Kids race during a family day for the Islamic Center of Boca Raton, which calls itself an open religious organization for all and does not keep any membership. Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine

The terrible violence in the Middle East has forced many of us to rethink what little we know about Islam. It’s easy to be mind-boggled by all the players in the conflict: Hamas, the Palestinian territories, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Muslims, Jews and Christians who are affected.

This is complicated by the U.S. government and the media, which at times change their attitudes about which side of conflicts to take.

“The U.S. government labeled Hamas as a terrorist organization,” said Florida Atlantic University Professor Bassem Alhalabi, a Muslim and U.S. citizen. “Still, we need to wait and see, as the American government has the tendency to make friends out of enemies after a while. As for the Palestinians, they are perceived as the only group who is resisting the occupation.”

To a Muslim or a Jew living in Palm Beach County, these issues don’t feel half a world away, and most local Muslims want to share their knowledge and their faith.

At the Islamic Center of Boca Raton, they welcome visitors to discuss the intricacies of Islam. “No force,” said Omar Uddin, “just an invitation to learn.”

On a recent Thursday night following prayers, about 30 people gathered to talk about Islam at the monthly open house hosted by the center.

“Brother” Omar welcomed the group with a smile and a friendly demeanor. He handed out copies of the Quran to anyone who wanted them.

“The thing people don’t realize,” he said, “is that we believe in Jesus too.”

Islam recognizes that the Virgin Mary was chosen by God to bear the Messiah. Just as Christians trace their religious lifeline back to the Old Testament, Muslims trace theirs back, too, through the teaching of Jesus Christ to the Old Testament. The God the Muslims call Allah is the same God of the Christians and Jews.

Muslims believe deeply in the Gospels, and they honor Jesus with the words “Peace Be Upon Him” whenever they speak his holy name. He is so important he is mentioned 25 times in the Quran’s 6,236 verses. As Muslims see it, theirs is just the continuation of Jesus’ story. In a Muslim’s view, there’s the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Quran, the "Last" Testament.

The words in the Quran were given to Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel, the same angel who told Mary she would be a mother to God’s son.

These messages from Allah were dictated to Muhammad, who was admired for his honesty and trustworthiness but who was illiterate. Poets were plentiful but God wanted a common man. Scribes were called in to write down the stanzas of holy poetry that he recited with the eloquence and beauty of a gifted writer.

Some scholars say you can only truly understand the Quran in its original Arabic, and in Arabic, the Quran is like a long rhyming poem with stanzas of different lengths. Rhymes were a common tool used to make difficult information easier to remember. The writings are gathered together by theme rather than chronology.

“As an American Muslim, I want people to know how familiar Islam is to what they already know,” Uddin said. “A lot of people think we worship a foreign God, not the same God they worship.”

Professor Alhalabi says the biggest misconception about Islam is that it preaches violence. It doesn’t. It encompasses all of Jesus’ teachings about compassion and loving your neighbor as yourself, and it goes further.

“Islam emphasizes compassion, justice and moral conduct in personal and societal aspects. Islam encourages seeking knowledge and fostering a balanced and harmonious lifestyle. And Islam condemns terrorism and promotes peace, coexistence and respect for all human beings,” Alhalabi said.

But Hamas found a way to corrupt Islam, to bend it to say something different, which only perpetuates the myth. Its 1988 charter said, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

When the charter was re-written in 2017, they changed the enemy to the Zionist movement and blamed Europe and the United States for the antisemitism in the world.

That charter says, “The Zionist movement...is the most dangerous form of settlement occupation...and must disappear from Palestine.”

The word Hamas is an acronym for an Islamic resistance movement founded in 1987 during the first Palestinian uprising protesting the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. Despite being officially designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department in 1997, Hamas won the parliamentary elections in 2006 (the last election ever held) and seized control of the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority.

Jeanine Santucci wrote in USA Today in October, “The group calls for establishment of an Islamic Palestinian state that would replace the current state of Israel and believes in the use of violence to carry out the destruction of Israel.” She reported Hamas army has only an estimated 30,000 fighters whose main source of support is Iran.

But Hamas isn’t the only radical, violent Islamic group. ISIS is another, but is fundamentally different from Hamas, according to Brian Glyn Williams, professor of Islamic history at UMass Dartmouth. ISIS is considered the world’s deadliest terrorist group, but it disagrees with Hamas mostly because the two are on opposite sides of Islam's Sunni versus Shia branches.

Being prejudged according to the myth that Islam-equals-violent-extremists is something Muslims deal with every day. Alhalabi says it feels “normal” for people to be suspicious of him. That’s a feeling most other non-white Americans say they have felt themselves.

But just as Christians don’t want to be judged by the behaviors of radical self-professed Christian groups like the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, which is classified as a hate group, Muslims don’t want to be judged for Hamas’ acts.

Westboro’s members spread vitriol during public protests against homosexuals, including showing up at military funerals with signs that say, “Thank God for dead soldiers.”

Violence gets media attention, which is one of the things extremists want.

Alhalabi said, “It is crucial to recognize that such actions go against the fundamental teachings of Islam...and the majority of Muslims worldwide reject and condemn terrorism.”

At the very least, with accusations of genocide being leveled against Hamas and Israel alike, and the ongoing attempts at genocide in China, Darfur and Myanmar, we must agree that any group of humans whose goal is to annihilate the existence of another group of humans cannot be tolerated.

Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at fontaine423@outlook.com.

Islamic worship and information centers
Islamic Center of Boca Raton: 480 NW Fifth Ave. 561-395-7221 or icbr.org
Al Amin Center: 8101 S. Military Trail, Boynton Beach. 561-880-7806 or facebook.com/alamincenterflorida
Muslim Community of Palm Beach County: 4893 Purdy Lane, West Palm Beach. 561-969-1584 or mcpbc.org or email info@mcpbc.org
Islamic Institute of Palm Beach County: 1876 Donnell Road, West Palm Beach. 561-248-7356 or iiopbc.org
Islamic Center of Palm Beach: 101 Castlewood Drive, North Palm Beach. 561-623-7647 or www.PalmBeachMuslims.com

Religious facts from around the world
Palm Beach County:
• In a county with a population of 1.5 million and rising, about 600,000 people are ’affiliated’ with a religion.
• An estimated 15% of the population practices Judaism, or about 225,000. (Estimates range from 167,000 to 238,000, but most of that data is a few years old.)
• According to the Muslim Community of Palm Beach County, about 30 Muslim families lived in the county in the mid-1980s.
• By the late 1990s, fewer than 1,000 Muslims total lived in the county, according to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, an organization that collects data from American faith groups.
• The best guess is about 1% of Palm Beach County currently practices Islam. That’s about 15,000 people.
• A few groups practice other religions, like Hindu or Shinto, but the balance (350,000 or so) are Christians.

Florida:
• Floridians tend to be less religious overall than the general U.S. population, with less than 40% calling themselves ’affiliated.’
• Florida has the 12th-largest Muslim population in the U.S., with about 127,000. New York has the largest Muslim population with about 724,000.
• Florida’s Muslim community is primarily Arab, South Asian and African American.

United States:
• According to WorldPopulationReview.com, the U.S. Muslim population in 2023 was about 4,444,000.
• The United States is largely Christian. About 64% of affiliated Americans identify as Christian, but 50 years ago, 90% were Christian, according to a Pew Research Center study from 2020.
• People are no more or less religious today than they were 50 years ago. The percentage who were ’affiliated’ with a religion in 1971 was 48.7%. In 2020, it was 48.6%.

World:
• Worldwide, Islam is the second-largest religion with about 1.8 billion people, compared with Christianity’s 2.42 billion. Judaism has about 16.2 million followers.
• Based on population estimates prepared by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there were about 14.3 million Palestinians in the world in 2022.
• About 5.35 million of them lived in the Palestinian territories (Gaza and the West Bank), split almost 50-50 between males and females.
• According to the Institute for Middle East Understanding, about 93% of Palestinians are Sunni Muslims and about 6% are Christian.
• Less than 20% of Muslims are Arabs, but 85% of Arabs are Muslims.

Latin Divos (l-r) Ernesto Cabrera, Will Corujo, Fernando Gonzalez.

First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach opens its concert season at 4 p.m. Jan. 14 with a performance by the Latin Divos. The energetic pop/opera trio performs a mix of romantic serenades, Latin classics, and opera standards.

The divos are Fernando Gonzalez (a featured vocalist at First Presbyterian), Ernesto Cabrera and Will Corujo.

Tickets are $20. Sponsors are needed. First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach is at 33 Gleason St. 561-276-6338 or https://firstdelray.com/2024-concert-series. 

Women’s study group meets at Grace church  
The “God of Creation Women’s Group” begins meeting 9:15-11 a.m. Jan. 10 in the El Rio Room at Grace Community Church, 600 W. Camino Real, Boca Raton.

This study group runs Wednesdays through March 13 and is for women aged 18 and older who seek the deeper meanings in Scripture. The group follows the teachings in the book God of Creation by Jen Wilkins, who said, “As God reveals Himself, we will begin to understand ourselves when we first glimpse the character, attributes, and promises of our Creator.”

For more information or to register: 561-395-2811 or www.graceboca.org. 
 
