By Brian Biggane

After a pedestrian was killed by a hit-and-run driver on State Road A1A last November, South Palm Beach Mayor Bonnie Fischer worked to have a representative of the Florida Department of Transportation come to Town Hall to address residents’ safety concerns.

Those efforts came to fruition Jan. 29, when Jonathan Overton, the traffic engineer for the five-county South Florida FDOT district based in Fort Lauderdale, spent 90 minutes answering questions from a near-capacity crowd of about 80.

Nearly 20 residents voiced their concerns, the vast majority of whom asking Overton what needs to be done to establish one or more crosswalks in the town which, while only five-eighths of a mile long, is the most densely populated along the A1A corridor south of Palm Beach.

Overton didn’t offer any quick solutions, pointing out that while there is an asphalt walkway running along much of the west side of the road, there is nothing similar on the east side.

“I don’t want to lead someone to a dead end,” he said. “There needs to be connectivity.”

James Donatelli, a resident of the Palm Beach Harbour Club, proposed as many as four to six crosswalks, including from his condo on the west side to the Barclay on the east side.

The Barclay is the former home of Hatixhe Laiqi, 73, who lost her life while attempting to cross A1A at dusk on Nov. 10.

“A pedestrian was killed here … largely because she was invisible,” Donatelli said. “The lighting is terrible and we don’t have crosswalks. (Putting one there) would serve over 300 residents of the two buildings.”

Barclay resident Alan Stern said he had contacted an FDOT official who works under Overton, who wrote him that crosswalk placements “are based upon a strategic plan and would require an engineering study to determine need.”

Overton said a study would cost “a couple of thousand dollars” and needs to be paid for by the condos or the town.

As the questions continued, Overton often referred to the problem created by the absence of a sidewalk on the road’s east side. He said he drove up and down A1A several times prior to arriving at Town Hall and saw an elderly couple struggling to walk through the grass.

One suggestion that drew applause was cutting the speed limit from 35 mph to 25 or even 15 mph. The Town Council could approve such a change, but Overton was wary and FDOT would have the final say.

“If I posted an unreasonably slow speed limit some people would say ‘I’ll stay at that,’ but others would be tearing their hair out, and pass on the right or the shoulder or cross the yellow line.”

One problem the town has faced for years is a lack of beach access. Some properties on the west side of A1A pay those on the east side to use their easements, but there is no public access north of Lantana Beach.

Residents on the east side also cross to use the west side walkway. There were several complaints that the walkway is in poor condition, and Overton promised to address those with his maintenance people.

Vice Mayor Bill LeRoy has been adamant that a solution must be found and suggested an ad hoc committee be formed to address the situation. Several residents agreed to serve on it.

“I was thrilled with the turnout, thrilled with the comments,” LeRoy said afterward. “We have to solve this, because it’s not going to go away. It’s going to get worse.”

By Rich Pollack

Highland Beach residents will have a chance to learn more about this summer’s $8.8 million State Road A1A resurfacing project through the town during a public meeting and open house next month hosted by the Florida Department of Transportation.

State officials will be at the Highland Beach Library on March 7, hosting a virtual meeting from 5 to 6 p.m. and an in-person meeting from 6 to 7 p.m. to preview plans for the resurfacing, restoration and rehabilitation project that is expected to last more than a year and cause major traffic disruptions.

Town Manager Marshall Labadie said that while meetings with state officials held last year focused on the design — which will include drainage improvements and a 5-foot bicycle lane on each side of the road — the upcoming meeting will focus on how the design work will be implemented.

Residents can question representatives from the FDOT, the project management team and the contractor who will provide answers on a one-on-one basis following presentations.

The state calls the sessions the State Road A1A/South Ocean Boulevard Resurfacing Project Virtual Public Meeting and In-Person Construction Open House.

“It’s highly recommended for residents to attend either the free online virtual public meeting or the in-person construction open house for this project,” said Melissa Readling, the project’s spokesperson. “This will give them a better understanding of the project details and any anticipated impacts.”

During the meetings, the presenters will provide details about the number of lanes that can be closed, along with approved detours and days of the week and hours during which lane closures will be permitted. Town leaders acknowledge that the project will be disruptive to residents and people using A1A, but say the result will be improved conditions.

“At the end of the day, A1A is going to be a better road in Highland Beach, but we’re going to have to walk over a lot of glass to get there,” Labadie said.

In addition to road resurfacing work that will lead to periodic lane closures, work will be done on swales to help with drainage along the highway. That work should not impede traffic, engineers have said.

Hoping to minimize traffic on a 3.3-mile stretch of A1A — which will be repaved in all of Highland Beach and a small section of Delray Beach — the FDOT will place signs on the west side of both the Linton Boulevard and Spanish River bridges warning motorists to expect construction-related delays. Engineers hope the signs will discourage motorists from using A1A if alternative roads are an option.

In Labadie’s monthly message to the community, he said that input is valued and asked residents to mark their calendars so concerns and suggestions can be heard.

Those who cannot attend will be able to view a recording of the virtual public meeting afterward at www.d4fdot.com.

State officials say they will soon provide information on how residents can participate in the virtual meeting.

By Brian Biggane

After four architectural firms made their proposals for a new Town Hall at a Jan. 16 special meeting of the South Palm Beach Town Council, and after the scoresheets of the council’s four members were tallied, Town Clerk Yude Davenport announced an unexpected result: a tie.

Cincinnati-based Moonlight Architecture and CPZ Architects, which has multiple offices in South Florida, amassed an identical number of votes, prompting a brief discussion among the council to determine a winner.

Moonlight was ultimately the choice.

“It was a very hard decision because CPZ is very professional,” Mayor Bonnie Fischer said. “It was very close but I scored Moonlight higher.”

The tipping point may have been Moonlight’s affiliation with Fort Lauderdale-based Erik Scheuermann, who owns Archetype Homes, has an extensive history of working with structural insulated panels, and has appeared before the council multiple times.

The council decided some time ago the new Town Hall and community center would be constructed with SIPs, which are expected to be both better able to withstand extreme climate and less expensive than more traditional building materials.

“Erik is a very unique, innovative person and has a lot of experience with SIPs,” Fischer said.

Council member Monte Berendes gave CPZ a slight edge in his vote, but opened the discussion by saying his only concern with Moonlight was that it was based in Ohio, and concluded that was minor. He said he was impressed by the presentation from Moonlight President Andy Roehl.

“He can do the job, that’s the important thing,” Berendes said of Roehl, 45. “He has a wealth of experience. I’m 99% sure SIPs is the way to go.”

Roehl is a board member of the Structural Insulated Panels Association, serves on its Education and Development Committee both nationally and internationally, and is licensed in 31 states.

“I’m the go-to guy with the association; when a project comes up regarding SIPs I’m usually the first call,” he said.

A variety of materials, including wood and concrete, can be used to fill the panels. While other bidders designated a specific material they would use, Scheuermann said that because of the coastal climate, he wouldn’t state a preference until the process is further along.

“We use a combination of one or the other; we just utilize what we need to solve the problem,” he said.
Roehl also promised significant energy savings as compared to the current structure, which was built in three phases between 1976 and 1993.

“These buildings are fighting the Florida summer, so what we would do is lock it out. ... If we added solar panels we could get to zero energy. Net zero has been a goal of mine for years now. It’s the right thing to do,” Roehl said.

“When we say it’s green,” Scheuermann added, “over the life of the panels it saves the town a lot of green.”

While Roehl has used SIP designs in fire stations and libraries, he said the unique nature of the Town Hall was sure to generate national publicity.

At the SIPA national convention scheduled later in January, Roehl planned to talk “a lot about this building and expect it to get a lot of support.”

“If you want to put the town on the map, we could put the town on the map with the project,” Roehl said. “It’s good stewardship of the funds of the people who are paying into it. Make them proud of what they have; make it a crown jewel. This is the opportunity to do that.”

That concept got Berendes excited.

“I like the idea of our building being a beacon, of everyone else looking at it,” he said. “I want people to say, ‘Damn, these people did it right.’ We’re a tiny little town but let’s be something special.”

Asked about a time frame for the project, Roehl said 8 to 12 weeks to formulate a design, then another month to obtain construction permits. The panels will be built off-site and the town must negotiate contracts with the various subcontractors before work can begin.

Construction “is quicker with the SIPs,” Roehl said, “but if conditions are perfect, you could be in the building in eight months from the start of construction.”

The council tabled a motion to interview for an owner’s rep position and Scheuermann said he feels he could serve in that capacity to save the town money.

If the town is unable to work out a contract with Moonlight, the council agreed it would move on to negotiate with CPZ. But Roehl said he doubts it would come to that.

“I have every reason to believe we’ll be moving forward and I’m excited to get going,” he said.

By John Hughes and Tao Woolfe
 
East Boynton Beach Little League has filed a lawsuit against the city of Boynton Beach alleging that a proposed renovation of Little League Park would interfere with league activities and disrupt the 2024 baseball season, which is already underway.

