Water pipe project delayed — Planned water pipe improvements along North Ocean Boulevard are delayed because the two bids the town received for the work were so far apart: $1.3 million and $2.9 million. Money for the project is coming from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

The town must decide now whether to rebid, reduce the scope of the project or find out if another community has a similar project contract on which Ocean Ridge can piggyback,

Town Manager Lynne Ladner said. “If we do end up rebidding this project, I think we will get more bids,” she said.

Comprehensive planning — Commissioners agreed to hire Place, Planning & Design Inc., the firm of Town Planner Corey O’Gorman, to work on a new Evaluation and Appraisal

Report needed to update the town’s existing comprehensive plan. O’Gorman’s firm will work with planner Jim Fleischman on the report. The firm agreed to do the work for not more than $30,000, beating a not-to-exceed $50,000 bid from Chen Moore and Associates.

Art in Town Hall — Commissioners don’t know why art displays that started a few years after Town Hall opened stopped happening in the building, but they’d like to see them start up again. Commissioners are supportive of adding the works of local artists to the walls of Town Hall, some of which may be for sale, on some rotating basis.

— Larry Barszewski

New commissioners David Knobel, Orla Imbesi and Elliot Bonner (l-r) are sworn in to seats on the Manalapan Town Commission. Anne Geggis/The Coastal Star

By Anne Geggis

Three new faces are filling the Manalapan Town Commission dais — and two more await swearing in as the town copes with a new state law that triggered the resignation of four commissioners and the mayor.

Vice Mayor John Deese and Commissioner Simone Bonutti are the only holdovers willing to meet a new state law that requires municipal elected officials to submit Form 6, which is a detailed disclosure of their personal wealth.

That requirement has impacted commissions around the state. But so far, the scale of Manalapan’s commission departures are unmatched in Palm Beach County, which has 10 other municipalities losing members of their elected boards because of the new obligation.

Mayor Stewart Satter ended four years on the dais at December’s meeting. He was elected commissioner in 2019 and became mayor in March 2023.

“I want to thank everyone — it’s been a pleasure,” Satter said.

Deese will take Satter’s mayoral seat and Cindy McMackin, already designated to take Deese’s at-large seat, is expected to be appointed and sworn in at the next commission meeting, on Jan. 23. She will fill the remainder of his term, which ends in March 2025.

Seven people responded to a November call for volunteers, Town Clerk Erika Petersen said. Four have been appointed and three of them were sworn in Dec. 18. They are:

• Orla Imbesi, who works for several family businesses. The mother of four grown children and grandmother of six replaces Commissioner Chauncey Johnstone, whose seat represents the whole town.
• David Knobel, retired from running a for-profit university. The former member of the state Board of Education replaces Commissioner Kristin Rosen, representing Point Manalapan.
• Elliot Bonner, a Florida Power & Light executive. The father of 17-year-old twins replaces Commissioner Richard Granara, representing Point Manalapan.

Dwight Kulwin will replace Aileen Carlucci, representing the ocean section of Manalapan. He did not attend December’s swearing-in.

Bonner and Imbesi both filed documents in November to continue serving on the commission once their appointed terms expire in March — and they were automatically elected because no one else filed to run for their respective seats.

Petersen said plans were to hold a second, 10-day qualifying period starting Jan. 2 so Kulwin can also assemble the qualifying documents to continue beyond his appointed term — or for anyone else who lives in the ocean section who wants to run to file for the seat.

Knobel’s term continues until March 2025.

All three freshly minted commissioners praised the way the town is run.

Knobel, who bought his current home in 2020, said he was prompted to volunteer in the name of steadiness: “I like to stay involved and do what I can to keep stability and level-headedness,” he said.

Imbesi came to the area from Bal Harbour at the recommendation of her Palm Beach friends in 2012. She said her family looked around on that island but didn’t find exactly the house with a dock she was looking for.

“We found Manalapan and fell in love with it,” she said. “It’s the perfect place to live.”

Bonner, also a travel youth baseball coach, said he came to Palm Beach County because of his job, first living in Lake Worth after moving from Baltimore. Manalapan called him farther south to what he describes as “off the beaten path.”

“I looked for a house on or near the water and the house I found, I thought, ‘This is where I need to be,’ ” he said.

He is coming to the dais at the urging of his neighbor Granara, who is stepping aside because of the new financial disclosure requirements.

Former mayor gifts library
The J. Turner Moore Memorial Library on Point Manalapan received a bequest of nearly $102,000 from Peter Blum, a former Manalapan mayor and retired businessman, who died at age 93 in January 2023, Town Manager Linda Stumpf told the commission.

The gift could present something of an opportunity, Stumpf said.

A December yoga program attracted 14 participants to the library and there is talk of doing more, perhaps an evening book club or a class teaching tai chi, a gentle form of exercise to improve flexibility and balance.

Currently, the town library’s posted hours are 2 to 4 p.m., Wednesdays and Fridays in addition to yoga class from 10 to 11 a.m. on Thursdays.

“It’s a good building that’s just sitting there,” Stumpf said.

By Larry Barszewski

A mistake that Florida revenue officials determined “to be in violation of the law” forced Ocean Ridge town commissioners into a special meeting Dec. 21 for a “do-over” of the resolutions they approved in September setting the town’s tax rate and budget.

Town officials used the wrong figures in a published advertisement notifying residents of the September public hearings where commissioners set the tax rate and budget for fiscal year 2024, which started Oct. 1.

Fortunately, with millions of dollars in town taxes already paid by property owners over the past two months, the commission didn’t have to change the tax rate or budget from the ones approved in September. The correction means the town is now expecting to receive $58,738 more in property taxes than previously thought, which will reduce the amount of money taken from its reserve funds to support the budget by the same amount.

“We have an additional $58,000 in the budget, so it is a good mistake, not a bad mistake,” Vice Mayor Steve Coz said.

Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy, who in September had supported approving a tax rate lower than the $5.40 per $1,000 of assessed value that was eventually adopted, wasn’t as forgiving. Cassidy said if commissioners had been aware of the extra dollars, that may have convinced them to drop the rate to $5.35 per $1,000 of assessed value.

For the owner of a home valued at $1 million, that change would have produced an extra $50 in savings on their taxes.

Terry Brown, the only resident to speak at the special meeting, wanted to know who was responsible for the mistake. Town Manager Lynne Ladner took responsibility.

“The law was that we were to use the gross taxable value of the town, not the net, and I mistakenly put the net taxable value in the advertisement. It was my mistake,” Ladner said. She added later, “It was not a mathematical error.”

Brown, however, wasn’t satisfied.

“I think it was noted when you were hired by this group, not the previous group, that you publicly stated that that was one of your weaknesses, budget work,” Brown said. “They know your weaknesses. And there are some other weaknesses, too, which we won’t talk about today. But that’s something that you-all are responsible for.”

