Deerfield Beach commissioners recently voted to buy a one-quarter-acre parcel of land adjacent to the Deerfield Beach International Fishing Pier, a decision blasted by District 4 Commissioner Bill Ganz, who is concerned about the city draining its contingency fund.

Of the $510,000 purchase price approved by the commission, $305,000 will come from a county grant. The remainder will be drawn from the contingency fund.

“We’re proud owners of a new slab of beach,” Ganz said. “I just think we overpaid.”
He maintained the $485,000 contingency fund was extremely low and said that using half of it to buy this property is borderline foolish.

He also said that the land was unusable and unsalable.
The 3-2 vote to pay restaurateur Peter Boinis $510,000 for land earmarked for restrooms came just 14 days after an equally narrow vote rejecting the proposal.

The asking price was based on outdated appraisals, Ganz said.
District 3 Commissioner Marty Popelsky agreed. He opposed the expenditure, he said, after learning from city staff that the required restrooms could be built on the other side of the pier.

Parks and Recreation director Vince Kendrick long has sought to make private beachfront public.
Kendrick said he supported this deal for different reasons: because the pier nets $300,000 annually, warranting the investment and because, he said, such purchases have made public 80 percent of the property to the Palm Beach County line.

On May 5, District 2 Commissioner Sylvia Poitier quashed the sale. She cast the decisive vote against the proposal, saying she couldn’t justify spending the money without clarification.

On May 19, with the pier’s financials in hand, the commissioner known for her mastery of parliamentary procedure relied on those rules to change course.
She made the motion to buy the property for $510,000 from Boinis.

District 1 Commissioner Joe Miller and Mayor Peggy Noland already supported the project. The motion passed.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

When his wife forgot which cupboard to put the dishes away in, Bernard Metrodina was concerned.

“You took it out. What do you mean where does it go?” he asked the retired medical technician. When she couldn’t answer, he made a doctor appointment.

That was four years go. Patricia Metrodina was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, an incurable loss of brain cells leading to progressive inability to remember and think.
The doctor prescribed Aerosept. It hasn’t helped. Neither have the Exelon patches.

Today, Patricia no longer remembers the names of friends whose faces she recognizes. So, when Bernard learned of yet another drug being tested, he signed up his wife. That made Patricia one of more than 1,000 people nationwide, and between six and 12 at North Broward Medical Center, testing an investigational drug aimed at slowing the disease progression.
“This is one of the first few attempts to use a vaccine or anti-body to try and take the amyloid plaque out of the brain cells,” explained Dr. Jose De La Gandara, the physician overseeing the project for Quantum Laboratories Memory Disorder Clinic at North Broward Medical Center, one of 200 sites across the United States and Canada participating in the so-called Bapi study.

When Patricia signed on she committed herself to an 18-month study involving intravenous medication every 13 weeks, as well as exams in a clinic. She was told that some patients would be treated with the drug. Others would get a placebo. She went through CAT scans, EKGs, blood tests. Forty weeks into the test, Bernard said last week that she has gotten one injection and she hasn’t lost her sense of humor.

“She gets up and does her hair and laundry,” he said. “I do all the cooking and she tells people, “Yeah, Bernie does all the cooking. He’s a better cook.”

Her second is in June and while it’s too early yet to tell if it is helping, Bernard said the alternative was even bleaker.

“I don’t know what the next stage of Alzheimer’s is,” he said. “But I know the next stage is lot worse. I don’t think they can find something that will really stop the progression… [but] what she is taking is doing the job.”

Visit www.icarastudy.com

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

As they have this time for five years now, Deerfield Beach’s own Six Point Riders made a trek to Savannah, Georgia on May 15 to commemorate the Holocaust.

The Six Point Riders are a club of Jewish motorcyclists riding under the Star of David. This year’s Ride To Remember Ride To Remember drew some 34 Jewish motorcycle riding clubs from across the nation, as well as from Canada, Israel and Australia. Among them: Harry Fischstein of Boca Raton and the Deerfield Beach group’s safety officer.

