South Inlet Park is a county-owned recreation area next to the Boca Raton Inlet. ABOVE: Eugene Katal and his son Victor try fishing from the jetty. BOTTOM LEFT: Cousins Rosanne DiFilippo and Frank Kopa soak up some sun on the beach.  Photos by Tao Woolfe/The Coastal Star

By Tao Woolfe

South Inlet Park, one of Boca Raton’s smallest, quietest oceanside parks, offers a laid-back day at the beach for families and serenity seekers.
It’s just south of Boca’s spectacular 2-mile oceanfront recreation area, but the humbler South Inlet Park — which is tucked alongside the Boca Inlet — feels almost undiscovered.
Among those who appreciate the charms of the county-operated park is Frank Kopa, who lives in Boca Raton during the winter months and returns to the New Jersey shore for the summer.
He and cousin Rosanne DiFilippo, nestled deeply into their low-slung beach chairs one recent afternoon, talked about how the beach had changed in the last 40 years.
“I don’t remember these big condo buildings all around,” said DiFilippo, who first visited South Inlet Park when she was about 20. “There used to be more dunes — and trees.”
The overpowering smell of baking seaweed seemed not to faze the cousins, whose bodies were golden brown.
“My skin is used to it. I don’t even use lotion,” Kopa said. “We’re beach freaks, here every day.”
DiFilippo said she likes South Inlet Park because it is more natural and less crowded than other area beaches.
The park offers barbecue grills adjacent to five small pavilions with picnic tables; a play area for kids 5 to 12 years old; and a jetty along the south side of the inlet that is a popular fishing spot.
Eugene Katal, accompanied by his son Victor, 6, stood on the rocky jetty and repeatedly cast his line into the wake of passing boats.
As late afternoon clouds rolled in from the west, father and son, their baskets and buckets empty, packed up their gear.
“It’s my first time here and my first time fishing,” Eugene Katal said with a shrug. “It’s a very nice park.”
The park’s largest pavilion is the last architectural remnant of the 1930s Cabana Club — a semicircular group of cabanas, card lounges and dining rooms that was demolished in 1980 to make way for the Addison on the Ocean condominium.
The pavilion, which originally served as a sheltered area for club guests exiting their cars, was preserved and moved to South Inlet Park in 1981. The porte cochere (covered entrance) is now on Palm Beach County’s Register of Historic Places.

Amanda Engelhart takes a break on the park’s boardwalk.

The park has tree-covered wooden walkways through the scrub, and shady coves with benches where beachgoers can get out of the sun.
Amanda Engelhart had stopped along a walkway to knock the sand off her red sneakers and appreciate the surrounding little forest.
“I think this park is beautiful, cozy,” she said. “There are areas in the water where you can see tropical fish and coral, and it’s always clean.”
Engelhart, of Minnesota, said she was traveling and stopped for a long stay in Boca Raton. She goes to South Inlet Park almost every day, she said.
“This little spot is well preserved and incorporates the city with nature,” Engelhart said. “It’s a good place for me to find solitude. It’s a good place for all.”

South Inlet Park at 1100 S. Ocean Blvd. is open from sunrise to sunset seven days a week. Dogs are not allowed on the beach. Balloons endanger sea turtles and are prohibited. Parking costs $3 an hour weekdays and $4 an hour on weekends and holidays.

RIGHT: This South Inlet boardwalk provides an easy walk through the coastal hammock dominated by cabbage palm trees.

Boca Raton’s South Beach Park features a large, oceanfront pavilion at the eastern terminus of Palmetto Park Road.

South Beach Park
Boca Raton’s other “south” park is the southernmost point of the city’s renowned coastal recreation area.
South Beach Park is known for its big, shady pavilion at the intersection of A1A and Palmetto Park Road; its walking paths shaded by sea grape trees; and its white sand beach.
“South Beach has been, and remains, one of Boca Raton’s most visited and utilized parks,” said Michael Kalvort, the city’s recreation services director. “Over the course of the pandemic, we saw unprecedented attendance and usage by our citizens as they looked to recreate, get healthy, and enjoy a moment of respite during these interesting times.”
Most of the 24.5-acre park is owned by the city of Boca Raton, but a 6.5-acre parcel within the park is owned by Palm Beach County, said Anne Marie Connolly, Boca’s communications and marketing manager.
About 50 years ago, the city entered into a dollar-a-year lease agreement with the county allowing the city to use the land as a park.
The city recently renewed the lease for 20 years, although the price has risen to $10 a year, Connolly said. The city has an option to twice renew its lease in the coming decades.
“This allows for our residents to utilize the parkland as we ... continue to maintain it,” she said.

South Beach Park is at 400 N. State Road A1A. Hours are 8 a.m. to sundown, seven days a week. No fires, camping, alcohol or smoking. Lifeguards are on duty from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during standard time, and 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. during daylight saving time. Surf fishing is allowed, but not in designated swimming areas during normal swimming hours. Pets are not allowed. On-street parking is $2 an hour. All-day parking for South Beach Park, and adjacent Red Reef Park, is $25 for cars and minivans.

House, condo owners face spikes of 30% or more

By Charles Elmore

Palm Beach County’s southern coast might have been spared a direct hurricane strike in recent years, but residents are getting pounded by an insurance maelstrom only growing in intensity as the start of storm season approaches June 1.
Home insurance costs for many are spiking 30% or more, agents say — and even doubling or tripling for some condo dwellers.
“They’re obviously in a lot of shock,” said Steven Kirstein, owner-agent at Kirstein Insurance Services in Boca Raton, describing the customer reactions he is encountering. “No one likes it.”
Insurers are not renewing tens of thousands of policies. Two have gone out of business since February alone. And those remaining are often demanding tough new terms or vastly scaling back what they will cover.
Further shrinking the options: The state’s insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., does not cover properties worth more than $700,000. Given the rocketing surge in home values, that leaves fewer and fewer properties eligible near the coast. Owners must scramble for whatever they can find — such as “surplus lines” insurers, whose rates are not regulated by the state.
Condo owners can feel the pinch in multiple ways. They might pay not only for policies to cover the contents of their individual units, but also assessments to a condo association to handle insurance for outer structures and common areas and the cost of any improvements made to those.
In Delray Beach, downtown condo unit owners including Vern Torney felt stunned to realize association assessments could roughly double from $530 per month to more than $1,000. That prospect arrived suddenly after an insurer threatened not to renew coverage unless owners replaced metal roofing about 20 years old, he said.
People who lived there thought the roof was fine and even understood it was supposed to last up to 50 years, only to have the insurer insist on the change before hurricane season. That left owners scrambling to assess their options, such as how to pay for it, late into April.
“‘Sticker shock’ fits here,” Torney said. “It’s also sort of out of the blue. Just a few months ago we didn’t realize the insurance company was not going to renew us. We were just blindsided on this roofing project and the cost of it. It’s very disruptive.”
Conditions have become so jarring that state legislators plan to meet in a May 23-27 special session to address property insurance, though it is far from clear if there is an easy fix or consensus on what to do.
From climate threats to contractor lawsuits to soaring property values to inflation in construction and repair materials, a host of issues are swirling together at once for the insurance industry and its customers in Florida.
The stream of Palm Beach County customers flowing into Florida’s last-resort insurer, Citizens, shot up 57% in one year to more than 87,000 by mid-April.
“The Florida property insurance market is in crisis and on a trajectory toward collapse,” said Mark Friedlander, Florida-based director of corporate communications for the industry-funded Insurance Information Institute.
The average home premium in Florida, about $3,600, is the highest in the nation, and it rose 25% in 2021, compared to 4% nationally, he said. The state is projected to average 30% to 40% increases in 2022, he said.
State-run Citizens is adding more than 6,000 policies a week and recently passed 800,000 customers statewide, President Barry Gilway said. He expects Citizens to swell to more than 1 million customers by year’s end.
“Policyholders in southeast Florida continue to see a very tight market, with many private companies non-renewing policies or placing further restrictions on what they will cover,” Citizens spokesman Michael Peltier said.
Owners of single-family homes pay Citizens an average of $3,806 annually in Palm Beach County, up about 8% from last year. Condo residents pay an average of $1,398 to cover the contents of their individual units, a 10.8% rise from 2021.
That’s just a county average. Premiums can run higher near the coast.

Citizens seeks max increase
Buckle up for more. In its latest rate filing, Citizens seeks permission from regulators to raise premiums close to 11% statewide, its legally allowed maximum, by August.
Citizens officials said they posted a $166.5 million underwriting loss last year, though the company’s investment portfolio more than offset that to produce net income of $81.1 million. The insurer also has $6.5 billion in reserves to help cover future claims.
Not every private insurer has proved to be so stable in a Florida market heavily reliant on smaller, homegrown companies. In February, St. Johns Insurance Co., with 160,000 customers, became the fifth Florida-based insurer to be liquidated since 2019.
That was followed in March by an order of liquidation for Avatar Property & Casualty Insurance Co., affecting more than 37,000 customers.
Then came reports Lexington Insurance Co., which specializes in covering homes worth $1 million or more, is pulling out of Florida. That affects an estimated 8,000 affluent customers. A company spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
While no major hurricane has recently hit the most heavily populated southern end of the state, storms have made landfall in other places including the Panhandle. 

Fix eludes lawmakers
Incandescent real estate sales along Florida’s southeast coast during the pandemic have sent home values to record highs. Supply-chain issues have pushed up the cost of construction materials. That means properties can quickly get much more expensive for insurers to repair or replace.
Meanwhile, the Surfside condo collapse near Miami last year brought renewed attention to risks for seaside structures, which were already under scrutiny as communities weighed how to respond to rises in sea level and other climate issues. State lawmakers failed to reach agreement in the spring’s regular legislative session on a range of insurance, safety and inspection proposals.
Many insurers have been trimming their risks in coastal counties. Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Co., for example, entered 2022 with 12,485 customers in Palm Beach County, down from 14,020 a year earlier, according to a state database.
Then there are the financial ripple effects of weather catastrophes in other parts of the nation and world, affecting the cost of reinsurance — insurance that insurers buy — and insurers’ overall appetite for risk.
“Insurance rates continue to climb as home prices increase and unexpected events like tornadoes continue around the country,” said Bill Sample, senior loan officer for Choice Mortgage in Boca Raton. “It is going up like everything else unfortunately.”
That’s why insurance agents are having more difficult conversations than they might prefer lately.
“It happens every single day,” Kirstein said.

Mary Hladky contributed to this story.

Volunteers gather one last time in April after cleaning up the garden land next to Cason United Methodist Church, which has agreed to sell the property. The fruit and vegetable garden had been there since 2008. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Garden volunteers lament closing but seek new digs

By Janis Fontaine

All that remains of the once flourishing community garden near the corner of Lake Ida Road and Swinton Avenue is black weed cloth and concrete blocks. The property is being sold and the garden had to go.
Cason United Methodist Church has been entertaining offers on the valuable Delray Beach acreage for 10 years. A soccer complex almost came to fruition. Other failed proposals included a water park and a homeless services facility. The current sale of the 4-acre tract won’t be final until the end of the year, but the scuttlebutt is that ten $1 million houses will be built there.
Gary Broidis of Atlantic Commercial Group is handling the sale, but remains mum about the buyer, the sale price and any development plans.
Garden manager Candy Evans called the closing of Cason Community Garden after 14 years “bittersweet.”

Candy Evans, Cason Community Garden founder, receives a farewell hug from a volunteer at the garden.

Evans was there with co-founder Lori Robbins when the first shovelful of dirt was turned over in 2008, and she gave the final orders as the organic garden closed April 9. A feeling of gratitude was evident as she exchanged hugs with volunteers she’s cultivated over the years.
The community garden at 342 N. Swinton Ave. began as a Hail Mary to help keep Cason United Methodist Church open. It turns 120 years old this year. But in 2008, the membership was dwindling and leaders were planning to close the church.
As members brainstormed ways to keep the church open, Evans and Robbins suggested using the vacant land just west of the church, unused for decades, as a public community garden.
“We never thought it would make any money,” Evans said. “We just wanted to do something positive for the community.”
Evans and Robbins were guided by three Christian responsibilities: feeding the needy, educating the public and being stewards of the Earth. A garden, they thought, would do all three.
There was one snag: Neither knew much about vegetable gardening.
“But we had everlasting faith,” Evans said.
One day, Michael Lorne of Lorne & Sons Funeral Home found himself carpooling to Miami with the Rev. Linda Mobley of Cason. When Mobley told Lorne, who has a degree in horticulture and is a master gardener, about the new garden, he couldn’t get involved fast enough. Through the years he offered guidance to citizens who bought plots.
The garden was started with donated compost and weed cloth, and Evans brought a hose from home that stretched from the church across the parking lot to the garden.
In telling the story to the Florida United Methodist Foundation, Evans said: “With every step in the building of the garden at Cason, doors opened, and volunteers and supplies were offered. With God’s hand, we were guided through.”
Like the church, Lorne & Sons has served the community for decades, since the 1950s. Michael Lorne hoped to take a different career path, in horticulture. But the family business needed him, and he took his place there in the 1970s. Gardening instead became an avocation, and he loved teaching Cason’s plot-owners the basics of Florida gardening without chemicals.
The first-year crops included strawberries, green beans, Swiss chard, heirloom tomatoes, melons, collard greens, beets, herbs and six kinds of peppers. Enthusiasm for the project grew each year and soon there was a waiting list for plots.
“A professor from the University of Florida came to visit and said it was one of the finest community gardens she’d ever seen,” Lorne said. “It’s a lot of work. You have to have eyes on your plants every day.”
Gardening without chemicals is especially hard because insects in Florida flourish like weeds. “It’s a real hands-on project and Candy Evans is the reason it was successful,” Lorne said.

The garden had some floral touches but mostly grew organic produce. More than 25,000 pounds of its food went to Delray’s Caring Kitchen to feed people in need. Photo provided

As a result of the garden, things began to change around the church. It had more laughter, hugging and banter, people helping each other, everything members wanted the church to be. Cason UMC became known as “the church with the garden.” Sunday attendance more than doubled, from 75 in 2008 to 165 in 2012.
The garden doubled in size too, from 2,500 to 5,000 square feet, with plots in two sizes. Some were rented by families and groups, others by individuals or couples. Evans, who had found support at the church as a new mom of triplets in the early ’90s, now had three teenage helpers and an ability to delegate.
“I have no problem telling people what to do,” Evans said. With her calm manner she doesn’t sound bossy. And she’s grateful for the help from people like Keith Humphries, whose red pickup was a familiar sight, always carting something somewhere. “Many hands make light work” is one of Evans’ favorite sayings.
The garden closing coincided with a day set aside locally for the annual Great American Cleanup, a months-long event sponsored by Keep America Beautiful Inc. The April 9 event sponsors were the county’s Solid Waste Authority and Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful. Evans and her volunteers left the garden area as neat as a pin so the church wouldn’t be fined by the city as it waits for the sale of the land.
Humphries’ final job was to haul away the last few plants and the garden bench where people had so often rested weary legs and backs after work. His mornings will no longer include watering or weeding plants.
“I probably put in about 15 hours a week,” said Humphries, who lost his wife a year ago. The garden had been his respite. He’s putting his Lake Ida house on the market, and he hasn’t looked too far past that.
The community garden premise is simple: People pay a fee for a plot and grow whatever they like under the guidance of a volunteer master gardener and with the support of the garden community. Gardeners get to keep most of their organic produce, but are asked to give at least 10% to soup kitchens and other charities that feed homeless people.
And that may be the biggest tangible loss. Evans estimates the garden gave away 25,000 pounds of organic produce to the Caring Kitchen in Delray Beach over the years. Now, the kitchen will have to buy vegetables to feed the hungry. In 2012 there were more than 20 local community gardens. Today there are a handful.
“It’s harder to find volunteers,” Evans said.
There’s also less interest among younger generations to work the land.
What will happen now? No one knows. At Cason, Robin Fogel is spearheading the search for a new spot for the garden. The gardeners would like 5,000 square feet, and it has to be full sun, fairly flat and cost nothing to take over.
“It would be a shame if the garden never found a new home,” Evans said. “Gardens are special because all at once you can connect with the earth, your spirituality and your community.”
Annual events, such as the popular pumpkin patch in the fall, are still planned on the remaining acreage, but smaller in scale.

For more information on how to help the garden find a new location, call the church at 561-276-5302.

Brenda Dooley presents Dana Littlefield with two quilts, one for himself and another for his brother Nelson Littlefield. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Quilters surprise veterans with mementos to cherish

By Ron Hayes

What do you say to a military veteran after you’ve said, “Thank you for your service”?
In March, the Briny Breezes Hobby Club said it with needles and thread, yards of colorful fabric and countless volunteer hours.
On that breezy Tuesday morning, nearly a hundred neighbors and friends gathered by the town’s fountain to see 45 handmade quilts presented to men and women who had been members of the U.S. Armed Forces long before they were residents of Briny Breezes.
As flags of the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard fluttered high above the fountain, club President Marla Guzzardo called out their names.
“Larry Adams … Michael Amaturo … Terrence Brabham … Phillip Brackett.”
Elisabeth Galea, co-chair of the project, met each veteran with a handshake and a quilt — 40-by-60 inches, with red, blue and patriotic panels on a white background.
“Gail Elble … Tom Goudreau … Carol Guth … Bruce Jensen.”
The Briny Breezes Hobby Club had been sewing these quilts for strangers long before they made them for their neighbors.
Quilts Of Valor, they’re called.

