Related Story: As overdose numbers soar, cities seek sober home regulation

By Mary Hladky

    Previous efforts to crack down on unscrupulous drug treatment centers and sober homes have largely languished in the Florida Legislature.
    But that changed in the session that ended in May, when significant legislation was passed that cracked down on some of the worst practices of the addiction treatment industry, empowered the state Department of Children and Families to regulate treatment centers, and imposed stiff penalties for possession of fentanyl, an opioid painkiller.
    The skyrocketing death toll arising from the opioid crisis focused legislative attention on the problems. Gov. Rick Scott declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency last month.
    Deaths in Palm Beach County jumped from 305 in 2015 to 592 last year, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office. Delray Beach, the reputed epicenter of the crisis in the county, had 77 overdoses in April, with six resulting in death, city police said last month. That was up from 57 in April 2016.
    Another important factor was the work of the Sober Homes Task Force, launched last year with $275,000 in state funding by State Attorney Dave Aronberg to investigate allegations of fraud and abuse and propose solutions.
    The task force and a grand jury issued reports on the vast scope of the problems and recommended new legislation. They found rampant deceptive marketing, insurance fraud, patient brokering, sexual abuse and forced labor.
    Chief Assistant State Attorney Al Johnson, who heads the task force, traveled frequently to Tallahassee to press legislators to take action. Although he could not lobby, Aronberg joined him for the final week of the legislative session.
    “We did better than we hoped,” Johnson said. “It was a barnburner.”
    Speaking of wide-ranging legislation introduced by state Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, and state Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, Johnson said, “We didn’t know it would pass until the day before the session ended. I’ve got more gray hairs than I used to have.”

Industry recognizes issue
    While there was some opposition to the bills, which were consolidated under Hager’s version, Johnson said the addiction treatment industry generally knew that better regulation is needed.
    “The problem is so severe that the industry realizes it will implode if corrective action isn’t taken against these bad actors,” he said. “If we don’t get a handle on the bad actors and bad practices in the industry, parents will stop sending their children to Florida for treatment.”
    Most of the young addicts treated in Florida come from out of state, and word is spreading that there are problems here.
    Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey issued a warning in April, after receiving many reports of state residents being recruited to “so-called” treatment centers in Florida, Arizona and California. She urged anyone receiving an unsolicited referral to out-of-state centers to be wary.
    John Lehman, CEO of the Florida Association of Recovery Residences, a nonprofit that oversees voluntary certification of sober homes for DCF, praised Aronberg and Johnson for their efforts.
    “All credit for successfully accomplishing that push at the last hour goes to Aronberg and Johnson,” he said. “They did a phenomenal job.”
    Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein said legislation alone won’t solve all the problems. Yet “the new law, if adopted by the governor, represents more effective tools in how we combat exploitation and abuses of vulnerable people within a wholly unregulated industry that has thus far produced little tangible evidence of success while it enjoys impunity and huge profits predicated on human suffering, “ he said in an email.
    Provisions of the Clemens/Hager legislation include:
    • Prohibiting service providers and sober home operators from engaging in deceptive marketing and enacting criminal penalties for violations.
    • Increasing penalties for patient brokering and adding patient brokering to the list of offenses that the Office of Statewide Prosecution may pursue.
    • Giving new powers to DCF to regulate treatment centers. DCF will draft rules on administrative and clinical standards by January, and licensing fees will be increased substantially to help pay for the increased regulation. Effective July 1.
    Other notable new laws include:
    • Creating tough penalties for possession of fentanyl, a painkiller as much as 100 times more potent than morphine, and similar substances. Heroin is often cut with fentanyl, making it far more deadly. The substances are added to the list of drugs that can result in murder charges for the dealer if the buyer dies. Effective Oct. 1.
    • Enhancing collection of overdose data by allowing emergency medical personnel to report overdoses to the Florida Department of Health. The law also requires hospital emergency departments to establish over-dose policies. Effective Oct. 1.
    • Limiting the initial amount of opioids prescribed to a five-day supply. Prescriptions filled for controlled substances must be entered in a state prescription drug monitoring database by the end of the next business day. Effective July 1.

Task Force will continue
    The work of the Sober Homes Task Force will continue for at least another year, provided a $300,000 appropriation by lawmakers to fund it is not vetoed by the governor. Scott, angered that lawmakers ignored some of his top legislative priorities, was considering a state budget veto last month.
    FARR, however, was not so fortunate. Lehman had requested $275,000, but the Legislature appropriated only $100,000. Even that amount is uncertain with the possibility of a budget veto.
    That comes after the Legislature last year appropriated no money for FARR’s operations, leaving Lehman to subsist on donations and loans.
    At the end of May, Lehman was scrambling to come up with additional money. “We’re hopeful that we can raise the $175,000 and the governor won’t veto our $100,000,” he said.

County pilot funded
    The Legislature also appropriated $500,000 for the county’s Opioid Abuse Pilot Program launched early this year.
    The concept is to offer people who overdose support services after they leave the emergency room. People treated at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis can volunteer to enter the program. They are treated with Suboxone, a drug that curbs withdrawal symptoms. After release, they are visited at home, administered tapering doses of the drug and offered counseling.
    As of May 30, Scott had not made a decision on the state budget and had not signed the drug-related legislation into law, although it is widely believed he will do so.
    Although those pushing for stricter regulation of the addiction treatment industry are well pleased with their victories in the Legislature, they agree there is more work to be done.
    Plans for additional proposed legislation are in the very early stages, but the Sober Homes Task Force again will have a leading role.
    One priority, Johnson said, is getting more funding for FARR. “It is important FARR be adequately funded,” he said.
    The task force also will be active in helping DCF create rules to regulate treatment centers.
    DCF funding may become an issue. The agency was given a huge mandate, but increased funding is limited to the revenue from higher licensing fees.
    “The success of the DCF legislation will depend on adequate funding,” Johnson said. “If you don’t have full-time employees to do the job, all the laws and rules are meaningless.”

Are sober homes commerce?
    One matter under consideration is whether sober homes are commercial businesses, and therefore not exempt from mandatory regulation. The Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act recognize addiction as a disability, which has made it difficult for government to regulate sober homes.
    “We need to get rid of the flophouses,” Johnson said.
    The task force also is looking at whether it is possible to provide rent subsidies. Health insurance pays for substance abuse treatment, but does not cover the sober homes that provide beds to those getting treatment.
    This is a difficult issue because the task force does not want open-ended subsidies that would create cycles of relapse, Johnson said.
    Another matter drawing task force attention is the prohibition against working at or owning a drug rehab facility if the person has a prior felony drug conviction. People who want to help addicts many times are former addicts who have insight into how to break the cycle of drug use, he said.
    “There is more we can do,” Johnson said. “We are not going to prosecute our way out of this.”
    Jane Smith contributed to this story.

