Residents of the Carlisle Palm Beach and other car enthusiasts look at vehicles brought to the inaugural Carlisle Classic Auto Show. Proceeds will go toward the Alzheimer’s Association’s ‘Longest Day’ fundraiser on June 21. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

It’s not every day that you discover a 1936 Auburn Boattail Speedster parked in front of a South Florida senior living community.

On May 15, however, there one sat — a rare collector’s dream car on display at the Carlisle Palm Beach in Lantana. It was part of a fundraiser to support the Alzheimer’s Association’s “Longest Day” event.

Owned by Hypoluxo Island’s Joshua Kobrin and his father, David, the Auburn Speedster — sometimes referred to by onlookers as the “Cruella de Vil car” — was one of the stars of the Carlisle Classic Auto Show.

Not far away sat a 1965 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III that owner Mel Kantor of Boynton Beach says draws a lot of attention when he takes it for a spin on weekends. “It’s a real head turner,” he said.

What makes the car special?

“It’s the end of an era,” Kantor said, explaining that after 11 years the Silver Cloud was replaced by the Silver Shadow. “I love the styling.”

Also nearby was a 1957 Ford Thunderbird — one of the first generation of T-Birds — owned and displayed by Kobrin’s father.

“My dad always had a classic car in the garage and I guess I followed in his footsteps — or his gas pedal foot,” Joshua Kobrin said.

In all, about 40 classic cars were on display in the Carlisle’s front parking lot during the fundraiser, ranging from a Model A Ford and 1955 MG to a 1963 Buick Riviera and even a new Tesla.

Cars at the show included a 1936 Auburn Boattail Speedster owned by Joshua Kobrin and his father, David.

Adding to the special atmosphere — attended by many of the Carlisle’s 240 residents — was entertainment provided by an Elvis impersonator. Also available were food, vendors providing health services, and even ice cream from an old-style Good Humor Ice Cream truck.

Organized by Steve Saffer of Cruise Boca, the show drew a group of classic car owners who not only enjoy getting together to display their classics but are happy to be part of an event that benefits a charity.

“It’s a win-win,” Saffer said.

Money raised from the event will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Association “Longest Day” event. The fundraiser is held every June 21 with participants from across the world holding events and activities that raise awareness and support the fight against Alzheimer’s.

The car show was a first for the Carlisle, according to Executive Director Richard Tournesy, who said past fundraisers for Alzheimer’s included an art auction and raffles with residents.

Supporting the fight against Alzheimer’s, Tournesy said, is a good match for the Carlisle, which has a 67-bed memory care unit.

“We know what families go through,” he said. “We see it every day and we want to make sure we contribute.”

The show turned out to be an ideal way to do just that, with residents and family members taking part and members of the Carlisle staff going to work to help stage the event.

Tournesy said he is looking forward to hosting a car show again next year.

“It is well supported by our community,” he said.

David Cook, owner of Hand’s in downtown Delray Beach, plans to close the store and retire in June. Cook, 58, sold the property after his family had owned the business since 1964. It first opened in 1934 as a bookstore. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Owner recalls how business changed with times and became a landmark

By Mary Thurwachter

 The colorful plastic hand-shaped chairs no longer grace the sidewalk in front of the Delray Beach office supply shop known as Hand’s. Owner David Cook took the last one home several weeks ago, a memento of a business that has called 325 E. Atlantic Ave. its home for 87 years and has been under his family’s reign since 1964.

By Father’s Day, Hand’s, one of downtown Delray’s oldest businesses, will close. The only remaining business on the avenue older than Hand’s is the Colony Hotel, which dates back to 1926.

Cook sold hundreds of those kitschy plastic hand chairs over the years until UPS stopped shipping them.

“They used to be delivered with a label on the finger, often on the second finger,” Cook said with a laugh. “Kids loved them. There were more pictures taken in those chairs than you can imagine. Not everybody put together that Hand’s was the name of the store.”

The amiable retailer, whose father, Lonnie Cook Jr., ran the business before him, admits revenues dipped about 30% during 2020, but he isn’t calling the store closing a coronavirus casualty.

“It’s more just the right time in everybody’s life that’s involved,” said Cook, 58. His wife, Renee, has been working in the store’s accounting department for the past 10 years and his two grown daughters already have good jobs they enjoy, he said.

Lonnie Cook Jr., David’s father, added the Spanish-style front in 1974. Photo provided by Delray Beach Historical Society

How it all began

The store’s history begins with Lauren Hand, editor of the now defunct Delray Beach News. He founded the Delray Book Shop in 1934. Locals called it Hand’s, and since the name stuck, the shop officially changed its name to Hand’s Office Supply.

Hand saw a need for a local office supply store, since he previously had to travel to West Palm Beach to buy his supplies for the newspaper.

In 1964, Hand sold the business to Lonnie Cook Jr., whose father was a longtime friend and Delray Beach’s first paid fire chief.

Lonnie Jr. died in 2012 and his son, David, then assumed ownership, although he had been assisting his dad in managing the store for several years before. David and his sister, Connie, were regulars at Hand’s even as children.

“I remember coming in the store with my dad when I was about 4,” Cook said. “We were always dragged along.

“We’d play in the store and build little forts out of boxes. We’d just be hanging around doing our thing, pretending we were helping, but obviously we weren’t.”

David became a full-time employee at Hand’s when he was 26 and distinguished himself as a savvy businessman.

But it wasn’t easy.

A 1970s view of Atlantic Avenue looking east in downtown Delray Beach, with Hand’s and its orange sign at center left. Photos provided by Delray Beach Historical Society

Rise of big box stores

In the early years of the Cook family’s ownership, Hand’s was the place to go for office supplies.

Bill Bathurst, a former city commissioner who worked at Hand’s during high school and junior college, said, “Hand’s was Office Depot before there was an Office Depot.”

Bathurst and other employees drove vans that had 6-foot pencils on top. “We’d deliver everything from a pad of paper to a 900-pound fireproof safe,” Bathurst recalled. “The cool part of the job for me was I knew the back door to every office from Boynton to Boca. You just knew everybody and everybody knew you. You’d pop in and pop out. It was almost like a pizza delivery guy. We’d make 30-40 deliveries a day. That’s the way everybody got their office supplies.”

Hand’s vans with the pencils on top were ubiquitous.

By the late 1980s, the real Office Depot came to Delray and had its headquarters in Boca Raton.

“We lost about half of our customers,” Cook said. “Of course, their stuff was cheap. That was a game changer. That’s when we diversified way more into gifts.”

It wasn’t just office supply stores. Chain bookstores including Books-a-Million and Barnes & Noble moved into the community in the 1990s. That hurt Hand’s business, as well.
Hand’s always sold books, but fewer of them after that. Customers could always find specialty books in the store as well as books by local authors like artist Winston Aarons.
Aarons’ novel Jasmine — about love, sex, obsession and perfume — found a prominent place on the bookshelves at Hand’s, for which the artist and author remains grateful.

Aarons has been buying art supplies at Hand’s for decades and is sad to see it go.

“I’m going to miss that place,” he said. “It was the last vestige of a real hometown. It was just great because I live close by and could get there in a quick drive and parking was easy in the back of the store.

“And the owner, David, what a lovely man! I’m going to miss him and all of them and the place. I’ll have to go all the way to Deerfield to get my paint supplies now — or Amazon.”

Bathurst said the real memories for him were working with the people. “It was the office supply store of the time but it was more like a homey drugstore. Nobody would go through Delray without taking a walk through Hand’s. You’d always see somebody you knew. It was not exactly Cheers bar, but had that kind of feel.”

Other notable times

When the city tackled what it called “the Renaissance of Delray” in the 1990s during “the Decade of Excellence,” Atlantic Avenue was torn up in the process, Cook said.

“They redid all the sewer and parking lots and added fresh landscaping. They redid all the piping and drainage. We weren’t shut down; you just couldn’t get here for six months.

“But that’s really when Delray kind of turned around. That’s when the restaurants started putting seating outside and bands performed on the corner and we’d close the street and have our entertainment at night and everybody would come back downtown.”

What Cook objected to — and fought against for a decade — was the addition of parking meters in 2017.

“We had experts come in from all around the country,” Cook said. “The city followed absolutely zero of all the experts’ advice.”

Shoppers didn’t like the meters.

“It alienated the locals,” said Cook, who was on the city board for the parking master plan. “I just never saw some people again. If they came in, they were mad. They’d complain. It absolutely hurt me. I would say it took 25% off my business.”

On a brighter note, Cook says he will never forget the Beanie Baby boom of the 1990s.

“People were in line wrapped around the building waiting to buy them,” Cook said. “We already had an account with Ty, so when they got hot, we were ready to go.”
In a single day, Hand’s once sold $60,000 worth of the stuffed toys.

“I’ve never seen anything sell like a Beanie Baby,” Cook said.

Hand’s owner David Cook with his dad, Lonnie Cook Jr., who bought the store in 1964. Lonnie died in 2012.

Navigating a pandemic

In March 2020, when nonessential businesses were closed in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Hand’s found ways to stay in business, selling office supplies and janitorial products.

“It was a different kind of market,” Cook said. “I had paper towels, gloves, soaps and hand sanitizer and I sold a lot of toilet paper. The masks weren’t the thing at first, but we had them when they were.”

It was a good year for board games and jigsaw puzzles.

“We would put every puzzle we had in the window with a number and a sign out there to call, email or something and tell us what puzzle you wanted,” Cook said.

“We weren’t letting people in. We’d get their credit card through a little door, ring them up and give them their product. Same with art supplies. You would just email a list and we would prepare the order and they would drive up and honk and we would bring it out to their car.”

Pivot master

No matter what obstacle came his way, Cook found a way forward.

“To run a business for that long and have it be successful, is not easy,” Bathurst said of his friend and former employer. “So many places go out of business. And to pivot and pivot and pivot into things that would be sellable but keeping the core heart of the store alive, is something.”

The inventory grew over the years to be more than books and office and art supplies. It included a Hallmark store, casino-caliber playing cards for the serious bridge players, toys, board games, souvenirs and collectibles like Blackwing pencils.

The new property owner, developer Steve Cohen, paid $11.5 million for the 11,382-square-foot building, according to court records.

He plans to give the structure a complete remodel with new plumbing, wiring and roof. Cohen plans to divide the building — including space formerly home to Vince Canning Shoes, which shuttered last summer after 68 years — into five retail spaces.

As for David Cook, he promises not to be a stranger.

“I’m not buying a boat and sailing away,” he said. “I’ll be around.”

His souvenir hand-shaped chair is blue, but Cook isn’t. A self-described people person, he says he will miss the interaction with customers and staff, but said it is the right time to close this chapter of his life.

“We always had our niche. We survived a lot and really the reason we’re selling is, it’s time to retire. … And Delray’s still very popular.”

By Amy Woods

The overwhelming need for food as a result of the pandemic and its economic toll has prompted Boca Helping Hands to expand its presence in Boynton Beach.

The organization that has served Boca Raton’s neediest residents for decades now will offer Boynton Beach residents emergency financial assistance to help pay for rent, utilities and child care through the Boca Helping Hands Resource Center, previously limited to Boca residents.

Boca Helping Hands also has expanded food distribution in Boynton Beach to five days a week, up from four. The additional drive-thru distribution takes place from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Wednesdays at St. John Missionary Baptist Church.

Boca Helping Hands already distributes 1,500 pantry bags of food each month at First Baptist Church of Boynton Beach, where hours are 10 a.m. to noon the other four weekdays.

For more information, call 561-417-0913 or visit www.bocahelpinghands.org.

Grants aid Palm Beach County children in need

Local children’s charities received $280,000 in grants from the Children’s Foundation of Palm Beach County through its “Partnership” initiative.

Specifically, five charities received $50,000 grants, and an additional six charities received grants of $5,000.

“The program will provide thousands of children and families with meals, therapy, computers, school supplies, education and a bed on which to sleep,” said Pamela Weinroth, the foundation’s executive director.

The “Partnership” initiative is an annual program that invites philanthropists and organizations to purchase “shares” for $500. Each share represents one vote. Established earlier this year, the foundation is an affiliate of Boca West Children’s Foundation, which has granted more than $11.5 million to nonprofits in its 11-year history.

For more information, call 561-488-6980 or visit https://childrensfoundationpbc.org.

Y receives funding for swimming lessons

The USA Swimming Foundation selected the YMCA of South Palm Beach County as a grant recipient this year.

Funding will go toward the Y’s Drowning Prevention Program, with its mission to provide free or reduced-cost swimming lessons to youths.