“Boynton Beach (City) should be enjoined from its planned shutdown of the available fields during this 2024 season which EBBLL youth players need in order for the program to successfully operate,” says the lawsuit filed Jan. 18 in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.

Further, the league says it would suffer “irreparable harm” if the city goes through with its plans to partner with two sports-development organizations —Athletic Angels Foundation and Primetime Sports Group.

The plan of Primetime and Athletic Angels has been to turn Little League Park into a state-of-the-art sports complex, complete with indoor training facilities, artificial turf, accommodations for baseball players with disabilities and a make-over of concession areas and bathrooms.

“It’s going to make Boynton Beach the epicenter of youth and youth sports,” City Manager Daniel Dugger said last winter.

This winter, though, the park has become a point of contention in the baseball community.

East Boynton Beach Little League alleges that the city’s agreement with Athletic Angels and Primetime would give those businesses undue control of Little League Park, where Little League baseball in Boynton Beach was first played in 1957. It was home to the 2003 United States National Little League champions.

“We appreciate the devotion that East Boynton Beach Little League has to its players and families, and as a city, we are as dedicated to maintaining and improving the park for our residents,” Dugger said in a written statement. “It’s unfortunate that there is pending litigation involved that prevents us from commenting in further detail.”

Boynton Beach Recreation and Parks Director Kacy Young said city agreements with Athletic Angels and Primetime Sports “are continuing to move forward as planned.”

Permits submitted by Athletic Angels have been approved and renovation is “scheduled to start (early February), maybe sooner,” Young said in an email.

The city is reviewing Primetime plans for the indoor facility, which the City Commission would have to approve, Young said.

The league alleges that the city did not give it a chance to “advise … on the grave impact that shutting down Field 1 during the EBBLL’s entire program would have on the program.”

Field access is not the league’s only complaint.

The suit also accuses Primetime President Phil Terrano of “terrorizing the EBBLL community” as disputes between Terrano and league members erupted after the city granted Primetime Sports a comprehensive agreement for a ground lease and training facility in November 2022.

Project plans were amended when a similar contract was issued to Athletic Angels in April 2023, putting the current season in jeopardy of being disrupted by the renovations, the lawsuit alleges.

This lawsuit is not the first time bad blood between the league and the developer has sparked litigation.

Terrano sued members of the league in August for slander and libel relating to comments some members made on social media after his plans became known, including several that called him a “criminal.”

Then, last October, according to the latest lawsuit, the EBBLL board of directors met to “terminate Philip Terrano’s involvement with EBBLL and his ability to attend EBBLL events.”

Last December, Gavin C. McLean, an attorney representing the league, met with the Boynton Beach city attorney to ask the city to rein in Terrano.

The city, though, said that regardless of Terrano’s standing with the league, he, like any other citizen, has a right to be in public spaces, which would include the park’s parking lot and common areas.

Little League Baseball has a zero-tolerance policy for the kind of behavior EBBLL says Terrano is exhibiting. According to McLean, EBBLL fears losing its Little League charter if such behavior continues.

In his own lawsuit, Terrano alleges that he has been the victim of an assault on his reputation at the hands of EBBLL. His determination in fulfilling this project, he says, has always been inspired by his own life-shaping experiences gained when he played on the very fields from which he is now accused of wrongdoing.

He says that he doesn’t see any hope that he and league members will get along in the future, “not after what they have done to my reputation.”

Despite the major league distance between the opposing parties and personalities, they cite the same mantra about what drives their actions: concern for the youngsters in the program.

Terrano said he is disheartened that so much ill will has been generated by an organization that is supposed to be focused on youth athletics.

“This is hurting the kids and that’s not right,” he said.

On the other side, league attorney McLean said: “What I don’t want to get lost here is that the main focus should be on the kids. We’re talking kids here. This isn’t the place for this.”

Another point of contention about the ball fields: At City Commission meetings over the last several months, residents have said that the land beneath Little League Park should be repurposed as city cemetery space.

For at least the past 20 years, residents who have family members buried in Boynton Beach Memorial Park cemetery — which is adjacent to the baseball fields — have lobbied the commission to drop plans for developing the ballfields. They also want the ballpark to give way to an expansion of the city’s burial ground.

Lee Lipton, Jesse Bongiovi and Jon Bon Jovi (l-r) met at Benny’s on the Beach before announcing their partnership. Photo provided

By Christine Davis

Lee Lipton, owner of Benny’s on the Beach restaurant on the pier in Lake Worth Beach, recently announced his partnership with rock musician Jon Bon Jovi’s Hampton Water Rosé.

The announcement came after a recent visit to the restaurant by Jon Bon Jovi and his son, Jesse Bongiovi, co-founder of Hampton Water Rosé.

The two, with Lipton, sampled the restaurant’s Captain’s Platter and ahi tuna tostada, finishing with a slice of Benny’s famous Key lime pie. 

Jon Bon Jovi, a longtime fan of the seaside eatery, acknowledged that Hampton Water Rosé complements Benny’s coastal atmosphere and cuisine, and he solidified his connection to the restaurant.

Wine Enthusiast describes the wine this way: “Lovely top notes of peony and baby’s breath grace the bouquet of this rosé, with supporting notes of ripe melon, white cherry and strawberry at the core. The palate is medium in weight but well balanced, with a sweet orange flavor and bright acidic thread that keeps the momentum moving from the fruit-fueled palate to the vibrant, refreshing finish.”

Now, with Hampton Water Rosé the only rosé available on Benny’s menu, locals and visitors alike can enjoy it along with the restaurant’s ocean views, tasty dishes and Key lime pie. 

“We’re excited to elevate the dining experience for our guests with such a distinguished and acclaimed wine,” Lipton said.

***

Pebb Capital secured a $173 million construction loan from Monroe Capital and J.P. Morgan for Sundy Village on 7 acres at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Swinton Avenue, at 22 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach.  

The $240 million mixed-use development broke ground early in 2023, with delivery anticipated for summer 2024.

Among the expected tenants are the Barcelona Wine Bar, Vertical Bridge communications, Double Knot restaurant, and chef and restaurateur Michael Schulson’s Schulson Collective.

Joe Freitas and John Criddle of CBRE oversee Sundy Village office leasing with Sara Wolfe of Vertical Real Estate handling the retail leasing. 

***

James and Kimberly Caccavo flipped their estate on a half-acre with 178 feet of waterfront at 71 Curlew Road, Manalapan, for $13.9 million in December.

They bought the property in November 2022 for $10.5 million. The buyer is Drwelruc, a Delaware limited company.

Nicholas Malinosky and Michael O’Connor, agents with Douglas Elliman, represented both sides. James Caccavo is the founder and managing general partner of the California-based Steelpoint Capital Partners, a private equity firm. Kimberly Caccavo founded Face Your Grace, a motivational e-learning platform.

***

In January 2022, five big-ticket real estate sales were listed in this column. Last January, three big-ticket sales closed. This year, there’s one. What’s happening? Is the local luxury real estate market cooling off?

Not really, says Jonathan Miller, the president and CEO of New York City-based Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers and the author of a series of market reports covering more than 50 U.S. markets for Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

“The intensity of the sales has diminished,” he said. “The Fed’s policy pivot these past two years has played somewhat of a role, but there’s still a fair amount of sales and at bigger numbers” in price. 

His records show eight sales of properties more than $50 million in 2023 for Florida, with most of them in Palm Beach and a few in Miami. In 2022, there were 13 in Florida, dominated by sales in Palm Beach, Manalapan and Boca Raton.

“The point is, after peaking in 2021 during the pandemic era housing boom, it still continues through 2023 as we were exiting the pandemic era surge, and as mortgage rates rose at their steepest ascent in four decades,” Miller said.
 

***

Concierge Property Solutions was named the exclusive property management company for Royal Palm Residences, a nine-story three-tower condominium at 475 E. Royal Palm Road, Boca Raton.

“We are dedicated to enhancing the living experience for residents of Royal Palm Residences and to maintaining the highest standards of luxury, service and community engagement,” said Tricia Schmidt, director of operations for Concierge Property Solutions.  

***

The management team of the Boynton Beach Professionals leads group presented Eleanor Balash, a mortgage professional at Premier Mortgage Associates, with its quarterly recognition award.

“Eleanor strives to be a trusted business adviser to her clients,” said John Campanola, chairman of the group and an agent with New York Life. “She has been tirelessly working to promote the group and all of its members.” 
  

***

The Lowe’s Foundation recently presented Palm Beach State College with a $1 million grant to support the college’s skilled trades training program. It also announced new nonprofit partners: Goodwill, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and National Center for Construction Education and Research. Additionally, Lowe’s is partnering with Klein Tools to outfit the college’s training labs with HVAC and electrical tools and equipment.

***

The Institute for Regional Conservation, a Delray Beach nonprofit, held six ecological restoration events at Red Reef Park in Boca Raton this past summer. With help from more than 100 volunteers, beach dune and coastal strand habitats within the park were restored.

Because of funds and support provided by the city of Boca Raton, more than 500 plants representing 40 native coastal species were installed in areas where volunteers removed nonnative invasive species.

