By Dan Moffett

For many years, police in Briny Breezes diplomatically looked the other way when a golf cart zipped down the sidewalk on A1A or drove the wrong way down a one-way street.
Those days are ending — and soon.
The Boynton Beach Police Department has told the town it has no choice but to start enforcing state statutes, and that means some serious changes for the roughly 130 golf cart owners in the town.
Soon, if you are operating a golf cart that is “street legal” — one converted to comply with state standards for a modified low-speed vehicle — you essentially are driving a small Ford or Chevy. Police will require you to follow the same rules of the road that would apply to the family car.
 If you own a cart that looks like it just came off the golf course and hasn’t been modified for street use (no headlights, seat belts, turn signals, state registration etc.), then your options for operating it legally in Briny will be extremely limited. In fact, there’s virtually nowhere in the town you can go, except on the internal private streets, without risking a violation.
One critical warning to all golf cart operators comes from Boynton Police Capt. Chris Yannuzzi: “Operating a golf cart along A1A has been illegal. Whether you’re going straight across A1A or up and down the sidewalk, it doesn’t matter.”
Yannuzzi says officers will immediately begin an education campaign to inform residents about the rules for golf carts and the penalties for violations. For the short term, police will issue warnings. Later, officers will write citations that have fines.
“We really did try the best we could to figure out some kind of compromise,” Yannuzzi said during the Town Council meeting on April 26. “Unfortunately that did not happen.”
Town Manager Dale Sugerman said he spent the last three months trying unsuccessfully to negotiate a solution with Florida Department of Transportation officials.
“No matter how hard we looked at the issue of changing directions of internal streets,” Sugerman said, “that would never result in all golf carts being able to completely avoid using at least a portion of the sidewalk on SR A1A.”
That sidewalk has become an insurmountable problem. It is state property and governed by the FDOT. It is 5 feet wide and designed for pedestrians only. The town would have to expand the sidewalk to 8 feet to get FDOT’s blessing to allow both pedestrians and golf carts to use it.
With an 8-foot sidewalk, FDOT would be willing to install a golf cart crossing at the intersection of Cordova Avenue and A1A, the essential link needed to make cart travel feasible in the town.
But widening the sidewalk would cost Briny hundreds of thousands of dollars, Sugerman said, because utility lines would have to be moved and perhaps even new FPL power poles would need to be installed. The state isn’t willing to share the cost.
“There is no FDOT funding to widen the sidewalk,” Sugerman said, “as the FDOT sidewalk is meant for pedestrians and not for golf carts.”
Council President Sue Thaler said there is no timetable for when police will switch from the education campaign to enforcement.
In other business, council members have a busy agenda set for May 17. Beginning at 3 p.m., they will hold a special meeting to discuss proposals for providing legal services to the town, then at 4 p.m. they will join corporate board members for a workshop on preparations for the hurricane season.
Thaler says current Town Attorney John Skrandel and five law firms have submitted proposals to handle the town’s legal work.

By Dan Moffett

South Palm Beach Town Council members have given unanimous preliminary approval to an ordinance that will allow police to cite and fine dog owners who take their pets on the beach.
The town already has on its books an ordinance that prohibits dogs on the beach, but it empowers police only to issue warnings. The new ordinance paves the way for developing a schedule of fines and procedures for dealing with violators.
Town Attorney Carolyn Ansay told the council on April 24 that ordinance would apply to “types of violations that are deemed uncorrectable.” Unlike violations of building codes that the town can enforce through a process of inspections, hearings, fines and corrections, people who take dogs on the beach pose a problem that cannot be reversed and that demands immediate enforcement.
“You have an ordinance for warnings,” Ansay said. “This takes it to the next level.”
Once cited, offending dog owners will have the right to appeal to a town code enforcement board or a magistrate, then ultimately the circuit court.
“This is definitely necessary,” said newly seated Councilman Bill LeRoy. “There’s no point having an ordinance if you can’t enforce it.”
Mary Wallace, who lives in the Palm Beach Windemere condo building just north of Lantana Municipal Beach, said irresponsible dog owners have become a recurring problem on her beach.
“At any given time, there are dogs out there,” Wallace said. “The dogs run free. We’ve had pit bulls around kids. It’s been going on for quite some time.”
Mayor Bonnie Fischer said the council will decide how much to fine violators after the ordinance comes up for final approval on June 12. It will take until June for the second reading of the new law to be properly advertised. The council is changing its monthly meeting date to the second Tuesday of each month, beginning at 7 p.m. May 8.
In other business, South Palm Beach will hold its annual Memorial Day program and cookout from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 28 at Town Hall. The event will feature tributes to veterans and active-duty military personnel. Shane’s Rib Shack of Royal Palm Beach will handle the catering. The event is free and open to residents and their families.

By Jane Smith and Dan Moffett

The almost 2-acre oceanfront parcel that once housed the Pelican Apartments along the former Dog Beach in the County Pocket will soon be home to Gulf Stream Views.
The property sale for the luxury townhome project is expected to close in mid-May, said real estate broker Steven Presson. It has been on the market for $6.895 million since last June.
“An investment group is coming down from the Northeast and looking to build 14 oceanfront townhomes,” Presson said.
The complex will sit on the west side of Old Ocean Boulevard, just south of Briny Breezes. Each townhome will have three stories, a driveway and a garage, according to plans submitted to the town of Briny Breezes. The townhomes will range in size from 3,351 to 3,386 square feet.
Seven townhomes will sit on each side of an access road, the plans show. The proposed complex has two buildings with three units each on the western part of the property and four buildings with two units each on the eastern side. The main entrance into Gulf Stream Views will be from Old Ocean Boulevard on the east side of the complex.
“I believe this will prove to be a valuable project that will not only enhance the Briny Breezes area,” Presson said, “but increase property values for all.”
Briny Breezes became involved because the soon-to-be owner needs town permission to make a cut into Briny Breezes Boulevard on the northern edge of the project to connect to Boynton Beach water lines, Town Manager Dale Sugerman said at the April 26 Town Council meeting.
The council may take up the request at its May 24 meeting.
The project’s owner received a tentative go-ahead from the county Department of Planning, Zoning & Building, subject to approval by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Two of Gulf Stream Views’ townhomes and parts of two others sit east of the state’s Coastal Construction Control Line. If past approvals of buildings proposed within the CCCL are any indication, the state will approve the Gulf Stream Views complex.
The city of Boynton Beach must approve the water and sewer plans.
Presson declined to comment further until after the sale closes. The property’s current owner, David Rinker, could not be reached for comment.
More than 14 years ago, the parcel abutted a section of Palm Beach County beach that was used informally as a dog beach, attracting dogs and their owners from surrounding communities and as far away as Broward County.
In July 2004, some nearby residents complained to Palm Beach County commissioners. They unanimously closed county parks and beaches to dogs.
Mike Smollon, a retired Boynton Beach fire lieutenant who lives south of the proposed Gulf Stream Views in the County Pocket, wonders how long the complex will take to complete.
“It will help our property values,” he said, “but it will increase our traffic.”
Of the land sitting empty next to the ocean, Smollon said the sale “was bound to happen. It’s a valuable piece of property that couldn’t sit vacant forever.”
Neighbor Marie Chapman hopes the new owners will reach out to the residents in the area and show their renderings.
“Key West-style of architecture will fit in with us,” she said, “but not industrial style.” Chapman also is concerned about how Gulf Stream Views will deal with its drainage plans. “Right now, it’s open land. When they build on it, that’s less land that will be available for drainage,” she said.
The homes south of the parcel are at a lower elevation and the streets usually flood with the summer downpours, she said.
“I’m excited to see what will go there,” Chapman said.

