By Dan Moffett

    Two coastally iconic Manalapan businesses that were headed for the wrecking ball to make way for a new Publix at Plaza del Mar are planning to relocate soon in larger spaces at the center.
    Manalapan Italian Cuisine, with its Basil Bar and Grill, is moving to the west end of the plaza, near Thaikyo Asian restaurant in a storefront formerly occupied by Guido the Tailor.
    Owner Earl Bass says the new pizza eatery will be called Basil.
    “We’re going to keep it simple,” Bass said of the name change. “There will be seating for 132, compared to the 79 seats we now have.  It’s one huge room that will all flow together with outdoor seating and a bar with twice as many seats.”
    Relocating next door to the new Basil restaurant is Palm Beach Travel, which also is moving into a bigger unit with 2,200 square feet, compared with the business’ current 750-foot store. Owner Annie Davis says she intends to be open by early October and also will run an art gallery, Palm Beach Art and Travel, in the adjacent space.
    “We’re really excited,” Davis said. “The plaza has been great, and our clients have been very supportive, but we’ll be glad to get this behind us.”
    At the other end of the plaza near State Road A1A, Pedro Maldonado is about to move his Jewelry Artisans business into space alongside Evelyn & Arthur Clothing & Gifts. Maldonado said Evelyn & Arthur will downsize by half and turn over the eastern side of the unit to the jewelry store.
    “A miracle happened,” said Maldonado, who has had his shop at the same plaza location for nearly three decades. “I was freaking out wondering what we were going to do. Then this came as a surprise at the last minute.”
    Maldonado said Fred Weissman, the president and chief financial officer of Evelyn & Arthur, approached him and offered about 2,100 square feet of the boutique’s space, roughly twice what the jeweler has now.
    “I thought he was joking with me,” Maldonado said. “We’ll be visible from the road now and have people walking over from the Eau (Palm Beach Resort & Spa). It’s an unexpected positive thing for us.”
    Both Basil and Jewelry Artisans hope to have their rebuilt businesses up and running before the end of October. Bass and Maldonado said Kitson & Partners, the plaza’s landlord, agreed to help pay for some of the relocation expenses.
    Bass, who owns the restaurant with his wife, artist Hedy McDonald, thinks the new location will improve the business’ visibility.
    “You’ll be able to see us from the road,” Bass said. “We’ve been buried for four years where we are now.”
    He said Basil will keep its popular karaoke shows and add Motown and blues acts for the weekend. Bass said he is overhauling the menu, adding more fish entrees. Pizza will remain a signature dish.
    Maldonado says neighboring with the Evelyn & Arthur could be good for his jewelry business and the fashion boutique: “We may be able to bring customers to each other.”
    The jeweler said a friend of his next door at the plaza’s Chabad of South Palm Beach gave him some words of encouragement weeks ago that seem to have come true.
    “The Chabad lady said that sometimes good things can come from something bad,” he said. “Maybe that’s what’s happening to us.”

By Dan Moffett

    During a contentious three-hour budget meeting, South Palm Beach council members decided to give residents a small dose of tax relief — roughly $40 per homeowner next year.
    But the decision comes with consequences. The town runs the risk of having to dip into its reserves to avoid going into the red in 2017, and the dispute over taxes has strained relations among council members.
    A heated debate erupted between Councilwoman Stella Gaddy Jordan and Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello during a Sept. 8 hearing that was scheduled to be a formality during which the council would rubber-stamp budget numbers already debated.
    Late in the night, Jordan proposed cutting the tentatively approved tax rate for 2017 from $4.3174 — the rate the town has had for the last half-dozen years — to a figure halfway to the rollback rate of $3.938 that would hold tax revenues flat. Jordan’s idea was to allow an increase in homeowners’ net taxes but only half as much an increase as the council had previously agreed on.
    “It’s not that sufficient of an amount that it will make a big deal,” Jordan said, pointing to the loss of about $54,000 in tax revenues the town would incur.
    Flagello vehemently disagreed. He said it was reckless for the council to deviate from the steady fiscal approach that had gotten the town through some hard economic times. Flagello said it was premature to count on revenues that might come from a proposed 1-cent county sales tax on the November ballot, or from the development of the old Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn site.
    “I think there’s a 70 percent chance that the sales tax is not going to pass,” Flagello said. “We’re always talking about how we’re being fiscally conservative. Now at this moment we’ve decided to move away from that policy. Doing a rollback rate in the future is something I totally agree with, but we’re deciding to go away from our fiscally conservative ways for about $40 a person.”
    Flagello said it was too early to dip into the tax windfall that could come from the Oceanfront Inn project: “We should pick the fruit when it’s ripe. It’s not ripe yet.”
    Jordan argued that the town’s budget and the economy were healthy enough to finish in the black: “I’m confident next year we’ll have an overage in revenue. I’m sure of it.”
    Jordan said she believed the reduction wouldn’t have a significant impact on capital projects, including plans for improvements to the Town Hall and pedestrian lighting.
    The council agreed with Jordan, voting 4-1 against Flagello to approve a lower rate of $4.13 per $1,000 of taxable property value, halfway between the rollback rate of $3.94 and the current $4.32.

By Mary Thurwachter

    For the fifth time this year, Lantana’s Municipal Beach was slapped with a no-swimming advisory because of high bacteria levels.
    In tests administered by the Palm Beach County Health Department on Sept. 19, bacteria levels were in the “poor range,” showing 740 enterococcus CFU (colony-forming units) per 100 milliliters. The “poor” range is 71 or greater enterococcus CFU. A good rating is 35 enterococcus per 100 milliliters of marine water; moderate is 36-70. Enterococci are bacteria that normally inhabit the intestinal tracts of humans and animals.
The no-swimming advisory was lifted three days later, when tests showed the water to be in the good range again.
    “The Department of Health along with our partners at the Department of Environmental Protection are looking at all possible sources of the high contamination levels at Lantana Beach,” said Tim O’Connor, county Health Department public information officer. “So far nothing conclusive has been found.”
    O’Connor said 13 beaches from Boca Raton to Jupiter are tested regularly. All the other beaches in Palm Beach County (including Lake Worth and Ocean Inlet Park) tested on Sept. 19 were in the “good” range.
    Causes of the elevated level could be associated with heavy recreational usage, wildlife, high surf and high tides or runoff after heavy rains, O’Connor said.
    Swimmers can check beach water quality at www.palmbeach.floridahealth.gov and click on Beach Water Sampling.

