The Hustle to End Hunger 5K, sponsored by CROS Ministries, is Oct. 7. ABOVE: The 2022 preparations. Photo provided

No matter how well the economy does, hunger does not go away.

According to the Palm Beach County Food Bank, nearly 160,000 people in our wealthy county are food-insecure. That means they’re not getting adequate nutrition. That means they’re hungry. And more than 50,000 of those people are kids younger than 18.

You can help.

CROS Ministries’ annual Hustle to End Hunger 5K takes place at 7:30 a.m. Oct. 7 at John Prince Park, 2700 Sixth Ave. S., in Lake Worth Beach. All of the proceeds benefit CROS Ministries, which has served the hungry in Palm Beach and Martin counties for 45 years.

Its food pantries, the gleaning food-recovery program, its Caring Kitchen hot meal program and summer camp for children from families with low incomes are just some of the programs that help our neighbors.

Registration for the Hustle is $40 per person until Sept. 6, then it’s $45. An untimed walk option and a virtual option are available. Register at www.adventuresignup.com/Race/FL/LakeWorth/Hustle2EndHunger5K.

CROS Ministries is also looking for volunteers for the Delray Beach Pantry/Neighborhood Resource Center at 141 SW 12th Ave. Volunteers are needed to check in clients on a computer and to pack bags of food weighing 25 pounds. Training is provided.

Contact Juanita Goode at jgoode@crosministries.org or 561-699-5113.

To contact CROS Ministries, call 561-233-9009 or visit www.crosministries.org

First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach’s Pennies from Heaven program has been fighting hunger 1 cent at a time since 2012. Lately, the organizers say, they’ve noticed that many families are experiencing food insecurity for the first time.

Rising costs for housing and insurance, water and electricity — and just about everything else — are taking a toll even on middle-class families earning decent wages.

According to the United Way of Palm Beach County, hunger is happening behind the closed doors of nice houses with nice cars in the driveway.

First Presbyterian began asking its parishioners to collect 5 cents for each meal eaten during the month and to donate that money to Pennies from Heaven on the last Sunday. The money collected goes directly to funding food programs in the community and supporting members of the congregation experiencing hard times.

In those 11 years, from the beginning of 2012 through 2022, the church collected more than $58,000. During the early pandemic, it took a break and collected only $2,500 for 2020 and 2021 combined. But in 2023, the church has already collected nearly $4,000.

This is an easy, painless way to help your neighbors, participants say.

Consider putting aside a few pennies and donating them to First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach, to your own church, to the charity of your choice or the Palm Beach County Food Bank.

First Presbyterian is at 33 Gleason St. https://firstdelray.com/ or 561-276-6338.

Contact the Palm Beach County Food Bank at 561-670-2518 or www.pbcfoodbank.org.

Shana Tovah! (Have a sweet year!)
September is an important month for Judaism with both Rosh Hashanah (the new year) and Yom Kippur (the day of atonement) being celebrated. These highest of the High Holidays are marked with services at local temples, chabads and synagogues.

The celebratory Rosh Hashanah begins Sept. 15, and the solemn Yom Kippur begins Sept. 24. The days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the year, are called the Days of Awe and are supposed to be a time for candid self-reflection.

The High Holidays’ themes of forgiveness and repentance mark a time of healing, fasting and breaking the fast with special meals and prayers.

Shmuel Biston of Chabad of East Delray says this is the perfect time to both ask for forgiveness and freely forgive others. It’s a time to evaluate ourselves as spiritual people, to look back over the year and ask how we did — not at earning money but in a spiritual sense.

These subjects are the focal point of the holiday worship services, including Rabbi Barry Silver’s “alternative to the traditional High Holy Day services.”

Silver, who has served Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor in Palm Beach County since 1996, founded “Cosmic Judaism,” which he calls “a wonderful new phase of religious evolution, guided by the prophets of old and the science of today.”

Based on the teachings of great Jewish and scientific thinkers and carrying on the traditions of his father, Rabbi Sam Silver, Barry Silver promotes interfaith harmony and “rational Judaism.”

