Manager gets pay boost — Manalapan Town Manager Eric Marmer will get a $40,000-a-year raise beginning Oct. 1, pushing his annual salary to $235,000, town commission members decided on June 23. Commissioners made no comments about Marmer’s performance or the 20.5% pay hike.
After serving about a year as assistant to longtime Town Manager Linda Stumpf, Marmer was promoted to the top job in September 2024 and given an annual salary of $170,000. That grew to $195,000 this year. While the commission signed off on a three-year deal, Marmer will be eligible for pay hikes each year of the contract.
At his new salary, Marmer will be paid less than the $255,200 that Highland Beach Town Manager Marshall Labadie is earning this year.
Eminent domain for Town Hall land — Plans to replace Town Hall moved closer to reality when a judge in June gave town leaders the go-ahead to seize the site of a former bank on South Ocean Boulevard for their new headquarters.
As ordered by Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Darren Shull, the town on June 23 deposited $2.85 million into the court registry so it can begin negotiating a sale price with the New York owners of the former bank in the Plaza del Mar. The roughly 1-acre site is across from the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa, a short way north of the town’s cramped 45-year-old offices that have been plagued by air conditioning and drainage problems.
The town was forced to use eminent domain to seize the land when landowner Salute Realty LLC failed to respond to a purchase offer. Town attorney Keith Davis said price negotiations will begin soon. If no agreement can be reached, a jury would decide how much the town will be forced to pay.
Salute bought the former bank in 2019 for $1.2 million. Since then, property values in Manalapan have skyrocketed.
Town officials have said they will likely have to buy additional land in the plaza to accommodate city administrative offices as well as the police and fire departments. Town Manager Eric Marmer said plans likely will begin to take shape next year.
— Jane Musgrave
Comments