By Jane Smith

    In what was described as a “transition year” for special events, Delray Beach commissioners approved a small-scale New Year’s Eve gathering hosted by the city.
    The New Year’s Eve First Night event won’t be advertised or promoted outside the city and it will be free for families, said Stephanie Immelman, who heads the city’s Marketing Cooperative. After a special events committee rejected the First Night event proposal because of its unspecified high public safety costs, she appealed to the commission in early October.
    “We can’t go from a hundred miles per hour to zero,” said Mayor Cary Glickstein. Had the commission known about the $35,000 expense, it could have been a line item in the budget, he said. The commission approved taking the money from the city manager’s discretionary fund to pay for this year’s family-friendly First Night.
    Commissioner Jordana Jarjura was the lone dissenter. “There’s a plethora of events in December,” she said. “It’s an improper use of the city manager’s discretionary account. … We have to hold ourselves to the same standards as the private sector.”
    Her colleagues, though, feared that killing the nearly 20-year-old public event would have them perceived as Scrooges. The commissioners were happy, however, “to buy down the impact of the event.”
    In previous years, buttons and wristbands were sold to allow patrons to participate in activities from 5 p.m. to midnight, with two fireworks displays. Last year, about 30,000 people attended First Night festivities.
    For this New Year’s Eve, First Night will take place from 5 to 9 p.m. No buttons or wristbands will be sold. The event will feature free activities for families and have the carousel, ice skating rink, miniature golf and kids train ride at their usual ticket prices.
    Immelman wanted to bring in food trucks and a DJ, but the mayor said he would not support having any vehicles on the Old School Square grounds. Commissioner Shelly Petrolia pointed out that the circular driveway in front of the Crest Theatre is paved and could possibly be used as a location for food trucks.
    Last year, the event grew out of control. With crowds clogging Atlantic Avenue the police had to close the street to vehicle traffic. This year, the avenue between Swinton Avenue and southbound Federal Highway will be closed starting at 4 p.m. and reopen early on New Year’s Day.

    In other business, the commission approved splitting its police and firefighter pension board into two boards after hearing that the state had approved the split. On the new boards, the City Commission will appoint two members, the police and firefighters union will appoint two members to the respective board and the fifth member will be picked by all four.
    Petrolia voted against the split because the state’s opinion was not in writing. Even so, she selected her picks for both boards. Vice Mayor Al Jacquet selected his picks at two October commission meetings.
    Glickstein said it was “a big accomplishment for the city” to gain control over its public safety pension funds by negotiating with the unions for three years. It also means the city will collect $1.3 million to pay down the unfunded pension liabilities and another $504,000 in discretionary money.

By Jane Smith

    The owner of the proposed iPic luxury movie theater in downtown Delray Beach received a seventh extension of a purchase contract from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
    The agency extended the contract until Jan. 31 to allow time to reach an agreement with the city on the parking garage.         “I feel strongly we need to move this project forward,” said Cathy Balestriere, CRA board member.
    Most of her colleagues agreed while saying they were frustrated with the delay. The CRA will receive $3.6 million from the property sale to iPic.
    Only one board member voted no at the Oct. 20 meeting.
    Since signing the agreement more than three years ago, iPic has built six other theaters, said Daniel Rose, the CRA board member who voted against the extension.
    “What about Delray’s?” he asked.
    CRA Attorney David Tolces assured the board members. He said if they agreed to the extension, they would show they were “operating in good faith … and acting as a facilitator to allow the city and the developer to reach a [parking garage] agreement.” Then if iPic needed more time at the end of January, the board would be in a better position to take action.
    The CRA owns the 1.59-acre site, which once housed the city library and chamber of commerce. The developer proposes to build a multilevel garage with 315 parking spaces, with 90 reserved for public use. The City Commission took over the garage agreement in March to ensure the public parking spaces would be included in the iPic garage.
    City commissioners approved that agreement Nov. 1. The contract calls for construction to start within a year of the property purchase date, completion in three years and public spaces reserved on the second floor and part of the third.
    The developer agreed to pay the city $162,620 for seven parking spaces. The money is due when iPic receives its building permit from the city.
    People who want to use the public parking spaces will be able to bypass the iPic valet, the spaces will be labeled “public parking” and drivers will have the ability to turn around safely inside the garage. It will be open the same hours as the other city garages, 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.
    The iPic developer is responsible for maintaining the garage, but may contact the CRA to pay for the maintenance of the public parking spaces.
    Separately, the city’s Downtown Development Authority is working with CRA staff and the iPic development team to find 90 parking spaces that customers and employees can use while the project is under construction, said Laura Simon, DDA executive director.
    In March, the iPic complex received city approval to build a mixed-use development with eight movie theaters having 497 seats and taking up 44,979 square feet of space, 43,880 square feet of office space and 7,487 square feet of retail space.
    Another condition of approval requires iPic to move its corporate headquarters to Delray Beach and occupy 20,000 square feet for five years.
    The third condition covers traffic on southbound Federal Highway, requiring iPic to station a police officer near its pedestrian entrance to prevent drivers from stopping to drop off passengers for the movies.
    The fourth condition covers the public terrace on the third floor of the complex. The iPic developer will allow free access to the terrace at least between normal business hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
    In other CRA action, the Currie Sowards Aguila Architects firm was awarded a $90,000 contract to create a new design for the city’s historic Old School Square grounds. That contract calls for site analysis, designs to be delivered in six months, meetings with a “core committee” appointed by CRA staff to review the progress and plans, two community meetings and presentation of the master plan to the CRA board and City Commission for approval and adoption. CRA members voted 6-0 after Balestriere left the meeting.
    The CRA and the city also won a statewide award from the Florida Redevelopment Association at its annual meeting in October. They received an outstanding achievement in the Transportation/Transit Enhancements category for the U.S. 1/Federal Highway beautification project.
    The roadway was narrowed by one travel lane in each direction to make room for on-street parking, a bike lane and wider, landscaped sidewalks. The nearly $14 million project began in 2004 and finished last year with five partners: $5.1 million from the state, $3.6 million from the CRA, $3 million from the city, $2.2 million from the federal government and $178,734 from developers.

