Ruby Berger, who volunteers as an usher at local theaters, lives in Boynton Beach in a home that features her eclectic collection of artwork. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jan Norris

Have you been to a live theater performance in Palm Beach County lately? If so, you’ve likely been seated by Ruby Berger — or, seated next to her.

Berger volunteers as an usher at nearly every live theater venue around. A professional usher, as it were.

“Yes,” she said, a smile in her voice. “I guess you can say that. A super volunteer, maybe.”

She’s one of the original greeters-and-seaters at Delray Beach’s Arts Garage.

“I’m the only one who’s been ushering all 11 years since it opened,” Berger said.

You can find the 76-year-old Berger seating patrons at the Lake Worth Playhouse, the Wick Theatre in Boca Raton, the Delray Beach Playhouse and the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.

And when she’s not at a theater, as an usher or patron, or traveling abroad, Berger is an avid dancer — an Argentine tango dancer. She’s been to Argentina five times to learn more about the art. It’s her true passion, she said.

She puts on her flouncy, blood-red dress and strappy heels two or three times a month to tango at the Goldcoast Ballroom in Coconut Creek.

She has been an usher since she moved to Florida in 2005.

“I mostly just greet the patrons and help them find their seats,” Berger said.

She said she seldom if ever sees the ugly side of audiences. No fights have taken place on her watch.

“Everyone is nice,” Berger said. If there’s a problem, it’s usually because someone has the wrong seat. “I just ask them to move, and they do.”

She does have tips for the public, to keep things running smoothly on both the patrons’ and theaters’ ends: “Get your tickets early, especially to popular plays, so you aren’t disappointed if they sell out.

“Get to the theater early, and have your tickets at hand.”

Ask an usher if you would like help finding your seats, she said. Tell the usher if someone else is in your seat so she or he can sort it out.

Berger, a Boynton Beach resident, also volunteers at special events at the venues, such as last month’s luncheon for police officers at the Arts Garage.

In season, she volunteers at least twice a week, she said.

If she’s not volunteering, Berger is in the audience enjoying the performance — watching and judging performances like the aspiring actress she used to be.

All the plays are equally exciting to her; she won’t name favorites. There are some she’s not so fond of, but all, she said, have some good points.

“Dramas, musicals, I just love the performing arts,” Berger said. “And visual arts. Museums and art galleries. All the arts, really.”

Berger, a New Jersey native, fell in love with the theater as a child. “I grew up in Fair Lawn, and lived in East Brunswick and Edgewater.” That was close enough to New York City to draw her into Broadway and other arts venues.

“When I was old enough, every week I’d take the bus into the city, and visit the museums and theaters,” she said. “I’d always go on Wednesdays when you could get the half-price tickets ... to Broadway matinees.”

Her goal, though, was to be on stage. “I wanted to be an actor ever since I was a little girl,” she said.

After getting a degree in art from Rutgers University, she followed her dream, and eventually enrolled in the Actors Studio in Manhattan. Although she landed a few television commercials, her acting career ended with those.

Her performances did not, however. They took a hiatus while she helped run a furniture business with her now former husband. But after she moved to Florida, she began taking ballroom dance lessons. She was struck by the passion of the South American tango and made it a focus of her lessons. That resulted in her traveling to Argentina to learn from the masters.

“It’s art. It’s a play with dialogue between the dancers,” she said, explaining how the sensual beat and perfectly synchronized movements of the dancers fascinate her.

Add in traveling for pleasure to museums around the world, a few days at the gym and all that volunteer work, she’s a busy woman.

Asked about the future of live theater with waning ticket sales in some venues and elderly arts patrons, she was optimistic — with a 76-year-old’s perspective.

“Well, the audiences here are mostly elderly, it’s true,” she said. “But we do have some in their mid-50s who attend regularly.”

NOMINATE SOMEONE TO BE A COASTAL STAR
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Related: South Palm Beach: Dogs no longer allowed on town property

I am writing to express my concern regarding several important issues that require the attention of the South Palm Beach Town Council.

One such issue is the use of sidewalks by bikes and electric bikes, which has already resulted in accidents. Additionally, there is a lack of pedestrian crossings in our town. These are two critical matters that pedestrians and dog owners face every day and should be prioritized on the council’s agenda.

While I understand the intention behind the recent resolution passed by the council to exclude dogs from town property due to some residents failing to clean up after their pets, I believe that addressing these safety concerns should take precedence.

Furthermore, as a result of this resolution, the dog station adjacent to the Intracoastal has been removed. This means that dog owners who are residents of South Palm Beach are now forced to walk to the adjacent town if they want to enjoy the Intracoastal. This restriction not only inconveniences responsible dog owners but also creates an unwelcoming environment for dogs in our community.

I would like to propose an alternative solution. Instead of implementing additional resolutions, I suggest installing cameras on town property to identify and fine irresponsible dog owners, as established by Ordinance 304 already in the books. This targeted approach would address the issue without penalizing responsible dog owners who follow the rules.

I believe that this approach would receive widespread support from both responsible dog owners and other members of our community.

It is important to note that over 80% of dog owners consider their pets as part of their family, and over 70% of the younger affluent generation owns dogs. As a community, we should strive to be dog-friendly and accommodate the needs of responsible dog owners.

Therefore, I kindly request that the plans for the new Town Hall include a designated dog-friendly area complete with cameras to ensure compliance with regulations.

On behalf of Cody, Morgan, Max, Bella, Teddy, Bandit, Lili, Riley, Peanut, Schultz and many other responsible dogs in South Palm Beach, I urge you to consider these suggestions and work toward creating a more inclusive and welcoming environment for our furry friends.

Additionally, I would like to emphasize that addressing safety concerns related to bike usage on sidewalks and pedestrian crossings should be given priority. These issues affect not only pedestrians, but also all residents and visitors in our town. By focusing on these matters, we can ensure a safer environment for everyone.

Rafael Pineiro
South Palm Beach

Related: Ocean Ridge: Town seeking grant to fix water valves

Recently, some residents were led to believe that Ocean Ridge had no idea where our buried water pipes, juncture boxes or turn-off valves were located. Of course, if this were true that would be quite shocking and derelict of the town governance.

This concern grew to the point that the alarming topic was covered by The Coastal Star in a reasonable manner considering the information then available. Even a former commissioner, who had recently and abruptly resigned from the commission, piped in by blasting the current commissioners.

All this confusion stemmed from a Town Commission meeting on July 10. There was a broad budget discussion of our aging drinking water infrastructure. At one point during this discussion, it was misguidedly noted that $50,000 might be needed to just find our water valves and pipes.

Predictably this caused a small-town firestorm. I never imagined that Ocean Ridge would be the butt of jokes for knowing where our turtle nests are, but not our water pipes.

As to location of valves, etc., here are the facts. You might find them historically fascinating.

After the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in 2001, the Department of Homeland Security ordered that all water-related infrastructure locations were not to be publicly displayed or distributed except under extremely strict guidelines. This was due to the fear of a terrorist attack on the system.

Our town’s longtime engineering firm, Engenuity Group, has a precise GIS (geographical information system) map of our buried water infrastructure. They work closely with our Public Works employees to help them locate pipes and valves that need attention, staying true to the Homeland Security tenets.

Yes, over the last 60-odd years maybe a valve has been buried 6 inches or a foot under dirt, or a few short sections of pipe have been moved a foot or two during a construction project, but with current technology those pipes are found when necessary.

So no, the sky is not falling in Ocean Ridge. We know where our infrastructure is located and, in fact, are currently working on state and federal grants to update some of the aging pipes.

Recently we were awarded an American Rescue Plan Act grant of over $900,000 for just that purpose. That is monies that Ocean Ridge taxpayers do not need to pony up.

Steve Coz
Vice Mayor, Ocean Ridge

By Pat Beall

When Delray Beach osteopath Michael Ligotti was sentenced in January to 20 years in prison, Department of Justice officials heralded his conviction and sentence.

Ligotti, they said, had been at the center of a $746 million addiction treatment fraud.

