Town-Crier Newspaper July 31, 2015

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VETS ISSUES AT CHAMBER LUNCHEON SEE STORY, PAGE 3

LENNAR MOVES AHEAD ON LAND BUY SEE STORY, PAGE 7

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

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RPB Council Agrees To Variances For Plaza At SR 7 And Pioneer

Volume 36, Number 29 July 31 - August 6, 2015

Serving Palms West Since 1980

FEAST OF THE SEA CHEF CHALLENGE

The Royal Palm Beach Village Council approved a series of site plan alterations for an under-construction shopping center at the southeast corner of State Road 7 and Pioneer Road on Thursday, July 16. The biggest issue was a reduction in the number of parking spaces required. Page 3

Royal Palm Beach Hosts Inaugural Senior Expo At Cultural Center

Royal Palm Beach presented its first Senior Expo on Friday, July 24 at the Royal Palm Beach Cultural Center. There were vendors sharing wellness options, healthcare options, educational opportunities, travel packages and more. Page 5

Groves Council Denies Developer’s Request On B Road Project

On July 21, the Loxahatchee Groves Town Council denied a request from the developers of the commercial project at B Road and Southern Blvd. to grant them a self-help provision to proceed with a paving project at the intersection. Page 7

Wellington’s American Legion Post 390 Hosts Officer Installation

Wellington’s American Legion Chris Reyka Memorial Post 390 held its annual officer installation ceremony Thursday, July 16 at Palm Beach County FireRescue Station 30 on Stribling Way. Page 9

OPINION Beware The Hidden Dangers Of Heat Stress

It’s summertime — the season of cookouts, swimming pools and outdoor fun. But along with these activities come the dangers of extreme heat, and heat stress can be deadly. While the dangers of leaving children and animals in superheated cars are well known, lesser known is the effect of spending too much time in Florida’s summertime heat without proper precautions. Page 4 DEPARTMENT INDEX NEWS...............................3 - 13 OPINION.................................. 4 CRIME NEWS.......................... 6 NEWS BRIEFS......................... 8 PEOPLE................................. 14 SCHOOLS.............................. 15 COLUMNS...................... 16, 23 BUSINESS......................24 - 25 SPORTS..........................29 - 31 CALENDAR............................ 32 CLASSIFIEDS................ 33 - 36 Visit Us On The Web At WWW.GOTOWNCRIER.COM

The second stop of the Feast of the Sea Chef Challenge was held Wednesday, July 22 at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington. The event featured a cooking contest between four top chefs. Shown here are judges Manfred Schmidtke and Libby Volyges, winner Clay Carnes of the Grille Fashion Cuisine, judge Maude Eaton and sous chef Alex Bustamante. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 19

PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER

Residents Offer K-Park Input By Julie Unger Town-Crier Staff Report Wellington hosted the second in a series of four town hall meetings on the future use of the controversial K-Park property last week. Approximately 100 people took part in the Tuesday, July 21 meeting at Polo Park Middle School. They gathered in the school cafeteria to take a survey regarding their thoughts and opinions about the 66.8-acre site, located at the southwest corner of State Road 7 and Stribling Way. “The purpose of this meeting is for the Wellington Village Council and staff to get input from the community, in terms of what your preferences and desires are, relative to the use of the property,” Planning and Zoning Director Bob Basehart said. The land was bought a decade ago for a future park. Since then, it has been eyed for a number of different purposes, from a college campus to an equestrian facility. Last winter, Wellington reviewed

bids for mixed-use developments at the site before deciding to reject all the proposals and gather more community input. One town hall meeting was held in June, with future meetings set for Tuesday, Aug. 4 at Wellington Landings Middle School and Tuesday, Sept. 15 in the Wellington Village Council chambers, both starting at 7 p.m. Unlike the first meeting, where the village found itself short on clickers used for a digital survey — more than 200 residents showed up and the village had just 100 of them — this time, Wellington borrowed 100 more, so there were plenty to go around. The same set of questions was presented at the July meeting as the June meeting. Nearly half of the residents taking part were longtime residents of Wellington, living in the community for more than 10 years. About a third had lived in the village for less than five years. The vast majority were property

