Stet News🧠 Happy Mental Health Awareness Month! For you today, it’s a ballfield, it’s a construction site, it’s a ballfield construction site; yes to north county airport expansion; lining up for Jupiter council; and meeting artists in their studios.
🚧 Game on for stadium workers
Ballplayers are hammering hits as construction workers are hammering concrete at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.
Catch up quick: Construction is underway on a long-planned $108 million renovation paid for by the teams, the state and the county hotel tax.
Why it’s important: The stadium renovations assure that the two major league teams that rely on the stadium for their spring training tuneups — the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals — will stay in Jupiter for another 30 years. Tourism officials say the teams’ fans, particularly the out-of-towners coming to see the Cardinals, fill local hotels and restaurants.
Zoom in: After a delay in 2023, in which the minor league Jupiter Hammerheads moved to West Palm Beach to avoid renovations that never began, plans changed to allow the work to continue while the Hammerheads play at home this summer.
What they’re saying: “It’s a little disorienting because you realize you are in an active work site,’’ said Toby Srebnik, a fan for 25 years.
- Once the games start, Srebnik said, it feels like just another day at the ballpark.
As reporter Joe Capozzi notes in his full story here, gone already are the left field grandstands and picnic area to make way for a two-story Fan Zone that will offer an elevated hospitality bar and 300 ticketed seats.
Plans call for the renovation of both team clubhouses, built in 1997, new umpire locker rooms and a bigger team store.
What’s next: The work is expected to be finished by spring 2026.
Read more: Here’s the latest on the Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium renovations.
— By Joe Capozzi
✈️ Extending a runway
The federal government has given the green light to a runway extension at the north county airport, although construction is still years away.
Why it’s important: Extending the diagonal runway to 6,000 feet from 4,300 will allow more jets, including Cessnas and Gulfstreams, to land at the small airstrip northwest of the Beeline Highway on the edge of the Loxahatchee Slough.
Yes, but: The $30 million project is expected to start in 2027 and take two years. It would destroy 12.5 acres of wetlands, which means environmental restoration must be done elsewhere to make up for the loss.
- Federal, state and local airport money will pay for the project.
Zoom in: The Federal Aviation Administration issued its Finding of No Significant Impact in November, approving an environmental assessment that took five years to complete.
- The $1 million assessment, conducted for the county Airports Department by Environmental Science Associates of Tampa, calculated that the project would add 2,500 flights in and out per year, in addition to the 110,346 already anticipated by 2030. Jets will account for about 700 of those additional flights.
Zoom out: For residents worried about noise — especially those in the nearby Avenir neighborhood, where construction began on nearly 4,000 homes after the city signed off on the airport expansion plan in 2016 — the environmental study found the expansion would not produce dangerous noise levels outside the airport property.
What they’re saying: “The project is not only important to Palm Beach County, but also to the South Florida region as a whole,” county airports spokesperson Rebeca Krogman wrote in response to questions from Stet News. “The demand for general aviation facilities continues to exceed the available supply throughout Florida.”
Of note: The project includes building an air traffic control tower, which Palm Beach Gardens required in 2016.
What’s next: The county commission will select a designer this summer and then accept bids for a contractor. Before COVID delayed work, consultants expected the project to be completed this year.
— Laurie Mermet
✍️ 18 apply for Jupiter council
Eighteen people met the noon Monday deadline to apply for an open seat on the Jupiter Town Council.
Catch up quick: They are seeking to fill the vacancy created when Cameron May ran unsuccessfully for mayor in March. The four council members will select an applicant to fill the remainder of May’s three-year term, which ends in March 2026.
Among those seeking the District 1 seat:
- Richard Clegg, owner of the Jupiter Outdoor Center; Louis Coakley, a member of the town’s Beach Committee; James Davis, a Jupiter Inlet District commissioner.
- Linda Gore, a real estate agent; Dan Guisinger, member of the town Planning and Zoning Commission; John Imhoff, a corporate security consultant.
- Joshua Robert Miller, a contractor for the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation; Susan Surmont, clinical educator at Hospice of Palm Beach County; Mike Thomas, a real estate agent.
- Karen Vinson, an assistant clinical manager at Jupiter Medical Center; and Andy Weston, an accountant who ran unsuccessfully for Town Council in March.