His arrest and guilty plea represented the largest such case ever charged by the Department of Justice, DOJ wrote in a news release.

Then it let him go.

Court filings confirm Ligotti, 49, remains out of prison because he has turned informant, providing evidence in other health care fraud cases.

Ligotti is not home free: Prosecutors have ordered him to pay $127 million in restitution in addition to his 20-year sentence, now postponed to Dec. 1.

Until then, he is free for limited travel. A federal judge cleared the way for Ligotti to go to Universal Studios this month for a family vacation at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort.

“We tried to understand the need for him to be available to testify in other cases,” said Lisa Daniels-Goldman, who was at Ligotti’s sentencing. Her son, Jamie Daniels, died of an overdose in a Boynton Beach sober home. “We were all for getting evidence against others and saving lives.”

But, she said, “That doesn’t mean I can’t be angry and mortified that not only is he staying out of prison, he has been given the opportunity to travel with his family. I don’t care if it’s a fleabag motel or a four-star hotel.

“Our son doesn’t get to travel with his family anymore.”

Ligotti’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
 
Cash bonanza in drug tests
At their height in 2015, Palm Beach County addiction treatment fraudsters were raking in hundreds of millions of dollars. Delray Beach was the epicenter of the schemes and Ligotti was in the thick of it, said federal prosecutors. 

Unscrupulous sober home operators didn’t need people seeking treatment to stay drug-free. Many sober homes became sites for drug use.

What they did need were doctors to sign off on expensive urine drug tests for people with insurance.

Drugstores sell $25 tests confirming the presence of a drug. But local treatment centers, sober homes and their labs were billing for sophisticated and unnecessary “confirmatory” urine tests.

A single test could yield up to $5,000 in insurance billings. In one case reported by The Palm Beach Post in 2015, nine months of urine testing totaled $304,318. In another instance, the parents of a young woman who overdosed in a sober home after four weeks received urine test bills topping $30,000.

Ligotti was medical director for more than 50 local sober homes. In addition to asserting he fraudulently ordered millions of dollars in tests, prosecutors charged that Ligotti prescribed addictive drugs to patients from his Whole Health clinic in Delray Beach. That included benzodiazepines, which are frequently — and lethally — mixed with opioids by people who are addicted.

Even after a federal subpoena issued in 2016 put Ligotti on notice that he was under investigation, he continued ordering tests, an FBI agent testified. There was one noticeable change: Health care practitioners he employed at Whole Health were putting their names on the test orders.

From denial to guilty plea
That same year, Jamie Daniels arrived in Palm Beach County, one of thousands of out-of-state people seeking addiction treatment here.
Ligotti was one of his doctors.

Daniels had struggled to stay sober. He got a job at a law firm as a clerk. He started studying for his law school entrance exam.  

In December 2016, Daniels died at age 23 after he overdosed in a sober home.

Within weeks, the Daniels family began receiving records showing their insurance company had been billed tens of thousands of dollars for urine screens and blood tests, including tests ordered by Ligotti over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Daniels’ father, Ken, is a sports fixture in Detroit, a play-by-play announcer for the NHL’s Red Wings since 1997. When Daniels family members began unraveling the treatment bills, they went public with the story of Jamie’s death, attracting the attention of ESPN.

An ESPN documentary confirmed that Jamie Daniels had not been in Florida on those days. He was with his family in Michigan.

Confronted by the documentary crew outside his Delray office, Ligotti denied ordering the tests, insisting his identity had been stolen.

“I’m the victim,” he said.

Ligotti was indicted in 2020 on 12 counts of health care fraud and money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud. In total, Ligotti charged health care benefit programs approximately $746 million over the span of nine years from 2011 to 2020, prosecutors said. Of that, he and his co-conspirators bagged around $127 million.

In January, Ligotti was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to the conspiracy charge. Other charges were dropped.

Help in other cases cited
At sentencing Ligotti expressed remorse, said Maureen Kielian of Southeast Florida Recovery Advocates.

“He said he lost his way,” recalled Kielian, who had filed a complaint against Ligotti with the Florida Board of Medicine three years earlier.

But after the sentence was handed down, she was shocked to see him walk out of the courtroom with his family.

“What just happened?” she said. “One kid has a pill in his pocket, and he is in prison for seven years. And Ligotti is walking out free.”

Ligotti was expected to report to prison June 12, enabling him to provide evidence in other federal cases.

But that month, prosecutors asked to further postpone his imprisonment to Dec. 1. Ligotti, they said, has cooperated in multiple cases. He has provided documents. He was a witness in a Central Florida case involving rural hospitals, fraudulent urine drug tests and three Miami-Dade men. Prosecutors still needed his help on open cases.

The court agreed to the extension. The next month, Ligotti’s attorney asked court permission for Ligotti and his family to travel to Universal Studios in October for three days.

There were no objections.

Pat Beall writes for Stet Palm Beach. You can read more of her work at https://stetmediagroup.substack.com

By Steve Plunkett

A new wave of building will be coming soon to Bluewater Cove — site plans for four more houses in the 14-lot Gulf Stream subdivision were reviewed by the planning advisory board last month.

Boca Raton-based Courchene Development Corp. wants to build on the four lots just east of three that are already under construction. Each one will have a different style.

The projects are:
• 2915 Bluewater Cove, a 5,461-square-foot Gulf Stream Bermuda style residence
• 2917 Bluewater Cove, a 5,462-square-foot Anglo-Caribbean style residence
• 2914 Bluewater Cove, a 5,464-square-foot Georgian style residence
• 2916 Bluewater Cove, a 5,461-square-foot West Indies style residence

All four are one-story, single-family dwellings, each including a two-car garage and swimming pool on its 16,560-square-foot lot. The projects will return to the planning board on Oct. 26.

Additionally, town officials made progress in September in bringing up to code the long-abandoned home at 2900 Avenue Au Soleil, located just south of Bluewater Cove and fronting the Intracoastal Waterway.

At an Aug. 30 hearing, Special Magistrate Kevin M. Wagner gave the property owner, AAS LLC, 14 days to get a building permit and 14 more days to repair “so as not to leak” the roofs of both the main house and an accessory garage. The roofs also needed to be cleaned and painted.

Contractor John Carew had already covered the swimming pool with plywood and installed a pump to make sure stagnant water would no longer accumulate. He also had the grounds trimmed, mowed and cleaned of debris.

Wagner scheduled a fine assessment hearing for Oct. 4 in case the code violations were not remedied. The home’s previous owners racked up $200,000 in code enforcement fines that the Town Commission reduced in 2019 to $20,000 in an effort to get new owners for the property. The property has changed hands at least once since then, according to property appraiser records.

In other business, the Town Commission was scheduled to give final approval on Oct. 4 to an $18.8 million budget for the year beginning Oct. 1.

Commissioners were originally set to approve the budget Sept. 27 but their vote was delayed for lack of a quorum. Two of the five commissioners had already said they would miss the meeting; two more had “unforeseen circumstances.”

“We went from barely meeting our quorum of three to having only one,” Town Attorney Trey Nazzaro said. Property owners will pay the same rate for town taxes as the previous year, $3.67 per $1,000 of taxable value, or $3,672 for a home valued at $1 million.

The town’s tax base grew roughly 16%, to $1.65 billion.

Notable expenses planned for the new fiscal year include $6.5 million for road and drainage improvements in the Core District. That work will start in January.

Gulf Stream will also buy a $53,000 police cruiser and a $39,000 water valve exercise machine to automate maintenance on the water mains. Town employees will receive a 5% cost-of-living increase in salaries.

The Early Childhood Academy in Delray Beach cares for children who often wind up in pre-kindergarten at Gulf Stream School. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

As rumored for months, the Gulf Stream School is expanding into Delray Beach, buying the building and land of the Early Childhood Academy on North Swinton Avenue.

