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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aaron Barnes
Surfrider Foundation,
Palm Beach County chair

By Steve Plunkett

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

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

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

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

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

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

Commissioner Joan Orthwein repeated her discomfort about the low ranking.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In other business:          

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Steve Plunkett

By Larry Barszewski

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

House construction gets another extension

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

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

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

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

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

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

In other town news:

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Tao Woolfe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Larry Barszewski

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tax rate to drop

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Larry Barszewski

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Home construction extension granted

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

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

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

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

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

But Satter didn’t buy that argument.

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

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

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

In other business:

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

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

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

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

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

By Steve Plunkett

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But there’s a lot people don’t know.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Brian Biggane

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Obituary submitted by the family

By Rich Pollack

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Mary Thurwachter

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

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

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

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

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

The paper’s top awards went to:

• The Coastal Star staff for overall graphic design.

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

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

Second-place awards went to:

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

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

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

Third-place awards went to:

• The Coastal Star staff for front page design.

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

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

By Brian Biggane

In the 12 years Bonnie Fischer has served as mayor, South Palm Beach has never been in a position to apply for or receive either a state or federal grant. With a new Town Hall building in the planning phase, that may be changing.

When Sen. Bobby Powell and Rep. Mike Caruso made presentations touting their accomplishments in the state legislature at the town’s July meeting, both told the Town Council they’re ready and willing to help the town meet its goals.

“I’m sure there’s something South Palm Beach wants or needs,” said Caruso, who said he’s brought back $45 million in appropriations for his district in the past five years. “We’ll team up on it. I hope you come up with a couple projects.”

Fischer said Palm Beach County had promised to construct groins — rock structures perpendicular to the shoreline that help protect beaches — until a couple of years ago when those plans were canceled.

“They were steering the ship,” she said.

Caruso, whose constituency moved north as a result of redistricting and now includes Riviera Beach, said he secured five grants for that municipality last year.

Caruso said the Sheriff’s Office, which polices South Palm Beach, needs a command center in town. “Bobby and I got one for Riviera Beach,” he said.

Fischer said one factor complicating matters is that the town has no public beach, so securing funds for beach restoration or sea walls has always been tricky.

“We have a lot of sea walls that are close to collapsing,” Fischer said. “It is a very serious issue in our town.”

Town Manager Jamie Titcomb said his 36 years of traveling to Tallahassee to work with legislators should work to the town’s advantage.

“I have relationships with a lot of people up there,” he said. “What that does is it gets you situational awareness — reading the tea leaves and learning how to synchronize our needs with them to see if we can bring home the bacon.”

Toward that end, Fischer and Titcomb had what Titcomb described as a “positioning” Zoom call days before a meeting with Guaranteed Clean Energy, a fiduciary adviser that pairs schools and municipalities with funding and grant resources that potentially could provide as much as 80% of the Town Hall funding.

“We asked if there were thresholds, what kind of leveraging does that get us in the near future, and that’s where they talked about the 80%,” Titcomb said. “They thought they could get as much as 80% funding for these various programs, so if we have $1 million to spend that could be a $5 million project, just using round numbers.”

In other developments:

• A moment of silence was held to honor the recent passing of Betty Sue Shapiro. Said Fischer, “She was definitely a character and will definitely be missed.” Ms. Shapiro was honored at the town’s ice cream social on July 16.

• Nowlen, Holt & Miner, which has previously served as the town’s accounting firm, was given a two-year term by the council.

• The Sheriff’s Office awarded July 2023 Star Resident Award medals to Mary Varpanis and Kathy Liccardi for their roles in the May 8 lifesaving effort by Deputy Donna Korb in the ocean off South Palm Beach.

• A scheduled presentation from Archetype Homes consultant Erik Scheuermann regarding the Town Hall proposal was postponed. Titcomb said he hopes to reschedule “as soon as their schedule allows.”

By Larry Barszewski

Ocean Ridge commissioners reviewing the town’s proposed budget for next year have decided the town doesn’t need a paid lobbyist, and commissioners don’t need computer tablets or a pay raise.

But Town Manager Lynne Ladner can replace her broken office chair.

Some commissioners questioned going into such detail that Ladner’s chair would be part of their July 10 budget workshop discussions, but Ladner was assuming nothing when making her first budget presentation as town manager.

She walked the commission through her proposed $11 million general fund budget for the 2024 fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, as well as the town’s planned capital improvement projects.

Commissioners aren’t planning to increase the town’s tax rate, but at a special meeting July 24 they approved a not-to-exceed proposed property tax rate of $5.5372 for every $1,000 of taxable value, an increase of under 1% from last year’s approved rate of $5.50 per $1,000 of taxable value.

The proposed rate can be lowered — but not increased — during public hearings on the budget set for Sept. 5 and 18.