By Mary Thurwachter

John Park didn’t appear before the Lantana Town Council on April 9 to squeal about tax increases or garbage pickup. He just wants to keep his mini pig.
Park, who has a home on South 11th Street, said he received a code violation after his pet mini pig escaped his backyard and was found snoozing in the front yard with the family dog.
“Our back gate blew open and the pig got outside, and it just so happened that at the time code enforcement was driving by,” Park said. “They saw the pig and the dog just laying on the front yard. We were found to be in violation. I didn’t have a neighbor report us.
“The pig is potty-trained. It lives inside the house with us. It knows its name. It’s pretty much the same thing as a dog.”
He asked if the law could be amended or changed to allow him to keep his pig. The ordinance prohibiting pigs really has more to do with livestock than personal pets, he argued.
Park found sympathetic ears from council members, who agreed to discuss the matter further and have the town attorney, Max Lohman, draft language to modify the town code as it pertains to domestic animals.
“We don’t want chickens, hens and goats running around the neighborhood. I got that,” council member Lynn Moorhouse said. “I’d like to see us at least talk about it.”
Council member Phil Aridas agreed. “People have pigs for pets. They’re great pets. They’re cute,” he said.
“Smarter than most people,” Moorhouse added.
“I’m pro pig, Mr. Mayor,” council member Malcolm Balfour chimed in.
“I’m all in favor of having a discussion of reasonable restrictions,” said Vice Mayor Ed Shropshire.
Before Lohman begins drafting an ordinance, Mayor Dave Stewart asked Town Manager Deborah Manzo to poll residents to gauge their feelings on the issue. “We want the best for all the residents. Not too strict. Not too lenient.”
The matter is on the May 14 agenda.
In the meantime, Park’s little piggy stays home.

By Mary Thurwachter

The annual cost of garbage collection in Lantana is jumping from $700,000 to almost a million dollars.
The Town Council last month approved a contract with Republic Services Inc., the same company that has handled the town’s garbage pickup for five years.
“The total annual increased cost is $270,700,” said Town Manager Deborah Manzo. “Monthly rate for curbside would increase from $20.01 to $26.60 and containerized service would increase from $11.49 to $17.16.”  
The service will be pretty much the same as what the town has been receiving, but “Republic Services will be providing new [garbage cans] for curbside service,” she said. After five years, the town would own the containers.
Council member Phil Aridas said garbage cans tend to be ugly and he wants the new ones to be camo colored. “It’s patriotic,” he said. “I think it would really look cool and would be a neat thing for the town and show respect for our servicemen.” Joanne Stanley, the local representative for Republic Services, said she would look into the camo request but made no promises. “In my 25 years, I’ve never seen a camo container,” she said.
Mayor Dave Stewart wanted to know why the costs were soaring.
“Your residents are requiring good service, and so in order to provide those resources for you, we have to make sure we have enough money to do that,” said Stanley.
Manzo said that when Republic began working with the town five years ago, the firm didn’t have a full picture of what Lantana needed, since the town had been doing its own garbage collection previously. Republic was “having to pay an additional $30,000 to $40,000 every year and extra cost for disposals,” Manzo said.
Bryant Thornton, director of operations for Republic, said equipment is very expensive, as are operating costs and health care.
“We value your partnership and our relationship with the council, but these costs are significant for us,” Thornton said.
The town made it clear it values the partnership, and council members had praise for Stanley’s work ethic and availability when they have questions or concerns. But the mayor wondered if the new contract, with a promise of improved service, would make a difference in terms of the complaints he receives.
“So, this will eliminate the 6 a.m. calls I’m getting while sitting on my porch about the recycle bins and the glass on the road, and the coconuts that didn’t get picked up?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” Stanley answered.
The five-year contract goes into effect at the end of May. In other action, the council approved plans for renovations to the McDonald’s restaurant at 1450 W. Lantana Road. A second drive-through lane, new landscaping and changes in the signage are included in the plan.

By Jane Smith

The Riverwalk Plaza owner is going through the approval process to donate 5.7 acres of mangroves, promised in March 2017, to Boynton Beach.
To make the donation, Isram Realty of Hallandale submitted a permit application in December to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a federal agency that regulates land fronting the Intracoastal Waterway. The stated purpose of the permit was for “construction of a waterfront multifamily residence.”
The Corps mailed notices about the application to six nearby property owners in late January. Isram Realty is one of the six. But four of the remaining five said they never received the notice.
The lack of information has increased the tension between waterfront residents and Isram.
“We had to state the highest and best use of the land, that’s why it says ‘waterfront multifamily residence’ on the permit application,” said Shaul Rikman, Isram founder. “Maybe in 50 years, it could be developed.”
The mangrove parcel carries a multifamily zoning with a height limit of four stories or 45 feet, according to Michael Rumpf, the city’s planning and zoning director. He also said the city has not received any plans for the site.
“Nothing has changed [about the donated mangroves] since March 21, 2017,” said Rikman. “We are giving the city exactly what we promised.”
Isram plans to hold onto an adjacent interior 3.2-acre parcel along Federal Highway for construction staging of its proposed 10-story apartment complex in Riverwalk Plaza.
The Corps technically ended public comment for the application on Feb. 16, said Nakeir Nobles, Corps spokeswoman in Jacksonville. But the Corps can accept comments up until the time it makes a decision on the permit application, she said.
That date is not known, she said. The Corps is waiting on responses from the National Marine Fisheries, the Habitat Conservation Division, the Environmental Protection Agency and possibly the Corps’ regulatory archaeologist for potential historic property concerns, Nobles said.
“We are also awaiting the applicant’s response to a request for additional information,” she said.
Luke Therien, whose family owns the Prime Catch restaurant in Riverwalk Plaza, was on the notice list, but his company did not receive the notice. After reviewing Isram’s permit application on the Corps website, Therien said, “It seems reasonable to me. This is private property and Isram paid to get this property.
“I guess that the only thing one could argue is to work within the existing zoning codes.”
The mangrove donation was orchestrated by Commissioner Justin Katz as a way to make the project more palatable to the residents of the Seagate of Gulfstream condominiums. The 55-and-older community sits south of the mangroves.
Katz envisioned a boardwalk through the mangroves, ending at the northern border of Seagate.
But its residents don’t want a walkway, even if it is gated, because they can’t control who comes through, said Terry Owens, president of the Seagate condo board. They’re concerned about liability of their two waterfront swimming pools and break-ins, he said.
Seagate used to have an entrance into the mangroves to allow residents to go bird-watching, Owens said. But it is now locked because the condo community experienced break-ins, he said.
The board did not receive a written notice of the application, according to Owens. “Rikman came in late February to the Seagate clubhouse and talked generally about his plans to the Boynton Intracoastal Group meeting,” he said.
Deborah Corvey, co-owner of Boynton Billiards, and Steve Marouf, owner of the Troy’s Bar-Be-Que building on Federal Highway, said they also did not receive notices. Both properties are west of the parcels. The owner of the adjacent McDonald’s branch could not be reached.
After the mangroves are donated, Boynton Beach would maintain them, said Andrew Mack, the city’s development director. “This is similar to the existing mangrove park the city currently maintains,” he said. That park is along the Intracoastal Waterway just north of Boynton Beach Boulevard.
The Riverwalk project secured six extra stories after the city created transit-oriented development nodes at certain intersections along Federal Highway. City planners want to have the density to prepare for an anticipated Tri-Rail Coastal Link commuter line stop on the Florida East Coast train tracks. The Brightline express passenger rail uses the tracks but does not have a stop in the city.
Nearby residents had wanted only four stories for the former Winn-Dixie parcel. That was what had been allowed in the original zoning. Riverwalk Plaza sits at the southwestern base of the Woolbright Road bridge to the barrier island.

