By Dan Moffett

It took plenty of hard work and some last-minute scrambling, but South Palm Beach saw its beach project completed on budget and on time during the first week in May, avoiding interference with the height of turtle nesting season.
“We put 20,000 cubic yards of sand within the confines of South Palm Beach,” Mayor Bonnie Fischer said during the Town Council’s meeting on May 11. (Consider that a typical dump truck can carry between 10 and 15 cubic yards of sand.)
Fischer added a note of concern, however: “We all know it is the luck of the draw on whether this is going to last.”
The hope in South Palm is that nature will be kind and not send a tropical storm to tear up the dune line that has just been rebuilt. Meanwhile, the town is committed to doing its part to give nature a hand.
The council unanimously approved a $15,000 contract with Earth Balance to plant sea oats along the beach to protect it against erosion. Based in North Port, the company has done coastal restoration and environmental management projects for dozens of municipalities and governments around the state.
“We need to get the sea oats on it to stabilize it,” said Town Manager Robert Kellogg. “I realize this is a significant amount of money. But we’ve invested over $700,000 in this project, and $15,000 is a small price to pay to preserve and keep what we have.”
Fischer again offered thanks to the town of Palm Beach, which dredged the sand and sold it to South Palm Beach, and to former Mayor Gail Coniglio and Robert Weber, Palm Beach’s coastal coordinator.
“Without them, none of this would have happened,” Fischer said.
Vice Mayor Robert Gottlieb commended Fischer for her years of effort to bring the project to the town.
“Mayor, I want to congratulate you on working, after 10 years, to get this beach project done,” he said. “It’s the first time we’ve done anything — anything — to our beaches.”
The Town Hall chambers erupted in applause.
In other business:
• The council, on a 3-2 vote, approved a civility policy for behavior during the town’s public meetings.
Gottlieb and Councilmen Mark Weissman and Bill LeRoy supported the measure, saying it was necessary to maintain decorum and keep people from being accosted. Fischer and Councilman Ray McMillan voted against the resolution, worrying the language might be too restrictive and make the town vulnerable to legal challenges.
“I think a pledge of civility is enough,” Fischer said.
Officials said the policy is similar to what neighboring municipalities use.
• The town’s staff is beginning work on the budget for fiscal year 2021-2022, and Kellogg told the council one of the proposed expenditures for consideration is incentive payment for condo buildings to install onsite charging stations for residents with electric vehicles.
Kellogg said Florida Power & Light, with the approval of the Lantana Town Council, is going to pay for and install two supercharging stations at Lantana Beach Park. So, electric vehicle owners may soon have more options.

Mounds of naturally occurring sargassum are upsetting some of the visitors to Lantana’s beach. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Mary Thurwachter

It’s that time of year again, when sargassum blankets the beach, encroaching on beachgoers’ space. It’s nothing new, but nonetheless irritating to people looking for ample room to spread out beach towels, anchor umbrellas and feel the hot sand beneath their feet as they make their way to the ocean.
The problem is not unique to Lantana, but when the brown seaweed hogs so much of the compact — just under 800 feet — town shoreline, tempers rise. And beachgoers are not shy about voicing complaints.
“My granddaughter says ‘it stinks,’” says Karen Lythgoe, vice mayor pro tem. And young Sadie is not alone. Eddie Crockett, the town’s director of operations, and Town Manager Deborah Manzo have gotten an earful from disgruntled sunbathers.
Some municipalities have their shorelines mechanically raked regularly, but Lantana doesn’t.
The matter came up at the town’s May 24 meeting, when Crockett asked the Town Council for direction ahead of the Memorial Day weekend.
“Right now we are having one of those very challenging times,” Crockett said. “There’s so much sargassum and beachgoers are the ones most directly impacted.”
“We don’t have a whole lot of space for our beach,” Manzo said of the sargassum. “We bury as much as we can, and then, at some point, we run out of space. The reason we added this to the agenda is the holiday is coming up and we just wanted to start it happening and made sure we brought it to council.”
Mayor Robert Hagerty, who has been on the job since mid-March, asked what prevented the town from having some type of mechanical device raking the beach.
Crockett said a 2016 directive from the council prohibits the removal of natural debris such as sargassum and allows the use of a mechanical rake only to the east side of the median high tide line traversing the beach. Often, that is only a small portion of the beach. And when raking is done, space for burying the seaweed quickly fills, so the extra sometimes is tossed back in the sea.
To the point raised by Lythgoe’s granddaughter, Crockett explained that “as the seaweed starts to decompose, it gives off an unpleasant smell and the tiny organisms that live in it may irritate the skin if a person comes into contact with it.”
Lythgoe said the sargassum would always be a problem.
“It’s normal,” she said. “It goes all the way from Brazil to the coast of Florida. All the action to mitigate it has to be done locally. We have to do something. When it decomposes on the beach, it smells. If it goes back into the water, it kills sea grass roots, which is what the turtles feed on. So we’ve got to weigh the nuisance versus the environmental impact.”
During a phone conversation with Ligia Collado-Vides, associate chair of the marine biology department at Florida International University, Lythgoe learned of things that can be done, but said the one thing not to do is to put sargassum back into the sea.
“If you’re going to do something at all with it, she said the best option is to bury it,” Lythgoe explained. “But you have to protect the sea turtles. For the long term, we can contact Heather Armstrong from Recycle Florida Today. There are a number of research projects going on about how you can reuse and recycle sargassum. There’s bioplastics, biofuel and research about using it for cosmetics and soaps.”
But what to do now? Hagerty entertained a motion to rake the beach twice a week between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Lythgoe made the motion, but it failed when it didn’t get a second. Council member Lynn Moorhouse was absent.
“Since the Town Council rejected the beach raking initiative, we will not be conducting any mechanical or manual beach raking operations this summer unless otherwise directed by Town Council,” Crockett said in an email after the meeting. “With Memorial Day coming and the manner in which tides come and go, it is very difficult to predict how much sargassum seaweed will accumulate on the beach at any given time. Last year, Town Council authorized mechanical beach raking operations from the Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day.”
In other business, the council approved a contract not to exceed $81,000 with Pro Construction Consultants to install an alum-inum railing at the beach.

By Mary Thurwachter

The Town Council agreed in May to hire a third-party consultant to create a new master plan for Lantana using information gathered from residents during two recent workshops.
The move follows through on a goal of Mayor Robert Hagerty, who was elected in March. He said during his campaign it was time for a master plan update and that input from residents was essential to the process.
During the workshops, one of the residents who urged the town to hire a third-party consultant for the master plan was J.J. McDonough of Hypoluxo Island. He said the town should focus on utilizing its assets — the beach and Ocean Avenue. Among his suggestions were to add retail space at the beach and increase parking near the beach.
Karen Lowry, also of Hypoluxo Island, said the town needs a more embracing entrance from Interstate 95.
“Let it be welcoming,” she said. “Let it signal that this is a place where businesses want to do business and people want to live.” She suggested planting berms of overflowing lantana, the flower for which the town got it name.
Ted Cook of The Moorings said the town needs to address the empty buildings on East Ocean Avenue that once were home to restaurants and shops. “The restaurants on the avenue do well, but there are not enough,” he said.
Cook likes the idea of installing a gazebo in Bicentennial Park for concerts and gatherings and said the town needs a high-end banquet hall near the beach as a way to draw more visitors.
Developer Steve Dworkin told the council he favors a master plan that implements public art structures, technology, infrastructure improvements and beautification throughout the town. He talked about the unprecedented high level of property investments taking place in the county, the large infrastructure funding bill proposed at the federal level and taking advantage of funding that may become available in the future for these improvements.
Chamber of Commerce President Dave Arm brought up the lack of parking in the downtown/Ocean Avenue corridor. He suggested turning the northern tennis courts at the Recreation Center and the old Development Services Building into a municipal parking lot with a shuttle service to Ocean Avenue.
Vice Mayor Pro Tem Karen Lythgoe proposed adding a water feature at Maddock Park, doing a full review of the Code of Ordinances, working with volunteer groups to organize trash pickups and starting a community garden in Lyman Park.
She proposed providing veterans with free parking at the beach and other places in town, and would like the town to hire a community outreach officer.
Town staff members shared ideas, as well. Among these were adding a water taxi service to attract visitors from surrounding areas to Lantana’s downtown, adding a fitness park to one of the town’s existing parks and building a municipal marina with a small-town fishing vibe.

About 30 members of the Seagate neighborhood south of Atlantic Avenue gathered to hold a farewell party for their mail carrier, Lester Flowers, who retired after delivering to their neighborhood for 35 years. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

The postcards began arriving in the Seagate neighborhood of Delray Beach around May 10.
They bore no postage. They had no cancellation stamp.
The message, printed in a graceful script, sat within a red, white and blue border.
“Rain, Sleet, Snow, Hail …Farewell
“Someone else will deliver your mail.
“Retirement May 31.
“It has been a pleasure to be your mailman for the last 40 years.”
Lester Flowers was born in Delray Beach. He was 30 when he went to work for the U.S. Postal Service in 1981. He’s 70 now.
Flowers spent those first two years as a mail handler at the distribution center on South Military Trail, then three more delivering a route around West Atlantic Avenue.
In May 1986, he took over Route No. 20, the Seagate neighborhood, and never left.

Lester Flowers posed with Andrew and Sheppard Parrott (above), repeating the gesture from 2010 (below right).

