By Rich Pollack

For almost four decades, officers and managers of condos east of Federal Highway in Boca Raton and Highland Beach met regularly to share information and to listen to key speakers on topics that affect them all.
Now, with the collapse of Surfside’s 12-story Champlain Towers South in June still on the minds of many and with recertification regulations coming down the road in some communities, the Beach Condo Association of Boca Raton and Highland Beach is expanding to welcome representatives from condos in Delray Beach.
“Our organization is about community and this is about neighbors helping neighbors,” said Emily Gentile, the association’s president. “It’s about courtesy and kindness to our neighbors in Palm Beach County.”
The association meets for an hour and a half the third Tuesday of every month from October through April. It focuses on sharing information on topics that are common and of interest to most associations.
During past meetings, members have discussed a wide range of issues from crosswalks on State Road A1A to beach erosion and storm protection. They have shared ideas about security, maintenance and repairs and even staffing.
In addition, the association offers board certification classes and other continuing education classes that are useful to condominium leaders and managers.
“Meeting board members from other buildings is always helpful,” said Janet Friedman, a vice president on the board of Villa Costa, a 36-unit building in Highland Beach. “We always have a common problem or question and I can either get information or possibly give information to a fellow board member with something we at Villa Costa have faced in the past.”
Friedman says she goes to meetings to keep up with changes to relevant legislation on the state and local levels and to work with others on important issues.
“It is always good to collaborate with others that have the same interests,” she said.
Joanne Chester, president of the board of the 55-unit Mayfair of Boca Raton, agrees about the value of swapping ideas.
“Just hearing stories of what other buildings are doing is priceless information,” she said.
Now, Gentile says, there is a great focus on structural integrity and recertification of buildings, topics with lots to learn that can often be confusing.
“Recertification is an issue that requires a lot of education,” Gentile said. “We want our neighbors to know what we know.”
With that in mind, the Beach Condo Association last month held a Recertification Experts Panel meeting on Zoom featuring building officials, code enforcement officers, two structural engineers, an electrical engineer and structural contractors. Members had an opportunity to learn more about ordinances passed by Boca Raton and Highland Beach relating to recertification and to get an idea of how certification requirements will be rolled out.
Condo board members and managers also now have a better understanding of the structural and electrical issues facing buildings — especially those on the barrier island — and what inspectors will look for.
“We have a lot more to come,” Gentile said. “We’re pulling out all the stops to educate our members and give them all the information they need.”
Future meetings, she said, will include related topics including how the Champlain Towers collapse will impact insurance. The association also plans to hold a meeting focused on financial issues with banks and other institutions, discussing what options are available should condo associations need to finance major structural or electrical repairs.
Annual dues for the Beach Condo Association of Boca Raton and Highland Beach are $150 per building per year. Meetings are open to condo association officers and committee chairs as well as managers. Meetings are hosted at different condominiums along the coast.

More information is available at https://beachcondoassociation.com

On Nov. 8, Lantana’s public beach was scoured by a heavy storm. This shows the beach south of the Imperial House. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Mary Thurwachter

Lantana’s public beach is sand-starved, and a plan spearheaded by the town of Palm Beach aims to assuage that hunger.
Lantana officials and residents heard of the proposal during a special meeting on Nov. 3 hosted by Brian Raducci, Lantana’s new town manager. He said the town has an opportunity to partner with Palm Beach, South Palm Beach and Palm Beach County to enter an interlocal agreement for a dune restoration project.
Rob Weber, the coastal program manager for the town of Palm Beach, said the program would add sand to Lantana’s beach, similar to what had taken place in South Palm Beach earlier this year.
“There are opportunities that if we are impacted by a storm the sand can be replaced with FEMA funds,” he said. “So we are trying to work together, trying to be as smart as we can and judicious with our funds and to be able to have a program to have a beach that is healthy for everyone to enjoy.”
Palm Beach has been doing beach renourishment projects since the 1940s. The sand flow, which goes from north to south, was interrupted in the 1920s when the Lake Worth inlet was trenched.
“Ever since that point, there was noticeable erosion that occurred south of the inlet and then we started doing beach nourishment in the 1940s,” Weber said. “It wasn’t until the 1970s, when environmental regulations really took hold, that we started getting projects permitted. Our first permitted project was in midtown (Palm Beach) in 1995.”
The first project in the southern area near South Palm Beach was the Phipps Ocean Park project that was constructed in 2006.
“Each time we’ve done a beach renourishment project in the south end, we’ve also had a dune restoration, and a dune restoration is not just building a dune, but adding sand above the knee-high water line, not just placing sand into the water,” Weber said. “When you place sand in the water, you need a federal permit from the Corps of Engineers; when you’re placing sand above the knee-high water line, you only need a permit from the state of Florida.”
In 2013, a beach management agreement, the only one of its kind in Florida, was signed for Palm Beach island, regardless of municipal boundaries.
“We started implementing our program,” Weber said, “and after we had it signed in 2013, and most recently this year, we did a partial beach nourishment project in Phipps Ocean Park to restore some of the impacts we had from previous hurricanes.” At the same time, they did dune restoration south of the Lake Worth Pier between the Bellaria and La Bonne Vie condominiums and placed sand in South Palm Beach.
“The ultimate goal here is to keep adding as much sand as we can to the system to be as healthy as possible,” Weber said. “The beaches overall will perform better with more sand. … If the beaches are healthier here in South Palm Beach and Lantana, then our program will be that much better and we’ll be stronger altogether.”
Mike Jenkins, the engineering consultant for Palm Beach, said if dune projects are done in concert together over a larger area, they tend to perform better.
The proposed project would involve transportation of sand from an existing stockpile at Phipps Ocean Park and placement on the beaches of South Palm Beach and Lantana.
Jenkins said that within last year’s major nourishment project, some extra sand was reserved on the beach to distribute in dune projects this season. The work can only be done outside of turtle nesting season.
The project, expected to take two weeks, would require access to the beach to truck in and place the sand.
“South Palm Beach can’t resolve the issue just by themselves,” Jenkins said. “The town of Palm Beach really can’t solve it just by themselves. We’re going for a regional response.”
Construction would happen in January or February and would require beach closures.
“One of the critical aspects of this is if Lantana joins in this program to maintain a beach through repetitive dune projects, those projects would then become eligible for FEMA funds if there’s a declared disaster after a hurricane,” Jenkins said.
The beach at Lantana is a public beach, unlike the private beaches in South Palm Beach, and more likely to receive government money.
Some residents at the meeting didn’t like the idea that access to Lantana’s beach would be over the existing sea wall, but Jenkins said he did not anticipate damage to the sea wall. Covering it with sand and mass, he said, would preserve the wall during the process. “The contractor would be contractually obligated to repair anything if he were to damage it.”
Weber said the cost to Lantana would be zero.
“The idea is that the town of South Palm Beach would be covering that cost,” Weber said. “The town of Palm Beach is obviously doing the work, but South Palm Beach are the ones that would take on that cost in exchange for the access.”
South Palm Beach Town Manager Robert Kellogg said: “The current proposal calls on us to pay for the sand at Lantana Beach for providing access for our project.”
Kellogg said the king tides and northwest winds in November washed the sand from the first phase of the project away from the beach.
“We are assessing the volume of sand we will need in January-February. The second phase will include both us and Lantana,” he said. “As I don’t have an idea of the volume of sand needed, I can’t give you a cost.”
South Palm Beach Mayor Bonnie Fischer implored Lantana officials to consider the proposal.
“I don’t see any downsides other than a little inconvenience,” she said. “It’s just a win-win for us.”
However, some residents pointed out that closing the public beach during peak season is not ideal.
Raducci said he expects the proposal to come before the Town Council soon.

By Mary Thurwachter

Six candidates are vying for two positions on the Lantana Town Council in the March 8 election. The candidate with the most votes for each seat wins.

Group 1
Incumbent Lynn Moorhouse is seeking re-election. The 78-year-old retired dentist holds the Group 1 seat.
An outspoken advocate for developing the downtown business district, Moorhouse has been in office since 2004. His opponents are Joseph Farrell, a flooring distributor and a member of Lantana’s planning and zoning commission, and John Raymer, the manager at Ace Rental Place in Lantana.
Farrell, 58, withdrew his candidacy for mayor last year due to family obligations. He also made an unsuccessful run against Malcolm Balfour in 2013.
“Lantana has been stagnating since 2007,” Farrell said. “Facilities and maintenance have fallen to new lows.
“Now is the time to replace incumbents that sat by and let Lantana slide into mediocrity.” Raymer, 51, is retired from the U.S. Army after 21 years.
“What prompted me to run is I noticed a communication breakdown in the town,” Raymer said. That breakdown, he said, is the town’s biggest issue. He noticed it last year when Sea Pines, where he lives, had flooding problems and after the first town meeting to address the issue, he heard nothing more about it, he said.
“A lot of people don’t go on the internet and don’t find their information that way,” he said.
“We don’t need politicians,” he said. “We need people that are willing to work for people and that’s my job. I want to work for the people to make sure they understand what’s going on in the community and the decisions that are going to be made.”
His biggest strength, Raymer said, is his ability to look at all sides of issues “with an open mind and not to be persuaded by any one party’s ideology.”

