Plans for license tag cameras still on hold

By Dan Moffett

    Ocean Ridge town commissioners have decided to add two patrol officers and a dispatcher to their Police Department to deal with the growing stream of beach visitors from across the bridge.
    A 6 percent increase in the town’s taxable property values from 2016 makes the police expansion possible, though commissioners and Police Chief Hal Hutchins won’t get everything they’d like to have — including license plate recognition cameras, Tasers and body cameras.
    During an Aug. 22 budget workshop, the commission agreed to lower the town’s tax rate from $5.35 per $1,000 of taxable property value to $5.25, reducing total revenues by about $85,000. The reduction is made possible because of a surplus of about $186,000 left unspent from the 2016-2017 budget.
    However, homeowners will still pay slightly more, about 3 percent, during the next fiscal year than the last one because of property appreciation. The rollback rate that would keep revenues flat is $5.08 per $1,000.
    The decision to hold off on installing LPR cameras will save the town about $225,000 but comes with a cost in public opinion. For years, many residents have called for the commission to install the devices to tighten security throughout the town.
    Hutchins said his position on the camera system has evolved and he now believes the priority should be adding officers. He hinted that the town might be able to do better shopping for the cameras later but declined to disclose why publicly.
    “Are we over-hiring? That is my question,” Mayor Geoff Pugh asked.
    “I need to be very, very candid right now with all of you. We are not in fact over-hiring,” Hutchins responded. “The activity levels we’re seeing on the law enforcement side are increasing every day, based upon outside forces that we can’t control. There’s an anticipation that there’s going to be exponential growth within a block of this building [Town Hall] very soon. We need to address that.”
    The chief said new residential developments in Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Lantana ensure that the two officers and dispatcher will be kept busy. The three new positions will cost the town about $180,000. Hutchins said a proposal to hire part-time officers won’t work because he has been unable to find qualified applicants who are willing to work when the town needs them.
    The three new hires would increase the department’s number of full-time employees to 24, which includes the chief, dispatchers and uniformed officers. Their annual salaries amount to about $1.4 million and the town pays another $270,500 in pension contributions.
    The commission will hold public hearings on the proposed budget on Sept. 11 and Sept. 21, each beginning at 6 p.m.
    In other business, on a 4-1 vote, commissioners decided to approve changing the current one-year contract for Town Manager Jamie Titcomb to a month-to-month agreement.
    Several commissioners have complained about errors in Titcomb’s budget work over the last two years. The manager has countered that he inherited budget practices that were outdated and needed an overhaul. Titcomb said obsolete computer software and personnel turnover made the improvements he implemented more difficult.
    The new contract arrangement doesn’t affect Titcomb’s $107,000 yearly salary or benefits, but does reduce the severance the town would owe him, should the commission decide to end the relationship.
    Commissioner Gail Aaskov voted against the new contract, saying it was unnecessary.

By Dan Moffett

     County parks and recreation officials have been trying for years to put together enough money to give a much-needed overhaul to Ocean Inlet Park Marina at the Boynton Inlet.
     With a boost from the penny sales tax increase voters approved in November and some government grant money, a $6 million renovation plan is finally moving forward.
     The bad news is that it’s moving very slowly.
Eric Call, the Palm Beach County director of parks and recreation, says his department has a backlog of projects and the Ocean Inlet Park renovation may not begin until 2023.
     But Call says he’s hopeful the county can reorganize other projects according to priority, and perhaps start work on the inlet marina upgrade within the next three years.
     In fact, on Aug. 14 it cleared one of its first administrative hurdles when the Ocean Ridge Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved plans drawn up by the county’s consultant, Alan Gerwig & Associates of Wellington.
     The Ocean Ridge Town Commission is expected to give its approval at the Sept. 11 town meeting.
Project designers have emphasized two important points: The park hasn’t had significant work done since it opened 30 years ago, so a major facelift is needed; and the overhaul won’t increase the park’s capacity or increase traffic.
     “The proposed improvements at the park will not add any additional facilities or expand existing facilities,” according to the county consultant’s plan. “Therefore, the number of park users is not expected to change from the current conditions.”
     Among the project’s main features:
     • Replacing the existing marina structures with new bulkhead walls and docks. The total number of boat slips will remain at 28. A floating wave attenuator will protect the marina from waves and boat wakes.
     • Demolishing the existing buildings and replacing them with a single building that will include a second-story residence for a dockmaster/caretaker. “Having a PBC Parks employee based in the park will help with traffic control and security issues,” the consultant says.
     • County sheriff’s personnel will continue to be stationed in the new building.
     • Plans also call for improved landscaping that includes planting of shade trees for picnic areas and footpaths.

By Jane Smith
    
    The developer of Midtown Delray Beach was able to put its appeals on hold while it creates a new site plan for the proposed project.
    The Delray Beach City Commission granted the stay in early August.
    Under city rules, the developer had to ask for the stay within 10 days of the appeal hearing.
    Because of the way the City Commission arranged its meetings, the stay was heard on Aug. 2. The appeals of the Historic Preservation Board’s decisions were to be heard on Aug. 15.
    In late August, Steven Michael, principal of Hudson Holdings, said he didn’t know when his team would submit a revised site plan. Hudson Holdings is a partner in the Midtown project.
    He also declined to say why the project’s attorneys asked for a stay on the historic home moves and demolitions, but didn’t appeal the board’s site plan denial or withdraw from the appeals process.
    The City Commission gave the project’s owners a 60-day extension. The next available meeting date is Oct. 17.
    “They just can’t submit the same site plan, it has to be substantially different,” Delray Beach Planning Director Tim Stillings said. “Ultimately, the decision is mine” to determine whether substantial changes were made to the old site plan.
    It takes about three weeks for all departments to review a site plan, he said. Midtown already missed the cutoff date to make it onto the Historic Preservation Board’s September agenda, Stillings said.
    The 4.4-acre project will sit prominently at the southwest corner of Swinton and Atlantic avenues, putting it at the entrance of The Set, the new name for the Northwest and Southwest neighborhoods.
    Midtown Delray Beach also will have to meet the terms of a new tree preservation ordinance, passed in early August.
    The ordinance calls for a sliding scale of tree preservation: preserve in place, preserve on-site, remove and replace with smaller versions of the same tree or remove and pay a fee for each tree.
    In order to build an underground garage for the project, Hudson Holdings proposed moving six historic homes and removing all of the 200 trees in the first block of South Swinton Avenue.

For those lucky enough to travel to the totality and to get clear skies, the eclipse was a stunning event. While in Salem, Ore., Coastal Star Publisher Jerry Lower photographed an every 10-minute exposure to create this time-lapse image.

Thomas and Troy Rockett, students at Morikami Elementary, look at the eclipse through safety glasses at Florida Atlantic University. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Sunlight filtered through leaves of a tree showing on the ground in the parking lot of the Delray Beach Public Library gave Michelle Quigley an opportunity to capture  mini-eclipses.

Boca Raton resident Shaina Yeslow brought a colander to watch the eclipse, using it to capture mini-eclipses. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Tytan Halfhill of Briny Breezes took The Coastal Star’s advice and wore his safety glasses to view the eclipse. Photo provided by Mikee Rulli

Gulf Stream resident Julie Murphy traveled to Clemson, S.C., to photograph the totality.

Ocean Ridge residents Neil and Zoanne Hennigan caught the eclipse in Salem, Ore., while visiting their daughter. Their dog, Potter, practiced safe eclipse viewing.

