Daniel Iscoe of Ocean Ridge was one of five local students honored with a Congressional Award

for their exceptional community service. ‘The Congressional Award is designed to recognize students

who have demonstrated outstanding character development and commitment to community service,’

U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel said in presenting the award to Iscoe, a student at Cardinal Newman High School

in West Palm Beach. To receive the honor, Iscoe completed projects in four areas: public service,

personal development, physical fitness and expedition/exploration. The other students honored

were Jacob Givoni, Boca Raton; Patrick Hopkins, West Palm Beach;

Srijith Nair, Boynton Beach; and Joshua Puchferran, Boca Raton.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Sallie James

    Malka Cabral begged Boca Raton’s Planning and Zoning Board to reject plans to construct a 50-foot-high parking garage at Boca Raton Regional Hospital.
    The proposed garage would overlook her home 100 feet from her property line. Lights and noise from the towering structure would keep her young son up at night and ruin area property values, she said.
    “There are other options to … grow this hospital that don’t have to impact our neighborhoods,” said Cabral, who lives in the 700 block of Northwest Seventh Drive just south of the hospital.
    But despite concerns from about a dozen residents, Planning and Zoning Board members voted 3-2 at their April 20 meeting to move the project forward. The hospital is at 800 Meadows Road, across from the Tunison Palms neighborhood.
    The board specifically voted to recommend the hospital be allowed to build the structure closer to the nearby single-family homes than code allowed, reducing the required setback to the Tunison Palms neighborhood from 250 to 100 feet. The City Council must still review the matter.
    Homeowner Andrew McLaughlin said the parking garage would be a huge eyesore and said it would destroy property values.
    “We have a great neighborhood,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve got to look at alternatives, keep the dialogue open and see what we can come up with.”
    McLaughlin, who lives on the same block as Cabral, said the parking garage would produce screeching tires and noise all night long.
    Homeowner Christel Callahan worried about the pollution in addition to the sound, light, safety and security issues involved.
    “We can make it greener, but those fumes from the parking garage will come down on us,” Callahan said. “Pollution is a real problem. What about us?”
    Residents from the Spanish Oaks Condominium Association presented a petition containing 150 signatures.
    Bonnie Miskel, an attorney for the hospital, said city code allows the hospital to build a 150-foot-tall office building or hospital tower in the same place, but the hospital knew the impact would be much worse. It proposed the shorter parking structure instead.
    She said the hospital cannot accommodate parking needs during the season and needs the relief of the new garage.
    “We have a limited footprint to work with and we are doing the best we can to mitigate the impact,” Miskel said. She said the existing 250-foot setback and the reduced 100-foot setback are more generous than any other commercial/residential pairing in the city.
    “The rest of us have to live with 50 [feet],” Miskel said.
    Board member Janice Rustin said she understood residents’ concerns but had to balance the potential harm with the hospital’s needs.
    Board member Kerry Koen said the hospital needed more parking and had no other options.
    “There is only so much land,” Koen said. “They really have tried to buy everything they can over the years. I am going to support it not because I am in love with it, but it’s the only practical answer in context with the fact the hospital stands ready to work with the community as best they can.”

Isis and William O’Brien celebrate the grand opening of the Little Free Library outside their home.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Sallie James

    Alishia Phillips admired the colorful birdhouse-shaped structure with the pretend fishbowl on top and marveled at the ingenuity. The Dr. Seuss-themed cabinet was filled with donated books, and admiring neighbors had begun to gather.
    It was the grand opening of Little Free Library No. 53087, in the 700 block of Southeast 31st Street in Boca Raton at the home of Isis O’Brien, and Phillips was impressed.
    “I didn’t know what to think of it. I thought, ‘What is this Little Free Library?’” Phillips said, holding her 10-month-old daughter, McKenna. “It’s great and it’s right here by the beach. It’s an awesome concept. It’s a great icebreaker.”
    O’Brien, a stay-at-home mother of 20-month-old Claire and 9-month-old Chloe, stumbled upon the concept online and was struck by its simplicity. She loved the idea of book sharing and community-building. It was also a perfect way to share all her children’s books.
    So she designed the library structure and paid a contractor to build it.
    Her tiny free library is part of an international book exchange that has been honored by the Library of Congress, the National Book Foundation and the American Library Association. Reader’s Digest named the idea one of the “50 Surprising Things We Love About America.”
    The small, front-yard book exchanges number more than 53,000 around the world in 70 countries. O’Brien’s cupboard-like library was installed on April 10 and the ribbon cutting was April 14.
    The concept for the book exchange is simple: Take a book, leave a book. Or share the book you took with someone else.
    The mission of the Little Free Library program is three-fold according to its website: building community, sparking creativity and inspiring readers.
    O’Brien’s grand opening just blocks from the beach attracted a small crowd — about 20 of her neighbors flocked to her front yard to admire the new installation and share pizza, cookies and drinks. Most brought books to donate.
    Neighbor Kerry Gleeson, 68, was impressed.
    “I think it’s very cool because it does a number of things. Everybody in the neighborhood comes and talks. Each of us has a book we’ve read and will be sharing, and it’s a great way to get books into people’s hands and get people to read more.”
    Deerfield Beach resident Vicki Stephens, who attended the ribbon cutting, was already a supporter of the Free Little Library concept. Stephens operated one for years out of the laundry room of her condo with much success.
    “I made it out of two crates,” Stephens said.
    O’Brien’s husband, William, enjoyed the sense of community the Little Free Library created.  “I’ve met more people in the week it’s been up than in the three years I’ve been here,” he said.
    “I think I’ll become the curator because I’m the reader,” he joked.
    Mary Lindsey, administrator of the Little Free Library network in Lake Worth, was thrilled to learn of the new addition in Boca Raton. Lindsey oversees 80 Little Free Libraries in Lake Worth, which are operated by a network of volunteers. She’s obtained grant funding and city support for the network, which has helped make books available to many low-income families.
    “These are like the oasis in the book desert. The parents are flocking to them. These are absolutely beloved in the neighborhoods they are located in,” Lindsey said. “We have had unbelievable support from the city of Lake Worth. They have been completely embraced by the entire community to a degree that I didn’t believe possible. These are absolute magic community builders. Everybody is really on board.”
    All the Lake Worth Little Free Libraries have been painted by local artists, with themes ranging from Harry Potter, Pandas at Play and the Splashy Mermaid.
    Isis O’Brien set up an account on a fundraising website with a goal of raising $500 for her project. A single donor in Australia, a former bookstore manager, donated the entire sum.
    O’Brien equipped her Little Free Library with a sensor-activated solar light so anyone who wants to peruse books at night can find something good to read.
    Her library also has a dog tie-up for book lovers who walk their pets. It can accommodate about 60 books.
    “Everybody loves it,” William O’Brien said. “If we get up to 90 books, we are gonna use the Dewey Decimal System.”

    For more information about Little Free Libraries, see www.littlefreelibrary.org.

By Rich Pollack

    Should Highland Beach disband its Code Enforcement Board and use a special magistrate to hear cases?
    Would the town’s Beaches and Shores Committee become a club rather than an official board appointed by the Town Commission?
    Could the Financial Advisory Board benefit from having its objectives better defined?
    These are questions the Highland Beach Town Commission grappled with recently as it set out to determine if the town’s boards are effective and reaching their objectives.
    In the end, commissioners at the May 2 meeting voted to disband the code enforcement board and hire a special magistrate to decide code enforcement cases. At the same time, they agreed to continue working toward better defining the roles of the Beaches and Shores Committee and the Financial Advisory Board.
    “We have wonderful boards and wonderful people on those boards, but they aren’t always doing what we need them to do,” said Commissioner Elyse Riesa.
    Riesa thinks increased communication with board members might be a way to better ensure the boards are fulfilling their missions.
    “We need to talk more,” she said. “We need to all agree on the roles and responsibilities of each board.”
    With that in mind, Riesa agreed to meet with members of the Beaches and Shores Committee, a group she recently chaired, to possibly refine the board’s mission and see if it needs to remain a town-appointed entity as opposed to a beautification club supported by the town.
    Commissioners also continued looking into how it could best harness the expertise of the Financial Advisory Board, made up of residents with strong financial backgrounds.
    In discussing whether to disband its volunteer Code Enforcement Board and replace it with a paid special magistrate, commissioners revisited an issue that stalled in January when previous commissioners deadlocked with a 2-2 vote.
    Since that tie vote, Riesa and George Kelvin joined the commission.
    During discussions of the issue last month, Mayor Carl Feldman and Vice Mayor Bill Weitz reiterated their support for bringing in a special magistrate. Riesa also supported the idea.  
    “I would rather not see a situation where one resident would be pushed up against another,” she said.
    Weitz said he thinks a certified magistrate — who has quasi-judicial powers and would be paid on an hourly basis — would be more likely to have knowledge of local codes and of municipal law than individual residents.
    “Sometimes certain boards require members to have a certain skill level,” he said. “Right now we have eight people doing the job of one, when you only need one.”
    Commissioners, in a 4-1 vote, agreed to move forward with a search for a special magistrate, reviewing the applications of three candidates who submitted resumes earlier this year when the issue was initially discussed.
    Commissioner Rhonda Zelniker cast the dissenting vote.
    While the town is searching for a full-time code enforcement officer, a newly created position, the Police Department is handling some code enforcement duties in coordination with the town’s Building Department.

