county pocket - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T01:18:24Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/county+pocketMeet Your Neighbor: Ryan Heavysidehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/meet-your-neighbor-ryan-heavyside2024-01-03T17:34:43.000Z2024-01-03T17:34:43.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12345010259,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12345010259,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12345010259?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em>Ryan Heavyside builds custom surfboards and sells Nomad brand clothing at the shop that has been in his family for 55 years. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p>When Nomad Surf Shop owner Ryan Heavyside was approached about being the subject of a Meet Your Neighbor feature as a means of getting him better acquainted with his neighbors along A1A, his response was, “There aren’t many people in this neighborhood I don’t know.”</p>
<p>Ever since his grandfather Richard Heavyside bought the building at the corner of Briny Breezes and Ocean boulevards in the early 1960s and leased a 75-square-foot space to Ryan’s father, Ron, to craft and sell surfboards, Nomad has served both surfers and hundreds of thousands of others who have sought to sample a touch of their carefree lifestyle.</p>
<p>Few have embodied that lifestyle more than Ryan, 39. From a modeling career that stretched from his mid-teens to just a few years ago, to a long stretch as a pro surfer, to growing the Nomad brand into an international success, Heavyside embodies the images made famous in Beach Boys songs.</p>
<p>“South Florida is a special kind of place for all of it,” he said.</p>
<p>Heavyside recently picked up a vintage T-shirt that dates to the three businesses that operated on this County Pocket property just south of Briny Breezes some 55 years ago.</p>
<p>“There was Heavyside TV repair, a Pure Oil gas station and in the back Dante’s Den, which was a rock ’n’ roll joint that blasted live music until 5 a.m. My grandmother, who lived upstairs, used to sleep with cotton in her ears. That was a crazy time on this corner.”</p>
<p>The TV repair shop and nightclub eventually were swallowed up by Nomad, and Ryan’s mother, Beth, helped turn the business into a success.</p>
<p>“She passed when I was 12 but she was the reason that our retail business grew,” Ryan said. “My dad (who died in 2018) started building surfboards, but the retail side came from my mom. The way we survive in this business is the clothing side. Surfboards don’t have much of a profit margin. She kept up with the trends.”</p>
<p>While other retail businesses have succumbed to rent increases and the quest to turn every inch of coastal real estate into housing, Nomad carries on.</p>
<p>“The blessing is we own the building and we’ve been in this location for so long,” Heavyside said. “With the inflation in rents since COVID, you’re in business awhile and the landlord says, ‘Sorry, I’m adding a couple zeros.’ It changes the perspective.”</p>
<p>Nomad’s busy season begins in November and typically runs through Easter. Because Nomad is the only bona fide surf shop between Delray Beach and Stuart, its handful of parking spaces likely will be full for a while.</p>
<p>“There’s not many surf shops who build their own custom label through the shop,” Ryan said. “You can walk in and order a board for your own height, weight, color. Now we’re collaborating with people with art and color. That’s kind of a specialty thing. We’re in a kind of specialty retail spot.” </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’m straight from the Boynton Beach area, born at Bethesda Hospital, so I’m as native as it gets. I went to St. Joseph’s School up through eighth grade, then Atlantic High School for a couple years and then got home-schooled, which brought me into the business. The home-schooling gave me more freedom timewise and that’s when I started getting into modeling, which gave me a lot of opportunities to travel.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> I started modeling at 15 and went into my mid-30s, so that was 20 years of that lifestyle. When I was very young my mom wanted me to get into it and I laughed it off, but later on I saw it as an opportunity to build up my savings. The magazines were everything then but now everybody just flips through their phones. <br /> I was also a professional surfer, was on the U.S. Surf Team for one year and otherwise just did it on my own schedule. Competing is kind of a rough go; you’ve got to really be into it, and I look at it more from the enjoyment end.<br /> Every day in this profession, running the shop, is a proud moment to carry on our legacy, being here 55 years — that’s pretty special to keep going. We still build our own surfboard labels. I actually shape all those. I manufacture those boards. It’s cool to do that custom. And we’ve gotten big on making our own brand of clothing. This is the only place you can get the Nomad brand. We do our own artwork.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> What you put in is what you get back. The work ethic these days has changed. You get the kid who’s really after it, you see that, and then there’s one who kind of lags. We’re blessed here, we have a good crew.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> How did you choose to make your home in the County Pocket?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> We’ve always had a house in the pocket, the old-school wood house where my mom and dad lived. My brother lives in that house and I live in another house on the beach. We also have a Nomad rental beach house where people can book it, have surf lessons and enjoy the lifestyle.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> What is your favorite part about living in the County Pocket?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> The commute to work is good. It’s pretty laid back, one of the last old Florida neighborhoods. There used to be a couple in Deerfield Beach, but they’re gone, so the next one is probably up in Stuart or even further north. It’s got that old Florida feel, which is hard to come by these days. It’s kind of got that island kind of style.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> What book are you reading now?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> I read more <em>The Surfer’s Journal</em>, which is one of the last print magazines that deals with surfing. It’s got short stories but a lot of old ones from the ’70s to newer ones. It’s a bimonthly, glossy cover, a specialty magazine out of California.</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> I listen to a lot of reggae when I’m chillin’, that’s always been kind of a go-to being from Florida. But inspired, when I’m in the shaping room shaping boards, a lot of old school like Jimi Hendrix, stuff like that. It puts you in that zone. Those big old-school tunes kick in, you get kind of a level of energy kick in. Also, the Rolling Stones, the Zombies, all those classic rock bands with the big tunes.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> The biggest has been my father. Him creating this place, he was always so crafty on building boards, old-school cars. Very big-hearted. He always knew the lady from baseball, or the lady from the bank, and anything to do with surf, he’d remember these people. It was programmed in him to be that guy. Especially since he passed the business down to 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> At Nomad every day is like a movie, so I’d probably play myself. But if it was an actor, I’d say Johnny Depp. That whole pirate thing kind of blends with the surf theme.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> Who/what makes you laugh?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> My wife, Taylor. She knows how to turn something serious into a better situation. We’ve laughed a lot over the years. Especially with my dad around, there was always a joke. We’ve been married three years but been together like 12. We’re hoping to become first-time parents next year.</p></div>Along the Coast: Out $481,000, Gumbo Limbo nonprofit moves offices to Ocean Ridgehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-out-481-000-gumbo-limbo-nonprofit-moves-offices-t2024-01-03T17:10:54.000Z2024-01-03T17:10:54.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett <br /></strong></p>
<p>The year 2023 was not a good one for the nonprofit group originally founded to support the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton. </p>
<p>Through November, the Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards said it lost $481,000 in donations and gift shop sales that the organization has routinely counted on. </p>
<p>“We are not doing very well. … Our nonprofit is struggling right now,” said John Holloway, its president and CEO. </p>
<p>Visits to the center on State Road A1A are down more than 30%, he told Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District commissioners on Dec. 18, though the city later said it has vastly different numbers. </p>
<p>“We are barely seeing one or two people coming through the door in a day,” Holloway said of the gift shop. “So we are facing some tough choices in the feasibility of operating a gift store there anymore.”</p>
<p>And veterinary care of Gumbo Limbo’s sea turtles, which the state halted last March, will resume no sooner than this coming April, he said.</p>
<p>But Holloway was upbeat, noting that 200 guests had signed up to attend a fundraiser that week in West Palm Beach when at first he had hoped to get 50.</p>
<p>“The West Palm community, the community of Boynton Beach, the community of Delray has all stepped up tremendously and are all excited about the work that we’re going to be doing,” he said. “So things are going well for us, unfortunately not all so well at our original home.”</p>
<p>That future work includes a new focus on helping manatees, dolphins and whales along with sea turtles; a new name — the group is dropping “Gumbo Limbo” and will be known simply as the Coastal Stewards; and a new office. The group is moving from Federal Highway in Boca Raton to a commercial building on State Road A1A between Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes that is next to The Coastal Star, landlord Southdale Properties Inc. said.</p>
<p>“The Coastal Stewards are now going to be focusing on manatees, sea turtles, and dolphins and beaked whales,” Holloway said. “Those are three megafauna in our community that are in peril. They are all in crisis.”</p>
<p>Despite the change in location, Holloway said the Coastal Stewards will continue to rehabilitate sea turtles in Boca Raton once it gets a permit from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. </p>
<p>“It’s never been our intention to leave. We know and we value taking care of injured sea turtles in South County at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center. It’s been our commitment for more than 15 years,” he said of his group, which began with the name Friends of Gumbo Limbo. “But there are a number of challenges.”</p>
<p>Holloway broke down the group’s lost revenue in three areas: donations at Gumbo Limbo’s door, donations in the turtle rehabilitation ward and purchases at the nature center’s gift shop.</p>
<p>Until 2023 all door donations went to the nonprofit. That stopped Jan. 1, 2023, when the city decided to keep the money itself to defray expenses at Gumbo Limbo. That was part of an evolving plan to have the Coastal Stewards take over operational and financial responsibility for the turtle rehab program.</p>
<p>Holloway had planned on collecting $253,000 at the door. </p>
<p>“I will tell you in a high year … in 2019 we had about $350,000 in door donations,” he said.</p>
<p>The Stewards also forfeited donations “from folks coming to see the patients and wanting to give money to help with their recovery. We’re down $50,000 because there’s no patients,” Holloway said.</p>
<p>And because fewer people are visiting, the group’s gift shop inside the nature center is selling fewer items.</p>
<p>“Our gift store sales this year, year-to-date for November, we’re down $177,000. So in total this year just to get us to November we are down $481,000 in what was typical revenue generated at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center,” he said.</p>
<p>Tiffany Lucia, the city’s deputy recreation services director, had a different take on visitation numbers.</p>
<p>“2023 was the second-highest recorded in recent history,” she said, even though the sea turtles were absent much of the year.</p>
<p>Her numbers show 209,412 people visited the center through Dec. 29, down 14.8% from 2022’s record-setting 245,806 visitors, but up almost 4% from 2019’s pre-COVID total of 201,878.</p>
<p>However, Lucia said door donations through Dec. 29 were only $162,448, well below Holloway’s projection.</p>
<p>At the beach and park district meeting, Holloway said the salaries that the nonprofit is paying its veterinarian, Dr. Shelby Loos, and its rescue and rehabilitation coordinator, Kara Portocarrero, are also straining its budget. </p>
<p>“Keep in mind, you have to have them on staff before you can solicit the state to get a permit. So whether we had sea turtle patients or not I’ve had to have that full complement of staff ready to go,” Holloway said.</p>
<p>Loos, he said, spends 24 hours a week tending to sea turtles at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach. Portocarrero is adding to her résumé through work in Miami-Dade County, all at Coastal Stewards expense.</p>
<p>The city applied for an FWC permit to hold in captivity Cane and Morgan, its two sea turtles that cannot be released into the wild, on Aug. 4. That application is pending and the two are currently at other facilities.</p>
<p>The Coastal Stewards applied for a permit to provide veterinary care on Aug. 2, were asked for more information about Loos’ and Portocarrero’s qualifications, then resubmitted the application on Dec. 18, setting off a new 90-day clock for the FWC to respond.</p></div>Boynton Beach: City approves budget, raises utility rateshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boynton-beach-city-approves-budget-raises-utility-rates2023-10-04T17:35:05.000Z2023-10-04T17:35:05.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Tao Woolfe</strong></p>
<p>The Boynton Beach City Commission voted unanimously Sept. 27 to approve a $118.6 million general fund budget, as well as a 10% increase in utility rates that also applies to Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes water customers.</p>
<p>The all-funds proposed budget was $289 million. Besides the approved $118.6 million general fund budget, other parts of the total budget include a water and sewer outlay of about $60 million; a $49 million capital improvement fund; and a solid waste fund of $15 million.</p>
<p>The adopted general fund was slightly less than the proposed budget of $120.5 million, but still represents a 13% increase over the past year’s general fund budget. The general fund pays for the daily operations of city government.</p>
<p>The biggest departmental expenditure is a combined budget for police and fire services, proposed at $76 million, or about 63% of the general fund. Public works, by comparison, is about $10.5 million, or 8.7% of the general fund.</p>
<p>Although some of the final budget numbers were discussed and included in the agenda packet for city’s third and final budget hearing on Sept. 27, city officials said two days later that the actual budget document would not be available to the public or the media for up to 30 days.</p>
<p>This story uses final figures, where available, and proposed budget figures when necessary. </p>
<p>The rates for water, and for wastewater and stormwater management, increased 10% effective Oct. 1. The increase applies to customers inside and outside the city, according to a spokeswoman for the city.</p>
<p>Boynton Beach supplies water to customers in portions of unincorporated Palm Beach County, including the County Pocket; and the towns of Ocean Ridge, Hypoluxo and Briny Breezes.</p>
<p>When discussing the utility rate increases at their meeting on Sept. 27, city commissioners expressed concern about raising rates for residents who may be struggling to make ends meet during economically challenging times.</p>
<p>City Manager Daniel Dugger urged the commission, however, to approve the hikes because the city is going to have to spend hundreds of millions in the coming few years to pay for infrastructure improvements and establish a reserve fund.</p>
<p>“We need to have a balanced plan that meets the city’s [infrastructure] needs over a period of time,” Dugger told the commissioners. “The goal is to exceed depreciation. I am recommending the 10% increase.”</p>
<p>This summer, the city had to pay for emergency repairs to a broken sewer pipe that oozed millions of gallons of wastewater into the Intracoastal Waterway. The accident raised awareness about the city’s aging infrastructure and, although a final report has not been issued, the city could face fines for the pollution from the state Department of Environmental Protection and at least $1 million for repairs. The break occurred on July 3.</p>
<p>The City Commission budgeted $33 million to the water and sewer utility capital improvement enterprise fund and another $15 million for the solid waste enterprise fund. </p></div>Meet Your Neighbor: Don Brownhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/meet-your-neighbor-don-brown2023-10-04T16:09:10.000Z2023-10-04T16:09:10.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><em><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12239457872,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12239457872,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12239457872?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>ABOVE:</strong> Don Brown loves the beach life and the County Pocket he calls home. <strong>BELOW RIGHT</strong></em><em><strong>:</strong> His custom-designed home reminds some of an inverted pyramid. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star<a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12239458258,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12239458258,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="12239458258?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a></strong></em></p>
<p>If you meander through the neighborhood east of State Road A1A between Briny Breezes and Gulfstream Park, you’ll find narrow streets with bungalows and surfer shacks that comprise the County Pocket. You can almost hear Jimmy Buffett strumming his six-string. Amid the relaxed residents in their swimsuits and flip-flops are at least a handful of success stories. Among them is Don Brown, who bought his first property there in 1979.</p>
<p>“I grew up surfing Lake Worth,” said Brown, 67. “To live on the beach was a dream come true. Surfing, sailing Hobie cats, and catching lobsters is what I enjoy best about the pocket.</p>
<p>“I have been here 43 years now and made a lot of very close friends. There is no other place in Palm Beach County like the pocket. With the narrow roads and tiny lots the county engineers and zoning officials don’t know what to do with us.” </p>
<p>Brown learned how to deal with people while working at his father’s clothing store in Lake Worth and later, West Palm Beach, and went into the real estate business after earning a degree in history from Florida State. </p>
<p>He opened his real estate firm, Southdale Properties, in 1995, and like others in that business struggled through some lean years in the 2000s.</p>
<p>“I was leveraged to the hilt, but worked my way through it and now I’m proud to say I’ve been debt-free for six years,” Brown said.</p>
<p>After living next door to what was his empty lot for nearly 20 years, he built his three-story dwelling in 2009. </p>
<p>“It was a non-conforming lot, too narrow, so I had to get a waiver from the county to build it,” he said. “It’s a townhouse concept and 35 feet high, so I can see the water from the top floor.</p>
<p>“It attracts a lot of attention. If I’m out in the driveway washing my car at least two or three people will stop and ask about it in that short time.”</p>
<p>It remains a work in progress; he and fiancée Donna Kirby spend most of their time in a studio over the garage while work continues.</p>
<p>Brown played all the team sports as a kid but turned to golf and surfing as he got older and still enjoys both: golf as a member of the Lost City Club at Atlantis and surfing in what amounts to his backyard.</p>
