Posing for family photos on the haystacks or in front of piles of pumpkins is a popular pastime for visitors to the Boca Pumpkin Patch Festival in Mizner Park. Photo provided

By Faran Fagen and Janis Fontaine

If you’re looking to add some thrill to your pumpkin-seeking this month, you won’t need to go far.

First up, the Boca Pumpkin Patch Festival returns to the Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, with an extension to three days and the addition of timed sessions for attendees.

This seasonal event features a giant pumpkin patch in the center of all the action with more than 2,500 pumpkins and a carnival for all ages.

“We’re thrilled to extend the Boca Pumpkin Patch Festival to three days this year,” said Vanessa Goodis, festival executive producer. “And we’re really excited about our new timed sessions.”

Pumpkin enthusiasts can choose among these ticket options:
• Oct. 13 from 4 to 9 p.m.
• Oct. 14 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. or 4 to 9 p.m.
• Oct. 15 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

General admission is $27.50 per person for those ages 3 years and up, and includes unlimited carnival rides, a kiddie cornstalk maze, multiple fall photo vignettes, a scarecrow dress-up village, and sponsor giveaways.

Admission is free for children under 3. Tickets must be purchased in advance at www.bocapumpkinpatch.com. Attendees must show proof of purchase at the gate via personal device or printout.  

The festival will limit attendance at each session to allow guests to immerse themselves in the festivities without overcrowding.

For an additional cost, attendees can pick and decorate the perfect pumpkin in the patch and enjoy the Pumpkin Food Court. Adults can also partake in pumpkin-inspired craft cocktails at the Pumpkin Beer Garden.

The festival is a production of Promo Moxie Inc., organizer of the nationally recognized Coconut Grove Pumpkin Patch Festival.

Cason’s Pumpkin Patch
The annual Pumpkin Patch at Cason United Methodist Church in Delray Beach has become a family tradition and a sure sign of fall in a county where the leaves don’t change color.

Hundreds of orange orbs of all sizes get delivered to the church parking lot at the corner of North Swinton Avenue and Lake Ida Road on Oct. 12. The Patch officially opens from noon to 7 p.m. Oct. 13.

But the highlight of the Pumpkin Patch is the Family Fun Day from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 21. The Delray Beach fire department will be on site with a fire engine, and the city’s police K-9 unit will demonstrate this unique partnership.

Be sure to visit the Cason Kids Care lemonade stand. The kids are partnering with Food for the Poor and are supporting a micro-business in Haiti.

Emily Popolizio, a retired teacher from Massachusetts with 41 years’ experience, started the club last August to get more children involved in serving the community.

One of their first projects was a fundraiser for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer (ALSF). The foundation provides a blueprint for how to hold a lemonade stand fundraiser to fight pediatric cancer, and kids all over the world just follow the directions for a successful venture. The Cason Kids built their own stand at last year’s Pumpkin Patch and went to work selling lemonade for $1 per cup. They raised $500 and donated it to ALSF for pediatric cancer research.

This year, the kids are promoting handmade Christmas and greeting cards crafted from banana leaves by Haitian artists. These artists — among an estimated 4,000 worldwide — support their families on the money they earn selling the one-of-a-kind cards. The program is part of Food for the Poor’s investment strategy that turns people with talent and a desire to work hard into small-business owners.

Called micro-enterprise, this investment in small, self-run business ventures attempts to provide a long-term solution to poverty and instill pride in the work and ownership of destiny.

The Banana Bark program has been one of Food for the Poor’s most successful ventures. You can also order cards online at www.foodforthepoor.org/bananabarkcards.

The Cason Kids Care club, made up of about 20 kids ages 6-11, also baked cookies so each person who buys a card receives a cookie baked by the children as a thank-you.

The club also made blankets for children in foster care and, most recently, started a drive for supplies for local homeless people. The kids collected and assembled food/hygiene kits and socks.

Club membership is open to all, and it doesn’t require any church affiliation. If you have questions, you can ask them over a cup of lemonade at the Family Fun Day or at the church.

The Pumpkin Patch at Cason United Methodist Church takes place from noon to 7 p.m. Oct. 13-14 and noon-6 p.m. Oct. 15, then 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Oct. 21 and 28, and noon-6 p.m. Oct. 22 and 29. Call 561-276-5302 or visit casonumc.org.

Bedner’s festival
The annual Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market Fall Festival is back through Oct. 30 in Boynton Beach. Hayrides take visitors around its 80 acres of working farm, and a bigger corn maze awaits guests this year.

Some of the usual attractions include a pumpkin patch, petting zoo, tractor rides, bounce house and games. The festival is closed Tuesdays. Admission is $20.99 weekdays and $25.99 weekends.

Bedner’s is at 10066 Lee Road.

Canine Companions' service dogs are trained to help people with disabilities and differ from therapy dogs and emotional support dogs. Photo provided by Canine Companions

By Arden Moore

Given my 20-plus years in the pet industry, I am keenly aware of hot-button topics. What to feed — and what not to feed — your pet unleashes plenty of fierce opinions among pet parents.

Also triggering plenty of barky debates are canine credentials: What’s the difference between a therapy dog, an emotional support canine and a service dog?

Recently, new signs at the entrances of Publix stores across the state remind shoppers that only service dogs are permitted inside. For people with emotional support animals, that means their dogs are not allowed to ride in shopping carts or walk beside them on leashes up and down the aisles.

Even though this has been a Publix policy for a few years, the new signs out front have provoked heated comments.

So, let me carefully dive in and explain the differences among these designated dogs.

Therapy dogs
My terrier mix, Kona, is a registered therapy dog. To earn this designation, she had to complete basic dog obedience classes, ace her AKC Canine Good Citizenship test and complete a series of supervised visits to a memory care center.

Therapy dogs are canine goodwill ambassadors. They must be invited to schools, senior citizen facilities and other places to enter their premises. They are insured and must be well-mannered and tolerant of being touched by all types of people.

Two national therapy training groups are Pet Partners (petpartners.org) and Love on a Leash (www.loveonaleash.org).

Emotional support dogs
Now let’s move on to the next tier: emotional support animals. For a dog to be deemed an ESA, a person must obtain a “prescription” in the form of a letter from a mental health professional that states the dog is necessary for that person’s mental well-being. An ESA dog can be any age and any breed and does not require specific training.

According to the federal Fair Housing Act, people with these ESA prescriptions cannot be prevented from obtaining housing, even in places with no-pets-allowed policies. They cannot be charged a pet deposit. However, ESA dogs do not have any legal power to enter any business, including supermarkets.

One Boca Raton resident who asked not to be identified obtained a psychologist’s written prescription for an ESA-designated dog for her daughter, who is on the autism spectrum, to offset the stress of college life. The Lhasa apso mix lives with her in her dorm.

“This dog has really helped her at college, but she doesn’t need the dog for a trip to Publix,” added the mother.

Since December 2020, the U.S. Department of Transportation revised guidelines for animals traveling inside the cabins of commercial airlines. Only service dogs with DOT-required documentation as to their training, health and certification are allowed to travel in the cabin at no charge.

Service dogs
Finally, let’s discuss service dogs. The Americans with Disabilities Act defines service dogs as those “individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.”

These dogs are trained by professionals to perform specific tasks to assist people who may have physical, hearing or visual impairments, or may be medically identified as having post-traumatic stress disorder.

Service dogs are legally allowed to accompany their people into restaurants, shops, hospitals, schools and hotels. But owners of these places can ask the person to leave if the service dog is acting unruly or urinating or defecating.

ADA guidelines allow anyone — be it a person on the street or a store owner — to ask the person with a dog wearing a service dog designation only two questions:

• Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
• What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?

However, under federal law, no one is allowed to ask that person the extent of his or her disability, to show proof that this dog has been trained and certified as a service dog or ask the person to have the dog perform a specific task.

A genuine service dog must undergo extensive training, sometimes for up to two years. Canine Companions, with six training centers across the country, including Florida, is one of the largest groups producing service dogs.

“Each Canine Companion puppy is specifically bred, raised by a volunteer puppy raiser, then trained by professional instructors before being matched with a child, adult or veteran with a disability completely free of charge,” says Courtney Craig, Canine Companions spokesperson.

Beware false credentials
OK, now come blurred lines. I spent about five minutes online and located several sites proclaiming anyone can obtain a service dog vest, harness and ID card quickly without the dog undergoing any training.