Related story: Chiefs express concern for first responders’ mental health

By Jane Smith

    The addiction crisis in Delray Beach has affected every city department within the past year. Police and fire-rescue workers have seen the most direct effect because of their role in responding to overdoses, City Manager Don Cooper says.
    To a lesser extent, staffers from community improvement and parks and recreation have to deal with the results of the addiction crisis, he said.
    Two drug users overdosed in the Veterans Park bathrooms in the past year. Parks maintenance workers “keep an approved container for sharps/needles in their maintenance trucks,” said Suzanne Fisher, parks and recreation director. Once the container is filled, the employee takes the container to the Fire Department for replacement with an empty one. “Some parks/crews drop off their container more frequently than others,” Fisher said.
    Most of the increased costs go to pay for more public safety officers and Narcan, a medication that blocks the high from heroin and other opioids. The police and fire departments account for 61 percent of the city’s budget, leaving other departments with less-immediate needs to wait, the city manager said.
    From Jan. 1 through the morning of Sept. 7 this year, the Fire-Rescue Department administered 1,115 doses of Narcan, ranging from a single 0.4 mg dose to multiple doses up to 10 mg, said Fire Chief Neal de Jesus.
    The department buys its Narcan through a cooperative arrangement with the Boynton Beach Fire- Rescue Department, de Jesus said.
    Through Sept. 7, Delray Beach Fire-Rescue has spent $29,662.50 on Narcan. The department estimated it had $5,000 worth of the medication in stock, he said.
    De Jesus said Narcan is not the only expense on the overdose calls. Rescue workers also use breathing masks, IV lines and other disposable items.
    He doesn’t know of any rescue personnel who sought assistance in dealing with the stress from the increase in overdoses. The department offers counseling through a paid city benefit, an early assistance program. But the program is confidential and names are not revealed, he said.
    The department is taking a proactive approach to dealing with the addiction crisis and working to create critical incident stress debriefing training. The city program would provide the initial counseling and referral, as necessary, de Jesus said. A county program is available on request, he said.
    “The addiction crisis has played a role in the call volume increase we are experiencing,” de Jesus said.
    The City Commission approved hiring eight new firefighters/paramedics, totaling $697,060, for the new budget year. The extra staff will respond to overdoses and help by adding a third person at the busiest fire stations, he said. That would allow reduced response times, faster turnaround and in-service times at local hospitals, allow the second unit to be kept in the zone and have less wear and tear on the fire apparatus.
    The 412 overdose calls as of Sept. 7 tied up fire-rescue staff for more than 309 hours, or nearly 13 days, including hospital wait times, according to the department.
    To transport an overdose patient to a hospital, the department charges $12 a mile. “As of this date we have billed $777,703.60 and collected $151,033.60 leaving an unpaid balance of $626,670,” de Jesus said on Sept. 20. The city also will seek legislative approval to allow a lien for the unpaid amount to be placed on the sober home or treatment center.
    Ocean-rescue lifeguards, who are part of the Fire-Rescue Department, find syringes and other drug use items on the beach weekly, said Phil Wotton, ocean-rescue supervisor. Those items are not tracked by ocean-rescue.
    His lifeguards have never administered Narcan and the division’s auto-injection Narcan supply recently expired. Wotton is waiting for new direction from the Fire Department. His lifeguards may have to use the Narcan in the upcoming budget year, he predicts.
    For the Community Improvement Department, staff is restricted in what it can say or do by federal housing and disability laws that protect sober homes, said Assistant Director Janet Meeks.
    A part-time rental housing inspector who works 29 hours weekly in the department said earlier this year that he spends most of his time inspecting sober homes. He’s a retired police lieutenant who earns $18.89 per hour.
    Police officers used Narcan 65 times from March 1 through Aug. 31, according to department data. The department received that medication from the Delray Beach Drug Task Force and the city’s Fire-Rescue Department with purchases paid for by grants.
    As of Aug. 31, 433 drug users overdosed in the city, compared with 93 for the same period in 2015, according to department data. Three hundred sixty overdosed on heroin this year through Aug. 31, resulting in 31 deaths.
    Officers who respond to the overdoses are offered counseling through the city’s early assistance program.
    “Of course it’s disheartening to see what sometimes seems like a string of unending overdoses, but as always, they are doing everything they can to ensure public safety,” said Chief Jeff Goldman. “The city does offer services and they are spoken about to the officers. We don’t know who has gone or been seen. This is all confidential information.”
    City police officers also respond to crimes connected to addiction when a drug user might break into a vehicle or steal a purse for items that can be pawned in order to feed a drug habit. The department has no way of tracking these types of crimes; they are listed under the general categories of vehicle burglary, larceny, etc. “We can’t even run all the calls we’ve responded to at recovery homes because those addresses aren’t technically known to us,” Goldman said.
    To help with the addiction crisis, the Police Department has a pilot program using the services of the Guardian Recovery Network to persuade drug users who overdose to go back into treatment or return home. The data collected show a 20 percent success rate, according to Dani Moschella, department spokeswoman.
    The department will use that data to justify hiring a licensed clinical social worker to function as the service population advocate to help drug users who overdose, along with homeless people and people with mental health problems.
    The city approved hiring four officers in the budget year starting Oct. 1. That hiring is part of the department’s strategic plan to return to 170 sworn officers. “Officers are needed to handle all types of calls, including those related to the recovery community,” Goldman said.
     If Delray Beach was not burdened by the addiction crisis, “officers would still be responding to and investigating other crimes,” he said, “but our employees would not be spread so thin.”

High costs of treatment
Delray Beach paramedics responded to 412 overdose calls this year as of Sept. 7.  The charts give an approximate breakdown of the costs for each. The amount of Narcan given is an average. One dose or multiple doses up to 10 mg may be used. The costs do not include department personnel or vehicles, which vary from call to call.

Suspected OD with possible respiratory arrest

       Item                                                        Cost
Narcan (3 doses at $36.50 each)                 $109.50
Mucosal atomizer device                                  $6.50
IV (catheter, start kit, flush, extension)      $115.50
Bag valve mask                                                  $16.50
Miscellaneous supplies                                   $30
          Total                                                         $278
 
Cardiac arrest in suspected OD with respiratory arrest

       Item                                                     Cost
Respiratory arrest (all items above)           $278                 
Lucas II suction cup                                          $45
Defib pads                                                           $32
Thomas endotracheal tube lock                    $4
Endotracheal tube                                              $2
Suction catheter                                                  $1.50
Suction container                                              $18
Epinephrine (3 doses at $6 each)                  $18  

          Total                                                           $398.50
 
Source: Delray Beach Fire Rescue Department

By Jane Smith

    Consideration for the mental health of first responders in the heroin epidemic is being voiced by their chiefs in the South County.
    At a U.S. attorney’s town hall meeting called to build awareness of the exponential increase in heroin and opioid overdoses, Boca Raton Police Chief Dan Alexander said he is concerned about the impact on his staff.
    “Each one of the cases is an individual,” Alexander said. He said Boca Raton police responded to 80 overdoses this year and witnessed 10 fatalities, far fewer than in other South Florida cities.
    Alexander participated on the law enforcement panel along with Delray Beach Police Chief Jeff Goldman. Delray Beach police saw 465 overdoses and 45 fatalities this year as of Aug. 31, according to Police Department data. Most of the overdoses and fatalities involved heroin.
    Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg moderated the panel. He is leading a Sober Homes Task Force designed to weed out rogue opertors by strengthening laws and making recommendations to the 2017 Florida Legislature.
    In April, Danielle O’Connor, who was then Delray Beach fire chief, told the City Commission about the rise in overdose calls and their effects.
    “We are running on 10 to 12 overdoses a day. Sometimes the same person will overdose three days in a row,” she said. “We had a death this morning. It takes a toll on my personnel.”
    But the depth of the emotional toll is not clear because counseling sessions, a benefit offered by cities, are confidential.
    To address the mental health issues, Jeff Dill, a 26-year firefighter veteran who is a mental health counselor, started the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance in Arizona.
    Each fire-rescue person has an individual emotional response to an overdose, Dill said by phone. “It depends on what is going in your life at that moment. If it is one (overdose) after another, the fire-rescue person could be blasé. Or it could be traumatic for someone who lost a friend or a family member to a heroin overdose.”
    His 5-year-old organization offers workshops about stress on the job that leads to anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Workshops also cover suicide prevention.
    “There’s cultural brainwashing when you are trained to be a medic,” Dill said. The training often neglects the behavioral side, he said.
    Dill also tracks and verifies suicides by firefighters. As of Sept. 15, he had verified 91 suicides nationally, compared with 131 for 2015. He estimates he finds out about 40 percent of the suicides.
    Police officers also can have emotional responses to overdose calls, said Debra Lynn Weiss, a licensed mental health counselor at the University of Florida.
    “Does the officer have a ritual after arriving home — take a shower or go for a run?” Weiss said. “Do they have supportive family and friends?”
    The frequency of overdose calls definitely takes an emotional toll and it can affect relationships, she said.
    The problems could show in trouble falling or staying asleep, having nightmares, avoiding the overdose calls and increased edginess, said Weiss, who served two years as victim advocate for the UF police force.
    “If alcohol or pot was a coping mechanism, its use could increase,” Weiss said.

