Town-Crier Newspaper March 15, 2019

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DOG PARK CONCERNS IN ROYAL PALM SEE STORY, PAGE 3

ITID OFFICIALS VISIT TALLAHASSEE SEE STORY, PAGE 4

THE

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

Your Community Newspaper

Volume 40, Number 11 March 15 - March 21, 2019

Serving Palms West Since 1980

Lox Groves Voters Elect Three New Council Members

INSIDE 2019 GUIDE

Pages 20 and 21

Bicycle Month A Great Time To Check Out The Bike Paths In RPB

At the Thursday, March 7 meeting of the Royal Palm Beach Village Council, Mayor Fred Pinto read a proclamation officially recognizing March as Florida Bicycle Month in the village. With temperatures still in the 70s, most residents don’t need a proclamation to know that it’s a nice time of year to enjoy bicycling. Page 3

LGES’s Annette Blanco Given Top District Award

Loxahatchee Groves Elementary School secretary Annette Blanco was honored as the Palm Beach County School District’s School-Related Employee of the Year by Superintendent Dr. Donald E. Fennoy in a surprise event on Tuesday. Page 5

Arden Celebrates The Grand Opening Of Its Two-Story Lakehouse

Arden, a new residential development off Southern Blvd., invited the public to celebrate the grand opening of its twostory Lakehouse, resort-style pools, fitness center, five-acre farm and barn on Saturday, March 9. Page 5

Palm Beach County Teacher of the Year Daniella Boyd is surprised by Superintendent Dr. Donald Fennoy’s arrival in her math classroom at Royal Palm Beach High School.

PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER

Daniella Boyd Of RPBHS Named Teacher Of The Year

By Denis Eirikis Town-Crier Staff Report Math teachers, at least ones who quietly excel, don’t usually command much media attention. So, there was no way that Royal Palm Beach High School math teacher Daniella Boyd could know that Palm Beach County School Superintendent Dr. Donald Fennoy, School Board Member Marcia Andrews, Principal Jesus Armas and a throng of media reporters were about to barge into her Calculus 101 class on Monday, March 11. Boyd was caught completely by surprise when Fennoy arrived to honor Boyd as the Palm Beach County School District’s Teacher of the Year. Teacher of the Year is a prestigious award in a school district as large as Palm Beach County’s. After all, Boyd is one of nearly 13,000 teachers currently employed by the district.

Boyd looked on in shock as the dignitaries, including her parents, husband and young son, bounded into the classroom as school district staff livestreamed the “Award Ambush” on its social media pages. “This is by far my most crowded classroom, and now all of you have made us really crowded,” Boyd smiled, clutching a bouquet of flowers handed to her by Fennoy. “As my students know, I am a proud product of the Palm Beach County public school system, which is why I love coming here every day.” Armas lauded Boyd as an exemplary teacher. “Mrs. Boyd is a master teacher and a professional educator of the highest magnitude,” he said. “Her knack for creating relationships with students, comprehensive knowledge of the subject matter, professionalism, willingness to

help other faculty members, and her humble, gracious and genuine persona make her the consummate teacher. We at Royal Palm Beach High School are blessed that she has chosen to be a member of our faculty and grateful that everyone in the district now knows what we have known for years.” Andrews was also on hand to congratulate Boyd. “We are so proud that a product of our school system has risen to become Teacher of the Year,” she said, then looked at Armas and continued, “Your school really seems to be on a roll here with good news after good news.” This highest of teacher honors is just one more recent accomplishment for Royal Palm Beach High School. Two months ago, Armas was named Palm Beach County’s Adult Principal of the Year. The State of Florida also recently See BOYD, page 7

Wellington’s Revenues Are Up, PBCFR Response Times Down

Bronco Lacrosse Boys Improve To 5-1 With Win Over Park Vista

On Friday, March 8, the Palm Beach Central High School boys lacrosse team hosted Park Vista High School and defeated the Cobras 9-5. The win pushed the Broncos to a 5-1 record on the season. Seven different players scored for the Broncos on the night, but it was Logan Rohack who led the squad with a hat-trick. Page 23 DEPARTMENT INDEX NEWS...............................3 - 22 NEWS BRIEFS......................... 7 SCHOOLS........................... 8 - 9 PEOPLE................................. 10 COLUMNS............................. 18 BUSINESS............................. 19 CALENDAR............................ 22 SPORTS..........................23 - 24 CLASSIFIEDS................ 25 - 26 Visit Us On The Web At WWW.GOTOWNCRIER.COM

By M. Dennis Taylor Town-Crier Staff Report Presentations on Wellington’s financial health and the village’s annual report from Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue highlighted the Wellington Village Council meeting on Tuesday, March 12. Also on the agenda was a public hearing on improving small cell wireless service and the awarding of a long-planned rehabilitation contract for Wellington’s wastewater facility. A presentation of the audit results for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2018 revealed the Village of Wellington’s finances to be very healthy and very liquid. The budget was projected to receive $41.3 million in revenue but brought in more than expected with $42.66 million collected. In the budgeted expenditures of $45.7 million, only $41.2 million was spent. No control-related issues were found in the current or previous year, and the outside auditors found that the records are in compliance. “The budget audit is our report card as a council, and I’m quite

