The 2016 elections are over. Now on to 2017. The March 14 municipal elections are right around the corner.
    In Boca Raton the candidate qualification period has ended, so you may already be noticing yard signs. In our other coastal municipalities there’s a shorter period for campaigning, but already there is buzz about who is (and isn’t) picking up papers to qualify before the Feb. 14 deadline.
    Even with all the early election hype and intrigue, The Coastal Star will not be doing candidate endorsements. We will, of course, publish information on everyone running for office and continue to report on major election issues. In fact, we will be dedicating multiple pages to informing you about our coastal candidates in the March edition.
    But to schedule and meet with each of the candidates from the nine municipalities we cover is simply not feasible with our small staff. And without in-person interviews, we simply cannot provide our readers a fair assessment of each person’s suitability for office.
    Helping citizens become informed voters is a critical role of news media. And earning readers’ trust — that they are always getting the straight story from us — is the foundation of our work.
    In the day-to-day operation of the newspaper, however, I frequently encounter trust-eroding behavior in our coastal cities’ and towns’ officials. Here are some examples from the past month:
    One town commission announced from the dais who the new mayor will be before the candidate filing period even opened.
    Commissioners charged with governing an entire city have blocked a large percentage of the population from having temporary representation on the dais for reasons that appear to be purely political.
    Law enforcement management in one town chose to “manage” the release of information to the local media to avoid timely news coverage.
    And, of course, there always seem to be candidates for public office who take large contributions from developers while swearing those contributions do not influence their votes on local development projects. Really?
    I realize many of us have grown to look at the media, government and politics with a callous eye. I understand that. But we aren’t Washington and Tallahassee. These are our neighbors running things, and who gains when trust among neighbors is lacking?  Shouldn’t we be better than this?
    If you, like me, aren’t happy with the behavior of your elected officials or the actions of municipal employees, be sure to get informed and vote.
    If that alone feels unrewarding, you’ve still got time to go by your town or city hall and pick up a package to qualify as a candidate. Then go out and talk with your neighbors.
    We all still have time to earn each other’s trust.

Mary Kate Leming,
Editor

Ben Hicks uses his photos to raise awareness of sea turtles.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

A photo by Hicks showing a green sea turtle coming to the surface to breathe.

By Rich Pollack

    Ben Hicks knows when sea turtles don’t mind him swimming beside them and he knows when they want him to go away.
    An internationally known nature and surfing photographer — whose images of sea turtles have been in magazines published by prestigious organizations such as National Geographic and the World Wildlife Federation — Hicks has even earned the moniker “the turtle whisperer” from some here in South Florida.
    “I spend more time with sea turtles than any other animal,” he says. “Over the years, I’ve gotten to understand their social behavior.”
    For his support of sea turtle conservation and his efforts to bring attention to their struggle for survival, Hicks will be honored this month by the Friends of Gumbo Limbo, a nonprofit organization that supports the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.
    During the organization’s annual Sea Coast Toast fundraiser on Feb. 18, Hicks will be given the organization’s CRESTT — Conservation, Research, Education, Stewardship for Today and Tomorrow — Award.
    “Ben has been a great supporter of Gumbo Limbo,” said Ross Appel, treasurer of the Friends of Gumbo Limbo’s board of directors and chair of this year’s Sea Coast Toast. “He’s used his photographs to raise awareness, which is exactly what we’re looking for.”
    Hicks, 37, from Boca Raton, says he quickly recognized that his turtle images were more than just eye-catching photographs.
    “From the get-go I realized how much of an impact I’ve made with these images,” he said.
    While he’s making an impact on efforts to heighten awareness of turtle conservation efforts, Hicks says the sea turtles have also had an impact on him.
    He is a fierce advocate for the marine creatures and has donated many hours to Gumbo Limbo, photographing turtle releases as well as other related events and volunteering to serve as the photographer for the Sea Coast Toast for years.  
    The Friends of Gumbo Limbo also raise money by selling prints of his photos at the center’s gift shop.
    An informal ambassador for sea turtles, Hicks often has the chance to use his art as a medium to communicate the role people can play in protecting the sea creatures and the ecosystems where they thrive.
    During a handful of art shows or at openings of exhibits — such as the one currently at the Highland Beach Public Library — Hicks has the chance to share his vision for conservation directly with visitors drawn by his images.   
    “Ben represents a younger generation, and he’s serving as a role model for that generation by raising environmental awareness,” Appel said.
    Hicks’ introduction to the world of sea turtles began about a decade ago when a friend of his from Florida Atlantic University, where he graduated with a fine arts degree, invited him to document her work with a nonprofit beach-monitoring organization.
He photographed her checking nests on the beach, digging up eggs and helping hatchlings make it to the ocean.
    “I realized I could use the images as a voice,” he said.
    Soon Hicks was swimming over the shallow reefs off the South Florida coast, photographing young and adolescent turtles.
    Remarkably, Hicks does not scuba dive, instead shooting all of his images while free diving.
    “Over the course of my career, I’ve definitely learned many things about the turtles,” he said.
    One of the most important lessons he’s learned is to respect these graceful animals and to take the photographs without disturbing them.
    “If they’re not comfortable with me around, I just let them be,” he said.
    For more information and to see Hicks’ work, visit www.Benjhicks.com.

If You Go
What: Eighth annual Sea Coast Toast, a dinner with live music, dancing and a fundraising auction to benefit the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center
When: 6-10 p.m. Feb. 18
Where: Boca Raton Country Club, 17751 Boca Club Blvd.
Cost: $125 for members of Friends of Gumbo Limbo, $150 nonmembers
Info: Visit www.gumbolimbo.org/seacoasttoast2017 or email SeaCoastToast@gumbolimbo.org

By Dan Moffett

    Ocean Ridge commissioners have decided to let the voters choose who should fill the seat vacated by former Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella, who resigned in December after prosecutors filed three charges against him stemming from an alleged shooting incident at his home.
    Mayor Geoff Pugh said because Lucibella’s seat is scheduled to be contested in the March 14 municipal election, it doesn’t make sense for commissioners to appoint someone to fill the position for what would be only one meeting.
    “It would be almost an exercise in futility if we did appoint someone for just one month,” Pugh said during the Jan. 9 town meeting.
    Commissioner James Bonfiglio worried that appointing someone might suggest to voters that the commission approved of the replacement as the permanent choice for the three-year term.
    “I think it might give somebody, if they decided to run in the election, an implied endorsement in the election if they were appointed by us to the seat a month before the election,” Bonfiglio said. “I think it’s hard to do that so close to the election without seeming to say that we want you folks to vote for this commissioner.”
    Bonfiglio’s seat also comes up for reelection in March; the other three commissioners’ terms expire next year. The commission also unanimously approved Bonfiglio’s appointment to replace Lucibella as vice mayor.
    Lucibella faces one count of battery on a law enforcement officer and another felony count of resisting an officer with violence, as well as a misdemeanor firearm charge, after the altercation with town police on Oct. 22.

