Chuck Hansen has lived in his Illini condo on Seabreeze Avenue for more than a decade and calls it a “little corner of paradise.” He opposed the $500 million Bahia Mar hotel and condo project, and he doesn’t plan to change his position just yet. Nor do many of his neighbors.

"We don’t need another monolith down here,” Hansen said. “Let them go to Miami.”

Hansen and other unit owners were encouraged in mid-July when Fort Lauderdale city commissioners stalled the approval process because the terms didn’t include enough money for the city. The city’s Planning and Zoning Board will consider the project at a meeting on Sept. 16. Hansen had already contacted the board’s offices and said he was told residents could express opinions via e-mail or letter.

But last month, board members complained that the large volume of e-mails they had received regarding Bahia Mar was “intrusive.” Board member Fred Stresau was deleting his Bahia Mar e-mails unread. Hansen said he wonders whether his letter was ever read.

Whether their e-mails are read or not, groups such as the Illini association are not letting go of their opposition.

“We’ll be at the hearings,” said Tamara Tennant, president of the Riviera Isles Homeowners Association. “We don’t object to the buildings; we don’t believe they’re going to happen. LXR will simply sell the lease. We’ll object. It would just mean more expensive lawsuits.”

Mary Fertig, president of the Idlewyld Improvement Association, said that she and her neighborhood, which sits right across the Intracoastal from the project, are not convinced that the redevelopment is inevitable.

“A major concern is the current lease, which we understand prohibits residences,” she said. “We need to know more.”

Hansen said he will also be at the Planning and Zoning Board meeting, taking the opportunity to tell board members that supporters of the project often live miles away from the impact area.

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Poinsettia Heights residents are just looking for a little power, but no one is sure where the problem is.

For the time being, about 55 homes and residents have been experiencing plenty of trouble with outages, according to Mike Vonder Meulen, president of the Fort Lauderdale neighborhood's community association.

“We have residents who’ve been experiencing outages almost on a weekly basis,” Vonder Meulen said. “On a nice day, the power will all of a sudden go out for hours.”

And with it goes a neighborhood full of appliances, computers, and maybe worst of all in the South Florida summer, air conditioning.

For resident Joyce Reynolds, who operates a management consultant business out of her home, her power outage problems began in August 2008.

“The power goes out – [I] call FPL on their automated line and somebody says, ‘We’ll be there,’” Reynolds explained. “So the power comes back on. Then, in an hour or so, it’s out again and the whole thing starts over.”

FPL spokeswoman Sharon Bennett acknowledged the irregularities in the Poinsettia neighborhood and said the utility’s representatives have visited with Vonder Meulen and others. Bennett also said FPL representatives have arranged to attend another homeowners association meeting in September or October.

“The people in charge of the system’s reliability will talk about how best to make this work,” Bennett said.

Vonder Meulen said the problem stems from residents’ efforts to conceal power lines using landscaping, and others that refuse to let FPL onto their property to trim tree limbs that could interfere with power flow.

“There are people here who are trying to hide the ugly power lines by planting trees, and they put in invasive, fast-growing types like bamboo,” he said. “The branches put weight on the lines and short them out. Then we have residents who won’t allow FPL to come onto their property and trim their trees.”

Vonder Meulen said the community association is preparing to put pressure on owners who deny FPL the access it needs to trim tree branches.

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Carlos Tejeda’s birthday party was supposed to be a surprise, but when he walked into the room inside and the applause began, he confessed he had sensed something was up. Even at 96 years old, Tejeda still managed to dig into a monster slice of cake, pose for photos and receive hugs.

While celebrating the first anniversary of The Pantry of Broward Inc., a Fort Lauderdale-based agency that provides support services to low-income seniors, employees also took the opportunity to celebrate Tejeda’s 96th birthday. A former doctor from Guatemala, Tejeda was The Pantry’s first client when it opened a year ago, said Bruce Harris, director of development.

The agency, founded by philanthropists Elizabeth Buntrock and Catherine Loughan, operates out of a building on Northwest Third Avenue in the city’s Progresso neighborhood. The long, low building, across the street from the Gospel Arena Day Care, is covered with white paint so clean and fresh it practically gives off light.

At the rear of the building is a bay for delivery vans and a walk-in refrigerator and freezer. Shelves are lined with donated food: ramen noodles, rice, chicken and peanut butter.

“[The founders] saw all these seniors standing in long lines at other organizations, just waiting for food, and thought, ‘This is uncivilized,’?” said Cindy Mallay, development coordinator.

“There are over 30,000 seniors in Florida living below the poverty line,” Mallay said. Many seniors, she said, receive Social Security, but the amount is based on their incomes from decades ago. Most have also outlived their savings.

