The county bookmobile has a scrapbook that shows the first bookmobile in America, in 1905. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

If you ever visit a bookmobile, spare a moment to remember the woman who first inspired them. Her name was Mary Lemist Titcomb, and in 1905 she was the head librarian at the Washington County Free Library in Hagerstown, Maryland.
“Would not a library wagon, the outward and visible signs of the service for which the library stood, do much more in cementing friendship?” Titcomb once said. “No better method has ever been devised for reaching the dweller in the country. The book goes to the man, not waiting for the man to come to the book.”
At her urging, the library’s trustees got Andrew Carnegie to give them $2,500, and America’s first “library wagon” hit the road.
Its 2,560 books were drawn by a horse and driven by Joshua Thomas, the library’s janitor.
Alas, in 1910 a freight train struck the wagon. Both janitor and horse were unharmed, but the wagon was destroyed and the book service was out of commission for a year, until the board’s treasurer donated another $2,500 for a replacement.
The Hagerstown library’s new library wagon was an International Harvester truck, and the age of the motorized bookmobile had arrived.
Titcomb died in 1932 at the age of 80 and is buried at the famed Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts, not far from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau, whose books she no doubt made available to rural readers.

Mike Cavanaugh enters the bookmobile in South Palm Beach, where it stops on Fridays. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Related Story: First mobile library was horse-drawn

By Ron Hayes

On April 15, 1969, the Palm Beach County Commission met to buy a bookmobile.
If the commission approved the contract, this bookmobile would be built by the Gerstenslager Co. of Wooster, Ohio, would arrive within 90 days and would cost the taxpayers $30,500.90.
Four of the five commissioners were on board. Commissioner Robert F. Culpepper of Jupiter wasn’t.
“I’m not voting against the bookmobile,” he announced. “I’m voting against the expensive bookmobile.”
“There’s no such thing as an inexpensive bookmobile,” Commissioner E.W. Weaver told him after the vote.
“Well,” Culpepper said, “I just hope it will be used.”
The Palm Beach County Library System’s first bookmobile hit the road 50 years ago this month, in October 1969. Commissioner Culpepper could visit the South Palm Beach Town Hall any Friday morning to see how much it’s being used today.
The bookmobile stops at 40 locations throughout Palm Beach County, and little South Palm Beach is one of only two stops that’s so busy it visits every week instead of twice a month. The other is Palm Beach Shores.
From October 2018 to July 2019, bookmobile visitors checked out 50,000 items at those 40 stops. But the South Palm Beach stop alone accounted for just over 5,000 items checked out, or 10 percent of the bookmobile’s total circulation during that 10-month period.
“It’s still our busiest stop,” says Ron Glass, the county’s outreach librarian.
South Palm Beach and the bookmobile are such good friends that on Feb. 8 Town Clerk Yude Alvarez organized a small celebration at Town Hall to mark the 50th anniversary.
Tables were set up in the fire bay, and the bookmobile’s staff and local book lovers enjoyed iced tea and juices, cookies, cupcakes, muffins and scones as music played.
Drop by in January and the narrow space between the shelves can get so packed with book lovers browsing and condo neighbors chatting, you might have a wait to get in.
Drop by on a Friday morning in August, and the crowd is smaller, but no less enthusiastic.
“Without this mobile library, we wouldn’t be here,” says Daniel Colangelo, waiting to check out All The Way, Joe Namath’s latest football memoir. “We appreciate it so much. And the staff! They’re all great.”

ABOVE: Palm Beach resident Gladys Jacobson looks through the movie selection as Michael Barto, the bookmobile driver of 26 years, helps South Palm Beach’s Mike Cavanaugh check out books. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
BELOW: The original 1969 Palm Beach County bookmobile.

The bookmobile arrives at the Town Hall each week bearing about 2,000 items — 1,500 books and another 500 DVDs and music or talking-book CDs. The bookmobile even carries a birding kit available for checkout. That’s a backpack, adult binoculars, children’s binoculars, lens cleaner and a laminated pamphlet for identifying species.
But to regular users, the bookmobile’s most valuable asset is the staff.
Library Associate Jennifer Busch has been with the library for 19 years. Michael Barto has driven the bookmobile for 26. Twelve years ago, he learned American Sign Language to serve deaf patrons. And mechanic/multilinguist Francisco Navarro is along in case the great book beast breaks down and to assist Spanish speakers.
Kristen Farley of South Palm Beach brings her three kids.
“I always brag that I’ve never chosen a book for myself,” she says. “They know what I like, and they choose for the kids, too.”
It’s common praise.
“If they see something they think I’d like, they set it aside for me,” says Gladys Jacobson of Palm Beach. “I’m absolutely amazed at how they can select books for readers.”

Small towns were concern
The bookmobile’s arrival at those 40 stops throughout the county comes at the end of a long road that began with a book lover who saw a problem she wanted fixed.
Her name was Ingrid A. Eckler, a member of the West Palm Beach League of Women Voters, and she was concerned about all those residents who weren’t being reached by the independent municipal libraries in the county’s larger cities. In 1964, Eckler and her fellow Women Voters started agitating the County Commission to create a countywide library service, and in April 1967, the state Legislature created a special taxing district and the county library system was born.
The first branch library opened in Tequesta in September 1969.
In October 1969, that $30,500.90 bookmobile made its first stops at Canal Point and South Bay on Lake Okeechobee, Lake Worth Road by Florida’s Turnpike and the city of Atlantis.
The South Palm Beach stop arrived in 1982. In 2013, the bookmobile added a stop in Ocean Ridge, but it didn’t attract many borrowers.
“It lasted one year,” Ron Glass says, “then we went right down the street to Briny Breezes, and it does real well, especially in season.”
But it’s no match for South Palm Beach.
“The bookmobile is No. 1!”
Inalee Foldes is hugging a new biography of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. She’s already read the lives of justices John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day O’Connor. “Mike knows what I like,” she explains, referring to Barto. “This is the first place you come after you’ve been away.”
Today’s bookmobile is not the same one the County Commission bought in April 1969. That one was retired in 1977.
This current model is the sixth bookmobile to serve the county in the five decades since, and it didn’t cost $30,500.90.
Its price tag: $245,000.
But it didn’t cost taxpayers anything.
Look closely at the rear of the bookmobile on the driver’s side and you’ll find, beneath the brightly painted books and lettering, a small rendering of a black fireman’s helmet bearing the message, “FDNY 343.”
“An anonymous donor paid for this bookmobile,” Jennifer Busch says. “We don’t know who it was, but he or she requested only that it feature a fireman’s helmet somewhere on the outside and the number 343, the number of firefighters who died in New York on 9/11.”
Ingrid A. Eckler, first president of the Friends of the Library and a member of its advisory board for 21 years, died in 1998 at age 85.
Culpepper, the only county commissioner to vote against spending $30,500.90 for that first bookmobile, is alive and well at 87, still living in Jupiter, and still happy to chat.
“That $30,000 was a lot of money back then,” he says. “As I said, I didn’t vote against the bookmobile. I voted against the price. But coming from Jupiter, we had no library branch then and the only service we had was the bookmobile, so I was always a strong supporter.”
Then he got on his computer and found an inflation calculator.
“You know,” he said. “That $30,000 in 1969 would be the equivalent of $210,000 today. So if the county were going to pay $245,000 for the new one, that’s $35,000 more.”
The former county commissioner from Jupiter thought a moment and laughed.
“I might vote against it again.”

