Sandy Hedges and daughter Tammy Deery own The Fancy Flamingo in Boynton Beach.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    Would you go into business with your mom?
    That’s what Tammy Deery did about 14 years ago. A dental hygienist, Deery had an idea and took it to her mother, saying, “Mom, let’s open a shop.”
    Neither Deery nor her mom, Sandy Hedges, had retail experience. Even so, their shop, The Fancy Flamingo, has survived the ups and downs in the economy and a few hurricanes at its Ocean Plaza location at the foot of the Ocean Avenue drawbridge in Boynton Beach. Oh, and there was the promise of a downtown.
    The beachy boutique features women’s resort wear by Lulu B, long-sleeved T-shirts sporting the words “Ocean Ridge” on the back, jewelry and clothing with sea stars, mermaids and other ocean motifs.
    The shop’s items range in price between $10 and $70, with the most popular price point between $40 and $50.
    The Fancy Flamingo’s location near the ocean makes it convenient for people who want remembrances of their vacations and find the shop by doing an Internet search for “Boynton Beach” and “gifts.”
    “People just want to be able to take a souvenir home when they return to the North,” Deery said.
    The store uses social media, with a Facebook page and an Instagram account, to spread the word about its wares. The Fancy Flamingo also counts on word-of-mouth advertising from happy customers and referrals from fashion shows.
    Early on, a customer associated with the Little Club in Gulf Stream asked whether the shop did fashion shows. Deery chalked up another first when she began hosting fashion shows for “real women.” One year, the shop did 13 shows in one season. That was too many, both women agreed.
    Hedges calls the shop her “happy place.” The 700-square-foot store has interior walls painted a greeny turquoise, called Island Style from Benjamin Moore. Deery described the paint shade as a “bright, cheerful color.”
    She credits her mom for keeping the customers coming through the doors. “They all like my mom,” Deery said.
    Hedges remembers the customers’ names and their children’s names, where they are from and where they live now. “We go over and above with customer service,” she said. Plus, the store offers free gift-wrapping, helpful for husbands who come in with their wives’ wish lists for birthdays and holidays.
    Mom and daughter like being in a plaza where customers can get out of the cars and take a short walk to their store.
“Our customers are not mall shoppers,” Hedges said. She thinks the shop could use more space, but worries about sustaining sales in the offseason. Ú
    The Fancy Flamingo, Ocean Plaza, 640 E. Ocean Ave. No. 20, Boynton Beach; 735-8848; 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays during season; www.facebook.com/thefancyflamingo.

Each morning, photographer Joseph Vincent captures an image of the sun rising over Delray Beach.

Early morning brings with it the opportunity of a new beginning. It also is a time for reflection.

Editorial, Page 2

Photos provided by Joseph Vincent/josephvincentphotography.com

By Mary Hladky

    On one point, at least, everyone agrees: There isn’t enough parking in downtown Boca Raton.
    What to do about that is another matter.
    After wrestling with the issue for more than one hour at their Dec. 12 workshop meeting, City Council members agreed to explore the possibility of starting a shuttle service that would ferry people from free public parking spots to downtown restaurants and shops in the evenings.
    They also pledged to reinvigorate efforts to build a downtown parking garage.
    When the tourist season is in full swing, council members will cast fresh eyes on the downtown parking meter system to determine if meters are needed at all and, if they think meters are needed, how could they be used more effectively.
    “The sad reality is we need better parking solutions in downtown Boca Raton,” said council member Scott Singer.
    Speaking of Royal Palm Place, Mayor Susan Haynie said, “It is a free-for-all there. If you go at night there are people parked everywhere.”
    Downtown parking has long defied easy solutions. City officials have wanted to build a public garage for years. But City Manager Leif Ahnell noted that most downtown property has been acquired by developers, leaving no suitable sites for the city to buy.
    The parking issue came to a head again when Robert Eisen, a land use consultant with Investments Limited, said parking meters aren’t improving the parking problem. They were intended to stop people from snagging parking spots and leaving their cars there all day.
    “We encourage you to find that holy grail of the downtown parking garage,” said Eisen, whose employer is the largest owner of commercial properties in the downtown, including Royal Palm Place.
    If a garage is built, it might make sense to use parking meters on city streets in conjunction with the garage, he said, provided studies are done to determine the best meter system and the meters are enforced 24 hours a day.
    If not, existing meters should be removed and no other ones installed, he said.
    His request was supported by nearly 500 downtown business owners, customers and residents who signed petitions.
    Ken Johnson, a Boca Raton real estate economist hired by Investments Limited to do an analysis, said that the differing lengths of parking times — ranging from 30 minutes to three to four hours — cause drivers to clog the streets as they cruise around looking for the meter option that best suits them. Meters that allow many hours of parking don’t force drivers to vacate spots for other drivers to use, he said.
    City officials, though, allowed such variations in parking times because business owners requested it. A fast-food restaurant operator might want 30-minute parking, while a hair salon owner needs three to four hours.
    Council members said they were open to rethinking meters. But they moved beyond that issue to urge staff to find a way to get a parking garage.
    Singer said the solution might be to build one on the City Hall property at 201 W. Palmetto Park Road.
    For a more immediate partial remedy, Haynie suggested an evening shuttle. People could park at City Hall or the nearby old library building that now houses city offices and ride it to and from downtown.
    “It needs to run frequently,” she said.

Three-foot-long iguanas run along a dock in Highland Beach.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Cheryl Blackerby