Fischstein said in a letter he felt compelled to write that he rode to remind children and the rest of the world about atrocities that occur against humanity, even today -- a story vividly told by his father, a survivor of Auschwitz II.

"The first time I heard his story was when I was 18 years old and serving in the Israeli army," he said. "At the end of his story he said, `Never forget.'"

The story told Fischstein by his father was of a man who, at the age of 32, returned home from his newspaper job to find every person in his village and family shot dead by the Germans. He worked the crematorium at Auschwitz II and was liberated by American soldiers.

That was who Fischstein remembered as he rode on May 15.
“The rain was pouring but hundreds of motorcycles riding with the Jewish Star of David, American and Israeli flags, supporting each other (showed) we are here in the land of freedom, riding our motorcycles on the open road, “ he said. "The event raised $50,000 which was donated to the Holocaust Lending Library in Savannah."

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

The state ethics commission has set a probable cause hearing for June 12 on ethics violation charges brought against District 2 Commissioner and vice mayor Sylvia Poitier.

Poitier said she has retained an attorney to represent her. She referred further questions to Jacob Horowitz of Goren Cherof Doody & Ezrol in Fort Lauderdale. Horowitz’s office said he is out of the country and could not be reached for comment.

The hearing is set for Tallahassee, and the terms of engagement are clear in the April 30 letter from Kaye B. Starling, complaint coordinator for the State of Florida Commission on Ethics: “The Respondent and the Commission Advocate will be given five minutes each to provide statements to the Commission. No witnesses may be called at his hearing and no new evidence may be introduced. The sole purpose of the probable cause hearing is to evaluate the results of the preliminary investigation.”

That investigation came in response to a formal complaint filed by Hernan Casanova of Deerfield Beach. Casanova is a professional property manager. At the time of the incident, he was vice president of The Palms.
Residents there were enticed to buy with mortgages that offered low monthly payments that eventually refinanced beyond the budgets of most buyers. When they had to choose between paying the mortgage and community assessments, they fell behind on common bills.

At the time the complaint was filed, 104 of 168 units were in foreclosure and the complex owed $92,000 to the city for water. When the city threatened to turn off the water, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development owned several of the foreclosed units. HUD stepped in to pay what it owed, providing an infusion of cash that kept the water on.

In his complaint, Casanova said he contacted Poitier for help resolving the water bill. Poitier, the city commissioner for District 2, former Deerfield Beach mayor and current vice mayor, offered to help, the complaint alleges, but only if she was put on the community’s payroll.

Poitier concedes she might have told Casanova that she was available to work as a consultant. But, she said, she had said nothing actionable.
Since he filed the complaint, March 19, Casanova was voted out of his position as vice president of The Palms. But he gave a taped statement to someone from the ethics commission, he said.

Kerrie Stillman, public information officer for the ethics commission, said the commission will consider the reports of the investigators and advocate before deliberating and deciding whether there is probable cause or not.
“The commission has full discretion,” she said, adding that in a 2002 incident involving Poitier and the Broward County Commission, “it was dismissed prior to any investigation.
“That means that whatever was alleged, even if it were proven true, would not have been a violation,” she said.

The letter says “…the Respondent, the Complainant and their counsel may attend the hearing to observe the Commissions deliberations.”

Poitier says her attorney will be there. Casanova says he will be at work.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

With Mother’s Day just past, and Memorial Day looming, it’s time to think about the 14 days remaining before school lets out.

Deerfield Beach’s city-run day camps, enrolling 150 and 125 6- to 11-year-olds at Lyons Creek Middle School and Deerfield Beach Middle School respectively, are more than three-quarters full. The grant-funded camp at Westside Park is fully enrolled.
The rest of the more than 40 city-run camps, however, still offer options.

“There is volleyball and cheerleading for older kids, ages 8 to 15. There are five weeks of soccer, and each camp is $60 per week with three exceptions,” said Blaise Leon, athletic coordinator.

First, the exceptions. Fishing trips are $165 for all five trips, with enrollment limited to 20 kids ages 10 to 16. Golf camp is $85 for five days of 9 to 11:30 a.m. and Special Event Camp is $100 and includes six trips over the summer.
The rest of the camps run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 10 to Aug. 7, offering arts and crafts, indoor and outdoor games, swimming on Fridays, field trips to bowling, baseball and roller skating.

