Page 18 June 8 - June 14, 2012
NEWS Stroke/Cardiac Disease Support Group At WRMC Wellington Regional Medical Center has announced a new monthly support group that will meet at the hospital, focused on providing education and support to patients with cardiovascular diseases such as stroke, heart attack, congestive heart failure, etc. The “Cope to Hope” support group will help patients and their family members cope with cardiovascular illnesses through education about their diseases, and provide wellness and nutritional information to support lifestyle changes. Physician speakers will be invited to address the group at each meeting. The group will meet on the third Wednesday of each month at 3 p.m. at Wellington Regional Medical Center in Conference Room A. The first meeting
St. Michael
Sanctuary Completed
continued from page 1 fabs the walls,” Weiss said. “That reduced the cost quite a bit, to have the walls prefabbed, and they just brought them in with cranes and lowered them into place.” In addition to the sanctuary, the building has nursery and choir rooms, as well as a large foyer or narthex separated from the sanctuary by doors. Weiss said the narthex was built large in order to give people talking space, which they did not have in the old chapel. “We set it up so we can have our coffee hour here following worship,” she said. The sanctuary is also equipped with an audio-visual room and
will be held Wednesday, June 20. The guest speaker will be Dr. David Soria, chairman of emergency medicine at WRMC, who will speak on “Recognizing Symptoms of Heart Attack and Stroke: Improving Your Odds.” Refreshments will be served. For more information, call (561) 7532641.
The Kevin Perkins Golf Academy will start its 18th annual Junior Summer Golf Camp on Monday, June 11 at Polo West Golf Club in Wellington. The Junior Summer Golf Camp is open to boys and girls ages 7 to 17 and will take place weekly from June 11 through Aug. 17. Each weekly camp is conducted Mon-
The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office has been notified that registered voters are receiving calls asking them to reregister to vote. The caller indicates he can register the voter over the telephone if they just give him their name, full Social Security number and address. The voter registration form
does not require a full Social Security number. The information required is only the last 4 digits of your Social Security number or your Florida driver’s license number. Every voter registration application requires a voter to complete the form and sign it prior to mailing or hand-delivering the application to the supervisor’s office. Voters who register anywhere in the State of Florida are not required to re-register to vote. The only time a voter would be required to complete a voter registration form again would be to change their name, update their address, change their party affiliation, update their signature or to replace their Voter Information Card. The Supervisor of Elections Office is not placing calls to voters. Beware anyone who calls and represents themselves as someone who can register you to vote and asks you to provide them with any of your personal information.
large viewing screens on either side of the altar. They still use paper programs, but the church plans to use the screens more and more. “It’s not the kind of thing we wanted to hit the people with all of a sudden,” Weiss said. “We’ve begun to use them to put the lessons up there. A woman who just joined the congregation said, ‘Oh, I love them up there.’ She said she never could read them in the bulletin.” There are also monitors in the narthex and the nursery. The church held another fundraiser to purchase chairs for the sanctuary at a cost of $40,000. The chairs give the sanctuary more flexibility than traditional church pews or theater-style seats. “Pretty soon we’re going to move some of the chairs out and put it more like worship in the
round because we don’t have as much attendance in the summer,” Weiss said. “That way, it will be more intimate.” The church is still using the old altar and pulpit, but eventually
they will be replaced. The cross above the altar, one outside the building, the piano for the sanctuary, as well as tables and a credenza in the narthex were all donated.
Kevin Perkins Golf Academy Camp Starts Monday
Bishop Ed Benoway of the Florida Bahamas Synod leads a dedication service at St. Michael last month.
Senate GOP
August Primary
continued from page 1 son has served as an elected supervisor on the Palm Beach Soil & Water Conservation District. “I just resigned my seat to run for this seat,” she said. “I’ve tried to use my knowledge and education to volunteer in the community for educational outreach about the environment and agriculture and, through that process, became really familiar with the legislative process and how things work all the way from the ground level to Tallahassee and back.” This led people, including current legislators, to encourage her to run for state office. “I think that it’s time now for some citizen candidates to go into government and really bring some common-sense solutions,” she said. “It’s a little heavy right now. I think that business people can help to unload that weight.” Peterson stressed that she does not consider herself a politician.