    Green iguanas are not your unobtrusive 5-inch garden lizards that scurry across sidewalks and terraces.
    An iguana, which can grow to 6 feet in length, will get your attention. With no enemies but humans, they leisurely bask in the sun on seawalls, poop on pool decks and can destroy a vegetable garden. With their huge dewlaps, vertebral crests and menacing thick tails, no one would describe them as cute and sweet.
    They are a new and startling sight on the South Florida landscape. The first sighting in Palm Beach County was in 2003, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission research. They first appeared in Florida in Miami-Dade County in 1966.
    In a short time they have become one of South Florida’s most unwelcome nonnative species.
    “Here in Ocean Ridge, we first started discussing the iguana problem this past spring after receiving complaints from some town residents in the Sabal Island area about an uptick in the number and frequency of iguana sightings and associated damage to flowering landscape in the area, as well as reptile feces evidenced on seawalls and pool decks,” says Jamie Titcomb, Ocean Ridge town manager.
    The town sought estimates from iguana trappers, who charge rates based on a “per cage, per day” baiting and retrieval system, which can be costly. And because most of the trapping would be on private property, Ocean Ridge and other towns are trying to figure out how to go about it.
    No one knows precisely how much the iguana population has grown, says Carol Lyn Parrish, public information coordinator for Fish and Wildlife. “It’s not a species we are monitoring.”
    Iguanas, which are vegetarians, are a nuisance but are not a threat to native wildlife and do not compete for food with native lizards.
    The tail can cause a painful slap and sharp claws can scratch the skin, but iguanas usually avoid people and pets. And it is possible their feces could carry salmonella.
    They can decimate a garden with their swinging tails and appetite for pretty plants.
    “They can be detrimental to ornamental vegetation and fruit,” says Parrish.
    In fact, their favorite foods are hibiscus blossoms, orchids and roses. They also like berries, mangoes, lychees, tomatoes and figs, but not citrus. They don’t like milkweed, pigeon plum, oleanders and coonties.
    The frequent sightings lately may be due to cooler temperatures, which bring iguanas to the warmth of concrete seawalls and sidewalks.
    “When it’s cool, they will be out basking — so you will see them more and you may feel like there are larger populations,” says Parrish.
    Iguanas have multiplied since 2010, when a freeze killed off huge numbers. Dead iguanas fell from trees, taking residents by surprise. It’s unknown how their numbers compare to pre-freeze populations.
    Iguanas are fully established now, says Parrish. Experts say there’s only one reliable way to get rid of a lot of them: when winter temperatures drop into the 30s. Then, watch out for falling iguanas.
    “That five- to six-day cold spell in 2010 really knocked them back. The best way to control them is prolonged cold, below freezing,” says Art Roybal, senior Fish and Wildlife biologist. “In Florida, it’s not illegal to kill nonnative species, but the kicker is the method. The majority of the time the state would recommend a critter control company that has a license to kill these animals.”
    Meanwhile, residents can trap them but can’t release them elsewhere because it is illegal to release nonnatives. Decapitation and drowning are considered inhumane, and in most towns residents can’t fire guns.
    But iguanas have long memories; if residents scare them with a garden hose and chase them away, they probably won’t return.
    Neon green young iguanas are popular exotic pets, and reptile experts think the iguanas we see today came from those that escaped cages or were released into the wild when they grew too big for home aquariums.
    “It’s a good guesstimate that iguanas came from the pet trade, but we also get a lot of vegetation shipped in from other countries, which may carry iguanas and eggs,” says Parrish.
    Iguanas are arboreal, living in dense tree canopies, usually close to water. They are excellent swimmers.
    Meanwhile, coastal towns are trying to figure out what to do about them.
    “We are still seeking input from other sources for their best practices, outcomes and advice,” says Ocean Ridge’s Titcomb. “We are looking at the idea of initiating a pilot trapping program, but awaiting some science and scale to determine what we might effectively do with limited resources.”
    Realistically, homeowners just may need to make peace with iguanas and hope for cold temperatures.

Police aren’t sure of the gun’s age or history.

Photo provided

By Ron Hayes

    A little before 10 a.m. on Nov. 10, a maintenance worker helping to usher in a sparkling new future at Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club stumbled on a rusty piece of the past.
    A mystery novelist could spin a dozen delightfully sinister histories for that rusty old Smith & Wesson, but the truth is probably more mundane.
    “It was really close to Federal Highway, almost in the swale,” said Eric Pierce, the maintenance worker who called police after finding the gun. “Anyone driving by could have tossed it out a car window.”
    Officer Phillip Torsiello, who responded to Pierce’s call, collected the rusty revolver and six .38-caliber bullets and carried them back to the station, where a check of the serial number with both the state and federal Crime Information Center databases yielded no information. The gun was not wanted in a crime.
    Pierce’s Facebook post did bring one intriguing result.
    “I got one reply from a retired police officer from Deerfield Beach who said his service revolver had been stolen back in the ’80s,” he said. But the gun wasn’t his.
    “I love my  job,” Pierce said. “They’re doing a $2 million renovation to the golf maintenance facility for us. It’s been there since 1959 when the course was erected, but now we’re getting a restroom, a bathroom, eating facilities.”
    Pierce is a mower and wrencher at the club, one of 23 employees who keep the golf course playable. On the Thursday morning, while preparing the ground around the new facility for new sod, he spotted something peeking from a mound of dirt.
    “You couldn’t even tell what it was,” he remembered. “Just the butt end was sticking out.”
    Pierce investigated and found a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. Loaded.
    “After we cleaned it up, it reminded me of a service revolver,” he said. “It was so frozen with rust you couldn’t have opened it or fired it.”
    While Pierce waited for police to arrive, he snapped a picture with his phone and posted it to Facebook.
    “Anyone recognize this gun?” he asked.
    Is it yours?

Tire tracks lead to a pentagram vandalized in Sanborn Square. The pentagram was repaired
and reinstalled Dec. 28. It was vandalized again early Jan. 2.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Sallie James

    A satanic pentagram with a banner disavowing the existence of heaven and hell was repeatedly vandalized after it was put up in Sanborn Square Park last month.
    The pentagram display was erected under the protection of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of religion and speech. The city has allowed religious groups to set up seasonal displays in the park at 72 N. Federal Highway for years.
    Boca Raton Community Middle School teacher Preston Smith, a self-described atheistic satanist, created the pentagram sculpture and expected it to create the stir that it did. Police were called to the park eight times for vandalism-related incidents in December and January.
    “It’s very polarizing,” conceded Smith, who lives in Lantana. He created the display to let others know that atheists in the community have the same right to make a statement as Christians, Jews and any other religious groups.
    “If you open up public forums and invite one religious group, you better be ready for anything,” Smith said. “The real intention is to rebuild the wall of separation between church and state. The Christians and Jews do not have a monopoly on wedging their views into our public sphere.”
    Smith said vandals tore his display from its base on Dec. 20 and shredded the accompanying banner, from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The banner, which was spray-painted on another occasion and stolen once, proclaimed there are “no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell.”
    The display went back up on Dec. 28 after being repaired, Smith said.
    The city acknowledged the controversial nature of the pentagram display in a Dec. 6 statement, noting that previous religious displays in Sanborn Square have “contained messages projecting the themes of peace, forgiveness and harmony.”
    “This display appears to be more about shock value, attention and challenging our commitment to constitutionally protected free speech rather than promoting goodwill, respect and tolerance during the holiday season,” the city statement said.

By Mary Hladky

    Boca Raton city officials have nearly reached the end of a tumultuous process to better define what developers can and can’t count as open space in downtown projects.
    The City Council, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board, approved an open-space policy in July to make sure there was no confusion about what the city requires. The policy pushes developers to include open space that can be easily seen by the public, usually at the front of buildings, and counts as open space such features as landscaped areas, arcades, colonnades and areas under major archways.
    The CRA board then turned the matter over to a city committee for fine-tuning.
    In recommendations made to the board on Dec. 12, the Downtown Boca Raton Advisory Committee called for parking lots to be located at the rear or sides of buildings. No parking would be permitted between the street and a building.
    Pool decks, walkways and plazas would not be counted as open space if they are more than 5 feet above ground level. That means, for example, that roof terraces could not be claimed as open space.
    One recommendation explicitly states that access to open space would be controlled by the property owner, making clear that a condominium could restrict access by the public to its pool deck.
    Advisory committee member and architect Derek Vander Ploeg said the subcommittee still has a bit more work to do. At the top of the list is a “new definition of what defines the public realm,” he said, referring to areas people can see but may or may not be open to the public.
    The definition is needed “to clarify what is private space and what is public space and when do they work together symbiotically,” Vander Ploeg said after the meeting.
    Indeed, even the idea of open space has proved confusing. Saying that residents were using the terms “open space” and “public space” interchangeably, city officials issued a notice last January saying the two are not the same thing and there is no requirement that open space be open to the public.
    CRA board members asked for a few clarifications, but voiced no opposition to any of the recommendations. City staff will now study the recommendations, which could come back for formal CRA board approval this month.
    The city has required developers to include open space in their projects since 1988 and adopted formulas developers must follow. For example, if a building is taller than 75 feet, 40 percent of the land must be open space.
    But downtown development was limited for years, and ground to a halt in the Great Recession. Now that projects are springing out of the ground, open space has become a hot-button issue for downtown activists who don’t want projects that look massive and forbidding.
    Some activists were enraged last year when city officials discovered a 2003 memo of which they were unaware that had been used as a guide by planning staff evaluating proposed projects for their adherence to open-space requirements. Officials said part of the memo was erroneous and could have allowed developers to skimp on open space.
    That prompted an exhaustive four-month review of downtown projects approved since 1988. But rather than include too little open space, the review found, developers had delivered 26.3 percent more than required under city ordinance.
    Even so, city officials wanted to make sure the city’s open-space requirements are clear and unambiguous by clarifying the policy.

