Maria Abbenante and her son Angelo pause inside Lynora’s Restaurant on Clematis Street

in West Palm Beach. Maria and her husband, Rafaelle, who live in Point Manalapan, came out

of retirement in 2014 to open the eatery with Angelo. Maria shuns canned tomatoes

or tomato paste in her sauces, and Rafaelle makes fresh pasta every day.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    If you run restaurants, as Maria Abbenante has for three decades, you know it takes more than a good chef to make the business successful.
    Every single person who works in the kitchen — and the restaurant  — plays an important role and deserves to be treated that way, the chef/owner of Lynora’s in West Palm Beach said.
    “In the kitchen, I treat the dishwasher like the chef,” Abbenante said.
    Her restaurant is an extension of her home.
    “I want everyone who comes here to feel like they’re at my home, treated like family,” she said.
    She and her husband, co-owner Rafaelle, came out of retirement in 2014 to open Lynora’s in West Palm Beach to help her son, Angelo Abbenante, get started in the business.
    Maria grew up in Ponza, Italy, a small island a few hours from Rome.
    “One of my favorite memories and first experiences working in a restaurant was helping my grandmother, Lynora, make pasta at our family restaurant when I was 5,” she said.  “I worked with my mother and grandmother at the restaurant until I was 18 and then left Italy with my husband to come to America.”
    The former high school sweethearts opened their first restaurant in White Plains, outside New York City. But the big city was too big for their liking, so they moved to Lake Worth and opened a small pizza and sandwich shop.
    “Two years later, we found a larger space a couple of blocks away and we opened Lynora’s, which is named after my grandmother,” Maria Abbenante, 59, said. They closed that restaurant in 2004.
    “We came out of retirement in 2014 when we were presented with an opportunity to open a new Lynora’s on Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach,” she said. 
    This month, Lynora’s will open a second location, in Jupiter at 1548 N. U.S. 1.  
    The Abbenantes, who have a home in Point Manalapan, take great pride in the food they serve and don’t take shortcuts.
There are no canned tomatoes or tomato paste in Maria’s homemade sauces. Only fresh ingredients are used, most organic and local. Rafaelle makes fresh pasta every day and butchers the meat used for their famous meatballs. Their son Angelo makes the wood oven pizzas.
    “I am from an island so I really like fresh fish, which can be prepared so many ways, from simply grilling it to preparing with a little olive oil and garlic, fresh pomodoro or a variety of sauces I make myself,” Maria said.  “I love the versatility of homemade pasta, which can complement so many different foods, and we make many different kinds of pasta at Lynora’s.”
    When not working, the mother of two grown sons enjoys spending time with her five grandchildren, ranging in age from 6 to 15.
She and her husband return to Italy every year and have plans to take the grandchildren there.
    “I will never lose my accent,” she said, “and my sons (Angelo and Roberto) both speak Italian (and English).”
— Mary Thurwachter

    Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that influenced you?
    A. I grew up in Italy on a small island called Ponza. I attended school there and I remember how much I loved it. I was always the first one to raise my hand when the teacher asked a question. School gave me a thirst for learning new things.

    Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
    A. I have worked in the restaurant  business all my life. My grandmother, Lynora, had a restaurant in Ponza. When I was about 5, she taught me to make pasta and that’s where it all began. I’m proud of my restaurants and am looking forward to adding  another one in Jupiter this month.

    Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?
    A. Whatever you do, you need to love what you do.
    
    Q. How did you choose to make your home in Point Manalapan?
    A. About 30 years ago, we bought waterfront land there and built the house we wanted  — with a good kitchen, of course!
    
    Q. What is your favorite part of living in Point Manalapan?
    A. I love living by the water. I love the surroundings.
    
    Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration or when you want to relax?
    A. We play all kinds of music at the restaurant, but when I am alone, I like it quiet. When I’m driving the car, I pray.
    
    Q. Do you have a quote that guides your decisions?
    A. “It’s more important to give than receive.”
    
    Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
    A. My grandmother and my mother. Both were good cooks.

    Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
    A. I never thought about that, but I guess it would have to be an Italian actress. Maybe Sophia Loren.

    Q. What is your favorite thing to cook?
    A. Sauces. They are very important to the food. Without sauce, food would be bland.

By Christine Davis

    Astronomer and researcher Ata Sarajedini was named dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at Florida Atlantic University. He will assume his new role in January. Sarajedini is associate dean for natural science and mathematics and associate dean for research in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida and is a professor in UF’s astronomy department.
    Sarajedini is a scientific editor of the Journals of the American Astronomical Society and has served as a member of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Time Allocation Committee and its Hubble Space Telescope Users Committee.
                                
    Florida Atlantic University received a $5 million gift from Phil and Susan Smith to establish the Phil Smith Center for Free Enterprise at the university’s College of Business. The main tower will be named Phil Smith Hall in honor of the FAU alumnus. A Broward County businessman, Smith is president and CEO of Phil Smith Management Inc., operating 11 automobile dealership locations.
                                
    Delray Beach resident Lorri Oziri was appointed vice president of development at the Palm Beach County Food Bank, based in Lantana. The nonprofit organization collects and distributes food to more than 100 agencies that serve more than 200,000 county residents. Oziri is responsible for fundraising activities and overseeing the agency’s communication operations.

The popularity of these sea turtle charms prompted 16-year-old Skylar Mandell

to rename her growing bracelet business.

Photo provided

                                
    Skylar Mandell, a 2016 graduate of the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy and a junior at St. Andrew’s School, has changed her bracelet business from “Moody Buddhi” to “Florida Sea Turtle Co.”
    Originally, her company designed bracelets of all types, but her brightly colored, beaded bracelets with sea turtle charms were especially popular. Hence, her new focus and her new company, which, by the way, will donate 10 percent of all proceeds to sea turtle conservation centers in Florida.
    The 16-year-old’s bracelets are available at the Board Room in Delray Beach, and in Boca Raton they are sold at Gumbo Limbo gift shop, Daggerwing Nature Center, and Gift Shack at Office Depot Foundation. For information, visit www.Floridaseaturtlecompany.com.
                                
    The Schoolhouse Children’s Museum & Learning Center in Boynton Beach has appointed Jerry Taylor and Tom Wilby to its board of directors. Taylor, a former Boynton Beach mayor, is a retired senior master sergeant with 26 years of service in the Air Force. Wilby, a Scirocco Group insurance agent, handles employee benefits for companies.
                                
    In August, IBM contributed a $1,000 community grant to the Golden Bell Education Foundation in support of the efforts of IBM volunteer Sherri Scheurich, who worked with the Golden Bell on an event committee. The grant will go to support programs like the Boca Chamber’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy as well as educational programs that support business skills.
                                
    With the help of the Salvation Army of Palm Beach County, Lake Worth Chapter, Dorothy Boylan, assistant director of human resources at Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa, organized a backpack drive that provided school supplies for 50 students. Other Eau news: Michelle Phillips has been named the resort’s director of brand management.
                                
    The YMCA of South Palm Beach County is upgrading its Peter Blum Family YMCA of Boca Raton, at 6631 Palmetto Circle South, and DeVos-Blum Family YMCA of Boynton Beach, at 9600 S. Military Trail. By winter, performance training areas will feature classes and equipment designed to challenge members who are seeking to increase the intensity of their workouts. Also, cycling studios will have new Precor Spinner bikes and stadium seating, new flooring and improved ventilation.
    Enhanced amenities include lobbies and community areas with Wi-Fi, charging stations, and touchscreen displays. At the Boca Raton branch, new features include a rock-climbing wall in the pool area, as well as locker room lighting and shower upgrades, with completion scheduled for Jan. 1.
    The Boynton Beach branch will add a new preschool classroom, with completion scheduled for Dec. 1. The YMCA branches will both remain open during these upgrades. Also, the YMCA’s monthlong annual campaign kicks off on Oct. 5, with money raised benefiting its financial assistance program.

Corcoran Group agent Candace Friis listed the home at 1428 N. Ocean Blvd. in Gulf Stream

(aerial view below) for $17.75 million in June and followed it up with two more listings

for southern-facing point lots: a $9.495 million house on Palm Way and an $8.9 million home on Wright Way.

Photos provided

                                
    It was a hot summer for Corcoran Group agent Candace Friis. She acquired three new listings on southern-facing point lots in Gulf Stream. In June, she listed 1428 N. Ocean Blvd. for $17.75 million. Designed by architect Randall Stofft, the six-bedroom, 12,567-square-foot house rests on an acre lot with 470 feet of water frontage. According to public records, the property was purchased for $8.7 million in August 2008.
    Listed for $9.495 million in August, a five-bedroom, 9,600-square-foot house at 554 Palm Way has 411 feet of water frontage. It was bought in February 2014 for $8.2 million.
    Friis also listed the five-bedroom, 8,626-square-foot home at 570 Wright Way in August. Priced at $8.9 million, it has 348 feet on the water. The property was bought in October 2008 for $5.9 million.
                                
    In August, Judy Ramella, president of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches, received the 2016 Florida Realtors Achievement Award at the Florida Realtors Convention & Trade Expo’s annual awards luncheon in Orlando. She is on the board of directors for Florida Realtors as well as the National Association of Realtors.
    Ramella started her career 19 years ago as an agent with Dutch Real Estate in Boynton Beach. She is a broker associate for Continental Properties in West Palm Beach and a real estate instructor for the School of Advanced Realty in West Palm Beach.
                                
    According to July home sales numbers, the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches reported that Palm Beach County showed a double-digit drop of 15 percent in closed sale transactions. However, the median sale price rose 11 percent to $317,250, the average sale price rose 20 percent to $488,671, and the sum of all sale prices rose 3 percent to $748 million.
                                
    Throughout October, Lang Realty’s themes, events, branding and advertising will turn pink in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Lang Realty also will make a donation to the American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” for each home closed throughout October. Last year, Lang Realty raised $10,000 for the cause.
                                
    In September, Phil Scavo, from Ottawa, Canada, signed a lease for a spot at Renaissance Commons, 1500 Gateway Blvd., Boynton Beach, where he will open a Burger Fi franchise.  “We are taking over 3,000 square feet of the current Hurricane Grill & Wings space and plan to open the beginning of 2017,” he says. Scavo has sold his Canadian business, Greco Fitness, and is moving his family to Boca Raton.
                                
    Lucille’s Bad to the Bone BBQ has opened a new restaurant in the Delray Marketplace Plaza on Atlantic Avenue and Lyons Road in Delray Beach.
                                
    In August, the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County was invited by Visit Florida and the U.S. Travel Association to present closing-night entertainment promoting arts and culture in the county to 650 attendees of the 2016 U.S. Travel Association ESTO seminar, which was held at the Boca Raton Resort & Club.
    The following month, the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County won three Flagler Awards at the 2016 Visit Florida Governor’s Conference in Orlando. It won the Best of Show Henry Award for tourism marketing in its budget category; a Silver Award in tourism advocacy for its Cultural Concierge program, and a Bronze Award in niche marketing for its 2014-2015 fall/winter marketing campaign created with the Palm Beach County agency Levatas.
    The Flagler Awards, an annual statewide competition created by Visit Florida, recognizes outstanding Florida tourism marketing. To watch video from the event, visit www.thecoastalstar.com.
                                
    The Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative’s Get Your Grove On, a weeklong celebration of the arts in the Pineapple Grove Arts District, will run from Oct. 3 to 8. Its main event, On the Ave, along Northeast Second Avenue from El Camino to Brule, is from 5 to 9 p.m. Oct. 5. Along with the event’s variety of activities, merchants will offer special discounts, free services, entertainment and refreshments. For a complete schedule, visit www.OnTheAveDelrayBeach.com.
                                
    The Greater Boynton Beach Chamber of Commerce’s 46th annual Porges Cup Golf Tournament is coming up Oct. 14 at the Indian Spring Country Club. The tournament is open to the public; registration starts at 7 a.m. To register, visit www.boyntonbeach.org
                                
    Channel 12 news anchor Michele Wright will be the honorary chairwoman of the Community Caring Center of Greater Boynton Beach’s Magical Masquerade Ball on Oct. 27. Money raised will be used to support the center’s food pantry, senior meals, Senior Veggie Program, mass food distribution and Holiday Cornucopia.
    The ball will be at Benvenuto Restaurant, 1730 N. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach. Tickets are $125 per person or a table of 10 for $1,000. For information, call Doreen Robinson at 374-8536 or 575-5857.
                                
    The 15th annual Rooney’s Golf Foundation Charity Golf Tournament will be held at Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter on Oct. 31. The day will begin with a 7 a.m. registration and breakfast and will continue with a shotgun start at 8:30. Lunch, raffles and awards will follow golf.
    Proceeds will benefit Autism Project of Palm Beach County, The ARC Palm Beach County, Place of Hope and HomeSafe. 
    The major sponsors are the Rooney Family, Bettor Racing Inc. and AmTote International Inc.
 U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, will participate and is this year’s honorary chairman. Rooney’s Golf Foundation has donated $645,962 to Palm Beach County charities since 2001. $2,400 is the cost for a foursome. To participate, call 683-2222, Ext. 146, or Ext. 142.
                                
    Delray Beach and the Atlantic Crossing developers continue their stalemate.
    This time they are arguing over whether the dismissed federal counts are appealable.
    The developers say yes, arguing the federal claims for money damages can be appealed while the rest were returned to state court.
Delray Beach attorneys agreed with the appeals court — not now.
    Both documents were filed Sept. 23.
    The city also is asking the appeals court to determine the court where its counterclaim can be heard. The city wants the return of two alleys and easements needed for the downtown project.
    The developers have 60 days from filing the appeal to state the legal reasons why the federal judge erred in dismissing the federal counts. They appealed Aug. 24. As of press time, no brief was filed.
    The $200 million mixed-use project was proposed by a partnership between Edwards Companies and Ocean Ridge resident Carl DeSantis. Edwards bought DeSantis’ share in June for $38.5 million. Both would share in the proceeds if the federal case is decided in favor of the developers.

