By Dan Moffett

Delray Beach developer Anthony Pugliese III has lost another court decision in his fight to avoid paying $23.1 million to the estate of Subway restaurant founder Fred DeLuca.
On April 10, the 4th District Court of Appeal rejected without comment Pugliese’s request for a new trial in the case of the failed partnership with DeLuca that once had grandiose plans for building a sprawling eco-city named Destiny on 41,000 acres near Yeehaw Junction.
West Palm Beach attorney Rick Hutchison called the appeal court ruling “definitive and the end of litigation” in what was a 10-year legal battle between the two businessmen. DeLuca died of leukemia at 67 four years ago, and his wife, Elisabeth, continued his case.
In 2015, Pugliese pleaded no contest to fraud and theft charges after admitting in court depositions that he created sham companies with phony addresses and fake invoices to siphon off about $1.2 million of DeLuca’s money. Pugliese served four months of a six-month jail sentence.
Pugliese and DeLuca had accused each other of fraud, with the developer suing the Subway magnate for $5 billion in civil court. Pugliese blamed DeLuca for an illegal financing scheme that allegedly profited him more than $20 million.
Each accused the other of stealing Destiny’s money and using it for lavish personal expenditures. But the courts have sided with DeLuca.
In 2017, after a five-week jury trial, a Palm Beach County circuit judge ruled that Pugliese should pay $4 million for breaching a contract with DeLuca and another $8.7 for civil theft. The balance of the $23.1 million bill, roughly $10.4 million, goes to cover DeLuca’s legal fees.
Pugliese, 72, could ask the Florida Supreme Court to consider the case but the terse rejection by the appeals court makes the prospects for getting a new trial seem unlikely.

County Commissioner Robert Weinroth (left) toured property next to the development site with residents and county engineers. He says the county is working to identify and consider fixes to potential drainage issues. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

The pace of construction has picked up for the Gulf Stream Views townhouse development in recent weeks, and so has the project’s pursuit of required permits and government approvals.
On April 25, Palm Beach County building officials rejected an appeal submitted the day before to the Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals by four residents of the County Pocket.
Karl Hoffman, Paul Lambert and Glenn and Marie Chapman, citing concerns about drainage problems for neighboring properties, asked the county to issue a stop-work order for the project “until a comprehensive stormwater master plan and funding strategy can be approved for the area.”
The county attorney’s office denied the request without comment.
The same week, project engineers for the developer submitted a revised flooding map for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The map identifies the site between Briny Breezes and the County Pocket as an area with a 1 in 500 annual chance of flood hazard, a favorable assessment that would allow the project to go forward.
The current FEMA rating is a 1 in 100 annual chance of flood hazard, which would stop the development from getting a certificate of occupancy.
If FEMA accepts the revised map, then a 120-day period of public comment begins before the designation becomes official.
On April 9, newly seated District 4 County Commissioner Robert Weinroth inspected the construction site, along with county zoning and engineering officials, and Briny Breezes Council President Sue Thaler. Residents from Briny Breezes and the County Pocket told them about their concerns that the project will cause drainage problems in the neighborhood.
“I think one of the things the town recognizes is that their infrastructure is very old,” Weinroth said afterward. “As we did that tour, we recognized that even the drainage that was in place was not properly maintained.”
He said it’s “unfortunate” that the historical use of the development’s lot as a drainage field would not continue, but the county is listening to residents.
“I think the county is working with the town to try to identify the drainage issues there to see what can be done,” Weinroth said. “But as far as the landowner that’s doing the development, I think they’re doing what they can to address the drainage on their property.”

The revised area flood map sent for FEMA approval would give the construction site a 1 in 500 annual chance of flood hazard as opposed to the 1 in 100 annual chance of surrounding areas shown in blue. Map provided

New Jersey-based NL Living wants to build 14 townhomes on the 2-acre parcel south of Briny Breezes Boulevard that for decades has absorbed runoff from the neighborhood.
Last month, contractors began installing 79 catchment chambers, designed to capture up to 84,000 gallons of storm-water and then release it slowly underground. Project engineers have assured residents the development will hold all the stormwater that comes onto it.
Rachel Streitfeld, the Miami-Dade County lawyer who represented the four pocket residents, isn’t so sure. Streitfeld called the county’s decisions to give the developers permits “erroneous, dangerous and injurious.” She requested an expedited hearing to argue the residents’ case — which the county denied.
Streitfeld said the project presented an “egregious incompatibility with the surrounding existing residential communities.”
Cited in the appeal request was an analysis by Jim Bolleter, an engineer with Ecology and Environment Inc. of Wellington, whom the residents hired.
“Regardless of how Gulf Stream Views handles their drainage,” Bolleter wrote, “increasing the site elevation is anticipated to worsen the flooding problems to the north, south, and immediately west of the site since stormwater from the surrounding area has less surface area to percolate into.”
Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, organized the tour with Weinroth and other officials. She said the coalition does not oppose the project, but it does want residents’ concerns to be taken seriously.
An event to raise money for legal fees has been organized by neighborhood residents and will be held 4-9 p.m. May 25 at Nomad Surf Shop.
De Haseth, who is also an Ocean Ridge town commissioner, said the county can’t simply tell residents “sorry, your neighborhood’s old, so we’re done here.” She said there’s still time left to deal with potential problems.
“This is the beginning of a conversation,” she said. “It’s not the end of a conversation.”

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach businessman Billy Himmelrich filed his lawsuit too early against the city, a circuit court judge ruled on April 26.
Judge Jaimie Goodman ruled that Himmelrich and his business partner’s Bert Harris claim was premature, “not yet ripe,” because the partners had not filed an official plan to build more than three stories in the downtown when the city rejected the plan.
Himmelrich texted “No comment” on April 30, when asked whether he would appeal. He and his partner have 30 days to appeal the ruling.
The Bert Harris Act, a state law, protects individual property rights. It allows governments to change their land development rules and requires written notice of the change be mailed to the affected property owners.
Delray Beach sends its notices via the U.S. Postal Service regular mail.
“The Florida Statute notice requirements do not require confirmation of receipt of notices,” Tim Stillings, Delray Beach’s development services director, wrote last year in response to how the city tracks the notices. “When we send notices, we keep a record of the mailing labels.
Stillings was not employed with the city when the downtown height restriction was passed in 2015.
Himmelrich, who attended the 2015 hearings on restricting the height, said he and his business partner were not notified in writing, as required under the Bert Harris Act.
In May 2018, Himmelrich and his business partner had sued the city for $6.9 million to be able to build four stories on their parcels just east of the Old School Square Cultural Center. They own two parking lots and two buildings that house Tramonti and Cabana El Rey restaurants. Both restaurants have long-term leases that expire in 2024, Himmelrich has said.
Then-City Attorney Max Lohman, who was not with Delray Beach in 2015, brought forth a settlement agreement last fall that called for carving out the Himmelrich parcels from the downtown. At the time, he said the settlement is not about the merits of the case but “about certainty.”
On Sept. 25, the commission took its first vote, 3-2, for the settlement. Lohman then canceled the city’s motion to dismiss the hearing, set for Oct. 19.
But on Oct. 9, when commissioners heard from the public, they voted 3-2 against settling. Mayor Shelly Petrolia and Commissioners Bill Bathurst and Ryan Boylston voted for letting the judge decide the merits of the $6.9 million lawsuit.

Highland Beach resident John Ross galvanized voters’ opposition to proposals that called for spending up to $45 million on improvements along A1A. ‘No was the message,’ he said of the idea for the shirts. ‘It just said it.’ Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

John Ross didn’t plan to start a movement in Highland Beach. He just wanted to bring people together in opposition to town plans to spend up to $45 million of taxpayer money on improvements along State Road A1A.
In the process of fighting City Hall on one issue, however, Ross’ grassroots Committee to Save Highland Beach has done something larger — bringing people from throughout the town together to get involved in local government.
“Our goal is to restore democracy to Highland Beach,” said Ross, who is credited with helping to overwhelmingly defeat three ballot initiatives linked to the A1A improvements.
At 71, the six-year Highland Beach resident — along with a few friends — came up with the idea of sending out daily email blasts urging residents to vote “no” when they went to the polls in March.
They were surprised by what happened next.
“I thought I would send out a couple of emails and everyone would be annoyed and that would be the end of it,” said Ross, whose first email blast went out early in January. “Then it caught fire.”
Ross continues to send out emails — although no longer on a daily basis — to nearly 1,100 addresses of Highland Beach residents. He organized a community forum last month featuring two residents who were hoping to be appointed by the Town Commission to a vacant vice mayor seat.
In light of Ross’ professional background, it’s not surprising he became involved in local government.
Before retiring, Ross lived in northern Virginia where, among other things, he worked for companies that created information technology services for local and state governments. In New York City, the company he worked for helped develop systems to process 30,000 parking tickets a day.
“I made my living helping governments become more efficient,” he said.
He has a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration and served as a political consultant for a short time.
Soon after arriving in Highland Beach, Ross was recruited to serve as first president of the newly formed Highland Beach Coastal Democratic Club. His interest in government led him to make an unsuccessful run for an open Town Commission seat. He finished a distant second in a four-person race.
“That was stupid,” he said. “I am a terrible candidate.”
He doesn’t plan on running for public office again. “It was horrible.”
Ross displayed some marketing skill with a campaign to stop the town’s A1A projects with signs that simply said “No.”
When signs were taken down, he asked people to write “no” on shirts.
“No was the message,” he said. “It just said it.”
During public comment at a Town Commission meeting, Ross appeared at the podium wearing a “No” shirt that his wife, Maxine, had made for him. Asked to cover it up because Town Hall is a campaign-free zone, Ross instead took off the shirt, and while audience members chuckled and cheered, he put on a plain shirt he had brought with him.
He made his point while making people laugh.
“It’s all for mental health,” he said. “If you don’t have a sense of humor, what good is life.”


Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A. I grew up and went to school in Brooklyn, N.Y. Only the strong survived growing up in Brooklyn back then.

Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A. Fried burgers in a 15-cent burger joint. Painted houses. Worked in the men’s shelter in New York City. Political consultant many years ago. Developed and implemented large-scale information technology systems for governments at all levels, as well as some of the world’s largest financial services firms and became chief information officer of a $12 billion IT firm. 
I was at my best leading projects with a prominent West Coast financial services firm, and a leading New York City-based bond rating agency during the financial crises of 2008. Also, I fully integrated the IT infrastructure of a multinational IT consulting firm for the firm I was CIO of on day one of its acquisition. 

Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today? 
A. Take your time, and be yourself. Happenstance will take care of the rest.

Q. How did you choose to make your home in Highland Beach?
A. We found the right ambience in a dog-friendly town that was convenient to the things we liked. I cannot imagine living without a dog.

Q. What is your favorite part about living in Highland Beach? 
A. I like the small-town feel of the place. It’s remarkable for a town in the middle of Palm Beach County. And the people I meet are generally smarter than I am.

Q. What book are you reading now?
A. Two: Low Chicago, which is actually a group of short stories set in a common alternative reality, and Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, which is the story of a Silicon Valley startup gone terribly wrong.
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax? 
A. Very eclectic taste in music, from rock to reggae to Broadway and classical. I’m a big fan of Gilbert and Sullivan and Toots and the Maytals. I sort of forgot how to relax some time ago, but I’m most relaxed fishing.

Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions? 
A. “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,” which is also a fine album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. Several. Some great teachers and coaches and a few extraordinary bosses and colleagues. But I don’t think I’ve made many life decisions — just sort of one thing leading to another.

Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
A. John Belushi.

ABOVE: Arnie Kass of Boynton Beach has been lawn bowling for more than 10 years and is a member of the Delray Beach Lawn Bowling Club, which plays at Veterans Park. The club dates to 1963. BELOW: A wooden board with players’ names serves as a schedule of matches. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Brian Biggane

In Delray Beach, lawn bowlers have history on their side, pickleballers have the numbers, and the City Commission and Parks and Recreation Department are caught in the middle.
Widely considered the fastest-growing sport in the United States, pickleball has quickly built a strong following in Delray Beach, with membership of the Delray Beach Pickleball Club growing to 271 in just 18 months since it was founded in November 2017.
The city has responded to that growth by converting two tennis courts at the Delray Beach Tennis Center to eight pickleball courts, and providing access to indoor courts at Pompey Park on weekdays and outdoor courts at both the community center and Catherine Strong Park.
But with 50-60 players showing up on a daily basis at the parks, club members packed a city workshop in January to demand more.
The city’s solution: Veterans Park, where a few shuffleboard courts sit idle adjacent to a 120-by-120-foot tract used by the Delray Beach Lawn Bowling Club that could be converted to as many as a dozen pickleball courts.
Needless to say, the lawn bowlers — who number 50-60 during the winter months and 35-40 in summer — aren’t happy with that prospect.
“I wish them well,” lawn bowler Richard Flater said, “but they can go anywhere. This is the only place we have.”
“The goal is to be able to accommodate both groups,” said Parks and Recreation Director Sam Metott, who became point man on the project recently when Suzanne Fisher was promoted to assistant city manager. “We can’t put them both in the same spot.”
A plaque hanging in the Veterans Park clubhouse dates the origin of the Lawn Bowling Club to 1963, when John F. Kennedy was president and Delray Beach was a sleepy beach town. The game’s popularity in England and its onetime colonies such as Australia, New Zealand and India has meant that visitors from all those countries have made the trip and played at Veterans Park.
The game has also made its mark in French-speaking parts of Canada, prompting dozens of Québécois to make winter homes in south Palm Beach County.
Howie Herman is one club member who can attest to the game’s appeal.
“The reason I came to Delray in the first place is because of this club,” Herman said. “We were looking for a place to vacation, came down for a couple weeks, I started bowling with this club and I bought in this area.
“We shop in Delray Beach, we eat in Delray Beach. Will I continue to live here if they take it away? I can’t say that. We might move to the west coast (of Florida) to have a club.”
Therein lies a bigger problem. While pickleball courts seem to be popping up everywhere, the only other lawn bowling club south of Sarasota is in Naples.
Flater said converting the club to pickleball would be a cultural setback.
“Do you want to keep the Colony Hotel, the Sundy House, places with a little bit of history, or do you want the latest fad to dominate? We’re trying to make that argument,” he said.
Glenn Kessler, who took over as president of the Delray Beach Pickleball Club in March, has his own arguments.
“When they played the U.S. Open in Naples in 2016, they had 600 players,” Kessler said. “In 2017 they had 1,200 players, and in 2018 they were up to 2,300, coming from 48 states and one guy from India. So, the sport is just exploding, and my sense is Delray wants to be part of that explosion.”
And while Delray Beach has become a world-renowned tennis mecca, the city has expressed a desire to go even further.
“We’ve really been trying to make Delray not just a tennis town but a racket sport destination,” Metott said. “We do a number of events now, on the beach for beach tennis, and obviously pickleball just keeps exploding. More than 40 people play at the Tennis Center every single night, all weekend long, and they can’t get enough.”
One difference between the two sports is noise. While the rolling of balls toward a jack — a white ball about the size of a cue ball that is identical to the one used in bocce — barely makes a sound, the clack-clack-clack of the plastic pickleball off plastic rackets could change the image of what has always been a peaceful park on the Intracoastal, not to mention annoy tenants in a multistory condo just across the water. The city has commissioned a noise study and Metott said its results could be a game-changer.
“I don’t see them accommodating pickleball with the noise,” Lawn Bowling Club President Richard Marcus said. “There are big objections from the building across the way.”
The pickleballers, who have been told the transition will be made by the end of the year, are undeterred.
“We’ve measured it out, measured how many courts we think we can get in, and we’re really excited,” Kessler said. “We’ve tried to run kids’ programs and all, but having a site like that helps. Our whole effort is to give back to the community. We just gave $1,000 to Habitat for Humanity, and we want to get more kids involved, families involved.
“But there is absolutely no ill will toward the lawn bowling people. We would very much like to get them out on the pickleball court so we could convert them.”
Some of the lawn bowlers admitted to having tried it but prefer their game.
“Some of us can’t play pickleball,” club member Joe Miele said. “This is a game for people in their 70s, 80s, even 90s.”
Metott said his most recent conversation with the lawn bowlers was in early April and that he remains optimistic a resolution can be found.
“We wanted to look at different options and they were very open to getting their needs filled,” he said. “There are some potential options there for them. They were very big-picture looking. They said they can play on grass, and they like clay, so they were very flexible.”

By Mary Thurwachter

Lantana is revising its parking requirements for restaurants, reducing the number of parking spots by slightly more than half in an effort to attract more businesses to the downtown.
At its April 8 meeting, Town Council members voted to decrease the number from 25 spaces per 1,000 square feet gross floor area to 12 spaces.
For fast food restaurants, the number of required spaces will go from 10 spaces per 1,000 square feet GFA to four, with a minimum of 25, plus seven queuing spaces for each drive-through window with at least four before the menu board.
“We proposed to change the parking requirements for restaurants because staff and our attorneys believe they are too high,” said Town Development Director Dave Thatcher.  “The businesses also feel that way. Most all the restaurants have said that too.”
Not everyone favored the changes — both Mayor Dave Stewart and council member Phil Aridas voted against the measure. But Malcolm Balfour, Ed Shropshire and Lynn Moorhouse voted for the changes.
For years, the town heard complaints about a lack of parking on Ocean Avenue, but Moorhouse said plenty of spaces are available. He said he eats on the Avenue often and has never had a problem finding a parking space.
“We are not, as people think, a place where you have no place to park,” Moorhouse said. “If you’re desperate, go to the tennis courts. Yes, you have to walk a block. Big deal. It’s good for your health. I am so pro this because I don’t want to see a ghost town, which we have now.”
Besides several existing restaurants and a few businesses, there are many unoccupied small buildings on the Avenue.
Lantana Chamber of Commerce President Dave Arm lobbied for the ordinance change and agreed with Moorhouse’s assessment.
“We don’t really have a parking problem in Lantana,” Arm said. “You can go out on a Friday night or a Saturday during season and find a spot at the Kayak Park, at Bicentennial or Sportsman’s parks or use valets.
“I love Lantana, as you all know, and I love going out to eat in Lantana, as you can probably see,” Arm said as he rubbed his stomach. “We have a restaurant renaissance going on in the town right now.
“Oceano Kitchen has gotten national attention for the quality of their food. Mario’s Ocean Avenue is a very popular spot with locals and tourists and is busy off season as well as on. And the Old Key Lime House is an international tourist destination written up in travel magazines.
“If that’s all we want, we can leave this regulation alone because no other restaurant can open up on Ocean Avenue if we don’t change the parking requirements.”
Arm referred to a survey Development Director Thatcher did that revealed parking requirements in most municipalities in Palm Beach County are less stringent than Lantana’s.
“This should put us in line to allow businesses to open,” Arm said.
Vice Mayor Balfour said the town was known for its many good restaurants.
“I really feel that this is something we should consider,” he said of the parking changes.
Shropshire said he thought it would “be wonderful to have more restaurants, to be a destination and still maintain a small-town feel and yet have all kinds of interesting and fun places to visit.”
But Mayor Stewart said he doesn’t like changing ordinances just because of one or two businesses. “And this, I believe, is going in the wrong direction,” he said.
Aridas said the changes would be a convenience for the restaurants but would eventually pose an inconvenience to residents.
“I’m up here with the support of the residents and I have to vote for the convenience of our residents. I can’t support this.”

In other business, the town approved spending up to $30,000 for fireworks from Zambelli Fireworks for the Fourth of July.

