Rendering provided

By Dan Moffett

    One of the last impediments to bringing a Publix supermarket to Manalapan’s Plaza del Mar seems to be one of the hardest to resolve.
    The town’s Architectural Commission tried unsuccessfully for a third time to agree with Publix and the mall landlord on what the new supermarket’s sign should look like.
    A majority of ArCom members — Nancy Butnick, Jack Doyle and Henry Laufer — said they were disappointed with the drawings that the company’s representatives brought to the board’s March 8 meeting.
    “I was expecting more,” Butnick said.
    Doyle, who is leaving his ArCom seat to become a town commissioner, said the proposed design was not right for Manalapan.
    “It doesn’t reflect the unique character of the town,” he said. “I was hoping to see something better.”
    ArCom Vice Chair Benjamin Hanani disagreed, and praised the company and the mall landlord, Kitson & Partners, for their cooperation.
    “The developer has been extremely — extremely — receptive to our suggestions,” Hanani said. “I think they’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do.”
    A significant example of that cooperation was a concession to mount a black-and-white sign over the supermarket doors, rather than the familiar green trademark Publix logo that the town has opposed.
    After more than two hours of discussion and often heated opinions from dozens of residents, the commission decided to send a list of design requests to the company and wait for its response before taking the matter up again, at the April 12 or May 10 meeting.
    Among the revisions ArCom wants Publix to consider:
    • Changing the black-and-white lettering, perhaps to an etched design such as the sign on the Publix in Palm Beach.
    • Making the sign smaller, reducing the 98-square-foot design and the 4-foot letter P in the Publix logo. Critics of the proposed designs said the height of the lettering could be reduced by roughly half without interfering with the sign’s function.
    • Offering some lighting options that might include illumination from below, soft backlighting or doing away with lighting altogether.
    • Finding an alternative to the bright red Presto! sign that marks the ATM.
    • Eliminating the words “food & pharmacy” from the sign. Most commission members agreed that the words were unnecessary and could be removed to make the sign smaller.
    • Creating a more innovative design. Some critics of the current sign said Publix promised a unique rendition, but what the company delivered is something typical of its stores throughout the state.

By Dan Moffett
    
    The six-year legal dispute between Palm Beach County and its municipalities over paying for an inspector general’s office appears to be officially over. In March, the county agreed to return $223,558 to 23 towns and cities that had contributed to the creation of the watchdog agency in 2011.
    Rather than risk another defeat in the courts, the county decided to surrender and write the checks. Commissioners unanimously approved the refunds with a declaration: “The case is now final.”
    The dispute began in 2009 when the County Commission endorsed the creation of an inspector general’s office, and then county voters overwhelmingly approved it in the 2010 election.
    While voters spoke clearly on having an inspector general to monitor governmental officials and employees, they weren’t asked to decide how to pay the $3 million or more it would cost each year to run the office. The county started billing the towns and cities, based on their sizes and finances, to pay for the agency. In 2011, 15 of the municipalities filed suit, saying the county didn’t have the right to impose charges unilaterally.
    A Palm Beach County circuit judge ruled against the municipalities in 2015, but in December, the 4th District Court of Appeal reversed the decision and ruled against the county.  In January, County Attorney Denise Nieman advised the commission to give up and not appeal the decision to the Florida Supreme Court.
 “Our efforts are better spent reviewing all options available to us in light of the court’s opinion, including but not limited to service contracts with the municipalities,” Nieman wrote commissioners.
    The refunds approved in March represent the payments some municipalities made as the IG office was launched in 2011. Boynton Beach will receive the largest return in the county, $50,971.
    Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Gulf Stream, Highland Beach and Manalapan will receive nothing because they refused to pay and filed suit instead.
    Other coastal communities receiving returns include Briny Breezes ($259), Hypoluxo ($735), Lantana ($5,033), Ocean Ridge ($1,675) and South Palm Beach ($529).

By Dan Moffett

    The arrival of sunny spring beach days means there’s trouble brewin’ at the Beachway Drive crossover in Ocean Ridge.
    The town’s public access walkway over the dune to the beach draws tourists, snowbirds, mainland visitors and residents to a tight intersection where vehicles and pedestrians often compete for the same slice of precious real estate.
    For the last four years, Ocean Ridge has grappled with ideas to deal with the growing number of visitors coming across the bridge from new developments, particularly those in Boynton Beach. Beachway Drive has become a flashpoint for problems.
    Police Chief Hal Hutchins said he received numerous complaints in March about beachgoers “loading and unloading to the point that the entire intersection was blocked.” One motorist parked his car in a clearly marked pedestrian area.
    “I mean, the car was almost on the beach, for cryin’ out loud,” said Mayor Geoff Pugh."
    Frustrated residents in the neighborhood took matters into their own hands and hired an off-duty town police officer the weekend of March 4 to monitor the crossover and keep traffic moving.
    This created another set of problems for some other residents — among them former Commissioner Terry Brown, who complained during the March 6 town meeting that stationing a police officer at the crossway has an “intimidating effect” that suggests the public access isn’t really public.
    “There is no intent on our part to usurp the public’s right to use the crosswalk,” Hutchins told Brown.
    The chief says his officers patrol the Beachway-Old Ocean Boulevard intersection regularly and are poised to respond quickly to residents’ complaints. “If you see any violations, please call us and we’ll respond immediately,” he said.
    Definitions — what distinguishes reasonable loading or unloading from unreasonable idling or parking — continue to complicate matters. Hutchins said his officers are instructed to evaluate incidents at the intersection on a common- sense, case-by-case basis.
    “The officer is trying to look at every situation individually,” he said.
    If a motorist stays behind the wheel while stopping briefly to drop off passengers, no problem, the chief says. If a motorist leaves the vehicle unattended or if traffic backs up because of a prolonged stop, that could warrant a ticket.
    “This is more of an education campaign on our part than anything,” Hutchins said.

Election results
    Political newcomer Don MaGruder coasted to victory in the March 14 municipal election and Vice Mayor James Bonfiglio comfortably won a second three-year term to fill two open seats on the Town Commission.
    MaGruder, a veteran member of the board of adjustments, led all vote-getters with 319, roughly 35 percent of the ballots cast, and Bonfiglio claimed the second seat with 249, about 28 percent.
    Nan Yablong had 168 votes and Richard Bajakian 164.
    Ocean Ridge had one of the highest turnouts in Palm Beach County, with roughly 31 percent of eligible voters participating.

