Capt. Steve Anderson holds a nice snook he caught on a recent fishing trip in the Jupiter Inlet. September is a good time to catch snook in local inlets. Photos by Steve Waters/The Coastal Star

By Steve Waters

Tom Greene used to look forward to September like most people look forward to Christmas, because the first day of this month was when the snook season opened.

The snook is Florida’s favorite inshore gamefish. It fights hard and often jumps, it hits all types of lures and baits, you can catch one from land or from a boat, and for many anglers a snook is their favorite fish to eat.

South Florida’s guru of snook fishing, Greene used to freely dispense information on where, when and how to catch snook when he owned Custom Rod & Reel, a Lighthouse Point store that he sold after 60 years in the fishing tackle business. He got his start at Boca Tackle when he was 12 years old.

Greene also practiced what he preached in September, fishing around inlets, spillways and beaches — wherever he thought the snook fishing would be best based on the scouting reports provided to him by his customers and a network of trusted sources from Jupiter to Miami Beach.

The snook season is closed from June 1 to Aug. 31 on the Atlantic coast of Florida because that’s when the fish gather at inlets as they prepare to spawn, which makes them easy to target. The fall season runs through Dec. 14. Anglers can keep one snook a day measuring 28 to 32 inches long with the tail squeezed.

The majority of snook are finished spawning by September, but some remain in local inlets and off beaches and around fishing piers. With a full moon on Sept. 7, Greene said the snook fishing at inlets should be especially good because the fish spawn on the full moon.

“The fish will still be around the inlets and off the beach,” Greene said. “The No. 1 time to fish them is early morning daylight and sunset.”

Because of heavy rains this time of year, snook also hang around spillways, where excess fresh water is released into the Intracoastal Waterway. When the spillways are opened, snook will be there to eat bluegills, shiners, shad and other small fish swept through the spillways with the moving water.

Tom Greene, considered South Florida's guru of snook fishing, holds the book he wrote about his fishing exploits, A Net Full of Tails.

Greene said swimming plugs, crankbait and jigs that get down to where the fish are will all catch snook at spillways, including those in Boca Raton, Boynton Beach and Lake Worth Beach. He recommended using tackle with 20- to 50-pound main line and 30- to 50-pound fluorocarbon leaders.

Greene, who wrote a book about his fishing exploits titled A Net Full of Tails, said that the hour before and after tide changes is usually the best time to catch snook in inlets and from bridges, especially at night and first thing in the morning.

One of my most memorable snook tales was a night trip with Greene and Capt. Steve Anderson. Trolling Rapala X-Rap swimming plugs through Jupiter Inlet, we caught and released more than a dozen snook up to about 25 pounds.

I had fun because I had never tried that technique. I had even more fun listening to the two old buddies tell stories about fishing from South Florida piers, beaches and bridges. Greene was so addicted to snook fishing as a young man, he missed his sister’s wedding ceremony because the snook were biting so good that day.

As Anderson slowly drove his boat in the inlet, Greene and I stood on opposite sides at the back of the boat with the lures swimming in the water behind us. The results were immediate, as Greene hooked a snook on our first three passes through the inlet.

My lure got hit when I started reeling so it didn’t get tangled in Greene’s line. After Greene landed his 11-pounder, I landed my 20-pounder for a successful doubleheader release.

Anderson and I then took great pleasure in giving Greene a hard time for catching such small fish. The old pro quickly got even by catching eight snook in a row, including several over 20 pounds.

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

By Mary Hladky

The Boca Raton City Council has selected Mark Sohaney, who has an impressive resume but no experience running a city, to succeed George Brown as city manager.

In so doing at an Aug. 12 special meeting, the council rejected two highly qualified in-house candidates — Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer James Zervis and Deputy City Manager Jorge Camejo whose focus is on the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.

Sohaney is the former chief executive officer of Joint Air Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. Before that, he was chief executive officer of Naval Air Station Key West and has held other positions with the U.S. military.

The vote for Sohaney was unanimous. Before the vote only council member Andy Thomson voiced support for Zervis, and said Camejo was his second choice.

The others praised both Zervis, the former chief administrative officer for Kern County, California, before he joined the city in 2024, and Camejo, who rejoined the city earlier this year after serving as executive director of Hollywood’s CRA.

But council members said Sohaney would provide a fresh perspective and brings experience with complex infrastructure projects at a time when the city is planning redevelopment of its downtown government campus.

They expect to finalize an employment contract with Sohaney in September.

Brown, who is retiring in January, is a 43-year city employee who served as deputy city manager for 21 years until he was promoted on Jan. 1, 2024, replacing longtime City Manager Leif Ahnell.

Sheriff’s office announces arrest of serial shooter who took aim at homes in Ocean Ridge, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and elsewhere

The Glock 9mm handgun that officials say was used in 16 separate shooting incidents around Palm Beach County in recent months. Photo provided

By Rich Pollack and Larry Barszewski

Smart detective work by the Ocean Ridge Police Department helped lead to the arrest Thursday of a man described as a serial shooter who is charged with firing bullets into 16 residences and businesses throughout the county in a spree that began in February.

While some of the homes 29-year-old Sterling Maloney is accused of shooting up were occupied at the time, there were no reported injuries.

“We’re very lucky that no one was hit, killed or injured with these shootings,” said Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Col. Talal Masri, who said that Maloney kept a ledger detailing the locations he shot up and a list of 10 more places he was planning to target.

“This arrest today potentially saved lives even though we were lucky no one got hurt," Masri said. "We don’t know what was going to happen the next time.” 

PBSO had not previously reported that police were investigating such a string of shootings involving the same handgun.

Sheriff’s investigators began looking into the shootings more than five months ago after buildings in Royal Palm Beach were struck by bullets. There were more shootings in the months that followed, including six in Delray Beach and four in Boynton Beach.

One of those shootings in Boynton Beach in May occurred at a home where four people, including children, were sleeping. Delray Beach police said that at least one of the homes struck by bullets in their city was occupied at the time of the shooting.

Most, if not all of the shootings, appeared to occur in the early morning hours before daylight.

A case in Ocean Ridge

PBSO and the other police agencies had used a central database and found the shell casings in all the shootings matched and appeared to come from the same Glock 9mm handgun. Who was firing that gun remained a mystery until the shooter took aim at a vacant home in Ocean Ridge in the early morning hours of July 11.

“They had so many shootings, but they didn’t know who was doing it,” Ocean Ridge Police Chief Scott McClure said.

In Ocean Ridge that morning, at least a dozen shots were fired at an unoccupied home on Thompson Street. One of the bullets went through a window.

Ocean Ridge Police Sgt. Keith Ramirez investigates the scene July 15 outside a home near Thompson Street and Old Ocean Boulevard where the shooting took place days earlier. The orange cones mark the location of three of the bullet casings found on Thompson. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

The shooting was noticed the next day when a passerby saw bullet holes and contacted a police officer who was in the area on another call, McClure said.

McClure said that through the use of technology, including license plate recognition cameras, static cameras and video taken from home-security cameras in the area, his officers were able to identify a vehicle they suspected was involved.

Ocean Ridge police put out an alert July 17 to all the police departments in the area to be on the lookout for the vehicle. Six hours later that same day, Boynton Beach police officers pulled over the vehicle, a blue Hyundai Sonata driven by Sterling Maloney.

McClure said Ocean Ridge police were called to the scene and met with Maloney.

“Our detectives interviewed Sterling the day of the traffic stop,” McClure said, adding that Maloney was released for lack of probable cause to hold him.  

But the car was impounded because of its tie to the Ocean Ridge shooting, and after obtaining a warrant, investigators found the gun — later linked to multiple shootings of businesses and homes — ammunition and the ledger with past targets and a list of potential targets.

“It was good on our part that we got these breaks to stop them in their tracks,” McClure said. “They’d been looking for him since February.”

McClure said the investigation in Ocean Ridge was a team effort.

“Everybody had a hand in this,” he said. “It’s good detective work and I’m proud of them.”

Masri, of the sheriff’s office, said that Maloney was surprised when he was arrested Thursday morning.

A diagram provided by police points out the timeline and location for the various shootings being investigated. The diagram indicates there was also a shooting in Broward County. Diagram provided

He said that sheriff’s detectives, who took the lead in building the case against Maloney, are now looking to determine a motive and are following up to see if there are any commonalities connecting all of the victims. 

Maloney is being held without bond at the Palm Beach County Jail on a dozen charges of firing a missile into a dwelling. He is also charged with two counts each of discharging a firearm from a vehicle and criminal mischief damage to property.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified when Ocean Ridge police learned of the shooting in town. Officers found out about it the next day.

Coral outcropping at proposed Milani Park — an out-of-the-way lure for snorkelers — once  attracted Japanese settlers, indigenous tribes Japanese settlers of Yamato Colony shown circa 1922 at Yamato Rock, once known as ’Jap Rock.’ It was a hub for the colony’s social gatherings and fishing. Photos provided by Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens

By Rich Pollack

For the Japanese farmers who settled the Yamato Colony in Boca Raton during the early 1900s, the area surrounding what is now known as Yamato Rock was an oasis of sorts.  

With their village centered near the railroad tracks and present-day Yamato Road, colony members often trekked by foot or by boat, by horse-drawn wagon or car or motorcycle, to fish from the coral outcropping or for community gatherings, picnics and celebrations. 

“It was the primary recreational community space,” said Larry Rosensweig, founding director of the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach. 

The area that had been described as remote — sprinkled with saw palmettos and pine trees amid its sugar sand during the early part of the 20th century — is now known for its near-shore snorkeling and fishing opportunities. It has been placed in the spotlight as Palm Beach County continues its plans to develop Milani Park there, which would make the area more accessible to visitors. 

The controversial park, which has drawn opposition from Highland Beach residents for decades, would envelop the beach and dune areas adjacent to Yamato Rock — named “Jap Rock” until 2006 — as well as a parcel on the west side of State Road A1A at the south end of the town. 

Oscar Kobayashi circa the 1920s. The Yamato Roack area is being considered for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. 

Historical significance

The county is hoping to add the proposed site to the National Register of Historic Places because of its link to the Yamato Colony and its inclusion of a Native American burial ground believed to be more than 1,000 years old. The county has submitted a nomination that is being considered. 

Rosensweig and others who have studied the Yamato Colony say the site is the last undeveloped parcel that can be linked to the Japanese farmers. 

The area near the railroad tracks that was known as Yamato Village, the hub of the community, is now the site of office buildings, retail shops and condominiums. 

Photos of the colony members on the beach and recollections from the farmers and their families help provide the documentation of the parcel’s historic significance. 

“It’s one of the few pieces of concrete evidence we have left,” says Carla Stansifer, curator of Japanese art at the Morikami. “It’s an important part of history.” 

Through diaries and interviews with descendants of colony members, historians and researchers have been able to understand the important role the area played in life there. 

“The Yamato Colony’s roots can best be traced back to Jo Sakai, a U.S.-educated Japanese entrepreneur who was looking to establish an agricultural community in Florida,” said Susan Gillis, the curator at the Boca Raton Historical Society. “He came to Boca Raton in 1903 and liked what he saw.”

The colony's roots go back to 1905 and it had its heyday in the 1920s. Stansifer thinks the colony members may have been attracted to the coastal area because of its appearance. 

“It’s very much like the coastline of Japan,” she said of the coral outcropping. “They may have thought ‘this looks familiar, it looks very homey.’”

Men celebrate a good harvest at the mound, circa 1916. The mound, as the early Yamato colonists called it, is the Native American burial mound near Yamato Rock.   

Source of sustenance

Yamato Rock became a prime fishing ground that served as a food source for sharing among members of the colony.

“Some of the men would go and fish and what they caught they brought back for dinner with the whole community,” Stansifer said. 

In his book The Amazing Story of Highland Beach, author Sandy Simon includes a description from Tomiko Kobayashi, who was a member of the colony, of what it was like during the Great Depression and how important fishing at the rock was at the time.

“Nobody had any money and nobody could get a job,” Simon quoted Kobayashi as saying. “All we could do was work in the fields and since it was too hot to grow anything during the summer we would go over to Yamato Rocks to the beach and fish for food. There were lots of fish there and it was much cooler.”

During a presentation at the Delray Beach Historical Society in July, Bryan Davis, a principal planner with Palm Beach County, said that fishing is discussed prominently in diaries and oral histories. Among the fish caught from the rock or surrounding area were bluefish, pompano and cubera snapper, he said. 

Oscar Kobayashi with a large snook he caught near Yamato Rock.

Place for celebrations

Besides fishing, the beach area near Yamato Rock was important for weekend picnics and special occasions, including a New Year’s celebration. 

Photos from members of the colony show gatherings on the Native American mound, and Simon, in his book, quotes locals as recalling groups of Japanese families getting together there on the weekends.

“It was an important place for the community to gather,” Stansifer said. 

Rosensweig said the area's preservation is important due to the evidence there of Native Americans and the history of the Yamato Colony members. 

“It’s one of the last remaining examples on the South Florida coast of the continuum of human existence,” he said. 

Residents put the mic in their own hands to take leaders to task via social media sites

By John Pacenti

Elected leaders routinely reach out to Delray Beach resident Ingrid Lee through text or social media. The mayor has met her for coffee to discuss issues.

Lee, administrator of the Facebook group Delray Matters, said it used to be that you had to be a white, wealthy landowner to have access to elected officials to have power and influence. “Now with social media, anybody can have discourse within the community and with leadership and be anybody,” Lee said.

In places as politically active as Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Lantana, officials may control the microphone at government meetings, but residents have found other ways to have their say and influence decisions. 

They are frequently turning to social media and its kissing cousins — newsletters, blogs, etc. — to influence, interact and participate in their local government. The flip side of this free-for-all marketplace is that these vehicles can be agenda-driven, censoring opposing viewpoints and allowing personal attacks and proliferating misinformation.

In one case involving Lantana elected officials, violence was endorsed, the vice mayor says.

The proliferation of social media sites focused on municipal government is so profound that it’s hard to track them all down. Whether they influence the government is a matter of debate that reflects the polarizing politics of the day.

In other words, you either love it or loathe it.

Besides Delray Matters on Facebook, there are Delray Raw and the Delray Beach Community Forum. Then there is the anonymously published Delray Gazette, which often has incendiary articles that are picked up by Delray Matters and other groups.

Into the mouth of the rat

In Boca Raton, there are the websites BocaFirst.org and 4Boca.com. The Nextdoor app for Boca Raton can get into the municipal weeds. Right now, the hot topic is the redevelopment of the city’s 30-acre downtown campus — and the “Save Boca” opposition movement.

Former Boca Raton City Council candidate Brian Stenberg posted on Nextdoor on July 23: “Hearing the constant ‘Government Campus/Memorial Park’ drumbeat is tiring, but it’s an important point in Boca Raton’s history. It’s about the difference between cost and value. It’s about our relationship with our local government.”

Boca Raton resident Holli Sutton says she has used Nextdoor to organize the resident opposition that killed the construction of an assisted living facility next to her home in Palmetto Park Terrace — a proposal rejected by the City Council. 

“Nextdoor was essential in helping us spread the word,” said Sutton, who is now building opposition to a proposed condominium complex for the same space by the same developer.

Digital marketer Jason Pelish, who publishes 4Boca.com, says he knows more than he would like about social media influencing local government. Pelish worked with Al Zucaro when the politician produced BocaWatch before running for Boca Raton mayor.

However, the BocaWatch that Pelish first encountered gave true meaning to Boca’s translated name: rat’s mouth. A schism occurred when Pelish, as he tells it, tried to clean up BocaWatch from “nasty and really just mean people hurting genuine political dialogue.” 