For 35 years, he has delivered the mail to about 550 homes — the credit card bills, the junk ads, the Christmas and Hanukkah and birthday cards, and more.
He has brought smiles, too, friendly waves and cheerful greetings and, when he heard a customer was ill, even prayers.
On the afternoon of May 27, some of those longtime customers brought best wishes, memories and gratitude to Lester Flowers.
In Larry and Nora Rosensweig’s front yard, a banner hung across the shrubbery by Seagate Drive.
Happy Retirement Lester
Beneath the mammoth live oak tree, a table was spread with refreshments, including customized sugar cookies frosted to resemble mailboxes, 4-cent stamps and envelopes.
“During the pandemic, we didn’t go out much,” Larry Rosensweig recalled as he waited for the guests to arrive, “so we cleaned out the attic.
“I found a box of letters from around when my sons were born, and there was a letter from my dad congratulating me on my parenting. Lester delivered it.”
When the Rosensweigs moved here in 1985, their son Clark wasn’t 2 years old and Drew wasn’t even born yet. Clark is 37 now, and Drew 33.
If they have a package, Nora Rosensweig said, Lester always knocks on the door. If there’s no answer, he leaves it to the side, by the bushes. Then, rather than push their letters through the mail slot, he balances them in the slot as a sign that there’s a package waiting.
“He’s always got a smile and a warm hello,” she said.
When Flowers arrived at 3 p.m. he brought the smile and warm hello, along with his son Baakari, 17. He also has two older boys, Bryan, 35, and Justin, 40.
“This is one of the best routes in the city,” he said. “We have a seniority option to change routes if we want to, but once I got to know the people here, I wasn’t going anywhere.”
Now the customers who had become friends ambled over to the shade of the live oak tree. Some shook hands. Some hesitated. Was it all right to hug a mailman? They decided it was. They chatted, they sipped, they snacked. They posed for pictures. They reminisced.
When Debbie Cohen arrived in Seagate a month after Flowers, her sons, Lee and Ben, weren’t yet part of her life. Lee is 34 now, and Ben 31.
“I don’t know any other mailman,” she said. “I didn’t know there was such a thing. Lester has seen me through nine yellow Labs, two at a time, and both sons. It’s been like having a happy constant in the neighborhood.”
Reeve Bright has owned as many as five dogs at a time.
“But they never bit Lester,” he said. “He’s too kind.”
No, Flowers said, he was never bitten by a dog. “I’ve been blessed. I’ve been chased by a couple of dogs, but they didn’t catch me.”
Dogs didn’t scare him, he said, and Florida gets no snow.
It gets lightning.
“They tell us don’t be stupid, shut it down,” he explained. “I’ve seen trees fall in lightning, so I wait out in people’s carports. The people know me.”
Flowers had been delivering mail to Anna Parrott’s house for 18 years before Andrew was born, and 20 before his brother, Sheppard, joined him.
Their mother has a photo of them both with their mailman in 2010, when Sheppard was 4 and Andrew 6.
Andrew is 17 now, and Sheppard 15. On this afternoon, they stood with their arms around Flowers to pose again a decade later.
“Lester knew me since before I was born,” Andrew Parrott said. “Forever. He’s really caring, and the sweetest soul ever.”

Lester Flowers pauses to greet Stella, a golden retriever who belongs to Sheppard Parrott and his mother, Anna.

And so it went, best wishes, memories and a bit of sadness, too.
“I know these people,” Flowers said. “They’re like family. I’m a Christian all my life, and a deacon in St. John’s Baptist Church, so I do the job the way I want to be treated.” When Nora Rosensweig told him they might have to head north because her husband’s father was battling cancer, Flowers assured them he’d hold their mail.
“And I’m putting you on my prayer list,” he added. They are not the only customers who have been on his prayer list.
After about 25 people had arrived, the Rosensweigs poured the champagne and they raised their plastic cups.
“It’s not like we’re losing a mailman,” Nora said. “We’re losing a family friend. We love you, and we wish you nothing but the best.”
For four decades, 35 years here in Seagate, Lester Flowers has come to the distribution center at 6 a.m. to pick up the mail he will deliver to 550 families in this neighborhood. Usually he was finished by 6 p.m., except around Christmas, when there’s so much more mail. Then he might not get home until 8.
“You’ve got to work till it’s done,” he said.
And now it’s done. Officially, his final day was May 31, but that was Memorial Day, so Friday the 28th would be it. This party, then one last delivery and on Saturday his son Baakari’s high school graduation from St. John Paul II Academy.
“Thank you to everyone,” Flowers told the gathering after the toast. “I could do this for a while more, but I need to spend time with my family before the kids get away.
“I’m not going to miss the job,” he said. “But I’m going to miss all of you.”

By Mary Hladky

The city and the Boca Raton Arts District Exploratory Corp. are moving closer to inking a deal that would allow a $130 million performing arts complex to be built on city-owned land in Mizner Park.
City Council members made clear that they favor BRADEC as they brushed aside two rival proposals on May 10 and directed city staff to continue negotiations.
The city was legally required to request additional proposals because it would be leasing city land to BRADEC for many years if an agreement is reached.
Naftali Group, a New York City-based development company, said it would redevelop and redesign the Mizner Park Amphitheater and build a mixed-use project on an adjacent 1.8 acres of city-owned land. That could include residential, retail and offices.
But none of the company’s many projects has included a cultural arts center, Executive Director Gary Cohen said.
AEG Presents, a Los Angeles-headquartered national concert promoter and venue management company that provides programming at the amphitheater, said it would operate and do programming for the amphitheater and develop cultural venues on the 1.8 acres.
Both companies said they would not request any funding from the city. AEG Presents said it did not intend to share event revenues with the city, although this could be negotiated.
Their proposals were not specific. Cohen acknowledged being “late to the game,” saying his company only recently learned the city was accepting proposals and did not have time to present a more comprehensive plan.
BRADEC’s submission, in contrast, ran to 242 pages, including appendices.
After the presentations, a long line of BRADEC supporters urged council members to complete a deal with the organization.
All five council members said they favor BRADEC because it is a local company with ties to many of the city’s cultural organizations.
“I like the fact they are a community-based organization and they have support from our arts-based organizations,” council member Monica Mayotte said.
BRADEC has “unbelievable community support,” Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke said.
“Your zeal and passion and support is clear,” said Mayor Scott Singer. “My concerns are financial. You have addressed that by forgoing city funds.”
“BRADEC. Let’s get going on that,” said council member Andy Thomson.
BRADEC proposes completely renovating the existing 3,500-seat amphitheater and adding indoor and outdoor performing arts spaces, a rooftop terrace and more parking.
This would be financed by donations from cultural arts supporters and corporations that have long wanted such a facility in the city.
The $130 million price tag includes a $12 million endowment, $4 million reserve and $4 million for working capital.
In its most recent submission, BRADEC said it has identified 147 “high-potential” donors, including 19 who have the ability to contribute well in excess of $1 million and 17 who could contribute at least $1 million. A majority have shown an interest in becoming involved in the project.
Another 359 potential donors don’t have a connection to the project but have a “philanthropic track record” in Boca Raton and Palm Beach County, the submission states.
In another Mizner Park matter, council members on May 11 gave the go-ahead to the Boca Raton Museum of Art to demolish the western portion of the colonnade that runs along both sides of the amphitheater.
Eliminating the colonnade will improve access to the museum and its sculpture garden. Museum officials also plan to add landscaping and new lighting and to repave the museum’s entryway.
The city is requiring the museum to put a fence in place when the amphitheater is hosting events to prevent people from slipping in without buying a ticket. The fence can be removed when it’s not needed.
Art museum Executive Director Irvin Lippman expects the work will be completed in September, just ahead of the Oct. 16 start of the Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru exhibition that begins its world tour at the museum.

Jason Miele, a marine interdiction agent with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, retrieves evidence from a fishing boat that ran aground at the St. Andrews Club on May 2, loaded with 28 Haitians. Officers from Gulf Stream, Ocean Ridge, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and the county Sheriff's Office also responded. Efforts to free the boat that day failed and fuel leaked from it, prompting authorities to close Gulfstream Park for two days. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By May 7 a recovery crew with floats and a backhoe was brought in to drain water from the boat and free it from the submerged rocks. On May 8 the crew pulled the boat ashore for demolition.

The Florida League of Cities has honored Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer as a 2021 Home Rule Hero for his work and advocacy efforts during the 2021 legislative session.
“Singer worked tirelessly throughout the session to promote local voices making local choices, protect the home rule powers of Florida’s municipalities and advance the League’s legislative agenda,” the League said in a May 26 release.
During the recently completed legislative session, lawmakers continued efforts they have made in previous years to strip cities and counties of governing powers enshrined in the state constitution and known as “home rule.”
“I am honored to work with local elected leaders across the state to defend the principle that cities should be able to decide local matters without undue interference from Washington or Tallahassee,” Singer said.
Singer, who was elected mayor in 2018 and re-elected in 2020, was also named a Home Rule Hero in 2018 and 2020.

— Mary Hladky

By Rich Pollack

LANTANA — Soon after she moved into a sixth-floor apartment with an ocean view at the Carlisle Palm Beach five years ago, former Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Jacqueline “Jackie” Winchester became an active member of the assisted living facility’s residents association.
Mrs. Winchester, who was 91 when she died April 24 after treatment for a form of blood cancer, was president of the association, serving as a liaison between the Lantana facility’s residents and management and coordinating the Christmas drive to provide gifts for staff members.
That came as no surprise to family members and to those who worked with Mrs. Winchester — Palm Beach County’s first female elections supervisor — while she headed the elections office from 1973 to 1996.
“If you asked those who worked with her, they would say they could always count on her,” said her son Jon Winchester.
A former Belle Glade middle school and high school English teacher who was a member of the group that started the Belle Glade library, Mrs. Winchester was a leader in the county’s League of Women Voters and was well-respected for her integrity and for her finely honed organizational skills.
“She knew how to get things done,” said Theresa LePore, who succeeded Mrs. Winchester when she retired after being re-elected to the office six times. “She was detail-oriented and always looked for ways to be more efficient.”
Maintaining the integrity and professionalism of the office was a priority for Mrs. Winchester, who focused on the task at hand while maintaining neutrality.
“She was a strong woman who was very ethical,” Jon Winchester said. “She was someone who always wanted to do the right thing. She stood by something when she believed in it.”
Although soft-spoken with a slight hint of a Southern drawl, Mrs. Winchester could be tough, using a no-nonsense approach to achieving a goal.
Her decades running elections in Palm Beach County began when Mrs. Winchester’s predecessor, Horace Beasley, died shortly after being elected to a third term. She was appointed by then-Gov. Reubin Askew.
At the time, all of the election records and registrations were kept on paper, with names handwritten and stored in leather-bound books.
After Mrs. Winchester arrived, bringing a refreshing hands-on approach to the role, she began transforming the office and modernizing it.
“Her legacy is bringing the office from paper to computer,” LePore said. “It was 1,000% better than what it was.”
An avid traveler, Mrs. Winchester continued to put a priority on fair elections — even after she retired — serving as an observer in Albania, Kosovo and Ukraine.
Her decision to leave her home of 47 years and move to an assisted living facility came after she was diagnosed with macular degeneration and knew her vision would fail. Leaving Lake Clarke Shores and moving to a coveted top-floor apartment at the Carlisle was her choice, according to Jon Winchester.
“She made all of her own decisions right until the end,” he said. “She wanted to be in control.”
Mrs. Winchester is survived by her four children, Jim Winchester (Jane), Jon Winchester (Melynda Melear), Sterling Winchester (Julie) and Melissa Winchester (Andy Winer), as well as seven grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
A celebration of life was held on May 8 at the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in West Palm Beach, and another celebration of life was held at the Carlisle later in the month.

