By Dan Moffett

    Manalapan Vice Mayor Peter Isaac thinks the town should move quickly to try to persuade Hypoluxo water customers to sign a new long-term contract, and his fellow commissioners agree with him.
    So the plan is to get Manalapan’s best offer on the table by the end of the year.
    The 550 Hypoluxo customers are being wooed by Boynton Beach Utilities — a much larger system than Manalapan that is capable of delivering savings that could be as much as 50 percent per household.
    Boynton officials say about 90 percent of Hypoluxo residents would benefit from the city utility’s tiered fee structure that links charges to the amount of water actually used.
    Isaac believes losing Hypoluxo would undermine the financial viability of Manalapan’s system, which has only about 250 of its customers in the town.
    “If we can keep Hypoluxo, then there’s no question we can keep our water plant. It’s a no-brainer,” Isaac said. “Hypoluxo has a very attractive offer from Boynton. We have one shot at trying to keep Hypoluxo. It’s what in negotiation terms is called a fading opportunity.”
    While Manalapan may not be able to compete with Boynton in price after 2020, when the current Hypoluxo contract expires, the town could offer to roll back rates for the next three years as part of a long-term deal that makes the total cost competitive.
    One idea is offering Hypoluxo customers an immediate 20 percent rate cut in exchange for locking them in to a 30-year contract.
    Commissioners think they also have a selling point in quality. They believe their plant produces better-tasting water than Boynton’s.
    Town Manager Linda Stumpf said a consultant, Kevin O’Donnell of Nova Energy Consultants in Cary, N.C., is finishing a rate study that will give the commissioners a better idea of what they can offer Hypoluxo. Stumpf said O’Donnell could have the numbers ready by the Nov. 15 town meeting, so the commission can accelerate efforts to make a proposal to Hypoluxo.
    “We’ve got to do everything we can to secure our customer base,” Isaac said.
    Overall, Hypoluxo accounts for about one-third of Manalapan’s total usage but accounts for roughly one-half of the town utility’s total revenues.
In other business:
    • Stumpf said the completion date for the Audubon Causeway bridge project has been pushed back another two weeks because of problems replacing a water main. She said the contractor expects the work to be completed around Thanksgiving.
    The town’s architectural commission has decided on the colors for the bridge walls: Alpine white, with gray trim.
    • After considerable discussion, commissioners decided against writing an ordinance to protect nesting sea turtles and opted instead to continue adhering to regulations set by Palm Beach County. The state requires that municipalities have rules on the books to restrict light during nesting season, March through October.
    The towns of Palm Beach and South Palm Beach have passed their own ordinances, said Town Attorney Keith Davis, but most coastal communities have not and follow the county rules.
    Municipalities with their own ordinances must handle enforcement themselves.
    “It’s an adversarial situation and I’d rather have the county be the adversary,” said Mayor David Cheifetz. Commissioners agreed.

By Dan Moffett

    South Palm Beach officials will consider what they want and what they need in a new Town Hall during planning sessions with architects this month.
    The town’s only public building is a hodgepodge of additions and renovations that has evolved over the last several decades. Town Council members now must decide how to repair or replace the aging structure to serve the next generation.
    “It’s something we just can’t put off any longer,” said Mayor Bonnie Fischer. “We have to get this done.”
    The work is set to begin Nov. 8 when Steven Knight, an architect with Alexis Knight Architects in West Palm Beach, comes to town to meet with staff and council members to discuss what a new town hall building should look like.
    By the middle of November, Knight says he expects “to have a pretty good handle on what direction we’re going.”
    Alexis Knight recently completed work on a community center and tennis facility for the Village of Wellington. The firm also has designed projects for Broward College in Fort Lauderdale,  the city of Tamarac Fire Department, the South Florida Water Management District, Indian River State College and the West Palm Beach Housing Authority.
    “We have a deep résumé for projects like this,” Knight told the council during the Oct. 25 town meeting.
    “This is a jewel of a small town,” Councilman Robert Gottlieb told Knight, “and we expect a jewel of a project.”
    Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello said Knight had “an obvious passion for the job” and was the right man to help lead the town forward.
    The architect’s study will cost the town $34,000 — roughly half what the council was prepared to pay, said Town Manager Bob Vitas. Knight’s report and recommendations are expected early next year.
    In other business: In the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew’s near miss last month, town officials are looking for new ways to persuade residents to heed mandatory evacuation orders.
    “About 500 people didn’t evacuate,” said Vitas. “That was disappointing.”
    Police Chief Carl Webb said he worried about residents who threw hurricane parties during the Category 4 storm or “wandered around parking lots” as if nothing was going on.
    “This was potentially a life-and-death situation,” Webb said. “We could have been carrying bodies out of here. It was a very trying time for all of us, and it definitely increased my stress level.”
    No public property was damaged during the storm, Vitas said, though beach stairs at several condo buildings were washed away.

For many coastal residents, Matthew was a chance to take photos and watch the waves, such as these off Ocean Ridge.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Employees put cross arms back on the bridge at George Bush Boulevard in Delray Beach.

The arms are removed before hurricane-force winds might turn them into projectiles.

A short run of cable TV line had to removed from A1A after Matthew passed in South Palm Beach.

By Jane Smith and Dan Moffett

    As Hurricane Matthew wobbled to the east in early October, south county coastal residents and officials sighed with relief.
    When the Category 4 storm was expected to move west toward the county, it started to undergo an “eyewall replacement cycle” where the center of the storm can broaden into a wider band. That effect helped South Florida avoid a direct hit, the National Weather Service said.
    Matthew provided a nearly $14 million training exercise for local officials and residents who last prepared for a hurricane more than 10 years ago. That was before Facebook, Twitter and other social media helped to stir up the hurricane hype.
    “It was a good experience finding out where our weaknesses are and our problems lie,” Delray Beach City Manager Don Cooper told the City Commission one week after the storm. Everyone worked well together in tight quarters, some in areas without air-conditioning after the City Hall chillers broke — again. The city’s facilities are showing their age, he said.
    In the south county area, Delray Beach and Boca Raton suffered the most damage to their beaches, considered their crown jewels.
    Delray Beach lost about 75,000 cubic yards or 20 feet of shoreline, according to initial estimates. (As a comparison, Spaceship Earth, the iconic structure at Walt Disney World’s Epcot, has a total volume of 81,000 cubic yards, according to The Measure of Things website.)
    The sand replacement cost is estimated to be about $2.1 million, including a 10 percent fee for engineering, design and permits and a 10 percent fee to cover cost overruns. Just getting a dredge to come will cost about $4 million.
    Dan Bates, the county’s deputy director of Environmental Resources Management, said that Delray Beach could share the dredge cost with Boca Raton. That city’s previous beach project was not finished before turtle-nesting season started March 1, meaning the dredge will have to return to the south county after Nov. 1.
    Boca Raton lost 895,000 cubic yards of sand from its three beaches, Bates said of the preliminary data reported to FEMA. The county has not been able to survey the beaches because of the windy weather.
    At Delray Beach’s estimate of $6 per cubic yard, the bill for sand alone in Boca Raton would come to $5.37 million. Plus 10 percent for cost overruns would total $5.9 million. Another 10 percent would be added for design, engineering and permit fees to create a sand bill of nearly $6.5 million. The dredge cost would be extra.
    Delray Beach also will pay $700,000 in overtime to its public safety and other city staff.
    The entire police force was deployed, combining day and night shifts, Chief Jeff Goldman told the commission on Oct. 13. “They didn’t sleep, they were always on duty and deployed throughout the city,” he said.
    He also thanked the commission for the curfew, which started at 6 p.m. Oct. 6, when Hurricane Matthew was expected to hit overnight. “Most people stayed in and off the roads,” he said, creating an ideal situation for public safety workers.
    The Fire-Rescue Department increased its staffing level to 86 percent; 33 percent is usually at work on a 24-hour shift, Fire Chief Neal de Jesus told commissioners. Even though the barrier island was under an evacuation order, the fire-rescue staff never vacated its coverage of the area, de Jesus said.
    New emergency management director Steve Hynes earned praise for his accurate forecasts emailed to commissioners and department heads because they were factual, not hyped as the newscasts that day and into the night.
    For other coastal cities, staff overtime costs will be the biggest bill.
    In Ocean Ridge, Town Manager Jamie Titcomb said, “I can tell you that we initially reported $32,000 to the County’s [Emergency Operations Center] in conjunction with their countywide assessment for FEMA application data purposes.
    “The storm itself had little direct impact on the town of Ocean Ridge, we were truly lucky this time. I have worked in official capacity for every storm event since 1999, so I can say that with some technical knowledge.”
    South Palm Beach Town Manager Bob Vitas said no public property was damaged, but several condo buildings suffered damage to their stairways to the beach.
    Vitas also said the town’s six police officers were on duty around the clock for two days, costing several thousand dollars in overtime.
    Town Manager Linda Stumpf said Manalapan suffered no significant damage — just a couple of downed trees. However, the town will have to pay about $26,000 in extra wages for police and other employees who worked overtime during the storm. Stumpf said she’s looking into getting some reimbursement from FEMA.
    Gulf Stream Town Manager Bill Thrasher had his costs broken down to the penny. One-hundred, seventy-eight hours of overtime cost $7,842.08, food cost $300 and equipment rental at $9,500. Total storm-related costs were $17,642.08.
    Finance Director Cale Curtis tallied unaudited storm costs for Highland Beach at $6,370 —  $6,240 for overtime costs and $130 for equipment/supplies.
    Boynton Beach saw mostly yard debris-related damage and one public art structure was damaged, according to Assistant City Manager Tim Howard. “We are currently compiling costs associated with the hurricane,” he said. “We will seek reimbursement when it’s available.”
    Deborah Manzo, Lantana’s town manager, said most of the town’s costs were for extra wages for preventive measures, recovery efforts and the equipment used. “We estimate those costs to be around $40,000 to $50,000,” she said.
    Briny Breezes reported no damage or overtime costs from Matthew. Boynton Beach Police and Fire Rescue are handling the town’s public safety issues under the contractual rate.
     “We were very lucky this time,” said Briny Town Council President Sue Thaler. “We had no damage at all.”

