Connie Siskowski, president and founder of the American Association of Caregiving Youth in Boca Raton, displays art from some of her clients in AACY headquarters. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Tao Woolfe

It’s difficult to get Connie Siskowski to talk about herself.
Seated in her sunny, plant-filled office, she deflects questions about her status as a local — and even national — hero by talking instead about the secret world of caregiving children.
The children, she says softly, are the real heroes.
When a family member is ill, and hiring help is not possible, kids become caregivers. Their grades suffer, school participation falls off, and their demeanor changes.
About 22% of these children drop out of school to administer medicines, keep house, shop, cook, provide companionship, and help a disabled relative shower or walk.
“Schools look at dropouts and the dropout rate, but often they don’t consider what goes on behind closed doors,” Siskowski says.
Children won’t talk about caregiving, fearing ridicule or reprisal. It’s a hard, lonely role.
Siskowski knows about the weight. She was raised in New Jersey by her grandparents and when her grandfather became ill, she cared for him until she came home from school and found him dead.
Such situations are not rare. An estimated 3.4 million to 5.4 million children in the U.S. help care for ailing adults, according to 2020 statistics.
In Florida, according to Siskowski’s groundbreaking research, more than 290,000 children are helping a sick parent or sibling.
After her grandfather’s death, Siskowski became a nurse — earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in Baltimore.
She moved to Boca Raton in 1990, bought and sold a home-care business, and continued a career in family care. Through that work, Siskowski learned about the underground world of child caregivers here and abroad.
A few years later, she took the advice of her husband, Gary: Go get your Ph.D. from Boca Raton’s Lynn University. For her doctoral dissertation Siskowski studied young caregivers in Palm Beach County.
“When I realized the extent of the population, I began wondering how to make a difference,” Siskowski says.
After finishing her degree at Lynn in 2004, she founded the nonprofit American Association of Caregiving Youth and eventually changed the lives of hundreds of children who know her as “Dr. Connie.”
She worked with county middle and high schools to identify children who might be slipping under the tide of their families’ needs. She talked with anyone willing to look beneath the patina of Palm Beach County.
Today, AACY is the only organization of its kind in the United States, offering free support to caregiving kids ages 8-18. It has won many awards.
In 2012, CNN profiled Siskowski’s work in a nationwide telecast.
Municipalities beyond Boca Raton have since asked for AACY’s help to set up similar programs.
AACY’s services include counseling, in-home help, tutoring, equipment, a getaway camp, help with scheduling work, play and caregiving, and — perhaps most important — networking with other caregiving kids.
“When they meet others caring for family members, they realize they are not alone,” Siskowski says.
Julianna Doran was one of the children touched by AACY.
Now 21 and getting ready to start her own life, Doran was in the sixth grade when she met Siskowski.
Doran helped care for her brother Joshua, who has cerebral palsy.
“I would feed, bathe, change — anything you can think of — to help my brother,” Doran says. “Sometimes I did more than I should.”
AACY held events that allowed Doran to meet other caregiving youths.
“I could see that some kids had it worse than me,” Doran says. “It really helped to hear that I was not the only one dealing with that situation.”
Doran says Siskowski is a good listener who does not judge.
“She never had that ‘I’m better than you’ mentality. Everyone has positive things to say about Dr. Connie,” Doran says. “I’m happy to be part of her amazing group.”
Siskowski, 75, says that when her path grows especially steep, her faith keeps her going.
Ken Roughton, Siskowski’s pastor at First United Methodist Church in Boca Raton for more than 20 years, says Siskowski, in turn, “makes a difference in the life of everybody who meets her.”
“Though she’s quiet and understated, she is a strong person who has a clear sense of what God wants her to be doing.”
Every minister hopes his congregants can find ways to embody the gospel, Roughton says. But Siskowski seems to do that effortlessly.
“Connie always finds ways to bring faith to life in the community,” he says.

The American Association of Caregiving Youth relies on donations and volunteers to keep going. For more information, go to https://aacy.org.

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

It’s not that I’m slowing down or losing interest. There are no urgent responsibilities that must be addressed. My health is good. But like the dropping barometer before a storm, there’s an ever-present pressure nagging at me to slow down, urging me to analyze how I want to use what’s left of my time on this Earth.
So, I’m scaling back my daily involvement at The Coastal Star and passing along a few of my myriad responsibilities to other extremely capable journalists. Although none of them is new to the paper, they should get recognition for the roles they play in the paper’s success:
Mary Thurwachter (marytg@bellsouth.net) is our features editor. All the great content in our Around Town section is under her leadership — as are the people profiles inside our News section.
Steve Plunkett (gplunk99@gmail.com) directs and edits our coverage of Boca Raton and Highland Beach.
And new to the management team, Larry Barszewski (larrybarszewski@bellsouth.net) is now our editor for Gulf Stream, Delray Beach, Lantana and Boca Raton’s Beach and Park District.
I’ll still edit the remainder of our municipalities. I’m not going away.
All three of these managing editors have extensive daily newspaper experience in South Florida. They are award-winning professionals. Trusted pros. The newspaper remains in good hands.
Starting, owning and running The Coastal Star is one of the most immensely gratifying experiences of my life. Working with the talented journalists who contribute to the newspaper each month has sped my time since 2008 — when we first began filling a news void by reporting on the coastal communities in southern Palm Beach County.
It’s been, dare I say, fun, but it’s also been time consuming. My hope is that by passing on a little more responsibility to these three managing editors, it will lift some of the pressure and allow me to take back some needed personal time.
Rest assured that Advertising Director Chris Bellard and Publisher Jerry Lower have no plans to slow down. They’ll continue to lead our amazing sales, production, photography and circulation teams.
That’s how I know we’ll keep delivering the local news and information our readers have come to expect. They will keep the business running. Let them know if you have questions.
If you have news tips or story ideas, feel free to drop me an email. I’ll still be around.

— Mary Kate Leming
editor@thecoastalstar.com

Endless, a 34-foot Bristol sailboat, came ashore after the anchor line failed and high winds blew the boat to the beach. Jason Harris of Key West, the live-aboard owner, did not have the money to get the boat towed out to sea or repaired, so he abandoned it and has since moved to North Carolina.
‘Harris is agreeing to sign over the ownership of the boat to the Town of Ocean Ridge and we will take the responsibility of having it removed,’ Police Chief Richard Jones said.
Because the $10,000 to $12,000 estimate from Sea Tow to remove the boat would exceed the town manager’s discretionary spending limit, the topic will be on the agenda of the Town Commission meeting April 4.
Sea turtle nesting season means the boat cannot be cut up and removed by a bulldozer on the beach. Nearly $7,000 has been raised since local resident Charles McIntyre set up gofundme.com/f/emergency-shipwreck-relief-fund to help Harris start his new life. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Joe Capozzi

Releasing balloons and sky lanterns into the sky can be a festive and visually stunning sight. In Briny Breezes, it may soon be outlawed. 
Concerned about the environmental impacts after what goes up eventually comes down, the Town Council has asked the town attorney to draft language for a proposed ordinance that would prohibit the release of balloons and sky lanterns in town. 
“We go out on our boat and walk on the beach all the time and we are constantly picking up balloons,’’ Alderwoman Christina Adams said when she proposed the ordinance at a March 24 council meeting. 
“Not that they’re coming from Briny and these surrounding areas but they’re still littering our beach.
“One of our biggest sea turtle populations in the state nest right here. The sea turtles can get tangled in them. They think they’re jellyfish and (try to) eat them.’’
Adams said Boca Raton, Boynton Beach and Palm Beach Gardens are among municipalities that prohibit the release of balloons and lanterns. So do Palm Beach County parks, including Gulfstream Park nearby.
Council members agreed with her and suggested adding cigarette butts and fireworks to the ordinance. 
Attorney Keith Davis said regulating fireworks might be difficult but he’d look into the request and present a proposal in a month or so.
Alderman Bill Birch asked how the town would enforce such an ordinance, especially since Briny Breezes hasn’t done any code enforcement other than parking violations.
Ocean Ridge Police Chief Richard Jones, whose officers patrol Briny, said he’d look into ways citations could be issued, along with a schedule of fines. 
“I do like the enforceability of it,’’ Mayor Gene Adams said. “I think it’s the impression of control: If you write one or two tickets, the (word) will get out.”