Jane Smith contributed to this report.

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

Development teams that bid on the Town Square proposal will have to include

the entire Boynton Beach High School in their plans, not just its facade.

File photo

By Jane Smith

    Preservationists were relieved to see the historic Boynton Beach High School remain in the city’s Town Square proposal that will be advertised to developers on Oct. 10.
    “The first part [of the proposal] is simply asking for team experience and financial capabilities,” Assistant City Manager Colin Groff said at the Sept. 20 City Commission meeting. “The second part has the meat of it, the best conceptual plan and best financial plan that meets the city’s needs.”
    He also gave commissioners an ambitious time line: Team proposals are due by Nov. 12 and will be cut to three by a city selection committee by Dec. 5. The final three teams will be invited to submit conceptual development and financing plans by Jan. 12. The public will be able to view the plans but not comment on them, he said.
    The contract will be signed for the first phase by March 30 and construction could start within a month.
    Shutting out the public did not sit well with some city residents.
    “My head wants to explode about Groff saying no comment,” Boynton Beach native Susan Oyer said. “You better bring a mop and bucket. You work for us, you represent our opinions.”
    She pointed out that the commissioners forgot to ask for public comment on Sept. 20 when the Town Square proposal was discussed.
    In July, Groff had suggested limiting mandates about what has to be included in the 16.5-acre Town Square to get the most responses. He suggested not requiring that the entire high school be included.
    Why the shift on Sept. 20? Because city commissioners may have been misinformed about the high school and what using its façade meant, said Barbara Ready, chairwoman of the city’s Historic Resources Preservation Board. Some, she said, thought it meant using the four walls when it actually means just saving the front.
    The entire high school now must be included in the Town Square, along with a scaled-down City Hall, the City Library, the Children’s Schoolhouse Museum and the Kids Kingdom playground.
    “I’m very thankful,” said Oyer, also a member of the city’s Historic Resources Preservation Board.
    The historic high school may be repurposed to contain uses from the Madsen Center, the Civic Center and the Arts Center, which will be demolished.
    As part of the plan, the police headquarters and Fire Station No. 1 could be located in the Town Square or on another parcel the city owns, such as property on High Ridge Road. Or that parcel could be sold because it’s commercially valuable. The public safety facilities also could sit on other parcels in the city.
    The 0.62-acre AmeriGas parcel, recently purchased by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, is too small for a fire station, Groff said. He said it needs at least 1.75 acres.
    The fire station also needs to be located on a main road or be within 500 feet of one. That means the city-owned Rolling Green site is not suitable for a fire station. It’s big enough but sits more than 2,000 feet from Seacrest Boulevard, even if an access road can be built along the canal.
    The city plans to ask voters in March to approve a bond referendum to cover the cost of building a new police headquarters and fire station.
    “Convincing residents who mostly don’t want all this height and density that THEY should help pay for it will be difficult,” said Harry Woodworth, who also is president of the Inlet Communities Association. INCA represents 10 waterfront communities in Boynton Beach.
    Under the Town Square proposal, a development team could own the land and lease the civic buildings and high school back to the city on a long-term lease. The rental rate would take into account the value of the land for mixed-use development.
    “I hate the idea of not owning our civic buildings,” said Oyer, a fifth-generation Floridian. “Why can’t they just lease the land to the developers?”
    On Oct. 4, the City Commission will review an updated CRA plan for the eastern half of the city, including building heights. The plan calls for four stories along Ocean Avenue with six stories behind it. The avenue bisects Town Square.
    Residents have objected to the height along Ocean. They also are against the increased height at the Woolbright Road and Federal Highway intersection, proposed under the CRA plan.
    An old lawsuit may complicate the city’s strategy. The judge still has not ruled on the city’s motion to dismiss, heard on July 11.
It involves a 2013 case filed by an earlier architect, who wanted to use the high school as an events center.

The Wick Costume Museum in Boca Raton is the largest holder of theatrical wardrobes

in the United States, with nearly 60 original Broadway wardrobes.

Kimberly Wick poses with costumes from the 1956 production of My Fair Lady.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

    One December day in the early 1970s, Santa Claus brought an unexpected and very durable present to a family in Boca Raton.
    A woman named Marilynn Wick was chatting with a friend named Leah Davidson, who had a slight holiday problem. Her husband needed a Santa suit for his IBM Christmas party.
    “I can make a Santa suit,” Wick told her friend, and then she enlisted help from her two daughters, Kelly and Kimberly. And the three Wicks set to work around their kitchen table.
    The Santa suit was a success, and Wick got requests for four more, then Easter bunny suits, then panda costumes. In 1976, she incorporated her costume creations as a business, and Jan McArt’s Royal Palm Dinner Theatre became an early account. The Wicks made costumes, sold costumes, rented costumes for private parties and national theater companies.
    Eventually, Marilynn Wick began collecting entire wardrobes from classic Broadway shows, and today that first Santa suit has grown into a thriving business with more than a million costumes housed in 100,000 square feet of South Florida storage space and Costume World retail stores in Deerfield Beach, Dallas and Pittsburgh.
    What else do you do with so many costumes? You put them to work by opening a theater, and then you display them in an adjacent museum.

A costume from a production of Cats.

Gowns worn by Joan Rivers during various Hollywood red carpet awards shows.

