By Mary Hladky and Jane Smith
As small-business owners reeled from shutdowns mandated to stop the spread of COVID-19, South County cities pitched in to help them offset calamitous revenue losses.
Responding to Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce pl
By Jane Smith
Within a week of receiving Boynton Beach City Commission approval in mid-June, Riverwalk Plaza had finished landscaping the parking lot and entrances off Woolbright Road.
“The easternmost entrance had a weird S-curve shape,” said Luke T
By Jane Smith
During an often contentious meeting, a divided Delray Beach City Commission voted 3-2 on June 24 to oust City Manager George Gretsas from his $265,000 position without seeing a final report of the bullying accusations made against him.
By Dan Moffett
Ocean Ridge commissioners want to make it a lot more difficult for the town to merge its Police Department with another law enforcement agency.
With a unanimous vote on June 12, the commission gave final approval to a charter amendment
DELRAY BEACH: A group of about 100 gathered May 31 at Veterans Park to peacefully protest the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, while he was in the custody of a white Minneapolis police officer. By the end of June the protests had large
By Dan Moffett
Town Manager Robert Kellogg had plenty of good news to report about the financial health of South Palm Beach during the Town Council’s meeting on June 9.
Kellogg told council members that the town’s taxable value has skyrocketed 21.7%
Appraiser likes 5.9% growth as county awaits impact of pandemic
By Mary Hladky
The taxable value of Palm Beach County properties has increased for the ninth year in a row, although the rate of growth continued a multiyear trend of slowing down.
The n
Crowds that gather on the Ocean Avenue Bridge and its fishing pier helped leaders decide to postpone this year’s fireworks in Lantana. 2019 photo by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Mary Thurwachter
Lantana reversed course during the June 22 Town Cou
Members of the staff of Cornell Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine at Bethesda Hospital in Boynton Beach. Photos provided
Stories from pandemic are being preserved for posterity
By Ron Hayes
On July 3, 1918, a Boca Raton pioneer named Frank Che
By Jane Smith
Delray Beach commissioners decided unanimously June 16 to rehire the previous internal auditor on an as-needed basis.
Julia Davidyan, who resigned in January, will be paid $160 an hour and junior accountants in her firm, JMD Premier Gr
The new Fire Station No. 1. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Jane Smith
Boynton Beach held a soft opening of its new Fire Station 1 on June 3. As part of the city’s Public Art program, a mural featuring a collage of photos of the city’s fire rescue st
On May 25, Liz Loper photographs the muddy waters that flowed into her home on Winthrop Lane for multiple days. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
May storms turned into floodwaters in some parts of the county. Especially hard hit were the Count
Mary Ford, manager and employee of Vince Canning Shoes for over 14 years, helps Judy Uhrman, a customer of seven years, try on shoes during a going-out-of-business sale. The family’s store Tootsies remains across the street. Tim Stepien/The Coastal S
By Jane Smith
The city’s reclaimed water program, spawned in 2006 with the intent to stop the spewing of millions of gallons of wastewater into the ocean each year, was haunted from the beginning by mismanagement and lack of oversight, City Manager
Friday, May 1, was a beautiful morning. The ocean was radiantly supercharged from the rainstorm the preceding afternoon and crystal-clear smooth from a cool, offshore breeze. How well I know and love these weather metrics!
Under normal circumstance
By Jane Smith
When Neal de Jesus abruptly left the Delray Beach fire chief position earlier this year, he received $136,300.56. His contract called for 180 days’ pay, or $131,198.40. “The 180 was not severance,” City Attorney Lynn Gelin wrote in an A
By Rich Pollack
In what might be shaping up as part of a continuing battle over beach-compatible sand offshore, Highland Beach is hoping to find ways to keep the valued but rapidly vanishing resource off its coast from going to neighboring cities.
It
By Jane Smith
Boynton Beach and Delray Beach have promoted their interim fire chiefs to chief in their respective cities.
In Boynton Beach, Matthew S. Petty, 39, was promoted to fire chief on March 9 by the Boynton Beach city manager.
In Delray Be
Increase mainly due to thefts from unlocked cars
By Rich Pollack
South Palm Beach County’s small coastal communities saw crime increase in 2019, bucking both countywide and state trends, but their total number of crimes still remained low.
While H
By Dan Moffett
With rising personnel costs, multiple drainage issues and a massive septic-to-sewer conversion project looming, Ocean Ridge commissioners knew this would be a difficult budget cycle.
Then the new coronavirus struck, bringing with it p