Sallie James, Steve Plunkett, Rich Pollack and Mary Thurwachter contributed to this story.

By Jane Smith

    Community Redevelopment Agency board members gave their former executive director 12 weeks of severance pay and benefits totaling $34,741.
    They did so after learning in October that the terms of Vivian Brooks’ contract were not clear, said agency attorney Tara Duhy.
    Duhy said the sections of the previous executive director’s contract were contradictory. In one part, the contract states that it starts on the date the board approved it, which was Sept. 8, 2015. If that is the correct interpretation, then the contract would have renewed automatically on Sept. 8, 2016 — five days before the board voted not to renew her contract.
    Without a 30-day notice, Brooks could have sought 20 weeks of severance pay.
    But the board members, all city commissioners, understood the contract as saying it started on Oct. 1, 2015, and would end on Sept. 30, 2016. Their decision to end the contract on Sept. 13 was within the time frame not requiring a severance package.
    Initially, CRA board member Joe Casello complained about learning of the contradictory language after the vote. He agreed to give Brooks a week for every year she was at the CRA.
    Three members of the public spoke. David Katz, who chairs the city’s Planning and Development Board, said as a city taxpayer, that 12 weeks of pay and benefits is “a bit much.”
    Dr. James DeVoursney, a member of the CRA’s advisory board, said three months of pay with benefits was appropriate for someone “who put so much time and effort into the city.” It also shows potential candidates where the city’s heart is.
    Resident Brian Fitzpatrick said he agreed with the severance package.
    The board members voted 3-2 in favor of the package. Mayor Steven Grant and Commissioner Justin Katz voted no. Grant had proposed a two-week severance to extend the former executive director’s pay into mid-October.
    In other business, the CRA board hired assistant director Michael Simon as CRA interim executive director during the search for a new one. Simon, who was making $105,689, will get a $125,000 salary, retroactive to Oct. 1. He will receive a $250 monthly car allowance.
    Simon had been assistant director for about three years and worked for the agency about 10 years.
    The board plans to hire a firm to find a new executive director or management firm to run the CRA. Simon was directed to bring a list of firms to the November CRA meeting for the board’s review. The search firm was estimated to cost about $20,000.

By Dan Moffett

    SOUTH PALM BEACH — Woodrow “Woody” Gorbach was 91 years old when he decided to enter the world of politics and claim a seat on the South Palm Beach Town Council, becoming one of the oldest elected officials in the state’s history.
    “I thought I had something to offer the town,” he said. “It was a way to serve.”
    Mr. Gorbach knew something about service, after all. He enlisted in the Army during World War II and at 19 found himself fighting in the bloody Battle of Anzio — a life-changing experience he found difficult to talk about for decades.
    During 18 months on the council, Mr. Gorbach stood up against bending rules to suit developers, helped push through a tax rollback for residents, put together a Memorial Day ceremony to honor veterans and organized a much-heralded car show at Manalapan’s Plaza del Mar for the town’s 60th anniversary.
    “Woody stepped up to the plate to serve and did it his own way,” Mayor Bonnie Fischer said. “He accomplished so much in a short period of time.”
    Mr. Gorbach died on Oct. 31 after a short illness. He was 92.
    A resident of the town for some 20 years, Mr. Gorbach was a Connecticut native who built a thriving real estate business in Bridgeport before moving to Florida. Here, he worked as an agent for Lang Realty in Manalapan, for a time alongside his son, Donald.
    But his 60-year love for real estate was surpassed by his 63-year marriage to Lois, the “love of his life,” who survives.
    Young men frequently would ask Mr. Gorbach for advice about staying happily married. He would crack a smile and say, “Here is the secret. It’s yes. You just say yes.”
    As inseparable as Woody and Lois were, she said he talked very little about his war experience — until 2014, when he joined a group of veterans who flew to Washington to visit national memorials, a trip sponsored by Southeast Florida Honor Flights. For a Coastal Star story, Mr. Gorbach told reporter Ron Hayes about a close call in the Battle of Monte Cassino:
    “I was only there three days and I got trench foot with frostbite,” he remembered. “They sent me to a hospital in Africa for three weeks, and while I was gone my platoon was annihilated. Frostbite saved my life.”
    Mr. Gorbach returned to the Italian campaign and hit the beach at Anzio in 1944. He came home with a Bronze Star, a Croix de Guerre and a firm belief that “every day is a gift.”
    Sharon Tardonia, office administrator at Lang Realty, said Mr. Gorbach’s age didn’t dampen his enthusiasm for selling properties or seeing his picture in the newspaper.
    “It’s just not going to be the same without Woody in the office,” she said. “He was still very active in real estate and sold a listing in October. I was very happy to assist him in his last transaction. We made a good team. I will miss him terribly.”
    Woody and Lois “were like peanut butter and jelly, always together,” Tardonia said.
    “Woody stayed very full of life until the end,” said Fischer. “We’ve lost another of the Greatest Generation.”
    Funeral arrangements were incomplete at press time.

Billy Himmelrich cuts waste in his Delray Beach-based bakery by donating to the Palm Beach County Food Bank.

Himmelrich and his wife, Shelly, are co-chairs of Empty Bowls Delray Beach, a fundraiser for the food bank.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    If nothing says lovin’ like something from the oven, Billy Himmelrich spreads love by the truckload. His Delray Beach-based Old School Bakery delivers artisan bread to some of South Florida’s finest resorts and eateries, including The Breakers hotel, Cafe Boulud, Joe’s Stone Crab and The Fontainebleau.
    Himmelrich, a Gulf Stream resident, says baking bread is a passion for him. But he hates to see any of it go to waste.
    “Throwing out good bread was the bane of my existence,” he said. That is until Himmelrich built a relationship with the Palm Beach County Food Bank several years ago.
    “The Palm Beach County Food Bank has helped us achieve nearly zero waste in our business because they regularly pick up the baked goods we have not sold and distribute it free of charge to the agencies which serve the hungry in our community,” Himmelrich said. 
    “Nationwide statistics show that about one-third of food produced in the hospitality industry ends up being thrown away and that is just a shame,” he said. “The fact that one in six people in Palm Beach County face hunger is not acceptable, especially since we live in such an affluent community. We are happy to partner with the food bank as the umbrella agency which knows where the need is and can distribute our contributions in an efficient and effective way.”
    This year Himmelrich and his wife, Shelly, who runs a charitable foundation, are taking their commitment to helping hungry people a step further. They are co-chairing Empty Bowls Delray Beach, a community event to increase awareness of hunger in the community and to raise money to support the Palm Beach County Food Bank.
    The Himmelrichs have been bread providers for the Empty Bowls events in Palm Beach for the past few years and are happy to bring the event to Delray Beach this year.
    The event will be Dec. 4. at Old School Square, one of the sponsors. The public is invited to “eat simply, so others can simply eat.”
   Participants will choose from among beautiful handmade bowls created by artists and enjoy a variety of delicious soups provided by local restaurants, paired with artisan breads provided by Old School Bakery.
    Himmelrich, 53, got his neighbor and friend, philanthropist and Hardrives founder George Elmore, to serve as honorary chairman.
    “We’re really doing it in an old-fashioned, grassroots way,” he said. “The Empty Bowls events in Palm Beach were church-based. We had to secure a park at Old School Square where I’m on the board. Shelly and I are responsible to cover 100 percent of the events through donations. We bought about 2,000 handmade pottery bowls. One hundred percent of the event’s proceeds will go to the charity.”
    For a $25 donation, guests will experience the simple communal meal and take home the handmade bowl as a reminder of all the empty bowls of hungry people in Palm Beach County. A holiday gift pottery sale will offer opportunities to buy additional bowls and other items, all to benefit the Palm Beach County Food Bank in providing food at no cost to more than 100 local agencies on the front line of hunger in Palm Beach County.
    “We hope to make this a family event, a nice coming together,” Himmelrich said.
    The Himmelrichs, who have lived in Gulf Stream for 18 years, have two sons, Max, 20, a student at UCLA, and Charlie, 17, a student at Taft in Watertown, Conn.
— Mary Thurwachter
    
