Like many other people we know in our area, we moved to West Boca because of its excellent public schools.

We arrived here just in time for our daughter to begin middle school. It’s now eight years later, and we are rapidly approaching sunset as the parents of a teenager.

We were quite satisfied with the schools in West Boca, especially Eagles Landing. But in one respect, our area is not such a great place for teens and pre-teens. Simply put, they have no place to go that is specifically for them, at least not until they have night-time driving privileges.

The younger ones head for Shadow Wood on Friday night to hang out in and around the parking lots. It’s a fragile co-existence of shared space with adults who flock to the movies or Borders, all under the watchful eye of a considerable security presence.

If their parents are accommodating, maybe some kids can make it to the Boca mall instead, or even Muvico near FAU. But it’s still an uneasy sharing of space with adults, as well as likely tension and conflict with merchants.

Is this the best we can do for the 10,000 kids in our area aged 11 to 17?

The more we’ve thought about it, the more we say NO! Other communities have dedicated youth centers for this age group, whether it be East Boca, Wellington, Jupiter, Coconut Creek or Coral Springs. True, these are all city facilities, and West Boca is not a city.

But our local government is Palm Beach County, some of whose officials we help elect. Why can’t we lobby the county for a dedicated facility for teens and pre-teens just like some of us pushed for the new amphitheater, the new golf course at the edge of the Everglades, the Daggerwing Nature Center, and the state-of-the-art county library going up on 441?

What about enlisting the support of the private sector?

We’d like to start a dialogue on this blog about getting a first class youth center for West Boca. What’s YOUR opinion?

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The Grand Opening of Canine Cove – the new dog park for West Boca – is set for Saturday morning, July 26 from 8:30 am to 11:00 am.

Your dog(s) can run and play to their heart’s content in the fenced-in areas designed especially for off-leash recreation.

Canine Cove has two large dog sections and one for small ones. Only one of the large dog sections will be open at any given time while the other one undergoes maintenance. The facility will have three gazebos, three pet drinking fountains, 34 shaded benches, 15 Dogipot stations, and one pet washing station large enough to wash two dogs at a time.

The park will be open from dawn to dusk seven days a week, except on Wednesdays, when it will be closed from noon to 3:00 pm for maintenance.

Canine Cove is located close to the newly opened Sunset Cove Amphitheater, the venue for West Boca’s first annual 4th of July fireworks extravaganza.

To get there, go west on Glades 2.5 miles from 441. Just before you get to the fire station and can see West Boca High School in the distance, turn right into the park and follow the signs.

By early 2009, this road will be extended through to Coconut Cove Waterpark, which will make the trip to Canine Cove considerably shorter for some. But for now, this new dog park is still a lot closer than the city of Boca Raton’s Mizner Bark. And unlike Mizner, Canine Cove will be free for the residents of West Boca!

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There’s no more need to battle traffic jams en route to the beach for 4th of July fireworks!

For the first time ever, West Boca will have its own dazzling fireworks extravaganza on July 4 – and it’s practically in our own back yards.

The event will be held in nearby South County Regional Park at the brand new Sunset Cove Amphitheater starting at 6:30 (gates open at 5:00). The Private Stock Band will perform hits from 1940 to today in a non-stop, two hour set.

Fireworks will light up the sky for half an hour starting at 8:30, sponsored by FP&L.

Vendors will be on site for food and beverages. Just bring a lawn chair or blanket and
enjoy the show!

To get to the Amphitheater, go 2.5 miles west from 441 on Glades Road, then turn right onto the new road into the park, which is about half a mile northeast from the new high school. This road will be the only route to the Amphitheater until the end of the year, by which time it will connect up with the road that currently ends just past Coconut Cove Waterpark and the Daggerwing Nature Center.

Please note that the Parks Department will not permit personal fireworks or pets at this event, nor food and beverages not purchased from on site vendors.

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In a bow to the superior information made possible by the ongoing Internet revolution, here’s a link to the best website we’ve seen for helping South Florida prepare for the worst.

The site is well-organized, easily searchable and offers a wealth of practical information for all possible contingencies. You can download a copy of Palm Beach County’s Official 2008 Hurricane Survival Guide, which is also available at the county library on Glades and 95th Avenue or in the South County Regional Park from the Coconut Water Park and the Daggerwing Nature Center.

In addition to the obvious reminder about what to stock up on, the website provides hurricane advice about such matters as the special needs of seniors, how to get your yard hurricane-ready, pet concerns, where to buy gas or food in the wake of a serious storm that leaves us powerless, and much, much more.

