VB32963_ISSUE32_081116_OPT

Treasure Coast Sotheby’s expands
to Melbourne Beach. P8
Marine Bank has
strong quarter. P8
Brown algae blooms are

cropping up in Vero lagoon. P6

For breaking news visit

MY VERO Will Vero vote
next week on
BY RAY MCNULTY new FPL offer?

‘Angel’ saves man’s life at BY LISA ZAHNER
Vero Beach Tennis Club Staff Writer

Paul Kelly wants everyone After a start to the rainy season that produced scorching days and lawns turning brown, Vero Beach got record rainfalls two days Florida Power & Light of-
in Indian River County to ficials this week were trying
know about the day he died – in a row this past Sunday and Monday, flooding a number of streets including Beachland Blvd. at A1A. PHOTO BY LEAH DUBOIS to figure out how to deal with
and lived to tell about it. objections that could muck
School District, running out of cash, needs a bridge loan up prospects of a Vero City
Not for himself, though. Council vote this coming
"I want people to know how BY KATHLEEN SLOAN Officer Carter Morrison. trict’s bank account in No- Tuesday on their $30 million
this woman saved my life," Staff Writer To tide itself over, the vember. offer to purchase the 3,000-
the 73-year-old retired physi- plus electric customers in the
cal education teacher, college The Indian River County School District will issue a The problem with the pro- town of Indian River Shores
tennis coach and tennis-court School District will run out Tax Anticipation Note that cedure is that it carries high from Vero electric.
builder told me last week- of cash around mid-October, will provide funds until cash costs in interest and fees, con-
end, when I visited his South according to Chief Financial from property tax collections suming money that could be A three-page written offer
County home. "If it hadn't starts flowing into the dis- was sent to Vero officials last
been for her, we wouldn't be CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Thursday, about a week after
talking right now. FPL’s shocking announce-
"She's an angel." ment that it would more than
Actually, Tammy Hallam is double its $13 million offer
a dental hygienist, her profes- to purchase the 80 percent of
sion for the past 35 years. Shores’ residents it does not
She moved here from Boni- already serve.
ta Springs two years ago and
works on the island at Vero Though city officials imme-
diately bristled at the still siz-
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 able “gap” between Vero’s ask-

Sebastian hospital CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
tops IRMC in first
Medicare ranking Trading their ‘Miami Vice’ home for
Vero’s lower-key, sophisticated lifestyle
BY TOM LLOYD
Staff Writer BY STEVEN M. THOMAS on the market last week Key Biscayne home of Aurelio and Berta Fernandez, who are relocating to Vero.
Staff Writer for a heady price, the Wall
The Sebastian River Medi- Street Journal jumped at the
cal Center and the Melbourne When retired tech execu- chance to write about the
Regional Medical Center just tive and real estate investor stunning waterfront proper-
snagged the highest ratings Aurelio Fernandez and his ty, which was featured in the
of all area hospitals in Medi- wife Berta, a pediatrician, 2006 movie “Miami Vice.”
care's first-ever overall hospi- put their Key Biscayne home
tal quality report. CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

Released on July 27, the
Department of Health and

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

August 11, 2016 Volume 9, Issue 32 Newsstand Price $1.00 Aerial Antics
gymnasts put on
News 1-10 Faith 47 Pets 48 TO ADVERTISE CALL great show. P16
Arts 21-26 Games 49-51 Real Estate 63-72 772-559-4187
Books 44-45 Health 27-32 Style 53-55
Dining 56 Insight 33-52 Travel 46 FOR CIRCULATION
Editorial 42 People 11-20 Wine 57 CALL 772-226-7925

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

2 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

School District needs loan But two school board members The last tax anticipation note the seventh in use of the notes among 67
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 weren’t convinced. district issued in 2013 cost taxpayers school districts in the state.
approximately $100,000 in interest,
used for educational purposes if the “Why do we run out of money when issuance fees and “miscellaneous” Most of the other high users are
district managed its budget such that we pass a balanced budget?” board costs, and the current note is likely to large districts with between 67,000
it did not have to borrow funds to member Charles Searcy asked at a July waste a similar amount. Morrison has and 355,000 students, compared to
make it through the fiscal year. 26 budget workshop. included $100,000 in next year’s bud- Indian River County School District’s
get to pay for what is essentially a one- 17,400 students, making it by far the
Superintendent Mark Rendell as- “A cash-flow deficit is different,” year bond issue over which voters do smallest heavy note user.
sured the School Board it’s “not un- Morrison answered vaguely. not get any say.
common” for school districts to issue In the past 30 years, 24 Florida
Tax Anticipation Notes. “It’s a side ef- In business classes, board member According to the Municipal Securi- school districts have issued notes,
fect of how we’re funded [with tax dol- Shawn Frost said, “we were taught all ties Rulemaking Board website, Indian while 43 have never used this financ-
lars arriving in November]. It’s not that management is a matter of timing.” He River County School District is among ing device. 
we’re doing things improperly,” he asked why the district, knowing it has the heaviest issuers of Tax Anticipa-
said. a seasonal cash flow problem, doesn’t tion Notes in Florida, indicating rela- My Vero
build up reserves to get through the tively poor cash management. It ranks
whole year without short-term bor- CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
rowing.

Implant and Esthetic Dentistry, where
her job requires that she remain certi-
fied in CPR. She's also a recreational
tennis player who happened to be
nearby when Kelly collapsed on a
court last summer.

And thanks to Kelly, who made re-
peated phone calls to the Fire Rescue
squad to lobby for public recognition
of her heroism, Hallam will be hon-
ored at next week's County Commis-
sion meeting for using her CPR train-
ing to bring him back from the dead.

"Bless his heart," Hallam said, "but
I'm really not the type of person who
looks for that kind of attention."

Bless her heart for being the type of
person she is.

Kelly wasn't exaggerating: If Hal-
lam hadn't been playing doubles with
friends at the Vero Beach Tennis Club
at Timber Ridge on that fateful Friday
morning – if she hadn't been both de-
cisive and prepared – he almost cer-
tainly would've died on the court.

"I was gone," Kelly said. "I even had
an out-of-body experience where I
was standing there, a few feet away,
and saw a man lying on his back and
a woman doing CPR on him. When I
looked closer, the man was me."

In fact, Kelly said he doesn't recall
regaining consciousness until Satur-
day evening, roughly 36 hours later, at
Indian River Medical Center.

"My wife, Linda, said I responded
earlier," Kelly said, "but I have no
memory of it."

He does remember – in vivid detail
– what happened before he collapsed,
however.

Kelly said he accepted an invitation
to play tennis that late-June morning,
despite the summer heat and humid-
ity, because he was "battling pneumo-
nia" and wanted to "sweat it out." He
recalls playing doubles, losing the first
set 6-4 and "playing pretty well."

The group had begun the second
set and he was positioned at the net,
having just hit a volley, when he felt
himself falling forward. Suddenly, he
blacked out.

The other players on the court

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 3

NEWS

rushed to him, but, other than yelling ambulance drove off, Hallam and her the implant procedure, Kelly experi- Two weeks later, he was back in the
for help, none knew what to do. One friends returned to the court and fin- enced a painful and frightening bron- hospital for surgery to clear a blockage
of the club's owners, Marco Osorio, ished their match. chial spasm, during which he felt as if in a carotid artery. Three weeks after
heard the call, ran into the clubhouse he couldn't breathe. that, he underwent quadruple bypass
and grabbed the defibrillator, but he Meanwhile, Kelly survived his heart surgery.
lacked medical training and was not attack, but his troubles were far from "You're in extreme pain and you
well-versed in how to use the device. over. Doctors were forced to wait near- can't breathe, so you panic," he said. "So I'm completely rebuilt," Kelly
ly a week before implanting a defibril- "Fortunately, it passes." joked.
It was then that Hallam, whose four- lator in his chest because of his bout
some was on a changeover a couple of with pneumonia. The next day, more than a week after Truth is, Kelly, who moved to Vero
courts away, noticed the commotion. he collapsed on the court, Kelly finally Beach in 1998, is now healthier than
Then, while he was recovering from went home – but not for long.
"I saw a man on the ground and CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
the guys standing around him and,
at first, I thought he just fell," Hallam Exclusively John’s Island
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So did her adrenaline – and her
training.