owners. Attendees were split over use of the space, with 49 percent voting that K-Park should be used for park space, and 51 percent opposed. Results were favorable when residents were asked if K-Park should be a future location for an entertainment district: 72 percent said yes, while 28 percent said no. When asked whether a future development plan for K-Park should include a hotel, 47 percent said yes, while 52 percent said no. Favorability was shown for including an arts center or something similar, with 59 percent voting yes and 41 percent voting no. The majority was against having employmentoriented uses at K-Park, with 71 percent voting no and 29 percent voting yes. In January, six proposals were submitted to buy the land, which was purchased in 2003 for almost $8.5 million. The proposals were for mixed uses and offered between $15 million and $25 million See K-PARK, page 18

Council, Charter Task Force Discuss Ballot Questions

By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report The Wellington Village Council and its Charter Review Task Force met in a joint session Monday, July 27 to discuss items proposed to be put to referendums in March. The task force, headed by Wellington pioneer Ken Adams, a member of the original charter committee, has been working for the past year on possible measures for consideration. The council must approve the ballot questions this fall for the March 2016 ballot. Village Attorney Laurie Cohen explained that only six questions had been posed to the council, but the task force had gone through the charter thoroughly and discussed the six questions carefully. She also presented a 10-page summary of the task force discussions. “Even though they may not have recommended that some-

thing be presented on the ballot, it does not mean they did not fully consider whether or not it should be changed,” Cohen said. “The items recommended by the task force have been presented to you. You can revise those, you can add to them, you can take away from them, depending on what you ultimately feel is important to send to the voters.” Councilman Matt Willhite asked about cleaning up language in the charter that is no longer appropriate, and Cohen said that might be done in a separate referendum in order to keep it simple. Adams said the task force had focused on specific questions that were clearly stated in order not to confuse voters. “We thought we could get a more accurate voting result if they know specifically what they are voting for,” he said. Task Force Member Michael See CHARTER, page 18

ITID SAFETY FAIR DAY

The Indian Trail Improvement District held a free Public Safety Fair Day on Saturday, July 25 at the Hamlin House Community Center. The day drew a crowd, as kids met with Smokey the Bear and Sparky the Fire Dog, played games, and enjoyed a bounce house, water slide and more, all while learning about safety and getting a free Child ID. Shown here, Dontez Coakley Jr. meets Sparky. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 13 PHOTO BY JULIE UNGER/TOWN-CRIER

Wellington Adds $480,000 In Extras Indian Trail President: County To Community Center Code Enforcement Out In Force

By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Indian Trail Improvement District President Carol Jacobs warned residents last week that Palm Beach County code enforcers have been out in The Acreage citing residents for infractions. “I want to let everybody know,” she said. “Palm Beach County is out in force with their code enforcement. All of a sudden, after 20 years, they decided they want a lot of money from Indian Trail residents. They’re going basically house-to-house down the streets.” Jacobs made her comments during the Wednesday, July 22 meeting of the ITID Board of Supervisors, which saw nearly all agenda items postponed until a future meeting. “They hit me, which is fine; I’ve got the money,” she said. “But years ago when we built everything, my husband went down to make sure, and they said, ‘We don’t care what you do out there. Do whatever you want.’ To me,

all these years you don’t come out and inspect code violations, and you’re going to pick now, after the recession, the cancer cluster and all that?” Jacobs noted that one of her friends was told she had to paint her house and faced daily fines if she did not comply. “I want everyone to be aware that they’re out looking and they’re not just picking on certain people, they’re picking on everybody,” she said. “That’s a lot of money that they’re going to get from all the permits. They didn’t seem to care a few years ago, but now they care.” Jacobs said she also wanted ITID staff to look into a county hydrant by one of the schools that was releasing chlorine-treated water into the canals and wetlands, and added that Supervisor Jennifer Hager had been threatened with a $500 fine for riding her horse in a wetland area. “We need to start getting hard on Palm Beach County,” Jacobs said. “If they’re going to be hard on us,

