Stet NewsSeason’s greetings, Stetters! For you today, West Palm Beach tennis players rally around longtime court operators; the county is about to open the Congress Avenue extension; more than 50 winners without a vote cast; a different kind of email scam; and shucked shells for the environment.
🎾 Players call fault
After years of ignoring city tennis centers, West Palm Beach in recent years has ripped up and rebuilt its three worn facilities.
With construction complete at two centers and another set to reopen next year, city officials plan to turn over the operations of the refurbished state-of-the-art parks to USTA Florida, the Orlando-based arm of the national governing board of tennis.
Why it matters: The plan has rocked the city’s tight-knit tennis community. Serious and recreational players alike are rallying around Skip Jackson, who has been tennis director at South Olive Tennis Center since 2002, and Mark Jones, who has run the tennis center at Howard Park for nearly two decades.
- Millions of tax dollars are involved. The centers were rebuilt with money from a $30 million parks bond issue voters approved in 2020.
- More than 460 people have signed an online petition, urging the city to keep Jackson. Another 270 have signed a separate petition, demanding that Jones stay.
What they’re saying: “It’s bullshit,” said Amber Grow, who plays at both South Olive and Howard parks. “Here’s Skip and Mark who lobbied for years to get these courts in shape. Now that they are, they’re taking them away from them. It’s sad and unfair.”
Zoom in: USTA Florida said it would begin charging people to play on hard courts that typically are free. USTA Florida estimated it can make $1 million annually by collecting fees for court time, clinics, leagues and classes.
- In a bid protest, Jackson questions that estimate. If the estimate is off, “the city will lose money,” his attorney wrote. Also, USTA Florida should be disqualified because it didn’t divulge its links to sexual assault cases involving related organizations.
Yes, but: The center at Gaines Park, where a multimillion-dollar facelift is underway, hasn’t had a pro for more than a decade. Michael Williams, who has voluntarily offered classes for kids and adults, said USTA Florida could be a boon to the center in the city’s Black community. But, he said, Jackson and Jones should be allowed to keep their jobs.
What’s next: The USTA Florida contract is on hold, pending the outcome of Jackson’s bid protest and one other.
Read more about why tennis players are upset and how the city made its decision to change tennis pros at StetNews.org.
— Jane Musgrave
🚘 Wait no longer for Congress Avenue extension
After decades of planning and some false starts, the first leg of the Congress Avenue extension at Northlake Boulevard is expected to open this month.
- But it’s a road to nowhere.
The second half of the extension, completing the link of Congress to Alternate A1A, has not yet begun.
Why it’s important: Congress is a key north-south road that runs for about 30 miles from Yamato Road in Boca Raton to Northlake, with just one interruption at Palm Beach International Airport. The $14 million extension would help relieve routine traffic backups on Northlake.
While work moves forward on Phase 2, the county plans to allow motorists to follow residential streets to connect to Richard Road, cross the Florida East Coast Railway tracks and reach Alternate A1A.
Zoom in: The three-lane road will provide a direct link across land that once housed two mobile home parks, Hilltop Gardens and Hi Acres.
Zoom out: Phase 1 complements developer Kolter Group’s plan to build a 432-unit apartment complex on the former Hilltop Gardens site. Kolter is seeking development approval from Palm Beach Gardens for the homes and 3 acres of commercial space.
Catch up quick: The county began planning the extension in the 1990s. County commissioners voted in 2012 to approve buyouts of 22 homes in the Hi Acres Mobile Home Park, built in the 1970s but now empty.
- The neighboring mobile home park, Hilltop, had been gone since 2007.
Read more of the story and see the road’s alignment at StetNews.org.
— Joel Engelhardt
👋 Meet your candidates 2
More than two dozen candidates took office without a single vote cast when qualifying closed in 12 more Palm Beach County cities in the past week.
- Last week Stet reported that 27 candidates took office without opposition in nine cities.
Now the number grows to 51, including three candidates in North Palm Beach and two in Boynton Beach, all declared winners before the first vote is cast in the March 10 municipal elections.
Why it matters: While elections in November for president or governor grab headlines, Palm Beach County’s 39 cities hold elections in March. Those elected make decisions on local zoning and growth while determining garbage pickup, fire and police protection and costs for parks and recreation, among a wide range of duties both explosive and mundane.
Zoom in: Contested elections await Palm Beach Gardens, South Palm Beach, Pahokee, Belle Glade and Jupiter Inlet Colony.
- That’s on top of 11 cities where qualifying closed earlier: West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Juno Beach, Lake Park, Wellington, Delray Beach, Royal Palm Beach, Palm Beach Shores, Gulf Stream, Greenacres and Loxahatchee Groves.
Zoom out: Winners were declared after Nov. 25 in Boynton Beach, North Palm Beach, Highland Beach, Mangonia Park, Haverhill, Glen Ridge and Cloud Lake.
- That’s on top of winners declared a week earlier in: Atlantis, Jupiter, Lake Clarke Shores, Lantana, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge, South Bay, Tequesta and Westlake.
Of note: Qualifying hasn’t closed yet in Palm Beach and Hypoluxo. Four towns had no open seats: Lake Worth Beach, Riviera Beach, Palm Springs and Village of Golf.
- We’re still waiting to hear from Briny Breezes.
Read more of this story to find out who is running at StetNews.org.
— Joel Engelhardt
🪢 A new twist on an old scam
A scam email purported to be from the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County targeted many of the artists who the nonprofit supports through grants and advocacy.