And that’s the problem. There are genuine service dogs and fake ones. There continue to be incidents in which an untrained dog wearing an online service dog vest has attacked a legitimately trained service dog. In some cases, that service dog becomes “dog apprehensive” and is removed from service. The person partnered with that dog is now without a dog and loses safe opportunities to be out in public.

“When poorly trained dogs misbehave, businesses are more likely to deny access to service dogs,” says Wallis Brozman, communications and advocacy coordinator for Canine

Companions' Southeast center in Fort Lauderdale. “This decreases inclusion and independence for people with disabilities.”

A 2022 study by Canine Companions involving more than 1,500 service dog users found that:

• 93% reported encountering a poorly trained dog in places where pets are not permitted.
• 79% reported that a dog barked at, snapped at, lunged at and even bit their service dog.
• 80% of people with service dogs report that these fake, untrained service dogs have negatively affected their quality of life and independence.

Dee Hoult, a longtime professional dog trainer who operates Applause Your Paws in South Florida, says, “I can spot a fake service dog three aisles away. Legitimate service dogs also signal when they must go and will not defecate or urinate in the aisle or pull on their leashes.”

In 31 states, including Florida, it is against the law to pass off a fake service dog as a real one. It is considered a second-degree misdemeanor and, if convicted, a violator may face a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail.

Yes, dogs are gaining more invitations these days to join their people, but for everyone’s safety, please know and respect the access opportunities among therapy, ESA and service dogs.

Arden Moore is an author, speaker and master certified pet first-aid instructor. She hosts a radio show, Arden Moore’s Four Legged Life (www.fourleggedlife.com), and the weekly Oh Behave! podcast on PetLifeRadio.com. Learn more by visiting www.ardenmoore.com.

Anthony Javarone Jr. holds a big jack that he caught on a live mullet while fishing from a boat. The fall mullet migration brings predator fish into play. Steve Waters/The Coastal Star

By Steve Waters

You know autumn has arrived in New England when the leaves turn different colors.

You know autumn has arrived in South Florida when tarpon turn cartwheels off the beach.

While many locals head north to catch the fall foliage, Palm Beach County anglers head to beaches, fishing piers and jetties, as well as offshore in powerboats and kayaks, to catch the annual fall mullet run, which starts with a trickle in late September and really gets going in October.

The mullet migration offers some of the best, most frenzied fishing of the year, as a variety of predator species show up to feast on the schools of mullet, which swim south before heading farther offshore to spawn.

Tom Greene of Lighthouse Point, who started fishing the mullet run more than 60 years ago when he worked at Boca Tackle on East Palmetto Park Road, one block west of the Intracoastal Waterway, said Oct. 15 is traditionally when schools of mullet show up in force off area beaches.

“Boynton Inlet has always been great,” said Greene. “Boca Inlet has been good the last 10 years, the north side and south side. Fish early in the morning at Deerfield Pier and Pompano Pier.”

During the mullet run, tarpon and Spanish mackerel will crash into a mullet school, then they and other fish gobble up the stunned and maimed mullet. Bluefish and jack crevalle will tear through a school, and snook will lurk underneath and pick up the pieces. Sharks and ladyfish also get in on the fun.

Meanwhile, pelicans and seagulls attack the mullet from above, which makes locating a mullet school easy.

Live mullet are the preferred bait, but Greene said a number of soft-plastic lures that imitate baitfish will catch their share of fish during the mullet run. Feather jigs, topwater plugs and 5/8-ounce Krocodile spoons, cast just beyond or in front of a mullet school, are also effective.

Greene recommended using a 6½- to 7½-foot fishing rod with 12- to 20-pound monofilament line or 30- to 40-pound braided line.

A teenage fish tale
Greene was a teenager when he pedaled his bicycle to a pavilion at the end of Palmetto Park Road on a Sunday morning. He was going to be in church later, so he left the trousers that he was going to change into with his bike, leaving his wallet in a pocket. Casting live mullet that he’d snagged with his fishing rod, he caught several small jacks off the beach. Then he hooked a fish that he’ll never forget.

“That fish ran out and almost took all the line off my reel,” said Greene, who followed the big fish along the beach to the north jetty of Boca Inlet. “When I got to the inlet, I wasn’t about to let that fish cut me off. My rod had a cork handle and I put that in my mouth. Although the tide was ripping out and sharks were swimming through the inlet —you could see their fins — I swam to the south jetty, then I fought the fish all the way to Deerfield Pier.”

Greene landed the fish, which turned out to be a huge jack, after a three-hour fight. He got a ride to the tackle store, where the fish weighed 43.5 pounds. Then he got a ride to the beach to get his bicycle, where the police were looking for him.

The incoming tide had swept over his bicycle and taken his pants out to sea. A swimmer found the pants floating in the ocean, discovered the wallet and assumed young Tom Greene had fallen overboard offshore.

“One of the cops said, ‘Tom, what are you doing here? We heard you were lost in the ocean,’” Greene said. “Then I had to call my mother. That was the scariest thing, but fortunately nobody had called her to say I was missing.”

Outdoors writer Steve Waters can be reached at steve33324@aol.com.

The recently built, 2,640-square-foot home has a contemporary facade with tropical ground cover, high horizontal windows, eclectic art friezes and marble tile panels along with stunning front doors. Photos provided

With its stylish horizontal design, this custom-built, fully furnished island home offers the perfect blend of luxury and comfort. Built by architect Scott Disher of Architectural Studio, on 42-foot-deep pilings, this four-bedroom, three-bath smart home has a magnificent open floor plan with 11-foot ceilings, porcelain flooring and expansive living room/dining room areas.

The living room boasts wall-to-wall large sliding hurricane glass doors that provide abundant natural light and great views.

The master suite has a tray ceiling, custom closets and an en suite bathroom. The bath features marble countertops, a soaking tub and a large walk-in rain shower. The other two bedrooms with en suites provide plenty of space for family and guests. A separate den/office area with a built-in Murphy bed can be easily converted to a fourth bedroom.
The amenities include two energy-efficient heat pump A/C units, two tankless water heaters, a whole house backup generator, remote-controlled shades on windows, remote-controlled Kevlar hurricane screens, a central vacuum, Ring camera/alarm system, and Emtek door hardware.

The 800-square-foot covered patio features a gas outdoor fireplace, two TVs and a full outdoor kitchen near the gas-heated saltwater swimming pool and spa.

Outdoors, a Rainbird drip irrigation system covers the fenced yard and hedges border the entertainment area of pool and patio. Offered at $3,495,000.

Contact Steven Presson, the Presson Group at Corcoran, at steven.presson@corcoran.com or 561-843-6057.

The dining area, which has an artistic stainless light fixture, is a complement to the open chef’s kitchen with marble top island and backsplash.

Each month, The Coastal Star features a house for sale in our community. The House of the Month is presented as a service to our advertisers and provides readers with a peek inside one of our homes.

ABOVE: Rebecca Germany, sea turtle conservation assistant at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, excavates a loggerhead nest in Boca Raton three days after the eggs had hatched.
BELOW LEFT: A baby loggerhead makes its way to the ocean after being rescued by Joan Lorne of Sea Turtle Adventures during a nest excavation in Gulf Stream. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

RELATED: Boca Raton: Gumbo Limbo’s new scope to include whales, manatees

By Steve Plunkett

It’s a banner year for sea turtle nests up and down Palm Beach County’s coast and all around the state.

It’s the result, experts say, of decades of educational efforts and government protection.

Boca Raton’s Gumbo Limbo Nature Center reported finding its record-setting 1,325th nest (and nine others) on July 28; two days earlier the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach announced it had documented more than 20,998 nests, also a record.

And on Aug. 10 the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said total nests by loggerheads and green turtles would surpass those species’ statewide annual records.

As of July 31, the agency said, there were 127,808 loggerheads nests (previous record was 122,707 in 2016) and 56,151 green turtle nests (previous record was 53,102 in 2017).
“And the nesting season isn’t over yet,” the FWC said. “We look forward to seeing what the final nest counts will be!”

Conservation pays off
Is the tame start to 2023’s hurricane season somehow boosting the sea turtles’ maternal instincts? Or climate change? Maybe sea-level rise?

Not at all, say the people who monitor the beaches.

“I honestly believe the increase, and now record-breaking season this year, is in part due to decades of conservation efforts now coming to fruition,” said David Anderson, Gumbo Limbo’s sea turtle conservation coordinator. “After all, it takes 20 to 25 years for sea turtles to reach sexual maturity and we are seeing the results of decades of protection.”

