Interior designer Chad Renfro, a member of the Osage Nation, at home in Ocean Ridge with a memento from the film, Killers of the Flower Moon. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Ocean Ridge designer’s guidance ensured Best Picture nominee stayed true to Osage people

By Joe Capozzi

If director Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon wins Best Picture at the Oscars on March 10, an interior designer from Ocean Ridge can rightly claim some credit.

Chad Renfro worked as a consulting producer for the film — his name is prominent as the credits roll at the end. The Ocean Ridge Yacht Club resident had no experience in the movie business when he was brought in to work on the film.

But Renfro, 54, had something that producers Scorsese, Imperative Entertainment and Apple Original Films valued — deep roots with the Osage Nation of Oklahoma and connections with its leaders. 

Renfro, a south Palm Beach County resident since 1997, was born and raised in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, a city on the Osage Indian Reservation. These days he commutes between Ocean Ridge and Pawhuska, where he is active in tribal affairs.

Pawhuska is the setting for many of the events depicted in Killers of the Flower Moon, based on David Grann’s 2017 best-seller about a dark chapter of Osage history known as the Reign of Terror. 

The reign was rooted in the discovery of oil below the reservation in 1897, which turned many tribal members into the richest people per capita in the world. It also attracted people who tried to steal the rights to the Osage land and oil royalties through fraud, marriage and a string of more than 60 murders and suspicious deaths from 1920 to 1925.

The Reign of Terror has been chronicled in several books, but none with as much traction as Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.

Keeping them honest
After Renfro learned in 2016 that the soon-to-be-released book’s movie rights had been sold, he was appointed as the tribe’s ambassador to the film, a role he pursued with two goals: to have the production shot on location in Oklahoma and to make sure the movie portrayed the Osage Nation accurately and respectfully.

The result is a movie that has won critical acclaim, multiple awards and, perhaps most significant, the blessing of the Osage Nation.

And to make it happen, Renfro used his Ocean Ridge connections (more on that later). 

“It was really kind of a divine order,” Renfro said of the sequence of events that led to his role in the production. 

“I was the first Osage person to make a connection with the film people. It’s a world I never pictured myself in. We were blessed with the best of the best in the film industry to help make this monumental picture.” 

As the film’s ambassador, Renfro played multiple roles. He helped convince the producers to shoot the movie in Oklahoma. He helped persuade the state to give millions in rebates to the production, the largest in Oklahoma history. He connected Scorsese’s crew with Osage actors and experts in the nation’s language, clothing, history and tradition. 

“We have a unique culture and history, and Chad knows that unique culture and history. He bridged these two worlds,” Osage Nation Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear told The Coastal Star. “Chad was unpaid by my office to do this. He did this out of love for his people. He’s the perfect person to be this ambassador, and I told him: This time and place is special and he was meant to be right where he is.”

A memento for Chad Renfro for his work on the film. Photo provided

The backstory
So, just how did an interior designer from Ocean Ridge wind up playing such an important behind-the-scenes role in one of the biggest movies of the year? 

Long before he moved to Delray Beach in 1997, Renfro grew up on the Osage reservation. He graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma with a marketing and public relations degree and started working as an event planner, a gig that evolved into interior designing. 

He moved to South Florida at the suggestion of a friend from Pawhuska who was living in Ocean Ridge. A decade later he launched Chad Renfro Design, a successful business with clients from Palm Beach to Boca Raton.

In 2014, pursuing a desire to spend more time with family in Oklahoma, he started commuting between Pawhuska and Ocean Ridge. In Oklahoma, he worked on design projects around Tulsa and on the Osage reservation, where he renovated the Osage Nation executive offices.

Renfro, who said he has known Standing Bear for most of his adult life, served a term on the Osage Nation Foundation’s board of trustees. He participates each June in tribal ceremonies wearing full regalia made by his Osage family.

“He is culturally grounded here among his people. He’s part of our community,” Standing Bear said.

Acting out of concern 
One day in 2016, Renfro was scrolling headlines on his iPad when he came across an article about a production company purchasing the film rights to Grann’s book for $5 million. 

Renfro, at the time an Osage Nation Foundation board member, said he and tribal leaders knew about Grann from the author’s days in Pawhuska researching the book. They also knew the book focused on the FBI agents investigating the Osage murders. 

Well aware of Hollywood’s dismal record of depicting indigenous stories accurately, tribal leaders worried that the movie version might downplay or even misrepresent the Osage and their culture. 

So, Renfro decided to try to reach out to the two producers mentioned in the article, Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas of Imperative Entertainment. If Renfro could open a dialogue, he would invite them to Pawhuska to meet tribal leaders and encourage them to shoot the film in Oklahoma.

Help from Ocean Ridge
Getting any Hollywood big shot on the phone is a daunting task, especially if you’re someone with no connections to the movie business. But Renfro had an advantage: His close friends Gary and Penny Kosinski of Ocean Ridge have a relative who works as a Hollywood agent. 

The Kosinskis connected Renfro with the agent, and in a brief phone call Renfro explained his motives for wanting to talk to Friedkin and Thomas. 

“Moments later, there is an email chain between the two men who own Imperative Entertainment and myself,” he recalled. 

“I said, ‘I work closely with the chief. I’m on the board. I know this community. I grew up there. You guys should talk to us.’ And they were receptive.” 

Within weeks, Renfro was helping arrange visits to Pawhuska for the Imperative team, and later Scorsese, to meet with tribal leaders, elders and citizens. 

“Chad opened that door for Imperative and later joined me in opening the doors for Marty and the team,” Standing Bear said. 

But it wasn’t easy. 

Inside the commemorative book, director Martin Scorsese wrote a tribute to Renfro for his contribution to the movie, ‘For Chad R., in great thanks for all you’ve done.’ Photo provided

Making the movie
From the start, the tribe had major concerns that the movie would be filmed out of state, would not accurately portray the Osage and their culture, and would not use Osage actors.

“That’s what intimidated me, the business side of this,” Standing Bear said, explaining why he named Renfro ambassador. “Chad kept coming to my mind. I said, I’m not gonna be able to pay him. I might as well ask. He took it on himself.” 

There were several tense meetings with the production company and with the Oklahoma Film + Music Office, recalled Standing Bear, who said he and Renfro often teamed up with a good cop/bad cop approach “that was not planned.”  

“There were several meetings where I came off as a little aggressive to some people, but I had Chad there to explain things,” he said. 

“Chad was like a translator in a way. He would say, ‘What the chief means is. …’ I gave him total permission to do this. I told him, ‘Chad, you’ve got to be with me. You know this world. I need your help.’”

Standing Bear said he makes no apologies for “coming off a little strong” with the tribe’s demands in those meetings.

“I tried to make it clear: I’m not trying to be threatening. I’m just trying to express how concerned we are about being stereotyped as just some Indians out there,” he said.

“I think what Chad and I were saying was a bit new to people. Normally the indigenous population did not have any control of the movie. We understand that someone else bought the movie rights to David’s book, which we all endorsed. But we’re going to have a say-so in this one way or another or else. And the ‘or else’ was, if you go to another state, I can assure you Osages will be there” to protest.

With Scorsese, a legendary filmmaker known for classics like Raging Bull and Goodfellas, directing two megastars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, tribal leaders were well aware of the rare opportunity for Killers of the Flower Moon to accomplish what previous movies about Native Americans have not — properly showcasing the Osage and their culture.  

“It’s not that I’m trying to blame everybody for the past,” Standing Bear said, recalling what he told the film crews, “but when you have an opportunity to make it right, all your people need to be working with Chad and whoever he directs you to, starting with me, to make this story of Osage being told through the best that Hollywood can offer. We’re not trying to direct the movie, but we’re trying to have a voice.”

The consulting producer
Renfro’s involvement as unpaid ambassador quickly turned into a full-time job. It wasn’t long before he was hired as a consulting producer, a paid position.  

“Marty made a film about trust and betrayal on all different levels. And we have obviously trust issues. We were betrayed so many times that it was only natural there would be trepidation and questions,” Renfro said.