“While we cannot change our environment, we can remove its biggest threat,” said Libby Moon, the Drowning Prevention Program coordinator, noting that drowning is the No. 1 cause of death for children ages 5 and younger countywide. “We are so happy to have been given the opportunity to teach more children about water safety as well as their families how to be safe around water.”

For more information, call 561-237-0950 or visit www.ymcaspbc.org.

Food Bank fills two key leadership positions

Jamie Kendall is the new CEO at the Palm Beach County Food Bank, and Ellen Vaughan is the new director of development and philanthropy.

The two assume their roles at a time of exciting activity — the organization’s recent move to a warehouse and distribution facility in Lake Worth.

“Thanks to experienced and committed interim leadership, the Palm Beach County Food Bank is well-poised to continue to meet the unprecedented food-insecurity needs that COVID-19 has created in our community,” board Chairwoman Marti LaTour said. “With the addition of Jamie and Ellen, we add great depth of knowledge to our leadership team.”

For more information, call 561-670-2518 or visit www.pbcfoodbank.org.

FoundCare’s board welcomes 3 new trustees

FoundCare, a local nonprofit federally qualified health center, has added three members to its board of trustees.

Stephanie Carden, Miron Ebanks and Marcia Howard have varied backgrounds that bring new talents to their roles.

“My favorite part of my job was representing and advocating for individuals with HIV/AIDS, so FoundCare was a natural fit for me as they pioneered HIV/AIDS services with the Comprehensive AIDS Program,” said Carden, who previously worked as a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County.

“No one should feel that they cannot afford to go to the doctor or get medical treatment, and I do not think there should be barriers to health care.”

Added Ebanks, CEO of Merricare Community Integrated Services, “I am passionate about providing services to underserved communities that are impacted by mental health crises, substance abuse and developmental disabilities.

“I am excited about serving on FoundCare’s board to make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable in our community and bring leadership through compassion and care.”
Howard is assistant controller at Palm Beach Atlantic University and was FoundCare’s chief financial officer from 2006 to 2014.

“The organization delivers services with care and compassion, and that aligns with my values,” she said.

FoundCare is based in Palm Springs but has facilities throughout the county.

For more information, call 561-432-5849 or visit www.foundcare.org.

Housing advocate named to Adopt-A-Family board

The supervising attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County’s Fair Housing Project recently joined the Adopt-A-Family of the Palm Beaches board.

Tequisha Myles, who served on the board from 2006 to 2013 as secretary, vice president and president, brings a knowledge of and commitment to equitable access for affordable housing.

“Tequisha’s role with Legal Aid is one that fits seamlessly with the work we do at Adopt-A-Family,” CEO Matthew Constantine said. “She understands that stable housing is a fundamental and basic need. We are excited to welcome her back to our team, standing up for those in our community who need us most.”

For more information, call 561-253-1361 or visit www.adoptafamilypbc.org.

New head selected for Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity of South Palm Beach County has hired 20-year nonprofit professional Jennifer Thomason as the branch’s new president and CEO.

Thomason will replace Randy Nobles, who is retiring this summer.

“We are confident that her leadership will take our affiliate to new levels and springboard off what has been successfully built under Randy Nobles’ tenure,” board Chairwoman Brittney Kocaj said.

More than 50 applicants were in the running for the job.

For more information, call 561-819-6070 or visit www.habitatsouthpalmbeach.org.

Janis Fontaine contributed to this column.

Send news and notes to Amy Woods at flamywoods@bellsouth.net.

Kathy Adkins, president of Impact 100 Palm Beach County, and Holly Schuttler, president-elect. Photo provided by Warner-Prokos Photography

For the first time in Impact 100 Palm Beach County's history, the organization awarded six $100,000 grants and four $13,000 grants to South County nonprofits. The $100,000 grants went to Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County, Coastal Conservation Association Florida, Help Our Wounded Foundation, Milagro Center, Tri-County Animal Rescue, and Schoolhouse Children’s Museum & Learning Center. The $13,000 grants went to Florence Fuller Child Development Centers, Pathways to Prosperity, PROPEL (People Reaching Out to Provide Education & Leadership), and Spady Cultural Heritage Museum.

Players who plan to take part in Literacy Links include (l-r) Amy Brewer, Leanne Adair, Brenda Medore and Ginny Barbary. Photo provided

By Amy Woods

The CEO of the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County is hopeful that, following a challenging year of postponed and canceled events, its annual golf tournament will be a success.

Literacy Links is scheduled for June 11 at Palm Beach Par 3 Golf Course. It usually takes place in April.

“We’re going to miss a few people, but we’re still going to have it,” Kristin Calder said. “We have a good response so far.”

The tournament drew 50 players last year and raised $35,000. It was moved to November because of the pandemic.

“The important part of all this is adaptation,” Calder said. “People love this event, so we wanted to have it.”

Proceeds will provide adults and children in need with links to literacy programs that will help them succeed in school and life.

One of those programs is Building Better Readers, targeting third-grade students who read below their level. Hundreds of volunteers are recruited and trained to be reading tutors and then dispatched to homes and schools.

Another program is Literacy AmeriCorps, through which college graduates serve as reading tutors for adult learners and at-risk youths.

Another beneficiary will be the Glades Family Education program, which serves the Belle Glade, Pahokee and South Bay area. It offers adult literacy, children’s literacy, monthly parenting-skills workshops and weekly Parent and Child Together activities.

“It really serves that community well in terms of tutoring and reading,” tournament Chairwoman Nancy Vera said. “I firmly believe it needs to start at a young age — the love of books. I know that was one of my favorite times with my kids, that hour or two before bed reading.

“Reading is dear to my heart, so it’s something that’s important to me,” Vera said. “I feel what we do as an organization is important for our community.”

If You Go
What: Literacy Links golf tournament
Time: Registration 7:30 a.m., shotgun start 8:30 a.m.
Date: June 11
Where: Palm Beach Par 3 Golf Course
Cost: $200 per person, $700 per foursome
Information: 561-279-9103 or www.literacypbc.org

(l-r) Polly Joa, Susan Lissner Weege, Sallie Howell, Carol Coleman, Cody, Mickey Austin Farley and Zoanne Hennigan. Photo provided

The Ocean Ridge Garden Club’s season wrapped up with the installation of 2021-22 officers and recognition of those who made the best out of a challenging year. Officers were sworn in by the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs district director and given musical-themed miniatures. The luncheon at last enabled members to see each other face-to-face and was organized by club President Mary Ann Cody.

