By Dan Moffett

Briny Breezes council members say choosing the right police department to serve their town didn’t come down to questions about performance. The deciding factor was cost.

   “It was a tough decision. Either Boynton Beach or Ocean Ridge would do a good job for us,” said Council President Sue Thaler. “It was dollars and sense that made the difference between them.”

   With a 3-2 vote on Sept. 8, the council approved a three-year contract with Boynton Beach, ending a long-running relationship with the Ocean Ridge Police Department.

   “We tried to make an apple-to-apple comparison between them,” Councilman Bobby Jurovaty said. “And the one apple that stood out was price. It’s sad really. There was nothing wrong with what Ocean Ridge did.”

   Jurovaty joined Thaler and Councilman Allen “Chick” Behringer in voting for the switch to Boynton; James McCormick and Christina Adams voted to stay with Ocean Ridge.

   Boynton Beach offered Briny a three-year contract that was roughly 12 percent lower in cost than Ocean Ridge’s: $618,792 compared with $691,965. Ocean Ridge also offered a five-year plan that also came higher than Boynton’s at $665,352 for the first three years.

   Thaler said that, other than price, the contracts are “virtually identical” in services. Boynton officially takes over on Oct. 1.

   The contract with Boynton Beach returns Chris Yannuzzi as the face of law enforcement in Briny. Yannuzzi was forced to resign as Ocean Ridge’s police chief in 2015 after a dispute with the town’s vice mayor, Richard Lucibella. Yannuzzi then joined Boynton’s police department as a captain in charge of code compliance. He now will become the department’s “primary contact” for Briny residents and their deputy town marshal.

   “He is intimately familiar with the town and the people here,” said Boynton Police Chief Jeffrey Katz, who told the Town Council his agency was committed to delivering the policing the town wants.

   Ocean Ridge police have covered Briny Breezes for most of the last three decades, except for a three-year period between 2007 and 2010 when Boynton Beach had the contract. Briny residents were not happy with Boynton’s performance then and switched back to Ocean Ridge, many believing a smaller neighbor delivered better service. Boynton Beach has 155 sworn officers who police roughly 70,000 people; Ocean Ridge has 16 full-time officers who police 1,700.

   Katz said he has overhauled the department since taking over as chief three years ago and assured the council that performance will be better than before. He promised improved response times despite his mainland base, saying his officers typically beat the Boynton Beach Fire Department — with whom Briny just signed a new long-term contract for service — to emergency calls. Katz said his department can work with bridge tenders to ensure they can get to the island for emergencies and that Boynton will call on Ocean Ridge police for help if needed.

   Mayor Mike Hill, who participated in the meeting by phone and under the town charter didn’t have a vote, said he had concerns that the larger department might not understand “that a soft touch often is the best way to deal with people in retirement communities like Briny Breezes.” Hill said when he lived in Highland Beach the town ran into trouble when it started hiring retired New York officers.

   Katz said he has raised hiring standards in Boynton and only 1.2 percent of applicants have gotten jobs. “None of them are New York cops,” he said. The chief told the council his department understands the type of community policing Briny wants.

   Adams and McCormick said they were comfortable with the decision despite voting the other way. Adams said she thought Ocean Ridge was better equipped to keep the town safe and the cost difference didn’t matter. “When you pan the money out over five years, it’s really not that much,” she said.

   McCormick said he supported Ocean Ridge “out of loyalty and because of the experience they have working here.”

   Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins said his department will continue to have a close working relationship with his counterparts in Boynton Beach, and said he will do what it takes to ensure the transition goes smoothly.

County has most deaths
• Palm Beach County, nearly 45 miles long, ranks highest in the state for pedestrian deaths between railroad crossings. Of the 33 people killed statewide in 2015, seven died in Palm Beach County, ranking it first for what’s called “trespasser deaths.”
• On the FEC tracks, Palm Beach County ranked first in 2015 with five of 12 pedestrian deaths statewide. The previous year, the county and Miami-Dade County each had four deaths among a total of 12 statewide.  
• Since 2014, the FEC corridor has had the highest number of pedestrian deaths in the state for all rail lines. Last year, 12 of the 33 deaths were on FEC tracks.
• In Boca Raton, four people died along the FEC tracks in 2013, none in 2014, one in 2015 and one this year. Boynton Beach showed two  deaths since 2013 — one in 2014 and the other on June 18.
• Delray Beach police report all deaths to the FEC police, who could not be reached.
Note: Suicides are not included in the federal data.

SOURCES: Federal Railroad Administration, local police departments

Pedestrians illegally cross the FEC tracks in downtown Delray Beach near the site of a recent fatality.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

County has most deaths

By Jane Smith

    The epidemic of people illegally walking across railroad tracks between crossings was driven home last month when a woman was struck and killed by a freight train in downtown Delray Beach as her husband frantically tried to pull her to safety.
    The woman’s death raised the issue of pedestrian safety between FEC crossings that course through the urban hearts of coastal communities from Boca Raton to Jupiter.
    In downtown Delray Beach and other cities, people often illegally cut across the tracks to get to stores, restaurants, schools and jobs on the other side. A federal study called the trespassing “epidemic” along the FEC corridor, where five people in Palm Beach County were struck and killed in 2015.  
    “No Trespassing” signs are posted. People are cited for trespassing.
    But is that enough?
    Probably not.
    Next summer’s expected start of the $2.5 billion Brightline (previously All Aboard Florida) passenger rail service down the FEC tracks with trains running at speeds close to 80 miles per hour have ratcheted up the concerns.  
    Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein worries that the new quiet zones being installed at the 11 FEC road crossings in the city will make it even more hazardous for people who walk across the tracks between crossings.  
Train engineers now are required to blow their horns at vehicle crossings as a potential warning to people trying to scamper across the tracks. Once dual arm crossing guards are installed in each travel lane as part of a quiet zone, federal rail officials allow trains not to blow their horns. In an emergency, the engineer can still sound the train horn when vehicles or people are seen on the tracks.        “Quiet zones make the remaining tracks that much more dangerous,” Glickstein said. “Coupled with Brightline’s 32 trains a day traveling at much higher speeds than freight trains, it’s harder for people to judge how fast trains are traveling.”
    He took his safety concerns to the Aug. 9 meeting that U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel held with mayors in her district. Glickstein asked for her assistance with the Federal Railroad Administration, which has jurisdiction over all railroad corridors. He also asked for her help with federal transportation grants for money to build pedestrian safety barriers.
“You are bisecting the heart and soul of this city,” the mayor has said.
    Glickstein set up a meeting on Sept. 7 with Nick Uhren, head of the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization; Ali Soule, Brightline spokeswoman; Michael Lefevre, Brightline operations planning manager; and Robert Ledoux, a vice president of FEC Railway.
    Joining the mayor will be City Manager Don Cooper, acting City Attorney Janice Rustin and several employees from the city’s Environmental Services Department.
    They will discuss pedestrian safety between the crossings, Glickstein said. Brightline trains will travel at speeds up to 79 mph between Miami and West Palm Beach, with the only county stop being West Palm Beach, Soule said.
In the second phase that will end in Cocoa Beach, the trains will reach speeds of 110 mph. The final phase will end in Orlando with trains traveling at 125 mph, she said.
    Depending how that meeting goes, the MPO board may push for pedestrian barriers countywide along the FEC tracks at its Sept. 15 meeting, Uhren said.

