island - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T14:54:32Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/islandLantana: History buff debuts self-guided tour of Hypoluxo Islandhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/lantana-history-buff-debuts-self-guided-tour-of-hypoluxo-island2020-09-01T18:31:50.000Z2020-09-01T18:31:50.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Mary Thurwachter</strong><br /> <br />Not long after the coronavirus prompted stay-at-home orders last spring, Michelle Donahue noticed how many people from both the Manalapan and Lantana sides of Hypoluxo Island took advantage of the time to walk, jog or bike around the neighborhood. Beaches and parks were closed, and residents were eager to get outside.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960959452,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960959452,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" alt="7960959452?profile=original" /></a>Donahue, a history buff who is president of the Hypoluxo Island Property Owners Association and author of the Brown Wrapper newsletter, used the quarantine to fast-track a project that she had been considering for a while — creating a self-guided tour of Hypoluxo Island.</p>
<p>The island, just 3 miles long and a half-mile wide, boasts fascinating history that few seem to know, she says.</p>
<p>Her online guide came out just before the Fourth of July — an appropriate time, Donahue determined, since people would be looking for fun things to do and the beaches were closed for the holiday weekend.</p>
<p>She thought it would be nice for residents and others to “get out their phones and flip through the pages of the brochure and at least walk through the neighborhood and get exercise and learn a little something about where they lived.”</p>
<p>She explains: “You ask people about Hypoluxo Island and they say, ‘Oh, it’s a hidden gem,’ but no one ever really knows what the history is here.”</p>
<p>Donahue thought about doing the guide, but given her job as a Realtor with Douglas Elliman and other commitments, “it took me a few months just to kind of get it together.”</p>
<p>Since the online version of the tour came out, Donahue, 51, published a printed version as well, and on the first Friday of each month, she began a Happy Hour History Tour of the island. Donahue, a Miami native who grew up in Delray Beach, paid for the printing and did all the writing and research.</p>
<p>Hannibal Pierce, an assistant keeper at the Jupiter Lighthouse, settled on the island in 1873. He built a thatched-roof cabin and other pioneers followed suit, carving a community out of the wilderness. Until the 1950s and 1960s, when snowbirds started putting up cottages, the island was sparsely settled.</p>
<p>Donahue’s guide points out many historical sights, from McKinley Park, originally known as Beach Curve Park but renamed in the mid-1970s for Floyd Charles McKinley to honor his many years of community service to Lantana; to Casa Alva, the 26,000-square-foot, Maurice Fatio-designed home built for Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960959087,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960959087,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="184" height="464" alt="7960959087?profile=original" /></a>Producing both the Brown Wrapper — a local history publication that debuted in 2017 — and the self-guided tour are labors of love, she says. The Property Owners Association pays printing costs of the newsletter, an annual publication.</p>
<p>“When you’re passionate about something, it’s more enjoyable than anything else,” Donahue says. “I really have gotten such great pleasure out of doing this and learning from it.”</p>
<p>She particularly enjoys connecting history with people who still live on the island, such as Narine Ebersold, who has lived on Hypoluxo since 1946; and Don Edge, an architect who helped create Manalapan’s La Coquille Club, where the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa stands today.</p>
<p>Both have become great sources of information for Donahue, who delights in visiting with them, even now when it’s socially distanced through screen doors and wearing masks.</p>
<p>“It’s so important because if we don’t capture it now, we’re going to lose it forever,” she says. “It’s too important not to tell the story of the island. I just feel like it’s never really had that opportunity.”</p>
<p>Donahue and her husband, Sean, live in an Addison Mizner home built in 1927. The historic house is called Casa Lillias, after Lillias Piper, a nationally known interior decorator who first owned the home. Since 1999, it has been declared the oldest house on the island.</p>
<p>Donahue’s day job keeps her very busy, and to keep in shape she runs in the morning.</p>
<p>“As much as I love to run, that’s my passion every day, this is just as much my passion,” Donahue says of her historical research and writing. “After dinner, when things settle down here at the house, I’ll just jump on the computer and do some more research. It’s always so fun. Especially when I find articles that are so relative to what I find to write in the papers.</p>
<p>“Of course, I don’t want to put anything out there that I haven’t totally documented or researched and … sometimes it can take days to get the answers. But it’s a good journey to be on.”</p></div>Lantana: Town commits to contract for Fourth of July fireworks displayhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/lantana-town-commits-to-contract-for-fourth-of-july-fireworks-dis2020-04-01T19:00:00.000Z2020-04-01T19:00:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Mary Thurwachter</strong><br /> <br /> Despite the uncertainty connected to the coronavirus, Town Manager Deborah Manzo didn’t have to wait long for an answer when she asked whether or not to commit to a fireworks contract for the Fourth of July.</p>