<p>“The good thing about both is being self-employed,” he said. “I play golf every day and if the surf is up I can disappear for a couple of hours and nobody notices.” </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 was born and raised in Lake Worth. I grew up in College Park, which is in the northeast end of town bordering West Palm Beach, and went to Lake Worth High School, graduating in 1974, and then on to Florida State, where I got a degree in history.<br /> My father started a men’s clothing store called Brownie’s Men’s Shop in 1946. I excelled in school, but working in the family business meeting hundreds of customers taught me about customer service. The 1960s and ’70s in Palm Beach County were special since it was still a small-town feel. When I was in high school, I-95 was not yet completed in Lake Worth. <br /> My father sold the location in downtown Lake Worth and moved the store to West Palm Beach. As a young boy and teenager, I worked in the store, and after my father passed away when I was 16 I helped my mother run it.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> I have always been self-employed. From paper boy and mowing lawns as a kid to eventually running the family business. When we closed the store in 1989, I opened a real estate office because I didn’t want to go and get a real job. Real estate is a profession, not a job. I parlayed the people skills I learned as a kid into a successful real estate business.<br /> I am most proud of the idea that I never sold out to a big company and remained independent. We have more than 40 agents in the office and a good reputation in the local market. Southdale Properties is in Lake Worth two blocks from where I was born.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> Figure out how to go to college. When you finish high school, your brain is ready to learn, and four years is enough time to figure out what you really want to do.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> How did you choose to make your home in the County Pocket?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> When I got out of college, I bought my first home in Lake Worth with a vacant lot next door. I built a duplex. My brother came home for vacation and saw an ad in the paper for a house in the pocket. My brother and I partnered up to purchase the property and in a few years he wanted to sell his half, so I figured out how to buy him out. During that time, we bought the two lots next door; I sold the back one to my friend Mark Foley and gave all the money to my brother, keeping the front lot for myself. That is where I live today. It took me 35 years to figure out how to build a house on it.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> What is your favorite part about living in the pocket?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> It’s self-evident. It’s a great spot, being on the beach. I surf, and I still surf to this day whenever there’s waves. It’s kind of a spoiled life to be able to walk out your door and walk down to the beach before your coffee gets cold.<br /> I do a lot of business here in Ocean Ridge and one of my selling points is if you live east of A1A it’s a four- to five-minute walk to the dune.<br /> <br /> <strong>Q:</strong> What book are you reading now?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> <em>Ben Hogan, An American Life</em>, written by James Dodson. I have been playing competitive golf since I was a junior player. My mother used to drive me to tournaments all over. There are several Hogan books out there but this one is the best.</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> I have always been a big Steely Dan fan. There is no other band like them.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> When I first became a Realtor I was inspired by my first broker, Tony Locastro, who ran a tiny office with just his wife. He talked me into selling business opportunities instead of homes. This is how I got started. My first deal turned out to be a restaurant, and that led to a lot more restaurant transactions. Half of my business is commercial every year. Tony had two sayings: 1. You cannot sell from an empty cart, and 2. Knowledge is strength.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> If your life story were to be made into a move, who would play you?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> Billy Bob Thornton. I like him, and I’ve had people tell me I look like him. Don’t know if I do or don’t, but he’s got the sense of humor I’d have if I was him. He’s a cool dude.</p>
<p><strong>Q:</strong> What makes you laugh?<br /> <strong>A:</strong> Old <em>Seinfeld</em> reruns. My fiancée Donna will attest to this, I don’t laugh a lot. I’m serious about almost everything and don’t laugh much at jokes. But there’s something about the interaction among the cast; those guys are priceless. Jerry Seinfeld doesn’t use profanity in his act and all his humor is G-rated. And George plays the perfect character.</p></div>County Pocket: Seaside Deli opens again, without fresh sandwiches or alcohol (for now) https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-seaside-deli-opens-again-without-fresh-sandwiches-o2023-02-28T21:29:04.000Z2023-02-28T21:29:04.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Joe Capozzi</strong></p>
<p>The Seaside Deli, the County Pocket staple that shuttered in January because of a landlord dispute, reopened on Feb. 10 under new management. <br /> Whether the place will return to its former glory remains to be seen. <br /> Missing, for now, is the actual deli where, under the previous management, friendly sandwich makers served up fresh food to customers they often knew by name.<br /> Sandwiches are for sale at the new deli, but they’re pre-made, wrapped in cellophane and stored in a refrigerated pantry against the east wall. Also missing in the first few weeks since the reopening: beer, wine and cigarettes. <br /> Mohammad Amin, a clerk at the store, said Feb. 23 that the store was waiting for licenses to sell alcohol and cigarettes. He said a formal grand opening was planned in March on a date to be determined. <br /> Until then, plenty of soda and snacks are for sale. And Amin excitedly showed a reporter a new addition next to the register — an empty plexiglass display case awaiting a shipment of electronic cigarettes. <br /> Leonora Belliard, an officer in a company that owns the building and brought Amin and others in to reopen the deli, did not return phone calls seeking comment. </p></div>County Pocket: End of an Erahttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-end-of-an-era2023-02-01T18:33:18.000Z2023-02-01T18:33:18.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10952748672,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10952748672,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10952748672?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><strong>Related story:</strong> <a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-truly-the-end-of-an-era?edited=1"><em><strong>'Truly the end of an era’: Tears, heartbreak mark final days at Seaside Deli</strong></em></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Longtime Seaside Deli & Market manager Chelsea Steen (left) embraces customer Carol George after helping George load her car during her final visit to the deli, which closed last month. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p></div>County Pocket: 'Truly the end of an era’: Tears, heartbreak mark final days at Seaside Delihttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-truly-the-end-of-an-era2023-01-31T18:20:52.000Z2023-01-31T18:20:52.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10952172677,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10952172677,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10952172677?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>Longtime Seaside Deli & Market manager Chelsea Steen rings up cyclists Ellie Beaulieu (left) and Marie Prevost during their final visit to the deli after a dispute over the lease forced it to close. <strong>Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Joe Capozzi</strong></p>
<p>The customers kept coming until the very end.<br /> As they walked in that final weekend, it was hard for them to miss the eviction notice, taped across the front doors by a sheriff’s deputy on Jan. 12. But they held out hope that surely a resolution could be reached so the Seaside Deli & Market, the “heartbeat” of the small but proud County Pocket, could continue to sell sandwiches, sodas and snacks to customers like bike riders, billionaires and beachgoers as it had since at least the 1980s.<br /> “I was hopeful that this might just be a tenant dispute that can be resolved. We didn’t realize it was really this imminent,’’ Gulf Stream snowbird Darren Alcus said Jan. 14 as he watched employees clear the shelves of Fritos, Fruit Loops and other inventory while waiting on his sandwich order. <br /> “It’s terribly sad,’’ he said. “It’s truly the end of an era.’’<br /> That era, during which surfers, celebrities and generations of families like Alcus’ came to regard the Seaside as an essential part of the community, ended a few hours later. On that chilly Saturday night, deli owner Randy McCormick rang up the final sales, turned out the lights and locked the doors.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10952173275,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10952173275,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10952173275?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>Owner Randy McCormick chats with Natalie Willoughby (left) and Cheryl Marier in the deli’s final hours. He decided to retire rather than look for another location.</em></p>
<p> “I am throwing my arms up and walking away,’’ said McCormick, the latest and perhaps last operator of the convenience store at 4635 N. Ocean Blvd., in an unincorporated pocket just south of Briny Breezes.<br /> When a judge ruled against Seaside on Dec. 22 in an eviction lawsuit brought by the building’s landlord, McCormick briefly flirted with the idea of finding a new location for the deli but decided to retire. <br /> “I don’t have the resources to start anything again,’’ he said. “I’m just going to call it a day.’’<br /> McCormick and a few longtime staffers returned Jan. 15 to wipe down the shelves and mop up the floors in the empty 2,131-square-foot shop. Sometime after that, they would hand the keys over to a deputy to give to the landlord, a company owned by former major league baseball player Rafael Belliard.<br /> Belliard, a Boca Raton resident who bought the Seaside building in 2014 and leased it to McCormick in 2017, played 17 years for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves before retiring after the 1998 season. <br /> McCormick and Seaside loyalists accuse the retired shortstop and his wife of turning a squeeze play that forced the beloved deli to shutter. <br /> Although Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Paige Gillman sided with claims by Belliard’s company, Ocean Blvd 14 LLC, that Seaside failed to pay $40,279 in back rent, McCormick insisted that he tried to pay the rent. <br /> In a complicated dispute over the lease, the Belliards refused to accept the payments, McCormick said. <br /> McCormick said he has checks for the rent, and the sealed envelope Ocean Blvd 14’s attorney would not open, to prove his point. <br /> McCormick and others think the Belliards, who operated the deli for three years before turning it over to McCormick in 2017, didn’t accept the rent payments because their long game is to sell the building. <br /> McCormick said he spoke a year and a half ago to two potential buyers from Gulf Stream who discussed with him the possible terms of a new lease. One of the potential buyers, who did not want to be identified or quoted, confirmed that he and some partners at one point spoke to the Belliards about buying the site and spoke to McCormick about a potential lease.<br /> Belliard’s wife, Leonora, who handles the company’s business dealings, said in a brief interview a week before Seaside closed that she “would like to have it rented,” possibly to another deli or convenience store. <br /> “We are trying to figure it out,’’ she told <em>The Coastal Star</em>, declining to comment further. <br /> Although the building that housed Seaside Deli stands on a small footprint, many locals worry it may be a piece of a larger plan developers are eyeing for high density, multifamily condos.<br /> “The deli is located in the only unincorporated county pocket remaining on our barrier island. County rules for residential development are vastly different from Gulf Stream and Ocean Ridge, and even from Briny Breezes, which is undoubtedly destined to undergo significant change in the years ahead,’’ the nonprofit Florida Coalition for Preservation said in a statement Jan. 12 after the eviction notice was posted.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10952176082,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10952176082,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10952176082?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>The interior of the Seaside Deli & Market one day before it was forced to close.</em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Hub of the community</span><br /> Seaside’s next-door neighbor, Nomad Surf Shop, said developers should not bother approaching it. At least that was the message surf shop owner Ryan Heavyside said he was hoping to convey in a video posted on social media two weeks after the judge’s ruling. <br /> “We just want to say thank you to the Seaside Deli for being such great neighbors over the years. Most of you have heard they are moving on, so it’s a pretty sad time for the community,’’ Heavyside, whose father, Ron, opened the surf shop in 1968 and died in 2018, says in the Instagram video. <br /> “But we just also want to say Nomad’s been here for 55 years. We are not going anywhere. We’re going to be here for another 55.’’<br /> The surf shop and the deli, tucked together at the southeast corner of State Road A1A and Briny Breezes Boulevard, served as the unofficial center of the community, a place where parched bicyclists mingled with barrier islanders who took pride in not going “OTB,” meaning over the bridge, unless absolutely necessary. <br /> Whether picking up Bloody Mary mix on a Sunday morning, a six-pack on a Saturday night or a lottery ticket, customers could always turn to the Seaside, as they called it.<br /> It was a place where famous customers like retired hockey star Mario Lemieux, comedian Jim Carrey and baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter could pick up snacks and sandwiches without being hounded for autographs. <br /> “This place is vital. It is an essential part of this area. This makes it a town. You remove this, now everyone has to start going further afield,’’ longtime regular Harvey Brown of Delray Beach said Jan. 13.<br /> “It’s sort of like a little heartbeat here,’’ he said. And when it closes, “I think everyone is going to realize what it meant to them.’’<br /> Just before Christmas, the Florida Coalition for Preservation launched a campaign to “Save the Deli,’’ as a banner on the building proclaimed. More than 1,000 signatures were gathered on a petition, which continued collecting names after the eviction notice was posted.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">‘Destroying little people’</span><br /> “I’m heartbroken,’’ said Natalie Willoughby, a former Seaside clerk who returned to help McCormick pack up. “I think it’s wrong, destroying all the little people. It’s a sad, sad day.’’ <br /> Volunteers and employees spent Jan. 13 and 14 boxing the inventory and driving it south to Deerfield Beach, where McCormick donated the goods and supplies to the Second Avenue Deli. McCormick owned that store years ago but sold it when his wife died. <br /> In 2017, he decided to go back into the bodega business and took over the Seaside Deli. He brought loyal workers like store manager Chelsea Steen and deli worker Emmy Brandt, both of whom quickly got on a first-name basis with regulars. <br /> Steen, who usually wore casual clothes to work, put on a black dress on Jan. 13 — not so much a symbol of mourning, she said, but because she just felt that wearing something nice on her last Friday at the Seaside was the right thing to do. <br /> “It’s like the last day of school and you have to say goodbye to all your friends,’’ she said. </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10952174494,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10952174494,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10952174494?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>Fred Podvesker (right), former owner of the Seaside Deli & Market, reminisces with longtime customer Lawrie Bird.</em></p>
<p>Those final two days often felt like a class reunion, with former store owner Fred Podvesker and his son, Richie, stopping by to collect photos and knick-knacks from the walls and to pay final respects.<br /> Coffee and sodas were given away for free that weekend, while wine, cigarettes and other items were sold at half price. <br /> “I’ve got to get out of here or I’m going to start crying,’’ said Fred Podvesker, who ran the place from 1993 until 2014 when he sold it to the Belliards. <br /> No one is sure exactly how long a deli operated out of the space, but old-timers remember when it used to be a bar and a chicken restaurant. Heavyside said his mother waited tables there when it was a restaurant. Before Podvesker and his sons took over, it was called Seaside Superette, a name still used by many of the store’s longtime suppliers.<br /> “It was nice to get the support from so many people. It’s heartwarming to know that everybody cared so much, not just for the store but the people who worked there,’’ McCormick said. <br /> Despite the gloom hanging over the place, there was no shortage of smiles and laughter as customers hugged Steen goodbye and tried to cheer her up with bad jokes.<br /> One that made her smile: “Today is Friday but tomorrow is a sadder day.” (Get it? A Saturday.) <br /> The dumb joke turned out to be true, since Seaside’s last day was a Saturday, with the deli’s long menu of famous sandwiches reduced to a handful of choices made from whatever ingredients were left. <br /> As Brandt and co-sandwich maker Casey Shugar took final orders that day, they heard something odd: their own voices echoing across the empty store. <br /> “It was definitely one of those weird moments,’’ Brandt said.<br /> Brandt made the deli’s last sandwich, a BLT without tomato, for longtime customer Brandon Martel of Ocean Ridge, then gave away small containers of the remaining chicken salad and tuna salad.<br /> “There were people coming in when we had nothing left to sell,’’ said Brandt. “One group of customers turned around and said, ‘We’re just going to go out to the parking lot to cry.’’’<br /> As customers walked out the door for the last time that final weekend, they received the same send-off that Steen repeated over and over on her last day behind the register. <br /> “It’s been a pleasure,’’ she said. “Thank you for coming and being part of the family.’’</p></div>County Pocket: Seaside Deli shutting its doors Saturdayhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-seaside-deli-shutting-its-doors-saturday2023-01-12T19:41:35.000Z2023-01-12T19:41:35.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10929852464,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10929852464,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10929852464?profile=original" width="710" /></a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office posted an eviction notice for Seaside Deli on Jan.12. The deli, on State Road A1A just south of Briny Breezes, plans to stop its operations at about 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 14.<strong> Photo provided<br /></strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Related: <a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-threatened-end-of-seaside-deli-sparks-anger-sorrow">Threatened end of Seaside Deli sparks anger, sorrow</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>By Joe Capozzi</strong></p>
<p>The Seaside Deli will shut its doors Saturday, Jan. 14, the result of a dispute between the beloved County Pocket staple and its landlord.</p>
<p>“This will be our last weekend,” longtime store manager Chelsea Steen said Thursday afternoon, a few hours after the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office posted an eviction notice on the front door at 4635 N. Ocean Blvd., just south of Briny Breezes.</p>
