Under the branches of a trio of Gumbo Limbo trees, a family takes advantage of the recently reopened boardwalk.

The project cost $630,810, paid for by the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District. The boardwalk

closed in February 2015 when engineers discovered it was about to collapse. The new structure

is elevated. ‘It has a crawl space beneath it, and you feel like you’re more a part of the canopy,’

District Chairman Robert Rollins said. ‘It’s a lot easier flow for the critters that live there.’

Work on two more phases has not started.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

    After 4½ years, commissioners of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District decided to drop the “interim” part of interim Executive Director Arthur Koski’s title.
    “I think you all will agree with me that Mr. Koski has done an incredible job for us,” Commissioner Susan Vogelgesang said before making a motion to change his title.
    The new designation was one of two bits of employment news for Koski in December. District Chairman Robert Rollins also moved to give Koski a 13.6 percent pay raise for his work as the district’s attorney.
    “We’ve heard enough about the work our district counsel has been doing for us, and as a chairperson I can tell you … Mr. Koski is an invaluable source of legal knowledge that’s helped us through a lot of different issues,” Rollins said.
    Rollins said the boost in pay, to $150,000 a year from $132,000, was merited because of extra work Koski will do as the district navigates legal issues regarding the possible acquisition of the Ocean Breeze golf course.
    George Brown, Boca Raton’s deputy city manager, has written Koski to see whether the district might consider taking the golf course via its eminent domain power.
    Commissioner Steve Engel said the extra $18,000 was equivalent to hiring an outside attorney for perhaps 36 hours of work. “In my mind … you’re a bargain,” Engel said.
    Briann Harms, the district’s assistant director, was in line to become executive director in January, after Koski said last spring he would step aside from the interim position. Because Harms was absent from the Dec. 5 meeting, commissioners decided to wait until Dec. 19 to make Koski’s new title official.
    “I don’t want anyone to think that I was trying to torpedo my friend Briann in any way, shape or form. Briann had expressed the fact that she was not quite ready to take the executive director position,” Vogelgesang said.
    Koski assumed the position of interim director in 2012 when Robert Langford retired. But his additional role drew complaints from city officials, peaking in March with City Council member Robert Weinroth insisting that he be replaced with someone full-time.
    In May, Koski said he would step aside as director on Oct. 1, the start of the new budget year. But he was persuaded to stay until January, when commissioners choose their chairman for 2017 and Commissioners-elect Craig Ehrnst and Erin Wright take their seats.
    Koski yielded his third district job in November, when commissioners hired Michael Fichera, Boca Raton’s recently retired chief building official, to do their contract administration work, a task Koski had handled since 2010.
    The three jobs together paid Koski $330,000 a year. Now he will draw $240,000 annually. He does not get a pension or other benefits.
    Koski started giving the Beach and Park District legal advice in 1978.
    Also in December, district commissioners approved onetime payments of 2.5 percent of base pay and 4 percent raises for their only two employees, Harms and secretary Maddy Bentivegna. The salary adjustments mirror those Boca Raton gave its nonunion municipal workers.

By Rich Pollack

    Some Bel Lido residents wondered why a water main replacement project started two weeks before the Christmas holiday. But Highland Beach officials said they had good reason: The construction firm had to meet a tight deadline and the town needed the project to start to lock in a low-interest loan.
    Town officials said they received calls from a handful of residents in the Bel Lido community, who complained that the project was a disruption during a time when there were holiday parties, students home from school and extended visits from guests.
    “It would have been nice if the town was respectful enough to wait two weeks so that all our holiday events weren’t compromised and the streets weren’t taken up with machinery,” said longtime resident Bob Crozer. “Why couldn’t they wait 12 days and start after the holidays?”
    Crozer and other residents of the neighborhood also expressed concern about not being notified that the project was scheduled to begin until just a few days before crews came in and began digging up a 4-foot-wide trench on the side of the roadway.
    Highland Beach Public Works Director Ed Soper said the contractor doing the installation of 6,700 feet of water mains serving residents on six public side streets is required by contract to get the job completed within 240 days of when an agreement was finalized.
    Because the town prohibits work on weekends and holidays and limits the hours when work can be done, the contractor needed to get started as soon as possible to meet the deadline, Soper said. The contractor also agreed to suspend work during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, which added to the time crunch.
    Soper and interim Town Manager Valerie Oakes said another reason the town wanted to get started as soon as possible was to lock in as low an interest rate as possible on a loan from the state.
    “The longer we waited to get started, the higher the interest rate could be,” Oakes said.  
    While some residents expressed concern, Bel Lido Property Owners Association President Ron Brown said he believes the improvement the community will see offsets the inconvenience caused by the work.
    “It’s a lot less disruptive than I anticipated,” he said.
    Barring unforeseen delays, the water main replacement project is scheduled to be finished by midsummer.  When it’s completed, the roads in the impacted neighborhoods will all be resurfaced and residents will have a more reliable water delivery system, Soper said.

By Rich Pollack

    As the town of Highland Beach continues to revamp its code-enforcement process, discussions over whether to bring in a special magistrate to hear code-enforcement cases stalled early this month when commissioners couldn’t agree on what would have been the first step in the process.
    In a 2-2 vote, with Commissioner Lou Stern absent, the commission stopped short of scheduling interviews with three special-magistrate candidates who submitted resumes and proposals to the town.
    As a result, the town’s Code Enforcement Board will continue to hear contested code-enforcement cases — at least for now.  
    That seven-member board, however, could soon be down to just three members. Two members are expected to resign in order to run for Town Commission seats, the board’s chair is resigning to take a seat on another town board and a vacancy remains unfilled.
    While discussing whether or not to move forward with special-magistrate interviews, Commissioner Carl Feldman and Vice Mayor Bill Weitz appeared to favor bringing in a legal professional to hear cases and assess fines when appropriate, while Commissioner Rhoda Zelniker and Mayor Bernard Featherman supported keeping a Code Enforcement Board.  
    “I think what we have is working,” Zelniker said, adding that she thinks problems the town has with code enforcement stem from the process and do not fall on the shoulders of the code enforcement board.
    In an effort to resolve the issues, Interim Town Manager Valerie Oakes is continuing a search for a full-time code enforcement officer, a position authorized by commissioners during budget discussions this summer. For several years, a part-time town employee and more recently, an outside contractor also on a part-time basis, have handled code enforcement matters.
    In addition, Oakes — who has a background in code enforcement — is developing a set of operating policies and procedures to set standards and ensure consistency.
    “We have not had proper code enforcement,” Zelniker said. “I think we should give the new code-enforcement person a chance.”
    Weitz agreed there have been problems with code enforcement for some time but said he thinks the town could be better off having code issues resolved by someone with a legal background.
    “This is a job that requires knowledge and expertise,” he said.
    Discussions over switching to a magistrate, who would be paid on an hourly basis, came on the heels of a Nov. 16 Code Enforcement Board hearing in which the board fined a resident $250 a day for doing interior work on his townhouse without a permit.
    The resident was given two stop-work orders by town inspectors dating as far back as February, but continued to do the work, according to town officials.
    While some members of the Code Enforcement Board wanted to fine the homeowner retroactively to the date when the first stop-work order was issued, the assistant town attorney assigned to the hearing advised against it, saying that the resident wasn’t given sufficient notice of when he needed to be in compliance.
    The townhouse owner has since obtained a permit for the work and paid a $1,000 penalty as well as $8,500 in fines assessed by the Code Enforcement Board.
    As part of its revamping of the code-enforcement process, Highland Beach has discontinued its contract for part-time code enforcement with SafeBUILT, a Colorado-based firm that also provides building-inspection services for the town. While the town continues efforts to fill the full-time position, code enforcement services will be handled by the Police Department in coordination with the building department.

Math, science, art

and other skills grow as students

tend garden at Delray school.

Adrian Burke (left) and Zane Lingmerth stretch string to delineate 1-foot garden spaces

at Plumosa School of the Arts in Delray Beach. The kids learn that all they need

is one square foot to grow a garden plant.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Student Tiana Turner chats with volunteer Tom Sand, who provided

the impetus for developing the school’s garden.