For the youngest children, ages 3 to 5, Tiny Tot Summer Fun is three hours of indoor and outdoor games, arts and crafts, field trips and guest performances at Constitution Park, 2841 W. Hillsboro Blvd. Each two-week session is $70 for residents with sibling discounts offered either online or by walking in to register. Call 954-480-4494.

Drama Camp at Deerfield Beach Middle School, 701 SE Sixth Ave., the city’s most expensive camp at $600, offers 125 children a summer of exploring music and dance, art and drama through the experience of creating a play, culminating in a single performance to a packed house.
The sports camps number about 35 scattered throughout the city and invite kids to learn how to golf, surf, co-ed volleyball or softball, flag football, co-ed soccer, baseball and basketball.
New this year are the Deerfield Beach Sunwaves Girls Soccer and Deerfield Beach United Boys Soccer, for $200, which offer competitive soccer programs traveling to compete against the best. Call 954-480-4426.
Rather be outside? Consider Fishing Camp. For $165, ages 10 to 16 are invited to bring rod and reel and head offshore for five days over five weeks of deep sea fishing for a five-hour trip.

The $100 Sports Camp Special Event Trips invite boys and girls ages 8 to 14 to six trips one day a week for six weeks: a Miami Dolphins practice, Panthers arena tour, Heat Summer Jam, Florida Marlins baseball game, a Kid Fitness Festival in West Palm Beach and Rapids Water Park. Sounds intriguing? For information or to enroll anyone 15 and younger, call 954-480-4426.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

When President Barack Obama put the paddles to the economy with a $152 billion package of stimulus spending, hope extended from city streets to city hall. Three months into the boldest economic experiment since the New Deal, however, the reviews are mixed.

The verdict: The president was serious about funding for projects that are shovel-ready. More ephemeral stuff, such as arts and education, however, has been helped not at all by the history-making shift of wealth.

“It’s similar to what happened to lottery dollars,” said dispirited Broward County Public Schools Superintendent James Notter, of how a $2.7 billion infusion might not be saving any teaching jobs. “It was supposed to enhance education. Instead, it plugged a hole in the regular budget.”

As Notter explained it, Florida’s share of $2.7 billion in federal dollars was to be spent over two years. The first 67 percent of Florida’s share was supposed to go to school districts, including $91 million for the nation’s sixth-largest public school district. A year later, the district would get the remaining share. Instead, the governor evenly split the money, which ended up plugging a $6 billion funding shortfall in the state budget.

“What that has left me with is a $60 million shortfall,” Notter said of Broward County’s school district budget.

The impact in area schools is dispiriting. Teachers already buying classroom supplies out of their lunch money now face possible layoffs.

“We are still crunching the numbers,” Notter said, “but we’re looking at 200 teachers laid off, noninstructional [staff] not counted.”

At Deerfield Park Elementary, for example, where enrollment is shrinking and standardized test scores are lagging, Principal Constantina Pettis anticipates losing two teachers: an assistant who helps with math and a much-loved second-grade teacher.

Deerfield Beach Elementary, Deerfield Beach Middle and Deerfield Beach High School did not respond. But at Quiet Waters Elementary School, a $320,000 chunk out of the budget for next year means three teachers could lose their jobs and students lose art and science classes.

In other sectors, however, the news is better.
The city’s Director of Planning and Growth Management Gerald Ferguson is ebullient over a project that has been dead in the water for 20 years.

The Dixie Flyover was supposed to be a concrete solution to moving traffic through a problematic stretch of central Deerfield Beach. Instead, it lacked funding to break ground. Because it was “shovel-ready,” however, it got stimulus money from a $38 million chunk that went to Broward County’s Metropolitan Planning Organization.

All that remains, Ferguson said, is for Florida Department of Transportation to go out to bid, and the vacant space on Dixie Highway will become a graceful bridge connecting Palm Beach and Broward counties.