By Aug. 28, Anderson’s eight-person sea turtle conservation team and a few volunteers had counted 1,389 total nests on Boca Raton beaches: 1,038 loggerhead, 323 green and 28 leatherback. The previous record of 1,324 was set in 2019.

“On any given morning, there are about five of us on the beach, splitting up in different directions to cover Boca’s 5 miles,” he said. “A busy year is more enjoyable, but it makes the mornings longer.

“The more nests we have, the more work we put in. We start at the same time every morning, about 30 minutes before sunrise. A busy nesting season, however, means that we will be on the beach longer since there are more nests to mark, more nests to protect from predators, more nests that will hatch, more nests to inventory after hatch, etc.”

Ryder Hoffmann, 3, and his sister Everly, 6, of Boynton Beach watch as Joan Lorne of Sea Turtle Adventures rescues a loggerhead during a nest excavation three days after the original hatch-out.

‘Quite busy’ everywhere
Mornings were also hopping for Sea Turtle Adventures Inc., which monitors 3 miles of shoreline in Gulf Stream, Briny Breezes and the southern part of Ocean Ridge.

“We’re quite busy out there,” said monitor Joan Lorne of Delray Beach, whose daughter, Jackie Kingston, founded the nonprofit. “Double the amount of nests. It’s like crazy, which is a good thing.”

The totals for Sea Turtle Adventures in mid-August were 1,051 loggerhead, 283 green, 15 leatherback, one very rare Kemp’s ridley and 1,350 overall. Last year the group counted only 659 nests. “Definitely a record-breaking year,” data manager Emilie Woodrich said.

Delray Beach is also having a “pretty crazy” season, said Joe Scarola, senior scientist with Ecological Associates Inc., which monitors the city’s 3-mile beach. “We’re having a record year for all three species,” he said, with 396 loggerhead nests by Aug. 19 (old record was 356 in 2021), 90 green (vs. 58 in 2019) and 30 leatherback (vs. 21 in 2020).

And in Highland Beach there were 1,526 nests by Aug. 17, surpassing 2022’s total of 1,092 nests, said Joanne Ryan, who holds the FWC sea turtle permit for the town and lives just north of Gulf Stream’s Place Au Soleil neighborhood. The breakdown was 989 loggerhead, 530 green and seven leatherback.

Highland Beach has 2.8 miles of shoreline, making the town “a busy little beach for the turtles,” Ryan said. “I can only attribute it to it being private, and although we do have a fair share of lighting issues, it’s nothing like the public beachfronts, not to mention the people. I feel very lucky to have HB for my nesting survey program.”

Peak of season is past
Nesting season on Florida’s East Coast for the threatened or endangered sea turtles runs from March 1 to Oct. 31.

Anderson said “unfortunately” the loggerheads and the greens will not set species records for Boca Raton along with the new overall record this year. Loggerheads generally stop nesting in late August, he said.

The record high for loggerheads is 1,075 set in 1990, Anderson said, and historical data led him to predict only 1,040 to 1,045 nests this year. The record high for greens in Boca is 393 set in 2019. Anderson expects to hit 337 to 347 this season, “as our last green nest is usually in late September.”

Loggerhead nesting usually peaks in mid-June when Boca Raton gets over 100 nests per week, he said. Green nesting usually peaks in mid-July and his team counts about 30 nests per week.

But even post-peak there is plenty of work for turtle conservationists.

“We have major hatch-outs at this time,” Lorne said.

The county’s northernmost 9.5 miles of beach set records for loggerhead and green nests by mid-August, said Dr. Justin Perrault, vice president of research at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center.

By late August, his team had counted 24,799 nests in all: 15,652 loggerhead, 8,931 green and 216 leatherback. The team tallied 575 nests in just one night, he said.

Most of the discoveries are marked by GPS coordinates but many are also written down. Only those that appear vulnerable to being disturbed are marked.

“Obviously we can’t put 48,000 stakes on the beach,” Perrault said.

Farther north, Disney World’s Vero Beach Resort on July 27 reported that it had found more than 2,000 sea turtle nests on its 5 miles of beach, well above the average 1,500 nests that its conservation team usually sees in a full nesting season.

Aydil Barbosa Fontes and William Lowe, her husband who is charged with killing her, lived in this condo building on Venetian Drive in coastal Delray Beach. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack and Jane Musgrave

More than a month after parts of 80-year-old Aydil Barbosa Fontes’ body were discovered packed into several suitcases tossed into the Intracoastal Waterway — and weeks after her 78-year-old husband, William Lowe, was charged with murder and abuse of a dead body — why it all happened remains a mystery.

As they fill in parts of a complex puzzle, investigators say they know what happened to Barbosa Fontes, where it happened and how it happened. When it happened and what the motive might have been are still unclear.

Even some of the lawyers who met Lowe at the Palm Beach County jail several times soon after his early August arrest were left in the dark.

“He was friendly, polite and respectful but he couldn’t tell us what happened,” said Fort Lauderdale defense attorney Glenn Roderman. The lawyer wonders if a combination of injuries from Lowe’s time in Vietnam and head injuries related to frequent falls could be affecting his cognitive abilities.

Delray Beach police have said they also have been unable to determine a motive for the murder of Barbosa Fontes — who was shot in the head — since Lowe hired an attorney and remained silent when he was arrested on Aug. 2.

That arrest came after an intensive investigation that began when the three suitcases were found in water on July 21.

Detectives said they first identified Lowe as a possible suspect in the death of his wife of 21 years after one of the investigators took a photo of a license tag from a car that had been seen in the area near where the bags were found.

The tag came back to Lowe and to his address, which was a tenth of a mile from where two suitcases were found.

Lowe was brought to the Police Department to give a DNA sample, while at the same time investigators armed with a warrant searched his condominium on Venetian Drive. After leaving the Police Department, Lowe tried to get into the home through a back window, but was stopped by investigators who were still conducting the search.

He told them he wanted to get his phone and the key to his storage locker, where a battery-operated chainsaw later was found. Detectives found blood and other evidence on the chainsaw, which they say was used to dismember Barbosa Fontes’ body.

For more than a week, investigators had sought to identify the remains in the suitcases, asking for help from the public. It was only after they began investigating Lowe as a suspect that they could identify Barbosa Fontes as the victim.

Knowing that Lowe and Barbosa Fontes shared the apartment and that she hadn’t been seen by neighbors for weeks, investigators then were able to confirm her identity using dental records and DNA.

Another help in identifying the remains was an airline sticker attached to one of the suitcases with the name Barbosa Ontes on it — with the first letter of the last name unreadable. Barbosa Fontes was a Brazilian native who made frequent trips to South America.

Service-related disabilities
From all accounts, Lowe lived a law-abiding life in South Florida and in Shelbyville, Kentucky, where he lived before moving to Delray Beach.

Military records show he entered the U.S. Marines in 1968 during the Vietnam War and achieved the rank of chief warrant officer. Defense attorneys say he sustained injuries while in the service and some who know him say he acknowledged suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

That could explain why, for at least 10 years, Lowe has had a property tax exemption on his two-bedroom condo through a state program that allows veterans with total and permanent service-related disabilities to avoid taxes. Becky Robinson, spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office, confirmed Lowe had the exemption.

Roderman said he believes PTSD combined with concussions from several falls over the years could be an issue. “There’s no doubt there’s mental health issues,” he said.

Roderman said that when he talked to Lowe early on, Lowe had trouble finishing sentences and would walk away in the middle of a conversation. He said he had planned to have Lowe undergo a mental health evaluation, but was pulled from the case along with co-counsels Philip Johnston and Ed Hoeg before that could be done.

One of Lowe’s sons from his first marriage hired West Palm Beach attorney Franklin Prince as the latest to represent Lowe. Prince said he met Lowe at the jail briefly late last month but was still sorting out details of the case. “We were able to have a conversation,” he said. “It didn’t look to me as if he was out of it.”

The door to murder suspect William Lowe’s condo on Venetian Drive in Delray Beach. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Unexplained flowers
While conducting their investigation, detectives spoke to neighbors in the complex on Venetian Drive, just north of Casuarina Road, where Lowe and Barbosa Fontes lived since they married in 2002. It was the second marriage for both.

Neighbors told police they didn’t know Lowe or Barbosa Fontes well. But, one 38-year-old neighbor said Lowe would inexplicably leave flowers outside her door.

He did so on July 26, five days after suitcases containing parts of Barbosa Fontes’s body began surfacing in the Intracoastal Waterway.