Hallam quickly cut off Kelly's shirt,
used a towel to dry the perspiration
on his torso and carefully attached the
defibrillator pads. She shocked him
twice, but still there was no heartbeat.
She's not sure if she gave him a third
jolt before switching to CPR.

"The defibrillator reads everything,
then tells you what to do," Hallam
said. "After a couple of shocks, it said
to perform CPR, which is what I did."

It was, she said, the first time she
had put her training to use.

"As a hygienist, the state requires us
to renew our CPR certification every
two years, so I had taken the course
a lot over the past 35 years," Hallam
said, adding that she had taken a re-
fresher class only a few months earlier.

"But it wasn't until that day with
Paul that I had to use it."

Part of her CPR training was know-
ing to not panic if she heard cracking
sounds – which she did – and con-
tinue the chest massage, because it's
more important to restart the heart
than worry about any damage done to
cartilage or the rib cage.

Within minutes, Kelly began cough-
ing, then breathing, and his heart be-
gan beating again. He had come back
to life. A few minutes later, a Fire Res-
cue team arrived and took him to the
hospital.

And what did Hallam do?
"I didn't really think about what was
happening while I was doing it; I just
reacted," she said. "So once I revived
him and the paramedics took him
away in the ambulance, I walked over
to the bench and sat down. After that
kind of adrenaline rush, I was shaking
so much . . . I couldn't absorb it all.
"I just remember people kept com-
ing up to me and saying, 'Do you know
what you just did?' "
Apparently, she didn't: After the

4 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

My Vero Paul Kelly and Tammy Hallam. PHOTO BY PHIL SUNKEL type of public recognition."
So Kelly called the Fire Rescue squad
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 First, though, there's Tuesday morn- hugged her, she hugged me and there
ing's County Commission meeting. were some tears. and described how a dental hygienist
many men his age. He has been active brought him back from the dead. It
and athletic throughout his life, and "After I got out of the hospital the "I told her I wanted to take her and took several calls before he finally got
he enjoys physical exertion, wheth- first time, I went to the tennis club to her husband to dinner, and eventual- to Assistant Fire Chief Brian Burkeen,
er it's recreational or being handy see Tammy and thank her for what ly we did get together at the Riverside who agreed to recommend Hallam for
around the house. she did," Kelly said. "We didn't know Cafe," he added. "But I wanted to do a Life Saving Award from the county's
each other before this happened, but I more. I thought she deserved some Emergency Services Department.
He walks two miles every day, rows
along the lagoon with his wife in their "Did you know she helped some-
two-seat kayak and proudly shows off one else not long after she saved me?"
the two patios, chair swing, gazebo Kelly said.
and swinging-bridge he has built in
his backyard. Three weeks after pulling Kelly from
the clutches of the Grim Reaper, Hal-
"I've been physical my whole life," lam arrived home to find a landscaper
said Kelly, a Minnesota native who in distress across the street. This time,
coached the Iowa State tennis team it was heat stroke, not a heart attack.
for two seasons in the late 1970s and
owned and operated a tennis-court Again, Hallam sprang into action:
construction company for 25 years She ran into the house and came out
before retiring in 2011. "I still enjoy it." with ice packs, Gatorade and a dry
shirt, and quickly revived him.
He hopes to enjoy tennis again, too
– and soon. "Anybody can do it," she said, "if
they have the training and know what
"I haven't swung a racket since my to do."
heart attack, but I'll play again," Kelly
said. "I'm physically able and ready to Maybe so, but Kelly believes he was
go. I might wait for this heat to subside saved by something more than CPR,
a bit, but I want to get back out on the that he was touched by an angel who
court." refused to let him go. And he ought to
know.

He died – and lived to tell about it. 

Will Vero vote on FPL offer? O’Connor said he had pleaded with “They said if they decided not to in- Late Monday afternoon, FPL
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 FPL to streamline the terms of the deal clude it, that the price would still stay spokesperson Sarah Gatewood said
for the Shores’ customers, but what the same, that it would still be $30 mil- the matter of the transmission assets
ing price and what FPL is now offering, came to him in writing last week had lion,” O’Connor said, more than a little was still uncertain. “Some concerns
this latest offer from FPL was seen as some problems. puzzled. have been raised and it’s still being
the Shores’ best chance yet of getting discussed whether or not those items
FPL as the Town’s power provider. “We had been talking with FPL for On Monday, as the offer was circu- will be taken out of the offer,” Gate-
some time about them purchasing lated to members of the Vero Utilities wood said.
“To make a transaction happen, some transmission assets down at Commission who were scheduled to
you have to have a willing buyer and the Fort Pierce line, an inter-connect dig into it and make a yea or nay rec- The inclusion of the transmission
a willing seller. Here you have a will- between Vero and Fort Pierce and ommendation to the City council, assets could be eliminated on the fly
ing buyer and a willing seller, it’s just the Emerson substation down there, O’Connor was still concerned about during a presentation to Vero’s Utilities
a matter of what price,” City Manager but that’s a totally different topic,” mixing the offer for the sale of the Commission on Tuesday, which would
Jim O’Connor said. O’Connor said. “I asked them to please Shores customers with the transmis- be in time for the noon Wednesday
keep this offer simple and not put sion assets. deadline to have the FPL purchase of-
But what had not been immedi- those transmission assets in there.” fer placed upon the Aug. 16 council
ately clear about FPL’s $30 million of- He was also unclear how Vero could agenda.
fer was that it proposed that Vero sign Compounding the confusion, ensure that it would have transmis-
over transmission, inter-connect and O’Connor said that when he sat down sion rights from the south along the Mayor Jay Kramer, a longtime pro-
substation assets – not directly tied to last month with FPL and Shores offi- 138 kilovolt line to bring power into ponent of a “partial sale,” reportedly
purchase of the Shores’ customers – cials, FPL said they might or might not the city should there be a snafu with stated publicly last week that he was
valued at $8 million. want to include the inter-connect and transmission lines headed to Vero not prepared to vote on the offer at
substation in the deal. from the west. next week’s council meeting.

The last thing Vero would want to Kramer is running in a contentious
do is to commit to a long-term, an- Republican primary race against in-
nual transmission or “wheeling” fee cumbent Bob Solari for a seat on the
to be paid to FPL for use of transmis- Indian River Board of County Com-
sion lines that the city for decades has missioners, and should Kramer be de-
owned. feated, he is expected to file to run for
re-election to Vero’s Council.
FPL’s offer letter states that its take-
over of the transmission assets would Tabling the issue, or side-tracking
relieve Vero of compliance obligations it with a study for a few weeks, would
with state and federal energy regula- take the pressure off Kramer to vote
tory agencies, saving the city an un- “yes” to curry favor with influential
known sum annually. Shores campaign donors and support-
ers.
But O’Connor said some research
he’s done showed that not to be so If would also give potential pro-sale
cut-and-dried. “It wouldn’t complete- challengers to Kramer’s Vero council
ly take away the compliance that we seat a few less weeks to raise dollars
need to do; it would just reduce the and marshal support.
number of forms we have to fill out,”
O’Connor said. Based upon statements expressing
concern the city ratepayers be “made