<p><br /> The $30,000 contract with Zambelli Fireworks would need to be signed soon to reserve the date, Manzo said. But if the town decided at some point to cancel, Lantana would lose between $6,500 to $17,000, depending on how close to the show date the cancellation was made.</p>
<p><br /> The council voted March 23 to go ahead, regardless of the possibility of cancellation due to COVID-19.</p>
<p><br /> Even if a large gathering in Bicentennial Park were prohibited at the time, the fireworks could still go off from a barge on the Intracoastal Waterway so residents would have something special to watch that evening, council members agreed.</p>
<p><br /> Memories of the last time Lantana didn’t have fireworks on the Fourth of July, in 2011, still haunt Mayor Dave Stewart and Vice Mayor Lynn Moorhouse, who were both on the council at the time.</p>
<p><br /> “I had 30 unhappy people at the door. We had sad little kids dressed in red-white-and-blue turn out at Bicentennial Park,” Stewart said. Father David Kennedy of Church of the Holy Guardian Angels “was praying for me. He said fireworks are America and help people shake off a depressing economy.”</p>
<p><br /> “It was horrible,” Moorhouse added. “Let’s have fireworks!”</p>
<p><br /> Stewart said the plus side of contracting for the fireworks show outweighed the possibility of financial loss.</p>
<p><br /> “Fireworks make people feel good,” Stewart said, “and people need that.”</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>A concrete answer for the nature trail</strong></p>
<p>On another matter, the council voted to pave the Lantana Nature Preserve trail with concrete, a choice rejected previously as it was considered too costly (about $130,000). In addition to money the town has already set aside for the project, about $60,000, funds will be taken from reserves and paid back from annual payments received from the Carlisle assisted-living facility for maintenance.</p>
<p><br /> The council debated what type of material to use for the trail for more than two years, and twice decided on asphalt — an unpopular choice with Friends of the Nature Preserve.</p>
<p><br /> In February, another option was considered: crushed concrete, which was less costly than asphalt and more eco-friendly.</p>
<p><br /> But on March 23, Stewart proposed concrete, considered the best long-lasting solution.</p>
<p><br /> “We’ve kicked this tin can down the road so long it’s not even a can anymore,” Stewart said. “I don’t want this to come up ever again in my lifetime!”</p>
<p><br /> “That’s music to my ears,” Manzo said.</p>
<p><br /> In other news, the council, for safety reasons, voted to remove obtrusive road striping on Hypoluxo Island in compliance with Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices guidelines for streets and highways. Removing the yellow lines will cost about $5,000.</p>
<p><br /> Islanders, in person and with letters, urged the town to remove the double yellow lines after several residents had to leap into the bushes to avoid being hit by speeding vehicles whose drivers would not pull over.</p>
<p><br /> Hypoluxo Island does not have sidewalks.</p></div>Ovsenek-Tate: Toronto — March 9https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/celebrations-ovsenek-tate-toronto-march-92019-10-29T22:30:00.000Z2019-10-29T22:30:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960906867,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960906867,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960906867?profile=original" /></a><em>Rock Anthony Tate Jr. of Montclair, New Jersey, and Johanna Ovsenek of Toronto were married in Toronto. The bride is the daughter of Peter and Athena Ovsenek of London, Ontario. Parents of the groom are Rock and Lyn Tate of Hypoluxo Island. </em> <br /> <em>The couple are both graduates of Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. They will reside on Hypoluxo Island.</em><br /> <strong><em>Photo provided</em></strong></p></div>Manalapan: Town plans to add marine police unit to monitor sandbar partyinghttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/manalapan-town-plans-to-add-marine-police-unit-to-monitor-sandbar2017-08-02T13:30:00.000Z2017-08-02T13:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960739687,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960739687,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960739687?profile=original" /></a></p>
<p><em><strong>ABOVE:</strong> Police hope a new marine patrol will control rowdy behavior and trespassing onto residents’ docks. <strong>BELOW:</strong> Summer weekends often see dozens of boats moored in the shallow waters to the north of Bird Island at the Boynton Inlet. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960740271,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960740271,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960740271?profile=original" /></a><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong><br /> <br /> Complaints from residents along the Intracoastal Waterway in south Manalapan have increased in recent months as growing numbers of weekend boaters congregate on the sandbars around Bird Island.<br /> Town police have a hard time reining in the loud music, underage drinking and raucous behavior the offshore partying too often brings.<br /> That could change soon. At the town’s July 17 budget workshop, commissioners approved adding a marine unit to the Police Department that will patrol the sandbars on weekends and holidays.