Town-Crier Newspaper April 12, 2019

Page 1

BLOOM EVENT BRINGS MOMS TO MALL SEE STORY, PAGE 3

ROBERT SHORR NAMED NEW LOX MAYOR SEE STORY, PAGE 4

THE

TOWN-CRIER WELLINGTON • ROYAL PALM BEACH • LOXAHATCHEE • THE ACREAGE

Your Community Newspaper

INSIDE

Volume 40, Number 15 April 12 - April 18, 2019

Serving Palms West Since 1980

PRETTY IN PINK FASHION SHOW

2019 GUIDE

Pages 18 thru 19

Groves Council Reviews Upcoming Applications

Planning Consultant Jim Fleischmann reviewed several items last week that will be coming before the newly configured Loxahatchee Groves Town Council in the near future, including development applications requesting to add retail uses to an existing application for office space, and another requesting commercial use near but not directly on Southern Blvd. Page 3 Women of the Western Communities held its annual fundraiser “Pretty in Pink” Spring Brunch & Fashion Show on Sunday, April 7 at the Wellington National Golf Club. Funds raised benefit the Mary Rubloff YWCA Harmony House and Women of the Western Communities scholarships. KOOL 105.5 Morning Show Hosts Mo Foster and Sally Sevareid once again emceed this event, and Stein Mart provided fashions and accessories. Shown above are Mair Armand, Sally Sevareid, Mo Foster, Maggie Zeller, Jo Cudnik, Allyson Samiljan and Maureen Gross. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 12 PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER

‘Paws At The Mall’ Lets Guests Meet Dogs And Shop At Dog Retailers

Animal Rescue Force of South Florida, Barky Pines Animal Rescue & Sanctuary and Palm Beach County Animal Care & Control hosted Paws at the Mall on Friday, April 5 at the Mall at Wellington Green. During the event, dogs were available for adoption. Mall guests had the chance to play with dogs, shop from a variety of dog retailers, enjoy kids’ activities and more. Page 10

Wycliffe Stiffs Stickball League Celebrates 17 Years At Luncheon

The Wycliffe Stiffs celebrated its 17th anniversary at the Wycliffe Golf & Country Club on Thursday, April 4, showing that the game of stickball is alive and well. The luncheon included special performances by players and lots of laughs for guests. Page 17

Broncos Reclaim Lax Rivals Cup With 11-7 Win Over Wellington

The Palm Beach Central High School boys lacrosse team traveled across town to take on host Wellington High School on Friday, April 5 and bested the Wolverines 11-7 for a big win. The victory marks the first in four years for the Broncos against Wellington, and in the wake of their performance, Palm Beach Central reclaimed the Outback Rivals Cup. Page 23 DEPARTMENT INDEX NEWS...............................3 - 22 LETTERS.................................. 4 NEWS BRIEFS......................... 7 PEOPLE................................... 8 SCHOOLS................................ 9 COLUMNS............................. 18 BUSINESS............................. 21 CALENDAR............................ 22 SPORTS..........................23 - 24 CLASSIFIEDS................ 25 - 26 Visit Us On The Web At WWW.GOTOWNCRIER.COM

Smokey Bear To Be A Guest At Wellington’s Earth Day Event

By M. Dennis Taylor Town-Crier Staff Report Outdoor icon Smokey Bear turns 75 this year, and as part of the year-long commemoration, he is appearing at the free Earth Day & Arbor Day Celebration at the Wellington Amphitheater on Saturday, April 27 from 4 to 7 p.m. The observance will be immediately followed by a Heart tribute concert featuring Love Alive. “Provided he isn’t called away to a fire, Smokey Bear will be at the event, courtesy of the Forestry Service,” said event organizer Michelle Garvey, Wellington’s assistant parks and recreation director. Garvey explained that the kids enjoy meeting the costumed character, who will help the children and the Wellington Village Council plant a tree on the grounds in honor of Arbor Day. “The celebration begins with proclamations about Earth Day and Arbor Day by the council, who will be planting the commemorative tree with the help of Smokey

Bear and the children,” she said. The full afternoon of fun and learning features more than 20 local vendors with earth-friendly products, favorite food trucks and more. “We partner with the Public Works Department, the Wellington Tree Board, the Wellington Garden Club and the Wellington Art Society, which will be selling nature-related items,” Garvey said. “The Tree Board and the Garden Club [members] will be giving away free seedlings and providing information on proper pruning techniques, composting and just sharing their extensive knowledge with the community.” In addition to the free seedlings and other giveaways, there will be plenty of advice from experts and demonstrations of proper techniques. There is even a chance to win a tree in a 15-gallon container that is ready to transplant into some lucky, free-raffle winner’s yard to provide shade in just a few years.

