Rob Steele, who is one year into his job as president and chief executive officer of Old School Square

in Delray Beach, stands with ‘Field of Blue’ at the square. The sculpture, unveiled in 1996,

is of a boy holding a U.S. flag and honors people in uniform.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Lucy Lazarony

    It’s been a year since Rob Steele took over as president and chief executive officer of Old School Square. He came from the 2,100-seat Williamsport Community Arts Center in Pennsylvania, where he was executive director for 10 years.
    His goal for the Delray Beach landmark and arts center was to transform it into a multidimensional arts and entertainment park.
    So how’s that working out, and what’s new this year? And what’s this we hear about moving the Christmas tree off campus? Here’s what Steele had to say during a Q&A with The Coastal Star.

    Q. What was your vision a year ago for Old School Square and what is it now? Has it changed?
    A. My vision a year ago was to evolve Old School Square into a multidimensional arts and entertainment park, and the vision has come into a clearer focus with each passing day. The first phase of landmark renovations are underway. Improvements to the landscape, buildings, lighting, and functionality of this historic campus will be the talk of the town. Rebranding the campus from the Delray Beach Center for the Arts to Old School Square has been embraced by everyone, and we believe the change will go a long way in helping our market to understand the multidisciplinary nature of our organization.
    Q. What new events can we expect in the 2016-17 performance season?
    A. In the 2016-2017 season, I would be remiss if I did not share my insider knowledge and draw your attention to a few sleeper shows: One Funny Mother, VoicePlay, Kobie Boykins, The Doo Wop Project, Shades of Bublé, the State Ballet Theatre of Russia and the Rhythmic Circus.
    Q. Are there changes/renovations to the Cornell Museum being planned? 
    A. The Cornell Art Museum is going through what can only be described as a comprehensive metamorphosis.  When the transformation is complete … I believe the Cornell Art Museum will be one of the most significant attractions in Delray Beach. By year end, the museum will have a new roof and fresh coat of paint. By the end of July 2017, the interior of the museum will have been completely transformed.
    In this landmark renovation of the Cornell Art Museum, it is our expressed intention to carry forward the intrinsic charms of a 1913 elementary schoolhouse into a unique and inviting space to enjoy visual art. We hope to leverage the good bones of this historic building … to allow the natural light from the enormous windows to shine in concert with the echoes of children’s dreams … to create an unforgettable museum experience for our guests. 
    We are committed to assuring that the space is designed and constructed to be practical and flexible to meet the present and future needs of the museum.
    Q. What can we expect in the upcoming season in the field house venue and outdoor pavilion?
    A. The Old School Square 2016-2017 season includes a number of events that will be held in the field house venue and the outdoor pavilion stage.  Acoustics in the field house have been dramatically improved, and this unique space will play host to a wide variety of acts throughout the season. Seating configurations will change to match the entertainment and the venue is absolutely charming.
    The pavilion stage affords us the opportunity to feature some larger scale acts for much larger audiences. We are very keen on making sure that people who have traditionally only visited one corner of Old School Square have the opportunity to discover everything we have to offer.
    Q. Is the city’s 100-foot Christmas tree destined to be moved from its previous location this year?
    A. We are very keen on moving the Christmas tree to the core area of the Old School Square Park by December 2017. The construction/erection process of building the Christmas tree lasts at least two months and the site is, well, unsightly during much of the construction. The precise location has not yet been determined. It will be located in the green area, which is directly south of the parking garage. This is the space where the green market is on Saturdays.
    Q. What have you enjoyed most in your first year as president and chief executive officer at Old School Square?
    A. I am truly very blessed to work with such a talented and committed staff and board of directors. They have embraced change and redoubled their already dizzying efforts to advance the mission of Old School Square.

By Jane Smith

    City homeowners will enjoy a slight reduction in next year’s property tax rate under a $110 million budget passed on Sept. 20.
    A Delray Beach owner of a home valued at $550,000 with a $50,000 homestead exemption will pay $50 less in property taxes next year under the plan.
    The current property tax rate is $7.06 per $1,000 in property value, and for the next budget year the rate will slide to $6.96 per $1,000. The tax rate needed for debt service also fell slightly, to 25 cents.
    The assessed value used for the debt service is $3.3 million higher than the $8.8 billion value used for the operating budget. The difference comes from the tax exemptions the city gives for improvements on historic properties. The exemptions apply only to the city’s operating budget.
    Even so, at $6.96 per $1,000 in property valuation, the proposed tax rate is higher than the rollback rate of $6.53 per $1,000 by 6.36 percent. At the rollback rate, the same amount of property tax revenue would be generated as during the prior budget year.
    Two commissioners, Mitch Katz and Shelly Petrolia, wanted to reduce property taxes even more.
    Katz worked with the city manager to devise a plan to reduce the tax rate another 0.1 percent. The city coffers were strong in August, allowing Delray Beach to pay in cash for two fire engines needed and passing the $300,000 saving to property owners.
    But City Manager Don Cooper did not recommend changing the budget. He wanted to keep the money in his contingency budget for emergency expenses.
    The two other commissioners and the mayor agreed.
    “We gave marching orders to our staff in October at the goal-setting session,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said. “If those sessions are to have any meaning, we need to stand behind our staff.”
    He also asked his colleagues to remember the need for revenue when the parking meters expansion comes up next year. “That is a game changer that doesn’t penalize residents in the way property taxes do,” he said. “You want to park for convenience, you pay for convenience.”
    The commission also took the following actions:
    • Approved historic property tax exemptions for improvements on three historic homes: a 1937 frame vernacular-style single-family home in the Marina Historic District, a 1941 single-family home in the Nassau Park Historic District and a 1950 ranch-style single-family home in the Nassau Park Historic District.
    The exemptions are for the improvements and last 10 years regardless of who owns the property.
    • Renewed an agreement with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that calls for a city police officer to work on a DEA Task Force to disrupt the illegal narcotics traffic in South Florida. The city will pay for the officer’s salary, benefits and overtime.
The DEA, subject to availability of money, will pay up to $17,753 in overtime.
    • Approved purchase of 65 bulletproof vests for fire-rescue personnel to use in the event of a mass shooting.
The vests, at a cost not to exceed $79,000, will be purchased from Municipal Emergency Services Inc. at the state’s contract price.
    • Approved stainless steel showers and drinking fountains made by Most Dependable Fountains as the city standard and approved purchasing them for the beach master plan in an amount not to exceed $138,000.
    • Agreed to pay $200,000 to Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. consultants to determine whether the city’s streets and sidewalks are wheelchair accessible.