Key part of Town Square project on track for January opening

A group of journalists and city employees toured the historic building, which opened in 1927 but has been vacant for a quarter century. It will become a recreation and events center. ABOVE: A pool holding 17,000 pounds of water tests the ability of the second-floor auditorium to hold its full capacity of 500 people. The structure passed the test. BELOW LEFT: Workers place new plywood on top of original floor beams that the project will reuse. The city plans a January opening for the building. BELOW RIGHT: One of two school crests that have been preserved on the south side of the building. Photos by Jerry Lower/ The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

To make way for the ambitious Town Square project, Boynton Beach will operate its library, City Hall, Fire Station 1 and police headquarters out of temporary buildings mostly in Quantum Park, off Gateway Boulevard and west of Interstate 95.
City commissioners approved the leases in mid-April by a 3-1 vote. Mayor Steven Grant was absent. Commissioner Joe Casello cast the dissenting vote.
“Everything was fast-tracked, rushed,” he said after the meeting. “I wanted more time to vet the leases to make sure we are getting a good deal when spending taxpayer dollars.”
The city will pay a total of about $2.2 million to lease temporary space, City Manager Lori LaVerriere said.
The library will move first, starting in June. It will be split into two locations.
A nearby annex for children will occupy the first floor of a two-story office building at 209 N. Seacrest Blvd., owned by lawyer Michael Weiner. The main library will rent 23,000 square feet at 2045 High Ridge Road, as a sublease from Fantasy Chocolates.
“The annex will be for the kids. Most of them live nearby,” said Craig Clark, library director.
The children’s library annex rent will be $8,360 a month for 4,579 square feet, or $167,200 for 20 months, the anticipated construction time, said Tim Howard, assistant city manager/finance.
Three AmeriCorps volunteers, four full-time youth services staff and a few part-timers will work there, Clark said.
The main library sublease cost will be $25,975 per month, or $519,500 for 20 months, Howard said. Operating expenses for utilities and maintenance are extra.
Boynton Beach does not include operating costs for the existing buildings in its budget, said Colin Groff, assistant city manager in charge of Town Square. “When you rent space, your costs are about 20 to 30 percent higher,” he said after the commission meeting.
The city used a commercial real estate broker to help find the space, Groff said. But because it didn’t want to rent space for at least five years, the city was limited to subleases for the short-term stays, he said.
The temporary library won’t have a program room, Clark said. That means no brown-bag lunch presentations during the season and no craft programs. It will have space for the quilters, the Friends of the Library used books and DVD store, he said.

Fire crew will move last
Fire Station 1, which also serves Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes, will divide its staff and vehicles between Station 4 on South Federal Highway and Station 5 on High Ridge Road.
“We will be the last to leave,” Fire Chief Glenn Joseph said after the commission meeting. The departure time is anticipated for early August. One lieutenant and two firefighter paramedics with a rescue vehicle will work out of the South Federal Highway station, he said.
About 70 percent of the emergency calls are medical, Joseph said. The fire truck and three staff members (lieutenant and two firefighter paramedics) will work out of Station 5.
Joseph expects response times to increase by 30 seconds. His team will monitor them and if they rise over one minute, the team will look for space east of I-95. Joseph knows it won’t be easy to find a building big enough for the truck.
He expects to be in the temporary space for about 18 months, although Groff is trying to reduce that time by a third. New fire stations are easy to design and build, both men said.
The temporary City Hall will have 23,000 square feet at 3301 Quantum Blvd. at a monthly rental rate of $42,166.67. That rent will begin Aug. 1. The amount for 20 months will be $843,333 plus expenses.
The City Hall lease comes with a $46,000 build-out credit. The library build-out is estimated to cost $25,000.
The temporary City Hall does not have a room for City Commission and board meetings. Most will be held at the city-owned Intracoastal Park clubhouse on Federal Highway or the community room in Fire Station 5 on High Ridge Road, Groff said.
The city will have to publicize the new locations in several ways, Groff told commissioners. Signs will be important particularly in Quantum Park, where it’s easy to get lost, he said.
The police headquarters will be at 3602-3606 Quantum Blvd., renting 27,300 square feet for a monthly rate of $24,501.75. It’s a sublease from World Wide Ticket and Labels Inc.
Estimated build-out costs are $250,000 because the department has to construct holding cells and detective rooms.

Rec programs moved
Town Square, a mix of civic buildings and privately owned apartment buildings and a hotel, will be built during the next few years on 16 acres fronting Boynton Beach Boulevard.
The historic high school is part of the project. Its opening date is set for January. Plans call for the high school to be used for recreation programs on the ground floor and weddings and other events on the second floor.
The recreation programs that were in the soon-to-be-demolished Civic Center were moved in January to various city parks, Groff said after the commission meeting.
In other Town Square-related news, city commissioners, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board, agreed unanimously to pay $3 million for 1.3 acres from the Congregational United Church of Christ.
The church has been losing members and needs to downsize, Fred Birdsall, a church spokesman, told the CRA board on April 10. The church hopes to find new space within the city.
The parcels sit between Ocean Avenue and Boynton Beach Boulevard and are split by Northeast First Avenue. The church sits on the larger parcel on the southern side.
The city owns a parcel next to the parking lot on the north side of Northeast First Avenue. The purchase will allow the CRA to build a parking garage to serve Town Square; a planned Tri-Rail Coastal Link station on the other side of the FEC tracks; the nearly complete 500 Ocean apartment complex on Ocean Avenue, and the planned Villages of East Ocean mixed-use project. The deal is expected to close by the end of May.
One sticking point may be the stained glass windows and cross in the church. They were designed by famed artist Conrad Pickel.
Both the CRA and the church congregation want the windows. The CRA would back down if its desire caused the deal to fall apart, members agreed.
The deal allows the church to stay in the building until Dec. 15 and pay the CRA monthly rent of $15. Church members will be responsible for the utility expenses and repairs up to $20,000.