Q. Where did you grow up and go to school?
    A. I grew up in Baltimore and went away to boarding school in ninth grade — Taft in Watertown, Conn. I went to Emory and studied economics for a year at Paris Institute of Political Studies.

Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
    A. My first real job was at Häagen-Dazs in Baltimore. I dispatched trucks, worked for a caterer, worked as a line cook, worked at a shake shop and other jobs through college. I graduated from Emory and went to work for JP Morgan in 1986. I moved to France in 1988 to go to cooking school and apprentice. I moved back to the U.S. two years later, cooked the line in Washington D.C., made bread and pasta at a Tuscan restaurant, and started my first business — The Stone Mill Bakery in 1991.
    
Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?
    A. Do what you love. It makes hard work fun.
    
Q. How did you choose to make your home in Gulf Stream?
    A. When we looked for a home we just drove around. We had a weekend to pick one. We crossed George Bush Boulevard into Gulf Stream and saw there were trees growing over the road. Beautiful. After that, there was no other choice for me. I had to live there.
    
Q. What is your favorite part about living in Gulf Stream? 
    A. The setting. It’s beautiful.

Q. What book are you reading now?
    A. American Heiress, about Patty Hearst, and Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen.
    
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax? 
    A. I listen to country and classic rock with no purpose.
    
Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions? 
    A. Lead by example.
    
Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
    A. I have a lot of role models but have had to mentor myself. Anybody who is successful in the food business is a role model because it’s such a hard business.
    
Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
    A. Kris Kristofferson. He’s awesome. I saw him in concert in Boca. He marches to the beat of his own drummer. And I’m a frustrated guitar player.

Empty Bowls Delray Beach
Why: Raise funds for the Palm Beach County Food Bank, which provides food at no cost to more than 100 local agencies on the front line of hunger in the county.
When: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Dec. 4
Where: Old School Square at  51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach
Cost: $25 donation
Info: www.pbcfoodbank.org

By Jane Smith
    
    The Community Kickoff featured all the trappings of an opening night performance.
    The event was held at the Crest Theatre on the historic Old School Square grounds in Delray Beach. Mayor Cary Glickstein acted as master of ceremonies. He talked about the need for creative planning and sustainable progress for all, regardless of age, skin color or where they live.
    In late September, he also reminisced about his recent visit to sister city Pesaro, Italy, where he did not see obesity or chronic health problems. Every street had two-way bike lanes, he said. Glickstein would like to see Delray Beach residents have a higher quality of life to go with their higher standard of living.
    That means it’s time for a new comprehensive plan.
    The city’s first one was adopted in 1989 and changed over the years. Glickstein often says Delray Beach is not the same city it was back then. That’s why five chapters will be added to the plan. They are: healthy community, sustainability and resilience, lifelong education, historic preservation and economic development.
    The plan has a slogan: “Always Delray.” The city planning department tapped consultant Woo Creative, a Delray Beach marketing firm, to develop one that could serve as the brand throughout the 15-month process. Planners paid Woo Creative $4,800. The fee includes the cost of developing the logo and a style guide for using the brand in the comprehensive plan.
    The selection of a steering committee was begun by asking the five city commissioners for three choices. As of late October, the committee was skewing white and older. Mark Stivers, the planner overseeing the process, said the city wants to find younger residents of color to serve on the committee or contribute to parts of it. The plan is really for them, he said. To that end, he’s asked the Parks and Clean and Safe staffs for recommendations.
     The steering committee will meet monthly and community workshops will take place quarterly on the plan’s four sections: live, work, play and grow.
    In late 2017, the result will be three documents: a formal policy guide that planners will use, a data/analysis component that will be updated continually and a pocket guide that every Delray Beach resident will “want to display.” It will be available in three languages spoken in the city: English, Creole and Spanish.

    Planning Director Tim Stillings hopes residents will carry around the pocket guides and say, “Hey, look what my community created and I understand what it says."

By Dan Moffett

    With a medical marijuana constitutional amendment on the state ballot Nov. 8, a compassionate-use state law already on the books and a nationwide trend toward legalization, Briny Breezes is moving to protect itself against the emerging cannabis business.
    The Town Council unanimously approved the first reading of a new ordinance that would prohibit the growing, distribution or selling of marijuana in Briny Breezes for one year.
    Town Attorney John Skrandel said the moratorium “isn’t an end unto itself,” but it gives the town breathing room to assess how to permanently regulate commercial marijuana-related activities.
    Briny Breezes has no restrictions on marijuana in its code and land-development regulations.
    With the ordinance, the town can temporarily prevent marijuana businesses from operating within its limits.
    “The ordinance does not prohibit use,” Skrandel said, “just sales, growth and distribution.”
    The law would have no impact on residents who are using marijuana for medical purposes, he said.
    During the moratorium, the council should consider surveying residents for their opinions on marijuana businesses, Skrandel said, and then let the Planning and Zoning Board develop permanent regulations later next year.
    Planning board Chairman Jerry Lower said Briny Breezes officials decided to pursue adopting a moratorium after receiving a letter from a business that inquired about the town’s marijuana regulations. Lower said other Florida communities, including Delray Beach, have put similar protective measures in place.
    The protection comes with a cost, however. Council President Sue Thaler said the ordinance will cost the town $3,500 to publish and codify. Final reading and vote on the law is scheduled for the Nov. 17 Town Council meeting.
    In other business:
    • Alderman Bobby Jurovaty and Thaler said the town has heard from five applicants for the newly created administrator/clerk position. Thaler said she is negotiating with the most promising candidate and hopes to have the position filled within the next month. Deputy Town Clerk Steve Cooper is resigning and moving to Atlanta, and the council wants to combine his clerk duties with those of an administrator. Briny has $50,000 set aside in the budget to pay for the new part-time position.
    • Thaler said the Florida Department of Transportation has signed off on the town’s plan to put a golf cart crossing at the Cordova Avenue stoplight on A1A — but two details have yet to be resolved. FDOT wants assurances that the carts won’t end up traveling the wrong way on a one-way street, and that pedestrians and carts won’t share pathways that were built with federal money. Briny had been waiting to hear from FDOT since February 2015.

NOTE: Planning board Chairman Jerry Lower is publisher of The Coastal Star.

Anyone grabbing a midday nap at Veterans Park has soothing music as accompaniment.

Park supervisor Abby Murrell came up with the idea.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    Calming classical music plays daily over the speaker system at Veterans Park in downtown Delray Beach.
    Abby Murrell, a self-described world traveler who is the park’s supervisor, came up with the suggestion.
    “I love the idea of listening to classical music in an open space,” she said, “because it’s calm and peaceful.”
    That’s why she suggested playing the music at the park, where there have been reports of drug use, fights and drunken people sleeping off hangovers, even as families with young children play in the park and older kids take classes inside the recreation center.
    In August, the music began playing when the park’s recreation center is open, basically 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily and until 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. The park has an eight-hour CD of the “100 Most Requested Pieces of Classical Music.”
    “It’s not intrusive. It’s very calming,” Murrell said.
    To prevent people from spending the night in Veterans Park, Police Chief Jeff Goldman told Delray Beach commissioners at their Oct. 24 goal-setting session that the trees have been cut back and pavilion locked overnight. The city also has a law that prohibits loitering in public places after 10 p.m.
    At the session, the mayor also asked that the park’s lighting be increased at night to make it less desirable to overnight users.
    Lake Worth began playing classical music overnight to decrease activity in its Cultural Plaza. “It sets a calming tone and provides a nice ambience,” said City Manager Mike Bornstein.
    When the music began playing in early May, some nearby condo residents complained it was too loud and interrupted their sleep. The music volume has since been lowered.
    The classical music that’s played in Veterans Park has an appropriate sound level, Murrell said.
    She also talked about classical music’s effects on the brain. Studies have shown it opens pathways in the brain that lead to short-term learning gains. “It makes people smarter,” she said.