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 5

NEWS

whole” and protected from all possible come up for a vote on Aug. 16. Turner said Monday, based upon of the assumptions that led to Vero’s
contingent liabilities and rate fluctua- Councilman Harry Howle and what little she knew about FPL’s writ- initial $67 million pricetag, which was
tions, Councilman Dick Winger and ten summary of its offer, no study or quickly reduced to $64 million and a
Vice Mayor Randy Old are expected to Councilwoman Pilar Turner have long consultant analysis is needed. few months ago further tempered to
vote against accepting FPL’s $30 mil- supported sale of the Shores custom- $42.4 million – a figure designed to
lion offer, should the matter actually ers to FPL. Kramer is seen as the swing “We’ve worked this to death,” Turner
vote. said. Turner has been highly skeptical CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

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6 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

Algae blooms cropping up in the lagoon in Vero

BY STEVEN M. THOMAS
Staff Writer

Vero Beach and the barrier island dock, I was shocked to see a thick layer Monday, Aug. 1. By that time of the The results of the tests are not yet
have been spared the flood of toxic of oily looking algae on the surface of day, most of the bloom had settled to posted on the FDEP website.
green algae that has ruined the sum- the water. It covered approximately a the bottom but they were able to gath-
mer and hurt waterfront businesses in third of Pebble Bay and had a foul odor er some samples.” Even though it is not toxic, brown al-
Stuart and other parts of Martin and that still persists. We have lived here gae is destructive to the environment
St. Lucie counties, but brown algae for 20 years and I have never seen an FDEP personnel told Orcutt the al- because it consumes oxygen and cuts
blooms have started cropping up in algae bloom here [before].” gae was not “toxic to breathe” but that off sunlight aquatic plants need to
the lagoon here, infesting small bays it is “unhealthy to swim” when the survive, smothering sea life. Unprec-
and canals. Orcutt said there have been blooms algae is present. They left Pebble Bay edented brown algae blooms that be-
each morning since July 31. to take samples near Seminole Lane gan in Brevard County extended to
The twice daily tidal influx and out- where a similar bloom was reported, Vero Beach in 2011 and 2012, killing
flow at the Fort Pierce inlet insulates After Orcutt notified the Florida De- according to Orcutt. “There has also most of the seagrass north of the 17th
Indian River County from the effects partment of Environmental Protec- been a bloom of similar looking algae Bridge.
of contaminated Lake Okeechobee tion about the bloom, “FDEP employ- in the Bethel Creek area.”
discharges that plague the counties ees came by boat on the afternoon on Seagrass is the foundation of the la-
south of Vero, but ongoing pollution
from septic tanks, fertilizer and other
sources make waterways here suscep-
tible to harmful algae growth.

Island resident Judy Orcutt told Vero
Beach 32963 that on the morning of
Sunday, July 31, there was a yellowish
brown color in the water of Pebble Bay
behind the home she shares with her
husband, John Orcutt.

“Upon closer inspection from the

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 7

NEWS

goon ecology and the waterway has Will Vero vote on FPL offer? Medicare rankings utive officer of the Sebastian hospital.
not recovered from those infestations. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “We are about to break ground on our
94,000 square foot expansion project
Human sewage leaking from out- provide revenue replacement for the Human Services and the Centers for to expand the services we can offer.”
dated septic systems and fertilizer Shores customers who would be leav- Medicare and Medicaid Services rated
loaded with nitrogen and phosphorus ing for a whopping 50 years. 3,617 hospitals nationwide on a one- IRMC’s and Lawnwood’s two stars
serve as food for algae, triggering and to five-star scale. leave something to be desired but do
sustaining blooms when conditions Utilities Commission Vice Chair Bob place them in the same category as
are right. Auwaerter shares Turner’s misgivings Both the Sebastian and Melbourne some of the country’s best known and
about Vero’s consultant’s numbers. Au- hospitals were awarded three stars. most highly regarded medical facili-
Vero Beach has launched an ambi- waerter completed his own analysis in ties including the University of Virgin-
tious program to get homes near the the lead-up to this Tuesday’s commis- “Below average” scores of two stars ia Medical Center, Beth Israel Medical
water off of septic systems and onto sion meeting, and said he believes the were given to 707 hospitals nationwide Center in Manhattan, Barnes-Jewish
sanitary sewers, but the county to date $30 million cash being offered by FPL including Indian River Medical Center Hospital in St. Louis and the Tufts
has done little to deal with the more would be a godsend to Vero and could in Vero Beach and Lawnwood Region- Medical Center in Boston.
than 30,000 septic systems in its ter- be used to vastly improve the city’s bal- al Medical Center in Fort Pierce.
ritory, allowing pollution to flow con- ance sheet. Lewis Clark, vice president of mar-
tinuously into the lagoon. The Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville and keting and corporate communications
Assuming that Vero electric made a Sarasota Memorial are the only hospi- at IRMC, points to the Vero hospital's
“The Indian River Lagoon is an ex- concerted effort to reduce its variable tals in Florida to receive the top score designation by U.S. News and World
tremely fragile estuary that has been operating costs commensurate with of five stars for overall quality in the Report as one of “Florida's best regional
negatively impacted by humans for having 8.7 percent fewer customers to new federal rating system, according hospitals” for the past two years, and
more than 50 years,” Orcutt com- serve, fewer lines and poles to main- to Kaiser Health News. says “savvy consumers know that these
mented to Vero Beach 32963. tain, fewer meters to read and fewer reporting tools tell you something, but
customers to process payments from Eighteen Florida hospitals were they don't tell you everything.”
“We have altered the natural drain- – and assuming the city either pays awarded four stars while 76, including
age basin and added pollutants from down some debt or invests the cash in SRMC and Holmes, garnered three stars. Not every hospital nationwide was
agriculture, roads, parking lots, septic income-bearing securities – Auwaert- ranked. According to Medicare, “Some
systems, reuse water and landscap- er calculates that it would only take The Centers for Medicare and Med- hospitals, due to the number and type
ing. These pollutants did not accu- $26 million to $28 million to make the icaid Services – or CMS – says it based of patients they treat, may not report
mulate overnight. It is going to take city whole. its ratings on 64 individual measure- data on all measures and therefore are
time, money and the consistent effort ments published on its “Hospital not eligible for an overall star rating.
of everyone to reverse the input of nu- “So the FPL offer is a good offer, Compare” website. For example, hospitals that are new or
trients. We must all be willing to make it’s more than adequate,” Auwaerter small may not have enough patients
sacrifices, to change the way we live said.  “We are extremely pleased [the] Se- for the measures used to calculate an
and think and to be more sensitive to bastian River Medical Center received overall rating.” 
our environment.”  a top Medicare rating on the Treasure
Coast,” said Kelly Enriquez, chief exec-

