Serving Hypoluxo Island, South Palm Beach, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream and Coastal Delray Beach
September 2018
Delray Beach
Volume 11 Issue 9
Delray Beach
Beach lights to go dark in Delray FPL changing rules on power pole lighting
Rhodes Villa Avenue is getting new lines to improve stormwater drainage and make reclaimed water available for irrigation.
Water project brings headaches By Jane Smith
Patience, cars among casualties, with some relief due by October
Iris Cohen traveled to Rhodes Villa Avenue twice daily during August to feed her ex-husband’s Maine Coon cats. An easy 2-mile drive for Cohen, who works at the Lang Realty office on East Atlantic Avenue, right? Not. A1A is often down to one lane south of Casuarina Road due to water main work, but Rhodes Villa Avenue is ground zero. The once tranquil street, flanked by million-dollar homes with boats docked out See WATER on page 8
A runner skirts a barrier on A1A near Rhodes Villa Avenue. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Jane Smith Sea turtles and humans could be in the dark each night along the mile-plus stretch of Delray Beach’s public beachfront during the eightmonth turtle-nesting season. Good news for sea turtles. Not such good news for folks walking across A1A to visit nightspots. But, when confronted with three lighting options from Florida Power & Light, the majority of city commissioners voted last month for the nesting season blackout. The city now has turtle-friendly, amber-glowing light fixtures mounted on FPL-owned poles. They illuminate 1.2 miles of State Road A1A between George Bush Boulevard and Casuarina Road year-round. But FPL no longer allows customer light fixtures on its poles, Susan Goebel-Canning, the city’s Public Works director, told Delray Beach commissioners at their Aug. 21 meeting. Utility spokesman Richard Beltran confirmed this in an email, saying FPL has told coastal customers that it will no longer service fixtures that are owned by municipalities on its light poles. FPL wants to switch out the old sodium-vapor lights for new LED lights that are 50 percent more energy efficient and fall within state Public Service Commission guidelines. FPL presented three choices to the city, Goebel-Canning said. See LIGHTS on page 8
Boca Raton
Former priest who moved to Boca named by Pennsylvania grand jury By Janis Fontaine
Benestad
A former Catholic priest living in a condo on A1A in Boca Raton and who helped at a local church for four years has been named in a grand jury report as one of hundreds of priests accused of sexually abusing children in dioceses across Pennsylvania.
Thomas J. Benestad was named in the report as one of the priests whose reprehensible behavior it specifically referenced in its introduction. Benestad, 73, was listed as president of the Atlantic Cloisters Homeowners Association on its most recent annual report, filed April 4. However, Benestad recently gave
up the position and resigned from the board at the request of board members, according to a letter sent to residents. Through his lawyer, he has denied the allegations made in the grand jury report, which covers 70 years of abuse. “Monsignor Benestad has never
done anything that would be deemed inappropriate with any individual,” attorney John Waldron wrote in a formal response to the grand jury dated June 8. “Monsignor Benestad has never done anything that would be deemed immoral by the church with any individual.” See PRIEST on page 21
Trial delayed, again Publix opens in Manalapan
Supermarket anchors revamped Plaza del Mar. Page AT1
Tuned to a downbeat
Blues Radio International broadcasts from Hillsboro Beach. Page AT19
Former Ocean Ridge vice mayor waives speedy trial. Page 7
Fire protection
Highland Beach weighs dropping Delray. Page 16