By Jane Smith
    
    Want to see the roof of the Old School Square garage turn into a disco at night?
    That activity was proposed after a weeklong charrette on transit-oriented development, made possible by a $141,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The money was matched by the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency.
    “Traffic, parking and the [Tri-Rail] Coastal Link are critical to what we deal with in a car-centric city,” said Mayor Cary Glickstein at the start of the Aug. 18 workshop. “At some point in the future, state and federal grants will be ready. Cities who have plans in place will be at the head of the line.”
    Dana Little, urban design director at the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, led the charrette. He assembled a design team to transform residents’ ideas into drawings, brought in two financial consultants to analyze the viability of the designs and headed the workshop.
    In November, they will have a draft of the plan with three designs and estimated costs for each version.
    The area chosen for a Coastal Link-tied development contains six city-owned parcels along Northeast Third Avenue and Northeast First Street, along the FEC tracks. The 1.5 acres have 194 surface parking spaces in what is known as the Railroad Lot. The Silverball Pinball Museum will stay in all three designs, Little said.
    The charrette started with residents giving suggestions for covered entrances at Atlantic Avenue to a promenade along both sides of the train tracks and the station platform. They also suggested more shade trees, better lighting and safety measures, more public spaces, a connection to the historic train building on the west side of the FEC tracks and better bike and pedestrian paths.
    Of the three designs considered, the one that seemed the most viable to the design team offered 254 parking spaces in a two-level garage where 34 spaces would be reserved for golf carts.
    The design shows 29,350 square feet of flex spaces — shops or offices — on the ground floor; 26,000 square feet of space for offices, shops, apartments or live/work units; and a third floor that would house 84 apartments of 1,000 square feet and offer rooftop amenities, including a pool.
    The development does not need a hotel, said financial consultant Tom Moriarity. He said 480 new hotel rooms are planned for the downtown, increasing the supply by 36 percent.
    The downtown has 969,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space, Moriarity said. He spent most of the hot August week walking Atlantic Avenue counting stores and restaurants. Another 355,045 square feet is proposed, a 37 percent increase, he said.
    The Coastal Link site can support retail boutiques and shops that sell commuter-oriented goods, Moriarity said.
    Housing, up to 100 units, is viable at the Coastal Link site, consultant Tom Lavash said. The downtown is projected to add 1,700 new households in the next five to seven years. Nine planned projects will offer 877 units, he said.
    Delray Beach has a high office vacancy rate, mostly from the vacant Office Depot headquarters on Congress Avenue. The average asking rent is $21 a square foot, compared with $28 countywide, Little said.
    The downtown can support boutique office spaces for medical and legal uses, Little said.
    He also said a pedestrian train barrier can be dressed up with covered walkways, benches and plants to create a safe, attractive option.
    For nearly a year, city employees have been working with FEC and All-Aboard/Brightline leaders after a woman was killed last August when she crossed over the tracks, just north of Atlantic Avenue, near Northeast Third Avenue. She was hit by a freight train.
    The city wants to put up an aluminum rail fence with bougainvillea plants to prevent people from crossing the tracks before Brightline begins its high-speed passenger service between West Palm Beach and Miami. The train’s start has been pushed back until the fall, but no start date has been released, according to a Brightline spokeswoman.
    Little, a planner who likes to explore creative uses for parking, said a mere 450 feet away from the Coastal Link platform sits a mostly empty Old School Square garage. The walk took him 102 seconds.
    On a weekday, he said the second level was about 80 percent full, the third level about 10 percent full, the fourth level about 8 percent full and the roof was empty.
    He proposed adding solar panels to shade the vehicles parked on the roof during the day. Then late at night, the roof could transform into a disco.
    Delray Beach was one of two Palm Beach County cities to receive the transit-oriented grant. The other was Palm Beach Gardens, which received a $120,000 grant.
    The grants allowed both cities to work with the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, operator of the Tri-Rail commuter train line, and the Regional Planning Council staff to create a master plan for a Tri-Rail Coastal Link station area.
    The commuter line doesn’t have a start date, but it is at least five years away.

By Jane Smith
    
    After more than 10 years of discussion, city leaders are inching their way toward paid street parking in downtown Delray Beach.
    In mid-August, the five city commissioners each presented their wishes for downtown parking on Atlantic Avenue between Swinton Avenue and the Intracoastal Waterway. After more than an hour of discussion, here’s what they decided:
    • Parking will be free but limited to two hours on Atlantic Avenue, between Swinton Avenue and the Intracoastal, between 2 a.m. and 6 p.m. The time limit will be enforced.
    • Between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m., meters will go into effect at the rate of $2 per hour on that stretch of Atlantic and one block north and south of Atlantic.
    • Parking in the two city garages will be free during the days. Users will pay $5 to park Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. Employees can park for free on the top floor of each garage, using a hanging card from the rearview mirror.
    • The city’s five surface lots, with approximately 314 spaces, will be free between 2 a.m. and 6 p.m. and have a two-hour parking limit. Meters will be enforced between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. at the rate of $2 per hour.
    • The Gladiola Lot at 51 SE Fifth Ave., with eight-hour time limit, will not have meters. Its 74 spaces will be free for employees and downtown patrons to use. The Railroad Lot at 25 NE Third Ave., which also has eight-hour spaces, will not have meters installed in those spaces. They will be free.
    • City staff did not know how many of the Railroad Lot’s 190 spaces had the eight-hour time limit.
    • Even with signs, drivers will be confused and enforcement complicated, said interim City Manager Neal de Jesus.
    • Residents can purchase an annual parking permit for $100.
    • The valet fee will be increased from $7 to $10.
    Using that input, city staff will bring back a parking management proposal to the City Commission in September.
    Commissioner Shelly Petrolia worried that the city was pushing drivers into the neighborhoods to find free parking spaces. “Downtown businesses are willing to pay an extra $100 annually, if we don’t put in the meters downtown,” she said, suggesting no changes be made until the city replaces the spaces lost to construction at the iPic project and adds more parking with a garage nearby.
    “Meters will generate turnover and generate revenue to keep the area clean and safe,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said.
    The mayor also wants city staff to explore building a city garage on the Gladiola Lot using the in-lieu parking fees that downtown restaurant owners have paid. When a restaurant opens where the previous building use was retail, the restaurant owner identifies available parking spaces nearby to follow city rules. When adequate parking is not available, the owner pays a fee per space, called in-lieu parking fees. About $2 million exists in the accounts, Glickstein said.
 He also is thinking of the long-term needs of the city. “I suspect the city will lose about $1.5 million when voters agree to the extra homestead exemption in 2018,” Glickstein said.  
    Vice Mayor Jim Chard began the Aug. 15 discussion by touting the results of three days of enforcement by Lanier Parking staff. “Two hundred citations were issued, and 10 percent were paid in one day,” he said. At that rate, he estimated the annual amount the city would generate from fines would be $416,000.
    Before Lanier Parking took over parking enforcement in June, enforcement was done inconsistently by volunteers, de Jesus said. The volunteers worked during the daylight hours.
    In June, the city and its Downtown Development Authority seemed to be in agreement on the need for parking meters downtown.
    But in early August, after a change in leadership on the DDA board, the new mantra for parking became: Start slow and grow.  Just a few hours before the City Commission meeting on Aug. 2, the DDA’s executive director took the opportunity to drop off the organization’s unrequested parking management plan. The DDA recommended putting meters on only 245 spaces, instead of the 2,577 the city staff had proposed.
    The commission directed its staff to come back with an analysis of the DDA parking plan.
    DDA Executive Director Laura Simon said the central core merchants were concerned about employee parking. She requested the eight-hour parking spaces remain free in the Railroad and Gladiola lots.
    Employees can park for free in the garages with a card that hangs from the rearview mirror, the mayor said about his new proposed option for staff parking.
    He questioned the DDA’s priorities that put parking for workers before patrons. “You’re far more worried about employee parking than spaces for customers,” he said.

