Page 20 October 19 - October 25, 2012
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NEWS State Senate
Abruzzo Vs. Peterson
continued from page 1 to put through comprehensive immigration reform,” she said. “We’re getting beat by countries like Canada and New Zealand. We have to do better.” She noted, however, that some of Florida’s industry relies on immigrant workers. “We can construct a very intricate guest worker program that is specific to our economic roots,” Peterson said. “We can take the initiative in writing legislation and guest worker programs that make our state more advantageous for legal workers to come here. Rather than put a BandAid on the issue, I’m going to take the initiative, write legislation and make Florida the most advantageous place to come if you want to come here, pay taxes and service our industries.” Abruzzo said he has firsthand experience in addressing the immigration problem through his time in the Coast Guard. “This is a national issue,” he
said. “But yet, in Florida, we are greatly affected. I cannot support an Arizona-type bill as long as people can be racially profiled. That’s not what Florida is about. It’s not what America is about.” He said that a similar bill came before the legislature and did not include training for law enforcement. “They wanted to have our deputies go out and be immigration officials,” Abruzzo said. “But yet, they didn’t budget for training. That is inappropriate, and I would not support a measure like that in the state.” The two differed in their opinions on the use of public money for school voucher programs. “I’m against taking money out of our public education system,” Abruzzo said. “I think it’s wrong.” He said that Florida has a poor teacher retention rate, which leads to the problems in schools that would drive students to other programs. “They aren’t just leaving to go to other schools,” he said. “They’re going into another profession. We won’t be able to stabilize our education system until we get great and qualified teachers to stay right here in Florida.”
Abruzzo noted that he did support a measure for corporations to give scholarships to low-income students. “It was for corporations who gave scholarships to students who were more than 200 percent below the poverty line to get them out of a failing school,” he said, stressing that the program used private funds. Peterson, on the other hand, said she thought parents should have more choice in the education their children receive. “I’m looking for bold reforms when it comes to education,” she said. “I want to empower the local school districts to really reform our administration. The reason charter schools are so successful is the administration. If the success of the charter schools is because the administration is more focused toward business, we need to look at that model and see if we can’t bring that to our public school administration.” Peterson said that the state should work to cultivate great principals to lead schools. “Teachers will tell you that a school is only as good as its principal,” she said. In closing, Abruzzo said that he
hopes voters will look at his experience. “My time in the legislature has truly been about getting things done,” he said. “There’s a saying here in Wellington, ‘You’re either a show horse or a work horse.’ I went to Tallahassee to be a work horse. I think we delivered in a big way, passing 20 bills in four years. Many have been about public safety, helping our economy and helping education. I am proud to be the Democratic nominee, and I hope that I have your support this election season.” Peterson said she is invested in the community and will work for residents. “This election isn’t about party,” she said. “It’s about our future. Every day I speak to people… and they are concerned about the state of our state. I feel that now, more than ever, we have to have a strong state. The support I need on Election Day is yours.” Also speaking at Wednesday’s chamber forum were State House District 86 candidates Mark Pafford and Tami Donnally, as well as Palm Beach County state attorney hopefuls Dave Aronberg, Dina Keever and Robert Gershman.
(Above) Melanie Peterson with Victor Connor and Tami Donnally. (Left) Joseph Abruzzo with Laura Jaffe. PHOTOS BY LAUREN MIRÓ/TOWN-CRIER
ALA Forum
Indian Trail Candidates
continued from page 1 Insurance, then became chief inspector for kennel clubs at Flagler, Biscayne and Hollywood. “Combined it was over 1,500 people that I was responsible for,” he said. He later started his own business. “Being from Jamaica, we like working for ourselves,” he said. “I opened up a bail bonds agency. One thing led me to another and my first experience coming to Loxahatchee was to pick up someone, to arrest them. I was here for three days. It was not like Miami. People would walk by and say, ‘hello,’” Enriquez is finishing up his first four-year term as an ITID supervisor. He has lived in The Acreage since 2002. “I’m originally from Miami, and I’ve been in aviation all my life,” he said, working as a pilot, inspector or mechanic for firms including Pan Am, U.S. Customs, Palm Beach County, the Bro-