OCEAN RIDGE — Dorothy Stumfoll Henck died April 12 at her home in Stamford, Conn. She was 64.
She was born Feb. 22, 1955, in New York City.  She and her older sister, Kathy, were raised by Robert and Gertrude Stumfoll in Fair Lawn, N.J. 
On April 16, 1977, she married Robert Edwin Henck in Scarsdale, N.Y. After moving to Stamford in 1979, Mrs. Henck worked more than 20 years with Tooher-Ferraris Insurance Group.
Stamford is also where they reared their two sons, Robert and Ryan.
For the past 10 years, she and her husband, Bob, split their time between Stamford and Ocean Ridge. 
Mrs. Henck enjoyed spending her time reading, watching classic comedies (Mel Brooks and Monty Python), and she loved watching the sunrise. Her natural kindness and sense of humor are what drew people to her. She lived her life by the golden rule. 
Mrs. Henck is survived by her husband, Bob; sister and husband, Kathy and Jack Stone; her son Rob and his wife, Madeline; grandson Owen; and son Ryan and his wife, Alyssa.
Obituary submitted by the family

The Thomas Street station pumps water back into the Intracoastal Waterway through an outflow pipe nearly a foot wide. It toggles on and off for three-minute bursts when water levels are elevated during high tide and heavy rain. The city has set aside $892,500 for a short-term improvement to the station in the next 18 months. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach residents who live along the Intracoastal Waterway know when the Thomas Street pump station has stopped working: The stormwater drains overflow or the high tides overwhelm the system and flood Seabreeze Avenue with water 6 to 10 inches deep.
The city higher-ups say the pump station has failed annually for the past few years. But longtime residents say the pump station fails more frequently. The latest malfunction happened in March.
“I think it has happened every few months since the last hurricane,” said Terry Max, a dentist who has lived at the base of Thomas Street for 22 years.
That hurricane was Irma, which passed over southern Palm Beach County in 2017.
Each time, Max calls the city’s Utilities Department.
“They are trying to do everything they can,” Max said. “But I’m not happy about the water in the street. And it’s going to get higher with sea level rise.”
The water often collects on the lawns and in the driveways on the northern end of Seabreeze, which is lower than the southern end, where it intersects with Atlantic Avenue. No residents said water ever got into their homes.
When Seabreeze is flooded, dog owners must take other routes when walking their pets, especially smaller breeds with short legs.
Delray Beach staff and commissioners know they have about 10 years to act. Then, the Intracoastal waters are forecast to rise over the current sea walls and flood city land and private property.
About 20 miles of sea walls are held privately while the city owns just 1 mile.

Station listed as top priority
At its strategic planning session on April 26, the City Commission ranked its capital improvement priorities from a top 10 list created by department heads. The top four were deemed both important and urgent.
The Thomas Street pump station was first, followed by a new fire station on Linton Boulevard that will be hurricane-hardened to serve as an Emergency Operations Center. The third priority covered adding sidewalks, making others wheelchair accessible and resurfacing roads.
“It will take $7 million to make the sidewalks wheelchair accessible,” said Missie Barletto, deputy director of Public Works.
The fourth priority was water and sewer improvements, Barletto said.
That next level of projects covers the Osceola Park neighborhood; Tropic Isles roadways near the Intracoastal where groundwater is seeping up through pipes; Pompey Park, and the municipal golf course. The Tropic Isles project calls for the pipes to be lined and the four miles of roads rebuilt.
The other two priorities that department heads listed didn’t make the commission list: a new City Center and water treatment issues in the study phase.
“The problem will be sticking to them,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said of the priorities, noting that the city will receive pushback from supporters of the projects that were ranked lower. She also said priorities often change when emergencies happen.

In reaction to a station failure in March, the city has a worker sit in a pickup and monitor a temporary pump that now backs up the permanent one behind shrubs at Thomas Street.

In June, the commission will review its capital improvement projects for long-term fixes costing more than $25,000 and lasting at least five years.
In the current financial year, commissioners have set aside $892,500 for a midterm fix at the Thomas Street pump station.
The station dates to the 1970s, Barletto told the commission on April 26.
“The midterm fix includes redesigning the pump station … so that two pumps can fit in the well. If one failed, the other one would turn on,” Barletto said at the April 9 commission workshop. The well holds overflow water until it is pumped back into the Intracoastal.
The city’s design consultant needs another month to determine whether the well can accommodate two pumps and their motors, stormwater engineer Jeff Needle said on April 23.
If all goes according to the plan, the design and construction process will last up to 18 months, Needle said. The city also would buy a backup pump and a generator to make sure the pumps work during power failures.
Neal de Jesus, the interim city manager who was the city’s fire chief, said Delray Beach needs to buy interchangeable pumps and motors so that when one goes out, the city has another one in stock.
“Right now, we have a lot of this one works here, and we need a completely different one for over here,” de Jesus said at the April 2 commission meeting. “We can’t afford to stock all those pumps.”
He told commissioners that the midterm fix for the Thomas Street station will last between six and 10 years, depending on how fast the sea level rises.
A long-term fix for that pump station, one that will last about 30 years, “is a big-ticket item,” de Jesus said.
“At the time it was put into the capital budget, its cost was about $6 million,” de Jesus said. “Now, it’s closer to $10 million” to pay for four pumps, their motors and an expanded well that can hold the equipment.
“The well that was put in there many years ago was probably too small at the time,” de Jesus said. “Now, it’s too small for the sea-level rise issues we are dealing with.”
The station relies on one 18,000- to 20,000-gallon-per-minute pump. The new stormwater master plan calls for four pumps of that size, Needle said.
If the city expands the well, it will have to pay to remove the groundwater in a process called dewatering from the well next to the Intracoastal and then filter the water before it returns to the Intracoastal, Needle said.
The city doesn’t filter the water now because the midterm fix won’t expand the well, he said.

Since the pump failure on Thomas Street, Delray Beach staff has a bypass system working with rental pumps, Needle said. City employees from its Utilities and Public Works departments work around the clock in eight-hour shifts to make sure the rental pumps are working at high tide.
In March, the city rented large vacuum trucks to remove debris from stormwater drains in area streets.
“The pumps run only at high tide,” said a Utilities Department mechanic who didn’t want to give his name, “I’m a low man on the totem pole.”
Most residents have been courteous, he said in mid-April.
Andy Brown has lived on the northern end of Seabreeze for seven years.
“The city has certainly devoted a lot of resources out here. They are not ignoring the problem,” he said. “Whether it solves the (flooding) problem,” time will tell.
Ann Glaize, who has lived at the intersection of Seabreeze and Thomas for 23 years, said she’s confident the city will fix the stormwater problem. “I love this street,” she said.
Max, the dentist, also loves his location: “Two blocks from the ocean and two blocks from Atlantic Avenue. What’s not to love?”

Jack Taylor, here with his wife, Bernadine, helped found the BBC-8 TV channel in Briny Breezes and led the charge to build the ocean clubhouse. He was also a carver who led the Chiselers woodworking club. Photo provided

By Ron Hayes

BRINY BREEZES — Jack Taylor first visited Briny Breezes in 1974, bought a home in 1984 and threw himself into the life of the town.
Mr. Taylor died March 31 at his summer home in Waterford, Mich. He was 86 and had been in failing health since August.
When autumn came to Michigan, Briny Breezes beckoned.
“He absolutely loved Briny Breezes,” his son John F. Taylor said. “It was his life. He used to say, ‘When the leaves start falling off the trees, that’s it.’” A Quonset hut became home to the Chiselers woodworking club in large part because of Mr. Taylor’s hard work.
The town has its own television station because of his leadership.
As both a member and president of the town’s corporate board in the early 1990s, he led the fight to see a new ocean clubhouse rise from the dunes where its dilapidated predecessor stood.
John Duncan “Jack” Taylor was born in Toronto on July 28, 1932, and raised in Rugby, England. He served in the Royal Air Force and was a longtime member of Rotary International, the Masons, and Christ Lutheran Church.
In the late 1970s, Mr. Taylor invented a battery-powered “pre-alarm” that could be placed behind a plastic shield covering fire alarms. If a prankster opened the plastic cover to pull the alarm, the pre-alarm would frighten him away without setting off the actual alarm.
In 1980, Mr. Taylor was awarded a patent for the invention and the family company, Safety Technology International Inc., was formed. Today STI Inc. employs about 70 people in Michigan and another 30 in the United Kingdom.
That background in security benefited Briny Breezes when Mr. Taylor helped the town establish a system of access cards for the laundry and clubhouse.
He also served as both a vice president and president of the Chiselers woodworking club.
“Because of Jack, we have the Chiselers Club,” said Ira Friedman, a friend and fellow woodcarver. “We had a Quonset hut with nothing in it, and when Jack was finished we had 250 lockers and everything is still in perfect condition. He was a terrific carver, and if it weren’t for him, there’d be no club.”
While serving as president of the club, Mr. Taylor saw the first women admitted to what had always been considered a males-only institution.
“Some of the other ladies will want to join, and really it hasn’t been a problem up to this point,” he told town historian Joan Nicholls in a 1991 interview. “It’s only a problem if we perceive it as a problem.”
In 1998, shortly after the town was hooked up for cable, Mr. Taylor helped usher in its BBC-8 TV channel.
“Chuck Stimets, who was an engineer, asked if I had a camcorder to see if we could hook into the system,” he recalled for The Coastal Star in 2012. “We had no idea what would happen.”
Mr. Taylor fetched his Panasonic VHS recorder and shot some footage of a neighbor lady hanging out clothes. Stimets wired the camera to the cable and, lo and behold, a neighbor lady hanging out clothes appeared on the screen. Recalling his childhood in England, he dubbed the channel BBC-8 after the British Broadcasting Corp., and a tiny television station came on the air, broadcasting Good Morning, Briny Breezes five days a week in season.
While serving as president of the town’s corporate board, Mr. Taylor fought the state bureaucracy to see a new clubhouse built on the same site where its previous incarnation had fallen into disrepair.
“Jack was insisting we were putting it back where it was, and he helped me a lot with the authorities,” local architect Digby Bridges recalled after hearing of his friend’s death. “We became very good friends, and then he helped me a lot with the project. He was a charming man — and a doer. He got things done.”
The new clubhouse opened, where Jack Taylor wanted it, in 1991, and after moving about the park several times, he spent his final days here in a manufactured home nearby.
Neighbor Tim Brady recalled, “He was fantastic, soft-spoken and a good listener. And very positive. Almost everything that happened here, Jack was on the positive side of it in some way.”
Mr. Taylor’s wife of nearly 60 years, Bernadine, predeceased him, as did a son, Mark Taylor.
In addition to his son John F. Taylor, he is survived by two daughters, Margie Gobler and Lori Lynn Taylor; grandchildren Tasha Smith, Tiffany Gobler, Brent Gobler, Trevor Taylor, Aaron Taylor, Todd Taylor, Andrew Redker and Jonathan Redker; great-grandchildren Reese and Cole Smith and Elizabeth and Sarah Redker; and a brother, Doug Taylor.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that donations be made to Briny Breezes Charities, with checks payable to J.D. Taylor Family LLC, 2306 Airport Road, Waterford, MI 48327.

