Emily Stokes of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation measured each of the 655 lionfish

brought in by eight dive teams in the Gold Coast Lionfish Derby.

Morgan Ingegno of Delray Beach and Barbie Amaro of Los Angeles were among the curious

who stopped by the cleaning table to check out the nonnative fish.

Chef Michael Bickford prepares lionfish fried in a beer batter and served with a chipotle lime aioli sauce.

Free samples of lionfish were served after dive teams returned to the Waterstone Resort & Marina in Boca Raton.

Photos by Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

By Willie Howard

    Teams of divers competing in the Gold Coast Lionfish Derby helped rid the reefs around Boca Raton and Pompano Beach of lionfish — an invasive, nonnative fish that steals food from Florida’s native fish and eats their young.  
    Eight four-diver teams used small pole spears to harvest a total of 655 lionfish during the June 18 event. They brought coolers filled with lionfish back to the docks at the Waterstone Resort & Marina in Boca Raton, where the fish  were measured, counted and, eventually, eaten.
    Derby organizers from World of Scuba in Boca Raton awarded cash prizes to the teams with the most, the largest and the smallest lionfish.
    Team Painkillers speared the most lionfish, 153, to win $600. The ZooKeeper team placed a close second, with 149 lionfish, to win $300.
    The Painkillers crew also took the $600 top prize for the largest lionfish — 434 millimeters, about 17 inches. The ZooKeeper team won another $600 by bringing in the smallest lionfish at 82 millimeters, about 3.2 inches.
    Divers said they found many of the lionfish on reefs in 60 to 90 feet of water. Others went to depths over 100 feet in search of larger lionfish.
    Lionfish experts from the Key Largo-based Reef Environmental Education Foundation measured and counted each lionfish brought to the docks — both for the contest and for size data used to track the status of lionfish populations.
    Experienced lionfish divers who know how to avoid the fish’s 18 venomous spines cleaned the lionfish before chefs from the Waterstone dipped the white fillets in beer batter and deep-fried them. Free samples of fried lionfish were served, topped with a chipotle lime aioli sauce.
    Lionfish harvesting events help control populations of the invasive fish, but scientists believe the nonnative reef invaders are here to stay.
    “No one believes eradication will happen,” said Emily Stokes, lionfish program assistant for REEF. “But local control is very effective. Derbies like this make a huge difference.”
    More lionfish derbies are planned this summer in South Florida, including a July 16 event based at 15th Street Fisheries in Fort Lauderdale and another derby set for Aug. 13 at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach.
    For a statewide list of lionfish harvesting competitions, go to www.myfwc.com/lionfish.

The lobster’s carapace must measure more than 3 inches for a lobster to be legal to keep. Egg-bearing lobsters must be released. Fla. Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Two-day sport lobster season set for July 27-28
    Sport divers will take the plunge to search for spiny lobster during the two-day sport season July 27-28.
    The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission is again offering divers the opportunity to bag an additional lobster each day of the mini season — if they first document the harvest of at least 50 lionfish.
    For a diver to qualify for the extra lobster, the 50 lionfish must have been harvested between May 14 and July 26 and documented. Lionfish can be brought to checkpoints, or photos can be submitted via email. (For details, go to www.myfwc.com/lionfish and click on “lionfish challenge.”)
    Here’s a quick review of the basic rules for divers planning to search for “bugs” during the two-day sport season:
    • A saltwater fishing license and lobster permit are required except for divers who are Florida residents under 16, over 65 or otherwise exempt.
    • The daily bag limit is 12 lobsters, except in Monroe County and Biscayne National Park, where the sport-season limit is six.
    • A lobster’s carapace, or head section, must measure more than 3 inches to be legal to keep. Egg-bearing lobsters must be released. (Look for the spongy orange mass under the tail.) Divers should measure lobster underwater and bring them back to land intact.
    • Red-and-white dive flags are required by law. Dive flags on boats must measure at least 20 inches by 24 inches, should have stiffeners to keep them unfurled and should be displayed from the highest point on the boat. A float-mounted diver-down buoy should be towed by divers in the water.
    Boaters must stay 300 feet away from dive flags on the open ocean and 100 feet away in inlets, rivers and navigation channels. Those approaching closer should do so at idle speed.
    The regular lobster season opens Aug. 6.

Boat registration discounts take effect this month
   Boating safety legislation approved earlier this year gives recreational boat owners a modest discount on their annual boat registration fee if they have a properly registered emergency satellite beacon, such as an EPIRB or personal locator beacon.
    Satellite beacons transmit the location of boaters in distress, making the job of finding them far simpler for rescuers when the beacons are registered with NOAA. (www.sarsat.noaa.gov/beacon.html)
    Boaters who own more than one boat can receive a registration discount for each boat with a registered EPIRB. Those with a registered PLB can receive a discount for only one boat.
    The discount applies to boats registered between July 7 and June 30, 2017.
    To receive the discount, boat owners should take their NOAA beacon registration certificate to a driver license/motor vehicle service center, such as the one at 501 S. Congress Ave. in Delray Beach.

Lake Worth Lagoon photo contest open to all
    Photographers of all skill levels are invited to participate in the second annual Lake Worth Lagoon photo contest.
    July 15 is the deadline to submit photos for a chance to have images featured in the 2017 Lake Worth Lagoon calendar.
    Photos should show the lagoon’s environmental, recreational and economic value. Images can include landscapes, underwater photos, wildlife and people.
    Photographers can submit up to five digital images.
    The Lake Worth Lagoon is Palm Beach County’s largest estuary, stretching about 20 miles from Ocean Ridge to North Palm Beach.
    For details on the photo contest, go to www.LagoonFest.com and look for “photo contest.” Questions can be emailed to: ERM-LagoonFest@pbcgov.org.

Ryan Gutz, left, and Alex Wasserman hold the 90-pound wahoo they caught from their kayaks

off Boynton Beach on the morning of June 12. Wasserman hooked the fish and handed the rod

to Gutz, who fought it for 30 minutes while it towed his kayak. Watch a video

of the wahoo catch at www.thecoastalstar.com.

Photo provided

Kayakers catch 90-pound wahoo off Boynton Beach
    An Iowa man got a back-wrenching introduction to ocean fishing on the morning of June 12, when he and a Palm Beach County chiropractor caught a 90-pound wahoo from kayaks off Boynton Beach.
    Alex Wasserman, a chiropractor with Health-Fit Chiropractic & Sports Medicine in Boca Raton, was fishing with Ryan Gutz, a summer intern in his office from Iowa.
    They were drifting in 110 feet. After putting out a live goggle-eye for bait around 7 a.m., Wasserman said he was holding the rod, explaining to Gutz how the reel worked, when something began taking line — slowly at first, then at a “screaming” pace.
    “I handed the rod to Ryan, who then spent the next 30 minutes getting dragged out to 320 feet,” Wasserman said. “He told me his hands were going numb. I was screaming instructions at him.”
    Wasserman eventually took the rod, worked the wahoo to the surface and gaffed it. They paddled back to the beach for a photo.
    Wasserman said the wahoo weighed 90 pounds. He said it was Gutz’s first time fishing in the Atlantic and his first time in a kayak.