Meanwhile, Scorsese and DiCaprio worked with Eric Roth to rewrite the screenplay and tell the story from the perspective of the Osage instead of the FBI.

“My main goal was achieved — to get them to film in Oklahoma, on our reservation, and to make sure that our people were comfortable with the way it came together,” Renfro said.

Not long after the film premiered Oct. 20 in theaters nationwide, Renfro’s phone started lighting up with texts from friends who’d seen the movie and his name in the 10th frame of the credits. 

“They’d say, ‘Oh, my gosh, I knew you had something to do with the film but I didn’t know you were going to have a credit that size,’” he said with a laugh. 

Those credits could never be big enough, as far as Penny Kosinski is concerned.

“Chad’s journey from a successful interior designer in Palm Beach to a consultant on a major film is a testament to his multifaceted skills and deep passion for his Native American heritage,” she said in an email.

“As a friend, Chad has always been a source of inspiration. His work on our homes, and The Learning Center at Gulf Stream School, was not just about creating beautiful spaces; it was about infusing each project with a sense of history, culture, and personal story,” she said. “This approach to design, deeply rooted in understanding and respect, is what makes Chad’s work stand out. It’s this same approach that he brought to Killers of the Flower Moon, ensuring the film’s authenticity and respect for the Osage culture.”

One and done
Renfro’s role in Killers of the Flower Moon has been spotlighted by several media outlets, including Time magazine, National Public Radio and The Hollywood Reporter. He has attended premieres, news conferences and ceremonies around the world, including the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France and a special premiere in Pawhuska. 

And he plans to attend the Oscar ceremonies with Standing Bear. After that, he said, he’s done with the movie business. He wants to focus full time on his interior design business. 

He said his biggest hope for Killers of the Flower Moon, made with help from more than 100 Osage, is that it opens doors for more Native Americans to participate in the film industry. 

“This was the most important piece of film involving Native Americans in letting them use their own voices as much as possible,” he said. “It is setting a precedent for going forward.” 

In his Ocean Ridge home, Renfro has one keepsake from his work on the film, a Christmas gift Scorsese gave to each member of the production crew: a special hardcover “Making of the Movie” book. 

On a page inside the cover, Scorsese scrawled a note: “For Chad R., in great thanks for all you’ve done.”

Renfro said: “I am most proud of the fact that it came together in such a way that our people are presented accurately and that our voices are heard.”

And it might not have happened if he had not moved to Ocean Ridge and built a successful interior decorating business that attracted a client with a relative in the movie business.  

“It was really kind of a divine thing,” he said. “I had to leave home, come here and create a life for myself in order to have that one connection that I could use to make that happen.”

There are many things we do not do. At the top of that list is this: The Coastal Star does not do political endorsements.

To fairly write endorsements requires conducting interviews — preferably in-person. These are time-consuming and almost impossible to coordinate. They also require extensive fact-checking.

Some publications run criminal checks on candidates.

Of course, all this would be helpful to voters, but it requires more resources than this monthly newspaper has available.

The same goes for restaurant reviews. To do those fairly requires more than one visit and sampling more than one entrée. It also requires paying for those meals. Again, not something this small newspaper can afford. I know readers would love it if we reviewed all the wonderful restaurants in our area, but it’s just not possible.

As owners of the newspaper, my husband and I once mixed and mingled on the fundraising scene. We still contribute where we feel the need is greatest, but found so many local groups making worthwhile contributions to the community that it became a little overwhelming.

Especially for those of us more comfortable reading a book in bed than navigating a banquet in heels. No offense to those who love the get-up and glamour; you’re doing wonderful things for worthwhile causes. Please be sure to send us your event listings and post-event photos. In print, we are happy to promote and celebrate with you in the pages of the paper.

We also don’t do pay-to-play advertising, branded content, linked copy on our website, sticky notes on our masthead or pop-up ads online. We entertain the idea of testing these potential revenue generators from time to time, but feel what’s valuable to one person or business can sometimes be distracting to our dedicated readers. We do our best to always keep our readers in mind. We believe they are the reason our business partners buy display advertising in good old-fashioned newsprint.

As tourist season rushes toward summer (Easter is in March!), rest assured there are things we do plan to do. You can count on The Coastal Star to inform you on election results and how those officials address the coming budget preparations. We’ll also let you know when these elected officials succeed at representing their community, and when they fail.

We’ll let you know when restaurants open and close and celebrate the successes of businesses, nonprofits and those who contribute generously in our community.

We’ll follow sea turtle nesting season (at least two leatherback nests were found on South County beaches before the season officially began March 1), and the coming hurricane season — keeping a watchful eye on La Niña and El Niño.

And, of course, we’ll continue to follow public safety concerns, rising sea levels, population growth and the impact of new development.

In other words, we’ll be here doing what we always do: providing our readers with useful news and information with an eye toward keeping our coastal lifestyle safe, sustainable and enjoyable.

— Mary Kate Leming
Executive Editor

Raul Travieso Jr., founder of the Boca Raton Pickleball Club. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

Raul Travieso Jr. may well be Boca Raton’s Mr. Pickleball.

The retired assistant fire chief and Boca High graduate is also a card-carrying “District Ambassador” of the USA Pickleball governing body, a pickleball instructor and founder of the Boca Raton Pickleball Club.

He also has attended and spoken at numerous meetings of the City Council and the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District in a quest to have more public courts built.

“I remember when I first spoke to you all back in 2016, eight years ago, I thought you were going to call the paramedics and have me Baker-Acted,” he reminded Beach and Park commissioners at a recent meeting, recalling the novelty of the game back then.

At the time Boca Raton had zero pickleball courts open to the public. Now it has 25 with many more on the way.

The sport was created in 1965 in Bainbridge Island, Washington, where families from the mainland spent summers on the island and their kids got bored with the usual games.

“In the backyard there was a badminton court. And somebody came up with the idea of using a paddle pingpong and just hitting the ball over the net. A Wiffle ball at the time,” Travieso said.

“And so that slowly evolved into, they dropped the net and they made the paddle bigger, and then they got perforated balls with holes in it. And they noticed that not only did it go over the net nicely, but it also bounced. They decided rather than to keep it up in the air like volleyball they’d let it bounce like tennis.”

Pickleball cruised along mostly as a West Coast hobby until about 10 years ago when it migrated east, he said.

About the same time, Travieso was retiring from the Boca Raton Fire Department and having to give up racquetball following a hip replacement. His doctor recommended the new pastime.

“I went to Deerfield where they were playing indoors and immediately fell in love with it,” he recalls. “I actually called my wife. She was out school shopping with my granddaughter. I said Lorraine, you’ve got to come. You’ve got to come over here. I just found my new sport.”

Travieso says interest in the game has exploded for three reasons: “It’s very easy to play, it’s very easy to learn, and it’s also very easy on your body.”
In 2022, USA Pickleball says, 5 million people were playing pickleball regularly. Now the number is close to 9 million. The pandemic helped push the growth, Travieso said.

“People were literally painting lines on streets.”

A pickleball court is one-third the size of a tennis court.

“So, there’s not a lot of running, and almost exclusively doubles play. So, you have really four people playing in a space of a third of a tennis court,” Travieso said.

The first people in Florida to embrace pickleball were, like Travieso, recent retirees.

“Again, easy to play, not tough on your body,” he said. “But now the game has evolved into a much more competitive game. There’s a lot more young people playing.’’

The median age of players is now early 50s, down from about 65 just 10 years ago.

USAPickleball.org has three 3-minute videos that cover the basics. Travieso also gives a first-time player clinic on Wednesdays at Sugar Sand Park, which offers loaner paddles.

“In an hour and a half I have them playing. It’s as simple as that,” he said.

A game takes 15 to 20 minutes. El Rio Park, which opened Boca Raton’s first four outdoor courts in 2022, can have 16 people playing, with 20 to 30 waiting their turns.

“But while you’re waiting, you’re socializing,” he said. “And the games are short, they are only to 11, win by 2.”

Boca Raton also has 15 outdoor courts at Patch Reef Park and six indoor courts before school lets out at Sugar Sand. And plans are afoot to add more at Patch Reef, North Park and the Boca Raton Golf and Racquet Club.

