Delray Beach’s new fire rescue chief comes from Louisiana but is no stranger to Florida, previously serving in the fire department in Fort Myers Beach for two decades.

Ronald Martin will start on Oct. 7, taking over a department still in turmoil after the city fired its last chief, Keith Tomey, in May for allowing on-duty firefighters to participate in a charity softball game. The participation put an engine out of service for more than four hours. Also, one of the firefighters got hurt during the game and sought worker’s compensation.

Tomey filed suit in June claiming he was fired because City Manager Terrence Moore made unwanted sexual advances toward him. An investigation found no evidence to support the accusation.

On Sept. 20, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Carolyn Bell denied the city’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Since Tomey’s dismissal, Kevin Green has served as interim chief. Moore thanked Green for his “invaluable service and support” in his statement announcing Martin’s hiring.

Vice Mayor Juli Casale said the city manager is looking for new leadership in the department.

“I think the general understanding is the interim chief is winding down his career. I think Mr. Moore wants somebody who will come in and address some of the long-standing issues in that department,” she said.

Martin most recently served as chief of safety for the Louisiana Office of the State Fire Marshal. Before taking that position in November 2023, Martin served as the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District fire chief/district manager, moving up through the ranks. He resigned for personal reasons in March 2023.

— John Pacenti

Finance chief leaves after 2½ years — Delray Beach Chief Financial Officer Hugh Dunkley was leaving to take a job “out of municipal government” in waste management, he confirmed after the Sept. 10 City Commission workshop.

“I consider it an opportunity for advancement,” Dunkley said.

His last day on the job was Sept. 20. Laura Thezine, the city’s assistant finance director, is running the department in the interim.

Before coming to Delray Beach as chief financial officer in March 2022, Dunkley held similar positions at Tequesta and Deerfield Beach.

Vice Mayor Juli Casale said she liked Dunkley personally and is sad to see him go, but she did have some issues with the Finance Department.

“There have been different things that have happened that I thought were, let’s say, not necessarily amazing. I’ve asked for an audit of the Finance Department,” said Casale, who ran as a fiscal hawk in the election in March.

More money for beach sand — Delray Beach has secured an additional $9.7 million from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to help in its upcoming beach renourishment, the city manager told commissioners in his Sept. 13 information letter.

The money is in addition to the $3.8 million the state previously committed, according to a Sept. 10 email from Public Works Director Missie Barletto to City Manager Terrence Moore.

The federal government has pledged $11.2 million to the project, while Palm Beach County has said it will contribute $3.78 million.

In total, $28.5 million has been secured for the project, expected to take place next year, Moore told commissioners in his memo.

Manager gets pay boost — The City Commission voted unanimously Oct. 1 to give City Manager Terrence Moore a 3.5% merit raise. The increase is related to a 3.5 out 5 aggregate score on his evaluation by the five commissioners.

The raise, roughly $8,380, brings Moore’s salary to $247,809.

Moore was graded in 16 areas, including leadership, decision-making, and his relationship with the commission. “I gave Mr. Moore a very high score,” Commissioner Rob Long said. “He has risen to the occasion.”

Mayor Tom Carney said he approved of the 3.5% raise but said he has had issues with Moore, such as on his failure to provide more details about the proposed budget. Carney said he feels Moore understands his expectations better now.

Moore’s biggest critic on the commission, Vice Mayor Juli Casale, said she gave the city manager a score below 3.0. However, she met with Moore in the last week and said she was hopeful her concerns — which she didn’t elucidate upon — will be addressed.

— John Pacenti

By Brian Biggane

The South Palm Beach Town Council addressed its lingering vacancy at its September meeting, but it’s likely to be some time before a fifth member is added.

Vice Mayor Monte Berendes said near the end of the meeting that the vacancy — in place already for six months — should be addressed at the October meeting. That suggestion produced another from Mayor Bonnie Fischer: that the town hold a special election rather than rely on the council to make an appointment.

Fischer was not aware that the Town Charter does not allow council members to be chosen by a special election, so the onus still falls on the four current council members to make that decision. The alternative is to leave the seat open until the next regular election, which doesn’t occur until March 2026, when the current unexpired term is set to end.

Town Manager Jamie Titcomb said the situation has become awkward since the terms of council members were extended from two to four years.

The council lost two members in the past year, the first in December when Robert Gottlieb resigned because of health concerns and an unwillingness to release more details of his financial situation, which was part of a new state mandate for all elected municipal officials. That requirement has since been put on hold statewide due to a court challenge of its constitutionality.

Three candidates were interviewed to replace Gottlieb, and after the council tied 2-2 at its February meeting, Elvadianne Culbertson won the seat on a 3-1 vote in March when Ray McMillan switched his vote to her.

That prompted former Vice Mayor Bill LeRoy to resign, citing health reasons, leaving the council again with four members. Jennifer Lesh, who had been nominated by LeRoy and garnered the other two votes in the initial runoff, was no longer interested in a seat on the council. A third candidate at the time, Arnelle Ossendryver, withdrew from consideration to care for her ailing mother.

The council agreed unanimously to table a decision on a fifth member indefinitely; Berendes’ raising of the question in September means it will be on the agenda at the council’s October meeting.

“It’s an interesting case because when you only have four members on the council the calculus is different,” Titcomb said. “Two people can block anything, (while) it normally takes three to approve or disapprove. We have a lot of things coming up, and if they have a 2-2 vote a tie is a fail in the calculus.

“Based on my conversations with the vice mayor, he would rather see us with a full contingent of council members. But to get that they have to follow their own (charter).”

Berendes said he won’t be adamant about filling the vacancy right away.

“Tell me the rules and I can play the game,” he said. “I’m OK with four, but optics would be better if we have five.”

Berendes said he went into the September meeting expecting to have the vacancy filled by the end of the October meeting.

“I didn’t know we had to do it the way it is; I thought we could just put it on the docket and (make the decision) the next month, but I guess not.”

It would take longer than that to enlist applicants, for example.

Berendes said word around town is that someone has “put their hat in the ring” for the vacancy, though he wouldn’t name names. He said the laid-back nature of the town, which has no retail or commercial entities but has been working for years toward building a new Town Hall and community center, has instilled a sense of apathy among residents.

“Everything seems to be working, so there’s no sense screwing up what works,” he said.

As for the decisions coming on the Town Hall project such as hiring contractors and finding an alternate space for town employees when construction gets underway, Berendes said the situation won’t be urgent for some time.

“It’s not going to happen for a while,” he said. “I would hope we break ground in the spring and hopefully they can finish by the next spring. It’s gone on too long, but it’s a small enough building it shouldn’t take a year to build.”

Budget passed, tax rate set — Helped in great part by a 10% increase in property values, the Town Council passed a $2.412 million budget at its final budget hearing on Sept. 16.

The council has agreed to keep the property tax rate at $3.40 for each $1,000 of taxable value, the same as the one in place for the past year.

The town’s largest expenditure of $1.136 million is for public safety, as reflected by the town’s contract with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. That represents only a 2% increase over a year ago.

Online permitting — The Building Department reported its new registration module and ability to pay and upload paperwork are up and running after several months of work.

Discussions on new Town Hall — The four members of the Town Council held one-on-one talks with representatives of CPZ Architects to exchange information on the Town Hall project. A meeting between the architects and town residents is in the works, but a date and time have not been set.

One-student bus stop — PBSO Sgt. Mark Garrison reported that a bus-stop traffic post has been set up for the one student in town taking a bus to attend public school. One citation was issued in August for failure to stop for a school bus.

— Brian Biggane

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the approved tax rate and the increase in property values in South Palm Beach. The approved property tax rate is $3.40 for each $1,000 of taxable value. Property values increased 10% in the town this year.