By Rich Pollack

    Town commissioners are hoping a few qualified residents can help them determine the look and scope of a long-discussed enhancement to Highland Beach’s walking path, which is more than 3 miles long.
    For years, town leaders have talked about enhancing the walking path, which runs along the west side of State Road A1A for the town’s entire length, with a streetscape plan. But no clear idea of what the revisions should look like has ever been determined. Past discussions have ranged from simply resurfacing the path to creating an entire streetscape complete with decorative benches, lamps and welcoming entrances.
    Last month, after receiving an update of a proposed 2009 plan for the walkway from the engineering firm of Mathews Consulting, town leaders decided the best way to move forward is to get input from residents.
    At their May 2 meeting, commissioners agreed to form an ad-hoc Citizens Streetscape Committee and charge it with bringing back recommendations for a conceptual plan and an idea of the scope of work to be done.
    The five-member committee, made up of residents with expertise in the areas of real estate, architecture, construction, finance and law, will also recommend what materials should be used in construction of the path and what landscape features, if any, should be added.
    A resolution creating the committee, approved unanimously, spells out 10 tasks for the committee, including devising a uniform theme for streetscape features and recommendations of exterior enhancements of town-owned buildings facing the path.
    The committee, which will sunset when its report is completed or no later than the end of the year, will make its recommendation to commissioners, who will bring a proposal to voters as early as March.
    Those named to the committee are residents Bruce Giacomo, Michael Kravit, Louis Reidenberg, June Blake and Paul Resnick.
    “We have people with amazing skills and qualifications in this town,” said Vice Mayor Bill Weitz, supported creating the committee.
    Both Weitz and Mayor Carl Feldman, who will lead the committee, agreed with other commissioners who want to make sure residents have an opportunity for input and will be made aware of the final proposal prior to the referendum.
    “The committee will keep the residents and the commission informed,” Feldman said, adding that the committee meetings will be open to the public, with meeting dates and times posted.
    Town Manager Valerie Oakes said once commissioners agree on a walkway plan, the town will hold several presentations and create an information campaign to assure residents have a chance to fully understand the proposal.   
    In their updated report to the commission, engineers from Mathews Consulting provided the town with costs for a variety of options for the walkway project but did not make any specific recommendations.
    “The Mathews study provides insights into costs and various approaches to a streetscape plan,” said Public Works Director Ed Soper.
    The study looked at the cost of using various materials for the replacement of the walking path, from concrete to asphalt to stamped — or patterned — concrete, decorative aggregate and pavers. It also looked at the costs associated with several landscape features.
    Commissioners are hoping the committee can use the study as a guideline as it works toward consensus on how to move forward.
    “Obviously, people have different ideas,” Weitz said.

Boca Raton residents brainstorm and write down ideas for the city’s waterfront properties

that they shared with the rest of the forum.

In the foreground, the hand of resident Sarah Crew pushes down a green dot

to vote on what she found appealing for the future of Boca Raton’s waterfront parks.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

    People with kayaks or paddleboards may be the big winners in Boca Raton’s long-term plans for what to do with the city’s waterfront parks.
    In an inventory of 14 parks that touch water, consulting land planner EDSA Inc. said nine of them could accommodate a launch site for kayakers or paddleboard enthusiasts. The parks range in size from 76.3-acre Spanish River Park to 0.2-acre Carriage Hill Park off Southwest 14th Drive.
    And undeveloped Ocean Strand, which is owned by the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District and was included in the survey at the district’s request, could be the future home of an “eco-style restaurant,” EDSA’s Kona Gray said.
    “You know, if your daughter’s with you and she needs to get something to drink, you’re not going to leave the park and go somewhere else. You’d love to be able to find a nice vendor and get her a hot dog,” said Gray, who led a nearly two-hour session April 3 at the Downtown Library to collect input from city residents for a comprehensive waterfront plan Boca Raton is creating.
    Gray asked the roughly 50 residents who attended to sit in groups of eight or fewer and determine the most important aspects of the waterfront properties, how they would like to interact with the water, what people should feel when they go to the parks and what changes would enhance quality of life. They also stuck green dots on photos they liked of possible park features grouped under six categories: recreation, interaction, events, water activities, relaxation and education.
    Joe Pedalino, who volunteers at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, said he would add a seventh category.
    “After 9/11 one of the things we found at Gumbo Limbo is that people were going … into the boardwalks because they felt peace and serenity. And to me that’s one of the things that our parks and beaches give our visitors and our residents and our friends and neighbors and family,” Pedalino said.
    EDSA also asked residents what the word “community” means to them. Answers ranged from “small-town/village feel, not Fort Lauderdale” to “neighbors looking out for each other” and “living in harmony with the environment.”
    Gray said his firm will go through all the answer sheets the residents filled out and create a “word cloud” to determine what park attributes are most important to Boca Raton. It will also rank the photos that got the most stickers.
    City officials are separately developing plans for Rutherford and Lake Wyman and Hillsboro El Rio parks and the Wildflower parcel, though they told EDSA that they would welcome suggestions.
    Engineering consultant Miller Legg already had come up with three versions of a master plan for Red Reef Park. The Beach & Park District hired Miller Legg in 2014 to evaluate Red Reef, then shelved the proposals last summer before reviewing them after city officials decided they wanted to oversee projects at the park.
    The city owns Red Reef; the district pays for its operations, maintenance and capital projects. The city posted a PowerPoint file and video of the EDSA presentation on its website, www.myboca.us. Click on Government, then Municipal Services, then Coastal Management and Waterfront Master Plan. Residents can also email ideas for the parks via a link on the Master Plan page.
    The meeting was similar to a better-attended “interactive visioning session” in September organized by City Council member Scott Singer and focused primarily on the Wildflower site.
    The roughly 130 residents Singer drew met in the same room as the EDSA session and also split into groups of eight per table. The features those residents wanted most were a wide walkway along the Intracoastal Waterway, a water taxi, and space for paddleboards and kayaks.
    Talk of putting restaurants at Ocean Strand and the Wildflower site led to separate city ordinances banning private uses of public land along the Intracoastal.

By Rich Pollack

    HIGHLAND BEACH — Even after his second tenure as a Highland Beach commissioner came to an end in 2011, John Sorrelli always made it a point to stop by Town Hall as part of his morning routine.
    “It was his ritual,” said Beverly Brown, a former town clerk and town manager who worked closely with Mr. Sorrelli when he served on several boards as well as on the commission. “He would stop in the library, stop in Town Hall and stop in St. Lucy Catholic Church just to say hello and see how he could help.”
    An active and civically engaged resident during much of the nearly 25 years he spent in Highland Beach, Mr. Sorrelli died April 12. He was 91.
    “John was a wonderful person,” Brown said. “He was an honest man who wasn’t looking for any glory. He just donated his time to make sure things were right.”
    In addition to serving twice on the Town Commission — from 1998 to 2004 and from 2008 to 2011 — Mr. Sorrelli served on both the town’s Planning Board and on the Code Enforcement Board. He was one of the early members of the nonprofit Friends of the Highland Beach Library and served on the Library Board.
    “As a commissioner, John always voted for anything that was beneficial to the residents and to the employees,” Brown said.
    Mr. Sorrelli was a former president of the Coronado Condo Association and was active at St. Lucy Catholic Church, where he served on the finance committee, counting committee and as an usher. He was very involved in the church’s Men’s Club and the Sunrise Group and served on the Sunday Continental Breakfast crew.
    Mr. Sorrelli also volunteered regularly with Boca Helping Hands.
    He and his wife, Phyllis, moved to Highland Beach in 1993 after retiring from Brooklyn, N.Y., where he owned the Creative Woodworking Co. He was a veteran, having served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1946, and attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn before starting his business.
    He is survived by his wife; son, John Jr. of Brooklyn; daughter and son-in-law, Phyllis and Raymond Carile, of Katonah N.Y.; and granddaughters, Patricia and Michelle.
    Memorial services were held last month in New York. Contributions in Mr. Sorrelli’s memory may be made to Boca Helping Hands, www.bocahelpinghands.org, or to the Honor Flight Network, www.honorflight.org.

    Too much noise and too many complaints are some of the reasons Boca Raton City Council members last month decided the city’s only 5 a.m. bars would have to close at 2 a.m. like all others.
    Nippers, at 1751 N. Military Trail, and the Blue Martini, at 6000 Glades Road, are in an area annexed in 2003. City officials at the time agreed to grandfather in existing businesses that served alcohol until 5 a.m.
    But residents in the nearby Via Verde neighborhood say music from the Blue Martini keeps them up all night. The nightclub has been cited for noise violations several times.
    A spokesman for Nippers submitted online and paper petitions with more than 1,500 signatures in support of the 35-year-old neighborhood bar.
    Police provided city officials with dozens of pages of code violations, traffic stops, drug arrests, complaints of disturbing the peace and other violations that occurred over the years at the two bars.
    After much discussion, City Council members voted that the hours must be reduced.
    They gave both bars 120 days to comply.
— Sallie James

Boats jam Lake Boca Raton on April 30 during the sixth annual Boca Bash.

Police patrolled access points to limit non-boating traffic.