Delray Beach, he said, has 12 outdoor courts, six at the Delray Tennis Center and six at another park, and seven indoor courts that, like Sugar Sand’s, are open only weekday mornings.

The Boca Raton Pickleball Club has 100 members, Travieso said, but is mostly a social group and has hit a standstill because it has to rent courts.

“Delray, for example, they get to use six of their courts to teach, so the city lets them do that. We were never able to do that here. (Our club’s) not dead, but it’s not growing,” he said.

Travieso’s father worked for IBM and the family transferred down from Raleigh, North Carolina, when Raul Jr. was a junior in high school in 1969. He attended the University of Florida for one year, then was drafted in 1972 in the last Vietnam War-era draft and served as an Army medic.

After his two years in the military, “I got a call from the VA saying why don’t you apply for Boca … the Fire Department is starting a paramedic program, you’d be a perfect fit.”

He took the test, got accepted and 39 years later, he retired as an assistant chief.

Pickleball is not Travieso’s only passion. He and Lorraine have four children and 12 grandchildren keeping them busy. He also plays senior softball and occasionally golf. “And I love to ride my bike.”

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Send a note to news@thecoastalstar.com or call 561-337-1553.

Although I live in Broward County, I enjoy your publication. It’s refreshing to see true journalism in a newspaper, rather than political advocacy.

I was saddened by the front page article in your February edition about the cyclists who were involved in a vehicular accident on A1A in Gulf Stream. 

Unfortunately, while A1A is beautiful in many areas, because of barrier-island constraints, it is often very narrow in those same areas. In fact, A1A is so narrow in many places as to be classified as a “substandard” roadway per the Florida Statute addressing cycling. A substandard classification requires that cyclists ride single file, whereas they are permitted to ride two abreast in other areas. 

As the former mayor of Hillsboro Beach, which is a section of A1A classified as substandard, I can attest that without constant police supervision, cyclists ignore this requirement.

While most commentary on this subject seems to focus on the rights of cyclists and the responsibilities of drivers, for everyone’s benefit and safety, cyclists must acknowledge their responsibilities as well. As one of the cyclists interviewed for your article pointed out, in a matchup between an automobile and a bicycle, there is a good chance the cyclist will die. 

If safety is the primary concern of cycling advocates, a statute requiring that cyclists ride single file at all times on all roadways would obviously provide more safety to cyclists. At the very least, cycling clubs should make it part of their club communications to identify roads such as A1A that are classified as “substandard” and remind their members that single-file formation is required by law on these roads.

— Deb Tarrant,
former mayor,
Hillsboro Beach

By Anne Geggis

The woman who drove into a group of nine cyclists along State Road A1A in Gulf Stream early Jan. 4 suffered a medical event at the time, according to a Florida Highway Patrol crash report.

Betty Ann Ruiz, driving south in the predawn light in a Kia Soul, crossed the center line in the 2400 block of North Ocean Boulevard alongside the Gulf Stream Golf Club course and barreled into the northbound cycling pack. The vehicle stopped after hitting a speed limit sign on the northbound side. Three cyclists suffered “incapacitating injuries,” two had “possible injuries,” and another had “nonincapacitating injuries.” Three cyclists were listed as having no injuries from the crash, according to the report released to The Coastal Star Feb. 16.

One of those suffering incapacitating injuries is still in the hospital, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help the cyclists, who were part of the club Galera do Pedal, which is Portuguese for “Pedal Guys.”

Ruiz, 77, who FHP says was going the road’s 35 mph posted speed limit and was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, was listed on the report as suffering from possible injuries and taken by an emergency vehicle to Bethesda Hospital East. Her condition at the time of the crash was listed as “seizure, epilepsy, blackout.”

Ruiz was given three noncriminal driving citations as a result: failure to drive in a single lane, unknowingly operating a vehicle with a suspended/canceled driver license, and failure to provide proof of insurance. Drug and alcohol tests were not performed, the FHP report says.

Attempts to reach Ruiz were unsuccessful. The FHP originally reported that Ruiz, whose address is redacted on the FHP report, lives in Lantana.

Diego Rico, 37, of Coconut Creek — one of the three seriously injured in the crash — called the report “a joke” and questioned why no toxicology report was done on Ruiz. He said he is facing six months off his construction work and at least $1 million in medical bills.

“We have video of her walking around minutes after the crash,” he said.

Rico has been through hip and shoulder surgeries, had 20 stitches on a knee and 39 staples on a hip, in addition to 15 staples and seven stitches on his left shoulder.

The cyclists, all with ties to Brazil, were on a ride — some riding side by side — that regularly attracts packs of cyclists, particularly as the sun rises. While no one was killed, the sheer number of casualties has brought new attention to the tight space along A1A that motorists and cyclists share. There’s been resistance to installing bicycle lanes along the road and the stretch where the accident happened is particularly narrow — only a few inches of asphalt lie to the right of the white lines demarking motor vehicle travel lanes.

All of the cyclists were wearing helmets, according to the report.

Michael Simon, president of the Boca Raton Bicycle Club, lamented that traumatic injuries resulted from a driver who he said shouldn’t have been on the road to begin with.

“It’s sad and it’s shocking,” he said. “When there’s an accident, the impact on everyone’s lives is mitigated if the driver is skilled or lawfully on the road.”

Two of the severely injured cyclists were a husband-and-wife pair. One of them is still hospitalized, making slow progress back to the activities of daily living, according to a GoFundMe account that the Florida Cycling Family set up.

Contributions have topped $20,000.

“We have one rider still under care and is relearning how to walk, talk, stand, and function independently,” a Feb. 9 update says. “He is still not able to stand on his own and his brain function has been slow to return. We see progress but he has a long road ahead of him. His wife had surgery and is home recovering with their three young kids.”

By Anne Geggis

The going will be slower along East Ocean Avenue from Federal Highway to State Road A1A starting at the end of the year as the state plans a road resurfacing and other work there.

But the 1½-year-long project, anticipated to start in December, is not the answer to the long-term flooding issues that are creeping up around the bridge, transportation officials said.

At an information session Jan. 31, Florida Department of Transportation officials took questions about a planned redo of a half-mile stretch of the avenue that is expected to wrap up in the summer of 2026.

“The purpose of this project is to extend the service life of the pavement and bring the corridor up to …  standards by resurfacing the existing roadway pavement, improving pedestrian push button signals, and upgrading the lighting for the existing signalized crossings at SR A1A and the proposed mid-block crossing just west of Northeast Sixth Street,” said Thuc Le, the project manager.

Specifically, that means in addition to repaving and resurfacing the travel and bike lanes at their existing widths, the $600,000 project will:

• Add a new “high emphasis” crosswalk to the west side of Northeast Sixth Street in Boynton Beach, which means traffic will be stopped for pedestrians there and pavement will be striped more prominently than the usual dashes denoting crosswalks. Both that crosswalk and the ones at the intersection of Ocean Avenue and A1A will be activated with push buttons for pedestrians.
• Upgrade curb ramps to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Enhance lighting for the pedestrian crosswalks and signalized intersections, with one additional light pole at the A1A intersection, and new fixtures for the existing light poles.

At least one lane of travel will be open during most of the project and access to adjacent properties will be maintained throughout, state officials said. Wholesale road closures will be limited mostly to nighttime when there’s less traffic. But Ocean Ridge Town Manager Lynne Ladner said she has concerns about how traffic will flow once the planned crosswalk is in place.

She told the Ocean Ridge Town Commission at its February meeting she didn’t think state officials were willing to engage with her concerns.

“We’ve expressed our extreme concerns about traffic, as it heads westbound over the bridge after bridge openings, but FDOT is adamant that it is going in,” Ladner told the commission, referring to the Northeast Sixth Street crosswalk.

The bridge openings, she noted, already cause the traffic backup to spill onto Federal Highway and North Ocean Boulevard.

At the meeting, Alex Meitin, a consulting project manager with Jacobs Engineering, said that Boynton Beach traffic studies indicate all will be well.

