Get the news that is important to you in This Week in Palm Beach. June 22, 2018 edition.

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The Palm Beach Civic Association is proud to announce Dr. Oz will be the keynote speaker for our 75th Anniversary Season Annual Awards Luncheon and Meet & Greet Reception.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, is a physician and cardiothoracic surgeon, winner of 9 Daytime Emmy® Awards for “The Dr. Oz Show," author of 8 New York Times Best Sellers, and a recipient of numerous honors and recognition for his influence on health and wellness.

The Civic Association turns 75 this season and will celebrate with special events and programs. Click here to join the Civic Association today! - or call 561-655-0820 and ask for Allison Tardonia, Civic Association Membership and Events Manager.

Save the Date!

The Annual Awards Luncheon and Meet and Greet Reception

Monday, January 21, 2019

The Breakers

Tickets and VIP packages on sale this fall

Dr. Oz Bio

Dr. Oz has won Nine Daytime Emmy® Awards for “The Dr. Oz Show” and is an attending physician at NY Presbyterian- Columbia Medical Center. He still performs dozens of heart operations annually. His research interests include heart replacement surgery, minimally invasive surgery, alternative medicine and health care policy. He has authored over 400 original publications, book chapters, and medical books, has received numerous patents, and still performs heart surgery. He also authors a newspaper column syndicated by Hearst in 175 markets internationally.

Previously, Dr. Oz was a featured health expert on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for six seasons, spanning over 60 episodes. He also served as chief medical consultant to Discovery Communications, where his “Transplant!” series won both a Freddie and a Silver Telly award. He also served as medical director of Denzel Washington’s “John Q” and performed in the hip-hop video “Everybody” as part of the Let’s Move Campaign.

Dr. Oz authored eight New York Times Best Sellers, including “Food Can Fix It”, “You: The Owner’s Manual”, “You: The Smart Patient”, “YOU: On a Diet”, “YOU: Staying Young”, “YOU: Being Beautiful”, “YOU: Having a Baby”, “YOU: The Owner’s Manual for Teens”, as well as the award-winning “Healing from the Heart”. He has a regular column in Oprah Magazine and his article “Retool, Reboot, and Rebuild” for Esquire magazine was awarded the 2009 National Magazine Award for Personal Service. He co-founded Sharecare.com which won “Best Medical App” award for AskMD in 2014 and its DoctorOz app was nominated for an Emmy in 2017. In 2003, Dr Oz founded Healthcorps which emulates the Peacecorps by putting energetic recent college graduates into high schools around the country to reach diet, fitness, and mental resilience. Over a million teens have been influenced this nationwide program.

In addition to belonging to every major professional society for heart surgeons, Dr. Oz has been named Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, Forbes’ most influential celebrity, Esquire magazine’s 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century, a Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum, Harvard’s 100 Most Influential Alumni, as well as receiving the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and AARP 50 Influential people over 50. He won the prestigious Gross Surgical Research Scholarship, and he has received an honorary doctorate from Istanbul University. He was voted “The Best and Brightest” by Esquire Magazine, a “Doctor of the Year” by Hippocrates magazine and “Healer of the Millennium” by Healthy Living magazine. Dr. Oz is annually elected as a highest quality physician by the Castle Connolly Guide as well as other major ranking groups. He is also an honorary police surgeon for New York City.

Dr. Oz was born in Cleveland, Ohio, raised in Delaware and received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University (1982) and obtained a joint MD and MBA (1986) from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Wharton Business School. He was awarded the Captain’s Athletic Award for leadership in college and elected Class President twice followed by President of the Student Body during medical school. He lives in Northern New Jersey with his wife Lisa of 32 years and their four children, Daphne, Arabella, Zoe and Oliver and three grandchildren Philomena, John and Domenica.

 

 

Get the news that is important to you in This Week in Palm Beach. June 14, 2018 edition.

To subscribe to This Week in Palm Beach and receive it in your inbox, CLICK HERE

Civic Association News Video [3:29]

 

By Michele Dargan, Special for the Civic Association -- Town staff provided updates on undergrounding, shore protection, the recreation center, and a proposed total town staff compensation study at Tuesday’s Town Council meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, John Cregan of the Palm Beach Civic Association and Harry Wolin of the Citizens’ Association of Palm Beach presented a $3,000 scholarship to Jaquan Starling.

Mr. Starling, a graduating senior from Palm Beach Gardens High School, will be attending Florida International University in the fall majoring in mechanical engineering. In attendance was his mother LaTreshia Henry and his godmother Khia Chandler.

Undergrounding Update

Steve Stern, project manager of town-wide undergrounding, updated the council on the progress of the $105 million project.
Monthly coffee meeting updates are cancelled in July and will resume on Aug. 3 and 6 for the south and north respectively.
Phase 1 north: the horizontal drilling is complete on N. Ocean Blvd., north of Indian Road and on the entire East Inlet Drive loop.

The project reached a milestone in April by having all the main line horizontal directional drilling completed, as well as the AT&T and Comcast service conduits installed. The final work on Onondaga and Laurie Lane has begun and should be completed by the end of June.

Phase 1 south: The conduit installation by AT&T and Comcast will be completed by mid-June. All of the new FPL main line conduit has been installed. Street lights and hand hole boxes have been installed. New electrical cables are 97 percent complete south of Lake Avenue and cable installation is in progress north to Sloan’s Curve.

Phase 2 north design is on schedule and the guaranteed maximum price is on target and will be presented to Town Council in August.