Lox Groves
District, Town Meet
continued from page 1 gether, the town and the district can solve the problem. “We have the brainpower and the ability to make these things happen,” he said. “There may be some issues to be overcome, but I believe if we’re all together, same goals, same page, we have the collective ability to do it.” LGWCD Administrator Clete Saunier agreed, explaining that the agenda items under discussion had been developed by the Intergovernmental Coordinating Committee, made up of himself, Kutney, Supervisor John Ryan and Vice Mayor Jim Rockett. “Mr. Ryan actually prepared this agenda, at least in its initial form, as a suggestion for us to consider,” Saunier said. “I think I would
Port Race
Richards Vs. Black
continued from page 9 and increase our throughput,” Richards said. “That has been his focus, and what a blessing, because we have just experienced our fourth year of increased profit margins. Our margins are now at 51 percent.” For three of the past four years, the port has cut expenses while still diversifying its revenue base. “The port has never been this financially strong, and it’s in a down economy,” Richards said, adding that even better days are on the horizon. “Tropical Shipping and other shippers of the port have reported significantly larger cargo movements recently.” He is also proud that the port is now home to a popular cruise ship. “We are now in a position where we have diversified our revenue base with the Bahamas Celebra-
World Of Beer Wellington Anniversary Event Oct. 20 World of Beer Wellington will host its one-year anniversary and WOBtoberfest celebration Saturday, Oct. 20 from noon to 2 a.m. WOBtoberfest Wellington will feature Radeberger, Schofferhofer Heferweizen, Schofferhofer Grapefruit and Berliner Kindl drafts. At 1 p.m. there will be a special release of Cigar City kegs and bottles. There will be a beer stein– holding contest and a Radeberger snowboard. Plus, don’t miss out on the anniversary cupcakes. “WOBtoberfest at World of Beer Wellington is a celebration of German Beer,” Director of Marketing Lisa Weatherston said. “With live entertainment and raf-
Halloween
Fall Festival Saturday
continued from page 1 called paintless paintball, for $5 a game. “It’s basically a big course of inflatables,” Garvey said. “Kids are given laser guns and can run around and try to catch each other.” For adults and kids alike, there will be booths, vendors and food. “We’re going to have great fair food this year,” Garvey said. “We have a new food vendor.” And throughout the night, some of Wellington’s finest talent will take the stage. “There will be plenty of entertainment on the stage,” Garvey said. “We have a couple of dance studios who will be performing, and Ultima Fitness will be doing tae kwon do and Zumba demonstrations.” The pinnacle of the event, though, is the costume contest. Popular with toddlers to teens and even adults, the contest brings out the spooky, scary, adorable and creative. Costumes will be judged and winners selected in each age category for the most original, the scariest and best look-alike costumes. Garvey encouraged residents to come out and enjoy the event. “It’s
ward County Sheriff’s Office and currently for NextEra Energy. “I love The Acreage,” he said. “I remember my uncle down in South Bay. They had a farm there, and they used to come down and pick me up. They had horses and goats and pigs, you name it. I should have been born in the 1920s back in Cuba and lived on a farm. That’s what attracted me and my family to The Acreage.” ALA governmental liaison Mike Erickson served as moderator, asking questions randomly selected from a list of 44 questions submitted via e-mail or prepared by ALA members. One candidate would answer the question and the opponents subsequently offered their view. Enriquez got the first question on whether he favored additional commercial development. “I support some additional development,” he said. “I think that commercial development should be in specific areas, for example, Seminole Pratt Whitney and Orange. I think it’s a good place, but we have to think logically as far as how that
is going to impact our community.” Dunkley said he supports development on Northlake Blvd. as long as it remains within the designated boundaries. “If they build the shopping center at Northlake it will have a bus route from Northlake to the hospital that would connect us to the rest of Palm Beach,” he said, explaining that Acreage residents are now paying taxes for PalmTran but currently receive no benefits from it. Hendrick was asked whether he would support the extension of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road to the Beeline Highway. “I support it,” he said. “If anybody has gone out to Okeechobee or anyplace up in that area, what a mess. You have to go down Northlake to the Beeline.” Damone agreed. “I 100 percent support Seminole Pratt Whitney being connected to Beeline,” she said, explaining that it is important to reduce truck traffic on Northlake Blvd. and provide an additional emergency evacuation route.