By Jane Smith

    When Delray Beach passed the final version of its special events policy, no residents tried to sway the City Commission to vote for or against it.
    “You won’t get a lot of people coming out to speak about it,” said Commissioner Shelly Petrolia. “But if you don’t do what they want, they will vote against you.”
    The commission chamber was calm on Sept. 20 compared with the raucous scene in June when teens wearing dance or band uniforms pleaded to save the Garlic Fest. During the festival, they earn money that allows them to pay for outfits needed to participate in the Atlantic High School band or jazz dance team.
    Garlic Fest has since found a new home in a county park that will allow it to be larger but still gated.
    The same organizer hosts the Wine and Seafood Fest for November and the Bacon and Bourbon Fest in March. They were canceled when faced with increased costs and short lead time.
    Two crafts festivals, run by promoter Howard Alan Events, also were canceled because of increased costs. But the organization kept its fine arts festival that shuts down East Atlantic Avenue over a January weekend.
    Faced with increased public safety expenses related to the addiction crisis, Delray Beach is trying to recoup the costs of city services for special events. Its Finance Department devised a way to calculate the true costs, including staff time for public safety workers that covers hourly wages, benefits, overtime and pensions.
    Most private promoters saw at least a doubling of their costs. To offset the sticker shock, the City Commission agreed to phase in the costs over three years.
    For nonprofit events, such as the AVDA 5K/10K run, city commissioners will consider providing in-kind security services so that most of the money raised can go to the organization.
    AVDA is Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse. By supporting the runs, the city also will help promote healthy activities, said Commissioner Jordana Jarjura.
    “When you boil this down to those not benefiting by the events, residents and business owners, they appreciate the reduction,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said.
    The policy was approved by a 4-1 vote, with Commissioner Mitch Katz voting no.

By Jane Smith

    City leaders and railroad officials want to prevent another pedestrian from dying while illegally cutting across the tracks in downtown Delray Beach.
    In early August, a woman left Johnny Brown’s on Atlantic and took a well-used shortcut across the FEC tracks. She was killed by a southbound freight train.
    The group met in early September to discuss the situation and the need for pedestrian barriers in the four blocks north and four blocks south of Atlantic Avenue.
    “It was a very productive meeting,” said Mayor Cary Glickstein. “They are open to just anything.”
    The city wants pedestrian barriers installed in time for the expected start next summer of the Brightline express passenger rail service between Miami and West Palm Beach. Brightline trains will reach up to 79 mph between the two cities. There is no estimate for the number of trains passing through Delray Beach in this phase.
    The second phase, which will end in Orlando, will feature 32 trips daily.
    The city’s engineers will bring design proposals to the City Commission workshop in January. The group may meet before then, Glickstein said, “subject to how well we can generate a feasible, responsible strategy. The ball is in our court.”
    The county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization head, Nick Uhren, attended the group meeting. A week later, he told his board of elected officials that Delray Beach is taking the lead and working with Brightline and FEC to prevent another tragedy.
    “The MPO would walk alongside them and share the information with coastal communities,” Uhren said.
    The barriers also please Delray Beach safety advocate Patrick Halliday. As vice chairman of Human Powered Delray, he pressed for them.
    “I made an issue out of it,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that we have to have something terrible happen before we wake up.”
    A check with city police showed no citations or warnings issued to pedestrians for trespassing along the FEC rail lines near Atlantic Avenue for the first eight months of this year and the first eight months of 2015. It’s possible that pedestrians may have been cited or warned because the city Police Department keeps records by street names and not the FEC lines, said its spokeswoman.
    The types of barrier were not decided at the group meeting. The barriers could be as elaborate as fence with landscaping or done for a lower cost where the railroad owns most of the land.
    “There are examples in West Palm Beach by the courthouse where a mature bougainvillea hedge is enough of a deterrent,” Glickstein said.
    “Most people do not realize much of the paved roadway between the west side of the tracks, just north of Atlantic — where the recent accident occurred — and the commercial establishments are within the FEC right of way,” he said.
    All Aboard Florida, the precursor to Brightline, is working with the city as it “determines the next steps and preferred improvements,” said Ali Soule, All Aboard spokeswoman.
    She provided its track maps to the city’s Environmental Services Department for engineers to use to determine where the pedestrian barriers can sit.
    “They prefer us to stay off of their land,” said John Morgan, head of Environmental Services. “But they are open to it if we can show them it can’t be done otherwise.”
    Morgan also said they discussed having a Volpe Center study done in Delray Beach, similar to the one finished two years ago in West Palm Beach. Volpe leaders reviewed trespasser incidents along two railroads from 2009 to 2013 in the city and made recommendations about what to do to prevent pedestrians and bicyclists from trespassing.
    Delray Beach does not have the time to do the study, Morgan said, if it wants the barriers in place for the start of the Brightline service. His staff will review the Volpe recommendations and use the best ideas for Delray Beach.
    The Volpe Center, named for former Secretary of Transportation John Volpe, is the research arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
    Later this year, a Brightline train will be tested between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, after the repair facility is finished in West Palm Beach, Soule said.
    Who will pay for the barriers is to be determined. It could be the city, its Community Redevelopment Agency, grants through the MPO, federal grants or a combination of the sources, Glickstein said. A legislative aide from U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel’s office attended the group meeting.
    Florida ranked second last year for trespasser deaths along rail lines nationwide. Operation Lifesaver, a nonprofit public safety organization based in Virginia, works to raise awareness of the dangers of being near the tracks, said Libby Rector Snipe, communications director.
    Its “See Tracks? Think Train” national campaign has radio and TV public service announcements designed to prevent trespassing along the rail lines. In Florida, the organization ran an anti-selfie digital ad in April. The ad was geared to teens and young adults about the dangers of taking selfies along the tracks, Rector Snipe said.
    Soule agreed about the importance of safety.
    “All Aboard Florida is working on a comprehensive plan to educate all communities along the corridor about the importance of train safety,” she said.