By Steve Plunkett

    A circuit judge has rejected a public records lawsuit against Gulf Stream after an attorney for the town mounted a defense that accused the plaintiff, town resident Chris O’Hare, of “bad faith.”
    “There seems to be a national awareness that Florida and now other jurisdictions that have liberal public records rights are in fact ripe and becoming the source of abuse for lawyers and individuals to just generate litigation to obtain attorney’s fees,” outside lawyer Robert Sweetapple told town commissioners at their monthly meeting Jan. 13.
    The case was about “very important public policy,” Circuit Judge Thomas Barkdull III said in a 90-minute hearing Jan. 12.
    “This was clearly a bad faith attempt and gotcha request, and an attempt to generate litigation and fees, which is inappropriate,” the judge said in rejecting O’Hare’s claim.
    At issue was O’Hare’s request — made after business hours May 14, 2014, a Wednesday — for “all records in any way related to any correspondence between Jones-Foster on behalf of the town and Martin O’Boyle and created or received during the period of time from March 1, 2014, through to the moment you receive this request.”
    Jones, Foster, Johnston & Stubbs PA is Town Attorney John “Skip” Randolph’s firm, with about 40 lawyers in its West Palm Beach office. O’Boyle began flooding the town with public records requests in spring 2013 after he was refused variances for work on his Hidden Harbour home.
    The flood of requests soon turned into a tsunami, trapping the town in a years-long battle.
    In this case, the records O’Hare wanted “include but are not limited to notes, memos, letters, emails, phone logs, phone messages, photos, files, folders, labels, sketches, drawings, layouts, plans, invoices, statements, reports, correspondence, reference material, minutes, audio, video, manuals, drafts and any other record in any way responsive to this request.”
    The town answered him that Friday, saying it was “working on a large number of incoming public records requests” and would use “its very best efforts to respond to you in a reasonable amount of time.”
    O’Hare filed suit 46 days after he made his request, on July 1, 2014, asking a judge to declare the town was making an “illegal withholding” of the records and seeking attorney fees.
    “After more than 45 days following plaintiff’s original request, defendant still has yet to produce the records requested,” said O’Hare’s lawsuit, filed by the O’Boyle Law Firm, which O’Boyle’s son Jonathan heads.
    But Barkdull said Gulf Stream was coping not only with records requests but also with creating new parking regulations, deciding what to do about signs on a candidate’s vehicle, fighting a number of lawsuits and holding an election. The town, he said, made “a good faith effort” to answer a “voluminous” request that was “not clearly worded.”
    Barkdull also said O’Hare was “angry with his past dealings with the town” and that his suit was “clearly intended to harass and intimidate the employees of the town.”
    The judge decided O’Hare deserved nothing and the town could ask that he pay its attorney’s fees. Before his ruling, a municipality that successfully defended itself against a public records dispute still had to pay its own legal bill.
    Barkdull anticipated O’Hare’s appealing his decision to the 4th District Court of Appeal. “I look forward to reading the 4th DCA’s opinion after it comes out on this case,” Barkdull said.
    O’Hare promised as much during the public comment portion of the commission meeting before Sweetapple spoke.
    “I disagree with the ruling. So do my attorneys, and of course we’ll appeal that. My attorneys seem to think that it’s very ripe to go all the way to the Supreme Court because of the issues raised,” said O’Hare, who stepped outside the commission chamber during Sweetapple’s presentation.
    Barkdull also ruled in favor of the town in two other public records lawsuits.
    O’Hare began asking Gulf Stream for public records in 2013. From late August through December that year, he made more than 400 requests, Sweetapple has said. Together, he and Martin O’Boyle have filed more than 2,000 requests and dozens of lawsuits.
    The May 14, 2014, request was one of 10 O’Hare made that day which resulted in seven lawsuits, Sweetapple said.

Students from Somerset Academy Canyons High School participated in a cleanup

of the Ocean Ridge Natural Area on A1A north of Woolbright Road on Jan. 28.

They learned a few things about mangrove habitats while filling almost an entire roll-off container

with plastic, glass, tires and metal. The students took on the project as a way to do something different

and meaningful for the local ecology.

Photo provided

By Dan Moffett

    Former police Lt. Steven Wohlfiel will ask Ocean Ridge commissioners to reconsider his firing at a special meeting at 3 p.m. Feb. 6 in the Town Hall chambers.
    The commission voted unanimously to fire Wohlfiel last month after receiving the results of an internal review that looked into his role in an alleged shooting incident in October at the home of former Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella.
    Police Chief Hal Hutchins, who oversaw the two-month investigation, recommended the lieutenant’s dismissal in the 250-page report, and Town Manager Jamie Titcomb agreed.
    “As you know, Police Officers are charged with upholding the law and need to exhibit conduct above reproach, they are held to a higher standard,” Titcomb told Wohlfiel in a termination letter. “I don’t feel the standard we expect for our Police Officers has been met by you in this case.”
    Hutchins said he found “numerous violations of agency policy” in investigating the incident.
    The chief said he called in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against Wohlfiel — who was not arrested and is not charged — for discharging a firearm in a residential area. But Hutchins said he decided against it after consulting with the FDLE and county prosecutors.
    Among the key assertions in the report:
    • Grit Ritz, a business associate of Lucibella, and Barbara Ceuleers, Lucibella’s business partner who has listed his address as her residence in public records, told investigators Wohlfiel, who was off-duty, admitted using his personal handgun to fire the shots that touched off the disturbance. “Mr. Wohlfiel started saying that everything was his fault because he shot the pistol and the police officer on duty mishandled the situation,” Ritz said, describing a conversation with Wohlfiel after the arrest. Ceuleers, who was in the house when police came, told investigators Wohlfiel “admitted he was the one who fired the Glock.”
    • While officers at the scene said Wohlfiel did not actively interfere with Lucibella’s arrest, he did argue against it and did little to defuse the situation. Officer Nubia Plesnik told investigators that when she mentioned taking the vice mayor to jail, Wohlfiel said, “Nobody’s going to jail. There are no charges here.” Officer Richard Ermeri said: “Wohlfiel did briefly interfere with my investigation when he told Ceuleers ‘don’t say nothing.’”
    • Wohlfiel declined to give an interview to investigators, saying through his attorney that he is “exercising his constitutional right to remain silent.”
    • The conduct of the three on-duty officers who responded to the scene was appropriate, Hutchins and Titcomb concluded.
    Wohlfiel’s attorney, Ralph King of the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association, has complained to the town that the report produced no hard evidence that his client fired the shots and that the accounts of Ceuleers and Ritz aren’t credible. King says it’s Lucibella who faces the battery and weapons charges, not Wohlfiel.
    “Clearly there is circumstantial evidence to suggest the weapon was fired but there is no evidence in the record as to who fired the weapon and where any potential witnesses were during that time,” King has told the town. “The witnesses Ceuleers and Ritz are inherently biased witnesses based on their individual relationships with Mr. Lucibella.”
    Lucibella resigned Dec. 7 after the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office charged him with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence, both felonies, stemming from his arrest Oct. 22 at his oceanfront home. Lucibella, Ermeri and Plesnik have all complained of injuries from a scuffle during the arrest.
Lucibella, 63, has pleaded not guilty to three charges, including a misdemeanor of firing a weapon while intoxicated. His attorney, Marc Shiner, accuses police of overreacting and has called for the resignation of Ermeri.
    Wohlfiel, 48, rose through the ranks to supervising lieutenant during a decade of work in Ocean Ridge, serving for a time as the department’s union representative.