‘When I see the kids out here, they are always smiling
and full of enthusiasm. They really take ownership of the area.’

— Tom Sand

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

    Although many teachers turn to textbooks and computers to teach children math, science and other subjects, those at Plumosa School of the Arts in Delray Beach are turning to the great outdoors.     
    “Our vegetable garden is an outdoor classroom where the kids can really get their hands dirty,” says Sally Smollar, the librarian and garden coordinator at the K-5 school serving 650 students, many from low-income families.      
    Here behind the school, a fifth-grade class gets its hands-on math by dividing raised beds with string into 1-foot squares and then inserting a seed or seedling into each square. Other students graph the growth of a tomato plant. And the kids in art classes paint wooden spoons to stick in the ground and identify the crops.
    “When I see the kids out here, they are always smiling and full of enthusiasm. They really take ownership of the area,” says Tom Sand, a volunteer at the school.      
    In fact, it was Sand who was instrumental in getting this garden growing.  
    Originally, there was only a haphazardly tended plot with a few cocoplums, a lot of dirt and a bit of artificial turf surrounded by black chain-link fence.  
    “It was pretty sad,” says Smollar.     
    Sand was volunteering to read to the students, during which time he became so impressed with the school that he asked Smollar how else he could help.

Sally Smollar directs students in the garden at Plumosa School of the Arts in Delray Beach.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

    That’s when she showed him what there was of a garden and told him of her hopes for its becoming a place where the students could learn about everything from healthy eating to the multiplication tables.     
    Her dream struck Sand, who was looking for a way to honor his late wife, Mary, who had been an avid gardener and worked with children’s books.      
    So he presented the idea to his coastal Delray Beach friend and neighbor Katherine Hagedorn Littlefield, who is vice chairwoman of the Scotts Miracle-Gro Co.’s board of directors. Funding the project fit right in with the company’s commitment to help create 1,000 new community and school gardens by 2018, when it celebrates its 150th anniversary.     
    Work at Plumosa began in August, when a crew arrived to build boxes for raised beds, plant banana and papaya trees and reroute the irrigation system to water the beds.     
    Smollar remembers the day in September when a semi-trailer truck arrived from Orlando filled with organic soil and eucalyptus mulch to fill the beds. The garden officially opened later that month.     
    As you approach the area, you’ll notice artwork of bright blue sky and plenty of sunflowers inhabited by gracious red ladybugs and plump yellow and black bumblebees. The students painted these on planks of discarded wood Smollar had salvaged.  
    Approach the chain-link gate to the garden and you’ll see a sign made from artwork the students created on computer tablets in Smollar’s digital media class.      
    When we visit, one of the raised beds is filled with tomato plants heavy with yellow blooms held up by red, blue and yellow wire cages. Another is home to red-stemmed Swiss chard, fluffy leaf lettuce and dark green spinach.     
    In yet another area, Brussels sprouts look like they are struggling in the late season heat. Smollar realizes she’ll have to restart them.      
    Many of the plants are raised from seeds in foam egg boxes and replanted into the beds when they are only a few inches tall.   
    The kindergarten class planted pineapple crowns this year. Since they can take up to two years to produce fruit, Smollar hopes these children will get a chance to taste it.
    For the students and teachers at Plumosa, this is an ideal way to get the children outdoors to teach them lessons they will use throughout their lives, including the pleasure of growing things.

The garden is dedicated to the memory of Mary Sand, who was an avid gardener.

Her husband, Tom, volunteers at the school.

    And that makes the plaque that dedicates this garden to Mary L. Sand even more meaningful. It reads that the garden is:
    “For every student to learn the wonders and joys of gardening.”

If You Go
    Plumosa School of the Arts, 2501 Seacrest Blvd., Delray Beach; 330-3900.    
    The classroom garden is open to the public by private tour only. Those interested may contact Sally Smollar at sally.smollar@palmbeachschools.org.

Gardening tip
of the month     

    “Do research online and talk to others to be sure that what you choose to grow is appropriate for our climate and that it will grow in our heat. Find out what grows successfully in our USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 10B and then stick with it.”

— Sally Smollar, librarian/garden coordinator for Plumosa School of the Arts, Delray Beach

Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley is a master gardener who can be reached at debhartz@att.net.

By Ron Hayes

    The Religious Society of Friends was born in 1650 on a hill in Lancashire, England, when a young man named George Fox had a revelation.
    Christ could be known directly, by anyone, anywhere, any time, without the intercession of ordained clergy.
    “Tremble at the word of God,” Fox admonished the growing number of followers who embraced his message, but when he was hauled into court to be charged with blasphemy, a magistrate named Gervase Bennet ridiculed their trembling with a single word.
    “Quakers.”
    Most of us know of them, but few of us know much about them.
    This month, the Palm Beach Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends hopes to change that by welcoming curious people to a series of Meetings for Learning before the regular Sunday worship at their Lake Worth meeting house.
    “We’re a spiritual community much more than we’re a religion,” explains John Palozzi, a retired social worker with the Palm Beach County School District who first came to a meeting eight years ago. “We have no dogma, so we don’t tell anybody what they have to believe.”
    The closest Quakers have to dogma is a simple affirmation from George Fox: “There is that of God in everyone.”
    While some Quaker services resemble more conventional Sunday practices with hymns, a preacher and a sermon, the congregation of about 50 Friends who have gathered in Lake Worth each week since 1955 seek God not in quaking, but in silence.
     “We simply sit for an hour together in silence,” Palozzi explains, “listening for the teacher within us to guide us. It’s the spirit within that’s the guiding force, and you need to adjust your own behavior and decide your own morality.”
    While they embrace no detailed theology, Quakers do have common convictions, called testimonies: simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship of the Earth.
    Historically, those testimonies have put American Quakers at the forefront of the anti-slavery movement in the 19th century and the struggle for women’s suffrage in the 20th. They welcomed women as equals from their beginnings, and have a long record of nonviolence and conscientious objection to America’s wars.
    “George Fox refused to hold the sword or be involved in military service,” says Palozzi, a conscientious objector himself during the Vietnam War.
    “There are a lot of people out there who don’t want to be told what they have to believe,” Palozzi notes. “They want to be involved with a group that’s more concerned with spirituality than dogma. A lot are turning to Buddhism or various metaphysical groups, but we’ve been on this track for 350 years.”
    Topics in the weekly Meetings for Learning this month include:
    • “Quakerism and Social Activism: How Quakerism Speaks Truth to Power,” 9:30 a.m. Jan. 8.
    • “Modern Quakerism and How Quakerism Compares With Other Religions,” 9:30 a.m. Jan. 15.
    • “Quakerism and War: The Quaker Peace Testimony,” 9:30 a.m. Jan. 22.
    • “Are Quakers Really Christian?” 9:30 a.m. Jan. 29.
    The Quaker Month events will conclude at 1 p.m. Jan. 29 with a presentation of questions and answers about what it means to live a Quaker life in the 21st century.
    “We want people to know we’re inviting them just to come and learn about us and try us out if they’re interested in pursuing spirituality instead of religion,” Palozzi says.
    “Those are the people we’re trying to reach.”

The Palm Beach Religious Society of Friends Meeting House is at 823 N. A St. in Lake Worth. For more information, visit www.palmbeachquakers.org or email pbquakers@gmail.com  

By Janis Fontaine

    First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach continues its Distinguished Preacher Series with an appearance by Dr. William Carl III on Jan. 22.
    Carl is the senior pastor of the 2,200-member Independent Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Ala., past president of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and the former pastor of the 1,700-member First Presbyterian Church in Dallas. Carl has published eight books, including The Lord’s Prayer for Today, and more than 75 scholarly articles and reviews.
     He also lectures on the brain at medical schools and conferences and serves as an ethics consultant to corporations. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tulsa, a master’s in divinity from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and a doctorate in rhetoric and communication at the University of Pittsburgh, where he also taught. He was ordained in 1973.
     Carl will speak at the 9 a.m. service Jan. 22 at FPC, at 33 Gleason St., Delray Beach. For information, call 276-6338 or visit www.firstdelray.com.
                                 
