Two south county coastal cities are reining in rogue sober homes by strengthening their group homes ordinances.
Boynton Beach will hold a public hearing July 18 on these proposed changes:
    • Have at least 300 feet between group homes. In June, city commissioners asked whether the distance could be greater. Planning staff members said they would check on that.
    • Require that new group homes, including sober homes where drug users stay while going through rehabilitation, be certified. The Florida Association of Recovery Residences offers the only program recognized by the state, and it is voluntary. Existing sober homes will have until Oct. 1, 2018, to become certified.
    • Group homes must obey parking regulations in neighborhoods.
    Delray Beach’s community residences ordinance passed through the city’s Planning and Zoning Board in mid-June. Commissioners will vote this month on these changes:
    • Have at least 660 feet between the group homes, if they are new.
    • New sober homes will have to be certified by FARR. Existing sober homes will have until April 1, 2018, to become certified.
    • Group homes must obey parking regulations in neighborhoods.
    Addicts who maintain sobriety while living together are a protected class under federal laws.
—Jane Smith

By Jane Smith
    
    Boynton Beach’s long-awaited Town Square project received a cash infusion in mid-June.
    City commissioners began the June 12 meeting in their usual places on the dais.
    Midway through the meeting, they adjourned and switched name plates to their Community Redevelopment Agency positions. After voting on the agency contribution, they ended that meeting and reopened the City Commission meeting.
    When all was said and done, they agreed to pay $4.36 million in the first phase of the Town Square project. About $1.5 million of that will go toward restoring the city’s historic high school.
    In addition to the high school renovations, the money will be used to create plans for the new police headquarters and fire station, and to cover other costs such as architectural, engineering, surveying and permit fees.
    Members of the public will be invited to meetings in late July and early August, said Colin Groff, assistant city manager, to say what they think about uses for the high school and where the project’s parks should be.
    Groff said he hopes to have a contract that the City Commission can vote on in November.
    Town Square’s total estimated cost is $94.5 million, Groff said. The amount will be reduced by land sales to the developer, projects that are already in the budget for the next few years and CRA contributions, he said.
    The 16.5-acre project will create a downtown-like area with a hotel, apartments, condos, townhouses and shops, just south of Boynton Beach Boulevard and between Seacrest Boulevard and Northeast First Avenue.
    A new City Hall, updated city library, renovated Schoolhouse Children’s Museum and restored high school will be part of the mix. Outside of the project area, a new police headquarters is tentatively set for city land on High Ridge Road, while a new Fire Station 1 will sit just east of Northeast First Avenue.
    During the agency portion of the meeting, board members learned from the CRA director that the agency’s share of Town Square will come from the sale of the Magnuson House, leftover dollars from the Marina project and the unused money for a proposed dog park that was not approved.
    “This project is going to take a significant portion of the budget for the next four to five years,” said Michael Simon, agency director. “Then it will be multiple years of payments.”
    The city and CRA expect to pay for their shares of the project by selling land and issuing bonds. The bonds would retire on Sept. 20, 2044, to coincide with the date the CRA sunsets, Simon said.
    “This is sticker shock when you look at the CRA budget,” said Justin Katz, CRA board member. “But the alternative would be to raise taxes.”

Lyn Tate with her dachshunds Sir Charles, 12, and Duke, 4, outside her Hypoluxo Island home.

Tate is a community activist for the island and the town of Lantana.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    Getting Lyn Tate to sit still for even a short time is no easy feat.
    With her years in retail (including a stint working closely with legendary lingerie designer Eve Stillman at Saks Fifth Avenue on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach), plus raising two children to adulthood, and her current role as community activist in Hypoluxo Island and Lantana, Tate seems to always live her life in overdrive.
    “My husband (Rock) watches old Westerns or sitcoms on TV on weekends and he says to me, ‘Can’t you relax?’ I can relax, but I look around and it’s not going to get done unless somebody does it.
    “I’m like Mrs. Kravitz from the old Bewitched show. If anybody needs a question answered they don’t bother calling the town, they just call me. And that’s fine. I know the people to call and I’ve gained their respect. I’ve worked with them for three or four years now so they know who I am.”
    Tate, 58, lost her mother at a young age and moved from Port Washington, N.Y., to South Florida with her father when she was 12. A 1980 graduate of Florida State University, she split time between retail positions and being a homemaker until son Rock graduated from college in 2013.
    Then Judy Black, former president of the Hypoluxo Island Property Owners Association, pushed her until she joined the HIPOA Board, where she quickly became treasurer.
    Since then it’s been one add-on after another: Planning Commission for the town of Lantana, chairwoman of the Lantana Education Council, chairwoman of council member Malcolm Balfour’s election campaign, chairwoman of traffic calming for Hypoluxo Island.
    “So it’s funny,” she said with a grin, “I’m just sort of getting real big.”
— Brian Biggane

    Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How has that influenced you?
    A. I’m definitely a New Yorker. From Port Washington, N.Y. My mother passed when I was 10, so I had my father and my older brother raising me from that point. My father retired and came to Florida when I was in eighth grade, so I had to retire, too, which is what brought me to Florida.
    Because of my superior New York education, I wound up in the advance classes down here.
    I put myself financially through college, worked from when I was 16, mostly in retail. I spent 10 years with Saks Fifth Avenue, which was pretty cool. That influenced our family in a big way, because both of our children went North to go to college. So I really believe in having that kind of exposure. I love Lantana and South Florida, but there’s more than that.
    But it sort of backfired, because our son opened his business in New Jersey. But we love going back to visit. And Linda, our daughter, was there a long time. She went to Rutgers and stayed three or four years up there after graduation, but now she’s back here.

    Q.  What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
    A. In retail I got to know Eve Stillman, a famous designer with whom I worked a lot toward the end of my career, so that was a big deal. Lingerie was big with her. There are other designers, but she liked me a lot and we had a great relationship. That was primarily in the Palm Beach Saks Fifth Avenue. I trained in Bal Harbour, moved to Atlanta, opened a variety of stores, came back to Boca Raton, they transferred me to Palm Beach, and then we decided to raise a family.
    In my second profession, motherhood, I’m just proud of the people my kids turned out to be. They’re hardworking people, they give back to society, so I’m proud of that.
    In the community part, they call me MacGyver now. I get things done. I’m sort of creative in my approach, and I have zest, and I guess I’m just really proud that I can stand on my own at 58 years old now and say, “Hi, I’m Lyn Tate.” It’s a little more about me right now.

    Q.  What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?
    A. Find your passion. When I went to Florida State I picked a program that had a 100 percent graduation rate and job placement. I got sort of cookie-cuttered in. My husband has been with the same firm for 34 years now. That’s not what it’s about today. We were loyal to our trade. Now you just don’t stay 34 years with a company. You better be passionate about what you do now.
    And find something that gives back. My children — Linda is great, she’s a mentor with a program that gives back to athletes, and our son has taken high school kids under his wing and given them internship programs.

    Q.  How did you choose to make your home in Hypoluxo Island?
    A. My husband and I were renting in Delray and we decided to buy a home. We looked for over a year, and just couldn’t find anything we could afford. So the woman who gave him his college loan to go to Brown University called and said she was selling this house. I came over and looked and said no way. The trees were overgrown. It wasn’t what I wanted.
    Two weeks before she left she was going to give it to a Realtor and called and said, “I’m out of here,” and we were exhausted from looking. We came, got a hot dog over at the old Hawaiian, and we looked, and I said, I can’t believe I’m going to buy this old house.
    Then I started thinking about the crown molding in the living room, about the character. We had to do a lot of work on it. My father worked like 20 hours a week, we painted it, cleaned everything, tiled everything, carpeted everything. We moved in and I was laying tile on the floor a month before my daughter was born, and I couldn’t get up. I said, “OK, I’m done, you have to finish.”

    Q.  What do you like most  about Hypoluxo Island?
    A. I was taking a bike ride today and helped a blue crab across the street. That’s what I like. The butterflies, the birds, the blue crabs. We used to have red foxes, and still have one come by every now and then. But it’s really the nature. It’s so beautiful. We feel like we’re on our own little island.
    And as far as safety goes, we’ve really educated people on the island that if they see something, say something. We have a camera at the entrance and exit of the island, so that’s good, but the people have really become aware that we need to look out for each other.