Posing in a Rolls-Royce with its rear-facing doors was a popular pastime. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Christine Davis

Martin Fritsches, president of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, and Christophe Georges, president and CEO of Bentley Motors, came to town to help Braman Motorcars celebrate a major two-year overhaul in its dealership, and for good reason.
With 23 percent of all Rolls-Royces and Bentleys in Florida registered in Palm Beach County, we lead the state in ownership of those two luxury brands, records from the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles department show.
Braman’s dealership in West Palm Beach carries Rolls-Royce, Bentley, BMW, MINI and Porsche automobiles and is ranked third in success from over 17,500 dealers of these vehicles nationwide for the past five years, according to the trade journal WardsAuto.
The newly redesigned 35,000-square-foot dealership had no problem hosting the 600-plus people in attendance of its grand opening party April 4. Included in that space are 26 air-conditioned service bays and designer boutiques and sales offices.
“Our goal with these new stores is to build the most luxurious yet functional dealership in the country,” said Stephen Grossman, general manager of the Braman dealership.

LEFT: Stephen Grossman, general manager of Braman Motorcars, makes a point with customers after the redesigned dealership opened. RIGHT: Lalique made this frosted glass version of Rolls’ iconic hood ornament.

Winners of the 14th annual Bernays Awards have been announced by Debbie Abrams, president of the Gold Coast PR Council, after a luncheon in West Palm Beach on April 16. The council, a South Florida association of public relations, communications and marketing professionals, has given out these awards since 2005 honoring excellence in local public relations campaigns, marketing programs and media coverage.
The Presidents Award went to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel for its coverage of the Parkland school shootings and the aftermath — for which the newspaper also was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service. Publisher Nancy Meyer, Editor-in-chief Julie Anderson, Managing Editor Dana Banker and assistant Managing Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant accepted the award.
The organization’s Founder Award went to Debbie Wemyss. Ali Soule was named PR Star, and the Judges Award went to Moore (formerly known as the Moore Agency).
Other winners were: PR Czar in the Small Nonprofit Campaign category; Cultural Council of Palm Beach County in the Large Nonprofit Campaign category; Tilson PR in the PR Campaign/Large category; Kaye Communications in the PR Campaign/Small category; Constitutional Tax Collector Palm Beach County in the Internal Communications category; Florida Atlantic University in the Crisis Communications category; The Buzz Agency in the Social Media Campaign/Nonprofit category; Labor Finders International in the Social Media Campaign/For Profit category; Tenet Physician Health Services in the Blogger/Digital Influencer category; Clerk and Comptroller Palm Beach County in the Special Event category; city of Boynton Beach, Public Communications & Marketing Department, in the Marketing Material/Print category; Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties in the Marketing Material/Video or Digital category.

In April, students in the Boca Chamber’s Golden Bell Education Foundation Young Entrepreneurs Academy program presented their business ideas in a “shark tank” to real investors. The event was held at Office Depot headquarters in Boca Raton.
Winner Rhea Jain and runner-up Neil Sachdeva are Pine Crest students. Rhea created Renoosh, an upscale petite clothing line, and Neil created Vulcan A.I., a chatbot AI service for small businesses. 
They competed with 20 other YEA! students in an effort to win seed money to launch their businesses. Rhea will head to Rochester, N.Y., for the national Saunders Scholars Competition in an effort to win more funding and college scholarship money.
Investor judges included Eric Bucher of Call Sprout; Ira Bornstein of TouchSuite; Greg Heller of Modernizing Medicine; Catherine Meehan of IBM; and Khalid Saleem of Office Depot.

As the Central Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy class came to an end, its winner was named. The business was Hykit, an in-house stadium and venue food delivery service created by Lake Worth High School junior Rachel Bailey and senior Weidmayer Pierre. They will go on to New York as their school and district representatives.

Winners of the Palm Beach County Film & Television Commission’s 24th annual Palm Beaches Student Showcase of Film on April 5 were announced at its awards show held at the Keith C. & Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center at Lynn University, Boca Raton. Local winners included: Joey Aliberto, a student at G-Star School of the Arts who won the Film Florida’s Sara Fuller Scholarship ($500); Maxwell Price, a student at Florida Atlantic University who won the second-place College Feature/Short Award ($1,000); Eli Dreyfuss, an FAU student who won the Suzanne L. Niedland Documentary Award ($500); and Vincent-Amadeus, a student at G-Star School of the Arts who won the Mental Health Awareness PSA Award ($500).

In March, the South Florida Manufacturers Association announced its runners-up and finalists for its Employees and Manufacturers of the Year awards. Companies were judged on leadership, strategy, customers, knowledge management, workforce and operations. Boca Raton companies that were honored included HABCO and The Nature’s Bounty Company.

The Boca Chamber’s Business Awards Luncheon, May 24 at Boca Raton Resort & Club, will honor three people who exemplify business excellence in their communities and have a strong philanthropic involvement. Also coming up is the Boca Chamber’s annual Golf Classic, which will host 36 teams June 3 at the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club. For information, email Chasity Navarro at cnavarro@bocachamber.com.

The Women’s Council of Realtors selected Amy Snook to participate in its inaugural Leadership Institute, which is limited to 15 participants from across the country.
Snook, an Atlantis resident and a partner in the All About Florida Homes team of Keller Williams Realty, has been in the real estate and title insurance business for 17 years and is the Florida state secretary for the Women’s Council of Realtors. She is a director of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale, a director of Florida Realtors, and sits on the executive board of Vita Nova Inc. 

A1A Home Watch and Concierge Services, a local company owned by Kerry and Geoff Thornton, earned accreditation for the third year from the National Home Watch Association, which sets the standards for absentee homeowner services. For information, visit a1ahomewatchfl.com.

A 12-bedroom, 23,795-square-foot estate completed in 2018 at 1040 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan, has come on the market listed for $39.95 million by Pascal Liguori & Son of Premier Estate Properties. The two-acre property has 200 feet of frontage both on the ocean and Intracoastal Waterway, with the main house and separate guesthouse designed by Yates Rainho Architects. Some features are extensive millwork, Corsica marble and wide-plank walnut floors, a two-story marble foyer, oceanfront clubroom with a wet bar, a theater room, and a 1,100-bottle wine room. For more info, call 866-502-5441.

Recorded on April 10, Leonard Tannenbaum bought Acqua Liana, 620 S. Ocean Blvd. in Manalapan, for $14.25 million from Goldman Sachs Bank. The bank acquired the property in February at a foreclosure auction.

The Boca Bath & Tennis Club home once owned by Blake Wheeler of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets is back on the market. The owners, who bought the property from Wheeler two years ago, have listed it for $1.425 million with Douglas Elliman Real Estate agent Colleen Newland.
  Recently remodeled, the 5,564-square-foot home at 2843 Banyan Blvd. Circle does not have a hockey rink, but it does have a massive outdoor patio complete with TV and summer kitchen; a heated saltwater pool and spa; and lots of green space for recreation and relaxation.
Wheeler, a forward who has played 11 seasons in the NHL, was an All-Star each of the past two seasons. Before this season he signed a five-year, $41.25 million contract extension.

Lang Realty recently gifted the Child Rescue Coalition $5,000 from a percentage of proceeds from its eighth annual Open House Extravaganza. “In addition to raising money and awareness for a great cause, our agents had the opportunity to meet many prospective homebuyers who experienced the Lang difference firsthand,” said Scott Agran, president of Lang Realty. 

At the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties’ Founder’s Luncheon at the Kravis Center on May 7, key findings from the 2018 On The Table Community Impact Report will be shared. The report found that housing, economic development and poverty are three of the most pressing issues that need to be addressed. It also identified job training, skills development opportunities, number of good-paying jobs and increased wages as the most important priorities to improve economic conditions.
The keynote speaker will be Carol R. Naughton, president of Purpose Built Communities, an organization working to break the cycle of inter-generational poverty by helping transform neighborhoods. More than 500 board members, donors and fund holders, local nonprofit organizations, corporate sponsors and community leaders are expected to attend the luncheon.
To purchase tickets ($75), call 659-6800 or visit yourcommunityfoundation.org.

The Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Delray Business Expo 2019 is scheduled for 4-7 p.m. May 22 at Delray Beach Arts Garage, 94 NE Second Ave. The event, free and open to the public, is the Chamber’s annual trade show and networking event and will showcase new products, services and technologies. For information, call 278-0424, ext. 105.

The orchid promotion for downtown Delray Beach shoppers ends in time for Mother’s Day on May 12. Photo provided

Just in time for Mother’s Day is the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority’s Orchid Giveaway. Until May 11, shoppers can receive one phalaenopsis orchid plant with every $200 they’ve spent at downtown Delray Beach shops, galleries, spas, salons and fitness studios. Orchids can be picked up May 8, 10 and 11 at designated locations. For details, call 243-1077 or visit downtowndelraybeach.com/events/annual-mothers-day-orchid-giveaway, or facebook.com/DelrayDDA.

The HGreg Group, which owns three Nissan dealerships in Canada, opened HGreg Nissan at 2200 S. Federal Highway, Delray Beach, in March. This is its first new-car dealership location in the United States. For this new site, previously known as Delray Nissan, the company expects to invest $28 million and continue to employ about 65 workers.

The Boca Raton Public Library now offers its cardholders free access to Gale Small Business Builder, an online tool that guides users on how to launch a new business.
“Gale Small Business Builder can pull in legal forms, documents, and other relevant content for small-business owners as they go through the process of establishing and building their companies,” said Vicky Fitzsimmons, digital librarian. “This one-stop model saves time they would’ve spent chasing down outside resources and examples.”
Also, small-business owners and entrepreneurs can take classes on how to grow their businesses in Small Business Week at the Downtown and Spanish River libraries from May 6–11.

Jerry Lower contributed to this report.