Coming events
    July 9: Basic boating safety class offered by Coast Guard Auxiliary in Boca Raton, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the headquarters building at Spanish River Park, 3939 N. Ocean Blvd. Fee: $35. Register at the door. Bring lunch. Call 391-3600 or email fso-pe@cgauxboca.org.
    July 9: Big Dog, Fat Cat KDW Shootout fishing tournament for kingfish, dolphin, wahoo and snapper, Sailfish Marina, Palm Beach Shores. Captain’s meeting 5:30 to 8 p.m. July 8 at Sailfish Marina. Entry fee $200 per boat through July 5. Call 315-3722 or go to www.bigdogfatcat.org.
    July 23: Coast Guard Auxiliary offers basic boating safety class, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at classroom next to the boat ramps, Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park, 2010 N. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach. It’s free. Class fees are being covered by a grant from the Perry J. Cohen Foundation. Register at the door. Call 331-2429.
    Aug. 13: Mark Gerretson Memorial Fishing Tournament. Kicks off with captain’s meeting set for 6 p.m. Aug. 11. Weigh-in at Deck 84 restaurant in Delray Beach. Entry fee $200 per boat by Aug. 1 or $225 thereafter. Details: www.mgmft.net.

Tip of the month
    Snook season is closed until Sept. 1.
    But even when snook are in season, they’re largely a catch-and-release fish because of the tight slot size limit.
    Snook caught on Florida’s east coast must be 28 to 32 inches in total length to be legal.
    How snook are handled before they’re released makes a big difference in whether they survive.
    Keep the fight short and keep the snook in the water as much as possible. If you plan to photograph a snook, be sure to have the camera ready and lift the fish from the water for only a few seconds.
    Snap the photo and lower the fish gently back into the water, supporting the fish under the belly.
    To get the accurate weight of a snook (or other fish) to be released, consider buying a snook sling. Developed by the West Palm Beach Fishing Club, snook slings cradle fish and allow them to be lifted from and lowered gently into the water.
    Slings cost $65. They have eyes for attaching a scale and weigh a pound, so they’re easy to use for weighing and releasing fish.
    For more information on snook slings, call the West Palm Beach Fishing Club at 832-6780 or order them online on the “store” section of the club’s website, www.westpalm beachfishingclub.org.

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

William Romac of Delray Beach shows fine form while catching a football at Palm Beach Sport Camp.

He was one of dozens of kids taking part in non-contact sports games.  
Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

The giant spinning tops in downtown West Palm Beach can be ridden, pushed,

pulled or simply used as a bench for an outdoor lunch break.

Photo by VMA studios

(L-R) Sofia Giddings, 6, Riley Melvin, 6, and Paris Woolley, 7 — students at

Trinity Lutheran School summer camp in Delray Beach — enjoy a colorful top

The activity was organized and sponsored by the nonprofit Taste History Culinary Tours

and led by Lori Durante, who described the field trip as ‘old-fashioned fun and play filled with education.᾿

Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine  

    Ask any kid: Spinning around and making yourself dizzy is big fun.  
    Starting this summer, the city of West Palm Beach is offering parents a little help in the game.  
    Los Trompos, an interactive artwork with 20 larger-than-life-size spinning tops, is decorating the great lawn at the West Palm Beach waterfront.  
    The colorful structures can be pushed, pulled, ridden, spun, or simply used as a bench for an al fresco lunch break. Each top has a bench, a central pole and a cover or canopy. Long strands of colorful cords wrap and weave the tops to the bottoms. Each one is a little different.  
    Los Trompos is the work of contemporary Mexican designers Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena, two artists who believe art isn’t art until it’s seen or experienced or reacted to by someone else. Their focus isn’t on the art but how the people interact with it.
The designers also built a social message into the artwork. To truly experience the spinning part, you need help. Friend or stranger, young or old, at least two people are needed to spin a top.

    Mary Pinak, West Palm Beach’s community events manager for the last 26 years, says her favorite part of this exhibition is that it’s multicultural. “I love seeing all ages and all demographics playing together,” she said.  
    Los Trompos is also unique because the city purchased the exhibition and owns the 20 giant tops. It cost about $74,000 plus shipping (which was expensive). It was paid for by the city’s Art in Public Places department.  
    “Now we have an asset,” Pinak said. The city could rent it to another municipality, keep it intact where it is, remove all or part, scatter the tops throughout the city or even sell it.  
    The art installation is open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.  
    Pinak says the waterfront is a prime place to visit on our hot summer days (or evenings) because there is so much to do: Play on the tops, then cool off in the fountains, play a round or two of mini-golf and hit Sloan’s for ice cream.  
    “That’s pretty much a perfect day.”
    Want to add an educational component?   
    Make a day of your visit to Los Trompos in West Palm Beach.
    Include one of these one-of-a-kind venues, which are also in the city:
    South Florida Science Center and Aquarium’s Grossology exhibit.
    It runs through Oct. 10 and it’s all about “The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body.”
    This exhibit educates kids ages 6 to 14 about the gross stuff the body does using exploratory labs, puzzles and games. There is a great play area for younger kids, too.  
    On July 23, the Science Center will host the E4 Life: Green, Health & Wellness Expo, an opportunity to learn about green, healthy living, environmental conservation and the sustainable initiatives that need your support.  
    The center is at 4801 Dreher Trail N., West Palm Beach.  
    Admission: $15 adults, $11 ages 3 to 12, $13 for age 60 and older. Free for members and children younger than 3.
    Info: 832-1988; sfsciencecenter.com.

Safari Nights at the zoo
    As the sun sets, the zoo comes alive. Animals venture out of the cool, shady spots where they weather the heat and humidity of a South Florida day to eat and drink and maybe even take a little bath.
    From now through August, the Palm Beach Zoo will stay open late on Fridays so you can visit when it’s a little cooler and the animals are a little more active.  
    Safari Nights are held from 4:15 to 9 p.m., and each Friday has its own theme with a different family-friendly activity to match. Your Safari Night also features roving animal encounters, keeper talks and training sessions, interactive fountain play, kids games and eco-craft stations, live music and DJ dance parties, plus giveaways and dinner specials at the Tropics Café.
    July’s themes are Dinosaur (July 8), Pajama (July 15), Party for the Planet (July 22), and Winter in July (July 29). Costumes are encouraged.  
    The Palm Beach Zoo is at 1301 Summit Blvd., in West Palm Beach.  
    Admission: $16.50 adults, $12.50 age 3-12, free for younger than age 3 and members.  
    Info: Call 547-9453 or visit www.palmbeachzoo.org.

If You Go
    Los Trompos — The Spinning Tops
    Where: West Palm Beach waterfront, 101 N. Flagler Drive
    When: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily until Aug. 28. Admission: Free.
    Info: 822-1515; wpb.org

    Glow FORE It mini-golf
    When: Noon to 10 p.m.
    What: Mini-golf with glow-in-the-dark balls and obstacles.
    Cost: $2.50 per round.  