(l-r) Florida State Attorney Dave Aronberg, U.S. Rep Brian Mast (R-Fla.), U.S. Rep Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), Tri-County Animal Rescue President Suzi Goldsmith, Pope, former Congresswoman Donna Shalala, American Humane CEO Robin Ganzert, Weishel and Palm Beach County Commissioner Robert Weinroth.
Photo provided by Capehart

There are an estimated 2,700 dogs actively serving in the U.S. military and another 700 deployed overseas. But for the most part, the courageous canines have not been given credit for their heroic acts on and off the battlefield. So philanthropist Lois Pope, in partnership with American Humane, dedicated the American Military Hero Dog Monument. The monument was designed by sculptor Austin Weishel, who said it honors ‘the everlasting and unbreakable bond between canines and the valiant warriors of our armed forces.’

Eric Viner and Niki Knopf with event sponsors Eda and Cliff Viner. Photo provided

Men who make outstanding impacts on the community through their philanthropic efforts were honored at Florence Fuller Child Development Centers’ 19th annual event. This year, a total of 20 male volunteers enjoyed an outdoor movie-style festivity with music and food trucks. ‘After the challenging year we’ve all had, the work of volunteers was more important than ever,’ said Ellyn Okrent, Fuller’s CEO. ‘It was a great pleasure to recognize the outstanding honorees and nominees.’

Suzanne Klein, Beau and Edna Meyer-Nelson.

Mercedes Casanova Mottek, Scott and Batmasian. Photos provided

More than 125 pooch-loving advocates filled the outdoor courtyard for an inaugural event that raised money for Tri-County Animal Rescue, specifically for subsidizing veterinary care, surgeries, X-rays, dental procedures and other medical needs. Honorees included Marta Batmasian, Andrea Kline and Constance Scott. ‘TCAR believes that all pets should remain healthy in their homes, not forced to neglect treatable medical and dental issues that can escalate out of control, causing unnecessary pain and loss or even surrendered to shelters due to lack of funds,’ board Chairwoman Sharon DiPietro said.

Patricia Ramudo and Andrea Virgin get ready to install drywall. Photo provided

Habitat for Humanity South Palm Beach County’s female-centric fundraiser brought in more than $225,000 thanks to 150-plus volunteers who wielded hammers and other tools to put roofs over the heads of people in need. ‘It is so gratifying and inspiring each year to witness the power of mission-driven women, stepping out of their comfort zones and rolling up their sleeves to make a profound, indelible impact on one family for generations to come,’ said sponsor Tom Moraca, of Moraca Builders.

Lt. Austin J. Haynie, Navy pilot, has returned from a seven-month deployment on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, aircraft carrier 71. Austin joins his grandfather Neil Haynie, trading in his military F18 Super Hornet to fly grandpa’s Piper to Fort Myers. Twenty-five years ago he rode in the baggage compartment. Austin, 28, is a fourth-generation pilot, and Neil credits Austin’s ability to his superior training. Photo provided

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach will immediately notify affected customers of any reclaimed water issues following a critical review from the county Office of Inspector General.
Also as a result of the report, released May 6, the city will educate customers about what reclaimed water is and its allowed use being only for lawn irrigation.
In addition, the Utilities Department started documenting all customer complaints or inquiries and tracking them in the city’s computerized maintenance management system. Utilities staff will be trained in the proper documentation and inspection reports required by the regulating agencies over reclaimed water.
Interim City Manager Jennifer Alvarez defended the city from the inspector general's broad criticism of upper management and elected officials knowing about illnesses stemming from reclaimed water on the barrier island in December 2018.
While a since-retired water and sewer manager might have known about the illnesses, there is no evidence that he told the utilities director, Alvarez wrote in a response included in the OIG report.
The Office of Inspector General became involved last August at the request of the Palm Beach County office of the Florida Department of Health. Health officials were "concerned that city staff and/or elected officials concealed and/or misrepresented their knowledge," according to the OIG report.
The Health Department began investigating the Delray Beach reclaimed water system in January 2020 but could only issue civil fines. The OIG can forward its results to the State Attorney’s Office for criminal prosecution.
The OIG investigated what the city staff knew about the illnesses and whether they were reported to the department as required. "During our investigation, (the OIG) was unable to determine whether the reported illness was actually caused by the citys drinking water," according to the report.
But an unnamed city staffer identified in the report as a whistleblower submitted a lengthy rebuttal to the OIG findings.
The staffer talks about a March 2019 meeting convened to discuss illnesses from the crossed connection found in December 2018. A crossed connection occurs when reclaimed water pipes are mistakenly connected to ones for drinking water. Reclaimed water is highly treated wastewater suitable only for lawn irrigation.
At the meeting various department heads, a former assistant city manager and the project consultants representative determined no more action was needed without medical or hospital records connecting the illnesses to the reclaimed water, according to Public Utility Management Services Inc., a firm the city hired in 2020 to independently review the system.
However, the whistleblower's rebuttal said, "It was not the city's job to determine this but to report it (to the Health Department)."
The whistleblower also alleges the city destroyed paper call logbooks from late 2018. A barrier island resident called to say his family became ill and he thought it was from drinking tap water. The operator on duty notified the then-water and sewer manager who said he would handle it, according to the whistleblower.
When The Coastal Star made a records request for the logs, Utilities Department leaders asked the whistleblower for a copy of them on Nov. 26 because "the documents were thrown out-- this was openly discussed," the rebuttal said. The city staffer told them they were required to report the lost records and later turned over a copy on Nov. 30.

