Boca Raton’s Office of Sustainability is inviting residents to complete a sustainability survey, which is intended to get input that will guide the city’s sustainability initiatives over the next five years.

The survey allows residents to express their priorities, propose ideas and offer their suggestions on how the city can effectively address sustainability issues.

The city’s first Sustainability Action Plan was created in 2019. The survey results will be used to create the city’s second, updated plan.

“Community feedback in the strategic planning phase of our Sustainability Action Plan is a top priority,” said Sustainability Manger Lindsey Roland Nieratka. “We encourage all residents to participate.”

The survey is available at www.surveymonkey.com/r/XQ52NJG and on the city’s website, www.myboca.us

St. Lucy Catholic Church will be hosting a prayer vigil for Israel on Oct. 12 at 6 p.m. All members of the community are welcome to attend the prayer vigil and reception immediately following. 

Yvonne Odom with her granddaughter Coco Gauff, who holds her U.S. Open trophy during a visit home. BELOW RIGHT: Yvonne Odom, then Yvonne Lee, was the first Black student to attend Seacrest High (now Atlantic High), in 1961. Photos provided

By Brian Biggane

Arriving home after watching a grandson’s baseball game in Fort Lauderdale, Yvonne Odom was getting phone calls and texts to join friends and relatives at a watch party for her granddaughter.

Her granddaughter is Cori “Coco” Gauff, who was playing to win the women’s championship at the U.S. Open last month in New York.

Odom, who lives in Delray Beach, didn’t want to go. Knowing that Coco had already lost the first set, she wasn’t eager to set herself up for disappointment.

“I like to watch her matches when they’re over, when I know she’s won, because I get so nervous,” said Odom, 77. “My husband didn’t want to go because he doesn’t like crowds. But I’m getting these texts: ‘Where are you? Everybody’s waiting for you.’

“My niece offered to drive me, and I got a standing ovation when I walked in. Then I saw so many people I knew: people from the church, (daughter) Candi’s sorority sister, the vice mayor, the (city) commissioner. So, I sat down and of course Coco won the second set and I said, ‘Here it comes.’”

Gauff dominated the final set and defeated Aryna Sabalenka, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, to capture her first Grand Slam tennis title at age 19.

“When she hit that point I lost it,” Odom recalled of the winning shot. “My phone rang then, and it was Coco but I didn’t answer because I was almost on my knees. My niece answered and she didn’t recognize her voice so she hung up. But I was just out of it. I was so relieved, so happy, because I knew she worked so hard.”

Odom wears a shirt bearing letters of her granddaughter Coco Gauff’s first name. Odom is a retired teacher with 45 years in Palm Beach County public schools. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Family ties in Delray
The Odom/Gauff family has achieved almost legendary status in Delray Beach. Yvonne’s father, Randolph Lee, brought the family south from Daytona Beach in the late 1950s when he was named pastor of St. John Missionary Baptist in Boynton Beach, where he served 42 years. Yvonne became the first Black student to integrate Seacrest (now Atlantic) High in 1961.

Yvonne and Eddie Odom’s daughter Candi was a track star at Atlantic who earned Athlete of the Year honors from The Palm Beach Post and a scholarship to Florida State University. Her husband, Corey Gauff, grew up across the street from Pompey Park and played basketball at Spanish River High and Georgia State University. Small wonder, then, that their daughter, Coco, is one of the best athletes on the women’s tennis tour.

Married in 2001, Corey and Candi moved to Atlanta after Coco was born on March 13, 2004, when Corey got a lucrative job in the health care industry. Candi was a schoolteacher.

Corey and Candi Gauff pose with their daughter, Coco Gauff, after her U.S. Open championship. Photo provided

“Coco was premature and I think I know why,” Odom said. “We were at my brother’s house the night before and a cat ran past and Candi jumped. The next day she called and said, ‘Mama, my water broke.’ I was still planning a shower for her and went ahead and had it anyway. I blew up a picture of Coco and hung it on the wall.”

Odom recalled going to pick up Coco from nursery school when she was 3 or 4 and the children had all been asked their favorite foods. “A lot of them said McDonald’s or French fries and Coco said broccoli. I asked Candi about it, and she said, ‘Well, I do feed my kids vegetables.’”

Coco started playing tennis at age 6 and showed so much promise that a year later the family decided to return to Delray Beach, where Coco could get better instruction. Both parents also quit their jobs — a decision that didn’t sit well with Yvonne — with the agreement Candi would home-school Coco.

“I didn’t like that because Candi had 19 years as a teacher,” said Odom, herself a retired teacher. “It wasn’t OK with me. I told my husband, ‘Oh no.’ But he said, ‘Vonnie, that’s not your child.’ So, I didn’t talk about it anymore.”

The family spent two years living with Yvonne and her husband, Eddie — who is better known by his nickname Red — while Coco’s game blossomed. At age 8 she won a national Little Mo tournament and at 10 it was decided she would move to France to work with Serena Williams’ longtime coach, Patrick Mouratoglou.

“She had a poster of Serena hanging in her room. When Venus and Serena moved here from Compton, they were students at Carver,” Yvonne Odom said of the middle school in Delray Beach. “They were in sixth and seventh grade, and (father) Richard used to come and pick them up early.”At age 13, Coco Gauff entered a 5K race and won the entire women’s division. Photo provided

Wimbledon splash at 15 ...
Meanwhile, Coco’s budding athletic prowess was becoming evident in other ways. At age 12 she showed promise in a youth basketball league, and at 13 she entered a 5K race and not only won her age group but the entire women’s division. It was about that time, with her tennis results becoming more and more impressive, Corey decided she would concentrate on that sport.

At age 10 years and 3 months Coco won the USTA National Clay Court 12-and-under championship — becoming its youngest winner ever — and at 14 she won the prestigious Orange Bowl junior tournament in Miami. The same year she won the French Open junior girls title on clay and became the No. 1-ranked junior in the world.

She also turned pro in 2018 and just over a year later was invited to play in the qualifying rounds on grass at Wimbledon. After winning three matches to reach the main draw, she learned her first opponent would be five-time champion Venus Williams.

“Oh my God,” Yvonne Odom said. “I was very skeptical she would beat Venus, but I remember this guy [family friend] Dwayne Randolph said, ‘We’re going to put Venus out to pasture.’”

Gauff won that match and three more at Wimbledon, exploding onto the international scene as a 15-year-old.

... and some difficult losses
Gauff’s next big splash came at the 2022 French Open, where she reached the final before losing to No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek 6-1, 6-3.

“We boo-hoo cried because she finished second,” Odom said. “That’s a term we use. But when I saw her I said, ‘Listen, God just decided this wasn’t your time yet. Because sometimes you get things and you’re not ready for it. So, cry 30 seconds, that’s my rule. You cry 30 seconds and get back to work.

“You don’t know if that stuck, but as a teacher I learned you don’t speak ill of anybody. She called herself stupid one time. She lost a point and said to herself, ‘What’s the matter, are you stupid?’ When that match was over I told her, ‘As long as you live, don’t ever refer to yourself as stupid. Uh-uh. That’s not going to happen. Because you’re not.’”

After a disappointing run early this year that culminated with a first-round loss at Wimbledon, Gauff switched coaches, signing on with Spaniard Pere Riba and one-time American star Brad Gilbert. She promptly won two big hard-court events in the United States that put her among the favorites in the Open.

“I like what Brad said,” Odom said. “He said, ‘I’m not going to change her forehand; you don’t just go and change somebody’s forehand.’”

Eddie Odom, Yvonne’s husband and Coco’s grandfather, was a longtime baseball and football coach after whom the baseball field at Pompey Park is named.

