VB32963_ISSUE40_100616_OPT

Scavengers ‘Hunt’ to fight
breast cancer. P12
A celebration of

poets laureate. P10
School Board approves
$7.8 million bridge loan. P8

For breaking news visit

MY VERO School District
spends more to
BY RAY MCNULTY battle charters

Enthusiasm, funds for BY KATHLEEN SLOAN
Trump scarce on island Staff Writer

Everywhere I've gone in The Indian River County
this Republican-dominated School District is sinking an-
enclave during this bizarre
election season, I've taken a Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves to Vero Beach Hotel & Spa staff and guests as she leaves other big chunk of tax money
mental note when I've come for a rally in Fort Pierce. Clinton and her campaign entourage had the entire fourth floor last Thursday night. into its legal fight with the
across anything with the name county’s charter schools, con-
"Trump" emblazoned on it. tinuing its attempt to avoid
paying millions of dollars the
I've seen "Trump" signs post- charter schools say they are
ed alongside the road, "Trump" owed.
bumper stickers on cars, trucks
and SUVs, and even some of INEOS closure leaves county with no plan for yard waste After meeting behind closed
those bright-red "Make Amer- doors for an hour, the board
ica Great Again" hats. BY SAMANTHA ROHLFING BAITA tionwide effort to ramp up bio- with Indian River County to emerged into open session for
Staff Writer fuel production, but will also mulch and dispose of mas- a brief vote to approve spend-
But not many. leave the county holding the sive amounts of yard waste ing an additional $81,000 – on
Despite our political demo- top of $50,000 approved last
graphics, visible enthusiasm month – to try and keep the
for Donald Trump is notably
lacking here. This is especially When the problem-plagued bag in another sense – a bag generated in the county each charters, which are public
so on Vero Beach's barrier is- INEOS biofuel plant on Oslo full of yard waste. Lots of it. year. When it shuts down, the schools, from getting an equal
land, one of the most Republi- Road closes, it will not only county will have to find anoth- share of property-tax revenue.
can bastions in Florida. mark a major failure in the na- Since it opened in 2013, er way to deal with the waste, The board did not specify how
Not only is pro-Trump cam- the plant has had a contract but so far has no backup plan. the money will be spent and
paign paraphernalia scarce board members declined to
Environmentalists It’s “business as usual,” comment on their reasoning.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 call Spoonbill Marsh says County Utilities Director
Vincent Burke, even though The case was brought by

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

‘toxic waste dump’ Popular watering hole closes after 30 years

BY SAMANTHA ROHLFING BAITA BY KATHLEEN SLOAN
Staff Writer Staff Writer

Overflow water on road between pond and Land Trust property. PHOTO BY DENISE RITCHIE Spoonbill Marsh – which A 30-year fixture in the area
has been cited for infrac- and one of the few country-
tions by the Florida Depart- western dance bars around
ment of Environmental recently went dark, leaving a
Protection in the past – has lot of locals without a favorite
watering hole.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

October 6, 2016 Volume 9, Issue 40 Newsstand Price $1.00 Blanc is bountiful
at Vero’s first
News 1-8 Faith 47 Pets 48 TO ADVERTISE CALL Cinema de la Mer. P20
Arts 23-28 Games 49-51 Real Estate 63-72 772-559-4187
Books 44 Health 29-32 St Ed’s 46
Dining 56 Insight 33-52 Style 53-55 FOR CIRCULATION
Editorial 42 People 9-22 Wine 57 CALL 772-226-7925

© 2016 Vero Beach 32963 Media LLC. All rights reserved.

2 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

My Vero Earlier in the current presiden- donor to Republican causes. He gave feat a Democrat despised by most Re-
tial race, they delivered more than $100,000 to the Make America Num- publicans?
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 $950,000 to Jeb Bush's bid for the ber 1 Super PAC.
party's nomination and contributed Could it be that island Republicans
on both sides of the lagoon – I saw far more than $1 million to the Right To That amount, however, is far less who threw their support behind Bush
more signs and bumper stickers in Rise USA Super PAC that backed him. than the $1 million check he wrote to were turned off by the boorish way
support of Mitt Romney in the run-up Romney's Super PAC. Trump disparaged the former Florida
to Election Day 2012 – but the island's Island-based support for Trump governor, particularly during the GOP
affluent and historically generous Re- pales in comparison. "It's really hard to get a read on this debates?
publican donors seem unenthused one," Indian River County Republican
about the controversial candidate. As of Monday, Republican donors Party Chairman Tom Lockwood said. "There might be some fallout from
from the 32963 ZIP Code had contrib- "This whole campaign has been – how that," Lockwood said. "Jeb has a lot of
Four years ago, island Republicans uted less than $40,000 to the New York shall I put it? – unorthodox, so it's dif- friends here, and seeing him attacked
contributed nearly $1.2 million to real-estate tycoon's campaign and just ficult to explain what's happening. the way he was probably didn't set
Romney's presidential campaign and over $100,000 to his Super PACs. well with them."
gave another $1.1 million to the politi- "I know those . . . [big island donors]
cal action committee supporting him. The only big-money, pro-Trump are diehard Republicans." When I tracked down several of
contribution came from John Childs, the island's biggest donors this past
who remains the most munificent So why aren't they reaching into summer, I found little enthusiasm for
their deep pockets to help Trump de- Trump.

Many of them used words such as
"conflicted" and "disillusioned," say-
ing they were put off by the bluster, be-
littlement and bogus claims on which
Trump has built his campaign. They
were repulsed by his juvenile name-
calling, alarmed by his harsh tone and
worried about his lack of substance.

A few said they didn't trust him,
mostly because he seemed to possess
no core principles.

Still, Trump received 43 percent
of the vote in this county in March's
Republican primary, finishing well
ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (23
percent), Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (15 per-
cent) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (10
percent).

And Lockwood said support for
Trump has grown since he won the
nomination in July.

"A lot of people have gotten in-
volved in supporting him," the local
party leader said. "Our mission now is
to make sure Republicans get out and
vote. This election likely will be decid-
ed by who shows up."

But will they?
Will local Republicans turn out in
big-enough numbers to vote for a
nominee who, according to every poll
I've seen, is the least-popular, major-
party presidential candidate in the
history of the republic?
Better yet: If local Republicans do go
to the polls, will they vote for him?
As the campaign enters its final
month, there's no way to know – be-
cause there's no way to read the signs,
or the hats, or the bumper stickers.
Or the lack of them.
What I do know – based on conver-
sations with dozens of local GOP vot-
ers throughout the past few months
– is that Republicans here seem to fall
into the same categories as Republi-
cans across the country.
There's a core of staunch Trump
supporters who wholly embrace his
America-is-a-mess message, take-no-
prisoners tone and anything-goes an-
tics. They don't care about fact-check-
ers, media criticism or his tax returns.
They believe him when he says the
system is "rigged."

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 3

NEWS

There are others who say they'll vote But a group of mostly nameless op- is overflowing onto environmentally partment of Environmental Protec-
for Trump because they're Republicans, ponents of the project are not buying sensitive land to the north owned by tion representative visited the county
he's the party's nominee and they could it. An email, written and widely dis- Indian River Land Trust; that outflow to take a look at Spoonbill. So far, that
never bring themselves to cast a ballot tributed by local resident Barry Shap- into the lagoon is not being monitored visit has not resulted in any sanctions
for a Democrat, especially Clinton. iro, contains charges that Spoonbill is, with a proper meter; that the opera- from the state.
basically, “a liquid toxic waste dump,” tion is not well maintained; and that it
Then there's the lesser-of-two-evils not built according to its approved de- is detrimental to fish and wildlife. Dr. Richard Baker, a longtime local
bunch – those who admit a Trump sign and operating beyond the restric- environmentalist, president of Pelican
presidency is likely to be a disaster tions of its FDEP permit. Utilities Department Director Vin- Island Audubon Society and a long-
but argue that putting Clinton in the cent Burke said that, as a result of time opponent of the Spoonbill proj-
White House would be worse. Shapiro claims that marsh water Shapiro’s email blast, a Florida De-
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Finally, many of those who de-
scribed themselves as principled con- NEW PRICE
servatives said they simply could not,
in good conscience, vote for Trump. Exclusively John’s Island

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sure Trump doesn't win.

It is also possible some voters are
not saying what is really on their
minds. Some local Republicans may
be afraid, for business or personal rea-
sons, to openly support a candidate
who has offended so many people,
even though they plan to vote for him.

"That's why you can't trust the
polls," one Trump supporter told me,
asking that I not use his name. "A lot
of people who plan to vote for Trump
won't tell anyone."

Of course, it's also possible some
local Republicans who won't vote for
Trump are telling their GOP friends
and neighbors they will support the
GOP candidate while actually plan-
ning to vote for Clinton.

There's no way to know until the
ballots are cast and counted on Nov.
8 – and even then, not everyone will
believe what they're seeing.

"We've never experienced this kind
of political environment," Lockwood
said. 

Spoonbill Marsh three championship golf courses : 17 har-tru courts : beach club : squash
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 health & fitness center : pickleball : croquet : vertical equity membership

again become the target of a torrent of 772.231.0900 : Vero Beach, FL : JohnsIslandRealEstate.com
stinging accusations, including sug-
gestions that the county is not report-
ing truthfully to the FDEP.

Since 2010, the $4 million Spoonbill
Marsh project has operated as the dis-
posal site for brine left over after drink-
ing water is purified at the county’s
reverse osmosis treatment plant. The
high-salt concentrate is mixed with
lagoon water and filtered through the
manmade marsh to purify it. County
reports to the FDEP show that pollut-
ant levels are consistently lower in the
water flowing from Spoonbill into the
lagoon than in the water flowing into
the system from the lagoon.

4 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

Spoonbill Marsh County utility staff member Art Pfef- cally refers to domestic wastewater his desk is piled with stacks of notes
fer, who oversees daily operation of the discharged from a sewage plant and and daily reports forms that he is re-
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 marsh and conducts FDEP-required “would be incorrect to use here.” He quired to keep.
tests, blames DOT for the malfunc- says 4 percent to 20 percent daily vari-
ect, echoed Shapiro’s concern. “In- tion. He says the Florida Department ance between water brought in and Burke adds, “As with all our oper-
dian River County was dumping this of Transportation “hasn't maintained the water that is metered leaving the ating permits, the data is collected in
pollution directly into the lagoon and the ditch in years.” site is attributed by county consul- accordance with the permit require-
was told to stop. Now they are still pol- tants “to seepage and evapotranspira- ments and submitted to the FDEP.”
luting. When will we learn that dilu- Which raises the question – what tion losses.”
tion is not the solution to pollution?” has the county done about that? Responding to questions about
The critics are skeptical of this, Spoonbill's maintenance, Burke says,
A recent visit to Spoonbill provided Utilities Director Burke, who wasn't doubting that evaporation and seep- “We will continue to maintain that site
a first-hand look at the marsh opera- with the county at the beginning of age can account for what they say is as properly, including but not limited to
tion. On the day Vero Beach 32963 the Spoonbill project, says both the much as 2.5 million gallons of missing normal routine, access roads, mow-
visited the site, water was flowing over Department of Environmental Protec- water per day. ing, and maintaining the boardwalk.”
the north boundary and onto Land tion and the Department of Transpor-
Trust property, and the walkway was tation have been notified about the Another allegation is that the two And what of the Land Trust prop-
submerged. problem several times. outflows or breeches, through which erty?
mixed water flows back to the lagoon,
This is, unquestionably, a mal- “The DOT came out in February. are not being monitored properly, and Land Trust Executive Director Ken
function, and according to an expert They're aware of the issues that exist,” that one is virtually inoperable. Grudens says the trust’s 50 acres north
who wishes to remain anonymous, Burke says. of Spoonbill is “hydrologically compli-
the overflow has been occurring for Pfeffer admits the north breech is cated,” with many factors to consider.
“years” and is harming the Land Trust Because the DOT has jurisdictional not functioning, and the south breech He said a site study is underway, fund-
property. control, the county isn’t willing to take is handling virtually all the outflow – ed by a grant from U.S. Fish and Wild-
action on its own. “We're waiting to which seems like it might contribute life Service and conducted by Knight
The north boundary of Spoon- hear from the DOT as far as the next to the marsh overflow problem. Pfeffer McGuire & Associates. “We'll have a
bill Marsh is Florida Department of steps. We'll probably ask public works says the DEP is aware of the blockage better sense [of how much Spoonbill
Transportation Ditch 3, which runs to help keep the conversation going,” and it is reflected in the daily reports. Marsh overflow is affecting the prop-
under U.S. 1 between 63rd and 57th since the overflow is, in part, a storm- erty] this fall. We like to work with
streets and empties into the lagoon. water issue. He also acknowledges there is no partners, and we will work with the
Although Spoonbill's water level, like permanent meter installed to measure county to improve our habitat.”
the lagoon's, is influenced by the tide Another major concern among water flow, but says that he measures
– when lagoon water is high, the water those who view the marsh as an envi- water velocity and volume daily, dur- The current round of criticism is
in Spoonbill is high – the DOT ditch ronmental menace is what happens to ing the week, using an FDEP-approved not the first time the county has faced
is supposed to keep marsh water on millions of gallons of effluent they say hand-held electronic flow probe. He problems at Spoonbill Marsh.
county property. flows into the marsh daily but doesn't says he transfers his daily on-site
flow out again. notes to detailed FDEP log sheets and Shortly after it was constructed,
FDEP cited the county for permit
Burke counters that “effluent” typi- infractions, charging that “failure to

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 5

NEWS

construct the disposal system at the for reasonable assurance of compli- seed structures; and sea grass zones tal Protection, in response to a list of
Spoonbill Marsh site in accordance ance.” in the ponds. All four were accom- questions from Vero Beach 32963 has
with the approved design and DEP plished. The oysters, Pfeffer notes, are responded via email and telephone
issued permits had altered the basis In response, the county suggested, thriving to the point that the county that answers are being prepared, but
for issuance of the permit, result- and the state approved, four major may consider harvesting them. they had not been received by press
ing in a need to provide a new basis additions: a debris screen at the in- time. 
take point; floating plant mats; oyster The Department of Environmen-

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6 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