Group 2
Malcolm Balfour, who holds the Group 2 seat, is not running again. He is 83 and has served on the council since 2013.
Three people are pursuing the Group 2 position: Media Beverly, Kem Mason and former council member Edward P. Shropshire.
Beverly, 69, is a retired business manager with a Florida real estate broker’s license. Her skills include accounting, insurance, property management, litigation and research, she said.
Beverly is running to continue her efforts “toward preserving Lantana’s small-town, fishing village character while improving the quality of life for all residents. We can accomplish that goal with proper, thoughtful planning and well-regulated development, while ensuring the fiscal health of Lantana by encouraging the addition of revenue-producing, family-friendly businesses for everyone to enjoy.”
She said being a good listener who cares about the needs of others is among her strengths.
“Identifying what residents want, research to educate myself and others, and tenacity are key to making informed, sound decisions which affect current and future generations of Lantanians,” she said. 
Regarding the town’s biggest issue, Beverly said: “Town Council voted to reintroduce an ordinance lifting the ban, and allowing medical marijuana dispensaries inside our town, which I oppose, because sales are tax-exempt and provide no revenue to our town. Council members should, instead, focus on creating a realistic, sustainable Master Plan and work toward restoring Lantana to the desirable, hospitable community it once was.”
Mason, 63, is a retired captain with Palm Beach Fire Rescue who serves on the town’s planning commission and the education council and Citizens On Patrol.
He has worked in public service all his adult life as a lifeguard and firefighter.
“When I retired, I was still a public servant as a volunteer for Lantana and I want to continue that process. This is the next evolution after volunteering.
“It’s in my nature to work with the community and to help it be a better place for everybody,” Mason said.
His strengths, he said, are innovative thinking, a proactive as opposed to reactive attitude, and his knowledge of government behind the scenes from his years of work.
“One of my strongest suits is that I listen to people and am open-minded,” Mason said. 
Residential and business redevelopment is the town’s biggest issue today, he said.
“There are a lot of empty storefronts. Lantana needs to be thinking toward the future of what are we going to do for sea level rise, where are we going to get our water from?”
Shropshire, 69, served on the council for one three-year term (2017-2020) but was defeated in his bid for re-election last year.
He is retired from Cemex building materials company, where he worked for 34 years.
“I am running so as to help chart Lantana’s course for the future,” he says.
One of his strengths, he said, is his “ability to present and communicate well-researched and locally focused ideas.”
Lantana’s biggest issue today is to preserve its small-town culture as the town continues to grow, Shropshire said.

Lynsey Kane, shown with Isla Cay, 1, and Bobby Jr., 4, two of her three children, is planning a Dec. 10 trip to bring supplies to Afghan refugees in Miami. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Joe Capozzi

Months before the people of Ocean Ridge’s Inlet Cay came to her aid, the 19-year-old Afghan woman and her family were trying to board an evacuation plane at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. A suicide bomb exploded, killing more than 180 people and injuring another 150. 
The woman and her family were not injured. But in the chaos, she and two brothers, ages 7 and 9, were separated from their parents. They were rushed with hundreds of other refugees onto the plane, which made a hasty departure that day in late August. 
The evacuation flight made it safely to the United States. Eventually, the girl and her brothers arrived at a Miami hotel being used to house Afghan refugees. 
One day in November, they met a kind stranger from Ocean Ridge.
Lynsey Kane, a stay-at-home mother of three, said she went to Miami that day as a volunteer with Church World Service, one of several agencies assisting Afghan refugees in the United States. 
Kane, whose father, Larry Petrie, served in the Air Force in the Middle East, said she was motivated to help after seeing news reports about the desperate scenes at the Kabul airport during the U.S. troop withdrawal.
Like others around the world, she said she was sickened by images of people clamoring on the runway, some clinging to the sides of airplanes taking off before falling to their deaths. 
“When I saw all of that online, I was beside myself,’’ said Kane, 30. “I felt compelled to get involved. I didn’t know exactly what to do, but I wanted to do something.’’ 
Through a family friend, she got connected with Church World Service and launched what she calls “a very grassroots” mission in Inlet Cay, the Ocean Ridge community where she and her husband have lived for the past 2½ years.
She packed her black Lincoln Navigator with donations of clothes, kitchen supplies and toys that she rustled from neighbors and drove it all to Miami.   
Kane, who has a sociology degree from the University of Florida and has worked with special needs children, said she met dozens of Afghans that day and was moved to tears listening to their stories. 
“I was expecting to drop off supplies and then when I went there, I was like, ‘This is going to be my mission,’’’ said Kane, whose husband, Bobby, is a shareholder at the law firm Greenberg Traurig.
Of all the Afghans she met, Kane said she made a special connection with the 19-year-old woman, whose father and uncle worked as translators supporting the U.S. military in Afghanistan. (Kane is withholding the woman’s identity for safety reasons.)  
“She’s the biggest reason I’m tied to this,’’ said Kane, who said the woman and her brothers haven’t seen their parents since the day of the bomb attack. 
“She speaks English. One of the most compelling things she said to me was that she wants to be a lawyer but the Taliban was preventing women from going to school. She said to me, ‘Nobody is going to stop me. Nobody is going to hold me back.’’’
Since that first trip, Kane has returned four more times, ferrying supplies and getting to know many of the refugees. She and her neighbors are collecting supplies for a large donation they plan to drive down in a rental truck on Dec. 10.
They’ve sent out an email blast to friends and neighbors in Ocean Ridge and have set up an Amazon wish list. (www.amazon.com/registries/custom/ENTNILVGRJWP/guest-view)
The Inlet Cay volunteers are no longer accepting clothes, she said. Now the biggest needs are home goods, kitchen items, furniture, and baby supplies such as formula. They also are seeking leads for affordable housing and volunteers to help teach English.

Inlet Cay neighbors assist
“As my mother always told me, ‘it would be a sin and a shame not to help someone in need,’’’ said Tim McKinney, an Inlet Cay resident who’s helping Kane. 
One of three small islands connected to the main part of Ocean Ridge by short bridges in the Intracoastal Waterway, Inlet Cay is a comfortable neighborhood of 65 homes, many of them million-dollar properties with boat docks on the water. 
Although Inlet Cay couldn’t be more different from Afghanistan, it’s also tight-knit and full of generous people who often band together to raise money and collect donations for charitable causes, McKinney said.
“It’s affluent in (prices of) homes, but it’s not affluent in the sense that the people here are humble and aware and good and conscientious and kind,’’ McKinney said. 
“I call it Gilligan’s Island. You know your neighbors like you don’t know them in any other community because there’s only one way in and one way out.’’ 
When Kane started collecting donations for the Afghans, McKinney was one of the first neighbors she contacted. 
“Lynsey breaks down when she talks about it. It’s heartbreaking to hear the descriptions she has shared from the Afghans about the separation and deprivation,’’ he said.
“She’s an amazing mom and still makes time to put her heart and soul out there, knocking on the doors and reaching out to neighbors to support these people who risked their lives to support our troops.’’
Kane said the outreach to her grassroots mission has gone beyond Ocean Ridge, thanks to social media postings.
A Jupiter woman with no connection to Kane saw a Facebook post about her mission, purchased boxes of formula, bottles, diapers and wipes and drove them to Ocean Ridge, she said.
“The response from the community has been heartwarming,” Kane said.

For information on how to donate items and get involved, contact Kane at 561-814-0180 or kanelynsey@gmail.com.

