GROUPS COLLECTING TO HELP BAHAMAS SEE STORY, PAGE 3
ST. PETER’S CHURCH MARKS 40 YEARS SEE STORY, PAGE 7
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Westlake Residents Concerned About Taxes, Assessments
Volume 40, Number 34 September 13 - September 19, 2019
Serving Palms West Since 1980
WELLINGTON HOSTS 9/11 SERVICE
The Westlake City Council gave preliminary approval to a budget and tax rate of 5.125 mills for the upcoming fiscal year on Monday, Sept. 9, but several residents among the approximately 50 attending complained that the included community development district fee was not anticipated when they purchased homes there. Page 3
Tree’s Wings Wins Trophy At National Buffalo Wing Festival
After months of preparation and hard work, Tree’s Wings & Ribs in Royal Palm Beach has returned from the National Buffalo Wing Festival in Buffalo, N.Y., with the title of Third Best Traditional Wings. Page 10
New Season Gets Underway For WWC
The Women of the Western Communities held its first meeting of the 2019-20 season on Thursday, Sept. 5 at the Wellington National Golf Club. Each member told something about themselves in a brief “get-toknow-you” speech. Donations of back-to-school items were collected for Harmony House. Page 17
Second Half Rally Pushes Park Vista Past Wellington 21-10
The Wellington High School football team hosted Park Vista High School on Monday, Sept. 9 for a game rescheduled due to last week’s threat from Hurricane Dorian. The Wolverines saw a 10-0 first half lead slip away in a second half rally by the Cobras. Page 21 DEPARTMENT INDEX NEWS...............................3 - 18 LETTERS.................................. 4 NEWS BRIEFS......................... 7 PEOPLE................................... 8 SCHOOLS................................ 9 COLUMNS............................. 16 CALENDAR............................ 18 BUSINESS............................. 19 SPORTS......................... 21 - 22 CLASSIFIEDS.................23 - 24 Visit Us On The Web At WWW.GOTOWNCRIER.COM
The Village of Wellington hosted its annual 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony on Wednesday, Sept. 11 at the Wellington Patriot Memorial. Mayor Anne Gerwig welcomed the crowd, which included a number of retired New York City firefighters and police officers. The ceremony included speeches from village officials recalling those who lost their lives during the 9/11 terror attacks 18 years ago. Shown above are Thomas O’Rourke (FDNY), Michael O’Rourke (FDNY), John Murphy (NYPD) holding a photo of Mark McKay (FDNY) and Kevin Bond (FDNY). MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 15 PHOTO BY GINA M. CAPONE/TOWN-CRIER
Success And Safety At RPBHS Key Topics Ed Board Meeting
By Callie Sharkey Town-Crier Staff Report Royal Palm Beach High School was the featured school at the Royal Palm Beach Education Advisory Board meeting on Monday, Sept. 9, and Principal Dr. Jesus Armas brought key members of his staff along to help lead the presentation. “A long time ago, I realized that I was neither the smartest nor the most talented guy in the room,” Armas said. “I learned that I needed to surround myself with outstanding people. Here tonight, you’re going to find some of the best people you can find in the business of education. They are experts in their fields. Any successes that we’ve had have been because of all the hard work that they have put in.” Armas explained how the vision that drives RPBHS is based on a holistic outlook when addressing the needs of students. The focus
shifted to specifics on how the school provides a safe, respectful and socially just environment. Crystal Amado is the principal’s designee in charge of school safety at RPBHS. She explained how the school handles safety in three parts — instruction, systems and culture. “We conduct staff trainings every year,” Amado said. “We have trained on child abuse, suicide prevention, youth mental health, Title IX, and new this year through the Florida Department of Education, a mental health stimulation program called Kognito. They have to do a simulation program, and it’s very interactive. Then we do RPBHS safety practices training, which deals with everything about us and the building based on the layout.” Students also receive safety training and participate new initiatives, such as the “See Something/ Say Something” campaign to en-
courage the reporting of concerns. The campus also takes a holistic approach to safety by offering more than just physical safety devices, such as gates and cameras. The school is passionate about keeping students fed, too. RPBHS offers free breakfast and supper to all students, and knows that 63 percent of its students are eating a full lunch meal. That is 6 percent higher than the other seven county schools with a similar system. “If a kid was just an FSA score, then we would have missed the entire point of what we’re supposed to be doing,” Armas said. Safety personnel for the school includes four assistant principals, three full-time police officers (one in the process of hiring), a police aide at the front gate, seven full-time personnel for security, three deans of student services, 18 members on the crisis response See RPBHS, page 7
Wellington Council Trims Tax Rate Slightly At First Budget Hearing
By Gina M. Capone Town-Crier Staff Report In an impassioned discussion that went back and forth for almost an hour, the Wellington Village Council voted to slightly cut its proposed property tax rate Tuesday, Sept. 10 at a meeting that included the first of two formal budget hearings. Village staff initially recommended a higher rate, but 2.48 mills was a compromise number agreed to during a meeting in July that would still allow a 25 percent cushion of reserves for the next five years. The rate of 2.48 was the TRIM (Truth in Millage) rate that was sent to property owners over the summer. Wellington could not raise the rate once the notice went out, but it could lower the rate.
