‘THE YEAR OF THE WOLVERINE’ AT WHS SEE STORY, PAGE 3
COUNTY CRAFTS PLAN FOR HUD MONEY SEE STORY, PAGE 7
THE
TOWN-CRIER WELLINGTON • ROYAL PALM BEACH • LOXAHATCHEE • THE ACREAGE
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INSIDE
RPB Zoners OK Demolition Of Garden Center At Super Target
Volume 36, Number 18 May 1 - May 7, 2015
Serving Palms West Since 1980
WELLINGTON, RPB RELAYS FOR LIFE
The Royal Palm Beach Planning & Zoning Commission on Tuesday supported plans for the Super Target store on Okeechobee Blvd. to demolish its defunct garden center and replace it with a landscaped area. Page 3
Royal Palm Beach Woman Celebrates Her 102nd Birthday
The American Cancer Society held its Royal Palm Beach and Wellington Relays for Life last weekend. The Royal Palm Beach event was held at Royal Palm Beach High School, while the Wellington relay took place at Palm Beach Central High School. Participants walked through the day into the night, raising money to fight cancer. (Above) Cancer survivor Lorna Johnson with Monique Stephens and Aversis Concepcion of the American Cancer Society at the Royal Palm Beach relay. (Left inset) Mitchell Winnik of Wellington Regional Medical Center with his son Solomon, a cancer survivor, and his wife Carol at the Wellington Relay. RPB PHOTOS, PAGE 5 WELLINGTON PHOTOS, PAGE 15
A 102nd birthday celebration was held for Ruth Adams at Royal Palm Beach Health & Rehabilitation Center on Thursday, April 23. Adams was born in West Palm Beach in 1913 and worked as a seamstress. Members of her family were in attendance. Page 5
PHOTOS BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN AND JULIE UNGER/TOWN-CRIER
New Loxahatchee Groves Town Hall Open For Business
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Staff at the Town of Loxahatchee Groves were hard at work last weekend moving into the community’s new town hall at the former Central Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce building at the corner of F Road and Southern Blvd. The new offices opened to the public Monday, although everyone is not quite settled in. “We moved a lot of boxes, a lot of information that is still being sorted and placed in its appropriate location,” Town Manager Bill Underwood told the Town-Crier on Wednesday. “We’ve made massive progress. We have the phones up, we’ve got the network up. I expected hiccups, and we do have hiccups, no question about that, but we’ve made massive progress relative to getting everybody in, getting all the items here, and we are able to work.” He said town staff, including planning and code enforcement, are functioning. Some amenities, such as chairs for the meeting room, have not yet arrived, although he expected it to be functional for a Planning & Zon-
ing Board meeting scheduled for Thursday. “We at least have a conference room table there, and it may be a mismatch of chairs, but at least they’ll be able to meet there without any problem,” Underwood said. The interior has been painted, and the exterior has been pressurecleaned. “It looks very nice,” he said. The phone system is more sophisticated than the one they had before, so there aren’t as many busy signals anymore, and they still have the same phone number as the old location. “Generally, I would say it has gone relatively smoothly,” he said. “It is working.” Underwood said that he will miss the neighbors and interaction at their old location in the Palms West Plaza, because the new location is relatively isolated. “There was a lot of activity at the shopping center there, and we notice a significant difference in the number of people,” he said. “We do miss that ambiance, I guess is what it should be called, of the local people in the area.” Former Town Manager Mark See TOWN HALL, page 16
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Wellington Council Approves South Shore Road Raising
Fun For All At The Fairgrounds’ Annual Sweet Corn Fiesta
The 15th annual Sweet Corn Fiesta was held Sunday, April 26 at the South Florida Fairgrounds. A celebration of the Palm Beach County sweet corn spring growing season, the event is hosted by the Western Palm Beach County Farm Bureau and co-produced by the South Florida Fair and the Sunshine Sweet Corn Farmers of Florida. Page 17
OPINION
New Law Just The Start Of Changes Needed To State’s Testing Regime
Despite a long-overdue decision to place limits on highstakes testing by the state legislature, and its subsequent signing into law by Gov. Rick Scott last month, there will still be far too much emphasis on these tests. One possible solution: districts “opting out” of state testing altogether. Page 4
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By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report The Wellington Village Council approved the purchase of right of way on South Shore Blvd. from Windsome Farms for $180,000 Tuesday as part of a $1.9 million road improvement project from Lake Worth Road to 50th Street South. The purchase was part of the overall raising of the road, which was under as much as 2 feet of water during flooding from Tropical Storm Isaac. Village Engineer Bill Riebe explained that the 1.5 acre purchase gives additional right of way in order to build the project, and includes attorney fees and closing costs. The appraised value of the land is $110,000 an acre. The purchase will enable a
bridle trail to be moved from the east side of the road to the west side between 50th Street and Indian Mound Road. The bridle trail will be 11 feet wide. “It’ll be a straight shot all the way up. Once you get to 50th, the traffic diminishes and you can walk on either side of the road,” Riebe said, adding that 50th Street will have a designated crossing. Councilman Matt Willhite said the change makes sense because there are fewer driveways on the west side. Willhite asked whether a bicycle path will be included, and Riebe said there would not be enough room to allow for that. “The issue is between Indian Mound and north to Lake Worth. We were not able to get additional right of way, so there’s no ability
