A car parks half on a grassy swale on Seaspray Avenue, which is too narrow to allow for street parking that the city’s proposal would require. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Larry Barszewski

Delray Beach doesn’t want you parking in swales — the grassy areas along streets in front of homes and businesses — because it could ruin the grass and hamper storm drainage.

The city might even make it illegal.

But not just yet.

At their July 18 meeting, city commissioners balked at approving a one-sentence change to the city’s ordinances that would have outlawed parking in swales, but they told staff to do more work on the subject and bring back a plan before the end of the year.

The proposed ban was designed to satisfy homeowners tired of seeing the lawns in front of their homes torn up by cars parking there, or having the grass killed by cars continually parking over the same spots.

Staff said there was also an environmental benefit: The weight of the cars compacts the ground in swales and makes them less effective at their primary mission of draining storm water that collects on the streets.

“A lot of phone calls have come in from people who’ve had the area in front of their property damaged by people parking on their swales,” City Engineer Patrick Figurella said. “This ordinance is an attempt to deal with a lot of requests for ‘No Parking’ signs.”

But commissioners feared the ordinance would rile many residents and businesses who use swales to park their own vehicles, or for cars of people visiting them.

“There are so many businesses and residents that they have no other place to park; that’s where they’re parking. There is not going to be enough room on the street to park these cars,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said. “The ripple effect is going to be severe. … The public is going to be outraged.”

The change would require vehicles to park on the street and leave at least 12 feet of roadway for other cars to pass. Some commissioners said many people don’t want to park on the street because it increases the chances their cars will be sideswiped.

But Vice Mayor Ryan Boylston said he still thinks the benefit of getting cars out of the swales is worth pursuing.

“There’s a lot to be thought out here. I think it’s a great initiative. I think our city would be better for it,” Boylston said. “I just think it would take a long time. We would really have to say it would have to be a campaign. It would have to be education. It would have to be communication, really getting the community behind it and setting a date in the future — the far distant future — where we would actually be coming by with any type of enforcement.”

Commissioners asked staff to see how other cities deal with the issue, to find out if there’s a better approach the city could take.

“This really comes from the beachgoers who park on people’s swales,” City Attorney Lynn Gelin said. “We can put signs up. We’ve done that in certain areas, especially close to the beach. Then you have sign pollution all over the city and that’s another issue.”

Commissioner Adam Frankel said he thought approval was a “no-brainer” until the discussion started.

“I’m thinking of the years of complaints from the beach property owners who were always upset by the people going to the beach and parking in their swales,” Frankel said.

Deputy Vice Mayor Rob Long went along with the deferral, but said he still supports the idea.

“I just wonder how many people this actually is going to affect versus how many now are actually getting damaged swales and having dead grass,” Long said.

He agreed to a delay “because I would hate to sort of spring this on people and they don’t know about this and there’s a barrage of folks getting tickets doing something that they’ve done for decades.”

Commissioner Angela Burns agreed to the deferral as well, though she was not supportive of the proposal because she said some streets don’t have enough room to accommodate parked cars.

“All streets in Delray are not created equal,” she said.

The city had considered a similar ban in 1993 and 2002, but each time decided not to pursue a change.

Students attending Waves Surf Academy’s camp at Delray Breakers on the Ocean keep cool while combing sargassum for sea critters. From left are Jenna Miranda, Delray Beach, Hazel Aurelien, Boynton Beach, Mason Miranda, Delray Beach, Mary Junghans, Montana, and Lena Winikoff, Boca Raton. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Unexpected departure of mass is (mostly) good news for coast

By Jane Musgrave

When a giant blob of seagrass that fouled area beaches in May and June suddenly dissipated, coastal municipal leaders breathed deep sighs of relief.

To the admitted surprise of researchers, who predicted Florida beaches would be inundated with the smelly stuff all summer, the giant mass of sargassum all but disappeared from the Gulf of Mexico and moved significantly away from the east coast of Florida.

Calling the retreat “beyond expectation,” oceanographers at the University of South Florida acknowledged that no people would be disappointed that they would not have to share the beach with the large brown clumps that smell like rotten eggs and make swimming unpleasant.

“This trend may continue in the next two to three months, which should be good news to the residents living in the Florida Keys and east coast of Florida,” the researchers wrote in a June 30 report.

By the end of July, what had been a nearly 10-ton mass shrank again, to roughly 61/2 tons, researchers said. “Some of this may have already reached and will continue to reach the Florida Keys and possibly the southeast coast of Florida, but the amount should be small,” they said in a July 31 report.

Officials in most coastal municipalities in southern Palm Beach County cheered the news. Had the once 13-million-ton mass set its course for the east coast, cleanup could have been costly. 

Delray Beach already spends $78,000 a year to hire a firm to rake its beaches. Although Boca Raton uses city crews, it was lining up an outside company to step in if mounds of seaweed began to pile up.

For Ocean Ridge, however, the news was a mixed blessing.

Hoping to turn seaborne lemons into potentially lifesaving lemonade, town officials had hoped to use the seaweed to shore up rapidly eroding dunes and protect oceanfront homes and property during hurricane season.

But, while the Florida Department of Environmental Protection tentatively signed off on the proposal, it said no work could begin until the sea turtle nesting season ends Oct. 31.

Vice Mayor Steve Coz, who had championed the plan, said the delay could be potentially devastating. August and September are considered the height of the hurricane season.

Even the small amount of sargassum that is still reaching the shore could be used to fortify crumbling dunes along a 200-foot stretch north of Woolbright Road, he said.

“It’s ridiculous,” he said of the delay. “At least we could attempt to protect that neighborhood. Now, we can’t even do that.”

He said his concern is exacerbated because of reports that ocean water temperatures have hit record highs. Warm water fuels hurricanes as they spin across the Atlantic Ocean.

“With warm water, we’re more prone to having a storm,” Coz said. But, he fumed, the state agency is prohibiting the town from doing anything to protect oceanfront property.

Sargassum, like sea turtles, arrives mainly during the summer months. State and national environmental rules have long protected the endangered and threatened sea creatures from man-made interference.

While sargassum might be annoying to beachgoers, it is critical for sea turtles’ survival. Hatchlings that make it to the ocean use the macroalgae as lifeboats. Sargassum protects them from predators and provides them a food source.

With more than 40,000 nests laid each year, Palm Beach County is one of the state’s top destinations for sea turtles. It is important that they are protected, said Andy Studt, supervisor of coastal resources management for the county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management.

Recognizing its importance to sea turtles, the county has long had a hands-off approach to dealing with sargassum, he said.

Like municipal officials, Studt said he was relieved the 5,000-mile-long blob has shifted away from Florida and is instead expected to impact Caribbean islands, including Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Lesser Antilles.

But Studt didn’t voice surprise at the drastic shift in the sargassum forecast. Predicting Mother Nature is always difficult, he said, and figuring where the massive belt of sargassum is headed is particularly problematic.

It is pushed by the winds, currents and other factors that can change dramatically, Studt said.

Unexpectedly strong winds in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico may have pushed it away from Florida and caused some of it to sink, researchers said.

Coz acknowledged that escaping the sargassum storm is good news.

“The big blob isn’t going to happen. I’m so happy about that,” he said. “But we’re still going to have seaweed on the beach. We just want to bring it to the edge of the dune and sprinkle it with sand to protect it in case we do get inundated by a large storm.”

I went on a cruise. One of those giant party cruise ships out of Miami. Those who know me will be shocked by this news — huge buffets, crowded swimming pools and thousands of people on a floating island have never been my thing.

But this was a reunion cruise with my husband’s family. They are all wonderful people and it was great to be together for a few days far from work and other obligations. My husband’s siblings are getting older, but they are fearless about already planning for the next gathering in 2025. I’m caught up in their enthusiasm and looking forward to this next reunion — but, maybe someplace cooler and on a boat with fewer people?

My husband and I have been conscientious about avoiding crowds since the coronavirus pandemic began, carefully determining the risk ratio of various venues and events. We’d avoided colds, the flu and the dreaded COVID-19 infection.

