tower - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T12:56:02Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/towerObservation tower foundation Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, Boca Raton — Oct. 11https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/observation-tower-foundation-gumbo-limbo-nature-center-boca-raton2023-11-01T14:53:27.000Z2023-11-01T14:53:27.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12281602674,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12281602674,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12281602674?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em>Walker Design & Construction Co. workers level a portion of the more than 100 cubic yards of concrete foundation that was poured Oct. 11 for bases of a multi-level ramp that will lead to a new observation tower. The ramp will make the top deck accessible to people in wheelchairs, using walkers or with other disabilities. The old tower was removed in 2015 after it and the adjoining boardwalk were declared unsafe. The 40-foot-high pilings, at rear, were installed in 2019. Tax money from the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District will pay for the bulk of the $2.4 million project, which will open next spring. Stephen Kosowsky and Sharilyn Jones of Boca Raton pledged $250,000 in return for naming the tower after their son, Jacob, who died in a car accident in 2018. Jacob’s grandparents donated $100,000 and the Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards collected more than $150,000 in a ‘Save the Tower’ campaign. Jacob’s Outlook will feature a plaque honoring Jacob. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p></div>Boca Raton: Bid for new Gumbo Limbo tower comes in $200,000 lowerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-boca-raton-bid-for-new-gumbo-limbo-tower-comes-in-200-2023-03-01T16:08:33.000Z2023-03-01T16:08:33.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong></p>
<p>Work to build an observation tower at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center with a multi-level ramp making the top deck accessible to people with disabilities will begin soon.<br /> The City Council on Feb. 28 approved a $2.4 million bid for the project plus about $300,000 for contingencies. That was down from a $2.6 million bid in February 2022 that did not include contingencies, said Briann Harms, executive director of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, which funds the nature center.<br /> “I’m happy to hear that we’re moving forward. The public who ask about it all the time will be able to actually use it at some point in the future,” District Commissioner Bob Rollins said.<br /> After engineers in early 2015 declared the tower and the adjoining boardwalk unsafe, the city removed them. The boardwalk was rebuilt in phases and fully reopened in July 2019.<br /> Six 40-foot-tall wooden posts for the tower were embedded in concrete in spring 2019, but work halted when officials decided the replacement would have to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.<br /> The not-for-profit Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards, then known as the Friends of Gumbo Limbo, proposed building an “inclined elevator.” Stephen Kosowsky and Sharilyn Jones pledged $250,000 for the project in return for naming the tower after their son, Jacob, who had died in a recent car accident. The Stewards collected more than $250,000 to match the donation in a “Save the Tower” fundraising campaign.<br /> City officials later scrapped the elevator plan in favor of a $1.4 million multi-level ramp to the observation deck. But they and district officials were stunned in early 2022 when they received only one bid — for $2.6 million.<br /> The district set aside that amount in its current budget. The project was rebid in November with three companies responding and the winning award going to Walker Design & Construction Co., resulting in $200,000 in savings.<br /> The city owns and staffs Gumbo Limbo, which is part of Red Reef Park. The Beach and Park District pays for all its operations and maintenance as well as all capital improvements.</p>
<p>In other action, the district on Feb. 6 deferred holding a public hearing on whether to cap the amount it pays to the city’s downtown Community Redevelopment Agency. Harms said she wants to find out if the city will let the CRA dissolve, or sunset, as scheduled in 2025.</p></div>Fresh look: The Boca Raton Tower — July 15https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/fresh-look-the-boca-raton-tower-july-152022-08-03T15:12:22.000Z2022-08-03T15:12:22.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10745959482,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10745959482,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10745959482?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em>The Boca Raton resort is repainting its iconic 27-story Tower hotel next to the Intracoastal Waterway. ‘The pink is staying, but we are lightening up the shade of pink to be more fresh and updated than our previous shade,’ resort publicist Christine DiRocco said. The resort’s original Ritz-Carlton Cloister Inn opened in 1926. The Tower was added in 1969. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p></div>Boca Raton: It’s too soon to rebid Gumbo Limbo tower project, city sayshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-it-s-too-soon-to-rebid-gumbo-limbo-tower-project-city-2022-05-04T15:00:23.000Z2022-05-04T15:00:23.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong></p>