The Institute for Regional Conservation will hold eight more volunteer events at Red Reef and South Beach parks beginning in early February. To volunteer, contact Liz Dutra at ldutra@regionalconservation.org. 

***

Jalesa Worthen was promoted to the position of chief operating officer of the Achievement Centers for Children & Families in Delray Beach. Previously, she served as the center’s director of early learning programs, and prior to that, she was the education supervisor at Lutheran Services Head Start.

***

The Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency board decided to postpone interviews with applicants for the CRA director’s job, due to a shortened Jan. 18 meeting. Interim CRA Director Timothy Tack said some 64 people had responded to the city’s job posting.

The City Commission, which serves as the CRA board, is expected to help winnow the responses and select a few candidates to interview at the agency’s February meeting.

The commission fired Thuy Shutt from the job on Oct. 10 for largely unspecified reasons.
  

***

The League of Women Voters of Palm Beach County will host speakers Dr. Brent Schillinger, Renata Bozzetto, Ph.D., and Kate Renchin at its Hot Topics luncheon from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 21. The event is a roundtable on health care, immigration and voter rights.

Schillinger is co-chair of the league’s health care committee, past president of the Palm Beach County Medical Society, and currently chairs its opioid health care response initiative. He will focus on the status of health care in Florida.

Bozzetto, deputy director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, will discuss immigration and democracy.

Renchin, co-chair of the Palm Beach County Voting Rights Coalition and the Palm Beach County Election Program, will discuss the coalition’s work to inform people about pending legislation and litigation and the efforts to recruit nonpartisan poll monitors. 

The luncheon will be at the Airport Hilton, 150 Australian Ave., West Palm Beach. The registration fee is $35, and attendees must register by Feb. 14. Visit https://lwvpbc.org/event/february-hot-topic-2024/ 

Tao Woolfe contributed to this column.

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

By Rich Pollack

Highland Beach town leaders this week agreed to continue negotiations with the Milani family, offering several favorable land-use adjustments in exchange for the family’s vocal opposition to development of a beachfront park on land they sold to the county specifically for a park.

In their continuing efforts to persuade Palm Beach County commissioners to halt development of the 5.6-acre Milani Park at the south end of Highland Beach, town leaders have sent Lucia Milani a multi-pronged proposal that would make it easier for her family to develop adjacent property in exchange for the family publicly speaking out against the plan.

“If you’re naming a park after someone and you now say you no longer want the park, that has credibility,” said Highland Beach Town Manager Marshall Labadie.

Labadie said the Milani family and the town have yet to come to agreement on all of the terms. With the Town Commission’s support, he will go back to the Milanis to iron out differences and hope to have that completed in time for a Feb. 1 public meeting hosted by County Commissioner Marci Woodward.

Included in the proposal would be an extension of a 30-year-old settlement between the town and the family that expires in 2025 and essentially grandfathers in land use improvements on two parcels owned by the family. A five-year extension on Milani property east of State Road A1A would enable construction of three homes on the parcel that under current code is only permitted to include one single-family home.

The proposal also includes a three-year extension of the settlement agreement on the west side of A1A, with two one-year additional extensions. The town is also offering to allow the family to build townhouses on that property that would exceed the height limit set under the settlement agreement but that is acceptable under current height limits.  

Also included in the proposed agreement is a zoning change the town would offer on the property, now zoned for public use, should the county agree to sell the property back to the Milani family if it abandons plans to build the park. The town would also transfer the Cam D. Milani naming rights from the park to the old fire station, which will be used as a public meeting facility once construction of the new fire station is complete.

In exchange for the land use changes, the Milanis would be required to attend public meetings and voice opposition to the development of the park, put their opposition in writing and put together a good faith offer to the county for purchase of the park property based on appraised value.

The family sold the property to the county more than 30 years ago for $4 million.

“I think this is a real good start,” Town Commissioner Don Peters said. “We have to build up trust with Mrs. Milani.”

In a recent email to The Coastal Star, she said she preferred not to comment on "ongoing public processes."

Gulf Stream Mayor Scott Morgan speaks with (l to r)  Felipe Costa, president of the Galera do Pedal cycle club; Cameron Oster, a cyclist from Boca Raton; and Jeramy Pritchett, a cyclist from Deerfield Beach, at Gulf Stream Town Hall following the Jan. 12 Town Commission meeting. The group of cyclists attended the meeting advocating for safer roads and looking for a way to prevent future crashes following one Jan. 4 on State Road A1A that sent six bikers and the driver of the SUV who crashed into them to the hospital. That stretch of A1A in Gulf Stream has no designated bike path. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

A new cycling coalition formed in the wake of a Jan. 4 crash has asked the town to act to make the roads safer 

By Anne Geggis

Emotions spilled over as members of the cycling community appeared before the Gulf Stream Town Commission as it met for the first time since a motorist’s Jan. 4 collision with cyclists sent seven to the hospital.

Felipe Costa of Deerfield Beach, who started the bike group, Galera do Pedal, was briefly overcome Friday as he started his plea to make the town’s stretch of State Road A1A safer.

“Today, my group that I helped create — we have 300 riders from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale — unfortunately the injured riders from last week …” Costa said, his voice faltering.

“They are in your group?” Mayor Scott Morgan said, jumping in to fill the silence as he signaled for someone to bring Costa a bottle of water he had with him.

“Yeah,” Costa replied, struggling to keep his voice level.

No official explanation has emerged as to why a 77-year-old Lantana woman southbound in a subcompact SUV crossed the center line and knocked into the pack of cyclists who were heading north, pedaling alongside the Gulf Stream Golf Club.

That stretch of the road has little pavement to the right of the white line demarking car lanes.

Costa said that one of the riders, a mother of three young children, was finally discharged from the hospital Thursday. Her husband is still on life support from his injuries in the accident, and another is undergoing intensive rehabilitation, recovering from a dislocated shoulder, a shattered pelvis and stitches.

“It was a terrible accident,” Town Commissioner Joan Orthwein said.

The sheer number of casualties in the Jan. 4 crash and the footage of the accident, along a road that attracts sightseers from all over the world, has brought new visibility to the tight space between motorists, cyclists, joggers and walkers along A1A and other area roads.

There were 670 bicyclist-related crashes in Palm Beach County in 2023 that caused 11 fatalities, according to the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Department.

Last week’s incident, captured on a bicycle tail light camera’s video, has sparked a request from the town to the state for bicycle safety signs to go along A1A. It also galvanized a new coalition of South Florida bicycle groups, Florida Share the Road Coalition, joining together to make the case for spreading the word about cyclists’ rights and the need to improve road safety. Two other speakers at Friday’s meeting came there on behalf of the new group.

After the meeting, though, the mayor told the group that the idea of adding to the width of the road is a nonstarter. And the town wouldn’t have anything to say about it either because the state has authority over A1A. However, past proposals by the state to widen the road have been met with opposition from the town.

The close proximity of the road to homes and protected Australian pines make it impossible, Morgan said.

Cameron Oster, 37, of Boca Raton, of 3R Cycling Experience, which hosts cycling events, also spoke at Friday’s meeting. He asked for bicycling sharrows — symbols on the pavement that indicate to motorists that they should expect to share the road.

Morgan also has more education in mind.

“We really need to promote single-file cycling through the town of Gulf Stream,” he said.

Morgan, a resident sea turtle at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center from 2014 until being ordered removed last year, has returned and is now in the center's shipwreck aquarium, Boca Raton city officials announced on Jan. 10. Photo provided

VIDEO: Morgan back home

By Mary Hladky

Morgan, one of Gumbo Limbo’s resident sea turtles who state officials ordered to be removed last year, has returned to the nature center.

City officials announced Morgan’s return from a prolonged stay at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach on Jan. 10. But as of that date, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had not made a decision on the return of Cane, the other resident sea turtle that was moved to another center.

The FWC ordered the city to remove Morgan and Cane in March after the city fired its sea rehabilitation coordinator and assistant coordinator.

The terminations came as part of a transfer of the care of the turtles from the city to the nonprofit Coastal Stewards. The nonprofit has since hired a veterinarian and a rescue and rehabilitation coordinator and applied for an FWC permit to resume giving turtles medical care.

Morgan came to Gumbo Limbo after being rescued in 2014. She was hit by a boat and her injuries caused her to be partially paralyzed in her rear flippers. As a result, she cannot be released into the wild.

The nature center is open Tuesday-Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Monday from noon to 4 p.m. The facility’s nature trails are open Monday-Sunday from 7 a.m. to sunset. Admission is free, although visitors can make donations.

Injured cyclists were members of Galera do Pedal, a mostly Brazilian group

By Anne Geggis

An early-morning crash had one bicyclist on life support and another in an induced coma after an SUV driver plowed into a group of cyclists along State Road A1A in Gulf Stream Jan. 4, according to a fellow bike club member.

The Florida Highway Patrol, which is investigating the 6:45 a.m. incident in the 2800 block of North Ocean Boulevard, reported late in the day that a 77-year-old Lantana woman driving a 2020 Kia Sol southbound on A1A crossed over the center line and into a group of eight cyclists traveling northbound. 