DELRAY BEACH — Adlyn Foster Sherman, 99, died May 11 of natural causes.
Adlyn Foster was born in Utica, New York, on Jan. 6, 1922, the daughter of Harry Foster and Elsie Pfleeger Foster. Raised in New Hartford, New York, she attended New Hartford High School, where she met her future husband, William L. Sherman.
Adlyn and Bill married in 1944 at Saint Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco where Bill, an officer in the U.S. Navy, was being shipped out to the Pacific theater. When World War II ended, Bill joined Adlyn in Utica to start their family.
The couple moved to Philadelphia in 1953 then to Baltimore, where they lived for 38 years.
Mrs. Sherman was a cartographer for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, where her main focus was mapping the Chesapeake Bay.
She was also active with Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, PTA, Junior League, and bridge and garden clubs.
Upon retirement, the Shermans moved to Delray Beach, where they lived on the Intracoastal Waterway for 18 years.
Family always came first, and Mrs. Sherman is survived by the couple’s four children: Lynda Sherman-Strand and husband Robert of Carmel, California; William L. Sherman Jr. and wife Lynne of Las Vegas, Nevada; James M. Sherman and wife Sharon of Boynton Beach; and John P. Sherman and wife Sara of Rye, New York. Survivors also include seven grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Sherman was preceded in death by her husband, her brother Ralph Foster of Utica and sister Dorothy Whitney of New Hartford.
The family would like to thank Abbey Delray and all of the caregivers who made Mrs. Sherman comfortable.
A memorial service was held in Delray Beach and burial will be in Utica.

— Obituary submitted by the family

OCEAN RIDGE — Velden Paul Colby died April 21, following an auto accident in Citra, where he lived. He was 86.
The man known to everyone as “Colby” was born Dec. 17, 1934, in Fairview, Oklahoma, to Paul and Ruth Sheffield Colby. He was preceded in death by his parents, siblings Vona, Verlyn, Vinton and Veleta, who was his twin sister, as well as his youngest son, Chris Colby of Louisville, Kentucky.
Mr. Colby graduated in 1953 from Cheyenne Valley Consolidated High School, then joined the U.S. Army, serving in the 526th Armored Infantry, Fort Knox, Kentucky, 1953-1955. While he was at Fort Knox, a friend introduced him to Jeanette Drury. They married and together had five children, settling in Louisville.
Realizing early on he wanted to be his own boss, he enrolled in Kentucky College of Barbering, graduating in 1958. Soon after he opened Colby’s Barber Shop. That suited him perfectly because he loved people, he loved making friends, listening to their stories and telling his.
Time passed, lives changed and Mr. Colby eventually moved to Boynton Beach, opening another barber shop in Ocean Ridge. He became an avid dancer, dancing his way into the heart of Elaine Lee and she into his. They could clear any dance floor, even when he was into his 80s.
He ultimately realized his dream of owning some land, orange trees, horses and dogs at his aptly named “Happy Feet” homestead in Citra. He was able to enjoy his “little piece of heaven” for a large part of his retirement years. Mr. Colby is survived by his best friend and dance partner of 30 years, Elaine Lee; his children Dennis Colby of Boynton Beach, Cheryl (John) Wellerding of Louisville, Deana (Billy) Craycroft of Louisville, Glen Colby of Reading, Massachusetts; a daughter-in-law Kathleen Colby; grandchildren Brent, Ryan, Evelyn Grace, Ethan, Elias, Cooper, Gavin and Julia; and many other nieces, nephews, family and friends. His wishes were to have his body donated for research. A celebration of his life will be held 2-4 p.m. June 12 at the VFW, 4805 NE 36th Ave., Ocala. Expressions of sympathy may be made in his honor to any U.S. veterans organization or an animal rescue center.

— Obituary submitted by the family

By Larry Barszewski

If you’re at the beach and you have a medical emergency, rescue crews say they will do what it takes to get you the help you need.
That’s not what Kim Jones experienced when she and a friend were snorkeling off the coast of Ocean Ridge near the Ocean Club of Florida and a man-of-war wrapped itself around her friend’s ankle, stinging the woman with its venomous nematocysts. The two headed directly to shore, where Jones had someone call 911 after her friend’s condition worsened.
Jones, who lives in Ocean Ridge, says the Boynton Beach Fire Rescue paramedics didn’t head straight to her friend when they arrived. Instead, she says they were waiting for the woman to be brought off the beach to them or — as ended up happening — for the arrival of an Ocean Ridge police ATV to bring one of the paramedics with oxygen and a medical box to the woman.
“This woman is definitely in anaphylactic shock. She’s on her way to hyperventilating. Her pulse is rapid. Nausea’s setting in. I need help,” Jones says of the Feb. 10 incident, in which private lifeguards from the club tried to assist. “I’m there and I’ve got nobody coming to help me. As a visual thing, it was horrible, because all these members are looking at three EMS standing there doing nothing and I’m screaming for help.”
Boynton Beach Fire Rescue officials say their records show a paramedic was with the patient a minute after the crew arrived. That doesn’t mesh with Ocean Ridge police dispatch reports that show more than six minutes elapsed based on fire rescue’s reported arrival time.
Boynton Beach Fire Rescue Deputy Chief Hugh Bruder says a fire-rescue inquiry based on Jones’ complaint found no negligence. The woman recovered after being treated at a hospital.
“Everyone did the right thing,” Bruder says. “To my knowledge, they were there for a very short period of time until the crew [member] was brought to the patient.”
The explanation seems at odds with one Jones had received earlier from Assistant Chief Jarvis Prince, which was in defense of having a patient brought off the beach to paramedics if at all possible.
Prince said many times it’s easier and quicker for patients to be brought off the beach to them. Paramedics have up to 80 pounds of equipment with them — equipment usually placed on a stretcher that has wheels that can’t be used in beach sand, he said.
“If it’s a life-threatening situation, we bring ourselves down to the patient,” says Prince, whose department also serves Briny Breezes. “It’s based on the severity of the call itself.”

Other departments describe how they work
Other fire-rescue departments serving south Palm Beach County beach communities say their crews have no hesitation about going onto the beach to treat patients.
“We’re going to treat them in the best manner possible, wherever they are and then move them if we need to move them,” says Palm Beach County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Tara Cardoso, whose department serves South Palm Beach, Manalapan, Lantana, Lake Worth Beach and the Boynton Inlet. “We’re completely mobile. We have to move our gear all over the place. We have backpacks.”
Palm Beach County Fire Rescue responded to 30 calls to 911 last year on or near the South County beaches in its coverage area. Cardoso offered these tips for people at the beach in case an emergency arises:
• Know where you are on the beach relative to your surroundings, so 911 crews can quickly find you.
• Heed all beach warnings, including for rough surf, rip currents or marine life.
• Know if the beach is guarded and if so, at what time lifeguards leave for the day.
Dani Moschella, spokeswoman for Delray Beach Fire Rescue, which also provides emergency services in Highland Beach, says hard-to-get-to places come with the job — and the beach is no different.
“Think of all the difficult spots paramedics go to reach patients. They’ll go anywhere,” Moschella says. “They’ll go on a roof or to someone hanging from a scaffolding. They’ll go into confined spaces, say to someone trapped in a pipe. … They go in canals. They extricate people from cars.”
Delray paramedics, who responded to about 40 beach emergencies in 2020, are often assisted by the city’s on-duty lifeguards, who are certified emergency medical technicians and who may already be on the scene. In some situations, lifeguards may bring people to a meeting point that’s more accessible to paramedics.
“It’s always going to be a game-time decision by the paramedic based on what that person requires,” Moschella says. “For example, if there is someone showing signs of heat stroke, and the person can walk, it might be smarter to have him or her taken to the pavilion and wait for the rescue in the shade.”
Delray Beach lifeguards will also respond to emergencies in Highland Beach, even though no lifeguard towers are there, Moschella says. “If they become aware of a swimmer in distress in Highland Beach, either from a 911 call or by seeing the person with binoculars, they would respond on an ATV and assist the person or assist firefighters with the call.”
As in Delray Beach, Boca Raton Fire Rescue frequently works in tandem with its city’s lifeguards, who are also trained as emergency medical technicians and who have ATVs that can transport patients.
“All our Ocean Rescue personnel are EMT certified and capable of rendering aid, again depending on the severity. We have situations where the lifeguards will begin treatment at their level and then bring the patient to us,” Boca Raton Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Jason Stout says in an email to The Coastal Star. “It may not be easy or conducive for the lifeguards to move the patient, therefore FD personnel would go to the patient.”
Stout adds: “Each call and patient is different and unique, so there is no set standard. The goal is to get immediate help to the patient.”

Reports disagree on response times
Three months after the Ocean Ridge incident, Jones and the Ocean Ridge police said they still had not received any update from Boynton fire rescue about the investigation of its handling of the February incident.
Ocean Ridge Police Lt. Richard Jones, no relation to Kim Jones, says the February situation was not typical. Usually, a paramedic is already making his way to a patient when given a lift by the police ATV, not waiting to be picked up, he says.
“I’ve never seen that happen before,” Lt. Jones says. Ocean Ridge has had nine beach emergencies so far this year and eight each in 2020 and 2019.
During the February incident, private lifeguards from the nearby Ocean Club were with the woman and had a device to help her breathe before the paramedic was brought down, according to police and fire rescue.
But Kim Jones feared her friend needed more attention and other treatments sooner and says more concern should have been shown by the waiting paramedics.
According to fire-rescue reports, the crew arrived on the scene at 11:32 a.m. and a crew member was with the woman at 11:33 a.m. after being transported to her by Ocean Ridge police. But Ocean Ridge police reports show the ATV officer didn’t even leave from the garage until 11:33 a.m., wasn’t on the scene until 11:39 a.m., and didn’t take the paramedic to the woman until 11:40 a.m.
Both say the other’s times don’t make sense. If fire rescue is correct, then it took the ATV officer only a minute to get from the police station to the beach, pick up the paramedic and take the paramedic to the woman, Lt. Jones says.
But Bruder says he doesn’t see how paramedics could assess and treat the woman for just five minutes before leaving to take her to the hospital, as the police timing would indicate. Both police and fire-rescue reports say the scene was cleared at 11:45 a.m.
Kim Jones says she wouldn’t have had to ask the lifeguards twice to go up to the paramedics to get one of them to come down, if one was already with her friend within a minute of arriving. The whole incident has made her wary of being involved with another beach emergency.
“If I ever am an onlooker and do a rescue on the beach again, I’m basically going to have to count on myself, because I’m not sure if EMS is going to get down to me and how quickly any transportation is going to arrive,” Jones says. “It’s been a big eye opener for me.”

