February 2012
Volume 5 Issue 2
Serving Hypoluxo Island, South Palm Beach, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream and Coastal Delray Beach
Delray Beach
Lantana
Legal battle looming over recovery houses
Beach towns to police Hypoluxo Island
By Tim Pallesen and Antigone Barton
By Tim O’Meilia
As Delray Beach moves aggressively to restrict addiction-recovery houses amid single-family homes, the threat of a legal battle increases. The City Commission will decide this month whether to limit how often rooms can be rented in single-family Neighbors are donning neighborhoods. The city’s outside pins to protest the attorneys are advising treatment center. whether a request by Caron Inside Treatment Centers to house n Rehab center has been a quiet neighbor for three wealthy, recovering addicts on Seaspray Avenue can be decades in the county denied. pocket, Page 13 And a city official says Caron lacks a necessary landlord permit to operate another sober house on Ocean Boulevard. See RECOVERY on page 11
While the Ocean Avenue Bridge is rebuilt beginning in mid-March, Lantana’s Hypoluxo Island residents may see the strobing blue lights of a Manalapan or South Palm Beach police cruiser first when they SPANNING call for law THE WATERS enforcement An occasional help. series Officials in the three n Lake Worth’s waterfront bridge, Page 22 towns that n Alternatives to use the bridge Lantana Bridge, most often Page 23 are crafting a formal agreement to ensure that Lantana’s island residents get a quick police response even if the closest Lantana patrol car is on the west side of the bridge. “If for any reason we’re not present to get there immediately, (South Palm Beach and Manalapan) have agreed to be first on the scene and secure the site,” said Lantana Town Manager Michael Bornstein. The “memorandum of understanding” will refer to
Protest signs line beach area streets where Caron Treatment Centers wants to open two upscale recovery houses. Photos by Jerry Lower
At Caron, a new treatment idea – and a nose for business By Thomas R. Collins The decision by Caron Treatment Centers to spend millions of dollars to buy two large houses near the ocean in Delray Beach is designed to expand the organization’s addiction-treatment offerings. It could also be seen as a shrewd business decision.
The genesis of Caron’s venture into luxurious, beachside residences for clients undergoing treatment — called the “Ocean Drive” program — lies in the 1990s. That’s when changes to the insurance industry and the dawn
of managed care “decimated treatment benefits,” said Andrew Rothermel, an executive vice president and the president of Florida operations for Caron, which has headquarters near Philadelphia but has treatment facilities in Boca Raton and elsewhere. After that, nonprofit Caron ended See CARON on page 12
See POLICE on page 21
Manalapan three decades Join the Club: Celebrating of decadence at Plaza del Mar By Ron Hayes
Here’s the big scoop. Thirty years ago, two former fraternity brothers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign opened a little ice cream store in Manalapan. Rich Draper was a finance major, Tom Jackson had a degree in economics, and their Ice Cream Club was the first tenant in the brand-new Plaza del Mar. When Draper and Jackson dipped their inaugural scoop on Jan. 8, 1982, that corner of East Ocean Avenue and A1A was home to a Flagship bank. Across the street stood a
Inside Paddling the coast
A kayak is a great way to see the other side of the shores. Page 41
Bethesda milestone Hospital foundation turns 65. Page 52
private club called La Coquille. The Flagship bank is SunTrust now, and the La Coquille club building has been replaced by the Ritz-Carlton hotel. But the Ice Cream Club is still there, still owned by Draper and Jackson, and their success is the sweetest scoop of all. In addition to that cozy little shop in Manalapan, today’s Ice Cream Club is also an 18,000-square-foot manufacturing plant off High Ridge Road in Boynton Beach, where a staff of 55 produces about a million gallons of all-kosher ice cream and frozen See ICE CREAM CLUB on page 26
Rich Draper, co-owner of the Ice Cream Club, reminisces with Kathy Willoughby at his Manalapan shop. Photo by Jerry Lower
Chocolates are a girl’s best friend
See how the colored gems lend a distinctive hue to jewelry. Page 37
Snapshots of the past
The coastal area seen through a grandmother’s loving lens. Pages 9