By Steve Pike

    At 92, William Finley certainly doesn’t need the work or the frustrations. He distinguished himself first as a B-17 pilot in World II and then as one of the country’s leading urban planners. But ask Finley why he has challenged the nation’s top 80 billionaires with his new book, A Bold Proposal for American Cities, and you get a cold stare from the normally affable Boynton Beach resident.
    “After the service I went back to being Catholic,’’ Finley said. “The priests were good people but they didn’t have the answers. So I figured I’m on the Earth for X number of years and I owed something to the larger society if I can do it.

    “It’s purely personal drive. I don’t want to just sit around. I’ve given this (project) 10 years and I’m two years into it.’’
    Bold Proposal is the follow-up book to Finley’s 2008 book, Curing Urbanitis: The Metropolitan Disease, in which he mapped out ways America’s cities can be rejuvenated. In Bold Proposal, Finley and co-author Robert Tennenbaum seek to tap into the billions of dollars in funds America’s billionaires have pledged for philanthropic purposes. The authors propose a joint action program that combines assistance to older cities and a building of a “new city’’ at the 500,000 population level.
    The latter is not without precedent, as Finley spent a decade as senior project director for the Rouse Company, which developed the “new city’’ of Columbia, Md., nearly 50 years ago.
    “I want to find the mechanism and the money to start the process in several cities so there is confidence and places like Topeka and Toledo that there is hope and we’re not going to be worse off in 10 or 20 years,’’ Finley said.
    Finley, who founded the nonprofit Partnership for Community Building to operate the project, sent copies of Bold Proposal to the people Forbes magazine identified as America’s top 80 billionaires — those with fortunes of at least $4 billion.
    The only response he has received so far is from, well, a galaxy far, far away.
    “George Lucas wrote me a note that said, ‘Thanks, but I’m not in your world.’’’
    But that hasn’t deterred Finley.
    “There is plenty of land’’ to build new cities, he said. “But it’s impossible to finance because there is no ‘patient’ money in America. Wall Street wants a payoff in 90 days and HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) doesn’t do anything. But there is a source of funds if people will pay attention to it.     
    “What I’m doing is challenging the billionaires — who have more money than they know what to do with and have already agreed to give it away — to build new cities and set an example to the world with modern technology.’’
    A bold proposal, indeed.

The 324-foot ship Lady Luck was scuttled in 120 feet of water off Pompano Beach

on the afternoon of July 23, adding to the dive destinations already in Shipwreck Park.

Photo provided by Elaine Fitzgerald

The Ana Cecilia begins taking on water off Singer Island on July 13, when it was intentionally sunk

to become the county’s 151st artificial reef. Watch videos of the Ana Cecilia’s sinking at www.thecoastalstar.com.

Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

Videos: Cargo ship becomes Palm Beach County's 151st artificial reef | Aerial view of the sinking of the Ana Cecilia | Scuba Nation underwater video of the Ana Cecilia

By Willie Howard

    A 170-foot cargo ship that delivered humanitarian goods to Cuba in 2012 and was later used to smuggle cocaine became Palm Beach County’s newest artificial reef on July 13.
    A tugboat’s horn blasted and cheers rang out from a gathering of boaters and county officials as the M/V Ana Cecilia slipped below the surface in calm seas off Singer Island to become the county’s 151st artificial reef.
    The Ana Cecilia is resting in 85 feet of water at the southern end of a line of 11 artificial reefs, about three-quarters of a mile long, that includes other ships, limestone boulders and debris from bridge demolitions.
    That means scuba divers should be able to begin at the Ana Cecilia and drift north in the current over several other artificial reefs during a single dive.
    The newly scuttled ship is resting just south of another ship, the 185-foot Mizpah. Coordinates for the Ana Cecilia are 26/47.118 N and 80/00.96 W.
    The ship is expected to attract goliath grouper later this summer, and parts of the vessel are expected to become sleeping quarters for endangered hawksbill sea turtles, said Julie Bishop, a biologist with the county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management.
    “The Ana Cecilia will soon become a diver’s dream, bustling with underwater activity as she is colonized by algae, sponges and corals to support a diverse community of colorful marine life,” Bishop said.
    The ship faces south, into the prevailing current. The top of the ship rises 35 feet above the bottom, meaning divers can reach parts of the Ana Cecilia 50 feet below the surface.
    In addition to creating new habitat for marine life, the new artificial reef honors five people who died or were lost at sea recently in boating accidents.
    Bronze plaques attached to the back of the ship’s wheelhouse bear the names of Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen, the Tequesta teenagers who disappeared after leaving Jupiter inlet in a 19-foot boat in July 2015.
    Another plaque honors Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Deputy Fernandez Jones, his 9-year-old son, Jaden, and his stepfather, Willis Bell. Jones and his family members died after their boat sank off Martin County in April.
    “It’s always great to have something sunk that has some history and has ties to the community,” said Shana Phelan, owner of Pura Vida Divers in Riviera Beach.
    Palm Beach County paid $110,000 to clean, tow and sink the 1972 ship after it was donated to the county by federal authorities.
    In 2012, the Ana Cecilia became the first ship to deliver humanitarian goods to Cuba from Miami, but it later fell into the hands of drug smugglers.
    Surveillance along the Miami River led agents from Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to 386 bricks of cocaine, which they removed from the ship in September 2015. The ship’s captain was indicted.
    Federal authorities seized the Ana Cecilia and formally donated it to Palm Beach County in May.

Lady Luck scuttled off Pompano Beach pier
    A 324-foot retired New York sludge ship was scuttled July 23 off the Pompano Beach fishing pier to create what promoters are calling the world’s first underwater art gallery.
    Formerly known as the Newtown Creek, the new artificial reef joins 16 other wrecks in an area off Pompano Beach known as Shipwreck Park.
    Marine artist Dennis MacDonald created a faux casino on the Lady Luck’s deck, including giant dice, poker tables, a mermaid serving drinks and “card sharks.”
    The bottom of the ship sits in 120 feet, but divers can reach the upper parts of the ship about 40 feet below the surface.
For details, go to www.shipwreckparkpompano.org

Larger size, smaller limit for mutton snapper proposed
    State regulators have recommended an increase in the minimum size and a decrease in the daily bag limit for mutton snapper, a popular South Florida reef fish.
    A draft rule approved in June by the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission would increase the minimum size for mutton snapper by 2 inches, to 18 inches.
    The proposed daily bag limit is three mutton snapper per person (as part of the 10-fish aggregate snapper bag limit). Currently, recreational anglers can take 10 mutton snapper a day.
    The mutton snapper rule changes would not take effect until after the FWC’s final public hearing and vote, scheduled for early September.

Prizes awarded in Lake Worth Lagoon tournament
    Participants in the first Lake Worth Lagoon Fishing Challenge won Penn rod-and-reel combinations and Engel coolers for catching fish in the lagoon and submitting their catches through the iAngler Tournament  app.
    Josh Divine, 9, of Lake Clarke Shores won the junior division by submitting  84 fish of 17 species during the monthlong tournament, held during June. Josh fished with his father, Matt, and sister, Ceci, in several parts of the lagoon using cut shrimp for bait.
    Max Lichtig of North Palm Beach won the adult overall award by submitting 55 fish of 11 species. Matthew Buchanan of West Palm Beach won a cooler for submitting two bonefish caught in the lagoon.
    Overall, 27 anglers submitted 456 catch reports during the tournament.
    Catch reports are expected to help Palm Beach County environmental regulators track the whereabouts of fish and the condition of fish habitat in the lagoon, which stretches 20 miles from North Palm Beach to Ocean Ridge.