By Dan Moffett

    The landlords of Manalapan’s Plaza del Mar hoped to be knocking down buildings to make way for a new Publix by now.
    They’re not, for two reasons: The supermarket chain’s architects haven’t been able to design a sign that is tasteful enough to satisfy the taste-conscious town commissioners. And a lawsuit against the project filed by Lantana resident Barbara Federico is still wending its way through the courts.
    Matt Buehler, retail vice president with plaza landlord Kitson & Partners, says demolition won’t begin until the two obstacles are removed.
    “People don’t realize this is a $10 million project,” Buehler said. “We can’t risk it.”
    Buehler and Publix have been trying to sell town commissioners on a sign design for six months now — a design that is far more understated than the familiar green-and-white logo that marks hundreds of the company’s storefronts throughout the Southeast.
    The latest failure came during the May 15 town meeting, when commissioners rejected a white-and-black, non-illuminated version they criticized as discordant with Manalapan’s unique sense of itself.
    Two newly seated commissioners, promoted from the town’s architectural board in March, led the opposition.
    “The discussions I participated in at ArCom, we focused on the fitness, charm, the compatibility with the overall ambiance of the town,” Commissioner Jack Doyle said. “While this sign may be perfectly nice and utilitarian, it does not in my view add to the overall character and ambiance of the town.”
    “Six months later, we’re still where we were,” Commissioner Hank Siemon said, asserting that Publix has ignored design suggestions from town officials. “Personally, I think we should look at the Eau sign and use that as a template. That’s a beautiful sign.”
    Across the street from the plaza, the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa has a metal sign with raised lettering that casts shadows when softly illuminated. Doyle said the Eau’s design is “classy and speaks to the character of the town.”
    Buehler said the town had given him a list of seven design requests at the last meeting on signage, and Publix had addressed all seven. Mayor Keith Waters agreed but said the commission is “a house divided.”
    Waters told Buehler to bring back a revised version of the white-and-black sign, along with an Eau-inspired design, to the town’s June 13 meeting and the commission will choose between the two.
    “We will approve one or the other. You have the commitment of the town,” the mayor said. “I don’t want to continue kicking this can down the road.”
    Meanwhile, town officials are hopeful a ruling on the Federico lawsuit will come this month. Federico, who lives about 500 feet from the plaza, objects to the size of the store, claiming it is too large for the space.
    Her suit also alleges the town did not follow its own rules in approving building plans for the supermarket.
    “It is inappropriate for the community and incompatible with the area,” she says.
    Town Attorney Keith Davis has said the plaza plan complies with the town’s code and commissioners acted lawfully in approving it.
    Though demolition is on hold, officials believe work still can begin this summer and the Publix can open early next year.

By Dan Moffett

    The prospect of lower rates and improved customer relations was enough to persuade Hypoluxo council members to end a decades-old relationship with Manalapan and switch to Boynton Beach for water services.
    On May 17, the Town Council unanimously approved a plan to negotiate an early end to the current contract with Manalapan and work out the final details of a deal to join Boynton’s fast-growing utility system.
    “We heard proposals from both of the competing water utilities, and they were pretty clear to understand,”  Mayor Michael Brown said. “I think, without a doubt, Boynton Beach’s offer was much more beneficial to the town of Hypoluxo.”
    Boynton has offered in-city rates to Hypoluxo, the same prices that Boynton residents are paying. The roughly 550 Hypoluxo customers who get their water from Manalapan can expect an immediate 25 percent decrease in their bills, Boynton officials have said.
    “Our rates are low because we have great economies of scale,” said Colin Groff, Boynton’s utilities director.
    With more than 110,000 customers, Boynton’s system is about 12 times larger than Manalapan’s. “We just can’t compete with what they’re offering,” said Linda Stumpf, the Manalapan town manager.
    Boynton also provides automated billing and meter reading to its customers, services Manalapan doesn’t have.
    Still to be resolved are  Hypoluxo’s buyout terms with Manalapan. The contract between the two municipalities is scheduled to expire in 2020. Boynton officials have told Hypoluxo they will cover some of the town’s costs to get out of the Manalapan agreement. Brown said he hopes the switch can be completed by this summer.
    “We’ll move as quickly as we can to get council’s approval,” Brown said. “It could be 30 days, it could be 60 days, it just depends how quickly we move through the process.”
    With Hypoluxo’s exit, Manalapan’s utility loses a significant cash stream — roughly $1.3 million in revenue — that could affect its operation over the long term. Stumpf said the town is exploring other options for the utility.

By Steve Plunkett
    
    A new potential for heavy growth on Federal Highway at the Woolbright Road and Ocean Avenue intersections has the barrier island-based Florida Coalition for Preservation sounding the alarms.
    Boynton Beach has changed its comprehensive plan, future land use map, zoning and all its land development regulations to permit much denser growth than before at the bases of the bridges to the island, said Kristine de Haseth, the coalition’s executive director.
    All four quadrants at Woolbright and Federal are zoned “multiuse high,” which allows buildings up to 150 feet tall with 80 units per acre. By comparison, she told Gulf Stream town commissioners at their May meeting, Gulf Stream’s single-family neighborhoods have about 1.5 units per acre.
    “So 80 units per acre is quite a difference,” de Haseth said.
    The situation is more congested at Ocean Avenue, which is part of a “transportation overlay district” that gets a 25 percent bonus on density.
    “So rather than having 80 units per acre, they could have 100 units per acre,” de Haseth said. “Now we’re talking real urbanization. … Those are the type of numbers you see in Fort Lauderdale and Miami.”
    A new developer recently bought Las Ventanas apartments for $109 million. “He could add an additional five stories to the five-story buildings that he has. And he could also increase his density, which is now 33, up to 80,” de Haseth said.
    The same thing could happen at the foot of the Woolbright Road bridge, where the “functioning obsolescent” Bermuda Cay rental development and neighboring, 60-year-old Snug Harbor Gardens Villas are probably the next parcels to be redeveloped, de Haseth said.
    “That doesn’t mean that is what will happen. But that is what Boynton has said their 20-year planning operation is moving toward, and that’s what they would like to see there,” she said.
    Architect Mark Marsh, at the Gulf Stream meeting for another issue, shared de Haseth’s pessimistic outlook. “What’s ahead is pretty scary,” said Marsh, who lives in Ocean Ridge.
    De Haseth said the main concern is access to the barrier island for emergency vehicles. Boynton Beach fire-rescue’s Station 1 across the Ocean Avenue bridge responds to the northern end of Ocean Ridge, while Station 4 across Woolbright covers the southern end of Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes.
    “So it’s one thing to have increased traffic; it’s one thing to have increased foot traffic over your bridge maybe not being respectful to your dunes or your beaches. It’s one thing to have petty crime that increases because of increased density and pressures from the west to the east,” de Haseth said. “It’s another thing if you have a heart attack, God forbid, and the fire-EMT station can’t get to you, and then furthermore, it can’t get back to the other side.”
    De Haseth said the coalition will pursue three initiatives to unite the island from Manalapan to Delray Beach: a unified fire-EMT department, a contiguous license plate recognition system and a barrier island traffic study.
    The idea of a unified fire-EMT department won’t gain traction until the municipalities do the second phase of a study and determine how much it will cost, she said.
    “There’s been talk of putting a heliport on top of St. Andrew’s [beachside club]; there’s been a bunch of different, really interesting ideas that are out of the box,” de Haseth said.
    The license plate recognition program was dealt a blow when Briny Breezes ended its fire-rescue agreement with Ocean Ridge, which had planned to put cameras at the town’s south border, she said.
    Delray Beach has instituted a program, Ocean Ridge is budgeting for it and Manalapan has had one for years, she said. Briny Breezes’ town marshal, Chris Yannuzzi of the Boynton Beach Police Department, told the Briny council several months ago that he would explore the feasibility of tying into Boynton Beach’s tag-recognition system.
    “It has to be a continuity with all the municipalities, not just one or two,” de Haseth said.
    And with Ocean Ridge talking about making some streets one-way and Briny Breezes taking ownership of its section of Old Ocean Boulevard, the island towns should undertake a comprehensive traffic study, she said.
    “I think there has to be a realization that each of these municipalities — whatever one does affects the other obviously,” de Haseth said.
    De Haseth made a similar presentation in Ocean Ridge.
    She also said the coalition will sponsor lunches for barrier island mayors and town managers at least once a quarter “to get everybody together outside the League of Cities … and just sit down and talk about what is happening in their municipalities. Chances are it’s happening in the one right next door.”