<p>Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s parking lot will soon get two parking spaces, to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and an ADA-compliant ramp from the parking lot to the boardwalk.<br />But rebuilding the center’s observation tower, a project that originally included creating the handicapped parking spots, will likely not happen this year.<br />Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District commissioners approved spending $81,612 for the parking spaces on May 2 after being told that it is too soon to rebid the tower.<br />“City staff will continue (to) monitor the market conditions. The next 6 months do not look favorable,” Michael Kalvort, the city’s recreation services director, said in an April email to the district.<br />“It looks like the tower’s being postponed indefinitely,” Commissioner Steve Engel said.<br />But district officials will meet with their city colleagues to see why other tower designs were not considered and to look for quicker alternatives.<br />District and city officials were shocked in February when they received only one bid of $2.6 million for the work — $1.2 million more than the pre-bid estimate.<br />The bid was rejected and officials planned to wait for prices to come down before rebidding the work. Spring was the initial date set for re-evaluating the market.<br />District commissioners worried in April that paying for the parking now might delay rebidding the observation tower.<br />“If we take this out, it sounds like we’re suggesting that they just go get this piece and that would be it,” Commissioner Craig Ehrnst said at the district’s April 4 meeting.<br />Boca Raton owns and staffs Gumbo Limbo, which is part of Red Reef Park; the Beach and Park District pays for all its operations and maintenance as well as all capital improvements.<br />The parking lot project will add two 12-foot-wide spaces separated by a 6-foot-wide space at the southeast corner of the nature center. A 13-foot-long inclined ramp matching the boardwalk will offer access to it.<br />A $345,000 Gumbo Limbo Master Plan to begin later will add an ADA-compliant entrance to the nature center, a third ADA-compliant parking space and new ADA-compliant doors to the facility and the boardwalk. The plan also includes ADA-compliant upgrades to the restrooms.<br />Boca Raton demolished Gumbo Limbo’s popular 40-foot-tall tower after engineers in early 2015 declared it and the adjoining boardwalk to be unsafe. The boardwalk was rebuilt in phases and fully reopened in July 2019. <br /><strong>In other action</strong>, Beach and Park District commissioners gave Briann Harms, their executive director, a pay raise to $135,000 a year, up from $111,000, after a survey of comparable positions showed salaries ranging from $149,000 to $179,000</p></div>Boca Raton: Price for Gumbo Limbo tower skyrockets; bid rejectedhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-price-for-gumbo-limbo-tower-skyrockets-bid-rejected2022-03-02T15:38:42.000Z2022-03-02T15:38:42.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong><br /> <br />Rising prices for materials and labor and a lack of interest by contractors have forced another delay on the seven-year effort to rebuild the once-popular observation tower at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.<br /> The city asked for bids to build an ADA-compliant tower last December, estimating the cost at $1.4 million. It received just one bid — for $2.6 million.<br /> Briann Harms, executive director of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, told district commissioners at their Feb. 7 meeting that she had met with city staff and the Friends of Gumbo Limbo after the bid came in.<br /> “We all agreed that probably the best thing to do at this point is to wait a few months and see if things change as far as the pricing of certain materials ... and rebidding the project and hopefully solicit more bidders and more competition for the project,” Harms said.<br /> The city owns Red Reef Park, which includes Gumbo Limbo; the district pays for capital improvements and all operations there. The Friends have promised to contribute $600,000 toward the tower’s reconstruction.<br /> Commissioner Steve Engel agreed that the $2.6 million price was too much.<br /> “Let’s wait, let’s see what happens. I don’t think it can hurt us,” Engel said.