P.W. CHAMBER HEALTHCARE FORUM SEE STORY, PAGE 2
WHS KIDS PRESENT A BIG DONATION SEE PHOTOS, PAGE 3
T H E W E L L I N GTO N
TOWN-CRIER
Wellington’s Hometown Newspaper
INSIDE Opinion
Volume 30, Number 34 August 21 - August 27, 2009
IT’S BACK TO SCHOOL, KIDS
Healthcare Hysteria Is Not A Remedy For Needed Reform
Many Americans are legitimately concerned about the cost of a healthcare overhaul and how it would affect employer-based coverage if a public option is approved. But the current hysteria surrounding the issue is diverting attention from the debate and turning the whole thing into a circus. With the legislation still pending, now should be the time for thoughtful deliberation. Page 4
News
Visions Salon Holds Haircut-athon For Cancer Society
Visions Hair Salon in Wellington held its third annual haircut-athon last Sunday to benefit the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. Page 3
Dr. Shullman Salutes Area Teachers At Gypsy’s Horse Event
Shullman Or thodontics hosted a teachers’ appreciation night on Thursday, Aug. 13 at the Gypsy’s Horse Irish Pub & Restaurant in the original Wellington Mall. Page 9
Sports
Wellington Football Looking For Stronger Showing This Year
The agenda of Wellington High School varsity football’s Head Coach Chris Romano’s week: work on fundamentals and basic skills. For a team that won one game last season and had gone 1-19 in the previous two seasons combined, its fundamentals better improve vastly this year. Page 15
RPB Wildcats Hope To Stay Competitive Under New Coach
Despite a last-minute changing of the guard, the Royal Palm Beach High School varsity football team looks forward to a repeat of last year’s winning season under new head coach Frank Knuf. Page 15 THIS WEEK’S INDEX NEWS ........................ 2 - 9 OPINION ......................... 4 CRIME NEWS ................. 6 BUSINESS .................... 10 PEOPLE ................. 12 - 13 CALENDAR .................... 14 SPORTS ....................... 15 COLUMNS ..................... 17 Visit Us On The Web At WWW.GOTOWNCRIER.COM
The new school year began Tuesday at all public schools in Palm Beach County. After months of fun and relaxation during summer break, students are back to the hustle and bustle of school life. Pictured here, students Ashleigh and Jack Altfest return to Panther Run Elementary School. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 5 PHOTO BY RON BUKLEY/TOWN-CRIER
High Marks For Wellington Foreclosure Help Program By Mark Lioi Town-Crier Staff Report Wellington’s foreclosure assistance program, tailored to be more user-friendly, continues to attract a steady stream of homeowners. Several dozen homeowners visited the main room at the Wellington Community Center on Thursday evening to discuss their problems with experts in foreclosure issues. The monthly symposium is the fifth held in the village so far, village community outreach specialist Meridith Tuckwood said. The series is a collaboration between the Village of Wellington and the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches. Wellington was a natural venue because the village leads the county in foreclosures, Tuckwood said, with 1,194 properties in foreclosure as of June according to one estimate, and another 1,200 in pre-foreclosure. “The numbers are huge,” she said. The symposium brings together various experts — attorneys, housing advocates, credit counselors and real estate agents — who sit at tables where residents can approach them to discuss their problems. This is a shift from
the way the series began, Tuckwood said, with the experts lined up in front of an audience who were expected to stand up and ask questions. An indicator that people wanted to avoid the limelight came when staff at an early symposium warned the audience that a TV crew would be filming, and anyone who didn’t want to be on camera should move. The entire audience shifted to the other side of the room, Tuckwood recalled. As the format shifted to include “breakout” sessions with the individual experts, Tuckwood said it became apparent that people were more comfortable discussing their issues in a one-on-one, confidential setting, and the audience/forum format was reduced to brief introductions at the start of each session. Approximately 30 to 35 homeowners attend the symposium each month, Tuckwood said, noting that each month brings in a new set of faces. Anonymity is a strong factor both in the format and in getting people to attend, Tuckwood said. The event’s name has even changed, from “Foreclosure 911” to “Home Preservation.” “People don’t want anyone
to know,” she said. “They don’t want anyone to see them coming in here… It reminds me of an AA meeting. You don’t see them advertising outside of a church, ‘AA, come here.’ It’s usually held at a church, and it’s anonymous for a reason. It’s all about anonymity. You don’t walk up to your neighbor and say, ‘hey, my name is Joe, and I’m in foreclosure.’ It’s a very personal issue.” People don’t necessarily need to be facing foreclosure to attend the symposiums, Tuckwood noted. “Any of the individuals here are able to provide assistance whether you’re in foreclosure or not,” she said. “It could just be that you need some help with your budget.” The program’s purpose is to help people deal with the problems they are facing, said Tuckwood, who works out of the village’s Safe Neighborhoods Office on Wellington Trace. “Whatever is not here, we will get for you,” she said. “If we don’t have it here for you, and there’s something that you can’t get an answer to, we’ll do our best to find it and at least get someone on board who can help you.” In essence, Tuckwood See FORECLOSE, page 16
Serving Palms West Since 1980
RPB Council Drops Madrid Traffic Study By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report A sharply divided Royal Palm Beach Village Council backed down Thursday from having a traffic study done to determine the impact of connecting Madrid Street to the new State Road 7 extension. The item before the council had been on the consent agenda, but several residents opposing the connection had asked to speak. Mayor David Lodwick said the study was only to get information so that they would have factual data about the traffic impact should the connection be opened, and that a public hearing would be held before an opening is considered. “We have told the residents of La Mancha there would be no change until we have heard from them,” Lodwick said. Councilman David Swift, who lives on Ponce de Leon Street in La Mancha, said connecting the road would undo years of efforts to reduce traffic in the neighborhood, which he said benefited greatly from the opening of the Sate Road 7 extension. “I have seen major improvements in drainage, streetscaping and paving on La Mancha, a lot of great benefits in my opinion,” Swift said. “The point I want to make is that I have lived on Ponce for 20 years, and this summer was the best traffic experience I have seen.” Swift said opening the connection might cut a few minutes off some commuters’ travel time, but it would be
an encroachment on privacy and safety for residents living on La Mancha Avenue and Ponce De Leon and Madrid streets. “The tradeoffs will be significant for these people,” he said. “The people on the back streets will have quicker travel, but people on those street will be affected.” Swift also wondered what the performance standards would be for the study to determine if a connection was acceptable. He added that a traffic study would not take into account other factors, such as the effect on property values. “I’ve said this before; I’m really not in favor of opening that connection,” he said. Lodwick said he was not sure whether he would support a connection, but would like to get the information to make an informed decision, adding that he felt Swift had gathered people at the meeting to speak against the traffic study. Councilwoman Martha Webster also wanted to look at the data and make a holistic decision. She added that the village had received support from other municipalities for other road issues in return for a commitment to look at opening the connection. “We’ve asked other municipalities to support us,” Webster said. “We have to look at this completely.” Lodwick agreed, noting that other municipalities are pressuring him to open the connection in return for their See MADRID, page 16
Intersection Work Helps Beautify RPB By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Ongoing improvements to the intersection of Royal Palm Beach and Okeechobee boulevards are part of a continuing theme that village planners hope will upgrade the look of the community’s “downtown.” The county commission Tuesday approved the continuation of paver bricks on the sidewalk in front of the CVS Pharmacy on the northwest corner of the intersection that will match the other corners, Mayor David Lodwick told the Town-Crier on Thursday. The southwest corner, which holds a new medical office building, has a large clock at the corner, while the southeast corner is home to
the village complex and a new public art sculpture by artist Mark Fuller dedicated during the village’s recent 50th anniversary celebration. CVS has also contracted Fuller to do a $50,000 sculpture in front of its store that will complement the work across the street he did for the village. “It’s a continuing theme that we’re taking the assets of the city and trying to improve every one of the intersections,” Lodwick said. “That intersection is so heavily traveled, our residents go through it every day. We don’t have a downtown, but that is the main intersection. We certainly don’t want to waste people’s money there, but we See CORNER, page 16
Larger RPB Library On Schedule, Under Budget By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Expansion work on the Royal Palm Beach branch library is just about finished and ready for library staff to move in, Palm Beach County Library System Director John Callahan said this week. The expansion project, which began last October, is well on the way to meeting its scheduled reopening in December. “Construction is actually about two months ahead of schedule,” Callahan told the Town-Crier Wednesday. Callahan said library staff is still waiting for furniture to arrive. “It has all been ordered and should be arriving sometime in November,” he said. “Once that arrives, it takes about a month to get everything in place. We’re still looking at the first or second week in December [to reopen], but we don’t have a definite date yet.” Callahan said the slow economy has actually been a blessing for the construction project. “The labor costs have
gotten better,” he said. “Generally speaking, this project is coming in under budget. The one upside of a down economy is it’s a good time to build.” With the expansion, the Royal Palm Beach branch will more than double in size from 7,955 square feet to 20,485 square feet. The expanded library will have more meeting space with three meeting rooms, a large room accommodating 72 people, a smaller conference room and a room for children’s programming. It will increase its shelving to allow for more DVDs, CDs and audio books, more study space and quiet space including three study rooms. Dedicated space for young people will have ample room for materials and comfortable seating. The overall environment will be more open, with lofty and spacious ceilings, an abundance of natural lighting and comfortable seating areas throughout the branch, Callahan said.
The expanded Royal Palm Beach library is scheduled to reopen in December. “It’s more of an open plan, so there are very few interior walls,” he said. “We’ve got some skylights built in, clerestory windows, which are like skylights except they’re on a vertical plane rather than a horizontal plane, like a window but high up on the wall.” Callahan said the layout of the library is similar to that of the recently expanded
30,000-square-foot Wellington branch, although two thirds the size. “The functionality and layout are very similar,” Callahan said. “There’s a separate teen room and a separate children’s area. There’s a main adult space in the very center of the building. I was there myself yesterday, and I was very surprised by the bright
airy feeling with the natural lighting coming in from the windows, very nice.” The décor will have an island theme to fit with the village’s name and set the branch apart from others in the county system, Callahan said. “The exterior is totally revamped,” he said. “From the old building to the new See LIBRARY, page 7