Swoosh
PZA Board: It Is A Sign
continued from page 1 approve the architectural element,” Flinchum said. Wellington Attorney Jeff Kurtz said that the Architectural Review Board does not have the power to determine if the swoosh is an architectural element rather than a roof sign. He noted, however, that PZA Board has the ability to make that distinction. Project Manager Craig McDonald said that the architectural swoosh — which vaguely resembles a giant French fry — is part of the fast-food chain’s national rebranding. In a letter to Wellington staff, he said the elements add to the building’s theme. “The roof cap elements serve the purpose of breaking up the flat planes of the elevations and enhance the silhouette of the building,” he wrote. On Wednesday, McDonald said that the architectural elements don’t serve the same purpose as a
The Town-Crier
WWW. GOTOWNCRIER. COM
day through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. Polo West Golf Club is located off South Shore Blvd., at the site of the former Greenview Cove Golf Club. For more information about the Junior Summer Golf Camp and other programs provided by the Kevin Perkins Golf Academy, visit www.kevinperkinsgolfacademy. com or call (561) 301-3783.
Scam Warning From County Elections Office
ADRIENNE ROWLES JOINS WELLINGTON ROTARY
On Thur sday, May 24, Adrienne Rowles became the newest member of the Wellington Rotary Club. She was sponsored for membership by Joanne Dee of Floridian Community Bank. Shown above are Dee, Rowles, Wellington Rotary Club President Karen Hardin and Membership Chair Laura Jaffe. “We had a lot of people who decided they wanted to contribute toward special items,” she said. “They did it in memory of people. Eventually we’re going to have some sort of recognition wall or
plaque to honor all of those special donations.” For more information, visit the church’s web site at www.st michaelelc.com or call the church office at (561) 793-4999.
Pastor Marjorie Weiss shows the new altar.
Pastor Weiss in the choir room.
The chapel is equipped with a donated piano and keyboard.
The new building has a large portico that is separated with doors from the main chapel.
“I’m somebody who’s concerned about her community and has business experience,” she said. “I come from an entrepreneurial background. I’ve been self-employed. My parents are self-employed. We’re people used to making something from nothing. I think we could use more people like that.” Peterson said the prevailing issue anywhere is jobs and the economy. “My focus is on stimulating the local economy here,” she said. “How do we stimulate the state economy? How do we encourage small business growth and development?” She said she is also concerned about education, noting that companies often decide against coming to Florida because there is not enough of a skilled workforce. “That’s where education and job creation go hand in hand,” Peterson said. She believes that creating a good environment for small businesses can be more beneficial than helping a few big ones. “It’s more effective if we remove the red tape and encourage people to start
their own businesses, and encourage the private sector,” Peterson said. For more information, visit www. votemelanie.com. GEOFFREY SOMMERS Sommers, 31, grew up in southern Palm Beach County, where his family still lives. His wife, Allison, and her family are also from South Florida. “We are recently married,” he said. “We met when we were 11 years old.” Both Sommers and his wife are lawyers. Her practice is in criminal defense, and he specializes in corporate and commercial work after spending several years overseas. “I came back, and I have friends who don’t have jobs,” he said. “They are also educated, and they don’t have the jobs they want or don’t have jobs at all. This is what motivated me to run. What qualifies me to run is the experience that I do have in helping businesses as they deal with government regulation. I can see ways in which true fiscal conservatism can assist businesses.”
Sommers has not held political office before. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science, a master’s degree in international relations, a law degree with a specialization in international trade, and a master’s degree in international and comparative law. He regularly commutes to the District of Columbia, where he teaches law at George Washington University. “I am excited that we are now in the summer months so I am no longer on a plane every week,” he said. “The semester is over, so I am focusing on this full-time now.” Sommers said changes need to be made to the state’s business climate. “I believe we deserve representation that is friendly to business and economic growth,” he said. “I care about our community.” He said his strength is his understanding of how government affects business. “I really can’t stress that enough,” Sommers said. “I believe it will be private industry, not government, that will lead our recovery.” The top issues of the campaign will be jobs, the economy, schools
traditional sign. “It’s not signage,” he said. “It’s not internally illuminated. It won’t light up yellow at night. It’s simply a way for us to bring an identity as we move forward. You will see this type of building with the swoosh as an identity for McDonald’s going forward. It’s a critical component of our new design.” He said that both the color and the architectural design are federally trademarked parts of the restaurant’s image. Flinchum said that part of the problem is that the design element is in the iconic McDonald’s yellow, which helps to identify the restaurant. “We asked them if they would make it white, but they would not,” he said. “It’s clearly a corporate color that identifies that particular establishment.” PZA Board Member Paul Adams, who works in corporate real estate, said that by requesting that McDonald’s change the color, Wellington would be hindering its branding. “What an intrusion on their corporate identity that we tell a corporate chain that they have to use white,” he said. “If you’re driving
along the highway, maybe having a cohesive [element] throughout the country would allow you to know that that is a McDonald’s.” Some board members noted that the problem was that the “swoosh” sticks up above the roof line and asked if it could be lowered. But McDonald said that it could not. “It doesn’t meet McDonald’s architectural standards,” he explained. PZA Board Member Marcia Radosevich said that McDonald was providing conflicting information. “Your swoosh meets all of those [sign code] definitions,” she said. “It’s federally trademarked for brand design protection. You want it to be used as a corporate identity.” But McDonald insisted that it is an architectural element, not a sign. PZA Board Member Carol Coleman said that it would still identify McDonald’s. “It triggers brand recognition,” she said. Adams said that if Wellington is willing to accept the same element in a different color, it negates concerns about it being a sign.