    GULF STREAM — Nancy Touhey, 86, of Gulf Stream, died Oct. 25 after succumbing to cancer.
    Born in Milwaukee, Wis., to Lois Gram and George Downing, she was raised in nearby River Hills and attended Downer Seminary and Milwaukee Country Day School.  
    Mrs. Touhey was a true renaissance woman. An athlete and outdoorswoman, she competed in show jumping, tennis and golf and was known for her gardening. She guided and served garden clubs in Wisconsin, Iowa and Florida.
    While a member of the Grass River Garden Club, she lovingly tended her expansive fairy garden that not only brought joy to children and adults alike, it is also represented in the Smithsonian Institution archives.
    Married to her greatest love, Carl Touhey of Albany, N.Y., in 1993, she summered in Feura Bush, N.Y., where she served on the board of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
    Mrs. Touhey served her communities and charities with kindness, grace and passion. In Wisconsin she served on the board of Goodwill, St. Mary’s Hospital and St. John’s Home. As president of the Board of Regents of the Kenmore Associates in Fredericksburg, Va., she was credited with negotiating the deal that ultimately saved from development George Washington’s Ferry Farm. Because of her efforts, the land where legend has it the cherry tree was felled, will be preserved for generations to come.
    In Florida Mrs. Touhey was on the boards of Old School Square, The Achievement Centers for Children and Families and the Delray Beach Historical Society.
    Mrs. Touhey  will forever be known as a nurturer and devoted confidant, from childhood friends she remained close to and those enveloped along the way, to her children, the grand- and great-grandkids, to animals in need of love and care and of the monarch butterfly lives she furthered through her gardening.
    Mrs. Touhey is survived by her loving children Kathy Daggett (Ray Curran) of Wilmington, N.Y.; George Daggett (Wendy) of Denver; Peter Daggett of Flagstaff, Ariz.; Carrie Carone of Chicago; Amy Daggett (Walter Salas-Humara) of Flagstaff, Ariz.; Mary Ronie (Paul) of Palm Beach; and Michael Cudahy (Dierdre) of Milwaukee; 14 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren; and sisters Sally Downing and Susie Kuehn, both of California.
    In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to The Achievement Centers Foundation in Delray Beach.
    Services will be held at 1 p.m. on Nov. 22 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
Mrs. Touhey will be missed greatly by the many people whose lives she touched with class and humor. Her cheerful and open attitude will remain in our hearts forever.
    Lorne & Sons Funeral Home, Delray Beach, is in charge of arrangements.   
— Obituary provided by the family

By Ron Hayes

    DELRAY BEACH — If you want to see what Joseph Charyk accomplished during his 96 years, look up at the stars.
    In a long and distinguished career in aeronautics, Mr. Charyk was most widely celebrated as the founder of the geosynchronous communications satellite industry. While president, CEO and chairman of the Communications Satellite Corp., he launched the global system of satellites that now circle the globe.
    But to his family, Mr. Charyk, who died Sept. 28, is remembered as a beloved father and grandfather who launched a thousand spirited discussions around the dinner table.
    “It was almost like being part of a debate society,” recalled his son Chris Charyk, of Marion, Mass. “His way of showing his interest was to engage and challenge us intellectually. It was very rigorous, but in a very loving way.”
    As the family ate, Mr. Charyk would serve up the Socratic method, questioning the youngsters about hot-topic subjects in the news. Same-sex marriage, women’s rights, discrimination.
    “Anything he could get a rise out of,” Chris Charyk said. “He had such respect for the little kids that he’d engage them in topics you might think were above their age brackets. My children were very well educated in the ways of the world. He was deliberately provocative.”
    When Mr. Charyk’s son-in-law, an urban planner, visited shortly after Hurricane Katrina struck, he pounced.
    “Why not just flush New Orleans down the toilet?”  Mr. Charyk prodded. “What do you think about that?”
    Mr. Charyk was provocative, but he provoked to make the younger generations think. He had been a thinker all his life.
    Joseph Vincent Charyk was born Sept. 9, 1920, in Canmore, Canada, and earned his Ph.D. in aeronautics magna cum laude from the California Institute of Technology, where he met the love of his life, Edwina Rhodes. The couple were wed on Aug. 18, 1945, and had been married nearly 68 years at her death in 2013.
    From 1946 to 1955, he was a professor of aeronautics at Princeton University, after which he moved to California, the Lockheed Aircraft Corp. and the aeronautics division of Ford Motor Co.
    In 1959, Mr. Charyk became the assistant secretary/chief scientist of the U.S. Air Force, and in 1961 President John F. Kennedy named him the first director of the National Reconnaissance Office, consolidating the CIA, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy space programs, during which the NRO operated the U-2 reconnaissance program.
    In 1987, he was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Ronald Reagan.
    The Charyks came to Delray Beach in the mid-1980s, living between The Landings and their summer home in Falmouth, Mass. A permanent resident for the past 20 years, Mr. Charyk was a member of the Gulf Stream Bath & Tennis Club, his son said.
    In addition to Chris Charyk, he is survived by two other sons, William and John; a daughter, Diane; their spouses, nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, where a funeral Mass in Mr. Charyk’s memory will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Dec. 3.
    Lorne & Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

    BOCA RATON — Anthony James Comparato, a 30-year resident of Boca Raton, passed away peacefully Oct. 25 surrounded by his family. He was 93.
    He was the founder of Compson Development, a local real estate firm he started in Rochester, N.Y., more than 70 years ago. He was later joined by his three sons, who together worked with him successfully for more than 45 years.
    Mr. Comparato started building houses in 1946 after returning from World War II. He built more than 2,000 homes before developing retail centers and office buildings. He built his first retail center in 1960.
    He was also the founder of 1st United Bank, a local Boca Raton bank, and acted as chairman of the board and CEO from 1987 to 1998, when it was sold to Wachovia Bank, now Wells Fargo.
    Mr. Comparato served in the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division as a sergeant and fought in the campaign to free Italy.
He personally captured more than 30 prisoners of war and was awarded the Bronze Star for bravery in combat.
    He was a generous and compassionate philanthropist who supported the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, the Debbie-Rand Memorial Service League, the Rotary Club, the Red Cross, Florida Atlantic University, Lynn University, Boca Raton Regional Hospital as well as numerous veterans organizations.
    He enjoyed helping others and always attempted to make a difference in people’s lives.
    Mr. Comparato will be greatly missed by his entire family and so many people who were touched by his generosity, compassion and love. He was one of a kind and touched many lives — and “did it his way.”
    Mr. Comparato was married to Edith, the love of his life, for 63 years. She passed away in 2010. He is survived by his three sons, James (Paulette); Robert and Thomas; his loving grandchildren, Lisa (Carl) Klepper, Lori (Bobby) D’Angelo, Lindsay (Patrick) McAteer, Michael (Bel) Comparato and Jeffrey (Jennifer) Comparato; and his 11 great-grandchildren.
    In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Mr. Comparato’s memory to Boca Raton Regional Hospital or the Wounded Warrior Project.
— Obituary provided by the family