    Q.  What book are you reading now?
    A. See Me, by Nicholas Sparks. He’s amazing. I’ve read every one of his books.
    Q.  What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
    A. I have everything from the Monkees to Frank Sinatra, and I have the same music for stress relief or to relax. Whatever it is, it’s my go-to. And if ’70s music comes on we start dancing, my husband and I. Typically, though, other than the morning news, I try to listen to the noise of the island. I’d rather listen to the birds and whatever.

    Q.  Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
    A. “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.” (Anonymous) That’s really my mantra. I was probably always like that because of different times in my life when it wasn’t so easy.

    Q.  Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who inspired your life decisions?
    A. With my mother passing when I was young, definitely my brother, Andy, and my father, Andrew. Also my husband. My father taught me everything, which is why they call me MacGyver, because I can fix anything. My brother never let me say no. He was like, “You will go to college, you will get a job.”
    
Q.  If your life story was made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
    A. Helen Mirren. She’s a timeless, ageless beauty who’s smart, witty and strong.

By Rich Pollack

    BOCA RATON — Even in retirement, Dr. Pinghui Victor Liu remained a scientist.
    A microbiologist, physician, and tenured professor at the University of Louisville, Dr. Liu was a leader in his field and in the 1960s discovered two kinds of exotoxins from a common type of bacteria.
    Those toxins led to sometimes-fatal illnesses in patients.
     “This was a bug that would kill people,” said his daughter, Dr. Nancy Liu, a Boca Raton physician.
    Her father’s research led to the development of treatments for illnesses from the toxins created by the bacteria, with his work resulting in the publication of more than 40 of his scientific papers.
    A resident of Boca Raton following his retirement in 1997, Dr. Liu was 93 when he died on June 6.
    While living in South Florida, Dr. Liu — known by friends and neighbors as Victor — enjoyed gardening and was always searching for ways to improve his plants and fruit trees, testing a variety of fertilizers and alternative growing techniques.
    “He was always a scientist and always experimenting,” his daughter said.
    Born in Taiwan in 1924, Dr. Liu trained in Japan at the Tokyo Jikei Kai Medical School.
    He was in Japan during World War II and following the war was able to find one of the few jobs available, working as a technician at a U.S. Army microbiology lab in Tokyo.
    He wrote his first research paper while working in the lab, but one of the Army officers removed his name and took credit for the work.
    He wrote his second paper on his own time and was able to get credit for the work.
    Encouraged to move to the United States to continue his research by those who believed he had a bright future in the field, Dr. Liu landed an internship in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he would endure anti-Asian sentiment. There he encountered patients who refused to be seen by him, his daughter said.
    He would later do his residency at the University of Kentucky Medical School and, also armed with a Ph.D., became a tenured professor there, continuing his research and teaching microbiology classes.
    Internationally recognized for his scientific work, Dr. Liu lectured all over the world and continued to travel for enjoyment after his retirement.
    “He had an interesting perspective on life because he had lived in three different cultures,” his daughter said.
    Dr. Liu is survived by his wife of 58 years, Chiameng Judy Liu; his son, Albert Liu; his daughter and her husband, Dr. James Houle; as well as granddaughters, Camille Houle and Lauren Houle.
    A memorial service for Dr. Liu was held on June 17. Contributions in his memory can be made to the Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation at brrh.com.

Addison Mizner designed the Boynton Woman’s Club building, which opened 91 years ago.

Woman’s Club members praised the proposed $110,000 sale of the building to the city.

Photo provided

By Jane Smith
    
    The grand old dame will be in good hands with the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
    Board members agreed in June to pay $110,000 for the 91-year-old Boynton Woman’s Club building, designed by famed architect Addison Mizner.
    The club will use the money to continue its 40-year-old scholarship program for high school seniors to further the memory of Major Nathan S. Boynton.
    “Our building belongs with the city,” said Pat Waldron, the club’s historic preservationist. “We are delighted an agreement has been made where the site will remain a memorial to Major Boynton, the founding father of the city, and the future leaders of the community will benefit through the scholarship trust.”
    Boynton Beach city commissioners sit as CRA board members. They all were enthusiastic about the deal.
    “Thank you for the opportunity to let us have the building,” said Steven Grant, board chairman.
    “Thanks for taking care of it for us,” said Joe Casello, a board member.
    The agency had the Mizner building appraised in May by Anderson & Carr. That appraisal valued the property at $2.4 million.
    That amount went over well with board member Christina Romelus because the agency is often criticized for selling properties at a loss.
    In 1925, Boynton Woman’s Club members used $35,000 from Boynton’s heirs to construct the two-story building with hardwood floors, French windows and doors, and curved arches. Mizner agreed to donate his plans and supervise the construction as long as quality materials were used and the building’s worth was more than $50,000.
    The next year, the structure opened. It serves as a fine example of the Mediterranean Revival style of architecture with original wrought ironwork. The 16,262-square-foot building sits on the National Register of Historic Places and the city’s register of historic places.
    “It’s a nice piece of property,” said Warren Adams, the city’s historic planner. “It’s better than letting it go to a private owner.”
    The ideal thing is to keep using the building, Adams said, and to keep up with the maintenance.
    “This is a win-win situation for the community and for the club membership,” Michele Walter, the club president, said after the meeting. “The historic building, which was built in 1924-1926, will continue to serve the community while having its historic value and history remain for future generations.”
    The building houses a ballroom, library and dining room and can be rented for both community and private events. The Woman’s Club will continue to hold its monthly luncheons and business meetings from October through May.
    The historic building sits on the eastern side of Federal Highway, just north of Woolbright Road. The agency will close on the building later this summer. Initial plans call for short-term rentals to be done by agency staff and then seeking a professional management company to operate the building.
    The Woman’s Club volunteers will continue to lease the property until the agency takes ownership. They have booked $23,750 worth of events for the rest of the 2017-18 period. Annual operating costs are estimated to be $90,000.

By Emily J. Minor

    GULF STREAM  — Walter Helmut Baum, a well-known lifeguard at Delray Beach’s Anchor Park S5 beach lifeguard station for nearly two decades, died June 17 from complications of a stroke he suffered five days earlier. He was 55.
    Jill Baum, his wife — whom he met on the beach, at that very station about 15 years ago — said it was all quite a shock.
    “He had no history of heart trouble, high blood pressure, cholesterol. Nothing,” she said. “He was a stud.”
    Mr. Baum was also quite the character.
    He loved to be called by all sorts of names, which he often pulled from nowhere. Among his favorites? Rocket Wildcard, Perry, Waldi, Wally, Helmut and Papa.
    He often dressed like a caricature of himself — maybe a soccer cap, a Dolphins jersey, and sports socks pulled up to his knees. And he often carried a to-go cup when he walked out of the house, a sweet cottage the couple bought in 2014 several years after their daughter, Juliet, was born.
    Mr. Baum was born in Graz, Austria, on July 23, 1961, the only child of Walter and Gerda Baum. After living through the war, the couple left Austria, eventually ending up in Washington, D.C. Mr. Baum, only 3 years old at the time, spent the rest of his youth there, his wife said, and attended the German School Washington D.C.
    After high school, he moved to Florida to study hospitality at Florida International University. It was then that his love affair began with the ocean and surfing.
    After a decade or so of working in hotels, Mr. Baum decided to go for his dream — ocean rescue. He worked out, schmoozed the beach-patrol secretary, worked out some more, and made the Ocean Rescue Lifeguard/EMT team.
    And he was loved.
    When his boss visited him in the hospital a few days after his stroke, as he was very much slipping away, he came to for a moment and winked at her, his wife said. “Walter was a character,” she said, simply.
    But while he was usually the life of any party, Mr. Baum was also extremely emotional, she said. After his mother and stepfather were killed in a car accident about five years ago, “he was a mess,” she said.
    His own father lived nearby and — oddly, in retrospect — suffered a stroke during a family birthday celebration about a year ago. He then lived five days, just like Mr. Baum.
    Through all that sadness, Mr. Baum latched onto the two big loves in his life: his wife, Jill, whom he married in 2004, and their daughter, Juliet, now 6. About two years ago, he even left beach patrol and took a lifeguard position at a city pool so he could spend more time with family.
    His wife said he was hit hard in 2014 when their daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, a chronic disease that requires insulin delivery. Indeed, the family is asking that memorials for Mr. Baum be made in his name to: Juvenile Diabetes Research, 1641 Worthington Road, Unit 340, West Palm Beach, FL 33409.
    “He was a sensitive guy,” his wife said. “But he was so handsome and he had such charisma.”
    Services were June 21 at the family’s church, First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach. Besides his wife and daughter, he is survived by longtime family friend Marguerite Rosner, whom he called his ”fairy godmother.” His dog, Brandy, also survives him.