Long Branch Saloon “By the time we closed, I was serv- the folks drank water. It was just older the place in 1983. At that time, the Mira-
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ing the grandchildren of my original people having a good time.” cle Mile consisted of rundown stores in
patrons from when I opened in 1982,” scruffy strip malls, he said. The area was
The Long Branch Saloon was a neigh- Dennis said. Most of the money in the pot from upgraded in the 1990s when new shop-
borhood bar where old and new friends bingo-card sales went back to the win- ping centers went in and became nicer
could play pool, watch the game or just A for-sale sign went up a few weeks ning players and the rest went to char- still after 21st Street was redone with
lift elbows together in a down-home ago, although Dennis said he listed it ity, Dennis said. median plantings around 2001.
friendly atmosphere. It heated up to a months before, inadvertently hinting at
hot-date destination when live bands the real reason for shuttering the place. The Silvers paid about $2,000 in When Dennis and Patricia arrived in
played, guys and gals entwined in slow fines and fees and are on probation 1982, the 5,200-square-foot building
dances or side by side as they took on “I listed it June 2. That was pre-bin- for a year. The charges will not go on was divided into thirds, consisting of a
the more difficult country line-dancing. go arrest,” he said. their records if they do nothing to vio- pawn shop, beauty salon and the Hoo-
late their probation, which explains ten’ Owl Bar. The couple leased the bar
“Dancing was a big deal,” longtime On June 28, after a four-month un- the hurried closure of the bar. Closing at first, but then bought the building
customer Debbie Houston said. “That’s dercover investigation by the depart- pretty much eliminates the chances for the next year. By 1987 Dennis had re-
where I met my other half, the first time ment of Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire- a probation violation. designed the whole interior, buying
I ever stepped in the place 15 years ago. arms, the Silvers were arrested for choice woods to give it an authentic
We’ve been together ever since.” running an illegal bingo game, accord- The shuttered bar/restaurant proper- western look. He did another major
ing to court records. The officers came ty should be easy to sell, even though it is renovation in 2011.
She also remembers the “reasonable on four occasions for the regularly closed. It’s the only free-standing build-
and really good food. Mondays was slated afternoon games. One agent ing in the area with its own parking lot They named it the Long Branch Sa-
steak-dinner night for $10.” bought nine bingo cards at $1 each and a general-commercial zoning desig- loon because Dennis is from New Jer-
and won a $135 pot. nation, said listing agent Billy Moss, who sey and the old TV show “Gunsmoke”
The closure was abrupt and unex- specializes in restaurants and bars. had a bar named Long Branch, owned
pected, given the outgoing friendli- It could have been worse, Dennis by a New Jersey native.
ness and perpetual on-site presence said. They could have been slapped The Silvers want it to remain a bar,
of the owners, Dennis and Patricia with a felony but the charge was re- so they’re selling it with the liquor li- Moss calls the bar and music venue a
Silver. In a recent interview they said, duced to a misdemeanor. cense. It’s listed for $895,000, which “landmark,” saying “there’s not a person
jokingly, “It’s time to retire and enjoy includes the “4COP” license, one of in Vero Beach who doesn’t know about
the fruits of our labor.” The Silvers are “I had no idea you needed a license. the few on the market that does not it. People from all over, from the wealthy
youngish, 60-something-year-olds. Churches have bingo every week. It require food be 51 percent of sales. “I to cowhands, came for the country-
wasn’t even my idea, but of course, I didn’t have to serve food at all,” Dennis western music. He gave a lot of people
They gave two-week notice to their take responsibility. It was dreamed up said. “I could have just sold drinks.” good times and good memories.”
loyal patrons and employees, with not by two of my bartenders,” Dennis said,
a few tears shed, and closed up at the “but I could have said no.” Moss estimates the liquor license “I’ve had a good run,” Dennis said.
end of summer. alone is worth more than $200,000. “It’s time for a younger person to come
Making money wasn’t the big incen- in here and take over.” 
tive for the bingo, Dennis said. “I made The neighborhood and building are
some money on the food, but most of very different from when Dennis bought

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 7

NEWS

School District vs. charters controlled by the district, the charter share of the funds produced by the tax. was the sole no vote in both cases.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 schools were given only 5 percent of By agreeing to that guarantee, the “This is just the beginning of what
the total collected – approximately $1.3 will likely be a very protracted and
the five public charter schools in the million – even though charter students district seemed to acknowledge the expensive legal battle,” Frost said. “I
district after efforts to negotiate with make up 13 percent of the county’s charters have a right to equal per- personally remain concerned with the
the board were rebuffed. It is now in student population. The charters say student funding, but the school board amount of money the district spends
circuit court, with Judge Paul Kanarek they are due an additional $2 million in does not want to make up any arrears each year on legal actions and would
presiding. More than $2 million in back payments, not including interest or start sharing money equally before rather see those dollars working to
school funding tax dollars are at stake. or penalties, plus hundreds of thou- next summer. educate students in our classrooms.”
sands more between now and when
Gene Waddell, chairman of the In- the current tax expires next summer. Board members Claudia Jimenez, None of the four board members in
dian River Charter High School Board Dale Simchick, Matthew McCain and favor of the expenditures returned a
and spokesman for the charters, said In August, voters approved an ex- Charles Searcy voted last month to request for comment.
the school board came to the charter tension, or replacement, of the cur- spend $50,000 to pay for an expert
school leaders in 2012 and asked them rent school tax levy that will run for witness and other legal fees for a Sep- Waddell said, “It is inconceivable”
to help pass a school tax levy. Charter another four years, from 2017-21. tember hearings in the case. Last week the board would spend more money
leaders gave their support with the This referendum guarantees charter they voted to spend $81,000 more, to “avoid appropriately sharing oper-
understanding charter school stu- schools will get an equal per-student with no specifics given in the motion. ating dollars with the public charter
dents would count equally with other schools.” 
public school students, and the mon- Yard waste School Board Member Shawn Frost
ey would be shared among schools on promises in other regards, and has
an equitable per student basis. The CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 stock in its attempt to make biofuel been secretive about its problems, so
referendum stated it was for “all stu- and also supplied the county up to who knows?
dents” in the district. INEOS has announced plans to vacate 25,000 tons of mulch per year to use
the plant. as landfill cover and for landscaping in INEOS Group Limited is a glob-
The 0.60 levy “passed overwhelming- various parks and golf courses. al manufacturer of petrochemicals
ly” in November 2012. Because of the During FY 2014-2015, 64,287 tons of based in the United Kingdom.
levy, property owners in the county pay grass, weeds, landscape clippings and County staff says INEOS so far is
an extra 60 cents for each $1,000 of as- palm fronds were processed by INEOS continuing to fulfill its mulching con- It sold government officials on its
sessed value each year, which brought at a cost to the county of $809,132. So tract but large piles of unprocessed Indian River County plant, INEOS Bio,
in an extra $26 million in revenue for far this fiscal year, 56,665 tons have yard waste have accumulated at the with promises to produce up to 8 mil-
the schools over the past three years. been received. mulching site. lion gallons of ethanol per year from
fermenting yard waste.
So far, so good. But when it came The way the deal with the county Under the contract, when INEOS
to doling out the revenue, which is worked, INEOS used mulch as feed- folds its tent, it is responsible for get- These promises helped it secure $50
ting rid of any remaining waste, but million from the U.S. Department of
... the company failed to live up to its
CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

8 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

Yard waste Split School Board approves $7.8 million bridge loan

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

Energy, millions more from Gov. Rick BY KATHLEEN SLOAN the financing scheme were Claudia constitutional requirement that voters
Scott’s economic development team, Staff Writer Jimenez, Dale Simchick and Matthew approve any long-term school district
as well as almost $1.2 million in coun- McCain. Shawn Frost and Charles debt or future encumbrance of proper-
ty job incentives and tax credits. The Indian River County School Searcy voted against issuing the tax ty tax dollars. The state constitutional
Board approved a $7.8 million loan that anticipation notes, which have fee and requirement doesn’t apply to debt car-
In the three years since the grand will get help fund school operations un- interest costs that eat up school funds. ried for less than a year and the current
opening, the plant was plagued by a til property-tax revenue becomes avail- short-term loan will run from Sept. 29
series of miscues and malfunctions able in November, with two of the five Searcy has repeatedly asked why the to Jan. 31, 2017.
and never produced marketable quan- members voting against the measure. district has to borrow money. “We pass
tities of ethanol, a fact state govern- a balanced budget. I just don’t under- The district has issued tax anticipa-
ment officials and company execu- The loan takes the form of a pri- stand it,” he said. tion notes in the past, ranging from $12
tives attempted to conceal behind a vate placement of tax anticipation million to $30 million, but did so on the
cloak of secrecy that got thicker as time notes with a bank. Voting in favor of Tax anticipation notes have been open market, selling them in batches to
went on.  criticized as an end-run around a state individuals and private investors.

This time, Chief Financial Officer
Carter Morrison told the board it would
be cheaper to place the notes with a
bank, saving bond-rating and financial-
disclosure costs.

About 30 banks were contacted, with
three responding. The best deal was
offered by Wells Fargo, which will col-
lect just under 1 percent interest per
month. The total cost of issuance, in-
cluding interest and legal counsel, is
nearly $37,000, according to the district.

Robert Auwaerter, a finance expert
who recently retired from the Van-
guard Group, where he ran a 125-per-
son team responsible for managing
$750 billion in assets, addressed the
board, questioning its actions.

Auwaerter sought answers to two
questions: Why is the district borrowing
$7.8 million, when district consultant
Ford & Associates estimated the cash-
flow deficit at only $1.2 million? Why is
the district borrowing the money for 120
days, when tax money will be available
to pay off the loan in 45 days? He esti-
mated $22,000 could be saved if $3 mil-
lion were borrowed for 45 days, which
would more than cover the deficit.

“I urge you to question Mr. Morri-
son,” Auwaerter said to the board. “It is
your obligation to taxpayers to explain
why you are spending this money.”

Morrison explained the cash-flow
analysis only considered the general
fund deficit, but other funds are in
deficit as well. He did not explain why
only partial information was given in
the analysis.

Jimenez asked if the loan would cover
“challenges” the district is having with
the health insurance fund, which has
a $7 million deficit. Morrison did not
clarify whether the loan will partially
pay for the insurance deficit. He merely
said it was explained to board members
at a meeting Auwaerter didn’t attend.

As far as the borrowing period is
concerned, Ford said less than 120
days would have shut down interest in
the notes. Two of the banks said they
would not have responded to the Re-
quest for Proposals if the term limit
were shorter, he said. 



10 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Sean Sexton, Marie Stiefel, Laurel Blossom and Leonard Todd. Julie and Robie Weary with Logan Geeslin.

Harry and Nancy Offutt. Susan Lovelace with Susan and Terry Jaramillo. PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE Charlotte Terry and Nick Geeslin.

Verse class: Reception celebrates poets laureate

BY MARY SCHENKEL but that’s what they need to do,” said Your Pocket,” which she wrote during to another. “They’re very hard to read
Staff Writer Sexton, who has hopes of establishing National Poetry Month, specifically on the pots and also the spelling is id-
a poetry corner somewhere. “People for Poem in Your Pocket Day. “There iosyncratic,” said Todd. “They’re witty
Supporters of the Laura Riding Jack- relish a place to read their poetry.” is such a thing,” said Blossom with a and all seem to have more than one
son Foundation gathered last Monday laugh. meaning.”
evening for a private cocktail recep- After commenting that the au-
tion to celebrate and hear readings by thor and poet tent at the recent Cel- Among other books and publica- The LRJF has had great success with
Poets Laureate Sean Sexton and Lau- ebrate the Arts Festival had been tions, Todd is the author of “Carolina its teen writing workshops and now
rel Blossom and author Leonard Todd placed in close proximity to the main Clay: The Life and Legend of the Slave hopes to encourage adults to tap into
at the gorgeous Riomar home of LRJF stage, where musical performances Potter Dave,” and was in town as a their inner author with workshops
Chairwoman Marie Stiefel. drowned out their readings, Sexton guest lecturer for the opening recep- spanning a variety of styles, includ-
added, “I want to be on the stage next tion of the Dave Drake: Potter and ing mysteries, science fiction/fantasy,
“Indian River County is the second time. I want everybody to hear some Poet exhibition at the Vero Beach Mu- memoirs and poetry.
county in Florida to have a poet lau- poetry.” seum of Art.
reate,” said Nancy Offutt, of Sexton, a “We’re starting an aggressive push
poet, artist and cattle rancher and the Blossom is similarly promoting lit- “Dave was a slave, owned by Leon- to beef up our adult writing program,”
first person to be appointed locally to erature and literacy as the first poet ard’s ancestors. He wrote poetry and said Terry, crediting board member
the honorary position. laureate of Edgefield, South Carolina. sometimes put them on his pots, Julie Weary with heading up the ef-
A former Vero Beach resident, she which of course was illegal because fort.
“I’m thinking very seriously of ways serves on the LRJF advisory board slaves were not allowed to be literate,”
to bring poetry to those in Indian River and is married to Todd. She treated said LRJF co-founder Charlotte Terry. “This is the first year we’ve had four
County who don’t ordinarily partake guests to a reading of a poem written of them,” said Weary. “There are a lot
or who don’t even think about it. Poets by Laura Riding Jackson, as well as a Todd spoke to guests about the dif- of people who are interested in writ-
laureate make an effort to try and fos- couple of her own, including “Joy I ficulties in deciphering the text of the ing, so we’re trying to reach out to
ter a love of poetry in the general pop- Said,” which was written as a tribute poetry Dave painstakingly inscribed them.”
ulation. They don’t always succeed, to Sea Oaks and Vero Beach, and “In onto his graceful stoneware vessels
as he was sold from one slave owner For more information, visit www.
lauraridingjackson.com. 



12 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Scavengers ‘Hunt’ to fight rare form of breast cancer

Mike and Dr. Holly Hamilton. Megan Bramham, Michelle Fagg, Morene Scher, Belen Treto and Amanda Gillham. PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE Daicy and Erin Robinson.