Even the most visionary and creative individuals build on what came before. They construct new ideas from their surroundings, often using knowledge gained from their own experiences.
The most brilliant minds plotting out the future of the world understand that lurking around the edges of any “big idea” is the framework of history.
That is why The Coastal Star plans to use the coming months to tell the tales of times and places gone by in our community. It’s always been part of our mission as a newspaper to share stories of our past to help guide our future.
As our elected officials spend the summer months budgeting for the challenges that come with aging infrastructure and rising seas, it seems like a good time to remember what came before.
History is a relative term in South Florida — Ocean Ridge and Manalapan are turning 90, Lantana will hit 100 come July. Mere infants compared to Boston or London or Paris.
Still, middle age presents its challenges with leaky pipes and cracked foundations.
It’s a good life along the coast, but it can be a hard one. Not all of our history is pleasant to recall.
So as our cities and towns budget for improvements that will carry us all forward for the years ahead, this newspaper hopes to spend the summer bringing our readers remembrances of our past.
We hope you’ll like reading these stories as much as we enjoy talking with historians and archivists and all the people who still remember the days gone by. And we hope learning about our past will give us all a foundation on which to build a framework for the enduring future of our community.
If you are heading north for the summer, you can stay informed by mailing in a $25 check and the subscription form found on page 23 in the Around Town section of this paper. You can also read each edition online at www.thecoastalstar.com. Membership is free.
— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

C. Spencer Pompey, a teacher and coach, and Frank T. Hearst carry the Carver Eagles mascot in front of the school. Photos provided by Spady Cultural Heritage Museum

New plans for Carver won’t dim grads’ memories

By Larry Keller

It’s been more than a half century since the final bell sounded at Carver High School. Chain-link fencing encircles the beige and boxy two-story buildings now, but to former students, the dowdy appearance belies the profound impact the school had on their lives and their community.
Before Palm Beach County schools integrated, Carver was the only place where Black students from Delray Beach and beyond — most from low-income households — could attend high school. It offered the prospect of a better future, but it was much more than a school.
“It was the only place for us as a people to gather,” says Paula Rocker, Class of 1966. “That was the center, not just for education, but for all the things that impacted the Black community,” such as neighborhood meetings and talent shows.

As buildings on the campus deteriorated, the county School District announced plans to raze them a few years ago. Preservationists succeeded in getting the district to spare the administration building and cafetorium, and it also plans to refurbish the gymnasium.

Students take a typing class.

At the same time, the district plans to build a complex to provide a medical and technical career-oriented curriculum. It will be called Village Center, with a new 20,000-square-foot building and modular classrooms. Plans call for the gymnasium to be reconfigured as a multipurpose arts facility capable of seating 500 people.
Work is scheduled to begin this summer and be substantially done by next year.
Carver is considered historic for the age of its buildings, the architect who designed them and the luminaries in the Black community associated with the school. But its cultural impact during segregation is particularly significant.

Students gather in the library at Carver High School in Delray Beach in the 1950s.

Teachers were pivotal, not only in school but alongside parents in instilling life lessons. It was like having an additional parent — because teachers lived in the same segregated neighborhoods as their students.
“The teachers treated us as though we were their children,” Lorenzo Brooks, a 1960 graduate, said in a documentary, Old School, produced by the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum in Delray Beach more than a decade ago.
“The teachers were the same people that sat next to you in church, and that you saw when you went to the supermarket,” Rocker says. “When your teacher reported to your parent that you were misbehaving, woe be unto you. The values that many of us have today were instilled by our parents and our teachers at Carver.”
That oversight extended even further, says Ernestine Holliday, a 1959 graduate who spent her career as a home health aide.
“Everybody was your parents. Your parents would go off to work at 6 o’clock in the morning … but there were other eyes” watching children, she says.
And when kids went to school, they had better be dressed and groomed smartly. “If you went to school and you needed your hair combed or deodorant, that was addressed, but it was addressed in a loving manner,” says Rocker, a retired AT&T call center manager and adult education teacher.
Granvill Dorsett, president of the 1966 class, agrees. “We knew there was a stigma being African-Americans. We had to change the narrative. We made sure we were well-dressed, well-spoken and well-behaved.”

Small children ride a float sponsored by a nursery. Some teachers worked on farms to supplement their incomes.

Some students were bused to school from outlying farms miles away. “Most of them studied hard because they didn’t want to make that a lifetime of having to work on the farm,” Holliday says. “There were some kids that didn’t start school until they were 7 or 8 years old. They were behind, but they didn’t want to remain behind.”
Her own father was a migrant contractor during the summers when school was out. He’d take families to farms as distant as North Carolina and upstate New York, where they would harvest crops and be provided housing. Holliday would return to Carver High as late as October or November, she says.

History dates to 1896
Carver’s roots date back more than a century. In 1896, Colored School No. 4, on what is now Northwest Fifth Avenue, opened to serve Black children. It later was renamed the Delray County Training School.
Solomon D. Spady, a onetime student of agricultural scientist and inventor George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute, became a teacher and the principal at the school, grades 1-8, in 1921 at Carver’s urging.
In 1937, the school moved to Northwest Eighth Avenue. It was renamed George Washington Carver High School, with grades 1-12.

Spady — a revered civic leader — was still principal, and he also taught wood shop and agriculture courses. Some of his students cultivated crops on 10 acres that were sold to the public. These school grounds are now the site of S.D. Spady Elementary School.

Carver moved again to Southwest 12th Avenue and Southwest Fourth Street in 1958, and became a grades 9-12 school. When Palm Beach County desegregated schools, Carver merged with Seacrest High in 1970 to become Atlantic Community High School.

The Delray Full Service Center is now in a portion of the old Carver campus. It provides adult education instruction and will continue doing so at the new Village Center.
The renowned architect of Carver was Gustav Maass Jr. He designed houses throughout the town of Palm Beach, commercial buildings on Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach and railroad stations in Florida, including the historic Delray Beach Seaboard Air Line Railway Station in 1927.
Much of Maass’ original design at Carver is gone now, and preservationists hope to obtain money to restore it. Ideas for use range from a trade school, to an adult education center to a culinary school.
But first they need the School District to relinquish ownership of the administration building and cafetorium it wants to renovate. No action from the district is expected, however, until June 2022.
And they want the Delray Beach City Commission to add the structures to the city’s register of historic places, making them eligible for grant money and ensuring their long-term protection.

C. Spencer Pompey (right) coached the Carver girls basketball team in 1953. The school’s sports teams excelled.

At Carver’s final location, the tenure of another towering figure in the school’s history began. C. Spencer Pompey was a coach, a teacher and a civil rights activist. He protested Delray Beach’s whites-only beach in the 1950s and was involved in the filing of a successful class action a decade earlier to eliminate disparities between white and Black teachers’ salaries. The plaintiffs’ lawyer was a young Thurgood Marshall from the NAACP. He later became the first Black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lois Martin knew firsthand about teachers’ poor pay. After graduating from Carver in 1946, she went to college, then began teaching at her old school in 1950. She supplemented her $2,000 annual salary by picking beans at a Boca Raton farm during the Christmas holidays, she said in the Old School documentary.

