By John Pacenti

After a year of drama and turmoil surrounding Delray Beach’s previous fire chief, City Manager Terrence Moore failed to discover the replacement he hired had three internal complaints filed against him that were pending when he resigned as chief of the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District.

The complaints from the first week of March 2023 centered on a secret affair between Fire Chief Ronald Martin and the fire district's human resources manager.

Among the allegations, staffers said the HR manager was promoted to leadership roles and that resources were expended so the couple could continue their romance on out-of-town business trips.

Moore was made aware of the complaints by Vice Mayor Juli Casale after Moore picked Martin in September.

“The gentleman's personal relationship with the woman is not of concern, but in reading these complaints closely you see that there are accusations of abuse of authority and misuse of taxpayer funds,” Casale said in an Oct. 11 email to Moore.

The Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District did not take action to determine the merits of the complaints because Martin resigned on March 17, 2023, the same day that a district report says officials were to meet with him about the accusations.

“I categorically deny every single one of those allegations,” Martin told The Coastal Star on Oct. 21. The HR manager, Colleen Brooks, who is now Martin’s fiancée, was by his side during the interview but did not comment.

Casale told Moore in emails and at the City Commission’s Oct. 15 meeting that the “shocking” failure to properly vet Martin calls into question the city’s hiring practices.

“If you have somebody who's been employed a long time in a city, they have a record, and we're not even asking for that in the hiring process," Casale said at the meeting without mentioning Martin by name.

“So, we hired an individual, and we're very hopeful that it will turn out to be a great hire, but basically, it will be a matter of luck and not the competency of the process, because the process is flawed,” Casale said.

At the same meeting, Martin was introduced as the new chief.

During his interview with The Coastal Star, Martin said he was unaware of the complaints until the paper asked him about them. They were not brought up when he tendered his resignation or met with the fire district’s attorney and the chairman of its board of commissioners, he said.

Martin said he stepped down because of a cancer scare and that he felt the district could be dissolved in a changing political climate. Martin also spoke about the mental fatigue he experienced in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, which made a catastrophic hit on Fort Myers Beach a half-year earlier on Sept. 28, 2022.

When asked if he thought the affair was inappropriate, Martin said, “Between two consenting adults? Absolutely not.”  He said the romance was a blessing considering the issues he was dealing with at the time.

Martin said that the district was audited and found no financial wrongdoing in attending conferences during the period in question.

He also said that Brooks reported to the director of finance, not him.

Yet one of the complaints said that in the months before Ian struck, “Chief Martin had been elevating Mrs. Brooks status in the organization, changing her scope of duties, and moving her up to the Senior Leadership Team” — adding that “these changes meant she was now reporting directly to Chief Martin.”

Mayor Tom Carney, reached for comment on Oct. 21, said he had not researched the hiring process or Martin’s past. “It would be irresponsible for me to make a comment until I have all of the facts,” the mayor said.

Commissioner Rob Long said he spoke to Moore about the hiring and was told that the complaints were known and that since it was consensual — as opposed to unwanted advances — it did not dissuade the city manager from hiring Martin.

“Terrence said that like he knew about it, and it wasn't something that they that they ignored,” Long said.

The email traffic between Casale, Moore and Delray Beach Human Resources Manager Duane D’Andrea, however, tells a different story — that Delray Beach didn’t know about the complaints when it hired Martin.

Moore announced Martin’s hiring in one of his weekly information letters in September. Casale on Oct. 8 asked Moore in an email if personnel files and professional references were requested. She said a simple Google search would discover that Martin resigned abruptly.

“This seems like a clear red flag,” Casale wrote to Moore.

When she was told by D’Andrea that the city did not request Martin’s personnel file from the Fort Myers Beach fire district, the vice mayor responded, “Wow. That is Shocking.”

Moore was asked on Oct. 22 if he knew of the complaints or not. He didn’t answer but provided a statement:

“During the interview process, I had the opportunity to meet with Chief Martin to discuss his employment history and experience. There is no legitimate reason for an unsubstantiated claim or allegation to affect a prospective employee’s future. Martin has no disciplinary actions in his personnel records which might in any way negatively impact his ability to successfully serve in his new role.”

In coming to Delray Beach, Martin is inheriting a department still reeling from the drama surrounding its former chief, Keith Tomey.

Tomey was fired in May for allowing on-duty firefighters to participate in a charity softball game, taking an engine out of service for hours. A firefighter also got hurt during the game and sought worker’s compensation.

Tomey also accused Moore of sexually harassing him. An independent investigation found the allegation could not be substantiated. Tomey has filed suit against the city, saying he was retaliated against for making the complaint against Moore.

Martin worked for the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District, in various capacities, since 1992. After his resignation, he took a job with Lee County and then as the chief of fire safety for the Louisiana Office of the State Fire Marshal.

In the email exchanges with Moore and D’Andrea, Casale asked why they felt Martin’s file was “clean” and that the allegations were “unsubstantiated.”

D’Andrea explained under city policy there was a panel who interviewed Martin, who said he left his position at Fort Myers Beach for personal reasons. Background screening included a review of Martin’s driver’s license record, a physical, a drug test and two personal references, D’Andrea told Casale.

Casale, during the Oct. 15 meeting, said the city should consider hiring a headhunter to find candidates for open positions.

By John Pacenti

In a stunning revelation, Delray Beach City Manager Terrence Moore could not assure the public that an alleged bribery scheme within the city’s Code Enforcement Department is contained and that the department isn’t riddled with corruption.

Moore’s comment came at the Oct. 15 City Commission meeting when Vice Mayor Juli Casale asked him about the arrest of a code enforcement officer accused of shaking down two residents.

Khatoya Markia Wesley, 35, was arrested Oct. 3 on two counts of extortion threats and two counts of unlawful compensation, second-degree felonies punishable by up to 15 years in prison. She was fired from her position Oct. 7 for accepting money, willful misconduct and conduct unbecoming a city employee, according to a memo written by Moore.

City Attorney Lynn Gelin has asked the Office of the Inspector General to conduct a review of the department, Casale said after the Oct. 15 commission meeting. She did not know if the OIG asked to conduct the investigation was with the state or with Palm Beach County. Gelin did not return an email seeking comment on Oct. 18.

Casale pressed Moore on the bribery arrest at the meeting, noting that the code compliance officer fired is accused in the police report of using surrogates and multiple Cash Apps accounts.

“Did we do a full investigation into this department to make sure that this is one individual and not a bunch of people working together?” Casale asked.

Moore said a “review process was imminent.”

“What do you mean a review process is imminent?” Casale shot back.

“We will be reviewing our processes to be on point in that regard because, of course, my concern is if there's more than one individual other than who was apprehended in the most recent events,” Moore said.

Casale asked Moore why the city took so long to investigate Wesley and why weren’t commissioners informed.

“Our residents deserve better,” Casale said. “We are here to clean up, not cover up, and that's what it feels like is going on when we don't get information about one of our employees bribing people and extorting them.”

She told Moore she was frustrated that it took so much time to investigate Wesley, who was on paid administrative leave for four months before being arrested a year after the alleged bribery took place.

Moore, who has increasingly been on the defensive with Casale, said he was “not happy with the application” but that probable cause had to be established along the lines of the city’s policies and procedures.

“In all fairness, as far as the timeframes you outlined, it was not a function of irresponsibility on our part, (it’s) simply taken time to put the pieces together. That is policy, that is process. And ultimately, we got to a place in which the arrests had been made,” Moore said.

Wesley is accused of demanding payment from John “The Ribman” Jules, who sold barbeque ribs out of his home at 1048 Sunset Ave. Jules said he gave Wesley $1,500 in cash and $800 in food for her and her associates, according to an Oct. 3 arrest report.

Wesley is also accused of trying to shake down Yves Merzius, who police said owned UU Auto Sales at 210 SE 3rd Ave. “He stated Wesley came to the lot on several occasions and stated that she was going to report his business to code enforcement unless he paid her,” the report stated.

Both men had been subject to code enforcement complaints in the past. Jules faced complaints because of traffic jams in the neighborhood around his house as he sold rib plates for $20 apiece. Merzius told police that he had a shop but code enforcement shut it down and he was storing cars at the address in question.

