By Jane Smith

Free rides in electric cars are returning to downtown Delray Beach.
Freebee vehicles are set to take to the streets in September, offering point-to-point service that starts or ends in the city’s downtown core. BeeFree Holdings, based in Miami, operates under the Freebee name.
Because the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency board members did not want advertising on the vehicles in the first six months, the CRA will have to pay $90,000 extra for the six vehicles, which will cost $401,560 annually.
The Freebee vehicle wraps will have four Delray Beach themes, said Ivan Cabrera, CRA project manager. All will have white lettering that says: Welcome to Delray Beach.
“Frogs will represent Frog Alley, pineapples for Pineapple Grove, the Crest Theatre building for Old School Square and palms for the beach,” Cabrera said at the Aug. 13 CRA workshop.
Operating hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Wednesdays and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays.
Freebee rides serve only the CRA district.
That area has the interstate as its western boundary, the beach as its eastern one. It straddles Atlantic Avenue and goes north to Lake Ida Road and south to Southwest 10th Street.
On the barrier island the district covers two blocks north and south of Atlantic.
The limited coverage area concerns Shelly Petrolia, the CRA chairwoman.
“When the Downtowner operated, it served the Lake Ida area and the north and south areas of the beach,” she said at the Aug. 13 workshop. Residents living there may be disappointed, she added.
Cabrera said the CRA staff would track the calls and let the CRA board know the results in six months.
In addition, the fixed-route, free service continues to serve the Tri-Rail station, west of the interstate, with a stop at the beach.
Its new route was to start Sept. 3.
The gas-powered minibus will go east on Atlantic Avenue to Swinton Avenue where it will turn north, then east on Northeast First Street and stop at the Old School Square garage. The vehicle will continue east on Northeast First and then turn south on Northeast Fourth Avenue and then east on Atlantic to the beach.
That route was selected to avoid the congested traffic of Atlantic Avenue.
The minibus has two vehicles, operated by First Transit. The first runs 6 a.m. through 7 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends. The second vehicle runs 6:45 a.m. through 11:15 p.m. weekdays and noon to 11 p.m. weekends.
The white minibuses each have a blue wrap that depicts palms and white lettering that says: “Welcome to Delray Beach.”
Riders using either transportation option can use the Freebee app for smartphones to call for a Freebee ride or find the schedule for the minibus.
The electric car and minibus services operate under the brand Connect Delray.
At the Sept. 10 CRA meeting, board members will decide whether they want to rebid the fixed-route portion to get electric-powered vehicles and will hear about an upcoming $900,000 federal transportation grant and the types of vehicles it covers.

By Jane Smith

The controversial Midtown Delray project in Delray Beach may soon have a new owner.
The original investors, MGM Delray and Hudson Holdings, settled dueling lawsuits in July, allowing Pebb Capital of Boca Raton to resurrect its $40 million bid for the 7-acre project.
Pebb Capital could take control of the project in October. Its principals have asked to meet with the city’s Development Services staff, Delray Beach spokeswoman Gina Carter confirmed.
Pebb officials could not be reached to discuss their Midtown Delray plans despite numerous phone messages and an email request seeking a response.
Midtown Delray sits at the southwest corner of Swinton and Atlantic avenues.
The project approval came with several community requirements. One was for the developer to pay $100,000 to establish historic preservation grants before receiving its first building permit.
The agreement also required the Midtown Delray developer to establish a jobs program that includes requiring subcontractors to hire local workers, provide mentorship opportunities for local workers, provide bonding assistance to small local companies and establish jobs fairs for the northwest and southwest areas of the city. The city manager must approve the jobs programs.
The development order expires on April 19, 2022, based on extensions granted for governor-declared emergencies for the opioid epidemic, Hurricane Maria in 2017 and the 2018 algae bloom.
In March, Hudson Holdings, managed by Steven Michael, sued partner MGM Delray, managed by Rick Marshall, over the proposed project sale to Pebb Capital. Hudson claimed the $40 million price was too low.
MGM Delray — in a May counterclaim — estimated that Hudson’s share was $1.86 million if the property was sold for $37.86 million. In addition, Marshall claimed to be the major investor of the $26 million spent buying the land.
Marshall, originally from Raleigh, N.C., but now living in Fort Lauderdale, declined to discuss the project’s sale, saying “it’s not appropriate for me to comment now.”
Michael declined to reveal the amount his firm received to walk away.
Hudson Holdings has its office at 20 S. Swinton Ave. and will soon move. The exact date has not been determined, Michael wrote in an email response.
He also disagreed with Marshall’s reason given in the counterclaim of why the project needed to be sold: Neither firm had the skills “to complete such an extensive redevelopment project.”
Hudson, Michael wrote, “had a clear vision of how this project would be a center jewel on Atlantic Avenue … [and]was quite capable of taking it to completion.”
Midtown Delray was rejected twice by the city’s Historic Preservation Board in 2017, primarily because the new three- and four-story buildings would appear massive compared with the one- and two-story historic structures.
Board members also did not like that the historic homes would be moved twice: the first time to make way for an underground garage and the second time to move back to their original locations on new foundations.
In addition, they didn’t like that the lush landscaping would be stripped off the western side of a South Swinton Avenue block while the underground garage was built. The developer agreed to pay the city $124,050 to compensate for tree removal, down from a $139,800 price tag in December 2017 when the Historic Board reviewed the project.
Midtown Delray sits in the southern half of the Old School Square Historic Arts District. The area is designated a local historic district and on the National Register of Historic Places.
The development houses some of the city’s oldest structures: Cathcart House and Sundy House, built in 1902, and the Rectory, built in 1912.

GULF STREAM — Betty Brown Van der Wolk, 89, of Gulf Stream and Osterville, Massachusetts, died Aug. 23 in Boynton Beach.
Betty Brown was born on July 18, 1930, in Fort Worth, Texas, where she spent her early life and later graduated from Texas Christian University. She was married in 1958 and had her first child a year later. A product of the Depression era and her Texan roots, Mrs. Van der Wolk lived with strength, determination and self-reliance.
Mrs. Van der Wolk enjoyed taking morning walks and was recognized for her long stride. She was a voracious reader of The New York Times, commonly reaching for the Style section first and sharing articles of interest with family members. An avid entertainer, she orchestrated gatherings of all sorts, from the lavish dinner dance to luncheons by air or by sea.
Mrs. Van der Wolk possessed a mix of wit, grace and glamour — always elegantly dressed — and drew more than her fair share of attention when she entered a room.
Mrs. Van der Wolk will also be remembered for her quiet gestures of kindness. A dedicated wife and lovingly referred to as “Betts” by her husband, she and Jeff could often be found dining at one of the clubs with which they had affiliations, including The Gulf Stream Bath and Tennis Club, The Wianno Club, and The Beach Club of Centerville, Massachusetts. She had also been a longstanding member of The Hyannis Yacht Club, The Gulf Stream Golf Club, and Society of the Four Arts.
Usually dining out and always the last to leave, Mrs. Van der Wolk liked to joke that she didn’t know where the kitchen was located in her house.
While Mrs. Van der Wolk will be sorely missed by many, all are reassured as she joins her husband for the last and final stop on what they referred to as “The Good Life Express.”
She is survived by her daughter, Hope Powell Van der Wolk of Santa Fe, New Mexico, her sons, Philip Jefferson Van der Wolk of Santa Fe and Peter Walton Van der Wolk of Richmond, Virginia, as well as seven grandchildren.
She was predeceased by her mother, Minnie Mae Brown, her father, Lawrence Walton Brown, her sister, Lucille Brown Williams, and her husband, Jefferson Feigl Van der Wolk, as well as by many of her dear friends.
The family will have a private burial in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, on Sept. 14. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Unity Church of Delray Beach, 101 NW 22nd St., Delray Beach, FL 33444.
Obituary submitted by the family

OCEAN RIDGE — Frances Evelyn Nolte died in her home in New Branford, Conn., on Aug. 4 at the age of 93.
She was born in New York City on April 14, 1926, to Evelyn and Manfred Messner. She graduated with a bachelor’s in literature from Duke University, after which she worked at B. Altman & Co. and Condé Nast in New York City.
In 1951, she married Henry R. Nolte Jr., whom she met during their days at Duke.
“Sis” was a supportive and loving wife and mother who enjoyed painting, gardening, sailing and entertaining friends at their homes throughout the years in New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, England, Connecticut and Florida. She loved traveling, playing tennis and golf with her friends and children and having wonderful family holidays in Michigan, Florida and abroad.
She was a supporter of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Institute of Arts, Cranbrook Educational Community, the Society of the Four Arts and Planned Parenthood. She was a member of the Ocean Club of Florida, the Everglades Club and Gulfstream Golf Club.
She is survived by: brothers Warren and Robert Messner; son Henry Reed Nolte and daughters Gwynne Conn, Jennifer Stevens and Suzanne Saunders; grandchildren Diana Conn, Hannah, Emma and Henry Nolte, Suzanna and Alexandra Stevens, and Isabella and Ethan Saunders; daughter-in-law Leslie Nolte and sons-in-law Mark Stevens and Scott Saunders.
Memorial contributions may be made to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 188 S. Swinton Ave, Delray Beach, FL 33444.  