<br /> Town Manager Linda Stumpf said the town intends to hire two part-time officers certified for marine duties and equip them with a 21-foot flat boat.<br /> “They will only patrol the Intracoastal and won’t go into the ocean,” Stumpf said. “It should cost about $60,000 for the two part-time officers and another $20,000 for maintenance and operating costs for the boat.”<br /> That boat is the best part of the plan for taxpayers. A resident with an interest in peace and quiet has offered to cover the $20,000 to $30,000 cost of purchasing one for the town.<br /> Stumpf said the marine unit will follow a model successful in controlling sandbar partying at Peanut Island in northern Palm Beach County. Officers don’t have the authority to disperse the gatherings but can check IDs, watch for safety violations and keep the noise down.<br /> “They will have sound meters and will be monitoring the decibel levels to enforce our noise ordinance,” she said. “Having a police presence out there should make a difference.”<br /> Stumpf said the town is negotiating with county officials to dock the boat at Ocean Inlet Park.<br /> <strong>In other business:</strong><br /> • Commissioners are waiting on a consultant’s report to begin working on a water contract buyout agreement with the town of Hypoluxo.<br /> In June, Hypoluxo decided to end a decades-old relationship with Manalapan and begin buying water from Boynton Beach. The roughly 550 customers affected still have three years remaining on a 10-year contract with Manalapan, however. A consultant is working to put a price tag on that obligation.<br /> Stumpf said Manalapan wants to treat its neighbor fairly but has to make a deal that protects its water plant’s bottom line.<br /> “I don’t know what that cost will be,” she said. “I’ve told [Hypoluxo officials] that this is a business issue and it’s not the town’s intent to lose any money in business.”<br /> Boynton Beach officials have told Hypoluxo they will cover at least some of the buyout expenses to help make the transition as painless as possible. <br /> Manalapan Mayor Keith Waters thinks Hypoluxo will regret leaving. “I think they will find over time that this was not the decision they meant it to be,” he said.<br /> • The commission approved maintaining the current tax rate of $2.79 per $1,000 of taxable property value for the 2017-18 fiscal year, roughly 5 percent above the projected rollback rate that would keep total tax revenues flat. Commissioners scheduled public budget hear-ings beginning at 5:01 p.m. for both Sept. 13 and Sept. 26.</p></div>Obituary: Judy Blackhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/obituary-judy-black2015-12-02T19:30:00.000Z2015-12-02T19:30:00.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><strong>By Mary Thurwachter</strong><br /> <br /> LANTANA — Judy Black was passionate in promoting environmental conservation and committed to creating gardens. <br /> “She was a leader in the environmental movement,” said Ilona Balfour, who worked for a number of years with Ms. Black on the Friends of the Lantana Nature Preserve. “She was always supporting everybody. She will be sorely missed.”<br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960606482,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="95" class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960606482,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="7960606482?profile=original" /></a> After a long illness, Ms. Black, 67, of Lantana (on Hypoluxo Island), died Nov. 15 at a second home she and her husband of 29 years, Richard Schlosberg, had in Washington, Conn. She was born in New York City on Sept. 27, 1948. <br /> Ms. Black served as president of the Hypoluxo Island Property Owners Association for four years. <br /> She frequently coordinated with the Lantana town manager on association activities. <br /> She also supervised the neighborhood association’s Tree Program to save the ecologically essential native tree canopy. She oversaw the plans, brought them to fruition, and with several other members and town staff, helped plant the “Four Corners” entry onto the island, as well as the “y” entry to the south part of the island.<br /> “She turned her own small front and mostly paved back yards into verdant habitat, protective of endangered and threatened migratory birds,” her husband said.<br /> Ms. Black coordinated the HIPOA’s annual picnic for about four years. She continued administrative and coordinating activities during a three year transition and recruited new, competent and younger leadership.<br /> One of her recruits was Lyn Tate, current treasurer of the HIPOA.<br /> “Not only was Judy a special person because she was so brilliant, but she gave unconditionally to the island and the town,” Tate said. “She always thought before she spoke. She was always wise in her approach.”<br /> Along with her husband, Ms. Black was a frequent attendee at Town of Lantana council meetings and town Nature Preserve meetings where her infrequent comments were always substantive and to the heart of an issue. Her brief statements helped save the native habitat which several years ago became the Lantana Scrub Nature Preserve. <br /> Ms. Black, Schlosberg said, “served capably and was very widely respected as the non-town (of Manalapan) representative on the La Coquille Club board and Town of Manalapan La Coquille subcommittee during a prolonged period of intense debate, defending the retention of the traditional non-town membership inclusive structure, and against challenges to the club’s existence.