Tropical Drive resident Taylor Nixon was among those who spoke to the Town Commission against the placement of No Trespassing signs on the beach by the Turtle Beach condos. They said the signs make it appear as if the entire beach is closed to public access. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Joe Capozzi

Town commissioners, responding to complaints about blight and intimidation, will consider a new ordinance regulating the placement of “No Trespassing” and “Private Beach” signs on the beach in Ocean Ridge. 
The decision to consider the sign rules emerged from a broader, ongoing dispute over public access rights on the town’s beachfront — for years a controversial topic in Ocean Ridge and many other coastal communities across Florida. 
The Ocean Ridge debate has gotten particularly nasty over the past several months, pitting neighbors against neighbors, with accusations flying like blasts of sand.
Caught in the middle is Mayor Susan Hurlburt, who lives in Turtle Beach of Ocean Ridge, a 26-unit condominium community on the battle’s front line — a roughly 300-foot stretch of beach between Tropical and Hersey drives. 
Hurlburt is seeking another three-year term as commissioner on March 14, and the dispute has become cannon fodder for her political opponents, including two commissioners who have endorsed a challenger and who support public access rights directly east of Turtle Beach.

One of the Turtle Beach "Private Beach" signs.

Police Chief Richard Jones identified 141 signs on or near the beach, on roads and crossovers. Of those, perhaps 90 or so signs are on the beach, which is where commissioners are focusing their possible regulatory measures. 
While a sign-placement law may not answer the broader question over public beach access in Ocean Ridge, commissioners hope new rules might help extinguish the lingering tensions that boiled over Feb. 6 when more than 100 angry residents packed Town Hall.
“It has gone too far with this hostility,’’ said Lacey Siegel, a Tropical Drive resident who said she considers the beach “sacred land” where she meditates, practices yoga and sunbathes. “The signs are breaking us apart.’’
Turtle Beach says Siegel and others are trespassing because the beach is the condo’s private property through deeded beachfront access rights. The condo says it erected “No Trespassing” signs to discourage unruly beachgoers who have littered, played loud music and even left underwear on the signs overnight as acts of defiance. 
Those claims are disputed by residents living just north and south of Turtle Beach who have circulated a “Stop Sign Pollution” petition urging commissioners to ban signs below the dune/vegetation line. 
They say the signs are purposely placed in a manner that misrepresents public access rights and are part of a campaign to intimidate anyone who doesn’t live at the condo. 
“The sole purpose of those signs is ‘we are going to intimidate you rubes out there into not using your beach,’’’ said Christopher Currie, who has led the fight on behalf of Tropical Drive residents.
Siegel was one of three women who complained to the commission about harassment from condo residents aiming cameras at beachgoers.
“I have felt violated,’’ said Taylor Nixon of Tropical Drive. “I have been out there in my bathing suit relaxing, reading my book and I have been getting videotaped by some of the neighbors probably to use as evidence of being in their property. That is very stressful and a little aggressive.’’
To bolster their concerns, residents point out that “Keepoffmybeach” is the name of a Wi-Fi network — presumably belonging to a Turtle Beach resident — that is visible on a smartphone near the condo.
Mark Feinstein, president of the Turtle Beach of Ocean Ridge Condominium Association, disputed the comments by Tropical Drive residents as “misinformation” by “a very vocal minority” of residents. He criticized the Town Commission for “giving them a soap box” and an “air of credibility” by even considering a sign ordinance. 
“It’s all a ruse,’’ he said. “What they are attempting to do is make all private beach public beach.’’
The signs, approved by the town, “are necessary because of the transients who would be steered to our beach by the Tropical gang,’’ he said. 
Elliot Zank, who lives on Old Ocean Boulevard just south of Turtle Beach, said he often sees ride-hail drivers dropping off beachgoers at the end of Tropical Drive, even though a sign posted at that spot on Old Ocean Boulevard prohibits drop-offs.
“The signs are necessary … to prevent a major influx of nonresidents from crowding the beach,’’ said Zank, one of several speakers who agreed with Feinstein but were still outnumbered Feb. 6 by people against the signs.
“Removing the signs would violate owners’ First Amendment rights,’’ he said.  

County complained before
Residents living near Turtle Beach aren’t the only ones who have complained to the town about signs on the beach in Ocean Ridge. 
In February 2022, a Palm Beach County government supervisor complained to then-Town Manager Tracey Stevens in a letter about town “signs indicating limits to public accessibility” north and south of Boynton Beach Oceanfront Park.  
The signs “may incur significant financial liability for the town by restricting public access to publicly funded beach areas with active easement agreements in place. The signs should be removed immediately to prevent any further public perception that access is limited within the project area,’’ Andy Studt, a program supervisor for the county’s Department of Environmental Resources Management, said in the letter.
The signs referenced in the letter, which was included in the backup material to the commission’s Feb. 6 meeting, were installed in 2019 at the unanimous direction of the Town Commission to replace previously posted signs that had been damaged or removed. The signs near Oceanfront Park are no longer on the beach, although a town sign at the south end of Ocean Ridge near Briny Breezes still stands.
The ERM complaint was not discussed Feb. 6. Although there are dozens of “No Trespassing” signs at crossovers along Old Ocean Boulevard, it’s the signs on the beach that a majority of commissioners are targeting for rules on where they can be placed or whether they should all be removed. 
“I believe in personal property rights and I also believe in the rights of the public,’’ said Commissioner Geoff Pugh, who said there are probably at least 40 signs that “need to be removed posthaste. It’s blight.’’
Pugh said he has no problem with beach signs against the dunes west of the wet and dry sand. 
“My problem,’’ he said, “is once you get past vegetation line and you see a sign and have to walk around it, that’s when it becomes, why are we splitting the community up?’’ 
Pugh said, “We should create an ordinance for those signs and get them removed because the beach is for all of us.’’  
Hurlburt, the mayor who lives in Turtle Beach, has tried to stay out of the public fight, restricting her comments on the topic at commission meetings. 
Hurlburt and Commissioner Martin Wiescholek are running for reelection March 14, with Carolyn Cassidy the challenger. The top two vote-getters win three-year terms.  
But on Feb. 6, Hurlburt took offense when Commissioner Steve Coz said that the offending signs were posted in the wet sand. Hurlburt said the signs are farther west, 10 feet from the dune in dry sand. 
Coz, a political opponent of Hurlburt who has endorsed Cassidy, blamed Turtle Beach for creating the discord by posting signs in a manner that misleads members of the public into thinking they can’t walk north or south along any part of the beach east of the condo. 
“To have one community cause this horrible rift in the haves and have-nots, among neighbors, among Ocean Ridge residents, it’s just sad,’’ said Coz, who at one point was interrupted by Feinstein shouting at him.
“I’ve never seen anything like this and to think one community can do this to this town really upsets me and makes me angry,’’ Coz said.
Wiescholek said he’s glad the town is finally taking a look at regulating beach signs.
“We had this on our agenda two years ago but we didn’t take action, unfortunately,” he said. Town Attorney Christy Goddeau said she would study case law and present the commission with options for regulating signs. But she warned against an outright ban of signs, which she said would violate First Amendment rights. No date has been set for further commission discussion.
Pugh, noting how residents have complained about the signs at commission meetings since at least November, said it was long past time for the town to be proactive. 
“I’m not going to sit here and not do something because the town might get sued,’’ he said. “Let’s create an ordinance and let’s see what happens down the road."

Related stories: Ocean Ridge: Candidates voice differences at election forum; Highland Beach: Voters asked to submit questions for candidate forum; Lantana: Infrastructure, safety, taxes are top issues in council elections; Delray Beach: Balance of power on ballot in commission elections; Delray Beach: Public safety, park referendums seek $120 million in new property taxes

When it seems as if there are more election signs lining the street than the number of people likely to vote, it must be municipal election season. When police are called, lawsuits are filed and social media allegations fly, residents discover just how much nastiness and divisiveness there can be in our beautiful and affluent area.
And why is that? What has turned our communities into boiling cauldrons of bitterness and aggression this spring?
It’s hard to pinpoint — and this may be a generalization looking at ballot choices in five municipalities — but most of it comes down to money and power. Yes, people have thin skin and feel they’ve been insulted or mistreated, wedge issues get inserted to confuse and divide the electorate, and government finds it difficult to operate in the tug-of-war leading up to election day (some employees even quit).
There’s some predictability to each of these things. What’s disturbing is that there are people — most working behind the scenes — who will do almost anything to control the makeup of each commission for their own special interests.
And it’s not hard to do. In most towns and cities all it takes is a 3-2 vote to change the character of where we live.
This March 14 election it seems no one is running alone: Candidates either have endorsements from other commissioners or are running as teams. Neither scenario gives voters confidence their elected officials will listen to their needs without political pressure. And yes, politics creates odd bedfellows with one side often forcing the hand of the other; but no matter how well-intentioned it is, there almost always is a payout at some point.
We’ve seen it happen all around us, especially in our larger cities.
As voters in a nonpartisan election, it’s our responsibility to look beyond who lives in our neighborhood or condo, belongs to our club, comes to our cocktail parties, or supports the same nonprofit organizations.
There are costly issues looming for each of our municipalities: an independent fire station, aging water plants, septic to sewer conversion, sea wall repairs and most important, rising sea levels and increased flooding that endanger homes and public safety response times.
With growing population pressure in fast-developing South Florida, we need to ask our candidates if they are willing to let the residents vote on big-ticket initiatives or lifestyle-changing legislation. If they tell you no, it’s not necessary, they were elected “by the people” to make the big decisions, challenge them.
They know making lifestyle-changing decisions on their own isn’t the most open way to govern. It’s just the easiest way to achieve their personal goals — or those of their supporters. Push them on their goals and motivations. Look at who endorses them — or funds their campaigns — and ask yourself how they, too, stand to gain. That is sometimes the best tell of all.
Granted, it’s difficult to be an informed voter in today’s divided and politicized climate. At best it requires pulling our boots out of the mud, sorting through the fog of campaigning and voting for the candidates most likely to support the long-term preservation of our community.
Or at worst, we can decide our future by not asking the hard questions and simply going out and counting the yard signs.

— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

Eddie Ventrice — at home with his wife, Elyse, and golden retriever, Bronx — works with the George Snow Scholarship Fund and Men Giving Back. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Faran Fagen

Eddie Ventrice was thrilled to make it through Boca’s Ballroom Battle in one piece, without falling, dropping anyone or breaking anything.
“It was many weeks of practice leading up to the event, and not knowing exactly how we would fare against the competition was nerve-racking,” Ventrice said of the 2019 battle, which he won as top fundraiser.
“To have the support that I did, to give back to the community and be announced the winner was just pure elation, with friends and family cheering me on.”
Ventrice, or “Steady Eddie” as he’s known to his friends and Boca Raton neighbors, raised more than $250,000 for the George Snow Scholarship Fund, which benefits college students.
It’s one of the many nonprofits the community service devotee has supported while living in Boca Raton with his wife and five children.
Ventrice is a founding member of BV Group, a team with more than $2 billion in assets under advisement. He has more than 27 years’ experience in wealth management, supporting the needs of corporate executives, business owners, multigenerational families and professional athletes.
Ventrice received a community service award during the Snow foundation’s Boots & Bling Cowboy Ball event on Feb. 11. But the award won’t lead to any break in his fundraising for the organizations that rely on him.
“After many years of working, I can give back to the community,” said Ventrice, who turned 60 on Feb. 17. “I’m enjoying the success raising funds from the Ballroom Battle to now Men Giving Back.”
The mission of Men Giving Back (www.mengivingback.org) is to fund grants to nonprofit initiatives that positively influence South County.
The organization has surpassed Ventrice’s “wildest dreams” and continues to grow. It raised $500,000 last year with 160 members and is on target for 200 members and $700,000 this year.
“We were able to award grants last year to some of the most deserving nonprofits,” Ventrice said. “We also appreciate the opportunity to bring the community together.”
Ventrice understands what it means to be a struggling young man. He was born in the Bronx, New York. His parents got divorced, and his mom moved the family to Florida, which Ventrice said “was a good move, looking back.”
He grew up in Deerfield Beach, and worked at the then Boca Raton Resort and Club, flipping burgers in high school before attending the University of Florida and majoring in accounting.
Today, he’s nationally recognized as a top adviser by Barron’s, Forbes and Financial Times. Ventrice holds the CPA, CFP and the CIMA designations through Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.
His favorite pursuit is using his position to help young men faced with similar challenges to his own. Boca’s Ballroom Battle and Snow foundation provide this purpose.
“It’s a great charity,” Ventrice said. “The money raised sends many deserving children to college. I relate to this since I came from the same background and had to pay for my college with student loans and working 30 hours a week in college.”
In 2019, becoming a dancer in Boca’s Ballroom Battle was “so much work,” he says. When a friend finally persuaded him, he immersed himself in it. He took dance lessons three times a week for five months, concentrating and practicing the routine nearly every day.
He said the attributes that have contributed to his prowess in the community are love, people, passion and drive.
“I laugh every day and I enjoy meeting people from all different diverse backgrounds,” Ventrice said. “Anyone that knows me can tell you that I do have a very serious side, but I’m also able to find the humor and the fun of everyday life. I love interacting with my clients — most I have known for years.”
Ventrice’s hobbies are travel, pickleball, tennis, golf, food, wine and reading.
His wife, Elyse, and their five children — Alec, Zach, Taylor, Chase and Cole — like to travel together. They also enjoy relaxing with a movie on the couch and playing basketball, tennis or chess.
Before founding the BV group, Ventrice was a practicing CPA.

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Related story: Ocean Ridge: Three top officials leaving in latest Town Hall turmoil

By Steve Plunkett

Richard Jones will leave his job as Ocean Ridge’s police chief by May 11 to take the same position in nearby Gulf Stream.
Gulf Stream town commissioners approved the new hire Feb. 10. His two-month-old contract with Ocean Ridge requires him to give up to 90 days’ notice, Jones said.
“I have already started to look for a replacement to fill the position that I am vacating so I can move that process along as quickly as possible,” he said. “I could potentially start sooner depending on what type of replacement I have and what kind of transition we think is necessary.”
Jones, who wore a business suit to the Gulf Stream meeting rather than a uniform, said he would solve the problem of recurrent vacancies in Gulf Stream’s 14-officer police force by building morale and making it “the go-to law enforcement agency in the county.”
“We should be the agency that everyone else is looking to, not only to see what we’re doing operationally and with our vision, but also what we’re doing with our technology and how we treat our staff,” he said.
He would boost morale, he said, “through a method that I believe in — being a worker, not just a police chief.”
“I believe in putting my feet on the ground and doing what I ask my officers to do, to demonstrate to them that I’m with them every step of the way. … It makes them realize that there’s value in their leader and I’m not asking them anything that I’m not willing to do.”
Jones, whose duties in Ocean Ridge include being police chief for Briny Breezes, also said he would be proactive in recruiting and expand Gulf Stream’s searches for potential hires to military veterans and law enforcement agencies beyond the local area.
Commissioners unanimously approved Jones’ hiring.
“We’re delighted to have you and congratulations on your appointment,” Commissioner Thom Smith said.
Mayor Scott Morgan said he spoke with Ocean Ridge Mayor Susan Hurlburt “and while they are sorry to lose him, she could not have been more enthusiastic in her praise of his skill, his vision, his energy, his administrative skills and his ability to take Gulf Stream, as she said, and move our Police Department legitimately into the 21st century.”
Jones, whose departure came as a shock to Ocean Ridge officials, said he was not actively looking for a job until he learned that Gulf Stream planned to look outside its department for candidates to replace retiring chief Ed Allen.
Jones, 42, is coming to Gulf Stream with 25 years of experience, the last eight in Ocean Ridge, where he rose from road patrol to chief and in 2020 was named the town’s employee of the year.
He and his wife, Erin, make their home in Port St. Lucie. They have two sons: Michael, 22, a Marine veteran, and Matthew, 17, a high school student.
Ocean Ridge gave Jones a three-year contract on Jan. 9 after he had been its chief for more than 16 months. His pay there is $115,763 a year. His salary in Gulf Stream will be negotiated.
Allen, who worked in Gulf Stream almost 35 years, announced in early December that he would leave the department on Jan. 31. He was paid $143,771 annually.
Town Manager Greg Dunham said that he received inquiries and résumés about the job from a Palm Beach County sheriff’s command officer in Wellington, a Delray Beach police lieutenant and a Gulf Stream police sergeant. He explored hiring a headhunter firm for $25,000 to $35,000 and using the Florida Police Chiefs Association for a $10,000 or $20,000 search.
As he did that, the town was approached by Jones. Dunham, Morgan and Assistant Town Manager Trey Nazzaro met with Jones for about two hours, Dunham said.
“I found the chief to be intelligent, motivated, experienced and creative with a high level of integrity, diplomacy and sensitivity,” Dunham said.
Jones’ résumé package included thank-you notes and letters of commendation dating back to 1999 when he was a public safety dispatcher in Clewiston.
In 2015 his predecessor, Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins, commended Jones for performing a plainclothes surveillance at Oceanfront Park after a number of cars had been burglarized.
“Based on your tenacity, caring and dedication to duty, you effectively apprehended a subject responsible for a small wave of crime at the Boynton Oceanfront Park, thereby enhancing the safety of the public,” Hutchins wrote.
And in 2021 John Mitchell stopped by the police station for help gathering details surrounding the death of his mother, Ocean Ridge resident Eileen Pettus, after a car accident in Melbourne.
“I was fortunate enough to meet with Lieutenant Richard Jones who offered me, not only his heartfelt condolences, but invaluable insight into how I might proceed. ... Never in my 50 years have I encountered an officer so kind and empathetic, while offering such incredible help,” Mitchell wrote. Jones started the week of his new hiring by persuading the Ocean Ridge Town Commission on Feb. 6 to approve one-time pay raises and benefits increases for his 15 officers for the rest of the year in an effort to attract more officers and retain current ones.
Jones made the request after compiling a survey that showed Ocean Ridge’s officers made drastically less in salary, benefits and health insurance than those on other coastal police forces in Palm Beach County.
Each officer will get a $7,500 salary bump the rest of the year, a $5,000 lump-sum vehicle reimbursement payment and a 50% health insurance match. Money for the changes will come from $213,186 that was freed up by freezing two vacancies.

Joe Capozzi contributed to this story.

By Steve Plunkett

Town commissioners postponed for a second time their vote on Gulf Stream School’s request to boost its enrollment, but they hope to turn the delay into a teaching moment on civic involvement.
Dr. Gray Smith, head of the school, won permission on Jan. 13 to raise the limit from 250 students to 300 for this school year. But Gulf Stream commissioners held off on making the higher student cap permanent without more input from residents and promised to alert them via newsletter.
The six-page newsletter dated Feb. 2 was signed by Mayor Scott Morgan and was packed with information on the town’s accomplishments, but made no mention of the school’s request. That prompted one resident to contact Assistant Town Manager Trey Nazzaro, asking to be part of the discussion.
“This individual said I know that a few residents have concerns and would like to be included in the conversation. So, it wasn’t ‘I oppose it, I think it’s a bad idea,’” Nazzaro told commissioners at their Feb. 10 meeting.
He also noted that Smith’s request to raise the enrollment cap was reported in The Coastal Star.
Commissioner Paul Lyons, whose grandchildren attend the school, said townspeople should keep themselves better informed.
“If a resident wants to know what’s going on they should be looking at the agenda,” he said. “We’re not going to send them a letter every time that something’s going to come up.”
Morgan agreed. “Every time there’s a contentious issue, we can’t be tabling it,” he said.
Morgan had attended a gathering the night before where he said “everybody was talking about it. So informally at least the word has gotten out.”
But Commissioner Thom Smith, who as a school trustee in 1994 helped negotiate the 250-student cap, said he too had heard from people, “and it wasn’t all positive.”
“I’m not saying they’re outraged,” he said. “I think that maybe they would like the chance to come speak.”
Commissioners agreed to table the vote until March 10 and to send each household a postcard after Lyons suggested that the mailing teach residents how to keep up with the town’s decision-making.
“If we could just educate people on, procedurally, if you want to know what’s going on, A-B-C, so they don’t say I didn’t know; i.e., look at the agenda, if you missed the meeting you can see the videos, et cetera, et cetera. So people understand how they can stay in touch with the town.”
Commission agendas are posted outside Town Hall and online at www.gulf-stream.org; the commission generally meets at 9 a.m. on the second Friday of the month; videos of the meetings are available on YouTube.
The school has 293 children enrolled this year. Gray Smith said it needs 300 to make a “modest” budget surplus. He also wants to erect a food storage building to be able to offer on-campus lunches.
“Gulf Stream School is committed to being a uniquely small community school and to being the best neighbor that we can possibly be to everyone in this neighborhood,” Gray Smith said.
In other action, commissioners heard a presentation on placing license plate recognition cameras in the town and will consider a formal proposal at their March meeting.