Enriquez was asked what he would do to include greenway corridors to help connect parks. He said he had some ideas, such as some roads that had dirt areas running alongside them that could be converted to linear parks and equestrian trails. “That works twofold because you don’t have to maintain it as a road, you just maintain it as a park, and you add enhancements to the community,” he said, adding that he also favored enhancing the 130th Street Canal going all the way north. Dunkley said he would leave corridors and greenways up to the opinion of residents. “I think we’re a community and that all of us have individual thoughts,” he said. “It should be up to the people, not the board.” Other candidates speaking at the forum were incumbent Pat Rooney and his challenger David Lutrin from State House District 85, State Senate District 25 candidate Melanie Peterson and State House District 86 candidate Tami Donnally.
agree with Mr. Cirullo that policy direction is needed.” Ryan said issues with individual deeds of easement make transfer of the roads more difficult and that a title action to give the district or town full claim to the easements might be necessary. He agreed that it would be appropriate to turn over management of district roads to the town as they are fitted with OGEM and speed humps. Cirullo said that a deed held by Southern States Land & Timber is one of numerous documents that dictate the makeup of the district’s rights-of-way. “That may address some of the roads, but not all of them,” he said. “You also have special acts that have been adopted recently, and the dedication statutes, which the town could take advantage of while the district could not.” Cirullo warned that it would be
a long process to perfect the title to the road system. Saunier said the issue is further complicated by uncertainty over where the canal and road easements should be. “The reason it’s an issue is because the canals, as we all know, were done back in the 1930s, where a guy held his thumb up and said, ‘Yeah that’s about right,’ so the roads in some cases are entirely in the right-of-way [and] sometimes they’re off the right-of-way.” Supervisor Don Widing asked whether the issues might be simplified if the district were to become dependent to the town, and Underwood said he thought the district could function independently as long as respective responsibilities were clearly defined. “In the cities I’ve been in, water control districts are commonly independent agencies,” Underwood said. “They don’t seem to have an issue dealing with the lo-
cal governments and the right of access to the roads… In fact, they usually work very well together. The issue is trying to come together and determine what we want to do.” Supervisor Frank Schiola said that if the group could come to consensus on the roads, he would feel the meeting had accomplished something. Councilman Tom Goltzené said he favored the town assuming responsibility for the paved roads. “If the plan is to turn the roads over, the sooner the better,” he said. Mayor Dave Browning asked for a show of hands to begin the process of turning over the OGEM-paved roads to the town, and it was unanimous. Both bodies also directed their respective staffs to research the feasibility of turning the bond issue for the OGEM projects over to the town as well.
continued from page 3 Beach County would be to invest more in research such as at Scripps. “Investing in that type of market structure, where there is a tremendous labor force underneath, helps create a lot more jobs that have salaries good enough to feed a family and put the roof over their head,” he said. Education is another major issue. “Palm Beach County has had a pretty good educational system in place, but that is going to be an issue with the state cutting funds,” he said. Another concern he has is the growing number of seniors on waiting lists to get into assistedliving facilities. “For the first time in Florida’s history, there will be more seniors on wait lists than the total number of people getting service from the Department of Elder Affairs,” Pafford said. He charged that the legislature is lying about the statistics because it keeps changing the requirements for people who can become eligible for the programs and reducing the availability of the programs themselves. If more cuts need to be made at the state level, he said, reforms would need to be made, such as reinstating the intangibles tax or collecting an Internet sales tax. “You shouldn’t be afraid of making decisions that are going to make people angry,” he said. “You’re elected to make difficult decisions.” Other than their philosophical differences, Pafford differentiates
tion,” he said. “We are at full capacity eight of the 12 months of the year. We are bringing 2,400 people to the port every second day. These are two-day cruises — and 80 percent of the cruise traffic is from out of state.” Recently, the port landed a metal exporter that will be shipping to the Far East. “That’s significant revenue,” he said. “We have a new fuel blending operation.” The port also has a new Brazilian company set to start soon. America’s Natural Caffeine will manufacture natural caffeine from guarana seed. “That was in cooperation with Gov. Rick Scott and the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County,” Richards said. “They are taking 30,000 square feet of warehouse. They’re going to hire 75 people with an average salary of $60,000.” The Black Diamond casino ship is also a new port addition. “They are hiring people as we speak,” he said. “They envision 125 people working for them. They are look-
ing for people with gaming and food and beverage experience… The port is doing extremely, extremely well.” That is not the way challenger Black sees it. “I’m interested in our port, and there are a lot of things over there that I want to do,” he said. “I wasn’t really sure until I read the 10-year master plan what they had and what they didn’t have. There are some changes I would suggest if I get elected.” Among them are improvements necessary to broaden the port’s base. “One of the things I wanted to do was deepen the channel, but it looks like they are already working on that at this point,” Black said. “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is doing a study on trying to deepen the channel.” The master plan also has an interchange at State Road 710 and Interstate 95. “It seems like they’ve been blocked on that so far,” he said. “I would like to work on getting that done.”