Council jobs filled
At an organizational meeting on March 15, the council reappointed Sue Thaler as president, swore in Christina Adams for another term and re-elected Gene Adams as mayor. 
Kathy Gross, who won another term because she was unopposed, was sworn in March 24 after she was unable to attend the March 15 meeting.
Although the council always appoints its president, it rarely elects a mayor. The vote on March 15 resulted from a campaign paperwork error that disqualified Adams from the regular March election. 
Since no one else filed to run for the mayor’s post on March 8, the council was required to seek mayoral candidates and appoint a new mayor on March 15 in order to avoid paying for a special election. Gene Adams was the only person in town to request consideration for mayor.
Gross was reappointed as the Town Council’s deputy bookkeeper.
The council made the following appointments to the Planning and Zoning Board: Keith Black for District 1, Tom Goudreau for District 2, Jerry Lower for District 3, Brad Keller for District 4 and Kris Weir to an at-large seat. Bob Jurovaty was appointed as an alternate. A second alternate spot is still open. Interested candidates should contact the town clerk. 
In other business:
• The council asked the police chief to look into how much it would cost to relocate two license plate recognition cameras from the State Road A1A intersection at Cordova Avenue two blocks south to the intersection at Briny Breezes Boulevard. 
If the cameras are moved, Jones asked the council to also consider adding a third camera at the Briny Breezes Boulevard intersection to capture northbound, southbound and eastbound traffic. 
A third camera would cost $2,500. 
• The town will hold its first workshop for the 2022-23 budget on June 23 at 3 p.m., one hour before the start of the council’s regular monthly meeting.

On Monday, April 4, the Ocean Ridge Town Commission will vote on the town’s purchase of an undeveloped wetland parcel adjoining the Intracoastal Waterway. The price tag is $2 million. The stated reason for the purchase is to a create a nature preserve.
The motivation for the purchase is more likely a fear that the property will be purchased by a developer.
The residents of Ocean Ridge and town commissioners need to consider the purchase in the context of the town’s numerous capital spending priorities.
In the most recent capital budget, over $400,000 of budget priorities were deferred to future budget years. Additionally, the $200,000 annual road repaving budget has been deferred for the past four budget years.
The town’s infrastructure is aging and in need of upgrade or replacement. Our municipal water lines must soon be replaced along with the multimillion-dollar cost of the septic to sewer conversion. I believe that rebuilding our town’s infrastructure is a higher priority than the purchase of an Intracoastal wetland.
If the motivation for the land purchase is the fear of the development of a private property, I believe it is an unfounded fear. The development of this wetland parcel would require years of governmental reviews and litigation. Approvals must be obtained from numerous agencies, including the Army Corps of Engineers, South Florida Water Management District and the town of Ocean Ridge. While it may not be impossible for a developer to obtain all the necessary approvals, it is unlikely.
What is the real risk if Ocean Ridge does not purchase this property? The risk is that a number of years down the road this property gets developed into a residential enclave of multimillion-dollar homes that become part of our community and add to our property tax base. That’s a risk that I think our elected commissioners should be willing to take and we as Ocean Ridge residents should wholeheartedly support them in taking.

Ric Carey
Ocean Ridge

Work crews contracted by FPL were unloading wooden power poles at a temporary storage site at the Gulf Stream Golf Club. More than 15 poles had been removed by March 22. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

Folks who 10 years ago paid special assessments to have the town’s electric, phone and cable TV lines buried underground are visually about to get their money’s worth.
Crews from Florida Power & Light Co. started removing the unsightly power poles in Gulf Stream in early March, Town Manager Greg Dunham told town commissioners at their March 11 meeting.
“In fact, I saw one of the trucks go by during (this) meeting,” Dunham said.
He also reported that Gulf Stream was set to make its last payment in March on the $2.43 million loan it took out in 2012 to fund the project while it collected the property owners’ assessments. Owners of single-family homes paid $11,907 on average, while owners of condominiums paid $7,057 on average, either upfront or in annual installments.
“It’s kind of poetic,” Commissioner Paul Lyons said of the coincidental timing of electric pole removal and debt repayment.
The entire project cost $6.5 million.
Removing the poles will take six to eight weeks, Dunham estimated. The FPL crews started on Golfview Drive and will work their way north through the Core district.
Dunham said they took out three roadside poles on March 10, but said those were easier to remove than poles in easements behind homes, such as those on Polo Drive.
The last poles to go will be those along State Road A1A.
The underground project began in earnest south of Golfview in 2012. That phase finished in 2018. Work on the second phase, from Golfview north, started in late 2016.

In other business:
• Commissioners passed ordinances on first reading to regulate trash collection and outdoor lighting. When approved, the trash ordinance will prohibit residents from putting bulk waste or vegetative debris out for collection more than 24 hours before pickup. Lawn maintenance companies will have to take vegetative debris with them the same day it is created or accumulated.
The outdoor lighting measure will update the town code to refer to the measurement of brightness “using lumens instead of the outdated standard of watts.”
• Heard from Police Chief Edward Allen that a Porsche stolen in 2020 from the 4000 block of North Ocean Boulevard was recovered in Houston, Texas, in February with changed VIN numbers and a black vinyl wrap disguising its original color. Even with the new VIN numbers authorities were able to track the vehicle’s ownership. “There’s hidden VIN plates on all your cars,” Allen said.
• Approved 3-0, with Commissioner Donna White absent and Lyons recusing himself, the site plan for a new home at 4225 N. County Road for Lyons’ daughter, Olivia, and her husband, David Endres.
Lyons and Endres are building a two-story, 2,498-square-foot Gulf Stream Bermuda style dwelling. The house needed four special exceptions: for a 25-foot front setback; for 10-foot side setbacks and a 17-foot-8-inch rear setback; for a 10-foot rear setback for the swimming pool; and to allow for a home of up to 2,500 square feet on a lot of less than 7,576 square feet.
“It’s a nice looking house. Special exceptions are deserved,” Commissioner Joan Orthwein said.
Mayor Scott Morgan said the proposal was in direct contrast to a request in February for a special exception at 588 Banyan Road, which he alone on the commission opposed.
“Last month we debated large homes on large lots and special exceptions; interestingly this month we have a small lot and … the interest of the town in developing, particularly on North County Road, small lots. We don’t want too small a home, but there’s an interest for the town in maintaining a certain architectural integrity,” Morgan said.
“And I think that is what you are attempting to do, that is, put a more spacious home on what is a compromised, small lot. And so it justifies the need for the special exceptions that you have requested,” he said.
“We are trying to balance the need for attractive homes, contemporary homes on small lots by allowing special exceptions whereas on the other hand,” he said, “with large homes on larger lots we may not be quite as forgiving.”