“It’s not like a signal that goes every three, four minutes — it’s not cycling,” he said. “It’s only when someone pushes the button. And then you have the assurance that you have a bridge tender who’s not going to open the bridge when a car is there.”

Ladner said that she already sees a traffic problem without the crosswalk, but that FDOT officials want to accommodate a request from Boynton Beach Vice Mayor Thomas Turkin, she told the commission.

Turkin couldn’t be reached for comment.

Currently, projects are underway that will add another 6,500 residents to the west side of the bridge over the next five years.

Kristine de Haseth, executive director for the Florida Coalition for Preservation and a former Ocean Ridge commissioner, wanted to know whether the project would address the flooding that takes place on that stretch of Ocean Avenue.

“It makes no sense to do a project, tear everything up and then two years later have funding to go back and replace the water mains or put in correct drainage or outfalls or whatever the case may be,” said de Haseth, whose organization says it represents the interests of six municipalities.

She was told that new inline valve checks will be installed as part of the project — but officials said it won’t address the long-term flooding issue with a raising of the road.

“We’re not replacing the roof,” Meitin said, drawing on a home repair metaphor for what’s happening in this project. “We’re patching, not replacing.”

Raising the road does not appear on the FDOT project list covering the next five years.

Another citizen question was why some of the lighting on Ocean Avenue was not working. Meitin said keeping the lights functioning is the responsibility of the municipalities.

“They’re aware of the situation and they’re working on it,” he said. 

The project will not affect marine traffic, as it will leave the actual bridge untouched. The contractor has not indicated which side of Ocean Avenue has been chosen for the start of the project.

By Anne Geggis

Three of five Delray Beach City Commission seats are up for grabs and the contests have gotten so contentious that, for the first time in memory, some candidates refused to appear at the main forum held in advance of Election Day.

Five of the nine candidates declined to participate in the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce Candidates Forum amid allegations the chamber forum is fixed for the so-called establishment candidates, like Vice Mayor and mayoral candidate Ryan Boylston, who have the backing of the real estate community.

That allegation of bias is just one aspect of the 2024 election dramas that will climax March 19 when voters head to the polls to chart Delray Beach’s next chapter and choose who will receive the Republican nomination for president.

Former President Donald Trump appears to have the latter race wrapped up, but the city is facing some cliffhangers as candidates debate issues such as resident complaints that downtown is too popular (and noisy), whether a historic district to preserve downtown structures will go forward, and how to address a state audit that found Delray Beach underbilled Highland Beach for fire services.

Capital projects are also on the docket, including a new water treatment plant and enlarging the police facilities.

Disagreements about development, city management and taxation are in full view and the candidates who have been getting less in donations — those without the business establishment’s backing — are making it more apparent who is who.

Mayoral candidate Tom Carney, facing Boylston and former Commissioner Shirley Johnson, set up an alternative forum Jan. 30 at the Courtyard by Marriott at the same time as the chamber event about a half-mile away.

The chamber “has become immersed in political favoritism and pretends no one is supposed to notice,” Carney wrote in a letter to the chamber. He pointed to Boylston’s role as moderator at another, recent chamber event as evidence that he would be getting preferential treatment.

Chamber President and CEO Stephanie Immelman denied the allegations and lamented that voters won’t be able to compare all nine candidates side by side in one of the few city candidate forums available via streaming video.

The chamber doesn’t endorse any city candidate for a reason, she said.

“We’ve made a conscious decision not to do that because we want to be able to work with whoever is elected into office,” Immelman said. “We really pride ourselves on collaboration and partnership.”

Boylston made his pitch for mayor at the Arts Garage in front of more than 100 residents, as did Jim Chard and Tennille DeCoste for Seat 1 on the commission and Nick Coppola for Seat 3. Coppola’s opponents, Anneze Barthelemy and Juli Casale, were at the rival hotel forum, introducing themselves to a group of about 60 people who snacked on hors d’oeuvres and asked questions of the candidates mostly one on one. That contrasted with the chamber event, where questions on education, sustainability and affordable housing were drawn at random for the candidates to answer.

Mayoral candidates Carney and Johnson also shunned the more traditional chamber venue in favor of the hotel event, as did Tom Markert, running for Seat 1.

More pronounced contrasts between the candidates on the issues emerged when all nine appeared side by side at the Feb. 20 forum hosted by the Beach Property Owners Association at the Opal Grand Resort and Spa. Notably, Boylston and Carney exchanged barbs and Johnson pronounced herself “a rose between two thorns.”

The question of beach renourishment elicited agreement among all three Seat 3 candidates that the city can’t wait for 2029 to do it. That’s when federal funding for renourishing city beaches is scheduled.

Chard decided to answer the beach renourishment question even though it wasn’t asked of Seat 1 candidates.

“There are other answers than digging up the sand and creating problems with the coral and the reefs and that is to do man-made reefs — replant the coral,” Chard said. “There’s the technology out there where it grows very rapidly and it can prevent all those big waves from coming in which causes all the flooding and damage.”

The mayor’s seat
All three mayoral candidates have served as commissioner at various times and one of them, Carney, 70, had a three-month stint as mayor.

Now, though, Boylston, 41, who is term-limited from being a commissioner again, is the clear front-runner in the money race to succeed term-limited Mayor Shelly Petrolia.

Showing nearly $143,000 raised as of Feb. 16, the latest filing period, Boylston has raised nearly twice that of his closest competitor, Carney. And he has twice the number of donors who identify themselves as working in the real estate industry than Carney does.

Boylston’s introduction to the stage at the chamber forum didn’t do much to dispel the notion that he’s the establishment choice.

“If we could please have to the stage, mayor … uh, sorry, candidate for mayor Ryan Boylston,” said Eric Roby, executive director of the American Red Cross’s local chapter, serving as the moderator.

That drew some laughter from the crowd gathered at the Arts Garage.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Roby added with a chuckle.

Critics say the election of more developer-friendly leaders like Boylston is the death knell for the city’s character as “the Village by the Sea” that will be impossible to restore in future elections.

Overdevelopment has reached a tipping point, they say.

Boylston, however, calls that a false narrative. He pointed out that those who make up the current majority on the commission — basically everyone except the mayor — were all portrayed as pro-development in their races.

“We’ve been up there for a year and none of those things that all those people said would happen have happened. No one’s raising the height (limit of buildings) in Delray. No one’s raising the density (limit),” said Boylston, who owns a marketing and web design business.

“We’ve approved one project in a year, so I think it’s kind of getting old,” he said of the criticism.

But the opposing faction is hitting on how regular residents feel squeezed. One of the most visible manifestations of this lies at Atlantic Crossing, now in its second construction phase. Once completed, it will add 261 apartments and 82 condos and 160,000 square feet worth of offices, restaurants and shops to 9 acres, situated between Northeast Sixth Avenue and Veterans Park, from East Atlantic Avenue to Northeast First Street.

“I sat here and watched and it was quarter to seven (in the evening) and it was taking cars three to four light changes to go through — three to four light changes,” Carney said at his rival forum about the intersection at Atlantic Avenue and Federal Highway. “And this is a Tuesday. You know, it’s really gotten out of control.”

Boylston argues that the faction opposing him is looking to undermine what’s made Delray Beach the envy of Florida cities that want a downtown of bustling streets and abundant foot traffic.

Those known to be more critical of developers and their projects did have a majority before the 2023 election — and the voting bloc made an imprint. Two former commissioners now seeking to regain seats on the dais, Johnson as mayor and Casale in Seat 3, joined with Petrolia to take over the appointed Community Redevelopment Agency board and end the lease with the Old School Square Center for the Arts, Boylston pointed out.

These were vital drivers of what’s made Delray Beach what it is today, Boylston said.

Carney, a lawyer by trade, served as Delray Beach’s mayor from January to March in 2013. He’s made the city’s rising costs — and the ballooning level of taxes paid — the centerpiece of his campaign.

“Ten years ago, we had a budget of $98 million and I’m now looking at a budget of $185 million,” he said.