Seven victims, including the driver of the SUV, were taken to Delray Medical Center and Bethesda Hospital East, according to Delray Beach Fire Rescue.

FHP’s report issued after business hours on Thursday, however, only mentioned two injured: The SUV’s driver, who it said had sustained “non-incapacitating injuries,” and one cyclist, a  43-year-old Boca Raton man who received “incapacitating injuries.”

Felipe Costa, president of  the Galera do Pedal, a bicycle club with members mostly from the Boca Raton-Deerfield Beach area, said he was getting updates from the hospital from fellow members about what happened to the six cyclists taken to the hospital. A husband and wife sustained the most severe injuries among the cyclists, he said

“It’s bad news,” said Costa, after describing the life-threatening condition of the husband. The wife was in an induced coma, he said. The Coastal Star is not publishing their names, which officials have not confirmed, at this time.

The most serious cases were taken to Delray Medical Center, which has a trauma center. Another person sustained broken legs and another one of the seven cyclists had a cut in the accident, Costa said.

The bicycle club, Galera do Pedal, with 813 Facebook followers mostly of Brazilian heritage, has Tuesday and Thursday rides along A1A, Costa said. They begin with bicyclists meeting up in The Cove, a Deerfield Beach shopping center near the Intracoastal Waterway, around 6:30 a.m. Usually, they turn around when they hit Lake Worth Beach. Costa has done that ride many times himself, he said.

This time, the group didn’t reach its northern point.

The crash occurred less than half a mile south of Golfview Drive, 

Michael Simon, president of the Boca Raton Bicycle Club, has pedaled that stretch of road hundreds of times. Usually, it’s quiet and the speed limit is 35 mph, he said.

There was an effort to widen the roadway in this area years ago, he recalled. But sometimes there’s nowhere to go to avoid danger, he said.

“When you’re unprotected on a bike, there’s always the risk of a distracted driver,” Simon said. “This one is a tragedy.”

Palm Beach County's Trauma Hawk Air Ambulance landed at Gulf Stream Golf Club following a Thursday morning crash on State Road A1A involving a group of bicyclists and an SUV, with three reported to be trauma cases. The road was closed between George Bush Boulevard and Golfview Drive for several hours, but has since reopened. Photo provided by Delray Beach Fire Rescue

Related: Gulf Stream: A1A bike club ‘tragedy’ leaves couple fighting for their lives

By Anne Geggis

An early-morning crash involving an SUV driver and seven cyclists — three of them described as trauma cases — closed State Road A1A from George Bush Boulevard to Golfview Drive for a number of hours early Jan. 4, according to Delray Beach Fire Rescue.

The Florida Highway Patrol, which is investigating the 6:45 a.m. incident in the 2800 block of North Ocean Boulevard in Gulf Stream, said late in the day that a group of eight cyclists were riding abreast of each other when a 2020 Kia Sol, driven by a 77-year-old Lantana woman, crossed the center line and collided into them. The crash occured about 20 minutes before sunrise.

According to Delray Beach Fire Rescue spokesman Ted White, crews responded to the scene to find six cyclists and the Kia's driver injured. One other cyclist did not have to go to the hospital, White said, but described some of the bikers’ injuries as “severe.” FHP’s report said there were eight cyclists in the group and only mentioned two injured in its report, including a 43-year-old Boca Raton man.

He was “separated from his bicycle and tumbled/rolled onto the northbound lane of SR-A1A where he came to a rest,” the FHP report says.

Palm Beach County’s Trauma Hawk Air Ambulance helicopter landed at the adjacent Gulf Stream Golf Club course and airlifted an unknown number to Delray Medical Center; other victims were taken to Bethesda Hospital East in Boynton Beach, White said.

Bicycling in Palm Beach County has proven a more dangerous mode of transport in the past year than in recent years. According to state records as of Dec. 28, there have been 670 bike crashes in Palm Beach County in 2023, including 11 fatalities. In 2022, there were 486 bike crashes and 14 fatalities. The county recorded 424 bike crashes (eight fatalities) in 2021 and 373 (12 fatalities) in 2020.

News of the crash had Diane Pohanka sick to her stomach. The Gulf Stream woman, profiled in a recent Coastal Star article on the devastating effects of such accidents, knows about trauma alerts. She  is still in recovery from a pickup truck hitting her as she rode her bicycle on A1A  in Boca Raton last August.

The site of the new crash was less than a mile from her home and one she’s biked hundreds of times.

Seeing Delray Beach Fire Rescue’s photo of a trauma alert helicopter on the nearby golf course had her playing out various scenarios of how it happened in her mind.

“I’m assuming that it’s on this little stretch that’s part of the golf course,” she said. “There’s no give in the road at all there. There’s no room for bicyclists.”

She suffered broken bones that involved surgery, metal rods and grueling physical therapy sessions.

For Christmas, Santa brought her a bicycle rack for her car so one day she can bike some trails. But she’s sworn off ever biking along the ocean highway ever again — in its current state.

“Biking is just not the same as it was — there’s too many distractions with cell phones and everything,” she said.

She is, however, heartened by an item on Thursday’s Delray Beach City Commission agenda: A workshop includes an update on plans for a bicycle pedestrian master plan that includes A1A in the area targeted for improvements.

Mostly, though, she can’t stop thinking about those in the accident.

“I'm just praying for all these bikers,” she said. “I just know what the trauma part is and that means that we're pretty injured.”

To go to story, click on link: https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/gulf-stream-a1a-bike-club-tragedy-leaves-couple-fighting-for-th-1

Colorful: Long before tourists celebrated their travels by posting selfie photos on social media, picture postcards were the rage. ABOVE: From the Rainbow Tropical Gardens, a Boynton Beach attraction from the 1920s to the1950s. BELOW RIGHT: A historic postcard from Delray Beach. Photos provided

Memories of U.S. 1 tourist stops come alive in historic collections

By John Hughes

Florida was known for tourist attractions long before it was known for Disney World.

Hard to fathom, but that’s a fact.

Before Mickey and Minnie and being this tall to ride a ride. Before wait times and paid proxies as place holders in admission queues. Back when rubber alligators were prized. Back then, this state was thick as swamp air with attractions that often exploited the nationwide notion that Florida was America’s WILDerness.

Before there was Interstate 95 or Florida’s Turnpike (née Sunshine State Parkway), one two-lane road — U.S. 1 — was the highway to happy for camera-ready guests breaking up the distance with visits to America’s new vacation phenomenon: roadside attractions. They were the shows that made the journey a better part of reaching the destination.

Today there are amusement parks big enough to have their own police forces; maybe even their own ZIP codes.

But back when Big Joe “The World’s Biggest Crocodile” or roadside fruit stands shaped like oranges could draw a crowd, those parks were often owned and operated by families.

Mom and pop vacationers met mom and pop park owners.

ABOVE: Africa U.S.A. had a home in Boca Raton from 1953 to 1961. BELOW RIGHT: Road signs at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Camino Real directed travelers to its 300- acre site.

Such parks were part of the southern Palm Beach County landscape. The Pedersen family in Boca Raton, for example, opened and operated Africa USA — an attraction so popular that Life magazine featured it on the cover. A few miles away, outside Boynton Beach on U.S. 1, Harold and Angela Waite had the family name attached to their bird farm, where travelers took a break from the road to see performances by trained birds, monkeys, alligators and other animals.

The best of roadside parks offered acres of photo ops for visitors eager to snap selfies and post to Instagram or tweet on X or ...

No. When those guests wanted to brag about being somewhere and seeing something that would impress the gee willikers out of the poor saps back home, they bought and sent postcards. Picture postcards. Pay extra and get the colorized ones.

Mail. Stamps. Days to get word to wherever you wanted whoever to know that you were “having a great time.” If it was winter back home, scribble in the local temperature, just to rub it in.

Postcard collector and historian Janet DeVries Naughton has about 3,000 such postcards. She sees them as time capsules, but also as “artifacts to document history.”

About all that’s left, now, from the glory days of Palm Beach County roadside attractions are those postcard artifacts.

The postcards once held personalized greetings and memories. Now, they are links to a past lost to the realization of real estate. Simply put, more money could be made from developing the land for housing and commercial enterprises. The bygone attractions that lured so many here have all but been erased by Florida’s continuous redevelopment.

Postcards provided by Janet DeVries Naughton, Ginger Pedersen, the Boca Raton Historical Society and
the Delray Beach Historical Society.

Ostrich-Alligator Farm and Zoo (1923-49), Lantana

In March 1940, someone named Ella wanted Lottie DePue of Stroudsburg, PA to know that Ella was ‘having a grand time’ visiting Lantana. The temp was 70 and Ella was at the Ostrich-Alligator Farm and Zoo, where owners Frank L. Anderson and E.W. Goolsby invited guests to stroll their 10 acres of monkeys, kangaroos, and yes, ostriches. (Get a photo of one pulling a buggy!) Perhaps the main attraction was Zulu, ‘the largest known crocodile in captivity.’ The land today houses mostly two-legged domesticated animals, including the home of historian Janet DeVries Naughton, who has collected about 3,000 South Florida postcards such as this one.

