Claude Schmid of Highland Beach, who served 31 years in the Army, runs Veteran’s Last Patrol. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

Col. Claude Schmid was wrapping up his 31-year U.S. Army career when he was assigned to lead the military’s wounded warrior flight evacuations. As chief of operations, Schmid would climb into the massive hold of a C-17 cargo plane — a “hospital with wings” — and welcome injured service members returning home, some still strapped to gurneys.
“I had the opportunity to talk to thousands of injured service members and learn about their stories,” said Schmid, a Highland Beach resident for the past three years.
That experience would set the foundation for Veteran’s Last Patrol, a nonprofit organization Schmid founded in late 2019 that connects veteran volunteers to former service men and women receiving hospice care.
Schmid says that while representing senior military leadership for the wounded warriors program from 2010 to 2013, he saw firsthand “the importance of companionship during moments of great adversity.”
Often those veterans, and sometimes family members, who would be waiting to be escorted off the plane faced an uncertain future of additional hospitalizations or coping with lingering injuries.
“A lot of times you’re scared,” Schmid said. “Knowing someone cares about you and can relate to you is crucial.”
What he saw on the plane was similar to what he sees now with veterans in hospice.
As part of the program he runs as founder and CEO, Veteran’s Last Patrol recruits veterans to carve time for one-on-one visits with those in hospice care, visiting veterans in facilities or in private homes.
The bond volunteers and veterans share from having served in the military can often be therapeutic for both the ailing vet and his or her visitor.
“Most volunteers say they get more out of it than they give,” said Schmid, 62.
Veteran’s Last Patrol holds ceremonies to honor veterans in hospice, often presenting them with plaques recognizing their service and bringing gifts, sometimes including honor quilts.
A third element of the program — now operating in 24 states — is providing support for veterans in hospice care, helping with basic needs and with fulfilling last wishes.
For Schmid, the Veteran’s Last Patrol helped fill a void that came after he retired in 2013. A graduate of Wofford College in South Carolina where he joined the ROTC program, Schmid was commissioned as a tank officer coming out of college and moved up through the ranks.
In 2004 and 2005, Schmid was deployed to Iraq when he was a commander of the Army’s Infrastructure Security Force, which was tasked with protecting critical facilities in northern Iraq, including oil fields.
He returned to Iraq in 2007 as the commander overseeing training of Iraqi soldiers. There were 17 schools throughout the country under his command.
After completing his work with the wounded warriors program, Schmid retired and began searching for a way to translate into civilian life what he learned during his last assignment.
“I was looking for something to do that would have some connection with what I did in the service,” he said.
Schmid traces the inspiration for Veteran’s Last Patrol to his early years, when he listened to his mother talk about her experiences volunteering with hospice patients and the challenges they faced.
“I wondered, ‘What happens to military veterans when they go into hospice?’” he said.
What he discovered is that hospice programs across the country have a tough time getting volunteers and even a harder time getting military volunteers.
Through outreach to veterans organizations, social media and other tools, Veteran’s Last Patrol has filled that void and provided friendship and support to people with not much time left.
Even before he founded the organization, Schmid had begun visiting veterans in hospice care.
“I remember my first patient very well, a vet named Harold,” he said. “He kept telling me he had ‘a wonderful, wonderful life.’”
The name of the organization, Schmid says, reflects the bond between the hospice patients and the volunteers.
“Veterans understand the concept of patrols and you don’t want to go patrolling alone,” he said.
As Veteran’s Last Patrol has evolved, it has created programs that raise awareness and funds to support it. The organization holds an Honor Ride for Veterans and has created Operation Holiday Salute in which people can write holiday cards to veterans they’ve never met.
Last year cards were sent to 7,000 veterans and this year Schmid is hoping to reach 10,000. To be a part of Operation Holiday Salute or to learn more about Veteran’s Last Patrol, visit www.veteranlastpatrol.org. Click on “events” for the holiday salute.

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

By Rich Pollack

Highland Beach will be going back to the drawing board as it plans for a new fire station.
At a Town Commission meeting in October, Manager Marshall Labadie discussed plans for a new 10,000-square-foot station that would be built between Town Hall and the water treatment plant.
At the Nov. 1 meeting, however, Labadie announced that a recent site inspection showed that the location would not work, at least not within the budget allotted for the project.
“We just ran into some really bad site conditions,” he said. “It would require much more work than we originally anticipated.”
Labadie said soil conditions and the location of certain utilities would make it difficult for the town to build the two-story station at the preferred location without spending much more than planned.
Another challenge, he said, would be the additional time it would take to prepare the site for a new building.
“We ran into some problems that are insurmountable within the parameters we have to work with,” he said.
Commissioners are hoping to build a station that would work within the $10 million overall start-up budget for the new department approved by voters in a referendum.
Labadie said the town is working with architects to come up with alternatives and will present some potential drawings at a special commission meeting on Friday, Nov. 4.
“We’re having to change direction quickly,” he said.
Labadie said that there is the possibility of finding a location on the town’s governmental property that could accommodate a two-story building, but said he is waiting to hear the thoughts of commissioners.
“A station that meets our needs can fit on the site,” he said. “We have to make sure everyone is on board.”
Labadie said he doesn’t anticipate soil and utility issues on alternative sites.
A new station, town leaders have said, is needed to accommodate the additional fire trucks and rescue vehicles that will come when Highland Beach takes over fire service from Delray Beach Fire Rescue.
The town currently has a fire station on State Road A1A, which is being staffed by Delray Beach until the contract ends in May 2024, but Labadie says that station is too old, too small and below the floodplain.
The town considered rebuilding a station on the same site, but determined that the cost of needing a temporary facility when construction was underway would be too much.
As they consider their next steps, town commissioners face other unexpected challenges, including a significant cost increase in building materials due to inflation and supply chain issues.
Initially, the town budgeted $5 million for the construction of a fire station, but Labadie said the cost estimate has now come to as much as $7.5 million.
Labadie said the town is looking for other revenue sources, perhaps grants from state and local governments.
During the Nov. 1 meeting, Labadie told commissioners the town will be saving about $400,000 by purchasing a used 2017 aerial truck instead of purchasing a new ladder truck.
That truck will be in addition to one currently used by Delray Beach’s fire rescue. The town will also have two rescue vehicles.
Commissioners in April 2021 voted to sever the contract with Delray Beach, believing they could provide better service at less than the estimated $5 million a year Highland Beach pays to the city.

I was surprised to see you publish a photograph of a young man with a surfboard jumping off the north jetty of Boynton Inlet Pier — “taking advantage of the waves created by Hurricane Ian.”
Most years report deaths at the Inlet and one can imagine stormy seas being more dangerous than normal. Posted all over the pier and adjacent bridges are “No Jumping or Diving” signs.
I understand a photographer wanting to capture and share the sheer exuberance of the moment, but at least publish a disclaimer or warning that this is dangerous and possibly illegal behavior.
The last thing we need is a young person hurt or worse from their youthful exuberance.

Ned Jalbert
Ocean Ridge

Inflatable booms that the city of Delray Beach installed at the north end of Marine Way mitigated flooding during October king tides, although rising water from the Intracoastal Waterway made it through storm drains and affected this man’s walk with his dogs. The next major king tides for the area will be Nov. 6-9 and Nov. 23-27, according to the Palm Beach County Office of Resilience. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Larry Barszewski

Manalapan commissioners say the town might be better off with sewers instead of septic tanks, but they’re not sure the benefit of building a sewer system is great enough to justify the cost and aggravation to residents.
Commissioners are concerned the state could mandate a switch to sewers because septic tanks on the barrier island pose an environmental risk, but they don’t know if such a decision would come relatively soon or be decades away.
They would like to have a discussion with town residents about the idea, but they say they need to have more facts and figures first. That means spending more money for a partial design without knowing if a new system will actually be built.
One thing is clear: Earlier thoughts that a sewer project could be underway by spring no longer seem practical.
“Realistically, we’re talking about next year this time making a decision about this,” Mayor Keith Waters said at an Oct. 5 commission workshop held online via Zoom. “The absolute piece that we know of — is a certainty — is we have to have a design before we can move forward, before we can get funding, and before we can have hard answers on anything that we need.”
The commission’s regular October meeting was later canceled, putting off a decision until at least its November meeting, which will be held at 10 a.m. Nov. 10 so as not to disrupt any Thanksgiving holiday plans.
“The fork in the road right now is go or no go,” Waters said about the design for the project. In August, consultant Mock Roos & Associates estimated the overall project cost at $10.3 million.
“I think it’s going to be much more than that, significantly more than that,” Waters said.
At their Nov. 10 meeting, commissioners will consider an $84,520 proposal from Mock Roos for 30% design work on a low pressure sewer system for the town. The design work should produce a more accurate cost for the project. It is also needed before the town can apply for grants that have the potential to reduce the project’s cost to town residents.
In an Oct. 21 email to The Coastal Star, Town Clerk Erika Petersen said no meeting with residents to get their input has been scheduled yet.
“We do not anticipate that would even take place before there is a prelim design or proposal for the work or some other information to share with them,” Petersen wrote.
Commissioners aren’t sure how receptive residents will be to move off of their private septic systems and onto a town sewer system once they know how much it will cost, how disruptive construction will be, how long it will take to complete and what work will have to be done on each residential property.
A low pressure sewer system involves installing a macerating pump on each property. The pump would grind a home’s sewage and push it into a small-diameter sewer pipe that carries it out of town to a treatment plant. Mock Roos says the design work would include two “typical” site plans for installing a pump and pipes on private property.
At the October workshop, Vice Mayor Stewart Satter was most outspoken in his concerns about the plans.
“Do we understand clearly why we’re doing this?” Satter asked. “This is an enormous project — forget about the monetary cost — just in terms of disruption to the town.”
Town elections: The candidate qualifying period for the March 14 commission elections ends at noon Nov. 15. The elections are for Seats 1, 3, 5 and the mayor’s Seat 7. Waters and Commissioner Hank Siemon are term-limited and cannot seek re-election. The other seats are held by Commissioner John Deese and Vice Mayor Satter.

Ocean Ridge Detective Aaron Choban, Police Chief Richard Jones, Hendry County Sheriff Steve Whidden, Clewiston Chief Thomas Lewis and Ocean Ridge Sgt. Richard Ermeri. BELOW RIGHT: The truck was loaded with donations. Photos provided

By Joe Capozzi

A Hendry County sheriff’s deputy who lost her home and car during Hurricane Ian received a trailer-load of supplies and $3,600 in cash from donations by residents of Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes. 
Ocean Ridge Police Chief Richard Jones delivered the supplies on Oct. 26 to the Clewiston Police Department, where Hendry County deputies distributed the items later that day to the deputy, a mother of four children who lives in Fort Myers. 
Ocean Ridge police started collecting the donations at Town Hall a week after the hurricane, with initial plans to send them to a small law enforcement agency in or near Lee County affected by Ian.  
Unable to find an agency, Jones said, he saw a post on the Clewiston Police Department’s Facebook page about Hendry County Sheriff’s Deputy Maria Aguirre, a Fort Myers resident who lost four dogs, her vehicle and everything in her home in the storm.
The social media post sought donations for Aguirre, her husband and their four children: two teenage boys, a teenage daughter and a 9-year-old son.
Jones, who worked as a Hendry County sheriff’s deputy and a Clewiston police officer before coming to Ocean Ridge, decided to donate the supplies to Aguirre.
Jones shared Aguirre’s story at the Oct. 27 Briny Breezes Town Council meeting to show “how our positive impacts can go obviously much further than the boundaries we are used to working in,’’ he said.
“None of us knew this deputy or her family. It truly was us being able to help someone that none of us knew.’’
Clewiston Police Chief Thomas Lewis, in an interview with The Coastal Star, thanked Jones and the residents of Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes for their generosity. “There was a ton of stuff in that trailer,” he said.
The Clewiston Police Department posted a photo of Jones and supplies on the agency’s Facebook page with the following caption:
“Want to know what a brotherhood/sisterhood looks like? Chief Richard Jones and the members of the Ocean Ridge Police Department saw a post on Facebook about a Hendry County Deputy that was severely impacted by Hurricane Ian.
“Although they never met the deputy before, members of his agency didn’t hesitate to raise $3,600.00 and additional donations that filled a small trailer. Our town is small, but our law enforcement family is large. Thank you to the Ocean Ridge Police!’’

King tide levels barely came over the sea walls in some portions of Briny Breezes on Oct. 10 — not as bad as in recent years, when at times more than 10 inches of water stood on some streets west of State Road A1A. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Joe Capozzi

An ambitious plan to protect Briny Breezes from flooding and sea-level rise will be discussed Nov. 15 at a joint “kickoff meeting” of the Town Council and Briny Breezes corporation. 
The meeting, set for 3:15 p.m. at the Briny Breezes Community Center, is a requirement of a $330,000 grant the state’s Resilient Florida program awarded to the town this year. 
Officials with Engenuity Group and Brizaga Inc., which drafted a 144-page flood adaptation plan in April 2021, will answer questions from residents and outline the next steps in spending the grant money.
The $330,000 will help pay for the plans and studies needed to prepare construction-ready documents for enhanced sea walls, an improved stormwater drainage system and other 50-year adaptation measures. 
“This meeting is for all stakeholders,’’ Town Manager William Thrasher said in an email Oct. 18 to council members and corporation officials. “A ‘sea water rise’ work plan and strategies will be the important topics.’’  
The town’s planning and zoning board will meet at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 15 for a related discussion that “will help set the stage for the resilience conversation that happens at 3:15,’’ board Chairman Jerry Lower told the Town Council on Oct. 27. 
The planning board “will be focusing especially on discussions of short-term alternatives as we ponder the never-ending sea-level rising issues we have on the west side of A1A,’’ Lower said.
The joint meeting could have been held earlier this year. But town and corporation officials, knowing the importance of the resilience issues facing the town, waited to schedule it in November when most residents and snowbirds would be back in Briny Breezes.
Aside from Lower’s remarks, the Nov. 15 “kickoff meeting” was not discussed at the council’s Oct. 27 meeting, other than to announce the date and location.
Mayor Gene Adams did offer a brief related remark when he reminded residents about “the chances for flooding” during the first week in November when king tides are forecast.
In other business:
• Adams said he and Thrasher planned to meet with corporation officials earlier in the day on Nov. 15 to discuss the tax rate, which for years has been at 10 mills, the maximum allowed under state law.
• The council unanimously passed on second reading a new code citation system that will allow police to issue tickets to people who violate any of six prohibitions in the town code, including riding a bicycle without a bell or horn and allowing dogs to run free on the beach.
• The qualifying period for the town’s March 14 election opens at noon Nov. 8 and closes at noon Nov. 22. Three aldermen seats, all for two-year terms, are up for election: Seat 1 held by Elizabeth Loper, Seat 3 held by Sue Thaler and Seat 5 held by Bill Birch. Prospective candidates should contact Town Clerk Sandi DuBose at 561-272-5495 for filing information.
• Briny Breezes residents are encouraged to attend a crime prevention workshop at 5 p.m. Nov. 9 at Ocean Ridge Town Hall, Ocean Ridge Police Chief Richard Jones told the council.
Ocean Ridge, which provides police services for Briny Breezes, will unveil several new programs and offer crime-prevention measures.

Editor’s Note: Jerry Lower is publisher of The Coastal Star.

Ousted group wants to trademark historic center’s name as its own

By Jane Smith

While Delray Beach tries to finalize a new manager for Old School Square, there’s now a question about whether the city is even going to be able to keep the name of its historic downtown cultural arts and entertainment campus.
After the City Commission voted 3-2 in August 2021 to end its lease with Old School Square’s longtime former managers, that organization then filed papers to trademark the Old School Square name.
The trademark issue didn’t show up on the city’s radar until an Oct. 20 workshop at which the Downtown Development Authority presented its proposal to help run the Old School Square campus at the northeast corner of Atlantic and Swinton avenues.
Following up on that news, City Attorney Lynn Gelin told commissioners at their regular Oct. 25 meeting that the city still had two days left to challenge the trademark request. A city letter requesting an extension was delivered the next day, giving the city until Nov. 26 to oppose the Old School Square trademark, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Old School Square patrons are finding a confusing situation where the former tenants, who go by the name Old School Square Center for the Arts, maintain the OldSchoolSquare.org website that asks for donations and says, “One year later still sitting empty.”
The private website does not say the city is the owner, but it implies the OSSCA nonprofit owns the 4.4-acre campus.
The website also says the campus is dark, but that is not the case. The Pavilion stage, the Fieldhouse and the grounds have events.
The city’s own website lists the updated events on the Old School Square campus.
During the Oct. 20 joint workshop with the commission and the Community Redevelopment Agency, the DDA presented funding figures that startled some commissioners.
Laura Simon, the DDA’s executive director, proposed a phased approach to reactivating the campus with the three entities contributing potentially $1.38 million. That is almost double the $750,000 requested by the former tenants from the CRA.
"That hit me pretty hard. It’s a big number," Commissioner Ryan Boylston said.
Likewise, Vice Mayor Adam Frankel asked whether the city taxpayers would foot the bill.
The amount includes $175,000 for marketing and rebranding, which may be related in part to the trademark issue.
“Is there a concern that someone else owns the OSS name?” Frankel asked Simon. Regardless of the various venue names on campus, “I still think of it as OSS,” he said.
It costs money to create a logo, and to develop and run a website, Simon said. She wants to create a new nonprofit to run the campus.
Frank Frione, a DDA board member who sold his engineering firm last year, said he wanted the new nonprofit to receive about $2 million. He offered his time to help the DDA reactivate the OSS campus. “We need to fund it accordingly to make it successful,” he said.
Simon said the big focus currently is the holiday season and the 100-foot Christmas tree on the Old School Square grounds near the Cornell Art Museum. The tree will be lit on Nov. 29.
She hopes to have a business plan done in January when the agreement between the city and the DDA will be ready for discussion.
The city ousted the former tenants after a series of financial miscues that culminated with the Crest Theatre building renovation. Commissioners were not informed of its start and the city was not properly covered by the renovation’s bond. The city rented the campus to the former tenants for $1 per year.
When commissioners voted to terminate the lease in August 2021, they gave the former tenants 180 days’ notice. Since then, the three commissioners who voted to end the lease have been criticized by the former tenants on social media platforms, email campaigns and in-person events.
OSSCA sued the city in November 2021 for wrongful termination of the lease. The lawsuit remains active, with the latest filing by the city on Oct. 20. The city objected to the request for a jury trial that was explicitly waived when the lease was signed.
The city also filed a counterclaim the same day to cover damages to the Crest Theatre building when the renovation was abandoned, and the premises not restored. The Old School Square buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

An earlier version of this story had an incorrect quote attributed to Commissioner Ryan Boylston regarding the money being requested to run Old School Square. His  quote has been corrected. 

By Steve Plunkett

Gulf Stream must pay $148,438 for resident Martin O’Boyle’s attorney fees, roughly 25% of the more than $586,000 his lawyers originally sought, and $31,824 in costs mostly for two expert witnesses.
The Oct. 4 decision by Circuit Judge Donald Hafele brings to a close an almost 10-year war between O’Boyle and the town that entailed hundreds of requests for public records, the hiring of additional workers to process the requests, dozens of lawsuits and countersuits, and a hefty increase in the town’s property taxes to pay for it all.
Taking big hits in the judge’s ruling are Fort Lauderdale attorney Mitchell Berger, who asked for $99,255 and was awarded $7,920, and the law firm of O’Boyle’s son, Jonathan, which billed $131,155 but will receive $33,865.
Jonathan O’Boyle declined to comment on the ruling.
Trey Nazzaro, the assistant town manager and in-house attorney, said the judge’s order was “Gulf Stream’s last remaining case in which fees were to be determined.”
Robert Sweetapple, an outside attorney for the town, once estimated the town would be liable for no more than $20,000.
O’Boyle will funnel most of the money to Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Co. His umbrella liability policy covered his legal expenses in this and four other cases in which he was involved, court documents show.
The policy “requires O’Boyle to pursue recovery of the expenses incurred in these matters and reimburse Liberty Mutual for the attorneys’ fees and costs advanced on [his] behalf,” his attorney, Elaine Johnson James, told the judge in an earlier filing.
Hafele reserved jurisdiction in the case to consider a potential further reduction of the fees while the town’s attorneys explore what fees Liberty Mutual paid in a separate but related legal action.
The lawsuit sprang from O’Boyle’s request for records concerning the town’s removal of his campaign signs from public rights of way during his unsuccessful 2014 run for Town Commission.
O’Boyle sought all police reports for March 3-4 that year, including “appointment calendars, sign-in sheets and radio communications.”
The town quickly delivered seven pages of incident reports but did not turn over sign-in sheets until three weeks after O’Boyle sued. Six weeks later, Gulf Stream gave him a CD of the police radio transmissions, which the Delray Beach Police Department records and stores for the town.
Hafele issued his decision in the underlying case in September 2016 and O’Boyle’s lawyers asked for reimbursement the following month. In the Oct. 4 ruling, Hafele said the “significant” time lapse was not the court’s fault, but “was primarily caused by issues relating to the parties’ experts” as lawyers on both sides battled over how much Gulf Stream should pay.
Beginning in 2013, O’Boyle and Chris O’Hare, who no longer lives in the town, flooded Gulf Stream with public records requests. In the six months before O’Boyle sought the police records, the town received more than 700 requests.
To accommodate the requests and fight the lawsuits, the Town Commission raised the property tax rate almost 38% in 2015.
In mid-2017, O’Hare and the town agreed to dismiss 36 lawsuits and appeals between them and withdraw all pending records requests. Neither side paid the other’s attorney fees.
O’Boyle’s other notable win came with the dismissal of a federal lawsuit the town filed alleging a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations conspiracy by O’Boyle, O’Boyle entities and O’Hare to extort cash settlements of public records requests. A federal judge dismissed the suit in June 2015; his decision was upheld on appeal a year later.
O’Boyle also tasted victory in July 2013. The town paid him $180,000 to settle 16 lawsuits and about 400 requests for public records he filed after he was denied variances for building projects at his Hidden Harbour home.

By Jane Smith and Christine Davis

Bounce Sporting Club has abandoned its game plan to open in downtown Delray Beach at Atlantic Crossing, where neighbors opposed the late-night crowd the club sought to serve.
The sports bar/nightclub is going into Delray Beach Market instead, four blocks to the west. The market is inside the city’s Entertainment District, where staying open until 2 a.m. on weekends does not require special City Commission approval.
“It is the right move for Bounce that will be able to stay open later,” said Claudia Willis, who lives in the Marina Historic District, south of Atlantic Crossing, where residents were concerned about the potential for late-night noise. “I’m ecstatic for the neighborhood.”
Bounce now plans to open early next year in the market, a food hall at 33 SE Third Ave. owned by Menin Development.
Deputy Vice Mayor Juli Casale said the Bounce attorney visited commissioners individually earlier this year to try to garner votes for the club’s staying open past midnight at Atlantic Crossing. The establishment would have been at the northeast corner of Northeast Seventh and Atlantic avenues, outside of the Entertainment District. When the votes were not there, the Bounce waivers were pulled from the February commission agenda, she said.
Bounce, part of the Brandit Hospitality Group, is a sports bar and nightclub where guests can “bounce” through culinary experiences and live performances. The establishment, with New York and Chicago locations, shows major sporting events, allowing customers to enjoy an upscale experience in a hybrid venue known to attract professional athletes, DJs and socialites.
Residents who live near Atlantic Crossing are breathing sighs of relief that Bounce won’t be their neighbor.
“We did not want it so close to an established neighborhood,” said Jack Indekeu, president of the Palm Trail Homeowners Association to the north. “I personally think the nightclub is more appropriate for South Beach with its late-night party image and not for Delray Beach with its village-by-the-sea image.”
Residents of the Barr Terrace condominiums were equally elated. That building sits across the Intracoastal Waterway to the east of Atlantic Crossing.
“The initial plan of expanding the Entertainment District for Bounce was considered irresponsible and concerning to many,” said Rita Rana, a member of the Barr Terrace’s board. 
“Moving Bounce to the Delray Beach Market … may be a win-win for the club and the market owner,” Rana said.
Bounce’s decision comes as the market, which opened in April 2021, is revamping its business model.
“We spoke with Bounce prior to the pandemic about potential locations, but at the time Menin didn’t have any space available for lease, whereas the Delray Beach Market was focused on multiple small vendors rather than larger restaurants,” said Jordana Jarjura, president and general counsel of Menin Development.
“Many of the original tenants were mom-and-pop vendors or first-time operators who had lost their jobs during the pandemic restaurant closures,” she said. “But with food costs soaring as well as labor costs and labor availability, it became tough for those operators to be financially viable.”
Coupled with other pandemic problems affecting business — such as fewer downtown customers due to remote working and less foot traffic in general — the market had to pivot, she said.
“The addition of Bounce to the market furthers our desire to house entertainment, food and fun in an oversized community watering hole, while also ensuring the success of a smaller group of vendors,” Jarjura said. 
Bounce will cover 5,200 square feet on the north side of the market. At Atlantic Crossing, Bounce would have leased about 4,400 square feet.
To date, three restaurants are signed to open at Atlantic Crossing. The eateries are Le Colonial, The Hampton Social and Ora Cucina & Bar.
“We’re in active discussions with others to find the right fit for the remaining restaurant space,” Don DeVere, of the Edwards Companies, said in an Oct. 24 email. Edwards is building the complex.

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach has denied it retaliated against a former water quality inspector, who was reorganized out of her city job in January.
In its Aug. 31 motion to dismiss Christine Ferrigan’s federal lawsuit, the city said that it followed procedures and that Ferrigan had avenues to protest her denial of promotions and new jobs, but did not make use of them.
Ferrigan, who had received Florida whistleblower protection in September 2020 from the county’s inspector general for her reclaimed water information, said she was let go in January after filing a written retaliation complaint against two of her Utilities Department supervisors.
No hearing date was set as of Oct. 31 for the city’s motion. A trial date is set for April 2023. Before the trial, federal lawsuits must go through mediation. On Sept. 9, Robyn Hankins of Jupiter was selected to be the mediator.
Since December, Delray Beach has been operating under a five-year consent order, a legal agreement, with the state Department of Health for the city’s reclaimed water problems.
Hired in June 2017, Ferrigan often sided with the barrier island residents and provided information to the Health Department, which began its investigation of the city’s reclaimed water system in January 2020.
That is when a South Ocean Boulevard resident complained she was not properly informed of a 2018 cross connection found on her street. A cross connection occurs when reclaimed water pipes are wrongly connected to the drinking water lines. Reclaimed water is highly treated wastewater suitable only for irrigation, not consumption.
When that cross connection was discovered, the city issued a boil-water order for a southern piece of the barrier island. The then-utilities director did not report people and their pets were sickened possibly from drinking the contaminated water, as required by the Health Department. Ferrigan told her supervisor about the illnesses.
In February 2020, the city agreed to turn off its reclaimed water system and inspect each location. It has spent more than $1 million on inspections and adding the backflow preventers to stop the reclaimed water from mixing with the drinking water. The state fined it $1 million.
The county’s Office of Inspector General released a report in May 2021 that did not find any person or agency or city department liable for the reclaimed water problems.
The city started its reclaimed water program in 2008, using outside contractors to design, install and inspect the pipes, primarily on the barrier island. Most of the records from the first 10 years no longer exist and no one has been with the city long enough to explain what happened to the documents.

Ed Scalone, a Korean War veteran and cartoonist, calls himself ‘the governor’ of the Carlisle in Lantana, where he lives. He moved from South Palm Beach two years ago after the death of his wife, Pat. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Walk into the dining room at the Carlisle in Lantana with Ed Scalone and you won’t be walking for long.
Scalone stops at the first table and introduces a couple having breakfast. After the formalities are concluded, he turns to his guest and asks, “Can you believe it? He’s 100 and she’s 101. Isn’t that something?”
The same scene is repeated over and over until a free table is located and we sit down. Then the stories begin: of his strict Italian immigrant father; of his stint during the Korean War (“I was never in combat,” he’s quick to say); of spending most of his working years in the investment business; and of his wife, Pat, who died two years ago, prompting his move from an oceanfront condo just a few hundred yards away in South Palm Beach.
Over and over friends and acquaintances stop by to say hello because Scalone is one of those people: Either you know him or, if he has anything to say about it, you soon will.
“I’m not the mayor of this place, I’m the governor,” he says.
At 92, he should be slowing down, but he’s still sharp enough to dress well and make sure his fellow residents do, as well.
“Some guys who have been very successful in life will come to breakfast with their shirts all wrinkled, and the wife will say, ‘Do something for him,’” Scalone says. “So, I give him a nice shirt and next thing you know he walks in and gets a standing ovation. A lot of guys here are wearing my shirts now.”

— Brian Biggane

Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
A. When I finished up at Ansonia High School in Connecticut in 1948, where I was fifth in my class, a woman came and offered me a scholarship to either Yale or Dartmouth. But my father had promised his father, who had a factory called Shelton Hosiery, that I would go to work for him after I finished school. So, he wouldn’t sign the paper and I went to work there as a machinist for a year.
After that I found Quinnipiac University, where I had my classes in the morning and worked as a truck driver in the afternoon. I graduated in their first four-year class, then went in the Army and served in the Korean War, and when I came out I used the GI Bill to get a master’s in education and went into teaching.
I then met my wife, who wanted me to go to law school. But I was a crusty Italian who figured I had to work. I was even thinking about getting my doctorate and teaching at the college level, but then I got recruited by an investment firm.

Q. What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A. I taught for a couple years and then worked for an investment company for more than 20 years. In 1981, at age 50, I finally opened my own office in investments. The people at the company I left kept telling me I was too easygoing, that I couldn’t make it on my own in that business, but I built it up and ultimately sold it to Jefferson Pilot in the late ’80s. I stayed in that business until 2005, when we came to South Palm Beach. If I had to do it all over I would have become a lawyer.
I liked people and helped everybody I could. When I started out they used and abused me because I was so easygoing, but I made it and brought a lot of people into the business. They call me all the time to catch up.

Q. What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?
A. Find what you want to do and just do it. But the other part of my advice is pay yourself first every month and you’ll wind up pretty well off. I’m not saying I did that; I didn’t like the investment business. But I did OK.

Q. How did you choose to make your home in South Palm Beach and Lantana?
A. Back in 1999 we were renting in Singer Island, then came down and spent a season in Hillsboro Beach. My wife, Pat, said one day she wanted to take a ride up A1A and she looked at about 30 condos, and walked into the Concordia on the ocean side. They took her up to the ninth floor and she liked it but that one wasn’t for sale. We were in the parking lot talking and a gentleman came over and said his place was for sale on the same floor. We bought it from him.

Q. What is your favorite part about living in Lantana?
A. Everything is so close to us here — restaurants, shopping — and the people are so nice. Most mornings I go down to the Palm Beach Bakery & Cafe. I’m chairman of the board of the discussion group. We have a group you wouldn’t believe: multimillionaires, a CIA agent, a lady who worked for the U.N., a Bible scholar from Tel Aviv — unbelievable group. We have discussions sometimes until 3 p.m. I’m a regular at John G’s and know everybody over there, as well. It’s like being in your own neighborhood.

Q. What book are you reading now?
A. I read primarily nonfiction. I just finished Bill O’Reilly’s Killing the Killers and Malcolm Gladwell’s The Bomber Mafia about World War II. Now I’m reading April 1945 about the end of the war in Europe. My brother-in-law from New Jersey sends me about 10 books a month. I read most of them and donate the rest to the library.

Q. What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?
A. I love Artie Shaw. I play Begin the Beguine 10 times every day. Greatest record ever made. One take, 1937. I met Tony Bennett a half-dozen times in passing, so I like his music. And what stirs me up is the British Royal Marine Band, the greatest military band in the world. I go on YouTube and play that and I cry like a baby.

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. When I was in Army basic training at Camp Breckinridge in Kentucky this young corporal, a couple years older than me, came along one day and said, “I need a couple college graduates for the orderly room.” In the States everything goes through the orderly room, and there’s a person who is in charge of it, and he was it. His name was Alan Saks. Brilliant guy and he became my mentor.
He had inherited a family business of about 10 hardware stores. Big ones. He taught me everything to do in the orderly room, and mentored me in business. He told me, “When you come out of the Army there’s a place for you in my company.” But my father constricted my thinking and I never went to see him in Chicago.
Cut to 1960 and I pick up a Time magazine and he’d just sold those hardware stores for $500 million. He became a philanthropist. He always told me to surround myself with people who are very confident, and don’t give advice unless somebody asks for it. My father never brought it out of me that I was a leader, but the Army saw something in me and I did pretty well.

Q. If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?
A. Leonardo DiCaprio. Perfect. I looked like him when I was young. Good dresser, slim. I filled out this waist about 10 years ago.

