boca raton - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T11:26:19Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/boca+ratonAlong the Coast: Several South County beaches closed due to high bacteria levelshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-several-south-county-beaches-closed-due-to-high-b2024-03-27T15:11:07.000Z2024-03-27T15:11:07.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Anne Geggis</strong></p>
<p>Ocean water testing reported Tuesday found elevated levels of bacteria in water from Jupiter to Boca Raton, so a slew of South County beaches are closed to swimmers for now.</p>
<p>Ocean Inlet Park in Ocean Ridge, Delray Beach Municipal Beach and the adjacent Sandoway Park, and Spanish River Park in Boca Raton are among the Palm Beach County beaches where swimming is inadvisable, according to the Florida Department of Health Palm Beach County.</p>
<p>Sampling for enterococci bacteria found the water quality at these beaches to be “poor.” The levels of bacteria associated with stormwater runoff, human sewage and animal waste were at a level greater than the standard for safe recreation in the water. The samples were taken during testing on Monday.</p>
<p>Other beaches closed due to water sampling that showed poor quality are Carlin Park in Jupiter, Riviera Beach Municipal Beach Park, Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach and R.G. Kreusler Park in Lake Worth Beach,</p>
<p>A round of testing will be conducted today to find out if the water quality has improved and the beaches can be reopened.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Tuesday results found the water quality acceptable at Boynton Beach Oceanfront Park in Ocean Ridge, Lantana Beach Park, and South Inlet Park in Boca Raton.</p></div>Boca Raton: Thomson retakes seat on council; Drucker brushes off challengehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-thomson-retakes-seat-on-council-drucker-brushes-off-ch2024-03-20T01:56:09.000Z2024-03-20T01:56:09.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p class="Body"><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390437883,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390437883,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12390437883?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="216" /></a>Andy Thomson easily reclaimed a Boca Raton City Council seat on election night, capturing 62.3% of the vote to defeat opponent Brian Stenberg.</p>
<p>Thomson, senior counsel at the Baritz & Colman law firm in Boca Raton and an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University teaching local and state government, resigned from the council in 2022 to pursue his unsuccessful candidacy for the Florida House District 91 seat now held by Peggy Gossett-Seidman.</p>
<p class="Body">After losing that race, Thomson said he would seek elected office again and ultimately decided on a run for the Boca Council Seat D to replace term-limited Deputy Mayor Monica Mayotte.</p>
<p>“I feel incredibly blessed to be entrusted with this,” Thomson said at his campaign party at Maggiano’s restaurant. “I have served on the City Council before, but I take the duties very seriously and I am honored that the city would have me back in that way.”</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12402596267,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12402596267,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12402596267?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="218" /></a>Also victorious in the March 19 election was incumbent Yvette Drucker, who claimed Seat C by winning 77% of the vote and trouncing perennial candidate Bernard Korn.</p>
<p class="Body">Thomson received far more campaign donations than any of the other candidates, bringing in $133,604. He blanketed the city with campaign signs and drew the longest list of endorsements of any of the candidates.</p>
<p class="Body">Stenberg, a partner in the Greenfield Properties medical office real estate management firm, was making his second bid to serve on the council after Mayotte defeated him in 2021.</p>
<p class="Body">Stenberg congratulated Thomson at his own party at Duffy’s restaurant. “I wish him the best. I wish the best to the city of Boca Raton,” he said.</p>
<p class="Body">He did not rule out another race for a council seat. “The citizens who voted for me, it was a very passionate vote for them. I want to honor the value of their votes.”</p>
<p class="Body"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12402598470,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12402598470,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12402598470?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a>Stenberg said he did not seek endorsements and raised $16,709, with about a quarter of that coming from personal loans to his campaign. He relied on reaching out to voters directly and through volunteers.</p>
<p class="Body">Stenberg drew support in mid-March from the BocaFirst blog, which, without mentioning him by name, called him the “resident advocate candidate” in the mold of former Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke who stressed being “resident friendly” and opposed to overdevelopment.</p>
<p class="Body">City development has long been an issue in campaigns as the number of residents has reached nearly 100,000 and construction projects have sprouted citywide.</p>
<p class="Body">In their campaigns, both Thomson and Stenberg offered nuanced views on development, with Thomson saying growth should be managed responsibly, and Stenberg calling for “respectful growth” that avoids overdevelopment.</p>
<p class="Body"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12402598864,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12402598864,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12402598864?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a>Drucker, who raised $61,463 in campaign donations, is a first-generation Cuban American and the first Hispanic to serve on the council. She is a longtime volunteer with many organizations, including the Junior League of Boca Raton.</p>
<p class="Body">Drucker has made improving transportation and mobility her passion and promised to continue that work during her second term. She stressed “common sense” development.</p>
<p class="Body">Korn, a real estate broker, self-financed his campaign with $5,550. He has twice lost elections to Mayor Scott Singer and once to Drucker.</p>
<p class="Body">In the most recent campaign, Korn said his top priority was to end “uncontrolled development.” He also railed against what he said was political corruption in the city and among council members without offering factual evidence.</p>
<p class="Body">Korn repeatedly asked residents to file complaints with the state against Drucker, contending she had violated ethics rules even though there was no basis for that<br />allegation.</p>
<p class="Body">“It was a wonderful result for this campaign,” Drucker said of her victory, “but also to win by such a margin after the attacks by my opponent. The best is yet to come.”</p>
<p class="Body">When Mayotte, who lives in the eastern part of the city near downtown, leaves the council at the end of this month, all five council members will live west of Interstate 95.</p>
<p> </p></div>Election results: Boca Raton City Council, Seat Chttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/election-results-boca-raton-city-council-seat-c2024-03-20T00:10:36.000Z2024-03-20T00:10:36.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12402598864,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12402598864,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12402598864?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
<p>Unofficial results</p>
<p><em>Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections</em></p></div>Election results: Boca Raton City Council, Seat Dhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/election-results-boca-raton-city-council-seat-d2024-03-20T00:08:52.000Z2024-03-20T00:08:52.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12402598470,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12402598470,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12402598470?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
<p>Unofficial results</p>
<p><em>Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections</em></p></div>Special Report: Condo costs: A sudden stormhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/special-report-condo-costs-a-sudden-storm2024-02-28T20:07:50.000Z2024-02-28T20:07:50.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390480866,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390480866,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12390480866?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a></strong><em>Penthouse Delray undergoes balcony work, a common sight as condos face deadlines for inspections and repairs. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">Owners pay soaring prices for repairs, insurance, reserves as new demands hit coast ‘like a tsunami’</span> <strong><br /> </strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Also in the special report:</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/condo-costs-special-report-south-palm-beach-southgate">South Palm Beach — Southgate </a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/condo-costs-special-report-highland-beach-coronado">Highland Beach — Coronado </a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/condo-costs-special-report-boca-raton-mayfair"> Boca Raton — Mayfair </a></p>
<p><strong>By Rich Pollack</strong></p>
<p>It was a storm that no one living in a beachside condo could have seen coming.</p>
<p>As shock waves from the June 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Miami-Dade County reverberated northward, condo owners up and down the coast became unwitting victims of the financial aftermath.</p>
<p>Insurance companies, fearing more billion-dollar losses, raised premiums on condos that in some cases would eat up close to half of a complex’s operating budget. State regulators and some local governments, hoping to stave off another catastrophe, implemented strict structural standards and revived a once-tempered requirement that buildings have fully funded reserves.</p>
<p>Now, with additional premium hikes on the horizon and with deadlines for often multimillion-dollar structural remediations and reserve studies closing in, condo boards along the southern coast of Palm Beach County are finding themselves forced to require special assessments and raise monthly or quarterly maintenance fees to levels that are driving longtime unit owners to consider fleeing their homes.</p>
<p>“People are starting to have to decide whether to fill their prescriptions or pay their HOA fees,” says Rob Marzigliano, president of Seagate of Highland in Highland Beach, where a small exodus of unit owners has already begun. “The people on fixed incomes are struggling.”</p>
<p>At the 316-unit Seagate, where four buildings planted on the west side of State Road A1A have stood for more than 50 years, the monthly maintenance fee jumped from $880 last year to just under $1,000. Added to that is a $60,000 assessment to cover repairs identified during a state-mandated inspection.</p>
<p>“We’re getting hit with a lot of repairs in order to make our condo safe,” said Marzigliano, who sees more increases coming. <br /> At Seagate, where about a dozen units are on the market, the cost of those repairs is spread out over all the 316 unit owners, helping to minimize the impact. In some of the</p>
<p>smaller buildings with fewer than 50 units, assessments are coming in at more than $200,000 per unit.</p>
<p>While some are struggling to meet the suddenly high cost of condo living, many others on the coast can afford to foot the bills, even if they’d prefer not to.</p>
<p>Still, the cumulative impact of having to deal with what some call a triple whammy is leaving many wondering how condos will deal with a huge impact all at once.</p>
<p>“We understand insurance increases, we understand the importance of recertification and we understand the need for reserves, but everything is coming at us all at one time, like a tsunami,” says Emily Gentile, president of the Beach Condo Association of Boca Raton, Highland Beach and Delray Beach. “People don’t understand the impact of this on those of us on the beach. It’s devastating.”</p>
<p>Gentile says one group that is feeling the impact a little harder than most is seniors.</p>
<p>“It’s hard when you’re almost 80 years old and you’re getting hit with all this stuff and there’s nothing you can do but move,” she said. “It’s overwhelming.”</p>
<p>Another challenge facing condo boards is the increasing number of requests for improved amenities and services coming from new and often younger residents. Those improvements can also drive an increase in assessments.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390481488,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390481488,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12390481488?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>Marilyn Blitz says high quarterly fees forced her to sell at the Yacht and Racquet Club of Boca Raton. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p>“There were more assessments than I have shoes — and I have lots of shoes,” said Marilyn Blitz, who in September sold her high-rise two-bedroom unit at the Yacht and Racquet</p>
<p>Club of Boca Raton and moved to a beachside rental apartment. “It just became price-prohibitive to stay there.”</p>
<p>Blitz says that just before she sold her condo, the quarterly condo fee came in at just over $7,700 and included a special assessment and a $2,000 special bill for reserve funds.</p>
<p>On top of that, Blitz said, are rising property taxes, which this year were about $5,400.</p>
<p>Selling the condo where she had lived for about 15 years was not an easy decision for Blitz, who says she misses some of her friends and the amenities she took advantage of.</p>
<p>“I wish I hadn’t had to leave, but I’m happy where I am,” she said. “I figured if I sold my condo and put whatever proceeds I had in the bank, it would give me the leverage to do the things I want to do.”</p>
<p>Gentile and others say that assistance from state or local governments in the form of low-interest loans would help ease the burden shouldered by condo boards and condo owners, but that does not appear to be happening anytime soon.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Scrambling for insurance</span><br /> Skyrocketing property insurance premiums are a problem across the state for single-family homeowners as well as businesses. For condominium complexes, however, the challenges that come with finding affordable insurance — if they can find insurance at all — has been magnified.</p>
<p>The beachside Clarendon condominium in Highland Beach is one of dozens of condos that discovered their insurance company had dropped them, forcing the board to race to find coverage.</p>
<p>“We had to scramble,” said President John Shoemaker, adding that many of the companies they hoped would help had pulled out of the state. In the end, Clarendon was able to get coverage from Citizens Property Insurance Corp., Florida’s insurance company of last resort.</p>
<p>At Clarendon, insurance costs increased 56% with the premium now about $400,000 a year. A special assessment averaging about $7,000 per unit was implemented in order to pay the premium.</p>
<p>“It’s absolutely killing us and we’re looking at a 20% increase coming this year,” Shoemaker said.</p>
<p>Insurance accounts for about 42% of the Clarendon board’s overall operating budget, and Shoemaker believes that just about all condos up and down the coast are in the same boat, with insurance being between 40% and 70% of budgets.</p>
<p>That can lead to other problems, according to Shoemaker.</p>
<p>“When you have to spend so much on insurance, there’s only so much left for mandatory maintenance,” he said. <br /> In many cases, spending money on preventive maintenance is just not possible.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390482271,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390482271,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12390482271?profile=RESIZE_584x" width="533" /></a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Paying for years of neglect</span><br /> For many condos that focused on regular maintenance as well as preventive maintenance, the costs of making mandatory structural repairs can be affordable.</p>
<p>Yet for other buildings where maintenance has been put off, the cost of having to do several now-required repairs — replacing a roof or air-conditioning system, for example — is causing pain in the pockets of residents.</p>
<p>“A lot of problems come from kicking the can down the road,” Shoemaker says.</p>
<p>He says that in many cases condo boards faced with having to do repairs had options to “repair, replace or ignore,” and too often ignoring the problem was the chosen path.</p>
<p>At Seagate, for example, Highland Beach town officials say that inspections revealed emergency generators were not properly functioning for years, leading to the condo board’s having to pay for temporary emergency generators until new ones can be installed.</p>
<p>Mandatory inspections required as part of the state recertification process have revealed widespread structural issues due to concrete deterioration. In some cases, cracks and other signs that concrete has weakened have been painted over or otherwise ignored.</p>
<p>“Because of the age of many buildings, maintenance should be done annually,” said Kevin DuBrey, director of project management for Hillman Engineering, one of many firms that conduct the mandatory milestone inspections required for recertification.</p>
<p>DuBrey says that most of the time when his team does an inspection it finds signs of corrosion, including chunks of concrete missing or cracks.</p>
<p>“It’s rare that we don’t see minor structural damage,” he said. “It’s not significant but it should be addressed right away.”</p>
<p>Without proper treatment, corrosion could spread and further weaken rebar, bringing a danger of large pieces of concrete falling from the building, he said.</p>
<p>DuBrey said that a lot of issues engineers see come as a result of boards not knowing how important it is to address issues.</p>
<p>“It’s not with bad intentions, it’s not with malice,” he said. “It’s often a lack of understanding of the repairs.”</p>
<p>While acknowledging the possible burden of state requirements that buildings three stories or higher and 25 years or older be inspected before the end of the year — unless municipalities set earlier deadlines — some see a silver lining.</p>
<p>Shoemaker and others say recertification is a positive because it prevents condos from delaying needed work and it can take pressure off condo boards.</p>
<p>“Certification is good,” Shoemaker said. “It tells you just how far everything was left in a state of disrepair.”</p>
<p>In many instances in the past, condo boards would suggest repairs but could not get a majority of unit owners to approve moving forward. <br /> Now with the state mandate, the decision on whether to make repairs that routinely cost millions of dollars no longer falls on the condo board.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Making reserves mandatory</span><br /> Until recent changes in the law, condominium boards could waive any requirement to have reserve funds available if the majority of unit owners agreed. That changed after the Champlain Towers collapse; now condo boards must ensure reserves are available to cover the cost of major structural projects and of items with a value of more than $10,000.</p>
<p>For buildings that have been setting aside money for major repairs or renovations, the impact of the new law could be manageable. For those that haven’t, the new law will mean going back to residents once again, asking for more money.</p>
<p>“It’s going to be a financial burden people don’t yet understand,” Shoemaker said.</p>
<p>Most condos probably will have to ask for additional funds from residents, even those that set aside reserves but have had to use some of them for repairs to meet recertification requirements.</p>
<p>“It’s rare that there are associations that have fully funded reserves,” said condo law attorney Elaine Gatsos.</p>
<p>Under the new law, condos are required to complete a Structural Integrity Reserve Study by the end of this year conducted by an engineer, architect or other professional certified to do a state-required inspection.</p>