Old high school’s new uses reflect wider push for preservation

By Larry Barszewski

The Boynton Woman’s Club made an impressive move almost a century ago, when it left its original Ocean Avenue location for a clubhouse designed by famed Palm Beach architect Addison Mizner.
At the time, back on Ocean Avenue, students were attending the Boynton School. The new high school next door — then at the western fringe of town — was a year away from opening. Just east of the schools, the Jones and Magnuson families were enjoying their recently built homes.
Those two schools, the clubhouse and the homes from Boynton’s past are still part of its present, with all but one of them receiving significant renovations and repurposing for the modern era:
• The 1927 high school building reopened in October as the Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center.
• The 1926 Woman’s Club building, whose ownership transferred from the Community Redevelopment Agency to the city in March, is being marketed as a venue for weddings, parties and other social events.
• The 1913 Boynton School has operated as the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum & Learning Center since 2001.
• The 1924 Jones cottage was moved by the CRA to a different spot on Ocean Avenue in 2011 and has since been home to several restaurants. It may reopen this year with new culinary fare.
• The Magnuson house, built about 1919, faces a less certain future. Hopes of turning it into a restaurant, brew pub or other gathering spot have been all but erased given the cost of the restoration work that would be needed.
Still, Boynton Beach has not been quick to give up on its history. The five buildings have all been owned at some point by the city or its CRA, which have sought to have them preserved and incorporated into downtown redevelopment.

Boynton School (Boynton Elementary School)
The Schoolhouse Children’s Museum was one of the city’s first major history-saving projects on Ocean Avenue. The city received the building from the school district in 1994. That same year, the school joined the Boynton Woman’s Club on the National Register of Historic Places, the only two Boynton structures on the list.
City officials in the 1990s could see how Old School Square in Delray Beach was helping turn around that city’s downtown — anchoring the redevelopment of Atlantic Avenue. They sought to use their old elementary school for Boynton’s own downtown rejuvenation and embarked on a $14 million restoration of the two-story structure designed by Baltimore architect William Maughlin.
The city kept the school’s focus on children. The nonprofit Boynton Cultural Centre operates the downtown museum at 129 E. Ocean Ave. Interactive exhibits teach children about the area’s past, including the city’s first hotel, the exploits of the Barefoot Mailman and how the arrival of the railroad fueled South Florida’s growth.
The museum was selected this year for a $100,000 grant from Impact 100, a women’s charitable organization that funds nonprofit initiatives in South Palm Beach County.

Boynton Woman’s Club
Fortune smiled on the Boynton Woman’s Club in the 1920s when it decided to build a new clubhouse to meet its need for more space. The family of Maj. Nathan Boynton, the city’s namesake, had been looking for a way to honor the major and pledged $35,000 — more than $500,000 in today’s dollars — in his memory toward the building’s construction.
Mizner, meanwhile, donated his design services to the project.
Built in the architect’s now-famous Mediterranean Revival style, it also included features designed specifically for the Woman’s Club. Its low-rising, wide stairs, for instance, made it easier for women decked out in elegant gowns and other finery to ascend to the second-floor ballroom.
In 1979, the building at 1010 S. Federal Highway earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, a first for the city. It is the only Mizner building in the city.
The Woman’s Club sold the building to the CRA for $110,000 in 2017 because the cost of upkeep had become too great for the organization. The building is now called the Historic Woman’s Club of Boynton Beach.
“It was our identity. We poured so much into it and I don’t just mean monetarily,” former club President Kay Baker said. “They poured their hearts and souls into getting this building built, then modernizing it and keeping it there.”
Historic preservation wasn’t part of the club’s original mission, though preservation work took up increasingly significant amounts of the club’s time and resources in recent decades.
“Our focus is on education, giving scholarships, charitable contributions. It was difficult having that focus and also maintaining the property,” Baker said.
The CRA, in deciding to transfer ownership of the building to the city, committed to spending $250,000 a year for the next three years for additional repair work in and around the building. In May, the CRA agreed to also pay up to $87,000 to cover the professional design costs of those improvements.
The CRA previously spent about $700,000, including $127,000 in grants, on a new clay barrel-tile roof, refinishing the wood floors, painting the building and other improvements.

Old Boynton High School
The $10.6 million renovation of the original Boynton High School building into the city’s arts and cultural center is part of the ongoing Town Square development that includes a new city hall — named City Center — across Ocean Avenue from the school.
The building served as a high school until 1949, and later as a junior high and then an elementary school before closing in 1990. It was added to the city’s list of historic places in 2013, but stayed vacant until the arts and cultural center opening.
Some rooms remain to be restored in the historic building at 125 E. Ocean Ave., but its luster is back already. The transformed main hallways on the upper and lower levels are now exhibit space. Remodeled and combined classrooms are used for art and dance instruction.
The southern yellow pine ceiling of the second-floor gymnasium has a new roof overhead and vinyl flooring tile underneath, which replaced the gym’s original, unsalvageable hardwood flooring. The city eventually plans to rent out the gym — which was also the school’s auditorium and includes a stage — for events.
Sue Beaman spent a lot of time in that gym. Beaman and her brother, Pat McGregor Murphy, were members of the Class of 1949, the last high school graduating class at the school. Their graduation took place in the gymnasium, where Beaman doesn’t think she missed a single one of the school’s basketball games.
“It was just good being out with the other kids and having fun,” Beaman said. “High school kids during that time had little recreational opportunities other than basketball games and going to the beach.”
Beaman remembers the school as “a wonderful place” and is grateful to everyone involved in giving new life to the building that she said “was within a tiny minute of being destroyed.”
An official grand reopening has not yet been scheduled, city officials said. The center currently is hosting an art exhibit, Upcycled Fashion. It features the works of two artists who take discarded materials — including plastic bottles and tire inner tubes — and create art and wearable garments. The exhibit runs through June 25.
The recent work on the school wasn’t its first restoration. That came little more than a year after it first opened, after the Hurricane of 1928 badly damaged the building and caused the gym walls to collapse, injuring people who were sheltering inside from the storm.
“The building is significant architecturally as it is a fine example of the Mediterranean Revival style of architecture combined with elements of the early Art Deco style,” Michael Rumpf, the city’s development director, said in an email to The Coastal Star.
After the hurricane damage, there was an effort to retain the building’s character and style, Rumpf said. “Both the original design and reconstruction of the damaged building was attributed to William Manly King, the architect of many Palm Beach County schools and other notable buildings,” he said.

Oscar Magnuson House
The CRA attempted without success to find a restaurant or other use for the two-story Magnuson house at 211 E. Ocean Ave. The house’s future looked promising in 2016, when a Philadelphia entrepreneur bought it with plans for a restaurant, but the CRA took it back two years later after the project fell through.
Renovations will be expensive, and no one has been willing to take on the task.
City commissioners, who serve as the CRA board, have decided to let the house be for now, at least until something happens with the land. Demolition has not been ruled out.
“The CRA has made numerous attempts to dispose of the property for reuse/redevelopment purposes via the Request for Proposal process,” CRA Executive Director Michael Simon said in an email to The Coastal Star. “However, once a selected entity performs their due diligence and determines the large amount of money needed to convert the residential building to a commercial use such as a restaurant, they terminate their interest. Future plans for the property will most likely involve its participation in the redevelopment of the adjacent parcels under a larger project scope.”
The Magnuson house was added to the city’s list of historic places in 2012. It is built in the frame vernacular style, just like the Jones cottage. Both are examples of local homes during Boynton Beach’s pioneer days. The Magnuson house was also used as a commercial plant nursery in the 1980s.

Ruth Jones Cottage (Little House)
The Jones home, built at 201 E. Ocean Ave., now sits as vacant restaurant space at 480 E. Ocean Ave. It is also referred to as the Little House, the name of the first restaurant that it contained, or the Ruth Jones Cottage — although Ruth didn’t marry into the Jones family until the 1940s.
The now privately owned cottage has an addition attached to it that makes it more functional as a restaurant. The building still bears the name of the last restaurant to operate there — Chez Andrea Gourmet Provence, a French restaurant with the unfortunate luck of opening in February 2020 just as the pandemic struck. It closed its doors in January.
Property co-owner Richard Lucibella, a former vice mayor in Ocean Ridge who purchased the building from the CRA in 2016 with Barbara Ceuleers, said he expects a new restaurant to be in operation later this year.
“We’re entertaining three or four lease offers,” Lucibella said during a May 12 interview with The Coastal Star. “I think we’re going to have a lease signed in the next 30 to 60 days, and an operating tenant by the end of summer.”
As for the building itself, Lucibella said he plans to make sure its exterior continues to exude its century-old feel. The building doesn’t have an official historic designation, he said.
“It’s still the Ruth Jones Cottage. As owners, we’ll always control the general look of the outside,” Lucibella said. “It’ll remain the look of the little yellow cottage, I can guarantee you that.”