Coming events
    Aug. 6: Regular spiny lobster season opens and remains open through March 31. Daily bag limit: six lobsters per person. Head section must measure at least 3 inches. Lobster must be measured in the water and landed whole. No egg-bearing lobster may be taken. Saltwater fishing license with lobster permit required (unless exempt). Details: www.myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/lobster
    Aug. 13: REEF Palm Beach County Lionfish Derby based at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach. Late registration and mandatory captain’s meeting Aug. 12 at the Marinelife Center. Teams hunt lionfish all day Aug. 13, then bring them to the Marinelife Center at noon Aug. 14 for scoring. Awards and a public lionfish tasting follow scoring. Entry fee $120 per team (two to four divers). Call (305) 852-0030  or go to www.reef.org/lionfish/derbies

    Aug. 13: Mark Gerretson Memorial Fishing Tournament to benefit youth causes in Delray Beach. Begins with a captain’s meeting set for 6-8 p.m. Aug. 11 at the Hurricane Bar & Lounge, 640 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach. Tournament weigh-in at Deck 84 restaurant in Delray Beach. Entry fee $225 per boat. Details: www.mgmft.net
    Aug. 27: Coast Guard Auxiliary offers basic boating safety class, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at classroom next to the boat ramps, Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park, 2010 N. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach. It’s free. Class fees covered by a grant from the Perry J. Cohen Foundation. Register at the door. Call 331-2429.
    Aug. 27: Boynton Beach Fishing Club begins inshore/offshore fishing tournament. Runs through Sept. 5. Use iAngler smartphone app to submit catches. Fish can be released or kept if legal. Must pick up tournament ruler at captain’s meeting. Cash prizes. Entry fee $35 through Aug. 20 or $50 thereafter. Captain’s meeting 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26 at Due South Brewing, 2900 High Ridge Road, Boynton Beach. Details: www.bifc.org or 703-5638.

Tip of the month
    Say your grandchildren are coming for the weekend and want to go boating. You’ll need a life jacket of the correct size for each child on the boat, of course.
    Don’t want to buy and store more life jackets?
    Consider borrowing them.
    Loaner life jackets are available through the BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water. The program allows boaters to borrow children’s life jackets for the afternoon, the day or the weekend at no cost.
    Loaner life jackets for kids are available at more than 1,500 places nationwide (go to www.BoatUS.org/loanermap).
    In south Palm Beach County, boaters can borrow kids’ life jackets from the dockmaster’s office at the Palm Beach Yacht Center, 7848 S. Federal Highway in Hypoluxo. Call 588-9911.

Willie Howard is a freelance writer and licensed boat captain. Reach him at tiowillie@bellsouth.net.

Dog trainer Bob Burnell is an advocate for responsible care of pets, including not locking them in vehicles.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Arden Moore

   After parking your car in a shopping center lot on a typical hot, humid August day here in Palm Beach County, let’s say you notice a dog looking weakly back at you from inside a locked, closed car.
    You quickly assess your options. You may call out for the owner of the vehicle, rush into the store and have the person paged or you can quickly phone the local police department or dial 911. Each minute that passes, however, moves that trapped dog closer to heat stroke and even death.
    You may hesitate about the legal ramifications before you smash the vehicle’s window to unlock the door, retrieve the dog and deliver pet first aid.
    Fortunately, you now have the law on your side. Florida legislators enacted a law this spring that allows you to break into locked vehicles to rescue animals or people who are in imminent danger of suffering harm. It is designed to protect good Samaritans and to save the lives of the most vulnerable — children and pets.
    “If this new law can save just one animal, just one child, it is all worth it,” declares Bob Burnell, a just-retired police officer who lives in Lake Worth. He operates a professional dog training company called Sit Means Sit and is a certified master first aid/CPR instructor with Pet Tech.
    Florida joins only Tennessee and Wisconsin with such wide-sweeping good-Samaritan laws. In 17 other states, only police or humane shelter officials can legally break into a vehicle to rescue a trapped pet on a hot day.
    To follow the conditions of this new law, you must:
    • Make sure that the vehicle is locked.
    • Call 911 or the local police first.
    • Do only what is necessary to reach the trapped pet or child by breaking a window and not damaging the entire vehicle.
    • Stay with the pet or the child until first responders arrive on the scene.
    Far too many times, Burnell has had to respond to calls of pets locked inside cars on hot days. Some have survived; some have not.
    “I don’t buy that excuse that the person left their pet inside a hot car for ‘just a minute’ to go inside a store,” says Burnell. “They may run into a friend and the five minutes becomes 15 minutes, or they run into a big line at checkout. Even if a person leaves windows partially open and parks the car in the shade, there is still a greenhouse effect. It is almost like the dog is inside a prison of heat with no way out.”
    He recalls responding to a call about a senior-aged golden retriever left inside a locked car at a local shopping center. Fortunately, he was able to get the dog out in time, and place cool water on him to drop his high body temperature. The dog was treated for dehydration and heat stroke at a veterinary clinic.
    “His owner said he would only be in the store for a few minutes but that his air conditioning wasn’t working,” recalls Burnell. “I said then why bring the dog? He was cited for a misdemeanor, but this was a preventable accident.”
    Even on a day when it is 70 degrees outside, the temperature inside a car with all the windows closed can hit 90 degrees in just 10 minutes. On an 85-degree day, it can shoot up to 102 degrees or higher during that same short time span, according to officials at the Animal Legal Defense Fund, a major legal advocacy group based in Cotati, Calif.
    Keep in mind that dogs and cats do not perspire like we do. They lack the skin pores. They attempt to combat heat by panting and sweating through their paw pads. Pets affected by heat will display some or all of these signs:
    • Excessive salivation
    • Rapid panting and problems breathing
    • Bright red gums and dark red tongue
    • Reddened, warm inside the ears
    • Rapid heart rate
    • Vomiting
    • Diarrhea
    • Staggering or acting confused
    • Convulsions or seizures
    • Collapse into unconsciousness
    Burnell and his wife, Eileen Anderson-Burnell, who is also a master certified pet first aid/CPR instructor, teach their students how to prevent this from happening and what to do if they encounter an overheated pet.
    “We teach our students to use cool water — never ice cold water — to cool down the pet’s body temperature,” says Burnell. “Avoid ice cubes or ice cold water because they can shrink the capillaries, impede blood flow and even cause shock. Place the dog’s paws in cool water and place a wet T-shirt or towel on the dog’s belly to allow the temperature to drop gradually. Monitor his breathing and be ready to administer CPR or rescue breathing if necessary.”
    The Burnells are all about educating people fortunate to share their lives with pets.
    “Dogs and cats cannot speak for themselves,” he says. “We are their advocates. We are there to keep them safe.”
    To enroll in an upcoming pet first aid class taught by the Burnells, please visit www.pettech.net and type in your city and state on the instructor directory located on the home page. Or contact them at www.palmbeach.sitmeanssit.com.

Made (safe) in the shade
    To share the message of keeping pets safe, consider ordering vehicle sunshades created by the Animal Legal Defense Fund that sport the message, “Warning: Don’t leave dogs in hot cars.”
    These shades cost $20, with proceeds benefiting the ALDF. Learn more at www.aldf.org/hotcars.

    Arden Moore, founder of www.FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, editor, author, professional speaker and master certified pet first aid instructor. Each week, she hosts the popular Oh Behave! show on www.PetLifeRadio.com. Learn more by visiting www.fourleggedlife.com.

The giant game room at Boomers in Boca Raton contains activities for children young and old,

from mazes to video games to dance jams to redemption games.

Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine

    It’s hot out there.
    Weather experts recommend you (and your kids) stay in during the hottest part of the day. We offer ideas for things to do with the A/C running.
    By the way, these suggestions work on rainy days, too!

Go to a museum
    The Boca Raton Children’s Museum helps children become critical thinkers and stresses the importance of learning science, technology, engineering and math through exposure to history, sciences, humanities and the arts.
    With classes designed for little fingers and unique programming to keep kids’ interest, this is a great place to spend a hot afternoon.
    Also notable: Two of Boca Raton’s few historical buildings are located here. Singing Pines (circa 1913) and The Cottage (circa 1935) are on site.
    The Boca Raton Children’s Museum is at 498 Crawford Blvd. Call 368-6875.

•

    The Boca Raton Museum of Art in Mizner Plaza offers programs for kids, teens and families.
    For the younger kids (grades 3-5), consider ART-E-OLOGY. This monthly activity focuses on one artist on exhibit. Students are encouraged to explore and even master the artist’s style in their own work. Upcoming classes include “Carol Prusa: Doodle Creatures” on Aug. 6 and  “Carlos Cruz-Diez: Op Art Designs,” Sept. 10.
    A teen class on video production is Aug. 9.
    ARTful Adventure Sunday is a family program that celebrates the visual arts and is appropriate for all ages. Upcoming classes include  “Pen and Ink Masterpieces” on Aug. 7 and pencil drawings Sept. 11.
    Call 392-2500 or visit www.bocamuseum.org.

