MEET THE TOP COP & TOP FIREFIGHTER SEE STORY, PAGE 3
RPB YOUTH CIVIC LEADERSHIP PROGRAM SEE STORY, PAGE 4
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INSIDE
Student Turns Mom’s Battle Into Nonprofit
Volume 46, Number 20 October 3 - October 16, 2025
Serving Palms West Since 1980
BINKS PTA PARTY WITH A PURPOSE
Justin Schoen, a senior at Park Vista High School was inspired by his mother’s cancer diagnosis to create a nonprofit initiative to help patients preserve their hair during treatment with “cooling caps.” On Saturday, Oct. 4, Cap My Crown will be hosting its first event of Breast Cancer Awareness Month at Moda Hair Design in Royal Palm Beach. Page 3
Ribbon Cutting And Tree Planting Celebrate Preserve Expansion
On Saturday, Sept. 27, the Village of Wellington celebrated the official opening of the expanded Wellington Environmental Preserve at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Everglades Habitat off Flying Cow Road. Along with the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the Wellington Garden Club held its 11th annual Community-Wide Tree Planting Event. Page 5
Xcel Padel Opening Brings Growing Sport To Westlake
The fast-growing sport of padel arrived in Westlake on Friday, Sept. 19 with the long-awaited opening of Xcel Padel. The largest indoor padel club in the U.S., Xcel Padel is located at 17035 Persimmon Blvd. in the James Business Park. Another Xcel Padel location is slated to open in November near the South Florida Fairgrounds. Page 13
Dave Jimenez Has A Huge Love For Soccer
By day, longtime Wellington resident Dave Jimenez works for a local landscaping company. By night and on weekends, Jimenez spends many hours each week on the soccer field, where he both coaches and plays the sport. Jimenez, 56, has been living in Wellington since 2004. Soon after arriving 21 years ago, he started coaching in Wellington’s recreational youth soccer league. Page 17 DEPARTMENT INDEX NEWS...............................3 - 15 NEWS BRIEFS......................... 7 SPORTS..........................17 - 19 PEOPLE......................... 20 - 21 SCHOOLS.............................. 22 BUSINESS............................. 23 COLUMNS............................. 24 CLASSIFIEDS................ 25 - 26 Visit Us On The Web At WWW.GOTOWNCRIER.COM
The Binks Forest Elementary School PTA held its annual “Party with a Purpose” eighth annual casino night and auction at the Wellington National Golf Club on Saturday, Sept 27. Themed “Palm Royale,” the event included a full casino, dancing, auction items, basket prizes and refreshments. Money raised will be used to purchase educational tools for students. Shown above, PTA board members and event committee members gather for a group photo. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 15 PHOTO BY DENISE FLEISCHMAN/TOWN-CRIER
Indian Trail Approves One-Year Trial Agreement With The ALA
By Louis Hillary Park Town-Crier Staff Report After months of debate and sharp exchanges, the Indian Trail Improvement District Board of Supervisors agreed on Wednesday, Sept. 17 to approve a one-year nonprofit user agreement with the Acreage Landowners’Association (ALA). The agreement has the option for five more years, but it also has a 30-day cancellation clause. Supervisors said the clause was necessary because of what some members of the board see as unwarranted and unreasonable attacks in meetings and on social media by outspoken ALA members. “I want the ALA to succeed,” said Supervisor Betty Argue, a former ALA board member. “But the behavior of a few people has been unacceptable. It divides this community, and it has to change.”