By Jane Smith

The Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency is demanding the return of $187,500 it gave to the former operators of the Old School Square campus that is the cultural heart of the city’s downtown.
The CRA board, composed of the five city commissioners and two independent residents in the redevelopment district, also voted March 22 to cancel the rest of the agreement that would have given the fired arts organization another $562,500.
The board voted 6-0 to accept the staff recommendations. Board member Adam Frankel did not vote, having left the meeting about 30 minutes earlier.
The CRA said the nonprofit, formally known as the Old School Square Center for the Arts, failed to meet a March 10 deadline to provide financial documents, such as canceled checks, for the money it received for the first quarter of the 2020-21 budget year.
“In response to the CRA’s recent decision to retroactively void its grant agreement … and ask OSSCA to return money that has already been spent on CRA-approved programming, the CRA is forcing OSSCA to enter into litigation with the CRA,” wrote Carli Brinkman, the group’s spokeswoman, in a March 24 email to The Coastal Star.
The nonprofit already filed suit against the city in November and the two have been at odds for more than eight years.
Former Mayor Cary Glickstein tried to constrain the group in December 2016 with a tighter lease that included financial reporting obligations. After the group could not fulfill those obligations the past two years, the City Commission voted 3-2 in August to terminate its lease as of Feb. 9. The organization had been paying the city $1 annually for the 4-acre campus at Atlantic and Swinton avenues.
The former Old School Square operators had received more than $9 million from the CRA in the past 18 years, ranking them first among nonprofits receiving CRA assistance. For that money, the CRA requires nonprofits to undergo annual independent audits.
The Old School Square group did not submit audits for the past two budget years, using the pandemic as an excuse, while other nonprofits were able to meet the requirement.
Marko Cerenko, an attorney representing the former operators, wrote in a March 14 response to the CRA that the nonprofit “has timely and continuously responded to the requests made of it.” He estimated the CRA’s public records request would cost between $750 and $1,500 for the time needed to retrieve the documents, redact personal information and copy the records. The CRA staff deemed the cost too high.
No OSSCA representative spoke at the March 22 CRA meeting, despite an invitation from CRA outside counsel Sanaz Alempour.
Patty Jones, the OSSCA board chairwoman, did write a March 21 email to CRA Executive Director Renee Jadusingh, calling the city’s decision to terminate the lease “improper.” She said the CRA’s failure to talk with the board led to the diminishing size of the organization.
“We have no office, no program of work and no employees,” Jones wrote. “We have provided reams of documents, but the agency has consistently and predictably moved the bar.”
Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia at the March 22 meeting called Jones’ comments “incendiary,” denying any impropriety.
As to the failure to talk with the former operators, Petrolia said, “That’s what happens when you file a lawsuit. Our attorney said not to talk with them after their lawsuit was filed in November.”
She also bristled about Jones’ describing the Old School Square campus as sitting dark. “The city stepped up and made sure things were happening” after OSSCA “started canceling the events in October,” she said.
While Jones lamented that the city was negotiating “to hand the keys to the heartbeat of our community to a Boca Raton-based nonprofit,” Petrolia said she has visited the Boca Raton Museum of Art and was impressed. That museum is negotiating with Delray City Manager Terrence Moore to run Old School Square’s Cornell Art Museum.
In other OSSCA news, the organization filed its amended lawsuit against the city and three officials on March 1.
Joy Howell, an ex-board OSSCA chairwoman, and Shannon Eadon, former OSSCA executive director, were dropped as defendants. City Commissioner Juli Casale was dropped in January after her attorney filed a motion for attorney’s fees if she wins.
The current lawsuit has 10 counts against the city, including breach of the lease with the former Old School Square operators and two counts each against Petrolia, Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson and City Attorney Lynn Gelin for violations of the Sunshine Law and civil conspiracy to end the lease. The organization is seeking a jury trial to assess damages. According to its lease with the city, disputes are supposed to be settled by arbitration.

The stand of mangroves (outlined in red) that the town wants to acquire and rezone from residential single-family to preservation/conservation could ensure no residential development would occur in an area that is always flooded. Graphic provided

By Joe Capozzi

Ocean Ridge commissioners plan to vote on whether to spend $2 million to acquire roughly 9 acres in a mangrove-filled lagoon north of Town Hall. 
If commissioners approve the purchase on April 4, the town plans to rezone the 8.95-acre tract from “residential single-family” to “preservation/conservation’’ as part of a long-term plan to possibly open the area for recreation, Town Manager Tracey Stevens said in a March 7 memo. 
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 land the town wants to buy for $1.999 million from the William Priest Family Trust. 
Purchasing and rezoning the 8.95 acres would create an expanded area “to preserve the precious mangrove areas and related marine habitats and resources,’’ and offer potential savings to town residents through improved flood ratings, Stevens said. 
Her memo doesn’t mention the fact that the acreage 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.
The town has been under contract with the Priest Family Trust since Feb. 22, with a 60-day due diligence period allowing the town to receive two appraisals, as required by state law.
Stevens said she expected the appraisals to be done before the April 4 Town Commission meeting. If the appraisals come in under the $1.999 million price, the purchase can move forward only with a supermajority vote of the Town Commission. If the appraisals meet or exceed the asking price, a simple majority would be needed to approve the purchase.
Commissioners plan to vote on the purchase April 4 after hearing comments from the public.  
“We are delighted to purchase this property and work with the county to make sure the area is completely rezoned for conservation,’’ Mayor Kristine de Haseth said of the potential opportunity. “We would hope that one day in the future that residents might have the ability to access the property for recreation.’’
If the land buy is approved, the commission will need to do a budget amendment April 4 to take the money out of the reserve fund.
According to realtor.com, the same land was relisted for $1,595,000 on July 22, 2021, a month after it had been listed for $1,999,000. The owner raised the asking price to $1,999,000 in a new listing Feb. 4, 2022.
On Feb. 10, the town submitted an offer that met the asking price, but that was rejected because the seller had accepted another offer, which was later withdrawn during the due diligence period, paving the way for the town to submit its offer again, Stevens said. 
Although the seller had other “competing offers on the table,’’ the town’s offer was accepted Feb. 22, Stevens said. 
 Though the 8.95 acres is in a lagoon off the Intracoastal Waterway, research by town staff shows the land has been zoned for residential use since at least 1975, Stevens said.  
In other town business:
• The salary ranges for Ocean Ridge police officers and sergeants will rise under a new three-year police union contract approved by the Town Commission on March 7. 
The range from officers will change to $54,500 to $94,000 from the previous $54,500 to $86,500. For sergeants, the new range is $72,000 to $104,000, from the previous $67,500 to $97,500. 
The new contract goes from Oct. 1, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2024.
• The commission approved $115,000 in improvements at Town Hall: $70,000 to replace the audiovisual system in the commission chambers and $45,000 to paint Town Hall. 
• A “Save the Seas” event hosted by the Ocean Ridge Garden Club is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 2 at Town Hall and will include a beach cleanup.

