A video posted on Instagram by Wavy Boats went viral and led to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission charging two teens from Gulf Stream and Boynton Beach for allegedly dumping trash in the ocean. The teens had been attending Boca Bash, according to the arrest report. Photo provided

By Mary Hladky

Two teenagers have turned themselves in to face charges of illegally dumping trash into ocean waters on April 28, the day of the Boca Bash annual drink-fest on Lake Boca.

A 15-year-old from Gulf Stream and a 16-year-old from Boynton Beach are charged with causing pollution that can harm human or animal health, a third-degree felony that can result in five years of jail time and up to a $50,000 fine.

The incident was filmed by Wavy Boats, which takes videos of boats across Florida, and posted on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. More than 400,000 people have watched the YouTube video.

Wavy Boats cameraman Seth Stern told investigators with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission that the dumping took place between 4 and 5 p.m., according to the agency’s May 3 arrest report.

The two boys were on a boat named Halcyon, out of Gulf Stream, that carried about 13 people. The video shows that as the vessel exited the Boca Inlet, one of the teenagers left the helm, picked up a large basket and dumped its contents into the water. He then held the basket over his head “pumping the basket up and down as if he was celebrating the dumping of the trash into the water,” the report states.

The second teenager followed suit, picking up a trash bin and dumping it, the arrest report states. They then headed back to Boca Bash.

The two were identified by officials and teachers at the schools they attend — Boca Raton High School and Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach.

The Coastal Star is not naming them because they are juveniles.

Investigators went to the home of the Gulf Stream teenager and interviewed his father, who they said is the owner of the Halcyon.

“The illegal dumping of trash into our marine environment is a serious crime, and we worked closely with the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office to determine the appropriate charges,” FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto said in a news release. “Callous disregard for Florida’s environment will not be tolerated.”

When investigators spoke to the father of one of the boys, he said, “This is not a representation as of who we are,” the arrest report states.

In a statement, one of the families said, "We take the responsibility of caring for our oceans and our community very seriously, and we are extremely saddened by what occurred last weekend at Boca Bash. We want to extend our sincerest apologies to everyone who has been impacted and rightfully upset by what occurred."

The statement also said the incident should be "a teaching moment" for the teens "and they should certainly participate in community service and ocean conservation efforts" as a consequence.

Jennifer McGee, an FWC biologist who holds a Ph.D. in veterinary medicine science and specializes in aquatic animal health, told the investigators that “the pollution discarded into the ocean from the occupants of the blue vessel is harmful to the marine environment as well as poses a risk to human health and safety.”

In announcing the arrests, the FWC said the agency’s investigation into the trash dumping is completed.

The FWC investigated the case because Lake Boca falls under state jurisdiction.

A crowd of pickleball players waits for courts to open up at Patch Reef Park in Boca Raton. Reserving your place in line is as easy as placing your paddle in a staging rack (below right). Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Related: Briny Breezes: Pickleball doesn’t have the juice in Briny, where shuffleboard is king

Health & Harmony: Joy of pickleball comes with cautionary stories about injuries

By Anne Geggis

The smashing success of pickleball has South Palm Beach County municipalities turning public property into rally zones with unprecedented speed.

Even though pickleball paddles weren’t in sight 10 years ago, now nearly 60 dedicated pickleball courts are expected to be online in South County municipal parks before the year is over — not counting another Boca Raton facility due in September 2025 with 14 more pickleball courts. And that’s in addition to other public recreation sites where pickleball lines have been painted on other sports’ courts so they can be used to perfect that chop stroke capable of delivering a devilish backspin.

One row of courts at the Tennis Center at Patch Reef Park in Boca Raton buzzed with paddling activity on a recent Sunday morning — surrounded by tennis courts only occasionally occupied. As he waited his turn for a pickup game, along with nearly two dozen others just before 9 a.m., Mike Gordon, 74, held forth on the difference between a tennis court and a pickleball court.

“A pickleball court has people on it,” joked the semi-retired Delray Beach consultant.

There’s no doubt: The surging demand for pickleball coupled with limited space means some other recreational activities have to give up ground.

Because courts and nets are easily adaptable, tennis is the ripest to lose ground to pickleball — even in Delray Beach, which produced international tennis star and U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff.

Lantana Recreation Center shows the confluence of tennis and pickleball, with the yellow stripe marking the edge of a pickleball court. Mike Lauro of Boynton Beach plays pickleball as John Doren of Lantana goes for tennis.

Among Boca Raton, Boynton Beach and Delray Beach, eight public tennis courts have been sacrificed to a sport that combines elements of tennis, table tennis, badminton and squash. Also, weekday sessions of pickup basketball have been curtailed and the constant beat of dribbled basketballs has been replaced by the thwacking sounds of pickleballs in those three cities’ public gyms, with extra lines in place according to pickleball rules.

More than pickleball’s popularity, however, changing plans for public lands have put less popular pursuits in danger of completely disappearing from cities that once hosted them.

On the way out ...
Shuffleboard was played for the last time at a Boynton Beach public recreation area in 2018 when the Madsen Center at 145 SE Second Ave. was turned over to a developer.

Today, that land still stands vacant, behind a chain link fence and screening.

A March staff report shows the latest plans are for 465 multifamily units and nearly 7,000 square feet of retail space — a proposal that won City Commission approval April 2.

Meanwhile, the shuffleboard courts and lawn bowling space at Delray Beach’s Veterans Park are on the way to being sacrificed as second-phase construction of the massive development Atlantic Crossing moves forward.

Samuel Metott, director of Delray Beach’s Parks and Recreation Department, said that the expanse now occupied by shuffleboard courts and lawn bowling at the park, which sits along the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway, is to be paved over in the not-too-distant future to serve as the park’s new parking lot.

Already, Atlantic Crossing construction cranes are at work on giant piles of dirt just west of the park and motorists can no longer turn north into the park from Atlantic Avenue due to construction activity.

“There’s not much of a demand for lawn bowling … it’s a very niche sport,” Metott said. “So there’s two thoughts there. One is, we’re one of the last remaining lawn bowling sites in the state. But part of that is because no one is playing lawn bowling, right?”

Still, the Delray Beach Preservation Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving places significant to the city’s heritage, passed a resolution in December asking the City Commission to halt the deal allowing Edwards Group, Atlantic Crossing’s developer, to proceed with its plan to change Veterans Park.

“It is a small piece of paradise for seniors that should not be paved over to put in a parking lot,” the Preservation Trust’s resolution reads.

The original plan for the parking lot received consensus support from the previous City Commission. But March’s election installed three new members who campaigned on restraining development in the city, invoking the effects of Atlantic Crossing in particular.

So, Delray Beach’s 57-year-old shuffleboard and lawn bowling site stands one commission vote away from oblivion — unless the new majority decides to make a last stand there.

Veterans Park in Delray Beach is home to one of the few remaining lawn bowling venues in Florida, but it appears likely to become a parking lot. Atlantis resident John Everett bowls as Richard Flater focuses on his own game.

Mayor Tom Carney said he hasn’t seen the proposal and will withhold judgment until he does, but he does say that he voted against Atlantic Crossing when it came up during his first stint on the City Commission back in 2012.

“I thought the project was too big for the site — that’s what I said in 2012,” Carney said, calling Veterans Park “an important city park.”
“I was concerned about traffic and how it would affect the neighborhood.”