    Planning an event at a county beach?
    Leave the balloons behind; as of Sept. 1, they’re banned at 11 Palm Beach County-operated beachfront parks.
    “I think anytime we can limit the amount of plastics, including balloons, is a good thing,” said Leanne Welch, manager of the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton, which takes in and rehabilitates injured and sick sea turtles. “I applaud the county for taking this step.”
    The county implemented the ban in an effort to help sea turtles, which mistake the deflated popular party favors for jellyfish, their favorite meal.
    The balloons get stuck in the sea creatures — or streamers or string can wrap around body parts — causing digestive problems, starvation, strangulation and death.
    “In five days in June, our sea turtle conservation team collected 53 balloons that washed ashore on Boca Raton’s 5 miles of beaches,” Welch said. “It’s a real problem.”
    The county parks include Ocean Inlet Park in Ocean Ridge, South Inlet Park in Boca Raton and Gulfstream Park in Gulf Stream. The rule does not apply to municipal beachfront parks.
    Violators are subject to a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail.
— Henry Fitzgerald

By Jane Smith

    New gazebos on the north and south ends of Delray Beach’s municipal beach will soon be constructed with a $40,000 donation from the Lattner Family Foundation.
    The promenade contractor will build them for the city, Project Manager Missie Barletto said. The gazebos will use the same footprint as the current structures, she said.
    The beach promenade work is progressing, Barletto said, moving north of Thomas Street to Beach Road. The anticipated completion date for the $3.1 million project is mid-October. New synthetic turf will be installed by the main pavilion.
    For safety reasons, the city asks residents and visitors to enter the beach at the designated entrances: across from the Sandoway parking lot on the south end, at the main pavilion at Atlantic Avenue and at the Thomas Street entrance on the north end.
    Solar-powered smart meters have been installed on the southern portion of the beach, along with a tricolored sidewalk with new benches, showers, water fountains, bike and surfboard racks, and trash containers.
    The city added a third Downtown Trolley route for those choosing to park in the city garages. For questions about parking during the construction, call Jorge Alarcon at 243-7000, ext. 4112.
    The promenade contractor has removed all of the benches with plaques and the city is storing them for the original buyers. They will each receive a free inscribed brick near the flagpole at Atlantic Avenue.
    For questions about the benches and plaques, call Isaac Kovner at 243-7000, ext. 4119.

Gerson Fabe shows some of his works at The Carlisle Palm Beach. He shares a new poem daily with his fellow residents. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Poet sets reality and romance to rhyme
(and is rewarded with an eager audience)

By Willie Howard

    Whether he’s poking fun at our culture’s loss of civility or delving into his imagination to create wistful romantic images, Gerson Fabe enjoys writing poems and sharing them with fellow residents of The Carlisle Palm Beach, a senior living community in Lantana.
    When Carlisle residents arrive in the dining room for breakfast, many of them find something special on the pressed white tablecloths — sheets of paper bearing the headline “Poem of the Day.”
    Fabe, who turns 96 this month, studied writing in New York, where he was a life insurance agent. He started writing poems and short stories after he retired and moved to Boynton Beach more than 30 years ago.
    Fabe translates thoughts into rhyming stanzas of poetry on a computer in his fourth-floor apartment at The Carlisle. Words from television spark some of his ideas. Sometimes, he begins a poem, shelves it — and finishes it later.
    In addition to poetry, Fabe has published a collection of short stories titled Short Stories for Trips of All Sizes. Each story has a suggested reading time, listed in the index.
    Born on Sept. 28, 1921, Fabe grew up in Cincinnati, where he worked for his high school newspaper.
    After studying mechanical engineering for two years at the University of Cincinnati, Fabe learned that what would become the Air Force needed men with mechanical backgrounds during World War II.
    Fabe had become a pilot before entering the Air Force, so after 13 weeks of training at Yale University, he became an Air Force test pilot.
    He was the first to fly planes after they’d been repaired. Partly because of his careful preflight inspections, Fabe never had to ditch a plane during his six years in the Air Force.
    Flying emerges as a theme in some of his poems, such as Come Fly With Me, a romantic piece written in 1996, the year Fabe lost his wife, Joan.
    Other Fabe poems, such as The Lament of Old Age and Through the Fog, address the effects of aging.
    “Any poem that deals in some way with age everybody loves because they see themselves as the poem unfurls,” Fabe said.
    Fabe started sharing his poems with other residents after moving to The Carlisle three years ago. After finding a few copies of his poems in the dining room at breakfast, residents began to ask for them.
    He usually prints 25 copies of his daily poem and distributes them at breakfast.
    “Everybody seems to love them,” Fabe said, noting that some residents walk up to him with their hands out, expecting a copy.

Poems by Gerson Fabe

The Lament of Old Age

My stamina and I
Are no longer speaking.
My left knee joint
Is loudly creaking.
But I’m glad to be here.

My blood pressure
Whirls out of sight.
My eyes can’t tell
If it’s day or night.
But I’m glad to be here.

My right arm ignores
My other hand
My heart is pumping
To beat the band.
But I’m glad to be here.

My kidney ignores
The plight of my liver
And I’ve been totally rejected
As a whole blood giver
But I’m damn glad to be here.


Through the Fog

Memories flit in and out of a fog
That grows denser as we age
The moment in which they reveal
     themselves
Is as swift as just turning a page.

A segment of the past appears,
     then
Drifts away in the blink of an eye.
Although you see them for but an
     instant
You live it again as if it had just
     gone bye.

Pleasant memories are always
      welcome
but sometimes leave the mind
     agog.
Then of course there are the other
     kind
These we’ll wish back into the fog.

By Mary Thurwachter

    Relief is coming for those frustrated with getting the parking kiosks to work efficiently at the Lantana Municipal Beach. The Town Council at its Aug. 14 meeting agreed to spend $18,871 for three new kiosks.
    “The ones we have aren’t working to our liking,” Mayor Dave Stewart said. “We’ve been testing new ones and there have not been any issues.”
    Town Manager Deborah Manzo said the two parking kiosks at the beach were becoming unmanageable because of  communication issues between them.
    “As a result, two major problems developed,” Manzo said. “Long communication time between kiosks caused timeouts to cancel the transaction, which ultimately resulted in the Police Department having to download kiosk summaries to determine who had or had not paid, and thereby reducing Police Department efficiency.”
    Having kiosks that can communicate with each other provides for payment convenience — you can use any of the three kiosks no matter where your car is parked. It’s also useful for police when determining which cars need to be ticketed.
    Town officials like two pilot kiosks from IPS Group Inc. that are undergoing testing.
    The two existing kiosks, purchased four years ago, will be moved to Sportsman’s Park and Lyman Kayak Park. Since the two will be standalone kiosks, communication and enforcement problems are unlikely to develop, Manzo said.
    The three new beach kiosks come with 24-hour technical support, two coin boxes per machine, a warranty and a cellphone app.
    In other news, the council agreed to waive the parking requirement for wheel stops for the commercial section of Water Tower Commons, the 72-acre retail and residential project at the old A.G. Holley State Hospital site.
    Developers will be permitted to eliminate 819 of the 1,177 wheel stops in the original design. Planners said the stops were tripping hazards for people who walk across the parking lot.
    The town also learned that the first known store for the project, a Walmart Neighborhood Market, is applying for a building permit and expects to begin construction in January.

