Stet NewsAs Florida prepares for Hurricane Milton, we have these local stories for you: Gen Zers want your vote, Lake Worth Beach considers a glass museum, Gardens ice rink meets critical threshold, a home for Cider Donuts and renewed focus on local Black history.
🗳 The youngest congressional candidate
It’s not unheard of for twentysomethings to win election to Congress.
- Maxwell Frost, a Democrat, was 25 in 2022 when voters in his central Florida district made him Congress’ first member of Generation Z.
- Democrat Patrick Murphy was 29 when he defeated incumbent Allen West in 2012 to win a north county congressional seat.
- Florida Republican Adam Putnam became a member of Congress in 2001 at age 26.
Why it’s important: In this election cycle, local Democrats have what they bill as the nation’s youngest congressional candidate, Thomas Witkop, 25, running against incumbent Brian Mast.
Stet News talked with Witkop to find out what prompted him to make a congressional run in his first attempt at elected office, particularly when it meant challenging an entrenched Republican in a predominantly Republican district.
He had some interesting things to say about democracy.
After graduating college in 2021, Witkop went to the Canary Islands to teach English.
- “I was talking to these students, and what I found so interesting, which I never recognized while I was living in the States, was that America is still known as the center of democracy, of freedom, of opportunity. If you ask 10 of these kids, ‘If you could live anywhere, where would it be?’ They will all say the United States of America.”
He moved to Palm Beach County and got a job coordinating volunteers for El Sol, the Jupiter center that pairs employers with day laborers.
- “It was these folks, these Guatemalan folks that came, and they said, ‘This is a land where you can work hard, you can get your property, and the government can’t just snatch it away from you like they can elsewhere.’ And that’s really what developed my appreciation for our democracy, because that is the bedrock of our American dream.”
And Witkop is not alone among Democrats under 30 running in northern Palm Beach County:
- Aaron Hawkins, 26, is running against state Sen. Gayle Harrell, 81, for the Senate District 31 seat that covers northern Palm Beach County, all of Martin County and a slice of St. Lucie County.
- Alberto Hernandez, 29, is challenging state Rep. John Snyder in House District 86, which includes the Jupiter area and Martin County.
There’s more on where Witkop came from and his stand on issues as well as his heavily favored opponent’s reactions here.
— Joel Engelhardt
💰 Lake Worth Beach weighs $60 million museum-apartment project
A Brooklyn-based developer is proposing a $60 million museum and apartment complex in downtown Lake Worth Beach.
Arthur Wiener wants to move the home of his Wiener Museum of Decorative Arts from Hollywood, Fla., to downtown land owned by the city and its Community Redevelopment Agency, Joe Capozzi reports at ByJoeCapozzi.com.
- A 110-unit apartment building would subsidize the museum’s operations.
- Wiener also proposes a 265- to 290-space parking garage that would be built with city and CRA financial help and managed by the city.
The museum would go on the southwest corner of Lake Avenue and South M Street.
Why it’s important: The project is projected to inject nearly $14 million in tax revenue to the city over 10 years. The museum is projected to draw 50,000 visitors a year.
Wiener began assembling his collection of 15,000 decorative glass and ceramic pieces in 1965. He is proposing a permanent installation by glass artist Dale Chihuly.
What it costs: Wiener estimates his share of the project at $63 million. He put the CRA’s contribution at $6.7 million, including land, and the city’s contribution at $1.2 million.
What’s next: Wiener laid out his plans Monday at a public workshop. The CRA, a board of seven residents appointed by the City Commission, will consider it tonight. It goes to the City Commission on Oct. 15.
What they’re saying: “I feel like it’s the perfect fit for us,” said Joan Oliva, the CRA’s executive director. “This is along the lines of how the community sees us redeveloping.”
“I cannot think of a better home for the Wiener Museum of Art and a permanent exhibit by Dale Chihuly than downtown Lake Worth Beach,” Mayor Betty Resch said.
Read more about the project and why Wiener wants to leave Hollywood here.
— Joe Capozzi
🏒 Clear shot for ice-rink complex
Mike Winter’s dream of bringing two pro-hockey-sized ice rinks to Palm Beach Gardens met a key financial hurdle last week when he submitted documents to the city showing his foundation had raised more than $6.5 million.
What’s happening: In fact, Winter said in an interview, a single donor has pledged $10 million and the Palm Beach North Athletic Foundation is well on its way to raising enough privately to meet its next and final financial milestone: $40 million by July.
“We already have enough in donations to satisfy our lending partner,” Winter said. “The goal is to raise more money to have less financing.”
Why it’s important: The project has drawn criticism from city residents who object to the conversion of the city’s oldest park, Plant Drive Park, into an ice-skating rink. City officials say residents will have an opportunity to air their concerns during the project’s site plan review.
What’s on tap: Plans for the 123,000-square-foot building, which will hold two National Hockey League-size ice rinks for youth hockey, figure skating, public skating, adult leagues, curling and sled hockey, are expected to go before the city’s planning board in November and the City Council in December.
“It will be the nicest rink in the southern United States,” said Winter, who created the nonprofit foundation in 2017 to pursue the project as a community asset, reminiscent of the ice rink his father helped operate in the St. Louis suburb of Affton.
The foundation’s $10 million donor is hedge fund manager Larry Robbins, Winter said. Robbins is a longtime youth hockey advocate and coach who owns a home in the city and whose Longwood Hockey recently became managing partner of Palm Beach Ice Works.