While Coz said the mistake shouldn’t have been made, he noted that outside financial consultants hired by the town to review Ladner’s work didn’t catch the mistake, either.

“That’s their entire business — it’s a little [portion] of your business — and they missed it as well,” Coz said. “I’m really amazed at the state. I have new faith in the state. A tiny town like us and they catch that? That’s great.”

By Steve Plunkett

Gulf Stream awarded an almost $13 million contract to do its water main, street and drainage project in the Core District and at the same time began talking about borrowing $7 million to complete its 10-year capital improvement plan.

Digging for the 18-month project could begin as soon as March. Residents will be invited to a town meeting at the end of the month or in early February to get a more precise schedule.

The $12,998,325 bid from Miami-based Roadway Construction LLC was almost $2.5 million higher than anticipated. When the 10-year plan was approved in 2018, the total cost was estimated at $10.5 million. Still to be done after the Core work are similar efforts in Place Au Soleil and the south end of town.

But under a plan created by town Finance Officer Mark Bymaster with help from former Commissioners Paul Lyons Jr. and Thom Smith, the town can take out the loan and repay it without raising property taxes.

“Mark has allowed me to sleep the last two nights. I’ve been so worried about this,” Mayor Scott Morgan said.

Commissioners decided on Dec. 8 that accepting the $13 million bid was better than rebidding the project. Only one other firm responded to Gulf Stream’s request — and its bid was for $16.4 million.

Rebecca Travis of Baxter & Woodman Consulting Engineers described today’s bidding environment.

“Because there’s a lot of funding available, pretty much every city and town has got projects out there for bid and the contractors can be very selective. And consequently, their prices have been higher,” Travis said. “We have instances where … we maybe get two at the most bidders. In the past we maybe would get five, six, seven bidders. Now we’re getting two, sometimes one, sometimes no bidders. So I think it’s fortunate so to speak that we’ve gotten two on this project.”

Town Manager Greg Dunham said it was too much of a risk to rebid the work.

“We might not get any bids. The city of Delray Beach just bid a large parks and rec project that included a new building and associated parks and rec facilities. I think the job was something around $6 or $7 million. They didn’t receive any bids for that job,” Dunham said.

“Or that you wouldn’t get a higher bid,” Morgan added.

“Correct, that would be the other risk involved is that OK, the numbers are out there. And so we get new bids and they’re all higher than the ones that we got,” Dunham said.

Assistant Town Attorney Trey Nazzaro said the Florida League of Cities could help facilitate a loan and cited a recent example of a town getting a 15-year loan at 7% interest.

Bymaster used those numbers to figure out how much money to borrow to enable Gulf Stream to finish the capital improvements with $4 million left in reserves.

“We wanted to keep a scenario where the growth was static throughout the project and at the end of the project still be able to have a healthy reserve for future endeavors,” he said.

Gulf Stream has borrowed money only once: $2.43 million in 2012 to get its underground utilities project started.

Dunham said the town would take the loan in September or October.

“We really wouldn’t need to do this probably until the fall because we’ve already budgeted for this year’s expenses,” he said.

Nazzaro was still working on possibly switching the town’s drinking water supplier from Delray Beach to Boynton Beach. That is expected to cost Gulf Stream $2 million up front, which it would also borrow, but Nazzaro said residents’ water bills would pay for that loan without the town’s having to raise taxes.

“It’s unfortunate we have both of these big projects coming in so expensively at the same time, but my kudos to Mark and to Paul and to staff for working this out in a way that we can do both,” Morgan said.

Travis said Roadway Construction will spend most of January setting up for construction. Morgan asked her to schedule a meeting for town residents, especially those in the Core, in the last week of January or first week of February.

“They’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about the project. No one really knows what to expect, when to expect it,” the mayor said.

The Delray Beach fire station on Andrews Avenue will have to handle a greater workload once the city no longer has a Highland Beach station. File photo

By Larry Barszewski

Plans are in the works for a new beach fire station to serve Delray Beach’s barrier island communities, but it could be years before the replacement for the current Andrews Avenue station is built.

In addition, the city has hired a consultant to help determine how best to replace the services provided by its fire rescue crews in Highland Beach, which handle about 800 city calls a year. The city will no longer have crews there once Highland Beach starts up its own fire department in May.

Fire Chief Keith Tomey told a Dec. 6 meeting of the Beach Property Owners Association at the Opal Grand Resort that the city has applied for a state resiliency grant to cover part of the cost of a new Andrews Avenue station.

The city’s rough estimate for the replacement station is $15 million, and officials hope the grant will cover half that amount. The city also expects to use money from the $100 million public safety bonds referendum approved by city voters in March to cover some of its cost.

While many fire station projects were mentioned in the bond referendum, it’s unclear how much will be available for individual projects, given that the police station itself is expected to take up about $80 million of the total bond.

The city is seeking to tap Resilient Florida grant money because of the location of the station, a block in from the ocean. The current station has reached the end of its useful life, in part because it is “in a highly corrosive environment which has experienced significant degradation of the building due to this exposure,” according to the grant application. The station is also vulnerable to storm surge and rainfall-induced flooding, it said.

The building was “constructed in 1990; prior to the strict revisions of the building code that occurred after Hurricane Andrew devastated South Florida in 1992,” the application said. “The anticipated outcome of this project is a new fire station that is fully hardened to withstand a CAT 5 hurricane and more resistant to the types of damage that result from hurricane force winds.”

The new station, which is expected to grow from the existing 8,800-square-foot structure to one that’s 11,200 square feet, will be a challenge to build because of limited space at the current site on the north side of Atlantic Avenue. It may even include underground parking for station employees as a way of saving space, Tomey said.

He also envisions adding a ladder truck crew to the expanded station. The city has a ladder truck on the barrier island in Highland Beach, but that will go away when the town’s contract ends.

Tomey told residents they would see very little difference in service come May. While the city-operated station in Highland Beach has served as an emergency backup for city calls on the barrier island, Tomey said the city’s station on West Atlantic Avenue is closer to some of the barrier island communities.

Response times to the barrier island from the West Atlantic Avenue station should be about the same as from the Highland Beach station, he said. However, a ladder truck or rescue vehicle coming from the mainland could be stopped by a passing train on the Florida East Coast Railway tracks or by a raised drawbridge on Atlantic over the Intracoastal Waterway.

“I want to put a ladder truck there eventually,” Tomey said of the proposed replacement Station 112. “We’re going to need a bigger station to hold three apparatus.”

Regarding the changes ahead after the city’s contract ends with Highland Beach, Tomey said his department has hired the International Public Safety Data Institute as a consultant on the issue.

