Carnegie medal winner Jakob Thompson. Mary Thurwachter/The Coastal Star
Lifesaver wins national hero award — During the July 8 Lantana Town Council meeting, Vice Mayor Mark Zeitler presented 17-year-old Jakob Thompson with a Carnegie Hero Award for saving a 35-year-old woman from drowning at the Boynton Inlet on Nov. 30.
As he and his girlfriend were driving along State Road A1A, Thompson observed a group of people trying to help the woman as she struggled to swim about 60 feet from the sea wall as a strong, outgoing current was carrying her toward the inlet’s opening to the Atlantic Ocean. He drove on a bridge crossing the inlet to the nearby parking lot.
As Thompson saw the woman floating toward the middle of the inlet, he pulled off his shirt, took a running jump from the sea wall and landed feet-first in the water. Thompson swam about 90 feet to the woman and grasped her around the chest. She was breathing heavily and nearly exhausted, he said.
He towed the woman back to the sea wall and held her to the wall until two men pulled her to safety atop the wall.
After first-responders assessed the woman, they took her to a hospital.
A Lantana resident with plans to become an EMT, Thompson said he doesn’t have any formal lifesaving training but spends a lot of time boating and feels very comfortable in the water.
The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the country and Canada to people who risk death or serious injury to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.
Sunsetting surtax — Town Manager Brian Raducci told the Town Council that Palm Beach County’s infrastructure surtax, or penny sales tax, is due to sunset Dec. 31, 2025, when it is expected to have raised the maximum $2.7 billion authorized by county voters. Lantana joined other communities in asking for an extension — municipalities have been receiving 20% of the revenue — but Raducci said there didn’t appear to be enough support for that effort on the county level.
“Obviously, it’s had a large impact on communities like ours,” Raducci said. “We stand to lose about $1 million” annually.
Raducci said the county is looking instead into proposing a transportation surtax. Either surtax would have to be approved by voters.
Lantana has used surtax money for the ADA ramp at the beach, wooden decking and railings at the beach park, replacing Town Hall windows, renovating the Town Council chambers, paving projects, and constructing classrooms and an emergency operations center at the Police Department.
— Mary Thurwachter
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