***

James Melton Autorama (1953-62), Hypoluxo

That determined driver in the company of smiling women is James Melton, owner of the U.S. 1 autorama he opened in Hypoluxo in 1953 — moving his car collection from its original location in Connecticut. A radio and recording star of the 1920s and ‘30s, Melton got his own TV variety show around 1951. The program was sponsored by Ford Motor Co., a perfect union for the automobile enthusiast/performer. The autorama had more than 125 antique cars.

***

Rainbow Tropical Gardens (1920s-50s)

1700 block, North Federal, Boynton Beach. Historian Janet DeVries Naughton sometimes visits the area where the gardens stood; they stretched from U.S. 1 to the Intracoastal Waterway. ‘Some of the structure is still there — parts of the waterfalls, stairways,’ she says. Today, the main building (circa 1929) is home to the Benvenuto Restaurant. In its glory, the Gardens led guests down flagstone paths among exotic flowers and plants and towering palms. It was one of South Florida’s leading tourist attractions.

***

Hoffman property, north of Lake Ida Road on U.S. 1, Delray Beach

It’s the early 1900s. You’re driving north on U.S. 1 outside Delray Beach. The ride is going to get chilly, so you’ve put on your long skirt and boots. But you realize you’ve not gotten that obligatory photo of yourself next to a palm tree. No problem. Stop. Hop out. Snap. Nothing to hinder your souvenir shot except maybe the dust kicked up by the Model T. Take as long as you need.

***

Ancient America (1953-58), U.S. 1 near Yamato Road, Boca Raton

Proprietor E.G. Barnhill was fascinated by American Indian culture. In addition to a replica Spanish Galleon, the 25-acre park held artifacts said to have been from when the Spanish ‘conquered’ Florida (16th century). Ancient America included a Native American burial ground which Barnhill excavated. He installed glass walls for guests who in that era had not yet learned to be morally repulsed by such an idea. Ancient America didn’t grow old.
By the late 1950s, Barnhill had shed the property (now site of The Sanctuary) and moved on to Wisconsin.

***

Africa USA (1953-61), Camino Real near U.S. 1, Boca Raton

Businessman-developer John Pedersen put the ‘wild’ into Florida wilderness when Africa USA’s 300 acres (at $25 per acre) opened. In 1952, his son Jack, like a 20th century Noah, loaded giraffes, zebras, cheetahs, emus, elephants and more onto a ship in Mombasa, Kenya, and unloaded them at the site. In the era before I-95 and Florida’s Turnpike, it lured U.S. 1 travelers, who paid $1.25 to enter and were treated to a botanical garden, boat rides and a ‘safari train tour’ to get up-close to the wildlife. Life magazine picked the park (not Disneyland!) for a 1960 cover feature.

The red outlines show the beach access and slice of roadway property that some Tropical Drive residents were able to acquire adjacent to the white-roofed Turtle Beach condo complex. SOURCE: Palm Beach County Property Appraiser

By Jane Musgrave

When Mark Feinstein opened up the Facebook page for the town of Ocean Ridge, he was stunned to find out that alongside notices of upcoming zoning meetings, blood drives and boil water orders, he had been accused of engaging in a bizarre sexual act.

Repulsed and angry, the 64-year-old lawyer, Turtle Beach condo president and father of three didn’t have to wonder about the identity of the person who used the social media forum to attack him and a former Ocean Ridge mayor.

Sean Currie, a fellow Ocean Ridge resident who has become Feinstein’s nemesis, used his own name when he posted the nasty missives and later admitted he had no regrets about making the unfounded allegations.

The social media posts are among the many strange volleys that have been fired since warfare erupted between residents of Turtle Beach and those who live on Tropical Drive, which runs along the southernmost border of the yellow 26-unit oceanfront condominium a half-mile south of Woolbright Road.

Lawsuits have been filed, an arrest has been made, ethnic slurs have been hurled and political fortunes have been changed. 

“The whole thing is hilarious,” said Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Steve Coz. But, he added, it is also unfortunate.

Ocean Ridge, he said, is a “very friendly, neighborly town.” Since the battle began, it has become less so. People have chosen sides, with Coz’s and voters’ sentiments leaning against Turtle Beach.

Like disputes that have erupted in Palm Beach and dozens of oceanfront communities in Florida and elsewhere, the fight between Turtle Beach and Tropical Drive residents began over sand.

The first salvo came in late 2021 when the condo association posted signs, warning visitors that its beach was private. “No Trespassing Please,” the signs said.

But, while the message on the signs might have been polite, the reaction to them was fierce.

Currie responded by ripping down one of the signs, leading to his arrest on a charge of criminal mischief.

Turtle Beach puts out trash on property the Tropical Drive group bought. Staff photo

Real estate maneuver
The case was dropped when he agreed to reimburse the association $300 for the sign. But by then, he, his mother and six other Tropical Drive residents came up with another way to fight back.

They formed Sunrise Beach LLC and plunked down $40,000 to buy a ribbon of land on Tropical Drive and another strip along Turtle Beach’s oceanfront property. As the owners of the two parcels that are each valued at $988 for tax purposes, the corporation sued Turtle Beach, demanding that the condo association get off its land.

In the lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, the residents claim that the condo illegally uses their property twice a week when Turtle Beach residents line up their garbage bins for pickup. More egregious, they said, are the driveway, gate and electronic keypad Turtle Beach installed on the land in 2020 so condo residents can get in and out of the complex. 

“Turtle Beach continues to trespass by placing their refuse and debris on the property, as well as unlawfully constructing an unpermitted access keypad, and destroying a sodded area,” attorney Robert Hartsell wrote on behalf of Tropical Drive residents.

Traffic tie-ups on the narrow street are routine, according to Currie’s father, Christopher. In court papers, he said, he has “to deal repeatedly on a serial basis with people obstructing my street and my parking area because they are trying to deliver stuff across a locked gate.”

The residents are asking a judge to order Turtle Beach to remove all of the structures and to stop using the land for garbage pickup. They are also seeking an unspecified amount in damages.

Turtle Beach responded to the suit by asking the judge to declare that the association is the rightful owner of the property. Long before the existing gate was installed, the association used the land and maintained it for more than 20 years, said attorney Spencer Sax, who represents Turtle Beach.

The condo has what is essentially squatter’s rights. While the legal term is adverse possession, Florida law allows people to claim ownership of land they have used for seven consecutive years.

Tropical Drive residents and the former owners of the property had to be aware of Turtle Beach’s use of the land yet did nothing to stop it, Sax said. “The association’s use, possession and maintenance of the … property has been actual, open, visible, exclusive, notorious, continuous and hostile to Sunrise and to the world at large for well more than seven years,” he said.

If the judge doesn’t want to give Turtle Beach the land, he should at least give it an easement, allowing the condo association to continue to use it, Sax said. He is also suing the Tropical Drive residents individually and asking that they be forced to pay damages for interfering with the condominium’s property rights.

Libel lawsuit heats up
While that legal battle continues to rage, another one is also playing out.

Feinstein in April sued Currie for libel, claiming the Tropical Drive resident had posted “despicable and disgusting comments” about him on Facebook.

While the real estate lawsuit makes no mention of the dispute over the beach, in the defamation suit Feinstein says retribution drove Currie to publicly — and falsely — accuse him of engaging in a “heinous, despicable” sexual act.

“Currie has an ax to grind with Feinstein ever since his lawful arrest for trespassing and stealing signs which are the property of the Turtle Beach of Ocean Ridge Condominium Association,” attorney Matthew Haynes, who represents Feinstein, said in court papers.

During a deposition, the 36-year-old Currie admitted authoring the Facebook posts but he described his motives differently.

“I made the Facebook posts in hopes that somebody might read it and notice that this is a massive farce and that they would encourage him to stop polluting the beach and harassing his neighbors,” Currie said, according to a transcript. 

He repeatedly said he had no evidence to back up his claims against Feinstein. “Correct, no factual evidence based on sexual activities,” Currie said, occasionally laughing at Feinstein’s lawyer’s questions.

Currie also admitted that he regularly hurled an antisemitic slur at Feinstein. “Multiple times,” Currie said when asked how often he insulted Feinstein by using the denigrating epithet, sometimes punctuating it with an obscenity. He insisted his description was justified.

“Because he is a horrible person and he’s Jewish, so, therefore, it’s an apt derogatory slur,” he said. “I wouldn’t call him the slur for an Italian or a Black person, because he’s not Italian or Black.”

While court records show Currie has offered to settle the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount, Feinstein is adamant that the case will go to trial. And the stakes for Currie could be high. Feinstein on Dec. 22 filed a motion, asking a judge to let him seek an unspecified amount in punitive damages. Claiming “there is a reasonable basis that [Currie] acted with gross negligence or engaged in intentional misconduct,” Feinstein argues that simple damages aren’t enough. Currie should be punished. Punitive damages famously can reach into the millions.