    Commissioners voted 4-0 in January to accept Titcomb’s recommendation to fire Wohlfiel but have the authority to change their decision at the February meeting.
    According to police reports, officers responding to neighbors’ complaints about gunfire that Saturday night say they found Lucibella and Wohlfiel “obviously intoxicated” on the patio. Officers say they took a .40-caliber Glock handgun from Lucibella and found five spent shell casings in the backyard. Police also confiscated a semiautomatic pistol they said Lucibella had in his back pocket.
    Both Lucibella and Wohlfiel told police they knew nothing about gunshots. Neither man was tested for gunpowder residue or blood-alcohol content, Hutchins said. Police say Lucibella “grew belligerent” and fought them as they tried to keep him from going inside his house. The officers said that when they entered Lucibella’s back yard, Wohlfiel used an expletive in telling them to leave.
The situation turned physical when police tried to prevent Lucibella from re-entering his home. Officers said they knew Lucibella, who publishes S.W.A.T. magazine in Boynton Beach, was a gun collector who likely had more weapons inside.
    Lt. Richard Jones, the lead investigator in the internal review, said one of the arresting officers, Plesnik, told him that Lucibella “was so agitated and wanted to fight” police, but Wohlfiel did little to calm him: “This whole incident took place in front of Wohlfiel and he never even got up or nothing.”
    Sgt. Bill Hallahan, who also responded to the scene and recently retired from the department, praised Ermeri and Plesnik in a statement to investigators. “Even while Lucibella was being belligerent and attempting to get Officer Ermeri upset,” Hallahan said, “both officers continued to keep their composure and professionalism.”

By Steve Plunkett

    A proposed redevelopment plan by Gunther Volvo that includes a three-story parking garage at the back of the property has neighboring Place au Soleil up in arms.
    “We are very concerned about the pending Gunther Volvo development in Delray Beach on Federal Highway,” Chet Snavely, president of the Place au Soleil homeowners association, told Gulf Stream commissioners. “Good municipal planning is at stake here. We need a good relationship between the city of Delray and the town of Gulf Stream.”
    Quinn Miklos, whose home on Avenue Au Soleil is directly behind the car dealership, is heading up investigative efforts for the homeowners group. He listed the neighborhood’s concerns in a Jan. 9 letter to Delray Beach officials, warning that the proposal will have “dire consequences” for his community.
    Among those concerns:
    • A 21-foot-tall garage access ramp at the rear of Gunther Volvo that will abut the single-family residences, creating “an intensive ‘vertical travel’ vehicular use at the doorstep of our community.”
    • An extreme “intensity of use” with a 182,473-square-foot garage, 10,145-square-foot showroom, 9,398 square feet of automobile service area and 11,492 square feet for parts, car wash and service writers. “Unless I am mistaken, there is no existing commercial three-story building on the Federal [Highway] corridor that directly abuts a residential neighborhood — for good reason,” Miklos wrote.
    The architects took no notice that the garage will be visible in Place au Soleil. “Aesthetically the parking structure is brutally unappealing,” Miklos said.
    • Increased light pollution. Place au Soleil neighbors have already bought blackout curtains but cannot enjoy their yards at night because of the light spilling from the Volvo dealership, Miklos said. “There is a [7-foot]-high fence between our property with [20-foot]-high landscaping on our side and still the light pollutes our home,” he wrote.
    Snavely brought copies of Miklos’ letter to the Jan. 13 Town Commission meeting and met with Gunther representatives the following week. After that meeting, which he called “polite,” he said his group decided it is “totally against” the proposal.
“It’s a quality of life issue,” Snavely said.
    In other business:
    • Former Vice Mayor Robert Ganger, who resigned in July after suffering a stroke, spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting. “It’s been a long trip for me — nine months and a couple of weeks — and it’s supposed to get better in nine to 12 months, so this is kind of a little bit early,” he said. “All of you have been so kind and so thoughtful and I’m so, so, so very, very, very thankful. We’ve got a great town here, and an awful lot of awful nice people, and I really appreciate it.”
    • The construction company putting utility lines underground in the north part of town will bring in a third crew to meet its June 15 deadline. Consulting engineer Danny Brannon relayed a request from the contractor to allow work to be done on Saturdays, but commissioners refused, citing the noise caused by drilling and pumping.

By Dan Moffett

    Controversial brainstorms that hatch in Palm Beach have a way of drifting south to Manalapan.
    So when the Palm Beach Town Council moved to consider leaf blower legislation recently, it wasn’t surprising that before long the idea would come up in Manalapan.
    At the Jan. 24 town meeting, Mayor David Cheifetz raised the issue on behalf of resident Jack Staub, who complained about blowers’ many annoyances and said the town should discuss outlawing use of a signature device of modern landscaping.
    “Nobody likes leaf blowers,” Cheifetz said. “They’re noisy and they don’t do anything. But if we ban them, there has to be some increase in what folks pay to get their lawns done.”
    Commissioner Simone Bonutti said her 2-acre lot is too big to “have somebody come out with a broom and dust bin” instead of a leaf blower.
    Police Chief Carmen Mattox told the commission his department has never had a complaint about them — except once when a contractor tried to blow out the Plaza del Mar parking lot at 5:30 a.m. and was quickly stopped by officers.
    “The Police Department is going to enforce this, right?” Mattox asked the commission. “I don’t think my group is looking forward to that.”
    Last year, commissioners passed a noise ordinance that limits sound to 65 decibels between 8 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
    Vice Mayor Peter Isaac and Mayor Pro Tem Chauncey Johnstone agreed that landscapers should be advised to use modern, muffled blowers that conform to that standard.
    “When I was brought up, you used a rake,” Johnstone said.
    Instead of banning blowers, Commissioner Keith Waters suggested a more measured step, closing a loophole in the town’s code by banning landscaping work on Sundays. The commission agreed and decided — you might say — to “leaf” blowers alone.

The view of the proposed Atlantic Crossing looking southeast from the corner

of Northeast First Street and Northeast Sixth Avenue shows residential and related amenities.