Temple Beth El offers virtual talks on coping
Temple Beth El’s ongoing response to the terrorist acts in Israel includes partnering with Ruth & Norman Rales Jewish Family Services and Boca Raton community clergy to offer virtual coping programs facilitated by Danielle Greenblatt and a clergy member. “In creating a space for us to share what we are going through, we also create community, hope and healing,” she said.

Programs start at 7:30 p.m. and include:  

• “Coping with the crisis in Israel: How do we cope with watching antisemitism rise around us?” with Rabbi Josh Broide on Jan. 10.  
• “How do we combat feeling powerless to help?” with Rabbi David Baum on Jan. 25. 
• “How do we cope with the anxiety of feeling unsafe?” with Rabbi Elana Rabishaw on Feb. 8. 
• “How do we talk to kids about Israel and current events? with Rabbi Amy Grossblatt Pessah on Feb. 21.  

The temple's website is at https://tbeboca.org

Boca pastor opens series of business luncheons  
CityLead Boca, a monthly business lunch that explores how Biblical principles apply in the workplace, will be noon-1 p.m. Jan. 11 at Boca Raton Community Church, 470 NW Fourth Ave.

The speaker is Bill Mitchell, a successful businessman with a 25-year career who is now senior pastor at the church.

This event is designed for professionals who want to grow in their leadership, team building, clarity, focus and trust in line with Biblical principles. “The goal is to raise the bar of ethics and character to make South Florida the best place to work, live and play,” he said.

The luncheons are sold out through the season, according to the CityLead website.
 
Rabbi to give concert at Schaefer Family Campus 
Spiritual leader and songwriter Rabbi Josh Warshawsky will perform at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 26 at Temple Beth El’s Schaefer Family Campus. Warshawsky uses music to breathe under-standing into the familiar words of Judaism, clarifying the mysteries inherent in religious texts.

The singer, guitar player, composer and educator brings acclaimed violinist Coleen Dieker with him and joins the clergy team in chanting the Song of the Sea.

The Schaefer campus is at 333 SW Fourth Ave., Boca Raton. Available to livestream. 561-391-8900 or https://tbeboca.org  
 
Bishop Barbarito to offer rosary for the unborn 
The Most Rev. Gerald M. Barbarito, the fifth Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach, leads a prayer for the sanctity of life and ending of abortion, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Jan. 19 at the Historic Courthouse, 300 N. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach. The event includes praying the rosary for the unborn.

Sponsored by Respect Life Ministry, the event is not affiliated with Palm Beach County government.

For more information, call 561-360-3330 or email dherbst@ccdpb.org

Parish Festival returns to St. Vincent Ferrer  
St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church brings back its beloved Parish Festival, Feb. 9-11 at the church at 840 George Bush Blvd., Delray Beach. Music by groups including the JD Danner and Joey Calderaio bands takes place on the main stage. Rides, games, prizes, food and drink will be offered.

Hours are 5-11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Get tickets in advance at https://stvincentferrer.com/parish-festival/purchase-tickets/  

St. Paul Lutheran to host ‘Night to Shine‘ prom
The annual Tim Tebow project, Night to Shine, a free celebration for people with special needs hosted by churches worldwide, is 6-9 p.m. Feb. 9 at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 701 W. Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton.

The event is open to anyone living with disabilities, aged 14 and older, and features a catered dinner, dancing, karaoke, gifts, and a crowning ceremony where every honored guest will receive a crown or tiara.

This prom-like event celebrates people who never got to go to prom. Register at https://nighttoshineboca.com.
 
Catholic Church clarifies ‘same-sex blessings’  
In a letter sent to two conservative cardinals published in October, Pope Francis suggested that blessing the union of a same-sex couple is acceptable as long as the blessings weren’t “confused with the ritual of marriage,” according to an Associated Press report. 

The new document reaffirms that marriage is a lifelong union between a man and a woman, but that offering a blessing to a same-sex couple is okay. Blessings are restricted — they can’t be part of a religious service or incorporate any marriage language, rituals, clothing, gestures or symbols of a holy union. And blessings cannot take place at the same time as a civil ceremony.  

But requests for blessings should not be denied, the document said, and that “people seeking a transcendent relationship with God and looking for his love and mercy shouldn’t be held up to an impossible moral standard to receive it.” 

Find the report at: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pope-approves-blessings-for-same-sex-couples-if-they-don-t-resemble-marriage/ar-AA1lGh6t

— Janis Fontaine

Nurse practitioner Carissa Raver suggests taking a holistic approach during January, by abstaining from alcohol and indulging in healthier behaviors. Photo provided

By Jan Engoren

Dry January is an import from the United Kingdom. It began in 2012 as a public health initiative from Alcohol Change UK, a British charity. Over the past decade, the idea has caught on and now millions take part in this yearly health challenge on both sides of the Atlantic, including here in southeastern Palm Beach County.

Overconsumption of alcohol can lead to heart and liver damage, a higher cancer risk, a weakened immune system and memory and mood issues, not to mention its impact on the brain. The World Health Organization estimates that worldwide, 3 million deaths every year result from harmful use of alcohol.

According to Harvard Health, regular drinkers who abstained from alcohol for 30 days slept better, had more energy and lost weight. Additionally, they lowered their blood pressure and cholesterol levels and reduced cancer-related proteins in their blood. 

“We know alcohol is a neurotoxin which can affect every organ in your body,” says Adam Scioli, an addiction psychiatrist and head of psychiatry at Caron Treatment Centers. Caron treats families and individuals with substance abuse disorders and has a center in Delray Beach. 

“Cessation of alcohol, reduction or stopping completely will all have health benefits,” he says. “If nothing else, it provides an opportunity to examine your relationship with alcohol and to see how small or large a role it plays in your life. If you can leave it, leave it. If you can’t, that’s worth further exploration.” 

Ryan, 39, a divorced father of two, manages a halfway house in Delray Beach. At 17 he was pulled over by law enforcement for drinking and driving, an experience that started him on a road to becoming substance-free and self-aware, and to helping others overcome their substance abuse. 

He spent almost five months in 2020 at the Caron Center in Pennsylvania and learned to navigate and attenuate his feelings better. 

“Alcohol was a coping mechanism,” he says. “It helped me suppress strong negative emotions.”

Ryan, who asked that his last name not be used, says he displayed destructive behavior as a teen, compounded by substance abuse, but is now 16 years sober.  He encourages his clients to try a dry January. 

“Life can be lived without a drink,” he says. 

Time freed up by not drinking can open a window to other possibilities, he says. “It’s scary to change, but so rewarding.” 

He says it’s important to realize that you don’t have go it alone: “There is a community out there to support you.”

Tips to accomplishing a dry January include finding a substitute non-alcoholic drink, avoiding temptations and situations where people are drinking, creating a support group, using the Try Dry app, and being persistent. 

It’s also time to reflect on your relationship with alcohol and to consider what happens on Feb. 1. Don’t let the pendulum swing the other way, experts say. Make sustainable changes and reduce consumption all around. 

Scioli cautions about replacing alcohol with other substances such as cannabis. 

Carissa Raver, 28, a family nurse practitioner in functional medicine at Pur-Form Health, a regenerative and anti-aging wellness facility in Boca Raton, takes a holistic approach to a dry January.  

“We look at what creates imbalance in the body and try to remedy it,” she says. 

“Dry January can help an individual improve their sleep, increase energy levels, help emotional well-being and increase immune function,” Raver says. 

“In January, give your body a reprieve,” she says. “In February, come to the table with a fresh perspective on your relationship to alcohol.”  

For both Ryan and Raver, January resolutions include more self-care, spending more time exercising, meditating and being outdoors in nature. 

Scioli, who does not drink alcohol, resolves to be more kind, empathic and loving in 2024, spending more time with family. He planned to be home and fast asleep on New Year’s Eve long before the ball dropped in Times Square. 

Visit caron.org and purformhealth.com for more information.

Jan Engoren writes about health and healthy living. Send column ideas to jengoren@hotmail.com.

Sarilia Therildor, holding flowers, is celebrated as a Tenet Hero at Delray Medical Center. Photo provided

Hanley Foundation has acquired Origins Behavioral HealthCare, an agreement that reunites the foundation with Hanley Center, an Origins facility in West Palm Beach, and returns the center to nonprofit status.

Origins also has centers in Texas and the deal means Hanley Foundation can provide substance addiction and mental health treatment to more than 1,000 patients annually with a staff that tripled in size to more than 300.

The West Palm Beach site offers age- and gender-specific treatment, with more than 100 beds and an eight-bed residential program for mental health treatment.

Substance use disorders treated include addiction to alcohol, cocaine, opioids and heroin, benzodiazepine, methamphetamine and marijuana. Mental health issues treated include disorders of mood and anxiety, post-traumatic stress, obsessive compulsion and personality.

Nurse honored for service to Delray Beach, country
Delray Medical Center, part of Tenet Healthcare, announced that nurse Sarilia Therildor was honored as a Tenet Hero. She is also a major in the Air Force Reserve.

“Sarilia has a huge role at Delray Medical Center and has elevated our emergency department,” said CEO Daniel Listi. “With an even bigger role serving her country ... she exemplifies the qualities that define our health care heroes.”

Therildor started at Delray Medical Center as a new graduate on the neuro telemetry unit in 2008 and transferred to the emergency department in 2011. In 2022, she was promoted to clinical manager in ER.