A complex of 14 three-story townhomes is being proposed for the vacant 1.5-acre parcel

on the south side of Briny Breezes Boulevard.

Photo from Google Maps

By Jane Smith
    
    The small oceanfront parcel that once housed the Pelican Apartments along the informal Dog Beach could become the spot for 14 three-story townhomes, with construction to start next year.
    One of the landowners, Joseph Basile Sr., said representatives from 30 Ocean met with the county zoning staff in June to see whether they could revive plans from 2005.
    “We are just going through the process,” Basile said on Sept. 23. “We are not asking for any approvals, so there won’t be public hearings.” He estimated it would take another six to nine months to receive the permits needed to start work on the site, which is 1.5 acres, according to the county Property Appraiser’s website.
    But the potential owner’s land-use law firm, Dunay Miskel and Backman of Boca Raton, estimates the property size at 1.98 acres with 16 townhomes allowed. The parcel was approved for 12 townhomes and the potential landowner wants to build 14 townhomes. Sitting in a county pocket east of Ocean Boulevard, the parcel is bordered to the north by the mobile-home community of Briny Breezes.
    James Arena, a Briny Breezes resident and Boynton Beach real estate broker, said he can’t imagine someone building high-end townhomes without getting control of a segment of Old Ocean Boulevard that splits the east side of the parcel, leaving a sliver along the beachfront.
    “Maybe as they start going through the process, they will see they really need the road,” Arena said.
    But using Old Ocean Boulevard was never part of the plans, Basile said recently.
    However, in spring 2014, he met with the Villas of Malibu owners in the county pocket and discussed the abandonment of Old Ocean and the eastern half of Seaview Avenue.
    If the landowner follows the county zoning code and doesn’t request any waivers or roads to be abandoned, the project can be approved administratively without public hearings, according to Maryann Kwok, deputy zoning director.
    She said as many as 16 county agencies will have to review the application after it’s submitted. One-third of the project’s land sits east of the state’s coastal construction line. Any buildings erected there would have to be approved by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
    The 30 Ocean land-use law firm submitted a pre-application letter for a contract purchaser, Guardianship Properties LLC, which is not active, according to state records. They show the company listed Daniel Azel as president. He also is president of the Miami construction firm Andale Group.
    Azel could not be reached for comment by press time.

