RPB ZONERS SUPPORT RAISING CANE’S SEE STORY, PAGE 3
TREE-PLANTING EVENT IN WELLINGTON SEE STORY & PHOTOS, PAGE 16
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TOWN-CRIER WELLINGTON • ROYAL PALM BEACH • LOXAHATCHEE • THE ACREAGE
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Clerk Joseph Abruzzo Gives First Report To County Commission
Volume 42, Number 22 October 8 - October 21, 2021
Serving Palms West Since 1980
BINKS PTA PARTY WITH A PURPOSE
Palm Beach County Clerk & Comptroller Joseph Abruzzo gave his first report to the Palm Beach County Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 5, promising a non-political and financially clean office. Abruzzo, previously a state representative and state senator, was elected to the countywide office in 2020 and sworn in on Jan. 5, 2021, replacing former Palm Beach County Clerk & Comptroller Sharon Bock. Page 3
New Pet Supplies Plus Store In RPB Hosts Grand Opening Party
The new Pet Supplies Plus store in Royal Palm Beach held a grand opening party on Saturday, Oct. 2 and Sunday, Oct. 3 with prizes and giveaways, store discounts, free dog training and pet wash, and visits from Peggy Adams Animal Rescue and Ali Cat Rescue. The store is located in the Southern Palm Crossing shopping plaza. Page 5
RPB Rec Board Hears Plans For Recreation Center Expansion
The Village of Royal Palm Beach is planning a major expansion of the Royal Palm Beach Recreation Center and is seeking input on the types of improvements that the public feels would expand its functionality. Parks & Recreation Director Lou Recchio discussed the project at the Monday, Sept. 27 meeting of the Recreation Advisory Board. Page 7
P.B. Central Broncos Remain Undefeated On The Gridiron
On Friday, Oct. 1, the Palm Beach Central High School football squad put their undefeated record and their No. 5 Class 8A state ranking on the line when they hosted the Jupiter High School Warriors. When the final horn sounded after 48 minutes of play, the Broncos prevailed 43-21 to improve their record to 5-0. Page 21 DEPARTMENT INDEX NEWS...............................3 - 18 NEWS BRIEFS......................... 7 SPORTS......................... 21 - 23 PEOPLE................................. 24 BUSINESS............................. 27 COLUMNS............................. 28 CLASSIFIEDS................ 29 - 30 Visit Us On The Web At WWW.GOTOWNCRIER.COM
The Binks Forest Elementary School PTA presented it fourth annual Party With A Purpose casino night with a “Havana Nights” theme on Saturday, Sept. 25 at the Wellington National Golf Club. The evening included dinner and casino games, along with auctions, baskets, prizes, a DJ and more. Money raised will purchase educational tools for teachers. Shown above are Tony Calkins, Karen Berard, Gladys Vargas, Janine Stumm, Brandie Soto and Laurie Michaels. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 8 PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER
Acreage Incorporation Committee Holds Its First Town Hall-Style Meeting
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Now that the Indian Trail Improvement District Board of Supervisors has divested itself of the incorporation process, the Citizens’ Committee for Incorporation held its first town hall-style meeting with about a dozen residents Wednesday, Oct. 7 at Hamlin House. The committee is made up of residents Louis Colantuoni Jr., Elizabeth Accomando and Acreage Landowners’ Association President Bob Morgan, who clarified that he is on the board as a resident, and that the ALA has taken a neutral stance on incorporation. Colantuoni said he favors incorporation to push back at development going on in the surrounding area, fight the threat of the district being annexed into surrounding
municipalities, protect The Acreage’s agricultural lifestyle and gain tax revenue he feels that area residents are not receiving. Amid the din of residents talking among themselves, he answered a question from a resident about Rustic Lakes, which was annexed into Palm Beach Gardens several years ago and then sued the city to get out over concerns of losing their property rights. “Rustic Lakes is the perfect example,” Colantuoni said. “There’s a rural community that has been taken over by Palm Beach Gardens, which I would not consider to be rural in any way. And now it’s their code enforcement, their rules.” He said that incorporation will give Indian trail residents the power to govern themselves. “If we become incorporated, we
get to decide how we’re going to shape the future of the community, how code enforcement is going to act, whose police department we want to use, or are we going to have our own,” Colantuoni said. “This is really important. The area outside of us that’s being grabbed up by these land developers that want to put all those high-density houses in there and flood our roads with traffic, they’re either going to have to pay because we will hold them accountable to expand and improve the roads, or they’re not going to be able to access them.” He pointed out that Minto/Westlake wants access to ITID roads, and ITID has taken action to make that difficult for the developer. “They became their own city,” Colantuoni said. “Gee, I wonder why they did that? They have See TOWN HALL, page 14
Alonso: Numbers Are Better, But Don’t Let Guard Down
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report The COVID-19 numbers in Palm Beach County are coming down from the latest spike, Florida Department of Health-Palm Beach County Director Dr. Alina Alonso told the Palm Beach County Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 5. “We have some good data for you here today,” Alonso said. Like the county’s numbers, the national numbers are also coming down. “Nationwide, the current sevenday average of daily new cases is 106,395, and it has decreased by 13.3 percent compared with the previous seven days,” she said. Locally, the numbers are even more favorable in Palm Beach County. The numbers have dropped sharply to 2,416 new
cases last week with a new case positivity rate of 6.5 percent. Alonso added that 75.8 percent of people ages 12 and over have received at least one vaccination. “We’re slowly moving up that percentage, which is also very important if we’re going to get this under control,” she said. “Our number of vaccinations have been increasing.” She noted that children ages 12 and under are still not being vaccinated. “But you can see that there is a decline after our peak here of vaccinating, and it’s very similar to what’s going on here in Palm Beach County,” Alonso said. Nationally, more than 214.3 million people have received at least one vaccination, and about 184.6 million, or 55.6 percent of