Fresh tracks from a nesting sea turtle are seen at sunrise in Ocean Ridge.

Sea turtle monitors Zachary Levitetz and Joan Lorne inspect loggerhead tracks and mark a nest in Gulf Stream.

Sea turtle monitor Staci-Lee Sherwood marks the location of a loggerhead turtle nest on Highland Beach.

Photos by Jerry Lower and  Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Friends of Delray Dog Beach held a demonstration May 7 in hopes of raising awareness

and gaining approval for dogs to be permitted on part of the public beach. The demonstrators gathered

in front of the city’s beachside pavilion.

Among the signs: ‘Surfers, paddleboards, volleyball, sunbathers ... Everyone can use our beach but dog owners.’

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    Dog owners who fought to have a portion of Delray Beach’s public beach set aside for their four-legged friends appear to have lost their months-long battle.
    Now there may be even more bad news — especially for pooch owners who scoff at the law — as the city begins cracking down on those who violate its no-dogs-on-the-beach ordinance.
    Delray Beach commissioners at a workshop meeting in May shot down a proposal that would have established a six-month pilot program crafted by city staff with input from local pet owners.
    That plan would have set aside a small portion of Atlantic Dunes Park as a dog beach for a few morning hours and a few evening hours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
    During a lengthy discussion in which 16 dog owners spoke in favor of the proposal and 16 mostly beachside residents spoke against, commissioners were told that many owners are acting in violation of city ordinances and allowing their dogs to run free on the beach.
    Part of the problem, according to Mayor Cary Glickstein, is that the city has been lax in enforcing its no-dogs-on-the-beach policy, a responsibility that currently falls on the shoulders of police officers.  
    “We all look silly not enforcing our laws,” the mayor said. “We also look silly having sworn police officers doing the dog patrol. The solution is educating volunteers and park rangers who may be given authority to write citations.”
    While attorneys are investigating the possibility of changing city ordinances to allow those other than police and code enforcement officers to write civil citations, the police department has already begun implementing a plan to keep dogs off the beach.
    This month, according to a memo Police Chief Jeff Goldman wrote to Glickstein, the police department will begin an educational campaign with fliers, social media and traditional media designed to remind dog owners of the law.
    Beginning in July, violators of the city ordinance will receive a written warning for a first offense and a citation for a second offense. The city’s code enforcement department will assist police on the enforcement side.

Minimal enforcement
    According to the police department, there has been little enforcement of the city ordinance by the department up to now.
    Through the first four months of this year, no citations were written for dogs on the beach, according to police department records. In all of 2015, there were only nine citations issued.  Police issued 30 citations for dogs on the beach in 2014 and 43 in 2013.
    Of all the 82 citations written since 2013, about half were written to individuals with Delray Beach addresses. Four were written to out-of-state residents and the remainder were to South Florida residents living outside of the Delray Beach area.
    Many residents who spoke during May’s commission meeting cited the lack of enforcement as a problem.
    “It’s despicable the number of people who disregard the ordinance,” said resident Steve Blum.
    Several residents spoke about health concerns associated with dogs on the beach, reporting that not all owners clean up after their pets.
    Others said that unleashed dogs have approached them when they were walking on the beach, leading to safety concerns.
    “There are always dogs on the beach,” said resident Alan Schwartz, who added that additional enforcement could lead to more revenue for the city.
    Some, however, including Vice Mayor Al Jacquet and Commissioner Mitch Katz, said that creating a dog beach could actually help reduce the problem.
    “It seems we have a problem enforcing the laws we have on the books,” Jacquet said. “People are already having dogs on the beach. Let’s put it all in one area where we can regulate it.”
    At the same time, however, Jacquet agreed with Commissioner Jordana Jarjura that the city is facing more pressing financial issues that need to be addressed.
    Citing health and safety reasons as well as other priorities facing the city, Jarjura, Glickstein and Commissioner Shelly Petrolia said they were not in favor of creating a dog beach.
    Proponents of the proposal noted that dog beaches work in many other communities, including Boca Raton. However, Glickstein and several others pointed out that those beaches are larger and configured differently than Delray’s public beach.
    “Boca’s beach is twice the size of Delray’s beach,” he said. “Fort Lauderdale’s beach is four times the size.”
Delray Beach resident Harvey Starin, who represented the 1,000-member Friends of Delray Dog Beach, said he does not believe increased enforcement will work.
    “It will make people really angry,” he said. “It’s going to force people to go to Boca or Jupiter.
    “Other people will grin and bear it and be disappointed in City Hall.”

    Our “Village by the Sea” is being placed at risk by Delray Resolution 71-015, unanimously adopted by the City Commission in December.

    The resolution commits the city to a 3,000-mile “urban Appalachian Trail” that connects 15 states along the East Coast of the U.S. for non-motorized travelers. This will require 8- to 10-foot pathways along A1A in Delray Beach and the adjoining barrier island communities.
    City officials told The Coastal Star, shortly after passage, that “sidewalks would be striped to create separate lanes for pedestrians and bicycles” and the passed resolution “will allow us (the city) to get grants.”
    Even though city officials claim the resolution “means nothing,” the clear and unambiguous 3.1-mile route along A1A will extend approximately 6.3 miles between the north and south city limits, from Federal Highway, down George Bush Boulevard to A1A, and southward to Highland Beach, including the 7/10th-mile in front of the new beach pavilion at A1A and Atlantic.
    This new Beach Property Owners Association-supported pavilion will become a grant development-supported casualty. Every transient from Maine to Key West will be able to stop for a rest before dumping trash in our front yards, relieving themselves in our shrubbery, and sleeping on the beach.
    We are of the opinion that the 3,000-mile pathway through all major East Coast urban areas will:
    • Bring thousands of backpackers and transients to warm Florida in season, by bike, foot, thumb or bus, for a hike/bike down our 300 miles of oceanfront. They will bring sleeping bags for beaches and shovels in backpacks for beach-gardens directly along our existing sidewalks.
    • Be directed through the heart of Delray’s beach area along A1A and front doorsteps on George Bush Boulevard.
    • Increase traffic backups at A1A and Linton Boulevard. More pedestrians and bikers mean more activation of pedestrian lights, slowing traffic.
    • Be dangerous to pedestrians and beachgoers, children and elderly as the “shared use” will be confusing.
    • Require sidewalks be widened to create separate lanes for pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles.
    • Become another overdevelopment effort to get grant money for the city. Who will pay for the portable toilets and trash barrels?
    • Once “grant” money is accepted, the city will lose control and the grantors’ camel will have his nose under the tent. Soon the pathways will come all the way down A1A.
    • Devalue properties. The “urban” pathway will greatly devalue the beachfront homes, condos, apartments, hotels, and business properties that contribute a significant portion of Delray’s revenues.
    • Risk converting the new pavilion into a rest area for thousands of urban backpacking hikers and bikers, as well as being joined by our very own congregating drug-rehabbers.
    We need an immediate repeal of 71-015. Please contact all commissioners now, before it is too late!