to put in bicycle lanes or a multiuse path,” Riebe said. “The way the road is designed, we can add those in the future when we get the necessary right of way.” Riebe said that there is enough room for a multi-use path in a portion of the project, but it was not included because it would end abruptly at Indian Mound Road. Willhite said he would prefer to install whatever portions of a bike path they could during the project, but Riebe said the remaining portion of the multi-use path between Indian Mound Road and Lake Worth Road could remain undeveloped indefinitely without the necessary right of way. “From an engineering standpoint, it’s a little strange to have these bike paths that start and stop See SOUTH SHORE, page 16
Engineer Reports Progress In ITID Flood Control Efforts
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Indian Trail Improvement District Engineer Jay Foy gave an update last week on drainage projects completed, in progress and planned for the future, as well as the expected cost to replace or repair deteriorating drainage structures in The Acreage. Foy’s presentation was part of an ITID Board of Supervisors workshop on Wednesday, April 22. The board has focused on improving drainage since the widespread flooding in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Isaac in 2012. Foy said the $4 million reconstruction of the J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area berm by the South Florida Water Management
District has just begun, after the SFWMD received a permit from ITID. The berm was in danger of breaching, sending more water into The Acreage during the aftermath of the storm. A temporary weir was built by the SFWMD for stormwater to spill into the Mecca Farms property in order to prevent a breach. “We are not providing the funding, and we are not doing the construction, but we did have something to do with it,” Foy said. ITID has received a permit for a second bypass at Pump Station 2 just north of Orange Blvd. on the M-1 Canal, which Foy had discussed in January. “I am now starting the third
design of that because… the soils are so bad that the retaining walls are going to fall down unless you spend a lot of money, and the building next to the pump station itself is not on footers, so we’re afraid that building would be damaged,” he said. Joseph Capra of Captec Engineering is designing an inverted siphon to replace one underneath the M Canal at 130th Trail North, which is being widened and deepened by the City of West Palm Beach. “They have been excavated to be much better-flowing canals in one square mile of the lower basin,” Foy said. He added that ITID now has See DRAINAGE, page 16
Wellington Ballet Theatre presented Alice In Wonderland on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26 at the Wellington High School theater. Shown here, Sarah Marsengill and Tiffany Moore dance as Alice and the Gryphon. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 10
PHOTO BY JULIE UNGER/TOWN-CRIER
Wellington Property Gets Rear Easement For Manure Pickup
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report The Wellington Village Council approved the abandonment of a portion of right of way on Greenbriar Blvd. on Tuesday to allow a property owner facing Equestrian Way access to the back of his property for manure collection. Village Engineer Bill Riebe said the property is located in Saddle Trail Park and had received approval for the gate when the plat was approved by the county. “There is an 8-foot gate there,” Riebe said. “That gate was installed when they built the fence years ago.” The gate is used to access a manure bin at the back of the property, since access is not easily available from the front. “The issue here is this subdivision along Greenbriar Blvd.,” he explained. “The only group
that can approve a limited access easement or the abandonment of a limited access easement is the Wellington Village Council.” Riebe said the staff recommendation was not to approve the abandonment because it conflicts with the policies of the subdivision and with current village policies. The access could adversely impact traffic flow because the vehicles must back in or out of the gate, and the vehicles must stop in the through lane in order to open and shut the gate. The access is also located on the inside of a curve, which limits sight distance for drivers, he said, adding that approval might set a precedent for other property owners to receive approval along limited access roads. Village Manager Paul Schofield said that the issue is a policy deciSee EASEMENT, page 7
Acreage Community Mourns Loss Of Brittany Baxter
A roadside memorial to Brittany Baxter can be found near the scene of the accident that claimed her life.
PHOTO BY JULIE UNGER/TOWN-CRIER
By Julie Unger Town-Crier Staff Report A deadly car accident left the Acreage community reeling last week, tragically cutting short the life of a Seminole Ridge High School senior just weeks before her graduation. The accident happened at the intersection of Tangerine Blvd. and 120th Avenue North shortly before 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 23. According to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office report, 18-year-old Brittany Michelle Baxter of The Acreage was traveling westbound on Tangerine Blvd. when a vehicle driven by 17-year-old Tristyn Dino of Royal
Palm Beach failed to stop at a stop sign and collided with Baxter’s vehicle. Baxter died at the scene, while Dino and a passenger in his vehicle were taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Baxter was well-known in the community and played on the Seminole Ridge softball team. According to obituary information listed with Tillman Funeral Home, she is survived by her parents Eric Baxter and Jacqueline Reinoso; her brother, Bryce Baxter; and her grandmother, Sofia Nadal. In the days since the accident, the community has rallied together to support Baxter’s grieving family.
Cindi Walker, who is on Seminole Ridge High School’s Project Graduation committee with the Baxters, immediately created a GoFundMe fundraiser to help the family with funeral expenses. Within 19 hours, the requested amount was reached. Donations poured in from all over the area, with heartfelt messages and memories. To help the family with expenses, visit www.gofundme. com/ssmk8zs. “I know Jacqueline and Eric through Project Graduation,” Walker said. When they called her after the accident, she knew she had to do See BAXTER, page 4