Steven Penniman and George Britt work on the town’s underground utilities project at the corner

of Golfview and Polo drives as phase 2 begins.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

    The threat of Hurricane Matthew bearing down on Gulf Stream made Mayor Scott Morgan an even more ardent believer in the virtues of putting electric wires underground.
    “Down in the south end of town, where with the slightest breeze we would lose power, we did not lose power in this storm, which had sustained 40-mile-an-hour winds and 60-mile-an-hour gusts,” Morgan said. “It’s the first time ever, where I live, that that occurred. And of course that’s occurring after we went underground.”
    Morgan and his wife, Lisa, bought their home on North Ocean Boulevard in 2004.
    “So I think it does lend some support to the reasoning that the town had in moving forward with the advantage of undergrounding,” Morgan said.
    The mayor’s observations came during an update on the utilities project. Phase 1 will be complete once streetlights are installed on State Road A1A from Pelican Lane to Golfview Drive, Morgan said. Florida Power & Light Co. has completed plans for the lighting, and the town expects the state Department of Transportation to issue a permit for the work in January, he said.
    The contractor has begun to install conduit on Golfview Drive and will be moving northward as phase 2 progresses. The contractor has 10 months to finish installing conduit for all overhead utilities and transfer the FPL service.
    In other business, commissioners elevated Curtiss Roach, the first alternate member of the town’s Architectural Review and Planning Board, to being a full member.
    “When asked to come down at the last minute, he does. He’s very responsive and committed to serving, so I think that would be a wise choice,” said Town Commissioner Paul Lyons, whose spot on the ARPB Roach is filling.
    Commissioners are looking for someone to takes Roach’s position as first alternate.

Delray Beach city commissioners approved spending nearly $5,000 for the city’s share of the annual Boynton Beach-Delray Beach boat parade on Dec. 9.
    But they did not want the money coming from the city manager’s discretionary fund. They saw it more as a low-cost marketing opportunity, not an emergency expense.
    “The boat parade brings a large amount of goodwill from the homeowners and business owners [along the Intracoastal Waterway] who pay a disproportionately large property tax bill and look forward to it,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said  
    The Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency hosts the boat parade. In recent years, it has tried to get Delray Beach to pay part of the costs. Last year, Delray Beach scrambled and was able to raise the bridges for the boat parade.
— Jane Smith