John G. Carier, Mike Owen, Frederick Taubert and Evan Morris
Ocean Blvd. residents,
Delray Beach

Editor’s Note:
The Delray Beach commission has agreed to revisit the Greenway resolution at a July meeting.

By Jane Smith

    Property values continue to increase by double-digit percentages in Delray Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency area.
When the county property appraiser released its 2016 taxable value estimates on May 27, the numbers showed a 13.2 percent increase in Delray’s CRA district from 2015. That follows a 12.8 percent increase from 2014.
    The uptick comes mainly from property sales on the bustling Atlantic Avenue, now a popular adult playground for tourists and county residents.
    “It’s been a steady climb,” said Tom Prakas, a restaurant broker who said he placed 30 to 40 restaurants along the avenue. “The sales prices are 10 times what they were trading for 10 years ago. … Everyone wants to be there.”
    He predicts the prices will triple again in 5 years — “if restaurants and retailers continue to do well.”
    But longtime merchants wonder how the character of the street will change when tenants have to pay increased rental rates to go along with the high-priced sales. Even if a tenant has a long-term lease, that business may face an increase in property taxes charged as part of the common area maintenance fees, said Bruce Gimmy, who owns the building for his store, The Trouser Shop & Shorts.
    “I’m concerned about the health of the downtown,” Gimmy said. He predicts some merchants who pay the $100-square-foot rental rates will soon leave and the avenue will turn into a “food court by the sea.”
    During 2015, 13 properties changed hands along the avenue according to the property appraiser.
    The top sales price of $19.5 million raised eyebrows for even the jaded Atlantic Avenue watcher. Two buildings, 326 and 400 E. Atlantic, were sold by the George family to an affiliate of Menin Development, which built the Downtown at the Gardens in Palm Beach Gardens and owns the Regal Cinemas in Royal Palm Beach.
    Menin has since moved its headquarters to Delray Beach. CEO Craig Menin paid $17 million in September for an oceanfront mansion in Delray Beach.
    The Delray Beach commercial buildings straddle the SE Fourth Avenue intersection. On the west side, at 326 E. Atlantic, sits the Green Owl Restaurant. The diner has rented the space for 33 years. County property records show that building as having 7,572 square feet. Tenants on the east side, in the 14,704-square-foot building at 400 E. Atlantic Ave., include Huber Health Mart Drugs and Kilwins Delray Beach.
    The company wanted a higher rental rate for 326 E. Atlantic and offered to move the Green Owl across the street to Southeast Fourth Avenue, behind Huber Drugs. Menin will build out the space to the Green Owl’s specifications. Terms of the lease still need to be worked out, said Dave Gensman, the diner’s owner. The restaurant will close in June and open in November in a slightly smaller space with 20 fewer seats, Gensman said. He will take most of the owl knickknacks — the ones he likes “because they have sentimental value,” he said. “Others may get lost in the move.”
    In its space, Capital One Café, a bank division, will lease 5,840 square feet. Patrons will be able to try new digital banking tools and grab a cup of Peet’s coffee, its partner in the café business.  
    “You have to have corporate backing to remain on the avenue,” said Gensman, “unless you own your building. They are pushing the charm off the street.”
    Real estate broker Jim Knight agrees. “The locals have reached that point. They can’t afford Atlantic Avenue rents,” he said.
    The local businesses that want to remain in Delray Beach will have to move to Pineapple Grove or the new SOFA district, under construction south of Atlantic, Knight said.
    Delray Beach has several programs to keep small retailers and restaurateurs in the city, said Joan Goodrich, economic development director.
    The GEAR program — grow, expand and retain — works with partners at the Downtown Development Authority, Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, West Atlantic Redevelopment Coalition and CRA to find suitable spaces, Goodrich said.
The program has a commercial property database with connections to real estate brokers. Thirty small businesses, including merchants and restaurants, are using the GEAR program, Goodrich said.
    The CRA also offers site development grants to help businesses on West Atlantic modernize their spaces, she said. In addition, the city plans to steer merchants to the Congress Avenue corridor.
    For Gensman, the high-priced sales are a sign of the times. “When buildings are sold for high prices, the new owners have to increase rent,” he said. “Soon Atlantic Avenue will have national tenants only.”

    This is when they come. During these early summer months, the females labor up the sand on primordial missions to find safe locations to bury their eggs. They have been doing this on our shore long before air-conditioning was invented and condos cast shadows on the sand.
    These sea turtles are one of the Earth’s most mysterious and time-honored creatures.
    The giant reptiles have a prehistoric magnetism that draws humans to them. This wouldn’t be a problem if we only wanted to watch and learn. But I have observed adults guiding children down the beach and shining flashlights into the eyes of the nesting turtles. And even more horrifying, I’ve seen them lift children onto the turtles’ backs and take flash photographs as the turtles retreat to the safety of the sea.
    Already this nesting season, I’ve seen photos and videos on social media of turtles rushing back to the sea after what appear to be aborted attempts to nest. In all of these instances there are crowds of people with cellphones surrounding the frightened creatures.
    The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has made a special effort this turtle season to educate the public about the hazards of cellphone photos during a turtle’s attempt to nest. (See story.)
    “Most visitors to the beach don’t realize that any light on the beach at night poses a threat to these threatened and endangered animals. A nesting female may become frightened or disoriented by the lights or a flash photo and return to the ocean without laying eggs,” said Dr. Robbin Trindell, who leads the FWC’s sea turtle management program.
    We need to leave these creatures alone.
    Isn’t it bad enough that pollutants in the water are causing tumors to grow on turtles’ faces and fins? That plastics tossed overboard or washed into our waterways are ingested by these turtles as they forage for food? That their shells are sometimes cracked by boat propellers or that the turtles are entangled in discarded fishing line or nets and left to drown?
    Sadly, those are just some of the additional challenges the adult turtles face.
    For the hatchlings the odds for survival are even more difficult. It’s estimated only one out of 1,000 makes it to adulthood.
    Watching a turtle dig her nest and lay eggs is an amazing experience, but it’s best done as part of an organized, state-sanctioned outing with a group like Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.
    Sea turtles were here long before we were. Let them return to their nesting beaches in peace.


— Mary Kate Leming,
Editor

Susan Oyer stands on Ocean Avenue where her father had a real estate/insurance office.