“The argument is destroyed by the fact that they would allow it if it were another color,” he said. But Radosevich said that the fact that McDonald’s wouldn’t change the color suggested it was more a sign than an architectural element. “If it’s not a sign, then it shouldn’t make a difference what color it is,” she said. “Because color does make a difference, it is serving that function. We simply have to enforce the code.” PZA Board Member Mike Drahos was concerned that excluding the swoosh from the definition of a sign could be a dangerous path. “I think our job is to protect and preserve the code,” he said. “If we water down the code, we lose what makes us unique. Though I think this is nice-looking, it doesn’t meet code in my opinion.” Adams made a motion to approve the appeal by McDonald’s, deeming the swoosh an architectural element, but the motion died for lack of second. Coleman then made a motion to deny the appeal, which passed 61 with Adams dissenting.
and healthcare, he said. “We have a broken system,” Sommers said. “We are all concerned about our schools. I do believe that opportunity starts in our schools, so if we are going to support our local businesses, we also have to support our community’s children so they are in a position at some stage of their lives to take advantage of a positive, growing environment for business.” Sommers said his campaign is about fundamentals. “There are certain principles that I believe come from our nation’s founding and are applicable to basically every decision that I would be honored to make as my community’s legislator,” he said.
Landscaping
Workers Will Move To New Park
continued from page 1 $41,755. Bids ranged from a low of $33,140, which was thrown out, to a high of $104,320. Village Manager Ray Liggins said hiring the private firm will go a long way toward resolving the Commons Park maintenance conundrum. “In last year’s budget, we knew we were going to be bringing Com-
Blotter continued from page 6 not been identified at the time of the report. JUNE 5 — Two residents of The Acreage called the PBSO’s Acreage/Loxahatchee substation Tuesday to report acts of vandalism. According to separate PBSO reports, the victims discovered that someone had damaged their mailboxes overnight. According to one PBSO report, a resident of 89th Place North reported that sometime between 9 a.m. on Monday and 8 a.m. the following morning, someone tried to pry her mailbox off its post. There were no suspects or witnesses at the time of the report. In a second PBSO report, a resident of 88th Road North contacted the substation after discovering that his mailbox had been knocked off its stand. According to the report, the victim’s wife left
Freedom and opportunity are at the heart of his campaign, he said. “I know it sounds cliché, but to me it’s not,” Sommers said. “To me it’s applicable in every situation, whether I’m deciding an issue on business or healthcare, or education. I look to those guiding principles and say, ‘Well, what was the intent of our founders?’ I believe that in many cases we have moved away from the individual and more toward the government. I firmly believe that it is government’s responsibility to be accountable to all of us as individuals, more so than it is for individuals to be accountable to the government.” For more information, visit www. geoffsommers.com. mons Park on this year,” Liggins said. “In doing that, we knew we had a choice of adding employees to our payroll or bidding out some work that our employees are doing and transferring those employees over to the new park, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. We took eight parks that can be maintained with standard equipment — mowers, edgers, weedeaters — and put it out to bid, and we got some very competitive bids.” Liggins said Superior Landscaping is a reputable firm that already does work for Palm Beach County at fire stations. the home at approximately 3:15 a.m. on Tuesday and did not see anything wrong. At approximately 4 a.m., the victim went outside to see why his dogs were barking and observed a tan golf cart with two passengers driving down the street. According to the report, the victim did not see the occupants damage his mailbox, but when he went to leave for work, he discovered the damage. There was no further information available at the time of the report. JUNE 6 — A deputy from the PBSO’s Acreage/Loxahatchee substation was dispatched to a home in Royal Ascot Estates on Wednesday regarding a theft. According to a PBSO report, someone removed the victim’s lawn mower from his home. The stolen mower was valued at $2,600. There was no further information available at the time of the report.