“We hired them to look at the impact of losing Highland Beach. What is that going to look like? What is it going to look like with us losing a ladder truck and a rescue truck and then leaving us with 800 calls to answer?” Tomey said.

“Usually when they’re coming into Delray Beach, it’s a last resort, nobody else can respond; we have to have them come respond,” Tomey said of the city crews that have been stationed in Highland Beach. “So now, knowing that we’ve got nobody else to respond to those 800 calls, we’ve got to figure out something. Those are some of the things this consultant is going to be helping us with.”

By Rich Pollack

Highland Beach town leaders, miffed that a preliminary report from state auditors looking into the arrangement between the town and Delray Beach for fire service was done without their input, want the state to take a deeper dive into how findings were calculated before it releases a final report.

In November, a preliminary audit showed that Delray Beach failed to bill the town $2.2 million, mostly in pension contributions dating back several years.

Faced with the prospect of Highland Beach’s possibly having to pay that money back, Town Attorney Glen Torcivia fired off a letter to Florida Auditor General Sherrill Norman, saying that figure was based on a disputed calculation regarding the numbers used to figure costs.

In recent years, Delray Beach began using the actual costs of the 21.5 firefighter paramedics assigned to the station in Highland Beach to determine Highland Beach’s cost for service, about $5 million per year.

Highland Beach has argued, however, that the agreement between the two municipalities clearly states that cost should be calculated based on the average “in-rank” cost of fire rescue personnel throughout the city.

“We would respectfully request that you not base your findings as to this issue on the city’s contractually incorrect method of processing payroll,” Torcivia wrote. “Rather, we would request that you base your findings on the clear contractual language requiring the use of in-rank averages when calculating salary, overtime, and fringe benefits.”

Torcivia, a member of the team that negotiated the 2016 interlocal agreement, said the reason the contract identified costs of personnel as being based on in-rank average was that Highland Beach had no control over whom Delray Beach assigned to the station in town.

“One of the reasons that the parties agreed on this distinction is that historically the fire rescue personnel assigned to the Highland Beach fire station were more experienced and had often requested assignment to that station,” he wrote to the auditor general. “The more experienced personnel were generally higher paid.”

The dispute comes as the town prepares to start its own fire department in May.

Since being notified of the findings of the preliminary audit, not by the auditor general’s office, which sent its report only to Delray Beach, but by the media, Highland Beach Town

Manager Marshall Labadie and town commissioners have complained about not being part of the audit process and not having the chance to share their concerns and findings with auditors.

“The town has engaged a forensic auditing team and would appreciate the opportunity to provide its report and records to your office,” Torcivia wrote. “We would also appreciate being provided with all of the records that Delray Beach provided your office. It might be helpful to compare the records that Delray provided to your office with the records that Delray Beach provided to the town.”

Delray Beach is planning to hire a forensic auditor itself to look into the matter.

In the preliminary audit report, which focused on the financial processes Delray Beach’s fire rescue department used as part of its agreement with Highland Beach, the auditor listed a handful of findings that showed flaws in the city’s financial systems.

Among the findings were:

• Firefighter salary and benefits amounts recorded in the city’s accounting records and billed to the town did not agree with employee timekeeping records.
• City purchasing policies and procedures did not ensure that goods and services ordered, received and distributed to the town’s fire station were accurately billed to the town.
• For the town’s nonpayment of billed services totaling $517,654, the city did not perform collection efforts in a timely manner.

Torcivia, at a recent Highland Beach Town Commission meeting, said that the audit showed serious deficiencies.

“I would be embarrassed if I was Delray,” he said. “Delray looks like it wasn’t mismanaged, it looks like it wasn’t managed at all.”

By Brian Biggane

The South Palm Beach Town Council is closer than ever before to choosing both an architect/builder and an owner’s representative for the much-anticipated new Town Hall.

The council determined in December that it would interview candidates for the combined build and design position at a special meeting at 12:30 p.m. Jan. 16, with a decision to follow. Each candidate will have 30 minutes to make a presentation.

Town Manager Jamie Titcomb posted invitations in mid-November and reported he had received four responses for the architect position and five for owner’s rep. No meeting was yet set up to interview the candidates for owner’s rep.

The town has determined the building will be constructed with SIPs (structural integrated panels), which consist of an insulating foam sandwiched between two structural facings, which can be fabricated to fit nearly any building design.

A look at the bidders:

Build and design
Alexis Knight Architects: Owned and operated by Steven W. Knight, the firm has provided architectural design for 45 years, including 28 years in Florida and the last 12 in Boynton Beach and West Palm Beach.

Its previous work in the same area includes the new town hall and community center for the Village of Wellington, the South Florida Water Management District Headquarters, the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office vehicle maintenance facility, and a Tamarac fire station.

CPZ Architects Inc.: With four offices in South Florida including one in West Palm Beach, CPZ is led by architect Chris Zimmerman, who has 38 years of experience in the field, and Joseph Barry, who has 25.

The company’s résumé includes fire stations in West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, the public safety complex in Coral Springs, and the Meridian Professional Building in Plantation. The company has an extensive history with SIPs, including an apartment complex in Sebring and duplexes in Okeechobee.

Moonlight Architecture: Based in Ohio, the firm boasts that its staff has “positioned ourselves as experts in the utilization of SIPs and associated components.” Its founder and principal architect is Andrew Roehl, and the company employs Erik Scheuermann. He is based in Fort Lauderdale, made a presentation to the council regarding SIPs this past fall and would serve as the architect’s representative.

Moonlight has been in business only since 2018, but in that time has been involved in more than 70 SIP projects, both residential and commercial.

PGAL: Led by former Greenacres mayor and principal architect Sam Ferreri, PGAL has 77 offices across the country, including one in Boca Raton that has existed for 27 years. It has worked at all levels of government: local, regional, state and federal.

PGAL has been involved in the construction of 13 municipal buildings in Florida since 2001, including the Boca Raton Downtown Library and the city’s police and fire training center; and the Greenacres City Hall, public works complex and fire station.

It is also scheduled to complete work on fire stations in Delray Beach and Stuart this year.

Owner’s representative
Colliers: With 25 years of experience and 120 technical professionals available, the firm headed by Senior Director Ken Guyette bid just under $300,000 to manage the project.

Its past projects include the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum and the Met 2 office tower in Miami, an Amazon warehouse in Opa Locka and the Jeld-Wen global headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is also involved in more than $100 million in ongoing construction.

Gardiner & Theobald: Established in 1835 in London, the firm better known as G&T opened its New York City office in 1992 and a Miami office in 2010. Its proposal states it is “the leading project and cost manager in the United States with over $35 billion currently under management.”

The company has worked extensively in the area. Its credits include the recent renovations at Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach and the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach. Its Town Hall project bid is $209,000.