Longtime Ocean Ridge resident Don MaGruder takes the oath of office as commissioner

following the Ocean Ridge municipal election. MaGruder and incumbent

Vice Mayor James Bonfiglio were the top two vote-getters.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

    The felony trial of former Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella will take place no sooner than midsummer.
    Assistant State Attorney Danielle Grundt and Lucibella’s defense attorney, Marc Shiner, both told Circuit Judge Charles Burton they could not be ready for a jury this month. Burton scheduled a calendar call in the case at 9:30 a.m. July 21.
    The trial’s original start date was April 10, too soon for Grundt and Shiner to question all the witnesses, they said.
    A motion Shiner filed on his and Grundt’s behalf said there are approximately 36 state witnesses. Seventeen depositions were scheduled and taken as of March 3, it said, but approximately seven witnesses failed to appear.
    And 13 more depositions were set for April 4, 5 and 6.
    Additionally, the motion said, Shiner anticipated questioning several witnesses on Lucibella’s behalf.
    “As such, the parties agree additional time is needed to complete discovery and prepare for trial,” he said in the motion.
Shiner also waived Lucibella’s right to a speedy trial.
    Lucibella, 63, is charged with two felonies — battery on a police officer and resisting the officer with violence — as well as a misdemeanor count of using a firearm while under the influence of alcohol. He has pleaded not guilty and said through his attorney that he is a victim of police overreaction.
    Ocean Ridge police went to his oceanfront home Oct. 22 after neighbors reported hearing gunfire. They confiscated a .40-caliber handgun and found five spent shell casings on the backyard patio.
    With Lucibella was one of the officers’ supervisors, Lt. Steven Wohlfiel. Both men were “obviously intoxicated,” the police said.
    They later determined the handgun belonged to Wohlfiel, who was fired for his role in the incident Jan. 4. Wohlfiel is appealing his dismissal.
    Lucibella resigned his vice mayor and town commissioner positions Dec. 7.
    Burton had set aside four weeks for the trial.

By Jane Smith
    
    The city and the Atlantic Crossing developer have spent the past month trading settlement offers. Before the April 4 Delray Beach City Commission meeting, commissioners will meet in a closed-door session with their attorneys and administrators to discuss the latest offer from the Ohio-based Edwards Cos.
    In June 2015, Edwards and its partner sued the city, charging it stalled the 9.2-acre, mixed-use project in downtown Delray Beach. The developer sought millions in damages.   
    Edwards agrees to the city’s latest offer overall, but it wants to fine-tune the details, Dean Kissos, chief operating officer, said in mid-March. The details include who is responsible for paying for traffic calming efforts in the Marina Historic District.
    “It’s important to specify how each party will satisfy its obligations when it comes to executing the project’s conditions of approval,” Kissos wrote in an email, provided by the project’s publicist.
    “We’re ready to move forward once the city signs the addendum. With the final agreement in place, we can end the still-pending lawsuit, provided there is no third-party legal challenge, which would void the settlement.”
    On March 1, the Delray Beach City Commission, which at the time had four commissioners, unanimously agreed to counter the developer’s settlement offer with its own set of conditions. The Atlantic Crossing developer would:
    • Create a two-way road into the project from Federal Highway.
    • Move the underground garage entrance into the project’s interior.
    • Contribute $175,000 to a shuttle bus prior to the issuing of a certificate of occupancy for the first vertical, above-ground building.
    • Pay for the design, permit and construction costs of a mast arm traffic signal at the intersection of Northeast First Street and northbound Federal Highway before receiving the first site development permit.
    • Temporarily close Northeast Seventh Avenue during construction. One year after the last building is finished, the city will evaluate traffic in the area and decide whether to keep the entrance closed permanently, partially closed or left open with traffic calming devices paid for by the developer.
    • Pay for traffic calming in the Marina Historic District, according to city standards and before receiving a certificate of occupancy for any vertical, above-ground building.
    • Agree to keep construction traffic and parking out of the Marina Historic District.
At one time, a contribution of at least $500,000 to renovate Veterans Park was included in the settlement discussions. The park sits between the project and the Intracoastal Waterway.
But the contribution disappeared about the same time the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency switched zones for its economic stimulus grant.
    Edwards had applied in August 2014 for a $2.1 million grant when the CRA had a different executive director. The stimulus program ended in September 2015, followed by a January 2016 vote by the CRA board members to provide subsidies only to projects west of Swinton Avenue. Atlantic Crossing sits east of Swinton in the central business district.
    The current CRA executive director wrote to Edwards in February 2016 to let it know about the changes.
    Despite that vote, the iPic theater complex, part of the central business district, recently received a $400,000 CRA subsidy, payable over 10 years.
    If commissioners approve the revised settlement in the closed-door session, they still will have to accept the terms at a public meeting.
    Then, Edwards would take its revised site plan through two city boards — Site Plan Review and Appearance and the Planning and Zoning — before returning to the City Commission.
    When complete, Atlantic Crossing will have 82 luxury condos, 261 apartments, 83,462 square feet of office space, 39,394 square feet of restaurants and 37,642 square feet of shops at the northeast corner of Federal Highway and Atlantic Avenue.

One of the options for the new location of the Christmas tree is on the lawn east of the pavilion grounds.

Rendering provided

By Jane Smith

    The 100-foot Christmas tree that dominated the Delray Beach holiday season won’t be used again. The tree’s steel frame is encrusted with rust, making it a safety hazard.
    In its place, the city will spend nearly $1 million for a new 100-foot aluminum tree. Its color will be forest green, simulating an Oregon Cascade fir. The cost includes the purchase price, shipping from Oregon, an engineering study to build the concrete base and annual fees for installation and storage. That means the city staff will no longer be in the Christmas tree assembly business.
    The tree also will have a new location on the city’s Old School Square grounds. At an early March meeting, the east lawn was selected as the ideal site. Currie Sowards & Aguila Architects were hired by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to continue with plans for the OSS grounds. Underneath the Christmas tree, the plans call for a year-round water feature.
    Even so, John Morgan, the city’s environmental services department director, said he was going to proceed with the March 30 commission request to spend $9,900 to hire an engineer to do soil testing of the new tree site.
    “In order to prepare for the 2017 holiday season events,” he stated in the reason why the request was needed now, “it is critical that the design for the foundation and electrical service to support the 100-foot Christmas tree in a new location on the Old School Square property move forward as soon as possible.”
    Morgan received commission approval in late February for a sole source bid. There’s only one company in the United States that makes 100-foot aluminum Christmas trees and it is in Oregon. The cost is $790,000, he said.
    The current Christmas tree was “rotting 20 years ago when we bought it from Parrot Jungle,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said at the Feb. 21 commission meeting.  He was responding to residents’ criticism of spending such a large amount of money on the 100-foot Christmas tree when the city has other pressing needs. “You won’t spend $800,000 out of your pocket on a Christmas tree,” Timothy Boykin said at the start of the meeting.
    “The safety of our residents and visitors remains our No. 1 priority,” the mayor wrote in a mid-March email. “Due to the recent disclosure of the structural instability of the 100-foot tree, coupled with the time necessary to have it replaced, a decision had to be made immediately to ensure the safety of the community and the timeliness of having the tree to continue the long-standing tradition that many have come to enjoy each holiday season.  
    “The catastrophic structural failure of a 100-foot steel structure had the potential to kill or harm hundreds of people on any given evening.”
    The 100-foot tree has become part of the city’s holiday tradition.
    The top 50 feet was leased from Parrot Jungle in 1993 to help celebrate the city’s win of the All-America City award.
    In 1995, the tree was purchased by the city’s Downtown Development Authority for about $80,000 and given to the city.
    Two years ago, the DDA questioned the safety of the steel structure. It hired Kimley-Horn and Associates to evaluate the tree’s steel frames. Some sections that were recently rebuilt were deemed to be in good condition, other sections were significantly corroded, according to its Feb. 2, 2015, letter to the DDA.
    The steel pieces were stored in the city’s public works yard under a framed canopy that used to have a tarp. “The condition of the canopy frame indicates the tarp has been missing for several years,” a Kimley-Horn engineer wrote.
    In July 2015, the DDA presented the City Commission with options: continue to spend on rehabilitating the current tree at a cost of $916,000 over five years, buy a new aluminum tree for $670,000 or rent one for $790,000. The amounts did not include assembly, disassembly or storing the tree.
    The commission chose to continue using the current tree with corroded pieces replaced.
    In December the interim city manager, Neal de Jesus,  walked through the current tree and was amazed how it could be constructed and stay erect. That led to discussions on the structural integrity of the tree when it was taken down after the holidays.
    No structural engineer was willing to certify its integrity without an in-depth study, including X-rays of the frame, de Jesus told the commission in late January. He estimated the study cost would be $100,000. He didn’t recommend spending that amount with the strong possibility the current tree would need to be replaced.
    The iconic tree has not been treated lovingly. It did not have a special storage spot within a climate-controlled environment. Its frame was piled in pieces outside for a number of years without protection from the summer rains. That resulted in yearly upgrades to the Christmas tree to make it safe for the hundreds of residents who pass inside daily during the Christmas season.