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

Harry Patten says this sailboat has been anchored at the north end of Lake Boca since 2017. Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

By Willie Howard

Living in a waterfront home is a privilege.
But living with a water view can lead to unwanted neighbors when boaters pull up and drop anchor.
Some of the boats stay anchored in the same place for years. They fall into disrepair when owners leave town and forget about them, creating eyesores and hazards to navigation and the environment.
Harry Patten, who lives in a waterfront home at the north end of Lake Boca, has peppered Boca Raton city officials with emails about sailboats anchored near his home.
Last fall, Patten contacted Boca Raton police about a sailboat in front of his house he said was occupied by a family for more than a month.
“I smell their sewage when the wind blows my way,” he wrote in a Nov. 26 email to Boca Raton Police Chief Daniel Alexander.
Boats anchored near waterfront homes are in state waters and are not subject to the rules of municipalities. Anchoring a boat in state waters is legal as long as the boat has a current registration and proper lighting (anchor lights) and is kept in good condition.
That changes when boats are neglected and become at risk or derelict. State law defines “at risk” as boats that are taking on water without an effective means of dewatering, or that have broken loose — or are in danger of breaking loose — from their anchors.
One of the Lake Boca sailboats near Patten’s house has since moved, but one that Patten says has been there since 2017 is in legal limbo.
In a March email to Patten, Boca Raton Assistant City Attorney Christopher Fernandez said the city’s Police Services Department contacted the boat’s owner about its deteriorating condition.
Since then, Fernandez said, the city has lost contact with the boat’s owner and thinks he might have left the country.
City officials were working to determine whether the Lake Boca sailboat met the legal definition of abandoned or derelict, giving them the right to remove it.
Cases of at-risk, derelict and sunken boats are common throughout Palm Beach County.
A trimaran sailboat anchored north of Boynton Inlet broke apart during Hurricane Irma in 2017. Pieces of the boat became wedged under floating docks at Gateway Marina, causing $90,000 in damage.
Gregory Reynolds, director of LagoonKeepers, a 15-year-old nonprofit dedicated to keeping Palm Beach County’s inshore waters clean and free of navigation hazards, has removed dozens of abandoned and sunken boats from the county’s waterways.
The walls of his Riviera Beach office are covered with file folders, each holding information on a boat in Palm Beach County that needs to be removed from the water.
Founded in 2003, LagoonKeepers uses a combination of taxpayer-funded grants and private donations to remove about 24 sunken or derelict boats annually.
Remnants of many of the old boats are hauled to a storage yard next to Reynolds’ office.
After valuable parts are removed, the hulls are crushed and hauled to the landfill.

Scraps of sunken boats that have been hauled out of the water. After valuable parts are removed, the hulls are crushed and taken to the county landfill. Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

In mid-March, Reynolds was preparing to haul out a 39-foot sailboat that sank near Burt Reynolds Park in Jupiter, and was monitoring a 28-foot sailboat named Invictus that has been anchored at the north end of the Snook Islands Natural Area since December.
During the time it takes for a boat owner to be notified that a boat is derelict — and time allowed for the owner to request an administrative hearing — unkempt boats can sink, spilling fuel and trash into the water.
“Most of the environmental damage is done within the first two days of the boat going down,” Reynolds said. “I don’t think it should be legal for someone to anchor a boat and leave the state.”
Legislators are attempting to address the issue of anchored and derelict boats during the current legislative session.
House Bill 1221 directs the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission to study the impacts on communities of boats stored long-term.
The bill also provides grant money for derelict boat removal and prohibits people from living on derelict boats.
Senate Bill 1666 would limit to 60 days the time owners or operators of boats could anchor outside of public mooring fields.
There are no designated mooring fields in Palm Beach County.

Artist Bill DeBilzan’s barge was moved to this private dock south of the Ocean Avenue Bridge in Lantana in late March.
DeBilzan said he would leave it there temporarily until he decided where to move the barge. Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

By Willie Howard

Delray Beach artist Bill DeBilzan likes the water and boats.
Some of his colorful abstract paintings, displayed at his gallery on East Atlantic Avenue, have Caribbean themes.
In 2014, DeBilzan built a two-story “art barge” and anchored it near Peanut Island.
DeBilzan moved his tiki-style art barge south to Delray Beach. He anchored it in the C-15 canal, then moved it in December to the sea wall along Marine Way just north of the city marina.
Then, around March 26, DeBilzan moved his barge north to a private dock in Lantana, temporarily, to end the complaints he was getting about the barge in Delray Beach.
“There’s no rules being broken,” DeBilzan said. “But everywhere you go you get complainers.”
Some waterfront homeowners in Delray Beach complained to city officials about the two-story, 60-by-20-foot barge.
“It’s an eyesore,” Roger Cope, vice president of the Marina Historic District Homeowners Association, said before the barge was moved to Lantana.
Cope said the two-story barge blocked the view of the water from homes and condos overlooking the marina.
Cope, who owns two properties in the Marina Historic District, said he saw and heard an old man working on the entrance gate and dock leading to the barge. He said the man left piles of debris on the street for the city to pick up.
Cope said he has nothing against DeBilzan, noting that he owns two of the artist’s paintings, but he said the tiki barge has no place in the Marina Historic District.
“It was cute and laughable at first,” Cope said. “Then it became an embarrassment.”
Delray Beach’s code enforcement administrator, Danise Cleckley, said in mid-March that the city was doing research on what, if any, action it could take regarding the art barge, which is in state waters and not subject to the same rules as buildings on land.
“We’re still doing our research,” Cleckley said, adding that her office contacted the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Coast Guard about the barge.
Dan Sloan, secretary of Delray Beach’s Marina Historic District HOA, said he doesn’t think the city could do anything to regulate DeBilzan’s barge because it’s in state waters.
“I don’t think the city has any jurisdiction over it,” Sloan said.
DeBilzan said he checked with the FWC before tying up the barge on the Marine Way sea wall near his house.
DeBilzan said he does not rent out the barge, that he removes its sewage using the pump-out station near the marina and noted that its foundation — foam-filled concrete floating docks — make it stable. He said one corner of the barge was bent down after it was wedged under a dock on a rising tide.
“I welcome anyone to come out and inspect it,” DeBilzan said. “I’ve been through four hurricanes on it. It’s very heavy, and it’s very well-built.”
DeBilzan has a second art barge — recognizable by his colorful paintings displayed around its windows — that he keeps near Peanut Island.
DeBilzan moved that barge north of the Blue Heron Bridge in late March to the waters off Munyon Island.

Fran Rosenheck of Boca Raton, a Florida-licensed clinical social worker, has volunteered at the Faulk Center for Counseling (above) for the past 21 years. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Linda Haase

We’re not supposed to tell secrets, but Fran Rosenheck just can’t help herself. This is news that really needs to be shared.
“It’s the best-kept secret in Boca Raton,” says Rosenheck, referring to the Faulk Center for Counseling, which offers a variety of free and low-cost programs for counseling, therapy and support.  
And the 79-year-old Boca Raton resident should know. She’s been volunteering there for the past 21 years.
“We really do a good service for the community. It’s a wonderful place with wonderful people,” says Rosenheck, who has a bachelor’s in psychology from Queens College and a master’s in social work from Adelphi University in New York.
“I am proud of the work we do providing services for those who otherwise could not afford mental health services.”
Rosenheck, who retired from the Nassau County Department of Social Services on Long Island before moving to Boca Raton with her husband, David, in 1996, has helped with myriad support groups at the center — everything from Alzheimer’s to caregivers. She even completed an internship there — which she used to ultimately become a Florida-licensed clinical social worker.
These days, she facilitates a weekly support group at the center — along with other volunteers — for widows and widowers. The Wednesday group, Moving Forward for Widows and Widowers, deals with grief and loss, living alone, dating, friendships and new identities.
“This is the next step after initial bereavement. They are coping with living alone, meeting new people, and making a new life. Things have changed and they need to reinvent themselves. The members bond and help each other move forward and move on,” says Rosenheck, who has three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. “They are there to console each other during those first anniversaries, when they need help during a hurricane — or just to go out for a meal.”
The members share good times as well as sad ones.
“Being alone after many years of marriage and losing a loved one is very, very difficult. The people in the group have similar feelings and problems, they understand what the others have been through. There is some commonality,” she explains. “They feel safe here and comfortable talking about things they might not want to talk about with friends or family. What one person needs to talk about is often what others have been thinking about or need to talk about.”
Helping them move forward makes Rosenheck smile.
“It gives me a lot of satisfaction to see that happening,” she says. “But it is bittersweet. The group is designed to help people move forward and it works, but when they leave we miss them. It is an accomplishment but feels like a bit of a loss.”
The Faulk Center is grateful for Rosenheck’s unwavering support.
“Fran is a very special warm and caring support group leader with compassion for the clients she meets in helping them to move forward after the loss of a spouse,” says Lois A. Weisman, Faulk Center president.
When Rosenheck is not volunteering, you can find her at the movies or the theater, reading a book, delighting in nature or enjoying the views from her Intracoastal residence.

If You Go
What: Moving Forward for Widows and Widowers support group
When: 1-2:30 p.m. Wednesdays
Where: Faulk Center for Counseling, 22455 Boca Rio Road, Boca Raton
Cost: $5 each session or $100 for unlimited sessions for the year. No appointment necessary.
Info: 483-5300

Let’s talk about suicide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is one death by suicide every 12 minutes in the United States. Every 12 minutes, someone’s pain is so severe they can’t fathom any other way out of it and every 12 minutes friends and family are shattered by that decision.
Suicide is the 10th-leading cause of death in our country. Among ages 10-32, it’s the second-leading cause of death.
And firearms are the most common method of suicide.
My brother killed himself. He was 51. He used a gun.
When adults use their own weapons to end their lives, it’s a devastating loss. When a young person uses an adult’s gun to do it, the tragedy is multiplied.
In 2018, about 43 percent of U.S. households had at least one gun in possession, so the chance of a young person coming in contact with a weapon is not unlikely, and in light of the recent, heartbreaking suicides of teenagers struggling with the aftermath of school violence, parents and guardians should evaluate having a gun in the house with any child, teenager or young adult.
Don’t take for granted that your children would never hurt themselves. You may not be aware of all their struggles. It’s not uncommon for parents to underestimate the depth of their children’s anguish.
I have friends and family who removed alcohol from their homes during the years their children were most likely to experiment with drinking. It seemed like a logical way to try to keep teenagers sober and by default help avoid circumstances that could lead to the No. 1 cause of teen deaths: motor vehicle crashes.
By the same logic, parents should remove firearms from homes and cars where an adolescent might be able to get to them. Keep the gun at the range. Leave it with an adult relative. At a minimum get a gun safe and keep the ammunition locked in a different location.
Of course no home can be made completely suicide-proof, and I realize home protection is the reason many people keep guns. But crime statistics for our coastal area show that home invasions are rare. We are lucky to live in safe communities.
I know there are some who will push back on these suggestions. For others who might hesitate, ask yourself this question: Would you rather have your teenager or your gun?
Hug your children. Listen to them. They need all of us to be there for them in this increasingly chaotic world.