After completing her nurse-practitioner license in family practice, Therildor was promoted to major in the Air Force Reserve. In April 2020, she went to New Jersey to join more than 100 medical professionals sent from Air Force Reserve Command to work with state and local authorities in the region to combat COVID-19. 

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

Students Niko Zlatkovic and Mas McDaniel work on math problems in the outdoor setting at Cocoplum Nature School in Delray Beach. Photo provided

By Faran Fagen

Cocoplum Nature School students love to play pretend restaurant, make up theater productions and imagine themselves as magical creatures in enchanted forests.

“It really is remarkable how much progress the children make, academically and as a whole person, in a play-inspired and nature-based environment,” said Melanie Stefanovic, executive director of the Delray Beach school.

Cocoplum’s philosophy, according to the school website: Everything taught in traditional schools with textbooks and rote practice can be learned by children outdoors with natural materials through play, exploration and inquiry.

The three pillars of the curriculum are nature, place and play. The school, which serves kindergarten through the third grade, strives to make learning individualized, largely self-directed, experiential and social.

Founded in 2020, Cocoplum fosters critical thinking and creativity, not conformity, and cultivates collaboration and communication, not competition.

“The most incredible testimonies come from our students’ caregivers and parents,” said Stefanovic, whose own daughter is in her third year at Cocoplum. “They tell us that their children can’t wait to come to school each day. Many parents report that their child’s peacefulness and joy has rippled through their family.”

Stefanovic, who lives in Delray Beach with her husband, two young children and an old dog, co-founded the school with Fernanda Wolfson.

They met at the Delray Beach Children’s Garden when their oldest children were barely walking. Together, they dreamed up a nature school where their students could learn to read and write under the shade of a tree and learn math and science while playing in the garden.

“I was working on my PhD at the time — focused on a totally different topic — but all of my leisure reading and research for the next few years was about nature-based learning, forest schools, unschooling and play-based learning,” Stefanovic said.

The biggest challenge in starting Cocoplum was finding a space. The school was fortunate to be welcomed at Cason United Methodist Church on Swinton Avenue, where the shady space and charming classrooms were idyllic and right in the heart of the “Village by the Sea.”

The students come from as far south as Pompano Beach and Coral Springs, up to Lake Worth Beach.

During direct instruction in reading, writing and math, children learn in groups of three with their teacher. Overall student-to-teacher ratio is 9-to-1. Future plans are to expand up to the fifth grade.

The bigger dream beyond directly serving the school’s families, however, is to normalize this type of education.

“Right now, the norm is for children to sit indoors rather than play outside, hunch over screens rather than create and collaborate with peers, compete to be the best at everything rather than hone individual strengths and interests,” Stefanovic said.

One of the students’ favorite outdoor activities is a version of “playing house” in the tree and mud kitchens. They designate different branches of the tree as “rooms” where a few of them will climb and read or pretend to be resting. Below in the mud kitchen, others play at being the parents or the visiting doctor coming to check on the resting children in the branches.

The parents “cook” a healing “soup” made from herbs grown in the garden at school, and the doctor concocts a “potion” from various berries, sand, leaves and sometimes drops of paint or bits of sidewalk chalk.

Other children will join in the play as neighbors, building a new house from the loose blocks and boards in the playscape. They’ll engage in a discussion about keeping the construction noise down while the sick children rest.

“We witness the children leading their own learning,” Stefanovic said.

“There’s a natural drive to learn to read and write because they want to be able to create menus for their play restaurants. They ask to learn how to count money so that they can play bank or buy tickets to their friends’ puppet show or sell the watercolor paintings they created.”

Cocoplum facts
What: Grades K-3 at 342 N. Swinton Ave. in Cason UMC space, Delray Beach
Tuition: Listed at $15,900; accepts Florida’s Step Up for Students scholarships
Contact: 561-563-4679; info@cocoplumnatureschool.org

Local shelters are taking COVID-like precautions over a rise in respiratory illnesses in dogs. Photo provided

By Arden Moore

When the coronavirus first surfaced, medical experts admitted that they had more questions than answers. It took time to diagnose and to develop vaccines.

Now, a rise in respiratory illnesses is occurring in dogs in Palm Beach County and in some other parts of the country. Is it simply due to the most common canine respiratory condition, known as kennel cough, or is it due to the emergence of a new mysterious illness or a lethal canine pneumonia strain?

Experts scramble for answers.

Veterinarians at small-animal practices are reporting more dogs are sicker than normal with respiratory illnesses and some have developed pneumonia. Media reports across the country refer to cases as a canine respiratory mystery illness.

Is it time to worry about and isolate your dog? Should you cancel visits to your favorite dog park or a doggy day care center or boarding facility? Should you hold off on scheduling an appointment for your dog to be groomed?

For answers, I reached out to Dr. Cynda Crawford, DVM, clinical associate professor who chairs the Shelter Medicine Department at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She is the go-to expert on diseases impacting animal shelters throughout the state.

“We are trying to get a handle on it,” says Crawford. “A positive outcome of the veterinarians reporting and the media picking up on these reports is that many veterinary diagnostic labs have reached out to veterinarians to help with sample collection and testing.”

Her message: Be cautious but do not panic. Make sure your dog receives needed vaccinations and boosters. Continue letting your dog mingle with regular members of a dog-walking pack. Do your best to avoid your dog’s coming nose to nose with an unfamiliar dog, especially one who may have a cough or runny nose.

“At this time of year, we expect cases of kennel cough, the most common respiratory disease in dogs,” she says. “It is the dog equivalent of the common cold in people. Most dogs recover, like people do with colds. Please discuss your concerns with your veterinarian because ‘Dr. Google’ may lead dog owners astray with misinformation and cause undue panic.”

Crawford is working directly with officials at shelters and rescue groups in Palm Beach County, including Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control in West Palm Beach, Tri-County Animal Rescue in west Boca Raton and the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League in West Palm Beach.

Last month, three healthy-appearing dogs housed at the ACC facility died within hours of catching a fast-acting respiratory illness dubbed “strep zoo” (short for Streptococcus equi zooepidemicus). These dogs, named Marcus, Africa and Mimi, were aged 2, 3 and 8.

“Strep zoo is a rapid-onset pneumonia,” says Crawford. “Dogs with this die within a matter of hours. They die from bleeding in the lungs, from suffocation.”

As a precaution, ACC and Tri-County announced that they would temporarily not accept any new dogs to their facilities for about a week in mid-December.

“We are following the protocols that the veterinarians at the University of Florida set up,” says Suzi Goldsmith, executive director at Tri-County. “We never experienced this serious bacterial infection that strikes quickly, and we are taking this very seriously to protect the dogs now housed at our facility.”

She adds that staff are wearing protective facial masks and shoe booties. In addition, the public is not permitted inside the center.

“We don’t want to take the chance of this reaching the dogs here,” she says. “I have moms pregnant and older dogs. Our protective protocol is now as strong as it was when we were all dealing with COVID.”

Peggy Adams did not accept any dogs from ACC as a precaution (for a week ending Dec. 18), confirmed Alyssa Comroe, DVM, director of veterinary medicine.

“We have not had any suspected cases of strep zoo in our population,” says Comroe. “All dogs that begin showing any signs of respiratory illness are immediately moved to isolation, examined by a veterinarian, tested to determine what respiratory pathogen they are infected with, and started on treatment when necessary.”

She adds, “We are not overly concerned about pets coming from the community that have not been in these environments (overcrowded shelters). Part of our intake process is to triage and examine each pet that arrives at our shelter. If we see dogs with any respiratory symptoms, they receive a full veterinary exam and are immediately moved to isolation.”

Crawford urges pet parents to contact their veterinarians if their dogs stop eating, begin coughing, have trouble breathing and act lethargic. The sooner, the better.

“The intense media reporting has stirred up fear and panic in dog owners and some may feel paralyzed as to what to do with their dogs,” says Crawford. “Don’t panic. Please realize that the vast majority of dogs with a respiratory infection recover fairly quickly without any complications. The proportion that develop pneumonia is very small. And those that contract pneumonia and die is even smaller.”

For updates on this issue, visit https://sheltermedicine.vetmed.ufl.edu/news; or the American Veterinary Medical Association’s link on canine respiratory illnesses at www.avma.org/news/making-sense-mystery-illness-found-across-us.

Details on kennel cough are available at www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/canine-infectious-respiratory-disease-complex-kennel-cough.

Arden Moore is an author, speaker and master certified pet-first aid instructor. She hosts a radio show, Arden Moore’s Four Legged Life (www.fourleggedlife.com), and the weekly Oh Behave! podcast on PetLifeRadio.com. Learn more by visiting www.ardenmoore.com.

A king eider takes flight in the ocean off Boynton Beach Oceanfront Park; it’s the first king eider recorded in Palm Beach County and only the sixth in Florida. Photo provided by Kenny Miller

By Rich Pollack

Marcus Kelly should have been Christmas tree shopping with his wife and family.

Instead, the avid birder put that task on hold, dropped what he was doing so he could rush to the ocean in search of an elusive white wing scoter — a type of duck hardly ever found off the coast of Florida — that another birder thought he might have seen.

If there was a white wing scoter off Oceanfront Park, Kelly never got to see it.

What he did see, however, was even more difficult to find in Florida’s coastal waters. The duck he spotted in early December, hanging out in a raft of black scoters bobbing in the waves, was a female king eider.

