By Dan Moffett

    Publix Super Markets and Manalapan are in the final stages of negotiations that appear likely to bring a store to the town’s Plaza del Mar shopping center by 2018.
    “It looks like there’s a 95 percent chance that this will happen,” said a source close to the talks. “There are some details left to resolve, and the company has to complete its due diligence. But there’s nothing major left to work out.”
    Publix has told the town it intends to build a 25,000-square-foot store — roughly half the size of a typical Publix, but larger than the 20,000-square-foot store the chain built on Dixie Highway in downtown Lake Worth five years ago.
    During its March 22 meeting, the Town Commission voted to change an ordinance that prohibits displaying large trademark signs in the plaza, effectively making way for the familiar green-and-white Publix logo to come to Manalapan.
    “The arrangements between Publix and the shopping center are in the final stages,” said Mayor David Cheifetz, “and we expect that they will be consummated very shortly. There are a few little technicalities that have to be dealt with, but other than that, it looks like we’re going to be having a Publix in Plaza del Mar — which we’re thrilled about.”
    The plans would require demolition of buildings currently occupied by businesses, perhaps including The Palm Beaches Theatre.
    Manalapan Town Manager Linda Stumpf said she expects Publix to submit design plans to the town’s architectural committee this summer, with the hope of beginning construction in early 2017.
    Talks between the town and the supermarket chain began in the middle of last year and have gathered momentum in recent weeks. The new store would be the only Publix on the barrier islands between the town of Palm Beach and Pompano Beach.
    Demographics are always a factor when Publix decides to build, and the decision to build at the Manalapan location is no exception. Slightly more than 150,000 people live within a five-mile radius of Plaza del Mar, and their average annual household income is about $75,000, according to U.S. Census statistics.
    The Manalapan store figures to attract barrier island shoppers from as far south as Gulf Stream and even draw traffic from across the bridge. The roughly 1,500 residents of South Palm Beach would be within walking distance of a neighborhood Publix.
    “I think most residents are driving to the Lantana Road Publix now,” said South Palm Mayor Bonnie Fischer. “I think everyone here will be going to this one instead.”
    Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello said this is something South Palm Beach has been waiting for.
    “People have been talking about a supermarket coming there for a long time,” Flagello said. “This is very exciting for the community.”
    Matt Buehler, a representative from Kitson & Partners, the developer that runs the plaza, told Manalapan commissioners that the changes to the town’s sign rules that Publix wanted wouldn’t transform the look of the 103,000-square-foot center on the corner of East Ocean Avenue and A1A.
    “It’s a requirement of the lease in order to allow them (Publix) to install their trademark sign,” Buehler said. “We’re not trying to change the appearance of the rest of the shopping center. We’re trying to keep it consistent with a nice, clean look.”
    The commissioners didn’t hesitate to give their unanimous approval to the small concession for the supermarket giant.
    Publix Super Markets Inc. is based in Lakeland and operates some 1,120 stores through the Southeast, with more than 180,000 employees. Last year, Consumer Reports ranked Publix the second-leading supermarket in the country for customer satisfaction, trailing only Rochester, N.Y.,-based Wegmans.
    Publix did not return calls seeking comment.

Delray Beach resident Alan Rose has become a strong supporter of the Caridad Center in Boynton Beach.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    Until a few years ago, Alan Rose had never heard of the Caridad Center in Boynton Beach, which provides health-related services to uninsured, working-poor families of Palm Beach County.
    Then one day in 2014, Rose saw an announcement about the center’s “Come Celebrate 25 Years with Caridad” gala.
    Without knowing anyone else attending, Rose and a date — along with another couple — went to the gala, where they soon discovered the outstanding work done by the nonprofit organization.  
    Since then Rose, of Delray Beach, has become a strong supporter of the Caridad Center, making financial contributions and even hosting a party earlier this year that raised several thousand dollars for the organization and introduced more than 80 guests to its mission.
    “They’re doing really good things at the center,” Rose said. “The Caridad Center provides free health-care services for those in need. There’s nothing better in life than to have your health.”
    As Rose quickly learned after meeting representatives of the center, Caridad also provides a wide variety of other services to those in need, including college scholarships, baby supplies, crisis intervention services and back-to-school supplies.
    But it is the medical, dental and vision services largely provided by volunteer doctors, dentists and other health-care professionals that attract thousands of patients who visit the center each year. It is the largest free health-care clinic of its kind in Florida.
    This month, Rose will once again be supporting the center, one of several organizations that benefit from the Boca West Community Charitable Foundation’s annual “Concert for the Children” on April 5 at Boca West Country Club.
    Rose will be attending a concert featuring Patti LaBelle and encouraging other supporters of the Caridad Center to purchase tickets, which are $175 each.
    Money raised from the concert — which will include the Atlantic City Boys — and from the foundation’s annual $200,000 golf challenge will benefit 21 organizations in south Palm Beach County that provide services to at-risk children, including Caridad.
    For Rose, 59, supporting charitable organizations such as the Caridad Center is something he’s been doing for quite some time.
    An entrepreneur at heart, Rose grew his family’s parking lot construction and rehabilitation business in the Chicago area into a nationwide company with more than 200 employees before selling it in 2014 and coming to South Florida.
    While up North, Rose and his company supported several organizations, including the Asthma and COPD Center at the University of Chicago, to which he committed more than $1 million through financial support and volunteer services provided by employees over the course of several years.  
    Rose and the company also supported the South Suburban Cancer Center in Chicago along with numerous other nonprofits.
    Now semi-retired and living in South Florida year- round, Rose is focusing his philanthropic efforts on local organizations.
    Rose also supports Delray Citizens for Delray Police and is sponsoring an awards ceremony that will be held on April 19.  “I have a soft spot in my heart for the police,” he said.
    Rose is a strong believer in assisting others, such as those served by the Caridad Center, who just need a helping hand.
    “I’ve been blessed with success,” he said. “I believe people who have been blessed with success should share at least a small portion of their wealth and give to charity.”
    Looking forward, Rose said, he hopes to make the February party he hosted to benefit the Caridad Center an annual event, with a goal of raising more than $10,000 next year.
    In recognition of his semi-retirement and move to Florida, Rose called the event the “Next Adventure” party.
    “This is chapter two of my life,” he said.

The eight-piece Solid Brass band rocks out during a Dinner & Dancing concert presented by the town of Lantana.