By Mary Thurwachter

    Developers for Water Tower Commons received approval from the Lantana Town Council for several changes to the commercial plan for the 72-acre retail and residential project at the old A.G. Holley State Hospital site. But they’ll need to add something new to their proposal, as well — art.
    The call for public art came from Mayor Dave Stewart, who said at the Sept. 12 town meeting that he had recently “been educated on the benefits of art in public places.” He said he learned that developments with public art are more sustainable and attract good businesses and good residents.
    “I don’t want Norman Rockwell and stuff that costs a million, but I’d sure feel more comfortable having public art around there,” he said.
    Stewart’s suggestion was well received, although council member Lynn Moorhouse wondered if public art would translate to anything resembling The Siren, that well-endowed mermaid statue once commissioned as a work of art for Wellington.
    Moorhouse’s remark drew laughs. So did the tongue-in-cheek suggestion from Dave Thatcher, the town’s development services director, that a large statue of Mayor Stewart be added to the mix.
    The Water Tower Commons development team will need to come up with a proposal on art, and Town Manager Deborah Manzo was directed to work with the team. She was charged with the final thumbs up or down on public art on the site.
    The outline of changes for the commercial plan was presented by Sandra J. Megrue, of Urban Design Kilday Studios, who works for Lantana Development, a partnership between Southeast Legacy, headed by Kenco Communities’ Ken Endelson, and Wexford Capital, which owns the land just east of I-95 off Lantana Road.
    Requested changes included reducing the commercial area from 36.5 acres to 32.76 acres, reducing the commercial square footage from 270,111 to 231,150 and adding a Water Tower Park and a traffic circle.
    Reducing the commercial area was necessary in part to meet green space requirements and add parking spots, developers said.
    Another plan change will mean adding a sign or two on the 127-foot water tower that will read “Water Tower Commons.” A public park will be fashioned around the water tower. Planners had second thoughts about a water feature for the project’s main street in their original drawings. They want to replace it with landscaping to give it less of a country club entrance vibe.
    Stewart told developers he wants to see a top-scale development and would be looking at this first phase to see evidence of that. “Please don’t stub your toe because you might fall,” Stewart warned.
    Water Tower Commons is expected to create 700 new, permanent jobs and generate $13 million in new tax revenue for Lantana during the next 20 years. The commercial phase is expected to last about 18 months, followed by the residential phase.
    A.G. Holley hospital was built in the early 1950s on state-owned land and sold in 2014 for $15.6 million to Lantana Development.

By Mary Thurwachter

    The Lantana Town Council postponed for one month a vote on a request for a change to a shared parking agreement for Love Lantana Point properties at 201-239 E. Ocean Ave.
    Tom Prakas, manager for Love Lantana Point since April 1, asked the town at its Sept. 26 meeting for a modification to a shared parking agreement the town had previously made for one of the properties, Mario’s restaurant at 225 E. Ocean Ave.
    Prakas said he wanted to reconfigure the parking spaces on the 200 block of Ocean Avenue and to jointly use the town-owned Third Street parking lot currently leased by Mario’s owner Henry Olmino.
    “We could use that lot for my tenants (commercial and retail) during the day,” Prakas said. Mario’s is open only after 5 p.m. for dinner.
Prakas said he has storefronts to rent and first needs to address parking requirements.
    “We’re deficient seven spots,” he said. “Without those seven spaces for parking I have to leave retail spaces dark. Those spaces need to have the lights on.”
    Prakas said his properties have 44 spaces not including the 24-34 he said could be added by co-leasing the Third Street lot with Olmino.
    Mario’s requires 43 parking spaces but has only 15 in its own lot. Love Lantana Point owns three adjacent parcels and has 28 shared parking spaces, which can be used by Mario’s customers. Mario’s also offers valet parking to customers.
    Olmino said he was in favor of sharing the Third Street parking lot with Prakas. Olmino leased the lot a year ago for employees but hasn’t needed it. “I don’t think we put a car on it all year,” he said. “Most of my employees walk, bus or bicycle.”
    Council members questioned how many parking spaces Love Lantana Point really has.
    “I like your concept, your idea, but I don’t think there are 44 spots over there,” said council member Lynn Moorhouse, who also said he didn’t think the town could legally enter into an agreement to share the Third Street lot.
    “I’ve never been comfortable with shared parking,” Mayor Dave Stewart said. “Before I can have a level of comfort with this, I’d need to see a survey to show this (parking) meets the requirements … and for Third Street, absolutely not without getting neighbors on board
    The council, at Prakas’ request, will revisit the shared parking modification request at its Oct. 24 meeting.

Members of the Marine Animal Rescue Society wrestle with the body

of a deep-water beaked whale that had beached itself in Gulf Stream.

Michelle Quigley/The Coastal Star

By Willie Howard

    A deep-water beaked whale beached itself in Gulf Stream on Sept. 18, marking the third reported beaching of a beaked whale along Florida’s east coast during September.
    When Marine Animal Rescue Society volunteers responded around 4:30 p.m. that Sunday, they found the whale dead on the beach.
    The response team was unable to reach that section of beach near the Gulf Stream Golf Club with a truck to haul the whale’s carcass away for examination, so they left it in the surf.
    Blair Mase, marine mammal stranding coordinator for NOAA in Miami, planned a necropsy on the beach for the morning of Sept. 19 to search for clues to the whale’s demise.
    But when the examination team arrived in Gulf Stream that morning, the whale was gone, apparently swept out to sea by the tide.
    The next morning (Sept. 20), sea turtle nest monitors found the whale’s mutilated carcass washing up on the beach just north of the Gulf Stream Bath & Tennis Club.
   They secured the whale’s decomposing carcass with a piece of rope tied to stakes in the sand until a MARS volunteer could come to the beach to extract skin and blubber samples, used to positively identify the species.
    MARS volunteers usually measure the length of beached whales, but Mase said this whale’s tail flukes had been eaten, so no accurate length could be taken.
    Mase had planned to have the whale’s carcass towed out to sea after tissue samples were taken, but the body was too badly decomposed to tow. It was left in the surf.
    Whales and other marine mammals instinctively beach themselves when they’re sick or injured so they can breathe without having to exert themselves to reach the surface.
    Mase said the whale was probably a Gervais’ beaked whale (Mesoplodon europaeus).
    Gervais’ beaked whales washed ashore during September in Hobe Sound and Hollywood Beach. Both whales were still alive when they came ashore, but later died.
    Laboratory work to determine what illness might have led the other two whales to beach themselves had not been completed as of late September.
    Named for their elongated snouts, beaked whales are known to dive deep for long periods of time before surfacing for air. One species, the Cuvier’s beaked whale, regularly dives for an hour to depths of 3,300 feet.
    Gervais’ beaked whales have spindle-shaped bodies with small, shark-like dorsal fins and slightly concave tail flukes, according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Their bellies are often marked with irregular white blotches.