The deal is modeled after ITID’s arrangement with the Acreage Athletic League and gives the ALA access to district facilities for community events. Unlike the old service provider agreement (SPA), the new pact is lighter on reporting obligations for the ALA and liability for the district. “I’m happy with it,” ALA President Bob Morgan said of the agreement. “There are a lot fewer administrative hoops to jump through. Staff can approve a lot of the events we might want to do.” ITID President Elizabeth Accomando was happy with the agreement. “What it boils down to is, the ALA has first dibs on ITID space for any event they might want to put on,” said Accomando, also a former ALA board member. “It always should have been this way.” ITID Executive Director Burgess Hanson said the decades-old
ALA “has a watchdog role” in terms of the board of supervisors. Replacing the SPA with the nonprofit user agreement gives the ALA more independence, he said. Therefore, it should give residents more confidence that the ALA is speaking for them and cannot be manipulated by the district. The vote came only after supervisors delivered a blunt message: the ALA must rein in internal conflicts and public attacks if it wants to survive. ITID board members cited repeated social media posts and phone calls that they said misrepresented the district and personally attacked supervisors. Accomando called it “awful things… screaming, name calling” that risk driving residents away. Morgan acknowledged the group’s struggles with dwindling membership, creating possible See ITID MEETING, page 12
Lox Council Sets Tax Rate To Fund $8.9 Million Town Budget
By Joshua Manning Town-Crier Staff Report The Loxahatchee Groves Town Council capped a difficult budget season with a series of votes Wednesday, Sept. 17 on a spending plan totaling $8,850,751 for fiscal year 2026, which began on Oct. 1. The final tax and assessment rates were less than the Truth in Millage (TRIM) rates set over the summer, but somewhat higher than the rates for last year. Property owners in the town will pay municipal taxes at a rate of 3.2564 mills, up from 3.0 mills last year, but lower than the TRIM rate of 3.5 mills. The Loxahatchee Groves Water Control District assessment for roads and drainage was set previously at $220 per acre, up from $200 last year, but far below the $300 per acre rate that town staff said would be necessary. The solid waste as-
sessment was unchanged at $450 per unit. The key issue at the final budget hearing was exactly how to classify $675,000 in the budget that would be due to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office if there are no changes with the PBSO contract. Councilman Todd McLendon wants to see the current PBSO contract either eliminated or cut back, but that would require a potentially difficult negotiation with the PBSO. He would like to see that money returned to the residents to subsidize the solid waste assessment and make up for the increase in the property tax rate. The version of the budget under discussion moved the PBSO money from “public safety” to “contingency,” which can only be released with council approval. Councilman Paul Coleman did not want that change made
before there are discussions with the PBSO. “You are asking us to poke the bear without hard evidence,” he told McLendon. Mayor Anita Kane asked Town Attorney Jeff Kurtz which way would give the town a better legal position to either pull out of the contract or to negotiate a lesser amount. “It will not necessarily be an easy thing. It depends upon what their response is,” Kurtz said, adding that it could lead to a lawsuit, which would then cost money. In the end, the council agreed to leave the bulk of the money in the contingency fund but move two months’ worth of payments back into the public safety fund. The tax rate of 3.2564 mills then passed 4-1 with Councilwoman Lisa El-Ramey opposed. During the discussion of the See LOX BUDGET, page 12
Meetings Gather Public Input On Transportation Master Plan
By Patrick Sherry Town-Crier Staff Report Officials from Palm Beach County and WSP, a global engineering and consulting firm, recently hosted a series of community meetings to gather input on how to improve and plan transportation throughout the county. The feedback from these meetings will help create the Countywide Transportation Master Plan (CTMP), a framework for the future of long-term transportation projects and initiatives. The eight public in-person meetings took place between Sept. 10 and Sept. 18 at multiple sites across Palm Beach County to get a broad understanding of the issues and priorities of each county region. This included a meeting in the western communities, at Palm Beach State College’s Loxahatchee Groves campus on Sept. 10.