Tri-Rail stations along the CSX tracks have fencing to control pedestrians. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Death prompts new efforts
    Safety advocate Patrick Halliday also is concerned about the pedestrian fatalities. As vice chairman of Human Powered Delray, he promotes biking and walking safety.
    “I wanted to make an issue out of it,” he said of the Boca Raton woman who was struck and killed in early August while crossing the Delray tracks to take a shortcut to a restaurant on the west side.
    The woman and her husband had dined at Johnnie Brown’s and left about 9:30 p.m. and headed to Bru’s Room across the tracks.
    She fell about 50 feet north of Atlantic Avenue and was hit by a southbound freight train. Her husband died of natural causes the next morning, leaving behind a 17-year-old daughter.
    “Imagine watching your wife die before your eyes,” Halliday said. “My heart is feeling pain for the daughter.”
    He reached out last month to FEC’s Ledoux, who agreed to meet with Delray Beach officials.
    Halliday would like to see landscaped fencing along the tracks a block north and south of Atlantic Avenue to prevent people from walking across the tracks to save a few minutes.  
    By meeting with Delray Beach officials, FEC and Brightline representatives are showing willingness to listen to their concerns, Halliday said.
    In a 2007 report, Northwestern University economics professor Ian Savage wrote, “Some courts have taken the view that railroads have a duty to ‘anticipate future trespass’ at locations where trespass occurs regularly, and to react to a ‘well-worn path’ crossing the railroad.”  
    In the report, Trespassing on the Railroad, he wrote that the railroad might be expected to put up “fencing to make people use nearby formal crossings.”  
    On the CSX tracks, the other major rail line that traverses the county, the Florida Department of Transportation erected chain link fencing along most of the corridor to prevent pedestrians from taking shortcuts across the tracks.
    FDOT bought the CSX tracks when the Tri-Rail commuter service started in 1988. The tracks also serve freight trains and the Amtrak national passenger service.
    Certain areas of the fencing were vandalized by people who want to walk across the tracks to save time. The department will buy fencing that can’t be cut, said Bonnie Arnold, spokeswoman for the South Florida Regional Transportation Agency, which oversees regional transportation.
    Whatever the outcome, Glickstein said, “We know that people will cross the tracks between crossings at great peril.”
    — Research provided by Michelle Quigley.

Q. Where has locally acquired Zika been found so far?
    A. The Florida Department of Health says the two nontravel cases of Zika in Palm Beach County don’t constitute an active outbreak here, though officials aren’t providing specifics.
    Palm Beach County’s Mosquito Control division has stepped up its mosquito control campaign. Its latest aerial spraying efforts were focused on 162,000 acres west of State Road 7, including Jupiter Farms, Caloosa, Loxahatchee, the Acreage, Royal Palm Beach and the Glades. The insecticides Dibrom and Naled are used.
    Meanwhile, the state has been working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public health workers have tested three individuals who live near one of the infected individuals in Palm Beach County, plus thousands of mosquitoes. Those tests have all been negative, according to the Florida Department of Health.
    Since Zika can be transmitted human-to-human through sexual contact, it’s possible that mosquitoes weren’t the cause of the two local infections.
    So far, Florida’s hot spot for Zika has been the Wynwood section of Miami, a downtown arts district that lies just east of I-95 and south of I-195, the Julia Tuttle Causeway. Twenty-nine people tested positive for Zika exposure there. Meanwhile, five more may have acquired Zika during visits to Miami Beach. The CDC has recommended that pregnant women and their partners avoid the areas. On Aug. 23, Pinellas County also reported one local Zika case.  
    Zika has become a major problem for many Latin American and Caribbean nations, especially Brazil and Puerto Rico. As of late August, the Department of Health was aware of 578 individuals in Florida who probably acquired their illness during international travel, 70 of whom were pregnant.

    Q. How is Zika virus transmitted?
    A. Zika is spread when a virus-laden mosquito bites an infected person, then bites someone else. It can spread when an infected person has unprotected sex, too.
    Not all mosquitoes can carry Zika. Scientists believe it’s primarily the Aedes species of mosquito that’s spreading Zika. While that type of mosquito is here, it’s just one of more than 70 types of mosquitoes found in Florida, and it isn’t the dominant mosquito type in South Florida. So there’s no need to panic if you’re bitten by a mosquito. Condom use by pregnant women’s partners may make sense.

    Q. What are local, state and federal government officials doing about Zika virus?
    A. State/local: Since Aug. 3, county health departments have been offering free Zika risk assessment and testing to pregnant women. The state has created a Zika virus information hotline. The number is 855-622-6735. Palm Beach County, meanwhile, has an aerial spraying hotline, 642-8775.
    Federal: Both President Barack Obama and Gov. Rick Scott have been urging Congress to release more funding for research and prevention of Zika. Congress was close to releasing over $1 billion just before the summer recess, but Senate Democrats blocked the bill when Republicans tacked on politically controversial provisions such as reduced access to contraception, cutting of Ebola research and weakened pesticide regulations.

    Q. What can individuals do to lower their risk of becoming sick with Zika virus?
    A. Mosquitoes breed in standing water. As little as a capful will do. So making regular efforts to eliminate standing water can make a big difference. Shake boat covers. Empty flowerpot dishes. Remove trash. At home, repair screens and keep doors and windows closed and the air conditioning on. Wear long pants and sleeves when you spend time outside, especially at dusk or dawn, and use a bug repellent that contains DEET.
    Condom use helps protect sexually transmitted Zika.

Q. Where did Zika get its name?
    A. Its name comes from the Zika Forest of Uganda, where the virus was first isolated in 1947. Zika virus is related to the dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, and West Nile viruses.

    Q. Where did Zika come from and why is it here now?
    A. Reports of recent Zika outbreaks first emerged from South Pacific nations in 2007. Since then, it has spread to the Western Hemisphere as well. Brazil reported cases in 2015. Puerto Rico is experiencing an especially bad outbreak this summer. Of people tested in urban areas there, two-thirds tested positive for exposure. 