Wesley was released from Palm Beach County Jail on Oct 4. after posting a $10,000 bond. The phone number listed on the police report for Wesley was disconnected. The public defender representing Wesley has not yet responded to an Oct. 19 email seeking comment.

An investigation into Wesley — who lives in Delray Beach — started in February when a fellow code enforcement officer reported her after he spoke to a family member of an alleged victim, police said. The alleged extortion and bribery took place in October 2023, according to the report.

In the police report, Wesley complains in a text message that Jules' account was frozen and that he could only pay $560. A contact phone for Jules was not included in the police report and he could not be reached for comment.

Wesley was explicit in her threats, according to the police report.

“If nothing sent tonight it ain't nothing ima be able to do to help bro 'cause I gotta pay somebody else,” she told Jules on one occasion. Police said she followed it up with a text message that said, “They sending fire department and everything tonight if the event paperwork not shown.”

Text messages between Wesley and Merzius were recovered but they did not have any payment information, according to the arrest report.

 While damage from Hurricane Milton was negligible in coastal South County, this half-sunken sailboat at Sportsman's Park Marina in Lantana was affected by its winds, crashing into the sea wall there. The photo was taken Oct. 10. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star  

By Rich Pollack

With Hurricane Milton still several hours away, the small group of Briny Breezes residents who stayed home despite being urged to evacuate weren’t about to let expected tropical force winds stand in the way of the regular Wednesday afternoon social hour.

“A bunch of us went down and watched the ocean and talked a bit” on the porch of the oceanfront clubhouse, said Briny Breezes Mayor Ted Gross. “Everyone was prepared.”

The town, like most of the other coastal communities in south Palm Beach County, saw little or no impact from Hurricane Milton, which made landfall late Wednesday near Sarasota.

“We prepared for the worst and the best happened,” said Gross, who along with several other residents of the mostly mobile home community hunkered down despite a county evacuation order.

“We have a decent amount of communication with one another,” Gross said, adding that he and other residents were ready to leave if it appeared a change in Milton’s path would have a greater chance of affecting the town.  

A boat carrying migrants beached in the 4000 block of North Ocean Boulevard in Gulf Stream on Oct. 9 ahead of Hurricane Milton making landfall on Florida's west coast. Authorities said 11 migrants were taken into custody. The boat was removed the following day. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Just to the south of Briny Breezes that same afternoon, Boynton Beach police and fire and other agencies responded to the arrival of a boat with refugees coming ashore.

Gulf Stream Police Chief Richard Jones said that 11 migrants were taken into custody at about 4 p.m. in the 4000 block of North Ocean Boulevard after the boat came ashore near the Ballantrae condominiums. Jones' department assisted in the effort along with other first responder agencies including Delray Beach and Ocean Ridge.

As for the hurricane's impact, Highland Beach Fire Chief Glenn Joseph said his department responded to some downed and arcing powerlines on State Road A1A, while in Delray Beach and Gulf Stream officials said damage was limited to a tree branch or two in the streets.

Boca Raton also emerged from the storm in good shape.

“All generally OK and grateful for it,” Mayor Scott Singer said in a text message.

“No major impacts at all,” said city spokeswoman Ileana Olmsted in an email.

Officials in Manalapan, Lantana and South Palm Beach reported little or no issues with beach erosion — with the storm coming from the west — or with street flooding as a result of minimal rainfall.

While much of the focus was on Milton and its winds, a tornado spawned in one of the hurricane’s outer bands was blamed for multiple deaths in a Fort Pierce-area senior mobile home community that was similar in many ways to Briny Breezes.

In Palm Beach County, other tornados caused destructive damage in parts of Wellington and Palm Beach Gardens.

About 31,000 of Florida Power & Light’s 784,000 customers in Palm Beach County remained without power as of noon Thursday, although there were no outages reported by local community leaders in the coastal south county area.

Mary Thurwachter, Jerry Lower, John Pacenti, Mary Hladky and Brian Biggane contributed to this story.

Jay Kelley (left) and his wife, Jo Bennett, help Briny Breezes resident Holly McCarthy secure her home on Oct. 8 after Palm Beach County urged evacuation for people living in mobile and manufactured homes. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

A proposed home at 2600 N. Ocean Blvd. east of State Road A1A won a variance from the Boca Raton City Council on Oct. 8. The plans still need approval from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection before construction can begin. A larger scale proposal was rejected by the council in 2019, leading to a pair of contentious lawsuits that ended recently. Rendering provided

By Steve Plunkett

Almost six years after being denied permission to erect a duplex on the beach and 12 days after an advisory panel gave a thumbs-down to a scaled-back plan, the owners of an undeveloped parcel east of State Road A1A won their long-sought OK.

The Boca Raton City Council voted 4-1 on Tuesday, Oct. 8, to grant property owner Azure Development LLC a variance to build a single-family home on the sand east of the city’s Coastal Construction Control Line at 2600 N. Ocean Blvd.

“I feel like we’re finally being given our constitutional rights,” Azure partner Brian Grossberg said after the decision.

The lone vote against the proposal came without elaboration from Council member Andy Thomson, who also said no in February 2019.

Calling the vote “an unpleasant moment for me,” Mayor Scott Singer, who also opposed the project the first time it came before the council, noted that Azure had reduced the building size and an updated staff report said the impacts on nesting sea turtles had been reduced.

“I don’t think … going back a third time and a fourth time and getting them to negotiate down foot by foot, piece by piece is something reasonable,” he said.

More than a dozen nearby neighbors urged the council to deny the variance, with many of them arguing that Azure bought the parcel knowing that it is east of the CCCL and that, as one said, “they could never build there.”

But Azure’s attorney, Robert Sweetapple, said the CCCL did not prohibit construction seaward of the line.

“This property came with the right to seek a variance. That’s part of its bundle of rights,” he said.

The city’s Development Services Department had recommended that the variance be approved after attaching 17 conditions for Azure to meet, including that the building’s windows transmit no more than 31% of any interior lighting onto the beach, which is nesting habitat for protected sea turtles.

The home will still have four stories but will be approximately 38 feet tall and have 6,931 square feet of enclosed space, down from the originally proposed nearly 49-foot height and 14,270 square feet.

Azure must now get an OK from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection before obtaining an actual building permit from Boca Raton.

The property is one of two remaining undeveloped parcels on the beach. A federal judge in March ruled that the owner of 2500 N. Ocean Blvd two lots south of 2600 had a “vested right” to build on its property.

In August, the city and Azure agreed to pause two contentious lawsuits and to decide within 90 days whether to allow the home to go up on the beachfront.

The agreement also called for the developer and Boca Raton to pay their own attorneys’ fees and costs. Sweetapple has said the legal tab on Azure’s side is more than $1 million.

By John Pacenti

A Delray Beach code enforcement officer has been fired after being charged with extortion for demanding payment from two residents if they wanted to avoid being cited for violations.

Khatoya Markia Wesley, 35, faces two counts of extortion threats and two counts of unlawful compensation, second-degree felonies punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Wesley is accused of demanding payment from John “The Ribman” Jules, who sold barbeque ribs out of his home at 1048 Sunset Ave. Jules said he gave Wesley $1,500 in cash and $800 in food for her and her associates, according to an Oct. 3 arrest report.

Wesley is also accused of trying to shake down Yves Merzius, who police said owned UU Auto Sales at 210 SE Third Ave. “He stated Wesley came to the lot on several occasions and stated that she was going to report his business to code enforcement unless he paid her,” the report stated.

Both men had been subject to code enforcement complaints in the past. Jules faced complaints because of traffic jams in the neighborhood around his house as he sold rib plates for $20 apiece. Merzius told police that he had a shop but code enforcement shut it down and he was storing cars at the address in question.

An investigation into Wesley — who also lives in Delray Beach — started in February when a fellow code enforcement officer reported her after he spoke to a family member of the alleged victim, police said. The alleged extortion and bribery took place in October 2023, according to the report.

