News

By Steve Plunkett

Residents got a “friendly reminder” in their mail last month to check how often their sprinklers turn on.
Town Manager Greg Dunham said a combination of tides, rain and the core area’s low geography was causing a slippery situation.
“There’s water standing, you know, on the streets all the time,” Dunham told town commissioners at their Dec. 13 meeting.
He planned to send a mass mailing with a copy of Gulf Stream’s rules on landscape irrigation. “We’ll approach it, you know, in a friendly way,” he said.
Commissioner Joan Orthwein said some people are not even aware of how often their grass is watered.
“Oh, my lawn people have taken care of it,” Orthwein said those residents say.
Vice Mayor Thomas Stanley said some lawns on Polo Drive are watered twice a day. “It’s just a little much,” he said.
And, said Dunham, “In some cases they’re being watered five days a week.”
Earlier in the meeting, commissioners were told excess water had slowed the underground connection of homes to Comcast’s new fiber-optic system.
“We had the king tides, which caused some issues with some of the houses where we were digging. Now when you dig down a foot and you hit water, you need to stop and wait till the tide comes out,” Comcast subcontractor Steve Rosa said.
Rosa said 35 out of 100 homes had been connected and he hoped to finish the job in late January or early February.
AT&T is connecting customers to underground phone lines after Comcast has finished a section.
In other business:
• A decision on the Little Club’s request to install pickleball courts near the Hillside House and St. Andrews Club will not come until April. Mayor Scott Morgan and Dunham made a field trip to the Gulf Stream Bath and Tennis Club to hear the differences between tennis and pickleball and decided to hold another demonstration from inside a Hillside House condo.
• Outside attorney Jeffrey Hochman told commissioners that Martin O’Boyle filed a federal lawsuit similar to one by his former employee Denise DeMartini, claiming the town’s unsuccessful RICO action was unlawful retaliation against him. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued what Morgan hailed as “a very significant decision” in November that the town had good legal reason to pursue the RICO claim against DeMartini and others.
• Morgan and the town’s four other incumbent commissioners were re-elected Dec. 17 after no one filed to run against them in the coming election. The town’s registered Democrats still will vote in Florida’s March 17 presidential primary. Ú