By Emily J. Minor

    DELRAY BEACH — Marian J. Buehler, a devoted Catholic, mother and wife whose life’s work centered on taking care of people, died Oct. 6 at her son’s house near Lake Ida. Her daughter said that in recent months her 96-year-old mother had gotten weaker and weaker, finally deciding “it was time to go to heaven and be with daddy.”
    “Every day, God took a little piece of her, until it was time to go,” said her daughter, Patti, who moved here from Colorado six years ago to care for her mother.
    In younger years, when Mrs. Buehler and her husband, Joseph Michael Buehler, had first moved to Delray Beach after World War II, the couple ran John’s Beach Service, the oceanfront concierge business that offered daily rentals of beach chairs and cabanas both here and in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
    In the summer months, when Patti and her brother, Chuck, became of school age, the couple lived separately so that Mr. Buehler could run the business in South Carolina in the summer, and then come to Delray Beach for the winters. “She was basically a single mother every year for those five months,” her daughter said.
    In South Carolina, Marian Buehler was known as Mrs. B. during the years when she and the children were still going north for the summers. “My dad didn’t want them calling her Marian and she didn’t want to be called Mrs. Buehler, so everyone just called her Mrs. B.,” said Patti Buehler.
    In Florida, where the Buehlers had the contract in Delray Beach until the mid-1980s, Mrs. B. also considered the lifeguards part of their family, even though the city — not the Buehlers — did the hiring, her daughter said.
    “She was the type of person who was a mother to everybody,” said Patti Buehler. “She really didn’t have any hobbies except for taking care of people.”
    After the Buehlers sold the Myrtle Beach portion of the business, the couple moved to Linden Arms in Delray Beach and lived there for 28 years. Mr. Buehler died in 2005.
    Married in 1945 after her mother’s friend set them up on a blind date to play cards, the young couple moved to Delray Beach in 1948 “when there was nothing here,” their daughter said.
    Although she never attended college, Mrs. Buehler worked for many years as the accountant for the family business.
    The daughter of the late Charles and Martha Knox, Mrs. Buehler was born at home in the suburbs of Philadelphia and was raised in Glenolden, Pa. She graduated from Glen-Nor High School in 1938.
    Mrs. Buehler — or Mrs. B as she would prefer — was an active parishioner at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church. Her services were held Oct. 20, and the family asks that any memorials be made to the American Diabetes Association.

Palm Beach Travel owner Annie Davis and her son Jack use a golf cart to move furniture and decorations

from the agency’s current location to another in Manalapan’s Plaza del Mar. The move makes way

for a Publix grocery that is planned for the mall in 2017.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Christine Davis

    Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards 2016 named Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa in Manalapan No. 1 among the top resorts on Florida’s Atlantic Coast. The news was not unexpected, but good nonetheless, for Eau Palm Beach.
    Readers of Condé Nast Traveler for the second straight year ranked it the best resort on Florida’s east coast. The news is good for a variety of reasons: First of all, more than 300,000 readers voted, twice that in 2015, an indicator that more people are taking vacations and many will visit the Palm Beaches, which boast six additional resorts in the top 20.
    Less than two years ago, Palm Beach’s new uber-developer Jeff Greene brought in Kimpton Hotels to shake up the Omphoy. Rebranded as Tideline, it made its first appearance on the list at No. 4, as Condé Nast voters noted it was “radically free of the area’s renowned pretensions, yet suitably sophisticated.”

    Another new addition is the Jupiter Beach Resort & Spa (8). The venerable Breakers, however, slipped from fifth to 14th and The Four Seasons from eighth to 18th.
    Farther south, the Boca Beach Club jumped from 20 to 13. Its older sibling, the Boca Raton Resort & Club, squeaked back onto the list at 19.
    Palm Beach’s Chesterfield and Brazilian Court ranked ninth and 13th on the list of Florida’s best hotels. The Alfond Inn in Winter Park was No. 1.
    And more good news: Palm Beach was ranked 11th in best places to retire — if you have deep pockets — and Palm Beach International ranked fifth among the best U.S. airports for waiting out winter storms.
                                
    Crane’s Beach House Boutique Hotel & Luxury Villas celebrates its 15th anniversary at a party from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Nov. 15. The cost to attend is $15 per person. Money raised will go to the HOW Foundation of South Florida and Project Holiday.
    As part of its celebration, hotel guests can receive a 15 percent discount during November when they make their reservations through CranesBeachHouse.com. For information, call 278-1700.
                                
    Kogan Estate Homes, a boutique luxury real estate company that opened in December, closed $4.69 million in sales in one week in August. Broker Adam Kogan and his wife, agent Angela Kogan, listed and sold the home of their client in The Oaks, Boca Raton, for $1.39 million and then found her a home at 955 Emerald Row, Gulf Stream, which she purchased for $3.3 million.
    Previously with Lang Realty, the Kogans have a combined 23 years in real estate. Since 2013, they have sold more than $80 million in area residential sales. Kogan Estate Homes has an office at 12358 Pleasant Green Way, Boynton Beach. For information, call 271-3799.
                                
    In October, Christel Silver, owner of Silver International Realty in Delray Beach, welcomed Annette Klein, new consul general for Germany, on behalf of the German American Business Chamber of South Florida at its recent meeting. Previously, Klein was consul general in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Gdansk, Poland.

The Corcoran Group is promoting its brand in Delray Beach via a free shuttle to get residents

and visitors around town without having to worry about parking.

Photo provided

    After joining the Downtowner Network Oct. 1, The Corcoran Group in Delray Beach offers a free shuttle service around town to area residents and visitors. Shuttle drivers act as Corcoran brand ambassadors, and the shuttle will carry iPads displaying videos and information about Corcoran in Delray Beach.
    “Corcoran’s shuttle allows those in Delray Beach the flexibility to travel the town free of charge while eliminating the burden of parking in the busy retail areas,” said Corcoran’s regional senior vice president, Bill Yahn. “It is a tangible expression of our ‘Live Who You Are’ philosophy.”
    To order a ride, go to ridedowntowner.com/cities/delray-beach/ from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
                                
     Two single-family housing patterns appear to be emerging in Palm Beach County. Concerning median sale price, the county’s lowest price year-to-date was in January at $284,500; its highest price year-to-date was in June at $320,000; September ended at $316,000. This pattern suggests that the median home price could moderately decrease in the coming months.
    Concerning supply of inventory, the county’s highest level year-to-date was in March at 5.1 months; its lowest level year-to-date was in August at 4.6 months; September ended at 4.8 months. This pattern suggests that supply of homes could moderately increase in the coming months.
    “With the potential for more inventory at lower prices, I could see home buyers continuing to keep Realtors quite busy this fall,” said Judy Ramella, president of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches.
                                
    In September, Pineapple Grove Associates, managed by Robert J. Dockerty, bought the 40,025-square-foot retail center at 5859 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, from Lincoln Park Delray LLC, owned and managed by Michael Janoura, for $12.85 million. The deal included the assumption of a $7.88 million mortgage from Centerstate Bank of Florida. Lincoln Park, built on the 5-acre site in 1985, was last traded for $2.9 million in 1999.
                                
    On a lot at 550 SE Fifth Ave. in Boca Raton, two 6,500-square-foot buildings soon will be built. One of the buildings is already leased, and the second building, which can be subdivided, is still available. Construction by Delray Beach-based Azure Development, the owner/builder, broke ground in September with an anticipated completion date of June.
    The price is negotiable. For information, call Roxanne Register, vice president of leasing and sales for Katz & Associates, at 869-4346.

Jelena Lovric, owner of Love Rich Boutique, and Jacqueline Pfeffer, owner of Juicebuzz, will help celebrate

Small Business Saturday on Nov. 26 in Delray Beach with 450 other boutiques, salons, spas, galleries

and restaurants downtown. The event, complete with promotions, is sponsored by

the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority.

Photo provided

    The Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority suggests marking your calendars for Small Business Saturday in Downtown Delray Beach on Nov. 26. More than 450 boutiques, salons, spas, galleries and restaurants are scheduled to participate, and recent retail additions include Aqua Swimwear, Bolufe, Mar Blu, VT Studios and 21 Drops.
    They join Vince Canning Shoes, Avalon Gallery, Murder on the Beach Bookstore, Petite Connection, Hands, Delray Camera Shop, Richwagen’s Delray Bike & Sport, Periwinkle, Morley, Love Rich Boutique, Oh My Bod, Margaux Riviera, Just Hearts, The Wine Wave, From Roehm With Love, Monogram Closet, the Spy Store and many more.
    For a complete list of participating merchants and to learn about November promotions, visit www.facebook.com/DelrayDDA.
                                
    A board member of Symphonia Boca Raton chamber orchestra since 2007, Carole Boucard, of Boca Raton, recently was elected as board president. Over the years, she created the organization’s Lunch and Learn fundraising events at the Boca Raton Resort & Club and was involved in the Meet the Orchestra program that enables families to attend a Symphonia dress rehearsal and meet orchestra members at an “instrument petting zoo.”  Boucard is an agent at Coldwell Banker and previously was the director of public relations at the Boca Raton Resort & Club. 
                                