<br /> She was often a rare voice promoting Hypoluxo Island-wide (joined Lantana and Manalapan) activities. <br /> Ms. Black had a successful career in advertising. She was a vice president of marketing for Bozell throughout many corporate combinations from BJK&E to True North. Within advertising, she specialized in new media. She researched and wrote studies well received (and some seminal) in the use of cable television, then of the Internet, as they relate to advertising. <br /> For years, she assisted, leading a subcommittee, then headed up as chairperson the American Association of Advertising Agencies New Technologies Committee. <br /> “She was in demand by clients for her company,” her husband said. “She spoke around the world, from New Zealand to Brazil to Finland, for example, enthusiastically and with insights from her research on the potentials from technical vantage points of the then undeveloped new mediums of cable TV programming and the Internet as advertising outlets.”<br /> Ms. Black Black was recognized by the advertising industry as one of Mediaweek's 10 All-Stars in the media field in 1995 and was on the cover of Marketing & Media Decisions magazine as one of the seers of the future of advertising. She continued to follow both the advertising industry and new media field. Later, she worked for Cablevision.</p>
<p> Ms. Black earned a Master of Arts degree in education from the Bank Street College School of Education and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University School of Business. Her undergraduate degree was a B.A. in art history from Barnard College. <br /> “She kept dear friends she met from school to business her entire life,” Schlosberg said.<br /> Survivors, in addition to her husband, include her brother, Leon Black, his wife, Debra, and their four children.<br /> Ms. Black was predeceased by her mother, Shirley Black Kash, who died in 2014, and her father, Eli M. Black, who died in 1975.<br /> A tree planting ceremony in her honor is being planned for a later date.</p></div>On the Water: Boynton Inlet drift boatshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/on-the-water-boynton-inlet-drift-boats2014-12-31T15:30:00.000Z2014-12-31T15:30:00.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960549467,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960549467,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="538" alt="7960549467?profile=original" /></a>A mate throws a pair of small kingfish into the fish-sorting bin from the Lady K drift boat</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>at Lantana’s Sportsman’s Park. The 65-foot boat is one of three walk-on fishing boats</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>that reaches the ocean through Boynton Inlet.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> <span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><strong>Lady K:</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align:left;">Located at Sportsman’s Park, 314 E. Ocean Ave., Lantana. Trips leave at 8 a.m., 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. The fare is $37 for adults, $25 for ages 12 and under and $33 for seniors, members of the military, law enforcement officers and teachers. Call 588-7612 or go to <a href="http://www.barjackfishing.com">www.barjackfishing.com</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> <span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><strong>Living on Island Time:</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align:left;">Located at Palm Beach Yacht Center, 7848 S. Federal Highway, Hypoluxo. Trips leave at 8 a.m., 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. The fare is $40 or $25 for ages 12 and under. Seniors, students and active military: $35. Call 585-4475 or go to <a href="http://www.fishingonislandtime.com">www.fishingonislandtime.com</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> <span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><strong>Sea Mist III:</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align:left;">Located at Boynton Harbor Marina, 700 Casa Loma Blvd., Boynton Beach. Trips leave at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. Night trips (Friday and Saturday) leave at 6:30 p.m. The fare is $40 for adults, $25 for ages 12 and under and $35 for seniors. Call 732-9974 or go to <a href="http://www.seamist3.com">www.seamist3.com</a>.<br /> <br /> <span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><strong>Driftboat basics</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> <strong>Basic rules:</strong> Drift boats allow customers to bring their own rods, but braided line is frowned upon or forbidden because it is harder to untangle than monofilament line and can cut through the lines of other anglers. <br /> <strong>Big-fish pools:</strong> Most drift boat crews allow anglers to chip in $5 in hopes of winning the pot of money for the largest fish. Most boats exclude bonito, sharks and some other fish from the big-fish pot. <br /> <strong>What to bring:</strong> Layers of clothing are recommended during the winter in case of cold or rain. Hats and sunglasses are a must because they protect eyes from hooks and sinkers. Drift boat anglers often bring snacks and drinks in a small cooler and their own fishing tackle.<br /> <strong>Weather:</strong> Check the marine weather section of the NOAA website (<a href="http://www.weather.gov">www.weather.gov</a>) and look for wave height before deciding when to fish. If you’re seasick because of rough seas, don’t expect the captain to take you back to the docks. You’ll be out there for four hours.<br /> <strong>Tips:</strong> Call ahead to check sea conditions and the types of fish being caught. Show up at the docks half an hour before the scheduled departure time if possible. Ask questions to learn from captains, mates and veteran angler.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><em>-- Willie Howard</em></p></div>