By Larry Barszewski

Because of all the poles, stakes and cones being put out for construction projects or just to keep vehicles off swales in front of homes, Manalapan Mayor Keith Waters said streets in town are “starting to look like a slalom course.”
“You’ll have houses three or four down that have nothing to do with the construction and they just put them up all over in front of their houses,” Waters said.
To get a handle on these “parking encroachments,” town commissioners tentatively approved new restrictions March 22 for where such markers are allowed and for how long they can be up. A final vote is expected following an April 26 public hearing.
“The recent proliferation of construction markers, flags and parking cones, and concrete anti-parking stops throughout the town has become a growing concern as it negatively impacts both the free flow of vehicular traffic, and aesthetics of the neighborhoods,” a town report on the situation says.
“The stakes are everywhere, they’re all the way down the street,” Town Manager Linda Stumpf told commissioners during a discussion at the commission’s February meeting.
If approved, the new ordinance will prohibit any parking cones from being placed at the front of driveways or in swales, and will prohibit the dome- or pyramid-shaped concrete stops residents put in their swales or along the front of their property.
Commissioner Chauncey Johnstone said the concrete anti-parking stops can also pose a danger to motorists trying to avoid a turning vehicle or an obstacle in the road.
Under the proposed ordinance, which in part applies to “construction markers, flags, reflector rods,” such markers would be allowed only on the property undergoing construction, the immediately adjacent properties and the properties directly across the street from those residences.
The construction would have to be tied to an active and valid building permit issued by the town and the markers would have to be at least 3 feet away from each other.
In addition, the parking of heavy construction equipment in swales would be prohibited, although light construction vehicles could be parked in swales at a construction site with prior town approval.
The markers at a construction site — and not at adjacent properties — would be allowed for up to 30 days following the issuance of a certificate of occupancy.
Commissioner Richard Granara spoke in favor of also allowing protections for residents with newly installed landscaping. “Some of them are trying to get their swale to take,” Granara said.
The proposed ordinance now says a property that undergoes a town-approved landscaping installation — or landscaping modifications — may have markers for up to 30 days following the installation to protect the newly planted vegetation.
In other action at the March 22 meeting, commissioners:
• Appointed Commissioner Stewart Satter as vice mayor and Granara as mayor pro tem.
• Appointed departing Commissioner Simone Bonutti to an alternate position on the town’s Architectural Commission.
• Tentatively approved an ordinance that gives the code enforcement special magistrate the authority to consider all requests to lower a fine or code enforcement lien on a property. Currently, only the commission has the authority to lower the assessments. A final vote is scheduled for the commission’s April 26 meeting.

By Larry Barszewski

The Town Commission has appointed Aileen Carlucci, a Manalapan resident for little more than a year, to replace term-limited Commissioner Simone Bonutti.
Town Manager Linda Stumpf recruited Carlucci for the position, saying Bonutti had suggested to her that Carlucci might make a good addition to the board.
No one filed to run for Bonutti’s Seat 4, so the election scheduled for March never happened and it fell to town commissioners to appoint someone to fill the vacancy for the two-year term at their March 22 meeting.
“I reached out to her and she said, yes, she was very interested,” Stumpf said.
Stumpf also contacted another resident who had expressed an interest in the past, but he was not available to serve now, she said.
It can be a challenge to keep the seven-member commission vacancy-free.
There hasn’t been a commission election in town since 2011, Stumpf said. Either candidates have run unopposed or it has been left to commissioners to appoint someone to a vacant seat.
There are only about 400 people in town and about half are only part-time residents who aren’t Florida voters, Stumpf said. The seat held by Bonutti had to be filled by someone living along the ocean, making the task even more difficult.
“There’s not a very big pool to choose from,” Stumpf said.
But the opportunity was great for Carlucci, who has never held elective office before but was looking for ways to be active in her new hometown.
“I am very interested in being a part of this beautiful community I live in,” said Carlucci, 63. She moved to Florida from Maryland about three years ago, and then to Manalapan in December 2020.
“We initially moved to Delray to see if we could acclimate to Florida and be a family here,” she said. “We started to look for a forever home and we identified Manalapan as the place we wanted to be.”
Carlucci and her husband, Bob, purchased an ocean-to-Intracoastal Waterway property in town. They were attracted by that dual access and the instant membership town residents have in La Coquille Club at the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa, she said.
“It would allow us to be quickly involved in the community,” Carlucci said. “We moved to the community during the pandemic, which made it very difficult to meet new people.”
Originally from New York City and a graduate of SUNY Potsdam, also known then as Potsdam College, Carlucci said she has always been interested in the arts.
“I do a lot of needlework and sewing, a lot of creative crafts,” she said. Carlucci said she helped found Yumi CARES in Baltimore with Yumi Hogan, wife of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.
Carlucci serves on the board of directors of the organization, which provides art therapy for children facing health challenges such as cancer.
She previously served on the Maryland State Arts Council.
Her husband is a developer and restaurant franchisee, she said. Although Carlucci said she helps at her husband’s business, she adds, “I am the happiest woman alive to be a homemaker.”
The couple has two married children.

Correction: A previous version of this story had an incorrect date for the last contested election in town. That last election was in 2011.

Boynton Beach police secure the accident scene at Riverwalk Plaza the day of the construction-related deaths. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Tao Woolfe

Boynton Beach and federal work-site safety inspectors are continuing their investigation into the March 22 deaths of two workers at a construction site near downtown.
Initial reports just after the mid-morning incident were that a crane had collapsed and fallen on the two men. Later that day, however, Boynton Beach police and fire officials reported that part of the concrete structure had collapsed, crushing the two workers.
The men were later identified by police as Jeremias Mendez, 32, and Eduardo Cruz-Moran, 25, both of West Palm Beach.
The men had been part of the crew working on construction of the 10-story luxury apartment and retail complex at Riverwalk Plaza along the Intracoastal Waterway on Woolbright Road.
Construction was expected to be completed next year. All construction work on the job site stopped the day of the accident, but workers were back on the job by March 26. A spokesman with the developer, Isram Realty, later said he had no comment on whether construction would continue unabated. A duty officer at the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Plantation confirmed on March 22 that OSHA had been called in and is investigating.
Although he would not speak about the particulars of the Boynton Beach incident, he did say that such investigations can take up to six months and involve site visits, reviewing the companies’ safety and health documentation, and conducting interviews with employees and company officials.
Based on that information, OSHA will determine whether to deem the site hazardous or not.
The Boynton Beach Police Department, in conjunction with the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office, is conducting the death investigations, according to a Police Department news release.
Riverwalk Plaza sits at the southwestern base of the Woolbright Road bridge in Boynton Beach.
Hallandale Beach-based Isram Realty paid $9.5 million in 2011 for the 10-acre plaza, after the Winn-Dixie grocery store left the plaza in January 2015, then sought land-use and zoning changes for a 10-story apartment complex.
Before it was approved by the City Commission in 2017, residents objected to the height and mass of the proposed structure.
The building — with 326 units and 41,976 square feet of retail space — was approved in January 2017. Construction at the adjoining mall began in 2018. Tower construction began in 2021.

Judge David Fina swears Kem Mason into office on the Lantana Town Council on March 28, while Mason’s life partner, Kay Abbott, holds the Bible. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Mary Thurwachter

Incumbent Lynn “Doc” Moorhouse and newcomer Kem Mason claimed their seats on the Lantana Town Council during the March 28 council meeting — but it took voters two trips to the polls to get them there.
Runoff elections became necessary when no candidate in either contest received a majority of the vote on March 8.
Moorhouse, a retired dentist who has been on the council since 2004, reclaimed his Group 1 seat during the March 22 runoff with 595 votes (59.26%) compared to John Raymer’s 409 (40.74%). Raymer, a 21-year Army veteran, manager of Ace Rental Place and a political newcomer, survived a March 11 recount where he bested a third candidate, Joe Farrell, a commercial flooring distributor, by just 5 votes to make the runoff.
In the Group 2 runoff, Mason, a retired firefighter and the town’s volunteer Santa, pulled in 607 votes (59.05%) compared to Media Beverly’s 421 (40.95%). Beverly, a Hypoluxo Island resident, is a retired business manager and longtime council watcher. A third candidate, former council member Ed Shropshire, was eliminated after collecting the fewest votes of the three.
David Fina, a judge for the Third Judicial Circuit of Florida in Suwannee County and a longtime friend of Mason’s, swore in both men.
“I want to thank everyone who supported me — and those who didn’t support me — for getting out and voting,” Moorhouse said. “I will do my very best to be the spokesperson for the people that live in Lantana.”