By Jane Smith
    
    Beach lovers will soon have renovated restrooms to use at Boynton Beach’s Oceanfront Park in Ocean Ridge, along with freshly baked pastries at the snack bar.
    The restroom renovations will be finished by the end of May, said Jeff Livergood, public works director. The total cost will be $24,950 for renovations.
    Lower counters and a tilted mirror are among the disabled-accessible items that will be added for $3,820, Livergood said. The other renovations will cost less than $21,130.
    “Every four to five years, we try to give the restrooms in our heavily used parks an upgrade,” Livergood said. Portable toilets will be available while the renovations take place, he said.
    Last fall, the city chose a new vendor for the snack bar. Ultimate Bakery & Pastry, which also has the concession contract at the city’s golf course, won the bid for the snack bar with its annual lease offer of $6,600 or 6.5 percent of gross sales, after sales tax, in the first year. The second year, the company offered to pay $7,200 or 7 percent of gross sales, after sales tax.
    The competition was with Culinary Solutions with its offer of $12,000 annually in lease payments for the first two years. Jim Guilbeault ran the Oceanfront Snack Bar for eight years. He described the switch as a personality conflict between his workers and the city staff.
    He also said that business was great there five months out of the year. “But the other seven months were tough to survive,” Guilbeault said.
    Last summer, he opened the Culinary To Go eatery in a converted Denny’s restaurant in Boynton Beach. “Eight months into it, the name is not working for us,” Guilbeault said in mid-March. He plans to add a salad bar and a bakery and rebrand it with the word “Restaurant.”  
    At the Oceanfront Snack Bar, the rent payment was just one of the factors, said Wally Majors, the city’s parks director. Ultimate Bakery offered a more varied menu and its owner had good references from the city’s golf course concession, he said.
    Pastry chef Peter Torocsik owns the Ultimate Bakery. He makes pastries such as apple turnovers, cinnamon rolls and banana bread at the full kitchen at the golf course.
    For lunch, hot dogs and one-third pound hamburgers are available, along with grilled chicken. His wife helps daily and his son, a fifth-grader at Palm Beach Public School, works weekends. The snack bar is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
    “It’s a family affair,” said Torocsik.

Greg Dunham (second from left) chats with Gulf Stream Mayor Scott Morgan, resident Patsy Randolph

and Commissioner Joan Orthwein after being selected as town manager.

He previously held that job in Manalapan and Ocean Ridge.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett
    
    Gulf Stream’s new town manager is no stranger to the barrier island.
    Greg Dunham, currently town manager of Kenly, N.C., also held that position in Manalapan for seven years and in Ocean Ridge for more than three.
    “I love these small ocean communities,” he told Gulf Stream town commissioners at a special meeting March 17 called to offer him the job.
    Town Manager William Thrasher gave notice in November that he planned to retire April 28 and in January placed ads to find his successor. Dunham was thrilled to learn about the opening in the midst of a North Carolina winter. “I did three back flips,” he said.
    Dunham moved to Palm Beach County to become assistant city manager of Palm Beach Gardens in 1994 after earning a master’s degree in public administration at Florida State University. He previously was a police officer and an assistant city manager in Texas.
    “I consider Palm Beach County, and especially here on the ocean, as my home,” Dunham said. “All my friends and family are here in Palm Beach County, and this is where I want to be.”
    He has been in Kenly, part of the research triangle region around Raleigh, a little more than five years. His accomplishments there included building a budget surplus after inheriting a town on the verge of insolvency, obtaining a $750,000 block grant for water and sewer projects, and prompting 35 homeowners to bring their properties up to code.
    In Manalapan he’s proudest of having managed the construction of the town’s reverse osmosis water plant and overseeing the transition from a small public safety department to a contract with Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue. Dunham was manager there from October 2002 to January 2010.
    While in Ocean Ridge he initiated the Focus 2000 strategic plan and implemented a stormwater drainage study that led to the winning of several grants and loans to build the town’s detention pond off Woolbright Road. He was there from September 1998 to May 2002.
    Thrasher, 69, celebrated his 20th anniversary as a Gulf Stream employee last summer. Mayor Scott Morgan said stability was an important attribute and asked Dunham how long he expected to stay on the job if he were hired.
    “I’m 64 years old,” Dunham replied. “I would like this to be my last job. And I’ve told everybody that’s asked me … I would like to work till at least I’m 75 years old. …
    “Now, a lot of that has to do with how my knees do,” he added. “I jog 3 miles a day except for one; I take one day off.”
    Under the Town Charter, the town manager makes recommendations to the commission on whom to hire for town clerk, police chief and town manager. Gulf Stream received about two dozen applications for the job, Thrasher said.
    He narrowed the group to five and drafted Town Clerk Rita Taylor, Police Chief Ed Allen and staff attorney Trey Nazarro to help him evaluate the finalists.
    Also interviewed were Mark Kutney, former town manager of Loxahatchee Groves; David Recor, strategic performance manager in Pompano Beach; Sarah Hannah-Spurlock, former assistant city manager in Key West; and Dale Walker, county manager of Macon-Bibb County in Georgia.
    After meeting the prospective hires in person, Thrasher recommended only Dunham to the commissioners. They embraced his recommendation 4-0, with Vice Mayor Thomas Stanley absent.
    “Wow! That was so cool,” Dunham said after the vote.
    Dunham was also a finalist for the town manager’s job in South Palm Beach in 2014.
    Morgan and Thrasher will negotiate Dunham’s salary. Gulf Stream’s advertisement said the new hire could expect $95,000 to $110,000 in pay. Dunham will report to work in transition with Thrasher on April 17 and take over the manager’s duties May 1.
    In other business, commissioners moved the date of their next regular monthly meeting from April 14, which is Good Friday, to 9 a.m. April 17.
    The five incumbents also took the oath of office after all were re-elected March 14. Morgan said the campaign was “run in a dignified way, respectful and restrained, and I thought it did credit to the town.”
    Paul Lyons received 307 votes, Morgan got 319, Joan Orthwein 312, Stanley 317 and Donna White 307. Challengers Julio Martinez got 112 votes and Martin O’Boyle 26.
    The turnout was 47.9 percent. Almost 2 of every 3 voters selected fewer than five candidates.

