PERMITTING UNDERWAY FOR RPB PARK SEE STORY, PAGE 3
A LOOK INSIDE FPL’S NEW SOLAR PLANT SEE STORY, PAGE 7
THE
TOWN - CR IER WELLINGTON • ROYAL PALM BEACH • LOXAHATCHEE • THE ACREAGE
Your Community Newspaper
Volume 32, Number 16 April 22 - April 28, 2011
INSIDE
ACREAGE MUSIC & CHILI COOKOFF
Wellington Offering Summer Internships To High School Students
High school students have an oppor tunity this summer to earn community service hours while adding real-life experience to their résumés as part of Wellington’s High School Summer Service Pr ogram. Page 3
The 2011 Acreage Music & Chili Cookoff took place Saturday, April 16 at Acreage Community Park. There were several chili competitions as well as live music, vendors, food, activities for children and more. Shown here, Jim Sims samples New Harvest Chili by Milca Velazquez. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 2 PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/T OWN-CRIER
Sweet Corn Fiesta At The S.F. Fairgrounds
The 11th annual Sweet Corn Fiesta took place Sunday, April 17 in Yesteryear Village at the South Florida Fairgrounds. There was live music, raffles, plenty of corn for sale, children’s games, an “old-tyme” swimsuit contest, corn-shucking contests and a professional corn-eating competition. Page 14
Lechuza Caracas Defeats Audi To Claim 2011 U.S. Open Title
Lechuza Caracas defeated Audi last Sunday at the International Polo Club Palm Beach during the final of the United States Polo Association’s 107th U.S. Open Polo Championship. Page 17
Earth Day Celebration
Wellington hosted an Earth Day 2011 celebration Sunday, April 17 at the Wellington Amphitheater. The event featured vendors offering information on caring for the ear th, as well as a concert by Lonny “Earthman” Smith. Page 24
OPINION Support Local Events At Wellington Amphitheater
Since it opened last year, the Wellington Amphitheater has significantly increased the area’s entertainment level. In the Wellington Town Center, the amphitheater has been home to numerous concerts and performances. We’re hoping that as more people get acquainted with the amphitheater, it will become a regular par t of their leisure time. Page 4 DEPARTMENT INDEX NEWS ............................. 3 - 14 OPINION ................................ 4 CRIME NEWS ........................ 6 NEWS BRIEFS .......................8 POLO & EQUESTRIAN .........17 SCHOOLS .....................18 - 19 PEOPLE........................ 20 - 21 COLUMNS .................... 29 - 30 SUMMER CAMPS ........ 31 - 34 BUSINESS ...................37 - 39 SPORTS .......................43 - 46 CALENDAR...................48 - 49 CLASSIFIEDS ...............50 - 55 Visit Us On The Web At WWW.GOTOWNCRIER.COM
International Sports On Display This Weekend At The Polo Club By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Sporting events that people might never expect to see at a polo venue will be this weekend’s featured attraction when the International Polo Club Palm Beach hosts its inaugural International Weekend. About 50 local children queued up for a sports clinic Wednesday in preparation for the premiere event Saturday and Sunday, which will include some of the oldest sports in the world. The young participants got to learn about and try their hand at rugby, cricket, women’s field hockey, tennis, golf and croquet, as well as polo, all of which will be played by professionals and advanced players in the sports this weekend. The events will lead up to an Easter egg hunt Sunday at 2:30 p.m. and an Easter brunch fieldside at the Nespresso Lodge, followed by the weekend’s main polo event, an exhibition match featuring teams representing the United States and South Africa. Reservations are recommended for the brunch. International Polo Club President of Operations John Wash said he hopes the weekend will be the first of many celebrating diverse international sports. “Seven sports — it’s going to be a big weekend,” Wash said. “We’re hoping to get a lot of people out. With Easter, it’s kind of a unique weekend, but we wanted
to start something that will become a long-standing tradition out here in the community, and hopefully the community will get behind it.” Wash said many of the sports that will be played, such as cricket and rugby, are predecessors of the more familiar, traditionally American sports of baseball and football, respectively. “A lot of them just aren’t really understood,” Wash said. “They’re not viewed by a lot of Americans… It’s just like polo — we’ve tried to work real hard over the past few years to make it more mainstream and understandable to