By Steve Plunkett

    Buffeted by thousands of public records requests and dozens of lawsuits, mostly from two town residents, Gulf Stream now has a full-time staff attorney to handle the workload.
    Edward “Trey” Nazzaro, who as a paralegal at Town Attorney John “Skip” Randolph’s law firm helped Gulf Stream write its public records procedures, started work at Town Hall in October.
    “He is a man of great integrity, intelligence, and he knows most of us here,” Town Manager William Thrasher told commissioners Oct. 14.
    Nazzaro has an annual salary of $87,500 plus pension, health insurance and other benefits, and office expenses. Thrasher moved $133,483 from “contract legal services” to cover the cost, leaving a net effect of zero on the town’s budget.
    “We probably should have done it years ago,” Town Commissioner Joan Orthwein said.
    Randolph will continue in his longtime role as town attorney.
    Thrasher said there are “a lot of things” Nazzaro can do. “For example, today he is at calendar call [at the courthouse in West Palm Beach], standing and waiting to yell out, ‘Yes,’” he said.
    Nazzaro’s pay translates to $61.77 per hour. “If you compare that to our lowest general or outside counsel, they use the figure $250; that’s a savings per hour of $188.23,” Thrasher said.
    Nazzaro, who was an Eagle Scout before attending college, was editor-in-chief of the law review and graduated magna cum laude from St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami Gardens in 2014. That same year the Town Commission passed a resolution of appreciation for the work he did authoring Gulf Stream’s public records policy.
    Nazzaro spent the past two years as a law clerk in federal court in Miami.
    Mayor Scott Morgan, who also is a nonpracticing lawyer, said Nazzaro is “intimately familiar” with the town’s public records woes and would have plenty of work in his new position. “Almost any activity we consider here has legal ramifications,” Morgan said.
    Resident Chris O’Hare complained that starting lawyers at the State Attorney’s Office earn around $50,000 a year and asked why the town did not let attorneys bid for the work. “It seems like a waste of taxpayer money,” said O’Hare, who has filed numerous lawsuits against the town over public records.
    “That’s rich coming from you, Mr. O’Hare,” Morgan quickly responded. “You’re part of the problem that puts us in this situation.”

Plans for the revitalized shopping center would alter the entrance to the adjacent Tropic Isles neighborhood.

Rendering provided

By Jane Smith
    
    A city board denied the site plan for Delray Place South in a chaotic late October meeting. Board members voted twice on the shopping center’s site plan. It was denied both times by a 3-2 vote. The votes took place about 11 p.m.
    Delray Place South sits in the southeastern end of Delray Beach. It’s a 30-year-old center on the east side of Federal Highway just south of Linton Boulevard between Eve Street and Tropic Boulevard.
    The site plan features a crosscut connection from Delray Place, home to Trader Joe’s, across Eve Street, into the 22,089-square-foot Delray Place South. The Planning Department recommended speed bumps be installed on the two-way, main driveway of Delray Place South.
    The crosscut provides “better circulation of the overall area,” said the plazas’ owner, Joe Carosella.
    The site plan also called for a five-lane gateway on Tropic Boulevard. It would be achieved by reducing the 20-foot median to 14 feet and creating three exit lanes going west onto Federal Highway. Two westbound lanes would be designated left-turn only. The eastbound lanes also would be widened by 2 feet. The right one would go directly to Tropic Isles, prompting resident Renee Radabaugh to ask: “Does anyone want an express lane to their homes?”
    Site Plan Appearance and Review Board member Jim Chard, who voted against the site plan, said, “With this vote, we are changing the entrance to this community forever. It has narrow little lanes creating a village feeling with the shade trees.”
    After the first vote denied the site plan, Carosella came up to the speaker’s podium and asked board member Alice Finst whether she understood the site plan. His firm had provided the crosscut connection that she wanted.
    That approach offended acting City Attorney Janice Rustin, who reminded him to step away from the mic. Carosella already had spoken multiple times and coming up again was not allowed. His project was discussed at a quasi-judicial hearing with required procedures.
    Rustin asked Finst whether she was clear on the site plan and wanted a revote. Finst then made a motion to reconsider the site plan vote. Chard was the lone dissenter. The site plan revote also turned out 3-2, with Chard, Finst and Vlad Dumitrescu voting no. Dumitrescu said he normally supports connections between properties, but in this case he thought the owner could do more. Finst, reached after the meeting, said, “My main objection was changing the traffic patterns for people who have lived in Tropic Isles for decades.”
    Board Chairman Roger Cope voted for the site plan after he received a promise from Carosella to move the Dunkin’ Donuts northwestern tower 2 feet to the east. That move would improve safety for diners at the eatery’s sidewalk cafe and create more sidewalk space for pedestrians. Carosella was seeking a waiver from the 20-foot requirement to have the sidewalk width be just 7 ½ feet.  
    Shannon Dawson, a board member who also supported the site plan, said revitalizing the development was “a good thing.” She also commented that part of the problem was that the two shopping centers were not connected.
    Board member Frederick Kaub had to step down because he works for an engineering firm that did work for Delray Place and was hoping to get work from Delray Place South. The two shopping centers are owned by the same firm, Retail Property Group of Boca Raton. The seventh board member, Linda Purdo-Enochs, was absent.
    The meeting’s length was partly caused by the Tropic Isles Civic Association’s being granted an opportunity to present its side. Its attorney, Edwin Stacker, received the same amount of extended time — 15 minutes — that was requested by the project’s owner. The city Planning Department also was given the extended time.
    “We have no objection to the renovation of Tropic Square [now known as Delray Place South],” Stacker said. “But don’t make Tropic Isles residents pay for the traffic problems of the developer.”
    Twenty-six people spoke during public comment. Most objected to the site plan because of the traffic problems it would create at the entrance to their community.
    Christina Morrison, a real estate broker and Tropic Isles resident, said the community had a history of mistrust with the developer over Delray Place. She wanted to see all the exit lanes on the developer’s property.
    Despite the four meetings the property owner said he had with the Tropic Isles community, Valorie Loomer said she heard about the renovation from her hairdresser. She is in favor of redevelopment but not at the expense of the Tropic Isles entranceway.
    She brought her 9-year-old son, Dylan, to the meeting. “When my mom showed me the plans, I didn’t think it was a good idea,” he said. “When Delray Place opened, it was unsafe for me to scooter and ride my bike around the neighborhood.”
    The Loomers left at 9 p.m., already past Dylan’s bedtime, his mom said.
    Carosella has 10 working days to appeal the board’s denial to the City Commission. As of press time, the appeal was not submitted.