Maria Abbenante and her son Angelo pause inside Lynora’s Restaurant on Clematis Street

in West Palm Beach. Maria and her husband, Rafaelle, who live in Point Manalapan, came out

of retirement in 2014 to open the eatery with Angelo. Maria shuns canned tomatoes

or tomato paste in her sauces, and Rafaelle makes fresh pasta every day.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

    If you run restaurants, as Maria Abbenante has for three decades, you know it takes more than a good chef to make the business successful.
    Every single person who works in the kitchen — and the restaurant  — plays an important role and deserves to be treated that way, the chef/owner of Lynora’s in West Palm Beach said.
    “In the kitchen, I treat the dishwasher like the chef,” Abbenante said.
    Her restaurant is an extension of her home.
    “I want everyone who comes here to feel like they’re at my home, treated like family,” she said.
    She and her husband, co-owner Rafaelle, came out of retirement in 2014 to open Lynora’s in West Palm Beach to help her son, Angelo Abbenante, get started in the business.
    Maria grew up in Ponza, Italy, a small island a few hours from Rome.
    “One of my favorite memories and first experiences working in a restaurant was helping my grandmother, Lynora, make pasta at our family restaurant when I was 5,” she said.  “I worked with my mother and grandmother at the restaurant until I was 18 and then left Italy with my husband to come to America.”
    The former high school sweethearts opened their first restaurant in White Plains, outside New York City. But the big city was too big for their liking, so they moved to Lake Worth and opened a small pizza and sandwich shop.
    “Two years later, we found a larger space a couple of blocks away and we opened Lynora’s, which is named after my grandmother,” Maria Abbenante, 59, said. They closed that restaurant in 2004.
    “We came out of retirement in 2014 when we were presented with an opportunity to open a new Lynora’s on Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach,” she said. 
    This month, Lynora’s will open a second location, in Jupiter at 1548 N. U.S. 1.  
    The Abbenantes, who have a home in Point Manalapan, take great pride in the food they serve and don’t take shortcuts.
There are no canned tomatoes or tomato paste in Maria’s homemade sauces. Only fresh ingredients are used, most organic and local. Rafaelle makes fresh pasta every day and butchers the meat used for their famous meatballs. Their son Angelo makes the wood oven pizzas.
    “I am from an island so I really like fresh fish, which can be prepared so many ways, from simply grilling it to preparing with a little olive oil and garlic, fresh pomodoro or a variety of sauces I make myself,” Maria said.  “I love the versatility of homemade pasta, which can complement so many different foods, and we make many different kinds of pasta at Lynora’s.”
    When not working, the mother of two grown sons enjoys spending time with her five grandchildren, ranging in age from 6 to 15.
She and her husband return to Italy every year and have plans to take the grandchildren there.
    “I will never lose my accent,” she said, “and my sons (Angelo and Roberto) both speak Italian (and English).”
— Mary Thurwachter

    Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that influenced you?
    A. I grew up in Italy on a small island called Ponza. I attended school there and I remember how much I loved it. I was always the first one to raise my hand when the teacher asked a question. School gave me a thirst for learning new things.

    Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
    A. I have worked in the restaurant  business all my life. My grandmother, Lynora, had a restaurant in Ponza. When I was about 5, she taught me to make pasta and that’s where it all began. I’m proud of my restaurants and am looking forward to adding  another one in Jupiter this month.

    Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?
    A. Whatever you do, you need to love what you do.
    
    Q. How did you choose to make your home in Point Manalapan?
    A. About 30 years ago, we bought waterfront land there and built the house we wanted  — with a good kitchen, of course!
    
    Q. What is your favorite part of living in Point Manalapan?
    A. I love living by the water. I love the surroundings.
    
    Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration or when you want to relax?
    A. We play all kinds of music at the restaurant, but when I am alone, I like it quiet. When I’m driving the car, I pray.
    
    Q. Do you have a quote that guides your decisions?
    A. “It’s more important to give than receive.”
    
    Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
    A. My grandmother and my mother. Both were good cooks.

    Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
    A. I never thought about that, but I guess it would have to be an Italian actress. Maybe Sophia Loren.

    Q. What is your favorite thing to cook?
    A. Sauces. They are very important to the food. Without sauce, food would be bland.

By Christine Davis

    Astronomer and researcher Ata Sarajedini was named dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at Florida Atlantic University. He will assume his new role in January. Sarajedini is associate dean for natural science and mathematics and associate dean for research in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida and is a professor in UF’s astronomy department.
    Sarajedini is a scientific editor of the Journals of the American Astronomical Society and has served as a member of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Time Allocation Committee and its Hubble Space Telescope Users Committee.
                                
    Florida Atlantic University received a $5 million gift from Phil and Susan Smith to establish the Phil Smith Center for Free Enterprise at the university’s College of Business. The main tower will be named Phil Smith Hall in honor of the FAU alumnus. A Broward County businessman, Smith is president and CEO of Phil Smith Management Inc., operating 11 automobile dealership locations.
                                
    Delray Beach resident Lorri Oziri was appointed vice president of development at the Palm Beach County Food Bank, based in Lantana. The nonprofit organization collects and distributes food to more than 100 agencies that serve more than 200,000 county residents. Oziri is responsible for fundraising activities and overseeing the agency’s communication operations.

The popularity of these sea turtle charms prompted 16-year-old Skylar Mandell

to rename her growing bracelet business.

Photo provided

                                
    Skylar Mandell, a 2016 graduate of the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy and a junior at St. Andrew’s School, has changed her bracelet business from “Moody Buddhi” to “Florida Sea Turtle Co.”
    Originally, her company designed bracelets of all types, but her brightly colored, beaded bracelets with sea turtle charms were especially popular. Hence, her new focus and her new company, which, by the way, will donate 10 percent of all proceeds to sea turtle conservation centers in Florida.
    The 16-year-old’s bracelets are available at the Board Room in Delray Beach, and in Boca Raton they are sold at Gumbo Limbo gift shop, Daggerwing Nature Center, and Gift Shack at Office Depot Foundation. For information, visit www.Floridaseaturtlecompany.com.
                                
    The Schoolhouse Children’s Museum & Learning Center in Boynton Beach has appointed Jerry Taylor and Tom Wilby to its board of directors. Taylor, a former Boynton Beach mayor, is a retired senior master sergeant with 26 years of service in the Air Force. Wilby, a Scirocco Group insurance agent, handles employee benefits for companies.
                                
    In August, IBM contributed a $1,000 community grant to the Golden Bell Education Foundation in support of the efforts of IBM volunteer Sherri Scheurich, who worked with the Golden Bell on an event committee. The grant will go to support programs like the Boca Chamber’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy as well as educational programs that support business skills.
                                
    With the help of the Salvation Army of Palm Beach County, Lake Worth Chapter, Dorothy Boylan, assistant director of human resources at Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa, organized a backpack drive that provided school supplies for 50 students. Other Eau news: Michelle Phillips has been named the resort’s director of brand management.
                                