On the move
Library: To 2045 High Ridge Road; children’s annex to 209 N. Seacrest Blvd. In June.
Police, City Hall: To Quantum Park, off Gateway Boulevard and west of Interstate 95. Leases begin Aug. 1 if build-out is complete.
Commission, board meetings: Intracoastal Park clubhouse on Federal Highway or community room in Fire Station 5 on High Ridge Road.
Fire Station 1: Staff, vehicles to divide between Station 4 on South Federal and Station 5. Early August.

By Rich Pollack

HIGHLAND BEACH — Sandra Featherman, a leader in the world of higher education and a tireless advocate for the rights of women and children, died April 26. She was 84.
The wife of former Highland Beach Mayor Bernard Featherman, Mrs. Featherman spent 11 years as president of the University of New England in southern Maine and was a well-respected political scientist, an author of books and more than 50 professional papers, a television and radio show host, and a philanthropist.
Most of all, Mrs. Featherman spent much of her life helping to change lives either through her higher education efforts or her activism.
“The legacy of making a difference is something she was very proud of,” said her son Andrew Featherman. “She fought all her life for higher education and she fought all her life helping to empower women.”
In a November interview with The Coastal Star, Mrs. Featherman said she often heard from students from many years ago, letting her know about her positive impact on their lives.
“I’m very proud of the fact that people will still write me and tell me I’ve made a serious difference in their lives,” she said.
While she spent decades in higher education as a professor and an administrator — including a four-year term as vice chancellor of academic affairs at the University of Minnesota in Duluth — Mrs. Featherman is best known in academic circles for her leadership at the University of New England.
During her years as president, several academic programs and majors were added, and the student enrollment grew at a steady pace. Under Mrs. Featherman’s leadership, the university gained a national reputation for its leadership in health care education.
Although she retired in 2006, Mrs. Featherman remained active in higher education circles, serving as a commissioner of accreditation for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
“She accredited hundreds of colleges across the country,” said Andrew Featherman.
In Florida, she was on the board of trustees of Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland and the board of Gulf Stream School.
“She was very proud of her involvement with Florida Poly Tech,” Andrew Featherman said.
Her years in higher education led her to write her 2014 book, Higher Education at Risk: Strategies to Improve Outcomes, Reduce Tuition, and Stay Competitive in a Disruptive Environment.
 Mrs. Featherman was also well regarded as a political scientist with a knack for accurately predicting election outcomes, especially local elections. She did not try to predict the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, however, believing it would be too close to call.
“I’m a very good election prognosticator,” she said. “I understand politics, it’s in my bones.”
Her skills earned her regular election night appearances on local television stations and made her an expert source for newspapers across the country, including The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
Memorial services were held late last month in Philadelphia, and family members are planning to host a South Florida celebration of her life — possibly this summer — for her many friends in Highland Beach and the surrounding area.
Mrs. Featherman is survived by her husband, Bernard Featherman; sons Andrew (Elizabeth) and John (Masako); and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.
Contributions from Florida may be made in her name to Florida Polytechnic University.

By Ron Hayes

BOCA RATON — Kirk Coakley was only 13, a seventh-grader at St. Joan of Arc Catholic School in Boca Raton, when a van struck him as he waited to cross the street on his bike.
At the hospital, a somber doctor told Ruth Coakley that her son would not live through the night.
“You don’t know Kirk,” she told the doctor, “and you don’t know the power of prayer.”
And then she and a young seminary student named Brian Horgan prayed together.
This was on Tuesday, March 8, 1994.
Kirk Coakley lived another 24 years. He endured a traumatic brain injury that left him unable to walk or talk, but he learned to communicate with hand signals. After attending a special arts program at the Morikami Museum, he developed a passion for painting and went on to see his work exhibited at the 2014 VSA Arts Fair.
Mr. Coakley died at home on April 3. He was 37. He succumbed to a bout of pneumonia exacerbated by his injuries.
Kirk Michael Coakley was born Aug. 18, 1980, in Rochester, N.Y., but came to Boca Raton when he was 6 weeks old.
“After his accident, the slightest form of communication spoke volumes,” Ruth Coakley told The Coastal Star before her son’s art was exhibited in 2014. “A squeeze of the hand, a blink of his eyes, or a wiggle of toe. Kirk had lost his voice, but not his will to communicate.”
Before his accident, Mr. Coakley enjoyed doing artwork at school, but after seeing a woman demonstrate Japanese ink drawing at the museum, he became determined to create again, despite his limitations.
“As Kirk watched her, his eyes widened, and a smile grew on his face,” his mother recalled. “I really think it was then he believed that expression through artwork could be part of his life again.”
In addition to St. Joan of Arc, Mr. Coakley attended Royal Palm School and Twin Palms Center for the Disabled. He loved music and movies as well as the pictorial arts, but his time with family and friends brought him the most joy, his mother said.
Mr. Coakley was preceded in death by his father, William Coakley. In addition to his mother, he is survived by a brother, William, and his wife, Virginia, and nephews Billy and Jack.
On April 6, a funeral Mass was celebrated at St. Lucy Catholic Church in Highland Beach. The celebrant was Father Brian Horgan, who had prayed for his recovery on that painful night 24 years before.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that donations be made to Twin Palms Center for the Disabled in Boca Raton.

Ryan Heavyside (center) raises his hands amid hundred of surfers who joined together in a paddle-out April 29 to celebrate the life of Ron Heavyside, his father. Mr. Heavyside died April 14 in the 50th anniversary year of his Nomad Surf Shop. Photo provided by James Arena

By Ron Hayes

COUNTY POCKET — When Ron Heavyside opened his store in 1968, he named it the Nomad Surf Shop in a nod to all those wandering riders who travel the oceans in search of a perfect wave.
But for the next 50 years, as the Nomad grew from a modest corner in his father’s TV repair shop to an 8,000-square-foot landmark known throughout much of the surfing world, Mr. Heavyside never ventured far from the County Pocket.
On Sunday afternoon, April 29, several hundred friends and area surfers joined his family on the beach behind the Nomad to give his ashes to the waves on which he rode and made his living.
Mr. Heavyside died at Bethesda Memorial Hospital on April 14 after suffering stomach pains. He was 69.
As loudspeakers filled the beach with the music of Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Four Tops, friends and surfers young and old, black and white, sipped beer and rum, sharing memories of the man some knew as a friend from their teenage years in the 1960s and others a father figure they had met only recently.
Wrapped in a Nomad T-shirt, the urn containing his ashes waited on the sand before a surfboard adorned with a painting of Mr. Heavyside at work, shaping a board.
Ronald Richard Heavyside was born in Montreal on October 14, 1948. The family moved to Ocean Ridge in 1962, when he was 14, and before long the teenager had discovered surfing.
Tom Warnke, a lifelong friend and fellow surfer, met Mr. Heavyside at Seacrest High School in 1964.
“He was one of the first two students who shocked everyone by wearing their hair ungreased, dry and over their forehead, the same way as the new band, The Beatles,” Warnke recalled.
Still a student, Mr. Heavyside worked at the Caribbean Surfboard Co. in Delray Beach, where he learned to shape and build boards.
In 1967 he and five friends chipped in $250 each, rented a small industrial space on Hypoluxo Road, and Nomad surfboards were born.
A year later, he opened the Nomad Surf Shop in a corner of his father’s TV shop.