By Mary Thurwachter

    The Lantana Town Council turned down Chamber of Commerce President Dave Arm’s request to split the cost of a new awning for the Chamber’s home, a town-owned building at 212 Iris Ave.
    Council members, at the Aug. 28 meeting, said the town should not pay anything for the awning, a $1,500 project, since maintenance of the building, according to the 2013 contract, is the responsibility of the Chamber of Commerce.
    The Chamber leases the building for $1 a year. It’s a good deal, everyone agrees, but when it comes time for sprucing up, the Chamber has looked to the town for financial support in the recent past. When the building needed to be restuccoed and painted, a $10,000 project, the town agreed to pay half.
    That was different, Mayor Dave Stewart said, because the building was deteriorating and the town was helping to preserve one of its assets. “I don’t know what the public purpose of buying an awning would be,” he said.
    Arm argued that the expense of the awning should be shared by the town.
    “This is a signature building owned by the town and an obvious landmark,” Arm said.
    Council member Phil Aridas said he didn’t think the town should bear any responsibility for purchasing the striped awning.
    “We give it [the building] to you for a dollar a year,” Aridas said. “You should get what you want and pay for it.”
    Stewart said he had talked to the Wellington mayor about ethics complaints she faced, which included expenses such as paying a tip of 18-20 percent instead of 15 percent, and purchasing a dessert for more than $5.
    “The inspector general is very concerned about spending money that is inappropriate, and I don’t want to be sitting before an ethics commission for spending $750 for an awning,”  he said.

By Jane Smith

    City commissioners didn’t like the initial plans presented for Town Square, a 16-acre development that is supposed to create an active downtown for Boynton Beach. They saw designs presented Aug. 21 at a special commission meeting at the city library.
    They told the development team, which the city hired as partner in the project, they want a bustling Ocean Avenue with wide sidewalks for outdoor cafes, tree-lined streets and little shops.
    “I don’t see any of that,” Commissioner Joe Casello said. “I see apartments and parking garages.”
    One proposed apartment building sits on Ocean Avenue, near the intersection with Southeast First Street. The other apartment buildings are on Town Square’s southern border of Southeast Second Avenue.
    The only two existing buildings proposed to stay in their locations are the historic high school and the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, Assistant City Manager Colin Groff said. The project’s boundaries roughly are Boynton Beach Boulevard on the north, Seacrest Boulevard on the west, Southeast Second Avenue on south and Southeast First Street on the east.
    For the 1927 high school, Straticon Construction is seeking permits to begin remediation work, Groff said. Once that is finished, its engineers and architect can walk through the building and see what can be reused. He mentioned the trusses and the wood flooring in the second-floor gym.
    “If we do this right, the gym can be one of the best places in Palm Beach County,” Groff said. It will be able to seat 500 for concerts and 250 at tables for weddings and other big events.
    The first floor will contain the city classes and activities currently taking place in the Arts Center and Civic Center, Groff said. The first floor also will have a warming kitchen that can serve the meetings and events on the second floor, he said.
    Groff received approval to move forward with the design of a district energy system that would serve all buildings in Town Square. The chiller system is energy-efficient and will help reduce the carbon footprint of Boynton Beach, he said. The design cost of the two-floor building is $307,000. The energy plant will cost $10 million to build.
    The energy plant will sit on the north side of the high school and will be designed in similar style, Groff said. “The equipment will be on the first floor and the cooling towers on the second floor,” he said.
    He also received commission approval to spend $69,000 to design a new water and sewer system for Town Square, estimated to cost taxpayers about $94.5 million.  
    Only Commissioner Mack McCray was opposed to spending the money. “I’m not in favor of what I see,” he said.
    In plans presented in April, the library was going to be a separate building within Town Square, but commissioners learned that the two-story portion of the building has leaks and air-conditioning problems. They also want to remove Town Square traffic from Southeast Second Avenue, a residential street.
    That’s why they’d like to combine the library and city hall in one, four-story building at the southeast corner of Seacrest Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, Groff said.
    “A lot of city halls have civic space on the first floor,” said Wayne Dunkelberger, the architect designing the public buildings in Town Square. “We also can have the café from the library there.”
    The police headquarters will be built on a city-owned parcel at the southeast intersection of High Ridge Road and Gateway Boulevard, just west of the interstate.
    Casello and Commissioner Christina Romelus and Vice Mayor Justin Katz said the land on that location is valuable and could be sold to a hotel developer. They want to see the police headquarters on the east side of the interstate.
    But McCray said they had voted to put the police headquarters there and that’s what he wants to do.
    Mayor Steven Grant gave Groff a compromise to work with: Try to find an eastern site that is suitable. If one can’t be found, then build the headquarters on High Ridge Road.
    A new Fire Station 1 is planned just outside Town Square, at the northeast corner of Northeast First Street and Northeast First Avenue.
    Romelus also said she wants to see townhouses and condos in Town Square that people could buy, not just rental apartments.
    Groff said the development team  will take the commissioners’ input and develop a draft site plan with individual building plans by Sept. 28, a draft financial plan on Oct. 17 that commissioners will have to approve and then a vote on Nov. 7 about proceeding to Phase II, the construction phase.

Construction is nearing completion to transform the Little House into Fork Play. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    Restaurant owner Brian Nickerson is the kind of restaurateur the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency wants to attract.
    Nickerson, who started with a food truck selling his version of Mexican fare, operated out of a former Pantry Pride location that had “parking challenges,” no air conditioning and no restrooms for its patrons.
    By the second week of September, his Boss Tacos will move about 2 miles north to 1550 N. Federal Highway. The Boynton Beach plaza has ample parking, and the space will have restrooms and air conditioning.
    “The place we’re in now is hot and sweaty in the summer,” Nickerson said. “We lose half of our business in the summer.”
    In August, his restaurant was approved for a matching rent grant up to $15,000 because the food is locally sourced and made on site.
    Boss Tacos is one of the restaurants and other food-related places flocking to eastern Boynton Beach, partially because of the agency’s economic grants.
    This budget year, the agency awarded about 33 percent of the grants to eateries, said Theresa Utterback, development services specialist for the CRA. 
    One recent recipient was Troy’s Bar-Be-Que restaurant, part of the city for more than 20 years.
    “I looked online and found them,” Anthony Barber said about the grants. “We wanted to move.”
    In late spring, Troy’s moved about 2 miles south of its takeout stand on North Federal Highway to a sit-down restaurant on South Federal, just south of Woolbright Road.
    “The grants are reimbursement for the money you spend,” said Barber, an owner/manager at Troy’s. “When we submit the paperwork and receive the money, we will reinvest it in the business.”
    His father, Troy Davis, opened the rib takeout stand in 1996.
    In June, the agency board approved Troy’s to receive an interior build-out grant of $8,000, a sign grant of $594 and rent reimbursement of $15,000.
    Besides requiring multiyear leases and the grant recipients to provide matching money, the agency has several safeguards before the taxpayer dollars are given, Utterback said. 
    The agency staff runs credit reports on each corporate officer/manager. The average credit score cannot be below 601 and no bankruptcies can appear on the credit reports or the grant applicant is disqualified, she said.
    All appropriate permits must be applied for and no money is released until the city issues a certificate of occupancy or certificate of completion, she said. In addition, agency rules require state corporate documents to be current. Business tax receipts for Boynton Beach and Palm Beach County must be provided. 
    For the build-out grants, final release of liens from all contractors must be provided. Then, agency staff does a lien search to ensure no liens remain on the leased property. The landlord must sign the grant applications. 
    Interior build-out and commercial façade grant dollars apply only to improvements that stay with the building, not for the tenant’s equipment. That way, the space remains improved for the next tenant, Utterback said.
    Completed applications are forwarded to the agency board for approval.
    Fork Play, which will go into the former cottage known as the Little House, had the grants made part of its purchase agreement. After the restaurant opens in late September, property owner Richard Lucibella and his partner, Barbara Ceuleers, can apply for a $25,000 façade grant, 3.3 percent of the construction cost not to exceed $66,000 and interior build-out costs not to exceed $45,000.
    Fork Play will feature small bites, called tapas, and wines and craft brews. The eatery at 480 E. Ocean Ave. will be run by Lisa Mercado, who also operates the Living Room restaurant in Boynton Beach. She plans to hold a soft opening the week before the Sept. 30 grand opening.
    The historic Magnuson House owner, Bruce Kaplan, has the same deal for the grants. In addition, the house at 211 E. Ocean Ave. had never been used as a restaurant. The agency will give Kaplan an extra $200,000 to do the conversion.
    Kaplan, who lives in the Philadelphia area, has made several visits to interview contractors and restaurant operators, said his architect, Jim Williams.
    “Once [Kaplan] picks a contractor, then we can get the building permits,” Williams said.
    Construction will take at least eight months, pushing the restaurant’s opening into summer of next year, he said.
    Del Sol Bakery opened in May in Ocean Palm Plaza at 1600 N. Federal Highway. Its grant of $1,100 for interior build-out was approved in July 2016. The grant amount was increased to $3,010 in May after the bakery tenants completed some of the improvements the landlord had agreed to do. The bakery also received a rent reimbursement grant of $8,550 and a signage grant of $2,250.
    “The grants are very helpful, especially for a new business,” said bakery owner Michelle Gingold. “They’re definitely worth filling out the paperwork. We have received some of the money already.”
    Gingold said she looked in Delray Beach first, but there is less competition in Boynton Beach. “We like being in an upcoming area,” she said.
    Earlier this year, Jim Guilbeault, who received three CRA grants, changed the name of his casual  restaurant from Culinary To Go to Gilby’s Restaurant. The name better reflects what’s happening inside the former Denny’s diner on South Federal Highway.
    He chose Gilby because he answered to that nickname in high school. Friends could not figure out how to say his last name (pronounced GILL-bow), so they shortened it to Gilby. His kids when they were in high school also were called by that name.
    Guilbeault’s 15-year-old catering business will remain under the Culinary Solutions name. It provides food and beverages to Kravis Center events, along with catering birthday parties, bar mitzvahs and other celebrations.
    Guilbeault’s son is working with the CRA’s two new social media business consultants — Matthew Meinzer and Jamil Donith. They will help Gilby’s improve its social media presence.