    In September 2013, the Wick Theatre debuted in the former Caldwell Theatre on North Federal Highway in Boca Raton. The first production was The Sound of Music.
    Two months later, the Wick Costume Museum opened to share with the public original costumes from more than 35 Broadway shows, and 40 years after those first Santa suits, Kimberly Wick, the 12-year-old girl who helped sew them, is the vice president, head designer, curator and occasional docent of the museum.
    “We’re the largest theatrical holder of wardrobes in the United States, with nearly 60 original Broadway wardrobes,” Kimberly Wick began, slightly distracted one September afternoon — and rightly so.
    All around the expansive display space behind the theater’s stage, assistants at sewing machines were making repairs to costumes decades old while others ironed and more than 150 mannequins, some half dressed, looked on in dignified silence.
    In less than two weeks, the museum’s 2016-17 exhibit, “Where Runway Meets Broadway,” would debut on Sept. 23 with a gala luncheon and Champagne reception.
    “What’s unique this season,” Wick explained, “is that we’re sharing with our guests the vintage costumes, along with the Broadway costumes that were inspired by those eras.”
    Visitors will see the actual costumes worn in productions of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, Hairspray and Cats, supplemented by fashions of the period.
    For example, Cats, which first purred in a Broadway theater on Oct. 7, 1982, made animal prints popular for a time, Wick said.
    “We own collections from three Broadway productions of Cats,” she added. “The cat suits have to be rebuilt often because they get so abused. There’s lots of wear and tear.”
    Marian the Librarian’s gown from The Music Man. Ginger Rogers’ Hello, Dolly gown. A gown from a Broadway production of Anna Karenina. Each is on display, along with other vintage fashions.
    “I’d love to own the wardrobe of the original Les Miserables,” Wick said. “But we do have Cosette’s wedding gown from one of the productions.”
    The entire lobby has been dedicated to costumes from the original, 1956 production of My Fair Lady, including the gown Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle wore to the embassy ball.
    “We own the entire production,” Wick said. “It’s one of our prized items.”
    And as an added treat to round out this year’s “runway” theme, the Wick recently bought the gowns worn by Joan Rivers while she hosted Hollywood’s red carpet awards shows.
    Now that this year’s costume exhibit has opened, the theater is preparing for the Oct. 13  opening of They’re Playing Our Song, the Neil Simon musical comedy starring Andrea McArdle, Broadway’s original title character in Annie.
    And then comes Halloween, which must surely be any costume company’s busiest time of year, right?
    Not so much, Wick says.
    The Deerfield Beach store is stocked with as many varied, scary Halloween costumes as anyone could want to rent or own, but it’s not the busiest period.
    “Now it’s the Easter period,” Wick said. “We ship between 1,200 and 1,500 costumes a week around Easter because that’s when all the high schools around the country do their spring musicals.”

By Steve Plunkett
    
    The feature most wanted at Boca Raton’s Wildflower site by an admittedly unscientific sample of residents is a wide boardwalk along the Intracoastal Waterway, followed by a water taxi and space for paddleboards and kayaks.
    City Council member Scott Singer held an “interactive visioning session about what you’d like to see for our waterfront” at the downtown library on Sept. 19.
    “This is not rapid-fire questions of Scott. In fact, this is rapid-fire questions of you all,” Singer told his gathering of roughly 130 people.
    Participants filled 12 tables with eight seats apiece, each captained by a planner, architect or resident. The overflow attendees took chairs along the edge of the room and could watch and listen but not otherwise take part.
    “This is not a typical discussion about the merits of the Hillstone deal, the history of the Hillstone deal, a lot of that stuff. It’s not a typical discussion to vent to the City Council,” Singer said.
    He said the results of the session could help guide council members even if a restaurant eventually goes on the property, just northwest of the Palmetto Park Road bridge. He encouraged participants to consider not only the Wildflower site but also Silver Palm Park just south and the area under the bridge, more than 6 acres in all.
    “The goal of this exercise is for you to express what you’d like to see there,” Singer said.
    The people at the tables tried to quickly answer questions such as what is good about the site and what needs changing. Then attendees ranked more than 80 images of recreational amenities on a scale of 1 to 5 to gauge which 10 were best.
    After the boardwalk, water taxi and paddleboards/kayaks, the other most desirable features were a giant checkerboard, space for yoga, a small stage, an interactive fountain for kids, a water fountain/sculpture, a fence along the waterway and a lush hanging garden.
    Some participants questioned the value of the session when the city has not begun its comprehensive waterfront plan to guide further decisions about parks on the Intracoastal and ocean. The City Council approved hiring engineering consultant EDSA Inc. to undertake that study. The Fort Lauderdale firm also has been hired to design and oversee construction of a 12-foot-wide promenade along Delray Beach’s beach.
    Singer also announced in September that he is running for re-election to the Boca Raton City Council next March.
    The council changed the land-use designation and zoning of the Wildflower parcel in July to accommodate the long-planned Hillstone restaurant. But negotiations on a lease were postponed after a citizen initiative put a question on the Nov. 8 ballot to keep the property for recreational use or allow it to be developed.

By Rich Pollack

    Artist Glenn Weiss was shocked when, during a summer trip to the beach, he discovered that the pavilion at Atlantic Dunes Park in Delray Beach had been destroyed in June during a middle-of-the-night fire that has been ruled suspicious.
    Now Weiss, who married his wife, Maria, at the pavilion in 2003, is creating a work of installation art on the burned-out site, using 30 pairs of shoes, a holy book and a boom box to symbolize a wedding and to create a temporary memorial.
    “I want to remind people that this is a place of memories,” he said. “This is similar to other temporary memorials but it’s about a place, not about a person.”
    Weiss’ Wedding Shoes Project will be on display Oct. 5-16 and he hopes others with memories of the pavilion will send photos and stories that can be lashed to the metal barricade fence now surrounding the site. They can be sent to Weiss at gw@glennweiss.com. Images and stories will also be posted on Facebook at Atlantic Dunes Memories.
    An opening reception is scheduled for 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Oct. 5.
    “I hope people will think about places that have meaning to them or maybe a place that they have lost,” Weiss said.

By Steve Plunkett

    The longtime attorney for the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District will soon shed his role as the district’s contract administrator.
    “Possibly around the first of November, I will be able to come to you with a recommendation that, since we’re going to have some additional capital projects under construction, that we will be able to retain the services of a qualified individual to take over the contract administration,” Arthur Koski told beach and park commissioners Sept. 6.
    Koski, who also is the district’s interim executive director, said he had been looking for someone to replace him as contract administrator for six months.
    “When I come forward with that, you’ll understand why it’ll be at that particular time,” he said.
    Koski earns $108,000 a year as the district’s contract administrator, overseeing such projects as the construction of athletic fields at De Hoernle Park and a new community center at the Swim and Racquet Center on St. Andrews Boulevard. He took the job in 2010.
    He became the district’s interim executive director in July 2012 when Robert Langford retired. But his additional role drew complaints from city officials, culminating in March with City Council member Robert Weinroth’s demand that he be replaced with a full-time person.
    In May, Koski said he would step aside as interim director on Oct. 1, the start of the new budget year, but was persuaded to stay until January, when commissioners choose their chairman for the calendar year.
    Koski started giving the Beach and Park District legal advice in 1978 and is paid $132,000 a year for it. He is paid $90,000 a year for being interim director.
    His total district paycheck — $330,000 a year — dwarfed Boca Raton City Manager Leif Ahnell’s $240,418, though Ahnell also receives a pension and other benefits that Koski does not. Koski earned a cumulative $1.5 million over the past five years from his three district positions. He also has a private law practice downtown.
    Koski said in August the contract administration work is “something that I enjoy very much” and that he hoped beach and park commissioners would keep him on the job in 2017.