Rendering provided

By Jane Smith
 
    The long-delayed Atlantic Crossing development will remain in limbo for another few weeks while Delray Beach city commissioners get more details on the settlement offered by the project’s developer.
    At the Jan. 24 City Commission meeting, elected officials and homeowner association representatives were hopeful that a mediated settlement would be approved.
    The deal would end nearly two years of costly litigation that started in state court in June 2015, when the development team sued the city for not approving its amended site plan. The lawsuit was transferred to federal court, where the $25 million-plus damage claims were denied in July, and then the case returned to state court last fall.  
    Commissioners postponed voting on the settlement until they know more about the 2013 site plan and 2011 developer’s agreement that provide the basis for the deal.
    “Shame on me for not knowing the details that go back to 2011,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said at the meeting.
    As of Dec. 12, the city had paid nearly $374,000 for legal services with the Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman firm of Fort Lauderdale. The firm represents the city in the lawsuit filed by the developer.
    Jamie Cole, a named partner in the law firm, said the settlement included the addition of a two-way road that connects northbound Federal Highway with Northeast Seventh Avenue.
    “All of the conditions from the 2013 site plan are included, but none from the 2014 amended developers’ agreement because that was not approved,” Cole said.
    The next day, Glickstein wrote in an email, “While the proposed settlement would have ended the litigation, it left wholly unaddressed a myriad of public and commission concerns regarding significant on-site operational issues.” Parking and traffic issues would need to be considered during construction and as a completed project, he wrote.
    Those details are usually included in a developer’s agreement to provide clarity for the developer, city staff and public, the mayor wrote. He wants to see that type of agreement attached to the settlement.
    “What was submitted for our consideration was a proposed settlement agreement ambiguously tied to a 2011 developer’s agreement that relates to a different site plan,” the mayor wrote.
    At the commission meeting, Glickstein directed City Attorney Max Lohman to meet with planning staff and create a timeline of what was agreed to and when, then hold a closed meeting where commissioners can discuss the settlement with Cole and his colleagues.
    Lohman did not know whether all that could be done in time for the next commission meeting on Feb. 7. As of press time, the closed meeting had not been scheduled.
    Even so, Glickstein wrote, “I think it was helpful for the developer to hear that the proposed settlement is, in principle, acceptable provided it is linked to a developer’s agreement.” Linking the agreement to the settlement would reflect the most recent site plan changes and many of the additions from the 2014 draft agreement, he wrote.
    The changes would include at least a $500,000 contribution to improve Veterans Park and provide traffic calming for the Palm Trail neighborhood, just north of Atlantic Crossing. Traffic calming for the Marina Historic District on the south side of Atlantic is included in the 2013 site plan.
    At the meeting, Commissioner Mitch Katz pointed out that the site plan shown depicted Veterans Park with improvements.
    Dean Kissos, chief operating officer of Atlantic Crossing developer Edwards Cos., said in an email: “It is disappointing to have yet another delay after working in good faith, devoting substantial time and money, to reach a proposed settlement by again providing the city what it requested.
    “While we were hopeful to reach an amicable resolution, we will continue to pursue our rights in court to obtain the final approvals we previously earned and to make Atlantic Crossing a reality.”
    The 9.2-acre mixed-use project is planned at the northeast corner of Federal Highway and Atlantic Avenue.
    When finished, Atlantic Crossing 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.
    The $200 million project was proposed by a partnership between Ohio-based Edwards Cos. and local resident Carl DeSantis. Edwards bought DeSantis’ share in June for $38.5 million.
    Atlantic Crossing began in 2008 as Atlantic Plaza II before the recession. Fast-forward five years and Edwards was brought into the project, which was renamed Atlantic Crossing.
    Meanwhile, the state court lawsuit continues.
    A hearing was scheduled Feb. 2 on the city’s motion to dismiss two of the developer’s damage claims that the city says are identical to the ones denied last July by a federal judge. The next day the judge was to hold a status hearing on the city’s motion to dismiss most of the remaining counts. A trial on those issues is set for the period of Feb. 13 through April 7.
    In addition, the developer’s attorneys continue to subpoena residents who objected to the project and joined a civic group to work for what they considered responsible development.
    At the Jan. 24 commission meeting, resident Kelly Barrette said she was asked to produce records, including private emails, which mentioned Atlantic Plaza, Atlantic Plaza II and Atlantic Crossing. The attorneys are seeking items back to 2008. “That’s legal intimidation against private citizens for getting involved in a civic group,” said Barrette, who has announced she is running for a seat on the City Commission in March.

Delray Place South
drops appeal
 Lohman said the Delray Place South developers withdrew their appeal of a denial by a city board.
    In late October, the city’s Site Plan Review and Appearance board had denied the project’s site plan. The 30-year-old center sits on the east side of Federal Highway just south of Linton Boulevard, between Eve Street and Tropic Boulevard.
    Its site plan featured a cross-cut connection from Delray Place, home to Trader Joe’s, across Eve Street, into the 22,089-square-foot Delray Place South.
    The plan also called for a five-lane gateway on Tropic Boulevard. It would be achieved by reducing the 20-foot median to 14 feet and creating three exit lanes going west onto Federal.  
    In late December, the developer’s attorney had requested another delay until the April 4 City Commission meeting. But the commissioners had already agreed to a two-week delay and denied that later date.

By Jane Smith

    The Delray Beach City Commission did not violate its charter by declining to hold a special election to fill a vacant commission seat, a circuit judge ruled from the bench in January.
    At the hearing, City Attorney Max Lohman argued that 60 days had not passed since the last failed vote to fill the commission seat. Vice Mayor Al Jacquet resigned from the commission on Nov. 8 after his election to the state House.
    The city had two regular commission meetings to try to fill that seat temporarily until the March 14 election, Lohman said. The clock started ticking on Dec. 7, giving the city a Feb. 4 deadline. The lawsuit was filed too soon, the city attorney argued. The judge agreed.
    After the hearing, J. Reeve Bright said he might refile his lawsuit on Feb. 5. Two weeks later, Bright said he would not do so. He said he didn’t think the special election could be held, giving the 30 days’ notice required by the city charter.
    “It’s discouraging,” said Bright, who lives on the barrier island.
    First, he had to prove that he has “standing” to bring the lawsuit against the city and its commissioners. He showed a copy of his voter’s registration card to prove he was entitled to relief. The judge agreed.
    The commission already had lost the respect of some residents when it failed to fill the seat temporarily.
    “Nobody was picked, not that I wasn’t picked,” Yvonne Odom said at the Jan. 10 commission meeting. She was the choice of Mayor Cary Glickstein and Vice Mayor Jordana Jarjura. “But 2-2 is not good for anybody. [The tie] means no.”
    Ten people applied to fill the seat vacated by Jacquet, a Haitian-American. Two minority candidates were selected in mid-November.
    “For the optics on the board, we need a minority,” Glickstein said in November when explaining why he voted for Odom. A longtime resident and retired educator, she is still involved with youth sports teams. He said she was “dedicated to this town.”
    The other minority candidate, Josh Smith, was supported by Commissioner Mitch Katz. Also a longtime resident, Smith is a retired teacher, administrator and coach. He ran unsuccessfully for office in 2015, when his signs and the mayor’s dominated the landscape. “He knows this community like the back of his hand,” said Katz, who won that seat.
    Odom had the backing of the Northwest/Southwest residents, who wore yellow apparel, her favorite color, to commission meetings to show their support.
    Smith never spoke publicly at the commission meetings. He did file for the seat now held by Vice Mayor Jarjura.
    At the Jan. 10 commission meeting, Odom said: “I’d like to thank those who spoke on my behalf in being appointed to that seat. Of course, I was very disappointed.
    “I’m in mourning,” she said. “We need to put a black sheet, towel or something on that seat until it’s filled.”
    At the end of January, she still was not happy.
    “The commission did not follow the will of the people and the city charter,” she said.
    She said one good result came out of the commission’s inability to agree: “It united the community to get more involved in the local races.”