Guaranteed Community Advisors: Led by founder and CEO Andrew Bittner, the Ohio-based firm has recently rebranded from Guaranteed Clean Energy as a means of broadening its scope.

The company, which filed paperwork to operate in Florida only this past November, has completed a number of school lighting projects in Ohio and Michigan. No proposed price tag came with this offer.

J. Kelly Advisors: Led by President Jessica Browdy, the Boca Raton-based firm came under criticism at the December meeting from Vice Mayor Bill LeRoy, who said it should be excluded due to its proposed project price of $1 million.

In business since 2015, the firm has worked on projects totaling more than $1 billion, $458 million of which is involved in ongoing construction. Its projects include renovation of Pine Crest School in Boca Raton, YMCA of South Florida in Miami, and office buildings in Fort Lauderdale and Davie.

NV5 Inc.: Taking a different tack, the Hollywood-based firm offers fixed fees of $12,200 per month during the pre-construction phase and $15,500 during construction. Its gross revenues were $786.8 million in 2022 compared to $706.7 million in 2021, an 11% increase.

The firm offers its experience individually rather than collectively. Project manager Joe Gaudet’s résumé includes Palm Beach County golf venues such as Admirals Cove and Jonathan’s Landing in Jupiter, and Addison Reserve Country Club in Delray Beach.

Safety on A1A — Concerns about the investigation of the fatal November hit-and-run on State Road A1A and the need for more safety measures brought a number of residents to the December council meeting.

Several of the attendees reside at the Barclay, the former home of Hatixhe Laiqi, 73, who was killed while crossing A1A to the sidewalk on the west side.

PBSO Sgt. Mark Garrison said in his monthly report that the investigation was ongoing and no details would be announced until it was done. Two residents addressed the council about installing flashing lights and/or a crosswalk, but Mayor Bonnie Fischer said that will be up to the Florida Department of Transportation.

Fischer said she had spoken to FDOT and that it plans to send a representative to meet with the council soon.

“Everybody knows we’re aware of this problem and have spoken to FDOT in the past,” Vice Mayor Bill LeRoy said. “We can’t take a crosswalk from a street to a blank space, only a sidewalk to a sidewalk. So, we’ve asked them to come back. Something has to be done. We can’t figure it out; they have to.”

Gottlieb vacates seat — Council member Robert Gottlieb formally announced his exit effective Dec. 28 due to health concerns and an unwillingness to abide by the new Form 6 financial stipulations. His four-year term was due to expire in March. Because no candidate filed to fill the vacancy then, the remaining four council members will appoint someone to serve until the 2026 election. Gottlieb served 18 years on the council.

Community Affairs — Resident Bea York Blitzer was appointed to the Community Affairs Advisory Board.

— Brian Biggane

Ryan Heavyside builds custom surfboards and sells Nomad brand clothing at the shop that has been in his family for 55 years. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

When Nomad Surf Shop owner Ryan Heavyside was approached about being the subject of a Meet Your Neighbor feature as a means of getting him better acquainted with his neighbors along A1A, his response was, “There aren’t many people in this neighborhood I don’t know.”

Ever since his grandfather Richard Heavyside bought the building at the corner of Briny Breezes and Ocean boulevards in the early 1960s and leased a 75-square-foot space to Ryan’s father, Ron, to craft and sell surfboards, Nomad has served both surfers and hundreds of thousands of others who have sought to sample a touch of their carefree lifestyle.

Few have embodied that lifestyle more than Ryan, 39. From a modeling career that stretched from his mid-teens to just a few years ago, to a long stretch as a pro surfer, to growing the Nomad brand into an international success, Heavyside embodies the images made famous in Beach Boys songs.

“South Florida is a special kind of place for all of it,” he said.

Heavyside recently picked up a vintage T-shirt that dates to the three businesses that operated on this County Pocket property just south of Briny Breezes some 55 years ago.

“There was Heavyside TV repair, a Pure Oil gas station and in the back Dante’s Den, which was a rock ’n’ roll joint that blasted live music until 5 a.m. My grandmother, who lived upstairs, used to sleep with cotton in her ears. That was a crazy time on this corner.”

The TV repair shop and nightclub eventually were swallowed up by Nomad, and Ryan’s mother, Beth, helped turn the business into a success.

“She passed when I was 12 but she was the reason that our retail business grew,” Ryan said. “My dad (who died in 2018) started building surfboards, but the retail side came from my mom. The way we survive in this business is the clothing side. Surfboards don’t have much of a profit margin. She kept up with the trends.”

While other retail businesses have succumbed to rent increases and the quest to turn every inch of coastal real estate into housing, Nomad carries on.

“The blessing is we own the building and we’ve been in this location for so long,” Heavyside said. “With the inflation in rents since COVID, you’re in business awhile and the landlord says, ‘Sorry, I’m adding a couple zeros.’ It changes the perspective.”

Nomad’s busy season begins in November and typically runs through Easter. Because Nomad is the only bona fide surf shop between Delray Beach and Stuart, its handful of parking spaces likely will be full for a while.

“There’s not many surf shops who build their own custom label through the shop,” Ryan said. “You can walk in and order a board for your own height, weight, color. Now we’re collaborating with people with art and color. That’s kind of a specialty thing. We’re in a kind of specialty retail spot.”

— Brian Biggane

Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A: I’m straight from the Boynton Beach area, born at Bethesda Hospital, so I’m as native as it gets. I went to St. Joseph’s School up through eighth grade, then Atlantic High School for a couple years and then got home-schooled, which brought me into the business. The home-schooling gave me more freedom timewise and that’s when I started getting into modeling, which gave me a lot of opportunities to travel.

Q: What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: I started modeling at 15 and went into my mid-30s, so that was 20 years of that lifestyle. When I was very young my mom wanted me to get into it and I laughed it off, but later on I saw it as an opportunity to build up my savings. The magazines were everything then but now everybody just flips through their phones.
I was also a professional surfer, was on the U.S. Surf Team for one year and otherwise just did it on my own schedule. Competing is kind of a rough go; you’ve got to really be into it, and I look at it more from the enjoyment end.
Every day in this profession, running the shop, is a proud moment to carry on our legacy, being here 55 years — that’s pretty special to keep going. We still build our own surfboard labels. I actually shape all those. I manufacture those boards. It’s cool to do that custom. And we’ve gotten big on making our own brand of clothing. This is the only place you can get the Nomad brand. We do our own artwork.

Q: What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A: What you put in is what you get back. The work ethic these days has changed. You get the kid who’s really after it, you see that, and then there’s one who kind of lags. We’re blessed here, we have a good crew.

Q: How did you choose to make your home in the County Pocket?
A: We’ve always had a house in the pocket, the old-school wood house where my mom and dad lived. My brother lives in that house and I live in another house on the beach. We also have a Nomad rental beach house where people can book it, have surf lessons and enjoy the lifestyle.

Q: What is your favorite part about living in the County Pocket?
A: The commute to work is good. It’s pretty laid back, one of the last old Florida neighborhoods. There used to be a couple in Deerfield Beach, but they’re gone, so the next one is probably up in Stuart or even further north. It’s got that old Florida feel, which is hard to come by these days. It’s kind of got that island kind of style.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: I read more The Surfer’s Journal, which is one of the last print magazines that deals with surfing. It’s got short stories but a lot of old ones from the ’70s to newer ones. It’s a bimonthly, glossy cover, a specialty magazine out of California.

Q: What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?
A: I listen to a lot of reggae when I’m chillin’, that’s always been kind of a go-to being from Florida. But inspired, when I’m in the shaping room shaping boards, a lot of old school like Jimi Hendrix, stuff like that. It puts you in that zone. Those big old-school tunes kick in, you get kind of a level of energy kick in. Also, the Rolling Stones, the Zombies, all those classic rock bands with the big tunes.

Q: Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A: The biggest has been my father. Him creating this place, he was always so crafty on building boards, old-school cars. Very big-hearted. He always knew the lady from baseball, or the lady from the bank, and anything to do with surf, he’d remember these people. It was programmed in him to be that guy. Especially since he passed the business down to me.

Q: If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?
A: At Nomad every day is like a movie, so I’d probably play myself. But if it was an actor, I’d say Johnny Depp. That whole pirate thing kind of blends with the surf theme.

Q: Who/what makes you laugh?
A: My wife, Taylor. She knows how to turn something serious into a better situation. We’ve laughed a lot over the years. Especially with my dad around, there was always a joke. We’ve been married three years but been together like 12. We’re hoping to become first-time parents next year.

ABOVE: Open tennis champion Coco Gauff leads her hometown parade as grand marshal of the annual holiday parade down Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach. For her next big event, Gauff, 19, is entered in the Australian Open, which starts Jan. 14 in Melbourne. She is ranked third in the world as she tries to earn a second Grand Slam title to go with her U.S. Open victory in September. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

BELOW: Girl Scouts from Troop 24313 ride in their float as part of the parade, which featured more than 70 floats, marching bands, walking groups and dance teams.

By Mary Thurwachter

Lantana is the 2023 Small Municipality winner in Palm Beach County’s Read for the Record event on Oct. 26. A certificate proclaiming the victory was presented during the Town Council’s Dec. 11 meeting.

To achieve the distinction, the town sent 37 volunteers — including the mayor, town manager, four firefighters, business owners, residents, and even former residents whose alma mater was Lantana Elementary School — to read With Lots of Love by Jenny Torres Sanchez to six local public schools and daycare centers on Read for the Record Day.

Library Director Kristine Kreidler created a video that included multiple town staff members and officials reading the book aloud — in English and Spanish — at the town’s newly renovated library, which was sent to the schools that requested a virtual reader. The video was also posted on the town’s social media page.

Kreidler and her team created a storywalk with pages from the book in the Town Hall breezeway to promote the day and let kids read the book while exploring Town Hall and its history.

“We posted our RFTR event flyers on the library’s and town’s Facebook pages, on the library’s Instagram and other platforms to demonstrate the town’s commitment to early literacy,” said Town Clerk Kathleen Dominguez.

“We held two story times at our library to guarantee that everyone, including toddlers and home-schooled children, could participate in the event,” Dominguez said. “The library guests ate free churros from the BunnBoh Churros Truck and made piñatas and other crafts inspired by the book.”

The annual Read for the Record was launched 18 years ago by the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County to highlight the importance of building early literacy and language skills so all children have the chance to enter school prepared to succeed.

“We had this distinction in the past and were finally able to recapture it,” Mayor Karen Lythgoe said of the honor.

Lifesaving award — Police Chief Sean Scheller presented a Life Saving Award to Officer Arianna Morris during the Dec. 11 Town Council meeting. The July 29 rescue involved a non-verbal 7-year-old boy who had lacerated his wrist in an accident at home. He had been trying to get his aunt’s attention and punched through a window. Morris was first on the scene and was able to calm the boy and apply a tourniquet before paramedics arrived. Palm Beach Fire Rescue also honored Morris, saying the boy might have bled to death.

Employee of the Year — Lantana’s Employee Committee presented a plaque to accounting technician Adam Ganz as the town’s Employee of the Year for 2023. Ganz was chosen for his exceptional work in various roles and willingness to take on new responsibilities.

Town honored — Lantana officials were informed by the Government Finance Officers Association that the town’s annual comprehensive financial report, for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2022, won the GFOA’s Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. Finance director Stephen Kaplan and his staff were recognized for their outstanding work. This was the 25th consecutive year that the town received this award.

Assistant chief gets new SUV — The council authorized buying a 2024 Nissan Pathfinder from Alan Jay Fleet Sales for $40,338 for the new assistant police chief.

— Mary Thurwachter

By Steve Plunkett                                                                                                

The year 2023 was not a good one for the nonprofit group originally founded to support the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.

Through November, the Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards said it lost $481,000 in donations and gift shop sales that the organization has routinely counted on.

“We are not doing very well. … Our nonprofit is struggling right now,” said John Holloway, its president and CEO.

Visits to the center on State Road A1A are down more than 30%, he told Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District commissioners on Dec. 18, though the city later said it has vastly different numbers.

“We are barely seeing one or two people coming through the door in a day,” Holloway said of the gift shop. “So we are facing some tough choices in the feasibility of operating a gift store there anymore.”

And veterinary care of Gumbo Limbo’s sea turtles, which the state halted last March, will resume no sooner than this coming April, he said.

But Holloway was upbeat, noting that 200 guests had signed up to attend a fundraiser that week in West Palm Beach when at first he had hoped to get 50.

“The West Palm community, the community of Boynton Beach, the community of Delray has all stepped up tremendously and are all excited about the work that we’re going to be doing,” he said. “So things are going well for us, unfortunately not all so well at our original home.”

That future work includes a new focus on helping manatees, dolphins and whales along with sea turtles; a new name — the group is dropping “Gumbo Limbo” and will be known simply as the Coastal Stewards; and a new office. The group is moving from Federal Highway in Boca Raton to a commercial building on State Road A1A between Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes that is next to The Coastal Star, landlord Southdale Properties Inc. said.

“The Coastal Stewards are now going to be focusing on manatees, sea turtles, and dolphins and beaked whales,” Holloway said. “Those are three megafauna in our community that are in peril. They are all in crisis.”