- The foundation also has the support of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, who plans to operate his hockey school at the site.
What they’re saying: “A group of volunteers have brought the greatest hockey player in the history of the game to Palm Beach Gardens. And the biggest philanthropist in youth hockey is donating to Palm Beach Gardens,” Winter said. “I hope people champion this project. It should be something to celebrate, not to fight.”
For the rest of the story, click here.
— Joel Engelhardt
🍩 Cider Donuts goes brick and mortar
From the In-Case-You-Missed-It file, Stet News published Jan Norris’ story Thursday on the popular green market doughnut purveyor, Palm Beach Cider Donuts, opening a factory and storefront at 797 Northlake Blvd.
At green markets, shoppers line up for the warm doughnuts that are fried to order, then tossed in a tray of cinnamon sugar.
Travis Oimoen and spouse Melissa Gonzalez bought Cider Donuts in 2020. They opened the store on Northlake in mid-September.
At the new factory, doughnut fans can buy minis in the signature apple cider flavor, along with wild blueberry, red velvet, double chocolate, party cake and now, pumpkin.
- A variety of dips for dunking the doughnuts is available: apple caramel (a favorite), cream cheese, cookies and cream, lemon cheesecake and tutti frutti.
The Cider Donuts concept came from former Florida Culinary Institute instructor John Carlino, who bought a doughnut machine and set up at the West Palm Beach Greenmarket in its early years.
- They’re a tradition in his home state of New Jersey, where apple orchards abound.
For more on the new store, click here.
— Jan Norris
🍊 The Juice
Tony Araujo, the new West Palm Beach police chief on loan from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office after the firing last week of Police Chief Frank Adderley, testified in June before an Apalachicola, Florida, judge who sentenced his daughter, Christina, to 25 years in prison for murder.
- “This by far was the most difficult and heartbreaking moment in my life,” Araujo said. “Although the information was preliminary, the reality of the moment was overwhelming and beyond the comprehension of a parent.”
- I have been “on the moral side of justice my entire life, as has my wife, and we do not waiver now. We did not, and will not abandon our daughter, as well as never abandoning the memory of the victim in this case. We will carry the burden this has brought to our graves, as I am certain Christina will.” (The (Apalachicola) Times)
F. Martin “Marty” Perry, whose work as a land-use attorney helped shape the county over the past 50 years, died Sunday at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center. He was 85.
The conviction of former state legislator Frank Artiles for paying thousands of dollars to a third-party sham candidate in a 2020 state Senate race is a smaller piece of a larger scandal: Florida Power & Light Co.’s support for no-show “ghost” candidates in key state Senate races. (Opinion piece by Florida Times-Union columnist Nate Monroe)
🥯 H&H Bagels, a franchise branch of the New York shop, is open in Boca Raton, part of a nationwide expansion that will include West Palm Beach next year. (Miami New Times)
🖼️ 561NSIDER: African American museum plan taking root at historic Roosevelt site
Roosevelt High School’s final graduating class got their diplomas in 1970, and its proud alumni have been fighting to preserve the history of the all-Black school ever since.
What’s happening: Now the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties is reaching out to the public about the next phase of plans for the revered Roosevelt High School’s rebirth as the Roosevelt Full Service Center, which will house a long-dreamed-of African American Museum and Research Library.
To be transparent about the plans, and recognizing several groups have a stake in the drive to create a museum, the foundation is hosting a town meeting to build community consensus.
Foundation representatives did not return a call last week from Stet News seeking details about the meeting.
Backstory: Last year, a state task force set out to find a site for a new Florida Museum of Black History.
In February, Palm Beach County leaders asked the task force to consider Roosevelt for the museum.
- Representatives who spoke on behalf of the plan included Palm Beach County Commissioner Mack Bernard; County Administrator Verdenia Baker; Jennifer Sullivan, senior vice president of the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County; West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James; and Palm Beach County School Board member Edwin Ferguson.
The other side: In March, Cora Studstill-Perry and other members of a group calling itself the Historic Roosevelt Unity Coalition, held a news conference opposing the county’s proposal for the state Black history museum.
“Any Black history museum under the auspices of the Florida Legislature and Governor which have enacted the ‘Stop WOKE Act,’ prohibiting and making illegal classroom instruction that would cause anyone to feel guilt, anguish, or any form of psychological distress due to their race, color, sex or national origin, is a Black Museum without Black history,” the group said in a statement.
The county did not apply by the deadline to be considered for the site, but it’s unclear if they just missed the deadline or intentionally withdrew because of community opposition.
In May, the task force voted to recommend St. Augustine/St. Johns County as the site for the Florida Museum of Black History.
“We have been working on this effort since 2005,” Studstill-Perry, who is president of the Roosevelt alumni association, said in January at the groundbreaking for the full-service center.
What’s next: The town hall meeting for the planned museum was planned for this week, but the expected storm has led the foundation to postpone it.
— Janis Fontaine
We send our best wishes to everyone in the path of Hurricane Milton. As we write this, its Category 5 winds are a sobering 160 mph.
Palm Beach County officials report they are monitoring the storm but have not fully activated the Emergency Operations Center or announced the opening of any shelters.
Yes but: Palm Beach County schools are closed Wednesday and Thursday.