Guests enjoyed a buffet-style meal under the stars, then danced to classic rock and R&B songs

from the ’60s through the ’80s while enjoying gorgeous water views. The menu included

salad, an Italian main course, rolls and iced tea. There also was a cash bar.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    Atlantic Crossing’s revised site plan sailed through a city advisory panel in early March and will be reviewed by the City Commission on April 5.
    The proposed $200 million Atlantic Crossing project sits stalled on 9.2 acres at the northeast corner of Federal Highway and East Atlantic Avenue in downtown Delray Beach.
    The latest plan shows a circular valet path with two lanes, instead of a horseshoe-shaped one, that aligns with an exit driveway leading to North Federal Highway. Vehicles also can enter the underground garage from North Federal Highway.
    The city’s planner described the roads as driveways, primarily because of their width and lack of landscaping. Scott Pape told the Site Plan Review and Appearance Board the driveways are structurally sound and able to handle the weight of delivery and garbage trucks.
    “It’s the best configuration that we can agree on,” Danielle Joyce, a traffic consultant hired by the city to review the latest site plan, told the review board’s chairman. “Without a major site modification,” she added.
    Joyce, of Greenman-Pedersen’s Tampa office, was questioned by review board member James Chard, who wanted to know about the 11,000 vehicles entering the project daily and whether that would create a traffic problem for the surrounding neighborhoods.
    She explained that her firm redid the trip calculations and found the existing trips to be 65 percent to 70 percent lower than the Atlantic Crossing developers had estimated. But she believes signal synchronization at Northeast First Street and Northeast Fifth Avenue could take care of the westbound traffic during peak hours, allowing it to be at or near stable flow level at build-out. Both levels are acceptable for traffic performance standards in an urban area.
    Other site plan changes are improved for the two loading docks and a safer pedestrian crosswalk, moved north in the project.
    Bruce Leiner, president of Harbour House Homeowners Association, said for a site plan, “process matters.” He pushed the City Commission on March 1 to allow its review board to weigh in on the revised site plan.
    He still thinks the city needs to hold an abandonment hearing on two alleys needed for the project, but since that was not in the board’s purview, it chose to focus on the changes in the revised site plan.
    The special review meeting was held six days after the City Commission meeting, with only four review board members; Jose Augilar and Brett Porak were absent.
    The board approved it unanimously with five conditions, including monitoring the valet queues and truck deliveries so that vehicles do not back up onto Northeast Seventh Avenue, and adding way-finding signs for vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians.
    A suit filed by the Atlantic Crossing developers in June claimed the city had 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, the lawsuit was moved to federal court. The lawsuit is on hold until April 5.
    The project, 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.

    Spring? Already? It seems too soon for hurricane predictions, rising humidity and transport trucks heading north. But here it is April. Where did winter go?
    It was a busy season along the coast, filled with the usual array of lovely philanthropic and cultural events, gatherings of friends and family and outdoor leisure time at the beach, patio or pool — when it wasn’t raining. Seems like it rained a lot this winter.
    Now, it’s time to embrace April and brace for summer.
    May-October is no longer the slow season. The local economy is booming and, as a result, there’s a lot of change afoot in our community.
    This is Florida, after all. Boom times always bring change. And much of that change happens over the summer, when municipal budgets are set and fewer people are around to challenge (or support) the decisions of their local officials.
    We owe it to our piece of paradise to stay plugged in and involved to assure the inevitable changes benefit everyone, not just those who profit or make the most noise or file the most lawsuits.
    We’ll be here reporting on those changes. Stay in touch.
    Here are a few ways you can do that: Subscribe to The Coastal Star while you are away. There is a form on Page 10.
    Join our website at www.thecoastalstar.com: You’ll then receive email blasts about breaking news and events, plus an advance look at each month’s news.
    Check out our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TheCoastalStar/ for updates throughout the month, and I even tweet once in a while at @A1Astar. Check it out on Twitter.
    These are places where you can expect to find continuing updates on Boca Raton’s downtown and beachfront development, Highland Beach’s public safety concerns, the several large developments likely to be breaking ground soon in Delray Beach, Gulf Stream’s buried utilities project and ongoing legal and legislative battles over public records lawsuits, Briny Breezes’ need for road enforcement, Ocean Ridge’s ongoing discussion about growth in Boynton Beach, South Palm Beach’s continuing battle with beach erosion, Lantana’s efforts to increase its tax base yet remain a small fishing village and the recently announced plans for a Publix in Manalapan!
    We will be here reporting all this and much, much more all summer long.
    Whether you are staying or going north, I hope you have a great summer — and that you’ll stay involved.

— Mary Kate Leming, editor

By Dan Moffett

    Faced with a staggering cost increase and continued delays, Gulf Stream commissioners are scrambling to get their much-troubled and long-awaited underground utilities project back on track.
    Danny Brannon, Gulf Stream’s engineering consultant, had nothing but bad news to deliver at the March town meeting. He said the bids have come in for phase two of the project and they’re about 33 percent, or roughly $954,000, higher than expected.
    Work that was supposed to cost about $2.8 million now will approach $4 million, raising the total cost of moving all the town’s power, telephone and cable lines underground to about $6.5 million.
    “Absolutely stunning,” said Vice Mayor Robert Ganger.
    But forget about phase two for a moment, because there still is no telling when phase one will be completed. Brannon said he has had trouble getting Comcast to take down its lines so Florida Power & Light can come in and remove its poles.
    Neighborhoods that were supposed to be fully transferred to the underground system by now still resemble construction sites.
    Mayor Scott Morgan said the town’s south end “looks like a Benghazi suburb” and lamented the continued inability of the utility companies to work together.
    Brannon said it’s been impossible to get FPL, AT&T and Comcast to commit to a timeline.
    Even the project’s accounting has come into question. Commissioners told Brannon they couldn’t make sense of the numbers he brought them.
    Ganger called the bad bookkeeping “a rookie mistake” that had to be cleaned up before the commission can decide how to proceed. “You’re asking us to make a decision when someone can’t even do the math,” Ganger said.
    Morgan proposed consulting with town residents who have experience in finance and construction to draw on their expertise for ideas about righting the foundering project. He said he would bring recommendations for discussion at the town’s April 8 meeting.
    Commissioner Joan Orthwein said there is no choice but to move forward, because the town is too far into the project to turn back. “That would be like stopping building a house halfway through,” she said. “What have you got? Nothing.”
    The commission decided to conditionally award the contract for phase two to low-bidder Wilco Electric, with the hope that the contractor can find ways to take some of the cost out of the project.
    Gulf Stream’s problems with the project should send an ominous signal to surrounding communities. On March 15, voters in the town of Palm Beach approved a plan to move utilities underground that is roughly 15 times the size and cost ($80 million) of Gulf Stream’s.
    Palm Beach may want to take a second look at the Gulf Stream timeline. The idea for burying utility lines was born in the aftermath of the three hurricanes that struck Palm Beach County in 2004 and 2005.
    Gulf Stream started setting aside prepaid assets for the project in 2010. Construction was to have started in May 2012 but didn’t get going until late in 2013. The original completion target for both phases of the project was somewhere in the first half of 2015.
    Cyclical economic factors have contributed to the delays and overruns. Coming out of the recession, contractors were looking for work and gave low bids. Material prices also were low. Utility companies downsized their staffs, pushing into early retirement experienced workers who knew how to handle complicated projects.
    Now with the national economy rolling again, the cost of most everything has gone up and companies are understaffed.
    Despite the rising price tag, Town Manager William Thrasher told commissioners there is money in the town’s budget to pay for the project if they decide to proceed.