By Dan Moffett

    Manalapan completed a sweeping overhaul of its Town Commission on March 28 with the swearing in of three new officials and the reassignment of two others.
    None of the changes required input from voters in the March election, because none of the candidates for four open seats was opposed.
    Gone are Mayor David Cheifetz, Mayor Pro Tem Chauncey Johnstone and Commissioner Basil Diamond. All declined to run for another term.
    Keith Waters, who joined the commission in June after serving on the town’s Architectural and Zoning commissions, replaces Cheifetz as mayor.
    “I’m honored to be here,” Waters said. “I appreciate all the work that the former commission has done, and we stand on the shoulders of the work that was done before us. I look forward to moving the town in the continuing proper direction it has been placed.”
    Jack Doyle replaces Johnstone in the Seat 3 ocean position and Hank Siemon takes over for Diamond in Seat 5. Doyle and Siemon are veterans of the Architectural Commission.
    Commissioner Simone Bonutti accepted Waters’ nomination to move into the mayor pro tem seat, and Peter Isaac was the commission’s unanimous choice to continue as vice mayor.
    Waters nominated a political newcomer, Monica Oberting, to fill his vacant Seat 7, and commissioners unanimously approved. Oberting, a New York appellate lawyer who also adjudicated motor vehicle violations for the state, moved onto Point Manalapan two years ago. Oberting graduated from Tulane University and Albany Law School.
    In other business:
    • Town Manager Linda Stumpf said the commission may get some clarity this month on the prospects for negotiating a new water deal with Hypoluxo. Stumpf said she will participate in a Town Council workshop in Hypoluxo, on April 19 beginning at 5 p.m., to answer officials’ questions about Manalapan’s proposal for a long-term contract to provide water service to 550 Hypoluxo customers.
    Representatives of Boynton Beach utilities also will be pitching the city’s competing proposal at the workshop.
    • Commissioners gave their approval to two measures that give the Town Commission the last word on architectural and landscape reviews for commercial site plans. The changes mean that applicants go first to the Architectural Commission for review and then to the Town Commission for final approval or rejection. Waters said the changes will streamline the process and prevent bureaucratic delays.

By Mary Thurwachter

    You’ll want to think twice about visiting friends in Manalapan or going to Lantana’s beach on April 6 and 7.
    “Be prepared for a traffic nightmare,” said Lantana Police Chief Sean Scheller.

    That’s because Chinese President Xi Jinping will be bunking at Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa in Manalapan those two days, in town for a meeting at Mar-a-Lago with President Donald Trump.
    Scheller, at the request of Town Manager Deborah Manzo, alerted the council about Jinping’s visit during the March 27 Town Council meeting.
    “Secret Service will be taking over 80 percent of Lantana’s beach parking lot,” Scheller said. “There’ll be an enormous amount of fencing going up, probably starting on April 4.”
    Scheller said he had no idea if protests are being planned, but that the corner of Ocean Avenue and A1A all the way north to Mar-a-Lago will be very congested for a few days.
    “The sheriff will be handling everything — crowd control and traffic,” said Manalapan Police Chief Carmen Mattox. “We’re going to support the Sheriff’s Office in any way they need assistance.”
    The hotel remains mum about its special guest.
    “Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa is a Forbes five-star resort, and we hold the privacy of our guests as a priority,” said Cindy Racco, general manager.  “It is our policy not to comment on guests who may or may not be staying with us.”
    Manalapan officials would refer to the upcoming special visitors only as “dignitaries” at their town meeting on March 28 and will be emailing residents warning them to avoid driving near Ocean Avenue and A1A during the first week in April.
    “If you’re coming into the town, come from the south,” Town Manager Linda Stumpf said. “We don’t know how the traffic is going to be because when any of these dignitaries leaves the Eau, traffic will be stopped. Go down to Ocean Ridge and head north to come here to Manalapan.”
    When can beachgoers return?
    “The beach should be open to residents sometime on the seventh,” Scheller said.

    Dan Moffett contributed to this story.

By Dan Moffett

    South Palm Beach has 15 of the 16 easements it needs to get its beach stabilization project moving.
    But that’s not enough. It will take all 16, signed and returned, Town Manager Bob Vitas says.
    “Nothing can happen until everyone gets onboard,” he said. “One holdout stops the project.”
    Getting the 16th agreement appears likely to be the most difficult one of all.
    The holdout is the Concordia East condominium, 3560 S. Ocean Blvd., whose homeowners board has balked over liability concerns about allowing Palm Beach County access to the beach for 50 years. Gayelord Palermo, the Concordia board president, says the condo’s lawyer hasn’t had a meaningful discussion with the county in months.
    “We basically haven’t heard from the county so we’ve abandoned it,” Palermo said of the easement agreement. “My attorney tells me not to sign it, many of the unit owners are against it and so is the board.”
    Palermo said county officials have ignored Concordia’s requests for changes in language that might satisfy the condo’s lawyer and many of the 120 unit owners.
    “This is a case of government trying to shove something down our throat,” Palermo said. “I think now they’re trying to lay in the weeds and guilt us into going along with everyone else.”
    He said his board doesn’t want to stop the project, but “we also don’t want to sign a document like this.” No negotiations with the county are scheduled, Palermo said.
    County attorneys have been able to negotiate provisions with other condo groups and property owners to satisfy similar liability worries. About a half-dozen deadlines have come and gone over the last six months because of the missing easements.
    Without them, the county can’t legally hire workers to go onto the town’s beaches and install the concrete groins that are designed to slow erosion. The $5 million project is a joint venture of the federal, state and municipal governments.
    Kimberly Miranda, the county’s project director, says the target date for starting construction has been moved from this November to November 2018 because of the delays.
    “I can’t imagine the county giving up on this project,” Mayor Bonnie Fischer said. “It’s been a long process. It would be hard to be stopped by one building.” Ú

Ted Johnson stands amid the vehicles on display at his Milestone Motorcars dealership in Boynton Beach.