“It’s a ‘wow’ bird,” says Kelly, an attorney whose commitment to birding has taken him to far-off places across the globe. “I’ll probably never see one here again.”

How rare was Kelly’s discovery of this mostly cold-water duck, whose breeding range is along the edge of the Arctic ice cap and which would be a more common sight in New England and northward this time of year?

Consider this: There were only five previously recorded sightings of a king eider in Florida and none in Palm Beach County. This is the farthest-south reported sighting, local birders say.

“This bird should not be here,” says birder Kenny Miller.

Of the previous Florida sightings of the king eider, the most recent was more than a decade ago, Kelly says, and some were as long ago as the 1970s.

“Three of the five reports were from before I was born and I’m 37,” he says.

To get to South Florida, the young female king eider had to have traveled quite a ways from where it should be.

“This bird is about 2,000 miles out of its typical winter range,” says veteran birder Carl Edwards, a common sight himself along the shoreline with his scope in hand.

While no one knows for certain how the bird got here, Edwards surmises that she had been feeding with other ducks, probably black and surf scoters, and took off with them when they launched their migration.

“In many species, when they’re out of range, it’s often an immature bird,” Edwards says.

That may also explain why two long-tailed ducks that usually spend their winters in the northeast, from Virginia to parts of Canada, are here. Those ducks, both juveniles, are a rare sighting as well, but a long-tailed duck was seen in the area last year.

What brings the eider, the long-tailed ducks and scores of black scoters as well as surf scoters to the area off Ocean Ridge is likely a good food supply. These ducks all eat mollusks and crustaceans while in our area.

King eiders can dive as deep as 180 feet in search of food, while black scoters usually dive about 30 feet.

At one point, Edwards estimates, there were more than 500 scoters forming several rafts off the park. It is unusual for scoters in such numbers to stay as long as these birds have.

The king eider also attracted birders from as far away as Georgia, and perhaps farther, who had never seen the bird. Edwards estimates more than 100 birders came to catch a glimpse. “It’s a very rare bird, most people don’t usually get to see,” he says.

Capt. Mark Lamb runs his fishing boat while a guest fights a sailfish. Photos by Steve Waters/The Coastal Star and provided

By Steve Waters

The cold fronts that sweep through South Florida in January have offshore anglers looking forward to celebrating the New Year by catching sailfish.

Cooler temperatures and blustery winds send the acrobatic billfish swimming south along the Atlantic Coast this time of year. On a good day, it’s not unusual for boats to catch and release 10 or more of the state of Florida’s official saltwater fish. Tournament teams have released dozens of sailfish on a January day.

There have been some incredible catches in the West Palm Beach Fishing Club’s Silver Sailfish Derby, which is Thursday and Friday, Jan. 11-12. In the record-setting 2012 tournament, which was a three-day event, the 46-boat fleet caught and released a total of 1,174 sailfish, an average of more than 25 fish per boat. The top boat finished with 58 releases, including a record 36 sailfish on the first day, when the derby set a one-day record of 659 releases.

The boat Priceless won last year’s derby with a two-day total of 16 sailfish releases, and the fleet caught a total of 223 sailfish.

Although sailfish can be caught by drifting with live sardines or trolling dead ballyhoo, serious sailfish anglers usually fly two fishing kites, each with a variety of baits.

A sailfish bait is hooked.

As they head offshore, local captains consider a number of factors to determine where to start fishing — everything from water color and clarity to the presence of baitfish and birds.

Capt. Mark Lamb of West Palm Beach likes to kite-fish along a color change, which is where the water goes from green to deep blue.

“I’m going to run out to 100, 120 feet of water and start looking for an edge,” Lamb said. “I’m going to look for a temperature change and bait, like flying fish. I’m going to set up on that edge where the bait is. Put the boat out in the blue water and put your baits out on that edge.”

Top sailfish live baits include goggle-eyes, threadfin herring, pilchards and sardines. The fishing kites are flown behind the boat, and two or three fishing lines are clipped to each kite line to get the baits away from the boat.

On those January days when sailfish are plentiful and biting, it’s not unusual to be fighting three or four fish at a time.

Lamb’s crew constantly adjusts the fishing lines as the kites move up and down with the wind, to keep the baits splashing on the surface. That splashing attracts sailfish as well as kingfish, dolphin, wahoo and tuna.

If the sailfish don’t bite at first, Lamb said, stay put and keep fishing, because they eventually will show up to eat.

A sailfish puts up a fight as it is reeled in.

“When you have a nice edge and there’s some bait around, don’t move,” Lamb said. “Sometimes you’ve got to be patient and keep fishing rather than run around. In a sailfish tournament, two or three or four fish can change everything in minutes. You’re never out of it in a sailfish tournament.”

The standard tackle for sailfish is a 20-pound conventional outfit with a 15-foot, 30-pound fluorocarbon leader tied to a size 5/0 to 7/0 circle hook.

Successful tournament captains such as Casey Hunt and John Dudas prepare their sailfish leaders and hooks well before they leave the dock to go fishing, and they make sure all of their tackle is in tip-top condition.

“Every single time a line goes in the water, it’s perfect,” said Hunt, who has won billfish tournaments from Florida to the Bahamas to North Carolina. “The hooks, the knots. You’ve got to spend that extra time because that extra time is going to catch you more fish.”

Dudas, who has won countless sailfish tournaments from Palm Beach to the Florida Keys, and whose favorite sailfish bait is a herring, bridles all his kite baits with a rubber band to a 5/0 or 6/0 circle hook. Like Hunt and Lamb, when one of his anglers gets a bite, he has his crew keep the other baits in the water in case more sailfish are around.

“Sit tight, back off the drag and let him swim off,” Hunt said of the first sailfish you hook. “The longer you sit, the better chance you have of getting another bite.”

Lamb has the angler with the first fish move to the bow while he positions the boat so the baits remain in the strike zone.

“If you can get one on and leave the rest of the baits working, the odds of catching a double or triple are probably 80%,” Lamb said.

The Silver Sailfish Derby is sold out. Call 561-832-6780 or visit westpalmbeachfishingclub.org/tournaments/silver-sailfish-derby for more info.

Outdoors writer Steve Waters can be reached at steve33324@aol.com.

The living/dining area has designer-embellished wood tray ceilings and flooring made from imported French roof tiles. It overlooks the large loggia and pool area.

Presenting a European villa aesthetic, this elegant six-bedroom, 8½-bath estate includes guest quarters. It has 9,744 +/- total square feet and has recently been reimagined completely. Its location in east Delray Beach is within a small, private enclave where homeowners share a tennis court and private beach access. Details throughout include pecky cypress finishes and stunning brick-clad accent walls. Handsome glass double doors with wrought-iron grillwork open to the foyer that flows to the great room. There is a library with requisite wood built-ins. There is a home theater with eight reclining theater seats and plush leopard-print velvet walls.

ABOVE: The estate is enveloped in tropical landscaping, shaded by mature Florida gumbo limbo trees and palms. A Chicago brick driveway leads to the courtyard entry and garage space for two cars plus golf cart. RIGHT: The cook-island kitchen has a charming breakfast bay. Wood Mouser cabinets, Taj Mahal quartzite countertops and two large sinks with Rohl faucets are part of the gourmet amenity lineup.

The first-floor VIP suite includes a bedroom that opens to the pool loggia, has an en suite bath and a private sunroom. The primary master suite is on the second floor, set apart in a wing of its own that features a morning bar, two custom-fitted walk-in closets and a quartz clad spa-inspired bath with dual sinks, a Jacuzzi tub and a steam shower.

Externally, the backyard is hedged, has a hurricane-tested screened loggia, a summer kitchen with DCS grill, sink and refrigerator. An adjacent putting green, conversation/dining firepit area and heated, saltwater pool with waterfall and spillover spa complete the outdoor entertainment features. Listed at $12,750,000.

The Pascal Liguori Estate Group, 561-789-8300. Premier Estate Properties, 900 E. Atlantic Ave., #4, Delray Beach; pascal@premierestateproperties.com

An intimate brick-clad, pecky cypress-topped wine room is completed with a 475-bottle, temperature- and humidity-controlled cellar.

Each month, The Coastal Star features a house for sale in our community. The House of the Month is presented as a service to our advertisers and provides readers with a peek inside one of our homes.

By Steve Plunkett

Paul Lyons Jr., a seven-year veteran of the Town Commission, vacated his seat on Dec. 8 with a simple “I resign, effective tomorrow” followed by a round of emotional thank-you’s to his colleagues on the dais, the town’s staff and its police officers.

“It’s been very rewarding,” Lyons said.

He and his wife, Susan, bought their home on Polo Drive in April 2007. When an opening popped up on the town’s Architectural Review and Planning Board four years later, he submitted a letter of interest and got the seat.

After not quite five years on the ARPB, he was elevated to the commission on Mayor Scott Morgan’s recommendation.

Morgan said the town had delegated a number of projects to Lyons, which included plotting a path to pay for Gulf Stream’s ambitious 10-year capital improvement plan without raising taxes.

“Your financial acumen has been very helpful to the town,” Morgan said. “The town owes you a debt of gratitude.”

The mayor also said he hoped to involve Lyons further with the community.