BY MARY SCHENKEL were participants in the fourth an- Holly Hamilton, owner of Riverside
Staff Writer nual Hunt for Hope Florida, a fun- Family Dental in Sebastian, com-
filled scavenger hunt to fund an IBC menting on all the business spon-
Those pink-adorned folks you clinical research grant through the sors who donated raffle items and
saw Saturday afternoon, clad in an Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) prizes. Hamilton started Hunt for
assortment of crazy gear as they Network Foundation. An equally Hope Florida in honor of her friend
snapped photos and collected items important objective of the annual Dr. Lori Grennan, a physician who
at businesses in Vero and Sebastian, event is to educate members of the lost her battle with IBC three years
ago.
Emily and Melanie Hakimipour
Despite all the publicity about Oc-
medical profession and the public tober being Breast Cancer Awareness
about this highly aggressive yet least month, most people – many doctors
known form of breast cancer. included – are unaware of the signs
of inflammatory breast cancer. The
“Our community really gets in- cancer primarily affects women un-
volved and we love that,” said Dr. der age 40. That is earlier than the
recommended screening age, but
IBC is rarely detected through mam-
mograms anyway. Rather than pre-
senting as a lump, the disease ini-
tially appears as an infection or even
a bug bite, with little or no initial
pain.

As a result, IBC is often misdiag-
nosed, with critical treatment de-
layed until it has progressed to Stage
III or IV, leading to a survival rate

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 13

PEOPLE

Debra Boyette, Sharon Tollmann, Nancy Spiert, Phil Pierre and Kim Girard. Sue Skirvin with Tom and Christine Crowley.

Kathy Garfield, Patrick Hamilton, Devin Garfield, Rochelle Gale, Ruby and Aleah Hilliard, Erin and Daicy Robinson.

that is considerably lower than other move on to the next thing.”
forms of breast cancer. During her treatment, Grennan

Hamilton had met Grennan, then started the first Hunt for Hope in
32, through an online children’s Ohio, working in partnership with
group. Grennan and her physician the all-volunteer IBC Network Foun-
both missed the signs of her IBC, dation founded by Terry Arnold, an
misdiagnosing it as an infection IBC survivor herself and a patient
from breast feeding and treating it advocate at MD Anderson in Texas.
with antibiotics. By the time it was
correctly diagnosed it had become “Research is so important for this
Stage IV. type of cancer,” said Hamilton, not-
ing that since its founding in 2011,
“As a medical doctor herself, she the IBC Network Foundation has
said that she couldn’t fault the doc- funded roughly $680,000 in IBC re-
tor for not knowing, because they search grants.
don’t really teach much about it in
school,” Hamilton explained. “They “Most of the people I meet have
say, ‘It’s very rare and you’ll proba- never heard of inflammatory breast
bly never see a case of it.’ They spend cancer. If this reaches one person
like five minutes on it and then they who needs to know about, it then
we’ve done our job.” 

14 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Fishing event catches youngsters’ interest in lagoon

BY CHRISTINA TASCON Back: Camden Rice, Michael Villafuerte, Ritter Marchant, Barrett Rhymes, Bryce Hauser, Quinn Hiaasen. was on hand to autograph copies
Correspondent of “Tagged,” her highly popular fic-
Front: Ethan Rice, Mike Conneen and Bennett Collins. PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE tional mystery. The book is a cross
A morning of fishing in Martin, St. between a scientific whodunit and
Lucie and Indian River counties last educational story on the value of
Saturday culminated with roughly one of the world’s biggest predators
300 participants and guests gather- – great white sharks. The book has
ing for the third annual Lines in the become hugely popular with young
Lagoon Tri-County Junior Fishing people and, with a message meant
Tournament Awards Dinner, which to entertain as well as educate, it
this year was held at Capt. Hiram’s has even become a school reading
in Sebastian. assignment for its scientific value.

Lines in the Lagoon hauled in “We’ve come a long way since
more than $30,000 – no small catch Jaws,” said Adams, owner of Cape
by any angler’s imagination – to Canaveral Scientific with hus-
benefit the Ocean Research Conser- band Doug. “We are trying to pro-
vation Association, the Everglades tect sharks now. I am thrilled to be
Foundation and the Coastal Con- asked to be here and also that these
servation Association. Additionally, kids care about great whites. They
the catch-and-release tournament, are the lions of the water, the top of
which this year drew upwards of the food chain and keep the ecosys-
129 competitors, seeks to heighten tem balanced.”
awareness of the critical need to
protect our endangered waterways. Fenia Hiaasen spoke with pride
about her son Quinn’s continued
The fundraiser was conceived involvement with the cause.
and coordinated by young friends
Quinn Hiaasen, Steven Croom, “It’s another epic year, with the
Tommy Hammond, Bryce Hauser, most attendance we have ever had,”
she said. “We just wanted to remind
Quinn Hiaasen and Deborah Johnson.
everyone why we do this
Ritter Marchant, Barrett Rhymes event. It is to teach our
and Michael Villafuerte, who have children to remember to
watched the health of the lagoon love the lagoon, to respect
decline in just their lifetime. Other it and to keep it for future
young men and their families have generations.”
since joined in the effort and they
are always looking for more people, Noting that her son and
including girls, to get involved. the founding boys were
so busy working that they
Author and scientist Amy Adams weren’t able to enjoy fish-
ing in the tournament,
she added, “It brought
tears to our eyes to see
them all being so respon-
sible. It is so amazing how
the community has been
so supportive of them.”

“It feels hopeful to be
working on something
with others that have the
same interest and are
all working on the same
cause,” said Quinn Hi-
aasen. “We love being on
the water and in the time
we have been fishing we
have seen the decline. We
all spend so much time on
the water that it would be
irresponsible of us to not care about
the lagoon.”
“Lines in the Lagoon is a fantastic
event because it raises awareness
and money for the crises in the la-
goon and it’s young people talking
to other young people about what
we can do to restore the lagoon to
health,” said Corey Westbrook. 

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 15

PEOPLE

Savannah, Trisha, Dakota and Darrell Hawthorne.

Fenia Hiaasen, Will Collins and Amy Adams.

Steven Croom with Jennifer Croom. David Rice and Doug Adams.

Marilou Rice and Edie Collins.

Robin Dannahower and Chris Villafuerte

16 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

A hundred strong for Jungle Club 5K Run and Walk

12
34

5

JUNGLE CLUB 5K CAPTIONS

1. Florence Lundy, with Rob and Waleska

Helzerman. 2. Mike Hanner with Kendra Cope and

Russ Marth. 3. Katie and Eric Smith. 4. Jungle

Club owner John Cairns. 5. Erin O’Connell, Eric

Toomsoo, Trey Toomsoo, and Shaun Dibble.

6. Kimberly and Donny Oglethorpe, with their

children, Madeline and Bryce.

PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE

Roughly 100 runners participated
in the 25th annual Jungle Club
6 5K Run and Walk last Saturday
morning, raising funds this year
to benefit the Vero Beach Life-
guard Association. Family owned
and operated, the Jungle Club has
collectively amassed more than
$50,000 through the race, which
each year occurs on the first Sat-
urday in October, and has donat-
ed the funds to a variety of local
charities. The mission of the VBLA
is to promote beach and pool safe-
ty through education and the pur-
chase of much-needed equipment
to help save lives. Their current
plans include the construction of
a lifeguard tower and headquar-
ters at Humiston Park. 



18 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Pineapple party an homage to Hallstrom history

Ruth Stanbridge. PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE Cindy Hallstrom Trefelner, Al Smith and Gail Hallstrom. Blaine Stenvik

BY STEPHANIE LaBAFF strom Farmstead, where pineapples
Staff Writer once reigned supreme. In the early
1900s, the juicy fruit grew along the
“Pineapples were the crop of choice “Golden Ridge” from Stuart through
before citrus,” said County Historian Sebastian.
Ruth Stanbridge at the second annual
Party at the Pineapple Plantation. The “With the completion of the Florida
event took place at the historic Hall- East Coast Railroad, pineapples were
imported from Cuba. Between the

Heather Miller, Mary Frances Womack, Janice Sly and Marsha Woods.

bugs they brought in with crops from Elaine Jones, Lynne Glass and Ruth Ann Jacobs.
Cuba and the freezes of 1917 and 1918,
the pineapple industry was wiped
out,” she explained.

The party was a fundraiser for the
Indian River County Historical Soci-
ety, which had been contacted by a
Hallstrom relative last summer with
an offer they couldn’t refuse.

“They had slips from the pineapples

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

grown on the Hallstrom pineapple
plantation and thought we might be
interested in getting the pineapples
back on the property,” says IRCHS
Vice President Mary Frances Wom-
ack.

They planted those slips, descend-
ed from the original crops, at last
year’s pineapple homecoming and
over the past year also added other
varieties.

“We want people to associate pine-
apples, Indian River County and the
Hallstrom plantation with each oth-
er. Axel Hallstrom was the original
grower in Indian River County,” add-
ed Womack.

Stanbridge pointed out the irony
that while citrus replaced pineapples
as a major crop almost 100 years ago,
citrus today is on its way out. Judging
from the turnout at this year’s event,
where more than 500 visitors strolled
along the grounds of the nearly
100-year-old home on Old Dixie High-
way, the pineapple is back.

The afternoon’s activities included
pineapple carving demonstrations,
tours of the beautifully maintained
home, pineapple plantings and, of
course, pineapple tastings. Guests
also enjoyed perusing local wares and
silent auction items while listening to
the music of the Blue Cypress Blue-
grass Band.

The Historical Society was willed
the beautifully furnished Hallstrom
House and five acres by Ruth Hall-
strom, who died in 1999, and mem-
bers have worked tirelessly to pre-
serve, maintain and improve the
property as a piece of Indian River
County’s history.

Hallstrom’s nieces, Cindy Hall-
strom Trefelner and Gail Hallstrom,
toured the home with IRCHS house
director Al Smith, enjoying a trip
down memory lane and sharing sto-
ries of their Sunday afternoons with
Ruth.

“She was a great force in our lives,”
said Trefelner. “This is a wonderful,
warm house. We have so many good
memories here.”

The two were born and raised in the
area and are thrilled with what the
Historical Society has accomplished.

“This was her wish, so it’s perfect,”
shared Gail Hallstrom, looking out at
the sprawling lawn, bustling with ac-
tivity as people milled about.

“Today is about sharing our local
history and raising money to help
support the improvements we have
planned,” said Womack. “We want to
add a summer kitchen and restrooms.
We want people to come for reunions
and rent it out for weddings and re-
ceptions. This amazing property
needs to be utilized.”

For more information, visit IRCHis-
torical.org. 

20 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Blanc is bountiful at Vero’s first Cinema de la Mer

BY MARY SCHENKEL around the world, the event was in-
Staff Writer troduced to Vero Beach by the Vero
Beach Wine + Film Festival team in
Royal Palm Pointe shimmered partnership with Celebrity Cruises
in snowy white Saturday night, and Frosch (Indian River Travel).
as close to 200 guests, dressed in
white from head to toe, gathered Their picnic baskets in hand,
for the inaugural Cinema de la the invited guests, who had only
Mer. Inspired by the Parisian Dîner learned 48 hours ahead of time
en Blanc parties now popping up where the event would be held,
came to dine al fresco at long tables

Jerusha Stewart and Yolanda Sheppard. PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE

Karen Franke and Brenda Lloyd. Vero to introduce Celebrity Cruises
and their partnership with the Vero
set with crisp white tablecloths, Beach Wine and Film Festival. This
white chairs and white candles. is definitely a celebrity launch for
a celebrity town. One of the rea-
The pièce de résistance featured sons Celebrity Cruises was so ex-
a particularly elaborate champagne cited about partnering with us is
dispenser as its “sparkling opening that they are all about creating a
act.” Lithe and impossibly agile, modern luxury experience. They
Kristin Arrow from Flying Arrow just felt that Vero Beach is full of
Productions poured champagne for so many modern luxury moments:
guests while hanging upside down fine dining, gorgeous beaches. It’s
from a crystal chandelier which all here.”
sparkled in the setting sun.
“I was struck immediately about
Later in the evening, after sip- the uniqueness of it. It was so dif-
ping Veuve Clicquot and supping ferent, especially for our commu-
on their finger food, guests enjoyed nity,” said guest Cynthia Calland-
assorted cookies courtesy of Pa- er. “I couldn’t get over the way the
tisserie and watched an open-air champagne was poured; it was too
screening of the movie “The Colos- much fun. Heather [Stapleton] and
sal Failure of the Modern Relation- I were talking and we decided she
ship,” directed by Sergio Navarret- was truly a white bird of paradise. I
ta. think people will be talking about it
for some time.”
“The idea came from Yolanda
Sheppard from Celebrity Cruises,” “I thought it was just so cool,
said event organizer Jerusha Stew- the way the people were all wear-
art. “She wanted to have an incred- ing white,” agreed Brenda Lloyd.
ible, never-before-seen event in “And of course the aerialist was
just amazing. It was such a unique
thing; I really did enjoy it.”

Another objective of the event
was to raise awareness of Sun-
coast Mental Health Center, where
Stewart is a board member. Sun-
coast serves the mental health
needs of children and families in
Indian River, Martin, St. Lucie and
Okeechobee counties, providing
them with counseling and support-
ive services.

“I think that it’s been amazing
overall; it truly demonstrates the
wow factor that Celebrity provides,”
said Sheppard, Celebrity’s market
sales manager. 

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 21

PEOPLE

Carolina Joaquinez with Cynthia Callander, and Angela Morgan. Aerialist Kristin Arrow.

Rusty Cappelen, Taylor Greenwood, Kelly and Jenn Kite, Willa Kite and Stevie Cappelen

Joseph and Natalie O’Neill, Katie and Diego Henriquez, Drew Sweeney and Kayla Gavel.

CINEMA DE LA MER PHOTOS CONTINUED ON PAGE 22
Willie and Cathy LaCroix, Wendy and Bill Palmer, Mary and Art Ciasca, and Dave Cook.

22 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

CINEMA DE LA MER PHOTOS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21 Xaque Gruber, Leslie McGuirk, Quentin Walter and Dr. Darrell Horn.
Cris and Tonya Aruffo with Monica and John Aruffo. Heather Stapleton, Dave Fuisto and Andrea Mears.



24 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

Artsy birdbaths keep El Prado awash in business

BY ELLEN FISCHER of months,” Gustafson says.
Correspondent He began to notice that with the ab-

There’s a reason customers are once sence of the birdbaths, more people
again flocking to El Prado, a home dé- walked by without stopping in.
cor shop on Vero’s Ocean Drive.
“There was nothing out there to
The birdbaths are back. pique their interest,” he says.
For 17 years, the shop has displayed
handmade, brightly glazed ceramic The shop faced a similar problem
birdbaths on the grassy strip out front. last year.
Like refreshing oases, the water-filled
basins beckon to passersby, who often One of El Prado’s biggest sellers are
can’t resist dabbling a finger or two be- the ceramic house number plaques –
fore asking their price. ceramic numbers and decorative spac-
“The birdbaths are a draw for the er tiles surrounded by a ceramic frame
store,” says Kent Gustafson, who owns – that customers can mix and match.
the shop with his wife Becky. They’re on a special display stand just
When the Gustafsons bought El Pra- inside the shop’s front door.
do back in 2002 (it was three years old
then), they gained an existing relation- Kent Gustafson estimates that the
ship with the birdbaths’ creator. shop has sold “well over 1,000” of the
Her name was Suzanne Blumenauer, plaques.
and she lived in Winter Park. When she
died in April of this year, the Gustafsons “If you drive around central beach
lost not only their friend, but also a they are on every other house,” he says.
faithful supplier of a popular item. Customers have also ordered plaques
The day soon came when the last for their homes as far north as Canada.
birdbath in stock was sold. “We went
without anything out front for a couple When Delray Beach artist Sharon
Kurlychek (who also “came with the
shop”) decided to retire from produc-
tion of the plaques’ components last
September, finding a new supplier be-
came a priority.

An exhaustive Internet search did

Glenda Taylor, El Prado owner Kent
Gustafson and Karen 'Keko' Ekonomou.

PHOTOS BY DENISE RITCHIE

not turn up anything remotely like the Ekonomou, for the job. Ekonomou is a
unique, all-ceramic product. founder and resident artist at Flame-
tree Clay Art Gallery on 14th Avenue in
Becky Gustafson “kind of freaked downtown Vero.
out,” says Glenda Taylor, the Vero
Beach ceramic artist who responded to “When I saw the birdbaths Suzanne
the need. designed, I thought, ‘Oh, boy, that’s
right up my alley,’” says Ekonomou.
Taylor, a longtime resident artist
at Tiger Lily Art Studios and Gallery, “Those are my colors, and I knew ex-
credits a former studio mate, Donna actly what she was doing, except for the
Dodderidge, for recommending her to clay body. And the base, and the poles
the Gustafsons. – I just figured it out.”

“Becky is my neighbor,” says Dod- When she took over production in
deridge, who met up with Gustafson on May, Ekonomou had to start virtually
a dog walk in their central beach neigh- from scratch, with a fragment from
borhood. a broken Blumenauer birdbath to
guide her.
“She asked me I knew anyone, and
I said, ‘Glenda is the go-to person for Ekonomou redesigned the shape of
ceramics.’” the basin, as well as how to fit it atop its
aluminum support pole. (A deep collar
Earlier this year, when Gustafson on the bottom of the basin slips secure-
was “at a loss” about the birdbaths, ly over the pole.)
Taylor in turn recommended her friend
and beachside neighbor, Karen “Keko” Before finding just the right shape

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 25

ARTS & THEATRE

the sea, to multiple-piece sculptures of Upon receiving that bit of regional
reef life: realistic corals, small fish and exposure for the product, Taylor ap-
other salt-water creatures. proached the Gustafsons about an
e-commerce partnership to sell the
Taylor muses, “I have always had house plaques and Ekonomou’s bird-
a small production line, with my baths.
limited=edition Christmas ornaments
and my small framed tiles. So it really “This is happening right now – the
wasn’t that far out of my hula-hoop to photographer and the web designer
consider doing something like this.” are working on it as we speak,” says
an enthusiastic Taylor. “We’re going
Installed in their display stand at El international.”
Prado, Taylor’s house number plaques
attracted the attention of Linda Jerkins, For today, however, Kent Gustafson
a writer for the Atlanta Journal-Consti- is satisfied to have cheery birdbaths in
tution earlier this year. Jerkins featured front of the shop again.
the artist and her plaques in her Sept. 9
“Southern Made” column. Now passersby “look in the window
to see what else we’ve got,” he says. 

and decoration for the new birdbaths, enough for two birds – or one squirrel –
Ekonomou made prototypes that she to splash in; the smaller one is for birds
brought to the Gustafsons for review. who bathe solo.

“It was a lot of trial and error,” Ekono- When her finished product hit the
mou says. market, Ekonomou was swamped.

“I would bring one in, and it wasn’t “I couldn’t get them to the shop fast
quite right. It didn’t quite look right; it enough,” she says.
didn’t feel right – none of us was hap-
py with it. It was back to the drawing Taylor had to climb a similar learning
board.” curve with the house number plaques.
Because the plaques’ creator would not
After almost four months of creative sell her molds, Taylor, with the help of
give-and-take, the redesigned product her contractor-husband Rick, designed
met everyone’s approval. and made molds of her own.

The birdbaths sport several lively When Becky Gustafson first con-
themes. Ekonomou’s favorite is the one tacted her about the job, Taylor at first
in which her sculpted hermit crabs – didn’t know how to respond.
bright red with real conch shells on
their backs – seem to scuttle around “I thought, I’ll check this out, even
the basins’ wide rims. There are also though I’m not a production pot-
sun-bathing frogs and baby sea turtles ter. I’ve always done one-of-a-kind
(a Vero Beach favorite), to name a few. things,” she says.

The basins come in two sizes; one big Those works range from classically
formed vases with décor inspired by

26 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

Pottery winner: The remarkable work, story of Dave

BY ELLEN FISCHER the South. Todd notes that “in the pot- Dave is notable not only for the pots with his name and on occasion
tery industry, the majority of the work- simple beauty of his utilitarian his poetry.
Correspondent ers were African American slaves.” wares, which once held salted meat,
pickled vegetables, cider and other Dave’s enigmatic couplets, two of
No one knows what he looked like. Ultimately, the pots tell the story of foodstuffs, but also for inscribing his which can be seen on pots in the cur-
In those days slaves did not have their Dave. rent show, include references to the
pictures made. No marble column seasons and hardships of rural life,
was erected to him after he died; a exhortations to heed the Bible, and
fieldstone or pottery shard bearing his odes to the function of a particular
name may once have marked his un- piece of stoneware. Some of his more
known grave. His work alone remains mysterious inscriptions might be au-
to testify that the man known simply tobiographical.
as Dave was a master craftsman, a
poet and a survivor. From the 1970s, when researchers
first began piecing together the facts
In the Vero Beach Museum of Art’s of David Drake’s existence, scholars
Schumann Gallery, “David Drake: and curators across the country have
Potter and Poet” features the work of become familiar with his work. So
Dave (c. 1801-c. 1870s), an enslaved Af- significant is Dave’s story to African
rican American (Drake was the name American history that one of his in-
of one of his masters) who worked in a scribed storage jars is on display at the
pottery manufactory in Edgefield, S.C. newly unveiled Smithsonian National
Museum of African American History
There’s more to the group of pots on & Culture.
exhibit than first meets the eye, says
Leonard Todd, author of “Carolina The Vero art museum’s curator Jay
Clay: The Life and Legend of the Slave Williams became well acquainted
Potter, Dave.” with Dave’s work in 1998 when, as cu-
rator of exhibitions at the McKissick
To the art-educated eye the olive- Museum of the University of South
brown crocks, pitchers and jugs – re- Carolina, he worked with researcher
splendent with the drips, speckles and Jill Koverman (today the McKissick’s
rivulets of their unpredictable alka- chief curator) and “a host of other
line glaze – resemble the earliest clay scholars” to organize an influential
vessels of ancient civilizations: ele- survey exhibition of Dave’s pottery.
mental in shape, generous in size and
sturdily built. From foot to lip, they Williams organized the current
were made to serve, and oftentimes show in conjunction with South Car-
outlast, generations of users. olina-based collector Dr. Corbett E.
Toussaint who, with her husband Dr.
For Todd, “Each of these pots tells a C. Phillip Toussaint, lent 13 objects to
story – tells three stories.” the exhibition.

One of those tales speaks of the lit- The signatures, dates and some-
tle-known ceramics industry in 19th times poetry inscribed on the vessels
century Edgefield. identify them as Dave’s, but he did not

Another relates the story of slavery in

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 27

ARTS & THEATRE

spite the bleak conditions of slavery. volca(n)ic mountain how they burge.”
Todd notes that 35 of Dave’s 45 poeti- “It is enigmatic, but it paints a pic-

cally inscribed pots were made when ture – of a young girl on the edge of
he worked for Miles. Evidently the maturity, an exciting young woman,”
master-slave relationship was relaxed says Todd.
enough that Dave could tease Miles by
writing on one pitcher (not in the show) Today it boggles the mind to think
“L.M. says this handle / will crack.” that a verse as freely imaginative and
The pitcher has had the last laugh. sensual as that one was produced by a
More than 165 years later, its handle is man whose life, by law, did not belong
as sound as the day Dave made it. to him.

Only two of the jugs in the Vero “It was a dangerous period, a lot
show bear couplets and they are well of repression, but Dave kept right on
worth reading in person. Incised in el- writing,” says Todd.
egant script, one of the poems reads:
“A pretty little girl on the virge (verge) / “That’s what I focus on in my book
and in my talks – the courage and the
guts he exhibited at that time.” 

always sign and date the works that when the Emancipation Act became
have been attributed to him, let alone law in the South.
write poetry on them.
Another of Dave’s masters, Abner
Of the 31 objects on display in the Landrum, published a short-lived
Schumann Gallery, 13 are known to newspaper. The Edgefield Hive was
be from Dave’s hand, while 10 others a weekly that consistently featured
are ascribed to him. The remaining a poem among its news items. Todd
seven objects include five “face jugs” speculates that Dave, assigned to me-
from the mid-1850s. They are thought nial tasks in the newspaper’s offices
to have been made by enslaved Afri- when he wasn’t working at the pot-
cans in one of Edgefield’s potteries. tery, either read the poems for himself
or heard them repeated aloud.
It was rare for slaves to be able to
read and write, says Todd, whose book “I think that just as Abner Landrum
details how antebellum laws in the is publishing poetry in his newspaper,
South promised lashings for slaves Dave is publishing his poetry on his
who learned to read and, at the very pots, in the only way he could do it,”
least, steep fines for those who edu- Todd asserts.
cated them.
As religious or educated as they may
“Who taught Dave to read and have been, Dave’s masters (there were
write, and how was he allowed to do several of them, all related to one an-
that, is the big mystery of Dave’s life,” other) were nevertheless committed
says Todd. to holding Dave in bondage. Accord-
ing to Todd, one master in particular,
Tradition holds that Dave’s first Franklin Landrum, was exceedingly
owner, Harvey Drake, taught him to repressive.
read the Bible so that Dave could find
salvation in God’s word. “There are records of a slave woman
hanging herself in the pottery after he
“That’s the theory,” says Todd. had whipped her,” says Todd.
“I don’t know if it helped his reli-
gious life or not, but Dave took it and When Franklin Landrum took over
ran with it,” adds Todd wryly. Dave be- the pottery in 1846 and purchased
gan to write poems on his pots as early Dave along with it, the potter-poet
as 1834, Todd says. ceased writing on his wares.
It is known for certain that Dave,
who as a slave had no birthright and Lewis Miles next acquired owner-
thus no family name, adopted the ship of Dave and the pottery in the late
surname Drake sometime after 1865, 1940s. From that time on, Dave ap-
pears to have blossomed as a poet de-

28 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

Coming up: New artistic talent highlights gallery stroll

BY MICHELLE GENZ Floridian slant. Along with Friday’s re- play. Based on a short story he wrote in 4 Majestic, this time set in mid-
Staff Writer ception at the gallery stroll, Steffens is 1948, the stage play debuted in 1961, century West London: Terrence
leading a workshop in drawing from a about a minister, banished by his con-
costumed model next Saturday, Oct. 15. gregation after referring to God in a ser- Rattigan’s “The Deep Blue Sea.” Helen
Steffens will offer guidance from 10 a.m. mon as a “senile delinquent,” who has a
1 Vero Beach’s First Friday gallery to noon, with an open session with long nervous breakdown, finds a job as a trav- McCrory stars in what many consider
stroll includes a talented new art- poses from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. A $20 el host, and is accused of sleeping with
donation is suggested for the day. a 16-year-old girl on his tour. Through the greatest female role in contempo-
a tangle of personalities the minister
ist showing at Raw Space at Edgewood. meets, the plot twists come back to his rary drama. The play begins as she is
one deep friendship with a kind, single
Lisa Steffens, who was raised in New woman working as a traveling artist. rescued from a suicide attempt, and

York’s Hudson Valley and lived 20 years tells the story of her passionate affair

in the U.K., has integrated herself into with a former Royal Air Force pilot and

the art scene locally since moving here 2 Oct. 14, Palm Beach Dramaworks the breakup of her marriage to a High
opens the season with “The Night
a few years ago and her oil paintings Court judge. The simulcast is at 2 p.m.

and monotypes have taken a decidedly of the Iguana,” Tennessee Williams’ last Thursday with a repeat at 7 p.m. Tick-

ets are $20.

3 AtVero’s Majestic Theatre, Met Live 5 Vero’s Riverside Theatre is throw-
in HD begins its season Saturday ing open the stage door Oct. 11

with Wagner’s iconic “Tristan und Isold.”

The new production by Mariusz Trelins- and Oct. 27 to audition both Equity and

ki features topWagnerians Nina Stemme non-Equity actors for the upcoming

and Stuart Skelton as the lovers during season.

a medieval war between Cornwall and They’ll be casting for January’s “Chi-

Ireland. Sir Simon Rattle conducts the cago” and April’s “Saturday Night

legendary four-hour score in a rare Met Fever,” both directed and choreo-

appearance. You will certainly get your graphed by Richard Stafford; “Mame”

money’s worth: $26.75. The opera starts and Noel Coward’s “Private Lives,”

at noon Saturday and is repeated Tues- both directed by Jimmy Brennan; and

day at 7 p.m. for $21.40. “An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand

If you’re reading this on Thursday Boeuf” and “The Christians,” both di-

you may have a shot at seeing an- rected by Riverside’s Allen Cornell for

other great love story simulcast at the the Second Stage series. 