- Richard DeLucia, Louise Giles, Neal Hynes, Matthew Knoll, Steven Kolman, Michael McHenry and Patricia Walsh.
What’s next: The Town Council will consider making the appointment at its May 20 meeting.
Read more: Stet’s coverage of the March election.
— Joel Engelhardt and Laurie Mermet
🍊 The Juice
🔎 Update on the county administrator search: Ninety-six candidates made the first cut and their names were turned over to the task force. See the list here.
💵 Boxing promoter Don King faces a $32 million foreclosure lawsuit over the 52-acre former jai alai fronton site he owns on 45th Street in Mangonia Park. Affiliates of Taylor Made Lending, a consortium of multiple investors, said King’s company defaulted on loans of $22.3 million at 13.99% interest in 2023, $9 million at 18.5% interest in May 2024 and $800,000 at 2% interest in July 2024. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
🎁 President Donald Trump toured a Qatari-owned 747 jet under consideration as a new Air Force One when it was parked in February at Palm Beach International Airport. (The New York Times $$$)
🏙️ Chicago firm Bradford Allen Investment Advisors has acquired One Clearlake, the 18-story Class A office tower on Australian Avenue in downtown West Palm Beach. Tenants include Truist Bank, Robert Half and Ideal Nutrition. (Commercial Property Executive)
💚 Thursday is Get Your Green On Day in which supporters of mental health awareness wear green all day. The campaign started 10 years ago at Atlantic Community High School in Delray Beach. Check out the video here.
561NSIDER: 👩🏼🎨 Artists open their studios, here’s 5 to see
Across the county this weekend, artists will greet visitors who want to learn about their work.
What’s happening: More than 100 artists are participating in the Cultural Council’s third annual Open Studios.
- The creators use traditional techniques including oil painting and contemporary expressions such as spray paint, digital work and, for the first time, tattoo ink.
The big picture: The Cultural Council will open its Lake Worth Beach headquarters to showcase work by Jeanne Martin, the featured artist for the council’s MOSAIC (Month of Shows, Art, Ideas and Culture) celebration happening now.
- Her cheerful drawings of Palm Beach County’s art and culture vibe appear on posters, collectible pins and even downtown West Palm Beach shuttles promoting MOSAIC 2025.
We asked Martin which artists novices like us should visit. And, while she noted there are many terrific artists on the self-guided tour, here are five picks:
Nancy Tilles: “Nancy is a plein air artist. She has a large body of work, much of it landscapes with trees that have a mystical quality. She also teaches.”
📍 458 French Royale Circle, Atlantis.
Monica Meerwarth-Fernsell: “Monica often paints in watercolor, but I’ve seen her acrylic paintings, too. Her work deserves recognition.”
📍 211 Murray Road, West Palm Beach.
Craig McInnis: “Craig is a prolific painter and muralist, who was the featured MOSAIC artist in a prior year. He has a studio at The Peach. There are a number of artists at the Peach, so it would be a good place for your readers to visit.”
📍 The Peach, 3950 Georgia Ave. West Palm Beach. More on McInnis here: He painted the mural at the Cultural Council headquarters as described by Joe Capozzi.
Susan McKenna List: “I painted with Susan in Deerfield Beach. She is from Boca Raton and will be at Zero Empty Spaces. She is a longtime painting professional, and she is easy to talk to. The day we painted together, she engaged the spectacters with lively conversation.”
📍 Zero Empty Spaces at Boca Raton Innovation Campus, 4950 Communication Ave., Suite 150, Boca Raton.
Anthony Burks Sr.: “I met Anthony when he taught teens at the Armory Art Center. He has gained considerable notoriety in the past decade. He is listed as a mixed media artist, and I have seen his paintings on canvas, paper and three-dimensional items like cigar boxes.”
📍 Zero Empty Spaces at Legacy Place, 11300 Legacy Ave., No. 140, Palm Beach Gardens. Find out what Zero Empty Spaces means: Joel did this story on the artists at the Legacy Place location in 2022.
🚗 If you go: Open Studios is from 10 am to 3 pm Saturday, May 17, and Sunday, May 18.
👉 Don’t forget: It’s the Cultural Council’s Month of Shows, Art, Ideas and Culture and that means discounts at more than 25 attractions.
— Carolyn DiPaolo