By Steve Plunkett

    There’s a definite thaw in the cold war between the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District and city officials.
    “There’s more of a mood of cooperation,” Steve Engel, the district’s vice chairman, said Sept. 23 after he and fellow commissioners adopted a budget that trimmed nothing from the city’s request.
    Other actions point to a clear effort to improve relations. Arthur Koski, the district’s attorney, will step aside as its interim executive director in January after city officials insisted that the district have someone on the job full time.
    And the City Council on Sept. 27 approved an interlocal agreement, comparable to a treaty between the independent governments, calling for a 50-50 split on the costs of beach renourishment. The district had agreed to pay half instead of its customary one-third at a joint meeting in June 2015, but both sides balked at written proposals drawn up afterward.
    “I’m happy that we put this one in the books,” District Chairman Robert Rollins said when first announcing the pact.
    Under the agreement, the district will send Boca Raton $1.5 million, half what the city already paid for last spring’s partial renourishment of the central beach, between Red Reef Park and the Boca Inlet.
    But the agreement is for 10 years instead of 30.
    “They’re getting what they want, and we’re getting what we want. I see good things coming,” Engel said.
    Koski told commissioners in September that he had met with City Manager Leif Ahnell for “a very extensive conversation” on the beach agreement as well as on a “master” interlocal agreement the city has proposed to replace six or seven other pacts governing operations and capital improvements at parks.
    The news heartened Engel.
    “Before it was difficult to get Art and the city manager’s office together,” Engel said.
    Koski also said he had researched 18 months of emails and found that city officials and district officials communicate regularly.
    “There were 2,600 communications between the city and the district during that period of time. There is communication,” Koski said.
    The $50.4 million budget commissioners approved uses the rollback rate, about 91 cents for $1,000 of taxable value, what’s needed to raise the same amount of revenue as the previous year.
    New construction on the tax roll then lowers taxes for others. In Rollins’ case, for example, he will pay $451 in beach and park taxes on his $493,000 home, down from $474 a year ago.
    Most district residents also pay city taxes.
    When Koski first presented the city’s proposed recreation budget in mid-July he told commissioners, “We have our work cut out for us. The budget that’s being requested is $1.1 million higher than what was spent last year for operation and maintenance.”
    Boca Raton officials also wanted $350,000 more for administrative, supervisory and technical costs, a 33 percent boost.
    But two weeks later, Koski had juggled the district’s budget and revised his outlook.
    “We have acceded to their requests and are giving them every dollar that they are asking for,” he said.
    The district pays for the operation and maintenance of some city-owned facilities along with district-owned parks.
    It also funds capital projects at the city sites.

By Rich Pollack

    Residents of Highland Beach will see the town’s tax rate drop even lower than previously announced, following a Town Commission decision last month to reduce the proposed operating tax rate from $3.28 per $1,000 of assessed property value to $3.25.
    Earlier this year, commissioners agreed to reduce the proposed rate from the previous year’s rate of $3.50 per $1,000 of assessed value to the rollback rate of $3.28, resulting in the second consecutive year the rate would fall.
    The rollback rate would generate the same property tax revenue as was received the previous year. During a public hearing last month, however, commissioners voted unanimously to reduce the tax rate below the rollback rate.
    “I think we can do it without any cut in services,” said Commissioner Carl Feldman, who proposed the reduction.
    As a result of the current changes, the owner of a $550,000 home with a $50,000 homestead exemption would see the amount of taxes paid to Highland Beach drop slightly from about $1,750 last year to an estimated $1,625 in 2016-2017.
    The tax-rate decrease will result in a drop in the revenue in the town’s $10.98 million 2016-2017 fiscal year budget of only about $67,200. Finance Director Cale Curtis said the town will move money from its contingency reserve fund to make up the difference, leaving it with a $220,000 balance.
    “There’s still a significant amount in the contingency reserve fund,” he said.
    Feldman and Commissioner Lou Stern said the town has been able to continue reducing the tax rate thanks to a surplus from previous years.   
    A key factor in the town’s ability to reduce the tax rate has been a significant increase in property values over the last year.
The assessed value of property in Highland Beach increased by about $140 million, which translated into an estimated $455,000 more in property tax revenue for the town.
    Town commissioners said they were pleased with the overall budget and with the chance to reduce the tax rate below the rollback rate.
    “I don’t think we’ve reduced the services we’re providing in any department,” Vice Mayor Bill Weitz said. “The budgets that were submitted from the departments were largely approved in total and I think that’s a credit to our department heads.”

By Rich Pollack

    Highland Beach town commissioners have agreed to hire an outside law firm to represent the town in negotiations and other matters should a fledgling effort by non-police employees to form a union come to fruition.
    At a meeting last month, commissioners agreed to have Mayor Bernard Featherman sign an agreement with the law firm of Ward, Damon, Posner, Pheterson & Bleau PL, authorizing it and managing member Jeffrey Pheterson to represent the town in labor relations relating to efforts by civilian employees to unionize.
    Under the agreement, the town would pay Pheterson and senior attorneys in the labor and employment law practice group $265 an hour for services. It would pay $200 an hour for associates and $125 an hour for paralegals and other legal services that arise. The town would reimburse the firm for certain out-of-pocket expenses.
    Town Attorney Glen Torcivia, who continues to represent the town in negotiations with its police union, recommended Pheterson to town commissioners.
    Pheterson “is an excellent attorney,” Torcivia said. “He’s been doing this for more than 30 years.”
    In recommending Pheterson, Torcivia cited his credentials, including his experience as a former administrative hearing officer and trial attorney for the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission.
    “My job as the town attorney is to get the best attorney for the case,” Torcivia said. “I think [Pheterson] is the best choice.”
    In August, town officials received a notice from Florida State Fraternal Order of Police representative Joe Puleo, notifying them that 14 of 16 eligible civilian employees had submitted cards indicating they were in favor of exploring whether to join a union.  
    The action, Puleo said, was in reaction to commission-directed changes in health insurance plans and other benefits.
    Commissioners said the employees’ actions surprised them and that they would receive additional benefits, including longevity pay bonuses and $1,000 per year medical gap insurance.
    The process of forming a union is continuing, although no date has been set for an election in which employees can decide whether to unionize.  Ú

