Mike Kaufman at last year’s Mayor’s Ball. Photo by Gina Fontana

By Rich Pollack
    
    Were it not for his inability to grasp college chemistry, Mike Kaufman might have become an athletic trainer for a professional sports team rather than president of one of South Florida’s most successful construction companies as well as a leader in corporate philanthropy.
    An athlete while at South Broward High School in Hollywood, Kaufman went on to the University of Florida with his heart set on becoming an NFL trainer.
    Then he met the periodic table and decided it was time to move in a different direction.
    He changed his major to the university’s building and construction program. It appealed to him for two reasons. The first was that he learned a lot from his dad, who was handy and could fix anything. The second reason was more, ah, elementary.
    “I looked it up and it didn’t require chemistry,” Kaufman said.
    Now president of Boca Raton-based Kaufman Lynn Construction, he will be honored when his company is recognized with a George Long Award at this year’s Boca Raton Mayor’s Ball on Oct. 14.
    Named for Boca Raton’s first appointed mayor, the annual award recognizes visionary individuals or organizations that have left an indelible mark on the city.
    Since its founding in 1989 with crew of 10, Kaufman Lynn has grown into a multimillion-dollar company with 130 associates.
    While becoming one of the top 400 construction companies in the country, it has made a significant philanthropic contribution to improving the community.
    With a focus on arts, education and early childhood development, the company has supported several organizations and institutions, including the George Snow Scholarship Fund, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Helping Hands and the Florence Fuller Child Development Centers. Kaufman also is a member of the Florida Council of 100, an organization of business leaders that serves as an advisory board to Florida’s governor.
    “If you’re going to have a successful business with motivated associates, you have to be part of the community,” Kaufman says. “We have been supporting the community for all the right reasons for the last 15 years, whether we made money that year or not.”
    That commitment to doing the right thing, even when inconvenient, has been the foundation on which Kaufman Lynn is built. It is a deep part of the company’s culture and one of the reasons for its success.
    “Good character defines us,” Kaufman says. “This is absolutely a company of integrity.”
    Kaufman, 58, leads by example, making it a point to treat customers, subcontractors and associates the way he wants to be treated.
    “Everyone deserves the respect you ask for yourself,” he says. “No one is below you, no one is above you.”  
    Part of that attitude may exist because Kaufman, an east Boca Raton resident, struggled in his career for a short time before finding success.
    After graduating from UF, he landed a job as an estimator with one of Broward County’s leading contractors. He soaked in everything he could learn, making lifelong friends along the way. He left after three years to join an out-of-state firm seeking to make an impact in South Florida.
    It turned out to be a mistake and within a short time, Kaufman found himself out of a job, right in the middle of a significant economic downturn.
    With a wife, two kids and another on the way to support, he traded in his pride-and-joy Porsche 911 for a 1988 Chevy pickup and started Michael I. Kaufman construction, doing any work he could find — including small carpentry jobs —  to bring in revenue.
    Through a college buddy, Joe Lynn, Kaufman landed a large subcontracting job working on a new stadium at the University of Miami. He hired a crew of 10 to help him.  To make payroll, he borrowed $12,000 from his mother-in-law, whom he was able to pay back a few years later when he teamed up with Lynn to form Kaufman Lynn Construction.
    Though Joe Lynn left the company and retired after 10 years, Kaufman kept the name. He will soon move to a 23,000-square-foot building just over the Boca Raton line in Delray Beach that will be the company’s new headquarters.
    Kaufman Lynn’s success in the highly competitive South Florida construction industry in large part may be due to Kaufman’s determination and tireless work ethic.   
    “I still have the same aspiration — to do it bigger, better and best in class,” he said.

If You Go
What: Third Annual Boca Raton Mayor’s Ball
Where: Boca Raton Resort and Club
When: 6 p.m. Oct. 14
Tickets: $300
Info: Visit www.rotarydowntownbocaraton.org or contact Deborah Freudenberg at 299-1429 or mayorsball@rotarydowntownbocaraton.org.

    Once again we are talking about beach sand and how what one town does affects others. There is no doubt at all that the groins South Palm wants to build will prevent some sand from reaching points south. Not being a lawyer, I have no clue whether other towns have a right to that sand, which may or may not actually wind up on their shores.
    We better get used to this. I have seen severe erosion along our coast since the ’60s when A1A was washed out in north Delray Beach. For the most part, the more natural coastline maintains itself fairly well. Where you have the major issues are where seawalls line the beach, as in Manalapan, or where condos are built too far east, as in South Palm Beach. 
    Many people don’t know that new sand production was drastically curtailed in the 1930s, when the Tennessee Valley Authority was created and dams were built along the Appalachians to produce electricity. The quartz rocks that were crushed into sand as they were swept downstream — and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico — were no longer able to make that journey, and as a result much of Florida’s sand was not created anymore. 
    We can be sure that is going to be the case for any foreseeable future.
    It is probably too late for more intelligent building decisions helping this issue and it will remain an economic decision as to the value of beaches and who will pay for them.
    I have no doubt that future generations will find excellent snorkeling over some ill-fated condos, regardless of what we do.

Taylor Snow
Lantana

By Dan Moffett

    Architect Steven Knight gave the South Palm Beach Town Council a conceptual drawing of what a new Town Hall might look like.
    Now it’s up to the council and their constituents to decide whether to go forward and spend up to $6 million to replace their aging building.
    Knight, of Alexis Knight Architects in West Palm Beach, presented council members a larger, taller and thoroughly more modern alternative to their current building during the Aug. 29 town meeting.
    Knight’s proposed design has five floors and 22,500 square feet of floor space, about triple that of the current building. A public lounge is on the ground floor, the Police Department is on the second floor, administration is on the third, a community room on the fourth and council chambers on the fifth.
    “It’s a beautiful design but it goes way beyond our needs,” Mayor Bonnie Fischer said. “It’s too much.”
    “It is a grandiose building,” Councilwoman Stella Gaddy Jordan said. “We don’t need five floors.”
    In the weeks ahead, the council will be seeking input from residents and holding public workshops to gauge the support and the opposition to the proposal.
    Knight said there is no way to satisfy parking requirements and maintain the Police Department on site without devising a multi-story design.
    “We just don’t have the square footage,” says Town Manager Bob Vitas. “The only way we can go is straight up.”
    Officials put the cost of constructing the new building at between $200 to $250 per square foot.
    One of the toughest complications to overcome if the council decides to build a new hall would be finding a place to temporarily relocate the town’s Police Department and administrative employees. Possible solutions include trying to rent space across the bridge or at Plaza del Mar, and both options are problematic.
    If council members decide to construct a new building, they would have to ask voters to approve a general obligation bond referendum during the March municipal election. Vitas said he thinks the $6 million price tag for a new building is a “worst-case” estimate. He thinks the project can be completed for less and the town could possibly obtain grant money to cover some of it.
    So far, the town has about $49,000 invested in the idea — the bill paid to Knight for his architectural services.
    In other business:
     • Vitas said no matter whether the Town Hall or beach stabilization projects moves forward, one capital improvement that he wants to complete for sure in the next fiscal year is upgrading the street lights on A1A.
    Council members say numerous complaints from residents about the inadequate lighting on the town’s main street make this project a priority. Vitas said he hopes to have new energy efficient lighting installed before the end of the year.
    Vitas says another must-do project is building a sea wall behind the Town Hall parking lot. Erosion from the Intracoastal Waterway has worsened in recent years, eating away the shoreline and causing drainage problems. Work on that project is likely months away.
    • During their budget workshop on Aug. 24, council members gave preliminary approval to a partial rate rollback for taxpayers. The council supported lowering the current tax rate of $4.12 per $1,000 of taxable property value to $3.99. A full rollback that would have kept tax revenues flat year-over-year would have dropped the rate to $3.87 per $1,000 of taxable value.
    With the decreased rate, the total savings for the town’s taxpayers is about $43,000. The council approved a similar partial rollback last year. Public hearings on the proposed 2017-18 budget will be held on Sept. 7 and Sept. 12, both beginning at 5:30 p.m.
    • With a 4-0 vote, the council approved the appointment of Lucille Flagello, 76, to fill the seat left open by her son, Joe Flagello, who died suddenly last spring.
    The seat comes up for election in March.

