Town-Crier Newspaper October 3, 2008

Sheriff’s Office RPB Takeover Marks Two-Year Anniversary

By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report

Few seemed to notice the two-year anniversary Wednesday of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office taking over policing duties in Royal Palm Beach, but according to PBSO Capt. Tony Araujo, that just shows that things are going well.

“Our goal was to demonstrate that service delivery would be enhanced, and we would be involved in the community,” said Araujo, commander of the PBSO’s District 9 substation in Royal Palm Beach. “We wanted to do that not just by word but by deed, and demonstrating our daily approach to the community, I think we’ve done that.”

Two years ago, the village reached an agreement with the PBSO to take over a financially challenged and dispirited municipal police department whose bargaining agents had reached impasse with the village over a new contract. In doing so, the PBSO created its District 9 administrative area effective Oct. 1, 2006, named Araujo as its commander and incorporated the majority of the old Royal Palm Beach Police Department’s staff and officers into its ranks.

As sheriff’s deputies, Araujo said, the force embraced the strategies and models utilized by the PBSO and has developed partnerships in the community with residents, businesses and the village.

“Our relationship with the city is exceptional,” said Araujo,

himself a Royal Palm Beach resident. “Our transition, if you remember back two years, was seamless. After the transition took place and we were PBSO, the sheriff made some commitments to this community to really have a high level of service and go into the community with a service model by way of community policing, and that’s where we’re at.”

Mayor David Lodwick said the transition was a wise choice for the village. “A year ago, at our first anniversary, we said we were all very pleased, and in the past year I’ve seen nothing to change my opinion,” he said. “They’re doing a tremendous job. Our town is well protected. Our officers are better trained and better supported.”

Several municipalities in the county have recently sought to contract the PBSO for law enforcement services, the most recent being Lake Worth, which completed its turnover Wednesday (see photos, page 18).

Lodwick said Royal Palm Beach serves as an example of an effective municipal transition to PBSO service. “I continue to see more and more communities evaluate and come over,” he said.

“It’s no real surprise.”

Araujo said he is especially proud of how former RPBPD personnel have managed the transition. “The former Royal Palm Beach officers have assimilated and acclimated to the new system, and they’re doing an incredible job,” he said.

While criminal investigative

techniques are largely the same, the new approach for law enforcement in Royal Palm Beach has been in getting more closely involved in the community, Araujo said.

“The difference we were looking for was the community policing model and demonstrating to officers and getting their buy-in to community policing work,” he said. “They really took hold of that, and things are going well here because of the officers. They took the lessons and learned and put them to work.”

District 9 deputies were given specific areas to walk and neighborhoods to patrol so they would get to know the community, Araujo said. They are now more involved in resolving issues such as domestic disputes that might otherwise escalate, he said.

“Not everything rises to the level of a crime in a traditional sense of what some people might think law enforcement is held accountable to,” Araujo said, “but we try to work with the village, work with the stakeholders, work with the residents to create an atmosphere where everybody has a stake in the community.”

Law enforcement officers implement their new outlook at meetings with civic, business and homeowners’ groups, Araujo said. “We keep in daily contact with our business corridor, our businesses and our merchants,” he said. “We want this

See DISTRICT 9, page 5

By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report

Members of the Royal Palm Beach Village Council postponed approval of a contract Thursday to build a traffic circle at the intersection of Ponce De Leon Street and Infanta Avenue in the La Mancha neighborhood, pending evidence of the traffic calming effect of other village traffic circles, including two on nearby La Mancha Avenue.

The authorization of a contract with Green Construction Technologies to install the traffic circle at a cost of about $132,500 was on the consent agenda, reserved for items not expected to require council discussion.

Councilman David Swift requested council discussion of the item because some La Mancha residents told him they have reservations about the circle’s effectiveness, its appearance and impact on their property.

“I guess I have some angst at this point,” Swift said. “When we did the traffic circles on La Mancha Avenue, in my opinion there was a clear reason, a traffic reason, and we could move the circles so they did not impact the residents directly. We proceeded forward with the idea

that the traffic circles would benefit the residents as far as improving traffic calming.”

However, since then Swift said some people have questioned the effectiveness of the circles.

“People are confused, and I realize that’s a learning issue, but my vote to go ahead on Ponce De Leon was to get experience on how these traffic circles worked on La Mancha Avenue,” Swift said. “I would rather put this off to March so that we get experience from the constructed traffic circles and see if they really are a benefit to the village.”

The traffic circles on La Mancha Avenue don’t encroach on private property, Swift noted.

Village Engineer Ray Liggins said when they redesigned the La Mancha corridor, one of the three-way intersections would have encroached on private property and a public hearing on the topic drew a large attendance. As a result, he said, the village built a circle at a fourway intersection.

“That way it goes into the intersection, not into somebody’s yard,” Liggins said. “In this particular instance, I know a couple of the driveways are rather

See CIRCLES, page 18

Priore Hopes To Put Focus On Civics In Work With League

By Don Brown

Town-Crier Staff Report

Wellington Vice Mayor Dr. Carmine Priore has been a goto guy since before the village even became a municipality some 12 years ago. His influence was considerably expanded last month when he became president of the powerful Florida League of Cities.

The retired dentist and dean of the Wellington Village Council was elevated to his newest position on Aug. 16 when he was sworn in as leader of the group representing Florida’s 412 municipalities. He follows only three other Palm Beach County municipal elected leaders who have held the office — former Royal Palm Beach councilwoman Carmela Starace, Greenacres Mayor Sam Ferreri and South Bay Mayor Clarence Anthony. Ironically, while several counties are also members of the league, Palm Beach County is not among them.

During his yearlong tenure as president of the league, Priore is in the inner loop of power in the state, a goal that has eluded him since his unsuccessful attempt to become the District 85 state representative in 2002. That race cost him a year off a

seat on the Wellington council, which he later won back. Priore is well aware of his newfound influence in the state and the local clout he has in Tallahassee.

“I can walk in to see the house speaker and the senate president, and I get my calls returned by the governor,” he told the TownCrier Thursday.

Priore said he hopes that influence can protect Florida’s municipalities, where most of its residents live. “I represent all the municipalities in Florida, and I want to support the issues that affect all cities and towns,” he said. “I have the opportunity to influence decisions that affect them, and I will try to do that.” Among his first acts as league president was to get the league to support a proposed inland port for the communities around Lake Okeechobee, a proposal initiated by the Port of Palm Beach. “I was able to get the league to support the inland port project, and I’ll be lobbying for it,” he said.

Priore is now hard at work pushing for a Palm Beach County charter amendment that would shield municipalities from future charter amendments

See PRIORE, page 2

St. Peter’s United Methodist Church in Wellington received its annual shipment of pumpkins on Sunday, Sept. 28. Parents and children of all ages helped unload the seasonal crop. Shown here, Hannah

Webster: County Charter Amendment Boosts Home Rule

By Carol Porter Town-Crier Staff Report

Royal Palm Beach Councilwoman Martha Webster urged members of the Loxahatchee Groves Landowners’ Association last week to vote in favor of an amendment to strengthen home rule for municipalities in Palm Beach County.

The proposed county charter amendment on the November ballot would allow municipalities to opt out of any future charter amendment that affects them, as long as a majority of voters in that community vote against it.

The proposed amendment was inspired in part by a county charter amendment passed in 2004 that gives the county the final say in municipal efforts to annex additional territory. That amendment was crafted because of concerns that Wellington was planning to expand westward, and although county voters approved the measure, a majority of Wellington voters were opposed.

The Palm Beach County Commission put the amendment on the ballot at the request of the Palm Beach County League of Cities, and Webster told LGLA members at their Sept. 25 meeting that she was speaking on the league’s behalf.

Webster said that by approving the amendment, voters in the new municipality of Loxahatchee Groves would be able to strengthen their town’s sovereignty.

“It will expand your role in being able to directly govern,” she said. “This decision will be made by the voters. The voters will choose whether they want this to happen in their own municipality.”

The Palm Beach County League of Cities has been lobbying to strengthen the powers of municipalities against county mandates for several years. Providing another example of a recent clash, Webster recalled the City of Boca Raton’s lawsuit against the county over taxation for a countywide emergency dispatch system because the city had already invested heavily in a dispatch system of its own.

“So they actually went to court to sue the county for it,” she said. “It’s now toward the end of the litigation, and it looks like Boca will win. That’s an example of how the county can come in and tell you to do something.”

But Webster noted that the amendment would not cover any countywide fees or taxes, well water protection, traffic performance standards or annexation. “These are the four

Priore Goals As President

continued from page 1 that their voters oppose. “The ‘Let Us Vote’ referendum is the right thing to do,” he said.

He explained that some decisions made by the county have usurped the rights of Wellington and other communities throughout Florida.

“We’ve taken a very hard line on the county charter amendment question,” he said, adding that he has been hard at work explaining the issues to groups and the media throughout the area.

Priore said he is already looking at the coming state legislative agenda. “We have five committees that will determine the legislative policies during the 2009 legislative session,” he said. “We’ll be looking at them to see how they impact our municipalities.”

Among the issues under consideration, Priore said he would be looking for anything that might change ad valorem taxes in municipalities. As president of the Florida League of Cities, Priore also has a civics lesson he wants to teach to all Florida students.

“My priority as league president revolves around the need to ‘go back to the basics’ of civics education,” he said. “And this goes beyond the classroom. My goal is to help Floridians of all ages know about their governments and participate as active and effective citizens.”

Toward that end, he wants to make civics part of the state’s FCAT program. “National and statewide studies show that Americans have limited knowledge of their state, regional and local governments,” he said.

Priore noted that civics is not

areas that countywide your municipality would have no voice in,” she said. Webster said that strengthening home rule would allow each community to maintain its own identity and standards. “We would be able to maintain our uniqueness because we are not all the same,” she said. “What I want in Royal Palm Beach is not what you want in Loxahatchee Groves and certainly not what they want in Wellington. It’s not what they want in West Palm Beach or Boca Raton. We are all different. This enables us to have control over what that is.” Webster urged LGLA members to familiarize themselves with the full text of the amendment, which is available at www.letusvote.info, a web site set up by a political action committee affiliated with the Palm Beach County League of Cities. She said that while a majority of active voters vote for amendments on a ballot, most of them are unfamiliar with the full text and make their decision based only on the summary provided on the ballot itself.

“They say that 66 percent of voters who go in and vote actually vote on the amendments,” Webster said. “When I heard that, I said that’s a lot more than I thought. However, 55 percent of those people who go into the polling place have just read the amendment for the first time when they are there. That’s a bit startling, and 33 percent of the people think that what they see on the ballot is the whole amendment. Education is very important. It’s hard enough to figure out who the person is I’m voting for.”

a classroom priority because it is not tested on the FCAT, and as a result some students to do not learn “the basics.”

“Beyond the classroom, 70 percent of Floridians are nonnative and were schooled elsewhere so they do not have a Florida-specific background in civics,” Priore said. “Therefore, materials also must be developed to reach the non-student.”

Toward this end, Priore said he would stump the state, working with schools to emphasize the teaching of civics in their curriculum. “Cities are the level of government closest to the people,” he said. “Most Floridians use local governmental services daily: water, wastewater, solid waste, parks and recreation. And they depend on city services in times of crises such as police and fire. Do they have the knowledge to vote on such services, and to vote for the city leaders who guide the provisions of these services? That is the educational challenge.”

Priore said the Florida League of Cities is designing a program to encourage the lesson of civics he hopes will be embraced by all Florida municipalities.

Vote Yes — Royal Palm Beach

Councilwoman Martha Webster urged support for a proposed county charter amendment at a Loxahatchee Groves Landowners’ Association meeting last week.

PHOTO BY CAROL PORTER/TOWN-CRIER

Wellington Councilman Dr. Carmine Priore

PHOTOS BY CAROL PORTER AND

ULRICH/TOWN-CRIER

Carol Patton and John Sullivan load up some pumpkins. John Sullivan makes his pick. Christine McDermott and Megan Perry.

Adonis, Anaya and Sherrill Horton browse through the pumpkin patch.

The Pignato family takes a break from pumpkin shopping. A

OUR OPINION

Municipal Complex Would Be A Win-Win For Wellington, Taxpayers

Although the economy has been in a downturn for only a short time, we’ve heard so much doom and gloom, it’s almost hard to remember when things were OK. It has had an adverse effect on local governments, and the Village of Wellington is no exception. Anyone who has paid attention knows that belt tightening is the order of the day as municipalities grapple with declining revenues due to a falling real estate market coupled with statewide tax reform.

Now, with recent bank failures and the possibility that the crisis will extend from Wall Street to Main Street, why would Wellington officials focus their attention on building a municipal complex? Isn’t this bad timing? Actually, it’s the perfect time to start such a construction project, and consolidating different departments into a single building would make things more efficient, possibly allowing the village to turn a profit by selling or renting its old facilities. Currently, the village operates out of a number of small offices (some little more than trailers) spread out across the village. That is not an ideal situation in any community, and Wellington deserves better.

The idea of building a unified municipal complex is not new. However, this is the first time the numbers actually make sense. The bulk of the money is slated to come from money already set aside for other Wellington projects, not from debt or increased taxes.

Kudos On Peace Park Coverage

The 2008 Wellington Rotary Peace Initiative and Peace Park Dedication was super this year, thanks to all the Rotarians and Wellington citizens who participated. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the great publicity the Town-Crier gave the Rotary Peace Initiative this year. You did a fantastic job. Rotary appreciates all of the support you give it. Certainly all of your efforts are the reason we had such a good attendance at the ceremony this year. The Wellington Rotary Peace Initiative is an important component of Rotary International. People don’t realize that when we start the peace initiative each February, the Wellington Rotary Club implements numerous peace projects within the community and our schools. These projects are an important element to all our overall peace efforts that culminate with the International Peace Day ceremony each Sept. 21… a full eight months after we first begin the peace initiative.

I know how much time and effort it takes to get these articles and press releases in the paper. So from the community and myself, thank you for all you

do to make this a successful community event. You have helped to make the Village of Wellington one of the major peace cities in the U.S. and the Wellington Rotary Club one of the foremost Rotary peace clubs in the U.S. Most important, you have proven that “service above self” is alive and well in our Wellington Rotary Club. Thank you for all your hard work this year. I look forward to working with you when we start our annual peace initiative next February.

Dr. Wes Boughner Wellington

Economic Concerns?

Get Involved!

What is going on with our financial markets? That is the question on most of our minds. It’s “financial Armageddon” some say; a “meltdown of the financial markets” others say. There’s no credit available for the basic needs of Americans and businesses like loans for education, mortgages, payroll and capital expansion. Our stocks and 401-K plans are in turmoil. Some say we need to give [Treasury Secretary] Henry Paulson a blank check for $700 billion so that he can fix

The proposed municipal complex is part of a three-part plan to build a town center on village-owned land along Forest Hill Blvd. near the Wellington Community Center. The other two components are an amphitheater and a park. Funding for the amphitheater already exists in the form of a $822,000 grant from Palm Beach County (previously earmarked for the now-defunct Cultural Trust of the Palm Beaches). And if the park is designed barrier-free (to accommodate handicapped children), the Williamson family has $250,000 ready to donate with a possible $150,000 in the future.

However, it’s the $15 million price tag attached to the municipal complex that has raised the most concern. But despite objections by the plan’s critics, Mayor Darell Bowen wants to get started as soon as possible. By moving ahead now with the municipal complex, the village can take advantage of the weak real estate market’s silver lining — low construction costs, which could be up to 25 percent less than they were last year. Add to that the $350,000 annually the village would save in rent on current office space as well as the money made available by restructuring how the village operates, it will likely produce a win-win outcome for the village and its taxpayers.

Wellington has been a municipality for more than a decade now. It’s time the village finds a proper home.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

this mess. Then there are those who say our government should do nothing and let the free markets stabilize naturally. In some ways, we want to pretend that it is too far away to worry about. However, it is now squarely in our back yards. The instability of Washington Mutual and Wachovia banks has brought to light how quickly Wall Street can end up on our streets. Now, do not worry; these financial institutions are not going to take our money and skip out of town since they were purchased by bigger and better-leveraged institutions. However, it highlights how intertwined our financial system is. So what should we do all the way over here in Wellington? Read as much printed material as possible from as many different sources as possible. Watch C-SPAN like it was the best running movie. Listen to “intelligent” radio. Speak to your bank, financial professionals, mortgage experts, etc. I have found that they are very open to speaking to me and calming my fears. Get involved in government by writing your congressmen and senators. I’m not sure how much that helps, but it makes me feel good. Lastly, I’m not a financial expert, so this is by no means meant to give financial advice,

JOIN IN A TOWN-CRIER ONLINE POLL!

A.

Last week, the Royal Palm Beach Village Council approved the concept of a “public art feature” to beautify the northwest corner of the intersection of Royal Palm Beach and Okeechobee boulevards, the location of a future CVS Pharmacy. It was a grand gesture to announce the first of a few small projects to add cosmetics to the drab main intersection that sort of serves as the village’s “downtown” — except the artwork was wrong. I might have suggested instead hanging up a huge wrecking ball announcing a redevelopment plan that might finally end Royal Palm Beach’s reputation as the shopping strip capital of South Florida.

