Isabelle Paul, the Florida Commander of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller Commandery,

has been a dutiful dame in the organization since she was knighted in 2005. She’s wearing the red and white colors

of the Order of St. John. Paul’s home in Boca Raton has a painting of her from the 1990s.

Tim Stepien/ The Coastal Star

By Amy Woods

    She has led the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller Commandery of Florida since 2011, raising an impressive $800,000 for local charities that aid the sick and the poor. She has served as a dutiful dame in the religious organization since 2005, when she was knighted during an elaborate ceremony in Malta.
    She has devoted her life to philanthropy since 1987, when her husband died.
    “My husband and I were benefactors of many charities,” said Boca Raton resident Isabelle Paul, rattling off a list of nonprofits including the Mayo Clinic, The Salvation Army, World Vision International and others. “After my husband passed away, I decided I was going to spend the rest of my life doing the Lord’s work.”
    Paul’s husband was a builder and developer. He also manufactured parts for the space program.
    “He received a commendation from President Nixon for helping get Neil Armstrong to the moon,” Paul said.
    The couple owned a resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica, which now is Sandals. “The highlight of the hotel was that the queen of England chose it for her reception when she visited Jamaica in 1966,” Paul said.
    Paul spends six hours each day in her role as commander, meeting with the agencies that have received money from the order, reviewing applications of those seeking financial assistance and overseeing details of the annual gala.
    “I’ve always had a passion for the sick and the poor,” she said. “It really started from childhood watching my parents help others. They were not doctors or ministers. They were just good Christians who liked to help others.”
    Traveling around the world, Paul said, made her aware of the thousands of people in need.
    “I have, and continue to, help people who I will never get to meet,” she said.

    Paul met Henrietta de Hoernle while volunteering for the Debbie-Rand Memorial Service League. De Hoernle, a board member, was a dame in the order and invited Paul to join.
    “We became good friends, and I knew her until the day she died,” Paul said. “We were very close, to the extent where she even had me plan her funeral.”
    De Hoernle, who died last July at age 103, left a legacy for the order by becoming one of three members worldwide to receive its highest award, the Cross of Merit.
    “She was a driving force,” said Paul, who did not wish to share her own age. “She is dearly missed.”
    Among the charities the order supports are Boca Helping Hands, Gulfstream Goodwill Industries, Home Safe, Place of Hope and Spirit of Giving Network.
    “All of these organizations are helping people in so many ways,” Paul said. “Many children are no longer going to bed hungry. We are housing homeless veterans. There are boys and girls who are abused and are being taken away from their parents.
    “There’s just such a need,” she said. “It’s unbelievable. The world has changed so drastically. People don’t care about each other like they used to, and I’m praying we get back to that.”
    Although she has no children of her own, Paul sponsors children in Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Portugal, Rwanda and Thailand.
Mary Csar, a member of the order, said it has grown in scope and size under Paul’s leadership.
    “She’s really tried to expand the organization rather than just being happy with a handful of members,” Csar said.“She’s been very steady, and she keeps it going. We keep voting her in as commander because she has done such a good job.”

    During a budget workshop on June 12, Manalapan commissioners tentatively agreed to maintain the current tax rate of $2.79 per $1,000 of taxable value for the 2017-18 fiscal year.  That’s roughly 5 percent above the projected rollback that would keep total tax revenues flat year-over-year.
    Mayor Keith Waters said the extra revenues are needed to make improvements to the Town Hall chambers and possibly to cover the legal expenses the town might have if it takes on the county and South Palm Beach over their beach stabilization project.
    “We still have one of the lowest tax rates in the county,” the mayor said.
    Town Manager Linda Stumpf said the proposed budget includes a 3 percent raise for employees, including police officers who are close to agreeing on a four-year contract with the town.
    The next budget workshop is July 17 at 10 a.m.
 —Dan Moffett

By Steve Plunkett

    The barrier island-based Florida Coalition for Preservation wants Gulf Stream and its neighbors to budget money this summer to determine where to locate a new fire-rescue station and how much it would cost.
    “It’s important for you to understand that when you see your first budget … that we at least identify a possibility that we’ll be asking for some money from each of the towns on the barrier island,” said former Gulf Stream Vice Mayor Robert Ganger, who founded the coalition.
    The study would be a follow-up to an exploratory study that seemed to scuttle the idea of forming a unified fire-rescue department for Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes and Gulf Stream.
    “If we don’t start now, you’ll never be ready when Boynton in particular is redeveloped and there is a real problem getting over the bridges,” Ganger told Gulf Stream commissioners at their June 9 meeting.
    Mayor Scott Morgan asked how the proposed study would differ from last year’s effort. Ganger said the earlier study identified the cost of putting a facility on the barrier island and the possibility of two locations, but it was “all just speculative.”
    “Now we’ve got to get down to the real nitty-gritty and determine whether or not it’s run by Boynton Beach — which is probable, certainly possible — and where it would be located,” Ganger said.
    New Town Manager Greg Dunham said he would give commissioners their first look at his 2018 budget proposal July 14.
    Ganger said he hoped commissioners would set aside a “material” amount for the fire study, $15,000 to $20,000.
    “But don’t quote me on that because I literally do not know,” he said.
    Kristine de Haseth, the coalition’s executive director, warned commissioners in May that development in Boynton Beach on Woolbright Road and Ocean Avenue could impede emergency medical service access to the island.
    Ganger explained: “We are planning to talk to all the town managers and see their level of interest, their commitment to participate financially in a study, which at this point in time we haven’t really figured out what the study’s going to be.”
    Ganger said his group has talked to Bethesda Memorial Hospital, “and they’re very interested in what we’re trying to do.” The proposed station may turn out to be “non-civic, may be Bethesda, but you just don’t know,” he said. “You’ve got to do the work.”

    I am addressing the Editor’s Note, “Extra drive time a necessary nuisance this time of year,” that appeared in the June 2017 issue of The Coastal Star.
    Upfront, I totally agree with the opinion that most construction projects on the barrier island reflect necessary improvements to our transportation infrastructure. However, I am reacting to the comments concerning A1A in Delray Beach that seem to me to unfairly blame the MBR construction company, contractor on the beach master plan project.
    The editorial states that “Delray Beach’s oceanfront traffic has been barely inching along because of restricted parking and construction movements along the beachfront.”
    I live directly on the west side of A1A facing the beach walk and constantly observe the progress of the project and the traffic flow. Believe me, MBR is super-organized in facilitating traffic flow and the availability of beach entrances. I do not see traffic tie-ups as you described.
    The parking has been removed, but the traffic and bike lanes are in place in both north and south directions. The construction crews rarely impact traffic when working or even when debris is being removed. My impression is that all equipment remains within the original parking and bike lanes that are fenced off.
    Frankly, the major traffic tie-ups are at other A1A locations, where the parking meters are still in place, caused by motorists stopping to wait for a parking spot to become available. This can be a long wait.
    In relation to the new-home construction sites on A1A, this equipment has no place to park except partially on A1A, but seems not to impact traffic flow significantly.
    I do not feel that I am biased as president of the BPOA, which is partnering with the city in initiating the beach master plan. Compliments are due MBR Construction. I understand they are on schedule to complete the project by October or before.

Bob Victorin
Delray Beach

By Jane Smith
    
    The rainy weather in the first half of June did not delay the contractor working on the promenade along Delray Beach’s municipal beach, a city staffer said.
    But the contractor has asked for a three-day extension because of the work shutdown over the Fourth of July weekend, said Missie Barletto, deputy program director in the Environmental Services Department.
    The city and the contractor plan to allow pedestrians full access for the July 4 festivities through open and protected walkways to the beach.  
    Parking will be limited along the ocean, with meters removed from the south side of the municipal beach. Festival-goers are urged to park west of the Intracoastal Waterway in city garages and parking lots and then take the Downtown Trolley to Northeast/Southeast Seventh Avenue, and walk or bike over to the beach.
    For the event, city police will close Ocean Boulevard at 2 p.m. from Thomas Street to Bucida Road, one block past Casuarina Road on the south. That stretch won’t be reopened until the crowds clear after the fireworks end on the north end of the city’s beach, according to the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative. The fireworks show will start at 9 p.m.
    City police also will close East Atlantic Avenue at Northeast/Southeast Seventh Avenue at 1:30 p.m. July 4. Festivities start at 8 a.m. with a sandcastle-building contest on the beach. For a list of activities and parking information, festival-goers are urged to check this website: JulyFourth DelrayBeach.com.
    Meanwhile, the $3.1 million upgrade to the municipal beach promenade is moving toward an early fall completion date for the 1.25-mile project.
    In June, the contractor finished removing the entire sidewalk from the south end. Access remains the same on the north end. South of Atlantic Avenue, beach-goers are urged to use the designated entrances. Signs are posted to help pedestrians find the way.
    Underground piping for the showers and fountains continues to be installed between the Sandoway parking lot and Boston’s Sand Bar. Concrete forms for the new sidewalk, north of Lifeguard Tower No. 5, continue to be installed, along with concrete pouring for the sidewalk.
Starting July 5, the work zone will shift north of the Sandoway parking lot to the Marriott Hotel. The sidewalk and parking in that area will be closed. The contractor will begin installing smart meters between Casuarina Road and the Sandoway lot the week of July 10.
Sandblasting of the knee wall, north of Atlantic Avenue, continues.
    The promenade enhancements are nearly 10 years in the making. The work west of the dunes will feature wider sidewalks and coordinated shower poles, benches, bike and surfboard racks, trash/recycling containers and signs to replace the current hodgepodge of styles. Smart parking meters will be solar-powered.
    Bicyclists can still ride on Ocean Boulevard, but they are urged to use caution. The bike lane on the east side will be narrowed with barriers to protect the public from the construction work.
    Beach benches, plaques and stone memorials have been removed and are stored. The city is asking donors to contact project manager Isaac Kovner at 243-7000, ext. 4119, to discuss options.

By Jane Smith
    
    The height of the sea wall in Veterans Park will soon be raised to a uniform level and the two docks there rebuilt, after the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency agreed in late June to pay for the work.
    The agency could pay the estimated $643,700 cost during the current budget year from the savings of three items, said Thuy Shutt, assistant director.
    She told the board members that a less costly HVAC system was installed at the Old School Square complex for a $193,700 savings.
    Delray Beach officials also requested the agency remove two items from its current budget: improvements at the Swinton and Atlantic intersection, costing $300,000, and way-finder signs for the parking management program, costing $150,000.  
    Callaway Marine Technologies Inc., of West Palm Beach, was the lowest bidder. It will do the Veterans Park work for $585,178.80 with an additional 10 percent needed for construction engineering inspection services, for a total cost of $643,700.
    The city already paid about $80,000 to the Wantman Group to survey, design and supervise the construction of the sea wall cap and the two docks.
    The public sea wall will be 20 inches high and rid of slopes and other imperfections along its approximately 400-foot length to the Atlantic Avenue bridge. The sea wall height is measured from the average water level in the Intracoastal.
    Then in 25 years, the city can decide whether another 16 inches is needed because of rising sea levels. This can be done with a triangular parapet on top of the current sea wall to bring the height to 3 feet.
    The higher sea walls were recommended in mid-June. The city’s Rising Waters Task Force recommended a height of 5 feet for public and private sea walls along the Intracoastal.
    “What the city is doing is fine for now by designing a base that can hold increased height,” said Andy Katz, a task force member with a science background. “It doesn’t make sense to increase the height in one area and not the length of the waterway.”
    Delray Beach is in the bidding process for the southern portion of the repair work along Marine Way and the city’s marina. That street does not have a sea wall. The work is set to begin next year.
    The two docks at Veterans Park were closed last September because the wood rotted, making them unsafe to use. The replacement docks should be ready by January.
    Separately, Delray Beach is surveying the condition of public and private sea walls along the Intracoastal Waterway. The work is supposed to be finished in August.

By Jane Smith
    
    Free parking along Atlantic Avenue west of the Intracoastal Waterway is about to become a thing of the past.
    Delray Beach city commissioners directed staff to look into installing meters along the avenue to increase turnover for retailers and restaurateurs, especially between Swinton Avenue and the Intracoastal bridge.
    “Because the spaces are free, employees park there all day,” said Dale Sugerman, assistant city manager, when presenting a parking management plan to the commission at a mid-June workshop.
    Peter Arts, a Downtown Development Authority board member and an insurance broker, said, “Metering Atlantic Avenue would preclude people from parking all day.”
    Nine members of the public spoke about the parking plan at the workshop. Eight were for it. Only one was against it.
    “Parking meters would devastate the downtown,” said David Cook, owner of Hand’s Office and Arts Supply on Atlantic Avenue. He’s also a former DDA chairman, who termed out of the position.
    Commissioners want to see a  program that would allow residents to park for free after purchasing passes. That program also would cover seasonal residents.
    “It could be a pre-purchase program for the garages and surface lots,” Commissioner Mitch Katz said.
    Commissioners also want to see a breakdown of the revenue balanced by the costs of the new parking system, including meters and personnel.
    “I want to see revenue versus costs,” said Commissioner Shelly Petrolia. Previous staffers have said, “An army would be needed to make this work.”
    Her fellow commissioners agreed that they want to see the options available for the city lots and on side streets before approving the parking management plan. They want to see a range of rates and new hours that the meters will be enforced.
    The city has 3,277 parking spaces in the downtown and on the barrier island, Sugerman said.
    Smart meters already are installed in the city’s six surface lots on the barrier island and on Atlantic Avenue east of the Intracoastal. The meters, which can take various forms of payment, will be installed along Ocean Boulevard after the beachfront construction is completed in the fall.
    The barrier island has a total of 700 spaces, Sugerman said.
    Smart meters recently were installed in the city’s two garages, which have 727 spaces. Parking is free there most of the time. The city charges a flat rate of $5 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday after 4 p.m. and during special events.
    In June, Lanier Parking Management took over as the parking manager. Its duties include collecting revenue from the meters, issuing citations, staffing the garages and maintaining the meters.
    Patrons can download a ParkMobile application that will allow them to pay the meter by using a smart phone. People who downloaded the app reported on social media that it was easy to use.
    An employee program did not go over well, according to Sugerman’s report.
    Earlier this year, the city worked with the DDA to set up an employee parking program in the South County garage for $20 a month. Parking hours were 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. and a Downtown Roundabout Trolley would provide free rides to the garage.
    But no employee passes were purchased, according to the report. Employees said they could park much closer to their job sites for free, were afraid of entering the garage late at night with a day’s tips in their pockets and were inconvenienced by waiting for a trolley.
    Commissioners were not interested in setting up an employee parking program. They pointed out that parking is free in the city garages until 4 p.m.
    As to the rates, Sugerman told commissioners that no other town charges more than $3 per hour.
    Some commissioners want higher rates for Atlantic Avenue.
     “We are a hot spot,” Petrolia said. She would like to see the higher rates during weekend night hours for Atlantic Avenue, between Swinton and Northeast/Southeast Fifth avenues.
    Mayor Cary Glickstein agreed. “Friday and Saturday nights, when it is impossible to find a space along Atlantic Avenue,” he said, “people should pay for the convenience of parking close to their destinations.”

Mayor Keith Waters says a proposal to add a 60-room hotel and 70 condos to the 15-acre Ziff estate

would represent a seismic shift in the land use, planning and zoning of Manalapan. The lush vegetation

of the grounds conceals the 33-room mansion and other buildings.