By Jane Smith, Dan Moffett and Rich Pollack
    
    Coastal towns in south Palm Beach County are flush with cash thanks to their shares of the voter-approved penny sales tax increase that started in January.
    The money began flowing into municipal coffers in March and will continue for 10 years. Population determines how the cash is doled out, giving the three largest South County cities the most money in the area. The county receives about 30 percent of the money from the extra 1-cent sales tax and the Palm Beach County School District gets the largest share at 50 percent.
    The cities can spend the money only on infrastructure needs such as repairing or building roads, sewers, water lines and fire stations or making park improvements.

Delray Beach
    Delray Beach issued a $31.5 million bond to immediately proceed with its capital improvement needs at its own pace, instead of waiting for the annual allotment. The bond amount is below the city’s estimated allocation of $38 million. The city plans to use the $3.8 million annual incremental sales tax payments for repayment of the bond — both principal and interest.

    “We wanted an adequate cushion between the anticipated penny tax revenues and our repayment obligations for debt service and total principal repayment,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said in an email.
    Instead of waiting for incremental payments over 10 years where project costs would escalate and limit what the city could do, the city sought bond proposals from lending institutions, he said. The city received eight responses.
    City Attorney Max Lohman, who serves in the same capacity for Palm Beach Gardens, suggested the bond and the outside attorney to act as the bond counsel, Morris “Skip” Miller of the Greenspoon Marder law firm.
    Miller told Delray Beach commissioners in late June that the interest rate was 1.96 percent from Bank of America. Commissioners liked that low rate, especially when they heard the rate secured by Palm Beach Gardens was slightly more at 2.1 percent.
    “That’s the benefit of having a city attorney who works with other cities,” interim City Manager Neal de Jesus said at the late June meeting.
    The mayor called the bond “innovative financing; most notable being the bond costs taxpayers nothing.”
 The city will complete projects now rather than later when both construction costs and interest rates may be much higher, the mayor said.  
    Delray Beach has a long list of improvements and replacements that were delayed during the recession.
    It includes a new fire station on Linton Boulevard, sidewalk improvements outside of the downtown, park improvements, public sea walls along the Intracoastal Waterway and the second phase of the beach master plan.
    The city will allow Palm Beach County’s League of Cities’ Infrastructure Surtax Citizen Oversight Committee to determine how the sales tax dollars are spent.
    Cities participating in the committee submit project names, justification for using sales tax money and the amount to be spent to the league’s executive director by June 30, prior to the start of each financial year.  
    By Feb. 28 following the end of each budget year, each participating city will submit independent auditor management letter comments related to the spending of the sales tax dollars.

Boca Raton
    Boca Raton, estimated to receive $5.3 million annually, has created an Infrastructure Surtax Fund to accept and spend the money, according to the city’s website. Its Financial Advisory Board will oversee how the money is spent.
    Throughout the recession, Boca Raton maintained its roads, water lines, parks and beaches. It does not have a backlog, Mayor Susan Haynie has said.  
    Among the potential projects listed on the city website are road resurfacing, pedestrian pathways, sidewalk renovation and repair, park improvements, and bridge and sea wall repairs.
    Palm Beach County plans to spend $6.8 million of its sales tax share in Boca Raton, according to a list provided by County Commissioner Steven Abrams. The amount includes $1.85 million to resurface Crawford Boulevard between Palmetto Park and Glades roads.

Boynton Beach
    Boynton Beach plans to spend its share of the sales tax money this year, about $4.4 million, on city sidewalks, Public Works Director Jeff Livergood said at the city’s budget hearings in July.
    For next year, Boynton Beach will spend the penny tax dollars in its parks, Livergood said. The list includes upgrades at the Intracoastal Park and Clubhouse, improvements at Oceanfront Park, repairing the Coast Guard building and its restrooms at Harvey Oyer Jr. Park, and making the pathway handicap-accessible at Mangrove Walk at the city’s marina.
    The following year, the proceeds will go to the city’s Town Square improvements, Livergood said.
    “We have sufficient dollars for the next nine years to maintain the park structures,” he said. “But after the penny sales tax is gone, the question will be: How will we maintain them? We will have that discussion next year.”     
    Boynton Beach has established its own oversight board, Livergood said.

Elsewhere
    In the smaller coastal towns, leaders have a mix of ideas for the penny sales tax proceeds.
    • Lantana, projected to receive about $739,352 annually, will dedicate the money to sidewalk improvements, repaving roads and parking lots, and beach improvements during the next year.
    • Highland Beach, which initially didn’t expect to receive any money because its leaders didn’t think the voter referendum would pass, now hopes to use the approximately $200,000 a year to pay for improvements to its walking path, according to a proposal of the mayor as head of the town’s Ad Hoc Citizen Streetscape Committee.
    • Ocean Ridge, which will receive about $107,000 annually, has talked about installing traffic calming devices on side streets.
    • South Palm Beach wants to use its annual allocation of $82,300 to help defray the cost of concrete groins on the beach. The money can’t be used to replace beach sand between the groins.
    • Gulf Stream, one of 15 Palm Beach County cities that will use the League of Cities to monitor the sales tax program, will use its $60,000 annually to offset the cost of burying utility lines, Town Manager Greg Dunham said. “We have a line item for the penny sales tax in next year’s budget to do that,” he said.
    Or the town could let it accrue, which it is allowed to do, Dunham said.
    • Manalapan may use its annual allocation of $25,000 to help rebuild swales on Point Manalapan.
    • Briny Breezes will let its $25,000 annual amount accumulate for a few years. Its leaders eventually want to do something meaningful, such as build wider sidewalks for golf carts to use.                                  

    Mary Thurwachter contributed to this report.