After working 60 to 70 hours a week at Woolbright Farmers Market for the past 20 years, Jesse Goldfinger wants to spend more time with his wife and three kids. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Christine Davis

Woolbright Farmers Market, a longtime produce stand and garden center at 141 W. Woolbright Road in Boynton Beach, closed in May. The closing came as owner Jesse Goldfinger, 40, who took over the business from his parents, Howard and Michelle, retired.
“It’s time to move on,” Goldfinger said. “I’ve been working 60 to 70 hours a week for the last 20 years, and my kids don’t get to see me enough.”
A year after his parents bought the market, he joined them right out of college in running the business, he said. “Then, my father bowed out in 2007, and my mom worked with me up until COVID.”   
The 800-square-foot center carried local vendors, including Lake Worth Beach’s Upper Crust pies and Delray Beach’s Old School Bakery. Fruits and vegetables accounted for the bulk of sales, with about half of them organic.
In later years, the market also sold smoothies, cold-press juices and milkshakes.
“We also made a mean guacamole, and we sold fresh-cut flowers, Christmas trees and pumpkins,” Goldfinger said. “We sold the good stuff. That was the key.”
The property, which had been owned by members of the Neumann family since the 1980s, originally had a house as well as the market. They lived on the site and farmed out west.
Over the years, the property changed hands. It was also owned by Harvey E. Oyer Jr., a descendant of one of South Florida’s pioneer families, as well as Ridgewood Groves of Palm Beach.
Goldfinger, who plans to hold onto the property, recalls that it was a farm market before his family owned it.
“The emotional part of me says, I would love for it to be carried on as a farm market, but the business part of me says, ‘He who pays the rent gets to choose,’” he said.
Goldfinger and his wife, Jessica, have sold their house and are ready to hit the road, maybe eventually settling back down in upstate New York, closer to Jessica’s family. In the meantime, they, with daughters Kate, 12, and Quinn, 5, and son Collin, 10, are preparing to take off in an RV.
“We plan to take a long trip,” Goldfinger said. “It’s an opportunity for us to see the country together and offer our children this educational opportunity.”
He is going to miss the “fresh stuff,” though, he said. “We like it and believe in it, so, of course, we use it. We have great tomatoes when we want them.
“My wife texts me what she needs, and I bring it home. That is a convenience we will also miss.” 

After a year and a half of dealing with the ramifications of the coronavirus, local chambers of commerce predict a rosier summer.
Some businesses were hit harder than others, said David Arm, president of the Greater Lantana Chamber of Commerce. 
Lantana Fitness, 700 W. Lantana Road, which Arm owns with his wife, Renee, “was shut down by the state early on, but reopened with stringent COVID protocols, and is only now seeing business improve as vaccination rates increase and people feel more comfortable about going to the gym,” Arm said.
As an example of a business that managed better than most, Arm points to the Old Key Lime House, 300 E. Ocean Ave., Lantana.
 “Its entire facility is outdoors, which made people feel more comfortable than going into an indoor restaurant,” Arm said. “Mario’s restaurant, on the other hand, moved from 225 E. Ocean Ave., Lantana, to 707 Lake Avenue, Lake Worth Beach, because most of its dining was indoors, and they didn’t have enough business to sustain a facility of that size. After they moved to the smaller location, they are doing very well.”
Other developments that Arm noted: After finishing renovations, Uncle Louie G Lantana, an ice cream shop at 204 E. Ocean Ave., opened during the pandemic.
After American Spirit Cheer & Dance closed at 211 S. Third St., Superior Window Treatments and Installation constructed a new showroom and opened there.
Saglo, owner of the Kmart Plaza site, 1201 S. Dixie Highway, and the Morgan Group, a national residential real estate developer, have resumed discussions on plans to build about 200 upscale rental units.
At Water Tower Commons, 1199 W. Lantana Road, the Related Group has completed the first phase of residential units and has begun work on its second phase. The commercial segment, owned by Lantana Development LLC, with Kenco Communities and Wexford Capital, is moving along with road improvements, Arm said. Commercial businesses there will include Aldi and Wawa.

Stephanie Immelman, president and CEO of the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, said, “As of now, the season won’t be ending anytime soon.”
According to her members, “the pent-up demand is driving hotel stays, attraction visits and high restaurant capacity. The booking pipeline for hotels is stretching out past July 4.” 
Delray is booming, she said. “Florida is the place to be right now, because many other states are opening up more slowly. Cruises are not opened yet either. Even if our part-time residents go back up North, there will be significant demand from the drive market and local patronage of our businesses. For now, it’s good news.”
Immelman points to Crane’s Beach House, at 82 Gleason St., as an example.
Cathy Balestriere, Crane’s general manager, said: “After a difficult and challenging year for our industry, we are happy to report that we are seeing a very strong return of both new and loyal guests here at Crane’s, whom we are welcoming back safely and with new services. …
“We’ve seen many weeks of very high occupancy” even with in-season prices “and continue to see positive bookings even into the summer.
“We were fortunate to be able to remain open throughout the pandemic and retain our entire staff, thanks to a lot of very rigid precautionary measures and flexible stay options and are incredibly grateful to see our hotel filled with happy and satisfied guests once again.”

“Boca is well on the road to recovery,” said Troy McLellan, president and CEO of the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce. “The general economy in Boca Raton, Boynton Beach and south Palm Beach County is much healthier than when the floor fell out from under us.”
He said government funding helped businesses, so much so that some were doing well enough financially that they did not need to apply for more recent government funding options, such as the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
However, his members are having a hard time finding employees, and he predicts that will continue until September.
“That’s unfortunate, because summers are challenging for businesses,” he said. “They are paying more and incentivizing” in an effort to attract workers, “but that’s not a sustainable strategy to identify, recruit and retain their workforce. Almost all of our member hotels — Boca Marriott, Renaissance Boca and Wyndham Boca — as well as our member restaurants are looking for workers.”

Owners of Under the Sun products, Delray Beach residents Lauren Donald and Julie Peyton, have offered their hair-care line at salons as well as online since 2012. Today, three of their products, Shampoo Treatment, Conditioning Treatment, and Leave-In Conditioner, are also offered on Amazon Prime, with a percentage of their sales donated to local charities.
Their products can be purchased at Amazon.com  or alwaysunderthesun.com. Products are also available curbside at Bond Street Salon, 25 NE Second Ave., Delray Beach. To find other stores that carry them, call 855-888-4247.

Alison Kirsten has joined Eau Spa as director of spa and leisure at Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa. Previously, Kirsten was spa director of the Peninsula Hotels in Beverly Hills, and prior to that, she ran spa and fitness operations at Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons hotels. 

As of June 1, Van Williams is provost and dean of student services of the Boca Raton campus of Palm Beach State College. He is a member of President Ava L. Parker’s executive leadership team.
Williams joined the college in 2009 as director of TRIO programs before becoming assistant dean of student services on the Lake Worth campus in 2013 and dean in 2017. He serves as an adjunct instructor of “Introduction to the College Experience.”

Kaufman Lynn Construction, a Delray Beach-based builder, recently added two executives to its leadership team. Russell Anderson became the firm’s executive vice president of preconstruction and Jason Patrizi became senior vice president of operations.
Anderson has received industry awards that include the Design-Build Institute National Award for Best Overall Project. His portfolio covers more than 300 projects. Patrizi has extensive knowledge in the multifamily, hospitality, criminal justice, public works, entertainment, and industrial market sectors.

Bonnie Heatzig has joined Douglas Elliman Real Estate’s Boca Raton office at 444 E. Palmetto Park Road. Focusing on waterfront real estate, she has sold more than $80 million in the past two years and has more than $100 million in contracts with the Boca Beach House development in Boca Raton. Heatzig is also a licensed attorney in Florida, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Thomas and Michelle Marra, individually and as trustees of a land trust, sold the home at 1111 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach, for $21.1 million to 1111 Ocean LLC, a Delaware corporation managed by Randal Perkins, according to public records dated May 20. Records show that Perkins’ entity borrowed $10.55 million from First Horizon Bank, and that he owns the house next door at 1141 S. Ocean.
The seven-bedroom estate is sited on 1.14 acres with 120 feet of ocean frontage, according to its listing on Realtor.com, which said that Nick Malinosky, an agent with Douglas Elliman, represented both the buyer and seller in the transaction. The home was originally listed in February for $23.5 million. The Marras bought the 13,712-square-foot mansion in 2015 for $15.45 million, records show.
Perkins in 1992 founded Deerfield Beach-based AshBritt Environmental, a national rapid-response disaster recovery and special environmental services contractor that has managed and executed more than 230 disaster recovery missions as well as special environmental projects, according to the company’s website.

A property at 1800 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan, sold for $14 million, according to public records dated May 17. The estate was owned since 1996 by entities linked to the late pharmaceutical entrepreneur John D. Copanos. Mercedes Chaves sold the estate as a successor co-trustee of a trust in the name of Copanos, who died in 2019. Her co-trustee was Carol H. Bilotti, president of All Florida Tax Consulting Inc. in Broward County.
The buyer was a Georgia-based limited liability company, ADE 925 LLC, which lists Ron Raitz as its agent. Raitz, a real estate entrepreneur, is president and founder of Atlanta Deferred Exchange Inc.  
The 1976-era house with a beach cabana is sited on almost two acres with about 152 feet of water frontage on both the ocean and Intracoastal Waterway.
Real estate agent Shelly Newman of William Raveis South Florida handled both sides of the sale.
Newman also just listed neighboring properties. A four-bedroom estate at 1860 S. Ocean Blvd., listed for $29.9 million and sited on 2.5 acres with 200 feet of water frontage on both the ocean and Intracoastal, is offered for sale for the first time since 1978, according to Newman’s listing.
The property at 1840 S. Ocean Blvd. is listed for $29.5 million. It sits on two acres with 150 feet on both ocean and Intracoastal, has a 11,953-square-foot residence with terraces and a pool, and room to build a 1,200-square-foot cabana. 

Louis Campisano and Jeanette Frankenberg, individually and as trustees of the Gulf Stream Family Trust, sold the home at 3813 N. Ocean Blvd. in Gulf Stream for $11 million to the 3813 N. Ocean Trust. The sale was recorded April 23.
While it’s not clear who owns the latter trust, Ronald Kochman, an attorney at Kochman & Ziska PLC in West Palm Beach, is listed as trustee.
The 5,813-square-foot, five-bedroom house was designed by Randall Stofft and built in 2001.
Campisano is president of New Jersey-based Louis Campisano Insurance Agency, according to his LinkedIn page.
Frankenberg, an attorney, is the managing member of the New Jersey firm Stern, Lavinthal & Frankenberg LLC. According to Zillow, Corcoran agent Thor M. Brown represented the seller, while Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates represented the buyer.  