By Dan Moffett

    Ocean Ridge is 86 years old, essentially built-out and with a population that has stayed largely stable through the past two decades.
    But this doesn’t mean the town can avoid growing pains.
    Town commissioners are finding that out as they begin to put together the budget for fiscal 2018.
    Increased traffic to the beach from across the bridge has brought calls for more police presence and road improvements. A surge in home renovation and new construction has exposed a need for more administrative staffing. More police, more building and more office activity are bringing complaints about the town’s outdated computer systems.
    These were some of the problems the Town Commission confronted at its first budget workshop on May 22. It will be July until commissioners get hard numbers on taxable values from the county Property Appraiser’s Office and make detailed decisions on spending and property tax rates.
    Until then, here are some of the issues commissioners are considering:
    • Adding two police officers to help deal with growing numbers of beachgoers from outside the town. Police Chief Hal Hutchins told commissioners it will cost roughly $156,000 in salaries and benefits for the two hires. Hutchins said the department also needs another dispatcher, at a cost of about $47,000.
    The chief said it would take about $27,500 to provide Tasers for all his officers and $50,000 to equip them with body cameras. “I’m bringing up everything you’ve asked for,” Hutchins told commissioners.
    • Town Manager Jamie Titcomb is proposing to add a full-time position to the administrative staff to handle increasing requests for building permits and do code inspections. Revenues from permits are on track to double from five years ago to about $400,000 annually. Titcomb said the increasing revenue warrants overhauling the staff to add a full-time building inspector and a part-time clerk. He said providing services in-house, rather than hiring outside contractors, would be more efficient and less costly. With some reassignments of existing staff, the overhaul could cost around $200,000.
    “The intent is to enhance service and get you more bang for the buck,” Titcomb said.
    • Both Titcomb and Hutchins said the town needs to upgrade its information technology systems. Titcomb told commissioners that last year the administration’s accounting software crashed, zapping data and complicating what was a torturous budget process that dragged on for five months. Titcomb said the town had to hire a specialist to retrieve the lost data. The cost of new software and upgrading the system is undetermined.
    Hutchins said his officers need to upgrade laptops, operating systems and office computers. He recommended spending $27,000 annually for three years to bring the department up to speed.
    • Town Clerk Tracey Stevens told commissioners the town is receiving about $9,000 a month from the penny sales tax increase that voters approved in November. The law requires that the money be spent on infrastructure, which is generally defined as installed devices or constructed improvements that are designed to last at least five years.
    Commissioner Steve Coz has proposed using the money for traffic calming devices, and Commissioner Don MaGruder suggested using it to rebuild the Woolbright Road detention/retention pond.

By Steve Plunkett

    Ocean Ridge officials have an outside attorney standing by to defend them in case former Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella makes good on his threat to sue the town for alleged police brutality.
    Lucibella’s lawyer, Marc Shiner, said fellow West Palm Beach attorney Andrea Amigo represents the town “in anticipation of litigation that has not been filed.”
    Lucibella, 63, is charged with battery on a police officer and resisting the officer with violence, both felonies, as well as a misdemeanor count of using a firearm while under the influence of alcohol. He has pleaded not guilty; his trial is set to begin July 21.
    Shiner scheduled depositions on June 7 of Police Chief Hal Hutchins, Town Commissioner Steve Coz and Town Manager Jamie Titcomb. The next day he plans to question police Lt. Richard Jones, who handled the department’s internal investigation of Lucibella’s arrest, and current Vice Mayor Jim Bonfiglio.
    Shiner also asked Circuit Judge Charles Burton to bar Amigo from attending the depositions because she is a “nonparty” attorney in the case. A hearing was scheduled for June 2.
    Amigo’s firm was retained by Ocean Ridge’s insurance company, Town Attorney Glen Torcivia said. Amigo, whose legal specialties include government agency liability, declined to talk about Lucibella.
    “We cannot discuss potential litigation,” she said.
    At the commission’s May 22 budget workshop, Bonfiglio spoke of setting aside money for “the Lucibella matter—that’s not pending yet but I know it’s threatened.”
    Shiner has also scheduled depositions for July 11 of Kim Hutchins, the chief’s wife, Mayor Geoff Pugh and police Sgt. William Hallahan, now retired. He will depose arresting officers Nubia Plesnik and Richard Emeri the following day. Hallahan, Plesnik and Emeri went to Lucibella’s oceanfront home Oct. 22 after neighbors reported hearing gunfire. They confiscated a .40-caliber handgun and found five spent shell casings on the backyard patio.
    With Lucibella was one of the officers’ supervisors, Lt. Steven Wohlfiel. Both men were “obviously intoxicated,” the police said.
    During the arrest, Lucibella was pinned to the patio pavers and suffered injuries to his face and ribs. Shiner has said the police overreacted.
    Officers later determined the confiscated handgun belonged to Wohlfiel, who was fired for his role in the incident Jan. 4.  
    Wohlfiel is appealing his dismissal. His position has not been filled.
    Lucibella resigned his vice mayor and town commissioner positions Dec. 7.
    Burton has set aside four weeks for the trial.
Rich Pollack contributed to this story.

Smoke-free zone signs are in place at Oceanfront Park.

Tom Warnke/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    Boynton Beach has created a voluntary smoke-free zone at its Oceanfront Park.
    “People will still be able to smoke in designated areas of the park. It’s more of a courtesy thing,” said Mayor Steven Grant. “I want to promote a family-friendly city where respect for others is important.”
    The idea came from an unnamed resident, Grant said.
    The city’s Parks Department purchased portable ashtrays using a Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful grant, said Colin Groff, an assistant city manager. The ashtrays are given to smokers to use in the parking lot and on the boardwalk. That way, butts might not end up on the ground.
    Cigarette filters contain man-made products that take years to break down, according to the PreventCigaretteLitter.org website.
    In early May, the city posted three signs about the voluntary program at Oceanfront Park. Each sign cost $10 to make because Boynton Beach has its own sign shop. The signs read: “Breathe freely. Voluntary smoke free zone. Please smoke in parking lot and on boardwalk.” The no-smoking program is voluntary and won’t be enforced, Groff said.
    Florida does not have an outdoor clean air act that bans smoking in public spaces, said Groff.

By Mary Thurwachter

    Cynthia Cain goes to the beach every day.
    “I’m not much of a sunbather type of girl, but I like to walk along the shore and swim,” the Lantana resident said. “I have six grandchildren 10 and under and I like to take them, too.”
    But by the third weekend in May, Cain wasn’t loving the beach so much. She said she was “totally disgusted with all the seaweed” that was covering the beach. It has been bad for a while, she said, but that weekend, she had seen enough.
    After sending several emails to the Town Council and Town Manager Deborah Manzo asking for the beach to be cleaned of the seaweed, she attended the May 22 town meeting. Mayor Dave Stewart had her complaint added to the agenda for discussion.
    There was discussion, but no action was taken, at least not the kind Cain wanted.
    “Seaweed cannot be removed,” said Stewart. “It’s a Town Council policy.”
    Vice Mayor Lynn Moorhouse added: “I don’t think it’s legal.”
    Seaweed, Moorhouse said, is essential for marine life. It keeps replacement sand on beaches, offers crucial delicacies such as crabs and snails to seabirds, and provides nutrients to plants on dunes.
    And not removing it is what Dan Bates, deputy director of the Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Resources Management, recommends, according to Stewart.
    “A month ago, I was on the beach for the Earth Day cleanup and I didn’t see a problem with it,” Stewart said.
    Not complying with what Bates recommends could cost the town millions for beach restoration, council members suggested.
    Council member Ed Shropshire said: “I know it’s not pretty and doesn’t smell good, but it’s part of the environment. In three weeks it’ll be gone, washed back into the sea.”
    Council member Phil Aridas said he wasn’t in favor of moving the seaweed. “You can always kick it aside and lay down your beach blanket.”
    But Cain wasn’t buying it. “Quite honestly, we have the worst beach around,” she said, “and I’m not the only one saying it. The lifeguard hears about it all day.”
    A beach stabilization project has been delayed by a year because project managers don’t have all the easement agreements and government permits they need to begin work.
    In other action, the council:
    • Authorized spending $4,658 from the town’s Law Enforcement Trust fund for enhanced ballistic body armor for the Police Department.
    • Heard a report on the Greater Lantana School Community Education Council from Chairwoman Lyn Tate.
    • Set its first budget workshop for 5:30 p.m. June 12.