Obituary submitted by the family

By Charles Elmore

A new state law billed as holding down home insurance rates won’t stop average premiums from breaking through the $3,000 mark for the first time in Palm Beach County at a company important for coastal residents.
Increases approved by state regulators become effective Dec. 1 for state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the second- largest insurer in the state and county. One area public insurance adjuster’s take in written comments to regulators: “Very concerned.”
For example, make it a 9.1 percent increase to an average of $3,109 annually for Palm Beach County residents who buy Citizens coverage only for the windstorm portion of their policy. Many such customers live near the coast where storm risks are higher. That’s up from an average of $2,851, calculations provided by the company show.
County homeowners buying full coverage from Citizens face an average hike to $3,016 from $2,901 for a standard policy known as an H03, according to company filings. That represents a 4 percent boost.
Individual policies differ and virtually no one pays the exact average, of course. Projections from the company can vary slightly from those of state regulators. Still, the bottom line remains higher costs ahead for most customers.
Citizens refiled 2019 rates to reflect passage of a state law this spring. Insurance industry officials say HB 7065 makes it harder for contractors, attorneys and others to inflate costs when consumers sign papers that let third parties take over control of insurance benefits for a claim. That’s known as “assignment of benefits.”
Supporters say the new law is designed to control abuses particularly prevalent in certain claims, such as water damage from a broken pipe. These are often the costliest kind of claims besides damage from hurricanes and other natural disasters, particularly if plaintiff attorneys take the cases to court. The costs are ultimately passed along to consumers through rates.
Passage of the law after seven years of legislative stalemate represents “a major step forward in our efforts to stem rising premiums caused by unnecessary litigation and assignment-of-benefits abuse,” Citizens President Barry Gilway said. “It is going to make a difference.”
Statewide, Citizens raised premiums 2.3 percent for HO3 policyholders, compared to an 8.5 percent increase requested before the law. An original filing would have raised Palm Beach County HO3 rates more than 7 percent, with the final increase landing at 4 percent.
The effect is far less pronounced in “wind-only” policies, because full-service policies tend to have more claims affected by the new law. Increases for wind-only coverage remain at more than 9 percent in Palm Beach County, for example, even after the new legislation.
In addition, state law caps Citizens’ premium increases at 10 percent in any given year, and company officials say they have pent-up rate need in parts of the state, including southeast Florida.
The law puts new restrictions on attorney fees and changes requirements for how insurance companies must be notified of lawsuits, among other changes. The law could face challenges in court.
Passage of the measure came over the objections of some legislators and professional groups that insurance companies wanted to get rid of rules that encouraged them to pay claims fully and promptly.
“This bill is designed to cure a crisis that has not been actuarially shown and does things that treat some vendors unfairly,” Democratic state Sen. Gary Farmer, an attorney whose Broward County district abuts Boca Raton, said during session debate.
Citizens had more than 36,000 policies in Palm Beach County as of March 31, the second-largest market share, according to state records. It continues to play a key role particularly for coverage near the coast, where many private carriers seek to limit their risk.
Some backers of the new law say they hope it encourages private insurers to write more policies in South Florida and increase competition, but that remains to be seen.
Residents such as Eli Casper of Highlight Realty in Boca Raton told regulators in written comments they opposed the rate increases.
“I am very concerned for myself and my fellow consumers,” Casper said. He said customers are already paying more money for less coverage and said he must “strongly recommend and request” no increase.

Biggest home insurers in Palm Beach County
Company and number of its local policies:
1. Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Co.: 86,355
2. Citizens Property Insurance Corp.: 36,211
3. FedNat Insurance Co.: 28,443
4. American Bankers Insurance Co.: 21,513
5. Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Co.: 15,437
Source: Florida Office of Insurance Regulation as of March 31, 2019

Citizens’ insurance hikes in county
Coverage/average annual premium after Dec. 1, 2019/current premium/% increase
Multi-peril homeowners (H03): $3,016, $2,901, 4%
Wind-only homeowners (HW2): $3,109, $2,851, 9.1%
Multi-peril condo (HO6): $1,043, $976, 6.9%
Wind-only condo (HW6): $990, $920, 7.6%
Source: Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

These five are among 180 new impact glass windows at the restored Boynton Beach high school. Photos by Rachel O’Hara/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

The renovation of the historic Boynton Beach high school is nearly finished.
The restoration work will end in early November, city staff said in mid-August while giving a tour of the restored building.
Among the challenges to restoring the 92-year-old building were adding a sprinkler system and 180 impact windows. The frames had to be rebuilt to withstand the extra weight of the impact windows, said Andrew Mack, Public Works director.
A newly hired cultural events person will start in September, said Lori LaVerriere, city manager.
The new employee’s first task will be figuring out the rental rates for the second-floor auditorium and other rooms. The city plans to begin taking deposits as soon as rental rates are set, including for weddings on the second floor.
“We need to start making money from this restoration,” LaVerriere said.
Classes and rentals aren’t expected to start until late spring 2020 — after the City Center next door is completed and a new parking garage is built. The City Center building will combine City Hall and the library and sits directly across Ocean Avenue from the high school. The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency plans to move to the fourth floor of the City Center building.

ABOVE: The southern yellow pine ceiling of the old high school gym is original, and the space will be rented out for concerts and other events. The building will be the city’s cultural center. BELOW: Of the two kapok trees on the property, this one on the west side of the school was preserved in place in what will be a park area. The other tree was moved across the street.

The high school and City Center will be among the first to be finished in Town Square, a $250 million, 16-acre project that will create a downtown for Boynton Beach.
The ground floor of the high school building will create “a nucleus of arts uses,” LaVerriere said. The rooms will hold arts and dance classes, once held in the now demolished Civic, Madsen and Arts centers nearby. The classes are now scattered throughout the city in various park buildings.

Nick Sacco, lead superintendent of the project for Straticon Construction, and Jess Brancaccio, director of sales and marketing, point out some details for the news media during a tour.

Plans include two outdoor patios accessible from the first floor of the high school. On the west side, visitors will exit into Kapok Park with four exercise stations for use by older teens and adults. A small park for kids under 5 will also be on this side, along with a meditation water fountain.
Brides will be able to take wedding pictures under the large kapok tree.
The east side will have a small patio for relaxing and a playground for kids.
The high school’s second floor, where the city expects to make the most of its rental income, features a new roof, restored wooden trusses and a new hardwood floor. It can seat about 250 people at tables or 500 for concerts.
The high school has a warming kitchen on the first floor but not a full kitchen.
On the second floor, performers and brides will have a green room to use.
The high school was added to the city’s list of historic places in February 2013. It was designed by prominent school architect William Manly King, who used features from the Mediterranean revival and art deco styles, according to the Boynton Beach Historical Society.

Michael Holzheid (left) has purchased the Sail Inn property and bar.  Longtime bartender, Bastian Raams (right) is now the general manager. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star 

By Christine Davis

Rick Jankee, who owned the Sail Inn in Delray Beach until Aug. 15, has sailed out, so to speak.
He talked to us briefly after a farewell thank-you party at the neighborhood bar at 657 George Bush Blvd.
“We are the oldest bar, 66 years, with the same name, same address,” Jankee said. “No one comes close to our age and our history, our philanthropy and the camaraderie we’ve had during hurricanes, sickness, death, and I’m really proud of that.”
Prior to owning the bar for 21 years, he was its manager for 10. The Sail Inn’s former owner, Bobby DeMario, gave Jankee the opportunity to buy the bar, and Jankee decided the time had come for him to do the same. Michaelk Holzheid now owns the property and the bar and Jankee’s former employee Bastian Raams now manages the Sail Inn.
“I wanted them to work for themselves and own their own business,” Jankee says. “Bastiaan worked for me for six years or so and he stepped up and I let him have it.”
A bout with throat cancer last year was a wake-up call, he says. “That changed everything for me; it humbled me and I decided it was time.”
His secret for longevity in the bar business? Fairness and consistency, he said.
Jankee says he plans to travel with his girlfriend, Kerri Hussey, help people out and do some charity work.
“I’ll miss the good times, though, the people, the camaraderie, and the quirky stuff I used to do,” he says, recalling the fire truck, the short bus that won the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the mariachi band and the pony that he drummed up for birthdays.
Jankee promises not to be a stranger to the Sail Inn. He’ll be back without the liability worries that come with bar ownership, he says. “I’m still only a block away. When in town, I’ll pop into the bar if they’ll have me.”