Campaign flyer controversy
At the council meeting, Moorhouse came under criticism for a controversial flyer he sent out days before the runoff that depicted former Mayor Dave Stewart as “The Godfather” pulling the strings of Raymer, council member Mark Zeitler and Erik Kip, a Vietnam veteran and one of the administrators of I’m a Fan of Lantana, FL — a Facebook group quite vocal leading up to the election.
The flyer even put words in Stewart’s mouth, showing him saying, “I’m so mad I’m not mayor anymore.”
Ilona Balfour, the wife of retiring Vice Mayor Malcolm Balfour, said “the friendly little fishing village” she and her husband moved to 50 years ago had sunk to a new low with the flyer she held in her hand. She said it “was filled with accusations, innuendo and nastiness and not always the total truth.”
In victory, Mason said being on the council represented a natural progression to his years of volunteer work and said he hoped to be the kind of public servant the late Colin Powell encouraged people to be. “I want to thank you for your support,” he said to his followers.
Moorhouse and Mason collected — and spent — the most money of the six candidates, according to their campaign finance reports. As of March 18, Moorhouse raised $19,305 and spent $6,250.32. Mason raised $18,435 and spent $15,209.86.
Their runoff opponents didn’t even seek cash contributions. Raymer asked for prayers. Beverly turned down donations and self-financed her campaign, saying she did not want to owe anyone anything. Her team members, she said, were “boots on the ground” going door to door for votes.

Sign stealer a surprise
A large portion of Moorhouse’s and Mason’s campaign spending went to campaign signs and some of them went missing. Police investigated the disappearance of all the candidates’ signs on Lantana Road during the wee hours of Feb. 23 — but found the culprit was a landscaper who had no interest in local politics.
Police Chief Sean Scheller said officers tracked down the sign stealer, who drove a pickup truck, after they were able to see his license plate number on a video recording. The landscaper from west of town collected the signs, repainted them and used them to promote his business, the chief said.
“No charges were brought,” Scheller said. But the three candidates who filed complaints — Moorhouse, Mason and Shropshire — received a small amount of cash in compensation from the landscaper.

Library update
In other news, the council learned remodeling work on the library has yet to restart after construction halted in December, when it was discovered that the main contractor, Sierra Construction Management & Remodeling of Weston, was operating without a license.
The town planned to transfer the job to a subcontractor, Multitech Corp., but that company has been unable to provide the necessary documents to be a viable vendor for the town, according to Town Manager Brian Raducci.
Raducci said staff is talking to West Construction of Lantana to finish the job. West was the second-lowest bidder when the contract was awarded in July. West bid $883,932, compared to Sierra’s $723,200.
Between the higher bid price, increased prices for materials and supply chain issues, the change in contractors will be costly, Raducci warned.
Eager to see the project completed, Mayor Robert Hagerty asked Raducci to be sure to get a timeline from any new contractor.
The library has been at 205 W. Ocean Ave. since the early 1990s. Before that, it was housed in the former bridge tender’s house on Ocean Avenue since 1947. The Recreation Center at 418 S. Dixie Highway is the library’s temporary home.
Once the renovation is complete, the Ocean Avenue library will have ADA-compliant restrooms, a centralized circulation desk, special spaces for children and teens and a community center for adult activities.
Joel Cortes, the assistant director of public works whose duties included overseeing vendor contracts, was placed on administrative leave in mid-January and resigned March 3. Human Resources assistant director Myila Young would not say if Cortes’ departure had anything to do with the library contract verification oversight.

Educational events at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center are back after COVID-19 precautions kept the center closed to the public for two years. Archelon, a 25-year-old loggerhead turtle, was released in front of a crowd of more than 100 on March 1 at Spanish River Park in Boca Raton. She had been treated at Gumbo Limbo since her December rescue near the Port St. Lucie FPL plant. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star BELOW RIGHT: Tracks from a loggerhead, our most common nesting turtle. Mary Kate Leming/The Coastal Star

As nesting season starts again, public gets better chance to enjoy with reopening of Gumbo Limbo

By Larry Keller

As surely as monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico and sandhill cranes to Nebraska, sea turtles arrive annually on Florida beaches to nest. Once again they have begun to return in South County, after traveling hundreds, even thousands of miles.
Sea turtle nesting season is from March 1 to Oct. 31. The first nest spotted on a Boca Raton beach this year was Feb. 22, a leatherback’s.
“That was only the fourth time in the last 20 years that we had a February nest,” said David Anderson, sea turtle conservation coordinator at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center. Anderson and his team survey Boca Raton’s 5 miles of beaches and record nesting data every year.
Five species of marine turtles nest in Florida, but only three — leatherbacks, loggerheads and greens — typically come ashore on South County beaches. All five species are listed as endangered or threatened and protected under the Endangered Species Act.
The first to arrive are leatherbacks. They nest on South County beaches in far smaller numbers than on beaches farther north. Only 21 nests were located by Gumbo Limbo in Boca Raton last year, yet that was above average. In contrast, there were 647 loggerhead nests and 190 green sea turtle nests.
Sea Turtle Adventures tracks nests on 3 miles of beaches in Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream and part of Ocean Ridge. Its volunteers counted 24 leatherback nests last year — a record number.
Loggerheads are particularly partial to Palm Beach County beaches. In fact, they dug more nests here than in any other Florida county in 2020, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation data — 29,465 nests to 26,991 at runner-up Brevard County. No other county was close.
Florida’s east coast beaches are far more popular nesting sites than those on the west coast, accounting for 88% of the 133,472 nests tabulated in 2020.
Female marine turtles nest every two to three years, digging holes on beaches at night and depositing 80 to 120 eggs, which they cover with sand. Hatchlings incubate for two months before emerging — mostly after dark — and scurrying to the ocean. Some, however, die first of dehydration. And predators such as raccoons, birds and crabs pluck eggs and hatchlings from the sand.
For those that reach the water, the challenges have just begun. They will attempt to swim out 10 miles or farther on the ocean’s surface to reach shelter in the sargassum seaweed.
“They’re snack-size for so many fish that look up and see the silhouette of a baby turtle,” Anderson said. “Not to mention birds from the sky that see them.”
Add to that the plastic and other pollution, boat strikes, disease, gill nets and other hindrances and you see why only about 1 in 1,000 sea turtles survives to adulthood.

Eisa Alam, of Lake Worth Beach, is helped by his family members and veterinarian Dr. Maria Chadam as he treats a plastic model hawksbill while learning how real turtles are treated at Gumbo Limbo’s rehabilitation facility. Honey is an effective antibacterial. This was part of the center’s Sea Turtle Day on March 12. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Beachgoers can help nesting sea turtles and their offspring have a better chance to succeed.
If you see a sea turtle nesting, quietly remain behind her and observe from a distance. If she’s frightened, she may return to the ocean without covering her eggs completely.
Don’t leave unfilled holes or beach furniture, sand castles and other impediments on the sand. Nesting turtles can become stuck in furniture, or more often, turn around without making a nest. These false crawls commonly exceed the number of nests.
“We get a turtle stuck in beach furniture almost every summer,” Anderson said.
Do not disturb nests. You can spot them by the stakes and signs marking their presence.
Don’t use flashlights, cellphones, flash photography or other light sources at night on turtle nesting beaches. Lights can disturb turtles and result in false crawls. If you come upon hatchlings emerging from a nest, watch them from a distance, taking care not to disorient them.
Many Florida coastal communities have ordinances regulating lighting by oceanfront properties. Compliance is crucial to hatchlings’ survival. Newborns instinctively head toward the brightest direction, usually the light on the open horizon. If they follow lights from beachfront condos and other buildings, they likely will die.
Allow hatchlings to go to the ocean on their own. If you see one that appears injured or is on a beach during the day, don’t place it in the water. Instead, put it in a container with damp sand on the bottom — not water — and place it in the cooler labeled “Hatchling Drop-Off” outside the front door at Gumbo Limbo.
Even people who monitor beaches for nests every year have no way of knowing whether it will be a boom or bust season for any particular species.
“It will be impossible to predict,” Anderson said. “We’ve got all our equipment maintained and we’re ready for whatever happens.”

