A concrete reef dart plunges into 500 feet of water off Palm Beach Inlet on Oct. 22. The 40 reef darts — concrete poles on heavy bases — added by the West Palm Beach Fishing Club bring the total to 110 at the deep artificial reef site. Photo provided by West Palm Beach Fishing Club

By Willie Howard

The West Palm Beach Fishing Club expanded its deep artificial reef project in October with the addition of 40 “reef darts,” or concrete poles on heavy bases, placed in 500 feet of water east of Palm Beach Inlet.
The additions bring to 110 the number of darts placed at the artificial reef site since the fishing club began the project in 2019, creating the deepest artificial reef in Florida.
Reef darts are made from old concrete power poles. They weigh 8 to 10 tons each and rise up to 45 feet from the bottom.
One goal of the deep reef project is to create habitat that will support overfished species of deep-water snapper and grouper. It also makes use of old concrete poles that might otherwise wind up in a landfill.
Fish attracted by the deep reef darts so far include a variety of sharks — bulls, tigers, hammerheads and a great white — along with snowy grouper, dolphinfish (mahi mahi), amberjack and tarpon.
Find the deep dart reef site east of Palm Beach Inlet (aka Lake Worth Inlet) at: 26/46.086 N and 79/58.164 W.
For locations and other information about artificial reefs throughout Florida, visit https://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/artificial-reefs/locate/.

Boynton/Delray and Boca set holiday boat parades
The Boynton Beach and Delray Beach Holiday Boat parade is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 10.
Decorated boats will line up near the Ocean Avenue Bridge in Lantana and proceed south along the Intracoastal Waterway to the C-15 canal (Boca/Delray line.) Parade watchers are asked to bring unwrapped toys for Toys for Tots and wave flashlights to call over a designated toy-collection boat.
Viewing locations include the Banana Boat, Two Georges and Prime Catch restaurants, as well as Intracoastal Park, Harvey E. Oyer Jr. Park and Jaycee Park.
For more information, contact Mercedes Coppin at the Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, 561-600-9097.
In Boca Raton, the holiday boat parade is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 18.
Decorated boats will line up at the C-15 canal and proceed south to the Hillsboro Bridge.
The city is offering bleachers for viewing at Red Reef Park, but parking is limited.
No viewing will be allowed this year from Silver Palm Park or the Wildflower property, which are closed for construction.
Bridges at Spanish River Boulevard, Palmetto Park Road and Camino Real are expected to remain closed to road traffic for extended periods that evening so boats can pass through during the parade.
For information on entering a boat in the Boca parade, contact special events coordinator Amanda Liebl at 561-393-7967.

Sea wall repair, new docks on way at Ocean Inlet Park
Construction began in November on the renovation of Ocean Inlet Park Marina, located on the Intracoastal Waterway just south of Boynton Inlet.
The first phase of construction is expected to be complete next fall. First-phase work includes repairing the sea wall, removing the old fixed docks and installing floating day-use docks to provide boater access to Ocean Inlet Park.
Slips for long-term boat storage will not be available until after the second phase of work is complete.
Owners of boats stored at the marina’s 20 slips were required to move out last spring.

Sailfish release events
Ongoing: Sailfish Cup began Nov. 1 and runs through May 31 in four zones along Florida’s east coast, from Fernandina Beach to Key West. Details at www.sailfishcup.com.
Dec. 4: Dust ’Em Off Sailfish Warmup tournament. Details and registration at www.dustemoffsailfish.com.
Jan. 6-7: 85th annual Silver Sailfish Derby. Captain’s meeting Jan. 5 at West Palm Beach Fishing Club. Awards dinner Jan. 8 at Sailfish Club of Palm Beach. www.westpalmbeachfishingclub.org.
Jan. 14-15: Operation Sailfish. Kickoff party 6 p.m. Jan. 12 at Sailfish Marina, 98 Lake Drive, Palm Beach Shores. Take a Hero Fishing Day Jan. 13. Awards Jan. 16. www.bluewatermovements.com.
Jan. 21-23: Buccaneer Cup. Teams fish two of three available fishing days. Captain’s meeting 5:30 p.m. Jan. 20 at Viking Yacht Service Center, 1550 Avenue C, Riviera Beach. Awards Jan. 23. https://buccaneercup.com.

Willie Howard is a freelance writer and licensed boat captain. Email tiowillie@bellsouth.net

This 84-unit building in Palm Beach has undergone a substantial concrete renovation this year. Photos provided

This fully renovated one-bedroom and one-bath unit is a modern masterpiece. It is available turn key so you can start living the Palm Beach life.
In addition to the stunning decor, you will find hurricane impact sliding doors throughout, electric blinds, smart home features and high-end appliances.

A light-filled and generously sized, modern design in the living room.

The condo has a covered and open balcony that overlooks the well-kept grounds and pool beyond.

Additional important updates include newer air conditioner, electric, plumbing and hot water heater. This four-story Intracoastal Waterway building has undergone complete concrete restoration in 2021, has one assigned parking space and unit-dedicated building storage and private deeded beach access.
It also offers a full-time manager and concierge. All this plus a majestic and serene Slim Aarons-inspired pool area, gym, community kitchen and gas grill.

Offered at $499,000. Michael Kramer, Realtor, Sotheby's International Realty, 340 Royal Poinciana Way, Suite 337, Palm Beach, FL 33480. 561-659-3555, michael.kramer@sothebyshomes.com

The light-infused bedroom is spacious and has a walk-in closet and en suite bath.

The kitchen features modern appliances, subway-tile backsplash and sleek design.

Each month, The Coastal Star features a house for sale in our community. The House of the Month is presented as a service to our advertisers and provides readers with a peek inside one of our homes.

Salty Dog Paddle held a Dog Friendly Ugly Sweater Contest at Death or Glory in Delray Beach on Nov. 28. Salty Dog Paddle hosts an evening at the end of each month at the restaurant as a way to raise money for severely injured rescue dogs. Scroll down to see some of the adorable dogs and their great sweaters. 

Photos by Rachel S. O'Hara/The Coastal Star

Robyn Angell and her dog Wesley, 11, attended the Dog Friendly Ugly Sweater Contest put on by Salty Dog Paddle and Death or Glory on Sunday, November 28. Angell and Wesley moved to Delray Beach 5 months ago and they are both very happy to have escaped the cold weather of New York, especially since Wesley does not like wearing sweaters. Photo by Rachel S. O'Hara

Robyn Angell and her dog Wesley, 11, attended the Dog Friendly Ugly Sweater Contest put on by Salty Dog Paddle and Death or Glory on Sunday, November 28. Angell and Wesley moved to Delray Beach 5 months ago and they are both very happy to have escaped the cold weather of New York, especially since Wesley does not like wearing sweaters. Photo by Rachel S. O'Hara

Lucy, a 4-year-old Great Dane, could not find a sweater that fit her so she donned a festive handkerchief instead for the Dog Friendly Ugly Sweater Contest put on by Salty Dog Paddle and Death or Glory on Sunday, November 28. Photo by Rachel S. O'Hara

Meagan Del Valle and Danielle Tuccillo, both of Boynton Beach, dressed up in their best ugly holiday sweaters and brought along Leo, 10, to have some fun at the Dog Friendly Ugly Sweater Contest put on by Salty Dog Paddle and Death or Glory on Sunday, November 28. When asked about where Leo’s sweater was, Tuccillo replied, “He already comes with a sweater!” Photo by Rachel S. O'Hara

Ace, 2, and Kona, 5, donned their finest ugly sweaters for the Dog Friendly Ugly Sweater Contest put on by Salty Dog Paddle and Death or Glory on Sunday, November 28. Their owners, John Wagner and Amanda Merrigan of Lake Worth saw the event advertised and were excited to get into the holiday spirit with their dogs. Photo by Rachel S. O'Hara

By Steve Plunkett

The state planned to start collecting tolls on Saturday, Nov. 13, for motorists using the Interstate 95 express lanes between Glades Road in Boca Raton and the Cypress Creek Road exit in Fort Lauderdale.