Related: Letter to the Editor: Pressing issues for Ocean Ridge

By Joe Capozzi

Just a few years after giving the Planning and Zoning Commission more power over development and architectural reviews, town commissioners last month debated whether the advisory board’s authority is slowing progress of new home construction in Ocean Ridge. 
Commissioner Steve Coz raised the concerns at a joint meeting of the advisory board and Town Commission on Nov. 18. In the resulting hourlong discussion, participants debated the definitions of the words “shall” and “should” in a town ordinance, passed in 2017 and amended in 2019, granting the review authority.
In the end, a consensus was reached that the Planning and Zoning board’s power is limited because the Town Commission still has final say on projects and builders still have the ability to appeal to the commission if they disagree with the advisory board’s decisions. 
But members of both commissions questioned if the debate was even necessary. 
“I’m a little confused about why we are here,’’ Mayor Kristine de Haseth said at the start of the discussion, noting how Coz was mayor in November 2017 when the commission passed the initial ordinance creating a development plan review committee made up of Planning and Zoning commissioners.
“I don’t disagree that every once in a while it’s good to take a look at our policy and procedures and see if they are working,’’ de Haseth said, “but at one point we obviously thought the (new ordinance) was a good idea.’’
Coz felt the discussion, at a time when new construction is booming across town, was necessary because he was concerned the committee in some cases was overstepping its authority.
“Personal opinion of the house design or the homeowner’s taste were not to be considered,’’ he said in a memo previewing the meeting agenda. “Over the course of the last few years it appears that the committee is entering into the troubled waters of personal taste.’’
Advisory board members said they’re only making sure new projects are compatible with the neighborhood. And Mark Marsh, chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission, pointed out that the Town Commission still has final say when homeowners appeal the advisory board’s decisions. 
But Town Commissioner Geoff Pugh said the appeal process comes with a $1,500 fee and presents another hurdle for homeowners.
“Everybody has their push point where they say, ‘You know what? Enough’s enough,’’’ Pugh said. 
Town Manager Tracey Stevens said town staff can look into the possibility of offering a partial refund on the fee if the Town Commission approves the appeal.

An unopposed victory
Coz will serve a third consecutive term on the Ocean Ridge Town Commission because no one filed to challenge him in the March election.
“The fact that I ran unopposed I hope shows that the residents like what I’ve stood for over the last several years,’’ said Coz, a proponent of private property rights.
The election qualifying deadline was 3 p.m. Nov. 12.

More than 5 inches of rain and annual king tides combined to make November a soggy month.

ABOVE: Workers from a condo construction site across the street from Briny Breezes remove sod from Briny Breezes Boulevard on Nov. 5. Earlier in the week workers put three pallets of sod on land that slopes down to the road, but heavy rains washed it onto the pavement, where it clogged drains. The road had to be closed. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

RIGHT: King tide flooding made a mess of A1A near Eau Palm Beach in Manalapan on Nov. 8. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Joe Capozzi

Briny Breezes Town Council members Kathy Gross and Christina Adams will serve new terms because they drew no opponents for the March election during the qualification period that ended Nov. 23.
But the future of Mayor Gene Adams is uncertain because of a technical error that disqualified him from running for a new term. 
The error? Adams made a check mark in a “No Party Affiliation” box on his campaign treasurer’s form — the same box he checked on the forms he submitted in his two previous successful campaigns as mayor.
The disqualification came as a surprise to Adams because he sat down with Town Clerk Sandi DuBose on Nov. 11, the first day of qualifying, to submit all of his paperwork.   
“It comes down to I didn’t complete all the paperwork because of that simple check box,’’ Adams told The Coastal Star. 
Why was it an error to check the box now when it wasn’t an error in the previous campaigns? 
Adams said part of the answer might be a recent move by the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections to take over Briny Breezes’ election process, as the county office has done with other municipalities. 
It was an SOE office employee who notified Adams that his paperwork had been disqualified because of the checked box. 
Adams also said DuBose told him she “did not know that box should not be checked when she and I went through the paperwork, so it’s a learning (process) for all of us.’’
Adams’ wife, Christina, also checked the “No Party Affiliation” box in error on her treasurer’s paperwork. She was notified before the filing deadline and was able to resubmit the paperwork without a check mark by the box.
The problem for Adams was that, in addition to resubmitting the treasurer’s form without a checked box, he also had to submit a new petition with 20 signatures of people supporting his mayorship. The petitions are required only for mayoral candidates, not council seats. 
Adams said he was out of town on business when he was notified of the error. While he would have been able to simply resubmit a form without a check mark on the fateful box, he said he was told the town charter requires him to file a petition with 20 new signatures, not the signatures from the petition he filed on Nov. 11.
Adams, a senior director for Target Stores, said he is helping his company gear up for the holiday sales rush. There was no way he could have gotten back to town to gather new signatures before the Nov. 23 filing deadline. 
The good news for Adams? No one else filed to run for mayor. As it stands now, his term will end in March. 
Then it will be up to the Town Council to appoint a new mayor — the same process that initially gave Adams the job in February 2019 after then-Mayor Roger Bennett died. 
“If the Town Council chooses me to return as mayor based on the technicality of that checked box, I’ll be there,’’ Adams said. “I feel like I’ve built credibility within Briny and hopefully the council will consider that. But at this time it’s ultimately going to be up to what process they take and who they appoint in March.’’
That process is expected to be discussed at the Town Council’s next meeting, Dec. 9. 
DuBose appears to have exacerbated the issue when she emailed town aldermen and officials Nov. 23 with the qualifying results in a short memo that had the sentence “Mayor — vacant.’’
That prompted several emails to Adams from people on the thread asking if he’d resigned.
Adams wrote back, “I am not stepping down, the current position of mayor is not vacant. I did not qualify for the upcoming election for the office of mayor. I am still in position.”
And Adams’ reply prompted a town attorney to ask those on the email “to refrain” from discussing the issue until the Dec. 9 meeting so they avoid possible Sunshine Law violations.

By Rich Pollack

John Shoemaker was pretty sure residents of Highland Beach would vote to support the town’s efforts to start a fire department when they went to the polls last month.
“I had a feeling from talking to residents and people in the condos,” said Shoemaker, a town commissioner. “I also had a feeling that we had all the bases covered” in explaining why a Highland Beach fire department was necessary.
Shoemaker was so confident residents would give the town the green light to spend up to $10 million to create the department that he predicted nine out of 10 voters would favor the proposal.
He came pretty close.
When all the votes were counted, the measure passed by just a shade off 89%, with a little more than 11% of close to 1,500 voters rejecting the idea and supporting the continuation of receiving fire rescue service from neighboring Delray Beach.
If he was taken aback by anything, Shoemaker says it was that the number of votes supporting the initiative wasn’t higher.
“I was surprised that we had over 150 people voting no,” he said. “There was no negative to this.”
Shoemaker said he suspects those who voted no are happy with the service they receive from Delray Beach and don’t see a need for change.
In fact, residents and even town leaders have had nothing but praise for the service they have received from Delray Beach over the years.
The issue, commissioners said, came down to money and control of costs.
For almost 30 years, Highland Beach has been receiving fire service from Delray Beach, which staffs the town’s fire station. In April, however, commissioners voted unanimously to end the agreement with Delray Beach and create a town-run fire department over a three-year period.
Mayor Doug Hillman and other commissioners have repeatedly said they believe the town can provide better service to residents at a lower cost than it is paying Delray Beach. 
They have pointed out that the new fire department will have two fire trucks and two rescue vehicles operating out of the station next to Town Hall as opposed to the one fire truck and one rescue vehicle currently at the station and staffed by Delray Beach.  
Town Manager Marshall Labadie said the passage of the referendum makes it possible for the staff to move forward with efforts to get the new department running.
“This gives us the appropriate funding mechanism to put a world-class fire department into operation,” he said.
When that does happen, Delray Beach will likely lose between $5 million and $6 million of annual revenue it receives from Highland Beach.
In addition, Delray Beach Fire Rescue will no longer be able to rely on firefighters working out of the Highland Beach station to respond to calls within the Delray Beach city limits unless an agreement can be worked out.
That has at least one Delray Beach commissioner concerned about the impact it will have on the city’s residents.
“The financial implications could be substantial and will ultimately fall on Delray Beach taxpayers,” Commissioner Juli Casale said.
In his Oct. 29 weekly update to commissioners, Delray Beach City Manager Terrence Moore said that the city would work to address “reallocation of resources” and other adjustments over the next two years.
“We are thankful for the ample amount of time available to work graciously and cordially with the town of Highland Beach to ensure a smooth transition,” he said.
Casale said she suspected all along that Highland Beach residents would vote in favor of creating a town-operated fire department.
“I wasn’t surprised by the vote in light of the information provided to residents,” she said.
In the weeks ahead of the referendum, Highland Beach launched an education campaign that included fliers, videos, website posts and even food truck events.
Hillman wasn’t surprised by the overwhelming support the initiative received but didn’t expect such a large turnout — 39% — given that no other issues were on the ballot. He said the town will continue communicating with residents as the fire department project develops.
Plans are in the works to send out a monthly update via direct mail and on the town website.
“This is a major step forward for our town and we need to supply residents with information,” the mayor said.