By Jane Smith

Veterans Park visitors have access to more benches where they can sit and view the Intracoastal Waterway now that Delray Beach has replaced ones that were rotting away and closed off to the public for two years.
Four corroded benches were replaced with temporary metal ones in mid-March, city spokeswoman Gina Carter said.
The four had been surrounded by wooden dune fencing for nearly two years, initially to stop the public from using them while COVID restrictions were in place.
In March 2020, the city had closed all facilities, including parks, following county orders to pass restrictions against gathering, Parks and Recreation Director Sam Metott said on March 25.
“Soon we were getting phone calls that people were still using the parks and sitting on the benches,” he said. All six benches in Veterans Park were then enclosed in the dune fencing on March 30, 2020, to prevent people from sitting on them, according to Metott.
When the city lifted the restrictions in its parks a few months later, four of the six benches in the park were found to be corroded and not usable. The four remained enclosed in the dune fencing.
Last August, the City Commission approved using part of its recreation funds to beautify Veterans Park in the summer of 2022. The $150,000 project will cover the benches, gazebo and trellises, according to an email from Carter.
The new benches will be made of concrete, according to Carter. They already are ordered, but their delivery is subject to supply chain issues caused by the pandemic.
Veterans Park has had limited access to the public the past 18 months because of the nearby Atlantic Crossing development construction.
Northeast First Street, between Northeast Sixth and Northeast Seventh avenues, was closed periodically during the first phase of construction. The road surface remains torn up from the heavy construction vehicles traveling on it.

Ellie Hart loves the access to the ocean from her South Palm Beach condo, but her real passion is teaching the Mental Health First Aid course as a volunteer at the Alpert Jewish Family Services Center in West Palm Beach. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Citing statistics showing 1 in 5 Americans suffers from some form of mental illness in their lifetime, President Joe Biden said in March’s State of the Union address that it’s time we put mental fitness on a par with physical fitness.
Ellie Hart of South Palm Beach not only concurs with that message, but she’s been teaching it for some time.
After a lengthy career in the Social Security Administration, Hart, 74, was directing another program at the Alpert Jewish Family Services Center in West Palm Beach when she heard about Mental Health First Aid, which is described as CPR for mental health.
“I went to the director and said, ‘I’d like to teach this course, will you let me do it?’” Hart said. “They agreed to send me to training and I became one of 88 instructors throughout Palm Beach County who teach Mental Health First Aid.
“I’m the only volunteer who teaches this,” she added. “The others are paid employees who also have other responsibilities.”
One eye-opener in her education was the pervasiveness of mental illness, as reflected in the 1-in-5 statistic.
“It can be depression, it can be anxiety, it can be bipolar. And in many cases, it takes 10 years from the onset until they get help. Ten years, that’s a decade of suffering.
“Had I known 40 years ago what I know today about the signs and symptoms of somebody who may have been having a mental health challenge, or substance abuse disorder challenge, my life may have been very different.”
Control issues led to a divorce from her first husband, whereupon she found “the love of my life” with her second.
His death in 2010 prompted Hart to get more involved with the Alpert Jewish center, first as an AmeriCorps volunteer, then as director of its Music and Memory program, which offers individualized playlists to clients suffering from memory loss. She also serves as a volunteer reader to two classes at Roosevelt Elementary, a Title 1 school in West Palm Beach.
But her main focus has become MHFA.
“We don’t diagnose,” said Hart, the stepmother of three. “We just listen nonjudgmentally, we train people how to do that, and what the signs and symptoms are, so they can get a referral to professionals.”
Hart recently taught the course to people at The Breakers in Palm Beach, working first with management and more recently with the golf shop employees, engineers, plumbers, kitchen help and so on. Due to their busy schedules, she streamlined what is normally an eight-hour course into two hours and called it “Mental Health Is Everyone’s Business.”
“I see this becoming as common as CPR; it’s like CPR for mental health,” she said. “Raise people’s awareness so they can get help early on and get rid of the stigma.
“It’s not dissimilar from LGBTQ; it was in the closet for many years and now it’s out in the open. So, we’re trying to do that. Years ago, if you had a friend who had serious mental illness you would never talk about it. So, it’s changing.”

— Brian Biggane

Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A: I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and went to school there. I attended Emory University for the first two years of college and graduated with a B.A. from Goucher College in Towson, Maryland. At the time Goucher was an all-girls school. It became co-ed. The influence was a good education, enabling me to be articulate, interested in the community and the world.

Q: What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: I worked for the Social Security Administration for about 31 years and was able to retire early. In the course of my career, I had several different and challenging positions, from working in a field office to becoming a program analyst to becoming a systems analyst. My greatest satisfaction was working on a very early “expert system” involving the assignment of Social Security numbers.
After the death of my husband, Jerry Hart, in 2010, when I moved to Florida full time, my brother gave me some good advice: You’re too young to be retired, find something to do, paid or unpaid. So, I went to Alpert Jewish Family Services offering my services two days a week. I learned the organization’s programs, became an AmeriCorps volunteer, and did outreach to veterans.
Through someone I met at a lecture, I had the opportunity to accompany a female veteran on an Honor Flight to Washington. Very thrilling.
The service as an AmeriCorps volunteer introduced me to a new community of people (mostly veterans) and gave me a genuine appreciation of their service to America.
I developed and still run a small Music and Memory program that provides personalized playlists for clients of Alpert JFS who are isolated and/or have memory issues.
Two years ago, I became a certified instructor for the Mental Health First Aid program coordinated countywide by Alpert JFS. I have found my calling. I am most proud to be able to do this.

Q: What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A: Be flexible, exceed expectations, and make your boss look good.

Q: How did you choose to make your home in South Palm Beach?
A: My parents were seasonal residents from 1979 to 1998. After my father died and my mother chose not to return seasonally, my husband and I began using the condo in 1998, and we bought our own place in the same building, which we loved.

Q: What is your favorite part about living in South Palm Beach?
A: The height limit of all the buildings, the access to the beach and the ocean, the convenience of the location, and the beauty along South Ocean Boulevard.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

Q: What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?
A: I don’t need music to relax or inspire me, but I like classical music and ’50s and ’60s music.

Q: Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A: I had two mentors at different places of employment.
The first was Hilda Hicks, who was a Social Security Administration field office manager back in the early ’70s. She had great faith in me. She taught me some of the techniques involved in changing roles from a position as claims representative to a supervisor.
She was a Black woman who had trained as a claims representative in a field office in Atlanta in the mid-’60s. She told me how they were in a hotel and the wait staff would put the tray in front of the door to her room. They would not allow her into the dining room. She was just a larger-than-life individual. She shared that experience with me, and it made a big impression on me.
The other was the CEO of Alpert Family Services, Jenni Frumer. When my husband died, I went and told her I wanted something to do that was worthwhile. I went with my résumé, and she said, spend a year with me, learn the organization, and I’ll find something for you to do. So, she had faith that I had enough skills that she would be able to make use of them. She was just a really great guide.

Q: If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?
A: Olivia de Havilland; she was smart, elegant and beautiful.

Q: Who/what makes you laugh?
A: A good joke, preferably clean. I really don’t like off-color humor.