Representatives from WSP, in collaboration with local officials, prepared a presentation on the plan they are hoping to develop. The goal is to collaborate with the various county agencies and municipalities to create a common goal that balances mobility and safety. “Our goal is to provide a countywide vision for transportation that connects people,” said Claudia Bilotto, project manager and southeastern executive for WSP. “We want to coordinate amongst those diverse community needs.” The CTMP will be a planning framework for transportation and mobility. It will recognize that different areas in the county will have different needs but establish a common vision and goals to effectively plan for the future. Overall, it will be a way to coordinate a See MASTER PLAN, page 4
GREAT GATSBY GALA
The Great Gatsby Gala, a fundraiser to benefit the Kids Cancer Foundation in honor of Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month, was held on Saturday, Sept. 20 at the Adventure Park Lodge at Westlake. The event was organized and co-chaired by Robin and Jeff McDonald through their group Building Hope. Shown above are Robin McDonald, Barrie Hughes, Jeff McDonald, Michelle O’Boyle and Marla Pipkins. MORE PHOTOS, PAGE 14 PHOTO BY FRANK KOESTER/TOWN-CRIER
RPB Council OKs Change To Allow Private School
By Denis Eirikis Town-Crier Staff Report It was a busy night at the Royal Palm Beach Village Council meeting on Thursday, Sept. 18. At the meeting, the council gave final approval to its budget and tax rate for fiscal year 2026 and allowed a change that could pave the way for a new private school in the community. The private school item was what drew several dozen people to the council chambers, largely in support of the change. The request by EDX Royale Property LLC asked for approval to modify the master plan for the Tuttle Royale development, changing the requirement of Pod 7 from specifically including a “charter school” to instead allow a “public and private academic
institution.” The 10.2-acre Pod 7 is in the central area of the Tuttle Royale development, which is located just south of Southern Blvd. and west of State Road 7. The council had originally approved a charter school for the site, but consultants for the developer said that market forces have changed, and a new charter school hasn’t been built in the area for eight years because of lower demand. The requested change would allow the parcel to be used for a private school, where there has been demonstrated demand. The development team reported that it has been in touch with an institution that proposes to build and operate a K-12 private school that would have the capacity to educate up to 1,500 students. That See SCHOOL SITE, page 12
Wellington Cake Artist Kelly Shivery Battles On ‘Halloween Wars’ TV Show
Kelly Shivery of Wellington can be seen on “Halloween Wars,” airing Sunday evening on the Food Network. PHOTO BY DENIS EIRIKIS/TOWN-CRIER
By Denis Eirikis Town-Crier Staff Report Kelly Shivery of Wellington’s Olympia neighborhood has an ambidextrous brain. During the week, she uses her critical thinking skills to solve complex whistleblower cases as a senior paralegal for a prestigious law firm. Come the weekend, she trades in depositions and legal analysis for creative tools like sculpting chocolate, buttercream and isomalt, with which she creates cakes that have been judged as world-class. The producers of the Food Network’s “Halloween Wars” show were so impressed with her cake-decorating skills, as seen
on Shivery’s Instagram page, that they invited her to compete alongside expert cake decorators from around the country. The sixepisode series premiered Sept. 21 and airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. Shivery describes how she stumbled into professional cake decorating and sugar artistry. “While I really love my job as a paralegal, I am passionate about sugar! I’ve always had this creative side and enjoy cake artistry,” she said. Shivery started selling cakes commercially in 2018 when someone saw one of her birthday cakes at a party and asked to hire her to decorate a cake for their function.
Since then, thanks in part to scores of YouTube instructional videos she studied during the pandemic, Shivery has successfully tapped into her creative genius and has emerged as one of the most skilled cake decorators and sugar artists in the nation. She is especially adept at using a sugarlike substance, isomalt, to sculpt cakes into fine art. Shivery is not in it for the money. “I love my day job and don’t want to think of my cake decorating as work,” she explained. “I only accept projects that interest me, and that’s usually three or four orders a month.” Her most expensive cake was a
tricked-out wedding cake, but she is fine with much more modest projects, as long as they interest her. “I was pretty shocked when the producers called,” Shivery said. “At first, I thought it was a scam, but it turned out to be real — and I am so glad I did it. It was so much fun. The experience was absolutely wonderful.” Producers flew Shivery to Salt Lake City, near where “Halloween Wars” was filmed in Park City, Utah. There, she was assigned to Team Terrifying Trio. Shivery was assigned as sugar artist, along with Kylie Holt as cake artist and See SHIVERY, page 7