About the bookmobile
The Palm Beach County Bookmobile stops at the South Palm Beach Town Hall every Friday from 10:30 to noon.
In Briny Breezes, it stops on alternate Fridays from 1:30-2:30 p.m. The upcoming dates are Oct. 11 and 25.
You can request up to four items a week by calling 649-5476. If the staff is unavailable, leave a message and your call will be returned.
Library cards are also available on the bookmobile.
For more information, visit www.pbclibrary.org.

By Jane Smith

One of the private partners in Boynton Beach’s $250 million Town Square project has requested some changes to meet financing concerns.
Developer John Markey told city commissioners on Sept. 5 that he plans for the private portion of Town Square to begin with construction of a five-story apartment building and a six-story parking garage on Southeast First Avenue.
His firm, JKM Developers, wants to change the private portion of the Town Square site plan to reduce the number of units in the south apartment building by 65 to 196 units.
“We redesigned those units to be larger and be more of luxury-type units,” Markey told commissioners.
The firm wants to add the 65 units to the 104 planned in the six-story apartment building on Ocean Avenue in the center of the project. JKM also wants to lift the 55-plus age restriction on that apartment building to take all qualified renters. The height of the two apartment buildings will remain the same.
The changes are minor and can be approved by staff, said Colin Groff, assistant city manager in charge of Town Square. Groff brought the changes to commissioners to keep them aware of what’s happening in the 15-acre project with E2L Real Estate Solutions.
The area is bordered by Boynton Beach Boulevard on the north and Southeast Second Avenue on the south.
Boynton Beach leaders hope the Town Square development creates a downtown with a mix of municipal buildings, a cultural center with a banquet hall, a museum, apartment buildings, a hotel and parks. The city’s estimated share is $118 million.
Ocean Avenue roadwork will be done in time for the historic high school to reopen as the cultural center in early November, Groff told the commission.
Markey predicted construction of the south apartment building and nearby garage would start in the fourth quarter of 2019.
“City National Bank has already committed to financing the parcels, but we want to see if we can get better terms,” he said. That financing effort will take four to six weeks.
The garage will be finished by June, Markey said, much quicker than the apartment building because of the precast construction method used for the garage. It will be ready when the City Center opens.
The latest plan has staff members moving into the City Center during the first week of May, Groff said. No commissioner asked where staff would park if the south garage is not finished in time. 
Vice Mayor Justin Katz pressed Markey for deadline times, asking when the central apartment building construction would start.
Not until the first or second quarter of 2021, Markey said. “We’re pushing the market here in Boynton Beach,” he said. “We can do that because we believe in the community. The problem lies in getting the financial world to believe that.”
Markey said his firm needs to finish the south apartment building and start leasing it before a lender would agree to finance the second apartment building on Ocean. “That’s the way the finance world works,” he said.
His company has not projected a start time for the north apartment building on Boynton Beach Boulevard, with retail on the ground floor and a nearby garage.
“We are trying to find a way to escalate the [north] garage because the hotel needs it,” Markey said. “We are working with staff to figure out a way to finance the garage.”
While saying he’s not the hotel developer, he knows that company wants to hit the market. The hotel’s developer is E2L Holdings, another partner in the project.
Katz asked about what else the city could do now to avoid future speed bumps that could slow the pace of Town Square.
“The biggest speed bump I see is the market demand for what we propose. I’m a believer. I’m here with an awful lot of money invested in the community and its future,” Markey said.
He also is concerned about rising construction costs.
“Beyond that, I worry about major things. Is there a madman in the White House who drops a bomb on Iran? I don’t say that to be political, but I say that because we’ve seen people fly airplanes into towers and the [economic] result,” Markey said.
Katz and Commissioner Christina Romelus thanked him for the presentation.
“I sit on the Discover the Palm Beaches [tourism] board. Its staff is singing our praises for doing the private-public partnership,” Romelus said.
Mayor Steven Grant said the commission needs to have a branding discussion for Town Square.
“We’re not a town and it’s not a square,” he said.

By Dan Moffett

Manalapan officials were just about ready to break into a round of high-fives in August when it appeared the Florida Department of Transportation was finally approving a flashing warning sign for the troublesome S-curve on the 1500 block of State Road A1A, a little more than a mile south of Town Hall.
But not so fast. Remember, the FDOT approval process is always a long and winding road.
Days after state officials indicated they were satisfied, they abruptly changed course and said more research is needed.
“There was a report done, and we were told it was going to move forward and move up the chain at FDOT,” Town Manager Linda Stumpf said last month. “Then we were told, ‘Oops. Oops. No, we’re going to do another study.’’’
For more than a decade, Manalapan has been trying to persuade the state to address the high accident rate at the Chillingworth Curve, sometimes known as the Bentley Curve for the luxury vehicles that have met their demise there.
Former Police Chief Clay Walker petitioned the FDOT for help in 2009. Current Police Chief Carmen Mattox has been working with the agency for most of the past year.
State officials last month told Mattox they want to collect more speed data before moving forward. They also said they were concerned that the flashing lights might annoy residents at the curve.
Studies already completed show at least 17 crashes have occurred there since 2012, most of them at night.
Stumpf said the town is committed to working with the state to find ways to cut the accident rate at the curve.
“We’ll keep pushing,” she said. “This is a safety issue. We’re not happy it’s been halted.”
In other business, the Town Commission gave final approval to an ordinance that updates the building rules for the Plaza del Mar area, Manalapan’s only commercial zone.
With the new ordinance, the commission lifts the construction moratorium that has been in place since last year.
At least one business owner has been waiting for the moratorium to end. Sandra Foschi plans to move forward with renovations to the former BB&T building at the northeast corner of the plaza.
Foschi hopes to turn the property, which she bought in April for $1.6 million, into a health and wellness center that offers sports medicine, yoga and nutritional support.