    The family-owned Josie’s Ristorante now features an Italian-inspired brunch menu on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The restaurant is at 1602 S. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach.  
                                
    In September, at the International Festivals & Events Association/Haas & Wilkerson Pinnacle Awards Ceremony’s annual convention in Boise, Idaho, Garlic Fest, Bacon & Bourbon Fest and Delray Beach Wine & Seafood Fest, produced by the Festival Management Group, received nine awards. Among them, the Garlic Fest took a first place for the best social media site and first and second places for the best newspaper insert in the budget category.

A social at the Delray Beach Arts Garage was part of the West Atlantic Redevelopment Coalition’s 20th anniversary.

Photo by Kenneth Bridgett/Kenneth Lamor Signature Photography

    The West Atlantic Redevelopment Coalition celebrated its 20th anniversary Sept. 9-11. Weekend events included a social at Arts Garage, Gentlemen of The Set Gala and Awards Dinner at the Fieldhouse at Old School Square, and a golf tournament at the Delray Beach Golf Club.

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

Architect Doug Mummaw sits before a rendering of the new Royal Palm Place, which he calls

‘classical architecture with a modern interpretation.’ Mummaw, whose office is in the plaza,

has done nearly all of his work in his native Boca Raton.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Brian Biggane

    Boca Raton native Doug Mummaw recalled it was “me and a drawing board” when he launched his architectural career 30 years ago.
    Hard to believe what’s transpired since?
    “Actually, it’s impossible to believe,” he said. “To sustain 30 years is quite an undertaking. We’ve counted three major recessions, not to mention the dips along the way. Coming out of the last recession, where 40 percent of my friends are no longer employed as architects, it’s quite a remarkable accomplishment.”
    From the redesign of the Fifth Avenue Shops to an estimated 6,000 offices throughout Boca Raton to much of East Palmetto Park Road, Mummaw’s work has largely changed the face of the city in which he was born and raised, having attended Boca Raton High School and Florida Atlantic University on his way up.
    And the crowning achievement of his career might be seven buildings he’s designing. A complete makeover of Royal Palm Place over the next 10 years, they will be what he calls “a classical vertical village” that will put forth a combination of restaurant, retail and residential offerings in the area east of Federal Highway and south of Palmetto Park Road.
    “I’m so proud of this city; I believe in its growth,” Mummaw, 50, said of Boca Raton, where he estimates he’s done 98 percent of his work.

    “I was here when Boca Mall was here, before Mizner Park. I believe in good growth, smart growth. Our motto is ‘Proven Design Matters,’ so we want everyone to have the benefit of excellent design. And to see that in our community is exceptional.”
    Computers were around when Mummaw got his start in the business, but with a price tag in excess of $150,000 for a mainframe system they were out of his reach financially. He recalls buying his first computer, plotter and software package for $30,000; nowadays a laptop with all that and more goes for $2,500.
    Having decided he wanted to pursue architecture in his early teens, he got hands-on experience  in plumbing and electrical work from friends and family members in the trades.
    “And I was always interacting with the drawings,” he said. “I was drawn to the artistry of it, and I could draw. Once you can create something, and draw it, then you see it built, you know you’re in the right industry.”
    His staff in his Royal Palm Place office has grown to 15 and is multicultural, including Brazilians, Colombians and Jamaicans. “We have our own little World Cup,” he smiled. “[North] Americans are now in the minority.”
    Half that staff is working on the Royal Palm Place master plan, which will feature 900 units and 225,000 square feet of entertainment, retail, restaurants and a promenade, with ample parking as well.
    “It’s basically the reinvention of Royal Palm Place,” he said. “We’re going to wind up with an eclectic group of buildings that relate to classical architecture with a modern interpretation. Our client loves classical architecture.”
    He expects drawings to be submitted for approval by the end of November and approval within a year. Two buildings should be completed by the end of 2018.
    Mummaw and Associates Inc. threw a party for itself and an estimated 200 clients in late October to celebrate the 30-year milestone.
    “Our guests are not just the people I’m working with now but people that some of my consultants have worked with for 30 years,” Mummaw said. “People that we’ve had relationships with for decades. When you have those kinds of strengths with people you’ve worked with, that’s incredibly important.”

Sherry Johnson speaks with customers at the center’s Secret Garden Café.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Donald Godfrey loads meals he delivers for homebound seniors as Michelle Davis White,

senior Veggie Mobile program director, helps at the Community Caring Center

of Greater Boynton Beach. Godfrey also is a former client.

Related story: Honey-do men do much more than deliver food

Sherry Johnson keeps the Community Caring Center

in Boynton Beach chugging along as it plans to expand.

By Lona O’Connor

    A few months ago, Sherry Johnson was tired. She was feeling her age. She had been running the Community Caring Center for nearly 20 years and had watched her son die after a four-year battle with brain cancer. Her daughter was seriously ill.
    She wrote in a Facebook post: “I don’t often rant, preach, or extend my ideas, personal sorrows, misfortunes, or celebrations,” she wrote. “I am here at a pivotal moment in my life. Facing 70. … The devil has been on my heels, losing a son last year and coming very close to losing a daughter this summer. …”
    Community Caring Center has provided food and social services to needy people in Boynton Beach since a group of clergy started it in 1987. Johnson has led the group since 1998, as chief visionary and, when necessary, janitor.
    “Sherry continued to function through everything,” said Joyce Portnoy, president of CCC’s board of directors for the last five years.
    By the end of her Facebook post, Johnson had characteristically turned upbeat, thanking her team for its support.
    “She talked herself right out of it,” said Allan Hendricks, a CCC board member. “Lord have mercy, I can’t imagine losing a child, facing those stresses and challenges. But she gets to lean on us. As a team we hold each other up.”
    Her supporters are united in their devotion to Johnson.
    “There are a lot of things that need to be fixed in the world and it can be a little overwhelming,” said Hendricks. “Then you meet someone like Sherry who is working for change and you say, here’s something I can get.”
    Johnson has kept CCC quietly chugging along, with optimism and not much money.
    “If a toilet is broken, her sleeves are rolled up,” said Doreen Robinson, a board member. “Or she’s flipping chicken in the kitchen. There is nothing she would not do. Her heart is as big as the world.”
    The Community Caring Center started in October 1987. By 1998 it was struggling and Johnson’s church took it over. Johnson had been working for the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency and her pastor asked her to run CCC.
    From the start, as she interviewed people seeking financial aid and shelter, Johnson noticed something.
    “Someone would lose a job after six months and I would say, what’s going on, and they would say, I was out sick a lot, I’ve got diabetes.”
    All told, 32 percent of people applying for financial assistance had nutritionally related diseases.
    “I said, oh, my gosh, as a food pantry we hand out cans of green beans full of sodium, and baked goods!”
    Johnson set herself to distributing healthier food, including fresh produce, and teaching nutrition to adults and children.
    CCC is poised for a new era. An energetic board of directors is determined to graduate from grants to a guaranteed annual income and to raise awareness about CCC, whose budget is just below a million dollars.
    CCC consists of the food pantry, social services and the Secret Garden Café on Boynton Beach Boulevard, which serves meals several days a week and hosts trendy pop-up food events.
    The café is the home of one of Johnson’s longtime dreams, a small-business incubator. A group of bakers and cooks sells its wares there.
    “When I first came on the board, the incubator was new, and it was struggling,” said Robinson. “But Sherry was a soldier with her feet planted. She said, I need two years. Sherry shed sweat and tears to build that program.”
    The payoff is a new group of enterprising and ambitious chefs devoted to the cause, like chefs Nina Kauder and Lynn Dorsey, who have lured vegetarians, vegans and foodies to the Secret Garden, which also serves organic meat dishes.
    “Now people see the value of it, especially people who have eaten there,” says Portnoy. “They see how good the food is.”
 