The newly implemented tolls in what state transportation officials call “managed lanes” will be collected electronically using a SunPass or any other transponder that Florida accepts. Drivers must have an active account with the transponder properly affixed to the windshield.

Entrances for the I-95 southbound express lanes are located south of Glades Road and south of SW 10^th Street in Deerfield Beach, and exits are located north of Hillsboro Boulevard in Deerfield Beach and north of Cypress Creek Road.

I-95 northbound express-lane entrances are located north of Cypress Creek Road and north of Hillsboro Boulevard, and exits are located south of SW 10^th Street and south of Glades Road.

“Managed lanes enhance safety, optimize traffic flow, and provide more reliable travel times for longer, regional trips,” Andi Pacini, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Transportation, said in a news release.

Tolls fluctuate based on how many vehicles are using the interstate. Overhead electronic signs in advance of an entrance will show destinations and the corresponding toll, giving motorists time to choose whether they want to use the express lanes, Pacini said. If the toll decreases after entering the express lanes, motorists will pay the lower amount until they reach the next decision point. They will never pay a higher toll than the rate displayed on the sign.

For more information on the project, visit its website at www.95express.com.

Note: Events are current as of 10/28. Please check with organizers for any changes.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6
Annual Veterans Day Parade at Cultural Plaza, 414 Lake Ave, Lake Worth Beach. Honors the 100th Anniversary of Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 11 am. Free. 586-1600; lakeworthbeachfl.gov

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7
2021 Palm Beach County Veterans Day Parade at West Palm Beach Waterfront, 101 N Clematis St. 2 pm. Pbcveteranscommittee.org

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11 
Veterans Day Observance: Honoring All Who Served at Countess de Hoernle Park, 1000 Spanish River Blvd., Boca Raton. Free breakfast for veterans in uniform or presenting military ID; $5 suggested donation for others, benefits South Palm Beach County Habitat for Humanity’s Veterans Build initiative. 9 am. 393-7807; myboca.us/specialevents

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10556 Annual Veterans Day Program at Veterans Memorial Park, 9400 W Palmetto Park Rd, Boca Raton. Procession of colors, guest speakers, patriotic music. Free. 9:30 am. facebook.com/pbcparks

Veterans Day Ceremony Honoring Our Veterans at Veterans Park, 802 NE 1st St, Delray Beach. 9:30-11 am. 243-7010; mydelraybeach.com

Veterans Day Event at South Palm Beach Town Hall, 3577 S Ocean Blvd. In honor of all who served. 10 am. Free. 588-8889; southpalmbeach.com

Veterans Day Ceremony & Concert at Mizner Park Amphitheater, 500 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. Musical procession performed by Ft. Lauderdale Highlanders, Boca Raton Community High School NJROTC, & Boca Raton Police and Fire Honor Guards, with musical performance by the Boca Raton Community High School Band; Veteran Resource Fair; free lunch for veterans in uniform or presenting military ID, $5 donation for all others; Krescendo Brass performance; food/beverage available for purchase; no coolers/outside alcoholic beverages permitted; rain or shine. 11 am-2 pm. Free. 393-7967; myboca.us/1467/Veterans-Day

Veterans Day Celebration at Veterans Memorial Park, 411 N Federal Highway, Boynton Beach. Boynton Beach veterans & the city honor all who have given of themselves to serve our great country. Noon-1 pm. Free. 742-6236; boynton-beach.org

Special Lecture - Tomb of the Unknown Soldier: A Century of Honor, 1921-2021 presented by Philip Bigler at Flagler Museum, 1 Whitehall Way, Palm Beach. 2 pm. $20/veteran; $38/non-member; includes museum admission. Reservations: 655-2833 x10; flaglermuseum.us

Clay Pape, a worker at Delray Beach Memorial Gardens, marks a place for a headstone. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Joe Capozzi

The hearses and cars kept coming. 
Under a cloudy October sky, they crawled in groups through the gates of Delray Beach Memorial Gardens Municipal Cemetery about every half hour on a recent Saturday.
As one burial service ended, the next group arrived, a constant coming and going of grief that seemed to have, much like the pandemic responsible for most of it, no end in sight.
“Before the pandemic we averaged three or four a week. Now we’re doing 10 a week,’’ said cemetery crew leader John “Clay” Pape (pronounced like poppy). “For a cemetery of this size, it keeps us really busy. I lose track of time, to be honest with you.’’  
Ever since COVID-19 started killing people in Palm Beach County in March 2020, cemeteries and funeral homes have struggled to keep pace.
Among the busiest is Delray Beach Memorial Gardens, where the number of burials has jumped nearly 60% the past 18 months or so, an increase Parks Director Sam Metott attributes to the pandemic.

Curtis Wise, a city worker at Delray Beach Memorial Gardens, watches after assisting a mourner over a high curb prior to a burial.

The somber task of handling that surge has fallen to a handful of dedicated workers in the city’s parks department: cemetery manager Yasemin Kacar, Pape, Curtis Wise and Chad Sweatte. (Another cemetery worker, Daniel Stubbs, helped, too, before he recently left the city.) 
They often work seven days a week in a scramble to keep pace with a continuing cycle of duties at the nearly 40-acre cemetery between Interstate 95 and U.S. 1, south of Atlantic Avenue and north of Linton Boulevard.
They poke metal probes into the earth in search of new burial plots. They dig graves with backhoes and shovels. They set up tents and chairs for grieving families. They lay fresh sod across the dirt over the newly buried. 
They erect gravestones, too, but not as promptly as they’d prefer. Manufacturers are so busy, there’s a six-month delay, Pape said. 
“It’s to the point where a couple of weeks ago the suppliers of the concrete vaults said there’s a shortage,’’ he said, explaining how vaults go into the ground first, then the coffins go into the vaults, which are topped by lids and dirt. “They’re rushing the vaults out now.’’
The pace ebbs and flows. Nine one day this summer. Just one the other day. Twin brothers killed by COVID-19 were among the six buried on that October Saturday when cloudy skies threatened rain. 
“It was going crazy since the beginning of COVID, then once people started getting vaccinated, it went down for about three or four months,’’ Kacar said.  
“I was like, ‘Oh, thank God, these vaccines are working.’ Then once it mutated and it became delta, it went right back up to where we are.’’
Through Oct. 19, the number of burials this year was 208, on a pace that will be close to the 247 burials in 2020. There were 179 in 2019. 
If not for the break earlier this year, “we would have been well at last year’s numbers by now,’’ Kacar said on Oct. 19.
In other South County city cemeteries, the pace of burial hasn’t been as busy as Delray’s.
Boynton Beach had 168 burials each in 2019 and 2020 and 127 through Oct. 15 of this year. Boca Raton had 68 in 2019, 91 in 2020 and 68 through Sept. 28.
“They told me in Fort Lauderdale they have a three-week waiting list to get buried. That’s how backed up they are,’’ Pape said.
The sizes of the cemeteries and the availability of burial plots in public and private cemeteries might help explain the different burial trends.
“If folks don’t already have a plot or they don’t want to do a mausoleum, we don’t have an in-ground box for them to buy at the moment,’’ said Boynton Beach City Clerk Crystal Gibson. 
Funeral homes in the area have been overwhelmed, too, Kacar said.
“I spoke to one funeral home (director) and he was telling me he was thinking about getting a refrigerated truck in the back of his premises because he doesn’t have enough room to store the bodies,’’ Kacar said. 