Until the July cruise. In retrospect, I guess we should have worn our masks.

We’re going to be fine, but had a few rough days, delaying our return to the office. I’m hopeful our stuffy heads aren’t apparent in the pages of this newspaper. Please forgive us if we’ve forgotten to dot an “i” or cross a “t.”

Only three of us from the family group of 14 tested positive on our return. We’ve struggled to ID the place or point of infection. It seems it wasn’t the main dining room, our trips ashore, or any of the shows. No one who visited the casino was infected. And we all took elevators and walked the decks. So where did we pick up the virus?

I have my suspicion and this too may shock those who know me — I blame it on the silent disco.

So there you go. Your neighborhood newspaper’s aging editor picked up a potentially deadly infectious disease on a crowded ship while wearing headphones and dancing to popular Latin music underneath a mirror ball.

Hey, I never said it wasn’t fun.

— Mary Kate Leming,
Editor

Teresa Wilhelm, a Lantana resident for 67 years, is a longtime library patron and has spent more than 20 years as president of Friends of the Library. She visits the remodeled building with daughter Rebecca Wilhelm and granddaughter Reyna Acosta, 6. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Brian Biggane

Teresa Wilhelm has a favorite quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin that’s worth remembering: “If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.”

Franklin himself would have a hard time keeping up with Wilhelm’s schedule. In addition to working four jobs, she’s president of Lantana’s Friends of the Library, a small group that’s trying to rebuild its membership post-pandemic.

Wilhelm said there’s a distinction between the two groups raising money for the library, the Lantana Library Foundation and her Friends group.

“The foundation is the one that raises tens of thousands, and the Friends raises nickels, dimes and quarters. We charge $5 a year to be members of the Friends, and all that does is show your support for the library,” Wilhelm said.

After an extensive remodeling, the library celebrated its reopening in March, and Wilhelm said the results were “up to my expectations and beyond. We didn’t have the technology before, and it took gutting the building and basically redesigning everything. Now we have an actual meeting room. We used to have to meet in front of the circulation desk.”

In December, the Friends will have a brass ensemble play Christmas music, which has been the case since Wilhelm took it over as president. “It was hard for people to study or check out a book with a brass ensemble playing. Now there’s an actual meeting room, which is beautiful, there’s sections divided off: teens, children, adults, a couple of small meeting rooms for tutoring or for a four-, five-person meeting.”

Wilhelm’s family moved to Lantana from Indiana when she was 3 years old, and she’s been a library regular ever since.

“It once existed in the bridge tender’s house, then they moved it to the land, and the women’s club started a library there. I went there as a kid, so I’ve grown up at the library.

When we’ve got a really nice library it’s really nice to get involved.”

Over the years, Wilhelm has always been at the council chambers to lobby the Town Council for money for books as it goes through its annual budget process.

Wilhelm, 70, took over as president of the Friends more than 20 years ago. She had some ambitious goals, including raising membership to 200 and bringing in guest speakers from a wide spectrum of cultural avenues.

“We’ve had authors, artists, musicians, painters. We had Mary Linehan address the group before she passed away,” Wilhelm said.

Linehan, a Lantana historian, left much of her life’s work to the library.

Friends membership, meanwhile, topped out around 250 before the interruptions caused by the coronavirus and construction. It has only about a dozen members now, with a membership drive set to begin this fall.

The library has served as a refuge from this summer’s brutal heat for parents and their children.

“They have story time for kids Mondays and Thursdays and they are swamped,” Wilhelm said. “We had summer programs in the past, but we didn’t have the manpower and the technology they have now. More parents were going to work then. Now parents are working from home and they can bring their little ones and sit at a computer and do their work while the kids are having story time. And the computers are very nice.”

As for what else occupies her time, Wilhelm teaches swimming at Superhero Swim Academy, teaches mobility to senior citizens at the YMCA, and tutors kids who need extra help in the PAL program, all in Lake Worth Beach. She also has an online wellness business.

A retired schoolteacher who spent 37 years at various schools around Lake Worth and Boynton Beach, Wilhelm volunteers at Lakeside United Methodist Church in Lake Worth Beach, serving as president of the teenagers group and the card ministry as well as leading the women’s doll group.

Former Lantana Vice Mayor Malcolm Balfour said Wilhelm “really is the Friends of Lantana Library. With the accent on the ‘is.’

“As long as I’ve known her, she’s always been involved in programs for kids, even going back to when she was young. Now that she’s a grandmother she’s still volunteering.”
These days, she and her daughter, Rebecca, and granddaughter, Reyna, can all visit the library together.

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Send a note to news@thecoastalstar.com or call 561-337-1553.

By Mary Thurwachter

Beachgoers will pay a little more at parking meters in Lantana, as the Town Council voted July 10 to raise the hourly fee from $1.50 to $2.

The new rate, which goes into effect Oct. 1, also applies to other paid parking spaces in town, including those at Bicentennial Park, Sportsman’s Park and Kayak Park.

Finance Director Stephen Kaplan says that “even with the rate hike, the town is still below market for the same or similar service in comparison to many of our surrounding municipalities.”

For example, hourly parking costs are $3 at Lake Worth Beach, $5 in Palm Beach, $3 on State Road A1A in Delray Beach and $1.50 at Boynton Beach’s public beach.

The parking fee has been $1.50 in Lantana since June 2009. Three parking kiosks were added in 2017 and they still take quarters as well as credit card payments.

This year, parking fees are expected to bring in $435,000, according to Kaplan. With the higher rate, the town anticipates raising an additional $145,000 next year.

Tax rate, budget hearings

The Town Council set the town’s proposed tax rate at $3.75 per $1,000 of assessed taxable value — the same rate as last year. The first budget hearing is set for 5:30 p.m. Sept. 11, with a second and final hearing scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Sept. 20. The rate cannot go higher, but the Town Council could decrease it, although that is unlikely.

While the $3.75 rate is not changing, it will amount to a property tax increase because of rising property values, which have gone up about 12% this year for properties in town (not including new construction). The owners of an average homesteaded house valued last year at $360,000 would see their taxable value increase to $370,800 (the maximum 3% increase allowed), which Kaplan says means they would pay about $40 more in town taxes.

For an average non-homesteaded property with the same $360,000 value last year, the taxable value would rise to $396,000 (the maximum 10% increase allowed), which means the property owner would pay $135 more in town taxes under the current proposal.

Anticipated property tax revenues in the new budget are $6,414,754, an increase of $939,313 compared to this year’s budgeted revenue of $5,475,441. Property taxes are projected to account for 39.1% of the town’s anticipated revenues in the 2024 fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, compared to their being 36.6% of revenues in the current fiscal year.

Fencing at cemetery

On another matter, the council approved paying $59,052 for Tropic Fence, Inc. to install a decorative fence around the historic Evergreen Cemetery at the intersection of North Arnold Avenue and West Lantana Road.

Money to pay for the fence comes from the estate of Dwight Bradshaw, who left funds for the project to the Lantana Historical Society. Bradshaw, who died in February 2021, was one of the original members of the Historical Society.

Established in 1892 as a final resting spot for local families, the land was purchased by Lantana founder M.B. Lyman, the town’s first postmaster.

The fence isn’t the only improvement being made at the cemetery. Mike Marin, an 18-year-old Lantana resident, earned his Eagle Scout rank after making improvements at the cemetery — including adding a plaque showing the locations of all the people buried there. In June, Marin received a proclamation from the Town Council in recognition of his work.

By Mary Thurwachter

Several Hypoluxo Island residents appeared at the July 24 Lantana Town Council meeting to protest a neighbor’s requests for a variance to add a third boat lift to his dock. The applicant did not attend, but sent his lawyer to argue his case. The request was denied.

The protesting residents and the council weren’t alone in contending the boat lift variance shouldn’t be approved. Town staff came to the same conclusion, as had the planning commission at an earlier meeting.