•

    The Children’s Science Explorium in Sugar Sand Park is best for kids ages 5 to 12. Interactive exhibits and hands-on learning spark the imagination. The park is at 300 S. Military Trail, Boca Raton. Call 347-3900 or visit www.scienceexplorium.org.

•

    The Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, at 129 E. Ocean Ave. in Boynton Beach, has two floors of hands-on exhibits where kids can learn art, music and the sciences. Visit www.schoolhousemuseum.org or call 742-6780.

Get them cooking
    Sign up your kids for a cooking class at Sur La Table and they can help get dinner on the table. Classes include Science in the Kitchen for Kids and Science in the Kitchen for Teens. It’s in Mizner Park at 438 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. 953-7628; www.stores.surlatable.com/en/mizner-park.

•

    The Publix Apron Cooking School offers Creative Kids Cooking Classes for ages 8-12 and Creative Cooking for Teens for ages 13-18 at the Publix at Polo Club Shoppes, 5050 Champion Blvd., Boca Raton. Call 994-4883 or visit www.publix.com/aprons/school.

Visit a nature center
    Much of the charm and appeal of the 20-acre Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex is outside, but the center has indoor exhibits as well, including the Sea Turtle Garden and a gopher tortoise exhibit. Indoor aquarium feedings take place at 2:30 p.m. every day. There’s also a gift shop run by the Friends of Gumbo Limbo perfect for browsing. Gumbo Limbo is at 1801 N. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton. Call 544-8605 or visit www.gumbolimbo.org.

•

    The Sandoway House Nature Center’s sole purpose is educating people about the marine environment, its plants and animals, challenges and treasures. If you’ve never seen The Albert and Ann Becker Shell Collection, it contains nearly 10,000 museum-quality shells, although only 3,000 are on display. The shells were donated to the Sandoway House by the Beckers’ niece when they died.
    The second-floor library has books on nature for readers of all levels, plus a place to draw or use the computer. The museum is at 142 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach. Call 274-7263 or visit www.sandoway.org.

See a movie
    Theaters have always been a cool, dark place to escape the elements (and your life) and today it’s easier than ever to eat yourself into a food coma while you’re bombarded with incredible sensory input. At the renovated iPic Theaters, 301 Plaza Real in Boca Raton, you’ll get lounge chair seating with side tables for your food, which can be delivered right to your seat. Call 299-3000 or visit www.ipic.com.

Be a filmmaker
    Sugar Sand Park is looking for kids ages 6-17 who love to make movies to enter the fifth annual Kids’ Scary Film Festival. Filmmakers need to submit their films on DVD with an entry form and $5 fee by Sept. 23.
    The grand prize is a GoPro camera, plus having your film screened during Shriek Weekends 2016, Oct. 21-22 and 27-29. This year’s theme is Florida’s Terrifying Tourist Traps. Awards and prizes will be presented at a November ceremony at Sugar Sand Park Community Center.
    For more information, visit www.SugarSandPark.org/shriek-week-film-festival.

Arcades and bowling alleys
    Strikes at 21046 Commercial Trail, Boca Raton, opens at 9 a.m. and offers free bowling for kids who sign up. It also has an arcade and pool tables. Call 368-2177 or visit www.strikesbocaraton.com
    Boomers, 3100 Airport Road, Boca Raton, is the epitome of play lands for kids of all ages. You can easily waste an afternoon indoors at the game stop. Call 347-1888 or visit www.boomersparks.com.

Indoor playgrounds
 Children 6 months to 6 years are welcome to come for air-conditioned fun at the Boca Play Station, 2240 NW 19th St., Boca Raton.
    Monkey Joe’s at 11411 W. Palmetto Park Road is an indoor inflatable play center for ages 12 and younger with a snack bar and toddler area. Walk-ins are welcome. Kids must wear socks.
Call 488-2272 or visit www.monkeyjoes.com.

The Boca Raton Boys & Girls Club hosted the Tower Hill Youth Soccer Tournament, a new youth program

in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Florida and Tower Hill Insurance. Tower Hill committed to

conducting tournaments and soccer clinics featuring pro athletes at no cost to the players,

and will also donate soccer equipment to participating clubs. Boca’s Boys & Girls Club won

the under-13 and under-10 divisions. The top teams will go to Gainesville to participate

in the Tower Hill Cup Soccer Championship. ABOVE: The under-10 team in action. BELOW: Under-10

team members (l-r) Colin Dobbins, Josiah Grajales, Gabriel Hernandez and Adrian Moreira show off their trophy.

Photos provided

The proposed site plan for the revamped Plaza del Mar.

The proposed facade of the new anchor grocery.

Watch a video walk-through at www.thecoastalstar.com.

Renderings and video provided by Cuhaci & Peterson

By Dan Moffett

    Manalapan commissioners got their first official look at plans to add a 27,000-square-foot Publix supermarket to Plaza del Mar and decided the center’s landlord has more issues to resolve before the project can move forward.
    After three hours of discussion in a packed Town Hall chamber June 21, commissioners rejected two development requests from Kitson & Partners and told the landlord to come back in July with more details and solutions.
    Commissioners balked at approving Kitson’s site plan for the project, saying there were too many uncertainties about the impact increased traffic would have on motorists, pedestrians and the environment.
    Commissioner Basil Diamond questioned how large semi-trucks would be able to navigate the tight quarters when delivering to the supermarket and how much noise residents behind the revamped mall would have to endure. He said mixing trucks and pedestrians is problematic.
    “There are thousands of items that are coming to that store,” Diamond said. “There’s going to be some buildup of trucks waiting to offload.”
    He said the plan should include a sound wall, perhaps as high as 12 feet, behind the building to block trucks’ noise from neighbors.
    Commissioners also turned down Kitson’s request to add a separate package liquor store to the project, worrying that selling carryout alcohol across from the beach is likely to cause problems, especially during spring break.
    “Having a liquor store so close to the beach really does bother me,” Vice Mayor Peter Isaac said. “We’ve never had a liquor store in Manalapan.”
    An attorney for Kitson, James Crowley of Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart, told the commission that the landlord would provide security on the premises. Crowley said that the package store was important to ensuring the success of the renovation and reviving a shopping center that has languished for years.
    “The economic vitality of the town is something you should consider,” he told the commission.
    Mayor David Cheifetz told Kitson’s representatives to work with town staff during the next month to try to resolve security concerns about the package store.
    Commissioners voted 4-1 to reject the site plan proposal (with Isaac dissenting), but rescinded the vote when Crowley requested permission to bring back a revised plan to the July 19 meeting. Kitson needs approval of the site plan in order to begin demolition.
    Kitson’s Matt Buehler declined to identify the center’s prospective tenant, but town officials have confirmed that Publix has been negotiating with the landlord to put a store in the plaza for more than year.

Increased traffic raises concerns
    The redevelopment plan calls for dividing the center with a north-south roadway running from East Ocean Avenue to the back of the property. The package store would go in the space currently occupied by Jeannie’s Ocean Boutique. A half-dozen merchants with businesses in the heart of the plaza would be uprooted by the supermarket.
    Crowley said concerns that the supermarket is too large for the center are unwarranted because Kitson intends to tear down 47,000 square feet of retail space to build the 27,000-square-foot store.
    “We’re demolishing more than we’re adding. We’re taking the approved use and then subtracting from that,” he said. “We’re not redeveloping the plaza — just modifying what’s there.”
    Cheifetz argued that the retail space that would be eliminated is “lightly used” and a Publix could generate a large increase in traffic.
    Resident Michael Gottlieb said traffic bottlenecks would be inevitable when the Ocean Avenue drawbridge goes up.
    “I would like to see a Publix here,” Gottlieb said, “but I would also like to get back to my house.”
    Commissioner Simone Bonutti said it’s likely a traffic light would be needed at the proposed plaza entrance in front of Thaikyo restaurant, and she supported requiring a traffic study to find out for sure.
    Commissioner Clark Appleby also supported requiring a study: “I want to see something.”
    Lantana Mayor Dave Stewart spoke on behalf of his constituents who live behind the plaza. The Lantana Town Council unanimously approved a resolution to oppose the plans.
    Stewart said residents in his town had a long list of concerns about the supermarket, among them: drainage problems, dumpster issues, hours of operation, unauthorized beach parking, noise, architectural features, evacuation snarls, electromagnetic fields and easterly wind obstruction.
    “Thanks for listening,” Stewart told the commission. “Don’t kick the can down the road. For everybody’s sake, make a decision.”
    Buehler said Kitson’s project “complies fully with the town’s code as it exists today,” and his firm is making a long-term commitment that would benefit the community.
    “Literally, we are putting our money where our mouth is,” he said. “We’re investing additional funds into the town of Manalapan because we believe in this. We are not timid about this. We are going to move forward with this. We’ve been residents of Manalapan for 10 years as well. We’ve been the longest owner of this shopping center.”