Yard work and construction trucks clog a Hypoluxo Island road.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Mary Thurwachter

    A proposed law that would limit parking on the street and public rights of way on Hypoluxo Island failed to garner a single vote from Lantana Town Council members. The vote, taken during a Jan. 23 town meeting, came after several discussions at previous meetings about cars having to dodge construction and landscaping trucks on the island.
    The ordinance would have limited parking to two hours between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. and would require a parking permit and fee for special events.
    Mayor Dave Stewart said the proposal was drafted after Town Manager Deborah Manzo received numerous emails from a resident, Sueann Nichols, about towing away and ticketing cars parked on the roadway. Nichols was unable to attend the Jan. 23 meeting, but sent another email read aloud by the mayor.
    Other island residents who did attend asked how the ordinance would be enforced.
    Police Chief Sean Scheller said cars would be marked with chalk. But Scheller was no fan of the proposed ordinance.
    “I’m going to be honest with you, this is going to be a nightmare,” he said. “We’ll get a call, go chalk it [vehicle], then go back in two hours. For the amount of calls we have, we are blowing this out of the water. As of Oct. 31, we only had four calls [about parked vehicles on the island].
    “I don’t want people to get a false sense of hope that we’re going to respond right away,” Scheller said.
    Vice Mayor Phil Aridas said the matter needs more discussion.
    “Monitoring is a very tough job,” Aridas said.
    Stewart said he understood Nichols’ frustration.
    “I wish there were a way cars wouldn’t park all day,” he said. “When my neighbor’s house was under construction, there were times I couldn’t get out of my driveway. It is inconvenient and it does aggravate some people.”
    Scheller said there is only a handful of offenders.
    “I think we have to educate them. I will personally educate” repeat offenders, Scheller said.
    “I trust the chief will, in a diplomatic manner, address this issue,” Stewart said.
    The town has been grappling with parking problems on the island for years and has come up with other proposed solutions, including restricting parking to odd or even sides of the road, depending on the month. None of them was deemed satisfactory.
    Council member Malcolm Balfour said the solution could be simple.
    “Courtesy would solve the problem,” he said.
    In other news, the town unveiled its new website, www.lantana.org. Town IT manager William Parker worked closely with a team at EvoGov, a website development and hosting company that specializes in local government website design, to update the site.
    Features include striking pictures of town landmarks, a new look for the parks page, a link to Facebook and Twitter pages, answers to frequently asked questions, a link for people to pay their water bills or report concerns, and a place for companies to submit bids for projects.
    “Everything is no more than two clicks away,” Parker said.

By Jane Smith
    
    She is part of the glue that holds Delray Beach together.
    After nearly 13 years as the city clerk, Chevelle Nubin is leaving to take a similar position with the village of Wellington.
    Nubin will make more money. The Wellington city clerk offers an hourly rate between $42.31 and $74.04. Even if Delray could match the salary, interim City Manager Neal de Jesus said it couldn’t compete with the nearness to her Greenacres family that the Wellington job provides.
    “This one is going to hurt,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said at the Jan. 24 City Commission meeting. In addition to describing her as part of the glue, he praised her professionalism and being neutral to personalities.
    “It’s about doing your job in the best way possible,” he said.
    Other commissioners echoed his compliments about Nubin’s professionalism and dedication to the city. Commissioner Mitch Katz described how she sat down with him before his election campaign to explain “from A to Z what needed to be done.”
    He also said that when City Commission meetings extended into the wee hours, just looking at Nubin’s smiling face gave him the ability to stay focused.
    Vice Mayor Jordana Jarjura said someone had sent a text that morning that said: “Heard Chevelle is leaving. Get out. Run.”
    Commissioner Shelly Petrolia said Nubin’s last day is Feb. 28. Nubin promised that the municipal elections work would be on autopilot so the deputy city clerk could finish it after she is gone, Petrolia said. “And I believe that,” she said. “Nubin is such an asset to our town that it’s crushing to lose her.”
    In addition to being the supervisor for municipal elections, the city clerk’s office maintains and retrieves official records for the city, prepares the agendas and transcribes the minutes of commission meetings, processes ordinances and resolutions for signing and generally allows citizens to participate in city government.
    At the end of the Jan. 24 commission meeting, De Jesus started his remarks by giving each commissioner a printout of public records requests for December.
    The 345 listed were unusually high for the size of Delray Beach, he said. Some were duplicate requests sent to five department heads, asking for the same records. Other requesters became aggressive when the records were not produced in a timely fashion.
    He wants the City Clerk’s office to be the central repository for records requests.
    The next day, the mayor said via email, “I suspect these frivolous requests did motivate one of our most capable employees and department heads to seek employment closer to home.”
    Nubin respectfully declined to be interviewed for this story.
   Active in the Florida Association of City Clerks, Nubin was sworn in as its president in June. She has earned the designations of certified municipal clerk in 2003 and master municipal clerk in 2011.
    If the city hadn’t switched its phone system on Jan. 20, callers to her city extension would be treated to a custom voice-mail greeting recorded by Nubin.
    “She thanked people for calling the All-America city of Delray Beach,” Petrolia said. “By the time you were asked to leave a message, you felt proud and smiled.”

By Jane Smith

    Some wore white T-shirts with “WHO’S LISTENING?” written in black across the top. Others wore white tops, each with a black crêpe-paper ribbon tied around the upper arm.
    Dozens of residents protested outside Boynton Beach’s City Hall before the Jan. 17 commission meeting. They were accusing elected officials of ignoring their complaints and concerns about the increased height and traffic problems the proposed Riverwalk project would create.
    For more than two years, waterway residents have said they don’t want to live in a concrete canyon. Yet, new plans were adopted recently to allow large-scale development in the city’s eastern half.
    Commissioners approved the proposed 10-story Riverwalk project by a 3-2 vote in mid-January. Its owners want to build an apartment complex at the southwest corner of the Woolbright Road bridge at the Intracoastal Waterway.
    Mayor Steven Grant and Commissioner Christina Romelus, both new to the commission, sided with the residents.
    “We’re fighting for our way of life because you guys are trying to take it away from us,” said Harry Woodworth, former head of the Inlet Communities Association, which represents 10 waterfront communities in the city. “We came here for a small-town environment … not to be like every town from here to Miami.”
    Mary Nagle, acting president of the Boynton Intracoastal Group, handed out the white T-shirts at the protest. Her group represents six communities with 2,500 residents.
    “We didn’t feel like we were being heard,” Nagle said.
    Resident Ed Tedtman suggested Vice Mayor Mack McCray should not vote on the project because he received $3,000 in campaign contributions from Riverwalk’s owners. Shaul Rikman, Riverwalk chairman; his wife, Jean, a residential real estate broker; and son, Mati, Riverwalk CEO, each donated $1,000 to McCray’s March re-election campaign.
    “It’s a way to hide a bribe,” Tedtman said.
    While the developers’ campaign donations may appear improper to some, they are permitted on all levels of government.
    McCray defended himself, saying he is not being bought. He said he would vote for the Riverwalk project because the developer promised to hire workers without college educations from his district. However, the commitment was not written into the developer agreement.
    Commissioner Joe Casello said the project had been vetted for the past two years.
    “Through this whole debate, we have voted for [higher density in the CRA district],” he said.
    Isram Realty, the company owned by the Rikmans, is “not a flipper of properties. [Rikman] is community-oriented and will be an asset to Boynton Beach,” Casello said.
    Boynton Beach lost its innocence in the late 1960s, he said. “Boynton Beach is not going to be a quaint fishing village,” Casello said. “We are growing, people.”
    Commissioner Justin Katz explained that he was voting for the Riverwalk proposal because he wanted to generate money to save the old high school in the Town Square project. It’s always about money that helps the town, he said.
    He said the abandoned Winn-Dixie grocery store on the Intracoastal Waterway was an eyesore and blight on the community with homeless people living there.
    “It’s a desolate, dangerous area,” he said. “Nobody gets everything they want.”
    The 10-story, U-shaped apartment complex will replace the Winn-Dixie.
    Residents on its upper floors will have views of the Atlantic Ocean along with the adjacent Intracoastal. That will allow the project to charge as much as $2,200 in monthly rent for some of its 326 units.
    The developer received approval for an additional 5 feet above the 10 stories for parapets and other architectural embellishments to help hide pipes and air-conditioning units.
    Construction will be done in phases, with the apartment complex starting by the end of the year.
    A 4,666-square-foot building will be constructed along Federal Highway in the second phase. The Walgreen’s drug store/Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts building, also along Federal, will be renovated in the third phase.