Linda and Greg Harrison of South Palm Beach hold a few of the permanent residents of The Bird & Exotic Hospital in Greenacres. Pictured are Peeps, a yellow budgie; Jake, a Mexican redhead parrot, and Baby, a Congo African grey parrot. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    Dr. Greg Harrison’s cellphone doesn’t just ring. It also quacks.
    And that’s fitting for Harrison, who for more than 40 years was known as South Florida’s bird doctor, a veterinarian whose avian specialty made him the person to see if your parrot, cockatiel or macaw was under the weather.
    Through the years, Harrison’s wife of more than 54 years, Linda, has been by his side, working in their clinic and writing brochures and other materials. The two also worked together on several books.
    “We were partners the entire time,” Linda Harrison says.
    Now retired and living in South Palm Beach, the Harrisons no longer spend time looking after sick pet birds or helping healthy ones stay well.
    They do, however, help  those who are still practicing avian medicine, with Greg serving as a mentor, a monitor for two Facebook groups and being available online to answer questions.
    The two also travel often and continue to own Harrison’s Bird Foods, a company that makes organic, non-GMO food and is now run by their daughter.
    A true scientist, Harrison was one of the first to focus on avian wellness, looking at ways to prevent health problems through proper nutrition.
    With 160 acres of farmland in Nebraska, Greg Harrison also is experimenting with new techniques to make farming more organic and sustainable.
    Both from small towns in Iowa, Linda, 76, and Greg, 75, met while in the Iowa State University Singers choral group. While Greg was in veterinary school, Linda went into education, teaching home economics.
    She later founded her own company, Zoological Education Network, producing educational materials for veterinarians as well as hosting seminars.
    Greg Harrison first developed an interest in birds while growing up in rural Iowa.
    “It was common for people to have an outdoor garden, and we became familiar with the birds,” he said, adding that his father built birdhouses. “We’d spend hours out there watching the birds.”
    As a young man, Harrison would take care of baby and injured birds.
    “Holding a bird in my hand got to be a passion,” he said.
    A parakeet that Harrison got as a pet while in high school sealed the deal and set him on his future path.
    After he graduated with a degree in veterinary medicine, Harrison came to South Florida and soon set up a general veterinary practice near Lake Worth, with a farm nearby that included cows, pigs, horses and, of course, birds.
    Birds evolved into a specialty as they grew in popularity as pets and as Harrison helped introduce an endoscopic process for determining gender.
    Early on, the Harrisons started raising birds and at one point had 200 parrots on the property that were cared for partly by Linda.
    Harrison became internationally known for his innovation and expertise in caring for pet birds and in 1980 was called upon to serve as the first president of the Association of Avian Veterinarians. Linda also played an active role in the international organization.
    — Rich Pollack

    Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
    A. Both Linda and I grew up in small farming communities in Iowa (fewer than 3,500 people each) and attended an agricultural college, Iowa State University. Because of this, I think I have a better understanding of mega-agriculture and the effects of pesticides and other additives on plants, animals and the way farmland has been diminished.
    
    Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
    A. Because I was certain when I was 9 years old that I was going to be a veterinarian, I tended to seek jobs working with veterinary clinics, although I had my time as janitor, dishwasher, warehouse operator, and milk- and paper-delivery jobs during college.
    I am most proud of being instrumental in starting the Association of Avian Veterinarians, which still exists today, and of developing Harrison’s Bird Foods.

    Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today? 
    A. The world is changing rapidly, and it is hard to know what the future of veterinary medicine or any career holds. Besides technological advancements, I would think anything to do with food and water — how it can be grown, marketed, packaged and delivered sustainably — would be beneficial to all mankind.
    
    Q. How did you choose to make your home in South Palm Beach and what is your favorite part about living there?
    A. We spent a lot of time at Lake Worth public beach when we first moved to this area, and the desire to live on the beach became part of our bucket list. Our apartment in South Palm Beach overlooks the ocean, so we are very appreciative of it for surfing, paddle boarding, swimming, snorkeling, walking and viewing turtle crawls.

    Q. What book are you reading now?
    A. On Tyranny, by Leo Strauss, and Iron John, by Robert Bly.    
    

    Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires you?  
    A. “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” This proverb seemed to describe my early professional life in working with pet birds, because there were very few people who had the same interest at that time, and I was just “winging it.”

    Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
    A. Harrison Ford.
    
    Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
    A. In Iowa growing up, I started working with the local veterinarian as a junior high student. I admired his hard work, honesty and his commitment to his family, his clients and the town.
    
    Q. What are some of the honors you recently received?
    A. In 2016, I was asked to lecture in Vienna, where I received an award from the Austrian Small Animal Veterinary Association for my work in avian medicine. Linda and I were recently in Washington, D.C., where we worked with the Avian and Wildlife Lab at the University of Miami in co-sponsoring a screening of the movie Racing Extinction to the Association of Avian Veterinarians.
    
    Q. Do you have a favorite bird?
    A. Ospreys go fishing right outside our balcony, so I love to watch them.

By Jane Smith
    
    Animals are banned from the beach in Ocean Ridge, according to Town Manager Jamie Titcomb.
    Even so, the town would consider a formal proposal from Boynton Beach to allow dogs on that city’s adjoining 960-foot-long beach.
    After the dog beach idea was floated in early August at a Boynton Beach City Commission meeting, Titcomb said he received a number of phone calls from Ocean Ridge residents. They were worried that Boynton Beach dogs were about to overrun them, he said.
    “Besides wanting it, no formal request has been made,” Titcomb said in late August. “We need to know what it might look like, the hours it will be open and how it will be enforced before we go about changing the ordinances. It will be a public process.”
    Boynton Beach Recreation and Parks Director Wally Majors said he might have misunderstood how the city wanted him to proceed with communications on the project. He’s been focused on the city’s proposed Town Square project and the end of summer camps. He called Town Square the most exciting thing he’s seen in his 32 years working for Boynton Beach. Programs at the city’s arts and civic centers will be moved to the renovated historic high school.
    “The confusion was on my part,” Majors said. He contacted nearby cities that have dog beaches to find out how they are set up. He is still waiting to hear from Boca Raton. Jupiter has a volunteer group that runs its dog beach.
    Majors wants to be a good neighbor to Ocean Ridge.
    Decades ago, Boynton Beach sold most of its oceanfront land to people who then formed the town of Ocean Ridge.
    Ocean Ridge police patrol the parking lots at Oceanfront Park and make sure the gates are locked at night, according to town Police Chief Hal Hutchins. As far as the beach goes, Ocean Ridge has a vehicle it uses to patrol its beach, the city stretch and the county beach.
    “There are strong emotions on both sides of the issue,” Titcomb said. “As passionate as dog owners are, there are people who are fearful of dogs.”
    Boynton Beach may want to allow dogs at its Oceanfront Park, but how will they keep them on the city’s beach? Titcomb asked.
    “We are willing to explore it, if Boynton Beach will give us a proposal to review,” Titcomb said.
    Majors agrees there are many issues to consider, including rules about cleanup, how to handle aggressive dogs and whether the dogs should be leashed or allowed to roam.
    And he wondered what would happen to sea turtle nests,  because some dogs like to dig.
    Both men own dogs. Majors has two, including a therapy dog that stays at his side throughout the workday.

