140TH AVE CUT-THROUGH CLOSING SOON SEE STORY, PAGE 3
EIGHT SEEK SOIL & WATER BOARD SEATS SEE STORY, PAGE 7
THE
TOWN-CRIER WELLINGTON • ROYAL PALM BEACH • LOXAHATCHEE • THE ACREAGE
Your Community Newspaper
INSIDE County Virus Cases Down, But Diligence Still Recommended
Volume 41, Number 24 October 9 - October 22, 2020
Serving Palms West Since 1980
TWILIGHT GREEN MARKET OPENS
Palm Beach County continues to see a decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, which Florida Department of Health-Palm Beach County Director Dr. Alina Alonso attributed to residents complying with CDC guidelines for social distancing, masks and hand washing. Page 3
Royal Palm Beach Wildcats Football Preps For New Season
For the first time in school history, there will be no “Friday Night Lights” moments at Palms West Hospital Stadium on the campus of Royal Palm Beach High School, but that doesn’t mean high school football won’t be played this fall by the Wildcats. Page 17
Bronco Football Squad Focused On Fitness & Fundamentals
Thankful and committed — that’s one way to summarize the attitude of Palm Beach Central High School head football coach Scottie Littles as he approaches the upcoming high school football season, delayed due to COVID-19. Page 17
Horses & Hounds Charitable Foundation Hosts Animal Blessing
The Horses & Hounds Charitable Foundation sponsored a Blessing of the Animals with Justin Bartlett Animal Rescue and Semper Fi Service Dogs on Sunday, Oct. 4 at Horses & Hounds Farm in the Homeland neighborhood. There was a splash pool for dogs and music for dancing. Pups were available for adoption, and local vendors gave out freebies and held raffles. Page 19 DEPARTMENT INDEX NEWS...............................3 - 14 NEWS BRIEFS......................... 7 PEOPLE......................... 20 - 21 BUSINESS............................. 23 COLUMNS............................. 24 CLASSIFIEDS................ 25 - 26 Visit Us On The Web At WWW.GOTOWNCRIER.COM
The Village of Wellington celebrated the grand opening of its new “Twilight Green Market at Wellington” on Friday, Oct. 2. The event will continue weekly on Friday evenings from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Wellington Town Center Promenade featuring fruits and vegetables, locally grown herbs, fresh baked goods, fresh flowers and more. Shown above is Councilman John McGovern with his daughter Victoria and wife Michelle at the Duvall Artisan Bakery table. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 14 PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER
Wellington Schools Rising To The Challenges Of An Unusual Academic Year
By M. Dennis Taylor Town-Crier Staff Report The Wellington Education Committee heard updates Tuesday, Oct. 6 from area school principals on feedback from parents, percent of students returning to school campuses and potential problems with social distancing or mask wearing. It also received a report on the Wellington High School Sports Complex project. “I would like to thank all of the principals who are here [on Zoom] and commend you for the fine work you’ve been doing,” Committee Chair John Webber said. “I think you’ve taken a very difficult situation and made the best of it. We’ve had virtually no one complaining about their experiences so far.” He was far more critical of the Palm Beach County School District’s leadership. “I wish I
could be as positive about how this district and the school board has handled things, but I don’t want to get on my soapbox,” Webber said. Principals from most area schools were able to attend virtually, and the reports were remarkably similar. The consensus was that about 30 percent of students are on campus every day, with highs of about 50 percent and lows of about 18 percent, and the education hasn’t missed a beat. The students on campus comply with wearing their masks, even in the pre-K age group with some prodding. The students are reminded to maintain social distancing, but because six feet to little children and teenagers is not the same as six feet to teachers, marks have been placed on the floor to facilitate spacing. School staffs have been working tremendously hard, collaborating
together to make the challenges of the situation work and to keep the teachers’ motivation and morale up, staying positive for the children so that it will keep the students’ morale up. Times for students to congregate with their friends have been canceled. The bell rings, and they go straight to class with assigned seating so contact tracing can be done should a student test positive for COVID-19. Principals have a challenge keeping up on a daily basis with children who are not feeling well, notifying the parents and filling out all the paperwork, but the pre-planning before school started has helped that part go more smoothly. Students are constantly reminded — the younger, the more frequently — to sanitize their See SCHOOLS, page 12
Manure And Comp Plan Top Equestrian Committee Agenda By M. Dennis Taylor Town-Crier Staff Report A busy meeting of Wellington’s Equestrian Preserve Committee was held Wednesday, Oct. 7 and featured presentations on the village’s comprehensive plan and the ever-present challenges of dealing with horse manure. The meeting began with a discussion of a horse manure processing facility being built outside Wellington on five acres of land leased from the Solid Waste Authority. It will be a fully enclosed structure where livestock waste is brought in and processed, refined and pasteurized, bagged and sold as shavings. It is just one of several ideas in the works to handle the seasonal flow of horse waste from the Wellington area and beyond. Currently, Wellington has about 10,000 permanent stalls, plus an
influx during season, producing an estimated 96,000 tons of waste, which experts consider underreported. Officially, about 57,000 tons goes to U.S. Sugar properties, where it is spread on the ground as fertilizer. But estimates are that the tonnage could be significantly higher, perhaps more than 80,000 tons. Another 36,000 tons go to the Solid Waste Authority, which is all that agency is permitted to accept. Wellington represents a little less than 50 percent of the total animal waste produced in Palm Beach County. During the off-season, it represents about a third. Even if the new facility were ready immediately, it would only solve a small portion of the problem. “We have conveyed to the 650 farms and 17 haulers that we need better statistics,” said Village Man-