<p>It was still business as usual as Steen continued to work the cash register, selling discounted items, during a brief interview with <em>The Coastal Star</em>.</p>
<p>“I haven't had a chance to process much. After I spoke with the [deputy], I came back in the store and just started working. I'm just a little frazzled.’’</p>
<p>The eviction notice takes effect around 11 a.m. on Saturday. That means Friday will be the last full day for customers to make their final purchases.</p>
<p>Store owner Randy McCormick told Steen to “start discounting everything so we can move it on out. I already started doing that today with wine. I will be out of food by [Friday],” she said, noting that the deli had already run out of corned beef, pastrami, egg salad and tuna salad.</p>
<p>McCormick could not be reached for comment, but he has said he is trying to find a new home for the deli, which has built a loyal customer base since 1993.</p>
<p>On Dec. 22, a Palm Beach County Circuit Judge ruled in favor of the owner of the deli’s building, Ocean Blvd 14 LLC, a company owned by former Major League Baseball player Rafael Belliard. The judge sided with the landlord’s claim that Seaside Deli hadn’t paid $40,279 in back rent.</p>
<p>McCormick has said he has tried to pay the rent but the landlord refused payments because the company plans to sell the building.</p>
<p>After the judge’s ruling, community leaders launched a campaign to “Save the Deli,” as a banner erected across the front says. More than 650 signatures have been collected on a petition.</p></div>County Pocket: Threatened end of Seaside Deli sparks anger, sorrowhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-threatened-end-of-seaside-deli-sparks-anger-sorrow2023-01-04T18:00:02.000Z2023-01-04T18:00:02.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10925372894,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10925372894,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10925372894?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>A petition drive aims to ‘Save the Deli,’ which is in a dispute over its lease. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Joe Capozzi</strong><br /> <br /> The Seaside Deli & Market, the beloved County Pocket staple with a loyal following of billionaires and beach bums, is facing an uncertain future because of a legal fight with its landlord, a company owned by retired major league baseball player Rafael Belliard. <br /> As lawyers for both sides try to negotiate a resolution, community leaders have launched a campaign to “Save the Deli,’’ as a banner erected across the front says. More than 650 signatures have been collected on a petition.<br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10925378289,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10925378289,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" width="101" alt="10925378289?profile=RESIZE_180x180" /></a>If the deli can’t remain in its familiar spot at 4635 N. Ocean Blvd., just south of Briny Breezes, owner Randy McCormick said he’s hoping to move it to a new space nearby instead of closing for good and putting his nine employees out of work. <br /> “There is a chance we can negotiate the lease that will permit Seaside Deli to remain in the space,’’ said Carl T. Williams, who until late December was McCormick’s attorney. “We’d like to work with the landlord to the extent we can and try to find a solution that’s good for everybody.’’<br /> Accusations have been flying from both sides for more than a year. But Belliard’s Ocean Blvd 14 LLC scored a victory Dec. 22 when Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Paige Gillman issued a written ruling giving the landlord possession of the space. The judge sided with the landlord’s claim that Seaside Deli hadn’t paid $40,279 in back rent, in violation of an October court order. </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10925374291,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10925374291,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10925374291?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a><em>Longtime store manager Chelsea Steen works the counter. <strong>Photo by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p>Although business at the Seaside Deli has been especially brisk in the two weeks since word got out about the deli’s future, McCormick said he wouldn’t be surprised if the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office ordered the locks changed as early as the first week in January.<br /> Despite Gillman’s ruling, Williams and McCormick insist the landlord’s claims are not true. Seaside Deli tried to make its monthly payments in 2022, they said, but Belliard family members and their attorney would not accept the money. <br /> “We have never not paid our rent. My (lease) renewal would have started in March 2022,’’ McCormick said. “I made that payment directly into their account. The next month, when I tried to deposit the rent, I was told that they closed their account. From that point on, I sent the rent every month certified mail, and they refused delivery every month, and I have those receipts.’’<br /> Williams and McCormick believe the Belliards have refused to accept the money because they are trying to sell the building. McCormick said he spoke a year and a half ago to two potential buyers from Gulf Stream who discussed with him the possible terms of a new lease.<br /> One of the potential buyers, who did not want to be identified or quoted, confirmed that he and some partners at one point spoke to the Belliards about buying the site and spoke to McCormick about a potential lease. <br /> It’s unclear whether there were formal negotiations.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">‘Beach bums to billionaires’</span><br /> Leonora Belliard, who is Rafael’s wife and handles Ocean Blvd 14’s business affairs, did not return a phone call from <em>The Coastal Star</em>. “I have no knowledge at this moment,’’ Ocean Blvd 14 attorney Joshua Pinsky said Dec. 20 when a reporter asked about the Belliards’ plans for the property.<br /> Rafael Belliard’s eviction lawsuit, filed in July, was a counterclaim to a lawsuit filed in August 2021 by Seaside Deli. In that lawsuit, which is still open, Seaside Deli accused Ocean Blvd 14 of breaching the lease by trying to sell the property without giving McCormick the first right to negotiate a purchase, which is spelled out in the lease. <br /> In a June 1 motion to dismiss, an attorney for Ocean Blvd 14 denied the claim, saying “there is no current contract or agreement to sell the subject property. …’’<br /> The five-year lease expired March 31, but Seaside Deli has refused to vacate, Ocean Blvd 14 said in the July filing.<br /> Meanwhile, word of the judge’s ruling has sent shock waves around the County Pocket, where Seaside Deli is considered not only a neighborhood asset but one of the few remnants of Old Florida along State Road A1A in Palm Beach County.<br /> Loyal customers who have come by over the years for fresh deli sandwiches, imported beer or a loaf of bread range from hockey great Mario Lemieux and singer Jimmy Buffett to landscape workers and surfers. <br /> Just the other day, actor-comedian Kevin James popped in to pick up one of the deli’s famous subs. And old-timers still remember the day New York Yankees star Derek Jeter and his then-girlfriend, singer Mariah Carey, stopped in for snacks on their way to the beach. <br /> “We get beach bums to billionaires. To me they’re all the same. They’re just good people,’’ McCormick said. <br /> The deli has been so popular, local Realtors over the years have included it in MLS listings as an amenity, a mom-and-pop alternative to having to cross the bridge to get to a Publix before the supermarket chain opened a store in Manalapan.<br /> The deli extends accounts for local businesses, allowing their workers to pick up ice, drinks and food. For a while, it delivered lunch sandwiches for students at the private Gulf Stream School. <br /> “It’s become part of the fabric of the community,’’ said Richie Podvesker, whose father, Fred, owned the deli and building since 1993 before selling it to the Belliards in 2014 for $460,000. <br /> “My dad put his all into it just as I put my heart and soul into it for more than 20 years, seven days a week,’’ he said. “I just want to see it succeed.’’</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">An attraction for developers</span> <br /> Born in the Dominican Republic, Belliard played second base and shortstop from 1982 to 1998, the first nine years with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the last eight with the Atlanta Braves. He won a World Series ring with the 1995 Braves.<br /> With Kevin Belliard, Rafael’s son, at the helm, the Belliards ran the store for three years before selling it to McCormick in 2017 and retaining the building. <br /> In 2019, both the Belliards’ company and Seaside Deli were sued in federal court for purportedly violating the Americans With Disabilities Act over a lack of handicapped parking and other issues. <br /> A confidential settlement was reached, according to court records. But McCormick, in the lawsuit he filed against Ocean Blvd 14 in August 2021 in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, claimed the Belliards were in breach of the lease because they were responsible for the ADA improvements. <br /> The Belliards have had three different offers for the building, according to County Pocket insiders, a claim <em>The Coastal Star</em> could not confirm.<br /> If no resolution can be reached, many longtime residents are worried about the future of the pocket’s Old Florida character. <br /> “It’s going to be a big loss for the community,’’ said McCormick, who spoke in a tone of defeat. “When they tear this down and start developing it, it’s going to change the whole face of this area. In 10 years you won’t recognize this area.’’<br /> If the Belliards do plan to sell, others don’t blame them for wanting to cash in on land that has appreciated with the real estate boom. But for many locals, the mere possibility of the Seaside Deli closing is the biggest scare since the mobile-home community of Briny Breezes was nearly sold to a developer in 2007. <br /> “There are so many people moving to South Florida from up North who have large sums of money,’’ said the attorney Williams, who grew up in Delray Beach. “They see property and the potential for development and just tear it down or develop it in a way that they see fit, and unfortunately it can destroy the character of a neighborhood or a community that have been in place for decades or longer.’’<br /> Word of the deli’s uncertain future did not reach a wide audience after the judge’s oral ruling on Dec. 14, but a week later a full-blown awareness campaign started. A “Save the Seaside Deli” petition was posted next to the cash register and the banner was erected outside, visible to A1A passersby. <br /> Other local merchants, such as Nomad Surf Shop, Surfside Orthopedics & Primary Care and the Texaco gas station, have set up petitions.<br /> “So many people, from Manalapan all the way down to Delray, are committed to this place,’’ said Kristine de Haseth, Ocean Ridge vice mayor and executive director for the Florida Coalition for Preservation, which is coordinating the petition drive and collecting signatures. <br /> “They truly are a community asset. We are going to try to help them and see if we can buy them some time.’’<br /> One regular said he’d gladly sign the petition. <br /> “I am shocked” at the possibility the deli will close, Dan Funsch said after pulling up in his white Rolls-Royce to get an Italian sub. <br /> “Very upsetting, very upsetting. You see so many neighbors here. Constantly. I think a lot of people are going to be very, very upset.’’</p></div>County Pocket: Seaside Deli faces uncertain futurehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-seaside-deli-faces-uncertain-future2022-12-23T21:05:13.000Z2022-12-23T21:05:13.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10918576493,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10918576493,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10918576493?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="640" /></a><em>Customers park outside the popular Seaside Deli & Market along State Road A1A in the county pocket. The deli faces an uncertain future as lawyers try to negotiate a resolution and community leaders launch a grassroots preservation and awareness campaign. <strong>Jerry Lower/ The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>By Joe Capozzi</strong><br /> <br /> The Seaside Deli & Market, the beloved County Pocket staple with a loyal following of billionaires and beach bums, is facing an uncertain future because of a legal fight with its landlord, a company owned by retired major league baseball player Rafael Belliard. <br /> As lawyers for both sides try to negotiate a resolution, community leaders have launched a campaign to “Save the Deli,’’ as a banner erected across the front says. More than 650 signatures have been collected on a petition.<br /> If the deli can’t remain in its familiar spot at 4635 N. Ocean Blvd., just south of Briny Breezes, owner Randy McCormick said he’s hoping to move it to a new space nearby instead of closing for good and putting his nine employees out of work. <br /> “There is a chance we can negotiate the lease that will permit Seaside Deli to remain in the space,’’ said Carl T. Williams, who until late December was McCormick’s attorney. “We’d like to work with the landlord to the extent we can and try to find a solution that’s good for everybody.’’<br /> Accusations have been flying from both sides for more than a year. But Belliard’s Ocean Blvd 14 LLC scored a victory Dec. 22 when Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Paige Gillman issued a written ruling giving the landlord possession of the space. The judge sided with the landlord’s claim that Seaside Deli hadn’t paid $40,279 in back rent, in violation of an October court order. <br />Although business at the Seaside Deli has been especially brisk in the two weeks since word got out about the deli’s future, McCormick said he wouldn’t be surprised if the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office ordered the locks changed as early as the first week in January.<br /> Despite Gillman’s ruling, Williams and McCormick insist the landlord’s claims are not true. Seaside Deli tried to make its monthly payments this year, they said, but Belliard family members and their attorney would not accept the money. <br /> “We have never not paid our rent. My (lease) renewal would have started in March 2022,’’ McCormick said. “I made that payment directly into their account. The next month, when I tried to deposit the rent, I was told that they closed their account. From that point on, I sent the rent every month certified mail, and they refused delivery every month, and I have those receipts.’’<br /> Williams and McCormick believe the Belliards have refused to accept the money because they are trying to sell the building. McCormick said he spoke a year and a half ago to two potential buyers from Gulf Stream who discussed with him the possible terms of a new lease.<br /> One of the potential buyers, who did not want to be identified or quoted, confirmed that he and some partners at one point spoke to the Belliards about buying the site and spoke to McCormick about a potential lease. <br /> It’s unclear whether there were formal negotiations.</p>
<p><strong>‘Beach bums to billionaires’</strong><br /> Leonora Belliard, who is Rafael’s wife and handles Ocean Blvd. 14’s business affairs, did not return a phone call from The Coastal Star. “I have no knowledge at this moment,’’ Ocean Blvd 14 attorney Joshua Pinsky said Dec. 20 when a reporter asked about the Belliards’ plans for the property.<br /> Rafael Belliard’s eviction lawsuit, filed in July, was a counterclaim to a lawsuit filed in August 2021 by Seaside Deli. In that lawsuit, which is still open, Seaside Deli accused Ocean Blvd 14 of breaching the lease by trying to sell the property without giving McCormick the first right to negotiate a purchase, which is spelled out in the lease. <br /> In a June 1 motion to dismiss, an attorney for Ocean Blvd 14 denied the claim, saying “there is no current contract or agreement to sell the subject property. …’’<br /> The five-year lease expired March 31, but Seaside Deli has refused to vacate, Ocean Blvd 14 said in the July filing.<br /> Meanwhile, word of the judge’s ruling has sent shock waves around the County Pocket, where Seaside Deli is considered not only a reliable neighborhood asset but one of the few remnants of Old Florida along State Road A1A in Palm Beach County.<br /> Loyal customers who have come by over the years for fresh deli sandwiches, imported beer or a loaf of bread range from hockey great Mario Lemieux and singer Jimmy Buffett to landscape workers and surfers. <br /> Just the other day, actor-comedian Kevin James popped in to pick up one of the deli’s famous subs. And old-timers still remember the day New York Yankees star Derek Jeter and his then-girlfriend, singer Mariah Carey, stopped in for snacks on their way to the beach. <br /> “We get beach bums to billionaires. To me they’re all the same. They’re just good people,’’ McCormick said. <br /> The deli has been so popular, local Realtors over the years have included it in MLS listings as an amenity, a mom-and-pop alternative to having to cross the bridge to get to a Publix before the supermarket chain opened a store in Manalapan.<br /> The deli extends accounts for local businesses, allowing their workers to pick up ice, drinks and food. For a while, it delivered lunch sandwiches for students at the private Gulf Stream School. <br /> “It’s become part of the fabric of the community,’’ said Richie Podvesker, whose father, Fred, owned the deli and building since 1993 before selling it to the Belliards in 2014 for $460,000. <br /> “My dad put his all into it just as I put my heart and soul into it for more than 20 years, seven days a week,’’ he said. “I just want to see it succeed.’’</p>
<p><strong>An attraction for developers</strong> <br /> Born in the Dominican Republic, Belliard played second base and shortstop from 1982 to 1998, the first nine years with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the last eight with the Atlanta Braves. He won a World Series ring with the 1995 Braves.<br /> With Kevin Belliard, Rafael’s son, at the helm, the Belliards ran the store for three years before selling it to McCormick in 2017 and retaining the building. <br /> In 2019, both the Belliards’ company and Seaside Deli were sued in federal court for purportedly violating the Americans With Disabilities Act over a lack of handicapped parking and other issues. <br /> A confidential settlement was reached, according to court records. But McCormick, in the lawsuit he filed against Ocean Blvd 14 in August 2021 in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, claimed the Belliards were in breach of the lease because they were responsible for the ADA improvements. <br /> The Belliards have had three different offers for the building, according to County Pocket insiders, a claim The Coastal Star could not confirm.<br /> If no resolution can be reached, many longtime residents are worried about the future of the pocket’s Old Florida character. <br /> “It’s going to be a big loss for the community,’’ said McCormick, who spoke in a tone of defeat. “When they tear this down and start developing it, it’s going to change the whole face of this area. In 10 years you won’t recognize this area.’’<br /> If the Belliards do plan to sell, others don’t blame them for wanting to cash in on land that has appreciated with the real estate boom. But for many locals, the mere possibility of the Seaside Deli closing is the biggest scare since the mobile-home community of Briny Breezes was nearly sold to a developer in 2007. <br /> “There are so many people moving to South Florida from up North who have large sums of money,’’ said the attorney Williams, who grew up in Delray Beach. “They see property and the potential for development and just tear it down or develop it in a way that they see fit, and unfortunately it can destroy the character of a neighborhood or a community that have been in place for decades or longer.’’<br /> Word of the deli’s uncertain future did not reach a wide audience after the judge’s oral ruling, but a week later a full-blown awareness campaign started. A “Save the Seaside Deli” petition was posted next to the cash register and the banner was erected outside, visible to A1A passersby. <br /> Other local merchants, such as Nomad’s Surf Shop, Surfside Orthopedics & Primary Care and the Texaco gas station, have set up petitions.<br /> “So many people, from Manalapan all the way down to Delray, are committed to this place,’’ said Kristine de Haseth, Ocean Ridge vice mayor and executive director for the Florida Coalition for Preservation, which is coordinating the petition drive and collecting signatures. <br /> “They truly are a community asset. We are going to try to help them and see if we can buy them some time.’’<br /> One regular said he’d gladly sign the petition. <br /> “I am shocked” at the possibility the deli will close, Dan Funsch said after pulling up in his white Rolls-Royce to get an Italian sub. <br /> “Very upsetting, very upsetting. You see so many neighbors here. Constantly. I think a lot of people are going to be very, very upset.’’ </p>