My family purchased a 100-by-100-foot lot in Ocean Ridge in 1956, and 10 years later built our house at 16 Tropical Drive. Our extended family visited our home many, many times in 60 years. As time passed, and families grew and changed, I finally made this my year-round home for over 20 years. 
One of the greatest joys all my family relished was being able to walk the short distance to the dune, cross over and then smell, hear and see that great Atlantic Ocean. We all feel it is a very cherished freedom. 
In recent years, we realized that we have new neighbors on either side of us with very differing opinions from ours about accessing the beach. We who live on Tropical Drive are not trying to camp out on anyone’s private land. We all just want to cross the dune, not see all those unwelcoming signs saying No Trespassing, Private Beach etc., etc., and walk out to the sand. We only want to ingress and egress as we have been doing for the past 70-plus years that I have witnessed.
Also, from what I have seen through many years at the beach, those signposts could very well interfere with all the sea turtles who might be wanting to lay their eggs exactly there!

— Patricia Kropp
Ocean Ridge

Related story: Along the Coast: Gulf Stream hires away Ocean Ridge’s police chief

By Joe Capozzi

Less than two weeks before an election that could shift the balance of power on the Town Commission, three top Ocean Ridge officials are on their way out. 
Interim Town Manager Lynne Ladner will not get the full-time position, a job for which the commission chose her in January, because of concerns by three commissioners that she has aligned herself with a faction of two commissioners and their community supporters. 
Police Chief Richard Jones will leave by May 11 after agreeing to take the chief’s job in Gulf Stream. And building official Durrani Guy submitted his two-week notice on Feb. 27. Two other Town Hall employees have left since the beginning of the year.
Although Ladner agreed to stay on as interim manager for another 90 days while the town conducts what will be a third search for a top administrator, she will not be considered for the full-time job, a divided commission decided Feb. 27.
The margin was 3-2, with commissioners Geoff Pugh and Steve Coz on the losing end of a vote to finalize her contract as intended. 
The backdrop of the three departures is the March 14 election, when Mayor Susan Hurlburt, Commissioner Martin Wiescholek and resident Carolyn Cassidy are running for two seats. Cassidy has been endorsed by Pugh and Coz, a pair that has been on the short end of votes by a majority made up of Hurlburt, Wiescholek and Vice Mayor Kristine de Haseth.
Among Cassidy’s campaign pledges is to overhaul the building department, a mandate that has been echoed by Pugh and Coz and has prompted concern by employees at Town Hall. 
The latest turmoil came to a head at the commission’s special meeting Feb. 27 to consider Ladner’s contract, an agenda item that would’ve been routine if not for behind-the-scenes communications Ladner had with Pugh and Coz in recent weeks about whether Jones should leave before May 11. Jones submitted his resignation Feb. 10 and under terms of his contract must give 90 days’ advance notice before he leaves.
Those communications came to light in an email Wiescholek said he mistakenly sent to fellow commissioners in late February about “serious second thoughts” he had about hiring Ladner.
In the email, which was meant only for Colin Baenziger, a recruiter hired to help commissioners find a manager, Wiescholek said he was concerned that Ladner “had been influenced by two commissioners to immediately fire chief Jones.’’ 
Wiescholek based his concerns on information shared with him by Jones about conversations the chief had with Ladner two days after he announced his resignation. 
Although Wiescholek’s email never identified the two commissioners, it was made clear Feb. 27, when the email was dissected in a public meeting, that he was referring to Pugh and Coz. 
Pugh and Coz said they spoke individually to Ladner about whether it made sense to let Jones leave before May 11 and replace him with an interim chief. But they said they did not pressure her to terminate Jones.
“I’ve never had a conversation with Lynne about terminating a police chief,’’ Coz said. “I would never have that conversation. It’s ludicrous. Somehow this entire collusion with myself and Geoff and Lynne grew out of fantasy. It doesn’t exist.’’ 
Jones, however, had a different take on his conversation with Ladner. 
Two days after he announced his resignation, “I received some text messages from the town manager indicating that a resident in town had chosen who the next police chief should be,’’ Jones said without elaborating.
A day after that, a Monday, Ladner came into Jones’ office. “I was then informed that the commission wished for me to leave early. At this point I go, ‘The commission?’ It was clarified, ‘at least two commissioners,’’’ the chief said. 
Jones said he was not told, nor did he ask, the names of the two commissioners. 
Before Jones described his conversations with Ladner, Vice Mayor de Haseth said she believed the interim town manager had “aligned herself” with “select commissioners” and “a small faction in this town.’’ 
Ladner also “has exhibited questionable behavior,’’ de Haseth said, explaining how she warned Ladner in her early days as interim manager to be careful about information she receives from town residents. 
“And she told me, ‘Don’t worry about it. I secretly record conversations with residents on a regular basis.’ To which I said, ‘I do believe that is illegal,’’’ de Haseth said. 
Although de Haseth said Ladner told her the recordings “helped her create notes later,’’ she said Ladner was “counseled” by the chief and town attorney not to record residents without their consent and knowledge.
Ladner said, “When I found out that Florida was a two-party recording state, I had not made any recordings to record my meetings, I made sure to take only handwritten notes.’’  
Before coming to Ocean Ridge, Ladner held management and consulting positions in Pinellas County and Pahokee government.
As for her conversations with Pugh and Coz, Ladner said she told them her intention was for Jones to stay as long as he could and help find his replacement. She also said she asked the town attorney about “the cost implications” if the town let Jones leave before the 90-day departure period outlined in his contract.
Ladner was set to get a $142,500 salary in her contract; an earlier version called for her to get $155,000. Ocean Ridge’s previous town manager, Tracey Stevens, was making $132,500 when she left Sept. 11 to become town manager in Haverhill. 
Not only is the town back to square one on finding a town manager, it also has to find a new police chief and a new building official. 
Commissioners voted 4-1 to retain Ladner for another 90 days while they find a new interim or full-time manager. 
“What I see pretty much is a vote of no confidence” in Ladner, said Hurlburt, who called for an end to the “micromanagement” of Town Hall from outside sources. 
“This latest incident is being used by a minority of residents as another political football. Ocean Ridge should be operating with good governance as the priority, not a stage for folks with personal axes to grind,’’ the mayor said. 
“These power plays are doing harm to Ocean Ridge and I’m concerned our town manager might have played right into it.’’
Pugh and Coz also took issue with language in Wiescholek’s email that described “two commissioners who are dead set on burning down this town.’’
Wiescholek apologized to both commissioners for his choice of words in the email. 
The meeting was interrupted multiple times, prompting the mayor to call three separate recesses, when a few of the 40 residents in the audience shouted at commissioners.

By John Pacenti

The Delray Beach City Commission voted last month to hand over the reins of Old School Square to the Downtown Development Authority, but not before some additional drama.
Vice Mayor Adam Frankel complained that at a January DDA meeting on Old School Square, members mocked the city, saying it had no choice but to give the authority control over the city’s cultural center.
“When you state you want to collaborate, you work together and you don’t demean city staff, you don’t demean the city departments and you don’t demean the city. You don’t demean all five of us,” Frankel said.
Frankel, who voted against ending the lease with the nonprofit that ran the historic campus for 30 years, was the lone dissenting vote at the commission’s Feb. 7 meeting to the agreement with the DDA.
“We are negotiating into an agreement with a group that is calling us desperate and that wants us to use millions of dollars in taxpayer dollars — and insulting us on top of it,” Frankel said.
DDA Chairperson Mavis Benson apologized to the commission for disrespectful comments made at the DDA meeting.
“That was not one of our board’s finest moments,” she said. “Our meetings concerning this topic have been robust and they have been full of energy. It has gotten us to where we are today.”
She urged commissioners to move past the rhetoric surrounding the removal of the former operators — the nonprofit Old School Square Center for the Arts, Inc. “We can’t associate ourselves with the past,” she said.
Mayor Shelly Petrolia said that personal feelings had to be put aside — noting how she and commissioners Juli Casale and Shirley Johnson had been personally attacked for the decision over the last year by people taking the side of the nonprofit.
“When you really stop and look at it, we have to do something great here and these are the people to do it,” Petrolia said.
City Attorney Lynn Gelin said an agreement had been made with the DDA where the city did not have to take money from its reserves. The DDA lowered its request from $1.3 million to $1 million.
There is still a matter of the March 14 election, though.
Former Planning & Zoning Board member Rob Long is running against Casale and has said he wants to return Old School Square to the nonprofit. So has Angela Burns, who is running for the seat Johnson is vacating because of term limits.
Petrolia, Casale and Johnson voted to terminate the nonprofit’s lease because of financial reporting concerns and its undertaking of renovations to the Crest Theatre without informing commissioners. Supporters of the nonprofit, such as Friends of Delray, have been very vocal with their criticism.
“We have had to sit up here and take for a full year just a battering,” Petrolia said. “The thing about it is, when you know you are doing something right and you know you can take something and make it better and leave it better, you do it.”