By Jane Smith
    
    Three development teams were picked to present their conceptual plans for the 16.5-acre Town Square in Boynton Beach.
    The two local teams are: Boynton Beach Town Square LLC and Boynton Vision LLC. The other team, based in Washington, D.C., is Municipal Consolidation and Construction.
    The city is seeking a partner to help jump-start the development in Town Square, bordered by Boynton Beach Boulevard on the north and Seacrest Avenue on the west. The area houses City Hall, police headquarters, fire station No. 1, Civic Center, Madsen Center and Arts Center.  
    According to the city proposal, the development can include residential, office and retail space.
    The City Commission unanimously approved the development team rankings presented Jan. 17. A fourth team, Town Square Partners, consisting of Davis Camalier and William Morris, who are involved in the Ocean One project, was not selected.
    Assistant City Manager Colin Groff gave this ambitious timetable to commissioners: final team selection on March 21 and final contract approval April 4. He said the estimated dates were tentative.
    During the review process, each team will be invited to give a presentation to the selection committee. The public can attend, but state law and county rules forbid people from commenting, Groff said.
    The two local teams chosen are well known in Palm Beach County.
    Historic preservation architect Rick Gonzalez, working on the Swinton Commons project in Delray Beach, is part of the Boynton Beach Town Square bid. He also worked on the restoration of the Mar-a-Lago estate for President Donald J. Trump and is involved in Trump’s quest to build a helipad on the estate in Palm Beach. Another participant in this proposal is John Markey, whose firm developed two multifamily projects in the western part of Boynton Beach.
    Bill Branning, former Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency board member and board president of the Old School Square in Delray Beach, and his BSA Construction firm teamed with Atlantic Realty Partners and Kaplan Residential as part of the Boynton Vision bid. Lawyer Michael Weiner, who owns the Post Office building at Seacrest Avenue and Boynton Beach Boulevard, also is participating.
    Frank Haney, president of Municipal Consolidation and Construction, has committed to hiring local firms for design, engineering, surveying and legal work.
    Once the final contract is approved, “there will be a lot of public meetings on the open space — landscaping, playground equipment and lighting — and the design of City Hall and the old high school,” Groff said.
    The historic high school, Public Library and the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum must remain at their current locations, according to the city proposal document.
    A potential stumbling block to reusing the high school appeared again in early January.
    On Jan. 6, Juan Contin, the architect who formed the Boynton Old School Partnership, appealed the dismissal of his claims against the city.
    The partnership sued the city in 2013 after its plan to create an events center was denied on second reading. Since the suit was first filed, it was amended three times. In December, the circuit court judge dismissed it with prejudice, meaning the only avenue for the partnership was an appeal.

By Jane Smith

    A corporate executive search firm will be used to recruit Delray Beach’s next city manager.
    “I’m not looking for someone on the learning curve or on their last stop,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said. “But someone with demonstrated measurable outcome where they were and who still has a lot of gas left.”
    City commissioners unanimously agreed in mid-January when they gave interim City Manager Neal de Jesus the authority to advertise for a recruiting firm and bring the selections back to the commission in early March. Then after the election, with the full commission of five members, the search process would begin, de Jesus said on Jan. 17.
    The commissioners also agreed to increase the salary range for the city manager by about $75,000. The current range is $127,000 to $203,000. The new range will be $200,000 to $275,000.
    “You get what you pay for,” Glickstein said. “The citizens of this town have paid dearly for having ineffective management for years.”
    He said the previous city manager, Don Cooper, was effective in doing triage, which the city needed. But he was not the change agent the city now needs, Glickstein said, adding “I hate having this conversation in public.”
    Other commissioners said they wanted the new city manager to be a leader.
    “The city needs a leader who can enhance the team of leaders we have,” Commissioner Mitch Katz said. “We need someone to hold them accountable and bring everyone up with them.”
    Vice Mayor Jordana Jarjura agreed. “I want someone who knows how to find the right people, put together a succession plan and rebuild a city that has had some changes and growing pains,” she said.
    “If the person has additional expertise in the finance world or the grant world or ran a capital improvements program, that’s all gravy to me.”
    Commissioner Shelly Petrolia pointed out that providing stability is a crucial attribute.
    “We were basically going around in circles, like a ship without a rudder,” she said. “Cooper righted the ship and set us in the right direction.”
    While interim city manager, de Jesus receives an annual salary of $159,000 with a $2,000 monthly housing allowance.
    In other city news, the Delray Beach Visitor Information Center, managed by the Downtown Development Authority and sitting at the corner of A1A and East Atlantic Avenue, will be closed until late March for renovations. During construction, a temporary center will be open at the Sandoway Discovery Center, 142 S. Ocean Blvd., from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays.
    When the center reopens, it will be tripled in size. Wi-Fi will be available for visitors to learn about shops, attractions, dining, entertainment and hotels. In addition, the renovated center will become Visit Florida’s Official South Palm Beach County Visitor Center.

