I have been a resident of Palm Beach County since 1973, from West Palm Beach to Boca Raton, and in that time I have seen dozens of smaller newspapers come and go.
    I would like to give you a compliment: You and your team are doing a great job with the layout, content and distribution of The Coastal Star. Your passion shows in the quality of your newspaper, and we, the readers, really appreciate it.
    The icing on the cake is, I was at The Colony Hotel in Palm Beach for brunch on Sunday, where for generations the Palm Beach “Shiny Sheet” was an institution. However this time I saw The Coastal Star there instead.
    Congratulations.
Giovanni Marquez
Boynton Beach

By Jane Smith
    
    Twenty city police officers will soon sport body cameras in a pilot program.
    The Delray Beach City Commission approved spending $34,260 for 20 Tasers, 20 body cameras and cloud storage of the cameras’ audio/video.
    The Tasers will be upgraded every five years and the cameras will be upgraded every 30 months, Andrew Mellen, the company rep, told commissioners on April 19. He called it a “worry-free contract.”
    The goal is to have 20 officers wearing the body cameras by June, Police Chief Jeff Goldman said. “Training is done in one to three days,” he said. “The officers are trained on care for the equipment, use, and use of the evidence.com cloud server that stores the audio/video.”
    At the commission meeting, Goldman said the officers will have to document why they shut off the cameras. He gave these examples: hospitals, juvenile halls and other areas where they have privacy concerns.
    “When the officer pulls out the Taser, the camera will go on,” Goldman said. The Police Department is testing where to mount the cameras on the body.
     “We realize this is coming,” said Gary Ferreri, the lead police union rep. “The chief allowed us to be part of the process in writing the regulations.” The regulations were still with the union’s legal team at press time.
    Vice Mayor Al Jacquet, who recommended the body cameras months ago, said, “Today is a great day for our city. It’s better to be ahead of it. … I also applaud the union.”
    For the next budget year that begins in October, Goldman told commissioners he will request 75 more body cameras, Tasers and cloud storage space for the videos.
    The pilot program will run through the summer, Goldman said. He also said each officer wearing a body camera will rate it on factors including ease of use, battery time and effectiveness.

By Dan Moffett

    Dozens of residents packed Town Hall for an April 19 workshop on Manalapan’s proposed water utility deal with Boynton Beach, and now town commissioners say they’re working to answer questions and allay concerns raised in the meeting.
    “This is a work in progress and nothing has been decided,” said Mayor David Cheifetz. “We continue to process information.”
    By the end of May, commissioners expect to receive a report from a consultant hired to take another look at the numbers — in particular, the valuation of Manalapan’s system and the impact on residents’ water rates if Boynton takes over.
    Town Manager Linda Stumpf said the town has yet to receive a draft with the proposed terms of the sale from Boynton and also a draft of the interlocal agreement needed to close the deal.
    “One of the things we’re trying to avoid is the perfect storm of rate problems,” Cheifetz said during the April 26 town meeting.
    That exploding rate storm could strike if several hundred Manalapan utilities customers in Hypoluxo decide to get their water from somebody else and if the town has to go forward with roughly $5 million in repairs to its aging delivery pipes.
    A deal with Boynton, a growing system with more than 110,000 customers, has the potential to prevent all that, but not everyone on the commission is convinced.
    “If we sell it, we’re bound forever to somebody else’s wishes and their pricing structure,” said Commissioner Ronald Barsanti.
    Commissioner Simone Bonutti agreed, saying if Manalapan gives up being “the master of our own water,” the town will have less flexibility to adjust to droughts and use restrictions. “It will have a long-term effect on all of us,” she said.
    A preliminary analysis by Commissioner Clark Appleby found that about 85 percent of the town’s customers would pay lower bills if Boynton Beach buys the system. Should both the town and the city approve a deal, the takeover could happen before the end of the year.
    In other business:
    • Vice Mayor Peter Isaac reported that he expects construction on the south side of the Audubon Causeway bridge to be completed by the end of May and the weight restrictions on traffic lifted. Isaac said he remains hopeful the new bridge can be “substantially complete” by the end of July, with a couple months of “tidy-up” landscaping and cosmetic work to follow.
    • Commissioners decided to restore a $2,000 limit for landscaping renovation on town-owned property as the threshold for requiring approval from the Architectural Commission. In March 2015, commissioners reduced the limit to $300, a level they now believe is too low and an unnecessary hardship on staff.

By Dan Moffett

    Gulf Stream commissioners are scrambling to squeeze costs out of their troubled underground utilities project and accelerate a construction schedule that threatens to drag on for at least another two years.
    Mayor Scott Morgan said the town should consider taking drastic action to expedite the project’s completion — including perhaps hiring independent contractors to replace AT&T and Comcast crews.
    “They cannot hold a town hostage,” Morgan said. “We can take matters into our own hands. At some point, there’s municipal rights.”
    Morgan said he would personally talk with supervisors at Florida Power & Light, AT&T and Comcast to make the town’s case for an accelerated pace.
    “I intend to contact absolutely everybody who’s involved in this project from the installer who’s climbing up the pole to the chairman of the board,” he said. “That’s the approach I’m going to take.”
    Gulf Stream residents approved the plan to bury utility lines in 2011, but it took two years to start work on phase one because of delays getting design plans from FPL. In 2013, the town filed a complaint with the Florida Public Service Commission about FPL’s slow response. The complaint did little to prevent delays in phase two, with FPL again falling behind in producing plans.
    While the project stalled, construction costs rose throughout South Florida and contractors who were once willing to bid on Gulf Stream’s work found other jobs. One potential bidder got involved with All Aboard Florida instead. Material costs rose, too.
    What was conceived as a $5.5 million project six years ago now will cost significantly more to complete. But perhaps not as much more as commissioners once feared.
    Danny Brannon, the town’s engineering consultant, brought some good news to an April 13 special meeting on the project. Brannon said he was able to find about $444,000 in cuts for the second phase, meaning that the original $2.8 million price tag for the work is likely to come in around $3.3 million — about $510,000 more than the town expected but not the nearly $1 million overrun that seemed likely weeks ago.
    “We found considerable overestimating on the part of the contractor,” Brannon said, “and that brought some of the numbers down.”
    Much of the potential savings comes from changing the conduit and connections for Comcast and AT&T. But commissioners said it was impossible for them to approve a bid for the power work that was submitted by Wilco Electric, until Comcast and AT&T confirm the estimates they gave years ago.
    Vice Mayor Robert Ganger said he was “nervous going forward without those numbers,” and Commissioner Thomas Stanley said the commission was stuck until “we have baseline numbers from both parties.”
Commissioners hope to have those figures in their hands before the end of May and with them some clarity.
    “The five of us feel like we’re flying in a fog and don’t even know where the ground is,” Ganger said. “It’s getting more and more frustrating for us, and it’s got to be getting more frustrating for the residents.”
    Town Manager William Thrasher said the town has hired Gary Resnick, a lawyer and mayor of Wilton Manors in Broward County, to assist Brannon in negotiating deadlines and costs with the utility companies.
    • For the second year in a row, the Chicago-based Government Finance Officers Association honored the town with its Distinguished Budget Presentation Award, giving officials high marks for the budget as “a policy document, a financial plan, an operations guide (and) a communications device.” It is the only national awards program in government budgeting. The GFOA also again recognized Rebecca Tew, the town’s accountant, for her work on the budget.