Q. Who/what makes you laugh?
A. A good clean story, as I call it, or a funny joke. I draw cartoons and I laugh like hell with them. They come to me, somebody will say something. I write it down. I meet Dr. Roth, a psychotherapist, for breakfast one day a week and he has them hanging all over his office. I have a mailing list that I send them out to about 30 people.

By Jane Smith

A rejected Federal Highway rezoning for an auto dealership near Gulf Stream’s Place Au Soleil community came back before the Delray Beach City Commission on Oct. 25, after the property owner filed a legal complaint seeking a rehearing.
Commissioners agreed to rehear the case, which is now scheduled to be decided at a final public hearing Nov. 15.
Property owner John Staluppi Jr.’s attorney, Beth-Ann Krimsky, was not allowed to cross-examine people who spoke at the original Aug. 16 hearing, where commissioners voted 3-2 against the rezoning request.
Staluppi challenged the decision in court, saying the public hearing should have been a “quasi-judicial” one that allowed for cross examination. City Attorney Lynn Gelin admitted to commissioners she made a mistake.
Gelin had advised commissioners in August that the rezoning hearing could be “legislative,” which does not allow for such cross examination.
“You did nothing wrong,” Gelin said. “I fall on the sword.”
Commissioners decided not to wait for a judge to rule on the issue, which likely would have resulted in an order for a rehearing anyway.
At the Oct. 25 quasi-judicial hearing, speakers were sworn in by the city clerk. Only two people testified. Neither one lives in Delray Beach.
Trey Nazzaro, Gulf Stream’s assistant town manager and in-house attorney, said the 4.4 acres of parcels to be rezoned were only 220 feet deep between North Federal Highway and the homes in Place Au Soleil. The Gunther dealerships that sit south of the site are double the size, Nazzaro said, and have a 35-foot buffer.
“Only four auto dealerships abut residential properties in Delray Beach,” he said. “Most are separated by a road.”
He was then cross-examined by Krimsky, a partner in the Greenspoon Marder law firm in Fort Lauderdale.
Krimsky asked Nazzaro whether he was aware of any challenge by Gulf Stream to the Delray Beach comprehensive plan passed in February 2020, which designated the parcels as possible places for new car dealerships. He said no.
She also asked if Gulf Stream commissioners had voted on his appearance before Delray Beach on this issue. The commissioners did not take a formal vote, but they knew he would be coming to speak against the rezoning, Nazzaro said.
The second speaker, Gulf Stream resident Shana Ostrovitz, objected to expected noise from the constant use of key fobs, alarms, industrial-grade power tools and garage doors opening and closing. Her backyard abuts the proposed Hyundai dealership.
“The lights from the dealership would be so bright that it will feel like daytime all of the time,” she said.
Krimsky asked Ostrovitz if prior to buying her home in May 2021 she had reviewed Delray Beach’s long-term plan to see what was proposed for those North Federal properties. Ostrovitz said no.
The commission moved the rezoning request on to a second reading and public hearing Nov. 15, where presentations will be allowed from city staff and the property owner. To save time, commissioners decided earlier this year that they did not want such presentations during a request’s first reading.

The decades-old green buttonwood at Town Hall was among trees in Gulf Stream damaged during Hurricane Ian. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

How strong was the wind that toppled Town Hall’s large green buttonwood tree as Hurricane Ian battered Florida’s Gulf Coast on Sept. 28?
“We did have what we suspect — and the weather service is looking into it because we’ve given them all the pictorial evidence of it — but we did have a tornado that came off the beach. And that’s why our big tree over here was knocked over,” Town Manager Greg Dunham said.
Dunham told town commissioners at their Oct. 14 meeting that the suspected Ian-related twister blew roof tiles off Town Hall and from buildings across the street.
“It was moving in a northwesterly direction. It actually went over the building and there was a straight debris trail that went out over the [Little Club] golf course. And it’s my understanding it blew over a big tree close to the clubhouse,” he said.
Town Hall’s tree, which Dunham said was not covered by insurance, “was in very bad shape.”
“It had been infested by carpenter ants,” he said, with a hole at the base and tunnels throughout the root system, “and so, you know, the first big blow was going to make that tree fall over like that.”
Replacing it may be difficult, said Anthony Beltran, the town’s public works director.
“In order for us to really be able to find a specimen that’s going to be remotely anywhere near the size of what was there, it’s not going to happen because they have to be able to transport it. And the corridor to get it here is very narrow,” Beltran said.
The largest tree that could be trailered in would have only about a 12-foot canopy, he estimated. Commissioners told him to investigate what was available for a maximum $12,000 and report back in November.
In a special meeting on Oct. 28, commissioners:
• Set Nov. 1 to Nov. 15 as the dates to qualify as a candidate for the March election. Challengers could target all five commission seats.
• Raised the maximum height of sea walls in town by 2 feet, to a total 8 feet NGVD, for property owners building new or replacement sea walls.

By Mary Thurwachter

With his first year under his belt, Town Manager Brian Raducci got a big attaboy from the Lantana Town Council on Oct. 24 — one that came with a substantial pay hike.
Raducci, a former assistant city manager of Aventura, received a 4% raise, which when added to a 5% cost-of-living adjustment jumps his salary of $175,000 to $191,100.
“He’s done an excellent job,” said Vice Mayor Karen Lythgoe, who has been running the town meetings since Mayor Robert Hagerty announced his resignation in September. “He’s done his job very well. And I think that gives him a little incentive to keep going.”
Lythgoe had proposed a 3% merit raise, but Vice Mayor Pro Tem Lynn (Doc) Moorhouse said Raducci, 52, deserved a 5% hike like the ones awarded to department heads.
“My God, you deserve anything you get and more.” Moorhouse said. “I think he has done a superb job.”
The council settled on 4% after council member Kem Mason suggested it as a compromise.
Last year, Raducci agreed to a 5-year contract with 1,040 vacation hours, 400 hours of sick time, $12,000 a year to lease a car, health and dental insurance, cell phone, laptop and scanner. The town also contributes an amount equal to 15% of his salary to a retirement account.
“Our faith in you has definitely been well placed,” Lythgoe said. “We’re moving in the right direction” on some of the infrastructure changes “that we’ve been putting off. ... I can’t say enough about you.”
Raducci said the Town Council has been extremely supportive of his initiatives and was “intimately involved in the establishment of the budget priorities/goals and action plans which have been incorporated into the budget.” To balance that budget, however, the council raised the tax rate from $3.50 to $3.75 per $1,000 of taxable value — despite a 15.8% increase in the town’s tax base.
One of his goals for the town in the year ahead, Raducci said, is to maintain infrastructure. That includes repairing water mains, replacing wooden decking and rafters at the beach, repairing the sea walls at Bicentennial and Sportsman’s parks and designing the second phase of the water mains and pipes project.
He also wants to continue beautification projects — such as installing holiday lights around Greynolds Circle and adding benches and trash receptacles in the parks — and to continue responsible development through the town’s master plan.
In other action, the Town Council voted to disband the town’s Education Council. It was created in 2001 to serve in an advisory capacity and give Lantana a voice in decisions made by the county School Board, particularly concerning issues with finding a permanent location for a school in Lantana.
Since the education committee met that primary goal, the Town Council didn’t see the need for it to continue. Members of the Education Council discussed disbanding at their Sept. 12 meeting and the majority agreed.

Upcoming elections
Lantana has two council seats and the mayor’s job up for grabs in the March election. The Group 4 seat, held by Lythgoe, is available, as is the Group 3 seat held by Mark Zeitler.
Lythgoe said she would make a run for mayor and not seek re-election to her Group 4 seat. Should she win her bid to become mayor, the unexpired term will be only until March 2024, at which time she would need to run again.
Zeitler, who like Lythgoe is completing his first three-year term, will seek re-election to the Group 3 seat.
Other candidates have not been formally announced, although several are showing interest, including former council member Ed Shropshire, who was ousted by Zeitler three years ago; and John Raymer, who came in second earlier this year in his attempt to outpoll five-term incumbent Moorhouse.
The candidate qualifying period begins at noon Nov. 14 and ends at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 18, according to Town Clerk Kathleen Dominguez.
Lantana does not have term limits and all council members, including mayor, serve three-year terms.

By Joe Capozzi

Just in time for the return of winter snowbirds on wheels, town officials are rolling out two safety initiatives to protect residents walking along South Palm Beach’s popular sidewalk next to busy State Road A1A. 
Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies plan to patrol condo entrances to remind drivers entering and exiting the parking lots to watch for pedestrians.  
“We will focus on the influx of residents coming in for the season and try to make the sidewalks as safe as possible,’’ Sgt. Mark Garrison said when he announced the “November Sidewalk Safety Initiative” at the Town Council’s meeting Oct. 18.
Vice Mayor Bill LeRoy said he knew of at least two incidents this summer where people on the sidewalk were nearly struck by vehicles entering or exiting condos. 
As a result, town officials in October started circulating flyers and electronic messages reminding motorists headed to and from A1A to stop and yield to sidewalk pedestrians.  
“Remember to stop. Don’t run over your neighbors,’’ LeRoy said. Motorists “are used to just rolling on out, so please pay attention and stop every time and look both ways, just like they taught you when you learned to ride a bike.’’
Deputies patrolling the walkway will aim to educate motorists, but “a citation can be issued if warranted and is ultimately at the discretion of the deputy stopping the offender,’’ Garrison said after the meeting.
Meanwhile, the pathway along A1A will be enhanced in November with the installation of 44 new solar lights. The posts, technically called bollards, will cost the town $67,000 and complement existing street lights.
“When we have all these people walking up and down the walks this winter, they’re going to have some new lights,’’ LeRoy said before the council passed a resolution with the Florida Department of Transportation allowing town officials to install the lights on the state-owned road.
The lights will turn on automatically every day at 7 p.m.
The two initiatives are just the latest sidewalk safety measures that town officials have approved this year. In April, the commission passed an ordinance requiring commercial vehicles that block sidewalks to provide flagmen or hire off-duty law enforcement officers to help protect pedestrians.

In other business:
• In his comments Oct. 18, Councilman Robert Gottlieb mentioned a report about Hurricane Ian’s storm surge rising 15 feet across part of southwest Florida.
“If we have a 15-foot surge in South Palm Beach, what would happen to us?’’ he said. “We need to take a look at that and learn from the west coast what’s happening and see if we can be better at preparing ourselves for a future, hopefully not, hurricane.’’
Heavy rainfall in October prompted town officials to issue reminders to residents about the remaining king tide forecasts: Nov. 6-9 and Nov. 23-27.
• Waste Management, the town’s trash collector, will ask the council Nov. 15 to approve a monthly rate increase to help the company cover unexpected costs of labor and material. If approved, the increases for each condo unit would range from 41 cents a month to $2.31 cents a month depending on the volume of trash collected. • The council postponed until Nov. 15 a discussion about Town Manager Robert Kellogg’s contract renewal.

By Joe Capozzi

South Palm Beach officials in late October announced two special Town Council meetings for early November to interview architects interested in designing a new Town Hall with structural insulated panels — a cost-efficient construction system known by the acronym SIPs.
On Nov. 2, the council planned to interview CPZ Architects at 2 p.m. and REG Architects at 3 p.m. On Nov. 4, the council plans to interview Slattery & Associates at 1 p.m.
The interviews will be conducted over two meetings because all three firms could not meet with the council on the same day, said Mayor Bonnie Fischer.
The three firms were the only ones that responded to a request for qualifications to design using SIPs.
“It’s a fairly new technology and it’s just starting to catch on and there’s not too many (firms) doing this in South Florida,’’ said Town Manager Robert Kellogg.
The Town Council on Oct. 18 expressed a desire to offer a contract to a firm at its next regular meeting, Nov. 15. If that happens, it will mark the second time in 13 months the council has hired an architect to design a new Town Hall. 
On Oct. 12, 2021, the council hired Synalovski Romanik Saye but parted ways with the firm less than a year later on Sept. 19. The town paid SRS $55,199 for designs for a $6.5 million building before Fischer persuaded the council this summer to start over using the SIPs method.
She said her research suggests a town hall made of structural insulated panels could cost just $2 million. 
Since 2016, the town has spent about $114,000 on studies and drawings for a new Town Hall.

Trappers contracted by the FWC secure the alligator that showed up in the surf at the Delray Beach public beach. Photo provided by Kristen Cairns

By Larry Barszewski

Coastal beaches have signs advising visitors when dangers like sharks, riptides or jellyfish are present, but Delray Beach needed a different kind of warning at its public beach Oct. 12 — one for alligators.
An alligator was spotted in the surf near Vista Del Mar Drive that morning and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission dispatched a nuisance alligator trapper to the area. Trappers caught and transported the alligator alive to a farm.
Onlookers estimated the large alligator to be about 12 feet in length.
“It was surreal,” said Kristen Cairns, who arrived at the beach with her 20-month-old son at about 9:40 a.m., in the middle of the effort to capture the gator. “It took a few seconds for it to sink in. You’re going, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s an alligator in the ocean.’ Then you start wondering how often does that happen.”
FWC spokeswoman Arielle Callender said it’s not a typical situation, but possible.
“While the American alligator prefers freshwater lakes and slow-moving rivers and their associated wetlands, they are seen in brackish water habitats occasionally,” Callender said in a statement about the incident. “Alligators can swim in and tolerate saltwater for short periods of time, but it is not their preferred habitat.”
Cairns said the alligator seemed lethargic and didn’t put up much of a fight — “she wasn’t really thrashing or moving around” — but was still quite a challenge for the trappers because of its sheer size.
The trappers were having difficulty getting a noose around its neck, Cairns said, then one of the trappers got behind it and started pulling it out of the water by its tail. They finally got a rope around it, which they tied to a four-wheeler, but that didn’t end the troubles, she said.
“The four-wheeler was like digging into the sand, creating a hole” as it tried to pull the gator up the beach to the sidewalk, Cairns said, so some of the workers gave the vehicle a push from behind. The gator was then put in a truck and taken away.
Delray Beach police, fire-rescue workers and lifeguards were also on scene. No injuries were reported.
Callender said people who find an alligator near them can call FWC’s Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 866-392-4286.