The Ocean Ridge resident says he spends 12 hours a day at the business, but it’s truly a labor of love.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    Thomas Johnson, or Ted, as he is known, has spent a lifetime playing with cars — from the time he was 3 pedaling around his backyard in a little fire chief’s truck, to becoming the founder of Milestone Motorcars in Boynton Beach.
    Johnson has developed his lifelong passion into a business that encompasses every aspect of classic and collectible cars. The facility features a showroom filled with models from manufacturers such as Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Jaguar. It also includes areas for restoration and repair work, car storage, a race shop, and an extensive library that Johnson has accumulated over the years.
    “We’re one-stop shopping for the car nut,” said Johnson, 68, who lives in Ocean Ridge with his wife, Sherry. “It’s a 12-hour day, but I don’t mind at all.”
    Growing up in Connecticut, Johnson first caught the bug for car collecting from his father, an engineer who liked mechanical things. His father brought home different cars, including British models that had leather interiors and burled walnut dashes, which Johnson found fascinating.
    “The materials used in making these cars were so different from what we saw in cars that were made in America,” said Johnson. “It perked my interest at a very early age.”
    When he was 18, he bought his first car, an Alfa Romeo, which at the time was considered “just a used sports car,” not a collectible, and was very affordable.
    “That ignited a real passion for Italian cars that’s lasted all my life,” said Johnson. “They’re what I mostly have interest in. I appreciate them because of their engineering excellence.”
    In 1967, while Johnson was earning a degree in engineering, he worked for what was then the only U.S. importer of Ferrari automobiles, Luigi Chinetti Motors in Greenwich, Conn. He did everything from clean cars to chase parts, and by the time the company dissolved in the early 1980s, he had held just about every position, from mechanic to sales manager.
    During that time, he was also a mechanic and engineer for the North American Racing Team, the Ferrari factory racing team that Luigi Chinetti founded in the United States. Johnson got to see a bit of the world, participating in races such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France and the Formula One Dutch Grand Prix.
    After his job at the Ferrari dealership ended, Johnson continued to work in the car business, but when it took a hit during the economic downturn of the early 1990s, he had to find other work to pay the bills. He started his own company and worked in international trade for almost 20 years, while still keeping his hand in the classic and collectible car market.
    Johnson eventually returned to the car business full-time. After moving to Florida in 2010, he started Milestone Motorcars as a way to share his expertise with other collectors and enthusiasts.
    “The operation I’ve put together here is pretty unique in Florida,” said Johnson. “We supply people with what they need to enjoy the same cars we do. We all love what we do, and it’s easy to see, because we don’t punch clocks, we go home when the job’s finished.”  
    He has sold close to 1,000 cars in his career. The one with the biggest price tag was a Ferrari 250P competition car that was one of only four built and raced in 1964 by the Ferrari factory. A collector bought it for $12 million. The car is probably worth $25 million now.
    In his private collection, he has three Jaguars and two Alfa Romeos, all built in the 1960s, his favorite period. It was right before the federal government mandated certain safety requirements for motor vehicles that changed the character of sporting cars.
    Johnson hopes to pass his cars on to his grandson and granddaughter, and to instill in them the same passion that he has.
    “I want to make sure that these artifacts — these artworks — are maintained and enjoyed and seen in the future,” said Johnson. “I’ve put a lot of effort into making my cars beautiful and historically correct with the right fixtures and pieces. They’ll be something the future can look at and say, ‘Oh, that’s how it was in 1966, or 1963. That’s how this car was when it left the factory.’
    “That may seem like a small thing,” he said, “but I think we as collectors, of anything, are really charged by the future in preserving what goes through our hands. We’re only custodians of it for a little while, and then it moves on into history.”  
    —  Marie Puleo

    Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
    A. I grew up in Stamford, Conn. The area when I was growing up combined the virtues of a small town with the access to the cosmopolitan attributes of a big city. Now it’s much different.
    When I was ready for high school, my family arranged for me to attend a coed preparatory school in Pennsylvania, where other family members had attended. It was an interesting experience as I was on my own at an early age. I think this independence was formative.
    From there I attended the University of Connecticut and studied engineering, which led to my passion for competition and sporting cars.

    Q. What professions have you worked in?
    A. I am a mechanical engineer by profession. My early career was spent working for the U.S. importer of Ferrari automobiles. I started as an apprentice mechanic and did pretty much everything around the company, ending up as the sales manager. Since then I have been involved in the sale and brokerage of many important collector cars.
    I also ran a company involved in international trade and traveled widely. I operated a beverage distribution company in Mexico, until I sold it in 2009 and moved full-time to Florida and opened Milestone Motorcars in Boynton Beach.
       
    Q.  How did you choose to make your home in Ocean Ridge?
    A. I had been coming to Palm Beach County since I was young and had been looking for a place to spend the winter months. In 1998, a friend had an apartment in Ocean Ridge for rent and I took it for a few months. I immediately fell in love. I moved here full-time in 2010.
    
    Q. What is your favorite part about living in Ocean Ridge?
    A. The quiet and the feeling of community.

    Q. What book are you reading now?
    A. A Ship of the Line, by C.S. Forester. Part of the Horatio Hornblower series and an amazingly detailed historical novel using the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars as a backdrop.
    
    Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
    A. Smooth jazz.
    
    Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
    A. Admiral David Glasgow Farragut at the Battle of Mobile Bay: “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”

    Q. Have you had mentors in your life?
    A. Foremost would be my dad, who was a very great influence on me. Also, Luigi Chinetti, the great racing driver and the man who brought Ferrari automobiles to the United States. I worked for him and his son for 15 years and developed a love of fine sporting machinery.

    Q. If your life story were made into a movie, whom would you want to play you, and why?
    A. Steve McQueen. Because he was a real car guy and probably the coolest person to have ever walked the planet.
    
    Q. What kind of car do you drive?
    A. Every day, a 2013 Audi Q5. For fun, my 1964 Jaguar XKE Coupe.

The Balsan estate became Casa Alva.

The Pierce homestead. The man on the right is Hannibal Pierce. The other men are unidentified.

Photos provided by Historical Society of Palm Beach County

Michelle Donahue with the Brown Wrapper newsletter.