    The YMCA of South Palm Beach County is upgrading its Peter Blum Family YMCA of Boca Raton, at 6631 Palmetto Circle South, and DeVos-Blum Family YMCA of Boynton Beach, at 9600 S. Military Trail. By winter, performance training areas will feature classes and equipment designed to challenge members who are seeking to increase the intensity of their workouts. Also, cycling studios will have new Precor Spinner bikes and stadium seating, new flooring and improved ventilation.
    Enhanced amenities include lobbies and community areas with Wi-Fi, charging stations, and touchscreen displays. At the Boca Raton branch, new features include a rock-climbing wall in the pool area, as well as locker room lighting and shower upgrades, with completion scheduled for Jan. 1.
    The Boynton Beach branch will add a new preschool classroom, with completion scheduled for Dec. 1. The YMCA branches will both remain open during these upgrades. Also, the YMCA’s monthlong annual campaign kicks off on Oct. 5, with money raised benefiting its financial assistance program.

Corcoran Group agent Candace Friis listed the home at 1428 N. Ocean Blvd. in Gulf Stream

(aerial view below) for $17.75 million in June and followed it up with two more listings

for southern-facing point lots: a $9.495 million house on Palm Way and an $8.9 million home on Wright Way.

Photos provided

                                
    It was a hot summer for Corcoran Group agent Candace Friis. She acquired three new listings on southern-facing point lots in Gulf Stream. In June, she listed 1428 N. Ocean Blvd. for $17.75 million. Designed by architect Randall Stofft, the six-bedroom, 12,567-square-foot house rests on an acre lot with 470 feet of water frontage. According to public records, the property was purchased for $8.7 million in August 2008.
    Listed for $9.495 million in August, a five-bedroom, 9,600-square-foot house at 554 Palm Way has 411 feet of water frontage. It was bought in February 2014 for $8.2 million.
    Friis also listed the five-bedroom, 8,626-square-foot home at 570 Wright Way in August. Priced at $8.9 million, it has 348 feet on the water. The property was bought in October 2008 for $5.9 million.
                                
    In August, Judy Ramella, president of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches, received the 2016 Florida Realtors Achievement Award at the Florida Realtors Convention & Trade Expo’s annual awards luncheon in Orlando. She is on the board of directors for Florida Realtors as well as the National Association of Realtors.
    Ramella started her career 19 years ago as an agent with Dutch Real Estate in Boynton Beach. She is a broker associate for Continental Properties in West Palm Beach and a real estate instructor for the School of Advanced Realty in West Palm Beach.
                                
    According to July home sales numbers, the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches reported that Palm Beach County showed a double-digit drop of 15 percent in closed sale transactions. However, the median sale price rose 11 percent to $317,250, the average sale price rose 20 percent to $488,671, and the sum of all sale prices rose 3 percent to $748 million.
                                
    Throughout October, Lang Realty’s themes, events, branding and advertising will turn pink in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Lang Realty also will make a donation to the American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” for each home closed throughout October. Last year, Lang Realty raised $10,000 for the cause.
                                
    In September, Phil Scavo, from Ottawa, Canada, signed a lease for a spot at Renaissance Commons, 1500 Gateway Blvd., Boynton Beach, where he will open a Burger Fi franchise.  “We are taking over 3,000 square feet of the current Hurricane Grill & Wings space and plan to open the beginning of 2017,” he says. Scavo has sold his Canadian business, Greco Fitness, and is moving his family to Boca Raton.
                                
    Lucille’s Bad to the Bone BBQ has opened a new restaurant in the Delray Marketplace Plaza on Atlantic Avenue and Lyons Road in Delray Beach.
                                
    In August, the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County was invited by Visit Florida and the U.S. Travel Association to present closing-night entertainment promoting arts and culture in the county to 650 attendees of the 2016 U.S. Travel Association ESTO seminar, which was held at the Boca Raton Resort & Club.
    The following month, the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County won three Flagler Awards at the 2016 Visit Florida Governor’s Conference in Orlando. It won the Best of Show Henry Award for tourism marketing in its budget category; a Silver Award in tourism advocacy for its Cultural Concierge program, and a Bronze Award in niche marketing for its 2014-2015 fall/winter marketing campaign created with the Palm Beach County agency Levatas.
    The Flagler Awards, an annual statewide competition created by Visit Florida, recognizes outstanding Florida tourism marketing. To watch video from the event, visit www.thecoastalstar.com.
                                
    The Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative’s Get Your Grove On, a weeklong celebration of the arts in the Pineapple Grove Arts District, will run from Oct. 3 to 8. Its main event, On the Ave, along Northeast Second Avenue from El Camino to Brule, is from 5 to 9 p.m. Oct. 5. Along with the event’s variety of activities, merchants will offer special discounts, free services, entertainment and refreshments. For a complete schedule, visit www.OnTheAveDelrayBeach.com.
                                
    The Greater Boynton Beach Chamber of Commerce’s 46th annual Porges Cup Golf Tournament is coming up Oct. 14 at the Indian Spring Country Club. The tournament is open to the public; registration starts at 7 a.m. To register, visit www.boyntonbeach.org
                                
    Channel 12 news anchor Michele Wright will be the honorary chairwoman of the Community Caring Center of Greater Boynton Beach’s Magical Masquerade Ball on Oct. 27. Money raised will be used to support the center’s food pantry, senior meals, Senior Veggie Program, mass food distribution and Holiday Cornucopia.
    The ball will be at Benvenuto Restaurant, 1730 N. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach. Tickets are $125 per person or a table of 10 for $1,000. For information, call Doreen Robinson at 374-8536 or 575-5857.
                                
    The 15th annual Rooney’s Golf Foundation Charity Golf Tournament will be held at Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter on Oct. 31. The day will begin with a 7 a.m. registration and breakfast and will continue with a shotgun start at 8:30. Lunch, raffles and awards will follow golf.
    Proceeds will benefit Autism Project of Palm Beach County, The ARC Palm Beach County, Place of Hope and HomeSafe. 
    The major sponsors are the Rooney Family, Bettor Racing Inc. and AmTote International Inc.
 U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, will participate and is this year’s honorary chairman. Rooney’s Golf Foundation has donated $645,962 to Palm Beach County charities since 2001. $2,400 is the cost for a foursome. To participate, call 683-2222, Ext. 146, or Ext. 142.
                                
    Delray Beach and the Atlantic Crossing developers continue their stalemate.
    This time they are arguing over whether the dismissed federal counts are appealable.
    The developers say yes, arguing the federal claims for money damages can be appealed while the rest were returned to state court.
Delray Beach attorneys agreed with the appeals court — not now.
    Both documents were filed Sept. 23.
    The city also is asking the appeals court to determine the court where its counterclaim can be heard. The city wants the return of two alleys and easements needed for the downtown project.
    The developers have 60 days from filing the appeal to state the legal reasons why the federal judge erred in dismissing the federal counts. They appealed Aug. 24. As of press time, no brief was filed.
    The $200 million mixed-use project was proposed by a partnership between Edwards Companies and Ocean Ridge resident Carl DeSantis. Edwards bought DeSantis’ share in June for $38.5 million. Both would share in the proceeds if the federal case is decided in favor of the developers.

Jane Smith contributed to this report.

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

Development teams that bid on the Town Square proposal will have to include

the entire Boynton Beach High School in their plans, not just its facade.