Wellington has signed off on a plan to pursue a bold, innovative redevelopment strategy that would drastically improve the village’s main drag Forest Hill Blvd. in the heart of the community. As village officials go out and explain the idea, it has been met with enthusiasm from every quarter. While that community is still putting together details, it could likely include transforming the intersection of Forest Hill Blvd. and Wellington Trace into a pedestrian-friendly mixed use of shopping, offices and maybe even condos. It would not become a mini Abacoa, but it’s close enough for such a comparison.

The same idea might work in Royal Palm Beach. Pour yourself a cocktail, light ’em if you’ve got ’em, sit back and consider all the possibilities. The Okeechobee-RPB intersection is the hub of the community. A new office building has been built on the southwest corner and the improved (more or less) village hall complex is directly across Royal Palm Beach Blvd. Further south within walking distance is Veterans Park, which

By Don Brown

has become a highly popular venue. Also within walking distance across from the village hall is the Royal Palm Beach Cultural Center, the site of numerous events.

However, anchoring the two other corners of the intersection are Publix and Winn-Dixie supermarkets, together with the businesses that those stores usually draw. Even the parking lots are not pedestrian-friendly, and walking across the intersection means putting your life at risk. I know there are ways to encourage redevelopment without costing taxpayers. Municipalities have the power to offer numerous incentives to spark the interest of developers of such projects, which neighboring Wellington intends to do. Over the years, I have had conversations with a few developers who believe such a project is highly workable. RPB has several brainy officials capable of thinking it through.

The village is currently putting together plans to convert the old Tradition Golf Course (now called Village Commons) into a mix of community uses. While details are still being worked out, the price tag is said to be around $25 to $35 million. The village owns the property but expects to lease some of it to restaurants and perhaps even

TOWN-CRIER

but a suggestion on how to handle the barrage of information coming at us every minute. Nancy Pena-Brink Wellington

Rekindle Post9/11 Spirit

As we near the end of September, there is a vivid memory of 9/11 and many days afterward that is not often remembered. That memory was the vision of the joining of hands, hearts and voices of people of all races, ethnic and religious backgrounds identifying as Americans. As Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe wrote, “for the moment we have checked our single self at the door, and become one community with a profound recognition of commonality.”

When we memorialize the dead and recognize their surviving family members and other individuals, it’s important to remember also that the terrorist attacks were perpetrated by a fanatical group motivated by hate. But we can also be encouraged to remember that there are many individuals of all backgrounds across our country who have fought and continue to fight against hatred and divisiveness, some of whom have lost their lives.

This fight must continue, especially as we seek to elect a 2lst-century president whom we hope will provide the type of governance that encourages private industry to be more responsible and motivates Congress to enact smart policies, recognizing we are a community of one America.

Lydia Patterson Wellington

Support Your Community Newspaper

Recently there has been a tragic death in the western communities, one that affects every one of us. The Observer newspaper has closed its doors and

with it, an important neighbor and friend is gone.

It is now up to the Town-Crier to carry on on its own, bringing us our news and commentary. This is no small thing, because a democracy requires unbiased news and an informed electorate. The Town-Crier informs us, it alerts us and sometimes it may chastise us, but it is necessary.

The Town-Crier, our local press, lives with us, eats with us, sleeps when we do and they suffer when we do. Believe it or not, a local paper is only as successful as the community it serves, and they do “serve” us.

Average citizens have few sources of real information and even fewer ways to express their pleasures or displeasures. I have found the Town-Crier eager to print its readers’ letters. I remember well their framing our incorporation battles in Wellington. Each week we avail ourselves of their community events, sports and other activity sections.

In short and in summation, this last vestige of our voice and conscience, the Town-Crier, deserves our support. I humbly ask my western communities neighbors to support our sole community newspaper, whether it be by advertising, a call to offer news or a letter to the editor — express yourself and they will print it!

The bare truth is we the people require and need a local press more than they need us. Democracy and newspapers are synonymous. You cannot have one without the other.

George Unger Wellington

Groves Study Not Needed

Editor’s note: The following letter refers to letters published Sept. 19 supporting the Loxahatchee Groves Town Council’s decision to fund a study to determine the future of the Loxahatchee Groves Water Control District.

This is not about the Loxahatchee Groves Town Council or the Loxahatchee Groves Water Control District, nor the people who serve on either board. This is about the wasteful spending of taxpayers’ money. I have no fear of a “study” or its results. The three firms that had bids for the study ranged from $5,000 to $40,000. I am thankful they chose the $5,000 firm! The cost of the study, coupled with the mounting legal fees that will be accrued during this hostile takeover attempt, will be borne by the citizens of Loxahatchee Groves. We will be paying for both sets of lawyers to continue driving fabulous cars. I find it ironic that we can pay for a study on what to do with the water control district but we cannot afford a survey of the residents about the town’s comprehensive plan and their vision for the future of the area. Can the water control district improve their way of functioning? Absolutely. Do I always like how the water control district handles things? Nope. I do like the fact that there is a checks-and-balance system for the taxpayers’ money at this point in time. Our water control district assessments are one thing the great public servants See LETTERS, page 18

SEND IN YOUR LETTERS

The Town-Crier welcomes letters to the editor. Please keep letters brief (300 words). Submit letters, with contact name, address, and telephone number (anonymous letters will not be published), to The Town-Crier, 12794 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Suite 31, Wellington, FL 33414; fax them to (561) 793-6090 ; or you can e-mail them to letters@goTownCrier.com

stores and offices. It seems to me like perfect timing to consider improving other areas of the community.

While the village, like Wellington, has done an excellent job of “upscaling” itself over the years as it nears build-out, not much thought has been given to the older areas in need of the type of improvement only government can encourage and get started. The Okeechobee/RPB intersection would be an excellent place to start. Putting makeup on the area with landscape upgrades is a lot like putting lipstick on a pig, to borrow this year’s

Did you know that less than five percent of carmakers even recommend premium gas for their products? And even these models don’t really need it… just ask your car dealer or any qualified auto mechanic.

In the late 1990s, computercontrolled engines with antiknock sensors became the operating standard for automobiles. Thus the once-dreaded “engine knocking” vanished into a thing of the past. Now if your engine even dreams of knocking, the overriding sensors say “sorry feller” and adjust the engine to retard the spark so you can continue to hum right along. For virtually all cars, the sensors

By Jules W. Rabin

favorite political slogan. Through the smoke from my Camel and the buzz from my cocktail, I can make out the vision of a brand new Royal Palm Beach. It looks gorgeous. I can see people strolling along sidewalks and window-shopping, children coming out of an ice cream parlor, folks people-watching from a comfortable bench… Well, you get the idea.

I’ll even volunteer to operate the wrecking ball in exchange for that tiki hut I’m still trying to get.

are set to perform on regular (87 octane) unleaded gas.

Premium gasoline in no way means higher quality. It simply indicates higher octane or how fast fuel burns. The higher the octane, the slower the burn. In the old days, the burn rate controlled engine knock. But with premium gas costing an average of 31 cents per gallon more (mid-grade costs an average of

23 cents per gallon more), the practical fact is that you are wasting money. In a survey of auto repair shops conducted by AAA, respondents universally agreed there is no need to use premium gas. Further, the American Petroleum Institute admits “the difference is difficult to detect in normal driving.” The bottom line is simple: if your car specifies regular gas, use it. And if your owner’s manual recommends premium, check with your dealer about whether it really matters. You can most likely use regular anyway — and the only difference you will notice is in your wallet.

County Commissioners OK First Gas Station In The Acreage

By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report

Following the will of a vocal assortment of Acreage residents, the Palm Beach County Commission on Monday approved a request by Publix to build a small gas station in the shopping center at the northeast corner of Orange Blvd. and Seminole Pratt Whitney Road. It will be the first gas station in The Acreage community. Several residents told the commissioners they had severe problems getting gas after the hurricanes in recent years, and that they were tired of making a round trip of 17 to 20 miles to fill their cars or a five-gallon can of gas to mow their lawns. One resident said he was more concerned about residents who keep

District 9

Two-Year Anniversary

continued from page 1 to continue to be the harmonious community that it is.” Araujo said the force has pro-

large quantities of gasoline on their property so they don’t have to drive long distances to get lawnmower or generator fuel.

Speaking in favor of the gas station, Acreage Landowners’ Association President Winston Crosbie recalled that residents once opposed construction of the shopping center itself, but shop there now. The ALA approved the station and recently modified its neighborhood plan to accommodate it.

However, Acreage activist Alex Larson spoke against the station, citing leakage concerns and called the ALA a private organization whose opinions should not be considered on the issue. Crosbie said the organization is open to all residents and land-

gressed to the point where direction or training on the new techniques is no longer necessary. “The officers don’t really have to be told what to do now, they do it,” he said. “Along with their supervisors they go out and address the issues every day.”

Royal Palm Beach has also

owners of The Acreage for an annual membership fee of $20.

The toll-gate-style Publix gas station will feature four pumping stations with two pump hoses each, one on either side.

Publix representatives made an extensive presentation on their proposal to the Indian Trail Improvement District Board of Supervisors Sept. 10. During public comment, residents spoke both for and against the proposal. The supervisors do not make land-use decisions, but all except Supervisor Carol Jacobs spoke individually in favor of the project. Jacobs said she was concerned about the risk to well water.

At this week’s county commission zoning meeting, Publix representative Kim Glas-Castro

benefited from the crime analysis system utilized in each PBSO district. “When we came here we brought with us a crime analyst who looks at our trends and patterns,” Araujo said. “He helps us out by tying the dots together and assisting the detectives and our road patrol in looking at pat-

explained that the holding tanks would have a double-wall design. The four pumps would sit directly over the tanks, minimizing the chances of leakage. The design of the station is consistent with existing design elements at the shopping center, she said. A berm would conceal it from view from Orange Blvd. and Seminole Pratt Whitney Road.

The steel tanks would be equipped with sensors that detect any leakage, said Dhivy Sathianathan, an engineer with MDM Services representing Publix.

terns that occur using predictors to place us at the right place hopefully at the right time so we can interdict crime, and we’ve been very successful in doing that… We work smartly using our resources and optimizing the resources we have. That puts us in a position to interdict a lot of

Kanjian withdrew his second after Aaronson refused to amend his motion to require the concrete vault. At that point, Commissioner Jess Santamaria said he would second the motion.

“I am concerned there is a greater danger of spillage from containers in peoples’ homes and vehicles,” Santamaria said. “That would be the reason I would support the motion. Secondly, I heave been contacted by numerous people in The Acre-

Commissioner Burt Aaronson made a motion to approve the gas station. Commissioner Robert Kanjian, who seconded the motion, asked why the tanks were not designed to be encased in an underground concrete vault, and representatives said the existing technology does not warrant it and the space between the tanks and the vault is considered vulnerable to terrorists.

crime, if not displace it.”

Araujo has yet to issue the district’s second annual report, which is prepared after the close of the fiscal year, but last year’s report indicated that the village’s crime-solving rate improved, largely because its patrol coverage had doubled while using the same number of officers.

“On a Royal Palm Beach day the coverage was four or five officers,” Araujo said. “I’m averaging nine or ten. We also have the suppression team. This is something that Royal Palm Beach didn’t have before.”

The crime suppression team, consisting of four deputies and a sergeant, is not tied to a particular shift but is instead geared to whatever crime trend or quality-of-life issue has arisen, Araujo said. “They supplement the shift, not just answering calls for service but attacking a specific problem — and they’ve been very successful,” Araujo said.

The team has stopped crimes in progress, including passthrough crime, Araujo said. “There are a lot of folks who come through our community sometimes looking to do bad things, and they’ve been very successful in interdicting some of those crimes in progress,” he said.

One of the questions Araujo said was posed to him when he took command was, “when should I call the police?” Araujo said residents should not hesitate to call in suspicious

age and overwhelmingly there has been support for putting in this gasoline facility by as much as ten to one. Last but not least, Publix has a good reputation of having concerns for the community, and I don’t think they would risk that reputation should they not take all the necessary precautions that this is a safe service they are providing for the community.”

Aaronson said he was also encouraged that Publix would install a generator for emergency operation in the aftermath of a hurricane or power failure for any other reason. The motion passed 3-1 with Kanjian opposed and commissioners Jeff Koons, Karen Marcus and Mary McCarty absent.

incidents. “It doesn’t have to be a crime; it could be a qualityof-life issue,” he said. The partnerships the PBSO is establishing in the community are paying off because residents are now reporting things they previously might not have.

“We’ve established some very good crime watches,” he said. “The community members have taken responsibility. They always have in Royal Palm. The Royal Palm Beach Police Department was a very credible and successful and professional law enforcement organization. What I talked about in the initial days was about building on that established foundation.”

Araujo said the credit rests with the officers and staff who have embraced the new community policing model.

“They have done a tremendous job of gelling together,” he said.

“There hasn’t been one assignment large or small or inbetween that they haven’t handled in a professional manner and to the satisfaction of our community, and the credit belongs to them. They had to put it to work, and I’m very proud of all of them, very proud. I can’t say enough about the officers. They’re doing a tremendous job for the village.”

Morale among the officers has markedly improved, Araujo said. “We have not had one grievance, and it was commonplace before PBSO took over,” he said.

Two Arrested For Home Burglary In Royal Palm Beach

By Jason Budjinski Town-Crier Staff Report

SEPT. 30 — Two men were arrested Tuesday evening after they were caught breaking into a house on Bella Vista Way in Royal Palm Beach. According to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office report, the complainant had been house-sitting for his brother-in-law. When he arrived at the house at 6:15 p.m. he discovered 19-year-old Anthony Miles of Jacksonville sitting on a couch inside. The complainant then called the PBSO substation in Royal Palm Beach and told Miles to wait. When the deputy arrived, Miles told him he had been dropped off at the home by 20-year-old Marvin Ennis, who lives nearby. Miles said he entered the home through a rear sliding door, after having slipped the lock. During the interrogation, Ennis arrived. According to the report, the deputy asked him if he had permission to be in the house, and he said he did not. After confirming with the homeowner that neither suspect had permission to be inside, the deputy arrested them for burglary. In addition, Miles had an active warrant for failure to appear in court.

• • • SEPT. 24 — A Loxahatchee Groves man was arrested last Wednesday for shoplifting at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Royal Palm Beach. According to a PBSO report, a store employee observed 43-year-old Robert Kunz enter the electronics department, select two CDs, remove the $5 price tag from one and place it on the other CD, which was valued at $14.99. Kunz then proceeded to the register, where he paid $5 for the $14.99 CD. After leaving the store, Kunz was apprehended by store security. He was arrested and charged with petit theft. SEPT. 26 — A resident of Sparrow Drive called the PBSO substation in Royal Palm Beach last Friday regarding a burglary. According to a PBSO report, sometime between 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. someone broke a kitchen window, reached inside and unlocked it, gaining entrance to the home. Once inside, the suspect entered the master bedroom, stealing a 26” flat-screen TV worth approximately $800. According to the report, the suspect then entered both closets and stole a Mossberg shotgun and its case, three Aqua Master men’s watches, two yellow and gold link bracelets worth approximately $2,400 and a Compaq laptop computer. The suspect then entered the living room and stole a 42” flat-screen TV before exiting the house through the master bedroom sliding door, which was left open. The deputy checked the back yard, where the suspect fled the scene. He discovered the 26” flat-screen TV and its stand as well as the laptop computer and four pairs of the victim’s sneakers. The deputy processed the recovered items but no prints were obtained. There were no witnesses available at the time of the report.

SEPT. 26 — A West Palm Beach woman was arrested after being caught shoplifting last Friday at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Royal Palm Beach. According to a PBSO report, an employee observed 60-year-old Virginia Rodriguez select a watch and conceal it in her pants pocket. The employee further observed Rodriguez proceed to the register, where she paid for the items in her shopping cart while keeping the watch concealed. After passing all points of sale without paying for the item, Rodriguez was apprehended and taken to the loss prevention office, where the watch was recovered. During a search of the merchandise in the shopping cart, it was discovered there was a bottle of baby formula Rodriguez did not pay for. She was arrested and transported to the Palm Beach County Jail.

SEPT. 27 — A deputy from the PBSO substation in Wellington responded to a home on Spinnaker Lane last Saturday morning regarding a burglary. According to a PBSO report, sometime between 9 p.m. last Friday and 10:30 the following morning, someone entered the victim’s unlocked vehicle and stole a loaded Glock 27 handgun, along with two magazines and the victim’s wallet. The deputy also responded to a similar incident on Spinnaker Lane that occurred at approximately the same time. According to the victim, someone entered her unlocked vehicle and stole her purse, wallet and a carton of cigarettes. The deputy was unable to obtain latent prints.

SEPT. 29 — A Village of Wellington employee the called the PBSO substation in Wellington on Monday morning regarding a theft. According to a PBSO report, sometime between 2 p.m. last Friday and 7:30 a.m. Monday, someone entered a fencedin property on Pierson Road, which the village uses as a dump site, cut the power source to a Gould 3 HP sprinkler pump and removed the pump. The perimeter of the property was checked for investigative leads. The case is inactive pending further leads. SEPT. 29 — A deputy from the PBSO substation in Wellington was dispatched Monday afternoon to Tiger Shark Cove Park regarding two auto burglaries. According to a PBSO report, at approximately 2:45 p.m. someone smashed the window of a 2007 Chevy Suburban and stole the victim’s purse, which had been stored on the passenger-side floor. No other items were taken from the vehicle. Additionally, the window of a 2005 Ford Explorer was smashed and the victim’s purse was stolen from inside. No suspect information was available at the time of the report.