By Jane Smith
    
    The fate of the stalled Atlantic Crossing project is back in federal court.
    In early April, the Delray Beach City Commission rejected the project’s modified site plan that added a driveway and redesigned the valet area into a circular path from a horseshoe-shaped version. The plan also called for improved contrast for the two loading docks and a pedestrian crosswalk moved north in the project to increase its safety.
    The changes, though, were not enough to satisfy commissioners Shelly Petrolia, Mitch Katz and Mayor Cary Glickstein. The federal lawsuit, filed by the developers against the city, was on hold while the modified site plan was reviewed. The stay was lifted and motions soon were entered.
    The day after the city commission requested two alleys be returned to the city from Atlantic Crossing, the city filed a motion April 20 to dismiss the developers’ third amended complaint. Many counts, the motion said, failed to state a cause of action or were not ready to be heard. The developers have until May 9 to file a response. The case has an October jury trial date.
    “The re-introduction of a connecting road has been nothing short of tortuous,” Glickstein said when explaining his vote on April 5. “To the developer, you missed the opportunity. You strayed from an atmosphere of cooperation when you said you can’t and two years later you said you could. In the interim you only crystallized the palpable mistrust the community felt towards you and the project that led to this drama tonight and all the avoidable time, money and now a federal lawsuit.”
    The proposed Atlantic Crossing sits at a major intersection — the northeast corner of Federal Highway and Atlantic Avenue — in the city’s downtown. It lies just west of the Intracoastal Waterway with Veterans Park in between.
    Instead of becoming a jewel, it’s turned into a dead zone with dark green construction screening around the west half of the project.
    Sitting on 9.2 acres, the complex, developed by a partnership between Ohio-based Edwards Companies and Ocean Ridge resident Carl DeSantis, will contain 343 luxury condos and apartments plus 39,394 square feet of restaurants, 37,642 square feet of shops and 83,462 square feet of office space.
    Before explaining his reasoning, the mayor lauded DeSantis, saying he “has always been a gentleman to me and has contributed significantly to the betterment of this community and many others, something he’s not received credit for or sought.”
    Atlantic Crossing plans also call for an underground garage.

Traffic issues remain at center of dispute
    The modified site plan contained a connecting road that would lead into the garage from Federal Highway and provide a westbound exit to Federal. City planners called the road a driveway because it is only 12 feet wide and doesn’t have setbacks, limiting pedestrian and bicyclist access.
    The driveway also has a problematic turning radius for vehicles exiting the garage. The turning radius was deemed barely acceptable by city-hired engineering consultants, another reason cited by the mayor for his decision.
    The driveway looks like an alley when it needs “equal dignity to a real street,” said Derek Vander Ploeg, the Boca Raton architect who drew the plan for the project when it was called Atlantic Plaza II before the real estate recession.
    Back in 2008, the project was slated to include 202 residential units and 110,000 square feet of retail space with 1,160 underground parking spaces on 8.9 acres.
    Architects loathe shaving space off their buildings, but they can do it to create a real street, Vander Ploeg said. Regular people care more about streetscapes than the actual buildings, he said.
    When he designed Atlantic Plaza II, he included a deceleration lane on Federal Highway, an item that the current mayor would like to see to mitigate traffic around Atlantic Crossing.
    “I hope for the city of Delray that something can be done,” Vander Ploeg said.
    Don DeVere, vice president of development for Edwards Companies, said, “Once again, the commission majority decided that they would rather litigate than work together and follow their own rules. They missed this opportunity to resolve the issues and allow this important project to move forward.”
    He went on to say that approving the modified site plan would “have continued settlement discussions to provide additional benefits to the neighborhood and to eliminate the city’s risk of damages, estimated at up to $40 million. Mayor Glickstein and Commissioners Petrolia and Katz decided they didn’t want to take that path, but chose to litigate instead.”
    The development team sued the city in June claiming the city has not issued a site-plan certification that was approved in November 2013 and affirmed by a previous City Commission in January 2014. In the fall, that lawsuit was moved to federal court.
    At the April 5 City Commission meeting, Vice Mayor Al Jacquet, who voted for the modified site plan, said, “It’s time for us to move forward. … This is an amicable solution.”
    He did not say that he opened a campaign account in January for a proposed state House run for District 88. In January, people and companies connected to the Atlantic Crossing development team contributed $6,500 to his campaign. State laws and ethic rules say he does not have to reveal the campaign contributions unless there is some quid pro quo involved. Jacquet voiced his support for the project prior to the contributions.
    The other yes vote was made by Commissioner Jordana Jarjura. A lawyer, she said the project has 78 conditions “to clean up what previous commissions did. … We must make decisions that can be supported in court.”
    
Also at the April 5 meeting
    • City Attorney Noel Pfeffer said he plans to resign in 60 days. He will become a partner in Conrad & Scherer, a Fort Lauderdale-based law firm. The S. Renee Narloch and Associates search firm was selected at the April 19 meeting for $24,500 because the firm agreed to a mid-May deadline for recruiting city attorney candidates.
    • The City Commission agreed to hire CB&I Environmental & Infrastructure Inc. of Boca Raton for $78,483 to produce a physical monitoring survey three years after the beach renourishment project was done. The survey will be finished this summer, with results delivered in November.
    • The City Commission agreed to enter into two contracts with Matthews Consulting Inc. of West Palm Beach. The first one, for $199,972, covers engineering design services for the next phase of the city’s reclaimed water expansion system on the barrier island between just north of Lewis Cove south to Linton Boulevard. The second one, for $5,380, will cover a grant application for the next budget year from the South Florida Water Management District to expand the city’s reclaimed water system.