    An Abrahamic Reunion Interfaith Peace Concert takes place from 7 to 9 p.m. Jan. 10, featuring the Middle Eastern music group Elahi, followed by Kalimba & Friends, an upbeat, local Christian band, and Noam Brown, who performs Jewish songs on guitar. A suggested donation of $10-$20 supports the interfaith peacemaking of the Abrahamic Reunion. The concert takes place at the Lake Worth Friends Meeting House, 823 N. A St., Lake Worth. Info: www.abrahamicreunion.org/events/abrahamic-reunion-interfaith-peace-concert/
                                 
    The Church of the Palms Comfort Doll Ministry makes dolls for children who are under stress that are distributed through the Delray Beach Police Department and the Achievement Centers for Children and Families in Delray Beach. They also have been sent to Brazil, Haiti and Kenya. The ministry was started in 2004 using a doll pattern fashioned like a gingerbread man. Today it makes dolls in all-cotton fabrics with a range of skin colors, hair and clothes. The ministry has donated more than 400 dolls. The Church of the Palms is at 1960 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. For information, call 276-6347 or visit www.churchofthepalms.net.
                                 
    Maybe your New Year’s resolution is to get out of the house more, join a group or volunteer. Consider these faith-based options:      • The InterFaith Gender & Sexuality Coalition meets from 6:15 to 7:45 p.m. Jan. 10 at Compass Community Center, Fiandaca Ballroom, 201 N. Dixie Highway, Lake Worth. Email joe@thegraphicissue.com.

    • CROS Ministries needs volunteers to continue its work feeding hungry people. You can drive a van, make home food delivery, work in the office, food pantry, warehouse or kitchen, glean farmers’ fields, or help kids through the Nutrition in a Knapsack. There are dozens of options. For information, call Juanita Bryant Goode at 233-9009, Ext. 110, or email jgoode@crosministries.org
    • Meeting for all faiths: The Interfaith Café meets the third Thursday of the month from 7 to 9 p.m. at South County Civic Center, 16700 Jog Road, Delray Beach. Volunteers are needed to help keep the interfaith dialogue going. From clerical work to designing programs, there are many ways you can help. Contact Jane at jane@aurorasvoice.org
    • Pub Theology, a discussion of theology over a cold beer, now has two locations: The group meets at 7 p.m. on first Tuesdays at The Biergarten, 309 Via De Palmas #90, Boca Raton, and third Thursdays at Barrel of Monks, 1141 S. Rogers Circle #5, Boca Raton. Questions? Contact Thad at tlschoen@bellsouth.net.
    • The United Methodist Women meet “to have fun, to live your faith in community, to discuss ways to help women and children and to support mission projects locally, nationally and globally.”
    The mission-oriented group reaches out to offer support globally by creating small groups, called circles, that offer “programs to develop awareness and encourage action and advocacy on behalf of women, children and youth.”
    Choose one of the five circles that meet monthly at a time convenient for you. Mark your calendar for the UMW’s Fashion Show fundraiser, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 28. For information, call Barbara at 909-8906 or visit www.fumcbocaraton.org.

Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at janisfontaine@outlook.com.

Christine King works with Delray Beach resident Kari Shipley at King’s studio

in Boynton Beach. King walks with the aid of high-tech braces on her calves.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Lona O'Connor

    As Christine King sits on the breezy pool deck at her condo on the Intracoastal Waterway, she hears a noise that no one else even notices.
    “Jet Ski,” she says. “I had never heard of a Jet Ski accident until I was in one.”
    It was July 4, 1996. King, then 26, was a passenger on a Jet Ski in the Atlantic Ocean off Rhode Island. The Jet Ski hit a wave way too hard. She and the driver went up in the air.
    “I thought, when are we coming down? Then I blacked out.”
    She was told later that she came down, hard, on the seat. The impact broke her back.
    “When I woke up I looked down at my legs and they were twisted more than they can be twisted.” She wraps her forearms around each other to suggest what her legs looked like.
    “I said to myself, if I ever get out, I will change my career,” said King, who at the time was vice president of a video company.
    Despite the odds against it, after months of surgery and rehabilitation King regained the ability to walk.
    She already had been a ballerina and had been training for the Miss Fitness USA title at the time of her accident. She got training as a medical exercise specialist and started a company called Your Best Fit, working with clients of all ages and levels of ability. From her base in Boynton Beach, she and her staff of 15 trainers, nutritionists and other specialists work with doctors and clients all over the country.
    Having worked her way back to mobility from such an injury, King is a past master of working around the excuses of others.
    “I tell people they can do what they never thought possible,” King said with the fervor of someone who knows. “If it moves, we exercise it, and if you can move, you’d better move.”
    Peg Ekberg is in full agreement.
    “If you can move, you can do something,” says Ekberg, who is 94 and shooting for age 120. “She says that, and I say that.”
    Ekberg works with King in the pool once a week to combat arthritis, neck and back problems.
    King also worked with Ekberg’s late husband, Paul, who had Parkinson’s disease.
    In the swimming pool, King was able to help Paul Ekberg and others — some with oxygen tanks — to work muscles more easily than on land.
    When the time came for the Ekbergs’ granddaughter to marry at Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Paul Ekberg’s dearest wish was to walk down the aisle to his seat in the church.
    “Twenty-six steps was all we needed,” recalled Peg Ekberg.
    For weeks before the wedding, with King coaching, the couple practiced, step by tentative step, in their condo.
    And he did it.
    “There were tears in the eyes of all the family and friends,” said Peg Ekberg. “How grateful we were to her.”
    When King was recovering from her accident, doctors told her that her progress was aided by the fact that she was very fit. She also credits her nurses, who refused to baby her.
    “They said you have to do some things by yourself,” she recalled. “It gave me a lot of confidence.”
    That philosophy carries over to her clients now.
    “I tell people, we know what you can do,” she said. “I have your numbers, your X-rays, your MRIs.”
    Her clients include elite-level golfers and child athletes, as well as people recovering from surgeries and people with and without disabilities.
    King follows her own daily regimen of pool exercise and back strengthening. She walks with the aid of high-tech braces on her calves.
    Bob Ridgley, 81, of Delray Beach, has been attending King’s exercise classes at the Gulf Stream Bath and Tennis Club for 16 years. Another of King’s services is managing fitness programs for private clubs.
    “She’s like a professor. She studies aging and she really knows what she is doing,” says Ridgley, who runs a personalized products business and plays golf after four back surgeries. “She will change [an exercise] for you alone. I have high regard for her acumen. We’re not jocks, but she gets us all inspired.”
     Peg Ekberg admires King’s careful attention.
     “It’s not just what she does in her classes but how she cares about people,” Ekberg said. “When Paul was in the hospital she would show up, even if it was midnight, to find out how everything was. It’s not just a job, it’s a gift she gives to everyone.”
    King says she is the one receiving the gift.
    “I haven’t met anyone who hasn’t been through something,” she said. “I tell them, you can fight through this and feel comfortable in your own skin. We are all heroes.”

Lona O’Connor has a lifelong interest in health and healthy living. Send column ideas to Lona13@bellsouth.net.

Greg Quattlebaum and Jibby Ciric, co-chairs of the annual Heroes Awards.

Photo provided

    Palm Beach County Medical Society Services is asking for nominations of Palm Beach County individuals, organizations and businesses that have used their skills and resources to improve the quality of health care. From the nominations, the Medical Society will make selections and honor them April 21 at the 14th Annual Heroes in Medicine Awards luncheon held at the Kravis Center’s Cohen Pavilion. 
    Greg Quattlebaum and Jibby Ciric are serving as the event’s co-chairpersons. Award categories include: the Bruce Rendina Professional Heroes, Community Outreach Heroes, Health Care Educator Heroes, Health Care Innovation Heroes, Health Care Provider Heroes (non-physician), Physician Heroes (local/national/international), Health Care Prevention/Wellness Service Heroes, and Student Heroes.
    A final category, PROJECT ACCESS Heroes, consists of MDs, DOs, hospitals, medical groups or facilities that donate their time and services through Project Access of Palm Beach County Medical Society Services.
    Nominations must be received at the Palm Beach County Medical Society by Feb. 10 at noon.  For information or to receive a nomination form via email, call Brenna Iyampillai or Jim Sugarman at 433-3940 or to request a form, go to www.pbcms.org/events/heroes-in-medicine.
                                 