Kevin and Doris Mattus Hurley sold the Boca Raton waterfront home at 4400 Sanctuary Lane as trustees of the Doris Mattus Hurley Living Trust for $8.65 million to Darielle Singerman, according to public records dated April 22. Doris Hurley is the daughter of the late Reuben and Rose Mattus, the founders of Häagen-Dazs. Singerman is the wife of Aaron Singerman, founder and CEO of the sports supplement company Redcon1.
The Hurleys purchased the 1985-era, 12,974-square-foot mansion in 2003 for $4.6 million and extensively renovated it in 2017.
John Poletto and Mark Nestler of One Sotheby’s International Realty represented the seller, and Brad Schwartzman with Vue Real Estate represented the buyer.

Delray Beach’s Downtown Development Authority celebrated its 50th anniversary during a reception that included past and present board members. FRONT ROW: Rocco Mangel, board member; Dr. Alan Costilo, board member; Frank Frione, board member; Dr. John Conde, board member; Mavis Benson, board member; Bonnie Beer, past board member; Fran Marincola, past board member; Roy Simon, founder and past board chairman; Laura Simon, executive director. BACK ROW: Sandy Zeller, past board member; Peter Arts, board chairman; Ryan Boylston, past board member; Rita Ellis, past board member; David Cook, past board member; and Albert Richwagen, past board member. Photo provided

The Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority celebrated its 50th anniversary on May 22 with a reception.
The DDA was created in 1971 at the request and unanimous vote of the merchants and property owners downtown, with the goal to establish a governing body to increase the parking and commerce for the district. The DDA was founded by then Chamber of Commerce President Roy Simon, who is the father of Laura Simon. She was hired as assistant director in 2010 and promoted to executive director in 2015.
The Florida Legislature passed a law establishing the DDA and authorized that 1 mil of its property value be taxed to fund redevelopment and promotional efforts in the DDA district. It mirrored Delray’s central business district at that time, including businesses from Swinton Avenue to the Intracoastal Waterway.
In 1993, the DDA boundaries were expanded eastward to include properties along Atlantic Avenue to State Road A1A and north and south blocks along the original Central Business District area.
The boundaries were expanded again in 1998 to the west from Swinton Avenue to I-95 to include the newly designated West Atlantic Redevelopment Area.
Over the years, the DDA has invested tax dollars back into downtown through the creation of the public parking lots, the downtown bypass, beautification programs, marketing materials, the DowntownDelrayBeach.com website, merchant promotions, tourism efforts, economic development and by helping facilitate the Clean & Safe program with the Police Department, Community Redevelopment Agency and the city.
Its office is at 350 SE 1st Street.

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

Attending the premiere of I Will Soar at iPic were (l-r) sponsors Joe White and Lee Cohen, Atlantic head coach Jamael Stewart, former head coach T. J. Jackson, team doctor and sponsor Dr. Michael Grasso and coach William Hendrix. Photos provided by Epiphany Photography

By Brian Biggane

Many students who attend Atlantic High School in Delray Beach arrive with the proverbial two strikes against them.

Eighty percent of the student population lives at or below the poverty line. Ninety percent of the football players live in one-parent households — and in many cases that parent is actually a grandparent. Drug traffic and crime are accepted as routine in many of the players’ neighborhoods. Teen pregnancy is not uncommon.

Into this environment in 2013 stepped T.J. Jackson as Atlantic head football coach. The remarkable transformation the school — and particularly his team — has made since is the subject of the documentary I Will Soar, which premiered at Delray’s iPic Theater on May 4 and is set for inclusion in a number of international film festivals.

By enlisting city and community leaders and installing a set of rules that demand commitment from his players, Jackson has produced some very different numbers: 90% of his seniors are scheduled to attend college, including a record 14 on football scholarships. Several more will attend on academic scholarships, after meeting his demand of achieving at least a 3.0 average (out of 4.0). The graduation rate was 100%.

“I don’t feel like there’s another coach like Coach T.J.,” said former student Henry Bryant, a heavily recruited defensive tackle who just finished his first semester at Louisville. “He’s such a leader, and has such a big impact on people. Just to be around him, it gives you good energy.”

Jackson was 68-23 during his tenure as head coach before leaving for a college job earlier this year. In the 2019 season spotlighted in the movie, Atlantic reached the state quarterfinals before losing to Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas, which in recent years has had the most alumni on NFL rosters of any high school in the country.

Among the community leaders Jackson recruited is Janie Swanko of Gulf Stream, a motivational speaker whose frequent trips to the school prompted her and cinematographer John Sturdy to put together the film after getting the OK from Principal Tara Ocampo. It documents how Jackson transformed the team into a family.

“There’s utter respect among each other, and if they ever let loose, T.J. would never let them on the team,” said Swanko, whose duties have included giving seminars on etiquette and media preparation. “It’s about respect, it’s about discipline, it’s about watching out for your brother.”

Former state Rep. Al Jacquet, who attended Atlantic and participated in both football and wrestling there, becomes emotional during the film when asked about the struggles of inner-city Delray Beach students and about Jackson and Swanko, who help light a better path.

“This is why I even had a political career,” he said. “If it wasn’t for people like that, I wouldn’t have even graduated. I would have been one of those statistics.”

Jackson has since accepted an offer to become an assistant coach at Charleston Southern. Former assistant coach Jamael Stewart will replace him, and there are few doubts the standards will remain high.

John Sturdy and Janie Swanko

“The principal is still there, the staff is still there,” Swanko said. “We are a well-oiled machine here.”

Ocampo echoed that sentiment, noting that Stewart worked alongside Jackson throughout his tenure.

“My goal in life is don’t fix what’s not broke, and probably the best decision I’ve made for this program is with all my coaching staff,” she said. “Jamael was side-by-side with T.J., making sure this program is as successful as it is. So bringing Jamael in doesn’t mean we’re skipping a beat. Nothing’s changing, and all those core values are still in place and will continue to be in place.”

Swanko said she hoped the movie could serve as a template for how to go about transforming a program with so many challenges into a success, and she has begun getting feedback from other schools and organizations.

Meanwhile, defensive line coach Daniel Studdard, who coached at the college level for 30 years before joining Jackson four years ago, said he understands how outsiders would be skeptical of all Atlantic has accomplished.

“But now that I’m here and see all the hard work, everybody as a whole, including our great principal, it’s wonderful. That’s why we call it a family, because what we do as a whole is special. A lot of kids don’t have this opportunity. So it’s a great thing.”

Mike Champlin and Ryan Golubovic with a small wahoo Champlin caught off Mar-a-Lago. The wahoo hit a bonito belly strip trolled below the surface behind a planer. Photos by Willie Howard / The Coastal Star

Ocean fishing heats up with tournaments, family outings

By Willie Howard

Many South Florida anglers look forward to the warm days of summer — a time to enjoy fishing the ocean with friends and family for catch such as mahi mahi, kingfish, mutton snapper, blackfin tuna and wahoo.

With the onset of long days, hot weather and relatively calm seas come a host of fishing tournaments (see list below), most of them targeting kingfish, dolphin and wahoo.

A few tips to consider when fishing the ocean during the summer:

• Get out early and finish early. Avoid the worst of the heat and the afternoon storms. Wear long sleeves, hats, sunscreen and sunglasses for sun protection. Drink plenty of water.
• Use live bait when possible. Catch it yourself with a cast net, small jig or sabiki rig (depending on the type of bait), or buy it from one of the boats that sell live bait, such as the Dynamite Live Bait boat often found just inside Boynton Inlet.
• If you hook a nice fish, tighten down the drag and move the boat toward the fish to bring it in before the sharks find it. Sharks’ eating hooked fish has become a year-round challenge for anglers fishing the waters off Palm Beach County.
• Fish deeper after the sun warms the water. Use weight, trolling planers or downriggers to get your bait below the surface. Try attaching a 2- or 3-ounce bank sinker to the line about 20 feet up from the bait by looping a No. 16 rubber band over the line and through the bank sinker. When the sinker comes up on the line during the fight, break the rubber band, then continue the fight.
• Look out for other boats. Don’t intrude on another boat’s fishing spot, but if several boats are lined up along the coast a few miles off the beach, chances are they’re drifting or trolling around weed mats for mahi mahi. You should be able to fish the same general area without invading the space of anglers on another boat.

There’s no need to own a boat to fish the ocean.

Try fishing on one of the inexpensive local “drift boats” such as the Lady K based in Lantana, the Living on Island Time in Hypoluxo or the Sea Mist III in Boynton Beach — or find a private charter at marinas such as Boynton Harbor Marina in Boynton Beach, Sportsman’s Park in Lantana or Palm Beach Yacht Center in Hypoluxo.

Sport lobster season in late July

Florida’s two-day sport lobster season is set for July 28-29.

The daily bag limit is 12 spiny lobster per diver, except in Biscayne National Park and Monroe County (Florida Keys), where the daily limit is six.

Night diving is prohibited in Monroe County during the two-day sport season.

Divers must each have a valid Florida saltwater fishing license and lobster permit, unless exempt.

Lobsters must be measured underwater and landed in whole condition. The lobster’s carapace, or head section, must exceed 3 inches.

No egg-bearing lobster may be harvested. (Look for the orange, spongy mass under the lobster.)

Divers must display diver-down flags from boats and in the water and stay close to their flags.

The regular lobster season opens Aug. 6 and continues through March 31.

For details, go to www.myfwc.com and search for “spiny lobster.”

Jorge Nunez holds the 51-inch kingfish he caught in April using a live goggle-eye in 100 feet of water off The Breakers hotel. Fishing action for kingfish, dolphin and wahoo tends to heat up with the water temperatures during June and July.

Youth fishing skills program

The West Palm Beach Fishing Club is offering a fishing skills program for youths ages 12-15 who are accompanied by a parent or adult chaperone.

This summer’s SALTY program will be held June 18-19.

To request an application, call the fishing club at 561-832-6780.

Fishing tournaments

June 5: The West Palm Beach Fishing Club’s KDW Classic, based at Riviera Beach Municipal Marina. Captains meeting and late registration begins at 6 p.m. June 4 at Riviera Beach Municipal Marina. Entry fee $300 per boat. Call 561-832-6780 or visit www.kdwclassic.com.

June 5: Ladies Fish-Off, Alsdorf Park, Pompano Beach. Register at www.ladiesfishoff.com. Awards brunch June 6. Instagram updates at LadiesFishOff.