<br /> Commissioner Craig Ehrnst said the city should reconsider the design of the ADA ramp. The Friends earlier proposed an inclined elevator like one in Maryland that they said would cost much less.<br /> “While I’m disappointed about the amount, I suspect this has to do with the design and the structure,” Ehrnst said. “The ramp system that has been designed is significant. I just call into question, is that really the right way to do it?”<br /> District commissioners rejected the bid and approved hiring a grant writer to seek out funding opportunities for various projects. Harms said that could help in completing the tower.<br /> “The city staff will be monitoring the pricing. We’re going to keep checking on it and revisit it if the pricing changes or plateaus,” she said.<br /> The Friends’ pledge is buoyed by a $250,000 promise from the Kosowsky family in remembrance of their son, Jacob, who died in a traffic accident in 2018. The tower’s viewing platform is to be named Jacob’s Outlook.<br /> Stephen Kosowsky, who made the bequest more than two years ago with wife, Sharilyn, and daughter, Mia, posted the design plan on Facebook on Sept. 8, Jacob’s birthday.<br /> “The design for Jacob’s Outlook is almost complete,” he wrote. “Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, the city and Greater Boca Beach and Park District are pushing to complete by Jacob’s next birthday.”<br /> Boca Raton demolished the 40-foot-tall tower after engineers in 2015 declared it and the adjoining boardwalk unsafe.</p></div>Boca Raton: Exploding costs jeopardize tower, ADA elevator at Gumbo Limbohttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-ada2020-03-05T12:39:59.000Z2020-03-05T12:39:59.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="p1"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960935654,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960935654,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960935654?profile=original" /></a><em>Six 40-foot-tall wooden posts have stood since last spring at the site of the tower project. <b>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</b></em></p>
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<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>By Steve Plunkett</b></span></p>
<p class="p3">The estimated price of installing an inclined elevator at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center to make a long-awaited observation tower ADA-compliant has ballooned from $500,000 to $1.2 million.</p>
<p class="p3">That has the Friends of Gumbo Limbo, which promised to fund the elevator’s construction, scrambling to find an alternative.</p>
<p class="p3">The Friends signed a memorandum of understanding with the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District last July that called for the district to front the construction costs and be repaid by the volunteer organization. </p>
<p class="p3">“At the time the MOU was done, I’m sure we thought the project would move on very quickly. Unfortunately that turned out not to be the case,” Jim Miller, president of the Friends, told district commissioners Feb. 18.</p>
<p class="p3">Miller said city officials told his group in November that the cost was increasing “to something over $600,000.” The Friends and the district asked for more details.</p>
<p class="p3">“We didn’t hear too much until [Feb. 6]. Then we heard from the city again that they’ve … found some other issues and now their cost estimate is more like $1 million or more to build the facility,” Miller said.</p>
<p class="p3">“All these things are happening very quickly and we don’t have a lot of detail,” he said.</p>
<p class="p3">The city’s estimates include $179,400 for piles, foundation and below-grade structure for the incline; $46,525 for a mechanical shed; $67,500 to connect electricity; and $65,000 for an elevator engineer and additional engineering consultants.</p>
<p class="p3">City officials also predicted operating costs of more than $100,000 a year. The figure includes $11,725 to wipe down the elevator once a week and pick up trash every day and $82,125 to open and close it daily and have an attendant on hand eight hours a day.</p>
<p class="p3">Miller said his group is looking at a possible alternative in Pinellas County’s Wall Springs Park, near St. Petersburg. That county opened a three-story observation tower overlooking the Gulf of Mexico with a wooden ADA access ramp in 2018.</p>
<p class="p3">“We ended up with a $1.2 million ramp to get people to the top of a $900,000 observation tower,” Paul Cozzie, Pinellas County parks and conservation resources director, told Wisconsin’s <i>Peninsula Pulse</i> magazine.</p>
<p class="p3">Gumbo Limbo’s hugely popular observation tower and boardwalk were closed to the public in early 2015 after engineers warned they were near collapse. The planned replacement tower would be built with composite wood decking rather than natural timber, but otherwise be a replica of the original.</p>