City gets Palm Trail refuge
At its Feb. 21 meeting, commissioners voted 4-1 to take over a preserve near the Intracoastal Waterway from the nonprofit Conservation Florida. The city will agree in perpetuity never to develop on the land.
The nearly 1.5-acre preserve consists of three properties, fronting the Intracoastal and on the north end of Palm Trail. The preserve had a market value of $7 million the last time it was appraised, in March 2021.
Petrolia was the lone dissenter.
“What we are doing here is taking on somebody else’s problem,” Petrolia said.
“I know that area is not ever going to be developed, but we are as a city now going to be assuming all of the problems, the flooding, the things that happen all the time that we get calls about.”
Commissioner Ryan Boylston, though, said that the city doesn’t have many opportunities to acquire land and that he was in favor of taking over the preserve so the city can control it.
Public Works Director Missie Barletto told commissioners that by owning the property, the city could fix the flooding problems and provide something the city does not have: a non-motorized boat launch. “Some place where people can put in kayaks or paddle boards,” she said.
In other news, Delray Beach will be the beneficiary of some $180 million allocated to municipalities for stormwater improvements, including bigger pipes and stronger pumps.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in February the most recent Resilient Florida grants. Delray Beach will get $10 million for Marine Way for sea wall, roadway and drainage improvements. Delray Beach will also receive $2.5 million for the Thomas Street stormwater pump station.

A 7-foot-tall navigation buoy from Dry Tortugas National Park sat on the beach in Manalapan since the middle of January before it was removed Feb. 24. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Larry Barszewski

Cost estimates on installing a townwide sewer system have increased dramatically as Manalapan’s engineering consultant has done additional research on the needed work.
Mock Roos & Associates now estimates it will cost $17.48 million to install a low pressure sewer system, a 70% increase from the $10.3 million preliminary estimate it gave town commissioners last year.
And that doesn’t include the cost to individual homeowners to connect to the town’s sewer lines, which is estimated at between $40,000 and $60,000 per property.
At their Feb. 28 meeting, commissioners asked Town Manager Linda Stumpf to get more information about potential funding sources that may be available to the town before it holds any discussions with residents about a sewer system and what they think about the town building one.
Officials have studied installing a sewer system a number of times in the past, concerned that the town eventually may be forced to put one in because of environmental concerns posed by the septic tanks currently in use. The cost has always turned out to be a stumbling block.
Finding out about potential grants that may be available will help commissioners determine — if they decide to build a sewer system — whether to pay for it all at once or do it in pieces.
The Mock Roos plan has three phases that were presented to commissioners:
• $7.4 million to build the system on Point Manalapan, taking advantage of existing, unused sewer lines on a portion of the Point that were included in the original construction there
• $600,000 for renovating the town’s existing sewer lines that serve the area from Town Hall to the north and that go into South Palm Beach
• $9.48 million for rebuilding the sewer system for the properties along State Road A1A south of Town Hall.
Commissioners decided they’ll move ahead with the repair work for the existing system, which is needed whether or not a new system is installed. The cost covers repairing the current lift station and replacing the sewer force main, which is corroding from the outside.
If commissioners decide to install a sewer system, their current thinking is it would be optional for residents to connect to the system — unless the state later mandates such connections. Each property would need a macerating pump to grind the solid waste and a 1.5-inch diameter pipe to take the waste from the pump to a roadway connection to the sewer lines.
“The town does its part, then people can hook up as they want,” Vice Mayor Stewart Satter said.
The needed residential pumps were going for $5,000 to $10,000 a year ago and now run from $10,000 to $17,000, Mock Roos consultant Thomas Biggs told commissioners.

Go-slower request rebuffed
Town commissioners are envious of Ocean Ridge’s 25-mph State Road A1A speed limit south of Manalapan and have been hoping to get the 35-mph limit within town reduced.
However, they haven’t been able to get officials from the Florida Department of Transportation on the same page.
In a Feb. 3 email to Manalapan Police Chief Carmen Mattox from Rana Keel, a program manager in FDOT’s district office, Keel said the department would not be making a change.
FDOT conducted a speed study on the town’s portion of A1A Jan. 17 after receiving the town’s request and determined a speed limit reduction wasn’t warranted. That study found that 85% of drivers on the stretch from East Ocean Avenue south to the Boynton Inlet were traveling at speeds ranging from 30 mph to 38 mph northbound and from 35 mph to 38 mph southbound, Keel said.
As for Ocean Ridge’s lower limit south of the inlet, Keel said: “Please note that the speed limit is posted as 25 MPH in this small section of SR A1A so drivers can safely reduce their speed approaching a curved road where the reduced speed is needed.”
Mattox has also been in touch with FDOT about flooding concerns near the intersection of A1A and East Ocean Avenue, which experienced heavy flooding in November with the one-two punch from the impact of king tides and Hurricane Nicole.
“We did have some heavy rain at the end of January. This rain did not cause any flooding,” Mattox wrote in his February report to commissioners.
“FDOT is still inspecting their system and making repairs to reduce flooding. Lantana Public Works does not believe their system affects the flooding and chose not to inspect or clean out their drainage lines in the beach parking lot.”

Bye-bye buoy
A large buoy owned by the federal government that washed ashore in Manalapan near 1600 S. Ocean Blvd. had been a headache to get rid of for the town before a crew from the Beach Rakers business finally took it off the beach Feb. 24.
“A lot of work went into getting rid of that buoy,” Stumpf said.
The 7-foot-tall yellow navigation buoy came from Dry Tortugas National Park in the Florida Keys and landed on the beach here in the middle of January.
“That’s a lot of drifting,” Mattox said. He didn’t have much success coordinating with the national park until he sought help from U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel’s office, which got the sides together.
“They came and got it and they put it on a boat and shipped it back to the Tortugas,” Mattox said.

Lands End Road cul-de-sac
Details for replacing the circle in the Lands End Road cul-de-sac were presented to commissioners at their Feb. 28 meeting. The current 30-foot-diameter circle would be replaced by a 16-foot-diameter one, making the cul-de-sac easier for trucks to navigate and making it less likely the circle will be damaged.
Cul-de-sac residents had complained to commissioners in January that the cul-de-sac’s circle and its landscaping were getting beat up by traffic overrunning the circle.
The proposal would replace the landscaping in the circle and create a 2-foot-wide strip of pavers around the landscaping, along with a mountable curb that won’t be damaged if trucks ride over it.
Commissioners expect to approve a contract for the work in March.

By Steve Plunkett

St. Joseph’s Episcopal School has lost its bid for an injunction to allow it to continue operating on the grounds of St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Boynton Beach while a lawsuit between the parties is resolved.
The school claims it has an oral, 99-year lease to stay where it is, at 3300B S. Seacrest Blvd., until the year 2093.
The church says the school signed a five-year written lease in 2012 and was given a five-year extension that expired last November. Both sides last year agreed to extend the lease until June 30 while the dispute headed to court.
On Feb. 20, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Bradley Harper came out in favor of the church.
“At this stage of the case, Plaintiffs have not shown that there is a substantial likelihood of success on the merits given the absence of any writing which establishes the existence of a 99-year lease agreement,” he wrote, denying the injunction sought by the school and William Swaney, president of its board of trustees and a major donor.
“Further, it appears that the application and interpretation of Canon Law may be necessary to determine the legal rights and obligations of the parties with respect to the lease and operation of the school,” Harper wrote.
Lawyers for the school did not reply to an email seeking comment on Harper’s decision.
An outside publicist, Aimee Adler Cooke, responded on behalf of the lawyers for the church.
“We appreciate the court’s recognition of the written lease agreement that is in effect between the parties. The legal battle waged by the school has been trying, and we remain hopeful that Judge Harper’s ruling will move this matter toward closure for both parties,” Cooke said.
Harper has scheduled a Zoom hearing at 8:45 a.m. March 8 on a motion by the church to dismiss the school’s case for lack of jurisdiction.
The church’s legal team says “numerous Florida and related federal decisions confirm that where a dispute involves matters of Canon Law, internal church organization, or ecclesiastical rule, secular courts lack jurisdiction to resolve the dispute.”
In a separate filing, the school’s lawyers argue that this doctrine does not apply. “The instant dispute is not a theological dispute,” they wrote. “The only connection this case has to theology is that one party is a church.”
The school also alleges breach of contract by the church and misappropriation of restricted charitable donations.
The conflict arose last April when the church vestry decided not to renew the school’s $5-a-year lease. Parents of the school’s 175 students in pre-K through eighth grade scrambled to find a new place for their children in the coming year.
While the two entities share a name and location on Seacrest Boulevard, the school split off from the church in 1995.
That was a year after Swaney gave the church approximately $2.5 million worth of stock in his company, Perrigo, “for the express purpose of the church constructing buildings and facilities for use by the school,” the lawsuit says.
Swaney, the suit claims, made it clear to the vestry that he was making the gift in exchange for a promise, made orally several times, that the school would never be displaced from the property. The church sold the stock and built a gymnasium, library, classrooms and administrative offices.