By Joe Capozzi

With a unanimous vote Nov. 29, the South Palm Beach Town Council extinguished the idea of including a fire station in plans for a new or renovated Town Hall. 
The vote was met with cheers from more than 20 residents who attended the meeting to voice their opposition to a fire station — an idea many of those same residents spoke against Nov. 4 at a charrette hosted by the architectural firm designing options for a new Town Hall.
At that session, councilman Mark Weissman indicated support for including a fire station at Town Hall to replace Palm Beach County Fire Rescue’s cramped station less than a mile down State Road A1A at Manalapan Town Hall.
But, three weeks later, Weissman voted against the idea.
“Quite honestly my goal was to put pressure on Manalapan. They need to do it,’’ he said in an interview after the Nov. 29 meeting, referring to renovation of the station. 
Something else happened in the weeks after the charrette that many residents believe influenced Weissman to change his stance: Weissman and councilman Bill LeRoy drew challengers during the qualifying period for the March 2022 election. 
The challengers, Monte Berendes and Cindy Furino, were among the residents who attended the Nov. 29 meeting.
“You want to get re-elected, don’t vote for it,’’ one resident yelled just before the council vote. 
Residents against the idea say a fire station in South Palm Beach would be too noisy and incompatible with the area. 
“Let’s put an end to this talk about a fire station. We don’t need it. We don’t want it,’’ Berendes said Nov. 4. “Amen,’’ replied many of the 30 residents at the meeting that day. 
On Nov. 29, Mayor Bonnie Fischer quickly doused the controversial idea before residents could say anything. 
“Out of respect to the public outcry,’’ she said, “I make a motion that accommodating fire rescue shall not be any part of a remodel or rebuild of our Town Hall.’’
When the motion passed unanimously a few seconds later, the crowd erupted in cheers. 
“A lot of people were confronting them with emails” in the weeks after the Nov. 4 meeting, said Kevin Hall, a resident and condo manager. “I believe they got the message.’’
Less-than-ideal conditions at the Manalapan station are prompting the county to explore options for a new location once fire rescue’s lease there expires in two years.  
On Nov. 4, Weissman had warned residents at the charrette that if South Palm Beach rejects a fire station, fire rescue’s “next move will be further south, further from us, further from when you need fire rescue.” 
“We have some control over that by saying, ‘How would you like to come here?’ This is a health and safety issue for all of us,’’ he said that day.
Many residents didn’t buy that argument and said Manalapan, with its wealthy tax base, should renovate its fire station. 
A fire rescue station in South Palm Beach would have required at least 10,000 square feet, about the same space occupied by the current Town Hall, which is on a narrow strip of land between two condominium buildings. 
That would have forced a Town Hall to be built vertically into a multistory building, similar to a previous architect’s plan for a $6 million five-story structure that was vehemently opposed by residents a few years ago as a grandiose “Taj Mahal.’’
Sirens and truck engines would also disrupt residents in condos next to Town Hall, said Berendes, who lives next door in The Brittany.
Ironically, the existing Town Hall’s first use was as a fire station in the 1970s, the first of “three generations” of improvements to the building, said Merrill Romanik, principal architect at Synalovski Romanik Saye, the firm hired for $63,000 to draw up options. 
“An addition in the ’90s brought the Town Hall functions. Then another addition expanded the meeting room spaces and the meeting room space we are sitting in today,’’ she said.  
The current Town Hall includes a substation for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, which replaced the town’s police department in 2019. PBSO will be included in a new Town Hall plan. 
Many residents who spoke at the charrettes favored a renovation of the existing facility or a limited expansion, including a one-story Town Hall elevated on stilts for protection against sea level rise. 
But others felt it was time for something new. 
“This building has been Scotch taped together,’’ said Richard Hegarty. “Times are changing. This isn’t the ’60s. It’s not the ’70s or the ’90s. We have to change with it ‘’  
The Town Council will have final say over what the new Town Hall will look like, a decision that will be made after SRS hosts more public input meetings in December and January. As of Nov. 29, there were no firm dates for those meetings.

In other business last month:
• Fischer said the new sand that was washed away from the town’s beachfront during king tides will eventually return to the shoreline.
“You’re all wondering where’s the sand and all the money we spent?’’ she said, referring to a recently completed $747,471 beach replenishment project.
“I can assure you the sand is still in the system. And that’s the most important thing,’’ she said. “Slowly you’ll see some sand coming back. It’s not going to be dramatic but the point is it’s there. I would expect some initial recovery within the next few weeks.’’
• The Town Council approved a program to pay the tax bills of qualified senior citizens in town, as part of the Palm Beach County Low-Income Senior Citizen Municipal Tax Exemption program. • The council voted to spend about $67,000 on 45 solar LED lights for town sidewalks.

South Palm Beach Mayor Bonnie Fischer will serve another term after no one filed to challenge her in the March 8 election. 
But council members Bill LeRoy and Mark Weissman will face challengers after two candidates filed papers by the Nov. 23 deadline: Monte Berendes and Cindy Furino. 
The top two vote-getters on March 8 will win council seats. They will be sworn into office with Fischer on March 15 to serve four-year terms, reflecting an amendment approved by voters in 2020 to increase the terms of mayor and council members from two to four years.
“I am very happy and humbled to serve another term as mayor. I have a lot more work to accomplish,’’ Fischer said.

— Joe Capozzi

Pat Schulmayr, a South Palm Beach resident for 36 years, relaxes in her condo. She was vice mayor for a few years about 20 years ago but is no longer politically active. ‘After being on the council it’s very difficult to sit in the audience,’ she says. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

In her 85 years here on Earth, South Palm Beach resident Pat Schulmayr has never had a hard time keeping busy.
In her younger years it was work, from becoming the secretary of the director of sales at NBC in New York City to secretary of the principal at the high school she attended in Amityville, New York.
Since she moved to South Palm Beach in 1985, it’s been more community activism, including serving as town councilwoman beginning in 2000, then spending four years as vice mayor until 2006.
“I’ve still got my Irish mouth going,” said Schulmayr, harkening back to her days growing up as Patricia Catherine McCarthy. “After being on the council it’s very difficult to sit in the audience.”
One of the topics that sparked Schulmayr’s ire was a proposal to build an expensive new firehouse in South Palm Beach. “The one we have now is two minutes away in Manalapan,” she said.
She’s also not happy that South Palm Beach eliminated its police force in favor of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
“The new council chose them because they didn’t want liability. Now they hide in the bushes, and I don’t know any of them. When we had our own police, they were wonderful because you knew everybody.
“When my late husband (Josef) was sick, they would come and take his blood pressure. And when I had kidney stones and was about to pass out, I opened the door and called 911 and the chief himself came and said, ‘Patricia, you never call 911 so I came.’ That’s the kind of police we had and now it’s gone.”
Married at 19 and later divorced to escape an abusive relationship, Schulmayr met her second husband at a church.
“I don’t know why I married Josef. He wasn’t a good dancer, and he didn’t tell jokes. But when I was up for the election, he took off work and was helping me. That’s the kind of person I never had with the first husband. I tell the young girls who pick on their husbands, don’t, because he’s accepting you for who you are.”
Schulmayr has four children: Susan, 65, who resides in New Jersey; Robert, 64, who followed Josef into the tile business and resides in Florida; Ross, 62, who splits time between a condo next door to hers and Queensbury, New York, and Patrick, 55, who lives in Amityville.

— Brian Biggane

Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A: I grew up in Massapequa, Long Island, but went by bus to the school in Amityville. I was very active in sports, was in Leaders Club. An opportunity came up in the form of a test to get a spot in the business school in New York City and I finished at the top in finger dexterity. So, I was in school and went to an interview at NBC dressed all in black on St. Patrick’s Day. The man interviewing me said, “Why is an Irish girl like you wearing all black?” I said, “Because my name is Irish enough,” and I got the job.
Then I was chosen to be secretary to the head of sales. I worked when I was 81/2 months pregnant, because I was making $90 a week, back in the ’50s, and my husband was making $40 working for the state of New York.
I loved working in the city, it was very educational. I got to know the actor Pat Harrington Jr. and went to parties where Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca would come. They were just wonderful people.

Q: What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: I enjoyed working. My mother was the postmistress in Massapequa so I would work in the post office at Christmastime. I also took the census. When my last child was in kindergarten, I went back to work at the high school, recording the children who came in tardy. The kids became my best friends; if the principal couldn’t handle them, he’d say, “Send them down to Pat.”
I had a falling out with one of the other employees, so I went to the grammar school, but when that person left, the vice principal asked me to come back and be his secretary and do the budget.
When I came here [to Florida] in 1982, I went to interviews all over and they told me I was overqualified. I was always working so I was bored out of my mind, but then I got elected to the Town Council in 2000. I had that for six years. My husband died in 2004. We had participated in everything together, and after he died it was so hard to do it again, so I didn’t.

Q: What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A: It’s very important that, if you start out in a career, don’t expect to move up right away, but pay attention and care about the company. Don’t do things for personal accomplishment, do it for the company. That’s how I did it for the condo when I was on the council.
The manager we have now gave me a police badge last Christmas and said, “How come you see all these things and these people don’t?”

Q: How did you choose to make your home in South Palm Beach?
A: We were living up in West Palm Beach in a house and we were told it would cost $75,000 to buy it, and when I went to the banks, they told us it was only worth $35,000 because of the neighborhood. So, I looked in the “Shiny Sheet.” I didn’t so much care for the building [we moved into], but I saw the garden in the back. Nobody has a garden like this. We had a nice garden up in Amityville and I did all the gardening, so we bought it because of that.

Q: What is your favorite part about living in South Palm Beach?
A: The beach across the street. I always used to walk every day on the beach, even in a winter coat if it was cold. I haven’t lately because of sciatica. I’m told it has a lot to do with being 85.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: I’m not right now. What I do every day, when I read the newspaper, I read the crossword puzzle. I started doing that when I lived in West Palm Beach and couldn’t get a job because I didn’t know anybody down here. But I like the crosswords because it really gets me when I can’t get a word.

Q: What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?
A: The only music I listen to is when I’m driving around doing errands. Then I listen to 100.3-FM. The guy who sold me my car, a 2018 Ford Fusion, told me the station was all music from the past, Frank Sinatra and all that. So, I keep it on that station.

Q: Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A: After I got divorced and was in my early 30s, I was working for a principal at the school, and he told me to go see a psychiatrist to deal with the trauma. I went, told her what I was upset about, and she told me she wouldn’t charge me for the visit because I knew how to deal with it.

Q: If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?
A: An old friend, we went to grammar school and high school together, she lives in California, and they have a winery. Gail Haladay, now she’s Gail Laird. She was an actress in our school plays. She would do a good job.

Q: Is there something people don’t know about you but should?
A: I was very active in school and was named Miss Personality in the yearbook, but I still didn’t have the self-confidence people thought I had until I got that job with NBC. Even though I had the big mouth, it wasn’t until I had that job that I got the self-confidence people thought I had.

By Steve Plunkett

Among the new faces in town briefly this fall were four police officers, the result of a three-month hiring spree by Police Chief Edward Allen.
“We do have a full staff on board at this time,” Allen told Gulf Stream’s Town Commission on Nov. 12. “It actually feels good to be able to fill the position and have enough people to make it work.”
But shortly after Allen’s announcement, Jesus “Al” Moreno, one of the new officers, resigned after not quite four months on the job.
The latest hire is Michael Balak, 30, who joined the force on Oct. 26. Balak became the Police Department’s elusive 13th officer, a position the commission authorized in September 2020 but was filled for only a week that November and for several weeks this November because of employee turnover.
Balak, who spent two years as a Manalapan officer and five with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, also holds the distinction of being Gulf Stream’s youngest town employee, displacing Assistant Town Attorney Trey Nazzaro. Nazzaro is 39; Balak is 30.
The other new officers are Michael LeStrange, a 39-year veteran of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office hired Oct. 5; and Robert Coppin, a 30-year veteran of the Riviera Beach Police Department hired July 12.
Coppin took the spot of Marshall Felter, who left in May after five years with the department. Moreno and LeStrange replaced Ramon Batista, who retired in July after five years with the department, and Christopher Fahey, who moved in July to the Palm Beach County School District.
Fahey’s departure to the school police force was foreshadowed in 2019 when Town Manager Greg Dunham was authorized to give all the officers a $3,750 pay raise to keep Gulf Stream competitive with other coastal towns. Dunham said at the time that a 150-officer hiring blitz by the school district was making it difficult to attract qualified job applicants.
“Most of them … would be more interested in going to the school board — you don’t work nights, you don’t work summertime — and so I think that’s what’s happening,” Dunham said at the time.
Having a 13th officer means three cruisers can be on patrol at the same time instead of two.
LeStrange and Balak joined the department after their new co-workers voted to unionize in late August and early September. The Police Benevolent Association of Palm Beach County will hold collective bargaining negotiations with the town’s outside labor attorney on Jan. 11.
Dunham said the town had hoped officers would decide they did not need the union’s help.
“The town and our commission value the close relationship we have with our Police Department and we were concerned that a union could cause a loss of personal communication due to officers having to go through a union steward,” he said.
In other town business Nov. 13, Dunham said he was concerned that Florida Power & Light might not be able to remove electric poles until too close to Christmas and New Year’s. If the timing works out that way, Dunham said he would have FPL reschedule the work for January.
Removing the poles is the final step in Gulf Stream’s drawn-out utility-burying project.

By Steve Plunkett

A woman from Boca Raton has been charged with pilfering $650,000 in high-value handbags, jewelry and furs from a home in Gulf Stream.
Liliana Vargas, 31, received only $100,000 for the goods via a Delray Beach consignment shop, she told police.
She is scheduled to appear at the Palm Beach County Courthouse in West Palm Beach at 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 9 after posting a $35,000 bond. Vargas, who gave a Boca Raton address but also has a driver’s license with an Inglewood, California, address, faces charges of grand larceny, dealing in stolen property and communications fraud.
According to the report filed by Gulf Stream police Sgt. Bernard O’Donnell, the victim, whose name was redacted, left her Gulf Stream home on June 12 to spend the summer at her home in New Jersey. When she returned to Gulf Stream on Oct. 27 she discovered her loss.
O’Donnell and Officer Randy Wilson met with the victim along with her family members, her personal security protection employee, her Gulf Stream housekeeper and Vargas on Oct. 29, the report said.
Vargas, whose relationship to the victim was also redacted, “asked if she could speak with (redacted) privately. During their private conversation Ms. Vargas admitted that she was responsible for the theft of the victim’s property,” it said.
On a body-camera recording soon afterward she confessed to taking 11 handbags, O’Donnell reported. Vargas voluntarily came to the Police Department on Nov. 3 and admitted to stealing additional handbags, he said. She was arrested that day and taken to the Palm Beach County Jail.
The owner of the consignment shop told police that she had an “ongoing customer relationship” with Vargas and that Vargas had been paid for the handbags either in cash or through wire transfers via cellphone apps.

OCEAN RIDGE — Hermann Frederick Ernest Schuster IV of Ocean Ridge and Sapphire Valley, North Carolina, died Nov. 21 at the family home here, following a long illness. He was 51.
Mr. Schuster was born Nov. 9, 1970. He attended St. Vincent Ferrer School in Delray Beach from kindergarten through eighth grade, and graduated from Pope John Paul II High School in Boca Raton. He received a bachelor of science cum laude from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and later a doctoral fellowship in biology at Stanford University.
He is survived by his parents, Frederick and Elizabeth Schuster of Ocean Ridge, and one sister, Hilary Schuster-Sama of Delray Beach.
A funeral Mass was celebrated Nov. 29 at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church, Delray Beach. Entombment followed at Our Lady Queen Of Peace Mausoleum, 10941 Southern Blvd., Royal Palm Beach.

—Obituary submitted by the family

Related Story: Old School Square announces new chair, board members

By Jane Smith

The city and the managers of the Old School Square Center for the Arts Inc. are parting ways. The only question remaining is when.
The separation between the city and the nonprofit group that has managed the historic site for more than three decades has been far from amicable.
On Nov. 5, Delray Beach held a mandatory walk-through for potential bidders to manage the site. OSS managers declined to participate. Instead, they filed a 42-page lawsuit against the city, three city commissioners, the city attorney and two former OSS managers — Joy Howell and Shannon Eadon.
The lawsuit alleged city officials “conspired” to wrest the contract from the board as well as breached the lease held by OSS managers.
The city did not allow the OSS managers to remove their equipment, stopped the renovation of the Crest Theatre building and failed to allow them “to quietly hold, occupy and enjoy the premises,” according to the lawsuit.
Commissioner Juli Casale said that the claims against her and two other commissioners to terminate the lease were “groundless. The claim against us for conspiring falls short because you cannot conspire to commit a lawful act.”
Mayor Shelly Petrolia and Commissioner Shirley Johnson declined to comment.
Contenders to manage the facility included representatives of several entertainment industry heavyweights. Bids for the “invitation to negotiate,” a procurement process that allows the city to enter discussions with developers, are due Dec. 18.

