Observerwww.observernewspaperonline.com Since1962 DeerfieldPublishing,Inc.©2018

Volume 56 • No. 35August 30, 2018

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& Businesses in• Deerfield Beach• Lighthouse Point • Hillsboro Beach• Pompano Beach• Boca Raton

Of Interest

ReadtoBentleypage 9

Also InsideOpinion ..............................6Nautical ..............................8Sports ..............................10Dining & Entertainment ....11Happenings .....................11Religion ...........................12Classified .........................14Real Estate ................ 14-15

SummerSlampage 8

EOCMediaDaypage 3

ChamberCornerpage 2

“In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.”

Proverbs 3:6

New to Medicare Checklist pg. 10Happy Labor Day!

(1)BrianCharlesDouglasshowsoffhisnewbook.(2)JoJoHarderrunsAmerica’sTopDogModel®,inadditiontobeinganauthor.(3)VickieEnglehartnowdoesportraitsbutwasalsoalocalartteacherandauthor.(4)AliceCypresslovestowriteaboutmarinelifeandmore.

By Rachel GalvinThe annual author’s event

took place on Saturday, Aug. 25 this year at the historic Butler House in Deerfield Beach. Authors set up between the house and the Kester Cottage on the property, and guests dodged raindrops as they discovered new books to buy.

Brian Charles Douglas, sitting among the used books, sold his brand new illustrated children’s book The Marbleheads: “Isn’t Easy Being Square,” which he wrote with his sister, Danielle. His book was in-spired by their sister who has Cerebral Palsy and cannot walk or talk. The fictional story follows a young girl

Authors & AutographsAt The Butler House

who is square when everyone else is round. She wants to join the cheerleading team but they don’t want her too. But, in the end, they discover she is the missing piece they needed all along, and she helps lead the team to victory.

Regarding his book, he said, “I wrote it when I was younger, in the 4th grade and then revamped it with my sister (Danielle) to put it in kid terms. I just published it in August. Growing up, I felt a lot of internal emotional issues about having a sister [with this condition]. Kids made fun of her. It was difficult to deal with. I wanted to help kids understand children like her and create more acceptance of them. I feel this is part of my soul purpose and

journey to get the message across and help people.”

He said he sees this as an enterprise and will not only be writing more books, but also creating an animated movie, dolls and figurines.

Nearby, Jo Jo Harder had her Diva Dogs and How to Become a Top Dog Model books and calendar on her table. She runs a model competition for dogs, called American’s Top Dog Model®, and is also very supportive of local charities that deal with animal rescue or who have service/ therapy dogs. Now, she is working on a reality show, two chil-dren’s books and a coffee table book.

See Authors, pg. 13

MayorBillGanz,AssistantCityManagerKaraPettyandDirectorofSustainableManagementChadGrecsekaddressthepressonRecycling.

By Diane EmeottThe City of Deerfield Beach

collects 600 tons per month of both solid waste garbage and recyclables. When the city was doing its Recycling program, approximately 30 percent was recyclables.

This means that in the two months, between July 2 and Sept. 3 when the city stopped its recycling program, ap-proximately 180 tons + 180 tons of recyclables has been dumped as solid waste — for a total of approximately 360 tons.

At above a 30 percent contamination rate, it’s more expensive to recycle than put into the dump. The city is about to restart its Recycling program again on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 3.

“Unfortunately, we had to sit for two months and not recycle,” said Mayor Bill Ganz on Aug. 24. “However, I think this [new contract] is a better offer, not only from an economic standpoint but by an environmental standpoint as well.”

Deerfield Beach commis-sion approved a recyclables processing contract with Waste Management, 5-0, on Aug. 16, after voting against a contract with Waste Manage-ment, 3-2, on July 2. (Ganz, Battle and Parness voted against; Drosky and Miller voted for.)

The most recent agreement was said to be specifically ne-gotiated for Deerfield Beach, rather than an agreement ne-gotiated for Coral Springs that was offered by Waste Manage-ment to the 17 municipalities formerly serviced by Sun

DB holds press conference on RecyclingNeeds your help with contamination

Bergeron. (Only Deerfield Beach and Oakland Park haul their own materials.).

Both agreements have the same rate hike for re-cyclables processing fee, from $51 per ton that the city was paying before with Sun Bergeron, to $96 per ton with Waste Management, accord-ing to Director of Sustainable Management Chad Grecsek.

Asked what the benefits of the new contract are, Grecsek said:

1) The new contract allows a 6-month grace period for the city to reduce its recy-clables contamination rate from 51 percent (per most recent May audit by Waste Management) to an 18 per-cent cap.

2) Waste Management in-creased the number of public education hours it is willing to fund from 40 hours to 120 hours. They are providing the city with $15,000 per contract year to develop an education campaign focused on reducing recyclables con-tamination.

Director of Public Af-fairs & Marketing Rebecca Medina Stewart elaborated that the new contract offers the following: flexibility for the city to be able to make changes to both its residen-tial curbside contract and its commercial/multifamily front end load contract; flex-ibility to be able to remove certain materials from the stream; notification period reduced from 120 days to 90 days should the city decide to opt out of its contract with Waste Management.

See Recycling, pg. 13

By Rachel GalvinDid you cast your vote?

Primary Election Day was Aug. 28. As of press time, the voter turnout, according to Broward County Su-pervisor of Elections, was 22.59 percent. The percent-age of voters throughout the state showed a huge increase from the last pri-mary in 2014. The biggest news was Andrew Gillum’s upset over Gwen Graham in the Democrat side of the Governor’s race. Now, he

Primary election results

will be competing against Ron DeSantis, who won as a Republican, in the Nov. 6 election. Look for continued national coverage on that race. Some of the races which did not receive at least 50 percentage points over another will see a runoff as

well during that election. To see detailed results for our county, visit www.BrowardSOE.org.