Veggie Mobiles
    If all goes as planned, CCC and the Secret Garden will no longer be one of those best-kept secrets and CCC’s future will be financially secure.
    “We keep saying, can’t you feel the moment? Certainly we can feel the moment,” says Portnoy. “We got up the courage to ask for a lot of money. One of our board members said, go big, ask for a lot.”
    Going big resulted in a grant from the Jim Moran Foundation, which donated two shiny new Veggie Mobiles to deliver food to seniors.
    The future also means taking the burden of workaday details off a 70-year-old founder who has been doing it all for decades: a new grant writer (paid for by a grant) and a bookkeeper and an assistant for Johnson.
    The next step is to secure a stable flow of money for the organization, which has for years been patching together grants and one-time gifts.
    “It’s been catch-as-catch-can,” said Portnoy. “You need to know you’re getting a certain amount of money and we’re not at that point yet. If we could have a trust that would give us $50,000 a year, we could do so much more.”
    Sometimes even a visionary needs to hear a little tough talk.
    “I told her, we need you leading the organization, not cleaning the toilets,” said Robinson. “She and I could be out in the community, creating new relationships.”
    Now that the “R” word has been mentioned, it’s also time to plan for the future of CCC. “I want her to feel she’s had some success before she gets to retire, so she can go with a clear head, feeling she’s done everything she possibly can to keep this organization afloat, to keep CCC as a viable part of the city,” said Portnoy.
 
Cranksgiving
    Robinson, a former hotel management executive, is in charge of fundraising events, including Cranksgiving, a scavenger hunt conducted on bicycles, on Nov. 13. Last year’s Cranksgiving had 54 riders and paid for $1,300 in groceries. Robinson’s goal is to double that this year.
    In the spring there will be a March 3 hunger walk and a Kentucky Derby fundraising event in May.
    “One of my missions is to let people know,” said Robinson. “Not many people know about CCC, after 30 years in operation. We are focusing on the good work.”
    Years ago, the first fundraiser brought in about $8,000. Last year, the James Bond-themed “Diamonds are Forever” event raised $87,000.
    “People say, where did this organization come from? It does what?” said Hendricks. “Sherry is not the kind of person to demand anything or push too hard. We’ve pushed our visibility.”
 
Next generation of leaders
    Johnson sees that from her current crop of business protégés could come the next generation of leaders of CCC.
    “That’s my job, to provide a platform for them. It’s a match made in heaven,” said Johnson. “Nina is learning social marketing, she’s picked up new skills. And she has an entourage of people who follow her.”
    Dorsey is cooking healthy meals for seniors as well as growing her own business as a private chef.
    “Lynn is just one step away,” said Johnson. “We’ve given her low overhead, low rent and equipment and now she may be hiring her first employee, a delivery guy. This is so exciting right now.”
    Perhaps Johnson’s biggest dream is for the Secret Garden to be part of an urban living-working-eating neighborhood.
    “Here’s my vision,” she says, and it seems so very possible that the listener is already on board with any idea that comes out of her mouth.
    “If you could take a Guanabanas (waterside restaurant in Jupiter) kind of atmosphere, with trees and paths, and combine it with a Sundy House courtyard setting. …”
    That dream has so many working parts that even Johnson is not pushing it too hard just yet.
    But don’t put anything past her.

If You Go
    The Nov. 13 Cranksgiving event begins and ends at the Fish Depot Bar and Grill, 511 NE Fourth St., Boynton Beach. Registration is at 8 a.m., the ride starts at 9 a.m. Participants can ride, volunteer or drop off food. The event includes a specially priced brunch. For more information, contact Dean Fesette at Fesette@aol.com or 542-1930 or to register online, visit www.cccgbb.org/cranksgiving.

The stamp depicts a menorah in a window with snow outside.

By Janis Fontaine

    The U.S. Postal Service bestowed an honor on Temple Beth El of Boca Raton by naming it the official site for the first-day-of-issue dedication of the U.S. 2016 Hanukkah stamp. The Postal Service planned to release the stamp commemorating the Festival of Lights during a ceremony Nov. 1 at Temple Beth El, a Reform congregation in Boca Raton, which was chosen for its “vibrant Jewish population.”
    For the last few years, the dedication ceremony for the Hanukkah stamp had taken place in New York City, and the organizers were ready for a change. The Jewish population of South Florida — estimated at more than half a million people — gave them a legitimate reason to choose our palm trees and  ocean breeze over another gray November day in Manhattan.
    The Postal Service offered its first Hanukkah stamps in 1996, and a stamp has been offered 12 times since then. Four stamps, including this year’s by artist William Low, depicted a menorah. One stamp had a dreidel, and one was just the word Hanukkah in bright lettered boxes.
    The Postal Service also offers commemorative Christmas and Kwanzaa stamps, Fourth of July and Cinco de Mayo stamps, even the ever-popular Valentine’s Day ”Love” stamps that grace wedding invitations year-round.
    Low’s stamp has a burning menorah sitting in a homey window, and the branches outside are frosted with a blanket of snow that glows pale blue in the candlelight. He worked with Ethel Kessler, an art director working with the Postal Service, who seeks out artists with styles that lend themselves to the small format of stamps.
    Low has been producing stamp art for years. He also illustrated the holiday windows set of four stamps released in October, and the two poinsettias Forever stamps released in 2013. He painted the 2014 Winter Flowers set of four Forever stamps.
    At the dedication ceremony at Temple Beth El, the Postal Service was to give a 45-minute presentation that concluded with the big reveal: the pulling down of a curtain to unveil a blowup of the stamp. Postal Service CEO David E. Williams was scheduled to attend, as was Jeffery A. Taylor, manager of the South Florida district.
    Steve Kaufman, executive director of Temple Beth El for the last four years, says the congregation was excited about the national attention. “The honor came out of the blue,” he said. “We didn’t apply or anything. They just picked us.”
    Kaufman said that the planners did some quiet research, checking out Temple Beth El’s website and Facebook page, checking to see how many followers it has, and what kind of programs it offers for the 1,500 families that make up the congregation.
    The synagogue is at 333 SW Fourth Ave., Boca Raton.
    Rabbi Dan Levin planned to offer an invocation, and the cantors and children from the preschool planned to sing Hanukkah songs.
    Kaufman said he expected the event to attract some local philatelists in search of first-day covers. FDCs are stamped envelopes, postal cards or other postal materials with cancellation stamps that state “First Day of Issue.” The special decorative artwork that complements each stamp is called a “cachet” and is highly collectible these days.
    “It is a really big deal,” Kaufman said of the honor.

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

By Janis Fontaine

   The recent run of The World Goes ’Round at the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse did more than entertain. It also raised money for Metropolitan Community Church of the Palm Beaches and Joy MCC in Orlando. Both groups received checks of almost $2,800 from MNM Productions.
    Both faith communities are dedicated to serving their local LGBTQ communities in the aftermath of last June’s massacre at Pulse in Orlando.
    The World Goes ’Round was the fourth major musical produced by partners Michael Lifshitz and Marcie Gorman-Althof of MNM Productions in the last two years. The not-for-profit theater, founded in 2014, has three shows planned for the summer of 2017: Monty Python’s Spamalot (May 17-June 4), Company (July 21-Aug. 6) and La Cage Aux Folles (Oct. 6-22), all at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.
    For more information, call 722-4258 or visit www.southfloridatheatre.org/mnm-productions.
    For more information about the Metropolitan Community Church, at 4857 Northlake Blvd. in Palm Beach Gardens, call 775-5900 or visit www.mccpalmbeach.org.

B’nai Torah Congregation sends supplies to Haiti
     The devastation of Hurricane Matthew on Haiti inspired B’nai Torah Congregation, a large Conservative synagogue in Boca Raton, and Hands on Tzedakah, a Boca-based charity, to open their hearts and wallets.
    In only a few days, the two groups raised and gathered more than $200,000 in donations of critical supplies, as well as cash contributions of $30,000, which was matched by HOT and used to purchase additional supplies.
    More than 150 volunteers spent a day unloading cars and sorting, boxing, taping and shrink-wrapping the $200,000 plus in supplies. About 1,000 people made donations.
    For more information about relief to Haiti, call Summer Faerman, B’nai Torah TLC director, at 305-1228, or email summer.faerman@bnai-torah.org.

CROS Ministries’ walk raises $23,000 to fight hunger
    CROS Ministries held its End Hunger Walk 5K, a 3.1-mile walk on Flagler Drive, on Oct. 1 to raise money for its hunger programs and increase awareness about hunger in our community. Despite rainy weather, 170 walkers turned out and helped raise pledges of more than $23,000.
    CROS Ministries serves hungry people in Palm Beach and Martin counties. Its programs include seven community food pantries; the Caring Kitchen, a hot meal and social services program; summer camp; a weekend food program for children; and gleaning, a food recovery program.
    Volunteers are needed. For more information, call 233-9009 or visit www.crosministries.org.