Crew leader Clay Pape prepares a place of burial.

At Delray Memorial Gardens, the man responsible for digging most of those graves is Curtis Wise, a 29-year veteran at the cemetery. He said the pace has been so busy that the city had to replace a backhoe that kept breaking down. 
Among the buried are his friends and relatives.
When Wise found out the coffins of two aunts who’d died of COVID-19 were scheduled for interment at Delray Beach Memorial Gardens, he couldn’t bring himself to dig their graves. Pape did it for him. 
“It bothers me,’’ said Wise, who unwinds after work by putting on headphones and listening to motivational speeches by the pastor Eric Thomas. “But I’ve been here for so long it’s like I’m numb to it.’’ 
As busy as the pandemic has kept the crew and the other city workers who pitch in to help, it has brought out their best. 
Though exhausted from the work’s physical demands, they still make time to show compassion and dignity to the grieving. 
“They’re the unsung heroes,’’ said Amy Hanson, assistant parks and recreation director. “They do all the hard work and they do it quietly and with dignity.’’ 
On the Saturday morning with six funerals, Wise helped push a mourner’s wheelchair across the grass and guided an elderly woman with a walker over a curb and into the shade of a graveside tent.
It is often up to Wise and Pape to gently remind relatives to limit the number of mourners to 10, keeping with CDC guidelines. This is something most grieving families don’t want to hear.
And on busy days, they’ve had to delicately referee the funeral processions, asking anxious families for patience while other families linger in their struggle to say final goodbyes. 

Fresh graves await markers at Delray Beach Memorial Gardens. Delivery of markers is running months behind.

“Sometimes it can get overwhelming. It can wear on you,’’ Pape said. “You don’t know them, but you know what they’re going through.’’
The crew also directs traffic, which can be tricky when stretch limos require several back-and-forth maneuvers to negotiate hairpin curves along the cemetery roads.
“It definitely is going above and beyond,’’ Mayor Shelly Petrolia said, praising the crew.  
On top of all of that, the workers have tried to keep up with ongoing maintenance, removing damaged fencing and installing fresh landscaping. Lately, the back fence has been lined with steel cofferdams, which prevent sugar sand from rushing back in on the workers as they dig graves.
“We’re very proud of this team,’’ Metott said at a City Commission meeting on Sept. 13 when the cemetery crew was recognized for its work during the pandemic. 
“This team has stepped up,’’ he said. “They’ve worked long hours without days off and with a lot of extras that go into a situation we all have been challenged with. This team was the front line for that.’’ 
Wise didn’t set out to be a cemetery worker when he joined the city’s parks department. On his first day of work, he was asked to help out at the cemetery, which was shorthanded at the time.
He said he liked the seclusion and serenity that came with the job and asked to stay.
“There really ain’t nothing to like about burying people, but it is peaceful here a lot of the time,’’ said Wise, who shares a home with his sister, a nurse at Delray Medical Center. 
On a short break in October, he gestured toward the bright yellow backhoe on which he spends much of his time. 
“That’s a new one,’’ he said. “I had a smaller one when the pandemic started. But with the amount of work that we were doing, it kept busting. Some problem with the hydraulics.’’
Just before going back to work, he looked down at the brown soil of a fresh burial topped with a scattering of cheerful flowers. 
“We’re so busy, I can’t put grass on the graves. I don’t like that,’’ he said. 
But with so many more funeral processions expected to crawl through the cemetery’s gates in the coming days, the sod would have to wait.
“Now we’ve got to get started digging again.’’

Related Story: Highland Beach:Commission wants lesser role for town in high-rise inspections

By Joel Engelhardt

After months of work to hammer out a condo reinspection program in the wake of the Surfside tragedy, Palm Beach County commissioners decided last month to do nothing and wait for the Florida Legislature.
In a rambling hourlong discussion Oct. 19, commissioners weighed in with a variety of reasons for backing off the approach developed over months by county and city building officials and endorsed by a county advisory board. 
Commission Vice Mayor Robert Weinroth, who represents the South County barrier island, called the proposal a “grandiose scheme” and argued that the system of inspections was fine before Champlain Towers South collapsed on June 24, killing 98 people.
The system still works, he said.  
“I don’t want our residents to think that if we take it slow in implementing a grandiose scheme for having reinspections and recertifications that we’re going to be doing anything to put their lives in jeopardy,” he said, later adding, “I don’t want to see us put a system in place that is going to be so cumbersome that it’s going to miss the mark.”
Standing by the proposal developed under his group’s leadership, League of Cities Executive Director Richard Radcliffe said the building officials who helped write the plan always knew it could be superseded by the state. 
“We came up with a very wonderful, thoughtful work product that we will make available to anybody who wants to use it,” Radcliffe said in an interview. “We stand by our product.”
Cities still can move forward with the approach, which gained the backing of the county’s Building Code Advisory Board in September. It would require experts to inspect buildings 25 years and older east of Interstate 95 and 35 years or older west of the highway, a more stringent standard than the 40-year requirement in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Champlain Towers had stood in Surfside for 40 years when it collapsed.
The county’s decision had industry support, said Michelle DePotter, CEO of the Associated General Contractors’ Florida East Coast Chapter. “I like where you all are going,” she told commissioners about the decision to wait until March, when the Legislature’s two-month session ends. “That is where the AGC’s focus has been.”

Some go their own way
Boca Raton already has put similar requirements into place and Highland Beach may do so later this month.
Other cities were waiting to see what the County Commission would do before taking action, Radcliffe said, especially cities farther west with fewer high-rise buildings and little ocean impact.
On the barrier island, where a Coastal Star review found 300 condos built before 1990 from South Palm Beach to Boca Raton, some town managers say they’ll now bring the proposal to elected officials.
South Palm Beach, with 26 pre-1990 condos, is likely to consider the League of Cities proposal at its Nov. 9 meeting, Town Manager Robert Kellogg said.
Ocean Ridge, which has 29 such condo buildings, will hear it too, Town Manager Tracey Stevens said, but she didn’t know when.
Gulf Stream, which has 19 condos built before 1990 and relies on Delray Beach for building oversight, had been watching the county to see what it would do, Town Manager Greg Dunham said. 
“We always pay attention to what is happening in Tallahassee, but even the county is looking to the state for uniform rules this first session after the Surfside building collapse,” he wrote in an email. “Now that the county is out of the picture for the time being, we will be working with our building officials at Delray Beach to determine whether we should proceed with something now or wait to see if the state will take up this issue when they are back in session.”
Boca Raton already took action, establishing rules on Aug. 24 that call for inspections of buildings taller than three stories after 30 years and then every 10 years thereafter. It exempts single-family homes and duplexes.
The city estimates that it has 242 buildings that meet the criteria and it will take four years for them to all be inspected. The city would hire an engineer, code enforcement officer and an administrative staffer to oversee the program at an annual cost of about $253,000.
Highland Beach gave initial approval in October to require inspections after 25 years, with reinspections in some cases as soon as seven years later. The town says it has 80 buildings that fit the criteria.
In both cases the inspections would be conducted by private-sector experts, not city inspectors, an approach taken by the League of Cities as well.

Relying on condo residents
While experts insist that structural defects are likely to be hard to detect and in some cases invisible to the naked eye, commissioners said they were comfortable knowing that if anything is amiss, residents will let them know.
“We had a system in place where inspectors were going out, they were responding to complaints, they were seeing, on their own accord, systems that required remediation and that system is still in place today,” Weinroth said. “We need to make sure we don’t put a system in place that’s going to obscure our ability to do what we’re doing right now, which is to identify the problems.”
He argued that the county doesn’t have the staff to oversee inspections and the private sector doesn’t have enough engineers to meet the demand.
“We don’t have enough structural engineers and electrical engineers to even go out there and do this in the next five years,” he said. “And we know that Miami-Dade and Broward are sucking up all of that talent right now because they see the problem as being in their backyard.”
Additionally, commissioners worried that cash-strapped condo boards would be unable to find the money to make necessary repairs. 
“I hate to put a system in place that, again, is going to overwhelm our resources, it’s going to overtax our residents with special assessments that they’re not going to be able to afford,” Weinroth said. “We already have a problem with affordable housing right now. We’re just going to make it more unaffordable.”
The fear, he said, is creating such a big system of reinspections that a potentially catastrophic situation would go undetected.
“I would not like to see us wind up obscuring a problem by putting so many people or so many buildings on an inspection list that we miss the two or three that really need our attention,” Weinroth said.
In Surfside, an inspection showed the need for $15 million in work at Champlain Towers South in 2018, but the work was only just getting underway when the building collapsed.
Commissioner Maria Sachs, who represents the western portions of South County, also backed waiting for legislation but worried that the Legislature would accept a Florida Bar suggestion to shift liability for structural failure to the municipality. 
“We don’t have the funds, we don’t have the engineers, we don’t have the inspectors, we don’t have the staff, and the last thing we need is to go forward without a full contingent of inspectors with the idea that we can have liability if anything collapses because somebody missed something,” she said.
While she supported waiting, her husband, condo lawyer Peter Sachs, told the Boca Raton City Council in August that he supported Boca’s decision to put reinspection rules in place.
“There is no greater responsibility elected officials have than protecting the safety of the residents,” he said, calling Boca’s proposal a big step toward doing that.

Danielle Hurley of Boca Raton picks out pumpkins with her 6-year-old twins, Cameron and Leighton, at Cason United Methodist Church in Delray. The annual sale benefits the church’s mission and outreach programs. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Philanthropy is a way for those of us who have, to share with those in need. Charitable giving is critical to living in a balanced society. We should give not only to address suffering, but also to eliminate the sources of that suffering.
It’s one thing to feed children’s hunger to learn by reading them books; it’s another to ensure they have the skills to read books on their own.
Here at The Coastal Star we devote multiple pages each month to promotion of the people and organizations that serve our less-fortunate neighbors. Our Around Town section includes stories about philanthropic organizations, lists of upcoming events and “celebrations” photos that illustrate our residents involved with giving back to the community.
Most months, the Coastal Star feature story that shares space with this column on Page 2 is about a local philanthropist.
Until early 2020, a reliable way for charitable organizations to raise money was to host in-person events. The coronavirus pandemic halted these events for at least a year, and the uncertainty dented many organizations’ budgets going forward.
While we know the pandemic lingers, this month we are making a special effort to encourage you, our readers, to dig a little deeper and help financially support these organizations.
Inside this edition, we are debuting our Philanthropy Season Preview. Our cover story celebrates the creative ways that organizations have been able to not only survive the effects of the pandemic, but also increase their outreach to the community.
Inside the section, you will see paid story and advertising combinations funded by a few organizations, or their donors, to further tell their stories and promote their fundraising events.
Thank you for taking the time to consider a philanthropic gift during this month of Thanksgiving. The generous nature of the residents of the South County coastal communities is one of the many reasons I love living here.

— Jerry Lower, Publisher

Anuj Grover surrounds his desk with reminders of home and the school supplies he donates. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Mary Thurwachter

When it comes to charitable giving, Anuj Grover says he and Mark Corlew, his partner at real estate investment management group Grover Corlew, like to focus on the future.
Before school began, their employees and tenants of the company’s buildings came together to donate backpacks, folders, notebooks, pencils, art supplies and more, to ensure that students in need returned to school prepared for learning.
Palm Beach and Broward counties’ Title I school students and teachers benefited from the donations, which were available through the Education Foundation of Palm Beach County and the Broward Education Foundation.
“Both my business partner and I are products of the Florida public school system and big believers in the public school system,” Grover said. “Back-to-school drives are directly in our wheelhouse for charitable giving. We’ve been doing this for over five years in Broward County and have expanded to include Palm Beach County,” two years ago when the company moved its headquarters to Boca Raton.
According to the national nonprofit Kids in Need Foundation, 90% of teachers surveyed said that three quarters of their students arrived to class without the supplies necessary for learning.
The pandemic drastically increased the need for basic school supplies for students in Title I schools, and the school supply centers in both counties are also reporting low levels of donations this year.  
“As a father, I know just how expensive it can be to adequately prepare a child for learning each year,” Grover said. “Teachers also spend money to buy supplies for their classrooms. We hope to ease the burden with these donations, particularly for those struggling to get by. Every little bit helps.”
Other charities to which the firm contributes include Florence Fuller Child Development Centers in Boca Raton, the Pompano Beach Elementary School art program, the Boys and Girls Clubs, and Channing Crowder toy drive.
Grover, who lives in Boca Raton, grew up in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area and has a law degree from Vanderbilt University and a bachelor of science degree in accounting from the University of Florida.
For more than 20 years, he has been acquiring and developing real estate. It’s in his DNA. Some of his fondest childhood memories are sitting on his dad’s lap learning about investing, he said.
“He was the quintessential immigrant at that time, always saving money. But he was also smart and invested his savings in stocks, land and even an office condo,” Grover said.
When his father was 17, he came to the U.S. from India on a monthlong boat ride and studied at the University of Michigan.
Grover said: “Like a lot of immigrant stories, it’s very similar. Hard to get here. Don’t have a safety net. A lot of hard work. And usually, the investment spent for all your time is for your family.
“My brother and I were beneficiaries of that. It ends up shaping who you are and how you think.”
Grover began his career in Atlanta as a certified public accountant in the Entrepreneurial Services Group of Ernst & Young and later worked as an attorney in the international law firm King & Spalding.
In the 1990s, he transitioned to the investment world, where he held positions at several venture-backed companies. 
He and Corlew have been developing their business partnership for more than two decades. Grover Corlew has amassed more than 2.5 million square feet of office, medical office and retail properties, along with thousands of multifamily units, with a combined value of $750 million.
Grover, 51, and his wife, Meghna, have two children, a daughter Simi, 13, and son Sachin, 11.
Asked what he likes to do when he’s not working, Grover focused on people: “Anything that is spending time with family or longtime friends is always at the center of what I like to do for fun — watching a game, grabbing a meal, having drinks, cheering on the kids — whether it’s lacrosse, boxing, soccer, whatever they’re playing — going for a hike or wrestling with our dog.
“At the end of the day, I’m a fairly social creature by nature. Spending time with people that I like, love or care about and having some good laughs is really what I enjoy.”

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By Jane Smith

Negotiations are back on between the Florida Department of Health and Delray Beach over violations in the city’s reclaimed water program.
“A few weeks ago, the City of Delray Beach reached out to the Department of Health to try and settle the case again,” Alexander Shaw, a Health Department spokesman, wrote in an Oct. 25 email to The Coastal Star.
But the Health Department is holding onto its option to sue the city.
Shaw wrote, “The Department hopes to have a signed Consent Order with the city, or a lawsuit filed against the city in the coming weeks.”
If the case goes to Circuit Court, the judge could fine Delray Beach a maximum of up to $5,000 per penalty, per day under the Florida Safe Drinking Water Act, Shaw wrote.
When the Health Department issued its proposed consent order on June 3, it wanted to cite Delray Beach for 11 violations. The proposed penalties were for 12 years of not following its own program that called for annual inspections. Fine total for these violations was $60,000.
In addition, Delray Beach was fined for 576 missing devices that prevent the reclaimed water from flowing back into the drinking water. That proposed fine was $2,229 per location, for a total of $1.3 million. Another 25% was added for the city’s history of non-compliance.
“There aren’t any updates to share at this time,” Laurie Menekou, the publicist hired by the city to answer questions on the reclaimed water program, wrote on Oct. 27.
Negotiations had reached an impasse in early October.
The Health Department planned to fine the city a total of $1.8 million for violations in the program. Reclaimed water is highly treated wastewater suitable only for lawn irrigation, but not safe for drinking by humans and pets.
The Health Department also wants the city to publish a public notice acknowledging it “cannot assure utility customers that the drinking water produced and distributed met the standards of the Safe Drinking Water Act for the period from inception of the reclaimed water service beginning in 2007 to the time reclaimed water was deactivated on February 4, 2020.”