Despite the change in location, Holloway said the Coastal Stewards will continue to rehabilitate sea turtles in Boca Raton once it gets a permit from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

“It’s never been our intention to leave. We know and we value taking care of injured sea turtles in South County at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center. It’s been our commitment for more than 15 years,” he said of his group, which began with the name Friends of Gumbo Limbo. “But there are a number of challenges.”

Holloway broke down the group’s lost revenue in three areas: donations at Gumbo Limbo’s door, donations in the turtle rehabilitation ward and purchases at the nature center’s gift shop.

Until 2023 all door donations went to the nonprofit. That stopped Jan. 1, 2023, when the city decided to keep the money itself to defray expenses at Gumbo Limbo. That was part of an evolving plan to have the Coastal Stewards take over operational and financial responsibility for the turtle rehab program.

Holloway had planned on collecting $253,000 at the door.

“I will tell you in a high year … in 2019 we had about $350,000 in door donations,” he said.

The Stewards also forfeited donations “from folks coming to see the patients and wanting to give money to help with their recovery. We’re down $50,000 because there’s no patients,” Holloway said.

And because fewer people are visiting, the group’s gift shop inside the nature center is selling fewer items.

“Our gift store sales this year, year-to-date for November, we’re down $177,000. So in total this year just to get us to November we are down $481,000 in what was typical revenue generated at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center,” he said.

Tiffany Lucia, the city’s deputy recreation services director, had a different take on visitation numbers.

“2023 was the second-highest recorded in recent history,” she said, even though the sea turtles were absent much of the year.

Her numbers show 209,412 people visited the center through Dec. 29, down 14.8% from 2022’s record-setting 245,806 visitors, but up almost 4% from 2019’s pre-COVID total of 201,878.

However, Lucia said door donations through Dec. 29 were only $162,448, well below Holloway’s projection.

At the beach and park district meeting, Holloway said the salaries that the nonprofit is paying its veterinarian, Dr. Shelby Loos, and its rescue and rehabilitation coordinator, Kara Portocarrero, are also straining its budget.

“Keep in mind, you have to have them on staff before you can solicit the state to get a permit. So whether we had sea turtle patients or not I’ve had to have that full complement of staff ready to go,” Holloway said.

Loos, he said, spends 24 hours a week tending to sea turtles at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach. Portocarrero is adding to her résumé through work in Miami-Dade County, all at Coastal Stewards expense.

The city applied for an FWC permit to hold in captivity Cane and Morgan, its two sea turtles that cannot be released into the wild, on Aug. 4. That application is pending and the two are currently at other facilities.

The Coastal Stewards applied for a permit to provide veterinary care on Aug. 2, were asked for more information about Loos’ and Portocarrero’s qualifications, then resubmitted the application on Dec. 18, setting off a new 90-day clock for the FWC to respond.

Nicole Von Paris looks inside the sailboat Tayana that washed ashore in Delray Beach. Police spokesman Ted White said the 41-foot sailboat, first spotted on Dec. 15, is thought to have lost its mooring in the multiday storm that hit the area with heavy rain and high winds starting on Dec. 14. As of Jan. 2, the boat was still trapped in the sand, according to Delray Beach Ocean Rescue. White referred questions about the situation to the U.S. Coast Guard, but officials there and at the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said they had not received any calls about a sailboat run aground in the corresponding area in the last two weeks of December. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The Subculture Group is seeking approval to paint murals on the east and south sides of its future coffee shop on northbound Federal Highway in Delray Beach. Rendering provided

A place for art? — The City Commission has agreed to review the Public Arts Advisory Board’s approval of murals on two sides of the Subculture coffee shop that will open at 302 NE Sixth Ave. The Downtown Development Authority had recommended against the murals, voting that the proposal did not encourage economic development and did not promote “the downtown as a prosperous downtown area.”

Several commissioners were concerned about the murals in an area that is not an arts district. They were also upset that the owners had begun work on the murals before the commission rendered its final decision. Commissioners voted 3-2 to review the decision, with Commissioners Adam Frankel and Rob Long voting to let the approval stand.

A place for lawn bowlers and shuffleboarders? — The Delray Beach Preservation Trust is opposed to plans to pave over the lawn-bowling and shuffleboard courts at Veterans Park to relocate parking at the park. The existing parking spaces on the west side of the park are to be turned into additional park space that will link the existing park to the Atlantic Crossing project now under construction.

The trust said the courts are part of the historic character of the park. Vice Mayor Ryan Boylston said there are options for the future. “If there is a huge demand to bring back any bocce or lawn-bowling, two different things I’ve learned, we’re going to have all this extra new park space. If we want to put in a few courts because demand is just through the roof, we can do that,” Boylston said.

Town halls start in January — City Manager Terrence Moore is planning quarterly town hall gatherings to discuss topics of interest with residents. The first is scheduled for 5 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Delray Beach Golf Club, 2200 Highland Ave. The topics for the town hall are still to be determined.

Let there be light — Delray Beach has been experiencing delays in getting street lights replaced because a Florida Power & Light subcontractor has fallen behind on reported problems, Public Works Director Missie Barletto said in a Dec. 6 email to the city manager.

“The largest issue was on Ocean Boulevard across from the Municipal Beach, where an issue with a transformer had cut power to both the street lights south of Atlantic Avenue and to the meter on the east side of A1A, affecting both the pedestrian lighting and irrigation along the Beach Promenade. Issues to the north of Atlantic Avenue also were reported,” Barletto wrote.

She said all the problems have been fixed, but five turtle-friendly street lights on A1A “were inadvertently replaced with bright white LED lighting between Thomas Street and the Orange Grove parking lot.”

FPL promises to have those corrected by the start of turtle nesting season March 1, she said.

Parks project gets no takers — No one bid on the city’s Pompey Park construction project, which went out to bid in August. That’s “likely due to the scale and complexity of the project,” a city spokeswoman said, so officials have regrouped.

“Since that time, we have adjusted the methodology to a construction manager at risk approach, which will allow for much more collaboration between the owner’s representative, architect on record, and contractors,” said Gina Carter, the city’s communications director.

The city will now select an owner’s representative from among several submitted proposals with the goal of rebidding the project by mid-2024, Carter said.

The project is being paid for by the Community Redevelopment Agency, not the parks bond approved by voters in March. The CRA’s $40 million budget for the project this year is double the size of the $20 million parks bond.

— Larry Barszewski

By Steve Plunkett

Paul Lyons Jr., a seven-year veteran of the Gulf Stream Town Commission, vacated his seat on Dec. 8 with a simple “I resign, effective tomorrow” followed by a round of emotional thank-you’s to his colleagues on the dais, the town’s staff and its police officers.

“It’s been very rewarding,” Lyons said, offering no reason at the commission meeting for quitting and pausing frequently to compose himself. “Sorry for being emotional. I didn’t want to be.”