If you are in crisis, or know someone in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. Locally, dial 211.

— Mary Kate Leming,
Editor

Lantana resident Don Ploskunak was one of the first airship pilots to cover sporting events. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Stephen Moore

Don Ploskunak’s flying infatuation began 70 years ago when he would stare and wonder as crop dusters sprayed the Ohio farm fields he was working.
This boyhood desire to become a pilot grew into an obsession and landed him in the gondola of the Goodyear blimp. That began a 38-year career in which he was among the innovators in pioneering Goodyear’s sports coverage.
Today, sporting events are big only if a blimp is overhead, providing majestic television footage for millions of viewers. In recognition of this contribution, the College Football Hall of Fame will make the Goodyear blimp an honorary member as part of its 2019 induction class.
“Don is one of the most influential figures in the history of sports broadcast,” said Mike Wittman, a Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer who worked with Ploskunak, “because he did it right from the beginning and his suggestions laid the groundwork for blimp coverage.”
Ploskunak is a bit more humble about the level of his contributions, saying he was just doing his job.
“Well, nobody else was doing it,” he said. “We were the first. But I was doing the assignments that are provided by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., doing the flying we were asked to do as a team.”
Ploskunak, 78, has been a Lantana resident since 2011. He still maintains his pilot’s license and Basic Medical certificate and has other ties to South Florida going back to the 1950s and early ’60s, when he played football at the University of Miami.
“Let’s put it this way,” Ploskunak said, “I was on the team for five years. I hurt my knee my senior year in high school and medicine was not what it is today. I was a good scout team quarterback in practice.”
Five years after graduating from UM in 1963, Ploskunak learned from his father, John, an engineer with Goodyear Aerospace, the manufacturer of the airships, that Goodyear was hiring blimp pilots. Ploskunak got his license in 1969, the same year he met Wittman, and the sports coverage from the blimp was on its way. Ploskunak finally retired in 2006.
Wittman, known as the father of sports aerial broadcasting for his work in developing the Goodyear blimp’s role, captained and starred for the Canes basketball team in the 1960s and is in the UM Sports Hall of Fame.
“I got all the publicity, but Don was extremely influential,” said Wittman, 74. “He was a great television pilot because he understood sports. He probably covered 500 football games.”
Ploskunak said it was closer to 50 games, but covering pro and college football was only part of his assignments. Ploskunak covered the World Series, NASCAR, the Indianapolis 500, America’s Cup races, tennis tournaments, golf events, state fairs, concerts and fireworks celebrations.

Not just sports
Airships also covered disasters. After Hurricane Andrew hit Miami in 1992, Goodyear blimps were in the air for two weeks with messages in three languages flashing information to people on the ground. Ploskunak was with the team of pilots and officials that coordinated coverage of Andrew, although he did not actually fly over devastated areas. Blimps were at the 1989 World Series in San Francisco when an earthquake hit before Game 3, and they flew for weeks transmitting messages and detailing destruction with television cameras.

Don Ploskunak (right) talks with Don Block, Goodyear Aerospace’s chief engineer for airships, at the Pompano Beach base in 1979. Photo provided

Traveling to all these sporting events and other scheduled functions was the heart of what Ploskunak did for 38 years.
“We traveled 190-200 days a year,” Ploskunak said. “Well, it was a different hotel every night. We had a huge schedule and we built it around the NFL and college football schedules and the NASCAR schedule.”
His travel team consisted of four other licensed pilots, 15 ground crewmen and public relations rep, a semitractor-trailer with all the equipment and spare parts and a large custom-built tour bus with a portable mooring mast, which carried luggage and served as an office.
Travel was slow — 250-300 miles per day. The ground crew would get to the landing spot early to set up for the blimp’s arrival.
Landing did not require an airstrip or runway, just open space. The pilot would fly the blimp toward the ground crew, which had secured and anchored a mooring mast to the ground. Ropes and tethers would then secure the blimp to the mooring mast and the ground.

ABOVE: Don Ploskunak studies a sectional chart while flying the blimp over the construction site of the Dallas/Fort Worth airport in the early ‘70s. BELOW: The blimp’s traveling crew usually consisted of four other pilots, 15 ground crewmen and a PR representative. Photos provided

There was typically little rest for crew members after they traveled and the blimp landed. Everyone seemed to know the blimp was making a stop and lots of people wanted a close look.
“You cannot sneak a blimp into town,” Ploskunak said. “Everybody knows when we are coming. And all the local newspapers were there. We used to have contests to see who could get the most stories in local newspapers.”
Ploskunak quickly became a star.
“Don was a celebrity,” Wittman said. “He was big time. There weren’t many places we went that there wasn’t a front-page article about the blimp being there and the pilot. He must have done a couple of thousand interviews in his lifetime. Because at one point there were more astronauts than there were blimp pilots. At one time, there were only like 10-12 blimp pilots in the world and he was one of them. He was a great interview.
“The people loved him. They requested him all the time. I was kind of the face of the whole deal but Don was the guy. I would bring him to meetings and introduce him to the directors and producers of the television networks, and they all fell in love with him. And there were a lot of groupies. Don kept that legend alive.”
Ploskunak, who has remained single all his life, did not call them groupies — rather followers.
“Sports stars have their own following,” Ploskunak said. “There are some people who are blimp followers. They know everything about blimps. You run into them everywhere. You have some people who just follow blimps everywhere they go.”
But at every stop, the news media wanted an interview or pictures or someone to accept a key to the city.
“I probably had about 10,” Ploskunak said of the symbolic keys. “I gave them all away. I don’t know how many I had to the city of Miami. Every time we could come back and I would get one from Miami. Pompano we would get them, Houston, Indianapolis, Allentown and Hershey, Pennsylvania, almost every place we would go. That was the big thing at that time.”
“Don was a no-nonsense leader,” Wittman said. “He was a good leader of men. Made tough decisions and did it well. We had about 25 guys traveling with us and he was in charge of all of that. Plus he had a thousand girlfriends.”

Tense moments
Ploskunak’s career was not without some anxious moments in the gondola. One happened in Indianapolis as he was coming in for a landing, trying to beat a storm that had just formed.
“We got real close but the storm beat us,” Ploskunak said. “And suddenly it hit us and we started going 50 miles per hour backward and there is nothing we can do about it — just ride it out.”
Another happened in Houston after he took some University of Houston football players on a ride.
“We made a landing to change passengers and when we did, all of them jumped out of the cockpit,” Ploskunak said. “And some of them were linemen, 260-270 pounds. And when the ship suddenly lost all that weight, it shot straight up in the air. It took me three or four tries to get it back down to the ground.”

Don Ploskunak (far left) achieved a certain amount of celebrity status as a Goodyear blimp pilot. He attended the wedding of Dolphins running back Jim Kiick (far right). This picture, taken at Mr. Laffs in Fort Lauderdale in the mid-1980s, also includes Dolphins linebacker Kim Bokamper (back row, center). Photo provided

Ploskunak also flew hundreds of tour flights for celebrities and sports stars.
“The most interesting was Johnny Cash,” Ploskunak said. “I spent about one hour and 15 minutes with him in Columbus, Ohio, between his performances at the Ohio State Fair. He wanted to fly over the prison where he gave a performance that morning. He was interested in the audience at the fair in the venue hours before he would perform.”
Ploskunak piloted tour flights for race car drivers Rick Mears, A.J. Foyt and other Indy 500 pole-position winners, some Miami Dolphins, and television personalities.
He coordinated blimp coverages in the 1977 movie Black Sunday starring Bruce Dern and Robert Shaw.
“In one of the first Monday Night Football games we covered, Firestone was one of the advertisers,” Ploskunak said. “But the announcers kept talking about the Goodyear blimp throughout the telecast. I’m sure there were some unhappy people at Firestone the next morning.”
The Goodyear blimp is such a staple in college football that the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta will induct the blimp at a ceremony in December. The blimp will be the first nonplayer or noncoach to be inducted.
Goodyear’s sporting event coverage, according to GoodyearBlimp.com, began with the Rose Bowl: “On Jan. 1, 1955, using camera and microwave transmitting equipment provided by NBC, the Enterprise V became the first aerial platform to provide a live television picture of a nationally televised program when it broadcast the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California.”
In a 2013 article published on CBSsports.com, Eric Kay wrote, “The first-ever event covered by the Goodyear blimp was the 1955 Rose Bowl. Ohio State beat USC 20-7.”
Regardless of the first telecast from a Goodyear blimp, Ploskunak had his hands on his share of them and earned a number of job promotions. In 1979 he became chief pilot/flight examiner. In 1986 he was named assistant manager of airship operations, and in 1990 he was promoted to chief pilot/manager of training for all three Goodyear airship bases. He held that position until he retired.
In a 1988 story in the Akron Journal, Ploskunak said being an airship pilot is the second-best job there is. He said he was “still looking” for the best job.
“I found it 13 years ago,” Ploskunak said in 2019. “Retirement is the best job.”