“If nothing sent tonight it ain't nothing ima be able to do to help bro 'cause I gotta pay somebody else,” Wesley allegedly said in a text message to Jules on one occasion. Police said she followed it up with a text message that said, “They sending fire department and everything tonight if the event paperwork not shown.”

Text messages between Wesley and Merzius were recovered but they did not have any payment information, according to the arrest report.

Wesley was released from Palm Beach County Jail on Oct 4. after posting a $10,000 bond. She was fired from her position Oct. 7 for accepting money, willful misconduct and conduct unbecoming a city employee, according to a memo written by City Manager Terrence Moore.

 "Ms. Wesley's actions are in direct violation of the ethical standards expected of all City employees," police spokesman Theodore White said. "The City of Delray Beach takes these allegations very seriously and remains committed to maintaining the highest level of integrity and transparency in all its operations. We will continue to cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation."

Wesley, whose phone number listed on the police report was disconnected on Oct. 8, could not be reached for comment. 

Update: This story was updated at 3:53 p.m. Oct. 9 to include comments from Delray Beach police about Wesley's arrest.

Jay Kelley (left) and his wife Jo Bennett help Briny Breezes resident Holly McCarthy secure the clam-shell shutters on her home in Briny Breezes.  Lily the dog is an evacuee from Tampa who is staying with Kelley and Bennett during Hurricane Milton. Palm Beach County announced the mandatory evacuation of mobile and manufactured homes effective noon Wednesday, Oct. 9, in anticipation of the storm. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

With Hurricane Milton zeroing in on Florida, Palm Beach County residents living in manufactured or mobile homes — including those in Briny Breezes — have been ordered to seek shelter elsewhere by county leaders.

An evacuation order, announced Tuesday afternoon, comes as the county remains under a tropical storm warning and flood watch, with the potential for sustained winds of between 30 mph and 40 mph and gusts of between 50 mph and 60 mph.

The mandate goes into effect at noon Wednesday.

The order from county leaders was all that was needed to persuade Briny Breezes resident Holly McCarthy to fasten her shutters and flee to Lake Worth Beach where she will stay with a friend.

“She wasn’t going to leave until they told her it was mandatory,” said friend Jo Bennett. Bennett and her husband, Jay Kelley, helped McCarthy prepare to leave.

In Briny Breezes, town leaders have sent information to residents encouraging evacuation but adding that police will not force anyone to leave.

“But if you choose to stay you have to remember that emergency personnel may not be able to get to you until conditions clear,” the notification to residents said. “That’s why it’s important to follow these orders.”

Should there be a tornado warning, the town is urging resident who stay to shelter in one of a handful of bathhouses in the park because they are more secure than the community’s mobile homes.

Palm Beach County will be opening five general population shelters, a pet-friendly shelter and a special needs shelter on Wednesday at noon.

For residents of Briny Breezes, the nearest general population shelter will be at at Park Vista High School at 7900 Jog Road, west of Lake Worth Beach.

In an apparent effort to discourage onlookers, bedsheets were used for a couple of days to try to conceal the hotel name where the Sept. 20 murders occured. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Larry Barszewski and Jane Musgrave

Boca Raton was on pace to hew to a one-murder-a-year crime statistic this year — that is, until gunshots erupted Sept. 20 in a hotel parking lot on State Road A1A.

Mayor Scott Singer, trying to put the city’s best face on the double murder that took place there, said the “incident was more shocking because homicide and violence in our city are so rare.”

He praised police and assured residents they were well protected during a city-arranged appearance with Police Chief Michele Miuccio in front of TV cameras and other media three days after the shootings.

“This was an isolated incident, but the swift response by our Police Department is part of their continued excellence,” Singer said.

How swift? Barely 12 hours passed from when two hotel guests from Oakland Park were shot to death at 365 N. Ocean Blvd. — and a third person wounded — to when the suspect after fleeing 500 miles up the coast was pulled over in his 2017 silver Jaguar by a Georgia sheriff’s deputy and taken into custody.

The scene at 365 Ocean, a self-described boutique extended stay hotel on A1A across from South Beach Park, where a room could be had on Booking.com for as low as $131 a night in September, became a hub of police activity that Friday after the first 911 call came in at 4:53 p.m.

The murders were the first on the city’s barrier island since February 2020. That’s when police say a homeless man was stabbed and strangled to death by his homeless son while the two were spending the night at a since-demolished parking garage at A1A and Palmetto Park Road.

The 365 Ocean deaths were the second and third killings in the city this year, following a murder-suicide earlier in September. There had been only one murder recorded in the city in 2022 and again in 2023.

At 365 Ocean, the initial reports from police point to a purse-snatching gone bad, though police say the people involved may have known each other and there may be more to the story.

“We can’t definitively say they were all friends, but it does appear that they did know each other and it wasn’t random that they were just somebody that was walking by that stepped in,” Miuccio said.

Police at the scene of the shootings, after which the suspect, a Boynton Beach resident, drove 500 miles before his arrest. Larry Barszewski / Coastal Star

Suspect and victims
As of Oct. 1, De’Vante LaShawn Moss, 30, of Boynton Beach, still sat in the Laurens County jail in Georgia, awaiting extradition on two counts of first-degree murder with a firearm and one count of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm.

The deceased are Christopher Liszak, 49, and Chandler Dill, 32. Police have not released the name or other information about the wounded male, who was taken to Delray Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, because he is a witness to what happened. He has since been released from the hospital.

Moss, Liszak and Dill have criminal histories.

Moss was charged in U.S. District Court in April 2022 with possession of fentanyl. He became a target of an investigation by federal and Palm Beach County law enforcement agents after the overdose death of a 26-year-old Lake Worth Beach woman, who they believed was one of Moss’s customers, court records show.

Moss sold undercover agents two packages of what later tested positive as fentanyl for $1,400. While another purchase was planned, Moss fled, records show. When agents tracked him to a parking lot in West Palm Beach, they searched his car.

They didn’t find any drugs, but did find a 9-millimeter pistol. During an interview with agents, Moss was candid, according to court records. “Moss told law enforcement he is a drug addict and sells drugs when he is able to get his hands on them,” agents said.

In November 2022, he pleaded guilty to a charge of distribution of fentanyl and was given two years of probation.

Liszak was a fugitive from the Florida Department of Corrections for failing to show up for a court-ordered drug offender probation program, according to the prison system’s website. A Broward County judge in April issued a warrant for his arrest for violating his 2023 probation on charges of possession of methamphetamine and possession of cocaine.

Liszak served time in state prison. He was sentenced to five years in 2010 after being convicted in Broward County of heroin trafficking, selling opioids and grand theft. He was released in May 2014.

Unlike Moss and Liszak, Dill had not faced drug charges.

In 2021, when she was living in Tamarac, she was twice charged with grand theft auto after police said she stole cars from people pumping gas at service stations. She was found guilty of both charges in 2023 and was sentenced to the 364 days she had already served in the county jail.

Shots fired at hotel
Dill and Liszak had adjoining rooms at 365 Ocean on the day of their deaths; Dill had rented Room 101 the day before, while Liszak had checked into Room 102 on Sept. 9, according to the police report.

The following narrative is based on information from police, which they pulled together from their investigation, witness statements, interviews with hotel staff, and surveillance video at the hotel. It begins with Moss and Dill exiting her room.

“It appears they had an argument, and Moss fled the room carrying the victim’s purse,” Miuccio said. “[Dill] ran after him and yelled at him, give her purse back. She argued with him by the silver, four-door Jaguar and tried pulling her purse out of his arms.”

Dill had rushed out of the room wearing only a black tank top, trying to recover her black, Juicy Couture purse. As Moss tried to get into the Jaguar, the unidentified male victim came over to intervene. That’s when Moss got out of the driver’s seat and got something from the backseat, while the man ran to a truck and removed a small bag.

At this point, Liszak also exited his room and came over, apparently to intervene.

“The male victim returned from the truck, opened the passenger side door of the Jaguar, and, after seeing Moss, quickly moved and took cover towards the rear of the vehicle,” Miuccio said.

Moss got out of his car and fired at the man, then turned his 9mm pistol and shot Dill and Liszak at close range. Dill was shot in the neck, forearm and upper back, Liszak in the chest.