By Rich Pollack

    Highland Beach is looking for a new town manager again, just not right away.
    Town commissioners agreed last month to accept Town Manager Beverly Brown’s letter announcing her retirement, but surprised her by deciding to make it effective that day, Sept. 6.
    Brown, who was on a long-planned vacation and was not at the meeting, had offered to postpone her retirement until Dec. 2 to help complete a smooth transition.
    But in a 4-1 vote, commissioners said it would be in the best interest of the town not to delay the retirement for three months.
    “There’s no punishment here,” Vice Mayor Bill Weitz said. “The issue is I think the town needs to move forward. We need to move forward with a search committee, we need to move forward with a positive and fair selection process, and I think any delay in terms of a lame-duck period and a lame-duck session will produce dissension and difficulty for our town.”
    Commissioner Lou Stern, who cast the dissenting vote, disagreed.
    “I think you’re doing the town harm by not having a town manager in place until we find a replacement,” he said.
    The commission appointed Town Clerk Valerie Oakes to fill in as interim town manager and agreed to pay her an annual salary of $115,000 while she serves in the interim position. The salary and a $600 a month car allowance were retroactive to Sept. 6, and will be in place for as long she is in the position.
    Citing scheduling and holiday issues, commissioners agreed to delay the search for a new town manager until the beginning of next year.  
    In accepting Brown’s retirement letter, commissioners agreed to continue paying her salary and providing her with benefits until Dec. 2. Commissioners also agreed to give her a longevity bonus equal to about 2 percent of her $130,400 annual salary.  
    In addition, the commission agreed to give Brown compensation for 10 weeks of accumulated leave time, as well as the iPad she used in her position.
    Brown said she was notified of the commission’s decision by phone while she was in Alaska, and was taken aback by the decision to make her retirement effective that day.
    “It took me by surprise,” she said. “It was just a shock.”
    She said she would have liked to complete some projects, but is optimistic the town will continue to operate effectively and efficiently under a new town manager.
    “We have great supervisors and I’m sure they’ll work well with whomever the commission brings in,” she said.
    Brown’s retirement marks the second time in less than two years the Town Commission has had to replace a town manager.
    Brown, 72, was serving as town clerk in January 2015 when she was named interim town manager following the mutually agreed-upon departure of former Town Manager Kathleen Weiser. Brown was promoted to the position permanently in April of that year.
    In August, Brown took heat from commissioners, who said she needed to communicate with them better after she received a letter from a Fraternal Order of Police representative explaining that civilian town employees were in the planning stages of forming a union.
    As the search for a new town manager begins, the focus will be on finding a candidate with experience in town operations, according to Commissioner Carl Feldman.  
    “We’re looking for someone with municipal knowledge,” he said.

Correction
An article in the September edition of The Coastal Star about Highland Beach Town Manager Beverly Brown’s decision to retire incorrectly reported her age. Brown is 72.

Eight-year-olds Zepplyn Berry (left), of Boca Raton, and Giada Caniza, of Boynton Beach,

launch their 2040 mayoral campaigns during the YMCA ‘Kid for Mayor’ press event

at the DeVos-Blum Family YMCA of Boynton Beach. The event was part of a national campaign

to shed light on how the Y’s various programs can prepare children for anything.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Sallie James

    Boca Raton property tax rates for the upcoming year are decreasing slightly, property values are up 7.46 percent and the city has plans to hire 76 new employees, including eight police officers and 16 firefighters.
    The new rates were finalized when City Council members in September gave the nod to the city’s $678.4 million budget, which includes a general fund budget of $161.1 million used to support city services such as police, fire, parks, planning, community development and administrative support services.
    “I am very pleased our property values rose as much as they did so we could maintain the same tax rate while including several new employees which are needed to maintain the level of service our residents expect of us,” Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie said.
    Here’s what this means to taxpayers in dollars and cents under the 2016-2017 city budget:
    The owner of a $550,000 home with a $50,000 homestead exemption will pay a municipal tax rate of $3.68 per $1,000 of assessed value, or $1,840, a slight decrease from last year.
    That does not take into account increased property values, which means homeowners could pay more.
    City residents will pay slightly more for fire rescue services, with the annual fee per household rising from $85 to $105 to offset the rising cost of providing fire services.
    The new budget includes $138,200 for the increase in City Council salaries voters approved in August.
    The voter-approved charter change established a $38,000 annual salary for the mayor, up from $9,000, and a $28,000 annual salary for council members, up from $7,200.
    Deputy Mayor Mike Mullaugh attributed the good fiscal news to good management.
    “We are now back to a place where we seem to have [one of the lowest rates] in Palm Beach County,” Mullaugh said.
    Mullaugh said the city is getting back to its pre-recession state by adding new employees and with the rising property values.
    “When we went into the recession we reduced the number of employees by more than 130 and we had maintenance schedules that were on an annual basis that we moved to an 18-month basis,” Mullaugh noted. “We tried to do it in a way that would never directly impact residents.”
    Haynie said the emphasis on public safety shows the city’s commitment to keeping its citizens safe.
    “People are concerned. They read the papers and see some of the safety issues that are happening in cities across our nation and I think [they] need to know we take safety and security very seriously.”
    New personnel to be hired in the upcoming year include: a compliance analyst, a senior accountant, a part-time administrative assistant, four code officers, a zoning officer, six public safety call takers, eight police officers, a fire training captain, a fire contract administrator, 16 firefighters, a streets supervisor, a transportation analyst, a traffic signal technician, a municipal services administrator, a digital librarian, a guest services associate and four groundskeepers.

By Steve Plunkett

    It’s hard to see the progress as you cruise along Interstate 95, but by mid-October, work on the new Spanish River Boulevard interchange will pass the 80 percent completion point.  
    All 13 bridges of the complex interchange are in various stages of construction, and crews will pour bridge decks on the new southbound exit ramp into Florida Atlantic University, said Andrea Pacini, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Transportation project.
    But the biggest change of the month will come Oct. 14, when the department and the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority close the railroad crossing on Yamato Road just west of the interstate for five days.
    “This is not being performed under our contract and is technically not project-related,” Pacini said. “However, it is a huge impact.”
    The crossing must be widened to accommodate a wider Yamato Road, Pacini said.
    During the closure, from 5 a.m. Oct. 14 to 5 a.m. Oct. 19, workers will remove existing tracks, install new tracks, replace the crossing surface and install new railroad traffic-control devices.
    Here are the detours:
    • Eastbound traffic on Yamato Road: Go south onto Military Trail, then left on Spanish River Boulevard, then left on North Dixie Highway back to Yamato.
    • Westbound traffic on Yamato Road: Go south on North Dixie, right onto Spanish River, then right on Military Trail back to Yamato.
    • Westbound Yamato to I-95 southbound: Go south on North Dixie, turn right onto Glades Road, then west and get on I-95 SB ramp.
    • Westbound Yamato to I-95 northbound: no change
    • Eastbound Yamato to I-95 northbound or southbound: Go north on Congress Avenue, turn right onto Peninsula Corp. Drive to I-95 NB/SB ramps.
    • Northbound I-95 to eastbound Yamato: no change
    • Northbound I-95 to westbound Yamato: Either get off at Yamato eastbound, then follow the North Dixie westbound detour, or get off on Congress Avenue exit and go south on Congress back to Yamato.
    • Southbound I-95 to westbound Yamato: get off at Congress Avenue exit.
    Construction on the $69 million Spanish River interchange began in January 2014 and is expected to be completed in late summer 2017. The project also calls for widening Spanish River Boulevard west of FAU Boulevard, signalized intersection improvements and adding auxiliary lanes.

