February 2018
Serving Hypoluxo Island, South Palm Beach, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream and Coastal Delray Beach
Delray Makes Room Tourist-friendly community clearing way for influx of new hotels
Volume 11 Issue 2
Manalapan
Town to hire four more cops, add surveillance By Dan Moffett
ABOVE: The Colony Hotel, built in 1926, remains a Delray destination. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Jane Smith The Delray Beach mantra has long been that it is a city where you can live, work and play. But with one major hotel under construction and three more planned in the coming years, that slogan might morph to: Visit for a day and stay for a holiday. Located in the downtown core, just north and south of bustling Atlantic Avenue, the hotel boom could add 565 rooms in the coming years. The five-story Aloft hotel under See DELRAY on page 10
LEFT: The Colony in the late 1930s. Delray Beach Historical Society
Turning out, tuning in for jams at the VFW On the second Friday of most months, Barbara Mulvey takes her dobro across the water from her home in Briny Breezes to VFW Post 5335 in Boynton Beach to see if anybody else shows up. You’re welcome to come, too, but don’t be too disappointed if
Inside Cataloging history
Writing the book on area libraries. Page AT1
nobody does. “There might be a good group,” Mulvey will warn you, “and then it might be nothing. Health is a big problem, so some people can’t come sometimes. We’re certainly quite aged.” Mulvey, a retired art teacher and farmer from the Adirondacks, is 82, and she’s not the oldest by far.
Delray election
Candidate collected ad revenue while sitting on DDA board. Page 8
See MANALAPAN on page 16 Barbara Mulvey and Andy Neureuther play at the monthly jam at the Boynton Beach VFW. Tim Stepien / The Coastal Star
Along the Coast By Ron Hayes
Manalapan town commissioners are countering a spate of stolen cars with an aggressive plan to enhance security that includes hiring four police officers and expanding the town’s already extensive use of cameras and technology. “We live here because it’s a unique community,” Mayor Keith Waters said. “It’s unlike any other community in America. I don’t want this to be a police state, but at the same time, I want there to be absolute certainty that when you go to bed at night, everything’s going to be OK.” Over the last six months, seven residents have reported their cars stolen. All were crimes of opportunity, police say. In each case, the owner left keys in the car. Police were able to recover five of the vehicles and make four arrests. The suspects came from Broward and MiamiDade counties and traveled to Manalapan in groups. “This will not stand,” Waters said. “We’ve been lulled into a sense of complacency where our town has operated over a period of time under the assumption that everyone is as good as we were. And that’s not the case.” Commissioners unanimously
“One of the people who sings and plays cowboy songs is in his 90s,” Mulvey says. “He always wears a cowboy shirt and hat, but he’s not in the best of health.” Sometimes as few as three show up, but never mind. They circle their chairs back away See VFW on page 22
Art with a message
‘Washed Ashore’ show at Mounts Botanical highlights plastics pollution. Page H1
Festival of the Arts Boca event to gather famous faces and voices. Page AT13