By Jane Smith

    The head of the Community Redevelopment Agency was handed her walking papers when its board members voted 3-2 to not renew her annual contract.
    A small, loyal group of Boynton Beach residents spoke in support of Vivian Brooks’ remaining the executive director at the agency’s Sept. 13 meeting.
    Again, Woodrow Hay and James “Buck” Buchanan told the CRA board members to look inside themselves because they might not have given her clear direction about what they wanted. They were removed from the CRA board in a reorganization after they expressed that opinion last year.
    “It’s not Vivian Brooks who makes the decisions; it’s you guys on the dais who make the decisions,” said Hay, a former mayor. “She gives you recommendations and you can either go with them or turn them down.”
    Her last day was Sept. 30. Brooks made $130,169 annually and had a $3,000 car allowance. The next day, Assistant CRA Director Michael Simon became interim director until a replacement is hired. That could take up to six months, according to the city manager.
    Brooks said she was saddened by the vote, but thanked the public for its support.
    Her departure comes at a critical time for Boynton Beach. The CRA is revising plans for the entire district to promote connection between the areas and point out where increased height and density can be. The City Commission will take the final vote on the plan in October. The changes will shape the city’s eastern half for the next 20 years.
    Residents agreed with many of the changes, but not the increased height at the intersection of Federal Highway and Woolbright Road. Three of the four corners recently were redeveloped.
    Some residents think  the plan update was done specifically for Riverwalk Plaza at the southeast corner. The new plan allows up to 10 stories, which coincides with what Riverwalk’s owner wants to build there — a 10-story apartment complex. The current zoning and land-use plan allow only seven stories.
    Last year, Brooks survived when Commissioner Joe Casello wanted to remove her as CRA head. He was able to change the composition of the board to elected officials only, removing Hay and Buchanan as independent members.
    Casello said he was disappointed in her performance this year and rated it 2.75 on a scale of 1 to 4. He agreed Brooks is the “consummate professional,” but cited her shortcomings as not sharing complete information and difficulty in taking a leadership role.
    He persuaded a new commissioner and the new mayor to vote with him this year.
    Commissioner Justin Katz wants to see who else is out there and willing to apply. He gave Brooks’ performance a 2.5.
    Mayor Steven Grant said he was elected in March on a change platform and didn’t think that Brooks was responsive to what the residents want. He also said she is not the best negotiator for the CRA.
    In addition, when he would ask what type of conditions would be possible on a property, her response of “anything you like” was not specific enough for him. “She should have recognized that this is my first time working through such contracts,” the mayor said.
    Brooks was in her 12th year at the agency. She had served as its executive director since April 2011.
    Grant wants to see more development and reduced crime in the Heart of Boynton, where he lives. He wants to save the old high school that is on the city’s registry of historic places, but Brooks doesn’t share that interest with him, Grant said. He rated her performance a 2.
    Vice Mayor Mack McCray, among the three board members last year who wanted to replace Brooks, has since changed his mind and rated her performance a 3.5.
    “We have not given her the proper direction of what we want to do and when we can arrive,” he said. He advised the “newbies” on the board to work with her for at least a year before doing an evaluation. “Her performance is not the problem. … You don’t like her style, we all have our shortcomings.”
    New Commissioner Christina Romelus was in favor of extending Brooks’ contract for another year. She received a 3 rating from Romelus, who said, “Brooks needs to build a better relationship with the public.” Romelus also chided Brooks for giving personal opinions along with the facts.
    Casello wanted to extend her contract for six months while advertising for her position. Brooks declined what she called a “generous” offer.
    She became emotional on the dais.
    “I want to say to the public: These guys up here can’t make me cry, but you guys can make me cry,” she said. “Your support and working with you has meant everything to me. This has been a very unfortunate political environment that you have to live with and I’m sorry for you.”
    Resident Harry Woodworth, who spoke at the meeting in support of Brooks, said, “It’s a sad day in Boynton Beach. Now we’ll see development for development’s sake.”  
    Also at the meeting, the CRA board members agreed to:
    • Extend the completion time for the Little House to convert into a restaurant, Fork Play. The new date is Feb. 28, 2017. The extra two months will allow time to enclose the porch so that it can be air-conditioned.
    • Increase rental rates for annual tenants at the city’s marina from $16 a linear foot to $18, a 12.5 percent increase. The last time rental rates increased was in 2012. While the access road is torn up in October, tenants will not have to pay rent. They still will have a 20 percent discount on fuel purchased at the marina.

By Dan Moffett

    South Palm Beach residents are going to have to wait longer for their long-awaited beach stabilization project to begin.
    Mayor Bonnie Fischer said county project planners have told her work on the town’s beaches won’t begin before November 2018, a delay of a year from the target start date.
    Fischer said the problem is that the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa has decided not to participate in the project, according to county environmental officials, who told her the hotel worried about allowing heavy equipment on the beach during tourist season. With the hotel out, planners will have to submit new permit requests to state and federal agencies, a process that typically takes months.
    Fischer said engineers likely also will have to redesign the project, relocating the seven concrete groins that are to be installed to capture sand. The work now will stop at the southern boundary of Lantana Municipal Beach.
    “We’re going on 10 years with this now and we just got another delay,” she said. “Sand does not stay within political boundaries. Municipalities really need to work together. Unfortunately, with Eau Palm Beach out, we’ve got a little issue where they’re not interested in working together.”
    The resort was the only private commercial enterprise in the project’s half-mile footprint. The town of Manalapan has no public beaches and is not included in the stabilization plan.
    Michael King, the Eau’s managing director, said the resort was “never really part of the project” and had environmental concerns.
    “We thought the groins were not good for the southern coastline because they would be disrupting the natural flow of sand to the south,” he said.
    Town Manager Bob Vitas criticized county officials for failing to communicate with the project’s prospective participants. Vitas and Fischer have worked for months to line up easements for construction with condo associations and homeowners. Now much of that likely will have to be redone, Vitas says.
    “You would have thought that this county and its environmental management agency department would have reached out long ago to the folks at the Eau and got this thing taken care of before we jumped through all those hoops,” he said. “And now we have a 12-month delay and that translates into 12 months of cost. That’s not anything that this town is responsible for. This delay is truly not ours. It is the county’s delay.”
    The $5 million plan for stabilizing South Palm Beach’s shore is built on a partnership among governments that have committed to split the bill: The federal government will pay half of the project, the county 30 percent from its tourism bed tax, and the town the remaining 20 percent.
    In other business, council members awarded a $34,300 contract to Alexis Knight Architects of West Palm Beach to study and report on possible Town Hall improvements by the end of the year.
    Vitas said the cost is about half what the town was prepared to pay. Alexis Knight will determine how the town might remodel its building and use space better.