Commissioners did not say when they would fill Lyons’ seat, but historically they have quickly appointed someone from the town’s Architectural Review and Planning Board.

That’s what happened when, at the same meeting Lyons resigned, commissioners elevated ARPB member Robert Canfield of Place Au Soleil to fill ex-Commissioner Thom Smith’s seat until the 2026 election. Smith resigned a month earlier.

Lyons and his wife, Susan, bought their home on Polo Drive in April 2007. When an opening popped up on the ARPB four years later, he submitted a letter of interest and got the seat.

After not quite five years on the ARPB, he was appointed to the commission on Mayor Scott Morgan’s recommendation. Morgan at the time noted as an asset Lyons’ background in finance and business.

The mayor said the town had delegated several projects to Lyons, which included plotting a path to pay for Gulf Stream’s ambitious 10-year capital improvement plan without raising taxes or borrowing money. The town is now considering taking a loan to finish the project, another balancing act that Lyons helped devise.

“Your financial acumen has been very helpful to the town,” Morgan said. “The town owes you a debt of gratitude.”

Lyons is also the treasurer on the board of directors of the prestigious Gulf Stream Golf Club. He and his wife also have homes in Southampton, New York, and Vail, Colorado.

Their daughter, Olivia, and her husband, David Endres, are building a new home on North County Road.

The mayor said he hoped to keep Lyons involved with the community. The commission did something similar for Smith at the meeting, elevating Canfield to Smith’s former seat and returning Smith to the ARPB that he previously chaired.

In selecting Canfield, commissioners ended Place Au Soleil’s absence from the dais.

“I feel that we should have somebody from Place Au Soleil with that opening. I spoke to Malcolm, who is uncertain what his plans are going to be,” Morgan said, referring to Malcolm Murphy, the ARPB chairman.

Murphy in turn recommended Canfield.

“He’s steady, he’s young, I think he’d be a good member of our commission,” Morgan said.

“I think it’s important to have someone from Place Au Soleil. Last time we couldn’t,” Commissioner Joan Orthwein said.
Canfield, who bought a home in Place Au Soleil in 2015, joined the ARPB as an alternate in May 2021 and became a regular member in April 2022.

“I … would welcome the opportunity to work with the group (ARPB) to have a say in the exciting, yet controlled growth within the town,” Canfield wrote in his 2021 letter of interest in being appointed to the board.

By Larry Barszewski

A broken valve has blocked the flow of water to the fire suppression system at the Villas of Ocean Ridge, which is now relying on human eyes to look out for potential fires until the town is able to repair the valve.

Town commissioners approved an emergency expenditure Dec. 21, estimated between $65,000 and $75,000. It covers the cost of the replacement valves needed to restore full water flow to the fire sprinkler system at 5900 Old Ocean Blvd., with its 26 condominium units in three buildings between State Road A1A and Old Ocean Boulevard.

While the individual units don’t have sprinklers, the three common parking areas under the buildings do. The sprinkler piping was replaced in the parking areas of two of the buildings in October, Boynton Beach Deputy Fire Chief Jake Brant, whose city provides fire rescue services to Ocean Ridge, said in an email to The Coastal Star.

Ocean Ridge plans to make the repairs by installing three valves, instead of just replacing the broken one. The extra valves will prevent a water outage during the repairs that would affect a larger group of residents along a half-mile stretch of A1A between Corrine Street and Woolbright Road, Public Works Director Billy Armstrong told commissioners.

Without the extra valves, “it could be a period of eight to 10 hours that every resident — which would probably affect a couple hundred residents — are going to be without water,” Armstrong said.

Town Manager Lynne Ladner said the problem was discovered during flow testing for the villas.

“It was discovered that the valve on our main that goes to their fire line had dropped its slug,” Ladner said. “The slug [the internal parts of a valve] is dropped and therefore the valve is in a frozen closed position, not allowing ample water through for fire protection. They are not able to get it to reopen and thus we are needing to go in and make a replacement in that area.”

Officials do not know how long the valve has been broken, but Boynton officials said they had received test results as recently as October showing the pressure to be fine. At the time of the meeting, the town was in the process of seeking bids for the valve repair work, which would be approved by Ladner on an emergency basis and brought to the commission’s Jan. 8 meeting for ratification.

Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy asked if the work would be covered by a water main replacement project that the town plans to fund with American Rescue Plan Act grant monies.

Ladner said it could, but it is not in the northern area of town where those funds are expected to be used to replace aging water mains. Also, the town can’t wait on the grant, she said.

“We’re not going to be able to hold off because with this valve in the condition it is in now, that development has been put on what is called Fire Watch … because they don’t have ample water if something happens,” Ladner said.

Brant said “a Fire Watch is a temporary measure intended to ensure continuous and systematic surveillance of a building, or portion of the building, by one or more qualified individuals for the purpose of identifying and controlling fire hazards, detecting early signs of fire, activating an alarm and notifying the fire department in the event of a fire.”

A Fire Watch is common, officials said, taking place whenever a fire alarm or sprinkler system is not operational in an occupied building. The villas were under a Fire Watch for two days in October when the previous sprinkler work was done, Brant said. The expense of the Fire Watch is covered by the development.

In a related matter, the town is in the process of seeking a state grant to find, fix or replace buried water valves in town. The grant would cover half the estimated $500,000 cost of the work.

At a July meeting, Ladner told commissioners the town had neglected maintenance on the hundreds of water valves in town and has difficulty finding the buried valves when needed. The town plans to pinpoint the location of the valves, exercise the valves so they don’t lock in the open or closed position, and install concrete collars around the valves that extend to ground level so the valves can be easily found.

By Steve Plunkett

Briny Breezes has a new mayor, Ted Gross, and for the second time, some controversy — at least from Gross’ would-be challenger — about how residents qualify to run for office.

It also has a new Town Council president, Liz Loper; a new alderman, Jeffrey Duncan; and another vacancy on the dais because Sue Thaler resigned her seat Dec. 28, effective Dec. 31.

Gross took his new seat on Dec. 7 after Loper shifted into the council president’s chair. Duncan was unable to attend the meeting because of a death in his family. The council elected Loper as president.

“My family has been part of Briny Breezes since the beginning. I have been coming to Briny Breezes since I was born,” Gross said in his letter of interest in being appointed mayor. “My wife and I became full-time residents of Briny Breezes in 2014 and we love it here.”

Before Gross, the husband of Alderwoman Kathy Gross, was appointed, would-be candidate Keith Black detailed how he was disqualified from running for the position in the upcoming March election.

“I got a report from the (supervisor) of elections stating that five of my petitions were turned down,” Black said.

Briny Breezes requires a potential mayoral candidate to submit 20 petition forms signed by registered town voters. Black, who sits on the Planning & Zoning Board, submitted 23, thinking that was a sufficient cushion, but five were not accepted.