Workers are dwarfed by construction cranes while working on the second story of the 10-story apartment building underway in Riverwalk Plaza at the southeast corner of Federal Highway and Woolbright Road. Construction workers are parking their vehicles off site at a vacant .37-acre parcel at 525 SE 18th Ave., according to John Kuntzman, Boynton Beach building official. Approximately 80 workers are parking off site and walking to the Riverwalk job site, he said. Construction of the 319-unit building began in May and is scheduled to finish in about two years. A joint venture of Isram Realty in Hollywood and American Land Ventures in Miami is building the $85.3 million apartment project. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

“Hoping you’ll find comfort in the memories that are yours to cherish always, and strength in the companionship of those who share your loss,” wrote Coastal Star reporter Rich Pollack to me following my mother’s death in 2007.
The handwritten note was tucked into a thoughtfully chosen card — “tasteful,” Mom would have said approvingly. 
I stumbled over this and many other family “Fabergé eggs” while pruning the guest room closets and cabinets. I would recommend this activity to all my fellow septuagenarians.
Those cedar chests and bankers boxes that have been gathering dust in out-of-the-way nooks and crannies are full of memorabilia that unleash waves of endorphins you just can’t get from mahjong, bingo or Netflix. 
Perfunctory thoughts and prayers on Facebook and sad-faced emojis on Twitter are all too easily tapped out on our iPhone keyboards. It’s so much less effort than putting pen to paper and expressing a genuine emotion to a grieving family. Thanks, Rich, for the reminder that snail mail is a timeless gift.

Florence Snyder,
Tallahassee

Note: Ms. Snyder’s mother, Adelaide Snyder, spent 28 years at FAU, handling public information and community relations and writing speeches. In 1980, she was named vice president for university relations and development. She also was executive director of the FAU Foundation.

World War II civil defense in Delray Beach had ‘beach watchers’ on horseback looking for suspicious planes, boats or people. Photo provided by Delray Beach Historical Society

By Rich Pollack

It was a time of turmoil throughout Europe.
In the late 1930s, the German army was beginning to steamroll across neighboring borders, occupying nations with relative ease. Soon after — in the early 1940s — the systematic murder of European Jews and others had begun.
At about the same time, Allied forces — including troops from the U.S. — were on the front lines as World War II spread throughout the continent.
Here at home everyday Americans felt the effects of the war on the other side of the Atlantic and did whatever they could to support the effort. In Washington, government leaders struggled to address the pleas for refuge from terrified European Jews.
This month, two public Delray Beach historical exhibits provide insights into what was happening in the United States at the time, one focused on Delray Beach efforts to support U.S. involvement in World War II and the other looking at the U.S. government’s response to Nazism and genocide.
Tied to both exhibits is an effort to bring stories of local veterans to life through banners hanging on light poles in downtown Delray. The banners highlight several who served in the six most recent war periods, dating to the second World War.
At the Delray Beach Historical Society’s new “Delray Beach: WWII Homefront” exhibit, rare photographs and newspaper clippings from the archives and artifacts come together to tell the story of what took place in the city during the war.
“It was a terrifying but unifying time,” said historical society Executive Director Winnie Edwards. “Everyone did their part.”
The exhibit also includes family stories of local troops, as well as two films — one about the Boca Raton Airfield and the other about African Americans in the war. Compiled by the museum staff, the exhibit explains how residents were recruited to patrol the beach on horseback to look out for enemy boats and planes, and how other residents took to the towers of the beachfront Seacrest Hotel to serve as spotters.
The exhibit provides a better understanding of the nighttime blackouts that residents were required to observe and highlights supporting efforts here, including scrap metal drives, blood drives, bandage-making efforts and USO gatherings for both Black and white troops during segregation.
“This is a very localized exhibit,” Edwards said. “It’s about Delray soldiers, Delray stories and what it was like to be here during World War II.”
The exhibit, she said, demonstrates how a community rallied to meet a common threat.
“The lesson of World War II is that people really came together,” she said. “We’re hopeful that those who see the exhibit will leave understanding that coming together is a great way to move forward.”
The exhibit is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Cason Cottage, 5 NE First St., and runs through March. Admission is $5, but there is no entry fee for veterans and students.

U.S. during Holocaust years
Just a short distance away, the Delray Beach Public Library is hosting “Americans and the Holocaust,” a traveling exhibit from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association.
The exhibit provides little-known information about American government policies toward Nazism in the late 1930s and immigration policies in response to requests for refuge from those fleeing Europe. It is based on an exhibit that opened in April 2018 at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
“‘Americans and the Holocaust’ explores four main questions,” said Isabella Rowan, the Delray library’s program coordinator and volunteer manager who led the effort to bring the exhibit here and is coordinating several related programs. “What did Americans know, did Americans help Jewish refugees, why did Americans go to war, and how did Americans respond to the Holocaust.”
On display on the first floor of the library, the exhibit includes four interactive video kiosks and includes newsreels from the time and information from other primary sources.
“This exhibition will challenge the commonly held assumptions that Americans knew little and did nothing about the Nazi persecution and murder of Jews as the Holocaust unfolded,” Rowan said.
The exhibit raises questions about U.S. policies toward refugees, questions that remain relevant today.
“This exhibit presents little-known facts about America and Americans during this time in history,” Rowan said. “It’s a great opportunity to learn more about this country we call home.”
The library, Rowan said, is the ideal place for this exhibit because a goal is to educate in a welcoming environment.
“The public library is a neutral place for learning and discussion,” she said. “It is the one place where everyone is welcome and can feel comfortable exploring ideas.”
The exhibit, which runs through Nov. 17, is free and open to the public during the library’s regular hours.

Banners with stories
People walking past the library or driving downtown in November will see banners recognizing veterans from Delray Beach and the surrounding area. The banners have been placed by Veterans & Homefront Voices, a nonprofit that works with cadets in local high school JROTC programs to help tell the stories of veterans.
“Our goal is to empower veterans and those who served as the homefront for deployed troops to be seen, heard and understood by their community,” said Conrad Ogletree, the organization’s founder. “We enable the community to see, hear and appreciate their local veterans and homefront members.”
Ogletree said that by Nov. 11, Veterans Day, 39 banners will hang throughout downtown, many of which will have a statement from the veteran as well as a QR code that viewers can use to learn more about the individual on the banner.
Some of the audio recordings will include interviews of veterans by cadets, including those from Atlantic High School’s JROTC program, who will also be part of a Veterans Day ceremony at Veterans Park.
“We’re hoping that when people see the banners on Atlantic Avenue that they’ll stop and read them, and they’ll see something in that legacy statement that they’ll want to apply to their own lives,” Ogletree said.