The dock is located at the home of Christopher Durnan at 1177 Lands End Road on the west side of the island. Durnan was out of town the day of the meeting, according to his attorney, Dylan Brandenburg.

Brandenburg said he didn’t feel a variance was needed, but since it was, he thought it should be granted because a permit — now expired — had previously been given two years ago when the applicant wanted to add three boat lifts to the dock, but ended up adding only two.

But it wasn’t about the number of lifts in question, said Nicole Dritz, the town’s development services director. Rather, the problem is the dock itself, which is nonconforming due to its length of 122 feet. The town’s code restricts the length of docks to 100 feet. Dritz said adding the lift would change the structure and the law says “it cannot be enlarged or altered in any way.”

The previous permit to allow for the addition of lifts was done in error, she said, adding that at the time it doesn’t appear it was caught by zoning.

Brandenburg thought otherwise.

“I don’t agree that this is an enlargement of the nonconforming use,” he said. “We’re not modifying this nonconforming dock in any way. We’re simply adding a lift.”

In order to get a variance, an applicant is required to show a hardship.

“The hardship is the dock, which was previously approved and built, and when it was built it was approved by the town of Lantana,” Brandenburg said.

“I don’t see that as a hardship,” said council member Kem Mason. Other members agreed before denying the request. Islanders who spoke against granting the variance included Dan Hiatt, a neighbor; Media Beverly, who also lives nearby; and Michelle Donahue, president of the Hypoluxo Island Property Owners Association and a member of the planning commission.

Hiatt, who studied surveys of the property, said the variance application “had numerous errors of omission” and that the dock that was built is still 130 feet from the original property line, but a sea wall had been added, shortening the length to 122 feet.

“The bottom line is the permits for the other two lifts should have never been granted in the first place if you look at the old surveys,” he said.

Donahue, concerned about the increase of boat lifts on the west side of the island, said: “We don’t want to see this neighborhood become Hypoluxo Island marina.”

And Beverly said “to suggest that the addition of a third boat lift, which supports a 70,000-pound yacht, will not infringe upon the waterfront rights of the applicant’s neighbors, is simply wrong.”

Master plan highlights

After a year of research, the town formally approved a master plan produced by the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.

Some highlights include:

• Adding more housing to Water Tower Commons, where developers have struggled to attract retail tenants.

• Adding a wedding pavilion or a building with a combination of ground floor sundries and upstairs meeting space for expanded dining at the beach. Adding a cabana area, spaces for kayak and paddleboard rentals, and a perhaps a pier.

• Keeping one or two historical buildings on Ocean Avenue and redeveloping the other parcels with three-story buildings and significant parking in the rear. 

• Redoing on-street parking with shade trees and less asphalt on and around Ocean Avenue — and better managing available parking to avoid need for a garage. 

• Reconfiguring the municipal campus on Greynolds Circle with plans for a new Town Hall and more green space.

• Addressing the redevelopment of the Kmart shopping area in phases and lining the streets with buildings that eventually could be mixed-use.

Dana Little, urban design director for the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, said by adopting a plan the town would “send a message to the development community, the investors that you don’t even know about, and your residents as well, that we have a game plan and we’re going to start moving forward with this and we’re going to start chipping away piece by piece.”

Residents have shown much enthusiasm for the plan.

“I am really impressed,” Beverly said. “I really believe they listened to all the residents and all those meetings we had. I think they came up with fabulous ideas.”
The plan cost the town $169,800.

By Steve Plunkett

For the first time in 16 years Briny Breezes will not levy the maximum property tax rate allowed by state law.

On July 27 the Town Council tentatively approved a rate of $3.75 per $1,000 of taxable value, down 62.5% from the $10 per $1,000 the town has collected every year since 2009.

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

The total tax base is $85.6 million, up 14.5% from the previous year’s $74.7 million.

The tentative rate, which can be cut further in September but not raised, will finance a $949,000 operating budget that includes what Town Manager Bill Thrasher called a “minimal” $12,000 for capital expense items.

“I think they are pretty much what they have been in previous years,” Thrasher said.

His proposed budget includes no pay raise for himself and a 6.4% boost for Town Clerk Sandi DuBose.

If the proposed rate is approved, the owner of a mobile home valued at $150,000 would pay $562.50 in property taxes instead of $1,500 at the customary millage.

The number juggling will allow Briny to raise taxes in the future to pay for loans to restore the town’s sea walls and improve the drainage system. Thrasher has said he hopes to have dollar amounts and apply for grants next month.

Early this year he said that the town could leverage a $2.5 million loan into $22.3 million worth of improvements.

In other action, Alderwoman Liz Loper asked her council colleagues to authorize Thrasher to investigate adding seating space to the dais and updating Town Hall’s sound system.

“I have researched the other cities around, and all of the town managers that they have, they do sit on the dais with their aldermen,” Loper said.

The council also canceled its Aug. 24 meeting and combined its November and December meetings, normally on the fourth Thursday of the month, into one meeting on Dec. 7 to avoid conflicts with holidays.

Aldermen will next meet for their first budget hearing at 5:01 p.m. Sept. 14, with a regular meeting at 4 p.m. Sept. 28 followed by the final budget hearing at 5:01.

Cutting the tax rate undid action the council took in 2009 — almost tripling the millage to hit the $10 limit — to give residents a break on their federal income taxes. At the time, the corporation was transferring 70% to 80% of fire-rescue and police costs to the town’s budget. With the higher tax rate, the transfer dropped to 29% of those costs.

Residents, meanwhile, got an income tax advantage by being able to deduct the higher property taxes, something they did not get when paying for the services through the corporation. But changes in tax law over the past decade have erased that tax advantage for many residents, Thrasher has said.

RELATED: Boynton Beach: Sewer pipe break contaminates ICW, costs city at least $1 million

Our summers at the beach are sacred. In Palm Beach County, it’s our time to get out on the water with family and friends and enjoy everything that our beaches, reefs and waterways have to offer. Whether swimming, surfing, fishing, diving, paddleboarding, water skiing or boating, the summer is ripe for water-based recreational activities.

Many of us headed to the beach to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday. We swam and surfed — unaware and ill-informed of an ongoing sewage spill in Boynton Beach.

Starting on July 3, more than 12 million gallons of sewage poured into the Intracoastal Waterway until July 6.

The Department of Health issued its no-contact advisory on July 7. For nearly five days, recreators nearby were potentially exposed to bacteria that could make them sick, or worse, with no clearly communicated warning or advisory from local authorities.

This is an unacceptable risk. Residents and visitors deserve to have the most timely, accessible and accurate information at their fingertips to understand any potential risks of getting in the water. They should not be subjected to swimming in polluted water.

Sadly, this is not the first time the public has been left in the dark regarding polluted waters and potential health risks. That’s why Surfrider’s statewide network, including the Palm Beach County chapter, has vocally advocated for changes to the state’s water quality monitoring program over the past few legislative sessions.

The most recent bill, the Safe Waterways Act, would ensure prompt, consistent public notification when it is unsafe to swim in Florida waters. This measure did not pass, and now Palm Beach area residents and visitors are vulnerable to illness because of it.

To protect the public health, safety and welfare of Floridians and the millions of people who visit our state every year, the state Legislature must enact robust laws regarding water quality monitoring and rigorous public notification. Until then, we will not truly know if it’s safe to swim in our local waterways.

Aaron Barnes
Surfrider Foundation,
Palm Beach County chair

By Steve Plunkett

Resurfacing roads and improving drainage in Gulf Stream’s Core District will begin in November as consultants wait for the Army Corps of Engineers to sign off on plans to divert storm water runoff into the Intracoastal Waterway.

The $10.8 million project will end in May 2025, with $8.4 million budgeted in fiscal year 2024, which starts in October, and $2.4 million coming in the second year.

Town Manager Greg Dunham gave broad brushstrokes of his 2023-24 budget at the Town Commission’s July 14 meeting, with the capital improvement plan for roads and drainage being the largest component. Also included was a 60% increase in insurance to $432,000, which he hoped to negotiate down, and a proposed 5% cost-of-living increase for town employees.

