By Rich Pollack

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

By Steve Plunkett

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

By Steve Plunkett

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

By Rich Pollack

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

By Rich Pollack

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

By Rich Pollack

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Sallie James

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

By Steve Plunkett

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

By Jane Smith

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

By Rich Pollack

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

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

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

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

Sallie James/The Coastal Star

By Sallie James

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

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

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

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Brian Biggane

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

By Sallie James

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

By Dan Moffett

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SOURCES: Federal Railroad Administration, local police departments

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

County has most deaths

By Jane Smith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Stacey Singer

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

By Stacey Singer

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

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

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

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