the overall masses, and I think we’re trying to make a similar effort with some of these other sports.” International Polo Club Tennis Director Paul Hope, who helped organize the event, said club officials were looking for something different and refreshing. “This will be a fun-filled, family-friendly weekend focusing on sports other than polo,” Hope said. Hope said sports such as rugby and cricket were toned down in the United States to become the modern sports that Americans are more familiar with. “Before AmerSee POLO CLUB, page 7
International Weekend — South African polo player Duncan Watson helps young clinic participants learn to use a polo mallet on Wednesday. PHOTO BY R ON BUKLEY/TOWN-CRIER
Faux-Brick Surface Designed To Slow Wellington Motorists By Lauren Miró Town-Crier Staff Report Motorists on Forest Hill Blvd. in Wellington might notice a new look to several intersections along the road. The village has installed a new DuraTherm surface at three key intersections in hopes of cuing drivers to pay attention to their driving. As part of Wellington’s Forest Hill improvements, the new, fauxbrick surface has been added as a traffic-calming measure, Deputy Village Manager John Bonde said. “It marks where the biggest traffic flows occur between Wellington Trace and South Shore [Blvd.],” he said. “It’s what we would call our main street.” The surface was installed at three intersections: at Wellington Trace in front of the municipal complex, at Stratford Street, and
at the intersection that leads into the original Wellington Mall and Wellington Plaza. Bonde said that the treatment, which is laid over the asphalt and made to look like brick, is meant to get drivers’ attention and caution them to slow down. “What it does is it gives drivers a visual alert to tell them that something is different and they should pay attention,” he said. “The first reaction is for them to take their foot off the gas, which is exactly what we want.” But unlike a speed bump or rumble strip, drivers won’t feel a difference or be forcibly slowed down. “It’s more like how landscaping can be used to slow drivers.” Bonde said. “Some municipalities will plant trees closer to the road’s edge to give the appearance of
narrowness. Similarly, just changing the surface of the road causes people to drive differently.” Last year, the Wellington Village Council lowered the road’s speed limit from 45 to 40 miles per hour after complaints of speeding on the road. Bonde said that the surface was part of Wellington’s beautification of Forest Hill Blvd., which began last year and is expected to be finished this summer. The almost $8 million project, financed primarily by Florida Department of Transportation grants, includes new street lights between State Road 7 and Lyons Road, and an entirely new streetscape from State Road 7 to Wellington Trace. The change in road surface, especially in front of the municipal center, will also help to delineate See SURFACE, page 3
Serving Palms West Since 1980
Callery-Judge, Town Find Some Common Ground At Meeting By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report The Town of Loxahatchee Groves and Callery-Judge Grove developed several points for future negotiation during a public meeting Tuesday to settle CalleryJudge’s long-running challenge to the town’s comprehensive plan. With the potential for a compromise, both sides agreed to meet again May 17 to try to reach an agreement outside the courtroom. The public meeting followed several closed sessions over the past 18 months to reach a settlement agreement that the council ultimately rejected after residents objected to points that included opening several new road connections to the town and major changes to Okeechobee Blvd. About 50 residents attended Tuesday, and many reiterated their opposition to previous proposals. Both parties agreed to consider having the town revert to an underlying land use of one unit per 10 acres in its comp plan after hav-
ing previously decided to increase density to one unit per 5 acres. That change could theoretically have added hundreds of homes to Loxahatchee Groves, although both parties agreed that would not happen soon. It was one of Callery-Judge’s major objections to the comp plan. “Our concern is if the town is going to add 1,000 more units, what is it going to do to improve its infrastructure?” Callery-Judge Grove General Manager Nat Roberts asked, pointing out that planning now would be much easier than down the road. “What we heard was the town didn’t want big roads. We didn’t move to Loxahatchee for more asphalt. We’ve been here a long time; I think we understand that.” Councilman Ron Jarriel said that part of the rejected draft settlement, calling for a connection at North Road and Sycamore and completing a connection to Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, is a good See CALLERY, page 22