Carney painted himself as the fiscal conservative who believes the city is headed in the wrong direction, and Boylston called himself the most qualified candidate at building community. 

Johnson, 77, who’s a distant third in fundraising for her mayoral bid, highlighted her six years on the commission and her desire to champion more action for environmental conservation on the local level.

“I’d like to start an army of people who say, ‘I’m not going to use single-use plastic anymore,’” said Johnson, who stepped off the commission when she ran into term limits last year. “Let’s not leave …  (future generations) in a worse place than we inherited.”

Johnson, an IBM Corp. management and systems analysis retiree, was the sole mayoral candidate to mention the need to replace the water treatment plant in her remarks at the competing candidate forum.

The 62-year-old plant is one of the oldest in Florida and its replacement has been under discussion for years, with the estimate of its replacement cost rising. Negotiations are underway with a company selected to build it.

Seat 1
Chard, 78, is the only one of the three candidates running for the seat that Commissioner Adam Frankel is vacating due to term limits who has experience as a commissioner. One of his rivals, DeCoste, 46, hit him over how brief that experience was.

“You can’t have someone who ran a race, won a race and stepped down after six months to run another race and lost,” said DeCoste, who was the only candidate not backed by real estate interests who appeared at the chamber forum at the Arts Garage. She made the same assertion at the beach property owners’ forum.

Chard was elected to the commission in 2017 but then stepped down the following year to run against Petrolia.

Like DeCoste, Chard’s professional experience comes chiefly from working for city government, albeit managing a mammoth agency in New York City. He also highlighted his experience on the board of Old School Square Center for the Arts, and his firsthand experience watching the transformation of Delray Beach.

“I am the candidate of experience and knowledge and I usually try to illustrate that by saying, I’m really glad to be back in this place,” he said, referencing the Arts Garage. “I remember when this almost became a law office.”

Chard’s campaign contributions show he’s the choice of the real estate sector — although he’s raised nearly $60,000 to the $72,000 DeCoste has raised in the most recent filings.

Her campaign is being financed by a variety of professionals and some high-profile Democrats, including Ron Book, a prominent Tallahassee lobbyist and father of the Senate

Minority Leader Lauren Book; Ben Sorensen, a former Fort Lauderdale city commissioner and former congressional candidate; and Debra Tendrich, who’s running for State House.
DeCoste tells voters that she came to the city, fleeing an abusive spouse, with her three children.

“Delray Beach saved my life and that’s why I have so much to give back,” she said.

She highlighted her experience saving money for the municipalities she worked for, including $1 million for Delray Beach. Most recently she was human resources director for the city of Boynton Beach.

“I feel like I’m the better candidate because I’m the only candidate that has over 22 years’ municipality experience,” she said.

DeCoste did not touch on her current status in her job, however. Boynton Beach put her on administrative leave Dec. 11. The day after the Beach Property Owners Association-sponsored debate, she was fired, with the city citing her use of city resources in her campaign and failure to keep campaign business separate from the city’s. DeCoste, in response, issued a 730-word statement denying she misused her position or engaged in unethical behavior and alleged that the city manager was retaliating against her for complaints she made regarding the city’s hiring practices.

Markert, 66, made what he sees as overdevelopment in the city the focus of his remarks at the alternative forum at the Courtyard by Marriott.

“We’re in a maturity point and we’ve got to go in some different directions,” said Markert, who’s been an executive at Office Depot, Nielsen Canada, Procter & Gamble, in addition to other big-name companies — and has handled budgets far larger than the city’s.

“Roads, as you can tell from the traffic, are thick with congestion,” he continued. “ … We have to ask ourselves the really hard questions on future development because we can’t exacerbate the traffic and parking problems we have downtown. We can’t do it.”

He also has touched on the need for historic preservation and a new water plant.

Seat 3
Two political newcomers are up against a former one-term commissioner for the seat now held by Boylston.

One of the candidates, Barthelemy, 46, has said numerous times that she was pressured to drop out of the race, but she’s not backing down. She previously ran in 2017 and lost.

Allegations have been made that Boylston supporters told Barthelemy that a long-dormant project to build a Haitian-Caribbean community center would be revived if she dropped out of the race this year. Boylston said he had nothing to do with that offer and pointed out that the two political activists who made the offer were also early donors to Barthelemy’s campaign.

Barthelemy said she wouldn’t make a deal like that. 

“I stood on my values — let the voters decide,” said the longtime social worker, now working as an independent consultant providing faith-based social services. 

She cited affordable housing as her signature issue.

“My first job with Catholic Charities was helping families that were in the process of losing their homes,” Barthelemy said. “They would come to me with eviction notices … so that’s my passion to serve.”

One of her rivals for the seat, Casale, applauded Barthelemy for staying in the race and detailed her own reason for running after being defeated in her last commission race.
Casale, 55, a retired businesswoman, said she originally got into local politics because of her concerns about overdevelopment and preserving the city’s character. Those concerns remain — especially when it comes to giving developers special exceptions to the existing rules — but the city’s financial state has her sounding the alarm.

“Our expenses are outpacing our revenues,” she said. “We are going to feel the effects of … what I call stealth taxes … fees that you are going to be experiencing and they are going to get worse.”

She has voiced her desire to prioritize putting in an Atlantic Avenue Historic District, now making its way through city approvals, and the construction of a new water treatment plant.

Coppola, 58, a retired electrician and now a self-employed property investor, presents himself as offering a fresh perspective on city issues.

“I am a first-time candidate and we all want to move forward,” Coppola said. “I think it’s very important to point out that I am the only candidate for Seat 3 that has not run before. My other opponents have run … and they have lost.”

In his public remarks, Coppola has focused on his experience serving as vice president and treasurer of the Sherwood Park Civic Association. He also served as a board member for the Pines of Delray Homeowners Association.

“When I stepped into that there was a balance of $700 in that fund and it was depleting rapidly,” he said of his experience with the civic association.  A few neighbors and I, we got together and we coordinated … and we are now sitting on a balance of approximately $15,000.”

He is also the chair of the city Code Enforcement Board and the frontrunner in the money race for the seat. Backed by the real estate establishment, Coppola has raised nearly $90,000 for his first run for elected office.

By Steve Plunkett

Town Manager Bill Thrasher had bad news and good news about his quest to find a $7.2 million grant with a $7.2 million match to build new sea walls and redo Briny Breezes’ antiquated drainage system.

The bad news: Briny is ranked No. 18 of 197 municipalities seeking Resilient Florida grants that will be handed out on July 1, but only the first 16 are promised awards.

The good news: The town wasn’t ready to begin work anyway and will move up to No. 2 for a grant on the next award date, July 1, 2025.

“I believe with everything that’s within me and all of my limited mental capacity that Briny is not only highly ranked but Briny is highly favored to receive $7.2 million in construction funds,” Thrasher told Town Council members on Feb. 22.

Part of the reason the town will not get a grant this July is that it asked for a six-month extension to submit its project proposal from its original March 31, 2024, target date, he said. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection awards money only to projects that are shovel-ready.

But during that additional time the town’s consultants discovered another source of money: the Florida Department of Transportation.

A storm drain along State Road A1A is “half full of silt and sand, and it’s the result of the runoff of A1A,” Thrasher said. Because the FDOT is responsible for the highway, it will pay for part of Briny’s work to refurbish the town’s drainage system.

The consultants needed the extra time to handle the complexity of dealing not only with the town but with co-op landowner Briny Breezes Inc., the South Florida Water Management District and other regulatory agencies, he said.

But in essence, he continued, the deadline extension confirmed to the state that the town’s work plan would not be ready to start this July 1.

“That eliminated our chances of an award on that day,” he said.

Thrasher also took time to debunk rumors about how much Briny Breezes has spent in pursuit of the grant money.

“There’s a lot of conversation going on. Millions of dollars floating around in the town, spending money here, there,” he said. “I heard somebody say we spent $1 million for these grants. And what have we got to show for it?”

To develop its $475,000 construction plan to compete for the $7.2 million state grant, Briny is using $330,000 from an earlier state grant and a $145,000 match from the town, he said.

The Town Council passed a resolution in 2022 authorizing Thrasher to use $144,747 in American Rescue Plan Act money as most of the first grant’s match.

“Those are federal dollars. And that’s exactly what you want to do … when you have no money and you want to acquire grants, is you chase federal money after state money,” he said.

“And so the town had to make up the difference to apply for these grants,” he said. “That difference is $253. So the cost to apply for all of these grants (is) $253 of your taxpayer money, or 50 cents apiece.”

By Anne Geggis

A years-long water contamination saga is over after involving sickened people and pets, city denials and a fired whistleblower.

The Florida Health Department in a Feb. 8 letter agreed the city water system doesn’t need further monitoring on deficiencies discovered in 2020, ending monitoring that was supposed to be in place for another 10 months. Delray Beach has complied with the final step in addressing the issue that emerged with an outbreak of sickness in the area from

Casuarina Road south to Linton Boulevard in late 2018.

Following the outbreak, The Coastal Star fought for the release of an inspector’s notes that documented the illness. And those notes contradicted the city Utilities Department report to the state Health Department based in Palm Beach County that acknowledged a cross-connection problem but also said, “No reports of sickness or illness have been received.”

Under the 2021 consent order demanded by the state as the full extent of the problem became undeniable, the city had until Dec. 1 to make sure that all reclaimed water customers had systems that comply with statewide rules,  detailing improvements to the drinking water system the city agreed to make. The Feb. 8 Health Department letter acknowledged that milestone has been reached.

The first step in the agreement occurred three years earlier: The city admitted in print that the system’s water might not have been safe for drinking between 2008 and 2020.

Among the findings the agreed-upon order had sought to correct: 581 customers were not equipped with backflow preventers to keep reclaimed water from flowing into the drinking water supply.

The city had to pay more than $1 million in fines and administrative costs of the case that was based on failures that spanned from 2008, when the city started its reclaimed water program, until 2020, when a whistleblower brought the failures to the state’s attention. Health officials, based in Palm Beach County, found the city had failed to do its required inspections.

Ultimately, the city also had to pay another $818,000 to settle a federal lawsuit that whistleblower Christine Ferrigan brought after she lost her job as an industrial pretreatment inspector with the city.

It’s all in the past, according to a Feb. 1 city letter to Rafael Reyes, environmental health director with the Health Department in Palm Beach County.

“Through the dedicated efforts of our team, along with the cooperation and guidance from the Department of Health, the city has resolved all outstanding matters specified in the Consent Order,” Hassan Hadjimiry, Delray Beach’s utilities director wrote, including a 145-page exhibit. “... Considering the fulfillment of all obligations outlined in the Consent Order, we kindly request the closure of the Consent Order.”

The Health Department agreed.

“We appreciate the effort you have expended to resolve this matter,” Reyes wrote to the city.

By Anne Geggis 

If you have a Delray Beach city water account, chances are getting closer to 50-50 that the meter reader that determines how much you’re charged isn’t working right.

As many as 40% of the city’s automatic water meter readers have stopped communicating with the billing system, and apparently there’s no easy fix for getting them corrected.

Up to 2,000 more non-communicative meter readers were reported at the Feb. 20 City Commission meeting, up from the 6,000 the commission heard about at a Jan. 4 meeting. The glitch prompted the sending of estimated water bills rather than ones based on actual usage, leading to sticker shock for some customers, as some bills jumped thousands of dollars higher than normal. That prompted adjustments to about 488 city water accounts.

Mayor Shelly Petrolia’s concerns that commissioners weren’t getting a true picture of the depth of the problem in January led to a February staff presentation showing an even greater problem with the automatic readers. Her position hasn’t changed, even after the new report.

“It feels like I’m not getting the entire story each and every time — it feels like we’re getting pieces of it,” Petrolia said later.

Back in early 2023, city officials estimated about 1,500 out of 20,000 water customers had faulty readers. That estimate has now ballooned to between 7,000 and 8,000 customers.

The company that provided the meter readers, Badger Meter, originally told the city that the replacement parts were not being manufactured and tried to sell officials on another system, to replace the one the city bought for nearly $7.7 million in 2013.

“To me that was unacceptable because we had all these meters in place and all of a sudden, now we’re going to change our entire communication system,” Utilities Director Hassan Hadjimiry said.

The city pressed harder, Hadjimiry said, and Badger proposed another encoder to replace the damaged ones. But that’s going to come at a cost to the city and it’s not going to be fully covered by a warranty.

While Hadjimiry assured commissioners that what the city spends to maintain its water information system is on par with neighboring cities, Petrolia said the faulty readers are costing the city more than just money.

“The trust has been broken and that’s the thing you can’t get back from people who are receiving these crazy bills,” Petrolia said.

A mark against gay pride pavers — With Delray Beach’s rainbow-striped crosswalk getting vandalized by burnout tracks for the second time in three years, the City Commission discussed perhaps doing away with the pavers at Northeast First Street and Northeast Second Avenue in Pineapple Grove.

Dylan Brewer, 19, of Clearwater surrendered to Delray Beach police on Feb. 12. He was charged with felony criminal mischief and reckless driving for an incident captured on cell phone video. He was driving a pickup and burnt out on the crosswalk that is meant to symbolize gay pride. The incident was similar to what a 20-year-old Lantana-area man did in 2021, right down to the pickup truck.

Commissioner Rob Long said the cost to fix the paint, estimated at between $2,000 and $6,000 by City Manager Terrence Moore, might not be worth it.

Mayor Shelly Petrolia noted that it’s usually part of the punishment that the perpetrator make restitution to the victims.

Attorney recommends against bigger raise for herself — The City Commission wanted to give City Attorney Lynn Gelin a 7% raise but she recommended that commissioners stick with the standard merit increase for city employees this year: a 5% raise.

The difference? Nearly $5,000.

“My husband is going to kill me for saying this, but …” Gelin said.

 She received a 4.94-point rating out of a possible 5 from the commission upon her fifth anniversary with the city. To show more appreciation, Commissioner Adam Frankel suggested increasing her time off with an extra five days. Other commissioners agreed.

“If it weren’t for you, I don’t know where we’d be on a lot of issues,” Mayor Shelly Petrolia told Gelin.

The raise boosted Gelin’s hourly rate of pay to $122.27. Based on a 40-hour week, 52 weeks a year, that would come to an annual salary of $254,300.

Historic downtown designation runs into wall — A City Commission workshop on creating a district to preserve historic aspects of the city’s downtown did not produce any progress Feb. 20.

Mayor Shelly Petrolia, who will be stepping off the commission due to term limits this month, said she was disappointed not to solidify efforts to maintain the downtown’s historic charm.

— Anne Geggis

By Anne Geggis

The latest Delray Beach police station plan receiving City Commission support would have it expand at its current site and possibly have a fire-rescue station move there.

The new plan is a switch from previous discussions about moving the police station farther west on Atlantic Avenue from its current home in the 300 block on the street’s south side.

It would reconfigure the station there so it can grow another 110,000 square feet.

Fire Station No. 111, just over a block to the west of the police station on Atlantic’s north side, could then potentially be in the same lot as the police.

“The big surprise is being able to put this all in one complex,” Vice Mayor Ryan Boylston said at the commission’s Feb. 6 workshop.

Ultimately, the vision is to concentrate government facilities in one place while reducing impediments to new retail and residential projects along the portion of Atlantic Avenue needing redevelopment to the west.

“The bottom line is that at this high level, (there’s) plenty of room for both of these facilities on this site,” said Jess Sowards, the architect hired by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to develop a plan to expand the police station.

City police need a station with 150,000 square feet — its current 40,000-square-foot space has grown too tight, according to a needs assessment done years ago.

The new police station would be three stories with parking below ground, according to the concept presented to commissioners.

Sowards said the fire station could be three stories, too, with enough space to accommodate five fire truck bays and an emergency operations center. But the fire station idea is less flushed out than plans for the police station and no funding has been designated for it.

Voters approved a $100 million bond last year for the police station work and other public safety needs, including possible fire-rescue projects.