By Dan Moffett

Ocean Ridge commissioners are hoping to have a mass public notification system up and running before the hurricane season begins in June.
The commission unanimously approved on April 1 a proposal by the Massachusetts-based company CivicPlus to install the alert system in the town for $2,065, with an annual renewal charge of $965.
With the CivicPlus technology, officials will be able to rapidly send alerts to the town’s residents by text, voicemail and email. The service is free for residents, but they must register with the town to participate.
Police Chief Hal Hutchins got an assist in screening prospective vendors from Ocean Ridge resident Janet Schijns. A former Verizon executive, Schijns recommended CivicPlus over competitors CodeRED and Nixle because of the company’s range of features, secure database and attractive fee structure.
“In speaking with my connections, they were at the top of every list and have replaced CodeRED in numerous cities,” she said of CivicPlus.
• Acting Town Manager Tracey Stevens and Mayor Steve Coz will lead a goal-setting workshop for the commission on April 18, beginning at 2 p.m. Commissioners will discuss a number of critical long-term issues, including sewer system options, vacation rentals, street flooding and sea rise.
At March 4 meeting:
• The process of getting Ocean Ridge a separate ZIP code from the U.S. Postal Service appears to be even more complicated and arduous than commissioners first thought.
Besides potentially many months of bureaucratic negotiation with Washington, the town could face some tough negotiation with Boynton Beach. Ocean Ridge currently shares a ZIP code with Boynton, and the city likely would have to work with commissioners to change that.
Robert Sloat, who was appointed to fill the commission seat vacated by James Bonfiglio in November, said without Boynton’s cooperation to continue services, Ocean Ridge might need to get its own mail office, delivery truck and postal officer to serve the separate ZIP area.
Insurance is another potential complication.
Insurance companies often use ZIP codes to set rates, Sloat said during the meeting, and if separated from Boynton, Ocean Ridge residents might see the cost of property and auto insurance increase.
Coz asked Sloat, whose partial term on the commission expired with the March 12 election, to be the town’s one-man “exploratory committee” and investigate the unintended consequences of the ZIP code idea.
“I’ll talk to the postal authorities,” Sloat said.
The plan has gained support in recent months as a way for the town to deter online searches for vacation rentals in Ocean Ridge.
• After three and a half years in Ocean Ridge, Jamie Titcomb left the town manager’s job to take a similar position in Loxahatchee Groves.
“I have really enjoyed working here,” he told the commission March 4.
“I’m very sad to leave this town but I’m very confident we’ve left a very good team of professionals in place that will work in camaraderie with the programs we’ve worked so hard on.”
Titcomb and the commissioners had a bumpy ride early in his tenure because of budget preparation problems — so much so that they changed his contract term to a month-to-month agreement.
But after replacing the town’s outdated budget software and getting the numbers in line, Titcomb earned glowing reviews from the commission.

By Steve Plunkett

Court transcribers are busily typing what they anticipate will be 1,800 pages detailing former Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella’s recent criminal trial.
Lucibella, 65, is appealing his Feb. 21 sentence, in which he was ordered to pay $675 in court costs. A six-person jury found him guilty of misdemeanor battery, a lesser charge, instead of felony battery on a law enforcement officer; he also was found not guilty of resisting arrest with violence.
And on March 25 he offered to pay Ocean Ridge police Officer Nubia Plesnik $100 if she drops her civil lawsuit, which accuses him of battery and negligence.
“I can’t get my reputation back, but I will have my record cleared,” Lucibella said. “What was done to Barbara and I was wrong, and we intend to address every last vestige of this false arrest.”
Barbara Ceuleers is Lucibella’s girlfriend.
West Palm Beach lawyer Leonard Feuer filed Lucibella’s notice of appeal Feb. 26 but did not pay the transcript costs until March 18. That started a 30-day clock for the transcribers, who must type about 78 pages a day to finish by April 17.
Meanwhile, Richard Slinkman, Plesnik’s lawyer, demanded “better answers” from Lucibella in the civil case. Lucibella claimed his “Fifth Amendment right to remain silent” 77 times, Slinkman said in a Feb. 25 court filing. Those responses were given in November 2017, almost 15 months before the criminal trial.
Lucibella disputed Slinkman’s characterization of his responses about Plesnik. “I’ve not plead the Fifth at all,” he said. “I affirmatively denied her allegations.”
He also said Slinkman does not want better answers. “He actually wants a sleazy payday for him and his client, in that order,” Lucibella said.
Slinkman bristled at Lucibella’s statements, saying he only wants justice for Plesnik and calling Lucibella “a sad, little, entitled man who feels that, because he is wealthy, he is above the law and doesn’t need to take responsibility for his own improper actions.”
Slinkman previously had submitted his own settlement proposal in the case. Under Florida law, whichever side loses will pay the winner’s attorney fees from the date the proposal was filed.
Slinkman said he and Plesnik “are not concerned” with Lucibella’s proposal for a settlement. “We are confident in the jury system and confident that we will prevail at trial,” Slinkman said.
Florida court guidelines say most civil lawsuits should reach the jury in 18 months.
In the felony trial, Plesnik testified that Lucibella was loud and belligerent during his Oct. 22, 2016, arrest. Plesnik, Officer Richard Ermeri and Sgt. William Hallahan went to Lucibella’s backyard that night to investigate reports of gunfire.
“I was trying to put him down like a child, sit down!” Plesnik told the jury.
She has since missed reporting for police duty for several months because of shoulder problems caused by his actions, she testified.
Slinkman said that instead of throwing out insults, Lucibella should turn his critical eye inward.
“When a person gets drunk, acts like a fool, embarrasses himself, and in the process injures an innocent person who was simply out doing her job and protecting the public as a law enforcement officer, he should take responsibility for his own actions ... instead of passing the cost of these medical bills and other losses onto the citizens of Ocean Ridge,” he said.

Misdemeanor appeal months away
Appealing a misdemeanor to a District Court of Appeal is so rare, Florida does not keep statistics, said Paul Flemming of the Office of the State Courts Administrator in Tallahassee.
“The number of misdemeanor cases filed in the district courts would be extremely small, since the appellate divisions of the circuit courts have jurisdiction over most misdemeanor cases,” Flemming said.
But Lucibella’s was a felony case heard in Circuit Court that led to a misdemeanor conviction, so the appeal goes to the 4th DCA.
Lucibella’s appeal should carry the case into 2020. Generally, it takes two to three months after the last document is filed to get on the court’s calendar, the court’s website says. A three-judge panel renders its decision in most cases within 180 days, the website advises.

By Mary Hladky

The possibility of a second Tri-Rail station in Boca Raton has all but evaporated.
Steven Abrams, executive director of the South Florida Regional Transit Authority, which operates Tri-Rail, told the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowner Associations on March 5 that the idea is on permanent hold.
Tri-Rail began considering a second Boca Raton stop in 2007, and the idea got traction when a coalition of landowners near the Town Center mall proposed a “live, work, play” redevelopment that included as many as 2,500 apartments near the CSX railroad tracks that run roughly parallel to Interstate 95.
A 2016 Tri-Rail study found the station would attract enough riders to be economically viable. In July, Tri-Rail chose as its preferred location a site in the center of the proposed Midtown project. The former King’s Deli property sits along the tracks at the intersection of Military Trail and Northwest 19th Street.
But even as Tri-Rail was selecting a site, momentum stalled after the Boca Raton City Council last year did not enact land development regulations that would have allowed Midtown redevelopment to proceed.
The council’s decision also made it unlikely that landowner Crocker Partners, which led the Midtown coalition and owns the King’s Deli site, would donate the land for the station.
Crocker Partners has sued the city, seeking $136.7 million in damages, for not adopting the land development regulations.
Without residential development and land donation, “I don’t envision [the station] happening,” Abrams said after the meeting.

Coastal Link vision
But as Tri-Rail celebrates its 30th birthday this year, it is moving ahead on other fronts under Abrams, a former Palm Beach County commissioner and Boca Raton mayor who became the transit authority’s executive director in December.
The authority is negotiating with Boca Tri-Rail LLC, which is not affiliated with Tri-Rail, to build a transit-oriented development on 7.5 acres it owns adjacent to the Yamato Road station. The company’s proposal calls for an orthopedic surgery center, restaurant and other retail, but no residential.
The area already has the maximum amount of residential allowed by the city. Abrams said uncertainty about whether the City Council would be willing to raise the residential cap led the transit authority board to shy away from a project that includes housing. The City Council must approve the project once plans are finalized.
The transit authority has long wanted to create Coastal Link, with trains running on the Florida East Coast Railway tracks from Miami to Jupiter. The FEC tracks run roughly along Federal Highway through city centers where stations would be more conveniently located for many riders.
The agency has built a link from the CSX tracks to downtown Miami, and its Miami station is anticipated to open at the end of this year.
“That is the first step of an envisioned Tri-Rail Coastal Link,” Abrams said. “It is a strong vision for the future. It is something I think there is demand for.”
Coastal Link would share the tracks with privately owned Brightline, which now runs from Miami to West Palm Beach and is seeking financing to expand to Orlando. Brightline rebranded as Virgin Trains USA on April 4.
The FEC would charge Tri-Rail to use its tracks, but negotiations over price have not yet started.
“We would anticipate ridership would explode” if Coastal Link becomes reality, Abrams said.
Coastal Link would build gradually, he said. Initially, he sees running trains possibly to Wynwood and then to Aventura.
Tri-Rail would not abandon its service on the CSX tracks if Coastal Link comes into being.
The two rail lines “serve two different areas of South Florida,” Abrams said. “There will be ridership on both.”
Tri-Rail is funded by Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, the Florida Department of Transportation and rider fares, but has been chronically underfunded since its inception.
When Abrams became executive director, Tri-Rail had a $15 million deficit. It has since been trimmed to less than $10 million with “lots of belt-tightening,” including hiring and travel freezes, he said.
Ridership was up 2 percent in January compared to last year, with 16,000 to 16,500 passengers riding the trains each day. Tri-Rail has long been criticized for running late, but Abrams said on-time performance has improved greatly and is now at 95 percent.
Both Tri-Rail and Brightline share a problem: people who trespass on the tracks or use the trains to end their lives.
Tri-Rail wants to use drones that would fly ahead of its trains to spot anyone on the tracks, so the train has time to stop.
Legislation has been introduced in Tallahassee that would end the practice of treating a Tri-Rail train as a crime scene when it strikes a person. The crime scene designation means the train cannot move and passengers cannot enter or exit until the investigation is completed — a process that can take four hours.
Tri-Rail also hopes to replace its outdated ticket machines.
The launch of Brightline passenger service last year has not had an impact on Tri-Rail ridership, Abrams said. The two rail lines have different markets, he said, with Brightline catering to tourists and Tri-Rail to blue-collar and hospital and medical office workers.