Food drive a success
    For the 23rd consecutive year, Congregation B’nai Israel’s Kantor Family Center collected food during the Jewish High Holy Days to donate to the Palm Beach County Food Bank, which supports more than 140 partner agencies with food, programs and services.
    The members collected more than 10,000 pounds of food, which will be distributed by Feed My Community, Jacobson Family Food Pantry of Ruth & Norman Rales Jewish Family Services, CROS Ministries, Boca Helping Hands and more.
    Congregation B’nai Israel is at 2200 Yamato Road, Boca Raton. For more information about the food drive, contact Cindy or Greg Jacob at 487-7355 or email gejcadj@aol.com. For more information on CBI, visit www.cbiboca.org or call 241-8118.

Meeting for all faiths
    The Interfaith Café meets from 7 to 9 p.m. Nov. 17 at the South County Civic Center, 16700 Jog Road, Delray Beach. Volunteers are needed to help keep this interfaith dialogue going. From clerical work to designing programs, there are many ways you can help. Contact Jane at jane@aurorasvoice.org.
 
An Advent retreat
    Join the congregation of St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church for an evening retreat Nov. 30 in Harris Hall at the church, 100 NE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton. This retreat will usher in the Advent season with prayer, dinner and small group discussions. A candlelight labyrinth walk follows. A donation of $10 is requested to cover the cost of the meal and other supplies. RSVP required to anitasherman561@gmail.com.

Local rabbis chosen
for elite program
    Boca Raton Rabbis Josh Broide and Dan Levin recently returned from their first summer residency in Jerusalem as part of Shalom Hartman Institute’s sixth Rabbinic Leadership Initiative.
    The Shalom Hartman Institute does research and education that immerses an elite group of rabbis in the highest levels of Jewish learning.
    These two South County rabbis underwent a rigorous selection process by the institute.
    Levin, a senior rabbi at (Reform) Temple Beth El of Boca Raton, and Broide, a practicing Orthodox rabbi who serves as the director of community engagement at the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, were honored to have been chosen for this three-year intensive fellowship program.
    Levin and Broide will join 26 other RLI rabbis from around the country who will engage in webinars, study, small group elective courses and local projects.
    For more information on the Shalom Hartman Institute or the RLI, visit www.hartman.org.il.

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

Donald Godfrey and Michelle Davis White load the Veggie Mobile van, which takes meals to senior shut-ins in Boynton Beach.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Lona O’Connor

    “Meals!” shouts Donald Godfrey, with a hearty knock on the door. In his cheerfully colored “Veggie Mobile” van, he is delivering hot food to senior shut-ins in Boynton Beach.
    It wasn’t that long ago — about five years — that Godfrey was a client at the Community Caring Center, which provides food and social services to people in need in Boynton Beach. He had lost his job.
    “I was down on my luck and I turned to the Caring Center. Thank God for the Caring Center,” said Godfrey, now 58.
    A 21st-century loaves-and-fishes operation, CCC manages to provide more than 250 nutritious meals a week to homebound seniors, at $3.71 a meal. On this particular day, it’s broiled fish, salad and grapes.
    There is nothing glamorous about this work, but it has to be done. Four days a week, sometimes more, Godfrey and Willie Drayton step into some lives that are sad, desperate, hanging by a thread.
    They are heroes to their clients. They get smiles, jokes and flirtatious eye-rolls from 80-year-old women.
    They know their clients as well as neighbors.
    “When they have Alzheimer’s, I try to put the food right in their hand,” says Drayton, who knows that it might otherwise sit on a table, forgotten and untouched.
    “For some of them, it’s the only time they have a hot meal,” says Drayton.
    Godfrey started volunteering for CCC and later got hired as a part-time driver.
    Now Godfrey, of Boynton Beach, delivers food to others.
    “Food and a smile,” as he likes to say.
    “It’s wonderful, better by the week,” Lillie Darville says about the food. She insists on planting a peck on Drayton’s cheek before letting him leave her porch.
    “The food is delicious,” says Teresa McInerney, 73.
    Godfrey and Drayton, nicknamed the “honey-do men,” tack on a lot of extra volunteer hours, doing errands and repairs for the people they deliver food to.
    One woman confides that the city code enforcement officers have cited her for the torn plaster faux-brick façade on her small house. Godfrey assures her that he will be back to patch it for her.
    On Wednesday and Friday mornings, chef Lynn Dorsey rustles up protein, veggies and fruit, which are boxed up and delivered immediately. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the drivers deliver fresh fruits and vegetables.
    This month, with help from Publix supermarkets and Walmart, Godfrey and Drayton will deliver about 250 Thanksgiving turkey baskets to their clients.
    Godfrey has much to be thankful for, but what makes him happiest is being able to help so many others.
    “We take them to the doctor, we make sure they have a place to stay, clothes, we move them, we get ’em furniture. We love ’em, we take care of ’em. We do it all. All of them are so sweet. It’s a blessing we can do this,” he says. “It lifts me up and keeps me strong.”

Looking up through a stand of blue bamboo.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Black bamboo

Giant bamboo

Sunburst bamboo

Seabreeze bamboo

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

    Anyone who understands the exotic appeal of bamboo will want to visit the Tropical Bamboo Nursery and Gardens in Loxahatchee.
    Here you’ll find about 250 varieties, making this the largest in-ground tropical bamboo collection in the world, according to owner Robert Saporito. Most of the plants here were hand-collected by Saporito in places as far away as Thailand, China and Myanmar.
    His business is a result of his love affair with these exotic grasses that he discovered as a young helicopter mechanic working in remote regions of the world, including coastal South America, Trinidad and the Baja Peninsula of Mexico.
    “It was the size of the bamboo that drew me to it,” he says.
    He remembers seeing the 100-foot-high timber bamboos for the first time and feeling dwarfed next to their culms or canes that were about 8 inches in diameter. “It was like being in Gulliver’s Travels,” he says.
    When the helicopter business was bought out in 2001, Saporito decided to change careers. He cashed out his stock, bought five acres in Loxahatchee and opened his nursery the following year. Since then it has grown to 13 acres.
    We visited Saporito and his nursery a few days after Hurricane Matthew, and the public areas were a bit rough. But he is working to bring them back.
    Just off the parking lot, you’ll see the giant Guadua timber bamboo used in the construction of a pavilion as well as a pagoda-style lookout tower that, if you climb its circular staircase, provides an overview of the nursery.
    Here, too, you’ll see how bamboo can be used in the landscape. Whether trimmed to form a hedge, left tall and thick to offer privacy or chosen for the exotic color and shape of its culms, bamboo offers abundant variety.
    Take, for example, the Timor black bamboo that is prized for its lustrous black canes. Another popular variety seems to be the dwarf Buddha belly with its swollen internodes that look something like, well, Buddha’s belly.
    “When I first saw it, I was horrified and thought it was repulsive. But now I understand that it’s one of those grotesquely weird, cool plants. I get it,” Saporito says.
    And don’t miss the blue bamboo, whose culms are covered with a white powder. Saporito explains that the powder disappears with time but in the young bamboo it serves a purpose.
    When you see a bamboo shoot just beginning to grow, you’ll note that the height comes as the culms telescope from the center upward. The powder acts as a lubricant as the shoot extends itself.
    When you finish exploring this area, move to the opposite side of the parking lot, where you’ll find what might be considered a bamboo botanical garden. Saporito plants all the varieties that he’s imported or gotten from other collectors to see how the bamboos fare in our climate.
    He also discovers what properties each has that will make it appealing to those who want to use it in the landscape. It’s while they are growing here he notes how tall and thick the bamboo culms will grow as well as their color, shape and any other properties.
    If you see one type of bamboo you particularly like, signs offer you the scientific and popular name as well as country of origin. And a helpful staff is available to answer your questions. If no one is about and you need assistance, just ring the gong in the parking lot and someone will come to greet you.
    
A note on importing bamboo
    Until fairly recently, it was illegal to import bamboo into the United States.
    Bamboo is a grass, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture was concerned that bugs and diseases might also be brought into the country that would affect other grass crops such as corn, wheat and sugar cane.
    But in 2011, the USDA changed its rules and made it legal to import bamboo if the grasses are hand-harvested in country of origin and then shipped directly to a USDA facility in Beltsville, Md. There they are quarantined for one year before being released to the general population, including nurseries like Tropical Bamboo.
    For more information on legal requirements for importing bamboo, see Title 7 Code of Federal Regulation, Chapter 3, Part 319 USDA Animal & Plant Inspection Service Plant Protection and Quarantine, available online at the U.S. Government Publishing Office.

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