The Coastal Star January 2017

Page 1

January 2017

Serving Hypoluxo Island, South Palm Beach, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream and Coastal Delray Beach

Greet the day, greet the year

Volume 10 Issue 1

Ocean Ridge

Vice mayor resigns, faces second felony charge

By Steve Plunkett Richard Lucibella, Ocean Ridge vice mayor, resigned from office Dec. 7, the same day he was charged with a second felony connected to an Oct. 22 gathering in his backyard. “Due to impending litigation between the town of Ocean Ridge and myself, it would be impossible for me to effectively discharge the duties of my office,” Lucibella Lucibella wrote Mayor Geoff Police report Pugh. “I believe it is ready soon in the best interests Page 15 of our town that I step down.” Circuit Judge Charles Burton scheduled a hearing for 8:30 a.m. Jan. 10 at the courthouse in West Palm Beach. Lucibella faces one count of battery on a law enforcement officer in addition to resisting an officer with violence. Both are felonies punishable by up to five years in prison. Town police also charged him with misdemeanor use of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol.

Each morning, photographer Joseph Vincent captures an image of the sun rising over Delray Beach. Early morning brings with it the opportunity of a new beginning. It also is a time for reflection. Editor’s Note, Page 2

Photos provided by Joseph Vincent/josephvincentphotography.com

See LUCIBELLA on page 15

Along the Coast

Your exotic neighbors — those pesky iguanas — are here to stay

By Cheryl Blackerby

Green iguanas are not your unobtrusive 5-inch garden lizards that scurry across sidewalks and terraces. An iguana, which can grow to 6 feet in length, will get your attention. With no enemies but humans, they leisurely bask in the sun on seawalls, poop on pool decks and can destroy a vegetable garden. With their huge dewlaps, vertebral crests and menacing thick tails, no one would describe them as cute and sweet. They are a new and startling sight on the South Florida

Three-foot-long iguanas run along a dock in Highland Beach. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star landscape. The first sighting in Palm Beach County was in 2003, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission research. They first

appeared in Florida in MiamiDade County in 1966. In a short time they have become one of South Florida’s most unwelcome nonnative

species. “Here in Ocean Ridge, we first started discussing the iguana problem this past spring after receiving complaints

from some town residents in the Sabal Island area about an uptick in the number and frequency of iguana sightings and associated damage to flowering landscape in the area, as well as reptile feces evidenced on seawalls and pool decks,” says Jamie Titcomb, Ocean Ridge town manager. The town sought estimates from iguana trappers, who charge rates based on a “per cage, per day” baiting and retrieval system, which can be costly. And because most of the trapping would be on private See IGUANAS on page 21

Inside Art in motion Docents learn to show the way through Boynton’s kinetic art. Page AT1

Top fiddle

Elmar Oliveira talks about the violin competition that bears his name. Page AT9

Cultivating young minds The garden at Plumosa School of the Arts offers a lesson in sustenance. Page H1


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