Boynton Beach Ocean Rescue Chief Tom Mahady places a lei on Ron’s surfboard memorial. Jerry Lower/ The Coastal Star

In 1974, Mr. Heavyside married the former Beth Walsh, whose business acumen allowed the shop to expand the inventory into beachwear and attract customers beyond the surfer clientele.
The couple had two sons, Ronnie and Ryan. Mrs. Heavyside died in 1997.
For a time in the 1980s, Mr. Heavyside owned Nomad shops in Delray Beach, Boca Raton and Cocoa and traveled the East Coast selling his boards wholesale. But he always remained more surfer than businessman.
“Ron Heavyside was independent,” said Warnke, now executive director of the Palm Beach County Surfing History Project. “That’s what nomads are. He was unique and did things his own way, when he wanted and how he wanted.
“I remember calling on Ron as a Costa Del Mar Sunglasses sales rep in 1983,” Warnke said. “Sometimes it would take a few appointments to finally write an order, or Ron would get interrupted and disappear.”
In his later years, Mr. Heavyside’s sons took over the daily operation of the business while he remained a friendly presence, riding a golf cart around the neighborhood, visiting the ocean and greeting Nomad friends and customers.
At the memorial service, Ryan Heavyside was clearly moved by the size of the crowd.
“Hey, everybody,” he began, “I just want to say ... wow!”
His father had loved telling stories, Ryan Heavyside said, and so he encouraged people in the crowd to do the same. And they did.
One by one, men and women took the microphone to praise Mr. Heavyside as a father and friend, employer and customer, surfer and maker of surfboards.
The Rev. Wendy Tobias of St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Boynton Beach presided over a brief religious service.
“O God,” she prayed, “the waves speak to our hearts. They rise, gain momentum, fall, and draw us into deeper levels of consciousness. Thank you for this place of rhythm and harmony, a resting place for Ron, a place to which we too retreat when life seems confused and overwhelming, a place in which we find joy.”
And then many in the crowd, bearing surfboards, headed for the ocean, to paddle offshore and form a large circle.
Ryan and Ronnie Heavyside joined them, bearing their father’s ashes, and after a brief moment of silence, Ron Heavyside, surfer, was home in the ocean once more.
In addition to his sons, Ronnie and Ryan, he is survived by Ronnie’s wife, Danielle, their son, Reef, and Ryan’s fiancee, Taylor Buczynski.

By Emily J. Minor

OCEAN RIDGE — Rayden Jacob Cody, a man of faith and family who in his retirement years picked up the grandkids every day at school in his Cadillac, died April 5 at age 90.
Mr. Cody went into the hospital for appendicitis surgery, which was successful, but his lungs never fully recovered, said his daughter Mary Ann Cody. He had suffered with a breathing ailment for years, thought to have been brought on by asbestos exposure as a young man.
Born Oct. 27, 1927, in Montpelier, Vermont, Mr. Cody and his brothers eventually joined their father, Richard, to form Cody Enterprises. The successful family business owned and operated movie theaters, bowling alleys, coin laundries, car dealerships and other real estate holdings in and around Montpelier and Burlington, Vermont.
Without ever attending college, Mr. Cody and his brothers were known as savvy business owners. At one time, they owned Burlington’s Strong Theater and, after a devastating fire burned it down along with many other business, the Flynn Theater. 
It was in the days before television, when going to the movies was the favorite entertainment, said his daughter. When theater business declined because “everyone was tuning in to TV,” the family grew its car dealership business, said Mary Ann Cody.
At his side for 68 years — during all those Vermont winters and then, eventually, all those warm Florida sunrises — was Ann Kathryn Handy Cody. Mary Ann Cody said one of the favorite family stories is how the two met. When Mr. Cody was 7 years old and in the first grade, he came home from school to report his day to his mother.
“Who’s the prettiest girl in the class?” she is said to have asked him. His answer? “Ann Handy.”
Years later, when they were seniors in high school, those two grade-school friends started dating and were married on Nov. 10, 1949. The former Ann Kathryn Handy and Mr. Cody had two daughters, Mary Ann, formerly of Albany, N.Y., and now living with her mother in Ocean Ridge, and Vicki Cody Mack, of suburban Boynton Beach. 
Because of his success, Mr. Cody was able to retire before he turned 60. In 1984, the couple moved to Delray Beach to be near family. Three years later, they moved to Ocean Ridge. At this home, Mr. Cody took the old treadmill he’d had for years, positioned it in a room with an ocean view and walked 4 miles on that treadmill every day. While he was walking, he also said four rosaries, Catholic prayers recited with counting beads. 
“Four miles and four rosaries, that was his routine,” said Mary Ann Cody. 
A devoted grandfather to his three grandchildren, Mr. Cody — who attended Mass daily when he was well enough — created years of memories with his grandkids.
“They called him Grandfather and they love those memories from him picking them up at school,” Mary Ann remembered. They’d get a snack, and then he’d take them home, she said. 
Mr. Cody was so loved in his family that 20 of his 32 nieces and nephews flew in for “Uncle Ray’s” funeral on April 9 at his Florida parish, St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church. Besides his grandchildren, Mr. Cody is survived by four great-grandchildren and many other family members. 
He was buried at Boynton Beach Memorial Park. Any memorial contributions may be made to St. Vincent Ferrer Care Ministry.

By Mary Hladky

City officials are asking owners of downtown private parking garages and surface parking lots if they are willing to allow the public to use their surplus spaces.
This effort is a step toward alleviating the downtown parking crunch, which has prompted fears that people are avoiding the downtown because parking is such a hassle.
But it is not clear whether owners are willing to help out.
City Manager Leif Ahnell said city staffers already have spoken to owners, and they are reluctant to offer up their extra parking spaces because of concerns about liability, the cost of hiring more maintenance staff to monitor parking and security concerns.
Chris Heggen, of parking consultant Kimley-Horn and Associates, said the city probably would have to authorize private property owners to charge the public for use of their facilities.
Kimley-Horn presented the second of two downtown parking studies to the City Council, sitting as Community Redevelopment Agency commissioners, at their April 26 meeting.
The first study, presented last summer, found that the 1,275 existing downtown parking spaces technically are enough to meet demand since they are only 70 percent used. But the spaces are not all located where many people want to shop and dine, creating a parking crunch at better locations.
Mizner Park, for example, needs 108 more spaces now, and that number will grow to about 150 by 2020, the study found.
The second study looked at the parking supply in private facilities in the downtown core. The six lots and garages surveyed have nearly 400 spaces available at the peak parking time of 7 p.m. on Fridays. Of those, Heggen estimated about 100 might be available for public use.
But once again, some of those properties are west of Federal Highway — not where most of the demand is. One possibility is to use those properties for valet-parked vehicles, Heggen said.
The study found that Royal Palm Place has the biggest parking problem, with its private lots filled to overcapacity at 7 p.m. Fridays. It needs 177 more spaces.
Although the use of privately owned parking may help alleviate the parking shortage, Heggen said the city needs to build a parking garage downtown.
City officials and council members know that and have tried for years to acquire property for this purpose. So far, no property owner has been willing to sell to the city.
Kimley-Horn found that in 2022, the city will need 300-350 more public and private spaces. By 2040, that number jumps to 475-600.