By Willie Howard

    Manalapan is offering Hypoluxo water customers a 35 percent rate cut and a five-year rate freeze in exchange for a 30-year contract extension as the tiny waterfront town competes with Boynton Beach to retain its Hypoluxo water customers.
    The proposed rate cut would apply to about 550 Hypoluxo water customers served by Manalapan through a contract that expires in 2020.
    Hypoluxo council members heard the rate-cut offer during a Jan. 18 presentation by Manalapan Town Manager Linda Stumpf and Kevin O’Donnell of Nova Energy Consultants.
    Under the proposed rates, Hypoluxo customers with a 5/8-inch water meter using 8,000 gallons would pay $48.02 a month — a savings of $25.86 from the current rate. A similar 35 percent rate reduction would apply to Hypoluxo customers with larger water meters.
    To further sweeten the offer, Manalapan officials offered to pay for $1.64 million in needed upgrades to water distribution lines in Hypoluxo.
    Hypoluxo officials also are considering a water-supply offer from Boynton Beach Utilities, and their decision could come as early as this year.
    Even though the town’s water contract with Manalapan doesn’t expire until 2020, the contract requires 18 months’ notice if Hypoluxo plans to switch to a new supplier.
    Meanwhile, much larger Boynton Beach Utilities, which already supplies water to Hypoluxo customers west of U.S. 1 and handles all of its sewage, has offered even lower water rates to the Hypoluxo customers served by Manalapan.
    Under Boynton Beach Utilities rates, presented to the Hypoluxo Town Council in August, single-family residential customers with a 5/8-inch meter using 8,000 gallons a month would pay $25.55 to Boynton Beach Utilities.
    That’s $22.47 a month less than the discounted rate offered by Manalapan.
    Hypoluxo interim Mayor Michael Brown said he liked the quick service provided by Manalapan following water main breaks and other problems. But, he said, “that’s only worth so much.”
    Stumpf told Hypoluxo officials that Manalapan would keep its water plant and remain in the water production business even without the Hypoluxo customers it has served since 1960.
    “I find that very interesting,” Brown said.
    Meanwhile, Boynton Beach Assistant City Manager Colin Groff told council members that Boynton Beach Utilities needs to upgrade water meters for the 550 Hypoluxo water customers served by Manalapan, or charge them maximum sewer rates based on 7,000 gallons of water use. Sewer bills for those Hypoluxo customers are based on water consumption measured by Manalapan. Boynton Beach Utilities employees manually enter the Manalapan water-use numbers every month to generate sewer bills, which often leads to errors, Groff said.
    For its customers, Boynton Beach Utilities uses smart meters that read water usage every 10 minutes.
    “We have to move to an automated system to get accurate sewer bills,” Groff said. “We’re not trying to be mean. We just want it to be fair to everybody.”
    Brown said the Hypoluxo Town Council would review the water rates presented by Manalapan and Boynton Beach, along with service and other factors, before making a decision on whether to end the Manalapan water-supply contract or extend it for another 30 years.
 Manalapan Vice Mayor Peter Isaac said he hopes Hypoluxo is swayed by the immediate savings water customers would enjoy.
 “If they accepted, Hypoluxo residents would save $30,000 a month,” Isaac said at Manalapan’s Jan. 24 meeting.     “That’s a lot. If they don’t make a decision, that $30,000 doesn’t get to be retroactive. If they take two months [to decide], that’s $60,000 that’s lost.”
 Town Manager Stumpf, who is leading the negotiations for Manalapan, said Hypoluxo officials have asked her why this proposed deal wasn’t put on the table months or years ago. She said Manalapan couldn’t offer it until now because the town had to complete a study of its utility and make some management changes.
 “The answer is that we were not in a position to make the offer back then,” Stumpf said. “Now we are.”

Dan Moffett contributed to this story.

By Jane Smith

    The Ocean One developer wants a sliver of Boynton Beach public land for a nominal fee and a part of taxpayer dollars generated by the proposed residential and hotel complex.
    The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency owns the .47-acre lot Davis Camalier needs to square off his 3.1-acre parcel at the southeast corner of Federal Highway and Boynton Beach Boulevard. The CRA land was appraised in December 2015 at $460,000. Camalier’s group wants it for $10.
    The eight-story, U-shaped apartment complex will have 231 units. A nearby seven-story parking garage will have 463 spaces, with 50 reserved for the public. That will be built in the first phase.
    The second phase, basically the bottom half of the parcel that borders Ocean Avenue, will have a hotel with an estimated 100 rooms and a 118-unit condo tower that is taller than eight stories.
    Camalier’s consultant, Chris Brown, who formerly ran the Delray Beach CRA and now has a company that provides those services to cities, made the pitch for the taxpayer dollars.
    Brown’s tally for anticipated development costs to meet city requirements include $1 million for the 50 parking spaces; $700,000 for wide sidewalks, streetlights and buried utility lines; $500,000 to move Florida Power & Light wires; $500,000 to cover the city’s request to make the project eco-friendly; $500,000 in building permit fees, and $240,000 to cover the city’s request to add retail along Federal Highway.
    For the first phase, Camalier’s group wants $4.2 million spread over eight to 10 years, Brown said. For the second phase, the group is seeking $3.6 million spread over eight to 10 years.
    “It’s based on our calculations that the buildings would add to the CRA, but you will pay out what the buildings actually add [in value],” Brown said.
    That request annoyed Linda Cross, who chairs the CRA’s advisory board and is a retired accountant.
    “The money the developer is asking for is the costs that any developer would have to pay,” Cross told the CRA board on Jan. 10. “They all have to pay for landscaping, moving utilities and putting utilities in. I don’t see that they are giving the CRA any more value.”
    Plus, she said, the money generated is for future projects in the CRA district.
    She also questioned whether the parking would be sufficient. She lives in the nearby Marina Village condominium, which has 349 units, equal to the number that Ocean One would have when both phases are built. The Marina Village garage has 660 spaces with an additional 120 spaces for public use.
    “The concept that millennials don’t drive is not true. They often have more than one car,” Cross said. “We are packed.”
    Waterway resident Harry Woodworth, who’s a past president of the Inlet Communities Associations, said the CRA board needs to attach performance standards to the taxpayer-dollar request. “Otherwise they won’t get done,” he said.
    The CRA board members, who also sit as city commissioners, directed their staff to negotiate a contract with Ocean One consultants. They want five areas accounted for in the deal: parking plan, workforce housing, start of hotel construction, percent of the retail space filled and a community benefits agreement that would cover local hiring.  CRA staff will bring the agreement back to the board for approval.
    CRA member Justin Katz wanted to make sure the hotel was built soon after the first phase. He did not want to see a two- to four-year lag between the two phases.
    The project’s land use attorney, Bonnie Miskel, said the market would dictate when a hotel would be built.
    “It all depends on the availability of money,” she said. “I don’t have a crystal ball.”

The La Coquille Club, built in 1954, was one of the most significant mid-century modern buildings

in the area. The architect was Byron F.  Simonson.

In 1934, Jacques  and Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan bought land on the south end

of Hypoluxo Island, which they named Casa Alva. In 1957, William Benjamin II

bought the estate and turned it into The Manalapan Club.

Photos provided by the Historical Society of Palm Beach County

By Mary Thurwachter

    Social clubs formed by Standard Oil scions Spelman Prentice and William Benjamin II were an important part of Manalapan’s history, according to local historian and author Augustus Mayhew. Mayhew addressed residents Jan. 19 as part of the town’s annual lecture series at the J. Turner Moore Memorial Library.
    The La Coquille Club, now at Eau Palm Beach (formerly the Ritz-Carlton), was developed by Prentice, one of John D. Rockefeller’s grandsons.
    “The original 1954 building, designed by architect Byron F. Simonson, was one of the most significant mid-century modern buildings in the area,” Mayhew said.
    Club members were captains of industry, congressmen and people with names like Hutton, Ford, Vanderbilt and Rockefeller. It was a place to see and be seen. Guests lounged by the pool, sipped cocktails and danced the night away.
    After the building was torn down, the Ritz-Carlton was built in its place and the club was housed there from 1991 to 2013, when the hotel became Eau Palm Beach.
    Manalpan’s other social club, The Manalapan Club, was founded in 1957 in a home once owned by Jacques and Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan.
    During the height of the Great Depression in 1934, the Balsans bought the south end of Hypoluxo Island and three nearby islands for $75,000. There already was a home on the 50-acre property, which had belonged to the John Demarest family, and it was called La Linda.
    The Balsans added on to the house and renamed it Casa Alva, with designs by Treanor & Fatio architects. Sir Winston Churchill, a family friend and cousin of Consuelo’s first husband, visited Casa Alva several times and often spent his time painting scenes around the grounds. One of his paintings is hanging on a wall at the town library.
    Benjamin bought Casa Alva in 1957, added 50 acres and filled in the islands to develop Point Manalapan. He also added rooms to the house.
    In 1958, Benjamin unsuccessfully lobbied for a bridge between Point Manalapan and A1A.
    The Manalapan Club had its home in Casa Alva from 1957 to 1976. The club included a nine-hole, par-3 golf course, game room, cocktail lounge, dining room, and suites for members during the season. Gala balls, fashion shows, lectures and bridge tournaments were among the club’s social activities.
    After the club closed, Benjamin and his wife, Maura, lived at Casa Alva until 2013, when they sold the property to its present owner, investment banker and New York preservationist Gary W. Parr.

