Laurie Mermet
Joel EngelhardtIn picking a mayor and two council members, voters have a chance to shape controversial decision to replace Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue with Jupiter’s own fire department.
The future of fire-rescue service in Jupiter and one of town’s last vacant waterfront properties hangs in the balance as voters choose from eight candidates to elect a mayor and two council members on March 11.
The mayoral race pits incumbent Jim Kuretski, seeking a second three-year term, against District 1 Council Member Cameron May. Kuretski, who has served on the council since 2001, has championed the creation of Jupiter’s own fire department, while May has opposed it.
The town’s 2023 decision to break from Palm Beach County Fire Rescue and build its own fire department has emerged as the election’s defining issue, with candidates carving out positions on both sides.
The town plans to spend $68 million to establish an independent fire service by October 2026.
In District 1, Teri Grooms wants the town to hold off until voters decide the fire station issue. Opponents Phyllis Choy and Andy Weston favor the new department.
In District 2, incumbent Malise Sundstrom voted for the new fire department and continues to support it. Linda McDermott doubts the financial savings and Willie Puz hasn’t taken a stand.
Where the mayoral candidates stand
Kuretski argues the new department will save taxpayers’ money. He points to town figures that show the current payment to Palm Beach County would rise from $28 million a year to $44 million by 2034.
The town anticipates spending $24 million a year, starting in 2027 and rising by $1 million a year for the next five years.
May, who voted against the department’s creation and is a Palm Beach County firefighter/paramedic, says it’s probably too late to stop it but as a firefighter, he’s in the best position to assure the town does not make critical mistakes moving forward.
“The best person in the position, if you’re going to build a fire department, is a firefighter,” May said Feb. 3 at a candidates’ forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Palm Beach County.
He said he supports more public involvement in major town decisions, a shot at the council’s refusal to ask voters to weigh in on the creation of the fire department.
“When I was on the council, I didn’t think it was appropriate at the time that we’d be taking action to terminate a contract that hadn’t even gone into effect yet,” he said.
Kuretski said a taxpayer referendum supported by the county firefighters’ union would have been illegal, which justifies a judge’s ruling that it could not go forward.
Diverse views among council candidates
In District 1, Phyllis Choy, a real estate agent and Palm Beach County Housing Authority commissioner, fears rising taxes if fire-rescue remains with the county.
“Why do we want to rent a fire department when we can own it?” she asked.
Choy has raised nearly $30,000, six times more than her closest opponent, Grooms, and 10 times more than Weston.
Grooms, a former chairperson of the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission, told the audience her uncle and father both worked for the original town fire department in the 1970s before it merged with Palm Beach County.
“I would ask that my fellow council members … put it out to a vote and ask the residents what they want to do with that money,” she said. “It’s $70 million — $68 million — we should have a vote on it.”
Weston, an accountant and fourth-generation Floridian, worried that too many residents weren’t paying attention when the fire department decisions were made but supported the decision and agreed with the court ruling that blocked the referendum.
District 2 incumbent Sundstrom, who worked for the U.S. Small Business Administration and the U.S. Agency for International Development, argued that it’s too late to stop now.
“To stop or delay any of the projects to get this done puts our public safety at risk and is considered an attack on the firefighters that are currently building that service,” she said.
McDermott, a grants manager at the city of West Palm Beach where she has worked for 28 years, said the town’s fire-rescue budget seems unrealistic.
“I’m not telling you that Jupiter could not do a fire department,” she said. “They can’t do it at $68 million. Absolutely not. No way, no how.”
Puz, legislative and public affairs manager at the county’s Solid Waste Authority, where he has worked 11 years, conceded that he has “no flag planted,” on the fire department issue.
He would support the best service at the best cost.
“Can we unscramble the egg? I don’t know,” he said.
Suni Sands preservation
Candidates also took a stand on what the town should do to protect Suni Sands, a former mobile home park along the Loxahatchee River that contains artifacts from indigenous people who lived there 5,000 years ago.
The Town Council voted in July 2023 to allow some development on 6 acres of the 10-acre site but not as much as developer Charles Modica wanted.
Modica proposed 67 condos, five townhouses, a restaurant and a 125-room boutique hotel.
The cost to buy the property is unknown, but Kuretski estimated it could be $100 million — too rich for most candidates — although some supported spending a lesser amount. The aim would be to preserve the site from development.
Grooms, however, argued passionately in favor of preservation.
“If the town were really serious about it, they could have purchased the property and worked with the property developer,” she said.
It might require federal help and private investment, she added.
“We hear this all the time, ‘we don’t have the money,’” she said. “But they found $68 million to build a fire department, so that would have gone a long way to save the Suni Sands.”
Her opponents, Choy and Weston, opposed buying the site to varying degrees.
Choy supported continued negotiations but warned the price may be too high, even though the site’s history is important to preserve.
Weston supported Modica’s private property rights.
“It’s a midden, which means garbage dump,” he said, “And I can’t see trying to take that property from him (Modica).”
Puz supported tapping the town’s land preservation fund, about $16 million, to buy it.
McDermott said it would be a good place for art to reflect the town’s history while still allowing some development.
“Suni Sands is so much part of Jupiter,” she said. “We need to preserve it, we need to bring art to it.”
Sundstrom also suggested tapping land preservation money but said the town can’t deny Modica’s property rights.
“They have to be a willing seller, so they don’t have to sell the land to us,” she said. “So it’s very complicated but we do want to preserve it.”
May voted in 2023 against any development of the land but didn’t address it at the forum.
Kuretski said he supports buying at least a portion of the property but he thought the site, which cost Modica $17 million in two transactions in 2013, could be worth $100 million.
“There’s a lot of people saying we ought to buy it, but I don’t see anybody stepping in to put (up) money,” he said.
