NEW BOARD MEMBERS AT FOUNDATION SEE STORY, PAGE 3
A DAISY SCOUT ON A COOKIE MISSION SEE STORY, PAGE 7
THE
TOWN-CRIER WELLINGTON • ROYAL PALM BEACH • LOXAHATCHEE • THE ACREAGE
Your Community Newspaper
INSIDE
PBC Tax Collector’s Office Has Moved From RPB To Westlake
Volume 43, Number 5 March 11 - March 24, 2022
Serving Palms West Since 1980
CENTRAL CHAMBER INSTALLATION
The Royal Palm Beach office of the Palm Beach County Tax Collector closed on Friday, Feb. 11, and the agency began operations on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at its new service center in the City of Westlake at 16440 Town Center Parkway, about nine miles west of the previous location. Page 3
Star Liquors Celebrates Return To Wellington’s Town Square Plaza
Star Liquors celebrated its longawaited return to Wellington’s Town Square shopping plaza on Friday, March 4 with a wine and liquor tasting event. Star Liquors, which also has a location in Wellington’s Courtyard Shops, vacated its previous location when a new CVS store was built. Star Liquors has now re-opened at the site recently vacated by CVS when the drug store chain moved to its new location. Page 5
HCA Florida Palms West Hospital Unveils New Name And Branding
HCA Florida Palms West Hospital unveiled its new name and new look on Thursday, March 3. It is one of 12 hospitals in Southeast Florida officially adopting a new name that incorporates HCA Florida Healthcare. HCA Florida Palms West Hospital signals the hospital’s connection to one of the nation’s largest collaborative healthcare networks. The name was announced at a special celebration held at the hospital. Page 15
March Madness Youth Basketball Tourney Back In Wellington
During the weekend of Saturday, March 5 and Sunday, March 6, the Wellington Wolves travel basketball organization hosted the 20th annual Wellington March Madness youth basketball tournament. In all, this year’s field featured 117 teams, which was a record number of entries for the tournament. Of the 117 teams in the field, 19 of the squads were affiliated with the Wellington Wolves. Page 23 DEPARTMENT INDEX NEWS...............................3 - 20 NEWS BRIEFS......................... 7 SPORTS......................... 23 - 25 PEOPLE......................... 26 - 28 SCHOOLS.............................. 30 BUSINESS............................. 33 CLASSIFIEDS........................ 34 COLUMNS............................. 35 Visit Us On The Web At WWW.GOTOWNCRIER.COM
The Central Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce held its installation luncheon on Friday, Feb. 26 at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. At the luncheon, the chamber installed its new board of directors, including Wellington Regional Medical Center CEO Pam Tahan as the new chair. Shown above are Central Chamber CEO Mary Lou Bedford, former WRMC CEO Kevin DiLallo, Tahan and Hispanic Chamber CEO Maria Antuña. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 8 PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER
Groves Incumbents Robert Shorr And Laura Danowski Narrowly Win Re-Election
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Loxahatchee Groves Town Council incumbents Laura Danowski and Robert Shorr won re-election to their seats Tuesday, March 8 by narrow margins. According to unofficial results released by the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office, Danowski defeated former Councilman Todd McLendon in the Seat 2 race by 27 votes, taking 338 votes (52.08 percent) to McLendon’s 311 votes (47.92 percent). In the Seat 4 race, Shorr defeated challenger Paul Coleman by just 10 votes, taking 330 votes (50.77 percent) to Coleman’s 320 votes (49.23 percent). Both incumbents were elected to their second three-year terms. Shorr said it’s exciting to have won, even by a small margin. “Laura and I and the council
for three years have gotten a lot of good things done, and a lot more good things are to come,” he said. “It’s exciting to be able to sit on there and keep moving forward and doing things for the residents and the landowners. Our goal is to build a maintainable infrastructure with roads, drainage and canals. I think in the next couple of years, we can complete that and get in a position where we are just maintaining what we have. Right now, we’re just playing catch-up from a 100-year-old water control district.” Shorr said the near future could be complicated, particularly with the volatile price of oil. “We’re going to have to get some new proposals and figure out what we can afford to do,” he said, adding that he does not want to put the town in debt. “Right now, that is a good place to be, and
we should strive to stay that way, in my opinion. We live within our means.” With the fallout from the war in Ukraine, Shorr said he does not know what position the town will be in when budgeting begins in July. “Maybe we’ll have domestic production up and oil prices coming back down, and we can get back to a relatively normal position, maybe we won’t,” he said. “Who knows? When the time comes that we start looking at next year’s budget, what we can do with the money that we have, we’ll have to evaluate the costs.” Shorr said that the town is currently in a good position fiscally and staff-wise. “We’ve got more staff out in public works than we’ve ever had,” he said. “We’ve got more See LOX VOTE, page 7
Wellington’s Tanya Siskind And John McGovern Vault Past Challengers
By Callie Sharkey Town-Crier Staff Report Wellington Vice Mayor John McGovern and Councilwoman Tanya Siskind both handily defended their seats during the Tuesday, March 8 municipal election and earned new four-year terms on the Wellington Village Council. According to unofficial results released by the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office, Seat 2 incumbent Siskind defeated both of her challengers, taking 3,788 votes (58.71 percent). Businessman Tony Nelson took 1,594 votes (24.71 percent), and Realtor Karen Morris-Clarke took 1,070 votes (16.58 percent). In the Seat 3 race, incumbent McGovern took 4,121 votes (62.90 percent), while his challenger, business owner Johnny Meier, took 2,431 votes (37.10 percent). Approximately 6,500 voters cast their ballots. Both winners gathered with supporters at the Wanderers Club after the polls closed. By the next morning, McGovern was ready to get back to work. “This morning was an overwhelming sense of joy and confidence in the future,” McGovern told the Town-Crier the day after the election. “Yesterday’s result was a resounding statement that Wellington is on the right track, and that the policies of this council were embraced. In fact, the voters said they want them to continue.” McGovern noted the unusually high turnout for a race with nothing else on the ballot. The election yielded the highest turnout for a stand-alone race in Wellington’s history, with only the 2016 race paired with the presidential preference primary seeing more voters. “I was very pleased that so many people voted,” he said. “They wanted their voices heard, which makes the statement that Wellington is headed in the right direction even louder.”