ager Paul Schofield, who attended the meeting. The wrinkle is that U.S. Sugar has plans to stop accepting the horse manure. “We need to find someplace to put somewhere between 90,000 and 150,000 tons of waste,” said Schofield, who pointed out that while illegal dumping is way down in Wellington, it is reportedly up in neighboring communities. “The challenge is to find another place for that waste to go.” Over the years, Wellington has struggled with the problem and seriously explored more than a dozen ideas to turn the manure into everything from mulch to bricks to energy. “I am a proponent of public/ private partnerships, and I know that where there’s a will, there’s a way,” said Schofield, explainSee MANURE, page 12
Elections Chief: Record Numbers Registering And Voting In PBC
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report During a presentation to the Palm Beach County Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 6, Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link said her office is seeing record-breaking registration numbers and voter turnout from vote by mail. “We have an unprecedented expansion of the vote by mail requests, and we are dealing with all the uncertainties related to COVID-19,” Link said. Monday, Oct. 5 was the deadline to register to vote in the general election, and Link said that there were hundreds of people at the election centers on Monday in response to a massive media campaign by her office. “We are really pushing, trying to make sure that we’re giving everybody that last opportunity to get
in and register to vote,” she said. Her office had 2,642 in-person registrations on Monday. “That’s an awful lot, and we were staffed up because we didn’t want any of those folks to just drop off their registration and find out it was incomplete for some reason,” Link said. “We had everybody stay while we processed their application.” She noted that the state had some complications with online applications Monday night, but by 8 p.m., the county has received 10,020 online registrations. “That tells you that just in a couple of days, we had more than 12,000 registrations,” Link said. “Right now, we’re at over a million voters registered to vote in the upcoming election.” Vote by mail has begun, with more than 439,000 ballot requests See ELECTION, page 4
RPB VOLUNTEERS
Volunteers assemble every Wednesday morning at Royal Palm Beach Commons Park representing charitable organizations, the government, service organizations, schools and hospitals. Their goal is to ensure that their neighbors have food on the table during the pandemic. Shown above, Carolyn Hmara and Kathy Robinson give out apples. STORY & MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 5 PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER
Lox Council Gets Ready To Repair OGEM Roads By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report The Loxahatchee Groves Town Council agreed Tuesday, Oct. 6 to have town staff prepare a scope of work for patching and paving OGEM roads that have fallen into bad disrepair. However, it will probably take more than a year to catch up on the work due to costs. Years of neglect to the lettered roads, paved with open-graded emulsified mix (OGEM) by the Loxahatchee Groves Water Control District before it became dependent to the town, coupled with inadequate drainage before paving, has left many portions of the roads with dangerous washouts and potholes, rendering them impassible in some areas.
“There are several different ways of repairing the OGEM roads,” Public Works Director Larry Peters said. “The first method is to saw cut, remove the unsuitable material, compact the base and patch it with two inches of asphalt. That’s $110 per square yard.” Peters estimated there is about 3,000 square yards of work to be done, producing a printout, photographs and quotes from contractors of work proposed to be done for a total of $330,000. Councilwoman Laura Danowski pointed out that the report indicated that drainage improvements are needed at many of the deteriorated areas. “The roads need to be fixed,” See OGEM, page 12
Mast And Keith Square Off At Contentious Debate
By M. Dennis Taylor Town-Crier Staff Report U.S. Rep. Brian Mast (R-District 18) and his Democratic challenger Pam Keith sparred in a televised debate Monday, Oct. 5 that was heavy on personal attacks. District 18 covers northern Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast. In the western communities, it includes parts of Royal Palm Beach and most of The Acreage. It tends to elect Republicans, but not by a wide margin, and is considered somewhat of a swing district. Mast, a U.S. Army veteran who lost both of his legs serving in Afghanistan, was elected in 2016 and is currently seeking his third term. He won his second term in 2018
with a bit more than 54 percent of the vote. A U.S. Navy veteran, Keith is an attorney who has run twice before. However, this is her first time securing the Democratic Party’s nomination. She previously ran for U.S. Senate in 2016 and for the District 18 seat in 2018. Monday’s debate, moderated by WPTV’s Michael Williams, was supposed to allow voters to determine who should represent the district in the U.S. House of Representatives but focused more on each candidate’s disdain for the other. The only thing that the two seemed to agree upon was the unworthiness of their opponent. “The biggest thing about being a representative is not being on
the TV or being in debates,” Mast said. “The biggest thing is the way a representative fights for the people of their community. People are coming into their office every single day. Hands-down, that is probably 90 percent of the work we have to do. The 20,000 people that we have helped during the coronavirus [pandemic] on a host of different situations — if you let me be your representative, I will do it the way I did in combat, and I will look at people as people and not as a commodity as [Keith] does.” Keith accused Mast of dishonesty on a number of fronts, including the pandemic. “You may not agree with my See DISTRICT 18, page 4
U.S. Rep. Brian Mast
Challenger Pam Keith