<p>That study mandates an evaluation of roofs, major structural items, electrical systems and just about anything else with a replacement cost of over $10,000 to determine the life expectancy of that item and the price of replacing it.</p>
<p>The study, which must be done every 10 years, also must provide a reserve funding schedule with a recommended amount that needs to be set aside each year so that the full amount needed to replace the item will be available when it reaches the end of its useful life.</p>
<p>If a condo’s internal wiring system, for example, will cost $100,000 to replace when its estimated useful life ends in 10 years, the board will be required to incorporate a portion of the cost into its annual budget each of those 10 years so it will have the full $100,000 when it comes time for a new system.</p>
<p>Gatsos, who has been representing condos for more than four decades, says that until the study is completed, uncertainty hangs over the heads of board members, who have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure funding is available.</p>
<p>“All the condo boards are shaking in their boots wondering what the reserve studies are going to come back with as far as the dollar amounts that they’re going to have to include in their budgets,” she said.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Impact on real estate</span><br /> What does all this mean for the price of real estate?</p>
<p>Some say if too many residents sell or if an abundance of foreclosures occurs, it could result in values decreasing and could mean smaller buildings would have to sell to developers to be torn down and replaced with more luxurious condos.</p>
<p>Shoemaker is among those who say the improvements will make buildings more attractive to buyers.</p>
<p>“The property will look good and be certified as safe,” he said. “Prices will go up because the building will be better.”</p>
<p>Real estate agent Mark Hansen, who specializes in luxury condos, agrees that building improvements can enhance the value of units, especially east of the Intracoastal Waterway where demand remains high.</p>
<p>“When buyers know that things have been updated, it can certainly be helpful in maximizing value,” he said.</p>
<p>Hansen said that the beach area may have an advantage over condos in more western communities because demand for property remains strong.</p>
<p>“People want to live here,” he said. “It’s still a very desirable location.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Possible solutions</span><br /> Gentile, from the Beach Condo Association, is lobbying to have the state help condos and condo owners with low-interest loans. On her wish list are long-term low-interest loans for repairs, a low-interest loan fund for insurance and a revision of reserve requirements to make them manageable.</p>
<p>Gentile would also like to see regulations to ensure construction prices stay in check even during high demand.</p>
<p>State Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, whose district includes Boca Raton and Highland Beach, is sympathetic but doesn’t see a solution anytime soon.</p>
<p>“The legislature has to address this but it’s not a quick fix,” she said. “Everyone wants a quick fix, but it’s just not quick-fixable because it has to be done correctly with everyone involved.”</p>
<p>She said she would work with some of her colleagues to discuss possible solutions and hopes the reserve issue can be brought back to the legislature next year.</p>
<p>Until fixes come from Tallahassee, condo boards and presidents will do their best to meet mandates while keeping unit owners’ challenges in mind.</p>
<p>Marzigliano at the Seagate condo says it’s been a challenge to get a good night’s sleep since he became president of the board — a full-time volunteer job — in April.</p>
<p>“I wake up worrying about how to restore Seagate and how to keep residents happy,” he said.</p></div>Condo costs special report: Boca Raton — Mayfairhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/condo-costs-special-report-boca-raton-mayfair2024-02-28T19:41:57.000Z2024-02-28T19:41:57.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390475082,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390475082,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12390475082?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a></strong><em>Mayfair condo board President Joanne Chester says: ‘We are really hoping the state will somehow intercede to help us with this.’ <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">Nightmare numbers: Insurance up 300%, reserves at only 10%</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><strong>Also in the special report: </strong></span><a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/special-report-condo-costs-a-sudden-storm">Condo costs: A sudden storm </a>|<a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/condo-costs-special-report-south-palm-beach-southgate">South Palm Beach — Southgate</a>|<a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/condo-costs-special-report-highland-beach-coronado">Highland Beach — Coronado </a></p>
<p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p>Boca Raton’s Mayfair condominium is caught in a perfect storm.</p>
<p>Insurance rates have skyrocketed. New laws require condo association boards to conduct structural inspections and make any needed repairs. And by next year, Mayfair must fully fund its reserves to pay for them.</p>
<p>On the most basic level, that means the cost of living at the 60-year-old Boca Raton building at 1401 S. Ocean Blvd. is increasing substantially. Insurance costs alone jumped 300% over the last two years.</p>
<p>The Mayfair is hardly alone; condos across South Florida face similar financial pressures.</p>
<p>Mayfair President Joanne Chester said the board needs financial help, although no solutions from the state are imminent.</p>
<p>“We are really hoping the state will somehow intercede to help us with this,” she said. “It will be really difficult for people living here to continue paying the maintenance that has to go up.”</p>
<p>Perhaps the state could offer long-term low-interest or no-interest loans, she said, or provide financial assistance that condos could apply for.</p>
<p>“If the state would help us with that, that would be incredible,” she said. “Our state needs to help us. Our governor needs to step in.”</p>
<p>Mayfair’s board knows that insurance is all but impossible to come by. The previous insurer, Lloyd’s of London, pulled out of the market two years ago. The board used multiple insurers for one year because no single carrier would assume the entire risk. Mayfair is now insured by Citizens, the state’s insurer of last resort.</p>
<p>“There are not many insurance companies that want to deal with this area,” Chester said. “Not many even want to get us a proposal.”</p>
<p>Faced with the ballooning cost, the condo board had no choice but to raise maintenance fees. In 2022, the quarterly rate per unit was $3,588. Last year, it was $4,709. This year, it is $5,038.</p>
<p>Owners “are not happy about that at all. It is more money out of their pocket,” Chester said. Owners also worry that the high fees will make it harder to sell their units.</p>
<p>But that’s just the tip of the financial iceberg.</p>
<p>A state law enacted after the catastrophic 2021 collapse of a condo in Surfside requires condo associations to conduct reserve studies every decade to make sure they have adequate resources to finance needed structural repairs. Starting next year, they will no longer be able to waive a requirement that they put money in reserves.</p>
<p>At present, Mayfair’s reserves are only 10% funded.</p>
<p>Board members are calculating how much full funding will cost as they begin drawing up the 2025 budget.</p>
<p>What Chester does know is this: “Now that we have to fully fund, that would be a giant increase in maintenance to pay for that. We really think the state should kick in and help with that,” she said.</p>
<p>And then there’s the additional requirement to inspect the five-story, 55-unit Mayfair.</p>
<p>The Mayfair submitted required structural and electrical engineering reports to the city in November and is awaiting word on whether the condo will get a building recertification — a designation that the building is safe.</p>
<p>Chester said the reports show that the Mayfair is structurally sound. But repairs, such as concrete restoration, will have to be made and she does not yet know the total cost.</p>
<p>Separately, the condo needs to be repainted.</p>
<p>Still to be determined is how owners will pay for reserves and repair costs.</p>
<p>Already, however, increased maintenance fees are proving too much for some owners.</p>
<p>Chester knows of people, including some at the Mayfair, who are selling their units “so they don’t have to face this financial hardship.”</p>
<p>Paradoxically, people are still buying units. Chester thinks that’s because some buyers are affluent, paying in cash, and are not bothered by the fees.</p>
<p>Others, though, “are coming from out of state and are not aware of everything that is being imposed on us.”</p>
<p>Chester foresees a grim future for many condos.</p>
<p>“My opinion is a lot of condominiums will have to be dissolved,” she said. “They will have to become apartment complexes. Most people in condos are retired. I think a lot of condos will be dissolved because owners can’t afford to live in them.”</p>
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<p> </p></div>Ocean Ridge: A role of a lifetimehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-a-role-of-a-lifetime2024-02-28T19:19:27.000Z2024-02-28T19:19:27.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390469479,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390469479,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12390469479?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></strong><em>Interior designer Chad Renfro, a member of the Osage Nation, at home in Ocean Ridge with a memento from the film, </em>Killers of the Flower Moon<em>. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">Ocean Ridge designer’s guidance ensured Best Picture nominee stayed true to Osage people</span></p>
<p><strong>By Joe Capozzi</strong></p>
<p>If director Martin Scorsese’s <em>Killers of the Flower Moon</em> wins Best Picture at the Oscars on March 10, an interior designer from Ocean Ridge can rightly claim some credit.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Pawhuska is the setting for many of the events depicted in <em>Killers of the Flower Moon</em>, based on David Grann’s 2017 best-seller about a dark chapter of Osage history known as the Reign of Terror. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Keeping them honest</span><br />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.</p>
<p>The result is a movie that has won critical acclaim, multiple awards and, perhaps most significant, the blessing of the Osage Nation.</p>
<p>And to make it happen, Renfro used his Ocean Ridge connections (more on that later). </p>
<p>“It was really kind of a divine order,” Renfro said of the sequence of events that led to his role in the production. </p>
<p>“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.” </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>“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 <em>The Coastal Star</em>. “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.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390470280,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390470280,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12390470280?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></span><em>A memento for Chad Renfro for his work on the film. <strong>Photo provided</strong></em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">The backstory</span><br />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? </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“He is culturally grounded here among his people. He’s part of our community,” Standing Bear said.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Acting out of concern </span><br />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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Help from Ocean Ridge</span> <br />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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>“Moments later, there is an email chain between the two men who own Imperative Entertainment and myself,” he recalled. </p>
<p>“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.” </p>
<p>Within weeks, Renfro was helping arrange visits to Pawhuska for the Imperative team, and later Scorsese, to meet with tribal leaders, elders and citizens. </p>
<p>“Chad opened that door for Imperative and later joined me in opening the doors for Marty and the team,” Standing Bear said. </p>
<p>But it wasn’t easy. </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390470657,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390470657,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12390470657?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em>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.’ <strong>Photo provided</strong></em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Making the movie</span><br />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.</p>
<p>“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.” </p>
<p>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.” </p>
<p>“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. </p>
<p>“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.’”</p>
<p>Standing Bear said he makes no apologies for “coming off a little strong” with the tribe’s demands in those meetings.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>With Scorsese, a legendary filmmaker known for classics like <em>Raging Bull</em> and <em>Goodfellas</em>, 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. </p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">The consulting producer</span><br />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. </p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>“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. </p>
<p>Those credits could never be big enough, as far as Penny Kosinski is concerned.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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 <em>Killers of the Flower Moon</em>, ensuring the film’s authenticity and respect for the Osage culture.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">One and done</span><br />Renfro’s role in <em>Killers of the Flower Moon</em> has been spotlighted by several media outlets, including <em>Time</em> magazine, National Public Radio and <em>The Hollywood Reporter</em>. 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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>He said his biggest hope for <em>Killers of the Flower Moon</em>, made with help from more than 100 Osage, is that it opens doors for more Native Americans to participate in the film industry. </p>
<p>“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.” </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>On a page inside the cover, Scorsese scrawled a note: “For Chad R., in great thanks for all you’ve done.”</p>
<p>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.” </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>“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.” </p></div>Boca Raton: Cyclists press for safer roads; city outlines work aheadhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-cyclists-press-for-safer-roads-city-outlines-work-ahea2024-02-28T19:12:31.000Z2024-02-28T19:12:31.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong><br /> <br />Boca Raton bicyclists have pressed city officials for years to make streets safer for them, but a horrific Jan. 4 crash on State Road A1A in Gulf Stream injuring six cyclists struck by an SUV has made the issue even more urgent.</p>
<p>At the invitation of City Council member Fran Nachlas, members of the Florida Share the Road Coalition, formed after the Gulf Stream crash, as well as the city’s Citizens’ Pedestrian and Bikeway Advisory Board and well-known local cyclist Jim Wood, spoke at a Feb. 12 council workshop meeting. Municipal Services Director Zach Bihr then outlined what the city is doing to improve safety.</p>
<p>Also fresh on everyone’s mind was a March 3, 2023, crash at the intersection of Federal Highway and Palmetto Park Road downtown that claimed the life of bicyclist and Boca resident Mark Rudow, 66, who was struck by a pickup truck.</p>
<p>Stressing the need to prevent tragedies and improve safety, coalition member Cameron Oster said that pedestrian and bicyclist deaths combined represented a third of the fatal crashes in Palm Beach County.</p>
<p>“Our mission is to make A1A and Palm Beach County safer for drivers and recreational traffic while preserving the beauty of the coastline, allowing community members and our visitors to enjoy it, whether by two feet, two wheels or four wheels,” he said.</p>
<p>While improvements are needed throughout the city, his 2,000-member organization is prioritizing A1A, which is highly popular with cyclists.</p>
<p>The Florida Department of Transportation is planning a $7.3 million project to make over the nearly 5-mile stretch of A1A that runs through Boca Raton. It is expected to start in the fall of 2027.</p>
<p>Another FDOT project will tackle the 3 miles of A1A through Highland Beach beginning this summer.</p>
<p>Holli Sutton, chair of the Citizens’ Pedestrian and Bikeway Advisory Board that is coordinating with city officials to identify roadway deficiencies, said the group has a list of 27 projects that should be done. Among them is improving commuter routes to the Brightline station.</p>
<p>Wood showed photos of existing bike lanes that are in poor condition and said very little had been done to improve them.</p>
<p>A pressing need, he said, is to connect the existing five shared-use trails in the city. Sutton echoed that recommendation.</p>
<p>Wood also called for construction of protected bike lanes that are separated from car traffic by barriers, which he said is much safer than separating them with white lines.</p>
<p>“We hear you,” Nachlas said after listening to the presentations. “And we want to keep hearing what you have to say.”</p>
<p>Bihr said that his municipal services staff has identified 118 potential projects, which would cost about $165 million — an amount that Mayor Scott Singer said “will require difficult choices on prioritization.”</p>
<p>The city has hired a consultant to help staff create a comprehensive bicycle and pedestrian plan, Bihr said.</p>
<p>He noted that the city will be making major changes to East Palmetto Park Road that will improve its appearance and make it better for walking and cycling.</p>
<p>The city also has received grant funding for upgrades to El Rio Trail lighting and a shared-use path on Southwest 18th Street.</p>
<p>The city will soon hire a director of transportation and mobility whose job will include improving bikeability.</p>
<p>“I truly believe to have someone at the helm of that … will be pivotal to our success,” said Council member Yvette Drucker.</p>
<p>The city joined the national Vision Zero campaign in 2022 and received a $300,000 grant last year to create a plan to improve safety for all roadway users with the aim of eliminating severe traffic injuries and deaths.</p>
<p>It also is participating in Complete Streets, an approach to planning, designing and maintaining streets to reduce risks for all road users. </p></div>Coastal Star: Retired fireman is shining knight for Boca’s pickleball communityhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/coastal-star-retired-fireman-is-shining-knight-for-boca-s-pickleb2024-02-28T18:53:57.000Z2024-02-28T18:53:57.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390465083,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390465083,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12390465083?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a></strong>Raul Travieso Jr., founder of the Boca Raton Pickleball Club. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
<p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong></p>
<p>Raul Travieso Jr. may well be Boca Raton’s Mr. Pickleball.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>At the time Boca Raton had zero pickleball courts open to the public. Now it has 25 with many more on the way.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>Pickleball cruised along mostly as a West Coast hobby until about 10 years ago when it migrated east, he said.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.”<br /> 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.</p>