— Stacey Singer

Zika answers: County’s cases don’t constitute outbreak

By Stacey Singer

    Mosquito bites have gone from nuisance to real worry after the city of Lake Worth reported on Aug. 25 that a resident had tested positive for Zika infection. It was the second case of what health authorities are calling nontravel Zika in Palm Beach County in August.
Zika is spread through two routes, either through the bite of a virus-carrying mosquito, or through unprotected sex with an infected partner.
It appears that 42 out of Florida’s 43 non-travel Zika cases so far were spread through a mosquito bite, Florida Surgeon General Celeste Philip said during a visit to Boca Raton on Aug. 29. She was traveling with Gov. Rick Scott, who is holding Zika roundtable discussions with local officials statewide.
The state still believes ongoing transmission is taking place only within the small identified areas in Wynwood and Miami Beach in Miami-Dade County, Scott said, reiterating that in Palm Beach County, public health workers have been unable to find any additional cases, leading them to believe the two cases here are isolated.         Mosquito counts along Palm Beach County’s coastal barrier islands throughout August have remained quite low compared with the rest of the county, and so helicopter spraying hasn’t been planned anywhere east of Military Trail, said Chris Reisinger, the environmental analyst for Palm Beach County’s Division of Mosquito Control.
Instead the county focuses on spot mosquito control efforts with larvicide pellets, and fogging with a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide.
    The county places mosquito traps throughout the region, and the highest number of potential Zika-carrying mosquitoes found along southern Palm Beach County’s coast was 22, Reisinger said. They appeared in a trap at George Bush Boulevard and Andrews Avenue in Delray Beach in late August. That number is below the state’s guidelines for spraying, Reisinger said.
A later sampling in the area found none of the disease-carrying mosquito species.
Compare that with Belle Glade, where traps recently recorded about 2,200 nuisance mosquitoes.
    “For the most part, we just don’t see that many on the islands,” Reisinger said. “Twenty-two means, most likely, someone left trash in the area and mosquitoes are breeding there now.”
    The types of mosquitoes that spread Zika are Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. They’re what’s known as container breeders. That means a discarded soda can, an old tire, a forgotten watering can, a neglected birdbath, a wheelbarrow or even waxy ornamental plants like bromeliads, which gather and hold sprinkler water, can become breeding sites for potentially disease-carrying mosquitoes.
    Regularly inspecting your property and eliminating such hazards is one solid way to reduce your Zika risk right now, Reisinger said. He suggests people replace bromeliads with plants that don’t capture and hold water, or else to flush and treat them regularly.
    “I ripped out all my bromeliads in January when I found mosquitoes breeding there. Otherwise you have to treat them with a larvicide like Mosquito Bits every couple of weeks, and it’s a pain,” he said.
    Many communities along the coast depend on Palm Beach County’s Mosquito Control division to manage their issues with the pests if necessary, he said. The department will send an inspector out if a property owner can’t solve the problem by eliminating standing water sources.  
    Since July, the state has given the department more money to do that. The county has received an extra $170,000 to support mosquito control efforts, and may receive another $85,000 in September. That money is helping the county add a new mosquito control truck, new lab equipment and additional staff to help with old tire disposal and to respond to mosquito reports, Reisinger said.

Virus transmitted by sex
    In the first Palm Beach County case, the infected person reportedly often traveled to Wynwood for work. But chatter among mosquito control experts is that mosquitoes may not be the cause of the latest Lake Worth case. Zika may have been transmitted through sex.        

Zika is different from other mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile virus or dengue fever in that humans can unknowingly be carriers.
Only about 1 in 5 infected people shows symptoms, so if someone acquires the virus during travel to a Zika hot spot such as Brazil or Puerto Rico, he or she can come here and unknowingly spread it to others through sexual contact.         That’s why some health officials think pregnant women in Florida should either abstain from sex or insist that their partners use condoms, travel or no travel, symptoms or not.
    In pregnant women, particularly those in early pregnancy, Zika has been associated with severe birth defects, especially nervous system damage such as microcephaly, which is abnormally small head growth.
    But not all pregnant women with Zika infection give birth to babies with birth defects.
A study in Brazil found that of 72 women who tested positive for Zika illness in their early pregnancy, only 12 saw fetal abnormalities on ultrasound.
    The Florida Department of Health is aware of 70 pregnant women who have suffered Zika infections. The agency announced that one had delivered a baby with microcephaly.
    The two communities in Miami-Dade County dealing with active Zika outbreaks, according to the Florida Department of Health, are the artsy Wynwood section near downtown and the touristy Miami Beach.
On Aug. 23, the state added Pinellas County to the list of areas with a case of nontravel Zika. Meanwhile, the state is aware of more than 500 cases of travel-related Zika.

Spot control works best
along the coast
    Palm Beach County’s mosquito control efforts involve nighttime aerial spraying of pesticides. The insecticide used is Dibrom, which is highly diluted and sprayed in a fine mist so that it remains aerosolized for a prolonged time. It kills insects on contact. Chronic exposure can be toxic for most creatures, including birds, fish and humans.
Mosquito Control officials spray it only at night for the time being to avoid humans and pollinating insects needed for agriculture. However, the Zika-carrying mosquitoes are daytime fliers.
Unless mosquito counts surge, spraying east of Military Trail is unnecessary, Reisinger said.  
    As long as people are traveling to Zika hot spots and then returning to the United States and having unprotected sex, mosquito control efforts alone are unlikely to halt the spread of Zika.

Lifeguard Brian McManus warns Manny Castelli about the hazards of snorkeling without a dive flag at Ocean Inlet Park.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

    Why do they call it Labor Day when most of us avoid all labor that day?
    We sleep late, fire up the grill, sip a little liquid refreshment. And thousands of us go to the beach.
    But at least 45 of those Labor Day beachgoers will be working at county parks.
    “Labor Day is one of our busiest days,” says Brian McManus, pondering the view from a lifeguard tower at Ocean Inlet Park by the Boynton Inlet. “Those Monday holidays always are.”
    McManus is only one of 65 full-time and 33 part-time lifeguards — including 16 women — who rotate among 13 county parks. But he’s been guarding lives a lot longer than most.
    “In 1983, I was a part-time pool guard at the county’s Lake Lytal Park while attending Palm Beach Junior College,” he remembers. “I had my application in at the YMCA when the opportunity came to go full-time with the county. And the county had benefits.”
    He was 20 then. He’s 54 now, a lieutenant with Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue, and the stories he can tell after working towers from Singer Island to Boca Raton for 33 years will leave you with a whole new perspective on what the job entails.
    Ocean Inlet Park, for example. Where you see a beach, McManus sees hazards all over the place.
    “This place is so diverse,” he says. “There’s the park, a picnic area, the Intracoastal inlet, the north and south sides of the inlet.” He sighs. “And the bridge jumpers.”
    Too often, adventurous teenagers challenge each other to leap from the bridge above the inlet into the waters below, where the tides are especially treacherous.
    “It’s a rite of passage,” McManus says. “I’ve had to run over and stop kids from jumping.”
    That’s what the patrol calls a preventive action — saving beachgoers from having to have their lives saved to begin with. During March, April and May of this year, lifeguards at Ocean Inlet Park performed only one ocean rescue. But they tallied 1,454 preventions.
    During an average year, county guards rescue about 140 swimmers and boaters. But they take 85,000 preventive actions.
    “We stop stuff before it happens,” McManus says.
    He clears the beach of skim boards and Frisbees, spear guns and glass containers. And because Ocean Inlet Park is so close to State Road A1A, he’s both lifeguard and unofficial traffic cop.
    “We’ve got to stop little kids from running up into the road and getting hit,” he says. “The parents are lugging their beach chairs and the kids get ahead of them.”
    Mostly, though, he’s a lifeguard.
    “The best ones are when you save somebody,” he says, “but the ones I remember are the harrowing ones.”
    About five years ago, McManus was in the tower when he spotted people jumping up and down and signaling him from the fishing pier jetty on the north side of the inlet. Two girls had been pulled around the jetty on an incoming tide and two men were clinging to the pilings. But from the tower, he could see nothing, only the frantically waving people.
    “You can’t see anything,” he says, “You’re going into a blind rescue.”
    McManus ran through the park to the patrol’s 16-foot inflatable rescue boat and headed out the inlet. All four swimmers were rescued.
    That was a good day. Some aren’t.
    On June 10, 2015, a 3-year-old girl playing in the water off the Intracoastal Waterway side of the park was “in distress.” McManus got the call in his beachside tower and raced over.
    “I worked on her from about five to seven minutes, until the fire-rescue medics came,” he recalls. “But I knew she was gone.”
    The county offers counseling after lives are lost, McManus notes. But he finds the best approach is to follow all the procedures to a T, so he knows he’s done the best he could, even when his best isn’t enough.
    “I try not to let it get me,” he says. “But it gets me.”
    The girl and her family were on the small beach by the park’s picnic area. Visitors aren’t supposed to swim there, but they do, despite the dirty water and absence of a lifeguard.
    “We tell everyone, read the signs,” says Capt. Robert Wagner, of Ocean Rescue’s South District Headquarters. “And above all, never be afraid to ask the lifeguard questions.”
    In more than three decades as a lifeguard — 33 years, 33 Labor Days — Brian McManus has dealt with shark bites, spinal injuries, performed first aid on motorists and motorcyclists, responded to an air-bag explosion and heat emergencies, along with all those ocean rescues the rest of us imagine. He’s even broken up fights.
    “Coming to work at Kreusler Park early one morning,” he says, “I found a suicide.”
    And yet he’s still not ready to retire.
    “I’ve had skin cancers from being in the sun,” he says, pointing to a scar on his chest, “but fortunately the county has good insurance.”
    Skin cancers, fist fights, drownings. Is there no humor in a lifeguard’s day? Never a laugh as he sits in the tower?
    McManus thinks for a moment.
    “Well,” he says, “sometimes guys come out of the water too fast and lose their trunks.”