Lawn bowling player John Everett, 76, an Atlantis retiree, said he’s hoping and praying he doesn’t have to consider another sport instead of the one that brings him to Veterans Park three times a week, where he tries to hit a small white ball using a weighted, slightly oblong, softball-sized bowling ball, usually alongside 10 other people.

“This is the greatest sport,” he said of the challenge he took up around the time of the pandemic because of the mental and physical workout it offers.

“It’s a sport that I can play if I live to 100,” he said, noting he recently read a report on the outbreak of pickleball injuries among older adults.

Golf holds steady
Private golf clubs might be closing to sprout new homes in South Florida, but public courses remain popular. Tee time reservations for 10 days ahead at the Palm Beach County-run golf courses are often fully booked one minute after they open. And reports from the golf courses in Boca Raton, Boynton Beach and Delray Beach show that usage remains steady, if not growing.

With 30 years as an elected member of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District Board of Commissioners, Bob Rollins said he has heard pitches about ballfields and pleas for a skate park in addition to numerous other kinds of sporting advocacy. Only one group, he says, has matched the passion of pickleball petitioners during his tenure — lacrosse players. And now turf on three fields at Patch Reef Park is not getting the lacrosse players that were anticipated, Rollins said.

“I think we’re going to wake up four, five years from now and say, ‘My God, what did we do? Why did we build all these pickleball courts?’” Rollins said.

He experienced some backlash for the sentiment.

“The pickleball people ... I think some of them need to get rabies shots,” he joked.

A passion for pickleball
That fervor is reflected in usage reports. Delray Beach’s show that pickleball games rose from a count of 9,729 adult plays in 2018 to 15,459 adult plays in 2019, an increase of nearly 60% in that year alone. In the last full year reported, the number of adult pickleball plays was at 32,650, representing a 235% increase in adult pickleball plays from five years ago.

The idea that pickleball is a fad that will go the way of racquetball produces snorts of derision from players assembled on court. Racquetball’s status has been in flux.

The county plans to repair some racquetball courts that were falling into disrepair at Caloosa Park in Boynton Beach this summer if the County Commission signs on. But when it comes to the two racquetball courts at Delray Beach’s Pompey Park, parks and recreation head Metott says, “I don’t know the last time they were utilized as such.”

Lisa Lagrega, 64, who splits time between Highland Beach and Long Island, said she played in U.S. Tennis Association events, but now a herniated neck disk and other injuries make pickleball a better fit. While players may experience a variety of injuries from pickleball, Lagrega finds the strokes not as hard on her body. She also loves how it brings together all ages and skills, she said.

“It gets me off the couch, away from the news,” she said. “The second I get off (the court), I’m in line for another game.”

Lagrega, who plays at Patch Reef Park, said she is at the courts for five hours at a time.
Lantana marked its tennis courts with pickleball lines years ago to accommodate the emerging demand for the game. But John Doren, 63, and his wife, Laura, 57, both self-employed, aren’t joining in.

“I’m seeing a pingpong table,” Laura Doren said of the pickleball lines on the dual-purpose tennis court.

Shortly after they walked off the tennis court, their place was taken by two younger men who had been practicing with pickleball paddles on the blacktop adjacent to the courts.

Meanwhile, there are rumblings of a new trend that’s taking Miami by storm, and the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District is ready to try it out. Two padel courts — something like pickleball with a Latin American influence — are going to be included in the new facility at North Park, a private-public venture built on the former site of the Ocean Breeze Golf Club.

“Padel has great growth potential,” enthused Craig Ehrnst, who has been serving on the recreational district board since 2014.

Correction: An earlier online version of this article, which also appeared in the May 2024 print edition, incorrectly described the position of Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District Commissioner Bob Rollins regarding 18 covered pickleball courts at Patch Reef Park. Rollins voted in favor of the courts.

The South East Coast District’s masters tournament brought dozens of players to the Briny Breezes courts. They included (l-r) Chuck Busscher, Briny Club; Jocelyne Vigneault, Park City Club; Dan Smith, Briny; Maurice Jacques, Park City, and Rich Curtis, Briny. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Related: Along the Coast: Pickleball popularity is reshaping recreational offerings

By Ron Hayes

Pickleball is everywhere.

Except in Briny Breezes.

Residents of this 484-unit trailer town are blessed with a woodworking club, a boating club, a billiards club, a bingo club, a bridge club. We could go on.

But Briny Breezes has no pickleball club.

After all, who needs pickleball when your town’s unofficial official sport is shuffleboard?

“We have about 155 members,” boasts Deb Tagliareni.

That means about a quarter of the town’s 600-plus residents play shuffleboard.

Drop by most any evening and you’ll find them on the 14 shuffleboard lanes, sliding their discs down the court in hopes of landing in the 10-point scoring zone, or knocking an opponent’s disc out.

Drop by March 13-15 and you’d have found the South East Coast District’s masters tournament, with players from West Palm Beach to Davie playing 14 games in three days to crown the eight top-ranked players.

A retired elementary school teacher from Mexico, New York, Tagliareni, 73, arrived in town 11 years ago.

“A neighbor said, ‘You’re going with me tomorrow,’ and that’s how I started,” she recalled. “They took me around and helped me.”

Now she’s the club’s incoming president.

“It’s fun, it’s outdoors, it’s good exercise because you’re always moving, and it’s a lot better than sitting in front of the TV. Shuffleboard is what keeps us young around here.”

Shuffleboard is such an institution in town that some club members are second-generation players.

“I’m playing with my dad’s stick,” said Dan Smith, 62. “He passed away two years ago and I inherited the stick.

“Shuffleboard is much better than pickleball,” he explained. “There’s less injuries, and it’s something to do other than knitting.”

What those who disparage the game as an old geezers’ lazy pastime don’t understand is the strategy involved, players say. Pickleball may raise a bigger sweat, but shuffleboard works the brain more.

“It’s a more strategic game than I thought it would be,” said Greg Lougheed, 66, another second-generation player. “It’s more like pool. You’re blocking shots.”

Or trying to.

The club’s oldest member is Charles Hatfield, 93, who’s been playing since he was a mere 73.

“I tried pickleball a couple of times,” he says. “It’s more strenuous than you might think. But shuffleboard is a game old people can play. There’s competition and you meet new people. It gets you out and gets you moving.”

In 2017, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association of America counted 3,132,000 pickleball players in the U.S.

In 2022, it counted 8,900,000.

That’s an increase of 184%, with the number of players almost tripling in a mere five years.

And still tiny Briny has no pickleball club, though the town offers twice-a-week pickleball sessions in the town’s auditorium during the season. About a dozen players typically turn out.

Will there be outdoor courts for the sport?

“I hear there’s some talk of putting in a couple of pickleball courts,” Lougheed confided, “over in the empty space by the pool, where the dogs poop.”

Unintended conse-quences. Who would have guessed 20 years ago that big, white square houses would be all the rage? Who could have known FEMA, faced with the reality of rising water, would set new requirements for floor levels? And I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise, but who could have anticipated that a single-minded “personal property rights” mantra would come at the expense of the greater community?

Today we’re seeing the results of these changes.

In coastal Delray Beach, the city has put additional limits on the square footage that can be built based on lot size in an effort to keep large boxy houses from looming over the smaller houses next door. The city is also finding that elevated construction is causing walls to rise higher than in the past, shading out their neighbors.

In Gulf Stream and Manalapan, the increase in large houses built at higher elevation is forcing a discussion around the “massing” of new homes.