Bottom line: Dunham recommended setting the property tax rate at $3.67 per $1,000 of taxable value, the same as this year, which would generate $1.45 million more for the town, for a $6.75 million total. The rollback rate, which would bring in the same amount of taxes as this year ($5.3 million), not including additional taxes from new construction, is $3.20 per $1,000.

Commissioners tentatively approved the $3.67 rate, which they can lower but not exceed at public hearings they scheduled for 5:01 p.m. on Sept. 8, after their regular monthly meeting, and on Sept. 27. The owner of a $1 million house would pay $3,672 in town property taxes (about a $107 increase) in addition to county, school and other levies.

Dunham was still working on how much to change police salaries, a month after commissioners boosted police starting pay to $61,250 from $52,250. The new number still left Gulf Stream in the bottom third of other municipal departments in Palm Beach County “with no chance to make the playoffs,” he said.

Commissioner Joan Orthwein repeated her discomfort about the low ranking.

“Maybe we can go up a notch instead of being in the middle,” she said.

Dunham and Police Chief Richard Jones credited the higher starting salary for bringing about two police hires and a third who is undergoing background checks.

The latest hire is Vincentina Nowicki, who has military and U.S. marshal experience as well as having spent 20 years as a Delta Air Lines flight attendant. She is Gulf Stream’s first female police officer, Jones said.

Jones also reported that in its first 30 days, the town’s new license plate recognition cameras counted 17,000 vehicles going into and out of Gulf Stream and issued 350 alerts, or about 12 per day, mostly from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Officer Alex Gonzalez, who gained experience with LPRs during his 20 previous years with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, has been “very, very diligent in being proactive” with the data from the license plate cameras, “and also initiating individual contacts with vehicles that are suspicious,” resulting in three nighttime pursuits, Jones said.

No arrests were made, but “it avoided us being hit by any kind of criminal activity,” Jones said.

A final camera was to be installed in Place Au Soleil by the end of July, he said.

Resident Bob Ganger praised the department’s quick handling of a robbery — he called police in mid-afternoon and the suspect was in jail that evening — but asked that a camera also be installed on State Road A1A since the existing ones in the Core District did not record the getaway.

In other business:          

• Orthwein asked whether the Gulf Stream School will be opening a campus in the west part of Delray Beach.

“I would prefer to sidebar that if we could and not make it a matter of public record at this time,” Dr. Gray Smith, head of the school, responded.

Mayor Scott Morgan had also heard the news and said he spoke with Smith about it.

  “He and I have agreed to meet should anything become more concrete in connection with that plan,” Morgan said.
Orthwein said more students at the school, even at a remote campus, would mean more traffic in Gulf Stream. The town recently allowed the school to boost its enrollment to 300 children.

Smith was at the commission meeting for approval of his plan to construct a 25-by-25-foot building in the school’s parking lot to store food so he can offer families onsite lunches.

• Commissioners approved on first reading a change to the town’s code to allow artificial turf in side and back yards provided it cannot be seen from a street or waterway.

Hidden Harbour resident Martin O’Boyle, his lawyer son and his business lawyer have elevated their grudge against Gulf Stream to the highest court in the land.

In a July 21 filing, the three — O’Boyle, son Jonathan, and lawyer William Ring — asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review opinions by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that said the town’s legal efforts targeting them were not retaliation for O’Boyle’s numerous public records requests, which were protected by the First Amendment.

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit ruled on Feb. 8 that the O’Boyles and Ring had to show that the town did not have probable cause to arrest Martin O’Boyle for disorderly conduct, nor to ask that Jonathan O’Boyle and Ring receive court sanctions and ethics penalties, nor to sue them under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

However, it turns out the three men had agreed in a joint stipulation in an underlying case that the town did have probable cause to file Florida Bar complaints and to charge Martin

O’Boyle with disorderly conduct, the panel of judges said.

That stipulation “was fatal to his retaliatory prosecution claim,” they ruled on Feb. 8 and again on March 21 in denying a request by the O’Boyles and Ring to rehear the case.

— Steve Plunkett

By Larry Barszewski

Ocean Ridge has been neglecting hundreds of water valves that are part of its drinking water distribution system, to the point where town crews don’t even know where the valves are anymore.

That means when a water line ruptures, crews are forced to dig along the water line until they can uncover a buried valve — and then hope that the valve works so the water can be shut off and the line repaired.

On Inlet Cay, one of two islands in town, the only way to repair a break to the main line west of Spanish River Drive is to shut off water to the entire island, Town Manager Lynne Ladner said.

Ladner brought up the water valve issue at the Town Commission’s July 10 budget workshop. She included $50,000 in her proposed budget to begin addressing the valves.

“The $50,000 item was to get everyone’s attention that this was a problem,” Ladner said. “We have valves throughout the community. Over time they have gotten buried and we need to locate them.”

Commissioners requested Ladner come back in August with a better idea of the total cost for all the needed work.

“They’re going to go out and find every valve, and then they’re going to make a cut in the line, and they’re going to raise the valve, elevate it to current ground level, and put a concrete collar around it, so that in the future, we know where the valve is,” Ladner said.

“We’re also going to exercise the valve so that we know it turns on and we can shut it off and bring it back on without blowing the main on either side — because most of our valves have not been tested and exercised in 20 or more years.”

There are about 550 valves in town, including those connected to fire hydrants. It will cost between $950 and $1,250 to raise, exercise and pour a concrete collar for a valve “if valve is in working order,” Public Works Director Billy Armstrong said in an email to The Coastal Star.

That means the minimum repair cost could exceed $500,000.

The town has a general idea where the valves are, but not specific locations, Ladner said.

Commissioners aren’t sure whom to blame and Ladner, who officially became town manager in March, said she doesn’t know what the previous manager was told.

Commissioner Ken Kaleel was dumbfounded when Ladner told commissioners that Armstrong, in his current position for only a few years, “has wanted to bring this issue forward for a couple of years and has been unsure of whether he should or not because of the potential cost of this project, so he’s opted not to.”

“Lynne, you need to get control of this,” Kaleel said. “That should have never been an issue, ever, that he makes that determination as to whether something should come forward when it’s something that we needed.”

Kaleel said he knows that in the 1990s, crews did the needed maintenance on the valves.

“They were like on clockwork. They would exercise [the valves],” Kaleel said. “Somehow, we knew to do this stuff and all of a sudden, we don’t know to do this stuff.”
In the email, Armstrong said he did alert others.

“I have brought this problem to previous administration many times in the past,” he said, “as per valves not shutting off, or not working at all.”

The situation is reminiscent of the 2019 discovery that the town had not been taking care of its fire hydrants. Officials found four of the town’s listed 141 fire hydrants were missing or not working at all, and another 32 were functioning below acceptable standards.

“During the time of hydrant situation 2019, many other issues such as valves were brought to my boss at the time,” Armstrong said in the email.

Mayor Geoff Pugh said maybe Town Engineer Lisa Tropepe should have done more, though Ladner said Tropepe doesn’t deal with maintenance issues. Pugh said it seems the subject would have come up when pipes were being installed.

“She is the infrastructure queen in this town. So, if you know there are valves that should be checked on, then she should have brought it up. In fact, she should have brought up the fire hydrants as well,” Pugh said. “Show me, if you can, any of the town engineer’s reports that she’s been writing up that says anything about the valves.”

Contacted by The Coastal Star by email after the meeting, Tropepe replied she was not familiar with the valve situation.

“Annually the Town Commission painstakingly reviews/balances their budgets which include infrastructure enhancements and maintenance responsibilities,” she said.

“Regarding buried water valves in general, that situation occurs from time to time. If water valves are located in a grassed area, it is pretty common that dirt and grass grow over it,” said Tropepe, who is under contract with the town. “If a resident finds that a valve on their property is buried, they should notify their landscapers and/or the Town.”