SEPT. 29 — A resident of Sage Avenue called the PBSO substation in Wellington on Monday morning regarding a vandalism incident. According to a PBSO report, the victim’s 2002 Volkswagen Passat was parked in his driveway overnight last Sunday. When he reSee BLOTTER, page 18

Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County is asking for the public’s help in finding these wanted fugitives: • Lanny Domino is a black male, 5’7” tall and weighing 140 lbs., with black hair and brown eyes. His date of birth is 07/11/65. Domino is wanted for failure to properly register as a sex offender and violation of probation on a conviction for lewd assault. His occupation is concrete work. His last known address is unknown. Domino is wanted as of 10/02/ 08. • Jose Villa, a.k.a. Pablo Mendez, Hector Moscaida or Raul Moscaida, is a white male, 5’7” tall and weighing 175 lbs., with black hair and brown eyes. He has tattoos on his arm, hand and chest. His date of birth is 06/20/75. Villa is wanted for failure to appear in court on the charges of sale of cocaine and possession of cocaine with intent to sell. His occupation is maintenance. His last known address was Dorchester Drive in Greenacres. Villa is wanted as of 10/ 02/08. Remain anonymous and you may be eligible for up to a $1,000 reward. Call Crime Stoppers at (800) 458-TIPS (8477) or visit www.crimestopperspbc. com.

Jose

Lanny Domino

Villa

Upcoming Events To Benefit ACS

Join Brighton Collectibles and the American Cancer Society’s Western Communities Making Strides Against Breast Cancer committee on Sunday, Oct. 4 as they honor survivors and remember those who have lost their battle with breast cancer. The event starts at 11 a.m. at the Brighton Collectibles store in the Mall at Wellington Green. Light refreshments will be served. Join survivors as the Tree of Hope is unveiled. The Tree of Hope will be available for decorating during the month of October. For a small donation benefiting Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, you can add a pink ribbon to the tree in honor of someone in your life who has been touched by cancer.` American Cancer Society representatives will be available with information about the western communities walk on Oct. 18 as well as information about the many services available to cancer patients and their families.

On Monday, Oct. 6, Ultima

Fitness/Extreme Tae Kwon Do (12799 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Wellington) will host Pink Ribbon Night from 4 to 9 p.m. Making Strides representatives will be available to talk to members and guests about the walk and the services ACS provides to cancer patients and their families here in Palm Beach County.

A Night Out For Strides will be held Tuesday, Oct. 7 from 4 to 10 p.m. at Black Canyon Grill (12040 Southern Blvd., Royal Palm Beach). Twenty percent of the evening’s proceeds will benefit cancer patients in the area. For additional information about the Oct. 18 walk or American Cancer Society services, call Maureen Gross at (561) 650-0136.

‘Post Time’ Flower Show In Wellington

On Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 8 and 9, residents of Wellington and the surrounding communities will be treated to the first flower show ever to be held in the village. On those dates, the Wellington Garden Club will present “Post Time,” a standard flower show, and will also host a fabulous plant sale that will offer member-grown plants, nursery-grown plants and hard-to-find native plants.

The competition and plant sale will be held at St. David’sin-the-Pines Episcopal Church at the corner of Forest Hill Blvd. and Wellington Trace. Admission to the event is free.

Guests are invited to indulge themselves in the beauty of flowers and plants. Ask the knowledgeable garden club members and master gardeners questions about plants in your own garden. Come and enjoy lunch, buy a fabulous new plant and take it home to enhance your own yard.

Presented as a gift to the community, this equestrian-themed event will showcase beautiful floral designs created by the talented members of the Wellington Garden Club and will hopefully educate and inspire others to give the world of floral design a try. Exhibits will be staged on pedestals, displayed on niches and shown as table-setting designs. There will be large designs and miniatures imaginatively presented, fresh and dried plant material, and orchids. All entries will be judged by accredited judges from the area.

The Horticulture Division will feature pristine specimens from the yards of Wellington Garden Club members and is open to all who would like to enter their prized container plants, cut specimens or branches of foliage. In the Special Exhibits Division, children from

the newly formed Wellington Junior Garden Club will present displays based on the theme of “Making the World a Little Greener, a Little Happier.” They will proudly show plants they have grown from seeds as well as designs using dried material. All entries will be judged, and ribbons will be awarded in each category.

At an invitation-only preview party prior to the opening of the flower show, famed urban horticulturist Gene Joyner will be honored. Recently retired after 35 years at the Palm Beach County Extension Service, Joyner is known far and wide for his contributions to Florida backyard gardeners and professional growers. The club has learned a great deal about gardening from Joyner and is proud to have him attend the show.

For specific information on flower show rules, how to enter and awards, call Barbara Hadsell at (561) 635-8809 or Mary Ellen Chestnut at (561) 6414636. For general information and directions, call Deborah Russell at (561) 793-7360.

Help DECA And Donate Shoes To The Needy

In the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami that hit Southeast Asia, Soles 4 Souls founder and CEO Wayne Elsey felt compelled to do something. Like many people, he did not know what to do. Elsey was home one night watching TV and saw a picture of a single shoe washing up on the beach. That triggered a few calls to some other executives in the footwear industry, and the subsequent donation of a quarter-million shoes to victims in the devastated countries.

The primary goal of Soles 4 Souls is to collect pairs of shoes to donate to people who walk around using cardboard boxes to protect their feet. This is everyone’s chance to contribute to

the community by donating new or lightly worn shoes at local businesses such as Riverside National Bank, Publix, 24 Hour Fitness, St. Rita Catholic Church, Morgan Stanley and Evolution Fitness. Wellington High School’s DECA program will be on hand at those businesses Oct. 6-17 to collect donations. Donations will also be accepted at the WHS main office and the school store. For more information about donating to Soles 4 Souls, call (561) 795-4919.

Mini Film Series Coming To JCC

Take a look at Jewish life around the world, what is shared and what differs, via the Jewish Community Center of the Greater Palm Beaches’ “Jewish Geography Mini Film Series.” The series will be held in October and November at the JCC Kaplan Branch (3151 N. Military Trail, West Palm Beach).

A question-and-answer session led by Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival Director Karen Davis will follow each screening. Admission for JCC members is $20 for the four-film series or $6 per film. For nonmembers, admission is $32 for the series or $9 per film. The film schedule is as follows:

• Jews of Iran, 1 p.m., Monday, Oct. 20 — Filmed in Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz, the film provides a first-time look at the Iranian Jewish community that continues to flourish despite hardships. Iranian Jews speak honestly about life in this most ancient and modern land.

• Shalom Y’all, 1 p.m., Monday, Oct. 27 — Traveling over the same dusty roads his 100year-old grandfather did as a young hat-and-tie salesman, this third generation Jewish filmmaker from New Orleans sets off to explore the crossroads of Jewish and Southern identities.

• Adio Kerida, 1 p.m., Mon-

day, Nov. 3 — After leaving Cuba as a young girl, the filmmaker searches for memory among her fellow Cuban Sephardic Jews on the island and in the U.S.

• At Home on the Range and Song of a Jewish Cowboy, 1 p.m., Monday, Nov. 10 — Jewish chicken farmers in Petaluma, Calif.? At Home on the Range explores three generations of Eastern European Jews as they confront vigilantism, McCarthyism and agribusiness outside their world while, among themselves, religious and secular Jews vie for control. Song of a Jewish Cowboy is a proud descendant of these left-wing Jewish chicken farmers, who rides the range by day and sings cowboy and Yiddish songs by night. The Jewish Community Center of the Greater Palm Beaches strengthens and enriches Jewish families, individuals and the community at large through cultural, health, educational, and social programs and services that emphasize Jewish values, build Jewish identity, and create deeper connections with the community, enhancing the quality of life for all.

For tickets, or more information, contact Elena at (561) 7125201 or elenac@jcconline.com.

Annual Buddy Walk Oct. 19 In Lake Worth

The Gold Coast Down Syndrome Organization will hold its 14th Annual Buddy Walk for awareness and acceptance on Sunday, Oct. 19 at John Prince Park in Lake Worth. In Palm Beach County, more than 1,500 people participated in the 2007 Buddy Walk and $95,000 was raised to support local programs. These funds enable the Gold Coast Down Syndrome Organization to offer services that support and enhance the quality of life for individuals with Down syndrome.

Palm Beach County buddy walkers will choose between a one-mile advocacy walk and a 5K fitness walk in which anyone can participate without special training. The event will include entertainment for all ages such as bounce houses, an obstacle course, a rock climbing wall, slides, music and games, and pony rides. In addition, there will be a raffle and a silent auction with gift certificates to hotels, restaurants, local attractions and golfing as well as sports memorabilia.

The Buddy Walk is the Gold Coast Down Syndrome Organization’s annual fundraiser and supports all of the organization’s projects throughout the year. It is a wonderful, heart-warming event that celebrates the many abilities and accomplishments of people with Down syndrome. Whether you have Down syndrome, know someone who does or just want to show your support, come and join the Buddy Walk.

The Buddy Walk was established in 1995 by the National Down Syndrome Society to celebrate Down Syndrome Awareness Month in October and to promote acceptance and inclusion of all people with Down syndrome.

The Gold Coast Down Syndrome Organization provides up-to-date information about Down syndrome to new parents, educators, physicians and therapists as well as to the general public. They sponsor many social opportunities for individuals with Down syndrome of all ages, provide parent trainings, medical and educational information, conferences and educational advocacy. The organization works to ensure that individuals with Down syndrome can grow up to live, learn, work and play in their community. For more information, or to register for the 2008 Buddy Walk, call (561) 912-1231 or visit www.goldcoastdown syndrome.org.

CANCER SOCIETY WRAPS UP ‘EVENING ON THE GREEN’ AT WANDERERS CLUB

PHOTOS BY SUSAN LERNER/TOWN-CRIER

Lisa and Joe Gardi with Michelle Cavanaugh.

Juan Gonzalez with Tony Coppola and Matt Firestone.

Some of the auction items available for bid.

Dr. Marc Anderson with Lisa Anderson and Milko Castellanos.Theresa Moore with Nicole Miller Jablonski.

Susan and Rocky Goins.

Richard Ackner with his fiancée Robbyn Anderson.

Donna and Bill Baxter.

Patty Valentine with Ashley and Joe Maguire.

Club by Tavern on the Green.

Dr. Lynn Lafferty and Dr. Jennine Cabanellas.

WELLINGTON

The Wellington Chili’s restaurant sponsored a “Day for St. Jude” on Sunday, Sept. 28 at the Wellington Community Center in conjunction with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Proceeds from the event will be donated to the organization. St. Jude keys and St. Jude T-shirts were available for a donation. The PBSO offered children’s ID photos, helicopters, the mounted unit and more.

EDNA HIBEL EXHIBIT AMONG EVENTS AT ST. RITA CHURCH IN WELLINGTON

An exhibit and sale of fine arts, collectibles and gifts by renowned Palm Beach County artist Edna Hibel were among several events last weekend at St. Rita Catholic Church in Wellington. For more information about the church, visit www.saintrita.com.

Deputy Brian Daly (with horse Max) chats with Andrea Stein and her dad Craig.

PBSO Civilian Observer Patrol volunteers with bike helmets.

Deputies Brian Daly and Brandy Tenlen with horses Max and Lance, and Deputy Luis Ledbetter with Clue.

David Sorkin of RPB with his sons Tyler and Jacob. Eric and Luke Saber with their friend Ryan Lyes.

Andrea Stein and her dad Craig with a bike helmet.

PHOTOS BY CAROL PORTER/TOWN-CRIER

Michael Romeo, Father Donald Munro and Rob Evans.

Jimmy Mullins, Ryan Higbee and Jim Roach. Steve and Carla Greenawalt.

Some of the Hibel pieces available at the event.

St. Peter’s Annual Community Harvest Fest Returns Oct. 25

St. Peter’s United Methodist Church in Wellington (12200 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Wellington) will hold its Third Annual Community Harvest Fest on Saturday, Oct. 25 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It will be an all-day affair with fun-filled activities.

Harvest Fest will start with a huge rummage sale beginning at 8 a.m. and continue throughout the day. There will be a large group of crafters selling their crafts inside the air-conditioned gym a well as a big bake sale. There will also be children’s games, a bounce house, rockwall climbing, bungee acrobatics, gladiator jousting, a 21-foot slide, 45-foot obstacle course, bungee run, face painting, ponies and more.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue will have demonstrations throughout the

day. Onstage entertainment will begin at 10 a.m. and continue to 4:30 p.m. Entertainers will include the Wellington Twirl National Champs, Gospel Truth singers, Celebration and Joys-RUs singers, TNT Gymnastics, Donna Tucci’s School of Dance, Cats Gymnastics, Palm Beach Super Tae Kwon Do and the band City of David. There will be a puppet show starting at noon in the church’s Fellowship Hall. The children’s and youth ministries will have the pumpkin patch open all day, selling all sizes of pumpkins and gourds as part of their fundraising program. All residents of the western communities are invited to St. Peter’s Community Harvest Fest. Admission is free. For more information about the event, call the church office (561) 793-5712.

Wellington Art Society Welcomes McMow Art Glass

The Wellington Art Society is hoping that their first regular meeting of the season will not be a “smash.” That’s because the featured guests for the program will be representatives from McMow Art Glass of Lake Worth, who will give a demo on the art of stained glass. The company specializes in stained-glass windows and beveled art glass, creating beautiful designs in carved, etched and faceted glass for some of the top builders, architects and designers throughout the U.S., Europe and South America.

The Wellington Art Society

meeting will be held Tuesday, Oct. 14 at the Royal Palm Beach Cultural Center (151 Civic Center Way), near the southwest corner of Okeechobee and Royal Palm Beach boulevards. Light refreshments will be served at 6:30 p.m., followed by a brief business meeting at 7 p.m., with the demo starting about 7:15 p.m. While the meeting is free and open to the public, there is a $5 fee for the McMow demo for non-society members. For more information, visit www.wellingtonartsociety.org or call President Adrianne Hetherington at (561) 784-7561.

Holiday Trunk Show In Royal Palm Beach

The Village of Royal Palm Beach will host a holiday trunk show on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 4 p.m. at the Royal Palm Beach Cultural Center (151 Civic Center Way). Guests will be amazed at the variety of vendors and countless holiday gift giving ideas. You can start and finish your holiday shopping all in one night! Participating vendors include Memorable Treasures (personalized story books),

Cookie Lee Jewelry, Designer Inspired Handbags and Belts, Uppercase Living, Party Lite Candles, Team Beauti (makeup artist and skin care), BeautiControl Spa experiences, Creative Memories, Kelly Soaps, silk arrangements and more. Doors close at 10 p.m., so bring a friend, show up early and have fun shopping. For more information, call Joanne at (561) 3582623.

Wellington Seeks Teen Volunteers For

Fall Festival

Teenagers are welcome to sign up to volunteer for the 2008 Fall Festival, to be held Friday, Oct. 31 from 5 to 10 p.m. at Wellington Village Park gymnasium (11700 Pierson Road).

This year’s program is presented by the Village of Wellington and the Palms West Chamber of Commerce.

Volunteers are needed to assist with children’s activities such as haunted hallways, hayrides, haymaze, inflatable rides, door-to-door trick-or-

treating and more. It’s is a great opportunity for teens to get volunteer service hours that fulfill requirements for high school graduation and college scholarships.

To receive a volunteer application form, call Nicole Evangelista at (561) 791-4733 or email nicolee@ci.wellington.fl. us. If you leave your fax number, you will receive an application immediately. Volunteer duties are assigned on a firstcome, first-served basis.

New Programs At First Baptist In

First Baptist Church of Royal Palm Beach has its members excited about many new opportunities. The church is adding a Sunday noon service and recently started an Awana children’s program on Wednesday nights. The King’s Academy has opened a preschool on the church’s campus, and the church is in the process of building a youth sports garden.

“The excitement in the church has been building through the summer,” Pastor Dale Faircloth said. “Our attendance has increased 30 percent over this same period last year.”

The church currently has 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. services on Sunday, and starting on Oct. 5, the new Sunday noon service will begin. This will give members of the community the option of going to a later Sunday service. Visitors are welcome to attend and find out why so many church members are excited. Awana is in full swing, and new children are invited to join the program. Each Wednesday night, approximately 80 kids show up for games, snacks and handbook time. “Parents are

RPB

saying they love Awana because their kids have such a great time and it makes them really want to come to church,” Associate Pastor of Ministries Tony Hoffman said.

First Baptist Church of Royal Palm Beach continues to grow and get involved with the community, including the addition of the King’s Academy preschool.

“Having the ministry association with the new King’s Academy Preschool has given us even more opportunities to build relationships in the community,” Faircloth said.

The church has even more going on, including the building of a sports complex. A volleyball court was recently built, and youth from around the area have been gathering on Monday nights to enjoy the new facility.

“We have grown to the point that we need the sports garden to keep the students from blocking traffic with basketball and football games,” Associate Pastor of Students Tate Soles said. For more information about the church, visit www.fbcrpb. com or call (561) 793-2475.