Brian McManus, a lifeguard at Ocean Inlet Park, talks to snorkelers without a dive flag. They were at risk of being sucked into the Boynton Inlet, a situation that could become serious very quickly. McManus has more than 30 years of service as a lifeguard. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Rescues and more
Yes, they rescue drowning swimmers. But that’s the smallest part of the job. Palm Beach County lifeguards also prevent dangerous situations from developing and perform first aid. Below are figures showing how they spent their time at four local parks during March, April and May this year:

KREUSLER PARK
Rescues: 1
Preventions: 2,629
First aid: 433

OCEAN INLET PARK
Rescues: 1
Preventions: 1,454
First aid: 381

GULFSTREAM PARK
Rescues: 11
Preventions: 1,451
First aid: 328

SOUTH INLET PARK
Rescues: 1
Preventions: 1,473
First aid: 289

Capt. Robert Wagner said the unusual number of rescues at Gulfstream Park was due to a shifting sandbar that created riptides on both ends of the guarded area. “We try to get the public’s attention before they are in a rip, but sometimes they don’t listen,” he said.
Source: Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue

NOTE: Lantana, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Boca Raton will have their own lifeguards keeping beach-goers safe at municipal beaches this Labor Day weekend.

Politics, Zika, pythons, hurricanes. Welcome to Florida.
    You know what I mean. You watch TV news and read the headlines. It’s all people want to talk about.
    Maybe we should be talking instead about an average of 13 overdose calls each day. Yes, 13. Each day.
    That’s the number the Delray Beach police officer shared with us as we watched a young man carried out of a building in the 700 block of Atlantic Avenue on a recent evening. It was the third drug overdose call the officer had responded to on his shift that day.
    “Welcome to Delray Beach,” he said.
    The young man was good as dead when officers found him in a building nestled between bustling restaurants. He is alive now, thanks to Delray’s first responders and the availability of the antidote Narcan. Let’s hope the young man with multiple tattoos and a brand new backpack will find his way toward recovery.
    In the meantime, the opioid abuse crisis in South County continues. Consider this:
    • In the first seven months of 2016, Boca Raton Fire Rescue administered Narcan 77 times. The highest number of overdose calls came in July, with 18.
    • In Boynton Beach, police responded during the same time frame to 189 overdoses, with 15 deaths. In July they responded to 37 overdoses, possibly an all-time high for the city.
    • In Delray Beach the numbers were 372 overdoses, 35 deaths. ODs were at an all-time high in July, with 66 reported (seven resulted in death).
    Delray Beach Fire Chief Neal de Jesus told the City Commission Aug. 16 that his department has used 1,000 doses of Narcan in the last eight months.
    The number of overdose deaths in our backyard far outweighs the threat of Zika-carrying mosquitoes, pythons, tropical weather or any politician. This is the crisis we should be talking about.
    If you think this doesn’t impact you, think again. More and more of your tax dollars are being allocated to respond to these drug-related calls. The cost is growing.
    If your life has not yet been touched by this crisis, you may ask what you can do. Here are a few suggestions:
    Talk with your city leaders and first responders about what they need to do their jobs. Help them out.
    Contact local mental health agencies and ask how you can assist their efforts. They, too, are on the front lines with drug addiction.
    Keep elected officials talking about the crisis. Hold their feet to the fire. Support the ones looking for solutions and walk away from the ones who shift public discussion to their own agendas. You have a vote. Make it work.
    Report sober home and treatment center abuses. If you see something, say something. Use the State Attorney’s sober home task force hotline: 844-324-5463.
    And let me be frank. If you enjoy relaxing with any number of legal, or illegal, substances, you may be contributing to the problem. The more mainstream recreational use of opioids becomes, the more difficult the addiction crisis becomes. It’s a market share issue.
    Even if your occasional marijuana supplier is your cousin’s best friend, you may still be contributing to an illegal drug trade that keeps more ruthless dealers working our streets.
    But I suspect we’d all really rather talk about politics, mosquitoes, pythons and hurricanes, right? Welcome to Florida.
— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

Gail Veros was inspired to get involved with helping victims of domestic abuse when she was 20, after a roommate was battered by a boyfriend. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Amy Woods

    Five days away at a girlfriend’s lakeside cottage in Ottawa provided a welcome respite for Gail Veros, who maintains a very busy schedule. As the 2016-17 social season shifts into gear in South Florida, so does Veros, a longtime volunteer for Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse.
    Veros has returned to a board of directors position she filled from 2009 to 2012 before rolling off because of term limits. Still, she was never more than a call or an email away as a member of the Delray Beach nonprofit’s advisory board for the four following years.
    Now, not only will she resume attending monthly meetings, she also will chair the advisory board and serve on the committee for the Heart of a Woman Luncheon.
    “She has bubbling enthusiasm and energy,” said Pam O’Brien, president and CEO of the organization that aims to break the cycle of abuse in the home and promote violence-free relationships. “She is passionate about our mission and really loves reaching out and sharing her excitement with others.”
    Veros, 64, has helped generate thousands of dollars in donations for the charity by organizing special fundraisers apart from its two primary events — the Heart of a Woman Luncheon, which took place in January, and Race for Hope, set for Oct. 8.
    In May, the Boca Raton woman put together an evening of cocktails and music themed Girls & Pearls at Florida Atlantic University’s Baldwin House, the campus residence of the school’s president. Tickets sold for $100.
    Veros is a tireless advocate for the cause and always can be counted on to find new supporters.
    “She’s just never faltered,” O’Brien said. “She’s always out there promoting AVDA from the bottom of her heart because she cares. She’s been a wonderful, magical kind of personality, and that’s really a gift to us.”
    Veros credits her husband, Frank, a retired Ford Motor Co. executive, and her daughter, Windee, a Florida State University graduate, for supporting her efforts to make a difference in the lives of the estimated 1 in 4 women who suffer from what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes as “intimate partner violence.”
    “It’s an ongoing need and we see cycles,” Veros said. “There’s never a time where it ever disappears, and that’s what we’re hoping — that somewhere, somehow, we can create the change.”
    She started volunteering for AVDA in 2004, a few years after the family moved from Michigan to Boca Raton. She learned about the agency when she saw its large moving trucks bearing the AVDA logo driving around town collecting furniture.
    “It came to me just like that,” Veros, who lives in Royal Palm Beach Yacht & Country Club, remembered. “I said, ‘That’s where my heart’s going to go.’”
    A friend introduced Veros to the board and eventually asked her to join it. This year marks AVDA’s 30th anniversary.
    “I think it’s amazing what AVDA does,” Veros said. “Their mission statement speaks right to the soul, right to the middle of the heart. We have to work every day to promote violence-free relationships, and the way that’s done is by getting the word out there.”
    When Veros was 20 and living in Michigan, she had a roommate who was abused by a boyfriend and came home one night bloodied and bruised.
“That’s when I really linked into it,” Veros said of the epidemic. “I said, ‘Some day, I’m really going to get involved.’ ”