By Dan Moffett

    The Briny Breezes Town Council is moving forward with plans to create an administrative position and to hire a part-time manager to fill it before the end of the summer.
    Council President Sue Thaler said she hopes to assemble a volunteer committee of several residents during the June 22 town meeting to help define the job description for the new manager’s position.
    Thaler will provide much of the background information for the committee to consider. She says she is working between 20 and 25 hours a week for the town without pay, handling administrative duties no one else is willing to do. Thaler said she won’t continue doing the work much longer.
    “I’m not going to leave the town in a lurch, but I’m not going to keep doing it on an unpaid basis,” she said. “It’s too time-consuming.”
    Briny Breezes is the only municipality of the 39 in Palm Beach County that does not have some version of a paid administrator. That includes even towns that are smaller than Briny, such as Glen Ridge and Cloud Lake.
    “We needed this a long time ago,” said Alderman Bobby Jurovaty, saying that running the town is much more complicated today than decades ago. “Sue is just doing too much as a volunteer, and it’s not right. We need a professional in that seat helping us.”
    Council members set aside $50,000 in the 2016-17 budget to pay for a combination clerk-manager position. They filled the clerk job in November, hiring Jackie Ermola, but could not find qualified applicants for the part-time manager’s role. The council hopes to use the unspent money set aside last year to hire an experienced manager soon. Thaler said a couple of promising candidates have come forward in recent weeks.
    In other business:
    • Corporate board member Tom Oglesby gave the council a revised version of the Green Sheet, the town’s building permit application and rules, that the corporation has been working on for more than a year.
    Oglesby said the overhauled form is more concise, clearer and updated to include recent changes in flood zone requirements. It also explains what work requires permitting and what doesn’t.
    “It’s not perfect,” Oglesby said, “but it’s a lot better.”
    The town’s Planning and Zoning Board is scheduled to review the new form at 1 p.m. on June 22. Board Chairman Jerry Lower said the panel is prepared to move quickly to advance the form to the council for final approval.
    • The Florida Department of Transportation has rejected the town’s plans for putting a golf cart crossing at A1A and Cordova Avenue.
    FDOT officials told the town it must either turn Cordova into a two-way street or widen sidewalks to earn state approval.
    “Those aren’t our first choices,” Thaler said. “This is not the response we were hoping for.”
    The council is scheduled to hold a workshop at 1 p.m. on June 8 to discuss possible changes to the crossing plans.

Workshop members in Boca Raton take a walking tour of U.S. 1, also known as Federal Highway.

Workshops are set this month for Delray Beach and Boynton Beach.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    As it stretches 42 miles from Camino Real in Boca Raton to Indiantown Road in Jupiter, U.S. 1 crosses through 14 municipalities.
    In some places along the stretch, you’ll find bike paths and sidewalks, in other places you’ll see sidewalks on only one side.
 You might also find intersections that need better lighting or improved traffic signals.
    Now, the Palm Beach Metropolitan Planning Organization is working on a study that will create a blueprint for coordinated improvements along the east Palm Beach County corridor.
    “We’re creating a unified vision, but one that is feasible,” says Valerie Neilson, principal planner and multimodality manager for the organization’s U.S. 1 Multimodal Corridor Study. “We’re trying to create a plan that connects all of the communities.”
    The study, which began in February, is scheduled to wrap up by next spring and will include recommendations on what improvements can be made along the corridor. Once that is completed, the design phase can begin, setting the stage for implementation of the recommendations.
    Since U.S. 1 is a state road and falls under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Transportation, the MPO planners will be working closely with FDOT on the project to coordinate all efforts.
    While there will be a focus on bike paths and sidewalks and the “complete streets” concept, which addresses needs of pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists, the MPO study goes much further and looks at several areas of improvement.
    There’s a public transit element to the study, where teams will be looking at the stops along the way as well as schedules to ensure they’re both meeting the needs of the riders. Data show that U.S. 1 serves about 8,600 bus riders per day, making it the busiest bus route in the county. “We’re looking at how we can improve existing service,” Neilson said.
    The study also could identify bus-stop facilities to upgrade and recommend ways to improve the branding and images of buses along the corridor.
    Safety is a major focus of the study, as planners look for ways to reduce crashes.
    Between 2011 and 2016, there were 12 pedestrian fatalities and three bicycle fatalities along U.S. 1, all at night. The three bicycle fatalities took place in Boca Raton north of Glades Road.
    In that same time frame, there were 321 pedestrian or bicycle-involved crashes, with 82 percent of the bicycle crashes occurring in areas where there are no bike lanes.
    As part of the study, engineers and planners will look at traffic flow to see whether lane reductions might improve safety. They’ll also be looking at signals and speed limits.
    An innovative part of the study will include a health-impact assessment, in which planners will explore issues such as how difficult it is for people without cars to reach grocery stores safely.
    Funding for the $775,000 study is provided by the MPO, a collaborative organization governed by Palm Beach municipal and county elected leaders designed to identify and prioritize transportation projects.  
    As part of the process, the MPO team has been holding meetings with community members, the first of which took place last month in Boca Raton. During that meeting and a walking audit, the team heard from residents and community leaders who offered suggestions to improve safety and mass transit.
    A series of meetings will be held this month for Delray Beach and Boynton Beach residents and community leaders.  A combined workshop, which will include a walking audit, will take place 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 24 at the Boynton Beach Library, 208 Seacrest Blvd.
    In addition, there will be open-studio charrettes for both cities from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. June 27-28 at the Boynton Beach Clubhouse, 2240 N. Federal Highway.
    A workshop for Hypoluxo and Lantana will be July 22 at a location to be announced.
    The MPO will also have open-studio charrettes July 24-26 at a location to be determined. Workshops are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and open-studio charrettes are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
    For more information, visit www.us1pbcorridorstudy.com.

By Jane Smith

    The long-awaited iPic deal closed on May 16.
    The developer paid $3.6 million to the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency for 1.6 acres between Southeast Fourth and Fifth avenues, just south of Atlantic Avenue.
    When complete in 2020, the iPic complex will boast 497 luxury seats in eight screening rooms with a total of 44,979 square feet and a 42,446-square-foot office building where iPic has agreed to move its corporate headquarters and occupy 20,000 square feet for five years.
    The development also will include 7,847 square feet of retail space and a multilevel garage with 326 spaces, providing 90 public parking spaces.
    The deal, originally signed in December 2013, was controversial because the CRA didn’t notify nearby landowners of its intentions to sell the land. The agency relied on a change in state law that no longer required the notification.
    Over the years, the agreement was amended seven times, with the latest closing set for Jan. 31.
    As part of the closing, iPic was supposed to provide a parking plan for its construction workers and for customers in the 400 block of Atlantic while building its complex. The theater developer provided a draft version of its parking plan. Its development order from a city board called for iPic to use “best efforts” to find the temporary parking spaces for customers until the garage is finished.

James Blumenfeld, co-owner of Meridian Art Experience in Delray Beach’s Pineapple Grove,

displays works mainly from local artists and offers services for collectors.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    James Blumenfeld and business partner Susan Romaine learned from their first meeting in 2014 that they had a mutual love of art, and their combined efforts since culminated in the Feb. 2 grand opening of Meridian Art Experience in the Pineapple Grove neighborhood of Delray Beach.
    The gallery aims to make the middle-art market affordable and approachable.
    “Our vehicle is to invite people in to experience original artwork,” said Blumenfeld, a St. Louis native who enjoyed great success in the corporate world prior to this venture. “Our tag line is ‘The fine line of living with art.’ Really just to be able to integrate all the different forms of art — anything you happen to love — into an environment that works for you.”
    While it’s been more by happenstance than by design, local artists have played a prominent role in the gallery at 170 NE Second Ave. Romaine, an artist herself, has used her connection in the South Florida community to feature up-and-comers largely ranging from Boca Raton to West Palm Beach.
    “I always had a passion for art,” said Blumenfeld, 54. “It started with becoming an art history major in college, probably even before then. I took art history as a survey course to fulfill a humanities requirement. I didn’t really know what I had stepped into, but I just fell in love with it.
    “It really was the history of the world, with visual arts as your looking glass. That, to me, was attractive. I love history and I just loved the idea of studying history with a visual connection. So that was the beginning of my love of art. I’ve been an admirer and collector of art ever since.”
    A Cardinals fan, Blumenfeld said he also has a passion for baseball. “Most people would never guess by meeting me, with my background and all that, that I’m a big baseball fan.”
    Meridian Art Experience is sponsoring a Delray Beach art walk from 6 to 9 p.m. the first Friday of each month.
— Brian Biggane

    Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How did that influence what you’re doing now?
    A. I grew up in a suburb of St. Louis and went to school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and then moved back and got my MBA from Washington University in St. Louis. I fell in love with art after taking an art history class in college.

    Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
    A. I had my own company for a short time and then went on a corporate track for a good stretch of time. I went to Ralston-Purina, which owned what was then Continental Baking, which was comprised of Hostess and Wonder. I helped develop Mini-Muffins, Brownie Bites, all of that, and that was great fun. I went to Nabisco from there, helped them introduce some Healthy Choice snacks and crackers.
    Then I moved on to Coca-Cola in Atlanta, where I was in the global marketing group and really learned the essence of branding. I was there for several years, traveled the globe and really learned about culture.
    Then, for family reasons, I moved back to the Northeast, up to New York, and went to work for Citibank in the late ’90s, when everybody was doing something in the Internet. I was leading a marketing group to create the virtual bank, which ultimately became Citibank.com.
    Then I went to work for Ameritrade for a while as chief marketing officer. Then the bubble burst, and the people from Ameritrade wanted me to go to Omaha, Neb., to run their marketing, and I said no thanks. … I took a [severance] package from them and ended up starting my own marketing consulting firm in Connecticut.
    My husband joined us a year later and we adopted a son, then decided to move to Central Florida to increase our son’s educational opportunities. He was 6 at the time. At that point I took some time away from the business.
    When I went back I ended up running our nonprofit piece of the business. We’ve done work in the areas of equality, education, autism, etc. I’m very proud of my efforts in that area.
    I’ve introduced a lot of new products along the way, which has been really fun. I did a Super Bowl commercial for Ameritrade.

    Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?
    A. I believe people should be sponges; that’s how I’ve operated. You learn from everything, and where there’s an opportunity to take on assignments, there’s an opportunity to learn. And if you do that, it opens up your listening, it changes how you deal with people, if you sort of take that approach.

    Q. How did you choose to make your home in coastal Delray Beach?
    A. The big reason was my son, who will be 15 in July. He’s gifted in math and science and we were looking for the right place for him to move forward in his development. Having my own marketing firm made us fortunate enough to be able to live wherever we wanted.
    The move to Delray also proved to fit nicely with my own move toward the arts scene in Central Florida. One of the things we got involved with in Orlando was the Flying Horse Editions. Flying Horse is a fine-arts studio sponsored by the University of Central Florida; it’s part of their curriculum. They created a program where they had about 25 or 30 families who paid money, and that would fund three or four artists through the course of the year. Then at the end of the season each family got one piece from each of the artists. So you would get three or four pieces, a numbered print. It’s a phenomenal program. They’ve started doing art fairs and all of that, and I was on their board for a while. That was the early engage for me. I was involved with the arts to some degree up in the Northeast, but not the way I got involved in Central Florida.
    I was also one of the members of the patrons committee for the Winter Park Arts Festival.

    Q. What is your favorite part about living in Delray Beach? 
    A. The weather. I don’t like the cold. I’ve lived in St. Louis, New Jersey, and I don’t miss any of that. My favorite part about living in Florida is watching winter on TV. And I believe summer is the best-kept secret in South Florida. We never get as hot as St. Louis. They have 10-, 15-day stretches of 95- to 105-degree weather. That doesn’t happen here. If it gets to 92 that’s a hot day here, and then it rains.

    Q. What book are you reading now?
    A. I’ve just started Captivate by Vanessa Van Edwards. It’s all about social engagement. How to work a room, how to be social, how to engage people. It’s fascinating. 

 
    Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
    A. I like country, I like pop, I like rock ’n’ roll, I like my old ’80s music. Any sort of rock, pop, contemporary, country genre. I like the anthem songs as well, especially if I’m trying to be moved or inspired. But I’m generally more moved by the performance than by the music itself. So if I’m at a concert, or if I’m watching TV and somebody is doing a performance, it’s like, wow. So I’m more visual.

    Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
    A. Two. One I wrote in my high school yearbook. It’s from James Thurber and reads, “Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.” That to me is how I wish the world truly operated. The other is something I say all the time, an expression I picked up from a friend in Winter Park: “It’s all good.” Not sure who first said it, but it works for me.

    Q. Have you had mentors in your life?
    A. Professionally I’ve had them in almost every place I’ve worked. Whether it’s a boss or a peer, usually the boss that has helped and guided me through any career situation I might have in front of me, good or bad. Personally, one of my greatest mentors is my husband, Chris Cooney. We’re good for each other that way, in being able to coach each other. And of course, my parents; they did a lot for me. Family means a lot to me.

    Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
    A. I’d love to have Brad Pitt do it, but more realistically it’s probably Stanley Tucci.

By Steve Plunkett

    Town resident Chris O’Hare’s “bad faith conduct” in seeking hundreds of public records may leave him liable for Gulf Stream’s hefty legal bill and even sanctions, a circuit judge has ruled.
    In a case O’Hare filed against the town, Judge Thomas Barkdull III said Gulf Stream did not unjustifiably delay its response to a public records request from O’Hare and his conduct bars the relief he sought, namely the records plus his own attorney’s fees.
    O’Hare’s conduct “was clearly intended to inappropriately manufacture public records requests in order to generate public records litigation and attorney’s fees,” Barkdull wrote in a final judgment May 8.
    What’s more, Barkdull wrote, “Having had the opportunity to observe O’Hare at trial, the court further concludes that O’Hare intended to harass and intimidate the town’s employees to generate litigation and fees with ‘gotcha’ type requests.”
    And, Barkdull wrote, “To that extent, he was successful.”
    In Tallahassee, meanwhile, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill into law last month giving judges discretion over whether to award attorney’s fees when someone successfully sues a government agency for improperly withholding records. Before, legal fees were automatic.
    “We fully expected it to be signed, actually last year instead of this year,” said former Gulf Stream Vice Mayor Robert Ganger, who testified during the 2016 legislative session on the burdens small towns face. “It was a long haul, but I’m hopeful that people will say that’s the right thing to do.”
    Gulf Stream used its hurricane reserve fund and had to raise taxes 40 percent to pay its legal bills, Ganger told state lawmakers.
    The Florida League of Cities supported the law; open-government advocates opposed it.
    The issue in the O’Hare case was a request he made after Town Hall closed for the day May 14, 2014, for “all records in any way related to any correspondence between Jones-Foster on behalf of the town and Martin O’Boyle and created or received during the period of time from March 1, 2014, through to the moment you receive this request.”
    Jones, Foster, Johnston & Stubbs PA is Town Attorney John “Skip” Randolph’s firm, with about 40 lawyers in its West Palm Beach office.
    Gulf Stream answered O’Hare within two days, saying it was “working on a large number of incoming public records requests” and would use “its very best efforts to respond to you in a reasonable amount of time.”
    The judge noted that O’Hare did not advise the town that he wanted the request handled ahead of 10 other requests he made that day.
    O’Hare filed suit 46 days after he made his request, a day longer than the statutory requirement, asking Barkdull to declare the town was making an “illegal withholding” of the records and seeking attorney fees.
    In January, after a four-day nonjury trial, Robert Sweetapple, Gulf Stream’s outside counsel, told town commissioners the judge sided with them. In Barkdull’s final order, the judge invited Gulf Stream to ask that O’Hare pay its legal bill and also be sanctioned.
    At the same meeting, O’Hare told commissioners he disagreed with the ruling. “So do my attorneys, and of course we’ll appeal that,” he said.
    Before Barkdull’s ruling, a municipality that successfully defended itself against a public records dispute still had to pay its own legal bill.
    O’Hare began asking Gulf Stream for public records in 2013. From late August through December that year, he made more than 400 requests, Sweetapple said. Together, he and fellow resident O’Boyle have filed more than 2,000 requests and dozens of lawsuits.
    The 10 requests O’Hare made May 14, 2014, led to seven lawsuits, Sweetapple said.
    Gulf Stream’s legal bills soared from $3,000 a month to as much as $79,000 a month fighting the lawsuits, the town told Barkdull. It bought new computer programs and a server to handle all the public records requests and hired an attorney full time in Town Hall to help manage the cases.
    O’Hare launched his barrage of public records requests after he experienced what he described as “a series of retaliations” and “fictitious code enforcements” from the town beginning in 2012, Barkdull wrote.
    O’Hare, who lives in Place Au Soleil, also had an “ongoing dispute” with the town regarding him parking his boat on what he understood to be publicly accessible waters in a canal west of Mayor Scott Morgan’s house.

