Stet NewsFor you today, democracy at work in Palm Beach Gardens, West Palm Beach and Juno Beach, tumult in Lake Park, Baby Mabel Rose update, no harmony over harmony and turn the page to find secret Palm Beach.
🗳️ Election who’s who
Voters in more than a dozen Palm Beach County cities will decide critical races for city councils and commissions on March 10.
Why it matters: Information about candidates is hard to come by and far fewer residents cast ballots in the nonpartisan March municipal elections than in November. The results are already in for more than 50 candidates who took office without any votes cast.
This week, Stet News presents three election previews:
🌺 Palm Beach Gardens
Three candidates are running for the Group 3 seat of term-limited Chelsea Reed. They are former Council Member Rachelle Litt; former Council Member David Levy; and newcomer Heather Deitchman.
Incumbent Dana Middleton in Group 5 drew a challenge from Damien Murray.
The candidates offer vastly different approaches. Read Joel’s story here.
☀️ West Palm Beach
Two incumbents are seeking reelection: In District 1, Cathleen Ward faces Martina Tate-Walker.
- Roger Jackson III is challenging Christy Fox in District 3, which includes downtown.
The candidates gathered at a forum last week. Read Carolyn’s story here.
🏝️ Juno Beach
While Mayor Peggy Wheeler pulled out of her reelection bid, two candidates are running for her seat: former Council Member Elaine Cotronakis and newcomer David Santilli.
Newcomer Scott Shaw is challenging incumbent Marianne Hosta for Juno’s Seat 1, and Max Fraser and Eddie Gottschalk are facing off in Seat 3.
Rapid development of oceanside Juno Beach has divided the town. Read Jane’s story here.
There is no early voting for the March election, and the voter registration deadline has passed.
Voters can request a mail-in ballotfrom the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections until 5 pm Thursday, Feb. 26.
Don’t see your city? The League of Women Voters sent voter questionnaires to all of the Palm Beach County candidates in contested races. About 70%, 85 candidates, responded. Find your candidates’ answers at Vote411.org.
— Carolyn DiPaolo, Joel Engelhardt and Jane Musgrave
🌥️ Lake Park’s sunshine problem
The troubled deal to lease the Lake Park waterfront to Forest Development dipped more deeply into trouble last week.
A resident sued the town over years-old meetings that may have violated the state’s Sunshine Law.
Why it matters: The suit jeopardizes Forest’s contracts as the town is having second thoughts about the deal it signed in 2023. The court could throw out the four 99-year leases that allow Forest to build a hotel, restaurant and boat storage facility while taking over operations of the town marina.
Zoom in: While the town is wrestling with its response, it’s also wrestling with one another, as Commissioner Michael O’Rourke questioned the actions of the town attorney and town manager.
- “My position is that I’m not sure I trust the management that’s going on in this town,” O’Rourke said at the Feb. 18 meeting.
- He made a motion to fire Town Attorney Tom Baird, but it died for lack of a second.
Do not let this divide us, Mayor Roger Michaud responded.
What they’re saying: “This is not what we are here for. We are the town of Lake Park. We should be standing hand in hand, side by side,” Michaud said.
Zoom out: Longtime resident Pablo Perhacs said he filed the lawsuit on Feb. 16 because he believes in participatory democracy. No matter how much public officials disagree, he said, he wanted to ensure that their deliberations follow open-meeting laws.
Read more about the tumultuous times in Lake Park at StetNews.org.
— Joel Engelhardt
🍼 What’s new with Baby Mabel Rose
Mabel Rose Correal, a 2-month-old infant from Lake Worth Beach born with a rare heart condition, can breathe on her own for the first time since the day she was born.
- Doctors at UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville removed Mabel Rose’s respirator.
- A Palm Beach Gardens foundation started by John Kemp Jr., who battled rare, chronic medical issues in his childhood, and his family have stepped in to help with a large donation.
Catch up quick: Mabel Rose was born Dec. 13 missing the lower left ventricle of her heart. She awaits the only option to help her: a transplant.
What they’re saying: “When we read Mabel Rose’s story (in Stet News), it resonated with us immediately,” said Jen Kemp, John Jr.’s mother and a founder of the Kemp Legacy Foundation. “We recognized the long road ahead — the transplant wait, the relocation, the emotional and financial weight — because we have walked a similar path ourselves.”
Zoom in: A pediatric cardiac surgeon at Shands who specializes in treating Mabel Rose’s main heart condition implanted a device known as the Berlin Heart.
- It helps her heart pump oxygenated blood.
- The device, made only for children, can help her stay healthy until a donor heart is available.
Zoom out: The Berlin Heart makes possible “more normal baby things” for Mabel Rose and her parents.
- Her parents, Hanna and Mateo, can change her diapers now. Only medical personnel cared for her before when she was attached to so many wires.
- They are now able to hold her more often. Mabel Rose was in their arms only five times in her first six weeks of life.
Read more about the baby’s latest milestones at StetNews.org.
— Holly Baltz
🏠 Harmony lost
Juno Beach rolled back its “harmony” restrictions last week on the size and style of new homes in the oceanfront town.