If You Go
What: 17th annual AVDA Race for Hope
When: Oct. 8, 6:30 a.m. registration; 7:30 a.m. 5K and 10K; 8:30 a.m. Kids Dash
Where: Anchor Park, 340 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach
Cost: $10 to $30
Information: Call 265-3797 or visit www.avdaonline.org

Golf tournament this month
    Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse will benefit from a charity golf tournament Sept. 17 organized by the Boca-Delray Lodge No. 171 of Free and Accepted Masons.
    The shotgun-start event will take place at Boca Lago Country Club in Boca Raton with registration at 8:30 a.m. and play at 10 a.m. Cost is $140 per player or $40 to attend the barbecue lunch, awards presentation and silent auction.
    
For information, call Sal Musumeci at 954-871-6018 or Mark Angstrom at 954-817-7093 or visit www.bocadelray171.org.

Delray Beach’s City Commission approved negotiating with two vendors to provide a smart parking system for the barrier island and the city’s two garages. The vendors are Parkeon and T2 Systems. The commission will approve the contract after reviewing their proposals.
    The initial order will be 50 units, said Jorge Alarcon, new chief parking facilities administrator. The units can be solar-powered, able to take a variety of payments, programmed to allow for residents’ discount by smartphone or offer a discount code to those without smartphones, and even notify the customer by text message when the parking time will expire.
    Alarcon said his goal is to have the system in place when the beach master plan is nearly finished, sometime in December.
— Jane Smith

By Dan Moffett

    Gulf Stream town commissioners turned to their Architectural Review and Planning Board to find a replacement for Robert Ganger, who vacated his commission seat in July because of health reasons.
    They unanimously appointed Paul Lyons, the ARPB chairman, to fill the void until next March’s election, citing his familiarity with town issues and his commitment to service.
    “The ARPB is the source of experience for someone coming onto the commission,” said Mayor Scott Morgan, who nominated Lyons during the Aug. 12 town meeting. “He’s dealing with issues we deal with — design, preservation.”
    Morgan served with Lyons on the ARPB several years ago and recalls how he flew to Florida from New York in the morning to attend a meeting, then flew back to New York that afternoon.
    “He’s a very good choice,” said Commissioner Joan Orthwein. “He’s knowledgable of what’s going on in the town — the building and the new construction.”
    Lyons, 70, has owned a home on Polo Drive since 2006. Professionally, he has a background in finance and business that will be an asset for the commission, Morgan said.
    “He seems very energetic and very willing in working on the ARPB,” said Commissioner Donna White.
    Ganger is recovering from a stroke suffered in April. The commission unanimously approved the appointment of Commissioner Thomas Stanley to replace him as the town’s vice mayor.
    “Bob is an important member of this commission,” Morgan said. “He’s truly a unique one, with knowledge and experience, who’s able to express it with eloquence that really has evidenced his leadership capabilities.”
    Commissioners said they will miss the breadth of Ganger’s knowledge: He earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale, an MBA from Harvard, then went on to become a senior vice president at Kraft General Foods, where he oversaw product management of Jell-O.
    Since settling in Gulf Stream 24 years ago, Ganger has championed preservation causes, co-founding the Florida Coalition for Preservation in 2007.
He has taken a lead role in representing Gulf Stream’s interests before governments in Delray Beach and the barrier island communities —  and in Tallahassee, where last year he lobbied the state Legislature to give municipalities relief from abuses of public records laws.
He was instrumental in putting together Gulf Stream’s ambitious project to move its utility lines underground.
    “He’s unique in my opinion as someone in the town of Gulf Stream who could give countless hours and energy helping this town, improving this town, preserving this town,” Morgan said.
 Orthwein said, “Nobody can replace Mr. Ganger.”

By Jane Smith

    The East Coast Greenway path along the ocean was reconsidered recently by the full City Commission and deemed fitting with the image Delray Beach wants to convey.
    “It’s not a design effort but a recognition of Delray for what it is,” said Jim Chard, chairman of Human Powered Delray, a group that promotes walking and cycling in the city. “It’s very similar to the Tree City USA designation, the All America City … calling attention to [us] that we are a special city.”
    At the Aug. 16 commission meeting, the Beach Property Owners Association board said it supports the concept of the 3,000-mile-long Greenway from Maine to Key West, according to Andy Katz, board vice president.
    “It’s a feather in the cap for what we are doing,” said John Morgan, environmental services director.
    In December, the Greenway was approved on the consent agenda. Some community members objected to the path, sometimes called a trail, as something that would bring undesirable people who would camp on the city’s beach and clog traffic with their bicycles. They even appealed to state Rep. Bill Hager, who wrote to Mayor Cary Glickstein asking for community input on the item.
    The use of the word “trails” might have confused people, Glickstein said. In an urban area such as Delray, they’re really sidewalks along the beach because they satisfy the criteria, he said.
    “I got zero negative feedback from other cities,” he said. “And I even asked the people who complained to provide specific examples of negative impact around the state, but I never heard back.”
    In Delray Beach, the path would begin at the north on Federal Highway and travel south to George Bush Boulevard, where it would turn east to A1A and then south to Highland Beach.
    Delray Beach has 1.3 miles of sidewalk that is 9.6 feet wide along the ocean and will be recognized as the Greenway.
    In nearby Boca Raton, 4.7 miles along A1A were dedicated in 2012 to the route. Highland Beach, which sits directly south of Delray Beach, does not have the wide sidewalks required for the path. The organization that runs the Greenway wants sidewalks of at least 10 feet, but it will accept sidewalks that are 8 feet wide.
The coastal communities north of Delray Beach — Gulf Stream, Ocean Ridge and Manalapan — do not have the required wide sidewalks. This  means the path likely will stay on Federal Highway through Boynton Beach and Lantana.
    At the Delray Beach City Commission meeting, no one spoke against the Greenway. The commissioners all agreed the designation was beneficial for the city.
    “I think it’s the right thing to do when we did it, and I still think it is today,” the mayor said.
    In other business, the commission unanimously approved a resolution affirming its commitment to beach renourishment and paying its share with a matching amount from Palm Beach County.
    City Manager Don Cooper also gave an update on the beach master plan: The bid notice was published Aug. 22 with proposals due by Sept. 15 and evaluated by Sept. 20. Cooper has commission approval to award the contract, provided the amount is within the budget. He will report to the commission within five days about the contract award.
    The construction work is expected to take 60 to 90 days, Cooper said. The bid document will give the contractor the option of nighttime work to reduce the construction time. The night work can occur after turtle-nesting season ends Oct. 31.