“You should see Coco practice, and my husband says, ‘The team that works the hardest is supposed to win.’ He doesn’t say will, but should,” Yvonne Odom said.

An active grandmother
Upon winning the Open title, Coco grabbed the microphone from interviewer Mary Joe Fernandez and thanked everyone from her parents to the fans, including her grandparents.

Her composure and her willingness to address social issues has led some to promote her as a spokeswoman for her generation.

“To me it’s a natural gift,” Yvonne said. “I’m a product of a Baptist minister, so we’re used to talking, and we have oratory contests in the church, you do the Sunday speeches and all that.”

Odom was equally unflappable when she was pulled away from her friends at Carver High School and enrolled at Seacrest early in her sophomore year back in 1961.

“People ask me if it was difficult, but I didn’t see it that way,” she said. “I went to everything. I ran for political office; I won the primary but lost the general election. We went to the football games, the proms.”

Odom had opportunities to go to bigger colleges, but a lack of money led her to what was then Palm Beach Junior College, then Florida Atlantic University. She went on to get her master’s at Nova Southeastern and taught in the Palm Beach County school system for 45 years.

One day at Delray Elementary she learned the racism she had worked as a teenager to diminish if not erase was still alive and well.

“I was standing at the door to my room and this girl was dragging her momma down the hall to meet me,” she said. “When that lady looked at me her face turned red, and she had her kid removed from my class the next day. My administrator said, ‘Well, Yvonne, that’s her loss.’”

Odom remains active in the community and is working to resuscitate the former Hilltoppers Quarterback Club, which was formed back in the Seacrest days but was brought down by the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re teaming up with the Delray Historical Society to get 200 businessmen to pay $500 each to proportionately divide between Atlantic and Village Academy,” Odom said.

“I’ve already donated $10,000 as president of the Delray Beach CDC,” the Community Development Corporation. “We’ve got 21 members so far but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We can’t have these kids spending their own money just to play football.”

What’s next for Gauff
Gauff’s U.S. Open victory improved her world ranking from No. 6 to No. 3. She has not yet been celebrated by the city of Delray Beach but has been feted in gatherings involving friends and family. She has two younger brothers, Codey and Cameron.

Gauff returned to play early this month and won her first two matches in Beijing. She planned to play a couple of tournaments before the WTA Finals come along at the end of October in Cancun, Mexico, and then the Billie Jean King Cup in November in Spain.

Our Arts Season Preview offers a comprehensive look at cultural events across South Florida

ABOVE: Students (l-r) Angel Jean (University of South Florida), Dante Estevez, Austin Lois and Mason Lois (all from Florida Atlantic University) admire work by Dennis Cardelús Jones on Sept. 14 during an Art Walk in the Boynton Beach Art District.
BELOW: South Florida-based singer, artist and entertainer Ana Kiri (aka Anastasiia Kirilik) plays the ukulele with South Florida musician and songwriter Cailey Weaver during Boca End of Summer Festival on Sept. 24 at Mizner Park Amphitheater.
Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Commissioners seek ways around new law on personal finances

By Larry Barszewski

Manalapan commissioners want to know if there’s any way local elected officials can get around a new state law — other than by resigning their seats by Dec. 30 — that requires them to make public more of their personal financial information.

“I really think it’s opening up the door to some very serious problems,” said Vice Mayor John Deese, who has written the governor seeking his assistance in changing the law. “We could lose our entire commission over this.”

Some ideas mentioned at the Sept. 25 commission meeting included putting assets in a spouse’s name, turning the Town Commission into an appointed body — though that would require a referendum and raised the question of who would do the appointing — or simply refusing to file the required form and paying the penalty instead.

Commissioners say the increased requirements don’t make sense for officials in small towns, especially in places like Manalapan where it’s difficult enough to get people to fill the elected positions, where commissioners earn no salary and where the limited candidate pool includes business executives who may not want their financial portfolios or client names available online for anyone to see.

“There aren’t any gold bars or cash in my suits or anything like that,” said Mayor Stewart Satter, who has suggested he may resign instead of complying with the rules of the new law. He said the requirements are “political window-dressing” and won’t better protect the public from unscrupulous officials.

Commissioners plan to hold a workshop meeting Oct. 24 to get more information about the law and what options are available. It’s possible, if a majority of the commission would rather resign than comply, that Gov. Ron DeSantis would fill the vacancies. Officials said nothing in the Town Charter would require DeSantis to pick town residents for the seats.

The new state law requires mayors and other municipal elected officials to disclose their full net worth, certain clients and the aggregate value of jewelry, art and other household goods. It requires the information to be filed in an online system and available to the public who want to see it. Those who don’t comply can face a penalty of up to $20,000 and possible removal from office.

Town elected officials currently must fill out Form 1, which asks for sources of income, liabilities and interests in businesses, but without specific dollar amounts. Starting Jan. 1, they will have to fill out the more detailed Form 6, which is already required to be filed by the governor, lieutenant governor, legislators, county commissioners, sheriffs and various other officials.

At the commission’s Sept. 18 meeting, state Sen. Bobby Powell, D-Riviera Beach, said it’s virtually impossible for changes to be made to the law before it takes effect in January. Powell, who voted against the new law, suggested the commission work toward building a coalition with officials from other towns to push for changes to the law when the Florida Legislature convenes next year.

Budget, tax rate approved
Commissioners unanimously voted Sept. 25 to keep the town’s tax rate the same, at $3 per $1,000 of assessed value. That represents an overall 13.35% tax increase for existing properties, not including new construction, because of rising property values in town.

The commission also adopted a $7.88 million general fund budget — which covers the town’s day-to-day operations — for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1, a 12.8% increase. The general fund budget includes $166,132 to cover the cost of a 7% raise for town employees, $291,944 for insurance costs, $274,500 for the security guard contract on Point Manalapan, and $2 million for the fire-rescue contract with Palm Beach County.

In other news:
• Commissioners approved a site plan revision for Thaikyo Asian Restaurant, 201 S. Ocean Blvd., in Plaza Del Mar. The changes include an extension of the awning-covered outdoor dining area on the north side of the building farther to the east (the front of the building). It will include a lounge area for patrons waiting to be seated and a window opening for bar service. The restaurant plans to make the changes in the spring, following peak season, said project manager Kermit Schilling.
• Town Manager Linda Stumpf told commissioners that former Mayor Peter Blum, who died in January, included the Manalapan Library in his will. P

By Larry Barszewski

Ocean Ridge’s two newest town commissioners plan to leave office before the end of the year.

Commissioners Philip Besler and Ken Kaleel, two former office holders appointed to join the board again in April following the resignations of Martin Wiescholek and Kristine de Haseth, say they won’t continue on the board past December.

Besler announced his decision at the Town Commission’s Oct. 2 meeting, saying it was being done for “personal reasons.” Kaleel, who previously indicated that he would likely resign rather than comply with the state’s new financial disclosure requirements, then emphasized that he, too, was going. Kaleel previously served 16 years on the commission and Besler three years.

The two were appointed by a three-member commission since Wiescholek and de Haseth resigned the same night. Besler and Kaleel have not set the specific days they will resign. If the dates are staggered, one of the men may participate in naming the other’s replacement.

Both seats are up for election on March 19. The qualifying period runs from noon Nov. 6 until noon Nov. 17, giving commissioners an idea of who is interested in serving.

Commissioners could also request that those who want to be considered submit their names to them.

One scenario the commission wants to avoid is having the two resignations take effect — and then have a third commissioner abruptly resign before the seats are filled. That would leave only a two-member commission unable to conduct business, turning the appointment powers over to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

A new state law requiring municipal elected officials to disclose more personal financial information has many throughout the state considering resigning before the end of the year, when the law takes effect.