Photo by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

    Such a little island. Such a lot of history.
    Three miles long, perhaps a half-mile wide, Hypoluxo Island is home to a fascinating heritage too few who live here know.
    Now the Hypoluxo Island Property Owners Association has resurrected another bit of local lore to celebrate the first land settled by white people in what is now Palm Beach County.
    “The previous president of the property owners association and I were chatting about ways to bring the neighbors together,” recalls Michelle Donahue, the HIPOA’s current president. “And then I remembered the Brown Wrapper and thought, ‘Why not bring it back?’ ”
    Every Sunday morning beginning in 1977, readers of The Palm Beach Post-Times relished a short historical essay by retired Circuit Court Judge James R. Knott, an avid historian with a scholar’s knowledge and a lover’s passion for the past.
    Printed on heavy brown paper wrapped around the Post-Times, the Brown Wrapper appeared until 1985 and yielded two “Best Of” collections.
    The reborn Brown Wrapper, Hypoluxo Island’s Historic Newsletter is more modest, but no less enlightening. The second edition, mailed to 475 homes in March, is a six-page collection of short articles chronicling the island’s earliest years, illustrated with photos. After this pilot season, the association’s plan is to publish the newsletter quarterly, in January, April, July and October.
    “We’re not looking to give every ounce of our history,” says Donahue, who’s also a member of the Delray Beach Historical Society’s board of directors. “We’re just trying to bring you back to what brought people here to begin with. The beauty and wonder of it all.”
Donahue and her husband, Sean, have owned the island’s oldest house since 1999. It’s named Casa Lillias, after Lillias Piper, a nationally known interior decorator who had it built in 1927 from a sketch by her friend Addison Mizner.
    Donahue sparkles with enthusiasm when she talks about her home’s past, the island’s past and the new Brown Wrapper’s future.
    Consider, for example, two other homes on the island.
    Here’s a humble homestead, built by hand out of timbers from a shipwreck.
    And there’s a 23,000-square-foot mansion, home to the former Duchess of Marlborough and occasional host to Sir Winston Churchill.
    Not so very long ago, both the homestead and the mansion stood within yards of each other. Perhaps they were even part of each other.
    “My great-great-grandfather built the homestead in 1873,” says Harvey Oyer III, a West Palm Beach attorney and author of The Adventures of Charlie Pierce series, five books for young adults about Palm Beach County history.
    Hannibal Dillingham Pierce (1834-1898) and his family were the first permanent white settlers in what became Palm Beach County, building a life on 160 acres of Hypoluxo Island provided by the Federal Homestead Act.
    Oyer is the sort of dedicated history lover who uses “we” and “our” to describe things his ancestors built and survived nearly a century before his birth.
    “We had a house done, but no way to put a roof on it, so we used palmetto thatching like a Seminole chickee hut,” he says.
    The Pierce homestead was still standing in 1934 when Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan (1877-1964) built the mansion she dubbed Casa Alva, after her mother.
    She called it her “winter cottage.”
    “Her first husband, the ninth Duke of Marlborough, was a cousin of Winston Churchill, and he used to visit her here,” Donahue says. “That’s certain, and there’s a rumor that he polished his famous Iron Curtain speech by the pool, but we can’t absolutely confirm that.”
    On Feb. 26, the town held its annual “I Love Hypoluxo Island Day” with a picnic in McKinley Park. Norbert McNamara served his famous corn fritters. Stevan Carter, a Fort Lauderdale guitarist, sang Margaritaville and the Lantana Kiwanis Club sold hot dogs and hamburgers. Harvey Oyer delighted the crowd with family lore. And a Molly’s Trolley was full for a tour of the island, hosted by the Brown Wrapper’s newest historian.
    “I’m not a tour guide,” Donahue told the passengers, standing up front with a microphone. “I don’t claim to be. I don’t want to be. But I love this island.”
    On Land’s End Road the trolley pulled down the long driveway to Casa Alva, still standing, still impressive. But the Pierce homestead is gone.
    After Hannibal Pierce’s death in 1898, the original homestead stayed in the family until 1916, when Russell Hopkins bought it.
    In 1926, he sold it to John Demarest, who built additions to create his home, La Linda, which he sold to Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan.
    She dismantled La Linda to create a few outbuildings, and then replaced it with Casa Alva.
    In 1957, Balsan sold Casa Alva to William E. Benjamin II, a developer who turned the mansion into the private Manalapan Club. The dues remained $400 a year until 1977, when Benjamin raised them to $500. Members balked and the club closed.
    And the old Pierce homestead?
    “My grandmother lived to be 101,” Harvey Oyer says. “I knew her well, and she told me the original house had been refaced and repurposed by the Balsans and used as servants quarters or something.”
    Oyer called Bill Benjamin.
    “And he said, ‘I think I tore it down.’ He said he didn’t realize the historical nature. Or maybe he did and didn’t care. He was a developer. But I’m convinced it’s not there anymore.”
Michelle Donahue hopes a reborn Brown Wrapper will    help her neighbors appreciate what’s not there anymore and learn more about the past of Hypoluxo Island.
    “I’m in real estate,” she says. “I see people buy $5 million homes with a beautiful tree in the yard, and they say, ‘Who needs this?’ And they tear it down.
    “But that tree was part of what made this island desirable in the first place.”

By Jane Smith
    
    A political newcomer and a seasoned public servant will join the Delray Beach City Commission after they were handily elected March 14.
    The most contentious race was between retiree Jim Chard and his main contender, political novice Kelly Barrette, for Seat 2. Two others — police officer Richard Alteus and social worker Anneze Barthelemy — also ran for that seat, but garnered less than 10 percent of the vote each.
    Chard took 56 percent of the vote and Barrette was a distant second with 28 percent. “I am interpreting the results as a mandate to get things done,” Chard said.
    Chard says he will work to implement his plan to rid the city of rogue sober home operators and wants to create a list of all capital improvements needed and find a way to pay for them, even if it means issuing a bond.  
    He also thinks Delray Beach needs more upscale office space so that it no longer loses premier businesses to Boca Raton.
    Said Barrette: “I’m proud of the campaign that I ran, which was almost entirely supported by citizens. I haven’t decided how I will stay involved in Delray politics or if I will run for a commission seat again.”
    The Chard-Barrette contest quickly turned into a battle between development and establishment interests and Barrette’s grass-roots, controlled-growth supporters.
    Chard raised just under $70,000. His major contributors include a variety of development interests — iPic theater, Swinton Commons mixed-use project, Delray Place retail center and hoteliers — as well as a co-founder of an upscale sober home facility; three former mayors; two former city commissioners; three board members of the Beach Property Owners Association; and the chairman of the Community Redevelopment Agency.
    He used nearly half of that money to pay his campaign consultant, Cornerstone Solutions, $32,955.98. Most of it went to direct mail, email and telephone campaigns, according to Chard’s campaign finance reports.
    Rick Asnani, a co-founder of Cornerstone, also runs political action committees and electioneering communications organizations, such as Keeping Citizens First Inc. The organization sent out at least two mailers in support of Chard, did a telephone poll of residents regarding the iPic project and made automated phone calls backing Chard.
    As of Feb. 28, the organization raised $50,000, all of it coming from two other PACs. The PACs have no contribution limits, nor do they have to report how much they spend on any one candidate. The money the PACs raised was given to Cornerstone Solutions or Keeping Citizens First. (State law limits contributions to individual candidates to $1,000 per contributor.)

    Records show that one of the PACs giving to Asnani’s organization received $5,000 from investor Carl DeSantis, one of the early principals of the Atlantic Crossing project; $2,500 from Isram Realty Holdings, which owns the Delray Square retail center, and $1,000 from the Dunay, Miskel and Backman law firm that represents iPic and Swinton Commons.

     The money fueled an anti-Barrette campaign of mailers and automated calls that dismissed her as a part-time resident who fights issues on social media, such as Facebook.