<p> </p></div>Along the Coast: Developer charged in investment schemehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-developer-charged-in-investment-scheme2022-11-02T17:32:04.000Z2022-11-02T17:32:04.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10861129700,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10861129700,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10861129700?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a></strong><em>Work has stopped on the Estates at Ocean Delray, at 1900 S. Ocean Blvd., with the developer in bankruptcy proceedings and now facing federal charges. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10861131082,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10861131082,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10861131082?profile=RESIZE_584x" width="416" /></a>By John Pacenti</strong></p>
<p>New Jersey developer National Realty Investment Advisors brought sleek modernism to the Old Florida feel of the county pocket next to Briny Breezes with the townhomes of Gulf Stream Views. <br /> It was the developer behind Ocean Delray, luxury condominiums down Ocean Boulevard where one unit at the three-story complex, dubbed the van Gogh, sold for $7.6 million. NRIA was also behind at least four spec mansions along the same stretch of coastal highway.<br /> But now the firm is engulfed in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and accused by federal regulators of defrauding investors. The company and four of its executives were charged Oct. 13 by the Securities and Exchange Commission with running a $600 million Ponzi-like scheme. <br /> The June 7 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey stopped work on its ongoing projects. That includes a months-long stoppage at the Estates at Ocean Delray, 1900 S. Ocean Blvd., five distinct homes across the road from the namesake condominium.<br /> There is also a high-end apartment project in the heart of Delray Beach called “The 301” for which the firm says it is awaiting city approval of its plans. Outside of Palm Beach County, NRIA announced in March it would build a 43-story high-rise project in downtown Fort Lauderdale.<br /> Where the bankruptcy filing leaves projects under construction or in the planning stages remains to be seen.<br /> Generally, these types of bankruptcies involving real estate have a line of contractors, subcontractors, vendors, creditors and investors looking to get paid, said Steven Wallace, a Florida Bar board-certified real estate attorney and partner with Ward Damon, which specializes in bankruptcy and real estate law.<br /> “If the contractor or subcontractors haven’t been paid, they generally stop work,” Wallace said.<br /> On a sunny Friday morning on Oct. 21, there were no work crews at the Estates at Ocean Delray, which remain pretty much concrete shells. A man sitting in a car outside said he represented a new builder taking over the project and that it had been dormant for four months. He would not identify the builder.<br /> U.S. Construction built Ocean Delray and had started the homes. <br /> Palm Beach County records show 27 liens filed by subcontractors against U.S. Construction since late July — although some appear duplicative.<br /> Fort Lauderdale-based Blackfin Building & Development says it is owed more than $192,000 for constructing the shells of the five homes and other work. Doral-based Suntech Plumbing & Mechanical says it is owed about $345,000. Fire protection, equipment rental, roofing and fencing companies have also filed liens.<br /> Philadelphia-based U.S. Construction sued NRIA in March for breach of contract over a stalled project in Philadelphia.<br /> NRIA, based in Secaucus, New Jersey, alleged in an adversarial lawsuit that the construction company participated in fraudulent construction and development contracts. U.S. Construction denied the allegation in a bisnow.com report and the suit — at least in federal court — has been withdrawn.<br /> Dustin Salzano, the son of former NRIA executive Thomas Nicholas Salzano — who is facing a separate criminal charge — is the co-owner and chief financial officer for U.S. Construction, Bisnow.com reported.<br /> Efforts to obtain comment from the attorneys representing NRIA in bankruptcy and the secured creditors committee about the future of ongoing construction of the Estates at Ocean Delray and other projects were not successful. A call was also made to the attorney representing U.S. Construction for comment.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">NRIA projects by dozens</span> <br /> NRIA put up capital for projects in South Florida, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and its home state of New Jersey. It owns a total of 31 completed properties, three near completion and 16 that are under construction or in the planning stages, according to the bankruptcy filing.<br /> The value of these properties currently is asserted to be $225 million.<br /> NRIA delineated its projects into fund properties and personal placement properties, according to its website. <br /> Securities regulators say up to 2,000 investors were sold “membership units” for $50,000 each between 2018 and January 2022.<br /> Gulf Stream Views and Ocean Delray fall under what NRIA called “fund properties” on its website. Both are completed. Neighbors in the County Pocket said they see very few residents inhabiting Gulf Stream Views, which opened in July 2021, though NRIA says sales of all 14 townhomes have closed.<br /> State securities regulators in New Jersey alleged NRIA used straw buyers to create nonexistent sales of certain units. <br /> Shortly after <em>The Coastal Star</em> asked questions about NRIA’s properties and ongoing projects, the firm’s website links about investment properties stopped working. Any investor inquiries are now directed to the firm representing the official committee of unsecured creditors.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10861136893,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10861136893,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10861136893?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="627" /></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Neighbor worries validated</span><br /> Marie Chapman, who has lived in the County Pocket for 15 years, says concerns voiced about flooding before Gulf Stream Views was built came to fruition with the construction of the townhomes.<br /> She said the project brought in 16 feet of fill that put the Pocket in a hole where Gulf Stream Views’ irrigation system runs right into homes. Chapman made adjustments to her home so the water comes only in the garage.<br /> Chapman said the news of the bankruptcy and the Ponzi scheme allegations “does bring me and my neighbors some satisfaction, but it would have been better if they were stopped when we raised our concerns with the county.”<br /> At the time of its proposal by NRIA’s luxury home division, NRLiving, residents in Briny Breezes and the County Pocket worried about how Gulf Stream Views’ aesthetic would affect the way of life of one of the last affordable bastions of oceanfront living in Palm Beach County — especially drainage and traffic issues.<br /> Besides the condominium complexes, NRIA has numerous private placement properties where investors’ money is used for new construction or renovation of some prominent properties. <br /> One such property was the 6,117-square-foot home at 3565 N. Ocean Blvd. in Gulf Stream, which sold to the head of a California investment firm in May 2021 for $14.9 million. It was flipped one year later for $27.5 million to James Sausville, a titan in the food preserving industry.<br /> Another spec property was the 7,592-square-foot Gulf Stream home at 2929 N. Ocean Blvd., which was sold to a trust for $15.9 million in May 2021. That property was then flipped this past March for $26.7 million to a trust associated with Elliott Management, an investment firm that recently relocated to West Palm Beach.<br /> Wallace said private companies like NRIA are able to sell stock or membership interest in the limited liability corporations formed for each private placement property. <br /> The parent company created private businesses for each of its properties, and all of its 138 active LLCs filed separately for bankruptcy.<br /> These types of investments had been around a long time, Wallace said, but since Congress passed the JOBS Act in 2012 — short for Jumpstart Our Business Startups — companies like NRIA could start soliciting investors directly through television, radio, social media and billboards.<br /> The company employed a nationwide advertising campaign including radio advertisements and billboards located at the entrances of the Lincoln and Holland tunnels. NRIA also advertised on Fox News.<br /> “It increased the ways folks could raise capital and it led to these types of bad actors,” Wallace said.<br /> NRIA’s past and present properties are squirreled away under LLCs in the bankruptcy filing. <br /> An 11,500-square-foot Delray Beach home at 344 N. Ocean Blvd. sold for $14 million in January. A 7,490-square-foot home at 707 N. Ocean Blvd. in Delray Beach sold for nearly $16 million in March 2021. Two properties at 1200 Palm Trail in Delray Beach sold for $4 million in December 2020.<br /> A map on NRIA’s website shows at least eight other properties, almost exclusively in Delray Beach, that the company apparently flipped.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">SEC alleges personal use of investors’ money</span><br /> The money that fueled all of this construction and renovation came from a classic Ponzi-like scheme where investors were promised up to 20% returns, according to the SEC.<br /> The SEC’s complaint alleges NRIA and its executives used investors’ money to fund personal and luxury purchases for the executives and their families. Investors’ money was also used to pay a reputation management firm to “thwart investors’ due diligence of the executives.”<br /> “In classic Ponzi fashion, these defendants allegedly told investors that they would be paid distributions from profits of their fund when, in reality, payments were being made from the investors’ own funds,” said Thomas P. Smith Jr., associate regional director of enforcement in the SEC’s New York Regional Office.<br /> The four executives named by the SEC are Thomas Salzano, Rey E. Grabato II, Daniel Coley O’Brien, and Arthur S. Scutaro.<br /> The SEC alleges nearly $1.25 million was sent from the NRIA account where fund investments were deposited into Grabato’s business LLC and personal accounts. <br /> Salzano was charged separately in a federal complaint in March with one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. The Justice Department accused Salzano of using a sham loan document with a forged signature in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a $150,000 investment for a purported real estate venture in New Jersey.<br /> Weeks after the company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization, the New Jersey Bureau of Securities filed a cease and desist order against the company. The company slashed staffing by terminating 60 employees and at the time of the bankruptcy filing was operating with eight employees. <br /> The bankruptcy states that investors held $540 million in membership interests, there was $10 million owed to creditors and trade vendors, and $38 million owed on outstanding mortgages. <br /> “What makes this behavior even more callous is that they allegedly took advantage of 382 retirees who had contributed more than $94 million in savings,” the SEC’s Smith said.<br /> Wallace, the real estate attorney, said in these types of Ponzi schemes that once creditors and contractors get paid, investors find themselves at the back of the line.<br /> “In these Ponzi schemes it’s rare these investors get anything,” he said.</p></div>County Pocket/Briny Breezes: Christmas carolshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-and-briny-breezes-christmas-carols2019-12-31T21:00:00.000Z2019-12-31T21:00:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960929100,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960929100,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960929100?profile=original" /></a><em>Carolers from the County Pocket delight their neighbors on Dec. 22 with song before Christmas. Caroling has been a tradition in the neighborhood off and on for the past 20 years. <strong>ABOVE</strong>: In the front row (l-r) are Lincoln Paul-Haus, Holly Harris, Jillian Chapman, Finn Chapman and Paris Paul-Haus. In the back row (l-r) are Patricia Lenihan, Marie Chapman, Glenn Chapman, Katherine Moseley, Liz Loper and Colleen Paul-Haus. <strong>BELOW</strong>: The carolers sing ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ to Bill and Nancy Aceto in Briny Breezes. <strong>Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960928884,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960928884,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="500" alt="7960928884?profile=original" /></a></p>
<p></p></div>Along the Coast: Better communication of ‘boil water’ events sought from Boyntonhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-better-communication-of-boil-water-events-sought-2019-10-30T17:23:24.000Z2019-10-30T17:23:24.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong></p>
<p>When Boynton Beach issued a systemwide precautionary boil water advisory in early October, not all its customers knew about the notice until hours later. In a few cases, it took days.<br /> “I found out about 9 p.m.,” said Marie Chapman, a County Pocket resident. She made a pot of chicken soup for dinner, bathed her kids, made sure they brushed their teeth, put them to bed and then checked Facebook — about five hours after the notice was issued.<br /> “They know how to find me when I don’t pay my bill,” said Chapman, who wanted to be personally notified. “I want to be informed and then let me make that choice for my children.”<br /> Ocean Ridge residents also were not notified directly. <br /> “About five residents called or sent emails to Town Hall, saying they were frustrated,” said Tracey Stevens, Ocean Ridge town manager.<br /> The town’s Police Department first checked with Boynton Beach leaders to verify the notice affected all water customers. Then, police notified Ocean Ridge residents at 9:28 p.m. using the CivicReady application, Stevens said.<br /> Stevens spoke with Boynton Beach officials two days later and reached an agreement that they would notify Ocean Ridge officials next time a boil water advisory or order is placed. <br /> “We will notify our residents,” Stevens said. <br /> It turned out that no bacteria entered the system and the water was safe to drink. <br /> The problem started about 12:15 p.m. Oct. 8 at the main Boynton Beach water plant, according to the description given at the Oct. 15 City Commission meeting. <br /> Workers were testing a generator. When they turned it off and switched over to electric power, nothing happened because the main breaker had failed, said Colin Groff, assistant city manager.<br /> Staffers tried to reset the breaker manually for about 2 minutes, said Groff, a former utilities director. When they couldn’t do it, they immediately called the other plant operators to turn on the pumps to maintain pressure. <br /> “Workers did not realize the pressure had dropped until about 10 minutes later when customers began to complain about low pressure,” Groff said. <br /> Staffers reviewed the data for about 30 to 40 minutes. They found five or six points in the system where pressure dropped below 20 pounds per square inch.<br /> That’s the pressure needed to make sure the water reaches customers and flows out of their faucets. When water stays at the plant or in the pipes, naturally occurring bacteria can grow, Groff explained.<br /> “About 2:30 p.m., staff determined there was a pressure drop in the system,” Groff said. <br /> Boynton Beach, as other water utilities, operates under a state permit that falls under the Florida Department of Health. <br /> “We called the Health Department and spent time discussing the incident,” Groff said. “About 3 p.m., out of an abundance of caution, we decided it was advisable to do a systemwide notice that we had an issue. The law does not require us to do that. We could have just notified very specific customers, such as hospitals and dialysis centers.”<br /> He told commissioners that it took until 4:15 p.m. until the city and the Health Department agreed on the wording of the notice. <br /> The notice then went to the city’s utilities and marketing departments to decide how to inform its 112,000 water customers.<br /> Under state law, the city had three choices, Groff said. <br /> The first was door hangers. <br /> “That’s what we do when we have a boil water order that affects a small number of customers. With 112,000 customers that notification could not be done in the (required) 24 hours,” Groff said. <br /> The second option was telephone calls. <br /> “We have 35,000 accounts with multiple customers. Homeowner associations, apartment buildings and condominiums all get one bill,” Groff said. “We talked about doing reverse 911 calls, but this incident did not rise to the level of an emergency.”<br /> The third option, which Boynton Beach used, was the media. <br /> “We sent the notice to the 24 media outlets that serve Boynton Beach. We also posted the notice on the city’s website and Facebook and Twitter accounts,” Groff said. <br /> He added, “It was not required.”<br /> The city chose to use the media because it would have the biggest impact, Groff said. “Many people have text alerts on their smartphones to be notified when news happens in their area,” he said. <br /> “The water system was completely clear,” Groff said when the last notice was lifted five days later. <br /> After the city had the test results, staff could say no one’s life was in danger. “But at the time, I could not say that,” Groff said when answering a commissioner’s question. <br /> Next time, the city will send out an email to its water customers to notify them of a precautionary or urgent boil water notice, Groff said, agreeing with Mayor Steven Grant’s suggestion. <br /> City staff is also testing the CivicReady application to notify its residents and water customers.<br /> People would have to opt in, Groff said. The system contacts users by calls, texts or emails.<br /> While the Health Department found that Boynton Beach followed the guidelines in notifying its customers, the city could not control the reporting by media outlets. <br /> “I learned about the notice on the 6 p.m. news,” said Dale Sugerman, Briny Breezes town manager. <br />“From the news report, I could not tell whether it was an isolated area or the entire system. I called the Boynton Beach city manager and utilities manager to learn it was systemwide.”</p></div>County Pocket/Briny Breezes: County zoning board unanimously OKs splash pools for townhouse projecthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-briny-breezes-county-zoning-board-unanimously-oks-s2019-07-31T15:51:48.000Z2019-07-31T15:51:48.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong></p>