The other man ducked along the passenger side of the Jaguar and started moving away. Moss pointed the gun at him over the roof of the car and shot again; the man fell and attempted to crawl toward the hotel. He stopped at the hedges in front of Liszak’s room and got into a seated position.

Moss ran across the parking lot to him. As the man raised his empty hands over his head, Moss shot him again before fleeing the scene. The man was shot in the buttocks, thigh and scrotum.

Boca Raton police closed A1A to traffic for several hours during their investigation into the shootings. Larry Barszewski/The Coastal Star

Investigative work pays off
Police made quick progress when they arrived. They matched witness statements with available hotel surveillance video, from which they were able to pull the car’s license tag number. They determined the car was owned by Moss, that he was their suspect, and that he had left the city.

They got a search warrant for his Boynton Beach residence, where his fiancée told police that “at 5:30 p.m. he had returned home, packed a bag, and said he was headed for Jacksonville for work,” Miuccio said.

Police were able to determine Moss was heading to Georgia and notified Georgia State Police. A Laurens County deputy spotted the Jaguar around 5:20 a.m. Sept. 21, conducted a traffic stop and took Moss into custody without incident.

Miuccio, too, called the shootings an isolated incident. “We’re fortunate to be in a city with a low incidence of crime. There’s been a continued decrease in violent crime in the last five years,” she said.

The 2020 murder
September’s double homicide has one coincidence with the 2020 murder at the One Ocean Plaza garage at 1 S. Ocean Blvd., which was four blocks from 365 Ocean. The suspects in the two cases, Moss and Jared Noiman, were born one day apart in 1994.

The 2020 case isn’t over yet. Noiman had been ruled incompetent to stand trial in the death of his father, Jay Noiman, 59. That changed in July, when Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Donald Hafele found Jared Noiman, now 30, competent to stand trial. That ruling followed a report by the Florida Department of Children and Families that found him competent and that he no longer met the criteria for involuntary commitment.

A May trial has been scheduled.

The proposed home at 2600 N. Ocean Blvd. would have two living floors, basement and a rooftop terrace with pool Renderings provided

City Council will have the final say

By Steve Plunkett

Boca Raton’s Environmental Advisory Board has delivered a strong “no” to plans for a scaled-back residence on one of the two remaining vacant parcels in Boca Raton east of State Road A1A.

The board, meeting Sept. 26, voted 4-0 to recommend that the City Council not approve a variance to build on the ocean side of the Coastal Construction Control Line, despite city staff’s recommendation to approve the application.

The vote is not binding on the council, which was scheduled to take up the matter Oct. 8.

Azure Development LLC and its affiliate, 2600 N Ocean LLC, originally proposed a duplex on its property at 2600 N. Ocean Blvd. with four living floors, an uninhabitable basement and a rooftop terrace with pool. It now wants to build a single-family home with two living floors, the basement and rooftop terrace with pool. The residence would have 6,931 square feet of air-conditioned space, four bedrooms and a garage. The rooftop would also have a gym room, a summer kitchen and a spa.

The new design has 2,550 square feet of glass facing the Atlantic Ocean, down about 29% from the original plan’s 3,600 square feet.

Rick Newman, chairman of the advisory board, was not swayed.

“It’s still a tall building. I don’t know why they didn’t go for a lower building,” Newman said.

Only four members of the public spoke at the meeting, all opposed to the beachfront home: a lawyer for the Yacht and Racquet Club of Boca Raton, north of the property; Jorge Salinger, president of its condo board; longtime opponent and Yacht and Racquet Club resident Michael Laszlo; and Grant Kelly, a nearby neighbor on Lake Wyman Road.

The Yacht and Racquet Club’s residences are on the west side of A1A, with only a gated dune crossover on the east side. The condo also has a permit to keep vegetation trimmed so as not to block the ocean view.

Tamashbeen Rahman, the city’s chief planner, said her department had included a number of conditions for the developer to meet, including installation of an astronomical clock that will automatically turn off any pool lighting no later than 9 p.m. during sea turtle nesting season, and submitting a tree-pruning plan every two years for city review.

Brandon Schaad, Boca Raton’s director of development services, said the city’s comprehensive plan, zoning code and zoning map all designate the property for use as residential development.

“We believe at this point, with the mitigation measures that the applicant has incorporated, with the design that they have set forth, and with the robust and extensive conditions that we have placed in the recommended development order, that that constitutes reasonable use,” Schaad said. “It’s up to the board to determine if you agree or not.”

After the meeting, attorney Robert Sweetapple, who represents Delray Beach-based Azure, said he was pleased by the city staff’s recommendation for approval and looked forward to the City Council’s deliberations.

“There’s nothing that the Environmental Advisory Board would ever approve, because they want the beach to remain in its natural state,” he said.

In August, the city and Azure agreed to put two contentious lawsuits behind them and to decide within 90 days whether to allow the home to go up on the beachfront.

The settlement calls for both sides to pause legal activity for at least 90 days or until the City Council makes its decision on the CCCL variance. If the variance is denied, the settlement becomes void and legal action will resume.

The agreement also calls for Azure and Boca Raton to pay their own attorneys’ fees and costs. Sweetapple has said the legal tabs on his side exceed $1 million.

Notable in the settlement language is this: “The City recognizes that 2600 is entitled to construct a single-family home on the Property, subject to satisfying the CCCL variance criteria as set forth in the City’s Code of Ordinances and all other zoning, building and other applicable regulatory requirements.”

In 2020, a panel of Palm Beach County Circuit Court judges ordered a rehearing of Azure’s variance request and disqualified then-Council members Andrea O’Rourke and Monica Mayotte from voting on it based on email messages they sent to constituents and to each other that showed they were not impartial.

The path heading from Old Ocean back to Fayette Drive. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Neighbors claim private right to walkway at end of street; people west of A1A have used it for 40 years, others say

Related: Ocean Ridge: For irate owner wrongly forced to trim hedges, apology doesn’t cut it

By John Pacenti

Nothing turns neighbor against neighbor in Ocean Ridge like beach access. It’s Florida’s modern take on the Hatfields and McCoys.

Recently, Turtle Beach condo owners battled Tropical Drive residents with slurs on social media and the tearing down of signs. There was even an arrest for criminal mischief.

Now, it’s the dispute over a 100-yard elbow-shaped path at the end of Fayette Drive that abuts the Colonial Ridge condominium complex and ends at Old Ocean Boulevard. It’s residents of Fayette Drive versus the residents across State Road A1A at Crown Colony and the Ocean Ridge Yacht Club.

“We just want peace. We want to be left alone. We want to keep our walk private,” said Fayette resident Sarah Steies, whose house is at the end of the road and adjacent to the path.

She said three lawyers hired by the town and two attorneys in private practice have found the bypass is exclusive to Fayette Drive homeowners. Residents Steies, Melanie Rodriguez and Elizabeth Hamilton have been the voice for the neighborhood in the dispute.

Britt Flanagan, a former board member for the Yacht Club, said the women have made the path an issue only recently.

“There is something else called pre-existing use and since the Yacht Club opened in 1987 residents of that Yacht Club have used that path,” she said. “The history of the path is that for all these years everyone has co-existed amicably.”

The Yacht Club and Crown Colony reached out to Town Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy for help in April, complaining about the installation of a gate on the walkway ­— even though no such gate existed. There is a new gate with a lock to Fayette Drive’s deck; that lock was recently vandalized with glue.

Cassidy said these disputes are unseemly for Ocean Ridge but acknowledged they are commonplace in coastal Florida when it comes to beach rights. “We went through this with Tropical Drive and Turtle Beach,” she said. “There’s this infighting with residents. It’s neighbor against neighbor.”

Vice Mayor Steve Coz sides with the residents of the Yacht Club and Crown Colony. “They have 40 years of customary use, right? And any judge on the planet will grant them that permission and that access,” he said.

Controversial crosswalk
When it comes to this grassy path known as “the Walk,” Ocean Ridge politics reigns supreme.

Fayette residents said commissioners ignored their concerns when approving a crosswalk installed in 2021 just south of the street’s entrance on A1A that they say funnels vehicular, e-bike and even more foot traffic onto their dead-end street.