Six paid staff members and about 200 volunteers work to provide food, medical help, and eye care services, as well as assistance in obtaining government services such as Medicaid and food stamps. Working out of The Pantry’s 8,000-square-foot office, case managers meet with clients and evaluate program eligibility.

The agency currently serves about 350 seniors around Broward County, many of whom are on a fixed income of less than $800 a month or are economically challenged grandparents who are the principal care providers for grandchildren.

“I get to meet every client who comes in,” said Bernie McGlinchy, 51, of Hallandale, manager of The Pantry. “Sometimes it’s heartbreaking. Most of the time it’s rewarding. Often they come in crying but leave happy.”

Volunteers prepare boxes of donated food weighing about 55 pounds, of which clients receive one box each month. The agency can also help provide legal aid and access to cash assistance programs.

As for Tejeda, he still manages to keep himself involved in The Pantry’s work.

“He offers emotional support and medical guidance to others,” Harris said. “He gives back.”

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In a city like Fort Lauderdale, recycling can not only be character building; it can also be profitable.

In 2008, the city handed out more than $30,000 to 19 neighborhood associations for their efforts in the RecycleWorks program, a 20-year-old initiative that allows volunteers to help keep the city clean, and in return earn cash. South Middle River led the group for the second year, hauling in $4,485 last year.

A city recycling coordinator develops specific activities for each neighborhood as part of each year’s Recycling Incentive Grant. Each of the activities is worth a set amount of points to associations. Volunteers pitch in during community events such as the Starlight Musicals or the Scottish Festival.

“It’s sweat equity,” said Donna Mergenhagen, a Harbordale Civic Association board member. Her neighborhood brought in $4,355 last year through the RecycleWorks program. “[It is] hard, physical work.

Once the recycling bags are collected, city workers sell them to a recycling contractor like Choice Environmental Services of Broward County Inc., public information specialist for the city’s Public Works Department Monique J. Damiano said. The contractor pays us by the pound, and the money is turned over to the neighborhoods with no tax involved.

“It’s a great program,” Mergenhagen said, “because there are multiple angles. It gets citizens involved, it cleans up public areas, and the neighborhoods get money for things that will benefit them.”

Mergenhagen also said the neighborhood is considering using some of the recycling money to install medians onto Southeast 15th Street.

For many years, Harbordale was the annual leader in recycling points. Lately, however, top honors have gone to the South Middle River neighborhood. The neighborhood has earned $10,945 the past two years and will likely put the money into scholarships and sidewalk improvements.

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Following an out-of-state meeting with a representative of the Idlewyld neighborhood, Bahia Mar Park developer LXR Luxury Resorts and Hotels recently said it sees no reason to shrink the project any further.

“The fact that I’ve set [the buildings] back as far as I have — they’re currently lower than the code allows — there’s really no reason to [make them smaller],” LXR vice president Peter Henn said.

On July 13 — just two days before the Bahia Mar Park project was scheduled to go before the city’s Planning and Zoning Board — Henn met with Idlewyld president Mary Fertig at the Country Kitchen restaurant in Asheville, N.C., while both were vacationing. At the meeting, Henn offered to shrink two of the project’s residential buildings by three stories. Henn said his offer would reduce the buildings up to 20 percent.

“Unfortunately, that’s when [Fertig] made the comment, ‘remove all the buildings completely,’” he said. “But everything was nice and civil.”

Last week, Fertig confirmed the civility of the meeting, but not the demand to remove buildings.

“We’ve asked a lot of questions we haven’t gotten answers to,” she said, citing issues concerning traffic, parking and the project’s environmental impact.

Henn said Idlewyld’s concerns have been addressed.

“Just because the neighbors don’t have a working knowledge of the facts doesn’t mean the facts aren’t there,” he said.

Both sides, however, remain willing to talk even if their demands remain the same. Fertig said recently that LXR’s offer to remove three stories from the project is hopefully the beginning of more meaningful dialogue and added that the communication channels are still open.

“I’ve continued to talk to [Henn],” she said.

But even if the Idlewyld neighborhood nixes Bahia Mar Park, Henn said, it may not matter.

“We’ll continue to explore all reasonable issues our neighbors in Idlewyld have,” he said.

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More than 100 emergency packets designed to assist residents and city rescue workers have hit a snag: No one is filling them out. So far, the city has received only one completed packet from the Points of America community.

Since the city manager’s office and fire rescue department partnered to create the Condominium Preparedness Initiative program in 2007, more than 100 packets were mailed out to condo buildings around the city. However, getting boards to fill out the packets has been another problem, according to emergency management coordinator Freddy Zelaya.

“That’s the challenge. We’ve put the packages out there but we’re not getting them [back] completed,” Zelaya said.

The program is actually a simple idea, whereby board members or property managers fill out packets containing information about the building or buildings, including gate codes, floor plans, and detail directions of entrances and exits. All the information and photographs in the roughly 40 page report are bound in a folder and loaded onto a compact disc. Completed packets will then be available in every rescue truck and condo office and accessible through the city’s computer system.

Zelaya said his staff is available to help condos complete the packets, which could cost as much as $50,000 with a private consultant. Depending on the size of the building, the packet can take up to a month to complete.

“The packet itself is an all-hazards approach,” he said. “A lot of people focus on hurricanes but it helps with fire and medical calls too.”

Call 954-828-6700 for information on the Condominium Preparedness Initiative packet.

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Board members and associations around Fort Lauderdale are on guard after two people were arrested recently for stealing more than $600,000 from two area condominiums.

Pamela Lyn Csolkovits was arrested last month on charges of stealing nearly $500,000 over four years from the Surf Rider Condominium in Pompano Beach, while Mark R. Hilton III was arrested on charges of taking $166,646 from Casablanca Isles Condominium Association in Boynton Beach.

The arrests have given rise to concerns that associations, which are typically run by volunteers, are at risk of being defrauded. Said Donna Berger, executive director of the Community Advocacy Network, “Community association boards sometimes present a particularly attractive target to those wishing to perpetrate a fraud.”

There are steps associations can take to lower their risk. One step is to require board members, management companies and newly elected boards to insure that each deposit and withdrawal is accurate. Also, speaking to the association’s bank about fraud prevention can add protections for management companies. Each check should require two signatures, and a monthly examination of the association’s accounts can detect any early issues.

“In bad times, employees who might not otherwise be tempted to commit fraud may become so worried about their jobs and personal finances that they might be tempted to exploit any weaknesses in your association’s financial controls to steal money or association property,” Berger said.

Bill Raphan, assistant condo ombudsman in the state's Fort Lauderdale office, said he cautions overzealous board members against accusing others of fraud.

Board members must present hard evidence to police, he said, as authorities hear often of these types of crimes and have limited resources.

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Six months after city commissioners decided to hire a California-based tech company to redesign the Fort Lauderdale Police Department website, the site looks exactly the same.

“It’s not up-to-date [and] it’s not user-friendly,” police department spokesman Sgt. Matt Sousa said.

But department officials say the redesigned site might debut as early as next month.

In January, city commissioners hired Vision Internet Providers Inc., which specializes in creating government websites and has built sites for Reno, Nev., Manhattan Beach, Calif., and the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. The redesign will cost more than $58,000, of which $25,000 will come from the department’s trust fund 104, which is derived from money confiscated by police. The remainder of the funding will come from the federal Safe Streets Grant.

So far, no changes have debuted on the site, but Sousa said they are in the works.

“The project hasn’t been put on hold,” he said. “We wanted this to be a group effort and not just the work of a few individuals.”

The new site will include district maps, news updates, a community section for neighborhoods and the city’s “10 Most Wanted.”

The slow economy has not delayed the completion of the redesigned site, Sousa said.

“We had the money in place,” he said. “[And] we still do.”

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Stacy Tallefson is a big Barbie fan. She always has been. The 46-year-old automation consultant from Boca Raton collects toys and dolls and owns a 3,000-piece Barbie collection.

Like many, Tallefson is seeking out shops that can make use of her old stuff and hopefully make a profit in the end.

Among those shops is Zaldiva Inc. in Oakland Park, which serves as a drop-off site for sellers interested in putting their items up on eBay, the online auction site. If the item sells, the store takes a small percentage of the sale price.

Stores such as Zaldiva can also save sellers the time and effort it takes to put an item up for auction, monitor the item, and then ship it, helping turn a cluttered basement into a handful of cash.

Elsewhere, people have trampled through Mike Ramirez’s Radio-Active Records in downtown Fort Lauderdale for about two years now, hoping to sell off their music collections. Ramirez said that the slumping economy has increased the number of people seeking to sell entire collections.

“There’s money in old vinyl,” said store co-owner Sean Kayes.

Mark Sabra, owner of Sunrise Pawnbrokers Inc. on Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale, said in times like this, jewelry is likely to fetch the most money, and gold always has value.

Derek Joseph, owner of Joseph’s Recycling Center in Fort Lauderdale, is reaping the benefits of a growing trend of recycling metal around South Florida.

“A lot of people say, ‘Oh, now I have gas or grocery money,’” Joseph said. “That’s extra income for them and their families.”

Part of his recent success comes from drivers in pickup trucks who cruise neighborhoods during bulk pickup weeks in Broward County searching for valuable material such as old copper pots and aluminum beach chairs. Residents can also save materials from construction projects like plumbing repairs which they can turn in for extra cash.

Although metal prices dropped by 20 to 30 cents a pound last year, Joseph said he has seen an overall increase in business during the past three months.

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