Ed Manley, who parachuted into Normandy on D-Day in World War II, retired to Briny Breezes 29 years ago, and Nov. 5 marked his 100th birthday. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

Everybody wants to know, Ed. Tell us how you got to be 100.
But Ed Manley just laughs.
“How would I know how I got to be 100?” he exclaims. “I was stupid! I never grew up!”
Manley is the sort of garrulous old-timer who speaks in exclamation points. He remembers parachuting into Normandy on June 6, 1944, better than he remembers what he did the day before yesterday, but he’s still here, alive and lively, chattering away in the Briny Breezes trailer he bought as a young man of 71.
On Nov. 5, he expected to join roughly 97,000 other Americans who have survived for a century.
How did you do it, Ed?
Manley does his best to scrounge up some advice.
“Don’t eat so much,” he cautions. “People eat too much beef. I prefer fish.”
Anything else?
“Well, I never drank to get drunk,” he says. “I drank as much as the other guys, but I spread it out.”
Though he tells you he never grew up, the truth is, Ed Manley grew up many times. He had to.
He was born on Nov. 5, 1921, two months after his father died. At 3, he was sent by his single mother to live with a babysitter in New Jersey until he was 5, when he arrived at an orphanage in Harlem.
“They used to give us two nickels every Wednesday to go down to the YMCA on the trolley,” he once recalled, “and I’d hang on to the back of the trolley to save the nickels.”

Manley’s old World War II uniform is a history of his service along with other honors received over the years.

Another survivor from Company F
At 20, he joined the “Screaming Eagles” — the 101st Airborne Infantry Division’s 502nd Parachute Battalion, Company F, as a private.
Just after midnight on D-Day, he parachuted into Normandy, part of an 11-man team charged with blowing up four German cannons overlooking Omaha Beach.
That September, he jumped into Holland, fighting to take roads and bridges in the city of Eindhoven.
In December, he fought in the Battle of the Bulge against Hitler’s 5th Panzer Army. And on Jan. 3, 1945, Manley was wounded in Bastogne, Belgium, captured and taken to Stalag 12A, a Nazi POW camp in Limburg, Germany.
No wonder Dan McBride thought Manley was already dead.
McBride was only 20 when he jumped into Normandy with Company F, then pressed on to Holland and Belgium, earning three Purple Hearts along the way. He’s 97 now, a retired railroad man alive and well in Silver City, New Mexico.
In 2019, Holland came into McBride’s life again when a lieutenant colonel in the Royal Dutch Army, Jos Groen, reached out to McBride from his home in Doorn, The Netherlands, to request an interview for his book, Three of the Last WWII Screaming Eagles.
Groen came to Silver City and met with McBride for three days. They became friends, and in September 2021, Groen called again to say he’d found another survivor from Company F, a man named Ed Manley, still alive in Briny Breezes, Florida.
“We were both in Company F, but different platoons,” McBride says. “I didn’t know him then, but I heard he was one of the ones captured in Bastogne.”
What McBride hadn’t heard was that while Manley was being marched toward Berlin to form a human wall against the Allied assault, he and five other prisoners had escaped.
In October, McBride called Manley.
“We talked about 20 minutes, half an hour maybe,” McBride reports. “He told me he got hit in the hip, and what he’d done after the war.”
Manley remembers that McBride was in Company F, but their phone call has already slipped from his mind. The present is vague, the past vivid.

‘I tried to help people out’
“I was happiest when I was married,” Manley says. “I didn’t get married until I was 30.”
Dorothy Ann Manley died in 1983 after 32 years of marriage.
“She was the only woman I really respected,” he confesses. “Most women get together and talk about clothes and, you know ladies’ stuff, but she would rather sit with a bunch of guys and play liar’s poker.”
He points to a funeral urn on the shelf. “She’s still with me.”
Now one more bit of advice.
“I don’t have any credit cards,” he reveals. “I write checks. That way if I die, the kids aren’t stuck with the bills.”
He and Dorothy had three children, Scott, James and Kimberley. Scott is a pastor in Washington state, Kimberley died in 2015 at 58, and Manley has no contact with James.
Ask what he’s proudest of in his 100 years of living and Manley hesitates.
“Most people go to church,” he decides. “If someone was beating on you and you couldn’t defend yourself, I found a way to help you out. Most people go to church; I tried to help people out.”
Manley’s son Scott and his grandson, Jered, planned to be here for his birthday, when Brenda Dooley and a few other friends in the park scheduled a small party in the clubhouse. He’ll have 100 cupcakes, one for every year so far, with a sax player blowing his beloved Big Band tunes, and red, white and blue decorations in honor of his heroism.
“And his table’s getting gold plates and gold balloons to go with the red, white and blue,” Dooley promised.
Meals on Wheels planned to deliver a cake, balloon and a bag of presents, as it does for all its centenarians. Just a few gestures to celebrate Ed Manley’s first century, and ring in his next.
“I don’t want to be around another hundred years,” he says bluntly. “We’ve got people going on the moon now, and we can’t handle Earth. We won’t recognize man in 20 years.”
But then he reconsiders.
“I’d like to see Asia.”
And he laughs.
“I hope you have half as much fun in your life as I’m having.”

John Bury, who turns 100 on Nov. 10, wears an Army 8th Air Corps patch and displays a poster of a B-17 Flying Fortress at his Highland Beach condominium. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star.

By Rich Pollack

John Bury remembers flying over Europe that day more than 75 years ago like it was yesterday.
The lead navigator on a B-17 Flying Fortress, Bury and the bomber’s crew were heading back to their base in England when enemy gunfire knocked out two engines, the landing gear and caused minor injuries to a couple of fellow crew members.
At the time, Bury wasn’t thinking about the long-range future or about the long life he would eventually have.
“I was just hoping to live long enough to make the landing,” he said.
This month, on the day before Veterans Day, Bury will celebrate his 100th birthday, a milestone that no other member of his squadron has reached.
“I’m ready to start on the second 100,” he joked.
Bury, a longtime Highland Beach resident, is one of several veterans who are subjects of profiles written by Town Commissioner John Shoemaker as part of a project to recognize their contributions.
“There is support in town to bring recognition and honor to those veterans of all wars,” says Shoemaker, a Vietnam veteran who as a lieutenant led an infantry platoon in combat. “I had no idea that we had so many heroes living in Highland Beach. The diversity of their experience is amazing.”
Among those profiled is Martin Sylvester, who was involved in the 1944 D-Day invasion and later was wounded during the Battle of the Bulge and escaped three times after being captured by the German army. Former Highland Beach Vice Mayor John Rand, another World War II veteran who is profiled, served as a member of the radio communications team for U.S. and Allied forces in Southeast Asia.
Shoemaker also told the stories of Father Brian Horgan, the pastor at St. Lucy Catholic Church who served as a major in Iraq and Afghanistan, and of Randy Elliott, who served as a company commander during the 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam and was later activated from the reserves during Operation Desert Storm and promoted to brigadier general.
Other profiles include those of Navy sailor Ben Bishkoff, who served during the Vietnam era, and William “Billy” Kraft, who served in the Army, in the Navy SeaBees and the Air National Guard. Shoemaker also told the story of Army Col. Claude Schmidt, a former tank commander who founded Veteran’s Last Patrol, which supports veterans at their end of life.
“The thread that runs through all these stories is that military training will change the lives of all these soldiers for the better,” Shoemaker said.
Many of Shoemaker’s stories were incorporated into Town Manager Marshall Labadie’s “Manager’s Minute,” and the town is putting the finishing touches on a new page on the website that will include personal profiles of the “Heroes of Highland Beach.” The page will include key contact information for veterans organizations, links to veteran services, announcements and important calendar dates.  
“These are all heroes in our midst that people should know about,” Shoemaker said. “It’s great that these people are getting the recognition they deserved.”