    This is a pivotal time in Delray Beach history, so I want to make a few comments on the Atlantic Crossing project, which the city sent back to the Site Plan Review and Appearance Board on March 1.
    I want to thank Commissioners Shelly Petrolia and Mitch Katz for being concerned about the lack of proper process on abandonment of the two-way road.
    Where is the abandonment proceeding? It never happened. So a two-way road and an alley are in danger of being given away by the city with no respect for the legal procedure set forth for such action. All because this developer has filed a lawsuit against the town.
    So the precedent being set here, as some say the city did with the iPic theater, is giving away public land.
    In this case the developer has sued so the game they are playing is to threaten the city with millions in damages and the city rolls over in a settlement agreement.
    And what happens after that? Every developer in this town and on the east coast of Florida and beyond knows all they have to do is sue and the city rolls over. It becomes a cost of doing business and they do it again and again.
    Liability insurance costs go up and the deductible goes up. Before too many years you have more lawsuits from developers than you can shake a stick at and no public trust. In the town from which I moved, our deductible went up to $100,000 for a 1-mile-long, two-block-wide town and we still couldn’t find insurance.
    You all know a bully and how to deal with one. If someone is threatening you, they are a bully and there’s no pretending otherwise. You have each shown courage in dealing with bullies in your life; we saw it in your eyes when we elected you. Draw on that courage now.
    There are developers who are good and will work with a town, its people and its laws to create quality developments that make them money and enhance the town. We need to find those developers or tell this one to become one if they want to do business in Delray Beach.
    The message we need to send is we want respectful development in Delray Beach. Respect our laws, respect our hardworking city staff and elected officials, respect our town and respect the people of Delray Beach. Then we welcome you to work with us to make Delray Beach the best beach town in Florida.

Joy Howell
Delray Beach

    This legislative session demonstrated a political will to reform the Florida’s Public Records Act. However, that will was misguided in both SB 1220 and HB 1021.
    Those bills targeted the attorney’s fees provision of Chapter 119 and attempted to change that reward to successful litigants from mandatory to discretionary. The zeitgeist: Judges punish lawyers for not vetting clients. Since very few people will pay tens of thousands of dollars for an email, the lawyers will ultimately determine who will come across well in the histrionics of court.
    Here is the problem: What government is not going to label the requestor an abuser?     
    Any government lawyer worth their salt would label every requestor an abuser or risk malpractice. Since intentions are the only metric to distinguish abusers from non-abusers, the government will have subpoena power to discover your most intimate thoughts about public officials and government policies. The government will be allowed to subject you, your friends, family and coworkers to videotaped interrogations in search of anti-government sentiments. The government could read your emails, texts, and phone searching for evidence of frustration.
    The government will have the full power of the court to prove that you dislike the administration and are acting upon that dislike. Take a second to think about that; you sue the government for hiding information and the next thing you know you are being investigated for sedition: Orwellian.
    Thankfully, that situation fell through. 
    In that universe, attorneys would not be anti-abuser policemen. They would be cash-up-front. Even the most righteous-minded is not certain to have the mettle to see litigation through, ensuring the attorney’s payment. 
    Without enforcement, governments revert to their natural state of oligarchical secrecy.  There is, however, an answer to the public records question and it lies not in substance but procedure.
    First, the law must designate a responsible records custodian and mandate the government to clearly designate the identity of the custodian as well as the proper channels to make a request. Then, a request will only count if it is given to that designee, but requestors will not have to guess where to send requests or get the run-around. 
    Also, there should be a fixed time to respond to requests; that time can reasonably be enlarged by the custodian unilaterally, but only after attempts to work with the requestor on a mutual production date have failed.
    Custodians should also be asking for clarification and feedback in every correspondence and seeking clarification in writing. When both parties are on the same page, the system works and a culture of trust is promoted. In addition, “gotcha” litigation becomes impossible.
    But what about abuses in the number of requests? Be wary of the officials who seek to limit requests, they peddle snake oil.
    First, the government can charge; costs will become prohibitive.
    Second, a hard limit on requests is futile; friends and organizations can defeat any limitation. The only way to truly limit the number of requests is to build trust with citizens.
    Some ask for public records to keep them; most people ask because they are looking for answers to questions on which public officials have prevaricated. The more a government is perceived as dishonest or evasive, the more requests it generally receives. When dealing with citizens, it pays to answer questions today, not requests tomorrow. Although a government cannot limit requests by edict it may exercise control by engaging with civility and respect. 
    If Florida wants to sensibly address the public records question, the panacea lies not in substantive but procedural reforms and building trust. 

Jonathan O’Boyle,
Deerfield Beach

Jonathan O’Boyle, an attorney licensed in Florida and Pennsylvania, is the son of Gulf Stream resident Martin O’Boyle. During the last three years, the O’Boyles have filed dozens of lawsuits against the town over hundreds of public records.

    Two days after the Florida Legislature completed the 2016 session, a Sun Sentinel editorial headlined “Open government under attack,” indirectly referred to a failed bill that attempted to address abuse of the Public Records Act by a cottage industry of scam artists who have conspired to fleece Florida taxpayers of many millions of dollars.
    With some irony, the Florida Press Association had worked with bill sponsors to craft language to assure that only abusers of open government laws were targeted, and not the press or ordinary citizens. Perhaps someone missed the memo.
    The alleged public records “scheme” is virtually foolproof. It starts with the Sunshine Law that grants citizens and the press unfettered access to the inner workings of taxpayer-funded public agencies (municipalities, school boards, law enforcement, etc.) When requested records are not produced in a timely fashion, the requestor has a right to sue the agency. If the court finds that the request was actually denied, attorney fees must be awarded to the plaintiff.  
    Sounds reasonable. Except that hustlers have figured out how to game the system, either by overwhelming the agency with excessive requests, or by rigging the requests in a manner that makes it impossible to comply.
    Quick money is made by threatening or actually filing a lawsuit, then offering a settlement for a fraction of trial costs. The victim is in a lose/lose situation. Most settle, and the taxpayer foots the bill.
    The Florida League of Cities, representing all 410 state municipalities, got wind of the scam several years ago. In establishing  priorities for the 2016 legislative session, confronting abuse of the Public Records Act was the top choice of League policy makers. As a FLOC committee delegate from Gulf Stream, I was in the unenviable position of defining the problem that legislation needed to solve.
    Our tiny town endured 2,500 public records requests in 18 months, overwhelming a four-person administrative staff. Over 40 compliance lawsuits have been filed, some within hours of receipt of the request. Town annual legal costs escalated from $25,000 to $1 million. Almost 5,000 annual staff hours were spent processing records requests.
    Sadly, the Gulf Stream situation was neither unique nor more repulsive than the experience of similar agencies throughout the state. One mayor said, “We are facing an epidemic.”
    Rep. Greg Steube and Sen. Rene Garcia agreed to sponsor public records reform bills. It was a daunting task, involving: the mechanics of crafting bill language; assigning and coordinating six required committee reviews; educating and motivating 160 legislators; appearing at hearings and amending language as needed.
    League lobbyists coordinated the effort, and elected officials throughout the state personally testified in support of conscientious efforts to give courts discretion to withhold attorney fees from frivolous litigants.
    Florida Tax Watch, a respected watchdog whose research on government waste is based upon access to public records, filed a report asking Legislators to support sensible reform.
    The proposed bills passed all committee hearings almost unanimously. During testimony, the most ardent defenders of the Public Records Act acknowledged the damage caused by abusive practice, calling the perpetrators “cockroaches” and “gotcha guys.”
    The Florida Press Association and First Amendment Foundation worked with Garcia to amend bill language to not impose a chilling effect on legitimate exercise of open government rights.  
    Apparently, one influential  member of the House (who is a public records attorney), was not convinced. Rather than put SB 1220 to a vote on the House floor where it was certain to pass, the bill was buried.
    However, the genie is now out of the bottle. We’ll be back in 2017.