The plaque honors Charles Pierce, the Barefoot Mailman.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Lucy Lazarony

    Boca Raton Community Middle School teacher Susan Oyer teaches her students to do much more than just crack the books.
    For the past three years, her students have raised money to plant trees in Haiti and dig water wells in Africa.
    Oyer, a descendant of legendary Barefoot Mailman Charlie Pierce and daughter of former Boynton Beach Mayor Harvey E. Oyer Jr., is teaching her students to be global citizens.
    “Social responsibility may not be in the curriculum, but it is an important skill I try to instill every year,” says Oyer, who teaches civics, economics and American history.
    To raise the money to plant trees, Oyer and her seventh- and eighth-graders sold wristbands with tree-friendly slogans that the students came up with like “Just Tree It” and “Grow Green.”  
    Through their Earth Day 2014, 2015 and 2016 projects, Oyer and her students raised $400, $1,500 and $1,400 — enough money to plant 6,200 trees, 3,000 trees in Haiti alone.
    Oyer, who lives in Boynton Beach, and her students choose Haiti as a recipient for so many trees “because Haiti is our neighbor, was listed as a treeless nation by the U.N. in 2000, and Americans help their neighbors when in need. Being a good neighbor and helping Haiti helps us all. Beyond reducing global warming and climate change, the trees improve the quality of life and reduce soil erosion for their people.”
    Last fall, Oyer’s classes joined with students from Boca Middle School’s student government to sell pasta shaped like logos from various colleges to raise money to dig water wells in Africa. That effort raised $1,800.  
    “Water is essential to life. Living in South Florida we are all aware of the importance of a fresh, clean water supply. We are lucky to have the Everglades,” says Oyer, who has been teaching for 18 years. “There is a lot of water in Africa; it is just deep underground.”
    To put all the students’ hard work and money raised into action, Oyer works with Julian Lennon’s foundation.
    “Almost all of the funds have gone to Julian Lennon’s White Feather Foundation,” Oyer says. “I love the transparency of the foundation and the fact no donated money goes to administrative costs. So 100 percent of the funds go exactly where you want them to go and you get updates on the impact of your donations.”
    Oyer, who is also president and founder of the St. George’s Society of Palm Beach (a nonprofit that supports local and English charities promoting positive exchanges between Palm Beach County and England), calls herself “a big environmentalist.”
    “We have a responsibility to our planet. We have a responsibility to future generations to leave this world as great as we found it,” says Oyer. “Someone better step up and make a difference.”
    She says she gets her let’s-do-something-about-this drive from her father, who died in 2010.
    “I had a dad who was a mayor and on city commission and on every possible thing you could be on,” Oyer says. “There’s no being in my family and not making a difference.”
    Making a difference is why Oyer, who declined to share her age, steps into a classroom and teaches.
“The world will be a better place because I went to work (today),” Oyer says. “I’m big on that. That’s why I became a teacher.”

By Dan Moffett

    Developer Gary Cohen and two of his lawyers spent more than an hour trying to persuade the South Palm Beach Town Council to vote on a charter amendment measure that might allow him to build his condo project 5 feet higher on the old Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn site.
    It didn’t work.
    “We would beg of you to make a motion and have a vote,” Mitch Kirschner, an attorney for Cohen’s Paragon Acquisition Group, said during the May 24 town meeting.
    Council members sat silently and then moved on to the next item on the agenda.
    The council’s cold shoulder is because building heights are a “hot-button” issue in South Palm Beach, said Vice Mayor Joe Flagello. Officials remember the angry outcry from residents six years ago when the property’s previous owner, Pjeter Paloka, wanted to build a 14-story condo. Voters responded by overwhelmingly putting strict height limits in the town charter.
    “This is through no fault of your own. It’s with the previous history. We get that. We know you’re not the previous group,” said Flagello, who told Cohen he should understand why the town is “gun shy” about height. “But you do know the history and what has occurred in this town. And it is a very hot-button issue. There are people who are very passionate on both sides of the fence.”
    Flagello told Cohen that he should take the other route that remains available — bypass the council and go directly to the town’s voters and get the petitions needed to put a charter change amendment on the November ballot. To do that, Paragon would need to collect signatures from 15 percent of the town’s registered electorate, roughly between 150 and 200 voters.
    Cohen said afterward he was undecided about what his next step would be. “It’s something we will discuss internally,” he said. He called the prospect for getting petitions “certainly feasible.”
    Paragon has admitted that the original architect for the project miscalculated the height for the six stories with 30 condominiums that would sit above the parking garage, failing to include the 5 feet needed for five floor plates. Cohen has said the building must have 10-foot ceilings to be competitive in the luxury condo marketplace, requiring a minimum height of 65 feet, not 60.
    “We have a problem that makes our project unmarketable in 2016,” Kirschner said.
    Cohen has partnered with DDG, a New York-based real estate investment group, to help sell the project. Prices start at about $2.3 million for a 2,900-square-foot unit with two bedrooms and three baths. The dispute between council members and Paragon also has caused friction with Town Attorney Brad Biggs.
    Councilwoman Stella Gaddy Jordan proposed seeking outside applicants to take over the town’s legal work, saying the council needed more advice and information than Biggs was providing. Councilman Woodrow Gorbach seconded her motion. He said Biggs “can be hard to get a hold of.”
    Flagello was solidly on Biggs’ side: “He has my full confidence.” After first abstaining, Councilman Robert Gottlieb voted with Flagello.
    Mayor Bonnie Fischer, after a couple minutes’ hesitation, rejected Jordan’s motion, which failed 3-2. Fischer said the council was likely to take up the Biggs matter again at the June 28 meeting, however.

Miami Herald columnist and novelist Carl Hiaasen gave students

at Gulf Stream School advice on how best to become a writer.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

    “The job of a writer is to entertain,” the writer began. “If you can’t tell a story and keep people turning a page, you’re unemployed.”
    And then Carl Hiaasen entertained them.
    For more than an hour, the best-selling novelist and Miami Herald columnist sat on the edge of a stage in the Gulf Stream School, telling tales and dispensing advice to about 100 upper school students.
    “When I was your age,” he recalled, “I used to keep journals. We called them diaries back then, and I would write down stuff that happened every day. Sports and fishing. It taught me every single day to type out a few paragraphs. Your writing gets better.”
    He gave them a peek at how his books are made. He cracked sly jokes and named his own favorite writers. He shared tales from his boyhood, growing up in suburban Fort Lauderdale back in the early ’60s. He told them about the neighborhood bully who terrified him on the way home from school back then.
    And like those witty and preposterous Florida yarns that have put his novels for both adults and kids on best-seller lists, Hiaasen seasoned the entertainment with a serious message, this time about the importance of reading and writing.
    “The internet is all about content,” he reminded the students, “and if you can’t write, you can’t contribute to the content of the internet. You have to know how to communicate, and the best way to learn how to write is to read like crazy. I know a lot of writers, and they were all readers as kids.”
    He began to write at the age of 6, Hiaasen recalled, when he was given a typewriter.
    “A typewriter is a machine that looks a lot like a computer,” he said with a straight face, “and I thought, What job can I get where I get to write every day?”
    And so in time he became a reporter at The Miami Herald, where Christie Evans, a fifth-grade English teacher at the school, was once a colleague. Hiaasen’s visit to the school was a personal favor.
    “Working at newspapers helped me in writing,” he said. “Every day it’s something different, and you have to write fast. You had deadlines, and editors who were brutally honest. There’s no such thing as writer’s block in a newsroom. If you have writer’s block in the newsroom, you’ll get unemployment block.”
    And then he entertained their questions.
    Asking a writer to name his favorite book is like asking a dad which of his kids he loves best, he warned. “But for sentimental reasons, I like Hoot because it’s the first book for kids and I didn’t know if I could do it.”
    What Hiaasen calls his “kid books” have one-word titles — Hoot, Flush, Chomp — to distinguish them from his “grown-up books” — Tourist Season, Basket Case, Bad Monkey — so they won’t be confused.
    “I didn’t want some kid picking them up by accident and reading them,” he said. “Plus the cover artists like shorter titles.”
    His favorite writers? J.D. Salinger. Kurt Vonnegut. Thomas McGuane. Graham Greene. And of course, the late, great Florida storyteller, John D. MacDonald, whose Travis McGee mysteries took place right there in Fort Lauderdale. “That was the first time I’d read a published book where I knew all the streets,” he said.
    And if Hiaasen hadn’t become a writer?
    “I don’t know,” he mused. “At one point I wanted to be a vet, but then I found out you had to take science classes.”
    His old neighborhood in Plantation, out on the edge of the Everglades, inspired Hoot, the Newbery Medal-winning novel about kids who fight to save some burrowing owls from a developer.
    “Now the whole area where I grew up is under concrete and asphalt,” he said. “In real life, we weren’t able to save the owls.”
    The owls are gone, but so is the neighborhood bully who used to make his life a nightmare: “After a while I got to be taller than her and she left me alone after that.”
    The students’ hands were still raised high, questioners begging to be recognized, when Evans stepped forward to announce that time was up. A line formed in front of the stage, and Hiaasen started signing copies of his books.
    Some of the students carried his kid books and a few the grown-up novels. Pierce Silver, 13, a seventh-grader from Boynton Beach, got his copy of Sick Puppy autographed.
    “To Pierce,” Hiaasen wrote, then scrawled his signature and a personal message.
    Like the titles of his grown-up novels, the message was only two words:
    “Keep Reading.”