By Jane Smith

    Delray Beach, often called the rehab capital of the country, is trying to stay one step ahead of treatment centers.
    In early September, the City Commission unanimously agreed to a one-year moratorium on medical marijuana treatment centers and dispensaries. City planning staff will research the issue, identify areas where marijuana sales might be possible and assess the likely impacts on the city and services.
    “We haven’t even started to talk about where the dispensaries would be allowed,” said Tim Stillings, planning director. “We may in fact prohibit them, but it will be the commission’s decision.”
    In researching an area, his staff will look at traffic, congestion, effect on nearby property values, police and fire operations, and impact on other city services before reporting back to the commission.
    Boca Raton has a year-long moratorium, its second, effective until Nov. 10. The city’s Planning and Zoning Board recommended Sept. 8 that the city authorize a third moratorium.
    Florida voters will be asked in November to approve a constitutional amendment that allows for medical marijuana to be sold legally in the state for those with debilitating medical conditions. It also would authorize growing, processing, distributing and selling marijuana in medical marijuana treatment centers.
    In 2014, the state authorized six sites to grow medical marijuana that has a lower active chemical component than in marijuana commonly sold on the street. The nurseries are regulated by the state’s Department of Health. The closest nursery to Delray Beach sits in Miami-Dade County, although doctors prescribing medical marijuana and dispensaries selling it have popped up all over the state.  
    Florida does not allow medical marijuana to be smoked and bans its transfer to anyone other than the qualified patient. Dispensaries will handle oil, gel caps and vapor forms only. Other restrictions include forbidding its use in public and on school grounds.  
    Federal law prohibits growing and selling marijuana.
    In other states, such as California and Colorado, where medical marijuana sales are legal, many banks won’t work with the cannabis businesses, forcing them to accept cash only and no credit cards.
    “As far as the banks, we’ll have to see what Florida institutions do about this,” Stillings said.

By Rich Pollack

    Highland Beach town commissioners will be spreading the word about the need to keep balloons and other debris off beaches, but stopped short of creating an ordinance similar to one implemented by Lantana that bans balloons.
    The town received a request from the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, which is forming partnerships with communities in South Florida aimed at protecting sea turtles and their habitats.
    Part of that effort is a focus on reducing the release of helium balloons on the coast because they can burst and drop into the ocean. Sea turtles, which primarily eat squid, often mistakenly eat the balloons.
    Town leaders declined to pass an ordinance banning balloons on the beach, noting that the town does not have a public beach and that the ordinance would be difficult to enforce.
    Instead, commissioners asked employees help get the word out through the town’s newsletter as well as through posters and other educational materials.

By Steve Plunkett
    
    The races for the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District have new cash leaders.
    After the Aug. 30 primary, Seat 3 incumbent Earl Starkoff was sitting on a $2,155 war chest, while Seat 1 incumbent Dennis Frisch had $1,162.
    Seat 3 challenger Erin Wright nearly emptied her account right before the primary, paying $1,511.75 to Wheelhouse Branding & Marketing in Lake Worth and $500 to Political Consulting LLC in Boca Raton, leaving her $2.38. She later gathered $200 in contributions.
    Similarly, Seat 1 candidate Craig Ehrnst reported paying Political Consulting $4,000 and $656 to Direct Mail Impressions on Aug. 29, dropping his campaign balance to $285. Since then he has collected $655 in donations, his latest report said.
    Before the primary, Ehrnst, corporate treasurer at NCCI Holdings, was the cash king, with $10,030 in total contributions. Wright, owner of a home inspection business, was the early leader in raising money and peaked at $4,420.
    The candidates will make weekly finance reports starting Oct. 7.
    Both Frisch and Starkoff reported receiving in-kind donations of $1,000 from the BocaWatch online newsletter. BocaWatch.org organized a debate of all the candidates on Aug. 11, then endorsed the incumbents the following day.
    Since the primary, Frisch, a podiatrist, has reported collecting $25, as did Starkoff, an IT services executive.
    Perhaps more important to Starkoff, he picked up the endorsement of John Costello, the third-place finisher in the Seat 3 race.
    “I’ll be actively supporting Earl in his campaign, and I’m encouraging my supporters to join us,” Costello said in a news release sent by the Starkoff campaign.
    Costello, an accountant and political newcomer who did not raise money for the primary, finished with 2,979 votes, compared with Starkoff’s 4,398 and Wright’s 4,494.
    Medical physicist Shayla Enright, also a newcomer to politics, came in third in the Seat 1 race with 2,798 votes and has not endorsed either Frisch (5,088 primary votes) or Ehrnst (4,295 votes).
    If history is a guide, the presidential contest in the Nov. 8 election will bring far more voters to the polls. In 2012, the Beach and Park District race among Steven Engel, Tom Thayer and Felipe Martinez drew a collective 8,972 votes.
The runoff between Engel, who won, and Thayer saw 41,252 votes cast.

Registration deadline
The voter registration deadline is Oct. 11. Absentee ballots may be requested now from the Supervisor of Elections Office and must be received at the office by 7 p.m. Nov. 8. Early voting will be at the Boca Raton Downtown Library and other sites across the county from Oct. 24 through Nov. 6.

Boca Raton Cemetery Manager Ed Libengood gestures at available space for more graves.

Sallie James/The Coastal Star

By Sallie James

    With more than 8,000 graves, crowding had become a critical issue at the picturesque Boca Raton Cemetery.
    The problem was solved in September with an easy fix: City Council members voted to abandon the existing 8-foot-wide pathways that run across the graveyard, at 451 SW Fourth Ave.
    The decision couldn’t have come at a better time.
    Boca Raton Cemetery Manager Ed Libengood said there are at least 30 residents on a waiting list to purchase multiple gravesites as soon as they become available.
    “Some are looking to buy two graves, some are looking to buy as many as 12 graves,” Libengood said. “We’re out of room we had developed for grave stations. We had additional vacant land on the east side of Fourth Avenue, but it’s easier to abandon the pathways [on the west side of Fourth Avenue] because all the roadways are in and the grass is in.”
    Boca Raton Cemetery is situated on the east and west sides of Southwest Fourth Avenue, with approximately 15 developed acres on the west side of the road and 4.5 undeveloped acres on the east side. An additional 5 acres comprise the mausoleum complex on the west side of Fourth Avenue.
    Converting the unused grassy pathways in the cemetery’s western section involved little more than surveying the property and mapping out the plots, Libengood said.
    The original gravesites were designed as oversized lots with 8-foot pathways in between, so there is plenty of space for additional burial sites, he said.
    The decision will make room for an additional 1,172 gravesites, according to the survey, although the actual total will be somewhat less because of several trees. The plan will generate approximately $3,762,120 more in revenue from the sale of the plots and associated costs such as perpetual care, according to a city memo.
    The grassy pathways have not been used for more than 20 years and the asphalt that originally defined them was removed years ago because of deterioration, according to the city. The sprawling cemetery south of Palmetto Park Road is rich in history and includes a gentle hill that is among the highest points in Boca Raton.
    Its current location is not its original spot; the cemetery has been moved three times.
    Its first location in 1916 included only 25 graves and was on the beach near the Boca Raton Hotel and Club, according to an index of burials from 1916 to 2007 compiled by the Palm Beach County Genealogical Society. The site was selected because other areas were considered too valuable as farmland.
    “They chose a piece of the least valuable land,” Libengood said. “Then they eventually moved the cemetery in 1927 to Second Avenue and Glades Road. It was completed in 1928. There were 41 more burials until 1943, when the cemetery was moved to its current location.”
    Sixty-six bodies were transferred when the cemetery was moved for the third and final time, he said.
    “The Army Air Corps needed the land at the time,” he said. “[The cemetery] was noisy having funerals and they had their barracks and training. The graves were exhumed at that time and moved here.”
    The current location is the final resting place for many of the city’s original settlers, including several former elected officials such as George Long, Boca Raton’s first mayor, and Alex Hughes, the African-American pioneer, among others.
    “Col. Arnold MacSpadden was head of the Army Air Corps when it was here. It was a huge Army airbase during World War II,” said Mary Csar, executive director of the Boca Raton Historical Society and Museum. “He came back here and retired when he got out of the Army,  and he and his wife are buried here.”
    Another notable grave is that of Frank Chesebro, who died in 1936. He was one of the city’s largest landowners and farmers, Csar noted.