Cherished memories
Carver students and the entire community were proud of the school’s extracurricular activities and events, especially the football and other athletic teams, and the marching bands. Carver’s football prowess was such that the school won several state titles in the 1960s. Even white folks ventured over to watch the Eagles play.
Football “was one of the things that kind of kept us together,” Dorsett says of the students.
So did the promise of decent jobs if they finished school. Students were told that with a proper education they could return home to become teachers themselves, Rocker says. And the school’s industrial arts courses also provided an incentive to graduate.

Carver High students take part in a graduation ceremony.

“You left there with a trade — cosmetology, carpentry, masonry, agriculture,” Rocker says.
Only nine of 127 seniors in his Class of 1966 didn’t graduate, says Dorsett, a Vietnam veteran and National Guardsman who is a retired utility mechanic for the city of Delray Beach. “The families stressed education … because they knew it was about economics” — financial betterment, he says.
“It was important because our parents were born back in the early 1900s,” Holliday says. “They weren’t allowed to get an education because most of their parents were sharecroppers and they had to work. For them, their children getting an education was important because they weren’t allowed to get one.”
Holliday is unconcerned about saving any of her alma mater’s buildings. But, she adds, “I wouldn’t trade Carver for anything.”
To others, like Dorsett and Rocker, those buildings are a vital and visible link to a cherished past.
“The love that I feel when I talk about Carver High School, it’s almost like the love I have for my son,” Rocker says. “That’s where the caring, not only for me, but for all of the students there began.”

The Delray Beach water treatment plant, a few blocks south of downtown, has not received a major upgrade since the early 1990s. The city says it has improved cleaning and other maintenance at the aging plant, and is watching for trouble more closely than ever before. Google Maps image

By Rich Pollack

Faced with persistent concerns from residents about drinking water quality, Delray Beach city commissioners are considering replacing the aging water plant built almost seven decades ago.
During a meeting last month, interim City Manager Jennifer Alvarez and Utilities Director Hassan Hadjimiry outlined the steps that the city will take as it prepares to replace or extensively improve its water treatment plant, built in 1952 when Delray had only 6,500 residents and Harry S. Truman was president.
With the green light from the commission, city staff members will begin assessing current and future needs and costs, a process that could mean it will be six years before a new plant is working — if commissioners continue to support that option.
“All of us on the commission are excited about moving forward,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said. “We want to bring our water quality to the next level.”
During the presentation to the commission, Alvarez and Hadjimiry pointed out that it has been at least 25 years since the plant received a major upgrade, while also showing that most surrounding communities have already upgraded their water treatment facilities.
“We are definitely overdue,” Petrolia said. “People are wanting to have better water quality here and I think it’s time to take it to the next level.”
Others on the commission shared the mayor’s enthusiasm for moving forward with veteran water systems manager Hadjimiry leading the effort.
“I am sure our residents are most anxious to see this happen,” Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson said.
In presenting a case for a new plant, Alvarez said that several maintenance improvements have been made, but even so, much of the equipment in the plant is more than 50 years old and the technology and monitoring systems are outdated.
“We need a new plant in five to 10 years,” Alvarez said.

Type, cost to be determined
What type of plant the city will build and how much it will cost will depend on a number of variables — including the city’s ability to access enough raw water to meet demand. A reverse-osmosis plant, for example, would require more raw water than a plant with more commonly used treatment methods such as membrane filtration, filtered media or a combination of technologies.
Hadjimiry said the city will want to look at the best way to remove contaminants already prohibited by government agencies as well as those that may become more tightly regulated, include PFAs, synthetic chemicals linked to some health issues.
A study would still be needed to include population projections, what water usage demands would be put on a plant in the future and what size plant would meet the city’s needs. The city would also need to develop a timeline for the project.
“We need to determine what is the best type of plant to take us into the next decade,” Petrolia said.
The existing facility has a treatment capacity of about 26 million gallons per day and usage averaging about 14 million gallons per day.
The city’s current population of about 70,000 has added about 10,000 residents in the last 10 years, according to worldpopulationreview.com. Moving forward, Alvarez said, the city will continue with a rate study that could encourage conservation and bring usage down.
The staff will also review a Water Supply and Treatment Feasibility Study done by Kimley-Horn engineering firm in 2019 that recommended the city go to a reverse-osmosis system. That study estimated the cost of building a new plant would be between $132 million and $144 million, but Petrolia believes those numbers might be on the high side.
During their presentation, Hadjimiry and Alvarez displayed a chart that showed plants built by other South Florida communities from 1991 to 2006 with price tags ranging between $40 million and $80 million in estimated 2025 dollars.
The city will also look at funding sources, including potential grants, and will examine the feasibility of creating a public-private partnership as one funding option.
Moving forward with the project, Deputy Vice Mayor Adam Frankel said, is a high priority for Delray Beach.
“It’s one of those things that needs to be put on the top of the list,” he said.

Liz Bold, her daughter Capri, 14, and her husband, Bill, at their Delray Beach home. The mother and daughter spotted three runaway boys on State Road A1A in Delray in January, and the family fed, clothed and comforted them for a few hours before police returned the youths to the Children’s Place at Home Safe in Boca Raton. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Larry Keller