“Just say between now and when we finalize the budget something catastrophic happens, we would not be able to increase the millage rate over what we say today,” Mayor

Geoff Pugh told Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy, who wants to lower the tax rate. The higher proposed rate is just saying “let’s hedge our bets and make sure we are able to go somewhere [higher] if something happens” before the final rate is set, he said.

If needed, the slight rate increase would provide less than $60,000 in additional cash to the budget.

Even if commissioners decide to keep last year’s rate — or lower it but not significantly — that would still be considered a tax increase because of rising property values in town, which went up an estimated 12.9% this year.

The average owner of a home with an assessed value of $1 million last year, who receives a homestead exemption, would see a town tax increase of $165 if the tax rate stayed the same as last year. A similarly valued non-homesteaded property would see a $550 increase.

If the town were to adopt the higher proposed rate set at the July 24 meeting, the total town tax increase would be $201 for that homesteaded property and $591 for the non-homesteaded property.

Commissioners covered a variety of topics during their budget workshop.

Septic-to-sewer. While the town has had on-again off-again discussions about being prepared for the day the state will mandate an end to septic systems on barrier islands, commissioners decided to hold off on spending $63,520 in planning — including a financial analysis — because there are no current expectations that the state will require the conversion.

Lobbyist. Commissioners decided the town doesn’t need to continue spending $20,000 on a lobbyist to represent its wishes in Tallahassee. Cassidy said the town would be better off working through the Florida League of Cities and directly with the town’s own legislators. “I think a lobbyist is an unnecessary third party,” she said.

Town picnic. Residents should plan on partying together, as Ladner has added $9,000 to the budget for a barbecue, picnic or some other event for town residents, probably on a Saturday afternoon in January or February, she said. “People would like more community events, more opportunities as a community to come together,” she said.

Town shirts. Town employees don’t get enough recognition, so Ladner said she is looking at purchasing polo-style shirts for them embroidered with the town emblem.

Technology overload. Commissioners have received town phones, but they told Ladner not to spend $20,000 included in her proposed budget to buy computer tablets for them and for members of the town’s appointed boards.

“To be perfectly frank I do not want a tablet. I don’t even want the phone,” Pugh said.

Vice Mayor Steve Coz also questioned the need for the phones: “I brought my phone and I looked at it. Guess who called me? My other phone.”

Ladner requested the computer tablets so commissioners could receive and review their meeting agenda packets online, rather than having staff print them out for delivery to commissioners, a more time-consuming and paper-wasting process. But commissioners say they like having their paper agendas instead.

Ladner understood the consensus was to keep things the way they are — “like the 1980s.”

Commission pay raises. Ladner didn’t include money for a salary increase for commissioners, who earn $1,200 annually, but she checked to see what the commissioners wanted to do. They said they didn’t want a raise.

Building permits. The Town Commission approved at its regular July 10 meeting purchasing a new online building permit system made by the same company that Highland Beach uses, after discussing the idea at the budget workshop earlier in the day.

“The town of Highland Beach’s permit process beats everybody,” Pugh said. “The program that they’re using in Highland Beach is amazingly simple on the building side.”

The town already has an approved contract for a different system, but Ladner hasn’t been satisfied with the performance of that company — and her newly proposed system will interface better with other town software, she said.

The town probably will have to pay $22,000 for the first year of software from the old contract that wasn’t used, while Ladner is working with the town attorney to get the city out of the rest of the contract with Tyler Technologies.

Ladner expects to save $41,000 from the original contract in the first year of the new contract with BS&A, which is for $40,425.

Coz said the town needs to tap into the expertise of its residents more, especially when it comes to software.

“We continually are buying the wrong product, or about to buy the wrong product, when we have people in this town that could tell us the right product,” Coz said.

Inflation hits fire contract. Because of inflation, the cost for the town’s contract with Boynton Beach for fire services is expected to rise to $1.4 million. The contract calls for a flat 4% annual increase unless the inflation rate is higher. This year, the inflation figure being used is 9%, meaning the increase will be about $111,000, more than double last year’s $50,000 increase, according to the proposed budget. And it may end up being even higher.

“I want to double-check the fire contract,” Ladner said. “I think it may be higher than what was calculated.”

Street paving. While Commissioner Ken Kaleel said the town’s streets need to be paved on a regular basis, Ladner said the current plan is to defer paving for another year because of other capital projects.

“When we get off of a schedule, it ends up costing us more,” Kaleel said. But Coz said that’s not always the case. “In the last two budgets, nobody could find a road that needed paving,” Coz said.

Ladner planned to research the paving issue and update the commissioners in August.

Employee raises. The commission didn’t reach a decision about employee raises, so Ladner will return with options for commissioners to consider in August. Ladner told commissioners the town has no cost-of-living increase and employees are eligible for only a merit increase of up to 5%.