Robert W. Ganger
Vice Mayor, Gulf Stream

Robert W.  Ganger is a Florida  League of Cities committee delegate and a longtime Gulf Stream resident and commissioner.

By Jane Smith

    For nearly a year, city staffers have toiled to create a special-events policy for Delray Beach.
    Gathering staff from various departments was a bit like herding cats, Assistant City Manager Francine Ramaglia told city commissioners at their March workshop. But with the policy in place, each employee will know what is required, she said.
    For the first time, the city will have a special event application fee of $150 and require contracts that call for a deposit and cover the true cost of city staff and services and the impacts on city grounds and roads.
    The policy also would create a special events office in the Parks and Recreation Department to provide a one-stop shop for festival organizers. No new staff would be hired.
    Ramaglia said her goal is to return to the commission in early May with a policy that can be approved and implemented in time for festival organizers to use for next season’s events.
    The discussion took place just 10 days before the second annual Bacon & Bourbon Fest on Old School Square grounds. This year’s fest boasted four more bourbon bars, extended hours and even a pig race — all on the city’s historic grounds.
    “It doesn’t benefit the merchants,” said Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia. “It’s held in a caged-off area. People come for the festival and then leave.”
    Some commissioners were exasperated about having yet another discussion on special events when the topic was brought up at two separate goal-setting sessions in the past year.
    City commissioners have identified “hometown events” worthy of closing Atlantic Avenue: the Veterans Day Parade in November; the Holiday Parade and First Night in December; St. Patrick’s Day Parade in March; Delray Affair, grandfathered in because it was started to honor the city’s former role as the Gladiolus Capital of the World, in April; and the Fourth of July events.
    The commissioners don’t want to see any other major events in those months. Major events are now defined as those lasting one day or more, costing more than $20,000 in city services, requiring a road closure, attracting more than 10,000 people and serving alcohol.
    In addition, commissioners no longer want to hold special events on Old School Square grounds. They want the Garlic Fest and other festivals moved to other areas that need promotion, such as Congress Avenue and West Atlantic.
    “It’s premature to talk about Congress Avenue,” said Nancy Stewart-Franczak, whose Festival Management firm organizes the Garlic Fest, Bacon & Bourbon Fest and the Wine & Seafood Fest. She also sits on the special events task force.
    Without a new property identified, her firm is trying to lessen the impact of its events by offering parking and security solutions.
    Since June, Ramaglia and her two co-captains, Parks and Recreation Director Suzanne Davis and Economic Development Director Joan Goodrich, worked with staffers from seven other departments on the special events task force. The group also included event organizers such as the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Development Authority and the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative.
    They did try to get members from the community, but they stopped coming after a few meetings, Ramaglia said.
    Mayor Cary Glickstein said he appreciates the group’s focus on public safety and the full-cost recovery of the special events, but more work needs to be done to cull the number of large events. He wants to see “collective pain” on the part of organizers.
    He likened the objections to special events to the scale of complaints he receives about sober homes. “People want smaller events they can relate to,” he said.
    The Delray Beach Wine & Seafood Fest, held last November on A1A along the city’s beach, was “just another honky-tonk kind of event,” he said. Next time, the fest will be held on Old School Square grounds, Ramaglia said, much to the chagrin of Petrolia and Glickstein.
    Savor the Avenue, which closed four blocks of Atlantic Avenue on a Monday night in March, was deemed suitable. The event features Delray Beach restaurants.
    The Delray Affair will have 100 fewer booths this April because it will no longer set up on Old School Square grounds.
    The mayor talked about walking the event last year along Atlantic Avenue from Andrews Avenue west to Swinton Avenue, and seeing only one person he knew. “And I’ve been here for 30-plus years,” he said.

    Compared to the previous financial year, the city is seeing a reduction of two festivals from 67 to 65 during the season and a reduction of nine from 14 to five events in the summer months.
    Ramaglia said the full effect would not be seen until the fall when next financial year starts.
    “Special events have been a mainstay for so many years; we need everyone’s input,” she said. “We want to be careful in making a change that we do not pop the balloon that helped Delray grow.”

    Delray Beach voters overwhelmingly approved changing the city charter to give the City Commission authority to appoint an internal auditor. The vote was 9,318 to 3,144.
    The vote on a second referendum question, on allowing the City Commission to change its civil service code by local ordinance instead of by holding a referendum and submitting a local bill to the Florida Legislature, received a closer approval, at 6,402 to 5,569.
— Jane Smith

By Dan Moffett

    A positive report from Commissioner Clark Appleby has given the Manalapan Town Commission reason to take the next steps in exploring a water utility deal with Boynton Beach.
    Appleby, a financial adviser by trade, studied the potential impact of selling the town’s system and found that most of Manalapan’s customers would see their water bills decrease if the deal with Boynton goes through.
    “About 85 percent or more of the users would be saving money,” he told the commission during its March 22 meeting.
    Appleby said Manalapan cannot match those lower rates  if it keeps its water system because the town does not have a large enough customer base. He said the plant currently is running at only 49 percent capacity and there isn’t enough volume with 880 customers to drive down cost.
    Boynton Beach has more than 100,000 customers — size enough to keep rates low.
    Making matters worse, before much longer the town will have to replace its aging infrastructure of pipes, an overhaul that will cost about $5 million.
    “That’s a huge hurdle for us,” Appleby said. “I don’t think this town wants to take on $5 million in debt.”
    Appleby recommended continuing talks for a deal with Boynton Beach. The commission unanimously agreed.
    Commissioners also agreed that, after hearing former Ocean Ridge Mayor Ken Kaleel urge them to get a more comprehensive study from an outside source, an additional analysis would be a good idea.
    “This is a huge, huge decision — it could be the biggest decision that you’ll make,” said Kaleel, a lawyer with clients in Manalapan. “Maybe this is good for the short term. But is it good for the long term?”
    Kaleel told the commission that Ocean Ridge made sure to maintain control of its pipes and delivery system when contracting with Boynton Beach for water. He said that keeping ownership of the infrastructure would give Manalapan more latitude to handle regional water shortages in years ahead.
    “We have a static customer base, and we’re faced with a fairly significant capital expenditure,” said Mayor David Cheifetz, who argued that the town should continue talking to Boynton while getting a consultant lined up for an independent review of the plan’s long-term impact.
    Commissioners said they would consider holding a public workshop once the review is done to get input from residents.
    In other business,Vice Mayor Peter Isaac said the Audubon Causeway bridge project still has a chance “to be substantially complete” before August.
    Isaac said he expects the south side of the bridge to be finished during the first two weeks of May, which will allow the removal of weight restrictions on traffic. Workers then will have 11 weeks to complete the north side.
    “There’s still a shot at the end of July” target date, he said.