They revere the Albert Einstein’s quote, “Science without religion is lame, and religion without science is blind,” which is at the core of Cosmic Judaism. Silver claims Cosmic Judaism will “replace walls of ignorance, conflict and hate with bridges of reason, understanding and love.”

Silver will lead his congregation’s High Holiday services at the Movies of Delray, 7421 W. Atlantic Ave. Tickets are $95, free for children younger than 18, available online at www.ldorvador.org.

For more information about Cosmic Judaism, visit www.rabbibarrysilver.com/rabbi-barry-s-writings/cosmic-judaism.

Volunteers needed for Diocesan Convention
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Delray Beach is looking for volunteers to help with the Diocesan Convention 2023 on Oct. 27-28 at the Chapel of Saint Andrew in Boca Raton.

More than 40 volunteers are needed for the registration desk, to be ushers and servers and fill several other jobs. If you can help, contact Father Paul Kane at revpaul@stpaulsdelray.org.

Knights of Columbus retreat set at St. Lucy
Father Brian Horgan and St. Lucy Catholic Church welcome the Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organization, on Sept. 23 for the St. Padre Pio Retreat.

The Knights of Columbus, with more than 1.6 million members worldwide, is dedicated to charity above all else. The more members it has, the more good deeds it can do, so the Knights of Columbus is always looking for members.

Tickets are $25 and include breakfast and lunch. For more information, visit https://kofc17215.org.

Cason will shred your papers in fundraiser
Get ready for a new year by getting rid of those old papers!

Cason United Methodist Church is holding a Shred-a-Thon 9 a.m.-noon Nov. 4. The Red Shredder team accepts all kinds of papers and folders, but no boxes, cardboard, X-rays, food, newspaper, glass, magazines, plastic, dark-colored folders, metal objects or equipment. It’s $5 per “bankers box” size or $10 for a bag. Cash is preferred. Credit cards require a $25 minimum. For more information, call Tricia Schmidt at 561-788-2822. Cason is at 342 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. The Shred-a-Thon will be in the church parking lot.

Coffee and conversation after Ascension’s Masses
The Holy Grounds Cafe in the Family Center at Ascension Catholic Church is open after the Sunday Masses at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and noon. The cafe serves fresh-brewed coffee and donuts from Dandee Donuts. Both indoor and outdoor seating is available. If you’d rather serve coffee, volunteers are also needed. Ascension Catholic is at 7250 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. 561-997-5486 or https://ascensionboca.org.

Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at fontaine423@outlook.com.

By Jan Engoren

With Palm Beach County temperatures this summer regularly in the 90s and heat indexes well over 100, the question arises: How do you stay hydrated, especially in the relentless Florida sun?

“The best medicine is prevention,” says Daniel S. Gutman, assistant professor of medicine at FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine and an internist at Baptist Health in Boynton Beach. An avid cyclist and runner, Gutman will usually mix 20 ounces of water with a sugar-free Gatorade to replace electrolytes lost during sweating.

“There is no magic number of how many glasses of water to drink,” he says. “I advise my patients to listen to their bodies. Drink before you’re thirsty.”

He recommends carrying water with you, exercising early or late in the day and staying on top of hydrating.

“Here in Palm Beach County, we like to remain young forever,” he jokes. “In addition to hydrating, remember to wear a hat, long sleeves and use UV protection.”

Susan Klein Overson, a retired park planner for the National Park Service whose parents lived in Delray Beach, offers one cautionary story. She was hiking in Costa Rica without an adequate water supply.

When she returned home she developed flu-like symptoms.

“I had nausea, a headache and felt weak and tired,” she says. “It can sneak up on you.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, our bodies are composed of 50-70% water and every cell, tissue and organ relies on water to function properly. A lack of adequate water can lead to dehydration, which can lead to serious illness.

Signs of dehydration include weakness, dizziness, sluggishness, fainting or heart palpitations.

Staying hydrated helps the heart more easily pump blood through the vessels to the muscles and helps muscles work efficiently. Dehydration causes the heart to work harder.

The American Heart Association recommends drinking water before, during and after going outside in hot weather.

Like Gutman, the association says if you wait until you’re thirsty, you’ve waited too long.