<p>“People were literally painting lines on streets.”</p>
<p>A pickleball court is one-third the size of a tennis court.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>The first people in Florida to embrace pickleball were, like Travieso, recent retirees.</p>
<p>“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.’’</p>
<p>The median age of players is now early 50s, down from about 65 just 10 years ago.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“In an hour and a half I have them playing. It’s as simple as that,” he said.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“But while you’re waiting, you’re socializing,” he said. “And the games are short, they are only to 11, win by 2.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>He took the test, got accepted and 39 years later, he retired as an assistant chief.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p><strong>NOMINATE SOMEONE TO BE A COASTAL STAR</strong> <br />Send a note to news@thecoastalstar.com or call 561-337-1553.</p></div>Gulf Stream: Driver suffered seizure as she crashed into cyclists, FHP sayshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/gulf-stream-driver-suffered-seizure-as-she-crashed-into-cyclists-2024-02-28T18:42:09.000Z2024-02-28T18:42:09.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Anne Geggis</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <em>The Coastal Star</em> Feb. 16.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>Attempts to reach Ruiz were unsuccessful. The FHP originally reported that Ruiz, whose address is redacted on the FHP report, lives in Lantana.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“We have video of her walking around minutes after the crash,” he said.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>All of the cyclists were wearing helmets, according to the report.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Contributions have topped $20,000.</p>
<p>“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.” </p></div>Boca Raton: Election pits Thomson vs. Stenberg and Drucker vs. Kornhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-election-pits-thomson-vs-stenberg-and-drucker-vs-korn2024-02-28T17:00:56.000Z2024-02-28T17:00:56.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p>A former Boca Raton City Council member and a former unsuccessful council candidate will face off in the March 19 city election to fill the seat now held by term-limited Deputy Mayor Monica Mayotte.</p>
<p>Vying for Seat D are Andy Thomson, who resigned his council seat in 2022 to pursue his unsuccessful candidacy for the Florida House District 91 seat now held by Peggy Gossett-Seidman, and Brian Stenberg, who lost to incumbent Mayotte in 2021.</p>
<p>In the Seat C race, Council member Yvette Drucker, who is seeking her second three-year term, is being challenged by Bernard Korn, a repeat candidate who received almost no support in his previous attempts to win office.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390437883,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390437883,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="216" alt="12390437883?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a><strong>Seat D</strong><br />Thomson, senior counsel at the Baritz & Colman law firm in Boca Raton and an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University teaching local and state government, lost his first campaign for council in 2017, won a special election to it in 2018 and was reelected without opposition in 2020.</p>
<p>He has endorsements from the Boca Raton IAFF local 1560 firefighters and paramedics union; Business Leaders United for Boca Raton, the political arm of the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce; the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 35; Palm Beach County School Board member Frank Barbieri; Broward, Palm Beaches & St. Lucie Realtors; Hispanic Vote of Palm Beach County; the South Florida Sun Sentinel and the Palm Beach Post.</p>
<p>Thomson is running again for a council seat, he said, because even though the council accomplished many things while he served, “there is more to be done and I want to see it through.”</p>
<p>Those accomplishments included helping secure a Brightline station for the city and enacting a recertification program to ensure that condominiums are safe following the 2021 collapse of a Surfside condo.</p>
<p>“I loved the job while I had it,” he said. “You can get a lot accomplished at the local level, more than a single person can accomplish at the state level.”</p>
<p>When council members were at odds, Thomson often advanced solutions or compromises that helped them reach consensus.</p>
<p>He launched “Run the City” in 2021, in which he and volunteers jogged all 475 miles of city streets, picking up trash and spotting safety issues. Thomson kept it up after leaving office, and he and the volunteers so far have picked up 1,500 pounds of trash and identified more than 450 needed safety improvements that mostly have been fixed.</p>
<p>His priorities are getting public safety officials the resources they need to keep the city safe, addressing traffic congestion, making sure city growth is done responsibly and keeping the tax rate low.</p>
<p>Asked why voters should support him rather than Stenberg, Thomson noted that the city has a new city manager and deputy city manager, and two relatively new council members. A new finance director will be in place soon and the city attorney will retire in the next few years.</p>
<p>“That’s a lot of institutional knowledge that has left,” he said. “Now is not the time for inexperienced decision-makers. I have that experience in spades.”</p>
<p>As of Feb. 16, Thomson had raised $107,489 for his campaign.</p>
<p>Stenberg, a partner in the Greenfield Properties medical office real estate management firm, is making his second bid to serve on the council after Mayotte defeated him in 2021 with 58.8% of the vote.</p>
<p>He remained in the public’s eye since then as treasurer of the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowners Associations and as a member of the Boca Raton Housing Authority board before resigning late last year to run for the council.</p>
<p>He also is president of the Boca Square Civic Association and serves on the Palm Beach County Planning Commission.</p>
<p>Most recently, he opposed Mayor Scott Singer’s attempt to increase City Council terms from three years to four. Voters soundly defeated the proposed change last March.</p>
<p>Stenberg said he decided to run again because he got enough votes in 2021 to give him encouragement to do so. As a businessman who has become involved in matters that led him to speak at City Council and city board meetings, he thinks he has something to offer.</p>
<p>“I have learned a lot over the years and I feel it is incumbent on me to use what I have learned to bring about the common good,” he said.</p>
<p>Further, most of the current council members live in western Boca, while he lives in the eastern part of the city and will bring that perspective to the council. “I think we have a different perspective, living every day with the growing congestion and traffic,” he said.</p>
<p>He wants “respectful growth” that does not lead to overbuilding and damaging the city’s quality of life.</p>
<p>“I would like to see a little more pushback by council members and people on the Planning and Zoning Board,” he said. “When a developer comes before the bodies and the proposal they are making is outside the balance we are accustomed to in Boca Raton, someone has to push back against that.”</p>
<p>Stenberg drew criticism in 2021 when he turned his campaign negative, criticizing Mayotte for making “anti-senior comments” that led to a lawsuit against the city and another action by Mayotte and former Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke that resulted in an adverse court ruling.</p>
<p>Stenberg owned up to going dark at the time, and now says he was relying on the advice of a political consultant. But it won’t happen again because residents told him they didn’t like it, he said.</p>
<p>“That definitely is not a thing that I will do this time around,” he said. “People don’t want it.”</p>
<p>Stenberg has raised only $13,100, and $4,620 of that came from personal loans to his campaign.</p>
<p>That is by design, he said. He is saving money by doing without a consultant and reaching out to voters directly and through volunteers. He also is not focused on getting endorsements.</p>
<p>“I decided this is something I could do myself with volunteers,” he said. “It just requires a little more work and creativity.”</p>
<p><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390437699,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390437699,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="218" alt="12390437699?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a></strong><strong>Seat C</strong><br />Drucker, a first-generation Cuban American who is the first Hispanic to serve on the City Council, came to office as a former chair of the city’s Education Task Force. She also is a longtime volunteer with many organizations, including the Junior League of Boca Raton and the Boca Raton Historical Society.</p>
<p>She now is on the executive board of the Palm Beach County Transportation Planning Agency and serves on several committees with the Florida League of Cities, including the Legislative Advocacy Committee. She also is a voting delegate member of the Palm Beach County League of Cities. Most recently, she was appointed to the National League of Cities Transportation and Infrastructure Services Federal Advocacy Committee to help set policy priorities on transportation and infrastructure.</p>
<p>Although dubious when council members asked her to represent them on the TPA, Drucker is now enthusiastic about her work there and has elevated improving transportation and mobility to a top passion.</p>
<p>She also devotes considerable effort to monitoring legislation under consideration in Tallahassee, especially bills that take away the power of city leaders to make decisions on behalf of their residents.</p>
<p>Although Korn is not likely to end her council career, Drucker said, “I take every election seriously. … Hopefully I will get another three years to complete what I started.<br />“I am going to continue a commonsense mentality when it comes to development and will hold City Hall accountable” for maintaining a balanced budget and providing quality services to city residents, she said.</p>
<p>Drucker has endorsements from the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce’s political arm, Professional Firefighters and Paramedics of Boca Raton, Boca Raton Fraternal Order of Police, Palm Beach County Human Rights Council Voters Alliance, the South Florida Sun Sentinel and the Palm Beach Post.</p>
<p>She has raised $45,279 for her campaign, which includes a $500 personal loan.</p>
<p>Korn, a real estate broker, has twice lost elections to Mayor Singer and once to Drucker. In the 2021 race against Drucker, he drew 4.9% of the vote.</p>
<p>While he spoke with one <em>Coastal Star</em> writer compiling facts at a glance on his campaign, he did not desire to speak with a second writer delving into details.</p>
<p>His current and previous campaigns have focused on alleged corruption in the city and among council members.</p>
<p>“We must stop corruption in Boca Raton City. Boca Raton City Council Members are greatly influenced by Special Interest Groups, Lobbyists and Political Action Committees. DARK MONEY PREVAILS in our great city.” he wrote in a statement to The Coastal Star.</p>
<p>“IT’S TIME FOR AN FBI INVESTIGATION INTO BOCA RATON POLITICS,” he said in another statement.</p>
<p>He is self-financing his campaign with $5,550 but spent only $334 through Feb. 16.</p>
<p>It has long been unclear if Korn is a city resident. </p>
<p>He has produced a driver’s license and voter registration card showing he lives on the barrier island at 720 Marble Way, but his campaign financial reports list his address as a P.O. box in the city’s downtown post office. </p>
<p>County property records show that Korn and his wife own a home at 19078 Skyridge Circle in an unincorporated area far west of the city. </p></div>Boca Raton: Debate reveals candidates agree on most things except city tax ratehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-debate-reveals-candidates-agree-on-most-things-except-2024-02-28T16:56:01.000Z2024-02-28T16:56:01.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p>Most Boca Raton City Council candidates facing off in a Feb. 8 candidate forum ahead of the March 19 municipal election advanced similar views on many issues, but the city’s tax rate sparked disagreement.</p>
<p>Brian Stenberg, who is running against former Council member Andy Thomson for Seat D, said city revenues must increase to pay for the rising cost of running a growing city. He acknowledged that suggesting a tax increase is “not a popular thing to say.”</p>
<p>Bernard Korn, a Seat C candidate who has been soundly defeated in three previous attempts to win a council seat, did not address the tax rate directly, but said the city has crumbling infrastructure and “is in bad shape.”</p>
<p>“We probably are going to need $1 billion to keep up to speed,” he said.</p>
<p>Thomson, an attorney who resigned from the council in late 2022 to make an ultimately unsuccessful run for the Florida House District 91 seat, was unequivocal.</p>
<p>“I am not going to be raising taxes,” he said. “We have one of the lowest tax rates in the state. That attracts a lot of businesses and residents to the city. … I will not dig into your pocket” to raise revenue.</p>
<p>Incumbent City Council member Yvette Drucker, who is challenged by Korn in her bid for a second three-year term, said she opposes higher taxes.</p>
<p>The city can improve efficiency and “run a lean machine” to maintain the revenue needed to continue providing quality services, she said.</p>
<p>Asked by the forum moderator about how to handle development and redevelopment, Korn, a real estate broker, was the most strident.</p>
<p>Builders and developers “hate me because I oppose unrestricted and unlimited development,” he said.</p>
<p>His top priority, Korn said, is to “end uncontrolled development. It must be fixed.”</p>
<p>Thomson acknowledged that the city will continue to grow. The role of the City Council, he said, is to manage growth “responsibly.”</p>
<p>Drucker, the council’s first Hispanic member and a longtime volunteer with many organizations, said the council must find the right balance so that development and redevelopment are done with “common sense.”</p>
<p>Stenberg, a partner in a medical office real estate management firm who made an unsuccessful council run in 2021, called for “respectful growth” that would prevent overdevelopment.</p>
<p>When candidates were asked about their top priorities, Thomson’s list included strong public safety, keeping taxes low, maintaining the high quality of the city’s parks, and addressing traffic issues.</p>
<p>Drucker has made fixing transportation problems a top focus as a council member. She said she would continue her work on traffic and mobility, along with increasing the stock of affordable housing.</p>
<p>“Public safety and making sure our children are safe,” said Stenberg.</p>
<p>The candidates were respectful of each other, with the exception of Korn, who repeatedly attacked Drucker.</p>
<p>He complained that Drucker had an unfair advantage in the 2021 election because council members months earlier had appointed her to temporarily fill the council seat left vacant when Jeremy Rodgers was deployed on an overseas military assignment.</p>
<p>Drucker, who became a candidate to replace Rodgers permanently, won 50.6% of the vote, defeating Korn and two other challengers. Korn garnered 4.9%. </p>
<p>He said Drucker had raised “all” her campaign contributions from developers. Drucker said that was “inaccurate,” noting that she obtained contributions from a “wide range” of supporters. </p>
<p>Her campaign financial forms show that while she has support from developers and land use attorneys, they are not the only contributors to her campaign.</p>
<p>Korn said Drucker was a “co-signer” on a city ordinance that “destroyed the elections system for years to come.” He contends it restricts a candidate’s ability to collect valid petitions that qualify the candidate to run for office.</p>
<p>Although Drucker did not know at the time what ordinance Korn was talking about, she immediately shot back: “You need to get your facts straight. I won my election.”</p>
<p>Ordinances do not have co-signers. The ordinance Korn cited resulted in large part from his previous candidacies when he created confusion about where he lives. Candidates must be city residents.</p>
<p>It lengthened the time people must have lived in the city from 30 days to one year before they can qualify to run and required residents to provide proof of residency. It also disqualified from running those who have a homestead exemption on a property outside the city limits. It eliminated a requirement that candidates pay a $25 qualifying fee, and instead requires them to submit a petition with the signatures of at least 200 registered city voters.</p>
<p>Council members started work on the changes about two months before Drucker joined the council.</p>
<p>They were approved by voters in the March 9, 2021, election, after which the ordinance was enacted.</p>
<p>For this election, as has been the case in his previous candidacies, Korn produced a driver’s license and voter registration card showing his address is on the barrier island at 720 Marble Way, but his campaign financial reports list his address as a P.O. box in the city’s downtown post office.</p>
<p>County property records show that Korn and his wife own a home at 19078 Skybridge Circle, in an unincorporated area west of the city. In the past, the records showed that the couple claimed a homestead exemption on the home.</p>
<p>But last year, Korn provided a homestead withdrawal form from the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office to the city. His wife still claims the exemption. </p></div>Boca Raton: City ‘illegally delayed’ release of recordshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-city-illegally-delayed-release-of-records2024-02-28T16:48:09.000Z2024-02-28T16:48:09.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong></p>
<p>In a long-running lawsuit over public records requests made by the owner of an undeveloped beachfront parcel on State Road A1A, a judge has decided that Boca Raton “unlawfully withheld and illegally delayed” turning over 42 documents that were “damning to the city.”</p>
<p>Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Donald Hafele said in his Feb. 1 ruling that he was not suggesting that the city purposely withheld the records. And he had no issue with what he called the city’s “substantial” efforts, which included handing over some 122 gigabytes of data or roughly a half-million pages of information.</p>
<p>“However, the court finds that whomever it was, be it the city attorney, be it the clerk, be it the elected officials themselves, that the production (of the records) was late, untimely, led to the filing of this lawsuit and the non-production was prejudicial to the plaintiff and its business pursuits,” Hafele wrote in his 37-page opinion.</p>
<p>The conflict arose after Delray Beach-based Azure Development LLC, an affiliate of 2600 N Ocean LLC, was denied a permit in February 2019 to build a four-story duplex at 2600 N. Ocean Blvd. east of the Coastal Construction Control Line. </p>
<p>Azure had already made public records requests in March and November 2018 and in January 2019 seeking “any and all documents, including emails, text messages, social media accounts, or official or unofficial reports” regarding or referencing 2600 N. Ocean. Robert Sweetapple, Azure’s lawyer, noted on the requests — in boldface and all capital letters — that he also wanted to see “text messages and emails from private accounts.”</p>
<p>The developer filed its initial public records complaint in March 2019. Four years passed before the city provided Facebook Messenger conversations between Jessica Gray, founder of the anti-development group Boca Save our Beaches, and then-Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rodgers in which Rodgers stated that “I’m of course going to continue going NO on 2500 and likely NO on 2600,” referring to two beachfront parcels. </p>