The seller is the St. Joseph’s Episcopal School, which closed its lower and middle schools in Boynton Beach last June but kept its ECA open. While no enrollment changes are planned this school year, Gulf Stream School officials say they anticipate moving at least the 3-year-olds in their pre-kindergarten from the Gulf Stream campus to the Delray Beach location in the future.

Patrick Donovan, president of Gulf Stream School’s board of trustees, and Dr. Gray Smith, the head of school, confirmed the news of the impending purchase to town commissioners on Sept. 8. Their school will close the deal in early October, they said.

“The acquisition made sense for us as it aligns with our mission and strategic plan,” Donovan said. “And historically, ECA has been a feeder school for a significant number of students who transition from the ECA to pre-kindergarten at Gulf Stream School.”

The Early Childhood Academy provides child care for about 50 children from as young as 6 months up to 2 years old, he said. The property, at 2515 N. Swinton Ave., includes a 3,100-square-foot building and about 2 acres of land. Donovan and Smith did not disclose the purchase price, but St. Joe’s bought the facility in 2007 for $1.35 million.

Donovan promised the acquisition would have “little to no impact” on the town.

“The ECA students are very young and will remain at the ECA campus with no plans or capacity for transportation to the Gulf Stream campus. In addition, after-school events for ECA families will be held at the ECA campus,” he said.

“Just to be clear, we do not expect any excess traffic or additional campus use of the Gulf Stream campus to be associated with this acquisition,” he added.

But commissioners, who temporarily raised the school’s enrollment cap from 250 to 300 for the last school year and this one, wanted many more details.

“Are you considering moving any of the grades currently at Gulf Stream School over to the ECA facility in the future at any time?” Mayor Scott Morgan asked.

Smith and Donovan said they planned no changes at all for the first year. But tuition at the ECA would be adjusted in the next school year, and the academy would stop accepting the very youngest children.

After that, he said, the 3-year-olds on the Gulf Stream campus would be the first to change locations, perhaps followed by the 4-year-olds. Kindergarten will remain in Gulf Stream, he said.

“We have 32 children who are in our pre-kindergarten; our pre-kindergarten is mixed 3s and 4s. So we have 15 3-year-olds, let’s say, and the rest are 4s or are about to be,” Smith said.

At some point the ECA campus will take on Gulf Stream School branding.

Gulf Stream School had 293 students last school year despite enrollment being capped at 250 in the development agreement it has with the town. This year its enrollment is 294.

Town commissioners amended the agreement in January to raise the cap to 300 children after Smith told them having more students would give the school a “modest” budget surplus instead of a deficit.

Commissioners were going to vote later on making the higher limit permanent but after hearing about the ECA purchase decided to wait at least 90 days so Donovan and Smith could develop and share with them more specific plans.

Commissioner Joan Orthwein had asked Smith at the commission’s July 14 meeting whether what she had heard was true, that the Gulf Stream School had plans to expand into Delray Beach. But the deal had not been finalized then and he declined to answer.

By Tao Woolfe

The Boynton Beach City Commission voted unanimously Sept. 27 to approve a $118.6 million general fund budget, as well as a 10% increase in utility rates that also applies to Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes water customers.

The all-funds proposed budget was $289 million. Besides the approved $118.6 million general fund budget, other parts of the total budget include a water and sewer outlay of about $60 million; a $49 million capital improvement fund; and a solid waste fund of $15 million.

The adopted general fund was slightly less than the proposed budget of $120.5 million, but still represents a 13% increase over the past year’s general fund budget. The general fund pays for the daily operations of city government.

The biggest departmental expenditure is a combined budget for police and fire services, proposed at $76 million, or about 63% of the general fund. Public works, by comparison, is about $10.5 million, or 8.7% of the general fund.

Although some of the final budget numbers were discussed and included in the agenda packet for city’s third and final budget hearing on Sept. 27, city officials said two days later that the actual budget document would not be available to the public or the media for up to 30 days.

This story uses final figures, where available, and proposed budget figures when necessary.

The rates for water, and for wastewater and stormwater management, increased 10% effective Oct. 1. The increase applies to customers inside and outside the city, according to a spokeswoman for the city.

Boynton Beach supplies water to customers in portions of unincorporated Palm Beach County, including the County Pocket; and the towns of Ocean Ridge, Hypoluxo and Briny Breezes.

When discussing the utility rate increases at their meeting on Sept. 27, city commissioners expressed concern about raising rates for residents who may be struggling to make ends meet during economically challenging times.

City Manager Daniel Dugger urged the commission, however, to approve the hikes because the city is going to have to spend hundreds of millions in the coming few years to pay for infrastructure improvements and establish a reserve fund.

“We need to have a balanced plan that meets the city’s [infrastructure] needs over a period of time,” Dugger told the commissioners. “The goal is to exceed depreciation. I am recommending the 10% increase.”

This summer, the city had to pay for emergency repairs to a broken sewer pipe that oozed millions of gallons of wastewater into the Intracoastal Waterway. The accident raised awareness about the city’s aging infrastructure and, although a final report has not been issued, the city could face fines for the pollution from the state Department of Environmental Protection and at least $1 million for repairs. The break occurred on July 3.

The City Commission budgeted $33 million to the water and sewer utility capital improvement enterprise fund and another $15 million for the solid waste enterprise fund.

By Brian Biggane

A $2.7 million budget was approved by the South Palm Beach Town Council on Sept. 25 for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. The previous budget was $2.4 million.

Boosted by another significant rise in property values, the Town Council gave residents another slight drop in their tax rate.

Property values rose 13.8%, down from last year’s 15.2% but slightly higher than the 13.4% across Palm Beach County.

At the first budget hearing on Sept. 12, Mayor Bonnie Fischer made a motion that was unanimously approved to drop the tax rate by 5 cents from $3.45 per $1,000 of assessed value to $3.40. That change resulted in a net $30,000 drop in revenues.

“It looks good for the town,” council member Monte Berendes said. “We should still have enough for what we’re doing.”

The most significant line item rise in the budget was a 47% increase in legal services, from $62,500 to $92,000. Town Manager Jamie Titcomb, who replaced the retiring Robert

Kellogg in that role earlier this year, said he anticipates an abundance of legal issues as the town continues to work toward building a new Town Hall and community center.

“We’re going to have a lot of legal time (involving) bid documents for building and campus stuff,” he said. “The actual documents and legal work, matching it up with compatibility, statutes and all that, that all goes to the attorney.”

The town ended a third-party agreement that provided a part-time maintenance worker, choosing instead to add a position to the administrative staff. That added nearly $40,000 to the administrative budget but ultimately, Titcomb said, “was almost a wash,” with that same individual now getting the benefits of being a town employee.

Specified expenditures amount to $2.07 million, leaving an unrestricted fund balance of $629,897, a nearly $200,000 increase over this past year.

Titcomb said how that money will be spent will be determined by the council, with the expectation that a significant amount will be put toward the Town Hall project, particularly in the areas of legal fees, architecture and construction. “And if it’s not spent,” he added, “it automatically repatriates to the assets of the town.”

Fischer said: “My concern is taking into consideration some of the costs” of building the Town Hall. “Demolishing the building, relocating. These are some of the factors we have to think about.”  

The budget includes a 71% increase in property and liability insurance, from $27,000 to $46,102. Titcomb said municipalities across the state are facing similar increases.

“All carriers, private and public, are going through this mass reset due to new state legislation and thresholds and requirements for property and casualty insurance,” he said. “It took effect in August for us. It’s not a negotiation or an option. It’s ‘Here’s your new rate.’

“It’s a fairly significant increase because building and liability is where the insurance market was most hit, with the slew of recent hurricanes and other issues. So that has been affected across the board,” Titcomb said.

Two council members, Raymond McMillan and Robert Gottlieb, participated in the budget hearings on Sept. 12 and 25 by phone. Council members Bill LeRoy and Berendes joined Fischer on the dais.

Only a few residents attend-ed the hearings, but no one spoke.

By Brian Biggane

After a lengthy discussion, the South Palm Beach Town Council voted 4-1 at its September meeting to prohibit all dogs except service animals from walking on town property. Councilman Raymond McMillan cast the dissenting vote.