By Dan Moffett

The South Palm Beach Town Council has rewarded Town Manager Robert Kellogg with a one-year contract that lifts the interim status he has worked under since taking the job in December.
“I think that with services the town have received from this town manager and the monies that were spent, we have a tremendous bargain right now,” Councilman Mark Weissman said in endorsing Kellogg’s new contract.
The vote was 4-1 on Sept. 24, with Councilwoman Stella Gaddy Jordan dissenting. Jordan argued that the manager’s position should be a part-time job and that the agreement with Kellogg should be extended only until January, then reevaluated.
“I do not think for a town this size that a full-time manager is needed,” she said.
Councilman Bill LeRoy disagreed.
“Mr. Kellogg is an asset to us,” he said. “To cut the position back to part-time — it’s absurd.”
Weissman said Kellogg had proved his value to the town over the last nine months and demonstrated why a full-time manager is essential. “The town does not operate on a part-time basis,” he said. “This is not a part-time position.”
Kellogg, in making his case for a new contract to the council, cited three ways he has saved taxpayers money:
• Moving town reserves into investment funds that pay a significantly higher rate of return and are likely to bring in $100,000 more annually.
• Changing the vendor for internet technology services to a company that has improved performance, with a savings of about $26,000 a year.
• Managing the hiring and a tight budget of the Police Department before the takeover by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. He said that could save $70,000.
“I know there has been discussion about reducing this position to part-time,” Kellogg told the council. “But I do not know any community that has a $2.5 million operation and $4.5 million in the bank that has a part-time employee.”
Mayor Bonnie Fischer sided with Kellogg and commended him for his work on the beach stabilization and restoration efforts. Fischer said a one-year contract, with a one-year renewal option, is the right compromise between part-time and the longer term agreement Kellogg preferred.
Vice Mayor Robert Gottlieb agreed. “I believe in compromise,” Gottlieb said, “and a one-year contract is good compromise.”
Town Attorney Glen Torcivia said he would negotiate terms of the agreement with Kellogg, who is expected to earn about $104,000 a year. Before coming to South Palm Beach, Kellogg, 66, worked as town manager in Hillsboro Beach and Sewall’s Point.
He is the fourth manager South Palm Beach has had in the last five years.

By Dan Moffett

Ocean Ridge commissioners are poised to take a second look at a charter amendment referendum proposal that would require a four-vote supermajority to change the town’s density or height requirements for new construction projects.
The measure came before the commission in November and was rejected with a 3-2 vote.
Supporters say the change is needed to rein in the influence of aggressive developers.
Opponents believe the supermajority requirement would allow a two-commissioner minority to obstruct the will of the majority, shifting the balance of power the wrong way.
During the Sept. 9 town meeting, Vice Mayor Don MaGruder said he wanted to bring the issue up for discussion again at the commission’s Oct. 7 meeting, which would enable the proposal to go to the voters in the next municipal election.
MaGruder said he’s heard “over and over again” from residents who worry that if the town converts from septic tanks to a municipal sewer system, it could open the door to unbridled development and redevelopment. The issue is under preliminary study.
“I think we need to bring this back for a first reading in October,” he said. “Then in November we can have a second reading, then we can put it as a referendum in March.”
What’s different this time around is the makeup of the commission.
In November, then-Mayor Jim Bonfiglio, Commissioner Steve Coz and Commissioner Phil Besler joined to vote down the proposal. MaGruder and Commissioner Kristine de Haseth were on the losing side.
Bonfiglio has since left the commission, and Commissioner Susan Hurlburt now holds his seat. Whether the charter amendment moves forward appears to come down to which side Hurlburt takes.
During her campaign last spring, Hurlburt seemed to oppose the amendment. The commission has to be “ahead of the game,” she said, “and you don’t need a supermajority to do that.”
Hurlburt, in an email to The Coastal Star after the Sept. 9 meeting, said she is still studying the matter: “I have not made up my mind … gathering info/input and expect to hear quite a bit more about the question before and during the next Commission meeting.”
Besler said he believes the supermajority issue should be kicked back to the town’s charter review committee, which originally recommended the idea last year. He said he is concerned about unintended consequences.
“Why are you bringing this up?” Besler asked. “Because you’re worried about sewers or because you want a second bite of the apple with a new commissioner?”
He said a conversion from septic to sewer would take years, so the commission has ample time to examine the supermajority proposal fully.
“Basically, I agree with everything you want to accomplish,” he said. “But I’m afraid that you’re not going to accomplish what you want to accomplish.”
Coz was absent for the September meeting. De Haseth said she’s “in full support” of bringing the proposal back and then letting voters decide.
In other business: With a 3-1 vote, commissioners approved setting the tentative millage cap for the 2019-2020 budget at $5.35 per $1,000 of taxable property value.
De Haseth voted no, arguing the commission should set the rate slightly higher and take less from reserves to narrow the budget deficit.
Town Manager Tracey Stevens said it might take as much as $296,367 from reserves to balance the budget. The town has a long list of stormwater and drainage repairs to make, and it had to increase the salaries of employees after a survey showed Ocean Ridge had fallen behind pay scales in neighboring communities.
The deficit shrank by $180,000 when the town’s Police Department won the contract to provide law enforcement services to Briny Breezes.