“Hispanic Heritage Month: Remembering Our Roots” is being recognized by the Palm Beach County Library system from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 at various library branches throughout the county. On Saturday, Sept. 27, the folkloric group Asi Es Mi Peru (“This is My Peru”) visited the Wellington library, performing a variety of folk dances to entertain curious guests. For more information about programs at the library, call (561) 790-6070. Pictured below are a few shots of the dancers from last Saturday’s event.

PHOTOS BY CAROL PORTER/TOWN-CRIER

MIDA FARMS HOSTS FUNDRAISER FOR ABRUZZO

A fundraising reception for State House of Representatives District 85 candidate Joe Abruzzo was held Saturday, Sept. 27 at Mida Farms in Wellington. The event was sponsored by Victoria Davis McCullough and the Triumph Project. Highlights of the event included speeches from both McCullough and Jennifer Swanson of Pure Thoughts Horse & Foal Rescue. Abruzzo was praised for his recent work to save the lives of many horses. The event concluded with a visit to Mida Farms’ barns to see the horses that had been rescued. Another highlight of the event was a celebration for well-known equestrian Mason Phelps Jr., whose birthday was that day. For more information about Abruzzo’s campaign, visit www.joseph abruzzo.com. PHOTOS BY

Liz Stockton, Carol Coleman, Victoria McCullough and Al Bennett.

Joe Abruzzo with family members.

Deby Dahlgren, Tom and Regis Wenham, Joe Abruzzo and Al Bennett.

Wellington Councilman Matt Willhite with his wife Alexis, son Luke and Carol Coleman.

Tony Fransetta with State Representative-elect Mark Pafford.

Mason Phelps gets the candles ready on his birthday cake.

State Senate hopeful Linda Bird (center) with Nate and Harriet Smith.

Seminole Ridge High School Swimmers Drown The Competition

The Seminole Ridge High School swim and dive teams squared off against Palm Beach Central on Sept. 18 at Calypso Bay, and the Lady Hawks were victorious by a score of 99-87. The team took first-place finishes in all three relays: 200 medley with Jaymie Davis, Kemeta Quammie, Nicole Infinger, and Natalia Pieschacon; 200 free with Davis, Brittney Lord, Carey Elfring and Stephanie Rodgerson; and 400 free with Pieschacon, Rodgerson, Quammie and Infinger. Individual first place victories also secured the girls’ win: 200 free and 100 backstroke for Davis, 50 free for Pieschacon, 100 butterfly for Infinger and 100 free for Rodgerson. While the boys team lost to Palm Beach Central, the Hawks earned several firstplace finishes, including the 200 medley relay team of Patrick Soucy, Elijah Sherriffe, Patrick Costan and Ptah Quammie, and the 400 free relay team of Quammie, Eric Dennis, Soucy and Costan. Individual first place finishes include Quammie in diving and the 100 free, Costan in the 100 butterfly and 500 free, and Sherriffe in the 100 breaststroke.

On Sept. 24, the swim and dive teams were victorious over both Royal Palm Beach and Santaluces in dual competition. The girls scored 80 points to Royal Palm’s and Santaluces’ 22 each, while the boys scored 67 points against Santaluces’ 38, and 83 against Royal Palm’s 16. Numerous first- and secondplace finishes secured the wins. All three girls relay teams placed first: the 200 medley of Jaymie Davis, Infinger, Pieschacon and Quammie; the 200 free with Danielle Davis, Elfring, Lord and Rodgerson; and the 400 free with Infinger, Pieschacon, Quammie and Rodgerson. Individual first places finishes came from Naomi Bishop (diving), Jaymie Davis (100 backstroke), Taylor Godfrey (200 free), Infinger (50 free and 100 butterfly), Maj-Lis Lindblom (100 breaststroke), Pieschacon (200 individual medley and 500 free) and Quammie (100 free).

All three boys relay teams placed first against RPB: the 200

medley of Costan, Quammie, Sherriffe and Soucy; the 200 free with Steven Carrasquilla, Dennis, Eddie O’Hara and Joey Tigeleiro; and the 400 free with Costan, Dennis, Quammie and Soucy. Individual first places came from Costan (100 butterfly and 500 free), Adam Foutty (100 backstroke), Quammie (100 freestyle), Sherriffe (50 free and 100 breaststroke), Chris Snowball (diving), Soucy (200 individual medley) and Brad Trammell (200 free).

• SECME Offers Matinee Movie — The Seminole Ridge Science, Engineering, Communications and Math Club (SECME) invites you to its fundraiser movie matinee on Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 3:30 p.m. in the SRHS auditorium. What movie with the club be showing? SECME will only say that “after 700 years doing what he was made for, a lonely robot will discover what he was meant for...”

The matinee is open to everyone in the community, but children must be accompanied by an adult. SECME is requesting a suggested donation of $3 for admission. SECME will use the proceeds from the matinee to purchase VEX Robotics classroom lab kits.

SECME Club sponsor Mr. Erich Landstrom offered a few more clues about the matinee title. “In this computer-animated cosmic comedy,” he said, “a misfit machine discovers new purpose in life when, after centuries of cleaning up the planet (and collecting knick-knacks), he meets a sleek search robot. She realizes the hydraulic hero has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet’s future, and she races into space to report her findings to humans eagerly awaiting word that it’s safe to return home. Join us for an amazing adventure across the galaxy!”

• ‘Congress’ Debaters Get Gavels — The Hawk forensics team competed Sept. 20 at Cardinal Newman High School. Once again, the Hawks came home with honors. Lucas Ortiz and David Sleeth placed first, Eddie O’Hara ranked second, and Jon Krailler placed sixth in their Senate chambers for Student Congress. Marlee Arnold and Stephanie MacInnes both received gavels for their out-

standing jobs as presiding officers in the novice houses.

• Special Olympics Earn Red, White and Blue — On Sept. 21, Strikers Lanes in Sunrise hosted the Special Olympics Area Games. After the opening ceremonies, the bowlers began the day’s competition... and the end of the games, blue first-place ribbons went to Skye Everette, Danielle Hutton, Jay Hutton, Robin Hutton, Ross Hutton, Adib Strick, Johnathan Taylor and Jessica Welsh. Andrew Overstrom placed second, earning a red ribbon, and Michael Miley earned a fourth-place white ribbon. The Special Olympics state games will be held in Orlando at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex Oct. 31 through Nov. 2.

• Freshman Football Defeats Lakes — The SRHS freshman football team battered the Palm Beach Lakes Rams 41-0 for their third win in a row.

The defense, in their second shutout this year, was led by Jacob Hawkins’ fumble recoveries and by Jared Blount, Juanathen Sams and Jake Trimble. Trimble also had a big sack, as did middle linebacker Nick Medina. Sams tackled a Rams runner in the end zone for a twopoint safety.

The offense was again inspired by the triple-touchdown performance of star running back Gary Holmes, who has now racked up 12 touchdowns in three games. Also scoring running touchdowns were backs Matt Fioramonte, Jonath Almonte and Brandon Maitland. Fioramonte kicked three extra points as well.

• FACE Begins Another Year

— The Seminole Ridge FACE Club recently held its first official meeting of the 2008-09 school year. According to sponsor Mrs. Peggy Larson, “the turnout was of record proportions!” More than 50 new students attended the first meeting, eager to learn about this service club that supports families and educates the community about facial differences.

“Many of the new students had never seen — or heard of — a cleft lip or palate or the Operation Smile organization,” Larson said. “We’re looking for-

ward to an exciting new year with a lot of community involvement and new membership participation.”

This year, the FACE Club will

expand its support and education to include vascular birthmarks such as Port Wine stain, hemangioma and Sturge-Weber syndrome.

WES STUDENTS HEAD OUT ON ‘SAFARI’

Ashley Goldman and Assistant Principal Kim Harrington enjoy a book about African wildlife.

The Wellington Elementary School community recently enjoyed another exciting Book Fair Family Night. The theme was “Safari Outpost.” Highlights of the evening included great books, fantastic face painting, food, free ice cream, dancing to a live DJ and greeting friends.

Jaci McNeill and Macrae Reilly camp in the “jungle.”

Wellington Elementary School students dance to the music.

Ashley Goldman shows off her cat makeup.

STUDENTS DONATE TO LOCKS OF LOVE

Panther Run Elementary School fifth grader Julianne Dragunat (above left) had been growing her hair so that she could donate some of it to Locks of Love in the future. Well, her wish came true last week. Julianne was ready to cut her hair. She was a bit shocked afterward, but the reward was worth it. Some child will be happy when Julianne’s Locks of Love donation becomes part of a wig. Meanwhile, fourth grader Kelli Collins (above right) had her pony tail cut and donated to Locks of Love. For more information about Locks of Love, visit www.locksoflove.org.

RPBHS Project Graduation

Class Of 2009

Project Graduation at Royal Palm Beach High School will holding its monthly meeting at the school on Monday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. The non-profit group, run by parents and guardians of students at RPBHS, is putting together the October senior incentives, reviewing fundraising and planning committees. The group invites the community to join them; Project Graduation cannot happen without the help of parents, guardians, community volunteers and sponsors. Call Cheryl at (561) 723-8298 or Karen at (562) 371-8377 for more information.

Third Annual Literacy Night At RPBES

Royal Palm Beach Elementary School will hold its Third Annual Literacy Night on Tuesday, Oct. 14 from 6 to 9 p.m. The event will feature guest readers, including athletes, television personalities and fictional characters, as well as drawings for baskets of

books, food and more. The school expects to have between 500 to 600 children and adults in attendance.

‘Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime’ At TKA

The King’s Academy Fine Arts Department will present Constance Cox’s production of Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime Oct. 23-25 at 7:30 p.m. each night. Starring an ensemble cast of secondary students, the show is a comedic adaptation of the short story by Oscar Wilde. A high society member of Victorian London, Lord Arthur Savile’s life is one of privilege. His engagement to the lovely Sybil foretells a future of eternal bliss. That is until Lord Arthur takes some unfortunate advice from the famously intelligent Mr. Podgers. Hilarious events ensue as Lord Arthur attempts to give his fiancée the perfect wedding gift — a murder before their wedding day!

The King’s Academy Fine Arts Department has a history of quality theatrical offerings that leave audiences confident that the future of theater is alive and well. Tickets cost $12 for

center seating and $10 for reserved seating. Reserved tickets can be ordered online at www. tka.net or by calling (561) 6864244, ext. 353. The King’s Academy is located at 8401 Belvedere Road.

Dreyfoos To Present ‘Fame:

The Musical’

The School of the Arts Foundation Inc. will offer a special presentation of Fame: The Musical on Thursday, Nov. 6 in Meyer Hall at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts in downtown West Palm Beach. The production will feature the school’s musical theater students.

Showtime is at 7 p.m., followed by a private dessert reception with cast members. Tickets cost $100 per person for premier seating and $50 per person for select seating. Guests are asked to dress in cocktail attire. Valet parking will be available. Proceeds benefit the School of the Arts Foundation, which supports arts and academic programs at the Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts.

To purchase tickets, or for more info., call (561) 805-6298 or visit www.soafi.org.

Poinciana Day Students Design Homes With Industry Software

Third and fourth-grade students at Poinciana Day School are stretching their architectural muscles as they create their ideal home. Students are using Punch Pro, professional design software used by many interior design firms to not only construct homes, but also to decorate them.

Students learned how to construct architecturally sound homes, taking into consideration the plumbing and electrical systems, as well as the type of roofing and flooring. Students also had to determine windows, lighting, heating and air conditioning systems. Once students completed the interior portion of their homes, they designed the complete outdoor space, consisting of swimming pools, patios, and in some cases, garages with parked cars. When the initial designs were completed, students created 3-D renderings of their designs.

The third graders had the opportunity to work with this design program last year. So, this year they have been doing some peer teaching with the fourth grade students about the intricacies of the program. The third graders were very excited to answer questions from the older students. This situation reinforced not only the expertise of the third graders, but also encouraged the fourth graders as they first tried to master a new computer program.

Young Architect — Third grader Lili Henderson works on the architectural design of her dream home using Punch Pro, an industry standard design software.

“My teaching theory is that anyone is capable of learning how to use computer software, no matter how complicated it might be,” computer instructor Tricia Couch said. “I set high goals for my students, who work very hard to reach them. As a result, their achievement is far above what would be expected for their grade level. The best part is that the students are having fun. They have all shown great potential to become architects or designers.”

Located at 1340 Kenwood Road in West Palm Beach, Poinciana Day School is a

small independent private school for students in kindergarten through eighth grade where “every student is an honored student.”

“One of the goals at Poinciana Day School is to prepare our students to think in an innovative and creative manner so that they are prepared for the future challenges of our twenty-first century global neighborhood,” Head of School Nixie Swift said. For more information about Poinciana Day School, call (561) 655-7323 or visit www. poincianadayschool.org.

Palm Beach Central High School Homecoming Events Oct. 12-18

Palm Beach Central High School’s Homecoming Week will be held Oct. 12-18. The theme is “A Heroes’ Homecoming.” Student government has been working hard to organize and execute another fun-filled year of activities. Class themes are as follows: freshmen, “Iron Man;” sophomores, “Spiderman;” juniors, “The Hulk;” and seniors, “Superman.”

The schedule is as follows:

• Sunday, Oct. 12 — Hallway decorating.

• Monday, Oct. 13 — Twin

Day and a Dinner for Heroes 6 to 8 p.m. inside the cafeteria (tickets includes an Italian dinner with all proceeds supporting Forgotten Soldiers Outreach).

• Tuesday, Oct. 14 — Sport Day, Powder Puff at 5 p.m. at the stadium

• Wednesday, Oct. 15 — Wacky Wednesday (no night activity).

• Thursday, Oct. 16 — Class Theme Day, Mr. and Ms. Central High Pageant from 6 to 8 p.m. in the auditorium, featuring five male and five female

senior contestants.

• Friday, Oct. 17 — Super Bronco Spirit pep rally (bell schedule will follow), Tailgate from 3 to 5 p.m. in the front parking lot, followed by the homecoming game and homecoming court.

• Saturday, Oct. 18 — “The Dark Night” will take place from 8 to 11p.m. in the gym. Tickets are on sale during lunch periods. Pre-sale tickets for all night events will take place during lunch periods Oct. 6-10.

Tito Mangiola, teachers and students from Dillon Country Day School gather at Palm Beach International Airport for the art installation.

are (L-R): art teacher

founder Judith Dillon, Rob Costa, Mangiola, Timothy McSweeney, Cris Gritzalis, Constantine Award and teacher Juan Amato.

Wellington Artist Gives Lithograph To PBIA

Wellington artist Tito Mangiola, an Italian national living in Wellington since 1992, has donated the limited edition lithograph Homage to the Village of Wellington to the permanent art collection at the Palm Beach International Airport (PBIA).

The donation was reviewed for approval by the Palm Beach County Public Art Committee.

Created as a tribute to his adopted hometown, the original artwork, exhibited in the Wellington Community Center, is oil on canvas, painted in the mosaic style, a technique Mangiola

claims to have invented. He teaches this technique in Royal Palm Beach High School’s adult education classes.

Golf and the equestrian themes feature prominently in Homage to the Village of Wellington, conveying the impression of motion in golf swings and jumping horses.

“The movement for anybody in mosaic painting is very difficult,” Mangiola said. “This technique is both liberating and challenging. It gives me more freedom to express myself, but it’s more difficult to give shape.”

George Unger To Hold Book

Signing Nov. 1

Wellington resident George Unger will hold a book signing for his recently published book Optional Wars on Saturday, Nov. 1 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the original Wellington Mall. Having spent three years in the United States Marine Corps, one of them in Vietnam, Unger said he wrote his book to try to awaken an apathetic public that citizens have a voice, in hopes that the country would not again get involved in “optional wars,” for which his book is named. The book spans Unger’s early life from a small New York farm town to what he calls a horrific war that was started and ended by politicians, the same way the current Iraq war was. “I attempt to show the similarities both in the excuses that led us to war (Vietnam-Iraq) to the hardships of winning the hearts and minds of people who have no concept of democracy,” Unger wrote. Unger purchased property in Wellington in 1987. His entire family moved to Wellington in 1991 and 1992. He attended Acme Improvement District meetings, which was Wellington’s government before it was incorporated, and initiated the Paddock Park II Civic Association. Unger was appointed and then elected to First Wellington, the master association that did architectural review and code

enforcement for what was then 90 percent of Wellington. During the incorporation process, Unger was a proponent for selfgovernment and interviewed the original village council candidates for the Town-Crier under former publisher Bob Markey Sr. He has been a regular contributor to the letters to the editor section ever since. He has served on the village’s Tree Board, Public Safety Board and Code Enforcement Board. Both of Unger’s children attended Wellington middle and high schools, and then Palm Beach Community College.

Laureano An Army Basic Grad

Army Reserve Pvt. Samuel Laureano Jr. has graduated from basic combat training at Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C. During the nine weeks of training, Laureano studied the Army mission, history, tradition and core values, physical fitness, and received instruction and practice in basic combat skills, military weapons, chemical warfare and bayonet training, drill and ceremony, marching, rifle marksmanship, combat, map reading, field tactics, military courtesy, the military justice system, basic first aid, foot marches and field training exercises.