Along those lines, before Lyons announced his resignation, commissioners elevated Robert Canfield from the planning board to fill the vacancy created when Commissioner Thom Smith resigned in November. Then they appointed Smith to fill a different ARPB vacancy.

Canfield, who lives in Place Au Soleil, joined the ARPB as an alternate in May 2021 and became a regular member in April 2022.

Lyons and his wife also have homes in Southampton, New York, and Vail, Colorado. Their daughter, Olivia, and her husband, David Endres, are building a new home on North County Road.

Jamie Daniels with his mother, Lisa Daniels-Goldman. She and Jamie’s father, Ken Daniels, created the Jamie Daniels Foundation to help young adults struggling with substance abuse. Jamie, 23, died in a Boynton Beach sober home. Photo provided by Jamie Daniels Foundation

By Pat Beall and Steve Plunkett

Jamie Daniels made it just 228 days in Palm Beach County’s fraud-ravaged addiction treatment system before overdosing in a local sober home seven years ago this month.

A college graduate and aspiring lawyer, Daniels landed in the heart of a $746 million scheme built on exploiting drug users and bilking insurance companies.

Delray Beach osteopath Michael Ligotti was a key player and profiteer who pocketed millions from it, prosecutors said. When he was sentenced to two decades behind bars in January, a Department of Justice press release heralded his arrest and conviction as the largest addiction fraud case ever brought by the DOJ.

Ligotti, though, was not locked up. Instead, he remained free as he worked with prosecutors on investigating and prosecuting other fraudsters. And his testimony that led to convictions in two key cases resulted in a federal judge chopping Ligotti's sentence in half, to 10 years, with the possibility of getting out of prison in 8 1/2 years.

"It is only right," U.S. District Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz II said of  reducing the prison time on Dec. 8. "Even the 10-year sentence is a significant sentence in this space."

Ruiz, Department of Justice lawyer Jim Hayes and defense attorney Jose Quinon agreed that Ligotti is a changed man since January.

"In retrospect I'm appalled at how I behaved. I put money before patients," Ligotti told the judge.

Jamie’s mother, Lisa Daniels-Goldman, attended the hearing in the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. federal courthouse in Miami via Zoom and pleaded with Ruiz "to please not make Jamie a victim again."

Debbie Howland, whose daughter Ava died in a West Palm Beach sober home in 2018, also spoke via Zoom.

"I got a life sentence of pain, grief and endless tears," she said.

One test, millions of dollars

It would be hard to overstate the scope and toll of the addiction treatment fraud sweeping through Palm Beach County by 2013.

The county was an international for-profit treatment destination. Posters plugging addiction help in Palm Beach County greeted arriving passengers at Orlando International Airport. High-wealth drug users could access concierge care in beachfront homes with gourmet meals.

Estimates pegged the industry at $1 billion, making it one of Palm Beach County’s largest industries.

And it was rife with abuse.

A urine test that will detect drugs is cheap. It can be bought for as little as $25 at local drugstores.

By contrast, a single, sophisticated “confirmatory” urine test could reap thousands of dollars from a patient’s insurance company.

People in sober homes and treatment centers were needlessly tested multiple times a week, generating staggering insurance payouts. In one case reported by The Palm Beach Post in 2015, nine months of urine testing totaled $304,318. In another instance, the parents of a young woman who overdosed in a sober home after four weeks received urine test bills topping $30,000.

But insurance paid only if a doctor would green-light the expensive test as medically necessary.

As medical director for dozens of facilities, Ligotti obliged, said prosecutors. In addition to ordering millions of dollars in needless tests, they said he prescribed addictive drugs to patients from his Whole Health clinic in Delray Beach. That included benzodiazepines, a drug lethally mixed with opioids by people who are addicted.

The scheme reached into the pocketbooks of employees at Amtrak, Bank of America and the state of New Jersey who sought treatment and found fraud, an attorney for Aetna Insurance testified at Ligotti’s sentencing hearing. Aetna and organizations using Aetna paid $24 million to providers in the scheme, he said, but worse was the continuing fallout once it was exposed: It created distrust of addiction treatment by people who might need it the most. 

Even after a federal subpoena issued in 2016 put Ligotti on notice that he was under investigation, he continued ordering tests, an FBI agent testified.

He was indicted in 2020 on 12 counts of health care fraud and money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud.

He pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count in 2022. Other charges were dropped.

Fallout beyond fraud

Like many other physicians arrested in local treatment fraud crackdowns, Ligotti was never charged with the overdose or death of a person seeking help for addiction.

But the fallout from urine testing schemes extended far beyond financial fraud.

That’s because unscrupulous local sober home owners and addiction treatment operators didn’t need people seeking treatment to stay drug-free.

They needed people with a drug use diagnosis, insurance and a supply of urine, not a commitment to sobriety. As a result, some sober homes advertised as safe and drug-free turned a blind eye to drug use. People hoping for help wound up overdosing.

Jamie Daniels was among them.

The Michigan State University graduate clerked at a law firm and was studying for his law school entrance exam.  

But he had struggled to stay sober since at least college, where his family believed he had easy access to opioids.

In July 2016, Jamie, 23, did what thousands of others had done and flew to Palm Beach County for treatment.

On Dec. 7,  he overdosed here.

Then came a wave of insurance bill records totaling tens of thousands of dollars for urine screens and blood tests, including those ordered by Ligotti for Jamie when he was in Michigan, not Florida.

“It's one thing to have an addiction and not being able to overcome it because the addiction overtakes you,” Jamie’s father, longtime Detroit Red Wings play-by-play broadcaster Ken Daniels told ESPN. “But then when bad people get involved and they contribute to it, it makes you sick.”

ESPN produced a documentary on the testing fraud and Jamie’s death. When the production crew showed up at Ligotti’s Delray office, he denied ordering the tests. His identity had been stolen, he told reporters: “I’m the victim.”

Paying a price

It’s not clear how many other schemes Ligotti has helped prosecutors identify and take to trial. However, records show he offered evidence in one Central Florida case involving rural hospitals and high-priced bogus drug testing that led to multiple convictions. And the judge in that case found that Ligotti had information on people not yet arrested in “a large number of healthcare facilities across the country.”

“I want them all to have to pay a price for what they did,” explained Daniels-Goldman of her reluctant acceptance of Ligotti’s freedom while he helped put two others behind bars.

But other aspects rankled Daniels-Goldman and others. It was late May before Ligotti finally surrendered his license to practice medicine and another three months before the state’s Board of Osteopathic Medicine formally accepted the relinquishment. In June, his expected prison entry date was pushed back to December in part because he was providing testimony in the Central Florida case.  In July, he received court permission to take his family to an upscale resort hotel at Universal Studios.

Ligotti surrendered to the U.S. Marshals Service on Dec. 1.  Defense attorney Quinon asked Judge Ruiz to recommend that Ligotti be sent to a prison close to home and not to the Atlanta Penitentiary.  

"He's done everything (that prosecutors asked) and he's done it from the heart," Quinon said.

By Joel Engelhardt

As Palm Beach County’s population grows, the share of public beaches for every resident drops.

And that makes it hard for the county to meet its target to have 0.18 acres of developed beach access for every 1,000 residents.

In fact, the county is hovering at 0.19 per 1,000 residents. Just over its goal.

And even though the county has three potential beach properties to add to its holdings — including the 5.6 acres at Milani Park in Highland Beach — the objective written into the county’s comprehensive growth plan is under review.

“We are on the cusp of being deficient on developed park acreage,” said Jennifer Cirillo, the county’s director of parks and recreation.

Referring specifically to Milani, which Highland Beach has asked to be sold off for private development, Cirillo added: “At this point everything we have will be needed.”

But applying an arbitrary standard to justify a public beach, whether merited or not, does not make sense, said state Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, R-Highland Beach. 

“It appears they’re just playing with numbers to achieve an arbitrary goal that doesn’t really serve the population in a commonsense way,” Gossett-Seidman said. “This park isn’t going to make that big a difference. It’s tiny. It’s a drop of water in a bathtub of parks.”

Palm Beach County has 296 acres of developed beach park with the potential to top 390 acres. The biggest county-owned beachfront property that has not yet been developed, Karen Marcus Park in the Jupiter area, would add about 70 acres.

County staff has lined up money to design improvements to the park but not the estimated $10 million to do the work.

The Milani property, which straddles State Road A1A, offers a great opportunity, said one Highland Beach resident who lives nearby and opposes a public park on the land.

“Better to sell it and use the money elsewhere,” said Ron Reame, president of the condo association at neighboring Dalton Place. 

Residents have voiced concerns about safety and privacy, and Town Manager Marshall Labadie says he has “not met a single person in town who is in favor of this project.”

The public will get a chance to speak out Feb. 1, when county leaders including Commissioner Marci Woodward will host an outreach meeting at the Highland Beach library.

What future might hold
While some counties have no real standard for developed beachfront, Palm Beach County has kept a standard even after the state Legislature made such thresholds optional in 2010.

The figure provides a benchmark, county officials say, for comparing the county’s level of service against other cities and counties nationwide. 

Broward County doesn’t specify how it is doing in providing beachfront parks but instead loops beaches into its count of overall parks, both small and large. Broward’s goal is 3 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents.

Palm Beach County has 471 acres of beachfront parks, of which 296 acres are developed. That means the county has done construction, often to install bathrooms or showers, and continues to maintain those amenities.

The county’s acreage calculations do not include city or state parks.

It’s possible to add more beachfront — with money. Beachfront makes up some of the most expensive land in the county and it would be cost prohibitive for the county to start buying up huge swaths of beach now. 

Yet the population continues to grow, topping 1.52 million and projected by the University of Florida to hit 1.64 million in 2030 and 1.77 million in 2045.

So that leaves the county with the land it owns now: Milani Park’s 5.6 acres, the 70 acres at Karen Marcus Park and the 21-acre Coral Cove South in Tequesta.

Once those three parks are developed, barring a gift of waterfront land or a shift in spending practices, the county would have about 393 acres of developed beachfront land. 

Just adding Milani and Karen Marcus Park would push the ratio to 0.24 acres per 1,000 residents at today’s population and to 0.20 based on the 2045 population.

Adding Coral Cove South would push the number even higher in 2045, to 0.22 acres per 1,000 residents.

But those numbers could shift because county officials plan to weed out beachfront acreage that no longer can be counted as developed.

The county also has the option of lowering its target or eliminating it altogether.

There’s risk involved in that approach as well. 

“Beaches are the most important feature of Florida’s brand, accounting for 25.5% of the state’s attractiveness to visitors,” a 2015 study by the Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research found.

The variables make it hard for those opposing Milani Park to sympathize with the county’s position.

“If the population doubles in 20 years and there is no more land available, I guess what we’ll do then is we’ll change the standard,” Highland Beach resident Reame said. “What really makes sense here?”

The county bought the property from the Milani family in 1987 for just $4 million with the family’s proviso that it become a park. It has remained vacant for decades, first tied up in a legal battle and settlement and then remaining dormant as county leaders kept deferring decisions on development. 

Rich Pollack contributed to this story.

Diane Pohanka of Gulf Stream reacts to stretching exercises during therapy at Miller Physical Therapy in downtown Delray Beach, where she has become a regular since her August accident. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Joe Capozzi

Diane Pohanka, 63, is learning to walk again, one painful step at a time.  

She uses a cane and the going is slow, which is to be expected. Her broken leg bones were surgically fused together with metal rods just a few months ago.

But despite the grueling physical therapy sessions, 90 minutes three times a week, the Gulf Stream woman has aspirations beyond walking.

She wants to get on her bicycle again. 

That day will come, she said. And when it does, she knows where she won’t be riding — State Road A1A. The scenic oceanfront route for years had been her favorite until the August afternoon she was hit by a pickup truck in Boca Raton.

“My active life came to a screeching halt,’’ said Pohanka, who suffered breaks to the fibula and tibia in both legs and a broken right femur. 

Tasks like getting out of bed required a pair of nurses during the early days of Diane Pohanka’s recovery. RIGHT: An X-ray shows the multiple rods and pins required to repair her leg bones. Photos provided

“I will get on a bike again,’’ she said, “but never on A1A.’’  

Before her unsolicited encounter with the truck four months ago, Pohanka rode the same A1A route three times a week, from the driveway of her Gulf Stream home south to Palmetto Park Road in Boca Raton and back — 20 miles round-trip. 

“I’ve done that ride 200 to 300 times,’’ she said, describing a routine that started in 2020 when the pandemic reignited her lifelong passion for biking. 

She usually went riding with her husband, Chris. And unlike those pack cyclists who often whizzed past them, they were not road warriors. They were leisure riders out for exercise and scenery, a craving they often satisfied abroad on bike tours to places like Bali, Italy, Croatia and France. 

Wherever they pedaled, they were mindful of cars and trucks, especially ones entering their path from side roads and condo entrances.

“We always are cognizant of cars pulling out and we always establish eye contact and wave,’’ she said, “and 99% of the time we get the wave back.’’ 

From bike to roadside
Around 3:30 p.m. Aug. 2, a week before she and her husband were scheduled to go on a bike trip in Portugal, Pohanka hopped on her trusty brown Specialized hybrid and took off from her driveway on a solo ride. It was a brilliant sunny South Florida day.

About 30 minutes into her ride, as she pedaled south in the bicycle lane past Red Reef Park, just north of her Palmetto Park Road turnaround spot, she approached the entrance to the Sun and Surf Club, a gated community on Coquina Way. 

Just ahead on her right, she noticed an eastbound white Chevy Silverado approaching the Coquina Way stop sign at A1A, preparing to turn north. She looked toward the driver and waved, expecting him to slow down and wait for her to pass. 

Knowing she had the right of way, and assuming the driver had seen her, she kept pedaling. 

“My memory is his windows were tinted too dark for me to see him, and that was my mistake,’’ she said. 

When she looked to her right again, she saw the truck’s massive front coming right at her.

The driver never hit the brakes, she said, and the truck broadsided the right side of her bike, including her leg. The impact ejected Pohanka off the bike saddle and onto A1A. 

She said she remembers lying on the road, unable to move, for at least two minutes, wondering if anyone would come to her aid, before a motorist looking out a car window asked her if she wanted him to call 911. 

Moments later, another stranger arrived to help, a man Pohanka would call “my angel.”  

Boca Raton Ocean Rescue Lt. Frank Ganley was on his way to work when he got caught in a line of traffic backing up on A1A. Wondering what was going on, he flipped on his truck’s emergency lights, drove up the shoulder of the road and found Pohanka sprawled across the pavement not far from her damaged bike.

“I first made sure she was conscious and breathing and had a pulse,’’ he said. “I knew she had some serious injuries. I knew rescue was coming so I stayed with her.’’
Ganley, a certified EMT, immediately sensed how scared she was.

“She latched on to my one arm with two hands. I was just trying to keep her calm. Rescue got there and we were putting her on the backboard and she wouldn’t let go of my arm,’’ he said. 

Reflecting on that day months later, Pohanka said she is disheartened that she lay on the road for what felt like too long before someone stopped to help her. 

“I was trying to understand why nobody was coming for me. I could not move. I didn’t know if I was dying,’’ she said. “I think it’s really a sign of the times. People don’t want to get involved. It’s not instinctual in people, it wasn’t that day, to go help somebody.’’

When Ganley knelt on the pavement next to her, he offered the compassion Pohanka desperately sought. “He was my lifeline, my angel,’’ she said.

Pohanka lay on the pavement facing north, unable to move her body or her head in the direction of the truck that hit her. Worried that she’d be the victim of a hit-and-run driver, she kept telling Ganley, “Is the driver still there? Don’t let him leave.’’ 

The driver of the truck, Omar Miranda of Boynton Beach, stayed at the scene and spoke to police. But Pohanka said he never came to her aid. 

Miranda, 46, was cited for running a stop sign, according to a police report. He told police he was watching for an opening in traffic before he pulled out to turn left on A1A. He said he never saw Pohanka, according to the report. 

Charges dismissed
At a Nov. 8 traffic court hearing held via Zoom, Pohanka, under questioning from Miranda’s attorney, admitted she never saw the driver of the truck that struck her. A judge dismissed the charge against Miranda, court records show. 

Pohanka said the dismissal was as emotionally devastating to her as the accident. 

“I never saw him because I couldn’t move. I never saw him because he never came to my aid,’’ she said in an interview after the hearing.

She hopes to get justice from a civil lawsuit filed Oct. 6 against Miranda. 

Court records show Miranda has been cited for at least 25 traffic violations since 2001, including speeding, driving with a suspended license, running a red light, and improperly driving in an HOV lane. Most of the citations, 23, were issued between 2001 and 2014, including a charge in 2008 that the windows of his vehicle were too dark. 

In October 2022, Miranda was cited for texting while driving in a school zone, court records show. He pleaded no contest and agreed to go to traffic school. But four months later, his license was suspended and his plea changed by the judge to guilty when he failed to show up for traffic school. His license was reinstated on July 7, a little less than four weeks before Pohanka was struck.   

Pohanka spent three weeks at Delray Medical Center before starting rehab exercises at Miller Physical Therapy in downtown Delray Beach. 

“It’s painful. I’m hoping it’s helpful,’’ she said. “I feel like I’m quite robotic in my walking. It’s like I’m talking to my legs to get them to walk, but I’m doing it.’’ 

Around the house, she uses a wheelchair and cane, constant reminders of how radically her life has changed. 

“I used to work out seven days a week. Now, there’s no morning beach walks. There’s no rushing to get anywhere. It’s just way different. Every step I take is calculated and almost mechanical,’’ she said.

“I’m a gimp,’’ she added. “It really has changed my life.’’ 

Before Pohanka and her husband moved to Gulf Stream in 2015, they racked up more than 20,000 miles on the treadmill in their Virginia home, a testament to the five miles she used to run every day.

Now they have no idea when, or if, she will be as active again.

“You’re only as strong as your weakest link and right now her legs are her weakest link,” Chris Pohanka said. “She is sore a lot. She is doing what she can but it is very limited.”

Then there are the psychological scars the accident has left. Chris said just riding in a car down A1A makes Diane nervous, especially when she sees cyclists.

“You hear people saying, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t ride on A1A,’” he said. “Well, it’s just a matter of time and when something does happen, you’ve got no idea how much it changes your life. Things change in a second.”

Accident numbers on the rise
Despite the pain of her recovery, Pohanka knows she is lucky to be alive, especially as bike crashes in Palm Beach County have been trending in an alarming direction since 2020. 

According to state records as of Nov. 28, there have been 620 bike crashes in Palm Beach County this year, including 11 fatalities. Last year, there were 486 bike crashes and 14 fatalities. The county recorded 424 bike crashes (eight fatalities) in 2021 and 373 (12 fatalities) in 2020.

Pohanka said she knows there’s always a chance for an accident when bikes share the road with motor vehicles. But what surprised and frustrated her is the location of where the truck struck her. 

“This little stretch of A1A where he hit me was the safest part of the whole road,’’ she said. “No obstacles, along a golf course, no trees, no visual impairments.’’

She is determined to ride her bike again, but she said her rides will be exclusively in parks and natural areas, on paths without any motor vehicles. Pohanka said she has “asked Santa for a bike rack” for her car. 

Pohanka stopped by to thank Lt. Frank Ganley, who came to her rescue: ‘He was my lifeline, my angel.’ Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

One person who is confident she will achieve her goal is Ganley. He has stayed in touch with Pohanka since the September day she showed up at Ocean Rescue headquarters to thank him for the compassion he showed in the immediate aftermath of her accident. 

“I received a call on the radio from one of the guys at headquarters. He said, ‘There’s a woman here, Diane. She’s the one who got hit by the truck. She’d like to see you and thank you,’’’ Ganley recalled. 

“I’m walking back thinking she’s going to be in a wheelchair, kind of preparing myself. I walk in and she’s there with just a cane. I was like, ‘Wow!’ The injuries she had were really serious. It was great to see her,’’ he said. 

“I walked over, she stood up and gave me a hug and thanked me and started crying.’’

Pohanka and Ganley said they hope her story encourages motorists and bicyclists to be more careful on the road. 

“I’ve been doing this for 31 years now and I really hate seeing people having the best time of their lives and then something tragic like this happens,’’ Ganley said.

“I was just amazed how far she has come. It was really good to see her moving around. She’s not going to let this stop her from living her life.’’

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas (and Hanukkah)! From tree lightings to holiday bazaars, boat parades and more, the month will be filled with festive events.
ABOVE: Children are dazzled during Boca Raton’s tree lighting Nov. 18 at Mizner Park, which has been transformed into a holiday wonderland, with 50,000 LED lights and festive 2D light displays. RIGHT: Alida Bowden arranges her display at the Southern Handcraft Society show Nov. 17 at Old School Square.
Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Witnessing the aurora borealis is on my bucket list. In general I understand the science, but those wavering colored lights in the northern sky to me are nothing short of magical — and magic has been in short supply lately. Too much hate in the world. Too much anger. Too many calls for retribution, for blowing things up. All with alienating results.

During the holiday season when loneliness and sadness can mar an otherwise lovely day, a random act of kindness may just help a stranger through a difficult time. Maybe we should all give it a try. What’s needed to get through the hectic holidays are empathy, compassion and humor. And a sprinkling of magic.

If we look around this month, it’s easy to find magic: children running and laughing at public holiday displays, music performed with skill and love to grateful audiences, voices raised in song, prayer and celebration, and all those twinkling lights wrapped around palm trees swaying in the tropical breeze.

Regardless of faith or belief, the month of December brings a celebration of light. Everyone can embrace the magic of candles flickering, Christmas trees glowing, a full moon rising from the ocean, a night sky filled with stars.

And maybe some day, if I travel north, the northern lights.

— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

Michelle Rubin continues to teach life skills to her son Scott, 31, who works two jobs. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Sallie James

When Michelle Rubin’s son Scott was diagnosed with autism three decades ago, doctors told her the condition was extremely rare and to expect few options for him in school and work.

Rubin refused to embrace that grim outlook. Instead, the Boca Raton resident dedicated her energy to helping Scott and others like him live productive lives filled with independence.

Rubin founded the nonprofit Autism After 21 in 2011 out of frustration stemming from a lack of services for her own son, who is now 31. She has since provided life skills training to hundreds of young adults with spectrum disorders, giving them hope for brighter futures.

“I always tell families, it’s not as bad as you think,” said Rubin, who has two other sons. “At 21 years old I realized rather quickly that any kind of support or structured work opportunities for Scott were gone. There was just nothing available. My friends suggested I do something.”

So, she did. Now Rubin is in the business of changing lives.

Last month, the University of Florida honored Rubin with an Outstanding Alumni Award for Community Impact from the school’s College of Public Health and Health Professions.

She was selected from a field of more than 100 candidates.

Her friends weren’t surprised at all.

“Michelle is one of the most impressive people I know. She made sure that her son Scott … had every intervention possible. Now, he holds down two part-time jobs and is so proud of himself, as we all are,” said Debbie Abrams, a PR professional and a close friend who nominated Rubin. “She is an inspiration to me and to everyone that knows her.”

Autism After 21 promotes physical and mental well-being through therapy, mentorship, employment, education and social opportunities. The organization focuses on those transition years when young adults leave school and begin looking for jobs.

Rubin collaborates with the Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation to help clients needing transition services so they can join the workplace and learn independence.

The nonprofit also offers the Summer Opportunity for Adult Readiness (SOAR), a college campus-based residential and job skills program, as part of the groundwork for successful futures. The program, established in 2015, operates at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton and at Florida International University in Miami, with plans to expand into Tampa.

“Students get an opportunity to live in the dorm and start to learn what it’s going to be like to be away from home as an adult and what it could be like to establish your career,” Rubin explained.

The independence can be life-changing, she said.

Rubin’s son Scott was also born with an intellectual disability so she knew his only chance at work would be some kind of hands-on training. Today, Scott works part time at All-Tag Manufacturing and Rocco’s Tacos in Boca Raton.

Part of what Autism After 21 does is educate employers about what it’s like to have someone on the spectrum in their workplace, Rubin said.

“This generation of employers are now much more open to giving it a try than they’ve ever been,” she said. “When I speak to a public group and ask people in the room if they know someone with autism, most people’s hands go up.”

Scott was diagnosed at age 2. At 18 months, he began developing repetitive behaviors like the hand flapping often associated with autism and he didn’t speak at all, his mother said. Rubin taught him sign language and he communicated that way until age 14, when he suddenly began to speak.

“He started saying ‘mom’ and ‘dad.’ And then he asked for pizza,” she recalled.

“I was constantly pushing him out of his comfort zone. It was just intuitive to me that he could not have a life the way he was. Probably the other best thing I ever did for Scott was to have two more children,” Rubin said. Scott’s brothers accepted him and pushed him to be his best self, she said.

“For my husband and other two kids, the positive impact has far outweighed the negative,” Rubin added.

Today Scott rides his bicycle to the bus stop every day and takes public transportation to his job at All-Tag, where he helps sort anti-shoplifting security tags. He has worked there 11 years.

Joe Sirak, director of finance at All-Tag, said Scott was the first special needs person the company hired. It worked out spectacularly well.

“A light clicked on, and we realized this could be really useful,” Sirak said. “Now we have a 500-square-foot room where we have 10 people on any given day doing all the sorting. It turned into a very big project.”

Scott is probably the company’s most dedicated employee, Sirak said. “If he ever misses a day of work, he is usually upset about it. He is a great guy and works very hard.”

The skills taught at SOAR make such experiences possible, Rubin said. The hands-on, job-coaching program teaches participants self-determination skills that are life altering.

“They move in on a Monday and by Wednesday, they are different people, because they’re empowered,” Rubin said. “They realize they can do it. They can be on their own.”

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Ocean Ridge Police Officer Debra Boyle watches Dash, a trained police therapy dog, interact with residents Martha Stanfield and Marion Moon. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Related story: Paws Up for Pets: Not all cats are aloof; in fact, some make purrfect therapy animals

By Larry Barszewski

Ocean Ridge police now have a dog on the force — one that is more likely to jump onto your lap and nuzzle up to you than take down a criminal suspect.

“We’ve gone from K-9 dogs that sniff out drugs and bombs and bite people, to ones that give hugs,” Police Chief Scott McClure says.

Meet Dash, police therapy dog, sidekick to community policing Officer Debra Boyle.

Officer Deb had no doubt her 3-year-old Dash could do the job, as he has helped her through tough times of her own since she got him as a puppy.

“He brought comfort to me and brought my anxiety down,” she says — exactly the on-the-job talent Dash displays whether he’s visiting a town resident in the hospital, tagging along on a wellness check to the home of a sick or elderly resident, or just hanging his head out the open window of Officer Deb’s patrol vehicle, greeting passersby on Old Ocean Boulevard.

“He’s just got such a gentle soul. He’s great with the elderly. He’s great with everybody,” Officer Deb says.

Dash graduated at the end of October from the Paws & Stripes College of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, part of its second graduating class of police therapy dogs.

He gives new meaning to “backing the blue.” He’s a purebred blueblood — a Cavalier King Charles spaniel — and he works for blueberries.

“He loves blueberries,” says Officer Deb. With so many people feeding him treats throughout the day, the blueberries are a healthy alternative and help Dash — all 20 pounds of him — stay fit and trim.

At the Portofino condominiums, Dash makes regular visits to the home of Marion Moon and Martha Stanfield.

“Can he have a T-R-E-A-T?” Stanfield asks as Dash arrives with Officer Deb. “I won’t say it out loud because I know that’s what he wants.”

Quickly, Dash is in the lap of Moon, who turned 96 in November, and he’ll stay there for most of the visit as Moon lavishes him with affection.

“I just love him. He’s so sweet,” says Moon, who gets by using a walker. Her husband died in 2017, as did Josephine, the precious poodle the couple had for 16 years. “He just makes me so happy,” she says of Dash.

Though Dash primarily visits Moon, he makes time for Stanfield, too.

I think he’s got the softest fur of any animal,” Stanfield says. “It’s just so soft, like silk.”

It’s not so much the breed as the dog itself that matters most when determining which are cut out for therapy dog work, Officer Deb says.

She also has a 6-year-old shepherd mix named Gunner and a 1-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Tucker.

“All three have different personalities,” she says. “This one, I call him the king of the house.”

Unlike Tucker and Gunner, who are content to play with their toys, Dash will jump right into Officer Deb’s lap at home.

“He’s a people person,” Officer Deb says. And you know what she means.

“He loves to come to work,” she says. “He knows when I put the uniform on” and he’s ready to go himself.

Dash will have other emotional support duties as needed. Police therapy dogs can work with victims of crimes, making them feel more comfortable talking about what they experienced. They can be in the courtroom at the foot of a victim testifying on the stand, helping that person through what can be a traumatic experience.

“Dash is there for a number of reasons: the mentally ill, victims of violence, kids, the sick, our elderly population,” McClure says.

Teaming up with Dash also helps Officer Deb break down barriers or discomfort people may have with police.

“It initiates conversations,” she says. “It just bridges the gap between law enforcement and the public.”

Dash’s eating habits could be a good influence on kids in town.

“I give him frozen vegetables with his dinner. He loves peas and carrots and green beans. He loves fruit,” Officer Deb says.

Dash isn’t the first police therapy dog in the area. Boynton Beach added a therapy dog in 2016 and now has Elliott, who graduated from the PBSO program in 2022. PBSO has 10 therapy dogs on its force, and Delray Beach had two therapy dogs graduate the course along with Dash.

Officer Deb says the goodwill that therapy dogs deliver can’t be measured.

“If I can leave somebody with a smile on their face, that’s made my job worth it,” she says.

By Larry Barszewski

Manalapan is down to only two town commissioners — not six — as four have resigned rather than submit to a more detailed disclosure of their personal wealth that the state is requiring of elected municipal leaders starting in 2024.

Mayor Stewart Satter said he, too, will be leaving the commission.

“Regrettably, due to the new financial disclosure rules requiring that I disclose my net worth publicly, I am resigning from my role as Mayor effective this December,” Satter wrote in a Nov. 27 email to The Coastal Star.

Fortunately for the town, the massive shake-up underway isn’t as dire as officials first feared, as enough town residents have stepped up and offered to fill the commission’s new vacancies.

While the two remaining commissioners and the town’s nonvoting mayor aren’t enough for a quorum to run the commission’s next scheduled meeting on Dec. 18, the Town Charter allows that as few as two commissioners can vote to approve replacements for the commissioners who have left, Town Attorney Keith Davis said. Once that’s done, the commission can get back to business.

Commissioners Aileen Carlucci, Kristin Rosen and Richard Granara announced in October their intentions to resign, and Commissioner Chauncey Johnstone announced Nov. 13 that he was leaving for the same reason.

But the commission found out at its Nov. 14 meeting that there are still residents willing to be appointed, even with the new financial reporting disclosures, known as Form 6.

Thanks to a Nov. 1 town email blast seeking residents willing to serve, Vice Mayor John Deese and Commissioner Simone Bonutti will be able to restock the dais on Dec. 18.

The expected commission appointees are:
• Orla Imbesi to replace Johnstone
• Dwight Kulwin to replace Carlucci
• David Knobel to replace Rosen
• Elliot Bonner to replace Granara

Three of the appointments would end in March, while Knobel’s appointment would be until 2025.

Only two of the planned replacements — Imbesi and Bonner — filed papers in November to run in the March election. Because no one else filed for the two seats, Imbesi and Bonner are automatically elected to the term that begins in March, Davis said.

Because Kulwin didn’t get his qualifying papers in on time, the town is expected to hold a second qualifying period Jan. 2-12 for that seat, which would give Kulwin time to file his papers if he is still interested, or allow for others who may decide to run.

If the four appointments are made as expected Dec. 18, the four can be sworn in and begin serving immediately.

However, if Kulwin does not file qualifying papers in January, his service would end in March — unless no one else files and the commission were to reappoint him to the seat.

Satter hedged at the November meeting about whether he would resign.

“I would not comply with Form 6. So, if I decide to stay, I would just willfully not comply,” Satter said at the time.

But he is now set on leaving after the Dec. 18 meeting.

“Given how things have fallen into place, I think we’ve found some good candidates,” Satter said. “I feel much more comfortable that we’ve left the town in good hands.”

Once Satter’s resignation takes effect, the commission would be able to appoint someone to finish his term, which ends in March 2025, Davis said.

Some of those resigning are still willing to volunteer time if needed. Rosen, a former member of the Architectural Commission, said she would be willing to return to that board and replace Knobel, a current member who will have to step down if he is appointed to the Town Commission.

Assistant town manager hired — The Town Commission on Nov. 14 approved a three-year contract for Eric Marmer to be assistant town manager, with the understanding that he would take over for Town Manager Linda Stumpf after her planned retirement in September 2024. The contract provides a $150,000 salary. While it is expected that Marmer will succeed Stumpf, the contract says that is a decision the commission will have to make when Stumpf retires.

Police chief gets a contract, too — Police Chief Carmen Mattox has been in his position for more than 10 years, all that time without a contract. That changed Nov. 14 when the commission approved a five-year deal for him. Mattox said he never felt the need for a contract, but he and other town officials agreed it made sense with all the changes taking place in town government. His salary is $145,821.

Surprise landing on Lands End— Police Chief Carmen Mattox received a one-hour heads-up the morning of Nov. 14 that a private helicopter would be landing at a vacant lot at 1475 Lands End Road, where it was picking up some “VIPs.” The landing was unusual in town, but appeared to be legal and no complaints were received. Mattox had a fire truck stationed nearby just in case, because of overhead power lines in the area and the smaller size of the lots on The Point.

Cul-de-sacs getting some loving — The planned reconstruction of the cul-de-sac island at the end of Lands End Road is underway. Manager Linda Stumpf told commissioners Nov. 14 that fresh landscaping will also be coming to the two other cul-de-sac islands in town.

— Larry Barszewski

Four candidates qualify for three spots on March ballot

By Larry Barszewski

The Ocean Ridge Town Commission has appointed David Hutchins and Ainar Aijala Jr. to fill two upcoming vacancies on the commission.

Hutchins, a retired airline pilot who currently sits on the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission, and Aijala, a retired longtime executive with the auditing and consulting firm Deloitte, will be sworn in at the commission’s January meeting.

“I would like to thank you guys for putting some faith in me,” Hutchins said after the 3-0 vote for him at a special Nov. 9 commission meeting. “I think the experience I got at P&Z will be helpful and I’ll do everything I can and I’m sure I will learn a lot more.”

Aijala was not present at the meeting. He was appointed on a 2-1 vote. Former Commissioner Robert Sloat, who served for three months in 2019 in an appointed capacity, also received a vote.

The two appointees will replace Commissioners Ken Kaleel and Philip Besler, who turned in their resignations effective Dec. 30.

Their seats, as well as Mayor Geoff Pugh’s, will be up for election March 19. Candidate qualifying for the election closed Nov. 17, with four candidates in the running for three open seats.

Hutchins, Aijala and Pugh have all qualified to be on the ballot, as has Nicholas “Nick” Arsali, who handles real estate development, investment, portfolio management and brokerage for Southern Engineering and Construction.

The top two vote-getters in the election will fill the two, three-year term openings on the Town Commission and the third-place finisher will receive the remaining two-year term.

Kaleel is resigning rather than be forced to submit a more comprehensive financial disclosure form that the state will be requiring from elected municipal officials beginning in 2024. Besler said he was resigning for personal reasons.

Kaleel and Besler were appointed to their positions in May, following the resignations of Commissioners Martin Wiescholek and Kristine de Haseth. Both had previous experience as commissioners.

This time around, Sloat was the only applicant to have served on the commission, a three-month appointment in 2019 to finish former Mayor James Bonfiglio’s term.

Kaleel and Besler were not allowed to vote for their replacements, so the decisions fell to the same three members who appointed them: Pugh, Vice Mayor Steve Coz and Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy.

The three made their selections from eight applicants — five who originally applied when the two seats were open in April and three who submitted their names in October.

The other applicants were Arsali, Craig Herkert, Victor Martel, Mike Mullins and Peter Wolf.

Aijala served 38 years at Deloitte, including four years as CEO of its world leading global consultant practice. He retired in 2020 and has lived in town since 2019.

Aijala has served on the global board of Junior Achievements Worldwide. He has also served on the board of governors at The Little Club in Gulf Stream.

“I have always been committed to serving the communities in which we live, but until my recent retirement I was only able to fulfill this commitment through my involvement with charitable and not for profit organizations. I am now able to serve the residents of Ocean Ridge without conflict and would be eager to do so,” Aijala wrote in his application for the position.

Hutchins has been a town resident since 1990. He has been a member of the planning commission since 2017 and was an alternate member 2015-17.