Bury (in rear, second from left) with his B-17 squadron during World War II. Commissioner John Shoemaker has written profiles of Bury and other veterans in town. Photo provided

Shoemaker said there are also plans to build a memorial that will honor the town’s veterans, many of whom will have stories like those Bury easily recalls.
A resident of Highland Beach for almost 40 years, Bury survived the 1945 flight, although a piece of flak landed right in front of him and blew his walking shoe “right past my ear.”
With the gas tank full of holes and the landing gear disabled, the crew was concerned about returning to England safely.
“We weren’t sure we could get back to base,” Bury said.
The bomber did make it back and Bury returned to civilian life, eventually becoming a vice president of marketing for Purolator.
Bury and his wife, Shirley, have been together for close to 74 years and have four children and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Until recently, Bury volunteered on a regular basis at St. Lucy church, helping out in the office.
To celebrate the milestone birthday, Bury plans to gather with family from the area and later with family from all across the country.
His secret to longevity, he says, is simply eating right and staying active.
“Shirley watched our diet and I exercised daily for about 50 years,” he said.

By Joe Capozzi 

Ocean Ridge officials are planning to spend the town’s chunk of American Rescue Plan Act money on replacing the problematic aging water pipes on the north end of town. 
Of the roughly 76,500 linear feet of water mains in Ocean Ridge, at least 63,000 linear feet are more than 25 years old, town engineer Lisa Tropepe said in a Sept. 24 memo. 
“With the town’s incorporation in 1931, many of these mains are beyond their useful life,’’ she wrote in a recommendation for a water main distribution capital plan.
Replacing all of the older pipe will cost several million dollars, she said. The first step is addressing the most vulnerable section, about 2,400 linear feet of 6-inch cast iron pipe in the north end of town on the east side of State Road A1A between Inlet Cay and Sabal Island drives. 
“Over the last few years we’ve been getting a few more water main breaks than normal,’’ Tropepe told the Town Commission on Oct. 4. “It’s probably going to happen more and more.’’
Ideally, an 8-inch pipe would replace the old one. It could cost between $700,000 to $850,000, she said. 
“My professional opinion,’’ she said, “this pipe is way beyond its useful life.’’ 
The town buys its potable water from Boynton Beach and owns the water pipes, which extend through town on both sides of A1A. 
Because the water is used for drinking and fire protection, the town’s grant administrator determined that the $900,000 in federal pandemic relief money earmarked for Ocean Ridge can be used for the repairs and replacement of the water mains.
“We’d like to ultimately be able to have an 8-inch water main that could take care of directly the condominiums along the east side of the road, but indirectly it helps everyone,’’ Tropepe told commissioners. 
“That way the whole system would be looped with a proper-sized pipe to provide not only potable water but also for fire safety.’’
If not for the pandemic, the town may have had to raise taxes or issue a bond to pay for the repairs. 
“This ARPA money that is going to cover this is manna from heaven,’’ Mayor Kristine de Haseth said in an interview. 
“It really is, for these smaller coastal towns to be able to have this money and spend it on something that probably would have taken either a millage rate increase or bonds issuance to take care of.’’   

In other business:
• The town might consider code changes that would allow for the removal of Planning and Zoning Commission members who miss consecutive meetings. The change was proposed because only four out of five members attended four meetings this summer. 
“This poses a problem, as we have an odd number of members in order for business to move forward,’’ Town Manager Tracey Stevens said.  
• The Town Commission and advisory Planning and Zoning Commission held a joint meeting Oct. 12. A consensus was reached to allow flat roofs, while three other topics, including ways to get rid of construction eyesores, were debated. 
Because the meeting ran nearly three hours, two agenda items — architectural criteria for front elevations and Planning and Zoning board duties in development plan reviews — were postponed until a later joint meeting. 
• After a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the town’s annual “Light the Lights” holiday celebration will return from 4-6 p.m. on Dec. 3.
When it was canceled last year, it was replaced with a Cruisin’ Santa golf cart parade that rolled past the driveways of town homes. The parade was so popular that it too will return this year at 3 p.m. on Dec. 11.
Details will be announced soon on the town’s website.

The day after the Delray Beach City Commission rejected a rezoning request that would have allowed a three-story building on the lots immediately west of Doc’s All American restaurant, the owner of Doc’s withdrew an application to list the iconic eatery on the city’s Historic Register.
Earlier in that meeting last month, the City Commission had unanimously voted on first reading to approve the historic designation, but city regulations require a second reading to list a structure in the register.
John T. Murphy, the manager of the company that owns all three lots, wrote a letter to the director of the city’s Development Services department. “Based on last night’s vote, unfortunately we will be withdrawing our application” to designate Doc’s as historic, he wrote.
Doc’s sits at the corner of Atlantic and Swinton avenues, in the heart of the city’s Old School Square Historic Arts District. It was built in 1951 and is considered a prime example of post-World War II Mid-Century roadside architecture.
Doc’s remains safe from the wrecking ball, at least in the short term. Before anyone can secure a demolition permit, an approved plan for what would be built on the lot must be in the owner’s hands. Any such plan would have to work its way through advisory boards and finally the City Commission.

— Staff report

The mural sample shows how the face of former Deputy Fire Chief Latosha Clemons (lower right) was obscured before the mural was redone in late 2020. Image provided

By Jane Smith

The first Black woman firefighter in Boynton Beach recently settled all discrimination complaints against the city for $100,000. Her image was whitewashed in a June 2020 mural designed to celebrate the city’s Fire Department.
Born and raised in Boynton Beach, Latosha Clemons spent nearly 24 years working for the city’s Fire Department. She started as a firefighter in June 1996 and worked her way up to deputy fire chief before retiring in March 2020.
Clemons agreed to a total settlement of $100,000, considering it just compensation for what she went through on the job and with the mural, wrote Arthur Schofield, her attorney, in an Oct. 20 email to The Coastal Star. The amount also factored in that Boynton Beach redid the mural in the fall of 2020 to properly depict her.  
“Clemons is pleased to have closure to this very unfortunate and hurtful event in her life and is hopeful that her stance not only prevents employers from taking similar actions but also encourages victims to stand up for themselves,” Schofield wrote.
Clemons will receive $80,000 to settle her lawsuit with the city, filed in April. The additional $20,000 is to settle a federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission discrimination complaint filed against Boynton Beach in the summer of 2020, according to the city attorney.
Boynton Beach spent nearly $17,000 fighting the complaints through the end of September.
The City Commission unanimously approved settling her claims at its Oct. 19 meeting.
“We will not be erased,” Commissioner Christina Romelus, who is Black, said when voting for the two settlements. “No amount of money can make up for what was done.”
Clemons, 48, is now fire chief in Forest Park, Georgia. She was hired there in December.
The mural, featuring photos of the city’s fire-rescue staff, was installed on June 2, 2020, in the new fire station’s lobby windows, facing Northeast First Avenue.
On June 3, 2020, the city held a soft opening with elected leaders, development partners and the media. The public was not invited because of coronavirus restrictions against large crowds.
The Boynton Beach mural was taken down the next day because social media posts depicted two Black former fire leaders as white. Clemons became what appeared to be a distorted white man and ex-chief Glenn Joseph, the city’s second Black fire chief, seemed to be depicted as a white man with a mustache.
Joseph declined to have his face restored, saying he had been with the department for only a few years.
From June 4 to 6, 2020, City Manager Lori LaVerriere interviewed then-Public Art Manager Debby Coles-Dobay, Fire Marshal Kathy Cline and then-Fire Chief Matt Petty.
“Coles-Dobay admitted that changing the skin color was her idea and decision,” according to the notes of Human Resources Director Julie Oldbury, who was present during the interviews.
On June 6, 2020, LaVerriere demoted Petty, who later that day agreed to separate from the city.
Coles-Dobay lost her job on June 6, 2020. She sent this email on Oct. 25 to The Coastal Star:
“As Public Art Manager, my job was to facilitate the process as outlined in the public art ordinance between the project stakeholders and the artist to make sure all parties are satisfied, and the project criteria is met. The project criteria were to ‘Preserve the Department’s Culture and Pride while building strong community relationships.’ It was not to ‘honor the contribution of Fire Rescue Department employees,’ as published in the city statements. 
“Prior to the artwork installation, senior-level staff, Chief Petty and Fire Marshal Cline refused to allow the installation and directed me to convey the changes to be made.”
But during the June 4, 2020, interview of Coles-Dobay by the city manager, Oldbury’s notes read: LaVerriere told Coles-Dobay that if she was feeling any type of pressure, she should have told her and brought her into the loop on what was occurring. 
LaVerriere declined to comment for this story.
“What happened to the deputy chief was disgusting,” Commissioner Ty Penserga said before joining in the unanimous commission vote.
Because Clemons was born in Boynton Beach, Mayor Steven Grant said, “Removing her image from the mural hurts the worst. ... She is always there at many city events.”
At the Oct. 19 meeting, he proposed naming a new public orchard after Clemons. Grant and Clemons picked up trash from a vacant lot at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Northwest First Street on MLK Day in January 2020.
Nearly two years later, the lot now contains 50 tropical fruit trees, planted by Community Greening volunteers.
Naming the public orchard for Clemons will be discussed at a future Boynton Beach meeting.