Commissioners indicated they were prepared to move quickly to fill the vacancies once the resignations take effect so that the appointments remain in the commission’s hands.

Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy, herself a first-time commissioner this year, said Besler and Kaleel brought needed experience to the board following the hiring of a new town manager and the resignations of the two commissioners.

Brazilian pepper was the pervasive invasive in the 1980s when I moved to this area. Now there are iguanas. Fewer “square groupers” wash ashore on summer nights; instead more sea turtles make the annual trek up the beach. Then sometime during the past 20 years, the water began to rise, houses grew larger and small businesses disappeared. And, of course, I’ve grown older.

Changes over many years.

I’m lucky, I guess, to still recall the 1980s and nights out with friends, dancing at nightclubs in Delray Beach and Boca Raton followed by dipping into private swimming pools and hot tubs — especially during the long, slow summers.

I’ll admit at times the beer and booze flowed, the scent of marijuana lingered in the humid air, and once in a while people staggered from the bathroom wiping white powder from their noses. But never once did I see a gun.

I won’t deny we sometimes behaved irresponsibly. We were young and reckless.

How a similar late-night gathering resulted in the Sept. 12 shooting death of The Coastal Star’s computer support contractor — and friend — makes no sense. Police are calling the shooting at the Berkshire by the Sea timeshare along the beach in Delray Beach a murder. The youngest person involved was 45. The victim was 58.

Unless the case goes to trial, it’s unlikely most of us will learn anything about that night that make sense. All we know is Al Camentz — a good guy who kept our office computers running and advised us on the best live New Orleans music to hear — is gone. Shot to death.

I know there were plenty of guns in South Florida in the 1980s. I read The Miami Herald and watched Miami Vice. But here along the beach in Palm Beach County, we felt safe from gun violence.

Now it feels as if the tectonic plates of a South Florida summer have shifted.

Not all recent deaths have been violent, of course. Consider the loss to skin cancer of songwriter, musician and businessman extraordinaire Jimmy Buffett. Seventy-six years old seems far too young for someone to die whose music continues to reverberate from nearly every open ragtop cruising A1A on any given weekend.

Also gone too soon is our mechanic, candy salesman and friend Vin Dinanath, who owned the Gulfstream Texaco on A1A. Since 1995, Vin was a friend to our unique little neighborhood. He will be deeply missed by many, especially his fellow cops (Vin was a retired officer) and fishing buddies. Vin would have been 68 in November.

Neighbors who lived long lives and witnessed almost unfathomable changes throughout their many years also died last month. I will miss sharing gossip and goodwill with these seniors.

As the autumnal equinox passed on Sept. 23, the Earth’s axis and its orbit lined up so that both hemispheres got an equal amount of sunlight.

Balance for a short while. Subtle changes of the season.

I’ll take it.

— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

Ruby Berger, who volunteers as an usher at local theaters, lives in Boynton Beach in a home that features her eclectic collection of artwork. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jan Norris

Have you been to a live theater performance in Palm Beach County lately? If so, you’ve likely been seated by Ruby Berger — or, seated next to her.

Berger volunteers as an usher at nearly every live theater venue around. A professional usher, as it were.

“Yes,” she said, a smile in her voice. “I guess you can say that. A super volunteer, maybe.”

She’s one of the original greeters-and-seaters at Delray Beach’s Arts Garage.

“I’m the only one who’s been ushering all 11 years since it opened,” Berger said.

You can find the 76-year-old Berger seating patrons at the Lake Worth Playhouse, the Wick Theatre in Boca Raton, the Delray Beach Playhouse and the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.

And when she’s not at a theater, as an usher or patron, or traveling abroad, Berger is an avid dancer — an Argentine tango dancer. She’s been to Argentina five times to learn more about the art. It’s her true passion, she said.

She puts on her flouncy, blood-red dress and strappy heels two or three times a month to tango at the Goldcoast Ballroom in Coconut Creek.

She has been an usher since she moved to Florida in 2005.

“I mostly just greet the patrons and help them find their seats,” Berger said.

She said she seldom if ever sees the ugly side of audiences. No fights have taken place on her watch.

“Everyone is nice,” Berger said. If there’s a problem, it’s usually because someone has the wrong seat. “I just ask them to move, and they do.”

She does have tips for the public, to keep things running smoothly on both the patrons’ and theaters’ ends: “Get your tickets early, especially to popular plays, so you aren’t disappointed if they sell out.

“Get to the theater early, and have your tickets at hand.”

Ask an usher if you would like help finding your seats, she said. Tell the usher if someone else is in your seat so she or he can sort it out.

Berger, a Boynton Beach resident, also volunteers at special events at the venues, such as last month’s luncheon for police officers at the Arts Garage.

In season, she volunteers at least twice a week, she said.

If she’s not volunteering, Berger is in the audience enjoying the performance — watching and judging performances like the aspiring actress she used to be.

All the plays are equally exciting to her; she won’t name favorites. There are some she’s not so fond of, but all, she said, have some good points.

“Dramas, musicals, I just love the performing arts,” Berger said. “And visual arts. Museums and art galleries. All the arts, really.”

Berger, a New Jersey native, fell in love with the theater as a child. “I grew up in Fair Lawn, and lived in East Brunswick and Edgewater.” That was close enough to New York City to draw her into Broadway and other arts venues.

“When I was old enough, every week I’d take the bus into the city, and visit the museums and theaters,” she said. “I’d always go on Wednesdays when you could get the half-price tickets ... to Broadway matinees.”

Her goal, though, was to be on stage. “I wanted to be an actor ever since I was a little girl,” she said.

After getting a degree in art from Rutgers University, she followed her dream, and eventually enrolled in the Actors Studio in Manhattan. Although she landed a few television commercials, her acting career ended with those.

Her performances did not, however. They took a hiatus while she helped run a furniture business with her now former husband. But after she moved to Florida, she began taking ballroom dance lessons. She was struck by the passion of the South American tango and made it a focus of her lessons. That resulted in her traveling to Argentina to learn from the masters.

“It’s art. It’s a play with dialogue between the dancers,” she said, explaining how the sensual beat and perfectly synchronized movements of the dancers fascinate her.

Add in traveling for pleasure to museums around the world, a few days at the gym and all that volunteer work, she’s a busy woman.

Asked about the future of live theater with waning ticket sales in some venues and elderly arts patrons, she was optimistic — with a 76-year-old’s perspective.

“Well, the audiences here are mostly elderly, it’s true,” she said. “But we do have some in their mid-50s who attend regularly.”

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

Related: South Palm Beach: Dogs no longer allowed on town property

I am writing to express my concern regarding several important issues that require the attention of the South Palm Beach Town Council.

One such issue is the use of sidewalks by bikes and electric bikes, which has already resulted in accidents. Additionally, there is a lack of pedestrian crossings in our town. These are two critical matters that pedestrians and dog owners face every day and should be prioritized on the council’s agenda.

While I understand the intention behind the recent resolution passed by the council to exclude dogs from town property due to some residents failing to clean up after their pets, I believe that addressing these safety concerns should take precedence.

Furthermore, as a result of this resolution, the dog station adjacent to the Intracoastal has been removed. This means that dog owners who are residents of South Palm Beach are now forced to walk to the adjacent town if they want to enjoy the Intracoastal. This restriction not only inconveniences responsible dog owners but also creates an unwelcoming environment for dogs in our community.