Ladner said part of the problem is due to the town’s drinking water setup, where Boynton Beach provides the water but the town owns the pipes and is responsible for any repairs and maintenance.

“We own our own distribution system, but we do not manage our distribution system,” she said. “Boynton does our billing. Boynton is responsible for putting all of the meters in at every location, but we are responsible for the capital plan.”

The town does not have a certified water operator that typically makes sure water valves and hydrants are checked, Ladner said.

The fire hydrant situation was uncovered when a car slammed into a town hydrant. The town’s newly named public works supervisor at the time — who left the town about a year later — arrived on scene to inspect the damage and discovered extensive corrosion to the hydrant’s hose connector valves.

The hydrants should have been on a regular maintenance schedule, but hadn’t been worked on for 10 years. At the time, the town estimated it cost $100,000 to make the needed repairs and that another $30,000 a year was needed for annual hydrant maintenance.

House construction gets another extension

At its July 10 meeting, the Town Commission extended the construction deadline for the home at 6273 N. Ocean Blvd. until its Aug. 8 meeting, when it’s likely to give a requested extension until Feb. 15, 2024.

The home also must have windows on its street-facing front by Nov. 1.

The home has been under construction for eight years and neighbors are fed up with the delays and the inconvenience of living next door to a construction zone for so long.

Commissioners want the town attorney to include in the agreement that since the home won’t be on next year’s property tax rolls because it won’t be finished by Jan. 1, that the owner make a payment to the town equal to the taxes that would have been owed had it been completed this year. The agreement will also include liquidated damages if the project runs into any more delays.

Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy said her calculations show the town has lost out on almost $1 million in property tax revenues since 2017 because the house was not finished during that time.

Representatives for owner Andrew Rivkin said the work cannot be completed until water and electricity are connected. Those have been delayed because they must come from the west side of State Road A1A and the lines be placed under the roadway, requiring Florida Department of Transportation approvals.

In other town news:

• The commission gave initial approval to a new beach sign ordinance, which seeks to keep property owners from discouraging people — through the placement of “No Trespassing” or “Private Property” signs in the middle of the beach — from legally accessing public beach areas.

The new ordinance would require that any signs be placed at the dune toe line, be facing east or west, and be no bigger than 18 inches square. Property owners will have 30 days to move any existing signs once the ordinance takes effect.

• Commissioners are considering changes to make it easier for property owners to get coastal construction projects approved and change the way the town calculates how big a project can be. They asked the town attorney to bring back a new proposal for commissioners to consider in August.

• The Traffic Safety Committee of the Palm Beaches awarded Police Officer Aleksey Sasov its Distinguished Service Award for Enforcement at a June reception. Ladner said Sasov made more than 500 traffic stops in a one-year period.

“One of the reasons why that is significant is he works night shifts, so he’s not seeing all the heavy, busy day traffic,” Ladner said. “That’s a lot of speeders that come over bridges and race through town thinking it’s a small, sleepy town. It’s people with outstanding issues on their driver’s license that he’s alerted to via the LPR (license plate reading cameras), things like that.”

Repairs and cleanup are ongoing at the site of a sewer pipe that leaked into the Intracoastal Waterway near Marina Village. The breach in early July came in a section of pipe the city was seeking bids to replace. Tao Woolfe/The Coastal Star

By Tao Woolfe

A broken sewer pipe that had been oozing millions of gallons of wastewater into the Intracoastal Waterway has been repaired, but not before costing the city of Boynton Beach at least $1 million.

The Florida Department of Health and the city both announced in late July that the bacteria count at the spill site — at the far east end of Boynton Beach Boulevard, east of Federal Highway — has once again reached safe levels.

“Recent coordinated laboratory testing with the city of Boynton Beach and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has concluded that water again meets surface water quality standards for fecal-indicator bacteria, confirming the public may resume water-related activities,” the state Department of Health announced on July 20.

The announcement came 13 days after the department issued a health alert about the spill. The break occurred on July 3.

Although the city said drinking water was not affected, local businesses were affected by the spill, especially those near the marina.

“We closed for three days,” said Fernando Melo, who works for Boynton Beach Boat Rentals, which also rents jet skis at the marina. “The water was not clean and it didn’t smell good, so we didn’t want to expose our customers.”

In subsequent City Commission budget hearings, Utilities Director Poonam Kalkat said the department had known that saltwater intrusion at the site had been weakening the 20-inch clay wastewater main pipe for many years.

To pay for the sewer pipe repairs, containment and clean-up efforts, as well as other necessary repairs to the aging system of pipes, the utilities department is asking the city to increase the department’s anticipated annual repair expenditures from $500,000 to $2 million.

Kalkat said the repairs will “restore the full pumping capacity of the lift station and eliminate wastewater piping within the storm-water conflict structures. This will provide a high level of service to the residents and businesses in the area and eliminate the risk of additional issues with the existing piping or impacts to the Intracoastal Waterway.”

The city had solicited bids to replace the pipe, but the sole bid was too high, Kalkat told commissioners. The city had been about to re-advertise for bids when the pipe broke.

City officials estimated that 12 million gallons of wastewater emptied into the Intracoastal in the three days following the July 3 break. The cleanup by Boynton Beach is ongoing.

Deputy City Manager Andrew Mack said city crews worked 24-hour shifts alongside crews from Johnson-Davis, an emergency utility company hired by the city.

The workers cut out the broken section of 50-year-old pipe, patched it and created a bypass system.

“It was an all-hands-on-deck situation,” Mack said. “It was contained quickly and well.”

Kalkat said the emergency contractor would like to replace the clay pipe with PVC pipe and would like to do the work now, while the street is closed and the ground is open.

The city manager’s office said the costs of the cleanup were still being calculated in late July, but Johnson-Davis’ bill so far was $800,000.

“The city will continue to clean up the waterway, work on necessary repairs and replacing the pipe. The water in the Intracoastal will continue to be tested,” the city said.

“It is important to note that this spill is contained to a limited section of the Intracoastal Waterway,” city officials announced after the leak was repaired. “Residents are safe and drinking water was unaffected and continues to remain safe.”

Boynton Beach may be ordered to pay fines as part of several enforcement tools the DEP has to address any identified violations, a spokeswoman said.

Depending on the nature of the violation and circumstances surrounding the event, the DEP will determine which measure is best-suited. Enforcement can also necessitate restoration and/or remediation actions through a consent order or other enforcement mechanism, the spokeswoman added.

More than 60 lifeguards from around the state took part in the 2023 James P. ‘Mac’ McCarthy Regional Surf Lifesaving Championships on July 19 and 20 on the public beach in Delray Beach. ABOVE: Dozens of lifeguards rush into the ocean during one of the women’s com-petitions. J. Christopher Reich/The Coastal Star

By Larry Barszewski

Delray Beach officials have decided they won’t be writing new rules for people wanting to have beach yoga classes or other activities on the beach. They say everything needed is already on the books.

In April, the city halted early morning “sunrise” yoga classes and evening “full moon” classes that were being offered by Pedro Luna on the beach near Atlantic Avenue, saying they weren’t permitted. Since then, while city officials have reviewed beach event policies, beach yoga class participants have come to City Commission meetings and requested the classes be allowed to return.

At the commission’s July 11 workshop, Assistant City Manager Jeffrey Oris told commissioners that the city can address yoga classes and other beach activities through existing policies. The result, basically, is that the city could operate any of the activities through its Parks and Recreation Department and have people register for the classes through the department.

“If there is for instance a yoga instructor that we either get through an RFP or they propose doing something, we can then tell them here’s where you’re going to do it, here’s the days you’re going to do it, here’s the hours you’re allowed to do it, here’s how large it’s allowed to be. We control every aspect of it in that way,” Oris told commissioners.

“The other thing about doing it this way is, if the commission chooses, if we want to do yoga, we don’t have to do CrossFit or any other event if we don’t think that that’s appropriate,” Oris said, ensuring that “the use of the beach is relaxing and enjoyable for all.”