By Steve Plunkett

“Martin O’Boyle is a Gulf Stream resident who has long disliked town leadership.”
So begins an opinion by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals affirming a U.S. District Court ruling in Gulf Stream’s favor that the town did not violate the First Amendment rights of O’Boyle, his son Jonathan O’Boyle and their lawyer William Ring.
The trio sued over what they alleged was retaliation by the town over extensive public records litigation and on appeal argued that they did not need to show a lack of probable cause in order to show retaliation.
But in this case, they did have to show the town did not have probable cause, a panel of three 11th Circuit judges ruled on Feb. 8.
The judges gave a short history of the case, which they called “the third in a saga that chronicles Martin O’Boyle’s feud with Gulf Stream and its leadership.” After the town denied him a building permit, he painted cartoons on his house ridiculing the mayor and hung signs criticizing town leaders on a truck parked at Town Hall.
He also began filing public records requests. Between 2013 and late 2014, “O’Boyle and his associates filed nearly 2,000 public records requests — many for vague and hard-to-identify topics,” the judges wrote.
When the town did not respond in time, O’Boyle or his nonprofit Citizen’s Awareness Foundation Inc. would sue Gulf Stream under the state’s Sunshine Law.
In 2015, the town launched a three-pronged offensive against the records requests, which had overwhelmed Gulf Stream’s small municipal staff. It filed counterclaims in one of the records lawsuits in state court and asked for sanctions against Jonathan O’Boyle and Ring; Mayor Scott Morgan filed bar complaints against the two alleging ethical violations; and the town sued the O’Boyles, Ring and several others in federal court under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
But the Florida Bar declined to discipline Jonathan O’Boyle or Ring and the state court declined to sanction them; the state court also dismissed the counterclaims; and the federal court dismissed the RICO lawsuit.
After a town meeting in September 2015, town police saw Martin O’Boyle trying to write on a bulletin board in the lobby of Town Hall and confronted him to get him to stop.
They began arguing and eventually escorted a noncompliant O’Boyle out of the building.
The state attorney later charged O’Boyle with trespassing and disorderly conduct; a state judge dismissed the trespassing charge in August 2021 and a jury acquitted O’Boyle of disorderly conduct.
The O’Boyles and Ring sued the town for allegedly violating their First Amendment rights via the RICO suit, the bar complaints and Martin O’Boyle’s prosecution. The town argued that it had civil probable cause to file the RICO litigation and the bar complaints and that the state attorney had criminal probable cause to prosecute O’Boyle, so the trio could not establish a First Amendment retaliation claim.
The O’Boyles and Ring argued that they did not need to show a lack of probable cause, citing what they considered a similar case, Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, in which the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a false arrest claim to proceed even though probable cause existed to arrest the plaintiff.
The district court at first denied giving a summary judgment to either side. After the parties agreed to a joint stipulation that the town had probable cause to file the bar complaints and to charge Martin O’Boyle with trespass and disorderly conduct, the district judge granted summary judgment to Gulf Stream. The O’Boyles and Ring appealed.
The 11th Circuit judges said under Lozman, along with other elements, where there is “little relation” between the First Amendment-protected expression and the allegedly retaliatory action, a plaintiff must show only that an official act would not have occurred “but-for” the protected expression.
In this case, however, the judges found more than just a “little relation.” Gulf Stream filed its RICO complaint and state-court counterclaims as a direct response to the hundreds of records requests and multiple lawsuits that were draining town resources and manpower, they said. The bar complaints were also closely related to the public records litigation, they said.
And, they wrote, “a layer of independent judgment” was added to the criminal case against Martin O’Boyle when the state attorney pressed charges and not the town police. Case law makes showing “an absence of probable cause” a necessary element of retaliatory prosecution, they said.
The joint stipulation “that there was probable cause to charge Martin O’Boyle with trespass and disorderly conduct was fatal to his retaliatory prosecution claim,” they ruled.

By Joe Capozzi

The town’s 27 condominiums will get reminders from town officials that Airbnbs, Vrbos and other short-term rentals are not allowed in South Palm Beach. 
Unlike many other Florida municipalities, including nearby Lake Worth Beach, South Palm Beach has never had a problem with a proliferation of short-term rentals because town code allows only rentals of at least 30 days. 
The town code is enforceable because it was in effect before state legislators approved a 2011 law that gives broad powers to short-term rentals and prevents most municipalities from regulating them. 
Occasionally, a South Palm Beach condo will appear on a short-term rental platform, which happened recently with a unit in the Brittany, just north of Town Hall, at 3575 S. Ocean Blvd.
“My building has some problems with that. We are nipping it in the bud,’’ council member Monte Berendes, who lives in the Brittany, said at the Feb. 14 Town Council meeting. 
A condo owner in the building had rented his unit to someone, who then advertised the unit on a short-term rental site, said Berendes, who said the condo owner was out of the country and not aware of what the renter had done. 
After residents in the Brittany noticed people they didn’t recognize going into the unit in January, the problem was quickly resolved.  
But Berendes brought it to the attention of town officials, who agreed with the town attorney’s recommendation to remind condo owners about what they can and can’t do with their units.  
Condo owners who want to rent their units under town code must have state and county licenses, Town Attorney Glen Torcivia said.
“The tax collector has an aggressive program where she will go online and if she sees you are advertising your house to rent, you’re going to get a bill from her,’’ Torcivia said.

In other business:
• The Town Council agreed to send a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis in support of the town of Palm Beach’s request for the state to eliminate plans for a bicycle lane along a 1.7-mile stretch of South Ocean Boulevard north of South Palm Beach. 
The state wants to add a bike lane on the west side of the road between Ibis Way and the Lake Worth Bridge as part of a road resurfacing project. But Palm Beach officials think the bike lane would disrupt ingress and egress of condos along the road and would be counterproductive for bicyclists since there are no bike lanes at Sloan’s Curve just north of Ibis Way.
• South Palm Beach has received a $75,000 grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection for a vulnerability assessment. The town was one of seven Palm Beach County municipalities receiving grants totaling more than $1.4 million. 
The others: Lantana $167,000, Belle Glade $200,000, Riviera Beach $300,000, Lake Clarke Shores $123,500, Loxahatchee Groves $350,000 and Mangonia Park $191,415.
• Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies will conduct a traffic safety initiative March 13-17 to remind motorists heading to and from South Ocean Boulevard to stop and watch for pedestrians and bicyclists on walkways in South Palm Beach.
Motorists who don’t stop at the walkways, which are parallel to the road and obscured in some locations by blind spots, will get courtesy reminders.
Deputies will issue citations to repeat offenders. 
The initiative, which follows a successful campaign conducted the week of Feb. 20, is meant to “shed more light on pedestrian safety by educating drivers to stop at sidewalks before pulling onto A1A,’’ Sgt. Mark Garrison said.  
• The council approved a resident’s request to install an aluminum-framed pergola on the roof of 3550 S. Ocean Blvd. When completed, it will be the first such pergola on a condo roof in South Palm Beach.

The new library’s teen area. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

A good half-hour before the 11 a.m. grand opening ceremony for the newer, bigger, far more beautiful Lantana Public Library, its public was already finding seats under the party tent by the new front doors.
The Lantana Middle School Symphonic Band was tuning up. Volunteers were setting out refreshments in the new community room. Dignitaries were greeting dignitaries.
And back in the new teen room, the library director was gathering her thoughts while a friend, Michelle Lee, primped her hair.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Kristine Kreidler said. “I worked 77 hours this week, and 73 the week before.” She smiled. “I haven’t even had time to see my friend’s new baby. I think I’m going to take tomorrow off.”

Town Manager Brian Raducci reaches for the scissors after library Director Kristine Kreidler and foundation Chairman Robert Barfknecht cut the ribbon.

When the speakers had spoken and the doors had been thrown open, the curious would find themselves in a library they may have been in but had never seen before.
Separate rooms for youth and teens, a community room, a private study room and an outside reading garden for book club discussions — all brought together through a bright blue nautical theme to honor the small town’s home by the big blue sea.
Surfboards on loan from the Surfing Florida Museum hang from the ceiling and surfing history panels adorn the walls. In the youth room, a large mobile by installation artist Ashley Nardone dangles handmade turtles and fish from a circle of scalloped waves. Peer up at it and you’re underwater. Even the carpeting is shades of bright blue.
But first there was a ribbon to be cut.
After the band’s 32 seventh- and eighth-graders had entertained with the Copper Creek March, Michelle Donahue, a library foundation board member, welcomed the crowd with a brief history of the library.
“It’s been a long time coming,” was heard more than once this Feb. 22 morning. But did that long time begin in November 2019, when the renovation planning began? Or perhaps 1947, when the Lantana Woman’s Club accepted 900 books donated by the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach and lending began in the Community Church on Oak Street?
Either way, the celebration was a long time coming.
In 1952, the library moved to the old bridge tender’s house and stayed until 1994, when the town bought the former Carteret bank building at 205 W. Ocean Ave. The bank had gone bust three years before, and on April 21, 1996, another grand opening was celebrated.
For the next 27 years, Lantana had a library in a bank building. Now, after this massive renovation, it has a library in a library building.
“Since 1996, you’ve had a library with a bank vault and teller line and a drive-thru window,” the renovation’s architect, Samuel Ferreri of PGAL architects, explained. “By removing those, we were able to increase the library’s space by 33%, to about 5,100 square feet.”
Robert Barfknecht, chairman of the library foundation, reflected on the challenges that had been overcome.
“We had $80,000,” he recalled, “when we dreamed of doing this.”
The county’s 1-cent sales tax brought $400,000, and the Town Council added another $300,000 from undesignated reserves.
There had been delays, a construction company replaced, and cost overruns, but no one lingered on those this breezy blue morning.
This was a morning for looking forward to the new library behind those new doors and looking back at childhood memories.
“I used to take my daughter to the library every Saturday,” acting Mayor Karen Lythgoe recalled. “Now she goes there with her daughter.”
Teresa Wilhelm, president of the Friends of the Library, remembered going sometimes twice in one day.
“I went to the library by the bridge and got two books,” she said, “and if I finished them, I went right back and got two more.”
And then she put in a plug for the Friends.
“It’s only $5. You can sign up your kids to be Friends,” she enthused. “We even had someone sign up their puppy.”

Libraries exceed Starbucks
Brock Peoples, director of the Southeast Florida Library Information Network, offered some perspective.
“There are more than 16,000 public libraries in the U.S.,” he said. “That’s more than McDonald’s or Starbucks.”
But this morning was about only one of those 16,000, and the library director spoke last.
Kristine Kreidler, hair nicely primped, remembered a day back in November 2019. She’d just been hired when Debbie Manzo, the town manager at the time, told her, “We have money for you to design a library.”
Kreidler met with Barfknecht, and the two set to work. Barfknecht focused on the financing while Kreidler designed what the new library should look like and offer.
The Lantana Public Library, founded 75 years ago by women, was being ushered into its future by a woman.
“I always came in to do battle with a town council based on what other librarians at other town libraries had told me,” Kreidler told the crowd. “But never once was that necessary here. This town council was always completely supportive.”
Now the time had come.
Kreidler and Barfknecht posed before the ribbon blocking the new front doors, each with a hand on the traditional oversized scissors.
Some may not have noticed, but the traditional red ribbon was not really red. It was magenta — and the exact same color as Kreidler’s skirt. This was not a coincidence.
Then the scissors snipped, the ribbon fell, and the crowd had its first look at the new old library.
If anyone thought the final cost of $1,505,000 was extravagant, nobody was saying so. The teen room, the youth room, the community room and the dazzling nautical theme throughout with the surfboards, the dangling fish and turtles and the ocean blue carpeting, all brought smiles of approval.
Seated in a corner of the youth room, under the nautical mobile, Catlin and Cameron Snow were especially excited. Along with their daughter, Coral, 2, they had brought a baby carriage.
“Today was supposed to be my due date,” Catlin Snow said, “but C.J. was 21/2 weeks early.”
Finally, the library’s exhausted director could relax a bit and meet her friends’ new son.