File photo/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

    Think about the Ziff property, that 15-acre parcel of pristine undeveloped land at the southern tip of Manalapan — a natural preserve that offers a glimpse of the unspoiled Florida that Spanish explorers might have seen when they visited the hemisphere five centuries ago.
    Now think about the Ziff property with a 60-room hotel on the Intracoastal Waterway side, 70 condominiums rising on the oceanfront and parking for dozens of cars and delivery vehicles.
    That’s what Tony Imbesi asked Manalapan commissioners to consider when he told them about his idea for the iconic property, known as Gemini to the Ziff family.
    Imbesi, 26, is the son of real estate investor Joseph Imbesi, who lives on Lands End Road in the town. Five years ago, Joseph Imbesi sold the Bal Harbour Club in Miami-Dade County to an Argentine developer for $220 million. The deal made way for the Oceana Bal Harbour condo tower that stands there today.
    The Imbesis are seeing the same kind of potential for big things when they look at the Ziff property.
    “This would be a very special condo hotel,” Tony Imbesi told the commission on June 13. Rooms would go for between $2,000 and $5,000 a night, “a seven-star hotel,” he said.
    Manalapan’s existing luxury hotel, the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa, would be unaffected by the Imbesis’ vision, they say.
 “This is something that wouldn’t compete with the Eau but complement it,” Tony Imbesi said.
    The condo building would have “a small footprint and tall height” to preserve more of the 1,500 tropical plant species around it. The existing 33-room mansion on the property also would be preserved.
    Tony Imbesi came to the commissioners with no plans, drawings, studies or even details about the proposal. He was looking only for feedback to gauge how realistic his ambitious venture might be.
    “If they go along with it,” he said of the commissioners, “it’s extremely realistic.”
    Mayor Keith Waters told Imbesi the project would represent a seismic shift in land use, planning and zoning for Manalapan, changing population density, traffic patterns and even political apportionment.
    Town Manager Linda Stumpf said the administrative work needed to move such a project through town regulatory reviews would take at least two years in itself.
    Waters advised Imbesi to continue to solicit opinions about the idea from Manalapan residents and reminded him that the town is determined to remain “a small enclave, a little jewel.” The mayor said the commission will listen to the responses from the community that are sure to be coming.
    One recent change has made the Imbesi plan more realistic. The Ziff family cut the selling price of their compound by $30 million to $165 million, hoping to attract more buyers.

By Dan Moffett

    The running joke in Briny Breezes during the last month has been that the town might soon be able to score a huge windfall by investing in telescopes.
    A nudist group was pushing Palm Beach County to allow a clothing-optional beach at Gulfstream Park, just south of Briny Breezes. What an opportunity for Brinyites to cater to the needs of the throngs of curious onlookers that surely would be coming.
    But dreams of imminent prosperity died with the joke on June 8 when the county’s Tourist Development Council shot down the idea, telling members of the Freedom Beach Initiative that their proposal wasn’t right for the location.
    County Mayor Paulette Burdick, who sits on the council board, said the park is “family-friendly,” with playgrounds for children, so that means clothing has to remain mandatory.
    “I didn’t think it would get too far with the tourism board,” said Briny Alderman Bobby Jurovaty. “It was never going to happen.”
    Council President Sue Thaler said, all jokes aside, there wasn’t any support for the idea in Briny. “I don’t know anyone who was in favor of it,” she said.
    Karl Dickey, who championed the proposal to the county, said his grass-roots group will continue lobbying officials for a nude beach somewhere. Dickey said he has a half-dozen other prospective sites in mind and that public opinion about clothing-free beach-going is slowly changing.
    “We need county officials to get past the old myth that clothing- optional beaches are not family friendly,” he said. “The only people that would say clothing-optional beaches are not family friendly are those that have not been to one.”

By Dan Moffett

    South Palm Beach thought its long-awaited beach stabilization project was finally about to get started when Palm Beach County commissioners voted early last month to accept the town’s easements and begin permitting.
    Then came some sobering news from a neighbor to the south.
    Manalapan Mayor Keith Waters said his town is committed to doing whatever it takes to see that the project never gets off the ground.
    “We’re going to fight this project tooth and nail,” Waters told his Town Commission. “We’re going to vehemently fight it and bring to bear whatever we need to bring to bear.”
    Waters said he wants to set aside money in the town’s budget to cover the cost of a possible legal battle.
    The mayor thinks the seven concrete groins the county and South Palm Beach plan to install will steal sand that otherwise flows south and nourishes Manalapan’s beaches.
    “This is going to be seriously damaging to our community,” Waters said. “I don’t know anyone in Manalapan who supports that project.”
    South Palm Beach officials have declined public comment on the remarks, but privately say they feel blindsided. The project has been planned for more than a decade and they say no Manalapan official has complained to them directly.
    Representatives from the county and South Palm Beach say they’re committed to moving forward.
    “Our next goal is to submit a comprehensive Request for Additional Information response to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection,” said Kimberly Miranda, the county’s project manager. “It is our intention to submit the response to DEP over the summer.”
    On June 6, county commissioners approved 14 easements from property owners along the town’s beach, paving the way for permitting. The Concordia East condominium and the town of Lantana, which owns the municipal beach, are still negotiating easements with county attorneys.
    Project managers hoped to have construction started by November, but have pushed the target date back to November 2018. The project should take about four months.
    Waters points to the dwindling shoreline in Hillsboro Beach in Broward County as evidence of the damage groins can do. Hillsboro Beach has accused northern Broward County neighbor Deerfield Beach of stealing sand for decades because of a system of 56 groins installed in the 1960s. In April, Hillsboro Beach filed suit against Deerfield Beach, seeking to recover millions in damages.
    Manalapan’s opposition to the project surfaced in July 2016 when then-Mayor David Cheifetz wrote a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers. Cheifetz criticized the corps’ 500-page Environmental Impact Statement for not taking into account the damage the groins might cause to “downdrift” beaches south of the project that benefit from the natural sand flow.
    “The town is very concerned regarding the effects of the coastal armoring structures,” Cheifetz told the corps. “The EIS states that the groins will facilitate stabilization by disrupting a portion of the sand flowing south along the beach and encourage sediment deposition on the updrift side of the structure.”
    The corps also received a complaint from the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa, which withdrew its support for the project that summer after hiring an engineering firm to study the plan.
    Eau President Eva Hill wrote: “The project will have a devastating impact on our beach and the operations of our resort.”
    Cost of the $5 million project is shared among governments, with the town paying about 20 percent, the county 30 percent through tourism taxes, and the state and federal governments covering about 50 percent.
 Manalapan and South Palm Beach have enjoyed a productive working relationship in the past, collaborating on police and traffic issues, as well as sharing a fire-rescue contract with the county.
    “We have a great neighbor to the north,” Waters said. “But we can’t allow this project to move forward.”
    In other business:
    • The South Palm Beach council scheduled its first budget meeting for the 2016-17 fiscal year for 1 p.m. on July 11.
    Mayor Bonnie Fischer said one of the top priorities for council members is deciding a plan for the Town Hall, which needs either a major renovation or a complete rebuilding.
    Either choice will have a significant impact on the town’s budget, she said. Property values in South Palm Beach are up about 6.5 percent, according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office, giving the town increased tax revenues to help pay for the Town Hall improvements.
    • Town Manager Bob Vitas told the South Palm Beach Town Council on June 27 that groundbreaking will be at 10:45 a.m. July 12 for the 3550 project on the former site of the old Hawaiian Inn hotel.
    Paragon Acquisition Group and Manhattan-based DDG are building a 30-unit luxury condominium. Construction for the $35 million project will take about 18 months.