By Steven J. Smith

    BOCA RATON — Bernell Stein lived a remarkably self-sufficient life marked by successful forays into retail sales, the founding of several businesses and ultimately a devotion to community service, according to her daughter, Elodie F. McAllister.
    “She was fiercely independent and really lived life on her own terms,” McAllister said. “Some might say she wasn’t exactly a people person. She went down a lot of different roads, but she always looked out for my brother Arlen and me.”
Ms. Stein died in her Boca Raton home May 17 following several years of declining health. She was 82.
    McAllister said her mother always embraced life, asserting, “it was never dull.”
    Born in St. Louis on June 23, 1934, Ms. Stein excelled at U-City High as a senior year delegate for Junior Achievement. Although she attended Washington University for only one semester before opting to get married at 18 to start a family, her daughter said she found her calling in retail sales after her 1969 divorce and later in developing her own businesses.
    “She worked at a department store in St. Louis and later founded the dating service Zodiac Introductions,” McAllister said. “She was always interested in astrology and felt it was relevant in matching people romantically by their birth signs.”
    McAllister said her mother founded another business, Creative Professional Marketing, before moving the family from Creve Coeur, Mo., to South Florida in 1971. It was here that she got into real estate and joined the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce.
    “She loved the sand, the water and the warm weather,” McAllister said. “She hated the cold and the snow. Florida was paradise to her with the palm trees, banana trees, orchids and roses she surrounded herself with.”
    In the last 20 years of her life, Ms. Stein enjoyed donating her time to the Boca Raton Library, the Children’s Museum and the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, to name a few.
    “That was when she was in her 60s and 70s and was retired,” McAllister said. “She always wanted to stay involved with the community.”
    Ms. Stein also liked to travel alone, visiting such places as China, Bali, French Polynesia, Europe, the Galapagos Islands, South America and Canada’s Yukon Territory, to name a few.
    McAllister said for many years she and her mother were very different people, but in the end she realized how alike — and connected — they were.
    “That was actually the theme of my eulogy,” she said. “We didn’t always understand or appreciate each other when I was young, but as I got older I realized that in my own way I was a lot like her — bucking trends, not caring so much what others think, shunning popular fashions. She was very independent minded, which takes courage in our society.”
    In addition to her daughter, Ms. Stein is survived by her sister, Marilyn (Lou) Salini, of St. Louis; son, Arlen (Patti) Fischlowitz; grandchildren, Elyssa (Ben) Holzer, Andrea Fischlowitz (Brandon Weiss) and Ross B. McAllister; and great-grandchildren, Jude William Holzer and Mika Priscilla Weiss.  In lieu of flowers, the family requested donations to Trustbridge hospice in West Palm Beach or M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Property Matters, a real estate company with an Anglo-American team, has launched its first office

in Boca Raton with plans to expand into locations along the coast from West Palm Beach to Miami Beach.

Property Matters was founded by partners Ted Brown, Simon Isaacs and Paul Ross. The office is in The Monterey,

Suite A, 5499 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Here, Paul Ross (left), Simon Isaacs (center)

and Ted Brown pose in a British telephone booth, signifying the Anglo- American roots of the company.

Photo provided

Most 90-year-olds could use a little TLC. For only the second time in its history, the 1926 Colony Hotel

on Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach was tented for termites in June and reopened June 16.

The grand old dame is recognized by the city as a historic landmark

and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Christine Davis

    Cathy Balestriere, board chairwoman of the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, announced the installation of an interim leadership team following the recent resignation of Karen Granger as president and CEO.
    “We are grateful for Karen’s accomplishments and years of dedicated service to this valuable organization. We wish her well in her future and look forward to her continued participation as a valued member of our community,” said Balestriere.
    The new leadership team, Vin Nolan and Donald S. Schneider, will serve as interim co-CEOs until a permanent replacement is in place.
    Nolan comes to the chamber from the Florida Small Business Development Center at Palm Beach State College, where he was regional director and managed staff that provided consulting services to small businesses throughout the county. Prior to that, he was economic development director for the city of Delray Beach.
    Schneider is a business executive who had global leadership roles at corporations that included General Electric, Bertelsmann, The New York Times Co., AON and ADVO, with particular emphasis on financial services, technology, start-ups and turnarounds.
    “Together, they will oversee the chamber’s day-to-day operations, as we initiate a search to find a new CEO,” Balestriere says.
                                
    More than 45 vendors and 250 guests participated at the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce’s annual Delray Business Expo in May. The event was sponsored by The Conde Center for Chiropractic Neurology, CenterState Bank and Signarama.
                                
    Sarah Pearson was promoted to executive vice president of the Boca Chamber in May. She has been with the chamber since 2011, previously serving as the senior vice president of external relations.
                                
    During September, diners can enjoy bites of the Big Apple through the Boca Chamber’s inaugural Boca Restaurant Month, which will have a “Boca Loves New York” theme. Participating restaurants will serve three-course meals at reduced prices and offer at least one New York-inspired dish or cocktail.
    Lunches will be priced at $21 through $25, and dinners will be priced at $36 through $40. For a list of participating restaurants visit www.bocarestaurantmonth.com.
                                
    Glenn Jergensen, executive director of the Palm Beach County Tourist Development Council, is scheduled to be the featured speaker at the Greater Boynton Beach Chamber of Commerce’s networking luncheon at 11:30 a.m. July 12. It will be held at Benvenuto Restaurant, 1730 N. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach. Cost is $35 for non-members. Call 732-9501.
                                
    The Festival Management Group’s Sizzlin’ Summer Social Series offers three evenings that combine craft cocktails, activities and food pairings.
    “Rum, Rhythm & Rumba,” from 8 to 10 p.m. July 8, will feature a Fred Astaire dance program, along with pineapple rum punch, spiced-rum Planters Punch, Cruzan Apple craft cocktails and light bites.
     At “Vodka Riot,” 7 to 9 p.m. Aug. 12, vodka-infused dishes will be offered by chefs Joey Giannuzzi of the Farmer’s Table, Blake Malatesta of MIA Kitchen Bar, Eric Baker of Max’s Harvest, Jessie Steele of Death or Glory and Thomas Op’t Holt of 50 Ocean.
     At “Bottomless Bloody Mary & Brunch on a Stick,” 1-3 p.m. Aug. 27, meals on a skewer to go with each Bloody Mary will be prepared by chefs from Ceviche 401, Harvest Seasonal Grill & Wine Bar, Death or Glory, and Pizza Rustica.
     These events will be held at the Old School Square Fieldhouse, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach Tickets cost $45 and must be purchased at least two days before each event.
                                
    BizBash ranked the South Florida Garlic Fest third among the most popular Food & Restaurant Industry events and ranked Delray Affair second among the most popular Parades & Festivals in its 2017 list of the Top 100 Events in South Florida. BizBash considers the event’s influence, innovation, reach and economic impact.
                                
    Eric Gordon, chairman of Akerman LLP law firm’s Labor & Employment Practice Group, was installed as president of the South Palm Beach County Bar Association on June 10 at the Association’s 56th Annual Installation Gala at the Woodfield Country Club in Boca Raton.
    Gordon will serve a one-year term. For two decades, Gordon has represented employers in labor and employment matters across a range of sectors, including telecommunications, hospitality, health care, retail and financial services. His work has earned him recognition in “The Best Lawyers in America” for employment law and Florida’s “Super Lawyers” for employment and labor and business litigation.
    Gordon previously was the managing partner of Akerman’s Palm Beach County offices. He formerly served on the board of directors for the Economic Council of Palm Beach County, the Education Foundation of Palm Beach County, and as a trustee for the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce. He also is a past president of the Human Resource Association of Palm Beach County.
                                