Carl Hiaasen’s new novel for grown-ups, Razor Girl, will be available Sept. 6.

By Rich Pollack

    Plans to sprinkle license plate recognition cameras throughout the barrier island, derailed more than a year ago when the state refused to allow them on its rights of way, are getting new life thanks to advanced technology.
    Now leaders of police departments in Delray Beach, Highland Beach and Ocean Ridge say they are close to bringing proposals for installation of systems — that can read license plates from as far away as 130 feet from a road’s center — to their respective city or town commissions for approval.
    Delray Beach police Capt. Tom Mitchell said he and representatives from other departments have been looking into alternative solutions to installing cameras on State Road A1A and bridges ever since the fall of 2014 when Florida Department of Transportation officials banned the cameras from state rights of way.
    During a recent national police chiefs conference, Highland Beach Police Chief Craig Hartmann and Delray Beach Police Chief Jeff Goldman discovered a company, L-3 Mobile Vision, that offers cameras able to read tags from beyond the state rights of way.
    Mitchell arranged for company representatives to come down recently to test the cameras.
    “They worked,” he said.
    License plate recognition systems scan tags of passing cars and compare that information to tag numbers in law enforcement databases. If the system spots a tag registered to a stolen vehicle, for example, an alert is sent to a dispatcher who verifies the information and then notifies officers on patrol.
    “It’s like having someone standing on the side of the road writing down tag numbers all the time,” said Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins.
    Mitchell said he is tying up loose ends and hopes to bring a proposal for installation of the system to the City Commission within a couple of months.
    If they’re approved, Delray Beach would install cameras in five locations along the barrier island, including the intersections of A1A at both Atlantic Avenue and Linton Boulevard. Four of the five planned sites, Mitchell said, are on city-owned property.
    He estimates the cost at between $150,000 and $200,000 and said money already has been budgeted for the project.
    Hartmann said the Highland Beach department would share the cost of cameras at Linton Boulevard with Delray and share costs of a server to house the back end of the system. Highland Beach also would place a camera at the south end of the town.
    In Ocean Ridge, Hutchins said he plans to update town commissioners on the status of his research into license plate recognition cameras at a workshop meeting this month and seek a green light to continue moving forward.
    If commissioners approve, Ocean Ridge could have cameras at the northern and southern entrances to the town as well as at the intersections of A1A and both Woolbright Road and Ocean Avenue. Ocean Ridge would also house a server.
    Currently Manalapan has cameras just north of the Boynton Inlet, grandfathered in by the DOT.
    Law enforcement officials say that placing cameras at key intersections — and getting the word out that they’re in use — can not only help in crime prevention but also in solving crimes. The cameras could, for example, help in investigations of thefts of unlocked cars that have plagued barrier island communities recently, by helping police track vehicles used in the crimes.
    “The bottom line is that these cameras are an investigative tool,” Hutchins said.
    Mitchell says the systems can also serve to deter criminals.
    “We want everyone to know we have cameras,” he said.

By Jane Smith

    The legal bills continue to mount in the Atlantic Crossing case while the downtown project remains on hold during federal litigation.
    In mid-May, the developers filed their fourth amended complaint in their federal lawsuit against Delray Beach. They allege they have spent more than $8 million to hire planners, architects, surveyors and lawyers needed for the complex, developed by a partnership between Ohio-based Edwards Cos. and Ocean Ridge resident Carl DeSantis.
    On 9.2 acres at the high-profile corner of Federal Highway and East Atlantic Avenue, Atlantic Crossing will comprise 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 development team sued Delray Beach in June 2015, claiming the city has not certified its site plan that was approved in November 2013 and affirmed by a previous City Commission in January 2014. Last fall, the lawsuit was moved to federal court.
    In its fourth amended complaint, the development team alleges the current City Commission is using “obstruction tactics” by not certifying the project site plan or approving its final plat and demanding the return of two alleys needed to build the project. All of the items are needed before the project can move forward, both parties agree.
    The developers are asking the court to force the city to certify the site plan, approve the final plat, agree that the project owns the alleys, pay for the court costs and increased development costs because of the delay and extend the development agreement to Sept. 9, 2021.
    In early April, the City Commission rejected a modified site plan for the project that added a driveway and redesigned the valet area into a circular path from a horseshoe-shaped version. The plan also called for improved contrast for the two loading docks and a pedestrian crosswalk moved north in the project to increase its safety.
    The changes, though, were not enough to satisfy two Delray Beach commissioners and the mayor. They want a real street with sidewalks and bike lanes instead of a driveway and extra turning space so that vehicles can leave the underground garage safely.
    In mid-April the City Commission approved a request to ask for the return of the two alleys and followed with a motion to dismiss the developers’ lawsuit. Many of the counts belonged in state court or were not ready to be heard, the city’s motion said.
    The case has an October jury trial date.

Lantana Cub Scout Alex Beardsley holds back a tear while remembering his grandfather,

Ed Beardsley, who served in the Army in Panama. Alex was part of a group

of Delray Beach Scouts that replaced a worn American flag at the intersection of A1A and Atlantic Avenue.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

More than 150 people honored the nation’s fallen heroes during ceremonies at South Palm Beach Town Hall.

Featured speakers were Florida Sen. Jeff Clemens, Rabbi Leibel Stolik of Chabad of South Palm Beach

and the Rev. Ronald Williams of First Baptist Church of Lantana.