“They were telling me we had an address wrong,” Black said. “One person was not eligible to vote. One signature was not authenticated, and there was one with an invalid date.

“The individual with the signature that was not authenticated, that gentleman had an accident and his signature before and after his accident do not match,” Black said.

He tried to get the Supervisor of Elections Office to cure the problems but was told it only authenticates or rejects petitions and to seek help from the town. But Town Attorney Keith Davis told him neither he nor the town clerk could overrule the supervisor’s office.

Attorney Trey Nazzaro, standing in for Davis at the December meeting, said their office did not help Mayor Gene Adams with a petition problem in 2021.

“The town or the city attorney’s office did not get involved then so, you know, we’re going to continue with the way that we’ve done that,” Nazzaro said.

Black appealed again to the elections office, sending copies of three petitions with notarized statements from the signees that these were their signatures. Elections officials accepted one, leaving Black one short of the 20 he needed.

Gross and Duncan both were appointed to fill vacancies created by the resignations of Adams and Council President Christina Adams, the council’s previous husband-and-wife team. They announced in October their intentions to resign.

Because no one besides Gross qualified to run for mayor, he was automatically elected and will take the post for a full two-year term in March. The mayor is a non-voting position on the council.

Duncan will have to be reappointed if he is to serve beyond March. He did not file to run for the seat, which is up for election then, and neither did anyone else.

Kathy Gross was reelected automatically when no one challenged her. That means no town offices will be on the ballot during the presidential primary in March.

A notice posted in the town’s post office said the council would fill Thaler’s seat at its Jan. 25 meeting and encouraged people to send letters of interest in being appointed by Jan. 18.

“There will not be an election,” Davis said, adding that the Town Charter dictates that the council fill what he called Thaler’s “mid-term” resignation. Thaler would not have been up for election again until 2025.

Black said he planned to submit a letter of interest.

Thaler and the Adamses did not say why they resigned, but Town Manager Bill Thrasher blamed Form 6, the state’s new requirement that municipal officials detail their personal finances online.

“The effect of Form 6, with respect to all our newly appointed council members, in essence the effect of Form 6, the Town of Briny Breezes lost 23 years of experience or will lose 23 years of experience with people that sat on this board,” he said.

Thaler joined the council in 2012, Christina Adams in 2015 and Gene Adams in 2019.

Town manager’s report
Thrasher noted that he starts the fifth year in his position on Jan. 8.

“It’s my intent to continue serving as your town manager as long as I can,” he said.

But there will be changes, he said, including more face-to-face interaction with county commissioners, the League of Cities and state officials as he tries to find money for sea wall and stormwater upgrades.

“My emphasis going forward next year hopefully will be outreach,” Thrasher said. “Not concentrate so much on working within the Town Hall. I’m working outside Town Hall.”

Thrasher is contracted to work an average 25 hours a week, and he works remotely in the summer. Council members, who will evaluate his job performance at their Jan. 25 meeting, praised his output.

“I also think that when you do go to North Carolina we don’t even know you’re not here. So that’s a compliment,” Alderman Bill Birch said.

Thrasher also reported that the town has completed the rehabilitation of all seven of its sewage lift stations.

By Tao Woolfe

A developer from Greensburg, Kentucky, has been selected to design a new U.S. post office for downtown Boynton Beach.

Maple Tree Investments — one of two developers seeking to design and build a 3,490-square- foot retail post office at 401-411 E. Boynton Beach Blvd. — was approved by the Community Redevelopment Agency board on Dec. 12.

“I have experience in property acquisition, design and construction of postal properties in Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia and Oklahoma,” Todd R. Conley, owner/manager of Maple Tree Investments LLC, told the CRA board.

“These properties range in size from 3,200 square feet to 20,000 square feet. They encompass sorting, delivery and also retail.”

Maple Tree was competing with DMR Construction Services Inc., which has offices in Delray Beach and Waldwick, New Jersey, and has completed residential and commercial projects in Boynton Beach and surrounding communities.

Although the city commissioners, in their role as the CRA board, said they were familiar with DMR, they seemed impressed that Maple Tree has already built post offices in Kentucky, North Carolina and West Virginia.

“Postal construction is different from regular commercial construction and we’ve been down that road multiple times,” Conley said.

“If I had to make a choice tonight, it would be Maple Tree,” said Commissioner Aimee Kelley.

As it turned out, she did have to vote that night, and her colleagues agreed unanimously that Maple Tree should get the job.

The downtown post office was asked by the CRA to vacate its current home — at 217 N. Seacrest Blvd. — because the CRA wanted to sell the building to a mixed-use or commercial property developer. The CRA then solicited proposals for a new post office to be created for a building the agency owns on Boynton Beach Boulevard.

The agency received two proposals, but neither one fit the post office’s specifications, former CRA Executive Director Thuy Shutt told city commissioners at the time.

In May, city commissioners, acting as CRA board members, rejected all bids and asked the agency’s staff to bring back all the development options available.

The CRA re-advertised the bids and received the latest two responses in September.

The CRA had hoped that developers would come up with a mixed-use concept for vacant CRA parcels on East Boynton Beach Boulevard that would accommodate the post office’s requirements of 3,474 square feet for a retail post office, a loading dock and 22 parking spaces.

The proposal selected by the CRA board calls for a single-story, stand-alone building.

The post office, represented by U.S. Postal Service real estate specialist Richard Hancock, has said all along it wants to stay downtown and, with the right concept, would lease that space on a long-term basis.

Under the new proposal, the post office would be offered a 10-year initial lease with two five-year renewal options. The CRA board voted unanimously to extend USPS’s lease for its current home on North Seacrest to Jan. 31, 2025, but raised the annual rental rate 5% to $189,000.

CRA and city officials have said there may be few people willing to build to suit — and to serve as landlord — for a government entity.

Conley said Maple Tree’s role will be like that of a general contractor, and that the financing for the $1.3 million project has already been secured. He estimated that the total cost for the new building would be about $2.9 million, which includes construction, permitting and design. No estimate for a completion date was given.

Conley also said he personally monitors all his company’s projects. “You call, you get me,” he said.

LEFT: Jakob Thompson, a 17-year-old student at Santaluces High School, leaps into the water flowing out the Boynton Inlet to rescue a woman who was being swept out to sea in November. Video and photo provided

VIDEO: https://thecoastalstar.com/videos/boynton-beach-hero

BELOW: In recognition of his heroics, Thompson was invited by Boynton Beach’s fire rescue team to tour the station, where he was met with a surprise: Sarah Perry awarded him the Aden Perry Good Samaritan Scholarship. Perry started the foundation after her son (also 17) died while attempting to rescue someone from a lake. Thompson will receive a scholarship for him to become a firefighter EMT. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star