By Jane Smith

    City commissioners chose the Lohman Law Group of Jupiter to act as city attorney in a public process required by the way they solicited bids.
    In a presentation Oct. 18 before the selection, R. Max Lohman said he would be the Delray Beach city attorney if his firm were chosen. His backup would be Bradley Biggs and then Abigail Jorandby. He promised to retain the three assistant city attorneys and paralegal already working for Delray Beach, creating a hybrid department.
    Lohman offered two options. One was no retainer, general legal work billed at $210 per hour and litigation work billed at $250 an hour.
    The second option was a $25,000 monthly retainer, which translates into an annual retainer of $300,000. Once the retainer is exhausted, then the hourly billing would start.
    The commission approved an hourly rate for 3 1/2 months at its Nov. 1 meeting. In late February, Lohman will give the commission his assessment of the City Attorney’s office and the commission will discuss his fees.
    Commissioner Jordana Jarjura said the estimated total cost of the city attorney and deputy to be about $327,000 for salaries and benefits. Although she favors an in-house attorney, she voted on Oct. 18 to negotiate with Lohman.
    Other bidders were GrayRobinson of Fort Lauderdale, with its $350,000 bid for general legal work, Greenspoon Marder of Fort Lauderdale, with its $420,000 bid if it staffed the entire city attorney’s office, and Nason Yeager of Boca Raton, which offered a flat fee of $256,000 annually, similar to what it charged Port St. Lucie, for meetings and workshops.    
    Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein said the full-service city would be “best served by in-house counsel. ... Lohman was closer to what I’d like to see in a strong city attorney.”
    But he added that Palm Beach Gardens, which the Lohman firm represents, is different from Delray Beach: It’s newer and not a coastal city. The newer construction means no significant historical preservation issues, he said.
    The previous city attorney, Noel Pfeffer, left in June to take a partner position at Conrad & Scherer in Fort Lauderdale.
The City Commission held the public hearing after it was told by the county’s ethics commission it could not meet individually with candidates for the city attorney.
    Interim City Attorney Janice Rustin sought the opinion in September because Delray Beach had solicited competitive bids for its legal services.
    The cone of silence provision applies, according to the ethics commission. “Any oral communication between any city commissioner and any person seeking the award of the legal services contract that occurs outside of a public meeting is prohibited,” wrote Mark E. Bannon, executive director of the commission.
    “When the cone of silence is not in effect, the [ethics] code does not prohibit the city commission from meeting individually with any applicant.”
    In other ethics commission action:
    Delray Beach firefighter/paramedic Conor Devery was given a letter of instruction on the county code of ethics and city policies that prohibit a public employee from working for an outside company that supplies the employee’s department.
    The ethics commission found probable cause of a violation but decided the violation was “inadvertent, unintentional, or unsubstantial.” Devery allowed a company in which he was part-owner to provide the city fire department with $2,245 worth of goods and services between 2012 and 2014.