By Dan Moffett

    Two coastally iconic Manalapan businesses that were headed for the wrecking ball to make way for a new Publix at Plaza del Mar are planning to relocate soon in larger spaces at the center.
    Manalapan Italian Cuisine, with its Basil Bar and Grill, is moving to the west end of the plaza, near Thaikyo Asian restaurant in a storefront formerly occupied by Guido the Tailor.
    Owner Earl Bass says the new pizza eatery will be called Basil.
    “We’re going to keep it simple,” Bass said of the name change. “There will be seating for 132, compared to the 79 seats we now have.  It’s one huge room that will all flow together with outdoor seating and a bar with twice as many seats.”
    Relocating next door to the new Basil restaurant is Palm Beach Travel, which also is moving into a bigger unit with 2,200 square feet, compared with the business’ current 750-foot store. Owner Annie Davis says she intends to be open by early October and also will run an art gallery, Palm Beach Art and Travel, in the adjacent space.
    “We’re really excited,” Davis said. “The plaza has been great, and our clients have been very supportive, but we’ll be glad to get this behind us.”
    At the other end of the plaza near State Road A1A, Pedro Maldonado is about to move his Jewelry Artisans business into space alongside Evelyn & Arthur Clothing & Gifts. Maldonado said Evelyn & Arthur will downsize by half and turn over the eastern side of the unit to the jewelry store.
    “A miracle happened,” said Maldonado, who has had his shop at the same plaza location for nearly three decades. “I was freaking out wondering what we were going to do. Then this came as a surprise at the last minute.”
    Maldonado said Fred Weissman, the president and chief financial officer of Evelyn & Arthur, approached him and offered about 2,100 square feet of the boutique’s space, roughly twice what the jeweler has now.
    “I thought he was joking with me,” Maldonado said. “We’ll be visible from the road now and have people walking over from the Eau (Palm Beach Resort & Spa). It’s an unexpected positive thing for us.”
    Both Basil and Jewelry Artisans hope to have their rebuilt businesses up and running before the end of October. Bass and Maldonado said Kitson & Partners, the plaza’s landlord, agreed to help pay for some of the relocation expenses.
    Bass, who owns the restaurant with his wife, artist Hedy McDonald, thinks the new location will improve the business’ visibility.
    “You’ll be able to see us from the road,” Bass said. “We’ve been buried for four years where we are now.”
    He said Basil will keep its popular karaoke shows and add Motown and blues acts for the weekend. Bass said he is overhauling the menu, adding more fish entrees. Pizza will remain a signature dish.
    Maldonado says neighboring with the Evelyn & Arthur could be good for his jewelry business and the fashion boutique: “We may be able to bring customers to each other.”
    The jeweler said a friend of his next door at the plaza’s Chabad of South Palm Beach gave him some words of encouragement weeks ago that seem to have come true.
    “The Chabad lady said that sometimes good things can come from something bad,” he said. “Maybe that’s what’s happening to us.”

By Dan Moffett

    During a contentious three-hour budget meeting, South Palm Beach council members decided to give residents a small dose of tax relief — roughly $40 per homeowner next year.
    But the decision comes with consequences. The town runs the risk of having to dip into its reserves to avoid going into the red in 2017, and the dispute over taxes has strained relations among council members.
    A heated debate erupted between Councilwoman Stella Gaddy Jordan and Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello during a Sept. 8 hearing that was scheduled to be a formality during which the council would rubber-stamp budget numbers already debated.
    Late in the night, Jordan proposed cutting the tentatively approved tax rate for 2017 from $4.3174 — the rate the town has had for the last half-dozen years — to a figure halfway to the rollback rate of $3.938 that would hold tax revenues flat. Jordan’s idea was to allow an increase in homeowners’ net taxes but only half as much an increase as the council had previously agreed on.
    “It’s not that sufficient of an amount that it will make a big deal,” Jordan said, pointing to the loss of about $54,000 in tax revenues the town would incur.
    Flagello vehemently disagreed. He said it was reckless for the council to deviate from the steady fiscal approach that had gotten the town through some hard economic times. Flagello said it was premature to count on revenues that might come from a proposed 1-cent county sales tax on the November ballot, or from the development of the old Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn site.
    “I think there’s a 70 percent chance that the sales tax is not going to pass,” Flagello said. “We’re always talking about how we’re being fiscally conservative. Now at this moment we’ve decided to move away from that policy. Doing a rollback rate in the future is something I totally agree with, but we’re deciding to go away from our fiscally conservative ways for about $40 a person.”
    Flagello said it was too early to dip into the tax windfall that could come from the Oceanfront Inn project: “We should pick the fruit when it’s ripe. It’s not ripe yet.”
    Jordan argued that the town’s budget and the economy were healthy enough to finish in the black: “I’m confident next year we’ll have an overage in revenue. I’m sure of it.”
    Jordan said she believed the reduction wouldn’t have a significant impact on capital projects, including plans for improvements to the Town Hall and pedestrian lighting.
    The council agreed with Jordan, voting 4-1 against Flagello to approve a lower rate of $4.13 per $1,000 of taxable property value, halfway between the rollback rate of $3.94 and the current $4.32.

By Mary Thurwachter

    For the fifth time this year, Lantana’s Municipal Beach was slapped with a no-swimming advisory because of high bacteria levels.
    In tests administered by the Palm Beach County Health Department on Sept. 19, bacteria levels were in the “poor range,” showing 740 enterococcus CFU (colony-forming units) per 100 milliliters. The “poor” range is 71 or greater enterococcus CFU. A good rating is 35 enterococcus per 100 milliliters of marine water; moderate is 36-70. Enterococci are bacteria that normally inhabit the intestinal tracts of humans and animals.
The no-swimming advisory was lifted three days later, when tests showed the water to be in the good range again.
    “The Department of Health along with our partners at the Department of Environmental Protection are looking at all possible sources of the high contamination levels at Lantana Beach,” said Tim O’Connor, county Health Department public information officer. “So far nothing conclusive has been found.”
    O’Connor said 13 beaches from Boca Raton to Jupiter are tested regularly. All the other beaches in Palm Beach County (including Lake Worth and Ocean Inlet Park) tested on Sept. 19 were in the “good” range.
    Causes of the elevated level could be associated with heavy recreational usage, wildlife, high surf and high tides or runoff after heavy rains, O’Connor said.
    Swimmers can check beach water quality at www.palmbeach.floridahealth.gov and click on Beach Water Sampling.