File photo

By Jane Smith

    Preservationists were relieved to see the historic Boynton Beach High School remain in the city’s Town Square proposal that will be advertised to developers on Oct. 10.
    “The first part [of the proposal] is simply asking for team experience and financial capabilities,” Assistant City Manager Colin Groff said at the Sept. 20 City Commission meeting. “The second part has the meat of it, the best conceptual plan and best financial plan that meets the city’s needs.”
    He also gave commissioners an ambitious time line: Team proposals are due by Nov. 12 and will be cut to three by a city selection committee by Dec. 5. The final three teams will be invited to submit conceptual development and financing plans by Jan. 12. The public will be able to view the plans but not comment on them, he said.
    The contract will be signed for the first phase by March 30 and construction could start within a month.
    Shutting out the public did not sit well with some city residents.
    “My head wants to explode about Groff saying no comment,” Boynton Beach native Susan Oyer said. “You better bring a mop and bucket. You work for us, you represent our opinions.”
    She pointed out that the commissioners forgot to ask for public comment on Sept. 20 when the Town Square proposal was discussed.
    In July, Groff had suggested limiting mandates about what has to be included in the 16.5-acre Town Square to get the most responses. He suggested not requiring that the entire high school be included.
    Why the shift on Sept. 20? Because city commissioners may have been misinformed about the high school and what using its façade meant, said Barbara Ready, chairwoman of the city’s Historic Resources Preservation Board. Some, she said, thought it meant using the four walls when it actually means just saving the front.
    The entire high school now must be included in the Town Square, along with a scaled-down City Hall, the City Library, the Children’s Schoolhouse Museum and the Kids Kingdom playground.
    “I’m very thankful,” said Oyer, also a member of the city’s Historic Resources Preservation Board.
    The historic high school may be repurposed to contain uses from the Madsen Center, the Civic Center and the Arts Center, which will be demolished.
    As part of the plan, the police headquarters and Fire Station No. 1 could be located in the Town Square or on another parcel the city owns, such as property on High Ridge Road. Or that parcel could be sold because it’s commercially valuable. The public safety facilities also could sit on other parcels in the city.
    The 0.62-acre AmeriGas parcel, recently purchased by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, is too small for a fire station, Groff said. He said it needs at least 1.75 acres.
    The fire station also needs to be located on a main road or be within 500 feet of one. That means the city-owned Rolling Green site is not suitable for a fire station. It’s big enough but sits more than 2,000 feet from Seacrest Boulevard, even if an access road can be built along the canal.
    The city plans to ask voters in March to approve a bond referendum to cover the cost of building a new police headquarters and fire station.
    “Convincing residents who mostly don’t want all this height and density that THEY should help pay for it will be difficult,” said Harry Woodworth, who also is president of the Inlet Communities Association. INCA represents 10 waterfront communities in Boynton Beach.
    Under the Town Square proposal, a development team could own the land and lease the civic buildings and high school back to the city on a long-term lease. The rental rate would take into account the value of the land for mixed-use development.
    “I hate the idea of not owning our civic buildings,” said Oyer, a fifth-generation Floridian. “Why can’t they just lease the land to the developers?”
    On Oct. 4, the City Commission will review an updated CRA plan for the eastern half of the city, including building heights. The plan calls for four stories along Ocean Avenue with six stories behind it. The avenue bisects Town Square.
    Residents have objected to the height along Ocean. They also are against the increased height at the Woolbright Road and Federal Highway intersection, proposed under the CRA plan.
    An old lawsuit may complicate the city’s strategy. The judge still has not ruled on the city’s motion to dismiss, heard on July 11.
It involves a 2013 case filed by an earlier architect, who wanted to use the high school as an events center.

The Wick Costume Museum in Boca Raton is the largest holder of theatrical wardrobes

in the United States, with nearly 60 original Broadway wardrobes.

Kimberly Wick poses with costumes from the 1956 production of My Fair Lady.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

    One December day in the early 1970s, Santa Claus brought an unexpected and very durable present to a family in Boca Raton.
    A woman named Marilynn Wick was chatting with a friend named Leah Davidson, who had a slight holiday problem. Her husband needed a Santa suit for his IBM Christmas party.
    “I can make a Santa suit,” Wick told her friend, and then she enlisted help from her two daughters, Kelly and Kimberly. And the three Wicks set to work around their kitchen table.
    The Santa suit was a success, and Wick got requests for four more, then Easter bunny suits, then panda costumes. In 1976, she incorporated her costume creations as a business, and Jan McArt’s Royal Palm Dinner Theatre became an early account. The Wicks made costumes, sold costumes, rented costumes for private parties and national theater companies.
    Eventually, Marilynn Wick began collecting entire wardrobes from classic Broadway shows, and today that first Santa suit has grown into a thriving business with more than a million costumes housed in 100,000 square feet of South Florida storage space and Costume World retail stores in Deerfield Beach, Dallas and Pittsburgh.
    What else do you do with so many costumes? You put them to work by opening a theater, and then you display them in an adjacent museum.

A costume from a production of Cats.

Gowns worn by Joan Rivers during various Hollywood red carpet awards shows.

    In September 2013, the Wick Theatre debuted in the former Caldwell Theatre on North Federal Highway in Boca Raton. The first production was The Sound of Music.
    Two months later, the Wick Costume Museum opened to share with the public original costumes from more than 35 Broadway shows, and 40 years after those first Santa suits, Kimberly Wick, the 12-year-old girl who helped sew them, is the vice president, head designer, curator and occasional docent of the museum.
    “We’re the largest theatrical holder of wardrobes in the United States, with nearly 60 original Broadway wardrobes,” Kimberly Wick began, slightly distracted one September afternoon — and rightly so.
    All around the expansive display space behind the theater’s stage, assistants at sewing machines were making repairs to costumes decades old while others ironed and more than 150 mannequins, some half dressed, looked on in dignified silence.
    In less than two weeks, the museum’s 2016-17 exhibit, “Where Runway Meets Broadway,” would debut on Sept. 23 with a gala luncheon and Champagne reception.
    “What’s unique this season,” Wick explained, “is that we’re sharing with our guests the vintage costumes, along with the Broadway costumes that were inspired by those eras.”
    Visitors will see the actual costumes worn in productions of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, Hairspray and Cats, supplemented by fashions of the period.
    For example, Cats, which first purred in a Broadway theater on Oct. 7, 1982, made animal prints popular for a time, Wick said.
    “We own collections from three Broadway productions of Cats,” she added. “The cat suits have to be rebuilt often because they get so abused. There’s lots of wear and tear.”
    Marian the Librarian’s gown from The Music Man. Ginger Rogers’ Hello, Dolly gown. A gown from a Broadway production of Anna Karenina. Each is on display, along with other vintage fashions.
    “I’d love to own the wardrobe of the original Les Miserables,” Wick said. “But we do have Cosette’s wedding gown from one of the productions.”
    The entire lobby has been dedicated to costumes from the original, 1956 production of My Fair Lady, including the gown Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle wore to the embassy ball.
    “We own the entire production,” Wick said. “It’s one of our prized items.”
    And as an added treat to round out this year’s “runway” theme, the Wick recently bought the gowns worn by Joan Rivers while she hosted Hollywood’s red carpet awards shows.
    Now that this year’s costume exhibit has opened, the theater is preparing for the Oct. 13  opening of They’re Playing Our Song, the Neil Simon musical comedy starring Andrea McArdle, Broadway’s original title character in Annie.
    And then comes Halloween, which must surely be any costume company’s busiest time of year, right?
    Not so much, Wick says.
    The Deerfield Beach store is stocked with as many varied, scary Halloween costumes as anyone could want to rent or own, but it’s not the busiest period.
    “Now it’s the Easter period,” Wick said. “We ship between 1,200 and 1,500 costumes a week around Easter because that’s when all the high schools around the country do their spring musicals.”

By Steve Plunkett
    
    The feature most wanted at Boca Raton’s Wildflower site by an admittedly unscientific sample of residents is a wide boardwalk along the Intracoastal Waterway, followed by a water taxi and space for paddleboards and kayaks.
    City Council member Scott Singer held an “interactive visioning session about what you’d like to see for our waterfront” at the downtown library on Sept. 19.
    “This is not rapid-fire questions of Scott. In fact, this is rapid-fire questions of you all,” Singer told his gathering of roughly 130 people.
    Participants filled 12 tables with eight seats apiece, each captained by a planner, architect or resident. The overflow attendees took chairs along the edge of the room and could watch and listen but not otherwise take part.
    “This is not a typical discussion about the merits of the Hillstone deal, the history of the Hillstone deal, a lot of that stuff. It’s not a typical discussion to vent to the City Council,” Singer said.
    He said the results of the session could help guide council members even if a restaurant eventually goes on the property, just northwest of the Palmetto Park Road bridge. He encouraged participants to consider not only the Wildflower site but also Silver Palm Park just south and the area under the bridge, more than 6 acres in all.
    “The goal of this exercise is for you to express what you’d like to see there,” Singer said.
    The people at the tables tried to quickly answer questions such as what is good about the site and what needs changing. Then attendees ranked more than 80 images of recreational amenities on a scale of 1 to 5 to gauge which 10 were best.
    After the boardwalk, water taxi and paddleboards/kayaks, the other most desirable features were a giant checkerboard, space for yoga, a small stage, an interactive fountain for kids, a water fountain/sculpture, a fence along the waterway and a lush hanging garden.
    Some participants questioned the value of the session when the city has not begun its comprehensive waterfront plan to guide further decisions about parks on the Intracoastal and ocean. The City Council approved hiring engineering consultant EDSA Inc. to undertake that study. The Fort Lauderdale firm also has been hired to design and oversee construction of a 12-foot-wide promenade along Delray Beach’s beach.
    Singer also announced in September that he is running for re-election to the Boca Raton City Council next March.
    The council changed the land-use designation and zoning of the Wildflower parcel in July to accommodate the long-planned Hillstone restaurant. But negotiations on a lease were postponed after a citizen initiative put a question on the Nov. 8 ballot to keep the property for recreational use or allow it to be developed.

By Rich Pollack

    Artist Glenn Weiss was shocked when, during a summer trip to the beach, he discovered that the pavilion at Atlantic Dunes Park in Delray Beach had been destroyed in June during a middle-of-the-night fire that has been ruled suspicious.
    Now Weiss, who married his wife, Maria, at the pavilion in 2003, is creating a work of installation art on the burned-out site, using 30 pairs of shoes, a holy book and a boom box to symbolize a wedding and to create a temporary memorial.
    “I want to remind people that this is a place of memories,” he said. “This is similar to other temporary memorials but it’s about a place, not about a person.”
    Weiss’ Wedding Shoes Project will be on display Oct. 5-16 and he hopes others with memories of the pavilion will send photos and stories that can be lashed to the metal barricade fence now surrounding the site. They can be sent to Weiss at gw@glennweiss.com. Images and stories will also be posted on Facebook at Atlantic Dunes Memories.
    An opening reception is scheduled for 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Oct. 5.
    “I hope people will think about places that have meaning to them or maybe a place that they have lost,” Weiss said.

By Steve Plunkett

    The longtime attorney for the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District will soon shed his role as the district’s contract administrator.
    “Possibly around the first of November, I will be able to come to you with a recommendation that, since we’re going to have some additional capital projects under construction, that we will be able to retain the services of a qualified individual to take over the contract administration,” Arthur Koski told beach and park commissioners Sept. 6.
    Koski, who also is the district’s interim executive director, said he had been looking for someone to replace him as contract administrator for six months.
    “When I come forward with that, you’ll understand why it’ll be at that particular time,” he said.
    Koski earns $108,000 a year as the district’s contract administrator, overseeing such projects as the construction of athletic fields at De Hoernle Park and a new community center at the Swim and Racquet Center on St. Andrews Boulevard. He took the job in 2010.
    He became the district’s interim executive director in July 2012 when Robert Langford retired. But his additional role drew complaints from city officials, culminating in March with City Council member Robert Weinroth’s demand that he be replaced with a full-time person.
    In May, Koski said he would step aside as interim director on Oct. 1, the start of the new budget year, but was persuaded to stay until January, when commissioners choose their chairman for the calendar year.
    Koski started giving the Beach and Park District legal advice in 1978 and is paid $132,000 a year for it. He is paid $90,000 a year for being interim director.
    His total district paycheck — $330,000 a year — dwarfed Boca Raton City Manager Leif Ahnell’s $240,418, though Ahnell also receives a pension and other benefits that Koski does not. Koski earned a cumulative $1.5 million over the past five years from his three district positions. He also has a private law practice downtown.
    Koski said in August the contract administration work is “something that I enjoy very much” and that he hoped beach and park commissioners would keep him on the job in 2017.

By Steve Plunkett

    There’s a definite thaw in the cold war between the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District and city officials.
    “There’s more of a mood of cooperation,” Steve Engel, the district’s vice chairman, said Sept. 23 after he and fellow commissioners adopted a budget that trimmed nothing from the city’s request.
    Other actions point to a clear effort to improve relations. Arthur Koski, the district’s attorney, will step aside as its interim executive director in January after city officials insisted that the district have someone on the job full time.
    And the City Council on Sept. 27 approved an interlocal agreement, comparable to a treaty between the independent governments, calling for a 50-50 split on the costs of beach renourishment. The district had agreed to pay half instead of its customary one-third at a joint meeting in June 2015, but both sides balked at written proposals drawn up afterward.
    “I’m happy that we put this one in the books,” District Chairman Robert Rollins said when first announcing the pact.
    Under the agreement, the district will send Boca Raton $1.5 million, half what the city already paid for last spring’s partial renourishment of the central beach, between Red Reef Park and the Boca Inlet.
    But the agreement is for 10 years instead of 30.
    “They’re getting what they want, and we’re getting what we want. I see good things coming,” Engel said.
    Koski told commissioners in September that he had met with City Manager Leif Ahnell for “a very extensive conversation” on the beach agreement as well as on a “master” interlocal agreement the city has proposed to replace six or seven other pacts governing operations and capital improvements at parks.
    The news heartened Engel.
    “Before it was difficult to get Art and the city manager’s office together,” Engel said.
    Koski also said he had researched 18 months of emails and found that city officials and district officials communicate regularly.
    “There were 2,600 communications between the city and the district during that period of time. There is communication,” Koski said.
    The $50.4 million budget commissioners approved uses the rollback rate, about 91 cents for $1,000 of taxable value, what’s needed to raise the same amount of revenue as the previous year.
    New construction on the tax roll then lowers taxes for others. In Rollins’ case, for example, he will pay $451 in beach and park taxes on his $493,000 home, down from $474 a year ago.
    Most district residents also pay city taxes.
    When Koski first presented the city’s proposed recreation budget in mid-July he told commissioners, “We have our work cut out for us. The budget that’s being requested is $1.1 million higher than what was spent last year for operation and maintenance.”
    Boca Raton officials also wanted $350,000 more for administrative, supervisory and technical costs, a 33 percent boost.
    But two weeks later, Koski had juggled the district’s budget and revised his outlook.
    “We have acceded to their requests and are giving them every dollar that they are asking for,” he said.
    The district pays for the operation and maintenance of some city-owned facilities along with district-owned parks.
    It also funds capital projects at the city sites.