The town had posted four signs asking residents to clean up after their pets along the Town Hall driveway and installed a free pet-waste bag station behind the building, all to no avail.

Mayor Bonnie Fischer began the discussion by pointing out that the town already has a resolution prohibiting dogs on the beach, “and that’s not working well.” She wondered if the Sheriff’s Office, which has a substation in Town Hall, should get involved in enforcement.

“But that’s public property,” Town Attorney Glen Torcivia responded. “This is town property so it’s up to the town to enforce it.” Enforcement, according to the new law, will be left in the hands of Town Manager Jamie Titcomb.

“So now I’m the poop police?” Titcomb said.

The council hoped new “No Dogs Allowed” signs would be respected. Members agreed that the current signs and bag station would be removed.

“I’m very much in favor of this,” said Councilman Monte Berendes, who brought up the subject at a previous meeting. “Let’s see how it works.”

McMillan then stated: “I’m going to be a ‘no’ vote on this. There’s going to be problems with the cops, problems with the dogs, problems with the town manager.”

“Like with most regulations, you hope people are going to follow the rules,” Torcivia said. “Just like a red light, if somebody runs it, you hope there isn’t a crash. People don’t follow the rules all the time. But that doesn’t mean you don’t make the rules.”

Ellen Salth was the only resident to offer an opinion, saying, “I know each complex doesn’t want to have dogs walking on their property, so this is not an unusual situation to ask for. … If the sign says, ‘No walking dogs on property,’ there’s no walking dogs on property.”

Berendes said: “We’re going to have a new complex here, so the time to start is now. ... We’re going to have pushback; we’ll deal with it.”

Titcomb added, “We’re modifying people’s behavior over time, so they’re not going to come back and start using the new campus as a dog park.”

In other business:
• Erik Scheuermann of Archetype Homes LLC offered a demonstration of SIPs (structural insulated panels) as the town continues to work toward the design and building of a new Town Hall and community center.
Scheuermann told the council that the panels are stronger and quicker to construct than similar building materials, as well as more resistant to hurricanes.
He said he has case studies from across Florida where hurricanes ravaged whole neighborhoods but the structures built with SIPs remained undisturbed.
The council discussed where the town will conduct its business once the current hall is demolished, as no commercial buildings lie within town limits. No solution was reached.
The council plans to put out a call for bids on the design and construction, to be discussed at the October meeting.
• The council paid tribute to former council member Stella Gaddy Jordan, who died Sept. 4.
• Town Clerk Yude Davenport was presented with the master municipal clerk designation from the International Institute of Municipal Clerks. Only 9.3% of the more than 14,000 clerks nationwide have achieved the MMC designation.
• The council approved a new sign for the Dune Deck condominium; the sign is slightly larger than town ordinance specifies.

By Steve Plunkett

Briny Breezes wants $14 million from the state’s Resilient Florida program to help pay for enhanced sea walls and an improved stormwater drainage system.

The Town Council authorized Mayor Gene Adams and Town Manager Bill Thrasher to apply for the money at its Sept. 28 meeting.

If the grant is awarded, it would be the second one the town has received from Resilient Florida.

“So the first grant … which was much smaller than this — about $330,000 — was for the planning of the construction or planning for the implementation,” Thrasher said. “So this is moving from one phase of planning to the next phase, which is actually, literally construction.”

Thrasher said a resolution had to be completed “in order for our application to be reviewed, ranked and possibly approved.” The total project scope of work is $14.4 million, he said.

Town aldermen approved the resolution unanimously.

“It’s exciting to see us moving forward to the actual implementation,” said Alderwoman Sue Thaler, who chaired the meeting. Council President Christina Adams participated by telephone.

In a separate session, the council gave final approval to a property tax 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.

The owner of a mobile home valued at $150,000 will pay $562.50 in property taxes instead of $1,500 at the customary millage.

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

The number juggling will let Briny raise taxes in the future to pay off the sea wall and drainage system loans, which it had no room to do in the past because it was already at the maximum $10 per $1,000 tax rate allowed by the state.

Briny’s total tax base is $85.6 million, up 14.5% from the previous year’s $74.7 million. The property taxes will fund a $949,000 operating budget.

The council also approved a 12% increase for Town Attorney Keith Davis’ hourly rate, from $165 to $185.

“This is basically my humble request for a modest raise,” Davis said, noting that it was the first time he had asked for more money since he became the town’s attorney in 2018.

Davis also said he has been named an adjunct law professor at his alma mater, the College of William and Mary Law School in Virginia, starting in the fall of 2024. He’ll spend one week each semester teaching ethics and other subjects.

Alex Manos attempts to get the dogs to back away from the entrance and exit to the temporary dog park when Michael Dmytrow, 13, shows up with his dog Reef, 1. Photos by Rachel S. O’Hara/The Coastal Star

Related: PHOTOS: The Poodle Gang

By Ron Hayes

When the Maddock Park dog park in Lantana closed on Aug. 21 with only three days’ warning, its dogs had a bone to pick with the town.

Now where would Winston, Rusty, Penny, Boo and all their canine pals meet most evenings to romp, roll, fetch and sniff?

The park will reopen come October, with almost $180,000 in new fencing and benches, even some canine-friendly exercise equipment. But try telling that to a dog.

Winston’s humans, former Mayor Dave Stewart and his wife, Pam, invited several of the parkless dogs over to Pam’s late mother’s backyard the Saturday after the park closed.

Dorothy Ranney’s yard is fenced in, so while their humans snacked on nachos, dips and drinks, the dogs frolicked.

It wasn’t the town’s dog park, but it would do as a weekly substitute until the real park reopened.

That plan lasted a single Saturday.

“Some of the people from the park started calling the mayor,” Dave Stewart recalled.

In an age when citizens love to castigate government inefficiency, Lantana’s public servants heard the voters’ bark and acted quickly. In less than two weeks, temporary fencing had been put up near the closed park, a few benches added, and by Sept. 3 the dogs were back in Maddock Park.

To passers-by, they may seem only a pack of happy yappers, but chat with some of their humans and you’ll soon agree that each dog is as individual as the Lantana dog lovers who brought them here.

They’ve been dubbed the Poodle Gang, but poodle blood is not required to join.

On a recent Wednesday evening, only three of the eight dogs enjoying the temporary park were poodles. The rest are considered “honorary poodles,” in addition to whatever breed nature made them.

Stewart’s dog Winston, 2½, is a goldendoodle, a mix of golden retriever and poodle.

Dave Stewart gets some extra love from Mila, 11 months, as Penny, 1, enjoys a freshly poured bowl of water.

“He’s the greeter and sergeant-at-arms,” Stewart boasted. “He greets the other dogs as they arrive. But he doesn’t welcome them all. If they’re too aggressive, he barks.”
Winston’s best friend is 5-year-old Rusty, whose human is Kim Giles.

“We think he’s a labradoodle,” Giles said, “but if he has any Labrador in him, the retriever part’s broken. He’s full-on poodle.

“He was homeless and didn’t know how to play. Through this park he now has friends. If we pass Winston in the car, they cry and yell for each other.”

Former town councilman Philip Aridas’ 2-year-old Boston terrier, Mylow, is bilingual.

“He was born in California and came here, so when his family had to move back, we took him,” Aridas explained. “They were Hispanic, so he’s bilingual. He understands both Spanish and English.”

At least two of the gang are experienced airline passengers.

Brynn and Alex Manos got Penny, their goldendoodle, after her mother in Ohio spotted someone on Facebook whose dog had experienced “an accidental litter” of nine.

They flew to Ohio and adopted one of the nine.

“We flew her back in a carry-on bag under the seat in front of us,” Alex Manos said. “It cost $50.”

Since joining the Poodle Gang, Penny has earned the nickname “Penny Pincher.”

“She jumps on the other dogs’ backs and hugs them,” Manos explained. “It drives Rusty nuts.”

Eevee, a 7-year-old Belgian malinois, is a transatlantic flier.