Mayor Anne Gerwig pushed for the council to lower the rate to 2.45 mills. Eventually, the council agreed unanimously to a rate of 2.47 mills when Councilman John McGovern said he would be willing to vote for a lower rate, but not the rate Gerwig wanted. According to Gerwig, the change will save residents money on their taxes while still giving them the village services they are accustomed to receiving. The public hearing on the proposed budget for the upcoming year was presented to the council by Director of Administrative & Financial Services Tanya Quickel, who gave a PowerPoint presentation showing how the millage rate will be affected over time. Councilman Michael Drahos See TAX RATE, page 4
ROTARY 5K RACE
The Rotary Club of Wellington hosted another successful Race for the Red & Blue First Responders 5K on Saturday, Sept. 7 at the Wellington Amphitheater. The race brought the community together in support of emergency responders, including both Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Shown above, PBCFR Deputy Chief Doug McGlynn and PBSO Chief Deputy Michael Gauger congratulate first-place winner Billy Connors. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 5 PHOTO BY CALLIE SHARKEY/TOWN-CRIER
Livestock Waste Haulers Meet Loxahatchee Groves To Discuss Future Of Manure Visioning Workshop Set For Sept. 28
By Gina M. Capone Town-Crier Staff Report On Thursday, Aug. 29, the Village of Wellington invited livestock waste haulers to a meeting designed to discuss horse manure and how it can be handled this upcoming season and into the future. The meeting was organized and led by Assistant Planning Zoning & Building Director Michael O’Dell, the village’s point person on equestrian planning issues. O’Dell hopes to find a solution so everyone involved can track agricultural waste responsibly, by understanding and gathering the data so that the specific amount of manure picked up from each farm is accurately assessed in weight and tracked to know where it is legally being dumped. O’Dell encouraged the haulers and end users to work together to unravel solutions for a workable business model. The waste haulers’ meeting included representatives ready to answer questions from county
and state agencies, such as Palm Beach County Code Enforcement, the Solid Waste Authority and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. Also present was Paul Cross of Horizon 880 LLC, which was recently awarded a lease by the Solid Waste Authority to build a plant to repurpose horse manure on SWA land. Horizon 880 uses the HighPoint Agro Bedding (HPAB) system to process the manure by recycling the shavings, separating the manure for garden products and turning it into a dust-free horse bedding that is repackaged and sold back to the horse owner, at a savings. The facility should be up and running soon but won’t make much of an impact this season. “The intent of the meeting was to introduce some of the end users that are out there to the haulers. So, if the haulers are thinking about where this end-product is, they know,” O’Dell told the TownCrier after the meeting. “They are picking it up, obviously, but where
they are taking it is limited. There are four places now that they can dump. Within the next year, Horizon 880 is coming online. This will bring us number five.” O’Dell believes that more options for manure processing will be forthcoming. “There is a possibility of even a sixth end user facility that is out there,” he said. “So, over the next few years, I would hope that we can generate additional end users.” The problem is not that there aren’t enough haulers to pick up the manure but knowing where to take it. The distance the haulers have to travel is also a concern. Right now, haulers can take manure to four end users. Atlas Peat & Soil uses the manure as a soil amendment. The Solid Waste Authority takes the manure and burns it. The McGill-Brighton operation composts the manure, while U.S. Sugar uses the manure on its agricultural fields. Justin Hickey from JH Hauling See MANURE, page 18
By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report The Town of Loxahatchee Groves is planning a visioning session on Saturday, Sept. 28 to gather input from residents on their perceptions and what direction they want the town to go in with its priorities. A survey has been posted on the town’s web site. While it states that it closed on Sept. 8, responses are still being accepted, Councilwoman Laura Danowski said. “The last I heard, it was going to remain open, but the moderator has given himself a cutoff date so he can compile preliminary data,” Danowski told the Town-Crier on Wednesday, adding that her top goal is to get residents involved. Town Manager Jamie Titcomb said that the survey is generic in nature, but it has received much comment on social media. “There was a sort of life of its
own that developed around it, with people having concerns that it was being taken over by outsiders or special interests,” Titcomb told the Town-Crier on Wednesday. “The numbers and the priorities really don’t play that out.” He said the preliminary results show that people’s responses to the survey revolve largely around the issues that have been discussed at recent meetings. Danowski said some of the comments she has read on social media are negative, or that the town is wasting money on a survey. “There are all of these negative comments being thrown out there because they don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes,” she said, explaining that the town has compiled historical lists and corresponded with the town’s committee members, as well as current and former officials. “My end goal See LOX VISION, page 7
Teacher Syndie White Has A Passion For Education
By Gina M. Capone Town-Crier Staff Report When a teacher has an enthusiasm for her craft, the children know. Syndie White, a third-grade math and science teacher at Elbridge Gale Elementary School in Wellington, demonstrates that having a passion for teaching inspires children to critically think and solve problems while increasing their love for learning. The Palm Beach County Council of Teachers of Mathematics recently presented White with the 2019 Elementary Math Teacher of the Year Award. The South Florida Science Center, meanwhile, presented White with the 2019 Educator/Collaborator Award on Saturday, Sept. 7.
White, a national STEM-certified teacher, has been working at Elbridge Gale for five years. In the first four years of her tenure, she taught math to fifth graders before moving on to her current assignment. Holding a master’s degree from Lynn University, White believes that every child can excel in science and math. “I never walk into a classroom and say to myself, ‘She’s not going to pass.’ I have always had an expectation that every child will pass. Telling my children that they can do it and encouraging them to succeed is my model,” White said. “So many kids have such great anxiety over math and science. I want everyone to leave my
classroom knowing that they are a math person or a science person.” White achieves her goals by making sure that the children have several fun and wide-ranging pathways to learning. “School should be exciting. There are different levels of achievement. I don’t teach with worksheets. We play games. We do activities. We talk. We move around a lot. We do stations. We use technology. We build. This, to me, is what teaching is. It is making the kids look forward to coming to school each day. They don’t know what I have in store for them,” White explained. Three years ago, White founded the Elbridge Gale Elementary See WHITE, page 18
Teacher Syndie White works with students at Elbridge Gale Elementary School in Wellington.