Among thousands of boaters, authorities reported only two

who were taken to a hospital and a typical number of cuts and bruises.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Sallie James

    Thousands of boaters poured into Lake Boca Raton on April 30 for the annual Boca Bash daylong party on the water, creating a sea of wall-to-wall watercraft.
    But this year it was surrounded by a police perimeter.
    While boaters drank, danced and frolicked in the water, police patrolled and blocked almost every access to the lake where stragglers might have tried to launch a kayak or small boat, or slipped into the water with an inner tube. No walk-ins were allowed at Silver Palm Park either, where the number of officers crowding the boat ramp was greater than the number of boaters trying to launch their watercraft.
    At the start of the day, the department’s bus-like Incident Command Center was stationed there, along with three Boca police boats, one Boca Fire-Rescue boat and a Fire-Rescue rehab truck.
    There were police officers in boats, police officers on boat ramps, a police helicopter in the sky and law enforcement officers parked in marked police vehicles at 50-yard intervals around the lake.
    “You would think ISIS is here,” Boca resident Craig Gordon marveled from the top of the Palmetto Park Road bridge as he eyed the police presence at Silver Palm Park. “[Boca Bash] is like the lowest form of human debauchery on the water. Look at all the resources they waste. Why does the city need to give them a playground for this? This has to cost taxpayers money.”
    The event was originally scheduled for April 23 but was rained out. Boca Bash generally takes place at the end of April and is organized informally through a Boca Bash Facebook page.
    For the most part, the day was peaceful, authorities said. Two unresponsive young women were transported to Boca Raton Regional Medical Center in serious condition, and there were minor injuries from some fights that broke out, said Boca Fire-Rescue spokesman Bob Lemons.
    “We had the typical bumps and bruises and lacerations,” Lemons said.
    Boca Fire-Rescue workers also saved the day when it came to an injured dog.
    A boat propeller struck a Labrador retriever, injuring the pooch’s leg. Boca rescue workers bandaged up the dog, called the owner a cab and sent them to a local animal hospital.
    “It went well. As well as can be expected with the fights and the dog,” Lemons said.
    One officer said police were stationed around the lake perimeter to keep people safe. In previous years, people launched boats, Jet Skis or just swam from various docks to the event.
    “I just kicked about 20 kids out,” the officer said, explaining that the teens had planned to enter the water in the 800 block of Lake Drive, where there’s easy access.
    Resident Terry Figel was surprised by the police presence as he walked his dog in the 100 block of Southeast Spanish Trail.
    “I think they are trying to get rid of [the event] because of the problems with the drinking and all the commotion it causes,” Figel said, adding that he didn’t mind the event as long as everyone stayed safe.
    At the Waterstone Resort and Marina, 999 E. Camino Real, valets were demanding $50 from anyone who wanted to park. Boats that tried docking at the marina were being asked to pay $500, a supervisor said.
    Delray Beach resident Samona Rosenberg waited a good 30 minutes near a private dock at the Boca Raton Resort and Club before she snagged a ride out to the festivities. But she barely made it out.
    When a friend’s boat pulled up, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper blocked her from boarding. He changed his mind when she flashed her Boca Raton Resort and Club membership card. The trooper waved her and a friend on, telling them to “be quick.”
    “I thought it would be easier to get out,” Rosenberg said. “For $20 two years ago, a guy ran me out in a dinghy. One year the captain of our boat had a dinghy and ran people back and forth all day and made some good money.”
    Boston native Dick McCabe, a former boat owner, stood on the East Camino Real drawbridge early in the day and watched the incredible parade of boats, yachts, Jet Skis and kayaks streaming toward Lake Boca, some of them spinning sideways in the rough surf.
    One boat nearly struck the drawbridge because it was too tall to pass underneath and had to wait for the spans to lift for more clearance.
    “I would never go out in the mess,” McCabe said, shaking his head.

Delray brings new license plate

scanners to barrier island

Delray Beach officer Anthony Sala speaks with a driver pulled over when a license plate recognition camera

(shown below) alerted him to an expired tag.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    It started as a routine traffic stop on State Road A1A in Delray Beach, with the driver of the Nissan Altima pulled over for displaying an expired tag.
    Before it ended, the driver, a 24-year-old from Pompano Beach, was arrested on charges of carrying a concealed firearm, loitering and prowling, violating probation and driving without a license. Police also found in his pocket a small tool used for smashing car windows.
    The man might never have been stopped had it not been for the latest technology, permanent license plate recognition scanners, that have been working throughout the barrier island portion of the city since early March.
    While the Police Department is cautious about announcing where cameras are, Police Chief Jeff Goldman acknowledges that they are strategically placed to ensure officers on patrol are notified when suspicious or stolen vehicles as well as those with expired or stolen tags enter the city.
    “There is no way to get off or on the island without passing a camera,” he said.
    For Delray Beach police, the license plate recognition system is helping the department do what it has always done, but more efficiently, Goldman says.
    “It’s like having that many more eyes on the street,” he said.
    The Pompano Beach man’s arrest proves Goldman’s point.
    For months, Delray Beach has seen a rash of burglaries to parked vehicles, both locked and unlocked, and police have been especially vigilant in trying to track down and arrest suspected thieves.
    On the morning of the arrest, a police officer was patrolling State Road A1A when he received a notification on the computer in his patrol car that a vehicle with an expired tag was heading toward him, according to a police report. On his screen was an image of the vehicle as well as a photograph of the tag.
    Through his computer, the officer was able to verify that the tag was expired and then make his traffic stop.
    The new web-based license plate recognition system, which includes local, state and national law enforcement data, can send information simultaneously to computers in patrol cars.
    “This allows us to ‘be everywhere’ and not have to be everywhere,” Goldman said, adding that now an officer can be in the far end of his or her area and still know if vehicles with system-listed tags are coming into the area.
    “This is a great investigative tool,” he said.
    Detective Mike Shiner, who heads the license plate recognition project for the department, said he was able to use the system to dispel a burglary suspect’s claim that he was nowhere near the burglarized home by showing him a photo of his vehicle in the area at about the time police believe the burglary was committed.
    “I could prove he was there,” Shiner said.
    Delray Beach has been using a mobile license plate recognition system for years, but earlier plans to install permanent cameras in Delray Beach and other coastal communities hit a snag when the Florida Department of Transportation prohibited police departments from putting them on state rights of way.
    Newer technology, however, now makes it possible for cameras to be positioned off the roadway and still get clear and reliable pictures of tags at a rapid pace. In Delray Beach, the majority of cameras are on city-owned property.
    Other coastal communities, including Highland Beach and Ocean Ridge, are exploring the installation of license plate recognition systems. Manalapan and Boca Raton already have systems in place. Boynton Beach police use mobile license plate scanners but would not comment on if there are plans to install cameras at fixed locations.
    Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins says he’s been investigating license plate recognition systems for several months and will bring the concept back to the Town Commission later this year as part of budget discussions.
    Like several other coastal communities, Ocean Ridge has been exploring the use of license plate recognition systems for several years, even  before Hutchins’ appointment as chief just more than two years ago.
    “The issue is still under consideration and it will be part of the budget process going forward,” he said.
    In Highland Beach, Police Chief Craig Hartmann said his department could have license plate recognition technology in place within a few months.
    “This is just another way to implement technology to create the safest environment we can for the community,” he said.
In the first four weeks of March alone, more than 400,000 tags had been scanned in Delray Beach.
    The cost of installing the system is about $160,000, with the money coming not from taxpayers, but from the city’s law enforcement trust fund, which is based on revenue from sales of recovered vehicles and other items.
    Goldman said the department plans to expand the use of permanent license plate recognition systems to other parts of the city in the near future.
    “The installation on the barrier island is the first of many,” he said.

    As I sit through city commission meetings, I keep hearing development proposals pitched citing a trend of buildings for millennials that won’t require the usual city-required parking allocations.
    City planners seem to love this concept. The younger generation doesn’t drive, they say. They’ll take Uber, Zipcars, bicycles, mass transit and other alternatives to get around. I hope they do. And I hope they don’t plan on walking.
    It’s not safe.
    Florida leads the nation with seven of the most dangerous metropolitan communities to walk. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area comes in at No. 11 in a report released in January.
    It’s not a surprise. The basic transportation grid in Florida has always been to move cars, not people. It’s only in the past 10 years I’ve heard planners and developers talking about alternative transportation. And, of course, their focus is on the most populated areas of our cities.
    Those of us who live along the coast, however, know that even along the relatively uncrowded barrier island, it can be dangerous to walk or bike. I live in Ocean Ridge near A1A and hear emergency sirens heading to crashes on many weekend days — most often car vs. bicycle.
    This past month there was a posting on our website asking, “Why the rush?” from a Highland Beach resident. I am sympathetic. I find myself staring down distracted drivers almost every time I try to cross the road inside the designated pedestrian crossings.
    On one memorable evening this past month, I was returning from the beach with my husband and nephew when we all gauged the distance of an approaching car and figured it would slow as it saw us in the crosswalk — marked as it is with reflective signs saying it is a state law to stop for pedestrians.
    Granted, it was getting dark, but we were wearing bright-colored clothing and there were three of us.
    The approaching car not only didn’t slow, it came very near to hitting us.
    We leapt out of the way, only to have the passenger open the car door as the car finally slowed and shout at us to be careful because “we didn’t see you.” I believe the driver truly didn’t see us and even he was a little shook up. I also believe the driver was either driving too fast or not paying attention. No surprise, Florida is No. 2 in the country for distracted driving, according to a recent national survey.
    It’s not going to get better anytime soon.
    Not only is Florida’s population growing, but Palm Beach County’s tourism numbers are booming. I witness sunburned tourists riding rental bikes along A1A all the time. And in the coastal areas without sidewalks, I see families pushing baby carriages along the road’s edge. Both seem like logical, even lovely things to do, but I wonder if they are aware of the dangers.

