Serving Highland Beach and Coastal Boca Raton
May 2019
Volume 12 Issue 5
Boca Raton
Highland Beach
County weighs its options for Milani Park By Rich Pollack
Tom D’Auria paints a roseate spoonbill on the beach side of the Middle Tunnel at Spanish River Park. With other artists set to work on the South Tunnel this month, the public art project will be complete. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
WALL ART
Artists transform tunnels at beach park By Ron Hayes When Spanish River Park opened for business at 8 a.m. on April 8, beachgoers were met by several makeshift signs in the parking lot. “Middle Tunnel Closed,” they said. “Use North Or South Tunnel.” Then two young men named Gregory Dirr and Tom D’Auria showed up and totally ignored
those signs. They paid no attention to the sawhorses blocking the paths to the tunnel entrance. Dirr and D’Auria were not here for a day at the beach. They were here to turn this most pedestrian of pedestrian tunnels into a work of art. Their canvas wasn’t the actual tunnel leading beachgoers See PARK ART on page 14
Artist Gregory Dirr moves his ladder while painting an abstract mural outside the tunnel’s other entrance.
The weathered sign at the south end of Highland Beach proclaiming an almost 6-acre parcel as the future home of Cam D. Milani Park is likely to be there for five more years if county commissioners follow the recommendation of their parks and recreation director. The site has been the centerpiece of legal tangling since the county purchased it in 1987, with Highland Beach residents objecting to a park in their community open to all county residents and county officials saying such a park is needed. Under a settlement signed in 2010 to end a legal battle, county commissioners have until the end of this month to let Highland Beach know whether they want to begin developing the park — which includes 352 feet of beachfront on the east as well as open green space on the west side of State Road A1A — or postpone any decision. County Parks and Recreation Director Eric Call said he has told the county administrator that there’s no need to rush to construction. “Our recommendation to See PARK on page 15
Along the Coast
Years-old tickets stun drivers as Boynton red-light cameras wink back on By Charles Elmore
An Ocean Ridge resident said he felt “outrage” after receiving a notice in February demanding $401.80 for a 2015 ticket generated by a red-light camera in Boynton Beach. “Warning: Your license may be suspended,” the letter said. Three or four years later? Better buckle up. Similar shocks potentially await thousands of drivers in the latest chapter of the off-again, on-again saga of redlight cameras. Attorney Ted Hollander of the Ticket
Inside House of the Month A vibrant Intracoastal estate in Boca Raton. Page H19
Clinic, which has an office in Boynton Beach, said he can understand why drivers might feel whipsawed. “There’s been tons of confusion,” Hollander said. “It’s been a mess for 10
years.” Nearly all participating cities in Palm Beach County turned the cameras off after lower-court action seemed to put their legality in question in recent years,
but a Florida Supreme Court decision upheld the camera law last year. Alone among its county peers, See RED LIGHTS on page 15
Mother’s Day Mom and daughter team helps build Habitat home for another mother and daughter. Page H1
A Summer of Culture
Our guide to the season ahead. Page AT11