Laureano is the stepson of Cirilo Santiago of Royal Palm Beach. He graduated from Royal Palm Beach High School in 2005.

Greenacres Kiwanis Plans To Expand West

Chuck Shaw, president of the Greenacres and Western Communities Kiwanis Club, gave a yearly status review to club members on Wednesday, Sept. 17. Shaw reminded everyone that Kiwanis is a thriving organization of service and community minded men and women who support children and young adults around the world.

Shaw also said that the club plans to expand into the western communities in the coming year. More than 13,000 Kiwanis clubs in more than 90 countries make their mark by responding to the needs of their communities and pooling their resources to address issues. He said the

local Kiwanis chapter evaluates issues involving local children and community needs on an ongoing basis and conducts service projects to respond to those identified needs.

Recent Kiwanis Club projects have been to:

• Sponsored K-Kids Clubs in area school including Greenacres Elementary, Liberty Park Elementary, Heritage Elementary, Diamond View Elementary and JFK Charter schools.

• Sponsored the Key Club at Park Vista High School and the Builders Club at L.C. Swain Middle School.

• Donated to safety patrol trips to Washington, D.C. for Greenacres Elementary, Liberty Park Elementary, Heritage

Elementary and JFK Charter schools.

• Sponsored a parents night meal at Greenacres Elementary School.

• Assisted Greenacres Leisure Services with the Santa lunch, including free bikes to attendees, supported Greenacres Eggstravaganza in the Park and Ignite the Night Greenacres Festival on July 4, and helped provide school supplies to elementary students.

• Supported the March of Dimes Walk with food and volunteers.

• Donated $5,000 to a sister club in Panama.

• Supported an awards luncheon for outstanding elementary school students and

awarded plaques and savings bonds courtesy of Riverside Bank Shaw predicted a busier upcoming year. “It is more important than ever that Kiwanis maintain their focus on service due to changing economic situations in our community,” he said.

He pointed out that the activities the club supported cost over $15,000, most of which went directly to address the needs of children in the area.

Kiwanis meets at noon on Wednesdays at the Bohemian Garden restaurant (5450 Lake Worth Road). For more information, call (800) KIWANIS, visit www.kiwanis.org or call Shaw at (561) 868-6100.

Machiela and Jeffrey Kolhagen were married July 19 at Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach Gardens. The bride is the daughter of Ken and Alice Machiela of Wellington. Kolhagen is the son of David and Suzanne Kolhagen of Key West. Machiela, a graduate of Calvin College, is a public relations coordinator for Regan Communications in Jupiter and the groom, a graduate of Charleston Southern University, is an auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers in West Palm Beach. The couple honeymooned to Hawaii and live in Royal Palm Beach.

WHO’S NEW!

Serenity Victoria Vinson daughter of Mandy Fletcher and Victor Vinson of Royal Palm Beach was born at Wellington Regional Medical Center on Sept. 15.

Brady Christopher Lord — son of Maria and Christopher Lord of Royal Palm Beach was born at Wellington Regional Medical Center on Sept. 16.

Lamia Thy Phan — daughter of Uyen Dang and Tan Tri Phan of Wellington was born at Wellington Regional Medical Center on Sept. 18.

Antonio Jose Stable — son of Julie Lyn Somers and Jose Joaquin Stable of Royal Palm Beach was born at Wellington Regional Medical Center on Sept. 19.

Kihana Antonia Sierra daughter of Janina Maritza Maldonado and Luis Javier Sierra Jr. of Wellington was born at Wellington Regional Medical Center on Sept. 19. Terrell J. Hill — son of Janese Jiles and Terrell J. Hill of Loxahatchee was born at Wellington Regional Medical Center on Sept. 19.

Chase Kyder Schoolmaster — son of Cindy and Alan Schoolmaster of Royal Palm Beach was born at Wellington Regional Medical Center on Sept. 20.

Justin Gabriel Ackal — son of Wendy Stermensky and George Gabriel Ackal of Wellington was born at Wellington Regional Medical Center on Sept. 24.

Megan

Pictured above

Leonarda Mangiola, Richard Ulner, school

A Kind Donation — Don Rodrigues and John McLellan with the Chuck Norris plaque Rodrigues donated to benefit the Tyler McLellan Foundation.

Chuck Norris Plaque Donated To Benefit McLellan Foundation

Sensei Kevin McLellan, a Wellington resident and martial arts instructor for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wellington, is using all his connections and means to raise money for his late son Tyler’s foundation. Tyler McLellan was killed in a plane crash in Tampa on July 17 as he accompanied a family friend on an Angel Flight for cancer treatment in Tampa.

Originally from Boston, Kevin McLellan has reached as far north as all the New England states to his martial arts friends and family to assist in his quest to keep his son’s name and love of football alive through the Tyler McLellan Foundation. When Warwick, R.I., karate school owner Don Rodrigues, coach of Team Paul Mitchell, heard the news, he wanted to do something to help. Don and his wife Christine Bannon Rodrigues donated a plaque from longtime personal friend Chuck Norris.

The plaque, which has a baseball-card-sized picture signed by

Chuck Norris along with a signed black belt attached to it, will be auctioned off to raise money for the foundation. Recently, Don Rodrigues formally presented the plaque to John McLellan (Tyler’s uncle) at Rodrigues’ karate school. The foundation was established just days after Tyler’s death as a way of keeping his memory alive. Because Tyler loved football, the foundation will assist low-income parents of football players at Martin County High School to help pay for items not covered by the school, such as cleats or summer football camp insurance. The McLellans will host a “kick-athon” in February 2009 and are hoping to get Florida and Boston area martial arts schools to participate to help raise money for the foundation. For more information on the Tyler McLellan Foundation, call (561) 740-8272 or e-mail tyler-mclellan-foundation @comcast.net.

Morgan Completes His Eagle Project

Acreage resident and Boy Scout Troop 105 member Brendon Morgan recently completed his Eagle project at the Everglades Youth Camp.

Brendon never had a question on where he was going to do his project or what the project would be. The Everglades Youth Camp is his proverbial home away from home. The two Gulf Stream Council Boy Scout camps have been home for more than 100 nights of camping for Brendon.

Only five miles from home, the camp is convenient. Whether working at Huck Finn Family Day, attending the Florida Wildlife Hunter Education course, performing service projects or bringing out-of-state family members to see the “real” Florida, the camp is the place to go. Two years ago Brendon and his troop retired more than 100 American flags there while participating in the annual Huck Finn Family Day.

An Eagle project is usually the last component of a scout’s journey toward becoming an Eagle Scout, the highest rank in scouting. Each scout must perform a service that benefits the community. The scout must

make contact, discuss a project, plan the project and demonstrate leadership to complete the project. Brendon worked with Youth Camp Site Manager Alex Stevens to develop his project — the installation of over 300 feet of split-rail fencing, pressure cleaning and sanding picnic tables and the clearing of brush.

The installation of the splitrail fence provided two important features to the camp. First and most important, the fence provided a safety barrier preventing vehicles from driving through and parking in campsites. Secondly, the fence provided a clearly defined parking area. Two ten-foot galvanized gates were installed at each end of the fence line to allow entry for work or emergency vehicles. Breaks for pedestrian traffic as well as handicap equipment and maintenance equipment, such as lawn mowers and golf carts, were also planned into the project. Part of the project is visible as soon as you enter the youth camp. The knee-high rope fence in front of the dining hall has been replaced by the splitrail fencing that lines the roadway into the camp. This improvement also adds continuity to the look of the camp.

Brendon Morgan’s Eagle Scout project included installing new fencing at the Everglades Youth Camp.

Brendon directed over 30 friends, family, scouts and adult leaders, who all donated their time and energy to complete the project. Brendon hopes to complete the process and become an Eagle Scout by the end of 2008.

Morales Graduates Air Force Training

Air Force Airman Victor Morales recently graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. During the six weeks of training, Morales studied the Air Force mission, organization, and military customs and courtesies; performed drill and ceremony marches, and received physical training, rifle marksmanship, field training exercises, and special training in human relations. In addition, airmen who complete basic training earn credits toward an associate’s degree through the Community College of the Air Force.

Morales is the son of Gina Sousa of Royal Palm Beach. He graduated from Royal Palm Beach High School in 2006. Victor Morales

SHERIFF’S OFFICE SWEARS IN NEW LAKE WORTH DISTRICT 14 DEPUTIES

Members of the Lake Worth Police Department and other personnel were inducted into the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office on

Center, becoming District 14 of the PBSO. The ceremony began with music from the PBSO Honor Guard Pipes and Drums and the presentation of colors from the

and included an invocation from Deputy John Pope and the singing of the national anthem by Abby Bernstein. (Above left) Deputies are sworn in. (Above center) The

make an appearance. (Above right) Lake Worth officials applaud the new deputies.

STUART WOODS

VISITS WELLINGTON LIBRARY

Third Annual Festival Of Short Plays At The Studio Theatre Of Wellington

The Studio Theatre of Wellington will present its Third Annual Festival of Short Plays on Fridays and Saturdays, Oct. 24, 25, 31 and Nov. 1 at 8 p.m.

The Festival of Short Plays includes original ten-minute plays presented in a staged reading format. There will be a question and answer “talk back” with the cast, directors and playwrights after each performance. This year’s plays include Pop It To Me by Elaina Dunson, Writer’s Block by Mary Unterbrink, Indian Love Call by Murray Elman, The Scully Syndrome by Kimberly Patterson, Clippings by Robert Harless, A Drive in the Country by Dennis Jones, Work is the Only Practical Consolation for Having Been Born by Martha Moffett, Back From Walla Walla by Todd Caster, Girls Night Out by Barbara Fox, Alex and Anne by J. Boyer and

Circles Project Delayed

continued from page 1 close, but we’re still able to maintain their access in and out, so we just take the four corners of the intersection and it’s not in somebody’s front yard like it was at the three-way intersections that we were proposing traffic circles.”

Swift said he would rather wait five months and get more information.

Vice Mayor Fred Pinto asked if there was a disadvantage to delaying a few months.

Liggins said the village has a good low bid right now. “We’d have to reject all these bids because we can’t award the bid within the time that the contract allows,” he said.

Village Manager David Farber agreed, saying he was not sure if the village should delay. “We have a very attractive bid here,” he said.

Letters continued from page 4 on the town council can’t get their mitts on — yet. The “three great public servants” do not want to “dissolve” the water control district — there are far too many benefits in keeping the Chapter 298 district. They just want to get rid of the LGWCD board so that the town council gets to divvy up the money. The “three great public servants” referred to by Ms. [Nancy] Handwerg all campaigned together as a slate. They got elected. One council member had a highly paid po-

Research by Marla Schwartz. Schwartz’s Research is the heartwarming and humorous tale of Gary Arthur, a widower and the parent of one child, a precocious 13-year-old named Isabella, who is growing up much faster than he can handle. Schwartz is a Boca Raton resident and a senior staff writer for Miami Living magazine. She is also an accomplished photographer and acting teacher. Her plays have been produced throughout the U.S. One of her plays was a finalist at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville. Boyer’s Alex and Anne is a hilarious look at friendship, chick flicks and the ties that bind. Alex and Anne will be included in Smith and Kraus’ Best Ten-Minute Play series for 2009. Dr. Boyer teaches in the creative writing program of Arizona State University.

Mayor David Lodwick said that while the village has already gone through the effort and expense of inviting and reviewing bids on the project, he would agree to delay it if necessary.

“One thing I agree with the manager that worries me is this is a very hungry market, so you’re going to get a lot of bidders. That will turn around.

That’s the history of Florida. If you want quality bids and quality bidders, you better have a history of awarding your bids without major changes, and I think we’ve got that track record.”

The Ponce De Leon and Infanta circle drew ten bids, the highest being about $463,000. Lodwick said he was never a fan of traffic circles on Ponce de Leon because it appears to have a narrow right of way. Pinto pointed out that the council has had extensive discussions about traffic circles in La Mancha, with the prevailing motivation of improving safety and discouraging speeders.

litical consultant run his campaign for free. According to his elections reports, he never paid for these “in-kind” services that would likely be worth a substantial amount of money. Maybe the consultant helped the other elected council members also — I don’t know. I just know they sent out joint mailers together through that consultant’s company. That political consultant is now our town “lobbyist” making $500 per week for a job with no set hours. She has so far gotten a $24,000 contract from our town. The political consult-

In Fox’s Girls Night Out, two friends decide they need a night out; they consider going to a meeting or a movie or dinner but finally choose something different… a strip club, where they meet some unexpected people. Fox is the producer/director of Mystery on the Menu, an interactive murder mystery company and the author of three novels, Murder in the Inn, Another Murder in the Inn, and Murder is Served. She lives what she calls a “vacation life” in Miami Beach where she is hard at work on a third “Inn” mystery.

In Caster’s Back From Walla Walla, an actor returns home after a long tour and finds himself face to face with his former fiancé. He is dismayed to discover that she is the director of a play that he’s auditioning for. Caster is a playwright and actor from West Palm Beach. Broken

“We had to do something about the speeding along that street, and I came away convinced that of all the options, this was probably the most practical and most appropriate way to do it,” he said. “The experience we got from the traffic circles on Royal Palm Beach Blvd. was it does in fact calm the street. My concern going in was making streets safer.”

Councilwoman Martha Webster asked if the circle would displace the four-way stop signs at the intersection, and Liggins said it would, adding that circles slow down traffic and are more effective than four-way stop signs.

Liggins said the village has not received complaints about the existing traffic circles, other than when some late-night drivers crashed into the circle on Royal Palm Beach Blvd. before warning strips were installed.

Lodwick suggested a 60-day postponement.

Farber said they might postpone and gather some practical

ant’s husband was paid $500 for a one-hour “media training” workshop for the town council members. Many of our citizens who are having a hard time making ends meet would love to have these sort of opportunities. This is not the type of “government lite” I recall being pledged during the elections. At a recent town council meeting, one of the minions who supports the “three great public servants” read an “anonymous” letter into the official town meeting minutes blasting the LGWCD. Our comprehensive plan for the

Angels , Riddle of Three and Stranded on the Isle of Few are among his most notable works. His plays performed in past seasons of the Studio Theatre of Wellington’s Festivals of Short Plays include Sweet Talk and A Compatible Bridge

As a group of workers meet to dig trenches in the sand, we see that a job is about the energy, hope, identity and despair we invest in it, and about the sheer repetitive routine that a job becomes in Moffett’s Work is the Only Practical Consolation for Having Been Born . Moffett writes in several forms, including novels, children’s books, travel and ghostwriting. If she didn’t love the funky little fishing city of Lake Worth so much, she would be far away at this moment.

Becky Baxter loves biology, but her devotion to scientific

data from the existing circles, and possibly get it back on the council agenda before the bid expires.

Swift agreed that safety concerns should take precedence in the council’s consideration.

“Fred [Pinto] hit that on the head,” he said. “We went round and round over controlling traffic on that street. One of my concerns is the question of people and not everybody being sold.”

Lodwick said the village could convince residents that traffic circles are not as onerous as they assume. Liggins pointed out that the circle would be landscaped and said he has design drawings that might sway doubtful minds. He said anyone with concerns could come to his office to review the plans.

Councilman Matty Mattioli made a motion to postpone the item, giving Farber the prerogative to place it on the agenda again after he gathers traffic information. The motion was seconded by Pinto and passed unanimously.

town is now being submitted to the state saying we are “rural residential” not “ag/residential” like we’ve always been. Apparently we have this whole history of being an agricultural community all wrong. Perhaps it’s these things and more that makes people want to find candidates to run against the two who are up for election in March. Maybe it has nothing to do with the water control district. I do agree with Ms. Handwerg, though — change is needed. Darlene Crawford Loxahatchee Groves

inquiry causes problems at her high school. In Patterson’s The Scully Syndrome, Becky’s guidance counselor must come up with a plan that will appeal to both Becky and her mother. Patterson has had several of her plays produced at both the Orlando and New York Fringe Festivals as well as the New York Musical Theater Festival and New York’s Midtown International Theater Festival. Kimberly has a master’s degree from New York University and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

In Jones’ A Drive in the Country, Bob and Karen are lost. As they drive on and day turns to night, they wage an escalating battle over the ancient question “why won’t a man ask for directions?” Jones is a playwright from Richmond, Va. His plays have been produced throughout

the country as well as in England. His ten-minute play A Chance of Rain was named as a finalist for the Heideman Award by Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Dinner & Destiny was published in Ten Minute Plays from Oxford. Dennis is a member of the Dramatists Guild. In Unterbrink’s Writer’s Block, aspiring writer Tina is too easily distracted, causing her writing coach Paul to lose his patience with her. Unterbrink is an author and playwright residing in Deerfield Beach. Her first two 10-minute plays were staged by the Boca Raton Theatre Guild at the Willow Theatre. The Studio Theatre of Wellington is located at 11320 Fortune Circle in Wellington Commerce Park. Tickets are $15. Reservations are required due to limited seating. To RSVP, call (561) 204-4100.

Blotter

continued from page 6 turned to the vehicle at approximately 8 a.m. on Monday, he discovered someone had punctured all four tires. In addition, two tires on a nearby white Buick were punctured as well.