8 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

Marine Bank upgrades technology as assets increase

BY ALAN SNEL In the first two quarters of 2016, Ma- He feels Marine is outperforming noting the bank made 23 new busi-
Staff Writer rine Bank made 79 new home loans national competitors in the market ness loans totaling $7.7 million in the
for a total of $24.4 million. Penney said when it comes to small-business and first half of 2016.
The Island’s only local homegrown the loans were for homes through- home-mortgage lending.
bank had another good period in the out Indian River County, from luxury Marine Bank, chartered in 1997,
second quarter of the year and has properties in John’s Island to small “Our solid operating performance is has two full-service branches in Vero
been awarded a 5-Star Superior rating houses in west Vero and Fellsmere. being driven by new residential mort- Beach and a loan production office
from Bauer Financial, the nation’s pre- gages, small-business loan growth, an in Sebastian. It is the only commu-
mier bank rating firm. “It’s all across the board,” Penney said. increase in deposit accounts and new nity bank headquartered in Vero
“We’re seeing loans for starter houses customer relationships,” Penney said, Beach. 
Marine Bank’s second quarter earn- in the $100,000 to $200,000 range, for
ings were actually down 25 percent middle-income people in the $300,000 Treasure Coast Sotheby’s
compared to the second quarter of 2015, to $400,000 range, and on the central expands to Melbourne Beach
dropping from $292,000 to $218,000, beach.” He estimated about a third of
but bank President and CEO Bill Pen- the loans were for homes on the island. BY STEVEN M. THOMAS
ney explained the lower number came Staff Writer
because the bank invested in a new tech The bank president said he is
system that will offer improved services pleased with the real estate market’s Michael Thorpe and Kimberly Har-
such as better security, mobile banking steady growth because it means the din Thorpe, co-owners of Treasure
and instant-issue check cards. upswing will be sustainable, unlike Coast Sotheby’s International Realty,
the go-go conditions of a decade ago one of the island’s top brokerages,
Meanwhile, topline revenues and when land speculators and home buy- have been wanting to open an office
assets are up, year over year, with $207 ers were gobbling up properties and in Brevard County for years.
million in total assets as of June 30, houses with little financial wherewith-
compared to $172 million as of the al or income verification. “We have agents selling in Melbourne
same date in 2015. and Brevard County and knew we need-
“We don’t see the speculative ex- ed a physical location up there,” says
Penney attributes much of the bank’s cesses,” Penney told 32963. “The Michael Thorpe. “The normal model for
solid recovery since it was sanctioned growth becomes more sustainable. expansion is you lease space and hire
by federal banking regulators several Prices are going up, but homes are agents and ramp up that way, but that
years ago to the strong real estate mar- owner occupied and they can afford takes a long time, so we ended up buy-
ket on the island and mainland. [the mortgage payments].” ing South Island Real Estate, the most
successful brokerage in Melbourne
Beach, and hit the ground running.” “We had the opportunity to start
at a very high level. Wendy built an
Founded by Wendy Murray in 1986, excellent reputation over the past 30
South Island Real Estate had, in Kim- years and this office is, inarguably, the
berly Hardin Thorpe’s words, “a very top brokerage in Melbourne Beach,
tight-knit group of 23 agents” who whether you look at one year, five
dominated the 32951 ZIP code area – years, or 10 years,” says Thorpe.
a stretch of barrier island with about
7,000 homes that extends from Indi- “For years, I have been solicited to be-
alantic to the Sebastian Inlet – selling come a franchise and nobody seemed to
more property than any other broker- fit us,” says Murray. “But Kim and Mike
age by a wide margin. brought the same kind of ethics and
standards the business was built on and
seemed like just the right fit. With them,
we are able to keep the small-town feel
locals are used to, but also gain an inter-
national reach for our clients.”

Since closing on the business ear-
lier this year, Thorpe has hired 10 new

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 9

NEWS

agents and three dedicated staff people ferent trajectory, during an economic listings in MLS, designing brochures them go up on all the websites auto-
to service the office, which is located on downturn. and postcards – that they didn’t really matically when they are listed, includ-
A1A in the village of Melbourne Beach, a have before. We have hired a market- ing Zillow, Realtor.com, the Wall Street
stone’s throw from the Atlantic beaches. On the flip side, Hardin Thorpe say ing specialist, an MLS coordinator and Journal, New York Times and Sothe-
The office is an integrated part of Trea- Sotheby’s brings important benefits to a concierge for this office.” bysrealty.com, which gets a million
sure Coast Sotheby’s, which now has a agents at the Melbourne Beach office visitors a month who can search by
total of 103 agents in Vero Beach, Mel- and to the community. “I think the area is hungry for a lifestyle, looking for beach properties
bourne Beach and a sales center at the luxury brand and Sotheby’s has be- or golf properties,” says Hardin Thor-
Aquarina Beach and Country Club. “We have something like 99-percent come the number one luxury realtor pe. “And Florida is one of the most
attendance at our weekly sales meet- in world,” Thorpe says, noting that So- searched areas.”
The new office gives Treasure Coast ings,” she says. “Wendy’s agents are theby’s provides his business the most
Sotheby’s a gateway to other parts hungry for the information that is pre- up-to-date Web technology, constant- “Melbourne Beach has been discov-
of the thriving Melbourne/Brevard sented. They are amazed at the tools ly upgraded, including a unique page ered,” says Murray, who is staying on as
County market as well. Brevard has and resources Sotheby’s provides. for each agent. a broker associate and honorary matri-
nearly four times the population of In- arch of the office. “The market is great!”
dian River County, 570,000 compared “Our agents are our clients, too, and “All our properties are profession-
to 147,000, and the city of Melbourne I think they are happy to have more ally photographed, regardless of price, “Oceanfront property here is a steal
is five times as big as the city of Vero, so marketing and administrative assis- and with our cascading platform all of compared to Vero,” Thorpe adds. 
there are many more homes to buy and tance – drafting contracts and entering
sell, including many luxury properties.

Along with high-end homes on the
ocean and river in Melbourne Beach,
Thorpe mentions estates on South
Tropical Trail nearby that range from
$1 million to $20 million and neigh-
borhoods with multimillion homes
in the huge master-planned commu-
nity of Viera as places where his agents
hope to expand their luxury business.

“The future of Brevard is very
bright,” Thorpe says. “It has high-
tech, defense and the space business.
The biggest employment story in the
country right now is all the engineers
Northrup Grumman is hiring in Mel-
bourne. These are people who buy
real estate and join the clubs and be-
come involved in the community and
raise families here. Add in the growth
of Space-X, Disney Cruises and all the
high-tech spinoffs and it is an incred-
ibly dynamic economy.”

The Air Force in October awarded
Northrup Grumman a $20 billion con-
tract to build its next-generation long-
range strike bomber and in May the
Melbourne City Council approved ex-
pansion of Grumman’s Manned Aircraft
Design Center of Excellence near the
Melbourne airport where 1,900 newly-
hired engineers and other employees
will be going to work with salaries av-
eraging $100,000, according to Grum-
man, pumping some $200 million into
the county’s economy annually.

Adding Brevard to its sales territory
brings demographic and economic
diversity as well as geographic expan-
sion, Thorpe says. “The economies of
the two counties could not be more
dissimilar. Vero’s barrier island is bed-
room community where the affluent
come to recreate and retire. There is
very little economic growth. In difficult
times that can be a little tough, because
no one needs to have that second or
third home in a beach community.”

Conversely, Thorpe says, Brevard is
a more flexible, diversified economy
where people moving in to take a job
have to find housing. He believes it
provides a hedge in the sense it may
be more resilient, or at least have a dif-

10 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

NEWS

From ‘Miami Vice’ to Vero Egret Point in 2013 and then going on sophistication that is still fairly undis- the great success stories to emerge out
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 to purchase a house in John’s Island covered – and that offers tremendous of the 1990s tech boom that survived
(since sold), two oceanfront homes, value from a real estate perspective – it the downturn to become the premier
It was only at the very end of the ar- two beautiful houses on Painted Bun- is tough to beat Vero Beach. communications chipmaker in the
ticle that the Journal mentioned the ting in Old Riomar, and an Ocean Park world with a market cap of more than
couple is selling the house in order to condo. “There is much less crime and you $50 billion when it was acquired this
relocate to Vero Beach. A reader of the don’t have the Miami traffic, but you year by Avago Technologies. He retired
online version of the article comment- “If you are going to live in a large city do have the art museum and theater in 2002, moving back to south Florida
ed: “Key Biscayne to Vero ... Boy, I hope like Miami, there isn’t a better place and lots of great restaurants – and very where he and Berta grew up.
they know what they’re in for.” than Key Biscayne,” Aurelio Fernandez nice people. It is like Naples was 25
says. “It is a quiet, beautiful place we years ago, a real gem.” According to the Journal, the Fer-
In fact Aurelio and Berta Fernandez love, but when you cross the causeway, nandezes bought the Key Biscayne
have a pretty good sense of the life- it is a very different feeling. It is great if Fernandez says he likes Vero so well property for $3.6 million in 2001 and
style on Vero’s barrier island. you are looking for the heat a big city of- that he has convinced three of his built their beautiful tropical-themed
fers – all the restaurants and clubs, the friends to buy homes here. house in 2004. The 12,000-square-foot
They have been spending time here Marlins, but we prefer the lower-key house sits on a peaceful peninsula
and investing in real estate on the is- atmosphere and attitude in Vero Beach. Fernandez had a distinguished ca- with 480 lineal feet of water frontage
land for three years, buying a home on reer in high-tech in the 1980s and and features a 22,000-gallon koi pond
“If you are looking for a city with 1990s, ending up as vice president of with 200 fish and a dock suitable for a
worldwide sales for Broadcom, one of 100-foot yacht.

