SPREADING JOY IN GREENWAY VILLAGE SEE STORY, PAGE 3
A NEW HOME FOR KELK PHILLIPS LAW SEE STORY, PAGE 7
THE
TOWN-CRIER WELLINGTON • ROYAL PALM BEACH • LOXAHATCHEE • THE ACREAGE
Your Community Newspaper
INSIDE 2019 GUIDE
Volume 40, Number 23 June 7 - June 13, 2019
Serving Palms West Since 1980
FOUNDATION’S THANK YOU SOIRÉE Page 10
Equestrian Focus Group Offers Comments On Wellington’s Future
A focus group meeting was held Friday, May 31 with a handful of local equestrians regarding Wellington’s Parks Master Plan, a project being worked on by the village with the consulting firm Aecom to come up with future plans for parks and recreation initiatives. Page 3
ALA Kicks Off Summer Workshop Series On Local Government
The Acreage Landowners’ Association invited Indian Trail Improvement District President Betty Argue to speak on Tuesday, June 4 at the first of six meetings it has organized to learn more about the local government process. Page 4
The Wellington Community Foundation thanked its sponsors, donors and volunteers at a “Thank You Soirée” held on Thursday, May 30 at the Trophy Room in Wellington. The event was designed as a way for the foundation to thank all of its sponsors, donors and volunteers. Shown above are Dr. Gordon Johnson, Don McKenzie, Julie Tannehill, Scott and Mair Armand, and J.P. Varvarigos. STORY & MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 13 PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER
Wellington Aquatics Complex Water Safety Event Makes A Splash
Lifeguards and firefighters gathered Saturday, June 1 at the Wellington Aquatics Complex to give the community a demonstration on water safety in SPLASH, which stands for “Safety and Prevention Leaves All Swimmers Happy.” Pediatric residents from Palms West Hospital and first responders from Palm Beach County FireRescue Station 25 were on hand to explain how to stay safe around the water. Page 5
Indian Trail Hires Former Deerfield Beach Manager As New Executive Director
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report The Indian Trail Improvement District Board of Supervisors selected former Deerfield Beach City Manager Burgess Hanson as its new executive director last week after four hours interviewing seven candidates in a short list of nine for the position. The selection was almost unanimous, with Supervisor Tim Sayre casting the only vote for candidate Chris Shoemaker. Sayre said the only reason he did not cast his first preference for Hanson was over news reports of a falling out between Hanson and Deerfield Beach Mayor Bill Ganz, who reportedly had asked Hanson to resign in April. Other candidates on the short
list were Vince Akhimie, David Castillo, Orfelia Mayor, Steven Misshula, Joseph Sophie, Charles Tear and Larry Tibbs. After interviewing the candidates on Wednesday, May 29, ITID President Betty Argue asked supervisors to write down the name of the one candidate they would choose as executive director, and all but Sayre wrote Hanson’s name. Sayre said he would have made Hanson his first choice except for the recent cloud on his record. Human Resources Attorney Lara Donlon asked supervisors if, based on the vote, they wanted to move forward with a selection. Sayre said he would change his vote to Hanson to make the decision unanimous because
Hanson would have been his second choice, but he still had concerns about Hanson’s history, which has been aired recently in Broward County media. Hanson worked for Deerfield Beach for 18 years, serving as city manager for the past 10. “Since I was the dissenting [vote], I’m OK if we make a decision tonight based on what the other four have indicated,” Sayre said. Argue said all the candidates interviewed seemed to be outstanding. “If we were staffing a city, every one of them fits in somewhere, but who would I put at the top?” Argue said. “In my mind, it was Burgess because of the breadth of See HANSON, page 18
Wellington Historical Society Hosts Storyteller Judge Bailey
Wellington Wave U13 Girls Make Club History With State Cup Win
The Wellington Wave Soccer Club U13 girls team recently made club history when it won the Florida Youth Soccer Association’s State Cup Tournament in Auburndale held May 18 and May 19. The U13 squad was the first Wave girls team to win the coveted title. Page 19 DEPARTMENT INDEX NEWS...............................3 - 20 NEWS BRIEFS......................... 7 PEOPLE................................... 8 SCHOOLS................................ 9 COLUMNS............................. 16 BUSINESS............................. 17 CALENDAR............................ 18 SPORTS................................. 19 CLASSIFIEDS................ 21 - 22 Visit Us On The Web At WWW.GOTOWNCRIER.COM
By Gina M. Capone Town-Crier Staff Report It was a packed house at the Wellington Historic Society lunch and learn event on Thursday, May 30 at the Wellington National Golf Club when retired Judge Nelson Bailey took the audience back into the rich history of the State of Florida. A master storyteller, Bailey is a retired county court judge who lives in Loxahatchee Groves with his wife Carol and their dog Maggie. He has ridden across the land of Florida on horseback, exploring the rich history of the state on his horse Domino. Immersed in the past, his tales tell the story of Spanish roots, diversity and independence, where some truths over time have become forgotten. “We got Domino when he was two and a half years old,” Bailey recalled with a smooth drawl and a hint of a southern inflection. “He lived with us at our place in Loxahatchee Groves. He passed away a couple of years ago at the age of
24. He did a cross statewide coastto-coast ride for 18 years in a row. I put a lot of miles on that horse.” Most people don’t know the story of Florida, he noted. “In 1513, Juan Ponce de León discovered Florida. The Spanish established St. Augustine in 1565. It has been continuously occupied as a city every day since,” Bailey said. “We have the greatest history of diversity than any other state. We were a Spanish territory for 300 years. It was the Spanish who gave us our name, La Florida. They brought citrus here. They brought sugar cane here. They brought horses here. They brought cattle. Horses and cows were brought to Florida by Ponce de León in 1521. This was years before the tales of the American Southwest. The ‘old west’ really began here in Florida.” Early maps were hard to come by and not very accurate. “In the 1600s, maps of the coastlines were made by connecting the dots of the shorelines and bays.