An artist’s rendering shows the buildings in the Via Mizner complex at Federal Highway and Camino Real.

From left are the Mandarin Oriental Residences and Hotel and the recently completed luxury apartment building.

Rendering provided by Penn-Florida

By Mary Hladky

    While downtown Boca Raton is seeing a huge building boom, no project yet rivals the scope of Via Mizner.
    The ultra-luxury project, developed by Boca Raton-based Penn-Florida Cos. at an estimated cost of just under $1 billion, encompasses a Mandarin Oriental hotel, condos, a private club, rentals, shops and restaurants at Federal Highway and Camino Real.
    101 Via Mizner, a 366-unit apartment building, is the first phase to be completed and began renting in August.
    Construction will begin this spring on the 165-room Mandarin Oriental and the 84 condos in The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, both directly north of the rentals.
    Those wanting to snap up a condo could make pre-construction reservations even before the sales center opens this month at 10 E. Boca Raton Road. Douglas Elliman Real Estate is the sales and marketing agent.
    In all, nearly 1,500 spaces will be available in two floors of below-ground parking under the hotel and condo buildings, and on the second and third levels. Parking for the apartment building is in its first four floors.
    The Via Mizner Golf & City Club will include an 18-hole golf course, located about 3 miles away, between Palmetto Park Road and Camino Real just west of Military Trail.
    Golf legend Jack Nicklaus will redesign the course, which will be completed by the end of year, beginning in the spring. Once work at the site at 6200 Boca Del Mar Drive is completed, facilities will include six Har-Tru tennis courts, a fitness center, a clubhouse, a resort-style pool and restaurants.
    The city club will be in the Mandarin Oriental. Members also will have access to the hotel’s rooftop pools, spa, restaurants and other amenities.
    The entire project should be completed in 2019, with The Shoppes at Via Mizner as the final piece. The 60,000 square feet of shops and restaurants will line the base of the buildings.
    “I think all of Via Mizner is trying to address a lifestyle in Boca that many people have been looking for but is not entirely here yet,” said Al Piazza, Penn-Florida’s senior vice president for development. “There is a level of sophistication … but it hasn’t been fully realized.”
    New development has stirred passionate opposition from downtown activists who decry the changing character of their city. But 12-story Via Mizner, which does not exceed the city’s height limits for that part of downtown, has escaped the brunt of their wrath. In part, that’s because many residents saw the Mandarin Oriental as a desirable addition to the city.
    John Gore, president of BocaBeautiful, said residents would be far more vocal if Penn-Florida proposed such a large project now.
    “It was a beneficiary of timing,” he said of Via Mizner. Citing several other new downtown projects, Gore said, “If you proposed those buildings today, they would face a much more difficult regulatory and political process than they did. They came forward before citizens woke up. … They are not sleeping now.”
    Via Mizner is all about luxury and lifestyle, the developer says.
    The Mandarin Oriental will be only one of five in the U.S. that includes condos, with the others in Boston, New York, Atlanta and Las Vegas. The only other Mandarin Oriental in Florida is a stand-alone hotel in Miami, where rooms start at $539 and move up to $1,549 a night, according to its website.
    After the announcement last year that the hotel and branded residences would be built in Boca Raton, “the number of calls Mandarin received exceeded calls for any other [Mandarin condo] project around the world,” Piazza said.
    The condo owners will have access to all that the five-star hotel provides, including use of concierge, cleaning and valet services. They can get room service or have a chef prepare meals in their condos.
    Piazza said the condos will sell for 30 percent to 35 percent more than an unbranded condominium. A one-bedroom starts at $1.8 million and the price climbs to $18 million for an 8,500-square-foot penthouse with ocean view. Amenities will include terraces with summer kitchens, spa-style baths, private elevator foyers and a wine cellar with private storage.
    He estimates 10 percent to 20 percent of the buyers will be local residents, and the rest those who likely have other homes around the world.
    “Typical buyers for this are obviously very wealthy, travel the world, very demanding and know what high-quality service and lifestyle is,” he said. “They expect it and demand it.”
    Many local buyers may have lived in golf course communities, and no longer need large homes.
    “But they don’t want to give up luxury, convenience or lifestyle,” Piazza said. “There has been strong demand from the local Boca buyer for that.”
    Piazza thinks there are many potential buyers in that category. “The number of families with net worth exceeding $150 million [in Boca Raton] is just enormous,” he said.
    The rentals, featuring European cabinetry and quartz countertops, also command a high price. 101 Via Mizner’s 18 studios are about $1,800 a month, while its 27 three-bedrooms start at about $4,500, topping out at nearly $6,000. There are 184 one-bedrooms and 137 two-bedrooms.

    Piazza wouldn’t comment on how many had been rented, but The Real Deal, quoting another company official, reported in mid-November that more than 100 were leased.
    Membership fees for the golf and city club haven’t been finalized, but all condo owners will be members. Membership likely will be by invitation.
    “It is too early to say how many members we will have,” Piazza said. “It will not be overcrowded.”
    The retail component is a work in progress, but Penn-Florida is setting the bar high.
Its website touts The Shoppes at Via Mizner as “destined to rival Worth Avenue, Bal Harbour Shops or Miami’s Design District.”
    The only signed retail tenants at 101 Via Mizner so far are Citibank and SunTrust, whose buildings on Federal Highway will be torn down to make way for the hotel and condos.
    Piazza said Penn-Florida is looking for luxury stores that are not now located in south Palm Beach County. Obvious customers will be the hotel guests and condo residents, but other shoppers could be drawn from Fort Lauderdale to Palm Beach.
    “We are looking for stores you would find in Paris or Milan, that people at the Mandarin Oriental would be familiar with,” he said.
 “There is a huge market here in Boca. People here now have to travel to shop.”
    Restaurants will range from very fine dining to more casual eateries, he said.
    Penn-Florida, which also has holdings in Tampa and Orlando, has developed many projects in Boca Raton, including One City Centre at 1 N. Federal and Atrium Financial Center at 1515 N. Federal. The company also is moving ahead with University Village, a residential, retail, office and hotel development on nearly 80 acres at Interstate 95 and Spanish River Boulevard.