The majority vote for repeal came from two council members who are giving up their seats after the March 10 election and a third who could be swept out of office.
Why it matters: Since the council in 2023 adopted the harmony code, regulating the size, bulk, mass, scale and proportion of single-family and two-family dwellings, the town of roughly 3,900 has been in turmoil.
- One resident who sued over it, Scott Shaw, is now running to unseat Marianne Hosta, who voted for the repeal.
Mayor Peggy Wheeler, who is not seeking reelection, led the charge, backed by Hosta and Council Member John Callaghan, who also is not running.
Council Member Diana Davis, who opposed the measure with DD Halpern, argued for delay, telling council members that the changes are locked in by a state law passed last year that prohibits municipal governments from imposing requirements that are “more restrictive or burdensome” on landowners.
Yes, but: Even without the harmony review in the code, Town Manager Rob Cole said that a home with “exceptionally unusual architecture,” like a dome, a pyramid or a spire, could still be denied.
- “No one wants the clown house next to their house,” Cole said.
Read more about the debate over harmony in Juno Beach at StetNews.org.
— Jane Musgrave
🍊 The Juice
🏗️ The 1920s-era Good Samaritan Medical Center on the North Flagler Drive waterfront in West Palm Beach will be torn down and replaced by a hospital and condos, apartments, stores and a hotel, Tenet Healthcare announced Thursday. The hospital’s partner is Easton Street Capital, a Palm Beach-based real estate investment firm affiliated with Palm Beach’s Frisbie Group. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🚫 The Florida House has approved a measure to eliminate property taxes on homesteaded properties and send the question to voters in 2026. But the Florida Senate has done nothing with three weeks left in the session. (WPTV)
📻 Discord within South Florida Public Media Group, which manages the WLRN public radio station, could undermine its plans to acquire another station in West Palm Beach. The internal friction stems from the station’s fight with its owner, the Miami-Dade County School District, over WLRN’s plans to expand into Palm Beach County by paying more than $6 million to buy a West Palm Beach-based radio station at 104.7 FM. (Axios Miami)
🌴 Related Ross and Palm Tree Crew inked a four-year partnership with West Palm Beach to return annually for a downtown Palm Tree Music Festival. The companies say they’re investing in “infrastructure” to support future events. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
🎨 If you missed last weekend’s Lake Worth Beach Street Painting Festival, check out this richly illustrated story about how artists turn chalk on pavement into three-dimensional images. (Lake Worth Beach Independent and focus on artist from India)
📣 West Palm Beach is reaching out to residents for an “Evergreen Cemetery Conversation” from 6 to 7:30 pm today at Gaines Park Community Center. (Stet’s look at who is buried at Evergreen)
🗓️ Riviera Beach’s Youth Council plans public expo and town hall. (Community Voices)
🐱 Adopt A Cat at 26: Still purring along, but on a budget that is tested by costly medical treatment to save cats. (Stet News)
🎙️ “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast by Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, dives into a potentially big budget gap facing Florida lawmakers and the surprising bipartisan support for school vaccine mandates. Plus, Minneapolis and wind-only insurance. (Listen now; watch.)
561NSIDER: 📚 Amy Woods wants to surprise you
As a local journalist for more than 25 years, Amy Woods has traipsed all over Palm Beach County reporting facts and interviewing the people who shape this place.
Driving the news: Now Woods is sharing the quirkiest stories in a new book, “Secret Palm Beach: A guide to the weird, wonderful, and obscure,” which she describes as “a romp through America’s first resort.”
“Secret Palm Beach” explores lore and little-known details about the island and its surroundings. For example, “Many of the megamansions in Palm Beach have names that reflect their heritage, their meaning and more, although El Solano’s, Mar-a-Lago’s, Casa Apava’s, Whitehall’s, La Rêverie’s, and the Palm Beach Winter Club’s backstories far outdo their bougie sobriquets,” Woods writes.
Catch up quick: This is Woods’ second project for boutique publisher Reedy Press, and it started with an email. The company was looking for a Jupiter writer to contribute to its popular series, “100 Things to Do in …”, a national collection with more than 100 titles in print.
“The light bulb went off,” Woods said. “I could hear the angel bells ringing. It just clicked. I couldn’t say no.” Reedy released Woods’ debut, “100 Things to Do in Jupiter Before You Die,” in 2023.
Choosing the right stories for “Secret Palm Beach” comes with a lot of responsibility, Woods said. “But I like being able to find a story that makes people go, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that’ or ‘That’s so interesting that makes me want to go there.’ I like telling people about this area that is so beautiful and magical.”
What’s next: Woods has several book signings in Palm Beach County. The next one is 1-4 pm Saturday at the Barnes & Noble in Tequesta.
Keep reading to learn how Woods got her start at StetNews.org.
— Janis Fontaine
🌠 Wastin’ away in deep space
In case you missed it: Some local stargazers are attempting to launch a moon shot: finding a home and observatory for their amateur astronomers club. Leading their mission is the late Jimmy Buffett. Read Joe Capozzi’s story, published Thursday, at StetNews.org.