Correction

      An April story about the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency’s goal-setting session gave the wrong attribution about the reasons behind a proposed tax rate reduction. The CRA executive director told his board members that the city wants the CRA to cover an additional $2 million in projects and services so that the city could reduce its overall property tax rate. 

By Jane Smith

    The city of Delray Beach is working with its Community Redevelopment Agency to make sure the agency’s spending aligns with city goals.
    An example of that new relationship was seen March 10 when the Delray Beach city manager and his two assistants attended the CRA goal-setting workshop for the first time.
    The city has dropped its efforts to reduce the size of the CRA or the amount of property tax money the agency receives. The city is concerned that reducing its share would lead to the county asking for a similar reduction, said Don Cooper, city manager. “I’ll take every dime,” he said.
    Instead, the city wants the CRA to cover an additional $2 million in projects and services so that the city could reduce its property tax rate by 3.42 percent, according to the city’s chief financial officer.
    The Delray Beach property tax rate is slightly more than double the rate paid by Boca Raton property owners, but it’s about 12 percent lower than the tax rate in Boynton Beach.
    The proposed reduction would result in the owner of a Delray Beach home, valued at $200,000 for tax purposes and with a $50,000 homestead exemption, to save about $38 a year on property taxes, CFO Jack Warner calculated.
    The extra items include two more police officers for the CRA’s Clean & Safe program in the downtown area, an additional code enforcement officer for the northwest and southwest neighborhoods, increased contribution to the tennis center tournaments and covering the cost of a tennis stadium study.
    CRA Chairman Reggie Cox asked his executive director to give the board options about what to pay for so that the agency sticks to its mission of curing blight.
    “The tennis center dollars could be used elsewhere,” Cox said.
    The City Commission and CRA board have a joint workshop planned for April 12.   
    “It’s not gloom and doom,” Cooper said. “It’s just a difficult time.”
    For Delray Beach, most of the property value increase happens in the CRA area, which covers 20 percent of the city.
    CRA board member Paul Zacks said, “I look forward to the workshop if it’s cooperative, but cooperation does not mean capitulation. I am for working with the city to work out solutions.”
    The subject of the downtown trolley also was discussed. Cox and board member Bill Branning were concerned about the CRA’s return on investment for the $400,000 annual operating cost. Both said ridership was too low to justify the amount.
    Board members asked whether the CRA can expand its office because it now has more staff and interns and an increased workload.
    Cooper suggested that they try asking the city library about its unused upstairs space since the children’s area moved.
    “It’s a balancing act with limited resources,” he said. “No one ever comes to me and asks for less.”
    The CRA received good news March 15 when the City Commission approved waivers and the site plan for the proposed iPic theater complex on CRA-owned land. The theater company needed those approvals to purchase the 1.59-acre site for $3.6 million. The sale will not close until October, which means the CRA will have to wait until the start of its next budget year to be paid.
    “We should be excited about where we are,” said resident Chuck Ridley, also vice chairman of the West Atlantic Redevelopment Coalition.
    For the past year, the CRA board members grew concerned that the agency’s area might be reduced or the amount of property tax money it receives would be cut. The money talk came up at nearly every CRA meeting since last April, when a joint workshop was held with the City Commission.
    “We should not be at this time in our evolution worried about reducing millage and whether we should have a CRA … If I would close my eyes, it reminded me of the Republican (presidential) debates,” Ridley said.

Jim Donley keeps a map of the world at his Delray Beach home decorated with photos

from his adventures as a Cabinet aide and economic development adviser.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Donley goes climbing in the Balkans in 1989.

He taped an anniversary clipping of John F. Kennedy’s motorcade through Dallas

to a photo of himself conferring with then-Treasury Secretary John Connally

aboard Air Force Two over India in 1972.

Photos provided

By Mary Thurwachter

    Jim Donley’s six decades of travel to 100 countries could be fodder for a movie. He circled the globe as spokesman for Treasury Secretary John Connally, worked in the Caribbean for Time magazine, founded an international communications company, climbed the Alps, rode camels in Mongolia and helped poor countries grow their economies — and their vegetables.
    But Hollywood hasn’t come knocking on the Delray Beach man’s door just yet, so a PowerPoint presentation highlighting his illustrious life suffices for now.
    On April 17, the Palm Beach Chapter of the Circumnavigators, an exclusive club that provides travelers who have circled the world with a forum for intellectual exchange, will converge at the St. Andrew’s Club. Donley, 81, will be the star.
    The talk is not open to the public, but the charming globe trotter has given us a peek at his presentation and his storied life.
    He has had no interest in being a tourist, he insists. His story explores why he has traveled to so many countries and what he was doing in some of them.
    “Note that you will see no museums, castles or cathedrals,” he explains. “I am self-indulgent and, like Forrest Gump, my face keeps popping up in the photos of unlikely places.”
    Born in Ohio, Donley was a football and track star at Western Reserve Academy. He joined the Army when he was 19.
    “I went to military police school and was assigned to a psychological warfare unit,” he says. As he sailed out of New York Harbor, he saw the Queen Mary cruise in.
    “We were sent to Germany to keep an eye on Hungary, but I had my eye on plusher duty,” he says. “I talked my way into a desk job as editor of the 7th Army Sentinel Daily newspaper covering all of Europe. I used that position to come up with ideas for me to travel and cover events such as Grace Kelly’s wedding and the Winter Olympics in Cortina d’ Ampezzo, Italy (in 1956).”
    His years in the Army took him to 14 countries in Europe, including some in which he competed on the Army’s track team as a half-miler and javelin thrower in hopes of making it to the summer Olympics.
    From the Army, he returned to college, earning a bachelor of arts in development economics from Denison University and a master’s in international business from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
    After graduate school, he spent eight years as the managing director of the Caribbean for Time magazine. That episode of his life took him to 15 more countries.
    The next chapter took him to Washington, D.C., and around the world aboard Air Force Two as press secretary for Connally. (The former Texas governor had ridden in the limo with John F. Kennedy in 1963 when he was assassinated. Connally also was shot.)
    In 1972, President Richard Nixon made his breakthrough trip to China that would lead to a balance of power shift against the Soviet Union. “It represented the U.S. making common cause with China,” Donley says. “Nixon had briefed the superpowers (England, France, Japan, etc.) on the agreements he had made and used Connally, who had political power, to brief the next layer of countries. We also had bilateral trade and economic issues to negotiate.”
    Donley traveled with Connally everywhere he went  — adding 18 more countries to his list in the process.
    Donley’s job was scheduling, protocol, media relations and Treasury Department issues. He brushed shoulders with presidents, shahs, kings and ambassadors.
    While Donley visited Kabul, Afghanistan, there was a fellow he hadn’t heard of who pressed for a meeting with Connally. His name was Red Duke, and Donley thought he sounded like some redneck who couldn’t be important enough to warrant a meeting with his boss. But he mentioned the request to Connally anyway.
    “Jesus, Jim, are you dumb?” Donley remembers Connally saying at the time. “He saved my life.”
    Red Duke was the trauma surgeon who operated on Connally in Dallas the day of the Kennedy assassination.
    Dr. James H. Duke was teaching surgery in Afghanistan when Donley met him. As it turned out, Connally and Red Duke spent many hours together in Afghanistan.
    Donley left the Treasury in 1974 (he had also served as press secretary to George Shultz) to start Donley Communications in New York City. His clients were international investment banks, accounting firms and law firms.
    “I began representing offshore financial centers such as Gibraltar and Mauritius,” he says. “I also followed up on my longtime interest in Eastern Europe and formed a relationship with an Austrian firm, which led me to clients in the U.S.S.R. and satellite countries before the Berlin Wall came down.”
    Through relationships he made while working for the Treasury Department, he did work in South Africa. He visited another 14 countries during that time.
    In 1990, Donley left his company behind to do nonprofit work in economic development of poor countries.
    “My principal early involvement was an organization called Technoserve, which was first a client, then I became an employee, went on the board for 20 years and am now senior adviser.”