Back then, the Spanish would sail along what is now known as Palm Beach County. At the end of the day, they would connect the dots, and they looked at it, and they chuckled, said it looks like a rat mouth. So, they named the place rat mouth. How many of you know how to say that in Spanish?” Bailey asked. The audience replied, “Boca Raton!” How true is the tale? Well other records are not particularly specific. According to the Boca Raton Historical Society, the name was derived from “antiquated maritime nomenclature warning of rock formations in shallow waters which could damage the ships.” “Also, during the later period of Spanish rule over Florida, the King and Queen of Spain ruled that there could be no slavery in Spanish Florida,” Bailey continued. “Any slave coming into Florida could become a free citizen on two conditions: they had to See HISTORY, page 7
Sheriff Announces Contract Extension With Lox Groves
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report After months of an uncertain relationship with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw appeared at the Loxahatchee Groves Town Council meeting on Tuesday, June 4 to announce plans to continue his agency’s contract with the town. Bradshaw said he had met with each council member individually and decided that the PBSO would extend the current contract, although none had been offered officially at the time of the announcement. The current contract ends this fall. The PBSO announced last year that it did not plan to continue providing law enforcement service in the community after a series of disagreements with the previous council. “The sheriff came out and he did announce that he had met with all the council members on an individual basis. Everybody
has talked about the issues of the past and the need to be moving forward,” Town Manager Jamie Titcomb told the Town-Crier on Wednesday. “They decided to reup with us come September, and as a gesture of good will, they were not going to assign any increase to the contract.” Titcomb said he reminded the council that nothing is a done deal until it is acted upon under proper procedure. “In fact, there has been no contract submitted for renewal or anything of that nature. That will happen, obviously, subsequently as conversations and details get worked out,” Titcomb said. He added that a priority will be put on better communications between the town and the PBSO in the future. “They had a meeting of the minds in terms of any issues, and especially issues of communication and collaborating when things See LOX PBSO, page 4
BARK-A-THON FUN
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Big Dog Ranch Rescue hosted a Bark-A-Thon on Saturday, June 1 at the South Florida Fairgrounds Expo Center. Pet rescue organizations had an array of animals available for adoption. Shown above are Destiny for Dogs’ Gabriella McCline with Poncha, Cindy Cruse with Frankie and Joanne Beaulieu with Allie. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 14 PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER
Staff Updates Wellington Rec Board On Projects
By Gina M. Capone Town-Crier Staff Report Wellington’s Parks & Recreation Advisory Board met Monday, June 3, hearing an update on projects funded by the village’s share of the countywide sales surtax and getting a review of current recreation programs. First up, the board selected Dr. Samuel Falzone to serve as its chair for the year, while Maryjo Shockley will serve as the board’s vice chair. The sales surtax update report was presented by Wellington Director of Administrative & Financial Services Tanya Quickel. The money from the surtax approved by voters in 2016 is split between Palm Beach County, the School District of Palm Beach County and the county’s municipalities. Each must have an oversight board to review surtax expenditures. Wellington has assigned that task to
the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board. “So far, our total collections for the surtax since it started on Jan. 1, 2017 is $9,829,271. We are on track for our projections. We anticipated around $3.5 million to be collected every year. We are in the third calendar year now,” she explained. “Of that, we have spent very little. Our total expenditures on the chart are approximately $378,719. We have the money sitting in the bank. We have several projects that have been appropriated and reviewed.” One of the issues has been that the money has been shifted between several changing park projects. “We started out with South Shore Park, the old Boys & Girls Club site,” Quickel explained. “Then we had South Shore and Greenbriar Park. Then, all of that See REC BOARD, page 7
Betsy Cardozo Retires As New Horizons Principal
By Gina M. Capone Town-Crier Staff Report It was a bittersweet day on Friday, May 31 when Principal Betsy Cardozo greeted the children at New Horizons Elementary School one last time. Cardozo has been principal there for 15 years, but when the students return in August, Dana Pallaria will have taken over leadership of the Wellington school. Cardozo has been an educator for a total of 41 years, and 39 of them have been in Palm Beach County. She has been an elementary school teacher, a school counselor, assistant principal and principal. There were a number of things
that attracted her to the job, and she enjoyed her many years as principal at New Horizons. “I have lived in Wellington for 25 years,” Cardozo said. “The opportunity to work in the community where I lived was very attractive. Both of my children went through Wellington’s elementary, middle and high schools. So, I thought it was a chance to give back to the community.” She is particularly fond of the school’s unique dual-language program. “I am very proud of the duallanguage program that we have here at New Horizons,” Cardozo said. “We are an International Spanish Academy and have been
one for 16 years. It actually began the year before I arrived. It was the idea of the former principal, as well as the multicultural department at the school district, but I am very proud that I had an opportunity to grow the program.” The dual-language program has children learning in both English and Spanish. The children spend half of their day learning in English and half in Spanish. New Horizons is one of five schools in Palm Beach County that have partnerships with the Ministry of Education in Spain. This designates New Horizons as an International Spanish Academy. There are three elementary schools, one See CARDOZO, page 4
(Left) Retiring New Horizons Elementary School Principal Betsy Cardozo and (right) new Principal Dana Pallaria.