Dog Activity World is open in Boynton Beach, just north of Home Depot, at 1510 SW Eighth St. The center, started by Hannah Wickins, offers resort-style daycare, a 160-foot-long running path with a mechanical rabbit or squirrel as a lure, boarding, training, photography and more. The dog daycare hours are: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays; 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday; and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. Call 340-3740 or visit www.dogaw.com.

The Club at Boynton Beach Assisted Living and Memory Care community opens in September, right in the middle of hurricane season, but is prepared with a state-of-the-art generator to provide emergency backup power and climate control to residential apartments and common areas.
Because of Hurricane Irma in 2017 when several nursing homes and assisted living communities in Florida were without air-conditioning after the storm, former Gov. Rick Scott issued a mandate requiring that assisted living communities have at least 96 hours’ worth of fuel and the capacity to cool 20 square feet per resident. 
The Club, at 623 S. Federal Highway, Boynton Beach, goes beyond the mandate’s minimum requirements. The community has enough backup power to cool 64,313 square feet. Air-conditioning will be maintained throughout the entire building, private residential apartments and common areas. Daily operations will have enough energy to continue providing for residents to receive all of their nursing care, meals and activities without interruption.
“We designed our community keenly aware of the new mandate,” said Oliver Von Troll, founder and owner of The Club. “But we weren’t satisfied with simply meeting the minimum legal standards. The idea that our residents would have to squeeze into a single air-conditioned common area in the event of an outage just wasn’t acceptable to us. So we’ve put in place a system that covers the whole building. Our residents can stay in their climate-controlled apartments if they choose, minimizing disruption to their daily routines.”

Several Palm Beach County businesses have launched a new networking group, the Boynton Beach Professionals, which meets on the first and third Fridays of the month at 8 a.m. in Boynton Beach. It’s set up as an “exclusive seat” organization, so just one member per business category is allowed to join.
John Campanola is chairman of the group. For more information, contact boynton beachprofessionals@gmail.com. 

The legal and consulting firm Erin L. Deady, 54 1/2 SE Sixth Ave., Delray Beach, has formed a new practice area, a title company for residential real estate transactions.  
“This new area made sense for us as a way to expand our client services in the real estate industry,” said Deady, the firm’s president. “The fact that we are attorneys will give us a leg up since our experience allows us to look at the big picture for our clients.” 

Co-Developers National Realty Investment Advisors and U.S. Construction have begun demolition work on the future site of Ocean Delray at 1901 South Ocean Blvd., previously the site of the Wright by the Sea hotel. The new development will have 19 residences, priced from $5 million to $10 million.
IMI Worldwide Properties, sales and marketing representative for Ocean Delray, has already sold 40 percent of the project, totaling $45 million. For more information, contact 800-793-9783.

The Delray Beach Housing Authority received approval from the Palm Beach County Housing Finance Authority for a non-revolving pre-development loan of up to $750,000 and a $1.7 million revolving construction loan for Phase III of its Island Cove project.
The Phase III project, which will include nine buildings with six townhomes that will be offered for sale on Southwest Eighth Street and Southwest 12th Avenue, will cost approximately $18.5 million. The $750,000 loan will cover some of the costs of the architect, project manager, marketing, legal, survey and testing.
The $1.7 million loan will cover the construction of one of the nine buildings. The revolving-construction amount may be increased by an additional $1.7 million, subject to availability of funding. The project will provide “workforce for sale” housing.

The Boca Real Estate Investment Club will hold its annual Locals Night at 7 p.m. Sept. 12. Registration begins at 6:30 p.m. It will be held at the Gold Coast School of Real Estate, 2600 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton. Cost is $15 for nonmembers. For more information, call 391-7325.

Boca Chamber’s Pulse, business professionals under 40 years old, will host a lunch featuring Kevin Ross, president of Lynn University, at Wynham Hotel-Boca Raton, 1950 Glades Road / Wyndham Way, from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Sept. 17.
Ross, the fifth president of Lynn University, took office in 2006, succeeding his father, Donald E. Ross, who founded Wilmington College before serving as Lynn’s president for 35 years. Non-members pay $50 for the lunch.
For more information, contact Sarah Pearson at spearson@bocachamber.com or Chasity J. Navarro at cnavarro@bocachamber.com or at 395-4433.

In collaboration with FAU’s Jaffe Center for Book Arts and its exhibition Building Stories: Alternative Storytelling, the Palm Beach Poetry Festival is screening the film Sita Sings the Blues, an animated romantic comedy and musical interpretation of the Hindu epic poem The Ramayana, at 7 p.m. Sept. 26. It will be at The Jaffe Center for Book Arts, Florida Atlantic University Wimberly Library 3rd Floor East, 777 Glades Rd., Boca Raton. Tickets are $10.

The Faulk Center for Counseling will host its Community Impact Awards reception and dinner at 6 p.m. Nov. 7 at Broken Sound Club. The event will be co-chaired by Eileen Sands and Lois A. Weisman. Honorary chairs will be Pamela & Robert Weinroth.

This year’s honorees include Dr. Virginia Crist, licensed marriage and family therapist, recipient of the Caring Heart Award; Rotary Club Downtown Boca Raton, recipient of the Mental Health & Wellness Award; and Dr. Paul Peluso, Chair, Department of Counselor Education, Florida Atlantic University, recipient of the Education Excellence Award. 

The individuals and organizations are recognized for their support of the Faulk Center’s mission of providing free and low-cost mental health counseling services to uninsured, underserved and at-risk individuals of all ages.
 Ticket price to attend the event is  $125 per person. For more information, call Ali Rubin at 483-5300 or email a.rubin@faulkcenterforcounseling.org.

Jane Smith contributed to this report.

Send business news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com. 

By Steve Plunkett

The Camino Real bridge — closed nearly 16 months for reconstruction — will reopen Aug. 6, Palm Beach County officials say.

County Commissioner Robert Weinroth's office said it would hold a short ceremony starting at 10 a.m.

"We estimate the opening will take approximately 15 to 20 minutes," Weinroth's senior aide, Lucia Bonavita, said.

Valet parking will be available at the Boca Raton Resort & Club, Bonavita said.

Contractor Kiewit Construction missed a June 20 target for reopening the bridge and then a less definite goal "towards the end of July," county officials said. As recently as July 31, Deputy County Engineer Tanya McConnell said she was not able to give a date for the reopening.

"We are in the latter stages of construction but that is as much as I am able to say at this time," McConnell said.

Kiewit is being fined $10,000 per day for the opening and about $3,000 per day for the overall contract, McConnell said.

The bridge closed to land traffic on April 12, 2018. Crews started working nights in mid-May to meet the anticipated June 20 reopening. 

Health, environmental and cost concerns loom

Doug Levine, manager of the South Central Regional Wastewater Treatment plant, checks on one of the trio of million-gallon secondary clarifier tanks where solids are removed from sewage. About 17 million gallons are treated each day at the plant, which is undergoing a multiyear upgrade. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Related Stories: Cities rush to fix aging sewer systems | How sewage flows | Boca Raton's multi-year project targets older underground pipes | Editor's Note: Sewage disposal issues leave no time to waste

By Rich Pollack

We live in a flush and forget world.
Most of us don’t fully understand what happens when we flush our toilets, or send gallons of water down the drain while taking a shower, doing laundry or washing dishes.
Yet at a time when our sewer lines are aging and our septic systems are being blamed for everything from algae blooms to illness, ignoring what is under our roads and yards may no longer be an option.
“You can’t just put something in the ground and expect it to last indefinitely,” says Jason Pugsley, vice president of Florida operations for Baxter & Woodman, an engineering firm that works with several municipalities in Palm Beach County. “Our infrastructure in Palm Beach County is getting to the point where we need to consider either replacing it or significantly improving the systems.”
There is a huge cost associated with replacing or improving traditional sewage-collection systems — largely coming out of the wallets of water and sewer customers.
There is also a significant cost to the environment, to health and to other existing infrastructure that comes with not acting now and recognizing that some types of buried pipes — though not all — are close to the end of their life expectancy.
While we often hear about water service failures, such as the one in Fort Lauderdale last month that affected about 220,000 people, we hardly ever learn about sewer line problems.
For example, through mid-July this year, 67 spills in Palm Beach County were reported to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which keeps records of such incidents.
They ranged from a spill of 100 gallons from a broken main in Boca Raton in April to a spill of 2,500 gallons of raw sewage just last month in Delray Beach. That spill, due to a sewer line blockage caused by grease buildup, led to sewage flowing into a parking lot near Veterans Park and into a storm-drain system leading to the Intracoastal Waterway.
A barrier that had been previously installed by a contractor at a nearby project contained 90 percent of the discharge before it got into the waterway, according to the city.