The Police Department’s new message board cost about $16,000 and was paid for by the nonprofit

Highland Beach Police Foundation. Besides its message capabilities, the unit can measure

vehicle numbers and speeds at various times, helping the department with planning.

The screen is 4 feet high and 6 feet, 10 inches wide.

Photos provided

By Rich Pollack

    Highland Beach police  have a new tool to use in their efforts to enhance traffic safety, strengthen crime prevention efforts and improve communications with residents.
    With money from the nonprofit Highland Beach Police Foundation, the department recently bought a portable message board that can alert residents to any emergency situations and road closures or provide crime-prevention and traffic-safety reminders.
    “This is another way for us to communicate important messages to the community,” Chief Craig Hartmann said. “The ultimate goal is to create the safest stretch of State Road A1A and make all our neighborhoods safer.”   
    In addition to displaying messages in 10-inch characters and symbols — such as arrows — the message board is capable of recording data and letting drivers know when they are exceeding speed limits.
    Equipped with radar, the board can provide the Police Department with information about the speed of traffic during certain hours and on certain days. It can also let the department know the average speed of traffic during a given time and record the fastest and slowest speeds during defined time periods.
    The board can be programmed to collect traffic-count data at any given time, which the department can use for planning purposes.    
    “It’s an all-in-one unit that has a traffic analyzer, speed-measuring capabilities and message capabilities,” said Eric Aronowitz, the department’s training manager, who coordinated the effort to acquire the board.

    The message board can let drivers know the speed they are traveling, and a blue light and a red light will flash if an approaching vehicle is exceeding the speed limit.
    Because it is not equipped with cameras, the board does not record license plates and will not be used for enforcement purposes, Aronowitz said.
    Because it’s on a trailer and portable, the message board can be moved to any location within the town and placed on public rights of way or private property with owner approval.  
    “By having our own message board, we can deploy it wherever we need it and whenever we need it,” Aronowitz said.
    Hartmann says the board will be useful to augment existing communication methods in an emergency situation such as when evacuation orders are issued prior to the expected arrival of a hurricane.
    It can also be used as a crime-prevention tool, advising residents — for example — to remember to lock their car doors.
    The board is 6 feet, 10 inches wide by 4 feet high. The Police Department bought it for about $16,000 from K & K Systems of Tupelo, Miss., using funds from the nonprofit foundation, which collects money from the community and uses it to cover the cost of items the department does not ask the town to fund.

By Steve Plunkett

    Renovation of the science playground at Sugar Sand Park hit a last-minute delay in December when workers found three multilevel wood posts showing signs of rot below the surface.
    “Unfortunately that is going to add another time frame to completion of the project,” Arthur Koski, executive director of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, announced at the board’s Dec. 19 meeting.
    The district, which operates the facility, closed the playground in June 2015 for safety reasons and had hoped to reopen it in late December or early January. The new opening date is late January.
    The playground offers a hands-on experience with interactive components that demonstrate a number of scientific principles. It was originally built by community volunteers more than 20 years ago.
    The refurbished facility will be “all-inclusive” and open to children, parents and grandparents of all abilities.
    District Commissioner-elect Craig Ehrnst, who will take his seat this month, personalized the delay during his campaign by noting that his 9-year-old son was being deprived of an irreplaceable experience. He repeated that theme at the meeting.
    “From a kid’s standpoint or anyone else’s standpoint, it’s very hard to justify it being closed for such a long time or understanding the delays,” Ehrnst said.

Under the branches of a trio of Gumbo Limbo trees, a family takes advantage of the recently reopened boardwalk.

The project cost $630,810, paid for by the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District. The boardwalk

closed in February 2015 when engineers discovered it was about to collapse. The new structure

is elevated. ‘It has a crawl space beneath it, and you feel like you’re more a part of the canopy,’

District Chairman Robert Rollins said. ‘It’s a lot easier flow for the critters that live there.’

Work on two more phases has not started.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

    After 4½ years, commissioners of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District decided to drop the “interim” part of interim Executive Director Arthur Koski’s title.
    “I think you all will agree with me that Mr. Koski has done an incredible job for us,” Commissioner Susan Vogelgesang said before making a motion to change his title.
    The new designation was one of two bits of employment news for Koski in December. District Chairman Robert Rollins also moved to give Koski a 13.6 percent pay raise for his work as the district’s attorney.
    “We’ve heard enough about the work our district counsel has been doing for us, and as a chairperson I can tell you … Mr. Koski is an invaluable source of legal knowledge that’s helped us through a lot of different issues,” Rollins said.
    Rollins said the boost in pay, to $150,000 a year from $132,000, was merited because of extra work Koski will do as the district navigates legal issues regarding the possible acquisition of the Ocean Breeze golf course.
    George Brown, Boca Raton’s deputy city manager, has written Koski to see whether the district might consider taking the golf course via its eminent domain power.
    Commissioner Steve Engel said the extra $18,000 was equivalent to hiring an outside attorney for perhaps 36 hours of work. “In my mind … you’re a bargain,” Engel said.
    Briann Harms, the district’s assistant director, was in line to become executive director in January, after Koski said last spring he would step aside from the interim position. Because Harms was absent from the Dec. 5 meeting, commissioners decided to wait until Dec. 19 to make Koski’s new title official.
    “I don’t want anyone to think that I was trying to torpedo my friend Briann in any way, shape or form. Briann had expressed the fact that she was not quite ready to take the executive director position,” Vogelgesang said.
    Koski assumed the position of interim director in 2012 when Robert Langford retired. But his additional role drew complaints from city officials, peaking in March with City Council member Robert Weinroth insisting that he be replaced with someone full-time.
    In May, Koski said he would step aside as director on Oct. 1, the start of the new budget year. But he was persuaded to stay until January, when commissioners choose their chairman for 2017 and Commissioners-elect Craig Ehrnst and Erin Wright take their seats.
    Koski yielded his third district job in November, when commissioners hired Michael Fichera, Boca Raton’s recently retired chief building official, to do their contract administration work, a task Koski had handled since 2010.
    The three jobs together paid Koski $330,000 a year. Now he will draw $240,000 annually. He does not get a pension or other benefits.
    Koski started giving the Beach and Park District legal advice in 1978.
    Also in December, district commissioners approved onetime payments of 2.5 percent of base pay and 4 percent raises for their only two employees, Harms and secretary Maddy Bentivegna. The salary adjustments mirror those Boca Raton gave its nonunion municipal workers.