Lowe bought the unit in the small, neatly manicured barrier-island complex in 1990 for $105,000, when he was married to his first wife and was living in Kentucky. Similar units in the complex now routinely sell for more than $1 million.

Records show the unit has been paid off for years, but in September 2022, Lowe’s mortgage company sued him for foreclosure. It claimed he failed to abide by his obligation to buy insurance and pay taxes on the condo when he got a reverse mortgage in 2008. The company said he owed at least $265,000.

Ultimately, Lowe hired attorney Reginald Stambaugh, got insurance and the action was dismissed.

When Lowe bought the condo, his parents already owned a unit on the second floor of the building. When his mother died in 2000, years after the 1982 death of her husband, Lowe and one of his sisters agreed to sell the upstairs unit to another sister, who lives in California, court records show.

Neighbors told police they hadn’t seen the sister, now 86, for several years and that Lowe used the unit for storage. About two weeks before Barbosa Fontes’ body was discovered, one neighbor said she saw a trail of what she thought was “soup” leading from Lowe’s unit, up the stairs to the second-floor apartment.

When police searched it, they discovered blood on the outside wall next to the front door.

Inside, they said they discovered a cover and battery charger for a chainsaw and bottles of cleaning supplies.

Lowe, like his father, had been in the auto parts business in Shelbyville. When he married his first wife in 1970, after he left the military, he said his occupation was “salesman,” according to a listing in the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Later records show he owned an auto parts business in his hometown. He registered the company in Florida in 1995, but there is no indication he ever had a storefront here. He let the registration lapse a year later, state records show.

Those who know Lowe as Bill say he and Barbosa Fontes owned Lowe’s Cash, an ATM company Bill ran out of the apartment with installations throughout the area. Barbosa Fontes was listed as president of the company, which records show operated from 2015 to 2017. There is no record of any other business they may have owned together.

Some of those who knew him said they believed Lowe was part of Delray Beach’s alcohol recovery community.

A good landlord
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Barbosa Fontes in 1966 married a Massachusetts Maritime Academy graduate in the seaside town of Winthrop, according to an engagement announcement in the Boston Globe. After moving to Broward County, the couple divorced in 1976. Barbosa Fontes became a U.S. citizen a year later.

Barbosa Fontes dabbled in real estate, owning two units in a condominium complex in Pompano Beach. One of her tenants described her as a good landlord who came to his apartment in July to take care of some plumbing problems.

Despite her age, he said, she appeared to be in good health. “She’s a very nice lady,” said the tenant, who has rented the unit for four years. Reeling from the news of her murder, he asked not to be identified. “We have a very nice relationship.”

Roderman said the case is unlike any other he has handled. “This is really a family tragedy,” he said. “It’s the saddest case I’ve been involved in.”

Michelle Quigley contributed to this story.

Residents object to plan for beach access, cite safety concerns

By Rich Pollack

Highland Beach residents were dealt a setback in their 36-year battle to prevent development of a beachfront park when county commissioners agreed recently to move forward with plans to develop the Milani Park property.

The fight, however, is far from over.

In an August letter to the town, Palm Beach County Administrator Verdenia Baker said that the county will begin the design and permitting process for Milani Park, 5.6 acres that straddle State Road A1A at the south end of town.

The county could have delayed its decision to initiate development for another five years as part of a 2010 settlement agreement with the town that came 23 years after the county bought the property from the Milani family for just under $4 million, but chose not to exercise that option.

News of the county’s decision to move forward spread quickly through Highland Beach, where Milani Park has been a hot topic for decades.

“This is a big deal,” Town Manager Marshall Labadie said. “It’s a big project for a small town and a small project for a big county.”

What Milani Park will look like and when the first shovel will hit the ground are still unknown, but Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Director Jennifer Cirillo says it will be a few years until all required impact studies and design work are completed and construction can start.

“It’s probably several years into the future,” she said.

Cirillo and County Commissioner Marci Woodward, whose district includes the property, say that conceptual plans for the parcel call for a passive park similar to Ocean Ridge

Hammock Park, about 10 miles to the north in Ocean Ridge.

Like that park, also operated by the county, Milani Park would have parking for a small number of cars — just over 40 — on the west side of A1A and would have boardwalk access to the beach.

Along the boardwalk at Milani Park, which will pass over native Florida vegetation that has been allowed to flourish, would be educational signs about the native habitat as well as about the history of the property, which is believed to have been a native American burial ground.

“It’s going to be more of a nature preservation park,” Woodward said.

Nearby residents say they can live with that concept, especially since earlier plans for the project included more than 100 parking spots on the west side of A1A.

The sticking point for residents is the beach portion of the park, according to Ron Reame, vice president of the board of the Boca Highland Beach Club & Marina, which is adjacent to the property on the west side.

“We’re not really in favor of anything on the beach,” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

Reame said that the beach is not very wide during high tide and includes the Yamato Rock formation, which can be hidden and hazardous to those not familiar with it.

“If you make it a public beach, it will be dangerous,” he said. “It’s such a small area.”

Under the preliminary conceptual plan, the beach will not have a lifeguard or restrooms, at least as part of the first phase of development.

Reame said there is also a concern with beachgoers leaving the public park and entering private property to the north and south.

“This is more acceptable than the original proposal but it’s still something a lot of residents won’t support,” he said.

If final plans include beach access, Milani Park will offer the only public beach access in Highland Beach.

Beach access, Cirillo said, is one of the main reasons the county wants to go ahead with development of the park, since the county’s comprehensive plan requires a specific ratio of beach access countywide to population and as the population grows, additional beach access is needed.

Town Commissioner Evalyn David, who lives in the Boca Highland community, says she’s also concerned about traffic and pedestrian safety with beachgoers having to cross A1A.

“We want to make sure that traffic flows freely in our town and all our safety concerns are met,” she said.

Both Cirillo and Woodward say they want to work with town residents.

“There’s definitely room for discussion on how the beach access will work,” Woodward said.

Cirillo says the town and the county will also need to discuss updating 43 conditions placed by the town in the settlement order. Among those are requirements that people pay a fee for parking and that a parking attendant is present.

“This is a unique property and we want this to be a community project,” she said. “We like to be good neighbors.” 

Owners’ argument for property rights awaits final votes

By Larry Barszewski

Ocean Ridge is ready to draw a new, more accommodating line in the sand for the town’s beach property owners.

Town commissioners plan to scale back some earlier regulations that significantly limited how large of a home a coastal property owner could build. Those regulations also made it more cumbersome for the homeowners to get construction plans approved.

At their Aug. 7 meeting, commissioners gave preliminary approval to two ordinances that walk back some of the regulations imposed in 2020, regulations that coastal homeowners say were approved without their knowledge and that infringed on their private property rights.

Beach homeowners are paying attention now. Alvin Malnik, whose 3.43 acres at 6301 N. Ocean Blvd. is the largest oceanfront single-family home parcel in town — more than twice the size of the next largest one — has retained a law firm to lobby the commission to go even further than it has planned.

The commission will consider whether it wants to make any additional changes — before it gives final approval to the new ordinances — at its Sept. 5 meeting.

Currently, the proposed ordinances continue to protect dune parcels south of Corrine Street from being built upon, but they make it easier for property owners to get approval to construct non-habitable structures, such as pools and decks, seaward of the 1979 Coastal Construction Control Line.

The CCCL is used to demarcate beach areas where construction is given additional scrutiny because of its increased potential to cause erosion and destabilize dunes.

Construction projects along the beach also require separate approval from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. FDEP approval is needed for construction east of the state’s 1997 CCCL, which moved the CCCL line farther west, though still east of State Road A1A.

The proposed changes Ocean Ridge is considering relax the methodology used to calculate how big a new or expanded home can be on the beach. The town plans to revert to the mean high-water line and not the 1979 CCCL when determining a property’s size. Because the mean high-water line is seaward of the CCCL, the change makes the size of each property bigger, thereby increasing the permitted size of the home on each property.

For oceanfront homeowners between Anna and Corrine streets, whose homes all include portions built seaward of the 1979 CCCL, their homes will no longer be considered non-conforming uses. They will be able to rebuild within their homes’ existing footprints without triggering the need for them to get variances, which entails a more rigorous approval process.

Some hope to build larger
One of Malnik’s attorneys, Janice Rustin, suggested the changes don’t go far enough.

Rustin requested beach property owners be allowed to build larger homes — up to 50% greater than what would otherwise be permitted — through a waiver process instead of requiring them to get a more difficult variance. She said the change would be an incentive to bring beach structures into compliance with today’s stricter building code standards.