Related story: ArtsPaper Q&A with Alyona Ushe

By Jane Smith

    The popular Arts Garage will soon be able to book bands for the summer, after its chief public provider decided to step outside its guidelines and aid the struggling arts venue.
    Dan Schwartz, Arts Garage finance director who has taken on the duties of co-executive director with Keith Garsson, said the Arts Garage board has agreed to loan the performing arts venue money to cover bank overdrafts and salaries. But it needs a cash infusion to be able to book concerts for the summer months.
    The Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency board agreed, deciding unanimously April 28 to release the first-quarter allocation, $68,750, under certain conditions.
    “The CRA needs a return on its investment, which will happen if the Arts Garage books bands this summer,” CRA board member Daniel Rose said. People will come for a concert and then eat at a restaurant, he said. “They are trying to crawl out of the hole. We need to crawl with them.”  
    “We are in a tough spot,” said Reggie Cox, chairman of the CRA. “We are accountable for fairness in this process.”
In that vein, the Arts Garage must:
    • Close the bank accounts associated with its Pompano Beach locations.
    • Provide checks, invoices and other financial backup for the first-quarter expenses for the Delray Beach location that are acceptable by CRA staff as sufficient documentation.
    • Provide an explanation from the Arts Garage auditor about the overdraft of $10,628.
    The Arts Garage severed financial ties with the Pompano Beach locations in early April, according to Schwartz. As of April 4, the bank accounts were no longer linked electronically, he said.
    The Arts Garage also eliminated its former executive director, Alyona Ushe, as an authorized check signer. After helping to create and build the Arts Garage, she resigned on April 4.
    Mayor Cary Glickstein called Ushe “a force of nature who through sheer will … took an embryonic idea … and turned it into a performing arts venue.”
    Not uncommon in the arts world, he said, the person who got you there is not the one who can manage it when the organization becomes more of a business.
    On April 19, Schwartz wrote, “It is worth noting that all staff related to Pompano has moved out of AG’s facilities and are completely funded by Pompano.”
    The Arts Garage was supposed to buy its location from the city in March, but it didn’t have the money. Instead it is seeking a long-term lease.
    To get the second quarter amount, another $68,750, the Arts Garage must submit:
    • Bank accounts showing CRA money is used only for the Delray Beach location.
    • A strategic plan or a timeline for completing one.
    • A final audit for the financial year of 2014-2015.
    Schwartz and Garsson estimated it would take 30 hours to pull the canceled checks and invoices for the first quarter and said their time could be better spent booking bands and performing other duties.
    But CRA executive director Jeff Costello insisted the documents be compiled.
    “To ensure the CRA money is used properly, we have to ensure the guidelines are followed,” Costello said. “If someone has to work extra to produce it that should be done.”
    Evelyn Dobson, executive director of the Delray Beach Community Land Trust that receives CRA money from the same program as the Arts Garage, noted that a final audit of the previous year was necessary to receive money for the current year. “Would you make the same concession for any other organization?” she asked.

    More than 200 bicyclists are expected in Delray Beach’s Ride of Silence, part of an annual event to honor cyclists killed or injured while riding.
    The worldwide event will begin at 6 p.m. May 18. It will be a 10-mile ride starting and ending at Old School Square.
    “This is a slow, casual ride not to exceed 9 mph,” said Patrick Halliday, president of the Delray Beach Bicycle Club.
    There is no charge to participate, but riders must be at least 16 years old. Riders should  arrive prior to 5:45 and must wear a helmet.

By Rich Pollack

    A group of dog owners buoyed by a Delray Beach Parks and Recreation Department plan to create a dog beach during a six-month trial suffered a setback when the department’s director reversed course, saying dogs romping through the sand could pose a health risk to beachgoers.
    “Recent information regarding specific parasitic conditions which could be acerbated by the presence of dogs, has caused me to change my recommendation,” said Delray Beach Parks and Recreation Director Suzanne Fisher.
    Fisher, who according to the city manager’s office is now officially on leave, recommended in March that the city conduct a pilot program for a dog beach. The plan would have allowed for a small portion of the city’s public beach, at Atlantic Dunes Park, to be cordoned off during early morning and late afternoon hours three days a week and available to dogs and their owners.
    Under that proposal, the 30,000-square-foot dog beach would be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday for two hours in the morning — from 7 to 9 — and three hours in the afternoon ending at sunset. A park ranger would ensure that all dogs were licensed and had proper shots.
    Before going on leave, however, Fisher issued a memo saying her department concluded that some parasites in dogs could be transmitted to humans if larvae shed in feces were to contaminate sand and then penetrate unprotected skin. The larvae can persist for three or four weeks in favorable conditions, she said.
    “While staff’s initial recommendation was to support a pilot program, after additional research regarding Cutaneous larva migrans and Ancylostoma braziliense, due to sand/soil contaminated by intestinal parasites, staff recommends enforcing the current ordinance — do not allow dogs on the municipal beach,” Fisher wrote.
    Cutaneous larva migrans and Ancylostoma braziliense are parasites that belong to the hookworm family.
    The latest position from the Parks and Recreation Department follows City Manager Don Cooper’s recommendation to city commissioners to reject the proposed pilot project. The issue, however, is still scheduled for a discussion at the commission’s workshop meeting on May 10.  
    Fisher’s reversal came as a surprise to leaders of Friends of Delray Dog Beach, who are planning a rally at 9 a.m. May 7 on A1A and Atlantic Avenue.
    “It shocked all of us,” said Bob Brewer, who founded the 1,000-member group. “We thought we had the worst behind us, now we’re back to square one.”
    Brewer said his organization had been working with Fisher and her department for more than a year and would strongly be in favor of creating a dog beach as a pilot project.
    “All we wanted was a trial period,” he said.
    Brewer also said that he and others in the informal group disagree with Fisher’s conclusion that parasites could be a health hazard. He said a member of the organization who is a physician and whose wife is a dermatologist both say the conditions cited by Fisher are extremely rare.
    “Dog beaches are working all over the country,” he said.
    Brewer said his organization is developing a strategy as it continues to advocate for a dog beach and plans to become more visible at commission meetings.
    “We’re not giving up,” he said. “We have too much invested.”

The Florida Department of Transportation is finishing work at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Venetian Drive.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith
    
    Delray Beach will have thinner landscape islands at the east Atlantic Avenue intersections of Venetian Drive and Gleason Street.
    New mast-arm signal poles with 54-inch foundations have been installed in the middle of the sidewalk on the north side of Atlantic at Venetian, leaving just enough room for a wheelchair, stroller or beach wagon to pass through. “It meets the minimum” for federal regulations on handicapped access, said Andy Katz, vice president of the Beach Property Owners Association. But he thinks something should be done there to widen the passage.
    The mayor agrees.
    At the April 19 City Commission meeting, Mayor Cary Glickstein called those two intersections “dangerous pedestrian areas” where you have “to turn sideways to walk down the sidewalk.”
    Florida Department of Transportation contractors are doing the work for which the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency paid $547,865.40.
    The work, which started in mid-January, was marred by rain delays, unrelated problems at the concrete plant and Atlantic Avenue street closings for Delray Beach events. The contractors worked weekdays only, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. As a result, the estimated two-month project is stretching to nearly four months.
    The contractor also drilled into city utility lines that power the street lights and irrigation systems. They had to be fixed and the city had to wait its turn to get at them, Environmental Services Director John Morgan told the commission.
    “I’m concerned about how disruptive it’s been,” he said.
    At the mayor’s urging, Morgan requested using some of the landscape island space from FDOT because that property is owned by the state. The city would then widen the sidewalk in that area to make it compatible with other parts of East Atlantic Avenue that have wider paths.
    At Venetian and Atlantic on the north side, the narrowest passage is three feet, which meets federal guidelines. It can be reduced to 32 inches with certain constraints, said Meredith Cruz, project spokeswoman.  
    That was the only place where FDOT contractors could not install the foundation in the landscaped area because it contained too many utility lines, she said.
    The contractors were expected to restore the work areas, including replacing sidewalk pavers, by the end of the first week in May — weather permitting.