By Rich Pollack

    The good news is that most local government employees throughout the coastal communities of south Palm Beach County may be seeing raises in the upcoming fiscal year.
    The not-so-great news is that for many of them, these raises will probably do little more than help them keep up with the increased cost of living in South Florida.
    On average, most of the communities along the coast are proposing employee pay increases of about 3 percent, with some considering a little more and others a little less.
    The proposed salary increases, for the most part, are an attempt by local governments to make up for recent years when there were no raises, while at the same time making sure that budgets remain financially sound.
    “There were several years during the economic downturn where there wasn’t a lot of movement in terms of compensation and benefits,” says Ocean Ridge Town Manager Jamie Titcomb. “Times are better now with higher property valuations and as a result, there’s a little more flexibility for municipalities to catch up on government market-rate compensation.”
    There is, however, only so much local governments can do.
    “We always want to be as generous as possible, but we have to be conservative so as to not create an unstable fiscal situation,” Titcomb said.  
    For some towns enjoying the benefits of increased property values, creative approaches to recognizing employees can help maintain that delicate balancing act.
    In Manalapan, for example, commissioners are considering a 3 percent pay increase for employees, up from 2.5 percent last year.
    At the same time, however, town leaders are developing a longevity rewards program to compensate employees for their loyalty.
After five years, a full-time employee would receive a lump sum payment of $1,250; after 10 years, $2,500; after 15 years, $3,750, and after 20 years, $5,000.
Part-time employees would be eligible for half as much.
    In Ocean Ridge, commissioners are considering merit raises for employees that would range from 2 percent to 5 percent, depending on several factors, including performance.
The town also recently changed its health insurance plan to one that Titcomb says provides better benefits to employees — whose premiums are fully covered by the town — and significantly lowers deductibles for family members.
    In Highland Beach, commissioners are considering a 3 percent, across-the-board pay increase for all employees beginning Oct. 1 and have instituted a longevity pay plan, similar to the one being considered by Manalapan. Employees receive pay increases when they reach 10-, 15-, 20- and 25-year milestones.
In addition, the town is considering an incentive program where employees are rewarded for ideas that improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Beginning in the 2016-2017 fiscal year, employees will also get $1,000 they can use to help with medical costs not covered by their health insurance plan.  
It is a change in the health insurance, however, that is partially responsible for civilian employees starting the process of forming a union.   
    In the past, employees were covered by a preferred provider organization, in which the town paid 100 percent of employee premiums and 85 percent of family coverage premiums.
In July, however, the town switched to a three-tiered plan that includes a health maintenance organization plan and two preferred provider organization plans.
    Employees who join the HMO would save money on their family plans, while there would be increases for both employee and family coverage with the PPO plans.
Some employees who say they want to maintain the high level of coverage they received in the past have balked at the increased rates.
    In South Palm Beach, commissioners are considering a 3 percent across-the-board pay increase for employees, while in Gulf Stream, a 2.5 percent increase — down from 3 percent last year — has been proposed.
    Some communities are considering a combination of a cost-of-living increase and merit raises.
In Lantana, commissioners are considering a cost-of-living raise of just about 1 percent and a merit raise of up to 5 percent.
    In Delray Beach, commissioners are considering merit raises up to 5 percent while insurance premiums have dropped by about 5 percent for health, dental and vision coverage.
    In Boynton Beach, police officers and employees covered by the Service Employees International Union could receive a 3 percent increase, while fire and rescue personnel and employees not covered by the union would receive a slightly lower increase under the proposed budget.
In Boca Raton, rather than put a squeeze on employee benefits, city officials propose adding 76 new full-time positions to their municipal workforce numbering 1,423.
The extra personnel will add $5.5 million for salaries and benefits to the city’s $392 million operating budget.
Boca Raton has scheduled public hearings on its proposed budget at 6 p.m. Sept. 12 and Sept. 26 in the City Council chambers at City Hall.  

Dozens protest before the Boynton CRA meeting in opposition to the height of a project proposed for the southeast corner of Woolbright Road and Federal Highway.  Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    More than 50 residents protested outside City Hall carrying signs that read: “Save Boynton, Stop High Rises” and “Better Not Bigger” before a meeting when building height would be discussed.
    About 100 residents wore white shirts with stickers bearing the numeral 4 in red, indicating their four-story preference. They packed the Boynton Beach Commission Chambers, forcing others to stand along the sides and the back of the room.
    The City Commission, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board, reviewed the agency’s consolidated plans on Aug. 9.         

The plans detail nine changes throughout the eastern half of the city, with the height and density increase at Woolbright Road and Federal Highway the most contentious. The changes will shape the city’s eastern half for the next 20 years.
The final vote on raising the height at the intersection to allow for 10 stories was 3-2 in favor. The vote to approve the consolidated plans was unanimous.
The plans still must be approved by the same five CRA board members sitting as the City Commission Sept. 8 and 20.
    Twenty-five people spoke against increasing the height to 10 stories at Woolbright and Federal. Six people were for it, including three consultants hired by Isram Realty, which owns Riverwalk Plaza at the intersection’s southeast corner.
    Isram submitted plans last year that call for demolishing the plaza and replacing it with a 10-story apartment building. The original proposed zoning and land-use plan allowed seven stories. The changes discussed Aug. 9 allowed 10 stories. A separate meeting will be held to review Riverwalk’s plans.
    The developer sounds like “a bully,” resident Maureen Trufano said at the CRA meeting. She said she ran a preschool where respecting others was an important rule the children learned. She said Shaul Rikman, Isram’s owner, stood up and said he needs 10 stories to make a profit when he knew only seven stories would be allowed. “He is flaunting the rules,” she said.
 Mayor Steven Grant and Commissioner Christina Romelus were on the losing side of the vote regarding the Woolbright and Federal Highway intersection.
    Romelus, whose district includes Riverwalk, said she had to support her residents, even if they did not vote for her in the March election. She said her vote that night “doesn’t demean staff. It’s just not the right plan.”
    Grant wanted an impartial review of the plan by the not-for-profit Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, which provides planning and growth management services for communities in the region. Otherwise, it would look as if the city is just changing the zoning for Isram. No board member supported him.
    Rikman shouted at Grant over the gist of their first meeting. Romelus asked for a short break. When the CRA meeting restarted, police officers moved from the back of the chambers to the front to maintain order.
    Former CRA board member James “Buck” Buchanan urged the CRA board members to think destination and promote “the Floribbean/fishing village concept that was adopted years ago.” Buchanan was ousted during a reorganization of the board last fall after disagreeing with a city commissioner at a CRA meeting.
    During the CRA meeting, two residents presented survey results in support of lower height guidelines in the CRA district. Fourth-generation Floridian Susan Oyer used the Survey Monkey program. It was online for seven days and received 545 responses. The survey had six questions that the CRA should have asked in June, she said.
    The middle-school history teacher said she reached more than 7,000 residents. The overwhelming response was for lower heights, she said.
    “We pay taxes here, we live here, we care about this area,” Oyer told the CRA board members. “You are supposed to represent the residents, not the developers who are here today and gone tomorrow.”
    Commissioner Joe Casello questioned whether anyone could vote twice in the survey. Grant said the program allows only one vote per household, recognized by the computer’s internet protocol address.
    Resident Debbie Lytle, who lives west of the interstate in Commissioner Justin Katz’s district, also had an online petition. “Regardless of where you live, [the plan] affects the whole city,” she said.
    Lytle held a stack of 726 signatures for her petition that asked people to sign if they favored the lower height at the Woolbright intersection.
    She planned to keep the survey online until Sept. 8 in an effort to collect 1,000 signatures.
    “We like that you want to set the standards high, but don’t set the buildings high, too,” she said.
    Katz voted for the height increase, saying most of his constituents are newer residents. They moved to Boynton Beach in the past 10 to 15 years and “don’t mind the height increases,” he said.
    After the vote, former Mayor Jerry Taylor deviated from his usual path to leave the chambers. Instead of using the side aisle, he climbed the center stairs and gave Rikman a thumbs-up sign. Rikman’s company had donated $2,000 to Taylor’s re-election campaign last year.