<p class="p3">The boardwalk reopened last July. A few months before, the Friends found a couple, Stephen Kosowsky and Sharilyn Jones, willing to donate $250,000 for the inclined elevator in memory of their son, Jacob, who had recently died in a car accident. The group launched a Save the Tower fundraising campaign and collected another $250,000.</p>
<p class="p3">“I’m constantly amazed at how many people remember the tower and look for it,’ Miller said. “I’m a guide over there and almost every day that I’m doing that, somebody asks me, ‘When is the tower coming back?’”</p>
<p class="p3">Workers installed six 40-foot-tall wooden posts embedded in 3-foot concrete bases at the planned tower site last spring, then left the area while the city, district and Friends looked for an ADA solution. The city favored scrapping the tower and building an educational pavilion instead.</p>
<p class="p3">“I think there’s a lot of anxious people waiting to see what’s going to happen. We are anxious. We’d like to see it happen,” Miller said.</p></div>Boca Raton: A towering memorial to lover of oceanhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-a-towering-memorial-to-lover-of-ocean2019-10-30T15:19:33.000Z2019-10-30T15:19:33.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960894871,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960894871,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960894871?profile=original" /></a></strong><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960894871,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"></a>Jacob Kosowsky, shown here just shy of his 18th birthday in 2015, was an outdoorsman who loved the ocean. He died in a car accident last year.</em><strong><br /></strong></span></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong>Couple’s $250,000 gift for Gumbo Limbo overlook reflects son’s sunny spirit</strong></span></p>
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<p><strong>By Margie Plunkett</strong></p>
<p>When you someday find yourself atop the new observation tower at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, and the Intracoastal-to-ocean view inspires in you joy, the sensation of being alive and awe at the beauty of nature, you will be experiencing Jacob’s Outlook.<br />This is how Jacob Kosowsky’s parents hope to memorialize and share the spirit of their exuberant 21-year-old son, who was killed in a traffic accident a year ago last month. “We like to think that Jake would be helping people to think about conservation, beauty and the ocean,” said his father, Stephen Kosowsky. <br />Kosowsky and his wife, Sharilyn Jones, have pledged $250,000, half the sum needed to pay for an inclined elevator, or funicular, that will be part of the 40-foot tower once it’s been restored. A plaque with the name Jacob’s Outlook will be placed at the site in their son’s honor.</p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960895099,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960895099,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960895099?profile=original" /></a><em>Jacob Kosowsky’s parents, Stephen Kosowsky and Sharilyn Jones, donated $250,000 to Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in memory of their son, Jacob. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><br />The donation kicked off an Oct. 1 campaign by Friends of Gumbo Limbo to raise $500,000 to Bring Back the Tower, according to Michele Peel, president of the Friends. The tower was closed to the public in 2015 and demolished after being deemed unsafe. <br />The funicular is essential to make the tower, which had stood for 30 years, compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.<br />The city of Boca Raton is proceeding on the design and anticipates getting something back by early this month, with construction possibly starting on the tower in early 2020, said Briann Harms, executive director of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District.<br />The funicular will mean “everybody can go up even if they can’t walk up it,” Jones said.</p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960894896,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960894896,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960894896?profile=original" /></a><em>The Kosowsky family often visited Gumbo Limbo Nature Center when the children were small. A 6-year-old Jacob, far left, accompanied his aunt, uncle and cousins from San Diego. <strong>Family photos</strong></em></p>
