Along the Coast

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February 2015

Serving Hypoluxo Island, South Palm Beach, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream and Coastal Delray Beach

Along the Coast THE PROBLEM WITH

Volume 8 Issue 2

PLASTICS Ocean Ridge resident Joelen Merkel hugs Chief Yannuzzi following the Jan. 15 special meeting. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Ocean Ridge

Dispute with commissioner results in chief’s departure

A plastic bag floating in the ocean would be easy to mistake for a jellyfish, a major part of sea turtles’ diet.

Long-lasting plastics present serious danger to wildlife

By Dan Moffett

By Willie Howard

Second in a two-part series

Environmental groups are ramping up the fight against plastic pollution in the ocean with campaigns featuring images of entangled birds, littered beaches and research showing that tiny, harmful particles of plastic are entering the food chain. Their goal is as large as the ocean plastics problem itself: steering convenience-oriented consumers away from bags, cups, straws, food containers and other plastic products that often find their way into the water. The battle is being waged at the national level through organizations such as the Ocean Conservancy and

Read the first part online at www. thecoastalstar.ning.com

locally through conservation groups such as the Sea Angels, the Palm Beach County chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and Beach Guardians Atlantic Coasts. “The issue cannot be resolved without a change in perception regarding its scope, origin and the part we each contribute towards helping or harming the coast,” said Linda Emerson, founder of Beach Guardians Atlantic Coasts. “It’s changing behavior,” Emerson

said. “It doesn’t take much to keep a couple of reusable bags in your car and take them into Publix.” And releasing a balloon into the sky, she said, is just like dropping it in the ocean. Plastic pollution is easy to spot. Just walk along the beach. Volunteers with Sea Angels routinely find plastic bottle caps, straws, bottles, bags, cigarette filters and broken pieces of plastic during monthly beach cleanups near Boynton Inlet. Monofilament fishing line and Mylar balloons are also common finds, especially when the seas are rough, Sea See PLASTICS on page 6

The simmering feud over beach security between Ocean Ridge Town Commissioner Richard Lucibella and Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi came to a full boil in January. By the time passions cooled, the dispute had burned both men. The chief was out of a job, and the commissioner was facing a recall effort launched by the chief’s supporters. Yannuzzi agreed to resign after three commissioners voted to pursue his termination if he didn’t. A standing-room-only audience packed Town Hall on Jan. 15 as the commission approved the terms of Yannuzzi’s resignation, and the chief thanked dozens of well-wishers for speaking in his defense. See CHIEF on page 19

Along the Coast

Learning Ally volunteers bring speech to the printed word

By Ron Hayes   How would you describe a map of Africa to a blind person? How would you explain a chart of the fluctuating U.S. economy to someone who cannot see that chart? How would you talk like a

pirate? The Gladys Davis Pavilion at Florida Atlantic University does not look like the sort of place where these weighty questions are pondered. To be honest, it used to be the

university’s police and parking services building. As pavilions go, it’s small and nondescript. But every Tuesday through Saturday, six hours a day, men and women, young and old, arrive here to tackle those questions. Since 1997, the Davis

pavilion has been the Florida home of Learning Ally, a national, nonprofit organization that records books for people with visual impairments and learning disabilities. FAU is paid $1 a year for letting Learning Ally use the building. The nearly 100

volunteers who serve two-hour shifts in seven recording booths get nothing. “I don’t have a specialty,” says Lois Dwyer of coastal Boca Raton. “Last week I finished a middle school science book on See Ally on page 24

Inside Puppy love

Reaching heights

Sloan’s Curve condo delivers views. Page H24

Human hearts go pitter-patter with affection for dogs. Warning: This page may be too cute for words. Page H1

Art shows

The Delray Art League turns 50 as other shows come to the area. Page AT1

Opera

Palm Beach Opera gives the world premiere of ‘Enemies: A Love Story.’ Page AT11

October 2015

Serving Hypoluxo Island, South Palm Beach, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream and Coastal Delray Beach