Call it a mother’s intuition. On a late Sunday afternoon in January, Liz Bold and her daughter Capri, 14, were walking south on A1A, a few blocks from their home in Delray Beach, when they passed three young boys on a bench.
“I noticed there were no adults near them,” Bold said. The boys then began walking north beside the busy road.
“They were clearly too young, in my opinion, to be walking on A1A with no adults. So I said to Capri, ‘Let’s turn around, I want to follow them.”’
Unknown to Bold, the trio had taken off from the Children’s Place at Home Safe in Boca Raton earlier that day. That’s a place for the care and treatment of abused, neglected and abandoned children.
Boca Raton police issued an alert to other police agencies along with photos of the boys. But here they were in Delray Beach, about 5 miles away.
When Bold and her daughter caught up to the boys, she began chatting with them. “The youngest one blurted out, ‘We don’t have anywhere to go tonight. We’re homeless,’” Bold recalled.
They confessed that they had run away, saying they were unhappy with how they were treated by Home Safe staff.
What ensued was a family drama of compassion, generosity and ultimately frustration at being unable to do more for three runaways, ages 9 to 12.
“I realized … they probably were hungry, so we went over to BurgerFi … and I brought my husband in to try and formulate a plan,” Bold said.
Bill Bold arrived and found his wife buying burgers and milkshakes for the boys.
“We were thinking maybe we should bring them back to our house,” Bill said. The boys advised against that, worried that he might be accused of kidnapping. “They were street smart,” he said.
One boy provided Bill with his mom’s phone number, so he called her, but she could not have cared less. “She gave me the name of a social worker,” he said.
After several more phone calls, it was clear his only option was to call police. Reluctantly, he did.
“We didn’t know what else to do. We didn’t want to leave them on the side of the road.”
Bill gave his phone number to the boys, and he and Liz assured them they wanted to remain in their lives. The boys were dressed poorly, so the Bolds took them to a nearby store and bought them flip-flops and clothing items while they awaited police.
“The lady in the store started crying too. I think she gave us a good discount because we told her what was going on. Everybody was pitching in,” Bill said.
When Delray Beach police arrived, it had been about four hours since the boys left Home Safe.
“They were really nice guys,” Bill said of the officers.
As the boys were about to be driven back to Boca Raton, “they all asked us for hugs,” Bill said.
“My daughter and I were bawling after the police took them away,” Liz added.
The Bolds — who have four children — never heard again from the boys. For weeks, they tried to figure out how they could see them again for a movie or a dinner.
But no programs were in place that permitted this, and the coronavirus pandemic made it out of the question anyway, they were told.
“We told them we were going to stay in their lives. I have so much guilt right now about that,” Liz said.
“They were charismatic kids,” her husband added. “They were excited about life, but they were also troubled. It was just heartbreaking, the entire situation.”
He’d “love to mentor them or be in their lives, if there is some creative way.”
The Delray Beach Police Department praised the Bolds for their actions, but the couple insist they did nothing special.
“I think it’s what is expected of us as human beings,” Liz said, “just to help our fellow human beings.”

Palmsea condo residents Carmine (foreground) and Bob Scalia watch a dump truck and bulldozer work on a project that calls for delivery of up to 1,000 truckloads of sand to the dune line of South Palm Beach. As the project progressed in the cousins’ backyard on April 21, Carmine said, ‘I hope this is a once-in-a-lifetime event for us.’ Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

Hundreds of truckloads of dredged sand arrived from Palm Beach in April, bolstering South Palm Beach’s dune line and buffering condo buildings from the relentless seas.
For Mayor Bonnie Fischer, it has been an often excruciating and frustrating journey that at times seemed impossible to complete.
Fischer has spent more than 10 years pushing the project. She attended dozens of meetings and environmental conferences, made hundreds of phone calls and twisted more arms than an army of chiropractors to get the work done.
But the most important thing she did was make a friend — former Palm Beach Mayor Gail Coniglio.
“An engineer told us, ‘If it wasn’t for the relationship between their mayor and your mayor, all this would never have happened,’” Fischer says. “That touched my heart.”
Coniglio and her council allowed South Palm Beach to purchase as many as 1,000 truckloads of sand that Palm Beach dredged as part of the town’s extensive beach renourishment project.
And when things got tough, Coniglio was unwavering in her support for her southern neighbors. Two years ago, Palm Beach County abruptly pulled out of a project to install groins on the South Palm beaches, citing rising costs and objections from communities to the south.
Conigilio stepped in to offer South Palm Beach a piece of her project. It will cost the town somewhere between $700,000 and $900,000, money that has been saved in reserves for years to repair the beach.
Fischer is the first to admit it’s not a perfect solution. One strong storm could wash away much of the work.
“The groins would have been a better option,” the mayor says. “I was really disappointed that didn’t happen. But we had two options left — do this, or do nothing.”
Finding some sort of strategy to deal with the eroding beachfront became an inescapable issue in South Palm Beach in 2005 when Hurricane Wilma tore through Florida.
By the time the hurricane left Palm Beach County, South Palm Beach’s coastline was devastated and several condo buildings had nothing but battered seawalls to stand up to the relentless waves.
It took more than 10 years to actually develop the groin plan with the county and win the approval of state regulators. The original cost for deploying the network of a half-dozen concrete sand holders on South Palm’s beaches was estimated at $5 million. The state was to pay half, the county 30% and South Palm 20%.
By 2019, however, that price tag ballooned to something closer to $10 million and the county abruptly pulled out of the project. It didn’t help that both Manalapan and the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa threatened to sue over allegations the groins would steal sand destined for their beaches.
The Town of Palm Beach offered its alternative a few months later — a much more modest plan but one that was clearly more practical. Rather than a beach stabilization project, Palm Beach offered a dune restoration project, with sand and sea oats restoring what nature had eroded away.
It’s not a small paradox that South Palm wound up getting more help from Palm Beach than its own residents. Despite years of trying by Fischer and three city managers, South Palm Beach never did get all the easements it needed from condo associations and homeowners to work on the beach. They, too, lawyered up, expressing worries about damage liability and opening access to the public.
In the end, Palm Beach gained access to haul in the dredged sand on its side of the border line between the two towns.
Fischer said that the contributions of Robert Weber, Palm Beach’s coastal program manager, were invaluable. Weber effectively became South Palm’s project manager and saw the work through.
After five terms in office, Coniglio decided not to run for re-election in March. Fischer said she’s grateful Coniglio stayed long enough to help her friends in South Palm Beach.

By Dan Moffett

The South Palm Beach Town Council unanimously approved refunding to customers some $455,000 in improper sewer charges assessed since 2016. The town expects all customers to be compensated before November.
The remittances are the result of an audit by the Palm Beach County inspector general that found the town did not adequately give public notice to rate increases during that period. The inspector found “no indication of willful misconduct” in the action.
Town Manager Robert Kellogg, in his response to the county watchdog, wants the inspector to extend his audits to monitor the “franchise agreement holders to determine if the proper amount of fees are being remitted.”
A franchise agreement is a negotiated contract between a municipality and a utility service provider that grants the utility the right to serve customers in the city’s jurisdiction. South Palm Beach has franchise agreements with Florida Power & Light, Florida Public Utilities and Waste Management Inc.
Towns such as South Palm Beach collect tens of thousands of dollars a year from these utility fees. The concern is that adequate oversight is lacking.
“We don’t have the capability to audit those fees,” Kellogg said. “But the inspector general does. It would be a great service to municipalities to look into this.”