Related story: Chiefs express concern for first responders’ mental health

By Jane Smith

    The addiction crisis in Delray Beach has affected every city department within the past year. Police and fire-rescue workers have seen the most direct effect because of their role in responding to overdoses, City Manager Don Cooper says.
    To a lesser extent, staffers from community improvement and parks and recreation have to deal with the results of the addiction crisis, he said.
    Two drug users overdosed in the Veterans Park bathrooms in the past year. Parks maintenance workers “keep an approved container for sharps/needles in their maintenance trucks,” said Suzanne Fisher, parks and recreation director. Once the container is filled, the employee takes the container to the Fire Department for replacement with an empty one. “Some parks/crews drop off their container more frequently than others,” Fisher said.
    Most of the increased costs go to pay for more public safety officers and Narcan, a medication that blocks the high from heroin and other opioids. The police and fire departments account for 61 percent of the city’s budget, leaving other departments with less-immediate needs to wait, the city manager said.
    From Jan. 1 through the morning of Sept. 7 this year, the Fire-Rescue Department administered 1,115 doses of Narcan, ranging from a single 0.4 mg dose to multiple doses up to 10 mg, said Fire Chief Neal de Jesus.
    The department buys its Narcan through a cooperative arrangement with the Boynton Beach Fire- Rescue Department, de Jesus said.
    Through Sept. 7, Delray Beach Fire-Rescue has spent $29,662.50 on Narcan. The department estimated it had $5,000 worth of the medication in stock, he said.
    De Jesus said Narcan is not the only expense on the overdose calls. Rescue workers also use breathing masks, IV lines and other disposable items.
    He doesn’t know of any rescue personnel who sought assistance in dealing with the stress from the increase in overdoses. The department offers counseling through a paid city benefit, an early assistance program. But the program is confidential and names are not revealed, he said.
    The department is taking a proactive approach to dealing with the addiction crisis and working to create critical incident stress debriefing training. The city program would provide the initial counseling and referral, as necessary, de Jesus said. A county program is available on request, he said.
    “The addiction crisis has played a role in the call volume increase we are experiencing,” de Jesus said.
    The City Commission approved hiring eight new firefighters/paramedics, totaling $697,060, for the new budget year. The extra staff will respond to overdoses and help by adding a third person at the busiest fire stations, he said. That would allow reduced response times, faster turnaround and in-service times at local hospitals, allow the second unit to be kept in the zone and have less wear and tear on the fire apparatus.
    The 412 overdose calls as of Sept. 7 tied up fire-rescue staff for more than 309 hours, or nearly 13 days, including hospital wait times, according to the department.
    To transport an overdose patient to a hospital, the department charges $12 a mile. “As of this date we have billed $777,703.60 and collected $151,033.60 leaving an unpaid balance of $626,670,” de Jesus said on Sept. 20. The city also will seek legislative approval to allow a lien for the unpaid amount to be placed on the sober home or treatment center.
    Ocean-rescue lifeguards, who are part of the Fire-Rescue Department, find syringes and other drug use items on the beach weekly, said Phil Wotton, ocean-rescue supervisor. Those items are not tracked by ocean-rescue.
    His lifeguards have never administered Narcan and the division’s auto-injection Narcan supply recently expired. Wotton is waiting for new direction from the Fire Department. His lifeguards may have to use the Narcan in the upcoming budget year, he predicts.
    For the Community Improvement Department, staff is restricted in what it can say or do by federal housing and disability laws that protect sober homes, said Assistant Director Janet Meeks.
    A part-time rental housing inspector who works 29 hours weekly in the department said earlier this year that he spends most of his time inspecting sober homes. He’s a retired police lieutenant who earns $18.89 per hour.
    Police officers used Narcan 65 times from March 1 through Aug. 31, according to department data. The department received that medication from the Delray Beach Drug Task Force and the city’s Fire-Rescue Department with purchases paid for by grants.
    As of Aug. 31, 433 drug users overdosed in the city, compared with 93 for the same period in 2015, according to department data. Three hundred sixty overdosed on heroin this year through Aug. 31, resulting in 31 deaths.
    Officers who respond to the overdoses are offered counseling through the city’s early assistance program.
    “Of course it’s disheartening to see what sometimes seems like a string of unending overdoses, but as always, they are doing everything they can to ensure public safety,” said Chief Jeff Goldman. “The city does offer services and they are spoken about to the officers. We don’t know who has gone or been seen. This is all confidential information.”
    City police officers also respond to crimes connected to addiction when a drug user might break into a vehicle or steal a purse for items that can be pawned in order to feed a drug habit. The department has no way of tracking these types of crimes; they are listed under the general categories of vehicle burglary, larceny, etc. “We can’t even run all the calls we’ve responded to at recovery homes because those addresses aren’t technically known to us,” Goldman said.
    To help with the addiction crisis, the Police Department has a pilot program using the services of the Guardian Recovery Network to persuade drug users who overdose to go back into treatment or return home. The data collected show a 20 percent success rate, according to Dani Moschella, department spokeswoman.
    The department will use that data to justify hiring a licensed clinical social worker to function as the service population advocate to help drug users who overdose, along with homeless people and people with mental health problems.
    The city approved hiring four officers in the budget year starting Oct. 1. That hiring is part of the department’s strategic plan to return to 170 sworn officers. “Officers are needed to handle all types of calls, including those related to the recovery community,” Goldman said.
     If Delray Beach was not burdened by the addiction crisis, “officers would still be responding to and investigating other crimes,” he said, “but our employees would not be spread so thin.”