“Our cars have been hit six times,” said Steies, who has watched vehicles get caught like flies in honey trying to maneuver back onto A1A.

Steies and Rodriguez said commissioners are supporting their friends at Crown Colony and the Yacht Club in taking the side that the walk is open to the public. Rodriguez said the commission has ignored Fayette residents’ concerns about safety issues since 2018.

But on a commission where elections are won by a few hundred votes, the condos are an important electoral bloc, said former Commissioner Terry Brown. “Crown Colony has a lot of votes. If they support you they can basically call an election,” he said.

Brown said the commission inappropriately used taxpayer dollars to pay for the crosswalk to cater to Crown Colony and the Yacht Club, directing people to private property.

“They were told by their lawyers and other people that they hired that the walk was private and not open to the public and they did it anyway,” he said.

Steies said the two condo communities also provide something else to commissioners that 14 homes on one road cannot — business opportunities. She noted that Cassidy is a real estate agent, as is Coz’s wife.

“They don’t make money as commissioners. They become commissioners so that they can further their private businesses,” she said.

Reams of documents
Steies and Rodriguez sit at the kitchen table in Steies’ home. Steies’ mother had this home built in 1968 when Crown Colony was just converting from a co-op and the Yacht Club was some nice Intracoastal Waterway property.

Fanned out around them are reams of documents stretching back years, showing legally the walk is private. Steies holds uncashed checks in nominal amounts from Yacht Club residents like she is playing the card game Go Fish, saying the condo community aimed to claim ownership of the deck by contributing to recent maintenance.

Flanagan said when interviewed she thought her condo complex had contributed to recent renovations.

Recently, the three Fayette residents hired renowned land-use attorney Alan Ciklin, who reached back to 1952 in finding a dedication on the plat for the neighborhood that makes the path exclusive for Fayette Drive residents.

Following the path across Old Ocean Boulevard, there are two decks, one dedicated to homeowners on Fayette, the other leased to residents of Crown Colony.

“The ‘Walk’ is not necessary for Crown Colony to access its leased property. Crown Colony can access the leased property via other means,” Ciklin wrote on Sept. 10 to an attorney representing the condominium complex.

Beachway Drive, a couple of blocks north of Fayette and directly across from Woolbright Road, is the public access point. Steies noted Coz lives on Beachway and “is very happy to divert traffic to us and that is probably why he pushed for the crosswalk when he was mayor.”

A couple who used the Crown Colony gate and declined to be identified bicycle down the path on their way to visit the ocean. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Renewed feud
The issue over the pathway had been simmering since at least 2017 when an attorney hired by the town found, like Ciklin, the path was dedicated to Fayette residents. The issue started to get heated in 2019 when the crosswalk was proposed.

It was this April when Flanagan and Ron Kirn, president of Crown Colony, filed a complaint, sending it to Cassidy, Town Manager Lynne Ladner and Zoning Official Manny Palacios. They said Fayette residents violated the commission’s decision in July 2021 by installing the phantom gate on the pathway, installing another gate on its deck without a permit, and placing signs that say “private walk.”

Kirn could not be reached for comment.

Steies and Rodriguez said Fayette Drive residents didn’t have a problem for decades with residents of Crown Colony using the walkway — it was the neighborly thing to do. Then, Kirn made an allegiance with the Yacht Club, “who decided that they wanted to start sitting on our deck and walking down our walk, too, and we were like, ‘No — you picked the Intracoastal,’” Steies said.

The issue really boiled over at the Aug. 5 commission meeting.

“There are two individuals in neighboring communities who have shared untrue stories about people in my neighborhood,” Rodriguez told commissioners. “The stories are slanderous, attack our character and simply not true.”

Rodriguez said, for instance, she has never chased anyone off the beach.

Rodriguez said commissioners have repeated these untrue stories regarding “Fayette’s private walk and private access without doing their due diligence to find out the facts.”

Cassidy approached Steies and Rodriguez after the meeting, but there was no detente.

Cassidy told The Coastal Star that she was trying to respond to constituents’ needs by making access to the walkway a priority.

“I seem to be a bit of a scapegoat on this for them,” Cassidy said. “I just think it’s unfortunate. They’ve all retained attorneys at this point — the Yacht Club, Crown Colony and the Fayette Drive community. The attorneys are communicating, and I’ve been advised by our attorney to just stay out of it.”

Coz said that he has been told by town officials that the residents on Fayette Drive could pull a permit to gate the path for real this time. He has also been told the residents of Crown Colony could pull a permit to remove the gate.

“They could do this all year long — just go back and forth,” he said.

This sign identifies the dune crossover and deck on the beach reserved for Fayette Drive residents. John Pacenti/The Coastal Star

Water, sewer, other essential services get most attention

By Jane Musgrave

With nearly $48 million from the federal government to jump-start the economy from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, municipalities in southern Palm Beach County have upgraded water and sewer lines, built a fire station, armed police and paid frontline workers.

The money from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act — more than the combined annual budgets of six of the area’s 10 smallest municipalities — is running out.

Local governments, including those from South Palm Beach to Boca Raton, have until Dec. 31 to decide how to spend what they have left of the windfall. All of the money, which began flowing in July 2021, must be spent by the end of 2026.

Money that isn’t earmarked or spent would have to be returned to the federal treasury.

While most towns and cities have used up their allotments, Boynton Beach still has $5.3 million to spend of the $13.6 million it received.

When reviewing previously approved projects, the city’s grants manager discovered that one of the projects — nearly $100,000 to install audiovisual equipment at the Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center — wasn’t eligible under the rules of the federal program.

Worried that other ineligible projects may have slipped through and the city could be in jeopardy of losing its remaining money, grants manager Mirna Crompton combed through city records.

“I just wanted to make sure we go by the books,” she said, adding that no other ineligible projects were found.

After finding another way to pay for the arts center equipment, the city revised its spending plan.

“We definitely burned some midnight oil to make sure that the city didn’t lose those funds,” City Manager Daniel Dugger told commissioners in August, days after federal officials said they wouldn’t penalize the city.

The remaining money is likely to be used for road paving, Dugger said. Other projects are on the table. The final decision will be made by city commissioners.

Like other cities, Boynton Beach used much of the money, roughly $3.6 million, to replace cash it lost when demands for services, particularly police and fire-rescue, soared even as sales and gas taxes, building permit fees and other revenue plummeted because worried people stayed in their homes during the pandemic.

Boynton shares the wealth
Boynton Beach used another $1.6 million for overtime or hazard pay for workers and $295,000 to encourage its employees and others, particularly vulnerable seniors and low-income residents, to get COVID-19 shots by rewarding them with $100 gift cards at city-run vaccination centers.

But, unlike other cities, Boynton Beach also shared the money with others in the community.

It provided $350,000 in grants to small business owners, gave $910,000 to its public schools to boost academic achievement and sent $75,000 to Pathways to Prosperity, a Boynton Beach-based nonprofit that provides services to low-income children and families.

It also did an affordable housing study and contributed $500,000 to Wells Landing, to cover pandemic-related construction cost increases in the 132-unit workforce housing community on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

“We wanted the residents and the taxpayers to see what the relief funds were used for,” Dugger said of the city’s philosophy.

Boca’s grant ‘not pennies’
Boca Raton and Delray Beach, which, along with Boynton Beach, are South County’s largest cities and therefore the largest beneficiaries of the relief program, said they used much of the extra cash to cover revenue that was lost because of the pandemic.

Delray Beach officials said the city used $10 million of its $10.9 million allocation on “essential government services,” namely public safety expenditures. The remaining roughly $956,000 is to be spent on stormwater-related projects, according to a city spokesperson.

Boca Raton City Manager George Brown acknowledged the $12.2 million the city received was substantial. “It is definitely helpful. It is not pennies,” he said.

Boca Raton used the money for “revenue replacement,” said Ileana Olmsted, a spokesperson for the city. The bulk of it, $9.2 million, was put in Boca Raton’s general fund, which is used to pay for services, including public safety, she said. The remaining $3 million was set aside for capital improvements. No specific projects were named.

Lantana, which received $6.3 million, used the money for a variety of projects, according to town records. The town used it to pave streets, repair sea walls and buy equipment, including four vehicles, a drone and less lethal weapons for police, and for water and sewer improvements.

Coastal town priorities
Smaller towns, such as Ocean Ridge, Manalapan and Highland Beach, also allocated money for water and sewer projects.

Ocean Ridge, for instance, is using its nearly $980,000 in relief money to install a new water main on North Ocean Boulevard. Manalapan is using its roughly $230,000 allocation for upgrades in its reverse osmosis water system.

Highland Beach spent about $460,000 on sewer line improvements. But, the bulk of its money, $1.5 million, went toward building a new fire station and for fire-fighting equipment.

South Palm Beach received $736,255 and used it to replace lost revenue.

Gulf Stream received $493,000, which it spent on across-the-board revenue replacement in fiscal year 2023 for public works and the Police Department.

Briny Breezes received almost $290,000. Half was spent toward a new water main, $80,000 for a topographical town wind survey, and finally $65,000 for a conceptual drainage plan.

The money for the smaller municipalities came through the state and was distributed based on population. Larger cities received distributions from the federal government based on population and their percentage of low-income people.

Nationally, $350 billion was sent to state and local governments to help them deal with effects of the pandemic.

Mary Hladky, John Pacenti, Brian Biggane, Rich Pollack and Steve Plunkett contributed to this story.

The people we feature in the pages of this newspaper frequently comment on how one of the things they love about living in our coastal communities is the “friendliness” of their neighbors. And sometimes, our reporting shows this neighborliness to be, well, not so much.

Our area is not unique. It happens everywhere.

Sometimes a dispute is about walls and hedges (well, OK, it’s often about walls and hedges). With increasing frequency, battles rage about access to the beach, and occasionally dogs and bicycles are the subjects of discord.

Almost always, disagreements bubble up when politics is involved. You might not notice it in a presidential election year, but at the most basic level of a democracy, all politics is local.

The guidelines and laws enacted by each of our cities and towns provide the framework for a civil society of neighbors. The number of small municipalities strung like pearls along the coast in southern Palm Beach County goes to show how uniquely each place sees itself — illustrating the importance of home rule. But I digress.

What often comes back to bite local residents is how campaign tactics used in local elections often tap the playbook of national politics. When cloaks, daggers, subterfuge and personal smears are used to secure a seat on the dais in a small town, discord among residents is bound to ooze out as shifts in focus occur during their daily life.

And as much as we all want to think innocently of our neighbors, it’s wise to learn how they are motivated. Trust but verify. Or to quote Ben Franklin, “Love your neighbor: yet don’t pull down your hedge.”

If you have a chance, invite the curmudgeon down the street to join you at a local meeting. It’s eye opening once you understand why things work the way they do.

Most fences (and hedges) in our coastal municipalities should be easy to mend. All it requires is for residents, elected officials and staff to behave like the neighbors they would like to have living next door.

— Mary Kate Leming, Executive Editor

Scott Lawlor (far right) with (l-r) his wife, Elena, and their children, Marian, Bobby, Kaylie, Cassie, Nina and Scottie. The kids have all volunteered at Boca Helping Hands. Photo provided

By Hannah Spence

“In my view of the world, folks who are able to help ought to do all they can to help folks who need the help,” said Scott Lawlor, who, along with his family, has been volunteering with Boca Helping Hands for about eight years after moving to Florida from Connecticut.

The east Boca Raton resident has more than 35 years of experience on subject matters including real estate acquisitions, financing and asset management. Despite being the busy founder and chief executive officer of Waypoint Residential, which develops multi-family properties in the Sunbelt, Lawlor makes it a priority to help others who are less fortunate than himself.

“Volunteering is just something my family has always done,” said Lawlor, 59. “Shortly after I got down here, I found Boca Helping Hands. I thought it was a terrific organization with a lot of different ways we could get involved and help.”

Boca Helping Hands, founded in 1998, provides a number of basic services — as well as monetary assistance — to help people achieve financial independence.

Lawlor assists the nonprofit with actions such as bringing food to people who are homebound or can’t afford groceries, and providing mentoring for the job training program, which helps young people understand business and build their careers.

Lawlor also aids Boca Helping Hands through his company.

“On one Friday afternoon a month, the group goes over and helps unpack things and does stuff around the warehouse,” said Lawlor. “And once a year, we have a charity event — it’s like a bowling event to raise money.”

Lawlor’s compassion and dedication to helping others are things the executive director of Boca Helping Hands, Greg Hazle, admires.

“Although we frequently have corporate groups that volunteer like his team does, it is very unusual for us to have the CEO personally involved even more often as a volunteer as the employees are,” said Hazle. “That’s one of the remarkable aspects of Scott’s experience.”

Lawlor and his wife, Elena, have six children: Cassie, 24; Nina, 22; Kaylie, 21; Marian, 20; Scottie, 18; and Bobby, 17.

“My kids go and help out at the facility when they are home on break and such. In addition to the things we do regularly as a family, they do similar stuff around the warehouse like people at my company do,” said Lawlor.

“It seems to me like it is important for Scott to be passing along to his kids whatever lesson he learned that made him such a giving person,” Hazle said when discussing the volunteer work in which Lawlor’s sons and daughters participate. “And the kids seem like they are eating it up. Sometimes you see that kids have been dragged in to do volunteering reluctantly, but where his kids show up, they are fully engaged and seem to be enjoying not only the work but enjoying each other.”

Although Lawlor is happy to volunteer, he laments the negative realties of the situation.

“We do the best we can, but I work, my kids go to school,” Lawlor said. “The sad thing is, whatever the amount of work we do, there’s a whole lot more people that need help.

It’s not like you do the food drop-off and that takes care of all of Boca Raton. Unfortunately, it takes care of a small fraction of the needs of the whole community. That’s just not enough.”

Boca Helping Hands (bocahelpinghands.org/about) is always looking for volunteers and Lawlor encourages people to get involved.

“At least try it,” he said. “You won’t be disappointed and almost certainly will want to get more involved.”

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

Phone updates, portable wireless service and golf-cart rides make best of bad situation

By Steve Plunkett

Weekly updates online for the Core district’s 20-month road, water main and drainage project were not enough. Now Gulf Stream has become a concierge, giving almost-daily reports — by phone — to affected residents.

“We started kind of on a weekly basis, but as it turns out even a week is too long,” Town Manager Greg Dunham told town commissioners on Sept. 13. “So we have meetings over at the public works building at 8 o’clock in the morning with the contractors, myself and (Public Works Director Anthony Beltran), and that is so we can report back to (Town Clerk Renee Basel) what is actually happening on that one day because things change almost on a daily basis.”

Residents are also ferried by golf cart between their homes and Town Hall when they park there to avoid the construction on their streets.

“I know I’ve personally taken some people that were walking and with the golf cart just picked them up,” Dunham said.

The coordination is not always smooth. Basel alerted Commissioner Joan Orthwein and her neighbors on Palm Way “that certain things were going to be occurring on that day and they didn’t happen,” Dunham said. “So we had residents who had moved their cars including Mrs. Orthwein and there was no need for them to do it.”

Orthwein is the canary in the construction coal mine, making sure fellow commissioners are well aware of the problems Core residents face.

“I just want everyone to realize how bad this is,” she said.

Wright Way and Old School Road were the first streets that contractor Roadway Construction LLC began tearing up in late April. Since then, Orthwein has missed a delivery of a rug and chairs and had her weekly pool and lawn service crews turned away.

The overall construction project particularly affects “finger” streets that lead off Polo Drive to dead ends at the Intracoastal Waterway. The streets will be closed to traffic for three roughly two-week periods with indefinite waits in between. The first period is for installing new water mains, the second is to install new drainage and the third is laying asphalt.

Basel calls each homeowner to say what to expect.

“I had one guy today; he has a dog walker. He’s not here but he has a dog walker so he needs to get to his house. So he’s going to park here (at Town Hall). I got his dog walker’s name, he’s going to park here, we’re going to take him over to the house so he can walk the dog.”