By Mary Thurwachter

An interlocal agreement to add sand to the beaches in Palm Beach, South Palm Beach and Lantana this winter may be losing one municipality: Lantana.

It’s all about money.

When the dune restoration was hatched a few years ago, South Palm Beach, which has no public beach, agreed to pay for sand to be placed on Lantana’s beach in exchange for sand truck access via the town’s Dorothy Rissler Lane. A new plan will have dump trucks coming across Lake Worth Beach’s shoreline, south of the pier. As a result, Lantana beach access is no longer needed and because of that, Lantana would need to pay for the sand it would receive.

Lantana Mayor Karen Lythgoe says she doesn’t have an estimate for how much it would cost, but “it would be quite high.” She said the town “has a number of projects in flight this year so that would have to be incorporated into our visioning session in the future.” 

Town Manager Brian Raducci “is exploring a potential opportunity, but it’s not gone further than that,” she said.

One council member, Lynn “Doc” Moorhouse, shared his thoughts on the change in plans at the Sept. 23 town meeting — and he wasn’t liking it.

“There’s going to be some beach restoration money that they’re going to be asking us for and it’s not going to be there because they’re wanting us to pay for something that they said was going to be free earlier,” Moorhouse said, “and that’s putting a burden on our town manager.

“I don’t want it to reflect in any bad light that we’re not willing to pay. It was supposed to be free. We were going to work with Palm Beach. We were going to let them use the beach, let them do all their stuff and we were going to get free sand.

“Not happening,” Moorhouse continued. “I don’t believe our town has the money to just go yippie-ki-yay. … I just want the public to know why we aren’t joining the beach project. Well, it was free before and now it’s not. This is stupid stuff. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to like me. But that’s dumb, in my opinion.”

Raducci, in his report for September, didn’t rule out the town’s involvement.

“The Town of Palm Beach is now requesting reimbursement from the Town for sand costs only and is obtaining estimates for sand rates and quantities needed,” he wrote. “Since the sand was originally going to be provided in exchange for Dorothy Rissler access (which is no longer required), they will seek funds from Palm Beach County’s ERM (Environmental Resources Management) for sand placement in the Town.

“We are currently evaluating the need for a new interlocal agreement to proceed if the project is financially feasible for the Town.”

The project is expected to begin this winter and sand would come from a stockpile in Phipps Ocean Park in Palm Beach.

By Mary Thurwachter

After two public hearings in September, the Lantana Town Council adopted a $29.5 million total budget with the same tax rate as last year — $3.75 per $1,000 of assessed taxable value.

Property tax revenues are estimated at $6.95 million. That’s an increase of $538,000 from last year and makes up 39.4% of the town’s anticipated revenues. The taxes are used to support the town’s $17.8 million operating budget, which covers the day-to-day costs of government. The town’s total budget also includes its water and sewer fund and stormwater improvement fund.

In presenting the budget, Town Manager Brian Raducci said Lantana “continues to be financially healthy and stable due to a fiscally conservative approach in maintaining its operations.”

The general fund’s reserves are $15.9 million, which is about 96% of the FY 2025 operating budget that took effect Oct. 1 and exceeds the town’s adopted fund balance policy, which includes reserve funds for emergencies, according to Finance Director Stephen Kaplan.

In accordance with priorities set during a council visioning session in April, the town will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain infrastructure, including $250,000 to put hurricane windows on Town Hall.

Residents can expect more twinkling lights around Town Hall this Christmas, thanks to a beautification project that will cost $30,000 for holiday decorations and another $20,000 for lighting to support holiday decorations around Greynolds Circle.

Other beautification efforts include $20,000 for landscaping and trash receptacles throughout town and $20,000 toward benches, landscaping and trash receptacles in parks.

Another priority will involve supporting the library, with $19,000 for books, computers and carpet panels. The library will be adding a full-time community engagement and outreach coordinator and adding 14 hours to a part-time staffer to permit Saturday hours.

Police are due to get new firearms and three SUVs, two new laptops for road patrol and money for license plate reading cameras.

Town employees will receive 4% cost-of-living raises and could get merit raises of up to 5% based on annual evaluations.

Lantana’s budget is broken down into three categories, including 67% for personnel, 26% for operating expenses and 7% for capital projects. The town has no debt.

Ocean Ridge resident Rich Mascolo has been pouring his efforts into volunteer work at the Soup Kitchen of Boynton Beach since his retirement. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The fact that 12% of Palm Beach County residents live below the poverty line probably doesn’t come as a shock to most people. But Ocean Ridge resident Rich Mascolo has a statistic that is more of an eye opener.

“There’s an acronym that’s come about called ALICE households, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, which identifies all the people who have a hard time making ends meet,” said Mascolo. That’s 32% of the population.

“These are people that if the car breaks down, they get a rent increase, the spouse loses their job or they have a big medical emergency, they’re in really tough straits,” he says.

One place they may turn for help is the Soup Kitchen, just off Boynton Beach Boulevard west of Florida’s Turnpike.

Mascolo, 70, a retired marketing and communications expert who in years past has been lauded for his work with the YMCA, has more recently turned some of his philanthropic efforts to the Soup Kitchen. The nonprofit is the No. 1 daily distributor of meals and groceries in Palm Beach County and possibly in all of South Florida, according to Mascolo.

“In the last two years since the pandemic, the Soup Kitchen’s demand has grown 40%, from 1,000 hot meals a day to 1,400,” Mascolo said.

Having only six full-time employees means the operation relies on volunteers, but Mascolo said those six employees “could run a master class in volunteer-driven organizations.”

Unlike other charities that have their “guests,” as the Soup Kitchen calls them, line up in cars and do a drive-through pickup, the organization has people park, enter the building and not only pick up meals but also receive a box filled with supplies such as chicken and vegetables to hold them longer.

“It’s remarkable how it works,” Mascolo said.

Donations come from grocery stores such as Publix and restaurants, but also resorts such as the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa. Feeding South Florida, another nonprofit, helps make many of the connections.

Mascolo’s career in marketing has helped the Soup Kitchen get the word out as it embarks on its inaugural fundraising drive.

“They’ve punched so far above their weight class in terms of community impact, so we’re trying to sort of take their seat at the big philanthropic table of Palm Beach County,” he said. “Because they are there, and people need to know they are there.”

Mascolo, who has served on the board of the South County YMCA for the past nine years and the board of the Soup Kitchen for seven months, enjoys playing guitar, going to concerts and taking beach walks with his wife of 16 years, Bebe.

— Brian Biggane

Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A: My wife, Bebe, and I grew up on Long Island. We were high school sweethearts. I was lucky, growing up there was wonderful: near the water, almost idyllic. Then for college, I went to Penn in West Philadelphia, where I quickly saw that other people’s lives — especially in the inner city — were very different from mine. Where my wife and I grew up was pretty insular; I didn’t have a lot of exposure to how the less fortunate lived, what people had and most notably didn’t have. I grew up wanting for very little, and there were people living within a few blocks of this university that had very little. It was a shock to me.
 
Q: What professions have you worked in? What accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: I had a double major in marketing and anthropology at Penn, and obviously took the right career path with marketing and communications. I was a senior executive at a global ad agency, Grey, in New York City, that is one of the largest in the world. I then founded a consulting firm that served prominent Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, General Motors, Coca-Cola. The kind of work I was doing was attractive to the big agencies. I was working directly with the people at what you would call the top of the house: CEOs, CFOs. I later sold that firm to a different global ad conglomerate.  

Q: What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A: One’s first job is likely not a career. But do the best job you can, no matter how mundane, and good things will come your way. And secondly, smarts and background don’t make you a success. Focus and drive do.

Q: How did you choose to make your home in Ocean Ridge?
A: Bebe knew people who lived in the area and we had visited many times. So, when we became empty-nesters in 2013, we were happy to move down and make a life in Ocean Ridge. We still spend our summers with family in New York.

Q: What is your favorite part about living in Ocean Ridge?
A: It runs along A1A, so of course it’s beautiful. But it’s the neighborliness that stands out most to me. That’s great.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: I’m rereading To Kill a Mockingbird. In addition to being a classic, it’s a parable about the need to protect our community’s most vulnerable. That’s become an important theme for me, especially later in life. 
  
Q: What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?
A: To relax, I usually listen to jazz and to be inspired, it’s classical. But as an aging boomer, I’m also a diehard rock ’n’ roll fan. I’ve even been to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. We planned to spend an hour or so there and we were there several hours. It’s fantastic. As for groups, the usual ones like the Allman Brothers, of course the Beatles, and the Who.   

Q: Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A: It would have to be my parents. It’s a cliché but true. They were teachers. My mom taught K-6 and my dad was a high school teacher, then superintendent of schools. It’s like the movie My Cousin Vinny. My uncle was a teacher (awarded Teacher of the Year by Bill Clinton) and my aunt was a superstar reading teacher who shaped the New York state curriculum. They wanted to help everyone. I was the black sheep that went into advertising. 

Q: If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?
A: Matt Damon. Not the megawatt action hero in The Bourne Identity but the introspective, problem-solving Matt Damon from The Martian. 

Q: Who/what makes you laugh?
A: I love the New Yorker magazine cartoons, but I’m a total sucker for silly humor, especially if it’s a little edgy. The TV show Modern Family was one of my faves.

By John Pacenti

While art classes are set to start in November at the Crest Theatre, the theater itself remains somewhere between a modest work in progress and the problematic house in the movie The Money Pit.

The latest concern is whether its balcony is unsafe.

“We have not done a structural analysis on that balcony to see exactly how sound it is,” Public Works Director Missie Barletto said at the Sept. 16 City Commission meeting. “So we will be doing that.”

Commissioner Tom Markert had asked for an update on the renovation of the theater, which turns 100 next year.

Originally a high school auditorium, the “enchanting” 323-seat venue will eventually provide a boutique-style entertainment experience, the city says. It’s been dark since at least 2021.

“It needs sprucing up. It needs new carpet and paint inside the theater. We need to look at the electrical consoles and the dimmers and the rigging inside the theater,” Barletto said.

One contractor estimated the work would cost $5 million, while another said it would be $3 million, she said.

There will also be costs associated with rigging and the electrical room — the connectivity for the theater, Barletto said. It’s specialized work and getting the rigging company to assess the Crest has taken more time than originally thought.

“There’s one company statewide that does it and there’s a number of historic theaters that are actually under renovation right now,” Barletto said.

A contractor is expected to be in place by May, Barletto said, “at which point we’ll be coming back to you and seeking some funds.”

The city last year budgeted $1.2 million for renovations, primarily to the building’s classrooms and kitchen space.

Delray Beach got into the theater business when former Mayor Shelly Petrolia and then-Commissioners Juli Casale and Shirley Johnson voted to end the lease in 2021 with the nonprofit that ran Old School Square — the theater, the museum, and the outdoor concert venue downtown at Swinton and Atlantic avenues.

Petrolia said Old School Square Center for the Arts had not been forthcoming with its finances.

The decision opened up the San Andreas Fault. There was a lawsuit and countersuit. Commissioners Rob Long and Angela Burns came into office opposing the canceling of the lease.

The commission had decided to turn over operations to the Downtown Development Authority only to give back control of the theater to city staff.

Old School Square Center for the Arts ended up taking out equipment, lighting and other things that make theaters operate when it left the premises, said Vice Mayor Casale, who voted to oust the nonprofit during her first stint as commissioner.

Mayor Tom Carney has said he wants to monetize the Crest for the city.

In that respect, classrooms in the building for art classes are set to start in November. Photos shown to the commission by Barletto displayed glossy lacquered wood floors and drawing desks — called art horses — ready for students.

The city’s communication department has relocated to the Crest with Director Gina Carter heading up the creative arts school project by basically doing at least two jobs at present.

Casale said the Windmill Theater Company had inquired about using the Crest to do a Christmas show, “but, obviously, if you don’t think it’s structurally sound, that’s a no.”

“Well, the balcony portion, I don’t know that it is ‘not’ structurally sound, but I also don’t know that it is,” Barletto said. “So we would err on the side of caution for that, for sure.”

The commission remains gung-ho on the Crest. “I just want to get it finished. So then we all have an opportunity up here to decide what the next step is going to be. And it sounds like you’re on course,” Carney said.

Markert is focusing on the bird in the hand: the art school — which he said got a deal on its furniture.

“I’ve been over there and I’ve seen it and it looks great,” he said.

The home in The Money Pit, by the way, was absolutely stunning when completed, even if it nearly cost Tom Hanks’ character his sanity.

The remains of a hedge that Ocean Ridge ordered Jay Wallshein to trim to 6 feet in response to a complaint. It
turns out the town has no such ordinance. Coastal Star staff

Related: Ocean Ridge: Route to beach becomes path of much resistance

By John Pacenti

When the smoke cleared on the Hedge War of 2024, Ocean Ridge apologized to a resident who was forced to unnecessarily cut his beloved hedges. In turn, the resident exposed the erratic nature of how the town enforces its code violations — or whether it even knows its code at all.

“We’ve been talking about a 6-foot hedge code for 20 years, and it turns out it was never put on the books,” said Vice Mayor Steve Coz. “Unbeknownst to the enforcement people and unbeknownst to everybody in town, there is no code.”

Poet Robert Frost once pondered if indeed good fences make good neighbors. But what about the hedge, that South Florida way of keeping prying eyes diverted through the use of ficus, clusia, areca palm or yew pine?

Enter one Jay Wallshein of 119 Marlin Drive.

“How else can I look at it, but that I was targeted? How else can I see it?” said Wallshein, who has been living at a nearby property while he rebuilds his dock for the 6,000-square-foot house.

On Aug. 20, a neighbor across the canal on the back of his property complained about what she said was unsightly construction debris. He received a violation notice that was at his doorstep — not just for the debris but for the height of the hedges.

Wallshein was given seven days to remove the debris and cut his clusia hedges on the sides of his house from 16 feet to 6 feet. That’s a tall order — literally and figuratively — so he contacted Town Hall and asked for a few more days to comply, “so I can do this properly.”

Resistance is futile
He felt it odd that his hedge was too tall considering what he saw towering around other Ocean Ridge homes. He told Town Clerk Kelly Avery as much.

“I say, ‘Well, if mine’s over 6 feet, then the whole town is over 6 feet.’ She says, ‘The whole town’s not my problem. The complaint’s against you.’”

Wallshein said he was told to comply by Sept. 11 or face up to a $500 daily fine.

Well, you can’t fight Town Hall and all that. A barge removed the construction debris and he chopped his hedge.

“I planted them when I moved in, I would say, like in 2009 or 2010. I think it took me five years, six years, maybe seven years to get them that tall, to get them to privacy height like everyone else has, right?” said Wallshein, clearly still in mourning.

A Bobcat tractor had to be brought in to remove what was cut down, tearing up his yard and destroying his sprinkler system, he said. Wallshein estimates he spent at least $4,000 to remove the construction debris, $3,000 to remove the clusia cut down — and now he must re-sod and redo his sprinkler system, an expensive endeavor.

Fighting back
In the meantime, he went to work, filing complaints with photographic evidence of any hedge in Ocean Ridge that was over 6 feet tall. He then moved on to public rights-of-way, taking photos of obstructions on town property in front of homes.

Wallshein said town officials told him that code enforcement officers are obligated to cite residents if they see violations.