SEPT. 30 — A deputy from the PBSO substation in Wellington responded Tuesday morning to a home on Northumberland Circle regarding a stolen vehicle. According to a PBSO report, sometime between 10:30 p.m. on Monday and 7 a.m. the following morning, someone stole the victim’s 2007 Acura TSX, which had been parked in his driveway. Inside the vehicle was the victim’s Sunpass transponder. There were no suspects at the time of the report.

OCT. 2 — A resident of Old Country Road called the PBSO substation in Wellington on Thursday morning regarding a

burglary. According to a PBSO report, he parked his vehicle in the driveway at approximately 6 p.m. on Wednesday. When he returned at approximately 6:30 a.m. the following morning, he discovered his vehicle was unlocked and a TomTom GPS had been stolen from inside. The deputy responded to a similar incident that occurred on Old Country Road at about the same time. According to the victim, she parked her vehicle in the driveway at approximately 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. When she returned at approximately 8 a.m. the following morning, the victim discovered that someone had rummaged through the unlocked vehicle, taking approximately $10 worth of quarters and miscellaneous CDs. There was no suspect information in either incident, though the deputy swabbed the vehicles for DNA.

PHOTO BY CAROL PORTER/TOWN-CRIER

Young Life-Saver — The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, in partnership with the Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue and the Drowning Prevention Coalition of Palm Beach County, honored four-year-old Steve Shore of Lake Worth on Tuesday with a lifesaving award for his rescue of a four-year-old girl in June. The girl was having trouble keeping her head above water while in a swimming pool. Pictured above, Steven receives the award from PBCFR Chief Herman Brice and Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw while parents Ron and Nancy, and PBSO deputies look on.

The Wellington library presented “Meet the Author: Stuart Woods” on Monday, Sept. 29. Guests met and chatted with the best-selling author, asking questions and getting the scoop on Hot Mahogany, his just-released title in the Stone Barrington series. A book signing followed the reception. For more information about programs at the library, call (561) 790-6070. (Above left) Wellington

PBSO,

PBSO Honor Guard Pipes and Drums

PHOTOS BY CAROL PORTER/TOWN-CRIER

WELLINGTON’S ST. MICHAEL LUTHERAN CHURCH CELEBRATES 25 YEARS

The congregation of St. Michael Lutheran Church in Wellington celebrated its 25th anniversary with the Silver Moon Anniversary Dinner Dance on Saturday, Sept. 27 at the Wellington Community Center. The event included a sing-along of “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” with welcoming remarks from Pastor Marjorie Weiss. Wellington Mayor Darell Bowen read a proclamation recognizing the church on its 25th anniversary. The church held celebratory worship services on Sunday, Sept. 28. Together with Pastor Weiss, the service featured Rev. Edward Benoway, bishop of the Florida Bahamas Synod. For more information about St. Michael Lutheran Church, call (561) 793-4999 or visit www.stmichaelelc.com.

PHOTOS BY CAROL PORTER/TOWN-CRIER

John and Sunny Meyer.

Pastor Marjorie Weiss with her husband Dave Derr.

Beverly Lichtenstein recognizes founding members.

Wellington Mayor Darell Bowen presents Pastor Marjorie Weiss with a proclamation.

Guests cut a few moves on the dance floor last Saturday night.

Congregation President Alec Pridgeon speaks about the church’s bright future.

Wellington Vice Mayor Dr. Carmine Priorie and his wife Marie.

(Above) Pastor Marjorie Weiss and Bishop Edward Benoway celebrate Holy Communion at a worship service last Sunday. (Below) Bishop Benoway blesses Ashton Warner while his father Tim Warner looks on. PHOTOS COURTESY JOHN JOHNSON

The Phantoms Preview

The 2008-09

Season At Maltz Jupiter Theatre

The Rat Pack, Now! kicks off the season at Maltz Jupiter Theatre on Friday, Oct. 3. Don’t miss this amazing tribute to Frank, Dean and Sammy, hosted by Marilyn Monroe and featuring Ray Livosi (Frank Sinatra), Art Poco (Dean Martin) and Gary Lenard More (Sammy Davis Jr.). It will take you back to the ’50s and ’60s when the Rat Pack ruled Las Vegas and Hollywood and America. This trip down memory lane is a great start for what lies ahead this season. We had the good fortune to see the original Rat Pack at the 500 Club in Atlantic City, N.J. some 40 years ago and saw this show last year, and will see it again on Friday, Oct. 3 at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre — it is that good! The Rat Pack, Now! has all the moves, jesters and vocals copied to perfection. Sit back and go back in time to those fabulous ’50s with Frank’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” Dean’s “Everybody Loves Somebody” and Sammy’s “I’ve Gotta Be Me.” Tickets are only $35 for individuals and $32 for groups of 20 or more. There is something for everyone from the children’s series, including Sleeping Beauty, Wonderland, The Velveteen Rabbit and Three Little Pigs

The concert series features Charles Calello on Wednesday, Dec. 17; George Winston Solo Piano on Monday, Feb. 9; Indian River Pops Orchestra “Movie Madness” on Sunday, March 1; and the “Salute to Broadway” on Monday, April 6. Show stoppers include “Chris MacDonald’s Memories of Elvis.” Elvis lives through this fantastic tribute to the King on Sunday, Jan. 11. The Celtic Tenors will bring out the Irish in everybody on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 15 and 16. The popular doo-wop shows return with Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge on Friday, Oct. 24, the “Doo Wop Holiday Bop” on Tuesday, Dec. 16 and the

“Dream Team of Doo Wop” on Monday, Jan. 19. The comedy series kicks off once again on New Year’s Eve with Capital Steps and Robert Dubac’s Male Intellect on Tuesday, Feb. 24.

Broadway shows are what the Maltz Theatre is all about with five smash hits:

• Nov. 11-23: Noises Off — A spectacularly funny (adult subject matter) backstage comedy about a fifthrate acting troupe.

• Dec. 2-14: Sleuth — A Tony Award-winning, actionpacked murder mystery. Test your crime-fighting skills to figure out “whodunit.”

• Jan. 6-25: Barnum — A musical circus for the entire family, with clowns, jugglers and trapeze artist bring America’s greatest show on earth to center stage.

• Feb. 3-22: Beehive — The ’60s music of Diana Ross and the Supremes, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Leslie Gore, Petula Clark and everyone else from the hairspray and go-go boots era.

• March 17 to April 5: Evi-

ta — Andrew Lloyd Webber’s mega-musical story of Argentina’s Eva Peron, this rock opera concludes the 2008-09 spectacular season. Each year the Maltz Jupiter Theatre somehow outdoes the previous year’s success, and once again the 2008-09 season is no exception. There is nothing like live theater and no place better to enjoy an entertaining evening. Call the box office at (561) 575-2223 or visit www.jupitertheatre.org for ticket information. Did you know that the Maltz Jupiter Theatre offers student tickets to the five plays at only $15 based on availability? And please tell them that Joe & Kathryn, the Phantoms, highly recommended you call… see you at the theater!

Joe & Kathryn, the Phantoms, are featured writers for the Town-Crier newspaper. Comments are welcome at thephantomdiners@aol.com.

FRIGHT NIGHTS OPEN AT FAIRGROUNDS OCT. 9

The cast and crew of the annual Fright Nights at the South Florida Fairgrounds are getting ready for this year’s opening on Thursday, Oct. 9. This year’s Fright Nights features five attractions: the Smiths, Country Bill’s Meat Market, Dead End, the Bros. Grimm Sideshow and Sick Flicks Cinema. In addition, there will be a Monster Midway of rides, games, food and fun. For more info., call (561) 793-0333 or visit www.southfloridafair.com/frightnights08.

Brad Cain has “lunch” at Country Bill’s Meat Market.

Coordinator Alex Rodriguez speaks to the actors.

Operations Manager Craig McInnis inside a bedroom in the Smiths’ house.

Danielle Walker helps Adriane Hill get into costume.

The “warning sign” says it all — beware!

Previous Fright Nights patrons who never left.

One of the ghouls from the Smiths attraction.

Economic Woes? I Offer My Own Brilliant Yet Simple Solution

Well, Washington has done it again. Whether through idiocy, neglect or intent, they have managed to let capitalism get so far out of hand that it has undermined the financial integrity of the entire country.

Don’t get me wrong. I love capitalism. When a farm boy from Nebraska can attend college, go to work on Wall Street and make enough money to buy his mother that iron lung she’s been needing, it’s a good thing. But when the ignorance of Washington mixes with the arrogance of Wall Street, that’s a bad thing. Because if she loses her life savings and can’t pay the electric bill, Mama’s iron lung ain’t gonna work so well.

Fortunately for the people we used to think of as smart, the average middle class Working Joe will again bail them out. The Powers That Be will tax us to the limits of their power and it still won’t be enough. So then, as usual, the middle class will

Deborah Welky is The Sonic BOOMER

come up with a bevy of creative solutions that will eventually get us out of this mess. Even I have a solution. Yes, with my simple four years of college — no master’s degree, no doctorate — I have, perhaps out of desperation, come up with a fairly simple solution: the four-day workweek.

A four-day workweek (ten hours a day, Monday through Thursday) has been tried by a few but never really implemented in this country to the extent that the masses would benefit. And it

needs mass participation to function correctly. Just think about it: the banks, mortgage houses and stock market would be closed on Friday. That’s one less day for them to screw things up!

The schools would be closed and workers would be home with their children one extra day a week. This would give parents time to actually get to know their kids, resulting (I betcha) in a lower crime rate.

Retail outlets and grocery stores would have the option of staying open, just like they do now on the two-day weekends. Because there’s a third “weekend” day to play around with, consumers could take the time to shop more carefully and chase down the best bargains, making prices more competitive.

Maybe people would have more neighborhood block parties where food is prepared and shared by all, making it possible to buy groceries in bulk sizes and actually use it all up in-

stead of throwing half of it away. Our big ugly footprint on the world would be diminished, because without this frantic rushingaround to fit all our chores into just two days, we could ride our scooters to the store — or pedal our bikes — or (get this for an innovative idea) walk! Gas consumption would go down, conserving our supply. But there is a second prong to my plan — a prong that would put billions per year back into our country’s pockets. Can you guess what it is? Yes! You’re correct! Bring our troops back from Iraq! And, if it were up to me, I’d take $1 billion of the money we’d saved and give it directly to the men and women who were over there. With this generous parting gift, actual cash would be pumped back into the economy — oh, let me be more specific — into our economy. Now, that’s supporting our troops. I think it’s a hell of a plan.

Pilot Of Crime Drama ‘The Mentalist’ Better Than I Expected

The new CBS show The Mentalist did not seem at first like a worthwhile investment of time. Actually, promotional spots for the show made it look very much like Psych without the sense of humor.

However, the show itself exceeded my expectations. In the first minutes of the pilot episode on Tuesday last week, would-be psychic Patrick Jane (Simon Baker), a law enforcement consultant, strolls into the mansion of a family whose daughter was just murdered. As the parents rage and watch a young boy arrested, Jane moves around the house looking at pictures of the family and makes himself a sandwich.

The mother of the victim comes in and he begins by impressing her by how much he knows about her. She asks if he is psychic and he replies, “just paying attention.” He asks her if she fully trusts what her husband has said to the police,

‘I’

On CULTURE

By Leonard Wechsler

noting that wives often know if their husbands are lying. A few seconds later the husband walks in. Jane asks him if he killed his daughter. The man denies it but the wife looks at him in horror.

A few seconds later, she shoots him. And all of this before the first commercial.

This is a show that takes crime fighting seriously. Unlike Psych, the crime-fighter focuses on a serial killer, not a topic good for laughs. The

killer “Red John” has killed at least eight people. It seems that Jane, performing as a successful medium on television years earlier, had been snide about the killer on a television show, so Red John killed his wife and child. Thus he became a consultant with the people searching for the killer, using his skill at reading people as a tool against wrongdoers.

Despite more than a few holes in its logic, the show was curiously compelling. Baker, who previously starred in the series The Guardian, is a very strong leading man. He plays the role very straight: a man willing to stretch ethical rules in order to catch killers. His superiors, as yet unseen, punish him for setting up the husband with a brief suspension, which he casually ignores. Ethics are probably a bit boring when a TV series puts its entertainment values ahead of things like real life. However, it may also simply be that this

was just the first episode and the public needs to see more.

The Mentalist reminded me in some ways of the stronger basic cable series that focus on a single crime fighter. With Baker as a very strong lead, it might last, although it is up against Fringe and Dancing with the Stars. Many shows get better over time. Actually, Fringe on the Fox network is one of them. I only sort of liked the first episode, as readers of this column know, but the second show was better than the first, and the third was even better.

The Mentalist may follow that pattern. At a time when the main networks often seem to be focused on reality shows that seem determined to demonstrate that old-time entertainment values are not necessary to build a following, a solid dramatic series is welcome. I hope the show will grow; it certainly has potential.

Bothered, Bewildered By Beneficiaries Of Bailout Bureaucrats

My mother and father always taught me to play by the rules. And so far, for my entire life, I have tried to the best of my ability to do so. (I am human and there may have been a few times I did not.) I raised my kids the same way my parents brought me up, and I am trying my best to teach these rules to my grandkids, the next generation of Zimmermans.

Wondering & Wandering

By Ernie Zimmerman

This is why I am getting fed up with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Securities & Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart. These guys have taken their show on the road. And of course none of them was elected to his job. At least President George W. Bush was elected to his job (maybe). Their first stop for this show was the Senate Banking Committee. At this stop Bernanke told the senators they would risk causing a recession if they failed to pass the $700 billion bailout plan. He went on to say more folks would be losing their jobs and more homes would go into foreclosure. The only thing I have to say about Mr. Bernanke is that he isn’t Alan Greenspan. Why didn’t Paulson do something about this mess a year ago? If he is as good at his job as he is supposed to be, where was he last year? Was he asleep at the switch? Why did he wait so long to suggest what we must do to get out of this situation? Maybe his thinking is “better late then never.” In my opinion it is too little, too late. I can see the giant holes in this plan, and I am not even an accountant. I am just a poor taxpaying schlub.

If I buy a house by the rules and a car by the rules, why, I ask, should I have to rescue someone who did not play by the rules? I will admit some of these poor homebuyers may have been swindled by the mortgage industry. But I believe in most cases these folks knew exactly what they were doing. So once again I ask, should I pay for their greed?

I know the routine: there will be many meetings behind closed doors. A lot of arm-twisting and then lo and behold, a plan to save our economy will appear. Of course, we will never really know what this plan is costing the American taxpayer. But our grandkids and great grandkids will find out, because they will be paying for it their entire lives.

If some rich folks in some very famous companies are basically gambling in the stock market, why must I and every other taxpayer in this country bail them out? They lost the money, yet we will suffer by saving them. I would rather see my tax dollars go to folks in

Texas who were hurt by Hurricane Ike. Because of this so-called “financial problem” the victims of Ike hardly get a mention in the news these days. As of last week, a quarter of Houston was still without power. Most charities gave more aid a few years back to Hurricane Katrina’s victims in New Orleans than they are presently giving to the victims in Texas. They say it will take over a year to clean up the Galveston area. After seeing what happened to the western communities a couple of years ago, my heart goes out to the folks in Texas. I wonder where the federal government will come up with $700 billion. Oh silly me, the government owns the printing presses. So of course they can just print more “green” paper (at least in this way they would be going green) that passes for money these days.

P.S. I want to thank Don Brown for the kind words about me in his column last week. And who knows what the future will hold? Stranger things have happened.

TOWN-CRIER SPORTS & RECREATION Wildcats Keep P.W. Classic Trophy With 49-3 Win Over WHS

By Paul Gaba Town-Crier Staff Report

For Wellington High School’s football team, the short drive north to take on rival Royal Palm Beach High School last Friday ended up being a visit to the House of Payne — even if the namesake wasn’t in the starting lineup.

Regular Wildcats quarterback Marvin Payne did not see action until the second quarter, but his presence — or lack thereof — did not seem to matter, as backup signal caller Malcolm Pendergrass and the rest of the Wildcats picked apart the Wolverines 49-3 under the lights.

In doing so, the Wildcats retained control of the coveted Palms West Classic reciprocal trophy sponsored annually by the Town-Crier newspaper.

“The guys did a good job, we did some good things, but we’re still not where we want to be,” Royal Palm Beach coach Darren Studstill said. “We just got to get better on offense.”

As for Pendergrass under center to open the game, Studstill said it was an attempt to “build continuity on all sides of the ball. We wanted Malcolm to play a lot and gain some more experience.” Wellington came into the contest off a tough defeat at home to Santaluces. But the Wildcats put the game away early, scoring three touchdowns in the opening quarter. The first came just 14 seconds into the game, when Royal Palm Beach’s Javonti Greene burst

untouched up the middle of the field from 12 yards out. The drive — if one can call a one-play possession a “drive” — followed the Wildcats’ recovery of a squib kick fumbled away by Wellington, and set the tone for the rest of the night.

The Wildcats’ two other first-quarter scores came on a 67-yard connection from Pendergrass to Steven Brinson and a seven-yard reception by Jared Dangerfield. The damage could have been worse, as Royal Palm Beach missed a 35-yard field goal attempt in the opening stanza.

Royal Palm Beach stretched the lead to 29-0 midway through the second quarter on a Payne pass to Chris Dunkley and a two-point conversion.