On March 11, a community celebration will be held from noon to 3 p.m. at the library, with food trucks, face painting, a bounce house, goodie bags and an introduction to all the library has to offer.
For more information, contact Kristine Kreidler at 561-389-2486 or email kkreidler@lantana.org.

By Joe Capozzi

Three candidates seeking two seats on the Ocean Ridge Town Commission pleaded their cases for election to nearly 100 voters at a candidates forum Feb. 9 at Town Hall.
Mayor Susan Hurlburt, Commissioner Martin Wiescholek and challenger Carolyn Cassidy answered 25 questions over 90 minutes in their only public forum together before the March 14 election.  
The questions, submitted by residents, touched on wide-ranging topics from growth management and aging infrastructure to dogs on the beach and the town’s building permit process. 
Each question was asked by moderator Marcia Sherwood of the League of Women Voters of Palm Beach County and each candidate was given one minute to answer. 
Although the format did not allow for any one-on-one debate, differences among the candidates were apparent in their comments. 
“Please understand what is at stake in this election. The building department is under attack,’’ Wiescholek said in his closing statement seeking support for another three-year term.
Cassidy, a member of the town’s advisory Board of Adjustment, has been endorsed by two critics of the town’s permitting process, commissioners Geoff Pugh and Steve Coz. 
“I would like to see some major changes in the building department if I’m elected,’’ she said after describing the current permitting and review process as “onerous and cumbersome” for homeowners and builders. 
Hurlburt, who has served on the commission since 2019, agreed that the process can be “incredibly slow” but blamed that on a lack of staff members. She asked for patience from residents and builders.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with our building department,’’ said Wiescholek, who credited town staff for following through on Town Commission directives to clean up nuisance properties.
He said the building department enforces rules approved by the Town Commission, which has strengthened the town’s building and zoning codes. 
“We have people saying ‘well, the building department should look at things differently and should be more flexible.’ The building department is not there to be flexible. The building department is there to enforce the ordinances that are on the books,’’ Wiescholek said.
“If you don’t like what the building department says, come back to the commission, change the ordinance and we’ll discuss it on the dais,’’ he said.
Wiescholek said he would support a charter revision requiring a supermajority vote — four instead of three — on substantial changes to town land development codes. 
Hurlburt said she’s leaning in favor of that, but is not ready to commit. Cassidy does not support a supermajority vote for such changes. 
“Advocating for it suggests you don’t have faith in your elected officials,’’ said Cassidy, who ran unsuccessfully for commission in 2021. 
Another critique Cassidy repeated during the forum was what she said was a lack of proper communication between commissioners and residents, especially at Town Commission meetings. Current decorum rules at commission meetings do not allow commissioners to respond to remarks made by residents during the public comment segment.
Hurlburt said she tries to direct staff to respond after the meeting to comments made by the public. She also stressed the public is allowed to comment on agenda items, too, and commissioners can respond to those comments while deliberating the agenda item. 
Wiescholek said he’d be open to tweaking the rules to allow some interaction, but warned that a full discussion would add length to meetings that at times run close to four hours. 
Cassidy said residents who take the time to come to a Town Commission meeting to offer comments deserve a response. 
“Otherwise they think no one is taking them seriously and their concerns are not valid,’’ she said. “People make public comments. It goes into the abyss. You never get a response.’’    
All three candidates said they support the police department and agreed the town needs a master plan to deal with aging infrastructure. But a question about flooding problems drew different replies. 
Hurlburt said the town’s infrastructure “is not prepared for what comes down,” a problem exacerbated by sea level rise and climate change. 
Wiescholek said roads need to be raised.
“Our roads are too low. Sea level is rising,’’ he said. “The only way is to raise the roads. Nobody wants to hear that in general, but we are looking at very costly things coming down the road that we need to address and that is one of them.” 
Cassidy disagreed. If the town raises roads, the focus should be on areas most prone to flooding, she said. 
“To say a blanket statement about raising roads in the town I think puts an undue burden on homeowners,’’ she said, because water from higher roads will end up in the front yards of homes.
Cassidy and Wiescholek said they support efforts to restrict the placement of “No Trespassing” signs on the beach, a contentious issue between beachgoers and residents of Turtle Beach of Ocean Ridge, a condominium that has posted signs about the condo’s private property rights on the beach. 
Hurlburt, who lives in Turtle Beach, said: “Private property is private property, but when you have a problem with trespassers that needs to be addressed. Traversing and using the rest of the beach, which is below the mean high water line, has never been an issue.’’
Taking a jab at Hurlburt, Cassidy said: “I don’t think it’s right that the same person who initiated the signs on the beach and sought the permitting for it is presiding over the meeting when these signs were discussed.’’
Hurlburt did not respond to that remark, saying, “I’m trying to keep my campaign moving positively."

Dr. Peter Bonutti of Manalapan in his home office with his father, Karl Bonutti, 95, and sons Michael, 8, and Marc, 17. The
family’s two Dobermans are Sam (left) and Sarge. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Dr. Peter Bonutti was well into his career as an orthopedic surgeon when he realized something was missing: the patient’s perspective.
“I always thought it was important to look at it,” Bonutti said. “Because we’re operating on people and doing all kinds of crazy things to them and you go, ‘What if we flipped the table and looked at it from their perspective?’ Like the length of the incision, the surgical approach, the fast recovery. It came from my sports medicine background combined with my background from joint replacements.”
It wasn’t long before Bonutti, 65 — who resides with wife, Simone, in Manalapan, along with five of their six children — began inventing tools to make a difference in patients’ experiences, starting with recovery time and rehab.
“When I started doing joint replacements the incisions were a foot long, the patients would be in the hospital for a week, and it would take them a year to recover,” Bonutti said. “I was saying, ‘This is not what people want.’ So, I started learning, because I felt industry wasn’t keeping up with medical technology.
“That’s where I got creative and innovative and said we’ve got to improve the quality of care. That’s been my focus my whole life.”
Bonutti said he has 440-450 patents on file and another 100 in development. Where most inventors focus on one area, his innovations cover a wide area, from automotive to aeronautical to medical devices to pharmaceuticals to consumer goods. “We do a lot of different things and have a lot of fun with it,” he said.
Bonutti spends one week a month at his workplace, the SBL Bonutti Clinic in Effingham, Illinois, in which time he said he performs 50 surgeries including 35-40 joint replacements, and the remainder at home, much of it on research and development.
His family time includes skiing, boating, fishing and trips to “a small place” in the Bahamas. His wife is a former member of the Manalapan Town Commission who is returning to the board this month after running unopposed for one of the open seats.
Their children are Mia, a student at the University of Virginia; Marc, Margaux and Mary at Oxbridge Academy, and Martina and Michael at Gulf Stream School. He also has two Dobermans that “I like to exercise when I can.”

— Brian Biggane

Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How that has influenced you?
A: I was born in an inner-city community in Cleveland — one of six children after my parents immigrated from Slovenia. I went to Gilmour Academy, graduating at 16, and went to the University of Chicago, where I had a full scholarship, to earn a degree in biology. Subsequently, I went to the University of Cincinnati for medical school and then the Cleveland Clinic for my orthopedic residency training. There I won the International Traveling Fellowship and studied abroad in Graz, Austria; Sydney, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand, and London, Ontario, with additional studies at the Mayo Clinic.
During this time, I was a Cleveland Clinic Institute fellow and won numerous awards for my research on the development of medical and surgical adhesives. I performed a Cleveland Research Institute traveling fellowship and won the most awards for research on medical and surgical adhesives.
My parents are both educators and pushed us all in school. When I started college, I was 4-foot-9 and weighed 90 pounds. Being younger and much smaller than the other students created more of a drive to succeed. What I learned was about thought, discipline and concentration as well as the importance of education over social life in school. I learned education requires one must learn to teach oneself. One cannot depend on educators to spoon-feed you information or answers to problems.

Q: What professions have you worked in? What accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: In college I had a full scholarship, but to pay for additional expenses I worked in a biochemistry lab as a technician. After college, I worked as a medical technician at the Cleveland Clinic, working the graveyard shift in the hematology lab learning how to do blood tests as well as treating patients working on blood draws (a unique skill). Upon completion of my residency and fellowships, I became an orthopedic surgeon with a subspecialty in arthroscopy and arthroplasty. I also worked as a clinical professor at the University of Arkansas in orthopedics.
What I learned during my education was the importance of not just practicing medicine — doing what you were taught — but challenging the status quo/dogma. ... Rather than saying this is good enough, my question was why can we not improve and make things better.

Q: What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career?
A: Find a career that allows you to not just emulate others, but to improve the status quo. You will find not just financial success, but tremendous personal satisfaction. This drives individuals to work harder and improve not just their own career, but others around them.

Q: How did you choose to make your home in Manalapan?
A: My wife was born and raised in Florida. After a decade of living in small-town Effingham, Illinois, she asked to have a vacation home in Florida. She identified a home in Lighthouse Point. However, when I drove down, I saw a large home on a small lot in a crowded area with no parking and I felt claustrophobic.
Being from a small town, I enjoyed open space and the sense of community. I drove up A1A, saying if I was going to move to Florida I wanted to live on the ocean. As I drove north, I stumbled onto Manalapan and saw an old wooden house with a For Sale sign. I looked at the small, old, three-bedroom wooden home with an overgrown yard and at high tide the Intracoastal was actually leaking into the swimming pool and the home. However, I saw the beauty of the open space, ocean-to-Intracoastal lot, and the small-town feel and I immediately put an offer on the property, which was quickly accepted.
This was a vacation home until 2009, when we decided to tear down the home and create a full-time residence. We built the home to house our expanding family and moved in full time in 2014.

Q: What’s your favorite part of living in Manalapan?
A: I have lived for 35 years in a small rural town where I enjoy the open spaces and close community. I have the same feel in Manalapan from the open spaces to the administrators, police, fire department and neighbors when the town makes everyone feel like a close friend with personal relationships.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: I am reading Dare Disturb the Universe: A Memoir of Venture Capital, written by Charles Newhall III. This is a fascinating book from the father of one of our Manalapan neighbors, Ashton Newhall. It is a very unique perspective on Mr. Newhall’s life and career, who is an excellent role model.