30 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

HEALTH

Lawnwood becomes area’s first Comprehensive Stroke Center

BY TOM LLOYD Dr. Vikas Gupta and Dr. Akram Shhadeh. PHOTO: MITCH KLOORFAIN says fellowship-trained interventional
Staff Writer neurologists Dr. Vikas Gupta. “Our
neurosurgeons are stroke experts. Our
Every 40 seconds someone in this physical therapists, our ancillary staff
country suffers a stroke and the Na- – they are all stroke experts. Each one
tional Institutes of Health points out has role to play within the continuum
nearly three-quarters of those strokes of care of patients,” at the only compre-
occur in people over 65. hensive stroke center in a five-county
area, stretching from Brevard County
So it was great healthcare news for to Martin and Okeechobee counties.
the older demographic living on the
Treasure Coast when Lawnwood Re- Gupta and Dr. Akram Shhadeh, also
gional Medical Center last week was a fellowship-trained interventional
awarded the highest level of stroke neurologist, say they are excited to be
treatment certification available. a part of the Lawnwood team.

The Joint Commission and the Agen- “There has been a lot of advance-
cy for Health Care Administration up- ment in the field that allows us to bet-
graded the Fort Pierce facility from a ter treat stroke,” says Shhadeh, adding
“primary stroke center” to a “compre- that if a patient is taken to a compre-
hensive stroke center” last Wednesday, hensive stroke center in time, strokes
making Lawnwood one of only 20 such are not only treatable, they are now of-
facilities in the state of Florida. ten “reversible.”

It is an important distinction that There are two common forms of
recognizes “significant differences in stroke, both dangerous and potentially
resources, staff and training that are deadly. The most common form occurs
necessary for the treatment of complex when the arteries to the brain become
stroke cases,” according to the Joint blocked, reducing or stopping the flow
Commission. of blood. These blockages, usually
caused by blood clots or by the build-
“Our physicians are stroke experts,”

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Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 31

HEALTH

up of plaque in the arteries, are called to take all stroke patients to Lawnwood administered effectively. It can only be Lawnwood should be the patient's des-
“ischemic” strokes. They account for but he also says his department is ac- used to treat ischemic strokes. tination.
about 85 percent of all strokes. tively “looking into” the situation.
The National Institutes of Health Equipped with the latest advanced
The second common type – “hem- Gupta, meanwhile, has no doubt as lists symptoms of stroke as: sudden imaging technology, a 24-hour on-du-
orrhagic” strokes – are caused when to where stroke patients should be tak- numbness or weakness of the face, ty staff trained in vascular neurology,
blood vessels in the brain start leaking en. “By definition,” he says, primary arm or leg (especially on one side of neurosurgery and endovascular pro-
blood or burst open altogether. These stroke centers, “only have the capacity the body); sudden confusion, trouble cedures, with the ability to effectively
ruptures can be caused by hyperten- to give tissue plasminogen activator speaking or understanding speech; treat both ischemic and hemorrhagic
sion, blood-thinning medications, and have a limited role in the current sudden trouble seeing in one or both strokes, comprehensive stroke centers
trauma or aneurysms (weaknesses day and age.” eyes; sudden trouble walking, dizzi- such as Lawnwood are designated by
within the vessel walls). ness, loss of balance or coordination; the Joint Commission as the best place
Tissue plasminogen activator is a and sudden severe headache with no to go for stroke treatment.
That bleeding puts intense pressure clot-dissolving drug the FDA approved known cause often accompanied by
on brain tissue, and can severely dam- 30 years ago and there is a relatively vomiting. To learn more about Lawnwood’s
age or kill brain cells. “In both situa- small time window of time – between comprehensive stroke center, go to:
tions you have to re-establish the blood two and four hours depending on the Gupta flatly states that should any of http://lawnwoodmed.com/service/
flow as soon as possible, otherwise patient's age – during which it can be those symptoms present themselves, stroke-center 
there will be 2 million neurons dying
every minute,” Shhadeh says. “With
hemorrhagic stroke, you have to fix the
leakage as soon as possible.

“I would compare what we do to
something that you see in your life ev-
ery day – well hopefully not every day
– in your house. If you have any plumb-
ing issues, whether it's leakage or clog-
ging in your pipes, you call the plumb-
er to re-establish the flow through the
drain or you call them to fix the leak.

“We do the same thing for brain ves-
sels. If there is a blockage due to a clot
that traveled from the heart all the way
to the brain, we can go through the
artery of the leg with a catheter all the
way up to the clot and then pull the clot
out using special devices.”

Burst blood vessels inside the brain,
he adds, can also be re-sealed through
a similar minimally invasive proce-
dure.

Gupta says getting care for a stroke
as quickly as possible is absolutely vi-
tal. “As time goes on, the probability of
a good outcome decreases.”

Both interventional neurologists
mince no words on this: At the first
sign of a stroke, they say in unison,
“Call 911.”

Do not, they warn, attempt to drive
yourself or have a loved one drive you.
And, above all, do not wait for symp-
toms to go away on their own.

“A lot of people,” Shhadeh says al-
most grimacing, “don't call 911 right
away because they think the symp-
toms will go away and maybe they’ve
had similar symptoms in the past that
did go away. We call that TIA or Tran-
sient Ischemic Attack but TIA is as
important as stroke because it is a big
warning sign for impending stroke.”

Lawnwood's new designation may
pose a something of a dilemma – at
least initially – for area first respond-
ers. Will all stroke patients now be au-
tomatically taken to Fort Pierce? Under
what circumstances might they be
transported to closer primary stroke
centers at other area hospitals?

Battalion chief Cory Richter of the
Indian River County Fire and Rescue
department says “it is more complicat-
ed” than simply issuing a blanket order

32 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

HEALTH

Officials itching to use just-approved Zika funds

BY LENA H. SUN AND BRADY DENNIS percent of people infected with the sues that hasn’t been addressed be- ritorial Health Officials.
Washington Post virus don’t have symptoms and don’t cause there has been no money are In Florida, which has the only out-
realize they’re infected. studies about Zika’s impact on preg-
Congress took nearly eight months nancy and to babies who are born break in the continental U.S. where
to send money to help fight a dire Most of the newly approved Zika apparently healthy. Zika is spreading locally, Gov. Rick
public health threat. Now that law- funding, $933 million, is for ef- Scott has repeatedly called on the
makers have approved $1.1 billion, forts to control Zika’s spread in the Pregnant women infected with federal government for more aid,
health officials say the funds can’t United States. The money will go for Zika risk having a baby with severe even though Florida has yet to access
arrive quickly enough to make up for mosquito control and surveillance, birth defects, including microceph- about $8 million in Zika response
lost time. vaccine development and studies to aly, or an abnormally small head. money awarded to the state by CDC.
understand the virus’s impact on the But increasing evidence now points
“The point is to make sure that fetus, children and adults. The CDC to a host of long-term health prob- Since the Zika emergency began
it reaches the local health depart- will receive $394 million, much of lems – from vision and hearing loss in the United States, researchers
ment,” said Dallas County Health which will likely go to localities on to seizures and other neurological have learned the virus can be trans-
Director Zach Thompson. “When it the front line. abnormalities – in babies who ap- mitted in more ways than they origi-
gets down to it, all public health is pear to be unaffected at birth. nally thought.
local when you are responding to an The money will also allow the CDC
outbreak.” to continue to send emergency teams State and local public health de- Both men and women can trans-
to individual states, as the agency partments will probably receive a mit the virus through sex. The virus
Since late January, when the Cen- has done in Utah, which reported substantial amount of the funds. can linger in semen for up to 69 days.
ters for Disease Control and Preven- the only Zika-related adult death in Cities and states have lost millions A severely infected person may be
tion began ramping up its emergen- the continental United States, and of federal dollars as resources were able to spread the disease through
cy response, the number of reported Florida, where active transmission shifted to fight Zika. sweat or tears.
Zika cases has exploded, from about is taking place in Miami Beach.
50 to more than 25,600 in the United Officials took money and per- The funding also means the Na-
States, most of which are in Puerto The agency also plans to invest in sonnel from emergency response tional Institute of Allergy and Infec-
Rico. That includes more than 2,300 new technologies to better detect training, lab and communications tious Diseases will be getting $152
pregnant women. The true number Zika and set up regional centers to equipment, and from monitoring million for vaccine development.
of cases is likely much higher, per- track the growing problem of diseas- other diseases, said James Blumen- Most of that money will be spent on
haps as high as 128,000, because 80 es spread by insects. stock, who oversees health security vaccine candidates under develop-
for the Association of State and Ter- ment, said NIAID Director Anthony
Perhaps one of the most critical is- Fauci. 



34 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT COVER STORY

Somewhere in the middle of Ohio there’s a non- along, embossing numbers onto plastic cards and fold more than what we expected,” he says. Lindsey,
descript office park, the kind you could drive by for stuffing them into envelopes. During that time, only it seems, doesn’t read credit card blogs. Since July,
years and never really notice. One of the buildings in three things have really disrupted BAU, Chase-ese for a fever had been building on social media among
that park is basically windowless; you might mistake “business as usual”: the Target data breach of 2014, points-and-miles obsessives aware that Chase was
it for a warehouse or, if you were feeling exotic, a data which required the factory to quickly reissue millions preparing a premium card – one that would sit above
center. The only thing that’s remarkable about the of cards; the industrywide 2015 switch from magnet- its already-popular Sapphire Preferred, and offer re-
structure, signaling there’s something of great value ic-stripe cards to ones that include microchips; and wards to match.
inside, is an imposing floor-to-ceiling metal turnstile in August the frenzied demand for the company’s
in a guarded vestibule. newest offering – the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Almost a month before Chase introduced Re-
serve, the community discovered the card’s perks
This building is a modern-day mint. It’s where Ned Lindsey, Chase’s managing director of cus- through some leaked information: a sign-up bonus
JPMorgan Chase, the largest issuer of credit cards in tomer fulfillment, runs the Ohio plant and a sister of 100,000 points, triple points on travel and dining,
the U.S., manufactures around 60 percent of the 95 facility in Texas. On Aug. 24, Lindsey noticed some- airport lounge memberships, and credits that offset
million cards it issues each year. The company re- thing strange – card requests were coming in at an a $450 annual fee, among other goodies.
quires visitors to keep its exact location secret. extremely high rate, all for the Reserve.
Of course, like its Sapphire Preferred brethren,
For more than 15 years, the facility has hummed “We were seeing demand that was eight- to ten- the card would have a weighty metal core that cre-

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 35

INSIGHT COVER STORY

ates what is known in the trade as “plunk factor.” Chase is not the first issuer to offer a big-annual- crossover SUV. A credit card is a means of payment
Plasticheads got the vapors. “When I first heard the fee-but-mucho-points card. American Express and and the extension of a loan, but it’s also a collection
details,” wrote Brian Kelly, aka The Points Guy, prob- Citibank have been playing in that part of the mar- of perks and points that confer experiences and sta-
ably the most influential card blogger, “I had to sit ket for years. But Chase has entered at the right time tus upon its user, as well as an object people typically
down, because it sounded way too good to be true.” – when a growing community of enthusiasts will do touch several times a day. In a country with more
the company’s marketing online for free – and with than half a billion credit cards already in circulation,
The Sapphire Reserve, wrote another, Ben Schlap- the right card, one that assiduously checks every box it’s not a given that any new combination of attri-
pig, is “beyond a no-brainer, possibly the most the modern credit card deal-hunter cares about. butes will work.
compelling card we’ve ever seen.” On Reddit, a user
shared that Chase had accidentally published a Re- None of this happened by accident. The process Chase had already learned a thing or two about
serve application link, and thousands of applications to create new credit cards is little different from the how to make a card more than a card. The Sapphire
poured in before the page was deactivated. By the of- research Procter & Gamble does to develop a new Preferred, introduced in 2009 with a $95 annual fee,
ficial launch date of Aug. 23, anticipation had built to laundry detergent or Honda does to develop a new was the reigning “It card” before Reserve came along.
the point that the Chase site was rushed by a horde
of deal-seekers. One especially devoted cardholder is Bryan Den-
man, a 35-year-old New York creative director, who
In Ohio, Lindsey brought in extra staff and added has taken advantage of Preferred’s perks to treat his
shifts. “We had to have a backup plan to the back- girlfriend to Chase-sponsored private dinners at the
up plan,” he says. The plant ran hot for about three restaurants Craft, Rebelle, and Le Bernardin, as well
weeks. During that time, Chase burned through its as to get good seats at venues like Madison Square
inventory of metal cards – a stock that was supposed Garden. Denman recognizes that loyalty to a credit
to last 10 to 12 months. (The company declined to card is unusual.
say how many Preferred or Reserve cards it’s issued.)
“Everyone’s brought up to distrust their credit
To continue to sate the appetite for the Sapphire card company,” he says. “You don’t want to be on the
Reserve, Chase had to switch to standard plastic phone with them; why would you want to spend the
cards as placeholders. The bank says it’s now sent night with them?” But his experiences with Chase
out as many plastic cards as metal – two years’ worth have conferred upon Denman the zeal of a convert.
of cards, gone in less than a month. “I am a complete fanboy,” he says. “I’m telling every-
one to get this card.” He’s not alone. “When I go to
When the first cards were shipped, some custom- dinner, there might be three cards that get thrown
ers posted “unboxing” videos on YouTube, rever- down. They’re all Chase Sapphire.”
ently exhibiting terms-and-conditions pamphlets
to the camera. The videos have garnered more than At Chase, finding the Bryan Denmans of the mar-
60,000 views; the Reddit thread has 10,000 com- ketplace is a task led by Gordon Smith. When he’s
ments. The hype usually reserved for a new iPhone not restoring classic sports cars – like a 1969 Jaguar
was now being applied to a high-interest line of cred- E-Type from England, where he grew up – he’s in
it. And until mid-September, Chase hadn’t spent a charge of the company’s card and consumer-bank-
dime on advertising. ing divisions.