Commissioners have agreed to proceed with the dual-use police and fire-rescue concept. They also like the idea that the redo provides a chance to activate a new section of West Atlantic Avenue.

“We have dead spaces up and down Atlantic Avenue, west of Swinton,” said Mayor Shelly Petrolia. “We’ve got the library, the courthouse, police, fire. What we wanted to do is to not have as many governmental properties fronting Atlantic so that we can have some passing traffic to draw people down toward West Atlantic.”

The 600, 700 and 800 blocks of West Atlantic, which the CRA owns, could then be dedicated to retail and residential development that could draw more people west. Some parts of the CRA land currently limit activity to a “public purpose,” so the city may face a hurdle if plans for that continue to solidify.

But that did not dampen the commission’s enthusiasm for the idea.

“This is something I could definitely get behind,” the mayor said.

By Steve Plunkett

Going against the grain of other municipalities across Palm Beach County, Gulf Stream’s town commissioners do not support extending the county’s penny sales tax increase another 10 years.

“I object to it,” Mayor Scott Morgan said. “It was to sunset in ’26 and I think we should as a town show our support for sunsetting that tax.”

Voters approved paying the extra 1-cent tax starting in January 2017 with plans to end it either on Dec. 31, 2026, or after $2.7 billion was generated. The school district takes 50%, the county keeps 30% and the 39 municipalities split the rest.

Gulf Stream has accumulated $402,000 from its share, part of which will go toward its multimillion-dollar road and drainage project.

Town Manager Greg Dunham said ultimately the public would have to vote on extending the tax in a future referendum and presented a proposed resolution on Feb. 9 supporting having the county call for such a vote.

“By passing this, it would simply express our approval to continue that (tax),” Dunham said. “The board of the League of Cities and all the towns and cities that have managers or staff on that board support the extension of this penny sales tax.”

“Well of course you do,” Morgan said, as some commissioners chuckled. “Once the government has a tax, it tends to want to continue the tax and the revenue.”

Morgan said the town has a tradition of having the lowest property taxes on the barrier island and had raised the tax rate only once since he was elected to the commission in 2014.

“Sales taxes in particular are the most aggressive of taxes. They hurt the poor more than they hurt the wealthy,” he said. “I see no need for a continued increase in the sales tax, which if extended one more time will probably be permanent or at least risk being permanent.”

Commissioners jumped on the mayor’s anti-tax bandwagon.

“You rarely in your lifetime get a chance to do away with a tax, (it’s) usually going up,” Commissioner Michael Greene said.

“Yes, I’m also in favor of sunsetting in ’26. Let it go,” said Commissioner Rob Canfield.

Commissioner Joan Orthwein agreed with Morgan but said she did not know if they should “go out there and make a statement.”

“I think it would be refreshing for a governing body to support sunsetting a tax,” the mayor replied.

The commission voted 5-0 against supporting an extension of the penny sales tax.

Gulf Stream announced two important dates for residents of its Core area west of State Road A1A and north of Golfview Drive.

On April 22, work to widen the Core’s narrow roads and to improve the drainage system and water lines is set to begin.

And on March 12 the contractors, consulting engineers and town officials will host an informational session at the Gulf Stream School to let residents know what to expect during the 18-month, $13 million project.

“Hard to believe it’s going to be here very quickly, and you’ll believe it when it starts,” Mayor Scott Morgan said.

A big part of the meeting at the school, which will start at 6 p.m., will cover how traffic will get into and out of the Core district while the work is being done.

— Steve Plunkett

With a major resurfacing project beginning as early as next month on State Road A1A through Highland Beach and a small portion of Delray Beach, the Florida Department of Transportation will hold an in-person open house and a pair of virtual public meetings on March 7 to provide construction details.

Prior to the open house, which will be at the Highland Beach Library from 6 to 7 p.m., the FDOT will offer two virtual public meetings, at 5 and 5:30 p.m. Residents will be able to ask questions of project staff after those video presentations, either through a chat feature of the application or by using a feature that allows them to raise their hands.

Those wishing to participate in the virtual public meeting can register at https://bit.ly/3NUAefn. They can also dial in at 914-614-3221 and use 937-867-830 as the access code.

During the live open house at the library, 3618 S. Ocean Blvd., residents can meet one-on-one with project staff members to learn more about the project and to ask questions.

The $8.3 million project, which is expected to continue through summer of 2025, will include resurfacing A1A from Highland Beach’s southern border with Boca Raton to Linton Boulevard in Delray Beach. The project will include widening the road to provide for a 5-foot bicycle lane in each direction as well as drainage improvements.

To minimize the impact on traffic, work will be done in phases. Lane closures will be allowed seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. but not in front of St. Lucy Catholic Church on Sunday mornings. Also, access to buildings will be maintained all the time.

With communication on the project a priority, the FDOT is planning to launch a project-specific website and will be mailing out information to addresses within the project area. An email list is also being created to provide information about significant impacts and milestones to homeowners associations.

— Rich Pollack

Boynton Beach residents, city commissioners and city staff join for a symbolic march from city hall to Sarah Sims Park to burn copies of obsolete segregationist policies that once divided the city’s white and Black neighborhoods. Photo provided by City of Boynton Beach

Boynton Beach celebrated Black History Month with an unusual ceremony designed to erase past segregationist policies that split the city into Black and white neighborhoods.

At their Feb. 20 meeting, city commissioners voted unanimously to remove three ordinances — unenforced but still on the books — to bring a sense of renewal to the city.

Two 1924 ordinances established “The Negro District within the Town of Boynton, Florida” and “The White District within the Town of Boynton, Florida.”

Another, passed in 1933, made it illegal for any person over 18 to “loiter, wander, stroll or be about or in the public streets, parks, public or other places, on foot, in a vehicle or any kind whatsoever,” in the other race’s neighborhood after 9 or 10 p.m., depending on the month.

Such rules were known as sundown laws and were used to enforce segregation, especially in the South. 

On Feb. 24, residents, city commissioners and city staff joined for a symbolic march from City Hall to Sara Sims Park, where they burned copies of the ordinances and then enjoyed music and food during a block party.

— Tao Woolfe

By Steve Plunkett

Police Chief Richard Jones has another letter of commendation for his scrapbook — this time for his lifesaving actions at the horrific Jan. 4 bicycle crash in Gulf Stream.

“It is with deepest gratitude that I write to you to recognize the efforts of Gulf Stream Police Department’s dedicated law enforcement officers who assisted our agency during the response to a mass casualty incident …” Delray Beach Fire Chief Keith Tomey wrote, calling it “a job well done.”

Tomey’s department provides fire-rescue services to Gulf Stream.

A subcompact SUV heading south on State Road A1A crossed the center line just south of the Gulf Stream Golf Club and struck a group of northbound cyclists. One was airlifted and two others taken to the Delray Medical Center’s trauma center; three others and the driver also were transported to the hospital. None died, though the most seriously injured cyclist was still hospitalized in late February.

“As you know, this portion of A1A is (a) favored place for cyclists to enjoy riding and one which is remote in its access to the mainland. Because of these challenges, the efforts of you and your officers to render aid, secure the scene, manage traffic including additional cyclists, and begin the investigation (was) immensely helpful to our personnel in treating and transporting the injured,” Tomey wrote.

Mayor Scott Morgan echoed Tomey’s praise at the Town Commission’s Feb. 9 meeting.

“It was an outstanding effort on your part to assist in probably saving the life of one of the bicyclists who was injured,” Morgan said before pivoting to the fact that Gulf Stream wants more of its police officers trained to be emergency medical technicians.

“We have a lot of elderly people in our town and it certainly behooves us to encourage our police officers who are first on the scene to have that medical skill, and Chief’s leading the charge on that,” Morgan said.

Gulf Stream last October instituted pay incentives for officers to obtain EMT training. Jones, a trained EMT, said he and Capt. John Haseley have worked diligently for about 10 months to have each squad car equipped with emergency equipment.

“We’ve already seen the benefit in several of those calls for service, whether it be a stroke or an unresponsive resident, that we’ve been able to help by having those pieces of equipment and that skill set. So we look forward to being able to offer that service and be able to be truly a public safety organization that can help from start to finish,” Jones said.