By Steve Plunkett

    GULF STREAM — By many retirement standards, Gary Ward was young.
    But at age 41, after 21 years as a New York City policeman and 2½ years in the Army, he did retire. In 1988 he packed up his belongings and moved to Boynton Beach.
    His retirement didn’t last long.
    “Naturally he wanted to go to work again. He was too young to retire,” his wife, Barbara, said.
    So he drove up and down State Road A1A and was struck by the charm of Gulf Stream and its towering Australian pines. “He said to me, ‘I think that’s where I want to work. It’s very nice,’ ” Mrs. Ward recalled.
    Hired within a month, he rose through the ranks to become chief in 2000. But a bad stroke sidelined him last summer. Chief Ward died July 25 and was given a full military burial at Long Island National Cemetery on Aug. 1. He was 73.
    His wife said he “loved, loved, loved” working in Gulf Stream and had reported for duty until the day before his stroke.
    “He used to say it was like working in paradise,” Mrs. Ward said.
    Anthony Pugliese remembered driving a little too fast on A1A and unexpectedly meeting the new officer.
    “He pulled me over 27, 28 years ago pulling into my driveway,” Pugliese said.
    The developer got off with a warning, and the two chatted by phone several times a year ever since. “I couldn’t say enough nice things about him. It’s a big loss for the town,” Pugliese said.
    Christopher Yannuzzi, former police chief of Ocean Ridge, called Chief Ward “a mentor to me” on the Boynton Memorial Chapel’s website.
    “It was an honor to know him and call him friend,” Yannuzzi wrote.
    Before his police work, Chief Ward was assigned to the Army’s security agency in Thailand just before the Vietnam War. He was not allowed to speak about his duties there, even to his wife. “I never knew what he did — it was a secret kind of thing,” she said.
    Mrs. Ward described her husband as “pretty much of a loner” and a man “very close” to his children, Garrett Jr., who also lives in Boynton Beach, and Kristin Hubbard, who lives in Deerfield Beach with her husband, Brett, and children, Liliana, 3, and Jonathan, 16 months.
    As they grew older, the chief and his wife focused on family and each other. After work they would tune the TV set to PBS.
    “We were pretty much addicted to British television detective stories,” Mrs. Ward said.
    Along with his wife, children and grandchildren, Chief Ward is survived by brothers Paul in Boynton Beach; Kevin, Peter and Mark in New York; sister Lenore Coogan in New York, and many nephews and nieces.
    In addition to the burial in Farmingdale, N.Y., a wake was held at Boynton Memorial Chapel on July 28.

By Ron Hayes

    BRINY BREEZES — David David was a pioneer, a lifelong resident of Briny Breezes who knew the town as a child when it had only one telephone, a teenager who surfed its waves, and a man who remembered the changes he’d seen with both nostalgia and regret.
    “When I was a kid, you could go to the beach and come back with a big bag of shells,” he recalled in 2015. “And the west side of Old A1A was all freshwater ponds. Now it’s all condos."

    Mr. David died July 26 at Bethesda Memorial Hospital. He was 66 and had suffered from diabetes.
    The only son of Hugh David, who served as the town’s mayor for 34 years, David David wore his redundant name with pride and a smile.
    “It gave me a sense of humor,” he would tell you. “I was never teased about it, and I’d never change it.”
    David Hugh David was born on June 20, 1951, in St. Louis, but he did not stay long.
    When a fire destroyed their Missouri home in the late 1940s, Hugh and Marilyn David brought their young family to Florida in a 28-foot trailer and found the fledgling trailer park. In 1953, they became permanent residents. David David was 2.
    He was still a boy when Edith Louise Behm’s parents bought a trailer in the late 1950s. The two children grew up together, and in 1970 Edith Behm became a permanent resident. Over the years the two children became friends, then romantic partners, and on May 23, 2015, they became husband and wife. Edith Behm is a retired art and music program planner for Palm Beach County schools.
    “He was kind and gentle and sweet,” she said, “and he always put others ahead of himself.”
    During his teenage years, Mr. David was an award-winning surfer.
    “David had a very smooth style and helped the Cripple Creek Surf Club win some contests held locally,” remembers Tom Warnke, historian of the Florida Surfing Museum in Lake Park. “He was a team rider for Charlie Keller’s Boynton Beach Surf Shop a block east of U.S. 1 on Ocean Avenue. That was when shortboards were invented and David was always a step ahead of the rest of the local crew, graduating from boards that were 9-feet-6-inches, to 8-feet, then 7-feet-6-inches, then 7-feet-2-inches, and finally about 6-foot-10.”
    Except for seven years’ service in the U.S. Army, where he served as a sergeant in the 4th Infantry Division’s signal corps, Briny Breezes was his home. He worked in construction and cared for his mother.
    After being diagnosed with diabetes, he was advised by doctors at the VA hospital to wear hats to protect against melanoma, and the hats soon became a trademark.
    His father, Hugh David, died in 1997 at 75, and Marilyn David in 2016 at 93. David David was the last of his family still residing in the town.
    Rita Taylor, who came to Briny Breezes in 1967 and served as its clerk for 35 years, knew the family well.
    “I’m so sorry to hear of David’s passing,” she said. “He was a ‘Briny child,’ and I can’t imagine the town without a David living here. They are all truly missed.”
    In addition to his wife, he is survived by three sisters and their husbands: Judy and Tim Wood of Boynton Beach, Diane and Ken Potter of Atlantis, and Denise and David Berg of San Diego.
    Mr. David is to be buried at sea off Briny Breezes, as were his parents. A memorial service will be held in the town’s clubhouse after the winter residents return.
    His wife requests that donations in his memory be made to the Wounded Warrior Project, the American Diabetes Association, Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League or the Republican Party.

Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein (l-r) joins Kevin Knopf of Lifespace Communities and Dr. Leonard Sutton, president of the Harbour’s Edge resident council, to celebrate the completion of the senior living community’s $20 million renovation to add amenities. Photo provided

By Christine Davis

    Harbour’s Edge, a senior living community at 401 E. Linton Blvd., Delray Beach, recently completed the $20 million renovation of its new Lifelong Learning Center, a renovated theater, new spa and fitness center, a second dining venue and a remodeled restaurant with a new exhibition kitchen and wine bar. Also, it named a new executive director, James Horsman, a hotelier with more than 30 years of luxury hotel and resort experience at properties that include The Ritz-Carlton Hotel company and Destination Hotels.
                                

    Garlic Fest may have moved to Lake Worth, but Delray Beach artist Rebecca Loveless still comes out smelling like a rose. She won the first place SUNsational Award for the best commemorative poster during the Florida Festivals & Events Association’s 23rd annual convention and trade show in Orlando last month.
    Other local winners in the $250,000-plus budget category were iHeart Media, first place for best radio spot; and Real Time Marketing Group of Delray Beach, third place for best website, www.sflgarlicfest.com.
    Garlic Fest was founded to establish a fundraising source for local nonprofit organizations. The festival donated more than $610,000 this year.
    The Florida Festivals & Events Association is a not-for-profit group that supports and promotes more than 3,500 festivals, events and fairs in Florida.
                                
    In August, Alexander P. Lee, 20, of Delray Beach, became a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. The son of Delray Beach residents Terry and Dorothy Lee, he is a junior at Florida Atlantic University majoring in mechanical engineering.

    Kaufman Lynn Construction, which has its corporate office in Boca Raton with other offices in Florida, North Carolina and Texas, announced two new hires and two promotions.
    Tom Thrasher was named vice president of operations in Kaufman Lynn’s South Florida headquarters. Previously, Thrasher held positions with Batson-Cook Construction, W.G. Yates and Sons and Archer-Western/Walsh Construction. Thrasher’s experience included building dam projects, call centers and data centers for Blue Cross Blue Shield in Texas.
    Jeff Blong joined Kaufman Lynn as vice president of preconstruction in its South Florida headquarters. He has worked on commercial projects that include performing arts centers, airports, churches and athletic facilities. He has held positions with Manhattan Construction Co., Hunt Construction Group and Hensel Phelps Construction Co.
    Derek Wolfhope and Dan Root have both been promoted to vice presidents of operations. Wolfhope has been at Kaufman Lynn for 10 years. Notable projects he’s contributed to include the Art Square in Hallandale, Claude Pepper Community Center, Signature at Doral, South of Atlantic in Delray Beach, Residences at Broken Sound, Pembroke Pines YMCA and Evernia Place in West Palm Beach. He’s also contributed to the renovations of Palm Beach State College and the construction of multifamily communities.
    Root, who oversees Kaufman Lynn’s Estero office, led the company’s preconstruction and construction effort for Moorings Park at Grey Oaks, a continuing care retirement community in southwest Florida. The Associated Builders and Contractors Florida Gulf Coast Chapter recognized the project with an Excellence in Construction award.
                                
