Volume 7 Issue 2
Serving Highland Beach and Coastal Boca Raton
February 2014
Boca Raton
Term limits end Susan Whelchel’s run as mayor By Steve Plunkett
If you want to schedule time with Mayor Susan Whelchel, call quick. This month she will be at the Allianz Championship Golf Tournament, which she wooed to the city to become one of Boca Raton’s signature events. In March comes the Festival of the Arts Boca. In between are the usual City Council meetings and workshops, meetings with neighborhood groups, brown-bag
lunches with small businesses. And on March 31 comes the real calendar-crunching event, the council’s yearly organizational meeting in which she will pass the mayor’s gavel to her successor. Term limits are bringing Whelchel’s six years as mayor to an end. “I’ll probably take a few months off and maybe go on a vacation,” she said. “I have no immediate plans other than to catch up with my nine grandchildren.” The jewels in her crown include the
Allianz Golf Championship, which she connected with the Broken Sound Club in 2007, the Don Estridge High Tech Middle School on the old IBM campus and the successful luring of Office Depot, ADT, Lord & Taylor and other businesses, which added more than 5,000 jobs to the city. “That was definitely one of her achievements as mayor, attracting businesses to Boca,” County See WHELCHEL on page 23
Mayor Susan Whelchel Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
Highland Beach
Revamped hotel’s name adds ‘Delray’ to add cachet
Police and licensed trappers capture a rare American crocodile Jan. 5 on the Little Club Golf Course in Gulf Stream. This same crocodile also may have been spotted along the Intracoastal Waterway from Boca Raton to Lake Worth. It was transferred to Miami-Dade County. Trappers (from left) Will Gilmartin and Richard Cochran, Gulf Stream Police investigator John Passeggiata (with flashlight) and trapper Bill Gilmartin. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
Along the Coast
Reptilian recovery
A rare crocodile treks from Key Largo to Gulf Stream By Cheryl Blackerby The female crocodile made her way north from Key Largo, where she had already been trapped twice in the same swimming pool, to a small pond on the Little Club golf course in Gulf Stream.
Along the way, she was spotted at Lighthouse Point, near Two Georges Waterfront Restaurant in Boynton Beach and at the spillway in Lake Worth Lagoon. Her journey ended Jan. 5 when she was captured at the Little Club. Most everyone thought she
was an alligator, which are common in south Florida. Crocodile sightings in Palm Beach County, however, are few and far between. “The crocodile population is recovering and we’re seeing crocodiles where we haven’t seen them in
decades, but they’re still quite rare,” said Lindsey Hord, biologist and crocodile response coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. See CROCODILE on page 13
Inside Around Town Bird lovers gather across the state for the annual Audubon count. Page AT1
February 2014
Fran’s still a deep-fried tradition
New owners rely on old recipes at longtime chicken eatery. Page 19
Home, Health & Harmony Meet five local couples who have succeeded in living and working together. Page H1
By Rich Pollack The landmark Holiday Inn Highland Beach is getting a facelift and a new name that will link the hotel to neighboring Delray Beach. Town officials said they have been told the hotel, the only commercial property in the coastal town, will be renamed the Delray Sands Resort on Highland Beach as early as this month. The change comes amid a multimillion-dollar renovation of the facility, built in 1971 and purchased in 1980 by its current owners, Delray Beach-based Ocean Properties Ltd., — one of the largest independent hotel companies in North America, with holdings throughout the U.S. and Canada. The new name is reportedly the result of a compromise reached after an earlier proposal rankled town officials. “Initially, they weren’t going to include Highland Beach in the name,” says Commissioner Dennis Sheridan. “We were concerned because we didn’t want to lose the recognition for the town.” In meetings with Sheridan and other town officials, Ocean See HOTEL on page 18
Free
Houston’s coming to downtown
Restaurant working with city to build on Wildflower site. Page 21
The ArtsPaper
Pop! Boca Museum exhibition explores the world of Pop Art. Page 12
Untitled (1983), by Keith Haring
Musicians remembered, Pages 3-6 Dramaworks does Pinter, Pages 10-11 ‘Echo Spring’: Books, Page 19
The Boca Raton Museum of Art goes Pop with its latest exhibition, plus a look ahead to Harold Pinter at Palm Beach Dramaworks.