“I think that would encourage people to improve their houses,” Rustin said. “I think limiting the exemptions to only those developments within [a home’s existing] footprint misses an important tool that the town can use to encourage more hardy development.”

Vice Mayor Steve Coz wasn’t persuaded.

“That’s pretty huge,” Coz said. “That’s kind of what the town doesn’t want.”

Commissioners supported one idea Rustin presented, to create an administrative waiver — and not an administrative permit — for the town to use to approve non-habitable improvements east of the 1979 CCCL.

The town’s proposed ordinances say any rejected administrative permit would require a variance to move forward, forcing homeowners to show a hardship and requiring approval by the town’s Board of Adjustment and Town Commission. The waiver process would allow the appeal of any rejection to be heard just by the Planning and Zoning Commission.

“A setback waiver is a more common type of approach,” Rustin said. “There would be waivers granted administratively by the town manager, or after public hearing by the Planning and Zoning Commission.”

Commissioners asked Town Attorney Christy Goddeau to review all of the suggestions from Rustin’s firm — Lewis, Longman and Walker, P.A.

Goddeau said it was apparent the commission wants “to continue to make it harder for those new habitable structures — or expanded habitable structures — seaward of the Coastal Construction Control Line” to be built by continuing to require such proposals go through the town’s variance process.

Goddeau planned to provide the commission with an alternative ordinance that would incorporate the suggested “waiver” criteria of Rustin’s request for the commission’s Sept. 5 consideration.

In a Kansas town of about 1,900 people, a weekly newspaper had its publication servers, computers, cellphones and other electronics seized last month during a raid by local police. Law enforcement officers with a warrant removed electronics from the paper’s office and from the home where the editor and publisher lived with his 98-year-old mother, a co-owner of the newspaper.

The elderly woman later died from the stress of the raid, according to her son.

News of the raid has gained national attention, with the countywide newspaper receiving an outpouring of support as an investigation takes place into whether the equipment seizure was justified. In the meantime, the small staff at the 4,000 circulation newspaper worked long, difficult days to cobble together and re-create enough editorial and advertising files to publish an edition with a large headline saying, “Seized … but not silenced.”

Amen.

In The Coastal Star’s 15-year history, we’ve never experienced such a dramatic attempt at silencing our reporting, but we’ve had lawsuits thrown at us purely for intimidation and many, many subpoenas delivered for our photos and stories. All of them required attorney’s fees and at least once increased the annual cost of our insurance.

Appallingly, the objective pursued in the raid of the Marion County Record was for information the newspaper chose not to publish before it became public. That made this Kansas-based threat to press freedom even more disturbing.

There are many times our publication obtains information that we choose not to write about. Sometimes because we don’t have the resources, but most often because either the source or the nature of the allegations doesn’t meet our threshold for what is critical for the community to know. It is never because we are afraid of being sued or raided.

What happened in Kansas appears to be a ham-handed attempt at silencing a free press to keep salacious information from exposure. The facts will no doubt be revealed as investigations (legal and journalistic) continue.

In the meantime, small newspapers all over the country are closely watching this case.

Without confidence in their ability to publish free of fear or intimidation, many will close. Already more than 2,500 dailies and weeklies have ceased publication since 2005 — leaving behind communities with essentially no local news.

Cronyism, misconduct and corruption flourish without a free press. Even a small free press. Just ask that little newspaper in the rolling hills about 150 miles southwest of Kansas City.

Our advertising partners believe in a free press and support our publication. We hope that you’ll support them. If you would like to more directly show support for our journalism, we do accept contributions used to enhance our ability to do in-depth reporting.

Mail your contribution to: The Coastal Star, 5114 N. Ocean Blvd., Ocean Ridge, FL 33435.

Or send tax-deductable donations to the Florida Press Foundation, 336 E. College Ave, Suite 304, Tallahassee, FL 32301 with The Coastal Star in the memo field. This is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit fund. Donations made through the foundation are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law, and are subject to a 5.5% administration and processing fee.

Contributions made directly to The Coastal Star have no processing fee, but are not tax deductible.

— Mary Kate Leming,
Editor

Lulis Camarena, shown with her husband, Hermán, founded Imagina Children’s Foundation in the United States with the purpose of raising funds for the libraries and other programs she established in her hometown of León, Mexico. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Sallie James

The transformative power of education was always a guiding force for Lulis Camarena, who grew up in León, Mexico. There, access to books was scarce and many children never finished school because they had to work.

She decided to help by establishing a children’s library in her hometown and then creating a nonprofit here in the U.S. to provide financial support.

On Sept. 30, residents in the tri-county area will also have a chance to help when the Imagina Children’s Foundation annual fundraising gala kicks off at The Studio at Mizner Park.

The event, “Imagine: A Musical Gala,” will feature a special performance by Mexican icon Fernando Allende, a famed actor, producer, recording artist and entertainer. Allende has starred in films, soap operas, and TV series like Miami Vice, Flamingo Road, Maria Bonita and Sortilegio.

The event will also feature Mariachi Pancho Villa, a full mariachi band; a silent auction; and a showing of artwork by Colombian artist Ana Maria Tamayo during cocktail hour.

“I think it’s a good way to spread the word about doing good for others and at the end of the day, whatever we get we know we’re transforming lives,” said Camarena, 63, of Boca Raton.

She and husband, Hermán, moved from Mexico to California in 1988 and to Florida in 2001. The couple has four adult sons. But it was in 1992 when her husband went to Mexico to work remotely that Camarena’s dream to help began taking shape.

Camarena realized she must open a library aimed at serving the children in her hometown. By 1994 she had a board of directors, and when she and her husband returned to the United States, her mother took charge of the Mexico project and worked to establish children’s programs.

In 1996 Camarena founded the nonprofit Imagina Biblioteca Infantil in León, which enabled the establishment of two libraries, a preschool and a flourishing ecological and cultural center. The programs took off, but they needed a steady stream of cash to stay afloat.

So, in 2010, Camarena established the Imagina Children’s Foundation, a U.S. nonprofit with the purpose of fundraising for IBI’s programs in Mexico.

“Now it’s a whole community center with learning education, art, music. It has kindergarten, it has virtual online high school and college,” she said. Today more than 1,300 children are enrolled in IBI’s various programs, which provide a range of educational experiences the students would otherwise not have.

Camarena’s dream to help children in Mexico was rooted in research. She wanted to do something to empower children in her hometown, but sought to be sure the need and interest existed.

What she learned was that children in her own community were attending school for only about five years and that only about 2% read for pleasure. The answers were proof she was on the right track.

“Parents whose kids participated in IBI’s programs became more aware of the value of education and IBI drew even more community support,” Camarena said.

Although IBI has only recently begun to compile metrics on its success, organizers believe about 20,000 students have benefited from IBI’s programs since it was founded.

IBI’s programs have helped children in León read at a higher level, stay in school and earn scholarships to fund their college education, Camarena said.

“We call it like our secret sauce, where the kids are really taken care of,” she said. “I call our hangout our magical place. It’s really a safe place for all these kids. The quality is very important — not just the education, arts and culture, but we take care of the whole child. We are changing the children’s lives, the family and the community.”

To learn more about Imagina, the foundation’s mission or the gala, or to get involved, contact Camarena at Lulis@imaginachildrenfoundation.org.

If You Go
What: Imagine: A Musical Gala
When: 6 p.m. Sept. 30
Where: The Studio at Mizner Park, 201 W. Plaza Real, Boca Raton
Tickets: $250 general admission online at imaginachildrenfoundation.networkforgood.com/events/58433-imagine-a-musical-gala
More info: Lulis@imaginachildrenfoundation.org

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

By Steve Plunkett

After giving new police hires a $9,000 raise in June, Gulf Stream town commissioners are penciling in substantial raises for veterans and another raise for the rookies to keep up with other area police departments.

Town Manager Greg Dunham had warned the commissioners to expect the proposed pay hikes.

“Talking about the budget back in July, and even back I think the month before when we raised the starting salary, at that point in time I told you that we weren’t done dealing with the police officers’ salaries knowing what other towns and cities were in the process of doing, and that was developing their own budgets and or completing contracts with their union regarding the police salaries,” Dunham said at the commission’s Aug. 11 meeting.

Chief Richard Jones compared Gulf Stream’s police salaries to those in 16 nearby jurisdictions on starting salaries, for three- and 10-year officers, for five- and seven-year sergeants and for three-year captains.