Ladner said the cost of living itself has increased more than 5% in the past year, suggesting that something additional may be warranted for employees. Coz said the commission did address the issue last year when it awarded $7,500 one-time bonuses that didn’t get added to the employee base salaries.

Cassidy appeared skeptical about additional raises. She said she remembered the same conversation last year, when she wondered “why was there no discussion about some kind of cost-of-living acknowledgement for residents” in the form of a tax decrease.

Solid waste fees. The garbage collection bill will increase $29, to $260, for single-family homes, and will increase $20.30, to $182, for multi-family homes.

Land purchase near Town Hall? Ladner mentioned she might add the purchase of a land parcel to the budget that may cost about $200,000 to $300,000. “It would be the last parcel in the preservation conservation Town Hall area, to lock up that canal,” Ladner said. “It’s an area right behind us. It’s zoned residential.”

Budget surplus. Ladner’s proposed budget included $550,000 more in revenues than she needed to cover expenses, something Cassidy said would be better back in the pockets of taxpayers. Whether that money remains unspent could depend on what the commission does regarding employee raises and capital projects.

RIGHT: License plate reading cameras are motion activated and take a series of photos that compare plate numbers against those of vehicles listed as suspicious. ABOVE: Police can view results on a desktop computer, in a squad car or even on a phone. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

RELATED: Along the Coast: All coastal departments use license plate readers

By Rich Pollack

It didn’t take long for Highland Beach police to track down the driver suspected of being involved in a life-threatening hit-and-run pedestrian accident, thanks in large part to the latest technology.

The accident was captured on a nearby video camera belonging to a condominium complex, which assisted police in identifying the car involved. Investigators then used license plate recognition software to capture the tag number of the vehicle, which led them to the driver.

“Within minutes of the accident we were able to identify the suspect vehicle,” said Highland Beach Police Chief Craig Hartmann. “What could have taken a long time to investigate — and maybe never solve — was made easier to conclude thanks to the technology.”

For more than a decade, license plate recognition software has been used by law enforcement agencies patrolling the coastal communities in southern Palm Beach County. Now thanks to the latest state-of-the art technology, a license plate recognition system accessible among Highland Beach, Ocean Ridge and Gulf Stream is more effective in not just solving crime but in stopping it.

In Ocean Ridge, Police Chief Scott McClure said that the number of crimes reported during a one-year period ending in April dropped by 57%. Adding improved license plate recognition software was a major contributing factor to that decline.

The town has been using LPR cameras since 2021.

“These systems help prevent officers from spending hours conducting investigations when they can now spend just minutes deterring a crime in the first place,” said Gulf Stream Police Chief Richard Jones.

Since departments first deployed them in southern Palm Beach County, license plate readers have been used to notify police when a vehicle reported stolen or having been used in other crimes comes into a community.

That in itself helps deter crime, the chiefs say, since people intent on committing crimes often drive stolen vehicles. With license plate recognition software police are able to track the stolen vehicle and either pull it over or determine that it is no longer in the jurisdiction.

LPR also can alert police if vehicles belonging to people who have restraining orders against them enter areas where they are not supposed to be.

“License plate cameras can expand a small police force’s presence into every neighborhood,” said Highland Beach Town Manager Marshall Labadie.

Thanks to a system produced by Atlanta-based Flock Safety, Highland Beach, Ocean Ridge and Gulf Stream now have advanced technology that wasn’t previously available to their small towns. Flock is also being used in Lantana.

With the Flock system, the agencies can share information that they couldn’t before. Highland Beach, for example, can see if a vehicle its officers are looking for was spotted by a Gulf Stream or Ocean Ridge camera.

Flock can also let law enforcement agencies know any time a vehicle that’s been entered into the system is tracked by a Flock system camera anywhere in the country.

“The LPRs have us talking to each other more and sharing information,” said Hartmann, whose agency installed the Flock system in June.

The Flock cameras are more advanced in that they produce clearer images and are solar-powered. Flock also has analytics that were not available to earlier systems.

The Flock system, for example, can track a vehicle based on identifying characteristics. Police officers can enter a description of a vehicle into the system — say a red Ford pickup with tinted windows and a bumper sticker on the back — and the system will alert if and when that vehicle is in the area. From there officers can get a tag number.

Flock can also alert police if a vehicle without a tag or with a temporary tag — characteristics that have been associated with criminal activity — is in their community.

“LPRs help us look for vehicles that come into our jurisdiction for the sole purpose of committing a crime,” Hartmann said.

As with most departments up and down the coast, police cars in Highland Beach, Gulf Stream and Ocean Ridge are all equipped with the ability to see images of tags that the system is programmed to recognize.

In Gulf Stream, police use a combination of proactive policing and technology to prevent crime.

“Every 10 days, we are diverting either a vehicle burglary or an auto theft,” says Jones, who pioneered the use of the Flock system while he was chief in Ocean Ridge before moving to Gulf Stream this year.

