February 2017 Blog Posts (67)

 By Rich Pollack

A memorial service will be held Feb. 26 for Highland Beach Town Commissioner Lou Stern, who died Feb. 8 following a short battle with kidney disease.  He was 82.

The service will be held at Gutterman-Warheit Memorial Chapel, 240 North Federal Highway in Boca Raton beginning at 3 p.m.

A resident of Highland Beach since 1997 after moving from the Philadelphia area, Mr. Stern was active in the community, serving as the chair of the town’s…

By Dan Moffett

 Ocean Ridge commissioners decided to postpone an appeal hearing for fired police Lt. Steve Wohlfiel after his attorney filed suit, charging the town had violated his rights and denied him due process.

 In a declaratory judgment complaint to Palm Beach County Circuit Court, attorney Ralph King says that the town is not following the employee rules in its charter by denying Wohlfiel a…

By Steve Plunkett

The Federation of Boca Raton Homeowner Associations is inviting voters to a forum of candidates for mayor and City Council Feb. 6.

The federation meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. with council candidates taking questions at 7 p.m. and the candidates for mayor speaking at 8:15 p.m.. The forum will take place at the city’s municipal building at 6500 Congress Ave.

The League of Women Voters will also be on hand to register voters.

The…

Locally produced balm sweetens

sea turtles’ recovery at Gumbo Limbo

Caitlin Bovery, sea turtle…

    The 2016 elections are over. Now on to 2017. The March 14 municipal elections are right around the corner.

    In Boca Raton the candidate qualification period has ended, so you may already be noticing yard signs. In our other coastal municipalities there’s a shorter period for campaigning, but already there is buzz about who is (and isn’t) picking up papers to qualify before the Feb. 14 deadline.

    Even with all the early election hype and intrigue, The Coastal Star…

Ben Hicks uses his photos to raise awareness of sea turtles.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

A photo by Hicks showing…

By Dan Moffett



    Ocean Ridge commissioners have decided to let the voters choose who should fill the seat vacated by former Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella, who resigned in December after prosecutors filed three charges against him stemming from an alleged shooting incident at his home.

    Mayor Geoff Pugh said because Lucibella’s seat is scheduled to be contested in the March 14 municipal election, it doesn’t make sense for commissioners to appoint someone to…

By Steve Plunkett



    A circuit judge has rejected a public records lawsuit against Gulf Stream after an attorney for the town mounted a defense that accused the plaintiff, town resident Chris O’Hare, of “bad faith.”

    “There seems to be a national awareness that Florida and now other jurisdictions that have liberal public records rights are in fact ripe and becoming the source of abuse for lawyers and individuals to just generate litigation to obtain…

Students from Somerset Academy Canyons High School participated in a cleanup

of the Ocean Ridge Natural Area on A1A north of Woolbright Road on Jan. 28.

They learned a few things about mangrove habitats while filling almost an entire roll-off…

By Dan Moffett



    Former police Lt. Steven Wohlfiel will ask Ocean Ridge commissioners to reconsider his firing at a special meeting at 3 p.m. Feb. 6 in the Town Hall chambers.

    The commission voted unanimously to fire Wohlfiel last month after receiving the results of an internal review that looked into his role in an alleged shooting…

By Steve Plunkett



    A proposed redevelopment plan by Gunther Volvo that includes a three-story parking garage at the back of the property has neighboring Place au Soleil up in arms.

    “We are very concerned about the pending Gunther Volvo development in Delray Beach on Federal Highway,” Chet Snavely, president of the Place au Soleil homeowners association, told Gulf Stream commissioners. “Good municipal planning is at stake here. We need a good relationship…

By Dan Moffett



    Controversial brainstorms that hatch in Palm Beach have a way of drifting south to Manalapan.

    So when the Palm Beach Town Council moved to consider leaf blower legislation recently, it wasn’t surprising that before long the idea would come up in Manalapan.

    At the Jan. 24 town meeting, Mayor David Cheifetz raised the issue on behalf of resident Jack Staub, who complained about blowers’ many annoyances and said the town should…

The view of the proposed Atlantic Crossing looking southeast from the corner

of Northeast First Street and Northeast Sixth Avenue shows residential and related amenities.

Rendering provided…

By Jane Smith



    The Delray Beach City Commission did not violate its charter by declining to hold a special election to fill a vacant commission seat, a circuit judge ruled from the bench in January.

    At the hearing, City Attorney Max Lohman argued that 60 days had not passed since the last failed vote to fill the commission seat. Vice Mayor Al Jacquet resigned from the commission on Nov. 8 after his election to the state House.

    The city had two…

Yard work and construction trucks clog a Hypoluxo Island road.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Mary Thurwachter



    A proposed law that would limit parking on the street and public rights of way…

By Jane Smith

    

    She is part of the glue that holds Delray Beach together.

    After nearly 13 years as the city clerk, Chevelle Nubin is leaving to take a similar position with the village of Wellington.

    Nubin will make more money. The Wellington city clerk offers an hourly rate between $42.31 and $74.04. Even if Delray could match the salary, interim City Manager Neal de Jesus said it couldn’t compete with the nearness to her Greenacres family…

By Jane Smith



    Some wore white T-shirts with “WHO’S LISTENING?” written in black across the top. Others wore white tops, each with a black crêpe-paper ribbon tied around the upper arm.

    Dozens of residents protested outside Boynton Beach’s City Hall before the Jan. 17 commission meeting. They were accusing elected officials of ignoring their complaints and concerns about the increased height and traffic problems the proposed Riverwalk project would…

By Jane Smith

    

    Three development teams were picked to present their conceptual plans for the 16.5-acre Town Square in Boynton Beach.

    The two local teams are: Boynton Beach Town Square LLC and Boynton Vision LLC. The other team, based in Washington, D.C., is Municipal Consolidation and Construction.

    The city is seeking a partner to help jump-start the development in Town Square, bordered by Boynton Beach Boulevard on the north and Seacrest…

By Jane Smith



    A corporate executive search firm will be used to recruit Delray Beach’s next city manager.

    “I’m not looking for someone on the learning curve or on their last stop,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said. “But someone with demonstrated measurable outcome where they were and who still has a lot of gas left.”

    City commissioners unanimously agreed in mid-January when they gave interim City Manager Neal de Jesus the authority to advertise for a…

By Willie Howard



    Manalapan is offering Hypoluxo water customers a 35 percent rate cut and a five-year rate freeze in exchange for a 30-year contract extension as the tiny waterfront town competes with Boynton Beach to retain its Hypoluxo water customers.

    The proposed rate cut would…