“She flew in a bag under the seat all the way from Vienna to Miami and never barked,” Eszter Gyarfas said. “And I didn’t even give her a Xanax.”

Rodve Syllne also has a Belgian malinois, Xena, who’s only 1 year old and already working as a personal trainer.

“We play tug where she has the rope in her teeth,” Syllne said, “and she’s so strong sometimes I use her to do my bicep exercises.”

Michael Dmytrow’s year-old Weimaraner, Reef, earned his name as part of a team, almost.

“I have a pet bearded dragon named Atlantic,” Dmytrow explained, “so we were going to get a girl dog and name her Coral, then a boy and name him Reef, so we’d have three pets named Atlantic Coral Reef. We got Reef first, but he’s really hyper, and we only have so much room at home, so we never got Coral. So, we just have Atlantic Reef.”

Kim Giles laughs after getting slobbered on by Boo, 7.

And then there’s Boo, Linda Pollog’s 7-year-old white boxer. Or perhaps he should be called Boo Two.

“Boo One died seven years ago,” Pollog begins, “and I was miserable. He was a white boxer, and I scoured from Miami to Hobe Sound looking for another white boxer.”

Finally, her sister found one, in Alabama, only 3 weeks old. Pollog drove up and brought him home.

“It cut down on the trauma I was having, and I love him,” she said. “He’s my Boo. Did you know that in Ebonics boo means boyfriend?”

Boo is also the fastest, leapingest, most aggressively affectionate non-poodle in the whole Poodle Gang. Take care or he’ll throw himself into your lap and try to French kiss you with a terrifyingly long tongue.

Pollog knows this but is unperturbed.

“Yeah, he’s a drooler,” she admits. “I’ve got to clean the slobber off the walls twice a month. But I love him. What are you going to do?”

Delray Beach police have increased patrols at the pavilion on State Road A1A at Atlantic Avenue. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Larry Barszewski

When Caffe Luna Rosa employees complained to Delray Beach city commissioners about homeless people bothering restaurant patrons and visitors to the nearby beach pavilion across State Road A1A, the city’s police force jumped into action.

The department upped its presence with periodic walks around the beach and by taping off the entrances to the pavilion at night, a Luna Rosa employee said, along with having two community outreach officers each pulling daily four-hour shifts in front of the pavilion just in case.

“There has been somebody here almost all day every day,” said Alex Koulianos, seating restaurant patrons on Sept. 20, two weeks after she, some other employees and some restaurant neighbors spoke out at the commission’s Sept. 5 meeting.

“I know you spent taxpayer dollars to make the pavilion bigger, but we didn’t know it was going to become a homeless shelter,” Robert Guarini, who lives above the restaurant, told commissioners. “The village by the sea is turning into the village of skid row over there.”

Luna Rosa employees said some of the individuals were urinating in the streets, exposing themselves, taking food off tables at the restaurant and getting into fights with residents and visitors.

“I have called the police numerous times. There has been domestic violence; there has been illegal drugs; even as of today, there was an arrest on the pier, I mean on the pavilion,” said Luna Rosa supervising server Diane Bolt, who said she previously worked as a police officer in St. Louis. “But the worst one I knew was going to escalate, we had an assault, and a man was badly beaten and was threatened to be killed and he pressed charges.”

At the commission meeting, Delray Beach Police Chief Russ Mager told commissioners the complaints would be addressed promptly.

“Downtown, in the last week, we had similar issues occurring in the downtown corridor, in the ‘clean and safe’ area. We made 13 arrests in the last week as a result of that,” Mager said. “We want to apply the same efforts that we did in the downtown area in the last week to the beach area.”

In a Sept. 25 email to The Coastal Star, Mager said his department has “increased our police presence in this [beach] area and assigned seven day a week police coverage. Our objective is to enforce the laws and ordinances, remove those who are committing crimes and provide a safe and secure environment for our community.”

At the commission meeting, Mager urged residents to call the police when they have a problem, instead of just complaining to their friends or commissioners about the situation.

“They’ll tell other people and it never even gets to the Police Department, but we’ll hear the complaints,” Mager said. “I am encouraging everyone, [561-]243-7800, call the Police Department so we can get there and address the issues.”

Mager said it’s only a small number that’s at the heart of the issue.

“We have 104, based on a homeless count, we went up five from last year to this year. The county went up like 450,” Mager said. “We have identified 16 chronic offenders that we want to get out of here, so to speak. So, we are working on trying to, either medically or (through) family, to get those people out of here.”

While the department and many agencies run programs to help the homeless and keep people from becoming homeless, chronically homeless people present more of a challenge. Getting them to move from one place only shifts their presence to someplace else.

Mager said in recent months he has seen the chronic homeless move, in turn, from Libby Jackson Wesley Plaza to Old School Square, then Worthing Park, then Veterans Park, then First Presbyterian Church, then the beach and other locations, prompted each time by police activity to discourage their presence at any given location.

“You can see how it’s gradually working its way, not intentionally, it’s just kind of happened that way as we dispersed the issues and the concerns in the past over the last several years,” Mager said. “They seemed to recircle and ended up downtown and obviously pushed east, but we’re going to work on collaborating with our counterparts with regard to Clean and Safe, the Community Outreach Team, and road patrol, to address it.”

For now, the problem is no longer on Luna Rosa’s doorstep.

“We intend to go back and say thank you” to the commissioners for the police presence, Koulianos said.

By Larry Barszewski

There’s a silent “F” in Delray Beach’s TNVR feral cat control program and it has some city residents fuming.

TNVR — Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Return — is a program adopted by the city two years ago to make a dent in its rising feral cat population, a program supporters say won’t work if you don’t “Feed” the neutered cats once they’re returned to the streets.

Resident Ann Stacey-Wright told city commissioners at their Sept. 5 meeting that the situation has gotten out of hand, with some people feeding cats right in front of her home without her permission. Stacey-Wright said she has nothing against cats, but she doesn’t want them being fed near her.

“While it may seem like a noble cause, it has inadvertently led to other issues. For example, food put out by volunteers brings other rodents, pests, raccoons, possums, large wood rats, all kinds of animals into our community,” said Stacey-Wright, who lives in the 200 block of Southwest Seventh Avenue.

“Not only that, when you put out the food, it’s left there. It becomes unsightly. The area that it’s being put out in is in front of residences that do not have cats or have animals, such as myself. I am highly allergic to cats.”

Ernestine Holliday, who lives on Northwest Ninth Avenue just north of Atlantic Avenue, said her neighborhood is also full of cats.

“My neighbor is also allergic to cats. Just last week, a cat delivered a litter on my back porch. That is not something that I want to endure the rest of my life,” Holliday said. “Instead of the cats getting better, they’re getting worse. … Please limit where they can feed them, maybe east of Swinton.”

Mayor Shelly Petrolia supports the TNVR program, but said she was caught unaware of the feeding portion.

“The feeding part has never come before the commission,” Petrolia said.

She said the vaccinate and return program is beneficial because cats are territorial. If the cats are simply removed, then other, non-neutered cats will move in and keep the problem going, she said. Returning the cats that can’t reproduce helps keep the overall population down and the non-neutered cats from taking over.

“It’s not that we want to repopulate. It’s that we want to repopulate with animals that can’t reproduce, to hold the population down and keep the other ones out,” Petrolia said.

Sam Walthour, director of neighborhood and community services for the city, said the city allocates $25,000 annually for the 2-year-old TNVR program to have vendors trap the feral cats that are then neutered and vaccinated before being returned to neighborhoods. He said the program is very specific about where feeding can occur, but other people are out there feeding the cats, too.

f“We deal with our own volunteers and tell them where they can and cannot be as it relates to supplemental feeding, but primarily they’re feeding the cats out of their own pocket and we do come along and provide some food supplement,” Walthour said.

At their Sept. 18 meeting, commissioners got more information about the program from a teenager, Kiki Casale, daughter of former City Commissioner Juli Casale, who pushed for the program when she was on the dais.