ABOVE: A pair of 36-inch pipes, one from Delray Beach and the other from Boynton Beach, flow into the South Central Regional Wastewater Treatment and Disposal Plant. BELOW: Two screen devices remove non-biodegradable items from the sewage before it is treated. Toys, jewelry and even rolls of cash have been recovered from the flow.

Blockages are just one reason sewage lines can fail, according to local utility directors. Another is corrosion, caused often by the buildup of gases inside the lines, and yet a third — perhaps the most common — are accidental ruptures caused by work crews.
Weather can also play a role in system failures, with heavy rains shifting the ground on which lines rest and causing separation at the joints.
Age doesn’t always equate to system failures. A big factor is the material used to produce the pipe and whether that material is right for the environment the pipe is in.
Improper installation can also be an issue.
“If a pipe is really old and installed correctly, it can last a long time,” said Brent Whitfield, District 1 vice president of the Florida Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Failure has many impacts
When sewer lines do fail, the impact can be widespread and problematic. Raw sewage, in extreme cases, can seep into homes, wash out or flood roads and flood waterways. It also can attract mosquitoes and other unwelcome pests.
Then there’s the indirect impact. Boca Raton Utility Services Director Chris Helfrich recalls being in a Broward County restaurant on Christmas Eve years ago when a sewer-line break forced the restaurant to close — not because of sewage but because utilities will often shut off water service when there’s a sewage failure to stem the flow.
There are also health and environmental concerns that come from raw sewage leaks.
“Sewage can be one of the major contributors to nutrient pollution problems,” says Dr. Brian Lapointe, a research professor at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. Sewage, he says, is a big contributor of nitrogen, which is a factor in the growth of algae as well as the seaweed that invades the beaches.
Earlier this year Lapointe presented to the Florida Senate Agriculture, Environment and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee research linking septic systems and algae blooms. But he also points out that sewage leaking from failing lines can seep into groundwater and create environmental and health problems due to fecal bacteria and viruses.
Then there are the costs associated with spills — not just of the cleanup but of the work that’s done to keep failures from happening in the first place.
In southern Palm Beach County, communities are allocating millions of dollars in their 2019-2020 budgets to evaluate the condition of their sewage collection systems and making improvements.
“Our City Commission has made it very clear that infrastructure is a top priority,” said Delray Beach Assistant City Manager Caryn Gardner-Young.

Plan rather than react
For those responsible for municipal wastewater treatment systems, the possibility of a major failure or an undetected leak is what keeps them up at night. It’s also what keeps them planning ahead to ensure their systems are structurally sound and properly maintained.
“You never stop your diagnosis,” Gardner-Young said.
Boca Raton’s Helfrich says that the focus is on preempting problems rather than reacting to a crisis.
“Let’s not get into a catastrophic failure,” he said. “Let’s plan, be preventative and be proactive.”
In addition to closely evaluating the integrity of the lines, utility departments keep a close eye on lift stations, which pump sewage through the pipes. Lift station failures, often caused by power outages especially after a storm or hurricane, can also cause spills, but technology is making it possible for operators to monitor stations remotely and respond to disruptions.
Like most cities, Boca Raton is always monitoring its 550 miles of wastewater infrastructure, making sure the lines are properly maintained and keeping an eye on potential trouble spots. Now, with aging pipes in certain sections of town, the city is sinking $20 million into infrastructure improvement in the coming year; it will include roads, sidewalks, water lines and sewer lines.
In Boynton Beach, where the utility serves 115,000 customers in a area that includes about 450 miles of wastewater pipes and extends outside the city limits, $6 million is earmarked in the city’s proposed budget for renewal and replacement of the system. The utility also recently completed improvements to the wastewater system in the Leisureville community.
Delray Beach, which has about 275 miles of wastewater lines, has close to $10 million tentatively allocated for sewer improvements in the coming fiscal year.
Projects are also underway in some of the smaller coastal towns. In South Palm Beach, for example, the town is undergoing a lining of the sewer pipes, with the cost expected to be somewhere between $225,000 and $250,000.
Highland Beach, which has some aging clay pipes, is evaluating the infrastructure and looking at the possibility of using a lining system on gravity pipes, similar to those used in South Palm Beach and Leisureville.
Lantana is allocating about $150,000 in next year’s budget for lining of pipes.
In most cases, lining old non-pressurized pipes is an effective and cost-efficient alternative to replacing those lines.
“When you line pipes, you save money,” says Colin Groff, Boynton Beach’s assistant city manager for public services.
One of the most ambitious upgrading projects in the area is taking place at the South Central Regional Wastewater Treatment and Disposal Plant, which treats about 17 million gallons of sewage a day from Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Highland Beach. The plant is located on South Congress Avenue at the Delray and Boynton Beach border.
The raw sewage pumped into the plant is first screened for foreign objects — think toys and jewelry — and then filtered to get out grit and sand. Then the sewage is treated with a process using natural bacteria before solids and liquids are separated. Treated wastewater from the plant is either used as reclaimed water — often for irrigation — or injected into a deep well.
Work on the 40-year-old plant began last year and will continue for another two years. It is focused on replacing aging equipment and systems, helping the plant operate more energy-efficiently and adding about 6 million gallons per day of capacity through these improvements.
Funding for the $20 million project — and for just about all of the projects in the area currently planned or in the works — comes not from taxpayer dollars but from user fees.
Utility customers in most communities with central sewage collection systems pay for basic infrastructure costs such as pipes and upgrades in the base rate in their monthly utility bills. They pay for the cost of treating wastewater in the portion of their bills based on consumption.
“All customers pay this part of the rate based on how much they use,” Groff said.
New customers pay an additional fee to connect to the utility.

It’s an ideal time to do work
So why are all of these system evaluation and improvements happening now?
The economy may play a role, say those in the industry, including Boca Raton’s Helfrich. During the Great Recession, many municipalities saw less money coming in as a result of foreclosures and a slowdown in building. With the economy improving and new users coming online as a result of a building boom, enterprise funds are growing.
Another factor may be the improvements in technology that make it easier for utilities to determine the condition of pipes without having to dig them up.
In Boynton Beach and several other communities in the area, a motorized camera inside a segment of pipeline can record a 360-degree view. Geographic information system (GIS) mapping technology is also helping utilities get a better understanding of what is underground.
Then there’s the lining system that towns and cities are using on pipes that are generally not under pressure.
“The lining process consists of inserting an epoxy-infused fabric into the pipe segment where it is expanded, by use of steam,” says Joseph Paterniti, Boynton Beach’s utilities director. The material, which is just millimeters thick, then sticks to the pipe and hardens to a rigid liner.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the focus on evaluating the condition of systems and plants is the fact that infrastructure is aging.
Although some types of pipes — such as ductile iron — can last for a century or more, pipes made years ago with materials including cast iron, asbestos cement and vitrified clay don’t hold up to time as well.
“Infrastructure is aging and all the pipes that are clay will have to be replaced or lined,” the society of civil engineers’ Whitfield said.
With many of those pipes installed in the late 1960s or early 1970s, there is a strong belief it’s time to make sure they’re holding up or are ready to be hauled out.
“Once you get to the 50-year mark you should do a comprehensive review or overhaul the system,” Baxter & Woodman’s Pugsley said.

Next month: A look at septic systems in coastal communities.

How our cities, towns dispose of wastewater

Boca Raton — Sewage from the barrier island crosses under the Intracoastal Waterway in two pipes and is treated at the city’s treatment plant.
Highland Beach — Wastewater is pumped to Delray Beach and treated at the South Central Regional Wastewater Treatment and Disposal Plant.
Delray Beach — Wastewater from east of the Intracoastal Waterway is taken to the regional treatment plant via a single pipe across the waterway.
Gulf Stream — Many homes have septic systems, but some wastewater from multifamily communities is pumped to Boynton Beach, then onto the treatment facility.
Briny Breezes/St. Andrews Club — Sewage is pumped to Boynton Beach via one pipe under the Intracoastal Waterway, then onto the treatment facility.
Ocean Ridge — There is no central wastewater collection system. Homes are on septic systems. Some multifamily communities rely on small “package plants” that treat wastewater and release it to drain fields or through injection deep into the ground.
Manalapan — Most of the properties are on septic with the exception of the shopping plaza, hotel and Town Hall, which are connected to the Lake Worth Beach system. That city sends wastewater it collects to the East Central Regional Wastewater Treatment Facilities in West Palm Beach.
Hypoluxo Island/Lantana — Town sends wastewater to Lake Worth Beach via a pipe under the Intracoastal Waterway for treatment at the regional treatment facilities.
South Palm Beach — Sends its wastewater to Lake Worth Beach for treatment at the regional facilities.

Ocean Ridge septic-to-sewer discussion
The Town of Ocean Ridge invites residents to a meeting of its Septic to Sewer Citizens Advisory Committee at 9 a.m. Aug. 8 to speak about residential septic tank and/or drain field issues. Condo association representatives are also invited to speak about the status of their wastewater treatment facilities.