    Each year, the city of Delray Beach recognizes a Ride of Silence to honor those injured or killed in automobile-bicycle collisions. This year, that event will be May 17, with the ride beginning at Old School Square. I hope in the future, there is not also a need for a Walk of Silence.
    Until city leaders and transportation planners can work out ways to change how we commute and recreate, the onus for pedestrian and bicycle safety is on all of us.
    Be careful out there.

—  Mary Kate  Leming,
Editor

Ben and Mayra Stern of Highland Beach have fostered more than two dozen dogs of a variety of breeds

and sizes until the dogs are ready for their forever homes. The Sterns kept Cubby, whom they call their ‘ambassadog.’

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    Ben Stern was devastated when Smokey, his beloved pet Pomeranian of 16 years, died in 2013.  
    “He was the first pet I truly got attached to,” Stern said. “When he passed away, it was gut-wrenching. My heart was ripped open more than ever before.”
    Stern was despondent for weeks, unable to focus.
    His wife, Mayra, who had grown up in a family with pets, suggested getting another dog, but her husband wasn’t ready. After six months, however, she was able to persuade him to take a different route. Rather than adopt, the Sterns would agree to foster a dog.
    “Fostering was a perfect option for me, as I was still not ready to adopt another dog but was ready to fill the void,” he said.
    Since that day in early 2014, the Sterns have fostered more than two dozen dogs of all breeds and sizes, bringing them into their Highland Beach home and caring for them until the animals are ready to be adopted.
    “I have pictures with all of them,” said Ben Stern, 54.
    Fostering a pet, as you might imagine, isn’t easy. Many come with issues, physical or emotional; and then there comes the time when the foster dog is handed over to a new family he or she will live with permanently.
    “I cry with each dog,” Ben Stern said. “I’m sad for a week,  but knowing that they’ve found a loving home, that’s the goal.”
    For the Sterns, who work closely with All for One Pet Rescue based in Royal Palm Beach, the rewards of fostering dogs far outweigh the downside.
    “They come to us with broken spirits and then, with love and patience, we help make them better,” Mayra Stern said. “We give these dogs a second chance and their new families an amazing dog that will bring joy to their lives, too.”
    Because they have the flexibility to work from home in their real estate business, the Sterns can spend time with dogs they foster. They get help from their son, Alex, 13, and from their secret foster-care weapon, Cubby, a 3-year-old mixed breed who is part border collie, part spaniel and part black Labrador retriever.
    The one foster dog the Sterns couldn’t quite bring themselves to give up, Cubby is the Sterns’ “ambassadog,” working with each of the new ones and helping all feel welcome.
    “He’s a therapy dog for the other dogs,” said Mayra, 44.
    The Sterns say a few of the other dogs they have fostered stand out in large part because of the issues they’ve brought with them.
    Norman, for example, a blind bichon frisé, was the first dog the Sterns fostered. He was getting ready for eye surgery and needed drops in his eyes every three hours. He stayed with the family for about two months, before and after surgery, and evolved into a different dog.
    “Once he got his sight back, he became Normal Norman,” Mayra Stern said.
    Another dog that had a special place in the Sterns’ hearts was Jasmine, a purebred Pomeranian like Smokey and Duster, Mayra’s dog when she and Ben first met.
    Jasmine had been used for breeding and had never been out of a cage for four years. While she was fine with other dogs, she wasn’t so great with people and needed a lot of socialization.
    While most dogs that come to All for One are either found, taken out of other local shelters or given up by their owners, the organization recently took in a few dogs from South Korea, rescued from a dog meat farm by the Humane Society International.
    One was Princess, who ended up with the Sterns and eventually found a good home.
    Because it is all-volunteer based and not a shelter, All for One depends on people to foster dogs until they can be adopted. The organization covers all costs, including food and medical bills, and through events at local pet supply stores and other venues helps to find permanent homes for the pets.
    Families and individuals are always being sought to foster the dogs, but Ben Stern makes it clear that it’s not for everyone.
    For the Sterns, however, it’s something they plan to do for quite some time.
    “I can see myself doing this for the rest of my life,” Mayra Stern said.

By Jane Smith

    Nearly 10 years after Delray Beach was dubbed “the recovery capital of America” by The New York Times, that branding still irritates some elected officials.
    “This leadership is not sitting idly by. We want to see that reputation diminish very quickly,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said at the April 18 City Commission meeting.
    He was referring to an email blast sent a day earlier by treatment center lawyer Jeffrey Lynne. Trying to create interest in a Recovery Business Council, Lynne wrote: “Making Delray Beach the ‘Recovery’ Capital once again.”
    The interim city manager had asked the commission to take a position on promoting that industry. The mayor said he was not interested and recognized the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce for moving quickly to cancel the kickoff meeting.  
    “We are demonstrating that we are part of the solution by shining a bright light on what is largely a sham industry, in my opinion,” the mayor said.
    The city recorded 65 fatal drug overdoses in 2016, making its per capita overdose death rate more than double that of Palm Beach County and triple the rate of Broward County.
    For the first quarter of this year, fatal overdoses slipped by one from the same period last year, according to Police Department data.
    To combat the opioid epidemic, the city is banking on getting updated and new state legislation and new city ordinances.  
    The state laws, proposed by the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Sober Homes Task Force, would tighten rules on treatment center marketing and patient brokering.  

Delray detective plays lead role
    Delray Beach Detective Nicole Lucas plays a leading role in the law enforcement arm of the task force. Her investigations have resulted in the arrests of more than 12 treatment center and sober home operators.  
    She worked with sober home operators who went undercover and recorded treatment center managers when they talked about paying the sober home operators to bring clients to them. The illegal practice is called patient brokering.  
    In late March, Lucas received a plaque for her efforts from the South County Recovery Residence Association. The group is a grass-roots coalition of sober homes in Delray Beach. It began 15 years ago as way to compile a list of ethical recovery residences, said Jim Tichy, president and co-owner of The Lodge.
    “There was too much crap going on in our industry,” Tichy said. “We work with the Delray police and code departments.”  
    To craft its own rules, Delray Beach is relying on a joint statement procured by U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel. The statement contains language that allows cities to regulate recovery residences so that they don’t overwhelm one neighborhood, creating an institutional-like setting.

    “The city of Delray Beach is NOT at war with recovering addicts or people with disabilities,” Max Lohman, the city attorney, wrote in an email.
    The city is battling unscrupulous operators who use federal housing and disability laws “to perpetuate the slavery of addiction at the expense of those among us who are most in need of our protection,” Lohman wrote. “By protecting recovering addicts from further victimization, we will also protect our community.”
    To study the location of its group homes, the city hired Daniel Lauber, an expert planner who is also a lawyer from the Chicago area. Frankel had recommended Lauber for his knowledge of the Fair Housing Act. The city attorney expects Lauber to deliver his study in early May.  
    Depending on the completeness of the study, Lohman predicted an ordinance would come before the City Commission in late July or early August.  
    Earlier this year, the city began requiring group home operators to register annually for a medical accommodation that allows more than three unrelated people to live together.

Public safety budget affected
    Meanwhile, the city’s public safety departments will ask for money in next year’s budget to battle the plague of overdose calls.  
    “Currently we are working on collecting better data for our upcoming presentation to the commissioners,” said Dani Moschella, Delray Beach police spokeswoman. “That should give them a better understanding of percentage of time that the recovery community demands of our resources.”
    The Police Department will request five additional officers in next year’s budget, Moschella said.  
    “That is not all because of the recovery industry,” she said, “but because the entire service population continues to grow and tax our force.”
    The Fire-Rescue Department will seek $60,000 to handle the overdose calls, up from $30,000 in the current budget, according to Kevin Green, assistant chief of operations.  
    City paramedics administered 1,935 doses of Narcan last year, Green replied via email. Narcan stops a user’s high.  
    “We do have patients who receive multiple doses,” Green wrote. “Now, each dose is 4 mg. Some patients may need 12-20 mg.”
    Meanwhile, Lynne and the mayor are engaged in a war of words. At the April 18 commission meeting, the mayor said Lynne had “co-opted and used without authorization the Chamber’s logos” for the Recovery Business Council.
    As proof that he was working jointly with the chamber, Lynne said it has a page on its website dedicated to the Recovery Business Council.  
    Lynne sent two emails requesting an apology. On April 25, his law partner, Adam Beighley, wrote in support of Lynne to the mayor and city commissioners. Beighley wrote that Lynne wanted a public apology at the next City Commission meeting.
    The mayor did not apologize despite Beighley’s request at the May 2 meeting.

Alternating Chinese and American flags acknowledge Chinese President Xi’s impending visit and help secure

the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa entrance. Workers later put fencing atop the concrete barriers.

Photos by Joe Skipper/The Coastal Star

Supporters of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline say the Chinese Communist government set out

to eradicate it through propaganda, imprisonment and torture.
Elizabeth Poole, of Love, Liz Custom Jewelry, lamented a reduction in business during the visit.

Using Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa as a backdrop, Chinese journalists record a segment on President Xi’s visit.

Barriers with fencing were placed across the east side of the parking lot

of Plaza del Mar to help control potential protesters.

By Ron Hayes

    A day before Chinese President Xi Jinping would arrive at the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa to talk international trade with President Donald Trump, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw held a news conference at the county’s Emergency Operations Center to tell residents what to expect.
    Hundreds of demonstrators, both protesters and greeters, might come to the area, the sheriff said.
    “We are not going to tolerate any civil disobedience, throwing of objects or any other type of disorderly conduct whatsoever,” he promised. “At the first sign of that, it will be dealt with.”
    Bradshaw said he was planning for the summit as if it were an approaching hurricane.