By Rich Pollack

    John Boden was driving south on State Road A1A after dark and approaching a pedestrian crosswalk a few months ago when he happened to see the silhouettes of two women and four children in the headlights of a northbound car.
    Dressed in dark clothing and carrying no lights, the pedestrians had remained invisible to Boden until he was very close to the crosswalk.
    The experience, he says, helped launch him on a one-man crusade to get state and local government leaders to add flashing LED lights along the edges of pedestrian crosswalk signs to alert motorists when there are people in the crosswalk.
    “Realizing that there was the potential for me to kill a family was shocking,” says Boden.
    So far, Boden’s efforts have been unsuccessful, met with feedback from state transportation officials who say there has to be a compelling reason — a pattern of problems at certain crosswalks — before additional lighting can be added.
    While there haven’t been any major accidents at crosswalks near his Highland Beach home in recent years, Boden suspects there have been many near misses. “Everyone I’ve told this story to says ‘It’s happened to me, too,’ ” he said.
    At the same time Boden is launching his campaign for more-visible signage, state officials say they are in the process of deciding whether to continue replacing in-street pedestrian warning signs — those in the middle of the crosswalks — at locations where they are continuously being knocked down.
    “Because they’re hit so often, it’s becoming expensive for the department to replace them,” says Jonathan Overton, the Florida Department of Transportation’s assistant district traffic engineer for the area that includes Palm Beach County.  He estimates that there are between 100 and 150 of the signs statewide, with the biggest concentration in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
    Should the state choose not to replace signs — sometimes referred to as paddle signs or rebounders — that are repeatedly knocked over, municipalities would still have the option to pay for the signs and have them installed by city or town staff.
    That’s already occurring in some coastal towns such as Ocean Ridge, where Police Chief Hal Hutchins says the town routinely replaces knocked-down crosswalk signs.
    In Highland Beach, however, paying to replace the signs —  available for between $65 and $70 —  could end up being costly. The town has eight crosswalks and at a recent commission meeting town officials said they estimate that more than 100 signs have been replaced during a three-year period.
    Both Overton of DOT and Highland Beach Town Manager Beverly Brown say signs near driveways tend to be knocked down the most.
    While signs — both the in-road signs and state-mandated yellow and black crosswalk signs on both sides of the road — do raise awareness, Overton, along with some Highland Beach town commissioners, say education of pedestrians may be the most effective tool in preventing near misses like the one Boden faced.
    “The burden for crossing the street still lies with the pedestrian,” said City Commissioner Carl Feldman, who suggested that perhaps the town’s Police Department could make presentations on crosswalk safety. “Education is important.”
    For his part, Boden is continuing his efforts to have pedestrian-activated flashing LED lights placed on the yellow and black diamond-shaped pedestrian crosswalk signs.
    Those lights, which he said he’s seen on State Road A1A in northern Florida, draw more attention than some of the more common blinking yellow crosswalk lights that can be activated by pedestrians.
    “Everyone wants to do this,” he said. “I’m going to find a way to climb over this wall.”

Mayor Steven Grant (left) works the crowd at the Boynton Beach Firefighters Fishing Tournament

& Chili Cook-Off at Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith
    
    Steven Grant just can’t stop smiling.
    “Mayor Taylor had raised more than $40,000 for his re-election campaign, had the backing of the police and fire unions, while I raised (less than $3,000) and had the backing of the people,” Grant said. He was able to force the mayor’s race into a runoff.
    At 33, Grant is probably the youngest mayor in the history of Boynton Beach. Harvey E. Oyer Jr. was turning 34 when he was elected in 1960, says his daughter Susan, who helped Grant in his runoff race against incumbent Jerry Taylor, 80.
    Since winning the March 29 runoff with 57 percent of the votes, Grant has embraced his mayoral role. He attends events, ceremonies, government meetings, residents forums and individual sessions with city staff and various developers. He has a city cellphone, business cards and even embroidered polo shirts with his full name: Steven B. Grant.
    Grant has come to symbolize the younger face of the Boynton Beach City Commission.
    Justin Katz, 32, joined him when he ran unopposed, taking 70-year-old David Merker’s seat when he ran unsuccessfully for mayor. Katz wants to see a vibrant downtown and to stop “the petty stuff” that often bogged down the previous commission. Katz teaches advanced placement U.S. government and microeconomics courses at Park Vista High School. He’s single and shares his Renaissance Commons townhouse with his Siberian husky/wolf breed dog, Ice. Originally from Cherry Hill, N.J., he moved to South Florida when he transferred to Florida Atlantic University and graduated with an education degree in high school social studies.
    Christina Romelus, 27, beat incumbent Mike Fitzpatrick, 62, and James Brake. Romelus, an adjunct professor at Palm Beach State College who also runs a marketing and consulting business called Sky Administrations, lives in the Seacrest Estates neighborhood, east of Bethesda Memorial Hospital. She is married with two sons: Christian, 2, and David Lee, 2 weeks. Born in Haiti, she grew up in Delray Beach and moved to Boynton Beach in 2010 after she was married. She wants to bring economic development to allow more businesses to open and provide jobs to residents. In addition, she wants to create a vibrant downtown that residents and visitors can enjoy.
    The three younger members serve along with Joe Casello, 62, and Vice Mayor Mack McCray, 66.