“How could code enforcement miss all these rocks and stones that people put along their property so that people can’t park on their lawn?” Wallshein asked.

He started filing the complaints. About a dozen were provided to The Coastal Star in response to a public records request, but Wallshein said he found 150 violations.

The complaints certainly got the attention of Mr. Wallshein’s fellow residents — one who went in front of the Town Commission and asked it to suspend the height requirement.

“Ocean Ridge has been hesitant to enforce this ordinance unless a neighbor files a complaint, which pits residents against each other,” Victor Martel said at the commission’s Sept. 9 meeting.

“As a result, many residents are unknowingly in violation of this and other ordinances. This specific ordinance has been on the books for well over 20 years.”

At the time the code was adopted, most of the homes in Ocean Ridge were one story, Martel said. Now many residences are two or more stories. “By selectively enforcing this code the town is stripping individual residents of their right to privacy which we all want to enjoy,” he said.

Martel wanted the commission to use a 2023 state law that allows parties to challenge municipal ordinances and get enforcement suspended while they are under review.

Misreading the code
Now the commission took notice of the hedge war and put Town Attorney Christy Goddeau on the case. Goddeau discovered Ocean Ridge never limited the heights of hedges at all — that Wallshein’s hedges were more than legal at 16 feet.

“Our code enforcement, called community standards, is driven by complaints. So when he (Wallshein) submitted the complaints, I told the clerk, ‘Well, start looking them up. We’ll have to go cite those people whose hedges are over,’” Goddeau told The Coastal Star.

Then she started looking into the 64-44(c) and found that though it starts out saying that hedges are regulated — it never gets back to them.

“Where it sets a maximum height, it just has walls and fences,” she said. “So, if you don’t read it closely, you would miss that they took out hedges.”

Goddeau sent Wallshein a Sept. 16 letter, saying that in fact, the town has no code on the heights of hedges — just fences and walls.

Oops.

“Since it appears the hedges violation was issued to you under mistake of fact and in violation of subsection 64-44(c), the town has advised me that it apologizes for any inconvenience,” Goddeau wrote.

Now Wallshein is contemplating legal action, but it seems more of an afterthought to him. His concerns are about the true victim in this story, the clusia hedges — one of which hid the window of the master bathroom.

“It will still take me three years to get them back up,” he said. “I mean they grow fast but not that fast.”

By John Pacenti

Some summer blockbusters deserve repeated viewings. The Delray Beach City Commission is no summer blockbuster.

At their Sept. 16 meeting, commissioners again bickered over the budget and proposed tax cuts before finally approving a “no new taxes” budget and tax rate that will mean savings for many property owners. The acrimony spilled over to other topics, such as allowing a one-minute window for public comments during workshops.

“Democracy is a bitch,” Mayor Tom Carney said when Vice Mayor Juli Casale pressed him on why have public comments at all if speakers are given only one minute each.

“Oh, my goodness, gracious,” Casale responded.

Carney gave a long monologue on the tax cuts. Commissioner Rob Long displayed exasperation. Casale tore into City Manager Terrence Moore on his wishy-washy position on the amount of reserves needed in case the city gets hit with catastrophe, like a hurricane.

They bickered and bickered well into the second half of Monday Night Football.

In the end, it was a fait accompli because the budget and tax rate had already been decided before the Aug. 13 workshop, giving residents the no new taxes outcome promised by Carney.

The commission formalized the rollback millage rate on Sept. 16, which, combined with the payment for voter-approved debt, means taxpayers will pay $5.94 for each $1,000 of taxable value to cover city taxes. A homesteaded property with a taxable value of $1 million last year will pay about $352 less this year.

Property values in Delray Beach increased 10.9%, but under state law the values of homesteaded properties are capped at 3% a year. For commercial and rental property — and second homes — the cap is 10%.

Because of the higher cap for non-homesteaded properties, a commercial property valued at $1 million last year would see its city tax bill go up, but only about $36.

The commission approved the rollback rate with Carney, Casale and Commissioner Tom Markert voting yes. Long and Commissioner Angela Burns voted no.

The commission also voted 4-1 to approve the $187 million fiscal year 2025 general fund budget, which took effect Oct. 1. Casale was the dissenter as again she objected to the city’s not putting an amount equal to 25% of its operating budget in reserves.

Testy exchanges on the issue of reserves occurred between Carney and Casale — usual allies on other topics — at both the Sept. 3 and Sept. 16 commission meetings. Casale was frustrated that somehow Moore and the mayor had selective amnesia when it came to a policy set in December 2022 that the city would have the 25% threshold.

“It is disappointing that there was a policy direction at a meeting in 2022 and somehow that did not get memorialized in writing,” Casale said.

Casale also wrote a Sept. 20 letter to her fellow commissioners, reminding them that reserves are designed to help the city run in case of a hurricane or other emergency. The reserves are also crucial to its bond rating, she wrote.

In what was her latest broadside against Moore, Casale said commissioners at the December 2022 meeting directed the city manager on a 25% minimum reserves policy.

“What is unclear is why City Manager Moore failed to perform his duty,” Casale wrote.

By Steve Plunkett

Town officials are looking past the looming presidential election to next March, when voters will decide who will fill Seats 1, 3 and 5 on the Briny Breezes Town Council.

Mayor Ted Gross on Sept. 26 proclaimed March 11, 2025, as the town’s next election date. The qualifying period to become a candidate will be from noon Nov. 12 to noon Nov. 26.

The seats are currently held by Alderman Keith Black, Council President Liz Loper and Alderman Bill Birch.

Also on Sept. 26, the Town Council renewed its lease with Briny Breezes Inc. for the Town Hall meeting room and offices for five years. The town will pay the corporation $1,742 a month in rent the first year, with the monthly payments increasing by $50 each year in the second through the fifth years.

The town and Briny Breezes Inc. also extended their one-year agreement for the corporation to again pay 70% of the cost of police and fire rescue services rather than the usual 30%. The arrangement lets the town levy a property tax of only $3.75 per $1,000 of taxable value instead of the maximum $10 per $1,000.

That, in turn, will allow the town possibly to raise taxes to pay back a loan if it decides to go that route to rebuild its sea walls and improve its stormwater system.

The net effect to property owners of having the corporation pay more for public safety so far is a wash, because the corporation raises its assessments to shareholders to make up the difference.

Ocean Ridge provides police patrols to the town, and Boynton Beach handles fire rescue duties.

“You guys have been living healthy or nobody’s here, because (in July) we got no medical calls and we only had two in August,” Police Chief Scott McClure said while making his monthly report.

New beach lighting rules — The Town Council on Sept. 26 approved amendments updating its ordinance on sea turtles and beach bonfires after discussing the matter at three monthly meetings and a workshop and a “second first reading” of the changes in August.

The amended code allows amber, orange or red lights, which sea turtles cannot see, to be visible from the beach instead of insisting only that lights be shielded or aimed away from the sand.

The dates of sea turtle nesting season were corrected to say March 1 to Oct. 31, and fires on the beach are prohibited during nesting season and require a town permit at other times of the year.

— Steve Plunkett

By John Pacenti

A budget resolution put in front of the Ocean Ridge Town Commission by the town manager on Sept. 20 failed to deduct cuts made by elected officials at the previous meeting earlier in the month.

It was Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy who discovered the error before the commission approved the correct budget of $13,506,409.

The resolution put forth by Town Manager Lynne Ladner had the budget at $13,551,484 — a difference of $45,075.

But the commission adjusted that figure at the Sept. 9 budget meeting, making cuts by eliminating a part-time front desk position in the Building & Zoning Department and decreasing the money allocated for outside counsel.

Cassidy noticed the figure didn’t align with the spreadsheets in the agenda packet. Ladner, who was not physically at the Sept. 20 meeting, was contacted by text by Town Attorney Christy Goddeau and Ladner said indeed the amount on the budget resolution was wrong.