The Briny Breezes Hobby Club honored 45 veterans, many of them seen here saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

A dream realized
In 2003, a woman named Catherine Roberts of Seaford, Delaware, whose son Nat was deployed to Iraq, had a dream. Not a metaphor, a real dream.
“I saw a young man sitting on the side of his bed in the middle of the night, hunched over,” she recalled. “The permeating feeling was one of utter despair. I could see his war demons clustered around, dragging him down into an emotional gutter.
“Then, as if viewing a movie, I saw him in the next scene wrapped in a quilt. His whole demeanor changed from one of despair to one of hope and well-being. The quilt had made this dramatic change. The message of my dream was: Quilts equal healing.”
And the Quilts of Valor Project was born. Nearly two decades later, the national group has sewn about 300,000 patriotic quilts and presented them to American veterans.
In the past, the Briny Breezes quilters had sent their quilts to that national organization.
“But we never saw the people who got them,” Guzzardo said.
And so, last October the club placed a notice in the Briny Bugle seeking veterans for whom they wanted “to do something special.”
They compiled a list, set to work, and on this Tuesday morning in March, that something special happened.

Under the fluttering flags of the United States and its service branches, Army veteran Paul Sullivan returns to the crowd after receiving his quilt.

Serving those who served
“I love this,” said Army Spc. 4th Class Stanley Brunell, who served as a radio telegraph operator in Germany, from 1965 to 1967. “This is awesome.It’ll be a permanent memory.”
Standing beside him as he held his new quilt was his wife, Carole. After marrying in February 1966, she joined him in Germany four months later. And 56 years later, she admired him as he admired his quilt.
Gail Elble graduated high school in 1968, but didn’t join the U.S. Naval Reserve until 1982.
“I was working as a school guidance counselor when I heard about the Direct Commission Officer program, which lets civilians receive a commission if you have special skill and pass the test. My principal flunked the test and I passed.”
She entered as an ensign, served 20 years and retired in 2002 as a lieutenant commander.
Army Spc. 5th Class Paul Sullivan was surprised.
“It was a total surprise,” he said. “The Briny hobby club is the largest with 200-plus members, and I knew nothing about this project. I don’t know how they got my name.”
But he was glad they did.

Elisabeth Galea presents a quilt to June Fingerhut in honor of her late husband, Pete. Her son-in-law, Tom Oglesby (in red), also was honored.

Eric Wolffbrandt served on the U.S. Air Force’s Air Defense Command staff in Syracuse, New York, from 1967 to 1969. He had a top-secret clearance, but never saw Vietnam.
“I appreciate this,” he said, holding his quilt but thinking more of others than himself. “I remember during the war our commanding officer told us, ‘Don’t wear your uniform off base because of all the protesters in the street.’ So I appreciate this remembrance, honoring all these men. I have awesome respect for all those who were actually in combat.
“I’ll put this on a wall somewhere,” he said. “It’s beautifully done.”
They chatted, they posed for smartphone photos with their quilts, and they dispersed. Honored for service decades ago, they returned to their lives today. And the Briny Breezes Hobby Club will return to its regular hobbies. The something special the members had arranged for the town’s veterans was also something unique.
“This is a one-time event,” Guzzardo said, “but we’ll continue to do this individually as more veterans move to Briny Breezes.”

I can’t remember how I learned to swim. I’d like to think I gripped my mother’s hands with my pudgy baby fingers as she bounced me up and down in the water of some muddy, Midwestern lake until I was floating — still grasping one finger until I let go.
In reality, I was likely tossed between brothers until they dropped me in the water and waited to see if I burbled back to the surface.
Ah, the life of a little sister.
Regardless of how I learned to swim, I do recall my busy mother (She had six children: my four older brothers and one younger sister) helping move my pencil along lined notebook pages to write the alphabet in cursive letters.
And teaching me how to cut fabric with a tissue-paper outline to create the base pattern of a blouse.
And how to hang laundry and make smooth, tight hospital corners on bedsheets.
And knitting. She taught me how to knit.
All of these tasks seem so old-fashioned. In today’s fast-paced, computerized world, these skills could be considered obsolete. And yet, I look back on these lessons as if they’re encased in amber.
It was rare to have my mother’s undivided attention and witness her (mostly) tireless patience.
Those are the real skills I hope I learned from my mother:
To listen closely with empathy and without interrupting.
To say “let’s take a break” when roadblocks seem insurmountable.
To open the umbrella and take a walk when it rains.
To be grateful that I somehow learned to swim (in spite of my brothers).
And to be thankful for my mother’s lessons — both obsolete and timeless.
Happy Mother’s Day.

— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

Phil Wotton, Delray Beach’s Ocean Rescue division chief, was riding with his wife, Elaine, on their tandem bicycle when they stopped to assist an unconscious cyclist in March. Photo provided

By Jan Engoren

Philip “Phil” Wotton is an unassuming fellow. As Ocean Rescue division chief in Delray Beach, Wotton is OK with being called a good Samaritan, but not a hero — despite having spent a huge chunk of his career in the lifesaving business.
On a Sunday in mid-March, Wotton and his wife were out on a tandem-bike ride along State Road A1A headed south to Atlantic Dunes Park. When they turned around and headed back, they spotted a group of people huddled around an unconscious cyclist lying in the bike lane.  
Somebody had called 911, but Wotton and his wife got off their bike and he helped stabilize the woman until the paramedics arrived and she was taken to the hospital.  
Not taking any credit for his role in aiding the woman, Wotton, 55, says, “I was in the right place at the right time. It’s just what I do.”  
Wotton, Delay Beach’s Ocean Rescue division chief since 2015, is responsible for water safety for the city. This means, for example, rescuing people caught in riptides or those who may have been tangled in the tentacles of a Portuguese man o’ war.
“It’s an occupation that found me,” says Wotton, who grew up swimming off the shores of Hollywood Beach and followed in his older brother’s footsteps to become a lifeguard.
He stays fit by running and by swimming five mornings in a master class at 5:45 and riding a tandem bike with his wife of 23 years, Elaine. Twice a year he must pass a qualification swim of 500 meters in under 10 minutes.
He loves surfing, swimming, rowing, boating, paddling and fishing — anything to do with water sports.
Wotton met his wife, who is from Manchester, England, in 1997, at a Jazz on the Avenue event on Atlantic Avenue.
The Delray Beach couple, who have two sons, one in the Coast Guard and one studying auto mechanics at PBSC, married the following year at sunset on a boat in Key West.  
With their sons they traveled and did things outdoors, such as going to the Keys, camping at Long Key State Park and lobstering.
At one Christmas dinner with extended family, Wotton remembers being hailed as a hero for pulling out 23 lobsters for appetizers.
“Chief Wotton is a true beach safety professional,” says Delray Beach Fire Chief Keith Tomey. “I do not believe there is any other lifeguard as knowledgeable, as professional or as compassionate about the job as Chief Wotton.”
He worked to improve the service and reputation of the lifeguarding profession, relocating the division from the Parks and Recreation Department to public safety at the Fire Rescue Department.
“People don’t realize that 35 years ago lifeguards were regarded differently, and it wasn’t considered a career,” Wotton says. “The concept of lifeguarding or ocean rescue is now a respected profession which people take seriously and choose for their career.”
He strives to be a role model to his peers and his staff.
“I don’t ask anyone to do something I wouldn’t do myself,” he says. “I put the operation’s needs ahead of my own needs. That is one of the reasons I swim early in the morning before coming to work. I take care of my mental and physical health. Once at work, there are no guarantees on how the day will unfold.”
Wotton was a serious competitor in his younger years and won national lifesaving competitions.
Wotton and his friend Steve Griffith, 61, the Ocean Rescue lieutenant for Boca Raton, were rowing partners and competed as a team in races for lifeguards throughout the country and in run-swim-paddle-row endurance events.
In 2017, Griffith and Wotton took home the gold medal for their age group in the doubles row at the U.S. Lifesaving Association national championships at Daytona Beach.
At the same event, Wotton took the gold in his age group in the American Ironman competition and the silver medal in the surf-race-swim event.
“We were always the team to beat,” remembers Griffith.
Griffith also credits Wotton with improving their profession.
“As division chief, Phil has promoted professionalism and a higher-quality standard of care for all lifeguards. Now all lifeguards must be EMTs,” Griffith said. “He has raised the bar for the level of care for Delray Beach residents and others.
“Phil is a very passionate guy — passionate about his job, about his professionalism and physical performance on and off the job. He pushes himself to do the best he can for himself, his job and for his city.”
Wotton doesn’t plan to retire until he is at least 70, meaning he has many more years of doing what he loves.
“As long as I stay healthy and enjoy my job and the people I work with, I’ll be here,” he says.

NOMINATE SOMEONE TO BE A COASTAL STAR
Send a note to news@thecoastalstar.com
or call 561-337-1553.

The purchase of 9 acres of mangrove natural area for the town of Ocean Ridge is one of those decisions where I saw a whole town come together and show what living in this paradise really means. It is probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our community to make a real impact on preserving what we treasure.
I am thrilled that I had the privilege to be sitting on the dais for this momentous decision and thank the community and my fellow commissioners for coming out and saying yes to the purchase.
Ultimately we may be spending a few more dollars in property taxes each year, but the reward of knowing that there are 9 acres of mangrove forest and wetland that will never be developed surely is worth that. A town united has set the tone for the county, state and national levels by saying, “Yes, we do care about the environment and nature and the species that co-inhabit our community.”