June 12: Lantana Fishing Derby with weigh-in at the Old Key Lime House restaurant. Captains party set for 6-9 p.m. June 10 at the Lantana Recreation Center. The awards barbecue is 11:30 a.m. June 13 at Lantana Recreation Center. Eligible fish: kingfish, dolphin and wahoo. Entry fee $250 for up to four anglers. Enter at www.LantanaFishingDerby.com.

June 12: Hospice KDW Shootout Charity Fishing Tournament. Captains meeting 5-7:30 p.m. June 10 at Hurricane Bar & Lounge, 640 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach. Weigh-in at Palm Beach Yacht Center in Hypoluxo. Entry fee $300 per boat. Call Mike Goodridge at 561-703-1907.

June 12: Saltwater Slam for kingfish, dolphin, wahoo, tuna and cobia. Captains meeting 6 p.m. June 10 at Pompano Beach Civic Center. Weigh-in 4-8 p.m. at Sullivan Park, Deerfield Beach. Awards June 13. Entry fee $475 per boat. 954-725-4010 or www.saltwaterslam.com.

June 19: Lake Worth Fishing Tournament for kingfish, dolphin, wahoo and snapper. Captains meeting 6 p.m. June 17 at Tuppen’s Marine & Tackle in Lake Worth Beach. Weigh-in at Palm Beach Yacht Center in Hypoluxo. Entry fee $175 per boat by June 13 or $250 thereafter. Details and entry form at www.Lakeworthfishingtournament.com.

July 10: Big Dog, Fat Cat KDW Shootout based at Sailfish Marina in Palm Beach Shores. A kickoff party is set for 7 p.m. June 23 at Sailfish Marina. The captains meeting and silent auction begin at 5:30 p.m. July 9. Fishing will be from 6:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. July 10. Eligible fish: kingfish, dolphin and wahoo. Enter at www.bigdogfatcat.org.

Aug. 14: Mark Gerretson Memorial Fishing Tournament for kingfish, dolphin, wahoo and a mystery fish. Captains meeting is at 6 p.m. Aug. 12 at Delray Beach Elks Lodge, 265 NE Fourth Ave., Delray Beach.Weigh-in is at Palm Beach Yacht Center in Hypoluxo. Details at www.mgmft.net.

Through Sept. 6: CCA/Florida’s STAR tournament. Prizes include college scholarships for youths and $10,000 for the registered angler who catches the first tagged dolphinfish (mahi mahi).

Prizes awarded for submitting photos of trash collected from the water. Young anglers can get community service hours for removing trash from the water and documenting their work by submitting a photo taken with the STAR measuring device.

Official 2021 STAR measuring devices are available at marine stores such as West Marine in Delray Beach or Tuppen’s Marine & Tackle in Lake Worth Beach.
Entry fee $40 for CCA members or $75 for non-members, including a one-year CCA membership. Register at https://ccaflstar.com or call 844-387-7827.

Scott Hart with a mahi mahi (dolphinfish) caught around mats of floating sargassum on a calm summer day. Calm summer seas give anglers the opportunity to run well offshore to search for weed mats and mahi mahi.

Tip of the month

With more divers taking to the water during the summer and the two-day sport lobster season set for late July, boaters should be especially careful to watch for red-and-white dive flags displayed on boats and on floats pulled by divers in the water. Boat operators should stay at least 300 feet away from dive flags in open water and at least 100 feet away in inlets, rivers and channels.

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

Monsignor Thomas J. Skindeleski marked the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood in May. He plans to retire as a pastor effective Aug. 31. ABOVE: Skindeleski, 75, leads the blessing of a new addition to St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic School in January. Tim Stepien / The Coastal Star

By Janis Fontaine

On a sunny weekend in May, the Very Rev. Canon Thomas J. Skindeleski of St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church in Delray Beach marked the golden anniversary of his ordination as a priest with two celebrations with family and friends from all over the country.

Although he’s been a priest for 50 years, Monsignor Tom, as he’s known among his parishioners, started practicing for the priesthood around age 10 — using Necco wafers candy and tepid tea to give communion to his younger siblings.

“God was speaking to me already,” he said. “I was already in love with the Lord by then.”

When other kids went to lunch, Skindeleski often went to pray. When it came time to make plans for the college, he faced a crossroads. He had a deep passion for architecture, but he said God told him, “There will be time for that. I want you to be a priest.”

It was a choice his parents embraced. His father had considered entering the priesthood as well and liked to joke, “It’s better to raise a priest than be a priest.”

In 1971, at the age of 25, Thomas Skindeleski was ordained at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, by Cardinal John Krol, who died in 1996.

Skindeleski made other sacrifices besides forgoing a life in architecture. A pretty girl he dated got a “Dear Jane, I’m entering the priesthood” letter that Skindeleski still remembers writing. “She wrote me a couple times after, but I never responded. I said goodbye to an old way of living, and my focus was turned to God.”

The many joys in his life have mitigated any sacrifices, Skindeleski says.

“I’ve traveled and seen so much. The great cathedrals in France. I’ve been to Rome dozens of times,” he says.

He treasures his annual spiritual retreat, a week with Trappist monks in the mountains of Massachusetts, where unnecessary talk is discouraged and quiet communion with nature rejuvenates his spirit for another year.

Skindeleski says in his own discouragement, he has found ways to help others face theirs. He tells them that at those times he hears God’s voice saying, “I still love you.” God will always love you, but that doesn’t give you license to live your life without restraint.

“There’s nothing wrong with wealth or power,” he says. “It’s how you use whatever you have that matters. My goal in life has never been wealth or power. It’s been to get to heaven. People today focus on themselves. They say, ‘It’s all about me.’ I say, ‘Say no to me and yes to God.’ Live your lives in readiness to meet God.”

And he can say that to people in six languages (plus English and Latin), having been inspired by his friend and mentor Pope John Paul II. “It enables me to reach out to people in their own language. That’s so important.”

Skindeleski came to St. Vincent Ferrer in 2005 during an embezzlement scandal that shook parishioners’ faith and prompted many to leave the church. St. Vincent has flourished under his kind heart and steady hand.

At the same time, God fulfilled his promise to Skindeleski about his architectural dreams.

Before he came to St. Vincent, Skindeleski served as pastor at Our Lady Queen of the Apostles in Royal Palm Beach, where he oversaw the building of a rectory, parish administration building and a meeting facility. During his tenure at St. Vincent, the school has doubled in size and become a technological powerhouse, among his other achievements.

Skindeleski attributes his success at renewing the parish’s faith and rebuilding the church, literally and figuratively, to his lifelong devotion to prayer.

“All during the day, be prayerful,” he says.

Whether he’s walking, driving, or brushing his teeth, Monsignor Tom is praying. His motto is “ora et labora” — pray and work.

Skindeleski will retire as a pastor on Aug. 31, but “I’ll be very active in different ways,” he says.

In his pastoral message on May 16, Skindeleski wrote: “My true ambition is to be a saint — not necessarily an officially canonized one as those three that I met were — but simply a saint in the sense of spending eternal life with Our Lord in heaven. That has been my real goal in life.”

Of his time at St. Vincent, he says, “There’s never been a dull moment. I’ve never once been bored.”

Boca temple increasing focus on mental health

In Boca Raton, B’nai Torah Congregation is putting more focus on mental health support. One facet of the coronavirus with which clergy members are concerned is that people who lost someone were never able to properly grieve the loss. David Steinhart, senior rabbi of B’nai Torah Congregation, is making mental health a priority for his congregation, encouraging people to start and participate in support groups.

Steinhart says not only is it OK to ask for help, it’s OK to look for help beyond spiritual counsel. Churches and synagogues are turning to professionals for extra help, hiring social workers and other mental health practitioners to expand their arsenals.

But the first step is to ask for help. And the best place to start is your place of worship.

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

Cameron Price, Arturo Palermo and Siena DeRosa, preschool students at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic School in Delray Beach, take part in art activities. Photo provided

By Janis Fontaine

When their older brothers and sisters return to classes at St. Vincent Ferrer School in Delray Beach, the youngest students will have a place to learn and play, too.

St. Vincent is nearly tripling the size of its preschool programs, adding a full-day program for 3-year-olds to its 4-year-old class, and adding a half-day program for 3- and 4-year-olds who don’t want to commit to a full day of school.

When they’re not playing in their bright, new classrooms, they may be outside on their new playground.

St. Vincent has been investing in children’s education for 65 years. The school recently finished a $6.5 million renovation to accommodate the 360 students attending kindergarten through eighth grade. Now preschoolers are getting the attention and improvements.

Julie O’Brien is the director of early learning for the preschool program but she’s been teaching at the school for 12 years. She said that since Monsignor Thomas Skindeleski arrived in 2005, the school has increased enrollment in the primary school from fewer than 150. And it built a whole new wing of classrooms.

She said Skindeleski also brought in the voluntary pre-K voucher program, and “we are now up to date with technology everywhere.”

At the same time church leaders upgraded the school, “we definitely saw there was a need for more programs for the younger kids,” O’Brien said.

Parents like the convenience of one drop-off place, and those who hope to enroll their children in kindergarten at the school see the pre-K classrooms as a bonus.

And parents who may be paying for day care anyway are getting more academics at St. Vincent and religious education, of course.

“The Catholic faith is at the top of what we do,” O’Brien says. “We use songs, stories and crafts to teach young kids about God.”

Second is children’s social and emotional health, and the school teaches a program called “conscious discipline.” O’Brien says it’s about teachers creating a school family where kids feel safe, loved and cared for, and where they can learn to safely express and handle their emotions. “We do a lot of breathing,” she says, laughing.

The academic instruction comes via a curriculum from Frog Street. “We are a school, not a day care,” O’Brien says.

Much of it is about establishing routines, helping kids adjust to social situations and learn to listen to directions.

And “I love you” rituals are short interactions with the youngest kids to let them know someone is listening to what’s important to them.

The entire school reopened on-campus learning last August, several months into the coronavirus pandemic, after spending about $125,000 on upgrades for personal protection equipment, an air purification system and live-stream tech improvements.

The school follows the guidelines established by the Catholic Diocese and the superintendent of schools.

Parents and students have been very cooperative, making the precautions easier to handle, O’Brien said. Masks will likely still be worn by at least some students and staff when school resumes in the fall, although the leaders don’t expect the coronavirus to affect the new school year as it did the last.