Flooding during autumnal high tides and major rainstorms in December 2021 created nearly impassable standing water on North Atlantic Drive in Hypoluxo Island. Photo provided

By Mary Thurwachter

In its effort to mitigate flooding on Hypoluxo Island — a community long plagued with swamping during intense rainfall and king tides — the Lantana Town Council agreed to spend $33,314 for an engineering study to come up with possible solutions.
Eddie Crockett, the town’s director of operations, told the council at its March 14 meeting that staff met with residents and engineers from Baxter & Woodman and “determined that a study of various drainage areas was prudent.”
The study would wrap up the needs for the entire Hypoluxo Island, Crockett said. Staff “recently completed the analysis of Southeast Atlantic Drive and this one will take care of Lagoon and Barefoot Lanes, Beach Curve, North Atlantic Drive and portions of South Atlantic Drive,” he said.
But some island residents said they hadn’t heard of the meeting with staff and engineers.
“You didn’t mention South Atlantic Drive where I am and we do have flooding down there occasionally,” said longtime council-watcher Media Beverly, who lost a runoff election for a Town Council seat the following week. “I was just wondering which residents you all spoke with or if there was a meeting with everyone who is familiar with Hypoluxo Island.”
Crockett said he didn’t have a list of names of residents who attended the meeting, but that there were representatives from the Hypoluxo Island Property Owners Association.
After the meeting, Beverly gave Town Manager Brian Raducci a letter saying most of the property owners affected by flooding on the island were not notified or invited to participate in the meeting. She asked that the town not proceed with the contract until all island residents were given an opportunity to participate in a meeting, so that they “can have a voice about ongoing flooding issues of all areas on the island prone to flooding.”
The council at the March 14 meeting also approved an expenditure of $37,072 to Baxter & Woodman to do a state-required 20-year stormwater and wastewater needs analysis. The first analysis is due to Palm Beach County for compilation and reporting by June 30.
Crockett said the analysis would begin soon.
Beverly said the mandate for the analysis came last July and wondered why it had taken eight months to engage Baxter & Woodman to do it.
She also asked how much funding, from Rebuild Florida or other grants, the town had applied for and received for both the flooding study and the stormwater and wastewater analysis.
“Under Rebuild Florida last year alone, West Palm Beach received $450,000 to prepare resiliency updates to city plans, data mapping and community outreach,” Beverly said.
“Miami got $2 million to develop a mitigation plan for community stakeholders and to mitigate assessment on critical facilities. And, last but not least, in February of this year, Lake Park got $11 million to retrofit their existing drainage system to mitigate current flooding.
“And Boynton Beach got $16.5 million to make drainage, utilities and roadway improvements to mitigate recurring flooding in Sandcastle neighborhood, which is just south of Sea Pines,” another area in Lantana known to have flooding problems.
Raducci said he wasn’t aware that the town had applied for any such grants in the past, but staff and engineers had, in recent weeks, met with a grant writer to look at all town projects “so we could see what projects would be most eligible for such funding as was mentioned.”
Crockett said the town has money in its 2022 budget to handle the expenses of the analysis and the study.
“We’ll be coming back to the council in the very near future with our recommendations on how to approach the flooding,” Crockett said, but not in time for the budget process. “But we will have some preliminary estimates.”
Implementation of the plans for flooding and stormwater and wastewater needs could take several years and “would be very expensive,” Crockett said.

One of Lantana’s 10 water production wells tested positive for fecal coliform (E. coli) bacteria on March 13, according to a public notice.
The presence of E. coli bacteria indicates the well may have been contaminated with human or animal waste.
After the positive test, the well was taken out of service and isolated, and then was chlorinated and flushed. There are no steps the public has to take because the water is safe, said Eddie Crockett, the town’s director of operations.
“The well is a pretreatment water source,” he said. “The water from each well goes to the treatment plant where it is processed and dispensed town-wide.”
Crockett said the town tests its distribution system monthly and none of its samples has tested positive for total coliform or fecal coliform.
“We have not had any positive distribution sample for all of 2022,” he said.
“There is no way we can tell when we are going to have a positive test for bacteria, but it is not uncommon,” said Crockett. “Residents are notified via the town website and local newspaper.” 
The Palm Beach County Health Department was informed within 24 hours of the positive test.
The water test is not related to yellow water, Crockett said. “That has many causes which must be vetted on an individual basis.”
Residents with questions about the quality of their water may call 561-540-5760.

— Mary Thurwachter

A hand-size hole in the parking garage. Photo provided

By Joe Capozzi

A South Palm Beach condo has been cited for code violations related to an eroding sea wall, including holes that allow ocean water to spray into the ground-floor parking garage during rough seas, town records show.
The homeowners association of the Dune Deck, a six-story condo built in 1980 at 3610 S. Ocean Blvd., had been told by private engineers since at least 2018 that the sea wall is in need of repair, a resident said in an email March 5 to the town manager. 
“Because of their negligence to take action, the continuous deterioration is now at the point of being a safety hazard putting the building and its occupants at risk,’’ the resident, Leslie Yellin, said. “Parts of the wall have started to crumble, created holes that allow seawater to spray inside during rough seas.’’
Town code officials confirmed the resident’s concerns a few days later on a visit to the garage. One photograph shows a hole roughly the size of a hand. Dune Deck officials have hired an engineer and contractor to make the repairs, but the work can’t start until this fall after the end of sea turtle nesting season, Alan Haenel, president of the Dune Deck’s board of directors, said at a special magistrate’s hearing March 17. 
Special Magistrate Amity Barnard gave the Dune Deck one month to send the town a letter from the Department of Environmental Protection confirming that no work can be done until Oct. 31, the end of nesting season.
“Because it has been determined to be structurally unsafe, I want something from DEP saying that even though it has been deemed structurally unsafe that you’re still not permitted to do the work,’’ Town Attorney Aleksandr Boksner told Dune Deck officials.
In remarks to the magistrate, Haenel suggested the failure to make the repairs sooner was the fault of a previous condo board. 
“This board is going to be very proactive on the building and maintenance as well, so we never have to appear here again. But we do acknowledge there is a problem,’’ he said. 
In an interview after the meeting, Haenel said he personally has watched sea turtles hatch on the beach immediately outside the sea wall, which is why he’s confident the DEP will not allow the work to start until this fall. 
He also said the condo engineers have assured him that residents in the building are not in danger.
In other town business: 
• On March 15, the Town Council approved on first reading a new ordinance aimed at protecting pedestrians on sidewalks and other walkways that are temporarily blocked by construction vehicles. 
Companies whose work will obstruct walkways will each be required to obtain a permit. The permit will be issued on the condition that companies hire an off-duty law enforcement officer or certified flagman to keep pedestrians safe from nearby vehicular traffic. 
Penalties for violating the ordinance are $250 for the first offense and $500 for subsequent offenses. 
Council member Bill LeRoy proposed the measure because of safety concerns when pedestrians are forced to walk along the shoulder of State Road A1A.  
• Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Deputy David Hull, who patrols South Palm Beach, was recognized for being named the town’s 2021 Deputy of the Year.