By Jane Smith

    Rogue sober homes are so overwhelming south county coastal communities that leaders of the three largest cities are grasping at anything that holds promise to protect their neighborhoods.
    They all want a seat on the Palm Beach County state attorney’s drug treatment task force.
    “We definitely want to be involved with that task force,” said Susan Haynie, Boca Raton mayor.
    Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein said, “We have been at the table from the beginning pleading for real assistance.” His city is known as the “recovery capital of America” because of its numerous treatment centers and sober homes.
    The state Legislature awarded State Attorney Dave Aronberg $275,000 to review drug treatment laws and report back by year’s end.
    Said Alan Johnson, chief assistant state attorney, who volunteered to set up the task force: “I have received hundreds of emails from people who want to be involved in this project.”
    The money began flowing July 1, the start of the state’s budget year. Johnson was fine-tuning the task force in the final days of June.
    Aronberg was chosen because of his “drug czar” role in helping the state clean up the pill mill industry in 2011.
    Prosecutor Justin Chapman will lead the task force, which will be divided into at least two groups, Johnson said.
    A former captain with the state Division of Insurance, Ted Padich, will head the law enforcement group. Before joining the state, he spent 20 years on the Boynton Beach police force.
    Delray Beach Police Chief Jeff Goldman will assign an officer to that group. In 2015, Delray Beach police responded to 144 heroin overdoses, 10 of which were fatal. Through May of this year, 202 heroin overdoses occurred in the city, resulting in 18 fatalities.
    The heroin overdoses peaked at 64 in March. To combat that rise, Delray Beach police started Operation Street Sweeper in late February. Undercover officers bought narcotics from known dealers, resulting in at least 30 arrests.
    Boynton Beach will also assign an officer to that group.
    Police Chief Jeffrey Katz said the group can be successful if the members put their heads together and combine resources, just as they did when fighting the pill mill crises.
    Through early June, Boynton Beach dealt with 121 overdoses and seven overdose deaths.
    The other group of the task force will have a mix of providers, elected officials, Florida Association of Recovery Residences President John Lehman, a drug court judge and activists.
    This group will hold its first meetings from 2 to 5 p.m. July 13 and 14. The meetings will be open to the public and held in the West Palm Beach Police Department’s community room.
    FARR has a voluntary certification program for recovery residences, the industry preferred term for sober homes. Starting in July, state-licensed drug and alcohol treatment centers will be barred from discharging patients or referring clients to recovery residences that are not certified.
    But the association didn’t receive any state money for this budget year.
    Boca Raton was the first community that tried to regulate recovery residences, Haynie said, “but unfortunately we lost.”
    In 2003, the city was sued in federal court over zoning laws created to protect its neighborhoods. Boca Raton lost that case in 2007 when the judge ruled that the zoning laws discriminated against recovering addicts.
    Cities, including Delray Beach, also lost court cases when recovery residences and their clients sued under federal disability and fair housing laws. Sometimes the judges awarded multimillion-dollar damages to the recovery residence operators and their clients. Addicts in recovery are seen as a family unit protected under federal laws.
    Johnson, of the state attorney’s office, admits that’s a “tightrope to work with, but it can be done effectively. … We’ll have to educate (the cities) about what can be done within the federal laws.”
    Addicts and their families are lured to South Florida by the pictures of paradise painted by tourism officials. They are also recruited to come here by profit-seeking providers.
    Once they are here, a 28-day stay in a treatment center is the norm, thanks to the Mental Health Parity Act of 2008 that requires health insurers to provide the same level of treatment for addictions as they would for other medical problems. From there, patients are released to recovery residences where they live with other recovering addicts.
    In Palm Beach County, rogue operators have infiltrated the drug treatment industry — with allegations of insurance fraud, patient brokering and kickbacks, Johnson said.
The FBI began raiding such places nearly two years ago, but so far there have been no indictments.

2015 overdose deaths
Ten of the deaths occurred at motels, another nine at recovery residences.
Boynton Beach       28
Delray Beach          25
Boca Raton             20

Source: Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office

    Public record: 1) a record required by law to be made and kept; 2) a record made by a public officer in the course of his legal duty to make it; 3) a record filed in a public office and open to public inspection.
    These definitions are from Merriam-Webster. My definition is that a public record is what you as a taxpayer have a right to know about how your government operates.
    This summer our cities and towns will be preparing budgets for the next fiscal year. They will be considering new or upgraded records management systems. They will be considering how to best manage their telecommunications and data systems.
    They will be looking at how best to distribute information to their residents. Some will be improving their streaming audio and video to provide greater resident access to how decisions are made by their elected officials.
    This is the year we as taxpayers should demand our municipalities make easy access to public records a top priority.
    Why now? Because property tax values have increased for the fifth straight year and municipal coffers are returning to record 2007 levels. In other words, the cash is available.
    And, of course, there is what we should learn from the continuing public records litigation in Gulf Stream.
    No matter how small and discreet a town wants to remain, it doesn’t pay to not have systems in place to handle any and all requests for information from its residents — even residents who might use Florida’s open records laws for vindictive purposes or use despicable dramatics and the filing of questionable lawsuits to further their self-interests.
    Every small town in our area should be asking itself: What would it do if it suddenly were besieged with public record requests for everything from text messages to telephone communications to emails and meeting transcripts? Would its officials balk, circle the wagons and decide to fight the requests in court, or hire additional help and meet the demands as the spirit of the public records law demands?
    It’s easy to tell which way most benefits the taxpayer.
    What other small municipalities should study from Gulf Stream’s situation is the impressive way the town has reacted to its unique situation by investing in improved public records management and new platforms for resident involvement in government operations.
    This year, let your elected officials know that access to public records is your right as a taxpayer. Even if you never plan to file a Freedom of Information Act request, tell them you want your tax dollars invested in an infrastructure that will assure transparency in local government.

— Mary Kate Leming,
Editor

‘The accomplishments are not generated by the manager but by the commissioners,᾿

says William Thrasher, Gulf Stream town manager.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett  

    Gulf Stream ranks high on a short list of South Florida communities that value longevity in public service.
    Rita Taylor is in her 27th year as town clerk. Joan Orthwein is in her 21st year as a town commissioner, ranking as Palm Beach County’s second-longest-serving elected official behind Cloud Lake Mayor Patrick Slatery, who’s served 38 years.
    And William Thrasher has just completed 20 years as a Gulf Stream administrator, the last 16 as town manager.
    It is not easy to last two decades in municipal management. Managers have to operate within the shifting political whims of their elected bodies and often wind up in the crosshairs of blame, justifiably or not, when things go wrong.  
    Consider that just up the road in South Palm Beach last year, the Town Council hired a new manager from New Jersey and then terminated him six months later.
    The Florida City and County Management Association says the average tenure for town managers is about six years.
    Thrasher thinks the longevity of service in Gulf Stream should be considered part of the legacy of William F. Koch, who served as the town’s mayor for 46 of his 91 years, until his death in 2012.
    Koch was a powerful influence on Thrasher and his colleagues, they say.
    “I have to say I loved Mayor Koch,” Thrasher says. “He was the greatest person I’ve ever been in contact with. He was a very hard outer shell person, but with a very loving heart.”
    As Taylor puts it: Koch “had a lot of empathy for mankind.”
    Thrasher’s path to Gulf Stream was unlikely in the socioeconomic landscapes it crossed. He grew up baling hay in Ottumwa, Iowa, known as the birthplace of the fictional Radar O’Reilly, the character in Richard Hooker’s M.A.S.H. novel. He came to Florida with Phyllis, his wife of 48 years. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Florida Atlantic University and wound up doing finance work for the city of Pahokee, 55 miles and several cultural light-years from Gulf Stream.  
    He answered an ad Koch placed for an assistant to the town manager, and Thrasher found his mentor and career in the same place.
    “Mayor Koch was always a surprise as it relates to what he knew,” Thrasher says. “He knew so much. He was so influential but would never give the pretense of being that influential.”
    Thrasher says working alongside Koch helped him develop a commitment to Gulf Stream that has endured through some difficult challenges in recent years.  
    Thrasher and other town officials have been named as defendants in dozens of lawsuits filed by residents Martin O’Boyle and Chris O’Hare over numerous disputed issues. The town also is in the middle of an arduous project to move its utility lines underground — an initiative that probably will take roughly a decade from conception to completion a couple years from now.
    Thrasher says getting Florida Power & Light to cooperate on the project is “like trying to push water uphill.” But he says he’s determined to see it through and remains hopeful all the work will get done on his watch.
    “The accomplishments are not generated by the manager but by the commissioners,” Thrasher says. “Most of us just love the town. That seems to be the motivating factor. Government in its purest ideal is to serve people. That’s what I’m here to do. That cannot be boastful. You need to stay humble. You need to have humility and care about Gulf Stream.”