By Rich Pollack

    Some Bel Lido residents wondered why a water main replacement project started two weeks before the Christmas holiday. But Highland Beach officials said they had good reason: The construction firm had to meet a tight deadline and the town needed the project to start to lock in a low-interest loan.
    Town officials said they received calls from a handful of residents in the Bel Lido community, who complained that the project was a disruption during a time when there were holiday parties, students home from school and extended visits from guests.
    “It would have been nice if the town was respectful enough to wait two weeks so that all our holiday events weren’t compromised and the streets weren’t taken up with machinery,” said longtime resident Bob Crozer. “Why couldn’t they wait 12 days and start after the holidays?”
    Crozer and other residents of the neighborhood also expressed concern about not being notified that the project was scheduled to begin until just a few days before crews came in and began digging up a 4-foot-wide trench on the side of the roadway.
    Highland Beach Public Works Director Ed Soper said the contractor doing the installation of 6,700 feet of water mains serving residents on six public side streets is required by contract to get the job completed within 240 days of when an agreement was finalized.
    Because the town prohibits work on weekends and holidays and limits the hours when work can be done, the contractor needed to get started as soon as possible to meet the deadline, Soper said. The contractor also agreed to suspend work during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, which added to the time crunch.
    Soper and interim Town Manager Valerie Oakes said another reason the town wanted to get started as soon as possible was to lock in as low an interest rate as possible on a loan from the state.
    “The longer we waited to get started, the higher the interest rate could be,” Oakes said.  
    While some residents expressed concern, Bel Lido Property Owners Association President Ron Brown said he believes the improvement the community will see offsets the inconvenience caused by the work.
    “It’s a lot less disruptive than I anticipated,” he said.
    Barring unforeseen delays, the water main replacement project is scheduled to be finished by midsummer.  When it’s completed, the roads in the impacted neighborhoods will all be resurfaced and residents will have a more reliable water delivery system, Soper said.

By Rich Pollack

    As the town of Highland Beach continues to revamp its code-enforcement process, discussions over whether to bring in a special magistrate to hear code-enforcement cases stalled early this month when commissioners couldn’t agree on what would have been the first step in the process.
    In a 2-2 vote, with Commissioner Lou Stern absent, the commission stopped short of scheduling interviews with three special-magistrate candidates who submitted resumes and proposals to the town.
    As a result, the town’s Code Enforcement Board will continue to hear contested code-enforcement cases — at least for now.  
    That seven-member board, however, could soon be down to just three members. Two members are expected to resign in order to run for Town Commission seats, the board’s chair is resigning to take a seat on another town board and a vacancy remains unfilled.
    While discussing whether or not to move forward with special-magistrate interviews, Commissioner Carl Feldman and Vice Mayor Bill Weitz appeared to favor bringing in a legal professional to hear cases and assess fines when appropriate, while Commissioner Rhoda Zelniker and Mayor Bernard Featherman supported keeping a Code Enforcement Board.  
    “I think what we have is working,” Zelniker said, adding that she thinks problems the town has with code enforcement stem from the process and do not fall on the shoulders of the code enforcement board.
    In an effort to resolve the issues, Interim Town Manager Valerie Oakes is continuing a search for a full-time code enforcement officer, a position authorized by commissioners during budget discussions this summer. For several years, a part-time town employee and more recently, an outside contractor also on a part-time basis, have handled code enforcement matters.
    In addition, Oakes — who has a background in code enforcement — is developing a set of operating policies and procedures to set standards and ensure consistency.
    “We have not had proper code enforcement,” Zelniker said. “I think we should give the new code-enforcement person a chance.”
    Weitz agreed there have been problems with code enforcement for some time but said he thinks the town could be better off having code issues resolved by someone with a legal background.
    “This is a job that requires knowledge and expertise,” he said.
    Discussions over switching to a magistrate, who would be paid on an hourly basis, came on the heels of a Nov. 16 Code Enforcement Board hearing in which the board fined a resident $250 a day for doing interior work on his townhouse without a permit.
    The resident was given two stop-work orders by town inspectors dating as far back as February, but continued to do the work, according to town officials.
    While some members of the Code Enforcement Board wanted to fine the homeowner retroactively to the date when the first stop-work order was issued, the assistant town attorney assigned to the hearing advised against it, saying that the resident wasn’t given sufficient notice of when he needed to be in compliance.
    The townhouse owner has since obtained a permit for the work and paid a $1,000 penalty as well as $8,500 in fines assessed by the Code Enforcement Board.
    As part of its revamping of the code-enforcement process, Highland Beach has discontinued its contract for part-time code enforcement with SafeBUILT, a Colorado-based firm that also provides building-inspection services for the town. While the town continues efforts to fill the full-time position, code enforcement services will be handled by the Police Department in coordination with the building department.

Math, science, art

and other skills grow as students

tend garden at Delray school.

Adrian Burke (left) and Zane Lingmerth stretch string to delineate 1-foot garden spaces

at Plumosa School of the Arts in Delray Beach. The kids learn that all they need

is one square foot to grow a garden plant.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Student Tiana Turner chats with volunteer Tom Sand, who provided

the impetus for developing the school’s garden.

‘When I see the kids out here, they are always smiling
and full of enthusiasm. They really take ownership of the area.’

— Tom Sand

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

    Although many teachers turn to textbooks and computers to teach children math, science and other subjects, those at Plumosa School of the Arts in Delray Beach are turning to the great outdoors.     
    “Our vegetable garden is an outdoor classroom where the kids can really get their hands dirty,” says Sally Smollar, the librarian and garden coordinator at the K-5 school serving 650 students, many from low-income families.      
    Here behind the school, a fifth-grade class gets its hands-on math by dividing raised beds with string into 1-foot squares and then inserting a seed or seedling into each square. Other students graph the growth of a tomato plant. And the kids in art classes paint wooden spoons to stick in the ground and identify the crops.
    “When I see the kids out here, they are always smiling and full of enthusiasm. They really take ownership of the area,” says Tom Sand, a volunteer at the school.      
    In fact, it was Sand who was instrumental in getting this garden growing.  
    Originally, there was only a haphazardly tended plot with a few cocoplums, a lot of dirt and a bit of artificial turf surrounded by black chain-link fence.  
    “It was pretty sad,” says Smollar.     
    Sand was volunteering to read to the students, during which time he became so impressed with the school that he asked Smollar how else he could help.

Sally Smollar directs students in the garden at Plumosa School of the Arts in Delray Beach.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

    That’s when she showed him what there was of a garden and told him of her hopes for its becoming a place where the students could learn about everything from healthy eating to the multiplication tables.     
    Her dream struck Sand, who was looking for a way to honor his late wife, Mary, who had been an avid gardener and worked with children’s books.      
    So he presented the idea to his coastal Delray Beach friend and neighbor Katherine Hagedorn Littlefield, who is vice chairwoman of the Scotts Miracle-Gro Co.’s board of directors. Funding the project fit right in with the company’s commitment to help create 1,000 new community and school gardens by 2018, when it celebrates its 150th anniversary.     
    Work at Plumosa began in August, when a crew arrived to build boxes for raised beds, plant banana and papaya trees and reroute the irrigation system to water the beds.     
    Smollar remembers the day in September when a semi-trailer truck arrived from Orlando filled with organic soil and eucalyptus mulch to fill the beds. The garden officially opened later that month.     
    As you approach the area, you’ll notice artwork of bright blue sky and plenty of sunflowers inhabited by gracious red ladybugs and plump yellow and black bumblebees. The students painted these on planks of discarded wood Smollar had salvaged.  
    Approach the chain-link gate to the garden and you’ll see a sign made from artwork the students created on computer tablets in Smollar’s digital media class.      
    When we visit, one of the raised beds is filled with tomato plants heavy with yellow blooms held up by red, blue and yellow wire cages. Another is home to red-stemmed Swiss chard, fluffy leaf lettuce and dark green spinach.     
    In yet another area, Brussels sprouts look like they are struggling in the late season heat. Smollar realizes she’ll have to restart them.      
    Many of the plants are raised from seeds in foam egg boxes and replanted into the beds when they are only a few inches tall.   
    The kindergarten class planted pineapple crowns this year. Since they can take up to two years to produce fruit, Smollar hopes these children will get a chance to taste it.
    For the students and teachers at Plumosa, this is an ideal way to get the children outdoors to teach them lessons they will use throughout their lives, including the pleasure of growing things.