<p>By that time, a panel of circuit judges had disqualified former Council member Andrea O’Rourke and soon-to-be term-limited Council member Monica Mayotte from voting on the 2600 N. Ocean application, also based on their email messages to constituents and to each other. </p>
<p>Judge Hafele noted that “timely production of the Rodgers Facebook Messenger exchanges might well have led to a determination that a majority of Council members had prejudged 2600’s application.”</p>
<p>In a statement, attorney Sweetapple said, “In effect, the city has for years been running a secret government on private devices and social media of elected and other officials. …</p>
<p>The city’s conduct entirely undermines the requirements of open government and open public records.”</p>
<p>In a federal case brought by the owner of 2500 N. Ocean Blvd., a nearby undeveloped beachfront parcel, U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith disqualified O’Rourke, Mayotte and Mayor Scott Singer from involvement in future issues regarding development of either the 2500 or the 2600 parcel, citing bias on their part.</p>
<p>Hafele denied Azure’s requests for declaratory, injunctive or other supplemental equitable relief but said the city would have to pay Azure’s attorney’s fees and costs. </p>
<p>Sweetapple estimated that Boca Raton will be liable for around $2 million in legal fees incurred by Azure and the owner of 2500 N. Ocean, in addition to the amounts already spent by the city to defend its behavior.</p>
<p>Azure has since decided it wants to build a three-story single-family residence instead of four stories with less glass than its original submission. Its revised plan must still be presented for a recommendation by the city’s Environmental Advisory Board and a vote by the City Council.</p></div>Boca Raton: Plan for new vision of Palmetto Park Road gets off to rocky starthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-plan-for-new-vision-of-palmetto-park-road-gets-off-to-2024-02-28T16:39:31.000Z2024-02-28T16:39:31.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong></p>
<p>The first look at a city consultant’s ideas for reimagining part of Palmetto Park Road was not a good one.</p>
<p>First off, Boca Raton City Council members did not get backup documents for the Feb. 26 presentation by Alta Planning + Design — but enterprising residents called them with questions before the meeting after getting copies via a public records request.</p>
<p>“I just want to know why the public had access to this and we did not,” Deputy Mayor Monica Mayotte said.</p>
<p>Then, Alta engineer and principal Alia Awwad gave council members, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, a “very quick, high-level overview” of the firm’s timeline, starting with data collected after it was given its first work order in late September and running through a planned summary report of its efforts to come this summer.</p>
<p>The firm, which has a $431,645 contract, has already spent time creating a branding identity and logo for its campaign.</p>
<p>“We just received the peak season traffic counts that were just done in January and that’s going to be really beneficial for us,” Awwad said. </p>
<p>In March and April “is when we’re going to really roll out the engagement process” with stakeholders and residents, she said, “and that will lead us to start to develop those mobility strategy and ideas — what’s feasible and what’s not.”</p>
<p>Council members were impatient for results and underwhelmed by the progress.</p>
<p>“I just feel like it should be moving faster,” Mayotte said.</p>
<p>Council member Yvette Drucker wondered whether the “Make Connections/East Palmetto Downtown” slogan should be changed to “Make Connections/Downtown Boca” instead. </p>
<p>“I don’t want a deliverable that is not effective after we spent all this time and money,” she said.</p>
<p>Council member Marc Wigder, who chairs the CRA, noted that the redevelopment agency was established 40 years ago.</p>
<p>“And so when we, all the public says we’re waiting, we’re not just waiting for the last two years. We’re waiting for the activation of Palmetto Park Road for 40 years and it has still yet to occur,” he said.</p>
<p>Alta is looking at the road from City Hall east to just before the Intracoastal Waterway bridge. It will host virtual meetings with various stakeholder groups in March and is preparing to put an informational website and a voluntary survey online, Awwad said. Two meetings open to the public are planned for April 10 and April 17.</p>
<p>Her firm’s goal, she said, is to “create a place that is beautiful, that people would love to visit and stay at, not just pass through. And that is essentially what Alta specializes in.<br /> “We don’t just build streets. We would never build highways and interchanges. We specialize in building communities.” </p></div>Meet Your Neighbor: Tommy Paulhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/meet-your-neighbor-tommy-paul2024-02-28T16:26:19.000Z2024-02-28T16:26:19.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390423093,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390423093,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12390423093?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em>Tommy Paul of Boca Raton competes last month at the Delray Beach Open, where he lost to No. 1 seed Taylor Fritz in the final in a matchup of the top-ranked American players. Paul won a tournament the previous week. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p>With the likes of John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Pete Sampras ranking among the greatest tennis players of all time, it’s hard to believe no American male has won a Grand Slam title since Andy Roddick captured the U.S. Open in 2003.</p>
<p>But with four Americans among the top 20 in the ATP world rankings in late February, Boca Raton resident Tommy Paul senses the end to that drought is near. The four are Taylor Fritz (No. 10), Paul (No. 14), Frances Tiafoe (No. 16) and Ben Shelton (No. 17).</p>
<p>“They’ve been talking about that forever,” said Paul, 26. “That’s a goal for all of us.”</p>
<p>Paul’s talents were on display last month, when he followed his Dallas Open championship with another appearance in a final, at the Delray Beach Open. He lost to Fritz, 6-2, 6-3, after beating Tiafoe in the semifinals. Shelton did not play, but Paul beat him in the semifinals the previous week in Dallas en route to his second ATP title.</p>
<p>Born in New Jersey and raised in North Carolina, Paul moved to the tennis hotbed of Boca/Delray at age 14 in 2011 to join the likes of Tiafoe and Reilly Opelka on the local junior scene. He won the French Open boys title and reached a No. 3 junior ranking in 2015 before turning pro the same year.</p>
<p>He moved steadily up the ranks in the ensuing years, reaching the top 100 in 2019, then finishing at No. 43 in 2021 and No. 32 in 2022. He began 2023 by reaching his first semifinal in a Grand Slam at the Australian Open before losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.</p>
<p>His highest ATP ranking, No. 12, came last October.</p>
<p>“Every year I’ve made small steps in the right direction,” he said. “I got pretty close to top 10 last year, so that’s my goal this year. I said last year I want to win titles, so that’s my goal this year. If you win enough titles you get to top 10. That’s the goal every week I play, to end the week with a win.” </p>
<p>Last month marked Paul’s fifth entry into the Delray Open, and his result was an improvement over 2023, when he lost in the quarterfinals to Radu Albot, the 2019 champion.</p>
<p>While Paul didn’t use it as an excuse, he had just returned from representing the U.S. in a Davis Cup match in Uzbekistan, where he had fallen ill. <br /> He knows the Delray Tennis Center courts well.</p>
<p>“I’m able to train here a lot,” he said two days before his first match in mid-February. “It’s not my normal training spot, but me and J.J. Wolf practiced a ton here in December and I’ve spent a lot of time on this court.</p>
<p>“There’s an amazing group of players in South Florida. Whether it’s here, FAU, wherever, we all practice together and have a great relationship.”</p>
<p>Paul, who won his first ATP title at the 2021 Stockholm Open and holds three wins over top-five players including No. 2 Carlos Alvarez, got animated when he was asked about playing the best in the game.</p>
<p>“I get excited for those matches,” he said. “I know we’re going to have awesome points, and that’s what tennis is about. That’s why we play, to play the best players on the biggest stages. </p>
<p>“It’s hard not to be excited for those.”</p>
<p>When Paul has some time off, he said, his favorite pursuit is fishing, though that’s mostly in freshwater as he has yet to purchase a boat.</p>
<p>“I absolutely love South Florida,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll ever leave.”</p>
<p style="text-align:right;"><em>— Brian Biggane</em></p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> I grew up in North Carolina until I was 14 and then I moved down here. I did high school online because I was in an academy and we were practicing while the other kids were in school. Most home-schooled people get the rap of being socially awkward, and there’s some of that. But we had a great group of guys. Most of them either went to college or went pro, and I’m still playing with some of them, like Frances Tiafoe and Reilly Opelka, and Fritz. That influenced us big-time — we are who we are because of that. And it showed us what it took to be a professional tennis player.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> I turned pro in 2015 (at age 18). Reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open last year was probably my biggest result. Winning Dallas just before Delray was big because any title is really important, and something I’m proud of. But my career path is what I’m most proud of, because I didn’t jump to the top right away, it was a slow grind. To finally get to a place where I feel — you don’t want to say comfortable because you never want to get comfortable — but I feel I know what I need to do to get where I need to be.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> I don’t think every person’s career path should look the same. Some people stay in high school, go to college, then turn pro. If I were to do it again that’s what I would have done. I committed to Georgia and then turned pro right before I was supposed to go. If I were to do it again, I’d go to college for a year or two. The level in college tennis is so good now there’s no reason not to go that way.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> How did you choose to make your home in east Boca Raton?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> I lived in west Boca since I was 14. My parents lived here for two years, but we have such a good group of people to train with, that’s what got me down here, and then I just started loving the area. I was staying at Reilly Opelka’s house for about four years, through COVID, and last year I finally decided to get my own place and I was looking nonstop for about a year, and I found a place. It’s worked out perfectly since.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> What is your favorite part about living in Boca Raton?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> My trainer Franco (Herrero) lives in east Boca; he trains me out of Evert Tennis Academy. Everything is super convenient; there’s quite a few airports that we can fly in and out of, and that’s very important. And I couldn’t live somewhere that didn’t have the ocean. I love the ocean.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> What book are you reading now?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> <em>Born to Run</em>. Franco actually gave it to me. It’s pretty cool. It’s about these tribal people in Mexico who have become great runners and it even gets into the history of why people run. Phenomenal book.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> What music do you listen to when you want to relax? When you want to be inspired?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> Country music. I listen to a lot of Luke Combs and a lot of old rock. I’ll do some rap music sometimes if I’m like, you know really feeling it. Or reggae if I’m having a bunch of people over having a party or something. But mostly old rock and country.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> My mom is a big one, and I’ve had so many great coaches. The guy who works with Frances now, Diego Moyano, coached me at an important time, from like 14 or 15 up to 19, and those are massive years when you’re trying to create a professional athlete. Also T.J. Pura, who got me after him. Coaching for me is also mentoring. I’ve been very lucky to have great people around me.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> If your life story were to be made into a movie, who would play you?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> Matthew McConaughey. I love watching all his movies. He’s my favorite actor.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> Who/what makes you laugh?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> Reilly Opelka and Frances Tiafoe, both make me laugh. Because they’re clowns; both of them are clowns. Frances is just a clown and Reilly says the most outrageous stuff.</p></div>Boca Raton: Vote paves way for projects with at least 10% affordable housinghttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-vote-paves-way-for-projects-with-at-least-10-affordabl2024-02-28T16:18:20.000Z2024-02-28T16:18:20.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p>After eight months of protracted debate over how to implement the state’s Live Local Act in Boca Raton, City Council members on Feb. 13 cast their final votes on ordinances and city comprehensive plan changes that clear the way for developers to submit their plans for projects that include affordable housing.</p>
<p>Now that city rules are in place, officials expect to immediately receive many project applications from developers who have pressed council members hard to act quickly so they can build.</p>
<p>But the council’s work may not be finished. Bills to make changes to the state law that went into effect on July 1 were working their way through the state Legislature this session, and whatever passes may mean cities that have enacted local legislation will have to make changes to come into conformity. The session is scheduled to end on March 8. </p>
<p>While council members realize that many people who want to live in the city can’t afford to do so because of the surging costs of homes and apartments, implementing the state law that encourages developers to build affordable housing was fraught.</p>
<p>The reason is that the Live Local Act strips away the ability of local elected officials to control what is built within their borders. The law, critics contend, is a continuation of years of actions by the Legislature to assume control and override local decision-making.</p>
<p>“This is something that is being forced down our throats,” Council member Yvette Drucker said at a Sept. 11 meeting.</p>
<p>But developers who want to take advantage of financial incentives included in the law to build affordable housing wanted fast action.</p>
<p>“We have five (projects) that are ready to go,” prominent land use attorney Bonnie Miskel told the council on Aug. 22. “We need your help. We need to get these into the pipeline. Let’s give the market an opportunity to do it.”</p>
<p>Yet council members were not willing to rush ahead as they searched for whatever they could do, no matter how limited, to safeguard the city from the construction of huge developments that are not compatible with the areas in which they would be built.</p>
<p>The law has sparked outrage in cities across the state. In Miami-Dade County, for example, the village of Bal Harbour is seeking to block the proposed construction of a high-rise hotel and residential towers in an area where 90% of voters in 2021 rejected a proposal to build over current height limits. In Doral, city officials fought a 17-acre high-rise residential and commercial development next to a community of two-story townhomes before reaching a settlement that reduces the height of the buildings.</p>
<p>And there are complaints that the Live Local Act has yet to produce much housing that is actually affordable.</p>
<p>The law says that cities must allow multifamily and mixed-use residential in areas zoned for commercial, industrial or mixed use if at least 40% of the units are affordable for people who meet certain income criteria. The units must remain affordable for at least 30 years.</p>
<p>The law does not allow city leaders to restrict the density of a project below the highest allowed density on any land in the city. They can’t restrict the height below the highest allowed within 1 mile of a project. They also can’t impose rent controls.</p>
<p>That leaves cities able to control matters such as setbacks and parking.</p>
<p>Another option exists under a state statute that was amended under the Live Local Act. It allows projects to be built with only 10% affordable units in areas zoned commercial or industrial.</p>
<p>That is more palatable to city officials because the statute gives them discretion to impose controls. Local regulations, including those governing density and height, would not be preempted by the state.</p>
<p>Developers told council members they prefer that option because it allows them to build more market-rate units which are more lucrative. They shunned the 40% option because they can’t make enough profit building so many affordable units.</p>
<p>But projects that include only 10% affordable units won’t do much to resolve the need for more affordable housing.</p>
<p>So the council offered incentives that it hopes will boost the number of affordable units to at least 15%. A developer with a 10% project could build up to 20 units per acre. A 15% project could build up to 25 units per acre.</p>
<p>The projects cannot abut single-family properties or Palmetto Park Road east of the Intracoastal Waterway. Sidewalks and canopy trees will be required along street frontages. And affordable units cannot be of lesser quality than market-rate units in the same building.</p>
<p>The council also capped the number of new units that can be approved in 10% projects at 2,500 for now. If council members don’t like the new projects being built, they can put the brakes on any more construction.</p>
<p>In the last of a series of votes since October, the council on Feb. 13 voted 4-1 in favor of the ordinance that allows 10% projects, with Deputy Mayor Monica Mayotte dissenting.<br />She said she strongly supports affordable housing, but disagreed with changes other council members added to the ordinance. They were micromanaging, Mayotte said, and moving far afield from the goal of getting more affordable housing.</p></div>Boca Raton: Developer touts ‘modern glass building’ coming to downtownhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-developer-touts-modern-glass-building-coming-to-downto2024-02-28T16:11:50.000Z2024-02-28T16:11:50.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390430481,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390430481,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="476" alt="12390430481?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a>The 28-unit Glass House Boca Raton condominium is proposed for 280 E. Palmetto Park Road. <strong>Rendering provided</strong></p>
<p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p>A developer has announced plans to build a nine-story condominium in the heart of downtown Boca Raton at 280 E. Palmetto Park Road.</p>
<p>The 28-unit Glass House Boca Raton is touted by 280 E. Palmetto Park Road LLC as “the first modern glass building” in the downtown. The two-, three- and four-bedroom condos will range from 2,550 to 3,990 square feet and are priced at $2.5 million to $6.9 million.</p>
<p>The developer is moving rapidly. The company submitted its plans to the city on Dec. 20, and they have received only a preliminary review. As of February, no dates had been set for consideration by the Planning and Zoning Board and City Council.</p>
<p>Yet the developer said in a news release that it launched sales in March. Groundbreaking is slated for the first quarter of 2025, with the project expected to be completed in the fall of 2026.</p>
<p>The architect is Garcia Stromberg of West Palm Beach, whose projects in Boca Raton include the Alina Residences and the makeover of The Boca Raton. Douglas Elliman Development Marketing is handling sales.</p>