By Jane Smith

    The fate of the historic Boynton Beach High School, which seemed certain to be saved earlier this year, is unsettled again.
    At the Aug. 17 budget meeting of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, city commissioners sitting as the CRA board did not want to commit to spending money on the high school now. A majority wanted to wait to see how development teams would use it in their Town Square plans.
    They will review the request for proposals for the Town Square plans at the Sept. 8 commission meeting, before the project is advertised.
    The decision did not sit well with the group of residents dedicated to seeing the historic structure saved. Barbara Ready, who also chairs the city’s Historic Resources Preservation Board, is urging residents to send emails to the commissioners in support of the high school.
She wants to see the entire building saved, not just the front, which she called a “façade-ectomy.”
    Mayor Steven Grant proposed using $185,450 remaining in this year’s Town Square budget to start work on the old high school now.
    That money will be held over into the next budget year to evaluate the financial soundness of the development teams’ plans, said CRA Executive Director Vivian Brooks.
    The $100,000 federal matching grant the CRA received for the high school is not available until Oct. 1, Brooks said. Then the County Commission would have to approve the grant, she told the CRA board members.
    Commissioner Justin Katz was not for spending any money on the high school until the city knows how it can be reused in the plans.
    “I’m not interested in spending a penny on it unless we know how we will save it,” he said. “We would be remiss to spend the [grant] money until we know 100 percent what we will do with the high school.”
    He called the April decision about the high school “a consensus, not a vote.”
    Commissioner Christina Romelus, who favored saving the high school after she was elected in March, now prefers to wait until the development teams return their plans for Town Square.  The city manager said that would be in December. 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.
In April, the City Commission was concerned that using $20,000 that REG Architects and partners offered to hire a financial consultant to review the soundness of their plan would compromise the city’s  position in the lawsuit. That item was tabled until the city knows the outcome of the motion to dismiss.
    When asked how the open lawsuit would affect the city’s plans for Town Square, the response from the city spokesperson was, “Litigation pending, no comment.”

By Jane Smith

    The Oscar Magnuson House is working its way through the Boynton Beach approval process to become a restaurant that specializes in light bites and craft beers.
    The proposed owner of the 1,500-square-foot house received City Commission approval Aug. 16 to add 1,266 square feet to the rear of the house for a kitchen, restrooms and a portion of the bar. A rear porch, added in the 1950s, will be demolished. The tapas eatery will seat 183 diners.
    Instead of a wall separating the business from the three-story condo building on the east, the Planning and Development Board recommended “lots of landscaping” would work better. Diners and employees will park in the new lot at Northeast First Avenue and Northeast First Street. The buyer, a division of Local Development Co. of Philadelphia, has 45 days to close on the house, still owned by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
    The purchase price of $255,000 translates into a loss for the CRA. The agency had paid $850,000 in 2007 for the house, built about 1910 by Swedish immigrant and farmer Oscar Sten Magnuson. His wife, Eunice Benson Magnuson, was one of the first town clerks.
    The CRA also is offering $200,000 to help with the conversion of the house into a restaurant, plus available grants.
    Architect Jim Williams, of Boca Raton, is working on construction drawings that will take three to four months to finish. He expects the still-unnamed restaurant to open in the fourth quarter of 2017.
    The house carries a local historic designation, meaning the city’s Historic Resources Preservation Board had to approve the renovations.
    The changes include a covered patio/outdoor dining area on the east side, a bocce ball court on the north side, fire pits on the north and east sides, and different paint colors for the exterior.

By Dan Moffett

    Despite agreeing on terms for a new working relationship with Town Attorney Brad Biggs three months ago, South Palm Beach council members remain divided over whether he should keep his job.
    Councilwoman Stella Gaddy Jordan sharply criticized Biggs’ performance during a stormy Aug. 23 town meeting and said the council should open his position and interview applicants.
    Jordan said that, during the town’s recent negotiations with developer Gary Cohen over plans for the old Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn site, Biggs was not a strong advocate for the town’s interests.
    “Brad didn’t support the council enough,” Jordan said, complaining that he appeared to side with the developer’s lawyers.
    “When people come up and ask me whose attorney is this guy — that’s embarrassing,” Jordan said.
    She also criticized Biggs for not helping the council maintain order and follow parliamentary procedures during meetings. Jordan also has said Biggs has been slow to respond to officials’ questions.
    Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello vehemently disagrees: “Brad has done a great job.” Flagello said the town should have no complaints about how Biggs has done his job, arguing the attorney has been consistently attentive to the council’s needs.
    “If you said you don’t like the guy, all right, that’s fair enough,” Flagello said. “But from a performance standpoint, I don’t see that his performance has been anything but great. We’re not going to be totally happy with anyone who sits in that seat.”
    Councilman Woody Gorbach said he supports advertising the position because the town might be better served by a larger firm. Biggs is a sole practitioner.
    “Nothing against our attorney, but I’d like to have a firm with six or eight practitioners,” Gorbach said. “A single practitioner can’t handle it.”
    Councilman Robert Gottlieb said the council should schedule Biggs for a performance review and then decide: “[A review] is something we haven’t done.”
    Mayor Bonnie Fischer said the continuing dispute over Biggs has taken a toll on the council.
    “I don’t want to sit here on the council when there’s  dissension about you or anybody else,” she told Biggs. “It’s uncomfortable for me as a mayor because I feel like I’m in the middle of this and I don’t like it.”
    Fischer said the Town Council would schedule a workshop meeting to discuss what services the town should expect from its attorney. She said she hoped to hold the workshop in September — at a date to be determined — and then reach a consensus among council members about Biggs’ fate.
    For his part, Biggs said he was “blindsided” when Jordan first voiced her complaints during a meeting in May. “It was a very, very unusual circumstance, and I don’t think it was appropriate,” he said.
    Biggs, who has been the town’s attorney for 10 years, said he doesn’t want discussion about his future to continue coming up and would participate in the workshop. He said he thought the complaints were resolved in June when he agreed on a new contract based on a retainer payment, rather than hourly fees. Biggs agreed then to spend more time in Town Hall to improve his accessibility.
    “I felt personally attacked the last time this occurred,” he said. “I very much feel kind of bullied at this point.”