“When I retired from Broadcom,
I went into real estate with my son,”
Fernandez says. “We had seven prop-
erties in Key Biscayne, remodels and
new-builds that we rented out and did
quite well.”

He is cashing out of the island now,
in part because prices are high.

“I am a values guy always,” Fernandez
says. “When we discoveredVero Beach, I
told my son we could do the same thing
here,” investing in residential property
and upgrading to lease or resell.

Matilde Sorensen represented the
family in all the Vero purchases except
one handled by Cindy O’Dare.

The Fernandezes discovered Vero
when they bought a 1,000-acre ranch
west of town where they are in the
process of building up a grass-fed
beef operation to supply increasingly
health-conscious consumers with a
superior grade of meat.

“Dad had a ranch in Cuba and one
in Okeechobee in the 1980s and I have
wanted to be involved in ranching
since retiring from Broadcom,” Fer-
nandez says. “It has become more of
a fulltime business than I anticipated,
but the ranchers out there have been
incredibly helpful and we are getting
close to the point where we will be
able to turn the operation over to our
ranch manager.”

The Fernandezes are members of
John’s Island Club and when he is not
absorbed in his business enterprises,
Fernandez likes to golf, though he says
he is “terrible at it.”

Berta Fernandez has been volun-
teering at free clinics to help the needy
for 17 years, starting at the Laguna
Beach Community Clinic. She now
volunteers at St. John Bosco Clinic in
Miami, providing pro-bono medical
care to children from the Little Havana
neighborhood.

The Fernandezes haven’t decided
where they will live when they move
here fulltime, which will happen when
the house on Key Biscayne sells. In the
meantime, they split their time be-
tween South Florida and Vero. 



12 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Heartfelt: Vero show honors, supports Pulse Orlando

Donna Roberts Mitchell, Christopher White and Suzy Feeney. Barry Shapiro, Karen Franke and Lee Olsen PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE

BY CHRISTINA TASCON ONE PULSE PHOTOS CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 sen. “All the Orlando people request-
Correspondent ed of us is that tonight be about fun
Jane and Jim Faraco with Kate Hoffmann. and be the significant turning point
At an event the likes of which has from tragedy. They basically said no
never occurred in quiet Vero Beach, 10 vigil in Riverside Park spearheaded cluded music by Collins and Compa- more tears. The only subtle memorial
performers and roughly a dozen em- by Franke and Olsen. Wanting to do ny, followed by a parade by Pulse per- to the victims were the 49 white bal-
ployees of the Pulse Orlando night- more, Olsen contacted Pulse Orlando formers dressed in drag, the “ladies” loons spread throughout the room.”
club arrived for a high-energy show to and found the club’s videographer, Sa- introduced to the cheering crowd by
support those who survived the hei- vanah Powell, online. The fundraiser TSCR DJ Geoff Moore. The performers “Pulse still plans on moving for-
nous attack that killed 49 and injured was the result of ensuing discussions. danced, lip-synced and whipped the ward but we would like to have a me-
53 others. room into a frenzy with a flood of glit- morial on site to remember the 49,”
A sold-out crowd filled the room ter, makeup, laughter and emotion. said Powell. “All of us who came out
A committee organized by Treasure with love and support for the employ- Veroites welcomed them with open of it are stronger and better people
& Space Coast Radio’s Station Manag- ees and performers, some of whom arms and they returned the embrace and love harder because of it.”
er Karen Franke, Waldo’s Restaurant are still in crisis counseling while wholeheartedly.
Manager Lee Olsen and former Light- they wait to hear Pulse’s plans. Tick- “I want to thank all of you who
house Gallery owner Barry Shapiro et-holders enjoyed a buffet, cocktails “We have had incredible commu- came out tonight; you guys are amaz-
had transformed the Heritage Center and dancing, while raising additional nity support, from hotels who gave us ing,” said Ms Adrien, a gorgeously
into a dazzling nightclub and invited dollars by participating in a “you pick rooms, to restaurants who donated costumed drag queen who emceed
the community to enjoy “One Pulse it” raffle of donated items. the food, and all of the people who the show and gave the first perfor-
Extravaganza” to benefit the employ- gave us items for our raffle,” said Ol- mance. “We don’t care if you are gay
ees through the One Pulse Fund. A celebration of unity, the event in- or straight, what color or religion you
are, we are just glad you are here.”
On June 12, Pulse, a gay bar and
nightclub founded by Barbara Poma It was a truly liberating and
and Ron Legler, was thrust into the unique event where, for the first
spotlight as the scene of the deadliest time, many LGBTQ members felt
mass shooting by a single gunman in the freedom to attend a public so-
U.S. history and the largest terrorist cial event with their straight friends.
attack in the nation since 9/11. Wheth- Many expressed the feeling that the
er or when the site of such horrific vio- June attack had brought people to-
lence will ever reopen has left staff un- gether in a way nothing before had
certain of their future employment. done.

More than 1,000 members of the “I think Vero Beach is evolving,”
Vero community had come togeth- said Peter Rapp. “People end up in my
er after the attack for a candlelight store and ask where the gay commu-
nity is but this is how it should be.” 



14 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

ONE PULSE PHOTOS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 Katie O’Dare, Kelly Stephanoff and Justin Strang.
Peter Rapp, Baxter Brunson, Scott Johnson and Sal Taschetta.

Ian Cross, Bonnie Howard and Yaw Tutu. Adam Cohen and Todd Sidebottom.

Angie Watson, Madame Helen Heels, Matryx Mercy.
Colleen Nagel and Janet Cobb

Standing: Gypsy Gemini. Sitting: Sleigher Gemini, Mys Tree Hugga and Tru Alixx.

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 15

PEOPLE

One Pulse bartenders Lance Keller, Tiffany Johnson and Enakai Mpire Art and Mary Ciasca.

Collins and Company.

Sgt. Chris Roberts and Rick Norry

16 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Aerial Antics gymnasts put on an uplifting show

BY CHRISTINA TASCON nastics, but all come away with new
Correspondent friendships, added confidence and
a healthier outlook on exercise as an
Gymnasts took to the mats and flew enjoyable activity.
through the air in the Gonzalez Activ-
ities Center gymnasium at Saint Ed- Recreation Department Director
ward’s School, showing their skills at Rob Slezak says many participate
the 42nd Aerial Antics Camp’s Cirque from pre-K to graduation, their love
de L’Amour show, presented by the for the program even luring them
City of Vero Beach Recreation’s Per- back as junior staff on their college
forming Arts Department. summer breaks.