I would like to propose an alternative solution. Instead of implementing additional resolutions, I suggest installing cameras on town property to identify and fine irresponsible dog owners, as established by Ordinance 304 already in the books. This targeted approach would address the issue without penalizing responsible dog owners who follow the rules.

I believe that this approach would receive widespread support from both responsible dog owners and other members of our community.

It is important to note that over 80% of dog owners consider their pets as part of their family, and over 70% of the younger affluent generation owns dogs. As a community, we should strive to be dog-friendly and accommodate the needs of responsible dog owners.

Therefore, I kindly request that the plans for the new Town Hall include a designated dog-friendly area complete with cameras to ensure compliance with regulations.

On behalf of Cody, Morgan, Max, Bella, Teddy, Bandit, Lili, Riley, Peanut, Schultz and many other responsible dogs in South Palm Beach, I urge you to consider these suggestions and work toward creating a more inclusive and welcoming environment for our furry friends.

Additionally, I would like to emphasize that addressing safety concerns related to bike usage on sidewalks and pedestrian crossings should be given priority. These issues affect not only pedestrians, but also all residents and visitors in our town. By focusing on these matters, we can ensure a safer environment for everyone.

Rafael Pineiro
South Palm Beach

Related: Ocean Ridge: Town seeking grant to fix water valves

Recently, some residents were led to believe that Ocean Ridge had no idea where our buried water pipes, juncture boxes or turn-off valves were located. Of course, if this were true that would be quite shocking and derelict of the town governance.

This concern grew to the point that the alarming topic was covered by The Coastal Star in a reasonable manner considering the information then available. Even a former commissioner, who had recently and abruptly resigned from the commission, piped in by blasting the current commissioners.

All this confusion stemmed from a Town Commission meeting on July 10. There was a broad budget discussion of our aging drinking water infrastructure. At one point during this discussion, it was misguidedly noted that $50,000 might be needed to just find our water valves and pipes.

Predictably this caused a small-town firestorm. I never imagined that Ocean Ridge would be the butt of jokes for knowing where our turtle nests are, but not our water pipes.

As to location of valves, etc., here are the facts. You might find them historically fascinating.

After the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in 2001, the Department of Homeland Security ordered that all water-related infrastructure locations were not to be publicly displayed or distributed except under extremely strict guidelines. This was due to the fear of a terrorist attack on the system.

Our town’s longtime engineering firm, Engenuity Group, has a precise GIS (geographical information system) map of our buried water infrastructure. They work closely with our Public Works employees to help them locate pipes and valves that need attention, staying true to the Homeland Security tenets.

Yes, over the last 60-odd years maybe a valve has been buried 6 inches or a foot under dirt, or a few short sections of pipe have been moved a foot or two during a construction project, but with current technology those pipes are found when necessary.

So no, the sky is not falling in Ocean Ridge. We know where our infrastructure is located and, in fact, are currently working on state and federal grants to update some of the aging pipes.

Recently we were awarded an American Rescue Plan Act grant of over $900,000 for just that purpose. That is monies that Ocean Ridge taxpayers do not need to pony up.

Steve Coz
Vice Mayor, Ocean Ridge

By Pat Beall

When Delray Beach osteopath Michael Ligotti was sentenced in January to 20 years in prison, Department of Justice officials heralded his conviction and sentence.

Ligotti, they said, had been at the center of a $746 million addiction treatment fraud.

His arrest and guilty plea represented the largest such case ever charged by the Department of Justice, DOJ wrote in a news release.

Then it let him go.

Court filings confirm Ligotti, 49, remains out of prison because he has turned informant, providing evidence in other health care fraud cases.

Ligotti is not home free: Prosecutors have ordered him to pay $127 million in restitution in addition to his 20-year sentence, now postponed to Dec. 1.

Until then, he is free for limited travel. A federal judge cleared the way for Ligotti to go to Universal Studios this month for a family vacation at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort.

“We tried to understand the need for him to be available to testify in other cases,” said Lisa Daniels-Goldman, who was at Ligotti’s sentencing. Her son, Jamie Daniels, died of an overdose in a Boynton Beach sober home. “We were all for getting evidence against others and saving lives.”

But, she said, “That doesn’t mean I can’t be angry and mortified that not only is he staying out of prison, he has been given the opportunity to travel with his family. I don’t care if it’s a fleabag motel or a four-star hotel.

“Our son doesn’t get to travel with his family anymore.”

Ligotti’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
 
Cash bonanza in drug tests
At their height in 2015, Palm Beach County addiction treatment fraudsters were raking in hundreds of millions of dollars. Delray Beach was the epicenter of the schemes and Ligotti was in the thick of it, said federal prosecutors. 

Unscrupulous sober home operators didn’t need people seeking treatment to stay drug-free. Many sober homes became sites for drug use.

What they did need were doctors to sign off on expensive urine drug tests for people with insurance.

Drugstores sell $25 tests confirming the presence of a drug. But local treatment centers, sober homes and their labs were billing for sophisticated and unnecessary “confirmatory” urine tests.

A single test could yield up to $5,000 in insurance billings. In one case reported by The Palm Beach Post in 2015, nine months of urine testing totaled $304,318. In another instance, the parents of a young woman who overdosed in a sober home after four weeks received urine test bills topping $30,000.

Ligotti was medical director for more than 50 local sober homes. In addition to asserting he fraudulently ordered millions of dollars in tests, prosecutors charged that Ligotti prescribed addictive drugs to patients from his Whole Health clinic in Delray Beach. That included benzodiazepines, which are frequently — and lethally — mixed with opioids by people who are addicted.

Even after a federal subpoena issued in 2016 put Ligotti on notice that he was under investigation, he continued ordering tests, an FBI agent testified. There was one noticeable change: Health care practitioners he employed at Whole Health were putting their names on the test orders.

From denial to guilty plea
That same year, Jamie Daniels arrived in Palm Beach County, one of thousands of out-of-state people seeking addiction treatment here.
Ligotti was one of his doctors.

Daniels had struggled to stay sober. He got a job at a law firm as a clerk. He started studying for his law school entrance exam.  

In December 2016, Daniels died at age 23 after he overdosed in a sober home.

Within weeks, the Daniels family began receiving records showing their insurance company had been billed tens of thousands of dollars for urine screens and blood tests, including tests ordered by Ligotti over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Daniels’ father, Ken, is a sports fixture in Detroit, a play-by-play announcer for the NHL’s Red Wings since 1997. When Daniels family members began unraveling the treatment bills, they went public with the story of Jamie’s death, attracting the attention of ESPN.

An ESPN documentary confirmed that Jamie Daniels had not been in Florida on those days. He was with his family in Michigan.

Confronted by the documentary crew outside his Delray office, Ligotti denied ordering the tests, insisting his identity had been stolen.

“I’m the victim,” he said.

Ligotti was indicted in 2020 on 12 counts of health care fraud and money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud. In total, Ligotti charged health care benefit programs approximately $746 million over the span of nine years from 2011 to 2020, prosecutors said. Of that, he and his co-conspirators bagged around $127 million.

In January, Ligotti was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to the conspiracy charge. Other charges were dropped.

Help in other cases cited
At sentencing Ligotti expressed remorse, said Maureen Kielian of Southeast Florida Recovery Advocates.

“He said he lost his way,” recalled Kielian, who had filed a complaint against Ligotti with the Florida Board of Medicine three years earlier.

But after the sentence was handed down, she was shocked to see him walk out of the courtroom with his family.

“What just happened?” she said. “One kid has a pill in his pocket, and he is in prison for seven years. And Ligotti is walking out free.”

Ligotti was expected to report to prison June 12, enabling him to provide evidence in other federal cases.