By Steve Plunkett

    The town is on record that it still wants no part of paying for the county’s Inspector General Office.
    In a resolution passed Aug. 11, Gulf Stream commissioners said they do not support contributing town tax dollars to pay for the countywide IG program “since Gulf Stream residents already pay for and support the program through payment of their county taxes.”
    County voters in November 2010 approved a referendum creating the Inspector General Office, and the following May county commissioners passed an ordinance that required municipalities to pay for part of its operations.
    Cities and towns sued, and last December the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that the county’s attempts to collect money were barred by the municipalities’ having sovereign immunity.
    But, Gulf Stream’s resolution said, “the county recently has requested that all municipalities voluntarily pay their ‘fair share’ of the costs.”
    Not every city joined the suit, and in March, Briny Breezes, Boynton Beach, Hypoluxo, Lantana, Ocean Ridge and South Palm Beach were given refunds of what they had paid for the inspector general.
    Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Gulf Stream, Highland Beach and Manalapan had refused to pay and so were owed nothing.
    In other business, Vice Mayor Thomas Stanley noted the July 25 passing of former Police Chief Garrett Ward and said Commissioner Paul Lyons attended the graveside service at Long Island National Cemetery in New York.
    “We just wanted to say great thanks to him and our prayers and best wishes to his family on the record,” Stanley said.
    Ward’s successor, Chief Edward Allen, introduced the department’s newest member, Officer Brad Fidler, who spent 27 years with West Palm Beach’s police force.
    “He brings a wealth of experience to us,” Allen said.

By Dan Moffett

    The Briny Breezes Town Council is moving forward with two changes that will significantly restructure the way the town has conducted business throughout its 54-year history.
    For one, the council voted 4-1 during its Aug. 24 meeting to create the position of part-time town manager, a move that would end Briny’s status as the only municipality in Palm Beach County — and probably the state — without some type of executive administrator.
    And, with a unanimous 5-0 vote, the council decided to solicit proposals for legal services, a move that could mean that, for the first time, Briny has a town attorney who isn’t named Skrandel.
    John Skrandel has held the attorney position since the death of his father, Jerome F. Skrandel, in 2013. The elder Skrandel signed on as the town’s attorney in 1975 after previously representing the Briny corporation. Together, the Skrandels have had a hand in writing or rewriting virtually every ordinance and regulation in the town’s books.
    In recent months, however, the council has drawn criticism from residents and the corporate board for spending too much on legal fees, and much of that blame spilled over on John Skrandel.
    Mayor Jack Lee has been one of the harshest critics, claiming Skrandel charged the town too much for research and services that were unnecessary. Lee also criticized the council for considering a proposal to hire a magistrate to resolve building code disputes.
    The mayor invited Boca Raton attorney Greg Hyden, who has represented governments in Port St. Lucie and Martin County, to the August town meeting and recommended him as a replacement for Skrandel.
    “He agrees with resident concerns for a building permit and code enforcement system, which is much more resident friendly,” Lee wrote about Hyden in an open letter to town residents. “He agrees with everyone that Briny needs smaller government with no need for a town manager.”
    Council members voted to open Skrandel’s job to applicants, with the hope of having several candidates and proposals to compare at the Sept. 28 town meeting.
    Council President Sue Thaler expects that John Skrandel will be one of them: “I want him to make a proposal,” she said.
    Skrandel, who during the meeting found himself in the awkward position of advising council members on how they should go about replacing him, was noncommittal.
    On creating the manager position, Alderman Bobby Jurovaty said he spoke with officials in county municipalities smaller than Briny Breezes — among them Cloud Lake, Glen Ridge, Jupiter Inlet Colony, Village of Golf — and found they all have town managers. Jurovaty said the officials were surprised Briny was able to get by without one.
    “They all pretty much said the same thing: ‘You need to get busy and hire a manager,’ ” Jurovaty said.
    Alderman Christina Adams, who cast the lone vote opposing the idea, said she was concerned about the expense of hiring a qualified manager and providing benefits. Thaler said the money is already in the budget and the candidate could be hired without benefits as an independent contractor. Jurovaty said the manager’s salary range in the towns he surveyed is between $20,000 and $40,000.
    The council intends to approve an ordinance with specific job requirements and have the position filled by the end of the year.
    In other business, the council will hold public hearings on the 2017-2018 budget on Sept. 14 and Sept. 28, both beginning at 5:01 p.m.
    Council members and the corporate board will hold a joint budget meeting on Sept. 7 at 4 p.m.