The program is sponsored in part by “We see all kinds of local kids come
Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs through the program, even guys like
and the Florida Arts Council, and is Mardy Fish and Jake Owen,” said
run by the Recreation Department at Slezak. “The thing I love the most is
its Centerstage Acrobatic Complex at seeing all the people smiling. Roughly
Leisure Square. Aerial Antics Circus 10,000 people have gone through this
is the culmination of countless hours program and all you see are happy
the children and staff have put in be- faces. That is what we are all about.”
fore three performances in front of
proud family and friends – appropri- Staffers often have come up
ately the same weekend as the open- through the ranks from childhood
ing of the 2016 Summer Olympics. and consider campers and the de-
partment as family. Real-life sisters
Performers ranged from tiny tots Patty Howard and Liz Matthews each
just learning how to tumble, to expe- began camp at 4 years old. Howard is
rienced gymnasts who take aerial and now the assistant recreation director
acrobatic classes all year. For some and Matthews is the performing arts
it may begin a lifelong love of gym- instructor.

Circus de L’Amour is a bittersweet

Lily Stirrat. PHOTOS: PHIL SUNKEL

Emma Jankowski. “Our father never missed a circus
or Christmas show,” said Howard.
show for them as it will be the first “My sister and I performed in the
time their father, a third-generation Aerial Antics growing up and he was
Vero Beach resident, will not be seat- always there supporting us.”
ed front and center alongside their
mother Jennie. Dane Howard passed “He was a big smile in the audi-
away in June, and in his memory ence and he just loved seeing all the
friends and family made a $1,500 do- kids and Patty and I out there even
nation to the Recreation Department. when we became staff,” said Mat-
thews.

“Even if you mess up out there, ev-
eryone is always supporting you,” said
Leomary Llorente, 17.

“This really teaches you about fam-
ily; we are all so close,” added Lauren
Kendrick, 14, whose little sister Piper,
2, was hamming it up on the mats be-
fore the show. Asked if Piper was an
Aerial Antics Circus gymnast in the
making, Kendrick said yes – and that
she would be there to watch her per-
form when it became her time. 

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 17

PEOPLE

1 2
34 5

6

7
AERIAL ANTICS CAPTIONS

1. Thursday Acrotots. 2. The Spotlights. 3. Junior Entertainers. 4. Gaby Dwyer, Blake Holshouser and Lori Lee.
5. The Little Stars. 6. Wednesday Acrotots. 7. Aerial Gymnastics.

18 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

RT party: Children delight in Back to School bash

BY CHRISTINA TASCON Grier Pridgeon colors at the Marine Bank booth.
Correspondent

The Education Foundation of In-
dian River County partnered with
Riverside Theatre to host the sec-
ond annual RT Star’s Back to School
Party last Saturday at the Riverside
Theatre Complex, a fun-filled fam-
ily event to get students prepared to

Easton Weier made glasses at the School District of IRC booth. PHOTOS: LEAH DUBOIS

Teri Barrett shows Katie Schaffer her face painting.

RT STAR PHOTOS CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
Jasmine Santos and Deborah West work on a design at the Vero Beach Museum of Art Booth.

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

conquer the upcoming school year.
Recyclable bags were quickly

filled with free school supplies, as
children raced from tent to tent
gathering books, stickers, cute eras-
ers, pencil cases and even candy
treats. Their enthusiasm was in-
fectious as they waited to get their
faces painted or lined up to enter
an inflatable bounce house set up
on the lawn at Riverside Children’s
Theatre.

Parents were equally busy, col-
lecting information regarding bus
schedules and lunch programs,
and signing up for some invaluable
school services offered through
the School District of Indian Riv-
er County. Parents were also able
to sign up for free/reduced lunch
programs and could learn about
health screenings and vaccination
requirements. Education Founda-
tion partners even offered on-site
vision screenings in the RCT lobby,
an invaluable first test for those
children who might be having dif-
ficulty reading.

There was also plenty of giggle-
inducing activities to keep everyone
laughing, such as a contest between
teams of families that had children
running around attempting to help
mom or dad prepare a bag lunch or
get dressed for school.

Teachers attending had a chance
to win $50 gift certificates from
Marine Bank & Trust, and a rolling
crate of school supplies and River-
side Theatre performance tickets
had been raffled off by the Educa-
tion Foundation to a teacher nomi-
nated by the students.

While all that was taking place,
RCT performers from the Riverside
Children’s Theatre Touring Pro-
gram performed songs from past
shows, dressed in funny costumes,
and told corny jokes – and the little
ones ate it all up. Best of all they got
to watch as IRC School Superinten-
dent Mark Rendell, radio host Bob
Soos and new RCT Director of Edu-
cation Jim VanValen occasionally
got stumped playing a game of “Are
You Smarter Than a Kid?”

“The Education Foundation is ex-
cited to partner again this year with
Riverside Theatre,” said Cynthia
Falardeau, Education Foundation
executive director. “Our mission is
to increase the community’s invest-
ment in our schools and Riverside’s
goal is to bring the community to-
gether with the arts, so we felt like
it was a great collaborative effort.”

“We are fortunate to have com-
munity partners who provide such a
wonderful event for the children to
get ready to return to their classes,”
said Rendell. 

20 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

RT STAR PHOTOS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18 Hamp Elliott hosts performances with the kids.
Amerazhya Bassue has her vision checked.

Annamarie Labella and Cynthia Falardeau.
Kids play on a blow-up slide.

Georgia Irish and Michelle Dion.
Michael and Garett Schiefer.



22 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

Wood you look at that? Jones crafts artsy bracelets

BY MICHELLE GENZ
Staff Writer

When Melanie Jones took her Melanie Jones working in her workshop. PHOTOS BY DENISE RITCHIE
70-year-old mother backpacking on the
Appalachian Trail, they only expected repurposed books. Chopping out a
to go three miles. Two days and 16 miles block of pages or illustrations, Jones
later – including an overnight at a shel- cements them together with a glue-
ter – the only part her mother regretted like mixture that she says has taken
was not packing marshmallows. her months to concoct. She then cures
the block of pages for six months be-
“I just love adventure!” she told her fore turning them on the lathe just as
guilt-ridden daughter. she would with a block of wood.

“It was my fault,” says Jones, pull- The resulting bangles, hard as wood
ing out the crumpled map she’d used, and similarly sanded and varnished,
the width and length of her forearm. have varying degrees of legible words
“I thought you could GPS it, but there or discernible images – enough to hint
was no service.” at the content of the book. Her dream
is to do commissions for people, either
With that kind of spirit in her DNA, of beloved books or personal journals.
it’s no surprise Jones, who grew up
catching crawdads in the woods of Ten- Some are from pieces of wood ob-
nessee, has found her calling in a pile of tained through her mentor, Jack Shel-
gnarled wood and some power tools.

From the garage of her south Vero
home, her two tiny dogs zooming
around her, Jones has set herself up
in business making handsome bangle
bracelets on a lathe.

Many are made of wood she found
on her trips home to Tennessee. Oth-
ers are carved from citrus wood
picked up in Vero’s abandoned groves.
Still others are from rare wood she
buys from collectors.

Some remain in their natural form,
the grain or burl exposed. Others have
been shot through with an electric
impulse, blackened in craggy lines
“like they’ve been hit by lightning,” as
Jones puts it.

Jones, an avid recycler and envi-
ronmentalist, occasionally inserts
found objects in a groove within the
bracelets. Sharks’ teeth are a hot seller
– they go for $200 and up. Others have
tiny sea shells, some tinted or embed-
ded in colored gels.

Perhaps the most unusual brace-
lets she’s working on are made with

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 23

ARTS & THEATRE

“They’re really developing an art a male-dominated craft, in her Fort
district that’s approachable and af- Pierce sessions with Shelton, there
fordable, both in the rent and the art are two other women perfecting their
itself. It’s a community of artists that craft with him.
really help each other. If I come across
something that’s steam-punk, I’ll “I take him all my problems,” says
share it with the artist who works in Jones. “I show him my mess-ups,
that. Or give fabric to a quilter, or sta- and he teaches me how to fix them.
tionery to a multi-media artist. We all That’s how I know I’m progressing as
look out for each other.” an artist.”