By Larry Keller

More than two years after his arrest in a massive insurance fraud scheme involving drug treatment centers and sober houses, Delray Beach physician Michael Ligotti has pleaded guilty to a criminal charge that will net him a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison.
Ligotti, 48, pleaded guilty Oct. 4 to a single count of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud. Federal prosecutors dropped 12 other counts of health care fraud and money laundering.
The doctor also could be fined up to $250,000, and with other defendants be held liable for paying $127 million in restitution. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 13.
Ligotti was arrested in July 2020 and subsequently indicted on charges of fraudulently billing private insurance companies and Medicare of approximately $746 million for which they paid $127 million over a span of nine years. He is free on a $1.5 million bond.
The doctor opened Whole Health medical practice at 402 SE Sixth Ave. in 2005. It purported to be an urgent care facility, a family practice and an addiction treatment medical office, but most of its patients were addicted to drugs and alcohol and had private insurance. Ligotti was the only physician, assisted by nurse practitioners and other medical professionals.
Ligotti’s scheme worked like this, according to the government:
Ligotti became the medical director at more than 50 sober homes and treatment facilities. He signed approximately 137 standing orders for these businesses, which then required their patients to submit to urine drug tests three or more times per week on Ligotti’s orders.
These were sent to laboratories, which billed insurers for the tests and paid kickbacks to the sober home and treatment center operators. They in turn would require their patients to regularly visit Ligotti’s Whole Health practice for additional testing and treatment — the clinic had its own in-house lab — or they would permit Ligotti to send staff to them for this purpose.
“This allowed Ligotti to profit by billing patients’ insurance for duplicative, unnecessary and expensive tests and treatments,” prosecutors said in a statement of facts to which Ligotti admitted. The result often was “double-billing the same services for patients at Whole Health that had already been billed by the substance abuse treatment centers, sober homes and/or the clinical testing laboratories.”
A Whole Health nurse practitioner told investigators that sometimes 10 to 15 addiction patients were transported there in vans dubbed “druggy buggies.”
Ligotti and Whole Health ordered urine and blood drug testing so frequently that additional tests were often ordered before any medical professional had received or reviewed the results of earlier tests. And when a patient did test positive for a banned substance, Whole Health and the treatment facilities seldom imposed consequences.
The drug screens were lucrative. Whole Health billed one patient’s insurer more than $840,000 in a little more than six years, and the insurer of another patient $707,000 in less than four years, prosecutors said.
Ligotti also billed insurers for other services, such as psychiatric therapy sessions that didn’t occur and for which Whole Health didn’t have qualified staff.
Ligotti originally had a trial date set for April 2021, but the complexity of the case contributed to its being delayed. In July and August alone, the government produced more than 88,000 pages of documents such as patient charts, billing records, insurance claims and patient interview reports, Ligotti’s lawyer said in court papers. There also was a “voluminous” amount of material released earlier, he said.
The doctor “is drowning in the amount of information he must analyze to get ready for trial, and his attorney is similarly drowning,” the attorney, Jose Quiñon, wrote in late August in a motion seeking a trial continuance of at least six months.
Complicating matters further, one of Ligotti’s three children contracted COVID-19 in August, and then he and his wife also were diagnosed with the virus.
Before his legal woes, Ligotti lived well. His Whole Health practice paid $128,600 to a Boca Raton jewelry store, according to court records.
The doctor and his family lived in a seven-bedroom home on Seagate Drive in Delray Beach, and owned a second six-bedroom house nearby. The homes and the Whole Health building have been sold for a cumulative $9.3 million. Net proceeds after mortgages and other encumbrances have been paid will be forfeited to the government.

Delray Beach commissioners voted 4-1 to make no changes to the downtown ride service. Photo
provided

By Jane Smith

A free ride service will continue operating in downtown Delray Beach, but its service area won’t be expanded to include trips to and from the city’s Tri-Rail station or to additional areas on the beach.
The City Commission on Nov. 1 went against a staff recommendation to expand the service and voted to maintain the current service, which will cost $508,205 annually and roughly $2.5 million over the five-year contract. Staff had recommended a $4.2 million, five-year contract that would have used Tesla sedans and expanded coverage of the barrier island and Southwest neighborhoods.
The city’s free ride service will continue with five open-air electric vehicles.
In reaching their decision by a 4-1 vote, commissioners were conscious of other budget expenditures that may be on the horizon, such as possibly having to raise $1.3 million for a new nonprofit to run the city’s Old School Square campus.
While the city won’t expand the free ride service to Tri-Rail, the commuter rail’s operators already offer to pay for the last mile of travel for customers at select stations using Uber, a ride-sharing vehicle, said Sara Maxfield, the city’s economic development director. Delray Beach will be one of the stations, she said.
That solved the Tri-Rail issue for Mayor Shelly Petrolia.
“It’s easier to add service, than to take it away,” Petrolia said. “We have the Tri-Rail station covered.”
Commissioner Shirley Johnson, who cast the dissenting vote, wanted to serve an expanded area on the barrier island, along with Southwest neighborhoods in the city. She wanted more vehicles to serve the residents and not make them wait.
The beach service area now goes to State Road A1A, four blocks north and south of Atlantic Avenue.
The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency has been paying for the service in the past, but the agency now wants to concentrate on other projects. The bid process attracted only the CRA’s current vendor, Beefree LLC of Miami.
Delray Beach is trying to reduce downtown traffic and vehicle emissions by offering the free car service.
Also Nov. 1, the City Commission decided to continue with Johnson as chair of the CRA. Angie Gray, a CRA board member, will continue as the vice chairwoman. The commission also approved adding five years to the life of the CRA, setting a new sunset day of Sept. 16, 2044.
Elections news: Qualifying for two commission seats is open until noon Nov. 21 for the March 14 municipal elections.
Deputy Vice Mayor Juli Casale plans to run again for her Commission 2 seat. Johnson is term-limited from running again to fill her Commission 4 seat.