By Jane Smith

    After a two-year stint leading Delray Beach, City Manager Don Cooper turned in his resignation, effective Dec. 30.
    “It is with regret that I must submit my resignation,” Cooper said in his Oct. 31 memo to the City Commission, mayor and senior staff. He cited family medical problems that “will interfere with the proper performance of my duties.” His wife apparently is the one who is ill.
   Cooper, a longtime Port St. Lucie city manager, took the reins of Delray Beach in January 2015 when the city was suffering from instability and low morale.
    “He helped stabilize the city during the initial culture shock period of ‘we are no longer doing things because that’s the way we always did them,’ ” Mayor Cary Glickstein said. “He helped staff understand that working smarter improves their quality of life on the job.”
    Glickstein also said Cooper played a role in the great shape of the city’s public safety departments and creating “a bona fide 21st century information technology department and plan, and well-functioning purchasing, finance and treasury departments.”
    Cooper listed his highlights as: focusing the staff on the commission’s goals and objectives, creating the special events policy in line with commission direction, improving the Fire Department, doing repair and maintenance to city facilities such as Old School Square, and starting on the beach master plan.
    Under Cooper’s leadership, “we have, for the first time in decades, a real capital improvement plan driven by the city,” the mayor said. “He helped realign the city’s relationship with the [Community Redevelopment Agency], which was years overdue.” 
    The city has more work to do, both leaders agree.
“The city is in good shape and while his successor will have challenges, much of the heavy lifting is behind us,” Glickstein said.         Cooper credits the staff with doing the work.
    When asked what he will miss most about Delray Beach, he said, “The staff who really cares about the community.”

By Steve Plunkett

    Former Vice Mayor Robert Ganger wants the town to pay $2,355 he spent fighting a deposition in a Martin O’Boyle lawsuit against Gulf Stream.
    The amount requested by Ganger, who is recuperating from a stroke that forced him to quit his commission seat in July, is less than a third of what his lawyer charged, said Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, which Ganger co-founded. “His doctor was very firm in his opinion that Mr. Ganger could not be deposed as part of this frivolous lawsuit,” de Haseth said.
    Commissioner Joan Orthwein said she had no objection to paying the legal fees. “I think it’s very sad that he had to go out and find a personal attorney to defend himself,” Orthwein said.
    Ganger’s total bill to obtain a protective order from being deposed was around $12,000, but de Haseth said she negotiated with his lawyer to get the bill closer to $7,500.
    She urged town commissioners to approve the request for $2,355 “not only as a vote of confidence for Mr. Ganger and all the years that he served, but hopefully that you’ll never be in this position also.”
    Resident O’Boyle has filed dozens of lawsuits against Gulf Stream over the last four years and made thousands of requests for public records.
    Commissioners decided to postpone the matter until their next meeting, which they rescheduled from Nov. 11 to Nov. 10 to avoid the Veterans Day holiday.

By Jane Smith
    
    The City Commission passed a resolution Nov. 1 supporting federal agencies to put tighter controls on prescription painkillers.
    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Justice are asking the states to do more monitoring of the prescribing of narcotics such as oxycodone, which often lead to heroin addiction.
    Delray Beach has seen nearly triple the number of overdoses this year as of Oct. 31, compared with all of 2015. In October, Delray Beach police responded to 99 heroin overdoses, resulting in 11 deaths. Both are all-time records for the city.
    The city also played a leading role in recent arrests in a patient-brokering case. Detective Nicole Lucas is the city’s representative on the law enforcement subgroup of the State Attorney’s Sober Homes Task Force, started in July.
    One of Lucas’ sources told her about a Boynton Beach treatment center. The Whole Life Recovery center’s owner, James Kigar, and manager, Christopher Hutson, are accused of illegally paying sober home operators “case management fees” weekly for every insurable patient brought to them without the patient’s visiting the center.
    Kigar and Hutson were arrested Oct. 25. They were released the next morning after posting a $3,000 bond each and have a trial date of April 28.
    The state attorney said the investigation is ongoing.