Kiki Casale, one of the volunteers in the registered feeder program, said she feeds five colonies on Shadow Lane every day. She had to get permission from the homeowners where she feeds them. The cats must be fed on private property because the program’s rules do not allow feeding on public property.

“There’s no point in having a TNVR program if you are going to place the cats back on the street to starve,” Kiki Casale said.

“The city is fortunate that we have nonprofits that can adopt out the cats and kittens. … We have volunteer feeders like me who are doing this at their own expense.”

Budget, tax rate approved
City commissioners on Sept. 18 approved a $184.9 million general fund budget, which covers the day-to-day operations of city government, for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1, a 9.3% increase from the previous year.

Commissioners set the city’s combined tax rate, including the rate to pay for voted debt, at $6.4982 per $1,000 of assessed value. The tax rate for operating expenses was set at $6.3611 per $1,000 of assessed value, a drop of $.15 per $1,000 from the previous rate.

However, the lower rate still represents an overall 7.9% tax increase for existing properties, not including new construction, because of rising property values in the city.

In other news:
• City commissioners approved the limited use of artificial turf in yards. The turf, which requires a permit to install, is allowed only on side and rear portions of a yard — not visible from the street — and it must be combined with living plants as part of a landscape design. Artificial turf is not allowed in rights-of-way (swales) in front of a home, nor can it be used within 5 feet of a property line.
• Commissioners agreed to raise the minimum wage for city employees represented by the Service Employees International Union to $15.32 an hour, along with 4% pay increases for other SEIU workers who are not at the maximum for their pay grade. The commission vote was 4-1, with Petrolia voting no. Petrolia did not oppose the raises, but she said the raises should have waited until a new contract was being negotiated.
• The Florida Commission on Ethics dismissed a complaint filed against Deputy Vice Mayor Rob Long that claimed he had a voting conflict on three separate votes while previously serving on the city’s Planning and Zoning Board. The ethics commission found no probable cause for the complaint, which alleged Long voted on a residential development project that could benefit a client of his.
• Term-limited Commissioner Adam Frankel announced Sept. 27 that he is running to be the next Palm Beach County public defender, seeking to replace Carey Haughwout, who is not running for reelection.
• The city will host a two-day symposium about the proposed Atlantic Avenue Historic District at the Fieldhouse at Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Ave. There will be an educational symposium about the district at the Fieldhouse at 3 p.m. Oct. 26, which will include information about the district’s benefits and its legal and financial implications. A community discussion about the proposed district will be held at the same location at 10 a.m. Oct. 27.

By Rich Pollack

Al Camentz was known locally as a computer guru, a magician with Macs, who could keep them humming.

Camentz was also known as a fan of New Orleans music, especially of a swamp rock band named The Radiators.

Listening to live music often meant he was out late, sometimes into the early morning hours, and customers — including publishers of The Coastal Star — knew tech support calls wouldn’t be tended to until after lunchtime.

Camentz’s love of music and his penchant for being with friends until before the sun came up may have factored into his death last month, one Delray Beach police say was the result of a fatal shooting that occurred at a beachfront condo on State Road A1A, just north of Atlantic Avenue.

“Al was a good guy who could entertain you with tales of great musicians while fixing your computers at the same time,” said The Coastal Star Publisher Jerry Lower. “He was the only computer support person The Coastal Star has used in our 15 years of publishing.”

A graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans, where he received a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering, Camentz was smitten by the local music scene and culture. He returned to New Orleans regularly for the Jazz & Heritage Festival and for Mardi Gras.

After speaking with friends who were with Camentz in the early morning hours of Sept. 13 and visiting a condo that was used as a timeshare where they found traces of blood, Delray Beach police detectives arrested the occupant of the unit — 45-year-old Mark David Anderson of Lake Worth — on first-degree murder charges.

Camentz, 58, was found unresponsive by Palm Beach County Fire Rescue paramedics at the home of friends west of Delray Beach, more than 6 miles from the oceanside condo.

In court records, Delray Beach detectives detail how Camentz’s friends invited him to join them at Anderson’s timeshare, since the friends had been out at a club and were going to continue drinking and go to the condo’s hot tub. Anderson, who the friends said had never met Camentz, agreed to let him join them.

One of the friends told detectives that Camentz was invited into the apartment and offered a beer. The friend, who knew Camentz from the local music scene, said that a short time later she saw Anderson come out of his room with his hands extended, holding a black object, and then heard a loud boom. Camentz fell to the floor, saying he was unable to breathe and felt something in his chest.

Camentz was leaning against a balcony and was able to get up after 15 minutes and got into the backseat of his friends’ car as they drove away. One friend offered to take him to the hospital, but Camentz said he was feeling better and just wanted to spend the night on his friends’ couch.

Fearing Camentz was suffering from cardiac arrest — after he became pale and complained of chest pains — one of the friends called 911. Sheriff’s deputies, who responded along with paramedics, told Delray Beach detectives it appeared Camentz had either been shot or stabbed.

Based on the information they received from Camentz’s friend, investigators went to the apartment at the Berkshire by the Sea condominium where the shooting took place and arrested Anderson, who asked for an attorney and declined to make a statement.

Inside the apartment, investigators found what they suspected was cocaine and numerous alcohol bottles. They also found a gun and ammunition.

News of Camentz’s death was met with shock and disbelief by fellow New Orleans music lovers, including many who posted on Facebook.

“Al. The Radiators appreciate all your Al-ness,” wrote Radiators guitarist Dave Malone. “Rest in Peace.”

It’s that time of year when high tide gets even higher, flooding low-lying areas. The appearance of king tides coincides with autumn’s full-moon and new-moon phases. Residents should expect flooded streets and soggy yards during these peak upcoming king tide periods: Oct. 14-17, Oct. 27-30, Nov. 12-15 and Nov. 26-29. Palm Beach County emergency managers suggest residents have a plan in place to move their vehicles to higher ground before a king tide event. Also, they recommend residents remove waste carts and recycling bins from the curb as soon as possible when a king tide event is expected. Another warning: Don’t walk through flood water if possible because it can pose a health or safety issue.
ABOVE: A delivery truck sent 3-foot-tall spray and waves as it traveled down Ocean Avenue in Ocean Ridge in late September. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Larry Barszewski

Ocean Ridge commissioners on Oct. 2 approved applying to the Florida Legislature for a $250,000 grant to find, fix or replace the buried water valves in town. The grant would cover half the estimated $500,000 cost of the work.

“If you have matching funds … if you have some money put aside to help that project, whatever that may be, it always helps. It looks good on the application. You have some skin in the game,” said state Rep. Joe Casello, D-Boynton Beach, who attended the meeting and has assisted the town with information on the grant process. “As far as appropriations go, they’re big on water projects.”

According to an application included in the commission agenda packet, “The project will verify the accuracy of GIS maps for shutoff valves, place valve can extensions & concrete collars at buried valve locations.”

“We are talking about potentially raising the valves in the water distribution system by putting a valve can extender and then a concrete collar” around each valve, Town Manager Lynne Ladner said. “It doesn’t raise the actual valve off the water line. What it does is it puts an extension onto the can that surrounds the valves … to make them more easily accessible. And then the concrete collar keeps them from being overgrown by people’s grass and different things like that as they mow.”

In addition, the application says the town “will strategically place new valves on existing pipes to enable public works staff to check existing old pipes, reducing emergency repairs & emergency shutdowns. Installation of insertion valves would reduce disruption to residents.”