the population, have now been fully vaccinated. She also distinguished between booster shots and a third dose, explaining that there is a lot of confusion over the difference. “The booster shots have now been approved by the FDA for the Pfizer vaccine only,” Alonso said. “For those people who have completed their initial series at least six months prior can now get a booster. That is for people who are at least 18 years of age who live in long-term care settings or have underlying medical conditions, and also those who work in highrisk settings or live in high-risk settings.” This would include people such as healthcare workers, firefighters, police officers, educational workSee VIRUS, page 14
County Planners Support Increased Density At Fleming Land Near Arden
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report The Palm Beach County Planning Commission recommended approval Friday, Oct. 1 of a privately initiated amendment that would increase the allowed density for the Fleming property, located just east of Arden near 20-Mile Bend on Southern Blvd. Ken Tuma with Urban Design Studio, representing the applicant, said that initiation of a land use change is the first step in the process for the Palm Beach County Commission ultimately to consider a request for 892 residential units on the 446-acre Fleming property. “Ultimately, our request will be to come back and ask for two dwelling units an acre as an agerestricted community,” Tuma said, explaining that the amendment would allow the Fleming property
to become part of the adjacent Arden community. “The program that’s proposed today is to allow for it to be a residential development at exactly the same density that Arden has.” Palm Beach County Planner Bryce Van Horn explained that the Arden zoning was the result of the county’s preventing the Village of Wellington from annexing any property north of Southern Blvd. in order to protect the Everglades Agricultural Area to the west and prevent encroachment by urban or suburban uses. “This request would be for a text amendment to revise the Glades protection overlay to expand eastward to incorporate the subject site,” Van Horn said. “Also, concurrently, they are proposing a zoning change from the current agricultural residential zoning See FLEMING, page 4
YOUNG AT HEART CLUB RETURNS
The Royal Palm Beach Young at Heart Club held its first luncheon of the season on Friday, Oct. 1 at the Royal Palm Beach Cultural Center. The theme for the year is “Explosion of Colors.” Z.Z. and Mr. Keys of the music group It Takes Two sang oldies rock ’n’ roll. The event was sponsored by Healthy Partners with catering from Gun Club Café. Shown above are Decorating Committee members Berit Hogan, Lee Messina, Colette Cardinale and Mary Ann Robinson. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 18 PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER
Lox Groves Council Changes Election Qualifying Period By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report The Loxahatchee Groves Town Council approved the first readings of several ordinances Tuesday, Oct. 5 regarding the way town elections are held, including qualifying dates for the March 2022 council election and calling for referendums to amend election procedures in the town charter. The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office has provided notice that all county municipalities with elections scheduled in March will be required to move back their candidate qualifying periods so that all candidate names will be provided to the supervisor’s office 95 days prior to the
municipal election date. The town charter currently provides that the qualifying period for March elections is in January, which is short of the new mandate. The first ordinance provides that for the next municipal election, scheduled to be held on March 8, 2022, that the qualifying period be set to noon on the second Tuesday in November through noon on the fourth Tuesday of November. Vice Mayor Laura Danowski asked if a referendum is necessary to change the qualifying dates, and Town Attorney Elizabeth Lenihan said that this particular ordinance was to specifically change the qualifying dates just See ELECTION, page 14
Cypress Trails Elementary Principal Reports On The School’s Successes And Challenges
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Cypress Trails Elementary School Principal Bruce Saulter reported on the status of his school at the Monday, Oct. 4 meeting of the Royal Palm Beach Education Advisory Board. Now in his third year as principal at Cypress Trails, Saulter also introduced himself and spoke about his background. Originally from Indiana, he attended Hanover College, where he was an athlete. “When you go to a liberal arts college, you don’t necessarily get a degree as much as you get preparation for life, so that was
really important to my upbringing,” he said. His career in education started at Royal Palm Beach Elementary School. “I was 23 years old and moved down here from Indiana,” he recalled. “That was when I got the opportunity to learn how wonderful the Village of Royal Palm Beach is. I then journeyed over to Seminole Trails Elementary School, where I was the assistant principal for six years.” Saulter took over at Cypress Trails in 2018, just in time to begin planning for the school’s 30th anniversary. Cypress Trails, which opened in the 1989-90 school year, had the opportunity
to celebrate that milestone just before the COVID-19 crisis limited activities. The school currently has 480 students, which is an increase of 40 students from last year, along with two additional teachers. “We had a student intern who stayed on with us in an interim capacity, so I was able to hire her in a full-time position, and I was also able to hire a tutor, who was a retired teacher who has been tutoring for us,” Saulter said. “I guess we made her feel so welcome that she wanted to go back into the classroom. Luckily, I was able to fill both of our vacancies with home-grown people.”
He added that students falling behind in their expected levels of achievement are only taught by experienced teachers. “We have veteran teachers who are familiar with the curriculum and are able to collaborate together,” Saulter said. “That is done intentionally. I know some schools can’t control that, but we can, and it’s something that we definitely pay attention to.” Seventy-six percent of teachers at Cypress Trails have seven or more years of experience, he noted. Cypress Trails is the only Title I elementary school in the western communities, he said. “We are barely Title I, 70 per-
cent. We always float around that 70 to 72 percent mark, but especially last year, there was a lot of factors that were in play, but our families fully understand the importance of applying for free or reduced-price lunch, even if you don’t use it,” Saulter said. “We do a marketing campaign to try to be sure that every single family applies so that we can continue to receive that funding.” The school is 42 percent Hispanic, 29 percent white and 21 percent black. “In my now fourth year as principal, our Hispanic population has grown,” he said. “The other See SAULTER, page 14