“I’m not litigious,” Feinstein said. “I don’t want his money. The whole idea is to let him know his actions have consequences.”

Since he became condo president in 2021, Feinstein said his quiet life has become chaotic. Angry Tropical Drive residents blame him alone for the signs. 

“Mark Feinstein didn’t put the signs on the beach,” he said. “It was a board decision.”

A decisive election issue
Feinstein isn’t the only one who has incurred the wrath of Tropical Drive residents and their supporters. In his Facebook posts, Currie also blamed then Mayor Susan Hurlburt, who lives in Turtle Beach, for “being allowed to pollute our beautiful ocean with hazardous refuse.”

Hurlburt’s role in the placement of the signs became a campaign issue. One of Hurlburt’s opponents, Carolyn Cassidy, blasted Hurlburt for misusing her elected position by pushing forward her neighbors’ and her own personal agenda.

“I don’t think it’s right that the same person who initiated the signs on the beach and sought the permitting for it is presiding over the meeting when these signs were discussed,’’

Cassidy said at a forum shortly before the March election.

While Hurlburt didn’t address Cassidy’s remarks then, she repeatedly said she kept her public and private lives separate.

“I absolutely avoid all involvement in my official capacity with the town that may give even the perception of wandering into self-interest,” she told The Coastal Star in the run-up to the election.

Ultimately, however, in a three-way race, Hurlburt lost the seat she had held since 2019. Cassidy captured twice as many votes as Hurlburt.

Once she was sworn in, Cassidy and other town commissioners, including Coz, pushed to enact a law that limits where signs can go on the beach. The rules, adopted in September, require signs to be situated at the dune toe line at least 200 feet away from any other signs, face east-west, and be no bigger than 18-by-18-inches.

Turtle Beach, which initially installed four signs, has largely complied with the measures, Feinstein said. It removed all but two of the beach signs although a disagreement remains over whether warnings can be placed on both sides of the placards. A code enforcement magistrate hearing is set for Jan. 9.

Feinstein insisted it was never the association’s intent to keep people from accessing the beach or strolling along it. The condo board recognizes that the public owns the land seaward of the mean high tide line and people are free to walk on the wet sand in front of Turtle Beach.

Condo residents, however, were tired of drunken revelers, who were obnoxious, played loud music and prevented homeowners from enjoying the stretch of beach that they paid for in higher home prices and taxes. The signs were designed to stop people from setting up beach chairs and blankets by directing them to a nearby public beach.

Until the uproar, the signs were working, he said.

Precedent for beach access
Tropical Drive residents have a different view.

Gabriele Currie, who is president of the Sunrise Beach LLC and Sean’s mother, called the issue “an emotional one.” She declined further comment because of the ongoing lawsuit.

Instead, she cited a letter the group’s attorney wrote. In it, Hartsell insisted that those who claim private ownership of a beach are on shaky legal ground.

“The general public may continue to use the dry sand area for their usual recreational activities, not because the public has any interest in the land itself, but because of a right gained through custom to use this particular area of the beach as they have without dispute and interruption for many years,” Hartsell wrote, quoting a Florida Supreme Court decision from 1974. 

Beyond legal concerns, he said allowing private landowners to restrict access to the beach is simply wrong.

“This gradual exclusivity of the beaches is shocking to the [consciences] of those who purchased their life’s dream home, living near the ocean and enjoying all of its benefits only to have that dream shattered by no trespassing signs and threats of prosecution,” Hartsell wrote.

For his part, Coz blamed Turtle Beach for igniting an unnecessary and divisive dispute. Cassidy’s overwhelming election showed town residents don’t support what he considers the condo’s beach land grab.

He acknowledged that Sean Currie’s behavior wasn’t acceptable. “He went too far,” Coz said. “But he was fed up. It gets very emotional when you tell people they can’t use the beach.”

He said he hopes that a resolution can be reached.

“It’s so unfortunate — the whole thing,” he said. “I don’t understand why Turtle Beach doesn’t shake hands with Tropical Drive and Tropical Drive would do the same.”

Feinstein said he attempted to talk to a member of the Tropical Drive corporation without success. “It’s hard to reach out to somebody when they won’t talk,” he said.

Now, the issue will be decided in court. “They fired the first shot and we had to react,” Feinstein said.

By Pat Beall and Steve Plunkett

Jamie Daniels made it just 228 days in Palm Beach County’s fraud-ravaged addiction treatment system before overdosing in a local sober home seven years ago last month.

A college graduate and aspiring lawyer, Daniels landed in the heart of a $746 million scheme built on exploiting drug users and bilking insurance companies.

Coastal Delray Beach osteopath Michael Ligotti was a key player and profiteer who pocketed millions from it, prosecutors said. When he was sentenced to two decades behind bars in January, a Department of Justice press release heralded his arrest and conviction as the largest addiction fraud case ever brought by the DOJ.

Ligotti, though, was not locked up. Instead, he remained free as he worked with prosecutors on investigating and prosecuting other fraudsters. And his testimony that led to convictions in two key cases resulted in a federal judge chopping Ligotti’s sentence in half, to 10 years, with the possibility of getting out of prison in 8½ years.

“It is only right,” U.S. District Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz II said of  reducing the prison time on Dec. 8. “Even the 10-year sentence is a significant sentence in this space.”

Ruiz, Department of Justice lawyer Jim Hayes and defense attorney Jose Quinon agreed that Ligotti is a changed man since January.

“In retrospect I’m appalled at how I behaved. I put money before patients,” Ligotti told the judge.

Jamie’s mother, Lisa Daniels-Goldman, attended the hearing in the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. federal courthouse in Miami via Zoom and pleaded with Ruiz “to please not make Jamie a victim again.”

Debbie Howland, whose daughter Ava died in a West Palm Beach sober home in 2018, also spoke via Zoom.

“I got a life sentence of pain, grief and endless tears,” she said.

Millions of dollars in tests
It would be hard to overstate the scope and toll of the addiction treatment fraud sweeping through Palm Beach County by 2013.

The county was an international for-profit treatment destination. Posters plugging addiction help in Palm Beach County greeted arriving passengers at Orlando International Airport. High-wealth drug users could access concierge care in beachfront homes with gourmet meals.

Estimates pegged the industry at $1 billion, making it one of Palm Beach County’s largest industries.

And it was rife with abuse.

A urine test that will detect drugs is cheap. It can be bought for as little as $25 at local drugstores.

By contrast, a single, sophisticated “confirmatory” urine test could reap thousands of dollars from a patient’s insurance company.

People in sober homes and treatment centers were needlessly tested multiple times a week, generating staggering insurance payouts. 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.

But insurance paid only if a doctor would green-light the expensive test as medically necessary.

As medical director for dozens of facilities, Ligotti obliged, said prosecutors. In addition to ordering millions of dollars in needless tests, they said he prescribed addictive drugs to patients from his Whole Health clinic in Delray Beach. That included benzodiazepines, drugs lethally mixed with opioids by people who are addicted.

The scheme reached into the pocketbooks of employees at Amtrak, Bank of America and the state of New Jersey who sought treatment and found fraud, an attorney for Aetna Insurance testified at Ligotti’s sentencing hearing. Aetna and organizations using Aetna paid $24 million to providers in the scheme, he said, but worse was the continuing fallout once it was exposed: It created distrust of addiction treatment by people who might need it the most. 

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.

He 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.

He pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count in 2022. Other charges were dropped.

Fallout beyond fraud
Like many other physicians arrested in local treatment fraud crackdowns, Ligotti was never charged with the overdose or death of a person seeking help for addiction.

But the fallout from urine testing schemes extended far beyond financial fraud.

That’s because unscrupulous local sober home owners and addiction treatment operators didn’t need people seeking treatment to stay drug-free.

They needed people with a drug use diagnosis, insurance and a supply of urine, not a commitment to sobriety. As a result, some sober homes advertised as safe and drug-free turned a blind eye to drug use. People hoping for help wound up overdosing.

Jamie Daniels was among them.

Jamie Daniels with his mother, Lisa Daniels-Goldman. Daniels-Goldman and Jamie’s father, Ken, created the Jamie Daniels Foundation to help young adults struggling with substance abuse. Jamie, 23, died in a Boynton Beach sober home. Photo provided by Jamie Daniels Foundation

The Michigan State University graduate clerked at a law firm and was studying for his law school entrance exam.  

But he had struggled to stay sober since at least college, where his family believed he had easy access to opioids.

In July 2016, Jamie, 23, did what thousands of others had done and flew to Palm Beach County for treatment.

On Dec. 7,  he overdosed here.

Then came a wave of insurance bill records totaling tens of thousands of dollars for urine screens and blood tests, including those ordered by Ligotti for Jamie when he was in Michigan, not Florida.

“It’s one thing to have an addiction and not being able to overcome it because the addiction overtakes you,” Jamie’s father, longtime Detroit Red Wings play-by-play broadcaster Ken Daniels, told ESPN. “But then when bad people get involved and they contribute to it, it makes you sick.”