Having previously headed up the U.S. card busi-
ness for American Express, Smith joined Chase in
2007. When he got there, he saw that the bank’s card
business was little more than a consumer-finance
operation. In that context, he says, “a customer
doesn’t think about themselves really as having the
credit card. They think about themselves as having
the loan.”

This wasn’t where Smith wanted his credit card
division to be. A card that people think of as only a
loan is not a card customers have a relationship with,
much less a card they want to use all the time. “They
could keep the card itself in a shoebox, not necessar-
ily in their wallet,” says Smith.

At the same time, the marketplace was going
through an upheaval. The financial crisis led banks
to step back from offering plastic to anyone with a
pulse, and many Americans drastically cut their
credit card bills. The Credit Card Accountability
Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009
placed numerous restrictions on how issuers could
penalize or otherwise dun their members for exor-
bitant fees, erasing billions from the low end of the
market. Cards for more affluent consumers were a
safer bet.

The right kind of card in this environment would
have to be, as they say in the credit card industry,
“top of wallet” – something you use frequently as
your preferred method of payment. The reason has
to do with the fact that card issuers can make money
in two ways: interest and fees or interchange.

The recession and the CARD Act made the inter-
est-and-fees strategy a much harder proposition. “It
was clear that revolving-credit cards were not going
to be the moneymaker they once were,” says David

CONTINUED ON PAGE 38

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38 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35 INSIGHT COVER STORY

Robertson, the publisher of the Nilson Report, an in- ($450 and $2,500, respectively) but also a comple- tractive,” says Chase’s Smith. “How do we price it in
dustry newsletter. ment of perks and services that, it was suggested, such a way that it would be economically viable for
could almost change the laws of nature to meet your us, but the customer will look at it and say, ‘You know
Interchange became the way to go. Someone who needs. Dedicated concierges could secure last-min- what? I have to pay a fee, but that’s good value.’”
uses his card all day, every day, for everything from a ute reservations at popular restaurants; Centurion
cup of Starbucks to a new Rolex Submariner, is allow- cardholders could be greeted at international airports That value can also be emphasized by a robust re-
ing his issuer to collect a small fee on every transac- and whisked through customs and immigration. wards program. The dirty little open secret of those
tion. That fee – the interchange – is higher for premi- older elite cards was that, for all their swagger and
um cards such as Chase’s Sapphires. The fee is higher In the throes of the Great Recession, Chase judged status, they were actually pretty lousy at rewarding
still when the card is used at a luxury retailer, which that luxury would have to be cloaked in understat- their users. “With the American Express Platinum,
is more likely with a high-end card. And since the fee ed virtue, not sybaritic excess. The modern affluent you get one point per dollar on all purchases other
is something charged to the merchant, not the shop- customer was more Joni Mitchell than Joan Collins: than travel purchases from American Express’s travel
per, it saves banks from incurring more consumer more casual, more discreet – millionaires with mini- agent,” says Jason Steele, a writer for CompareCards.
wrath. vans. To attract that kind of customer, a new credit com. “Yet with less expensive annual fees, there are
card would have to offer a sense of being a sound fi- cards that could get two times or three times for every
For all these reasons, Chase decided to pursue a nancial choice. dollar you spend.”
premium strategy. But a premium credit card would
have to be something different in 2009 than when One way for Chase to do that would be to lower the Keeping track of miles and points used to be the
they first came about in the 1980s and ’90s. That mar- annual fee from hundreds of dollars to $95. “When domain of road-warrior obsessives, who could de-
ket was effectively established and defined by Ameri- you look at where you’re going to price something, bate the relative merits of rewards programs with
can Express, which had launched cards like the Plati- on a per-unit basis it can be very profitable obviously Talmudic specificity, but collecting and using re-
num in 1984 and the black Centurion card in 1999. with a high price, but you’re going to find a much wards has gotten decidedly more mainstream.
smaller group of people who will find the product at-
Its top-shelf cards came with hefty annual fees Credit card review sites – many of which earn

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 39

INSIGHT COVER STORY

commissions on driving leads to issuers’ websites Many points-granting cards rely on a complex these customers tell us,” says Pam Codispoti, the
– act like an accelerant when a new card catches system of rotating bonus categories. The Citi Divi- president of Chase’s branded cards division, “is that
fire. They rank high in Google searches and domi- dend card, for example, gives 5 percent cash back rewards matter, but while we want them to be very
nate discussion boards. ThePointsGuy, the site Kelly on Hilton hotel rooms and car rentals in the current valuable, we actually don’t want to do a whole lot
runs, now has close to 3 million unique visitors every quarter; in October, the offer shifts to Best Buy and of work to understand the rules and regulations
month, which makes it about as heavily trafficked as department store purchases. around them.”
Bleacher Report, the popular sports site.
With Sapphire, Chase opted for simplicity. “What CONTINUED ON PAGE 40

40 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 39 INSIGHT COVER STORY

Chase introduced the Sapphire Pre-
ferred card in 2009 with double points
in two large categories: dining and
travel. The card also allowed users to
transfer their points to a broad range
of frequent-flier programs (at the cost
of undercutting its existing range of
co-branded cards with United Air-
lines). The moderate fee, generous
points, and partner network got the
Sapphire Preferred noticed, and as
consumer spending began to rebound
after the recession, it came to be regu-
larly cited on card-enthusiast sites as
one of the all-around best.

Chase’s emphasis on value dovetails
with the psychology of what the com-
pany refers to as the “new affluent”:
a segment of the population that is
well-to-do but still in its prime earning
years. For them, it’s more important
to be savvy than fancy. More Kirkland
vodka from Costco, less Stolichnaya
Elit. “You feel smart with this card,”
says Kelly, describing the image of

“I HAVE THE CHASE SAPPHIRE
PREFERRED, AND VIRTUALLY NOTHING
GIVES ME MORE PLEASURE WHEN I PAY AND
THE CASHIER NOTICES HOW GORGEOUS THAT CARD IS.”

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 41

INSIGHT COVER STORY

the first Sapphire card. “You’re ‘in the phire would still resonate with custom- rewarding than the Sapphire Reserve. pected to attract a slightly older cus-
know.’ You’re not flashy.” ers and stay relevant.” At the top of the heap is American Ex- tomer, but Chase says the majority of
press’s Centurion, which commands applicants have been millennials. Kelly
The design of Chase’s Sapphire Smith knows enough about cars to exorbitant fees ($7,500 as an initiation thinks Sapphire has transcended the
Preferred card, which has now been know that above the BMW 3 Series and fee, followed by a $2,500 annual fee) surly bonds of personal finance.
extended to the Reserve, has been a 5 Series is the flagship 7 Series. While for those lucky enough to be invited
surprisingly powerful asset. Sapphire Chase hasn’t said whether it intends to to join. If Reserve sustains its momen- “They’ve built a lifestyle brand out
cards are nearly featureless on the move even further upmarket, it would tum, a move into more rarefied in- of it,” he says. Perhaps that’s Chase’s
front, with little more than a chip, the not be at all surprising if the bank fol- comes may be next. “I think a number greatest accomplishment: It has man-
cardholder’s name, and some discreet lowed Sapphire Preferred and Reserve of issuers think that Amex is ready to aged to make Sapphire a modern,
branding. with, say, Sapphire Premier. That be run down,” says the Nilson Report’s desirable credit card for people who
would be a pure play to the affluent, no Robertson. would otherwise not care about their
The numbers are flush on the back, “mass” required. credit card. “They’ve managed to take
but what always gets remarked upon Fortunately for Chase, it’s getting something from being a stupid card
is the card’s weight. With a metal core Already, competitors such as Bar- new cardholders while they’re young you carry in your wallet,” says Den-
sandwiched between two pieces of clays have launched new cards like the – to a surprising degree. When it was man, “to a part of your identity, like the
plastic, the Sapphire Preferred has no- Gold Luxury Card, which comes with originally conceived, Reserve was ex- clothes you wear.” 
ticeably more heft than a regular, all- a $1,000 annual fee but is actually less
plastic card. Chase won’t say what ma-
terials are used, but Lindsey, the plant
director, says the form factor costs
“5 to 10 times as much as a standard
card”; chip-enabled cards cost around
$2 to make.

“I have the Chase Sapphire Pre-
ferred, and virtually nothing gives me
more pleasure when I pay and the
cashier notices how gorgeous that
card is,” says Sean McQuay, the credit
card expert at NerdWallet, a personal-
finance site. (He has since gotten a
Reserve; “the sign-up bonus was too
good to ignore,” he says.)

“Chase has basically realized that
the weight raises customers’ dopa-
mine levels. Being able to get into my
brain every single time I swipe my card
– there’s literally nothing better a mar-
keter could want.” Chase’s neurotrans-
mitter strategy has had a positive effect
on its bottom line: In 2007, the bank’s
card-services division reported net in-
come of $2.9 billion; in 2015, that fig-
ure was $3.9 billion.

As the Sapphire Preferred became a
success, Smith assembled new teams
at Chase to determine what kind of
card would appeal to an even wealth-
ier slice of consumers. The market
seemed ready: Both Citi and Amex had
cut some perks from their high-end
cards, such as airport-lounge access
and free rounds of golf, disappointing
some cardholders. Perhaps they’d be
interested in a new card?

From the beginning, though, it
was clear that the new, upmarket
card would share the Sapphire name,
which was a new step for the compa-
ny. “What Chase had done largely be-
fore is come out with completely new
names” for new cards, says Smith. “So
all that brand equity that you built up
was effectively gone.”

With Sapphire, Smith is trying to
develop a platform. Always the car
enthusiast, he thinks of Sapphire Pre-
ferred as Chase’s BMW 3 Series, and
the Sapphire Reserve as the larger,
more luxurious 5 Series. “We wanted
Sapphire to stand for the things that it
always stood for but give us the space
to keep growing and evolving it,” he
says, “so that the brand name of Sap-

42 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT EDITORIAL

The Trump/Clinton debate over the Federal Reserve

BY DR. DOM ARMENTANO “false economy” as Trump asserts de- flows into financial institutions and excessive speculation and to provide
serves a serious discussion. then out to the bond and stock market a reasonable return on savings for se-
The interest rate policies of the Fed- and into housing where it inflates out- niors and others who have been dis-
eral Reserve affect all economic de- In normal business times with inter- puts and prices in these markets. criminated against for a decade.
cisions. The decision to buy a car or est rates determined by market forces,
a home; the decision to start a small private savings from households and That’s the good news. The problem Yet no one wants to see another mas-
business or expand an existing one; the business flow into financial markets with all of this, as most economists will sive foreclosure of homes or 10% un-
decision to borrow money long term and then are invested (research and acknowledge, is that unless the Fed employment. And although the Trump
or short; the decision to invest in the development, new factories) where continues these easy money policies economic team has provided several de-
stock market or close out an IRA. they can increase productivity and indefinitely and, indeed, doubles down tailed tax and spending proposals, they
stimulate economic growth. And as on them, the entire price structure of have provided no real explanation of
Anyone concerned about their own the economy expands, the accumula- the bond, stock and real estate market how the next recession is to be avoided if
economic health and the health of the tion of private savings creates a pool of begins to quickly erode, as we learned and when interest rates are normalized.
general economy must pay attention funds that can be continually reinvest- in 2007-8. Of course, neither has Hillary Clinton.
to any debate about Fed monetary ed and sustain that recovery.
policy. And when the Fed finally allows in- Indeed, as noted above, Clinton has
In the most recent business cycle, terest rates to increase and the credit argued that any comment or criticism
Recently Donald Trump and Hill- however, the recovery in consumer and money flows slow or stop alto- of Fed monetary policy is somehow
ary Clinton had a minor dust-up over durable spending and in credit and gether, the economic expansion ends off-limits to presidential candidates.
Trump’s remarks concerning Federal mortgages for housing purchases has and a nasty recession inevitably fol- Huh? Fed policy has a profound effect
Reserve interest rate policy. Trump as- not been funded solely by private sav- lows. Thus, in some real sense, any Fed on job growth, on incomes and income
serted that the Fed was keeping inter- ings; instead, the bulk of the funds manipulated expansion is always pre- inequality, on housing prices and on
est rates down “so that everything else have actually been credits provided by carious or false. our entire economic future.
doesn’t go down” and that as a conse- the Federal Reserve System through
quence “we have a false economy.” open market operations. The problem for policy makers is Arguably it is far more important
how to get interest rates up without than tax policy or whether the federal
He was quickly taken to task by Hill- These “operations” involve the pur- sending the economy into another budget is balanced or not. And yet,
ary Clinton who countered that candi- chase of bonds by the Fed and that painful tailspin. The U.S. economy according to candidate Clinton, any
date Trump “should not be comment- process creates “new money” which requires higher interest rates to curb comment on Federal Reserve policy is
ing on Fed actions when (you) are inappropriate for candidates running
running for President…” for the highest elective office in Ameri-
ca. This makes no sense.
Let’s analyze both comments. First,
even Janet Yellen has admitted that What does make sense is the need for
the Fed’s multi-year zero interest rate a substantive debate between Trump
policy continues because the recovery and Clinton about why higher interest
from the last recession is not complete rates are necessary and how the Federal
and that economic growth would slow Reserve can raise rates without plung-
if they raised rates now. ing the “false” economy into another
painful recession. Now that would be a
Translation: certain things would debate worth watching. 
“go down” (stock market, employment
growth, housing) if interest rates were to * Dr. Armentano is Professor Emeritus
go up. Indeed, what other reason could in Economics at the University of Hart-
there be for keeping real interest rates at ford (Ct) and a research associate at the
near zero for almost 100 months? Independent Institute in Oakland, Ca.
He lives in 32963.
Second, the proposition that low
interest rates have, indeed, created a