When you sweat, you lose fluid and electrolytes, such as sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, phosphate and bicarbonate.

Replacing these fluids and electrolytes is essential. But what is the best method to replace them and how much water should you consume?

The purpose of rehydrating is to put fluid back into your system so your organs can function properly. The amount of fluid you need depends on the climate, the type of clothing worn and the intensity and duration of your exertion. 

Opinions vary but a rule of thumb is for women to drink 11.5 cups of fluid daily and men to drink 15.5 cups, as recommended by the Mayo Clinic. Of course, if you are exercising in the heat or working outside, you may need to increase these amounts.

Most experts recommend consuming about half your fluid intake in water and the other half in an electrolyte beverage that contains some carbohydrates. But, watch out for excess sugar and artificial sweeteners.

One way to tell if you’re drinking enough is if your urine is clear in color.

Another simple method to stay hydrated is to eat fruits and vegetables such as cucumbers, watermelon, grapes, spinach and cantaloupe. Houston-based artist Gregg Optekamp was in South Florida last summer selling his art near the beach. To prepare, he would eat a good breakfast and drink plenty of fluids, including Pedialyte.

When the heat became too intense, he poured ice water over his head, drank a liter of water and found shade to cool down in for 30 minutes.

“Balancing my time in the heat was a matter of survival,” he says. “I had to build stamina to withstand the heat.

“Shade and water are important to avoid overheating,” he says.

He freezes bottles of water and keeps a wet hand towel in a cooler.

Delray Beach artist Ari Hirschman, also a hiker and cyclist, says he has gotten dehydrated so many times “it’s not even funny.”

“But that’s what you get for biking and hiking in the Florida summer,” he says.

He had dry heaves from getting dehydrated and lost as much as 15 pounds after a day of hiking.

Now he drinks an extra two liters of water each day and takes a big plastic cup of water with electrolytes and ice with him to work and drinks another on the way home. He even takes one when he walks the dog.

“I’m not quite made for the Florida heat,” he says, “but I don’t ever stop doing what I love.”

Jan Engoren writes about health and healthy living. Send column ideas to jengoren@hotmail.com.

Dr. Jeffrey Newman, cardiothoracic surgeon, cuts the ribbon as Delray Medical Center celebrates the start of its Ion robotic bronchoscopy program. Photo provided

Delray Medical Center’s Ion robotic bronchoscopy program represents a step forward in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. Dr. Stephen Milan, a pulmonologist and advanced bronchoscopist at Delray Medical Center, recently performed the first procedure using the new system.

Under CEO Daniel Listi and a team of medical professionals, the innovative Ion robotic platform allows for enhanced precision, improved access to hard-to-reach areas of the lung and minimally invasive procedures.

The platform combines advanced robotics, real-time imaging and artificial intelligence to enable bronchoscopic procedures with exceptional accuracy and safety. 

The robot-assisted procedures take place in the medical center’s new operating room in its designated advanced bronchoscopy suite.

***

The University of Miami’s Comprehensive Center for Brain Health will host a free educational conference open to the public from 9 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Oct. 19 at the South County Civic Center, 16700 Jog Road, Delray Beach. The nonprofit organization aims to teach the community about dementia and brain health.

Conference speakers will talk about cutting-edge research findings on cognition, the brain and lifestyle, and how this information can be applied to improve brain health. Space is limited and registration is required. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Register at https://bit.ly/topicsinbrainhealth.

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

Instructor Christian Cooper from the Shakespeare Troupe of South Florida watches students in the troupe’s ‘Shakespeare Lives!’ workshop. From left are Kimberly Wilkinson, Kaelyn Gonzalez and Brayden Wartmann. Photo provided

By Faran Fagen

More movement and laughter.

That was the advice Shakespeare Troupe of South Florida actress Christine Chavers had for student Kimberly Wilkinson during her monologue of Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“I’ve always found acting a fun way to express myself, and I’m a pretty quiet person so it’s a great outlet for me,” said Wilkinson, of Boca Raton. “I’d like to pursue acting wherever I can, hopefully with the Shakespeare Troupe moving forward and opportunities at Florida Atlantic University.”