The garden is dedicated to the memory of Mary Sand, who was an avid gardener.

Her husband, Tom, volunteers at the school.

    And that makes the plaque that dedicates this garden to Mary L. Sand even more meaningful. It reads that the garden is:
    “For every student to learn the wonders and joys of gardening.”

If You Go
    Plumosa School of the Arts, 2501 Seacrest Blvd., Delray Beach; 330-3900.    
    The classroom garden is open to the public by private tour only. Those interested may contact Sally Smollar at sally.smollar@palmbeachschools.org.

Gardening tip
of the month     

    “Do research online and talk to others to be sure that what you choose to grow is appropriate for our climate and that it will grow in our heat. Find out what grows successfully in our USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 10B and then stick with it.”

— Sally Smollar, librarian/garden coordinator for Plumosa School of the Arts, Delray Beach

Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley is a master gardener who can be reached at debhartz@att.net.

By Ron Hayes

    The Religious Society of Friends was born in 1650 on a hill in Lancashire, England, when a young man named George Fox had a revelation.
    Christ could be known directly, by anyone, anywhere, any time, without the intercession of ordained clergy.
    “Tremble at the word of God,” Fox admonished the growing number of followers who embraced his message, but when he was hauled into court to be charged with blasphemy, a magistrate named Gervase Bennet ridiculed their trembling with a single word.
    “Quakers.”
    Most of us know of them, but few of us know much about them.
    This month, the Palm Beach Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends hopes to change that by welcoming curious people to a series of Meetings for Learning before the regular Sunday worship at their Lake Worth meeting house.
    “We’re a spiritual community much more than we’re a religion,” explains John Palozzi, a retired social worker with the Palm Beach County School District who first came to a meeting eight years ago. “We have no dogma, so we don’t tell anybody what they have to believe.”
    The closest Quakers have to dogma is a simple affirmation from George Fox: “There is that of God in everyone.”
    While some Quaker services resemble more conventional Sunday practices with hymns, a preacher and a sermon, the congregation of about 50 Friends who have gathered in Lake Worth each week since 1955 seek God not in quaking, but in silence.
     “We simply sit for an hour together in silence,” Palozzi explains, “listening for the teacher within us to guide us. It’s the spirit within that’s the guiding force, and you need to adjust your own behavior and decide your own morality.”
    While they embrace no detailed theology, Quakers do have common convictions, called testimonies: simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship of the Earth.
    Historically, those testimonies have put American Quakers at the forefront of the anti-slavery movement in the 19th century and the struggle for women’s suffrage in the 20th. They welcomed women as equals from their beginnings, and have a long record of nonviolence and conscientious objection to America’s wars.
    “George Fox refused to hold the sword or be involved in military service,” says Palozzi, a conscientious objector himself during the Vietnam War.
    “There are a lot of people out there who don’t want to be told what they have to believe,” Palozzi notes. “They want to be involved with a group that’s more concerned with spirituality than dogma. A lot are turning to Buddhism or various metaphysical groups, but we’ve been on this track for 350 years.”
    Topics in the weekly Meetings for Learning this month include:
    • “Quakerism and Social Activism: How Quakerism Speaks Truth to Power,” 9:30 a.m. Jan. 8.
    • “Modern Quakerism and How Quakerism Compares With Other Religions,” 9:30 a.m. Jan. 15.
    • “Quakerism and War: The Quaker Peace Testimony,” 9:30 a.m. Jan. 22.
    • “Are Quakers Really Christian?” 9:30 a.m. Jan. 29.
    The Quaker Month events will conclude at 1 p.m. Jan. 29 with a presentation of questions and answers about what it means to live a Quaker life in the 21st century.
    “We want people to know we’re inviting them just to come and learn about us and try us out if they’re interested in pursuing spirituality instead of religion,” Palozzi says.
    “Those are the people we’re trying to reach.”

The Palm Beach Religious Society of Friends Meeting House is at 823 N. A St. in Lake Worth. For more information, visit www.palmbeachquakers.org or email pbquakers@gmail.com  

By Janis Fontaine

    First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach continues its Distinguished Preacher Series with an appearance by Dr. William Carl III on Jan. 22.
    Carl is the senior pastor of the 2,200-member Independent Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Ala., past president of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and the former pastor of the 1,700-member First Presbyterian Church in Dallas. Carl has published eight books, including The Lord’s Prayer for Today, and more than 75 scholarly articles and reviews.
     He also lectures on the brain at medical schools and conferences and serves as an ethics consultant to corporations. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tulsa, a master’s in divinity from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and a doctorate in rhetoric and communication at the University of Pittsburgh, where he also taught. He was ordained in 1973.
     Carl will speak at the 9 a.m. service Jan. 22 at FPC, at 33 Gleason St., Delray Beach. For information, call 276-6338 or visit www.firstdelray.com.
                                 
    An Abrahamic Reunion Interfaith Peace Concert takes place from 7 to 9 p.m. Jan. 10, featuring the Middle Eastern music group Elahi, followed by Kalimba & Friends, an upbeat, local Christian band, and Noam Brown, who performs Jewish songs on guitar. A suggested donation of $10-$20 supports the interfaith peacemaking of the Abrahamic Reunion. The concert takes place at the Lake Worth Friends Meeting House, 823 N. A St., Lake Worth. Info: www.abrahamicreunion.org/events/abrahamic-reunion-interfaith-peace-concert/
                                 
    The Church of the Palms Comfort Doll Ministry makes dolls for children who are under stress that are distributed through the Delray Beach Police Department and the Achievement Centers for Children and Families in Delray Beach. They also have been sent to Brazil, Haiti and Kenya. The ministry was started in 2004 using a doll pattern fashioned like a gingerbread man. Today it makes dolls in all-cotton fabrics with a range of skin colors, hair and clothes. The ministry has donated more than 400 dolls. The Church of the Palms is at 1960 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. For information, call 276-6347 or visit www.churchofthepalms.net.
                                 
    Maybe your New Year’s resolution is to get out of the house more, join a group or volunteer. Consider these faith-based options:      • The InterFaith Gender & Sexuality Coalition meets from 6:15 to 7:45 p.m. Jan. 10 at Compass Community Center, Fiandaca Ballroom, 201 N. Dixie Highway, Lake Worth. Email joe@thegraphicissue.com.