<p>The Palm Beach County Zoning Commission unanimously approved a variance request for the developer of the Gulf Stream Views townhouse project on July 3, allowing the construction of 14 small swimming pools on the property.<br />The approval came over the objections of two dozen residents of Briny Breezes and the County Pocket who attended the hearing — and the objections of the commission’s own staff.<br />County planners and plan reviewers had recommended that the request from New Jersey-based NR Living be denied, asserting that the developer failed to satisfy several criteria necessary for allowing the exception.<br />Rachel Streitfeld, an attorney who represents the residents, said they are considering an appeal of the decision.<br />“We may want to take it to the County Commission,” Streitfeld said. “We have other options we want to think about as well.”<br />The zoning board’s ruling allows the installation of a 7-foot-by-14-foot plunge pool behind each of the development’s 14 units, seven along Briny Breezes Boulevard and seven along Seaview Avenue. County code calls for a 28-foot setback between swimming pools and the street, but the zoning commissioners approved a variance that allows a setback of about 17 feet.<br /> Developers say they need the swimming pools to attract buyers for the units. County planners had opposed the exception, saying essentially that the pools were an amenity, not a necessary part of the plan, and their absence wouldn’t create a hardship for NR Living.<br />Commission Chair Sheri Scarborough and Commissioner Robert Currie disagreed, arguing that because the county months ago required a central roadway into the project, the developer was left with nowhere else to put the pools. Denying them now would present a hardship for the developer, the commissioners said.<br />“There is no need or hardship requirement met for adding 14 pools,” Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation and an Ocean Ridge commissioner, told the commission. “There’s no reason for adding this to the project this late in the game.”<br />Residents complained about flooding problems since late last year when dozens of trucks of fill were hauled into the 2-acre site to raise the grade to 16 feet.<br />But commissioners dismissed those complaints, saying the issue before them was the swimming pools — not drainage problems or runoff from the site.<br />“This is not a hardship for developers. The hardship that is happening is to neighboring residents who now are experiencing flooding,” said Liz Loper, who lives on Winthrop Lane in the Pocket. “Now I have to place sandbags at my front door when it rains.”<br />Said Streitfeld: “With the fill, they’ve created a fortress. And these folks are about to become the moat.”</p></div>County Pocket: Zoning board unanimously OKs swimming pools for townhouse projecthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-zoning-board-unanimously-oks-swimming-pools-for-tow2019-07-03T18:26:52.000Z2019-07-03T18:26:52.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong></p>
<p>The Palm Beach County Zoning Commission unanimously approved a variance request for the developer of the Gulf Stream Views townhouse project on July 3, allowing the construction of 14 small swimming pools on the property.<br />The approval came over the objections of two dozen residents of Briny Breezes and the County Pocket who attended the hearing — and also the objections of the commission’s own staff.<br />County planners and plan reviewers had recommended that the request from New Jersey-based NR Living be denied, asserting that the developer failed to satisfy several criteria necessary for allowing the exception.<br />Rachel Streitfeld, a Miami-Dade County lawyer who represents the residents, said they are considering appealing the decision.<br />“We may want to take it to the County Commission,” Streitfeld said. “We have other options we want to think about as well.”<br />The zoning board’s ruling allows the installation of 7-foot-by-14-foot plunge pools behind each of the development’s 14 units, seven along Briny Breezes Boulevard and seven along Seaview Avenue. County code calls for a 28-foot setback between swimming pools and the street, but the zoning commissioners approved a variance that allows a setback of about 17 feet. Developers say they need the swimming pools to attract buyers for the units.<br />County planners had opposed the exception, saying essentially that the pools were an amenity, not a necessary part of the plan, and not having them wouldn’t create a hardship for NR Living.<br />Commission Chairman Sheri Scarborough and Commissioner Robert Currie disagreed, arguing that because the county months ago required a central roadway into the project, the developer was left with nowhere else to put the pools. Denying them now would<br />present a hardship for the developer, the commissioners said.<br />“There is no need or hardship requirement met for adding 14 pools,” Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, told the commission. “There’s no reason for adding this to the project this late in the game.”<br />Residents complained about flooding problems since late last year when dozens of trucks of fill were hauled into the 2-acre site to raise the grade to 16 feet. But commissioners dismissed those complaints, saying the issue before them was the swimming pools — not drainage problems or runoff from the site.<br />“This is not a hardship for developers. The hardship that is happening is to neighboring residents who now are experiencing flooding,” said Liz Loper, who lives on Winthrop Lane in the Pocket. “Now I have to place sandbags at my front door when it rains.”</p>
<p>Said Streitfeld: “With the fill, they’ve created a fortress. And these folks are about to become the moat.”</p></div>County Pocket: Townhouse project neighbors complain of flooding — alreadyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-townhouse-project-neighbors-complain-of-flooding-al2019-07-03T16:00:00.000Z2019-07-03T16:00:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960871483,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960871483,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960871483?profile=original" /></a><em>ABOVE: Project engineer Michael LaCoursiere uses renderings and photos as he explains Gulf Stream Views to Briny Breezes and Pocket residents.</em> <em>BELOW: Pocket resident Marie Chapman expresses frustration with flooding in her neighborhood. She said it wasn’t a problem until construction started. LaCoursiere said the area needs a new drainage system.</em> <strong><em>Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</em></strong></p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960872459,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960872459,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="500" alt="7960872459?profile=original" /></a></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Related Story: Zoning board unanimously OKs <a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-zoning-board-unanimously-oks-swimming-pools-for-tow" target="_blank">swimming pools</a> for townhouse project</strong></p>
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<p><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong></p>
<p>Developers of the Gulf Stream Views townhouse project say they are running out of ideas for allaying the flooding concerns expressed by neighboring residents in Briny Breezes and the County Pocket.<br /> “I don’t know what else we can do,” Michael LaCoursiere, the project engineer, told a group of several dozen homeowners during an often contentious meeting June 17 at the Delray Beach Marriott.<br /> LaCoursiere said the old neighborhoods in Briny and the Pocket need a drainage infrastructure overhaul that is beyond the scope of what New Jersey-based NR Living can offer.<br /> “A major community-wide project is what your community needs,” he said. “They’re doing what they can as developers.”<br /> LaCoursiere said the project is being built to retain on-site the rainwater of a 100-year storm, beyond the permitting standard of a 25-year storm. The developers say they have complied with every requirement Palm Beach County, FEMA and state officials have made.<br /> Marie Chapman, who lives on Winthrop Lane in the Pocket, said she believes the project already has caused drainage problems. Recent heavy rains backed up sewers, she said, and left “shin-deep water” in her yard. Her neighbors echoed similar complaints.<br /> “My house is 80 years old and it never flooded before you guys started construction,” Chapman told the developers. “And we’re just into hurricane season. I’m not sure you’re aware of why we’re so angry.”<br /> Residents say that for decades the dormant 2-acre project site served as a drain field for runoff from Briny Breezes and the Pocket. That ended when construction began.<br /> Chapman said the standing rain water and subsequent sewer problems are raising health issues. “You guys have had a huge impact on our day-to-day lives,” she said.<br /> Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, said homeowners have had to hire a lawyer and engineer in an effort to protect their property rights. <br /> “These folks are flooding,” de Haseth said. “They’re digging into their pockets to solve a problem they didn’t create.” <br /> Glenn La Mattina, NR Living senior vice president, said developers are willing to consider possible solutions from residents. “We are open to suggestions,” La Mattina said. <br /> LaCoursiere said the developers have cleaned out existing catchment drains outside the site and are considering installing trench drains on the Seaview Avenue swales. <br /> “That’s not a real significant thing,” LaCoursiere said, “but I imagine that in your eyes any drop of water that we save from going down that hill is a benefit to everybody out there.”<br /> La Mattina said developers would back off plans to remove invasive plant species from the sea grapes along the oceanfront after hearing residents complain about potential damage to the dunes.<br /> NR Living organized the meeting to inform residents that the developers would seek a variance from the county to allow construction of 14 7-by-14-foot plunge pools, one behind each unit along the southern and northern property lines. The county’s Planning & Zoning Commission scheduled a hearing on the request for July 3.<br /> Bradley Miller of Boynton Beach, the project’s planner, said developers are asking county building officials to loosen swimming pool setback requirements. If the county rejects the request, Miller said developers will install patios instead.<br /> Developers say the pools were added to the plan as an amenity that would enhance marketing to high-end buyers. Pre-construction prices for the three-bedroom units range from $1.8 million to $2.7 million. The project is scheduled for completion early next year.</p></div>County Pocket/Briny Breezes: County allows townhouse project to move forwardhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-briny-breezes-county-allows-townhouse-project-to-mo2019-05-01T16:35:26.000Z2019-05-01T16:35:26.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960864263,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960864263,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960864263?profile=original" /></a><em>County Commissioner Robert Weinroth (left) toured property next to the development site with residents and county engineers. He says the county is working to identify and consider fixes to potential drainage issues. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong></p>
<p>The pace of construction has picked up for the Gulf Stream Views townhouse development in recent weeks, and so has the project’s pursuit of required permits and government approvals.<br /> On April 25, Palm Beach County building officials rejected an appeal submitted the day before to the Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals by four residents of the County Pocket.<br /> Karl Hoffman, Paul Lambert and Glenn and Marie Chapman, citing concerns about drainage problems for neighboring properties, asked the county to issue a stop-work order for the project “until a comprehensive stormwater master plan and funding strategy can be approved for the area.”<br /> The county attorney’s office denied the request without comment.<br /> The same week, project engineers for the developer submitted a revised flooding map for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The map identifies the site between Briny Breezes and the County Pocket as an area with a 1 in 500 annual chance of flood hazard, a favorable assessment that would allow the project to go forward.<br /> The current FEMA rating is a 1 in 100 annual chance of flood hazard, which would stop the development from getting a certificate of occupancy.<br />If FEMA accepts the revised map, then a 120-day period of public comment begins before the designation becomes official.<br /> On April 9, newly seated District 4 County Commissioner Robert Weinroth inspected the construction site, along with county zoning and engineering officials, and Briny Breezes Council President Sue Thaler. Residents from Briny Breezes and the County Pocket told them about their concerns that the project will cause drainage problems in the neighborhood.<br /> “I think one of the things the town recognizes is that their infrastructure is very old,” Weinroth said afterward. “As we did that tour, we recognized that even the drainage that was in place was not properly maintained.”<br /> He said it’s “unfortunate” that the historical use of the development’s lot as a drainage field would not continue, but the county is listening to residents.<br /> “I think the county is working with the town to try to identify the drainage issues there to see what can be done,” Weinroth said. “But as far as the landowner that’s doing the development, I think they’re doing what they can to address the drainage on their property.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960864300,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960864300,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="500" alt="7960864300?profile=original" /></a><em>The revised area flood map sent for FEMA approval would give the construction site a 1 in 500 annual chance of flood hazard as opposed to the 1 in 100 annual chance of surrounding areas shown in blue. <strong>Map provided</strong></em></p>
<p>New Jersey-based NL Living wants to build 14 townhomes on the 2-acre parcel south of Briny Breezes Boulevard that for decades has absorbed runoff from the neighborhood.<br /> Last month, contractors began installing 79 catchment chambers, designed to capture up to 84,000 gallons of storm-water and then release it slowly underground. Project engineers have assured residents the development will hold all the stormwater that comes onto it.<br /> Rachel Streitfeld, the Miami-Dade County lawyer who represented the four pocket residents, isn’t so sure. Streitfeld called the county’s decisions to give the developers permits “erroneous, dangerous and injurious.” She requested an expedited hearing to argue the residents’ case — which the county denied.<br /> Streitfeld said the project presented an “egregious incompatibility with the surrounding existing residential communities.”<br />Cited in the appeal request was an analysis by Jim Bolleter, an engineer with Ecology and Environment Inc. of Wellington, whom the residents hired.<br /> “Regardless of how Gulf Stream Views handles their drainage,” Bolleter wrote, “increasing the site elevation is anticipated to worsen the flooding problems to the north, south, and immediately west of the site since stormwater from the surrounding area has less surface area to percolate into.”<br /> Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, organized the tour with Weinroth and other officials. She said the coalition does not oppose the project, but it does want residents’ concerns to be taken seriously. <br />An event to raise money for legal fees has been organized by neighborhood residents and will be held 4-9 p.m. May 25 at Nomad Surf Shop.<br /> De Haseth, who is also an Ocean Ridge town commissioner, said the county can’t simply tell residents “sorry, your neighborhood’s old, so we’re done here.” She said there’s still time left to deal with potential problems.<br /> “This is the beginning of a conversation,” she said. “It’s not the end of a conversation.”</p></div>Briny Breezes/County Pocket: County orders engineering review of townhouse projecthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/briny-breezes-county-pocket-county-orders-engineering-review-of-t2019-01-30T16:35:44.000Z2019-01-30T16:35:44.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>By Dan Moffett</b></span></p>
<p class="p2">It could be weeks until Palm Beach County building officials determine the fate of the Gulf Stream Views project between Briny Breezes and the County Pocket.</p>
<p class="p3">In November, inspectors shut down work on developer NL Living’s plan to build 14 luxury townhouses after expressing concerns about stormwater runoff.</p>
<p class="p3">Briny Breezes Town Manager Dale Sugerman says now the county has taken the extraordinary step of ordering an independent engineering analysis — a “peer review” — to ensure the project won’t cause drainage problems for adjacent properties.</p>
<p class="p3">“County staff has no idea how long that will take to obtain a complete peer review report,” Sugerman told the Town Council at its Jan. 24 meeting.</p>
<p class="p3">The county is soliciting proposals from qualified engineering firms and is required to have three bidders before making a selection. As of Jan. 24, only two firms had applied, the manager said.</p>
<p class="p3">Contractors for the New Jersey-based developer have hauled in dozens of truckloads of fill dirt to level out the elevation on the 2-acre lot to about 7 feet. Neighboring residents worry that rainwater and storm surge will have nowhere to run but onto their yards. The lot has been vacant for decades and served as a drain field for runoff from Briny and the Pocket.</p>
<p class="p3">Sugerman said the results of the engineering review will “help the county determine whether the fill that’s on the site can stay.”</p>
<p class="p3">NL Living vice president Glenn La Mattina has said he hopes to have the project completed by the end of the year. But the delay has cast that target in doubt.</p>
<p class="p4"><b>In other business:</b></p>
<p class="p3">• The council hopes to name a new mayor during its Feb. 28 meeting, filling the vacancy left by Roger Bennett’s death on Jan. 12.</p>
<p class="p3">Applicants should submit letters of interest and voter registration verification to the town clerk. The next mayor will serve the three weeks remaining on Bennett’s unexpired term and then a full one-year term.</p>
<p class="p3">“Roger was a Brinyite through and through,” said council President Sue Thaler. “He stopped in to Town Hall every day to ask what he could do to help. … We’re all going to miss him so much.”</p>
<p class="p3">The council has other positions to fill or reappoint at the February meeting: town clerk, town clerk pro tem, deputy bookkeeper and seven members of the Planning and Zoning Board.</p>
<p class="p3">• The council has scheduled a workshop on building permit issues for 2 p.m. Feb. 14 in Briny’s community center.</p>
<p class="p3">Representatives of C.A.P. Government Inc., the town’s inspection and plan review contractor, will be on hand to answer residents’ questions. </p></div>Briny Breezes/County Pocket: Review of drainage issues puts project’s start on holdhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/briny-breezes-county-pocket-review-of-drainage-issues-puts-projec2019-01-02T17:09:29.000Z2019-01-02T17:09:29.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="p1" style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960835061,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960835061,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960835061?profile=original" /></a><em>Dozens of truckloads of fill are waiting to be leveled for the townhouse project. <b>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</b></em></p>
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<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>By Dan Moffett</b></span></p>
<p class="p2">Neighbors in Briny Breezes and the County Pocket have watched with growing unease as the pile of fill dirt between them has risen in recent weeks.</p>
<p class="p3">Construction is about to begin in earnest on the 2-acre parcel that separates the two communities. It has sat vacant for decades, but by the end of 2019, New Jersey-based developer NL Living hopes to have 14 luxury townhouses ready for use.</p>
<p class="p3">The worry for surrounding neighborhoods is that the elevated development site is going to send stormwater streaming onto their streets and yards.</p>
<p class="p3">Palm Beach County inspectors have expressed stormwater runoff concerns, too. On Nov. 30, inspectors halted work at the site and ordered the developer to submit an updated drainage review.</p>
<p class="p3">The county’s coastal development code requires that “an engineering analysis be prepared by a qualified, registered design professional demonstrating no harmful diversion of floodwaters or wave run-up ... would increase damage to adjacent buildings and structures.”</p>
<p class="p3">Briny Breezes Town Manager Dale Sugerman said the project is stalled “for the time being” and won’t move forward until the permitting impasse over the drainage analysis is resolved.</p>
<p class="p3">The levels of concern in Briny and the pocket have been rising steadily with the artificially enhanced elevation of the project site. The many truckloads of fill material hauled to the site will allow the six buildings to sit roughly 7 feet above the existing grade. The lot has served as a drain field for runoff from nearby homes, but that figures to change.</p>
<p class="p3">Residents want to know where the water will go when the heavy rains and the king tides come, as they always do.</p>
<p class="p3">“I think the construction is going to radically change the behavior of the water that falls on us,” said Judy Kraft, who lives on Briny Breezes Boulevard just north of the site, citing years of experience with flooding on her street. “They will not be able to control the torrent of water that comes between the buildings and goes to the lowest denominator — which will be us on Briny Breezes Boulevard.”</p>
<p class="p3">During a November meeting with developers in Briny’s clubhouse, NL Living representatives said their project will comply with all Palm Beach County drainage regulations. Michael LaCoursiere, the project engineer, told residents an underground catchment system will collect water and “less water is going to run off the site after construction than before it.”</p>
<p class="p3">But the project managers didn’t make promises about where runoff from neighboring properties would go, after the former drain field is filled with buildings and concrete walls.</p>
<p class="p3">LaCoursiere and Glenn La Mattina, NR Living vice president, did say they were willing to consider installing additional drainage devices along the property lines if problems arise.</p>
<p class="p3">“I don’t think they’re going to do any more than they have to do unless they feel strongly about being good neighbors,” Briny Breezes Town Council President Sue Thaler said during the council meeting on Nov. 29. “It’s a tough situation. They’re building it on county property. They’re not building it in our town and it’s going to impact our town. They don’t have to follow our rules.”</p>
<p class="p3">Sugerman said the county’s building code requires the project to contain the first inch of stormwater that falls on the property.</p>
<p class="p3">“If that project gets 8 inches of rain during a storm event,” Sugerman said, “then we’re all going to get 8 inches of rain during the event. I’m not sure that project on its own is going to add to drainage problems in Briny Breezes.”</p>
<p class="p3">Alderman Chick Behringer said, “If they’re catching 1 inch during that 8-inch storm, we may end up getting their additional 7 inches.”</p>
<p class="p3"><b>In other business</b>, Town Clerk Maya Coffield said Thaler and Behringer have qualified for another two-year term on the council. No other candidates came forward, so Briny will have no election in March. </p></div>Meet Your Neighbor: Danielle McKeonhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/meet-your-neighbor-danielle-mckeon2019-01-02T16:27:04.000Z2019-01-02T16:27:04.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="p1" style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960831659,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960831659,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960831659?profile=original" /></a>County Pocket resident Danielle McKeon and her 6-year-old son, Reef, have collected vast amounts of rope and other debris during their daily beach walks. <b>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</b></em></p>
<p class="p1"></p>
<p class="p1">Danielle McKeon has a close connection to the ocean, which is one of the reasons she cares so much about keeping the shoreline clean. She lives one block from the beach in the County Pocket, and is a member of the renowned Heavyside family — Nomad Surf Shop owner Ronnie Heavyside is her significant other and father to her son, Reef.</p>
<p class="p3">McKeon, a freelance teleprompter operator, begins most days with a walk along the beach, but in doing so she brings along a bag and makes it her mission to collect all manner of trash that has washed up in the previous 24 hours.</p>
<p class="p3">Some of what she collects is recycled, some thrown away, and some is used to make pieces of art.</p>
<p class="p3">She admits to “great anguish” when she reflects on how dirty our oceans have become.</p>
<p class="p3">“If you just pick up trash on the beach once, it may not affect you,” said McKeon, 39. “But if you go back to the same beach, every day or every week, you realize more and more trash keeps washing up. You can’t stop it. It’s overwhelming and it can make you feel helpless.</p>
<p class="p3">“A statistic says that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish,” she says. “There are pictures of fish, birds and sea turtles with plastic in their stomachs, wildlife entangled in netting, and just recently a dead sperm whale had an insane amount of plastic in its stomach.</p>
<p class="p3">“It is our fault that animals and the environment are suffering. And it’s not just them. I like to eat seafood and sushi,” she said. “So does my son. We don’t want to eat plastic. It’s important to me that Reef has a clean beach, a healthy ocean to play in and eat from.</p>
<p class="p3">“We must start making better, more sustainable choices and enforce protection of the ocean, coral reefs and marine life.</p>
<p class="p3">“As consumers we have to stop relying on single-use plastics and be mindful of the waste we are creating and ultimately where it ends up.”</p>
<p class="p3">It would be unrealistic to believe she alone could remove every piece of plastic, Styrofoam or other litter from the ocean or beach, she says. But “instead of giving up and thinking this problem is far larger than me, I can’t make an impact, what I can do is continue to post my beach cleanup findings on social media to raise awareness. I love when people tell me they are now picking up trash when they go to the beach after seeing my posts. It makes me feel good.”</p>
<p class="p3">McKeon also has reduced the amount of waste her family creates by eliminating single-use items such as plastic straws, using reusable bags instead of plastic bags and recycling as many items as possible.</p>
<p class="p3">“I’m not perfect and I don’t get it right 100 percent of the time, but I am working towards the greater good,” she said.</p>
<p class="p4"><span class="s1"><i>—</i></span> <i>Brian Biggane</i></p>
<p class="p5"></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>Q:</b></span> Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?</p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>A:</b></span> I was born and raised in Flint, Mich. I’m proud of where I’m from but I wanted more than what Flint could offer me. I came to Florida in 1997, when I was just 17, so I feel like I have done most of my growing up here. I graduated from the multimedia, film and television program at Palm Beach State College back when it was still Palm Beach Community College.</p>
<p class="p3">Flint taught me to dream. It made me resilient, thankful, honest and nonjudgmental. In South Florida variety really is the spice of life. I’ve been introduced to new cultures, music, food and the ocean. I’m able to enjoy the outdoors nearly 365 days a year. That alone has given me a deeper connection to nature and a passion for helping the environment.</p>
<p class="p5"></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>Q:</b></span> What advice do you have for a young person seeking a career today?</p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>A:</b></span> There’s a quote I learned from my political science professor: “If you find a job you love you will never work a day in your life.” I am not sure where it originated but I can tell you, it’s one of the truest statements I’ve ever heard.</p>
<p class="p3">I think job and career are essentially totally different. A job is something you have to do. A career is something you want to do. Sometimes we have to work several jobs to get to our career and that’s OK.</p>
<p class="p3">I wore many hats before I became the teleprompter diva that I am today. I was a production coordinator, producer, P.A., script supervisor, camera operator, director’s assistant, grip and the list goes on. I tell young people who are starting out in the film/ television business to try every job because you never know which one you will like the best or which one could one day become your career.</p>
<p class="p3">There are so many new career options within technology, green energy, social media and even the cannabis industry. They are all just one click away on the internet, but easier access to contact these companies and instant connection means more competition. Know who you are. Know what you want. Know what your goals are. Know how to market yourself. Believe in yourself and don’t let misfortunes define you.</p>
<p class="p5"></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>Q:</b></span> How did you choose to make your home in the Pocket?</p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>A:</b></span> Love brought me to the Surf Pocket. But the Heavysides have been here since the ’60s. Ronnie grew up in this neighborhood. Now we are raising our son here. Reef, 6, can be found running around the surf shop sometimes just like his father did when he was little. Reef has said he never wants to leave this neighborhood, so I guess we will be here for a while.</p>
<p class="p5"></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>Q:</b></span> What is your favorite part about living on the island?</p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>A:</b></span> The beach. It’s the perfect place to relax, get inspired or watch the sunrise. I am so blessed to live just steps from the Atlantic Ocean. Being so close affords me the time and ability to do multiple beach cleanups throughout the week.</p>
<p class="p5"></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>Q:</b></span> What books are you reading now?</p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>A:</b></span> <i>An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power</i>, by Al Gore, and <i>Simple Acts to Save Our Planet, 500 Ways to Make a Difference</i>, by Michelle Neff.</p>
<p class="p5"></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>Q:</b></span> What music do you listen to when you want inspiration? When you want to relax?</p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>A:</b></span> My musical interests are all over the place. When I am running through Ocean Ridge I usually need motivation and inspiration so I listen to dancehall. It’s a genre within reggae. When I’m looking for creative inspiration I like to put my Pandora on shuffle, usually to the likes of Joni Mitchell, Beres Hammond, Phish, CCR, Vulfpeck, Marvin Gaye, Herbie Hancock, Janis Joplin and Grateful Dead. </p>
<p class="p3">Relaxing by the pool or on the beach it’s definitely reggae playing from my speaker. When I am really relaxing, doing yoga or meditating, I listen to Native American flute. It helps calm my mind.</p>
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<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>Q:</b></span> Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions?</p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>A:</b></span> “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” — Steve Jobs. It’s pretty straightforward. I also have to mention the Serenity Prayer because it has given me peace and guidance at different times throughout my life.</p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>Q:</b></span> Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?</p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>A:</b></span> When I was a kid I looked up to my mom. She was a single mother who worked her way up from selling doughnuts to eventually retiring as the foreman for the city of Flint’s Water Service Center. [She retired long before the ongoing Flint water crisis.] She was the life of the party and had a great group of friends. She was beautiful … she still is and I wanted to be just like her.</p>
<p class="p3">My mom gave me the strength to stand on my own two feet. “Never ask a man to do something you can do for yourself,” she would say as she was fixing the toilet or something else around the house. There were times when we were poor, but my mom never let us feel like we were. I knew I was loved and I have always known love is what matters because of her. </p>
<p class="p3">My son inspires most of my life decisions now.</p>
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<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>Q:</b></span> If your life were made into a movie, who would play you?</p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>A:</b></span> It would have to be someone who is stunningly beautiful, charming, charismatic and funny. Drew Barrymore? Charlize Theron? Just kidding. I think I’m more like Kate McKinnon.</p>
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<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>Q:</b></span> Is there something about you that people don’t know?</p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s2"><b>A:</b></span> A few random things about myself: I am scared of birds, I have been since I was a child. I hate beets and cottage cheese.</p></div>County Pocket: New rules aim to cut emergency response timeshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-new-rules-aim-to-cut-emergency-response-times2018-11-28T18:00:00.000Z2018-11-28T18:00:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong></p>
<p>A July medical emergency in the County Pocket has led to an updated mutual aid agreement and could lead to faster response times for life-threatening emergencies in that 16.5-acre enclave just south of Briny Breezes.</p>
<p>Boynton Beach and Palm Beach County Fire Rescue chiefs updated their mutual aid agreements, according to a letter signed Aug. 10. The agreements say Boynton Beach Fire Rescue — because of its proximity — should be the first responder in life-threatening situations.</p>
<p>The County Pocket sits in an unincorporated section and receives county fire and police services. Emergency service is provided through mutual aid agreements with both Delray Beach and Boynton Beach.</p>
<p>The new agreements list 15 types of emergencies when Boynton Beach Fire Rescue should be the first to respond, including cardiac arrest, choking and when a person is unresponsive. The list also has a general life-threatening category.</p>
<p>It is similar to the agreement put in place after County Pocket resident Bill Dunn choked to death in 2009 while eating. It took county fire rescue paramedics more than 12 minutes to respond from their station at Woolbright Road and Military Trail.</p>
<p>This time, the chiefs agreed to meet with dispatch center staffs to make sure they follow the protocols of when Boynton Beach Fire Rescue would be called.</p>
<p>“We did meet with dispatch center staff to review the protocols for emergency calls that we will respond to in the County Pocket,” said Glenn Joseph, Boynton Beach fire chief.</p>
<p>County fire rescue administration staffers met with their alarm office staff on Aug. 23 to discuss the latest mutual aid agreements, according to Derek Wiley, captain with county fire rescue.</p>
<p>On July 4, a 48-year-old man fell off the back of a golf cart and hit his head near Mike Smollon’s house in the County Pocket. <br /> A retired Boynton Beach fire battalion chief, Smollon held the unconscious man’s head until Delray Beach Fire-Rescue paramedics arrived about 10 minutes after the incident, which one of the man’s friends called in.</p>
<p>Delray Beach paramedics transported the man to Delray Medical Center, a trauma center in the western part of the city. The man recovered and was able to leave the next day, Smollon said.</p>
<p>Delray Beach Fire-Rescue usually responds to emergencies in the County Pocket that are not life-threatening, such as a fall.</p>
<p>The city has an automatic aid agreement to provide services to county pockets, either in the city or outside, said Kevin Saxton, Delray Beach Fire-Rescue spokesman. “The county reciprocates when our services are depleted,” Saxton said.</p>
<p>After Smollen questioned the response time and agency responding, the chiefs eventually agreed to re-examine the mutual aid agreements and how first responders are dispatched.</p>
<p>“The problem is how the caller describes the emergency,” said Joseph. “In the July 4 incident, the initial call was described as a fall with injury.”</p>
<p>Joseph said his paramedics can’t run on every call for a fall outside their service area. “That would result in a lot of calls that the county would not reimburse us for handling,” he said.</p>
<p>Smollon agreed that how the caller describes the emergency is important. At a Nov. 13 meeting with Briny Breezes and County Pocket residents, he reminded listeners to “make sure you describe the nature of the emergency accurately when you call 911.”</p>
<p><strong>Mutual aid emergency types</strong><br /> Cardiac<br /> Cardiac arrest<br /> Choking <br /> Trouble breathing<br /> Seizure<br /> Unresponsive<br /> Allergic reaction<br /> Electrocution<br /> Vehicle accident: rollover/extrication<br /> Shooting <br /> Stabbing<br /> Drowning<br /> Open water incident<br /> Structure fire<br /> Aircraft incident<br /> And any other type that seems to be life-threatening</p>
<p><em>SOURCE: Palm Beach County and Boynton Beach Fire Rescue</em></p>
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<p></p></div>Briny Breezes/County Pocket: Townhome developer tries to ease worries about drainage, construction damagehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/briny-breezes-county-pocket-townhome-developer-tries-to-ease-worr2018-11-28T17:30:00.000Z2018-11-28T17:30:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p class="p1" style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960833464,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960833464,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960833464?profile=original" /></a>Michael LaCoursiere, civil engineer for the Gulf Stream Views development, answers questions from residents of the County Pocket and Briny Breezes. Pocket residents say the townhomes will be on land that historically takes runoff from their neighborhood. <b>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</b></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong></p>
<p>Representatives of the Gulf Stream Views townhouse project say they are committed to being good neighbors to Briny Breezes and County Pocket residents as construction at the site is about to begin in earnest.</p>
<p>“If we damage anything, we will fix it,” Glenn La Mattina, senior vice president of developer NR Living, said during a question-and-answer session with some 100 residents in Briny’s ocean clubhouse on Nov. 13. “We’re willing to work with you.”</p>
<p>Questions from the County Pocket side of the room focused mostly on potential drainage issues. From the Briny side, the questions were mostly about traffic and possible road damage issues.</p>
<p>Michael LaCoursiere, the project’s civil engineer from West Palm Beach, said the plans passed “rigorous review” by Palm Beach County, particularly concerning stormwater drainage.</p>
<p>“We’ve done everything they’ve asked us to do,” LaCoursiere said. “The site is going to hold its water. Less water is going to run off the site after construction than before it.”</p>
<p>He said developers are installing an underground system of storage chambers to catch water, and the site will be bowl-shaped to prevent runoff from moving to the north or south.</p>
<p>Pocket residents Liz Loper and Susan Knowles told LaCoursiere that although the site may hold its own water, it could cause flooding to the neighborhood on the south side. For decades the vacant lot has functioned as a drain field for the pocket’s runoff, they said.</p>
<p>Loper worries that after the development is built, the water will have nowhere to go, especially during storm surges and king tides. Historically, she said, runoff flows north from the pocket to the development site.</p>
<p>“I’ve been here for 18 years and it’s not perception, it’s reality,” Loper said. “It flows down the street into that field, and now with the walls going up, that’s not going to happen. And that’s what our concern is.”</p>