Zucaro shuttered BocaWatch after he lost his second mayoral bid in 2018 — then tried to start it up again a half-year later — while Pelish eventually started 4Boca. That site aggregates links to relevant content from other publications that focus on Boca Raton.

Meanwhile, BocaFirst.org publishes original content and addresses the issues of the city head-on. In July, the site addressed such in-the-weeds topics as the city losing its director of mobility and coverage of the Citizens’ Pedestrian and Bikeway Advisory Board meeting,

Pelish relishes his role as government watchdog, saying that he is good at knowing the inside scoop at City Hall. “When they see me coming, they run, basically,” he laughs.

But Pelish says this intersection between social media and local government is the Wild West, especially where people are using Facebook groups, blogs and other matters to post anonymously.

“There are a number of anonymous people on social media — Facebook, particularly, not so anonymous on Nextdoor — who really control, for the most part, what gets exposed, what doesn’t get exposed, what gets discussed and what doesn’t get discussed online.”

Anonymous potshots

Anonymously run Facebook groups, websites and newsletters allow certain candidates to get their messages across while censoring others, Pelish said.

 “I think it is textbook campaign fraud,” he said.

Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney said he also has a problem with anonymous social media posts and newsletters.

“I like to know who is writing it so I can understand the context of the comment, because you can have a political objective and post something anonymously,” he said.

The administrators who allow anonymous posts, Carney said, are taking a risk. “Freedom of speech does not protect you from a defamation lawsuit,” he said.

Zucaro, now years away from making waves with Boca Watch, said his site was nothing like the social media free-for-all that is present today.

“I think we simply were attempting to provide an information vehicle and provide a thesis for people to have their voice heard,” he said. “It was very effective, but it clearly wasn’t used in the manner that social media is being used in today’s world.”

A post on Nextdoor by this reporter asking what residents of Boca Raton think in regards to social media’s influence on municipal government got diverse responses.

“Nextdoor is full of mostly naysayers who don’t know all of the facts and jump to very lopsided conclusions. Then the misinformation spreads and spreads,” said one resident.

Another said, “It definitely changes municipal gov’t. It can be used by the gov’t to sway the public. A savvy citizen can do the same thing.” This was disputed by a woman who said, “I don’t believe it influences gov’t in the least.”

The Delray scoop

In his protracted ongoing contract battle with Delray Beach’s police union, Carney wanted to get an opinion on the reach of the city’s health center.

Did he call a doctor, a patient, or a director at City Hall? No, Carney called Lee of Delray Matters. The mayor said he didn’t call Lee as the administrator of the Facebook group, but she says, “He has called for other reasons and met for coffee” on different topics.

When it comes to scoops, Delray Matters posted in June a redacted portion of a whistleblower complaint filed by Jeri Pryor, the city’s director of neighborhood and community services, before any television or newspaper did. Pryor’s complaint against City Manager Terrence Moore and Vice Mayor Rob Long was found “unsubstantiated” by an independent investigator.

Pryor has told the city attorney that the publication of the whistleblower complaint in Delray Matters, as well as The Coastal Star and the Sun Sentinel, has led to public attacks that have contributed to a hostile work environment.

Rodney Mayo, a well-known restaurateur who claims Pryor’s code division has targeted him, sent another screed to the media in July titled, “The City of Delray Beach has Lost Its Mind!” Delray Matters ran it all.

Lee weighed in: “Why would a brand new Code Mgr target a business when she is new to the City?”

The latest edition of the Delray Gazette was also posted in Lee’s Facebook group. The publication is anonymously written and has the motto, “Because you CAN handle the truth.” Identifying the person or persons behind the newsletter is like playing a local game of Clue, and everyone is sure who has a firm grip on the pen — the name just changes depending on to whom you speak.

“Buckle up, because if the mayor has his way with the budget cuts, Delray Beach is about to get a whole lot less fun,” said one op-ed piece in the Gazette on Carney’s proposed budget cuts that would include some signature events.

Instant interaction

Gregg Weiss, who runs the Delray Beach Community Forum, said the blogs, Facebook groups, and newsletters give residents something that traditional media failed to deliver.

“Reporters were always really good about talking about government issues, in other words, issues within the cities. But where I feel they fell short, and this is just my opinion, was engaging citizens,” Weiss said.

Social media, especially hyperlocal groups, interact with people in the moment, whether it’s a lost dog or wallet, or municipal issues.

“Somebody has an issue with code enforcement? You know, they get solutions and answers,” Weiss said. “It’s very communal.”

Vice Mayor Long said he was one of the first to get into the newsletter game to reach his constituents. But he also sued former Planning and Zoning Board Chairman Chris Davey over a post on social media.

“I stay deliberately out of the groups because they are so overwhelmingly negative,” Long said. “And unfortunately, I think it creates these silos, and it creates these factions. These factions may already exist, but I think they actually end up getting strengthened, oftentimes by these Facebook groups that share a lot of disinformation.”

Filling a void

Former Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia has battled the social media horde and won. Petrolia ousted the nonprofit that ran Old School Square, which split the hoi polloi in the city right down the middle, earning her all kinds of shade and vitriol on social media.

“I think social media has been around for a long time, and what it has done is, I hate to say this, but it has somewhat started to fill the gap that we’ve lost with a lot of our news coverage,” she said.

Zucaro echoed that sentiment: “Boca Raton is in the middle of nowhere. I mean The Post barely covers it and the Sun Sentinel, I don’t think they even think it exists.”

Seasoned journalist Randy Schultz has been filling the gap with his City Watch items in Boca Magazine, but he can tiptoe the line between commentary and news. He was not a fan of Petrolia’s ousting the nonprofit that ran Old School Square.

Petrolia said she started a newsletter when she was in office “that was very popular” to address issues in City Hall that were not being covered by television stations and newspapers.

Carney has a newsletter and tries to use it not only to sway public sentiment but also the commissioners. He torched them not once but twice in July for not suggesting cuts to the budget. It didn’t work; they voted against him.

In June, Carney blasted the Police Benevolent Association in his newsletter — which is sent out via email — for wanting an increase in retirement benefits, saying the money would go only to the upper echelon and not the rank-and-file troops.

The Lantana threat

Lantana Mayor Karen Lythgoe and Vice Mayor Kem Mason take a different approach. They want as little to do with social media as possible, finding it toxic.

It’s hard to blame them.

Mason said that, in 2021, a comment on a Facebook group endorsed throwing sulfuric acid on some elected officials. Mason, first elected in 2022, said the group administrator endorsed the post.

The former firefighter called out the post at a council meeting during public comments. “Bullies are only stopped if you stand up to them,” he said.

Mason said he feels people lose their civility on social media, emboldened to attack their government and elected officials.

“[They] feel as though they’re protected behind their screen or their keyboard,” he said. “If people had to face the person that they’re criticizing, they probably would be more civilized.”

Lythgoe in February addressed misinformation on social media during a council meeting. She says social media is a bad method for residents to interact with their government.

“The people who seem to have the most negative things to say are not people who interact with any of us,” she told The Coastal Star. “We do not see them at the meetings.”

Lythgoe says she gets frustrated when seeing the misinformation online about the town she loves and her initial reaction is like a lot of people’s — to respond with equal venom.  

“I was on Nextdoor and there was this guy who said Lantana was so disappointing. And I was like, ‘Whoa, Karen. Don’t. Don’t.’ And then I politely and nicely said, ‘You need to get your facts straight.’”

Mason said he stays off social media altogether — so anybody using it to criticize him is usually wasting time, though some comments trickle back to him. “I’ve been called a liar, a bully and a cheat on there,” he said.

His campaign staff had to beg him to use social media when he ran for office.

“I don’t do Facebook. I don’t do Twitter, or X. I don’t do Tinder,” he said, laughing. 