High costs of treatment
Delray Beach paramedics responded to 412 overdose calls this year as of Sept. 7.  The charts give an approximate breakdown of the costs for each. The amount of Narcan given is an average. One dose or multiple doses up to 10 mg may be used. The costs do not include department personnel or vehicles, which vary from call to call.

Suspected OD with possible respiratory arrest

       Item                                                        Cost
Narcan (3 doses at $36.50 each)                 $109.50
Mucosal atomizer device                                  $6.50
IV (catheter, start kit, flush, extension)      $115.50
Bag valve mask                                                  $16.50
Miscellaneous supplies                                   $30
          Total                                                         $278
 
Cardiac arrest in suspected OD with respiratory arrest

       Item                                                     Cost
Respiratory arrest (all items above)           $278                 
Lucas II suction cup                                          $45
Defib pads                                                           $32
Thomas endotracheal tube lock                    $4
Endotracheal tube                                              $2
Suction catheter                                                  $1.50
Suction container                                              $18
Epinephrine (3 doses at $6 each)                  $18  

          Total                                                           $398.50
 
Source: Delray Beach Fire Rescue Department

By Jane Smith

    Consideration for the mental health of first responders in the heroin epidemic is being voiced by their chiefs in the South County.
    At a U.S. attorney’s town hall meeting called to build awareness of the exponential increase in heroin and opioid overdoses, Boca Raton Police Chief Dan Alexander said he is concerned about the impact on his staff.
    “Each one of the cases is an individual,” Alexander said. He said Boca Raton police responded to 80 overdoses this year and witnessed 10 fatalities, far fewer than in other South Florida cities.
    Alexander participated on the law enforcement panel along with Delray Beach Police Chief Jeff Goldman. Delray Beach police saw 465 overdoses and 45 fatalities this year as of Aug. 31, according to Police Department data. Most of the overdoses and fatalities involved heroin.
    Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg moderated the panel. He is leading a Sober Homes Task Force designed to weed out rogue opertors by strengthening laws and making recommendations to the 2017 Florida Legislature.
    In April, Danielle O’Connor, who was then Delray Beach fire chief, told the City Commission about the rise in overdose calls and their effects.
    “We are running on 10 to 12 overdoses a day. Sometimes the same person will overdose three days in a row,” she said. “We had a death this morning. It takes a toll on my personnel.”
    But the depth of the emotional toll is not clear because counseling sessions, a benefit offered by cities, are confidential.
    To address the mental health issues, Jeff Dill, a 26-year firefighter veteran who is a mental health counselor, started the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance in Arizona.
    Each fire-rescue person has an individual emotional response to an overdose, Dill said by phone. “It depends on what is going in your life at that moment. If it is one (overdose) after another, the fire-rescue person could be blasé. Or it could be traumatic for someone who lost a friend or a family member to a heroin overdose.”
    His 5-year-old organization offers workshops about stress on the job that leads to anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Workshops also cover suicide prevention.
    “There’s cultural brainwashing when you are trained to be a medic,” Dill said. The training often neglects the behavioral side, he said.
    Dill also tracks and verifies suicides by firefighters. As of Sept. 15, he had verified 91 suicides nationally, compared with 131 for 2015. He estimates he finds out about 40 percent of the suicides.
    Police officers also can have emotional responses to overdose calls, said Debra Lynn Weiss, a licensed mental health counselor at the University of Florida.
    “Does the officer have a ritual after arriving home — take a shower or go for a run?” Weiss said. “Do they have supportive family and friends?”
    The frequency of overdose calls definitely takes an emotional toll and it can affect relationships, she said.
    The problems could show in trouble falling or staying asleep, having nightmares, avoiding the overdose calls and increased edginess, said Weiss, who served two years as victim advocate for the UF police force.
    “If alcohol or pot was a coping mechanism, its use could increase,” Weiss said.

By Mary Thurwachter

    Developers for Water Tower Commons received approval from the Lantana Town Council for several changes to the commercial plan for the 72-acre retail and residential project at the old A.G. Holley State Hospital site. But they’ll need to add something new to their proposal, as well — art.
    The call for public art came from Mayor Dave Stewart, who said at the Sept. 12 town meeting that he had recently “been educated on the benefits of art in public places.” He said he learned that developments with public art are more sustainable and attract good businesses and good residents.
    “I don’t want Norman Rockwell and stuff that costs a million, but I’d sure feel more comfortable having public art around there,” he said.
    Stewart’s suggestion was well received, although council member Lynn Moorhouse wondered if public art would translate to anything resembling The Siren, that well-endowed mermaid statue once commissioned as a work of art for Wellington.
    Moorhouse’s remark drew laughs. So did the tongue-in-cheek suggestion from Dave Thatcher, the town’s development services director, that a large statue of Mayor Stewart be added to the mix.
    The Water Tower Commons development team will need to come up with a proposal on art, and Town Manager Deborah Manzo was directed to work with the team. She was charged with the final thumbs up or down on public art on the site.
    The outline of changes for the commercial plan was presented by Sandra J. Megrue, of Urban Design Kilday Studios, who works for Lantana Development, a partnership between Southeast Legacy, headed by Kenco Communities’ Ken Endelson, and Wexford Capital, which owns the land just east of I-95 off Lantana Road.
    Requested changes included reducing the commercial area from 36.5 acres to 32.76 acres, reducing the commercial square footage from 270,111 to 231,150 and adding a Water Tower Park and a traffic circle.
    Reducing the commercial area was necessary in part to meet green space requirements and add parking spots, developers said.
    Another plan change will mean adding a sign or two on the 127-foot water tower that will read “Water Tower Commons.” A public park will be fashioned around the water tower. Planners had second thoughts about a water feature for the project’s main street in their original drawings. They want to replace it with landscaping to give it less of a country club entrance vibe.
    Stewart told developers he wants to see a top-scale development and would be looking at this first phase to see evidence of that. “Please don’t stub your toe because you might fall,” Stewart warned.
    Water Tower Commons is expected to create 700 new, permanent jobs and generate $13 million in new tax revenue for Lantana during the next 20 years. The commercial phase is expected to last about 18 months, followed by the residential phase.
    A.G. Holley hospital was built in the early 1950s on state-owned land and sold in 2014 for $15.6 million to Lantana Development.

By Mary Thurwachter

    The Lantana Town Council postponed for one month a vote on a request for a change to a shared parking agreement for Love Lantana Point properties at 201-239 E. Ocean Ave.
    Tom Prakas, manager for Love Lantana Point since April 1, asked the town at its Sept. 26 meeting for a modification to a shared parking agreement the town had previously made for one of the properties, Mario’s restaurant at 225 E. Ocean Ave.
    Prakas said he wanted to reconfigure the parking spaces on the 200 block of Ocean Avenue and to jointly use the town-owned Third Street parking lot currently leased by Mario’s owner Henry Olmino.
    “We could use that lot for my tenants (commercial and retail) during the day,” Prakas said. Mario’s is open only after 5 p.m. for dinner.
Prakas said he has storefronts to rent and first needs to address parking requirements.
    “We’re deficient seven spots,” he said. “Without those seven spaces for parking I have to leave retail spaces dark. Those spaces need to have the lights on.”
    Prakas said his properties have 44 spaces not including the 24-34 he said could be added by co-leasing the Third Street lot with Olmino.
    Mario’s requires 43 parking spaces but has only 15 in its own lot. Love Lantana Point owns three adjacent parcels and has 28 shared parking spaces, which can be used by Mario’s customers. Mario’s also offers valet parking to customers.
    Olmino said he was in favor of sharing the Third Street parking lot with Prakas. Olmino leased the lot a year ago for employees but hasn’t needed it. “I don’t think we put a car on it all year,” he said. “Most of my employees walk, bus or bicycle.”
    Council members questioned how many parking spaces Love Lantana Point really has.
    “I like your concept, your idea, but I don’t think there are 44 spots over there,” said council member Lynn Moorhouse, who also said he didn’t think the town could legally enter into an agreement to share the Third Street lot.
    “I’ve never been comfortable with shared parking,” Mayor Dave Stewart said. “Before I can have a level of comfort with this, I’d need to see a survey to show this (parking) meets the requirements … and for Third Street, absolutely not without getting neighbors on board
    The council, at Prakas’ request, will revisit the shared parking modification request at its Oct. 24 meeting.

Members of the Marine Animal Rescue Society wrestle with the body

of a deep-water beaked whale that had beached itself in Gulf Stream.

Michelle Quigley/The Coastal Star

By Willie Howard

    A deep-water beaked whale beached itself in Gulf Stream on Sept. 18, marking the third reported beaching of a beaked whale along Florida’s east coast during September.
    When Marine Animal Rescue Society volunteers responded around 4:30 p.m. that Sunday, they found the whale dead on the beach.
    The response team was unable to reach that section of beach near the Gulf Stream Golf Club with a truck to haul the whale’s carcass away for examination, so they left it in the surf.
    Blair Mase, marine mammal stranding coordinator for NOAA in Miami, planned a necropsy on the beach for the morning of Sept. 19 to search for clues to the whale’s demise.
    But when the examination team arrived in Gulf Stream that morning, the whale was gone, apparently swept out to sea by the tide.
    The next morning (Sept. 20), sea turtle nest monitors found the whale’s mutilated carcass washing up on the beach just north of the Gulf Stream Bath & Tennis Club.
   They secured the whale’s decomposing carcass with a piece of rope tied to stakes in the sand until a MARS volunteer could come to the beach to extract skin and blubber samples, used to positively identify the species.
    MARS volunteers usually measure the length of beached whales, but Mase said this whale’s tail flukes had been eaten, so no accurate length could be taken.
    Mase had planned to have the whale’s carcass towed out to sea after tissue samples were taken, but the body was too badly decomposed to tow. It was left in the surf.
    Whales and other marine mammals instinctively beach themselves when they’re sick or injured so they can breathe without having to exert themselves to reach the surface.
    Mase said the whale was probably a Gervais’ beaked whale (Mesoplodon europaeus).
    Gervais’ beaked whales washed ashore during September in Hobe Sound and Hollywood Beach. Both whales were still alive when they came ashore, but later died.
    Laboratory work to determine what illness might have led the other two whales to beach themselves had not been completed as of late September.
    Named for their elongated snouts, beaked whales are known to dive deep for long periods of time before surfacing for air. One species, the Cuvier’s beaked whale, regularly dives for an hour to depths of 3,300 feet.
    Gervais’ beaked whales have spindle-shaped bodies with small, shark-like dorsal fins and slightly concave tail flukes, according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Their bellies are often marked with irregular white blotches.

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

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

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

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

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Christine Davis

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

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

to rename her growing bracelet business.

Photo provided

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

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

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

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

Photos provided

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

Jane Smith contributed to this report.

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

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

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

File photo

By Jane Smith

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

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

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

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

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

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

A costume from a production of Cats.

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

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

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