    • CROS Ministries needs volunteers to continue its work feeding hungry people. You can drive a van, make home food delivery, work in the office, food pantry, warehouse or kitchen, glean farmers’ fields, or help kids through the Nutrition in a Knapsack. There are dozens of options. For information, call Juanita Bryant Goode at 233-9009, Ext. 110, or email jgoode@crosministries.org
    • Meeting for all faiths: The Interfaith Café meets the third Thursday of the month from 7 to 9 p.m. at South County Civic Center, 16700 Jog Road, Delray Beach. Volunteers are needed to help keep the interfaith dialogue going. From clerical work to designing programs, there are many ways you can help. Contact Jane at jane@aurorasvoice.org
    • Pub Theology, a discussion of theology over a cold beer, now has two locations: The group meets at 7 p.m. on first Tuesdays at The Biergarten, 309 Via De Palmas #90, Boca Raton, and third Thursdays at Barrel of Monks, 1141 S. Rogers Circle #5, Boca Raton. Questions? Contact Thad at tlschoen@bellsouth.net.
    • The United Methodist Women meet “to have fun, to live your faith in community, to discuss ways to help women and children and to support mission projects locally, nationally and globally.”
    The mission-oriented group reaches out to offer support globally by creating small groups, called circles, that offer “programs to develop awareness and encourage action and advocacy on behalf of women, children and youth.”
    Choose one of the five circles that meet monthly at a time convenient for you. Mark your calendar for the UMW’s Fashion Show fundraiser, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 28. For information, call Barbara at 909-8906 or visit www.fumcbocaraton.org.

Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at janisfontaine@outlook.com.

Christine King works with Delray Beach resident Kari Shipley at King’s studio

in Boynton Beach. King walks with the aid of high-tech braces on her calves.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Lona O'Connor

    As Christine King sits on the breezy pool deck at her condo on the Intracoastal Waterway, she hears a noise that no one else even notices.
    “Jet Ski,” she says. “I had never heard of a Jet Ski accident until I was in one.”
    It was July 4, 1996. King, then 26, was a passenger on a Jet Ski in the Atlantic Ocean off Rhode Island. The Jet Ski hit a wave way too hard. She and the driver went up in the air.
    “I thought, when are we coming down? Then I blacked out.”
    She was told later that she came down, hard, on the seat. The impact broke her back.
    “When I woke up I looked down at my legs and they were twisted more than they can be twisted.” She wraps her forearms around each other to suggest what her legs looked like.
    “I said to myself, if I ever get out, I will change my career,” said King, who at the time was vice president of a video company.
    Despite the odds against it, after months of surgery and rehabilitation King regained the ability to walk.
    She already had been a ballerina and had been training for the Miss Fitness USA title at the time of her accident. She got training as a medical exercise specialist and started a company called Your Best Fit, working with clients of all ages and levels of ability. From her base in Boynton Beach, she and her staff of 15 trainers, nutritionists and other specialists work with doctors and clients all over the country.
    Having worked her way back to mobility from such an injury, King is a past master of working around the excuses of others.
    “I tell people they can do what they never thought possible,” King said with the fervor of someone who knows. “If it moves, we exercise it, and if you can move, you’d better move.”
    Peg Ekberg is in full agreement.
    “If you can move, you can do something,” says Ekberg, who is 94 and shooting for age 120. “She says that, and I say that.”
    Ekberg works with King in the pool once a week to combat arthritis, neck and back problems.
    King also worked with Ekberg’s late husband, Paul, who had Parkinson’s disease.
    In the swimming pool, King was able to help Paul Ekberg and others — some with oxygen tanks — to work muscles more easily than on land.
    When the time came for the Ekbergs’ granddaughter to marry at Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Paul Ekberg’s dearest wish was to walk down the aisle to his seat in the church.
    “Twenty-six steps was all we needed,” recalled Peg Ekberg.
    For weeks before the wedding, with King coaching, the couple practiced, step by tentative step, in their condo.
    And he did it.
    “There were tears in the eyes of all the family and friends,” said Peg Ekberg. “How grateful we were to her.”
    When King was recovering from her accident, doctors told her that her progress was aided by the fact that she was very fit. She also credits her nurses, who refused to baby her.
    “They said you have to do some things by yourself,” she recalled. “It gave me a lot of confidence.”
    That philosophy carries over to her clients now.
    “I tell people, we know what you can do,” she said. “I have your numbers, your X-rays, your MRIs.”
    Her clients include elite-level golfers and child athletes, as well as people recovering from surgeries and people with and without disabilities.
    King follows her own daily regimen of pool exercise and back strengthening. She walks with the aid of high-tech braces on her calves.
    Bob Ridgley, 81, of Delray Beach, has been attending King’s exercise classes at the Gulf Stream Bath and Tennis Club for 16 years. Another of King’s services is managing fitness programs for private clubs.
    “She’s like a professor. She studies aging and she really knows what she is doing,” says Ridgley, who runs a personalized products business and plays golf after four back surgeries. “She will change [an exercise] for you alone. I have high regard for her acumen. We’re not jocks, but she gets us all inspired.”
     Peg Ekberg admires King’s careful attention.
     “It’s not just what she does in her classes but how she cares about people,” Ekberg said. “When Paul was in the hospital she would show up, even if it was midnight, to find out how everything was. It’s not just a job, it’s a gift she gives to everyone.”
    King says she is the one receiving the gift.
    “I haven’t met anyone who hasn’t been through something,” she said. “I tell them, you can fight through this and feel comfortable in your own skin. We are all heroes.”

Lona O’Connor has a lifelong interest in health and healthy living. Send column ideas to Lona13@bellsouth.net.

Greg Quattlebaum and Jibby Ciric, co-chairs of the annual Heroes Awards.

Photo provided

    Palm Beach County Medical Society Services is asking for nominations of Palm Beach County individuals, organizations and businesses that have used their skills and resources to improve the quality of health care. From the nominations, the Medical Society will make selections and honor them April 21 at the 14th Annual Heroes in Medicine Awards luncheon held at the Kravis Center’s Cohen Pavilion. 
    Greg Quattlebaum and Jibby Ciric are serving as the event’s co-chairpersons. Award categories include: the Bruce Rendina Professional Heroes, Community Outreach Heroes, Health Care Educator Heroes, Health Care Innovation Heroes, Health Care Provider Heroes (non-physician), Physician Heroes (local/national/international), Health Care Prevention/Wellness Service Heroes, and Student Heroes.
    A final category, PROJECT ACCESS Heroes, consists of MDs, DOs, hospitals, medical groups or facilities that donate their time and services through Project Access of Palm Beach County Medical Society Services.
    Nominations must be received at the Palm Beach County Medical Society by Feb. 10 at noon.  For information or to receive a nomination form via email, call Brenna Iyampillai or Jim Sugarman at 433-3940 or to request a form, go to www.pbcms.org/events/heroes-in-medicine.
                                 
    Delray Medical Center now offers a device designed to help patients diagnosed with a patent foramen ovale, which is a small opening between the upper chambers of the heart. The AMPLATZER PFO Occluder, an FDA-approved device, is designed to close the opening and reduce the risk of recurrent ischemic strokes caused by clots passing between the heart chambers and up to the brain. An estimated 25 percent of adults have this condition. Data from RESPECT clinical trial showed that patients who received this device had a reduced risk of recurrent stroke by 45 percent over guideline-directed medical therapy alone. The procedure to implant the device is minimally invasive and performed while the patient is sedated but still conscious. For information, visit www.delraymedicalctr.com/our-services/heart-vascular.
                                    