Q: What music do you listen to when you want to be inspired?
A: My father was a pianist and used to play Chopin, Liszt and Beethoven at night. As I was growing up, I picked up the guitar and taught myself contemporary music — rock ’n’ roll. I began playing in a band and then ultimately wrote and recorded two albums. When I want to relax, I pick up my guitar and work on my creative side on my own songs and melodies. I do, however, listen to almost any genre of music but prefer guitar-themed songs.

Q: Have you had mentors in your life or individuals who inspired your life decision?
A: I would argue my father and mother were probably my greatest mentors. My parents were immigrants from both Slovenia and Italy. They came here with $5 in their pocket and were able to build a successful life raising six children, and my father ultimately became U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. My parents showed me the value of hard work and family.
Art Steffee, MD, orthopedic surgeon in Cleveland, was also a major influence. During my first year of residency, I rotated to a small hospital and worked with Art, who was an orthopedic hand surgeon. He showed me if an individual is observant and willing to spend their own time, money and effort, they can truly make an impact in medicine.

Q: If your life story were made into a movie, who would play you?
A: I saw Dennis Quaid act as Ronald Reagan in a movie and enjoyed his demeanor and met him in person during the movie preview. Although he is much better looking than I am, I feel he would be a great person for the role.

Q: What/who makes you laugh?
A: My family and children make me laugh on a daily basis and I find humor in all aspects of life. I feel if you can encourage someone to laugh or even smile for even a second or two, then you have improved that person’s day.

ABOVE: Former William Taft High classmates from a variety of years in the 1950s and ‘60s gathered last month for a reunion at Pavilion Grille. About 180 attended, some of whom now live in Palm Beach County. INSET BELOW: A ball cap with science class buttons from Taft High, 1950. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By John Pacenti

In the Catskills in the 1950s, Margaret Haymin and Marsha Levine forged the kind of friendship that tattoos the young soul.
They were preteen girls at a summer Jewish bungalow colony — and then they went back home to the Bronx but never forgot each other.
A high school reunion brought them together 69 years later. That reunion for William Taft High School graduates has been held in South Florida at various locations for the last 15 years.
There have been 10 Taft reunions in total, and there hadn’t been one held since 2020 just before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the nation. This year 180 graduates from the high school came together on Feb. 2 at Pavilion Grille in Boca Raton.
Haymin and Levine — both 77 — only learned of each other again this past year. They met at the reunion for the first time since those summer camp days.
“She stuck with me all these years,” said Haymin, Class of 1963, a retired photographer who flew in from Pennsylvania. “She just was so special. And I remembered her name. We played with dolls together. She always had beautiful blue eyes.”
Levine, a retired special education teacher who graduated in 1962, then pulled out black-and-white photos on her phone of the girls around a picnic table among more than a dozen girls at the bungalow colony camp.

Two women who came to the reunion last met as girls in the Catskills in the 1950s: Marsha Levine (back row, second from left) and Margaret Haymin (back row, fourth from left). BELOW RIGHT: Levine and Haymin today. Photo provided and by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

The reunion’s origin
The Taft reunions are the masterstroke of event planner Roberta Lookatzer Silver and retired jockey Jeff “Mousey” Heller — classes of ’63 and ’62 respectively.
The first reunion was in New Jersey but it quickly migrated to warmer climes in south Palm Beach County. Some of the graduates make Palm Beach County their home now.
“But you know, it’s so comforting to be able to hug somebody that you know, for 70 years,” said Silver, who lives at Seagate Towers in Delray Beach.
Silver, 77, explained that in the 1950s and ’60s in the Bronx, there were very close-knit communities. Most families lived in tenements and people walked or met friends to take the bus. A number of junior high schools fed into Taft.
Heller, 78, was a live wire when he walked into the reunion. Everybody wanted to talk to Mr. Jeff Heller. Before he was a jockey, he was a teenage musician playing drums and piano for a doo-wop group called Mousey and The Four Cats.
He also met a budding musician and star basketball player at Taft named Chuck Negron. Negron went on to be the lead singer for Three Dog Night and though he did not travel for this reunion, his presence loomed large as his name was constantly brought up in conversation.
“They called us Mutt and Jeff,” said Heller, who now lives in Boynton Beach. “I recorded his first demo record.”
The pandemic ended the reunions for three years, so the 2023 party was one anticipated by many. The reunion played out like a movie, a bit of American Graffiti, When Harry Met Sally and Peggy Sue Got Married.
“During the pandemic, as you know, everybody was isolated. It wasn’t a healthy time,” Silver said.

Bernice and Ed Wenger

Bernice and Ed

Sitting at one table were Ed Wenger and his wife, Bernice Nierenberg Wenger. They both went to Taft and even worked together on the school newspaper, The Taft Review.
But they were like ships passing in the night.
“So, she knew me by sight and I knew her by sight,” said Ed Wenger, Class of ’59.
They would again pass by each other at City College of New York, where they sometimes had the same class in the same building.
They met again at John F. Kennedy International Airport when both were escaping the winter and heading to Puerto Rico for vacation. But it wasn’t until they landed in San Juan that Cupid finally landed an arrow.
“When we got to Puerto Rico, and I was about to get into the taxi with my two friends, I heard the taxi driver say to some man, ‘Come on, we’re gonna take these girls for a ride,’” said Bernice, Class of ’61.
“Well, I speak Spanish fluently. So, I got scared. So, I went over to Ed and I said, ‘Come in our taxi with us so that they can take us anyplace.’”
Ed adds, “And we spent most of the vacation together.”
The couple now lives in Boca Raton, married since 1967.

Emotional tonic
These reunions can be an emotional tonic to those who attend, Silver said.
“There was one guy who came, I remember, one year and he walked in with his dog and he said, ‘You know, I’m not going to know anybody and my wife just died,’” she said.
“He stood with me for 15 minutes and then two women walked in and started screaming. ‘You lived on the sixth floor. We lived on the fourth floor.’ And it made his night.”
And true enough there was a lot of chatter last month that started, “I lived on 167th.” “Oh, I was on 176th.”
Stuart Szpicek, class of ’65, was looking at the Taft pins on display. “I designed one in 1965 myself,” he recalled.
Joyce Geiger Rosenbaum, Class of ’63, laughed when asked about the reunion and started singing December 1963 (Oh, What A Night), a hit by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.
“It warms the heart to see all these people,” she said.
Bernice Nierenberg Wenger put it this way, “Have you ever read the book Look Homeward, Angel? To look back and remember what a fine education we had and how everyone was so hardworking and motivated to better themselves — it’s just nice.”

By Mary Thurwachter

Acting Mayor Karen Lythgoe had a welcoming smile on her face when a resident, tin box in hand, approached the dais during the Feb. 13 Lantana Town Council meeting. The box didn’t contain what Lythgoe expected.
“I guess you don’t want the yellow water,” the woman, holding a cookie tin with liquid inside, said with a chuckle.
“I thought it was cookies,” Lythgoe laughed. “My swearing-in is coming up next month and there will be cookies.”
Lythgoe, who becomes mayor March 27 after running unopposed to fill the unexpired term created by the resignation of former Mayor Robert Hagerty, didn’t want the yellow water.
No one does.
Over the last two years, residents have complained about olive greenish water in their swimming pools, Invisalign trays for their teeth that had yellowed from the drinking water, and even discolored water their pooches refused to swallow.
The drinking water in Lantana isn’t all yellow, but people who have it don’t like it and have made that clear to town officials.
Eddie Crockett, public services director, insists the water is safe.
“The clarity of the water is not really related to the quality of the water,” Crockett said at a meeting last year when the topic came up. “The drinking water is absolutely safe. It meets all state and federal requirements.”
The town is working on the problem, but it will take time and cost millions. It all goes back to the water treatment plant, which was last refurbished in 2003 and is being updated.
A plant filter and media replacement project began in 2021 with an original budget of $1.24 million. Supply chain issues have slowed the progress, according to Rebecca Travis of Baxter & Woodman Inc., the town’s engineering firm.
“Once the project started, our consultants/engineers quickly realized that the project was more involved than initially anticipated and as a result, an additional $1.26 million was included in the town’s 2022/23 budget for this project,” Crockett said.
In addition, with the assistance of the town’s lobbyist, the town is pursuing state funding for this project and others from the state Legislature, Crockett said in an email to The Coastal Star.
The project is expected to be completed in the next year or two. In the interim, the town has an ongoing and aggressive hydrant flushing process to mitigate the water discoloration, Crockett said.
As part of the efforts to revitalize the water treatment plant, the council approved a change order Feb. 13 for RF Environmental Services, Inc., to install temporary valves to support the replacement of the high-service pumps at the plant for $210,793.09. The high-service pumps are used to move high volumes of treated water into the town’s potable water distribution system.
A contractor had discovered that three valves needed to isolate the existing high-service pumps could not be turned off. The temporary valves are needed to allow the water to be completely shut off to complete the project.
Money for the temporary valves will come from the utility fund’s reserves and will be included in the mid-year budget amendment in March.

In other news, the town learned that it will be receiving a $167,000 grant from the Resilient Florida program to help prepare the community for the impacts of flooding and storm surge.
The town will do a vulnerability assessment for town-owned properties along the Ocean Avenue corridor from U.S. Highway 1 to the beach, which includes Bicentennial Park, Lyman Kayak Park, Sportsman’s Park boat ramps, Lantana Nature Preserve and the beach facilities.