In other news:
• The owner of a home under construction for more than eight years at 6273 N. Ocean Blvd. has until Feb. 15 to complete the work or face a $5,000 daily fine up to a maximum fine of $150,000. In addition, if the work isn’t finished even earlier — by the end of the year — including receiving a certificate of occupancy, owner Andrew Rivkin has agreed to pay the town $50,000 to make up for missed property taxes the town would be entitled to if the home were finished in 2023.
• New regulations are still on the way concerning where and how big oceanfront property owners in town can build. Final approvals have been delayed as commissioners continued to tinker with the wording of the proposed ordinances in recent months. Final approvals are now expected at the commission’s Nov. 6 meeting.
• The commission voted to end its contract with Blue Iguana for iguana removal services “without cause.” The company had removed more than 1,800 iguanas from town property over the past year, officials said, but at a recent meeting commissioners questioned if those numbers could be verified.
• Ladner has been appointed to serve on the Florida League of Cities 2023-2024 finance, taxation and personnel committee, one of the league’s five legislative policy committees. Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy was appointed to the league’s utilities, natural resources and public works committee.
• The town has decided to continue posting notices about lost pets on its Civic Ready site.

By Steve Plunkett

In the end, the discussion of Ocean Ridge’s budget for 2023-24 was a matter of nickels and dimes, with an emphasis on the nickels.

For the Town Commission’s fifth meeting on the budget this year, Town Manager Lynne Ladner prepared scenarios with a tax of $5.50 per $1,000 of taxable property value — the same rate as the 2022-23 budget year — as well as at $4.89 per $1,000 and five stops in between.

“I’ve also provided you with additional breakdowns at every 5 or .05 amounts so that you can see what any change between $5.25 and $5.50 does and what it does to your anticipated unaudited fund balances,” she explained at the start of the Sept. 5 session.

The town tax bill for a $500,000 property would have ranged from $2,445 to $2,750 in the different scenarios, a difference of $305. For the five intermediate 5-cent steps, $5.25 to $5.50, the difference narrowed to $125.

“We’re really talking about peanuts,” Vice Mayor Steve Coz said.

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. It really comes down to, like, nickels and dimes,” Mayor Geoff Pugh said.

After almost endorsing $5.45, commissioners settled on the $5.40 rate per $1,000 for a bill of $2,700 on a $500,000 home.

“I was hoping for 5.35 and, you know, given what we understand about the budget, that would work. But you know, 5.4 I’d be OK,” said Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy, who participated via telephone and could not vote.

Coz had argued for the highest rate.

“I think I said this last year when we had the 5.5. I said we’re going to have to go through two to three years of this in order to have the money to deal with our infrastructure problems,” he said.

Commissioner Philip Besler agreed.

“We’re going to start putting money away for the septic-to-sewer. It’s going to happen. It might not happen till 10 years but it’s sort of like retirement plans. Do you want to start putting your money away when you’re 50 years old or is it better to put it away when you’re 30 years old?” he said.

This was Ladner’s first year of preparing Ocean Ridge’s budget, and friction was apparent as she and commissioners continued to get used to each other.

When Cassidy suggested trimming costs to reach a lower tax rate, Ladner said she should have proposed that at the earlier budget meetings.

“Right now we’re at the tentative budget hearing,” Ladner said. “If we were going to have cut expenditures, it would have been appropriate for the commission to have given some input on where they wanted those cuts to be.”

At a later point Coz complained that Ladner was earmarking money for items such as the Harbour Drive drainage project when the work was not close to beginning. Ocean Ridge customarily kept such money in reserves until it was needed, he said.

“I’m, I’m lost and I cannot believe these numbers,” the vice mayor said.

At the final budget hearing on Sept. 18, Coz directed his disappointment toward former manager Tracey Stevens, saying she left no budget information behind. Commissioner Ken Kaleel, who did not attend the Sept. 5 session, thanked the staff for putting the budget together under “tenuous circumstances.” Commissioners then approved the $5.40 tax rate per $1,000 of taxable value.

The tax revenue will fund the bulk of an $11 million operating budget, up 7.4% from the year that ended Sept. 30. Ocean Ridge’s tax base rose 12.9% to $1.36 billion.

In other business on Sept. 5, the commission approved a new beach sign ordinance that allows signs to be placed only at the dune toe line, to face east or west, and to be no bigger than 18 inches square. It also permits “No Trespassing” signs to be strung across private stairways over the dunes.

Police Chief Scott McClure reported at the Oct. 2 commission meeting that police have since issued three notices of violation, giving the property owners 30 days to comply with the sign ordinance.

By Larry Barszewski

The nonprofit group that ran Delray Beach’s Old School Square for decades wants back in — specifically to operate and program the Crest Theatre and associated classrooms on the city-owned downtown cultural arts campus.

A new City Commission majority that played no role in the 2021 decision to cancel the group’s lease — a decision made following financial controversies between the city and the group — is good with the idea. So are most members of the city’s Downtown Development Authority, which currently holds an agreement with the city to manage the entire campus on the northeast corner of Atlantic and Swinton avenues.

The DDA’s agreement goes through September 2024, with the possibility of two five-year extensions. Besides the theater, the campus includes the Cornell Art Museum, the Fieldhouse (the former gymnasium) and an outdoor performance stage called the Pavilion.

Under a proposal suggested in a Sept. 15 email from DDA Executive Director Laura Simon to City Manager Terrence Moore, which commissioners supported, the DDA’s agreement will be amended to remove the Crest Theatre from the DDA’s control. However, commissioners won’t automatically give control of the Crest Theatre back to the nonprofit. Instead, they plan to hold an open solicitation process to see if any other organizations want to compete for the job or share in the operation.

The tentative plan is to request proposals over a 30-day period and have commissioners reach a decision this year. The theater building is being renovated and the work won’t be finished until the end of the year.

“To be realistic, we’re not going to have any programming in there for this season, more than likely, because it takes time, it takes months for people to do programming for the most part,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said at the commission’s Sept. 18 meeting.

The mostly finished renovations include work to the classrooms, kitchen and other non-theater space in the Crest building. The city is spending $1.2 million on the renovations, but commissioners were told it could take an extra $4 million to make the building usable for theater productions, in part because the former operators removed much of the theater’s electronic equipment prior to vacating the premises in February 2022.

City officials said even though the auditorium needs major renovations, it’s possible it could be used in the meantime for things like a lecture series or community meetings. There is no current plan to renovate the theater.

The former operators — Old School Square Center for the Arts — told commissioners at a Sept. 7 workshop that they have a plan to move forward with the building.

“We know that we’re ready and able to activate the Crest Theatre building, which housed the beloved Creative Arts School and the historic Crest Theatre. We already have a program planned for the new kitchen. I can’t wait to see that,” said Elise Johnson Nail, one of its board members. “We are ready right now with things, as soon as that building’s ready, to get started.”

However, regarding the theater itself, even if it were stage-ready, the nonprofit said it could take up to 18 months for performances there to start because of the lead time needed.

And the nonprofit group can’t begin negotiating for performances until it has a lease for the theater.

“Old School Square Center for the Arts is working thoughtfully on all issues pertaining to the Crest Theatre Building and is committed to working directly with the parties involved,” Board Chair Patty Jones said in an email to The Coastal Star. “If we were selected, yes, we would be able to mount shows and once again activate the Crest Theatre as we had done for decades. Since a site visit can’t be given without a CO [certificate of occupancy] and we haven’t been in the building since February 2022, we do not know the condition of the Crest Theatre and are unable to provide a timeline.”

City resident Lori Durante sued the city because the Sept. 7 workshop on Old School Square’s future included commissioners, DDA board members and representatives of the former operators — and that’s it. Durante said the city should have allowed other nonprofits to present their own proposals during the workshop for operating or making use of the Crest Theatre building.

“Equal consideration, time and space should have been given to all entities to pitch their ideas for the Crest Theatre and/or OSS especially since other entities have expressed interest and the property is city-owned,” Durante wrote in an email to The Coastal Star about the lack of inclusion of other groups in the City Commission workshop.

Durante isn’t dropping her suit just yet “because the action of issuing the public solicitation has not happened yet,” she wrote.

Vice Mayor Ryan Boylston, who voted in 2021 against kicking out the former operators, said the commission’s joint workshop with the two groups had accomplished three things:

Focusing on what the three sides have in common, sending a message that “we’re done fighting,” and starting to build a new model for Old School Square’s future.