Wellington Councilwoman Tanya Siskind and Vice Mayor John McGovern celebrate their election victories together Tuesday evening at the Wanderers Club. PHOTO BY JOSHUA MANNING/TOWN-CRIER
McGovern said he partially shares his election victory with the many people who help make Wellington a great place to live. “I think it says a lot about our community. It says a lot about the citizens who serve on our advisory boards, it says a lot about the greatness of the professionals who are throughout the Wellington staff working for the residents of Wellington every day. To the people who do the heavy lifting every day, the credit is theirs, too,” McGovern said. At their joint election night party, both winners poured gratitude on their staff and families, in addition to other supporters. “Mr. Vice Mayor, we have walked through fire once again and came through victorious. I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else, so thank you, John,” said Siskind, who also ran alongside McGovern and won in 2018. “I really want to say thank you to See WELLINGTON, page 16
POLO FOR A PURPOSE
Wellington Equestrian Committee Seeks Changes To Manure Storage Rules
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Wellington’s Equestrian Preserve Committee held a contentious, three-hour meeting on Wednesday, March 2 reviewing the environmental chapter of the village’s code. In the end, the board continued the item to April 6 to finish reviewing the document. The environmental portion is a small part of the code of ordinances under review, but meaningful and important to the equestrian community, which is subject to rules that several members of the committee believe holds horse owners to an unfair standard. Florida Agricultural Water Policy Director Chris Pettit, who was attending the meeting remotely, said the village has a legal obliga-
tion to observe the state’s laws on best management practices, which the village has attempted to follow by enacting revised codes. Director of Strategic Planning Michael O’Dell pointed out that the Wellington Village Council on Jan. 25 had approved the first reading of the village’s environmental chapter of the code of ordinances and directed that the Equestrian Preserve Committee again review the best management practices for livestock waste and fertilizer management. O’Dell said that Wellington’s best management practices rules began nearly 20 years ago after the state’s approval of the Everglades Forever Act. The village responded by creating Section 24, a 365-acre rainwater storage area also known as the Marjory
Stoneman Douglas Environmental Preserve off of Flying Cow Road. Robert Higgins, owner of Higgins Engineering, which performed the original modeling for water control structures in Wellington, said the Everglades Forever Act set standards for discharge of all water into the Everglades for phosphorus at 50 parts per billion. At the time, Wellington was divided into two parts for water discharge. Basin A, north of Pierson Road, discharged into the C-51 Canal, and Basin B, south of Pierson Road, discharged directly into part of the Everglades. Higgins said that at considerable cost to Wellington and the South Florida Water Management District, Basin B was “replumbed” See MANURE, page 16
The sound of galloping hoofbeats once again thundered around an elated audience Monday, Feb. 28 during the seventh annual Polo for a Purpose event at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington. The exciting match had a close finish between Team Horse Scout and the Dracarys Polo Team. Proceeds from the “Passage to India” fundraiser will benefit organizations supporting children and families touched by childhood cancer. Shown above is leukemia survivor Sam Stull holding Melly, with his mother Jean. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 20 PHOTO BY MEREDITH BUROW/TOWN-CRIER
Jeff Hmara Elected To Sixth Term On RPB Council
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Royal Palm Beach Councilman Jeff Hmara claimed his sixth twoyear term on Tuesday, March 8. The race for the Group 1 seat on the Royal Palm Beach Village Council was the only seat on the municipal election ballot. A total of 2,746 voters cast ballots, according to unofficial results released by the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office. Hmara took 1,603 votes (58.38 percent) to 1,143 votes (41.62 percent) for challenger Julie Highsmith, a former member of the village’s Education Advisory Board who currently works as a teacher at H.L. Johnson Elementary School.
Hmara celebrated with his supporters at the Madison Green Country Club after the polls closed. “I can’t be more grateful for all of the support and help that I got for this campaign,” Hmara said after the results were announced. “To be looking forward to another couple of years is just spectacular. We’re at a point right now where there are a lot of great opportunities, but there are also a lot of great challenges that are affecting us here in this community.” He said one of the reasons he wanted to continue his service was that he has learned a lot about the village and made many strong connections he can use to help the community. “I think they are
going to pay off as we go into the next term,” Hmara said. “I really look forward to doing more of what we’ve done over the past 10 years and taking this community to an even greater place than it is right now.” He said one of the pressing issues now is the development going on outside the village and the traffic it brings into the village. “It’s going to continue to bring more and more traffic to us,” he said. “Traffic and traffic congestion is going to be a huge issue to us, and it’s going to get bigger and bigger as the area around us grows.” Even if the village did not have See HMARA, page 4
Newly re-elected Councilman Jeff Hmara (center) is surrounded by supporters Tuesday night at the Madison Green Country Club. PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER