DUCKLINGS SAVED FROM SEWER SEE STORY, PAGE 2
CRACKER HORSE: LIVING HISTORY SEE COLUMN, PAGE 18
T H E W E L L I N GTO N
TOWN-CRIER
Wellington’s Hometown Newspaper
INSIDE Opinion
Volume 30, Number 23 June 5 - June 11, 2009
2009 DIAMOND DERBY BENEFIT
County Tax Rate Increase A Bitter, But Necessary Pill
The Palm Beach County Commission has difficult choices to make when they begin reviewing the budget for the next fiscal year on Monday, June 8. To salvage a bad situation, commissioners and the community at large must accept a small tax rate increase in order to keep county income stable and not force the further decimation of necessary county services. Page 4
News The American Cancer Society’s 2009 Diamond Derby took place Friday, May 29 at the Breakers West Country Club. The event was held to raise money for cancer research and included entertainment, blackjack, roulette, cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, dinner, silent and live auctions, and more. Shown here, event chairs Dr. Daxa Patel, Dr. Collette Brown-Graham and Dr. Jennine Cabanellas receive bouquets for their hard work. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 5 PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER
Royal Palm Beach Rotary Club Installs Officers For 2009-10
The Rotary Club of Royal Palm Beach swore in its new board of officers last Saturday during a ceremony at the Village Golf Club. Page 3
RPB To Mark 50th Anniversary With Events June 12-13
The Village of Royal Palm Beach has scheduled two days of celebrations on Friday and Saturday, June 12 and 13 in recognition of its 50th anniversary. Page 7
Plan Helps Businesses Relocate To Wellington By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Wellington’s Planning, Zoning & Adjustment Board on Thursday recommended approval of two measures intended to attract small but high-income business and industry to the village, as an alternative to more retail development. The first measure, a flexible-use zoning district, would allow a wider range of “clean” uses, including light industry, technology, manufacturing and research on parcels as small as ten acres. And an expedited permitting program would streamline the
often drawn-out permitting process, planning officials said. The two proposals were crafted as a part of Wellington’s economic development initiative that aims to advance the village beyond its current status as a bedroom community with heavy concentrations of residential areas and retail shops. If the flex zoning designation is adopted, staff will propose applying it to the village’s existing industrial areas on Pierson Road in a future action. The new designation de-emphasizes the word “industrial” because of
its connotations of noise and pollution. The designation would offer an alternative to retail development for commercial areas while retaining office uses, according to the staff report. Because the two measures had raised similar questions among board members at a May workshop, Planning, Zoning & Building Director Marty Hodgkins suggested the board discuss them simultaneously. Associate Planner Bill Nemser said the proposed Flexible Zoning Employment District would replace the vilSee PZA BOARD, page 18
GROOVIN’ AT VETERANS PARK
Summer Kickoff Party At Wellington Community Center
The Village of Wellington and the Wellington Chamber of Commerce co-hosted a summer kickoff block party last Sunday at the Wellington Community Center. Local restaurants and businesses were on hand, and there was live entertainment. Page 9
Online Poll Has the downturn in the economy affected your summer travel plans? A. Yes, I will not be leaving the state. B. Yes, but I still plan to travel out of state. C. No, I can still afford out-of-state travel. D. No, I wasn’t planning to travel anyway. Cast your vote by visiting www.goTownCrier.com and scrolling down to the poll question at the bottom left of the page. THIS WEEK’S INDEX NEWS ........................ 2 - 9 OPINION ......................... 4 CRIME NEWS ................. 6 SCHOOLS .............. 12 - 13 PEOPLE ................. 14 - 15 CALENDAR .................... 16 BUSINESS .................... 17 SPORTS ....................... 19 COLUMNS ..................... 21 Visit Us On The Web At WWW.GOTOWNCRIER.COM
The Village of Royal Palm Beach held a community concert Monday evening at Veterans Park featuring performers Derrick Hadley and the Motowners. Pictured above, the band gets the crowd on its feet. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 5 PHOTO BY CAROL PORTER/TOWN-CRIER
Serving Palms West Since 1980
Wellington Offers Some Employees Early Retirement By Mark Lioi Town-Crier Staff Report Shrinking budgets are forcing municipalities everywhere to reduce their staff, and in hopes of making the cuts as kind as possible, the Village of Wellington is offering an early retirement package to employees whose age and years with the village combine to reach the magic number of 62. Village Manager Paul Schofield said the village is doing all it can to reduce staffing expenses by encouraging voluntary departures. “My goal is to try to get whatever reductions that I have to do in staff, and to try to do them without having layoffs — that’s our option of last resort,” he told the TownCrier Thursday. Wellington, which enjoyed a decade of bountiful revenues through high property values and robust development, has been hit by a quadruple whammy of tax reform, a sinking real estate
market, a virtual standstill in construction and the overall floundering economy. “The village’s property values dropped by over a billion dollars,” Schofield said. “Every other revenue source is down; overall our revenue is down by about $7.4 million, so this is just one of the many options we have to close that gap.” Schofield said he doesn’t expect the village’s financial picture to improve anytime soon, so the village must make efforts to lighten its payroll burden for the longer term. “The simple fact is that if we can get people interested in early retirement, that helps with staff reductions that even if we don’t have to do this year, we may have to do next year,” he said. Schofield said it is too early to tell how much response the early retirement offer will attract, but those who accept will be able to continue their See RETIRE, page 18
House Church Gets County OK Despite Protest By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report The Palm Beach County Commission approved the establishment of a church in a house on Okeechobee Blvd. just west of the Town of Loxahatchee Groves at a zoning meeting last week, with measures to assure that amplified music and other sounds would not bother neighbors. King of Kings Church requested conditional-use approval to convert the 25-yearold home into a house of worship. Earlier in May, the county’s Planning & Zoning Commission recommended approval of the application by a 5-2 vote. At the commission’s May 28 meeting, County Attorney Robert Banks explained that federal law prohibits the county from barring the establishment of places of worship except in cases of a “compelling governmental interest” and that the fact that the county has already approved another house-based church on an adjoining property, and its situation on an arterial road, makes it difficult for the commission to reject the application. The one-acre lot on the south side of Okeechobee Blvd. is a few hundred feet west of the Loxahatchee
Groves town limits. The surrounding property has agricultural-residential zoning, according to a county staff report. Bordering to the east is the parcel that previously received approval as a church, the New Worldwide Apostolic Church. East of that is Loxahatchee Groves Elementary School. The lot to the west is vacant. Homes occupy lots adjacent to the south and to the north across Okeechobee Blvd. A preliminary site plan for the church shows the 2,307square-foot house with a 70seat meeting hall, offices, a conference room and an existing 284-square-foot storage building relocated within the site. County staff placed a list of 22 conditions on the application, including additional landscaping and upgraded windows and doors to mitigate potential impacts to surrounding properties, as well as restrictions on the hours of operation and a bar on outdoor activities. But Lionel Easterling, an East Brighton Drive resident directly south of the lot, said the location is unsuitable for a church. “We are a very family-oriented neighborhood,” he said. “We like our peace and quiet in the neighborSee CHURCH, page 4
Town-Crier Columnist Don Brown Dies After Long Leukemia Battle By Ron Bukley Town-Crier Staff Report Town-Crier columnist Don Brown, a longtime journalist and political campaign manager, passed away Saturday, May 30 in Wichita, Kan. after a long battle with leukemia. He was 65. Brown served in the U.S. Air Force as an information specialist from 1962 to 1966. Daily papers he worked for in his career included the Air Force Times during his enlistment, and on to the Daily Reporter in Derby, Kan., the Norfolk Daily News and Lincoln Journal in Nebraska, and the Daily Oklahoman and the Oklahoma City Times before taking a job handling public relations for the Tenneco Oil Co. in New Orleans. Brown retired to the western communities in the 1990s but soon resumed working as a manager for political candidates and as
a journalist, penning a weekly column in the TownCrier for five years. Local friends say they’ll remember Brown as a caring person who did not hesitate to call things as he saw them. Former Wellington village manager Charlie Lynn said he and Brown both started out in the area at about the same time. “When I moved here in 1996, Don became one of the first people I really got to know outside the immediate staff in Wellington,” he recalled. “Don was a reporter for the Forum as I recall, and he had just moved to Wellington as well, so Don and I kind of started out with the then-infant Village of Wellington. We got to know each other, and we became very good friends.” As a journeyman newspaper reporter, Brown was a relic of a bygone age — a fact
he relished and never let his friends forget. “I always admired old-time newspaper reporters,” Lynn recalled. “And Don was one of the last newspaper reporters of the old school, and I mean that in a very complimentary way. Don was a good writer, and he pretty well called it like he saw it. I didn’t always agree with him, but Don was the kind of guy you could have an argument with, then sit down and have a beer with afterward.” Indian Trail Improvement District President Michelle Damone, another close friend, said there was a softer side to the tough newsman. “The public perception and persona of Don Brown was a tough newspaperman who covered controversial issues and said what others were afraid to say in his columns, but there was a different side See BROWN, page 2
Rest In Peace — Town-Crier columnist Don Brown as he preferred to be remembered. PHOTO BY LISA KEENEY/TOWN-CRIER