Coastal Boca Raton hasn’t seen these same issues as its northern neighbors (yet), but residents are paying attention, sharing what’s happening in Delray Beach on social media.

Hopefully, Ocean Ridge, too, will pay attention.

Most of the town’s 1,800 residents have been adamant about retaining the unique character of the town, and new building plans that push the limits of current zoning have angered neighbors — many reeling from seemingly never-ending construction next door. I feel their pain.

I’ve lived in Ocean Ridge for more than three decades, and for much of that time there has been a less-than-subtle push to “increase the value of properties” to better fund the town without raising tax rates. The idea was brought up again at the town’s annual goal-setting workshop.

What this translates to is increasing the approved floor area ratio for new and remodeled properties — creating larger taxable structures. It’s a 20-year-old idea. Not the sort of new thinking the town deserves. At least one commissioner has asked for this topic to be addressed at a 10 a.m. May 13 workshop to discuss planning and zoning objectives.

Residents should plan to attend.

Our coastal communities share many similar concerns and each municipality needs to pay close attention to how its neighbors are addressing the evolving issues of house size, massing, stormwater management and flooding — one of Ocean Ridge’s most critical issues. It’s imperative for residents to attend these meetings — which always seem to happen once the seasonal residents have gone North.

Since not all consequences are unintended, residents must pay close attention to what their elected officials are proposing, and make sure they don’t ignore current and evolving problems.

The sustainability of our communities depends on it.

— Mary Kate Leming, Executive Editor

Katherine Parr with Tuxedo, her 7-year-old Havanese, at home in Manalapan. Parr, a former schoolteacher, does design for her Katherine Parr Jewelry brand. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Brian Biggane

Katherine Parr calls meeting Beth Walton, CEO of the Town of Palm Beach United Way, as “one of the better things I’ve done.”

But for Walton, it’s the agency that has reaped more benefits from their relationship. “We’re so happy to have met her,” Walton said.

An entrepreneur, successful businesswoman, philanthropist and former schoolteacher who says she likes “to roll up my sleeves,” Parr got that opportunity when she was assigned to the allocations committee, which vets nonprofits seeking agency funds every year.

“That’s where we really learn about our volunteers,” Walton said. “We spent a great deal of time with her and she brought a tremendous amount of knowledge and depth into that process. Through that we really got to know her.”

Parr, who lives in Manalapan, so impressed leadership that within two years she became a member of the board of directors.

She is founder of Katherine Parr Jewelry and the co-founder, with her husband, Gary, of Parré Chocolat, which offers chocolate delights out of Via Roma Cafe on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach.

Parr, 45, grew up in a family of educators in Sea Girt, New Jersey, was educated at Villanova University and spent 5½ years teaching first grade to mostly migrant students at a Title I school in Long Branch, New Jersey.

“I also developed programs including a leadership program and a world language program for the Spanish language,” said Parr, who had a minor in Spanish and then lived six months in Spain to understand the language better.

“I brought in resources from the United Nations and other places that would enhance the programming. I wrote the curriculum. Because it was mostly an immigrant population from Brazil, Mexico, India, all around the world, instead of showing what’s different about us, I would show what’s similar, because we have more in common than we do differences.”

A designer for 15 years with her brand Katherine Parr Jewelry, Parr was recently commissioned by the Qatar Fund for Development to design a collection of carpets hand-made and hand-woven by women in Afghanistan. The effort was also commissioned by Turquoise Mountain, a nonprofit founded by England’s King Charles III.

“There are a lot of talented weavers there but it’s difficult for women (since) the Taliban took over; women’s rights are extremely limited,” Parr said. “It ranks 146th in human rights. They are making the carpets now and the marketing will launch in the fall to winter.”

Parr got inspiration for the designs from poppy flowers she saw on a trip to the north of Jordan, near Syria.

“I converted them into a style you might see in some of the modern homes today,” she said. “The muted tones, pastels, pinks, greens. I worked on it for a year in the design process.

“Similar to the jewelry business, you start with a concept, then there’s a hand sketch and then technical sketches on the computer, then color matching. It’s pretty complicated but it’s exciting.”

Parr was days away from heading off to Jordan last month on behalf of the Fulbright Specialist Program when the trip was postponed for security reasons. She expects to get the go-ahead when the region becomes safer.

“I’m bringing American expertise, resources and connections to help improve a university in Jordan for education and economic empowerment for women,” she said.

“The focus is on fashion entrepreneurship, which takes the jewelry experience and applies it to improve the lives there. Women are seen as the largest untapped resource in Jordan and all through the Middle East, and the embassy has indicated this will be culturally acceptable and economically impactful.”

Katherine met Gary Parr at a fundraiser for the New York Philharmonic in New York. They married and moved to Florida in 2020 when Gary, who is an executive with Apollo Global Management, was sent down to set up a Palm Beach office. They reside in the historic Vanderbilt house, Casa Alva, which was built by Consuelo Vanderbilt in 1934 in Point Manalapan.

“I always say Gary is a visionary and I’m a lucky girl,” she said.

NOMINATE SOMEONE TO BE A COASTAL STAR
Send a note to news@thecoastalstar.com or call 561-337-1553.

In response to a letter in the April issue of The Coastal Star calling for the installation of crosswalks in South Palm Beach, I would ask the following questions: Placed where? And leading where?

Unlike the west side of A1A, there is no shared path on the east side of the road, meaning that pedestrians would have to walk across unstable, often soaked grass lawns to arrive at their destination, or along the road, increasing the risk of being struck by a vehicle. 

It is highly unlikely that pedestrians would traverse an additional distance to arrive at a crosswalk, then double back along an unstable surface to arrive at their building. The only alternative, although completely impractical, would be to have crosswalks leading to each building on the east side of A1A.

A concern at least equal to that of jaywalking involves cyclists riding two and three abreast, often at a high rate of speed, in the narrow shoulder at the edge of the road. In addition to forcing motorists to veer into the oncoming traffic lane, which is inherently hazardous, the condition poses a risk to pedestrians. In fact, some years ago The Coastal Star posted a tongue-in-cheek article wherein their reporter described her harrowing bike ride along A1A, between Delray Beach and Lake Worth Beach.

Unfortunately, these issues all tie into the fact that we are experiencing a post-pandemic influx of year-round residents in an area where the infrastructure is not prepared to handle the load. This has affected and will continue to affect everything from traffic patterns on a town level to overtaxing of plumbing and electrical systems, parking availability and security in individual buildings.

Those of us who have lived in South Palm Beach have seen an onslaught of new arrivals to the point where there is little difference between the high and off seasons. As statistics would dictate, more people means more bicycles, more transients in the form of guests and visitors, more pets and unfortunately more unwanted incidents. 

While the recent hit and run in South Palm Beach was tragic, we need to plan for the future in a comprehensive manner that makes long-term sense, avoiding knee-jerk solutions.

— Richard Klein
South Palm Beach

Ira Friedman, I barely knew him, but what a really nice man. He was proud of Briny!

I’m a seasonal resident of Ocean Ridge and I’m a woodworker, but I have no equipment here.

I had a project, so I randomly called Briny Breezes to see if I could use their wood shop.

I was told that the shop was for residents only. I then asked if I could hire someone to cut some wood for me?

Two hours later Ira called me: “Sure, I’ll meet you in one hour at the last quonset hut on the north end, it’s our wood shop.”

I met Ira for the first time. “I have a bad back so you’ll need to carry the wood,” which I happily did. He cut my wood and with extreme pride gave me a grand tour of not only the wood shop, introducing me to everyone there, but insisted on driving me around Briny pointing out his favorite features.

Ira refused to take my money or my offers of wine or alcohol or any sort of compensation for his time. Ira was simply willing to help a total stranger because he could.

Ira, in my short interaction, left a real imprint on me. When I read his amazing obituary I was truly saddened. It’s rare when someone you’ve barely known passes and you’re fundamentally struck by it. Ira was a truly good man.

— Harry Ehrlich
Ocean Ridge

Related: Delray Beach: Investigation doesn’t support allegations against city manager

By Anne Geggis

One day after an investigation found no evidence that the city manager inappropriately touched him, Delray Beach Fire Rescue Chief Keith Tomey was terminated from his position for “willful, insubordinate behavior” in numerous incidents “effective immediately.”

The firing came in a Wednesday letter from City Manager Terrence Moore ending Tomey’s seven years of employment with the city. 

The letter chiefly details Tomey’s decision to allow on-duty firefighters to participate in the annual Guns and Hoses softball game last November, weakening the city’s readiness to respond to an emergency, according to another investigative report that was issued in March. That report came out as Tomey’s allegations of inappropriate touching from the city manager surfaced.

Kevin Green, who has been with the city’s Fire Rescue since 2012, will serve as interim Delray Beach Fire Rescue chief, according to a city spokeswoman.

Neither Tomey nor the attorney who sent the letter making the allegations against the city manager immediately returned a call seeking comment Wednesday.

The allegations that Tomey made about the city manager were not cited in the firing letter. The conclusion of the softball tournament investigation appears to be the final impetus for the city to sever Tomey’s city employment.

“Your poor decision making could have endangered the lives of our residents and the public and created a risk of liability to the city,” Moore wrote, citing how Tomey took an engine out of service for the game and authorized overtime hours for city firefighters.

The report did say, however, no specific city policies were violated in Tomey’s involvement in the softball game.

The investigation started when a firefighter in the game was injured and filed a workers compensation claim. But Tomey had alleged in his complaint about the city manager that the investigation into the charity softball game was part of a pattern of retaliation Moore began after Tomey rebuffed his sexual advances as the two drove to and from an exhibition of city employee art, including Moore’s, at the Arts Garage. He said that Moore “rubbed up his thigh and just briefly made contact with his groin area,” according to a third-party investigator‘s telling of Tomey’s allegations that the investigator the city hired deemed “unsustained.”

Moore notes that it wasn’t just him that noticed Tomey’s attitude about city resources and official duties.

“The investigator (into the softball tournament episode) remarked in his report your cavalier attitude regarding these serious concerns, something that I, too, have witnessed in my interactions with you when forced to address your issues in management, fiscal responsibility and accountability,” Moore wrote.

Tomey’s five-day suspension for failing to follow city policy after a Broward County accident in October 2022 involving his city vehicle was also included in Tomey’s contention he was being retaliated against. But city policy requires employees to take a drug test immediately following an accident whether they are at fault or not, which Tomey did not do until three days after the accident, Moore said in the letter. And Moore did not hear about the wreck until he received a request to approve a rental for Tomey.  

“I recall that during that disciplinary procedure you refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing …” Moore wrote. “This appears to be a pattern of willful, insubordinate behavior coupled with poor decision making that despite repeated counseling and a five-day suspension, has worsened.”

Moore cited another incident that Tomey did not say was part of the retaliation that he was subjected to because he did not respond to Moore’s alleged inappropriate touching. Tomey, in July 2022, distributed a memorandum that went to fire rescue personnel that disclosed the medical condition of an employee. The employee made a claim and the city had to pay $25,000 to settle the claim, Moore said.

Tomey's termination is effective immediately, according to the letter, and his health benefits will continue through May. Tomey's departure does not involve a financial settlement, a city spokeswoman said.

Since he was terminated "not in good standing," there are no payouts, the spokeswoman said. Tomey had been earning an annual salary of $179,587.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Tomey's length of employment with the city. He was hired in December 2016.

The shooting happened at Berkshire by the Sea, on North Ocean Boulevard in Delray. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Judge denies bond to suspect; defense aims to impugn witnesses

By Jane Musgrave

Nearly eight months after a popular computer tech was shot at a Delray Beach oceanside resort, it’s still a mystery why what was described as a friendly — if drug- and alcohol-soaked — gathering turned deadly.

Albert Camentz didn’t know his accused killer, Mark David Anderson. He had no beef with the 45-year-old self-employed Lake Worth Beach carpenter who allegedly shot him during the impromptu get-together at Berkshire by the Sea, the only two witnesses told Delray Beach police.

Not only is there no known motive for the September shooting, but the witnesses insisted they didn’t even know their 58-year-old friend was wounded even though he was having trouble breathing.

Jack Feinberg and Susan Schneider, who invited Camentz to join them at the timeshare Anderson was using, didn’t immediately call 911 or take Camentz to the hospital.

Instead the couple drove Camentz, who lived in Delray Beach, to their home six miles away in suburban Delray before calling for medical help.

Still, when Schneider was interviewed by police, she was unequivocal. “Mark shot Al,” she said, according to police reports.

Prosecutors insist that Schneider’s statement along with the other evidence police gathered makes the second-degree murder case against Anderson ironclad.

“This is not a circumstantial case,” Assistant State Attorney Jo Wilensky said at a court hearing earlier this year. “There is another human being who watched this happen.”

However, at a February court hearing, Anderson’s defense attorneys said the human beings who witnessed the shooting aren’t trustworthy. Schneider and Feinberg, a married couple, changed their stories. Feinberg initially refused to talk to police.

Both are hiding key information about Camentz’s death, defense attorney Michael Dutko told Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Cymonie Rowe at the hearing.

As a former longtime director of the Broward Addiction Recovery Center, the 61-year-old Feinberg may have been trying to shield his reputation from the fallout of a killing that occurred at a party that featured cocaine, marijuana, nitrous oxide and ketamine, Dutko said. Or he could have other motives.

Court records along with heavily redacted documents The Coastal Star obtained from the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office capture the confusion that surrounded Camentz’s slaying at the complex on North Ocean Boulevard.

The three men were talking amiably, drinking and doing drugs when Schneider, 58, said she decided she wanted to take a dip in the hot tub. She asked Anderson to get some towels from the bedroom. He emerged with what Schneider described as a “black object.”

An ear-splitting boom filled the apartment and Camentz and Feinberg fell to the floor. Feinberg stood up laughing. Camentz complained he couldn’t breathe, Schneider told police.

When asked by police how she knew Anderson was aiming at Camentz, she said, “Oh my God, because he was right next to me.”

Schneider said she checked Camentz, but didn’t see holes in his shirt or blood. She said she tried to convince Camentz to let her take him to the hospital. Camentz refused, insisting he simply wanted to go back to the couple’s house and go to sleep.

However, when the three arrived at the home, Camentz turned ghostly white and began complaining of chest pain. Fearing he was having a heart attack, Schneider called 911.

Palm Beach Fire Rescue paramedics quickly realized Camentz had been shot. They rushed him to Delray Medical Center, where he died roughly 30 minutes later.

Feinberg had followed the ambulance to the hospital. Minutes after learning his friend had died of a gunshot wound, Feinberg refused to help police find Camentz’s killer.

Feinberg said he wouldn’t answer any questions without an attorney, Police Detective John Caceres Duque said.

Later, when police arrived at the couple’s house, the detective said he heard Feinberg yelling at Schneider to do the same.