Voicing their opinions
    The new commissioners have all stated they are in favor of saving the old high school building.
    At the April 19 meeting, the commission reviewed an unsolicited proposal on the building. Commissioners voted 3-2 to table it until August. Katz and Romelus were on the losing side. “To table it is to kick the can down the road. We need to do something right now,” she said before the vote.
    But Casello and McCray agreed with Grant that the offer should be tabled until the city’s motion to dismiss is heard in July for a nearly 3-year-old court case concerning the high school. An architect had sued the city when his plan to rezone the property was not heard.
    At a strategic planning session May 3, commissioners reviewed the plans and directed staff to change them in time to be included in the next city budget.
    Grant, who moved to Boynton Beach five years ago to open his own law firm specializing in collections and estates, served for three years as chairman of the city’s Financial Advisory Committee.
    He wanted to make use of his undergraduate degree in finance from the University of Maryland while doing his civic duty. He earned his law degree from the Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville.
    Grant is single and lives in the Heart of Boynton, near the downtown, with his Australian shepherd, Daisy, and Maine coon cat, Milo.
    The city’s Financial Advisory Committee was disbanded early last year when then-Mayor Taylor said it was duplicating the work of staff.
    Grant said the committee had wanted to delve into properties owned by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency. “It made me think: What are they hiding?” he said recently.
    Merker told him to apply for the CRA board vacancy. Grant did, but he wasn’t selected.
    In the summer, he heard the old high school may be demolished and that two citizen members would be removed from the CRA board. That convinced him to run for mayor.
    “I like to take charge, be a leader,” Grant said. “I don’t like being told what to do.”
    Backers of the old high school, including Susan Oyer and Barbara Ready, had committed to helping Merker win the mayor’s race. They switched to Grant for the runoff because he promised to save the school. They also like his development stance.
    “He will help Boynton Beach get on the right track,” said Ready, chairwoman of the city’s Historic Resources Preservation Board. “The citizens are tired of being patronized.”
    Oyer said her role was painting signs, standing outside on a corner at Home Depot for three hours waving Grant-for-mayor signs and knocking on 200 doors in her neighborhood.
    “My dad would have been proud that I worked on his campaign,” Oyer said. She also donated $100 to Grant’s runoff campaign.

Development contributed to election
    Other developers with projects in the city donated to Taylor last year. Isram Realty, seeking a zoning change for its 10-story Riverwalk apartments, donated $2,000 to Taylor’s campaign in the fall.
    The Isram principals aren’t concerned. “Commissioners make the decision at a quasi-judicial hearing,” said Isram’s attorney, Steve Wherry. “Those efforts would be ongoing regardless of who was on the dais.”
    Companies for the Ocean One complex on Federal Highway donated at least $3,500 to Taylor’s re-election and runoff campaigns.
    At the April 19 City Commission meeting, the CRA said it had advertised the nearly half-acre parcel that Ocean One wants for its eight-story apartment project.
    Because no buyers came forward, the CRA will be able to sell it for $10. The CRA will review Ocean One plans May 10. Project spokesman Bill Morris likes the idea of an all-citizen CRA board, proposed by Grant. “It creates checks and balances by decreasing the concentration of power in one agency when the CRA board is composed of citizens,” Morris said.
    Other Boynton Beach activists have high hopes for the new commission.“Mayor Taylor’s view was pro-development and lacked transparency,” said Harry Woodworth, president of Inlet Communities Association.
    “We want kind and gentle development,” Woodworth said, “not the high rises they have in Pompano Beach and Singer Island.”
    Kristine de Haseth, the Florida Coalition for Preservation executive director who helped to form the Boynton Coalition for Responsible Development, also sees the change as a positive step for Boynton Beach.
    “Out with the old, in with the new,” she said. “We want to get beyond pushing the pause button, then hitting rewind and repeating.”

By Rich Pollack

    Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies and local law enforcement officers now have the ability to ban individuals who violate state laws or local ordinances in a county park from visiting that park again. And some repeat offenders could be banished for as long as 10 years.
    Under a new ordinance passed by the Palm Beach County Commission last month, sheriff’s deputies and local police officers can now issue trespass notices to anyone violating county ordinances, rules or regulations or state laws in a county park and prevent those individuals from returning to that county park or natural area.
    First-time offenders are banned from returning to a specified park or natural area for one year. Those receiving a second violation will be banned for five years, and those who receive a third violation will be banned for 10 years.
    The ordinance also specifies that anyone in a park or natural area after being banned from that specific facility can be arrested on trespassing charges.
    The ordinance covers such county facilities as South Inlet Park in Boca Raton; Gulfstream Park, near Gulf Stream; and Ocean Inlet Park and Ocean Ridge Hammock Park in Ocean Ridge.
    Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins sees the new ordinance as helping to ensure that those who come to a park and follow the rules are able to enjoy their visit.
    “People who can’t follow the rules probably shouldn’t be there,” he said.
    According to the ordinance, trespass notices can be issued for a wide range of activities that damage county property or wildlife, including harming or harassing animals in natural areas, and removing live plants or plant parts.  
    The ordinance also bans using or possessing fireworks and building a fire in an unauthorized area. Drunkenness, obscene behavior and loitering in a county park or natural area can also earn a visitor a trespass notice, as can any violation of state law, including lewdness and indecent exposure.   
    The new ordinance spells out the appeals process, which was made necessary by recent court cases and legal opinions.  
    Details of how the law is to be enforced by local law enforcement agencies and how deputies and officers will know who has been banned from a specific park are still being worked out, according to Hutchins.
    “We’re waiting for specific instructions about the mechanisms for enforcement,” Hutchins said.
    Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Director Eric Call says the solution is in the works.  “A database is being developed listing all persons issued a trespass notice that law enforcement will have access to,” Call said.    
    The ordinance, passed on April 19, adds some teeth to the enforcement of county rules and regulations as well as minor criminal violations, Call said.
    In the past, civil citations were issued to individuals for ordinance violations, but the individuals were not usually stopped from returning to the park unless they were charged with a serious offense. In those cases, Call said, they were usually arrested.