But that month, prosecutors asked to further postpone his imprisonment to Dec. 1. Ligotti, they said, has cooperated in multiple cases. He has provided documents. He was a witness in a Central Florida case involving rural hospitals, fraudulent urine drug tests and three Miami-Dade men. Prosecutors still needed his help on open cases.

The court agreed to the extension. The next month, Ligotti’s attorney asked court permission for Ligotti and his family to travel to Universal Studios in October for three days.

There were no objections.

Pat Beall writes for Stet Palm Beach. You can read more of her work at https://stetmediagroup.substack.com

By Steve Plunkett

A new wave of building will be coming soon to Bluewater Cove — site plans for four more houses in the 14-lot Gulf Stream subdivision were reviewed by the planning advisory board last month.

Boca Raton-based Courchene Development Corp. wants to build on the four lots just east of three that are already under construction. Each one will have a different style.

The projects are:
• 2915 Bluewater Cove, a 5,461-square-foot Gulf Stream Bermuda style residence
• 2917 Bluewater Cove, a 5,462-square-foot Anglo-Caribbean style residence
• 2914 Bluewater Cove, a 5,464-square-foot Georgian style residence
• 2916 Bluewater Cove, a 5,461-square-foot West Indies style residence

All four are one-story, single-family dwellings, each including a two-car garage and swimming pool on its 16,560-square-foot lot. The projects will return to the planning board on Oct. 26.

Additionally, town officials made progress in September in bringing up to code the long-abandoned home at 2900 Avenue Au Soleil, located just south of Bluewater Cove and fronting the Intracoastal Waterway.

At an Aug. 30 hearing, Special Magistrate Kevin M. Wagner gave the property owner, AAS LLC, 14 days to get a building permit and 14 more days to repair “so as not to leak” the roofs of both the main house and an accessory garage. The roofs also needed to be cleaned and painted.

Contractor John Carew had already covered the swimming pool with plywood and installed a pump to make sure stagnant water would no longer accumulate. He also had the grounds trimmed, mowed and cleaned of debris.

Wagner scheduled a fine assessment hearing for Oct. 4 in case the code violations were not remedied. The home’s previous owners racked up $200,000 in code enforcement fines that the Town Commission reduced in 2019 to $20,000 in an effort to get new owners for the property. The property has changed hands at least once since then, according to property appraiser records.

In other business, the Town Commission was scheduled to give final approval on Oct. 4 to an $18.8 million budget for the year beginning Oct. 1.

Commissioners were originally set to approve the budget Sept. 27 but their vote was delayed for lack of a quorum. Two of the five commissioners had already said they would miss the meeting; two more had “unforeseen circumstances.”

“We went from barely meeting our quorum of three to having only one,” Town Attorney Trey Nazzaro said. Property owners will pay the same rate for town taxes as the previous year, $3.67 per $1,000 of taxable value, or $3,672 for a home valued at $1 million.

The town’s tax base grew roughly 16%, to $1.65 billion.

Notable expenses planned for the new fiscal year include $6.5 million for road and drainage improvements in the Core District. That work will start in January.

Gulf Stream will also buy a $53,000 police cruiser and a $39,000 water valve exercise machine to automate maintenance on the water mains. Town employees will receive a 5% cost-of-living increase in salaries.

The Early Childhood Academy in Delray Beach cares for children who often wind up in pre-kindergarten at Gulf Stream School. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

As rumored for months, the Gulf Stream School is expanding into Delray Beach, buying the building and land of the Early Childhood Academy on North Swinton Avenue.

The seller is the St. Joseph’s Episcopal School, which closed its lower and middle schools in Boynton Beach last June but kept its ECA open. While no enrollment changes are planned this school year, Gulf Stream School officials say they anticipate moving at least the 3-year-olds in their pre-kindergarten from the Gulf Stream campus to the Delray Beach location in the future.

Patrick Donovan, president of Gulf Stream School’s board of trustees, and Dr. Gray Smith, the head of school, confirmed the news of the impending purchase to town commissioners on Sept. 8. Their school will close the deal in early October, they said.

“The acquisition made sense for us as it aligns with our mission and strategic plan,” Donovan said. “And historically, ECA has been a feeder school for a significant number of students who transition from the ECA to pre-kindergarten at Gulf Stream School.”

The Early Childhood Academy provides child care for about 50 children from as young as 6 months up to 2 years old, he said. The property, at 2515 N. Swinton Ave., includes a 3,100-square-foot building and about 2 acres of land. Donovan and Smith did not disclose the purchase price, but St. Joe’s bought the facility in 2007 for $1.35 million.

Donovan promised the acquisition would have “little to no impact” on the town.

“The ECA students are very young and will remain at the ECA campus with no plans or capacity for transportation to the Gulf Stream campus. In addition, after-school events for ECA families will be held at the ECA campus,” he said.

“Just to be clear, we do not expect any excess traffic or additional campus use of the Gulf Stream campus to be associated with this acquisition,” he added.

But commissioners, who temporarily raised the school’s enrollment cap from 250 to 300 for the last school year and this one, wanted many more details.

“Are you considering moving any of the grades currently at Gulf Stream School over to the ECA facility in the future at any time?” Mayor Scott Morgan asked.

Smith and Donovan said they planned no changes at all for the first year. But tuition at the ECA would be adjusted in the next school year, and the academy would stop accepting the very youngest children.

After that, he said, the 3-year-olds on the Gulf Stream campus would be the first to change locations, perhaps followed by the 4-year-olds. Kindergarten will remain in Gulf Stream, he said.

“We have 32 children who are in our pre-kindergarten; our pre-kindergarten is mixed 3s and 4s. So we have 15 3-year-olds, let’s say, and the rest are 4s or are about to be,” Smith said.

At some point the ECA campus will take on Gulf Stream School branding.

Gulf Stream School had 293 students last school year despite enrollment being capped at 250 in the development agreement it has with the town. This year its enrollment is 294.

Town commissioners amended the agreement in January to raise the cap to 300 children after Smith told them having more students would give the school a “modest” budget surplus instead of a deficit.

Commissioners were going to vote later on making the higher limit permanent but after hearing about the ECA purchase decided to wait at least 90 days so Donovan and Smith could develop and share with them more specific plans.

Commissioner Joan Orthwein had asked Smith at the commission’s July 14 meeting whether what she had heard was true, that the Gulf Stream School had plans to expand into Delray Beach. But the deal had not been finalized then and he declined to answer.

By Tao Woolfe

The Boynton Beach City Commission voted unanimously Sept. 27 to approve a $118.6 million general fund budget, as well as a 10% increase in utility rates that also applies to Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes water customers.

The all-funds proposed budget was $289 million. Besides the approved $118.6 million general fund budget, other parts of the total budget include a water and sewer outlay of about $60 million; a $49 million capital improvement fund; and a solid waste fund of $15 million.

The adopted general fund was slightly less than the proposed budget of $120.5 million, but still represents a 13% increase over the past year’s general fund budget. The general fund pays for the daily operations of city government.

The biggest departmental expenditure is a combined budget for police and fire services, proposed at $76 million, or about 63% of the general fund. Public works, by comparison, is about $10.5 million, or 8.7% of the general fund.

Although some of the final budget numbers were discussed and included in the agenda packet for city’s third and final budget hearing on Sept. 27, city officials said two days later that the actual budget document would not be available to the public or the media for up to 30 days.

This story uses final figures, where available, and proposed budget figures when necessary.

The rates for water, and for wastewater and stormwater management, increased 10% effective Oct. 1. The increase applies to customers inside and outside the city, according to a spokeswoman for the city.