Along the Coast

Six towns to study barrier island fire district By Dan Moffett

Six coastal municipalities are joining forces to explore forming a barrier island fire district that could reduce rising costs, improve response times and sever dependence on mainland governments. The proposed district would stretch roughly 18 miles from South Palm Beach on the north to Highland Beach on the south and include Manalapan, Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes and Gulf Stream. The six municipalities, which total some 10,000 residents, currently have individual contracts for fire-rescue service with Palm Beach County, Boynton Beach or Delray Beach. The cost of those contracts has increased steadily over the last decade, and talk among officials in Boynton and Delray about consolidating their departments with the county is raising new concerns about future coverage for the A1A communities. Gulf Stream Vice Mayor Robert Ganger says the possibility that Delray might stop providing service to his town, and also Highland Beach, is a “profound shift” that the island municipalities cannot ignore. “Delray continues to pursue shifting fire-rescue to the county, and now it appears Boynton is doing the same thing,” Ganger said. “We really can’t afford to sit back and see what happens.” Ganger and Gulf Stream Town Manager William Thrasher are leading an initiative exploring the feasibility of a barrier island district. On Sept. 17, representatives of the six municipalities met in Gulf Stream and agreed to contribute toward a study, if the cost is right. Thrasher is hoping the study costs $100,000 or less, and he expects as many as a half-dozen vendors to bid. If the price is too high, he allows that the coalition may splinter. See FIRE on page 6

South Palm Beach

South Palm Beach

Population = 3,000 Contracts fire protection from Palm Beach County Tax Rate = $4.32 Amount spent on fire protection = $883,000 Percentage of town budget = 33%

E Ocean Ave

1

Along the Coast

Building fees growth reflects local rebound By Rich Pollack

Manalapan

Existing Fire Station at Manalapan Town Hall Palm Beach County owns all of the equipment.

Manalapan

Population = 440 Contracts fire protection from Palm Beach County Tax Rate = $3.04 Total spent on fire protection = $901,000 Percentage of town budget = 27%

Ocean Ridge

E Ocean Ave

Population 1,800 Contracts fire protection from Boynton Beach Tax Rate = $5.35 Total spent on fire protection = $979,000 Percentage of town budget = 29.6%

Volume 8 Issue 10

Ocean Ridge

1

Woolbright Road

Briny Breezes

Briny Breezes

Population = 600 Contracts fire protection from Boynton Beach Tax Rate = $10 Total spent on fire protection = $330,000 Percentage of town budget = 50%

Drive along State Road A1A and you’ll see the subtle signs of a steadily recovering economy. In Manalapan, several older homes have been bulldozed to make way for new and larger luxury homes that are rising out of the ground. A short distance away crews are remodeling an aging condo for new owners who want a place with a more contemporary appearance. Not far down the road in Highland Beach, a multimillion-dollar luxury condominium project is being built on what had been one of the last remaining empty parcels of land in town. All up and down the coast, South Florida’s economic rebound can be seen in the construction that’s taking place — and in the resulting revenues municipalities collect from building-permit fees. “As the economy gets better, construction increases,” says Mike Desorcy, Highland Beach’s building official. “When people are doing well, they spend more money.” See BUILDING FEES on page 12

Along the Coast

Proposed Fire Station

Gulf Stream

May be located in Briny Breezes Needs to be equipped

1

Gulf Stream

George Bush Blvd

Population = 900 Contracts fire protection from Delray Beach Tax Rate = $3.90 Total spent on fire protection = $410,000 Percentage of town budget = 9.6%

Existing Fire Station # 2 serves Delray Beach and Gulf Stream, and is not part of the proposed new district

Atlantic Ave

Delray Beach 1

Linton Blvd

Highland Beach

Highland Beach

1

Existing Fire Station at Highland Beach Town Hall. The town owns one rescue truck.

Inside

Spanish River Blvd

Boca Raton

Plein air artists

Federal Highway

Delray happy with new look that was decade in making. Page 23

Painters celebrate the great outdoors of Florida. Page 18

Old Winn-Dixie

Joe Gillie says so long

10-story apartment complex in works for Boynton site. Page 27 Pages AT9-25

Sargassum: Too much of a good thing? By Cheryl Blackerby

Population = 3,550 Contracts fire protection from Delray Beach Tax Rate = $3.95 Total spent on fire protection = $3,295,000 Percentage of town budget = 29%

SOURCE: Town of Gulf Stream RFP, prepared before approval of final 2015-2016 budgets