Tomey also wrote a letter to Jo Wagenhals, whom Jones helped in giving CPR at the crash scene. Wagenhals, an off-duty lifeguard captain in Pompano Beach, was named

Lifeguard of the Year by the Florida Beach Patrol Chiefs Association in 2004 when she worked in Delray Beach.

“While traveling along the road, you stopped to render aid and assist in treating multiple victims of this tragic accident.

“You acted selflessly and demonstrated a high degree of compassion and professionalism,” Tomey wrote. “Pompano Beach Ocean Rescue is lucky to have you on their team.”

By Anne Geggis

With three Town Commission seats coming up for election, Ocean Ridge voters have four candidates to consider with experience ranging from the never-elected to one with nearly two decades on the dais.

The two highest-vote getters on March 19 will get three-year terms and the third-place finisher will get a two-year term. They’ll be representing a town that is facing questions about how much infrastructure improvement involving water and sewer a community of 2,000 can afford.

Technically, three incumbents are looking for votes to return to office, but two of them came on board only this year.

Up for consideration are:

• Ainar Aijala Jr., 67, a retired Deloitte senior partner appointed to the commission starting in January.
• Nick Arsali, 68, a retired professional engineer and four-year alternate member of the town Board of Adjustment who would be a newcomer to the dais.
• David Hutchins, 75, a retired airline pilot and member of the town Planning and Zoning Commission appointed to the commission at the same time as Aijala.
• Incumbent Geoff Pugh, 61, a town commissioner from 2003 to 2018 who returned to a commission seat in 2021.

Though Pugh is currently mayor, that position is selected by commissioners annually. 

The election arrives following some turmoil in Town Hall. Two commissioners resigned in early 2023 following a split vote on making then-acting Town Manager Lynne Ladner a full-time employee. They were replaced by two others who resigned at the end of the year, one citing the state’s new financial disclosure law. The town’s police chief also resigned in 2023 to go to Gulf Stream.

The state of town affairs is a point of contrast among the candidates that emerged at a Feb. 22 forum, which drew about 60 residents.

“I think the town is going in a good direction — I think we’ve really turned a corner,” Pugh said.

Aijala said he believed the town got onto the right course beginning last April and Hutchins said he is “pretty happy” with the way things are going.

Arsali, however, said he’d be coming to the dais with a particular focus.

“If we look at our budget, it has gone up by 100% in the last five, six years, and then unfortunately, there’s nothing to show for that,” he said.

Long-lingering seaweed on the beach and the lack of citizen engagement in town affairs are also on his list of things that need attention, Arsali said.

“I want everyone to be involved,” he said. “I want to at least make sure everybody gets the news about it, hears about it so I get everyone’s input about it.”

The topic of converting the town onto a sewer system also produced some contrasts among the candidates.

“It’s on the horizon and it’s something that we need to look at,” Aijala said.

Pugh sees that horizon, first set out as a town goal in 2020, as something that’s far off — and only under certain circumstances.

“I don’t see that happening unless we have huge grants from the state or the federal government,” Pugh said.

Arsali was more blunt on the topic of moving the town to a sewer system.

“It’s all talk,” he said, noting how unfair it would be to people now building and investing in expensive septic systems.

Hutchins said he doesn’t want to spend the town’s money if the federal and state governments are willing to put up some funds.

“The direction of the state and federal government is to get away from septic systems in coastal zones,” he said. “I don’t want to be preemptive because it will be a very expensive undertaking.”

Aijala, with experience overseeing Deloitte’s global operations, can boast that he’s already saved the town money before completing two full months on the dais. He advised the town on updating its cash management policy.

“So we are optimizing our investment opportunities,” he said.

Hutchins said that serving on the planning board put him in touch with people’s hopes and dreams for their lives as they built their homes.

“We don’t want it to change because we love the way it is,” Hutchins said. “ … I certainly would like opinions on what we can do to make this town … a place we always want to come back to when we’re on the other side of the bridge.”

By Anne Geggis

Home builders will face stricter rules about how much square footage they can stack on residential lots east of the Intracoastal Waterway in Delray Beach, according to an ordinance heading for final City Commission approval.

The ordinance, its supporters say, is due to a decade-long trend: New owners of lots tear down existing homes and build replacements that dwarf their current neighbors.

“The mass and volume of these new homes has been very transformative and quite disproportionate to the existing neighborhoods,” said Ned Wehler, a trustee of the Beach Property Owners Association, which spearheaded the effort to get the ordinance passed.

The new restrictions were tentatively approved with little comment at the Feb. 20 commission meeting. The guidelines that will be up for final commission approval March 5 would make it so that these new homes don’t loom over the older ones, as seen on Seagate Drive or in neighborhoods such as Vista Del Mar in the northern section of the city’s beachside, Wehler said.

Wehler said that the guidelines that specify floor-to-area ratio would not allow walls to go straight up, as has been happening with some new homes on the barrier island. The new regulations would also cut the potential square footage that could be built based on lot size. Under the existing regulations, for example, a 10,000-square-foot lot could have a 12,000-square-foot house on it, he said.

“With 40% (lot) coverage (allowed) and when you’re permitted to build three stories, you can literally put a 12,000-square-foot home on such a lot which is, in general, very disproportionate to the neighborhood and quite disruptive,” he said.

The proposal would mean that 10,000-square-foot lot would have a maximum of 6,500 square feet built on it — a 45% cut — Wehler noted.

Wehler said the new guidelines are the next step in the beach association’s growing interest in quality control of what gets built on the city’s barrier island. In 2021, the commission agreed to limit rooftop uses in single-family neighborhoods.

“It came up back in 2019 with concerns that these three-story contemporary homes were being built with flat roofs with swimming pools and entertainment areas on the roof,” he said.

By Anne Geggis

DELRAY BEACH — A longtime pastor of St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church died Feb. 11. The Rev. John Skehan was 96 and died surrounded by loved ones, according to friends.

The native of Ireland was beloved by many parishioners even after his tenure at the church ended after he pleaded guilty to stealing money from the church and was sentenced to prison.

After his release from Martin County Correctional Institution in 2012, Father Skehan lived for 10 years not far from the church he served for 40 years, but was not allowed on church property.

About two years ago, he moved to Lourdes-Noreen McKeen Residence, a West Palm Beach assisted-living facility.

“He was a dear, dear loved person from my childhood family,” said Michelle Donahue, 55, now a real estate agent, who received the sacrament of confirmation from Father Skehan and graduated from St. Vincent Ferrer School in 1982. “I called him ‘Pops.’”

In 2006, Father Skehan was accused of taking more than $370,000 from the church. He pleaded guilty in 2009 to taking more than $100,000 and was sentenced to 14 months in prison, serving 11 months of that time. 

He made nearly $800,000 in restitution by turning over a condominium and a gold coin collection.

Frank McKinney, who joined St. Vincent’s in 1997 and whose daughter Father Skehan baptized, said he doesn’t believe that the priest committed any crime. He just didn’t account for the money and he gave it out to those who came to him in need just like an “old-school” Irish Catholic priest would do, McKinney said.

“The man didn’t know how to use a calculator, let alone a computer,” said McKinney, an author, developer of unique oceanfront estates and philanthropist who has built 31 Haitian villages from his book proceeds. “Any premeditated idea of taking money from the church … he would never, never do.”

The Rev. Francis Guinan, who followed Father Skehan as St. Vincent’s pastor, was charged at the same time with stealing $488,000 from the church. He went to trial and a jury found him guilty of stealing between $20,000 and $100,000. He was sentenced to four years in prison and served three years and seven months for the theft before his release in 2012. He retired to Port St. Lucie.

The thefts made national news, but Donahue said that parishioners’ devotion to Father Skehan was such that he never spent an hour of the allowed visitation in prison without visitors.

“He was a good man, did a lot of good things and helped a lot of people,” she said.

Father Skehan became a communicant at St. Mark Catholic Church in Boynton Beach following his release.

 A requiem Mass was expected to take place in Ireland.