we need to get hard right back… We are an elected board, and we have more power than we’re using. We need to start using it.” Jacobs added that she wanted to review the conditions of the county’s use of easements to run water lines that were approved in a contract in 2007. During the meeting, the ITID board postponed all items on the agenda except supervisor comments and public comments, and approval of disbursements. The change was made at Jacobs’ request and carried unanimously. The board does not have a meeting scheduled for August, so the items will be moved to the September meeting. Items for approval included a permit to let the Seminole Improvement District reroute a sewer line from Western Pines Middle School and Golden Grove Elementary School to a county forced main at 140th Avenue North, away from the current sewer plant, See ITID MEETING, page 4

By Ron Bukley Town Council Staff Report The Wellington Village Council approved $480,000 in changes for the new Wellington Community Center on Tuesday, July 14. The money will allow the inclusion of a larger balcony overlooking the lake, an extended entry cover, and a lobby on the northeast side of the building that had been omitted in the final design stage after council approval. Councilman Matt Willhite had asked for a review of the building design at the council’s previous meeting after commenting that the final plan did not look like the plan that had been approved. Jeff Miles of Pirtle Construction and Jill Lanigan of Song & Associates gave a presentation on proposed enhancements to the building, which included the canopy extension at a cost of $115,000, the northeast lobby at $130,000 and the lakeside balcony at $300,000. “We heard some concerns from the council related to the current design as it is,” Pirtle said. “We

want to take a proactive approach to discussing these and addressing those concerns.” Lanigan said that the added elements were architectural enhancements to the design and use of the building, providing more flexibility. She also included comparison elevations of the original approval in July 2014 to the new proposal. “We’ve enhanced some things on those to correct some of the rendering issues that we were seeing,” she said. Pirtle added that a stage feature requested by the Wellington Seniors Club has been reintroduced into the design of the second-floor ballroom. Vice Mayor John Greene pointed out that the rendering being presented as what was permitted by the village was not what the council had approved. “I don’t want to get into semantics about how we’re labeling these things, but, to me, I sort of look at this as what was amended to what was approved by this council when this contract was awarded,” See COUNCIL, page 18

Hundreds Support Special Olympian Christina Cooney

By Julie Unger Town-Crier Staff Report More than 200 people came out to the Lindburgers Restaurant in Wellington on Thursday, July 16 to help local athlete Christina Cooney get to the 2015 Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles. Christina, 37, is an experienced rider at the Vinceremos Therapeutic Riding Center in Loxahatchee Groves. She will be one of the 10 riders on the U.S. 2015 World Special Olympics Equestrian Team and will be among 7,000 competitors from 177 countries at the games. Christina has been riding since she was 11 years old, said her father, Mike Cooney.

Hearing impaired, sight impaired and mentally challenged, riding has been a boon for Christina. When she gets on a horse, or works with a horse, her issues all seem to disappear. Vinceremos Executive Director Ruth Menor founded the organization in 1982, and this is only the second time that she has sent a rider to the Special Olympics World Games. Christina is excited about all the attention her bid for glory has brought. “This, for her, this is the most attention she has ever had in her life,” Mike said. “She went to the Royal Palm School, and had a circle of hearing-impaired friends, but this is the most attention she has ever gotten.”

The fundraiser at Lindburgers was an extra special night. The Cooneys are regulars at the restaurant, and when employees Sara Neering and Lisa Johnson heard about the trip, they worked quickly to put together the fundraiser, which raised approximately $7,000. After all, Christina won’t be traveling to California alone — she will have her coaches and her family cheering her along and helping her prepare. Expenses add up. “We brainstormed and put this together in a week,” Neering said. The duo worked tag-team style to drum up support from local businesses and organizations. “One of us would work at the See COONEY, page 7

Sarah Menor, Christina Cooney, Ruth Menor, Lisa Johnson, Sara Neering, Kim Elie and Deb Levinsky at the July 16 fundraiser. PHOTO BY JULIE UNGER/TOWN-CRIER


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