By Jane Smith
    
    With a 15-minute soliloquy, Delray Beach’s mayor cast the deciding vote to keep the Community Redevelopment Agency board independent from the City Commission.
    “The hasty manner in which we got here does not produce an environment in which cooler heads prevail,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said.
    Glickstein said he regretted not hitting the pause button two weeks ago, and that he and his commission colleagues had spent the intervening 14 days talking to residents on both sides of the issue and many in the middle.
    But his support was conditional.
    “Things must change,” he said, starting with the City Commission’s appointment of four members this month to the seven-member CRA board.
    His other conditions include: The CRA will pay for all city-identified projects in its district; the CRA will circulate documents for public land sales over 1 acre to the City Commission and city attorney before developers can submit bids; and the CRA staff will communicate better with city staff and commissioners.
    Glickstein also wants to see the CRA end “the backdoor funding game.” At times, he said, when a project was denied money by the city, the developer went to the CRA. The agency was seen “as an off-the-balance sheet, out-of-public-scrutiny source with a seemingly magical money pot that has been for far too long viewed as  something other than what it is: taxpayer dollars.”
     The mayor followed up a week later with a memo to the CRA leadership detailing the conditions for his support of an independent CRA board.
    At the May 16 commission meeting, nearly 40 people spoke on the CRA. The speakers included downtown business owners, former city staffers, a former mayor, current and former CRA board members and longtime residents. Four current CRA board members, including Chairman Reggie Cox, sat in the front row of the packed commission chambers.
    Vice Mayor Jim Chard, who agreed May 2 to discuss the CRA takeover, supported keeping the independent board two weeks later. Chard pointed out the agency’s many accomplishments, including trees along 12th Street and the Atlantic Grove development on West Atlantic.
    “The issue is communications,” he said. “Better communications will be easier to do than the nuclear option.”
    Deputy Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson also voted to keep the board independent.
    The tumultuous debate over the CRA in the past two weeks brought the city together, Johnson said. “Thirty-two years is not long in the redevelopment world,” she said. “Blight and slum conditions still exist in the Northwest and Southwest neighborhoods.”
     “It’s foolish to think this conversation started two weeks ago,” Commissioner Mitch Katz said. “It started two years ago when then-Commissioner Al Jacquet was outraged that Old School Square expenses were fast-tracked in front of work that was needed in the Northwest/Southwest neighborhoods.”
    Katz supported disbanding the CRA board because he thinks elected officials should be in charge of deciding how taxpayer dollars are spent.
    Commissioner Shelly Petrolia supported the disbanding even though it would be more work for the commission to take over the CRA. “I will bite the bullet,” she said. “I can do it.”  
    In her four years as a commissioner, Petrolia said, “Many CRA decisions did not have the support of the taxpayers.”
    She also said that at a City Commission goal-setting session the previous week, all five commissioners agreed their focus should be on West Atlantic Avenue, not Congress Avenue.
    Nearly one-third of the speakers agreed.
    “I’m mad as hell, the CRA is giving you lip service,” said barrier-island resident Steve Blum. “It has nothing to do with race or historic events. It’s about who do I want to handle my $30 million.”
    Frances Bourque, the principal money-raiser for the Old School Square complex, said, “For the last 30 years I’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with the CRA.”
    Bourque, who lives in the Delray Dunes Golf and Country Club, spoke about giving the CRA board members another chance. “There’s humanity in every decision,” she said. “It’s not just about the dollars.”
    Residents of The Set have been waiting, said Cox, who lives in the area. (The Set is the new name for the Northwest and Southwest neighborhoods.) “It’s time to move forward.”

Dispute over naming policy
    The uproar started at the May 2 commission meeting. Commissioners were upset that the CRA board passed a building naming policy while the city is trying to craft one. The naming policy became the tipping point after drawn-out negotiations with the iPic theater owner and the loss of a West Atlantic developer.
    When the mayor asked the city attorney what could be done, Max Lohman replied “little” because the CRA is an independent board. He proposed a “nuclear option” with a resolution dissolving the CRA board and having the city commissioners sit as the CRA members. That’s how a majority of the CRAs in Florida are run, including in Boynton Beach and Boca Raton.
    The CRA covers 20 percent of Delray Beach, from Interstate 95 to the ocean, where property values are the highest. Its current budget is $17 million from city and county tax dollars. With other sources, the agency will have $31.5 million to spend this budget year. The amount includes a $3.1 million line of credit and the $3.6 million land sale to iPic.
    Delray Beach’s redevelopment agency is considered successful. Since its 1985 start, the CRA has created a vibrant downtown and the Pineapple Grove arts district. The agency also won recent awards from the Florida Redevelopment Association for beautifying Federal Highway and offering incentives to Fairfield Inn & Suites Hotel to open on West Atlantic Avenue.
    At the agency’s May 11 meeting, the building naming policy was rescinded without discussion. The board members also evaluated their executive director and gave Jeff Costello a 5 percent raise, with Cox voting no.
    Cox said he talked privately with Costello about his low rating. The evaluation forms show that Cox rated Costello 77 on a 155-point scale over budget, personnel and communication problems. The evaluations were done prior to the latest kerfuffle with the city.

By Dan Moffett

    SOUTH PALM BEACH — Mark Harris worked for 27 years as a paramedic with the Fire Department of New York, and on 9/11 arrived at Ground Zero just as the second airplane hit the tower.
    Years later, after retiring to South Palm Beach, Mr. Harris became a popular lecturer on emergency response and told his audiences how that tragic day taught him about the random nature of life and death.
    He recalled standing in a group of first responders several hundred feet from the second building when it came down. Mr. Harris said he ran to the left. The others ran to the right. He lived. They didn’t.
    Mr. Harris died of cancer on May 13. He was 54.
    Bob Vitas, the South Palm Beach town manager who started many mornings over coffee with Mr. Harris, says the health problems that ultimately claimed his life grew out of the toxic dust and debris that engulfed him as he helped rescue survivors of the attacks.
    “He was a hero in all respects,” Vitas said. “Mark was always giving of himself. Those who heard him speak loved him.”
    Since 2013, Mr. Harris worked as a community relations specialist and fire-rescue liaison with Delray Medical Center. He gave lectures around south county on “Emergencies From A to Z” and “What Happens When You Dial 911.”
    He showed people how to perform CPR and how to detect strokes. He showed people how to save lives, and his experiences at Ground Zero resonated through his work.
    Delray Medical Center CEO Mark Bryan said Mr. Harris was the first fire-rescue liaison the hospital ever had and that he developed the position from scratch, building relationships between first responders and emergency room staff. Bryan said the hospital plans to continue the position and build on the work Mr. Harris did.
    “Mark did an absolutely fabulous job,” Bryan said. “He basically improved the care of patients throughout Delray by getting people to the hospital faster.”
    Mr. Harris served for a time as board director of The Barclay condominium and forged a close friendship with longtime Barclay resident Leonard Cohen.
    “He was more than a neighbor. He was like a son to me,” Cohen said. “He was quite a hero. What he did at 9/11 and what he’s done down here, that’s a true hero.”
    Mr. Harris looked out for those in his adopted hometown. When Town Clerk Maylee De Jesus was sworn in last year as president of the county’s Municipal Clerks Association, he insisted on making a speech to the group to contribute to the moment.
    “He helped the town whenever there were events going on with items such as first-aid kits,” De Jesus said. “He was always willing to help and be part of anything that we needed.”
    Mr. Harris is survived by his wife, Brandi, and four adult children:  Michael, 29, Sabrianna, 28, Jonathan, 27, and Torey, 24.
    Dozens of first responders and hospital staff joined friends and family to honor Mr. Harris during a May 19 service at The Patriot Memorial in Wellington, where other victims and heroes of 9/11 are remembered.
    The family asks that memorial donations go to the University of Miami Hospital’s cancer ward for children, c/o Kymberlee Manni, 1400 NW 12th Ave., Miami, FL 33126.