Veronica and Marializ De Jesus, daughters of Town Clerk Maylee De Jesus, entertained the crowd with their baton twirling.

Dan Moffett/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

    New Yorker Allen “Chick” Behringer started coming to Briny Breezes for visits in 2002 and then bought a residence here in 2008.
When he heard about the recent opening on the Town Council created by the resignation of Ira Friedman, Behringer said he also heard a call to public service.
    “I’m retired and living here full-time now,” he said. “Other than doing some travel, I want to do something for the community which I happen to love. I want to keep it as it is. I want to keep it functional.”
    Council members unanimously approved Behringer for Friedman’s open alderman’s seat at the May 26 meeting. A former resident of Oak Beach, Long Island and New York City, Behringer said he worked for “20-some-odd years” in corporate sales and ran a small business that manufactured signs for another 20 years. The council filled another vacancy during the meeting when council members approved Councilwoman Christina Adams as the town’s deputy bookkeeper.
     In other business, Council President Sue Thaler said the Florida Department of Transportation told the town it is willing to approve an A1A golf cart crossing at Marina Drive and Ruthmary Avenue if the Briny Breezes corporation changes the direction of Marina Drive traffic to eastbound.
    “I’m not sure if that’s good news or bad news,” Thaler said.
    Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins, the town marshal, said the direction change would require switching the angle of the parking spaces on Marina. Hutchins said it might be possible to satisfy the state’s condition by making Marina a two-way street that allows east and west flow across A1A. Thaler said the FDOT letter arrived shortly before the meeting, and the Town Council will wait to hear from the corporation before discussing the possible changes.

By Jane Smith
    
    Delray Beach’s city manager received a 10 percent raise even though most of his bosses rated his performance during the past year as average.
    Don Cooper, a longtime Port St. Lucie city manager who most recently served as chief financial officer for a biotech firm there, took the helm of Delray Beach in January 2015.
    Cooper, 67, will make $196,700 for bringing stability to City Hall, creating a transparent government style, holding staff accountable for their decisions and basically being a dignified presence that city workers will want as their leader.
    Mayor Cary Glickstein praised Cooper for his hard-working style and then began to list his shortcomings. The city manager has not surrounded himself “with exceptional people who have real skill sets,” Glickstein said. Public safety, finance and purchasing are doing well, while planning and information technology are coming along, he said.
    But the other departments need help, the mayor said.
    A recent disagreement between the parks and human resources directors festered for months. At the May 17 commission meeting, five of seven people who spoke said they supported the parks director, causing Cooper to comment that she was not fired but put on paid leave during the investigation. The city’s human resources director was docked a day’s pay for misusing city property and the whole matter was sent April 29 to the county’s Commission on Ethics.
    “You allowed a workable setback to metastasize into something that created the need for public comment tonight, which reflects poorly on all of us,” Glickstein said. “In terms of how you handle senior staff, that was a fail.”
    He wants to see Cooper as the take-charge CEO he was when he wowed commissioners at their February 2015 goal-setting session. Then Cooper talked about the need to create Disney-like levels of service for the downtown and explained how the city could get there.
    “I believe you have it in you to be the manager we need, but I want to see the change very soon,” said Glickstein, who is unwilling to wait another year.
    Commissioner Jordana Jarjura faulted Cooper for allowing the dog beach issue to linger nearly two years and said he should get out in front of issues more quickly. In addition, she said the commission should stop setting up the city manager for failure. She talked in general terms about commissioners reaching a consensus then each approaching Cooper after the meeting to give a different opinion.
    She praised him for parts of his management style and said his salary should reflect those of surrounding communities. She proposed the 10 percent increase.
    Commissioner Shelly Petrolia wasn’t sure that an average year should translate into a raise.
     Vice Mayor Al Jacquet told Cooper, “You have taken the ship from the bottom of the ocean and pieced it back together.” Jacquet did not fill out the human resources department’s form, preferring to speak to Cooper in person.
    Jacquet went on to say that Delray Beach is a tough place to work and serve. “You get beaten up from us up here and from others who hide behind computer screens,” he said. “Some would see the process as a wake-up call, but I see it as a thank you for bringing the ship to the surface.”
    Commissioner Mitch Katz was absent from the meeting, but he did rate Cooper’s performance as average.
    Cooper gave a measured response, saying his job was to listen to the commissioners, and said he saw the comments as constructive criticism. He added that he is not motivated by money.
    Petrolia agreed with her colleagues about the raise and said, “I’m not getting a raise. Because I’m giving you one, I’d like you to make our jobs up here easier.”
    Also at the May 17 meeting, City Attorney Noel Pfeffer agreed to stay until June 24, to help with a transition. He originally gave 60 days’ notice with his last day as June 6.  With Jarjura’s suggestion, Pfeffer will receive a 5 percent raise, effective as of May 17, until he leaves city employment. He will start later in the summer as a partner at the Conrad & Scherer law firm in Fort Lauderdale.

By Jane Smith

    Visitors who went on the Delray Beach website during the third weekend in May saw a photo of a beach with a pier.
    But the photo wasn’t of the city beach.
    The image was a stock photo holding a place until city staff could post suitable pictures, said Gwen Spencer, chief innovation and technology officer who inherited the website redesign project when she arrived in July.
    City employees received an email at 5:30 p.m. May 20, a Friday, about the redesign going live.
    The redesign dominated the talk on the Delray Raw Facebook page the following week.
    “People were making fun of the city on Facebook, my natural reaction was to defend Delray,” said Cindi Freeburn, who runs a golf cart rental business and has a passion for all things Delray Beach. She frequently visits the city website, serves on a city board and attends or watches each commission meeting. Even so, she was not aware of the redesign. She wondered why the redesign went live with obvious errors and broken links.  
    City Manager Don Cooper said the website exists for residents and businesses to use and allows them to report any problems with the redesigned site.
    “I’m against using the citizens of Delray to proof the website. Staff should report the bugs,” Freeburn said. “The website reflects poorly on the city.”
    A former marketing executive from the North, she thinks Delray Beach needs its own marketing department so that the city speaks with a single, consistent message.
    Cooper agreed that a unified message was needed. A marketing department is not a commission priority and the budget does not contain any money for it, he said. The city relies on two taxpayer-supported agencies, the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative and the Downtown Development Authority, for its marketing efforts.
    Mayor Cary Glickstein said the redesign was an improvement, “but it’s a work in progress and has a long way to go…. I know our staff is seeking constructive criticism and ideas, which really can’t occur until you roll it out as they did.”
    Revize Software Systems of Troy, Mich., did the redesign for $17,150, below the $25,000 threshold for contracts needing commission approval. Other bidders were: 561Media.com from Boca Raton for $22,000 and Vision Internet of Santa Monica, Calif., for $42,755.

    Spencer’s department is now working to integrate software to allow users to pull down permit forms, pay fees for classes, submit comments and questions, and do anything that requires a special trip to City Hall.
    What’s the target date? Sometime in July.