Danielle Rosse at her Oceans 234 restaurant in Deerfield Beach.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    One of the first things Danielle Rosse, then 19, did when she arrived in South Florida 16 years ago was to take a job as a waitress at the Ranch House, a mom-and-pop-style diner on State Road A1A in Deerfield Beach, a short hop from Boca Raton.
    Rosse is still there today, but the scene and circumstances are decidedly different. The Ranch House is gone, replaced by a new, luxurious seafood specialty dining spot called Oceans 234, so named for its address on A1A.
    Her former mother-in-law owned the building and property when Rosse arrived. She and her then-husband intended to operate the planned new restaurant together, but he died unexpectedly about a year after they began their effort.
    “We were devastated,” Rosse said. “My mother-in-law knew we were going to knock the building down to make way for the new restaurant. She said she would only keep the property if I stayed on. Otherwise, she said, ‘I’m out.’ ”
    Rosse did stay, becoming the manager and using her business acumen to standardize the enterprise and improve workflow. She saw the establishment through its initial rebirth, and last year supervised a top-to-bottom renovation for the 6,000-square-foot, 220-seat restaurant.
    Rosse, 35, has made some bold moves in just a few years. From 2007 to 2012, she continued to run Oceans 234 and also opened and operated The Whale Raw Bar in Parkland, turning that spot into a successful neighborhood watering hole.
    In late 2012, she sold The Whale and purchased Oceans 234 outright from her former mother-in-law. Soon after, she took $1.8 million of her own money — “everything I saved” — and invested it in a major upgrade that has given Oceans 234 a vibrant look of South Beach chic while placing al fresco diners within a whisper of the Atlantic.
    “It was a scary thing to do, especially in this business and in this economy,” she said. “I was going to do it two years ago, but the time wasn’t right. Last year was the right time — and it worked out.”  
    Her current husband’s company, A.W. Rosse & Associates, handled the construction.
    “He really knew how to build things. He told me, ‘You tell me what you need and I’ll tell you how to build it.’ He has an eye for design; he knows the ins and outs. We were fortunate to work together.”
    Becoming a restaurant owner probably wasn’t the first thing on her plate when she hit Florida. But once Rosse committed to running the oceanside business, she took a pass on a variety of modeling suggestions to stake her claim in the food-and-beverage trade.
    Danielle and Anthony Rosse have been married for two years and live nearby in a beachside neighborhood at A1A and Palmetto Park Road in Boca Raton. Between them, they have four children ranging in age from 7 to early 20s.
    A secret of Danielle Rosse’s success may lie in her business mentality and disciplined daily schedule. A fitness devotee, she and her husband are up at 4:50 a.m. each day to begin their routine. Both concentrate on muscle tone and proper nutrition. But she takes it a step further, participating in the toned-muscle division of bikini competitions.
    “It’s fun, but sometimes it feels like a second job,” she said. “You have to be regimented.”
    Their awareness of various lifestyles has affected the restaurant menu to some degree.
“There are items for people with allergies, gluten-free foods and vegetarian selections,” she said. But patrons can also chow down on calamari, lobster mac ’n’ cheese or a thick, juicy burger with fries.
    Rosse believes that “as a business owner, you have to give back to the community.” She has raised money for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County and the Broward Health Foundation’s KIDS Campaign. “I tend to lean toward causes that are kid-related.”
    She is also a member of the Chambers of Commerce in Deerfield Beach and Boca Raton.
    Rosse, who stands 5-feet-11, says her height is sometimes a cause for gentle humor. She said she recalls something her father said when she was younger. “He told me not to feel bad. Tall people always end up being leaders. I have tried to live up to that expectation.”
— Dale King

    Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
    A: I was born in Philadelphia and went to school there through high school. People in the Northeast definitely have a different mentality. People are very driven there. It is a bit more morally sound. People in Florida tend to be more transient. I’m glad I grew up there.
    
    Q: What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
    A: I’m proud of the transformations I have made through the years. Each year, I say, “Oh, my God, we made it that much better.” It’s amazing to see what my team has been able to do.
    
    Q: What is your favorite part about living in Boca Raton?
    A: The amenities. There is so much to do. There are great restaurants, great shopping, fabulous parks, great activities and great beaches.

    Q: What book are you reading now?
    A: The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines Into Massive Success, by Jeff Olson. It is a book about business.
    
    Q: What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
    A:  If I am working, I put on electronic lounge music. For relaxation, nothing specific. I enjoy what I do, so I don’t really feel a need to relax.
    
    Q: Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?
    A: My mother always told me to “say what you mean and mean what you say.” My parents instilled in me a very strong sense of responsibility. I have gone far with that advice.
    
    Q: Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
    A: My former mother-in-law. She really believed in me. Her trust allowed me to grow and ultimately be my own person. Also, my sister-in-law; she is brilliant. I learned so much from her about business and life and how to handle things.
    
    Q: If a movie were made of your life, who should play you?
    A: I don’t know, there’s nobody like me. I’d have to play it myself.
    
    Q: Who/what makes you laugh?
    A: Definitely my 7-year-old daughter, Kayden. She is hysterical. She looks like me; she’s like a miniature twin. I can look at her face and see my reflection.
    
    Q: Is there one dish at your restaurant that a first time visitor should be sure to try? Why?
    A: First-time customers should start with the lobster potato skins, then move to the lobster mac ’n’ cheese or the snapper. My favorite is the skirt steak.

By Jane Smith

    The owners of the Riverwalk Plaza are proceeding with their plans to convert the aging waterfront shopping center into a mixed-use project dominated by rental apartments.
    They plan to ask for a variance to be able to build 10 stories, with the first two floors dedicated for a parking garage. In that area, on the southeast corner of Federal Highway and Woolbright Road with the Intracoastal Waterway on the east, Boynton Beach zoning code allows only 75 feet or seven stories.
    City staff have suggested widening the apartment buildings so that they won’t need the extra height or creating “view corridors” to allow passers-by to see the Intracoastal Waterway.
    But Isram Realty, of Hallandale, insists neither can be done. Walgreen’s with its long-term lease and extensions “has rights to the parking area” for 42 years, said Steve Wherry, Riverwalk’s land use attorney.
    View corridors also are not possible without constructing a taller building, Wherry said. Isram needs to have the 326 units to make project financially feasible. Fewer units would lead to higher rental rates and they “are not supported in this market,” he said.
    Isram, which submitted plans to the city in December, hopes to have a review before the city’s Planning and Development Board in May and then onto the City Commission in late June. David Katz, an ally of former Mayor Jerry Taylor, chairs the board. Taylor was the mayor when Isram filed its plans.
    The Riverwalk project is in the third review step, which is not unusual given the project’s size and outstanding questions, said Michael Rumpf, planning director.
    If the project stays on its current schedule, the city staff analysis would be completed May 20 and the board review on May 24, according to Rumpf, who provided answers via city spokeswoman Eleanor Krusell.
If all the issues are not resolved, board review would take place on June 28. Then it would go to the City Commission in July.
    Staff have considered amending the height standard to allow for additional height for Riverwalk, which is “within areas identified as ‘nodes’ ” in the CRA plans that are being updated, Rumpf said. Isram would need to satisfy the intent of the mixed-use regulations and land use compatibility while minimizing impacts on adjoining properties.