By Dan Moffett

    A strong economic tailwind is assisting Manalapan commissioners as they begin a series of budget workshops.
    Property values in the town continue to climb — up 9.9 percent over last year, nearly 3 percent above the Palm Beach County average.
    When it comes to tax bases, Manalapan is tiny but mighty: the 327 parcels in the town have a taxable value of $1.1 billion, with an average market price of $4.2 million that leads the county, according to the Property Appraiser’s Office.
    Even more favorable, only 41 percent of the households have homestead exemptions, a relatively low percentage that keeps more taxable dollars in play.
    Against this backdrop, a 15 percent increase in health insurance premiums for employees, a $45,000 hike in legal fees to negotiate a new police contract, or $6,700 for a new all-terrain vehicle seems like pocket change.
    Those are some of the new expenses in Town Manager Linda Stumpf’s proposed general fund budget, a $4.1 million draft that is about $88,000 lower than last year’s.
    Stumpf bases the 2016-17 budget on a tax rate of $2.85 per $1,000 of taxable value, which is 5.9 percent lower than last year’s $3.03 rate that ranked among the county’s lowest.
    With a flush budget, commissioners are considering rewarding some of their most loyal employees with a longevity recognition program. The town would give workers cash bonuses when they reach milestones of service — five, 10, 15, 20 years.
    The town has four employees with more than 10 years on the job and three with more than 21 years, Stumpf said.
    “Now that the economy has turned around, I think it’s the right thing to do to acknowledge them,” Stumpf said. Commissioners agreed, and said they would work on the details at their July 19 budget workshop.

By Mary Thurwachter
 
    A weeklong effort by police and the Hypoluxo Island Property Owners Association to slow traffic on South Atlantic Drive was successful, Lantana council members learned at a June 13 town meeting.
    Lyn Tate, treasurer of HIPOA and traffic calming committee chairperson, said that homeowners paid $225 to put up signs encouraging drivers to slow down — and police officers were on the island daily during the week of May 25-31 to issue citations and warnings to drivers who drove too fast anyway.
    Some of the traffic signs were stolen and will not be replaced, Tate said, “which is too bad because next time fewer signs will be put up to let people know.”
    Previously, islanders successfully lobbied for speed cushions to slow traffic, but the results didn’t achieve the desired slowdown. That’s when the idea for traffic calming weeks hatched during a discussion with the town manager, police chief and Tate.
    Similar efforts are planned for each quarter, Tate said.
    But Mayor Dave Stewart said the traffic calming programs could occur even more frequently.
    “We put a squad car there and sometimes there was someone in it and sometimes there wasn’t,” he said. “We do the same thing in other parts of the town.”
    Residents said it helped.
    “I think it made a difference,” Tate said.
    Six citations were issued for speeding, and there were other infractions as well. Fifteen citations were issued for drivers who ran stop signs. Tickets were also given to drivers who passed illegally, didn’t have a driver’s license, and one for a learners permit restriction.
    The stop sign runners were nabbed at South Atlantic Drive and Barefoot Lane, Tate said.

Town attorney Keith W. Davis and Mayor David Cheifetz congratulate

newly appointed commissioner Keith Waters (center).

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

    Manalapan Mayor David Cheifetz says he’s “done a 180” on a proposal to sell the town’s water utility system to Boynton Beach after hearing some surprisingly good news from a hired consultant.
    Kevin O’Donnell of Nova Energy Consultants, of Cary, N.C.,  took a close look at the utility’s numbers and told town commissioners that it makes sense for them to stay in the water business. The town’s utility is profitable and is likely to stay profitable for years to come.
    Cheifetz says O’Donnell’s optimistic report is a compelling reason to abandon the proposed sale to Boynton Beach and take two steps necessary for ensuring the utility’s long-term stability: getting a finance plan in place to pay for roughly $4.75 million in infrastructure replacement and repair to aging pipes; and beginning talks with Hypoluxo to make sure that 600 customers from the town continue to get their water from Manalapan for decades to come.
    “Your net income after debt expense is roughly $750,000 to $800,000 for 2016,” O’Donnell told the commission. “In other words, you’re doing really good, bottom line. You’re looking at roughly 30 to 35 percent return on sales. In the utility industry — and I do a lot of work with municipalities — we don’t see return on sales that high.”
    O’Donnell said the steady income gives the town financial flexibility moving forward. The utility could transfer its debt to the town, and the town could be confident about getting its money back. The strong bottom line also means rates can hold steady.
    Hypoluxo is critical to the utility’s future, however. The water contract with the town ends in September 2020. Hypoluxo accounts for about one-third of the utility’s total water usage but also accounts for roughly one-half of the utility’s total revenues.
    O’Donnell recommends offering Hypoluxo customers a 20 percent rate cut in return for locking them into a 30-year contract. If Manalapan doesn’t offer them lower rates, they’re likely to buy water from another supplier when the agreement expires, O’Donnell said.
    “The biggest risk here is losing Hypoluxo,” he said. “The value of your system hinges on Hypoluxo.”
    In other business:
    • At the June meeting, the commission unanimously approved appointing  Keith Waters to fill the Point seat that opened with the death of Ronald Barsanti last month.
    Waters, 57, is the chairman of the town’s zoning commission and has chaired the architectural commission. He has been an opponent of easing the town’s restrictions on the size of residences that can be built relative to lot dimensions.
    Professionally, Waters is chief executive officer of WPO Development, a national planning and campaign management firm that offers development services to nonprofit groups. Originally from Kentucky, Waters worked in broadcasting with CBS Sports in the 1980s.
    “Keith has lived in the town for about 10 years,” Cheifetz said. “He has really served the town well. He’s a friend, he’s smart, he’s articulate and I think he’ll be a positive addition.”
    Waters’ term expires in March 2018.
    • The Audubon Causeway bridge project has fallen behind schedule again, according to Town Manager Linda Stumpf. The south side of the new span was to have opened June 1 but now is expected to be completed by early July, allowing the removal of weight restrictions.
    Stumpf said the contractor still believes the project can be finished before the end of the year and come in near the budgeted price of roughly $990,000.