Woodturners in particular are “Melanie has the ability to produce
known to keep their egos in check, she technically excellent work,” says Shel-
says. “There is no competition among ton, whom Jones calls her “woodfa-
woodturners,” she says. “We all know ther.” “That, coupled with her cre-
ego will kill your talent.” ative drive, will elevate her work to
an art form that produces a beautiful
While woodturning in general is result.”  

ton, a Fort Pierce-based woodturner surprise, but then showed her how
who is part of a guild, Treasure Coast the lathe worked.
Woodturners. Many of those crafters
have works for sale in galleries in the “He’d get me started and then leave
Fort Pierce art district, including in me be after he felt I was going to be
Art Mundo. OK,” she recalls. “I’d be up until 2 in
the morning experimenting with
It was there that she first met Shel- things.”
ton and began attending his Wednes-
day morning class in woodworking, Back home in Florida, her enthusi-
where students gather to work on up asm had to be put on hold – she had
to six lathes in his workshop. no power tools. But on her next trip
to Johnson City, her step-dad asked if
Before that, though, Jones learned she’d like to take a class in woodwork-
the basics from her step-father, who ing; specifically, bracelet making.
used to do his wood-working in a win-
dowless room in the rear of the house “I said absolutely,” Jones recalls.
in Johnson City, Tennessee. “It’s a feminine thing. Let the men
make pens and bowls. I like the femi-
On visits to Tennessee, she noticed nine aspect of bracelets.”
he would disappear into his shop.
She also likes that as wearable art,
“I felt sorry for him because there they’re easy to sell. From her Face-
were nothing but girls in the family, book page alone, she has managed to
and he’d spend hours by himself in the sell enough to make a living, asking
workshop. So I’d go down there and between $30 to $200 for each, depend-
ooh and ahh and go back to putting on ing on the rarity of the wood or the
makeup and trying on clothes.” technique involved. As her confidence
increased, she developed a logo and
Then one day, just to please him, began signing her works.
Jones announced, “I want to try
that.” Support comes readily from within
the arts district in Fort Pierce, she says.
Her step-dad looked at her with

24 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

Riverside’s education director revels in new role

BY MICHELLE GENZ Jim VanValen. was expecting. They ranged in age
Staff Writer from 20-somethings to a few in their
PHOTOS BY DENISE RITCHIE 70s, says Schnell. Almost all have
signed up for fall classes. “It’s insane,”
When Riverside Theatre’s new edu- says Schnell. “We have men in their
cation director Jim VanValen left his 60s taking ballet.” The fall classes are
post as associate professor of theater at being expanded to include jazz and
Iowa’s Cornell College, he found him- possibly tap. They are offered morn-
self knee-deep in children for the first ing and evening to accommodate
time in all his years teaching drama. those who work.

“Their energy and enthusiasm at Assuming VanValen’s Theater Talks
9 a.m. is wonderful,” says VanValen, are a success, the next offering will be
who oversaw Riverside Children’s adult acting classes, from monologues
Theatre summer camp. “College kids, to scene work to improvisation.
you’re having to wake them up.”
VanValen believes the more people
Now the flood is rising as his stu- know about the plays, the more en-
dents get older – and taller. With luck gaged they will be in the theater. “If we
he’ll be up to his neck by fall when can remind folks of how much the the-
Riverside Theatre launches theater ater experience is about audience and
classes for adults, the first such offer- performers sharing the same space, it
ings since the 1980s. becomes a more active and exciting ex-
perience and not a passive one. If these
Last week, with the campers gone, classes help, that’s wonderful.”
VanValen began rehearsing the new
crop of Riverside acting apprentices, “The idea is to tap into lifelong
recent college graduates who helped learning,” he says. “And there’s no
teach summer camp and now are pre- shelf life for that.”
paring two plays to tour the area’s el-
ementary schools. Soon, they’ll start sign-ups for a pilot program in adult
rehearsing with VanValen for River- dance classes are any indication, Van-
side’s new Theater for Young Audienc- Valen may have the grown-ups sitting
es program, which this year will stage cross-legged on the floor.
“The Adventures of Flat Stanley.”

In October, VanValen will be im-
mersed in the first in a series of adult
seminars tentatively called Theater
Talks. The courses will offer up-close
looks at Riverside’s Main Stage pro-
ductions, from script to staging to
post-production critique.

The first will be on the season open-
er “Ring of Fire,” the Johnny Cash
musical. With each subsequent Main
Stage production, another will get un-
derway, with as many sections as the
sign-up sheet warrants.

The seminars are slated for the
Anne Morton stage, a small black box
theater with riser seating inside the
children’s theater building. And if the

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SCOTT TREE BILL BARRY Brandon Kalusa, Jewel Blakeslee, Chris Robertson, Molly Wiley,
SERVICES Mary Catherine Waltman, Samantha Alieandri and Jim VanValen.
CERTIFIED ARBORIST
CELL: 772-473-7150 Those dance classes that evolved VanValen urges anyone interested
in conservations with dance director in such courses to get in touch with
OFFICE: 772-569-3874 Adam Schnell last spring attracted 47 the theater now, while ideas are being
OAK TREE SPECIALIST people, more than twice what Schnell developed. “If there is interest in these
TREE CARE, MOVING & CLEARING
LANDSCAPE & DESIGN SERVICES

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 25

ARTS & THEATRE

opportunities, it’s our job to provide able for adults, VanValen says. He ex- Children’s Theatre’s Linda Downey, in a Riverside production years ago,
them. That goes for all ages, and spe- pects a schedule to be posted soon on who retired last year. Another new- and their 7-year-old daughter Maysie.
cial needs. There’s a lot of program- the Riverside website. comer, Jo Pearl, is helping with ad-
ming we’re looking to develop across ministration of Riverside Children’s As a parent, he envisions an added
the board.” VanValen, who starred in the one- Theatre. plus to the new adult classes.
man show “Underneath the Lintel” a
Scholarships currently available to year-and-a-half ago in Riverside’s Sec- VanValen has moved here with his “Wouldn’t it be exciting for parents
younger students may also be avail- ond Stage series, replaced Riverside wife Brenda, an actress whom he met and their kids to have experiences
here at the same time?” 

26 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

Coming Up: ‘Olympic’ concert and
Boney James’ saxophone magic

Space Coast Orchestra’s Olympic concert is
Sunday at VBHS Performing Arts Center.

BY MICHELLE GENZ sitting in with the Roots. It was soon after
Staff Writer the release of his latest album “Future-
soul” parked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Con-
1 If there were an Olympic event temporary Jazz Albums chart, where it
testing not just lungs but tongues, remained for 11 weeks.

fingers and eardrums, the musicians Critics associates James’ sound more
readily with Grover Washington Jr., the
of Space Coast Orchestra might have Isley Brothers and David Sanborn – a
mix of soul, funk and bluesy jazz that’s
a shot at a medal, especially given the been described as gritty and muscular.

theme of their upcoming concert. And it’s not impossible that you could
bring along your summer-vacationing
“Faster, Higher, Stronger: Music of the kids. Here’s a comment by one young
online poster on the subject of “Future-
Olympics” is a great way to escape the soul”: “Thank you Dad for your contin-
uous playing of this album and for em-
announcers’ drone for a few hours and bedding Boney Jones into my musical
tastes for years to come.”
come see some real exertion in the flesh.

Selections range from John Williams’

“Olympic Fanfare and Theme” (along

with four other Williams pieces), to

Saint-Saens’ “The Swan” from Carnival

of the Animals, an apparent tribute to

the stirring beauty of staggering losers.