“You’re welcome. We just saved $45,000,” Cassidy quipped.

Ladner, contacted later by The Coastal Star, said she didn’t review the resolutions the clerk loaded into the packet that went to commissioners. The clerk had carried over the numbers from the tentative budget resolution used at an earlier public hearing in September, Ladner said, while the commission made two changes at that meeting that needed to be reflected in the final resolution.

Commissioner Ainar Aijala Jr., who was attending the meeting telephonically, was livid.

“I don’t understand why these numbers keep, you know, moving around like that,” Aijala said. “This is the budget that our town manager sent out to us and then the very same resolution. It’s embarrassing.”

At the Aug. 5 commission meeting, it was Cassidy who was livid. She said Ladner kept using net values of property rather than gross values as the state requires to determine property taxes to be collected. The commission last December had to have a special meeting to approve last year’s budget and tax rate for a second time because of the same error. It did end up leading to $58,738 more in tax revenue.

At the Sept. 20 meeting, Cassidy said that the net taxable value again was used in the narrative to the commission on revenues. Cassidy said she had Ladner correct the figures before the meeting.

“She reverted to using that net taxable value number. I don’t know why,” Cassidy said.

In a separate resolution on Sept. 20, Ocean Ridge commissioners voted to keep the same tax rate as the town had the year before, at $5.40 per $1,000 of taxable value.

Still, taxes will go up a little for homesteaded properties because property values in the town increased 10.3%.

The average home in Ocean Ridge, according to Zillow.com, is worth $1.5 million.

So for a homesteaded property that was worth $1.5 million last year, Ocean Ridge property taxes would increase by $243. Under state law, the taxable value of a homesteaded property used for a primary residence can increase only 3%.

This is not the case for commercial real estate, second homes or rental property, where the cap is 10%.

So for a non-homesteaded property worth $1.5 million last year, the tax increase will be $810.

This fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, the town will hire a lobbyist to help secure grants, and it will continue to upgrade valves on the town’s water pipes, among other capital improvements.

By Jane Musgrave

State environmental regulators want Boynton Beach utilities to pay a $182,000 fine for a July 2023 sewer line break that caused 22 million gallons of sewage to spew into the Intracoastal Waterway.

The proposed consent order, which is to be discussed by city commissioners on Oct. 15, would end the investigation by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection into lapses that caused the six-day spill. It fouled the waterway, caused some businesses to close and spurred no-swimming advisories during the busy Independence Day holiday.

In the proposed order, state regulators said the utility, and ultimately its customers, could avoid the fine if it instead chose to do a project that would benefit the environment.

The so-called “in-kind penalty projects” would have to cost at least as much as the proposed fine. But, some types of projects would have to cost at least 1½ times as much as the proposed fine, or $273,000. Whether the city pays the fine or does an in-kind project, it also must pay $1,000 to cover the state’s investigative costs.

The fine is on top of the $1.6 million the city said it spent cleaning up the spill.

Utilities Director Poonam Kalkat declined to say what recommendations she would make to the commission.

“We have the option of picking which way we want to go,” she said. “All of the projects are on the table. I can’t say what the commission will do.”

During a meeting with regulators in May, Kalkat suggested various projects, including upgrading air conditioning units in city buildings, planting trees along the waterway to create a living shoreline, or restoring coral reefs, according to minutes from the meeting.

She also suggested some system improvements, such as installing an advanced leak detection system, lining pipes in some parts of the city, or replacing valves in lift stations.

Regulators said they needed more information before approving the living shoreline project and others designed to improve water quality, enhance marine habitat or reduce the city’s carbon footprint. They also cautioned that the projects can’t duplicate those the utility is being required to do under the proposed order.

Regulators didn’t respond to an email, asking which projects, if any, they have signed off on.

In addition to the penalty, under the order the city would have to continue to provide the agency proof that it is taking steps to reduce the chance for sewage spills and has taken steps so it will respond more quickly if one occurs.

The utility would also have to submit a plan to improve lift stations and another one describing how it will maintain or improve the decades-old system.

The utility would have to report its progress to the state every six months. Failure to do so would result in $1,000-a-day fines. If any discharges occur, the city would agree to pay up to $15,000 for each day the spill went unchecked.

During the May meeting, city officials balked at regulators’ claims that they didn’t quickly begin critical water testing at the spill site at the end of Boynton Beach Boulevard east of Federal Highway.

“For sampling, it didn’t start Day 1 because the spill was still leaking,” said Kathryn Rossmell, an attorney at the West Palm Beach law firm Lewis, Longman & Walker, representing the utility. “Once the leak stopped the sampling started.”

Bridjette Bucell, an environmental manager at the state agency, said that wasn’t an excuse.

“Sampling is required once (the) spill is discovered so we know how far out the spill was impacting,” she said, according to minutes of the meeting.

Paul Polito, another Lewis, Longman & Walker attorney, said the city did everything it could to stop the leak and alert the public.

“On Day 1 they checked the outfall, notified citizens, added buoys, had boats out collecting solids, were contacting emergency vendors to get parts to fix on the same day, and posted signage,” he said, according to the minutes. “They took other actions the same day to prevent this from happening again.”

In a report to the commission in December, Kalkat described what she called her staff’s Herculean efforts to stop the leak and repair the lines after the spill was discovered on July 3, 2023.

The breach occurred when an estimated 50-year-old pipe failed. The pipe ran through a concrete box that was designed by the Florida Department of Transportation for stormwater drainage. The so-called conflict box regularly filled with water, including corrosive saltwater, weakening the pipe, Kalkat said.

By city rules, it should have been in a casing to protect it, but it wasn’t, she said. Kalkat said divers spent hours, battling unusually high tides in the cramped box, to secure the damaged pipe with a clamp.

“After trying for over 10 hours the divers were unsuccessful as the back pressure in the pipe, and the tidal water, did not allow the repair clamp saddle to be tightened completely,” she told commissioners.

To reduce back pressure, crews then installed a 20-inch line stop downstream of the break. By alleviating the pressure, it was hoped that divers, working at low tide, could secure the clamp. Again, their efforts failed.

The leak, which came as the city was preparing to advertise for bids to replace the line, came at a particularly bad time, Kalkat said.

With people on vacation for the July 4 holiday, the city scrambled to find parts and help from other municipalities, she said.

Ultimately, the spill was stopped when a 900-foot above-ground bypass hose was successfully connected to the damaged pipe.

She said the spill was stopped in three days. State regulators said raw sewage continued to flow for six days. The records don’t offer a reason for the disagreement.

On July 20, two weeks after the breach, the Florida Health Department announced that fecal-bacteria testing of the Intracoastal Waterway showed that the water was again safe and the public could “resume water-related activities.”

The announcement was good news for nearby businesses, particularly those at the marina.

At the time, Fernando Melo, who works for Boynton Beach Boat rentals, said the business was shuttered for three days. “The water was not clean and it didn’t smell good, so we didn’t want to expose our customers,” he said.

By mid-September, a new pipe had been installed — this one outside the conflict box, Kalkat said.

“It was a perfect storm,” she said. She praised city workers, contractors, state agencies and nearby municipalities for helping the city with the repairs and cleanup.

Since the spill, the city has thoroughly reviewed the system and updated its operational plans for dealing with a breach.

There is only one other pipe in a conflict box. It is covered in casing, she said.

“Still,” Kalkat said, “we’re going to be keeping a close eye on it.”

Ditto other parts of the system. “We’re going to keep checking and preempt anything like this that can happen,” she said.

Property taxes, fire assessment on the rise — Boynton Beach city commissioners on Sept. 23 unanimously approved a property tax rate of $7.80 per $1,000 of taxable value to support the city’s $130.3 million general fund budget.