Plans for license tag cameras still on hold

By Dan Moffett

    Ocean Ridge town commissioners have decided to add two patrol officers and a dispatcher to their Police Department to deal with the growing stream of beach visitors from across the bridge.
    A 6 percent increase in the town’s taxable property values from 2016 makes the police expansion possible, though commissioners and Police Chief Hal Hutchins won’t get everything they’d like to have — including license plate recognition cameras, Tasers and body cameras.
    During an Aug. 22 budget workshop, the commission agreed to lower the town’s tax rate from $5.35 per $1,000 of taxable property value to $5.25, reducing total revenues by about $85,000. The reduction is made possible because of a surplus of about $186,000 left unspent from the 2016-2017 budget.
    However, homeowners will still pay slightly more, about 3 percent, during the next fiscal year than the last one because of property appreciation. The rollback rate that would keep revenues flat is $5.08 per $1,000.
    The decision to hold off on installing LPR cameras will save the town about $225,000 but comes with a cost in public opinion. For years, many residents have called for the commission to install the devices to tighten security throughout the town.
    Hutchins said his position on the camera system has evolved and he now believes the priority should be adding officers. He hinted that the town might be able to do better shopping for the cameras later but declined to disclose why publicly.
    “Are we over-hiring? That is my question,” Mayor Geoff Pugh asked.
    “I need to be very, very candid right now with all of you. We are not in fact over-hiring,” Hutchins responded. “The activity levels we’re seeing on the law enforcement side are increasing every day, based upon outside forces that we can’t control. There’s an anticipation that there’s going to be exponential growth within a block of this building [Town Hall] very soon. We need to address that.”
    The chief said new residential developments in Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Lantana ensure that the two officers and dispatcher will be kept busy. The three new positions will cost the town about $180,000. Hutchins said a proposal to hire part-time officers won’t work because he has been unable to find qualified applicants who are willing to work when the town needs them.
    The three new hires would increase the department’s number of full-time employees to 24, which includes the chief, dispatchers and uniformed officers. Their annual salaries amount to about $1.4 million and the town pays another $270,500 in pension contributions.
    The commission will hold public hearings on the proposed budget on Sept. 11 and Sept. 21, each beginning at 6 p.m.
    In other business, on a 4-1 vote, commissioners decided to approve changing the current one-year contract for Town Manager Jamie Titcomb to a month-to-month agreement.
    Several commissioners have complained about errors in Titcomb’s budget work over the last two years. The manager has countered that he inherited budget practices that were outdated and needed an overhaul. Titcomb said obsolete computer software and personnel turnover made the improvements he implemented more difficult.
    The new contract arrangement doesn’t affect Titcomb’s $107,000 yearly salary or benefits, but does reduce the severance the town would owe him, should the commission decide to end the relationship.
    Commissioner Gail Aaskov voted against the new contract, saying it was unnecessary.

By Dan Moffett

     County parks and recreation officials have been trying for years to put together enough money to give a much-needed overhaul to Ocean Inlet Park Marina at the Boynton Inlet.
     With a boost from the penny sales tax increase voters approved in November and some government grant money, a $6 million renovation plan is finally moving forward.
     The bad news is that it’s moving very slowly.
Eric Call, the Palm Beach County director of parks and recreation, says his department has a backlog of projects and the Ocean Inlet Park renovation may not begin until 2023.
     But Call says he’s hopeful the county can reorganize other projects according to priority, and perhaps start work on the inlet marina upgrade within the next three years.
     In fact, on Aug. 14 it cleared one of its first administrative hurdles when the Ocean Ridge Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved plans drawn up by the county’s consultant, Alan Gerwig & Associates of Wellington.
     The Ocean Ridge Town Commission is expected to give its approval at the Sept. 11 town meeting.
Project designers have emphasized two important points: The park hasn’t had significant work done since it opened 30 years ago, so a major facelift is needed; and the overhaul won’t increase the park’s capacity or increase traffic.
     “The proposed improvements at the park will not add any additional facilities or expand existing facilities,” according to the county consultant’s plan. “Therefore, the number of park users is not expected to change from the current conditions.”
     Among the project’s main features:
     • Replacing the existing marina structures with new bulkhead walls and docks. The total number of boat slips will remain at 28. A floating wave attenuator will protect the marina from waves and boat wakes.
     • Demolishing the existing buildings and replacing them with a single building that will include a second-story residence for a dockmaster/caretaker. “Having a PBC Parks employee based in the park will help with traffic control and security issues,” the consultant says.
     • County sheriff’s personnel will continue to be stationed in the new building.
     • Plans also call for improved landscaping that includes planting of shade trees for picnic areas and footpaths.

By Jane Smith
    
    The developer of Midtown Delray Beach was able to put its appeals on hold while it creates a new site plan for the proposed project.
    The Delray Beach City Commission granted the stay in early August.
    Under city rules, the developer had to ask for the stay within 10 days of the appeal hearing.
    Because of the way the City Commission arranged its meetings, the stay was heard on Aug. 2. The appeals of the Historic Preservation Board’s decisions were to be heard on Aug. 15.
    In late August, Steven Michael, principal of Hudson Holdings, said he didn’t know when his team would submit a revised site plan. Hudson Holdings is a partner in the Midtown project.
    He also declined to say why the project’s attorneys asked for a stay on the historic home moves and demolitions, but didn’t appeal the board’s site plan denial or withdraw from the appeals process.
    The City Commission gave the project’s owners a 60-day extension. The next available meeting date is Oct. 17.
    “They just can’t submit the same site plan, it has to be substantially different,” Delray Beach Planning Director Tim Stillings said. “Ultimately, the decision is mine” to determine whether substantial changes were made to the old site plan.
    It takes about three weeks for all departments to review a site plan, he said. Midtown already missed the cutoff date to make it onto the Historic Preservation Board’s September agenda, Stillings said.
    The 4.4-acre project will sit prominently at the southwest corner of Swinton and Atlantic avenues, putting it at the entrance of The Set, the new name for the Northwest and Southwest neighborhoods.
    Midtown Delray Beach also will have to meet the terms of a new tree preservation ordinance, passed in early August.
    The ordinance calls for a sliding scale of tree preservation: preserve in place, preserve on-site, remove and replace with smaller versions of the same tree or remove and pay a fee for each tree.
    In order to build an underground garage for the project, Hudson Holdings proposed moving six historic homes and removing all of the 200 trees in the first block of South Swinton Avenue.

For those lucky enough to travel to the totality and to get clear skies, the eclipse was a stunning event. While in Salem, Ore., Coastal Star Publisher Jerry Lower photographed an every 10-minute exposure to create this time-lapse image.

Thomas and Troy Rockett, students at Morikami Elementary, look at the eclipse through safety glasses at Florida Atlantic University. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Sunlight filtered through leaves of a tree showing on the ground in the parking lot of the Delray Beach Public Library gave Michelle Quigley an opportunity to capture  mini-eclipses.

Boca Raton resident Shaina Yeslow brought a colander to watch the eclipse, using it to capture mini-eclipses. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Tytan Halfhill of Briny Breezes took The Coastal Star’s advice and wore his safety glasses to view the eclipse. Photo provided by Mikee Rulli

Gulf Stream resident Julie Murphy traveled to Clemson, S.C., to photograph the totality.

Ocean Ridge residents Neil and Zoanne Hennigan caught the eclipse in Salem, Ore., while visiting their daughter. Their dog, Potter, practiced safe eclipse viewing.

