U.S. OPEN FINAL THIS SUNDAY AT IPC SEE STORY, PAGE 3
WHS HONORS EIGHT STUDENT-ATHLETES SEE STORY, PAGE 7
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TOWN-CRIER WELLINGTON • ROYAL PALM BEACH • LOXAHATCHEE • THE ACREAGE
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INSIDE
Wellington Zoners OK Variance For New CVS At Town Square
Volume 38, Number 16 April 21 - April 27, 2017
Serving Palms West Since 1980
PWH HOSTS NICU GRAND OPENING
Wellington’s Planning, Zoning & Adjustment Board recommended approval Thursday, April 13 of a right-of-way buffer variance for a planned CVS Pharmacy to be built at the Wellington Town Square shopping plaza at the southwest corner of Forest Hill and South Shore boulevards. Page 3
Wellington Hosts Great American Cleanup Near Tiger Shark Cove
The Village of Wellington hosted its Great American Cleanup project on Saturday, April 15. Community members participated in the event that began in front of Tiger Shark Cove Park and saw the participants pick up litter along Greenbriar Blvd. and Greenview Shores Blvd., as well as in the Folkestone/ Yarmouth community. Page 5
Women’s Group Enjoys Wine And Painting Fundraiser At Oak Bistro
The Women of the Western Communities held a wine and painting fundraiser on Tuesday, April 11 at Oak Bistro & Wine Bar. K.B. Social Artworking hosted 30 people to paint flowers to benefit the Women of the Western Communities Scholarship Fund and Harmony House. The evening also included a raffle. Page 8
OPINION
Judge’s Ruling Should End The Decades-Long Debate Over State Road 7
Many moons ago, a plan was developed to extend State Road 7 to Northlake Blvd. Decades later, that much-needed plan remains unfinished. Last month, Administrative Law Judge Bram Canter recommended in favor of the road. This needs to end the debate. The South Florida Water Management District should issue the necessary permits to make sure that this crucial roadway becomes reality. Page 4 Pages 26-27
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Palms West Hospital held the grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for its state-of-the-art neonatal intensive care unit on Monday, April 17. The 10-bed unit is the first of its kind in Palm Beach County to offer entirely private NICU rooms. The Level 2 unit was 30 years in the making and is now open to help the tiniest of babies. Shown above are Palms West Hospital Chief Nursing Officer Silvia Stradi, CEO Eric Goldman and Board Member Dr. Carmine Priore at one of the NICU beds. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 11 PHOTO BY JULIE UNGER/TOWN-CRIER
Zoning Board Postpones Discussion Of IPC Changes
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Writer Wellington’s Planning, Zoning & Adjustment Board, in an unusually scheduled Thursday meeting last week, agreed to postpone discussion of comprehensive plan and zoning applications that would create “floating zoning districts” to allow more commercial uses, including hotels, at the International Polo Club Palm Beach property. Senior Planner Cory Lyn Cramer said the village’s traffic consultant, Andrea Troutman, had raised several issues relating to traffic data that needed to be worked out in relation to the applications. Additionally, prior to the Equestrian Preserve Committee’s approval on April 5, the applicant had requested to meet with staff and the village attorney to revisit a question of allowable density for a condo hotel. “We’re hopeful to resolve these
issues in the next few weeks, and it’s our recommendation, and we believe that the applicant has agreed, that we ask you to postpone these four items tonight,” Cramer said. “The applicant has also committed to submitting an application for a master plan for IPC and [the adjacent] Isla Carroll [property]. We are recommending that the rezoning application not be adopted until the master plan has been reviewed.” The postponement will give board members a clearer picture of the proposed overall plan, Cramer said. “It would allot some additional time for the applicant to prepare and submit the master plan, and if the master plan has not been fully vetted through the [Development Review Committee] and the [Equestrian Preserve Committee] by the time we reconvene here, at least the objective in having a
plan available as part of the illustration, we’re hopeful that we can meet that.” Attorney Dan Rosenbaum, representing applicant Mark Bellissimo of Wellington Equestrian Partners, said he had discussed the issues with his client and wanted to get them resolved. “We are in agreement with what Ms. Cramer told you, and we believe it will save quite a bit of time and effort on behalf of everybody, including members of the public, to have these matters worked out, and we can debate these issues in a better way,” he said. Rosenbaum added that he had been asked to inquire about the possibility of a special PZA Board meeting to discuss the four petitions up for consideration. The Equestrian Preserve Committee meeting lasted almost four hours. “That’s a scheduling issue, but I See PZA BOARD, page 4
Wellington Seeking Grant For Improvements To Essex Park
By Jack Lowenstein Town-Crier Staff Report The Village of Wellington will apply for a grant through the Land & Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) for improvements to Essex Park, a neighborhood park at 1250 Essex Drive in the South Shore community. “We have multiple grants that we apply for, and this is the 2017 Land & Water Conservation Fund grant,” said Tanya Quickel, Wellington’s director of administrative and financial services. “The purpose of it is for the acquisition or development of recreational facilities.” The grant is administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. “Other facilities that it could include are picnic areas, trails, all kinds of ball fields and things like that,” Quickel said of the grant program. “It can include some less exciting things like lighting and
restrooms and stuff like that, but these [neighborhood] parks don’t have restrooms.” Essex Park will see updates to add new facilities and, in particular, water access with the addition of a dock or pier. The same grant program was used to update and renovate the Wellington Community Center and, most recently, Dorchester Park. “It’s a 100 percent match, and we apply for $200,000,” Quickel said. “That means that we would have to spend $400,000.” The Department of the Interior provides $200,000, which will then be matched by the village through its general fund. “We have funding every year for our neighborhood parks,” Quickel said. “So, this park would be included in that, and that would be in the budget we will be submitting in 2018.” If the application is accepted by the department at the state level, it
will then be put onto a list that goes through the state legislature and is funded as part of the state’s budget, Quickel said. In order for the application to be submitted, it first had to go before a village board for approval. The Architectural Review Board met Wednesday, April 19 and approved the application to be submitted to the state. The presentation was all that was necessary to allow the application to be sent for its hopeful approval. “The biggest part of it is that it has to be associated with water, because it is the Land & Water Conservation Fund,” Quickel said. “The biggest part will be the dock feature for the neighborhood park.” Currently, Dorchester Park is under its construction phase. The community center has been finished, and it has the water access and pier that allows for more See ESSEX PARK, page 17
Infrastructure Work Clouds Budgetary Future At ITID
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Writer The Indian Trail Improvement District Board of Supervisors went through its first round of budget discussions for Fiscal Year 201718 on Wednesday, with a focus on future long-term costs, mainly for infrastructure improvements. Discussion also centered on whether to concentrate more on in-house operations or to contract out for some maintenance services. Finance Manager Don Rinzel began by reviewing the status of the current budget. “This is our budget for the current year,” Rinzel said. “Through the first six months of our current year, I broke these down by department.” The budget for administration is about $1.9 million, and about half has been spent, with about $871,000 remaining.