Gulf Stream was near the bottom at all officer and sergeant levels and below the average for captain.

Jones and Dunham proposed moving a three-year officer, for example, to $72,000 a year, up from $66,763 for a $5,237 raise, or 7.8%.

The starting salary, which was bumped to $61,250 from $52,250 in June, would rise to $66,000, also 7.8%.

The chief also proposed incentive pay for officers hired with experience, those who further their education and those who become paramedics or emergency medical technicians.

He and Dunham also recommended that they be allowed to develop a long-range salary plan with steps based on length of service.

“It seems like we have to do this, you know, every two or three years with respect to police departments, but we want to stay competitive with the other cities and it’s been a challenge,” Dunham said. “That puts us basically right in the middle.”

Jones also introduced to the commissioners his latest hire, Vincentina Nowicki, whose first day on patrol was Aug. 7, and Alan Gonzalez, who joined the force in March. Officer Assel Hassan, who started in late June, could not attend the meeting and will be introduced later.

The chief said the promise of a higher starting salary helped motivate the new hires to come to Gulf Stream.

Mayor Scott Morgan welcomed Gonzalez and Nowicki.

“It’s really important that we get to see you in this context and for you to see us,” Morgan said. “I think it brings the Police Department, town staff and the commission a little closer together, so thank you very much, thank both of you for coming.”

Commissioner Paul Lyons praised Jones for doing an “incredible” job: “very comprehensive, thoughtful, logical, persuasive — I don’t know what else to say.”

“One of the things that the last three or four years we’ve been lacking is an adequate number of police officers and you’ve done a lot to cure that problem,” Lyons said.

In other business:

• Commissioners adjusted water rates for town residents, passing along a 6.1% increase imposed by Delray Beach starting Oct. 1. Dunham continues to talk with Boynton Beach about switching water providers.

• Commissioners moved their November meeting to 9 a.m. on Nov. 9, a Thursday, instead of Nov. 10, which is the observed holiday this year for Veterans Day.
On Sept. 8 they will meet at 4 p.m. instead of the usual 9 a.m. start and follow that with a budget hearing at 5:01 p.m. The final budget hearing will be at 5:01 p.m. on Sept. 27.

• Dunham said much progress had been made landscaping the entrance to the Blue Water Cove development just north of Place Au Soleil and obscuring the construction there.

“You’ll notice when you go by that wall, the fishtail palms are about 15 feet tall — they were originally going to put 8- to 10-foot ones in there. They weren’t available so they bought the larger ones. And when you’re inside there, you don’t see Walmart,” Dunham said.

Two Place Au Soleil residents, Julie Murphy and Miguel Newmann, complained to commissioners in July that they were living in an unsightly, “eternal” construction zone.

By Larry Barszewski

Ocean Ridge commissioners are considering turning over more than 150 town-owned streetlights to Florida Power & Light, which would then take over the cost of replacing them and charge the town a monthly fee for their use.

Town Manager Lynne Ladner included $1 million in her proposed budget for street lighting that may be needed on Ocean Avenue to replace about 40 aging decorative lights there, but the town would not need to spend that money if it works out a deal with FPL to take over all the town’s lighting. The town would be required to maintain four lights on its end of the Ocean Avenue bridge itself.

Resident Victor Martel, who has been in touch with FPL officials, told commissioners if the town were to turn over its lights to FPL, the Ocean Avenue fixtures could be replaced by lights the company has available, though they would not match the lights on the Boynton Beach side of the bridge.

Commissioners said they would need to discuss the proposal with FPL and get a better idea of what LED lighting it offers that would be appropriate for residential areas. The company does have lower intensity options suitable for neighborhoods, Martel said.

Final vote on beach signs
The commission will take one more vote before a new beach sign ordinance is enacted. The commission agreed to add language that would also permit “No Trespassing” signs that are strung across private stairways over the dunes. The revision is expected to be voted on at the commission’s Sept. 5 meeting.

Iguana removal questioned
During the commission’s Aug. 7 meeting, Ladner said the contractor hired to remove iguanas from town property has removed 1,868 iguanas in the past year, an average of almost 156 a month — or about 20 every twice-a-week visit. But Vice Mayor Steve Coz questioned the veracity of those numbers and commissioners asked Ladner to implement steps to check that the numbers reported are accurate.

“These iguanas are huge and I’m told this guy has a car the size of Volkswagen bug,” Coz said. “I want proof of this. I don’t believe it.”

Deal sought on building site
Commissioners are still working out the details of a permit extension for construction work that has been going on at 6273 N. Ocean Blvd. for eight years. They temporarily extended the permit until their Sept. 5 meeting to give Town Attorney Christy Goddeau time to work out the details of a fee the town would assess property owner Andrew Rivkin in exchange for granting an extension until February 2024.

Because the work isn’t expected to be finished until next year, that’s another year when the new construction won’t be included on the tax rolls. Commissioners want Rivkin to cover the town’s lost property taxes for the project’s not being completed this year.

“We’ve forfeited six years of taxing it on its value because it wasn’t completed,” Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy said. “I think that we’ve forgone almost a million dollars in tax revenue in Ocean Ridge.”

Manager disputes quotation
In a memo to commissioners read at the Aug. 7 meeting, Ladner questioned a quote attributed to her in The Coastal Star’s August 2023 edition about buried water valves in town.

In the quote, she said Public Works Supervisor Billy Armstrong “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 the project, so he opted not to.”

The Coastal Star confirmed the quote through a recording of the meeting.

Ladner said: “I do not believe that this is a correct quotation of what I said, however, if it is I apologize to Supervisor Armstrong for misstating the situation.” Ladner went on to say Armstrong had raised the buried valve issue with his direct supervisor and the town attorney even before he was promoted to supervisor.

The article also contained information from Armstrong that was included in an email sent to The Coastal Star. The email was sent by Ladner, not Armstrong, but included Armstrong’s responses to questions by The Coastal Star.

Related: Along the Coast: ‘It’s like crazy’: Turtle season smashes records

By Steve Plunkett

The nonprofit trying to restart Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s sea turtle rehabilitation ward is expanding its focus to include human help for manatees, whales, dolphins and indirectly even penguins.

In June the Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards hired veterinarian Shelby Loos, filling the void left by Maria Chadam’s resignation in February, the group announced in mid-August. It also said it hired a rescue and rehabilitation coordinator, Kara Portocarrero, in early August and a conservation program manager, Kelly McCorry, last April, shortly after Gumbo Limbo’s sea turtles had been moved to other facilities.

At the Aug. 21 joint meeting of the Boca Raton City Council and the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, the nonprofit’s president and CEO, John Holloway, said the group is “moving forward” on obtaining a state permit that will allow Gumbo Limbo to reopen its shuttered turtle tanks and reclaim its two resident sea turtles.

“And then additionally we are in the final steps of submitting the application for the actual rehabilitation permit that would allow the patients to come back to the rehab facility,” Holloway said.

Gumbo Limbo lost its permit in March when Boca Raton laid off the two city employees assigned to turtle rehab as the first step in a transition to having the Coastal Stewards, which had been funding just the veterinarian, take over the whole rehab operation. The nonprofit group also raises money for other aspects of the nature center.

“We’ve been working on things other than turtles,” Holloway continued at the joint meeting, “like working with manatees and cetaceans, which are small whales. We’ve been doing that work, too, here locally and in the Keys.”

Loos and the two other zoologists went to Tavernier on Aug. 14 to perform a necropsy on a rare Gervais’ beaked whale that died shortly after being discovered in shallow water.

They were summoned, Loos said in a news release, by Dolphins Plus Marine Mammal Responder, a nonprofit responsible for the rescue of sick or injured whales and dolphins in the Florida Keys.

Loos spent a year working with Dolphins Plus after earning her veterinary doctorate in 2017 at the University of Florida and taking part in a residency program in Tampa, according to her LinkedIn résumé. She then spent eight months as an associate veterinarian at the Miami Seaquarium, 18 months at Island Dolphin Care, a nonprofit in Key Largo that offers therapy swims with dolphins for people with special needs, and almost two years at the Seaquarium again as a staff veterinarian.

She left the marine park in March, her résumé says, and started volunteering at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, which is keeping one of Gumbo Limbo’s resident turtles. She also offered her services as a relief/contract vet.

Loos’ patients at the Seaquarium included Lolita, the orca also called Tokitae and Toki that died unexpectedly on Aug. 18. Loos defended the killer whale’s treatment in February 2022 when PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, claimed Toki had pneumonia and was “not receiving adequate care.”