ITID Board Supports BMX Track At Park By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report The Indian Trail Improvement District Board of Supervisors last week returned a previously deleted BMX bicycle track into the plans for the Acreage Community Park expansion. The re-addition will likely go in place of one of the planned park’s two multipurpose athletic fields. Supervisors made the change April 13 in response to several residents, mostly parents of BMX riders, who questioned why the track had been removed from the plans. Resident Cherie Oblow requested that a BMX track be added somewhere at the park. “Our children — I have two, 14 and 11 years old — both participate at the Okeeheelee BMX track,” she said. “We’d love to have one out here. It’s a great sport, and it’s a wonderful family environment.” Okeeheelee BMX serves about
1,600 riders from Palm Beach and Broward counties, Oblow said, including many youths from The Acreage. ITID President Michelle Damone said there would be plenty of opportunities in workshops for residents to provide more input on the park. She asked Oblow to find out how many of the Okeeheelee BMXers are from The Acreage. Acreage resident Eric Soletzky, a member of Okeeheelee BMX, said he thought a BMX track would be a good addition to the park. He said BMX tracks are largely run by volunteers. “There’s really not much to it,” Soletzky said. “Somebody comes out there a couple of times a week, and you shape up the jumps and stuff like that.” The primary cost is dirt to keep the jumps in shape, he said. The organization also maintains liability insurance. The sport “keeps See BMX, page 4
CLEANUP VOLUNTEERS
Local communities celebrated Earth Day by par ticipating in the Great American Cleanup on Saturday, April 16. Volunteers in Wellington, Royal Palm Beach Loxahatchee Groves and The Acreage joined people across the nation in helping to beautify their communities. Shown here, Paige Wilson, Melanie Bean, Sidney Clarke-Lequerique and Gabby Thomas clean up Okeechobee Blvd. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 5 PHOTO BY LAUREN MIRÓ/T OWN-CRIER
Wellington’s Gerwig Reflects On Her First Year In Office By Lauren Miró Town-Crier Staff Report With her first year of elected service under her belt, Wellington Councilwoman Anne Gerwig said she is proud to serve the community and would encourage others to do the same. Gerwig was elected in March 2010, defeating candidates Ernie Zimmerman and Wismick St. Jean for the seat being vacated by termlimited former councilwoman Lizbeth Benacquisto, now a state senator. She said that her favorite aspect of being an elected official is feeling like she’s made a difference. “I just like feeling like I’m able
to give back to the community,” Gerwig said. “I think we should all be more involved, and I’m glad I get to do it. If we don’t each make time to get involved in the community, then I don’t know who will.” Gerwig said that she has tried her best to be a good leader. “I think I did as well as could be expected,” she said. “I went to the League of Cities training. I wanted to do the best job that I could from the start.” Asked if the job was what she expected, Gerwig said she knew going into it that it would be a job that would take up her time. “I knew it would be time-con-
suming,” she said. “That didn’t surprise me. It was pretty much what I expected.” But, she said, in the past year she has learned that although she wants to be at every community event, she occasionally has to say no. “I’ve learned that there are times when it’s OK to miss something,” she said. Probably the biggest adjustment she had to make was learning to be patient with the process. “Sometimes the process takes longer than I’m used to,” Gerwig said. “I’m used to planning everything and then getting it done. Here we have a few more hoops to jump through.”
She noted that the system is designed to protect residents and the village, but admitted that the pace can be frustrating at times. Something else Gerwig said she had to adjust to was telling people that she disagrees with them. “It’s hard to tell people that,” she said. “I respect their opinion; I just disagree. It’s something I had to get comfortable saying.” She said that one of the biggest challenges she faced in the past year on the council was the budget. “I’ve never been the numbercrunching type,” Gerwig said. “I’m a good budgeter with my See GERWIG, page 22
Councilwoman Anne Gerwig