By Jane Smith
    
    Want to see the roof of the Old School Square garage turn into a disco at night?
    That activity was proposed after a weeklong charrette on transit-oriented development, made possible by a $141,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The money was matched by the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency.
    “Traffic, parking and the [Tri-Rail] Coastal Link are critical to what we deal with in a car-centric city,” said Mayor Cary Glickstein at the start of the Aug. 18 workshop. “At some point in the future, state and federal grants will be ready. Cities who have plans in place will be at the head of the line.”
    Dana Little, urban design director at the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, led the charrette. He assembled a design team to transform residents’ ideas into drawings, brought in two financial consultants to analyze the viability of the designs and headed the workshop.
    In November, they will have a draft of the plan with three designs and estimated costs for each version.
    The area chosen for a Coastal Link-tied development contains six city-owned parcels along Northeast Third Avenue and Northeast First Street, along the FEC tracks. The 1.5 acres have 194 surface parking spaces in what is known as the Railroad Lot. The Silverball Pinball Museum will stay in all three designs, Little said.
    The charrette started with residents giving suggestions for covered entrances at Atlantic Avenue to a promenade along both sides of the train tracks and the station platform. They also suggested more shade trees, better lighting and safety measures, more public spaces, a connection to the historic train building on the west side of the FEC tracks and better bike and pedestrian paths.
    Of the three designs considered, the one that seemed the most viable to the design team offered 254 parking spaces in a two-level garage where 34 spaces would be reserved for golf carts.
    The design shows 29,350 square feet of flex spaces — shops or offices — on the ground floor; 26,000 square feet of space for offices, shops, apartments or live/work units; and a third floor that would house 84 apartments of 1,000 square feet and offer rooftop amenities, including a pool.
    The development does not need a hotel, said financial consultant Tom Moriarity. He said 480 new hotel rooms are planned for the downtown, increasing the supply by 36 percent.
    The downtown has 969,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space, Moriarity said. He spent most of the hot August week walking Atlantic Avenue counting stores and restaurants. Another 355,045 square feet is proposed, a 37 percent increase, he said.
    The Coastal Link site can support retail boutiques and shops that sell commuter-oriented goods, Moriarity said.
    Housing, up to 100 units, is viable at the Coastal Link site, consultant Tom Lavash said. The downtown is projected to add 1,700 new households in the next five to seven years. Nine planned projects will offer 877 units, he said.
    Delray Beach has a high office vacancy rate, mostly from the vacant Office Depot headquarters on Congress Avenue. The average asking rent is $21 a square foot, compared with $28 countywide, Little said.
    The downtown can support boutique office spaces for medical and legal uses, Little said.
    He also said a pedestrian train barrier can be dressed up with covered walkways, benches and plants to create a safe, attractive option.
    For nearly a year, city employees have been working with FEC and All-Aboard/Brightline leaders after a woman was killed last August when she crossed over the tracks, just north of Atlantic Avenue, near Northeast Third Avenue. She was hit by a freight train.
    The city wants to put up an aluminum rail fence with bougainvillea plants to prevent people from crossing the tracks before Brightline begins its high-speed passenger service between West Palm Beach and Miami. The train’s start has been pushed back until the fall, but no start date has been released, according to a Brightline spokeswoman.
    Little, a planner who likes to explore creative uses for parking, said a mere 450 feet away from the Coastal Link platform sits a mostly empty Old School Square garage. The walk took him 102 seconds.
    On a weekday, he said the second level was about 80 percent full, the third level about 10 percent full, the fourth level about 8 percent full and the roof was empty.
    He proposed adding solar panels to shade the vehicles parked on the roof during the day. Then late at night, the roof could transform into a disco.
    Delray Beach was one of two Palm Beach County cities to receive the transit-oriented grant. The other was Palm Beach Gardens, which received a $120,000 grant.
    The grants allowed both cities to work with the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, operator of the Tri-Rail commuter train line, and the Regional Planning Council staff to create a master plan for a Tri-Rail Coastal Link station area.
    The commuter line doesn’t have a start date, but it is at least five years away.

By Jane Smith
    
    After more than 10 years of discussion, city leaders are inching their way toward paid street parking in downtown Delray Beach.
    In mid-August, the five city commissioners each presented their wishes for downtown parking on Atlantic Avenue between Swinton Avenue and the Intracoastal Waterway. After more than an hour of discussion, here’s what they decided:
    • Parking will be free but limited to two hours on Atlantic Avenue, between Swinton Avenue and the Intracoastal, between 2 a.m. and 6 p.m. The time limit will be enforced.
    • Between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m., meters will go into effect at the rate of $2 per hour on that stretch of Atlantic and one block north and south of Atlantic.
    • Parking in the two city garages will be free during the days. Users will pay $5 to park Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. Employees can park for free on the top floor of each garage, using a hanging card from the rearview mirror.
    • The city’s five surface lots, with approximately 314 spaces, will be free between 2 a.m. and 6 p.m. and have a two-hour parking limit. Meters will be enforced between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. at the rate of $2 per hour.
    • The Gladiola Lot at 51 SE Fifth Ave., with eight-hour time limit, will not have meters. Its 74 spaces will be free for employees and downtown patrons to use. The Railroad Lot at 25 NE Third Ave., which also has eight-hour spaces, will not have meters installed in those spaces. They will be free.
    • City staff did not know how many of the Railroad Lot’s 190 spaces had the eight-hour time limit.
    • Even with signs, drivers will be confused and enforcement complicated, said interim City Manager Neal de Jesus.
    • Residents can purchase an annual parking permit for $100.
    • The valet fee will be increased from $7 to $10.
    Using that input, city staff will bring back a parking management proposal to the City Commission in September.
    Commissioner Shelly Petrolia worried that the city was pushing drivers into the neighborhoods to find free parking spaces. “Downtown businesses are willing to pay an extra $100 annually, if we don’t put in the meters downtown,” she said, suggesting no changes be made until the city replaces the spaces lost to construction at the iPic project and adds more parking with a garage nearby.
    “Meters will generate turnover and generate revenue to keep the area clean and safe,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said.
    The mayor also wants city staff to explore building a city garage on the Gladiola Lot using the in-lieu parking fees that downtown restaurant owners have paid. When a restaurant opens where the previous building use was retail, the restaurant owner identifies available parking spaces nearby to follow city rules. When adequate parking is not available, the owner pays a fee per space, called in-lieu parking fees. About $2 million exists in the accounts, Glickstein said.
 He also is thinking of the long-term needs of the city. “I suspect the city will lose about $1.5 million when voters agree to the extra homestead exemption in 2018,” Glickstein said.  
    Vice Mayor Jim Chard began the Aug. 15 discussion by touting the results of three days of enforcement by Lanier Parking staff. “Two hundred citations were issued, and 10 percent were paid in one day,” he said. At that rate, he estimated the annual amount the city would generate from fines would be $416,000.
    Before Lanier Parking took over parking enforcement in June, enforcement was done inconsistently by volunteers, de Jesus said. The volunteers worked during the daylight hours.
    In June, the city and its Downtown Development Authority seemed to be in agreement on the need for parking meters downtown.
    But in early August, after a change in leadership on the DDA board, the new mantra for parking became: Start slow and grow.  Just a few hours before the City Commission meeting on Aug. 2, the DDA’s executive director took the opportunity to drop off the organization’s unrequested parking management plan. The DDA recommended putting meters on only 245 spaces, instead of the 2,577 the city staff had proposed.
    The commission directed its staff to come back with an analysis of the DDA parking plan.
    DDA Executive Director Laura Simon said the central core merchants were concerned about employee parking. She requested the eight-hour parking spaces remain free in the Railroad and Gladiola lots.
    Employees can park for free in the garages with a card that hangs from the rearview mirror, the mayor said about his new proposed option for staff parking.
    He questioned the DDA’s priorities that put parking for workers before patrons. “You’re far more worried about employee parking than spaces for customers,” he said.