<p><br />The donation came about when the family was looking for a way to honor Jacob’s memory and his love of the sea. His parents and sister, Mia, liked the idea of Gumbo Limbo. <br />“All his friends — every kid that grows up in Boca — goes to Gumbo Limbo,” Jones said. “Our kids grew up going there, too.<br />“It was great for the community and it was more accessible to everyone who knew and loved Jake — because everybody can’t swim out to a coral reef. But they can go to Gumbo Limbo, and they can bring their family and friends,” Jones said.<br />Jacob Kosowsky grew up in Boca Raton, graduated from Boca Raton High in 2016 and was a student at Vanderbilt University — his sister started at Vanderbilt a year after he did. <br />His parents described him as demonstrative and generous of spirit. He was an outdoorsman who loved spearfishing, boating and all things about the ocean — he even had a turtle collection started when he was a boy. He was a high achiever, excelled in academics and pursued debate and Youth Court, among other activities.</p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960895669,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960895669,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960895669?profile=original" /></a>Stephen, Jacob, Sharilyn and daughter Mia on New Year’s Eve 2017 in downtown Park City, Utah. <strong>Family photo</strong></em></p>
<p><br />In the Kosowsky children’s younger years, they spent summers with their parents’ families in Hawaii, California and Utah — where Jacob learned to love skiing and hiking in the mountains as well. His family also regularly spent time in the Bahamas. He was returning from a fall-break hiking trip to Arches National Park in Utah when the traffic accident took his life. <br />Jacob had a special way of bringing people together who might not have otherwise gotten together — as does Mia, their mother said. At his celebration of life, Jones recalled, one of the speakers said, if you think of yourself as Jake’s best friend, please come up. <br />“Like 100 kids came, from elementary, middle school, high school, that he didn’t go to high school with, from college, some of his fraternity brothers, friends from school came down,” Jones said. “I think that speaks a lot about a young person when so many of their peers can say he’s my best friend.”<br />His legacy at Gumbo Limbo will allow him to touch many more people. At Jacob’s Outlook, he’ll just be “reminding us to slow down and enjoy it all — because he definitely did that,” said Jones. “To always remember what’s most important in life: family, nature and ultimately, love. That’s who he was.”</p>
<p><br /><em>To donate, visit <a href="http://www.gumbolimbo.org/Bring-Back-The-Tower">www.gumbolimbo.org/Bring-Back-The-Tower</a>.</em></p></div>Boca Raton: Generous gift will allow new, improved Gumbo Limbo tower to risehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-generous-gift-will-allow-new-improved-gumbo-limbo-towe2019-05-29T14:30:00.000Z2019-05-29T14:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960875690,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960875690,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960875690?profile=original" /></a></b></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>By Steve Plunkett</b></span></p>
<p class="p2">An unnamed benefactor will pay a substantial part of the $450,000 cost to make Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s three-story observation tower ADA-compliant.</p>
<p class="p3">Michele Peel, president of the Friends of Gumbo Limbo, announced the gift at the May 6 meeting of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District.</p>
<p class="p3">“We have a wonderful private donor who has offered to contribute a significant amount of money toward this ADA solution to honor the memory of a beloved family member from our Boca community,” Peel said.</p>
<p class="p3">The gift will not only make the tower accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but also ensure the tower itself is built. The city, which owns the nature center and surrounding Red Reef Park, had recommended scrapping the tower entirely and building an educational pavilion instead.</p>
<p class="p3">“It looks like a perfect solution to the ADA issue that we struggled with for so long,” Beach and Park District Commissioner Robert Rollins said.</p>
<p class="p3">In early May the tower was only six 40-foot-tall wooden posts embedded in 3-foot concrete bases. The contractor was scheduled to leave around June 7.</p>
<p class="p3">“We know there is positive support in our community for keeping the tower in the hammock at Gumbo Limbo,” Peel said.</p>
<p class="p3">The model for Peel’s solution is a funicular, or incline, built at the Patuxent River Park in Maryland, between Washington, D.C., and Chesapeake Bay. Built by Hill Hiker Inc., the incline won 2019 Project of the Year accolades from industry trade publisher <i>Elevator World</i>.</p>
<p class="p3">“Aesthetically, it seems to blend in well with the location,” Peel said. “This one happens to feature a good-looking, custom-etched plexiglass cab.”</p>
<p class="p3">The cab can withstand four hours of 200-mph winds and accommodate a wheelchair and one or two individuals, Peel said the manufacturer told her. It does not require an operator; access can be limited by a key code, she said.</p>
<p class="p3">She said the Friends will launch a “Save the Tower” campaign to raise additional funds and provide a total of $500,000 for the incline. She estimated the equipment and installation would cost $400,000 to $450,000 with the rest going to the district for future maintenance. The district will pay for the incline to be built and will be repaid by the Friends.</p>