    Deputies would work 12-hour shifts. Vacations would be canceled.
    The National Hurricane Center does not give Atlantic storms names beginning with the letter X, but on Wednesday, April 5, Hurricane Xi’s arrival in Manalapan was only a day away.

Wednesday, April 5, 10:30 a.m.
    Meanwhile, over at Plaza del Mar, the patriotic porta-potties wait, ready to serve.
    Red doors, white roofs, blue sides, they stand behind 3-foot-high concrete barricades across from the hotel.
    The barricades line South Ocean Boulevard from the Lantana beach parking lot south to the plaza’s last driveway and west along East Ocean Avenue to the main entrance.
    Supporters have draped the barricades directly in front of the hotel with American flags, Chinese flags and long yellow banners to WELCOME President Xi, but they won’t stay long.
    While sheriff’s cruisers guard the hotel and parking lot, red, white and blue lights flashing, workmen are topping the barricades with lengths of 8-foot wire fencing. As the fencing goes up, the flags and banners come down.
    Inside the plaza, a few local protesters have already arrived.
    Uncertain just how much chaos Hurricane Xi might bring, the plaza’s management has canceled the regular Friday gathering of the four days-per-week Farmer/Artisan Market, and some of the concessionaires are disgruntled.
    “It’s already ruining our business,” says Elizabeth Poole, of Love, Liz Custom Jewelry. So far today, she’s sold only a mermaid necklace, a sea glass necklace and a starfish necklace, Poole says. “The flow’s not what it normally is. We don’t have the street traffic.”
    Behind her table of fresh vegetables across the way, Deborah Kahn agrees.
    “They probably took $250 or $300 out of my pocket because of this spectacle,” she says. “Have the meeting in Washington. All you’re doing is bringing problems to West Palm Beach.”
     Inside the Ice Cream Club, Joan Knott — a scooper with 17 years’ experience — is waiting for the commemorative green tea ice cream to arrive. From her spot behind the counter, she can look out at the satellite TV trucks and a line of gleaming black SUVs with darkly tinted windows, parked just west of the porta-potties.
    On the patio, a gentleman in a black suit with darkly tinted sunglasses and a lapel mic stands in the shade, licking a cone.

Thursday, April 6, noon
    The president of China and the green tea ice cream arrive in Manalapan on the same day, but not at the same time.
    Shortly before noon, Clay Damon, the Ice Cream Club’s marketing manager, delivers a 3-gallon tub of green tea, specially prepared for the president’s visit.
    “We have 150 flavors,” Damon says proudly. “Our Mexican hot chocolate does extremely well in Miami, so if the Mexican president ever comes to Manalapan, we’ll have that here, too.”
     President Xi’s plane was still out over the Atlantic, flying in from Finland, but those hundreds of protesters and greeters that Sheriff Bradshaw expected have been here since early morning, eyeing each other across East Ocean Avenue.
     The greeters, in bright red T-shirts, occupy the south side of the avenue, in front of the plaza. They hold both Chinese and American flags, large and small, while a man with a bullhorn blasts the Chinese national anthem.
    The protesters, in bright yellow T-shirts, own the north side of the street. They hold signs that say things like, “Forced Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners Is Not Tolerated.”
    Red shirts and yellow shirts, they fill both sides of Ocean Avenue, but the greeters clearly outnumber the protesters. If 500 people are lining the barricades, nearly 300 are here to greet President Xi, not confront him. For every yellow T-shirt in sight, there are two or three red.
    The greeters are clearly organized. In addition to red shirts, they carry matching lunch bags, and a tall pallet of bottled water stands beside check-in tables at the west end of the plaza.
    Are they being paid to support President Xi?
    “No,” says Bill, a greeter holding a large American flag. He’s from Miami, but won’t give his last name. “Well, maybe if we are missing work to be here they will compensate us for our pay.”
    The two sides tolerate each other peacefully, if only by ignoring each other.
    And they are not all Asian.
    Roger Silverio, 71, in a red T-shirt, drove up from Miami. He’s Cuban, but two of his sons and one grandson are married to Chinese women.
    “I know many, many, many Chinese, and I love them because they’re very good to me,” he explains. “I support President Trump and I think he’s trying to make America strong and live in peace. We need peace.”
    Almost directly across from Silverio, a woman named Dzifa Amoa had come all the way from Gainesville, Ga., to stand with the protesters.
    “Technically, I’m African-American,” she says, “but Falun Gong cuts down all barriers.”
    Founded in 1992, Falun Gong, or “Dharma Wheel Practice,” is a spiritual discipline that combines meditation and exercise under three basic tenets, of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance.
    By 1999, the movement had become so popular the Chinese Communist government set out to eradicate it through propaganda, imprisonment and torture, the protesters said.
    In 2006, an investigation led by Canadian MP David Kilgour reported that the source of 41,500 Chinese organ transplants in the previous five years could not be determined and concluded that there had been “large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners.”
    As the greeters and protesters hold their flags and banners, a young man wearing a yarmulke and roller blades skates among the Chinese throng with a box of matzo cradled in his arm.
    “Excuse me, are you Jewish?” he asks, swooping past the satellite trucks. “Are you Jewish?”
    Mendel Stolik, 15, is the son of Rabbi Leibel Stolik, whose Congregation Chabad meets in the plaza. He is offering complimentary matzo for Passover week — or trying to.
    “Mostly I’m giving it to journalists and passersby,” he says before he rolls away, undiscouraged.
    At 12:30 p.m. exactly, sheriff’s deputies in riot fatigues and plastic face masks begin lining up along the barricades, spaced about 10 feet apart and facing both the greeters and protesters.
    The deputies are silent as the protesters chant, “Free Tibet! Free Tibet!” and interfere, firmly but politely, only if anyone seems about to cross the barrier.
    For the next two hours they wait, without a lot to say to each other.
    Finally, at 2:20 p.m., the motorcade carrying President Xi Jinping crosses the Lantana bridge and passes between those lines of red shirts, yellow shirts and sheriff’s deputies.
    Cheers of welcome and cries of outrage fill the air. Flags are waved and fists shaken as deputies on growling motorcycles escort two gleaming black limousines with heavily tinted windows.
    President Xi could see the greeters and protesters, if he wanted, but they could not see in to see if he was seeing them. And if he did, it wasn’t for long. The limousines sweep by at about 30 miles an hour, turn right onto South Ocean Boulevard and disappear up the hotel’s circular driveway.
    Red shirts or yellow shirts, they had waited for hours. And he was gone in seconds.

Friday, April 7
    Yousra Hakkani left Boynton Beach for her job at the Ice Cream Club about 9:30 a.m.
    President Xi left the Eau Palm Beach for his summit meeting with President Trump at 10:32 a.m.
    He got to work before she did.
    “I was coming up South Dixie Highway from Gateway Boulevard when a sheriff’s roadblock turned me around,” Hakkani says. “So I turned into a neighborhood and got lost, then I came back down south to the Boynton Beach bridge and came up A1A and was stopped again by the Manalapan police for about 35 or 40 minutes.”
    When Hakkani finally reached Plaza Del Mar, the  red and yellow T-shirts were still there, but not nearly as many, and yesterday’s sense of anticipation was gone.
    Both greeters and protesters were hanging out now, eating ice cream.
    Ryan Xu, 25, a protester, ordered a milkshake.

    Vanilla, not green tea.
    “I flew in from Los Angeles on Wednesday,” he said. “Oh, yes, I paid my own way. Of course.”
    He seemed a little offended that anyone might think otherwise.
    In China, all he knew about Falun Gong was what the government told him. But after coming to the U.S. in 2011, he investigated.
    “The government said they are evil, but I found a completely different story,” he said. “The Communist Party always spreads bad rumors. In China, you are not allowed to have your own mind.”
    In 2016, Kilgour and his colleagues published an update to their 2006 study. The 789-page report estimated that perhaps as many as 1.5 million Chinese had died as a result of illicit organ harvesting.
    “If I go back, I will be killed,” Xu said.
    And so he had paid his own way from California, to stand for hours in the hot sun, behind a barricade in Manalapan, pointing a sign at a car that was gone in a flash.
    Was it worth the trip?
    He seemed a little offended that anyone would ask.
    “It’s not about the results,” he said. “It’s about wanting people to know what’s going on in China.”
    
Saturday, April 8
    The red, white and blue porta-potties are gone this morning.
    The fencing is piled on a tractor-trailer blocking the northbound lane of A1A while workers in orange safety vests collect the steel poles that held it.
    The Secret Service is gone, the satellite TV trucks are gone, and the Farmer/Artisan Market is open again, doing a lazy, Saturday morning business.
    At the Ice Cream Club, the 3-gallon tub of green tea sold out at $4.25 a scoop, $6 a double, and chocolate almond has taken its place.
    Ryan Xu flew home to L.A., and President Trump played golf.
    Hosting the Chinese president had been “a great honor,” Trump tweeted. “Goodwill and friendship were formed,” but “only time will tell on trade.”
    In the end, Hurricane Xi wasn’t much more than a Cat 1 storm, if that.
    Five protesters were arrested Thursday for trying to jump in front of the motorcade, Sheriff Bradshaw reported.
    Everyone else was pretty orderly.
    On April 30, Congress agreed to a proposed budget that includes $61 million to reimburse local law enforcement agencies for expenses incurred while protecting Trump in New York and Florida.
    Bradshaw estimated the cost to taxpayers of Hurricane Xi had been about $280,000 in overtime pay.