On several occasions, he said, officers have identified vehicles using the software combined with recognition of vehicle traits — tinted windows for example — that are often seen on vehicles used to commit crimes.

If it appears a felony has been committed, Gulf Stream officers will follow a vehicle and attempt to pull it over until the vehicle either pulls over or is outside the town’s jurisdiction and it is determined that it is no longer safe to attempt a stop.

That, Jones said, in itself is helping with crime prevention because criminals talk to each other.

“They’re telling their friend ‘they’re going to chase you out of town,’” he said.

Jones said since Gulf Stream installed Flock cameras in May, the system had scanned more than 17,000 tags through the middle of July. There were 351 alerts with somewhere between 8% and 10% of those getting follow-up action from officers.

Privacy safeguards taken

Flock also provides license plate recognition systems to residential communities. Those systems are integrated into local police department systems.

Flock’s vice president of policy and communications, Josh Thomas, says that the company has taken several steps to safeguard privacy.

The information collected is accessible only to law enforcement and the data collected is available on the Flock system for only 30 days.

Unlike most other companies providing license plate recognition software, Flock rents the equipment for an annual fee that can range from $2,500 to $4,000 per device. The system is now in 44 states and more than 3,700 cities.

Thomas says the system is also used to respond to Amber Alerts and has helped with the recovery of more than 130 children nationwide.

RELATED: Along the Coast: Newest camera technology on road has put big dent in crime, police say

One of the earliest coastal communities to employ license plate recognition software was the town of Manalapan, which had a system in place as early as 2014.

In South Palm Beach, which is patrolled by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, deputies now have access to license plate reader information in their vehicles, according to Town Manager Jamie Titcomb.

License plate readers have been used in the larger coastal cities for years, with Boca Raton placing cameras on police cars as early as 2011 and Delray Beach using fixed license plate readers at strategic locations since 2016 that provide officers in patrol cars access to alerts.

While Delray Beach uses a different system, several private communities in the city have Flock, giving Delray Beach police limited access to the system.

Lantana police, whose jurisdiction covers a portion of Hypoluxo Island, was one of the earliest local adaptors of the Flock system and late last year received Town Council approval to spend $251,600 on license plate recognition cameras for police cars and another $90,600 for 16 more cameras to be installed around town.

“Every law enforcement agency in our area is using license plate recognition systems to some degree,” Gulf Stream Police Chief Richard Jones said.

— Rich Pollack

A half-acre property originally part of the Vanderbilt estate in Gulf Stream sold for $16.7 million recently to a Canadian businessman’s family trust. Photo provided by Zillow.com

By Christine Davis

A trust in the name of Catherine German West sold the property at 1465 N. Ocean Blvd., Gulf Stream, to the Aucoin Family Trust, linked to Jean Aucoin of Saint-Laurent, Quebec. 

The sales price for the five-bedroom, 6,400-square-foot compound on a half-acre was $16.7 million. German West, who bought the property for $13 million in April 2021, was an executive at McLean, Virginia-based Capital One, and a longtime president of the U.S. credit card division. She was a member of its board of directors from 2013 until her death, in July 2022. Aucoin is president of Saint-Laurent-based J. Sonic Services, a supplier of home construction materials.

Pascal Liguori and Antonio Liguori of Premier Estate Properties held the listing, with Candace Friis of the Corcoran Group representing the buyer.
 

First occupied 1931, the buildings were renovated in 2014 and comprise 6,400 total square feet, with five bedrooms and five bathrooms. The compound is a portion of Lila Vanderbilt Webb’s Miradero estate, whose design was influenced by Palm Beach society architect Maurice Fatio and later split apart. Vanderbilt Webb was the granddaughter of Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt. 

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A trust in the name of Byron G. Haseotes Jr., a member of the family that founded Cumberland Farms convenience stores, sold his homesteaded estate at 310 E. Alexander Palm Road, Boca Raton, for $15 million.

The new owner is the Skyline Stewardship Realty Trust, with Daniel P. Carbonneau as trustee. The transaction was recorded on June 30. The 12,253-total-square-foot home — with six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and two half baths — is on a .34-acre lot with 100 feet on the Royal Palm Waterway in the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club. Built by SRD Building Corp., details include European white oak floors, a quartzite waterfall-edge bar, a porcelain wall with a linear fireplace, dual-island chef’s kitchen, a wraparound glass balcony, and a club room with billiards and wine storage.

Haseotes bought the property in 2020 for $11.12 million. Jonathan Postma of Coldwell Banker Realty represented the seller; Scott Eckert of RPE Realty worked with the buyer. The Haseotes family opened the first Cumberland Farms convenience store in 1962. The chain has grown to nearly 600 stores in eight states, including Florida.