Problems identified
The City Commission voted 3-2 on Aug. 10 to terminate the lease, giving the OSS managers 180 days to leave.
The reasons cited included the absence of or problems with financial and diversity documents, outside audits and other paperwork requirements added to the lease in 2016. The financial documents also are required by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to get funding.
Delray Beach taxpayers own the nearly 4-acre campus, which is deed restricted. It must remain an arts and cultural center. If it doesn’t, the property reverts to the Palm Beach County School District. On Oct. 8, the city sent a default notice to the OSS managers’ attorney, giving the nonprofit organization 30 days to fix four problems. One required finishing the million-dollar Crest Theatre building renovations within 30 days.
To ensure the city complied with its lease terms with the OSS managers, City Manager Terrence Moore had a new notice of default hand-delivered on Nov. 16 to the nonprofit. Holland Ryan, the chief operating officer of OSS, signed for the organization. Ryan resigned his position on Nov. 18.
That gives OSS managers until Dec. 16 to fix the problems and if they do not comply, the city can order them to vacate the campus within 15 days.
The OSS managers continue to appeal to city residents through social media and by holding semi-monthly free concerts on the Pavilion stage. The next concerts are scheduled for Dec. 9 and 16. These feature tribute bands of nationally known music acts.
In late September, OSS managers abruptly canceled events in the Field House and on its grounds, prompting the nonprofit show organizers and families hosting weddings and bar mitzvahs to appeal to the City Commission for help.
Danielle Pearson, the city’s Parks and Recreation events coordinator, stepped up to allow the events to continue. She was honored as employee of the month at the Nov. 16 City Commission meeting, and got eight hours off with pay.
OSS publicist Carli Brinkman explained the disconnect between the two scenarios.
“The free concert series is 100% fully funded by community and sponsor support,” Brinkman wrote in a Nov. 16 email. “The canceled events you reference did not have the financial support required to carry out, as the CRA had not released the more than $560,000 in funds owed for a grant that is paid in arrears and was slated to support many of the previously budgeted events and programming on the OSS schedule.”

Search draws interest
Also on Nov. 16, city commissioners voted 4-1 to hire attorney Howard DuBosar, of the Weiss Serota law firm, to represent the three commissioners and City Attorney Lynn Gelin. Adam Frankel voted no because he wanted to put conditions on the representation.
The city received an extension to file its response by Dec. 9.
As of press time, no response was filed by the three city commissioners, the city attorney, a former OSS board chair or its former chief executive officer.
Howell, who resigned from the volunteer board chair’s position in April after serving barely three months, hired attorney Michael Monteverde from Fort Lauderdale to represent her.
“I’ve been an OSS supporter, art student and volunteer. I was elected chair of the board for my business skills,” Howell wrote in a Nov. 21 email to The Coastal Star. “As chair, I identified what I believed to be financial and operations issues and tried to get the Executive Board to address them. They chose not to do so while I was there, so I chose to leave. Now I’m being sued. Like myself, almost half the volunteer board in place earlier this year resigned.”
Eadon, a former CEO of Old School Square, and Gelin could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, the city continues its search for a new manager for its OSS campus.
Representatives of AEG, Spectra and VenuWorks were among those at the Nov. 5 tour, as was Kolter Hospitality of Delray Beach. 
Spectra provides venue management for the Palm Beach County Convention Center. 
Under the AEG Presents brand, AEG claims to be the world’s second-largest presenter of live music and entertainment events after Live Nation.
VenuWorks, based in Iowa, manages public facilities nationwide.

Old School Square Center for the Arts Inc. has appointed Patty Jones, a Delray Beach resident and longtime volunteer, its new chair and named new members to the nonprofit’s board of directors.
Board members appointed are Jeff Perlman, former city mayor and executive vice president of CDS International Holdings; Paul Zacks, former Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency board member and former chairman of both the city’s Planning & Zoning Board and the Board of Adjustment; Elise Nail, former OSS board chair and owner of Putt’n Around Delray Beach; Joe Gillie, former OSS president and CEO; James Chard, former city commissioner and a management executive; Gregg Weiss, business owner and community advocate; Connor Lynch, third-generation CEO of family-owned Plastridge Insurance; Scott Porten, former chairman of the OSS board; Cynthia Ridley, community volunteer and outreach coordinator for such organizations as CROS Ministries and MAD DADs of Greater Delray Beach; Noreen Payne, Realtor at Lang Realty and active Delray Beach resident, and Malik Ramelize, lawyer and social justice advocate.
The new board will pursue the OSS lawsuit against the city after the city ended the lease last summer, according to a release announcing the appointments.

— Staff report

Box key:
AMI: Boynton Beach Area Median Income ($65,182). Renderings provided

By Larry Barszewski

Boynton Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency selected a Fort Lauderdale firm that had strong support from local businesses to develop a new project on land it owns or plans to purchase on the west side of Federal Highway between Ocean Avenue and Boynton Beach Boulevard.
City commissioners, in their role as the CRA’s governing board, selected Affiliated Development on Nov. 30 as their top choice to build a mixed-use project that includes apartments, a parking garage and restaurant, retail and office space.
If negotiations fall through with Affiliated, commissioners said they would try to reach a deal with Miami-based Related Urban, which ranked second of the five groups presenting proposals to commissioners.
Affiliated had the backing of Kim Kelly, owner of Hurricane Alley Raw Bar & Restaurant, whose Ocean Avenue site is included in the project. The Affiliated proposal would move Hurricane Alley to the north end of the project on Boynton Beach Boulevard.
That site would give Hurricane Alley a two-floor indoor restaurant, an expanded outdoor dining area and space for a “beer garden” area between the restaurant and a new public parking garage.
The Affiliated proposal would put freestanding restaurant and retail buildings on Ocean Avenue where Hurricane Alley now stands, surrounding the buildings with more open space and pedestrian-friendly areas.
Commissioner Christina Romelus, who ranked Related Urban first but supported the Affiliated decision, said she liked that Related’s workforce housing lasted in perpetuity, while Affiliated’s was for only a 15-year period. Commissioners agreed they would like to see if Affiliated can work a longer-term workforce housing element into its proposal.
The work Affiliated did meeting with community members helped win over the commissioners.
“They didn’t talk about building a relationship with the community. They had already done that,” Commissioner Ty Penserga said.
Affiliated named its project The Pierce after the historical Barefoot Mailman, Charlie Pierce, who was from Boynton Beach.

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By Jane Smith

The Boynton Beach lawsuit against its private developer in the Town Square project is headed to a nonjury trial in the spring of 2022.
The city received a trial date range between March 14 and April 22, according to an Oct. 29 court filing. The start date will be set on March 4.
Mediation talks reached an impasse, according to a Sept. 14 court filing.
Boynton Beach is asking a judge to decide whether it met obligations in a March 2018 agreement with JKM Developers of Boca Raton.
Under terms of the agreement, even if the city wins, JKM will still own the land.
The city gave three parcels of land to JKM for the Town Square project. The firm also received nearly $2 million in cash for undefined “considerations,” according to the March 2018 agreement.
The city had an options clause in the agreement that allowed it to buy back the land for $100 a parcel. After JKM received city approval for its site plans in December 2018, the options clause was removed during negotiations between JKM’s attorneys and the city attorney.
Boynton Beach, though, was promised two garages to provide parking for its staff, library workers and patrons, and visitors to its renovated historic high school and Schoolhouse Children’s Museum.
JKM has allowed Boynton Beach to park cars on the Town Square land the firm owns, according to a deal worked out by a former assistant city manager, Colin Groff.
The city spent nearly $150,000 for attorneys’ fees and expenses as of Sept. 30. In the spring of 2021, the city attorney’s office hired the Jones Foster law firm of West Palm Beach to help with the litigation.
At the Nov. 4, 2020, Boynton Beach Commission meeting, City Attorney James Cherof estimated the lawsuit would cost between $10,000 and $20,000 to initiate. If the city wins, it will seek repayment of the attorney fees, Cherof said at the meeting.
Town Square is an ambitious private-public partnership between the city and its Community Redevelopment Agency and private developers. The 16.5-acre area sits between Boynton Beach Boulevard and Southeast Second Avenue.
The original plans called for the $250 million Town Square to have a mix of municipal buildings and privately developed apartment buildings, a hotel, restaurants and shops. The city’s share is slightly more than $118 million.

The swimming pool, tiki hut bar and cluster of small buildings are part of Crane’s character. Menin Development, the new owner, has no plans to change that. Photo provided

By Christine Davis

While the management will remain the same, the owners are new at Crane’s Beach House Boutique Hotel & Luxury Villas in Delray Beach.
Delray Beach-based Menin Development bought the property for $10 million from the Crane family on Nov. 3, according to the South Florida Business Journal.
Northeast Bank provided financing to the privately funded acquisition. 
The sale will carry no disruption to the guest experience or bookings, and Cathy Balestriere, the hotel’s longtime general manager, will remain at the helm, according to a news release.
“It’s going to be a great thing, and I’m very excited,” Balestriere said. “It will be different from a family-run business, but I think being part of the Menin team and its vision is one of the best things for us to do as a smaller hotel to enhance” the guest experience.
Craig Menin, chief executive officer of Menin Development, says he is pleased with the acquisition.
“We have inherited a substantial resort with a very personal aesthetic and a loyal following with the addition of Crane’s Beach House Boutique Hotel and Luxury Villas to the Menin Development portfolio,” he said. “At this point we do not have any plans for any immediate renovations or changes to the property.”
Former owner Michael Crane says: “It’s been nothing short of a dream to have had the opportunity to build Crane’s into the beautiful, tropical paradise that it is today. … Anyone who has stepped foot inside Crane’s knows it is a very special place, and that is why I am entrusting the Menin team to take the torch from here.”