Few details provided
    Wherry and Isram principals, including founder Shaul Rikman and Riverwalk’s architect, attended a late March community forum, sponsored by the Boynton Coalition for Responsible Development.
    More than 300 residents who live on both sides of the Intracoastal attended to learn more about the project. Isram brought a court reporter, promised to address all of the issues and provide responses to the group. Only Wherry spoke, but he did not provide details about the project.
    Isram spent about $300,000 on architectural drawings and was losing approximately $600,000 a year in rental income after Winn-Dixie left the center, Wherry told the crowd.
“That’s close to $1 million Isram invested into the possibilities that are for Boynton Beach,” he said. “The allowance for increased height will be narrowly drafted and tailored to our location.”
    Most of the residents who attended were concerned about the height of the project, the traffic it would generate and that its rental nature would attract transients.
    “The developer didn’t talk about the project,” said Harry Woodworth, president of Inlet Communities Association in Boynton Beach. He thinks city staff will “literally change the code to make it fit.”
    He’s frustrated that the city would allow a 10-story project in that area. “I don’t want the process to be negotiated,” he said. “I want the city to get back to following its master plan and zoning codes.”
    After the forum, Rikman said, “There is a lot of misinformation. The residents don’t have the true facts.”
    A few weeks later, Wherry said Isram would provide responses to officials at the public meetings this summer. “Those who have opposed the project had their voices heard,” he said.
    At the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency meeting in April, its executive director, Vivian Brooks, didn’t update the new commissioners on Riverwalk because all had said they attended the community forum.
    “Staff comments have gone back to the developer after the (city’s development application review team) meeting,” said Brooks. “I’m not sure when the developer will return them and another DART meeting would be scheduled.”
    Woodworth told the CRA board members that his group believes Riverwalk is being rushed through the process. “May 24 is the date when they plan to take it to the Planning and Development Board,” he said. “This project is going like a freight train with every avenue for public input shut down.”
    The Boynton Coalition for Responsible Development met with Isram principals, Wherry and city staff on April 22, hoping residents’ concerns could be addressed.
    None of the dozen issues raised was deemed to be valid nor did the developer agree to modify its plan, according to the Boynton Coalition statement issued April 28.

    MANALAPAN — William E. “Bill” Quigley, loving husband, cherished brother, beloved uncle and loyal friend, passed away peacefully at his Manalapan home on April 7. He was surrounded by love, the beauty of the music he cherished throughout his life, a gentle nuzzle from his beloved pup, Mickey, and the radiance of a gorgeous April day in South Florida. He was 67.
    Bill was welcomed into the world at Manhattan’s Woman’s Hospital on May 5, 1948, by his parents, Jean Eckler and John Harold Quigley (deceased), and later at the family home in New Rochelle by his five older siblings.
    The Quigleys moved the following year to West Palm Beach, hometown of Bill’s pioneer, maternal grandparents, William Beecher and Harriet Fowler Eckler, and their five siblings.
    Bill attended local schools, and in his junior year at Forest Hill High was recognized as the No. 1 percussionist in the state of Florida. He graduated with a B.A. from Florida Atlantic University and taught school for three years before moving to successful careers in sales with Reader’s Digest and Sandoz Pharmaceuticals.
    Eventually, Bill began doing stand-in jobs as a percussionist with the Cliff Hall Orchestra, and upon Mr. Hall’s demise, Bill became the permanent percussionist for 25-plus years with the Neil Smith Orchestra, based in Palm Beach and Newport, for the many seasonal parties and society balls each year. It was also the “go-to” orchestra for functions held all over the world, including a British ball in honor of Princess Diana Spencer’s marriage to Prince Charles.
    Bill began a different second career when he became a real estate broker, and specialized in the buying and selling of homes for his dedicated clients in and around his home turf of Point Manalapan. He ended his career with Fite Shavell Realty in Palm Beach as one of its top producers from Palm Beach to Gulf Stream.
    Bill served many years on the Manalapan Town Commission and on the board of directors for the La Coquille Club.
    Bill is survived by his loving wife of more than 47 years, Karen (Scott) Quigley, his five older siblings, Pat Ritchie, Karen Steele, John Quigley (Donnie), Cynthia Stowe, and Jim Quigley; his two sisters-in law, Sherry (Scott) Linder and Angela Scott, an abundance of adoring nieces and nephews, and his beloved chocolate Lab, Mickey.
    Bill never met a stranger and was loved by all. We will all miss him terribly.
    Donations may be made to Bill and Karen’s favorite charities: Hospice of Palm Beach County Trust Bridge, 5300 East Ave., West Palm Beach, FL 33407, and the Tri-County Humane Society, 21287 Boca Rio Road, Boca Raton, FL 33433, so that “all creatures great and small” will enjoy a semblance of happiness in this beautiful world.
    A celebration of Bill’s life was held on April 12 at Eau Palm Beach in Manalapan.

Obituary submitted by the family

By Ron Hayes

    BRINY BREEZES — Shirley Smith-Hill, a former flight attendant, business owner and the wife of Briny Breezes Mayor Michael Hill, died unexpectedly on March 30. She was 66.
    Born Nov. 1, 1949, to Edd Lee and Eleanor Smith, Mrs. Smith-Hill worked as a flight attendant, flying out of Miami, first for National Airlines, which was later acquired by Delta. She retired after 33 years with the airline.
    “After she retired, Shirley went into the antique business,” Hill said, “and she rented space in the Atlantic Antique Mall in Delray Beach for about three years.”
    Mrs. Smith-Hill was also a talented interior designer who fixed up and redecorated the couple’s homes in Highland Beach, where Hill served as the vice mayor, and Delray Beach before they moved to Briny Breezes two years ago.
    “Shirley always had a smile,” Mayor Hill said. “She was a very happy person and always tried to make other people happy, too.”
    In addition to her husband, Mrs. Smith-Hill is survived by three children, Bronwyn of Dublin, Ohio; and Clinton and Brecken, both of Macomb, Ill.; 10 grandchildren; two sisters, Elizabeth Brillhart and Kathy Odle, two brothers, Edd Lee Smith II and John Smith; and several nieces and nephews.
    A visitation was held April 2 at Boynton Memorial Chapel. Donations in her memory may be made to the American Heart Association, 7272 Greenville Ave., Dallas, TX 75231 or at heart.org.

By Ron Hayes

    BOYNTON BEACH — For more than half a century, Busch’s Seafood on North Ocean Boulevard was a showplace, the only restaurant along A1A between Palm Beach and Delray Beach.
    And Lucy Bergman, who died on April 11 at 82, was its star.
    For 16 years, beginning in 1960, she was the owner and shining spirit behind the popular seaside restaurant.
    “I had no desire to be in the restaurant business,” she told The Coastal Star in 2009. “My husband at the time talked me into buying it. We were just an old wooden building. I called it a saloon.”
    Under her guidance, that old wooden saloon became a landmark where both locals and celebrities gathered for lobsters flown in from Maine and Key lime pies from the lime trees in her back yard just across A1A on Harbour Drive.
    “She was a loving, caring, compassionate, loyal, wonderful friend to people,” said her son, Michael Bergman, of Wellington. “A great mom and a great businesswoman.”
    During her time at Busch’s, Ms. Bergman earned a living, made lifelong friends, and collected stories she could laugh at decades later.
    “I was attacked once by a woman in a wheelchair who came at me swinging her cane,” she remembered. “She’d found one of our matchbooks in her husband’s jacket and thought he was having an affair with me.”
    She laughed. “Well, he was having an affair, but it wasn’t with me.”
    Lucy Ann Theis was born on Feb. 4, 1934, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. By 16, she had lost both her parents and two brothers and was raised by two older cousins.
    After attending Brown University, she met her husband, Lars Bergman, while working for a doctor in New York City and moved with him to Sweden, where their son was born.
    The family came to Ocean Ridge in 1959. The Bergmans divorced in 1963.
    Ms. Bergman sold the restaurant in 1976, moved to Lake Tahoe briefly, then returned to Boynton Beach and worked as an administrative assistant at U.S. Trust Co. in Palm Beach for 13 years until her retirement in 2002.
    In her later years, she indulged her love of gin rummy, the Miami Dolphins and travel.
    “She loved cruises,” Michael Bergman said. “River cruises. My mom must have gone on 80 cruises.”
    In her final days, he said, his mother made him promise there would be no funeral service.
    Instead, her close friend, Myra Elmore, will arrange for a lunch at the Hurricane Grill, where Ms. Bergman and her friends often met.
    “That sums up my mom,” he said. “She was all about living life, not mourning death.”
    In addition to her son, she is survived by her daughter-in-law, Donna, of Wellington, and grandchildren, Lauren and Tyler of Orlando.
    Donations may be made to Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation, 5300 East Ave., West Palm Beach, FL 33407.