<p><strong>No parking on road</strong></p>
<p>Briny Mayor Roger Bennett said the town recently received word from Palm Beach County officials that it is the sole owner of Briny Breezes Boulevard, a public thoroughfare that will be an important access road to the development.</p>
<p>“The nice thing about having ownership of Briny Breezes Boulevard is that we can put up ‘no parking’ signs on the south side,” Bennett said. “And that’s one of the first things we’ll do.”</p>
<p>He said the town has received assurances from the developers that they will repair any construction damage to the road. “They gave a guarantee to the Town Council,” Bennett said.</p>
<p>Bradley Miller, the project’s land planner, said the impact on traffic flow will be negligible. He said the development should add about 98 vehicle trips per day to the neighboring streets, well within statutory limits. The gated entrance will be on Old Ocean Boulevard. Each unit will have a two-car garage and the site will have 10 spaces for guest parking.</p>
<p>Miller said pedestrian access to the beach will continue to be open north and south of the complex, though Gulf Stream Views residents will have private access through a gated entrance on Old Ocean.</p>
<p>The six-building, 14-unit project is scheduled for completion in December 2019 and will deliver a community of “high-end, luxury” two-story homes, La Mattina said. Pre-construction prices range from $1.8 million to $2.7 million. The 3,400-square foot units will have three bedrooms and 41/2 baths.</p>
<p>NR Living, based in Secaucus, N.J., paid $5.4 million for the site in June and took out a $17 million construction loan shortly after.<br /> Briny’s corporate board and the Florida Coalition for Preservation organized the question-and-answer session.</p></div>County Pocket: Developer shares oceanfront townhouse detailshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-developer-shares-oceanfront-townhouse-details2018-08-29T04:30:00.000Z2018-08-29T04:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="p1"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960805694,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960805694,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="663" class="align-center" alt="7960805694?profile=original" /></a></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align:center;"><em><b>ABOVE:</b> Fourteen townhouses split among six buildings will have private beach access, while still maintaining two existing public beach access points<b>. BELOW:</b> Lush landscaping is planned with coconut palms, bougainvillea and a variety of native plants. <b>Renderings provided by National Realty</b></em></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align:center;"><em><b><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960806262,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960806262,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="439" class="align-center" alt="7960806262?profile=original" /></a></b></em></p>
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<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>By Jane Smith</b></span></p>
<p class="p3">Construction should begin by mid-September on the oceanfront Gulf Stream Views, a townhouse development in a lot that formerly held the Pelican Beach apartments.</p>
<p class="p3">The new landowner last month showed off plans for a posh complex south of Briny Breezes in response to a list of questions from Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, on behalf of residents of the County Pocket and Briny Breezes and <i>The Coastal Star</i>.</p>
<p class="p3">Glenn La Mattina, senior vice president of NR Living, gathered the project experts on Aug. 20 at a Boynton Beach waterfront restaurant in an effort to address the concerns.</p>
<p class="p3"><b>Density:</b> According to the project’s architect, Richard Jones of Delray Beach, the six buildings, with a total of 14 units, will have a modern design featuring a lot of glass.</p>
<p class="p3">“All of the units will have ocean views from one or more levels,” he said.</p>
<p class="p3">The complex will be framed by retaining walls with heavy landscaping that Jones described as “providing a terraced contemporary greenscape along the street.”</p>
<p class="p3"><b>Traffic:</b> Briny Breezes Boulevard on the north will provide access from A1A, and Seaview Avenue on the south will provide access from the County Pocket into Gulf Stream Views’ main gated entrance off Old Ocean Boulevard.</p>
<p class="p3"><b>Elevation:</b> The complex sits within the state’s Coastal Construction Control Line. As a result, the project’s first floor will be at 16.4 feet, said land planner Bradley Miller of Boynton Beach. The state requires a first floor start at 14 feet above NAVD (the North American Vertical Datum).</p>
<p class="p3">Gulf Stream Views will add an additional 2 feet for the pilings and other foundation work. This will put the 1st floor about 2 feet above the level of Old Ocean Blvd.</p>
<p class="p3">Each unit will have a two-car garage, according to Miller. The site also will have 10 surface spaces for guest parking.</p>
<p class="p3"><b>Public beach access:</b> The beach will continue to be open to the north and south of the complex, Miller said. Gulf Stream Views residents and their guests will have private access through a gated entrance in the middle of Old Ocean.</p>
<p class="p3"><b>Water:</b> Michael LaCoursiere, the project’s civil engineer in West Palm Beach, said Gulf Stream Views will have water provided by Boynton Beach through a main on Briny Breezes Boulevard.</p>
<p class="p3">Each unit will have its own wastewater pipe that flows to one lift station at the southwest corner of the complex. From there, the wastewater will be pumped to a 6-inch pipe under Seaview Avenue on the southern border of the property. That pipe eventually connects to the South Central Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant on the mainland.</p>
<p class="p3"><b>Drainage:</b> Stormwater runoff will be dealt with on-site, LaCoursiere said. It will be discharged into the ground and not flow off-site into the County Pocket to the south, he said.</p>
<p class="p3"><b>Landscaping:</b> Leo Urban, the project’s landscape architect in Boynton Beach, said he chose native plants or low-water-use plants for the complex.</p>
<p class="p3">“We will move the existing sabal palms to the east side of the property,” Urban said. Coconut palms will be planted near the buildings to avoid storm damage from shade trees.</p>
<p class="p3">In between the tiered retaining walls, purple bougainvillea will be planted, Urban said. “It will bring some color to the complex and serve as a barrier [to possible intruders],” he said.</p>
<p class="p3">Rich Radici, the construction manager from New Jersey, said workers would park on-site during construction. Radici has a Boynton Beach condo and says he will be down often to check on the project.</p>
<p class="p3">During construction, Karl Indivero will be the on-site manager daily.</p>
<p class="p3">Radici said the project would take about 18 months to complete.</p>
<p class="p3">Each three-story unit will have three bedrooms, an elevator, a splash pool, a two-car garage, a rooftop deck and 3,400 square feet of air-conditioned space. Preconstruction prices range from $1.8 million to $2.7 million.</p>
<p class="p3">The Coalition for Preservation is a grassroots group dedicated to preserving the quality of life on the barrier island with responsible growth.</p>
<p class="p3">The project sits on a nearly 2-acre vacant parcel in an unincorporated county pocket. Gulf Stream Views LLC paid $5.4 million for the property in early June.</p>
<p class="p3">The company, a division of National Realty Investment Advisors of Secaucus, N.J., purchased the land from real estate investor David Rinker. He and other investors bought the parcel in 2006 when it housed the Pelican apartments.</p>
<p class="p3">Realtors Pascal Liguori and his son Antonio of Delray Beach have the exclusive sales listings for the Gulf Stream Views townhomes. </p></div>Along the Coast: Plans for luxury condos near Briny put busy developer in spotlighthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-plans-for-luxury-condos-near-briny-put-busy-devel2018-07-04T14:21:48.000Z2018-07-04T14:21:48.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960799470,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="450" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960799470,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960799470?profile=original" /></a><em>The eastern facade of Gulf Stream Views as seen from Old Ocean Boulevard. <strong>Rendering provided</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /> <br />Briny Breezes residents will soon be neighbors with luxury townhome owners living on the south side of the oceanfront town. <br /> In early June, Gulf Stream Views LLC paid $5.4 million for the nearly 2-acre site, according to county property records. The new owner, a division of National Realty Investment Advisors of Secaucus, N.J., borrowed $16.5 million to buy the parcel and build 14 townhomes. <br /> “We have a luxury product. There are no other oceanfront parcels available in the area,” said Glenn La Mattina, senior vice president of National Realty and its new division, NR Living. “We have location, location, location.”<br /> The price paid was almost 22 percent below the asking price of $6.895 million. <br /> “The buyers came in and negotiated very friendly terms to the seller,” listing broker Steven Presson said. “My clients came to a point and made a business decision it was time to move on.” <br />David Rinker, who purchased the property in 2006 when it still housed the Pelican Apartments, paid $3.2 million for the parcel. The Old Florida-style, 11-unit complex was soon demolished. Rinker and investors planned to build Tuscan-style townhomes. He did not return phone messages. <br /> The purchase is National Realty’s eighth in coastal Gulf Stream and Delray Beach, according to its website. Its divisions spent $37.3 million in the past year, according to county property records. National Realty’s website also lists one property each in Ocean Ridge and Delray Beach with a status of closing.<br /> “We are building luxury units for sale or rental on the sites owned in southern Palm Beach County,” La Mattina said.<br /> Most of the parcels have another local connection. Former Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney’s law firm is listed as the registered agent for the limited liability corporations set up as the owner of each property. He declined to comment about his role, saying, “I don’t discuss my clients.”<br /> National Realty also turned to a local lender for the bridge loan that covers acquisition and development of the townhomes near Briny Breezes. Trez Forman Capital Group was formed two years ago by Boynton Beach-based Forman Capital and Vancouver-based Trez Capital Group.<br /> “I’ve known the borrowers for a long time. I started Forman Capital in 2004 in Delray Beach,” said Brett Forman, president and CEO.<br /> His company is still optimistic about residential real estate in South Florida. “We look closely at the project and location,” Forman said. “People still want to move to South Florida.”<br /> In mid-June, Trez Forman gave Sofa Partners a $20.6 million construction loan to build 111 First Delray, a boutique condo project in Delray Beach.<br /> The name Gulf Stream Views comes from its oceanfront location, La Mattina said.<br /> Site work will take place in July and construction will start in August, he said. The 14 luxury units will be ready in April 2020, La Mattina said. Preconstruction prices range from $1.8 million to $2.7 million.<br /> Each three-story unit will have three bedrooms, an elevator, a splash pool, a two-car garage, a rooftop deck and 3,400 square feet of air-conditioned space.<br /> Neighbor Mike Smollon, who lives in the County Pocket to the south, said, “It was inevitable that the parcel would be developed.” <br />He hopes the complex is constructed well and does not worsen the drainage problems in the County Pocket. With summer downpours the streets often flood, said Smollon, a retired Boynton Beach fire battalion chief. <br /> “I believe in 10 years, we will look back on this as a landmark sale,” Presson said. “It not only will change the landscape but significantly increase property values in Briny Breezes and beyond.”</p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Other National Realty purchases, projects</strong></span></p>
<p><strong>Ocean Ridge</strong><br />• Closing on 6644 N. Ocean Blvd. The property now contains three condo units and sits across from the county’s Ocean Ridge Hammock Park. The parcel can hold four townhomes, according to Jamie Titcomb, town manager. <br />The condo owners have come in to discuss what can be built on the property. The land sits in a zoning district that is not subject to the town’s moratorium on building, he said.</p>
<p><strong>Gulf Stream</strong> <br />• Paid $6.5 million in August 2017 for a lot at 3565 N. Ocean. The town says the new owner can build 7,326 square feet, including a 467-square-foot gatehouse. <br />• Paid $6.5 million in August 2017 for a .77-acre piece once owned by Delray Beach real estate investor Carl DeSantis. The new owner can build 8,705 square feet, including a 488-square-foot gatehouse, according to the town. <br />The town does not allow condos to be built along the ocean, said Rita Taylor, town clerk. Both parcels recently received permission to build single-family homes, she said.</p>
<p><strong>Delray Beach</strong><br />• Paid $450,000 in September for 837 Denery Lane, which has a 1,706-square-foot home built in 1958. The house sits on .23 of an acre. <br />• Closing on 915 Bond Way with a 2,373-square-foot home built in 1958. The house sits on .28 of an acre. The National Realty website gives this description of its planned Palm Trail Townhomes there: two-unit luxury townhomes with 4,000 square feet each, four bedrooms and 4.5 baths, elevator, plunge pool, outdoor terrace and a club room. <br />The property is owned by Shovel Ready Investments LLC. Former Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney’s law firm is listed as the registered agent on Florida corporate records. His firm also is the registered agent for the National Realty divisions in Palm Beach County.<br />• Paid $6.5 million in September for 707 N. Ocean Blvd. The property has a 4,042-square-foot home built in 1954 on .57 of an acre. A National Realty division submitted plans for a two-story, 7,994-square-foot home that sits mostly east of the Coastal Construction Control Line. That means the state Department of Environmental Protection would have to approve it. The department has allowed most such structures in the past.<br />• Paid $7.05 million in October for 344 N. Ocean Blvd. The property is .89 of an acre and has a house under construction. <br />The former owners, Albert and Tamara Rabil of Boca Raton, are involved in litigation with their builder and subcontractors over 176 change orders on the house with costs exceeding $9 million. On June 7, with 30 parties and 85 claims, the Rabils asked the judge to declare the case “complex” and set up a case management plan with non-binding arbitration and mediation. As of press time, no hearing date was set.<br />• Part of a $7.25 million purchase in July 2017 of 322 N. Ocean Blvd., 1239 Laing St. and 316 N. Ocean, for a total of .87 of an acre. These parcels have city approval to build a two-story, 6,310-square-foot home with five bedrooms, three-car garage and a pool; a two-story, 5,069-square-foot home with an elevator and pool; and a two-story, 5,451-square-foot home with five bedrooms, three-car garage and a pool.<br />• Paid $3.05 million in September for four parcels (302, 318, 338 and 346) totaling .88 of an acre on Southeast Fifth Avenue: 302 has two, one-story office buildings of 1,222 square feet each, 318 has a four-unit building of 4,130 square feet, 338 is vacant land and 346 has an 800-square-foot office building. As of press time, no plans were filed with the city.<br /><em>Sources: Palm Beach County property appraiser, county clerk & comptroller and Delray Beach Planning, Zoning and Building Department</em></p></div>County Pocket: Townhomes proposed for oceanfront landhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-townhomes-proposed-for-oceanfront-land2018-05-02T15:26:38.000Z2018-05-02T15:26:38.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960780095,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960780095,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="467" alt="7960780095?profile=original" /></a></p>
<p><strong>By Jane Smith and Dan Moffett</strong></p>
<p>The almost 2-acre oceanfront parcel that once housed the Pelican Apartments along the former Dog Beach in the County Pocket will soon be home to Gulf Stream Views. <br /> The property sale for the luxury townhome project is expected to close in mid-May, said real estate broker Steven Presson. It has been on the market for $6.895 million since last June.<br /> “An investment group is coming down from the Northeast and looking to build 14 oceanfront townhomes,” Presson said. <br /> The complex will sit on the west side of Old Ocean Boulevard, just south of Briny Breezes. Each townhome will have three stories, a driveway and a garage, according to plans submitted to the town of Briny Breezes. The townhomes will range in size from 3,351 to 3,386 square feet.<br /> Seven townhomes will sit on each side of an access road, the plans show. The proposed complex has two buildings with three units each on the western part of the property and four buildings with two units each on the eastern side. The main entrance into Gulf Stream Views will be from Old Ocean Boulevard on the east side of the complex. <br /> “I believe this will prove to be a valuable project that will not only enhance the Briny Breezes area,” Presson said, “but increase property values for all.”<br /> Briny Breezes became involved because the soon-to-be owner needs town permission to make a cut into Briny Breezes Boulevard on the northern edge of the project to connect to Boynton Beach water lines, Town Manager Dale Sugerman said at the April 26 Town Council meeting. <br /> The council may take up the request at its May 24 meeting.<br /> The project’s owner received a tentative go-ahead from the county Department of Planning, Zoning & Building, subject to approval by the state Department of Environmental Protection.<br /> Two of Gulf Stream Views’ townhomes and parts of two others sit east of the state’s Coastal Construction Control Line. If past approvals of buildings proposed within the CCCL are any indication, the state will approve the Gulf Stream Views complex. <br /> The city of Boynton Beach must approve the water and sewer plans. <br /> Presson declined to comment further until after the sale closes. The property’s current owner, David Rinker, could not be reached for comment. <br /> More than 14 years ago, the parcel abutted a section of Palm Beach County beach that was used informally as a dog beach, attracting dogs and their owners from surrounding communities and as far away as Broward County. <br /> In July 2004, some nearby residents complained to Palm Beach County commissioners. They unanimously closed county parks and beaches to dogs. <br /> Mike Smollon, a retired Boynton Beach fire lieutenant who lives south of the proposed Gulf Stream Views in the County Pocket, wonders how long the complex will take to complete. <br /> “It will help our property values,” he said, “but it will increase our traffic.” <br /> Of the land sitting empty next to the ocean, Smollon said the sale “was bound to happen. It’s a valuable piece of property that couldn’t sit vacant forever.”<br /> Neighbor Marie Chapman hopes the new owners will reach out to the residents in the area and show their renderings. <br /> “Key West-style of architecture will fit in with us,” she said, “but not industrial style.” Chapman also is concerned about how Gulf Stream Views will deal with its drainage plans. “Right now, it’s open land. When they build on it, that’s less land that will be available for drainage,” she said.<br /> The homes south of the parcel are at a lower elevation and the streets usually flood with the summer downpours, she said.<br /> “I’m excited to see what will go there,” Chapman said.</p></div>Obituary: Hundreds take part in Ron Heavyside’s memorialhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/obituary-hundreds-take-part-in-ron-heavyside-s-memorial2018-05-02T14:30:00.000Z2018-05-02T14:30:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960780656,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960780656,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="670" class="align-center" alt="7960780656?profile=original" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>Ryan Heavyside (center) raises his hands amid hundred of surfers who joined together in a paddle-out April 29 to celebrate the life of Ron Heavyside, his father. Mr. Heavyside died April 14 in the 50th anniversary year of his Nomad Surf Shop. <b>Photo provided by James Arena</b></em></p>
<p><strong>By Ron Hayes</strong></p>
<p>COUNTY POCKET — When Ron Heavyside opened his store in 1968, he named it the Nomad Surf Shop in a nod to all those wandering riders who travel the oceans in search of a perfect wave.<br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960781062,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960781062,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="99" alt="7960781062?profile=original" /></a>But for the next 50 years, as the Nomad grew from a modest corner in his father’s TV repair shop to an 8,000-square-foot landmark known throughout much of the surfing world, Mr. Heavyside never ventured far from the County Pocket.<br /> On Sunday afternoon, April 29, several hundred friends and area surfers joined his family on the beach behind the Nomad to give his ashes to the waves on which he rode and made his living.<br /> Mr. Heavyside died at Bethesda Memorial Hospital on April 14 after suffering stomach pains. He was 69.<br /> As loudspeakers filled the beach with the music of Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Four Tops, friends and surfers young and old, black and white, sipped beer and rum, sharing memories of the man some knew as a friend from their teenage years in the 1960s and others a father figure they had met only recently.<br /> Wrapped in a Nomad T-shirt, the urn containing his ashes waited on the sand before a surfboard adorned with a painting of Mr. Heavyside at work, shaping a board.<br /> Ronald Richard Heavyside was born in Montreal on October 14, 1948. The family moved to Ocean Ridge in 1962, when he was 14, and before long the teenager had discovered surfing.<br /> Tom Warnke, a lifelong friend and fellow surfer, met Mr. Heavyside at Seacrest High School in 1964.<br /> “He was one of the first two students who shocked everyone by wearing their hair ungreased, dry and over their forehead, the same way as the new band, The Beatles,” Warnke recalled.<br /> Still a student, Mr. Heavyside worked at the Caribbean Surfboard Co. in Delray Beach, where he learned to shape and build boards.<br /> In 1967 he and five friends chipped in $250 each, rented a small industrial space on Hypoluxo Road, and Nomad surfboards were born.<br /> A year later, he opened the Nomad Surf Shop in a corner of his father’s TV shop.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960780901,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="400" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960780901,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960780901?profile=original" /></a><em>Boynton Beach Ocean Rescue Chief Tom Mahady places a lei on Ron’s surfboard memorial. <strong>Jerry Lower/ The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p>In 1974, Mr. Heavyside married the former Beth Walsh, whose business acumen allowed the shop to expand the inventory into beachwear and attract customers beyond the surfer clientele.<br /> The couple had two sons, Ronnie and Ryan. Mrs. Heavyside died in 1997.<br /> For a time in the 1980s, Mr. Heavyside owned Nomad shops in Delray Beach, Boca Raton and Cocoa and traveled the East Coast selling his boards wholesale. But he always remained more surfer than businessman.<br /> “Ron Heavyside was independent,” said Warnke, now executive director of the Palm Beach County Surfing History Project. “That’s what nomads are. He was unique and did things his own way, when he wanted and how he wanted.<br /> “I remember calling on Ron as a Costa Del Mar Sunglasses sales rep in 1983,” Warnke said. “Sometimes it would take a few appointments to finally write an order, or Ron would get interrupted and disappear.”<br /> In his later years, Mr. Heavyside’s sons took over the daily operation of the business while he remained a friendly presence, riding a golf cart around the neighborhood, visiting the ocean and greeting Nomad friends and customers.<br /> At the memorial service, Ryan Heavyside was clearly moved by the size of the crowd.<br /> “Hey, everybody,” he began, “I just want to say ... wow!”<br /> His father had loved telling stories, Ryan Heavyside said, and so he encouraged people in the crowd to do the same. And they did.<br /> One by one, men and women took the microphone to praise Mr. Heavyside as a father and friend, employer and customer, surfer and maker of surfboards.<br /> The Rev. Wendy Tobias of St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Boynton Beach presided over a brief religious service.<br /> “O God,” she prayed, “the waves speak to our hearts. They rise, gain momentum, fall, and draw us into deeper levels of consciousness. Thank you for this place of rhythm and harmony, a resting place for Ron, a place to which we too retreat when life seems confused and overwhelming, a place in which we find joy.”<br /> And then many in the crowd, bearing surfboards, headed for the ocean, to paddle offshore and form a large circle.<br /> Ryan and Ronnie Heavyside joined them, bearing their father’s ashes, and after a brief moment of silence, Ron Heavyside, surfer, was home in the ocean once more.<br /> In addition to his sons, Ronnie and Ryan, he is survived by Ronnie’s wife, Danielle, their son, Reef, and Ryan’s fiancee, Taylor Buczynski.</p></div>County Pocket: Oceanfront parcel again on markethttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-oceanfront-parcel-again-on-market2017-08-02T13:31:05.000Z2017-08-02T13:31:05.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960739890,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960739890,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960739890?profile=original" /></a></strong><em>The nearly 2-acre parcel is on the edge of the County Pocket, across the street from Briny Breezes. The owners bought it for $3.2 million in 2006 and are asking $6.895 million. <strong>Google Map</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong> By Jane Smith</strong></p>
<p><br />The former Dog Beach property is on the market — again.<br /> This time, it carries a $6.895 million price tag for one of the last remaining vacant parcels of oceanfront land in southern Palm Beach County.<br /> Nearby property owners in Briny Breezes and the County Pocket likely saw the for-sale sign go up in mid-June. The nearly 2-acre site features 171 feet of oceanfront land. The property is zoned for eight units to the acre, but a postcard offering for the land said 36 units might be possible.<br /> The owner received that information from the county, said broker Steven Presson of The Corcoran Group’s Palm Beach office. <br /> “The broker got ahead of himself. That high figure is the ultimate the property would get with all of the variances,” said owner David Rinker. “The neighbors would never go for that.”<br /> The property zoning allows eight units to the acre, but Rinker said 14 are more likely to fit. “We have had the property for a number of years,” he said. Rinker and partners bought the land for $3.2 million in March 2006 and planned to develop it, then the recession hit.<br /> “I’m not crazy about it, but I knew the land would not sit empty forever,” said Mike Smollon, who lives in the pocket. “Oceanfront land is valuable.” He said his area could see some improvements if that parcel were developed. “Maybe we would get sewers and paved roads,” he said. <br /> James Arena, a Briny Breezes resident who has a real estate brokerage in Boynton Beach, predicted it would be a long approval process for the developer. That company may end up putting up “a big wall that is 8 feet tall around the project, which would affect the drainage in the area.”<br /> He would like to see a park there “with space for golf-cart parking because so many residents have street-legal golf carts.” He suggests the county and Briny Breezes buy the 2 acres.<br /> “It’s a big-time crapshoot for a developer to buy it before Briny sells,” Arena said. <br /> Pocket resident Marie Chapman said, “Having it developed will help our area. But if it is not done properly, it would put us under water. We have lots of drainage problems.” <br /> Homeowners on Winthrop Lane in the pocket see water reaching their doors after a heavy rain, said Don Brown, who lives on Streamaire Lane in the pocket.<br /> The developer “will see a lot of resistance from neighbors if he tries to put 5 pounds into a small bag,” said Brown, who also owns the Southdale Properties real estate firm in Lake Worth.<br /> “The property serves as a retention pond for the County Pocket,” Brown said. “But a property owner should not have to do that [solve the area’s drainage problems].” <br /> Real estate broker Presson said he was receiving three or four calls a day about the property.<br /> “Activity is definitely there from builder-developers,” he said. “Where else in Palm Beach County can you find 2 acres on the ocean for sale?”</p></div>County Pocket: Hydrants now mapped after threat of insurance rate risehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-hydrants-now-mapped-after-threat-of-insurance-rate-2017-05-31T15:09:57.000Z2017-05-31T15:09:57.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:left;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960724055,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960724055,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="418" alt="7960724055?profile=original" /></a><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /> <br /> Fourteen years after Boynton Beach installed fire hydrants in the County Pocket, its seven hydrants were finally mapped in May.<br /> “We rely on water departments to send the information,” David Sauls, a fire safety specialist with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue, said of hydrant locations. “Sometimes we can’t use their info because the database is not compatible with ours.”<br /> He could not say why the hydrants were not mapped in 2003 when they were installed, because he had a different job with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue at that time.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"> Maps of fire hydrants are used by county emergency dispatchers to send out the fire-rescue and sheriff response.<br /> Boynton Beach installed the water mains and the hydrants and tests them annually, said Colin Groff, former head of the city’s utilities department and now an assistant city manager. <br /> Groff also said he did not know why the hydrants weren’t mapped because he was not working for Boynton Beach in 2003.<br /> “County pockets with city services are often problematic,” Groff said. <br /> The unincorporated pocket with narrow streets sits just south of Briny Breezes and relies on the county for public safety services. The area spans about 16.5 acres with fewer than 100 dwellings, including 52 single-family homes. The popular Nomad Surf Shop and Seaside Deli also are in the pocket. <br /> Residents enjoy living so close to the beach and watch out for each other, said Marie Chapman, a 10-year pocket resident. “It’s like a mini-Mayberry filled with eclectic residents,” she said.<br /> But in the back of her mind, she worries about fire-rescue response times because of her two young children. Chapman said her concerns stem from a friend, Bill Dunn, who died in 2009 and outsiders who park their cars on Old Ocean Boulevard while they go to the beach. Doing so blocks that street for the large fire-rescue vehicles to reach the pocket. <br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-3">Insurance notice triggered investigation</span><br /> Periodically, County Pocket homeowners receive notices from insurance carriers that their coverage is being dropped, according to Stuart Malin, a pocket resident of five years.<br /> “A new carrier said it couldn’t find any records of fire hydrants in the area and wanted to charge me a high rate as if we didn’t have hydrants,” Malin said.<br /> He took photos of the hydrants and called Sauls. “He said he would come out and look … [and] not to worry in the meantime, because they can bring in big tanker trucks,” Malin said. <br /> Sauls came out to the pocket and found the hydrants. He updated the hydrant maps on his iPad. Meanwhile, Malin also contacted pocket resident Mike Smollon, a retired Boynton Beach Fire Rescue captain.<br /> “Neighbors often ask me about fire-related issues,” Smollon said. <br /> Malin explained the higher rate his insurance carrier wanted to charge because the county maps didn’t show any fire hydrants in the pocket. Smollon agreed to look into the issue.<br /> Smollon played a leading role in improving emergency response times in late 2009 after Dunn, 48, choked to death while eating a piece of steak. County fire-rescue took more than 12 minutes to arrive from its station at Woolbright Road and Military Trail.<br /> “It should not have happened,” Smollon said.<br /> In late 2009, after Dunn died, Smollon met with County Commissioner Steven Abrams, who represents the County Pocket, then-Boynton Beach Fire Chief William Bingham, then-County Fire Chief Steve Jerauld and a county deputy fire chief.<br /> Smollon found and shared a mutual aid agreement from 1990 made between the fire departments of Boynton Beach and Palm Beach County. The agreement called for Boynton Beach to respond to life-threatening emergencies or when the county station was busy. <br /> Minor calls, such as fire on the beach or a barrel washed ashore, would be the responsibility of the county fire department.<br /> Boynton Beach Fire Rescue was not called the night Dunn died.<br /> The mutual aid agreement was further clarified in early 2011. Now, Boynton Beach sends a unit from its South Federal Highway station to respond to life-threatening emergencies in the pocket. These are defined as choking, seizure, allergic reaction, car accident, drowning, structure fire, cardiac arrest, trouble breathing, unresponsive person, electrocution, shooting/stabbing and aircraft/boating accident.<br /> The clarified agreement works like this: The emergency calls go to the county dispatch center, which contacts the nearest county fire station on West Woolbright Road. An officer there decides whether to send a rescue team or if Boynton Beach should be called.<br /> In 2015, when Delray Beach joined the county dispatch system, the county’s non-emergency calls started going to the city’s barrier island station on Andrews Avenue.<br /> The process sounds time-consuming, but “it adds only seconds to the response time,” Smollon said.<br /> In 2016, Boynton Beach paramedics responded to eight medical calls in the pocket, according to Boynton Beach Fire Rescue records. Its average response time was 5 minutes and 21 seconds. The city has its own dispatch system for 911 calls.<br />Delray Beach Fire Rescue responded to 24 calls in the pocket last year. Its average response time was 10 minutes and 16 seconds, according to county fire-rescue, which tracks the incidents.<br /> Smollon realizes the narrow and dead-end streets in the enclave can be challenging for fire trucks and rescue vehicles to navigate. Even so, he said, “We are paying our taxes and we expect to be treated right.”</p></div>County Pocket: Citizens group proposes nude beach at Gulfstream Parkhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/county-pocket-citizens-group-proposes-nude-beach-at-gulfstream-pa2017-05-31T15:04:13.000Z2017-05-31T15:04:13.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Thom Smith</strong><br /><br /> Humans have swum naked in Florida waters for millennia, but as the state’s 1,350 miles of coastline have become more congested, pressure has grown to “suit up.” Only one beach — Haulover in Miami — is officially “clothing optional.” <br /> That could change if a Palm Beach County citizens group persuades the County Commission that such a beach would be good for business. <br /> In a May 16 letter to the commission, the Palm Beach County Freedom Initiative presented its proposal that, for starters, suggests a small northern portion of Gulfstream Park, just south of Briny Breezes. <br /> “There is no reason our county needs to send our dollars south,” initiative spokesman Karl Dickey of Boynton Beach wrote. He also cited Blind Creek Beach near Fort Pierce, which isn’t legally designated but does have government approval. Not only would local users stay home, he suggested, but a nude beach would attract tourists. <br /> Blind Creek’s shoreline is unblemished by high-rises, luxury homes or clam stands, whereas Gulfstream’s 7 acres are surrounded by small apartments, multistory condos, single-family homes and a mobile home park. <br /> Briny Breezes officials aren’t enthused with the idea.<br /> “I don’t think it’s going to fly,” said Alderman Jim McCormick. “You’ve got families with children right over there next to the park. They don’t want it. Whose brilliant idea was this anyway?” <br /> Alderman Chick Behringer says a nude beach is a poor suggestion.<br /> “Based on surrounding areas, I think it’s going to draw a lot of the wrong people — a lot of gawkers,” he said.<br /> Dickey’s group is open to alternatives. For decades, a stretch known as Air Force Beach in North Palm Beach was the go-to nude beach. When Walt Disney was looking at possible sites for a theme park, he swam there — sans apparel — with its former owner, John D. MacArthur, for whom the now state park is named.</p>
<p><em>Dan Moffett contributed to this story.</em><br /><br /></p></div>Obituary: Sandra Strosky Gallagherhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/obituary-sandra-strosky-gallagher2017-03-29T18:00:00.000Z2017-03-29T18:00:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Emily J. Minor</strong><br /> <br /> COUNTY POCKET — Sandra Strosky Gallagher, a beach lover who came to Florida on a spring break getaway right after college and never lived up north again, died March 2 after a brief illness. She was 53. <br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960719869,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960719869,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="97" alt="7960719869?profile=original" /></a> Mrs. Gallagher lived in the so-called County Pocket and was well known for her animal rescue work, especially with cats. She was one of the originals from a cadre of ocean lovers who live in the small oceanfront section that is ruled by neither city nor village politics. <br /> “The ocean was basically her yard,” said her sister, Lynn Chrzan. “People knew her for keeping things pretty along the beach.”<br /> A New York native and one of five children, Mrs. Gallagher grew up in Lackawanna, N.Y. After high school, she attended Erie Community College, where she received a degree as a denture technician. Through the years, though, she also worked in several veterinary offices. She gave many hours and much support to Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League. <br /> Chrzan said her “baby sister” went into the hospital with what they think was pneumonia and then developed a host of confusing symptoms that eventually claimed her life. “We’re not really sure what happened,” she said. <br /> Mrs. Gallagher had been married to her husband, Brad, since 1987. They have one son, Jacob.<br /> Although separated in age by nearly eight years, Chrzan said she and Mrs. Gallagher were always close. Their birthdays are just one week apart, and Chrzan said she remembers the day when the infant Mrs. Gallagher came home from the hospital. “My parents said, ‘Here’s your birthday present,’ and she was mine ever since,” Chrzan said. <br /> Chrzan said the family is considering a bench along the beach to commemorate Mrs. Gallagher’s love for the ocean and her neighborhood. <br /> A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. April 1 at Cason United Methodist Church, 342 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. <br /> Besides her husband, son, and sister, Mrs. Gallagher is survived by three brothers, Edward, Mike and John Strosky; mother-in-law, Elsie Gallagher; and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, Mike and Florence Strosky, and her father-in-law, Bernard B. Gallagher Sr.<br /> The family asks that any memorial donations be sent to Peggy Adams, 3100 N. Military Trail, West Palm Beach, FL 33409.</p></div>