By Mary Hladky

A majority of Boca Raton council members agrees a performing arts center would be a welcome addition to the city, but they continue to debate whether a center should be part of a new downtown government campus.
More than 700 city residents asked about a performing arts center in a June public workshop, and a subsequent online survey found that 53 percent favor a center in the downtown campus, consultant Song + Associates told council members at their April 9 workshop meeting.
Deputy Mayor Scott Singer said the city should not entertain the idea of building a center that would compete with the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach and the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale. Existing facilities already accommodate local cultural organizations such as the Boca Ballet Theatre and The Symphonia chamber orchestra, he said.
Other council members agreed they don’t want a facility to compete with the Kravis or Broward Center but said a center with 1,500 to 2,500 seats is needed.
“It is something we want in a conservative way. Certainly not a Kravis,” said council member Andrea O’Rourke. “But does it need to be on the government campus?”
While that issue is unresolved, council members decided on five key elements that should be included in the campus: a new city hall, police department, community center, parking garage and open space where residents can gather.
All five were top vote-getters in the Song + Associates survey.
With that direction, the consultant will start work on a master plan and preliminary cost estimates. Young Song, the consultant’s principal, said that work should be done by May or June.
“Go forth and create our vision,” Mayor Susan Haynie told Song.
Council members made no mention of a major developer’s proposal pitched to them in November, the second of two offers to create a public-private partnership.
After the city rejected The Related Group’s first idea, it returned with a plan to build a performing arts center and parking garage in the downtown campus or whatever location the city chooses. In exchange, the developer would buy the city-owned “old library” that now houses city offices and land near it east of Boca Raton Boulevard between Northwest Fourth and Second streets. The city building would be torn down to make way for about 300 luxury apartments.
The first proposal called for a 1,500-seat center, while the second said the size would be agreed upon by the city and developer.
At the time, city officials said they could not reach any agreements with Related until they were further along with planning for the downtown campus.

By Henry Fitzgerald

Boca Raton has joined several other cities in a lawsuit filed against the state, fighting “super penalties” against municipalities and elected officials who push for local gun laws.
Council members at their April 10 meeting voted 4-1 to join the suit, which names Gov. Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi and other state officials.
The lawsuit, filed April 2 by the city of Weston in Broward County and nine others, challenges a 2011 state statute, backed by the gun lobby, that sets penalties such as a $5,000 fine and removal from office for elected officials who try to enact local gun laws.
Boca Raton isn’t seeking to immediately pass any gun laws, but since the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, wants the right to do so without state punishment.
“Our home-rule authority has been under attack, and this last legislative session was probably the most egregious attack on home rule for counties and cities that I’ve ever witnessed,” said Mayor Susan Haynie. “This particular statute with the super penalties is really over the top. I feel that the cities need to come together to have our voices heard and the state of Florida needs to stop preempting local laws.”
The lawsuit states that the Florida law is invalid and unconstitutional, and that the governor should not be able to remove an elected official for supporting or enacting local gun laws.
“I’d rather take a wait-and-see approach,” said council member Jeremy Rodgers, who cast the lone no vote, adding that the $10,000 fee to join the lawsuit isn’t fair to taxpayers. “This is going forward with or without us. I [can’t] support this at this time.”

By Steve Plunkett

The Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District has abandoned plans to seize four oceanfront parcels by eminent domain after being told the City Council will not pay for the properties.
Arthur Koski, the district’s executive director, said City Manager Leif Ahnell told him April 30 that council members do not want to spend city tax dollars to acquire the properties.
“The city has advised me today that they are not of the appetite to put up the money for us to do any eminent domain work on the beach,” Koski told beach and park commissioners that night. “And I think our budget probably precludes us from doing that on our own.”
Koski said appraisals he ordered on the parcels “were somewhere in the vicinity of approximately $20 million.”
District Chairman Robert Rollins said he thought all along the city would finance the deal.
“They’re the ones who requested us to explore the possibility,” he said.
But Koski said Ahnell did not explicitly say the city would pay in his Aug. 24 email.
“There certainly was an expectation that that would happen,” Koski said.
The targeted beachfront properties were vacant 2500 and 2600 N. Ocean Blvd. and long-occupied 2330 N. Ocean, which occupies two parcels.
The City Council ignited a firestorm of controversy in 2015 when it gave a zoning variance for 2500 N. Ocean, whose owners propose building a four-story home east of A1A and the Coastal Construction Control Line. The site got permission to build from the state Department of Environmental Protection but still needs final approval from the city.
The owner of 2600 N. Ocean has submitted a plan for a four-story duplex.
To use its power of eminent domain, the beach and park district would have sent its appraisal to each parcel owner along with a notice of intent. Then both sides would have negotiated, with the district suing to condemn the property only if a price could not be agreed on.
Instead, district commissioners decided Koski can close his file on the process.
Commissioners and City Council members will meet May 9 to discuss the district’s recent purchase of the Ocean Breeze golf course in north Boca Raton. Commissioners said they will ask council members to use some of the $65 million the city will get from selling its municipal golf course west of Florida’s Turnpike to pay for redesigning Ocean Breeze and building a new clubhouse.
The joint meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Community Center behind City Hall.

