November 2015
Serving Hypoluxo Island, South Palm Beach, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream and Coastal Delray Beach
Volume 8 Issue 11
Along the Coast By Mary Hladky
Bethesda merging with Baptist Health system
After about two years of exploratory talks, Boynton Beach-based Bethesda Health and Coral Gables-based Baptist Health South Florida have agreed to merge. The agreement, announced on Oct. 2, calls for a two-year transition period.
But even before the merger is completed on Sept. 30, 2017, Palm Beach County residents could see changes, including new outpatient and urgent care facilities. Both hospital systems stand to benefit by combining forces. The merger will allow highly regarded Baptist Health, the largest hospital system in Miami-Dade County with six hospitals there and one
in Monroe County, to expand into Palm Beach County. Bethesda Health, which operates Bethesda Hospital East and Bethesda Hospital West, will gain by being able to tap into Baptist’s experience in establishing outpatient and urgent care facilities. Bethesda also will become part of a larger organization that has the heft
to recruit high quality physicians and to negotiate better contracts for goods and services. Like Bethesda, Baptist is “not-for-profit and committed to quality. That is the model Bethesda has been built on. We felt they would be a good partner,” said Roger Kirk, president and CEO of Bethesda See BETHESDA on page 13
Lake Boca Raton crested over the sea wall and breached the Por La Mar neighborhood in Boca Raton. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
CHANGING TIDES Authorities grapple with seasonal flooding By Willie Howard
Late October’s extreme tides flooded parking lots and neighborhood roads from Boca Raton to Lantana, reinforcing the need for higher sea walls and other improvements that could hold back rising water in the future. Pushed higher by an Oct. 27 full moon that was close to the Earth in its orbit, tidewater
covered roads around marinas in Delray Beach and Boynton Beach, flooded a Boca Raton neighborhood, inundated the parking lot at Lantana’s Sportsman’s Park and came bubbling up through storm drains along Ocean Avenue in Ocean Ridge. “It’s not something we can deny any longer,” Delray Beach Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia said. “In See KING TIDES on page 22
FAU urban planning student Adam Chapman measures 8 to 10 inches of water on Southeast First Street in Delray Beach.
Along the Coast
Handmade thanks
Blankets add warm touch to military Honor Flight By Ron Hayes
Cynthia Smilovsky gives a blanket to World War II veteran John Mazzucco of Boca Raton before he left on an Honor Flight to Washington. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
At 3:45 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17, two SUVs pulled out of Briny Breezes onto a dark and deserted North Ocean Avenue, bound for Fort Lauderdale International Airport. The Hyundai was driven by Marla Guzzardo, a former flight attendant who retired after 38 years with American Airlines. The Toyota RAV4 was piloted by Cynthia Smilovsky of Key Largo, also a former flight
attendant, also a veteran of 38 years with American Airlines. Flight attendants are trained to react in an emergency, and this was the final act in a crisis that began a month before. “I had just recently joined the Florida Keys Quilting Association,” Smilovsky explained, “and they put out a call for members to participate in an annual project.” Smilovsky thought it would be nice if the See BLANKETS on page 10
Inside
Boca Artists’ Guild turns 65
Fire district under review
Coastal towns rank firms that bid on feasibility study. Page 6 Determining turtle gender Sand moisture, not temperature, may play a role. Page 31
Group sells works at Delray gallery. Page AT1
Celebrating Canvas
The outdoors becomes the medium for this exhibition. Page AT9
Soup’s on
Boynton Soup Kitchen to deliver meals. Page H1