    Planning an event at a county beach?
    Leave the balloons behind; as of Sept. 1, they’re banned at 11 Palm Beach County-operated beachfront parks.
    “I think anytime we can limit the amount of plastics, including balloons, is a good thing,” said Leanne Welch, manager of the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton, which takes in and rehabilitates injured and sick sea turtles. “I applaud the county for taking this step.”
    The county implemented the ban in an effort to help sea turtles, which mistake the deflated popular party favors for jellyfish, their favorite meal.
    The balloons get stuck in the sea creatures — or streamers or string can wrap around body parts — causing digestive problems, starvation, strangulation and death.
    “In five days in June, our sea turtle conservation team collected 53 balloons that washed ashore on Boca Raton’s 5 miles of beaches,” Welch said. “It’s a real problem.”
    The county parks include Ocean Inlet Park in Ocean Ridge, South Inlet Park in Boca Raton and Gulfstream Park in Gulf Stream. The rule does not apply to municipal beachfront parks.
    Violators are subject to a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail.
— Henry Fitzgerald

By Jane Smith

    New gazebos on the north and south ends of Delray Beach’s municipal beach will soon be constructed with a $40,000 donation from the Lattner Family Foundation.
    The promenade contractor will build them for the city, Project Manager Missie Barletto said. The gazebos will use the same footprint as the current structures, she said.
    The beach promenade work is progressing, Barletto said, moving north of Thomas Street to Beach Road. The anticipated completion date for the $3.1 million project is mid-October. New synthetic turf will be installed by the main pavilion.
    For safety reasons, the city asks residents and visitors to enter the beach at the designated entrances: across from the Sandoway parking lot on the south end, at the main pavilion at Atlantic Avenue and at the Thomas Street entrance on the north end.
    Solar-powered smart meters have been installed on the southern portion of the beach, along with a tricolored sidewalk with new benches, showers, water fountains, bike and surfboard racks, and trash containers.
    The city added a third Downtown Trolley route for those choosing to park in the city garages. For questions about parking during the construction, call Jorge Alarcon at 243-7000, ext. 4112.
    The promenade contractor has removed all of the benches with plaques and the city is storing them for the original buyers. They will each receive a free inscribed brick near the flagpole at Atlantic Avenue.
    For questions about the benches and plaques, call Isaac Kovner at 243-7000, ext. 4119.

Gerson Fabe shows some of his works at The Carlisle Palm Beach. He shares a new poem daily with his fellow residents. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Poet sets reality and romance to rhyme
(and is rewarded with an eager audience)

By Willie Howard

    Whether he’s poking fun at our culture’s loss of civility or delving into his imagination to create wistful romantic images, Gerson Fabe enjoys writing poems and sharing them with fellow residents of The Carlisle Palm Beach, a senior living community in Lantana.
    When Carlisle residents arrive in the dining room for breakfast, many of them find something special on the pressed white tablecloths — sheets of paper bearing the headline “Poem of the Day.”
    Fabe, who turns 96 this month, studied writing in New York, where he was a life insurance agent. He started writing poems and short stories after he retired and moved to Boynton Beach more than 30 years ago.
    Fabe translates thoughts into rhyming stanzas of poetry on a computer in his fourth-floor apartment at The Carlisle. Words from television spark some of his ideas. Sometimes, he begins a poem, shelves it — and finishes it later.
    In addition to poetry, Fabe has published a collection of short stories titled Short Stories for Trips of All Sizes. Each story has a suggested reading time, listed in the index.
    Born on Sept. 28, 1921, Fabe grew up in Cincinnati, where he worked for his high school newspaper.
    After studying mechanical engineering for two years at the University of Cincinnati, Fabe learned that what would become the Air Force needed men with mechanical backgrounds during World War II.
    Fabe had become a pilot before entering the Air Force, so after 13 weeks of training at Yale University, he became an Air Force test pilot.
    He was the first to fly planes after they’d been repaired. Partly because of his careful preflight inspections, Fabe never had to ditch a plane during his six years in the Air Force.
    Flying emerges as a theme in some of his poems, such as Come Fly With Me, a romantic piece written in 1996, the year Fabe lost his wife, Joan.
    Other Fabe poems, such as The Lament of Old Age and Through the Fog, address the effects of aging.
    “Any poem that deals in some way with age everybody loves because they see themselves as the poem unfurls,” Fabe said.
    Fabe started sharing his poems with other residents after moving to The Carlisle three years ago. After finding a few copies of his poems in the dining room at breakfast, residents began to ask for them.
    He usually prints 25 copies of his daily poem and distributes them at breakfast.
    “Everybody seems to love them,” Fabe said, noting that some residents walk up to him with their hands out, expecting a copy.

Poems by Gerson Fabe

The Lament of Old Age

My stamina and I
Are no longer speaking.
My left knee joint
Is loudly creaking.
But I’m glad to be here.

My blood pressure
Whirls out of sight.
My eyes can’t tell
If it’s day or night.
But I’m glad to be here.

My right arm ignores
My other hand
My heart is pumping
To beat the band.
But I’m glad to be here.

My kidney ignores
The plight of my liver
And I’ve been totally rejected
As a whole blood giver
But I’m damn glad to be here.


Through the Fog

Memories flit in and out of a fog
That grows denser as we age
The moment in which they reveal
     themselves
Is as swift as just turning a page.

A segment of the past appears,
     then
Drifts away in the blink of an eye.
Although you see them for but an
     instant
You live it again as if it had just
     gone bye.

Pleasant memories are always
      welcome
but sometimes leave the mind
     agog.
Then of course there are the other
     kind
These we’ll wish back into the fog.

By Mary Thurwachter

    Relief is coming for those frustrated with getting the parking kiosks to work efficiently at the Lantana Municipal Beach. The Town Council at its Aug. 14 meeting agreed to spend $18,871 for three new kiosks.
    “The ones we have aren’t working to our liking,” Mayor Dave Stewart said. “We’ve been testing new ones and there have not been any issues.”
    Town Manager Deborah Manzo said the two parking kiosks at the beach were becoming unmanageable because of  communication issues between them.
    “As a result, two major problems developed,” Manzo said. “Long communication time between kiosks caused timeouts to cancel the transaction, which ultimately resulted in the Police Department having to download kiosk summaries to determine who had or had not paid, and thereby reducing Police Department efficiency.”
    Having kiosks that can communicate with each other provides for payment convenience — you can use any of the three kiosks no matter where your car is parked. It’s also useful for police when determining which cars need to be ticketed.
    Town officials like two pilot kiosks from IPS Group Inc. that are undergoing testing.
    The two existing kiosks, purchased four years ago, will be moved to Sportsman’s Park and Lyman Kayak Park. Since the two will be standalone kiosks, communication and enforcement problems are unlikely to develop, Manzo said.
    The three new beach kiosks come with 24-hour technical support, two coin boxes per machine, a warranty and a cellphone app.
    In other news, the council agreed to waive the parking requirement for wheel stops for the commercial section of Water Tower Commons, the 72-acre retail and residential project at the old A.G. Holley State Hospital site.
    Developers will be permitted to eliminate 819 of the 1,177 wheel stops in the original design. Planners said the stops were tripping hazards for people who walk across the parking lot.
    The town also learned that the first known store for the project, a Walmart Neighborhood Market, is applying for a building permit and expects to begin construction in January.