Sheriff Ric Bradshaw administers the oath of office to former South Palm Beach police officers at Town Hall on Oct. 1. The former South Palm officers are now deputies in District 19 of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office following the town’s decision to no longer maintain its own public safety department in favor of a 10-year contract for service with PBSO. More than 100 residents, family members and sheriff’s deputies and brass were present for the event, which was followed by a catered dinner. ABOVE: Sheriff Bradshaw (left front) with (l-r) new PBSO Deputies LaForte, Alexandre, Ciraolo, Hull, Farrish and Ladda and new Sgt. Mark Garrison (far right). Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star.

By Dan Moffett

Not everyone in the South Palm Beach Police Department made the transition to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office this month.
On Aug. 30, South Palm patrol Officer Jose Miguel Fernandez resigned from the department, facing misdemeanor charges of stalking and installing a GPS tracking device that were brought by the sheriff’s deputies he had hoped to join. The town suspended Fernandez shortly after he was booked and posted a $500 bond at Palm Beach County Jail on Aug. 28. Fernandez is contesting the charges against him, and court records show he has a hearing scheduled for Nov. 1.
“The South Palm Beach Police Department holds its employees to a high standard and this is a complete breach of trust to the residents of South Palm Beach,” said outgoing Police Chief Mark Garrison, who became a sergeant with the Sheriff’s Office when the sheriff took over his department on Oct. 1.
The charges against Fernandez grew out of a complaint Garrison received in July from a resident who said he found a GPS device on his wife’s vehicle. The husband told police his wife had a yearlong affair with Fernandez. He said the affair had ended and his wife believed the officer since then was using the device to follow her.
Garrison turned the investigation over to the Sheriff’s Office. According to a sheriff’s report, deputies traced the GPS tracker to Fernandez and interviewed him at his home on Aug. 16.
Fernandez told the deputies, the report said, that he had purchased the device and admitted putting it on the woman’s vehicle. He told investigators he did it because he was concerned about retribution from the woman’s husband. He denied stalking the woman.
South Palm Beach hired Fernandez, 50, in November 2016. Before coming to the town he worked three years as a patrol officer next door in Manalapan. Before that he spent 21 years with the New York City Police Department, according to his employment application with the town, retiring with the rank of lieutenant.
Fernandez, who is originally from the borough of Queens, said on his application he completed three years of criminal justice study at Empire State University.

By Mary Hladky

The next phase of Interstate 95 construction in south Palm Beach County will begin early next year, with the work covering the span from just south of Glades Road to south of Linton Boulevard.
The $148 million project includes the addition of two northbound and two southbound express lanes, and the complete redesign of the Glades Road interchange.
The Florida Department of Transportation is planning a “construction open house” to provide more information to the public in January at Boca Raton’s Spanish River Library, Andi Pacini, a spokeswoman for the project, told Boca Raton City Council members on Sept. 23. A firm date is not yet set.
The roadwork will take more than three years, with completion expected in 2023.
After the express lanes are added, I-95 will have four regular northbound and southbound lanes. Drivers will be able to use the express lanes for travel all the way south to Miami and north to Linton Boulevard.
Motorists will use SunPass to pay express lane tolls, which will vary depending on the time of day and congestion.
A date for construction to begin on the Glades Road interchange has not yet been set.
The contractor for the work, Prince Contracting, will use a new “diverging diamond” design for the interchange. The design already has been used for an interchange in Sarasota and two interchanges in Miami-Dade County.
Drivers should have no problem navigating the new design, officials told council members.
The portion of the interchange that runs east and west over I-95 will include a bicycle lane and a 10-foot-wide pedestrian walkway.
The project will begin as work wraps up on the stretch of I-95 running from just south of Glades Road to south of Southwest 10th Street in Deerfield Beach.

Sea turtle eggs were uncovered by rough seas that followed Hurricane Dorian and other tropical systems this fall. Photo provided by Gumbo Limbo Nature Center

By Rich Pollack

Despite the impacts of Hurricane Dorian and more recent high tides and rough seas, the number of sea turtle nests in south Palm Beach County has already reached record levels.
That’s not to say that nests weren’t lost and turtle eggs weren’t strewn on beaches following the near-miss of Dorian, but the number of nests destroyed was small, experts say, in large part because the rough seas and high tides came late in the nesting season.
“It was not a big issue compared to what it could have been,” said David Anderson, sea turtle conservation coordinator at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, which monitors nests in Boca Raton. “By the time Dorian came along, most nests had hatched.”
By Gumbo Limbo’s count, Dorian washed out about 131 of the 446 nests that were on the beach prior to the storm’s impact. Of the nests lost, about 85 were viable with eggs still incubating, while the remaining 46 were believed to be old nests that already hatched.
As was the case with other locations, the majority of nests lost in Boca were mid-beach nests, which are more susceptible to flooding than those farther up the beach and closer to the dune line.
That meant that green sea turtle nests, found closer to the dune or actually in the dune, fared better than loggerhead nests, Anderson said.
In Highland Beach, those who monitor turtle activity say about 15% of the nests on the beach before Dorian were lost. That equates to about 200 nests destroyed.
Overall, Highland Beach monitors recorded about 1,325 nests this season, slightly fewer than Boca’s record 1,375 nests.
“There have been several nests that have successfully hatched since Dorian, and they will continue to hatch into the month of November,” said Barbara James, the marine turtle permit holder for Highland Beach.
Farther up the beach, in Gulf Stream, Briny Breezes and parts of Ocean Ridge, residents and visitors noticed lots of turtle eggs on the beach after Dorian.
Jackie Kingston, president of the nonprofit Sea Turtle Adventures, which monitors turtle activity in that area, estimated that 227 nests remained prior to Dorian and 159 of those were lost.
“It’s still a banner year for us,” Kingston said.
James, Anderson and Kingston say that it is not unusual for storms and high water to affect nests.
“These kinds of events are very normal,” Kingston said. “The turtles have adapted their nesting strategy for events like this.”
The strategy, James said, is to return to the beach and lay eggs several times in a season.
“Individual sea turtles do not restrict their nesting to only one season,” she said. “They may nest between three and seven times — spaced often by 10 to 14 days. This was programmed by Mother Nature to assure that at least several nests will most likely incubate successfully.”
The timing of the storm last month was also good news for least terns, a small migratory bird that nests on beaches.
By the time Dorian arrived, Anderson said, the terns on Boca Raton’s beach had finished nesting and the majority of the birds, currently a threatened species in Florida, were gone.
Anderson said a colony of least terns on Boca Raton’s beach had a record number of nests this year — as many as 40 or 50 — and a record number of chicks.
“This was extremely rare,” he said.