Holly Schuttler (l-r), Liz DeBiase, Jon Pearlman and Dawn Alford Zook, of Save Boca, hold signs in support of their agenda. The group’s petitions call for amendments to a city ordinance and to the City Charter that would not allow the City Council to lease or sell any city-owned land greater than one-half acre without an election. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Mary Hladky

What started as contained protest has morphed into all-out rebellion, as residents step forward to oppose Boca Raton’s plans to redevelop the city’s 30-acre downtown campus, which includes government and park space.

With the new residents group Save Boca in the lead, the opposition now has the trappings of a movement with Save Boca lime green and bright navy T-shirts and yard signs — and volunteers going door-to-door to collect signatures on petitions that would force the city to let residents vote on the project.

Organized by Jon Pearlman, Save Boca has a website, SaveBoca.org, where petitions are available, and a Facebook page. Residents can go to the Downtown Library every Tuesday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon, and Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. to sign a petition or pick up a yard sign.

Save Boca exhorted residents to voice their opinions at the July 15 City Council meeting. They responded in force.

Project opponents filled every seat in the council chambers and spilled over into a foyer. More than 30 spoke.

“This is too big,” Brett Lassen said of the project. “We are taking paradise and putting up a parking lot.”

Said Joe Majhess: “Traffic will drastically increase. Our quality of life is being sacrificed. We are done. Put it to a vote.”

“I have not heard one single person who wants this development. Not one,” said Patricia Dervishi. “They want it completely scrapped. Not changed. Scrapped.”

“People are shocked,” Pearlman said. “This project has brought to light we the citizens do not have any power over our public land.

“That is what the petitions seek. We need to put the protection of our public land back in the hands of the people.”

As he shouted “Save Boca!” the audience cheered.

The two petitions call for amendments to a city ordinance and to the City Charter. They would not allow the City Council to lease or sell any city-owned land greater than one-half acre without an election.

Mayor faults petition words
The city, in a public-private partnership, plans to lease the 30 acres for 99 years to a joint venture of Terra and Frisbie Group for redevelopment.

An analysis by city consultant CBRE found the deal would yield the city $3.6 billion. That includes lease payments to the city and a $2.2 billion increase in tax revenue the property will generate over the 99 years once redeveloped. Pearlman contends the revenue would be far less.

What Pearlman and Save Boca supporters see as an issue of resident control over what happens to city-owned public land, Mayor Scott Singer sees as a grave impediment to governance.

“Unfortunately, these petitions are confusing to many residents because they have far-reaching consequences that extend beyond just the downtown campus,” he said in statement to The Coastal Star.

“The language could imperil all our longstanding relationships with core nonprofits, facilities and cultural centers, including the Boca Museum of Art, Boca Raton Historical Society, Fuller Center, Tri-County Animal Rescue and many more groups.”

Every time the city wanted to lease land to such groups, there would have to be a costly election, he said. Either the groups would have to pay for it, or the City Council might decide not to pay that cost and so not provide leases.

“Residents who have concerns may prefer to give feedback to the evolving (downtown campus) plans, rather than sign this petition that may prevent nonprofits in the future from providing many benefits to our city,” he said.

Jon Pearlman and Dawn Alford Zook of Save Boca review petitions outside the Downtown Library that are aimed at halting Boca Raton’s downtown campus redevelopment plans. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Ballot initiative
Save Boca must collect at least 6,112 signatures for the charter change and 3,676 for the ordinance change to get either measure on a ballot.

As of late July, Pearlman did not have an exact count of how many signed petitions have been collected, but said it was over 1,000 for each of the two measures.

“I am very confident we will get the amount of signatures we need for this petition to become successful,” he said.

There is no specific deadline for submitting the petitions. Once they are filed with City Clerk Mary Siddons, she would coordinate with Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link to verify the signatures and voter registrations. If the petitions meet the requirements, the measures would go to a vote.

The next city election is on March 10, 2026, when voters will determine the next mayor and who will fill two City Council seats. A special election with only the two measures on the ballot would cost about $200,000.

Was city outreach enough?
Several residents complained at the council meeting that they did not know the scope of the redevelopment project that will bring residential, retail, two office buildings and a hotel to the downtown site. It also will include a new, but smaller City Hall, larger Community Center and a police substation.

They criticized city officials for poor communication and outreach.

But city officials insist they have worked diligently to keep residents informed.

All documents detailing the project are on the city’s website.

Officials also post regular updates there and on social media about the project’s status. They have held two charettes that allowed residents to see the plans and speak with Terra/Frisbie officials. For more than six months, city officials and CBRE have provided updates at every council meeting and allowed the public to comment.

And yet, many residents either were unaware or assumed the project was limited to building a new City Hall and Community Center, which they generally support.

The exception is users of the campus’ recreation facilities, including the tennis center, skate park and softball fields. They know the city plans to move most of those to other parks and have strongly objected.

Most recently, the city said it would build a $12 million softball complex at Sugar Sand Park, which is owned by the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District. Once it is built, the district will own and maintain the complex.

In responding to criticisms during the meeting, Mayor Singer said, “It disheartens me that despite so many communications so many people are unaware.”

He noted that Mizner Park was created as a public-private partnership that “transformed that area of the downtown. We have the opportunity to do the same thing here. … Everyone would say (Mizner Park) is successful.”

“This is an ongoing process,” he said after residents had weighed in. “We appreciate your comments and will see what we can make better.” 

We are delighted to share some good news about the future of The Coastal Star.

We’re welcoming Harvey Oyer III as a shareholder in the ownership of our publishing company. Our newspaper has been locally owned and operated since we published our first edition in November 2008. 

As we think about the future of our newspaper, we very much want to maintain our local roots. Harvey is, of course, as local as you can get. He is joining the ownership of our company to help us ensure the longevity and continued excellence of our publication.

Harvey is probably known to many of you, or at least his family name is. He is a fifth generation native of Palm Beach County, his ancestors having planted the coconuts from the wreck of the Spanish ship Providencia in 1878 that gave the county its name. 

His great-great-grandparents homesteaded on Hypoluxo Island in 1873 and his great-grandmother in 1876 was the first non-Native American child born in southeast Florida. Later, in the 1890s, his great-grandparents brought Maj. Nathan Boynton, William Linton and David Swinton to our area, which led to the creation of the cities of Boynton Beach and Delray Beach.

Harvey’s father was the mayor of Boynton Beach who had a waterfront park named in his honor.

Harvey loves our history and shares our same core values of community and freedom of speech.

He was a writer for his college newspaper and is an accomplished author, who has written five bestselling children’s books that are used throughout Florida to teach elementary school students Florida history. His books have received numerous awards and Harvey was named Florida’s Distinguished Author in 2013. 

Harvey is passionate about historic preservation and led the effort to save and restore the county’s historic 1916 Courthouse in downtown West Palm Beach. He also led the effort to create the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum at the courthouse, restore historic Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, and most recently, restore the Harriet Himmel Theater in CityPlace. He served seven terms as chairman of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County.  

Harvey was elected Phi Beta Kappa when he graduated with high honors at the University of Florida, and was selected the Most Outstanding Male Leader of the Class of 1990. He has been inducted into both the UF student hall of fame and the UF alumni Academy of Golden Gators.

After further study at The Australian National University as a Rotary International Scholar, and earning a master’s degree in archaeology at the University of Cambridge, England, Harvey returned to UF and received a Juris Doctor with honors from the College of Law. He also served honorably in the Marine Corps, attaining the rank of captain.

He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1998, and is a partner in the Shutts & Bowen law firm.

Local ownership is critical

We believe the long-term future of community journalism is based on the commitment that owners have to the ongoing success of their local publications. The Coastal Star’s current owners have each lived in our coastal communities for more than 40 years. Mary Kate Leming — my wife and the paper’s semi-retired executive editor — and I founded the paper in 2008. Chris Bellard, our advertising director, along with Price Patton and his wife, Carolyn, a Delray Beach native, became part of the company's ownership in 2011.

As Harvey joins The Coastal Star team, its mission to produce strong local journalism remains the same as always.

Harvey is a noted local attorney who represents a broad range of clients. If Harvey or his firm is included in a Coastal Star story, we will — as we always do — include full disclosure in the story so our readers are aware of the relationship.

Succession planning is an important task for business owners, and I can tell you that we have been looking for the next owners of The Coastal Star for a few years. Harvey’s involvement will give our staff and this community a sense of security that a sale to faraway owners would not provide. 

We hope it will also provide stability for our advertisers and satisfy the expectation of meaningful community journalism for our readers for years to come.

— Jerry Lower, Publisher

By John Pacenti

For months, Manalapan commissioners sought to determine whether or not Palm Beach County’s sand transfer plant at the Boynton Inlet was to blame for erosion of its shores.

An engineer and beach erosion expert hired by the town to look at its erosion issue says the transfer plant — which pumps sand south to Ocean Ridge and beyond — is not the big, bad bogeyman after all. 

The culprits are old-fashioned sea walls, lack of a comprehensive dune policy and Mother Nature, particularly tropical storms like 2012’s Hurricane Sandy from which the town’s beaches never truly recovered.

The conclusion is no surprise, but still grim: Manalapan faces critical erosion challenges, especially on the town’s north end, where one-time residents Billy Joel and Yanni could dig their toes into the sand.

Where a luscious beach once stood outside of the Vanderbilt estate, now at high tide the sea wall often juts into the ocean. 

It appears residents will have to decide — more likely sooner than later —  if they want to truck in expensive sand to replenish their beaches.

“Your primary issue that you should focus on is ‘how do we get enough sand, how do we maintain the sand location’ and not try to correlate that too closely with what residents — individual residents — have done,” said Doug Mann, lead coastal engineer with APTIM.

He gave an hour-plus presentation, including a question-and-answer session, at the July 8 Town Commission meeting.

Mann’s comprehensive knowledge of all things beach and erosion in Palm Beach County was on full display. He said there was actually a bit of a benefit from the sand transfer plant on the south end of Manalapan, but that any “accretion” is not present north of the Chillingworth Curve at 1500 S. Ocean Blvd.

“One day, the plant runs, and you move some sand off the beach, and it gets bypassed. The next day, there’s not enough energy or enough sand there to bypass. So the county turns the plant off, and the beach starts to accrete again,” Mann said. “So you have both of these processes going on at the same time.”

The study revealed significant beach narrowing over the decades. “The beach is lower and it’s not as wide as it used to be,” Mann said, showing photos of changes since 2001.

The northern portion of Manalapan’s beach appears the most vulnerable, eroding “pretty substantially” over the last 30 years, Mann said.

Existing sea walls complicate the situation. While doing a bang-up job of protecting multimillion-dollar properties, Mann said sea walls “cause a redistribution of sand” that may “push some sand directly offshore, particularly when you have a severe storm.”

Sea walls have been rebuilt along the former Vanderbilt estate after failing during storm surge from Hurricane Sandy. Yet, Mann showed a picture with a sea wall jutting into the ocean where the beach was nonexistent.

While there had been some dune renourishment in the 2000s by a homeowner, the town has never adopted a dune master plan or renourishment policy, Mann said.

The town in May disbanded its beach committee after it found beach erosion, the sand transfer plant, and beach raking to be areas of concern. Now the matter is in APTIM’s hands.

The Manalapan report shows the extent of erosion in the 1300 block of Ocean Boulevard. There is no berm, a mild sloping beach to the sea wall and no dune plants.

The initial study, presented July 8, cost $10,000, with additional APTIM work in a second phase to cost taxpayers between $17,000 and $20,000.

“We’re going to complete the analysis of some coastal data,” Mann said. “Look at what beach nourishment may look like in town. We’re going to look at whether the selective use of some coastal structures in combination with future dune nourishment may be appropriate.”

Potential solutions include “groins, breakwaters, or a combination of both” to maintain the shoreline. However, Mann warned that any intervention must consider environmental factors like near-shore hard bottom — where corals grow — and nesting sea turtles.

Public funding remains a significant hurdle. “Your beach is fairly private, with limited public access,” Mann said, meaning the project “would have to be funded by the town itself and its residents.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “will only work on beaches that are public and open to the public,” he said.

Commissioner David Knobel highlighted the urgency, stating the town needs “to slow the decline of this beach and have a long-term plan, whether it’s publicly or privately funded.” 

“Get dunes back there, get groins if it’s needed,” he said. 

Paul and Andrea Fazzino head the Delray Beach nonprofit Beach Keepers Inc., which is dedicated to keeping beaches and other public spaces free from trash. The organization uses regular volunteers and runs special cleanup events. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Hannah Spence

Most people don’t like the sight of garbage where it doesn’t belong. However, few do anything about it. But Paul and Andrea Fazzino’s Delray Beach nonprofit, Beach Keepers Inc., is dedicated to keeping South Florida clean and beautiful.

“We started the organization because we saw an excessive amount of pollution and felt we could make a difference,” said 59-year-old Paul Fazzino.

Beach Keepers is a 501(c)(3) disaster relief and environmental beautification organization combatting pollution to benefit public spaces, inhabitants, ecosystems and communities.

The siblings, retired construction workers, started the philanthropic organization after moving to Florida from Georgia in 2017.

“We decided that working for free to benefit everyone equally was better than working to earn a living,” said Andrea Fazzino, 56. “It served us better to personally give back seven days per week than to work for money.”

Although they live in Boynton Beach, the Fazzino brothers work from Martin County south to Miami and as far west as Wellington.

A typical day includes getting up around 5 a.m., checking and writing emails, then heading to the Delray Beach office by 7 a.m. The office on southbound Federal between Southeast First and Second streets is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. 

“Arriving early is important to me and helps me to set the pace for the day,” said Paul Fazzino. “Not long afterwards our volunteers begin to arrive and head out in the community to clean up areas we’ve identified as unappealing or needing attention throughout Delray Beach’s downtown district and beyond. 

“Managing the influx of amazing volunteers, scheduling events, hosting events, recycling and disposing of the material we collect happens throughout the day.”

Paul and Andrea can often be seen hosting large beach cleanups and picking up litter from along Federal Highway. 

The brothers have created alliances with like-minded organizations like Surfing’s Evolution and the Florida Department of Transportation, where they manage FDOT Adopt-A-Mile program roadways — such as one in Briny Breezes and another in Delray Beach.

Beach Keepers Inc. provides volunteers at city events like the Delray Affair and Savor the Avenue to keep the event spaces clean and free of obstructions. Among the volunteers are people who are fighting addiction and trying to get clean, those who have been sentenced to do community service hours, and students who are donating their time in addition to working on their studies.

Paul shared a story about a volunteer named Kayla who had confided in him about her struggle with paying her student debt. This inspired him and Andrea to think of ways they could help her and other volunteers with the same issue.

The Beach Keepers Student Debt Initiative Program was started in 2023 and offers students and graduates the opportunity to help the community while receiving financial support toward student debt and educational needs. Participants can earn up to $800 monthly by doing up to 40 hours per month.

Even though Beach Keepers keeps them busy, Andrea and Paul still find time to engage in hobbies. Andrea loves to play drums and has found an outlet every Wednesday evening at the Downtown Delray Drum Circle held at Old School Square. 

Paul enjoys swimming and biking. Both are classic car aficionados and have enjoyed owning, restoring and showing their favorite Dodge/Plymouth classics, which enthusiasts call Mopars after the parts brand servicing the vehicles.

The brothers share a condo.

“We want to be held to the same standards others are,” said Andrea. “Just be kind to people, invite them with a generous spirit. Our approach is simple: See it, pick it up, get it out of there, put it where it belongs.” 

Workers paint over rainbow street art — celebrating gay pride — in Boynton Beach on East Ocean Avenue after federal and state officials threateaned to withold millions of dollars for transportation improvements if the artwork isn't removed. Photo provided by WPBF

By Jane Musgrave

When Delray Beach Vice Mayor Rob Long learned city officials were planning to comply with federal and state demands to paint over a 4-year-old rainbow-hued gay pride intersection, he got angry.

But, realizing that the city would risk losing millions of dollars in transportation improvements if it defied the orders, he decided to find ways to keep the spirit of the pride streetscape at Northeast Second Avenue and Northeast First Street — and the road money.

Recognizing that neither the state nor the federal government holds the purse strings for city parks, Long said he is mulling over the possibility of establishing a gay pride symbol on city land. Painting a mural on a city building is another suggestion he is exploring.

By the commission’s Aug. 12 meeting, he said he plans to have something for his fellow elected officials to consider.

“It’s just such vindictive, petty bullshit that our state is focusing on instead of addressing real problems,” Long said.

Other gay rights advocates, who have watched similar streetscapes erased in other cities, share his view.

The stage for the erasures was set on June 30 when the Florida Department of Transportation sent a letter to cities and counties, warning that state road funds could be cut off if “non-compliant traffic control devices and surface markings, including pavement art installations” aren’t removed.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a similar letter to all 50 governors. “Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks,” Duffy said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.

By July 16, Boynton Beach had painted over its colorful streetscape on East Ocean Avenue. West Palm Beach said it, too, will remove a rainbow-patterned crosswalk in the Old Northwood neighborhood.

West Palm Beach, however, is already moving forward with plans to re-create the streetscape at a small park nearby.

Boynton Beach City Manager Daniel Dugger said the city also wants to do something to replace the streetscape. But, no specific plans have been made.

“The city remains committed to finding appropriate ways to honor and celebrate our diverse community and will consider alternative memorial options at a future date,” Dugger said in a statement.

Rand Hoch, president and founder of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, said the recent dictates on the streetscapes are just another attack by the Trump administration on marginalized groups.

Faced with the threat of losing millions in federal grants, Palm Beach County commissioners and the School Board in recent months temporarily abandoned programs designed to help women, minorities and other disadvantaged groups.

“It makes no sense to blackmail cities,” said Hoch, a longtime gay rights activist. But, he said, sadly it works.

Hoch has been fighting to protect the Delray Beach streetscape since the human rights council paid $16,000 to make it a reality in 2021.

Since then, it has been vandalized three times — most recently in June when a driver burned tire marks into the painted pavement. The driver of the pickup that was captured on video has not been caught by Delray Beach police.

But, Hoch said, the two men who were caught — one who left black marks on the painting during an ad hoc parade to celebrate Donald Trump’s birthday shortly after the streetscape was completed, and another in 2024 — were placed on probation. 

“A slap on the wrist,” said Hoch, who wanted both to be charged with hate crimes. All of the vandalism occurred during June — Gay Pride Month.

Hoch bristled at claims by both federal and state transportation officials that the road art causes accidents by distracting drivers.

He claims studies, including one done in 2022 for Bloomberg Philanthropies, found that crashes declined when intersections were painted. 

“If you put in colorful crosswalks and intersections, people will slow down,” Hoch said, summing up the findings  that prompted cities across the country to paint asphalt.

Likewise, he said, the notion that tax money is wasted is flawed. In Delray Beach, he pointed out that his group paid for the project and the two men who were arrested paid to have it restored.

“The only thing taxpayers are paying for is to cover it up,” Hoch said. 

He said he has no plans to fight the decisions. He understands cities need federal and state money to operate and can’t risk losing either.

He applauded West Palm Beach and other cities that are working to find alternative ways to support the gay community.

But, he said, his real reason for not fighting is that, after years of progress, he now has more important battles to wage. 

“I’d rather use my political capital to make sure LGBTQ+ people continue to be protected,” he said. 

Hailey Clark, a marine biology student at Florida Atlantic University and a volunteer for the Coastal Stewards, releases Sparrow, a green sea turtle, into the ocean on July 10. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

The gift shop at Boca Raton’s Gumbo Limbo Nature Center should reopen “quite soon,” but answers to what will become of the signature sea turtle rehabilitation efforts there remain elusive.

The nonprofit Coastal Stewards, which ran the rehab unit until suddenly deciding to close it and the gift shop it ran June 12, released its final patient, a green sea turtle named Sparrow, into the ocean at Red Reef Park across from the nature center on July 10. The same day, it released one named Blossom in Stuart.

In its July newsletter, the group — previously known as Friends of Gumbo Limbo — said it has shifted away from rehab work and “evolved to focus on youth leadership and coastal conservation programs that protect Florida’s ecosystems today.” 

“As we enter a period of transition,” it continued, “the Board of Directors is thoughtfully evaluating the best path forward for the organization and its mission.”

Boca Raton officials were also trying to draw a map to Gumbo Limbo’s future.

“We’re looking at a number of options to, first of all, restore the gift shop, which is very popular,” City Manager George Brown told the City Council on July 15. “We are considering whether or not we should be in the turtle rehab business. We will continue to have turtle people being able to engage with the turtles, but whether or not we run a turtle hospital is something we’re exploring.”

Rehab options

Brown said his staff has been talking with the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach for a possible solution.

“Our concern there is whether or not we want to actually hire them and pay them to operate the facility, whether we want to be in the (rehab) business and be responsible for it,” Brown said.

He said the first conversation “was more of a simple partnership, that they would use the facility and we would have an agreement. And then it seems that they are interested in being a contractor to us. And we are evaluating whether or not we will recommend doing that.

“But we’re definitely working toward the gift shop. We actually have a couple of options for that, and it should be open quite soon,” Brown said.

Mayor Scott Singer was pleased that staff was looking at maintaining the rehab facilities.

“That is an important component of what we have there at Gumbo Limbo,” he said.

The day before, Commissioner Craig Ehrnst of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District implored council members to issue a request for proposals to see whether other groups would like to run the sea turtle hospital. The Beach and Park District reimburses the city for operating expenses and capital improvements at Gumbo Limbo and Red Reef Park.

“It is one of our world-class jewels that we have, a top thing for Trip Advisor,” Ehrnst said. “We need all the things that it has.”

Clearing out

Meanwhile, the Coastal Stewards van is parked on the grass in front of the nature center “so we can use it to help move equipment and it will be moved as soon as the board decides the plan moving forward,” said Melissa Perlman, the group’s spokeswoman.

“The Coastal Stewards are working on donating medical equipment to several nonprofit sea turtle/wildlife rescue organizations based on each of their needs and the equipment the team can provide them with,” Perlman said. “According to (its veterinarian Shelby) Loos, that way we know the equipment will continue to directly help with conservation missions.”

Perlman also said over the next couple of weeks the Stewards will continue to pack and help move everything as those organizations come to pick up their donations.

The nonprofit Coastal Stewards group had run the rehab unit and gift shop since April 2024, but declining contributions and increased competition for donations led its trustees to curtail operations at their June 12 meeting.

That decision came after the Coastal Stewards in April vacated rented office space in an unincorporated county pocket between Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes.

The closure of the rehabilitation center did not affect the three “resident” sea turtles housed in outdoor tanks at Gumbo Limbo, which remain on display and available for public viewing. Also still open are the city-run turtle nesting and hatchling programs, youth camps and community education, the butterfly garden, boardwalk and observation tower. 

The Manalapan Town Commission has tentatively set the tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year, maintaining the same rate as the previous three years. 

However, because property values rose again this year, property owners will still be paying more in town taxes.

The commission formally voted in July to set a maximum rate of $3.00 per $1,000 of taxable value — the same as last year. It can still decrease the rate before approving the final budget in September.

According to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office, taxable property values rose in Manalapan, on average, nearly 7.6%.

Under state law, homesteaded properties can have their taxable value raised a maximum of 3% each year. All other residential and commercial properties can have their taxable values increased by a maximum of 10%.

The average home value in town is $3.7 million. For owners of that average home capped at a 3% increase, taxes would go up roughly $330.

A non-homestead property would pay more. Based on the average 7.6% increase in taxable value this year, a similarly valued $3.7 million property would see a town tax increase of roughly $840. 

— John Pacenti

The Coastal Star recently covered the planned Milani oceanfront park in Highland Beach. I write to emphasize the important right of public access to the shoreline.  

Recent Florida beach events spotlight the issue.  

First, the Florida governor rescinded an older Florida statute, which had empowered private beachfront property owners to close off miles of Walton County beaches, denying all public access. Essentially, the old law blocked the public’s access to the “shoreline,” defined as the sandy area below the high tide water mark. 

Access to the shoreline has long been recognized for all persons under Florida law. The question now facing us is the public’s right of access to reach the shoreline.

As the “War at the Shore” continues to rage in Palm Beach County, the on-again/off-again Milani oceanfront park planned in Highland Beach, on Palm Beach County-owned property, is now under reconsideration.

County Commissioner Joel Flores publicly opined that it makes no sense to build a park that “no one wants.” Flores obviously refers to the Highland Beach property owners and developers, who seem to prefer that Flores’ constituents living in central Palm Beach County not be allowed access to the shore. For the inland residents, this park actually makes a lot of sense.

Commissioner Marci Woodward is pushing for final approval of Milani Park. She is considering the needs of all county residents and visitors, not just a privileged few beachfront property owners. 

The Milani Park issue should be focused on its proposed function as a guaranteed pathway to the shoreline, which can be thought of as a public right of way. Walking the Florida shoreline is a joy everyone here should be able to experience. 

The folks in Highland Beach seem to view the beach as their private playground and they have, to date, successfully blocked all public beach access in their town. Now they propose a real estate deal to profit the town and a developer. 

To sell this seaside public property is an outrageous proposal — but not a new one. Living in this county for the past 80 years, I have seen this scenario before.   

I am hoping this time it ends well for our county as a whole.

— Terry Brown, Ocean Ridge

Tri-Rail is grappling with a $27.1 million funding shortfall with few options so far in sight.

The Florida Department of Transportation has “redefined” its statutory minimum for funding from $42.1 million per year to $15 million, said David Dech, executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which operates the commuter train service.

At a July 25 workshop session, Dech said Tri-Rail spends $2.5 million a week running its trains. If no other funding is found, the money the service has on hand will allow it to operate only until July 2027.

Dech said eliminating weekend service would extend operations just 8.5 days while cutting the line’s express trains would add only four days of service.

Despite the gloomy outlook, Authority Board member Jim Scott said Tri-Rail is not going away. “We’re not going to abandon service,” he said.

But Palm Beach County Commissioner Marci Woodward, who chairs the authority, was not optimistic.

“For Palm Beach County, we do not have a transportation surtax; my two fellow counties to the south do,” Woodward said. “This is a big ask, for us this is an ask for us to take this money out of property taxes. … It’s just money we don’t have.”

— Steve Plunkett

The Florida League of Cities presented Town Commissioner Joan Orthwein with a framed resolution in recognition of her service to Gulf Stream. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

Gulf Stream Town Commissioner Joan Orthwein was hailed as “a remarkable public servant” while being recognized by the Florida League of Cities for her more than 30 years as an elected official.

“Today we celebrate not just years but decades of meaningful service, of showing up and making a difference,” Michael Morrill, a representative of the league, told Orthwein and her colleagues at the Town Commission’s July 11 meeting.

Morrill gave her a framed resolution, signed by the league’s board of directors, recognizing her “selfless commitment” and her “significant sacrifices” of time and energy.

“I hope everyone enjoys living here,” said Orthwein, whose first Town Commission meeting was in May 1995. “It’s been an honor to be on the commission and to be among all these wonderful people. It’s been good.”

The league named the honor the Mayor John Land Years of Service Award after a mayor of Apopka who served for more than 60 years. 

The recognition goes to only a few each year. Last year, the league honored four officials for reaching the 30-year mark, two for serving 35 years and two who had reached 40 years.

Back in 2020, during the pandemic, the league praised Orthwein’s reaching 25 years of service via a video recording. At the time, Mayor Scott Morgan noted that she had also served for seven years as an appointed member of the town’s Architectural Review and Planning Board. She chaired the ARPB before moving to the commission, and has also been the town’s vice mayor and mayor.

“With every issue that has confronted this town, you have always addressed it with your characteristic grace and dignity, which is really unusual I think in municipal government,” Morgan said. “It’s been a pleasure with you as my friend to sit with you on this dais.”

Orthwein isn’t the longest-serving Gulf Stream official ever. Former Mayor William F. Koch served for 56 years — 46 as mayor and 10 as commissioner — before his death in 2012 at age 91. 

By Steve Plunkett

For the fourth consecutive year, homeowners in Gulf Stream will likely pay a property tax rate of $3.67 per $1,000 of taxable value.

“Our budget is pretty much almost the same basically every year,” Town Manager Greg Dunham said while previewing his proposal for the 2026 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

The tax rate, tentatively approved by town commissioners July 11, will generate $6.99 million, up about $550,000 from the current year, Dunham said. Property values in town rose 8.5% to $1.9 billion.

The town will be entering the eighth year of its 10-year capital improvement plan, and the budget’s big-ticket item remains the road and drainage infrastructure work in the Core area. Dunham will pull $2.45 million from the general fund and $643,549 from the water fund to pay for the construction.

Gulf Stream will also borrow up to $7 million — perhaps in December — to have enough money to finish the planned capital improvements, pay for a water connection to Boynton Beach and keep a reserve fund of $4 million.

The town’s consulting engineers will begin drawing plans for rebuilding roads and water mains in Gulf Stream’s Place Au Soleil neighborhood on the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway.

Dunham again recommended that commissioners approve a 4% cost-of-living pay raise for town employees, many of whom he invited to attend the commission meeting for a public thank-you.

“It’s the same faces that you’ve seen for year after year after year. And my point is that we don’t have any turnover here and don’t have to deal with that. That takes a lot of time, administrative time,” he said. “And also … our employees enjoy working here very much. They love the town of Gulf Stream and … they make my job a lot easier.”

Under the tentative tax rate, the owner of a $1 million house would pay $3,672 in town property taxes in addition to county, school and other levies.

Commissioners can lower that tax rate, also called the millage, but not raise it at public hearings they scheduled in Town Hall for 5:01 p.m. on Sept. 11, after their 4 p.m. monthly meeting, and on Sept. 24. 

Michelle Heiser was promoted from interim to permanent town manager by commissioners and will make $225,000 a year. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By John Pacenti

It’s been pretty kumbaya in Ocean Ridge ever since Michelle Lee Heiser showed up to serve as interim town manager.  

Commissioners have praised her preparedness, especially on budget matters, and they even approved raises for non-union police and administrative employees — something the previous manager tried in vain to get them to do.

So it should come as no surprise that when Heiser showed interest in the job permanently, commissioners were eager to get her on board. They voted to hire Heiser at a $225,000 annual salary at the July 8 meeting, approving it on the consent agenda with no discussion or debate — something that is pretty unusual for a top hire.

Heiser was a candidate in 2023 when the town went in a different direction and hired Lynne Ladner as manager. Ladner benefited from changes on the commission to secure the job — she went from interim to permanent to interim to permanent.

Ladner, though, had a chaotic tenure with very public mistakes aired out during commission meetings. When she resigned in April after bad evaluations from all five commissioners, Heiser quickly came on as interim.

From the start, Heiser’s hands-on management style seemed to calm commissioners and staff alike. The last two commission meetings have run smoothly, quickly and with no drama.

Heiser is a former Port St. Lucie councilwoman and former town manager for Sewall’s Point. She was hired to help find Ladner’s replacement, but then threw her name into the ring. 

Her salary is essentially the same as what the town paid Ladner when she left in April.