The town also has obtained portable wireless devices that residents can pick up at Town Hall if their internet line is cut during construction. Each device can provide 5G speeds to up to 32 other devices.

“You’ll be able to take care of homework or business work or watch TV or whatever you need to do,” Police Chief Richard Jones said.

The accommodations for residents pleased Mayor Scott Morgan. “That’s as good as we can do, it seems to me,” he said.

Dunham said construction crews were installing water services and drainage on Polo Drive in mid-September and should be finished with the first lift of asphalt on Wright Way and Old School in early October.

“I think they’re about caught up with the time that they lost (waiting for a state permit) because they pulled in three and four crews. So that wasn’t the original plan for them to be working in so many different locations. I think they’re doing a good job,” Dunham said.

Commissioners decided at the meeting to continue to let lawn and pool service and delivery teams operate until 6 p.m. weekdays after the Roadway crews leave, usually around 4 or 4:30, on streets with active construction. The additional services can also be scheduled for Saturdays until the roadwork is completed, again only for affected homes.

“I just want to try to keep everyone as happy as we can. That’s all,” Orthwein said.

Commissioners also authorized buying a $17,604 golf cart, the last big purchase of fiscal year 2024, which ended Sept. 30.

The four-place cart has rear seats that face forward, is American-made and comes with a solid warranty “rather than buying something that was kind of a Chinese knockoff,” said Jones, who researched the purchase.

The cart was a necessary expense, Dunham said.

“We have only two golf carts. One of them probably by the end of this construction period will need to go out in that pile of trash that’s created by the work itself,” he said.

By Steve Plunkett

Delray Beach has started eminent domain proceedings against the neighbors immediately north and south of its Thomas Street stormwater pumping station so workers will have room to take the facility apart, construct an expanded facility and store parts and equipment.

The properties at 142 and 202 Seabreeze Ave. have backyards opening to the Intracoastal Waterway. The city is seeking permanent easements on both parcels. It is also seeking a temporary easement at 142 Seabreeze to move the home’s air conditioning and swimming pool pump equipment out of the work zone.

Two resolutions adopted July 9 state the City Commission finds the easements necessary and authorizes the eminent domain proceedings.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Maxine Cheesman scheduled an Oct. 31 hearing on the city’s lawsuit at the county courthouse in West Palm Beach.

The Thomas Street station is responsible for pumping stormwater for a 50-acre drainage basin that includes Thomas Street, Vista Del Mar Drive and part of Andrews Avenue and Lowry Street, the city says. It calls the station “a vital lifeline for approximately 800 residents.”

Delray Beach proposes giving Terrance Shallenberger Jr., who owns 202 Seabreeze Ave., $111,800 compensation for the easement, down 20% from the $139,750 that the City Commission authorized as its top offer in May.

Ann and Fred Glaize III, owners of 142 Seabreeze Ave., would get $154,200 under the proposal, down 14% from the commission’s May offer of $179,500.

The city and the property owners have been negotiating the easements for some time. Stumbling points were concerns about aesthetics, the noise and how the new pumps may render parts of their properties unusable.

Manalapan Mayor John Deese and Vice Mayor Simone Bonutti flank retiring Town Manager Linda Stumpf at her last commission meeting. In back are (l-r) former Mayor Keith Waters, Kevin Stumpf and Bob Kirkland. The commission presented Linda Stumpf with an award, well-wishes and thanks. John Pacenti/The Coastal Star

The Manalapan Town Commission at its Sept. 24 meeting approved the contract for its new town manager, Eric Marmer.

Marmer replaces Linda Stumpf, who retired after serving 14 years in the position. The commission agreed to hire Marmer in October 2023 as assistant town manager, with the plan for him to replace Stumpf when she left.

Before coming to Manalapan, Marmer served as human resources and risk management director in Highland Beach. His new three-year contract calls for a $170,000 annual salary.

When asked about his appointment, Marmer said he believes he is the right person at a pivotal moment for Manalapan, given the significant investment through residential property enhancements and upgrades to the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa.

He recalls spending holidays in Manalapan.

“It’s especially meaningful to lead a community that I have been coming to since I was a kid,” he said. “As the town evolves, there is a need for fresh, innovative ideas to address future challenges.”

— John Pacenti

Briny Breezes Building Official Deborah Nutter and Town Council President Liz Loper talk with Judith Kraft at a public meeting on the maps. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Kathleen Kernicky

Judith Kraft has watched the flooding worsen since she moved to Briny Breezes in 2003.

Now even a heavy rainstorm or king tides require Kraft to move her car down the block and away from the rising water on her street.

“I live by the dip in the road. It’s like a big pool in front of my house,” said Kraft, whose mobile home is about halfway between the ocean and State Road A1A.

Kraft’s home is one of 5,800 Palm Beach County coastal parcels being added to special flood hazard areas in the new flood maps issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. About 900 parcels will be downgraded from high-risk to low-risk zones when the new maps take effect Dec. 20.

Residents in the high-risk zones (those beginning with letters A or V) who hold a federally backed mortgage are required to purchase flood insurance.

The new maps will also affect more than 16,000 parcels in Palm Beach County — most east of Interstate 95 — where the base flood elevation will increase by one foot to six feet or more.

Those residents will have to elevate their homes if they want to rebuild or undertake major renovations. Under Florida law, the lowest floor of a building must be at least one foot higher than the base flood elevation.

Kraft, a retiree on a fixed income, attended the first of three public meetings held by FEMA in the county in September to get answers. She worries about the higher cost of flood insurance and whether she will be safe in her home. She currently pays $372 per year for flood insurance, a figure she expects to go up. “I’m on a very tight budget,” she said.

While the impact of the new maps and the cost of flood insurance vary by location and specific parcels, FEMA’s message is clear: Every property is in a flood zone, and everyone is at risk.

About 40% of all federal insurance claims occur outside a high-risk area. Just one inch of water inside a house can cause $25,000 in property damage, according to the Palm Beach County Planning, Zoning and Building Department.

“Low risk doesn’t mean no risk,” said Crystal Paulk-Buchanan, FEMA risk communications specialist. “Ultimately, these maps are important for people to get a true understanding of their individual risk and be able to protect their lives and their property.

“This is an opportunity to look at these maps before they become effective and consider getting flood insurance, even if you’re not in a high-risk area. That is the best way to protect the financial investment of your home. If there is a flooding event, people with insurance recover and get back to normal more quickly.’’

FEMA currently issues 128,737 flood insurance policies in Palm Beach County. Of those, 87,895 fall within high-risk special flood hazard areas.

The cost of flood insurance varies by property and location. An average cost can range from $724 per year for property between Military Trail and El Rio Canal in Boca Raton, to an average of $1,377 per year for Delray Beach property between Dixie Highway and the Atlantic Ocean.

Homeowners’ insurance does not cover storm damage caused by flooding, which is defined as rising water caused by storm surges, overflowing rivers, streams, lakes and other water sources.

The new flood maps are based on a nine-year FEMA study focusing on coastal zones nationwide. New technology and modeling were used to update old data that dated back to 1979.

“The confidence level and the amount of detail the current maps are depicting is much stronger because we have much better science behind it,” said Kristen Martinenza, FEMA risk analysis branch chief.

Representatives from FEMA as well as Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Briny Breezes, Delray Beach, Highland Beach, Hypoluxo, Ocean Ridge and Palm Beach County attended the meeting. Among their biggest concerns: Making sure residents are aware of the new maps and flood zones.

“People need to know if they’re going to be affected,” said Michael Griffin, development services supervisor for the city of Boynton Beach. Those who don’t have insurance and live in high-risk zones should purchase it before the December deadline, when the new building elevation requirements take effect.

“In a nutshell, the flood risk for every resident is changing because all the flood maps are changing,” said Madison Brown, development permit manager for the city of Delray Beach. “Some flood risks are increasing while some risks are decreasing. Everyone potentially could see a change.”

For more information, visit FEMA.gov. For information about flood insurance, visit floodsmart.gov or call the FEMA Insurance Exchange at 877-336-2627. To find your flood zone, visit pbc.gov/pzb and click New FEMA Flood Maps.

