Palm Greens Recreation Association

Delray Alliance

ALLIANCE OF DELRAY RESIDENTIAL ASSOCIATIONS

By Judy Goldberg

April 2025 Meeting Minutes:

Time is flying and with April here, our snowbirds and snowflakes are starting to head to their other homes. Safe travels to all. Enjoy family, Easter, Passover and whatever holiday you celebrate. We will miss you until next season. Palm Greens community has activities planned for spring and summer for our Palm Greens and Delray Trails friends. For information, look for our announcement boards in the Clubhouse lobby.

The Delray Alliance meeting began with Dr. Lori Vinikoor, our President of the Alliance, started the meeting at 9:30am with a few updates. On April 2, at 6PM, Marcy Woodward, County Commissioner for our District 4, will host a meeting at the South County Civic Center to discuss the proposed Milani Park, a new beach front city park that is being developed in Highland Beach and will serve all our communities in Palm Beach County. It is important for Delray Beach community to attend this important meeting as it will be a huge benefit for all of us. Lots of parking as well! Also, our June breakfast for all Alliance members will be on the 1st Friday in June.

This next item is as big as the proposed GL land swap from a few years ago that was defeated. The new one is our county tax collector has purchased land in the Agriculture Reserve without letting the public know. We are starting an ad hoc committee, to ask all of you to send letters and support the plan to swap land, for example, the land behind West Boca Library. Lyons and Atlantic cannot support a huge facility filling 3.9 acres and the traffic that it would bring. As stated in the County Resolution of a few years ago, all prospective purchasers were requested to bring their plan before the Alliance of Delray as we have a pulse on the community and traffic congestion. We have a letter writing campaign to send a letter to change the application to help our Lyons Rd communities. It will be on the April 3rd agenda to change the application from agriculture to public ownership. No limitation of size or width of setbacks! We encourage you to let our commissioners know what you think!

Our next speaker was Chief Bill Stansbury of the PBC Fire Rescue – who gave us updates. The call volume is down and in April when the snowbirds leave so summer is quieter. We have about 3000 calls a month. Station 45 at Lyons and Flavor Pic. will soon be replacing the temporary trailer.  Busiest stations 45 are at Linton and Jog. Over 600 calls a month. Multiple rescue groups are ready to help. Hurricane season is coming so stock up on supplies early, so you don’t have to compete with all the last-minute shoppers. Better selection too.  Next, we heard from Miles Osbourne, Lake Worth Drainage District, before Hurricane season, good time for COA’s (Condominium Owners Association to check our drainage infrastructure and make sure that all is clear. Our May meeting will be about the hurricane season with the Emergency Operation District discussing preparation. Time to plan in advance.

Captain Michael Morales, PBSO Safety and Security Seminar. He will be running the program today. Thank Major Keene for his support. Partnerships are important to have a safe and sound community. Open lines of communication. Any issues, call Dr. Vinikoor and your concerns will be addressed. Today there are tips and recommendations to avoid becoming a victim, plus tips on driving habits that will help avoid incidents.

First, we have Detective Scott Yoder, Supervisor of Vehicle Homicide Unit. Traffic division. Lyons Road issues. Traffic Speed Trailers…Two (2) proposals, collect data through us for speed feedback. Also crash data, or physical observation from our officers. Digital signs give us feedback as well. Example: Slowdown, wear seatbelts, move left or right, etc. All give us feedback. Speed trailers, warning drivers speed is getting high. Also, cameras that capture speed data and the time of day when speeding occurs.  That is when we can put our traffic officers out in areas that have a speeding issue. The Traffic County Engineering Dept. helps them understand where traffic speeding is an issue. Aggressive driving units to help enforce the driving rules. Motorcycle Police use many sources to work on varied driving issues. 2024 traffic fatalities in our district. 46 accidents in the south region. 

Detective Sergeant Philip Eckes handles crime trends, shopping center crime, and distraction thefts. For example, leaving your purse in your food carriage. You then leave your cart for a few seconds and your bag is gone! NEVER, leave your purse unattended. We are all being watched. Targeted! Especially the elderly. If you believe that you are being watched, speak up, say “I see you” looking at me…is there a problem”? They will leave as they do not want to be fingered. The Spam calls. Spoofing Sheriff’s office phone number: PBSO District 4. YOU think that it is the police. They pretend to be an officer and say that you have a warrant… talk you through, get your info and get your credit card or get you to pay them with gift cards.  The Sheriff’s office does not call us! Hang up on any strange calls, Call the office direct. Send questionable calls to voicemail. They usually will not leave a message!

Next was Senior Criminal Analyst Tim Eramo, District 4, he is behind the scenes crunching numbers to help our detectives and deputies investigate crimes. He handles Crime stats and crime reports for West Delray, answers questions from higher ups. Crime mapping is the fastest way to identify information!  Take information about crime etc. and put it on a map.  Frauds and robberies are trends that come through as the top crimes. Below are some other crimes to be aware of:

  • Battery, unwanted touching, neighbors or friends shoving or pushing over a parking spot. This is crime. “Keep your hands to yourself”! Loss of money is the number one fraud #1 loss of money. Criminals call and say there is a problem with an account of yours. Do not follow their instructions. Hang Up! Call the number on your credit card or bank card, Stop, Think, Do Not Panic.  Do not google the number you need. Google has advertising, and the most money spent gets top billing. Be sure that you are calling the correct number!
  • Romance scams. Handsome guy, or pretty woman needs money. Befriend you and start talking about needing money for whatever.
  • Bitcoin, crypto currency scams. Same idea, calls you, chats and friends you then tell you about a fast way to make money.  Be aware and be smart. Hang up!
  • Car thefts are an issue as the thief knows how to remove your GPS.
  • Purchase Air-Tags and Holders as they are very helpful today. It is a small gadget that can find your stolen car or misplaced luggage.  About $25 they are placed in your car or luggage; they work off Bluetooth.
  • Facial recognition is another way to catch a thief. They use it to go through criminal photos and compare them with current photos. Lastly, take key fobs out of car, lock your car everywhere you go, do not park away from other cars, it is easier to steal that way. Always look around at your surroundings and be aware.

Log on to CrimeMapping.com – Helping You Build a Safer Community see publicly displayed crimes in our area.

Our last speaker was Scott Poritz of the Threat Assessment Unit. Crime Prevention. Technology is a bit overwhelming. Look up the information that you don’t know. Ask experts. Crime prevention fused with infrastructure. What can we do to structure your home, business, house of worship, all to stop crime. Alarm systems, hurricane windows, hard to break. Cameras are a great tool. Layers of safety. Infrastructure for all our water systems. Civilian response to active shooters, Crime prevention liaison program. Put out small fires before they become big fires. Quality of life representatives.

Threat assessments. When you go into a building look for exits immediately!

Movies, restaurants, meeting places. Restaurants usually have an exit through the kitchen. Crime prevention can be scary, lock the cars. This cannot be emphasized enough! Be a “nosy neighbor”, look around and be aware of your neighborhood. A suggestion to have a wallet that blocks thieves from copying your card info, it’s like a bullet proof vest for your cards.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. The topics will be Planning, Zoning and Building. The meeting will be held in the South County Civic Center, 16700 Jog Rd, across from Morikami Gardens. Doors open at 9AM when refreshments are served. The meeting starts at 9:30AM and always concludes by 11AM.  All are invited to attend. See you there!