By Mary Thurwachter

    The Lantana Police Department is destined for new digs in the old Department of Juvenile Justice building.
    At its April 11 meeting, the Lantana Town Council discussed what to do with the old Juvenile Justice building at 901 N. Eighth St. off Lantana Road on the northeast corner of the former A.G. Holley property.

    The town, which has a lease on the building through 2048, has put aside $95,000 for repairs to the DJJ building, and this year, the state Legislature awarded Lantana another $500,000 for repairs.
    The state-owned building has been used for training police officers and sheriff’s deputies for several years.
    Mayor Dave Stewart said the 10,000-square-foot building is uninhabitable. He wanted the building, next to Lantana’s new Sports Complex, to be used as a recreational facility. Stewart said the town was eligible to receive a $300,000 grant that had to be used for recreation and that that money could be used toward turning the DJJ building into a recreation center.
    But Police Chief Sean Scheller said the building should house the Police Department, currently located in two smaller buildings next to Town Hall. The town had considered the DJJ location for the police years ago, but the need wasn’t as critical after the town reclaimed the old Lions Club facility (next to the existing police station) to house its detectives several years ago.

    Town Council member Lynn Moorhouse said having the police at the DJJ building would give them an opportunity to keep an eye on ball fields and would allow the entire department to be under one roof.
    “It’s big enough to house everything, including the holding cells,” Moorhouse said.
    Vice Mayor Phil Aridas agreed. “I want the police over there,” he said. “We do have $3 million in ball fields over there.”
    The new police location would also put them in close proximity of Water Tower Commons, a retail and residential complex being developed on Lantana Road east of I-95.
    Council members Malcolm Balfour and Tom Deringer agreed with Moorhouse and Aridas about moving the Police Department.
“I know the Police Department was instrumental in getting the lease (for the DJJ facility),” Deringer said.
    After the 4-1 vote, with the mayor dissenting, Stewart said, “I think we’re missing a great opportunity to create something nice for the residents.” However, the town is still eligible for a recreation grant. “It just won’t be as much,” Stewart said.
    Renovations could begin later this year.
    Town Manager Deborah Manzo said the current police buildings could house other town departments.

By Mary Thurwachter

    After allowing the Lantana Nature Preserve Commission one last time to meet, the Town Council voted on April 25 to abolish the group.
    The council agreed that there was no longer a need for the commission, since that group and the Friends of the Lantana Nature Preserve frequently duplicate efforts. Some members were on both committees.
    Nature Preserve Commission Chairman Paul Arena, now president of the Friends, said that the commission, at its April 5 meeting, voted to support the dissolution. The Friends also asked the town to have a liaison attend their meetings, and for use of a town facility to hold meetings.
    “We want to hold two meetings a month here and one at the preserve,” Arena said.
    Town Attorney Max Lohman said the town was trying to protect itself and members of the two groups from getting into trouble with the Sunshine Law regarding open meetings. The Friends of the Lantana Nature Preserve is an independent organization, not subject to the Sunshine Law as the Nature Preserve Commission had been.
    The nature preserve, a coastal hammock between The Carlisle senior living facility on East Ocean Avenue and the Intracoastal Waterway, was created in 1997. The Carlisle pays the town $40,000 a year to maintain the park. No money comes from the town’s general fund to pay for its maintenance.
    In other action, the council voted to:
    • Support an effort to bring the Atlanta Braves spring training facility to John Prince Park, a county park in Lake Worth. The council said having spring training in central Palm Beach County would be a boost to the economy.
    • Add one position to the Police Department’s uniform patrol division at an annual cost of $23,070.
    • Add a recreation coordinator position to the Operations Department at an annual cost of $20,050. The coordinator will organize, implement, promote and supervise programs at the sports complex with a soccer field and three baseball fields. A ribbon cutting for the new complex, on the northeast corner of the former A.G. Holley property, was held on April 28.

By Mary Thurwachter

    A Hypoluxo Islander who asked the Lantana Town Council to move a speed cushion on South Atlantic Drive didn’t get what he asked for at the town’s April meeting. The council did agree, however, to hold a workshop to discuss speed bumps on the island — whether more are needed, where to put them, and perhaps, how to make the traffic calming devices less noisy.
    In 2014, islanders successfully lobbied for two speed cushions along South Atlantic Drive. But residents, whose homes (and bedrooms) are within close proximity of the cushions, aren’t loving the steady ka thump ka thump racket from cars and trucks hurrying over the humps.
    “The speed bump noise is excessive day and night,” said Ed Sheedy, of 610 S. Atlantic Drive near the speed bump between his house and 613 S. Atlantic Drive.
    “They (drivers) accelerate like they’re at a racetrack,” Sheedy said. “The noise is so bad, it overpowers the train noise. It’s impossible for us to relax. Our peace and quiet is gone.”
    Sheedy said that a neighbor at 702 S. Atlantic Drive had offered to have the speed cushion moved in front of his residence, approximately two houses south of the current location. That neighbor, Frank Ebersold, even wrote a letter to the town saying the move was OK with him.
    But council members wondered how agreeable the move would be to others in Ebersold’s neighborhood.
    “I wonder how the guy across the street would feel?” said council member Tom Deringer.
    “We all hate speed bumps, but, unfortunately, it’s the only option,” said Media Beverly, who also lives on Hypoluxo Island.
She said she had been talking about getting speed bumps for 10 years. The island has changed over the years, she said, no longer the same sleepy, Old Florida community it once was. People, she said, are all in a hurry.
    To install more speed humps involves a process. Traffic counts need to be conducted and 66 percent of residents have to agree to have them.
    A workshop date has not been set to discuss the topic.