   "In 1993, I did a different kind of aid work, bringing relief supplies to refugees in Somalia and Ethiopia," he says. "I flew to Mogadishu in an Air Force C5A and then made hops on smaller cargo planes. A week after I left, retreating to Mombasa,  Black Hawk went down in Mogadishu."
    By 1995, Donley started working with developing mostly rural, poor countries.
    “My special interest was agriculture and the development of sub-sustenance farmers into profitable businesses,” he says. In Poland, he worked on quality control with garlic farmers, and in Kenya, with cabbage farmers.
    “In Poland, we helped develop the first tubular potatoes to fill the market needs of McDonald’s and Burger King that were expanding their french fry line into Eastern Europe,” he says.
    Donley’s longest sustained effort was in Bulgaria, where he lived for two years working for USAID as country director for the International Executive Service Corps.
    “Frankly, it was a grim life and hard work with over 100 Bulgarian clients that we advised on adapting from a well-embedded communist economist theory to a market economy. But I loved the country and its people and maintain many of those relationships today.”
    He added 22 countries to his tally during his economic development period.
    The final episode of his travel life, he says, was for adventure and curiosity, taking him to at least another 15 countries.
    He reached the summits of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps. He went on a safari in Africa, sailed from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland and Labrador and skied all over Europe.
    He and his wife, Toddy, rode horses and camels across the Gobi Desert.
    But some of his favorite adventure travel excursions were long walks in England, Scotland and Wales.
    “All the walks are hilly and take some physical endurance and you carry everything you need on your back,” Donley says.
    Today, with all the miles he has logged, Donley has no interest in more travel. He enjoys spending time and talking sports with his grandchildren.
    Donley hopes and believes he will leave the world a little better than he found it. He feels lucky to have lived the life he has lived.
After talking about his life, Donley likes to share these fitting lines from The Road Not Taken poem by Robert Frost:
    “I shall be telling this with a sigh.
    “Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
    “I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

By Jane Smith

    The iPic theater complex will go forward in the heart of Delray Beach by the slimmest of approval ratings.
    On March 15, the City Commission signed off on three waivers and a site plan by a 3-2 vote. The project will occupy 1.59 acres just south of Atlantic Avenue between Southeast Fourth and Fifth avenues.
    Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia and Commissioner Mitch Katz voted no. Katz didn’t think iPic did enough to reduce its size, as directed. The 94,912-square-foot iPic complex will be a mixed-use development of eight movie theaters with 497 seats taking up 44,979 square feet, 42,446 square feet of offices and 7,487 square feet of retail. Petrolia suggested they cut a movie theater to make the project a better fit.
    “We need eight movie theaters to be economically viable,” said Bonnie Miskel, iPic’s attorney. By cutting 32 seats, iPic is losing $1.5 million annually, she said. “We are widening that alley by 8 feet and making the upper deck a public area.”
    The March commission meeting began with drama.
    Miskel, seeing that iPic CEO Hamid Hashemi and Commissioner Al Jacquet were not there, requested a delay to the next month’s meeting.
    Jacquet opened a campaign account in January for his expected run for Florida House District 88. Two Hashemi-linked companies and iPic each donated $1,000 to Jacquet’s House campaign.
    The postponement motion failed with Katz and Petrolia voting no, even after the city attorney explained the liability of due process.
    “They pulled this agenda switching on other boards,” Katz said, and pushed other projects back. If iPic wants to postpone, he wanted to see the project go to the back of the approval-process line and wait six months.
    Jacquet said he was late because he was heavily involved in Super Tuesday. Hashemi said he was stuck in traffic in Miami. They both showed by the time the City Commission discussed iPic around 7:45 p.m.
    The project received the go-ahead with conditions. Mayor Cary Glickstein asked for a separate developer’s agreement from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which owns the former library and chamber of commerce site.
    “The poor work product created a lot of problems here before us,” Glickstein said.
    He is concerned about traffic on Federal Highway from vehicles dropping off passengers going to the movies. The theater has a pedestrian entrance on Federal Highway.
    “I want to see uniformed officers on Federal Highway and if [iPic] gets complacent,” Glickstein said, “I want the city to position its officers at their expense.”
    In addition, he wants a guarantee from iPic that it would move its corporate headquarters to Delray Beach for five years.
    Before the vote, he also criticized iPic’s attorney for making “amateur moves,” such as the mystery of the corporate office and the one at the start of the meeting where Miskel asked for a delay because two people weren’t there.
    The actions, he said, “made our jobs more difficult when we are trying to support what we think is a good project.”
    The complex relies on its valet system to work. Glickstein wants that language strengthened so that the city decides whether it is operating well and not iPic.
    Commissioner Katz wanted to make sure residents understood why he would not support the waivers. He likened iPic to Delray Place, home to a Trader Joe’s grocery store.
    “Two years later residents near Delray Place are upset about the waivers granted to get that Trader Joe’s,” he said. “Rolling out the red carpet does not mean we make exception to our rules just to have a movie theater or a Trader Joe’s.”
    In other action, commissioners:
    • Denied single-level parking lifts for Swinton Commons.
    • Adopted the pet sales ban that allows sales of rescue cats and dogs only in an attempt to cut off the supply from puppy mills. Waggs to Riches is the only store that sells dogs in the city. The store has six months to comply. The store’s owner could not be reached for comment.