***

West Palm Beach-based Wexford Real Estate Investors and Miami-based Key International acquired Boca Raton properties at 14, 33 and 41 SE Fourth St. and 36 SE Third St. for a combined total of $15.742 million. On 2.1 acres, the properties have a combined 27,057 square feet of office space.

Previous owners were DMBK LLC, 33 SE 4th Street Associates, and DMBK III, respectively, with all these deeds signed by Gary Dunay, a Boca Raton attorney who handles real estate transactions. 

The property at 36 SE Third St. was owned by Compson Associates, signed by Robert D’Angelo. The developers plan to build a 12-story complex with 190 rental apartments, 336 parking spaces, pool and lounges. The project was designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica. 

***

Lantana Village Square, often called the Kmart shopping center, has a new owner, Integra Investments.

The Miami-based real estate investment and development firm paid $14.85 million for the 165,000-square-foot retail plaza on 18.6 acres at 1101 S. Dixie Highway in Lantana.

According to a news release, Integra envisions redeveloping the vacant Kmart within the shopping center to create affordable multi-family apartments while integrating complementary retail. Developers plan to use the Live Local Act, a statewide workforce housing strategy designed to increase the availability of affordable housing opportunities.

A representative of Integra Investments said the first phase of the project would have just over 400 units, and that it is working with George Mouriz of MSA Architects.

Previous owner of the shopping center was the Saglo Development Corp. of Miami.

A year ago, the Lantana Town Council denied a proposal to build 231 apartments on the former Kmart property. The development project, presented by the Morgan Group, called for the old Kmart building to be razed to make way for five, four-story buildings and entry from Greynolds Circle.

Amenities would have included a dog park, gym, pool, upgraded parking lot and a pocket park on the north end of the site at the northwest corner of Dixie Highway and Hypoluxo Road. The apartments would have been fenced in for security reasons.

Current tenants at Lantana Village Square include Winn Dixie, Subway, West Marine, and H&R Block.

***

A new Whole Foods Market is coming to west Boca Raton and is under development. It will be part of Uptown Boca, a mixed-use project off Glades Road and U.S. 441, comprising retail and dining venues and 456 rental apartments. It was developed by Schmier Property Group, Giles Capital Group and Rosemurgy Properties in partnership with Wheelock Street Capital.

Whole Foods will join tenants that include REI, Sephora, Lazy Dog Restaurant, Chick-fil-A, Bonefish Grill, Lynora’s Italian restaurant, Naked Taco, Zen Sushi, BurgerFi, Just Salad, Bolay, Olive U Mediterranean Grill, Buff City Soaps, Paradise Grills, Tide Dry Cleaners, MD Now, Banfield Pet Hospital, YogaSix, Sloan’s Ice Cream, Tipsy Nail Salon, F45 Training, The Joint Chiropractic, Amazing Lash, Carmela Coffee, Clean Juice, Mathnasium tutors, and Dental Care of Boca Raton. 

Last year, it was announced that a Whole Foods Market was also coming to Boynton Beach Marketplace, 7499 W. Boynton Beach Blvd. Carrie Rodgers, Whole Foods Market’s corporate communications specialist, wrote in an email that opening dates for these stores have not been announced.

***

Gladstone & Weissman P.A., and David L. Hirschberg P.A., merged their firms in June. Practicing family law, they have offices in Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale.

***

The Gold Coast PR Council celebrated its Bernays Award winners in July at the Hilton Palm Beach Airport with nearly 100 attendees. These awards acknowledge excellence in local public relations campaigns, marketing programs and media coverage. Its Presidents Award went to Palm Beach Illustrated and its sister publications. Lisa Metcalf, Katrina McCormack and Evan Shomo, the public relations team for the FAU Owls, received the PR Star award for generating more than $1.9 billion in media coverage during Florida Atlantic University’s run to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament semifinals.

The Founders’ Award went to Gold Coast’s  longtime board member and two-term president, Melissa Perlman. The Tim Byrd Award was given to Kari Barnett, community editor for the Sun Sentinel. The  Judges Award recipients were Discover the Palm Beaches and the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller, Palm Beach County. 

Winners in the council’s competitive categories included the Palm Beach Civic Association; BlueIvy Communications; Boardroom PR; Christina Nicholson; FAU’s Metcalf; the Buzz Agency; PalmTran Public Transportation;  Anne M. Gannon, Palm Beach County’s constitutional tax collector; and PalmTran.

***

The Executive Women of the Palm Beaches Foundation Inc. has announced its incoming board of directors for the 2023-2024 season. They are Katie Newitt, president; Kae Jonsons, vice president of resource development and membership; Charlotte Pelton, vice president of resource development and fundraising; Elizabeth Houlihan, vice president of programs and education; Virginia Spencer, vice president of community outreach; Vicki Pugh, secretary; Alissa Dhawan, treasurer;  Sheril Jalm, treasurer-elect; and Cynthia Jackson, general counsel.

They join continuing board members Cecilia Hudnet, Elizabeth Hamma, Jackie Halderman, Danny Hansen and Cindy Pollack.

The  Executive Women also announced its new conversation series, “Creating Collaborative Spaces for Female Leaders.” Palm Beach County professionals who attend will explore issues they face and how to address them.

The next meeting in the series will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 17 at the Hubbard Radio offices, 701 Northpoint Parkway, Suite 500, West Palm Beach. RSVP to info@ewpb.org or call 561-868-7070.

***

The Florida Engineering Society awarded $36,000 in scholarships to 12 recent Florida high school graduates and continuing university students who are studying engineering. Each of the students received $3,000, and included among the recipients is Hang “Stacy” Pham, Atlantic Community High School, Delray Beach.

***

Feeding South Florida is hosting cooking classes taught by its director of culinary services, chef Susan Taves, at its Community Kitchen, 4925 Park Ridge Blvd., Boynton Beach.

A portion of the proceeds will support the organization’s mission to end hunger in South Florida through its programs and by providing immediate access to nutritious food.

Classes include Taco Tuesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 15, which costs $70 per person; A Tarte for Two, from 2 to 3 p.m. Aug. 19, which costs $55 for two; and a Sushi Workshop, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 25, which costs $70 per person. To register, visit  feedingsouthflorida.org/events/.

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

Seth Butcher, who picks and sorts the fruit at Hatcher Mango Hill in Lantana, takes a bite out of a ripe mango. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star BELOW RIGHT: John and Pearl with the original Hatcher mango tree. Photo provided

Faithful fans turn out for a taste of what may be the last season at Hatcher Hill

By Jan Norris

On a natural ridge in sleepy Lantana 60-some years ago, John Hatcher set out several fruit trees and plants on a 4-acre nursery plot. He was an avid gardener who began grafting mangoes, working until he developed a big beauty of one in the late 1940s.

Decades later, that ridge is now surrounded by development and overlooks a crowded I-95. But it’s still covered in mango trees and is named for the late patriarch of the family.

Hatcher Mango Hill, continuously run by John Hatcher’s heirs, is where you find Hatcher mangoes — 2-, 3- and 4-pound blushing red fruits, giants in their category, growing on decades-old trees. Mostly a cross between Haden and Brooks varietals, they are sweet, fat and ultra juicy, with no fiber strands, making them the ideal fruit according to their legions of fans.

“I’ve been to mango festivals and mango tastings. I’ve eaten mangoes in Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico and Guatemala, and Hatchers are the best I’ve ever tasted,” said Tory Malmer of West Palm Beach. She’s a longtime Hatcher buyer.

“I eat chunks for breakfast, in fruit salad or make fresh mango salsa,” she said. “Once a year I make mango ice cream or sorbet.”

She’ll ship some to a former boss in North Carolina — another Hatcher fan and former Hypoluxo resident — and to her Kentucky family who loves them.

The Hill’s mango season is short, with ripening fruit on the trees starting in late June and, barring big storms, hanging on until mid-August.

Katie Hatcher bags mangoes for customer Pam Case, whose parents knew the Hatchers in the 1940s. With the property up for sale, Case says it appears that ‘another part of history will be lost.‘ Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

This year’s crop, however, could be the last at the Hill. The grove and house on the ridge are for sale, as per a family trust. This news has rippled throughout the community like the smell of rotten fruit. Current owner Katie Hatcher, John’s granddaughter, said there are a lot of upset mango aficionados out there.

“I don’t want them to shoot the messenger and be thinking I’m the bad guy. My son is upset about it — nobody wants to see it happen,” Hatcher said. “But this is what my mom and dad had written up in the family trust. They wanted everything to be divided equally when they passed.”

John Hatcher’s four children inherited equal parts of the grove after he died. Many in the family worked the grove in season, caring for the trees and other plants on the property.

It was John’s youngest son, Richard, who became the last surviving heir, eventually buying out most of the property and taking over the grove’s business.

Opened to the public

Richard and his spouse, Marilynn — Katie’s parents — opened the Hill’s mango stand to the public in 1983. They expanded the business with shipping and selling Hatcher trees.

With only word-of-mouth advertising, the stand took off. Long lines of cars wrapped onto the road fronting the grove every season. A chain was added across the main driveway, put up to prevent trespassers and control traffic.

Katie Hatcher (l-r) stands with her mother, Marilynn, and cousin Francis Perkins in an undated photo. Photo provided

Tourists and locals alike came by each afternoon in season for the just-picked mangoes, pulled only as they ripened. First Hadens in early June, then Keitts and Zills, and finally the Hatchers.