By Mary Thurwachter

    The Lantana Town Council turned down Chamber of Commerce President Dave Arm’s request to split the cost of a new awning for the Chamber’s home, a town-owned building at 212 Iris Ave.
    Council members, at the Aug. 28 meeting, said the town should not pay anything for the awning, a $1,500 project, since maintenance of the building, according to the 2013 contract, is the responsibility of the Chamber of Commerce.
    The Chamber leases the building for $1 a year. It’s a good deal, everyone agrees, but when it comes time for sprucing up, the Chamber has looked to the town for financial support in the recent past. When the building needed to be restuccoed and painted, a $10,000 project, the town agreed to pay half.
    That was different, Mayor Dave Stewart said, because the building was deteriorating and the town was helping to preserve one of its assets. “I don’t know what the public purpose of buying an awning would be,” he said.
    Arm argued that the expense of the awning should be shared by the town.
    “This is a signature building owned by the town and an obvious landmark,” Arm said.
    Council member Phil Aridas said he didn’t think the town should bear any responsibility for purchasing the striped awning.
    “We give it [the building] to you for a dollar a year,” Aridas said. “You should get what you want and pay for it.”
    Stewart said he had talked to the Wellington mayor about ethics complaints she faced, which included expenses such as paying a tip of 18-20 percent instead of 15 percent, and purchasing a dessert for more than $5.
    “The inspector general is very concerned about spending money that is inappropriate, and I don’t want to be sitting before an ethics commission for spending $750 for an awning,”  he said.

By Jane Smith

    City commissioners didn’t like the initial plans presented for Town Square, a 16-acre development that is supposed to create an active downtown for Boynton Beach. They saw designs presented Aug. 21 at a special commission meeting at the city library.
    They told the development team, which the city hired as partner in the project, they want a bustling Ocean Avenue with wide sidewalks for outdoor cafes, tree-lined streets and little shops.
    “I don’t see any of that,” Commissioner Joe Casello said. “I see apartments and parking garages.”
    One proposed apartment building sits on Ocean Avenue, near the intersection with Southeast First Street. The other apartment buildings are on Town Square’s southern border of Southeast Second Avenue.
    The only two existing buildings proposed to stay in their locations are the historic high school and the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, Assistant City Manager Colin Groff said. The project’s boundaries roughly are Boynton Beach Boulevard on the north, Seacrest Boulevard on the west, Southeast Second Avenue on south and Southeast First Street on the east.
    For the 1927 high school, Straticon Construction is seeking permits to begin remediation work, Groff said. Once that is finished, its engineers and architect can walk through the building and see what can be reused. He mentioned the trusses and the wood flooring in the second-floor gym.
    “If we do this right, the gym can be one of the best places in Palm Beach County,” Groff said. It will be able to seat 500 for concerts and 250 at tables for weddings and other big events.
    The first floor will contain the city classes and activities currently taking place in the Arts Center and Civic Center, Groff said. The first floor also will have a warming kitchen that can serve the meetings and events on the second floor, he said.
    Groff received approval to move forward with the design of a district energy system that would serve all buildings in Town Square. The chiller system is energy-efficient and will help reduce the carbon footprint of Boynton Beach, he said. The design cost of the two-floor building is $307,000. The energy plant will cost $10 million to build.
    The energy plant will sit on the north side of the high school and will be designed in similar style, Groff said. “The equipment will be on the first floor and the cooling towers on the second floor,” he said.
    He also received commission approval to spend $69,000 to design a new water and sewer system for Town Square, estimated to cost taxpayers about $94.5 million.  
    Only Commissioner Mack McCray was opposed to spending the money. “I’m not in favor of what I see,” he said.
    In plans presented in April, the library was going to be a separate building within Town Square, but commissioners learned that the two-story portion of the building has leaks and air-conditioning problems. They also want to remove Town Square traffic from Southeast Second Avenue, a residential street.
    That’s why they’d like to combine the library and city hall in one, four-story building at the southeast corner of Seacrest Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, Groff said.
    “A lot of city halls have civic space on the first floor,” said Wayne Dunkelberger, the architect designing the public buildings in Town Square. “We also can have the café from the library there.”
    The police headquarters will be built on a city-owned parcel at the southeast intersection of High Ridge Road and Gateway Boulevard, just west of the interstate.
    Casello and Commissioner Christina Romelus and Vice Mayor Justin Katz said the land on that location is valuable and could be sold to a hotel developer. They want to see the police headquarters on the east side of the interstate.
    But McCray said they had voted to put the police headquarters there and that’s what he wants to do.
    Mayor Steven Grant gave Groff a compromise to work with: Try to find an eastern site that is suitable. If one can’t be found, then build the headquarters on High Ridge Road.
    A new Fire Station 1 is planned just outside Town Square, at the northeast corner of Northeast First Street and Northeast First Avenue.
    Romelus also said she wants to see townhouses and condos in Town Square that people could buy, not just rental apartments.
    Groff said the development team  will take the commissioners’ input and develop a draft site plan with individual building plans by Sept. 28, a draft financial plan on Oct. 17 that commissioners will have to approve and then a vote on Nov. 7 about proceeding to Phase II, the construction phase.