This website is provided courtesy of Palm Beach County’s Emergency Management, which reminds all of us that more injuries and deaths occur in the hours FOLLOWING a hurricane than during it.

The website's address is: http://www.pbcgov.com/publicsafety/emergencymanagement

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The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office District-7, West Boca Raton, would like to make you aware of a current crime trend in the West Boca Raton area. Law enforcement has investigated a number of “distraction” type thefts.

The scenario may go something like this: At least two people will approach your home and tell you that they are there to investigate a (water-gas or other type) leak. However, this is not the only guise they will use. Remember, their scheme is to get into your home. Once inside, a member of the “team” will distract you to another room while the other steals your valuables. Incidents have been reported in which the “distraction teams” are made up of both males and females. So beware!

If persons representing a utility company request access to your house, make sure they have proper identification or call and verify with the company. All true utility employees will be glad to prove their identity.

Don’t be a crime victim!

Immediately report any suspicious activity to your local law enforcement agency.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact Detective Sergeant John Sluth at 561-558-2715.

Captain Matt Eisenberg
Palm Beach Sheriff's Office
Commander, District-7
West Boca Raton

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U.S. Congressman Robert Wexler will hold a town hall meeting with the residents of West Boca at 7:30 on Monday, June 2. Wexler will speak about the war in Iraq, the struggling economy, and health care, and then take questions and comments from the floor.

This event is open to the public. It will take place at the Boca Lago Country Club, sponsored by the West Boca Community Council.

Robert Wexler is a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and is Chairman of the Europe Subcommittee. He also sits on the Financial Services Committee.

The Boca Lago Country Club is located between Glades Road and Palmetto Park Road. Go east from Lyons Road for ¼ mile on Boca Lago Drive, then turn left to the clubhouse complex.

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After enthusiastic and well-attended festivities to celebrate the opening of the Daggerwing Nature Center’s massive expansion, the new facilities are now open to the public.

The new exhibit hall takes visitors on a journey that begins under the ground, continues under water, and rises above the surface up to the canopy of a swamp. Interactive exhibits, live animals, sloped flooring and oversized features create a storybook-like experience to help understand the swamp habitat.

Following the exhibit, you can take a walk on the boardwalk through 40 acres of real swamp to test out what you learned in the exhibit hall.

Daggerwing offers programs for school groups as well as private gatherings for birthday parties, scout troops, camps, nature clubs, church groups, “mommy and me” groups, senior adult centers and libraries. For all programs, educators use a hands-on approach with live animals, models, interesting facts and other fun materials to teach about conservation and what’s native to Florida.

Master of Ceremonies Burt Aaronson, the County Commissioner for our area, reminded the audience that there was more yet to come at Daggerwing. The new astronomical observatory, which will have a dome that opens and a telescope for viewing celestial objects/events, is yet to be built on the very site where the grand opening took place on April 26. He promised it would be open for business within a year’s time.

Daggerwing is located in South County Regional Park just west of the Tennis Center and just north of Coconut Cove Waterpark. It is open six days a week from Tuesday to Sunday, 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm, except for Saturday, when the facility opens at 8:15 am.
Admission is free.

For more information, go to www.pbcparks.com/nature and click on the Daggerwing link.

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Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties are classified by the United States Government as one metropolitan area because of their social and economic similarities.

So why do seniors in Miami-Dade receive thousands of dollars a year more in benefits from private Medicare providers than do seniors in Palm Beach County? And why will that discrepancy soar 48% higher in 2008?

Bob Schulbaum, longtime head of the Alliance of Delray Residential Associations, said of this ever-widening discrepancy, “I’m speechless….Someone from Medicare should come down here and tell us why a person is worth $344 a month more in Dade County. And they better not give us any gobbledygook.”

Medicare actuary and spokesperson Paul Spitalnic said recently that the reasons for the discrepancy “have not been determined at this time”, even though the problem is hardly new.

Another Medicare spokesman, Joe Kuchler, said the actual amounts Medicare pays to private Medicare providers cannot be released to the public. When Florida Health News asked him what law or regulation makes those payments a secret, Kuchler replied that Medicare’s technical staff was researching the issue.

South Florida Congressman Robert Wexler asked “what is the justification for so much over-utilization in Miami-Dade and why should Palm Beach and Broward suffer? Why should the same 70 year-old man in Miami Beach require more services than a 70 year-old senior in Boca Raton? Something is not kosher. Something is wrong.”

It’s totally illogical,” Wexler said. “It’s totally unfair and bordering on the ridiculous.”
Wexler has taken up the matter with Governor Crist, whom he described as “very interested in this issue”.