Boynton Beach supplies water to customers in portions of unincorporated Palm Beach County, including the County Pocket; and the towns of Ocean Ridge, Hypoluxo and Briny Breezes.

When discussing the utility rate increases at their meeting on Sept. 27, city commissioners expressed concern about raising rates for residents who may be struggling to make ends meet during economically challenging times.

City Manager Daniel Dugger urged the commission, however, to approve the hikes because the city is going to have to spend hundreds of millions in the coming few years to pay for infrastructure improvements and establish a reserve fund.

“We need to have a balanced plan that meets the city’s [infrastructure] needs over a period of time,” Dugger told the commissioners. “The goal is to exceed depreciation. I am recommending the 10% increase.”

This summer, the city had to pay for emergency repairs to a broken sewer pipe that oozed millions of gallons of wastewater into the Intracoastal Waterway. The accident raised awareness about the city’s aging infrastructure and, although a final report has not been issued, the city could face fines for the pollution from the state Department of Environmental Protection and at least $1 million for repairs. The break occurred on July 3.

The City Commission budgeted $33 million to the water and sewer utility capital improvement enterprise fund and another $15 million for the solid waste enterprise fund.

By Brian Biggane

A $2.7 million budget was approved by the South Palm Beach Town Council on Sept. 25 for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. The previous budget was $2.4 million.

Boosted by another significant rise in property values, the Town Council gave residents another slight drop in their tax rate.

Property values rose 13.8%, down from last year’s 15.2% but slightly higher than the 13.4% across Palm Beach County.

At the first budget hearing on Sept. 12, Mayor Bonnie Fischer made a motion that was unanimously approved to drop the tax rate by 5 cents from $3.45 per $1,000 of assessed value to $3.40. That change resulted in a net $30,000 drop in revenues.

“It looks good for the town,” council member Monte Berendes said. “We should still have enough for what we’re doing.”

The most significant line item rise in the budget was a 47% increase in legal services, from $62,500 to $92,000. Town Manager Jamie Titcomb, who replaced the retiring Robert

Kellogg in that role earlier this year, said he anticipates an abundance of legal issues as the town continues to work toward building a new Town Hall and community center.

“We’re going to have a lot of legal time (involving) bid documents for building and campus stuff,” he said. “The actual documents and legal work, matching it up with compatibility, statutes and all that, that all goes to the attorney.”

The town ended a third-party agreement that provided a part-time maintenance worker, choosing instead to add a position to the administrative staff. That added nearly $40,000 to the administrative budget but ultimately, Titcomb said, “was almost a wash,” with that same individual now getting the benefits of being a town employee.

Specified expenditures amount to $2.07 million, leaving an unrestricted fund balance of $629,897, a nearly $200,000 increase over this past year.

Titcomb said how that money will be spent will be determined by the council, with the expectation that a significant amount will be put toward the Town Hall project, particularly in the areas of legal fees, architecture and construction. “And if it’s not spent,” he added, “it automatically repatriates to the assets of the town.”

Fischer said: “My concern is taking into consideration some of the costs” of building the Town Hall. “Demolishing the building, relocating. These are some of the factors we have to think about.”  

The budget includes a 71% increase in property and liability insurance, from $27,000 to $46,102. Titcomb said municipalities across the state are facing similar increases.

“All carriers, private and public, are going through this mass reset due to new state legislation and thresholds and requirements for property and casualty insurance,” he said. “It took effect in August for us. It’s not a negotiation or an option. It’s ‘Here’s your new rate.’

“It’s a fairly significant increase because building and liability is where the insurance market was most hit, with the slew of recent hurricanes and other issues. So that has been affected across the board,” Titcomb said.

Two council members, Raymond McMillan and Robert Gottlieb, participated in the budget hearings on Sept. 12 and 25 by phone. Council members Bill LeRoy and Berendes joined Fischer on the dais.

Only a few residents attend-ed the hearings, but no one spoke.

By Brian Biggane

After a lengthy discussion, the South Palm Beach Town Council voted 4-1 at its September meeting to prohibit all dogs except service animals from walking on town property. Councilman Raymond McMillan cast the dissenting vote.

The town had posted four signs asking residents to clean up after their pets along the Town Hall driveway and installed a free pet-waste bag station behind the building, all to no avail.

Mayor Bonnie Fischer began the discussion by pointing out that the town already has a resolution prohibiting dogs on the beach, “and that’s not working well.” She wondered if the Sheriff’s Office, which has a substation in Town Hall, should get involved in enforcement.

“But that’s public property,” Town Attorney Glen Torcivia responded. “This is town property so it’s up to the town to enforce it.” Enforcement, according to the new law, will be left in the hands of Town Manager Jamie Titcomb.

“So now I’m the poop police?” Titcomb said.

The council hoped new “No Dogs Allowed” signs would be respected. Members agreed that the current signs and bag station would be removed.

“I’m very much in favor of this,” said Councilman Monte Berendes, who brought up the subject at a previous meeting. “Let’s see how it works.”

McMillan then stated: “I’m going to be a ‘no’ vote on this. There’s going to be problems with the cops, problems with the dogs, problems with the town manager.”

“Like with most regulations, you hope people are going to follow the rules,” Torcivia said. “Just like a red light, if somebody runs it, you hope there isn’t a crash. People don’t follow the rules all the time. But that doesn’t mean you don’t make the rules.”

Ellen Salth was the only resident to offer an opinion, saying, “I know each complex doesn’t want to have dogs walking on their property, so this is not an unusual situation to ask for. … If the sign says, ‘No walking dogs on property,’ there’s no walking dogs on property.”

Berendes said: “We’re going to have a new complex here, so the time to start is now. ... We’re going to have pushback; we’ll deal with it.”

Titcomb added, “We’re modifying people’s behavior over time, so they’re not going to come back and start using the new campus as a dog park.”

In other business:
• Erik Scheuermann of Archetype Homes LLC offered a demonstration of SIPs (structural insulated panels) as the town continues to work toward the design and building of a new Town Hall and community center.
Scheuermann told the council that the panels are stronger and quicker to construct than similar building materials, as well as more resistant to hurricanes.
He said he has case studies from across Florida where hurricanes ravaged whole neighborhoods but the structures built with SIPs remained undisturbed.
The council discussed where the town will conduct its business once the current hall is demolished, as no commercial buildings lie within town limits. No solution was reached.
The council plans to put out a call for bids on the design and construction, to be discussed at the October meeting.
• The council paid tribute to former council member Stella Gaddy Jordan, who died Sept. 4.
• Town Clerk Yude Davenport was presented with the master municipal clerk designation from the International Institute of Municipal Clerks. Only 9.3% of the more than 14,000 clerks nationwide have achieved the MMC designation.
• The council approved a new sign for the Dune Deck condominium; the sign is slightly larger than town ordinance specifies.

By Steve Plunkett

Briny Breezes wants $14 million from the state’s Resilient Florida program to help pay for enhanced sea walls and an improved stormwater drainage system.

The Town Council authorized Mayor Gene Adams and Town Manager Bill Thrasher to apply for the money at its Sept. 28 meeting.

If the grant is awarded, it would be the second one the town has received from Resilient Florida.

“So the first grant … which was much smaller than this — about $330,000 — was for the planning of the construction or planning for the implementation,” Thrasher said. “So this is moving from one phase of planning to the next phase, which is actually, literally construction.”

Thrasher said a resolution had to be completed “in order for our application to be reviewed, ranked and possibly approved.” The total project scope of work is $14.4 million, he said.

Town aldermen approved the resolution unanimously.

“It’s exciting to see us moving forward to the actual implementation,” said Alderwoman Sue Thaler, who chaired the meeting. Council President Christina Adams participated by telephone.

In a separate session, the council gave final approval to a property tax rate of $3.75 per $1,000 of taxable value, down 62.5% from the $10 per $1,000 the town has collected every year since 2009.

The owner of a mobile home valued at $150,000 will pay $562.50 in property taxes instead of $1,500 at the customary millage.

But the lower tax bill will be offset by a higher annual assessment paid to Briny Breezes Inc., the co-op that leases land to residents. The corporation is boosting its payment to the town for police and fire-rescue services to $473,007, or 70% of the cost instead of 31.6%.

The number juggling will let Briny raise taxes in the future to pay off the sea wall and drainage system loans, which it had no room to do in the past because it was already at the maximum $10 per $1,000 tax rate allowed by the state.

Briny’s total tax base is $85.6 million, up 14.5% from the previous year’s $74.7 million. The property taxes will fund a $949,000 operating budget.

The council also approved a 12% increase for Town Attorney Keith Davis’ hourly rate, from $165 to $185.

“This is basically my humble request for a modest raise,” Davis said, noting that it was the first time he had asked for more money since he became the town’s attorney in 2018.

Davis also said he has been named an adjunct law professor at his alma mater, the College of William and Mary Law School in Virginia, starting in the fall of 2024. He’ll spend one week each semester teaching ethics and other subjects.

Alex Manos attempts to get the dogs to back away from the entrance and exit to the temporary dog park when Michael Dmytrow, 13, shows up with his dog Reef, 1. Photos by Rachel S. O’Hara/The Coastal Star

Related: PHOTOS: The Poodle Gang

By Ron Hayes

When the Maddock Park dog park in Lantana closed on Aug. 21 with only three days’ warning, its dogs had a bone to pick with the town.

Now where would Winston, Rusty, Penny, Boo and all their canine pals meet most evenings to romp, roll, fetch and sniff?

The park will reopen come October, with almost $180,000 in new fencing and benches, even some canine-friendly exercise equipment. But try telling that to a dog.

Winston’s humans, former Mayor Dave Stewart and his wife, Pam, invited several of the parkless dogs over to Pam’s late mother’s backyard the Saturday after the park closed.

Dorothy Ranney’s yard is fenced in, so while their humans snacked on nachos, dips and drinks, the dogs frolicked.

It wasn’t the town’s dog park, but it would do as a weekly substitute until the real park reopened.

That plan lasted a single Saturday.

“Some of the people from the park started calling the mayor,” Dave Stewart recalled.

In an age when citizens love to castigate government inefficiency, Lantana’s public servants heard the voters’ bark and acted quickly. In less than two weeks, temporary fencing had been put up near the closed park, a few benches added, and by Sept. 3 the dogs were back in Maddock Park.

To passers-by, they may seem only a pack of happy yappers, but chat with some of their humans and you’ll soon agree that each dog is as individual as the Lantana dog lovers who brought them here.

They’ve been dubbed the Poodle Gang, but poodle blood is not required to join.

On a recent Wednesday evening, only three of the eight dogs enjoying the temporary park were poodles. The rest are considered “honorary poodles,” in addition to whatever breed nature made them.

Stewart’s dog Winston, 2½, is a goldendoodle, a mix of golden retriever and poodle.

Dave Stewart gets some extra love from Mila, 11 months, as Penny, 1, enjoys a freshly poured bowl of water.

“He’s the greeter and sergeant-at-arms,” Stewart boasted. “He greets the other dogs as they arrive. But he doesn’t welcome them all. If they’re too aggressive, he barks.”
Winston’s best friend is 5-year-old Rusty, whose human is Kim Giles.

“We think he’s a labradoodle,” Giles said, “but if he has any Labrador in him, the retriever part’s broken. He’s full-on poodle.

“He was homeless and didn’t know how to play. Through this park he now has friends. If we pass Winston in the car, they cry and yell for each other.”

Former town councilman Philip Aridas’ 2-year-old Boston terrier, Mylow, is bilingual.

“He was born in California and came here, so when his family had to move back, we took him,” Aridas explained. “They were Hispanic, so he’s bilingual. He understands both Spanish and English.”

At least two of the gang are experienced airline passengers.

Brynn and Alex Manos got Penny, their goldendoodle, after her mother in Ohio spotted someone on Facebook whose dog had experienced “an accidental litter” of nine.

They flew to Ohio and adopted one of the nine.

“We flew her back in a carry-on bag under the seat in front of us,” Alex Manos said. “It cost $50.”

Since joining the Poodle Gang, Penny has earned the nickname “Penny Pincher.”

“She jumps on the other dogs’ backs and hugs them,” Manos explained. “It drives Rusty nuts.”

Eevee, a 7-year-old Belgian malinois, is a transatlantic flier.

“She flew in a bag under the seat all the way from Vienna to Miami and never barked,” Eszter Gyarfas said. “And I didn’t even give her a Xanax.”

Rodve Syllne also has a Belgian malinois, Xena, who’s only 1 year old and already working as a personal trainer.

“We play tug where she has the rope in her teeth,” Syllne said, “and she’s so strong sometimes I use her to do my bicep exercises.”

Michael Dmytrow’s year-old Weimaraner, Reef, earned his name as part of a team, almost.

“I have a pet bearded dragon named Atlantic,” Dmytrow explained, “so we were going to get a girl dog and name her Coral, then a boy and name him Reef, so we’d have three pets named Atlantic Coral Reef. We got Reef first, but he’s really hyper, and we only have so much room at home, so we never got Coral. So, we just have Atlantic Reef.”

Kim Giles laughs after getting slobbered on by Boo, 7.

And then there’s Boo, Linda Pollog’s 7-year-old white boxer. Or perhaps he should be called Boo Two.

“Boo One died seven years ago,” Pollog begins, “and I was miserable. He was a white boxer, and I scoured from Miami to Hobe Sound looking for another white boxer.”

Finally, her sister found one, in Alabama, only 3 weeks old. Pollog drove up and brought him home.

“It cut down on the trauma I was having, and I love him,” she said. “He’s my Boo. Did you know that in Ebonics boo means boyfriend?”

Boo is also the fastest, leapingest, most aggressively affectionate non-poodle in the whole Poodle Gang. Take care or he’ll throw himself into your lap and try to French kiss you with a terrifyingly long tongue.

Pollog knows this but is unperturbed.

“Yeah, he’s a drooler,” she admits. “I’ve got to clean the slobber off the walls twice a month. But I love him. What are you going to do?”

Delray Beach police have increased patrols at the pavilion on State Road A1A at Atlantic Avenue. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Larry Barszewski

When Caffe Luna Rosa employees complained to Delray Beach city commissioners about homeless people bothering restaurant patrons and visitors to the nearby beach pavilion across State Road A1A, the city’s police force jumped into action.

The department upped its presence with periodic walks around the beach and by taping off the entrances to the pavilion at night, a Luna Rosa employee said, along with having two community outreach officers each pulling daily four-hour shifts in front of the pavilion just in case.

“There has been somebody here almost all day every day,” said Alex Koulianos, seating restaurant patrons on Sept. 20, two weeks after she, some other employees and some restaurant neighbors spoke out at the commission’s Sept. 5 meeting.

“I know you spent taxpayer dollars to make the pavilion bigger, but we didn’t know it was going to become a homeless shelter,” Robert Guarini, who lives above the restaurant, told commissioners. “The village by the sea is turning into the village of skid row over there.”

Luna Rosa employees said some of the individuals were urinating in the streets, exposing themselves, taking food off tables at the restaurant and getting into fights with residents and visitors.