By Mary Thurwachter

The Lantana Town Council voted 3-1 Feb. 27 to delay a vote on whether to grant a setback variance to a couple who want to build a 7,100-square-foot home on a .36-acre lot on Hypoluxo Island.
The couple, Thomas and Mindee Borzilleri, are seeking a variance from the required 20-foot rear setback for waterfront properties. The Borzilleris, who bought the property in 2021, tore down the existing house, which had significant mold problems.
They want to locate a retaining wall 13.5 feet from the high water line, where the town code requires a 20-foot setback. The Borzilleris cited Federal Emergency Management Agency flood mitigation requirements as a hardship.
The federal agency is requiring the floor elevation of the home to be 10 feet, said Trey Nazzaro of Davis & Associates, who represents the Borzilleris. The home that was on the property previously had an elevation of 6.5 feet. The retaining walls would hold in a significant amount of fill to bring the elevation up to 10 feet, he said.
Besides the retaining wall, a pool, ADA ramp and deck would also encroach on the required 20-foot setback area from the high water line.
Staff recommended denial, and a vote in favor of a variance failed to pass the planning board.
Island residents also urged denial, saying the proposed house was too large for the property and that the owners should have been aware of town building requirements before they made their plans.
Council member Kem Mason asked that the vote be postponed so additional information could be gathered on whether changing the house size has an impact on the drainage and thereby the location of the retaining walls.
“I’d like to get this right because this is going to set a precedent for the future,” Mason said. “People are very adamant on their stand about this, and this is the only way I can understand to be fair.”
Postponing the vote could help the council have more clarity, Mason said.
The town will ask engineers to review the town’s drainage plans for all development, have them take another look at the lot in question and ask what options exist for drainage. The engineers will then write a letter of recommendation.
“I’ll guarantee that there are other ways to drain that lot,” said council member Lynn “Doc” Moorhouse, who was the lone dissenting vote on the motion to delay.
The town hopes to be able to vote on the setback issue in March.

By Mary Thurwachter

Lantana voters will decide two council races and a charter referendum on March 14.
The Group 3 race pits council member Mark Zeitler against Raymond Lastella, while the Group 4 race is between Christopher Castle and John Raymer.
The only election debate was scheduled for March 1, too late for coverage by The Coastal Star, so we asked the candidates what makes them best suited to serve.

Group 3
Lastella, 32, an entrepreneur with a boat detailing company and a jet ski rental company, has lived in Lantana for only a year and a half. He doesn’t consider that a drawback.
“I know I’m the new guy, but I do my due diligence and I try to be as accurate as I can on subjects,” he says. “If I don’t know something, I’ll look it up. You don’t have to be here for 50 years to understand what the town needs and wants.”
The town’s major issues are speeding and reckless driving, Lastella says. And, after talking with residents at the Carlisle senior living community, he realizes there’s a need for safety measures to help pedestrians crossing the street.
People should vote for him, he says, because he has good leadership skills and wants to bring people together.
“I know that this town has a ton of potential and I’ll bring my knowledge and ideas across the board and try to do the best I can to make the town better,” he says. “I’m hoping to start a family here, ready to get married and have children, and this is a place where I want to stay and raise my children.”
Zeitler, who turns 67 on March 10, says being a council member has been a good learning experience and one to which he is devoted. The owner of an air-conditioning firm, Zeitler has lived in Lantana most of his life. He has missed only one meeting — when he was hospitalized after breaking his heel in July. Zeitler spent months getting around on a scooter or crutches, but didn’t let that slow him down.
He says his major first-term accomplishments include keeping medical marijuana dispensaries out of town and discovering the library’s contractor was unlicensed, which led to a more discerning vetting process.
Zeitler’s council experience and his lengthy time in town are reasons he thinks he’s the better candidate. His work experience is also a plus, he says.
“My work experience, besides air-conditioning contracting, is also underground utilities,” he says. “That makes it easy for me to understand what is going on when voting for water and sewer infrastructure work. My air-conditioning contracting business demands that I know engineering and laws like workers comp and liabilities. Being a businessperson, I understand the need for having reserves for bad times. I want to make sure Lantana remains the quaint little place that it is.”

Group 4
The Group 4 races features two newcomers, as the seat is currently held by Karen Lythgoe, who instead ran unopposed for mayor and will be sworn into that position.
Castle, 37, a maintenance facilities director for PetMeds, is a native Floridian who has lived in Lantana for 15 years. A self-described problem solver, Castle said he has always had a passion for the town.
His aim in running, he says, is to make positive changes. A new volunteer for the Lantana Chamber of Commerce Fishing Derby, Castle recently purchased two bicycles to be given away during the children’s fishing event. “I used my own money, not campaign funds,” he said.
Castle’s biggest campaign issues include infrastructure and safety, two things he says he is well versed in.
“I know how to take care of these problems,” Castle says.
His previous experience as control room operator at Florida Power & Light and his work for the South Florida Water Management District would help him in dealing with the power grid, flooding and rain issues, as well as water quality, he says.
“I also have quite a bit of education with my jobs and bring skills to the town that can alleviate some of these issues.”
Raymer, 52, who retired from a 21-year U.S. Army career and is manager of Ace Rental Place in Lantana, says a main reason he’s running is to make sure residents are informed about what’s going on in the town.
“I see a lot of people still left in the dark,” says Raymer, an eight-year Lantana resident who was unsuccessful in his first run for council last year against veteran council member Lynn Moorhouse. He would inform people through emails, texts or in snail mail included with utility bills, he says.
The town’s major issues, he says, include keeping taxes in line, improving infrastructure, and attracting tourism, which he says could help in keeping taxes down. Another big concern, he says, is restoring the beach itself, which he says is so narrow that people end up going to Lake Worth Beach instead.
Voters should choose him for the job because he has strong leadership skills and military background and has no ulterior agenda, he says.
“I want to be the people’s voice and I want to bring the town together,” Raymer says.

Referendum
Lantana residents also will vote on whether to change the Town Charter to put an end to runoff elections. Currently, a candidate must receive at least one more than 50% of the votes in a race to be elected. If no candidate gets a majority, a runoff election is held between the two candidates receiving the most votes in the race.
Forced runoffs in two council races last year made some elected officials consider a change to a plurality system, where the candidate receiving the highest number of votes in a race — whether or not it is a majority — is the victor. 
Changing the election system requires a change in the town’s charter, something voters need to decide.

By Mary Hladky

Four-year-old Brightline is the shiny new thing, offering high-class rides in sleek trains.
But 33-year-old Tri-Rail’s no-frills commuter line transports far more passengers.
Tri-Rail’s ridership totaled nearly 3.4 million in 2022, while Brightline carried just over 1.2 million riders.
In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted service for both rail operators, Tri-Rail carried nearly 4.5 million passengers. Brightline, a brand-new service then, carried 1 million.
Both Brightline and Tri-Rail say the two operators can’t be compared.
Tri-Rail is a commuter service with 18 stations whose core riders need to get to and from work. It receives funding from Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, Florida Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration, and from its ticket sales.
Brightline, a private company, insisted it was not a commuter rail when it launched. With only three stations in South Florida then, its focus was moving people speedily over longer distances. Its Orlando station is expected to open in the second quarter of 2023, and eventually the line will extend to Tampa.
But more recently, Brightline has acknowledged transporting commuters and, with the December opening of stations in Boca Raton and Aventura, can better accommodate them.
For instance, land use attorney Michael Marshall recently used Brightline to get from his Fort Lauderdale office to a Boca Raton City Council meeting, where he was representing a client.
“It’s genius,” he said of Brightline, which arranged last-mile service to his meeting on Uber.
So far, Brightline has not siphoned away riders, said Victor Garcia, Tri-Rail’s director of public affairs. “They are filling a gap that was apparently needed.”
Both operators are now trying to reclaim riders they lost during the pandemic. Brightline suspended service from March 2020 to November 2021. Tri-Rail sharply reduced its service in March 2020 and returned to full schedule in October 2021.
The pandemic changed rider dynamics. Demand fell as employers shuttered offices or required their workers to come to the office fewer days each week. Many people shied away from mass transit that forced them into close contact with others.
“We want to get back to where we were pre-COVID,” Garcia said.
In its most recent financial reports in December and January, Brightline said that by the first quarter of 2022, its ridership exceeded pre-pandemic levels in the comparable period in 2019.
“Rides by monthly passholders increased 44 percent in January 2023 compared to December 2022, demonstrating a trend back toward normal commuting patterns for an increasing portion of our market,” Brightline said.
Both rail lines expect more ridership growth for similar reasons.
Traffic and road conditions on Interstate 95 and other major arteries are bad and getting worse. More companies and people are moving to Florida, bringing in more potential riders. That also creates more traffic and the desire to avoid it. And the soaring price of gasoline last year prompted many to consider an alternative to the car.
Another factor for Brightline is that it can expect a ridership boost when it launches service to Orlando.
Brightline offers fast and efficient service with airy, comfortable stations featuring food and beverages. It has a number of options to get passengers from the stations to their final destinations. Its trains run on the FEC rail corridor, through east coast downtowns.
Tri-Rail, which also has options to get passengers to their final destinations at no or reduced cost, has no indoor lounges at its stations and minimal food and beverage options. Its trains run on the CSX corridor, west of downtowns.
But it has stations in the major South Florida east coast cities, making it possible to commute to cities such as Boynton Beach and Delray Beach that are not serviced by Brightline.
Tri-Rail’s dependability and on-time performance have improved substantially in recent years, removing a disincentive to using its trains. It runs more trains per day, which provide riders with more options, particularly during rush hours.
It also stops at the Fort Lauderdale and Miami airports and provides access to Palm Beach International.
Yet a major reason that its ridership figures outpace Brightline’s is that Tri-Rail costs a lot less to ride.
On Feb. 17, Brightline’s one-way regular “smart” fare from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale ranged from $19 to $27, depending on the time of day traveled. The return trip prices were the same. So round trip, the fare was $38 up to $54.
The premium fare ranged from $32 to $69, for a total of $64 to $138 round trip.
Parking at Brightline garages costs $7 a day if purchased in advance or $15 a day for a ticket purchased at the garage.
The costs come down if riders buy a monthly pass that covers 40 rides. A regular pass from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale is $229; a premium pass is $489. A monthly parking pass is $75.
Tri-Rail has divided its route from the Miami airport to Mangonia Park into six zones. Fare cost depends on the number of zones riders pass through to reach their destinations.
The weekday trip from Boca Raton to West Palm Beach goes through three zones, for a round-trip cost of $10. A ride from Boca to Fort Lauderdale goes through two zones, or $7.50 round trip.
Tri-Rail offers monthly passes, good for unlimited travel, for $110. If a rider used Tri-Rail for 20 commutes a month, the cost of a round trip from Boca to Fort Lauderdale would drop to $5.50.
Outdoor parking is free at its stations.
Tri-Rail last raised its prices in 2020, the first hike in 10 years. Brightline’s prices have gradually risen. It raised the cost of a monthly pass by about 15% in November and said in a December report it expects further increases due to likely higher demand related to the Aventura and Boca Raton stations.