Related Stories: Governor declares opioids a public health emergency | Delray Beach grapples with costs, regulation of recovery industry | Sober homes regulation heads to governor's desk

By Mary Hladky

    The numbers are staggering.
    The addiction treatment industry generates an estimated $1 billion in revenues a year in Palm Beach County, making it an economic engine ranking below only tourism, agriculture and construction.
    Those who study the industry say that number, reported by The Palm Beach Post, almost certainly understates the size. It could be, at a minimum, twice that large.
    Costs associated with the industry are huge. They include $1.1 billion a year as of 2015 in heroin-related hospital charges across Florida that are largely paid for by Medicaid and Medicare, with taxpayers footing the bill, according to a Post analysis.
    Unnecessary urine testing of addicts, paid for by insurers, adds at least another $1 billion a year to the tab, according to one industry expert.
    And that’s before adding in heroin-related costs incurred by police, fire rescue, courts and prisons.
    It also doesn’t count the cost of lives cut short by opioid use, or lost wages and workplace productivity.
    The industry is fueled by the opioid crisis gripping the nation and the thousands of mostly young and out-of-state users who flock to Florida, especially to Palm Beach County, to get help as word has spread about the many treatment centers nestled within a tropical paradise.
    They can land in corrupt centers and bed-providing sober homes that engage in deceptive marketing, insurance fraud and patient brokering. The business model of the fraudulent operators isn’t intended to cure addiction, since operators make money when addicts relapse and new treatment costs can be billed to insurers.
    But all too often, their lives end in tragedy. Opioid deaths in the county spiked 314 percent between 2012 and 2016, according to data Dr. Michael Bell, the county’s medical examiner, shared with Palm Beach County commissioners at their April 4 meeting.
    Deaths jumped from 305 in 2015 to 592 last year, largely because heroin is now cut with fentanyl and carfentanil, making it exponentially more potent — and deadly.
    “I’ve been doing this for 38 years,” Alton Taylor, executive director of the Drug Abuse Foundation of Palm Beach County in Delray Beach, told commissioners. “I’ve seen a lot during that time, but I’ve never seen anything like this. Its lethality is unprecedented.”

‘Horrendous abuses’ found
    Critics of the unscrupulous treatment centers and sober homes have been sounding the alarm since 2012, with limited success at getting reforms. But the pace of efforts increased dramatically in the last year.
    The push started when the state Legislature gave Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg $250,000 to investigate allegations of fraud and abuse and propose solutions.
    Aronberg convened a grand jury. Its report, issued in December, outlined the vast scope of the problems and made recommendations for new legislation.
    The grand jury recommended, among other things, laws that make deceptive advertising a crime, establish oversight of sober homes and strengthen patient brokering penalties.
    While noting there are good operators in the county who help addicts, the report also said: “The grand jury has seen evidence of horrendous abuses that occur in recovery residences that operate with no standards. For example, some residents were given drugs so they could go back into detox, some were sexually abused and others forced to work in labor pools. There is currently no oversight on these businesses that house this vulnerable class.”
    Aronberg also formed the Sober Homes Task Force, which reached similar conclusions about the problems and what to do about them.
    “The lack of effective oversight of this industry, especially in the private sector, has allowed bad actors to flourish, significantly contributing to the rising death toll,” its January report said.
    Significant legislation based on those recommendations was introduced this year by state Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, and state Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton. Hager’s bill unanimously passed the Florida House of Representatives in late April. The bill then moved to the Senate, where Clemens sponsored the partner legislation.
    At press time, Aronberg and his chief assistant were in Tallahassee to lobby connections in the Senate. They hoped to substitute the Senate version with the House bill. The House bill is seen as the stronger bill as it allows the Department of Children and Families to regulate recovery residences.
    “Everyone is walking on eggshells,” said Mike Edmondson, state attorney spokesman. The legislative session was scheduled to end on May 5.
    An unrelated bill would add deadly synthetic drugs to the state’s drug-trafficking statute, giving state prosecutors the ability to seek stronger sentences. This bill also unanimously passed the House and moved to the Senate.
 
Law enforcement ramps up
    The task force’s law enforcement arm has swung into action, arresting nearly two dozen people as of mid-April on charges including insurance fraud and patient brokering, which involves taking kickbacks to steer patients to particular treatment facilities.
    The County Commission weighed in on April 4, approving the hiring of a county opioid czar, as well as two new staff members for the swamped Medical Examiner’s Office, and spending $3 million over the next two years to pay for these positions as well as treatment efforts.
    New federal guidelines issued last year by the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have clarified how cities can enact their own ordinances regulating sober homes. Cities had been stymied after Boca Raton fought to keep sober homes out of residential neighborhoods, but lost a court case in 2007 after racking up $1.3 million in costs and legal fees.
    Boynton Beach issued a six-month moratorium on applications for sober homes in December while city staff reviews the new guidelines. Delray Beach is crafting new regulations that Mayor Cary Glickstein expects to be considered by city commissioners this summer.
    And a bevy of Palm Beach County officials — including Aronberg, county commissioners and Palm Beach County Chief Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath — called on Gov. Rick Scott to declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency to marshal resources to fight it. On April 11, Scott declined to do so — or to pledge more funding to fight the epidemic. Instead, he and Attorney General Pam Bondi scheduled four “listening” workshops around the state to seek solutions to the crisis. But, on May 3, following the last of the workshops, Scott issued a statewide public health emergency acknowledging the opioid epidemic in the State of Florida. This action allows communities access to $27 million in federal grant money from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Opioid State Targeted Response Grant. Florida was awarded the grant on April 21 to provide prevention, treatment and recovery support services.

Delray hit especially hard
    While the problems of addiction and bad actors in the treatment industry are everywhere, no Palm Beach County city has felt the brunt more than Delray Beach.
    In 2016, city workers responded to about 1,600 emergency calls related to opioid overdoses, according to the mayor. Every overdose call costs the city nearly $2,500, Glickstein said. And while no one knows the exact number of sober homes in the city, they could number as many as 700.
    Another impact is the cloud cast over the city as a result of its reputation as the epicenter for the crisis in the county. Companies considering location or expansion in Delray Beach ask about it, Glickstein said.
    “The overdose recovery industry has no doubt made it more difficult for the city to retain and recruit businesses here,” he said, adding this is also true across the county. “It is part of the conversation of whether [a company] should stay or go.”
    So it is unsurprising that Glickstein is passionate about reining in unscrupulous operators.
    “We are being crushed,” Glickstein told legislators in March. “We are losing businesses. We are losing tax revenue. These people [addicts] are ending up homeless, penniless. We need help. We need the cavalry and we need it now.”
    Glickstein isn’t alone in feeling overwhelmed.
    Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Capt. Houston Park said county and city first responders rushed to at least 4,661 heroin-related incidents last year. Each response to a call costs county fire rescue between $1,000 and $1,500. Narcan, administered to reverse an overdose, costs $75 for 8 milligrams. As heroin’s potency has increased, first responders often need to administer 10 mg.
    “Our responders are seeing a higher incidence of younger people dying,” Park said. “We are trained to handle and respond to these emergencies, but it does have an increased emotional toll.”
    Medical Examiner Bell said his office’s workload has increased dramatically over the last two years.
    “There are certainly days when we feel overwhelmed,” Bell said. The addition of an associate medical examiner and forensic technician will help, he said, but the problem isn’t going away. “Certainly I don’t see any end in the immediate future. People are still dying of overdoses.”

Bad operators find benefits
    Addiction treatment centers and sober homes have long existed in Palm Beach County, without causing problems.
    “Until 10 years ago, sober home operators in Delray were by and large law-abiding, quality providers. It was part of their calling,” said John Lehman, president of the Florida Association of Recovery Residences, a not-for-profit organization that oversees voluntary certification of sober homes for the Department of Children and Families.
    “Then somebody figured out how to make big money doing this. Big money.”
    The spigots began to open with the 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, which resulted in a huge increase in coverage for substance abuse treatment.  Then, in 2010, the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, allowed young adults to stay on their parents’ policies until age 26, eliminated exclusions for pre-existing conditions and required treatment for mental health and substance abuse to be included in every insurance policy.
    That meant people had coverage to treat substance abuse, and insurers had to pay for it. If an addict relapsed, insurance would cover new rounds of treatment.
    The onset of the opioid crisis ensured there were plenty of addicts who would seek treatment. Unscrupulous operators rushed in to take advantage.
    But addiction is recognized as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act, making it difficult for government to oversee the industry.
    The grand jury found that insurance fraud is rampant, citing one treatment provider who billed a patient’s insurer over $600,000, mainly for drug tests, over seven months.
    Particularly problematic are urinalysis tests, which are used to confirm an addict is staying clean. But unscrupulous operators are requiring them frequently and billing inflated amounts. While a test kit costs under $10 at a pharmacy, the grand jury said these operators are charging more than $5,000 per test.
    Deceptive marketing has become standard practice in the treatment industry, the grand jury said. Operators falsely represent their services and locations and act improperly to lure patients to their centers, regardless of whether they can provide appropriate treatment.
    Illegal patient brokering also is commonplace, the Sober Homes Task Force report states.
    Treatment providers pay a kickback to sober homes in return for the homes’ referral of patients to those providers. The patients, who often have no income, in turn get a free place to stay while they attend outpatient treatment programs, although the task force found the homes are often nothing more than flophouses.
    Some operators illegally offer gym memberships, weekly massages, gift cards and more, with brokers known as “body snatchers” persuading addicts to move to another home or provider who offers “better stuff.”