Related Stories: Leadership timeline | Interim manager making progress on city reorganization

By Rich Pollack and Jane Smith

It’s back to square one for Delray Beach as a familiar pattern in the quest for stability in city leadership persists.
Once again, the chair behind the city manager’s desk is vacant — for the third time in six years — following one forced resignation, one earlier-than-expected retirement and one termination.
Once again, the city is spending money on a search firm hired to scour the country in hopes of finding qualified candidates.
And once again, an interim city manager is back overseeing a workforce that has not had steady leadership of more than two years at a time since the January 2013 retirement of David Harden, who served as city manager for 22 years.
“It is incomprehensible that this city has gone through three city managers since 2013,” says Joycelyn Patrick, a longtime follower of city government who served as chairwoman of the West Atlantic Redevelopment Coalition and is past president of the Northwest Neighborhood Alliance. “It is impossible to forge a relationship with the community at large when such instability exists.”
Differing opinions exist from those who follow municipal government about why Delray Beach has a revolving door at the city manager’s office, what that means to the community and what can be done to ensure the city’s next top administrator has a long tenure.
“I look at the reasons, not the numbers,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said. Don Cooper resigned in 2016 because of family health problems, she added.
Everyone agrees, however, that Delray Beach needs to find the right person to fill the vacancy — someone who will be a fixture in City Hall for years to come.
“Having a city manager who has the ability to garner trust with the community and elected officials is what you want,” says Bill Branning, chairman of the board of the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce.
The latest city manager to leave Delray Beach was Mark Lauzier, whose departure came quickly — just two months after he was given a raise. Hired in November 2017, Lauzier was fired by unanimous vote during a special commission meeting March 1.
Lauzier’s departure came after an internal auditor’s report pointed out issues with the city manager’s employment practices, including Lauzier’s rewriting of procedures for hiring people who directly report to him without informing commissioners.
In what could feel like déjà vu to many in City Hall, Fire Chief Neal de Jesus has been named interim city manager for a second time.
“It’s not as concerning to me because of the way we dealt with Lauzier. It was done publicly with total transparency about why he had to go,” Petrolia said.
Lauzier’s hiring came just shy of a year after Cooper retired early. Commissioners brought in de Jesus for his first run as interim manager.
The first city manager to leave quickly after Harden’s retirement was Louie Chapman Jr., who resigned under pressure after being suspended for 90 days because he ordered $60,000 worth of garbage carts four months before commissioners approved the request.
While each case is different, some common denominators exist.

Familiarity can help
For instance, all three of the managers — and Harden as well — were hired from outside and were not deeply familiar with Delray Beach and the workings of the city before they arrived.
Contrast that with the city managers in neighboring and similar-sized Boca Raton and Boynton Beach, who both have longer tenures than the last three Delray Beach managers combined.
Boca Raton’s Leif Ahnell has been city manager for 20 years and moved into the job after nine years of rising through the ranks on the finance side. He served as an assistant city manager for just four months before getting the job permanently.
In Boynton Beach, City Manager Lori LaVerriere has been in her job since February 2013 after serving as an assistant city manager and interim city manager. She joined the city in 2008 after serving as Manalapan town manager.
Coming into the manager position after serving in other roles within the city can be a plus, LaVerriere said.
Speaking in her role as the District 4 director for the Florida City and County Management Association, LaVerriere said that spending time in a community before taking the top position gives an administrator time to get to know the community and people the manager will depend on to succeed.
“It allows you the opportunity to learn about the organization and the city,” she said.
It also allows a prospective city manager the time to build trust with the staff and with elected officials.
“A key component is trust,” LaVerriere said.

ABOVE: Mark Lauzier was fired as Delray Beach city manager after commissioners scheduled a meeting to discuss his performance. BELOW: Fire Chief Neal de Jesus became interim city manager for the second time. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Another common denominator with Chapman and Lauzier is that both came under fire from commissions that were significantly different in membership from those that hired them.
In Lauzier’s case, current commissioners Bill Bathurst, Ryan Boylston and Adam Frankel were elected after Lauzier was hired.
Angie Gray, who was on the commission when Chapman was hired but not when he left, said the makeup of the commission can play a role in tenure. “It can sometimes depend on who the city manager is beholden to,” she said.
In Delray Beach that factor can be magnified, according to former Commissioner Mitch Katz, because many factions and influential individuals work behind the scenes.
“Our city managers are being pulled in 20 different directions because of additional outside influences,” said Katz, who was on the commission when Lauzier was hired.

Stability, progress affected
While commissions hope to maintain continuity and stability within city government, the constant turnover of managers can take its toll on staff and on projects in the works.
“It kind of freezes the forward movement of the city’s goals,” the chamber’s Branning said.
As an example, he said the chamber has been working with Lauzier and city staff on the possibility of partnering to promote Delray Beach as a tourist destination. Now, he said, the chamber will have to work with someone else who will first need to be brought up to speed.
The mayor and representatives of other organizations, however, say they do not see the turnover as having a significant negative impact.
“While a new city manager requires a learning period, our members are rarely affected by the change of one person,” said Bob Victorin, president of the influential Beach Property Owners Association. “Importantly, the BPOA has maintained a positive working relation with every city manager.” 
Laura Simon, executive director of the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority, also expects her organization to see little impact with the change of manager.
“With any change in upper-level leadership in major organizations, there will be a few steps backwards or shift in lanes,” she said. “However, the city team is filled with strong leaders comprised of diverse practitioners who work collectively and collaboratively with the DDA staff, board, business owners and property owners.”
LaVerriere says high turnover at the top almost always affects the staff.
“Frequent turnover is disruptive to work flow,” she said. “When you have disruption of management at the top, it becomes very unsettling to staff.”
Moving forward, city leaders will have to choose a city manager from a pool of applicants who will most likely know about the tumultuous track record of previous managers.
Former commissioner Gray thinks one way to improve the chances of a city manager’s staying longer would be to once again require a super majority of four commissioners to fire a city manager. In 2014 voters approved a measure reducing the required votes to fire a city manager to three.
“I think we need to go back to the super majority to remove a city manager,” she said.
In Lauzier’s case, however, the super-majority issue would not have been relevant because the vote to fire him was unanimous.
Patrick, the community leader, thinks outside help could be useful in training city commissioners to better manage themselves and the city manager.
She also thinks the city should continue to look inward during its search for a new manager.
“I find it difficult to believe that we cannot find a qualified individual in house as opposed to having headhunters conduct nationwide searches on behalf of the city,” she said.
De Jesus, at a March 12 City Commission meeting, gave an indication that he would like to see more movement from within — although not speaking specifically about the city manager position — saying he will look from the ranks to fill vacancies.
As the search goes on, the track record of previous city managers could be a roadblock. Gray, however, thinks the right message will attract good candidates.
“We have to get the message out that Delray Beach is not a difficult city to work in,” she said. “It’s just that we’re not going to tolerate people making bad decisions.”

Briny Breezes resident Martin Poock, a professional opera singer, belts out The Star-Spangled Banner during a Houston Astros-Washington Nationals spring training game at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. Rachel O’Hara/The Coastal Star

SEE HIM SING: Watch video

By Ron Hayes

In 1993, Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis was roundly booed when he sang The Star-Spangled Banner off-key at a New Jersey Nets game.
In 2001, pop star Macy Gray sang it off-beat at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.
In 2003, Michael Bolton came to Boston’s Fenway Park with the words written on his hand, then forgot them anyway.
And the less said about Roseanne Barr’s obscene assault at a 1990 San Diego Padres game the better.
Clearly, The Star-Spangled Banner can be a challenge.
Where can a professional ballpark find someone who will bless our national pastime with a national anthem that’s on key, on beat and sung with a touch of class?
On March 10, the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches found that someone in Briny Breezes.
Martin Poock — it’s German, pronounced “poke” — is a professional opera singer who performs regularly with Chicago’s Lyric Opera and Grant Park Music Festival.
He’s also a son of the late Lowen Poock, a longtime Briny resident who served as chairman of the town’s audit committee. After his father’s death in 2012, Martin began visiting regularly, sharing his father’s former home with his aunt, Doris Studer, and performing in the chorus of Palm Beach Opera, where he’s been heard in such classics as The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Die Fledermaus.
On Feb. 9, Poock came to the ballpark at Haverhill Road and 45th Street in West Palm Beach hoping to add major league baseball to his résumé.
“I had sung it for the Iowa Cubs, a minor league team in Des Moines, and the Sugar Land Skeeters in suburban Houston, but never for any major league teams, so I thought it would be fun,” he recalls.
He wasn’t alone.
“I had a rehearsal for Don Giovanni that morning, so I got there a little late [for the audition]. This was for the entire spring training season, so there were about 30 people there waiting to audition. They give you a number, like at the Publix deli, so I was probably No. 30.”
The 30 hopefuls were asked to list four or five game days they’d be available if chosen. Numbers were called, and one by one the singers came to a microphone behind home plate to face a panel of four judges.
When No. 30 was called, Poock stepped up to the plate and sang.
“You have to sing it a cappella and in under one minute, 30 seconds. But they were appreciative,” he remembers, “and then they asked if I could sing God Bless America.”
Poock had not come prepared to sing God Bless America, but he did his best.
Driving home to Briny Breezes, he was not especially hopeful.
“Palm Beach Opera has a young artists program, and I know some of them automatically get scheduled to sing in Jupiter, so I was kind of thinking maybe that would preclude me,” he thought.
Two weeks later, he got the call saying he’d been chosen to sing at the March 10 spring training game between the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals.
The game was scheduled for 1:05 p.m. that Sunday. Poock was told be there at 10 a.m.
Three hours early to sing for 90 seconds.
“They did a sound run-through that lasted just a couple of minutes, and then I walked around and explored the stadium.”
In the team shop, he bought a refrigerator magnet of the Florida Grapefruit League for his sister and a Ballpark shot glass for a friend in Texas.
Finally, it was 1:05 p.m. In the stands he had a Briny Breezes fan club waiting, consisting of his Aunt Doris Studer and her friends Lorraine Lavoie and Judy Winkowski.
Dressed in white shorts, sandals and a Palm Beach Opera T-shirt, Poock stepped up to home plate, raised the microphone and sang it his way.
“I do have a theory about the anthem,” he explains. “I try to sing it as straightforwardly and unornamented as possible. I don’t try to jack it up or slow it down. I don’t add swoops and swirls.
“The whole point of the national anthem at a sporting event is so the other people can sing along. It’s not ‘I’m singing the national anthem.’ It’s ‘We’re singing the national anthem.’
“You’re not celebrating yourself, you’re celebrating America.”
So that’s how he sang it — on key and on the beat, in less than 90 seconds.
And when he was done, the announcer asked all the fans to “Thank Mr. Pook.”
“They mispronounced my name,” he said, more amused than annoyed.
He was back again during the seventh-inning stretch to sing God Bless America, and he was done.
The Nationals beat the Astros, 6-4, and Poock was paid with one complimentary ticket and a parking pass.
“I thought that was kind of cheap,” he said. “They could give two tickets so you can bring a friend. But it was a great experience. I got all the right words in the right order, and no one booed.”