Black also seeks to promote getting some type of major office building on the port property. “I would like a massive office building with an exposition center, and to keep the taxpayers from having to pay for it,” he said. “I think that would stimulate business around the port.” While accomplishing all of those things, he would want to make sure that nothing is done to contaminate the water or harm the living coral reef nearby. Black is also concerned about commissioners’ attendance at meetings. “When I first started going to meetings, two of the five commissioners left early and they approved the 10-year master plan with just three commissioners there,” he said. “They re-approved it at the next meeting with five of them there.” He pointed out that one of the master plan maps is flawed, describing the slips as “Slip Two, Slip Two and Slip Three.” “I would think they should be a
little sharper than that, but everybody makes mistakes, I guess,” Black said. Black also has questions about some high-voltage lines that still run through the property, even though the nearby FPL power plant has been demolished. He believes they should be buried or removed. He was also critical of mistakes he said were made when the port built new switching tracks — the train engine shelter was too short, he said. “Personally, I don’t think they should be making that many mistakes like that, but it is what it is,” Black said. “That’s some of the reasons why I’m running for commissioner, because I think they could do a little better job. I’m not really complaining. I like Wayne, but maybe it’s time. You’re in there 12 years; you don’t pay as much attention as when you first got in.” Black, 57, has lived in Palm Beach Shores since 2003. He works in the construction industry and has not held public office before.
Pafford
Running In District 86
fles benefiting Fight for Sylvia’s Angels all day and night, you don’t want to miss it!” Thirsty guests need not worry: They can purchase one-liter Radeberger mugs for $15. Radeberger refills will be sold for $10. Loyalty club members should wear their loyalty shirts and get $3 select pints. Additionally, there will be $5 select German pints to be filled up in the 100 club loyalty mugs. Attendees will enjoy live music from 6 to 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. There is no cost for admission. World of Beer Wellington is located at 2465 State Road 7, Suite 100, Wellington. For more info., call (561) 383-6115. a safe, family-friendly event,” she said. “There’s a lot to offer everyone in every age group.” Dog lovers and their canine companions can enjoy some holiday spirit Saturday, Oct. 27 from 10 a.m. to noon at the 10th annual Howl at the Moon at the Wellington Dog Park. Sponsored by Courtyard Animal Hospital, the event will feature dog-friendly activities. “They do a great job organizing it,” Garvey said. “All proceeds go to the National Canine Cancer Foundation. You can come get pictures with your pet, get your dog microchipped or have your dog dip its paw in paint and sign our concrete block.” Additionally, there will be an adoption event, vendors and, of course, a costume contest. “It’s a really great event,” Garvey said. Then on Sunday, Oct. 28, Wellington will host the fourth annual Trunk or Treat, a safe and familyfriendly alternative to trick-ortreating. Volunteers will gather at Wellington High School from 3 to 5 p.m. to hand out candy to children from the trunks of their Halloweenthemed cars. There will also be live music, refreshments and more. Volunteers are still needed for the event. To volunteer, call Kim Henghold at (561) 791-4137. himself from his opponent by pointing out his outspokenness when it comes to women being able to choose the type of healthcare they need. “I’m someone who has always supported gay marriage,” he said. “I’m someone who believes that the large corporations in the state have gotten probably 90 percent of the attention, and the vast majority of working people in Florida have been left to deal with life on their own.” Pafford said he takes the job very seriously. “We’re only going to be here eight years if we’re lucky, and I don’t want to look back in 20 years and think I should have been more outspoken,” he said. For more information, visit www. votemarkpafford.com.
Blotter continued from page 6 wooden pallets at the rear of the store. According to the report, Sosa began to place large quantities of the items in his truck. The deputy stopped him and asked Sosa whether he was given permission to remove the items. Sosa said he was not. He was arrested and taken to the Palm Beach County Jail, where he was charged with petty theft. OCT. 16 — A deputy from the PBSO substation in Royal Palm Beach responded Tuesday afternoon to a home on Hibiscus Drive regarding a vehicle burglary. According to a PBSO report, sometime between 8 p.m. Monday and noon the following afternoon, someone broke the padlock to the victim’s box trailer. The victim said that nothing was removed from her trailer but wanted to document the incident. There were no suspects or witnesses at the time of the report.
Generations
Military Families
continued from page 15 are from Venezuela. “We have been here for 10 years now, and Francisco’s biological father is still there,” she said. “But his stepdad and brothers who are here support him and are very proud.” He has become a role model to his younger brothers. “My other son wants to go for criminal justice in college, and now he is actually in the process of enrolling in the National Guard,” Hoffman said. With continued determination, Francisco has plans to become an officer. “He has already enrolled in the university and is working on achieving that goal,” Hoffman said.