Wilkinson, a 19-year-old student at FAU, took part in “Shakespeare Lives!”, an intensive 10-day workshop created by the Shakespeare Troupe to offer students ages 13-22 the opportunity to study facets of classical acting.

Classes were held in late July and early August at the Sol Theatre in Boca Raton. The program is spearheaded by Shakespeare Troupe founder Peter Galman.  

“I was able to help them overcome their fears and self-judgment and watch them grow with self-confidence through exercises and practicing the tools we gave them,” Galman said. “The end result was bigger voices and a stronger commitment to the actions of characters.”

Professional actors conducted master classes, teaching the principles of vocal projection, diction, text analysis, verse management, character portrayal and self-staging techniques.

The workshops — for up to 20 students — culminated with a staged reading of scenes from Shakespeare showcasing the trainees’ development and open to the public. Each student took away a classic monologue to use in auditions.

“We learned a lot about performing Shakespeare for a modern audience,” said Wilkinson, who has performed at the Sol Theatre since she was a child.

Instructor Sara Grant translated Shakespeare into modern terms and helped in Wilkinson’s scene from Twelfth Night to make sense of Olivia’s character.

“We also worked on applying subtext in scenes to really get the character’s message across,” Wilkinson said. “Christian Cooper helped us perfect our comedic timing and gave me some fun character choices to work with.”

Shakespeare Troupe teaching artists, who specialize in voice, movement and music, joined Galman in conducting the five-hour sessions.

The final presentations were assembled in the form of a showcase, which Galman said was “well attended and well executed.”

“The students were absolutely able to take the tools that were given them and skillfully use them,” said Galman,” who appeared on As the World Turns for five years while moonlighting on Broadway and off-Broadway in New York.

The idea for the program began last year. Galman wrote a grant and applied to the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County. Upon receiving it, he contacted Grant, of the Sol Theatre, and she opened the stage to the Shakespeare Troupe.

“It turns out that with its small intimate space, the Sol is ideal for the presentation of workshop material,” Galman said. “What I see in their eyes is often sheer joy at their own discovery, and sometimes the realization of the gravity of the themes they are encountering.”

The troupe will have after-school workshops for teens later this school year, Galman said. “As we start booking Shakespeare in Schools in winter/spring of 2024, we will be offering paid internships for students to be further involved,” he said.

Tuition for the 10-day Shakespeare Lives! workshop is $250. Students are accepted through audition or video submission.

Founded by Galman in 2016 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the troupe participated in the weeklong intensive World of Shakespeare program in March 2017 at the Cushman School in Miami. In 2018-2019 the troupe toured and reached 10,000 audience members.

For more information, contact Shakespeare Troupe of South Florida at 754-228-7228 or anon@shakestroupe.org or visit www.shakestroupe.org. Sol Theatre is at 3333 N. Federal Highway in Boca Raton.

Andy Rubin and Jim ‘Chiefy’ Mathie show off their crew’s first-day miniseason catch of lobsters and the new Chiefy snare by Lobster League that helped them catch those bugs. Steve Waters/The Coastal Star

By Steve Waters

Local divers have enjoyed a stellar start to the lobster season, beginning with the two-day miniseason at the end of July and continuing with the regular season, which is Aug. 6-March 31.

“I have no idea what the season’s going to be like, but so far it’s been great,” said Jim “Chiefy” Mathie of Deerfield Beach, who typically dives out of the Boca Raton Inlet.

A retired Deerfield Beach Fire Rescue division chief, Mathie never misses a miniseason, which is the first opportunity for recreational divers to catch lobsters once the regular season closes April 1.

The bugs, as they are known because of their insect-like appearance, are typically less wary during miniseason because they haven’t been poked and prodded by recreational and commercial divers for nearly four months. They’re also more plentiful because commercial traps have been out of the water during that same period.

Another major attraction of miniseason, which was July 26-27, is the daily bag limit of 12 lobsters for divers in Palm Beach and Broward counties, which is twice the regular-season limit.