Top vote-getter Monte Berendes follows a long-standing town tradition and is sworn into office by U.S. District Court Judge Daniel T. K. Hurley. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Joe Capozzi

Mayor Bonnie Fischer and council members Bill LeRoy and Monte Berendes were sworn in March 15 by U.S. District Court Judge Daniel T. K. Hurley, a former resident of South Palm Beach. 
Fischer was automatically re-elected when she didn’t draw an opponent for the March 8 election. 
Newcomer Berendes (31% of the vote) and incumbent LeRoy (29.8%) won election by finishing first and second, respectively, in a field of four candidates. 
Berendes replaced incumbent Mark Weissman, who finished with 21.2%, followed by newcomer Cindy Furino at 17.7%. Votes were cast by 630 of the town’s 1,347 registered voters. 
After the swearing-in ceremony, LeRoy was appointed vice mayor by the Town Council. Weissman did not attend the meeting, even though the agenda called for the attendance of the previous council before the ceremony.
Later in the meeting, LeRoy asked the town attorney to look into creating an ordinance prohibiting non-town residents from campaigning outside the Town Hall voting precinct.
On election day, LeRoy said, at least four members of the Police Benevolent Association showed up at Town Hall with plans to campaign for him and Weissman.
He said they initially wore PBA shirts before pulling on Weissman campaign T-shirts. LeRoy said a PBA representative contacted him the night before about their plans to campaign on his behalf but he told them not to. 
“I said, ‘No, you’re not. It’s not your job,’’’ LeRoy said at the March 15 Town Council meeting. “I don’t want strangers coming in here and campaigning for me. I told them right then and there, ‘You are not supporting me. I won’t be part of this.’’’
Outside Town Hall just after 7 a.m. on election day, LeRoy said a PBA representative “asked me if I wanted them to wear my shirt or their shirt. I said, ‘I don’t want you to wear either.’’’
LeRoy said he asked one man wearing a Weissman shirt where he lived. “He said North Palm Beach. I said, ‘Why are you here?’ He said, ‘To support Dave.’’’ 
The man then corrected himself and said he meant to say Weissman, LeRoy said.  
Seeing that LeRoy was getting angry about their presence, LeRoy said, the man tried to calm LeRoy by pointing out that they’d campaigned in Wellington the day before.
‘‘This town should decide who runs this town, not outsiders,’’ LeRoy told the council. “I think we should have an ordinance, only for local elections: If you don’t live here, you shouldn’t be campaigning here.’’’ 
Town Attorney Aleksandr Boksner said he’d look into the legality of creating such an ordinance but warned the council: “We are very, very limited at the local government regarding what is constitutionally protected speech.’’
In an interview after the meeting, LeRoy said he has no desire to fight the police union, which endorsed him and Weissman. “If you don’t live here, you shouldn’t be campaigning here.’’

By Larry Barszewski

Don’t expect a downtown medley of shops, restaurants, apartments and offices that is planned for city-owned land along the west side of Federal Highway in Boynton Beach to rise anytime soon.
Even if Affiliated Development’s proposal for the property between Ocean Avenue and Boynton Beach Boulevard proceeded on the company’s schedule, it could still be as long as nine years before the first shovel of dirt is turned. The project mix also includes a public parking garage and open space to attract downtown visitors.
It’s not even certain that Affiliated, which was selected in November, will get to do the job. The company had been picked by city commissioners, who were serving in their role as the Community Redevelopment Agency’s board of directors. The CRA owns the property.
Now, what company is awarded the project — and the fate of the project itself — is in the hands of a newly reorganized commission that has two new faces on it following the city’s March elections. A third new member will be appointed by the new commission to fill a vacant seat and finish the term.
Former Mayor Steven Grant worked to nail down an agreement with Affiliated for its $73 million development proposal before he left office, but that effort ran into tough resistance at his final CRA meeting on March 9. After hours of attempting to cram through negotiations at the meeting, other commissioners decided more time was needed.
Departing Commissioner Christina Romelus asked commissioners to ditch Affiliated and go instead with Related Urban, the second-ranked applicant that had offered to make a portion of its apartments be affordable workforce housing in perpetuity. She called the last-minute bartering between the CRA and Affiliated President Jeff Burns at the meeting “highly inappropriate.”
CRA attorney Tara Duhy acknowledged the unusual nature of the all-out push to get the deal done.
“To be clear, obviously we’ve made some changes, to the extent the board wishes to approve this tonight,” Duhy said. “In normal circumstances, I would recommend that we bring it back to you for final approval. We’re going to go through all of these and I will have to do a final legal, technical review because we have been working at Mach speed to get this before you tonight.”
In the end, it was the two commissioners who are remaining — Woodrow Hay and commissioner-turned-Mayor Ty Penserga — who forced a middle ground. Departing Commissioner Justin Katz was absent.
Penserga and Hay did not support Romelus’ request to cut ties with Affiliated or Grant’s rush to finalize a deal with the company. They agreed to have CRA and city staff spend more time negotiating with Affiliated.
That decision came after City Manager Lori LaVerriere, who does not usually participate at CRA meetings, joined the discussion virtually to say more time was needed.
“I just ask that you give it time and don’t negotiate from the public dais. That’s not the way to do that,” LaVerriere said after commissioners had spent three hours doing just that. “And to provide some further input to staff to let us continue to weigh in and see if this is a workable deal.”
Some of the major project elements discussed at the meeting included:
• Affiliated offered 118 of its 236 apartments as workforce housing for 15 years using income-eligibility guidelines, with 11 of those units kept as workforce housing in perpetuity. Commissioners wanted more workforce housing apartments to be kept that way forever, as Related had offered to do with 63 of the 213 units it proposed building.
• Affiliated said it needed to keep all of the increased tax revenue its project produces for a 15-year period as a subsidy to make the workforce housing portion feasible. Commissioners said that was too much and would provide the CRA with no additional money during those years to support other projects. By the end of the night, Burns proposed receiving only 95% of the increased tax revenues annually, and only to an $8 million maximum over the 15 years.
• Affiliated originally wanted the city to pay for and take ownership of the parking garage, which would include 150 public spaces and 423 private ones. Officials did not support that idea. Instead of reimbursing the CRA $5.5 million for the land, as Affiliated initially planned, the company proposed dropping the price of the land to $100 and treating the $5.5 million it would have spent as the city’s purchase price for the public parking spaces. It would be up to the city to decide whether to charge the public to use the spaces or offer them for free.
• Affiliated plans to move Hurricane Alley Raw Bar & Restaurant from its Ocean Avenue location to a new home at the north end of the project, along Boynton Beach Boulevard next to the Florida East Coast Railway tracks. The developer said there may be a lag between when the restaurant would have to vacate its current location and when it could open at its new site.
A major difference between the Affiliated and Related proposals is that Related did not include the current century-old Ocean Avenue buildings, including Hurricane Alley’s home, as part of its project. Instead, it planned to contribute money to help restore them, which also would allow Hurricane Alley to continue business uninterrupted.
Resident David Katz told commissioners that saving those buildings, previously owned by the Oyer family, which has historical roots in the city, was a reason he thought the CRA should go with Related.
“For that reason alone, this developer should not be chosen. To tear that down is, well, maybe not a crime, but it’s a shame,” Katz said.
Related has said it could “restore these important buildings back to life as vibrant landmarks, maintaining the existing commercial fabric of historic Ocean Avenue.”
Grant said the buildings, for which the CRA paid $3.6 million in December to include in the project site, were an impediment. He said the Oyer building “is in gross need of repair but, it’s too gross. It’s something where there’s a reason why it was never historically designated.”
He lamented that the agreement with Affiliated was not accomplished under his leadership.
“It’s very weird for me to have another project on the doorstep of the CRA, and then all of a sudden, it kind of gets pulled back. It reminds me of the Cottage District, where one of the board members felt that they had better options and now it’s vacant and we have no idea what’s going to happen with the 4 acres,” Grant said.
“For the board to say, ‘You know what, Chair, we don’t really want you to make this decision; it’s better for the next people to make these decisions,’ after you’ve been here for six years. It hurts a little and I’ll let you know that.”
• In other action at the March 9 meeting, commissioners approved an agreement with restaurateur Anthony Barber, subject to final legal review and the CRA’s receiving outstanding financial documents, to purchase and turn the historic Magnuson House on Ocean Avenue into a restaurant that will use corrugated steel shipping containers for kitchen, restroom and storage space. Barber anticipates construction will take about 18 months.