Moving the mayor’s gavel
In Ocean Ridge, the mayor is elected by the five serving commissioners. The mayor’s role is to preside over commission meetings, with his or her voice having the same power as that of the other four members.
Given that Geoff Pugh, Steve Coz and Kristine de Haseth all have served as mayor, it was the most logical choice to have Susan Hurlburt, next in seniority, serve in this role.
I would like to thank Kristine de Haseth for her exceptional service in the position as mayor. Her leadership within town as well as at the League of Cities and other civic organizations has given our residents exceptional representation. We could not have picked a better mayor two years ago and I am proud of having been the swing vote.
Under Kristine’s leadership we have moved from being a town with deferred maintenance to being a proactive town tackling items that are not easy and not cheap, yet need to be done.
I am looking forward to Susan Hurlburt as our new mayor, to continue this journey and to represent our town at the state and national levels.

Martin Wiescholek
Commissioner, Ocean Ridge

On April 23, Ocean Ridge offered residents the amenity of shredding personal papers.
I participated in this generous offer. I was greeted there, most warmly, by town staff and directed to the shred area, where — on a Saturday! — I was additionally greeted by our mayor, town manager and police chief. The chief actually carried my material to the shredder!
I write this letter in disbelief — yet total admiration — for such a dedicated, cohesive team effort. Thank you, Ocean Ridge, and especially all the players who make it a place we are proud to call home.

L. Kim Jones
Ocean Ridge

About 15 years ago, my wife and I fell in love with Delray Beach and purchased a condo nearby, which my family enjoys so much. Unfortunately, the ongoing development projects are destroying what was once a wonderful respite from busy city life. You can no longer easily drive down Atlantic Avenue at night, particularly if in search of a parking place. On a recent evening a restaurant valet waved me on, unable to park my car.
The city is becoming way overcrowded and yet the building projects continue to mushroom in quantity and size.
What is the City Commission thinking? Are they beholden to the developers? What we once loved about Delray Beach is being destroyed.
I beg the City Commission to wake up. Enough is enough!

Christopher S. Sargent
Gulf Stream

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach city commissioners switched course in early April and rejected a plan by the Boca Raton Museum of Art to run operations at the Cornell Art Museum.
Instead, the commission will hold a workshop May 17 at City Hall and invite other arts groups to give their ideas for the future of the Cornell, one of five venues at the Old School Square campus in the heart of downtown.
Vice Mayor Adam Frankel and commissioners Ryan Boylston and Shirley Johnson voted against the Boca museum takeover at the April 5 meeting, Frankel said he did not like the idea of having an out-of-town group run a Delray Beach showpiece.
“If a Delray museum were to come to Boca, there would be marching in the streets,” Frankel said.
The city needs new management for Old School Square because commissioners voted 3-2 last August to end the lease with the longtime operators of the 4.5-acre campus when it ran out Feb. 9. The city took over some programming on the campus even before the lease officially ended.
City officials were concerned about how the former operators — the Old School Square Center for the Arts — were spending city dollars. Financial problems plagued the former operators for at least the past six years, according to a city internal auditor review done in August.
Boca museum leaders became interested in running the Cornell following the commission’s August vote, but they waited until the lease ended before meeting with City Manager Terrence Moore on Feb. 14 to discuss their idea.
That set up the commission’s 3-2 vote April 5 against the Boca museum offer. Johnson, who led the charge to end the lease last year, became the swing vote in rejecting the Boca museum plan.
Johnson said the proposal was not clear about the museum’s duties for the $125,000 it would receive from Delray Beach to run the Cornell. The money would have lasted until Sept. 30, and the Boca museum then would have needed to go through the city’s normal budget process to get further funds.
After the meeting, Johnson fielded calls from residents who complained her vote would allow the former operators room to reorganize and put together a plan to return next year, but she denied that was her intent.
“I’m hoping one of the local nonprofits will step up. I’m looking for one group to run the entire campus,” she said.
The spokeswoman for the former operators declined to comment when contacted about the commission’s vote.
Boylston said he wants to see a “Summer of Delray Arts” on the campus. He met with Moore on April 29 to review the format for the May 17 workshop.
Boylston would like leaders of his first tier of nonprofits — Arts Garage, Arts Warehouse, Delray Beach Historical Society and Spady Cultural Heritage Museum — to speak at the workshop. The public can’t offer input at the workshop unless a commission consensus allows it.

Vote surprises Boca director
The commission’s vote was unexpected for the Boca museum’s executive director, Irvin Lippman. He said he had spoken to most of the commissioners ahead of the meeting and the majority supported his museum’s taking over the Cornell’s operations, including Johnson.
“It came as something of a surprise,” he said of the final decision. “The political maneuvering seems to have taken sway. I can’t explain how.”
Lippman told commissioners his team had been on a “listening campaign” for the past month and wanted to create a welcoming environment for the diversity that exists in Delray Beach.
He wasn’t aware of the upcoming workshop. “They want to go in another direction,” he said. “We have plenty to do in Boca Raton to keep us occupied.”
Mayor Shelly Petrolia, who supported the Boca museum proposal, was embarrassed for Delray Beach.
“We had tasked Moore to give us options. At the March 1 meeting, he said the Boca museum leaders had contacted him about running the Cornell.
“We gave him consensus to move forward with the discussions,” Petrolia said. “It’s embarrassing to the city when someone comes in to operate a closed museum and they are denied from moving forward. We had the money and would not be dipping into our reserves.”

Concerts and finances
In other actions regarding Old School Square:
• The city has resumed holding semi-monthly concerts on the Pavilion stage on the OSS campus.
• The law firm representing the former operators responded April 8 to the Community Redevelopment Agency’s demand that the group return $187,500 in funding. It rejected the demand, saying the CRA had given the money after the operators had met the requirements for the first quarter of the 2020-21 financial year.
• The CRA staff is trying to obtain financial records the former operators used to receive a paycheck protection loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The first $309,735 loan was given in 2020 and later turned into a grant.
The CRA is trying to find out if the operators used any of the federal money to pay staff salaries. It is concerned about double-dipping, if some of its money went to pay for salaries already covered by the paycheck protection loan.
The CRA first requested the information from the USSBA, which said it does not have those records, and is now seeking them from the former operators’ lender, which does have them.

Mary Hladky contributed to this story.

By Steve Plunkett

For the first time in at least 24 years, no one from Place Au Soleil has a seat on the Gulf Stream Town Commission.
Donna White, who served since June 2013, submitted a resignation letter March 21 saying she is leaving the area. Her 5-bedroom, 3.5-bath home at 2750 Avenue Au Soleil is on the market for $2.549 million.
The commission appointed Thom Smith, chairman of the town’s Architectural Review and Planning Board, to the seat at its April 8 meeting.
“The Town Staff has been a pleasure to work with, always willing and informative on any issue that is presented, and I have the highest regard for the dedication and integrity of my fellow Commissioners,” White wrote in her resignation letter.
“I truly will miss the warmth and camaraderie that I have experienced in all my dealings with the town.”
Mayor Scott Morgan “regretfully” announced White’s resignation at the meeting.
“She was always someone … who had great depth of knowledge and understanding not only of our code but more importantly, the design manual and the importance of preserving what’s important in Gulf Stream,” Morgan said.
The seat goes to Smith, the mayor’s neighbor at the south end of town on State Road A1A.
“He’s a home boy. He was born and bred here. He knows the significance of Gulf Stream within the neighboring communities and what makes us a very special community,” Morgan said.
“He’s got very good judgment,” Commissioner Paul Lyons said. “As you said, talking about local knowledge, he has that.”
Smith’s appointment is the first change on the dais since 2016, when Lyons, then chairman of the ARPB, filled a vacancy created by Bob Ganger’s health-related resignation.
The mayor said he tried to recruit Malcolm Murphy, a Place Au Soleil resident and vice chair of the ARPB, but he asked not to be considered because of his business and travel plans.
White moved to Gulf Stream in 2002, was active in Place Au Soleil’s homeowners association and sat on the ARPB from 2006 to 2010. She was appointed to the ARPB after her neighbor, Muriel “Mert” Anderson, was elevated to the commission.
When Anderson resigned, she urged White to signal an interest in the job. White was the only person to do so.
The commission doesn’t have districts, “but I really like having someone from Place Au Soleil,” then-Commissioner Ganger said at the time.
Preceding Anderson on the commission was another Place Au Soleil resident, William A. Lynch, who first ran unopposed for a seat in 1998.
In other business, police said they recorded two automobile thefts, one from the Core area and one from an open garage in broad daylight in Place Au Soleil, the first auto theft for that neighborhood. Both vehicles had keys inside.
Chief Edward Allen said a group of thieves is “working the whole state. We’ve heard from Delray, Ocean Ridge, Manalapan. They just don’t know where they are what night or what day.”
Allen also said five-year veteran Officer Ramon Batista, who left the police force in July, had rejoined the department after deciding he was not ready for retirement.