Shawn Orell and Shanna Boone, co-workers at OrthoAcel Technologies in Miami,

enjoy a scenic lunch at Benny’s on the Beach restaurant in Lake Worth.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Brian Biggane

    Back in 1986, when the Lake Worth Pier was a lot quieter than it is today, Peter Thanopoulos and John Tsakon, both in their mid-20s, pooled their resources to open Benny’s on the Beach, one of Palm Beach County’s most unusual restaurants, on that same pier.
    Thirty years and a handful of hurricanes later, Benny’s has become a South Florida landmark even as it carries on its beachside tradition under new ownership.
    The trio of Jeremy Hanlon, Max Lipton and Lee Lipton, who purchased the property in 2013, undertook a monthlong celebration of Benny’s 30th anniversary throughout September, culminating in a daylong beach bash Sept. 30.
    Long a breakfast and lunch spot, Benny’s has undergone significant changes since Hanlon and the father-son Lipton team took over.
    Hanlon, a world-class chef who has worked at fine dining spots in New York, Chicago and Europe as well as Café Boulud at the Brazilian Court in Palm Beach, has undertaken sweeping changes, from adding dinner to expanding the menu to upgrading every aspect of the building.
    “We’ve changed the menu probably six different times and our staff has almost tripled because of the things we’re doing,” Hanlon said. “We bring in everything and then do it ourselves. Everything comes in raw; we marinate it, we roast it, we shred it. The burgers are a specific blend. Everything is custom so we have our own little mixture. It’s exciting.”
    Thanapoulos and Tsakon had plenty of excitement of their own in their 27-year proprietorship. Just not much of it during the summers.
    “It used to be you could be closed from June to September and nobody would even know, because there was nobody there,” Thanapoulos said. “But every year it got busier, and then when Hurricane Andrew hit Miami (in 1992) a lot of people started moving up this way.”
    Their biggest challenge came in 2005, when Hurricane Wilma tore up the pier, forcing them to close for three months.
    “The pier was shut down for almost three years, and even after we rebuilt they had a crane come every day to work on it,” Thanapoulos said. “The crane would come every morning and we had to move everything, and then it would come back out in the evening and it would be the same thing. That went on for a year and a half.
    “But we worked with the city, they helped us and we helped them, and we put it back to where it is today.”
    Hanlon said the idea of owning a beachside restaurant came to him when he was working in the Spanish resort town of San Sebastian.
    “It was absolutely gorgeous, and I said if I ever got an opportunity to own a restaurant that was right on the ocean I had to take it.”
    That opportunity arose after Hanlon, who had become a regular on the Food Network and had visited 32 countries in a three-year stint as director of culinary and menu development for Dallas-based Carlson Restaurants, returned to the Brazilian Court and was approached by the Liptons about putting in a bid for Benny’s.
    “I was like, ‘Yeah, this place has potential,’ ” Hanlon said. “I’d done all the fine dining, but this was a combination of casual dining and great-tasting food.”
    Thanopoulos, who is back in the business with Eggs-Cetera Café in west Lantana, said he’s happy with what’s become of what he started.
    “We were very happy with who we were selling it to,” he said. “We wanted to sell to somebody who would keep it going, not just anybody. Because that place is a landmark, and we made it that.”

By Sallie James

    Plans to create a city-sanctioned task force to mold the development of the often-controversial East Palmetto Park Road corridor have been scuttled.
    Boca Raton residents and business owners presented the idea of an official task force to the city during a September workshop meeting, but didn’t get far.
    City Council members said they would only support an unofficial ad hoc committee due to concerns over Sunshine Law requirements and the city’s inability to dedicate staffers’ time for the endeavor.
    The result?
    The “Bridge to Ocean Task Force” was over before it ever got started.
    The Riviera Civic Association — whose membership had strongly supported the plan — decided not to participate if the city were not officially involved.
    “The city suggested that we meet in private and come up with something and come back to them,” said Robert Eisen, land use consultant for Investments Ltd., who presented the idea to the council on Sept. 12. “The Riviera Civic Association … decided they did not want to deal with it privately so the concept is dead.”
    Development along the East Palmetto Park Road corridor has been a hot topic since the Chabad of East Boca, an orthodox synagogue, won approval to build a sprawling 18,000-square-foot worship center and Israel museum at 770 E. Palmetto Park Road, just east of the bridge. The project, which has been mired in litigation since it was approved in 2015, won approval to exceed the area’s permitted 30-foot height limitation by 10 feet, touching off a furor among local home and business owners.
    Eisen presented a resolution to the city outlining the proposed entity’s mission and makeup during the workshop meeting. Council members lauded the resolution’s intention but balked at the specifics.
    “This formalized structure will do more to hamper your ability to move forward than will help it,” Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie said at the workshop.
    Council member Robert Weinroth agreed the area is one that deserves attention, but expressed concern over the vehicle. He said it was imperative all stakeholders had the opportunity to participate and said council members should be involved in appointing members to serve. He also cited concerns about Sunshine Law requirements.
    Formalizing the structure of the task force could be self-defeating because of the many requirements that would come into play, Weinroth said. “I think this is really too much of a formalized structure,” he said.
    Council member Jeremy Rodgers said he loved the concept, but voiced concerns about allocating the time of already very busy city staffers.
    “You could carry the ball faster and a littler farther just at a community meeting,” Rodgers said. He suggested the group come back to the city in six months with its ideas.
    Deputy Mayor Mike Mullaugh agreed that an informal community group was a better idea and would free participants of the requirements of the Sunshine Law. Eisen said his intention had been for the task force to adhere to Sunshine Law requirements and be completely transparent for all the stakeholders.
    “I just wanted to have a great commitment from the city and stakeholders involved to get this job done,” Eisen said.