Vice Mayor Ryan Boylston said he likes the proposed approach to regulating beach activities.

“It doesn’t really look like there are any steps to be made by us. It looks like those steps are in place,” Boylston said. “What’s now important is that we properly communicate and put those documents together so it’s really transparent on what the options are when it comes to our beach.”

Commissioner Adam Frankel was concerned about enforcement, given how the city’s no-dogs-on-the-beach rules have been ignored.

“Every weekend I go to the beach and I see dogs on the beach. Every weekend. Not only do I see dogs on the beach, but I see dogs going to the bathroom on the beach and the answer is kicking sand over it, that’s how they clean it up,” Frankel said. “Enforcement is really the problem, and I think we’ve kind of tasked our lifeguards with responsibilities that kind of aren’t in their purview.”

Frankel is not keen about allowing more activities on the beach.

“I think there’s areas in the city where people can do their CrossFit classes or yoga classes. Veterans Park is great, Old School Square park is great. There’s plenty of areas, but the beach we’ve kind of maintained as a quiet area. To me, and this is just me, if we open it up to one, we open it up to all,” Frankel said. “We have an award-winning beach and I’d like to see it maintained the same.”

Oris told commissioners enforcement is doable. Currently, weddings of up to 25 people — without seating, tables, archways or other wedding accessories — are allowed on the beach without a permit. Other casual beach gatherings of that size that aren’t commercial enterprises could similarly be allowed, he said.

For classes run through the city, the city could hold the instructors to account for following the rules.

“What happens if we allow a 50-person yoga class and there’s 55 people there? Our enforcement is the contract with the instructor,” Oris said. “You violated the rules. You can’t do this anymore. We’ll find someone else who will follow the rules.”

Luna, contacted after the meeting, said he was “optimistic” that something would be worked out to allow his classes to return.

“I am just working on figuring out who I need to talk to with the city to allow the gatherings to continue on the beach,” Luna said. “To what capacity, I don’t know, how does it work as far as number of people. … I’m OK with however it shakes out, as long as we’re permitted to gather.”

The city was still working on what would be allowed, Oris said in an email to The Coastal Star.

“If the city chooses to provide such classes or partner with an instructor to do so, location, hours, frequency, size and other such details would need to be worked out so the activity would not interfere with anyone else’s enjoyment of the beach, protection was afforded to the dunes and turtle nests, lifeguards were on duty, and the activity happened when the beach is open,” he said.

Tax rate to drop

At the commission’s July 11 meeting, commissioners set a preliminary property tax rate of roughly $6.50 ($6.4982) for every $1,000 of taxable value, which covers the city’s operating tax rate and voted debt tax rate.

While the city’s proposed combined tax rate is about $0.17 per $1,000 lower than the current combined rate, it is still considered a tax increase since the city will end up collecting more taxes due to rising property values.

The city’s property valuation has increased 13.69% from last year’s valuation, bringing it to $16.4 billion. The amount of property taxes collected is expected to increase 10%, or $10.3 million, which could raise a total of $113.3 million.

The proposed rates are a “not-to-exceed” cap that can be lowered but not increased during public hearings scheduled for Sept. 5 and 18. The average owner of a home with an assessed value of $500,000 last year, who has a homestead exemption, would pay $21 more in city taxes this year if the proposed rate is adopted. A similarly valued non-homesteaded property would pay $240 more.

The general fund that pays for the day-to-day running of city government is proposed at $184.3 million for the 2024 fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. That’s a 9.2% increase of $15.5 million from the current general fund budget.

Some of the projects in the city’s $108.4 million capital improvement budget include:

• $2 million for renovating the north end of City Hall, where the building division is located.

• $5.5 million from the recreation bond issue approved in March, which will include money for public restrooms, tennis stadium enhancements and locker room renovations, athletic field lighting, beach access improvements, new beach showers and fountains, and structural repairs to the main beach pavilion.

• $4.15 million from the public safety bond issue approved in March, which will include money for a space needs analysis, planning and design for the police headquarters and Fire Station 112, and storage and locker room improvements for Ocean Rescue.

• $100,000 from the beautification fund for the maintenance of city medians.

In addition, the city has started building up funds to pay for future debt service for the construction of a water treatment plant. The city’s contingency fund for the new plant is being increased $6.7 million in the proposed budget.

A follow-up budget workshop is planned for Aug. 15.

By Larry Barszewski

A new police contract approved by Manalapan commissioners July 25 includes 7% annual pay raises for the next three years, lifting the starting salary for new hires to $65,000, and giving officers a $200-a-month gas allowance.

Commissioners also decided to add two new officer positions to the department to beef up overnight patrols, so that patrol coverage can continue even if two officers are tied up with an arrest or other stop.

The changes are on top of the renovation of the town’s police headquarters, which was completed in July.

“I think we’re spoiling our Police Department as we should. They’ve got a big increase and huge benefits, and now they have a new headquarters,” Mayor Stewart Satter said at the meeting.

“Our goal in offering the enhanced compensation and benefits is to take care of those who take care of us every day,” Satter said in a follow-up email to The Coastal Star, “and to help Manalapan retain our trained and experienced police officers in what is a very competitive employment environment.”

The department, which has struggled to fill vacancies over the past several years, was fully staffed as of June 30, Police Chief Carmen Mattox said. The number of sworn officers will increase to 10 as of Oct. 1.

The additional officers came at Satter’s suggestion during a July 24 budget workshop. He was concerned because there is one officer each on the beach side and on The Point overnight, but one helps out the other if the situation calls for it. The extra positions will ensure coverage continues while the two are tied up.

Police won’t be the only ones getting 7% pay raises this year, as the budget includes a matching 7% salary boost for all town employees.

To pay for the salary increases and other budget priorities in the coming year, the commission approved a not-to-exceed proposed property tax rate of $3 for every $1,000 of taxable value, the same as last year. That rate is considered a property tax increase even though it’s not changing, because of rising property values of 15% in town this year. The $3 per $1,000 tax rate is expected to raise $6.28 million in property taxes, which is about $740,000 more than last year, or a 13.3% increase.

The proposed rate can still be lowered, but not raised, during public hearings on the budget and tax rate scheduled for Sept. 18 and 25.

Town Manager Linda Stumpf has proposed a $7.3 million operating budget — an increase of 8.3% from the current budget — and $650,396 for capital and infrastructure projects.

The proposed tax rate means a home assessed at $1 million last year, which receives a homestead exemption, will pay about $90 more in town taxes this year. A similarly valued non-homesteaded property will see about a $300 increase.

The budget includes $2 million to Palm Beach County Fire Rescue for fire rescue services, a 13.7% increase of $245,000.

The biggest unknowns are for property and liability insurance. Stumpf’s budget includes a 40% premium increase, though she has been advised the increase could be as high as 60%. The actual renewal costs aren’t expected until late August, Stumpf said.

Home construction extension granted

Commissioners were upset that an Ocean Boulevard home under construction for four years still isn’t finished.

A building permit was pulled in 2018 and construction began in 2019 on the property at 1460 S. Ocean Blvd. The property was purchased for $12.4 million in 2017 and the new unfinished home is now on the market for $79.5 million.

Attorney David Miller, representing property owner 1460 South Ocean Boulevard LLC, requested a building permit extension until February 2024 — but then told commissioners he would prefer a year’s extension “out of an abundance of caution.”

He blamed Florida Power & Light for the delay in Coastal Construction’s finishing the project.

“They’ve been unable to get permanent power. Coastal has been emailing FPL for almost three years about the transformer permanent power hookup. Still haven’t been able to get a commitment from FPL,” Miller said. “Apparently, the power for this house got reassigned to I believe four or five different individuals by FPL over the course of the last 21/2 years, which I think is a large part of what the holdup was.”

But Satter didn’t buy that argument.