The orca recovered and the marine park retired her from performances the next month. Plans were being drawn up to send her back to her native waters in Washington’s Puget Sound when she died of what the Seaquarium said were thought to be kidney problems.

The Coastal Stewards plans to hire two veterinary technicians as part of the process to get its sea turtle rehabilitation permit issued from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The nonprofit also has started its Youth Leadership Council with four initial members. Its president, 12-year-old Anya Gupta, who lives in Lighthouse Point, is the founder of the nonprofit Pennies for Penguins, which aims to raise money for penguin conservation. Anya has already held a penguin fundraiser at the nature center’s front doors.

The youth council collected more than 200 pounds of electronic waste on Aug. 12 at the Delray Beach Children’s Garden.

“We are really excited and happy that all of this e-waste could be prevented from ending up in landfills because a lot of it is big stuff and can make a really big impact,” said member Caleb Caponera, 13, who lives on Boca’s barrier island.

The Coastal Stewards’ conservation program is not the same as the city’s sea turtle conservation team, which monitors, records and studies nesting activity and conducts hatchling releases and turtle walks to observe egg-laying.

By Mary Hladky

Pearl City cleared a high hurdle to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Aug. 3 when the state’s National Register Review Board approved the listing.

The board now will submit a formal nomination to the National Park Service, which will make the final decision, said Natalie Meiner, director of communications and marketing for the Florida Department of State. The park service then will have 45 days to review the nomination and approve it or ask for changes.

The decision is a victory for Pearl City residents and their supporters who have long sought the historic designation, which will make the area eligible for federal financial support for historic preservation.

“I feel this is something this community really needs and they need to be uplifted,” said Marie Hester, the president of Developing Interracial Social Change (D.I.S.C.), who has worked for more than two years to get Pearl City on the national register. Her grandparents were among Pearl City’s first residents.

But the state agency’s decision has compounded concerns that a historic designation at this time will endanger, or possibly torpedo, rebuilding the dilapidated Dixie Manor public housing complex in Pearl City.

Those worries prompted both the Boca Raton Housing Authority and City Council to withdraw their support for historic designation earlier this summer even though both would gladly support it when the project is well underway or completed.

Michelle Feigenbaum, development manager at Atlantic Pacific Cos., which is redeveloping Dixie Manor along with the Housing Authority, wrote in a letter to City Council members that to obtain U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approval for the demolition of Dixie Manor, the site must first undergo an environmental review.

Atlantic Pacific has been advised that the review will take much longer if the site has a historic designation, she wrote. That would delay both construction of the new Residences at Martin Manor and getting tenant protection vouchers so current Dixie Manor residents can be relocated during the construction.

If deadlines that are connected to project funding are missed, the funding could be revoked. And the state could deny plans to demolish Dixie Manor and build new public housing on the site, she wrote.

“We are eager to continue working with D.I.S.C. and the community as we move forward on the redevelopment of Dixie Manor to honor the incredible history of this area,” Feigenbaum wrote. “Unfortunately, an official historic designation is expected to negatively impact our ability to provide new and significantly improved affordable housing to the community and the city of Boca Raton.”

Yet now that the state review board has approved historic designation, Atlantic Pacific will not ask the National Park Service to deny or postpone it, said Jessica Wade Pfeffer, a spokeswoman for Atlantic Pacific.

Atlantic Pacific expects that Pearl City will be placed on the national register soon. The company “is now focused on the road ahead” to redevelop the property and is prepared to undergo additional reviews, she said.

Pfeffer stressed that Atlantic Pacific supports the historic designation. Its only concern, she said, is that the designation is occurring “at this point in time.”

What remains unclear is what Boca Raton residents knew about the designation’s impact on Dixie Manor redevelopment.

Hester, who attended the Aug. 3 state review board meeting virtually, said Ruben Acosta of the state’s Bureau of Historic Preservation repeatedly said the designation would not affect the Dixie Manor project. He also said, “I wish I had a bullhorn to carry around to tell people, no, you are confused” about negative impact, she said.

Angela McDonald, chair of the Housing Authority board, also heard him say there would be no impact on the project.

Deputy Mayor Monica Mayotte heard the same when Acosta met with Boca Raton residents on June 10. That is why she proposed a resolution stating the city’s support for the designation, before she later pulled it.

Housing Authority board member Brian Stenberg, who is a City Council candidate in the 2024 election, also heard that at the June 10 meeting but did not recall if Acosta qualified it in any way. That prompted him to propose that his board express its support for the designation.

“From a personal standpoint, it is frustrating,” he said. “The idea of a national historic designation for Pearl City is excellent. It tells a story people have been trying to tell about Pearl City for generations.” And yet, “nobody wants to see a slowdown in Dixie Manor being modernized.”

Acosta did not return a call seeking comment.

A June 28 letter to the Housing Authority from the state’s Bureau of Historic Preservation said that listing a property on the National Register would not restrict property owners’ rights to use and dispose of their property as they saw fit.

But it also said if redevelopment of the property should require approval or assistance from a federal agency, the redevelopment would be subject to reviews. HUD is involved with Dixie Manor redevelopment, including its demolition and issuing tenant protection vouchers.

By Mary Hladky

Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District officials are making a renewed effort to be exempted from making annual payments to city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.

The city turned down the district’s previous request in 2020. Since then, the cost to the district has continued to increase each year, officials told City Council members at an Aug. 21 joint meeting.

The district’s payment for the 2019-20 fiscal year was $1.4 million. That rose to $2.3 million for the current fiscal year and $2.6 million for next year.

The money, the officials contend, would be better spent on needed improvements to parks operated by the district.

District Chair Erin Wright urged council members, who also serve as CRA commissioners, to give “strong consideration” to the exemption request and “give our beaches and parks the same priority that is given to the downtown area.”

She also renewed a request that district residents be charged the same amount as city residents to use the community center and tennis facilities near City Hall in the CRA.

Charging district residents more is “an inequity that is not only unfair to our residents but also blatantly disregards the agreement made between our agencies in 1986,” she said.

While district officials have long complained about both issues, they had thought that their payments to the CRA would end first in 2019 when the bond for building Mizner Park was paid off and then in 2025, when the agency was scheduled to sunset.

But in June, City Manager Leif Ahnell proposed extending the so-called “tax increment financing (TIF)” requirement to 2042. The City Council delayed a vote on that change until after the joint meeting.

If the City Council votes in favor, it would cost the district a total of $60 million, district officials said.

While previous joint meetings have been contentious, the Aug. 21 session proceeded with no acrimony. Yet tensions were apparent.

Several district officials noted there are no park or recreation areas within the CRA.

“I would feel much better about writing a check for $2.6 million knowing it was going to recreation …” said district Commissioner Robert Rollins Jr.

If the payment requirement continues, “we would look at all options,” said district Commissioner Craig Ehrnst.

Council members offered no assurances. Mayor Scott Singer said they would “consider” the exemption request.

CRA Chairman and council member Marc Wigder said he would be willing to consider charging district residents the rates city residents pay to use the community center and tennis facilities.

Council members Fran Nachlas and Yvette Drucker said they first wanted to know what impact that would have on the CRA.

Contacted after the meeting, district Executive Director Briann Harms said in an email that she and commissioners had anticipated that city leaders would suggest that the district formally apply for a TIF exemption again.

“I hope they will strongly consider the impact that the (TIF) extension will have on our beaches and parks,” she added, noting the $60 million cost to the district.

Yet the two sides found some common ground.

The city and district agreed that a parks and recreation master plan is needed and both should collaborate on creating one. Deputy City Manager George Brown said a master plan would avoid duplication while meeting future needs.

Council members also approved a conceptual plan for the district’s North Park project on the east side of the former Ocean Breeze golf course property.

The plan for the property includes pickleball and tennis facilities, multi-use and mountain bike trails, a dog park, playgrounds and a community garden.

Before the meeting, Singer advised Wright that the city received permission to add a railroad crossing at Jeffery Street and extend the road across the parkland to Northeast Second Avenue.

Wright said her last update was that the city was applying for the change.

“We didn’t know there was going to be four lanes going through our property. We honestly didn’t; it was unclear to us,” Wright said.

Years ago the Florida East Coast Railway assured the district it would not allow another crossing to be built in the city.

The district will incorporate the roadway into its planning, Wright said.