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An oceanfront estate at 855 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach, owned by Charles H. Johnson as trustee of the Florida TBF Revocable Trust, sold for $34 million, double his purchase price in 2009. The sale was recorded Oct. 20.
The buyer is 855 South Ocean Boulevard, a Delaware LLC. With five bedrooms and almost 20,000 square feet sited on 1.3 acres with 125 feet of oceanfront, the home was listed Oct. 4 for $34.95 million, according to realtor.com. Nick Malinosky, an agent with Douglas Elliman, represented both the buyer and seller.

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The former chairman of Envision Healthcare, William Sanger, and his wife, Janice, purchased an eight-bedroom, 25,834-square-foot mansion at 418 N. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach, for $33 million. The sale was recorded Nov. 15.
“It was the second-highest recorded sale for a residential property in Delray Beach, and the top sale for a home not on the waterfront, ever,” said Cole Leavitt, broker and CEO of the Boca Raton-based CPRE Organization, who represented the Sangers. “It’s actually three contiguous parcels directly across the street from the beach.”
Jack Elkins, of Jack Elkins Real Estate, represented the seller, which is listed in public records as 502 N. Ocean Blvd. LLC, managed by Carolyn Nachmias of Riverton, New Jersey. This limited liability company bought the estate from actor Kevin James in 2016 for $26,375,000.

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Swinton Social, an indoor/outdoor restaurant project at 27 S. Swinton Ave. and 104 SE First St., Delray Beach, broke ground after developer Icon Realty Capital obtained a $10.8 million construction loan. Davie-based CCHC Fund II provided the mortgage to Icon Development Holdings II LLC, which, according to public records dated Nov. 11, acquired the property from BBC Holdings LLC for $5,287,500.
Both Icon Development Holdings II and BBC Holdings LLC are managed by Anthony D. Shafer, the managing principal of Manalapan, New Jersey-based Icon Realty Capital.
According to newspaper reports, the project will have 8,702 square feet under air, a 100-foot pool, several Jazuzzis, two outdoor bars and event space. The general contractor is Pompano Beach-based Cannatelli Builders and construction is estimated to be completed in 16 months.

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The real estate agency Douglas Elliman Inc. has laid plans to split from its parent company, Vector Group, to become its own publicly traded entity on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol DOUG.
In a Nov. 8 statement, Vector Group President and CEO Howard M. Lorber, who also serves as president and CEO of Douglas Elliman Inc., said the split would benefit both companies.
“With a leading luxury brand and a comprehensive suite of technology-enabled services and investments, Douglas Elliman is well positioned to capitalize on opportunities in the large and growing U.S. residential real estate market,” Lorber said. “Following the spinoff, Vector Group’s separate tobacco and real estate businesses will be better positioned to execute their strategic plans.”
Completion of the transaction is subject to various conditions, and if all conditions are met, the spinoff is on track for completion late this year.

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Delray Beach-based Kaufman Lynn Construction received awards from the Florida East Coast Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors during an Oct. 22 event in Aventura. Winning projects included the Jupiter police headquarters, which won the Eagle Award, Government and Municipality, $15 million to $25 million; Mareas at Botanica, which won the Eagle Award, Multifamily Housing, $30 million to $50 million; Waterline Miami River, which won the Eagle Award, Multifamily Housing, $50 million to $100 million; and The Rise Plantation, which won the Pyramid Award, Multifamily Housing, $30 million to $50 million.

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Erin L. Deady, a licensed attorney in Florida and a certified land planner by the American Institute of Certified Planners, recently completed the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce Leadership Delray program. 
“Leadership Delray exists through the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce to ensure the continuity of community leaders who can mobilize others to action, who know the value of relationships and make the commitment to lead,” said Stephanie Immelman, the chamber CEO.

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Thierry Chrispin opened his insurance business, Brightway/The Chrispin Agency, 100 E. Linton Blvd., Suite 109-B, Delray Beach, in November. 
Chrispin comes to Brightway with more than 10 years of sales experience. He graduated from Keiser University in West Palm Beach with an accounting and finance degree. A Haitian-American, Chrispin is bilingual.
Brightway/The Chrispin Agency offers customized home, flood, auto, boat, condo and umbrella insurance policies from numerous brands. Brightway is a national property/casualty insurance distribution company.
For more information, visit www.BrightwayChrispin.com or call 561-232-2050.

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The Commonwealth Institute has launched its Women’s Leadership Development in Florida 2021 Impact Study, sponsored by Florida Blue, Kaufman Rossin and PNC Bank.
“Our overall goal is keeping a spotlight on the state of women’s leadership, providing businesses with insights and programs that will inform employers on how to effectively allocate resources and programs to retain and advance women,” said TCI-Florida Executive Director Jacqui Kiviat. Businesses interested in participating in the online survey can access it at https://commonwealthinstitute.org/programs-events/florida-impact-study/. The deadline to participate is Dec. 17. 

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William A. Cunningham III and Elyse Duff, real estate agents with Coldwell Banker, created a toy drive to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County. Photo provided

Elyse Duff and William A. Cunningham III, real estate agents with The Starboard Group at Coldwell Banker at 1185 E. Atlantic Ave. Delray Beach, have launched a toy drive for the second straight year to benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County. This year the Starboard Group is the principal sponsor.
Each business sponsor will have a box near its front entrance for donations for unwrapped new toys. Youths most in need are ages 10-18, according to the Boys and Girls Clubs.
Sponsors include Elite Metals, Sunbelt Title, DJ Akib, Jamie’s Convenience Store, Vic & Angelo’s, Atoll, Bar 25, Turn 3 Sports Bar, Eyes in the Sky, SMR, O’Connor’s Pub, Florida Craft Distributors, Get Fit, Bright Spot Pressure Cleaning, Florida Home Loans, Coral Cove, David Mancini & Sons, Celsius, Copper Blues, Honey, Three Guys Roofing, Delray Beach Boxing, Salt7, Fire Island Beach House, Subculture, Dontee’s Diner, IG Filtration, Delray Beach Chamber, Coldwell Banker, Greene Construction Group, Melly Hair Studio, Dream Cars, Salty Dog Pet Grooming, Old School Square, South Palm Beach Dart League, Casa L’Acqua, Delray Beach CRA, Tree Froggie, 1-Stop Home Inspections, Tipperary Pub, My Sister’s Closet, Salty Paws, Sazio, Medcann, Matador Pest Control, Fight PFC, Hawkers, Delray Hideaway, Josie’s Ristorante, Coco & Co., Tin Roof, La Cigale, Tabañero Hot Sauce, Caffe Luna Rosa, GL Homes, El Camino, Cut 432, Periwinkle, Park Tavern, Tootsies, Billy Babies and CDS International Holdings.
Duff and Cunningham plan to host benefit parties at their office at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 11 and at the Delray Beach Market at 2 p.m. Dec. 12. The public is invited to bring toys to the events. For more information, call Duff at 631-275-7382 or Cunningham at 561-856-7982.

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A few new places of business popped up in Delray Beach in November, according to the Downtown Development Authority. They included Royal Bee at 413 E. Atlantic Ave., Holey Donuts at 1215 E. Atlantic Ave., and Coco Sushi Lounge & Bar at 25 NE Second Ave. Also projected to open are Playa Bowls at 1034 E. Atlantic Ave. and Koko Shoes at 1049 E. Atlantic Ave.

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FAU’s Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center has been working to create a consortium to develop the power of the Gulf Stream as a renewable energy source. The Gulf Stream, unlike waves, provides constant movement, making it a 24/7 resource.
Inspired by the Gulf Stream’s potential, OceanBased Perpetual Energy LLC of Miami successfully tested in 2020 an offshore turbine for 24 hours. Following that success, Lake Worth Beach expressed interest in “moving the ball forward,” said Gabriel Alsenas, manager of FAU’s Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center.
Alsenas explained that the Miami company and the town began informal discussions, with the firm putting in the offshore infrastructure, and Lake Worth providing the connection to shore.
“However, Lake Worth would also like to ensure that the supportive efforts and investments coming in would not just profit one or two companies, but would also provide economic prosperity for the region and the city,” he said.
FAU has begun to prioritize seeking federal funds for marine renewable projects.
“Hopefully this legislative year,” Alsenas said, “we’ll get funds to start the permitting to put a smaller cable from the utility on shore out to the Gulf Stream, so that companies can connect smaller turbines to start getting some preliminary results.”
FAU is also looking to leverage funds from the new infrastructure package, which includes language for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Marine Renewable Energy Centers.
And the federal Economic Development Administration is trying to promote the growth of new economic clusters, so in early November the FAU center and Lake Worth put in an application to build a Blue Energy Innovation Cluster in Southeast Florida.
“If we can establish an innovation cluster in mid-Palm Beach County — that checks all the boxes,” Alsenas said.