By Steve Plunkett

Gulf Stream and litigious resident Martin O’Boyle have settled three lawsuits — over a dock he built without permission, a conduit buried in his front yard during the utilities undergrounding project and his demand for $30,000 in legal fees on another case.
“Basically, they’re walk-away settlement agreements,” with the lawsuits dismissed and each side paying its own legal bills, said Hudson Gill, the town’s outside attorney. “The cases are dismissed with prejudice,” meaning O’Boyle cannot refile his claims later.
The town’s insurance will cover Gulf Stream attorney’s fees and costs in the first two cases, but the town will pay its fees and costs in the third, Hudson said. O’Boyle is liable for the legal bills on his side.
Attorney Jonathan O’Boyle, who handled the negotiations for his father, declined to discuss the outcome.
Mayor Scott Morgan said the settlements “appear to be in our favor,” and Assistant Town Attorney Trey Nazzaro, who worked on the cases, said, “Correct.”
The legal expenses the town will pay come from a lawsuit Martin O’Boyle filed in 2020 that said Gulf Stream, by filing a federal racketeering claim and other state actions against him in 2015, had reneged on an earlier settlement in which both sides promised not to sue.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, action came after town officials said they fielded more than 1,700 public records requests from O’Boyle and former resident Chris O’Hare in the two years after the 2013 settlement, and said the two men filed dozens of suits against Gulf Stream in state and federal courts. The town spent more than $1 million to handle the records requests and pay legal bills during that time.
The RICO lawsuit was later dismissed in federal court.
In the dock case, O’Boyle began applying “informally and formally” for a permit to build over the water in April 2017. In 2019, town commissioners rejected an appeal by O’Boyle to let him build a “promenade” 30 to 36 inches higher than his sea wall and extending 12 feet into the canal behind his yard, unanimously agreeing that the structure should comply with the building code for docks.
Town code prohibits docks wider than 5 feet.
The dispute hit a flashpoint in November 2019 when O’Boyle, lacking a building permit, had 20 concrete piles installed behind his house, at 23 Hidden Harbour Drive. Gulf Stream obtained an emergency order that Thanksgiving from a circuit court judge enjoining O’Boyle “from any further construction activity on the proposed water structure without approval.”
O’Boyle later got a permit for a 5-foot-wide dock and removed the piles for the extended structure.
In the settlement, he agreed to install no more than two lights on the dock, and they may not project light more than 4 feet above the dock’s surface.
The lawsuit over the utility conduit involved empty piping that was left in an easement 6 feet underground after O’Boyle in 2014 complained that it was on his property. The town relocated the planned conduit to an easement off O’Boyle’s property.
The offending conduit broke when contractors tried to pull it out and town officials decided to leave it buried rather than dig a costly trench to reach it, according to court docu-
ments.

By Tao Woolfe

Chief James Stables has stepped away from the Fire Department and into the fire as Boynton Beach’s interim city manager.
His appointment comes at a tumultuous time for the city, which is struggling with discontent within its Black community and stalled efforts to bring its downtown to life.
Stables, Boynton’s fire chief for a little more than a year, was awarded the city’s top job on April 25 at a special meeting of the City Commission.
The commission’s unanimous vote on Stables came days after it voted 4-1 to fire longtime City Manager Lori LaVerriere during an emotional public meeting.
It remains unclear exactly why LaVerriere was fired after 10 years on the job, but she had been criticized lately for a lack of diplomacy and the city’s failure to protect itself on the stalled Town Square downtown development project.
For her part, LaVerriere said city managers serve with the knowledge that their jobs can end when political winds shift.
“This isn’t a shock. The world will go on. I’ll be fine,” she said.
She added, however, that the employees who served along with her should remain.
“You have an amazing, professional staff. Let them flourish and do their good work. Let them help you.” In a related development, Police Chief Michael Gregory, who had been chief since July 2018, resigned on April 22.
He said in a published statement that he was leaving to “focus on other areas,” but both he and LaVerriere had been lightning rods for anger from the Black community in the months after a 13-year-old boy was killed during a Dec. 26 high-speed police chase. The boy, Stanley Davis III, crashed his dirt bike at 85 mph on North Federal Highway with Boynton Beach Police Officer Mark Sohn in close pursuit.
Members of the youngster’s family, friends and supporters have crowded into subsequent City Commission meetings asking repeatedly for the city to fire those responsible.
Sohn was cleared of all charges in late March by a Florida Highway Patrol investigation. FHP concluded Davis was unlawfully fleeing an attempted traffic stop and going 85 mph in a 35-mph zone.
The Boynton Beach Police Department is still conducting its own investigation.
In early April, commissioners asked LaVerriere to look into whether a merger with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office would benefit the city.
LaVerriere reported back to the commission that the sheriff’s proposal was not yet completed. Stables will be expected to follow up on that report.
Many residents at the special April 25 commission meeting spoke out against a PBSO merger. They asked that the city work instead to improve the existing Police Department and root out bad officers.
Stables was chosen from among three candidates for the job. The others were David Scott, the city’s director of economic development and strategy; and Joseph DeGiulio, Boynton’s assistant police chief.
The city commissioners asked all three men how they would build back trust between the city and the Black community.
Communication is the key, all the candidates said.
Stables said his credo of listening to everyone equally is especially important now.
“We’re dealing with numbers of people impacted negatively,” Stables said. “We must be more nimble and responsive. I will be looking to see how to get out in front of things.”
The chief said his years of managerial and emergency preparedness experience made him suited for the city manager job, but added that he was honored to be considered among such a strong candidate pool.
Before taking the helm at the Boynton Beach Fire Department, Stables served as chief of fire departments in Johnson City in Tennessee, and Palm Bay and Ormond Beach in Florida. He was district chief in Brevard County from 1992 to 2000, and began his firefighting career in Wilton Manors, where he was a fire inspector and volunteer firefighter in 1985-86.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Barry University in Melbourne, and is working on his master’s in public administration — also from Barry, according to his résumé.
Stables supplied to the commission letters of support that praised his leadership, team-building, managerial and communication skills.
Stables is “an accomplished chief officer” who “continues to embody the desire to serve through strong leadership values and behaviors indicative of a selfless public servant,” wrote Gregg Lynk, former Palm Bay city manager.
Members of the Boynton Beach City Commission agreed.
The commission itself has been in flux since March, when two term-limited incumbents left their seats. Two new commissioners — Angela Cruz and Thomas Turkin — were elected in March. Another seat opened when Ty Penserga left his District 4 seat to run for mayor, a job he won.
The commission on April 19 chose Aimee Kelley, a paralegal and wife of a Boynton police captain, from among several contenders to fill the year left on the District 4 term.
In explaining why he chose Stables, Penserga cited the breadth of experience.
He added that all three men have been exemplary at their jobs and he hopes that Scott and DeGiulio will continue in their respective roles.
Woodrow Hay, who initially indicated that he would vote for Scott, ultimately joined his colleagues and voted for Stables.
“All three men could have done the job, but at the end of the day, the right decision was made,” Hay said after the meeting. “It’s important that we show a united front going forward.”
Nonetheless, Hay was the lone dissenter in the vote to fire LaVerriere. Was it loyalty?
“I am loyal as long as the person is doing the work,” he replied. “She had been doing the work, and had done a lot of good for the city.”

By Joe Capozzi

Agreeing they probably are paying more than the land is worth, town commissioners voted to spend $1.5 million to preserve 9 acres in a mangrove-filled lagoon north of Town Hall. 
“Even if we might be overpaying for this piece, it’s a good thing for the town,’’ Commissioner Martin Wiescholek said at an April 12 commission meeting. “It’s our future and it sets the right tone for Ocean Ridge to say we are environmentally oriented and we want to make sure this town stays the way it is today.’’ 
A week earlier, the town was under contract to buy the land for nearly $2 million from the William Priest Family Trust, a deal contingent on two appraisals.
But commissioners saw the appraisals for the first time just hours before they were scheduled to consider the purchase for the first time at their regular meeting April 4. One appraisal was for $1.4 million, the other $800,000, for an average of $1.1 million that prompted commissioners to postpone a vote and direct the town manager to renegotiate with the owner over the next week.
Those negotiations settled on $1.5 million, which the commission unanimously approved at a special meeting April 12, just days before the purchase contract was set to expire. 
“I hate to see us spending this kind of money. I think we probably are overpaying by $300,000 to $400,000, but it’s the right thing to do,’’ said Commissioner Steve Coz, who led the call to renegotiate the price. 
“If a developer goes in there and develops property, we will then as a town get sued for not providing proper drainage for houses on this island.’’
The 9-acre parcel borders a 3.3-acre sliver to the east owned by Waterfront ICW Properties, a company that’s been fighting the town and nearby condos in court over its plans to build a road and residential homes in the lagoon.
Town officials were careful to avoid mentioning those legal battles in detail. Instead, Town Manager Tracey Stevens promoted plans to rezone the land to conservation/preservation from its current residential use as part of a long-term strategy to possibly open the area for recreation. 
Palm Beach County and Spanish Creek LLC have already applied to the town for the same zoning change on land they own immediately south and east of the 9 acres the town bought from the William Priest Family Trust. 
The $1.5 million to purchase the land was taken from the town’s reserves, reducing the emergency budget to $5.8 million. Town officials hope to recoup some or all of that $1.5 million by applying for grants and seeking assistance from entities such as The Nature Conservancy.
“With the mitigation rights that could potentially exist on that property and could potentially be sold off, I think we have an actual opportunity of recouping our money,’’ said Wiescholek.
Most of the 25 residents who attended the April 4 meeting to voice support for the purchase returned April 12 to cheer and clap when the commission approved the purchase.
“I’d be willing to give up a few bucks for it,’’ said former Commissioner Terry Brown. “We need to move forward and not squander any opportunity to demonstrate that we’re a government that can do something important for the people and protect our natural areas.’’
In other business:
• In a commission reorganization vote April 4, Kristine de Haseth and Susan Hurlburt swapped positions. Hurlburt was voted mayor and de Haseth was voted vice mayor. 
• The commission endorsed the voluntary “Combat Automobile Theft” program. Participating residents will each apply a special reflective sticker to the back of their car. The stickers give Ocean Ridge police officers consent to make traffic stops between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. to make sure the vehicle is not stolen.
“Once the officer turns the lights on and attempts to pull the vehicle over, if the vehicle stops we know it’s a resident. If the vehicle takes off, we know it’s stolen,’’ Chief Richard Jones said. “It’s just one more method to give us the opportunity to reduce crime.’’  
• Commissioners voted to spend $14,000 to remove an abandoned sailboat that washed ashore in March after being damaged in a storm.

By Joe Capozzi

Ocean Ridge town commissioners in June will consider new proposals by a citizens task force for safety measures on and around Old Ocean Boulevard.
Old Ocean Boulevard runs nearly a mile from Corrine Street in Ocean Ridge to Briny Breezes, east of and parallel with State Road A1A. Segments of the Ocean Ridge stretch offer unobstructed views of the ocean, attracting crowds of walkers, bicyclists and skateboarders, along with vehicles.
The task force, convened early this year at the suggestion of Mayor Susan Hurlburt, met twice in April and presented the following safety recommendations to commissioners May 2: 
• Install removable speed humps (not speed bumps) on Adams Road and Beachway Drive — two east-west streets that connect North Ocean Boulevard and Old Ocean Boulevard — and on Old Ocean from Beachway south to Tropical Drive, a stretch that currently has no stop signs. 
• Add signage stating “Residents Only/Local Access Only” at Corinne and Thompson streets, Adams and Beachway. 
• Paint a center line down the length of Old Ocean as a visual reminder for vehicles and bicycles to stay to the right.
• Clear the 5-foot right of way along Old Ocean, in particular the east side of the road where overgrown vegetation doesn’t allow space for pedestrians to move to the side to avoid oncoming traffic. 
• Consider lowering the posted speed limit on Old Ocean to an unusual number that would catch the attention of drivers, such as 13 mph or 16 mph.
The recommendations are just the latest round of ideas for enhancing safety on the road, a topic that has been debated off and on at least since 2007 when a traffic study referred to Old Ocean as the “Jewel of the Town.’’ 
But as nearby developments in Boynton Beach send more and more walkers, bicycles and vehicles onto Old Ocean, many town officials and residents say it’s past time to finally implement a safety plan.  
“Our hope is that the recommendations we listed, along with continued education and enforcement, will ultimately change behaviors and help improve public safety on our ‘Jewel of the Town,’’’ task force chair Carolyn Cassidy told commissioners. 
Cassidy and several other task force members asked commissioners to discuss the recommendations immediately, so the town could earmark money for the safety measures when work starts on the next budget. 
Commissioners, though, said they wanted to think about the proposals first and then discuss them in June at a meeting where other residents could offer ideas. 
Town officials plan to come up with rough cost estimates for the recommendations for commissioners to discuss at their next meeting, at 5 p.m. June 6. The town’s first budget meeting is the same day at 2 p.m.

The George Bush Boulevard bridge reopened without ceremony late on the afternoon of April 29. It had been shut since March 3 after getting stuck in the up position. The bridge then underwent repairs and three weeks of tests. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Joel Engelhardt

After a nearly two-month closure, the George Bush Boulevard bridge reopened April 29 once new parts were installed and testing completed.
While supporting the county’s work to get the bridge back in service, Palm Beach County Mayor Robert Weinroth said he could do nothing to help make sure the public stays better informed about the capability of county bridges. That’s because bridge inspections are almost entirely exempt from public disclosure for security reasons under state law.
After the county said it would cost $1,100 to publicly release a redacted version of a single inspection report, with no guarantees of any useful information, Weinroth said he would leave questions of public access in staff’s hands.
“I’m not an engineer,” he said. “I can’t say if that’s appropriate or not.”
Weinroth has said the George Bush Boulevard bridge, which opened in 1949, is in line for a $1 million evaluation to see if it needs to be replaced. A new bridge is projected to cost $45 million. He said the money could come from the federal infrastructure bill passed by Congress and lauded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a mid-March appearance at the bridge.
Weinroth withstood criticism from residents angered by the need to drive a mile south to Atlantic Avenue or 3 miles north to Woolbright Road to get around the stuck bridge. 
It had stopped working March 3 after damage to a main shaft and gear system, officials said. The shaft had to be custom-built and, after three weeks of testing to make sure the bridge was aligned correctly, it reopened, the county said in a news release, adding “intermittent bridge closures are to be expected as continued monitoring is planned.”
“You have to have a certain amount of tolerance that these bridges get old. Things wear out. We all have to accept that,” Weinroth said. “For a county of 1.5 million people, I think we’re doing a pretty decent job of taking care of the needs of our residents.”
To make matters worse for drivers, about a mile of George Bush Boulevard from Northeast Second Avenue to State Road A1A has been undergoing a $2 million face-lift since July 2021. The work, which includes resurfacing and new sidewalks and bike lanes, is expected to go on until summer 2023.
Both the county and the state, which own a total of 11 South County Intracoastal bridges, freely provide a single-page bridge inspection cover sheet, which shows the date of the inspection, the age of the bridge, the bridge’s score on two measures and a check box to indicate whether the bridge is functionally or structurally obsolete. 
The six county-owned bridges are at Palmetto Park Road, Woolbright Road, George Bush Boulevard, Linton Boulevard, Ocean Avenue in Lantana and Camino Real in Boca Raton.
The five state-owned bridges are at the Boca Raton Inlet, Spanish River Boulevard, Atlantic Avenue, the Boynton Inlet and East Ocean Avenue in Ocean Ridge.
None of the bridges was marked as structurally obsolete in inspections dating to 2018.
The George Bush Boulevard bridge had by far the lowest “sufficiency rating,” at 48.5%.
A bridge with a sufficiency rating below 50% is considered eligible for federal replacement dollars. The ratings run from 0% (poor) to 100% (very good) and take into account structural adequacy, whether the bridge is functionally obsolete and level of service to the public.
None of the other bridges had sufficiency ratings below 60% and one, the East Ocean Avenue bridge in Ocean Ridge, topped 90%.
Five of the bridges — Atlantic Avenue, Boynton Inlet, George Bush Boulevard, Palmetto Park Road and Camino Real — were marked as “functionally obsolete.” That could mean the bridges don’t have enough lanes or are too narrow, may be drawbridges on congested roads, or may not have enough space for emergency shoulders or bike lanes, County Engineer David Ricks wrote in an email. 
Camino Real travelers endured a 16-month closure in 2018 and 2019 as the county refurbished the 1939 structure. Upon completion, its sufficiency rating jumped to 73.1% from 37.5%.

A six-week paper chase
The Coastal Star engaged in a six-week exchange with county spokespersons, attorneys and engineers to review inspections since 2015 of all Intracoastal Waterway bridges between South Palm Beach and Boca Raton.
Even though six of the bridges are county-owned, the state pays consultant TranSystems Corp. to conduct the inspections. Payments for inspecting Palm Beach County bridges, which undoubtedly include more than those six bridges, since July 1 have topped $336,000, a state spokesman said.
Both the county and the state provided the bridge inspection cover sheets. When asked why they wouldn’t provide the entire report with redactions to avoid exposing the confidential security information, as the county does with other public documents, county spokeswoman Nicole Ferris cited state law and pointed to what the bridge inspection consultant wrote on the cover page: “Only the cover page of this report may be inspected and copied.”
However, state law doesn’t say anything about providing only a cover page of a bridge inspection report. The state law, passed after the 9/11 attacks, exempts from public review “building plans, blueprints, schematic drawings and diagrams” that “depict the internal layout and structural elements of a building, arena, stadium, water treatment facility, or other structure.”
In late April, six weeks after The Coastal Star’s initial records request, Ricks provided an estimate that it would cost the newspaper $1,025 plus another $62 for redacted paper copies of the most recent inspection for the George Bush Boulevard bridge, a 414-page report chock full of schematics.
Without any assurances the nonexempt information would provide anything useful, The Coastal Star declined.

By Larry Barszewski

A pair of oceanfront homes were burglarized in April:
• A family residence in Ocean Ridge where the suspect stole at least $2,000 and made his way upstairs to a bedroom where a baby was sleeping;
• A vacant house in Manalapan on an ocean-to-Intracoastal Waterway lot, where one of the suspects told police he brought in a bed and had been squatting there for days.
Police made arrests in both the cases, including of a suspect in Manalapan who ran into the ocean and swam away. It took a few days to catch the Ocean Ridge suspect, who made a mostly clean getaway, but then returned to the area the following night — setting in motion the events that would lead police to his doorstep.
“This is very unusual,” Ocean Ridge Police Chief Richard Jones said of a burglary of an oceanfront home in his town. “It does not happen very often. I can only think of two or three in the last nine years.”
There were no known connections between the two break-ins, Jones said. “Every homeowner should take personal security seriously and lock their doors, set their alarm and call the police immediately when something suspicious occurs,” he said.

Family fright in Ocean Ridge
Ocean Ridge police arrested Zachary Jarod Herring, 20, of Boynton Beach, charging him with unarmed burglary of an occupied dwelling and larceny grand theft in the April 20 break-in shortly after midnight of the home with an address in the 6000s of North Ocean Boulevard, court documents show.
The homeowners were asleep in the house with three grandchildren, ages 6 and 3 years old, and 8 months old, unaware of the burglar. It was another family member, who was in Miami at the time, who received an alert and video triggered by a security camera that had been set up in the baby’s bedroom.
The video showed the burglar near the baby’s crib, while other house security video a short while later captured him fleeing out a side door, running across the back of the property and jumping off a 6-foot-high sea wall toward the beach to make his escape.
He appeared to be wearing a white hoodie, face mask and gloves. He had taken credit cards and cash from a purse in the butler’s pantry near the side door, police said.
A Boynton Beach police K-9 unit was unsuccessful in finding the suspect around the house and a Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office helicopter crew wasn’t able to spot him.
But the next night, a security guard stopped Herring for walking on the sea wall of the house next door to the burglarized home.
Ocean Ridge police came and conducted a field interview, with Herring telling them he had come to the beach on his bike to clear his head. He showed police where he had left his bike near the Edith Street crossover and they allowed him to leave after taking down his personal information.
The detective working the burglary case later determined that, after the burglary, the suspect had dragged a bicycle from behind the house to the Corrine Street beach crossover. A woman the next day found some dumped credit cards from the burglary near the crossover. The detective also realized the suspect and Herring had similar physiques.
With that information, the detective determined Herring was a suspect and went to his home to talk with him, only later finding him at his job. Herring was arrested after confessing to the crime, police said.
The report said he “went on to explain how he comes to this area a lot to admire the homes and he got the idea he might be able to go inside one. He stated he went into the home and when he saw children in the home he left.”
The family estimated $3,000 was taken. Herring told police he had taken about $2,000 and that he hadn’t spent the money. Police recovered $1,400 that Herring had on him and $615 he turned over to them at his home.

Manalapan squatter charged
Manalapan police were alerted to suspicious activity April 13 at a vacant house on the ocean and determined a burglary was in progress, Police Chief Carmen Mattox said in a report to town commissioners.
Two women were taken into custody in front of the house with an address in the 3000s of South Ocean Boulevard, a five-bedroom, 6.5-bath house that sold for $9.85 million last year and is slated for redevelopment.
Two male suspects fled and were apprehended with help from the Sheriff’s Office and police from Ocean Ridge and Lantana, with one of the men trying a water escape.
“Dispatch supervisor [Michelle] Mackey was monitoring the cameras during the event and observed one of the suspects on the beach,” Mattox wrote in his report to commissioners. “She notified the units on scene of the location and that the subject was in the ocean. The Sheriff’s Office helicopter located the suspect and followed him until he swam ashore and was taken into custody.”
The two men arrested were Reinaldo Chirino, 30, of Lake Worth, and Yoannes Aleman Jimenez, 45, of Palm Beach Gardens. Chirino told police he went into the house and had been living there for about three days, according to a copy of the police report filed in criminal court.
“During questioning, Chirino admitted to entering the residence through an unlocked door approximately three days prior,” the police report says. “Chirino stated he had smoked marijuana laced with cocaine inside the residence. Chirino stated he brought two box springs and mattress into the residence to sleep on.”
Police said the house’s northwest window had been forced open.
Chirino was charged with unarmed burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, possession of cocaine and resisting an officer without violence. Jimenez was charged with unarmed burglary of an unoccupied dwelling.
The women in front of the house, ages 35 and 33, were arrested on outstanding failure to appear charges, according to Sheriff’s Office jail
information.

By Larry Barszewski

Work is underway to bring better water pressure to Manalapan’s oceanfront homes through the installation of a new water main underneath the Intracoastal Waterway from Point Manalapan to the beach.
The long-planned project should take about eight weeks to complete the crossing and the new main should be in operation in October if no unforeseen delays occur, town officials said.
Residents who haven’t left for the summer may have to deal with some headaches, including the sound of drilling as the pipe is installed, having a metal plate in the road until the project receives all its signoffs, and the blocking of some Intracoastal-side docks as the 10-inch pipe is laid out along the west side of Ocean Boulevard before installation.
“You’ll all hear about the metal plate on the road,” Town Manager Linda Stumpf warned commissioners at their April 26 meeting.
The pipe crossing the Intracoastal will run between 1660 Lands End Road and 1550 S. Ocean Blvd., just north of the curve on Ocean Boulevard.
Town commissioners approved a $628,267 contract in January for the project with DBE Utility Services out of Loxahatchee, which submitted the lowest of three bids for the work. Mock Roos & Associates, a West Palm Beach engineering consulting firm that was paid $68,000 by the town to put together the bid specifications and review those received, will also be paid up to $100,000 to handle administration of the contract.
“It’s a good project and a needed project,” Mayor Keith Waters said. It will provide better water flow to battle fires at beach properties. It’s not replacing any underwater lines, but will be an additional one, Stumpf said.
Divers began doing a subaqueous vegetation survey of the pipe’s projected path in April and the pipe project itself was set to begin the first week of May, she said.
Besides the time it took to get permits for the work through the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies, the town had problems securing the necessary easements until 2020, when Commissioner Hank Siemon agreed to an easement on his property at 1660 Lands End Road. As part of the agreement, Siemon was able to build a dock before finishing construction of his residence at the site.
The town is going to have to let other rules slide for Siemon during construction, because officials say they’re working with a very small site and will have to take over its whole south side — up to 10 feet over the easement — during construction.
Siemon will be allowed to park three vehicles in front of the green fence on his property because he won’t have space on his lot. He’ll also be in line to receive a construction extension because the water main project is forcing him to delay installation of a septic system, pavers and other items.

In other news at the April meeting, commissioners:
• Approved new requirements eliminating the use of parking cones along construction sites and the use of stones or other devices that inhibit parking in swales in front of properties. The rules also limit which properties can have anti-parking devices in front of them at or near construction sites to the following: the actual site, the immediately adjacent properties on either side, and the properties across the street from them.
• Approved construction permit extensions for 1685 Lands End Road and 115 Spoonbill Road, the latter in part because the project’s general contractor died after the permit was pulled. Commissioners plan to approve tighter restrictions on granting extensions because they’re concerned about the negative impact long-term construction has on neighborhoods, but they’re continuing to hear from homeowners who say pandemic-related supply chain interruptions are still making it difficult to meet permit deadlines.
• Authorized the special master in code enforcement cases to hear appeals of code liens and fines and to grant reductions if warranted. Previously, property owners had to appeal to the Town Commission to try to get penalties reduced.
• Tentatively approved an increase in the time property owners have to complete work under a building permit or town-approved special exception or variance, seeking to make the deadlines more reasonable and to reduce the number of items coming back to the commission for extensions. The proposed change would increase the length of a building permit to two years instead of 18 months, and variances and special exceptions to one year, instead of six months.
• Heard from Police Chief Carmen Mattox about attempts to beef up the security presence at the guard house to the town’s Point section. In his report to commissioners, Mattox said there have been complaints about the private security firm not having a strong enough presence at the guardhouse. The guards can’t stop vehicles because it is a public road, but Mattox said he is working with the firm to have guards stationed outside the guardhouse to make them more visible. The firm wants the town to install bollards to protect outside guards from being hit by vehicles, he said.

Katie Barr MacDougall of Boca Raton founded HaitianArt.com to buy and sell art. Louis Rosemond’s Tree of Life in Eden Twilight hangs in her living room. MacDougall is semi-retired but calls Haitian art a passion that will last the rest of her life. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

A visitor walking into Katie Barr MacDougall’s historic home in Boca Raton’s Riviera neighborhood is immediately surrounded by impressive Haitian art.
Louis Rosemond’s vibrant Tree of Life in Eden Twilight is a focal point in the living room, while Claude Dambreville’s Morning Market is the dining room’s dominant image.
MacDougall’s favorite artist is Henri Rousseau, so it is obvious why the Florida Atlantic University graduate with degrees in art history and computer science is drawn to the colorful, naïve paintings.
“It is my passion,” she said. When she discovered Haitian art, “I made it my quest.”
MacDougall, a city resident since her parents moved to Boca Raton in 1970, opened her first art gallery in the Fifth Avenue Shops plaza in 1989, and later opened another gallery on Delray Beach’s Atlantic Avenue.
Hurricane Wilma in 2005 destroyed that gallery, prompting her to concentrate on her online gallery HaitianArt.com, which she established in 1992.
While she is semi-retired now, MacDougall said she will not give up acquiring and selling artwork.
“It is a labor of love and something I can do for the rest of my life,” she said. “I never intend to retire from Haitian art.”
Although best known for her galleries, MacDougall also has long been active in civic affairs. “If you love where you live, you must be involved,” she said.
She was among about a dozen people who contributed to Al Zucaro’s BocaWatch blog that styled itself as a watchdog scrutinizing the City Council and what many residents perceived as overdevelopment in downtown Boca.
By filing complaints with local and state ethics commissions, Zucaro played a key role in the downfall of former Mayor Susan Haynie, who was removed from office by then-Gov. Rick Scott in 2018 after she was arrested on public corruption charges.
After Zucaro shuttered the blog later that year, many members of his BocaWatch team, including MacDougall, launched the BocaFirst blog to maintain their voice in city affairs.
It remains active, with MacDougall interviewing people involved on matters of public interest. She describes BocaFirst as less political than BocaWatch, focusing on issues residents care about, and said it does not endorse candidates for City Council.
BocaFirst recently wrote extensively about a proposed assisted living facility at 2 SW 12th Ave. Neighborhood residents feared that city approval of the ALF would clear the way for more such facilities to be built in single-family neighborhoods, and strongly lobbied the City Council to reject the project. City staff has determined it should not be approved.
MacDougall filed or joined lawsuits in a battle that began in 2015 against construction of a synagogue and Israel museum at 770 E. Palmetto Park Road that would have been a new home for the Chabad of East Boca. Nearby residents contended the project was too large and tall for the location and would overburden streets with traffic.
In the end, the synagogue and museum were never built.
“It wasn’t the happiest time in my civic activity,” MacDougall said. “People made it into an anti-Semitic thing.”
There was no such animus, she said. Residents did not oppose a synagogue, but objected to such a large-scale development.
“We were suing the city over a questionable zoning change,” she said.
As president of the Riviera Civic Association — which encompasses about 450 homes in the Riviera, Por La Mar and Sun & Surf neighborhoods — MacDougall now is involved in efforts to improve East Palmetto Park Road, especially the section from the Intracoastal Waterway to A1A.
In a presentation to the City Council last year, she cited safety problems caused by the absence of crosswalks, the lack of bicycle lanes, narrow sidewalks that hinder walking and the need to move on-street parking.
Council members subsequently made improvements to the roadway a city priority, but no changes have been made yet. One complication is that stretch of road is controlled by Palm Beach County, so the city can’t act on its own.
MacDougall said the civic association is keeping up the pressure and is in talks with the county as well. Members also are involved in a related push to improve Palmetto Park Road from Federal Highway to Fifth Avenue.
Of all these efforts, her galleries are closest to her heart.
“It has been really, really rewarding,” she said. “I have seen money going into the hands of artists. I feel good about it.”

— Mary Hladky

Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A. Early childhood education was in Brooklyn, New York, Palm Beach Community College and Florida Atlantic University. Areas of study, art history and computer science.

Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A. During my FAU days, I worked at the Wildflower, later at C.O.R.E. International, a computer hard drive company. I also spent many happy years managing Gay’s Perfumery in Royal Palm Plaza. In 1989 my [now deceased] husband, Tony Barr, and I opened the Haitian Art Collection in Boca’s Fifth Avenue Plaza. That site is now a Panera Bread.
My work with the Haitian artists has been the most rewarding aspect of my career — the clients were an added bonus. It’s a little-known fact that collectors of Haitian art are some of the most interesting people in the world.

Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?  
A. It can’t be all about you: Your career has to be one that impacts others in a positive way. Keeping that thought front and center will help you do great things.

Q. How did you choose to make your home in Boca Raton?
A. My parents moved the family to Boca’s Golden Triangle in 1970. I’ve chosen to remain in Boca Raton because this town feels like family to me. Sometimes dysfunctional but lots of love.

Q. What is your favorite part about living in Boca Raton?  
A. Besides the people, I would have to say being close to the ocean and seaside amenities, golf, biking, boating, etc. — plus having great restaurants and entertainment close by.

Q. What book are you reading now?
A. Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers.

Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?  
A. Inspiration and relaxation, I’ll listen to chill-out music, something like the Café del Mar collection. For fun, it has to be Talking Heads, Tom Petty or Snow Patrol.

Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?  
A. “Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty and wisdom will come to you that way.” — Christopher Hitchens

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. My art history professor, Kathleen Russo PhD. Her enthusiasm for the subject was like a shot of adrenaline. Also, the supervisor of air traffic control at Port-au-Prince International Airport, Fred Brisson. Fred convinced me to open a Haitian art gallery in Boca.

Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
A. Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman 2020). Why not?!

By Joe Capozzi 

Tempers flared at a South Palm Beach special magistrate’s hearing April 21 when the town attorney challenged a private structural engineer over the severity of sea-wall erosion at the Dune Deck condominium.
The erosion issues were first brought to the condo’s attention in 2018 by structural engineer Bijan Parssi, whose report at the time recommended repairs “to maintain the structural integrity of the sea wall.’’
In March, a concerned Dune Deck resident notified the town that repairs had still not been made. The town investigated and cited the Dune Deck for code violations. 
At a special magistrate hearing in March, a condo official said no repairs could be done until after sea turtle nesting season, which ends Oct. 31. At the town’s request, special magistrate Amity Barnard gave the Dune Deck one month to send the town a letter from the Department of Environmental Protection confirming the no-work order. 
But a month later the condo sent the town a DEP letter that only generally outlined state laws about nesting season without mentioning the condition of the sea wall at the Dune Deck. 
At the April 21 hearing, Parssi and a condo attorney disputed the town’s contention that the building was unsafe — a contention Dune Deck officials did not dispute at the March hearing, which Parssi attended without offering testimony.
Town Attorney Aleksandr Boksner read the conclusion of the 2018 engineering report in which Parssi described “numerous areas of corroded steel throughout the entire sea wall’’ along with a need for repairs “to maintain the structural integrity of the sea wall.’’
When Boksner told the special magistrate the conditions are “unsafe,’’ Parssi and a condo attorney took issue with that interpretation.
“I am telling you it is not unsafe. It is not going to come down. It needs to be repaired. We have said that it needs to be repaired,’’ Parssi said. “If it was unsafe, I wouldn’t be standing here today.’’
Boksner pointed out that no repairs have been made in the four years since the report was written. “And here we are today, saying ‘Oh, it’s not that bad. It just needs to be repaired,’’’ he said. 
Raising his voice, Boksner continued, “And, yes, I am making an argument that it is structurally unsafe. It was structurally unsafe in 2018 and it is more so now, sir.’’ 
Parssi retorted, in a louder voice, “Do you have a structural engineer license?’’ 
The two men talked over each other for a few seconds before the special magistrate interrupted and said, “Let’s take it down one level.’’ 
At the end of the debate, Barnard slapped at least $3,300 in fines on the Dune Deck for failing to comply with a previous order to seek state permission to repair an eroding sea wall during sea turtle nesting season.
If the DEP determines the repairs can be made during sea turtle nesting season, Barnard said, there’s a chance the $100-a-day fines can be reduced or eliminated. 
The town has been trying diligently to address condo repairs since the Champlain Towers collapse that killed 98 people in Surfside in June. Over the past 10 months, three other South Palm Beach condos have been cited for erosion problems, all of which have been repaired. 
Speaking about the Dune Deck case, Boksner told the special magistrate, “The town does not want to have a situation where, God forbid, something were to happen.’’
Earlier in the April 21 hearing, Boknser said, “Considering how we are over four years and no work has been done, in the event something were to happen … that would ultimately be a very, very big problem.’’
Barnard also expressed unease about the condo’s failure to formally submit an application to the DEP for repairs. 
“How much longer is it going to take to get through the process is my concern,’’ she said. “I’m not an engineer but if there is a safety concern, that is a serious thing. The fact that there was a report that said there needed to be maintenance and there has been no maintenance in four years and the condition on the sea wall is the same as it was back then, that’s concerning.’’
The case is scheduled to be reviewed again by the special magistrate on May 19.