      Chard said he has no control over what the PACs do. He said Asnani’s team showed him polling results on residents’ opinions on the iPic complex. Chard said he approved the message of the automated calls made by Keeping Citizens First.
    “I sent out my own mailers,” he said. “I didn’t see the version the PAC sent out, but I gave input into what was covered.”
    He said he will not be swayed by his contributors. “I have been saying no to developers on the city’s SPRAB [Site Plan Review and Appearance Board, where he served as vice-chair], I have a five-year track record of saying no to developers,” Chard said.
    Barrette, who started the Take Back Delray Facebook page, took no money from developers. She raised just under $30,000 from like-minded residents, colleagues and two current city commissioners. Donors included longtime resident Peter Humanik, frequent commission critic and CPA Ken MacNamee, Urban Greenway critic John Cartier and landlord Benita Goldstein.
    Barrette spent $14,659.06 on mailings. Her postcards were typical political ones that compared her political stance to Chard’s, she said.
    In the Seat 4 race, Shirley Johnson raised $30,000 and garnered nearly 64 percent of the vote. She doesn’t have political experience, but she has the support of community leaders in the Northwest and Southwest neighborhoods. A retiree from IBM, she says her top three priorities on the dais will be safe neighborhoods, youth activities and sustainable growth.
    She did send some mailers that compared herself with  opponent Josh Smith, but she did not do automated phone calls.
    Her contributions came from development interests with projects proposed in the city — including iPic, Swinton Commons and Delray Place South. They also came from  lawyers, including former Commissioner Jordana Jarjura, political action committees for firefighters and Realtors, two board members of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, and two former mayors.
    Angie Gray, a former city commissioner who held Seat 4, was her campaign consultant and received $5,000 for that work. Gray also donated to Johnson’s campaign, as did community activist and retired educator Yvonne Odom.
    “I told developers and others at the first forum, they are going to be misled if they thought contributing to my campaign buys approval,” Johnson said. “I will judge everything on whether it is good for Delray.”
    Her opponent, Josh Smith, a retired educator, could not be reached for comment.
    He raised nearly $18,000. His major donors included $1,000 from Rosebud Capital Investment partnership (a major Atlantic Avenue property owner), $1,000 from restaurant owner and city Parking Board member Fran Marincola, $1,000 from Seaside Builders, $1,000 from commission critic MacNamee and his wife, $500 from Commissioner Shelly Petrolia’s husband, Anthony, and $500 from the land-use law firm Greenspoon Marder.

Delray Beach and Boynton Beach became the center of gladiolus growing in 1939

after a deep freeze wiped out the crop in Fort Myers.

Starting in 1947, Delray Beach began having parades during the gladiola festivals.

Lavish floats were decorated with fresh blooms.

Growers sold gladiola under tents. The festival morphed into an agricultural expo after a freeze in the ’50s.

Photos provided by The Delray Beach Historical Society

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

    This year’s 55th anniversary celebration of the Delray Affair is expected to attract more than 100,000 visitors to about 500 vendors set up along Atlantic Avenue.
    As part of the celebration from April 7-9, the Delray Beach Historical Society will be selling gladiolus bulbs as a way to remind festivalgoers of the event’s roots.
    It started in 1939 when Delray Beach found itself in the gladiolus-growing business after a deep freeze wiped out the crop in Fort Myers. From then until the 1950s, the area from Boynton Beach to Delray Beach became the center of gladiolus growing in the United States.
    Having survived the Depression and World War II, the industrious people of Delray Beach were ready to have some fun and show off their handiwork. Thus in 1947, they held a festival to promote the area’s crops and horticultural resources.
    With their favorite flower as its symbol, they dubbed this agricultural showcase the Gladiola Festival. It was a small-town affair, with farmers parking their trucks along the streets to display what they’d grown, explained Winnie Diggans Edwards, executive director of the Historical Society.
    Over the next six years, the festival grew into an entertainment extravaganza that included a parade with lavish floats, a Gladiola Queen and movie stars in attendance.  
    Billie Jo Swilley (nee McFee), 80, a docent for the DBHS, attended those early festivals. She marched in the parade as a majorette and later as a drum major with the high school band and recalls when movie star Vera-Ellen participated.  
    “Those were fun, fun times,” Swilley said, remembering the carnival rides such as the Bullet she went on with her sister. “We got strapped in and it started spinning around. My sister looked at me and I looked at her. We started praying, thinking we’d never get off.”
    There also were animal exhibits such as snakes and stuffed bobcats and alligators. Live baby alligators were for sale. And if you got hungry, you could treat yourself to “the best” conch fritters made by a local church as well as a hamburger, hot dog or corn dog with a bottle of Coke, lemonade or sweet tea.
    And, of course, there was the gladiolus tent, where they sold the flowers in what Swilley described as “every stage of growth.”
    By the mid-’50s, a freeze as well as development in the area’s western edges and a shift to vegetable farming meant the Gladiola Festival morphed into a small agricultural expo. But it was celebrated for only a few years because by 1962, community leaders wanted to expand it into a more multifaceted event.
    They called it the Delray Affair.
    “Today in its 55th year, it’s a wonderful arts, crafts, family friendly outdoor festival,” said Karen Granger, president and CEO of the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the event.
    Although gladiola have been sold at the event over the years, it has gotten harder and harder to find suppliers, as most are overseas. But this year, the Historical Society was determined.
    It discovered a family-owned company in Michigan that supplied many of the local nurseries with gladiolus bulbs back in the ’50s.
 “It’s ironic but it makes sense since many of the settlers in this area were from Michigan,” said Edwards.
    During this year’s Delray Affair, you’ll find the Historical Society booth selling varieties of gladiolus bred to grow well in our heat.
    “If everyone who comes to the festival buys just three bulbs and plants them, we might once again have more gladiola in Delray than anywhere else in the country,” said Edwards.

By Mary Thurwachter

    After voting not to sign on to a crossing agreement with Florida East Coast Railway and All Aboard Florida in February, the Lantana Town Council changed its mind a month later, affirming the agreement at its March 13 meeting.
    Other municipalities that have signed are Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and Palm Beach Gardens. Now that Lantana has agreed to sign, the only holdouts are Jupiter and Tequesta.
    All Aboard Florida, an express passenger rail service that eventually will connect Miami to Orlando, is a sister company to Florida East Coast Railway.
    Neil Schiller, the attorney representing the railway, said that All Aboard Florida, as a third-party beneficiary, will pay costs for initial improvements made on the crossings to accommodate the new trains. Lantana and other municipalities that sign the agreement will pick up costs after that.
    The town already has a crossing agreement with Florida East Coast Railway, which owns the property where the crossings are located (one at West Ocean Avenue and the other at Finlandia Boulevard and West Central Boulevard).
    Schiller said All Aboard Florida is supporting efforts to create quiet zones in the construction phase of the project.
    Failure to sign the agreement would have meant All Aboard Florida would write the town a bill for the improvements that were made for the crossings.
    Council members made it clear they did not want to sign, but felt they had to do it.
    “It’s feeling close to blackmail,” said Council member Malcolm Balfour. “But I am reluctantly going to change my vote to affirmative.”
    Council member Lynn Moorhouse, who along with Council member Tom Deringer voted in favor of the agreement during the Feb. 13 meeting, said his vote “was kind of a no-brainer. We’re going have to pay anyway. I don’t have to like it to know it’s in the best interest of the town.”
    Without signing, Moorhouse said, “We’re going to have to take a half million of the voters’ money out of reserves.”
    Mayor Dave Stewart, who like Balfour and Council member Phil Aridas ended up changing his vote to a “yes,” told Schiller: “You’re wanting us to pay for something we get nothing from.”
    The express train will not make stops in Lantana.
    Schiller said that wasn’t entirely true, since residents of the town would use the train to go to Miami or, eventually, to Orlando.
“It’s an opportunity to take cars off the road,” he said.
    “The good news is the eight- to 10-year maintenance schedule for that upgrade [to the crossings] gets reset,” Schiller said.
    The mayor said even though he wasn’t happy about the agreement he would vote for it for the town.
    “It’s like dealing with Tony Soprano,” Stewart said. “If you don’t sign it, you’re dead.”