“We got to know a lot of the customers,” Katie said. “They’d come back every year. We’d meet the families, and watch the kids grow up.”
She’s retired from the city of Boynton Beach as an urban planner. She turned the farm work over to Seth Butcher while taking care of her mother before her death in 2021.
Butcher does it all — picks the fruit from the 120 or so trees, sorts them and runs the stand. He also makes mango jam and sells it on site.

He got his experience selling at Union Square Greenmarket in New York City. A native of Hyde Park in New York, Butcher remembers his mom and aunt making jams in summer and fall after picking berries and apples.

Now he picks mangoes, and because culls and dropped fruit are still edible, he figured jams were a good way to use them. “My first batch was awful, but I kept tweaking it till I got it just right,” he said.

Customers ask for the small-batch jam and get upset when he runs out.

Also sold at the stand are Marilynn Hatcher’s cookbook, Hatcher’s Mango Thrills. The family matriarch was at the stand daily, and helped with the grove until she became too frail to manage. Over the years, she developed hundreds of recipes for mangoes, and compiled the book.

Faithful customers

Recently, Jorge Careaga from Maryland was shopping at the stand with his extended family. “It’s the first place we visit every time we come,” he said. His wife’s family lives here, and they’ve been coming to visit since 2009.

His sister-in-law buys some in advance to have them on hand before they get to the grove, he said.

The retired Marine loves mangoes and says he gets them in Asian markets and sometimes at the grocery stores in Maryland. “But they’re not the same,” Careaga said. “They are nowhere as juicy and sweet.”

Now he learns the business may close. “That really sucks,” he said. “The mangoes are awesome. They are the sweetest and juiciest. I don’t think anybody beats these guys.”

They are so juicy, Careaga says, that when a mango is fully ripe, he just cuts a hole in the top and squeezes it until all the juice is out, then slices it to eat the pulp off the skin. “The only part that is thrown out is the seed.”

Kyle Zeitler and Cody Zeitler adjust a scarecrow announcing a new season for mangoes 18-20 years ago at Hatcher Mango Hill in Lantana. Photo provided

Lake Worth Beach native Greg Rice would watch for the sign signaling the farm’s opening each year, then go in to buy a few mangoes. He says it’s sad to hear the property is up for sale.

“Hatcher is a unique varietal,” he said. “It’s only grown in this area. We hate to see things like this go away. But that property will always be there. It just may be in a different form.”

Still, he’ll miss the mangoes he eats every day during their short season.

“I’ll have to seek out Hatchers,” he said, perhaps from people with backyard trees purchased from the Hill.

“Mangoes are my favorite fruit,” Rice said. He eats them just as they are, peeled and sliced with nothing on them. He leaves freezing the mangoes to his wife, who makes smoothies with the frozen slices.

Nina Kauder, a vegan chef who recently moved from her home in Lake Worth Beach to Buena Vista, Virginia, had to have her yearly fix. So she enlisted a friend to buy and ship two boxes of Hatchers to her. It was a pricey endeavor, more so because “one box hasn’t made it yet,” Kauder said last month.

Hatcher mangoes sell for $2 to $8 each, depending on size. A flat-rate big box is the cheapest way to ship, Kauder said. It holds five to seven fruits.

She found out about Hatchers after reading newspaper stories about the mango. Then each season she drove along High Ridge Road to Hypoluxo Road to see if the “open” sign was hanging on the driveway chain.

As for prepping them to use all year, “I have a friend with a freeze-dryer. I’m going to use that to preserve them this time. I used to use a fruit dehydrator, but I’m in the middle of canning tomatoes and don’t have room in the freezer either this time,” Kauder said.

She was taught to peel them and turn them inside-out into the “hedgehog” shape, but says that doesn’t work on Hatchers — they’re not the right texture.

Another native, Pam Case, grew up in Lantana. Her father helped build the now closed tuberculosis hospital there. Her older siblings went to school with some of the Hatcher kids — in the days when everyone knew everyone else in the small town.

“Whenever we wanted mangoes, we’d just go to Hatchers,” Case said.

She was surprised to hear this may be the last year for the business. “Oh, no! I’m so sorry to hear that. Another part of history will be lost,” she said.

Case ships some Hatcher mangoes to her sister in Georgia. With her own, Case slices them to eat with a banana every morning. She also makes mango milkshakes. “I buy a lot of mangoes and freeze them in slices, then put in a bag. My sister makes mango margaritas from the ones I ship her; she says they’re delicious,” Case said.

Kim McDonald, a Massachusetts transplant who has lived 10 years in this area, learned of Hatcher Mango Hill two or three years ago from a TV news story. “It’s funny. I must have driven past it several times. It’s the best-kept secret,” she said.

Now she learns it’s likely closing after this season. “Oh, no! That’s terrible!”