Mathie and his five dive buddies had an excellent miniseason, catching their limit of lobsters both days. That included an extra lobster each day for Mathie because he shot more than 25 lionfish with his speargun. Lionfish are invasive, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission encourages spearfishers to shoot lionfish by rewarding those who kill 25 or more with an extra bug during miniseason.

Diving the first day between Boca Inlet and Hillsboro Inlet on Relentless, owned by Steve Spiegel of Lighthouse Point, and the second day on Mathie’s boat, the Chiefy crew caught 73 lobsters each day.

“We knew they were in shallow the first day and we ended up finding them in 30 feet of water, on the west side of the second reef,” said Mathie, the author of the how-to lobstering book Catching the BUG: The Comprehensive Guide to Catching the Spiny Lobster. “On the second day, they weren’t there. So, we ended up catching them in the 45-foot depths.

“So the key was making sure that you have multiple spots that you can check in multiple depths, because you just never know. Hey, 146 lobsters aren’t bad for six guys for two days.”

Mathie’s regular season picked up where the miniseason left off. On several trips Mathie and his crew got their limit on their first dive and went spearfishing on their second dive, which was an accomplishment.

“You’re competing with the lobster traps, and also divers that are commercial guys can catch up to 250 lobster per day. So that’s a lot of competition for us recreational guys,” Mathie said. “That’s the challenge of the regular season, but people have to realize that it goes to March 31.”

Another highlight of the miniseason and early season for Mathie was having divers use the new Chiefy snare by Lobster League. Unlike most snares, Mathie’s is made from strong, lightweight aluminum and injection-molded plastic parts secured with stainless steel screws and springs.

All of the parts can be replaced, if necessary, instead of your having to buy a new snare. Its 44-inch length is the longest on the market, and the snare has a thick monofilament loop that retains its shape, unlike the wire loops of other snares.

Its unique mode selector allows lobster hunters to choose a lock-off or lock-on position. In the latter setting, when the snare’s loop is closed around a lobster, the lobster cannot escape. The loop loosens only when the thumb release button is pressed.

“It’s going well,” Mathie said. “A lot of folks that are using it are really complimentary of it and they’re enjoying it, so that’s really nice.”

The snares are available at a handful of area dive shops, including the Force-E stores in Boca Raton and Boynton Beach and Dixie Divers in Deerfield Beach.

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

By Rich Pollack

Since parts of a woman’s body were found in three suitcases floating in the Intracoastal Waterway, Delray Beach police have enlisted the help of nearby law enforcement agencies, residents with surveillance cameras and just about anyone else who might have information as they search for the victim’s identity and her killer.

Yet in a case that is so Florida that it could be the focus of a Carl Hiaasen novel, little information has come to light — at least that police are sharing — to help detectives answer the most essential questions.

Who is the middle-aged woman homicide victim — with brown hair and possibly tattooed eyebrows — whose body was divided into parts and stuffed into suitcases that were pushed into the waterway?

What happened to her that led to her death, and when and where did her apparent murder take place?

How did the three suitcases get in the Intracoastal Waterway and where and, perhaps most intriguing of all, who is responsible for taking her life and disposing of the body in such a manner?

Although much is not known, detectives have a few tidbits of information that could help them get closer to identifying the victim and perhaps her killer.

The floral tank top she was wearing is from the Betzabe brand, which investigators think is a Brazilian company.

Two suitcases were from uncommon brands, with one being a purple Palm Springs Ricardo Beverly Hills bag and the other described as a green-and-black polka-dot Charlie Sport bag. The third was a plain, brown bag.

In addition, detectives working with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office’s forensic imaging unit created an artist’s rendering of what the woman might have looked like and distributed it to the community.

Delray Beach police’s investigation began shortly after 4 p.m. July 21 when a construction worker discovered the first of the three suitcases just north of the George Bush Boulevard bridge.

Not long afterward, officers received calls of two more suitcases found about two miles to the south, near Casuarina Road and Southeast Seventh Avenue.

Soon officers from local police departments were joining investigators in a search for anything that might be helpful. Highland Beach police, in the department’s relatively new police boat, Boynton Beach’s marine patrol and law enforcement officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission all joined in the search.

By the next morning detectives and crime scene technicians were under the George Bush Boulevard bridge looking for clues, with the help of a police dog. Despite apparent digging, that search turned up empty.

Another dead end, at least at the time of a news conference three days after the suitcases were discovered, was a scouring of missing persons reports.

During that news conference, police asked for the community’s help, with Chief Russ Mager saying no information is too small.

Although it’s unknown where the suitcases entered the water, investigators appear to believe that took place within Delray Beach city limits. One theory is that if suitcases had been tossed in the Intracoastal in Broward County or Boca Raton or Highland Beach, someone would have seen them and called police especially since a body part — which police did not identify — was protruding from one of the bags.

While police teams scoured the area where the suitcases were found for any related relevant information, Delray Beach Detective Sgt. Casey Kelly said the size of that area made the effort “a very daunting task.”

Detectives are asking anyone with information to contact Detective Mike Liberta, who can be reached at 561-243-7874.

By Larry Barszewski

When Boynton Beach commissioners approved reduced height limits in January for new buildings downtown, they weren’t so much slamming the brakes on growth as they were gently tapping them.

There already are more people per square mile living in or near downtown Boynton Beach than in either Delray Beach’s or Boca Raton’s downtown — and the city has approved developments in the pipeline that will pack thousands more into the heart of what was once a fishing village.

“I’m concerned about the traffic. We have so much traffic already that even when it’s off season, it still feels like it’s in season,” said Boynton Beach Vice Mayor Thomas Turkin, who proposed the reduced heights last year. “I think Boynton Beach is at a very crucial stage of growth. We’ve already had a bunch of projects approved. Once you start, you can’t go back.”

A breakdown of downtown and near-downtown population figures from 2020 U.S. Census tract data shows Boynton Beach with the highest density of South County’s three largest downtowns, followed by Boca Raton’s and then Delray Beach’s:

Boynton Beach: 6,287 residents per square mile (in 2.1 square miles between Interstate 95 and the Intracoastal Waterway, from the Boynton Canal south to Woolbright Road).

Boca Raton: 5,282 residents per square mile (in 2.5 square miles between the El Rio Canal and the Intracoastal Waterway, from Northeast/Northwest 20th Street south to Camino Real).

Delray Beach: 5,111 residents per square mile (in 1.9 square miles between I-95 and the Intracoastal, from Lake Ida Road/Northeast Fourth Street south to Atlantic Avenue; between Southwest Eighth Avenue and the Intracoastal from Atlantic south to Southeast/Southwest 10th Street; and between Dixie Highway and the Intracoastal from 10th Street south to Linton Boulevard).

All three cities continue to see downtown growth, but Boynton Beach has the densest that is already lined up. Seven approved projects in the downtown area could raise the density there to 9,238 residents per square mile a decade from now.

In just one corridor two blocks north and south of Ocean Avenue, stretching from Seacrest Boulevard to the Intracoastal, five projects with 2,214 more residential units — which could add 5,500 more people, based on the city’s average household size in the 2020 U.S. Census — are in the works.

“You’re doubling that population in less than a mile square area,” said Kristine de Haseth, a former Ocean Ridge mayor and executive director of Florida Coalition for

Preservation, which seeks to promote responsible growth. “You get an increase in population, it puts extreme pressure on aging and failing infrastructure.”

Over the years, similar concerns have been heard in Delray Beach and Boca Raton, as the cities pushed forward with attracting residential, commercial and office developments to create a downtown environment where people can “live, work and play.”

The projects typically are anchored to or near major thoroughfares: Palmetto Park Road in Boca Raton, Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, Boynton Beach Boulevard/Ocean Avenue in Boynton Beach.

The downtowns are intersected by Florida East Coast Railway tracks, which planners for decades have used to justify increased downtown densities, in part by envisioning a regional commuter rail service that would one day run up and down those tracks. The train system — if ever a reality — would have downtown stops and reduce traffic congestion by connecting coastal cities to each other, allowing people to move in and out of the downtowns without having to use their cars.