If you would like to ask Congressman Wexler about this issue in person, he will be the guest speaker of the West Boca Community Council on June 2 at the Boca Lago Country Club just east of Lyons Road, between Glades and Palmetto. The meeting starts at 7:30 pm and is open to the public.

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Eight HOAs west of 441 have organized the West Boca Syndication Service (WBSS) to facilitate the sharing of editorial product.

The primary reason for establishing the WBSS is to make it easier for homeowner and condo association editors to gather enough suitable material to fill up their publications.
It is also intended to provide readers with a larger window about the area they live in.

The concept is to share articles originally written for one’s own HOA or CA newsletter or website that may have crossover appeal for other such publications in West Boca. Examples include topical articles about South County Regional Park, the new county library, area schools, security, transportation matters, changes in our commercial landscape, and just about anything the West Boca Community Council is up to.

Participating HOAs have each designated one person – usually the Board member responsible for communications or the editor of the newsletter or website – to be the liaison to the WBSS.

Each liaison distributes appropriate articles via email as an attached file to all other WBSS members. The recipients in each community then decide whether or not to publish them in their publications.

The WBSS is open to participation by every homeowner and condo association in Boca Raton west of the Turnpike. To join, simply send an email to lakesitenews@aol.com with the contact person’s name, title, email address and association name. The roster of WBSS email addresses will then be emailed back for use when disseminating articles from one’s own community to the rest of the group.

The idea for the WBSS originated when this writer visited a nearby community, picked up its newsletter, and spotted an article he had written for this blog about Fran Reich, the legendary founder of the West Boca Community Council.

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Palm Beach County’s Daggerwing Nature Center, located in South County Regional Park west of Boca Raton, will open its doors to a new 5,000-square-foot expansion on Saturday, April 26, at 9:00 am. The newly designed facility includes a new lobby, a large exhibit hall, a laboratory, classroom, and new administrative offices.

Guests will enjoy free admission year-round to the new nature center exhibit, as well as to the special Earth Day event planned to coincide with the grand opening celebration that will conclude at 3:00 pm.

Commissioner Burt Aaronson will be on hand to host the event and welcome the community to the newly expanded facility, after which a rehabilitated wild animal will be released back into nature by a representative of Folke Peterson Wildlife Center. The doors will then open to an amazing new display designed to mimic the swamp environment that surrounds Daggerwing Nature Center “like a large pop-up book,” describes Roger Barganier, President of Creative Arts Unlimited Inc., the firm that designed the new exhibit. There’s something that will appeal to all ages.

Visitors will begin by experiencing life under the ground, learning how millipedes and grubs help to recycle important nutrients under the earth. Continuing on, a close-up view of live fish and turtles will appear underneath the water of the swamp, along with life-like reptiles. As the exhibit continues to rise above the waterline, colorful vegetation and a larger-than-life dragonfly, praying mantis, and butterfly appear. Children can experience the world from a new perspective by climbing inside a bee and “seeing through its eyes.” With all the sights and sounds of a living swamp, interactive opportunities abound with the push of buttons, the spin of wheels, and the feel of nature at your fingertips in this child- and adult-friendly exhibit.

Visitors will eventually rise to the top of the tree canopy where a live screech owl makes its home. And as guests make their way through this environmental fun house, they’ll learn even more ways we can all help to preserve this unique swamp habitat and the plants and animals that live there.

A new lobby in Daggerwing Nature Center includes a Book Nook with a large collection of children’s books and adult environmental reference books—a special opportunity for parents to spend time with their children learning more about the outdoor world. Animal puppets are also “on hand” to add to the learning experience.

Palm Beach County is also honored to open a new exhibit area featuring the work of the late well-known local nature photographer George Forrest.

The Earth Day celebration will continue with craft activities in the new laboratory classroom, a variety of special live animal outdoor presentations described on the attached schedule, and tours of the 2/3-mile boardwalk. Recent sightings include River Otter, Wood Storks, Osprey, American Alligators, and Black-necked Stilts.

The Daggerwing Nature Center Expansion will continue with the opening of a new observatory adjacent to the nature center which is currently under design.

Daggerwing is the second amenity to open as part of the major expansion that’s in progress at South County Regional Park. Sunset Cove Amphitheater opened to the public on March 29, and in three-to-six months, South County residents living in the western communities will enjoy Canine Cove—a new dog park—and a large, fully-accessible playground, a restroom building, and additional parking. A new boat ramp will enhance boating and fishing access to the park’s new lakes.

Daggerwing Nature Center is located at 11200 Park Access Road west of Boca Raton. For more information, please call Daggerwing Nature Center at (561) 629-8760 or visit www.pbcparks.com.

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