Finally, five extra low-income families will be able to get into a first home through Deerfield Beach’s first-time homebuyer program.

Peter Parkin, the city’s community development manager, said the city expects about $200,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Of that, regulations require the city to put aside 15 percent for public service funding, leaving $150,000 to split between very-low-income first-time homebuyers and low-income families seeking basic improvements to their homes.

The families can apply for grants to upgrade plumbing, electric and air conditioning.
“Those are quality-of-life issues,” Parkin said.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

The West Deerfield Beach Alliance knew not who it was riling when it demanded — and won on March 17 — a city law banning artificial grass.

Seven weeks later, Lesia DeFelice took the podium of a city meeting. She came armed with statistics, legal arguments, scientific studies and an ever-so-firm request for the city to reconsider. When she was done, at least one commissioner was on her side.

“The law is in effect, but if there is nothing scientifically wrong with artificial turf like they were pretending it was, I’m going to file suit to have it changed with the Department of Justice,” said Vice Mayor Sylvia Poitier. “We should be able to use artificial turf, especially when you need water.”

That was the idea behind what turned out to be DeFelice’s carefully considered landscaping plan. DeFelice is vice president for an automotive recycling company. She eats organic. She has a 360-gallon rain barrel system and a $400 state-of-the-art composting bin in the back yard where she raises organic fruit and vegetables.

When she bought her house five years ago, the yard was solid weeds. Undaunted, she and husband Thomas, an IT manager at an air conditioning company, visited Nevada to study xeriscaping techniques. They submitted the required landscaping plan, waited the required 30 days, then set to work as was allowed by the tiniest print in the association rules.

To nonchemically eliminate the weeds, the couple laid plastic sheeting over the yard. When the roots were dead five days later, and for endless weekends thereafter, they set to the yellowing weeds with a hard rake, a soft rake, a fine rake and a hoe. When they reached sand, they laid weed-blocking fabric made from a fiber that decomposes over a decade. They installed a water feature to attract owls, woodpeckers, “and a whole bunch of snakes,” she said.

Then they began rebuilding. They planted native grasses, oleander and rosemary, “one of the most drought tolerant herbs in the world,” Lesia said. This they surrounded with mulch of recycled rubber to retain water.

Then they settled back to enjoy the yard.
“We got several letters all of them threatening. We ignored them,” DeFelice said of initial association warnings.
It was when Hurricane Wilma inextricably mixed leaves with mulch that things got nasty. The DeFelices replaced it with artificial turf – prompting the dispute that led to court and to last month’s city ban.

DeFelice comes from a family of attorneys in Jamaica. She launched her first political protest at the age of 6. May 5, she let the facts make her case.
“Zero gallons of city water are used on my landscape,” she told the city commission. “Harmful chemicals are found in our lead-painted Chinese toys, garden gnomes, aluminum pink flamingos and designer shoes. Let us collectively issue a ban on those items too.”

Yet, Poitier’s pledge aside, prospects for change seemed rather dim as of May 12.
“The city has passed the ordinance,” said City Attorney Andrew Maurodis. “It’s the law for the city.”

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

Soha Samla is really good at reading. She's good at writing, too, but wasn't ecstatic about her score on the writing section of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. When she learned last week she had won second place in a county-wide essay contest, she said, “I was totally surprised.”

It’s the fifth year the Broward Sheriff’s Office has conducted an essay contest during Arson Awareness Week, May 3 through 9.
Co-sponsored by the Florida State Fire Marshal’s office, the contest is an effort to teach students the danger of fire and especially arson. This year’s competition drew 331 essays. Quiet Waters Elementary School was the only school to participate in North Broward County. Students there landed six awards with essays focusing on teenage arson.

There are many reasons the BSO and fire marshals want kids, especially, to be arson averse. For starters, arson is a crime. It is any crime in which someone intentionally sets fire to a building that could be inhabited by people. A 2009 study by the National Social Science Association found that “the vast majority of fire-setters were males, Caucasian, younger in age, more typically playing with matches, living with a single parent and setting a fire in one location in side of the house.”