King tides amplified by tropical weather in September and October 2020 flooded many of the streets on the west side of Briny Breezes. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Joe Capozzi 

Briny Breezes residents like to think they have a pretty good idea of how storms, king tides and rising seas can threaten their 43-acre community on the barrier island. 
For a few days in September 2020, as a tropical system roiled off the coast at high tide, they watched the Intracoastal Waterway pour over the sea walls on the west side of town and into the streets. The water floated golf carts and flooded porches, air-conditioning units and cars. After a few days, the water receded.
As scary as that was for the co-op of 488 manufactured and mobile homes, a new consultant’s report suggests Briny ain’t seen nothing yet. 
The resiliency planning guide, prepared by the Fort Lauderdale-based coastal engineering firm Brizaga Inc., calls for tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements and creative land-use changes to help Briny Breezes survive potential flooding over the next 50 years. 
Among the measures outlined in the 144-page Flooding Adaptation Plan, commissioned for about $30,000 by the Briny Breezes Corp., are: 
• Replacing and elevating more than 5,000 linear feet of sea walls on four basins near the most vulnerable parts of town along the Intracoastal Waterway. 
• Enhancing the stormwater drainage system with larger pipes and pumps. 
• Raising the streets and low-lying areas with tens of thousands of cubic yards of fill.
 • Adopting alternative building methods that could include setting some homes atop concrete stilts, a strategy that helped one Key Largo community withstand a 2017 hurricane. 
• Tearing the town down and redeveloping it (an option town and corporation officials consider highly unlikely) or abandoning the lowest-lying areas so they can be used for water retention.
In perhaps the report’s most eye-opening section, 12 forecasting maps show increasing levels of tidal flooding and storm surge over the next 50 years, based on models from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the 2019 Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact.
Some maps show low-lying areas on the west permanently under water in 2040. Another, for a Category 3 hurricane in 2070, shows the entire west side of town under up to 5 feet of water and sections on the east under more than 3 feet of water.
“If storm surge comes through at high tide as (some of) the forecast models continue to show, they’ll be waterfront properties. They’ll literally be sitting atop water in the Intracoastal 50 years from now,’’ said Mayor Gene Adams. 
In all scenarios, the east side of town, between State Road A1A and the Atlantic Ocean, would fare better than the west side. But if the forecasted flooding throughout Briny were to occur, it could deal a catastrophic blow to the town. 
Since Briny’s tax rate is already at the maximum allowed under state law, the town has relied each year on rising property values to generate extra operating revenue. If properties are swallowed by water, their values — and consequently the town’s tax base — will shrink.
“If your taxable value goes substantially down, your revenues obviously go substantially down and it could make it impossible for the town to exist,’’ Town Manager William Thrasher said in an interview.
“If they are forecasting correctly, from my perspective, the town of Briny would cease to exist. I don’t see how the town could survive that. So the report is a hypothetical forecast that could have dire effects on the town of Briny Breezes and its very existence and functionality.’’
The report also includes photographs of thousands of feet of deteriorating sea wall along the Intracoastal, some described in “poor” and “serious” condition, with “the most vulnerable sections along Mallard Drive South, Ibis Drive West, and Heron Drive’’ on the north end of the west side.
Despite those gloomy forecasts, town and corporation officials said they are optimistic the future will be bright.
In the months since the report came out in June, town leaders have already gotten started on Brizaga’s recommended “immediate next steps” — a master plan to replace the deteriorating sea walls on the west side and enhance the stormwater drainage system. 
And the town’s Planning and Zoning Board has started looking into alternative building methods, as recommended by the Brizaga team. 
“We feel this is a very positive tool for future short- and long-range planning and also a wonderful tool that will help the town work toward government funding and other grants related to coastal flooding,’’ Michael Gallacher, general manager of Briny Breezes Inc., wrote in a statement to The Coastal Star.
“Rather than predictions of fear, the report provides Briny with an analysis foundation on which both the town and the corporation can begin discussions with government bodies and for internal resource planning, prioritization and decision making.’’
But adequately preparing the town will come with a price tag. A high one. How high depends on which recommendations the town and corporation follow.
The Town Council on Oct. 28 approved two contracts with the West Palm Beach engineering firm Engenuity Group Inc., one for $85,000 to do a survey of underground utilities across town and the other for $60,000 for a stormwater master plan. Thrasher is trying to secure grant money for construction drawings, estimated to cost $250,000, for new sea walls and stormwater management improvements.
“Construction drawings can’t be created until you know the topography of the land and where utilities are located,’’ Thrasher said. “Once you have construction drawings, then you’re really able to start reaching out to legislators for appropriations.’’  
The town has already initiated conversations with state Rep. Mike Caruso and state Sen. Lori Berman on securing millions of dollars for the long-term improvements recommended in the report. 
Grants will require the town to put up matching money.
“If we really tackle this thing the right way,’’ Adams said, “there probably will be some degree of having to go up in assessments” paid every quarter by shareholders. 
“The good news is property values are going up in Briny, so the tax base is going up higher and there’s more money available,’’ he said. 
Thrasher said competitive markets might lower some of the cost estimates. 
“I believe the cap the town can absorb or put into a project is between $25 million and $30 million. That’s it. That I believe can get us to 2040 and approaches 2050. That would be sea walls, stormwater management and a combination of land development regulations,’’ Thrasher said. 
“With that amount of money in a project we could get in very good shape, in my opinion.’’
Since the report was completed in June, Gallacher said, there have been several Zoom presentations for shareholders, who have received a 14-page executive summary.
“We are hopeful for a larger-scale, in-person presentation when we are back in season and past COVID,’’ Gallacher said. 
While the forecasts in the report are just that — forecasts with no guarantee that such severe flood events will occur — the town and its corporation aren’t taking any chances. 
“Something needs to be done. We just cannot sit back and hope that these forecasters are wrong,’’ Thrasher said.
“It’s probably scary to some to think that we are thinking of this and yet at the same time when I see king tides and the effects it has on the property, that’s scarier to me.’’
 Rubber boots and king tide charts have become household items for residents on the town’s west side, which already sees frequent tidal flooding. 
“Seeing what that looks like in 2040, 2050 is eye-opening,’’ Adams said. “We are starting to tackle it right now, but it’s definitely a big number that needs to be tackled.’’