and Elizabeth and Sarah Redker; and a brother, Doug Taylor.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that donations be made to Briny Breezes Charities, with checks payable to J.D. Taylor Family LLC, 2306 Airport Road, Waterford, MI 48327.

Posing in a Rolls-Royce with its rear-facing doors was a popular pastime. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Christine Davis

Martin Fritsches, president of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, and Christophe Georges, president and CEO of Bentley Motors, came to town to help Braman Motorcars celebrate a major two-year overhaul in its dealership, and for good reason.
With 23 percent of all Rolls-Royces and Bentleys in Florida registered in Palm Beach County, we lead the state in ownership of those two luxury brands, records from the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles department show.
Braman’s dealership in West Palm Beach carries Rolls-Royce, Bentley, BMW, MINI and Porsche automobiles and is ranked third in success from over 17,500 dealers of these vehicles nationwide for the past five years, according to the trade journal WardsAuto.
The newly redesigned 35,000-square-foot dealership had no problem hosting the 600-plus people in attendance of its grand opening party April 4. Included in that space are 26 air-conditioned service bays and designer boutiques and sales offices.
“Our goal with these new stores is to build the most luxurious yet functional dealership in the country,” said Stephen Grossman, general manager of the Braman dealership.

LEFT: Stephen Grossman, general manager of Braman Motorcars, makes a point with customers after the redesigned dealership opened. RIGHT: Lalique made this frosted glass version of Rolls’ iconic hood ornament.

Winners of the 14th annual Bernays Awards have been announced by Debbie Abrams, president of the Gold Coast PR Council, after a luncheon in West Palm Beach on April 16. The council, a South Florida association of public relations, communications and marketing professionals, has given out these awards since 2005 honoring excellence in local public relations campaigns, marketing programs and media coverage.
The Presidents Award went to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel for its coverage of the Parkland school shootings and the aftermath — for which the newspaper also was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service. Publisher Nancy Meyer, Editor-in-chief Julie Anderson, Managing Editor Dana Banker and assistant Managing Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant accepted the award.
The organization’s Founder Award went to Debbie Wemyss. Ali Soule was named PR Star, and the Judges Award went to Moore (formerly known as the Moore Agency).
Other winners were: PR Czar in the Small Nonprofit Campaign category; Cultural Council of Palm Beach County in the Large Nonprofit Campaign category; Tilson PR in the PR Campaign/Large category; Kaye Communications in the PR Campaign/Small category; Constitutional Tax Collector Palm Beach County in the Internal Communications category; Florida Atlantic University in the Crisis Communications category; The Buzz Agency in the Social Media Campaign/Nonprofit category; Labor Finders International in the Social Media Campaign/For Profit category; Tenet Physician Health Services in the Blogger/Digital Influencer category; Clerk and Comptroller Palm Beach County in the Special Event category; city of Boynton Beach, Public Communications & Marketing Department, in the Marketing Material/Print category; Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties in the Marketing Material/Video or Digital category.

In April, students in the Boca Chamber’s Golden Bell Education Foundation Young Entrepreneurs Academy program presented their business ideas in a “shark tank” to real investors. The event was held at Office Depot headquarters in Boca Raton.
Winner Rhea Jain and runner-up Neil Sachdeva are Pine Crest students. Rhea created Renoosh, an upscale petite clothing line, and Neil created Vulcan A.I., a chatbot AI service for small businesses. 
They competed with 20 other YEA! students in an effort to win seed money to launch their businesses. Rhea will head to Rochester, N.Y., for the national Saunders Scholars Competition in an effort to win more funding and college scholarship money.
Investor judges included Eric Bucher of Call Sprout; Ira Bornstein of TouchSuite; Greg Heller of Modernizing Medicine; Catherine Meehan of IBM; and Khalid Saleem of Office Depot.

As the Central Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy class came to an end, its winner was named. The business was Hykit, an in-house stadium and venue food delivery service created by Lake Worth High School junior Rachel Bailey and senior Weidmayer Pierre. They will go on to New York as their school and district representatives.

Winners of the Palm Beach County Film & Television Commission’s 24th annual Palm Beaches Student Showcase of Film on April 5 were announced at its awards show held at the Keith C. & Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center at Lynn University, Boca Raton. Local winners included: Joey Aliberto, a student at G-Star School of the Arts who won the Film Florida’s Sara Fuller Scholarship ($500); Maxwell Price, a student at Florida Atlantic University who won the second-place College Feature/Short Award ($1,000); Eli Dreyfuss, an FAU student who won the Suzanne L. Niedland Documentary Award ($500); and Vincent-Amadeus, a student at G-Star School of the Arts who won the Mental Health Awareness PSA Award ($500).

In March, the South Florida Manufacturers Association announced its runners-up and finalists for its Employees and Manufacturers of the Year awards. Companies were judged on leadership, strategy, customers, knowledge management, workforce and operations. Boca Raton companies that were honored included HABCO and The Nature’s Bounty Company.