“This is taking way too long. It has nothing to do with FPL, with all due respect,” Satter said. “I have no interest to extend the permit for eight months. It’s not fair to the neighbors.”
Commissioners, seeing few alternatives, approved a shorter permit extension to Dec. 26, but placed a number of conditions on the extension. Those conditions include having better screening on the north side of the property, placement of additional fresh rock and grass to reduce the amount of sand blowing from the construction site, and painting the front of the house to make the property look more finished.

The first two permits cost the owner almost $462,000. The new permit extension fee is $83,161.53.

Despite the new deadline, Satter predicted the owner would be back seeking yet another extension.

In other business:

• Stumpf reported that the town’s iguana removal efforts, which began in June, are having an effect. She said 50 iguanas have been removed from public property so far by the hired company.

• The town has revamped its water utility billing and residents should see the difference on the latest bills. The new system gives residents the ability to pay their bills online. It also makes it easier for properties with multiple meters. Instead of receiving separate bills, as in the past, those residents will now have all their meters listed under one account.

• The commission approved a $96,544.82 contract with The Paving Lady for the construction of a new landscaped island in the Land’s End Road cul-de-sac. It was the only bid received for the project.

“While the unit prices are higher than we would normally anticipate, because this is a smaller project adjacent to valuable property with exceptional finishes, it is understandable that the costs are higher than average,” reported Thomas Biggs of consultant Mock Roos & Associates, which reviewed the bid and is being paid up to $10,000 by the town for construction oversight.

Briny Breezes resident Rochelle Schanuel with her grandson Nolan Schanuel, the top draft pick of the Los Angeles Angels last month. RIGHT: Nolan’s promotion to the Double-A Rocket City Trash Pandas in northern Alabama prompted the team to create an image to mark his rapid ascent through the lowest two levels of minor league ball. Photos provided

By Steve Plunkett

Briny Breezes has its first direct link to Major League Baseball: Nolan Schanuel, the Los Angeles Angels’ top draft choice and No. 11 overall, often visits his grandmother here.

“He loves Briny,” said Rochelle Schanuel. “He says I’m probably the only nana that has fishing poles in their bedroom so I can go fishing.”

The slugging first baseman, who played earlier at Park Vista High School west of Boynton Beach and at Florida Atlantic University, signed a contract for a reported $5.25 million after the first-year player draft on July 9.

Schanuel, 21, had 46 home runs and 176 runs batted in during his three years at FAU, and was named 2023 Conference USA baseball player of the year.

He jumped quickly from the bottom two of the Angels’ four minor league levels to the club’s Double-A team in northern Alabama.

“Let’s go launch ’em,” the Rocket City Trash Pandas, his new team, posted on July 28 on X, the rebranded Twitter network.

The promotion to Double-A came after Schanuel got seven hits in 14 at-bats in his first five games.

Briny Breezes Mayor Gene Adams, who has known the Schanuels for years, said he is looking forward to watching the new Angel play.

“I’m very, very proud of him. He’s a good kid,” Adams said. “I was pleased at how high he went in the draft.”

Rochelle Schanuel, who summers in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, hasn’t made plans yet to watch her grandson play but of course is a big fan.

When Nolan was in high school and college, “I went to every baseball game that was played at home,” she said.

Frank McKinney of coastal Delray Beach is renowned for his work on mansions but has owned this 1988 Yugo GV since 2006. It has about 117,000 miles on it, 50,000 of those since he bought it for $2,000. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Most people who live in the oceanfront communities that dot southern Palm Beach County know Frank McKinney as the long-haired, eccentric builder responsible for either constructing or renovating 44 mansions either on or close by the ocean over the past 33 years.

But there’s a lot people don’t know.

Most don’t know his Caring House Project Foundation has also built 29 self-sustaining villages in the desperately poor jungles of Haiti. That he has competed in the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile footrace held every July from Death Valley to the Mount Whitney trail, 12 times and finished it seven. Or that in March 2020, while the rest of the world was experiencing the first days of the coronavirus pandemic, McKinney was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia.

Bedridden and miserable for two weeks while fighting the cancer that had invaded his white blood cells, McKinney ultimately survived the ordeal and then used it as motivation for his seventh book, Adversitology. His book tour was unusual: Instead of visiting bookstores he drove up the East Coast and came back down through the Midwest, stopping at soup kitchens, homeless shelters and the like, making 26 stops in 27 days.

“The image on the cover shows a guy hanging by a thread, and who can relate to the message of hope more than the homeless population?” he said.

“So, I’m standing on a chair in front of 200 people with the hair, and I’m white, and people are thinking, ‘What’s this guy going to teach me about adversity?’
“The talks went about 30 minutes, at which point people had a choice of cash, gift cards for grocery stores and pharmacies, or the book. And in those 26 stops we kept track and 71% took the book.”

McKinney said he’s met more than 10,000 homeless people and estimates more than 70% shouldn’t be.

“They’re educated, they’re lucid, they can carry on a conversation, and they want to know you care. Some are there because of substance abuse, but for many it’s bad timing, bad luck … they’re one paycheck away from getting off the street. I’ve written a letter to Congress saying we need a homeless czar, and I’ve offered my services. I’d gladly fill that role.”

McKinney, 60, and his wife, Nilsa, live in Delray Beach. Nilsa has owned her own interior design firm, Nilsa Design Services, since 1988. Their daughter Laura, who lives in New York, started her public relations company, StrataBrand, in 2022.

— Brian Biggane

Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A: Beneath it all I’m a corn-fed country boy. Grew up in Carmel, Indiana. Four high schools in four years, graduated from a reform school run by Benedictine monks named The Abbey in Cañon City, Colorado. I loved it; it was one of the best experiences of my life. But I learned independence. I’m the oldest of six and was ruining the vibe in the family, and my parents told me at 18 I needed to go.

Q: What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: I came to Florida with the plan to earn enough money to go to California and be a stuntman. I got a job on a golf course digging sand traps by hand. I started to fall in love with the Florida lifestyle, and I saw the rich-and-famous lifestyle every day. I got transferred to the tennis courts and had been a top junior tennis player when I was young. I borrowed money, went to Hilton Head and became a certified teaching professional, and that certificate became like my Ph.D., because now I could mix with those people and make good money doing it. My club didn’t want me, so I went out and found four high-end clubs in Boca with no instructors and began making $100,000 a year.
At the end of each lesson, I’d ask questions and kept hearing that people made their money investing in real estate. Then I bought a crack house on the ocean that had been abandoned for $750,000, fixed it up and sold it for $1.4 million. Then we jumped to a $2.4 million mansion. Now we’ve done 44 projects on the ocean or across the street since 1990.

Q: What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A: Exercise your risk tolerance like a muscle. I’m afraid every day of my life, but I don’t let fear stop me. And that was one of my advantages coming up. I didn’t let fear stop me from taking big risks. All of us are going to have regrets. I want to regret what I did, not what I didn’t do.

Q: How did you choose to make your home in Delray?
A: My wife and I were doing our A1A drive in 1997. Women need roots to start a family. We drove by a house at the north end of Delray. The house was built in 1935, the last designated historic house on the beach. They were afraid I was going to do all this work and I didn’t change a light bulb. If you hated what I built, it’s that different. But what attracted us to Delray was how quiet it was back then. Compared to Palm Beach, Boca and Gulf Stream it was the red-headed stepchild, but it had all the amenities, better beaches than any of them.

Q: What is your favorite part about living in coastal Delray Beach?
A: The people. We still have friends we made 25 years ago. The core person who is drawn to Delray Beach, that it isn’t Boca or Palm Beach, that’s who we are. The average age now is dropping. When we started selling beach properties the average age was over 60. I bet it has dropped 10 years. That’s pretty amazing.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: My favorite author is Anthony de Mello. He’s an obscure philosopher who died in 1987 and remained a Jesuit priest his whole life. I’m rereading his book Awareness. I just love his philosophies.

Q: What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?
A: People will look at the picture here and say, “Oh, I know what kind of music he likes.” And they’re not wrong. Heavier stuff, Van Halen or Mötley Crüe. It relaxes me, believe it or not. But if I’m going to write a new book or come up with a new design, Vivaldi. I love that sense of just closing your eyes and your brain popping like a soda can.