By Dan Moffett

    After hearing concerns about rising legal bills, the Briny Breezes Town Council has decided to seek “comparative proposals” for services from outside attorneys.
    The move comes in response to a growing number of complaints from residents about the size of recent payments to John Skrandel, who has served as town attorney since 2013.
    Ted Gross, the treasurer of the corporate board, and Mayor Jack Lee have been the loudest critics, saying the town is spending too much money for Skrandel’s work, some of which might not be needed. One recent monthly check topped $5,000, which Lee and Gross maintain is more than Briny can afford.
    Skrandel told the council during its June 22 meeting that his costs have been higher lately because council members have assigned him more to do.
    “My work is basically on demand. It’s not a set amount,” Skrandel said. “It can be from zero on up depending on what work is assigned to me by the council.”
    Skrandel also said he has voluntarily given Briny breaks on billing to keep costs down. He said he doesn’t bill the town for travel to Briny and he doesn’t round charges up on fractions of billable hours — he rounds them down. Skrandel charges $185 an hour for his services.
    Alderman Bobby Jurovaty, who acted as council president while Sue Thaler was on vacation, said the council intends to explore how other communities pay for legal services and then make a decision later this year.
    “I’d like to factor in as much as we can what other towns are doing,” Jurovaty said. “We’ll take a nice, long look at this.”
    Skrandel is only the second attorney Briny has ever had. His father, Jerome Skrandel, handled legal services for the town from 1975 until his death in 2013, when John took over.
    In other business:
    • The council approved a six-member advisory committee to research and develop a job description for a part-time town manager position. Members are Keith Black, Sue Revie, William Birch, Holly Reitnauer, Therese Tarman and Gross. Black volunteered to serve as committee chairman. The town hopes to hire a part-time manager before the end of the year.
    • Briny should receive about $25,000 a year from the county’s penny sales tax increase that voters approved in November. Alderman Christina Adams, who acts as the council’s liaison to the county on the tax, said the town has decided on the possible infrastructure improvements for spending the money: water systems, sewage systems, sidewalks and burying main electrical lines. The town likely will allow the tax proceeds to accumulate over two or more years to tackle larger projects.

    Along Florida’s east coast, sand drifts from north to south. Where it comes from and where it goes is ruled by wind and water.
    Sometimes our beaches feel wide and serene. At other times, finding a dry place to walk below a seawall is impossible.
    The ocean has a way of reminding us of nature’s power. Yet, for years we have built homes and condos on the dunes. Now, we search for ways to save them. We are caught in an intractable cycle of putting more sand down and building taller sea walls to keep our property safe.
    Due to the drifting of sand and limited natural dunes, the town of South Palm Beach hopes to build structures along the beach to catch the sand as it drifts south. The town of Lantana hopes to be part of this sand capture, as its public beach is often without sand for the public to park their towels on.
    The Eau Palm Beach Resort and Spa has opted out of the plan to build these structures, as it would have required heavy equipment operating near their hotel guests and would have meant that more of their “private” beach would be required to allow public access since taxpayers are funding the project. For obvious reasons, neither of these things would be desirable for maintaining a five-star rating.
     The town of Manalapan is now poised to join that opposition with concerns that trapping the sand to the north could further erode its beaches to the south. There are examples in Broward County that seem to show this to be a possible outcome.
    At the same time, residents in Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes are flabbergasted by an unusually tall duplex being built east of the dune between their towns. And Boca Raton is moving a similar structure in a similar location through the permitting process.
    The Coastal Star will be watching and reporting on how this all evolves over the coming months, but the cynic in me suspects lawyers will get rich and sand will continue to come and go until another major hurricane arrives to blow holes in all of our best intentions.
    In the meantime, the sea turtles return this time of year seeking places to nest along our dunes, and on Boca Raton’s newly renourished beaches, least terns are scouting nesting locations for the first time in 20 years — small, quiet acts that remind us of nature’s fortitude and reliance on the drifting of sand.

— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

    City commissioners will select a firm this month to search for a permanent city manager.
    Interim City Manager Neal de Jesus told Delray Beach commissioners in early June that he would serve through the upcoming budget cycle. That should give the commission enough time to find a new city manager, de Jesus said.
    City commissioners have talked about hiring a business executive, a chief executive officer, as the next city manager.
    “It’s not an easy town to run,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said at the meeting. “We have a $150 million budget and five bosses. You have to pay for what you get.”
    The current salary range for the city manager is $127,108 to $203,000. The city needs to advertise a base salary of $200,000 to $275,000, de Jesus said earlier in the year.
    As the interim city manager, de Jesus makes $187,012.80. He received that salary in March when his contract was amended to equal the pay of the former city manager.
 He also receives a $2,000 monthly housing allowance. When de Jesus returns to being the fire chief, he will make $159,515.20.
    Also at the early June meeting, de Jesus withdrew a third amended contract that would have paid him $200,000 and given him 24 weeks of vacation. The contract also would have raised his fire chief salary to equal his pay as interim city manager.

—Jane Smith

    Architect Reggie Cox will serve another four years on the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency board.
    Three new members will join him: Morris Carstarphen, Annette Gray and Allen “Sandy” Zeller.
    It took two meetings to fill the four open seats because Commissioner Mitch Katz missed the first meeting due to a travel delay.
    Cox was Mayor Cary Glickstein’s CRA pick at the City Commission’s first June meeting.
    Vice Mayor Jim Chard and Deputy Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson agreed, but Commissioner Shelly Petrolia did not. She wanted new candidates. The vote was 3-1.
    Johnson’s two nominations ended in tied votes. Then Chard selected Carstarphen, a businessman who used to be a Target Stores manager, as his pick. The three others agreed.  
    At the second June meeting, Katz selected Gray, a real estate broker and entrepreneur who had served on the CRA board previously. The vote was 4-1, with the mayor dissenting. Gray was one of Johnson’s picks that ended in a tied vote two weeks earlier.
    Zeller, a real estate lawyer with municipal board experience, was Petrolia’s selection.
    At the first June meeting, his pick did not receive a second. Petrolia deferred rather than lose that selection. At the second meeting Zeller’s selection received unanimous approval.
    Terms for the new CRA board members begin July 1.

—Jane Smith

    A public outreach campaign for the Palm Beach County Metropolitan Planning Organization’s multimodal study of the U.S.-1 corridor from Boca Raton to Jupiter continues with a workshop from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on July 22 at the Lake Worth Art Center. The study focuses on potential improvements for pedestrians, cyclists and transit along the 42-mile stretch of U.S. 1, including Hypoluxo, Lantana and Lake Worth.
    The Saturday workshop, one of several held throughout the county, includes an introductory presentation, a walking tour to audit existing facilities and needs, followed by group discussion on observed problems and potential solutions.
    The purpose is to develop a comprehensive plan to implement continuous multimodal facilities that connect the communities along the corridor, including upgraded Palm Tran bus service.
    Open studio/charrettes will follow July 24-26 at Lake Worth Art Center, 1121 Lucerne Ave., Lake Worth. For more information, see www.palmbeachmpo.org.

­—Mary Thurwachter

By Mary Thurwachter

    With an anticipated property tax revenue increase of $182,866 this year, Lantana Town Council members may have thought they’d be able to spend money on “want and wish list” items, including building a 6-foot wall to surround the town’s operation center, replacing a police motorcycle and adding a police officer, dispatcher and part-time assistant at the library.
    But the prospect of any of those things happening looks bleak, council members learned during the town’s first budget workshop of the year on June 12.
    Instead, the extra $182,866 will be swallowed by sports complex expenses and pensions for Police Department employees.
    Although the sports complex brought in $40,000, four times what had been projected, operational costs for staff for the complex are about $275,000.
    “So, we’re bringing in $40,000 and it’s costing us a quarter of a million,” Mayor Dave Stewart said. “There goes the $183,000. Gone. History. Sayonara.”
    More bad news came when the council learned that pension costs for police officers jumped about a half million dollars, from about $415,000 to $904,992.
    “I want to know why, because $904,992 is over 30 percent of what we bring in in taxes,” Stewart said. “So, 30 percent of every dollar every person pays in this town doesn’t go to anything except pension costs for the Police Department.”
    Town Finance Director Stephen Kaplan said the state would kick in approximately $115,000 and there are the employees’ contributions to consider, as well.
    “Why did it go up a half million dollars in one year?” the mayor asked.
    Town Manager Deborah Manzo said the soaring increase in pension costs was necessary to comply with state law, mainly relating to a jump from 25 percent to 45 percent in disability costs. The percentage changed because “that’s what the law is and we have not been compliant with the law,” she said.
    Other factors in the increase, Manzo said, included cost-of- living increases, new mortality tables used in calculations, and the addition of two officers to the town’s force in the past year.
    “Now [pension costs] are like double of what it was,” Stewart said. “I can’t accept that.”
    Stewart said he wanted to propose adjusting town employees’ wages so “that out of 90 employees five years later you don’t have only 15 left.”
    “I guess,” Stewart said, “it goes back to the old Mick Jagger Rolling Stones song You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
    Projected general fund revenues for Lantana also include $560,000 from the 1-cent sales tax increase (although that money can be used only for infrastructure such as roads, bridges and drainage, and amenities such as parks), $568,000 from grants, plus a $100,000 transfer from the town’s insurance fund.
    The town will propose a tax rate during the second budget workshop on July 10. Lantana’s tax rate has been $3.24 per $1,000 of taxable value and is projected to stay the same for the 10th consecutive year, 2017-2018.
    But some council members suggested it may be time for an increase.
    “Everybody else raises it,” said Vice Mayor Lynn Moorhouse. “If [the rate] changed a hair probably a lot of these projects could go away. We’re not talking about a gazillion dollars, not when you’re looking at 3.2395. I know that’s set in stone for you, but things have changed over the past 25 years and this hasn’t. Just a thought.”
    The mayor didn’t respond, but council member Phil Aridas, who has favored a tax rate increase in the past, gave Moorhouse reason to hope.
    “That’s not set in stone for everybody that sits up here,” he said.

