Unwelcome vessel anchors at condo for lengthy stay, angering residents
The barge and its floating water jets were stored across the Intracoastal Waterway from The Boca Raton and out of the channel, beside the Boca Inlet condo. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star.
By Rich Pollack
They came to Florida for the Easter or Passover holiday and were looking forward to sitting around the pool outside their Lake Boca Raton condo.
Then came the large barge, planted just a few feet off the condo’s sea wall, an unwelcome guest that stayed for close to two weeks — with little the condo could do about it.
Diesel fumes spewed from a generator on the barge, filling the air and seeping into the 98-unit condo’s fresh air system, later choking at least five residents who had to seek medical attention.
“People came down for the holidays and they couldn’t sit outside,” said Madeline Stern, a board member at the Boca Inlet condominium.
As condo managers began efforts to move the barge — which was there to put on three light and water shows for conference guests at The Boca Raton resort across the way — they discovered the barge was in a part of the Intracoastal Waterway that no government agency wants to accept as its responsibility in this situation.
The shows, arranged by a nationwide financial institution, were April 23 and 26, with a third set for April 29.
Some Boca Inlet condo residents enjoyed an April 26 show meant for The Boca Raton across the Intracoastal, but many were upset that the display’s barge sat along their sea wall for almost two weeks. Larry Barszewski/The Coastal Star
“We started calling every agency we could think of and spoke to everyone except the Army and the Navy,” said Joe Lari, the condo manager whose company, J & J Management, has been working for the Boca Inlet condo for three years. “It seems like it should be in almost everyone’s jurisdiction but no one wants to claim it.”
Lari said the barge also blocked several boat slips at the condo’s dock and he had hoped that it could be moved, perhaps closer to The Boca Raton, without blocking the channel.
Fumes bother residents
Lari said plenty of the fumes from the barge got into the building. “This was dangerous. It’s insane,” he said.
Despite the condo’s efforts — including calls to local, state and federal agencies — the barge which arrived on April 18, Good Friday, was still there a dozen days later, although the noise and fumes from the generator — still annoying to residents — were no longer constant after the first five days.
For one resident, the diesel exhaust fumes were enough to make her so worried about the impact on her health that she called a family physician and went to get checked out.
“I felt like someone was sitting on my chest,” said the resident, who hadn’t been able to go out on her apartment’s balcony or sit by the pool.
Who you gonna call?
While government agencies, including the Boca Raton Police Department and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, have the power to enforce laws on the Intracoastal, there is apparently little those agencies could do as long as the barge wasn’t interfering with navigation or breaking the law.
The FWC says permits aren’t necessary to travel the Intracoastal, nor does it issue permits to anchor there.
A representative from the city of Boca Raton said that because the barge was outside the city’s jurisdiction it did not require a special events permit. She added that staff from the city’s Code Enforcement Division had visited with residents at Boca Inlet and later reached out to the contractors who were putting on the water and light show.
After code enforcement contacted those operating the barge, some improvements were made. The generator wasn’t running as often and the barge was moved about 20 feet to the north, farther away from the pool. Even so, it still remained just a few feet off the condo’s sea wall, blocking would-be visitors from docking, Lari said.
One of the main members of the team contracted to produce the water and light show said the crew had made adjustments to minimize the disruption to condo residents, including cleaning the filters and cutting back on the time the generators were operating. Technicians were brought in to make sure everything was operating efficiently.
“When we were working at first, we didn’t see it as a problem,” he said. “When we were made aware that there were community concerns, we made every effort to go above and beyond standards.”
A noise inspection by the city found no issues, according to the city spokesperson.
Information hard to get
Although it was a challenge to get any confirmation about what the barge was doing in Lake Boca up against the condominium’s property, Lari said he was told it was there to put on three separate water and light shows set to music — think the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas — on three different nights as part of a conference at The Boca Raton rewarding outstanding employees of Minneapolis-based US Bank.
In an email to The Coastal Star, the resort’s executive director of marketing, Sara Geen Hill, said the hotel was not responsible for the barge or the water and light show and would not comment on who was putting on the show.
“We are not involved in activations taking place on the adjacent waterway,” she said. “In keeping with our commitment to guest privacy, we do not disclose information about resort guests or the organizations who visit our property.”
While an email to the communications department of US Bank requesting information about the event — Legends of Possible — was not answered, some of those who were being honored for being outstanding employees did post about coming to Boca Raton.
Boca Inlet residents (l-r) Evguenia Kostina and Tatyana and Michael Lukas toast with champagne while awaiting the start of the April 26 light and water show. Larry Barszewski/The Coastal Star
Watching the show
Stern, from the Boca Inlet condo board, said she and several others tried to watch the display from the pool deck on the first night, April 23, but said the wind pushed the water from the display onto the pool deck, forcing her and others to go inside.
Residents who were outside on April 26 for the second display had a different experience, since the wind was blowing away from the condominium.
“I never saw something like that,” resident Evguenia Kostina said of the water and light show. “I love it. It’s not bothering me. It’s beautiful.”
Some condo residents brought champagne poolside, and some boaters on Lake Boca stopped to see the display.
Also present were members from Boca Raton’s code enforcement, who were testing for noise and fumes. With the wind blowing away, however, any fumes weren’t bothering the poolside audience that night.
While there were some residents of the condo who weren’t too upset about the barge being there for almost two weeks, Stern said it was disappointing that residents couldn’t sit outside when the fumes were blown their way.
“The whole situation was quite unpleasant and shouldn’t have happened,” she said.
Mary Hladky and Larry Barszewski contributed to this story.
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