    In May, members of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches voted to merge with the Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors. This merger will form the third largest local Realtor association in the nation in becoming the Realtors of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale, according to the National Association of Realtors.
    “The merging of these two boards represents more than 25,000 association members and 30,000 MLS subscribers. The merged association’s multiple listing services will carry more than 40,000 on-market listings, totaling over $21 billion in inventory,” said John Slivon, president of the Palm Beach County association.
    Dionna Hall will be installed as the CEO of the merged association and MLS.
                                
    Holliday Fenoglio Fowler announced June 15 that it had closed the $59.75 million sale of Peninsula Executive Center, 2381 and 2385 Executive Center Drive, Boca Raton. HFF marketed the 187,784-square-foot, Class A office property for the seller and found the buyer, C. Talanian Realty Co.  Also, HFF worked on behalf of the new owner to secure $33.5 million in financing through Principal Real Estate Investors.
    Peninsula Executive Center consists of two four-story office buildings and a 742-space parking structure. The property is 97 percent leased and is anchored by Newell Brands. The HFF team was led by senior managing directors Chris Drew and Hermen Rodriguez, director Ike Ojala, associate director Brian Gaswirth and associate Matthew McCormack.
                                
     “Mar-Cielo,” a home at 701 S. Ocean Boulevard, Delray Beach, sold for $13.375 million on May 16, according to public records. The 1948-era, five-bedroom house, with 7,000 total square feet, sits on over an acre with 120 feet on the ocean. Bradford Miller of the Corcoran Group represented the seller, 701 S. Ocean LLC, which lists Thomas J. Campbell as the registered agent and manager.
    Previously, the property sold for $12 million in 2015.

The Palm Beach Kennel Club’s greyhound adoptions received assistance from (l-r) Theresa Hume and Sherri Carter

of the kennel club; Elizee Michel of Westgate CRA; Carolee Ellison (with Stretch) of Awesome Greyhound Adoptions;

Duane Meeks of Potentia Academy; Dick Busto of Autism Project of Palm Beach County; Pat Rooney Jr.

and Alexis Barbish of the kennel club; Lynelle Zelnar of Forgotten Soldiers Outreach, and Jon Buechele Jr.

of Pathways to Independence.

Photo provided

                               
    The Palm Beach Kennel Club’s sponsoring of free adoptions resulted in 56 greyhounds finding homes during National Greyhound Pet Adoption Month in April.
    Palm Beach Kennel Club works with Awesome Greyhound Adoptions, Elite Greyhounds, Forever Greyhounds, Greyhound Pet Adoptions/Florida Southeast and Greyed A Greyhounds.
    The Kennel Club will also sponsor free adoptions in October. The adoption groups offer applications online and will interview potential families. Once applicants are approved, the pets are placed and the groups offer continued support.
                                
    “Guess you could say I flunked retirement,” George Kientzy laughed as he described the overwhelming, heartfelt response from customers and friends that led him to forgo the idea of closing his jewelry store, Kientzy & Co.,  on east Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach.
    “The outpouring from the community was amazing, so we have decided to scale back our hours instead of closing,” Mary Kientzy added.
    The store’s hours will be Tuesday through Thursday, 10am-4pm while the summer sale continues. Stop back in to say hello again, 1053 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, 561-272-4545.

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

By Mary Hladky

    Boca Raton was the fastest-growing city in Palm Beach County last year, adding 2,570 residents.
    Boynton Beach and Delray Beach also showed strong population increases from 2015 to 2016, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics released in May. Boynton Beach gained 1,676 residents, or a 2.3 percent increase, while Delray Beach grew by 1,178, or 1.8 percent.

    Taken together, South Palm Beach County’s growth rate outpaced that in other parts of the county. But all cities and towns countywide have posted gains since the 2010 census, and the county’s total population increased 9.4 percent.
    “Boca is obviously a place a lot of people want to live in,” said Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rodgers, whose city grew 2.75 percent last year.
    New residential construction, including The Mark at CityScape, Palmetto Promenade and Via Mizner, have bolstered the downtown population, while expansion of major employers such as Florida Atlantic University, LexisNexis and Cancer Treatment Centers of America have created jobs, he said.
    “We are the affordable Palm Beach,” said Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant in explaining his city’s 10.8 percent population growth since 2010.
    Boynton Beach’s three-bedroom, two-bath housing prices are considerably less than those in Delray Beach or Boca Raton, attracting people to his city even if they work elsewhere, he said.
    “Developers are building in Boynton,” he said, citing residential projects such as 500 Ocean at Ocean Avenue and Federal Highway and Cortina on Congress Avenue at Old Boynton Road. Others include the huge planned Town Square redevelopment in “downtown” that includes apartments and condos, a hotel, retail and a new city hall and police and fire station. “We do not feel they are building buildings to be vacant. Residential units will be filled.”
    And that means his city will continue to grow, Grant said.
    Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein said the blossoming of Atlantic Avenue and a trend of people moving out of suburbs and into coastal urban areas have benefited his city.
    “Atlantic Avenue has become an amenity for northern Broward County and essentially all of Palm Beach County,” he said. “We aren’t the seasonal town we used to be.”

Census does not account for seasonal changes
    The city does not rely on census data to plan for the future because seasonal residents are not counted, Glickstein said. While the census shows the city growing by 11.3 percent since 2010 to 67,371 residents, Glickstein believes it is closer to 100,000 during the winter season. The city, he said, must be able to provide services to that many.
    By adding 263 residents since 2010, tiny South Palm Beach’s population has grown to 1,434 for a 22.4 percent gain that is the second highest in Palm Beach County.
    While no new residential units have been built in the town since 2010, Town Manager Bob Vitas said the number of full-time residents has grown as more people decide to live in South Palm Beach permanently.
    “You are seeing a transition between former units used exclusively by snowbirds acquired by people establishing permanent residences,” he said.
    The same dynamic has boosted Manalapan’s population to 457 residents, up 12.5 percent since 2010.
    About 15 new homes have been built in the town in recent years, most occupied by younger couples, said Manalapan Mayor Keith Waters.
    “We are seeing a lot more families with children in school,” using their homes as a primary residence rather than a second or third home, he said. “It has been an enormous growth over the past few years.”
    The growth won’t continue since the town is nearly built out, Waters said.
    The quirkiest fact in the census data is that Briny Breezes grew by just one resident last year and by three since 2010 to a total of 604.
    Elsewhere in South County, Gulf Stream’s population rose 1.7 percent last year and 8  percent since 2010, Highland Beach’s was up 0.9 percent last year and 6.2 percent since 2010, Lantana’s increased 0.8 percent last year and 5.7 percent since 2010, and Ocean Ridge’s jumped 1.1 percent since last year and 7.7 percent since 2010.

Growth adds to tax base
    Growth is a good thing for cities and towns, since it translates into a growing tax base.
    “It is the economic lifeblood of any city. You can’t survive without net growth,” Glickstein said.
    But it also creates a need for more municipal services, including police, fire rescue and trash pickup.
    In one example of what that means for Delray Beach, Glickstein noted the city launched a three-year plan last year to boost the number of first responders.
    In Boca Raton, growth has strained trash and recycling services, and officials are considering whether they should raise fees or contract out those services if that would reduce the cost to the city and ultimately to its residents.
    Rodgers said the City Council will weigh the options over the next two months.
    “We have already exceeded capacity,” Rodgers said. “If we do privatize, it is calculated to save money for all residences.”
    Because their growth is relatively small compared with big cities, Manalapan and South Palm Beach officials said they have not felt budget pressure.
    “The demand on town services remains constant,” Vitas said. “There is no spike in that demand.”
    The census data shed light on the nature of population growth in South Florida.
    While Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties continue to grow, the year-over-year population changes show that growth is slowing down, especially in Miami-Dade, said Maria Ilcheva, senior researcher at the Florida International University Metropolitan Center.
    Population growth in Miami-Dade and Broward is fueled mainly by international migrants rather than people moving in from other parts of the United States.
    Domestic migration is the bigger contributor to growth in Palm Beach County. Last year, 12,473 people migrated here from elsewhere in the U.S., while 8,443 were international migrants.
    That may be changing, Ilcheva said, but it is too soon to tell for sure. Both types of migration peaked in Palm Beach County in 2015, and not enough time has elapsed since then to see a clear trend.
    The Miami-Dade numbers are especially stark. International migrants totaled 41,830 last year, but 30,560 local residents left. Those leaving are white non-Hispanics, Ilcheva said.
    She points to two primary reasons for the local outflow: the high cost of housing and traffic gridlock.
    “They are not necessarily changing their jobs, but changing their place of residence to Broward or even Palm Beach County,” she said.
    Of the three counties, Miami-Dade’s median household income of about $43,000 a year is the lowest. For those earning that amount, housing “is not only not affordable, there is just no housing produced for families,” she said.
    The Hispanic population is growing faster in Palm Beach and Broward than in Miami-Dade, she said. In Palm Beach, the Hispanic population increased by 19 percent between 2010 and 2015 to a total of 300,776. Broward saw a 20.3 percent increase while Miami-Dade’s was up only 10.2 percent.
    While Palm Beach County’s traffic congestion may seem less severe to a Miami-Dade driver, it is a big issue locally. The same holds true for housing prices.

Price of housing a crisis
    Hundreds of people attending a Palm Beach County Housing Summit in West Palm Beach in May heard experts say that the county’s median home price of $327,000 is unaffordable to 75 percent of households.
    The county’s median gross rent of $1,900 is out of reach for 80 percent of renters, said Edward “Ned” Murray, associate director of the FIU Metropolitan Center. About 30 percent of renters spend more than 50 percent of their income on rent.
    Attendees were told that more affordable housing must be built if the county wants to keep existing businesses and jobs and attract new ones.
    Glickstein described housing costs as “one of the most intractable public policy issues we face as a city, state and country.”
    “Affordable housing is a national crisis,” he said. “The market is driving these prices. There is very little local government can do unless it wants to get into the business of rent control and other price suppression measures. Those things have never really proven effective.”
    While Delray Beach, like other South Florida cities, requires developers to build affordable housing, the amount produced is insufficient to meet demand, Glickstein said.
    “I would like to see the development industry reinvent the housing model,” he said, although the way to do so is not obvious.
    Developers “can make the economics work, except for the fact land is so scarce in the tri-county area. Lack of supply is driving land prices so that the affordable model doesn’t work anymore.”

An adult least tern offers food to a young juvenile on the beach in Boca Raton near the south edge

of Spanish River Park in mid-June. Based on the size and color of feathers, a Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

biologist estimated the youngster was about 3 weeks old and capable of flight. Least terns are unique

in that they nest on bare beach sand and rooftops; it has been more than 20 years since successful beach nests

have been recorded south of Lake Worth. A nest near this location was destroyed by predators in May.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Highland Beach Police Officers Dwayne Fernandes and Paul Shersty

helped rescue four people in a sinking boat on one of their days off.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

A tow boat arrives to haul in a boat that took on water about a mile off the Boynton Inlet.

Highland Beach police officers assisted with the rescue.

Photo provided

By Rich Pollack

    Paul Shersty and Dwayne Fernandes had planned a quiet Friday morning fishing on one of their days off last month.
    Instead, the Highland Beach police officers ended up saving four people — and four stowaway kittens — in a daring rescue full of surprises.
    “I don’t know what we would have done if they weren’t there,” said Richard Bengal, a passenger on the boat owned by his friend Joe Trebbe. “We would have been in serious trouble.”
    Shersty and Fernandes arrived about 9 a.m. at a popular fishing spot about a mile off the Boynton Inlet when they heard people shouting and saw waving passengers on a boat about a half mile away.
    At first the two thought the people were cheering because they’d caught a big fish, but it became apparent they were in trouble.
    As Shersty and Fernandes got closer, they were taken aback to see two men standing in almost a foot of water on the boat. Shersty was also surprised to see Bengal, a friend with whom he had grown up.
    On the sinking boat, that wasn’t the only surprise.
    As the water rose, Bengal, Trebbe and their rescuers heard meowing under the boat’s console. Soon, four soaked black-and-white kittens, apparently stashed there by their mom while the boat was in storage, emerged.
    “They had no idea there were kittens on the boat,” Shersty said.
    While the passengers on the boat were panicking, Shersty and Fernandes relied on their police training and experience to remain calm and develop a plan.
    Although the seas were only moderately choppy, the waves were big enough to keep Fernandes from getting his boat close enough to pick up the boaters. Instead, they devised a plan to tow the boat to shore while calling for a tow boat designed for similar missions.
    The challenge, Shersty said, was to use their small boat to tow one that was getting heavier by the minute as it was taking on more water than could be forced out by a barely functioning bilge pump.
    Eventually, the tow boat arrived and took over the rescue operation, taking the stricken boat through the Boynton Inlet with the help of marine patrols from the Boynton Beach Police Department, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office as well as the U.S. Coast Guard.
    Shersty, an experienced boater and angler, says he had some doubts the rescue that morning would be successful.
    “If any one of several things had gone wrong, the people on the boat would have been swimming,” he said. “I told [Fernandes] they must have had a guardian angel looking after them.”
    After the boat reached shore, Boynton Beach police turned the kittens over to Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control.
    Shersty said he and Fernandes were just happy to be in the right place at the right time as water came over the transom of Trebbe’s boat and shorted out the electrical system.
    “If we had come five minutes later, there would have been nothing there,” Shersty said. “That boat would have sunk.”
    He said that the rescue made him decide to double- check the equipment on his own boat.
    “I went out and bought two new bilge pumps and a battery,” he said.

By Mary Hladky

    Boca Raton residents and visitors suddenly seem poised to have plenty of alternatives to driving their cars around downtown.
    After talking for months about what type of transportation services should be offered to lessen traffic congestion, City Council members, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board, heard at their June 12 meeting that at least two companies want to soon start service with electric vehicles.
    And the Downtowner, whose departure from Boca Raton in December prompted council members to seek a replacement, is willing to return to the city.
    Mike Trombino, who launched Slidr in Asheville, N.C., last year, said his company expanded to Naples this year, plans to start operating on Columbia, S.C., in July and in four more cities in 2018. It provides on-demand service via an app and by telephone.
    Some cities subsidize his service, but Trombino indicated he might forgo that in Boca Raton.
    The Free Ride, which began service in East Hampton, N.Y., in 2011 and now operates in 11 cities including West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, is planning to start service in downtown Boca Raton and eventually expand to other areas of the city.
    The company also has an app for on-demand service.
    “I believe we will be on the road by Oct. 1,”  said Michael Liss, an attorney who represents The Free Ride.
    Downtowner CEO Stephen Murray, whose company operates in Delray Beach, Tampa and two other cities, declined in March to say why he pulled out of the city.
    “We’re very interested in coming back to the city of Boca,” he told The Coastal Star on June 12.
    City Manager Leif Ahnell said any company could start providing service immediately as long as no city subsidy is involved.
    Even though they are pleased the companies want to operate in the city, council members agreed to proceed in July with a request for proposals from private operators. That process could be halted if Slidr and The Free Ride are operating successfully in the city.
    “I would love to see private industry step up as soon as possible,” said Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rodgers.
    A survey completed in June showed that Boca Raton businesses, residents and visitors want alternative downtown transportation.
    The city posted the survey on social media, emailed it to downtown businesses and sent it to downtown property managers to share with their tenants. The Downtowner emailed the survey to its former Boca Raton riders.
    A total of 1,759 downtown residents, visitors and people who work downtown responded, a far higher number than city officials expected.  In all, 75 percent were interested or very interested in using an alternative downtown transportation service.
    Sixty-five percent favored an on-demand service, while 19 percent wanted a trolley system that would have a fixed route downtown. Most wanted electric vehicles.
    The main reasons they cited for coming downtown were dining, shopping, nightlife and special events. Fifty-eight percent of the respondents live downtown.
    “There is definitely a demand for some kind of alternative service,” said council member Robert Weinroth.

Parking garage discussed
    Council members next turned their attention to building a badly needed downtown parking garage.
    The working assumption has been that the garage would be built on city-owned land behind the downtown library, two blocks north of City Hall and the Police Department and west of the FEC railroad tracks.
    The city has tried for years to find a site closer to the heart of downtown, but landowners have been unwilling to sell their property.
    Some council members began rethinking the location in May after Kim DeLaney, director of strategic development and policy for the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, said library land west of the railroad tracks would not be a good location for the garage.
    Weinroth said he was “probably wrong” to support the library site. Mayor Susan Haynie agreed that is the wrong location.
    DeLaney’s argument “is persuasive,” Weinroth said. “A garage between Dixie and Federal is much more valuable and gives us the garage we need.”
    Council member Scott Singer agreed a site east of Dixie Highway would be best. “But we don’t own it,” he said.
    “I submit that the best solution is proceeding now with the planned site the city currently owns, rather than spend many millions to buy new downtown parcels (something we’ve been exploring to no avail),” he wrote on his Facebook page.
    Council members will address the matter again at a July 24 CRA meeting when they expect more input from DeLaney and a city consultant.

By Mary Hladky

    Years after the Midtown “live, work, play” development was conceived, the project is at an impasse without any of the city approvals needed to move forward.
    Angelo Bianco, managing partner of developer Crocker Partners, tried to change that at a June 12 City Council workshop, as he pressed to have the city’s Planning and Zoning Board consider on July 20 proposed ordinances that set a framework for how the project can be built.
    “Being kept in a state of limbo is not fair,” Bianco said. He later added, “We just can’t not move forward. At some point, you are taking away our rights as landowners.”
    But council members urged Bianco to continue working with city staff to finalize ordinances both he and staff can support. If so, staff will recommend that the planning board and City Council approve the ordinances.
    Council member Robert Weinroth counseled Bianco not to resist more talks and negotiation with city staff.
    “I know you are frustrated,” he said. “Don’t make a mistake by forcing this.”
    The Midtown project, located between Interstate 95 and Town Center at Boca Raton, envisions a place where people will live and walk or take shuttles to their jobs in the area, shopping and restaurants.
    As many as 2,500 mostly rental units would be built on nearly 300 acres where no residential now exists. A Tri-Rail station would be built at Northwest 19th Street to bring people to and from the area.
    City officials like the concept, which is similar to transit-oriented developments springing up across the country designed to reduce traffic and energy use. But the devil is in the details.
    The city annexed the area in 2003 and the original county zoning has remained in place. Crocker Partners and its development partners want new zoning ordinances that would regulate a “planned mobility development” as well as a “transit-oriented development” that would allow higher densities and less space set aside for parking.
    City officials want to make sure the ordinances are crafted to safeguard city interests and avoid unintended consequences.
    City staff and the developers have been working on that and changes have been made. But from the perspective of the developers, the process has been painfully slow, costing them time and money.
    Meanwhile, questions have been raised about whether too much residential would be built, if adequate parking space has been included and if Midtown would further clog area roads.
    Another complication is that the proposed ordinances are just the start of the process. If they are approved, the developers will design the project and then submit plans to the city for approval.
    As a result, the planning board and council have no idea what Midtown will look like. Examples presented by the developers of what they have built elsewhere have created confusion, prompting the developers to explain repeatedly that these are conceptual ideas only, and not what is intended for Midtown.
    As the impasse continued, the council in May called for a “reset” on Midtown, with the city taking a stronger hand to speed up the process. But the city and the developer did not discuss specific points of disagreement at the June 12 meeting.
    Bianco said he thinks the proposed zoning ordinances are ready for presentation to the planning board.
    Deputy City Manager George Brown disagreed. He suggested additional changes that Bianco said he was hearing about for the first time.
    “This is treating us in an unfair manner that does not have precedent with other developers …,” Bianco said. “We just need to move it along.”
    One sticking point is the proposed Tri-Rail station, which Crocker Partners initially said was crucial to the project. The developer wanted the ordinances approved by March so funding for the station was not jeopardized. That deadline, set by Tri-Rail, has passed, but some funding agreed to earlier remains available.
    An April report by Brown says previous versions of one of the ordinances drafted by the developer states that the Tri-Rail station would be “planned, funded and committed to” by Tri-Rail. The city wants the station to be “planned, funded and under construction.”
    The report also says the proposed ordinance states the train station is not required until 1,300 rental units have been approved for development. At that point, up to 1,200 more units could be built if the train station is “committed to.”
    “As proposed, the applicant’s ordinance may result in 2,500 units without a train station,” the report states.
    City staff questions if Midtown qualifies as a transit-oriented development if no station is built, the report said.
    The developer commissioned a traffic survey for the area, which states there will be no additional traffic generated by renters if 1,300 units are built, as long as shuttles are operating.
    The traffic survey was updated on April 25 and May 11, but Brown said in a June 5 memo to the council that staff has not reviewed the updates. That memo also said staff has not reviewed proposed changes to the ordinance the developer submitted on April 27 and May 15.
    Parking also remains a sticking point. Crocker Partners had proposed less parking than required elsewhere based on the idea that renters and others coming to shop and dine would use Tri-Rail and the shuttles.
    Crocker Partners has since increased the amount of parking, but city staff still questions whether it will be enough to meet demand.  One-bedroom units would have one space, two-bedroom units 1.5 spaces, and three-bedroom units would have two spaces.

By Steve Plunkett
    
    Storm clouds are gathering again between the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District and the city of Boca Raton.
    The cause of the renewed friction is the continuing failure of the two governments to hammer out a master interlocal agreement to replace a handful of agreements defining which side does what. The district uses its tax dollars to have city workers take care of its parks and pay for the operation and capital improvements at Red Reef Park and some other city-owned facilities.
    District Chairman Robert Rollins said the latest version of the proposed agreement was an improvement over the original, but he still was not happy.
    “For 22 years we’ve had separate ILA agreements that have worked marvelous without any complications that I can see. So to begin with, I’m not sure why we need a master ILA,” Rollins said.
    Rollins rode the train from Tampa to Boca Raton and said he had plenty of time to review the proposal, which the city first offered in December 2015.
    The main sticking point was when a second round of playing fields would be built at De Hoernle Park, which is on city property. The district built the first group of fields in 2012, and commissioners hoped to keep the same contractor. But Boca Raton did not give its OK.   
    “This interlocal agreement has already held up phase 2 for a couple of years if not more,” Rollins said. “I kept looking in here for a statement that said, you sign this ILA agreement and you can get started on phase 2 tomorrow. It’s not in here.”
    Rollins said he also was concerned about not having input anymore on the scheduling of fields, adjusting user fees at parks and the effects of future annexations by the city.
    Vice Chairman Steve Engel said city officials seem to treat the district as if it were a city agency.
    “We’re a state agency, and as such we have a different set of rules that we have to play by,” he said, noting the thousands of district residents he represents who live outside city limits.
    At the district’s June 19 meeting, Arthur Koski, its executive director, said Boca Raton’s proposed budget does not reflect what has been discussed during negotiations of the master interlocal agreement.
    “So that would mean that the actual interlocal agreement would not take effect in the fiscal year ’17-18,” Koski said. “That’s not to say we can’t negotiate it during that year, but it probably would be effective in the following fiscal year.”
    District commissioners thought they reached an agreement on De Hoernle Park at a joint meeting with City Council members in mid-2015.
    “We promised the city we would do sports turf at Patch Reef [Park], we’re doing it,” Rollins said. “We promised the city that we’d do half the beach renourishment; we signed that, we’re doing it. Those are the two things that were hanging us up on this. And so we’ve made that commitment, we’re true to our word when we say we’ll do something. Let’s see if we can’t knock this thing out and get phase 2 kicked off.”
    The two sides planned to meet July 24 primarily to discuss a separate interlocal agreement covering the potential purchase of the Ocean Breeze golf course.

By Rich Pollack

    Small coastal communities in South Palm Beach County continued to have few serious crimes in 2016, with most experiencing crime decreases last year, according to statistics released last month by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
    At the same time, the larger cities in south Palm Beach County all experienced more crime in 2016, as did Ocean Ridge. The increases were driven in large part by a growing number of thefts from unlocked vehicles.  
    Along the coast, South Palm Beach and its neighbor to the south, Manalapan, experienced large percentage drops in crime, with South Palm Beach dropping close to 43 percent and Manalapan dropping by more than 40 percent. Those percentages, however, can be misleading because of the small number of crimes.
    In South Palm Beach, the number of crimes dropped from 14 to 8. In Manalapan, the number of crimes dropped from 27 to 16. Highland Beach, which like South Palm Beach is almost entirely residential, experienced four fewer crimes than it did in 2015, while Gulf Stream had 10 reported crimes, the same as 2015.  
    Ocean Ridge was the exception among the small towns, with 80 crimes, nine more than in 2015. Although the number of major crimes in the town dropped in every other category — including burglaries, which dropped by 58 percent —  the number of larcenies jumped 60 percent from 40 in 2015 to 64 in 2016.  “We believe that about 85 percent of the burglaries to vehicles could have been prevented by people simply locking their car doors and removing their valuables,” said Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins. “If we remove the opportunity, we can displace the criminals.”
    Hutchins said geography and the physical layout of Ocean Ridge may partially explain why the town experienced an increase in thefts while neighboring communities did not. He pointed out easy access to Ocean Ridge from Interstate 95 and explained that there are more public-access areas, including parks, than in other communities.
    In some other coastal communities, a drop in the number of larcenies helped drive an overall decrease in the number of crimes.
    In Highland Beach, which had a 10 percent decrease in overall crime last year, 22 of the 36 reported overall crimes were larcenies. In 2015, there were 32 reported larcenies.
    Police Chief Craig Hartmann gives some credit for the drop to residents, who he says are doing a better job of locking their cars and alerting police to any suspicious activity.
    “We’ve been working with the community to make sure they understand this is an epidemic,” Hartmann said. “We’re putting information out to let residents know how they can avoid becoming a victim.”
    Highland Beach police officers just recently began making presentations at homeowners associations and condo association meetings and began distributing door hangers that say “Always Lock Your Car.”
    Larger cities have also been spreading the word, but thieves have still been able to find many unlocked cars with valuable items inside.
    In Delray Beach, for example, 2,218 larcenies were reported in 2016, 288 more than in 2015.  In Boynton Beach, there were 310 more larcenies in 2016 than in the previous year, and in Boca Raton the number of larcenies increased by 210 in the same time period.
    “Vehicle burglaries account for a large percentage of our crime statistics,” said Dani Moschella, the Delray Beach Police Department’s public information manager. “Most of those crimes were to unlocked cars, and often the victims’ property was clearly visible inside the vehicles. Bags, sunglasses, cash, sometimes even purses, were all left in plain view.”
    In Palm Beach County, the number of overall crimes increased by 2.2 percent, with larcenies and other property crimes largely driving the increase. Violent crimes against people decreased, with the county experiencing 21 fewer homicides, nine fewer rapes and close to 90 fewer robberies, according to FDLE Uniform Crime Report statistics.

By Steve Plunkett

    It’s no secret Boca Raton loves its longtime city manager. Ditto for the city attorney.
    City Manager Leif Ahnell presented the City Council a four-page list detailing 150 projects and activities he oversaw the last fiscal year for an executive performance review June 13.
    “It’s not intended to be a comprehensive list, but it’s just to give everybody some perspective on the services and the scope of operations that we actually are responsible for here and the management,” Ahnell said.
    City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser compiled a three-page, single-spaced “brief overview/highlight” of legal services she provided. The most important function for her office of five, she said, is “to every day kind of anticipate” the city’s legal needs.
    Ahnell’s list noted that in fiscal 2016 the city reviewed almost 22,000 job applications, hired 296 employees and performed nearly 75,000 building inspections. During the recession, Ahnell said, the city stopped giving raises to general employees for four years.
    “As it turned out the city attorney and I went five years with no raises,” he said.
    Since there were no raises, the council also stopped doing performance reviews — until this year.
    Ahnell said he is responsible for a nearly $700 million budget and supervises eight departments with 68 divisions.
    “Really we’re 68 different businesses that we’re kind of running and close to 1,800 employees being managed,” he said.
    More items from the list: City Hall handled about 2,300 public records requests in the 2016 budget year and 43 percent more in the current year. Police answered nearly 60,000 emergency calls.
    “I think that what people don’t appreciate is that, in addition to the 150 items that you’ve discussed here, that you are the conductor of the city,” council member Robert Weinroth said.
    “I really am very impressed by the ability of you to keep this city running and keep the five of us relatively satisfied,” Weinroth said, adding he’d give Ahnell an A “or an A-minus at worst.”
    Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rodgers also was happy with Ahnell’s work.
    “We’re on worldwide lists of best places to live, work, go to school, all those things. … That’s not saying we can’t constantly improve — because I think we constantly seek that and that’s important — and it’s a testament to you and a testament to your hiring and our great staff that you’ve brought here,” Rodgers said.
    Council member Scott Singer called Ahnell a “high-level” manager.
    “I struggle to find an area of improvement to even suggest,” Singer said. “Mr. Ahnell succeeds in areas that I can’t even fathom.”
    Mayor Susan Haynie was equally positive.
    “My only criticism of you is I wish I saw you more out and about town, but I think you’re chained to your desk trying to do all these things,” Haynie said. “Your longevity is a testament to your quality.”
    When it came to the city attorney, Weinroth, who had complained about bad legal advice, was complimentary after Frieser’s successful defense of him in an ethics complaint.
    “On the whole I think you’re doing a very good job,” said Weinroth, giving her a B-plus.
    Singer said he would not want a city attorney presenting a long list of accomplishments.
    “The less that you can put on paper, the less we have to talk about, the fewer lawsuits we have to win or fight, the better,” he said. “It’s what we’re not hearing — that’s good counsel.”
    Haynie noted Frieser’s work on the free-speech zone and other accomplishments.
    “What you’ve done assisting us with the sober home issue was really, really wonderful —the alcohol sales, those were all tough things,” the mayor said.
    There was no talk of pay raises for the two officials.
Later this summer, the council will review Ahnell’s proposed budget for fiscal 2018, which will include money for raises.
    Ahnell has entered the state’s Deferred Retirement Option Program, or DROP, which means he will retire within five years and receive all his retirement benefits for that period in a lump sum or rollover.
    The performance reviews occurred in a nearly empty council chamber at the end of a four-hour, 15-minute meeting that followed a 2½-hour meeting earlier that day.
    Council member Andrea O’Rourke worried that residents missed the discussion of all Ahnell and Frieser do.
    “I think it would be a great idea to publish this list,” said O’Rourke, who suggested putting a special button on the city’s website.
    The lists are attached to the agenda posted online for the June 13 meeting.

By Rich Pollack

    Completion of a new luxury condominium complex as well as several large new homes has helped push property values in Highland Beach to record levels, surpassing those set prior to the economic downturn that began in 2008.
    The Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office estimates the total 2017 taxable value of property in Highland Beach at $2.39 billion, surpassing the previous record of an estimated $2.3 billion in 2007.
    The $2.39 billion appraisal this year represents a 7.84 increase over 2016, when taxable property values in town reached $2.21 billion, surpassing the $2 billion mark for the first time since the Great Recession.
    One reason for this year’s increase, city leaders say, is the completion of 3200 S. Ocean, a 20-unit, luxury condominium complex with units starting at $1.4 million. In addition, there have been several expensive new homes built near the Intracoastal Waterway, or facing the ocean on sites where smaller homes were torn down.
    “We’ve had a lot of new construction in town,” Mayor Carl Feldman said.
    There has also been an increase in remodeling of older condominium units as new owners move in.  
    New construction and additions accounted for close to $52 million of taxable value, according to the property appraiser.
    The increase in property values could result in an additional $542,137 in tax revenue coming into town coffers if town leaders choose to keep the tax rate at $3.25 for every $1,000 of assessed value, according to Finance Director Cale Curtis.
    That is a big if, however, since the town is just starting the budget process and a final tax rate won’t be set for several months. How much the town will spend is still to be determined.
    “We don’t have all the final figures in yet,” Feldman said.
    In the past two years, as property values have increased, Highland Beach commissioners reduced the tax rate. In 2015, commissioners dropped the rate from $3.70 per $1,000 of assessed value to $3.50. Last year it dropped to the current tax rate of $3.25.   
    The Town Commission will hold budget planning sessions in the next few months that are open to residents.  
    In other news:
    Highland Beach commissioners voted to disband the town’s volunteer Code Enforcement Board and replace it with a special magistrate — who would act as a judge — to preside over contested code violation cases.
    Last month, commissioners voted to hire attorney William Doney, of the West Palm Beach firm of Caldwell Pacetti Edwards Schoech & Viator, to serve in that position at a rate of $185 per hour.
    The commission selected Diane James-Bigot as the alternate special magistrate.
    Doney, a member of the Florida Bar since 1977, specializes in municipal government and currently serves as a special magistrate in Lantana and Haverhill. He has previously been a special magistrate in Wellington, Mangonia Park and Loxahatchee Groves.
    Town officials say they expect the number of cases coming before Doney to be minimal since most residents and visitors comply with code-violation citations.
    Highland Beach is continuing to search for a full-time code enforcement officer, a newly funded position.

Caitlin Bovery, sea turtle rehabilitation assistant coordinator, records a video of Gumbo Limbo senior aquarist Keith Herman

and manager Leanne Welch as they dump plastic bottles into the center’s near-shore reef aquarium.

The bottles, 70 pounds’ worth, were collected from the beach and surrounding areas. The intent was

to show visitors how plastic and other debris create floating patches of garbage in oceans.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett
    
    First, numbers from the “Marine Debris Timeline” exhibit at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center:
    • Two to four weeks: how long it takes a banana peel or paper cup to decompose in the ocean.
    • 10 to 20 years: the time a plastic shopping bag lingers in the water.
    • 450 years: the long life in the Atlantic Ocean of a disposable diaper.
    The numbers helped frame four days of special activities at Boca Raton’s wildlife sanctuary as center personnel observed World Oceans Day on June 8. The celebration included a coastal cleanup, the “trashing” of an aquarium with plastic bottles and creating a “blanket” of Mylar balloons collected from the city’s beaches.
    Ali Courtemanche and Sydney Jimenez, marine turtle specialists at Gumbo Limbo, needed only a week to gather 53 Mylar balloons left over from beach parties. Taped together, the balloons, which take 50 to 100 years to disintegrate, formed a blanket 21 feet long and 5 feet wide.
    World Oceans Day is intended to raise awareness of how manmade debris affects marine life. The marquee event at Gumbo Limbo was a contest to guess how much plastic was floating in the center’s near-shore reef aquarium.
    In a media-only event that Gumbo Limbo posted on its Facebook page, workers dumped tubs of plastic into the octagon-shaped pool.
    “That was really cool, something we have never done before,” environmental program coordinator Kristin Child said. “We just emptied 70 pounds of plastic bottles and assorted plastic containers into our near-shore reef aquarium, and it is floating around like the Pacific gyre,” an ocean garbage patch.
    Gumbo Limbo senior aquarist Keith Herman said the 70 pounds equaled one-tenth of the amount of plastic that humans drop into oceans around the globe each second.
    Herman decorated the center of the adjacent mangrove aquarium with 34.2 pounds of debris he picked up in just one hour walking on a path to the Intracoastal mangroves on the center’s property. He did not have to cover much ground to collect it.
    “I went within 20 to 30 feet on either side,” Herman said.
    Laura Reams, visiting from Maryland, came closest out of about 400 entries in guessing how many bottles were dumped in the Great Gumbo Garbage Patch.
    “She guesses 1,282 and the actual number was 1,306,” Child said.
    Reams’ prize was to become the adoptive mother of a sea turtle at Gumbo Limbo. Visitors usually donate $50 to adopt a resident turtle or $25 to adopt a hatchling.
    All the plastic in the aquarium was removed and recycled.
    “Please reduce, reuse, and recycle … you can make a difference!” the center urged its Facebook friends.
    Lanai Robinson, who made up the one-woman Team Honeybee, collected a winning 254 pieces of trash in the six-hour coastal cleanup contest June 10.
    “We did not go with weight, because it is easy to pick up big things and harder to pick up the small things,” Child said.
Robinson won a package of reusable water bottles, gloves, grabbers and sunscreen, so she could continue her cleanup work.
The Gumbo Limbo efforts were echoed the following Tuesday in City Hall.
Margaret FitzSimons and Cristina Hicks, the chair and vice chair of Boca Raton’s Green Living Advisory Board, asked City Council members to stop the use of plastic trash bags at the beaches.
    “This really undermines all of the work that Gumbo Limbo is doing to try to eliminate plastic just from our consumer cycle. It ends up in our oceans, and turtles think they’re jellyfish; they end up eating them. And we’re putting more turtles at the hospital at Gumbo Limbo because of that,” Hicks said.
    She and FitzSimons also asked that recycle bins be placed at the beaches.

By Steve Plunkett
    
    The year 2017 ushered in a new era of goal-setting for the City Council.
    For the first time, officials posted video of the sessions on Boca Raton’s website, and actions were given completion dates.
    Also, the council did not set five top goals and five high goals. Instead it tasked City Manager Leif Ahnell with making progress in 17 policy areas.
    “Give me the six that are most important to you,” said Lyle Sumek, the consultant who facilitates the sessions.
    Council member Scott Singer was the first to balk, citing the timeline he and his colleagues set for updating the city’s land development code.
    “Some of [the items] have more council action; some of them have less council action. It’s hard for me to prioritize that way,” Singer said.
    Council member Robert Weinroth agreed.
    “We’ve winnowed down hundreds of items to get to these, now 17, and I’m not quite sure whether there is a value to now winnowing it down any further,” he said, adding “these are all priorities.”
    Council member Andrea O’Rourke had similar ideas.
    “If we talk about business retention, expansion strategy and actions, and then compare that to, you know, the city campus master plan, I can’t compare those two in order,” O’Rourke said. “They’re both actions that need to be taken.”
    Ahnell said if all 17 items were staying on the list, the priorities did not matter.
    “We’re going to have to work on all of them,” the city manager said.
    The areas Ahnell’s staff will focus on developing policy choices for the council include the land development code; business retention, expansion strategy and action; and the city campus master plan.

    Others are:
    • the city’s economic development plan;
    • a smart city/technology business development strategy;
    • an innovation office;
    • development process streamlining;
    • human resource planning, succession planning and development/direction;
    • city services and staffing levels;
    • the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District;
    • a Florida Atlantic University campus agreement and town and gown workshop;
    • the university district conceptual master plan;
    • a complete streets policy;
    • a comprehensive waterfront master plan;
    • a downtown traffic alternative study;
    • the Midtown development;
    • and art in public places.
    The council also expects to open the city-owned Wildflower parcel on a temporary basis in September and have its seawall rebuilt, a pathway constructed and an overall design for a passive park completed in September 2018.
    Former Deputy Mayor Constance Scott, who now handles local relations for Florida Atlantic University, was disappointed that no top or high priorities were set, saying that lets the public know what is important to city leaders.
    “I believe in the process,” she said.
    Video of the goal-setting sessions is on the city’s myboca.us webpage. Click on Government, then Agendas & Minutes. The sessions were held May 4 and 5 with the follow-up workshop June 13. Ú

By Steve Plunkett
    
    The city-owned Wildflower parcel on the Intracoastal Waterway now has the papers to prove it’s a park.
    City Council members changed the site’s designation on Boca Raton’s comprehensive land-use plan to “recreation and open space” and rezoned the property as “public land.” Before, the 2.3-acre property at the northwest base of the Palmetto Park Road bridge was labeled “commercial” and zoned for “local business.”
    No members of the public commented on the changes at the council’s June 13 meeting. Neither did council members. The comp plan ordinance required at least four votes for adoption. It and the zoning ordinance both passed 5-0.
    Last July, council members changed part of the vacant parcel from residential to commercial to accommodate a long-planned restaurant. Boca Raton bought the land in 2009 for $7.5 million.
    But voters decided in November to reserve all city-owned land on the Intracoastal for “public recreation, public boating access, public streets, and city storm water uses only.”
    In other business, the council approved hiring Applied Technology and Management Inc. to provide engineering services for a seawater intake and pump station system for Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s saltwater tanks.
    The previous month ATM won the contract to develop architectural plans for the restoration of Lake Wyman and Rutherford parks.