Q: Have you had mentors in your life? People who have inspired your life decisions?
A: When I went to Manalapan, I had the long hair and all, and wondered who would help me out. It was (Amway co-founder) Rich DeVos. He wrote the foreword to my first book. He taught me in the late ’90s, when I was on the front page of the Miami Herald for selling the most expensive spec house in the history of Palm Beach County. I was depressed and went to him and asked what was wrong. He asked me what my spiritual calling was, and ultimately taught me there’s a difference between a professional calling and a spiritual calling. There’s a Bible passage that says to whom much is given much is required. That’s a good way to live life and he instilled that in me, and that’s what got us building these villages in Haiti.

Q: If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?
A: Johnny Depp. He can capture an eccentric. There’s a fine line between an eccentric and a lunatic. The eccentric has the money.

Q: Is there something people don’t know about you but should?
A: I drive Yugos. The one I have now I’ve had since 2006. It’s an ’88. I learned early on that the energy we put into thinking about buying and thinking about material things, that favor is never returned. I just love that car. I haven’t put many miles on it because all my projects were up and down the beach.

OCEAN RIDGE — John Prescott Shibles of Ocean Ridge and Sea Girt, New Jersey, died July 23 at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune. He was 75.

He was born in New Brunswick and moved to the Jersey Shore in the mid-1970s and to Ocean Ridge in 1999.

A graduate of Saint Joseph High School in Metuchen, he continued his education at Quincy University in Illinois, and later received his master’s degree from Pace University, New York City. This past May, Mr. Shibles received an honorary doctorate from Quincy University.

He started his career as an accountant with Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick. In the late 1970s he became a real estate broker at Sitar Realty in Iselin. In the early 1980s he began a career as a real estate developer. Mr. Shibles was involved in the site selection and development of numerous Home Depot sites throughout New Jersey. His projects won numerous architectural and marketing accolades for his attention to detail.

In later years Mr. Shibles developed a passion for automobiles. In 2012 Mr. Shibles’ hobby led to the opening of the Back Door Garage, which was known for having one of the finest collections of classic cars on a national level. He participated in many Concours d’Elegance throughout the country including Pebble Beach, Amelia Island, Hershey Region and Newport, Rhode Island.

Mr. Shibles enjoyed traveling and collecting wine and sharing it with family and friends. He was always willing to assist others through his advice, caring and support. He was a parishioner of St. Mark Catholic Church in Boynton Beach and St. Catharine Catholic Church in Spring Lake, New Jersey.

Mr. Shibles was predeceased by his first wife, Teresa Notarianni Shibles, in 2013. He is survived by his loving wife, Jill Devlin Shibles; son Prescott Shibles and his wife, Naomi, and grandson, Rowan, of Charlotte, North Carolina; son John C. Shibles and his wife, Elizabeth, and grandchildren Ryan, Colin, Brendan and Claire of Lincroft; his sister, Laura Jane Shibles of Ocean Ridge; and many nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Saint Joseph High School, 145 Plainfield Ave., Metuchen, NJ 08840, designated to the John P. Shibles Memorial Scholarship Fund.

To leave condolence messages to the family, visit www.claytonfuneralhome.com.

— Obituary submitted by the family

By Rich Pollack

HIGHLAND BEACH — Bernard Featherman loved living in Highland Beach and loved even more having served as the town’s mayor.

“One of the five top highlights of his life was being mayor,” his son Andrew Featherman said.

Mr. Featherman, who was in office from 2011 to 2017, died on July 14 of heart failure. He was 94.

A man with a large presence in town, even after he left office due to term limits, Mr. Featherman saw his role as mayor as an opportunity to help other residents.

“It was a pulpit from which he could do good,” his son said.

Doing good — and helping his community — seemed to be part of Mr. Featherman’s DNA.

Until health issues made it difficult for him to get around, Mr. Featherman served as vice president of the Beach Condo Association of Boca Raton, Highland Beach and Delray Beach. He also held leadership roles on the board at the Villa Costa condominium and had previously served as president of the Highland Beach Coastal Democratic Club.

He also was sub-committee chair of the Palm Beach County Criminal Justice Commission and served on the Legislative Policy Committee of the Florida League of Cities.

Mr. Featherman was an officer of local Rotary clubs, with Rotary holding a special place for him. It has long been a supporter of the fight against polio, a disease he contracted when he was 14.

Along with being well-known in Highland Beach, Mr. Featherman was recognized as a community leader in the Philadelphia area. He lived there much of his life — aside from a stint in Maine while his wife, Sandra, was a college president in the state — before moving to Florida in 2010. He was also recognized for his business acumen nationally, serving as a regional adviser to the Small Business Administration’s Office of the National Ombudsman. He also served on the Democratic National Committee, where he was chair of the Democratic Small Business Council.

Mr. Featherman built his family’s firm — a metal fabricator — into a multiple business conglomerate that employed hundreds and made many of the products people take for granted, like school lockers or the pallet racks in Sam’s Club or Costco. He was a two-time president of the industry’s national trade association.

A highlight of Mr. Featherman’s involvement in the small business arena was his being named Inc. magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year in the Supporter of Entrepreneurship category.

Mr. Featherman wrote a business-related column for a local newspaper in Maine, where he was involved in various organizations, and spoke about small business and entrepreneurship while appearing on a local television station.

He was also the author of two books: How to Start Your Own Small Business and Planning for Your Retirement.

His work brought him into contact with leaders on the national stage including politicians and statesmen.

“He knew presidents going back to Nixon,” Andrew Featherman said.

Affable and armed with a contagious smile, Mr. Featherman was always comfortable around others.

“He genuinely enjoyed people, and everyone wanted to be his friend,” his son said.

After Mr. Featherman’s wife of more than 60 years died in 2018, his family suggested he return to Pennsylvania to be closer to them but he would have none of it.

“He didn’t want to leave,” Andrew Featherman said. “He loved Highland Beach.”

Mr. Featherman is survived by his two sons, Andrew (Elizabeth) and John (Masako). A service was held for Mr. Featherman in Pennsylvania on July 19. A celebration of his life will be held in Highland Beach in coming months.

By Mary Thurwachter

The Coastal Star received three first-place awards and nine overall in the Florida Press Association 2023 Weekly Newspaper Contest for non-daily newspapers.

The stories receiving first-place recognition included a touching obituary about a 100-year-old World War II hero who jumped with the U.S. Army’s 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment into Normandy on D-Day. Another was the intriguing tale of a 29-year-old fishmonger who became a digital star with no-frills videos on how to clean and fillet fish.

The association presented the awards at a ceremony July 21 in Sarasota. 

Though it comes out monthly, The Coastal Star competed against weekly newspapers in a division for papers with circulations over 15,000. The contest period was for the 2022 calendar year.

“Since we knew hurricane coverage was going to dominate the awards this cycle, we entered fewer than usual,” said Mary Kate Leming, editor of The Coastal Star. “As always, the best rose to the top, but all were winners in my book. Every award granted to our excellent team of writers reflects on their commitment to community journalism. If they weren’t agreeable to contributing to our monthly publication, there would be no news and information from many of our South County communities. Their talent is appreciated.”

The paper’s top awards went to:

• The Coastal Star staff for overall graphic design.

• Ron Hayes for best obituary — about WWII veteran Ed Manley.

• Jan Norris, for outdoor and recreation reporting — about Delray Beach fishmonger Reed Brand.

Second-place awards went to:

• Tim Stepien for his feature photo of a baby sea turtle at dawn.

• Charles Elmore for health, medical and science reporting — about mail order medicine.

• Rich Pollack for education news — about the popularity of elite schools.

Third-place awards went to:

• The Coastal Star staff for front page design.

• Norris for arts, entertainment and review reporting — about female chefs.

• Tao Woolfe for her feature story about Ukrainian refugees on Hypoluxo Island.