Gathering supplies

After Debora Whipple sent an email to her Ocean Ridge neighbors, saying she would collect donations for Hurricane Dorian victims in the Bahamas, the neighborhood stepped up, filling her garage with boxes holding everything from food to medical supplies. Patrol officers from the Ocean Ridge Police Department stopped by to check on progress and offered to assist, and when the Inlet Cay group learned that Nomad Surf Shop in the County Pocket had arranged for boats to deliver supplies to the islands, they joined forces to load a truck that took the donations to boats. The donations included more than 100 dolls for children. ABOVE LEFT: Inlet Cay resident Nancy Dunn carries one of five loads of donations she made to the relief effort. ABOVE RIGHT: Surf shop employees Evan Kuylenstierna and Dylan Armstrong hold dolls among supplies loaded outside the shop. Photos provided

Firefighters to the rescue

Boca Raton Fire Department Capt. Lange Jacobs and Senior Fire Inspector Jay Sumner load generators and other supplies into fishing boats at Silver Palm Park that they used to deliver aid to the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian ravaged the islands. Sumner is president of the Boca Raton Firefighter and Paramedic Benevolent Fund group that organized the efforts. Photo provided

Raising money

Sophia Nicholas and Sivan Morag, along with their mothers, other relatives and friends, raised $325 in just two hours at their lemonade stand on Swinton Avenue in Delray Beach to help people in need in the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian. The girls, both first-graders at Unity School, were taking part in a school-wide recovery effort. Sivan’s mother, Aura, said, “This summer we took her for the first time to the Bahamas for a summer vacation, we stayed at the Atlantis resort and she was fascinated about the island and their sea animals. When she saw the news and pictures of the devastation of Hurricane Dorian she said, ‘OK, mom, now is time for my lemonade stand.’ She was asking to do a lemonade stand at our house before and I told her we will do it for a good cause. ” Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

After more than a decade of study, Delray Beach is ready to redesign the first block of Marine Way.
On Sept. 17, four city commissioners awarded the Wantman Group of West Palm Beach the $1.1 million design contract — with a condition.
They want the staff to work with the four affected property owners to “have a meeting of the minds,” as Mayor Shelly Petrolia called it. “Either side can’t have everything.”
Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson voted no to the contract award because she says the project is being rushed and wants the property owners to be more involved.
The redesign will bring a higher sea wall, a promenade that connects Veterans Park to Marine Way through an underpass beneath the Atlantic Avenue Bridge, a stormwater pump station at the south end of the block, roadway and utility upgrades and pedestrian lighting. Wantman will also obtain necessary permits from state, federal and local agencies.
The estimated $16 million work is set for the 2023-2024 budget year, using penny tax money, according to the city’s capital improvement budget passed on Sept. 17.
The removal of mangroves was one issue that spurred discussion.
“Removing the mangroves will allow us to get the permits faster,” said Missie Barletto, deputy director of Public Works. “We’ll have to replace them somewhere else on a three-for-one basis.”
The idea of mangrove removal irked Deputy Vice Mayor Bill Bathurst.
“There should be a way to have them and not turn the Intracoastal Waterway into a bathtub,” he said. “How much longer would it take to get the permits if we saved the mangroves?”
Mangroves protect shorelines from damaging winds and waves, and they help filter pollutants. They also serve as nursery areas for fish.
Everyone agrees the first block of Marine Way floods during heavy rains and high tides.
On Sept. 3, the block was under nearly 3 feet of water. Hurricane Dorian’s strong winds were swirling offshore, pushing ashore brackish water from the nearby Intracoastal Waterway. King tides, the highest of seasonal tides, made the rising water even higher.
The water was so high that resident Genie DePonte and friend Gayle Clark used a kayak to travel the block.
City Attorney Lynn Gelin called the flooding “a health and safety issue.”
DePonte and Adam Bankier, two of the four property owners on the block to be redesigned, spoke during public comment.
“It’s my little bit of paradise with the mangroves,” DePonte said. “I bought my house with the dock. It’s an eminent domain issue when you take real property from the residents.”
The Palm Beach County Property Appraiser includes docks when assessing the taxable value of properties. But the office does not break down what percent of a taxable property value comes from the dock.
Bankier, who said Intracoastal water has flowed through the first floor of his property, also pointed out that the city is using tax dollars to remove his dock. “Why can’t public money be used to rebuild them?” he asked.
Clark, who lives nearby on Northeast Seventh Avenue and spends a lot of time on Marine Way, said she is fond of the mangroves and greenery. “We need to save the charm of Marine Way,” she said.

Retired pilot and Ocean Ridge resident Neil Hennigan at home with his dog, Potter. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Brian Biggane

Neil Hennigan, chairman of the five-person sewer/septic committee appointed by Ocean Ridge to explore options for a town-wide conversion to a sewer system, is no stranger to public service. He previously served on two similar boards and sees great value in the work of such volunteers.
“It’s extremely rewarding,” said Hennigan, 71.
Practically speaking, Hennigan said, “it’s beyond the scope of a town staff that is less than the number of fingers on your hand” to take on such a project in addition to its normal workload.
“The cost of just getting a consultant would make your eyes water,” he added. “Some of that will still be necessary, but to find the best practices of other towns who have gone through the same thing, we can provide that, and do it in a way where we don’t have to say one thing is better than the other. We can at least be able to say you have what you need to make an educated decision going forward.”
In his view, the current Ocean Ridge commission is more welcoming to volunteers such as himself than it’s been in the past.
“This community is tremendously gifted in the abilities and experiences of those who live here, and many of us have the financial ability to give our time and experiences freely. We don’t want to run for office, or have an agenda. We have to help the town solve some of its issues by using us.”
Hennigan served in the U.S. Air Force and spent 35 years as a United Airlines pilot. He and wife, Zoanne, moved to Ocean Ridge in 2002.

Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How has that influenced you?
A: I was born in the United Kingdom and emigrated with my parents, to Canada first, [where we] lived in Toronto. Crossed over and lived in Niagara Falls and Rochester, N.Y. each for a year. My dad was a bricklayer, so he worked his way south, left the family in Rochester, and when spring came, we moved to Washington, D.C. I went to high school there, then the University of Maryland.
Coming from an immigrant family, education was the name of the game. We were never well off when I was growing up. I was the oldest of three children. I put myself through college, ended up joining the Air Force during the Vietnam era, though I didn’t serve there. I became a pilot and after eight years in the Air Force got a job with United Airlines, where I was a commercial pilot for 35 years before retiring in 2013. My family’s background is Irish, and even in the UK, being Irish means being a second-class citizen. After the war my dad tried very hard to start a business and never got any financial support. So, my dad got a sponsorship out of Canada and went there on his own. He left me and my brother, who was 1, with our mother for another year until we could follow him. It was an odyssey.
I saw how hard it was for my parents to make ends meet. You just know what they did for you. And I can’t let it go; it’s the person that I am. I was the first in the family to be college educated, made it into the Air Force and became an officer. But my dad taught me the value of a hard day’s work. There’s nothing wrong with getting your hands dirty. My mother was as stoic as they came. Both of them were just classic. And my dad, he’s the core of who I am.

Q: What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: In my second year of college I got a job working for an engineering company that did road design. It was a public entity supported by the petroleum industry and it was located on the campus of the University of Maryland. They were looking for somebody to work in a laboratory part-time, and I was treated as faculty, so I could arrange my classes so I could work two days a week and go to school three days a week. I did that for three years of college and through that was able to be at the leading edge of computers.
By the time I was ready to graduate, I was still going to be waiting six months before I went to the Air Force, and I was taken on as a research associate. That has followed me my whole life, because even after leaving the Air Force, in the two years before I joined United, I was hired as a research scientist and worked for NASA for 21/2 years while I was furloughed. I used those skills in the Air Force also, doing R&D flying and as a project manager. I got to round out my skills [at United] as more than just a pilot, and I’ve maintained my interest in computers all these years. I still remember bringing home my first IBM PC and have had my head in that ever since.

Q: What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A: I’m a task person, and the joy of flying is, you do your homework, you study, and when you do your job it has a finite beginning, a finite end, and you can evaluate whether you did it well. I always found that enjoyable.
I’ve been to London 50 times, but only one day at a time. It’s always, what is the next thing I want to do there? I’ve taken advantage of that. We still travel extensively, and I’ve tried to get my children to do the same.
My advice? Don’t get pigeonholed by a job or be afraid of coming to a crossroad. Life is a journey, so take it. If you can go left or right, and it comes down to it, flip a coin. Don’t be defined by this one thing you do. Find out what kind of person you are or develop the kind of person you want to become.

Q: How did you choose to make your home in Ocean Ridge?
A: We were fortunate that both our sets of parents lived into their 90s. They were here, so we decided it was time to not do it long-distance [from California] anymore. My family was in Sarasota and hers was in Pompano Beach. We looked from the Florida Keys all the way up to St. Augustine. I liked the west coast of Florida, because it was quieter, and we didn’t like how busy Fort Lauderdale and even Palm Beach were.
We made an offer on a place in Jupiter, and one day my daughter came in and told me to turn on the TV, and it turned out to be 9/11. I watched the second tower go down and they were speculating what airline it was, and I saw it was United Airlines. I told my wife United is going to go bankrupt; we were in trouble and this would take us to bankruptcy.
So, we got out of that [deal] and a friend of mine told me about a little community called Ocean Ridge. We came here and found it great.
Q: What’s your favorite part about living in Ocean Ridge?
A: It’s unobtrusive, people leave us alone. It’s small enough you can get your arms around it. It’s close enough you can get anything you want. There are great people here. Good friends, good neighbors, good community.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: When I was a kid my dad would get me an almanac, or a big coffee table book, Headline Stories of the Last 100 Years — things to pique your interest. I started a long time ago to grab a volume of the Britannica and start browsing.
Now all that’s on the internet. So, my favorite book has become Wikipedia. I get up each morning, I read the news, and it will take me on a divergent story where I want to know more. And off I go. I always want to know how things connect and Wikipedia works that way.

Q: What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?
A: I still listen to classic rock, and I’m still part of the Woodstock generation. That ain’t going to change. I still like Jimi Hendrix; Crosby, Stills and Nash; Eric Clapton. We’ve got great speakers in the house and it can get loud.

Q: Have you had mentors in your life?
A: The formative person in my life is my dad, and the person who tempered it all is my wife. She came from a different type of family. I grew up with no relatives here; later on, I got one cousin who came. I didn’t have aunts, uncles and births, those things, and you’re sort of the outsider. I met her in college, and she had a 180-degree different background. Her family took my family in, including my parents. She took me from being extremely introverted, so where now I can masquerade as an extrovert. That’s important. And it’s lasted 49 years.

Q: If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?
A: I’d say Henry Fonda in Grapes of Wrath. That’s what my life was like.

Q: Who/what makes you laugh?
A: My Boston terrier, Potter. What’s typical of dogs, I could literally walk out that door, go to the mailbox, and when I came back it’s like he’s seeing a long-lost friend of 20 years.

By Dan Moffett

Briny Breezes has fallen behind on maintenance for its sewage lift stations, and that means some unexpected costs for the Town Council.
Town Manager Dale Sugerman told council members during their meeting on Sept. 26 that Harvel Utility Construction, Briny’s infrastructure contractor, says cleaning and inspecting the town’s seven lift stations will cost about $5,000.
Repairs to two fire hydrants are expected to cost about $2,000 more. Ocean Ridge had a similar problem earlier this year with its fire hydrants and ended up spending around $100,000 to get dozens of units back in good working order.
Beyond those expenses, Sugerman said, it will cost another $4,000 to buy a new pump for one of the stations. The cost of installation has yet to be determined, he said.
The council unanimously approved spending the money to make the repairs. The work is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
In other business:
• The Ocean Ridge Police Department officially took over as Briny’s law enforcement services provider on Oct. 1, replacing the Boynton Beach Police Department.
Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins told the council he is urging Brinyites to register with the CivicReady mass alert service. It allows residents to receive real-time emergency information by email, text or voice message.
Ocean Ridge joined the service this year, and Hutchins said it was invaluable in getting information out during Hurricane Dorian. The service is free and residents can sign up by using the link on Ocean Ridge’s website: oceanridgefl.regroup.com/signup.
• The council approved two new fees for the new fiscal year. One is a $25 administrative charge for checks to the town that are returned by the bank because of insufficient funds.
The other new fee is a penalty of $10 per business day for contractors or residents who are slow to turn in permit applications to the corporate office after receiving emergency approval for repairs.