Driving the news: At least 15 artists forwarded the fraudulent emails to council officials, said Jessica Ransom, the council’s director of artist services.
Ransom believes the actual number of scam emails is higher. The artists who shared their bogus emails with the council, she said, “are just the people being proactive and letting us know.”
- As far as she knows, none of the targeted artists who reached out to her gave money to the bad actors.
Why it matters: The fake emails illustrate the lengths scammers will go to steal money, in this case apparently by exploiting the council’s website and chairperson to find marks, Ransom said.
What happened: West Palm Beach photographer Joel Cohen knows all about the Cultural Council. A collection of his images, his first solo exhibition, is on display at the council headquarters in downtown Lake Worth Beach.
So when he received the email last month with “Cultural Council for Palm Beach” in the subject heading, he didn’t hesitate to open it.
The name at the end of the email: “Cheryl Crowley.” When he checked the council’s website and saw Cheryl K. Crowley listed as the board chair, he assumed the email could be legit.
The email asked if he would help with a project to reward donors. He quickly responded. “I said, ‘Sure, I will help you out,’” he said in an interview.
An email followed, directing him to buy and email four Apple gift cards, promising reimbursement.
Cohen said he laughed reading that email. He then saw it was from a Gmail account, not a formal Cultural Council address, and it did not include Crowley’s name.
The bottom line: “We haven’t been hacked. Cheryl hasn’t been hacked. They’re just using information that is readily available,’’ Ransom said.
Keep reading at StetNews.org to learn more about the scam email.
— Joe Capozzi
🍊 The Juice
⚖️ An investor lawsuit accusing Florida Power & Light’s parent company, Juno Beach-based NextEra, of securities fraud can move forward, a panel of federal appeals judges ruled last week in a resurrection of the case.
- Last year, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed that class-action lawsuit against NextEra, finding that the lead investors had failed to demonstrate that any of the company’s statements during a maelstrom of news coverage about those controversies was sufficiently misleading. A panel of 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges in Atlanta disagreed.
- Law enforcement officials have never accused NextEra or its employees of wrongdoing in the case. (The Tributary)
🚊 More passengers are riding Brightline as average fares fall for South Florida. (WLRN)
🔎 A closer look at Democrat Rob Long and Republican Maria Zack as they compete in the Dec. 9 special election for the Florida House District 90 seat left open by the death of Joe Casello. (Sun-Sentinel $$$)
Florida, with a month to go in the year, has surpassed the record for the number of child drowning deaths with 110. Two state legislators want to put a dent in that by adding drowning prevention to a state-required education program for new parents. (Sun-Sentinel, $$$)
⛔️ The east end of the Bryant Park jetty, the scenic pier jutting into the Lake Worth Lagoon in Lake Worth Beach, has been closed since late October to replace rotting wood. (Lake Worth Beach Independent $$$)
⬆️ Luxury homes, defined as in the top 5% of the price range, in West Palm Beach sold for a median of $4.04 million in October, up 187.3% from a decade ago. That is more than double the national rise of 82.5%, and the fastest growth of any major metro. (Redfin)
⛳️ The life story of Dennis Walters, the Jupiter golf trick shot artist who has been paralyzed since a golf cart accident in 1974, headlined “unquestionably golf’s most inspiring story.” (Golfweek)
Esteemed Tallahassee Statehouse reporter and columnist Bill Cotterell died Nov. 24 at age 82. He continued to publish long after his 2012 retirement. (Tallahassee Democrat)
🎙️ “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast by Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, sits down with Paige Shortsleeves, the executive director of PEACE, to discuss the hidden economic crisis in Palm Beach County. (Listen now; watch after 4 pm Wednesday)
🦪 Cleaner water on the half shell
North Palm Beach is trying a natural solution to help restore its waterways.
The village is the first municipality in Palm Beach County to create and distribute vertical oyster gardens.
Why it’s important: The devices attract young oysters and barnacles to latch onto the surface and draw fish and other sea life to revive cloudy water and dying seagrasses in canals winding through town.
Context: The effort is the work of the village’s Environmental Committee, which teamed with firefighters and volunteers to build about 100 strings of oysters on Nov. 22.
- They’ll offer the vertical oyster gardens to any resident who wants to place them beneath their dock and provide help installing them for those who need it.
What they’re saying: “Our goal is to get as many in the water as possible,” committee Chairperson and former County Commissioner Karen Marcus said at the volunteer event.
Back story: Kendra Zellner, a paddleboarder and environmentalist and the committee’s secretary, said she first noticed trash and cloudy water in the canals years ago and saw the committee of like-minded people offered an opportunity to do something about it.
How it works: The vertical oyster gardens filter silt and pollutants from the water. They’re made from stacks of recycled oyster shells and provide a place for oysters to latch onto to start filtering water.
- Tom Twyford, executive director of the West Palm Beach Fishing Club, collects used shells from The Breakers resort in Palm Beach and Cod & Capers Seafood in North Palm. He deposits them to dry for about six months at John D. MacArthur Beach State Park.
- Volunteers build the vertical oyster gardens for oysters to latch onto.
- Once they’re dropped in the water, the gardens become densely packed with live oysters, some doubling in weight in just six months.
What’s next: Committee members plan to invite residents this month to start installing the gardens.
Read more of this story at StetNews.org.
— Erik Kvarnberg