Construction is nearing completion to transform the Little House into Fork Play. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    Restaurant owner Brian Nickerson is the kind of restaurateur the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency wants to attract.
    Nickerson, who started with a food truck selling his version of Mexican fare, operated out of a former Pantry Pride location that had “parking challenges,” no air conditioning and no restrooms for its patrons.
    By the second week of September, his Boss Tacos will move about 2 miles north to 1550 N. Federal Highway. The Boynton Beach plaza has ample parking, and the space will have restrooms and air conditioning.
    “The place we’re in now is hot and sweaty in the summer,” Nickerson said. “We lose half of our business in the summer.”
    In August, his restaurant was approved for a matching rent grant up to $15,000 because the food is locally sourced and made on site.
    Boss Tacos is one of the restaurants and other food-related places flocking to eastern Boynton Beach, partially because of the agency’s economic grants.
    This budget year, the agency awarded about 33 percent of the grants to eateries, said Theresa Utterback, development services specialist for the CRA. 
    One recent recipient was Troy’s Bar-Be-Que restaurant, part of the city for more than 20 years.
    “I looked online and found them,” Anthony Barber said about the grants. “We wanted to move.”
    In late spring, Troy’s moved about 2 miles south of its takeout stand on North Federal Highway to a sit-down restaurant on South Federal, just south of Woolbright Road.
    “The grants are reimbursement for the money you spend,” said Barber, an owner/manager at Troy’s. “When we submit the paperwork and receive the money, we will reinvest it in the business.”
    His father, Troy Davis, opened the rib takeout stand in 1996.
    In June, the agency board approved Troy’s to receive an interior build-out grant of $8,000, a sign grant of $594 and rent reimbursement of $15,000.
    Besides requiring multiyear leases and the grant recipients to provide matching money, the agency has several safeguards before the taxpayer dollars are given, Utterback said. 
    The agency staff runs credit reports on each corporate officer/manager. The average credit score cannot be below 601 and no bankruptcies can appear on the credit reports or the grant applicant is disqualified, she said.
    All appropriate permits must be applied for and no money is released until the city issues a certificate of occupancy or certificate of completion, she said. In addition, agency rules require state corporate documents to be current. Business tax receipts for Boynton Beach and Palm Beach County must be provided. 
    For the build-out grants, final release of liens from all contractors must be provided. Then, agency staff does a lien search to ensure no liens remain on the leased property. The landlord must sign the grant applications. 
    Interior build-out and commercial façade grant dollars apply only to improvements that stay with the building, not for the tenant’s equipment. That way, the space remains improved for the next tenant, Utterback said.
    Completed applications are forwarded to the agency board for approval.
    Fork Play, which will go into the former cottage known as the Little House, had the grants made part of its purchase agreement. After the restaurant opens in late September, property owner Richard Lucibella and his partner, Barbara Ceuleers, can apply for a $25,000 façade grant, 3.3 percent of the construction cost not to exceed $66,000 and interior build-out costs not to exceed $45,000.
    Fork Play will feature small bites, called tapas, and wines and craft brews. The eatery at 480 E. Ocean Ave. will be run by Lisa Mercado, who also operates the Living Room restaurant in Boynton Beach. She plans to hold a soft opening the week before the Sept. 30 grand opening.
    The historic Magnuson House owner, Bruce Kaplan, has the same deal for the grants. In addition, the house at 211 E. Ocean Ave. had never been used as a restaurant. The agency will give Kaplan an extra $200,000 to do the conversion.
    Kaplan, who lives in the Philadelphia area, has made several visits to interview contractors and restaurant operators, said his architect, Jim Williams.
    “Once [Kaplan] picks a contractor, then we can get the building permits,” Williams said.
    Construction will take at least eight months, pushing the restaurant’s opening into summer of next year, he said.
    Del Sol Bakery opened in May in Ocean Palm Plaza at 1600 N. Federal Highway. Its grant of $1,100 for interior build-out was approved in July 2016. The grant amount was increased to $3,010 in May after the bakery tenants completed some of the improvements the landlord had agreed to do. The bakery also received a rent reimbursement grant of $8,550 and a signage grant of $2,250.
    “The grants are very helpful, especially for a new business,” said bakery owner Michelle Gingold. “They’re definitely worth filling out the paperwork. We have received some of the money already.”
    Gingold said she looked in Delray Beach first, but there is less competition in Boynton Beach. “We like being in an upcoming area,” she said.
    Earlier this year, Jim Guilbeault, who received three CRA grants, changed the name of his casual  restaurant from Culinary To Go to Gilby’s Restaurant. The name better reflects what’s happening inside the former Denny’s diner on South Federal Highway.
    He chose Gilby because he answered to that nickname in high school. Friends could not figure out how to say his last name (pronounced GILL-bow), so they shortened it to Gilby. His kids when they were in high school also were called by that name.
    Guilbeault’s 15-year-old catering business will remain under the Culinary Solutions name. It provides food and beverages to Kravis Center events, along with catering birthday parties, bar mitzvahs and other celebrations.
    Guilbeault’s son is working with the CRA’s two new social media business consultants — Matthew Meinzer and Jamil Donith. They will help Gilby’s improve its social media presence.

By Jane Smith, Dan Moffett and Rich Pollack
    
    Coastal towns in south Palm Beach County are flush with cash thanks to their shares of the voter-approved penny sales tax increase that started in January.
    The money began flowing into municipal coffers in March and will continue for 10 years. Population determines how the cash is doled out, giving the three largest South County cities the most money in the area. The county receives about 30 percent of the money from the extra 1-cent sales tax and the Palm Beach County School District gets the largest share at 50 percent.
    The cities can spend the money only on infrastructure needs such as repairing or building roads, sewers, water lines and fire stations or making park improvements.

Delray Beach
    Delray Beach issued a $31.5 million bond to immediately proceed with its capital improvement needs at its own pace, instead of waiting for the annual allotment. The bond amount is below the city’s estimated allocation of $38 million. The city plans to use the $3.8 million annual incremental sales tax payments for repayment of the bond — both principal and interest.

    “We wanted an adequate cushion between the anticipated penny tax revenues and our repayment obligations for debt service and total principal repayment,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said in an email.
    Instead of waiting for incremental payments over 10 years where project costs would escalate and limit what the city could do, the city sought bond proposals from lending institutions, he said. The city received eight responses.
    City Attorney Max Lohman, who serves in the same capacity for Palm Beach Gardens, suggested the bond and the outside attorney to act as the bond counsel, Morris “Skip” Miller of the Greenspoon Marder law firm.
    Miller told Delray Beach commissioners in late June that the interest rate was 1.96 percent from Bank of America. Commissioners liked that low rate, especially when they heard the rate secured by Palm Beach Gardens was slightly more at 2.1 percent.
    “That’s the benefit of having a city attorney who works with other cities,” interim City Manager Neal de Jesus said at the late June meeting.
    The mayor called the bond “innovative financing; most notable being the bond costs taxpayers nothing.”
 The city will complete projects now rather than later when both construction costs and interest rates may be much higher, the mayor said.  
    Delray Beach has a long list of improvements and replacements that were delayed during the recession.
    It includes a new fire station on Linton Boulevard, sidewalk improvements outside of the downtown, park improvements, public sea walls along the Intracoastal Waterway and the second phase of the beach master plan.
    The city will allow Palm Beach County’s League of Cities’ Infrastructure Surtax Citizen Oversight Committee to determine how the sales tax dollars are spent.
    Cities participating in the committee submit project names, justification for using sales tax money and the amount to be spent to the league’s executive director by June 30, prior to the start of each financial year.  
    By Feb. 28 following the end of each budget year, each participating city will submit independent auditor management letter comments related to the spending of the sales tax dollars.

Boca Raton
    Boca Raton, estimated to receive $5.3 million annually, has created an Infrastructure Surtax Fund to accept and spend the money, according to the city’s website. Its Financial Advisory Board will oversee how the money is spent.
    Throughout the recession, Boca Raton maintained its roads, water lines, parks and beaches. It does not have a backlog, Mayor Susan Haynie has said.  
    Among the potential projects listed on the city website are road resurfacing, pedestrian pathways, sidewalk renovation and repair, park improvements, and bridge and sea wall repairs.
    Palm Beach County plans to spend $6.8 million of its sales tax share in Boca Raton, according to a list provided by County Commissioner Steven Abrams. The amount includes $1.85 million to resurface Crawford Boulevard between Palmetto Park and Glades roads.