•

    Future speakers in the library series include Manalapan gardener and author Jack Staub, who will discuss the private gardens of South Florida on Feb. 16; international cellist Yehuda Hanani, who will talk about the narrative power of music on March 2; Hippocrates Health Institute health educator Philip Nicozisis, who will discuss the philosophy of food, a vegan perspective, on March 9; and musician and writer Juliette de Marcellus, who will give her lighthearted guide to why classical music is on the decline for the March 30 lecture.
    Lectures are free to library members and $5 for others. For more information, see www.manalapan.org.

By Jane Smith

    The days are numbered for people taking shortcuts across the FEC train tracks in downtown Delray Beach. The city plans to install pedestrian barriers by the end of the summer.
    In mid-January, the City Commission approved a pedestrian barrier of aluminum rail fencing with occasional landscaping along both sides of the track for one block — from Atlantic Avenue north to Northeast First Street.
    The trespassing problem became a focus last August when a Boca Raton woman was killed by a passing freight train. She was taking a well-used shortcut across the tracks after leaving Johnny Brown’s on Atlantic Avenue when she was struck by a southbound freight train.
    “I think someone else is going to get killed. We have to do something,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said at the workshop.
    Citing mature bougainvillea as a good deterrent along the Florida East Coast tracks in West Palm Beach, Glickstein said later, “it is both colorful and thrives in harsh conditions and has an added feature of thorns, which in this context is useful to keep people from jumping over the fence.”
    Later this year, Brightline passenger rail service will start on the FEC tracks, offering express travel between Miami and West Palm Beach. The estimated 32 daily trains will have only one stop per county — Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. By 2019, plans call for extending the service to Orlando.
    That’s why John Morgan, who runs the city’s Environmental Services Department, is rushing to bring better cost estimates back to the commission. He presented four options in mid-January. Commissioners combined parts of two into one — aluminum fence with intermittent landscaping.
    After better costs are determined, he then will meet with FEC Railway staff to get approval to construct the barriers. Some part, if not all, of the barriers will sit on FEC-owned land.
    Morgan then will ask railway officials to help cover the costs of the barriers.
    “FEC is responsible to make it safe, but not pretty,” Glickstein said. The city will look for help with the remaining cost from the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization.
    The city also is losing 15 parking spaces in the block just north of Atlantic after the second set of railroad tracks was installed last year, Morgan said. He will use that as an opportunity to reconfigure parking in the lot behind Johnny Brown’s.
    At a Community Redevelopment Agency board meeting earlier in January, police Sgt. Darrell Hunter told the board about a parking problem that occurred along the railroad tracks.
    In November, when FEC subcontractors were installing the second set of tracks, they removed the “No Parking” signs just north of Atlantic Avenue. People were parking their cars close to the tracks, which prompted the freight trains to slow down and some even stopped, Hunter said. Trains extend at least three feet beyond the tracks on both sides.
    Vehicles were ticketed, but the number couldn’t be determined, according to a police spokeswoman. The Police Department uses paper parking tickets that are not tracked.
    For the next step in the barrier process, Morgan would take the plan to the Downtown Development Authority, which serves merchants and restaurants along Atlantic Avenue. His goal is to have commission approval by early June and the barriers in place before Brightline trains begin zipping through downtown.
    For a finishing touch, Morgan wants to install a pedestrian promenade on each side of the tracks along the barriers. He will seek financial help from the city’s CRA to build promenades between Atlantic and Northeast First.
    All this barrier talk pleases Delray Beach safety advocate Patrick Halliday, vice chairman of Human Powered Delray. He pressed for the barriers at the first City Commission meeting after the August tragedy.
    “It’s a message to people who don’t want to get involved that change can occur if you speak up,” he said.

By Rich Pollack

    HIGHLAND BEACH — On Highland Beach’s Intracoastal Drive in the town’s tight-knit Bel Lido community, Erin Kane Rodriguez was known as a fun-loving neighbor, a rising young tennis star and an athlete full of energy, who always took her studies seriously.
    So it came as a shock to the whole community — especially the group of 14 young adults with whom she grew up — when neighbors learned that she died at home on Jan. 10, apparently as a result of an underlying medical condition. She was 20.
    “The whole neighborhood was in shock,” said Peggy Gossett-Seidman, a neighbor and close friend of the Rodriguez family. “We’re all still in shock.”
    A junior at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and co-captain of her school’s tennis team, Miss Rodriguez was home for the holidays and staying with her family an extra week in preparation for her team’s match with Florida Atlantic University.
    Members of the team, including those who made the trip for the match, were among more than 300 people from across the country who attended a Jan. 18 memorial service for Miss Rodriguez.
    “She reached a lot of people,” Gossett-Seidman said.
    A natural athlete, Miss Rodriguez started playing tennis competitively at 11 and was a fixture in national tournaments prior to receiving a full athletic scholarship to play for the Miami University RedHawks.
    “Erin was the sunshine of our team,” coach Yana Carollo told the Dayton Daily News. “She was funny, intelligent, compassionate and a very kind girl.”
    At one point in her playing career, Miss Rodriguez ranked sixth in the state and 27th in the nation in her age group.
    Although she had considered the possibility of playing tennis for a living, according to Gossett-Seidman, Miss Rodriguez was focused on academics, with a dual major in political science and business legal studies.
    A dean’s list student who was chosen to serve as an ambassador for the university’s College of Arts and Science, Miss Rodriguez planned to attend law school following her graduation, with a goal of becoming a prosecutor.
    “She was quiet and serious in her studies but with the other kids in the neighborhood she was just a bundle of energy,” Gossett-Seidman said. “She was always upbeat and smiling.”
    Miss Rodriguez is survived by her parents, Jorge and Judi; her younger brother, Matthew; grandparents Tom and Dorothy Kane; grandmother Miriam Rodriguez; uncle and aunt John and Suzanne Kane; godparents Jose and Rita Mendez, and many cousins.
    A scholarship fund has been established at Miami University in her memory. Make contributions payable to the Erin Rodriguez Memorial Scholarship, and mail to Miami University, 725 E.  Chestnut St., Oxford, OH 45056. To contribute online, visit www.forloveandhonor.org/givetomu.