She recalls tasting one of the mangoes for the first time. “It was incredible. My mom was visiting and I took her to the grove. I have a little niece and nephew; she told them how they were hanging on the trees. She took one home on the plane with her. They were so impressed with this mango. It was nothing like you get in the grocery stores.”

McDonald never was a mango fan — but these changed her mind, she said.

Now what to do? “All good things come to an end. Like the orange groves — it’s really a shame,” she said.

Open till mangoes are gone

Hatcher Mango Hill will remain open as long as it has mangoes to sell, Katie said. “Unless a storm comes along and wipes them out, we will probably have them until early to middle of August.”

After that, all depends on the sale, she said. She’s guessing it will go to a developer for commercial use. “It’s zoned low-commercial, but that could change since they put in the gas station across the street.”

Katie Hatcher said she will move to North Florida, and though she would like to have a Hatcher mango tree in her future yard, it may not be possible because the trees like the heat and mild winters.

“It will be the first house I’ve had that hasn’t had a Hatcher mango tree,” she said.

Her aim is to enjoy the retirement that the Hill’s sale will help provide.
Besides, she says, she knows where to get a Hatcher mango or two from friends and family who have trees.

Hatcher Mango Hill, at 1908 Hypoluxo Road in Lantana, will be open, selling Hatcher and other mangoes, mango jam and recipe books, through mid-August. No trees are available, Katie Hatcher said. 

Contestants (l-r) Shoshana Davidowitz, Dr. Patricio Espinosa, Danielle Rosse, Caroline Johnson, Lawrence Levy, Brad Winstead, Jamie Sauer and Rick Versace take a break during rehearsal at Fred Astaire Dance Studios in Boca Raton. Photo provided

By Amy Woods

Eight daring dancers will hoof their hearts out next month during the always popular fundraiser known as Boca’s Ballroom Battle.

Benefiting the George Snow Scholarship Fund, the exhilarating event showcases the talent and philanthropy of the community, all to support educational opportunities for deserving students in Palm Beach County.

“We are thrilled to bring Boca’s Ballroom Battle back for another incredible year,” said Tim Snow, president of the organization. “We are grateful to all the participants, sponsors and attendees who help make this event a resounding success year after year.”

Boca’s Ballroom Battle will take place at 6 p.m. Sept. 23 at The Boca Raton. For more information, call 561-347-6799, Ext. 104 or visit www.ballroombattle.com.

Stoops to lead board of Community Foundation

The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties has appointed Jeffrey Stoops as incoming chairman of the board.

Stoops first joined the nonprofit in 2019. He has served as vice chairman of the board, chaired the foundation’s community impact committee and coronavirus response fund, and was a member of the finance, philanthropy and strategic planning committees.

“The Community Foundation is a powerful organization with broad capabilities to do good in our community, and I’m elated to have the opportunity to help lead our organization as board chair during the upcoming stages of our 2022-2027 strategic plan,” Stoops said. “I look forward to continuing the foundation’s efforts and work to provide financial aid and support to those who need it most in Palm Beach and Martin counties.”

For more information, call 561-659-6800 or visit yourcommunityfoundation.org.

Center for Child Counseling names new board member

The Center for Child Counseling’s board of directors voted in Melissa Haley as a member to help the nonprofit move forward its mission of mental health care.

Haley, founder and president of the Haley Foundation, will contribute her expertise in forging philanthropic partnerships to mitigate adverse childhood experiences.
The Haley Foundation supports health care for women and children.

“I understand through personal experience the importance of a childhood free of trauma and full of love and compassion,” Haley said. “Sometimes those elements are not available, and children suffer and grow into adults with difficulties and challenges that otherwise, with early intervention, may have been avoided.”

For more information, call 561-244-9499 or visit www.centerforchildcounseling.org.

Spady museum will receive grant for arts programs

The National Endowment for the Arts has approved a $10,000 donation to the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum in Delray Beach.

The donation is a Grants for Arts Projects award to support a residency program and an exhibition scheduled for next spring, titled “Back for More: Pleasure in Abundance,” a follow-up to last year’s “Radical Pleasure.”

The exhibition pairs literary and visual arts.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is pleased to support a wide range of projects including the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum’s residency program, demonstrating the many ways the arts enrich our lives and contribute to healthy and thriving communities,” NEA Chairwoman Maria Rosario Jackson said.

For more info about the museum, call 561-279-8883 or visit www.spadymuseum.com.

Faulk counseling center seeking volunteers

The Faulk Center for Counseling, a mental health facility based in Boca Raton, is seeking dedicated volunteers to join the team.

Whether assisting with administrative tasks or helping with outreach programs, volunteers will gain valuable experience and contribute to the well-being of clients.

The center promotes well-being through a variety of free and low-cost mental health programs.

For more information, call 561-483-5300 or visit faulkcenterforcounseling.org.

Send news and notes to Amy Woods at flamywoods@bellsouth.net.