    • Approved spending $11,929 for design and permitting services with Wantman Group Inc. for a wheelchair-accessible walkway to the Atlantic Avenue Beach Pavilion.
    • Awarded a reclaimed water system contract for $2.7 million to Mancon Inc. It was the lowest bidder and will build the system in a .7-mile stretch of the barrier island between Causarina and Poinsettia roads. Work will begin this month.
    • Authorized the city manager to monitor vacancies at the city marina and determine whether lower rates are needed. The city recently increased its rental rates by nearly 56 percent to $28 a square foot for those living aboard their boats. The city raised the rates partially to cover the marina costs, including new docks and repairing or replacing the seawall.

By Mary Hladky

    Facing an epidemic of drug overdose deaths, Florida lawmakers passed a number of bills in the recently completed legislative session that take steps to rein in the problem.
    “I think the Legislature has really developed an understanding of the impact of substance abuse disorders and mental health … and an understanding of the epidemic we are facing with heroin and opioids,” said Mark Fontaine, executive director of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association. “These bills together show a deliberate effort by the Legislature to start addressing how we can be more effective to deliver care, respond to the opioid/heroin epidemic and coordinate services.”
    The legislative action comes as drug overdose deaths have surged in Palm Beach County, the state and the nation.
    The number of deaths jumped to 368 in the county last year, a 62.8 percent increase since 2013, according to data released by the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office in late February.
    Palm Beach County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Bell has said he thinks the mixing of heroin with fentanyl is causing the increase in drug overdose deaths.
    Nationally, drug overdose deaths have increased 137 percent since 2000, claiming nearly 500,000 lives, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in January. The biggest driver is the increased use of heroin and opioid pain relievers.

Drugs outlawed by category
    One of the most significant new laws in Florida is the Designer Drugs Enforcement Act, proposed by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
    The law bans categories of drugs, such as those related to synthetic marijuana, rather than individual chemical compounds. It is aimed at solving the perpetual problem of illicit drug makers tweaking the composition of a drug so that it is not on the list of illegal substances.
    “It advances the ability to classify dangerous substances as being illegal even before they appear,” said James Hall, a Nova Southeastern University epidemiologist who studies substance abuse and drug outbreaks.
    In the past, it could take years to recognize the threat of a new compound and await legislative action to outlaw it.
    “We have had over 300 new drugs appearing in the illicit market in the last 10 years,” Hall said.

Delivery of services reformed
    Lawmakers also approved wide-ranging reforms in a single bill aimed at improving the delivery of mental health and substance abuse treatment services.
    One key provision is a “no wrong door” policy so people who need treatment can get it regardless of whether they have committed a crime or have a personal crisis. It creates central receiving facilities intended to channel people to emergency care and intervention services.
    It also “aligns” the legal processes for assessment, evaluation and receipt of services under the Baker Act and the Marchman Act. The Baker act allows for involuntary examination or commitment of those with mental illnesses who may be a threat to themselves or others. The Marchman Act allows for involuntary commitment of those undergoing a substance abuse crisis.

Some other new laws
    • A pilot program for Miami-Dade County that will allow drug addicts to exchange their dirty needles for free, clean ones. The aim is to reduce new HIV and hepatitis C infections caused by sharing needles and to give drug users information about treatment programs and other resources.
    Hall said the hope is to expand the program statewide. “That has been identified as a critical need with the rise in opioid deaths across the state,” he said.
    The bill was stalled for three years in the legislature because some say it would encourage drug use, although studies have shown that is not the case, he said.
    • A requirement that pharmacies sell lock boxes for prescription drugs to prevent drugs from getting into the wrong hands and to display signs saying the boxes are available for purchase.
    • A tool to combat prescription opioid abuse by making it easier for physicians to prescribe abuse-deterrent prescription opioids. These pills are more difficult to crush by addicts who want to smoke, snort or inject the drugs. Crushing drugs bypasses time-release properties, making overdose more likely.
    While Hall and Fontaine are glad to see the new legislation, they said much work remains to be done.
    “Florida has not kept up with the demand for treatment,” Hall said. “Until we address addiction through treatment and prevention programs and intervention and counseling, the cycle will continue.”
    Fontaine agrees.
    “We remain behind the rest of the country in funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment in proportion to the population,” he said. “Some of the other states have taken a more aggressive approach to the heroin epidemic.”
    Substance abuse, especially the rising use of heroin, has become an urgent topic at the national level and addressed by both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.
    In March, the U.S. Senate passed a broad drug treatment and prevention bill 94-1. The measure authorizes money for treatment programs for addicts, including those in jail. It also strengthens prescription drug monitoring programs and expands the availability of the drug naloxone, which helps reverse overdoses.
    But a fight continues over extra funding for the programs, and the fate of the legislation in the U.S. House is uncertain.
    Also in March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines for prescription painkillers, recommending that doctors try pain relievers such as ibuprofen before prescribing highly addictive pills.
    The guidelines are intended to change the practices of doctors dating back 20 years when they began prescribing opioids for routine pain. Since then, opioid painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin have become the most widely prescribed drugs in the country.

By Jane Smith

    Another ray of hope for South County coastal cities overwhelmed with sober home complaints comes via U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel’s office.
    She is holding a roundtable discussion May 2 on sober homes. Her office has invited mayors, city managers and city attorneys to the Delray Beach discussion, which will take place in private.  An assistant secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department, Gustavo Velasquez, also will attend.
    Frankel’s district spans the coastal areas of northern Broward County and southern Palm Beach County up to Riviera Beach. Her office could not say how many cities would be represented at the May 2 roundtable. Delray Beach and Boca Raton officials intend to be there.
    The roundtable was originally set for March 11, but it was canceled when a HUD official became sick and was unable to make the trip.
    Cities, including Boca Raton and Delray Beach, lost court cases when sober homes and their clients sued under federal disability and fair housing laws. Sometimes the judges awarded multimillion-dollar damages to the sober home operators and their clients. Addicts in recovery are seen as a family unit that is protected under federal laws.
    Prior to the afternoon discussion, Delray Beach officials will take Frankel and Velasquez on a tour of sober homes in their city. Mayor Cary Glickstein estimates that the city has hundreds of single-family and multifamily sober homes, most of which are not certified.
    Later in the day, they will hold a news conference on the sober home issue.