ESPN produced a documentary on the testing fraud and Jamie’s death. When the production crew showed up at Ligotti’s Delray office, he denied ordering the tests. His identity had been stolen, he told reporters: “I’m the victim.”

Evidence in other cases
It’s not clear how many other schemes Ligotti has helped prosecutors identify and take to trial. However, records show he offered evidence in one Central Florida case involving rural hospitals and high-priced bogus drug testing that led to multiple convictions. And the judge in that case found that Ligotti had information on people not yet arrested in “a large number of healthcare facilities across the country.”

“I want them all to have to pay a price for what they did,” explained Daniels-Goldman of her reluctant acceptance of Ligotti’s freedom while he helped put two others behind bars.

But other aspects rankled Daniels-Goldman and others. It was late May before Ligotti finally surrendered his license to practice medicine and another three months before the state’s Board of Osteopathic Medicine formally accepted the relinquishment. In June, his expected prison entry date was pushed back to December in part because he was providing testimony in the Central Florida case. In July, he received court permission to take his family to an upscale resort hotel at Universal Studios.

Ligotti surrendered to the U.S. Marshals Service on Dec. 1.  Defense attorney Quinon asked Judge Ruiz to recommend that Ligotti be sent to a prison close to home and not to the Atlanta Penitentiary.  

“He’s done everything [that prosecutors asked] and he’s done it from the heart,” Quinon said.

You won’t see any “year in review” stories or photos in this January edition. It’s not that they aren’t interesting, it’s just that I’m a Capricorn — always looking forward. The coming year interests me far more than the one in the rearview mirror. So here’s to 2024!

In the coming year, The Coastal Star plans to make some staffing changes. Foremost is that I plan to assume a lesser role in the day-to-day production of the newspaper. After 15 years, it’s time to take more time for myself and focus on some other projects.

I’ll still be around: assigning stories, keeping my eyes and ears on the community, proofreading, and writing this column. I’ll remain executive editor, but we’re bringing a new editor on board to manage the overall assignment, editing and production of news each month.

Many residents (and government officials) already know Larry Barszewski from his years spent covering several coastal municipalities. I hope all our readers will welcome him enthusiastically in this new role.

Larry’s background is in government and community reporting. He has covered cities, counties, school districts and sessions of the state Legislature in his nearly 40 years of work in Florida. He has made stops at the Bradenton Herald, Miami Herald, South Florida Sun Sentinel — including being part of its 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning staff — and at The Coastal Star for the past three years. Larry is familiar with our coastal communities.

Like most of us, Larry is a northern transplant. He grew up in western Massachusetts and earned a political science and journalism degree from American International College there. He received his master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University.

He lives in Boca Raton with his wife, Maggie, his two adult daughters, and their cat and two dogs (all rescue pets). At St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, he is part of the leadership team of AIM, an outreach ministry serving adults with physical disabilities.

Larry’s goals are straight-forward: good journalism, publishing articles that reflect the communities we serve, holding government officials accountable, providing interesting and informative stories for our readers, and listening to what our readers have to say.

“The Coastal Star has shown that people will support journalism that cares about them and the communities where they live,” Larry says. “I hope, supported by the strong staff that has found a home here at the paper, to live up to that legacy and help ensure it continues.”

I’m thrilled to leave much of my responsibility in his hands.

Mary Thurwachter will continue as a managing editor with her excellent oversight and editing of feature stories and columns. Many readers say these are their favorite parts of our publication. Please thank Mary next time you talk with her. She’s an essential part of our management team.

Steve Plunkett also remains as a managing editor, working with our reporters covering Boca Raton and Highland Beach — as well as doing reporting in other municipalities. Steve also contributes to our editorial decision-making each month. The southernmost communities in our coverage area are unique, and it’s good to have Steve’s oversight and years of local reporting and editing expertise.

We are all excited about the coming year. We feel lucky to be able to continue reporting on Palm Beach County’s lively, diverse, unique and beautiful coastal communities in the South County. These are difficult times for practicing journalism, but The Coastal Star continues to hang tough, and with the strength and depth of our team — and our business partners — we keep looking forward.

Happy New Year!

— Mary Kate Leming, Executive Editor

Michelle Hagerty, who gave the Boys and Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County a boost by leading a $374,000 fundraiser in October, loves being at the Boca Raton location. Photo provided by Jack Packard

By Suzanna Boden

For Boca Raton resident Michelle Hagerty, giving back to her community gives her a sense of purpose.

Hagerty began her first year of serving the Boys and Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County by contributing to a record-breaking fundraiser, as chairwoman of the fifth annual Securing Our Future Soiree. More than $374,000 was raised for the nonprofit’s hunger relief initiatives.

“I had a great team of people help me put the event together,” Hagerty said. “It was a really positive experience.”

About 15 people on various committees, including planning, decor, sponsorships, and silent and live auctions, had a hand in organizing the event, which was held Oct. 26 at the

Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club in Boca Raton. More than 220 guests attended.

The mission of the Boys and Girls Clubs is to help young people reach their full potential. The organization provides a world-class club experience that ensures success for each member. It aims to keep youngsters on track to graduate from high school, as well as assisting with planning for their futures.

Hagerty is most involved with the Boca Raton location, off Federal Highway north of Yamato Road. It gives children a safe place to go to work on their homework and participate in sports. Tutors are on hand to assist with lessons, and the club has a snack and dinner component. About 75 children attend the after-school program daily.

“It’s a place that keeps kids safe and allows them to build good character and maintain a healthy lifestyle,” Hagerty said. “I am becoming more involved because of the event and the friends I’ve made at the organization. I really love going there; it’s such a wonderful place.”

Hagerty, 44, graduated from the University of Southern Maine, where she earned a degree in sociology. Her family owned and operated White Rock Distilleries, where she started selling liquor to bars, restaurants and distilleries after she earned her degree. The family business was sold in 2008.

She and her husband, Michael, met in Fort Lauderdale in 2006 and moved to Boca Raton in 2008. The couple have two children, ages 12 and 14, who attend Saint Andrew’s School in Boca Raton, where Hagerty is a board member.

She is also on the foundation boards of Boca Raton Regional Hospital and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. She and her husband also support Florida Atlantic University athletics.

“I think it’s my responsibility, as a citizen of Boca Raton and the surrounding areas, to serve the community,” she said. “I especially enjoy dedicating and serving my time to underserved children. Since my kids are in school, I want to use my time to better my community and beyond.”

Jaene Miranda, president and CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County, was delighted with the turnout at the 2023 fundraiser and she is excited that Hagerty will serve as chairwoman for the sixth annual event.

“Michelle has been a true champion in carrying out our mission, which is to serve those kids who really need us most,” Miranda said. “We have 20 Boys and Girls Clubs in Palm Beach County, and our service to the various communities only exists because community members like Michelle get engaged with our organization.

“Her support was evident through the phenomenal results we had at the soiree event, not only because of the money raised, but also because of the new friends she helped us connect with in the city of Boca Raton.”

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By Charles Elmore

Two hospitals in southern Palm Beach County received “D” grades for patient safety in a nonprofit watchdog group’s latest report, and Florida landed among the five worst states with declines in hospital patient-experience scores that graders called “disheartening.”

The number of infections that patients acquired in each hospital partially contributed to the below-average grades that The Leapfrog Group assigned to Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital and HCA Florida JFK Hospital in Atlantis. Fewer than 8% of hospitals surveyed nationwide received D or F grades.

At the same time, Florida showed encouraging signs, too, ranking among 10 states with the highest percentage of A grades. Responding hospitals did not always agree with their scores, but voices across the industry acknowledged challenges to retain experienced staffing and other issues coming out of a grueling pandemic.

Boca Raton Regional’s D grade included a worse-than-average score for sepsis infection and other complications after surgery. The score followed a D in the spring of 2023 and a C in the three years ending in 2022.

“Our goal is to provide high-quality, safe care for our patients and community and we take great pride in doing this,” said Gina Halley-Wright, communications manager for Baptist Health South Florida. “We recognize that tools like Leapfrog Group’s ratings help health care organizations continue to improve.”

She continued in a statement, “It is important to note that the Leapfrog grades for the most recent scores were calculated by using data dating back to 2019, and include periods of time when South Florida experienced severe patient surges due to the pandemic. Our health system has taken steps to improve in areas where needed, and we are committed to continuing to use the data to make positive changes.”

JFK Hospital’s D came in part because it performed worse than average on blood infection rates, according to the report. The hospital had been awarded C grades in 2022 and the first part of 2023, after a B in the fall of 2021. Attempts to get comment from the hospital were not successful.

Leapfrog’s roots date to when business leaders gathered in 1998 to figure out a way to offer watchdog grades to help the public. It assigns letter grades to nearly 3,000 hospitals across the nation based on measures of how well they prevent medical errors, accidents and infections.

Leapfrog says it uses up to 28 performance measures to grade hospitals twice a year. The latest scores are from fall 2023.

The scoring methodology is determined by a panel of experts from Harvard, Stanford and other universities. Various categories involve data from one-year or multiyear periods.