    Yachtico Inc., a company within the Research Park at Florida Atlantic University, was singled out as a “Florida Company to Watch” by Florida economic development organization GrowFL.
    The research park provides an environment for companies in the research and development stages. It is home to 20 high-tech, high-wage companies and five support organizations.
    Yachtico operates a regional Technology Business Incubator with companies that collectively employ 1,484 people with average salaries of $57,739, which include 149 FAU alumni and 107 student interns.
    In 2016, the overall economic impact of the research park activities was $643.5 million.
    Yachtico connects customers who want to rent or charter boats with fleet operators and boat owners. GrowFL is certified by the National Center for Economic Gardening through the Edward Lowe Foundation, a national nonprofit that supports entrepreneurship through research, recognition and educational programs.
                                
    The Greater Boynton Beach Chamber of Commerce’s networking luncheon on Sept. 13 will host a program featuring city Police Chief Jeffrey Katz. Networking will begin at 11:30 a.m. with the program to follow at noon. Cost is $25. The event will be held at Benvenuto, 1730 N. Federal Hwy, Boynton Beach.
    The chamber also is gearing up for its 47th annual Boynton Beach Chamber Golf Tournament, which will be  Oct. 20 at the Indian Spring Country Club, 11501 El Clair Ranch Road, Boynton Beach. Registration will be at 11:30 a.m.; a box lunch will be at noon; and the shotgun start is scheduled for 1 followed by a reception and award ceremony at 5:30.
    Prices are $550 for a foursome and $150 for a single player. To be a tee sign sponsor, the cost is $100. The tournament is sponsored by Porges & Eisenberg CPA LLC, TooJay’s, Florida Power & Light, Senior Helpers, Bethesda Help, and Palm Beach Community Bank. For information and to register, call 732-9501 or email elda@boyntonbeach.org
                                
    The Lord’s Place ranked seventh of the Top 30 Best Mid-sized Florida Companies to Work For in “The Best Companies” list featured in Florida Trend magazine’s August issue. This was the fourth consecutive year the organization made the list.
    The Lord’s Place has worked for more than 30 years to help homeless people in Palm Beach County. Each year, hundreds of men, women and children transition out of homelessness at The Lord’s Place family campus, its men’s campus, three sites for homeless women and at more than 20 apartments throughout the county.  The organization provides job training and placement as well as clinical services.
                                
    The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties this year awarded $1.2 million in scholarships to 125 students who were evaluated by an advisory committee of board members and community volunteers based on a written application, test scores, transcripts and interviews. Individual scholarships ranged from $1,000 to $36,000 and were given to students from 32 high schools and colleges.
    For information on the scholarship program, or about establishing a charitable fund at the Community Foundation, call 659-6800 or visit www.yourcommunityfoundation.org.
                                
    The League of Women Voters of Palm Beach County will offer two issues-oriented events this month. The first, a luncheon on “Why Courts Matter: The Impact Federal Court Decisions Have on Daily Lives,” is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.  Sept. 20 at the Atlantis Country Club, 190 Atlantis Blvd., Lake Worth. The keynote speaker is Nancy Abudu, director of legal operation for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. Tickets are $25 before Sept. 10 and $35 after. Register online at www.lwvpbc.org or call 968-4123.
    The second event, at 6 p.m. Sept. 27, features Irving Labovitz, adjunct professor of business law at Florida Atlantic University, whose topic is “Constitutional Crises (de jour) Guaranteed to Keep You Up at Night.” The free presentation and Q&A will be held at the Palm Beach Post Auditorium, 2751 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach. Register online at www.lwvpbc.org.
                                
    

The WAV Group, a real estate business and consulting firm, gave the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors its first WAVes of Change Award. ABOVE: (l-r) Marilyn Wilson, founder of the WAV Group; Kim Hansen, the Realtors’ chief operating office; Dionna Hall, their CEO, and Ron Lennen, president-elect. Photo provided

    The Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors were recognized as the top fundraising team by Habitat for Humanity Palm Beach County.
    The group donated more than $5,200, and team captain Kim Flossie won the Pink Hammer Top Individual Fundraising Award.
    The Community Outreach Taskforce of the Palm Beaches created a team, Tutu’s and Tool Belts, that raised money and helped construct a roof of a home. 
    Also, the association was honored by the WAV Group, a real estate business and consulting firm, with the first WAVes of Change Award for taking innovative steps to create positive waves of change in the industry.
                                
    The Space of Mind, a schoolhouse and community studio for students, adults, families and educators, will host a family open house from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sept. 9 to introduce its new coaches as well as the interior redesign.
    The studio is at 102 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. For information, call 877-407-1122 or visit www.myspaceofmind.com.
                                
    Silver International Realty opened a second business, Silver International Realty 30A, for agents in the Santa Rosa Beach area in the Florida Panhandle. Owner Christel Silver’s daughter, Sabine Robertson, is on the sales team, and her grandson, Judson Robertson, has joined the company as an agent.
    The main office is at 55 SE Second Ave., Delray Beach.

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

The path runs the length of Highland Beach on the west side of A1A and needs repairs. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    Highland Beach’s aging 3-mile walking path could become safer, more attractive and even more durable if town commissioners — and then voters — approve a recommendation from an ad hoc committee of residents.  
    “Our goal is to have a walkway that will last for many years, that is safe, and that will be aesthetically appealing without great cost to the taxpayers of Highland Beach,” said Mayor Carl Feldman, who chairs the committee.
    Later this month Feldman and other committee members are likely to bring a proposal for $1.5 million to $1.7 million of improvements to the town’s popular walking path on the west side of State Road A1A.
    A large portion of the budget would go toward tearing up the existing asphalt sidewalk and replacing it with decorative aggregate concrete embedded with crushed oyster shell.
“It’s more of a premium, but this committee decided it wanted something special — and it will be,” Feldman said.
    The proposal likely will include creating signage and landscaping at the north and south ends of town, as well as improvements to some swale areas to eliminate dangerous drop-offs from the sidewalk.
    The proposal also includes placing lighted pedestrian crosswalk signs at all eight of the town’s crosswalks. The Florida Department of Transportation will need to approve the plan for the entire project.
    Feldman is proposing the town use an estimated $200,000 a year it will receive from the recently approved countywide 1-cent sales tax increase to cover the cost of the project.
    The town would use money in reserves to pay for the project and then use the money from the sales tax to replenish the reserve fund. “The most important thing is that there is little if any burden to the taxpayers in Highland Beach,” he said.
    Commissioners have been discussing improvements to the 5-foot-wide walking path for years, after the town has continually patched cracks and made other temporary repairs.
    “We have to do something because there is so much deterioration in the asphalt,” Feldman said. “It’s not a safety issue yet, but it could become one.”
    Feldman said the streetscape committee will meet again this month before bringing a final proposal to town commissioners. If approved, the proposal would then be put before voters in March, since the town requires voter approval for spending above $350,000.
    If approved by voters, work on the project could begin as early as next summer.
    Should the proposal come before voters, town leaders would hold a series of informational meetings prior to the referendum.
    “We want to keep the public involved so they know what they’ll be getting,” Feldman said.