The parks department has an overall budget of $1,335,000 and has spent close to $600,000, with about $700,000 remaining. Rinzel pointed out that some of the budgets have carryover into the coming budget year. “I know that in past years, we had canal maintenance and big capital projects that we hadn’t spent in order to lower assessments on our residents,” he said. “We will carry those over to next year for planned projects.” The maintenance department budget is $5.8 million, and it has spent a little over $2 million, with about $3.5 million remaining for the fiscal year. The M-1 Basin budget is $1.785 million, and $123,000 has been spent with an available budget of $1.6 million. “This is what I was mentionSee ITID BUDGET, page 4
WELLINGTON EGG HUNT
The Village of Wellington held its annual Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 15 at the Village Park softball fields off Pierson Road. Egg hunts were divided into four age groups: ages 2 and under, ages 3 to 4, ages 5 to 7 and ages 8 to 10. At each egg hunt, two eggs had a pink bunny ticket inside, indicating a special prize. Shown above are Blake and Bryson Reddoch with their egg collection. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 19 PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER
Schiola And Piesley Spar Over LGWCD Eligibility Rules
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Writer Loxahatchee Groves Water Control District Board of Supervisors candidate Karen Piesley said this week that she will not withdraw from the race despite a barrage of allegations made by incumbent LGWCD President Frank Schiola last week. At the end of the April 10 board meeting, Schiola distributed a package of documents that were not on the agenda alleging that Piesley did not meet the residency requirements to be a supervisor. The documents show that Piesley has homesteaded property in Flagler County, although she and her husband also own property where they run Caledonia Nursery, at 2201 D Road. Three candidates, Piesley, Schiola and Connie Bell, are running for two available seats on
the LGWCD board in the June 26 election. Longtime Supervisor Don Widing did not file for re-election. Documents being circulated also suggest that employees of the Town of Loxahatchee Groves are supporting Piesley, although the employees contend they simply are giving clerical support that any town resident would receive. Recently elected Loxahatchee Groves Councilman Dave DeMarois, a former LGWCD supervisor, told the Town-Crier that he believes that employees should not do work for candidates. The documents being circulated includes a Florida Statute citation stating, “A candidate may not, in the furtherance of his or her candidacy for nomination or election to public office in any election, use the services of any state, county, municipal or district officer or See LGWCD, page 7
PBSO, Village Collaborate On Anti-Drug Discussion
By Julie Unger Town-Crier Staff Report The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the Village of Wellington presented “Drugs of Abuse and Addiction” for Wellington Neighborhood Watch members on Wednesday, April 19 at the Wellington Community Center featuring guest speakers Dr. Susan Klarich and Mariana Lovecchio. Klarich works for the PBSO, talks to people in communities and offers school presentations. “The Board of County Commissioners just approved the county to get $1 million to do something about the heroin epidemic that has been running rampant across the entire nation, not just Florida,” she said. In Palm Beach County, there were 753 drug overdose deaths in 2016. The deaths, she said, include
all drugs — opiates, heroin, painkillers and narcotics. Klarich gave the example of being prescribed pills after a dental procedure. “You might, depending on your brain chemistry, actually have an addiction problem. It could be you, it could be me, it could be the police officer standing over there. It’s not what I used to think of as the dirty person living under the bridge. It’s not. It’s lawyers, it’s doctors, it’s professionals and it’s people who are not professionals,” she said. Drug overdoses drastically increased from 2012 to 2017. In 2012, there were 153 deaths in the county. That rose to 187 deaths in 2013, 291 deaths in 2014, 412 deaths in 2015 and 753 deaths in 2016. So far in 2017, there have been 115 deaths as of March 24,
Klarich said, citing numbers from the medical examiner’s office. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has called heroin an epidemic. And, Klarich said, the suspected death by drug overdose rate is 70 percent higher than that of traffic fatalities in the PBSO’s jurisdiction. Klarich introduced Lovecchio to tell her story, bringing awareness and hope. “I am a recovering heroin addict. I started drinking and drugging at 12 years old. I grew up in Miami, as well as Boca Raton,” Lovecchio said. “There was no specific reason as to why I was drinking and drugging at 12. It was just the cool thing to do, so I started doing it.” She was prescribed Vicodin and Percocet for dental issues as a teenSee DRUGS, page 17
Dr. Susan Klarich discusses the problem of drug abuse.
PHOTO BY JULIE UNGER/TOWN-CRIER