In Britain, among other places, the focus has been on the need to be pro-active in fighting arson.
Accordingly, the writing prompt describes a 14-year-old girl who is taken to a juvenile detention facility after starting a fire in her backpack. Students were instructed to, “Write to persuade Ashley not to commit the crime of arson again.” Soha’s winning submission began with enough some solid research to spice it up.

“I wanted to know how long you could stay in juvie,” she explained of how she decided to make a juvenile detention facility the focus of her essay. “l found out it was five years to life on Wikianswers.com.”

Soha’s essay pointed out that getting caught. “...would mean having to stay with next generation criminals…you could not see your family, friends or pets…(and) you can be there for five years to even your whole life.

“Here is the big one,” she continued. “Many innocent people can get hurt or killed and it would be all your fault….Think of all the parents and brothers and sisters waiting for their child or sibling to come home…"

Soha’s own parent – her Mom, Salma Abdullah – was on hand for the celebration, as the six winners shared a sheet cake. Soha’s prose won her Wal-Mart and McDonald’s gift certificates, as well as four Miami Seaquarium tickets. Putting the certificate in a frame will be will be a thrill, she said, but not the best part.

“That was finding out that I won,” she said.

BOX:Arson Awareness

3rd place – Genae Dambra from Ms. Somers 4th grade class

2nd place – Natalia Galicza from Mrs. Kostrzecha’s 3rd grade class

1st place – Soha Samla from Mrs. Pinzon’s 5th grade class
Soha also placed 2nd for the entire county

Honoree mentions

5th grade – Gabby Esposito from Mrs. Pinzon
5th grade – Mazden Bindel from Mrs. Pinzon
3rd grade – Samantha Kirby from Mrs. Kostrzecha

Soha Samla's Essay:
"Dear Ashley Embers,

I wonder why you lit a fire in your backpack. When I read the article, I just wondered if you realized all the things that could happen. All the consequences you have to face for doing that. You can get set to juvenile detention, get expelled, and most of all, many innocent people could hvae gotten hurt and it would be your entire fault.

Going to juvenile detention would mean having to stay with next generation criminals. Also,you could not see your family, friends or even your pets. Nothing is fun about juvenile detention. Doing arson would give you a lot of time in jail when you get olders. You can be there for five years to even your whole life! That is a bad consequence and I'm sure of it.

Getting expelled would mean getting left behind in school and not seeing your friends or teachers. You would be known as 'The Arsonist' of something terrible. Also, if you don't have real friends, they may betray you because they are afraid you might endanger their family and their own life. You may end up with no friends at all. If other schools hear about your incident, you may not have a chance of getting in. Doing a crime can ruin your whole life.

Here is the big one. Many innocent people can get hurt or killed and it would be all your fault. Think about it. Thing of all the parents and brothers and sisters waiting for their child or their sibling to come home and find out they have died in an arson incident. or maybe, some kids get paralyzed and have to sit in a wheelchair, not being able to move for the rest of their life. That may not be important to you,but, what if it was the opposite way? You would regret that all the rest of your life. I know I would.

Whatever the reason was that made you start the fire, talk to someone about it. You don't want to give your school and family a bad name, now, do you? Please don't do it again. it's bad for everyone. Signed, Soha Samla.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

TD Bank in Florida calls itself America’s Most Convenient Bank. It could be the most consumer-friendly as well. It offers loaner umbrellas to get to the parking lot during rainy season. There is a fee-free coin counter. An actual person answers questions at the front door on Powerline Road and Hillsboro Boulevard – and another one answers at the toll-free telephone number.

The subsidiary of one of Canada’s largest banking groups, TD Bank Financial, opened there November 2008, one of what now numbers six TD Bank locations in Broward County. The fact that it sits largely empty a year after quietly absorbed Commerce Bank leaves brass unconcerned. Instead, the bank marked National Library Week and kicked off a Summer Reading Program May 12 by having regional vp Frank Spinosa himself read to second graders at Deerfield Park Elementary School last week.