By Emily J. Minor

    BOCA RATON — John R. Pisapia, a lifelong student of education who loved traveling and learning from leaders in other parts of the world, died May 2 after becoming ill last summer. He was 79.
    Although unable to speak in the last months of his life, Dr. Pisapia — on staff as a professor and department head at Florida Atlantic University for the last 20 years — continued working with his doctoral students through emails and texts, said his stepdaughter, Pamela Baynes.
    “He was a teacher until the end,” she said.
    Born in New Jersey in 1937, the first of six children to his parents, Carmine and Josephine Pisapia, Dr. Pisapia attended Glenville State College in West Virginia on a football scholarship. Later, when he was invited to the Washington Redskins training camp, he was relieved when he was cut, Baynes said.
    The end of football meant he could pursue his real passions: education, leadership and helping students rise to the top.
    Dr. Pisapia earned his master’s degree and a Ph.D. from West Virginia University, and then worked as a teacher, coach, high school principal and eventually as West Virginia superintendent of schools. He later became a tenured professor at WVU, and then moved on to Virginia Commonwealth University.
    In Virginia, he founded the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium, which focused on research and solutions to America’s obstacles to good learning and good teaching.
    “He was very proud of MERC,” Baynes said.
    In 1984, he married Pamela Baynes’ mother, Barbara Romano Pisapia, a special education teacher with whom Dr. Pisapia worked for many years. Although Dr. Pisapia was her stepfather, Baynes said she always considered him a father. After he became ill last summer, she eventually quit her job so she could care for him, she said.
    John and Barbara Pisapia moved to Boca Raton in 1998, coming to Florida so Dr. Pisapia could help set up FAU’s Department of Educational Leadership.
    Besides his grandchildren, his students were his great love, Baynes said. And he used his travel to ground his work on a global level.
    “Whenever he entered the room, he always made sure to do his best to make somebody feel at ease and feel welcome,” said FAU professor Daniel Reyes-Guerra. “He wanted them to know there was an important reason for them to be there.”
    Dr. Pisapia was mesmerized by leaders of other cultures. Before he became ill, he had just visited and studied in South Korea, Japan and Australia. Each year, he took such a summer trip.
    “His whole goal was to learn from those cultures and really immerse himself,” Baynes said. “He would have Chinese students come over and he’d learn from them.”
    Mrs. Pisapia died in 2009, after her retirement from special education enabled her to travel with her husband.
    “He was a remarkable man and a spectacular person,” said his sister, Jo Ann Walsh Harpster, who lives on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
    Dr. Pisapia is also survived by a son and stepson; three grandchildren; another sister, and three brothers.
    A memorial service was held May 11, with memory sharing from many of his FAU colleagues.
    The family asks that any donations be sent to: FAU Foundation (EDU300), FAU Educational Leadership and Research Methodology, ED47, Suite 260, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL 33431.

By Emily J. Minor

    LANTANA — Ray Flow, the son of North Carolina tobacco sharecroppers who left his small hometown to join the service and then moved to Florida to marry, start a family and surround himself in community, died May 19.
    Mr. Flow was 76.
    Widowed in 1997 when his first wife, Sharon, died of breast cancer, Mr. Flow married again in 2005 and had spent those years doing all the things he loved, said his wife, Connie. The couple met in 1998 at the gym where they worked out, and had been together since.
    For years, they traveled, played squash and racquetball, went horseback riding and snow skiing, and roller bladed and danced. When Mr. Flow became sick with cancer about a year ago, it was a shock because he had always been so healthy and active, Connie Flow said.
    “Ray had a big personality and he was Type A, so we were never home,” she said, adding it was a way of life she loved as well.
    A well-known businessman in Lantana and Lake Worth, Mr. Flow and his first wife established A Little Dude Ranch child care centers in 1973 — well before child care centers were considered the everyday norm.
    “He’d go from Dude Ranch to Dude Ranch and have the children sing,” Connie Flow said. “That was his job, to make them happy.”
    Most years, he and the kids were on the float for the Lake Worth Holiday Parade. And he’d often run into former students, all grown up, who would remember him from when they were little, his wife said.
    After selling the day cares in 2005, Ray and Connie Flow invested in Lake Worth Storage — an easier business to run with less overhead, fewer regulations and a much smaller staff. This allowed them to pursue the things they loved, she said.
    Mr. Flow also invested in properties through the years and at the time of his death managed more than 175 duplexes in and around Lake Worth, she said.
    One employee, Marge Lagendyk, stayed with him through all his ventures for nearly 40 years.
    By all accounts, Mr. Flow was a self-made man, relying on hard work, great ideas, a head for business and true grit.
    A high school sports star in Broadway, N.C., Mr. Flow wanted to attend college after graduation, but his father rejected the idea. Instead, Mr. Flow joined the U.S. Army and was stationed for a time in Germany. When he got out, he worked in Myrtle Beach, where he met his first wife. The two married in Daytona Beach in 1965.
    After moving to Lantana, Mr. Flow was an immediate community mover and shaker. He loved Toastmasters and was active in many civic groups, including the Salvation Army, the Rotary Club, Golf for a Cure (an Alzheimer’s research funding foundation), the Heritage Foundation, Palm Beach Gator Ski Club and the Republican Club.
    Encouraged by his first wife, he eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in international business from Florida Atlantic University. He was also a member of Calvary United Methodist Church and later Lakeside Presbyterian Church, and sang in the choirs for both.
    Besides Connie Flow he is survived by daughters Keely and Melanie “Mimi” Flow; siblings Charmion Spainhour, and Tony, Jenette and Ben Flow; and four grandchildren. A memorial service will be held 3-6 p.m. June 3 at Atlantis Country Club, 190 Atlantis Blvd., Atlantis.

By Jane Smith
    
    Fourteen years after Boynton Beach installed fire hydrants in the County Pocket, its seven hydrants were finally mapped in May.
    “We rely on water departments to send the information,” David Sauls, a fire safety specialist with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue, said of hydrant locations. “Sometimes we can’t use their info because the database is not compatible with ours.”
    He could not say why the hydrants were not mapped in 2003 when they were installed, because he had a different job with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue at that time.

    Maps of fire hydrants are used by county emergency dispatchers to send out the fire-rescue and sheriff response.
    Boynton Beach installed the water mains and the hydrants and tests them annually, said Colin Groff, former head of the city’s utilities department and now an assistant city manager.
    Groff also said he did not know why the hydrants weren’t mapped because he was not working for Boynton Beach in 2003.
    “County pockets with city services are often problematic,” Groff said.
    The unincorporated pocket with narrow streets sits just south of Briny Breezes and relies on the county for public safety services. The area spans about 16.5 acres with fewer than 100 dwellings, including 52 single-family homes. The popular Nomad Surf Shop and Seaside Deli also are in the pocket.
    Residents enjoy living so close to the beach and watch out for each other, said Marie Chapman, a 10-year pocket resident. “It’s like a mini-Mayberry filled with eclectic residents,” she said.
    But in the back of her mind, she worries about fire-rescue response times because of her two young children. Chapman said her concerns stem from a friend, Bill Dunn, who died in 2009 and outsiders who park their cars on Old Ocean Boulevard while they go to the beach. Doing so blocks that street for the large fire-rescue vehicles to reach the pocket.

Insurance notice triggered investigation
    Periodically, County Pocket homeowners receive notices from insurance carriers that their coverage is being dropped, according to Stuart Malin, a pocket resident of five years.
    “A new carrier said it couldn’t find any records of fire hydrants in the area and wanted to charge me a high rate as if we didn’t have hydrants,” Malin said.
    He took photos of the hydrants and called Sauls. “He said he would come out and look … [and] not to worry in the meantime, because they can bring in big tanker trucks,” Malin said.
    Sauls came out to the pocket and found the hydrants. He updated the hydrant maps on his iPad.  Meanwhile, Malin also contacted pocket resident Mike Smollon, a retired Boynton Beach Fire Rescue captain.
    “Neighbors often ask me about fire-related issues,” Smollon said.
    Malin explained the higher rate his insurance carrier wanted to charge because the county maps didn’t show any fire hydrants in the pocket. Smollon agreed to look into the issue.
    Smollon played a leading role in improving emergency response times in late 2009 after Dunn, 48, choked to death while eating a piece of steak. County fire-rescue took more than 12 minutes to arrive from its station at Woolbright Road and Military Trail.
    “It should not have happened,” Smollon said.
    In late 2009, after Dunn died, Smollon met with County Commissioner Steven Abrams, who represents the County Pocket, then-Boynton Beach Fire Chief William Bingham, then-County Fire Chief Steve Jerauld and a county deputy fire chief.
    Smollon found and shared a mutual aid agreement from 1990 made between the fire departments of Boynton Beach and Palm Beach County. The agreement called for Boynton Beach to respond to life-threatening emergencies or when the county station was busy.
    Minor calls, such as fire on the beach or a barrel washed ashore, would be the responsibility of the county fire department.
    Boynton Beach Fire Rescue was not called the night Dunn died.
    The mutual aid agreement was further clarified in early 2011. Now, Boynton Beach sends a unit from its South Federal Highway station to respond to life-threatening emergencies in the pocket. These are defined as choking, seizure, allergic reaction, car accident, drowning, structure fire, cardiac arrest, trouble breathing, unresponsive person, electrocution, shooting/stabbing and aircraft/boating accident.
    The clarified agreement works like this: The emergency calls go to the county dispatch center, which contacts the nearest county fire station on West Woolbright Road. An officer there decides whether to send a rescue team or if Boynton Beach should be called.
 In 2015, when Delray Beach joined the county dispatch system, the county’s non-emergency calls started going to the city’s barrier island station on Andrews Avenue.
    The process sounds time-consuming, but “it adds only seconds to the response time,” Smollon said.
    In 2016, Boynton Beach paramedics responded to eight medical calls in the pocket, according to Boynton Beach Fire Rescue records. Its average response time was 5 minutes and 21 seconds. The city has its own dispatch system for 911 calls.
Delray Beach Fire Rescue responded to 24 calls in the pocket last year. Its average response time was 10 minutes and 16 seconds, according to county fire-rescue, which tracks the incidents.
    Smollon realizes the narrow and dead-end streets in the enclave can be challenging for fire trucks and rescue vehicles to navigate.  Even so, he said, “We are paying our taxes and we expect to be treated right.”

By Thom Smith

    Humans have swum naked in Florida waters for millennia, but as the state’s 1,350 miles of coastline have become more congested, pressure has grown to “suit up.” Only one beach — Haulover in Miami — is officially “clothing optional.”
    That could change if a Palm Beach County citizens group persuades the County Commission that such a beach would be good for business.
    In a May 16 letter to the commission, the Palm Beach County Freedom Initiative presented its proposal that, for starters, suggests a small northern portion of Gulfstream Park, just south of Briny Breezes.
    “There is no reason our county needs to send our dollars south,” initiative spokesman Karl Dickey of Boynton Beach wrote. He also cited Blind Creek Beach near Fort Pierce, which isn’t legally designated but does have government approval. Not only would local users stay home, he suggested, but a nude beach would attract tourists.   
    Blind Creek’s shoreline is unblemished by high-rises, luxury homes or clam stands, whereas Gulfstream’s 7 acres are surrounded by small apartments, multistory condos, single-family homes and a mobile home park.
    Briny Breezes officials aren’t enthused with the idea.
    “I don’t think it’s going to fly,” said Alderman Jim McCormick. “You’ve got families with children right over there next to the park. They don’t want it. Whose brilliant idea was this anyway?”
    Alderman Chick Behringer says a nude beach is a poor suggestion.
    “Based on surrounding areas, I think it’s going to draw a lot of the wrong people — a lot of gawkers,” he said.
    Dickey’s group is open to alternatives. For decades, a stretch known as Air Force Beach in North Palm Beach was the go-to nude beach. When Walt Disney was looking at possible sites for a theme park, he swam there — sans apparel — with its former owner, John D. MacArthur, for whom the now state park is named.

Dan Moffett contributed to this story.

By Jane Smith
    
    The city will still celebrate the Fourth of July while its beach promenade work continues.
    “Pardon our dust,” said Stephanie Immelman, executive director of the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative. “We will have a condensed event with the flag-raising taking place at 5 p.m. instead of at 3:30 p.m.
    “We have a new 60-foot flag to raise,” she said. “That’s my favorite part of the festivities.”
    Families help to hold up the flag as it is raised by a crane. The flag should not touch the ground while it is raised, according to flag etiquette.
    The marketing staff has been working with its Team Delray partners on the event, Immelman said.
    Parking will be limited along the ocean, with construction blocking parking along A1A. Festival-goers are urged to park west of the Intracoastal Waterway in city garages and parking lots and then take the Downtown Trolley to NE/SE Seventh Avenue and walk or bike over to the beach.
    Police will close Ocean Boulevard at 2 p.m. from Thomas Street down to Bucida Road, one block past Casuarina Road on the south.
    That stretch won’t be reopened until the crowds clear after the fireworks finish on the north end of the city’s beach, Immelman said.
    The fireworks show will start at 9 p.m.
    City police also will close East Atlantic Avenue at NE/SE Seventh Avenue at 1:30 p.m.  July 4.
    Festivities start at 8 a.m. with a sandcastle-building contest on the beach.
    For a list of activities and parking information, Immelman said to check the website www.JulyFourthDelrayBeach.com.

Promenade work proceeds
    Meanwhile, Delray Beach continues work on the $3.1 million upgrade to the municipal beach promenade, moving toward an early fall completion date for the entire 1.25-mile project.
    In late May, contractors began working between the Sandoway parking lot north to Boston’s Sand Bar, just south of Atlantic Avenue. Sidewalks will be demolished and parking meters, benches, plaques, stone memorials, showers, trash containers and signs will be removed.
    The Sandoway parking lot will remain open. The city is asking beachgoers to consider parking elsewhere and taking the trolley to the beach. Street parking will be limited along the municipal beach with about half of the meters along Ocean Boulevard removed for the project, according to Missie Barletto of the city’s Public Works division.
    The promenade enhancements are nearly 10 years in the making.
    The work, west of the dunes, will feature wider sidewalks and coordinated shower poles, benches, bike and surfboard racks, trash/recycling containers and signs to replace the current hodgepodge of styles. Smart parking meters will be solar-powered.
    Utility trenches were dug recently for water pipes and cables for lighting at the south end of the project. After the utility lines are installed, backfilling and compacting of the trenches will be finished in early June.
    Bicyclists can still ride on Ocean Boulevard, but they are urged to use caution. The bike lane on the east side will be narrowed with barriers to protect the public from the construction work.
    About 70 percent of the beach benches, plaques and stone memorials have been removed, mostly from the south side and some from the very north of the city’s beach, Barletto said.
    The items are stored. The city is asking donors to contact project manager Isaac Kovner at 243-7000, ext. 4119, to discuss options.