“I have called the police numerous times. There has been domestic violence; there has been illegal drugs; even as of today, there was an arrest on the pier, I mean on the pavilion,” said Luna Rosa supervising server Diane Bolt, who said she previously worked as a police officer in St. Louis. “But the worst one I knew was going to escalate, we had an assault, and a man was badly beaten and was threatened to be killed and he pressed charges.”

At the commission meeting, Delray Beach Police Chief Russ Mager told commissioners the complaints would be addressed promptly.

“Downtown, in the last week, we had similar issues occurring in the downtown corridor, in the ‘clean and safe’ area. We made 13 arrests in the last week as a result of that,” Mager said. “We want to apply the same efforts that we did in the downtown area in the last week to the beach area.”

In a Sept. 25 email to The Coastal Star, Mager said his department has “increased our police presence in this [beach] area and assigned seven day a week police coverage. Our objective is to enforce the laws and ordinances, remove those who are committing crimes and provide a safe and secure environment for our community.”

At the commission meeting, Mager urged residents to call the police when they have a problem, instead of just complaining to their friends or commissioners about the situation.

“They’ll tell other people and it never even gets to the Police Department, but we’ll hear the complaints,” Mager said. “I am encouraging everyone, [561-]243-7800, call the Police Department so we can get there and address the issues.”

Mager said it’s only a small number that’s at the heart of the issue.

“We have 104, based on a homeless count, we went up five from last year to this year. The county went up like 450,” Mager said. “We have identified 16 chronic offenders that we want to get out of here, so to speak. So, we are working on trying to, either medically or (through) family, to get those people out of here.”

While the department and many agencies run programs to help the homeless and keep people from becoming homeless, chronically homeless people present more of a challenge. Getting them to move from one place only shifts their presence to someplace else.

Mager said in recent months he has seen the chronic homeless move, in turn, from Libby Jackson Wesley Plaza to Old School Square, then Worthing Park, then Veterans Park, then First Presbyterian Church, then the beach and other locations, prompted each time by police activity to discourage their presence at any given location.

“You can see how it’s gradually working its way, not intentionally, it’s just kind of happened that way as we dispersed the issues and the concerns in the past over the last several years,” Mager said. “They seemed to recircle and ended up downtown and obviously pushed east, but we’re going to work on collaborating with our counterparts with regard to Clean and Safe, the Community Outreach Team, and road patrol, to address it.”

For now, the problem is no longer on Luna Rosa’s doorstep.

“We intend to go back and say thank you” to the commissioners for the police presence, Koulianos said.

By Larry Barszewski

There’s a silent “F” in Delray Beach’s TNVR feral cat control program and it has some city residents fuming.

TNVR — Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Return — is a program adopted by the city two years ago to make a dent in its rising feral cat population, a program supporters say won’t work if you don’t “Feed” the neutered cats once they’re returned to the streets.

Resident Ann Stacey-Wright told city commissioners at their Sept. 5 meeting that the situation has gotten out of hand, with some people feeding cats right in front of her home without her permission. Stacey-Wright said she has nothing against cats, but she doesn’t want them being fed near her.

“While it may seem like a noble cause, it has inadvertently led to other issues. For example, food put out by volunteers brings other rodents, pests, raccoons, possums, large wood rats, all kinds of animals into our community,” said Stacey-Wright, who lives in the 200 block of Southwest Seventh Avenue.

“Not only that, when you put out the food, it’s left there. It becomes unsightly. The area that it’s being put out in is in front of residences that do not have cats or have animals, such as myself. I am highly allergic to cats.”

Ernestine Holliday, who lives on Northwest Ninth Avenue just north of Atlantic Avenue, said her neighborhood is also full of cats.

“My neighbor is also allergic to cats. Just last week, a cat delivered a litter on my back porch. That is not something that I want to endure the rest of my life,” Holliday said. “Instead of the cats getting better, they’re getting worse. … Please limit where they can feed them, maybe east of Swinton.”

Mayor Shelly Petrolia supports the TNVR program, but said she was caught unaware of the feeding portion.

“The feeding part has never come before the commission,” Petrolia said.

She said the vaccinate and return program is beneficial because cats are territorial. If the cats are simply removed, then other, non-neutered cats will move in and keep the problem going, she said. Returning the cats that can’t reproduce helps keep the overall population down and the non-neutered cats from taking over.

“It’s not that we want to repopulate. It’s that we want to repopulate with animals that can’t reproduce, to hold the population down and keep the other ones out,” Petrolia said.

Sam Walthour, director of neighborhood and community services for the city, said the city allocates $25,000 annually for the 2-year-old TNVR program to have vendors trap the feral cats that are then neutered and vaccinated before being returned to neighborhoods. He said the program is very specific about where feeding can occur, but other people are out there feeding the cats, too.

f“We deal with our own volunteers and tell them where they can and cannot be as it relates to supplemental feeding, but primarily they’re feeding the cats out of their own pocket and we do come along and provide some food supplement,” Walthour said.

At their Sept. 18 meeting, commissioners got more information about the program from a teenager, Kiki Casale, daughter of former City Commissioner Juli Casale, who pushed for the program when she was on the dais.

Kiki Casale, one of the volunteers in the registered feeder program, said she feeds five colonies on Shadow Lane every day. She had to get permission from the homeowners where she feeds them. The cats must be fed on private property because the program’s rules do not allow feeding on public property.

“There’s no point in having a TNVR program if you are going to place the cats back on the street to starve,” Kiki Casale said.

“The city is fortunate that we have nonprofits that can adopt out the cats and kittens. … We have volunteer feeders like me who are doing this at their own expense.”

Budget, tax rate approved
City commissioners on Sept. 18 approved a $184.9 million general fund budget, which covers the day-to-day operations of city government, for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1, a 9.3% increase from the previous year.

Commissioners set the city’s combined tax rate, including the rate to pay for voted debt, at $6.4982 per $1,000 of assessed value. The tax rate for operating expenses was set at $6.3611 per $1,000 of assessed value, a drop of $.15 per $1,000 from the previous rate.

However, the lower rate still represents an overall 7.9% tax increase for existing properties, not including new construction, because of rising property values in the city.

In other news:
• City commissioners approved the limited use of artificial turf in yards. The turf, which requires a permit to install, is allowed only on side and rear portions of a yard — not visible from the street — and it must be combined with living plants as part of a landscape design. Artificial turf is not allowed in rights-of-way (swales) in front of a home, nor can it be used within 5 feet of a property line.
• Commissioners agreed to raise the minimum wage for city employees represented by the Service Employees International Union to $15.32 an hour, along with 4% pay increases for other SEIU workers who are not at the maximum for their pay grade. The commission vote was 4-1, with Petrolia voting no. Petrolia did not oppose the raises, but she said the raises should have waited until a new contract was being negotiated.
• The Florida Commission on Ethics dismissed a complaint filed against Deputy Vice Mayor Rob Long that claimed he had a voting conflict on three separate votes while previously serving on the city’s Planning and Zoning Board. The ethics commission found no probable cause for the complaint, which alleged Long voted on a residential development project that could benefit a client of his.
• Term-limited Commissioner Adam Frankel announced Sept. 27 that he is running to be the next Palm Beach County public defender, seeking to replace Carey Haughwout, who is not running for reelection.
• The city will host a two-day symposium about the proposed Atlantic Avenue Historic District at the Fieldhouse at Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Ave. There will be an educational symposium about the district at the Fieldhouse at 3 p.m. Oct. 26, which will include information about the district’s benefits and its legal and financial implications. A community discussion about the proposed district will be held at the same location at 10 a.m. Oct. 27.