Sargassum seaweed blankets the Ocean Ridge beach in July. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Old School Square chief looking ahead to retirement. Page 20

Sargassum, the brown free-floating algae that turns up on Palm Beach County’s beaches every summer, is essential for marine life. The thick masses of seaweed stretch for thousands of miles in the Atlantic Ocean, giving safe sanctuary and nutrients to fish and endangered sea turtle hatchlings. Onshore, the seaweed helps keep expensive replacement sand on beaches, offers crucial delicacies such as crabs and snails to seabirds, and provides nutrients to plants on dunes. But scientists, and certainly beach resorts, are wondering if there is too much of a good thing. See SARGASSUM on page 15

Black magic women The witch is alive and well this Halloween season! Page HH1

November 2015

Serving Hypoluxo Island, South Palm Beach, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream and Coastal Delray Beach

Volume 8 Issue 11

Along the Coast By Mary Hladky

Bethesda merging with Baptist Health system

After about two years of exploratory talks, Boynton Beach-based Bethesda Health and Coral Gables-based Baptist Health South Florida have agreed to merge. The agreement, announced on Oct. 2, calls for a two-year transition period.

But even before the merger is completed on Sept. 30, 2017, Palm Beach County residents could see changes, including new outpatient and urgent care facilities. Both hospital systems stand to benefit by combining forces. The merger will allow highly regarded Baptist Health, the largest hospital system in Miami-Dade County with six hospitals there and one

in Monroe County, to expand into Palm Beach County. Bethesda Health, which operates Bethesda Hospital East and Bethesda Hospital West, will gain by being able to tap into Baptist’s experience in establishing outpatient and urgent care facilities. Bethesda also will become part of a larger organization that has the heft

to recruit high quality physicians and to negotiate better contracts for goods and services. Like Bethesda, Baptist is “not-for-profit and committed to quality. That is the model Bethesda has been built on. We felt they would be a good partner,” said Roger Kirk, president and CEO of Bethesda See BETHESDA on page 13

Lake Boca Raton crested over the sea wall and breached the Por La Mar neighborhood in Boca Raton. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

CHANGING TIDES Authorities grapple with seasonal flooding By Willie Howard

Late October’s extreme tides flooded parking lots and neighborhood roads from Boca Raton to Lantana, reinforcing the need for higher sea walls and other improvements that could hold back rising water in the future. Pushed higher by an Oct. 27 full moon that was close to the Earth in its orbit, tidewater

covered roads around marinas in Delray Beach and Boynton Beach, flooded a Boca Raton neighborhood, inundated the parking lot at Lantana’s Sportsman’s Park and came bubbling up through storm drains along Ocean Avenue in Ocean Ridge. “It’s not something we can deny any longer,” Delray Beach Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia said. “In See KING TIDES on page 22

FAU urban planning student Adam Chapman measures 8 to 10 inches of water on Southeast First Street in Delray Beach.

Along the Coast

Handmade thanks

Blankets add warm touch to military Honor Flight By Ron Hayes

Cynthia Smilovsky gives a blanket to World War II veteran John Mazzucco of Boca Raton before he left on an Honor Flight to Washington. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

At 3:45 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17, two SUVs pulled out of Briny Breezes onto a dark and deserted North Ocean Avenue, bound for Fort Lauderdale International Airport. The Hyundai was driven by Marla Guzzardo, a former flight attendant who retired after 38 years with American Airlines. The Toyota RAV4 was piloted by Cynthia Smilovsky of Key Largo, also a former flight

attendant, also a veteran of 38 years with American Airlines. Flight attendants are trained to react in an emergency, and this was the final act in a crisis that began a month before. “I had just recently joined the Florida Keys Quilting Association,” Smilovsky explained, “and they put out a call for members to participate in an annual project.” Smilovsky thought it would be nice if the See BLANKETS on page 10

Inside

Boca Artists’ Guild turns 65

Fire district under review

Coastal towns rank firms that bid on feasibility study. Page 6 Determining turtle gender Sand moisture, not temperature, may play a role. Page 31

Group sells works at Delray gallery. Page AT1

Celebrating Canvas

The outdoors becomes the medium for this exhibition. Page AT9

Soup’s on

Boynton Soup Kitchen to deliver meals. Page H1