About 20 Briny Breezes residents and friends gathered at the Memorial Fountain on Sept. 11 to remember those lost in the 2001 terrorist attacks. Seven flags, including one from the New York City Fire Department, were flown around the fountain. ABOVE: Briny residents Barbara and Roger Klink recently developed a relationship with members of one of the New York stations that lost firefighters. Roger Klink is a retired firefighter from Ohio, where he served for 26 years. Barbara Klink grew up in New York. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Iguana droppings are a major source of concern for residents. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Stephen Moore

Iguanas have become as big a part of the South Florida landscape as sunburned snowbirds. The invasive reptiles are here, they are staying and there are a lot of them.
Coastal towns and residents are grappling with how to deal with the critters, which feed mostly on vegetation, can be harmful to infrastructure by burrowing beneath sidewalks and seawalls, and leave droppings everywhere.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission offers suggestions on how to control, not eliminate, iguanas from individual private property and town- or city-owned public lands.
If people want to kill the creatures, it’s OK by the FWC, but it must be done humanely. A permit is not needed.
“The general guideline is to end the iguana’s life instantly — suddenly and without any suffering,” Zoo Miami animal ambassador Ron Magill told the Sun-Sentinel in February. “Hitting the iguana on the head with a shovel is OK, as long as you aim correctly and kill it in the first stroke. Hit it more than once and you could be charged with a crime.”
The FWC recommends the following:
• Shooting the animal with a captive bolt gun (pellet gun) and then decapitating it.
• Stunning the iguana with a yard tool, followed by decapitation.
• A carbon dioxide chamber, if you plan to eat the iguana meat.
• Anesthetic halothane, isoflurane or sevoflurane administered by a veterinarian.
• Cervical dislocation on small juveniles only.
But no firearms can be used. Florida Statute 790.15(1) states that any person who knowingly discharges a firearm in any public place or on or over the right of way of any paved public road, highway or street, or over any occupied premises, is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree. It is punishable by 12 months in jail and a $500 fine.
Animal cruelty is a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable with a year in prison, a fine of $5,000, or both.
Iguanas are typically found in wooded areas with lots of shrubbery, usually near water. They are cold-blooded and become much more active in warm weather.
Ocean Ridge’s Jimmy McAndrew, 73, got interested in trying to control iguanas on his property two years ago.
“My then 97-year-old mother-in-law came in the back door and told me there was a dinosaur in the backyard,” McAndrew said. “That’s when I got involved. The iguanas had dug nests in the yards of the properties to my left and right and there were droppings all over my deck.”
He hired Iguana Control, based in Coral Springs.
“They are very good, very helpful,” McAndrew said. “I haven’t been there in five months, but they had taken about 40 iguanas off the property. They trap and shoot them. They are good to work with and I like them. In fact, I think it would make a good business to go into. It is no small matter here. It’s a big problem.”
Ocean Ridge Town Manager Tracey Stevens said that municipality also hired Iguana Control.
“There were many complaints about the iguanas being very destructive and about feces being everywhere — in pools and on seawalls,” Stevens said. “The company is using pellet guns and traps. They caught 91 iguanas between Jan. 7 and the end of March. And they got 83 in July. They are doing a good job.”
Some other factors can limit the negative impact of iguanas.
Bryan Mudd, 53, is a licensed alligator trapper who gets many calls on nuisance iguanas. He said the weather has a lot to do with the problem.
“What we need is a good cold snap,” said Mudd, who lives in Boca Raton. “It’s been nine years since we had a good freeze. That is one reason why there are so many of them. When it freezes, the iguanas either freeze or become paralyzed — often falling out of trees — and appear dead.”
If you don’t want to wait for weather, the FWC says you can trap iguanas on your property and humanely kill them. You cannot relocate them. State guidelines make homeowners responsible for any animal caught in traps. All traps must be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Property owners can also fill in holes to discourage iguanas from burrowing. Hanging wind chimes and compact discs with shiny surfaces may also annoy iguanas and make them leave your property.
The FWC also suggests using wire mesh screening to create a barrier around plants and installing chicken wire at least one foot beneath the soil around your fences or seawalls to prevent iguanas from digging underneath them.