By John Pacenti

The Delray Beach City Commission is wrestling with how to spend $253,000 from a nationwide opioid settlement — and the steady stream of money expected from the settlement in the future.

After directing the city manager in July to form an advisory committee, the commission at a Sept. 10 workshop directed staff to recommend how the money will be allocated.

The committee proposal hasn’t been abandoned. It will presumably make recommendations in the future as the city continues to receive money from the $50 billion settlement.

Mayor Tom Carney said at the Aug. 19 commission meeting he needed more information on how the money could be used and proposed the workshop.

A thorny issue — and one South Florida addiction treatment advocates oppose — is whether municipalities can utilize settlement funds for programs already funded. The money supplanted would go back into the general fund and be used for issues other than addiction.

Vice Mayor Juli Casale has said commissioners should recommend to staff their thoughts on how the money should be spent. She reiterated her position at the workshop.

“Some of this is also about efficiency, and we keep on sitting up here and pushing our responsibilities off to committees when we’re the ultimate decider. It shouldn’t be this complicated,” she said.

Assistant City Manager Jeff Oris told commissioners he could get with city staff to recommend how to spend the money that is on hand. Simultaneously, he would create the advisory committee, which would include representatives from the police and fire departments and professionals.

Opioid manufacturers and distributors, such as Walgreens, reached the $50 billion settlement in January 2022. Palm Beach County’s portion is $122 million, of which $25 million has been distributed.

Casale said at the August meeting that Delray Beach has received $253,000 so far.

Lissa Franklin, executive director of the Delray Beach Drug Task Force, said she wants the money to be allocated to the Police Department’s C.A.R.E.S. — Community Advocacy Response Education Service — a program where a mental health expert reaches out to addicts on the street, offering resources.

She also said money for a grief counselor to help families navigate the loss of a loved one to addiction is badly needed.

“Whatever they decide needs to benefit not only the people who live along Ocean Boulevard but also the people who live within the Set,” said Franklin, referring to the historically Black community in the heart of Delray Beach.

Maureen Kielian chairs the Behavioral Health, Substance Abuse and Co-Occurring Disorders Advisory Committee for Palm Beach County. She said in June municipalities should allow the county to decide how the settlement money is used.

“It’s best if we put all of our money together to have the best outcomes and the most impactful changes in abating this epidemic,” she said. “Why would Palm Beach Gardens, for instance, want to open an ASU (Addiction Stabilization Unit)? They can’t afford to, whereas we could do it and service these folks.”

By Rich Pollack

Condo associations in coastal south Palm Beach County and their residents could soon see a temporary reprieve from costly, state-mandated deadlines if Florida legislators meet before the end of the year and revisit legislation some say was passed too quickly.

Following the lead of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a couple of local state representatives say something must be done soon to ease the burden of legislation that was quickly passed in the wake of the June 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers condo in Surfside.

“We did the best we could under duress and now it’s time to revisit it,” says state Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman. “We need to create a new set of guidelines and timelines.”

In addition to addressing the looming deadlines, Gossett-Seidman and Rep. Mike Caruso say there might be a limited amount of money available to help condo associations through another round of the My Safe Florida Condo program, which was piloted with $30 million last year, to help with hardening against hurricanes.

They also believe that it might be possible to get Florida’s Division of Condominiums involved in helping association leaders navigate a complicated set of regulations and to help eliminate rampant confusion.

“We took an 80-year-old problem and tried to fix it in a year and a half,” Caruso said. “Now tens of thousands of fixed-income seniors may be at risk of being homeless due to large assessments from condo boards.”

While there has been some skepticism among leaders in the Republican-dominated legislature that lawmakers could be brought back to Tallahassee before the end of the year,

Republicans Gossett-Seidman and Caruso are optimistic.

The two have been discussing the issue all summer with their mostly Republican counterparts whose districts include many condominiums, said Gossett-Seidman, who represents Highland Beach and Boca Raton.

Perhaps the biggest challenges facing condominium associations stem from two pieces of legislation enacted after the Surfside collapse.

“We might have reached too far in our attempts to safeguard Floridians,” said Caruso, whose district includes South Palm Beach, Lantana and most of Manalapan.

Both pieces of legislation have deadlines at the end of the year.

One requires buildings over three stories that are more than 40 years old to complete milestone inspections that examine structural integrity.

Required repairs from those inspections have proved costly and have led to increased assessments for many buildings already wrestling with astronomical insurance rate increases.

One fix Caruso said he would like to see is a prioritization of repairs so that condos would have more time to fix problems that are not considered urgent.

The other challenging legislative mandate is that condo associations each complete a reserve study by the end of 2024. That study looks at projections of when repairs will need to be done on major items — a roof repair, for example — and how much it will cost.

Associations that don’t already have all the reserve funds to cover those costs will be required to include those items in their 2026 budgets and have at least a portion of that money set aside before the end of that year.

For example, if a condominium roof will need to be replaced in five years at a cost of $1 million, the association will need to have at least $250,000 set aside for the project by the end of 2026 and then collect at least $250,000 a year for the remaining three years until the replacement is needed.

Caruso says that could translate into assessments that crush seniors on fixed incomes, and it needs to be changed.

“The laws have got to be adjusted because people just can’t get the money available in these time frames,” said Emily Gentile, president of the Beach Condo Association of Boca Raton, Highland Beach and Delray Beach.

Although the ideas that are surfacing are welcome, Gentile would like to see the state provide low-interest loans to residents and associations to help cover the costs.

“An older building with people who bought into it to retire is going to need money because its residents don’t have money to rebuild the building,” she said.

Low-interest loans from the state are unlikely because of the large amount of money that would be required, which Caruso says the state doesn’t have.

Instead, he is suggesting an increase in the My Safe Florida Condo funding to as much as $500,000 for repairs beyond hardening.

Caruso and Gossett-Seidman say that getting the state Division of Condominiums involved to support condos could help eliminate some of the confusion boards face.

“Right now there’s nowhere for condo boards to go if they have an issue, questions, worries or misunderstandings,” Gossett-Seidman said.

By John Pacenti

The Manalapan Town Commission on Sept. 24 passed a $19.2 million budget for fiscal year 2025, which began Oct. 1, carrying over the same tax rate as the previous year.

However, because property values increased 5.7% over the last year, there will be a slight increase in taxes for homesteaded residents in the wealthy enclave.

The average home in Manalapan is worth $4.2 million, according to Zillow.com. Using a tax rate of $3.00 for $1,000 of taxable value, a homesteaded property worth $4 million last year will pay $360 more in town property taxes.

Under state law, homesteaded property values cannot go up more than 3% each year.

For properties not homesteaded — commercial, rental and second homes — a property worth $4 million a year ago will pay up to $1,200 more in town taxes, as the annual taxable property value cap for those properties is 10%.

Fire rescue services have the biggest impact on the new budget, increasing $189,902. Manalapan has an interlocal agreement with Palm Beach County to provide firefighters and paramedics.

The budget includes funds for 24/7 security guard coverage at the entrance to Point Manalapan, but the commission debated whether to try to save taxpayers money by having the guards no longer carry firearms.

Town Manager Eric Marmer said a new vendor, Florida Protection & Consulting, has been chosen for the five-year contract at the guardhouse. Armed guards would cost Manalapan $1,104,000, while unarmed guards cost $884,200 — a saving of nearly $220,000.

“Describe a scenario where we would want a guard to need a gun, to have a gun, to use a gun,” Commissioner Cindy McMackin asked Town Attorney Keith Davis.

Other commissioners worried that if a guard used a firearm the town could be held liable.

“If something happened — while the contract will certainly have indemnification language — make no mistake we will be dragged into that,” Davis said.

Former Mayor Keith Waters, during public comments, said there was a method to the madness of arming the guards — and it had nothing to do with the guns.

“The armed guards provide us with a different caliber of personnel,” Waters said. “You have to go through that training.”

The commission then voted, at the suggestion of Commissioner Elliot Bonner, to approach the vendor to see if it was amenable to allowing the town to try out the unarmed option but be able to switch to the armed option if it desires to do so in the future.