A perfect day in paradise can be spoiled by a backed-up toilet. An out-of-order sign on a bathroom door can turn a pleasant outing into an anxious search for functioning facilities. And after a storm, I can’t imagine anything more discombobulating than being told not to flush.
It’s indisputable: We all depend on smooth-functioning wastewater disposal to keep life clean and simple.
Over the next few months, our newspaper plans to explore what happens after we flush the toilet.
We plan to take a close look at how local municipalities are working to stay ahead of population and development increases during a time when that very growth is challenging the environment that defines the popular Florida lifestyle.
Adapting to this change will not be cheap. Already we’re seeing municipalities struggling to make necessary improvements.
For August, Rich Pollack spent time talking with the people who manage our waste-processing plants and gives an overview of the improvements they are making, how much it all costs and what potential disasters keep them awake at night.
Next month, Pollack plans to illustrate problems with septic systems on small, urban lots and show how new technology is attempting to address environmental concerns.
The following month, he’ll put both wastewater treatment plants and septic systems under the magnifying glass of future pressures from rising seas and climate change.
Sewage may not be a topic most of us like to discuss, but it’s about to hit us all in the wallet. Hard. Adapting our wastewater infrastructure to meet growth and environmental pressures is going to be very expensive.
I hope you’ll find these stories helpful as we all plan for the future of our piece of paradise.

Mary Kate Leming

Editor

The South Central Regional Wastewater Treatment and Disposal Plant treats about 17 million gallons of sewage a day. Here’s how wastewater from houses in Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and Highland Beach gets there.
A similar process is used in Boca Raton and at the East Central Regional Wastewater Treatment Facilities in West Palm Beach, which serves South Palm Beach and a very small part of Manalapan.
• Sewage flows downhill — After wastewater leaves your home, it goes into a pipe, usually in your street, and is taken by gravity to a lift station, also known as a pump station.
• Pumped up — Wastewater from several area gravity mains collects in a wet well at the lift station. When the water reaches a certain level, a pump powered by electricity kicks on and pushes the sewage — now under pressure — through a pipe known as a force main.
• Moved by a master lift station — As the wastewater moves closer to the treatment plant, it merges with sewage from other force mains at a master lift station, where pumps push it farther along.
• Treated and released — At a treatment plant, wastewater is screened and separated to remove foreign objects and grit. It is then aerated to encourage microorganisms to break down organic materials before remaining solids are separated from liquid.
• Reused, reclaimed or injected — Solids are either put back in the system to help break down organic materials or are sent to West Palm Beach, where they’re processed into fertilizer by a private company. Liquids are either reclaimed and used for irrigation or injected into a deep well for disposal.

By Mary Hladky

Determined to avoid mistakes Fort Lauderdale has made, Boca Raton is launching a multiyear effort to repair or replace its underground water and sewer pipes.
The work will start in September in the Chatham Hills and Country Club Village neighborhoods, respectively located between Federal and Dixie highways north of Northeast 28th Street, and east of Interstate 95 and north of Palmetto Park Road.
Over the next five years, work will be done in four additional areas, all but one located east of I-95 in older parts of the city where pipes can be up to 80 years old.
Money has been set aside to pay for the estimated $60 million cost.
Boca Raton also plans a 20-year program to upgrade pipes in the rest of the city’s older neighborhoods as well as larger pipes that often run along the major roads.
All told, the repairs and replacements will cost an estimated $600 million to $750 million over 20 years, although that number could change as the city gets more data on the condition of its pipes.
The problems plaguing Fort Lauderdale illustrate why Boca Raton is investing in infrastructure upgrades.
Over at least the past five years, deteriorating water and sewer lines that were not properly maintained have ruptured frequently, dumping more than 20 million gallons of sewage into yards and waterways.
The city’s neglect of maintenance was cast in bold relief on July 17, when a Florida Power & Light subcontractor drilled into a water main. The mistake could have been quickly corrected by diverting water into another pipe, but underground valves that hadn’t been tested in years failed, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
A crisis was averted when city workers patched the broken pipe, but even so about 220,000 customers were told to boil water before use. The boil-water order was lifted for most customers on July 21, the same day a pipe burst along a major city artery that was closed until the break was repaired.
Boca Raton has avoided such problems and wants to keep it that way. Utility Services Director Chris Helfrich said pipe breaks are rare, averaging about one a month.
“We haven’t seen what Fort Lauderdale is seeing,” Helfrich said. “We don’t want to get ourselves in that situation.
“We are way ahead of the curve,” he added. “We think we have a good program in place. It will evolve as technology evolves.”
Current technology cannot predict when a pipe will fail, but Helfrich expects that will change and help the city decide the order in which pipe upgrades are made.
A city study about two years ago looked at the age of its underground pipes, where they had failed and their locations relative to critical buildings such as hospitals and police and fire facilities. “These are areas we want to go into first,” Helfrich said.
The ISIP project, or Innovative Sustainable Infrastructure Program, will be coordinated with planned improvements to streets and sidewalks so that all the work is done at one time.
City officials have not decided how to finance upgrades beyond the six neighborhood projects. Options include issuing bonds, which would not affect water and sewer bills since customers already pay for debt service; using utility reserves, raising rates or all three, Helfrich said. The property tax rate would not be affected.
After Chatham Hills and Country Club Village, the neighborhood projects on the five-year list include:
• Tunison Palms, Old Floresta and Lake Floresta Park, north of West Palmetto Park Road between Northwest Seventh and 11th avenues.
• Boca Raton Square, east of I-95, south of West Palmetto Park Road and north of Southwest 14th Street.
• Boca Villas, between Federal Highway and Northeast Fifth Avenue and north of Palmetto Park Road in the downtown.
• Boca Woods, between West Palmetto Park Road and Glades Road just west of U.S. 441, and Winfield Park between North Dixie Highway and Federal Highway north of Northeast 20th Street.

By Ron Hayes

Time may never bring true closure to parents who have lost a child, but sometimes it can bring confirmation.
For the Boynton Beach family of Rodelson Normil, confirmation came on July 23, more than six years after their son disappeared beneath the waves a half-mile south of Gulfstream Park, and it came through the help of a 6-year-old boy and a hurricane.
“We have some news on your son,” Sgt. John Passeggiata of the Gulf Stream Police Department told the teenager’s father that morning. “It’s not the news we would like, but I hope it will give you some closure.”
For Passeggiata and his colleagues, that phone call was both confirmation and closure to a case that began at 2:47 p.m. on a cloudy Friday, May 31, 2013.
A teenager wearing a black bathing suit over green and white boxer shorts had been caught in a riptide.
Red warning flags had been flying all week, and Rodelson Normil, 17, a junior at Boynton Beach Community High School, was not a good swimmer. He’d promised his father he’d stay on the sand. But when his friends Zachary Wano, Senovain Stephens and Isaac Cruz hit the waves, he went in too.
Wano told Passeggiata he’d seen Rodelson struggling and tried to help, but the current had dragged them both farther out, until finally he had to let go and return to the beach alone.
Rodelson was last seen about 250 feet offshore.
A command post was set up behind the 4001 North Ocean condo, and for the next three hours Passeggiata and three colleagues tried to find the teenager.
Fire-rescue units from Boynton Beach and Delray Beach joined the search, along with the sheriff’s marine unit and lifeguards from Boynton Inlet and Gulfstream Park. Delray Beach Ocean Rescue led the water search as a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter searched from above. At 4:30 p.m., the search and rescue mission became a recovery operation.
Soon after, a body was spotted in the water, but the 6-foot waves kept searchers away.