That budget will pay for the city’s day-to-day government operations in fiscal year 2025, which began Oct. 1. The city’s overall budget, which also includes water and sewer, solid waste and capital improvement funds, is $327.8 million.

The general fund budget is 9.5% — $11.3 million — more than last year.

While the tax rate dropped less than 1% from last year, homeowners will still be paying more because property values rose 8.7% in the city this year.

The commission also increased the annual fire assessment flat-fee to $145, a $25 jump from last year. The vote was 3-2, with Commissioners Angela Cruz and Thomas Turkin opposed to the increase.

Oyer Park protected from development — Commis-sioners passed a restrictive covenant for Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park on Oct. 1, which would prohibit any residential, hotel or restaurant uses there. Approved uses at the park include commercial and recreational fishing, public safety uses, and the sale of bait and prepackaged snacks.

Regulating recreational marijuana (quickly) — With the potential legalization of recreational marijuana on the state ballot in November, commissioners are looking at placing limitations on where it can be sold if the constitutional amendment passes. The city would have to pass any restrictions before the amendment — if approved — could take effect in January, City Attorney Shawna Lamb said.

— Larry Barszewski

Billy Joel has owned the estate at 1110 S. Ocean since 2015 and has listed it for sale several times, with the current asking price of around $50 million. Photo provided

By Christine Davis

Piano Man Billy Joel may finally sell his Manalapan mansion at 1110 S. Ocean. Listed by Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate, it went pending in late August in perhaps the last stanza of a long ballad. Just this year Joel had relisted the mansion in January for $54.9 million, and then reduced its price in March to $49.9 million.

Angle declined to comment.

Jack Elkins, an agent with William Raveis, recounts the mansion’s history up to the time when he represented its current owners’ LLC when they purchased the property in 2015 for $22,109,100.

“It was sold fully furnished, turnkey,” Elkins said.

“Its original attraction: It had been part of the Vanderbilt estate, and it had the Vanderbilt sea wall, which was a nice touch.

“The original house, designed by Maurice Fatio, was built by Harold Vanderbilt. When owned by Veronica Hearst, she sold off 150 feet of the property — which was the rose garden, the primary bedroom suite and the tennis court — to Robert Fessler. He built the house that is there” today in 2010.

From there, Texas billionaire Donald Adams bought it from the developer Fessler’s LLC for $15 million in 2011, Elkins recalled.

Returning to the mansion’s current owners, “they put it back on the market in July 2018; they listed it for $31.9 million,” Elkins said.

Since then, it was relisted in November 2022 for $64.9 million. As noted in The Coastal Star’s February 2024 issue, it was relisted for $54.9 million, and then underwent further price reductions before finally striking just the right note and attracting its potential buyer’s attention.

The buyer and price should be revealed in public records once the sale closes, if it does.

“Ocean-to-Intracoastal properties with dockage have always been appealing,” Elkins said.

The current, 13,348-square-foot estate sits on 1.6 acres with about 150 feet of frontage on the ocean and Intracoastal Waterway.

The compound includes a guest house and staff house. The main house has nine bedrooms, and details include a theater room, a pub room with a bar, paneled library, 12-plus-car

garage, and wine cellar with a wet bar and tasting table.

Reportedly, Joel and his family have upgraded to a waterfront home at 5001 Egret Point Circle, in the Sanctuary neighborhood of Boca Raton.

***

Alan B. Miller, founder, executive chairman and former CEO of Universal Health Services, and his wife, Jill, sold their 7,167-square-foot oceanfront residence at 3 Ocean Lane, Manalapan, for $18.25 million. The Millers bought the property in 1992 for $2.25 million.

Corinne Anna Buckley of Beverly Hills, California, is the new owner. With her husband, Fred, Corinne Buckley leads ProstaGenix, a maker of prostate health supplements.

Antonio and Pascal Liguori of the Pascal Liguori Group at Premier Estate Properties represented the sellers in the deal. The buyers were represented by Nicholas Gonzalez and Matthew Moser, agents with Serhant.

***

Other high-end sales include two properties in Boca Raton’s Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club.

Leandro Rizzuto Jr. purchased a six-bedroom, 8,975-square-foot waterfront estate at 169 W. Key Palm Road in the country club for $18.5 million in August. The sellers, Donald R. Jenkins and Kelley Jenkins of Aspen, Colorado, purchased the property for $14.975 million in 2021. Joyce Schneider of Castles by the Beach Realty represented Rizzuto, while the sellers were represented by Senada Adžem and Dustin Nero of Douglas Elliman.

On the same day Rizzuto bought the home at 169 W. Key Palm Road, he sold a home at 2391 Areca Palm Road, Boca Raton. Nicola Verses bought that one for $10 million.

Rizzuto had purchased that property in November 2021 for $7 million. He had it listed with Schneider as well.

Rizzuto also owns a residence at 1900 Royal Palm Way, Boca Raton, which he has homesteaded. He purchased that home for $14 million in 2019.

Rizzuto is the son of the late Leandro Rizzuto Sr., who founded hair care products company Conair and later bought the culinary product companies Cuisinart and Waring. 

***

Alina Residences’ sales gallery has moved to the newly completed Alina 210, residence 504, at 210 SE Mizner Blvd., Boca Raton. It was previously located in Alina 200, the project’s phase-one building. To schedule appointments, email sales@alinabocaraton.com. Douglas Elliman Development Marketing is the exclusive sales team.

***

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Palm Beach County ReStore, at 272 S. Dixie Highway, Boca Raton, closes mid-to-late October, as the building owners move ahead with plans to demolish and redevelop the site. The store is searching for a new Boca Raton location. Shoppers are encouraged to check out its 30% closing sale, to continue donating, and to shop at other Palm Beach County ReStore thrift and donation centers, which include the one at 1900 N. Federal Highway, Delray Beach.

Sales of donated items help Habitat for Humanity partner with families to build and repair safe and affordable homes in their communities.

***

Focusing on an increased collaboration between its profit and nonprofit members, the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce has created an annual month of events in October called Do Good Delray. The chamber’s goal is to bring members together to improve awareness and engagement and to increase funding for the nonprofits’ philanthropic efforts.

***

The Boynton Beach Online Chamber of Commerce recently conducted a school supply drop-off at Poinciana Elementary School in Boynton Beach.

“This is the first year that the chamber collected and dropped off school supplies to one of the schools in Boynton Beach,” said Roz Kodish, owner of Everything Logo. “The chamber is an integral part of the Boynton Beach community, and part of our mission is to give back to our community. We look forward to continuing this tradition in years to come.” 

***

The Delray Beach Housing Authority, the Delray Housing Group, AffordableHousing.com, iThink Financial, and Eat Better, Live Better conducted their annual backpack giveaway. Six hundred children’s backpacks with supplies were distributed in July.

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

The suspect in a Friday double-homicide in the parking lot of the 365 Ocean Hotel on State Road A1A in Boca Raton was arrested in Georgia on Saturday, police said. A man and a woman were shot to death at the hotel, 365 N. Ocean Blvd., after an apparent purse snatching, and another man was hospitalized after being shot. The two men who were shot came to the woman's assistance as she struggled to get her purse back from the suspect, when he opened fire and fled in his silver Jaguar, police said. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By John Pacenti

A 30-year-old man is facing murder charges Saturday after he was apprehended in Georgia, accused of killing a man and a woman in an apparent purse-snatching that turned deadly in the parking lot of a Boca Raton extended-stay hotel on State Road A1A.

De’Vante Moss, 30, of Boynton Beach, is awaiting extradition to Palm Beach County Jail, charged with two counts of first-degree murder with a firearm and one count of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, Boca Raton police said in a statement.