Children will have a bevy of kids’ activities to enjoy, including face painting, a coloring mural, learning about recycling and respecting the earth, plus the opportunity to meet the longest-running public service trade character in U.S. history. Born by the hand of graphic artist Albert Staehle on Aug. 9, 1944, Smokey Bear was a commission by the USDA Forest Service and the Ad Council. Conceived as painted artwork of a fictional bear named Smokey, the character would become the symbol for forest fire prevention for generations. Smokey worked with Bambi and other Disney characters on a poster when he was less than a year old. A popular anthem a decade later by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins seemed to give Smokey the middle name “The” to fit the rhythmic lyrics of the song. “But the name has always been Smokey Bear,” Garvey noted. It is a moniker that has been See EARTH DAY, page 22

Wellington Moves Forward On New Nightclub Regulations

By Gina M. Capone Town-Crier Staff Report A new village ordinance regulating nightclubs was given its initial approval by the Wellington Village Council after a public hearing on Tuesday, April 9. Spawned by a request from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office after arrests at a concert in the Suri West parking lot in Wellington last August, ordinance 2019-03 is intended to minimize the negative effects associated with nightclubs. Village Manager Paul Schofield explained that the ordinance was written to adopt similar rules like the ones in Palm Beach County, and is designed to combat underage drinking, while addressing the businesses that may be affected. Planning, Zoning & Building Director Bob Basehart explained that the measure is intended to

further the efforts that the council has made over the last several years to minimize and eliminate the negative effects that nightclubs have on the surrounding public. He said that some of the issues of nightclubs are underage drinking, patrons overindulging in alcohol and being the cause of accidents, and vandalism in parking lots and surrounding neighborhoods, to name a few. After the PBSO suggested that Wellington adopt the county ordinance or something similar, Basehart said that village staff elected to adopt a similar ordinance that would allow the municipality to oversee the ordinance and fit Wellington’s local needs and objectives. The ordinance has three components. The first is to specifically define a nightclub. The ordinance amends the definition

of “nightclub,” as well as minor definitions of “cocktail lounge” and “restaurant.” Secondly, the standards that are implemented by the ordinance will go into the land development regulations. This allows the village to grandfather-in existing businesses that operate as nightclubs and require village approval of any new establishments that want to enter into the same business. Thirdly, the ordinance establishes specific criteria to determine whether a business is a nightclub. If the establishment has four out of six criteria, it would be classified as a nightclub. These criteria are if a cover charge is paid, there is a dance floor or live music, alcohol is served, a onetime membership fee is paid, or the event happens during the specified hours, since See NIGHTCLUBS, page 4

Statistics Show Crime Drop In RPB, But Public Perception Lags

By Denis Eirikis Town-Crier Staff Report Palm Beach Sheriff Office District 9 Capt. Ulrich Naujoks presented the latest crime statistics to the Royal Palm Beach Village Council last week, which showed that the crime index in the village has fallen for the fifth consecutive year. At the Thursday, April 4 meeting, it was noted that while the village suffered an unusual two murders during the reporting period, after zero in the previous four years, robberies are at the lowest level in more than 20 years. The population of the village has almost doubled since 1998, when there were 8 reported robberies in the village, and only 9 robberies were reported last year. More good news included that home burglaries plummeted from 61 in 2017 to 24 in 2018. Vehicle theft dropped from 61 to 45 reports, and aggravated assault fell from 51 to 43 incidents. Larceny, which includes shoplifting, rose slightly from 663 incidents to 690 incidents. Incidents at the Walmart store on State Road 7, which draws customers from across the region, continues to lead the way in that category. Whether crime is on a rising trend or is falling is hugely important. It can affect how much is spent on policing and other related services, how people vote and even property values. “Americans across the country are more afraid of crime, even though the crime rates are down,” Nikki Usher of George Washington University said in a recent interview. “The media is reporting crime more, and in new ways. The more people consume bad news in the world, the more they believe it is more dangerous than it really is.” That might explain the disconnect between the actual statistics reported and an informal survey this week on Royal Palm Beach Speaks, a social media site that boasts more than 3,000 members. In a self-selected survey, members