By Rich Pollack

Having to spend about $250,000 less than they expected on employee health insurance, Highland Beach commissioners will plow that money back into reserves rather than minimally reduce a tax rate that is already among the lowest in Palm Beach County.

In a rare split decision on Aug. 24, commissioners followed the recommendation of staff and voted 3-2 to use the money to partially replenish the town’s fund balance, which continues to be diminished as Highland Beach prepares to start a new fire department and builds a new fire station.

Commissioner Judith Goldberg and Vice Mayor David Stern voted to put $150,000 into reserves and use the remaining $100,000 to lower the proposed tax rate of $3.58 per $1,000 of taxable property value. But Mayor Natasha Moore and Commissioners Evalyn David and Donald Peters voted to put all $250,000 back into reserves.

That proposed tax rate is the same as the current year’s tax rate, even with anticipated increased fire-rescue costs.

“If the economy drops, I don’t want to have to start asking for a tax increase when money is tight,” David said.

During his budget presentation to commissioners, town Finance Director David DiLena offered three choices on how the unexpected savings on health insurance could be used.

Had commissioners chosen to use all of the $250,000 to lower the tax rate, residents would have seen a reduction of about $74 for every $1 million in taxable value. Had they decided to put $100,000 into lowering the tax rate, residents would have saved about $30 for every $1 million of taxable value.

“It’s just a small number,” said Moore, who like David and Peters saw the benefit of rebuilding reserves.

Goldberg, who along with Stern are in seats that will be up for reelection in March, said that she believes the town’s current reserves of more than $6.2 million are sufficient.

“We have significant savings,” she said.

DiLena said that the town plans to earmark the $250,000 for a “fire truck replacement fund” that will be built over time to help cover the future costs of replacing fire apparatus.

Should that money be needed for something other than fire truck replacement in the future, commissioners have the option to use it elsewhere.

In his original budget, DiLena had planned for a significant increase in health insurance costs for the town’s 44 covered employees.

Following a switch of companies to Florida Blue, however, the town’s anticipated costs dropped by just under $10,500 from $781,238 to $770,796, or by 1.3%.

The new plan, according to Human Resources and Risk Management Director Eric Marmer, is a better plan at a lower cost.

“Florida Blue was extremely aggressive,” Town Manager Marshall Labadie said. “They really want our business.”

Overall, the town is seeing a more than 45% increase in its overall budget, due in large part to the creation of the new fire department and the building of the new fire station.

The proposed budget shows a very slight decrease in the operating tax rate and in general debt service but includes a separate, slight increase in the debt service tax rate to cover a bank loan being used to build the fire station.

While the proposed budget reflects a decrease in the overall tax rate, it is likely to be offset by a significant increase in property values.

Property values throughout the town increased by about 13% — more than town leaders had expected — making it easier to increase services without boosting the tax rate.

Property taxes, which are expected to increase by about $1.4 million, account for about 58% of the town’s overall projected general fund revenues.

The town also expects to see a significant increase in investment earnings, which are projected to grow by a little more than $50,000.

By Rich Pollack

Highland Beach town leaders are hoping 16 condominiums that missed deadlines will soon file structural and electrical inspection reports that were mandated following the Champlain Towers condo collapse in Surfside more than two years ago.

During an August meeting, town Building Official Jeff Remas said that 16 of the town’s 53 buildings that are required to file inspection reports because they are at least 25 years old failed to do so.

Remas and Town Manager Marshall Labadie said those buildings could be cited for code violations — and possibly assessed daily fines — should they not file inspection reports in the next few weeks or ask Remas for an extension.

“We want to make sure people are paying attention and not compromising safety,” Labadie said. “They’ve got to get started.”

Only two condo buildings have completed the inspection report procedure. Five others have filed reports but been asked for more information. The reports from three others are under review.

And three buildings that are not included with the non-filers have not filed reports but have concrete restoration projects underway.

Confusion could be one reason the reports are slow in coming.

Under a state law passed last year, buildings — those 25 and older along the coast and 30 or older inland — that are more than three stories in height with four units or more must be recertified. Buildings have until Dec. 31, 2024, to complete the process.

But the law also requires that buildings have a structural engineer complete a visual inspection within 180 days of notification by a local government that a report is required.

As a result of that law, the town had to change an earlier ordinance that gave buildings 365 days from notification to file an inspection report.

Complicating matters is a requirement by the town that buildings also file an electrical inspection report within 180 days of notification.

Since early last year, the town has been sending notices to two or three condo associations each month, letting them know when the inspection report needs to be filed. Nine buildings will be notified in the future.

“This has been phased in very carefully,” Remas said, adding that the town wants to make sure that there is time to review all the reports.

The town also wants to make sure building associations have all the time needed to get reports done. As the state deadline gets closer, finding an available inspector could be challenging since the law applies to thousands of buildings across Florida.

“Our concern is that people are going to find themselves in a crunch and they won’t be able to make the state deadline,” Labadie said.

Remas said that buildings have been given notice of the deadlines with certified letters and with hand-delivered notifications. An additional letter, giving buildings that missed the deadline 30 days to comply or ask for an extension, went out in August.

He said the town has also begun calling building managers, following a recommendation by Vice Mayor David Stern, who is also president of the board of the Highlands Place condominium.

Stern, whose building has a future deadline, said he believes the situation may not be as challenging as it appears.

“It’s hard to believe there are so many not in compliance,” he said. “It’s possible that some buildings are compliant, just not notifying the town.”

He believes that having town officials making phone calls “to find out what the facts are” should create a clearer picture.

Remas said that his next step, if buildings don’t comply or request an extension, will be to take the matter to the town’s code enforcement board, which could impose daily fines.

“No one here is trying to punish anyone, we’re just trying to get compliance,” Remas said.

Students from West Boca Raton Community High School pose for a group photo on the last day of their summer break before they headed back to school. Traditionally, students from all of the Boca Raton area’s high schools gather at the park to mark the occasion. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Penn-Florida Cos. has obtained a $302.5 million loan in the latest refinancing of its Mandarin Oriental hotel and branded residences project in downtown Boca Raton.

Madison Realty Capital, a real estate private equity firm, provided the loan, which replaces the $225 million loan it provided in 2019, Penn-Florida announced on Aug. 14.

The refinancing comes as questions have arisen about Penn-Florida’s ability to finish the project. Since it was first announced in 2015, the completion date has been pushed back four times, most recently until sometime in 2024.

Construction has been sporadic, slowing almost to a halt this spring. The two buildings, located just north of Camino Real along Federal Highway, remain shells with only some windows installed.

Asked if the loan would allow the pace of construction to pick up, Elizabeth Cross, vice president of marketing for Penn-Florida, said in an email that “we are well capitalized, and the pace is on schedule.”

Penn-Florida secured a $398 million loan in 2017 from Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies and the U.S. Immigration Fund. In 2021, the company obtained a $335 million refinancing package, with Blackstone Mortgage Trust providing a $195 million senior loan and Romspen Investment Corp. providing a $140 million refinancing loan.

When the $225 million Madison Realty Capital loan was announced, Penn-Florida said that it completed capitalization for the project and would be used to finish it.

The hotel and residences are part of the three-building Via Mizner development. 101 Via Mizner, a 366-unit luxury apartment building, was completed in 2016.

— Mary Hladky

City Council members voted unanimously on Aug. 22 to spend as much as $365,000 a year to pay the salaries of assistants who will help them with managing their schedules, policy research, communications and serving constituents.

The money allows for four full-time assistants, although all the positions might not be filled.
Council members currently have no staff, but two administrative employees who also work with the city manager’s office assist them part-time.

Mayor Scott Singer proposed the new positions at a June 12 meeting, saying that as the city has grown, council members’ jobs have become more complex and time-consuming.

“I see the work of all of us is increasing,” he said.

Other council members supported the idea, saying they especially could use help with managing their schedules and policy research. They differed on how many assistants are needed.

During the Aug. 22 meeting, council member Fran Nachlas said she had changed her mind and decided she does not need an assistant.

Council members or commissioners in other large cities already have varying amounts of support.

Riviera Beach’s mayor has a chief of staff and council members have legislative aides. West Palm Beach commissioners have aides whose duties include responding to correspondence and requests for information, drafting expense reports, managing commissioners’ schedules and representing commissioners at community events.

Boynton Beach commissioners share one assistant who primarily assists them with scheduling. Delray Beach commissioners have administrative assistants whose duties include scheduling meetings and preparing agendas, attending meetings and performing office management functions.

— Mary Hladky