Schneider ignored Feinberg. She told Caceres that the shooting occurred at the timeshare and identified Anderson as the gunman, records show.

Police found Anderson sleeping and arrested him. They discovered a handgun in a wicker basket.

The medical examiner later determined that the type of bullet that killed Camentz matched those found in Anderson’s gun. There were four hollow-point .380-caliber bullets in the six-round magazine and one in the chamber.

“That tells me in my training that there was one round missing,” Caceres testified at the hearing.

A day after the shooting, Feinberg agreed to talk to police. He said he had been friends with Anderson for years, but the relationship soured when Anderson became a huge fan of former President Donald Trump.

Still, he said, while they avoided talking politics, he and Anderson had other shared interests. They partied together and both enjoyed inhaling nitrous oxide, he told police.

Before the shooting, the mood was genial, he said. He said he and Anderson argued briefly about their spiritual and religious beliefs, but Camentz didn’t offer his views.

Like his wife, Feinberg said he was stunned when the gunshot rang out. But, he said, he tried to make a joke of it.

“Mr. Anderson, did you accidentally discharge a weapon,” he asked Anderson, according to Caceres’ report. Feinberg said he asked Camentz if he was hit. “No, it’s the sound,” Camentz replied.

Feinberg, a licensed mental health counselor, suggested Anderson may have been in a psychotic state. He suspected that Anderson had taken liquid LSD, along with other drugs, causing him to hallucinate.

Still, Feinberg admitted, the shooting was inexplicable. “I don’t know, why would he come out and done some sort of thing with some sort of weapon?” he told Caceres.

While Feinberg apologized to police for initially refusing to talk to them, Dutko said he suspects Feinberg had good reasons for waiting.

As Feinberg told Caceres, he and his wife had “corroborated each other’s memories of the incident.” The two had a chance to compare notes, correct their earlier statements and make sure their stories matched, Dutko said.

Initially, Schneider told police that the shooting took place near the pool at the complex. Later, she said, it was inside the apartment.

Feinberg also changed his story. At first, he said he was on his way to the hot tub when a shot rang out. He also remembered hearing a loud bang while he was still in his car.

Before Camentz was taken to the hospital, Feinberg told police he pulled up his friend’s shirt and realized Camentz had been shot.

At the hospital, Feinberg attributed his confusion about the shooting to “a cognitive disorder.”  While Feinberg didn’t elaborate, in his March 2023 resignation letter from

Broward’s government-run addiction center, he said poor health forced him to quit.

“I’ve been on (medical leave) and under care for some time now, due to the illness I contracted during the pandemic,” he wrote. “It has become evident that my health has worsened recently.”

Wilensky vigorously disputed the notion that Feinberg or his wife concocted stories. They both offered starkly similar accounts of what took place. Schneider’s description matches the evidence. And, she said, Feinberg added a salient detail.

He said he saw a green light flash when the gun went off. Caceres said that the gun police found in Anderson’s timeshare was equipped with a green laser sight.

Wilensky also said a laboratory analysis found Anderson’s DNA on the gun’s trigger and grip. The review showed that neither Schneider, Feinberg nor Camentz touched the gun, she said.

Wilensky described Anderson as a dangerous man.

“This is someone who can flip on a dime this quickly,” she told Rowe. “This cordial gathering turned into someone being shot in the chest.”

Other than several arrests for drunk driving, Anderson has never been in trouble with the law, Dutko countered. Referring to the support Anderson had from the roughly 10 family members who gathered for the hearing, Dutko asked Rowe to release Anderson on a $100,000 bond with house arrest.

In a six-page ruling issued in March, Rowe rejected the request. Wilensky had provided “substantial evidence” that Anderson fatally shot Camentz, she wrote.

Questions Dutko raised about Schneider and Feinberg may eventually come into play, she added.

“The inconsistencies raised by (Anderson’s attorneys) do not raise substantial questions of fact at this point, although with further discovery and proof, facts may exist which ultimately are more favorable to (Anderson) at trial,” Rowe wrote.

Dutko has asked Rowe to reconsider her ruling.

So, Anderson remains jailed. No trial date has been set. If convicted, Anderson could be sentenced to life in prison.

By Anne Geggis

Every dog may have its day, but canines shouldn’t be having theirs on Ocean Ridge’s beach.

That was among the priorities that town commissioners raised during their annual goal-setting session April 22, in addition to adding a crosswalk and maintaining momentum in replacing the town’s aging water lines.

Commissioner David Hutchins said outlaw dogs are the No. 1 topic he’s hearing about.

“In my world, people keep talking to me about dogs on the beach and I think that this would be something that I would like to work with the chief on — we have to come to some kind of solution,” Hutchins said, referring to Police Chief Scott McClure. “We have residents that routinely violate the rules and I know occasionally they’re cited, but not often.”

Town Manager Lynne Ladner said she planned to ask the commission to authorize signs prohibiting dogs on the beach at every beach crosswalk at the commission’s May meeting to see how that works, after one citizen suggested that signage might help.

On another matter, Mayor Geoff Pugh said he’d like to build on the forward motion that was begun at the commission’s April 1 meeting when replacement of the first 3,000 linear feet of water piping was approved at a cost of $2.5 million. There’s 68,000 feet left to go, but the town should make annual progress a priority, Pugh said.

Showing momentum in that goal could net the town some grant money, he said.

“We need to stay on budget, but water has to be part of our main goal,” Pugh said.

Public safety was also a topic, with some discussion about the urgency for maintaining police staffing and making the town safer.

Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy said she hopes the town can make the streets safer from traffic, too. A crosswalk at East Anna Street across State Road A1A would help pedestrian safety, she said.

Beach sign case closed — The “no trespassing” signage controversy that inspired a new Ocean Ridge ordinance — and then a code enforcement case against the Turtle Beach condominium association for violating it — may finally be resolved.

The code case has been closed with new beach signs acceptable to the town having been installed and Ocean Ridge billing the condo association $172.53 for the case’s administrative fees, according to Town Clerk Kelly Avery.

The case had gone before a special magistrate but ultimately negotiations ended with the town and association agreeing that the original placement of the signs should be adjusted and that the two signs had to be one-sided, not with printing on both sides.

The town has determined the association’s current signage is now in compliance with the ordinance, Avery said.

— Anne Geggis

By Anne Geggis

Add Manalapan to the list of coastal municipalities in South Palm Beach County where officials are hearing about larger-sized homes that don’t blend into their existing neighborhoods.

Delray Beach in March passed new limitations for how much square footage can be built based on lot size for homes east of the Intracoastal Waterway. It was a response to complaints about multistory homes with sheer walls that loom over their neighbors’ homes, with every story just as close to the property line as the ground floor. Recent discussions in other coastal communities suggest there’s wider concern with this building trend.

 The Gulf Stream Town Commission impaneled a committee in March that could recommend guidelines with a similar impact. An Ocean Ridge commissioner said exploring how to regulate buildings’ mass is one of her goals. And, at an April 24 Manalapan meeting, commissioners heard from upset neighbors about a Point Manalapan home that doesn’t seem to fit there.

“Something has to be done because we are going to lose what we tried to create here in Manalapan,” said Bob Kirkland, who has lived in town since 2003 and works in the real estate business. He described coming out of his door in the morning and describing what he used to see and what he sees now.

“You’d open the door in the morning and the sun would be rising in the East — beautiful,” he said. “Now it’s … an office building-type structure and two blank walls.” 

Manalapan Mayor John Deese spoke on behalf of a neighbor who couldn’t be there and suggested that commissioners take a ride by the home on Spoonbill Road to see what they thought.

Commissioner David Knobel said it might be a topic that needs more discussion.

“These properties are worth a lot more money and people are willing to put a lot more money in, right?” Knobel said. 
Ocean Blue Custom Homes, based in Delray Beach, is building the home on spec. The company’s principal, Josh Khoury, said it was inspired by another he built not far from there that was featured in Florida Design.

“We feel confident that this will be a beautiful home consistent with other modern contemporary homes in Point Manalapan and the town of Manalapan as a whole,” he said.

At the Ocean Ridge Town Commission’s goal-setting meeting, Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy said she wants more discussion about the stark style she sees emerging.

“They are out of context with the neighborhood,” she said of new construction that has replaced older homes. “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”

Her view got some validation from the public at the meeting.

“People are getting sick and tired of looking at these things — metal roofs, concrete and stucco with some windows,” said resident Terry Brown. “All of it is no imagination.”

But Mayor Geoff Pugh, contacted after the meeting, said that Ocean Ridge is ahead of the curve in curbing oversized masses of square footage from taking shape in town.

Ocean Ridge already has greater setbacks than most of its neighbors and sheer, multistory walls can’t be erected because town codes already require that a second story have 25% less square footage than the first.

“We tackled that many, many years ago,” Pugh said, dating that effort to the time of Digby Bridges, a former commissioner and mayor, who served from 1993 to 2002.

Pugh cautioned against further restraining investment that people want to make in their homes, or trying to legislate style. It could scare away investment, he said.

“When you can attract people to invest in a town … knocking down an old home and building a new one … that’s a win-win,” he said. “The cost of goods and services that we provide to our residents doesn’t go down … you have to have an influx of new money to keep pace with the costs of goods and services.”

A newly built concrete block retaining wall at Siréne Villas overshadows a neighbor’s existing wooden privacy fence. Photo provided

By Anne Geggis

The old Parliament Inn’s transformation into the Siréne Villas on George Bush Boulevard has its neighbors in a tizzy because builders erected higher-than-permitted walls.

However, the Delray Beach City Commission decided at its April 16 meeting that those walls are going to be allowed.

Blame it on new federal requirements to forestall flooding that add a new required height to lots under development — and on code violations that weren’t caught until they were already solidified into actual walls.

In this case, the builder of the six-unit townhouse development in the 1200 block of George Bush, just west of State Road A1A, appeared in front of the commission to beg forgiveness — and get a variance to complete the wall. City leaders were none too happy with the development, but agreed the developer was trying to meet the Federal Emergency Management Agency requirements and preserve privacy all around when the walls were built.

The developer used private inspectors — not city ones — as state law allows.

Because of the additional fill needed to meet higher base building elevations as required by federal guidelines, the permitted mason wall complies with city requirements on the inside part of the wall. But the resulting difference in the grade on the other side of the wall makes the wall nearly 3 feet higher than city codes allow — from the view of neighbors.

“This wall is going to affect the sunshine, the sky, the view of any trees,” said George Bush Boulevard neighbor Jack O’Connor.

The property is in the special flood hazard area, thus requiring a certain height in the base building elevation. But the natural grade on the adjoining properties is 3 feet lower.

Neil Schiller, a lawyer for the project’s developer, Stamm Development, said that if the wall was built to just the 8 feet that city codes stipulate, it would only appear 4 to 5 feet tall from inside the property. “And anybody of normal size would be able to look over into the neighbor’s yard at their discretion,” he said. “So we want to avoid that.”

The commission agreed that the developer needs to meet with the neighbors to make some adjustments in the wall, be it new trees or the wall color.

Anthea Gianniotes, the city’s development services director, says the city needs to develop new requirements for builders when the flood protection rules create this kind of a grade difference.

“This is not the last time you’ll see something like this and ultimately we need to address in our (land development rules) what are the techniques we could require people to do if the grade changes exceed a certain amount,” she said.

Vice Mayor Juli Casale said she didn’t want to see this become part of a pattern, even if there are new federal elevation guidelines that must be met, and she called for better monitoring of projects in progress.

“We don’t want to create a pattern of violations and corrections,” she said.

The waiver was granted with the condition that the builder ameliorate neighbors’ issues.

And it seems that’s not going to be easy.

“I’m very upset right now,” O’Connor said as he walked out of the city chamber after the 4-0 vote. 

Mayor Tom Carney recused himself from the discussion because he is a registered agent for the applicant through his legal practice.

By Steve Plunkett

Roadway catch basins are stacked up behind Town Hall, and the right-of-way on Wright Way is staked out, but even before Gulf Stream’s street and drainage improvement project in its Core district kicked off, officials were making changes.

First off, the project started on Wright Way at the north end of the construction zone and will work its way south, reaching Golfview Drive in December. That’s the reverse of what town residents were told at an informational meeting on the project in March.

At the April 12 Town Commission meeting, Town Manager Greg Dunham recommended at least two changes to the overall plan: keeping Old School Road wider than it seems to be and widening part of Banyan Road.

Old School, as approved, would have become 18 feet wide.

But, Dunham said, “There’s actually about 20 to 21 feet there now. It’s just all covered up with grass and some people don’t even know that.

“Our preference is not to reduce the width of any of the streets that we already have,” he said.

The section of Banyan west of Polo Drive is now 18 feet wide, “but that’s another street that is always subject to rutting” when vehicles go off the pavement. “And so we’d like to widen that to 20 feet,” Dunham said.

Commissioners agreed that Baxter and Woodman Consulting Engineers should work up change orders and prices and Dunham should return for approval.

King tides due in October and November were the reason for starting the project on Wright Way and Old School, which Mayor Scott Morgan noted was the lowest point in Gulf Stream.

Baxter and Woodman has set up a hotline for residents to lodge complaints (855-228-3436) and a website to track progress (www.CoreAreaRoadwork.com). The website can also be accessed at the town’s website (www.gulf-stream.org).

Gulf Stream School
Also on April 12, commissioners approved an amendment to the developer’s agreement the town has with the Gulf Stream School keeping the number of students there “not to exceed 300” through the 2028-29 school year.

Commissioners were surprised in January 2023 to be told that the school had 294 students after enrolling 270 the year before and 260 the year before that — despite the 250-student cap to which the school had agreed in 1994.

Commissioners gave temporary permission setting the limit at 300 until a legal document could be hashed out and required the school to submit a head count every October.

Police Chief Richard Jones said he had personally monitored traffic for several days before the commission meeting to gauge the effect on traffic of parents dropping off their children at the school.

“What we’ve seen and what we’ve timed is that at no point in time on Sea Road specifically have there been more than five vehicles lined up to exit onto A1A,” Jones said. “And the longest that any of those vehicles waited was 1 minute 6 seconds, which is about half the time that you typically wait at a normal red light.”

Before voting, Commissioner Joan Orthwein cautioned the school to pay attention to the 300-student limit.

“I am for this, but I wish it hadn’t happened the way it did. And also I hope that we maintain 300 people and not go over that and have a count every year so that the commission isn’t surprised by more students in the future,” Orthwein said.

“And also I want to mention that the school is a very special place, but it should maintain a little school-by-the-sea, not let’s-see-how-big-we-can-get.”

Development authority member removed — In an unprecedented action, the Delray Beach City Commission voted to remove a Downtown Development Authority board member.

The 4-1 vote at the commission’s April 16 meeting came on the heels of a Palm Beach County Ethics Commission finding that Richard Burgess had provided false information about his business address on his application to the DDA. The city attorney said she hadn’t found any example of previous removals like this.

Commissioner Rob Long, the lone holdout on the removal, said the problem the ethics panel found doesn’t meet the criteria for removal in the legislation that created the DDA, and that the violation the ethics commission found has been fixed. He noted that Burgess’s removal could open the door to a lawsuit.

Daniel Rose, Burgess’s attorney, portrayed his client’s removal as a “hit job” and a “witch hunt.” Rose cross-examined nearly every person who came to the commission to urge Burgess’s removal.

Ultimately, though, commissioners said they couldn’t allow someone who had broken the rules to stay on. “I think our job here was to find if there was cause (for removal) and I think that this constitutes cause,” Commissioner Angela Burns said.

Preempting hate speech — Invocations of Adolf Hitler and other antisemitic utterances at the April 2 Palm Beach County Commission meeting have the Delray Beach City Commission looking to beef up its rules for civility at meetings.

Commissioner Rob Long says he’s never heard the kind of speech he’s trying to prevent at Delray Beach’s proceedings, but he doesn’t want to take any chances that the chambers serve as any kind of platform for hate speech.

“It does seem like there are some opportunities to beef up language under civility in our local rules,” Long said at the April 9 commission meeting. “And the goal here would be to give Mayor Carney additional tools to swiftly shut down this type of speech and even remove its perpetrators from City Hall.”

City Attorney Lynn Gelin warned that city officials could not police speech for content, but she presented new guidelines adding prohibitions against “using terminology or gestures that cause a disruptive environment.” The commission unanimously approved the guidelines at its April 16 meeting.

Grant to fund license plate recognition cameras — Delray Beach will receive nearly $1 million for crime-fighting technology, U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel’s office announced April 8.

The federal funding will pay for license plate readers for the city Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center to improve its ability to observe, detect and prevent crime, Frankel’s office said.

A license plate reader for the Old School Square parking garage won City Commission approval April 16 and serves as an example of the kind of technology that Police Chief Russ

Mager said he envisions will be more widely installed as a result of the grant.

The parking garage reader was in the works when an incident occurred, providing an example of what police hope to forestall, Mager said. On March 30, a woman was shot in the ankle at what police called “a large gathering” on the top level of the garage. The injuries were not life-threatening. Police said they were looking for the culprit.

City beach keeps eco-friendly recognition — As it has for the past year, a blue flag raised over Delray Beach’s sandy expanse throughout 2024-25 will signal that the city’s shore is among the select for its environmental health.

Last year, when the American Shore & Beach Preservation Association first launched the Blue Flag USA program, the city’s beach was one of two locations recognized as meeting 30 criteria for water quality, environmental education and information, environmental management, safety and services, sustainable tourism, and social responsibility. And this year, the city has done it again.

The symbolic flag will be raised again at 9 a.m. May 8 at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and State Road A1A.

— Anne Geggis

By Rich Pollack

The year-long State Road A1A improvement project through Highland Beach and part of southern Delray Beach has been pushed back and now isn’t expected to start until late May or early June.

In an email to elected officials in both municipalities sent just after the project was scheduled to begin early last month, Florida Department of Transportation officials said that the $8.3 million project was delayed “based on the latest coordination with the contractor.”

The project, which is expected to result in major traffic delays, will still most likely continue through next summer.

A spokesperson for the FDOT said the contractor requested the extra time to pursue a “cost savings initiative” related to how the roadway will be milled and resurfaced.

That initiative, which gives contractors the opportunity to offer ideas that can reduce public impact, save money or save time, would not change the original scope of the work.

Included in the project are the repaving and widening of A1A from Linton Boulevard to the Boca Raton line. It will also include 5-foot bicycle lanes on either side of the road and significant drainage improvements through much of Highland Beach.

One area where the improvement will be most noticeable will be at the intersection of A1A and Linton Boulevard.

For years, Highland Beach town leaders and residents have complained about the long line of cars turning onto the Linton Boulevard bridge causing lengthy backups on northbound A1A.

Included in the new project is an almost quadrupling of the length of the left-turn lane for cars heading over the bridge, from 75 feet to 275 feet. The turn lane now accommodates only about three cars. That will expand to about 11 cars once the work at the intersection is complete, meaning that fewer cars will be blocking traffic heading north through the intersection, FDOT representatives say.

Highland Beach Town Manager Marshall Labadie believes that while the project will cause much disruption, it will have visible benefits once it is complete.

“My hope is that all the frustration residents experience will be well worth it when we have a newly paved road, a better intersection at Linton Boulevard and improved drainage,” he said.

Correction: An earlier online version of this story, which also appeared in the May 2024 print edition, contained in incorrect project cost. The project cost is $8.3 million.

By Anne Geggis

The three traffic citations a Lantana woman received after driving her 2020 Kia Soul into a group of cyclists on State Road A1A in Gulf Stream in January — injuring three critically — won’t leave any marks on her driving record.

A judge dismissed Betty Ann Ruiz’s tickets on April 3 after the Florida Highway Patrol officer who wrote the tickets for her did not appear for the April 3 hearing. The trooper, Andy Ong, was on approved leave, said Lt. Indiana Miranda, FHP spokeswoman.

The dismissed citations carried a $116 fine for failing to have proof of insurance, $166 for driving with a suspended license and $166 for failing to keep to a single lane.

A report on the crash shows that Ruiz, 77, was not tested for drugs or alcohol after the incident, but Miranda said that Ruiz agreed to a blood draw for which the results will be available in three to six months.

Also, although Ruiz’s failure to stay in her lane was attributed to “seizure, epilepsy, blackout,” in the first report, that report has been updated, according to Miranda.

Now the report attributes Ruiz’s failure to stay in her lane as fatigue instead of a medical emergency. Ruiz, who court records show attended both a March 20 pretrial hearing and the April 3 hearing, could not be reached, despite calls to more than a half dozen numbers listed for her and a visit to the Lantana address listed on her ticket. It appears the dwelling is not currently occupied, with construction debris in front. A man leaving the site said he had not heard Ruiz’s name before.

Her license remains suspended, Miranda said.

Five people were taken to the hospital as a result of the crash that started with Ruiz’s swerve into the wrong lane. The number of casualties prompted a discussion throughout the coastal areas about the tight space drivers and cyclists share. Several municipalities have pledged to find a way to make the scenic route safer for cyclists.

One of those critically injured, Diego Rico, 37, of Coconut Creek, said that no investigators ever contacted him to hear his view of the crash that broke his femur, dislocated his shoulder and shattered his pelvis. He expects that his injuries will keep him out of work for another two months.

“Literally, they are leaving us with nothing,” said Rico, who said he had 20 stitches to his knee and 39 staples to his hip and racked up medical bills totalling more than $1 million.

In response to a question about the citations’ dismissal, a spokesman for State Attorney David Aronberg said that the office doesn’t get involved in noncriminal cases.

The crash report on the Jan. 4 predawn incident found that Ruiz was heading south when she crossed the center line in the 2400 block of North Ocean Boulevard alongside the Gulf Stream Golf Club course.

The most severely injured person had to be revived before being taken to Delray Medical Center via the county’s medical helicopter. He was released from the hospital nearly two months after the crash and has not fully regained his ability to walk and talk, Rico said.