who chose to respond, by a margin of about 10 to 1, felt crime that is actually rising in the village. “Regardless of what the statistics say — and we know they can be manipulated — many Royal Palm Beachers, especially longtime residents, feel inundated by crime, and it is adversely affecting our quality of life,” longtime resident Bob Markey said. “Those of us who have been here for years are shocked to the point of considering moving away.” Jamieson Joseph, a transplant from New York, disagrees. “These people have no idea what a crime-filled town is like,” he said. “Ten years ago, few people were posting about crimes on Facebook and social media. We didn’t have cameras/videos on our homes and phones. People just weren’t as aware of crime in the neighborhood as we are now.” Counterpoint Estates resident Rhonda Dunker agreed. “You see the same posts over and over. It’s sort of an onslaught on your brain,” she said. “Posts like, ‘Do you know this person who rang my doorbell?’ … Which may be nothing at all or may be crime related, but it’s still hitting your brain all the time and registering.” She also feels that society is more suspicious and pays more attention to their surroundings nowadays. “We are seeing a lot more online than we ever knew about in the past before the internet and access 24/7 to news, information and posts,” Dunker said. Dunker noted that she feels much more vulnerable to crime in Royal Palm Beach than she did when living in Wyoming. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program is a nationwide, cooperative statistical effort of nearly 18,000 municipal, college/university, county, state, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their attention. However, the FBI specifiSee RPB CRIME, page 22

GPL TOURNAMENT MARKS 10 YEARS

The diversity of the polo community was on full display during the 10th annual Land Rover Palm Beach International Gay Polo Tournament, held on Saturday, April 6 at the International Polo Club Palm Beach. Shown above are Bradley Kompo, Celia Taylor, Jose Cano and Josh Elmassien. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 5 PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER

ALA Discusses Plans For New Church In The Acreage

By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report At a meeting on Tuesday, April 9, members of the Acreage Landowners’ Association Board of Directors expressed concern about plans by Connect Church to build a new worship center at the southeast corner of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road and Banyan Blvd. The new facility is in its early stages of planning with Palm Beach County, whose planners reviewed the application recently. Connect Church has a permanent location on Okeechobee Blvd. in Royal Palm Beach with Sunday attendance of about 600, and currently also holds Sunday meetings attended by about 200 congregants at Seminole Ridge High School. ALA Board Member Dixie

Thiery said she was aware that the church had put in an application for development with the county but was concerned that the church had not made an effort to contact the ALA or the Indian Trail Improvement District. “We should be working with them to find out what’s going on with building,” Thiery said. “People are supposed to come through us. I got an e-mail from the county, and they kind of acted like they don’t have to recognize us whatsoever. They didn’t tell ITID what was going on either.” Pastor Dale Faircloth said the site, located between Westlake to the south and the Publix shopping plaza to the north, is about 6.75 acres. The design will be similar in design to existing nearby facilities,

such as the Acreage library, the Publix shopping center and the Walgreens store. “All that is set by code by the county, so you have to have wraparound porches and those type of things,” Faircloth said. “By the time you meet their code, you’ve pretty well built a building that looks like the others.” The main building will be on Seminole Pratt Whitney Road with landscaping buffers on the road and a parking lot east of Banyan Blvd. “We’re currently rolling it out to the church,” Faircloth said. “We’re doing that on April 28.” Thiery said she was concerned that the congregation is using ITID roads. “They have some kind of ex-

emptions,” Thiery said. “I don’t know what they are… but they didn’t talk to ITID. That’s our drainage, that’s our roads.” Faircloth said the congregation has met at Seminole Ridge for the past four years. “I go out there on Sunday morning and, quite honestly, there’s no traffic on Sunday morning,” he said. Faircloth said Phase 1 of the project will call for a 10,000-squarefoot multi-purpose building with parking and a stormwater basin on-site. “Phase 1 of the building will seat 275,” he said. “There’s a couple of reasons why we haven’t been to any boards to talk about it. One is we just closed on it on Feb. 28, so we really just got the land…

This is not something that we have completely rolled out to the church yet.” Faircloth said the church is still at the beginning of the necessary approval process. “If there is concern, and they would be open to have me come talk to them, I would love to do that,” he said. “We’re in the process of trying to put together a master site plan proposal. I’d love to think that we could complete that by the end of the year.” Faircloth said he understands Acreage residents’ negativity to new development. “My guess is the people of The Acreage are feeling put upon with all the development that’s happening, and they’ve become See CHURCH, page 22


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