By Jane Smith

    Six city residents made last-minute pleas to change city commissioners’ minds before the final vote was cast on consolidated plans for the eastern half of Boynton Beach.
    The residents said they were disappointed, betrayed and disgusted by the commissioners’ not listening to them. One said her head was going to explode over the increased height allowed on Ocean Avenue, which historically has been a mostly residential street.
    “It’s a disappointment to the hundreds of citizens who want responsible development,” said Tom McClure, president of the Boynton Coalition for Responsible Development.
    The group said it represents 2,500 residents in Southeast Boynton Beach, primarily along the Intracoastal Waterway. Its members wanted the height limit at Woolbright Road and Federal Highway to remain at 75 feet, he told the City Commission in early October.
    The new plans will determine the look of the city’s eastern half, about 1,650 acres that make up the Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency district.
    Some parts of the 20-year plans are not controversial. They include complete streets with bike lanes, shade trees, enhanced lighting and widened sidewalks.
    The troublesome areas, residents say, are the taller buildings along Federal Highway and Ocean Avenue.
    Despite the emotional pleas, the plans passed by a 4-1 vote. Commissioner Christina Romelus said she could not support the changes because her constituents opposed them.
    “We’re happy with Romelus,” McClure said. “She is listening to the citizens.”
    Just before the final vote on the overall changes, Mayor Steven Grant passed the gavel so that he could make a motion to keep the height at the Woolbright and Federal intersection at 75 feet. He and Romelus were in favor of  it but lost because the other three commissioners were not.
    At the southeast corner of the intersection, the owner of Riverwalk Plaza wants to replace the aging shopping center with a 10-story or 100-foot-high apartment complex. Isram Realty submitted its plans Nov. 25, 2015, about three weeks after the CRA consolidated plans were unveiled. Riverwalk Plaza plans will be reviewed separately.
    Isram and its owners donated money to the previous mayor’s re-election campaign. But Jerry Taylor didn’t survive a March runoff when the same residents organized against him and supported his opponent, Grant.
    James “Buck” Buchanan reminded commissioners that last fall Taylor and two commissioners kicked Buchanan and another citizen representative off the CRA board. The commissioners didn’t like how the two citizen representatives voted in support of the now-departed executive director.
    “Tonight you have another situation with spreading the height around the city. Look at your voting record and at how many times you have found yourself voting against the will of the people,” Buchanan said. “Then after your next election, you might want to call Jerry Taylor and ask him to save you a seat out there.”
    Commissioner Joe Casello took offense by what he called “hidden messages. If we vote against the will of the people, we may be voted out of office. That may be so. But every vote I’ve taken up here is for the betterment of Boynton Beach.”
    Casello then said he would support property owner Arthur D’Almeida’s request for extra density and reduced setbacks. D’Almeida wants to build a mixed-use project on the west side of the FEC railroad tracks on nearly 3 acres between Boynton Beach Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, according to his land planner, Bradley Miller.
    He said the Ocean Avenue overlays allow his client to construct a building that is 85 feet tall, about eight stories, at the highest point.
    Miller said the setbacks required along Boynton Beach Boulevard would create wasted space. His client wants to provide 10-foot setbacks at 45 feet and 20-foot setbacks at 85 feet, totaling 30 feet.
    Boynton Beach Development Director Andrew Mack said the 30-foot setbacks were included to make the projects more presentable from the street.
    “The setbacks would avoid the tunnel effect when driving down the street,” said Assistant City Manager Colin Groff.
    But the commission sided with the property owner and unanimously approved Miller’s requests.
    In other business, commissioners selected a new vendor to operate the snack bar at Oceanfront Park. The selection won’t result in the most money to the city. The operator who runs the snack bar at the city’s golf course was picked as “the most responsive, responsible proposer.”
    Ultimate Bakery and Pastry Inc., of South Palm Beach, took over Nov. 1 for a two-year lease, paying rent of $6,600 or 6.5 percent of gross sales the first year and $7,200 or 7 percent of gross sales the second year.
    Current operator Culinary Solutions had offered to pay $12,000 annually in rent for the first two years.

By Stacey Singer

    The 13 municipalities still suing to avoid paying fees for Palm Beach County’s Office of Inspector General made their case at the 4th District Court of Appeal on Oct. 4, saying they don’t object to oversight by the independent inspector general but protest the concept that the county can send them a bill and demand payment.
    Since the county began billing them, many towns and cities have refused to pay fees for the oversight, collectively amassing bills totaling nearly $5 million. As a result, the underfunded office for many years had difficulty filling positions and carrying out its auditing, contract oversight and tip investigation duties until county commissioners agreed to step in and temporarily pay the fees.  
    The municipalities suing include Gulf Stream, Delray Beach, Manalapan, Highland Beach, Ocean Ridge and Boca Raton. The village of Wellington withdrew from the litigation.
    “The county sent the cities invoices without first entering interlocal agreements, violating sovereign immunity,” argued Jane Kreusler-Walsh, appellate lawyer for the municipalities. “If this program is allowed to continue, there is nothing to stop the county from implementing other countywide programs. … It will wreak havoc in municipalities all across the state.”
    In 2015, Circuit Judge Catherine Brunson sided with the county on every argument.  The municipalities were being billed for a “valid user fee and not an unlawful tax,” she wrote.
    “In this case, the approval by the voters of the referendum authorized the governing bodies to establish a line item in the budget to contribute to the funding of the OIG. This eliminated any discretion that the municipalities may have had as to funding,” Brunson wrote.
    The creation of the Inspector General’s Office came after a series of public corruption scandals. On Nov. 2, 2010, county voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot item asking if a county ethics commission and office of inspector general should be created. It’s significant that voters in every municipality said “yes.”
    The referendum language explicitly stated that the inspector general would be funded “by the County Commission and all other governmental entities subject to the authority of the inspector general.”
    Given that language, why would the cities question their obligation to pay, since the voters’ will trumps all, asked Judge Alan Orantes Forst, one of three judges on the appellate panel.
    Case law and precedent, answered Kreusler-Walsh. “There cannot be referendums on budget items,” she argued.
    A grand jury convened in 2009 to address a series of public corruption scandals in Palm Beach County and West Palm Beach had recommended paying for the OIG in the same way that Miami-Dade County paid for its OIG, through a 0.25 percent fee on vendor contracts.
    However, the county, in implementing the ballot language, took a slightly different approach, billing the cities directly. The county left it to the cities and towns whether to charge the fee to their vendors or make it a budget line-item, said Palm Beach County’s attorney, Helene Hvizd.  
    Kreusler-Walsh argued it would be illegal for municipalities to charge vendors for services they themselves didn’t provide, so it was a de facto budget mandate.
    On the contrary, Hvizd said, the municipalities’ refusal to pay was a plain attempt to thwart the will of the people and cripple the power of the inspector general, which can investigate anonymous tips and refer findings to the state attorney for potential criminal charges.
    “The people, by passing a referendum, created law. You cannot suggest that the people intended to create a law that would have no effect, and that is what would happen here,” Hvizd argued.
    Kreusler-Walsh disagreed: “It will continue the way it is being funded now. It will be paid through ad valorem [property] taxes paid to the county. So citizens in the municipalities, who are paying ad valorem taxes to the county already, are already paying for the OIG.”
    It’s unclear precisely when the three-judge panel will issue its opinion on the issue. Opinions come out on Wednesdays each week. Inspector General John Carey said he’s hopeful that the opinion will put the matter to rest.
    “Judge Brunson stated that the citizens are the cities, not the small group of elected officials. I hope they would accept the will of the people,” Carey said. “We will continue to do our job regardless.”