The fatal shootings occurred shortly before 5 p.m. Friday at the 365 Ocean Hotel, across from South Beach Park on A1A. 

Police said Moss fled in a silver Jaguar belonging to him. Witnesses described the vehicle, which was also seen in surveillance video at the scene of the shooting. The license plate was put into a nationwide law enforcement database, leading to the arrest by the Laurens County Sheriff's Office in Georgia, police said. Laurens County is about 50 miles southeast of Macon.

"Moments before the shooting, the suspect was seen exiting one of the hotel rooms and running with a purse. A 32-year-old woman, who also exited the same room, ran after the suspect demanding her belongings,” according to the police statement.

Surveillance video shows Moss attempting to get into the driver’s seat of the Jaguar, still struggling with the woman, police said. That is when two men intervened and Moss produced a firearm, shooting the woman and both men before fleeing Boca Raton, police said.

The names of the victims have not been released yet. The male killed was 49 years old. No age was given for the injured male, who has been hospitalized.

The scene Friday afternoon as Boca Raton police investigated the shootings at the 365 Ocean Hotel on State Road A1A. Staff photo

The police presence continued Saturday morning around the 365 Ocean boutique extended-stay hotel on State Road A1A in Boca Raton where police say two people were shot and killed Friday and another injured in the hotel's parking lot. Police reopened A1A near the hotel to traffic around midnight. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Staff report

A shooting in the parking lot of an extended stay hotel across from Boca Raton’s South Beach Park left two people dead and another injured Friday afternoon, police say.

The shooting occurred shortly before 5 p.m. at 365Ocean, Boca Raton police spokeswoman Jessica Desir said.

“It appears there was some type of dispute in the parking lot of 365 N. Ocean Blvd., which is an extended-stay hotel,” Desir posted on the department’s account on X, formerly Twitter. “The suspect left the area and investigators are following up.”

Boca Raton police at the scene of a Sept. 20 shooting at 365 Ocean, directly across from the entrance to the South Beach Park parking lot. Two people were killed and a third injured in the shooting. Coastal Star staff photo

Desir, on the scene, told reporters that the dead were a man and a woman. Another man was transported to the hospital, she said.

Police closed off a section of A1A – also known as North Ocean Boulevard – from about the 800 block south to Palmetto Park Road.  That portion of A1A reopened to traffic around midnight, police say.

After the shooting, the heaviest police presence was directly across from the entrance to the South Beach Park parking lot. Police were gathered at the corner of A1A and Northeast Fourth Street, next to 365 Ocean, which describes itself as a boutique extended-stay hotel.

This story was originally published at 7:24 p.m. Sept. 20 and has since been updated.

Boca Raton police on Sept. 20 at the scene of a shooting, 365 N. Ocean Blvd., an extended-stay hotel called 365 Ocean. Two people were killed and a third injured in the incident at the hotel, a few blocks north of Palmetto Park Road. Coastal Star staff photo

Paul Smith of Crown Colony Club says summer is when the major repairs get done. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

With part-time residents gone, construction workers sweat, security people manage slower pace, and diehards enjoy the peace

By John Pacenti

Crown Colony Club in Ocean Ridge is almost like a dystopian wasteland this afternoon. For religious people, the rapture may come to mind. Not a single soul is in sight.

The pool, pristine and inviting, plays host to no one. A scattering of vehicles, some covered, plays sentinel in the vast parking lot. Many of the 148 condos have their summer armor up — hurricane shutters are the decor du jour.  

In many ways, year-round residents along the Gold Coast have indeed been left behind. Welcome to the lonely season. The part-timers catapult out of South Florida around Easter or Passover, start to trickle back in late September, and are back in force by Thanksgiving.

The effect is profound in the heat of August. The population in Briny Breezes drops 50% in the summer from the season high, according to a county report based on 2020 U.S. Census data. In Manalapan and South Palm Beach it falls 43%, while in Gulf Stream, Highland Beach and Ocean Ridge, the populations drop by about a third.

At night in Boca Raton, the number of lights on in condos such as La Fontana and Sea Ranch Club can be counted on one hand, making them look like giant jack-o-lanterns ready to devour the night.

Even downtown Delray Beach — which at the height of the tourist season can resemble Disney World in the amount of foot traffic — is mostly abandoned, with workers smoking outside. At 11 on a weeknight, you could drive a golf ball down East Atlantic Avenue and not hit anything.

During the day, the Gulf Stream Golf Club, St. Andrews Club, the Ocean Club of Florida and The Little Club are like ghost towns along A1A from Ocean Ridge to Delray Beach. Luggage carts are empty and sad out front. The tennis courts are under maintenance and the golf courses are being aerated. 

‘Kind of quiet, subdued’
At Crown Colony, a cumulonimbus cloud does a hit-and-run, drenching the facility. Then, there is suddenly life, in the corner of the near-empty parking lot where several cars are covered. It’s affable Paul Smith. He’s building new downspouts and lifting bricks into a wheelbarrow.

“During the summer, when everybody’s gone, is when we do the major work. When everybody’s here, it’s crowded, it’s busy. Almost every spot in the parking lot is taken,” said Smith, who is the treasurer of the condo association. “Now it’s kind of quiet, subdued. So we have four or five months of just total chaos and then six or seven months of nice and calm.”

Smith is hardly alone in taking on construction projects. Trucks and vans advertising on their sides all types of renovation work — marble tile, kitchen counters, air conditioning — dot the side of A1A and stand in driveways of condo complexes on the oceanside. Ladders and scaffolding hang like jewelry off of buildings and homes.

“When all the snowbirds go home, and then we get to work on their houses, and then they come back and they’re all finished, like magic,” said Mike Monaco of Palm Beach Trim, just leaving a job at Casa Serena in Gulf Stream.

Across the street from Casa Serena, a police car sits, discouraging speeders. Upon closer inspection, nobody is in the driver seat. Though this is a common tactic year-round, it adds to the summer’s deserted feeling.

Police Capt. John Haseley agreed that summer is slower, but said that before COVID-19, the difference between summer and winter was more pronounced. The pandemic brought many younger year-round residents who have changed the demographics somewhat, he said.

“There’s a fair amount of seasonal still, but nothing like it used to be,” Haseley said. 

Traffic remains the top priority whether it be in the summer — yes, those construction trucks ignore the empty squad cars if speed is an indicator — or the increased resident traffic in the winter. Despite the empty homes, one crime statistic has remained static. 

“I can’t even tell you how long it’s been since we had a residential burglary,” Haseley said.

Christien Pittman, owner of Titan Security, oversees Ocean Place Estates in Highland Beach.

Views from workers ...
Christien Pittman, the owner of Titan Security who has overseen Ocean Place Estates in Highland Beach for the last 14 years, says this summer he has been surprised to see an uptick in homeless individuals moving through this wealthy community. He sees them walking down with their shopping carts on A1A. He sees them being roused by police from their sleep in the morning.

“Last month, there were some people under the stairs here. I saw them on my camera,” Pittman said. “So I go down there and there’s a whole family. It was two kids and a man and his wife.”

Pittman says he is not lonely because he knows the neighborhood, the full-time residents. He points across the street. “I’ve seen the kids grow up. They’ve seen me get older,” he said.

While Pittman is content, others who work at resorts and complexes say summer can be taxing in a dull sort of way.

David Olmos works as a valet at Delray Sands Resort. How to deal with the off-season? Pittman says he knows the neighborhood’s full-timers. Olmos can chat up the front desk person.

Valet David Olmos, 23, is waiting for anybody needing his services outside of the Delray Sands Resort — which is actually in Highland Beach. “It does get lonely,” Olmos said.  “I do have the front desk person to talk to.”

Olmos said he was still mourning the cat Sandy who lived at the complex for years and died recently.