Wellington’s lone score was Stephen Bender’s 32-yard field goal with 5:41 remaining in the third quarter, cutting the Wildcats’ lead to 29-3. But Royal Palm Beach stretched its lead to 36-3 late in the quarter on Greene’s second touchdown run of the game, a 36-yard scamper.

The Wolverines’ coaching staff took offense to what they believed was an unnecessary touchdown as time ran out in the fourth quarter. After Royal Palm Beach set a “running clock” in motion with a 53-yard pass play from Payne to Marvin Miller midway through the fourth quarter — making the score 423 — the Wildcats got the ball one final time, and used a combination of pass

plays and sweeps to march quickly downfield. The drive culminated with a Trey Pendergrass 16-yard sweep on the last play of the game.

The Wolverines refused to shake hands with the Wildcats, with the WHS coaching staff accusing the host school of running up the score at the expense of good sportsmanship.

Studstill cringed at the accusation.

“By no means were we trying to run up the score,” Studstill said. “We were just trying to be effective on offense. As you can see, sometimes we were stopped. It doesn’t matter how bad I get beat, I think we’re all teachers and educators, and we must show the kids how to lose with dignity, whether by one or 50 points.”

Following the model Seminole Ridge used against the Wildcats the previous week, Wellington went passhappy during the contest, as quarterbacks Brett Alfredson and Nestor Lantigua threw the ball 28 times, 25 by Alfredson. Unlike with Seminole Ridge, though, Wellington’s passes often went uncaught; the signal callers only completed four attempts, for 59 yards, and the Wolverines were picked off three times. The Wildcats’ defense held Wellington to only 26 yards on the ground. In contrast, Greene rushed 13 times for 157 yards.

On Friday, Oct. 3, Wellington heads to Jupiter, while Royal Palm Beach visits West Boca.

Deer Run’s Debbie McBride: The Go-To Person For

Tucked away on a grassy lane in Deer Run is the home of a quiet angel. There, without much fuss or fanfare, Debbie McBride works her magic on needy horses. She started rescuing horses in 2003.

“I was just scanning around the Internet, not really looking at anything, and I came across the Premarin foals,” she recalled. “At that time, Premarin, a drug used to reduce the discomforts of menopause, was being manufactured from pregnant mare’s urine. The mares were kept constantly pregnant, and the resulting foals were the ‘unwanted byproduct.’ That was the part that really affected me, that these babies were born and often sent to slaughter because they were ‘unwanted byproducts.’ I’d never heard of anything so cruel and heartless.”

McBride contacted Shana Wingate in Georgia, who was one of a few people buying foals and getting them adopted. McBride flew up to visit Wingate and picked out two foals, Shy and Jazz. That was her start in the horse rescue field. She took pictures of other available foals and posted them at every tack and feed store in the area. That was the first time I ran into McBride. I was innocently passing by the bulletin board at the Red Barn, just buying feed, and this thick wad of paper caught my eye. I stopped and started leafing through, looking at page after page of beautiful foals caught in a tragic situation. I visited McBride, then perused Wingate’s web site. A month or so later, a couple of Premarin foals stepped off a trailer and into my pasture. I talked some other friends into adopting foals as well. A year later, I adopted a third foal. That was as far

Tales From The Trails

By Ellen Rosenberg

as I went, at the time, but McBride was hooked.

“The more I found out about this so-called industry, the more concerned I got,” she said. “I knew I had to do something to make a difference.”

Between McBride and others like her, the general public finally became educated, and Premarin gradually fell out of favor. That precipitated a whole new crisis: the breeders got rid of the pregnant mares who were no longer needed. McBride started adopting and finding homes for the mares.

The horse community is a small world, and it seems as if everyone knows everyone else’s business. It wasn’t long before people knew, through word of mouth, that McBride was the one to call if a horse needed rescuing. When the economy headed south, McBride found that she didn’t have to look far to find horses in dire need of help: there were horses quietly starving and being abandoned all around her.

“You don’t expect to see that kind of thing here in Palm Beach County,” McBride said. “It’s really shocking.”

One day in February 2007, she got a call from Animal Care & Control. A horse that she had adopted out to a local family was under investi-

gation for being too thin. McBride was sad, but not altogether surprised.

“This Clydesdale mare had been doing fine,” McBride said. “The people had owned her for about two years. They had signed a contract with me that if anything happened, she’d come back to me. I called and visited every once in a while, and the mare always looked good. Then I had a family tragedy and was out of touch for about six or seven months. That’s when I got the call from Animal Care & Control.”

McBride called the people and wanted to see the mare, but suddenly they were very busy, or not at home, or just on the way out. McBride was getting the runaround. She wasn’t allowed to see the mare, and she knew something bad was going on. The authorities finally seized the mare, along with two other horses on the property, and McBride agreed to take all three. They were severely underweight, but McBride got them back into shape and worked to get them adopted into better homes.

When Animal Care & Control officials again visited McBride and saw how the horses had improved, they asked if she’d be willing to help them with other abuse or neglect cases. She agreed, and that’s how she ended up with two Paints, which she picked up from their compound on Belvedere Road in June. The Paints weren’t thin but needed a lot of training. McBride said she also saved three ponies from the kill pen at the Sugar Creek Auction in Ohio. She currently owns three “permanent” horses and has five others up for adoption. McBride doesn’t run a nonprofit organization;

Horses In Need

she pays for everything out of her own pocket. She’s grateful for any help she can get, whether it’s volunteers helping groom and bathe the horses, or people donating supplies such as feed, fly spray or wormers. She’d also love to have a web site, but doesn’t know how to go about creating one. “The way this economy is today, I’m really afraid that we’re going to see more and more abandoned or neglected horses,” McBride said. “People are really feeling the pinch now of high prices for gas and everything else. I’m worried that a lot more people are going to just walk away from their horses. My mission is to help every horse I‘m able to help.” If you’d like to help McBride out, call (561) 758-8926.

The Wildcats enter Palms West Stadium.

PHOTOS BY PAUL GABA/TOWN-CRIER

RPB’s Jordan Dangerfield prepares to snag an interception.

Debbie McBride (left) loads a rescued horse at Animal Care & Control.

RPB’s Jordan Lide and Perry McIntyre with the Town-Crier’s Palms West Classic trophy.

Wellington’s Tannoris Rogers runs back a kickoff.

Wolverine Victor Jones and Wildcat Chris Dunkley battle to catch an RPB pass.

WHS quarterback Brett Alfredson drops back to pass.

RPB running back Javonti Greene sweeps left, attempting to evade WHS’s Alex DiNardo and Victor Jones.

WHS punter Stephen Bender boots the ball before RPB’s Steven Louis can block the kick.

WHS assistant coach Jim Marshall. WHS wideout Winter Cullen.

RPB’s Javonti Greene scores the first Wildcat touchdown.

RIVERSIDE SUPPORTS RPBHS VOLLEYBALL

The Royal Palm Beach High School girls volleyball team has had a successful year thus far, in part because of community support and involvement. Steven Figiel, a longtime supporter and parent of former Lady Wildcat Juli Figiel (a 2005 grad), still finds time to make most of the team’s home games. He volunteers as a line judge and works the annual Palm Beach Classic Volleyball tournament as well. This year, Figiel garnered the support of his employer Riverside Bank and arranged for new team shirts donated to the varsity squad. The Lady Wildcats were extremely appreciative of the gift and thank Figiel and Riverside Bank’s Royal Palm Beach Office Manager Alisha Mellot for their support. Pictured above are (front row, L-R) Jessica Morrison, Mellot and Figiel; (second row) Chelsea Leiva, Lauren Garceau, Geraldine Fleurimond and Morgan Hill; (back row) Cassady Cook, Shaina Abdell, Marlecia Fuller, Latoya Harvin and Taylor Johnson.

GROUP HELPS DEVELOP TRAIL AT CORBETT AREA

In celebration of National Public Lands Day, the Loxahatchee chapter of the Florida Trail Association met on Saturday, Sept. 27 at the J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area. Ten association members explored and developed a hiking trail in the western part of the management area. Pictured here are volunteers Brigit Kean, Chris Perry, Donna Ward, Diana Clark, Vickie Rogerson and Winston Evans.

SPORTS & RECREATION

Register For RPB Recreation Programs

The Royal Palm Beach Parks & Recreation Department is accepting registration for the following programs at the RPB Recreation Center, Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.; the office is open until 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

• Boys and Girls Basketball — This program is for children in grades kindergarten through eight. The cost is $85 for residents and $105 for non-residents. The deadline for registration is Oct. 24. There will be a coaches’ meeting on Oct. 21. Player evaluations will take place Oct. 27-29, practices begin Nov. 18 and games begin Dec. 3. Space is limited and coaches are needed.

• Adult Basketball Club

The club is for ages 18 and up and will take place from 1 to 4:30 p.m. on Sundays, and from 6 to 8:45 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays now through Dec. 28. The cost is $10 for residents and $15 for non-residents. A valid photo ID is required.

• Beginner Golf League

This four-week instructional clinic will be held at the Village Golf Club Sundays, Oct. 19 to Nov. 9. Hours are 2 to 3 p.m. for ages seven to 17 and 3 to 4 p.m. for ages 18 and up. Clubs are not required. The cost is $45 for residents and $60 for nonresidents. Registration is open now through Oct. 16. For more information on any of these programs, call (561) 790-5124.

Ten-Mile Race

Oct. 12 In Wellington

The Wellington Runners Club and the Village of Wellington will host the Fourth Annual Horse Country Ten-Miler on Sunday, Oct. 12 at 7 a.m. The ten-mile course will be quiet and serene, and will show off Wellington’s beautiful equestrian and aeronautical communities. The race will start at 13900 Greenbriar Blvd. in front of New Horizons Elementary School. Registration is $25 through Oct. 11 and $30 on race day. Race day registration begins at 5:45 a.m. Pre-registration is available online at www.

active.com or you can pick up a registration form at the Wellington Community Center or FIT2RUN located in the Mall at Wellington Green. Club members will receive a $2 discount by pre-registering at one of those locations only. Information and application forms are available at www.wellingtonrunners.org.

The race will be chip-timed by AccuChip, and the course will have splits at the five-mile marker. There will be complimentary post-race refreshments for registered participants and first aid stations on the course. The run will benefit the Kids Cancer Foundation of South Florida, a local foundation for children with cancer and blood disorders. Other supporters include FIT2RUN, St. Mary’s Medical Center, Atlantic Filter, Strathmore Bagels and USA Track & Field.

WHS Basketball Golf Tourney Set For Oct. 18

The Wellington High School men’s basketball team will hold its first annual golf tournament on Saturday, Oct. 18 at Binks Forest Golf Club. Proceeds from the event will go directly to the men’s basketball program and will aid in providing muchneeded equipment, travel expenses, camp fees and meals for the freshman, junior varsity and varsity teams.

The tournament committee includes first-year head coach Matt Colin and assistant coaches Daniel Stechschulte and Edwin Howe, as well as Dennis Witkowski, Ed Portman, Nick Randall and Jay McCormick. The committee invites golfers to join them at noon for registration and a three-point putting contest. The tournament will begin at 1 p.m. with a shotgun start. Immediately following the tournament will be an awards buffet, dinner buffet and silent auction. Entry fees are $125 per golfer and $500 per team (which consists of four golfers). Sponsorship opportunities for the tournament are available. The tournament committee is excited about this new era of basketball at Wellington High School and is looking forward to a successful year for the men’s basketball program.

For more information on this year’s tournament, call Matt

Colin at (803) 439-5348 or email matthew.colin@palm beach.k12.fl.us.

Briana Cox Memorial Golf

Tourney Nov. 1

The Briana Marie Cox Foundation will host the Briana Marie Cox Memorial Golf Tournament on Saturday, Nov. 1 at the Palm Beach National Golf and Country Club in Lake Worth. The tournament is open to golfers of all ages. The entry fee is $100 per golfer or $400 per foursome, and includes dinner, raffle and auction.

The family of Briana Marie Cox established the foundation to honor her memory. Briana was killed in an automobile accident on July 16, 2006 while traveling home with her family from an out-of-state softball tournament. Briana was devoted to God, loved by all and an inspiration to those who knew her.

The purpose of the foundation is to help those who have lost a loved one, help defray the cost of girls softball for those with financial hardships, and to award college scholarships to deserving high school seniors. Visit www.brianamariecox foundation.org for more information.

Wave Soccer Girls Persevere

The Wellington Wave girls soccer team hosted the Coral Springs Renegades last Saturday, dominating play most of the match with a decisive 4-1 victory. Wave forward Lauren Matias had two goals in the first half. Midfielder Andrea Cedeno-Toban took a nice shot inside the penalty area right past the Renegade keeper making the score 3-1 at the end of the first period. Coral Springs’ lone goal came from a penalty kick given on a foul by a Wave defender inside the penalty area. In the second period, Matias scored another goal, earning the hat trick and making the final 4-1. The Wave nearly earned another shutout if not for the lone penalty kick. Solid play from the entire team contributed to scoring a total of seven goals, and giving up only one goal to a penalty kick in two games.

Inconsistency struck the

COMMUNIT Y CALENDAR

Saturday, Oct. 4

• Come for a little exercise in John Prince Park with the Florida Trail Association on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 7:30 a.m. Take a one-hour walk and enjoy breakfast afterward at TooJays in Lake Worth. Call Paul at (561) 963-9906 for more info.

• Grassy Waters Preserve (8264 Northlake Blvd.) will host a “Florida Yards and Neighborhoods Garden Party” on Saturday, Oct. 4 from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Join volunteers and take care of the Florida Yards and Neighborhoods demonstration garden. This free event for ages 10 and up will take place at the north campus in the Everglades Pavilion. For more info., call (561) 804-4980 or visit www.grassy waterspreserve.com.

• The Wellington library (1951 Royal Fern Drive) will present “Drop-in Story Time” on Saturdays, Oct. 4, 18 and 25 at 11 a.m. for ages two and up. Call (561) 790-6070 to pre-register.

• Palm Beach Community College (4200 Congress Avenue, Lake Worth) will host the Green Expo on Saturday, Oct. 4 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the PBCC Education and Training Center. The Green Expo will feature exhibitors of products, services and information, along with workshops on a variety of sustainability and green-living topics. Admission is free and open to the public. For more info., call (561) 8683702.

Sunday, Oct. 5

• Visit a wide variety of natural Florida in Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Jupiter with the Loxahatchee chapter of the Florida Trail Association on Sunday, Oct. 5. Meet at 8 a.m. at the entrance parking lot. Call Mary at (561) 3917942 for more info.

• Grassy Waters Preserve (8264 Northlake Blvd.) will host Wetlands Discovery Canoeing on Sunday, Oct. 5 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for ages ten and up. The cost is $15 for adults and $5 for children. For more info., call (561) 804-4985.

• Comedian Lewis Black will perform at the Kravis Center (701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach) on Sunday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. in the Dreyfoos Concert Hall. For more info., call (561) 832-7469 or visit www.kravis.org. Monday, Oct. 6

• The Wellington library (1951 Royal Fern Drive) will present “Baby Story Time” on Mondays, Oct. 6, 20 and 27 at 9:30 a.m. for under eight months and 11:15 a.m. for nine through 12 months. Your baby will love the rhymes, finger plays, songs, books and toys. Call (561) 790-6070 to pre-register.

• The Wellington library (1951 Royal Fern Drive) will present “English Exchange” on Mondays, Oct. 6, 20 and 27 at 1 p.m. for adults. Join Literacy AmeriCorps member Paula Alexander in this interactive program where you can practice speaking English while talking about everyday situations and current events. Basic English speaking skills required. Call (561) 649-5473 for more info.

• Enjoy a program titled “The ABCs of Developing a Hiking Trail” with the Loxahatchee chapter of the Florida Trail Association on Monday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. at the Okeeheelee Nature Center (7715 Forest Hill Blvd.). Call Sherry at (561) 963-9906 for more info.

• A Mutual-Help Grief Group will hold its first meeting on Monday, Oct. 6 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Peter’s United Methodist Church in Wellington. The Grief Care Guide by Dr. Harold Ivan Smith is the resource for the group. For more information about this free six-week program, call Heidi Cote at (561) 383-7992 or Rachel Lever at (561) 793-5712, ext. 21. Tuesday, Oct. 7

• Palm Beach Community College’s Eissey campus in Palm Beach Gardens will host its National Photography and Digital Imagery Exhibit Oct. 7 to Dec. 1 in Building BB, Room 113. The exhibit will feature traditional and digital photography as well as digital imagery. More than 30 images were selected from hundreds of entries. The opening reception will take place Tuesday, Oct. 7 from 5 to 8 p.m. For more info., call (561) 207-5015 or visit www.pbcc.edu/artgallery pbg.xml.

• The Wellington library (1951 Royal Fern Drive) will present “Trick My Book Truck” on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 6:30 p.m. and Thursday, Oct. 9 at 6:30 p.m. for ages 12 to 17. Help the Teen Advisory Group decorate a book cart for this year’s Trick My Book Truck

contest. Call (561) 790-6070 to pre-register. Wednesday, Oct. 8

• The Wellington library (1951 Royal Fern Drive) will present “Flick Lit: Bridge to Terebithia” on Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 4 p.m. for ages eight and up. Join library staff for games and discussion based on the book Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson. Call (561) 790-6070 to preregister. Thursday, Oct. 9 • Temple Beth Zion (129 Sparrow Drive, Royal Palm Beach) invites all unaffiliated Jews in the area to its Community Yizkor Service on Yom Kippur afternoon, Thursday, Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. Donations will be appreciated but are not required. The purpose is to join together to honor departed loved ones. For more info., call (561) 798-8888 or visit www.templebethzion.net.