TOP: On the day of Rodelson Normil’s drowning, more than a dozen Delray Beach Ocean Rescue and Palm Beach County lifeguards were involved in the rescue attempt near Gulfstream Park.
ABOVE: Gulf Stream police and fire-rescue teams from Boynton Beach and Delray Beach took part in the search.
RIGHT: The Coast Guard provided helicopter support. Rough seas complicated the rescue and recovery efforts.
2013 file photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Rodelson Normil, son and brother, high school student and poor swimmer, was now officially a “missing person”— Case No. 13-0965 in the Police Department’s files.
But Passeggiata’s job was not done.
A month later, on Monday, July 8, he called the boy’s father to have his son’s dental records filed with the county Medical Examiner’s Office.
“My son has never been to a dentist, partly because I do not have coverage and because he has been healthy and never needed to see a dentist,” Roger Normil told him.
On Thursday, July 11, both Roger and Marie Normil came to the police station bearing their son’s toothbrush. Saliva swabs were taken from both parents’ cheeks, and the DNA information was mailed to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, where it would be kept on file in case it was ever needed.
On Friday, Aug. 2, Passeggiata checked with the medical examiner’s office in both Martin and Volusia counties. Neither had any unidentified bodies matching Rodelson Normil’s description.
And so four years came and went.
And then Hurricane Irma came and went.
At 3:35 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017, Irma made landfall at Marco Island as a Category 3 storm with 115-mph winds, traveling up the center of the state overnight and into northern Florida on Monday.
Palm Beach County had been spared a direct hit, but the beach off Gulf Stream was rattled.
Early that Tuesday morning, Sept. 12, Robert Julien and his three young sons went for a walk on the beach near their home to survey the storm damage.
Along the way, Charlie Julien, who was 6, spotted what he thought was a big dog bone on a spit of displaced dune stretching toward the water behind 1919 N. Ocean Blvd., just south of the Gulf Stream Golf Club.
He brought it home to their mother.
Charlie’s mother is Dr. Joanne Julien, a pulmonologist at JFK Medical Center.
“Oh, my God,” Dr. Julien exclaimed. “That’s a human femur.”
Lt. John Haseley at the Gulf Stream Police Department was equally surprised when the father and his three boys showed up at 8 o’clock that morning.
“Mr. Julien placed a large ‘bone’ that appeared to be human remains, a femur leg bone, on the police lobby desk,” Haseley wrote in his report. “The bone appears to have been in the water for some time.”
Sgt. Bernard O’Donnell jumped on the department’s ATV and searched the beach where the bone was found but discovered nothing more.
On Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 13, Ralph Saccone, a forensic investigator with the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office, came to the Police Department and took the femur bone.
The next day, Saccone called Passeggiata to say his department had confirmed the remains were human.
Two hours later, Passeggiata met with Dr. Julien and her children, who showed him just where the bone had been found. He and another officer searched the spot more closely but again found nothing.
Nearly two more years came and went while the Center for Human Identification, which performs 70 to 80 percent of the DNA testing of human remains in the national data bank, struggled with its backlog.
And then, on July 18, Passeggiata received a letter.
“These genetic data are approximately 131.4 million times more likely that the unidentified human remains originated from a biological child of Roger and Marie Normil,” the center had found.
On July 23, after the county Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that it had also received the letter from Texas, Passeggiata called Roger Normil with the news.
“He was a little confused at first,” Passeggiata recalled, “but then he said, ‘Yes, I remember you.’ He was a little in shock, I think, but he did seem excited, to a degree.”
After a death certificate is issued by the medical examiner, the remains will be returned to the family.
Roger Normil and his daughter, Nancy, have declined to comment on the findings.
Robert Julien said young Charlie, who’s now 8, was really surprised when Passeggiata called to say the bone he’d found two years ago had been identified.
“It had been so long, we didn’t think they were able to put the DNA together,” his father said, “so he was super surprised. It’s extremely sad to see a young boy lose his life like that, but it’s also nice to think the family will get some closure.”
And if not closure, perhaps the final confirmation has brought some comfort.
At 10:30 a.m. on July 23, after speaking with Roger Normil, Passeggiata sat down to update his report.
“This missing person case 13-0965,” he wrote, “is closed.”
Rodelson Normil’s femur was found 1.3 miles south of the spot where he drowned.

David Schmidt plays an especially important role in the relationship with Miyazu, Japan, the sister city connected with the Morikami in Delray Beach. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Rich Pollack

David Schmidt has worn many hats.
He served on the Delray Beach City Commission in the late 1990s and began a three-year stint as mayor in 2000.
He has been on community boards, including the board of trustees at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, the Achievement Centers for Children & Families Foundation board and the board of the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce.
For the past couple of years, the 63-year-old lawyer with Simon and Schmidt has served as chair of the Always Delray steering committee, a group of residents who are working with city leaders as they rewrite the comprehensive plan.
For the most part, Schmidt is one of those active community members who is low-key and modest, quietly taking on the task at hand. He usually flies under the radar — with one exception.
For more than a decade, Schmidt has been the face of Delray Beach’s sister cities program, serving until early this year as the president of Sister Cities of Delray Beach Inc., a nonprofit organization that now is linked with four cities in four continents — Asia, Africa, North America and Europe. He remains on the board.
“David was the glue that held the organization together for more than a decade or so,” said Nancy King, who has served on the board for 15 years. “He’s always very hands-on with every project.”
Although the Delray Beach program now has relationships with Moshi, Tanzania; Aquin, Haiti; and Pesaro, Italy, it is his connection with Miyazu, Japan, that has its deepest roots.
Since he joined the Sister Cities board in 1993 — at the request of city leaders who were trying to revitalize the relationship — Schmidt has been to Miyazu eight times and has shepherded dozens of visitors as they come to Delray from the coastal community on the island of Kyoto.
All the while, he was speaking only a few words of Japanese.
“I can order a beer and ask where the bathrooms are,” he says with a smile.
For his work with the Sister Cities program and the Morikami Museum — where he served on the board twice, including once as chair — Schmidt last year received the “The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays” recognition from the government of Japan.
Similar to knighthood, the award is one of the highest honors presented to civilians by Japan.
Delray Beach’s partnership with Miyazu was started in 1977 to honor George Morikami, the Japanese pineapple farmer who settled west of Delray and donated the land that now has the museum. Morikami was originally from Miyazu.
The relationship faltered a bit in the 1980s but was revitalized in the early 1990s by then-Mayor Tom Lynch.
Schmidt, who served as president of the Sister Cities board from 1995 to 2000, and again from 2005 until January, is proud of the student exchange program with Miyazu that was developed under his leadership.
So far, 10 groups of students from Delray Beach have gone to Japan as part of the exchange program and several groups of students from Miyazu have come to Delray Beach. The students, he says, get to see that while there are many cultural differences, there are also many similarities.
“It’s important for students to interact with one another,” Schmidt said. “Where they’re involved, the world is so much smaller.”
Miyazu and Delray Beach have also had delegations of government, community and business leaders interact. There have also been delegations from Delray visiting the other sister cities and delegations from those cities coming here.
“I really believe in the premise of citizen diplomacy,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt, who moved to Delray when he was 15 from the Chicago suburbs, has also been a strong believer of getting input from others and then building consensus.
It is a leadership style that serves him well, regardless of the hat he is wearing.
“I have the ability to get people to compromise,” he said.

By Stephen Moore

The Coastal Star won eight awards at the 2018-19 Florida Press Association’s competition for weekly newspapers. The awards ceremony was held in St. Petersburg on July 12. The Coastal Star competed in the largest category against newspapers with circulations of more than 13,000.
“Contests are a way for us to showcase the professionalism of our writers, editors and photographers,” said Executive Editor Mary Kate Leming. “We are proud their work placed so well within a category that includes the largest and best weekly newspapers in the state.”
The monthly took home four first places, two second places and two third places.
Feature writer Ron Hayes won two first places and a third place. Hayes won in the feature story/profile category with a story about Alberta Schultz, the 1953 Miss Boca Raton who was celebrating 50 years as a local travel agent. He also won in the community history classification with a story about the Wise Elder Circle at the Delray Beach Historical Society.
Rich Pollack was a first-place winner in local government reporting for stories about the town of Highland Beach’s having to shell out $225,000 in severance pay to three town managers in three years.
The fourth first place went to James Arena in the reader-generated photo category for his overhead photo of dozens of surfers on surfboards surrounding Ryan Heavyside at a memorial service for his father, Ron, who died during the 50th anniversary year of his Nomad Surf Shop. Hayes took third place in the best obituary class for his obit on Heavyside.
Second-place winners were Gretel Sarmiento in the arts, entertainment and review reporting category for her story about sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, and Sallie James in health, medical and science reporting for her story about a local gym providing boxing workouts for people with Parkinson’s disease. Janis Fontaine’s story on St. Lucy Catholic Church’s celebrating 50 years was a third-place winner in the faith and family reporting category.