Some scores, such as in-hospital infections, draw from publicly available data. Other parts cull information from surveys, in which hospitals do not always participate.

In the latest grades, nearly 30% of hospitals nationally received an A, 24% got a B, 39% registered a C, with 7% drawing a D and less than 1% an F.

Delray Medical Center received a C, its same grade since a B in the spring of 2020.

West Boca Medical Center also received a C, unchanged since the fall of 2021 after B grades in 2020 and the first part of 2021.

“Delray Medical Center and West Boca Medical Center are proud to provide safe, high-quality care to our patients,” said Andrew Lofholm, communications and community relations manager for Palm Beach Health Network.

His group’s hospitals do not participate in the Leapfrog survey, he said in a statement.

“However, Leapfrog may assign a score, but it is based on limited publicly available data from secondary sources that haven’t been verified,” he said. “We take our responsibility to provide the safest possible environment for our patients very seriously, and this is positively reflected in our quality recognitions from multiple other organizations.”

Other area hospitals improved or maintained grades.

Baptist Health Bethesda Hospital East in Boynton Beach was given a B grade, a level it has maintained since the start of 2022 after C grades the previous two years.
Bethesda West in Boynton Beach was assigned a B, up from C in the first part of 2023.

Based on surveys, Florida ranked among the five states with the sharpest declines in scores for nurse and doctor communication, staff responsiveness, communication about medicines and discharge information, Leapfrog found.

“In talking with hospital leaders, we believe staffing shortages are one key reason for the continued decline,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group.

“Many hospitals are innovating to help make patient experience better, which is critical because these results are disheartening and unsustainable.”
Florida Hospital Association President and CEO Mary C. Mayhew addressed the findings in a statement.

“FHA member hospitals are steadfastly committed to enhancing the patient experience,” she said. “We recognize the recent challenges in various aspects of patient care, such as communication with nurses and doctors, staff responsiveness, and clarity regarding medications and discharge procedures, and agree the results are disheartening.

“These significant concerns stem from the unsustainable workforce challenges that have impacted hospitals nationwide, including staffing shortages and an increased reliance on contracted and temporary staff.”

Patients and families deserve to be fully informed about their conditions and care, she said.

“Efforts are being made to address these challenges,” she said. “By leveraging innovative technology, adopting best practices, and utilizing effective tools, we are focused on improving the quality of patient care. Florida’s hospitals are more than health care providers; they are community partners committed to making sure Florida has the high-quality health care system it deserves.”

Some medical centers in the state managed tough conditions well. Florida’s 38% ranked among the 10 states with the highest percentage of hospitals receiving A grades.

As a group, hospitals across the country tended to see a lower rate of “health care-acquired” infections coming out of the COVID pandemic in 2023, the organization found.

Specific infections measured include Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), Leapfrog said.

In some places, such as southern Palm Beach County, there remains room to improve, if the grades are any indication.

“Now that we have pre- and post-pandemic data for patient safety measures, we are encouraged by the improvement in infections and applaud hospitals for reversing the disturbing infection spike we saw during the pandemic,” Binder said. “However, there’s still more work to be done. It’s deeply concerning that patient reports about their health care experience continues to decline.”

To see fall 2023 Hospital Safety Grades from The Leapfrog Group, go to https://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/

Grading care
The Leapfrog Group looked at nearly 3,000 hospitals nationwide, reviewing measures of how well the hospitals prevent medical errors, accidents and infections. Here are its fall 2023 grades for hospitals in southern Palm Beach County (and any change from the first part of the year):
B
Baptist Health Bethesda Hospital East, Boynton Beach (stayed the same)
Baptist Health Bethesda Hospital West, Boynton Beach (up from C)
C
Delray Medical Center (stayed the same)
West Boca Medical Center (stayed the same)
D
Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital (stayed the same)
HCA Florida JFK Hospital, Atlantis (down from C)

By Steve Plunkett

The site plans for three more houses on Bluewater Cove won approval after town commissioners gave the developer a quick lesson on Gulf Stream neighborliness.

Bluewater Cove LLC and Courchene Development Corp. were presenting plans Dec. 8 for an Anglo-Caribbean home, a West Indies model and one in Georgian style, a first for the new street at the north end of Place Au Soleil.

The Georgian house had a walkway from the street to the front entry, just like the first three homes the developer built.

“Aesthetically it looks like soldiers in formation,” Commissioner Paul Lyons Jr. said.

“What’s the purpose of going all the way to the street?” Commissioner Joan Orthwein asked. “Do we have a lot of houses (in Place Au Soleil) with a walkway going straight to the front door? I think it’s kind of strange.”

The designers said they were aiming for a “classy” and “formal” look in keeping with the traditional Georgian style.

“Our initial idea of connecting the homes through those walkways that went straight to the entry was because people are not going to walk up the driveway and whatever,” landscape architect Louis Vlahos said.

“That’s how everybody else does it here, they go up the driveway and around. It gives it a track-like feeling to have the vertical sidewalk going to the street,” Mayor Scott Morgan said.

The developer quickly acquiesced. “If you don’t want the sidewalk to the street, the sidewalk won’t go to the street. It’s really that simple,” said Cary Glickstein, president of the 14-home development.

The three homes already had new colors and shutters because of a desire by the Architectural Review and Planning Board to avoid a cookie-cutter appearance.

The three additional homes are all one-story and will join three that are finished — or nearly so — and are marketed for $4.875 million apiece.

Glickstein said he expects to build several two-story residences on the street.

“I know with a very high probability that there will be at least four of the 14 that are two-story. That number may be higher, but I can say with some conviction that there will be at least four,” he said.

One is among the first three that were built. The others will be at the end of the street.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if there are probably six homes that are two-story by the time the subdivision is completed,” Glickstein said. “The reason I say that is I know the two homes on the Intracoastal will be two-story. The home to the west of the north Intracoastal lot will be two-story because there are views down the Intracoastal, and I think the lot next to that may also capture some of that.”

But Glickstein said home buyers prefer one story when that’s available.

“The way that this development was site planned was to encourage single-story development. The lots are wider than they are deep, which lends itself to single-story homes, which … I think is more honorific of what exists in Gulf Stream.”

By Larry Barszewski

When Ocean Ridge’s full-time building official resigned at the end of February, the town scrambled to contract with a company that handles municipal inspections to take over the duties on an emergency basis.

It took two tries, but now, 10 months later, town commissioners say the temporary fix has turned out to be a vast improvement over what the town had previously. They’re not interested in hiring a full-time official again because they say residents are getting better service without one.

“I think we did the experiment. It completely failed,” Mayor Geoff Pugh said, at the commission’s Dec. 4 meeting, about the town’s 2018 decision to hire an in-house building official.

The town hired Wayne Cameron for the position in 2018, then hired Durrani Guy in 2020 after Cameron left. After Guy resigned, the commission voted in April to contract with CAP Government, Guy’s previous employer, to provide the building official services. But the town soon ended that relationship.

“They wanted to transition the town to utilizing a licensed building official that resides out of state and would only be available on-site one day per month,” Town Manager Lynne Ladner said in an email to The Coastal Star. “This was not an arrangement that was in the best interest of the town.”

In late May, the town turned to Hy-Byrd Inspections, which has had contracts with the town going back many years to provide inspection services. Michael Crisafulle, vice president of the family-owned company, now serves as the building official under the current agreement.

“What we want to do here with building is basically leave it as it is, as it’s going now, because of literally … the compliments that we get now,” Pugh said.

While Ladner said there were benefits to having a building official on staff, including better accessibility, Pugh and others didn’t see that as a critical issue.

“We have the owner of the company being our building official. Does he need to be here every day? No. Does he answer questions? Yes. Sometimes, is he a little hard to get? Yes. But is every question an emergency that needs an answer right then and now? No,” Pugh said.

“He has discretion. He uses his discretion. He doesn’t make a mountain out of a molehill,” the mayor added, saying that Crisafulle doesn’t treat people like he’s doing them a favor by coming out to inspect their properties.

Vice Mayor Steve Coz said not only did having an in-house building official fail to save the town money, it did not provide a better service.

“Do we want to return to a building official where it took three to six months to get anything accomplished, versus right now, it’s three weeks?” Coz asked. “I’m a dead-set no against it.”

Stella Kolb was one of several town residents who applauded the commission’s decision.

“This has been a nightmare,” Kolb said of the previous hiring of a full-time building official. “Not only was it a nightmare for our residents, it was a nightmare for the council. The council was fighting with each other. The council was fighting with the town manager. Let’s not reinvent the wheel.”

As part of the plan, the commission did support hiring a second building clerk in Town Hall to help with the paperwork load.

The town also plans to put in a new software system by BS&A for building permits, but Ladner said it could take up to a year to implement the system because of the company’s backlog of work.

The town already had a contract with another firm, Tyler Technologies, but Ladner wasn’t satisfied with its progress. She recommended earlier in the year that the commission end the contract and go with BS&A instead.

The commission in November approved a $13,500 settlement with Tyler. Ladner said the BS&A system will interface better with new financial software that is being installed in January.