By Mary Thurwachter

An effort spearheaded by Hypoluxo Island resident Media Beverly persuaded the Lantana Town Council to change an earlier vote on the intensity of new streetlights.
On July 8, the council approved an agreement with FPL to switch out its high-pressure sodium streetlights with 4,000-Kelvin energy-efficient LEDs, or light-emitting diodes. FPL will cover the expense and the change would save about $1,000 in annual energy costs.
While a conversion was still in the works, the town on Sept. 9 changed its vote on the whiter 4,000K lights, opting instead for 3,000K lamps, a more yellow light.
Council members agreed to reconsider the matter after Beverly provided them with information she had collected, and council members had a chance to talk to residents and do further investigation.
Mayor Dave Stewart, for example, took a road trip to check out comparable streetlights in Juno Beach, Highland Beach, North Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and Boca Raton.
Last month, council member Lynn Moorhouse said that since the vote was first taken, he had learned that a light of that intensity (4,000K) does a lot of harm to humans, animals, flowers and fauna and was not a good fit for Lantana. He said the town had received a one-sided story from FPL when the July vote was taken and wanted to hear the other side of the story. He got that in September.
Beverly, who spent several months researching the street lamps, insisted the 4,000K lights would not be in the best interest of residents and would destroy the ambience on Hypoluxo Island. She gave council members and town staff packets of information she had accumulated through her research and rallied her neighbors to fill the council chambers on Sept. 9.
She also encouraged other residents, many of whom spend summers elsewhere, to email the town to express their objections to 4,000K lights.
One of the reasons council members chose 4,000K lights was they maintained the higher intensity lamps would be better for safety.
But Beverly said her research concluded that brighter lights do not guarantee better safety, but can enable criminals to more easily identify high value targets, including contents of homes and well-lit vehicles.
“They won’t need flashlights which alert others to their presence, and it’s not only easier for us to see them, but easier for them to see us,” she said.
Beverly cited a study in Chicago that showed a correlation between brightly lit alleyways and increased crime and a Los Angeles study that found crime increased 0.1% with each 1% of increased light.
“In Illinois, three times brighter lighting was installed with crime fighting as the principal function,” Beverly said. “Over a six-month study in an eight-block test area, nighttime violent crime increased by 32% and property offenses were up 77%.”
In Lantana, Beverly said, that “would translate to our violent crimes increasing from 65 to 85 and property offenses increasing from 128 to 226 based on our numbers over the last 12 months.”
Among those who opposed the 4,000K lights was Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center and a founding member of the International Dark-Sky Association, Palm Beach County.
An expert on LED lighting, Rusenko said blue light (4000K lights contain more blue light than 3000K) at night is environmentally destructive, increases the hazardous impacts of glare, especially in older adults, is a security risk due to the loss of night vision, and disrupts normal Circadian rhythms in humans (with potential unknown health issues).
Before the Sept. 9 vote was taken, Beverly urged council members to “remember that all of us will be stuck with the decision you make here tonight for the next 10 years, so please don’t turn our neighborhoods into well-lit prison yards like they did in New York.”
By a 4-1 vote, the council approved the lower 3,000K lights townwide, except for about 80 streetlights along Dixie Highway and in other places in town where they thought brighter lights would be beneficial for safety reasons. Town staff will work with FPL to determine where those 80 lights will go.
Council member Phil Aridas said safety of residents was a primary concern and maintained that the 4,000K lights, as recommended in July by the police chief, were the right choice. He cast the lone dissenting vote for 3,000K lamps.

By Steve Plunkett

Former Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella wants the 4th District Court of Appeal to vacate his February conviction of misdemeanor battery and tell the judge who sentenced him to enter instead a judgment of acquittal or give him a new trial.
Lucibella, 66, was found not guilty of resisting arrest with violence but guilty of misdemeanor battery, a lesser charge, instead of felony battery on a law enforcement officer. He was ordered to pay $675 in court costs on Feb. 21.
The charges stemmed from an Oct. 22, 2016, altercation in Lucibella’s backyard as Ocean Ridge police investigated phoned-in reports of gunfire. Officers Richard Ermeri and Nubia Plesnik and Sgt. William Hallahan responded.
In an initial brief filed Sept. 16, Lucibella’s appeals attorney, Leonard Feuer of West Palm Beach, states that Circuit Judge Daliah Weiss erred by not issuing a judgment of acquittal and by denying motions for a mistrial, largely repeating points that Lucibella’s defense team made at the trial.
“The motion for JOA argued the officers, who were investigating a misdemeanor, were trespassing on Lucibella’s property when they entered his enclosed backyard. Thus, the officers could not be engaged in a lawful execution of duty,” Feuer wrote. “Further, the alleged ‘resistance’ amounted to Lucibella stiffening his arm.”
Feuer also complains about prosecutor Danielle Grundt’s asking Ermeri whether Lucibella ever gave a response or explanation for why he had a firearm or why shells were present, to which Ermeri responded no.
“The question and answer amounted to an impermissible comment on Lucibella’s right to prearrest silence and shifted the burden of proof to Lucibella. The remarks directly addressed Lucibella’s right to possess a firearm, which the question itself cast in a negative light, as if Lucibella needed to explain his possession of a firearm at his own house,” Feuer wrote.
Coming next in the appeal case will be a response to Feuer’s brief by Senior Assistant Attorney General Georgina Jimenez-Orosa.
Between the arrest and Lucibella’s trial, Ermeri was promoted to sergeant and Hallahan retired.
Plesnik has filed a civil lawsuit accusing Lucibella of battery and negligence. She testified at his criminal trial that she missed reporting for police duty for several months because of shoulder problems caused by his actions.

By Jane Smith and Mary Hladky

IPic movie theaters in Delray Beach and Boca Raton remain open two months after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
But iPic Entertainment founder and chief executive Hamid Hashemi has abandoned efforts to persuade Delray Beach officials to allow him to open a restaurant on the third-floor terrace of the luxury theater that opened earlier this year just south of Atlantic Avenue between Southeast Fourth and Fifth avenues in the downtown.
The Downtown Development Authority board gave conditional approval for the restaurant in mid-August. But the company did not seek the approval it needed from another city board, which would have made a recommendation to the City Commission.
The terrace will remain vacant, City Attorney Lynn Gelin said in late September.
IPic also had not moved its headquarters from Boca Raton to Delray Beach.
The company had promised to relocate its headquarters within 180 days of the office space receiving a certificate of occupancy. The office space, which is part of the 4th and 5th Delray project that includes the theater, was still not ready as of late September.
IPic’s bankruptcy case is moving at a fast pace, as the company seeks to restructure its debt or find a buyer.
On Sept. 13, Delaware U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein approved bidding procedures for the sale of iPic’s assets.
She set an Oct. 11 deadline for potential buyers to submit bids, with an asset auction to be held on Oct. 17. A sale hearing to authorize the sale of assets is set for Oct. 28.
IPic launched in 2010 with a new concept: luxury theaters with reclining seats, quality food and drinks brought to patrons, and pillows and blankets. The chain grew to 16 theaters in nine states.
But in the years since, theater patronage has decreased nationwide and larger theater chains copied iPic’s dine-in option and reclining seats.
IPic’s financial problems worsened in the first quarter of this year and on July 1 it missed a $10.1 million interest payment due to the Teachers’ Retirement System of Alabama and the Employees’ Retirement System of Alabama.
IPic sought bankruptcy protection on Aug. 5 and its stock was delisted on Nasdaq. The stock traded on the over-the-counter market at 48 cents per share as of Sept. 24.