Spinosa turned up in suit and tie and with a retinue of bank employees. He read “Sam and the Lucky Money” to a rapt audience of second graders. The bank donated through its foundation $5,000 to the school library – then offered to put $10 into a savings account for any of the 650 students who read ten books between May 4 and Sept. 30.

The event highlighted a marketing strategy that balances a commitment to customer service at the bank with a charitable outreach program. It’s a unique marketing strategy, and at a time when banks nationwide are foundering, TD Bank opened 29 new stores last year and extended hours at 200 others. Now the seventh largest bank in North America by branches, TD Bank Financial Group pays as much attention to building its image as to its bottom line.

Even as the industry was bumping along the bottom last year, TD’s foundation last year, the TD Charitable Foundation funneled $11.5 million in donations to supporting three causes: affordable housing, economic empowerment and education and financial literacy. It was the latter that brought Spinosa to Deerfield Park Elementary School’s media center and while the children were oblivious to the significance of this guest reader, their media specialist was not.
“We get around $5,500 from the county and that has to go for periodicals, poster paper, books, laminating paper, batteries, television and cameras,” she said of the gift from the TD Charitable Foundation. “We are very appreciative”

BROWARD COUNTY TD BANK LOCATIONS:

2600 N. University Drive, Coral Springs
5943 Stirling Road, Davie
3325 W. Hillsboro Blvd., Deerfield Beach
7345 W. Oakland Park Blvd., Fort Lauderdale
7001 W. Commercial Blvd., Tamarac
4475 Weston Road, Weston.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

It’s closed for Memorial Day on May 25. Four days later, it’s closed for flooring installation. And if life were a movie, ominous music would play.

That’s because current plans call for the nation’s largest library system to close seven of 44 branches. All are reasonably close to other libraries, used less and occupy a building that is leased, not owned.

Among them is Century Plaza branch and the beach-branch library in Pompano Beach. Century Plaza branch is 2.23 miles west of the Deerfield Beach's Percy White branch and 10 miles northeast of the Northwest Regional Library in Coconut Creek. It is in a leased building.

No one, however, could call it underutilized. Some 12,000 people peruse books, magazines and computers every week. Most come from Century Village, home to 17,000 people with a median age of 80. They come using canes and walkers and electric wheelchairs. Some take the Century Village bus, which is free. For them, the Percy White branch and Northwest Regional are too far.

“You have got to understand that most don’t drive any more,” said Carol Lerner, a resident of Ventnor D. “They can’t even get on buses any more.”

So began a one-woman campaign to save the Century Plaza branch before the final vote in September. Earlier this month, Lerner delivered 15 pages of petitions to Broward County’s Vice Mayor Ken Keechl. Her efforts were supported by Deerfield Beach Commissioner Marty Popelsky. “There are 12,000 people per week using [Century Plaza brach] versus 3,000 people at Percy White,” he said at a commission meeting.

Century Village resident Pat Durney said Century Village residents are the only users. “Have you seen the haven the library has created for intellectually curious children…and culturally diverse population being connected to the world?” she said. “Stand in the Century Plaza and ask people what they think of this library…[They] want this library to remain open.”

Evelyn Grooms, president of the Friends of the Broward County Library, said the group that raises money for library programming and supports funding libraries through county, state and federal governments, on May 11 approved a post-card writing campaign at all 37 branches. Volunteers plan to stand outside with pre-addressed post cards and ask library clients to add a personal note.

Will that help?

“I just don’t know. But I’ll tell you what,” she said. “State aid was going to be cut out completely this year and on May 1 and May 2, the $21 million was restored. It’s important for people to call and write.”

If the campaign fails, it will leave the world a little smaller for people like Lerner’s mother, Miriam. Now 86, Miriam volunteered at the library teaching English, until she lost her eye sight. Now she relies on a free bus that takes residents from inside Century Village to the library.

In this area, the commission contact is: Kristin Jacobs, 954-357-7002; kjacobs@broward.org; Commissioner Kristin Jacobs, Broward County Governmental Center, 115 South Andrews Avenue, Room 411; Fort Lauderdale, Fl. 33301, or at the district office, 2555 W. Copans Road, Pompano Beach, Fl. 33068.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0) | Share: