Marty Pawlicki of Briny Breezes has tubes running into both arms while he makes the final donation of platelets on his way to the 100-gallon milestone. To the right is Benita Teschendorf, his fiancee, whom he met while donating his 70th gallon. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

Talk to Marty Pawlicki and it soon becomes apparent that he is a health and fitness fan, who rides his bike 20 to 25 miles a day and who is a regular on the tennis courts.
Pawlicki is also a numbers guy; he taught math as well as public health at Palm Beach State College before fully retiring a few years ago.
So it comes as no surprise that one of Pawlicki’s most ambitious goals combined the two.
Just a few weeks ago, Pawlicki reached a major milestone when he donated a pint of blood that put him over the 100-gallon mark.
It is an achievement that has been more than 20 years in the making and one that few others reach.
“Giving blood is the easiest way to do something good,” says Pawlicki, 70, a Briny Breezes resident. “It’s easier to replace blood than to replace money.”
Pawlicki, from Michigan, has been giving blood for decades, but he says his quest to reach the 100-gallon mark began almost two decades ago after he attended a celebration honoring blood donors.
He read a booklet there that listed those who gave in order of how much they donated. At the time, Pawlicki was fairly far down the chart, but he was ambitious.
“I wanted to get on the first page of the booklet,” he said.
Once Pawlicki reached 46 gallons, he did a few calculations and set an even more ambitious goal. “I thought I could get to 100 gallons,” he said.
There was a bit of a hitch, however. Blood banks generally limit whole blood donations to six times a year. At that rate, Pawlicki calculated, it would take far too long to reach his goal, and he probably would never make it.
Pawlicki, who has A-positive blood, went a different route, becoming a plateletpheresis donor, who can donate up to 24 times a year, making his goal more realistic.
With pheresis, blood is withdrawn from the body and platelets, the cells responsible for clotting, are removed. The donor’s blood is then put back in the body to house remaining and newly produced platelets.
A familiar face at the OneBlood blood bank in Delray Beach, Pawlicki is there on a regular schedule for about 90 minutes every other week.
“I like doing it,” he said. “You can lie there and watch a movie.”
Through his donations, Pawlicki has gotten to know the staff at the center as well as some of the other regular donors, including someone with whom he plays tennis.
For Pawlicki, his regular trips to the blood center also helped him discover he had high-blood pressure, which is now being treated.
Trained as a nurse, Pawlicki spent much of his career in Michigan as a public health educator teaching all aspects of health, including fitness, nutrition and stress management.
“Health is really synonymous with happiness,” he said, adding that having your health makes it possible to achieve your goals.
It was a few years after his son Michael was born that Pawlicki and his wife (now ex-wife), also a nurse, began giving blood.
“We would go to the blood center as part of a family outing,” he said, explaining that the couple would bring their son, who would play at the blood center while they gave blood. “We all did it together. It might have had something to do with learning to insert an IV.”
Pawlicki believes that the future of blood donations belongs to younger people who he hopes will become donors.
“The only way a high school student should think about losing blood is by donating,” he said.
As for Pawlicki, he now has a new goal — to reach 1,000 donations.
“That’s 25 more gallons,” the former math professor said without skipping a beat.

We lock our doors when there’s only one person in the office. We lock them when we’re working at night.
There’ve been times when we’ve asked local law enforcement to keep an eye on our office and our employees. We’ve been screamed at on the telephone and had hateful postings on the online and social media versions of our stories. And, of course, we’ve been threatened with lawsuits and sued over our reporting.
Let that all sink in.
We’re a 17,000-circulation, monthly newspaper. We dedicate as much newsprint to features and photos as we do to news reporting. We write obituaries and give a lot of space to monthly calendar listings. We seldom cover crime or courts.
So, as reports from the murderous attack at the Capital Gazette in Maryland unfolded, we were sickened but not completely surprised. There are a lot of angry people out there — even in a community as beautiful and privileged as ours. Even in a city as lovely as Annapolis.
One of the five newspaper employees killed in the attack was a former co-worker of mine. A beautiful and thoughtful writer. A man who loved his family and his profession. A good man.
The last I spoke with Rob Hiaasen was a few years ago. He was curious about the origins and success of our little paper. We talked about community journalism and why it’s become increasingly important in an America where a journalist’s value is often measured in retweets and celebrity. We agreed that every community, no matter its size, is filled with interesting stories that should be told.
If Americans learn anything from the senseless slaughter of professionals just doing their jobs, maybe it will be about the dedication under-paid and over-worked newspaper people feel toward the communities they live and work in. And maybe this will shine a light on our need as a society to move past divisive hyperbole and get a grip on our anger.
I’m not naive enough to believe we’ll ever leave our doors unlocked at night, but we’ll still be here covering the news of our community. Now more than ever.
— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

This congregation was devastated to learn of the shooting in Annapolis June 28 and we are praying for the victims and their families.
While our heart is with the Capital Gazette we can’t imagine what each of you may be experiencing with your colleagues’ suffering. The work each of you produces shines light on the communities where we live and work and provides greater clarity and understanding of those forces that impact our daily lives.
Journalists shouldn’t have to fear attacks, both verbal and physical, while completing their work with integrity.
Threats to journalists are real and this certainty may bring weariness and exhaustion, disrupting your good work from time to time. Our hope is that you will hear from those you serve that your work is important, it is noble, and is our best defense of the liberties we cherish.
That is our intention with this letter. Perhaps these thoughts will be an encouragement to you and fuel determination to face this dangerous climate with rigor and courage.
Lives are enriched and communities are made stronger by what you do. Of this, we are certain.

Dr. W. Douglas Hood Jr.
Senior Pastor
First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach

By Jane Smith

Unfair. Disrespectful. Insulting. Deceptive. Racial undertones.
Several black community members have spoken those words at Delray Beach City Commission meetings since the beginning of April when commissioners voted to take over the city’s redevelopment board.
A few hours before the June 5 meeting, where Community Redevelopment Agency board expansion was on the commission agenda, the politics ramped up a notch.
Reggie Cox, a former agency board member, called Mayor Shelly Petrolia “the most divisive mayor in the last 30 years” on his Facebook page. He also shared his post to the Concerned Delray Citizens group page on Facebook, a social media platform.
In addition, he wrote, “The Mayor destroyed a black board.” The old CRA board had four black and three white members.
But it was Deputy Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson, the commission’s only black member, who called for the takeover. The four other commission members are white.
The City Commission approved expanding the agency board by a 3-2 vote on June 5. It then voted to add former Commissioner Angie Gray and Pamela Brinson, both black women, giving the CRA board three black members and four white.
Bill Bathurst and Ryan Boylston, both elected to the commission in March, voted against the expansion because they wanted to discuss what their roles would be on the agency board. “We are just getting our feet wet,” Bathurst said.
Boylston agreed and said he wanted to have a workshop first to discuss the commission’s vision for the agency. He also wanted to have a few more agency meetings before deciding whether to expand the board.
“We haven’t put it out to the public,” Boylston said. He wanted to wait a week to give the public an opportunity to apply to be board members.
But the city clerk has been taking applications since late March, a few weeks after Johnson had said she was interested in a takeover vote. The commission voted to take over the CRA board on April 3, the first commission meeting since the election, but left open the possibility of adding members of the public.
By June 5, 30 people had applied to become board members. Nineteen either live in the agency district or have businesses there.
The pool of applicants from the Northwest/Southwest neighborhood, where the commission wants to focus redevelopment, was smaller.
Boylston nominated Connor Lynch, whose dad was mayor. The son has an insurance company on North Federal Highway, which is in the district. Only Bathurst supported the appointment, so it failed.
Johnson then nominated Gray, her campaign consultant, for a four-year term on the board. Gray also had served on the CRA board before her election as a city commissioner. Boylston was the lone no vote.
Vice Mayor Adam Frankel then offered Brinson to serve a two-year term. Brinson had run against Gray in 2014 when Gray lost her re-election bid to Jordana Jarjura.
Brinson was appointed by a 3-2 vote with Bathurst and Boylston voting no.
“It sounds like this discussion has already been had,” Boylston said.
The mayor said, “No, sir. There has been no discussion.”
Boylston then said, “I just hope Delray Beach is paying attention.”

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach city commissioners approved changes to the city’s eight lifeguard towers that will add more than $21,000 to what some have called “mini condos” that now sit on the beach.
One change order on June 19 included seven items: extra 30 days to pressure-treat the lumber in a more environmentally friendly manner; extra seven days to pick the correct color schemes; extra 14 days to comply with state regulations to protect nesting sea turtles; $9,600 for roof material change from cedar shakes to metal; $8,700 for roof color change so that the lifeguard towers now match the roofs on the pavilion and gazebos; $2,906.86 for stainless steel testing of bolts; and extra 30 days starting Nov. 1 to demolish the existing towers. The state won’t allow demolitions on the beach during turtle-nesting season.
Bolt testing cost by an independent laboratory, Applied Technical Services, was not included. That cost was said to be $1,245.
The stainless steel tests were done after rust was found on the bolts just weeks after the lifeguard towers were placed on the beach..
“We were told the stainless steel bolts would not rust,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said June 19. City Attorney Max Lohman, whose undergraduate degree was in oceanography, said the surface rust on the bolts was likely from a reaction with sulfur in the air. He also explained that stainless steel is not rustproof, but rust resistant.
The commission voted 4-1 to approve the change order to the lifeguard tower contract, with the mayor dissenting.
Petrolia supported replacing the old lifeguard towers, which were no longer usable, but she didn’t want to spend so much of taxpayer dollars on the new ones.
The new lifeguard towers will each have a metal roof, a solar panel to power public safety radios and a fan inside, impact windows, louvered shutters and skids so that they can move easily along the beach.
The $21,000 will come from the 5.2 percent contingency fund in the contract, said Susan Goebel-Canning, new public works director.
The towers now cost $128,951 each. When such soft costs as moving the towers are included, the individual price for a lifeguard tower tops $142,000.
Goebel-Canning assured the commission that the lifeguard towers would last 20 years and the hardware would not have to be replaced.

By Jane Smith

The new Boynton Beach police chief, Michael G. Gregory, will start July 9.
Gregory, assistant police chief in Fort Lauderdale, was selected by the Boynton Beach city manager in mid-June from 83 applicants.
He is negotiating the contract details with the city.
The police chief salary ranges between $99,962 and $149,494, according to the job listing.
“Mr. Gregory’s employment record in Fort Lauderdale is impeccable,” said Lori LaVerriere, Boynton Beach city manager. “I spoke with the city manager and police chief and they both had nothing but praise for him. He will fit our team beautifully.”
Boynton Beach also provides police services to Briny Breezes and its nearly 600 residents.
A Fort Lauderdale native, Gregory, 51, started with its Police Department in 1987 as a detective. Over the years, he moved through its ranks. He most recently led the Support Services Bureau.
Gregory had entered Fort Lauderdale’s Deferred Retirement Option Plan, forcing him to retire in 2019.
He has a master’s degree in public administration from Florida International University, a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Florida Atlantic University and an associate degree in criminal justice from Broward College.
Gregory is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Police Executive Research Forum, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, Florida Police Chiefs Association, American Society of Public Administrators and the National Forum of Black Public Administrators.
The Boynton Beach Police Department has about 155 officers and 53 nonsworn employees. Its budget is approximately $30.4 million, and it protects about 73,000 residents.

By Dan Moffett

Problems caused by rising seas are forcing rising expenditures to seep into the Ocean Ridge budget.
During the next fiscal year, town commissioners are considering spending roughly $125,000 on new stormwater infrastructure for the flood-prone Inlet Cay neighborhood, $47,000 to maintain and repair existing drain pipes, another $33,000 to install new drains, and $20,000 for swale construction.
There’s also $12,000 set aside in the proposed budget for Geographical Information Systems mapping that will help officials identify the areas in the town that are most vulnerable to future sea rise problems.
“The sea level and drainage problems will always be exacerbated,” Town Manager Jamie Titcomb told commissioners during a budget workshop on July 2. “We live on a barrier island.”
With a 3-2 vote, the commission approved setting the maximum millage rate for the next budget at $5.55 per $1,000 of taxable property value, a number that’s significantly above the $5.05 rollback rate that would keep tax revenues flat and the current millage rate of $5.25.
The commission can decide on a final tax rate less than the $5.55 maximum in the weeks ahead but cannot go above it. Vice Mayor Don MaGruder and Commissioners Phil Besler and Kristine de Haseth approved the ceiling rate; Mayor James Bonfiglio and Commissioner Steve Coz voted no.
Preliminary numbers from the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office show taxable values in Ocean Ridge up nearly 6 percent over last year, roughly in line with those throughout the county.
Bonfiglio and MaGruder have recommended that the commission start advancing projects to improve drainage before their construction costs increase in future years. But the mayor also warned that property owners will have to play a major role in helping the town deal with the rising costs of the rising seas.
“With sea level rise and our water table rising, it essentially makes the land less able to absorb water,” Bonfiglio said. “So as a town we can decide we want to have homeowners help us deal with that potential flooding issue.”
The commission has directed Town Engineer Lisa Tropepe to propose a priority list of possible drainage projects for the next few years. Tropepe said the town could act on two chronic problems without incurring great expense: getting seasonal residents to use moisture-detecting “smart” timers on their sprinkler systems when they leave town and persuading homeowners and contractors to reduce their use of impervious decks and driveways, as well as expanding swale areas.
The mayor said that without cooperation from homeowners and builders, the town is facing the task of developing “a massive drainage system” that is unrealistically expensive to build and manage. The town’s Planning and Zoning Commission is reviewing building rules, and officials are awaiting the results of an engineering consultant’s study of the Inlet Cay neighborhood that should be released in August.
In other business:
• The town got a passing grade from the Palm Beach County Office of Inspector Gen-eral during a routine audit of capital assets completed in June.
“We found generally adequate controls for the capital assets process,” the IG report said, “and physical controls for safeguarding the capital assets.”
The town accepted the auditors’ recommendation that administrators conduct an annual review of assets to ensure that insurance records are accurate. Capital assets are defined as tangible or intangible items that cost $5,000 or more and benefit the town for more than a fiscal year.
• Bonfiglio has submitted his resignation from the Town Commission, effective Nov. 6. The mayor is a Democratic candidate in the state House District 89 race and, under Florida’s “resign-to-run” law, must give up his municipal seat in order to seek the higher office in the fall election.

The eastern facade of Gulf Stream Views as seen from Old Ocean Boulevard. Rendering provided

By Jane Smith

Briny Breezes residents will soon be neighbors with luxury townhome owners living on the south side of the oceanfront town.
In early June, Gulf Stream Views LLC paid $5.4 million for the nearly 2-acre site, according to county property records. The new owner, a division of National Realty Investment Advisors of Secaucus, N.J., borrowed $16.5 million to buy the parcel and build 14 townhomes.
“We have a luxury product. There are no other oceanfront parcels available in the area,” said Glenn La Mattina, senior vice president of National Realty and its new division, NR Living. “We have location, location, location.”
The price paid was almost 22 percent below the asking price of $6.895 million.
“The buyers came in and negotiated very friendly terms to the seller,” listing broker Steven Presson said. “My clients came to a point and made a business decision it was time to move on.”
David Rinker, who purchased the property in 2006 when it still housed the Pelican Apartments, paid $3.2 million for the parcel. The Old Florida-style, 11-unit complex was soon demolished. Rinker and investors planned to build Tuscan-style townhomes. He did not return phone messages.
The purchase is National Realty’s eighth in coastal Gulf Stream and Delray Beach, according to its website. Its divisions spent $37.3 million in the past year, according to county property records. National Realty’s website also lists one property each in Ocean Ridge and Delray Beach with a status of closing.
“We are building luxury units for sale or rental on the sites owned in southern Palm Beach County,” La Mattina said.
Most of the parcels have another local connection. Former Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney’s law firm is listed as the registered agent for the limited liability corporations set up as the owner of each property. He declined to comment about his role, saying, “I don’t discuss my clients.”
National Realty also turned to a local lender for the bridge loan that covers acquisition and development of the townhomes near Briny Breezes. Trez Forman Capital Group was formed two years ago by Boynton Beach-based Forman Capital and Vancouver-based Trez Capital Group.
“I’ve known the borrowers for a long time. I started Forman Capital in 2004 in Delray Beach,” said Brett Forman, president and CEO.
His company is still optimistic about residential real estate in South Florida. “We look closely at the project and location,” Forman said. “People still want to move to South Florida.”
In mid-June, Trez Forman gave Sofa Partners a $20.6 million construction loan to build 111 First Delray, a boutique condo project in Delray Beach.
The name Gulf Stream Views comes from its oceanfront location, La Mattina said.
Site work will take place in July and construction will start in August, he said. The 14 luxury units will be ready in April 2020, La Mattina said. Preconstruction prices range from $1.8 million to $2.7 million.
Each three-story unit will have three bedrooms, an elevator, a splash pool, a two-car garage, a rooftop deck and 3,400 square feet of air-conditioned space.
Neighbor Mike Smollon, who lives in the County Pocket to the south, said, “It was inevitable that the parcel would be developed.”
He hopes the complex is constructed well and does not worsen the drainage problems in the County Pocket. With summer downpours the streets often flood, said Smollon, a retired Boynton Beach fire battalion chief.
“I believe in 10 years, we will look back on this as a landmark sale,” Presson said. “It not only will change the landscape but significantly increase property values in Briny Breezes and beyond.”

Other National Realty purchases, projects

Ocean Ridge
• Closing on 6644 N. Ocean Blvd. The property now contains three condo units and sits across from the county’s Ocean Ridge Hammock Park. The parcel can hold four townhomes, according to Jamie Titcomb, town manager.
The condo owners have come in to discuss what can be built on the property. The land sits in a zoning district that is not subject to the town’s moratorium on building, he said.

Gulf Stream
• Paid $6.5 million in August 2017 for a lot at 3565 N. Ocean. The town says the new owner can build 7,326 square feet, including a 467-square-foot gatehouse.
• Paid $6.5 million in August 2017 for a .77-acre piece once owned by Delray Beach real estate investor Carl DeSantis. The new owner can build 8,705 square feet, including a 488-square-foot gatehouse, according to the town.
The town does not allow condos to be built along the ocean, said Rita Taylor, town clerk. Both parcels recently received permission to build single-family homes, she said.

Delray Beach
• Paid $450,000 in September for 837 Denery Lane, which has a 1,706-square-foot home built in 1958. The house sits on .23 of an acre.
• Closing on 915 Bond Way with a 2,373-square-foot home built in 1958. The house sits on .28 of an acre. The National Realty website gives this description of its planned Palm Trail Townhomes there: two-unit luxury townhomes with 4,000 square feet each, four bedrooms and 4.5 baths, elevator, plunge pool, outdoor terrace and a club room.
The property is owned by Shovel Ready Investments LLC. Former Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney’s law firm is listed as the registered agent on Florida corporate records. His firm also is the registered agent for the National Realty divisions in Palm Beach County.
• Paid $6.5 million in September for 707 N. Ocean Blvd. The property has a 4,042-square-foot home built in 1954 on .57 of an acre. A National Realty division submitted plans for a two-story, 7,994-square-foot home that sits mostly east of the Coastal Construction Control Line. That means the state Department of Environmental Protection would have to approve it. The department has allowed most such structures in the past.
• Paid $7.05 million in October for 344 N. Ocean Blvd. The property is .89 of an acre and has a house under construction.
The former owners, Albert and Tamara Rabil of Boca Raton, are involved in litigation with their builder and subcontractors over 176 change orders on the house with costs exceeding $9 million. On June 7, with 30 parties and 85 claims, the Rabils asked the judge to declare the case “complex” and set up a case management plan with non-binding arbitration and mediation. As of press time, no hearing date was set.
• Part of a $7.25 million purchase in July 2017 of 322 N. Ocean Blvd., 1239 Laing St. and 316 N. Ocean, for a total of .87 of an acre. These parcels have city approval to build a two-story, 6,310-square-foot home with five bedrooms, three-car garage and a pool; a two-story, 5,069-square-foot home with an elevator and pool; and a two-story, 5,451-square-foot home with five bedrooms, three-car garage and a pool.
• Paid $3.05 million in September for four parcels (302, 318, 338 and 346) totaling .88 of an acre on Southeast Fifth Avenue: 302 has two, one-story office buildings of 1,222 square feet each, 318 has a four-unit building of 4,130 square feet, 338 is vacant land and 346 has an 800-square-foot office building. As of press time, no plans were filed with the city.
Sources: Palm Beach County property appraiser, county clerk & comptroller and Delray Beach Planning, Zoning and Building Department

By Dan Moffett

Billionaire Palm Beach real estate entrepreneur Jeff Greene is busy campaigning around the state for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Officials in Manalapan would rather see him repairing the house he owns at 4020 S. Ocean Blvd.
Three years ago, Greene and his investor group, 920 N. Stanley Partners LLC, bought the 6,400-square-foot, six-bedroom home on 2.4 acres adjacent to the Boynton Inlet.
Greene’s group told Manalapan officials in 2016 the plan was to demolish the structures, divide the lot and build two homes there. That hasn’t happened. A legal dispute with an adjacent owner over submerged land property lines has stalled Greene’s plan.
Meanwhile, the 60-year-old, $6 million house is falling apart, officials say.
“It’s a nightmare,” said Town Manager Linda Stumpf. “The gutters are falling down. Lights are falling down. It’s dreadful.”
The town has cited Greene’s group with a lengthy list of code violations and wants them resolved soon. The case will go before a special magistrate in August.
The message from the town is “either fix it or take it down,” Stumpf said.
“We understand there are some special circumstances,” Mayor Keith Waters said. “But that doesn’t preclude taking care of the property.”
Representatives of Stanley Partners could not be reached for comment.

A construction crew works on the parking lot in Plaza del Mar while another works on the roof of the new Publix under construction. Publix officials hope for an early August opening but say the date will not be confirmed until Manalapan issues a certificate of occupancy for the building. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

Manalapan began the year with ambitious plans to expand its Police Department by 50 percent. Those plans have stalled lately over problems recruiting and keeping qualified officers, despite a hefty across-the-board increase in pay.
Police Chief Carmen Mattox says he has eight full-time uniformed officers now and has made no progress expanding the department to 12 as the Town Commission unanimously approved earlier this year.
“We’re just really having a tough time with hiring and keeping,” said Town Manager Linda Stumpf. “Right now we’re struggling against the Sheriff’s Office and the School Board. They’re both hiring like crazy.”
Stumpf said that two officers who left Manalapan recently to work elsewhere in the county said during exit interviews that the town’s salary increase was important to them, but their main reason for leaving was pension benefits. Manalapan offers a 401(k) plan but does not offer defined benefits compensation, such as that of the Florida Retirement System, that other agencies provide.
“We can’t compete in today’s marketplace,” Stumpf said.
Mayor Keith Waters asked Stumpf and Mattox during a budget workshop on June 25 to find out how much it would cost the town to offer a defined benefits plan. Waters said it makes no sense to go ahead with plans to improve the town’s network of security cameras and overhaul the police dispatch center without first hiring qualified officers.
“If we invest in all this technology and we don’t have the people, we have nothing,” Waters said. “We have to invest in people first.”
After a string of car thefts late last year, commissioners approve in January a plan to spend $417,000 from reserve funds to expand the department. The plan called for raising police starting salaries from $46,700 to $51,200 and giving each officer currently in the department a $4,500 raise.
Mattox said he needs more officers to satisfy the commission’s goal of having three patrol cars on duty around the clock. Stumpf said that improving police pensions likely will force the town to increase its millage rate.
Manalapan is well-positioned, however, for a modest tax hike. The town has one of the lowest tax rates ($2.795 per $1,000 of taxable property value) and highest per capita tax bases in the county — and property values have risen roughly 10 percent in the past year, Stumpf said.
Besides the police expansion, another significant expenditure in the 2018-19 budget is a renovation of the Town Hall chambers. Commissioners are waiting for cost estimates on that project.

By Dan Moffett

Ocean Ridge officials are quickly learning that it’s much easier to put on a construction moratorium than to take it off.
The Town Commission took the unprecedented step of halting new projects in May after concerns arose over loopholes in building rules that could allow the construction of oversized houses or, worse, sober homes. Mayor James Bonfiglio said the town needed time to work on code and zoning revisions that had needed attention for years.
Builders, contractors and property owners with plans in hand have reacted with angst and anger at the prospect of being sidelined for an indefinite time — perhaps as long as six months.
Commissioner Steve Coz says his phone has been ringing with calls from unhappy people.
“There are a lot of very angry residents who are terrified,” Coz said during a meeting with the town’s Planning and Zoning board members on June 18. “Sales of properties are stopping. Sales of open land are stopping. So it’s having an impact on the town.”
Complicating officials’ predicament are the ongoing efforts to update the town’s comprehensive plan, the long-range guide for shaping growth and development in Ocean Ridge. Commissioners and planning officials find themselves under pressure to move quickly with decisions that could affect the town for decades to come. Bonfiglio told officials they should keep working on a dual track and deal with updating the comp plan while also “easing the fears of people who are concerned about the moratorium” by getting the building rule revis-ions done “as quickly as we can.”
The commission approved hiring Marty Minor, an urban planner with Urban Design Kilday Studios consultants of West Palm Beach, to help the town make changes that are often highly technical and tangled with unintended consequences.
The mayor has insisted that no single construction project moved the town to implement the moratorium and rewrite its rules. However, part-time resident John Lauring, a Massachusetts businessman, touched off debate about oversized homes in May when he showed the town his plans to build a nine-bedroom, 11½-bath home on property he owns at 92-94 Island Drive S.
Bonfiglio has directed P&Z members to consider four issues related to large home construction: parking requirements, septic tank limits, drainage and accessible exits and entrances.
“Drainage is a big issue,” Minor said. “It’s always going to be a big issue from now on.”
Minor, who has been working with the town for weeks to revise the comprehensive plan, said officials have to consider all available options to tighten building rules and prevent having homes that are too big for their surroundings.
“There are only so many tools in the toolbox,” he said, “and we have to use them all.”

By Jane Smith

The Delray Beach City Commission likely will vote to phase in a ban on plastic straws at its July 10 meeting, when it considers an ordinance requiring restaurants, bars and other beverage purveyors to supply plastic straws only upon customer request.
In May, the city’s Green Implementation Advisory Board passed a resolution asking for the ban, said Ana Puszkin-Chevlin, sustainability officer and liaison with the board.
“It came from the recent Earth Day that had an international theme of plastics in the ocean,” she said.
In April, Delray Beach screened the film A Plastic Ocean in the Crest Theatre. The documentary showed marine animals and water birds affected by the plastics they had eaten.
Delray Beach joins a few cities nationally that are moving to ban plastic straws, including Fort Myers, Miami Beach and Seattle. All are coastal cities that want to prevent plastics from getting into the ocean.
The effort was helped in 2015 by a video showing researchers removing a plastic straw stuck in a sea turtle’s nostril.
Delray Beach also recently moved its sustainability officer to report directly to the city manager. That elevation, recommended by the city’s Rising Waters Task Force, should help the city receive grant money for its environmental projects, said Mayor Shelly Petrolia.
Puszkin-Chevlin hopes in 18 months that consumers will get used to drinking cold beverages without plastic straws and no longer ask for them. Then, the city can move to ban plastic straws from being served in restaurants and bars.
“We’ll start with a public awareness campaign to get information to consumers,” said Hal Stern, new chairman of the green board. “We need to get the hospitality industry behind us.”
If the commission passes the first phase of a ban, an education event called Skip the Straw will be held at The OG, a relatively new bar in Delray Beach, from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 6.
About 130 bars and restaurants will receive four tickets each, said Brian Rosen, OG partner.
One tip that will be offered is to move the straws to a different area so that the server doesn’t automatically put a plastic straw in a drink, said Melissa Wilkinson, a college intern who is working with Puszkin-Chevlin on the project.
For the past six months, wording on the menu at Caffe Luna Rosa has said plastic straws are given only by request, said founder Fran Marincola.
On July 1, the beachside restaurant began offering recyclable straws to customers who request straws, Marincola said. The restaurant purchased “corn-plastic” straws that are compostable and made by Eco-Products of Boulder, Colo.
Regular plastic straws are made from petroleum and don’t break down, he said.
“The movement is not all about straws, but it starts with straws,” said Evan Orellana, education and animal care director at the Sandoway Discovery Center in Delray Beach.
“We’ve made plastic straws on the forefront of reducing single-use plastics in our lives. Instead of using a K-cup to brew coffee, maybe you’ll consider making coffee with a filter.”

Betty Bingham, a former Ocean Ridge town commissioner, has been active in many community initiatives, from protecting sea turtles to saving sand dunes. She enjoys time with her fox terrier, Mindy. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Brian Biggane

Whether you think of it as getting involved or, as she puts it, “sticking your nose in there,” Betty Bingham has always been a doer.
After finishing college and before embarking on her career, Bingham noticed a nearby hospital for crippled children and noticed that the youngest kids had no activities until they were ready to start kindergarten at age 5. Her response? She took the initiative to start a nursery school for kids aged 1-4.
At least a part-time resident of Ocean Ridge since her father bought property back in the 1950s, Bingham has been an active participant in every facet of the beach community’s life, serving as a commissioner of Ocean Ridge for 12 years, spending another five on the Planning and Zoning Board, and even today, at 89, serving on the Board of Adjustments.
She’s also been active in community initiatives, from protecting turtle nests to saving the sand dunes to improving the prospects of inland waterways for the cultivation of shrimp and oyster beds.
One of her favorite causes has been working to defeat polio.
Global data show very few new confirmed cases of polio this year. “Along with that I’m very sensitive to the need in many foreign countries for wheelchairs. Travel to India or Africa and you see people dragging themselves around on their knees. Giving them a wheelchair and seeing the smiles on their faces was worth everything you worked for. We worked hard to give out a lot of wheelchairs.”
Her charitable work goes on and on.
“I was working for every cause there was for a while,” said Bingham, who is divorced. “After a while, I’d come to my neighbor’s door and he’d say, ‘Which charity are you collecting for now?’ People need to keep giving.”
Most of her recent charitable work has been for the garden club and the Rotary Club.
The next cause she sees herself working on in the Rotary Club is trafficking, both human and sexual. “People don’t realize how bad it is,” she said.
She owns 200 acres along the North Toe River in North Carolina and is developing ecotourism on it.
“We have lots of turkeys and deer and coyotes, and we are re-establishing a goat that had been the original goat of North America and had become extinct in this part of the world. The goats were found on an island off the coast of Australia. It’s speculated that Captain Cook, when sailing in the South Pacific, would pick up and drop off livestock as he went around the world. He probably dropped the goats off there. A lady from Massachusetts found them 20 years ago and started breeding them. We have 18 and I believe there are about 70 in the U.S.”

Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A. I was born in Baltimore in 1929, so it could be said it was my arrival that brought on the Great Depression. When I was young our summers were spent at Gibson Island, where I learned how to swim, sail and catch Maryland blue crabs.
My family moved to Charleston, W.Va., in the 1930s, and I did a lot of my growing up there. One of the major events each year was seeing the Ringling Brothers Circus come to town, when we would watch the elephants working to set up the tents, as well as the paddlewheel steamboat coming down the Kanawha River with its minstrel shows.
I started school in a one-room schoolhouse for grades one through six, which was closed shortly after I enrolled. After my public school education took me through grade 10, I spent my last two years boarding a train to Massachusetts to attend Walnut Hill boarding school.
After my two years at Walnut Hill I moved on to Sweet Briar College outside Lynchburg, Va. I was awarded a bachelor of arts in math and science, though my father said it should have been for bridge and riding.

Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A. My first position was in banking; I was trained by the Shawmut Bank. I spent a few years there working my way up to a bank officer. I quit when I got married, but no matter where we were after that I could always get a job in banking. I worked at three different banks.
Much of what I’ve accomplished has involved my family. I married Bill Bingham in 1957 and we had three boys, so I was kept very busy as a den mother for Boy Scouts, running horse shows for the 4-H Club, setting up a baseball league and for four summers serving as a counselor at a day camp. All my children went to the camp where I was kept busy teaching swimming, riding and sailing.
When I moved to Florida I thought about being a banker but decided to become a travel agent instead. That’s when Lantana Travel came into my life. My father opened two banks and three travel agencies after he retired, so when I came down I took over Lantana Travel, where I worked about 14 years until my older son came down with ALS.

Q. What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A. Do what you really like and believe in. Work hard and listen. But then move on if you don’t like the way the operation is being run. Being a team player will get you a good recommendation for your future endeavors.

Q. How did you choose to make your home in Ocean Ridge?
A. I like small towns where everybody knows everyone and is working together. In the late ’50s my father bought a house at 1 E. Ocean Ave. Because my children had problems with tonsillitis, we started visiting in the month of February, when they could attend Gulf Stream School. They became very involved with the turtles, saving the sand dunes, dealing with the different animals and so on. I was attracted to Ocean Ridge because it was a small town where people spent a lot of time outside. I always liked to be outside and active.
I moved to Florida in 1971, and, due in large part to my love of the ocean and snorkeling, settled in Ocean Ridge with a strong desire to keep it a small, friendly town.

Q. What is your favorite part about living in Ocean Ridge?
A. Working to address the challenge of preserving the small, quiet nature of the town. We’ve had to ward off people who wanted to make one of the last natural wood hammocks in South Florida into a parking lot, or developers who would fill in the mangroves on Corrine Street for another high-rise.
What a quiet retreat this has been: manatees, owls, raccoons and all the rest. The dunes are both our pearls and our protection. Then you have the Briny Breezes project that was proposed, and the reef ball project, and transplanting oyster beds. So much goes into keeping nature working as it should.

Q. What book are you reading now?
A. I have dyslexia, which makes me a slow reader, so I read for information and not for enjoyment. I like historical novels and autobiographies. I picked up a biography of the Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin the other day.

Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
A. I like a wide variety of music, from big bands to bagpipes to light opera to Tchaikovsky. I like to listen to marches when I want to feel energetic.

Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
A. “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.” — Edmund Burke. That’s true of any country.

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. My grandparents and my parents were great mentors. We used to have very animated conversations. I came from a family of debaters and I did debate at one time. I can defend my statements as a result of that, even if I know I’m wrong.

Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would play you?
A. Shirley Temple. She was a good person, had very high principles, was hardworking and carried through on what she believed was right and wrong.

Debris removal was a huge headache along the coast. 2017 Coastal Star file photo

By Jane Smith

Nearly a year after Hurricane Irma, South County coastal cities are honing lessons into actions to prepare their residents, businesses and workers for the next big storm.
Each of the 10 coastal cities and towns received the same list of questions from The Coastal Star, divided into five main categories: communications, curfews, power, shelters and debris removal.
Here are the highlights of their responses:
For communications, how did your city/town inform residents of the approaching storm and areas to be evacuated? The three big cities used their websites and social media to alert residents. Boca Raton, Boynton Beach and Delray Beach also have AM radio stations to use.
Smaller locales don’t use social media. In Gulf Stream, its officers alerted residents by going door-to-door, said Town Manager Greg Dunham. Manalapan sent emails about the approaching storm to its residents, said Linda Stumpf, town manager.
Lantana also used a PA system and personal contacts to alert its barrier island residents about evacuating, said Robert Hagerty, Lantana police commander.
Highland Beach found its CodeRED emergency platform most effective in alerting residents about Irma, said Police Chief Craig Hartmann. “For this hurricane season, we will be activating CodeRED notifications sooner and more frequently,” he said.
South Palm Beach, which is primarily condo buildings, sent faxes and emails to condo managers about the mandatory evacuation, said Mo Thornton, town manager. “Patrol officers drove throughout town with lights activated, encouraging residents to evacuate,” she said.
Ocean Ridge used its Twitter and NextDoor accounts, among other methods, to alert residents about the mandatory evacuation, Town Manager Jamie Titcomb said.
Briny Breezes Council President Sue Thaler said the town’s main goal after Irma wasn’t changing procedures but trying to improve communication with the corporation. The idea is to precisely define the roles of the government and corporation in dealing with storms.
How were post-storm communications handled? Most municipal representatives said this issue needs work.
Along with Highland Beach, Delray Beach is pushing residents to sign up for CodeRED now so the city has a way to communicate with its residents post-storm.
South Palm Beach will use Blackboard Connection, similar to CodeRED, to communicate with residents this year, Thornton said.
Out-of-state residents will be issued ID cards that can be used to enter the town at the checkpoints post-storm, Thornton said. As part-time residents, their government-issued IDs don’t have South Palm Beach addresses.
Most municipalities followed the countywide curfew that went into effect at 3 p.m. Sept. 9. Based on advice from its Police Department, Delray Beach asked residents to clear the streets even earlier that day — by 2 a.m. Boca Raton delayed its curfew by one day.
In Boca Raton, “curfews are a challenge to coordinate for us because we’re on the border of Broward County and have many residents that live in one county and work in another or vice versa,” Gibson said. “There needs to be better coordination on curfews.”
Florida Power & Light, the main electricity provider, said 95 percent of its customers had power restored within seven days following Irma, compared with 15 days after Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Boynton Beach were able to open their libraries just after the storm to give their powerless residents a place to charge their electronics.
Shelters in the public schools were adequate; residents have to bring their own food and bedding. New for 2018, the county will hire two mental health counselors per shelter to help with anxiety issues.
The county has a special needs and pet shelters, which require advance registration.
Debris removal proved to be the bane for most municipalities.
Even though the cities and towns had contracts with debris haulers, it became a free-for-all with most of Florida’s 67 counties impacted by Irma.
Gov. Rick Scott allowed the Florida Department of Transportation to hire haulers without going through a bidding process, Neal de Jesus, interim city manager during Irma, told Delray Beach city commissioners in September. Scott wanted to quicken the pace of cleanup in the Keys and Miami-Dade County, which were hardest hit.
As a result, contractors left Palm Beach County cities where they were making $7 per cubic yard to earn as much as $18 per cubic yard hauling debris farther south.
Delray Beach commissioners and Boca Raton council members agreed to pay AshBritt haulers more per cubic yard, until Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi started to investigate AshBritt and other haulers for price gouging. AshBritt no longer sought the price increases.
Then, the problem became not enough truck drivers.
Boca Raton purchased a few more trucks this year to help with post-storm cleanup, Gibson said.
Many municipal representatives think the governor needs to set a pre-storm, standard rate for debris removal.

Related story: Irma: What we learned

By Jane Smith

When Hurricane Irma swept through southern Palm Beach County last September, power poles snapped like twigs, wind-driven debris blocked streets and residents sat powerless for days amid temperatures in the 90s.
Irma’s damage cost area municipalities more than $26 million for unplanned overtime and for debris removal. Yet South County coastal residents felt relieved that the area avoided catastrophic hurricane winds.
In Florida, only an area of 15 miles surrounding Cudjoe Key felt catastrophic winds on Sept. 10, according to the National Hurricane Center’s May report on Irma.
Other areas in the Keys, such as Key West and Key Largo, felt Category 1 sustained winds between 74 and 95 mph.
“It’s a common misconception,” said John Cangialosi, lead author of the report. “Many residents hear Category 3 or 4 peak winds hit South Florida, but it was only within the core where the strongest winds were felt.”
During Irma, sustained winds along the Palm Beach County coastline were 2 or 3 mph below Category 1 strength, Cangialosi said. “But some 100- mph gusts were recorded along the coastline,” he said.
Coastal residents likely were anxious from watching Irma as it traveled west through the Atlantic Ocean for 13 days, hurricane researchers said. The storm held onto its Category 5 strength for 60 hours. Irma had seven landfalls, four at Category 5.
For this year’s hurricane season, with an expected peak between late August and mid-October, coastal municipalities are appealing to residents early to be prepared and to know their evacuation and flood zones.
Boca Raton gave its residents two more bulk and vegetation pickups as part of its Clean & Cut program in May, said Chrissy Gibson, city spokeswoman. The program was designed to help residents clean out garages and cut overgrown vegetation earlier, instead of waiting until a hurricane approaches.
“One of our biggest challenges last year was that once Irma was headed our way, people began cleaning out their garages, throwing out pool toys, breaking down swing sets and old fencing, and placing it all at the curb as the storm approached,” Gibson said. 
Residents became angry when city haulers could not finish all of the pickups before the storm.
Delray Beach utilities workers struggled to move 30 portable generators among its 129 lift stations when 70 percent of the city lost power from Hurricane Irma. Fire Chief Neal de Jesus, interim city manager at the time, called the lift station problem the “Achilles’ heel of the storm.”
Delray Beach has since purchased 20 extra portable generators and the parts needed to make them function, de Jesus said. Commissioners approved the $20 million-plus purchase earlier this year.
In addition, the city now will deploy its emergency management center in the conference room of the Fairfield Inn. The building carries a Category 5 wind rating, de Jesus said. The hotel is allowing the city free use of its conference room and offering city staff rooms at the government rate.
Boynton Beach is increasing its hurricane public communications and marketing efforts, said Eleanor Krusell, city spokeswoman.
“We secured the website domain name of PrepareBoyntonBeach.com to simplify messaging,” she said. In addition, the city relies on hurricane expos, utility inserts and Facebook Live videos on hurricane preparedness and tree trimming with a sign-language interpreter, Krusell said.
Smaller communities alert residents by sending police door-to-door and via the town website, said Greg Dunham, Gulf Stream town manager.
Barrier island residents were supposed to evacuate before Irma approached, but some residents apparently stayed because they did not want to leave their pets.
When Lee County was under a mandatory evacuation order for Irma, the county allowed residents to bring pets into its shelters, county Emergency Manager Lee Mayfield said at the Governor’s Hurricane Conference in May.
Mayfield said the county’s 14 shelters, which were in schools, accepted pets. The shelters housed 35,000 people and 3,000 pets, which included dogs, cats and a goat.
Palm Beach County’s only pet-friendly shelter is in suburban Boynton Beach. The other shelters are in public schools, run by a combination of school and county employees. The schools allow only service animals.
“No one was turned away from the pet-friendly shelter,” said Mary Blakeney, senior program manager in the county’s emergency management division. “We are looking for additional pet-friendly shelters in county facilities, but none will be ready for the 2018 season.”

By Jane Smith

Billy Himmelrich and his business partner are suing Delray Beach for $6.9 million over a 2015 decision that limited the height they can build on properties they own on Atlantic Avenue.
In February 2015, the City Commission placed a three-story height limit downtown after 18 months of meetings. Residents wanted to preserve the small-town look of East Atlantic Avenue between Swinton Avenue and the Intracoastal Waterway.
“This is a taking under the Bert Harris Act,” said Himmelrich, who owns the Old School Bakery, west of the interstate on Congress Avenue. “They can take it, but we want to be compensated for it.”
The state law protects individual property rights. It allows governments to change their land development rules and requires written notice of the change be mailed to the affected property owners. Himmelrich said he didn’t receive written notice. He and his attorney spoke against the height limit reduction at the Feb. 24, 2015, commission meeting.
The previous height limit was 48 feet, but the number of stories was not defined. The new height limit allows for three stories or 38 feet.
On June 29, Delray Beach filed its motion to dismiss. The Bert Harris Act has not been applied to the properties, the motion states. Himmelrich and his partner never submitted a development plan to the city, according to the motion.
Himmelrich said he spent two years meeting with the former mayor about what he and his business partner, part-time resident David Hosokawa, could do with their four parcels, which total .65 of an acre.
Former Mayor Cary Glickstein confirms he met with Himmelrich and his architect a few times after the February 2015 vote.
“Discussions regarding his property were conceptual because redevelopment was several years away due to tenant leases,” Glickstein said via email. “He had no definitive development plan and there was no legal action to discuss or settle.”
The partners’ land sits mostly on Northeast First Avenue, adjacent to the Old School Square complex. Two parcels have buildings with restaurants on the ground floor — Tramonti and Cabana El Rey. Since the tenants have long-term leases that expire in 2024 and the city recognizes development plans for only two years, Himmelrich said he felt compelled by the city to come up with development concepts for the parcels.
In doing so, he had appraisals done at the 48-foot height limit that show a hotel with 75 rooms and then one at the three-story limit that could hold only 50 rooms. Himmelrich said he created the hotel concept to show just how much money he would lose under the new height limit.
Himmelrich asked to meet with the current mayor, Shelly Petrolia, without the city attorney present before he filed the lawsuit.
She confirms the request and says she asked City Attorney Max Lohman whether it was a good idea. By the time he replied that it wasn’t a good idea, Himmelrich and his partner had filed their lawsuit.
“With long-standing businesses in the city,” Petrolia said, “there should be a way to reach a compromise.”

By Jane Smith

Free parking in downtown Delray Beach ended in late June.
The city has installed 32 smart parking kiosks on Atlantic Avenue between Swinton Avenue and the Intracoastal Waterway and one block north and south of Atlantic.
Meters are enforced from noon to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and noon to 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Drivers will each need to note their license plate number and go to the nearest kiosk to pay by credit card, cash or smartphone app. Change is not given.
The city also switched to just one zone downtown for parking time limits before enforcement started. The cost is $2 per hour with a three-hour time limit.
“With the time and zone changes, we needed extra time to program the meters and redo the signs,” said Susan Goebel-Canning, public works director.
For the first 30 days, until late July, downtown patrons will have a grace period and will not have to pay the tickets, which cost at least $35 per violation. The first 20 minutes are free for those who want to get takeout food or do short errands.
When city staff presented the parking information in early June, they pointed out the revenue the meters would bring to the city — nearly $1 million, after expenses.
Mayor Shelly Petrolia was the lone vote against installing the kiosks. She wanted to see a permit program for city residents to offset the costs to taxpayers paying for the meters and then to park.
The City Commission gave staff 90 days to develop a residents’ parking program, similar to the beach parking permit.
“City staff talked about the revenue, but the parking management program was supposed to increase turnover on Atlantic while stopping employees and others from parking in the spaces all day,” Petrolia said after the early June commission meeting.
Residents and visitors still can find free parking in the six public parking lots with time limits between two and nine hours.
Free parking until 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays also is available in the city’s two garages: Old School Square and Robert Federspiel. After 4 p.m. until midnight, drivers will pay a flat $5 fee. Sunday parking is free at both garages.
The city’s Downtown Development Authority will help educate the public about where to park. Its downtown safety ambassadors, on foot and bikes, also will have information about parking in the downtown.
East of the Intracoastal Waterway, the parking rate remains $1.50 per hour for up to four hours, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. every day. East Atlantic Avenue to A1A is metered, as is A1A between Casuarina Road and Beach Drive.
In addition, the city has seven beachside parking lots that are metered and enforced between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. every day at the $1.50 hourly rate.
Drivers with disabled placards or license plates can park for free for three hours west of the Intracoastal or four hours on the beachside.

By Steve Plunkett

Plumbers, carpenters and other construction crews may no longer show up early or stay late. Town commissioners in June tightened long-standing rules that limit work to between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays.
“Construction activity and work in the town shall not be permitted until after 8 o’clock, because the arrival of contractors and subcontractors is not permitted until 8 o’clock. So that’s the distinction. It’s not just work beginning at 8 o’clock, there can be no arrival of workmen before 8 o’clock, and they must all depart by 5 o’clock,” Mayor Scott Morgan said.
The mayor, Town Manager Greg Dunham, Police Chief Edward Allen and staff attorney Trey Nazzaro met in April to brainstorm solutions to recurring problems at work sites. The group looked at expanding the construction site management handbook’s rules to every project that gets a permit, not just new construction; issuing citations to the general contractor instead of offending subcontractors and stopping work when two citations are received; requiring a police escort for any vehicle over 9 tons; and levying an impact fee.
Commissioner Paul Lyons backed creating an impact fee to offset other costs to Gulf Stream.
“We have a lot of heavy equipment coming in here, and I just think we should maybe consider — and I don’t know what other towns do — an impact fee … because it’s an incremental damage to the roads over time,” Lyons said.
Morgan said the most visible and upsetting concern was early arrival of workers.
“Subs come at 7, 6:30 and they don’t start till 8 but they’re there, and it … just rocks the basic enjoyment of living in a neighborhood to have that construction appearance even if they’re not actually working right outside your driveway,” Morgan said.
Town commissioners passed an ordinance June 8 specifying 8 to 5 as the hours of arrival and departure for work crews. They also adopted a resolution making the general contractor responsible for its subcontractors’ obeying those times and requiring a police escort for large trucks.
Nazzaro and Town Attorney John “Skip” Randolph are still investigating creating an impact fee.

By Dan Moffett

South Palm Beach council members are going to take a second look at plans to renovate their aging Town Hall.
They unanimously agreed June 12 to hire North Palm Beach architect John Bellamy to review the structure and the renovation proposals the town received from another architect last year. The review will cost the town $5,000. Town Manager Mo Thornton recommended Bellamy to the council. He worked with Thornton to renovate the Atlantis Town Hall years ago when she served as town manager there.
“He will be able to tell if this is renovate-able and what it will take to do it,” Thornton said.
Bellamy, of Island Designs Inc., told the town he will review the work of Alexis Knight Architects of West Palm Beach from March 2017. The firm gave the town a $6 million plan to replace the Town Hall with a five-story structure, but council members quickly rejected it as too extravagant and too costly. Knight’s report and proposal cost the town about $49,000.
The existing Town Hall was constructed in 1976 as a public safety building and has evolved as a hodgepodge of additions, renovations and repairs that no longer satisfies the town’s needs, officials say.
Thornton said she expects Bellamy to have a report ready for the council’s meeting on July 24, a date that was rescheduled to accommodate officials’ summer vacations and absences.
The overriding decision waiting for the council is whether to try to improve the existing building or whether to tear it down and build a structure from the ground up.
“I don’t know which way we’re going to go,” said Vice Mayor Robert Gottlieb. “We’re going to have to decide.”
In other business:
• Council members are divided over how much to fine dog owners who violate the town’s new ordinance and take their pets onto the public beach.
Gottlieb and Councilman Bill LeRoy support $250 fines for violators with repeat offenses. Mayor Bonnie Fischer and Councilwoman Elvadianne Culbertson have balked at setting the fines that high. Councilwoman Stella Jordan was absent during the council’s June meeting, so a resolution to implement the $250 fines deadlocked 2-2.
In April the council passed an ordinance that allows police to cite and fine dog owners who bring their pets onto the beach. But without resolution of the fine debate, the ordinance has little impact. The council will take up the issue again July 24.
• Thornton says the town has received 21 responses to ads for the police chief position, vacated when Carl Webb retired in May. Council members have said they’re hopeful the new chief can be hired and on the job by the end of the summer.