By Jane Smith

    A Fort Lauderdale engineering firm will translate conceptual drawings into biddable documents and oversee construction for Delray Beach’s redo of sidewalks and furnishings along its public beach.
    EDSA Inc. initially had a not-to-exceed contract of $600,000 to do the work, which Mayor Cary Glickstein called “essentially a sidewalk project” in early May. The city is paying a premium price because it wants the work finished by the end of the year. Even so, the mayor wanted EDSA to work with the city’s Environmental Services Department to lower the price.
    At the second meeting in May, the EDSA contract came in at $429,350 plus $35,000 for expenses. That amount was more agreeable to the commission and received unanimous approval by four members. Commissioner Mitch Katz was absent.
    “The $150,000 reduction makes it easier for us to approve,” Commissioner Jordana Jarjura said.
    The conceptual drawings were donated by architect Bob Currie. A vice president of the Beach Property Owners Association, he is a founding principal of the Currie Sowards Aguila Architects firm in Delray Beach.
    The area from Casuarina Road north to the end of the public beach will be redone in this project, estimated to cost $3 million.
    EDSA’s schedule calls for 30 percent of the drawings completed by June 5 so the company can submit permits to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Florida Department of Transportation. The firm will make a presentation to the City Commission on June 21 when 60 percent of its drawings are done.
    John Morgan, director of the Environmental Services Department, said the penalties for not completing the beach plan project on time will be detailed at that meeting.
    The project has tight deadlines: Construction bids will be opened on July 5. The commission will select the construction contractor at its July 21 meeting. Construction will start on July 25 with a goal of Dec. 1 for substantial completion and Dec. 31 for final completion.
    “They will be with us until the ribbon-cutting,” Morgan said. EDSA will ensure the needed permits are received from state and city entities, and present the plan to the city’s Site Plan Review and Appearance Board.
    The company will create drawings for two architectural gazebos, socializing areas, pedestrian scale lighting and a unified sign package. Its drawings also will cover expanded sidewalks, benches, waste/recycling containers and overhead showers.
    At the May 17 meeting, the mayor provided clarification on what the commission wants for the design of the benches and the shower structures. Open designs for the benches are preferred over solid ones and shower structures must have a place to hang a towel and a beach chair, he said.
    In other business May 17, the commission approved allowing the city manager to sign construction agreements with FDOT to turn two parking spaces on East Atlantic Avenue, between northbound and southbound Federal Highway, into spaces for use by scooters and golf carts. Another parking space on NE Sixth Avenue, near the Atlantic Avenue intersection, will be converted to golf cart parking.

By Jane Smith

    A small but vocal group of beach property owners persuaded the City Commission to revisit a December resolution supporting the East Coast Greenway.
    They reached out to state Rep. Bill Hager, who sent a letter to the Delray Beach mayor in early May.
    “While the expansion of sidewalks and bike lanes may work in other areas, the corridors through Delray may not have much area to work with,” Hager wrote. “A number of constituents have addressed their concerns to me on this issue and I hope that this project is handled with great care and the input of the residents who will potentially be impacted adversely by this matter.”
    As a result, the Greenway, approved in December on a consent agenda, will come back to the commission for discussion in July.
    In Delray Beach, the northern path would begin on Federal Highway, travel south to George Bush Boulevard, turn east until A1A and then south to Highland Beach. Delray Beach has 1.3 miles of sidewalk that is 9.6 feet wide along the ocean and can be used as the trail.
    The East Coast Greenway is designed for cyclists and walkers to use from Maine to Key West. In Boca Raton, 4.7 miles were dedicated in 2012 to the route, sometimes called the Urban Appalachian Trail.
    “It would be a disaster,” said John Cartier, a Greenway critic who is out of town for the summer. “People would be urinating in public, possibly sleeping on the beach. You never know what will happen with the drug addicts all over.”
    A fellow critic, Michael Owen, will be in town for the July meeting.
    “We feel the traffic is terrible already, backing up into Highland Beach,” he said. “If you push the pedestrian button to cross Linton Boulevard at A1A, you add another 30 seconds to the light.”
    A Delray Beach organization that advocates for cyclists and pedestrians supports the Greenway.
    “The East Coast Greenway is for local people who like to ride bikes or walk,” said Charlie Bonfield, president of Safety As Floridians Expect, known as SAFE. “We heard about it in November and decided that it was something SAFE should be involved in.”
    To counter Cartier and others, Bonfield said, “They are misinformed. It’s nothing like the Appalachian Trail. It’s not a hiking trail. We won’t have people with backpacks coming through.”
    Delray Beach has laws that prohibit sleeping on the beach, in the pavilions or on the benches, he said.
    The Greenway would coordinate with the Florida Department of Transportation, which owns most of the land that its path would take in Delray Beach.
    FDOT played a key role in the creation of SAFE, Bonfield said.
    In 2003 when FDOT wanted to add bike lanes and sidewalks along A1A, a small group of Delray Beach residents opposed their creation. They went to the mayor at the time and he intervened for the residents to stop the project, Bonfield said.
    SAFE formed in 2004 to fight for the bike lanes and sidewalks. Seven residents collected 6,000 signatures at city events and took them to the then-mayor, who said the city doesn’t honor petitions, according to Bonfield.
    Next the group went to Fort Lauderdale, where the FDOT district office oversees Delray Beach. The group convinced the director to fight for pedestrian and cyclist access along A1A, Bonfield said. As a result, the state road has bike lanes and sidewalks in Delray Beach.

By Jane Smith

    The owner of the proposed iPic luxury movie theater in downtown Delray Beach received a sixth extension to its contract to allow the firm time to work out a parking agreement with the city.
    The deadline is now Oct. 31, instead of May 31, required by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency. The CRA owns the 1.59-acre site, which once housed the city library and chamber of commerce. The developer proposes to build a multilevel garage with 315 parking spaces, with 90 reserved for public use.
    The CRA board passed the motion 5-0, with Chairman Reggie Cox and member Bill Branning absent at the May 12 meeting. The site sits just south of East Atlantic Avenue, between Southeast Fourth and Fifth avenues.
    The discussion was minimal with only board member Paul Zacks asking whether the parking issue was going to be a sticking point between the city and iPic.
    “We’ve already seen a lot of sticking points,” he said.
    CRA attorney David Tolces said that the city wanted to negotiate the parking garage agreement.
    “It was a condition of the City Commission approval to work out the parking details,” said Jeff Costello, CRA executive director. The city wants to make sure the hours, management, maintenance and public easement of the garage fit with its parking management program, he said.
    In March, the iPic complex received city approval to build a mixed-use development with eight movie theaters having 497 seats and taking up 44,979 square feet of space, 43,880 square feet of office space and 7,487 square feet of retail space.
    Another condition of approval requires iPic to move its corporate headquarters to Delray Beach and occupy 20,000 square feet for five years.  The third condition covers traffic on southbound Federal Highway, requiring iPic to station a police officer near its pedestrian entrance to prevent vehicles from stopping to drop off passengers for the movies.