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

Spaces at Mounts Botanical Garden offer inspiration for gardeners and nature lovers. Coastal Star file photos

A holiday guide worthy of two green thumbs-up from gardeners and nature lovers

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley

Nature has helped many of us cope with coronavirus pandemic restrictions over the past two years. Your physical and spiritual renewal may have come when you stepped into the backyard to get your hands dirty, wandered a park path or simply opened a book about the birds and the bees.
And now that it’s the holidays, you may want to make communing with nature an important part of your gift giving. To get you thinking, here are some suggestions:
Art Lovers: For those who want to combine Mother Nature’s and man’s works of art in one gift, you might facilitate a prepaid visit to a venue that includes indoor as well as outdoor art exhibits.
The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach not only houses an indoor art collection, it also features a “museum in a garden.” Sculptures are placed in outdoor galleries filled with plants that complement the artwork. Mother Nature’s works include a collection of native palm trees.
Reserved-time entry tickets can be ordered and prepaid online (general admission $18, www.Norton.org).

Treat that special someone to a day of art in the garden. Sculptures are placed in outdoor galleries filled with plants that complement the artwork at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach.

When you start to tire, The Restaurant at the Norton is a great place to get a bite with a view of the gardens. To include luncheon with your gift recipient’s visit, call The Restaurant at 561-268-0500 for reservations and to arrange payment.
Or try the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens (www.ansg.org). Also in West Palm Beach, it is housed in sculptor Ann Norton’s historic home and on the surrounding property. Your recipient can view more than 100 of her works, including nine monumental sculptures displayed outdoors among 250 varieties of palm trees and cycads.
To arrange for a prepaid admission ticket to be waiting, call the museum (561-832-5328; adult admission $15).

The zen garden at the Morikami offers a place for reflection.

Another venue to consider is the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach (www.Morikami.org; adult admission $15). Your recipients will feel more like they have been whisked away to Asia rather than just visiting a museum.
Here they can immerse themselves in six distinct gardens inspired by significant landscapes in Japan. These include the Shin-Den garden, Paradise garden and Hiraniwa Flat Garden.
And if you want to provide a lunch break, the Cornell restaurant is ready to serve a Pan-Asian meal on the museum grounds.
To arrange a visit as a gift, call the museum (561-495-0233) and request an admissions gift certificate. If you are including lunch, the desk can transfer you to the Cornell Café where you will need to request a separate certificate.
Tell the café that you are also purchasing an admissions certificate and the two will be mailed together either to yourself or directly to the recipient, whichever you prefer.
Botanic break: For someone who likes to make regular visits to a garden, consider giving a membership to the 14-acre Mounts Botanical Garden in West Palm Beach (www.mounts.org; tax-deductible memberships start at $50 for one year).
You’ll be providing year-round access to Mounts’ 25 garden areas, including a rose and fragrance garden, a tranquility garden and a dry stream-bed garden.
A perk you get with membership is participation in the Reciprocal Admissions Program of the American Horticultural Society. It provides free access to 340 gardens nationwide.
In fact, you may want to check out RAP as an alternative gift idea. If you join the AHS (https://ahsgardening.org, starting at $35), you get direct access to the gardens nationwide plus other perks.
Pack a picnic: To make your gift a little more personal, plan a picnic and enjoy it with the recipient in a garden. We recommend two parks that have free admission and encourage people to bring meals.
In fact, the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach (www.fourarts.org) highly recommends that you bring lunch.
Here, your dining venue might be the 2.2-acre Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden or the Four Arts Botanical Gardens. Besides seeing artworks from the permanent collection, you can visit a variety of garden “rooms” that demonstrate what can be done with landscaping in our climate.
Or visit Pan’s Garden, which is part of the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach (www.palmbeachpreservation.org). It is known for its native plants as well as its namesake bronze statue of Pan of Rohallion.
Set in a fountain near the entrance to the garden, Pan welcomes you as well as the many birds and butterflies that make this well-curated native landscape their home.
Of course, picnickers are welcome only as long as they clean up after their meals.

Dig this: To any friends or family who like to get outside and dig in the dirt, you might give a native plant. And to make your gift more personal, offer to help plant it.
A native plant is a gift that keeps on giving by requiring little maintenance and attracting more wildlife than exotic varieties do.
For example, dune sunflowers, which are particularly suited to the coastal clime, attract birds, moths and bees; beautyberry’s bright purple fruit brings in over 40 species of birds including woodpeckers and mockingbirds.
You can find a good selection at local native nurseries including Meadow Beauty Nursery (www.meadowbeautynursery.com), Amelia’s Smarty Plants (www.amelias-smartyplants.com) plus Indian Trails Native Nursery (https://indiantrails.vpweb.com), all in Lake Worth; or Native Choice Nursery (www.nativechoicenursery.com) in Boynton Beach.
The owners are knowledgeable and can help with your selection, making sure the plants can withstand the coastal elements of sand, wind and salt. Check online for hours and the need for an appointment.
DIY: For the avid gardener as well as the beginner, give a must-have garden tool. We can personally recommend any of the many types of clippers made by Felco. These red-handled precision tools are well-constructed and designed to make trimming your greenery easier.
Although the whole line of clippers is designed for comfortable use, you can purchase ergonomically correct models too.
For those who tackle big jobs, you might select a ratcheted lopper. The ratchet mechanism clicks each time you close the handles, increasing the mechanical pressure on whatever you are cutting. This provides much more power than the scissor-like variety.
I find that the gear on my Fiskars brand loppers allows me to cut small tree and bush trunks of soft wood that are 4 inches thick.

Native license plate: The Florida Native Plant Society, with a chapter in Palm Beach County, has worked with the state to make a native license plate available for the first time this year.
The “Florida Native” plate was designed by Peter Agardy and features a wooded scene fashioned entirely from Florida native plants. Agardy is a fourth-generation Floridian known in the tri-county area for his nature paintings and outdoor murals.
A voucher for the license plate costs $34 and can be bought at any Florida county tax collector’s office or at www.floridanativelicenseplate.com, where it’s set up to let you purchase a voucher as a gift.
As soon as 3,000 vouchers have been sold, the plates will be printed and each buyer will receive a new license plate.
Of course, your gift also will help fund FNPS in its mission to bring more native plants to Florida landscapes.

Put up your feet: For people who prefer to read about gardening or want information they can use to create their own backyard masterpieces, plenty of books are available for giving.
You might select A Gardener’s Guide to Florida’s Native Plants (2001; $19.99 list) by Rufino Osorio. One local reader and avid gardener describes it as “a great book written by a Palm Beach County resident, well-illustrated and in simple terms.”
If that doesn’t suit, there’s University of Delaware entomology professor Douglas W. Tallamy’s newest book, Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard (2020; $29.95 list).
Both in his lectures that I’ve attended and his book, he explains how you can become nature’s best hope for survival by filling your yard with native plants that help create a conservation corridor protecting wildlife.
Remember that date: Photographer Irma Hale — whose father, Reuben Hale, was a prominent West Palm Beach sculptor and whose mother, Marie Hale, was an artistic director of Ballet Florida in West Palm Beach — has created a 2022 calendar.
“Garden Delights” celebrates beautiful blooms and can be purchased for $18.99 at www.irmahalephotography.com.
Spa essentials: Pamper your gift recipient with boutique beauty products compounded from botanicals. Plants used in these might include sunflower, an emollient and skin conditioner; the soothing and healing chamomile; and avocado, which acts as an antioxidant.
Some spas provide botanical treatments and products, or you can buy them online, where you’ll also find recipes for making your own.
Good at any age: For access to an indoor activity with an outdoor theme, give a jigsaw puzzle depicting the great outdoors.
This time of year, puzzles with snow-covered evergreens and holiday bedecked gardens make for great gifts and family activities.
In general, the greater the number of pieces, the more difficult the puzzle and the more space it probably will require to assemble. Springbok is my puzzle brand of choice for its high quality and challenging piece design.
We hope that during this holiday season, when you get together with nature-loving family and friends, these ideas will facilitate meaningful gift giving. But remember, Mother Nature bestows her gifts on anyone who just goes outdoors.

You can reach Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley at debhartz@att.net.