By Jane Smith

    The Florida Association of Recovery Residences is struggling to pay for its sober home certification program after it did not receive state money.
    Starting July 1, Florida-licensed drug and alcohol treatment centers can no longer discharge patients or refer clients to recovery residences that are not certified.
    “The department has not and does not pay for a recovery residence to be credentialed,” said Paige Patterson-Hughes, southeast spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families. The $100,000 in state money given to the Boca Raton-based Florida Association of Recovery Residences in the last budget year was for setting up the system, not to pay for certifying sober homes.
    FARR continues to seek donations from the public and other stakeholders.
    The voluntary nature of the certifications explains the gap between the low number of certified recovery residences compared with the proliferation of sober homes in south county cities.
    In Delray Beach, the mayor estimates the city has hundreds of single-family and multifamily sober homes. FARR’s website lists 35 certified recovery residences as of late June.
    “The voluntary nature of the new statute has been viewed by many with much skepticism,” said Mayor Cary Glickstein. “I see it as a very small step in the right direction, although defunding even the voluntary registration demonstrates a lack of concern or understanding in Tallahassee.”
    Boca Raton officials said they don’t know how many sober homes exist in their city. FARR has certified three there.
    “We worked to get the voluntary certification last year,” said Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie. “We will continue to work on this issue to protect our neighborhoods.”
    The voluntary certifications are a step in the right direction, said County Commissioner Steven Abrams, whose district covers Boca Raton, Boynton Beach and Delray Beach. “But ultimately the answer lies on the federal level.”
    Cities have been sued successfully under federal laws for violating the Fair Housing Act and Americans with Disabilities Act. People living in sober-living situations are seen as a family unit and cities have lost in court when they create zoning laws to ban them.
    Boynton Beach has 49 registered and possibly more exist that “are flying under the radar,” said Saleica Brown, the city’s business development specialist. FARR has certified 18 locations in that city.
    FARR’s president, John Lehman, said his nonprofit group has certified 84 programs operating 250 locations statewide, as of late June. Another 100 programs are in the pipeline, he said. FARR’s website needs to be updated, he said, and likely doesn’t have the most recent figures.
    The association charges a $100 application fee plus $300 per single-family home or duplex, with the amount capped at $2,400. The certification lasts for one year.
    FARR follows the state law detailing what a policy and procedures manual for a certified recovery residence should contain: job descriptions for all staff, drug-testing procedures, prohibition against using alcohol and illegal drugs, policies to promote recovery efforts, a good neighbor policy to address community concerns, rules for residents, copies of all forms provided to residents, relapse policy, fee schedule, eviction procedures, proof of insurance, proof of background screening, code of ethics and proof of satisfactory fire, safety and health inspections.
    The organization hires field personnel to inspect each home. The inspector interviews staff, volunteers and residents to make sure the home is following its policy and procedures.
    The certification process takes at least one month. “It depends on how prepared they are and whether they have residents,” Lehman said. “We can’t measure a residence without residents.”
    FARR needs $100,000 annually to do the certifications statewide, Lehman said. Most of the money would be for staff to make on-site visits. In addition, 25 percent of the certified residences must be visited for renewal, according to standards set by the National Alliance for Recovery Residences.
    The state allows FARR to charge a $100 renewal fee.
    Lehman also wants to set up an education arm to create a designation called Certified Recovery Residence Administrator. FARR would hold that person accountable because of the continuing education offered.
    The continuing education would be set up as a lunch-and-learn program, costing about $200,000, Lehman said.
State law allows the organization to charge up to $225 for the administrator’s application, examination and certification fee. The renewal fee may not exceed $100.
    That program was supposed to start April 1, according to state law.
    “What we are unable to accomplish without additional funding is random compliance audits and educational seminars to enhance the quality of services provided by certified programs,” Lehman said.
    Last year, Lehman helped CashBox Solutions create a PayPal-like software program for recovery homes and other businesses, according to the FARR website. He developed the payment-system software that he called “PayPal on steroids” at the request of a sober home operator.
    His wife runs CashBox and he spends 50-60 hours weekly on FARR as a volunteer, Lehman said.
    CashBox initially shared its office space, equipment and employees with FARR in Boca Raton. Lehman said the two entities began to separate in July 2015 when FARR received the state money. Since then, CashBox has moved to Boynton Beach, he said.
    A self-described recovering addict who has been sober since 2007, Lehman said he knows what a positive recovery residence experience can do. He attended his first 12-step meeting in 1978.
    Neither FARR nor DCF can police the recovery residences because federal laws protect recovering addicts as a disabled class from state and local discriminatory laws.
    That’s why south county cities are seeking federal assistance.
    South Florida is “ground zero for the heroin crisis in the country,” U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel said in early May. “We have to let people recover from addictions, but we have to keep our neighborhoods safe and healthy.”
    She was able to persuade an assistant secretary from U.S. Housing and Urban Development to tour Delray Beach sober homes. They saw suitcases and clothes on lawns, indicating that someone recently was evicted. The HUD secretary promised to work with Department of Justice lawyers to craft a joint statement to be released in August.
    “I consider federal assistance to be the linchpin for real change,” Glickstein said, “defined as true home rule authority for local governments to enact ordinances best suited for their cities and counties.”
    County Commissioner Abrams, who attended Frankel’s May forum, agrees. He was Boca Raton mayor in 2003 when the city was sued in federal court over zoning laws created to protect its neighborhoods. Boca Raton lost that case in 2007 when the federal judge ruled that the zoning laws discriminated against recovering addicts.

As O’Boyle, O’Hare ponder next moves,

mayor says effort exposed records abuse

By Dan Moffett

    Gulf Stream’s RICO suit against residents Martin O’Boyle and Chris O’Hare was laid to rest in a Miami federal appeals court June 21 when a three-judge panel upheld a lower-court ruling to dismiss the case.

    Jonathan O’Boyle, Martin’s son and a co-defendant in the town’s suit, hailed the decision as a victory for open government and citizens’ rights.
    “For public records laws, this is great news — worthy of dancing in the streets,” said O’Boyle, a lawyer affiliated with the family’s law firm. “The net effect (is) a civil right does not exist if the government can sue you to stop the exercise of that right. The social pressure, personal struggle and expense of being a defendant against a government who possesses virtually limitless funds will crush all but the most zealous, tenacious, wealthy and educated.”
    The town’s federal class action alleged that Martin O’Boyle used a group he founded called the Citizens Awareness Foundation to extort settlements from thousands of frivolous public records requests made to Gulf Stream and dozens of other municipalities and businesses across the state — communities including Miami, Bradenton, Cutler Bay and Fernandina Beach.

    The RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act) action claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements were funneled to The O’Boyle Law Firm in Deerfield Beach.
    A year ago, U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Marra threw out the suit, ruling it did not meet legal standards under the RICO statute.
    Gulf Stream Mayor Scott Morgan, a lawyer, said appealing that decision made sense because the town’s suit was “a case of first impression” that had little legal precedent to guide the court.
    “We’re not particularly surprised because winning appeals is very difficult,” Morgan said. “We thought there was less than a 50-50 chance but it was definitely worth taking.”
    He said town attorneys have no regrets about filing the RICO suit because it “shined a light” on O’Boyle’s activities and drew attention to the problem of public records abuse.
    “It generated a lot of publicity and as a result we received a lot of information on the scheme O’Boyle hatched,” Morgan said. “We were able to gather a lot of evidence that will help our cases in the state courts. Also, to my knowledge, since the RICO suit, O’Boyle’s firm hasn’t filed another public records case against anyone in the state. We truly believe what they did constitutes racketeering.”
    The judges of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appeared to empathize with Gulf Stream’s predicament but couldn’t support the racketeering case before them. While the pile of records requests from O’Boyle and O’Hare might have placed an unfair burden on the town, the judges found the behavior didn’t satisfy requirements for action under RICO.
    “The allegations in the plaintiffs’ complaint paint a frustrating picture,” said the 13-page opinion, written by Judge Charles Wilson and joined by Judges Robin Rosenbaum and Jill Pryor.

    “Accepting those allegations as true, the defendants have engaged in a concerted effort to capitalize on the relatively unfettered access to public records Florida has granted its citizens by bombarding small towns and municipalities with public records requests to which they cannot respond adequately. As distasteful as this conduct may be, the allegations do not support a RICO claim under our precedent.”
    Attorneys for the O’Boyles and the other defendants have argued in court documents that the town was engaging in “a collateral attack on the records requestors” in an effort to suppress free speech.
    “The records requestors have an absolute right to make public records requests and lawsuits,’’ the defendants’ lawyers argued. “Their motive for requesting those documents is irrelevant and cannot constitute extortion. … The public records act places no limitation on how many requests may be made. This lawsuit impermissibly seeks to limit the records requestors’ exercise of the rights granted to the records requestors by the Florida Legislature and not stop some other unlawful acts.”

    Besides Gulf Stream, the Wantman Group, a West Palm Beach engineering firm, was a plaintiff in the suit because of a dispute over a public-records request it received from the O’Boyles as a government contractor.
    O’Hare has argued that he never should have been named as a defendant in the case because he was not affiliated with The O’Boyle Law Firm, and the hundreds of public records requests he made to the town concerned legitimate issues that were not linked to the O’Boyles.  
    O’Hare said the RICO allegations have been damaging to his marriage and his company, Pineapple Grove Designs, which produces stone-sculpted architectural ornaments. He said the town overreached in suing him under a federal statute that is meant to combat organized crime.
    “I can’t begin to tell you how debilitating this RICO accusation has been for me and my family,” he told the Town Commission last year.  
    “The RICO suit was a legal misadventure concocted by Mayor Morgan and attorney Robert Sweetapple. There was absolutely no evidence to support the town’s wild claims about me,” O’Hare said after the appeals court decision.
    “There should be no doubt that the town and the town’s attorneys conspired to punish me for seeking redress in the courts and to stop me from requesting public records. This is not the purpose of government and it can’t go unchallenged.”
    Jonathan O’Boyle said the defendants are considering seeking compensation for damages to their businesses and reputations from the RICO suit, as well as recovering legal fees from the case that “have to be north of $1 million for defending the action.”

By Rich Pollack

    Crime in the small coastal communities of south Palm Beach County remained relatively low in 2015, although a rash of car break-ins and auto thefts carrying over from surrounding larger communities may have been responsible for what appears to be a significant increase in at least one town.
    Overall, there were 162 combined major crimes reported in the six coastal towns of Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream, Highland Beach, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge and South Palm Beach compared to 132 in 2014, according to figures reported last month by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
    While Gulf Stream and South Palm Beach saw small decreases in the actual number of crimes committed, Highland Beach and Manalapan had slight increases. In Ocean Ridge, however, the number of total crimes increased by 25, from 46 to 71.  
    The Ocean Ridge numbers include Briny Breezes, policed by Ocean Ridge, but very few of the crimes in the overall number were committed in Briny Breezes, according to Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins.
    Hutchins said a number of factors contributed to the increase in overall crimes reported by Ocean Ridge, including thefts from primarily unlocked vehicles and burglaries committed by people coming from surrounding areas.
    Those crimes, he said, in many cases reflected those that law enforcement agencies throughout South Florida have been experiencing in their jurisdictions.  
    “We had what we felt was a rash of thefts from vehicles,” Hutchins said. “We are working with surrounding agencies to try and combat this.”
    Hutchins said the increase in the number of reported crimes is something residents should know but not be overly concerned about.
    “It’s something for residents to be aware of so they can become more vigilant, which helps us bring the number down,” he said. “Perhaps their awareness and their vigilance will help us reduce the number of crimes in our community to zero.”
    Like the other small towns that line the coast of southern Palm Beach County, Ocean Ridge did not have any reported forcible rapes or homicides.
    The town, however, did have two reported robberies, which Hutchins said appeared to have occurred after people followed residents home from outside of town.
    Like Hutchins, Highland Beach Police Chief Craig Hartmann says it’s important for residents to be on the lookout for things out of the ordinary and call police about them.
    “We want to know when residents see something that doesn’t look right,” Hartmann said.
    In Highland Beach, the number of total crimes increased from 37 to 40, with a couple more larcenies and auto thefts reported than in 2014 but two fewer assaults. There was also one reported robbery in 2015, with none reported the previous year.
    Hartmann said visibility plays an important role in deterring crime and says that there’s no way of accurately knowing how much crime has been prevented.
    “There’s no measurement for what doesn’t happen,” he said.
    Overall crime in Palm Beach County remained fairly flat in 2015 with an increase of less than 1 percent. In all, there were 47,769 crimes reported in the county, 450 more than reported in 2014.  Homicides   countywide, however, increased from 78 to 97 and rapes jumped from 473 to 523.
    Among the larger cities in southern Palm Beach County, Boca Raton saw an 8.4 percent increase in reported crime in 2015, Boynton Beach saw a 12.3 percent increase and Delray Beach reported a 9.2 percent decrease.
    There were one homicide and 30 rapes in Boca Raton in 2015, up from no homicides and 16 rapes in 2014. In Delray, the number of homicides dropped from five to three while rapes fell from 30 to 25, and in Boynton Beach the number of homicides rose from four to eight, while rapes declined from six to four.
    Statewide, overall crime dropped about 1.6 percent, due largely to a 10 percent decrease in burglaries, while the state saw an increase in the number of homicides, rapes and motor vehicles thefts.

By Mary Thurwachter

    As developers prepare to build Water Tower Commons, a 72-acre retail and residential project on the site of the former A.G. Holley tuberculosis hospital east of Interstate 95 on Lantana Road, hundreds of trees need to be moved or replaced.
    “According to the tree survey performed by the applicant, the site has 451 total trees of various types,” said Dave Thatcher, Lantana’s development services director.  “Of those, 137, about 30 percent, are considered protected. The remaining 70 percent are not protected and can be removed.”
    Thatcher said property is being cleared and a fence will be placed around the perimeter.
    “The developer (Lantana Development LLC) will relocate 50 protected oaks from their original location to another spot on the property,” he said. The remaining 87 protected trees, with an average diameter of 15.7 inches, will be replaced with 512 new 4-inch-thick trees.
    Thatcher said there was a lot of misinformation floating around about what was going to happen to trees at the site. Even if the new trees aren’t as big as some taken down, there will be more trees in the end. And all the melaleucas, an invasive species, will be gone.
    Water Tower Commons is the biggest project ever in Lantana, Thatcher said. The site is about 4 percent of the town’s total land.
    The development is expected to create 700 permanent jobs and generate $13 million in new tax revenue for Lantana during the next 20 years, according to Ken Endelson, vice president of Lantana Development, a partnership between Southeast Legacy, headed by Kenco Communities’ Endelson, and Wexford Capital.
    Plans show more than 208,000 square feet of retail space, including a grocery store, pharmacy, restaurants, bank and fitness center. 
    Office space will be available, too, and plans call for more than 1,000 residential units on the north side of the property.

By Jane Smith

    Delray Beach might be the first city in Florida to have a sidewalk policy.
    The program, approved unanimously June 7 by the City Commission, went into effect on June 8. It promotes the health and safety of residents, ensures modes of transportation other than vehicles and creates a clear method for spending dollars collected in areas where sidewalks can’t be built.
    “Kudos to all,” said Jim Smith, chairman of the sidewalk and cyclist advocacy group called SAFE (Safety As Floridians Expect). “It will serve as a guide for the city as it establishes objectives, goals and priorities for the construction and maintenance of sidewalks.”
    Smith told commissioners that they would be the first in Florida to have set a city sidewalk policy. His group made suggestions, including sidewalks within 2 miles of all schools and along all public roads that lead to parks, greenways/trail systems and public facilities.
    The program’s goals included his group’s suggestions and added sidewalk requirements along public roads leading to transit system stops and in the central business district.
    The policy also provides a method for citywide spending of the fees collected in such areas as historic districts where sidewalks are not part of the character of the neighborhood.
    In addition, the sidewalks will be built wide enough to allow for wheelchair access and have curb ramps, cross slopes and other features to promote accessibility.
    All told, the policy took about 10 months to create, said Mark Stivers, principal planner, who drafted the policy and sought input from city departments and outside groups.
    Stivers started to work on a text amendment to the in-lieu sidewalk fee ordinance shortly after he joined the city in July 2015. From that amendment, the city attorney suggested an overall sidewalk policy, Stivers said.  
    His boss, Planning Director Tim Stillings, told commissioners it was an “aspirational policy.”
    Mayor Cary Glickstein added, “It also is tangible. Now we can use the in-lieu funds collected.”