Rico said that the driver has never contacted him or any of his fellow bicycle club members. He is part of the club Galera do Pedal, which is Portuguese for “Pedal Guys,” that regularly cycles along A1A from Deerfield Beach to Lake Worth Beach.

“She never tried to get in touch with us or say or do anything,” Rico said. “She’s acting like she’s not at fault.”

That Ruiz is not being held responsible in any way rankles Michael Simon, president of the Boca Raton Bicycle Club.

“It should be taken seriously, especially with something like this,” said Simon, whose law practice is focused on civil litigation and corporate transactions. “Even if she had a medical incident. She shouldn’t have been on the road to begin with.

“She shouldn’t haven’t been driving with a suspended license — we learn that in driving school,” Simon continued. “And she had no insurance. The insurance is there to protect all of us, including her, and she didn’t have any. She shouldn’t have been driving.”

By Brian Biggane

Even as it works toward the construction of a new Town Hall and community center, the South Palm Beach Town Council finds itself in a period of upheaval.

Following the resignation of longtime member Robert Gottlieb in December, the council finally elected his replacement, Elvadianne Culbertson, at its April meeting. Two days later,

Vice Mayor Bill LeRoy resigned, once again leaving the governing body one member short.

The election of Culbertson came as a bit of surprise. It occurred when Council member Ray McMillan asked for another vote as a follow-up to the 2-2 standoff in March and then switched his vote from Jennifer Lesh to Culbertson.

“She was on before and she does have the experience, and a lot of dedication,” McMillan said afterward. “She’ll do fine.”

While LeRoy made no public comment on the switch, he had been the one pushing for Lesh and his body language made it clear he was unhappy with the outcome. He left the room immediately after the meeting, skipping a social gathering to which he had been invited.

“I felt my candidate was a much better fit for the town,” LeRoy said two days later, on April 11. “Elva had already been on the council, and when she ran (for reelection) she lost.”

Those comments came only moments after LeRoy had returned to Town Hall to submit his resignation to Town Manager Jamie Titcomb.

“I’m on the 10-year plan,” LeRoy said of his decision. “I figure I’ve got 10 years to live, and I’m not going to do anything that makes me unhappy or stresses me out. And that to me is a stressful job. I don’t need the job; I put in my five or six years. That’s enough, I guess.

“Effective today, I’m out.”

LeRoy joined the council in 2018 to finish another member’s term and was elected to a three-year term a year later. He was reelected in 2022 to a four-year term that still has two years to run.

Mayor Bonnie Fischer said she was “saddened” by the news and felt the council had been working seamlessly toward construction of the new Town Hall building, which is expected to start shortly. But she said she was aware of the health issues LeRoy cited in his decision.

“That did concern me,” she said. “He’s been struggling for quite a while. I’m sorry that it ended like that, but that’s his choice. He reached a point where he didn’t want to do it anymore.”

In her remarks after the meeting on her election, Culbertson extended an olive branch of sorts to LeRoy, stating that she wouldn’t be as “chatty” as she was in her previous stint on the council, which ran from 2017 to 2019.

“The main thing Bill had against me before is that I would voice my opinion,” she said. “But what I’m going to try to do now is, once I get the agenda, draft what I have to say, so at the meeting they’ll say ‘You’re right’ or whatever. My chattiness won’t be as big a problem.”

Culbertson also said she understood LeRoy’s reasoning when it came to his health.

“If you look at pictures of him a few years ago and now, there’s definitely been a change,” Culbertson said.

When asked if the obvious solution to the problem would be to appoint Lesh to fill the vacant seat, Fischer demurred.

“I don’t want to respond to that,” she said. “This is just a shock and it needs to settle. None of this is my decision so we’ll have to see what the council wants to do.

“I wish him well and I’m sorry he’s not going to be with us during the Town Hall process. I feel bad about that. It was just unexpected.”

Fischer said the matter will be addressed at the council’s May 14 meeting.

By Brian Biggane

The woman charged in the November hit-and-run death of a South Palm Beach woman has multiple DUI offenses and has been driving without a valid license for the past seven years, according to court documents.

Amneris Ramos, 43, listed as homeless, was booked into the Palm Beach County jail April 16 and charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving death, tampering with physical evidence, and driving with a suspended/revoked license.

Her bond was set at $100,000. She was still incarcerated as of April 25, according to the jail’s online booking blotter. Her arraignment was scheduled for May 2.

According to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office report, Ramos, who was driving a black 2016 GMC Terrain northbound on State Road A1A, struck and killed Hatixhe Laiqi, 73, at 6:03 p.m. Nov. 10, around dusk.

Laiqi, a resident of the nearby Barclay condominium, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The following morning, the report said, a “Good Samaritan” spotted a damaged car parked in Boynton Beach, bearing evidence that it had struck someone, and notified police.

The front driver’s side of the SUV had extensive damage, including to the bumper, headlight, fender, hood, windshield and sideview mirror and was determined to be the same vehicle that struck Laiqi.

The investigating officer said Ramos had wiped down the hood and had thrown the side mirror toward a nearby lake in an attempt to destroy evidence.

Ramos has not been licensed to drive since 2017, the report said. “She has amassed suspensions and revocations for multiple DUI offenses, driving without a license, driving offenses, and failure to pay,” the investigating officer reported.

Palm Beach County court records show Ramos was adjudicated guilty of driving under the influence in May 2021 following an arrest in Boynton Beach a year earlier.

The probable cause affidavit said Ramos admitted to driving the vehicle when the accident occurred.

“She gave specific details, which would have only been known to the driver,” the investigating officer said. “She also described her travel path following the crash. The synopsis of events given by [Ramos] were substantiated by tag readers, video surveillance, and [her] cellular telephone records.”

Speed limit lowered
The hit-and-run upset town residents, who two months later packed a meeting with Florida Department of Transportation engineer Jonathan Overton. The speed limit has since been lowered in the town from 35 mph to 30 mph and several signs have been erected urging drivers to be careful and share the road.

Mayor Bonnie Fischer reported at the Town Council’s April meeting that lowering the A1A speed limit has been well received in town, but there remains a strong desire among residents to install a crosswalk. The town has none.

FDOT has proposed adding one just south of the town line at the north end of Lantana Beach, which would require the cooperation of Lantana. Because Fischer considers the existing crosswalk at the Ocean Avenue intersection to be very dangerous, she spoke to Lantana’s mayor and town manager and “they were very interested” in the idea, she said.

Fischer, Overton and Lantana officials met in late April to further address the issue. Fischer was expected to report on that meeting at the May 14 Town Council meeting.

Regarding the speed limit change, PBSO Sergeant Mark Garrison said the first statistics regarding traffic stops and tickets would also be available at the May meeting.

The body of a 32-year-old man found March 17 on the South Palm Beach shore has been identified and an autopsy report shows that he died of natural causes — an asthma attack.

The body of Maximiliano Lujan-Rodriguez, 32, of Palm Springs, clad in a shirt, shorts, socks and shoes, was found near the Mayfair House Condominiums on the 3900 block of South Ocean Boulevard.

He was found face down in the sand, just beyond the water line, at 7 a.m.

A subsequent toxicology report found that he had no drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of his death. The “punctate abrasions” found on his body were determined to be caused by postmortem contact with the sand, the autopsy report says.

Lujan-Rodriguez, who had turned 32 just seven days prior to his death, had a history of bronchial asthma and often forgot his medicine at home, the autopsy report says.

— Anne Geggis