Delray Beach Fire Rescue responded to 667 calls last year within the Delray city limits from the station in neighboring Highland Beach. One ladder truck and one rescue wagon are currently assigned to the station. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

After almost 30 years of paying Delray Beach millions of dollars for fire and medical rescue services, Highland Beach is calling it quits and moving forward with plans to start its own fire department.
At a meeting last month, town commissioners voted unanimously to notify Delray Beach of plans to terminate the contractual agreement — with a price tag of about $5 million a year — with a required 36- month notice effective May 1.
“We know we can deliver better service to our residents and we know we can do it at a lower cost,” Mayor Doug Hillman said. “There is no reason in my opinion to stay with Delray fire.”
During the next three years Highland Beach will work out the details of starting a fire department almost from scratch, something that apparently hasn’t been done in Palm Beach County for at least three decades.
The move bucks a local trend in which smaller communities such as Ocean Ridge, South Palm Beach and Manalapan have been paying for services from larger departments, including Boynton Beach and Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.
Although Highland Beach commissioners have said they would be amenable to renegotiating, Delray Beach commissioners signaled during a meeting last month that they don’t see that as an option.
“It doesn’t appear there is room for negotiation as far as our commission and our fire chief are concerned,” Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia said following that meeting.
The city’s position apparently has not changed in the wake of Highland Beach’s decision to end the relationship.
“I think the time for negotiating has passed,” Delray Beach Fire Chief Keith Tomey said after learning of the decision. “Highland Beach wanted to cut $1 million from the contract, but that isn’t feasible.”
Delray Beach Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson said she respects Highland Beach’s decision to move on.
“As much as we’d like to continue the relationship, the agreement isn’t working for both parties anymore,” she said. “I wish the town of Highland Beach success.”
Although Highland Beach officials repeatedly said they were happy with the exceptional service they receive from Delray Beach, town leaders balked at the costs they said were unsustainable.
The town currently pays about 40% of its annual operating budget, or about $5 million a year, for services from Delray Beach, a cost that was expected to increase by about $300,000 each year.
The current cost per call, Hillman said, is extraordinary.
“Every time someone from Highland Beach dials 911, it cost Highland Beach $7,000 to send that truck out to service the call,” the mayor said.
Tomey said measuring cost per call is a “distorted way” of looking at emergency response.
“We have to be fully prepared with staffing, equipment and training for any and all emergencies in each area,” he said. “We aren’t making widgets, we are saving lives and property.”
While a consultant estimated that Highland Beach could save as much as $2.5 million in operating costs in five years after starting its own department, the town will have to incur significant start-up costs between $7 million and $8 million, Hillman said.
Tomey said Highland Beach officials likely will be surprised by the actual costs.
“I think the town commissioners have been misinformed about the costs of creating and running a fire department,” he said. “There are a lot of things the consultant left out and a lot of things that the commissioners aren’t considering. They simply don’t know what they don’t know.”
At the same time, Delray Beach will have to find ways to fill the estimated annual income of almost $6  million Highland Beach would have to pay if it stayed beyond the next three years. The department also will have to figure out how to respond to the calls within Delray Beach that the Highland Beach station covers now.
That number was 667 in 2020, according to Highland Beach’s consultant.
Tomey said he’ll work with the City Commission, city staff and fire rescue staff to address those issues.
“My goal is for no firefighter to lose a job,” he said. “Those 667 calls will still need to be answered.”
Vice Mayor Johnson doesn’t see the coming challenges as insurmountable. “With Delray being the city that it is, I’m confident that we’ll be able to work it out,” she said.
Petrolia said she is confident the city can find ways to fill the gaps by moving personnel to meet area demands.
“Maybe we have to look at making our department more efficient,” she said.
Petrolia said she understands Highland Beach’s concerns, but does not think it’s fair for Delray Beach taxpayers to subsidize Highland Beach.
“Their millage rate is about half of ours,” she said.
She and Tomey both said that Delray Beach does not make any money as a result of the agreement, which calls for Highland Beach to pay for the cost of staffing a town-owned station with a full complement of 22.5 personnel.
During presentations to both the Highland Beach and Delray Beach commissions, Tomey pointed out that Highland Beach is considered part of the Delray Beach service area and as a result has access to all of that city’s resources should they be necessary.
He said his department provides Highland Beach with “the gold standard of medical care and fire service.”
Privately, however, some Highland Beach commissioners have argued that the town could be even more responsive to the needs of residents if it had its own department and didn’t respond to calls in Delray Beach.
While one ladder truck and one rescue wagon are currently assigned to the Highland Beach station, town leaders point out the consultant report includes the town having two rescue wagons, a ladder truck and an engine at the station.
With the additional apparatus fully staffed, a Highland Beach department would respond to simultaneous calls more quickly. Under the current arrangement, a second rescue truck usually comes from over the Linton Boulevard Bridge to handle simultaneous calls in the town.
Highland Beach commissioners recognize the amount of work and number of decisions ahead before the town is ready to launch its own department, but they say they are committed to making it work.
“The No. 1 objective and the No. 1 key point is the health and safety of our residents, not the savings,” Hillman said. “We will spend whatever we have to spend to make sure our residents get the best possible service.”

By Rich Pollack

A former town commissioner, the former director of Florida Atlantic University’s School of Public Administration and an attorney with experience in a regulated industry are among the five residents chosen for Highland Beach’s new Charter Review Board.
Charged with reviewing the town’s charter and making recommendations, the board was selected during a commission meeting last month and includes a member of the town’s financial review board and the former mayor of a Maryland village.
“This is an excellent Charter Review Board because it is so well rounded,” said Mayor Doug Hillman. “The individuals have varied backgrounds that will blend together well.”
The mayor said that it will be important for the panel to view the charter as a constitution for the town and consider how it will affect the town for years to come.
“They have to think down the road,” he said.
Following the board’s review and acceptance of recommendations by the Town Commission, some or all of the proposed changes will be presented to the voters in a referendum.
The board, which is expected to begin meeting this month and to conclude by August, will take a close look at the town’s founding document, which addresses everything from the makeup of the commission to term limits. It also will address the town’s controversial spending cap, which requires voter approval for most projects costing $350,000 or more.
Those selected to serve on the board are:
• Barry Donaldson, an architect who served as a town commissioner for a year.
• Steve Katzki, a financial adviser and the former mayor of Drummond, Maryland.
• Ron Reame, a member of the town’s Financial Advisory Board who owned and operated several businesses in the information systems and financial loan areas.
• Eve Rosen, an attorney who served as general counsel in a regulated industry.
• Khi Thai, a professor emeritus at FAU’s School of Public Administration and that school’s former director.