By Rich Pollack

    Residents of Highland Beach will see the town’s tax rate drop even lower than previously announced, following a Town Commission decision last month to reduce the proposed operating tax rate from $3.28 per $1,000 of assessed property value to $3.25.
    Earlier this year, commissioners agreed to reduce the proposed rate from the previous year’s rate of $3.50 per $1,000 of assessed value to the rollback rate of $3.28, resulting in the second consecutive year the rate would fall.
    The rollback rate would generate the same property tax revenue as was received the previous year. During a public hearing last month, however, commissioners voted unanimously to reduce the tax rate below the rollback rate.
    “I think we can do it without any cut in services,” said Commissioner Carl Feldman, who proposed the reduction.
    As a result of the current changes, the owner of a $550,000 home with a $50,000 homestead exemption would see the amount of taxes paid to Highland Beach drop slightly from about $1,750 last year to an estimated $1,625 in 2016-2017.
    The tax-rate decrease will result in a drop in the revenue in the town’s $10.98 million 2016-2017 fiscal year budget of only about $67,200. Finance Director Cale Curtis said the town will move money from its contingency reserve fund to make up the difference, leaving it with a $220,000 balance.
    “There’s still a significant amount in the contingency reserve fund,” he said.
    Feldman and Commissioner Lou Stern said the town has been able to continue reducing the tax rate thanks to a surplus from previous years.   
    A key factor in the town’s ability to reduce the tax rate has been a significant increase in property values over the last year.
The assessed value of property in Highland Beach increased by about $140 million, which translated into an estimated $455,000 more in property tax revenue for the town.
    Town commissioners said they were pleased with the overall budget and with the chance to reduce the tax rate below the rollback rate.
    “I don’t think we’ve reduced the services we’re providing in any department,” Vice Mayor Bill Weitz said. “The budgets that were submitted from the departments were largely approved in total and I think that’s a credit to our department heads.”

By Rich Pollack

    Highland Beach town commissioners have agreed to hire an outside law firm to represent the town in negotiations and other matters should a fledgling effort by non-police employees to form a union come to fruition.
    At a meeting last month, commissioners agreed to have Mayor Bernard Featherman sign an agreement with the law firm of Ward, Damon, Posner, Pheterson & Bleau PL, authorizing it and managing member Jeffrey Pheterson to represent the town in labor relations relating to efforts by civilian employees to unionize.
    Under the agreement, the town would pay Pheterson and senior attorneys in the labor and employment law practice group $265 an hour for services. It would pay $200 an hour for associates and $125 an hour for paralegals and other legal services that arise. The town would reimburse the firm for certain out-of-pocket expenses.
    Town Attorney Glen Torcivia, who continues to represent the town in negotiations with its police union, recommended Pheterson to town commissioners.
    Pheterson “is an excellent attorney,” Torcivia said. “He’s been doing this for more than 30 years.”
    In recommending Pheterson, Torcivia cited his credentials, including his experience as a former administrative hearing officer and trial attorney for the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission.
    “My job as the town attorney is to get the best attorney for the case,” Torcivia said. “I think [Pheterson] is the best choice.”
    In August, town officials received a notice from Florida State Fraternal Order of Police representative Joe Puleo, notifying them that 14 of 16 eligible civilian employees had submitted cards indicating they were in favor of exploring whether to join a union.  
    The action, Puleo said, was in reaction to commission-directed changes in health insurance plans and other benefits.
    Commissioners said the employees’ actions surprised them and that they would receive additional benefits, including longevity pay bonuses and $1,000 per year medical gap insurance.
    The process of forming a union is continuing, although no date has been set for an election in which employees can decide whether to unionize.  Ú

By Rich Pollack

    Highland Beach is looking for a new town manager again, just not right away.
    Town commissioners agreed last month to accept Town Manager Beverly Brown’s letter announcing her retirement, but surprised her by deciding to make it effective that day, Sept. 6.
    Brown, who was on a long-planned vacation and was not at the meeting, had offered to postpone her retirement until Dec. 2 to help complete a smooth transition.
    But in a 4-1 vote, commissioners said it would be in the best interest of the town not to delay the retirement for three months.
    “There’s no punishment here,” Vice Mayor Bill Weitz said. “The issue is I think the town needs to move forward. We need to move forward with a search committee, we need to move forward with a positive and fair selection process, and I think any delay in terms of a lame-duck period and a lame-duck session will produce dissension and difficulty for our town.”
    Commissioner Lou Stern, who cast the dissenting vote, disagreed.
    “I think you’re doing the town harm by not having a town manager in place until we find a replacement,” he said.
    The commission appointed Town Clerk Valerie Oakes to fill in as interim town manager and agreed to pay her an annual salary of $115,000 while she serves in the interim position. The salary and a $600 a month car allowance were retroactive to Sept. 6, and will be in place for as long she is in the position.
    Citing scheduling and holiday issues, commissioners agreed to delay the search for a new town manager until the beginning of next year.  
    In accepting Brown’s retirement letter, commissioners agreed to continue paying her salary and providing her with benefits until Dec. 2. Commissioners also agreed to give her a longevity bonus equal to about 2 percent of her $130,400 annual salary.  
    In addition, the commission agreed to give Brown compensation for 10 weeks of accumulated leave time, as well as the iPad she used in her position.
    Brown said she was notified of the commission’s decision by phone while she was in Alaska, and was taken aback by the decision to make her retirement effective that day.
    “It took me by surprise,” she said. “It was just a shock.”
    She said she would have liked to complete some projects, but is optimistic the town will continue to operate effectively and efficiently under a new town manager.
    “We have great supervisors and I’m sure they’ll work well with whomever the commission brings in,” she said.
    Brown’s retirement marks the second time in less than two years the Town Commission has had to replace a town manager.
    Brown, 72, was serving as town clerk in January 2015 when she was named interim town manager following the mutually agreed-upon departure of former Town Manager Kathleen Weiser. Brown was promoted to the position permanently in April of that year.
    In August, Brown took heat from commissioners, who said she needed to communicate with them better after she received a letter from a Fraternal Order of Police representative explaining that civilian town employees were in the planning stages of forming a union.
    As the search for a new town manager begins, the focus will be on finding a candidate with experience in town operations, according to Commissioner Carl Feldman.  
    “We’re looking for someone with municipal knowledge,” he said.

Correction
An article in the September edition of The Coastal Star about Highland Beach Town Manager Beverly Brown’s decision to retire incorrectly reported her age. Brown is 72.

Eight-year-olds Zepplyn Berry (left), of Boca Raton, and Giada Caniza, of Boynton Beach,

launch their 2040 mayoral campaigns during the YMCA ‘Kid for Mayor’ press event

at the DeVos-Blum Family YMCA of Boynton Beach. The event was part of a national campaign

to shed light on how the Y’s various programs can prepare children for anything.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star