February 2017
Volume 10 Issue 2
Serving Highland Beach and Coastal Boca Raton
Along the Coast
Healing honey
Locally produced balm sweetens sea turtles’ recovery at Gumbo Limbo By Stacey Singer DeLoye
Caitlin Bovery, sea turtle rehabilitation assistant coordinator, rubs dark, raw honey on Blitzen, an ill adult loggerhead turtle, at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center. The honey speeds healing and fights infection in wounds. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
Highland Beach
Spat over election ends with polling place’s move to Town Hall By Rich Pollack
A war of words between a candidate for Highland Beach Town Commission and the leader of the church that is the town’s only polling location prompted town leaders to move the March 14 election to Town Hall. In a 3-2 vote late last month, commissioners agreed to move the polling place to the town’s public library despite being informed that leaders of St. Lucy Catholic Church had a change
of heart and rethought their reluctance to continue serving as a polling place. Last month, the Rev. D. Brian Horgan, of St. Lucy Catholic Church, told the town the church would no longer be a polling place unless he received an apology from Town Commission candidate Carl Gehman. Gehman, who had scheduled a meeting with Horgan to ask for equal time after hearing from a third party that the church had voiced support
for another candidate — a Gehman claim Horgan denies — was asked to leave the church office several times. Church leaders say Gehman became “very agitated” when he and his wife arrived at the church for a meeting that was canceled at the last minute because of a scheduling conflict. “This whole thing wouldn’t have happened if he had just sat down with me,” Gehman said. See HIGHLAND on page 9
Inside Cultivating plants, friendships
Ocean Ridge Garden Club turns 50. Page H1
Festival of the Arts BOCA Cartoonist Bob Mankoff headlines annual event. Page AT9
The gash on the loggerhead sea turtle’s forehead exposes bone, and apparently it hurts. Turtle expert Caitlin Bovery is patting a sticky mixture of honeycomb and raw honey atop its wound, causing the slow creature to recoil. “You see how he’s pulling away, that’s indicative of pain,” says Bovery, the sea turtle rehabilitation assistant coordinator at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton. The staff at Gumbo Limbo Meet Gumbo named this Limbo’s turtle gentle fellow whisperer photographer Blitzen, because of his arrival Page 2 Christmas Eve. A homeowner in Hutchinson Island noticed the turtle listing aimlessly along the beach and phoned the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. State biologists found it unable to submerge, a sign of illness, and covered in barnacles, a sign it hadn’t been moving for a long time. Its plastron, or lower plate, was concave, a sign it had stopped eating quite some time ago. Blitzen clearly needed medical help. The nearest turtle hospital was the See HONEY on page 25
Boca Raton
Lawsuit alleges waterfront vote was improper
By Steve Plunkett A group led by a former Chamber of Commerce president wants a judge to overturn Boca Raton’s new ordinance reserving city-owned land along the Intracoastal Waterway for public uses only. ForBoca.org Inc., which in a lawsuit said it is committed “to social welfare and protecting private property rights,” claims the ordinance limits the use of such city land —
Boca Midtown proposal heats up after four years Page 18
FDOT studies Highland Beach crosswalks Page 19
and the Wildflower property in particular — in a way that is “wholly and patently inconsistent” with Boca Raton’s comprehensive plan. The group also says the ordinance violates a state law that prohibits using an initiative or referendum process to change zoning. The litigation stopped in its tracks a City Council discussion of the ordinance planned for Jan. 9. “I was informed … we got See SUIT on page 9
Shopping (and dining) Antique Row
West Palm Beach district offers opportunities for both. Page AT1