• The Wellington library (1951 Royal Fern Drive) will host Masquerade on Thursday, Oct. 9 for ages six and up. Create a colorful folding mask in time for Halloween. Call (561) 790-6070 to pre-register.

• The annual Fright Nights will open on Thursday, Oct. 9 at the South Florida Fairgrounds. A wristband ticket costs $20 in advance and $25 at the gate. The fee covers gate admission and one admission to each attraction plus unlimited rides. General admission tickets cost $10 in advance and $15 at the gate. For more info., call (561) 793-0333 or visit www.southfloridafair. com/frightnights08. Friday, Oct. 10

• The Wellington library (1951 Royal Fern Drive) will present “Scarecrows” on Friday, Oct. 10 at 3 p.m. for ages four through seven. Build a wobbly scarecrow to display in the children’s area, then create a scarecrow’s face to take home. Call (561) 790-6070 to pre-register.

• A fundraiser has been set for the family of 11-year-old Carson Ruffa of Royal Palm Beach, who has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. On Friday, Oct. 10, family and friends will hold a variety show/fundraiser at the Royal Palm Beach Cultural Center (151 Civic Center Way). A silent auction will begin at 6 p.m., and the show will start at 7 p.m. Table seating is $30 per person and theater seating is $20 per person. Tickets can be purchased by calling Sharon Calvo at (561) 798-1111. For more info., visit www.caring bridge.org/visit/carsonruffa. Saturday, Oct. 11 • Come out and get wet and dirty while helping to maintain the hiking trails at Jonathan Dickinson State Park with the Loxahatchee chapter of the Florida Trail Association on Saturday, Oct. 11. Meet at the park entrance on U.S. 1 in Jupiter at 8 a.m. Call B. Rogers at (561) 968-4864 for more info.

• Grassy Waters Preserve (8264 Northlake Blvd.) will present a First Aid Course on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 11 and 12 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. American Red Cross instructor Val Wilson will lead a course on emergency response practices. The cost is $125, which includes materials and lunch. RSVP to (561) 650-9110 by Oct. 9.

• Virtuoso sitarist, composer, teacher and writer Ravi Shankar will perform at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts (701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach) on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 8 p.m. in the Dreyfoos Concert Hall. For more info., call (561) 8327469 or visit www.kravis. org. Tuesday, Oct. 14 • The Wellington library (1951 Royal Fern Drive) will present “Twilight Trivia” during Teen Read Week 2008 on Tuesday, Oct. 14 for ages 12 through 17. Participants talk about “books with bite.” Test your knowledge of the vampire/werewolf series by Stephenie Meyer. Call (561) 790-6070 to pre-register.

• The Wellington Village Council will meet on Tuesday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. at the Wellington Community Center. For more info., call (561) 7914000.

Wednesday, Oct. 15

• The Wellington library (1951 Royal Fern Drive) will present “Flick Lit: Bridge to Terebithia” on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 3:30 p.m. for families. You’ve read the book, now watch the movie! Call (561) 790-6070 for more info. Send calendar items to: The Town-Crier, 12794 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Suite 31, Wellington, FL 33414. FAX: (561) 7936090. E-mail: news@gotown crier.com.

Lampe Berger Interior Fragrance Devices Available At WellingTAN

By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report

WellingTAN owner David Thorpe is sold on the effectiveness of a product he is now offering at his tanning studio in the Wellington Plaza, but it won’t help you get a tan.

Thorpe became an authorized dealer for Lampe Berger interior fragrance devices after using them in his shop for a year. “Put your hand over the top here, it’s warm,” he said as he held his hand above a small, brightly colored ceramic bottle topped with an ornate gold fixture.

The flameless lamp was developed as a sanitation device by a French pharmaceutical chemist named Maurice Berger in 1898. The lamp burns a fragrance blended with alcohol in a patented catalytic burner that cleans the air and eliminates odors. But since the lamp’s invention, it has also become a chic home accessory, with designers creating a wide range of stylish bottle designs.

“Somebody got clever and made all kinds of fancy bottles,” Thorpe said. “There’s more than 40 different scents of everything from Spiced Pumpkin to Patchouli Honeydew to Winterwood.”

Thorpe is selling the Lampe Berger kits at prices ranging from $50 for a basic lamp to several thousand dollars for designer lamps.

Thorpe said he discovered Lampe Berger in a shop in Winter Park, where his daughter goes to college. “I bought two of them and put one in here and one in my home, and absolutely fell in love with the product,” he said. “It’s a perfect gift either for someone going into a new house or somebody who has a smelly dog or a smelly husband. Meanwhile, I stock all of the essences for the lamps.”

Orange Cinnamon was burning on the day the Town-Crier visited WellingTAN, but the house favorite is Winterwood, Thorpe said.

The company manufactures more subtle scents such as Fresh Linen and a neutral scent that can be burned just to cleanse the air or blended with a scented product to reduce the intensity.

“You can water down any scent to the point that you can hardly smell it, but you’re still

cleaning the air,” Thorpe said. For the holidays there are Pumpkin Spice and Heavenly Spruce. The liquid sells in halfliter bottles for $19 and one-liter bottles for $33. “We have Grapefruit. Personally, I don’t like it at all, but I have one lady who comes in every other week and buys it because that’s her thing,” Thorpe said. “We have Green Apple; we have a lady at a horse farm who buys that because her horses love apples. They have designer scents such as Diego, which resembles an essence of cologne. It’s more manly.”

Thorpe said he became a Lampe Berger dealer because he uses them so much at his salon. “We are the only tanning studio in the world to carry Lampe Berger,” he said. “They’re usually sold in small boutiques or eclectic shops that sell higher-end gifts. Tanning salons are not even in their realm of thinking.”

Thorpe said Lampe Berger cleanses his salon of the lotion and “shower room” odors that accumulate in tanning salons.

“When we first opened, I had candles all over — and I was going through a lot of candles,” he said. “My beds are white, and a residue gets in the air and it gets on the beds. Our air conditioning vents were getting gummy. The guys that replace my bulbs were telling me that I was harming my equipment.”

When the woman who sold him his first two lamps told him they clean the air, Thorpe said he felt he had perhaps found the solution to his problem.

“For that fresh scent I thought, ‘gee, why don’t I replace my candles?’ and we slowly phased out all candles. This solved the problem.”

Thorpe said selling Lampes Berger might be a stretch from running a tanning salon, but the product achieves exactly what he wants, which is to give customers not just a tan at his shop, but an experience. He describes WellingTAN as “the Breakers of tanning” and said Lampe Berger fits right in with what he is attempting to do.

“People walk through the door of the shop and say, ‘wow

what is this place? Is it a head shop? Do you have bongs?’ We get used to it, but a little girl walked in the other day looking for a donation,” Thorpe recalled. “She had to be about seven years old and she said, ‘I love tanning salons because you smell better when you leave than when you came in.’

“I asked her, ‘How many tanning salons have you been in, young lady?’ and she said, ‘Well, this one,’” Thorpe said. “You walk into another tanning salon, and they don’t usually smell like this.”

The customer’s experience, from the first step in the door, is very important to Thorpe. He said he makes presentations to marketing club students at Wellington and Palm Beach Central high schools, where he explains the mechanics and the psychology of putting together a business.

“I am somewhat of a soft infomercial for WellingTAN there, but I talk about putting businesses together and the experience of walking in a door,” he said.

Thorpe describes WellingTAN as a luxury European tanning studio, and explained that Lampe Berger fits right in. The pleasant aroma of Lampe Berger is the beginning of the WellingTAN experience, he said.

“Every bed is set up. The eyewear is sitting there. You don’t have to buy the eyewear. There’s little mint candies on the pillow. The towels are provided. We don’t cut any corners; we don’t penny pinch and our rates are as low as or lower than most around town,” Thorpe said.

The salon will celebrate its sixth anniversary on Dec. 6, Thorpe noted.

WellingTAN is located in the Wellington Plaza at 12797 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Suite A. The salon is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.

For more information, call (561) 383-8883 or visit www. wellingtan.com. For more information about Lampe Berger, visit www.lampeberger. com.

Help Those In Need Through Stein Mart’s ‘Give & Receive’

In a year that has brought financial challenges to many Americans, the Salvation Army and Stein Mart want to help shoppers “Give & Receive” from Oct. 2-4 at Stein Mart stores nationwide. The event provides an easy way for shoppers to give much-needed clothing and receive great savings on new fall fashions.

Donated apparel will help replenish the Salvation Army’s Thrift and Family Stores, many of which have reported as much as 20 percent decreases in donations over the past year.

“We are proud to partner with the Salvation Army and appreciate our customers’ generous support,” Stein Mart Inc. President and CEO Linda Farthing said. “Through this event, our neighbors in need will benefit directly. That’s what being part of a community is all about.”

Customers are encouraged to bring clean, gently used garments in good condition to any Stein Mart store Oct. 2-4 during the Give & Receive event. For each item donated, contributors will receive a coupon for 20 percent off any item.

All proceeds from the thrift stores directly support the Salvation Army’s adult rehabilitation centers, where over 340,000 men and women turned their lives around last year. Tax receipts are available for donations.

“The recent economic downturn has meant that people are keeping their gently used items longer, so we are seeing fewer donations to our thrift and family stores,” Salvation Army National Community Relations and Development Secretary Major George Hood said. “This means that we have fewer items to sell and therefore less funding for our life-changing programs.

Stein Mart’s support, and that of their shoppers, is vital to our service, and the Salvation Army is grateful.” Coupons are valid at Stein Mart locations Oct. 2-4. Limit four coupons per customer while supplies last. Stein Mart is located at 11061 Southern Blvd., Royal Palm Beach in the Southern Palm Crossing shopping plaza. For more info., call (561) 656-1606. Find other Stein Marts location at www.steinmart.com. Stein Mart stores offer the fashion merchandise, service and presentation of a better department or specialty store, at prices up to 60 percent off every day. Currently with locations from California to Massachusetts, Stein Mart’s focused assortment of merchandise features moderate to better fashion apparel for women and men, as well as accessories, gifts, linens and shoes.

Making Scents — WellingTAN owner David Thorpe with employee Bonnie Breedlove with Lampe Berger products inside the Wellington Plaza tanning studio.

PHOTO BY RON BUKLEY/TOWN-CRIER

PALMS WEST CHAMBER HOSTS RIBBON CUTTINGS

Donna Marie’s Gourmet Market — The Palms West Chamber of Commerce ambassadors recently participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Donna Marie’s Gourmet Market. Donna Marie’s is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Sunday. They are located at 8221 Lake Worth Road, one block west of Florida’s Turnpike. Donna Marie’s specializes in catering for any size budget, ready-to-go take-home dinners, fresh fruits, seafood, meats and a large selection of wines. For more information about Donna Marie’s Gourmet Market, call (561) 965-7575 or visit the company’s web site at www.mygourmetmarket.com. Pictured here with Palms West Chamber of Commerce ambassadors are Executive Chef Jose Torres, co-owner Lee Propst, Maria Propst, co-owner Dean Torrenga and Kathy Torrenga.

Hillary’s Heart — Located in the Marketplace at Wycliffe (4095 State Road 7, Suite U-1), Hillary’s Heart offers creative gifts for all occasions, including personalized and painted baby items, fun and funky fashions for kids, unique children’s room décor, and candy and fine chocolate. Store hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday thru Friday, 10 to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. For more information about Hillary’s Heart, call (561) 968-5471. Pictured here are Hillary’s Heart staff with Palms West Chamber of Commerce ambassadors.

Center For Bone And Joint Surgery Opens New Administrative Offices

The Center for Bone and Joint Surgery, which specializes in comprehensive orthopedic care, opened its doors to a brand-new administrative center located at 11120 South Crown Way, off Fairlane Farms Road in Wellington. This building will be the new home to the center’s medical records, call center, human resources, accounting and creative departments. CEO and total joint replacement specialist Dr. Harvey Montijo and partner and hand specialist Dr. Veronica Pedro, along with representatives from the Palms West Chamber of Commerce, conducted a ribbon-cutting ceremony and celebration on Thursday, Sept. 25. Montjio said that opening this additional building will allow for the Center for Bone and Joint Sur-

gery to increase clinic space and add an additional physical therapy wing on the Wellington Regional Medical Center campus. Wellington has been home to the Center for Bone and Joint Surgery for more than ten years.

The Center for Bone and Joint Surgery is a leading provider of orthopedic care with specialties in total joint replacement, sports medicine, spine, hand and upper extremity, foot and ankle, general orthopedics, and trauma and reconstructive surgeries. The center services all of Palm Beach County with locations in Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee, Belle Glade, Boynton Beach and West Palm Beach.

For more information, visit www.boneandjoint.org or call (561) 798-6600.

Home Show Returns To Convention Center

The fall edition of the Palm Beach Home Show will take place Friday through Sunday, Oct. 10-12 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach. Known as Palm Beach’s upscale home show, the event attracts tens of thousands of visitors looking for the latest in home design and remodeling products and services. The show will feature more than 100,000 square feet of displays, including interior decorating, furnishing, kitchen and bathroom design, pools and spas, landscaping, outdoor liv-

ing, and much more. Visitors will browse among hundreds of products, including tile, stone and surfacing materials; window treatments and accessories; home theater systems; roofing and building products; and the latest in storm-protection technology. The show will also feature an arts and crafts village, a special showcase for talented artisans working in sculpture, glass, pottery, painting, jewelry, photography and metalwork. Free seminars throughout the show will give attendees the information they need to know about the home market today.

Spanish Trade Mission Oct. 8

Kevin Johns, director of the Office of Economic Development, is coordinating with the World Trade Center Palm Beach and the Embassy of Spain’s Department of Investment to conduct an inbound trade mission on Wednesday, Oct. 8 with Cordoba, Spain. Ten companies from the food and ceramic sectors will be represented in the delegation. The inbound mission is a follow-up to the Consulate General of Spain’s familiarization tour of Palm Beach County that was

held earlier this year. The trade mission’s participating companies are interested in meeting with Palm Beach County importers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers from the food and ceramics sectors. All meetings will be held in West Palm Beach. Businesses in the food and ceramics sectors that are interested in meeting with the Spanish trade delegation should call Barbara Fiedor at (561) 6449186 or bfiedor@wtcpalm beach.com to schedule an appointment.

Nationally known home remodeling expert Courtney Cachet will present the top five home remodeling projects that produce the best return on investment. She will also introduce the latest in green products that help the environment and save money around the house. Homeowners will also learn valuable tips from Florida Power & Light to take the “heat” off their electrical bills. This year’s prizes focus on bringing the fun outdoors, with chances to win a deluxe home spa from Spas of Palm Beach (valued at more than $8,000) and a beautiful patio furniture set from Leader’s Casual Furniture (valued at more than $1,000). Admission is $9 for adults and $4 for children ages four to 12. Seniors and ladies will benefit from two-for-one admission on Friday, opening day, while seniors also will receive $2 off the regular $9 admission price on Saturday and Sunday. As a sponsor of the Hibiscus Children’s Center, the Palm Beach Home Show will give $2 off one regular adult admission with the donation of one or more children’s books for the center’s new Ocean Reef library program. The show will also feature a special appearance by the South

New Administrative Office — Controller Luschka Montijo, Practice Manager Kirk Alexander, Palms West Chambers of Commerce Executive Director Jaene Miranda, Dr. Veronica Pedro, Dr. Harvey Montijo, Wellington Manager of Medical Applications David Klebonis, Human Resources Manager Zulma Bauzo, Administration Manager Elizabeth York and Senior Advisor Linda McGill at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

PHOTO COURTESY BRITTANY HILL

Courtney Cachet

FALL SHOPPING EXTRAVAGANZA RETURNS TO SOUTH FLORIDA

The annual Fall Shopping Extravaganza took place Saturday, Sept. 27 at the Americraft Expo Center at South Florida Fairgrounds. Local bargain shoppers flocked to the expo center to find the best deals on a variety of merchandise, including garage sale items, clothing, crafts, jewelry, antiques, toys and much more. For more information about events at the Americraft Expo Center, visit www.southfloridafair.com. PHOTOS BY

Diane Johnson buys a glass necklace from Louise Keller of Jewelry by Louise.

Certified acupuncturist Laura Mulloy gives Jud Jones a neck massage.

Bruce Behringer of Royal Palm Beach looks over signs made by Carol Arnold of Aqua Decor.MaryEllen Hishon of Beads & Scrapbooking 4 Less

Lottie Daniels of Wellington with her handmade pet mats.

Agnes Adamus of Magnetwear.net, which sells kids T-shirts with a magnetic bug toy attached.

Jeanie De La Vergne and her Yorkie Zoe look for a bargain on books.

Jewelry by Giorgio’s Ann Marie and Giorgio Mazzini.

Stefani Duelfer of Celebrations by Stef shows a “cake” containing diapers and other newborn accessories.

TOWN-CRIER CLASSIFIEDS