Progress with lawmakers
    The bills introduced by Clemens and Hager were not identical, but both addressed key grand jury recommendations.
    They cracked down on fraudulent marketing, stiffened existing penalties for patient brokering and prohibited kickbacks for patient referrals. They also expanded the jurisdiction of the Statewide Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute patient brokering.
    The skyrocketing number of overdose deaths “is why we are getting significant support for this legislation,” Chief Assistant State Attorney Al Johnson said.
    But the bills don’t resolve all the problems, he said.
    “The legislation is not the end of it. More needs to be done,” Johnson said. “But it is a game changer on the private side of the industry.”
    Glickstein agreed there will be more work to do next legislative session. “If those are passed, we are going to see much more accountability as it relates to the operation of sober homes and the relationship between sober homes and treatment providers,” he said. “It is no silver bullet … but it is a very positive step in the right direction.”
    If strong legislation clears the Legislature, “that is going to create a new risk-reward matrix for the bad guys,” Lehman said. “I think we will see a lot of them disappear overnight.”
    Marc Woods, a Delray Beach code enforcement inspector, said that is already happening because of the arrests made by the task force. He estimates 40 have shut down in the city.
    “When the state attorney started making arrests for patient brokering, I noticed houses were closing. I noticed kids with suitcases standing outside of houses,” he said.

Good ones want bad out
    Good riddance, say legitimate treatment center and sober home operators.
    Tony Foster, the interim CEO and chief operating officer of The Treatment Center of the Palm Beaches in Lake Worth and a task force member, said bad actors tarnish a needed industry.
    “You don’t hear about the good operators. You only hear about the bad ones. The bad ones taint the good ones,” he said. If the bad ones close down, “the industry will be left with a much more professional group of people operating the business,” he said.
    George Jahn, who owns Sober Living in Delray with his wife, Sue, and is a task force member, said only about three sober homes in Delray Beach are operating legitimately.  
    The bad ones make it more difficult for him to remain in the business he started 24 years ago, because they are accepting kickbacks and can provide addicts with free rent, while he charges $245 a week.
    The legal operators want the bad ones shut down, he said. So when they become aware of illegal activity, they report it to a hot line set up at the State Attorney’s Office.
    Arrests of the bad actors “all derived from someone filing a complaint,” he said.
    That is just one way legitimate business owners are trying to be part of the solution, they said.
    Foster donated $25,000 to county Fire Rescue in December to help it buy Narcan after he heard its cost strained the agency’s budget. “We wanted to do our part,” he said.
    Foster also is assisting a pilot study at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis that is giving patients treated for overdoses Suboxone, a drug that curbs withdrawal symptoms, and counseling. He has set aside five beds at his facility for people released from JFK who need a free place to stay.
    Joe Bryan, who with his two brothers owns The Beachcomber treatment center near Briny Breezes, said the outcry about problems in the industry obscures the fact that good operators employ a lot of people and pay them good wages, creating a big economic benefit.
    The three largest legitimate treatment centers in Delray Beach employ about 640 people, he said.
    At Bryan’s facility, counselors earn $50,000, with health insurance and paid vacation and sick time. Everyone earns well above minimum wage, he said.
    Clients’ family members travel to Palm Beach County for visits, staying in hotels and eating at restaurants and giving the economy another boost.
    And then there is the hard-to-calculate benefit of those who get help and beat addiction, get good jobs, raise families and live productive lives.
    “You hear about the troubles,” Bryan said. “You won’t hear about all the teachers we get back to work. There are a lot of families that are back together because of what we do.”
Jane Smith contributed to this story.

By Dan Moffett

    Ocean Ridge commissioners have given preliminary approval to an ordinance that authorizes the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission to review developments and consider architectural design and compatibility with neighborhoods.
    The proposed law allows the planning and zoning board to take on some functions similar to those of architectural committees in neighboring municipalities such as Gulf Stream and Manalapan.
    During site plan reviews, the board could rule on matters such as height and scale, and “harmony in architectural style, form, texture, mass and lines as well as materials, colors, and use of architectural elements.”
    The ordinance proposal came to the commission at the request of planning and zoning members who were frustrated over recent large single-family home projects that were out of scale with the neighborhoods around them yet conformed to the town’s code.
    Mark Marsh, a board member, told the commission that the ordinance wasn’t perfect, but “we have to start somewhere” to curb development that doesn’t fit with the character of the homes around it. Marsh said the law is intended to be “a check and balance” to prevent incongruous construction.
    Former Mayor Ken Kaleel, an attorney who often represents developers, argued that the commission should take a thoughtful approach and think twice before going forward with the ordinance. Kaleel said he “guaranteed” that, sooner or later, the town would end up in court trying to explain and defend its architectural restrictions.
    “Control is elusive,” Kaleel said. Architecture is subjective and trends change, he said, and it’s virtually impossible to determine objectively what’s compatible or in character with the style of most any street in Ocean Ridge.
    “We’re not a Gulf Stream. We’re not a Palm Beach where styles are similar,” Kaleel said.
    The proposed ordinance passed its first reading, 4-0, on May 1, with Commissioner Gail Adams Aaskov absent. The measure is scheduled to come up for final approval at the June 5 town meeting.

Seasonal beach policing discussed
    Commissioner Steve Coz is proposing a plan to help deal with the growing numbers of beachgoers from the mainland who are coming to the town, especially during the tourist season.
    Coz wants to hire two part-time certified reserve police officers to monitor the beach during the winter and spring months of peak use. Police Chief Hal Hutchins says he might be able to find the reserve officers to hire.
    The commission plans to look at the cost of the idea during the May 22 budget workshop that begins at 4 p.m.
    Coz also is proposing improved signage, traffic calming devices, fines for commercial beach use, and license plate recognition cameras to respond to the groundswell of visitors.

Ocean Avenue bridge
    Residents near Ocean Avenue can expect about six months of annoyances as the Florida Department of Transportation begins a $1 million bridge painting project.
    Work was scheduled to begin April 24 and is expected to continue into the fall. The contractors, Seminole Equipment, Inc., and RSH Inc., asked the Town Commission to allow work during the day, six days a week, to complete the project sooner.
    “We wouldn’t mind lane closures during the days if it speeds the work up,” Mayor Geoff Pugh said as commissioners granted the request.
    The mayor told the contractors that the town was willing to allow work at night but no sandblasting or loud noise that might disturb residents. Workers will have to close the bridge for up to 10 nights to paint the tips. There will be no work on Sundays and holidays.

More than 60 Briny Breezes residents, including speaker Joe Coyner, showed up at the April 27

council meeting to complain about a proposed ordinance that would create

a magistrate position to resolve building code disputes.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett
    
    Just about every municipality in Florida uses a magistrate to settle disputes over code violations between homeowners and local government.
    Briny Breezes doesn’t, and that’s not likely to change without a fight.
    In a scene reminiscent of a decade ago when Brinyites considered selling their land to developers, an overflow crowd packed Town Hall to protest a change residents believe could mean selling out their idiosyncratic culture.
    Apparently it all started in Joe Coyner’s bathroom. A 30-year Briny resident who serves on several of its corporate committees, Coyner wanted a new shower and hired someone to install it. No one obtained a permit from the town.
    A building inspector saw parts of the old shower outside Coyner’s mobile home and cited him for a violation. The town charged him $171 for the missing permit and another fee to expedite the paperwork. Coyner says he talked to legal and building experts outside the town who say no permit was needed, so he says no inspection of the work is needed.
    Coyner and Briny officials have been locked in a standoff for months now over the permit charges and inspection. Besides Coyner, two other cases, involving work by an unlicensed contractor, are similarly stalled because of disputes over code violations.
    In March, the Town Council by consensus asked its attorney, John Skrandel, to draft a proposed ordinance for discussion at the April 27 meeting. The ordinance would allow the town to hire a magistrate to resolve its code  disputes. A magistrate is an authorized official, usually a lawyer, who acts as a judge to rule on cases and impose fines.
    Word of the magistrate idea touched off a firestorm. Dozens of Brinyites signed a petition opposing the move, and the fire marshal’s limit of 70 filled Town Hall for the meeting.
    “I am totally opposed to setting up this magistrate form of government,” Coyner said. “We have very competent people here. … We can solve our own problems.”
    “You’re destroying the fabric of Briny,” said Joe Masterson, whom the town accuses of working as an unlicensed electrical contractor in the park.
    “This is creating an adversarial relationship,” Tom Byrne told the council. “I don’t like what I’m seeing.”
    Several residents complained the town shouldn’t bring in “outsiders” to solve problems that should be handled internally — Brinyite to Brinyite.
    “This is an overreaching action. This is something that’s not needed,” said former Mayor Roger Bennett, who argued cases of noncompliance are too rare to warrant the new law and new expense.
    Council President Sue Thaler and Deputy Town Clerk Jackie Ermola agreed that stalemates are infrequent, saying about 99 percent of the code disputes settle quickly and amicably.
    “But for the 1 percent that don’t, then what?” Thaler asked. She said the council has no authority to deal with homeowners who ignore violations and fines.
    “What do we do with people who won’t obey the law?” Alderman Bobby Jurovaty asked. He said he was concerned about uncorrected, serious violations that would pose safety threats even to neighbors — electrical fires, for example.
    After more 2 1/2 hours of often heated debate, the council voted to table the proposal until October, when Briny’s snowbirds return and the park is full of opinions. Aldermen Jim McCormick, Christina Adams and Chick Behringer voted for the postponement; Thaler and Jurovaty opposed it, arguing the town shouldn’t allow the problem to fester for six more months.
    At 4 p.m. Oct. 12, the council plans to hold a joint workshop with the Planning and Zoning Board to discuss the magistrate idea. The public is invited.

By Dan Moffett

    One of the first orders of business for newly elected Mayor Keith Waters is brokering peace between members of the La Coquille Club and the Eau Palm Beach Spa & Resort.
    For months, some members have complained to the Town Commission that the club, which Eau manages, is not responsive to their requests and isn’t financially transparent.
    Under Manalapan’s planned unit development agreement with the hotel, the club is intended to be operated as a “first-class social club for the residents of the town.”
    Former Mayor David Cheifetz criticized the club’s management during the April 25 town meeting, saying “there’s some financial accountability that’s missing and should be looked into.” Former Commissioner Robert Evans also complained that club management ignored members’ requests for more transparency.
    Michael King, the Eau’s managing director, disagreed, telling the commission that the club’s financial records are detailed, accurate and “readily available” to any member who wants to see them.
    “All the revenue generated by La Coquille is reported on the financial statement,” King said.
    He told the commission the club has lost an average of $58,000 a year during his eight years as director. King said that for years the club’s board showed no interest in the nuts and bolts of how it was run. Now that there is interest, he said the hotel is responding.
    Waters said he believed that finding liaisons to improve communications between the club board and hotel will clear up most of the complaints. Waters said he hopes to have the issues resolved during the summer so the club can enter the tourist season with a fresh start. He praised the performance of the club in delivering the service it’s supposed to, noting tables have been hard to get. “The club is operating at the highest level I’ve ever seen,” he said.
    In other business, the commission unanimously approved two ordinance changes so that commissioners get the last word on architectural and landscaping reviews of commercial projects.
    Waters proposed the amendments, saying the changes would streamline the process and allow the Architectural Commission to finish its work before the town considers project approval.

By Jane Smith
    
    After city commissioners insisted the two-way road be placed back into the Atlantic Crossing development, they were ready to settle the lawsuit with the project’s developer.
    “I do not think we can get a much better project without considerable risk,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said at a specially called April 12 commission meeting. “The time has come to move forward.”
    The Delray Beach City Commission unanimously approved settling the lawsuit. The city spent $471,788 on the litigation as of March 31.
    “Reaching settlement has been challenging,” said Dean Kissos, chief operating officer of the Ohio-based Edwards Cos. “We’re eager to work with the city to get Atlantic Crossing underway, and finally bring the east end of Atlantic Avenue to life.”
    The project must go through two city review boards and come back to the commission for final approval, a process that will take another four to six months.
    “We look forward to having the settlement become final,” Kissos said, “enabling us to dismiss the state and federal lawsuits, assuming there are no third-party challenges to the agreement.”
 If someone challenges the settlement, then Edwards would continue its lawsuit against the city, according to the settlement’s terms.
    When complete, Atlantic Crossing will have 82 luxury condos, 261 apartments, 83,462 square feet of office space, 39,394 square feet of restaurants and 37,642 square feet of shops, at the northeast corner of Federal Highway and Atlantic Avenue.
    Edwards’ development order expires Sept. 9, 2021, unless the governor declares an emergency, such as for Hurricane Matthew in 2016. The declaration would give extra time to all developments in the state.
    The project’s developers sued the city in state court in June 2015 for not approving the project’s amended site plan. When the case was transferred to federal court that fall, the developers wanted at least $25 million in damages. The federal claims were dismissed in July 2016 and the case returned to state court last fall.
    In March, the Atlantic Crossing developer agreed to these terms:
    • Create a two-way road into the project from Federal Highway.
    • Move the underground garage entrance into the project’s interior.
    • Contribute $175,000 to a shuttle bus.
    • Pay for the design, permit and construction costs of a mast arm traffic signal at the intersection of Northeast First Street and northbound Federal Highway and the intersection of Atlantic Northeast Seventh avenues.
    • Temporarily close Northeast Seventh Avenue at the project’s north end during construction to keep traffic out of the Palm Trail neighborhood.
    Edwards then submitted additional changes that capped the amount spent on traffic calming efforts in the Marina Historic District. The $125,000 worth of changes would include landscape bump-outs, a traffic circle and landscaped medians.
    The current and former presidents of the district’s homeowners association questioned the basis for that amount at the April 12 commission meeting.
    Glickstein said the amount came from the city’s engineering staff, which said the total cost was under $100,000.
    Sandy Zeller, former district president, recalled a 2013 meeting with Randal Krejcarek, then the city’s environmental services chief, to review the traffic calming efforts. The changes would have to be re-cost at today’s prices, said John Morgan, who now heads the department.
    The Atlantic Crossing developer also wanted to tie state approvals for traffic signals to a time frame. It gave the city 210 days to obtain the approvals. Some residents questioned why the time frame was not for applying for the approvals, because the city has no control over state staff.
    The wording was “hotly debated” by the developer’s attorney, who refused to change it, said Jamie Cole, from the city’s outside counsel Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman of Fort Lauderdale. If the state does not give the approvals in that time, the developer doesn’t have to pay for the traffic signals at two intersections, Cole said. He is confident the approvals can be obtained in that time frame.
    His law firm colleague Kathryn Mehaffey handed out a revised document at the start of the April 12 meeting. The revision clarified that the state approval request was for the traffic signals on city land, outside of the project. The two-way road, on land inside the project, is not part of the change, Cole said.
    Jestena Boughton, who lives near the Atlantic Crossing site and owns the Colony Hotel, questioned whether the design and layout of restaurants and stores has changed over the years. The project was approved in 2014, although it was designed years earlier. More purchases are made online these days, she said.  
    “I wish (Atlantic Crossing’s) footprint were smaller and that you could see the open space from the street,” Boughton said.
    In his closing comments, the mayor said, “Jestena really hit it. Many of us in the community would have liked to see a much different project. … The market will speak to the developer about the size of the stores and restaurants.”
    Edwards Vice President Don DeVere said in an email, “Decisions regarding the sizes of the retail spaces will be market driven.”
    Glickstein also thanked Cole and his team for their perseverance in getting the lawsuit settled.
    “There will never be a perfect project,” said Robert Ganger, chairman emeritus of the Florida Coalition for Preservation.
The coalition, a grass-roots group dedicated to responsible development, was involved in raising money to pay for a private traffic study surrounding Atlantic Crossing.
    “We at the coalition want to commend you, Mayor Glickstein. You got as much as you could. We are truly grateful to you,” Ganger said.

Workers with MBR Construction use a small end-loader to remove

broken-up pieces of the sidewalk across A1A from Anchor Park.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    Delray Beach started working on its $3.1 million redo of the beach promenade in early April.
    The north end of the municipal beach soon became a construction zone. No on-street parking was allowed. The city is urging beachgoers to park in the lots on the west side of Ocean Boulevard or to use the two city garages downtown and take the trolley to the beach.  
    In late April, the contractor established a construction zone at the south end of the beach, banning on-street parking from Casuarina Road north to the Sandoway parking lot.  
    When finished by fall, the promenade will have wider sidewalks and smart parking meters that can take credit cards or be programmed through a smartphone. There will also be coordinated beach furniture, including new shower poles, trash cans, water fountains and benches.
    Originally, the city wanted the benches to be unadorned.
    But residents who bought plaques to commemorate good times at the beach were disappointed. They wrote emotional appeals and talked at City Commission meetings about the significance of the plaques purchased with benches.
    Commissioner Mitch Katz offered a compromise that would allow the original plaques, when possible, to be attached to the new benches.
    “That’s wonderful,” said Bob Victorin, Beach Property Owners Association president. As a donor and resident, he wrote to city commissioners asking them to reevaluate their decision to remove the bench plaques. His purchase honored his family's time at the beach.
    The city was planning to respect the donors and their intentions by offering the return of the benches and a carved brick paver that would form the base of the flagpole at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Ocean Boulevard.
    But that offer was not well-received.  
    The city’s Environmental Services Department is in the process of determining whether the original plaques can be attached to the new benches, said John Morgan, department head. His department will decide on a case-by-case basis which plaques can be reused, because they are not all the same size.  
    The compromise also pleased bike shop owner Albert Richwagen, who purchased a bench with a plaque at the south end. His plaque honored his father, Robert L. Richwagen.
    “That’s great. That’s more than they had to do,” he said. “The agreement I signed said the benches could be removed at any time for work along the beach.”
    While starting work on the beach’s north end, the contractor found problems with the knee wall, Morgan said. The wall, about 20 inches high and 12 inches wide, extends for nearly a half-mile on the west side of the beach, stopping about a quarter-mile north of the Atlantic Avenue Pavilion. People sit on the wall when taking off their shoes before hitting the sand.
    The wall is made of stacked concrete the city used back in the 1960s when it didn’t have much of a beach, Morgan said. “Once it was sandblasted and the paint removed, rusted rebar was seen poking through the concrete,” he said.
    Patching of the wall was an annual fix, Morgan said. The contractor designed a long-term fix that is not as labor-intensive. The fix involves capping the entire length of the wall.
    That process will cost the city $85,000. The contractor will charge only $44,000 because of a $41,000 credit.