By Jane Smith

    Riverwalk owner Shaul Rikman recently purchased 5.8 acres of mangroves just south of his proposed development and offered them to the city of Boynton Beach in late March.
    “It is in our best interest to maintain the mangroves to the south of the project,” Rikman said at the March 21 City Commission meeting.
    Commissioners thanked him. The city attorney requested that Rikman submit a proposal for review. Rikman could not be reached for comment.
    Commissioner Justin Katz, who supported the contentious Riverwalk project, said at the meeting he was asked by some residents “to work on a consensus to make the project more palatable to those not in favor of it.”
    The waterfront mangrove parcels were not available when Riverwalk was going through the city approval process, Katz said. They recently became available. Rikman’s Isram Realty paid $750,000 on March 13 for two waterfront parcels, according to Palm Beach County property records.
    His firm will keep a 3.2-acre mangrove parcel that is landlocked. It sits west of the waterfront parcels and east of a McDonald’s, Miami Grill and Boynton Billiards on Federal Highway. Isram paid $500,000 for the property in March 2011.
    Rikman received approval earlier this year to raze the former Winn-Dixie building and construct a 10-story apartment building at the southwest corner of the Intracoastal Waterway and Woolbright Road.
    For more than a year, Boynton Beach and Ocean Ridge residents protested the extra height and density Rikman’s real estate firm received.
    But they lost.
    “I love how we’ve gone from protest to praise,” said Mary Nagle, secretary of the Seagate of Gulfstream condominium community that sits just south of the mangroves. “It’s good news for our residents. I am heartened that it will be in a preserve forever.”
    If Katz’s dream of connecting the boardwalk at Riverwalk to the Seagate community becomes true, her residents will want to put up a locked gate at the border. The community has two swimming pools and would be concerned about its liability, Nagle said.
    Even so, she said, residents would like to walk up to Prime Catch for dinner or fish along the proposed pier or take advantage of a possible kayak concession.
    Other Boynton Beach residents like the idea of adding green space. They also said they hope the city has a plan to maintain it, especially if a boardwalk is built.
    Other boardwalks along the Intracoastal, at Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park and in Mangrove Park behind St. Mark Catholic Church, have been restricted or closed because of lack of money for maintenance.
    Across the waterway in Ocean Ridge, the mood was guarded.
    “It’s fundamentally a good idea,” said Ed Bresnihan, president of the Ocean Ridge Yacht Club. “Rikman did not do this out of the goodness of his heart. He is a smart businessman and wants to make money. The Boynton Beach commission needs to watch out for quid pro quo and be alert to what he asks for in return.”
    At Crown Colony Club community, Dan Dekker said, “I’m happy to hear the mangroves will be preserved.”
    In fact, he proposed more than a year ago purchasing the mangroves so that they could be preserved.
    His building does not sit on the Intracoastal. He said residents in the building with waterfront views pay about $40,000 extra for their units. Some might be concerned about their views being disrupted by noise from people using a boardwalk or fishing pier.
    He wants to have Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes residents at the table when the boardwalk is discussed, along with the Boynton Beach people who live in the Seagate community.

By Jane Smith

    The restaurant once known as the Little House will reopen this summer as Fork Play.
    A late decision by the owners, former Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella and his partner, to enclose the eatery’s outside porch led to a delay. They wanted to increase the restaurant’s space by 525 square feet and add 30 seats. The Boynton Beach City Commission granted that approval in June.
    But it took months before permits were issued, following the submittal of a construction permit application. The city building department issued the permits in early February, allowing work to resume on the restaurant.
    At the March 15 Community Redevelopment Agency meeting, board members received an update on this restaurant from Michael Simon, interim executive director of the CRA.
    “We have no control over city staff doing the reviews,” Simon said.  
    Lucibella’s company paid the CRA $335,000 in April 2016 for the 768-square-foot structure at 480 E. Ocean Ave.
    The contractor needs another six to eight weeks to finish his work, Eleanor Krusell, city spokeswoman, said in mid-March.
    Then, restaurateur Lisa Mercado can begin her work on the inside to outfit the building as an eatery. That work will take about six weeks, she said.
    “I can’t wait for everyone to stop asking me ‘when,’” she said. Every night at her other Boynton Beach restaurant, the Living Room on Congress Avenue, customers ask her when Fork Play will open.
    For the restaurant in the Magnuson House at 211 E. Ocean Ave., the approval process is moving forward more slowly. The architect submitted plans Dec. 30, Simon told the CRA board.
    AW Architects has received comments from city planning staff and is in the process of answering them, Simon said.
    CRA board member Joe Casello said he’s heard that the owner can’t find a restaurant operator.
    The owner still plans to operate a restaurant there and is using the comment period to interview operators and contractors, Simon said.
    A division of Local Development Co. in Philadelphia paid $255,000 to the CRA in September. The two-story home needed extensive work to be converted into a restaurant.

By Jane Smith
    
    City commissioners are so thrilled with the performance of their interim city manager, they decided to raise his salary equal to the one paid to the city manager who resigned at the end of December.
    Vice Mayor Jordana Jarjura, who did not seek re-election, suggested at the March 1 commission meeting to raise the salary of Neal de Jesus to be equal to Don Cooper’s pay as city manager.
    At their March 16 meeting, three Delray Beach commissioners agreed to pay de Jesus $187,012.80 annually while he is the interim city manager. He had been making $159,000.
    “A resounding yes,” said Commissioner Mitch Katz, who had the idea last year to ask de Jesus to fill in while the commission searched for a city manager. Commissioner Shelly Petrolia did not attend the six-minute meeting.
    Now that the new commissioners are on board, de Jesus will prepare a list of search firm names.
    In addition, de Jesus can return to his position as fire chief for the city. If it is his decision, he must give the city 30 days’ notice. The revised agreement also points out that de Jesus knows he can’t serve in both positions at the same time.
    While acting as interim city manager, de Jesus will receive a $2,000 monthly housing allowance.
    The city will pay any security deposits and/or prepaid rents that are required.