News

By Steve Plunkett

A new name is coming to Oceanfront Park, but whether it will be called Boynton Beach or Boynton Beach Oceanfront Beach Park or something else altogether remains to be seen.
Boynton Beach city commissioners wrestled Aug. 20 with what to rechristen the park after Commissioner David Merker asked that it be included in the city’s branding efforts, which invite people to “Breeze into Boynton Beach.”
“It’s an asset — it’s our beach,” Merker said. “Name it. Let it be known — it’s Boynton Beach.”
Vice Mayor Woodrow Hay asked what the new name might be.
“Boynton Beach,” Merker replied. “I mean, it’s a beach, and it’s Boynton Beach and it’s our property, and it’s an asset, so why complicate it? People will know it’s Boynton Beach.”
Mayor Jerry Taylor said a lot of people don’t know that Boynton Beach owns that beach, which is inside the town limits of Ocean Ridge.
“I think there’s those over in Ocean Ridge that think they own it, but they don’t. So I have no problem with adding ‘Boynton Beach’ to the name of Oceanfront Park,” Taylor said, suggesting instead a mouthful of a name, “Boynton Beach Oceanfront Beach Park.”
Hay and Commissioners Michael Fitzpatrick and Joe Casello were reluctant to endorse a new name on the spot.
Casello moved to assign the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board to come up with recommendations. Commissioners agreed unanimously.
“We have been doing our very best to brand it,” Merker said. “We own it. What’s more beautiful than a beach?”
On Sept. 10, commissioners will preside over a renaming ceremony for the former Ocean Avenue Park on the avenue just west of Federal Highway. In mid-June, they approved a request by the Boynton Beach Historical Society to rename the park in honor of Fred and Byrd Spillman Dewey.
The Deweys, one of Boynton Beach’s first families, bought the 40 acres that constitute the town’s original plat on Jan. 29, 1892.
On Sept. 29, 1898, they filed the Town of Boynton plat with what was then Dade County. The Deweys also platted Dewey’s Subdivision, which were 5-acre farming tracts along what is now the Intracoastal Waterway.
The Dewey Park ceremony begins at 9 a.m.