By Willie Howard

    Boynton Beach Utilities could provide water to Hypoluxo residents at lower rates than town residents and business owners currently pay to Manalapan.
    That’s according to a rate comparison presented to Hypoluxo council members at their Aug. 17 meeting by Boynton Beach Utilities Director Colin Groff.
    According to Groff’s chart, a Hypoluxo homeowner with a 5/8-inch water meter pays a monthly base charge of $42.85 to Manalapan plus $2.34 per 1,000 gallons of water used.
    The same homeowner would pay a $12.35 monthly base charge plus $1.65 per 1,000 gallons to Boynton Beach Utilities, according to Groff. (Boynton Beach’s water rates go up after the first 9,000 gallons to encourage conservation.)
    “It was a very informative presentation, and I’ll be interested to hear the presentation by Manalapan,” Hypoluxo Vice Mayor Michael Brown said.         

Manalapan officials are scheduled to make a water-supply presentation to the Hypoluxo council on Oct. 19

By Rich Pollack

    Efforts to install license-plate recognition cameras in several communities along State Road A1A in south Palm Beach County are continuing to move forward, with Delray Beach commissioners giving a green light last month for the installation of systems at five locations east of the Intracoastal Waterway.
    Delray Beach commissioners approved spending $166,000 for the systems, clearing the way for project leaders to begin planning for installation and implementation of cameras and software.
    Delray Beach Police Capt. Tom Mitchell said a planning meeting will be held this month with representatives from the company providing the systems, L-3 Mobile Vision, as well as with Florida Power & Light Co. representatives and other city representatives.
    Meanwhile, in Ocean Ridge, Police Chief Hal Hutchins said he is moving forward with his study to make sure all legal hurdles are cleared and all regulations complied with before going back to the Town Commission with a funding request.
    “There are a lot of moving pieces involved and everything has to mesh together,” Hutchins said. “Once the project is fully vetted and we’ve crossed every T and dotted every I, we’ll be able to move forward.”
    In Highland Beach, Police Chief Craig Hartmann said he hopes to bring a request for funding for a license-plate recognition system to town commissioners this month. To help reduce costs, Highland Beach will team with Delray Beach and will likely share servers used by the system as well as the cost of cameras at Linton Boulevard and A1A.
    License-plate recognition systems work by scanning tags of passing cars and comparing that information to tag numbers entered into law enforcement databases. If a tag registered to a stolen vehicle is spotted by the system, for example, an alert is sent to a dispatcher who verifies the information and then notifies officers on patrol.
    The systems can also be used for a variety of investigative purposes, including helping detectives determine the getaway route of a vehicle used in a crime.
    Mitchell says technology now makes it possible for police officers on patrol to be notified on their laptops if there is a match between a tag number in the database and one found by a nearby scanner.
    Plans to sprinkle license-plate recognition cameras throughout several communities on Delray Beach’s barrier island had been in the works for years but were derailed more than a year ago when Florida transportation officials refused to allow them on state rights of way.
    But new technology such as that used by L-3 Mobile Vision makes it possible for cameras to read tags as far away as 130 feet from the center of a roadway.
    Mitchell said all but one of the five locations planned for scanners in Delray Beach are on city-owned property.
In Highland Beach and Ocean Ridge, officials will need legal agreements to place scanners on private property.

By Jane Smith
    
Under a new special events policy, city taxpayers will soon stop subsidizing private special events in Delray Beach.
    Mayor Cary Glickstein praised the special events task force that developed the policy for staying focused on establishing a level playing field and recovering the city’s true cost of events.
    “The reason we have so many events is that we have a cool town with a walkable main street, and many [promoters] were getting a free ride,” Glickstein said at the second City Commission meeting in August.
    He said the city has grown in the past 20 years and no longer needs so many events to attract people to its downtown. “The world has changed dramatically in terms of public safety,” he said. The city’s public safety departments are currently overwhelmed by increasing heroin overdoses.
    “We’ve only recovered 40 percent of our costs,” City Manager Don Cooper said. He based that figure on analysis provided by the city’s Finance Department, which found the city paying about $274,000 annually for the 14 approved events in the next budget year.
    The exact costs in the past are not known, said Assistant City Manager Francine Ramaglia. The city likely undercharged and did not attribute all costs to an individual event, such as a portion of the special events coordinator’s salary.
    Of the 23 people who spoke at the commission meeting, eight favored continuing the events.
    “Special events affect many people,” said Laura Simon, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority. “They’re special.” She asked for more time to evaluate the economic impact from the events on the downtown.
    Karen Granger, executive director of the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, said, “The chamber is on board with less is more” regarding special events. She also advised the commissioners to consider the economic impact of the festivals — $5.5 million from the Delray Affair alone.
    Promoter Nancy Stewart-Franczak, who recently moved the 2017 Garlic Fest to a county park west of Lake Worth, said, “People have been calling us and asking what’s happening downtown. We will lose our fun vibe.” Her company also canceled the 2016 Wine & Seafood Fest when it ran out of time to plan the event.
    To Stewart-Franczak, who previously voiced resistance to a new policy, Glickstein said, “I’m personally offended by your comments of prior elected officials who supported you better than us. … Your sense of entitlement is palpable.”
    Only one resident, Kevin Warner, said he liked what the task force did. “It’s time to put up or shut up and raise the money to support your event. I never heard people say, ‘I moved here because of the events.’ ”
    To soften the blow to recurring event organizers who saw their costs double, the City Commission agreed to a three-year phased period for full-cost recovery of police, fire, parks and other city services.
    Police costs accounted for much of the increase. Other cities have more nonsworn police personnel to use during events, such as those needed to staff a 5K run, Commissioner Jordana Jarjura said.
    Delray Beach’s contract with its police union allows lieutenants to get the first pick of overtime jobs, said Jeff Snyder, assistant chief financial officer.
    The commissioners unanimously approved the task force’s recommendation for the city-authorized Veterans Day Parade, Holiday Parade, 100-foot Christmas Tree, Holiday Lighting Ceremonies, First Night, Fourth of July and others they determine fit the new guidelines. Four members sat on the dais; Vice Mayor Al Jacquet was absent.
    During tourist season, only one major event per month can take place under the policy; city events will have precedence. The city manager has the power to waive the rule and the decision rests with him.
    All events must pay a nonrefundable $150 permit application fee.
    Charities may receive a 50 percent discount on city services. For city sponsorships, such as for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in March and the Delray Affair in April, the City Commission will want more control over the events, said Commissioner Shelly Petrolia.
    The task force will bring a final special events policy for commission approval in September with a goal of an Oct. 1 effective date, the start of the city’s budget year.

Old School Square gets
more say in events there
    The city’s Old School Square historic campus, which has housed many of the high-impact events, will return to being more of a passive park, said Robert Steele, executive director. He gave his presentation in a joint workshop with the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency held just before the commission meeting.  
    Other OSS plans include a permanent home for the CRA’s weekly Green Market and a say in what events are allowed to be held on its interior grounds, along Northeast First Avenue.
    The CRA, which is paying for the building repairs currently underway, also will cover the costs for the next phase of the master plan. The CRA has $500,000 set aside in next year’s budget for OSS, enough to cover the estimated $100,000 plan costs.

What better way to celebrate National Dog Day than with an impromptu dog park at Old School Square? Sara Toosarvandani and her daughter Grace enjoy watching the dogs while Bill Bathurst talks to his pup Angus. Dozens of dogs enjoyed an evening of monitored play.  Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star