<p class="p3">The hugely popular observation tower and boardwalk were closed to the public in early 2015 after engineers warned they were near collapse. The replacement tower is being built with composite wood decking rather than natural timber, but otherwise will be a replica of the original.</p>
<p class="p3">Work on the first phase of the boardwalk started in May 2016 and was finished the following December. It cost almost $631,000. Custom Marine Construction Inc. won the remaining $1.1 million contract, which included demolishing and rebuilding the south loop of the boardwalk.</p>
<p class="p3">The south loop has been rerouted to not intrude into the mangroves on the east side of the Intracoastal Waterway. The original boardwalk never got environmental permits, officials have said.</p>
<p class="p3">While the city owns Red Reef Park, the Beach and Park District reimbursed it for buying the land and pays for all operations and capital improvements there. </p></div>Delray Beach: New lifeguard towers coming to Delray’s beachhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-new-lifeguard-towers-coming-to-delray-s-beach2018-01-03T19:00:00.000Z2018-01-03T19:00:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960770498,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960770498,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="416" class="align-center" alt="7960770498?profile=original" /></a></p>
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<p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong></p>
<p>Delray Beach will soon have eight new lifeguard towers to match the recently finished $3.1 million promenade upgrade at the Municipal Beach. <br /> City commissioners approved spending about $126,000 per tower by a 4-1 vote Dec. 11. The total cost of $1.2 million includes demolishing and removing the eight existing towers, adding skids to the new towers so they can move along the beach with the tides, putting lockable shutters over the impact-glass windows to close the towers overnight and having solar panels on the roof to provide power for police radios and to operate fans in the hot summer months.<br /> “Our beach is getting more and more popular,” said Mayor Cary Glickstein. “I’m comfortable with the design. For far too long, this city has been penny-wise and pound-foolish when just looking at the dollars.”<br /> Subcontractor Robert Cohen said, “You are building something in one of the most hostile environments.” He works for Post & Beam in Boynton Beach, which is employed by Hartzell Construction, the only bidder.<br /> The city sent out 40 bid invitations, said Missie Barletto, deputy director of project management for the Public Works department. She thought the criteria too strict and the required experience was downgraded to: building six lifeguard towers and three wooden ones in the past 36 months.<br /> One would-be bidder wanted the city to change the criteria to allow aluminum lifeguard towers, but those towers hold the heat in the summer, she said. <br /> The cost is high, Barletto said, because of what the city wanted: stainless steel bolts, cedar shakes on the roof, fiber-cement siding, lockable shutters over the windows on each side of the tower and an “artsy look.”<br /> The type of stainless steel bolts the city specified will have stainless steel all the way through, Cohen said. “Most other stainless steel bolts have a nickel base that is coated with stainless and then there are the galvanized steel bolts that are hot dipped,” he said. <br /> The city insists on 100 percent stainless steel bolts to minimize maintenance, Barletto said.<br /> The solar panels on the roofs also add to the costs. Ocean Rescue Division Chief Phil Wotton said the city lifeguards will use the solar panels to power public-safety radios that lifeguards use to call police or fire-rescue and to communicate with other towers. <br /> In addition, the solar panels will be used to operate fans during the summer. “The lifeguards work 365 days a year,” he said. “They need fans in the summer to move the air because the [tower] floor is solid.”<br /> Tom Leeman, an organizer of the city’s annual surf festival, said, “The pros need professional tools.” <br /> The festival was held in early December in 2017. All of the money raised goes to support Ocean Rescue, he said. In its fifth year, nearly 2,500 people attended, he said. <br /> The sad state of the city’s lifeguard towers was pointed out in early 2017 by Chris Heffernan, an investment adviser who has walked the beach daily for the past 20 years. <br /> The towers have spider-webs of cracked impact glass, he said at the Dec. 11 commission meeting. “The fiberglass structures can’t be used in the summer because they hold the heat,” Heffernan said.