Deborah Hartz-Seeley's Blog – May 2012 Archive (65)

By Steve Plunkett

City leaders approved 208 more rental apartments for downtown Boca Raton but also questioned how many residential units the area needs.

The 12-story building will have 22 studio apartments, 70 one-bedroom apartments, 16 one-bedroom units with den, 74 two-bedroom apartments, 17 three-bedroom units and nine two-story lofts. Rents will range from $1,300 a month to $3,400 with an average of $2,000, said attorney Charles Siemon,…

The historic Boca Club Bridge on Camino Real should reopen June 20 after temporary steel pilings are installed.

“We’re trying to safe it up,” said Charlie Rich of county engineering services. “We have to put four holes in the middle of the bridge to drive the pilings in.”

The county closed the bridge connecting the barrier island to the mainland on March 26 for the 26-day repair. Motorists are being detoured to the Palmetto Park Bridge and the Hillsboro Boulevard…

Golden Harbor resident John Van Blois (left) shows members of the

Beach & Parks board, Robert Lanford, Earl Starkoff and Dr. Dennis

Frish, a drawing that shows where silting is making boat access into

their neighborhood more difficult.…

Boca Raton Community High School cleaned up at the Critics’ Awards Program (Cappies for short) at 10th Annual Cappies Awards Gala held May 15 in the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

The school won nine awards (more than any other of the 13 schools competing), including Best Musical for its production of  Crazy for You, which won more awards than any other musical.

Award winners were determined by votes from the students themselves through a…

By Steve Plunkett

An archaeologist will have to survey Ocean Strand before the ocean-to-Intracoastal parcel can ever be turned into a park.

There are no known archaeological resources on the nearly 15-acre site, “nor was this property ever subjected to a cultural resource assessment survey to locate and evaluate such resources,” the state’s Bureau of Historic Preservation wrote the city.

But the bureau attached another letter it had sent Boca…

Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club resident Edythe Harrison

has had a full life in both the cultural and political realms. She

remains active in retirement, on the local and the national levels. Tim Stepien/The Coastal…

Scott McOwen, the veterinarian at the Sandoway House, talks

to children about Sir Speedy the gopher tortoise, who is a permanent

resident of Sandoway House. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star…

More than 170 people packed the Ocean Ridge Town Hall during a four-hour

public hearing where Palm Beach County Sheriff’s officials and Ocean Ridge

Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi outlined their staffing plans for police coverage. …

The $2 million enclosed tanks at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center

have opened to the public. Visitors can look down into the tanks,

one of which is planted with mangroves. Below the deck are windows

for peering into…

Publisher Jerry Lower

By Jerry Lower, Publisher

Our coastal community is constantly influenced by the changing seasons.  

In autumn we can count on hurricane season giving us a few scares and autumnal tides to swell the Intracoastal…

Boca Raton Fire Department’s Captain Ray Lintner describes a few of the firefighting tools found on a firetruck at Fire Station 3 at 100 S. Ocean Blvd. His tour was part of the department’s  city-wide open house May 12. The department has  207 certified professionals and 90…

By Tim O’Meilia

A year ago, Manalapan Mayor Basil Diamond claimed South Palm Beach could save a half million dollars a year — give or take $100,000 — by letting Manalapan provide police and dispatch service. 

South Palm Beach Mayor Donald Clayman disputed the numbers and quickly shot down the idea. “This is not a good time to look at a reduced police presence in town. Our people like to see the police cars around,” Clayman said then. 

Now…

By Steve Plunkett

Manalapan police are confident patrolling the Point but feel unequipped to fight crime on the ocean.

The “threat profile” in the ocean zone has changed over the years, Town Manager Linda Stumpf and Police Chief Carmen Mattox told town commissioners May 22, citing the increased popularity of Bird Island and the public beaches bordering Manalapan and seven boat burglaries since 2009.

“It is beyond our ability to control/monitor…

By Mary Thurwachter

It’s been a year since Highland Beach Commissioners voted to hire Kathleen Weiser as town manager, which means it’s time for a performance evaluation and discussion of a merit increase. Those topics were on the agenda for the town’s May 29 workshop meeting, but didn’t go very far.

Before the discussion could take place, each commissioner was to meet with Weiser separately and do individual assessments of her work. Four…

By Tim O’Meilia

Six months after a win-win truce was declared in the struggle over the future of a six-acre Gulf Stream estate and the demolition of its 75-year-old mansion, a “hole in the sky” has re-opened the battle.

Neighbors of the soon-to-be built Harbour View Estates begged Gulf Stream town commissioners at their May 11 meeting to intervene to force developer Tom Laudani to replace a towering banyan tree bulldozed in late March to make way for…

By Tim Pallesen

Gulf Stream’s bill for fire protection from Delray Beach will jump 35 percent to $428,198 this year.

    “It’s a result of annexation. Delray Beach is providing additional service because our land mass has increased,” Gulf Stream town manager William Thrasher said.

    Delray Beach charged $315,580 annually before Gulf Stream annexed 16.6 acres of condo buildings on its northern border last year.

    The annexation added about…

Boynton Beach to hear PBSO proposal at 6:30 p.m. on June 5.

By Angie Francalancia

In the roughly 18 months since the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office pulled its parks deputies and moved its marine patrol headquarters from the Boynton Inlet, police from nearby coastal towns have seen a significant spike in calls they’re handling in the county parks.

The increase in calls may be playing a role in…

Golfers practice outside the Hamlet Country Club. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Tim Pallesen

Residents at the Hamlet Country Club have voted overwhelmingly to sell their golf course and…

Greater Federated Women’s Club installation of officers

The Bridge Hotel, Boca Raton

Guests from Ocean Ridge at the event included

Joanne Gimmy, Donna Hutchins and Betsy Polhamus.Photos by Barbara McCormick…

By Antigone Barton

The people who raise and lower the bridges that link the mainland to the island have little in common but the water that flows between them.

Some are retired: Accountants, iron workers, Realtors, fire fighters, truck drivers and a professional golfer have made up their ranks. Some are parents looking to make ends meet. 

All work part-time without benefits, with rotating schedules, the solitary nature of the job giving them little…