As each city’s plans have moved forward, with no train in sight, complaints have followed about traffic and a worsening quality of life. Meanwhile, proponents have touted a new vibrancy and needed economic growth taking hold, with the advantage of concentrating growth where it makes sense, instead of doubling down on an urban sprawl model that has long defined South Florida.

Criticism has come, too, from residents of the barrier island, whose access to the mainland is over bridges that put them into the middle of these downtowns. De Haseth is concerned that the growth across the Intracoastal will hurt communities like hers, some of which rely on fire and emergency rescue services from mainland departments.

Comparing the downtowns

Boca Raton is a step ahead of Boynton Beach and Delray Beach when it comes to transportation options, opening a Brightline train station downtown in December. While it’s not the proposed Coastal Tri-Rail that would link local cities, it does connect Boca Raton’s downtown with Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Aventura and West Palm Beach, and soon with Orlando.

“Brightline is definitely going to have an impact,” said Glenn Gromann, a development consultant. “They are absolutely positively taking trips off the road.”

Boca Raton’s downtown is also seeing strong growth and has more than 1,000 additional residential units already approved, which could add more than 2,250 people to its downtown, based on its average household size. The city also recently approved the proposed 12-story Aletto Square office complex, which won’t add to the city’s population density, but will bring more traffic.

Even with the Boca Raton projects that are on the books, and even though Boca Raton is larger than either Boynton Beach or Delray Beach, Gromann doesn’t see Boca Raton matching the downtown densities of the other two cities in future years.

“What’s different about Delray and Boynton is they still have wide swaths of available property that can be redeveloped,” something not found in downtown Boca Raton, Gromann said. Also, while Boca Raton may allow taller buildings, the overall density is kept down because of the larger size of luxury apartments and condos in demand there, he said.

“The product type is now leaning more to condo,” Gromann said. “It’s the only way you can afford to build the buildings.”

Boynton Beach’s new 85-foot height limit, down from 150-foot and 100-foot maximums in certain sections of the downtown, had some residents looking with envy to Delray Beach and its 54-foot height limit — and an even lower 38-foot maximum along downtown Atlantic Avenue.

“Delray Beach has a very rigid maximum building height,” said Dana Little, urban design director for the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, who has worked over the years with cities in the region to help them develop their master plans and land development regulations. “To the city’s credit, they’ve held that line. They’ve decided that’s who they wanted to be.”

A 2019 master plan the planning council put together for Delray Beach speaks to the importance of having more people living downtown, or in the Central Core District as it is called in the plan.

“Increasing residential density is absolutely crucial to ensure a healthy and lasting life to the Central Core District,” the master plan says. “The residential component will be the element that will make the Central Core District evolve from a high-end leisure area for a few, to a true downtown that serves the needs of the community as a whole.”

Laura Simon, executive director of the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority, has watched her downtown bloom, with the lower building heights on the avenue in tune with the city’s coastal vibe. “The walkability and walking in the sunshine, it’s just more desirable than a high-rise town,” she said.

Downtown Atlantic Avenue is one of South County’s major attractions, drawing crowds from throughout the region. The two-lane avenue through the historic downtown is constantly backed up and development hasn’t slowed — Atlantic Crossing at Federal Highway was the latest addition with new restaurants, shops and offices opening last year, as well as 85 of an eventual 261 new apartments.

While Delray may have room to grow, the possibilities may be even greater in Boynton Beach, which lags behind the other two in its downtown’s development as a destination spot.

“Boynton is sort of an untouched area as far as vacant land,” Gromann said.

Town Square will bring 898 residential units along Seacrest Boulevard in Boynton Beach. Rendering provided

The big buildup in Boynton

That seems about to change. Of five projects approved in the heart of Boynton Beach’s downtown, most include eight-story residential buildings in their plans.

The developments are:

Town Square, along Seacrest Boulevard, 898 residential units.

The Pierce, along the west side of Federal Highway north of Ocean Avenue, 300 units.

One Ocean/Hyperion, along the east side of Federal Highway north of Ocean Avenue, 371 units.

Broadstone, along the east side of Federal south of Ocean Avenue, 274 units.

The Villages of East Ocean, on the west side of the FEC tracks along Ocean Avenue, 371 units.