The Boca Chamber’s Business Awards Luncheon, May 24 at Boca Raton Resort & Club, will honor three people who exemplify business excellence in their communities and have a strong philanthropic involvement. Also coming up is the Boca Chamber’s annual Golf Classic, which will host 36 teams June 3 at the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club. For information, email Chasity Navarro at cnavarro@bocachamber.com.

The Women’s Council of Realtors selected Amy Snook to participate in its inaugural Leadership Institute, which is limited to 15 participants from across the country.
Snook, an Atlantis resident and a partner in the All About Florida Homes team of Keller Williams Realty, has been in the real estate and title insurance business for 17 years and is the Florida state secretary for the Women’s Council of Realtors. She is a director of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale, a director of Florida Realtors, and sits on the executive board of Vita Nova Inc. 

A1A Home Watch and Concierge Services, a local company owned by Kerry and Geoff Thornton, earned accreditation for the third year from the National Home Watch Association, which sets the standards for absentee homeowner services. For information, visit a1ahomewatchfl.com.

A 12-bedroom, 23,795-square-foot estate completed in 2018 at 1040 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan, has come on the market listed for $39.95 million by Pascal Liguori & Son of Premier Estate Properties. The two-acre property has 200 feet of frontage both on the ocean and Intracoastal Waterway, with the main house and separate guesthouse designed by Yates Rainho Architects. Some features are extensive millwork, Corsica marble and wide-plank walnut floors, a two-story marble foyer, oceanfront clubroom with a wet bar, a theater room, and a 1,100-bottle wine room. For more info, call 866-502-5441.

Recorded on April 10, Leonard Tannenbaum bought Acqua Liana, 620 S. Ocean Blvd. in Manalapan, for $14.25 million from Goldman Sachs Bank. The bank acquired the property in February at a foreclosure auction.

The Boca Bath & Tennis Club home once owned by Blake Wheeler of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets is back on the market. The owners, who bought the property from Wheeler two years ago, have listed it for $1.425 million with Douglas Elliman Real Estate agent Colleen Newland.
  Recently remodeled, the 5,564-square-foot home at 2843 Banyan Blvd. Circle does not have a hockey rink, but it does have a massive outdoor patio complete with TV and summer kitchen; a heated saltwater pool and spa; and lots of green space for recreation and relaxation.
Wheeler, a forward who has played 11 seasons in the NHL, was an All-Star each of the past two seasons. Before this season he signed a five-year, $41.25 million contract extension.

Lang Realty recently gifted the Child Rescue Coalition $5,000 from a percentage of proceeds from its eighth annual Open House Extravaganza. “In addition to raising money and awareness for a great cause, our agents had the opportunity to meet many prospective homebuyers who experienced the Lang difference firsthand,” said Scott Agran, president of Lang Realty. 

At the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties’ Founder’s Luncheon at the Kravis Center on May 7, key findings from the 2018 On The Table Community Impact Report will be shared. The report found that housing, economic development and poverty are three of the most pressing issues that need to be addressed. It also identified job training, skills development opportunities, number of good-paying jobs and increased wages as the most important priorities to improve economic conditions.
The keynote speaker will be Carol R. Naughton, president of Purpose Built Communities, an organization working to break the cycle of inter-generational poverty by helping transform neighborhoods. More than 500 board members, donors and fund holders, local nonprofit organizations, corporate sponsors and community leaders are expected to attend the luncheon.
To purchase tickets ($75), call 659-6800 or visit yourcommunityfoundation.org.

The Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Delray Business Expo 2019 is scheduled for 4-7 p.m. May 22 at Delray Beach Arts Garage, 94 NE Second Ave. The event, free and open to the public, is the Chamber’s annual trade show and networking event and will showcase new products, services and technologies. For information, call 278-0424, ext. 105.

The orchid promotion for downtown Delray Beach shoppers ends in time for Mother’s Day on May 12. Photo provided

Just in time for Mother’s Day is the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority’s Orchid Giveaway. Until May 11, shoppers can receive one phalaenopsis orchid plant with every $200 they’ve spent at downtown Delray Beach shops, galleries, spas, salons and fitness studios. Orchids can be picked up May 8, 10 and 11 at designated locations. For details, call 243-1077 or visit downtowndelraybeach.com/events/annual-mothers-day-orchid-giveaway, or facebook.com/DelrayDDA.

The HGreg Group, which owns three Nissan dealerships in Canada, opened HGreg Nissan at 2200 S. Federal Highway, Delray Beach, in March. This is its first new-car dealership location in the United States. For this new site, previously known as Delray Nissan, the company expects to invest $28 million and continue to employ about 65 workers.

The Boca Raton Public Library now offers its cardholders free access to Gale Small Business Builder, an online tool that guides users on how to launch a new business.
“Gale Small Business Builder can pull in legal forms, documents, and other relevant content for small-business owners as they go through the process of establishing and building their companies,” said Vicky Fitzsimmons, digital librarian. “This one-stop model saves time they would’ve spent chasing down outside resources and examples.”
Also, small-business owners and entrepreneurs can take classes on how to grow their businesses in Small Business Week at the Downtown and Spanish River libraries from May 6–11.

Jerry Lower contributed to this report.

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