One security guard at a complex in Delray Beach who asked that his name or building not be printed said he spends the summer “watching the grass grow.” 

Robert Rourke, who works the security desk at Beach Walk East Condominium in Highland Beach, said, “I read, do my crossword puzzles, watch TV and occasionally look at the monitor. I like being alone.”

Only a few lights are visible at night in August at the Coronado at Highland Beach condominiums.

... and from residents
A common sentiment found among year-round residents: Yes, it’s more lonely in the summertime — but it’s a good change of pace from the go-go of the tourist season.

Ann Carmody is tooling down A1A on her golf cart, back from a hobby club where she said they were making quilts for disabled people. She said five residents decided to stay the summer on her street in Briny Breezes.

When asked if she was anticipating seeing her neighbors return, Carmody said, “It’s good and it’s bad. It’s really good to see the friends again and all the parties — but it gets more crowded.”

At Seagate Towers in Delray Beach, where one of the 13-story high-rises had 15 people living there in August, Ron Mitchell is trying out his new knee, taking out his bike for the first time since replacement surgery.

“I was in the wine business for a while, so when it’s more crowded, obviously, there’s more money, right? But it’s not bad, you know, you are able to park, you are able to get to the beach,” Mitchell said.

At the St. Andrews Club, Blakely Ashley Larrabee has flown in from Delaware with her husband and two children. She says her parents own a condo across the street. “It’s not much hotter in Delaware than it is here. You get the nice ocean breeze and it’s not as crowded on Atlantic Avenue.” 

Back at Crown Colony, count Smith as one of those who likes the vibe in the lonely season.

“Well, it’s kind of nice, actually, in the summertime where it’s kind of empty,” he said. “You go to the pool. It’s like your private pool, right? During the wintertime, you can’t find a seat.”

Then he thinks for a moment and adds, “But you know, it’s also nice having the members here too, because we all know each other, right? We’re friends, we hang out.”

An officer working at the Sandbar heard shots just before midnight. Damage was reported to the south, with gunfire striking a window at Dover House and leaving bullet casings scattered at Miramar Drive. The Coastal Star/Google Maps image

By John Pacenti

Women dancing on cars. Partygoers livestreaming. Reports of three masked shooters. Nearly four dozen spent bullet casings littering the ground.

A 31-page police report released to The Coastal Star details the harrowing June 21 scene south of the Delray Beach pavilion on State Road A1A as young adults and juveniles scattered to the sound of gunfire. 

“I thought it was just a whole bunch of fireworks because it was kind of leading up to Fourth of July weekend and so forth,” said Matt Gracey, who was visiting one of his properties in the first block of South Ocean Boulevard.

“So, then, I went out toward the sidewalk and I saw people running in all different directions and, just about then, I heard the police sirens start, and the whole area was just covered in police cars.”

The Coastal Star requested the report in June and then again in July. It was turned over on Aug. 19. Police redacted many details, even obvious references to A1A, known as Ocean Boulevard in Delray Beach, for reasons unexplained.

“This was a disturbing event that could have resulted in serious harm to individuals,” Delray Beach police spokesman Ted White said on Aug. 26. “We immediately increased police presence in the area and are pleased to report there have been no further incidents. The safety of our community is our top priority.”

One bullet ended up lodged in an Audi. Another shattered a condo’s sliding glass door; another damaged a window at a resort. One person was injured.

“I’ve seen a lot of pictures from residents of the aftermath of that with bullet holes in balconies and in nearby cars,” said Commissioner Rob Long, who at the city’s July 25 budget hearing brought up the shots fired.

Vice Mayor Juli Casale, when shown the police report later, said, “It’s a miracle no one was killed or seriously injured.” She praised the police for reconstructing the scene before the shooting from evidence, surveillance cameras, social media and eyewitnesses.

Still, there have been no arrests in the two months since the incident, according to the report.

“Unfortunately, there were a bunch of kids who came from a different city, based on our investigation, emanated out of Broward County, ended up in Palm Beach County, and then the third location was Delray Beach city,” Police Chief Russ Mager told commissioners at their July 25 meeting.

Similar scenario in March
The scenario, he said, was similar to March 30 when a large group gathered on the top floor of the Old School Square parking garage, at 95 NE First Ave., a block east of Swinton Avenue. One juvenile did end up getting shot at that party.

And indeed, about 45 minutes before the June 21 gunfire, an officer said he dispersed a large gathering again at the garage, which is a mile from the beach. When that officer responded to shots fired on the beach, he noticed the same cars from the garage — and saw the same victim who was shot in March, according to the police report.

“We were like their third stop, similar to the garage scenario,” Mager said of the June 21 shooting. “We were able to identify some of the names from the garage incident. Similar names, the same people popped up in the beach incident. So, they were familiar with Delray Beach. They knew to come here for some reason.”

Officer Henry Lugo was working an off-duty detail June 21 at the Sandbar Delray, 40 S. Ocean Blvd., when he reported shots fired “in the area of the beach,” shortly before midnight, according to the police report, which redacted some key locations.

When officers responded, they found young men and women fleeing. They discovered Nasir Williams, who told officers he had crouched down behind a Nissan Altima, which then hit his leg as it sped away.

A window had been struck at the Dover House Resort at 110 S. Ocean Blvd., according to the police report.

One witness told investigators he saw a man shooting southbound toward a group of individuals, taking cover behind vehicles before running northbound toward Atlantic Avenue.

Two women told police they saw three men wearing masks and shooting. The men were livestreaming on their phones at the party, the women said.

Bullets, damaged property
Police early on June 22 found 27 bullet casings, both 9 mm and .45 caliber, and a live round near Miramar Drive. An additional 17 casings — and another live round — were found later that day after a bicyclist approached an officer, who was canvassing the crime scene, to say his tire had been punctured after riding over several spent bullet casings, according to the police report. Police redacted the A1A location of those casings.

A woman who lives at a complex south of the intersection of A1A and Miramar Drive reported blood droplets near her Audi, though later testing turned out negative for blood. A bullet was lodged in one of the car’s doors. The homeowners association of another condo complex reported a sliding glass door in the front penthouse was shattered.

What detectives reported
Police obtained surveillance videos from businesses on South Ocean Boulevard and from a parked Tesla. They found an advertisement for an “invitation only” party to start at 11 p.m. at an unknown location.

Scouring social media, police found a video showing some women dancing on top of an unknown vehicle. One of the women was observed “falling on the front windshield of the vehicle, causing it to shatter,” the police report notes.

In another video discovered on social media, gunshots could be heard in the background. “Rounds were fired rapidly, possibly being shot from an automatic firearm or altered semi-automatic firearm,” the investigator stated in the report.

Officers talked to their confidential sources and what emerged was that a large party was shut down in Parkland by police. An “after party” in Lake Worth Beach also got shut down, “causing partygoers to migrate back south to Delray Beach,” according to the police report.

A confidential source said that the shooters were from Lake Worth Beach, but investigators were unable to confirm the tip. The tipster also provided a video of a man holding a weapon. He wore red shorts with black sandals and black socks and a dark-colored backpack.

Mager told commissioners that the added patrols would send a signal to people using Delray Beach as party central to move on. “I want to send a message that you don’t do that in Delray Beach,” he said. “For me to do that is to have a show of force. I want them to see us out there.”

If it wasn’t for discussions on the budget, Mager may have not been questioned by Long and spoken about the barrage of gunfire shots on A1A. 

Gracey said that shortly after June 21, a friend called up the Police Department. 

“He was told, rather abruptly, that it wasn’t their job to inform the public of situations like that — which stunned us a little,” Gracey said. “It certainly concerns me that we’re not being told about some incidents around our town.”

Delray Beach police ask anyone with information about this crime to contact Detective Kyle Kinney at 561-243-7828.