By Willie Howard

    A Boynton Beach man snorkeling on the north side of Boynton Inlet died after he hit the jetty and was swept into the inlet by the tide on Oct. 16.
    Paul Swingle, 67, went snorkeling from the beach in Manalapan.
    Around 5:20 p.m., anglers fishing on the north jetty noticed that he was struggling against current that was pulling him out to sea, according to a Manalapan police report.
    Fishermen yelled at Swingle, telling him to swim south toward them and parallel with the beach, the police report said.
    Witnesses told police that Swingle became fatigued and sank below the surface. Waves and current pushed him into the jetty rocks before the incoming tide swept him into the inlet channel.
    Two Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue lifeguards (from the guarded beach south of the inlet) jumped into the inlet to help Swingle.
    A passing boater stopped, pulled Swingle into his boat and took him to the beach at Ocean Inlet Park, where a Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue truck was waiting.
    Rescue workers took Swingle to JFK Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
    Swimmers who enter the water from the beach immediately north of Boynton Inlet are not protected by lifeguards. The inlet is known for its powerful currents.
    A sign on the path leading to that section of Manalapan beach warns of “hazardous conditions” in the unguarded area. An arrow on the sign directs swimmers to the guarded swimming area on the south side of the inlet.
    Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue officials at Ocean Inlet Park refused to comment on Swingle’s drowning, referring questions to the county’s Risk Management Department.
    The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office was still investigating the drowning as of late October.

By Steve Plunkett
    
    The kerfuffle over Town Manager Jamie Titcomb’s budget proposal, which prompted Ocean Ridge commissioners to call an unusual 12-day recess of their final public budget hearing, blew over in about 15 minutes when the meeting resumed.
    “When we went back through this, Jamie basically had it right. We had some problems with the capital funds still, in the way that we were reporting that out,” Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella said. But, “most of these things were just transfers.”
    Changes Titcomb reviewed included making the revenue and expenditure sides of the $250,000 capital fund match, moving $19,000 for maintaining the detention area from the “other physical environment” category to “public works,” and putting a $22,052 “interfund transfer” item into the contingency fund.
    This was the first time Titcomb, who became town manager in October 2015, had prepared Ocean Ridge’s budget. The preceding 25 or so budgets were assembled by Karen Hancsak, who retired as clerk in January.
    “I’m going to take partial credit for all these highlights and changes, but the real credit goes to our former town clerk, who spent countless time with me on the phone and caught much of this and … checked my work,” Lucibella said. “I think we need to send flowers to a certain former clerk. She helped us out of a really tight spot on this.”
    The night wasn’t all smooth sailing. Titcomb passed out a revised resolution updating and reallocating money in the capital projects fund right before the Oct. 3 meeting started.
    Lucibella said he took no responsibility for the document. “I just saw it. I’m taking the town manager at his word that that’s good to go,” Lucibella said.
    And Commissioner James Bonfiglio, who moved to adopt the resolution, noted in his motion that it “was handed out to us tonight as opposed to in our book” of backup material.
    Commissioners also found fault in Titcomb’s recommendation for an audit selection committee. He wanted to name himself, Town Clerk Tracey Stevens and Gulf Stream Town Manager William Thrasher.
    “We tried to keep this simple,” Titcomb said of the panel, which will review his request for bids outlining the scope of the work and rank responses from auditing firms.
    Bonfiglio said several commissioners were qualified to do that. “I’m not real thrilled with going outside of town for the third person on this committee,” he said.
    And Lucibella urged that a town resident take Stevens’ spot on the panel. Mayor Geoff Pugh asked Bonfiglio to be the commissioner on the committee, and former Mayor Ken Kaleel volunteered to be the member of the public.
    In other business, the commission ratified a wage reopener and extension of the town’s contract with its police officers. The agreement calls for merit raises of up to 5 percent on anniversary dates and lengthened the contract one year to September 2018.
    Lucibella also asked that commissioners discuss the just-approved budget at their Nov. 7 regular meeting.
    “I think the people of the town have a right to hear a dialogue around some of the things that have been asked for, including license plate recognition cameras. We never got a chance to do any of those things,” Lucibella said.