Phase 2 south design is one month delayed and will be presented in September.

Mr. Stern said 52.3 percent of the phase 1 north budget has been spent and 71.7 percent of the phase 1 south budget has been spent. Construction is more than halfway complete for phase 1 of the project, he said.

The council agreed that there is a great deal of redundancy in staff presentations to both the Underground Utilities Task Force and the Town Council. The council agreed that Jeff Smith, chairman of the task force, and Town Manager Kirk Blouin can decide when the task force needs to meet for a critical issue.

FPL credits are estimated to be between $3 and $4 million, Mr. Stern said. Town staff has a meeting scheduled with Comcast next week and is still trying to set up a similar meeting with AT&T.

Update on the Recreation Center

The cash contributions and quality pledges received from the Friends of Recreation, Inc., up to $5 million, will serve as a match to the challenge grant from the Morton and Barbara Mandel Family Foundation.

Michael Ainslie, vice-chairman of the Friends of Recreation, Inc., said they have already received 60 percent of the fundraising – a little under $2.6 million. He also said Northern Trust has pledged 100 percent financing and will avoid paying interest payments until near the end of the project, he said. Of the 95 families who have funded the project so far, only 25 have made pledges, he said.

Coastal Update

The council voted unanimously to authorize staff to obtain a federal permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Groin Rehabilitation project. That permit will be good for 10 years.

Coastal Program Manager Rob Weber told the council that the beaches are in great shape.

“There’s a lot of stability to the beaches and, in most cases, we’re seeing them grow and improve,” he said.

Since the nor’easter in March, there’s been some shoaling in the inlet, he said. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be doing a temporary dredging in the near shore off Reach One and Reach Two in the next week. It will only be about 16,000 cubic yards.

Because of the sea turtle nests, the sand can’t go on the beach. There are about 1200 turtle nests along the entire beach, he said.
Comprehensive Compensation and Benefits Study

Human Resources Director Danielle Olson presented a draft of criteria that would be used to hire a consultant to perform a Total Compensation Study for town employees.

Ms. Zeidman said she wants to see the overall data and let the council make the final decision on what they should do.
Ms. Lindsay agreed.

“Far more important than getting the data is analysis of the data and what the implications are for our salary structure and pension obligations going forward,” Mr. Crampton said.

During the citizen’s comment portion of the meeting, Pat Cooper spoke on behalf of the Palm Beach Civic Association. He said the Civic Association would support a Total Compensation Study with an independent party to find out where the town is in terms of comparative employee compensation.

The council directed staff to rework the Request for Proposal and bring it back next month.

 

Civic Association Director Jeff Greene (D) has joined a crowded race for Florida Governor, competing against four Democratic candidates and two Republican candidates.

And others are considering jumping in like Patrick Murphy on the Democratic side. The final date to file for the mid-term elections is June 22.

Mr. Greene says he is running for Governor, "to fix education and create a 21st century economy in Florida. In an interview this week Mr. Greene told the Palm Beach Post that he will spend "whatever it takes" to win. He added, "It could be $100 million."

 

 

 

Click Video Below to Play: WPBF-25ABC [1:15]

 

The new liftspan is in operation on the temporary Southern Blvd. Bridge and Michael Reiter, a Civic Association Director, video captured it as it was opening and closing.

"The liftspan takes about the same as a typical bascule bridge opening and closing," said Mr. Reiter.  "It's photographically boring at normal speed so I sped it up."  Note the bridge tender walking back and forth out of the trailer-like bridge tender's house.

Fast Speed Video [26 sec. - No Audio] Courtesy of Michael Reiter, Civic Association Director

S.Blvd.Bridge.Liftspan from Palm Beach Civic Association on Vimeo.

The operation of the temporary bridge is more manual than the permanent ones. The bridge tender walks out on the catwalk and uses a megaphone for the opening and closing instructions. You can see that happening in the video.

You can see the counterweights drop within the bridge support infrastructure and that lifts the span above the channel. After the boats have passed safey, the liftspan lowers and the counterweights return to the top of the bridge supports.

The project is continuing at a brisk pace. June plans:

• Partial demolition of the tide relief bridge near Mar-a-Lago
• Demolition of old main bridge’s bascule leaves
• Install temporary construction walls
• Install gravity wall on the south side of the Southern Boulevard Causeway
• Exploratory drilling for replacement bridge foundations

FPL Permit Work:The eastbound right-turn lane on Southern Boulevard between Washington Road and Flagler Drive will be closed daily from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. starting Tuesday, May 29, until Friday, June 29, as FPL performs utility work in the area.

Marine Restrictions:

The navigable Intracoastal Waterway (ICCW) through the Southern Boulevard Bridge will have half-channel closures from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

A double-span opening (full channel open) may be requested during those times if four-hour notice is provided by calling Project Superintendent Clay Bores at (407) 488-0738.

During half-channel closures, the horizontal clearance through the bridge is 40 feet. The Southern Boulevard Bridge opens for marine traffic twice per hour at 15 minutes and 45 minutes past the hour. 

 

Get the news that is important to you in This Week in Palm Beach. June 8, 2018 edition.

Click Here To See Original Full E-Newsletter

To subscribe to This Week in Palm Beach and receive it in your inbox, CLICK HERE

 

 

 

 

Get the news that is important to you in This Week in Palm Beach. June 1, 2018 edition.

To subscribe to This Week in Palm Beach and receive it in your inbox, CLICK HERE

Civic Association News Video [3:48]