This classic Samuel Ogren Sr.-designed house on Northeast Seventh Avenue was destined for demolition to make room for three townhouses when architect and preservationist Roger Cope stepped in. The owner, Azure Development, told Cope, of Delray Beach, that if he could move the house off the property, he could have it. Cope eventually persuaded the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency to preserve the 1937 house, which will be moved in mid-August to the CRA property on North Swinton Avenue to be repurposed for CRA offices. The effort drew support from CRA staffers and Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia, who serves as chairwoman of the CRA. The house now is raised from its foundation and ready to move. Photo provided

Frankie the yellow-winged Amazon parrot is back with Anthony Calicchio and will get a microchip implant to locate him in case he strays again. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

How much would you be willing to pay for a newborn yellow-winged Amazon parrot?
Anthony Calicchio paid pizzas.
“I had a friend in Stuart who had a white cockatoo with some pink plumage, and its name was Pink Floyd,” he begins. “That’s what got me interested in having a bird.”
Calicchio grew up in Brooklyn. In 2008, he moved down to Boynton Beach to become a chef at Cafe Frankie’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria on East Ocean Avenue, and a year later he bought the business — and that newborn yellow-winged Amazon parrot.
“I got him from one of my customers,” he recalls. “She had two parrots. One of them laid four eggs, and Frankie was one of the four. We bartered for him, and I gave her $800 in pizzas.”
Not all at once, you understand.
“Well, I gave her a gift card with $800 on it. Every once in a while she’d come in and get a small pizza and a Coke or something. It took her about two years to use it all up.”
Calicchio’s pizza-rich friend bottle-fed the bird for four months, and then he brought it home.
“I kept him home for one day, and then I brought him to work,” he says.
Frankie the parrot was named after Frankie’s the cafe, not the other way around, and in the decade since, he’s come to work there almost every day. Perched atop his 5-foot cage just outside the door, where al fresco diners can admire him, you might say he’s become the restaurant’s beloved, bright green, yellow-winged maitre d’.
He rides on Calicchio’s Harley and he rides on his shoulder as Calicchio walks to lunch at the Banana Boat restaurant just across the avenue. He poses for selfies. He calls “Hello.”
Frankie knows about 30 words, none of them obscene.
“He says, ‘Whattyawant’ and ‘Fuggedaboutit’ and ‘Not me,’ ” Calicchio says. “I’ve had some customers try to teach him to curse, but kids come to see him, so I don’t let that happen.”
To stop by the cafe for the lunch special and not find Frankie strutting, preening or crowing “Hello!” would be like Walmart without the old greeters, or Publix without the free scales.
And then one day last month, his cage stood empty.
Frankie was born on the Fourth of July 2009, and on July 3, 2019 — a day before his 10th birthday —the bird disappeared from Calicchio’s backyard on Southwest Second Avenue.
“It was traumatic,” he recalls. “Frankie was on his cage at home, and I guess he got spooked and hopped over the fence. It’s the first time he’s gone in 10 years.”
The bird had no tag and no microchip implant, but he did have a decade of loyal customers and a local news media that know a good human interest story when one disappears.
TV crews came to show viewers the distraught owner and the empty cage. Newspapers as far away as Daytona Beach ran stories about the “famed” parrot. Calicchio got 2,000 hits on Instagram. Customers texted daily to ask if Frankie had been found. Missing-bird fliers were posted.
A week later, on July 10, a good Samaritan named Patrick O’Bryant called Calicchio. One of O’Bryant’s employees, Oviedo Gonzalez, who lives a few doors from Calicchio, was leaving for work when he spotted a parrot under his car and put it in a tree just before it risked getting run over.
At work, he told O’Bryant, and the two men returned to Gonzalez’s home, where they found the bird, still in the tree.
When O’Bryant saw a missing-bird flier, he called to tell Calicchio he’d taken the parrot to a friend named Tina Rosen, who cared for animals at her property behind O’Bryant’s wholesale nursery west of Delray Beach.
According to Calicchio, he then called Rosen and they exchanged photos. Rosen told him they weren’t the same bird because the photo on the flier didn’t show an orange spot on the shoulder and he didn’t have proper documentation. She told him she wasn’t comfortable having him come to her house and declined a $500 reward for the bird’s return — in currency this time, not pizzas.
When Rosen stopped taking his calls, Calicchio called Boynton Beach police, and Officers Jarvis Hollis and Lawrence Rini were on the case.
Rosen didn’t answer their phone calls either, according to their written report.
“At this time, Rosen has still declined to return the bird,” Hollis wrote. “Let it be known, Calicchio was unable to provide proper documentation for the bird, however it’s more than likely that the bird Rosen is in possession of is Calicchio’s bird.”
The officers called in Liz Roehrich, the city’s animal cruelty investigator.
The next morning, Calicchio and Roehrich went together to Rosen’s house and left with Frankie.
“She didn’t say hello,” Calicchio says. “There were six dogs barking at him, and all she said was if he broke out you should put a chip in him.”
Calicchio emphasizes there was nothing sinister or criminal in Frankie’s disappearance. The parrot wasn’t purloined, and no ransom was demanded.
Rosen declined to be interviewed. O’Bryant says she was not trying to keep the bird.
“She just wanted to make sure he was the rightful owner because he didn’t have proper documentation,” O’Bryant said, “and she blocked his calls when he became aggressive.”
On one point, Calicchio agrees with Rosen. Frankie will be getting a microchip implant.
On Friday morning, July 12, Frankie was back at work atop his cage.
“He’s back!” a grinning UPS driver exclaimed as he walked up to deliver a package.
“You got him!” arriving diners exulted.
“Where was he? What happened?” they asked.
“He was happy to see me,” Calicchio says. “When I brought him home, he was shaking. He had an orange and bananas, and somebody brought him a mango.”
Sitting at a table beside Frankie, Calicchio greeted customers, sharing their happiness when they saw the yellow-winged maitre d’ was back.
“It’s just like losing a part of your family,” he said. “I live alone. Just me and him.
“You know, Amazons live to be about 80, and I’m 54. He’s going to outlive me.”

Lethal bronzing is an incurable infection that causes palm fronds to turn brown and die. New growth also dies as a result. Photo provided

By Cheryl Blackerby

It’s the worse-case scenario for homeowners who have invested in palm trees costing $5,000 to $10,000 each. The trees’ fronds are turning a bronze-brown and new fronds are curling up and dying.
The arborist’s news is bad: The trees have a new disease that is terminal.
In 2006, a relatively new deadly bacterial disease called lethal bronzing hit the Tampa area and quickly spread east, killing palm trees ranging from stately Canary Island date palms to the indomitable sabal palmetto palm, the state tree. It has become prevalent in Palm Beach County just in the past couple of years.
Lethal bronzing, similar but genetically distinct from lethal yellowing, is now common on Florida’s east coast and is causing “significant palm losses in Palm Beach County,” according to University of Florida research.
Michael Zimmerman, owner of Zimmerman Tree Service, which has offered tree disease diagnosis in Palm Beach County for 39 years, says he has been doing preventive treatment for palms against lethal bronzing throughout the county, including on the barrier islands.
Once infected, the tree dies. Unlike lethal yellowing, there is no treatment for lethal bronzing, although the antibiotic oxytetracycline can be given to nearby trees for prevention against the disease, which is spread by planthopper insects.
Prevention requires inserting a port in the palm trunk where the antibiotic is injected every three or four months for at least two years. If homeowners have a big investment in one of the 16 species of trees susceptible to lethal bronzing, they will probably want to consider preventive treatment.
Symptoms of lethal bronzing include bronze-colored dying lower fronds; flower spikes that die prematurely; new palms that die and fold over; and premature fruit dropping, says Laurie Albrecht, horticulture extension agent with the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Once a tree shows symptoms it’s too late for treatment.

Often misdiagnosed
Lethal bronzing is often misdiagnosed as lethal yellowing, which became prevalent in the southern third of Florida four decades ago, according to Zimmerman. The disease, also spread by planthoppers, killed more than 30 palm species but was particularly devastating to tall coconut palms.
But unlike trees infected by lethal bronzing, trees infected by lethal yellowing could be saved by injection of oxytetracycline every four months. Lethal yellowing is not as prevalent as it once was because of aggressive use of oxytetracycline and removal of diseased trees.
“Lethal yellowing is still here but it’s relatively rare,” Albrecht says.
Lethal bronzing, also called Texas Phoenix palm decline, was first seen in Texas, she says. DNA from the Florida disease was a perfect match for the disease found in Corpus Christi, Texas. The only way to diagnose the disease is by core sampling, which is sent for laboratory analysis, Albrecht says, because the disease is similar to other palm maladies such as potassium deficiency.
Lethal bronzing spread quickly throughout the Tampa area, which prompted an inoculation program for about 300 healthy trees at 24 sites around the city.
Spread only by insects, the disease cannot live outside a plant or insect, so it can’t be mechanically transmitted by pruning tools or infected roots touching new roots, according to University of Florida research.
Lethal bronzing, which affects a much smaller number of palm species than lethal yellowing, has killed palms including sabal, queen, Chinese fan and Carpentaria.
“It’s all over. We’ve seen it on the barrier islands. We’ve seen a lot of sabal palms go down, which never happened with lethal yellowing. The trees are infected by insects similar to the way mosquitoes transmit diseases,” says Zimmerman.
Tracey Stevens, Ocean Ridge’s acting town manager, said, “We have had a couple of complaints, and recently had to remove two dead coconut palms on Old Ocean Boulevard near Colonial Ridge that are in the town’s right of way.
“Public Works is currently working with our contractor to assess which trees may need to be treated, and which ones need to be removed if they are too far gone at this point.”
“Two trees with lethal bronzing were taken down,” said Bill Armstrong, head of public works for Ocean Ridge. “We’re keeping an eye on it. Not worried about it yet.”
Prevention is key for saving expensive healthy palms that are susceptible to lethal bronzing, according to University of Florida research.
“Currently, some developers in Palm Beach County are beginning to ask for susceptible palm species to be tested prior to installation,” Bill Schall, the UF/IFAS extension commercial horticulture agent, said in a blog.
“People are putting in expensive palms and you need to take care of them,” says Zimmerman. “Preventive care for lethal bronzing is now standard health care.”