NUTRITION, PART II as fructose) and processed sugars (such as high- Eating or drinking too much added sugar can lead
The Dangers of Added Sugar fructose corn syrup) to processed foods and drinks. to health problems including tooth decay, obe-
In the U.S., the average man consumes 335 calo- sity, difficulty controlling type 2 diabetes, higher
One of the most significant changes the U.S. Food ries (about 21 teaspoons) of added sugar each day. triglyceride levels, lower high-density lipoprotein
and Drug Administration (FDA) is mandating to The average woman consumes 239 calories (about (HDL, also called “good”) cholesterol levels, and
be included in nutrition labels is the addition 15 teaspoons) of added sugar each day. Added heart disease.
of a category called “added sugar.” The average sugar provides little to no nutritional value, but it
American consumes 13 percent of his or her total does serve many uses in food processing. Also, if you fill up on foods or drinks that contain
calories from added sugar; the goal is 10 percent. ADDED SUGAR CAN added sugar, you are less likely to eat and drink
But what exactly is added sugar?  Improve the flavor, color, or texture of foods healthy options. Studies have shown that the
Let’s begin with an explanation of naturally and drinks more sugary drinks people drink, the less milk
occurring sugar.  Keep jellies and jams from spoiling they drink. Milk provides calcium, protein, and vi-
NATURALLY OCCURING SUGAR  Help fermentation in breads and alcohol tamins that help your body function well. Sugary
Sugar is a simple carbohydrate that provides calo-  Keep baked goods fresh longer drinks provide many calories from sugar and little
ries for your body to use as energy. Sugar has no THE MAIN SOURCES OF ADDED SUGAR IN to no nutritional value.
other nutritional value. Naturally occurring sugar THE U.S. ARE
is the sugar found in whole, unprocessed foods,  Sugary drinks (for example, soft drinks, sports While most calories you eat or drink are used to
such as milk, fruit, vegetables and some grains. drinks, energy drinks, and juice drinks) meet your body’s nutrient needs, added sugars
One of the most common natural sugars is fruc-  Candy provide “empty calories.” A small amount of emp-
tose, which is found in fruit. Another common  Cakes ty calories in your diet is okay, but you may gain
natural sugar is lactose, which is found in milk.  Cookies weight if you consume too many empty calories.
WHAT IS ADDED SUGAR?  Pies and cobblers
Added sugar is sugar that is added to processed  Sweet rolls, pastries, and doughnuts To find out the recommended daily limit for emp-
foods and drinks while they are being made. Food  Dairy desserts ty calories for your age and gender, go to the U.S.
manufacturers may add both natural sugars (such WHY SHOULD WE LIMIT ADDED SUGAR IN OUR Department of Agriculture’s website: ChooseMy-
DIET? Plate.gov. 

Your comments and suggestions for future topics are
always welcome. Email us at [email protected].

© 2016 Vero Beach 32963 Media, all rights reserved

44 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT BOOK REVIEW

Memoir is the chameleon of litera- ent at the liberation of Buchenwald in searches, showing how looking by masses. We are most definitely not
ture. A memoir can be a biography or 1945. Living in his dream house on Si- dates often turns up new informa- imagining that it will join those endless
an autobiography, philosophical mus- esta Key in Florida, Kantor was driven tion. With the intensity of a man after a Pyrrhic volumes whose indecipherable
ing or literary history, how-to or self- by his own prodigious talent, as well as story, he describes noticing things and bindings fruitlessly wallpaper book-
help; or, like Tom Shroder’s fascinat- large quantities of alcohol, which fu- remembering anecdotes that he some- stores, libraries, and the dusty reaches
ing memoir, “The Most Famous Writer eled a life of celebration and infidelity. how didn’t find important at the time. of the neighbor’s den; those anony-
Who Ever Lived,” it can be all of the He had married his high school sweet- mous, sparsely read, already forgotten
above. heart, but as Shroder discovered, Kan- But the third and most compelling legions of books that will never merit
tor’s various adulteries were part of story in the book is that of Shroder’s so much as a footnote in the history of
Shroder’s biographical subject is his their unspoken contract. struggle with writing. Shroder, who has literature.”
grandfather MacKinlay Kantor, one of never been able to write fiction despite
the most famous and successful writ- As Shroder vividly tells the story of many tries, is unusually honest about The fleeting, shape-shifting nature
ers in the world in the middle of the this larger-than-life writer who was the difficulties of the writing process. of fame and talent have obsessed Shro-
20th century who is now all but for- a generous and often doting grand- “I know from experience that despair der before. As an editor, he is famous
gotten. A friend of Ernest Hemingway father, he contemplates the fleeting is always the first stage of writing – or for cooking up a demonstration of this
and a Pulitzer Prize winner for his 1955 nature of fame. A writer who studied as Ernest Hemingway put it, ‘the first with the writer Gene Weingarten. In
Civil War novel “Andersonville.” Kantor with the novelist Harry Crews at the draft of anything is s---,’” he explains. 2007, they persuaded world-famous
was the celebrated author of more than University of Florida and became an Writing is not fun for Shroder, and it Grammy-winning violinist Joshua Bell
30 novels, dozens of short stories, arti- editor at the Washington Post, Shro- wasn’t for Kantor, either. Amazed by to play rousing classics on his priceless
cles and even some wildly popular epic der mulls over the rave his grandfa- his grandfather’s ability to churn it out, Stradivarius during morning rush hour
poems. Born in Iowa to a newspaper ther got on the cover of the New York even at one point on board a ship – the outside the L’Enfant Plaza station of
editor and an unregenerate con artist, Times Book Review. He realizes that Covadonga – in a storm on the way the D.C. Metro. Bell, wearing a baseball
Kantor was a reporter during World he had often dreamed of receiving to Spain in 1953, Shroder writes that cap, left his violin case open for change
War II, the kind who flew bombing a review like that for himself. “After “completing any book, even under ide- as though he were just another busk-
missions over Germany and was pres- years of downplaying my grandfa- al conditions, requires an almost su- er. He played gorgeously for almost
ther’s literary significance,” he writes, perhuman ability to focus and ignore 45 minutes; very few people noticed.
“I suddenly found myself comparing distractions. Simply sailing the ocean More than 1,000 commuters streamed
it to my own. If he was ultimately in- on sedate seas would, for me, be a reci- by; one recognized him. Weingarten
significant, what was I?” pe for literary paralysis.” won a Pulitzer for the story.

Kantor’s story is fascinating – a bio- Noting that his grandfather, even at What is our writing worth, anyway?
graphical gold mine and an object les- his most successful, was always hard How long will it last and what will it
son in the ultimate fading away of the up – “When you’ve been a writer as mean to our readers? In writing a his-
best-selling, prize-winning success long as I have,” Kantor wrote, “nothing tory that is also a meditation on writ-
many writers dream about. But it is inspires you except a check” – Shroder ing, Shroder has created a book that is
just one of three books folded into this is eloquent about his own wrestling as useful as it is fascinating. Will it still
valuable memoir. The second book is with the muse. “There come just too be read in 50 years? Who knows. As the
Shroder’s research primer about pur- many soul-crushing moments when poet T.S. Eliot contemplating the same
suing Kantor’s story. He begins at the all you’ve written seems gibberish, and questions wrote in his masterpiece,
Library of Congress, where 50,000 Kan- all possible paths forward look to end “Four Quartets”: “For us there is only the
tor items are filed in 150 boxes and he against an unclimbable wall, or over trying. The rest is not our business.” 
is allowed to look at a few folders at a the edge of a cliff,” he writes. As for the
time. He travels to his sister’s house in rewards of writing, he is equally scath- THE MOST FAMOUS WRITER WHO EVER LIVED:
Atlanta to examine some old – he pre- ing. “When we imagine our book being A TRUE STORY OF MY FAMILY
dicts valueless – boxes that turn out published – our book! – we are imagin- BY TOM SHROFER
to be essential, and he even combs ing it will be like those books we grew Blue Rider. 402 pp. $28.
through his own cupboards. He takes up on, adored by the critics, imitated
us step by step through his Internet by the competition, worshiped by the Review by Susan Cheever, The Washington Post

COMING ATTRACTIONS! RECOMMENDED CHILDREN’S BOOKS AND VERO BEACH BEST SELLERS

Wednesday, October 13th at 4pm TOP 5 FICTION TOP 5 NON-FICTION BESTSELLER | KIDS
Author, Watcher, Gatekeeper 1. Razor Girl BY CARL HIAASEN 1. The Power of Mercury 1. Dog Man BY DAV PILKEY
2. Home BY HARLAN COBEN 2. Harry Potter and the Cursed
PATRICIA MUTH presents 3. The Woman in Cabin 10 BY LESLIE MCGUIRK
A TITLE IN THE MAKING Child BY J.K. ROWLING
BY RUTH WARE 2. Best. State. Ever 3. Ada Twist, Scientist
Perot Movement
Laid the Foundation to 4. A Great Reckoning BY DAVE BARRY BY ANDREA BEAT

Take Back America BY ROBERT B. PARKER & 3. Killing the Rising Sun 4. Fish in a Tree
Where Do We Go From Here?
REED FARREL COLEMAN BY BILL O'REILLY & MARTIN DUGARD BY LYNDA MULLALY HUNT

5. A Gentleman in Moscow 4. Born to Run 5. The Terrible Two BY MAC BARNETT

BY AMOR TOWLES BY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

5. The Year of Voting
Dangerously BY MAUREEN DOWD

392 Miracle Mile (21st Street), Vero Beach | 772.569.2050 | www.verobeachbookcenter.com

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 45

INSIGHT TRAVEL

Doggone hotels not as ‘pet-friendly’ as you think

BY JOHN OWENS • Pets Welcome mind, when I saw that the entire gage, a woman standing outside the
• Maximum 2 pets per room chain of low-priced Red Roof Inns rear entrance, talking animatedly on
Travel Columnist • Non-refundable fee: 100 USD lets pets stay free, I booked and pre- a cellphone, held the door for us.
• 2 pets per room allowed with paid two nights on our recent trip.
There is traveling, and there is trav- USD 100 fee per stay-max weight 50 “Thank you,” I said, despite being
eling with a dog. This distinction was pounds How was it? After 10 hours of driv- speechless at her fishnet stockings,
clear throughout the 3,000-mile road • Contact hotel for details ing, perhaps the most succinct review mini mini-skirt, open blouse with an
trip my wife and I recently made from That’s common throughout the would be a long, mournful moan. ample view of her topography and
Vero Beach to New England and back chain. Sobbing, optional. enough makeup to power a lifetime
with our 15-year-old pug, Macy. If you’re staying a week, the $100 of Halloweens.
fee isn’t so burdensome. But for one Our room in the Wilmington, N.C.,
A 24-pound ball of fur, grunting night? It can be an expensive surprise. Red Roof Inn was, well, rough. A hole A moment later, another woman
and sleeping, Macy is a calm and My wife and I discovered that when where a light had been, a door that with similar attributes got out of a van
quiet traveling companion, and was Macy was a puppy and we stayed at a was difficult to lock since it looked and walked into the hotel’s back door.
more like luggage than a passen- Marriott near Mystic, Conn. A house- like it had been kicked in one too
ger. Except when it came to lodging. keeper saw the dog, and upon check- many times, and a bathtub/shower This was 4:30 in the afternoon.
Then, she was the number one factor out we were $75 lighter. I see that to- so encrusted that I was hesitant to From the looks of things, pets aren’t
in determining where we would lay day, pet-friendliness at the Residence stand in it even with my shoes on. Pet- the only ones performing tricks.
our road-weary heads. Inn Mystic/Groton costs $150. friendly? I don’t think a horse would
It is much the same at other big have been a problem. But then, what The room was clean and in good
For decades, my wife and I have brands. The Hyatt Regency Jack- should I have expected for $79? shape, and $129 was a low price for
been Marriott loyalists. JW Marri- sonville Riverfront makes a big fuss that area. Nonetheless, we rushed
ott, Ritz-Carlton and Renaissance about your dog (no cats allowed) with Another night found us at the Red out in the morning, a lot more will-
hotels, sure. But also those at lower a bowl and bed in your room as well Roof Inn Plus in Westbury, N.Y. Near ing to pay the Marriott surcharge for
price points. It is impressive how the as a tag identifying Rover as a guest. Long Island’s sprawling, upscale Roo- our dog.
Courtyards, Residence Inns, Fairfield But upon checkout, expect to pay sevelt Field Mall, it looks like a solid,
Inns, SpringHill Suites and Towne- what the hotel calls “a deep cleaning well-maintained business hotel. Have you recently returned from a
Place Suites do not compromise fee of $100 for up to a six (6) night stay. trip? We would like to tell your story,
freshness, cleanliness or comfort, An additional $100 deep cleaning fee As we walked from the parking lot, and share your insights and adven-
even amid the one-night-stand traf- will be applied for stays from 7-30 juggling Macy, her bed and our lug- tures with your neighbors. Send us an
fic of the I-95 corridor. nights.” email at [email protected]. 
Hilton? The Hampton Inn Amelia
But here’s the rub: Few Marriotts Island at Fernandina Beach charges
are pet-friendly. In fact, most ho- $50 per day, per pet.
tels – especially most good hotels – There are chains with simpler and
aren’t. And even those that do allow cheaper policies. Virtually all La
canine sleepovers often charge for Quinta Inns and Suites let you bring
the privilege. your dog or cat for free. We stayed
at the La Quinta in Florence, S.C.,
It may not be obvious when you and for $117 per night it was a good
book, but a $50- to $150-per-stay sur- deal. There seemed to be dogs every-
charge is commonly tacked on to the where, yet the hotel was clean and
room charge. Take, for instance, the comparable to many value-priced
Residence Inn Amelia Island in Fer- Marriotts.
nandina Beach. Search for the hotel on With that positive experience in
Marriott.com, and it comes up as pet-
friendly (signified by a cute little paw
print). But you must click four links
and scroll to the bottom of several pag-
es before reaching the Pet Policy:

46 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT ST. EDWARD’S

St. Ed’s year-round swimming stars rule the pool

BY RON HOLUB of them just to improve their
Correspondent
strokes and skills.”
Stephen Fenning had his first stint
as St. Ed’s swimming coach from 1988 The leaders on the girls
through 2007, and today he is back in
the fold after an interlude of nearly a de- team are Mary Cate Stiles
cade to take on the dual roles of director
of aquatics and head coach of the var- and Morgan Chapman. Stiles
sity boys and girls swim teams.
was designated team captain
Fenning was hired in January 2016 to
return to familiar surroundings and get this year and she has seen the
reacquainted with a few of the swim-
mers he mentored when they were team evolve over six years on
barely out of kindergarten.
the varsity.
“I guess everything happens for a
reason,” Fenning said. “I had a lot of “I started swimming when
experiences in between that helped
me become a better coach and better I was in the fifth grade and
teacher. It was nice to see some famil-
iar faces again. I felt like I had been in Mary Cate Stiles, Kylie Oakes and Morgan Chapman. joined the varsity in sixth
a time warp when I came back. Time
passed and they have all grown up.” grade,” Stiles said. “I really

The swimmers he was talking about like it and I keep coming
are among the four candidates for the
state tournament. Coleman Kramer, nament veterans dating back, so it has to have something that
Tomas Botero, Spencer Greaves and
Andrew Brown have become fixtures in Coach Stephen Fenning. back two seasons and have appeals to me.
the pool at St. Ed’s. They are state tour-
PHOTOS BY DENISE RITCHIE already been recognized “The girls team was big when I was in

among the best swimmers sixth grade but then it kind of dwindled

in school history. down. Swimming is not a huge sport

“Those four guys train here. I really wish it was. We always try

year round,” Fenning to get more people involved, but they

said. “When I left here are intimidated because they think it’s

Andrew Brown was in the such a hard sport.

third grade and Spencer “But our team is built like a family

Greaves was in second and we have a lot of fun together. We are

all there to support each

other and everyone backs

you up when you are in an

event.”

Stiles usually swims

three or four days a week

after school and tries to

swim in the morning as

much as possible. Her spe-

cialties at meets are the 50

and 100 freestyle as well

as the butterfly for the 200

medley relay team.

Brown and Greaves co-

captain the boys team.

The drive to excel for these

guys shines through when

Andrew Brown, Coleman Kramer, Spencer Greaves and Tomas Botero. they team up with Botero
and Kramer for relay races.

“It’s more fun to train

grade. I had them here in the swim with teammates in what is basically an

program as little kids. I had no idea individual sport,” Greaves explained.

how they would turn out. “It’s a nice change of pace. We all get re-

“These four guys are very accom- ally excited when it comes to relay time

plished at this point. We are looking to because that’s what really brings us to-

place high in the district meet, and at gether. We always get hyped up for that.

the regionals we should be in the top “My friend convinced me to join the

five. Then we will see what happens at swim team in fifth grade. He’s no lon-

the state meet. ger swimming but I ended up loving it

“The boys team has a real good shot and sticking with it. I am in the pool ev-

of making the finals at the state meet, ery day except Sunday. I usually do the

but without a lot of swimmers we really 200 medley relay, 400 freestyle relay,

can’t place too high. The 200 medley 200 individual medley and 100 breast-

relay and 400 freestyle relay are where stroke. I will also do the 400 backstroke

Brown, Greaves, Botero and Kramer are depending on the meet.

going to be most successful. “I want to make it to states again

“The rest of the boys on the team are this year (as a junior). I made it in both

seasonal swimmers and a good portion my freshman and sophomore years.

of them are in the sixth and seventh I would like to final in both of my in-

grade. The five swimmers on the girls dividual events and definitely in the

team are all seasonal. A lot of them are relays. When a relay race starts, it’s all

starting from scratch. I’m looking for all good.” 

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 47

INSIGHT ON FAITH

Let go of anger to feel better physically and spiritually

BY REV. DRS. CASEY AND BOB BAGGOTT
Columnists

The New Testament is composed of many of its phrases have been retained And of course, not only is hostility can readily answer some of these ques-
27 books. In terms of sheer volume, in our modern vernacular. destructive to us physically, but as the tions, perhaps you are hosting some
the weightiest section is the one de- Letter to the Ephesians would have us damaging hostility. Maybe you have let
voted to 21 letters written to early Consider, for example, the well- understand, it is damaging to us spiri- the sun go down on your anger a few
Christians. The letters functioned as known counsel from the Letter to the tually, as well. How can we maintain too many times.
encouragement, instruction, guid- Ephesians, “Don’t let the sun go down a relationship with a God we claim is
ance and warning. In other words, the on your anger.” The wisdom of that ad- the very source of love and life, after If that is so, then the advice from
letters provided necessary commen- vice is being validated by medical sci- all, when we are busy immersing our- another of the biblical letters to the
tary on belief’s application to every- ence in some pretty amazing ways. As selves in loveless animosity and lifeless little church of Philippi may offer an
day life. Rev. King Duncan has noted, psychia- bitterness. alternative focus. It says, “Finally, be-
trists at Duke University concluded loved, whatever is true, whatever is
Isn’t it interesting that right from the after a 30-year study of the health and So this may be a good time for a self- honorable, whatever is just, whatever
start, people of faith apparently had habits of over 2,000 people, that those administered hostility test as a way to is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever
some difficulty sorting out how to put who have ongoing feelings of hostility diagnose our likelihood for physical is commendable, if there is any excel-
their beliefs into practice? We are cer- toward others have an increased risk and spiritual health risks. We could ask lence and if there is anything worthy
tainly no different today. The fact that of illness and early death. Those who ourselves … Who am I unwilling to for- of praise, think about these things.”
Christianity has splintered into 38,000 scored in the top fifth for hostility in a give? What situation so angers me that I
denominations worldwide speaks for it- personality inventory were four times regularly rant and rave about it? Where If you thought about those things,
self. Christians still differ in understand- more likely to have died during the do I feel I have been deeply wronged focused on them, supported them, and
ing how to live out the “Gospel truth.” 30 years of the study than those who and deserve a long-awaited apology? enhanced their prominence in your
scored in the bottom fifth. What unfairness really galls me? If you life and your world, wouldn’t your hos-
Yet the plain language of some of tility quotient decline to safer levels? 
the New Testament letters to strug-
gling churches and their members has
something to offer us even today in our
search for helpful guides for faithful
living. Much of the simple, frank advice
which the letters contain is clearly still
relevant, as evidenced by the fact that

48 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT PETS

Bonzo sings the praises of the ‘Pointer Sisters’

Hi Dog Buddies! found a kennel in Melbourne. If you’ve the ducks cuz it’s Abby and Bea. PHOTO BY DENISE RITCHIE
ever seen Pointer puppies, you know
This week I had a blast yapping with we’re Totally Irresistible! Barfingly Ador- their pond.” in every way, ’cept his cat clothes. You
Abby and Bea Carman, who call them- able! So Mom picked ME. Then they de-
selves “The Pointer Sisters.” If I hadn’t al- cided to adopt Bea, too, probly cuz she “Of course,” I said. “What’re your fa- know, trans-species. We play together,
ready known different, I wudda thought gave ‘em The Look! You know the one.”
they were still puppies, cuz they had that vorite snacks?” sleep together. We think of ourselves
Puppy Bounciness when they greeted I nodded. Every dog knows The
me and my assistant. Look, right? “Cookies!” said Abby. as three pooches. And Junior wouldn’t

While they were still in Greet Mode, Abby continued, “My kennel name “Apples, carrots and green beans!” know a mouse if he tripped over one. He
I observed that they looked identical, was Mocha and Bea’s was Domino. And
’cept one had a red collar, and one had our papers names are Lady Abigail and added Bea. even goes out to potty with us. But a little
a blue collar. Abby and Bea are German Queen Beatrice. Thank Lassie, Mom and
Short-Haired Pointers, and actual sisters, Coach call us plain ol’ Abby and Bea (so “What about Pooch Pals?” I asked. ‘cat’ comes through then, cuz after we’ve
with golden eyes and shiny coats, in that you don’t have to bow or anything). We
super pretty color that humans, for some named ourselves for the human Pointer “We have tons of pals at the dog park. Done Our Duty, he covers it up.
reason, call Liver. I mean, Liver? I’m Sisters cuz they did lotsa singing, Coun-
thinking, maybe, “Mocha.” With white try and R&B and stuff. So we thought, And me, Bea, Mom and Coach some- “But we don’t play all the time. We also
sorta-snowflake sprinkles. And, woof, ‘Well, WE’RE Pointers, AND sisters, plus
with those long legs and tails (I couldn’t we have good voices, and we do a lot of times dog-sit for our neighbors. Remem- have an Important Job. We protect the
help noticing) they coulda played Vegas. R&B, too.’”
ber Allie and Ziggy Franzel, the English property by patrolling the perimeter and
They slowed down for the Wag- “How so?” I inquired.
and-Sniff, then sat, side-by-side, very “Running and Barking, Silly!” Bea in- Cockers you interviewed awhile back? doing a lot of Official Watching.”
straight. The red-collar girl said, “We are terjected. “We run and tumble, and bark
SO-O excited to have The Bonz Visiting Hello or when Something’s Amiss. Abby They live right up the street. And we have As I prepared to leave, Abby and Bea
Our Very Own Home! I’m Abby, this is enjoys chewing the squeakies out of
my sister Bea, this is our Mom, Leigh, squeaky toys, but I’m not into toys. An, pals at Paw Prints, a Dog Spa. We call it headed out the porch door and sat,
and our Dad, Brian, who we call ‘Coach’ ’cept for one pair of Mom’s shoes Abby
cuz he looks like Mike Ditka, who usta sorta chewed up when she was a puppy, our Bed and Biscuit!” side-by-side, under a tree, Officially
be an actual coach of one of those hu- we don’t chew stuff we’re not s’pose to.
man games with a ball. We also have And we stay in our yard cuz there’s this “Where do you sleep Watching, their heads moving in uni-
three grown-up human sisters, Natalie, magic fence you can’t see but if you go
Kimberly and Melissa.” too far, it bites you. Now we know when “We have our own loft!” said Abby.“We son, side to side, their expressions All
it’s about to bite us and we outsmart it by
When my Assistant nudged me, I real- not going there. Clever, right?” hang out, nap, stuff like that. And some- Business. I knew nothing would es-
ized I had been staring at Abby and Bea, I nodded.
grinning like a Total Goofball. I switched “And we just go Bonkers over squir- times Coach works up there. He repairs cape their eyes.
to my Professional Journalist Face. “De- rels,” Abby continued. “They jump from
lighted to meet you,” I gulped, remind- a neighbor’s tree to our screen pool roof, fishing rods and reels and we help, in an
ing myself that, although I am a carefree zip across and leap into another tree. So
bachelor, I was On the Job. “I know you we chase’m uppa tree and psych them advisory capacity. We have a king-size Till next time,
have a great story.” out -- Squirrel Mind Games, ya know.
We sit for hours ’til the squirrel hasta go bed there, and six more downstairs.” The Bonz
Abby began. “Up in Maryland, Mom home for dinner. Little do they know “Well, look whose here!” Bea said,
and Coach had a Pointer, Samantha. Af- how close they come to Disaster!”
ter she went to Dog Heaven, they waited “I notice there are lotsa ducks. Do you turning to the doorway. A golden tab-
for years before they decided, in 2010, to chase them, too?
get a new pupster. They went on line and “Naw! Just Squirrels. We don’t bother by cat was sitting there, tail swishing. Don’t Be Shy
“Whazzup?” the cat said.
We are always looking for pets
“Mr. Bonzo, meet our little brother, Ju- with interesting stories.
nior. We adopted him when we were 3.”
To set up an interview, email
“Love your work!” Junior said to me.
“Thanks!” I replied.

Behind her paw, Abby said, “Junior’s [email protected].

been with us all his life. He’s a total dog

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 49

INSIGHT GAMES BRIDGE

ONE TRICK SHORT? FIND ANOTHER WINNER WEST NORTH EAST
J84 A7632 K Q 10 9
By Phillip Alder - Bridge Columnist 732 Q J 10 86
K J 10 8 A54 Q
Alan Parsons, an English audio engineer, songwriter, musician and record producer, 965 AQ 10 8 7 4 3 2
said, “I started in a research lab for TV cameras, then I worked at a tape duplication
facility. That was the first introduction for me to recorded music and hi-fi.” SOUTH
5
We have duplication in bridge, not just of boards for a tournament, but in a single suit. AK954
The North-South clubs in today’s diagram have all four honors, but will take only two 97632
tricks. Duplication of this sort is often fatal to a contract, because each partner will KJ
have given his cards full value, when they are not pulling their weight.
Dealer: South; Vulnerable: East-West
This deal from Steve Conrad was declared by his regular partner, Ruth Stober of
Great Neck, New York. How did she play in four hearts after West led a trump? The Bidding:

North’s three-club rebid was fourth-suit game-forcing. Then his jump to four hearts SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST OPENING
was a slam-try, showing a stronger hand than a four-heart rebid on round two. 1 Hearts Pass 1 Spades Pass
2 Diamonds Pass 3 Clubs Pass LEAD:
South could see only nine top tricks: one spade, five hearts, one diamond and two 3 Diamonds Pass 4 Hearts All Pass 2 Hearts
clubs (that annoying duplication). The kibitzers thought she would play on diamonds
to collect an overtrick if they were 3-2. But Stober noticed that she could win 11
tricks by ruffing a very rare four times in her own hand. She won the first trick on the
board, cashed the spade ace, ruffed a spade with the heart five, played a diamond to
the ace, ruffed another spade, overtook the club jack with dummy’s queen, ruffed a
third spade, crossed to the club ace, ruffed the now-high spade seven, and had two
top trumps on the board. It was a beautiful dummy reversal.

50 Vero Beach 32963 / October 6, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT GAMES & CO.

SOLUTIONS TO PREVIOUS ISSUE (SEPTEMBER 29) ON PAGE 62

ACROSS DOWN
7 Contemporary (6) 1 Put up for election (8)
8 Cause (6) 2 Following (4)
9 Tip, clue (4) 3 Tap on door (5)
10 Rural dwellings (8) 4 Male sibling (7)
11 Mistake (5) 5 Utopia (8)
13 Narration (7) 6 Manage (4)
16 Sixsided shape (7) 12 Photo (8)
17 Untidy (5) 14 Mixed (8)
19 Cosmetic item (8) 15 Socks, tights, etc (7)
21 Certain (4) 18 Ability (5)
22 Hue (6) 20 Idol (4)
23 Chief (6) 21 Break suddenly (4)

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