Turkin said the city has its work cut out, especially making infrastructure improvements to handle the growth. But he doesn’t think it is too much development for the city.

“I am extremely concerned and I do think that we need to focus on preparation for all this development, and I think we are,” said Turkin, whose district includes the heart of the downtown. “My hope is we focus on infrastructure before we get too far ahead of ourselves.”

Paying for infrastructure and keeping up with needed services as the downtown grows is bound to hit Boynton Beach taxpayers harder, because of the city’s lower tax base. Boca Raton has a $34.7 billion property valuation, followed by Delray Beach at $16.4 billion. Boynton Beach’s valuation is only $9.1 billion.

At the turn of the century, Boynton Beach and Delray Beach had similarly sized populations of just over 60,000. Since then, Boynton Beach has shot ahead and has about 16,000 more residents than Delray Beach. According to U.S. Census data and estimates, Boynton Beach has grown 38.2%, to 84,028, since 2000, while Delray Beach’s population is up 14.2%, to 68,742.

All Boynton Beach’s growth is not happening downtown. In 2020, the densest area in Boynton Beach was north of the Boynton Beach Mall, between Congress Avenue and Lawrence Road, up to Miner Road. That square mile section of the city had a density of 8,388 residents per square mile in 2020.

Another area virtually as dense is north of downtown. The 1.2-square-mile section between I-95 and the Intracoastal, from a few blocks north of Gateway Boulevard south to the Boynton Canal, had 8,382 people per square mile as of the 2020 census.

Workforce housing law a concern

While cities have worked to manage growth, there is new uncertainty among them. The worry is from the Live Local Act, which passed the state Legislature this year and was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Officials laud the goal of the law, which is to increase the amount of workforce housing in the state, but they fear developers may be receiving too much latitude and residents might see large, dense residential complexes popping up in unlikely places.

Under the law, if a residential development meets a required percentage of workforce housing units, the project can be built in areas now zoned for commercial, industrial and mixed-use — not just residential. Also, those developments can be built to a height that’s the highest allowed by the city within a mile of the proposed site — picture a Dixie Highway parcel within a mile of an ocean high-rise — and with a density up to the maximum permitted in the city.

“The intention is very sound. We’ve got a workforce housing crisis. We’ve got people living in vans all over the place,” Little said. “But we do have concerns and many of our local governments have concerns.”

Turkin shares those concerns about the Live Local Act, but regarding the downtown’s growth, he thinks Boynton Beach is beginning to take the steps necessary to make sure the increased density works to the city’s benefit.

“Responsible development is good,” Turkin said. “I think we’re going to become one of the greatest things in Palm Beach County.”

THE DATA USED FOR THIS STORY

The Coastal Star collected population density information using the 2020 Census Demographic Data Map Viewer for census tracts in its coverage area. The downtown density numbers presented in the story are an analysis of the census tracts that most closely align with each city’s downtown area.

Boynton Beach and Boca Raton each have online maps of approved projects and the number of residential units they contain. To determine how many additional residents the projects would bring, the units were multiplied by each city’s average household size from the 2020 U.S. Census (2.49 per household in Boynton Beach, 2.25 per household in Boca Raton and in Delray Beach).

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

By Larry Barszewski

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

The city might even make it illegal.

But not just yet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Jane Musgrave

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coz acknowledged that escaping the sargassum storm is good news.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hey, I never said it wasn’t fun.

— Mary Kate Leming,
Editor

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

By Brian Biggane

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Mary Thurwachter

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tax rate, budget hearings

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

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

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

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

Fencing at cemetery

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

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

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

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

By Mary Thurwachter

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brandenburg thought otherwise.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Master plan highlights

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

Some highlights include:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Residents have shown much enthusiasm for the plan.

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

By Steve Plunkett

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aaron Barnes
Surfrider Foundation,
Palm Beach County chair

By Steve Plunkett

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

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

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

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

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

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

Commissioner Joan Orthwein repeated her discomfort about the low ranking.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In other business:          

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Steve Plunkett

By Larry Barszewski

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

House construction gets another extension

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

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

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

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

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

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

In other town news:

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Tao Woolfe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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