Palms susceptible to lethal bronzing
Lethal bronzing is known to kill these 16 species of palms: Christmas, Bismarck, pindo, Carpentaria, coconut, Chinese fan, Canary Island date, edible date, pygmy date, wild date, Fiji fan, buccaneer, Mexican palmetto, sabal palmetto, queen and Chinese windmill.

By Jane Smith

Delray Beach commissioners have unanimously approved a slight cut in the tax rate, keeping a promise to city property owners to reduce the tax rate for 10 consecutive years.
The July 9 vote capped the total tax rate at $6.86 per $1,000 of taxable value for the financial year that starts Oct. 1. This marks the seventh consecutive year that Delray Beach is lowering its tax rate.
“I know we are trying to get things done, but I think we can drop the tax rate,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia said. “Dropping the rate would make us more attractive to people coming in.”
Commissioner Adam Frankel agreed. “We will have additional fees from the new hotels opening,” he said to justify his decision.
“For the first time, I agree,” said Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson, who is up for re-election in March.
Neal de Jesus, the interim city manager, presented staff’s recommendation for a slight increase in the tax rate to $7.06 per $1,000 of taxable value.
“Philosophically, there’s different ways to look at it,” de Jesus said. “In this time of economic prosperity, we should be spending now.”
The city just passed an amendment to cover a $3 million gap in the current year’s budget, he said. Last fall, $2 million was taken out of reserves to cover a shortfall in the public safety pension funds.
“Every time they lower their assumptions (of the rate of return on investments), it causes the city to contribute more,” de Jesus said.
For the next budget year, the public safety pension boards and the general employees pension board are reducing their rates of return, he said. “For the next year, another $1.5 million to $2 million.”
The second major cost comes from increases in employee salaries from contract negotiations and the rising cost of health insurance.
Third, de Jesus said, were the new hotels with increased visitors and buildings coming online. They will affect city services from trash pickup to public safety. “That all costs money,” he said.
De Jesus said reducing the tax rate would translate into a $2.1 million deficit compared with department requests.
Because property values rose in the city by 6.6 percent, Delray Beach has an extra $689.4 million of property to tax, said Laura Thezine, interim financial director.
At the slight tax reduction, the city will have $70.3 million for its general fund.
For a city homeowner with a house valued at $1 million for tax purposes, the decreased tax rate translates into a $100 annual savings.
Thezine also said the city’s roll-back rate is $6.46 per $1,000 taxable value. The roll-back rate is the number that would generate the same tax revenue as the prior year with allowances for new construction.
In addition, she gave this schedule of budget meetings: Aug. 13, budget workshop; 5 p.m. Sept. 5, a tentative budget hearing; and Sept. 19, the final budget adoption.
The city’s proposed tax rate has two components. The operating tax rate is $6.66 per $1,000 value and the debt service rate is 20 cents per $1,000 value.
The tax rates had to be set by the end of July for the county property appraiser to mail notices in mid-August to every property owner. The notices cover assessed values and proposed tax rates.
The rates can be lowered but not raised during the city’s budget hearings in September.
Just before the vote, de Jesus reminded commissioners that they were below their 25 percent target for reserves.
“It’s now 23 percent,” he said. “I want to make sure the commission understands this.”
In other tax-related news, the Downtown Development Authority received unanimous commission approval to continue its $1 tax levy per $1,000 property value in its district. The DDA will have a $1.1 million budget for the next financial year, up nearly 6 percent from the current budget year with an additional $59,721 of property tax revenue.

ABOVE: Resident Clair Johnson had 1,200 sandbags placed along the east side of Marine Way in anticipation of floods from king tides and storms. BELOW: City workers removed the bags, much to Johnson’s dismay. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

Another fall of king tides is coming, which is bad news for Delray Beach residents who live on Marine Way.
They will likely see water pushing through the crumbled and submerged Intracoastal Waterway seawall, flowing into their yards and, in some cases, their homes.
Last year, the city said it did not own Marine Way and as a result couldn’t start work to deter flooding. Thanks to a recent title search, however, the city now says it owns the block-long street and finally can begin the task.
The city says the work will take at least 24 months but has not said when it will begin.
The city has set aside $2.8 million for Marine Way improvements, to include a new sea wall, road and drainage improvements and a stormwater pump station.
Another $4.6 million is earmarked to rebuild the city marina, just to the south.
Marine Way residents say they have been waiting for more than three decades for relief.
The one-block stretch has a roadbed decayed from tidal flooding, private and unauthorized docks and a sea wall that’s been broken and ineffective for decades.
When Delray Beach was ready last summer to start the improvements, its project consultant contended the city did not own Marine Way, according to a June 19, 2018, letter from former City Manager Mark Lauzier.
“The city has no legal standing to proceed,” Lauzier wrote to Marine Way residents.
Again, in December, city staffers said they were researching the ownership of Marine Way.
Frustrated by the delays, longtime Marine Way resident Clair Johnson began building a three-sandbag-tall wall this spring.
It was on the eastern side of Marine Way, along 440 feet of the Intracoastal.
“I researched the city’s development rules and did not see any mentions of sandbags,” Johnson said.
The 72-year-old started filling the sandbags himself, but after he filled and stacked 80, he hired his lawn guy and a worker to do the remaining 1,120 bags.
“I’m just too old,” he said.
The wall was three-fourths finished when Johnson received a code violation on July 8. The notice gave him 72 hours to remove the sandbags.
What changed?
The new city attorney asked a different consultant, a lawyer who concluded the city owned the street.
“I wasn’t the city attorney at the time (Lauzier’s) letter was sent out,” wrote City Attorney Lynn Gelin in an email. Lauzier was fired in March.
“When I became aware of the issue as the city attorney, I reviewed old files and consulted with the city’s outside counsel, Steven Rubin,” Gelin wrote. “I don’t know if that was done by Mr. (Max) Lohman (the previous city attorney) or Mr. Lauzier.”
Rubin replied in a July 1 letter that his title search documents show that the city owns Marine Way.
Twelve city workers dismantled Johnson’s sandbag wall and carted the sandbags away.
Neighbor Genie DePonte said, “They should have left the sandbags up to see whether they are a short-term fix.”
Her title-search documents say she owns the property to the Intracoastal. “The city is overusing its power,” she said.
“I don’t want the city to take away my dock,” DePonte said. “It’s part of my property’s value. I’ve paid taxes on it for 30 years and have permits for it from the city and the Army Corps.”
Johnson said the city is relying on a faulty survey from 1939 to show ownership. The surveyor relied on a 1931 document where the heir to the Frank T. Noble estate erroneously gave the city roads, including Canal Street/Marine Way, that he did not own, Johnson said.
He plans to take the city to court to cover the cost of the sandbags and the expected water damage to his home in the fall from the king tides.
The four other buildings on Marine Way are owned by lawyer Adam Bankier and developer Burt Handelsman’s ex-wife and adult children. None could be reached for comment.

Marina delay discussed
Separately, Delray Beach staff met again in late July with marina-area residents at the Veterans Park community center to explain why that project is still delayed.
The marina work was supposed to start in May, but the two lowest bidders dropped out, according to city documents. On May 21, the City Commission awarded the contract to B&M Marine Construction Inc. of Deerfield Beach. Work began July 29 when B&M started preparing the site. The actual construction will start at the end of August, said Glen Bryant, B&M president.
Even though the commission awarded the project on May 21, B&M could not start immediately, said Isaac Kovner, project manager. Contracts had to go back and forth between the city and B&M, insurance had to be acquired by B&M and then a purchase order signed, Kovner said on July 30.
The city has lost about $25,000 in rental income from the marina, which leases 31 boat slips, eight designated for live-aboard owners.
The boaters were ordered to leave by May 1 and won’t be able to return for another year if the work schedule holds.
“Will there be Wi-Fi and any security cameras?” live-aboard boater Dylan Henderson asked.
Kovner said the marina will have Wi-Fi but not security cameras. After groans from some meeting attendees, he said the contractor might be able to supply the connections for the security cameras.
The project will bring new floating docks, a raised sea wall, drainage and lighting improvements, a new pump station and new streetlights and landscaping. A small park just west of the sea wall will hold stormwater runoff.
Architect Roger Cope, who also chairs a city advisory board, asked about the design of the new planned gazebos at the marina. He suggested the city use the same plans as the new gazebos at the beach.
“That way, no approvals will be needed,” he said.