By Rich Pollack

    Drug users who overdose and are rescued with the use of the medication naloxone may soon be getting long-term recovery help from an unexpected source — the Delray Beach Police Department.
    Police Chief Jeff Goldman, working in conjunction with the Delray Beach Drug Task Force, hopes to begin a pilot program this month in which the department connects overdose survivors with trained social-service advocates who can help get those who are willing back into recovery.
    “This is a recovery community but we don’t want it to be a relapse community,” Goldman said. “Our goal is to get these people help.”
    Initially, the pilot program will use social workers and addiction professionals provided on a volunteer basis by members of the drug task force, which includes several recovery-related professional and nonprofit organizations.
    Goldman hopes to eventually create a full-time paid special population advocate position within the department, with a scope that would include working on reducing relapses among drug users hospitalized as a result of overdoses.
    “My goal is to hire someone to work for the Police Department,” he said, adding that the individual would also be available to assist other groups, including the homeless and those suffering from mental illness.
    To help cover the costs, the Police Department is teaming up with the drug task force in search of available grants that could be used to defray some expenses.
    “Our job is to ensure public safety,” Goldman said. “It goes beyond putting bad people in jail. If we’re able to get these people into recovery and reduce the number of relapses, then we’re assuring a better quality of life for all in our community.”
    Goldman said his department is using a three-pronged approach locally to address the national heroin epidemic, which he says is responsible for about 30 overdoses a month in Delray Beach. That approach includes education, enforcement and lifesaving techniques, such as the use of naloxone.
    Law enforcement tools, including arrests of chronic offenders, will be used in cases where individuals don’t seek help getting into recovery, the chief said.
    “The No. 1 reason we’re doing this is because it’s a concern to our community,” he said.
    While details of the process are still being worked out, Goldman says the volunteers and eventually the advocate would probably be introduced to individuals recovering from an overdose by an officer or investigator gathering follow-up information.  Currently, the department contacts those treated with naloxone by either police or paramedics to gather information that can be used in a criminal investigation.
    Last month, the Delray Beach Police Department became only the second law enforcement agency in the state to train officers on how to use naloxone to revive those overdosing on heroin or other opioids.
    Officers administered naloxone seven times in the first 15 days of March, while paramedics administered the drug 44 times through March 24.
    Suzanne Spencer, executive director of the Delray Beach Drug Task Force, sees the pilot program as an important next step in helping those who are revived after an overdose.
    “We have a responsibility to look beyond just handling a crisis,” she said. “You have to look deeper into where the problems are coming from. This is a longer term intervention that can help to break the cycle of addiction.”

Consultants suggest redoing a building with restrooms and offices,

reconfiguring the docks and refurbishing the area.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

The dock at Ocean Inlet Park, almost 30 years old, has rotting wood fenders and other failings.

Plans call for a two-story structure with a residence for the dockmaster on the second floor,

expanded parking and a new dock (in red). The county parks director

says, 'There’s no doubt that funding will be available at some point.’

Rendering provided

By Rich Pollack

    Plans for improvements to Palm Beach County’s aging Ocean Inlet Park at the Boynton Inlet are in the works, but the timeline for when drawings will be converted into actual work is still up in the air.   
    A consulting firm has drawn up preliminary conceptual plans for the nearly 30-year-old park, which would include replacing a building that houses offices and bathrooms, reconfiguring docks and generally sprucing up the popular recreational area.
    The problem is that there is no money available for the project, which has an estimated $5 million price tag.
    Still, county officials are optimistic that the money will be freed up eventually, and they want to be ready when that happens.
    “There’s no doubt that funding will be available at some point,” said Eric Call, Palm Beach County’s director of parks and recreation.
    Call said wear and tear on facilities have taken their toll and improvements would not only enhance the park’s appearance but also address potential safety issues.
    “Over the past decade, there has been significant settling of the seawall and patio area, deterioration of the docks and piers, and significant wear and tear on a 28-year-old building that is no longer serving the needs of the department,” he said.
    Call said that the picnic area at the southern end of the park as well as the beachfront area adjacent to docks on the park’s Intracoastal Waterway side are popular, especially on weekends and holidays.
    “We want to improve all support facilities necessary to meet the recreational needs of our residents,” he said.
    Conceptual plans for the park’s renovations, drawn up by the consulting firm of Alan Gerwig & Associates of Wellington, call for the demolition of a two-story building that includes bathrooms and offices used by the county’s ocean rescue team and by Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office personnel.     
    It would be replaced by a more functional two-story building that would include bathrooms and offices that would serve as headquarters for the Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue’s south district and perhaps other marine enforcement-related organizations.
    The big change would be on the second floor, which Call says would be used as a residence for a dockmaster.
    Seawalls damaged over time would be strengthened and there would be some improvements to the playground area, Call said.
Plans also call for improved landscaping on the south end of the park and widening of a footpath. Also being considered is the addition of about 35 parking spaces and the reconfiguration of the docks that would include one space designated for a water taxi.
    At this point, Call said, there are no plans to make improvements to the north end of the park, adjacent to the inlet, but improvements could be made in later phases of the project.  
    As plans evolve, Call is seeking feedback from neighboring Ocean Ridge officials. He has already run conceptual drawings by Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins for input regarding public safety issues.
    Eventually, plans for the park will be brought before the Town Commission for approval.

Shade sails such as this one at Oceanfront Park would be used to collect rain for irrigation

under a plan to make the park more environmentally friendly.

Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

A site plan shows the new wastewater treatment plant (bottom left) expected to be completed

by the end of this year. Some rooftop solar panels (blue) and rain-collecting shade canopies (yellow)

will be included in this year’s work.

Rendering provided

By Willie Howard

    A new wastewater treatment plant and other environmentally friendly upgrades are planned for Boynton Beach Oceanfront Park.
    Scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, the wastewater plant will replace a 32-year-old plant that treats effluent from the park’s bathrooms and kitchen.
    The new plant will treat the sewage to a higher advanced standard, meaning the treated water can be used for landscape irrigation at the park, located on North Ocean Boulevard just east of Ocean Ridge Town Hall.
    Rooftop solar panels — and possibly small wind turbines — for power generation and a water-collection system that uses shade canopies to capture rain and funnel it into a cistern are part of the conceptual plan for the park’s green makeover.
    Rainwater will be mixed with treated water from the wastewater plant to irrigate the park’s lawn and plants, Boynton Beach Utilities Director Colin Groff said.
    Power generated by the solar panels will be used to satisfy part of the power demands of the new wastewater treatment plant, Groff said.
    Only part of the power-generation and rain-gathering systems will be installed at the park this year because of budget constraints.
    The city received a $300,000 state grant and will contribute $150,000 in city funds to replace the wastewater treatment plant and begin other improvements at the park. The city could receive more grant money next year to complete the upgrades.
    The combination of treated water from the wastewater plant and captured rainwater should allow the city to minimize the use of potable water for landscape irrigation in the park.
    “This is a city park,” Groff said. “We want to make sure our impact is as little as possible.”
    The new treatment plant was needed because the old one is outdated and too large for the amount of wastewater it treats. The park’s restrooms and snack kitchen generate about 1,500 gallons of effluent daily.
    The new plant will treat the wastewater to an advanced standard — a higher level of treatment than the secondary treatment achieved by the existing plant, which discharges treated water into a drain field at the park.
    Florida’s advanced wastewater treatment standard requires that most of the nitrogen and phosphorus be removed. Advanced treatment also kills most bacteria and pathogens, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
    By comparison, secondary treatment removes solids and organic waste but does not include requirements for removing nitrogen, phosphorus and pathogens.
    Groff said the decision to replace the wastewater treatment plant at Oceanfront Park was not related to the tougher bacteria standards for beach water that took effect Jan. 1.
    But he said the new plant is less likely to fail and cause water quality problems on the beach than the existing plant, installed in 1984.