<br /> Even so, the cost of the lifeguard towers was likened to “a mini-condo on the beach without a bathroom” by Commissioner Shelly Petrolia. She voted against spending the money for the lifeguard towers, which will last 20 or more years. <br /> Hartzell will need 90 days to complete all eight lifeguard towers. Each one will be painted a different, soft beach color to allow beach-goers to identify meeting locations by the color of the tower.<br /> The first one will sit on the beach near the Atlantic Avenue pavilion entrance in time for the grand opening ceremony for the promenade at 10 a.m. on Jan. 27. That’s when the city plans to show off the new promenade and visitors center. <br /> The promenade work — with its wider sidewalks, coordinated furniture and improved landscaping — was in the making for about 10 years.</p></div>Boca Raton: Airport Authority examines options for tower’s futurehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-airport-authority-examines-options-for-tower-s-future2013-05-02T16:33:07.000Z2013-05-02T16:33:07.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Rich Pollack</strong><br /><br />Although Congress restored funding to the Federal Aviation Administration late last month to pay for air traffic controllers at major airports and avoid furloughs there, the fate of the tower at Boca Raton Airport — and 148 towers at small airports across the country — remains up in the air. <br />While the FAA now has enough money to cover the costs of tower operations at the small airports, it has not made it clear how those funds will be applied. As a result, Boca Raton airport officials are still operating under the assumption that funding could be discontinued as of June 15.<br />“At this point, we and all other 148 towers have begun a new campaign to lobby the FAA to fund the towers,” said Janet Sherr, director of landside operations for the Boca Raton Airport Authority.<br />At a meeting before Congress releasing funds to the FAA, the authority began the lengthy process of preparing to self-fund air traffic control tower operations, should a lawsuit and the latest round of lobbying efforts fail to restore funding.<br />While a decision on whether or not to seek alternative ways to pay for the tower operations will not come until after other avenues are exhausted, the authority, at its April meeting, authorized staff to begin seeking out qualified firms interested in taking over tower operation should federal funding evaporate due to government sequester cutbacks. <br />On the advice of legal counsel, however, the board stopped short of making a firm commitment to self fund tower operations, despite the efforts of one member, who said he was concerned about mixed messages being sent to the public.<br />During the recent meeting, authority member David Freudenberg ha asked that the authority provide the community with a clear statement of what it plans to do if the lawsuit and all lobbying efforts by local, state and federal officials are unsuccessful.<br />“There is a very clear message to the community that we are aware of the desire to keep the tower open but we’re still saying that the Boca Raton tower is on death row,” Freudenberg said. <br />“We owe it to the community to make it very, very clear – we must keep this tower open. It’s time for this board to direct staff to make it clear in their statements that this tower will not close and we should give staff the directive to do what is necessary to keep it open,” he said.<br />Before other authority members could respond to Freudenberg’s comments, however, authority attorney Dawn Meyers intervened suggesting that further discussions could be detrimental to the still pending lawsuit.<br />Meyers said that the board’s decision to take legal action and to proceed with the process of finding a private tower operator should other efforts fail, indicated the direction the panel was headed in. <br />“You have taken two assertive steps showing the community exactly what your intention and commitment is,” she said. <br />Board Chair Frank Feiler echoed the attorney’s comments. <br />“We couldn’t be any more decisive in the direction we’re moving forward in and in the steps we’re taking,” he said.<br />Authority member Cheryl Budd followed up on Feiler’s comments with a question to Meyers. <br />“In a hypothetical situation, if the authority had no legal recourse and no potential of funding from state and federal governments and we still wanted to go forward and keep the tower open, is there anything we would be doing that we’re not already doing?” she asked. <br />“Nothing,” Meyers said.<br />Earlier in the meeting, Meyers said that the decision to proceed with a two-step procurement process – which includes a request for qualifications from firms interested in operating the tower, followed by a request for proposals in the event that other efforts failed – did not commit the board to hiring any of the firms that applied. <br />“We must anticipate that potentially you may be in a position where you’ll have to choose whether or not to keep the tower open,” she said. </p></div>