News

By Dan Moffett

    Decades of dealing with the world’s worst calamities could not have prepared the Red Cross for the unnatural disaster that was waiting on Point Manalapan.
    In June, representatives of Palm Beach County’s chapter won the Town Commission’s approval to stage a Red Cross Designers’ Show House fundraising event on Audubon Causeway.
    By July, a firestorm of protest had consumed the Point.
    Dozens of angry residents called Town Hall, wrote letters and sent emails complaining that life in Manalapan would be forever changed should the Red Cross be allowed to proceed.
    Fred Gould complained that the event would attract people who “have no reason to be in the community” who could be coming “solely to ‘case the community’ for criminal purpose.”
    “Statistically speaking, an increase in incidents from minor traffic violations to major crime-related activity is inevitable,” wrote Rebecca Romero. “I cannot fathom for a second why we are OK with this.”
    “I know firsthand the intricacies of putting a Show House together,” wrote Cindy Ray, an interior designer familiar with the event. “This always was a mess in the past and caused traffic jams with little to no parking or respect for parking. … This island was not built to support this kind of invasion (in all senses of the word) (of) our privacy.”
    Commissioners were inundated with callers demanding that they reverse their vote. But they didn’t have to. The Red Cross pulled out.
    “The Red Cross is always looking for opportunities to be neighborly,” said Tammy Jackson-Moore, spokesperson for the American Red Cross Palm Beaches-Treasure Coast. “So we will go somewhere else. We understand that some of the people in the neighborhood had raised concerns about the traffic and other issues. We do appreciate the people who supported us in Manalapan, however.”
    Lambert Van Der Walde, whose home at 45 Audubon Causeway was to have held the event from Feb. 19 to March 21, declined to comment. Van Der Walde had convinced the commission at its June meeting that parking and traffic wouldn’t be a problem, and that the event would raise about $250,000 for the Red Cross.
    The commission had voted 4-1 in favor of the plan, with Commissioner Ronald Barsanti dissenting and Commissioner Clark Appleby absent.
    Daryl Cheifetz (wife of Mayor David Cheifetz), spoke against the plan at the meeting and led a group of residents who circulated a letter urging homeowners to call Town Hall and complain. She told commissioners that “quiet little Manalapan” was threatened by hundreds of visitors “driving around and cruising” the streets.
    “The Red Cross has not taken into consideration the residents of Point Manalapan,” the letter said. “The reason many of us moved to Manalapan was for privacy and the serenity the neighborhood afforded. Are we to be faced with approximately 75 visitors per day driving and walking around our island?”
    Mayor Cheifetz commended the group for its grass-roots community involvement and for generating “a tremendous amount of support” against the Red Cross plan. He assigned Town Attorney Keith Davis the task of writing an ordinance governing the size and duration of special events, such as charity fundraisers, for the commission to consider at the August meeting.

    In other business:
    • The commission recognized Police Chief Carmen Mattox with a plaque honoring his “compassion and professionalism” and “job well done” in service to the town.
    • At the request of the town’s Architectural Commission, Town Attorney Davis wrote a definition of lawn ornaments that is intended to distinguish them from statues and other large, immobile objects: “Lawn ornaments are decorative objects placed in the grassy area of properties. Lawn ornaments are distinguished from statues in that they are small in size, not taller than 42 inches in height, and are designed and meant to be easily portable.”
Lawn ornaments generally do not require the town’s review, but statues and larger elements do. ;