When rough seas kicked up by Tropical Storm Cindy made it impossible to offer entry-level instruction

as part of the ‘World’s Largest Swimming Lesson,’ Boynton Beach lifeguards decided to give young swimmers

a chance to try surfing and provided education about rip currents. The WLSL event was held globally to help

prevent drowning, the second-leading cause of injury-related deaths among children aged 1-14. Here, lifeguard

Tyler Russell assists 6-year-old Owen Finn as he tries out a surfboard.

Other swim and surf classes are offered during the summer.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith
    
    Two areas of Delray Beach may soon see new grocery stores in their neighborhoods.
    In the south side of the city, a type of Whole Foods Market likely will open in late 2018 in Lavers International Plaza.
    The Delray Beach location at 600 W. Linton Blvd. could be the first 365-branded store in Florida, according to the Whole Foods website. The 365 stores are smaller and focus on produce.
    In the Set, made up of the Northwest and Southwest neighborhoods along Atlantic Avenue, a Publix store could open in 2019.
    The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency agreed to sell 2.75 acres in the 600 block of West Atlantic to a broker for Publix. The grocery chain has 150 days to allow its real estate committee to review the site. The price will be $2 million for the land, where Publix could construct a 25,000-square-foot store.
    “There’s a whole process this has to go through,” said Randy Holihan, president of Pasadena Capital Inc., a real estate broker in Orlando. “Everyone is putting the cart before the horse.”
    But residents living in the Set have waited more than 30 years to have a grocery store within their community.
    “It’s been in the plans for a long time,” said resident Angie Gray, who is a residential real estate agent and former city commissioner.
    After the CRA board approved the deal on June 8, the meeting room erupted in applause.
    The Lavers Plaza store is further along with its plans. The project’s site plan was approved by the city in May.  
Steve Collins, of S.J. Collins Enterprises of Georgia, represented the project before the city’s Site Plan Review and Appearance board.
    He could not be reached for comment. But other indicators point to the location as suitable for a 365-branded store from Whole Foods. The 365 concept, named after the chain’s private-label brand, was created as the answer to critics who said Whole Foods’ products are too expensive.
    The 365 stores carry one-third of the products of the traditional Whole Foods Market and have more self-service departments, such as for meat and seafood, John Mackey, co-CEO of Whole Foods, said at the Oppenheimer Consumer Conference last year. As a result, Mackey said, labor costs are lower and the 365 stores are less expensive to run.
    The 365 stores also feature a loyalty program and have in-store “grocerants,” food boutiques set up by entrepreneurs.
    The Lavers Plaza 365 store would be approximately 30,025 square feet and offer outside dining.
    The site is less than a mile west of a Trader Joe’s grocery store in Delray Place. Market basket surveys of similar items in Trader Joe’s and 365 by Whole Foods showed that prices in both were similar.
    When announcing its Whole Foods chain purchase in mid-June, Amazon threw the grocery chain a lifeline.
    Its $13.7 billion acquisition, expected to close by the end of the year, came after several quarters of declining sales at Whole Foods stores that had been open at least one year. The declining sales had attracted some activist investors who pressed for a sale.
    The deal could help the Whole Foods chain buy more higher-quality products at lower prices, several analysts have said.
    So far, Amazon has said little about how it intends to run the Whole Foods chain.
— Rich Pollack contributed to this story.

By Dan Moffett

    Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor James Bonfiglio says he’s spent hours in recent weeks trying to figure out what went wrong with the town’s financial record-keeping last year.
    He’s not happy about that. And he’s not happy that Town Manager Jamie Titcomb failed to catch the problems months ago — and then didn’t tell the commission immediately when he found out about the errors.
    “When were you planning on telling us that our books didn’t balance?” Bonfiglio asked Titcomb during the June 5 town meeting. “It’s the manager’s job to catch this. Your hair should have been on fire.”
    Titcomb accepted responsibility and told the commission he’s been taking a forensic approach to finding the source of the technical problems.
    Bonfiglio said he has talked on the phone for hours with the town’s auditor and a data consultant the town had to hire to undo the damage caused by an apparent software glitch.
    About a year ago, Bonfiglio said, something went wrong with transmission of the town’s monthly financial statements. Incoming revenues were not recorded in the data collection.
    This went on for nearly a year, the vice mayor said, until the town’s auditor, Ron Bennett of Nolan, Holt & Miner, caught the problem in February during his annual review of the town’s books.
    Bennett advised Titcomb to hire the data retrieval consultant to find the glitch and reconstruct the missing data.
The consultant charged the town roughly $7,000 to straighten out the mess — a bill Bonfiglio and Commissioner Steve Coz think the town would have avoided had Titcomb been more vigilant.
    “Nobody was balancing the books,” Bonfiglio said. “Nobody was reconciling the monthly statements to the general ledger.”
Commissioners said they were also annoyed the manager kept them in the dark about the consultant’s hiring until it came up as a surprise during a budget workshop in May.
    Titcomb has said he thinks the data loss was caused either by a lightning strike in March 2016 or by an appending glitch that occurred when two employees tried to work in the system at the same time.
    He also said reassignment of some staff duties and outdated accounting software have contributed to problems.
    The vice mayor said only Titcomb and Town Clerk Tracey Stevens are authorized to reconcile the monthly statements, so the blame shouldn’t go to office staff members.
    “It really doesn’t have to do with software or changing assignments,” Bonfiglio said. “This should have come to somebody’s attention in March [2016].”
    The commissioners and Titcomb do agree, however, that the town has received all the money it was supposed to receive, and the problem does not go beyond record-keeping.
    “To me, it is my responsibility,” Titcomb told the commission. “You hired me to fix and evolve and modernize legacy systems in this town. I have taken the approach of trying to forensically understand why certain things aren’t working properly and gone about trying to break them to fix them.”
    Mayor Geoff Pugh told Titcomb: “You are the finance manager and the budgetary manager. You should have seen those zeros and figured it out.”
    Titcomb said the problem is obvious in hindsight but was not as apparent last year.
    He told commissioners corrections made to the system will prevent problems going forward.
    The manager said he expects Bennett to give the town a clean bill of health when he makes his audit report this summer.
    Said Bonfiglio, “Frankly, I’m disappointed.”
    In other business, commissioners directed Police Chief Hal Hutchins to put up a “No Unloading or Loading” sign at the east end of Beachway Drive and to work with Titcomb to develop a plan for changing the traffic pattern on the street.
    The commission wants to consider the plan at the July 10 meeting.

Related story: Two municipalities strengthen group-homes ordinances

By Mary Hladky

    New laws and funding are in place to crack down on the addiction treatment industry and fight the opioid crisis in Florida.
    Gov. Rick Scott on June 26 signed into law wide-ranging legislation introduced by state Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, and state Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, intended to halt patient brokering and deceptive marketing.
    Provisions of the legislation, consolidated under Hager’s version of the bill, include:
    • Prohibiting service providers and sober home operators from engaging in deceptive marketing and enacting criminal penalties for violations.
    • Increasing penalties for patient brokering and adding patient brokering to the list of offenses that the Office of Statewide Prosecution may pursue.
    • Giving new powers to the state Department of Children and Families to regulate treatment centers. DCF will draft rules on administrative and clinical standards by January, and licensing fees will be increased substantially to pay for the increased regulation.
    “I’ve seen firsthand the deplorable conditions that some of these (sober home) residents live in, which cause havoc in their neighborhoods,” Hager said in a statement. “With this new legislation, law enforcement will have more tools in which to arrest and subsequently prosecute bad actors.”
    Scott also signed into law tough penalties for possession of fentanyl, a painkiller as much as 100 times more potent than morphine, and similar synthetic opioids. Heroin is often cut with fentanyl, making it far more deadly. Synthetic opioids are added to the list of drugs that can result in a dealer’s being charged with murder if the buyer dies.
    Another bill that is now law enhances collection of overdose data by allowing emergency medical technicians and paramedics to report overdoses to the Florida Department of Health. In addition, it requires hospital emergency departments to establish overdose policies.
    Also signed into law is a bill that requires prescriptions filled for controlled substances be entered into a state prescription monitoring database by the end of the next business day. One of its original provisions that would have limited the initial amount of opioids prescribed to a five-day supply was stripped from the final bill.
    Three legislative appropriations survived a fierce battle between Scott and legislators over the state budget.
    The Sober Homes Task Force, launched last year with $250,000 in state funding by Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg to investigate allegations of fraud and abuse within the drug treatment industry and propose solutions, will continue its operations for another year.
    Lawmakers appropriated $300,000 to keep the task force in business.
    Many key task force recommendations were incorporated into the legislation drafted by Hager and Clemens. The task force’s law enforcement arm has been responsible for the arrests of nearly 30 people on charges of insurance fraud or patient brokering.
    “The task force is now on track to continue its work through June of 2018,” said Chief Assistant State Attorney Al Johnson, who heads the task force.
    The Legislature also appropriated $500,000 for the county’s Opioid Abuse Pilot Program launched early this year. The program offers people who overdose support services after they leave the emergency room at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis.
    The Florida Association of Recovery Residences, a nonprofit that oversees voluntary inspection and certification of sober homes for the state, was not fully funded.
    The Legislature appropriated $100,000, but FARR had requested $275,000. Last year, lawmakers allocated no money to FARR, forcing it to seek donations and loans.
    “The question is, how do we fulfill the mandate properly without adequate financial support?” CEO John Lehman asked in an email.
    FARR was expected to move its offices from Boca Raton to Lantana on July 1 to save money. Supporters, including addiction treatment centers Treatment Partners of America in Boca Raton and Hanley Center in West Palm Beach, are planning to host fundraising events, Lehman said.
    That will help FARR bridge the gap until it becomes self-supporting through fees charged for certifications.