    Delray Medical Center now offers a device designed to help patients diagnosed with a patent foramen ovale, which is a small opening between the upper chambers of the heart. The AMPLATZER PFO Occluder, an FDA-approved device, is designed to close the opening and reduce the risk of recurrent ischemic strokes caused by clots passing between the heart chambers and up to the brain. An estimated 25 percent of adults have this condition. Data from RESPECT clinical trial showed that patients who received this device had a reduced risk of recurrent stroke by 45 percent over guideline-directed medical therapy alone. The procedure to implant the device is minimally invasive and performed while the patient is sedated but still conscious. For information, visit www.delraymedicalctr.com/our-services/heart-vascular.
                                    
    Florida Atlantic University was recently designated as a Nikon Center of Excellence based on the high caliber of its research faculty, its research, and its advanced imaging instrumentation. At a December presentation, the university and Nikon unveiled the newest addition to the FAU Brain Institute, a $750,000 high-speed microscopy instrument that provides 3-D views of the nervous systems and whole organisms.
                                    
    The Cancer Alliance of Help & Hope has entered into a new partnership with the University of Miami’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. The Cancer Alliance of Help & Hope assists children, adults and families affected by cancer by helping to pay bills they acquire during the treatment and recovery process. The Cancer Center’s priority is to translate research breakthroughs into more effective treatments; it currently conducts more than 260 clinical trials.
    Launching their partnership at 5:45 p.m. Jan. 17, the Cancer Alliance of Help & Hope will host Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers at a symposium where they will share highlights of their work and what it means for the future of treatment for cancer patients.
    Speakers are scheduled to be Dr. Stephen Nimer, the center’s director; Dr. Ronan Swords, professor in leukemia; Dr. Alejandra Perez, breast program director; and Dr. Brian Slomovitz, gynecologic oncology. The symposium will be at the Colony Hotel, 155 Hammon Ave., Palm Beach. For information or to register for the event, visit www.cahh.org or call 748-7227.
                                    
    During November at the Treatment Center of the Palm Beaches, Karrol-Jo Foster was promoted to director of clinical services, and Brian Murphy was promoted to clinical director of outpatient services. Brian Moriarty was hired as a business development representative. The center’s office address is 4905 Lantana Road, Lake Worth.

Fleet Feet Sports Delray Beach and Doghouse Multisport Training Center raised $2,400 in December

to buy new shoes and bikes for Delray Beach youths through their Treads vs. Trainers charity event.

Participants included (l-r) Mark Burns, Melissa Perlman, Alex Kline and Justin Haber.

Photo provided

Send health news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com

Teach your pets new tricks to work their brains. The author’s cat, Casey,

learned how to walk and then jump through a hoop.

Arden Moore and her dog, Kona. Bolster your bond with your pet by talking and singing to him.

Photos provided

By Arden Moore

   Each New Year’s Day, many of us vow that this is the year we will start each morning with yoga stretches, steer clear of the fast-food drive-thru and finally organize our clutter.
    We are days into 2017. So how are you faring in your New Year’s resolutions?
    Already slipping? Trust me, I can totally relate. That is why I never make annual resolutions for myself. I make them for my pets.
    When you shift the focus of setting healthy goals on bettering your pets’ mental and physical well-being, you are more motivated to accomplish them.
    As America’s Pet Health and Safety Coach, I’m all about bringing out the best in pets, so I happily unleash my 2017 Top 10 pet resolutions for your consideration:
    1. Book an annual wellness examination for your pet. A lot of things can happen to your pet’s health in a year. These snout-to-tail checkups can help catch a condition early, when there is a better chance to treat it and at less expense. Be sure to bring your cat’s or dog’s favorite healthy treat for your veterinarian to dole out during the exam to make the clinic less frightening and more welcoming to your pet.  
    2. Schedule daily playtime with your tabby. Spending as little as five to 10 minutes a day in purposeful play with your indoor cat goes a long way toward curbing the destructive behavior often sparked by boredom in felines spending long days home alone. Casey, my orange tabby, delights in having me toss a paper wad down the hallway or wiggling a feather wand toy like an orchestra conductor for him to stalk, leap and pounce on. Playtime gets your cat mentally stimulated while slipping in some exercise to help keep him at a fit weight.
    3. Take the ho-hum out of daily dog walks. Dogs may be creatures of routine, but they love to explore new sights and especially new smells. So mix up the routes, duration and pace on outdoor outings with your canine pal as I do with Kona, my young terrier mix. Ditch that same-route-at-the-same-time rut and treat your dog to new dog-safe places to explore. Work in some doggy obedience cues during your walks (don’t forget to bring a few treats) to encourage your dog to focus more on you and not that squirrel up the sidewalk.
    4. Discuss vaccination options with your veterinarian. In order to avoid over-vaccinating your dog or cat, talk with your veterinarian about your pet’s lifestyle, risk and exposure to infectious diseases and together decide which vaccines are necessary for your pet’s protection. Ask about core (essential) and non-core (lifestyle-based) vaccines as well as the option of checking vaccine titers — an alternative to vaccine boosters that involves the veterinarian checking antibodies in your pet based on a blood draw.
    5. Commit to performing dental care on your pet daily. This is the gold standard for prevention of gingivitis and tartar buildup. Keep in mind that by as young as age 3, 70 percent of dogs and cats develop some degree of dental problems. Consult your veterinarian about options that include pet finger brushes, dental treats, dental chews, dental rinses and pet-safe toothpaste.
    6. Add some welcomed challenge at mealtimes. Once a week, go bowl free and put the measured portion of food in a pet food puzzle or treat ball for your dog or cat to paw and swat at to trigger the release of kibble. These items help slow the pace in dogs who gulp down their food as well as motivate the inner hunter in cats.
    7. Boost your pet’s brain by teaching him a new trick. Dogs and cats of all ages benefit by being mentally challenged in a positive way. My cat, Casey, now comes, sits and lightly touches his paw to my hand on cue. We are now working on his figure-8 moves in and out of my legs. My dog, Kona, now spins cutely by reading my hand signal and is ready to learn how to roll over.
    8. Cater to your senior pets. Treat your gray-muzzled pal to a sturdy ramp to allow him easy access to the sofa or your bed. Or provide him with a quality orthopedic pet bed that will cushion his arthritic joints and allow him to nap or sleep easily.
    9. Engage in cat chat and dog dialogue. Take time each day to talk, laugh and even read out loud to your pet. These small gestures boost your bond with your pet on an emotional level. Be sure to say his name in an upbeat way and even create mini-jingles you can sing to him to elevate the mood in both of you.
    10. Enroll in a pet first-aid/CPR class. Be your pet’s best health ally by taking a pet first- aid class and learn what to do — and what not to do — in a pet emergency when minutes count. Look for veterinarian-approved courses that will teach you the right way to perform cat/dog CPR and rescue breathing, as well as deal with bleeding, poisoning, choking and other first-aid issues. I am blessed because Kona and Casey team up with me when I teach my Pet First Aid 4U classes all over the country to give students more hands-on experience in finding pulses, bandaging legs and more.
    Got a favorite pet-related New Year’s resolution? Please share it for other pet lovers by emailing me directly at arden@fourleggedlife.com or posting online at the end of this column at www.thecoastalstar.com. And may you and your pets enjoy a grrr-eat 2017 from Casey, Kona and me!
    
Arden Moore, founder of www.FourLeggedLife.com, is an animal behavior consultant, editor, author, professional speaker and master certified pet first-aid instructor. Each week, she hosts the popular Oh Behave! show on www.PetLifeRadio.com. Learn more by visiting www.fourleggedlife.com.

Middle-school students conducted a monthlong food drive to benefit WPTV-Ch. 5’s Food for Families

community outreach program. They donated nonperishables such as bagged rice, dried beans, canned meats,

soups and vegetables to help less fortunate people during Thanksgiving. They distributed a total

of 4,000 pounds. Also that day, middle-school Spanish students donned cultural outfits, made display boards

and served food from specific countries during the Hispanic Food Festival, which featured

a live mariachi band. Above: (l-r) Nirali Patel, 14, Gianna Smith, 13, Robbie Mayotte, 13,

and Raymond Reiersen, 13, with bags of nonperishables.

Photo provided

Cormorants line the side of a pond near the clubhouse of the Country Club of Florida,

a certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary in the Village of Golf.

A great egret and a roseate spoonbill work the shallow waters looking for a meal.

INSET BELOW: The club provides housing for purple martins, which repay the favor

by devouring thousands of mosquitoes and other insects each day.

Photos provided by Karen Antonucci

By Steve Pike
    
    The term snowbirds generally refers to people coming to South Florida from the North to escape the grip of Old Man Winter. In other words, if it’s January, it must be snowbird season.
    Human snowbirds, however, aren’t the only ones who come to bathe in the Florida sunshine. A plethora of winged birds also makes its way here to bask in the South Florida sun. Among the most prevalent are purple martins, the largest of the North American swallow family and one of the most popular subjects among birdwatchers.
    Residents and members of the Country Club of Florida, in the Village of Golf in particular, get a bird’s-eye view (pardon the pun) of purple martins, which like to dive at great speeds into their man-made houses.
    The private Country Club of Florida, whose members include many people from the coastal communities, manages 32 condominiums (it is Florida) that host purple martins. The birds arrive annually in January and February each year, with fledglings born in April and May. The birds stay through early summer — longer than most two-legged snowbirds — then head south to Brazil in August.

    An average of 100 fledglings are born here each year. The club’s staff maintains the condominiums, a setting that keeps the birds secure and protected from predators such as crows and snakes. In turn, the purple martins help reduce the mosquito population at the CC of Florida, which is a certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary through the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses.
    To reach certification, course personnel demonstrate that they are maintaining a high degree of quality in environmental planning, wildlife and habitat management, outreach and education, chemical use reduction and safety, water conservation and water quality management.  
    The club has more than 10 acres dedicated to two wildlife corridors. The wetland area consists of aquatic plants and fish that attract wading birds. The native area includes plants and vegetation that attract butterflies. The two areas support a wildlife population of more than 100 types of birds and more than 30 other types of animals, amphibians and reptiles.
    All of this fits into the history and culture of the Country Club of Florida. The club’s founder, Carleton Blunt, was a member of the National Audubon Society.
    The 54,000-square-foot clubhouse, which features a Low Country design, is decorated with Audubon prints, and each golf hole carries a bird’s name.
    The course’s five tee boxes, instead of being designated by color,  are named after birds: Cooper’s Hawk, Osprey, Blue Heron, Purple Martin and Wood Duck.

A Pioneer Son at Sea,
by Gilbert L. Voss,
University Press of Florida (www.upf.com), 200 pp, $19.95.

By Willie Howard

    Gilbert Voss was a Renaissance man of the South Florida fishing variety.
    Born in Hypoluxo to pioneer parents, Voss fished commercially for mackerel and mullet during the 1930s and ’40s, served in the Coast Guard during World War II and eventually became a research biologist, professor, conservationist and author.  
    Before he died in 1989, Voss created a manuscript of the colorful fishermen, sponge divers, oystermen and others who wrested a living from the water on both coasts of Florida in his newly released book, A Pioneer Son at Sea: Fishing Tales of Old Florida.
    Voss’ son, Robert Voss, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, edited the book. He added introductory background about his father’s early life and his pioneer ancestors, along with notes that add historical context to several chapters.
    By writing about his life on the water, the elder Voss captures the flavor of fishermen and fishing communities that have long since vanished in our state of 20 million people.
    He shares tales of rumrunners who eluded the authorities by tossing a net overboard at the Lantana bridge during Prohibition. He takes readers fishing at night for Spanish mackerel, finding the schools by the “fire in the water,” and describes the Bahamian conch fishermen of Riviera Beach who netted mackerel, bluefish and pompano from custom-built sea skiffs.
    In a chapter titled Tight Lines! Voss tells of charter fishing around 1940 aboard the Dream Girl, his brother’s 36-foot wooden sea skiff — including a trip off of Stuart where they came upon a group of sailfish using their tall dorsal fins to herd small fish into balls.
    After serving four years in the Coast Guard during World War II, Voss turned his attention to academics. He wanted to become a writer, but after enrolling at the University of Miami at age 30, he took a zoology course and was hooked.
    Voss began to tag and study game fish, blending his thirst for biological knowledge with his experience as a fisherman. He became an active researcher in an era when marine research was taking off.
    Voss eventually earned his Ph.D., specializing in cephalopods such as squids and octopuses. He wrote several books about Florida marine life, including Seashore Life of Florida and the Caribbean, and served as a professor of biological oceanography at the University of Miami.
    In the late 1950s, Voss lobbied with others for the formation of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park to protect the reefs from the widespread exploitation that he observed.

Jennifer Urbanek leads a shark feeding at the Sandoway Discovery Center. Sharkfest is Jan. 21.

File photo/The Coastal Star

By Steve Pike

    Sharks — they’re among the fiercest creatures in the Earth’s oceans. They’re also among the most misunderstood. Hollywood portrays sharks as little more than man-eating monsters intent on gobbling up humans who venture into the water.  
    Visitors to the Sandoway Discovery Center in Delray Beach on Jan. 21 will get the opportunity to see the true sides of sharks during Sharkfest from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  It’s a first-of-its-kind event for Sandoway, which has given locals and visitors close-up experiences of Florida fish and reptiles for nearly 20 years.
    Sharkfest differs from Sandoway’s annual Shark Month exhibit, which goes from June to August, in that it is more festival than exhibit.
    “It’s a family-friendly event for the day,’’ said Sandoway Discovery Center Executive Director Danica Sanborn. “We want to bring people to the center for shark awareness.’’
    To better create awareness — and separate fact from fiction — Sandoway will host the Florida Atlantic University Shark Research Lab and the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
    Sharkfest will coincide with the annual shark migration from the Bahamas to off the North Carolina coast.
    “So usually around February and March you see all those videos on the news of ‘thousands of sharks’ off the coast,’’ said Evan Orellana, the center’s director of education and animal care.
    Most of the sharks, said Orellana, are requiem and spinner sharks — not exactly the most aggressive of the species. But they are sharks, which means people, particularly non-Floridians, harbor misconceptions about them.
    The No. 1 misconception? That sharks are lying in wait to bite unsuspecting swimmers off the Florida coast.
    Orellana pointed out the window of his second-floor office inside the Sandoway Discovery Center.
     “Statistically that coconut hanging on the tree is more likely to get you than a shark,’’ he said. “Most Floridians know it’s a low percentage but out-of-staters don’t have that information.’’
    “They think it happens every day,’’ Sanborn said of shark bites. “But when they’re given the numbers, they say, ‘Oh, only this many?’’’
    Statistics, Orellana said, are just numbers unless they have enough facts behind them.
    “You don’t know if those 10 shark attacks occurred at night near a pier where there are a lot of fish,’’ he said. “You have to have more information.’’
    That information begins, Orellana said, with respect for the sharks, their history and their habitat.
    “They deserve the conservation we give dolphins, turtles and other animals,’’ he said. “Sharks are animals in the ocean. They’ve been around since before the dinosaurs.
    “They need help with somebody telling their story and providing shark education to the public.’’
    And that’s what Sharkfest is all about.

Cooler weather usually brings good numbers of kingfish to the waters off south Palm Beach County.

Wayne Riddler, center, with the 52.1-pound kingfish he caught Dec. 14 on the Living on Island Time drift boat.

With Riddler are Capt. Max Parker, right, and mate Phil Ferreira-Alves.

Lady K mate Mark Farmer shows a kingfish that hit a dead sardine in 180 feet of water off Lake Worth

on Dec. 13. The Lady K drift boat is based at Sportsman’s Park in Lantana.

Laurie Beausoleil of Boynton Beach with a 12-pound kingfish caught Dec. 9 off Boynton Inlet

while aboard the Living on Island Time.

Photos by Willie Howard/The Coastal Star and Living on Island Time

By Willie Howard

    When the water temperature drops in more northern latitudes, schools of kingfish move south to spend the winter off South Florida, giving anglers more opportunities to catch hard-charging “kings.”
    Good numbers of kingfish were showing up in December in the waters around Boynton Inlet.
    Those fishing on the Living on Island Time drift boat, based at Palm Beach Yacht Center in Hypoluxo, were catching kings in about 140 feet of water directly off Boynton Inlet in early December.
    Anglers on the two other Boynton-area drift boats — the Lady K based at Sportsman’s Park in Lantana and the Sea Mist III based at Boynton Harbor Marina — also were finding kingfish in December.
    Drift boat anglers typically catch kingfish using dead sardines on triple 5/0 hooks rigged with 50-pound-test leader and about an ounce of weight above the leader.
    Kingfish are especially fun to catch on live bait such as blue runners, threadfin herring or goggle-eyes that are drifted on the surface, trolled slowly or dangled under a fishing kite.
    When they’re feeding aggressively, kingfish have been known to leap out of the water holding baits in their mouths, like dogs with bones.
    Kingfish also will strike trolled natural baits and lures such as spoons and jigs.
    King mackerel (Scomberomorus cavalla), best known as kingfish or simply “kings,” are notorious bait thieves. They can eat the sardine from a drift-boat rig and miss all three hooks — or eat most of a live baitfish, leaving behind only the part holding the hook.
    The kingfish’s sharp teeth should be avoided. Many anglers rig live baits intended for kingfish with wire leader and a trailing “stinger” hook to reduce the chance of losing their rigs to  kingfish.
    Kingfish prefer water temperatures between 68 and 78 degrees and often move in schools. When large schools of kings are present along the coast of South Florida, it’s not unusual to see dozens of boats clustered over them.
    Most of the winter kingfish caught off Palm Beach County are small. Of course, there are exceptions.
    Wayne Riddler caught a 52.1-pound kingfish the morning of Dec. 14 while fishing on the Living on Island Time drift boat.
    Riddler’s chubby kingfish hit a dead sardine on a circle hook tied to 40-pound-test leader — a rig intended for snapper — in 155 feet of water north of the Lake Worth Pier.
    The fish took a long first run, bending the rod into a U shape, but Riddler was able to bring it back to the boat in about 10 minutes with the circle hook lodged in the corner of its mouth, Capt. Max Parker said.
    When fishing for schooling kingfish, Chris Lemieux, a charter captain based in Boynton Beach, tells his customers to cast spinning rods holding 1.5-ounce white bucktail jigs for small kingfish.
    Lemieux instructs his anglers to work the jigs back toward the boat quickly with the current to entice hard-striking kingfish.
    “They hit like 100 mph,” Lemieux said. “They’re fun to catch.”
    Small live baits such as pilchards also work well for winter kingfish if they’re available, Lemieux said.
    Kingfish have relatively dark meat with a stronger flavor than, say, snapper. They’re best eaten fresh. Small kingfish are considered better, and safer, to eat than large ones.
    The Florida Department of Health warns against eating kingfish 31 inches or longer (measured to the fork of the tail) because of mercury, a toxic metal that accumulates in the flesh.
Women of childbearing age, women who are pregnant and young children should not eat kingfish at all because of mercury, the state health department says.
    The minimum size for kingfish is 24 inches, measured to the fork of the tail. The daily bag limit is two.

Crescendo wins Operation Sailfish tournament
    The fishing team on Crescendo, led by Capt. Skip Dana of Deerfield Beach, won the Operation Sailfish tournament Dec. 9-10 based at Sailfish Marina in Palm Beach Shores.
    Crescendo was tied with three other boats until the final minutes of the tournament. With two minutes left before lines out, the team hooked a sailfish and released it to end the event in first place with 10 releases and earn a check for $239,280.
    Crescendo, a 35-foot Revenge owned by Charles Greenberg of Boca Raton, was one of the smallest boats in the tournament. Dana said the team caught most of its fish using live goggle-eyes dangled under fishing kites off Palm Beach and Juno Beach.
    Team Contender One finished second, with nine releases. Sandman finished third and Weez in the Keys finished fourth, both with nine sailfish releases (based on the time of the releases).
    Overall, 47 boats released 218 sailfish in two days of fishing in Operation Sailfish — the first leg of the Quest for the Crest Sailfish Series (www.questforthecrest.com). The second leg of the series, the Sailfish 400, is set for Jan. 11-15 in Miami.

New limits for mutton snapper, barracuda
    The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission recently approved size and bag limits to protect populations of mutton snapper and barracuda.
    New limits for both fish took effect Jan. 1. There was no size limit for barracuda in the past.
    To be legal to keep, a barracuda caught in South Florida must measure between 15 and 36 inches to the fork of the tail. (One barracuda larger than 36 inches can be kept daily per angler or per boat, whichever is less.)
    The daily bag limit for barracuda is two per person with a maximum of six per boat.
    The barracuda limits apply in state and federal waters of six South Florida counties — Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Collier.
    Mutton snapper, the popular reef fish, must be at least 18 inches in total length to be legal to keep, an increase of 2 inches from the previous minimum size.
    The daily bag limit for mutton snapper is five fish per person within the 10-fish snapper aggregate limit.
    For more details about recreational saltwater fishing regulations, go to www.myfwc.com/fishing and click on “saltwater fishing.”

Hogfish

New hogfish limits, closed season in the works
    The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission recently approved regulations restricting the harvest of hogfish, a tasty member of the wrasse family often targeted by spearfishers.
    No effective date for the hogfish regulations in state waters had been set as of mid-December, but they’re likely to take effect later this year.
    Hogfish are considered overfished in the Florida Keys and along the state’s east coast.
    The FWC in November approved regulations for state waters (up to 3 miles off the east coast) to complement rules approved for federal waters that are intended to help hogfish populations rebound.
    Key changes for those targeting hogfish in Atlantic waters and the Florida Keys include:
    • Lowering the bag limit from five hogfish to one.
    • A 4-inch increase in the minimum size, boosting it to 16 inches (measured to the fork of the tail).
    • A closed season during the cool months. The proposed hogfish harvest season is May 1 through Oct. 31.
    The FWC plans to issue a news release stating when the hogfish regulations will take effect in state waters. Watch for updates at www.myfwc.com.

Coming events
    Jan. 8-12: 45th annual Gold Cup Team Fishing Tournament, a billfish release tournament based at the Sailfish Club, Palm Beach. Begins with captain’s meeting Jan. 8. Fishing best three of four days, Jan. 9-12. Call Sarah Gay at 844-0206 or go to www.sailfishclub.com.
    Jan. 14: Basic boating safety class offered by Coast Guard Auxiliary, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. in the headquarters building at Spanish River Park, 3939 N. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton. Fee $35 for adults, $20 ages 12 to 19. Register at the door. Bring lunch. Call 391-3600 or email: fso-pe@cgauxboca.org.
    Jan. 19-21: Buccaneer Cup sailfish release tournament based at the Buccaneer Yacht Club in Palm Beach Shores. Late entry and check-in 4-6 p.m. Jan. 19, followed by captain’s meeting. Fishing Jan. 20-21. Dead-bait and live-bait categories. Call 909-7868 or www.buccaneercup.com.
    Jan. 21-22: Nautical Flea Market featuring new and used nautical gear and boats, 1801 NE Sixth St., Pompano Beach. Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Jan. 21 and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Jan. 22. Admission $5. Youths under 12 free. Call (954) 946-6419 or www.nauticalfleamarket.com.
    Jan. 25: Advanced kite fishing methods, a presentation by Capt. Mike Simko, 7 p.m., West Palm Beach Fishing Club, 201 Fifth St., West Palm Beach. Free. 832-6780 or www.westpalmbeachfishingclub.org.
    Jan. 28: Boating safety class offered by Coast Guard Auxiliary, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. in the classroom next to the boat ramps, Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park, 2010 N. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach. Fee $20. Register at the door. Call 331-2429.



Tip of the month
    If you happen to catch a sailfish and want to photograph it to show friends and family before releasing it, don’t lift it out of the water.
    Two reasons: It might cause the already tired billfish to die after being released. And it’s illegal unless you hold a federal highly migratory species angling permit and plan to put the sailfish in the boat and bring it back to shore.
    Here’s what the code of federal regulations says: Atlantic highly migratory fish (including sailfish and marlin) “must be released in a manner that will ensure maximum probability of survival, but without removing the fish from the water.”
    NOAA Fisheries’ enforcement staff will contact and warn anglers who post photos of billfish held out of the water on social media, says Ally Rogers, spokeswoman for NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement.
    Instead of lifting the sailfish out of the water, try leaning over the side of the boat (if conditions allow) and photographing the angler near the sailfish that is showing on the surface.
    Take time to revive caught sailfish by holding them alongside a moving boat so water can wash over their gills, advises Jason Schratwieser, conservation director for the International Game Fish Association.
    Release tips for large pelagic fish can be found at www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/hms/compliance/guides/careful_release_brochure.pdf.

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

As Delray Beach begins

ordinance changes,

others in area plan to stand pat

By Jane Smith

    The U.S. Cavalry arrived last month in the form of a 20-page federal joint statement on sober homes, delivered by U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel.
    She hoped beleaguered cities in her district and around the country would use the legal guidance to help protect their neighborhoods from over-saturation of the homes while safeguarding the rights of people in recovery.  
    So far, only Delray Beach among south county’s four large coastal municipalities will use the statement when revising its reasonable accommodation ordinance. The local statute covers group recovery homes.
    “The city will be able to say how many is too many in one neighborhood,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said at the Nov. 10 announcement. Previously, cities had to accept group recovery homes wherever they wanted to be.
    Now cities can consider two issues when deciding whether to grant a waiver and allow more than three unrelated people to live together. The municipalities can weigh the financial impact group homes have on single-family neighborhoods as well as the cost for city services, particularly 911 calls for relapsed addicts succumbing to overdoses.
    The revised joint statement, crafted by the departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development, now recognizes that zoning and land use are best determined locally, Glickstein and Frankel said.
    The revision was sparked in May when Frankel led a federal housing official and his staff on a tour of Delray Beach sober homes. The housing official was shocked by what he saw: suitcases, clothing and personal belongings strewn on lawns where patients had been evicted. He vowed to talk with Justice Department lawyers and craft a joint statement that also protects the rights of recovering addicts, who are protected under federal privacy and disability laws.
    Elected leaders and officials in three other coastal cities are less enthused.
    Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant and Lantana Mayor Dave Stewart don’t see enough of a change in the revised joint statement. They say if people are receiving treatment in the homes or selling drugs there, they have ordinances that make those activities illegal.
    “We are not going to do anything different at this point in time,” Stewart said.
    Grant said his city will continue to use nuisance abatement and code enforcement to monitor the group homes. He also wants to see the group homes pay the county’s 6 percent bed tax because they offer stays of less than six months.
    Boca Raton, battle-scarred from losing federal court lawsuits over sober home ordinances, is more cautious. It had to pay more than $2 million in attorneys’ fees in the cases.
    City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser recently gave a lukewarm assessment on the statement to the City Council.
    “I don’t think it is as much of a deviation from what the case law already does allow,” she told the council members on Nov. 22. Frieser said she liked the language that allows cities to deny the waivers under certain circumstances but proving the circumstances would “put an undue burden on a local government.”
    Delray Beach leaders know they have to walk a fine line when revising the ordinance.
    “It’s not a panacea,” City Attorney Max Lohman said a few days after the statement was delivered. “But it can be used to draft a more even-handed ordinance that also protects the homes’ residents.”
    Police Chief Jeff Goldman called the statement a “game changer. … Over-saturation is a major issue as it pertains to the heroin epidemic in Delray Beach.” The city had less of a problem with heroin overdoses in 2015 compared with this year.
    The city is using outside counsel Terrill Pyburn to bring a revised ordinance to the Planning & Zoning Board’s Dec. 19 meeting and then to the City Commission in January, the mayor said.
    “We feel the proposed changes will be mutually beneficial to all Delray citizens, including those deserving protections in group homes,” Glickstein said via email.
    The city had a revised ordinance already on the board’s Nov. 21 agenda. The major changes required the group medical homes to apply annually for the waiver, said Tim Stillings, planning and zoning director.
    As of mid-November, Stillings said the majority of accommodations were for a waiver to the unrelated persons rule. Since 2012, the city has granted 82 waivers, he said.
    In addition, city code inspectors work with the police department to identify illegal practices, such as drug sales, occurring at sober homes, said Michael Coleman, director of community improvement. So far this year, 21 sober home operators were evicted after the property’s owners were alerted to illegal activity, Coleman said.

Arrests made, bills proposed
    Separately, the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Sober Homes Task Force is recommending some changes to state laws to weed out rogue operators.
    Suggested revisions include: Increasing the penalties for patient brokering, creating an amendment that bans lying on websites designed to attract potential patients, changing voluntary certification of recovery residences to mandatory and providing more money to the state Department of Children & Families to better police the recovery industry.
    Rep. Bill Hager has agreed to sponsor the bills in the Florida House during the 2017 legislative session.
    “There is absolutely bipartisan and statewide support for this issue,” said Hager, whose district includes Delray Beach.
    The task force’s law enforcement arm arrested a Boynton Beach treatment center owner, James Kigar, and manager, Chris Hutson, in late October. It also seized the financial records of their Whole Life Recovery center.
    Since then, four Delray Beach sober home operators have been charged with violating the patient brokering law. In an effort to circumvent the law, authorities say, they allegedly accepted payments, called “case management fees,” for each insured patient directed to Whole Life for treatment.
    One operator who was charged runs a sober home on Lowson Boulevard in Delray Beach; its owners received a 2016 homestead exemption. Their names are listed on corporate records for Southern Palms Oasis Inc., along with John Dudek, who was charged with six counts of patient brokering. The case is ongoing.
    Two brothers, Bryan and Patrick Norquist, operated sober homes in the proposed Swinton Commons project in the Old School Square Historic Arts District, the heart of the trendy downtown area. They were charged with 16 counts of patient brokering.
    The fourth Delray Beach sober-home operator is Howard James Fowler Jr., who runs a sober home at 705 SW Sixth Ave. He was charged with 14 counts of patient brokering.
    Delray Beach Detective Nicole Lucas played a lead role in the case that led to the arrests of the sober home operators. Her confidential informant tipped her about Whole Life’s practices.
    She wants to shut down the bad providers who are in the recovery industry only for the money.
    “If it’s all about treatment,” Lucas said, “then we are going to save a lot more people.”

Mike Felice fills a trash bag with debris as Dennis Aten picks up a flip-flop on the beach.

Most days produce a few bags’ worth of trash along the beach.

One odd finding is a plastic bottle cut in half.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

    Oh, those early morning walks on the beach. Is there any better way to greet a day?
    That cool, silver sand between your toes. Salty breeze stirring the dune grass. Golden sun twinkling off the ocean’s foam.
    The shampoo bottles, the candy wrappers, the hypodermic needles.
    “You wouldn’t believe how much crap there is down there,” says Dennis Aten.
    “Would you believe toothbrushes?” asks Mike Felice.
    Aten and Felice are both 66, both retired, both friends and neighbors in the 3500 S. Ocean condo at South Palm Beach’s northern line.
    You’ll meet them on your morning walk, plastic bags and EZ Reach pincer poles in hand, picking up those bottles, wrappers and hypodermic needles all the way south to the Lantana line and back. And you’ll meet them again most afternoons.
    “I used to monitor the turtle nests about four years ago,” recalls Felice, a retired teacher from Toms River, N.J. “I wouldn’t stake if there was junk around, so we started picking it up.”
    The waves are a roiling explosion of blinding white foam this late October morning, a rough sea churned by an angry wind that grabs at their plastic bags as Aten and Felice meander down the beach, grabbing trash from the seaweed and sand.
    Let’s tag along.
    “Deodorant roller,” Aten says, dropping one into his bag.
    “Plastic visor,” Felice reports.
    “Plastic forks,” Aten says. “There’s always a million of those.”
    Scan the horizon, admire the sky, squint down the coast and South Palm Beach is one gorgeous Florida postcard. But keep your head down, scan the sand, and oh, the sights you’ll see.
    “They should ban plastic straws,” Aten grumbles, pushing one into his bag.
    Felice has a list of some of the trash they’ve found in the past four years. Flip-flops and lunch bags, hair clips and bands, cigarettes and cigars, fishing line and bait buckets and Styrofoam everythings. And yes, before you ask, condoms. But only one sex toy in four years.
    “We found a Crown Royal whisky bottle with a note in it once,” Aten says, “but the note was so wet you couldn’t read it. All I could make out was N.C. for North Carolina.”
    All trash and no treasures, unless you count the bottle caps.
    “On a good day, you’ll get 100 to 150 bottle caps,” Aten says, so when the pair spotted a Coastal Star profile of Timothy Annis, an Ocean Ridge resident who recycles bottle caps to buy wheelchairs for veterans, they dropped off several thousand from their daily walks.
    Occasionally, other beach walkers pass.
    “We get a lot of funny comments,” Aten says. “One lady asked us, ‘Are you guys picking up shrimp?’” He shakes his head. “Shrimp.”
    This morning he’s picking up a half bottle of Idole Skin Lightening Lotion. Not a half-full bottle, but half the bottle itself, neatly cut in two.
    “We get a lot of bottles that are cut in half,” Aten says, “and I got five or six toothbrushes the other day. They’ve got to have come off a boat.”
    Soda cups you understand. Candy wrappers you understand. But who leaves a tube of Colgate toothpaste at the beach? Are cruise ships dumping their trash overboard? They wonder. How does a plastic bottle get neatly cut in half down here?
    One of the other regular beach walkers is Jody Field, who lives in the Beauvois, just across South Ocean Boulevard from Aten and Felice. Last year, she wrote the town manager.
    “I am writing to tell you about two South Palm Beach residents that I believe should be recognized by the town. They are not employed by the town or the city of Palm Beach, they are citizens who enjoy the beach and are concerned for its welfare,” Field wrote.
    On April 28, 2015, Mayor Bonnie Fischer presented Aten and Felice with Certificates of Appreciation:
    “The town of South Palm Beach extends its gratitude to you for the time and efforts you so unselfishly donate to clean our beach. Thank you for your efforts to Keep South Palm Beach beautiful.”
    The official accolades are nice, the men agree, but praise was not their motivation. They do it for the exercise, the companionship, the turtles and the beach.
    “I’ll do this as long as I can walk,” Felice says. “It’s good exercise.”
    “Until I can’t,” Aten agrees, and his reach pole makes a grab at the sand.
    “Glow stick,” he murmurs. “Always a lot of glow sticks.”

Roberto Bentez and Roberto Baster, Meisner Electric employees, use a cherry picker

to construct the 100-foot Christmas tree at Old School Square on Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach.

Building the tree is a monthlong community event that brings together all types of workers and volunteers.

The volunteers check all 15,000 LED light bulbs, fluff over 3,000 branches and attach them to the tree.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Kelly Sellers and Katie Morris, the editor’s nieces,

make their grandmother’s family cookie recipe in the early 1990s.

Family photo

    December sets me thinking about the sweet smells from my mom’s kitchen on chilly Midwest winter days. Mom really didn’t like to cook, she told me in her later years, but with six kids and a husband, it went with the job. So she tied on the apron and stirred up dinner — no grumbling.
    One kitchen activity she did enjoy was Christmas baking. She had cookie recipes passed down from her mother and grandmother (Irish and German) that she made with love and remembrance. She savored having her kids all around her in the kitchen, helping spread the icing and toss the sprinkles.
    It was a holiday ritual that I remember fondly.
    Now that mom is gone and our families have scattered around the country, making or inheriting new holiday rituals, my husband and I often find ourselves on our own, eager to mix memories of the past with experiences of today.
    His family is Catholic, mine is Protestant and with friends from numerous faiths (or of no faith) and cultures, the holidays are often a colorful confetti mix of foods and activities. We’ve seen or done everything from Hanukkah lights to midnight Mass; from roast pork to the feast of the seven fishes; from candlelight caroling to long walks on the beach at sunrise.
    All are part of some family’s tradition and all are worth experiencing, sharing and celebrating.
    I have sampled foods from other cultures, cradled babies that do not look like me and observed the prayers of others. Each of these experiences has made my life richer.
    So, from all of us at The Coastal Star, we wish you a December filled with fond tradition, a wealth of new experiences and at least one cookie passed down from a recipe written long ago and frosted with love.

— Mary Kate Leming,
Editor

Harry Adwar volunteers at the Caring Kitchen, a hot-meal program in Delray Beach.

He does cooking, cleaning and raises money for the organization.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

    Harry Adwar knows what it’s like to go to bed hungry.
    A successful business owner who now lives in Highland Beach several months of the year, Adwar was the 10th of 14 children raised by a mother who struggled to keep the family fed after her husband died.
    “I know what it’s like to have to go to sleep with an empty belly,” he says.
    Because of his background, it’s not surprising to find Adwar, 80, at the Caring Kitchen — a hot-meal food program in Delray Beach — every Monday doing just about anything that’s needed.
    It also comes as no surprise that Adwar was a star with children at the Caring Kitchen’s annual holiday party last month, when he helped them with crafts.
    “Harry is so willing, ready and able to do whatever needs to be done,” says April Hazamy, program director and client advocate for CROS Ministries, which operates the Caring Kitchen. “He’s a very hard worker and he’s always happy. The joy of being around him is just very catching.”  
    A volunteer at the Caring Kitchen for six years, Adwar doesn’t see any task as beneath him.
    “I’m a worker, it makes no difference to me what I have to do,” he says. “I cook, I clean, I do everything.”
    His efforts go beyond what’s expected.
    A member of a local country club, Adwar goes over there every Sunday to pick up fruits and other breakfast foods to hand out to Caring Kitchen clients soon after he arrives at 8 a.m. Monday.
    He also organizes canned-food and clothing drives for the Caring Kitchen at his Boca Highland community, where he serves as vice president of both the umbrella association and of his building, Braemar Isle.
    In addition, he frequently puts together events to raise money for the Caring Kitchen as well as for some of its homeless clients.
    “My car is always full when I go over there,” he said, adding that he and his wife of 58 years, Judith, also lend financial support to several organizations.   
    Adwar is active in his synagogue in Boca Raton and in the town of Highland Beach. On Dec. 5, he will lead the lighting of the menorah during the town’s annual Light Up the Holidays celebration.
    Along with his work at the Caring Kitchen, Adwar volunteers with a similar, but larger, program on Long Island when he’s up north for four months of the year.  
    “I think I owe some of the wealth that I have gained to the poor and underprivileged,” he said. “I feel that I’m giving back.”
    As a child, Adwar helped his mother pay for groceries while the family lived on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He and his two brothers would shine shoes for 5 cents, taking turns bringing in customers, taking the money and doing the shining.
    “If we made $3, that was a lot of money for my mother,” he said.
    To pay the bills Adwar’s mother worked three jobs. She resisted taking government assistance.
    “My mother would never do that,” he says.
    As he got older, Adwar worked with a brother’s foundry and then started his own business, manufacturing and wholesaling jewelry.
    Throughout his success, Adwar has remembered his roots and makes it a point to treat everyone, including homeless people, with respect.
    “I never look at them as if they’re below me,” he says. “I see them as equals who didn’t have the luck that I had.”

NOMINATE SOMEONE TO BE A COASTAL STAR
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