“Thank you for your vote of confidence,” she told the commissioners at the July 8 meeting. “I am excited and honored, really honored, that we could get here this fast.”

Heiser said she looks forward to guiding capital improvement projects in the next year, such as the ongoing project of replacing the town’s corroding water pipes.

Heiser met with each of the commissioners regarding the job and cited Vice Mayor Steve Coz, particularly, for “a very challenging discussion on my contract.”

At Ocean Ridge Commission meetings, Robert’s Rules of Order are more of a suggestion than a mandate. As such, former Commissioner Terry Brown can pop up at almost any time to add his two cents. He spent his time at the podium on July 8 to praise Heiser’s hiring. He added that the town should post her résumé so residents know what they are getting.

“If you would have included a single page of Ms. Heiser’s background, when people were looking at it, they would see that it was a wonderful choice, and that the compensation is fair and she’s getting great benefits,” he said.

Heiser told The Coastal Star on July 16 that the contract had been signed, but admitted she was a bit surprised that Mayor Geoff Pugh placed her hiring on the consent agenda. She said Ocean Ridge traditionally places as many items as it can on the consent agenda to streamline meetings to avoid the inefficiency seen in other towns. 

That doesn’t mean the commissioners haven’t put in the work, Heiser said.

“These commissioners spend one to two hours apiece with the (town) attorney and I,” she said. “Reviewing each item on the agenda prior to the meetings. They ask many questions and gain an understanding of the impacts.”  

Ocean Ridge Police Sgt. Keith Ramirez investigates the scene outside a home at the corner of Thompson Street and Old Ocean Boulevard where at least a dozen shots were fired at the exterior of what police described as an unoccupied home. The orange cones mark the location of three of the bullet casings found on Thompson. At least one of the bullets went through a window pane. A suspect had been identifed, and an arrest was pending as the investigation into the shooting continued into late July. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Water pipe project could be accelerated

By John Pacenti

Newly minted Town Manager Michelle Lee Heiser said Ocean Ridge, basking in good financial news, can expect to keep the property tax rate steady in the newly proposed $13.3 million budget. 

With municipalities required to set the upper end of a new tax rate by the end of July, Heiser recommended keeping the rate the same as last year’s $5.40 per $1,000 of taxable property value. Commissioners unanimously approved the rate — which can still go down during the final public hearings on the budget in September.

But just because the rate stays the same doesn’t mean that residents won’t be paying more taxes. That’s because taxable property values increased in Ocean Ridge by 10.14% this year — leading all nearby municipalities.

For homesteaded properties, the state caps the increase in taxable value at 3% per year. For an Ocean Ridge home worth $1.5 million last year, that translates into $243 more in town taxes.

Last year, Mayor Geoff Pugh said, he got bombarded with phone calls when the commission set the tentative rate at $6.00 per $1,000 of taxable property value, before whittling it down over the summer.

“The past thinking was if we had anything happen, we would be at the max” in case the town needed the additional revenue, Pugh said at the commission’s July 8 meeting. “And then we can always bring it down later, right? With our present financial situation, it doesn’t make any sense” to set a higher rate.

Commissioners at the meeting heard praise from an auditor and financial consultant, saying that Ocean Ridge’s finances are in a good position to accelerate the town’s top capital improvement project — replacing water pipes — and launch some others.

Town auditor Ronald Bennett told commissioners they had an unassigned fund balance of $9 million to spend at their discretion due to a variety of factors, such as increased property tax revenues and investment income.

“The town embarked on a new investment program, and it paid great dividends, almost half a million dollars in investment income,” he said.

Bennett said the town’s reserves are in such good shape that it could theoretically “pay almost a whole year’s worth” of expenses without additional revenue.

“That’s one of the highest I’ve ever seen,” Bennett said. “Way back when I first started doing this, 30 years ago, we used to tell people, ‘Well, you need at least two months’ worth of money on hand.’”

The town’s financial consultant, Holly Vath, highlighted that $34.4 million in new construction had been added to the town’s tax rolls, representing approximately 2% of its total property value.

If the new construction were not taken into account, a rollback rate of just under $5.00 per $1,000 of taxable property value would generate the same tax revenue as the current fiscal year, she said.

If commissioners keep the $5.40 per $1,000 tax rate, new construction will generate about $185,000 in additional tax revenue.

Heiser, the town manager, stated that by maintaining the current tax rate and utilizing the additional tax revenue it will generate, both from higher property values and new construction, the town can expedite the timeline for the water main project. “We’re going to move this eight-year plan down to within a five-year result, a completion date,” she said.

Heiser, who just signed a contract to become town manager, said there isn’t much more to talk about when it comes to revenues.

“We can pretend like there’s a lot more, honestly, but we’ve got it nailed down,” she said. 

She said that she wants the commission to discuss capital projects at its August meeting, “so that the general public knows how much work is going to get done in this next fiscal year.”

Heiser noted that part of the discussion will be about whether to take out low-interest state loans for some of the projects. 

By Steve Plunkett

A mistaken email made for a dismal Fourth of July weekend for the 56 Briny Breezes residents who hold library cards for the Palm Beach County Library System.

The July 3 email from the library erroneously said the Town Council had approved withdrawing from the county system and that all library cards would expire Oct. 1.

The county sent out a mea culpa July 8 correcting its initial message.

“That email was based on the Library’s understanding of communication received from the Town of Briny Breezes,” it said.

Subsequently, library officials received clarification from Town Manager Bill Thrasher stating that no final decision to withdraw from the system was made by the council.

The library system “apologizes for any confusion” caused by the July 3 email and “will work with the Town to provide future updates,” it concluded.

The Town Council on June 26 had directed Thrasher and Town Attorney Keith Davis to meet with the library to address questions regarding withdrawing from the library district and was scheduled to get an update at its July 24 meeting. Davis said it may be possible to mount a legal challenge to rules the district has about leaving its system.

But the council’s discussion was postponed until at least Aug. 28 because Davis had not been able to confer with the library.

Thrasher had suggested breaking away from the county system to save Briny Breezes property owners the collective $57,000 in taxes they pay to support the library. The 56 library card holders could pay $95 a year, or $5,320 altogether.

Seceding from the county library would not benefit the town’s budget directly, but Thrasher was looking for ways to reduce residents’ overall tax burden as he increases the town’s property tax rate to gather matching funds for grants won or envisioned to improve the town’s stormwater system and sea walls.

The taxable value of the town is just under $105 million, he said. In his proposed budget, Thrasher anticipates opening state and federal construction grants and spending $268,266 for the design and permitting costs of the drainage project.

Tax rate almost doubles

The council July 24 approved setting a tentative tax rate of $6.75 per $1,000 of taxable value, which is almost 98% more than the “no new taxes” rollback rate of $3.41 per $1,000 and an 80% increase from the current $3.75 per $1,000 rate. 

Fiscal year 2024 was the first time since 2009 that Briny Breezes did not levy $10 per $1,000 of taxable property value — the maximum allowed by state law ­— and instead set  the rate at only $3.75 per $1,000. 

The maneuver was said to give the town room to raise taxes, perhaps back to the $10 per $1,000 rate, to repay loans it might take out to finance the sea walls and drainage improvements.

Meanwhile, Briny Breezes Inc. began paying 70% of the cost of police and fire rescue services to make up for the reduced tax revenue. Its cost was offset by charging residents of the mobile home park higher annual assessments.

Thrasher’s proposed budget assumes that the corporation will continue to cover the 70%.

The council set public hearings in Town Hall for the tentative tax rate at or after 5:01 p.m. Sept. 11 and for the final vote at the same time Sept. 25. The final rate the council sets can be lower but not higher than the tentative rate.

The council also agreed to a three-year extension of the agreement with Ocean Ridge for that town to provide police services, with 3% increases each year. The Briny Breezes council had balked at an earlier proposal that would have raised the price the greater of 3% or the percentage increase in the annual consumer price index.