Still, teachers and staff are cautious about declaring victory over the pandemic. Some kids might still be afraid or unsure about safety issues.

“These kids have been victims of trauma,” O’Brien said. “We have to be aware of that.”

If you’re interested in finding out more about St. Vincent Ferrer School’s pre-K programs, call Stephanie Lang at 561-278-3868. The school is at 810 George Bush Blvd., in Delray Beach.

Gabriella (center) with Upbin (left) and NSAL member Marcie Gorman. Photo provided

The National Society of Arts and Letters’ Florida East Coast Chapter showcased the talents of an array of young dancers from South Florida. Judges included Clarence Brooks, Shimon Ito and Colleen Smith. First prize was awarded to Gabriella Garbarini, a 17-year-old student at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts, who will advance to the national competition and vie for a $12,000 prize. ‘This is a very challenging competition, judged on three elements including classwork, classical dance and contemporary dance,’ event Co-Chairwoman Shari Upbin said. ‘Gabriella truly excelled in all categories.’

By Charles Elmore

Debates about how to grapple with COVID-19’s receding but not extinguished risks are hardly producing lockstep policies among Palm Beach County’s southern coastal communities as they sort through a dizzying flurry of federal, state and local attempts to shape the rules.

But thanks to a rising tide of vaccinations along the coast, a lot of things in June will look closer to normal than they have since the worst pandemic in a century hit with full force more than a year ago.

In June, Boca Raton’s City Council plans to return to meeting in person, though in the larger 6500 Municipal Building on Congress Avenue rather than City Hall. Council member Yvette Drucker, for one, won’t miss the “audio issues” and other glitches common to virtual gatherings.

“I am ready to go back,” Drucker said.

Mask mandates are being peeled away for people who have been vaccinated, in many public spaces and some but not all businesses — even if in practice that often means taking people at their word. Driving much of the change in the past five weeks, and not always without controversy, have been U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive actions that sought to eliminate or restrict what safety rules local governments can impose.

Health officials cheered falling infection rates but warned the threat has not entirely vanished just because a lot of folks are ready to move on.

Less than half of Palm Beach County’s 1.5 million residents had received full or partial COVID-19 vaccinations by May 24, according to the state’s Department of Health.

County health director Alina Alonso noted county vaccination rates fell short of “herd immunity” — typically meaning at least 70% to 80% — and that children under 12, for example, have not generally had access to vaccines. She urged people to wear masks even after vaccination. Direct hospitalization and death are not the only COVID-19 threats for some age groups, with the long-term effects of the virus still under study, she said.

“We still have to be careful,” Alonso said. “We don’t want to slip and go backwards.”

High vaccine rates on coast

Still, many communities along the county’s southeast coast have been getting shots at a rate above the county average, with ZIP codes in the region often achieving 55% to 85% vaccination rates by the end of April, government records showed. With May results expected to drive rates higher, some local officials saw encouragement to take action.

As of June 1, Delray Beach said it would return to in-person City Commission and board meetings without temperature checks for the public. Anyone entering a municipal facility will be asked to wear a mask if he or she has not been fully vaccinated, city policy says.

“Public meetings are a vital part of our representative government,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said. “In-person meetings allow for a human connection and clarity of communication with those we represent.”

Meetings still are streamed live online, but the city’s pre-recorded public comment line will no longer be used. People who want to comment must do so in person.

Boca Raton was ready to ditch virtual meetings May 10, though officials put off enactment until June to allow more time for affected staff members to make sure they got second COVID shots.

Manalapan was one of the first coastal communities to go exclusively to Zoom meetings after the pandemic started, and it was one of the first to quit Zooming and resume in-person meetings late last year. During a Town Commission meeting on May 25, it was one of the first to relax mask and distancing restrictions.

 “If you’re fully vaccinated, you don’t need to wear a mask,” Town Manager Linda Stumpf said. “We’re following county health department and CDC requirements.”

 Public access for commission meetings increased from six open seats to 15. But Stumpf said Town Hall will continue to be closed for other business until October, with contractors and vendors entering by appointment only.

 “When the season starts and people start coming back, we’ll open it up,” she said.

Businesses ease protocols

Towns and cities are not the only ones making changes.

Publix, Walmart, Costco, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s joined the list of retailers that removed mask mandates for customers who have been vaccinated. 

Publix “will no longer require fully vaccinated associates or customers to wear face coverings, unless required by a state or local order or ordinance,” a company statement said May 14. “In accordance with CDC guidelines, individuals who are not fully vaccinated are required to use face coverings over their noses and mouths while inside any Publix store.”

Fully vaccinated, according to the CDC, means two weeks after a one-shot vaccine or the second jab of a two-shot vaccine. 

Early in May, DeSantis made permanent a ban on vaccine “passports,” meaning businesses cannot require proof of vaccination from customers, though they can continue to require masks and distancing if they choose. 

Not all movie theaters survived the pandemic, and those that did have reopened under varying schedules and precautions designed to reassure customers. As of late May, Cinemark Palace 20 and XD in Boca Raton, for example, continued to require people to wear masks except when eating or drinking inside the auditorium, according to its website. Reduced theater capacities and staggered show times were still in effect.

DeSantis also signed an executive order suspending COVID-19 restrictions imposed by city and county governments, which Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber likened to “spiking the ball on the 10-yard line.”

Municipalities use caution

Despite the unease, mask mandates have ended in many local government settings.

By May 18, masks were no longer required in county government buildings for people who have received shots.

Ocean Ridge still requires people to wear face coverings in Town Hall, unless they are seated and properly distanced from others, Town Manager Tracey Stevens said. 

“As you know, we have a very limited staff and still need to take precautions for those employees that are not vaccinated,” Stevens said. “It would be devastating to our operations if several employees became sick at once.”

Lantana officials said they were following the governor’s orders and CDC guidelines. 

Most people who attended the May 24 Town Council meeting did not wear masks, although town staff did. Chairs were still set 6 feet apart in the council chambers.

The town’s Centennial Celebration at Bicentennial Park is on track for July 4 and social distancing will be adhered to for children’s games. All activities will be outside and masks will not be required.

Highland Beach has been holding commission meetings in person for several months but limiting public attendance while Town Hall was otherwise closed to the public.

Starting June 1, Town Hall was open again during regular business hours, with masks “strongly encouraged.”  Zoom participation will continue for public meetings. The town post office and library are open again with regular hours but with restrictions on the number of people allowed inside at any given time, with masks encouraged.

Boynton Beach began holding commission meetings in its chambers in January. The chairs in the chambers are set up for social distancing, but face masks and temperature checks are not required.

Signs vaccines are working

More than 585,000 of Palm Beach County’s residents had received a full vaccination by May 24, with another 140,000 getting at least a first shot, state records showed. 

While that represented only about half of the county’s total residents, the highest proportion of shots has been going to the most vulnerable age group, people 65 and over.

Coronavirus infections and hospitalizations have been falling, while positive results for people getting tested for COVID-19 were dipping below 6% by the middle of May. That was down from nearly 30% in the most virulent phases of the pandemic in 2020.

Vaccinations are clearly having an impact on infection rates, Alonso said, but that does not mean all risks have disappeared. On May 24, more than 2,400 Floridians were still hospitalized with the virus and 53 new cases and eight deaths were reported in the county.

“If you’re not vaccinated, masks are still recommended,” Alonso said. With family members she cares about vulnerable to infection, she said even after vaccination she plans to wear her mask for some time to come.

Mary Hladky, Dan Moffett, Jane Smith and Mary Thurwachter contributed to this story.

Manhar Dhanak, Ph.D., stands with a device that helps test the effectiveness of types of personal protection measures against airborne viral transmission. Photo provided

By Christine Davis

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science received a two-year $698,801 grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to test the effectiveness of types of personal protection measures against airborne viral transmission.

Building on their prior research, the project will result in strategies for mitigating airborne transmission of aerosolized droplets for a safe workplace environment.

“Employers are considering various protective measures in the workplace such as face masks, placing safety barriers in offices and at workstations, reviewing ventilation/air conditioning systems in buildings, redesigning interior spaces as well as arranging safe queuing procedures at checkouts and other high-density environments,” said Manhar Dhanak, Ph.D., the principal investigator. He is chair of FAU’s Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering, and professor and director of SeaTech.

“With this CDC grant, we will conduct experimental simulation studies that will result in observations and analyses in support of social distancing and other preventative measures for mitigating airborne transmission of viral infections, which will be of particular interest to businesses, schools and the general public.”

The Palm Beach County Medical Society Services honored recipients of its 18th annual Heroes in Medicine awards at a virtual event in May.

Ankush Bansal, MD, Cleveland Clinic Martin Health, received the Physician Hero award. Alicia Rootes, interim director for diversity and inclusion, FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, received the Bruce Rendina Professional Hero award. Rootes manages the university’s health care careers outreach program, which provides middle and high school students from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to enter health care fields.

During National Hospital and Health Care Week, May 9-15, Tenet Palm Beach Health Network hospitals showed appreciation to people who work in hospitals. 

This year’s theme, “Inspiring Hope through Healing,” recognized the hope that health care workers provide despite the pandemic and acknowledged their efforts. 
For National Nurses Week, May 6-12, Tenet recognized the critical role nurses perform in its hospitals. Tenet also celebrated National Emergency Medical Services Week, May 16-22. This year’s theme was “This is EMS Caring for our Communities.”
Delray Medical Center is one of Tenet’s hospitals.

In honor of National Nurses Week, Palm Health Foundation and the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties launched a “Thank Our Healers” program, offering complimentary admission to Palm Beach County nurses and their guests at John D. MacArthur Beach State Park, the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium, and the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens.

In April, Marcus Neuroscience Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital earned the Gold Seal of Approval for Spinal Surgery Certification from the Joint Commission, a national independent accreditation organization.

Physicians at the institute’s Phillip & Peggy DeZwirek Center for Spinal Disorders & Back Pain perform more than 1,500 procedures annually. The center’s approach includes pain management, neuro and ortho-spine surgery, and physical therapy.

In May, Delray Medical Center achieved a Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Award for the fourth year in a row. This distinction places Delray Medical Center among the top 5% of short-term acute care hospitals reporting patient safety data as evaluated by Healthgrades.

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