proud of this audit,” Vice Mayor Michael Drahos said, congratulating the village staff for making it happen. Councilwoman Tanya Siskind echoed his comments saying, “Few municipalities have a report as good as this.” The annual report from PBCFR for the same fiscal year was presented by District Chief William Rowley and Division Chief Rich Ellis. In situations where seconds count, the big news is that the average fire-rescue response time has been improved by some nine seconds, from 6:45 to 6:36 minutes. Overall calls remained consistent, with nearly three-quarters of the 5,253 calls being medical issues. “Response time is an area where PBCFR can affect success,” Rowley said. Rowley explained that 112 fire calls ranged from a pot on the stove to a structure fire of a room burning, and a grass fire to acreage ablaze. The equipment to fight these fires is maintained by staff technicians and mechanics. “The

condition of these units is excellent,” said Rowley, who pointed out that staff maintains them very well. He said preventative maintenance is done on site so the equipment is still in the area it serves and not at the maintenance facility where it would have to have a replacement vehicle stand in to provide service. Rowley said that the team from each of the four stations that cover Wellington is independent, but the teams can work together for larger situations, even drawing other regional teams to respond for large events. He continued that teams undergo continuous training to maintain their proficiency in such things as vehicle extrication and the methods of disassembling a car, which needs to occur sometimes in the 332 auto accidents annually in the village. Ellis spoke about PBCFR’s new Mobile Integrated Health initiative that works with the preponderance of medical calls, some 60 percent of which are made by what they See PBCFR REPORT, page 4

By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Loxahatchee Groves town council candidates Laura Danowski, Lisa El-Ramey and Robert Shorr won sweeping election victories on Tuesday, March 12, unseating two incumbents and filling the seat of retiring Mayor Dave Browning, who declined to run for a fifth term. According to unofficial results from the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office, Danowski took 359 votes (59.54 percent) to defeat Vice Mayor Todd McLendon, who had 244 votes (40.46 percent) in the race for Seat 2. El-Ramey received 342 votes (56.72 percent) to replace Councilwoman Anita Kane, who had 261 votes (43.28 percent) in the race for Seat 3. Shorr garnered 378 votes (62.48 percent) to Karen Plante’s 227 votes (37.52 percent) in the race for Seat 4. Two referendum questions were also on the ballot, but the results were not nearly as clear. Question 1, asking voters if they wanted to remove language from the charter requiring the town to use the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement services was listed as tied at 295 YES and 295 NO, as of Wednesday afternoon. A question asking voters if they wanted to extend the time period for repaying bonds from three to 11 years passed with 303 in sup-

port (50.75 percent) to 294 against (49.25 percent). Danowski hopes the election signifies a turning point for the town. “We need to start working together, and I know that is a phrase that has been used over and over, but the division has gotten us here, and it’s just time to stop that and pull in the same direction,” Danowski told the Town-Crier on Wednesday. “I think it is an historic election because of the turnout, but also because of the disparity in the voting results. Normally it’s only by one or two or three percentage points, or in some cases by four or five votes. People have come out and voted and made that gap larger, so it tells me that they are ready to be part of the solution.” Danowski’s goals are to spend money responsibly. “To put our needs before the wants, and when I say our needs, I mean the residents’ needs,” she said. “To keep reminding people to come to meetings and to participate and be heard, because we can’t do it without the residents.” Danowski’s primary goal is to create a published road maintenance schedule that anybody can go and check on the town’s web site. “The next two tasks we need to tackle are negotiating with the See LOX ELECTION, page 4

Robert Shorr, Lisa El-Ramey and Laura Danowski celebrate their victories after the returns came in Tuesday evening.

PHOTO BY RON BUKLEY/TOWN-CRIER

PROSECCO & POLO

The Wellington Historical Society held its Prosecco & Polo event on Thursday, March 7 at the Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame on Lake Worth Road. The evening included a tour of the museum and light bites by Wellington Hospitality Group. Shown above are Allyson Samiljan, Museum of Polo Director of Development Brenda Lynn and Maureen Gross. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 7 PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER

McKinlay Meeting Focuses On Acreage-Area Roads

Officials at the meeting included FDOT District 4 Secretary Gerry O’Reilly, ITID Engineer Jay Foy, Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency Executive Director Nick Uhren, Westlake City Manager Ken Cassel, Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay and County Engineer David Ricks. PHOTO BY RON BUKLEY/TOWN-CRIER

By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Several hundred people were in the theater at Seminole Ridge High School on Monday, March 11 for a town hall meeting organized by District 6 County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay focused on traffic improvement plans for the western communities. Attendees were also able to air complaints about road problems in the area. McKinlay said the meeting was designed to finish a discussion that had to be called short at her Feb. 13 town hall meeting held at the Acreage library when the library had to close. Panelists included Florida Department of Transportation District 4 Secretary Gerry O’Reilly, Palm

Beach County Engineer David Ricks, Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency Executive Director Nick Uhren, Indian Trail Improvement District Engineer Jay Foy and Westlake City Manager Ken Cassel. “I heard from a lot of you that you would like to have a meeting just on this particular issue of traffic. What I’ve tried to do tonight is assemble the different partners that we work with on traffic-related issues in Palm Beach County,” McKinlay said, pointing out that numerous other agencies were not represented that evening, even though they play critical roles in the traffic planning process, such as the South Florida Water Management District. Panelists gave presentations on

their respective responsibilities in the transportation planning process. O’Reilly said that FDOT is primarily concerned with safety projects, but also gives attention to intermodal transport, which include the State Road 80/Southern Blvd. road widening project currently underway from four to six lanes beginning at Forest Hill/ Crestwood boulevards to the new Arden community near 20-Mile Bend. “Roads like State Road 80 carry large amounts of traffic and carry them across regions, so they’re not just local to an area,” he said. “State Road 80, which is under construction right now, is an example of that, where we got state See ROADS, page 22


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