By Steve Plunkett

The city and its consultant will work up a plan to restore the canoe trails and rebuild the boardwalk at Rutherford Park, but will drop an idea to add boat ramps for now.
“There’s universal demand for opening up these canoe trails there, for opening up, reopening the boardwalk, making it safe again, making it usable,” City Council member Jeremy Rodgers said at the council’s April 9 workshop. “I don’t see a driving need to decide what goes on this green blob here that could be either more paths or future boat ramps.”
The green blob was on a map Jennifer Bistyga, the city’s coastal program manager, prepared where she and consultant Applied Technology and Management Inc. proposed building two double-boat ramps. That idea sank at a Feb. 26 public outreach meeting when residents came out in force against it.
Bistyga said 100 attendees signed in at the outreach and 87 filled out a city survey: 86 said they were Boca Raton residents and 52 said they owned a boat; 32 boat owners said they had bought a pass to use the launch area at Silver Palm Park.
Asked whether they would use the proposed boat ramp at Rutherford Park, 16 said yes, one said maybe, 56 said no. The survey takers’ primary concerns were traffic on Federal Highway, boat trailers entering and leaving the park and boaters conflicting with other park users.
Fifty-five of those surveyed owned a kayak or canoe (24 did not), and of them, 56 said they would use a kayak/canoe trail at the park, 51 would use a kayak trail launch area, 55 would use the restroom if one were built and 20 would like a launch area giving nonmotorized craft access to the Intracoastal Waterway.
In other areas, 44 people said they currently use Rutherford Park, 71 said they would use the boardwalk if it is renovated and 72 said they would use a proposed pedestrian trail. Bistyga called the last two responses “a strong overwhelming yes.”
Respondents were also questioned on the Silver Palm boat ramp downtown. Forty-four said they currently use the ramp. And if a boat ramp were built at Rutherford, it would be the preferred launch area for nine people; eight people said they would use both it and Silver Palm; 35 said they would prefer Silver Palm.
Asked if they would like to see the Silver Palm ramp converted to some other use if ramps were built at Rutherford, 61 said no.
Mayor Susan Haynie, who attended the outreach session, called it “a very passionate crowd.”
“Everyone loves Silver Palm boat ramp. It’s very close to the inlet. It’s just a really special amenity for us,” Haynie said.
Rodgers, colleagues Scott Singer and Andrea O’Rourke and then-council candidate Monica Mayotte also went to the outreach.
Singer was not entirely convinced by Bistyga’s survey. He sent out a survey of his own to 200 people with boat permits and got 57 responses that were “a little bit different than what we saw” in Bistyga’s survey.
Of them, 39 said the city should continue plans to build boat ramps at Rutherford, 11 said no and seven were not sure, he said. He suggested proceeding with Rutherford ramps but promising that the Silver Palm ramps would stay open.
Haynie said trailer traffic at Rutherford was also a concern.
“When people are trailering boats — some in excess of 30 feet — it’s huge vehicles, huge trailers, large boats, and it’s a very, very restricted maneuvering space,” she said.
Bistyga said the city will issue ATM a work order to develop more detailed plans for Rutherford without boat ramps.

By Rich Pollack

During most of its 32-year history, the Beach Condo Association of Boca Raton and Highland Beach has had just three leaders, with its founder and first president, Sylvan Jubelirer, serving 16 years and its third leader, Jack Fox, serving 14 years.
Now, with Fox’s decision to step down from the organization that serves as a coordinating council of sorts where condo managers and board leaders come together to exchange ideas, leaders have handed the reins to Emily Gentile, the first woman to hold the position. She will run the organization with the guidance and expertise of Co-President and association veteran Steve Laine.
“I certainly have big shoes to fill,” said Gentile, a community leader and former Boca Raton City Council candidate who previously served as the organization’s secretary. “Jack has been a great mentor and a good friend.”
Working closely with Gentile will be a board consisting of Highland Beach Mayor Carl Feldman and former Mayor Bernard Featherman — both serving as vice presidents — plus Treasurer Russell Edelstein and Secretary Ana Londono.
Fox, who stepped down to spend several months each year with his family in Virginia, said he knows he is leaving the organization in good hands.
“Emily was a good candidate for the position,” Fox said. “She knows how to be a leader and is a take-charge person. She’s an outstanding replacement and she’ll probably do a better job than I did.”
Gentile, an executive business consultant in the financial arena, is active in the community, serving on Boca Raton’s Art in Public Places board and on the executive council of the Resident Physician Community Partnership Program for the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University.
A Boca Raton resident for 12 years in the Yacht & Racquet Club of Boca Raton, Gentile previously lived in Highland Beach for four years, where she served on the town’s cultural board.
She is looking forward to guiding the organization as it continues to provide valuable information to the managers and leaders of 63 condominiums representing an estimated 12,000 residents.
“It’s really exciting to be so well received by this organization,” she said.

By Steve Plunkett

The Boca Raton City Council will tweak a citizen-initiated ordinance that restricts city-owned land on the Intracoastal Waterway to “public recreation, public boating access, public streets and city stormwater uses only” so utilities can work on existing underground conduits.
The issue arose when an unidentified telecommunications company sought a permit to relocate conduit in Spanish River Park.
One reading of the ordinance would be that only “stormwater” and no other utilities are permitted, City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser told council members at their April 9 workshop session. Alternatively, she said, the code could be interpreted to primarily regulate uses at the ground level rather than restricting underground uses.
Council members could give staff direction, Frieser said, either by interpreting the ordinance or amending it.
Deputy Mayor Scott Singer said council members are the ones entrusted with interpreting city code.
“We’ve already had them there. No one ever mentioned, ‘You’ve got to dig up the utilities,’” Singer said, arguing against an amendment.
“I think a reasonable interpretation, based on what we have, is that this is just allowed, staff can proceed augmenting what’s been there and will remain there,” he said.
But council member Monica Mayotte said the council could both interpret the ordinance for the telecommunications firm and amend it for future projects.
Mayor Susan Haynie embraced the amendment option.
“I think clarity’s best,” Haynie said.
Frieser said city staff would proceed with the company’s permit application and that she would bring back a proposed amendment for consideration. The proposal will require a public hearing, she said.
Residents voted 67 percent to 33 percent in 2016 to reject a plan for a restaurant at the city-owned Wildflower parcel on Palmetto Park Road and instead restrict that and similar green spaces to public uses. Consultant EDSA Inc. is developing a plan to make the 2.3 acres a full-featured park.

By Christine Davis

One down, two to go. Back in 2014 and 2015, egged on by Palm Beach bud and shock jock Howard Stern, Billy Joel started buying property in Manalapan. In March 2014, he plopped down $11.8 million for a 13,200-square-foot bungalow just north of Boynton Inlet and two months later paid another $6.5 million for the vacant lot next door. Then just after New Year’s 2015, he went all out, paying $22.1 million for a nearly 18,886-square-foot Atlantic-to-Intracoastal palace that was built on a portion of the old Vanderbilt estate. It includes a pool, billiards room, wine cellar and 12-car garage.
Then he put them on the market. For the house and vacant lot just north of the inlet, he initially asked $29 million, then cut the price to $27 million.
Last month, Jack Elkins and Bunny Hiatt, agents with the Fite Group, represented Joel’s interests when they found a buyer for the lot. Frank Mennella, a businessman with operations in Pennsylvania and Boca Raton, and his wife, Dolores, negotiated the price down to $7.5 million. In July 2016, the Mennellas paid $25.2 million for the oceanfront Villa Oceano Azul at 1400 S. Ocean, and they apparently intend to stick around, since Frank already has landed a seat on Manalapan’s Architectural Commission.
But Joel still has two parcels to sell. The house near the inlet, originally listed at $19.5 million, is now at $16.9 million. He’s asking $31.9 million for the big house, but don’t be surprised if he splits the difference and takes $4 million-$5 million less.Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate has that listing.
Should deals for both places go through, Joel and his wife, Alexis Roderick, will still have a place to stay. In January, they inked a $3.5 million deal for a 5-acre ranch in Wellington. She rides dressage, and the ranch is loaded with dressage amenities, including a 12-stall barn with groom quarters, a tack room, five paddocks and a regulation-size dressage ring … with mirrors. The farm is a short canter from the Equestrian Center, and although it isn’t on the ocean, it’s bordered on east and south by water.

William “Tom” Gerrard’s house at 1960 S. Ocean Blvd. in Manalapan was sold at an absolute auction on April 21. While the sale won’t be finalized until this month, it was considered a non-contingency cash deal.
The bidding started at $10 million and the auction was over in 10 to 15 minutes. DeCaro Auctions International conducted it.
Built in 1989 on 4.17 acres, the ocean-to-lake property most recently had been listed for $24.5 million by agents Robert Temelkoski of Bowen Realty and William McManus of the Fite Group.
Gerrard, the former mayor of Manalapan, bought the property in 1994 and later acquired land to the north and south of the home. On and off the market since 2010, it was initially listed at $34.5 million.
“We had approximately 10 bidders, and it was very active bidding,” said Daniel DeCaro, founder and CEO of DeCaro Auctions International. “There seemed to be a large amount of interest in the property. For four weeks of open houses, people from all over the world — Bolivia, Mexico, Russia, China — did their due diligence.”
While the owner and sales price were not disclosed, DeCaro said the new owner is from Hawaii and was represented by Douglas Elliman agent Steven Solomon, who works out of the Boca Raton office.
“I was so nervous, my heart was jumping out of my shirt,” Solomon said, adding that the new owner, an investor, has worked with him previously. “She saw the value. Sometimes she keeps the properties she buys and rents them out. Others she picks up and sells. I believe she’s going to resell this house.”

The estate home at 1960 S. Ocean Blvd. in Manalapan sold at absolute auction April 21. The new owner is an investor from Hawaii. The sales price was not disclosed. Photo provided

Just north on A1A an ocean-to-lake estate at 700 S. Ocean Blvd. in Manalapan sold for $18.5 million, according to the deed recorded March 26. The buyer was a trust in the name of Louis J. Capano Jr., who heads LC Homes in Wilmington, Del. The seller was biotechnology investor Steven M. Oliveira and his wife, Bernadette. Agent Pascal J. Liguori, of Premier Estate Properties, listed the property for sale in January 2017 at $26.5 million. The price later dropped to $24.5 million, according to the multiple listing service.
The house was designed by Affiniti Architects and built by Mark Timothy Inc., both based in Boca Raton. The Oliveiras built the house after buying the property from a company associated with Delray Beach developer Frank McKinney for a recorded $5.85 million in December 2010.
Capano was represented in the sale by broker Stephen Cohen of Land Maker Inc., Delray Beach. Capano has also owned his beachfront house at 6373 N. Ocean Blvd., Ocean Ridge since 1999, according to property records.

Move over, Manalapan; Delray Beach is in the big money, too. Bill Powers, who bought the new 13,000-square-foot mansion at 901 S. Ocean Blvd. in 2015 for $19 million, recently sold it to an undisclosed buyer for $26.75 million.
The price is impressive, but it isn’t a record for Delray. Two lots south, a 33,571-square-foot monster, which sold in 2010 for $9.3 million, went for $34 million in February 2016. The buyer: Richard Chaifetz, a Chicago entrepreneur, investor, licensed neuropsychologist and philanthropist, founder of ComPsych, the world’s largest mental health services provider. A big chunk of its work is managing the opioid abuse crisis … with which Delray is more than familiar.

Capo 7 LLC, led by Joseph Basile III of Lantana-based JFB Construction and Development Inc., got a $6.5 million loan to finance construction of The Preserve of Hypoluxo, a 44-unit rental townhouse project. An affiliate of JFB will manage the property. The project, at 200 Hypoluxo Road, will border a 97-acre nature preserve. The Preserve is expected to open in the winter of 2018-19, and leases will range from $1,800 to $2,200. The project will have a two-story, 17,000-square-foot building with five apartments and nine ground-floor retail bays. Boca Raton-based Rare CRE, led by Nelson Garcia and Jamie Zambrana, arranged the $6.5 million construction loan on behalf of Capo 7.

The Boca Raton Mausoleum, 451 SW Fourth Ave., broke ground in April on a $2 million addition of four mausoleum buildings: Grace, Heritage, Dignity and Repose.

Silent Yachts, a Miami-based company that makes vessels powered by solar energy, won the 2018 Global Warming Foundation Award. The award was presented by Peter Ticktin, the foundation’s founder, at the Boca Raton Resort and Club. The company’s new model, Solarwave62, was on display there after debuting at the Palm Beach International Boat Show. 
The Solarwave62’s propulsion system was created by Silent Yachts CEO Michael Kohler and his wife, Heike Kohler. “The U.S. launch of Silent Yachts is something we’ve been working towards since the inception of our Solarwave46 prototype in 2009,” Michael Kohler said.

Congratulations to Laura Simon, Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority’s executive director. She was selected to serve on the International Downtown Association Nighttime Economy Council. Simon will work with five members representing Orlando, Jacksonville, New York’s Lower East Side, Denver and Winnipeg to create best practices for developing a nighttime economy for established, growing and emerging downtown urban districts.

Buy $200 in merchandise or services from downtown Delray Beach stores, galleries, spas, salons and fitness studios and get a free phalaenopsis orchid for Mom. Photo provided

Shopping in downtown Delray Beach could mean a free orchid for Mom. How? In honor of Mother’s Day, the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority presents the Downtown Delray Orchid Giveaway. Until May 12, buyers can each receive one phalaenopsis orchid plant with every $200 spent shopping at downtown Delray Beach stores, galleries, spas, salons and fitness studios.
To participate, buyers need to turn in their receipts dated May 1 through 12, and pick up their complimentary orchids May 9-12. Pickup locations, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 9 through May 11, are in front of Hand’s stationers, 325 E. Atlantic Ave., and Petite Connection, 1049 E. Atlantic Ave. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 12, the pickup locations are in front of Hand’s, Petite Connection, and in the Pineapple Grove Arts District under the banyan tree on the corner of Northeast Second Avenue and Northwest Second Street. For details, call 243-1077 or visit www.downtowndelraybeach.com/events/annual-mothers-day-orchid-giveaway.

Two local workshops and events follow up the 14th annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival this month. At 12:30 p.m. May 5 a poetry workshop with Stacie Kiner will be held at Old School Square Crest Theatre, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. Cost is $10. The Alzheimer’s Poetry Project’s Summer Poetry Reading & Sing Along, a free event, is at 10:30 a.m. May 9 at the Brighton Gardens building at Sunrise Assisted Living, 6341 Via De Sonrisa Del Sur, Boca Raton. For information, visit www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org.

The League of Women Voters of Palm Beach County hosts two events this month at the Atlantis Country Club, 190 Atlantis Blvd., Lake Worth.
“Why Courts Matter Brunch, How Politicians Are Systematically Trying to Weaken the Courts and What We Can Do About It,” will be from 1 to 3 p.m. May 6. The speaker will be Ellen Freidin, a Miami lawyer who is the past chair of 11th Circuit Judicial Nominating Committee. Tickets are $40.
A Hot Topic Luncheon, “Politics & Stuff: Lunch With Frank Cerabino,” Palm Beach Post columnist, will be 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. May 16. Tickets are $35. For both events, RSVP at 968-4123 or www.lwvpbc.org.
Thom Smith contributed to this column.

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