    Florida Atlantic University was recently designated as a Nikon Center of Excellence based on the high caliber of its research faculty, its research, and its advanced imaging instrumentation. At a December presentation, the university and Nikon unveiled the newest addition to the FAU Brain Institute, a $750,000 high-speed microscopy instrument that provides 3-D views of the nervous systems and whole organisms.
                                    
    The Cancer Alliance of Help & Hope has entered into a new partnership with the University of Miami’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. The Cancer Alliance of Help & Hope assists children, adults and families affected by cancer by helping to pay bills they acquire during the treatment and recovery process. The Cancer Center’s priority is to translate research breakthroughs into more effective treatments; it currently conducts more than 260 clinical trials.
    Launching their partnership at 5:45 p.m. Jan. 17, the Cancer Alliance of Help & Hope will host Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers at a symposium where they will share highlights of their work and what it means for the future of treatment for cancer patients.
    Speakers are scheduled to be Dr. Stephen Nimer, the center’s director; Dr. Ronan Swords, professor in leukemia; Dr. Alejandra Perez, breast program director; and Dr. Brian Slomovitz, gynecologic oncology. The symposium will be at the Colony Hotel, 155 Hammon Ave., Palm Beach. For information or to register for the event, visit www.cahh.org or call 748-7227.
                                    
    During November at the Treatment Center of the Palm Beaches, Karrol-Jo Foster was promoted to director of clinical services, and Brian Murphy was promoted to clinical director of outpatient services. Brian Moriarty was hired as a business development representative. The center’s office address is 4905 Lantana Road, Lake Worth.

Fleet Feet Sports Delray Beach and Doghouse Multisport Training Center raised $2,400 in December

to buy new shoes and bikes for Delray Beach youths through their Treads vs. Trainers charity event.

Participants included (l-r) Mark Burns, Melissa Perlman, Alex Kline and Justin Haber.

Photo provided

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

Teach your pets new tricks to work their brains. The author’s cat, Casey,

learned how to walk and then jump through a hoop.

Arden Moore and her dog, Kona. Bolster your bond with your pet by talking and singing to him.

Photos provided

By Arden Moore

   Each New Year’s Day, many of us vow that this is the year we will start each morning with yoga stretches, steer clear of the fast-food drive-thru and finally organize our clutter.
    We are days into 2017. So how are you faring in your New Year’s resolutions?
    Already slipping? Trust me, I can totally relate. That is why I never make annual resolutions for myself. I make them for my pets.
    When you shift the focus of setting healthy goals on bettering your pets’ mental and physical well-being, you are more motivated to accomplish them.
    As America’s Pet Health and Safety Coach, I’m all about bringing out the best in pets, so I happily unleash my 2017 Top 10 pet resolutions for your consideration:
    1. Book an annual wellness examination for your pet. A lot of things can happen to your pet’s health in a year. These snout-to-tail checkups can help catch a condition early, when there is a better chance to treat it and at less expense. Be sure to bring your cat’s or dog’s favorite healthy treat for your veterinarian to dole out during the exam to make the clinic less frightening and more welcoming to your pet.  
    2. Schedule daily playtime with your tabby. Spending as little as five to 10 minutes a day in purposeful play with your indoor cat goes a long way toward curbing the destructive behavior often sparked by boredom in felines spending long days home alone. Casey, my orange tabby, delights in having me toss a paper wad down the hallway or wiggling a feather wand toy like an orchestra conductor for him to stalk, leap and pounce on. Playtime gets your cat mentally stimulated while slipping in some exercise to help keep him at a fit weight.
    3. Take the ho-hum out of daily dog walks. Dogs may be creatures of routine, but they love to explore new sights and especially new smells. So mix up the routes, duration and pace on outdoor outings with your canine pal as I do with Kona, my young terrier mix. Ditch that same-route-at-the-same-time rut and treat your dog to new dog-safe places to explore. Work in some doggy obedience cues during your walks (don’t forget to bring a few treats) to encourage your dog to focus more on you and not that squirrel up the sidewalk.
    4. Discuss vaccination options with your veterinarian. In order to avoid over-vaccinating your dog or cat, talk with your veterinarian about your pet’s lifestyle, risk and exposure to infectious diseases and together decide which vaccines are necessary for your pet’s protection. Ask about core (essential) and non-core (lifestyle-based) vaccines as well as the option of checking vaccine titers — an alternative to vaccine boosters that involves the veterinarian checking antibodies in your pet based on a blood draw.
    5. Commit to performing dental care on your pet daily. This is the gold standard for prevention of gingivitis and tartar buildup. Keep in mind that by as young as age 3, 70 percent of dogs and cats develop some degree of dental problems. Consult your veterinarian about options that include pet finger brushes, dental treats, dental chews, dental rinses and pet-safe toothpaste.
    6. Add some welcomed challenge at mealtimes. Once a week, go bowl free and put the measured portion of food in a pet food puzzle or treat ball for your dog or cat to paw and swat at to trigger the release of kibble. These items help slow the pace in dogs who gulp down their food as well as motivate the inner hunter in cats.
    7. Boost your pet’s brain by teaching him a new trick. Dogs and cats of all ages benefit by being mentally challenged in a positive way. My cat, Casey, now comes, sits and lightly touches his paw to my hand on cue. We are now working on his figure-8 moves in and out of my legs. My dog, Kona, now spins cutely by reading my hand signal and is ready to learn how to roll over.
    8. Cater to your senior pets. Treat your gray-muzzled pal to a sturdy ramp to allow him easy access to the sofa or your bed. Or provide him with a quality orthopedic pet bed that will cushion his arthritic joints and allow him to nap or sleep easily.
    9. Engage in cat chat and dog dialogue. Take time each day to talk, laugh and even read out loud to your pet. These small gestures boost your bond with your pet on an emotional level. Be sure to say his name in an upbeat way and even create mini-jingles you can sing to him to elevate the mood in both of you.
    10. Enroll in a pet first-aid/CPR class. Be your pet’s best health ally by taking a pet first- aid class and learn what to do — and what not to do — in a pet emergency when minutes count. Look for veterinarian-approved courses that will teach you the right way to perform cat/dog CPR and rescue breathing, as well as deal with bleeding, poisoning, choking and other first-aid issues. I am blessed because Kona and Casey team up with me when I teach my Pet First Aid 4U classes all over the country to give students more hands-on experience in finding pulses, bandaging legs and more.
    Got a favorite pet-related New Year’s resolution? Please share it for other pet lovers by emailing me directly at arden@fourleggedlife.com or posting online at the end of this column at www.thecoastalstar.com. And may you and your pets enjoy a grrr-eat 2017 from Casey, Kona and me!
    
Arden Moore, founder of www.FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, editor, author, professional speaker and master certified pet first-aid instructor. Each week, she hosts the popular Oh Behave! show on www.PetLifeRadio.com. Learn more by visiting www.fourleggedlife.com.