By Jane Smith
    
    A former Delray Beach city employee has pleaded guilty for his role in using a company that charged the city for goods that were never delivered, according to the State Attorney’s Office.
    Orlando Serrano, 47, pleaded guilty on June 21 to grand theft of more than $20,000 and organized fraud of more than $20,000. He was sentenced to 12 months in the county jail and received one day credit for time served.
    Serrano also received five years of probation and was ordered to do 100 hours of community service at the rate of at least eight hours per month upon his release from jail. He must repay the city his share of more than $133,000.
    Serrano, who worked for the city for nearly 19 years, resigned his post as a traffic maintenance supervisor in March 2015.
    Co-defendant Cesar Irizarry, 51, was a treatment plant operator for about 25 years before he resigned in August. Irizarry’s case is set for an Aug. 8 jury trial.
    Another co-defendant, Harold Bellinger, died in early March.
    Prosecutors say the fraud occurred in this manner:
    American Traffic Products & Services Inc. provided street signs, street sign posts and diamond asphalt and concrete saw blades to Delray Beach. But the city didn’t know that the Serrano and Irizarry owned and operated the company, a violation of the city’s code of ethics.
    Bellinger’s role required him to approve invoices for the streets and traffic divisions.
    The city made 59 purchases from American Traffic Products for $230,540.59 since 2007, prosecutors found. But because of record retention limits, investigators could review only purchase orders going back to Oct. 1, 2009. The amount of purchases reviewed was for $158,139.21. Prosecutors found a total loss of $133,444.87 to Delray Beach.
    The company’s address was the same as Irizarry’s home address in suburban Boca Raton, state records show. According to records subpoenaed from JP Morgan Chase Bank related to American Traffic Products, Irizarry is the company’s director and Serrano is an authorized signer and the contact person on the account.
    Between Oct. 6, 2009, and Feb. 20, 2015, the city paid for $158,139.21 of sign equipment from American Traffic Products, but it received only $24,694.64. That resulted in a $108,152.07 loss for Delray Beach, prosecutors found.
    During that time period, Irizarry and Serrano withdrew a total of $112,920.39 from American Traffic Products’ bank account, with $51,480.39 withdrawn by Irizarry and $61,440 withdrawn by Serrano. Some of that money, $27,560, was deposited into Bellinger’s personal bank account, according to prosecutors.
    Bellinger separately ordered $7,582.80 from that company on Oct. 8, 2009, for striping materials and reflective glass beads. The city paid for the items, which it never received.
    Between Oct. 7, 2010, and Feb. 13, 2014, Bellinger ordered 200 gallons of liquid road tack from American Traffic Products. The city paid $9,520, but the product was not delivered. He also ordered diamond saw blades from American Traffic Products for $7,920 between Oct. 10, 2012, and March 21, 2014. The city paid the bill, but it never received the saw blades.

    Delray Beach has renewed its parking agreement with the First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach for 39 spaces on Gleason Street, near the beach. The parking spaces do not have meters, said John Morgan, environmental services director.
    Under the terms of the five-year lease, first formed in May 2001, the city agreed to pay the church $1,720.22 per month for the first year. The rental rate will increase by 3 percent on a compounded basis for each of the remaining years. The lease will expire May 31, 2021, unless terminated earlier.
    The other provisions of the lease remain. They include allowing the church exclusive use of the parking lot each Sunday, between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m.; and from 6 a.m. to midnight on these religious holidays: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. One space is reserved for the church’s pastor.
— Jane  Smith

By Jane Smith
    
    The city’s policy of just one big event per month during high season will be retested July 5.
    That’s when Garlic Fest founder and organizer Nancy Stewart-Franczak will return to appeal the city’s denial of her holding the 18-year-old festival in February as usual because the Tennis Center has booked the Delray Beach Open for that month.
    On June 21, Stewart-Franczak packed the City Commission chambers with her supporters. Members of the Atlantic High School jazz dance team, wearing their Eaglette uniforms, asked commissioners to save Garlic Fest because it allowed them to earn money to be on the team. Other supporters included the school’s marching band and the local Boy Scout troop, as well as Dada restaurant owner Bruce Feingold.
    Rob Steele, new head of Old School Square, also asked that Garlic Fest be allowed. His budget needs the income. Garlic Fest paid $25,000 this year to Old School Square for use of its site, despite commissioners’ saying they no longer want events on that campus to stop it from becoming “the fairgrounds.”
    Over the years, Garlic Fest, run by the nonprofit Delray Beach Arts Inc., has donated about $600,000 to various groups whose members work at the three-day festival.
    The city is trying to recover costs and has estimated Garlic Fest should pay $61,000 for 2017, more than doubling the nearly $25,000 paid this year.
    Most promoters are seeing at least a doubling of fees because the city’s finance department has developed metrics that cover the entire cost for staff time, including hourly wages, vacation time and pensions. The metrics also consider the cost of staff “on the ground” at events, including maintenance and cleanup, plus administrative time associated with the event, stage rentals, trash boxes and liners, portable toilets, and so on.
    Stewart-Franczak has made changes to the Garlic Fest site plan by eliminating carnival rides and street closings. Delray Beach residents will be allowed in free during two hours on Sunday; all others have to pay.
    Only four commissioners sat on the dais during the June 21 meeting. The mayor was out of town.
    Commissioner Jordana Jarjura said the city provides services for the tennis tournament 10 days before that event starts, overlapping the Garlic Fest’s proposed dates of Feb. 10-12. The city is trying to reduce the stress on services when its public safety departments are dealing with 10-12 overdose calls daily, Jarjura said.
    The commission, chaired by Vice Mayor Al Jacquet, voted twice on the Garlic Fest appeal. The first motion to deny the appeal ended in a tied vote, with Commissioner Shelly Petrolia joining Jacquet to deny it. Commissioners Jarjura and Mitch Katz supported the appeal.
    Jarjura, who has spoken about not voting against policy, tried to put together a compromise vote allowing the Garlic Fest to continue for one year, but in following years not to allow a waiver.
    Stewart-Franczak looked perplexed, saying she didn’t know whether she could find a different site. An exasperated Jarjura said, “Count your votes.”
    The city attorney said the vote would not be binding on future commissions.
    Katz then offered Jarjura’s motion, which also ended in a tied vote. According to Petrolia’s reading of the city charter, that vote would have killed the appeal. But when they turned to City Attorney Noel Pfeffer for guidance, he told them to keep voting.
    Jarjura then offered a motion to table the appeal to the July 5 commission meeting, when the mayor would be present. That motion passed unanimously.

Fest focus now more local
    Delray Beach wants festivals that are town-serving, since it no longer needs to attract masses into downtown as it did 30 years ago.
    Each special event has to pay a nonrefundable $150 application fee, which offsets the event permit fee of $150 for a minor event, $300 for an intermediate and $500 for a major event. Promoters are asked to provide parking solutions during their events.
    “Special events had largely been a free-for-all,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said at the June 7 commission meeting, “with no coherent strategy or policy or understanding of what these events factually cost the city, or how they impact public safety. … Sixty events in a compressed area is just too much.”
    Before sober homes became an issue, the complaints were all about the festivals, Petrolia said. “We’ve made this decision four times since 2013,” she said. “Tweaking is not what we are looking for.”
    She talked about the festivals drawing more people from outside Delray Beach into downtown. “We have addressed whether we really want that kind of thing. The answer is no,” she said.
    The city commissioners listed five major events they want to host or see happen in the downtown: Veterans Day Parade in November, holiday parade and events in December, tennis tournament in February, St. Patrick’s Day Parade in March, Delray Affair in April. No other major events are allowed in those months in the downtown core. The city also hosts July Fourth events in the summer.
    The fifth annual Wine & Seafood Festival was nixed because the promoter sought a November weekend when the city has set aside that month for its Veterans Day Parade. Stewert-Franczak’s for-profit Festival Management Group runs that festival and the Delray Affair for the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce.
    The festival organizer is trying to reduce costs and allow the Wine & Seafood Festival to fall into the intermediate event category and be able to keep its November date, the city manager said in late June. The costs of city services would have to fall below $20,000 for an event to be characterized as intermediate.
    Chamber of Commerce President Karen Granger was disheartened. “The city is making it difficult for us to recoup the costs,” she said. Her organization had counted on income from the Wine & Seafood Festival to support its pro-business programming.
    “Events helped to create the vibe of the happiest seaside town in America,” she said.
    Bruce Gimmy, who owns the Trouser Shop on Atlantic Avenue, appreciates the more upscale events, such as the Howard Alan crafts and fine arts festivals, that draw clientele to his store. The events don’t have alcohol vendors, creating business for the city’s restaurants, are in the daytime and are free to attend.
    Both Alan festivals were approved on the condition that a parking program is worked out with the city.  The crafts festival, held Thanksgiving weekend, is considered an intermediate event with costs estimated to be $9,362.
    The fine arts festival in January is considered a major event. Costs are estimated at $14,700.
    “We do events all over the country,” Alan said, “and the best are in downtown Delray Beach.”