“We’re not looking backwards. We’re not looking to undo things that we weren’t a part of or that we were in opposition to. We’re building a new collaborative model and I think this is a big first step,” said Boylston, who ran the workshop in Petrolia’s absence. Petrolia is the only voice left on the commission opposed to the former operators returning to the campus.

Petrolia was part of the majority that ousted the Old School Square group over missed deadlines for fiscal audits, accounting flaws, the renovation of the Crest Theatre building the group started without notifying the city — though the operators said pulling the necessary building permits was notice — and the group’s approval of a construction bond for the renovation work that protected the operators but not the city.

Boylston is discouraged by the amount of work that’s expected to lie ahead.

“It is disheartening to read that we have a 10-year plan in place to get back to where we were two years ago,” Boylston said.

Boylston described the DDA and Old School Square’s former operators as “yin and yang,” with the DDA having needed marketing experience for the campus and Old School Square Center for the Arts having the programming and arts knowledge.

While the DDA supports having someone else responsible for the Crest Theatre building, its board members would still like a say in the decisions that are made.

In her email to Moore, the DDA’s Simon said her board members “want to be at the table for the decision of who may get the opportunity and will have additional agreements and conditions in place surrounding our roles in marketing, narrative for the campus and programming synergies between any entities involved.”

Pati Maguire, a member of the nonprofit group’s board of directors, said she was impressed with what the DDA had accomplished in its short time in charge of the campus.

“We think the DDA has done a very good job under very difficult circumstances,” Maguire said.

In response to Durante’s concerns, Maguire said her group is willing to create opportunities for other nonprofits on campus.

“We’ve worked with other nonprofits before on programming over the 30 years,” Maguire said. “We look forward to doing that again, if given the opportunity.”

By Mary Thurwachter

After two public hearings, the Lantana Town Council adopted a $28.3 million budget with the same tax rate as last year — $3.75 per $1,000 of assessed taxable value.

That compares to the roll-back rate of $3.3321 per $1,000 of assessed value, which would have kept the taxes collected flat except for those from new construction. The adopted rate amounts to a property tax increase of 12.54% because of rising property values, which have gone up about 12% this year.

A resident who owns an average homesteaded house valued last year at $360,000 saw his taxable value increase to $370,800, the maximum 3% increase allowed, which means he will pay about $40 more in town taxes, Finance Director Stephen Kaplan said.

Anticipated property tax revenues are $6,414,754, an increase of $939,313 compared to the previous year’s budget. Property taxes are projected to account for 39.1% of the town’s anticipated general fund revenues in the fiscal year that started Oct. 1, compared to their being 36.6% of revenues in the previous fiscal year.

The town’s new general fund budget, which covers day-to-day operations of town government, is $16.4 million, a 2% increase.

To balance the budget, the town will take $146,134 from its $19 million in general fund reserves, Kaplan said.

Compared to last year, when many residents complained about the tax rate increase from $3.50 to $3.75 per $1,000 of assessed value, few objected this time.

Town Manager Brian Raducci said having a visioning workshop in April helped pinpoint spending priorities and made the budget process run smoothly. Only a handful of residents appeared at the budget and tax rate public hearings on Sept. 11 and 20.

Town employees are set to get a 5% cost-of-living raise and could get merit raises of up to 5% based on their annual evaluations.

Insurance costs (general liability, property, casualty, and workers compensation) increased 20% partly due to increased insured values and payroll costs. “Additionally, we’ve continued to elect increased liability limits to reduce exposure,” Raducci said.

The town’s insurance broker, the Rhodes Insurance Group, negotiated a renewal which included an 8.8% health insurance increase and no increase for dental insurance. “The estimated town cost is $1,549,992, an 8% increase,” Raducci said.

The police pension benefit plan is projected to remain relatively constant, decreasing from 47.67% to 47.32% of covered payroll for 34 active/budgeted employees, 30 who are retired and two who are vested but no longer work for the town. The cost will increase from $1,080,416 to $1,221,397 in the current fiscal year, of which the state is anticipated to provide $153,631 from insurance proceeds.

The general employees’ pension plan includes a 7% contribution from the town and a match of an employee’s contribution up to 2% of salary, for a total of up to 9% per employee paid by the town. The cost for 69 employees is $469,641, an increase of $41,110.

Money to add a few employees is also included. The Police Department will add an assistant chief and the library will add a manager.

The town previously received more than $6.3 million through the American Rescue Plan Act. More than $4.6 million worth of those funds has been committed for various projects — including license plate recognition cameras for the Police Department, and sea wall projects at Bicentennial Park, Sportsman’s Park and the beach — leaving nearly $1.7 million for other projects.

“Due to the nature and timing of how and when projects are considered, designed and ultimately awarded, no additional projects are included in the FY 2023/24 proposed budget at this time,” Raducci said. “Staff will continue to evaluate which projects are eligible to be funded from this source as they must be obligated by Dec. 31, 2024, and expended by Dec. 31, 2026. As eligible projects are identified throughout the coming year, they will be brought forward for Town Council consideration and approval.”

Depending on if and when the use of these funds wins council approval, any related budget amendments will be incorporated and considered in future budget amendments.

The town also got $2.8 million in grants and appropriations. The bulk of the money — $1.2 million each from the federal and state governments — will be used for water main replacement.

Grant money will also go toward improving the stormwater drainage system and a future-needs analysis; an asset inventory and Ocean Avenue vulnerability assessment; and to pay for ADA door openings and parts of the library garden.

By Mary Thurwachter

Lantana’s snazzy renovated library will soon have a sensory garden.

To that end, the Town Council at its Sept. 11 meeting voted to submit a $52,623 Community Block Grant application to Palm Beach County to help fund the project.

Library director Kristine Kreidler said the current outdoor space of the garden will be replaced with an area designed to accommodate and engage individuals with physical disabilities and sensory processing disorders.

“This project,” Kreidler said, “will focus on adding elements that engage the five senses, making the space more inviting for those individuals who utilize mobility devices.”

The plan includes an ADA-accessible winding path, accessible raised planters, a shade structure, outdoor musical instruments, and an educational activity station for youth.

The library, at 205 W. Ocean Ave., held a grand reopening in March after a $1,505,000 redo that took more than a year to complete.

Appointments made to Planning Commission
The council reappointed Lyn Tate of Hypoluxo Island to the Planning Commission and appointed Veronica Cobb to three-year terms.

Since the other incumbent, Erica Wald, also of Hypoluxo Island, did not reapply, her seat was up for grabs with several residents seeking to fill it.

Candidates included Cobb, Stephanie Forman, Chad Lamar, Annemarie Joyce, Ryan Joyce, Nina Pozzi, Ed Shropshire (a former council member and an alternate on the Planning Commission), and Jorge Velazquez (also an alternate on the commission).

Council member Kem Mason made a motion to elevate Shropshire to fill Wald’s position, but his motion died for lack of a second.

Instead, the council chose Cobb to fill the vacancy. Vice Mayor Lynn Moorhouse made the motion, which passed by a 3-2 vote with Mason and Vice Mayor Pro Tem Mark Zeitler dissenting.

Mason said it was customary to bring up an alternate to fill openings on the commission. Mayor Karen Lythgoe disclosed that Cobb, general manager of The Carlisle Palm Beach and a former member of the Planning Commission in Bradenton, is a friend who is very qualified for the position.

In other action, the council:
• Approved a piggyback agreement with ParkMobile for the implementation of a parking fee collection system. As of Oct. 1, parking fees at the beach and elsewhere in town have gone from $1.50 to $2 an hour. ParkMobile’s clients include Boynton Beach, Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Lake Worth Beach, Delray Beach, Boca Raton and Deerfield Beach.
• Presented the family of the late Rob Caldwell a plaque for his years of service to the community as part of the town’s Marine Safety Division. Caldwell died July 13 at the age of 67. A career lifeguard and surfer, Caldwell worked for the Lantana Fire Department from 1976 to 2009 and was captain of the beach patrol. Over the years, he saved more than 100 people. 
• Held a special tribute to commemorate those who lost their lives during the 9/11 attacks in 2001.