Boynton Beach
    Boynton Beach plans to spend its share of the sales tax money this year, about $4.4 million, on city sidewalks, Public Works Director Jeff Livergood said at the city’s budget hearings in July.
    For next year, Boynton Beach will spend the penny tax dollars in its parks, Livergood said. The list includes upgrades at the Intracoastal Park and Clubhouse, improvements at Oceanfront Park, repairing the Coast Guard building and its restrooms at Harvey Oyer Jr. Park, and making the pathway handicap-accessible at Mangrove Walk at the city’s marina.
    The following year, the proceeds will go to the city’s Town Square improvements, Livergood said.
    “We have sufficient dollars for the next nine years to maintain the park structures,” he said. “But after the penny sales tax is gone, the question will be: How will we maintain them? We will have that discussion next year.”     
    Boynton Beach has established its own oversight board, Livergood said.

Elsewhere
    In the smaller coastal towns, leaders have a mix of ideas for the penny sales tax proceeds.
    • Lantana, projected to receive about $739,352 annually, will dedicate the money to sidewalk improvements, repaving roads and parking lots, and beach improvements during the next year.
    • Highland Beach, which initially didn’t expect to receive any money because its leaders didn’t think the voter referendum would pass, now hopes to use the approximately $200,000 a year to pay for improvements to its walking path, according to a proposal of the mayor as head of the town’s Ad Hoc Citizen Streetscape Committee.
    • Ocean Ridge, which will receive about $107,000 annually, has talked about installing traffic calming devices on side streets.
    • South Palm Beach wants to use its annual allocation of $82,300 to help defray the cost of concrete groins on the beach. The money can’t be used to replace beach sand between the groins.
    • Gulf Stream, one of 15 Palm Beach County cities that will use the League of Cities to monitor the sales tax program, will use its $60,000 annually to offset the cost of burying utility lines, Town Manager Greg Dunham said. “We have a line item for the penny sales tax in next year’s budget to do that,” he said.
    Or the town could let it accrue, which it is allowed to do, Dunham said.
    • Manalapan may use its annual allocation of $25,000 to help rebuild swales on Point Manalapan.
    • Briny Breezes will let its $25,000 annual amount accumulate for a few years. Its leaders eventually want to do something meaningful, such as build wider sidewalks for golf carts to use.                                  

    Mary Thurwachter contributed to this report.

Linda and Greg Harrison of South Palm Beach hold a few of the permanent residents of The Bird & Exotic Hospital in Greenacres. Pictured are Peeps, a yellow budgie; Jake, a Mexican redhead parrot, and Baby, a Congo African grey parrot. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    Dr. Greg Harrison’s cellphone doesn’t just ring. It also quacks.
    And that’s fitting for Harrison, who for more than 40 years was known as South Florida’s bird doctor, a veterinarian whose avian specialty made him the person to see if your parrot, cockatiel or macaw was under the weather.
    Through the years, Harrison’s wife of more than 54 years, Linda, has been by his side, working in their clinic and writing brochures and other materials. The two also worked together on several books.
    “We were partners the entire time,” Linda Harrison says.
    Now retired and living in South Palm Beach, the Harrisons no longer spend time looking after sick pet birds or helping healthy ones stay well.
    They do, however, help  those who are still practicing avian medicine, with Greg serving as a mentor, a monitor for two Facebook groups and being available online to answer questions.
    The two also travel often and continue to own Harrison’s Bird Foods, a company that makes organic, non-GMO food and is now run by their daughter.
    A true scientist, Harrison was one of the first to focus on avian wellness, looking at ways to prevent health problems through proper nutrition.
    With 160 acres of farmland in Nebraska, Greg Harrison also is experimenting with new techniques to make farming more organic and sustainable.
    Both from small towns in Iowa, Linda, 76, and Greg, 75, met while in the Iowa State University Singers choral group. While Greg was in veterinary school, Linda went into education, teaching home economics.
    She later founded her own company, Zoological Education Network, producing educational materials for veterinarians as well as hosting seminars.
    Greg Harrison first developed an interest in birds while growing up in rural Iowa.
    “It was common for people to have an outdoor garden, and we became familiar with the birds,” he said, adding that his father built birdhouses. “We’d spend hours out there watching the birds.”
    As a young man, Harrison would take care of baby and injured birds.
    “Holding a bird in my hand got to be a passion,” he said.
    A parakeet that Harrison got as a pet while in high school sealed the deal and set him on his future path.
    After he graduated with a degree in veterinary medicine, Harrison came to South Florida and soon set up a general veterinary practice near Lake Worth, with a farm nearby that included cows, pigs, horses and, of course, birds.
    Birds evolved into a specialty as they grew in popularity as pets and as Harrison helped introduce an endoscopic process for determining gender.
    Early on, the Harrisons started raising birds and at one point had 200 parrots on the property that were cared for partly by Linda.
    Harrison became internationally known for his innovation and expertise in caring for pet birds and in 1980 was called upon to serve as the first president of the Association of Avian Veterinarians. Linda also played an active role in the international organization.
    — Rich Pollack

    Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
    A. Both Linda and I grew up in small farming communities in Iowa (fewer than 3,500 people each) and attended an agricultural college, Iowa State University. Because of this, I think I have a better understanding of mega-agriculture and the effects of pesticides and other additives on plants, animals and the way farmland has been diminished.
    
    Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
    A. Because I was certain when I was 9 years old that I was going to be a veterinarian, I tended to seek jobs working with veterinary clinics, although I had my time as janitor, dishwasher, warehouse operator, and milk- and paper-delivery jobs during college.
    I am most proud of being instrumental in starting the Association of Avian Veterinarians, which still exists today, and of developing Harrison’s Bird Foods.

    Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today? 
    A. The world is changing rapidly, and it is hard to know what the future of veterinary medicine or any career holds. Besides technological advancements, I would think anything to do with food and water — how it can be grown, marketed, packaged and delivered sustainably — would be beneficial to all mankind.
    
    Q. How did you choose to make your home in South Palm Beach and what is your favorite part about living there?
    A. We spent a lot of time at Lake Worth public beach when we first moved to this area, and the desire to live on the beach became part of our bucket list. Our apartment in South Palm Beach overlooks the ocean, so we are very appreciative of it for surfing, paddle boarding, swimming, snorkeling, walking and viewing turtle crawls.

    Q. What book are you reading now?
    A. On Tyranny, by Leo Strauss, and Iron John, by Robert Bly.    
    

    Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires you?  
    A. “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” This proverb seemed to describe my early professional life in working with pet birds, because there were very few people who had the same interest at that time, and I was just “winging it.”

    Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
    A. Harrison Ford.
    
    Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
    A. In Iowa growing up, I started working with the local veterinarian as a junior high student. I admired his hard work, honesty and his commitment to his family, his clients and the town.
    
    Q. What are some of the honors you recently received?
    A. In 2016, I was asked to lecture in Vienna, where I received an award from the Austrian Small Animal Veterinary Association for my work in avian medicine. Linda and I were recently in Washington, D.C., where we worked with the Avian and Wildlife Lab at the University of Miami in co-sponsoring a screening of the movie Racing Extinction to the Association of Avian Veterinarians.
    
    Q. Do you have a favorite bird?
    A. Ospreys go fishing right outside our balcony, so I love to watch them.