<p>The condo will replace a former Bank of America private bank building. The developer bought the 0.62-acre site for $9.75 million in May.</p>
<p>A pool, jacuzzi, catering kitchen, fire pit and entertaining space will be located on the roof deck. The first floor will feature a fitness center, sauna and plunge pool, along with a residents-only lounge.</p>
<p>The building will have a doorman and two levels of underground air-conditioned and dehumidified parking.</p>
<p>Glass House is offering residents a limited number of preferred memberships with The Boca Raton, not including golf. A shuttle will take residents to the resort.<br /> 280 E. Palmetto Park Road LLC is managed by Brandon Chasen, CEO of Baltimore-based Chasen Companies, and Paul Davis, Chasen’s managing partner and chief investment officer. Adam Gottbetter, of Boca Raton’s Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club neighborhood, heads ASG Development and is the developer’s vice president of finance and development.</p>
<p>Gottbetter pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities and mail fraud in New Jersey in 2014 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged him with fraud in 2015, and he agreed to pay $4.6 million to settle that case, the SEC said.</p></div>Boca Raton: Assistant city manager promoted; top finance officer set to retirehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-assistant-city-manager-promoted-top-finance-officer-se2024-02-28T16:06:54.000Z2024-02-28T16:06:54.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390420468,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390420468,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12390420468?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="326" /></a></strong></p>
<p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p>Assistant City Manager Chrissy Gibson is now one of Boca Raton’s two deputy managers.</p>
<p>And the city’s longtime financial services manager, Linda Davidson, will retire on Aug. 31 after 41 years with the city.</p>
<p>The city has hired Jim Zervis, chief administrative officer for Kern County, California, to succeed Davidson, beginning in late March.</p>
<p>Gibson, a Boca Raton native and Florida Atlantic University graduate, joined the city in 2010 as the community relations manager for the Mizner Park Amphitheater. In 2015 she launched the city’s Communications and Marketing Division. She was promoted to assistant city manager in 2021.</p>
<p>Gibson also received a master’s degree in public administration at Nova Southeastern University last year.</p>
<p>“Given her demonstrated history of effective leadership and strategic insight, I am confident that she will excel in this new capacity and continue to drive positive change within our city,” said City Manager George Brown.</p>
<p>Until Davidson retires, she will join the city manager’s office and will work with Zervis during the transition.</p>
<p>Davidson joined the city in 1983 as an accountant. She has since served as Office of Management and Budget director, deputy director of financial services and became financial services director in 2010.</p>
<p>Davidson is a certified public accountant, certified public finance officer and certified government finance officer.</p>
<p>“We express our deepest gratitude to Linda for her tireless efforts, commitment and the positive impact she has had on the financial well-being of our city, as well as her love for Boca Raton,” Brown said.</p>
<p>Zervis told the Bakersfield Californian newspaper that he was contacted by a job recruiter late last year and found the Boca Raton position interesting. He said that he has family in Jupiter.</p>
<p>Davidson’s retirement marks another departure of top city administrators, starting with Deputy City Manager Mike Woika in 2022. City Manager Leif Ahnell retired on Dec. 31 and was replaced by Brown, his longtime deputy. City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser is in the city’s retirement program and will have to retire in about a year.</p></div>Boca Raton: I-95 express lane project officially completehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-i-95-express-lane-project-officially-complete2024-02-28T16:04:42.000Z2024-02-28T16:04:42.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p>Construction of Interstate 95’s express lanes from just south of Glades Road to just north of Congress Avenue is over. </p>
<p>The project was “final-accepted” by the Florida Department of Transportation on Feb. 1, project spokeswoman Andi Pacini said.</p>
<p>The $148 million project included converting the Glades Road interchange to what’s called a “diverging diamond interchange” and reconstructing the Clint Moore Road bridge over the interstate.</p>
<p>“Huge congratulations to the team who came in on time and budget despite a complex scope of work and numerous challenges encountered during the course of the project,” Pacini said.</p>
<p>The FDOT started collecting tolls for the express lanes on Nov. 18. Tolls in Miami-Dade County, which was the first to get I-95 express lanes, vary from 50 cents to $10.50 depending on distance, time of day and congestion. The FDOT’s goal is to keep express lane vehicles moving at 45 to 50 mph on average.</p>
<p><em>— Steve Plunkett</em></p></div>Business Spotlight: Billy Joel relists Manalapan estate, is linked to purchase in Boca’s Sanctuaryhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/business-spotlight-billy-joel-relists-manalapan-estate-is-linked-2024-02-28T15:35:16.000Z2024-02-28T15:35:16.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390408074,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390408074,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12390408074?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em>Real estate listings and sales records indicate that singer Billy Joel is trying to sell his ocean-to-Intracoastal estate in Manalapan (above), and possibly taking on this sprawling estate (below) in the Sanctuary community of Boca Raton. <strong>Photos provided</strong></em></p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390408273,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390408273,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12390408273?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><strong>By Christine Davis</strong></p>
<p>Billy Joel may soon be “Turning the Lights Back On” in a new home. </p>
<p>In January, the “Piano Man” relisted his Manalapan estate at 1110 S. Ocean Blvd. for $54.9 million. It was originally listed for $64.9 million in November 2022. </p>
<p>Built in 2010, the nine-bedroom, 20,838-square-foot home sits on 1.6 acres with about 150 feet of frontage on the ocean and Intracoastal Waterway. The compound includes a guest house and staff house; details in the main house include a theater room, a pub room with a bar, paneled library, 12-plus-car garage, and wine cellar with a wet bar and tasting table. </p>
<p>Broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate holds the listing. </p>
<p>Joel’s Manalapan residence was built on part of the Harold S. Vanderbilt estate and sold by Veronica Hearst to developer Robert Fessler. He sold the house new in 2011 to Texas banking businessman Donald Adam for $15 million. </p>
<p>Adam then sold it to Joel for $22 million in January 2015. </p>
<p>Joel, who says he and his family plan to spend more time in Florida, has also listed Middlesea, his Long Island estate, for $49 million. </p>
<p>So, where will Joel and his family reside next? Could that be the waterfront home at 5001 Egret Point Circle, in the Sanctuary neighborhood of Boca Raton? </p>
<p>Owners Vernon Circle LLC, Oleg Movchan and Beata Vaynberg sold the property in January for $29 million amid speculation Joel was the buyer. The sellers were represented by Carmen D’Angelo Jr., Gerard Liguori and Joseph Liguori of Premier Estate Properties. </p>
<p>The eight-bedroom estate with 21,607 square feet includes a separate guest house, a pool and 560 feet fronting the water on three sides with multi-yacht dockage. The listing reads that the “Italianate trophy-point estate” has a grand salon with columned archways, hand-distressed walnut floor and “baronial fireplace”; museum-quality walnut paneling and stained-glass windows in the English pub room with a bar and two wine vaults; and a library with oak paneling and onyx fireplace. </p>
<p>Movchan is the chief executive officer of Chicago-based Enfusion, a software-as-a-service provider for investment managers. Vaynberg is president of Highland Park, Illinois-based LB&M Real Estate Management Inc. The new owner is listed as 5001 Egret Point Circle LLC, incorporated in Florida on Jan. 3. The registered agent and manager is GSB Corporate Services in Wellington, a law firm incorporated under attorney Francisco J. Gonzalez. </p>
<p>The LLC ownership company of 1110 S Ocean also lists GSB Corporate Services as its registered agent and manager, as does a townhome at 331 Australian Ave., Palm Beach, which also has been reported as owned by Joel. Hence the speculation that Joel is the new owner of the Egret Point Circle estate.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">***</p>
<p>A year ago, residents from the <strong>Moorings</strong> were making routine visits to Lantana Town Council meetings to protest the size of <strong>Lantana Cabana</strong>, a restaurant developers hoped to construct at the Intracoastal community off Dixie Highway in the northern part of town.</p>
<p>Residents said a 4,000-square-foot proposal was too big for the .13-acre island, which is connected to the mainland by a dock and bordered by land owned by the homeowners association and surrounded on three sides by moored boats.</p>
<p>Three years ago, <strong>Gulfstream Hospitality</strong> purchased the island for $1.01 million with plans to build a waterfront restaurant at the 378-unit condominium complex.</p>
<p>Those plans were scrapped last fall and the property, listed by restaurant brokers Prakas & Co. in Boca Raton, is on the market for $2.5 million.</p>
<p>The land has approvals for a 1,500-square-foot enclosed space with 4,000 square feet under the roof. The listing says the property comes with 50 dedicated parking spaces and two boat slips.</p>
<p>Lantana Director of Development Services Nicole Dritz said no one notified her office to report the Gulfstream Hospitality property was for sale. Dritz said submitted plans are going nowhere, and she had advice for potential buyers: “Talk to the town before you buy so you’ll know what will fly and what will not.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">***</p>
<p>There’s been a lot going on with the <strong>1140 S. Ocean Blvd.</strong> property in Manalapan. Most recently, a company led by Bridgehampton, New York-based developer Joe L. Farrell paid $32.5 million for it and immediately filed for permits to renovate the home. The seller is Mark Sherman, the CEO of Atlanta-based Green Wave Electronics. Premier Estate Properties agent <strong>Margit Brandt</strong> represented Farrell.<strong> Pier Paolo Visconti</strong> and <strong>Claudia Llanes</strong> of Douglas Elliman represented the seller.</p>
<p>Sherman listed the property a year ago for $59 million with his ex-wife, Isabella Sherman. </p>
<p>They had paid $8 million for it in December 2000. With other price points optional, the $59 million price tag was for the home, with renovations complete. </p>
<p>Renovations had been underway on and off since 2017 with a few permit extensions. At that time, according to Visconti, those renovations were expected to be completed in 14 to 16 months. </p>
<p>“If the buyer wants to buy it as is, obviously the price will be lower,” Visconti said. “Another possibility, we just made plans to build a 3,500-square-foot guest house on the property, and for that, the price would be adjusted as well.” </p>
<p>Sherman had big dreams for the property. On 1.61 acres with 150 feet of waterfront on the ocean and Intracoastal Waterway, the residence would have included seven bedrooms and 12,420 square feet.Features would have included a champagne room, gym, library, home theater, game room, wine storage for 1,000 bottles, and a 12-car garage.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">***</p>
<p>Peter R. Norden, CEO of mortgage lending firm HomeBridge, sold a spec home built by SRD Building Corp. at <strong>1812 Sabal Palm Circle</strong> in Boca Raton’s Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club for $16.9 million, in a deal recorded Feb. 2. </p>
<p><strong>David</strong> and <strong>Robin Reis</strong>, trustees of the Royal Palm Residence Trust, are the new owners. David Reis is the CEO of Senior Care Development, a New York company that builds living facilities for older adults. Norden bought the property for $5 million in November 2021. <strong>David Roberts</strong> of Royal Palm Properties represented both sides. </p>
<p style="text-align:center;">***</p>
<p>Four new tenants will move into the <strong>Boca Raton Innovation Campus</strong>, making the 1.7-million-square-foot science hub 91% leased. They are <strong>Engineering Express</strong>, a building-component design firm; <strong>Hollywood.com</strong>, an entertainment news and ticket sales website; <strong>LandAirSea</strong>, a GPS tracking system manufacturer, and <strong>MODE Architects</strong>. </p>
<p>Also, revenue-cycle management platform EdgeMed and the investment firm Orchid Bay Financial Holdings renewed their leases there, with Orchid Bay planning to expand. </p>
<p>BRIC was represented by Jeff Kelly of CBRE in the lease negotiations. Hollywood.com was represented by Will Morrison of CBRE. Anthony Vallagi of Posh Properties represented LandAirSea. EdgeMed was represented by Jason Stagman of Stagman Commercial Real Estate. Engineering Express, MODE Architects, and Orchid Bay were not represented by brokers.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">***</p>
<p>Four new entrepreneurs were selected to join the <strong>Research Park at Florida Atlantic University</strong> in Boca Raton. They were selected based on their innovative approaches, proven records and ability to partner with the university. </p>
<p>The new arrivals are: <strong>InfraSite</strong>, led by CEO Vitaliy Pereverzev, a company that comes up with solutions to smoothly integrate 5G, data centers and edge computing facilities into city settings; <strong>Fenway Group</strong>, led by CEO Martin Santora, a company that offers customized solutions for businesses to take charge of their digital operations; <strong>Signalic LLC</strong>, led by founder & CEO Arash Andalib, a biomedical tech venture offering personalized pain management solutions; and <strong>Salus Water</strong>, led by President Marcelo Costa, a company that specializes in residential water filtration and purification systems. </p>
<p>The Research Park also announced the elections of Stacy Volnick, Ph.D., FAU president, and Imran Siddiqui, JD, as chair and vice chair respectively of the <strong>Florida Atlantic Research and Development Authority</strong> for 2024. Volnick and Siddiqui will work closely with members of the authority and executive management to continue the park’s mission of promoting research and economic development in South Florida.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">***</p>
<p><strong>Lang Realty</strong> recently donated $6,247 to the American Cancer Society’s <strong>“Making Strides Against Breast Cancer,”</strong> as part of its annual Open the Door for a Cure campaign. </p>
<p>Throughout October, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each home closed was dedicated to the charity. “Lang has been a proud supporter of this cause for more than a decade,” said President Scott Agran. “Many of our own agents and staff have personally battled this disease or have gone through this with loved ones.” </p>
<p style="text-align:center;">***</p>
<p><strong>TRX</strong>, a company that produces portable gym equipment, recently celebrated the opening of its new 12,000-square-foot headquarters at 1110 S. Federal Highway, Delray Beach. Moving from San Francisco, TRX aims for a “revitalized” new start after being reacquired by its founder, retired Navy SEAL Randy Hetrick, who started the company in 2004. </p>
<p>He sold his controlling interest in 2019, but in 2022, he bought it out of bankruptcy for $8.4 million with Jack Daly, a Delray Beach resident who is managing partner of Delray Beach-based JFXD Capital and former partner at Goldman Sachs. Daly will serve as CEO of the company.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">***</p>
<p><strong>The Platt Group</strong>, a team of Compass real estate brokers headed by Alex and Margot Platt, recently opened a 2,000-square-foot office at 102 NE First Ave., Delray Beach. Focusing on residential real estate, about 15 people will work in the office. Previously, the space served as the headquarters for Delivery Dudes.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">***</p>
<p>Area resorts again won five-star ratings from the<strong> Forbes Travel Guide</strong>: E<strong>au Palm Beach</strong>, Manalapan; <strong>Four Seasons</strong>, Palm Beach, and <strong>The Boca Raton</strong>. Ranked after anonymous visits from the travel guide’s team of inspectors, all three received five-star ratings for their hotels and spas, with Florie’s restaurant at the Four Seasons, headed by Michelin-star chef Mauro Colagreco, receiving four stars. </p>
<p style="text-align:center;">***</p>
<p>Under Jan Kinder, chair of the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce’s <strong>Delray Business Partners</strong> leads group, members generated more than $172,000 of gross sales by doing business with one another as well as by referring their colleagues in the group to other potential clients. For information on the group, visit delraybusinesspartners.com. </p>
<p style="text-align:center;">***</p>
<p><strong>Erin L. Deady</strong>, a licensed Delray Beach attorney and certified land planner in Florida, recently helped secure funding for projects addressing flooding and sea-level rise resilience.</p>
<p>In a larger funding request of $2.5 billion for 238 projects, Deady authored six project grants totaling $48.8 million, ranking among the top 33 projects. </p>
<p>The projects cover areas such as bridge replacement, wastewater plants, stormwater resiliency and road adaptation. This funding announcement is part of the Resilient Florida program for 2024-2025, pending approval in the legislative session ending in March.</p>
<p>The project list complies with a state law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021, creating the Resilient Florida grant program.</p>
<p>The law mandates annual submission of project lists and statewide flooding and sea level rise resiliency plans, starting in 2022. </p>
<p>Deady played a role in securing an additional $1.5 million for local governments to enhance or initiate new vulnerability planning projects.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">***</p>
<p>The nonprofit <strong>Institute for Regional Conservation</strong> announced two staff appointments this year. <strong>Alex Seasholtz</strong> was appointed director of ecological restoration. He joined the institute in 2019 as the crew leader for the Pine Rockland Initiative program. <strong>Liz Dutra</strong> was appointed the conservation program manager. She joined the institute in 2023 as a program associate. </p>
<p>Other news from the institute: It has collaborated with Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in a shared commitment on the <em>Jacquemontia reclinata</em> coastal restoration project. Also known as beach clustervine, this coastal species, which stabilizes beach dunes, provides critical habitat and food for wildlife. </p>
<p>The institute has been educating the public about the importance of coastal restoration and asking people to be on the lookout for this endangered plant. </p>
<p>If you think you have spotted a beach clustervine, photograph it and upload it to the iNaturalist app, or contact Dutra at ldutra@regionalconservation.org. </p>
<p style="text-align:center;">***</p>
<p><strong>Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science</strong> received a $2.6 million grant from the <strong>National Science Foundation</strong> to establish a scholarship program in the field of cybersecurity. </p>
<p>The foundation’s <strong>CyberCorps Scholarship for Service</strong> program seeks to increase the number of qualified cybersecurity professionals working for federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments.</p>
<p>The program is managed by the foundation in collaboration with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Homeland Security.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">***</p>
<p>A local <strong>Stanley Steemer</strong> office is warning people getting their carpets cleaned: If you think you’ve called the company to do your home and someone arrives in anything other than one of the company’s yellow, branded vans — and not wearing a company polo shirt, either — you’re being scammed.</p>
<p>After hearing complaints about shoddy service from people who wanted Stanley Steemer, but who appear to have fallen for a fake internet ad, Delray Beach store owner Tom Scalera filed fraud reports with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.</p>
<p>Customers told Scalera that the workers claimed to be subcontractors for the company, something the company does not have.</p>
<p><em>Mary Thurwachter contributed to this column.</em></p>
<p><em>Send business news to Christine Davis at cdavis9797@gmail.com.</em></p></div>Pets: Thanks fur the memorieshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/pets-thanks-fur-the-memories2024-02-27T18:50:12.000Z2024-02-27T18:50:12.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390142859,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390142859,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12390142859?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a> Debbie Broyles, minding the store for the new owners of Fins Furs ’N Feathers, calls a customer to say pet food is ready for pickup. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"><em>Boca’s first pet store changes hands after half-century in family</em></span></p>
<p><strong>By Arden Moore</strong></p>
<p>In 1970, a gallon of gas cost about 40 cents. You could buy a loaf of bread for 25 cents. A new car, on average, cost $3,560. And the city of Boca Raton was home to 28,500 residents.</p>
<p>The cost of everything has gone up in the past 53 years and so has the population of Boca Raton, now at 99,435, according to the latest U.S. Census.</p>
<p>But one of the treasured constants was — and still is — a beloved pet store called Fins Furs ’N Feathers on North Federal Highway.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390144669,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390144669,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12390144669?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>Broyles’ father, Charlie Holland, opened the store in 1970 on North Federal Highway. Broyles and her family sold the shop this year to Ana and Franco Lepiane, who plan to keep its name. <strong>Photo provided</strong></em></p>
<p>Let’s travel back in time to 1970. Charlie Holland was a well-liked Boca Raton resident who worked in grocery and antique stores. He loved providing great customer service and he loved pets — and that included his prized fish aquarium in his home. There were no pet stores in Boca Raton, so he had to drive to Fort Lauderdale for fish and supplies.</p>
<p>At the urging of friends and his wife, Betty, he decided to combine these passions by opening the first pet shop in Boca Raton in the fall of 1970. He named his store Fins Furs ’N Feathers.</p>
<p>“I remember when I was 12 years old that my dad’s store was the place for kids to visit after school,” recalls Debbie Broyles. “It wasn’t unusual to see nine or 10 bicycles parked out front and inside, see kids coming to check out the turtles, birds and fish we had.</p>
<p>“Dad always believed in — and taught us — to treat people right. He made everyone feel welcomed who came into our store.”</p>
<p>Debbie and her sister, Lisa Holland, began pitching in to help the family business as teenagers and never left. They took over their dad’s business in 1999, but Charlie would make regular visits to greet people — regulars and first-timers — through the years.</p>
<p>Since opening day, the Hollands have focused on providing quality food, toys and supplies for dogs, cats, small mammals, birds and fish. They have championed pet adoptions by working with animal rescue groups and have hosted fundraising events for pet groups. They have continued to post flyers about missing pets.</p>
<p>Through the past five decades, Debbie, now a mom of three and a grandmother of six (the seventh is due very soon), has witnessed the explosive growth of Boca Raton, the arrival of big box pet store chains and online pet giants like Chewy.</p>
<p>But what never changed was her love of pets and of helping people — just like her dad.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390144895,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390144895,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12390144895?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>Charlie Holland with daughters Debbie Broyles and Lisa Holland in front of the store for its 53rd anniversary.</em></p>
<p>She posted this surprise announcement on the store’s Facebook page on Jan. 12 with a photo of her with her sister and Charlie, now 87, in a wheelchair due to a stroke:</p>
<p>“Lisa & I have a bittersweet announcement. Change has come to the pet shop. Our Dad had a stroke almost 2 years ago and doesn’t leave the house often. This photo is a recent visit to the shop. We hope to do more outings with him in the future. It is no longer owned by the Holland family.</p>
<p>“We have sold the pet shop to another pair of sisters. I’ve been trying for a few days to post this but it’s hard for me. We hope to see you and introduce you to the new owners.</p>
<p>I’ve worked here since I was 12 years old, and change is not easy.</p>
<p>“I know God has a plan and I’m trusting in it.”</p>
<p>The news sparked an avalanche of well wishes and fond memories from friends and longtime customers.</p>
<p>Among the Facebook posts:</p>
<p>“Lisa and Debbie, you will be missed. Mom-and-pop stores are so hard to find these days and FFF is a Boca landmark.” — June Beth Gordon</p>
<p>“You have done Boca and the pet world proud! Love you guys!” — Donna Williams</p>
<p>“You have taken care of me and my girls in the best of times and worst of times. I am forever grateful for your wisdom.” — Jill Leigh</p>
<p>“Debbie, it seems like only yesterday that we were buying our Koi fish from you for our pond. Of course, we bought things for our hamsters that the kids were raising. God bless you and the family.” — Diann Cundiff</p>
<p><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390145463,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390145463,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12390145463?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>The new owners, Ana and Franco Lepiane, with their son, Matteo, and Ana’s father-in-law, Tony. <strong>Photos provided</strong></em></p>
<p>The Holland family made the decision to sell the pet store to another family, Franco and Ana Lepiane and Ana’s sister, Maria. During the transition, Debbie is still at the store and says she has not decided on an exit date. She confirmed that longtime employees Zeidy Velez and Terri Bennett plan to continue working at the store.</p>
<p>Ana confirmed that her family plans to keep the store’s name. Her husband, Franco, also operates a pet grooming salon in Baton Raton called Pet Pourrie. The Lepianes have also created a line of organic, chemical-free grooming products for pets called EcoSpaw.</p>
<p>“It is rare for a store to be in business this long and we know this is bittersweet for the Hollands,” says Ana. “We know that they go above and beyond for their customers, and we hope to do the same.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Fins, Furs ’N Feathers</strong> <br /> The store is at 1975 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Learn more by calling 561-391-5858 or by visiting Facebook at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=">https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=</a> 100063279081448.<br /> The new owners plan to add a website and online ordering options and offer boarding for birds and small animals like rabbits and guinea pigs. <br /> They will not sell pets but will continue the store’s commitment to work with rescue groups to get companion animals adopted.</p>
<p><em>Arden Moore is an author, speaker and master certified pet first-aid instructor. She has a radio show, Arden Moore’s Four Legged Life (<a href="http://www.fourleggedlife.com">www.fourleggedlife.com</a>), and the weekly Oh Behave! podcast on PetLifeRadio.com. Visit <a href="http://www.ardenmoore.com">www.ardenmoore.com</a></em></p></div>Pay It Forward: Students of song, dance to dazzle at galahttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/pay-it-forward-students-of-song-dance-to-dazzle-at-gala2024-02-27T18:36:26.000Z2024-02-27T18:36:26.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390141472,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390141472,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="548" alt="12390141472?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a>The National Society of Arts and Letters’ Florida Chapter’s annual Star Maker Awards will honor Yaacov Heller with the Lifetime Achievement Award and raise money for scholarships, competitions and mentoring programs for performing and visual artists. The event is 6 p.m. March 26 at Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club. Tickets are $375. ABOVE: (l-r) Co-Chairwomen Shari Upbin, Alyce Erickson (seated), Arlene Herson and Sue Heller with Yaacov. <strong>Photo provided</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Amy Woods</strong></p>
<p>This year’s Star Maker Awards, the big benefit for the National Society of Arts and Letters’ Florida chapter, will celebrate musical theater by showcasing the talents of young artists on the rise.</p>
<p>The annual extravaganza includes the presentation of scholarships to those whose performances win first, second and third places in the competition, with the No. 1 winner earning a spot at the society’s national contest in May.</p>
<p>“It’s wonderful to be able to present these young artists,” event Co-Chairwoman Alyce Erickson said. “They come, and they are presented, and that’s how they grow.”</p>
<p>The gala is set for March 26 at Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, where guests will gather for the black-tie-optional evening of cocktails, cuisine and stage numbers.</p>
<p>“It’s a matter of giving back to the community and helping younger people,” event Co-Chairwoman Shari Upbin said. “I think our main goal, of course, is to present the scholarship winners artistically — it’s almost mind-boggling when you hear them — and to bring in funds.”</p>
<p>The 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient is internationally renowned, Boca Raton-based artist Yaacov Heller. Heller’s accomplishments as a sculptor and a silversmith convey messages of acceptance, hope, love and peace, and throughout his 60-year career he has been commissioned to create historically significant works for presidents, kings and queens, heads of state and other dignitaries.</p>
<p>“He’s really excited,” said Kirsten Stephenson, president of the Florida chapter. “It’s nice to have someone who is really honored to be honored.”</p>
<p>The National Society of Arts and Letters’ mission focuses on finding talented amateurs at the beginning of their careers and providing a combination of money and opportunity for them to advance in their disciplines.</p>
<p>“I really feel like we all need to collaborate on the arts right now,” Stephenson said. “When we find a kid who wants to play violin, I think they need a lot more help than the kid who wants to become an engineer. When you’re dealing with kids in the arts, it’s almost an uphill battle.”</p>
<p>Founded in 1944, the society has 15 chapters across the country. The Florida chapter’s membership is 60 and counting.</p>
<p>“We’ve taken off on membership,” Stephenson said. “We’ve got a waiting list for the board. We’re in a really good place right now. But we’re not in a good place financially. We are struggling a bit because we give our money straight to the kids. We depend on the gala, so it’s very important that we do this well.” </p></div>Celebrations: Brice Makris Brunch - Boca West Country Club, Boca Raton — Dec. 10https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/celebrations-brice-makris-brunch-boca-west-country-club-boca-ra-12024-02-27T18:04:07.000Z2024-02-27T18:04:07.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390133876,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390133876,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12390133876?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em>The third annual event welcomed more than 350 guests who helped generate nearly $250,000 for the Hanley Foundation to fund scholarships that aim to save students from drug addiction. Board members John and Michelle Makris chaired the benefit that honors their son, who died at age 23 from an overdose. ‘We observed a change in Brice’s behavior toward the end of his senior year at Florida State University,’ Michelle Makris said. ‘Within weeks of this discovery, he began treatment. We learned that addiction is a brain disorder; it’s a disease. Tragically, the disease overcame our son, and we’re sharing his story to help other parents who are fighting in their kids’ corner to battle this disease.’ </em><br /><em>ABOVE: (l-r) Skeets Friedkin, Tia Crystal and Jan Savarick.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390134301,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390134301,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12390134301?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a> <em>George and Andrea O’Rourke.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390134683,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390134683,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12390134683?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a> <em>Amy Gottlieb and April Lewis. <strong>Photos provided</strong></em></p></div>Dining: Rising prices for cocktails causing a stir; bar owners explain why you pay for qualityhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/dining-rising-prices-for-cocktails-causing-a-stir-bar-owners-expl2024-02-27T17:36:37.000Z2024-02-27T17:36:37.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12390124294,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12390124294,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12390124294?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a>In February, we priced Old Fashioned well cocktails and found they differed. The classic recipe is 2 ounces of whiskey, sugar, bitters and a drop of orange flavor over ice. At the Wine Room (above), it was $16. Kapow’s was $12. Sweetwater’s well, made with Michter’s bourbon and a 2.5-ounce pour, was $15. And at the Blue Anchor British Pub in Delray Beach, a well Old Fashioned was $7. <strong>Photo provided by Michael Albanese</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Jan Norris</strong></p>
<p>It’s not just food costs in restaurants that have tongues wagging. Cocktail prices are prompting some imbibers to do double takes when viewing their bar tabs.<br /> Some cocktail menus have drinks up to $24 on their lists, when not long ago, an $18 glass was considered pricey.</p>
<p>Drink prices have gone up, says <strong>Vaughan Dugan</strong>, owner of <strong>Kapow</strong> in Boca Raton and West Palm Beach. Bars and restaurants can absorb only so much inflation before the customer check is affected.</p>
<p>“Bar ingredients are up, just like food costs. Limes have gone up 100%. We’re always following the price of citrus,” Dugan said. But while food prices are easier to swallow in some cases, he said, “we don’t love putting $24 cocktails on the menu. We don’t want customers hurting in their wallets before they sit down to eat.”</p>
<p>Most of Kapow’s cocktails are $18 or under.</p>
<p>“Cocktails used to be cheap,” said <strong>Bob Higginbotham</strong>, a former manager for several bars in the area and now a bar consultant living in Mexico. Bar sales were easy profit makers for both bars and restaurants. “But the game is changed,” he said.</p>
<p>“Remember all that’s new. Take, for instance, publicity. Restaurants 15, 20 years ago didn’t have publicists, unless they were a big name. Now they have to have PR people, social media people to manage all the Instagram, TikTok and other online accounts, and photographers to take pictures of menus as they change. Who needed menu photos long ago?</p>
<p>There was nowhere to post them.”</p>
<p>Ambiance is important because of social media as well. Special lighting to make customers and drinks look good, bold decor and photo-friendly drink presentation all come at a cost.</p>
<p>Higginbotham also points to restaurant leases. “Rents in South Florida are insane,” he said.</p>
<p><strong>Sean Iglehart</strong>, owner of <strong>Sweetwater’s</strong> in Boynton Beach, said several fees required for business operations also have escalated. He’s working around “skyrocketing insurance” fees that all who serve alcohol must pay. The cost has soared in the past two years, he said, and “we’re paying $3,000 a month.”</p>
<p>Staffing also has affected drink costs. It’s difficult to retain good workers, when and if you can find them, Iglehart said.</p>
<p>“Before the pandemic, I had a staff retention of 90-plus percent. But after that, a lot of the people got out of the business altogether and decided they didn’t want to work these hours.”</p>
<p>The pendulum is swinging back to the employer, he said, but wages are still up, and that is reflected in the glass.</p>
<p>Higginbotham said, “A while back, the bartender would come in to work a half-hour early to cut up limes and set out cherries and garnishes. They now have full-time positions for bar prep.</p>
<p>“All these hidden costs go into the bill.”</p>
<p>Dugan agreed. “We don’t use bar backs. Some of the work that the mixologists do is as complex as the chef’s. They’re using commercial equipment.”</p>
<p>That includes sous-vide, infusion tools for spirits and more. “They’re playing in the culinary sandbox now,” he said. “You see a dish on the menu like my Peking duck. I don’t spell out all the work that goes into making it. At the bar, the customer doesn’t see the complexity that goes into their drink as it’s not spelled out.”</p>
<p>In a restaurant or a bar, owners set out a cost percentage in which they aim to make a profit. Dugan gives this example: “Take the raw cost of a negroni, which I approximate at Sipsmith gin, $1.34; Campari, $1.33; Dolin sweet vermouth, $.73; clear cut ice, $.75; grapefruit peel garnish, $.20. That’s $4.35.</p>
<p>“If I sold it at $16, I’m at a 27.19% food cost. If I wanted to get that down to the industry standard of 20%, I’d have to price that negroni at $21.75.</p>
<p>“I could use a less expensive gin, Campari and vermouth, but these make a great negroni, and that’s the experience we want our guests to have. So we sell a bunch of single-liquor drinks like vodka and soda that help us hit that overall ideal cost percentage.”</p>
<p>Customer perception of value in the glass counts, too.</p>
<p>Sometimes it’s a misunderstanding, Dugan said, especially when the bill appears with an up-charge. He pointed to complaints from customers for a “rocks” charge. “The customer doesn’t realize they’re getting twice the alcohol in the glass,” Dugan said.</p>
<p>Then there’s a $2 charge for a special ice cube that appeared on a check at a Boca Raton steakhouse, bringing a plethora of comments from shocked readers in an online forum.</p>
<p>“We talk about ice cubes,” Dugan said. “If you’re going to put a fancy cube in a drink, it’s usually for a quality drink. It’s our place to educate the consumer and let them know we’re using quality ingredients to justify it. I just build it into the drink cost. Nobody likes to be surprised when they get their check.”</p>
<p>He uses a $1 up-charge for the cubes if the customer requests them in a special Japanese whiskey, for instance.</p>
<p>“But that’s almost our cost. The special clear ice cube costs us almost $1 each. You can get them cheaper if you go with cloudy ice, but who wants that in their glass?”</p>
<p>He said most places buy ice to cut down on freezer space and on pouring molds and getting them just right, which would not be worth the time. “And to get perfectly clear ice is an art form.”</p>
<p>Speaking of glasses, Dugan uses specially designed tiki glasses for a signature “What’s New Pussycat” drink.</p>
<p>“We have about 40% of them stolen. We just chalk it up to our marketing budget. Go into an apartment in Boca or West Palm Beach and you may find one or two of the mugs with our logo. So it’s residual advertising.” He laughed, but said it’s “quite a bit of glassware” for which he has to budget.</p>
<p>“Not everything goes into a pint glass, either. So we have to have a variety of glasses.”</p>
<p><strong>Blake Malatesta</strong>, executive chef at the <strong>Wine Room</strong> in Delray Beach, agreed that bar costs today have to be figured as food costs.</p>
<p>“Yes, it’s spirits and garnishes, but some of the other things are hidden. The back end of everything in the restaurant. Labor that goes into producing it and then serving, glassware, chemicals to wash the glasses, and so on. So when everything goes up, it makes the check prices go up,” Malatesta said.</p>
<p>He points out that alcohol profits are still greater than food’s. “There are larger margins on booze. A bottle of vodka costs you $20, and you’re getting 15 shots out of it. Think that a martini costs you $15.”</p>
<p>The fancy ice cubes, which customers ask for, do cost the bar up to $1.50 after tax and delivery are added in. “Ice is a big thing now. There are companies in the area where you can buy squares, prisms, spheres, or even get flowers put in it. Charging for it is interesting, but I’d build it into the cost of the drink. For me, even with menu items, I build it into the cost,” Malatesta said.</p>
<p>But the price should also be justified by the quality of the drink, he said. “You’re not going to put a fancy ice cube in a well drink.”</p>
<p>In a comparison with food, he said: “When you’re paying $25 for a burger, it should be an exceptional, quality burger. If you spend $20 on a cocktail, you should get quality ingredients.”</p>
<p>Cocktail programs have changed, Malatesta said, but seem to be trending toward classics again. “I find when it comes to food and beverage, it’s cyclical.</p>
<p>“Cocktails got a little crazy. When molecular gastronomy came about, especially. Nitrogen, smoke. Bars hired bar preppers. They actually have hawkers — bar chefs — who create the infused spirits and tinctures, bitters, all the house-made garnishes and simple syrups.”</p>
<p>Now, Malatesta said, most customers just want a well-built drink. People are focusing on properly created cocktails.</p>
<p>“I enjoy a cocktail more than most. I often go to <strong>Avalon</strong>. I get a negroni, and have it made with Monkey 47, a special gin from Germany, made with botanicals from the Black Forest. It’s $18. But it’s one of the best drinks I’ve ever had.”</p>
<p>Dugan said customer preferences help drive the market. At the West Palm Beach Kapow, “Tequila is still king of the castle.” In Boca Raton’s Kapow, the drinkers are a bit older, and the go-to quaff is a classic gin and tonic.</p>
<p>“We’re known for those there. We have gins from all over the world: Japan, Holland and the phenomenal German gin, Monkey 47.”</p>
<p>The bottom line is that people go out and order drinks to have a good experience, Dugan said.</p>
<p>“After all, that’s the business we’re in, hospitality. Making our guests happy.”</p>
<p>He prices drinks to get repeat customers. “We want them to come in and have a good time.”</p>
<p><strong>In brief:</strong> Enter from the alley behind the Wine Room in Delray Beach to discover <strong>Radcliffe’s,</strong> a new speakeasy serving upscale food and drinks, and putting on a jazz club at the same time. The daily password to get in is written outside the back door and posted to Radcliffe’s social media pages. It is currently open only Wednesday through Saturday for dinner; 411 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach. ... In Boca Raton, a Chicago import, <strong>Mia Rosebud,</strong> at 150 E. Palmetto Park Road, makes its debut. It’s part of the Rosebud group of restaurants, famous as Italian steakhouses and favored by the likes of Sinatra and his gang. ...<br /> <strong>Road closure alert:</strong> The annual <strong>Savor the Avenue</strong>, a 5-block-long dinner party in the middle of Atlantic Avenue, is March 25. Tickets for the coveted seats are available through the participating restaurants. For details, go to <a href="https://downtowndelraybeach.com/savortheave">https://downtowndelraybeach.com/savortheave</a>.</p>
<p><em>Jan Norris is a food writer who can be reached at nativefla@gmail.com</em></p></div>Along the Coast: Crash deepens cries for safer A1Ahttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-crash-deepens-cries-for-safer-a1a2024-01-31T20:04:14.000Z2024-01-31T20:04:14.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12369409266,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12369409266,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12369409266?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>While the driver rests in her smashed SUV, Gulf Stream police and Delray Beach paramedics attend to the injured bicyclists at the crash scene along State Road A1A in Gulf Stream. <strong>Photo provided by Gulf Stream Police Department</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12pt;">SUV rams pack of cyclists; biking community rallies on behalf of the injured<br /> </span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><strong>Also on A1A:</strong></span> </span><a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/highland-beach-state-to-host-open-house-in-march-on-details-of-a1">Highland Beach: State to host open house in March on details of A1A repaving plan </a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/south-palm-beach-after-fatal-crash-town-appeals-to-fdot-for-pedes">South Palm Beach: After fatal crash, town appeals to FDOT for pedestrian crosswalks </a></p>
<p><strong>By Anne Geggis</strong></p>
<p>With his 25 years in law enforcement, 11 of them on State Road A1A, no other bicycle crash scene that Gulf Stream Police Chief Richard Jones has ever come across matched what he saw in the predawn light of Jan. 4.</p>
<p>Minutes earlier a southbound SUV driven by a 77-year-old Lantana woman had crossed the center line and knocked into a pack of northbound cyclists like a bowling ball knocking down pins.</p>
<p>Jones was coming from the north but had to get to the south end of the crash to block traffic.</p>
<p>“That’s when I noticed parts of the bicycles and the car, bicycle headlamps, tail lamps, and everything just scattered all over,” he said. “And obviously I saw people.”</p>
<p>He caught sight of an off-duty lifeguard working on one of the victims and Jones, a trained paramedic, jumped out to help.</p>
<p>The situation was dire.</p>
<p>The way he was breathing, Jones said, “I can tell you he was not sustaining life sufficiently.”</p>
<p>Five cycles of chest-pumping and breathing ensued, he said.</p>
<p>“The two of us did CPR until we were able to obtain a pulse for the individual and then shortly after that, fire rescue took over,” Jones said.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12369409859,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12369409859,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12369409859?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>Palm Beach County’s Trauma Hawk air ambulance landed at Gulf Stream Golf Club to evacuate one of the injured bicyclists. <strong>Photo provided by Delray Beach Fire Rescue</strong></em></p>
<p>Six cyclists in the pack of eight were taken to the hospital from the chaotic scene, with the revived cyclist transported by Palm Beach County’s Trauma Hawk air ambulance, while a seventh cyclist suffered minor cuts. The driver of the subcompact Kia Soul SUV was also taken to the hospital. The cyclists were part of Galera do Pedal — Portuguese for Pedal Guys — with about 300 members from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale, mostly of Brazilian heritage.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Caught on video</span><br /> The moment that triggered it all was captured on a camera clipped onto one of the bikes.</p>
<p>As real-life video footage goes, it doesn’t get more dramatic than that 90-second clip.</p>
<p>The cyclists are seen pedaling along, two by two on the road, with no time to get out of the way when the SUV came hurtling toward them, seemingly out of nowhere.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12369412497,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12369412497,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12369412497?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="219" /></a><a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/videos/415735198-7630872973611801-5683420246714197219-n">State Road A1A crash video</a></p>
<p>It happened on a stretch of A1A alongside the Gulf Stream Golf Club course, where there are only a few inches of crumbling shoulder pavement outside of the travel lanes.</p>
<p>The patient on whom Jones performed CPR was the last to remain hospitalized. He was at Delray Medical Center as of Jan. 30, according to fellow bicycle club members; his wife, the mother of three young children, was also among the victims and had been placed in an induced coma following the crash. She has since been released from the hospital.</p>
<p>Another cyclist was released Jan. 28, club members said. He endured a dislocated shoulder, broken femur, shattered pelvis, cuts requiring 20 stitches and a blood clot on his brain.</p>
<p>As of Jan. 30, there was no publicly released report from the Florida Highway Patrol about why the collision occurred or the filing of any charges.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12369410257,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12369410257,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12369410257?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>Two days after a 77-year-old driver plowed into a group of eight bicyclists, hundreds gathered at the site along State Road A1A in Gulf Stream in a show of support and to voice concerns about the road’s dangers. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">A call for safer roads</span><br /> Even though nobody died as 11 others did in bike crashes on Palm Beach County roads in 2023, the sheer number of casualties along a road that attracts sightseers from all over the world brought new visibility to the tight space shared by motorists, cyclists, runners and walkers along A1A and other area roads.</p>
<p>Cyclists and area leaders alike are hoping that the attention from the crash can create new momentum for a cause that has run into dead ends before: Make A1A safer for cyclists, motorists and pedestrians alike.</p>
<p>“We’re out there and we have every right to the road,” Dr. Michael Kasper told the Delray Beach City Commission on Jan. 16, calling himself “one of those crazy cyclists you hear your constituents talking about.” </p>
<p> Jones sees pressure between motorists and cyclists growing as cycling becomes more and more popular. He said there’s a need for more education on both sides, although he’s cited more cyclists than motorists for road rule infractions.</p>
<p>“The whole process from start to finish — driver education and testing, information campaigns — needs more emphasis on sharing-the-road responsibilities,” Jones said.</p>
<p>More than education, though, cyclists are pressing for changes to the road to make it safer for them. Previous attempts — particularly along the 2-mile stretch of Gulf Stream — have failed.</p>
<p>Towns have resisted state efforts to widen the road or add bicycle lanes, citing the unwanted, potential intrusion the lanes would present to private property and — in Gulf Stream — the cherished Australian pines that line the road and enjoy protected status.</p>
<p>Still, the accident galvanized the creation of the Florida Share the Road Coalition. Its stated goal is to make A1A safer while preserving the road’s beauty.</p>
<p>Coalition members went to commission meetings in Gulf Stream and Delray Beach in January to make their case. They say they’ve also met one-on-one with candidates or law enforcement in those municipalities as well as in Boca Raton and Hillsboro Beach. Next, they are angling for meetings with state Department of Transportation officials.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12369410097,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12369410097,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12369410097?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><span style="font-weight:400;"><em>Jordana Lyra, wearing a sling from an injury she received in the Jan. 4 incident, hugs one of the other victims who wished to remain unnamed. Another of the riders in the pack was Bruno Ramos, in blue shirt to the left of Lyra. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Cyclists unite</span><br /> Even before the day of the crash ended, Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia promised to fast-track the A1A improvements that are part of a $100 million plan to make Delray roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists.</p>
<p>“That’s an area that we should focus on as one of the places that we can make safer,” she said. “... The bike traffic isn’t going anywhere.”</p>
<p>The Saturday following the crash, more than 400 cyclists gathered at the site, showing just how correct Petrolia was. Many of them said they could see themselves in that crash.</p>
<p>“I’ve come close to being hit — it seems like motorists have a disassociation with cyclists as human beings,” said Robert Segall, 32, a Delray Beach lawyer who belongs to the Alpha Cycling Club.</p>
<p>Some of them felt compelled to come out in solidarity with the fallen cyclists after witnessing or hearing of the crash’s aftermath.</p>
<p>“We were terrified — it was the most horrific scene I’ve ever seen,” said Jeanine Seeger, 45, of Boynton Beach.</p>
<p>Motorist inattention and outright hostility point to an urgent need, she said.</p>
<p>“We’ve been trying for years to get safer roads,” Seeger said.</p>
<p>Drivers should not view cyclists as just nuisances, said Ross Dubin of Boynton Beach, 53, who has been riding up and down A1A for 15 years.</p>
<p>“When you hit us, most of the time, we die — we are human,” he said. “We pay taxes. We have children.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12369411695,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12369411695,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12369411695?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>Gulf Stream Mayor Scott Morgan speaks with (l-r) Felipe Costa, president of Galera do Pedal club, and cyclists Cameron Oster and Jeramy Pritchett. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Leaders respond</span><br /> From the dais Jan. 16, Delray Beach Commissioner Rob Long, citing the “utterly terrifying” video shot on a stretch of road that he has often pedaled along, said the time has come to address the hazardous conditions. He said he’s not ready to give up on trying to make bike lanes along A1A.</p>
<p>“I think that there are real efforts that we can make through lobbying and advocacy and maybe it’s pressuring the Department of Transportation or the town of Gulf Stream,” Long said. “This has gone on too long.”</p>
<p>To the north of Delray Beach, though, resistance to widening A1A is strong.</p>
<p>Cyclists came to the Jan. 12 Gulf Stream Town Commission meeting a week after the crash. It was at the very same meeting that the town approved rules further protecting the</p>
<p>Australian pines that form a canopy over Gulf Stream’s stretch of A1A. </p>
<p>“Since last year, I’ve been riding my bike for 10,000 miles which is more than I drive my car,” said Jeramy Pritchett, 51, of Deerfield Beach, who started a 100-member club,</p>
<p>NrChild Cycling Club. “There are few places that compare to the place you call home. Please help us make it safer.”</p>
<p>Mayor Scott Morgan, however, told the group that the idea of widening the road is a nonstarter. And the town wouldn’t have anything to say about it either because the state has authority over A1A. However, past proposals by the state to widen the road have met with opposition from the town.</p>
<p>Cameron Oster, 37, of Boca Raton and 3R Cycling Experience, which hosts cycling events, also spoke at the Gulf Stream meeting. He asked for bicycling sharrows — symbols on the pavement that indicate to motorists that they should expect to share the road.</p>
<p>Morgan also has more education in mind.</p>
<p>“We really need to promote single-file cycling through the town of Gulf Stream,” he said.</p>
<p>Pritchett said he tried to end the meeting on a positive note but believes that Gulf Stream officials are misinformed about the rules of the road.</p>
<p>“It’s going to take a while to help people understand what’s really going on,” Pritchett said.</p></div>Along the Coast: Who’s in charge? It’s changinghttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-who-s-in-charge-it-s-changing2024-01-31T19:21:06.000Z2024-01-31T19:21:06.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12369402893,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12369402893,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12369402893?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>Manalapan Town Attorney Keith Davis (center) provides new commissioners and staff with coaching on the restrictions and rules they face. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12pt;"> 13 newcomers set to govern as fight against disclosure law takes shape</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><strong>Related:</strong> <a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/manalapan-tell-them-about-it-attorney-covers-the-basics-for-new-c">Manalapan: Tell them about it: Attorney covers the basics for new commissioners</a></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/briny-breezes-former-mayoral-applicant-picked-to-serve-as-alderma">Briny Breezes: Former mayoral applicant picked to serve as alderman </a></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/gulf-stream-greene-given-lyons-commission-seat-lyons-replaces-him">Gulf Stream: Greene given Lyons’ commission seat; Lyons replaces him on planning board</a></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-new-commission-appointees-to-serve-until-march-electi">Ocean Ridge: New commission appointees to serve until March election</a></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/briny-breezes-no-one-ran-for-council-seat-now-at-least-three-want">South Palm Beach: No one ran for council seat; now at least three want it </a></span></p>
<p><strong>By Anne Geggis</strong></p>
<p>With five of its seven members newly sworn in — or about to be — the Manalapan Town Commission and its expected appointees received an 80-minute crash course in the new realities of holding a local elective office that pays little or nothing at all. </p>
<p>Learning about how even an innocent “thumbs up” on a fellow commissioner’s social media could run afoul of state law was part of the discussion at the new Manalapan Town Commission’s workshop Jan. 23.</p>
<p>The lesson is bound to be repeated in some fashion elsewhere in coastal South Palm Beach County — where five towns have had to contend with 13 members of their governing bodies resigning in the past few months.</p>
<p>The situation also has some municipalities — including Briny Breezes and Delray Beach — interested in supporting a court challenge to the new state law that requires fuller financial disclosures of commission and council members. The law, which requires the annual filing of the state’s so-called Form 6, was the motivation behind most of the resignations.</p>
<p>Eighteen municipalities had shown interest as of Jan. 25 in joining the lawsuit being developed by the Weiss Serota Helfman Cole + Bierman law firm, said Jamie Cole, who is the lead attorney in the effort.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Filling empty seats</span><br /> In the meantime, local governing bodies have been busy coming up with a raft of new appointees to round out their boards. The breakdown:</p>
<p><strong>Manalapan:</strong> The mayor and four commissioners resigned because of Form 6. Four appointments were made in December, though one of those still needs to be sworn in, and another appointee awaits an official vote and swearing in, but the quintet sat on the dais for January’s workshop about their new, public roles.</p>
<p><strong>Briny Breezes:</strong> The mayor, council president and an alderwoman resigned because of the Form 6 requirement; the council has filled the three posts, with one appointee yet to be sworn in.</p>
<p><strong>Gulf Stream:</strong> One commissioner resigned in November and another in December, with new appointments made in December and January. Both have since been seated on the town’s planning board, where they are not required to file Form 6.</p>
<p><strong>Ocean Ridge:</strong> Two commissioners resigned before the end of the year, with one directly connecting his resignation to the Form 6 requirements. Their two replacements took office in January.</p>
<p><strong>South Palm Beach:</strong> Council member Robert Gottlieb resigned before the end of the year in part because of Form 6, but no replacement has been named yet. His seat is up for election in March, but no one filed to run for it in November — and still no candidate came forward during a special qualifying period in January. The one-short commission is now taking applications to fill the vacancy.</p>
<p>Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Highland Beach and Lantana escaped the onslaught, coming into the new year without having any resignations on their elected bodies.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Small towns hit hardest</span><br /> The resignations have hit the smallest towns the hardest. All five of the coastal towns that had recent council or commission vacancies each have fewer than 3,000 residents.</p>
<p>It has raised the specter that eventually no one would be left to serve.</p>
<p>Form 6 is the same one that all elected members of county commissions, the state Legislature and the governor must fill out, as well as other state officials, but those exiting stage left in local municipalities see it as an unwarranted intrusion into their affairs.</p>
<p>Ken Kaleel, who was appointed to his second stint on the Ocean Ridge Town Commission in May, decided to call it quits just eight months later after he saw what he would have to file were he still on the commission on Jan. 1.</p>
<p>“I think it puts a cloud on community activism, frankly,” Kaleel said, noting that the law particularly hurts lawyers like himself who work at small firms because it would require them to list all their clients. The legislation (SB 774) that triggered this round of resignations passed the state Legislature last year with bipartisan support. The only opposition: five</p>
<p>Democratic senators and two Democratic representatives.</p>
<p>Republican Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman voted for it in the name of giving voters more information and deterring corruption. She admits to some surprise, however, at how many have opted to leave rather than fill out the form.</p>
<p>“The goal was to make everyone fully forthright and honest,” said Gossett-Seidman, who ascended to the Legislature from the Highland Beach Town Commission. “I don’t know that people felt that entire commissions would resign. I did not see that. I thought there might be some, but … not quite like this.”</p>
<p>She said that she’d be willing to consider legislation that set different levels of disclosure for different-sized towns.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Push for transparency</span><br /> Professor Aubrey Jewett, who teaches a course in Florida politics at the University of Central Florida, said that he understands the desire that politicians should reveal all their entanglements.</p>
<p>“In the big picture, voters deserve transparency and accountability ... they should have the tools to make sure that their elected officials aren’t being unethical and aren’t in the pockets of big donors or business partners and that sort of thing,” he said.</p>
<p>“But having said that, you know, Florida seemed like it did OK under the old system.”</p>
<p>There was Form 1, after all. Form 1 required commission and council members to declare any assets worth more than $10,000. Under the new form, though, the level drops to $1,000. Some have complained that it includes a child’s prepaid college fund or a spouse’s engagement ring.</p>
<p>“It wasn’t as if these city councils and commission members didn’t have any financial disclosure before this,” Jewett said.</p>
<p>He said the smaller towns could soon run out of people willing to serve, given the dedication required while receiving little or no pay.</p>
<p>A portion of Manalapan’s 400-something residents might be children, ineligible to serve, Jewett joked.</p>
<p>He said he would be watching to see if some towns have nobody to step in to direct town managers and attorneys who oversee development, law enforcement and other municipal services.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Florida’s law is rare</span><br /> At the law firm spearheading the effort against Form 6, Cole said he’s not been able to find any other state that requires elected officials to disclose so much financial information.</p>
<p>He said that it prompted at least 125 elected officials across the state to resign and angered many of those who remain.</p>
<p>“In many cities, most elected officials are paid very small amounts or not at all, and to ask them to give up so much privacy to serve the public … is not commensurate to what they’re doing,” Cole said.</p>
<p>Weeki Wachee was the last Florida town to be abolished, becoming part of unincorporated Hernando County in 2020, Jewett said. That municipality had just 13 residents, however, and the dissolution occurred after it was revealed that the town manager had rung up $1 million in legal fees.</p>
<p>What happens next bears watching, Jewett said. And perhaps due, he said, is some legislative rethinking of the idea that elected representatives in Miami should meet the same requirements as those in Briny Breezes, which has just a smidge more than 500 souls.</p>
<p>Whether to go on as an incorporated town, or be absorbed into neighboring towns, had been raised in Manalapan regarding Form 6’s impact. But for now, all its chairs on the dais are filled.</p>
<p>Dwight Kulwin, scheduled to be sworn onto the Town Commission this month, said he didn’t mind enduring more than an hour of the town lawyer’s explanations about everything from a town manager’s duties to ex parte communications.</p>
<p>“It was fascinating and informative,” he said.</p></div>Boca Raton: ‘Just happy to have Morgan back’https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-just-happy-to-have-morgan-back2024-01-31T19:12:40.000Z2024-01-31T19:12:40.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12369401274,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12369401274,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12369401274?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em>Amelia Pollitt, 5, watches Morgan, a green sea turtle who was returned last month to Gumbo Limbo Nature Center after a stay at a Juno Beach facility. T<strong>im Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Mary Hladky and Steve Plunkett</strong></p>
<p>Four-year-old Jack Gray of Boca Raton peered into Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s almost 9-foot-deep aquarium as Morgan the sea turtle lolled about the bottom.</p>
<p>Suddenly, she paddled toward the surface right in front of Jack.</p>
<p>“Yay,” he shouted. “She said, Hi.”</p>
<p>The nature center was teeming with visitors three days after city officials announced Jan. 10 that Morgan had returned from a prolonged stay at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach.</p>
<p>In March, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had ordered that Morgan and another of the center’s resident sea turtles, Cane, be relocated after the city fired the center’s sea turtle rehabilitation coordinator and assistant coordinator.</p>
<p>Many had not heard about Morgan’s return and were happy to learn she was back.</p>
<p>“I think it is great,” said Jack’s 6-year-old sister, Ruby.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12369401886,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12369401886,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12369401886?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em>Morgan has partial paralysis in her rear flippers and can’t survive in the wild. She is back in Gumbo Limbo’s Shipwreck Aquarium. <strong>Photo provided by Gumbo Limbo</strong></em></p>
<p>Gary Gladstein of Boca Raton visited the center with his son and grandson, Thomas, 12.</p>
<p>“We hadn’t seen turtles here in a while,” Gary said. “We love turtles.”</p>
<p>Thomas said that he has a strong interest in marine life and will be attending the Carolina Ocean Odyssey summer camp on Topsail Island, North Carolina, whose many activities include exploring the marine environment and learning about protecting the oceans.</p>
<p>“I like helping,” he said.</p>
<p>City officials announced Morgan’s return from the Loggerhead Marinelife Center on Jan. 10. But the FWC has not made a decision on the return of Cane, who was also moved to another facility.</p>
<p>David Anderson, the city’s sea turtle conservation coordinator, said Boca Raton is not planning any welcome-home activities for the latest addition to its Shipwreck Aquarium.</p>
<p>“We are just happy to have Morgan back and we are busy caring for her and making sure she is healthy and readjusted to her old home — and that she is,” he said.</p>
<p>FWC spokeswoman Lisa Thompson had little news about Cane, who was taken to the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center in Stuart. </p>
<p>“No decisions have been made about additional turtles at this time, though Gumbo Limbo has indicated they would potentially like to have a second turtle again. Further discussion might not occur until February,” Thompson said.</p>
<p>The removal of Morgan and Cane along with seven sea turtle patients from Gumbo Limbo last year was prompted by the city’s terminations, which came as part of a transfer of the care of the turtles from the city to the nonprofit Coastal Stewards. The group, formerly known as the Friends of Gumbo Limbo, has since hired a veterinarian and a rescue and rehabilitation coordinator and applied for an FWC permit to resume giving turtles medical care.</p>
<p>Gumbo Limbo’s turtle rehabilitation area is still empty. The Coastal Stewards moved its offices in mid-January from a building on Federal Highway in Boca Raton to another on State Road A1A north of Briny Breezes. The FWC is still reviewing the nonprofit’s application for a permit.</p>
<p>Morgan came to Gumbo Limbo after being rescued in 2014. A sub-adult green turtle, she was hit by a boat and her injuries caused her to be partially paralyzed in her rear flippers. As a result, the 119-pound turtle cannot be released into the wild.</p>
<p>The nature center is open Tuesday-Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Monday from noon to 4 p.m.</p>
<p>The facility’s nature trails are open every day from 7 a.m. to sunset. Admission is free, although visitors can make donations.</p>
<p>Parking at Gumbo Limbo is currently a challenge with three spaces in the small lot being made ADA-compliant. </p>
<p>Also, construction of a new observation tower and ADA-compliant access ramp has blocked part of the nature center’s boardwalk. The tower is scheduled to open this spring. </p></div>Along the Coast: Voter registration and vote-by-mail deadlineshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-voter-registration-and-vote-by-mail-deadlines2024-01-31T19:03:42.000Z2024-01-31T19:03:42.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p>To participate in the March 19 Presidential Preference Primary and local elections, residents must be registered to vote by Feb. 20.</p>
<p>You can register online at RegistertoVoteFlorida.gov.</p>
<p>Application forms are also available at any Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office or to download from the supervisor’s website, VotePalmBeach.gov.</p>
<p>You can contact the office at 561-656-6200.</p>
<p>Voters have until 5 p.m. March 7 to request from the supervisor’s office — either in person, online or by phone — that a vote-by-mail ballot be mailed to them.</p></div>Coastal Star: Founder of Beach Bash reveals how tragic accident inspired day of joyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/coastal-star-founder-of-beach-bash-reveals-how-tragic-accident-in2024-01-31T19:01:29.000Z2024-01-31T19:01:29.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12369397485,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12369397485,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12369397485?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></strong><em>Lowell Van Vechten is surrounded by family photos and a portrait of her late husband, Jay, at home in Boca Raton. Jay Van Vechten died in 2020 at age 75. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star </strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Ron Hayes</strong></p>
<p>According to the website of the American Disabilities Foundation, Lowell Van Vechten is its co-founder and honorary chairwoman.</p>
<p>This is true.</p>
<p>“But really I’m the keeper of the history,” she adds.</p>
<p>By history, she means a tragic accident that has been reborn as an annual day of joy.</p>
<p>On March 2, thousands will gather in Boca Raton’s Spanish River Park for the 15th annual Boating & Beach Bash for People with Disabilities.</p>
<p>They will enjoy boat rides on the Intracoastal Waterway, bathing in the Atlantic Ocean, health screenings, therapy workshops, wheelchair yoga, live music, dance parties, therapy pets, giveaways and barbecue lunch.</p>
<p>It’s all free and all are welcome — family, friends and people with disabilities, whether their disabilities are visible or invisible.</p>
<p>“One of the great successes of the Bash is that everyone is made to feel equal,” Van Vechten says. “There’s nothing more healing than to be celebrated and surrounded by people like yourself so you know you’re not alone.”</p>
<p>Lowell Van Vechten’s husband, Jay, was alone in a San Diego hotel room that night in 2001. A successful New York public relations executive in town on business, he slipped on the wet bathroom floor in the dark, fell backward over the tub and shattered five vertebrae. Then he fell forward and shattered both knees. The splayed legs required two hip replacements.</p>
<p>The couple’s old life was gone, but a new one was born.</p>
<p>“Jay’s personal motto was, ‘Don’t postpone joy,’” Van Vechten says.</p>
<p>After his accident, Jay and Lowell Van Vechten of Boca Raton dedicated their lives to bringing joy to the community he’d suddenly joined in that dark hotel bathroom. </p>
<p>Jay served on Boca Raton’s since-disbanded board for people with disabilities, and when his vision for the city’s annual picnic for the disabled grew bigger than the city could handle, the Van Vechtens took over. The Beach Bash debuted in 2009, they founded the American Disabilities Foundation in 2012, and since Jay’s death in 2020, his widow has committed herself to perpetuating their annual day of joy.</p>
<p>Her familiarity with tragedy and commitment to others did not begin with her husband’s fall.</p>
<p>In 1960, her oldest brother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and institutionalized.</p>
<p>In 1998, her middle brother, a Vietnam vet who had been treating his PTSD with heroin, took an over-the-counter medication for the flu, lapsed into a coma and died three days later. He was 48.</p>
<p>She shares this family heartache on the ADF website, in an essay titled, “Why Do I Care So Much About People with Disabilities?”</p>
<p>Growing up on Long Island, she volunteered as a candy striper at Southampton Hospital.</p>
<p>“I put together stacks of bandages,” she recalls with a laugh.</p>
<p>As a high school student at Sacred Heart Academy in Menlo Park, California, in the late 1960s, she volunteered at a Stanford University program for children with developmental disabilities and learned skills she preaches today.</p>
<p>“You ask before touching,” she tells volunteers. “You don’t speak in harsh tones, and if someone is using a wheelchair, you lower yourself to their eye level.”</p>
<p>In the 1980s, while Van Vechten was a marketing director at <em>Mademoiselle</em> magazine in Manhattan and AIDS patients were fighting for both their lives and insurance coverage, she volunteered at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis.</p>
<p>“I shuffled papers,” she says modestly. “A lot of people don’t understand insurance.”</p>
<p>Now she is one of about 150 volunteers who will work in six shifts, organizing 40 exhibitors in 25 active zones throughout Spanish River Park, so about 5,000 disabled guests and others can share a day of community and barbecue.</p>
<p>“I always used to say, if you have an annual party, you’d make new friends over time and eventually it grows to be almost a family of people with whom you celebrate, whatever the occasion happens to be,” Lowell Van Vechten says, “and that’s what the Bash is.</p>
<p>“It’s a free day of joy.” </p>
<p><br /><span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong>If You Go</strong></span><br /><strong>What:</strong> The 15th annual Boating & Beach Bash for People with Disabilities — the nation’s largest, free, one-day event for people with disabilities<br /><strong>When:</strong> 10 a.m.-3 p.m. March 2<br /><strong>Where:</strong> Spanish River Park, 3001 N. Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton<br /><strong>Information:</strong> <a href="http://www.AmericanDisabilitiesFoundation.org">www.AmericanDisabilitiesFoundation.org</a>. To volunteer, call 561-899-7400.</p>
<p><strong>NOMINATE SOMEONE TO BE A COASTAL STAR</strong> <br />Send a note to news@thecoastalstar.com or call 561-337-1553.</p></div>Letter to the Editor: Former Boca Raton conservationist laments Gumbo Limbo sagahttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/letter-to-the-editor-former-boca-raton-conservationist-laments-gu2024-01-31T18:54:29.000Z2024-01-31T18:54:29.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p>As the former marine conservationist for the city of Boca Raton from 1995 to 2021, I have watched the developments at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center and the actions of the nonprofit Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards.</p>
<p>The Coastal Stewards have been in existence for about three years at Gumbo Limbo. What have they done with your hard-earned donation money in those few years?</p>
<p>The Coastal Stewards allowed the Gumbo Limbo Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Facility to close, with no indication of its return. There would have been no interruption in the facility’s operation if the Coastal Stewards had offered the city-employed permit holder and her staff the same jobs.</p>
<p>Recently, the Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards dropped “Gumbo Limbo” from their name, seemingly severing their allegiance to Gumbo Limbo. Now, they claim to have been educating the public for the last 40 years, even though Gordon Gilbert, a Palm Beach County schoolteacher, and the Palm Beach County School District ran the educational programs. The city and the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District continue to fund education staff, with little or no support from the Coastal Stewards. </p>
<p>More recently, I saw a post on the Coastal Stewards Facebook page about the return of Morgan, a disabled sea turtle that resided at Gumbo Limbo for years. The morning after the Coastal Stewards allowed the sea turtle rehabilitation program to shut down, Morgan was sent to a facility that could care for her. </p>
<p>The recent return of Morgan was due entirely to the experience and dedication of the city’s existing sea turtle conservation coordinator, who played a pivotal role in ensuring Morgan’s well-being. It is questionable if the Coastal Stewards are paying anything for the support of Morgan.</p>
<p>A recent check of the Coastal Stewards’ website indicates that they are now expanding their purview to marine mammals and manatees in addition to sea turtles, although they have done nothing with sea turtles since March 2023 at Gumbo Limbo. I find this interesting, as city staff are trained to handle marine mammal and manatee strandings. Why would Coastal Stewards try to duplicate this effort with their own staff?</p>
<p>From what I can tell from tax forms, the Coastal Stewards are paying more for salaries while donations decline. It took the Coastal Stewards less than three years to defund the original Friends of Gumbo Limbo nonprofit, the Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Facility and educational programs. It’s time for the city of Boca Raton to break any ties with the Coastal Stewards, as they no longer represent the interests of Gumbo Limbo and the city of Boca Raton. </p>
<p>If you’re fortunate enough to donate money to a cause, I advise avoiding Coastal Stewards. The money appears to go toward paying salaries for Coastal Stewards staff and not benefiting Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.</p>
<p style="text-align:right;"><em>Dr. Kirt Rusenko</em><br /><em>former marine conservationist,</em><br /><em>city of Boca Raton</em></p></div>