By Willie Howard

    Sea turtles dug good numbers of nests on south Palm Beach County beaches and set a nesting record in Ocean Ridge during the 2016 season.
    But hot, dry weather is being blamed for a relatively low number of hatchlings from nests on several south county beaches.
    Preliminary, unofficial data for the nesting season that ended Oct. 31 show a record 637 turtle nests for the north end of Ocean Ridge — specifically, the 2.28-mile stretch from a quarter-mile north of Boynton Inlet south to Adams Road.
    That’s 68 more nests than in 2012, the previous record year there, said Kelly Martin, an environmental analyst for Palm Beach County.
    Martin said the nesting record was set because of a strong showing by loggerhead turtles, which dug 613 of the Ocean Ridge nests. Green turtles dug 13 nests, down from 64 last year. Leatherback turtles dug another 11 nests.
    Martin said the drop in green turtle nests was not surprising because green turtles nest every two or three years. She expects larger numbers of green turtle nests in Ocean Ridge in 2017.
    Despite the record nesting year in Ocean Ridge, the percentage of hatchlings dropped to about 66 percent, down from 73 percent last year, Martin said.
    “Many people are attributing the drop in success to the hot and dry weather we had during the first half of the season,” Martin said.
    In Boca Raton — the 5-mile stretch from Highland Beach south to the Broward County line — monitors counted 785 nests. The unofficial tally includes 729 loggerhead nests, 38 green turtle nests and 18 leatherback nests.
    The Boca Raton nesting numbers represent an above-average year for loggerhead and leatherback turtles and an off year for green turtles, said Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist for Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, who oversees sea turtle nest monitoring in Boca Raton.
    Loggerhead turtle nesting statewide has been on the rise since 2010, Rusenko said.
    Conservation measures, such as ordinances limiting lights that discourage female turtles from crawling ashore, could be responsible for the increase in loggerhead nesting. A natural cycle also could be responsible, Rusenko said.
    The bad news: Rusenko said the number of turtle hatchlings emerging from this year’s crop of eggs was well below what it should have been because of the hot, dry weather.
    The Boca Raton hatchling count of 26,685 represents a success rate of just over 42 percent, Rusenko said. The success rate should be 85 percent or better.
    “Most nests literally cooked in the sand,” Rusenko said. “There were a large number of dead, unhatched eggs.”
    Nests shaded by beach vegetation and structures fared better than those that had no sun protection, Rusenko said.
    Highland Beach nest-tracking coordinator Barbara James said the heat also affected hatchling production on the 3-mile stretch between Boca Raton and Delray Beach she checks with help from 25 helpers called “turtle rangers.”
    “We had cooked eggs for sure,” James said. “We didn’t have any rain to cool them off.”
    James said hatchling production improved after rainy weather in the late summer.
    Unofficially, between 1,200 and 1,300 turtle nests were counted in Highland Beach — about average, James said.
    Delray Beach did not release preliminary sea turtle nesting numbers for 2016. Environmental consultant Christine Perretta, who oversees nest monitoring for Delray Beach, said city officials preferred to wait for the official tally before releasing any data.
    In Gulf Stream, the 2.6-mile stretch that includes the southern part of Ocean Ridge, Gulf Stream and Gulf Stream Park produced an average number of nests.
    Coordinator Jackie Kingston said she had not produced a preliminary nesting total for the beaches she oversees, but she did not expect this year’s nest count to exceed the 968 total counted last year.

By Dan Moffett

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

By Dan Moffett

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

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

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

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

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

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

By Jane Smith and Dan Moffett

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

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

By Jane Smith

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

By Dan Moffett

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