The Vero Beach High School Perform- 3 Speaking of the late shows, if you
remember comedian Rita Rudner
ing Arts Center hosts the Sunday 3 p.m.

concert. And, as always, the orchestra from David Letterman or even Johnny

lives up to founder/conductor Aaron Carson, you might be happy to hear she’s

Collins’ commitment to provide “Sym- playing the Lyric Theatre in Stuart next

phony for Everyone” – free or reduced- Friday night, Aug. 19. Rudner’s show is

price tickets are available to anyone billed as the longest-running solo show

who needs them. The group’s website in Las Vegas, with 1.5 million tickets sold

has contact information. Students 18 to more than 2,000 shows. Her shtick is

and under are always free as are college known for pleasing the nebbish-loving

kids with student ID. fans of Woody Allen or Georgia Engel,

who played the ditsy Georgette on “The

2 People say the saxophone is the Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
instrument closest to the human
What is less known is that Rudner is

voice. Maybe that’s why its music has also an accomplished writer. She has

such easy access to the soul. written two novels and several comedic

If you’ve ever found it soothing on a memoirs, as well as a film and several

lonely Saturday night, imagine hearing sitcom pilots with her English husband,

it with a thousand other souls, delivered writer and producer Martin Bergman.

by a top contemporary player. Next Sat- Born in Miami and a serious student

urday, Aug. 20, Boney James delivers of ballet, she moved to New York at 15

his funk- and soul-inspired jazz on the to pursue a career dancing on Broad-

stage of the King Center. way. Instead she turned to comedy. Af-

James has been around for a while – ter getting her big break on Carson in

he turns 55 next month. He was named 1988, she did an HBO comedy special,

No. 3 Contemporary Jazz Artist of the “Born to be Mild.” Her run in Vegas is in

Decade in 2009, and he’s been nominat- its 14th year; for nine years straight she

ed for four Grammys. But for those who was named Vegas Comedian of the Year.

haven’t heard him before, his style is sig-

nificantly more textural than Kenny G’s, 4 Closer to home, Riverside The-
atre’s Comedy Zone offers us Mel-
even though they both get parked on

the same radio stations – smooth jazz. bourne’s own Frankie Paul and South

Don’t groan, though: If you watch “The Floridian Lenny Travis this weekend.

Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Both perform in two shows each night,

you may have caught James a year ago Friday and Saturday. 



28 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

HEALTH

Pricey new drugs knock out deadly Hepatitis C

BY TOM LLOYD gone completely subterranean. It may seem shocking today, but
Staff Writer Though it is often nearly invisible it wasn’t until 1990 that tests for
screening blood supplies for HCV
July 28 has come and gone and to the public eye, the fact remains were introduced.
if you didn’t realize that particu- that hepatitis C will claim over
lar Thursday was “World Hepatitis 500,000 lives worldwide this year (For decades the spread of HCV
Day,” you’re not alone. and upwards of 15,000 of those will was blamed primarily on intrave-
be right here in the United States. nous drug use, shared needles, body
Hepatitis has not merely been piercings, tattoos and such, but it
flying under the national radar for There are multiple hepatitis vi- turns out transfusions and organ
years, at times it appears to have ruses, including hepatitis A (HAV); transplants prior to 1990 accounted
hepatitis B (HBV); hepatitis C (HCV); for far more cases.)

All types of hepatitis In any event, Poling, who, along
with his brother, runs a film and
target the body’s largest production company here in Vero,
would go on to experience dire con-
organ, the liver. sequences from the infection.

hepatitis D (HDV); and hepatitis E In 2007, Winter Park oncologist
( HE V ). Dr. Lee Zehngebot, who was treat-
ing Poling for non-Hodgkin’s lym-
All types of hepatitis target the phoma, told him there is a compel-
body’s largest organ, the liver, but ling connection between HCV and
safe and effective vaccines exist for lymphoma.
all the above except Hepatitis C.
According to the National Cancer
HCV is an insidious killer. Like Institute, “HCV infection increases
a crocodile in the water, it can lay the risk of developing non-Hodg-
seemingly dormant for long periods kin’s lymphoma by 20 percent to 30
before suddenly attacking its vic- percent.”
tims.
So while the blond, blue-eyed Pol-
That’s exactly what happened to ing had to deal with chemothera-
58-year-old Vero resident Jack Pol- py treatments for his lymphoma,
ing. A filmmaker and avid surfer, he also turned to Vero Beach’s Dr.
Poling very nearly lost his life to Charles Eberhart and Dr. Susan
HCV. Murphy to help deal with the HCV.

The state of Florida has one of the It was a long and thoroughly
highest rates of HCV infection in the draining experience, according to
country and, according to the Cen- Poling.
ters for Disease Control and Pre-
vention, baby boomers like Poling At that time, the drug treatment
– born between 1945 and 1965 – are most frequently prescribed for HCV
most at risk. was interferon injections. Those in-
jections have significant side effects
The Centers for Disease Control including constant flu-like symp-
says the hepatitis C virus can lay toms, anemia, depression and in-
dormant within the body for de- somnia. Poling faced all the above
cades but when it strikes, it can until he was finally approved for a
quickly lead to serious, life-threat- drug called Harvoni that is made by
ening liver problems, including cir- Gilead Sciences.
rhosis, liver cancer, lymphoma and
more. But getting that approval wasn’t
easy.
The CDC estimates that between
3 million and 4 million people in Poling relates that Dr. Eberhart
the United States have chronic HCV prescribed Harvoni but his insur-
and that 75 percent to 85 percent of ance company refused to pay for the
those exposed to the virus will de- life-saving drug.
velop a chronic infection.
“I appealed and they denied it
For Poling, it all started with a rup- again,” says Poling. “Three times I
tured spleen suffered during a high was denied. I was getting depressed.
school football game back in 1972, All my symptoms started really hit-
which led to surgery and a transfusion ting.
that introduced HCV into his body.
“I was going down fast. My liv-
er was failing. I’m thinking, I’m
screwed.”

Fortunately for Poling, he was fi-
nally able to get the drug through
Gilead’s Support Path program.

Normally, Harvoni carries a retail
price of $1,125 per pill and the stan-
dard dosage is one pill a day for 12

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 29

Jack Poling. PHOTOS: DENISE RITCHIE HEALTH

weeks, adding up to approximately
$100,000 for a course of treatment.

Poling experienced a sea change
in his symptoms after beginning
Harvoni.

“Compared to Interferon, [taking
Harvoni] is a cakewalk,” states the
obviously relieved Poling. “Every
day I feel better than the day be-
fore.”

With the drug, he is back at work
and he and his brother are now fin-
ishing up work on a film that Poling
says “focuses on the history of the
Sebastian Inlet and the surfers who
emanated from this area.”

And while HCV continues to fly
under the national radar, on June
28 of this year, Gilead garnered FDA
approval for Epclusa, an even newer
Hepatitis drug.

According to Gilead, Epclusa is the
first drug to treat all major forms of
HCV.

The website for the Support Path for
Gilead’s Harvoni and Sovaldi drugs
for Hepatitis C patients is at: http://
www.g ile a d .com/re spon sibilit y/u s-
patient-access/support%20path%20
for%20sovaldi%20and%20harvoni.

(The soon-to-be launched website
for Poling’s newest surfing movie will
be www.surfattacks2.com.) 

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30 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

HEALTH

Here’s the skinny: Daily baths OK for kids with eczema

BY MARIA CANFIELD can share with your family.
Correspondent More than 10 percent of children

This is one in an occasional series in the U.S. suffer from eczema, and
about children’s health issues. We parents of those children often ask
know that many of our readers are their pediatrician or allergist how
grandparents keenly interested in the frequently the child should bathe, as
health and well-being of grandchil- they worry that too-frequent baths
dren. We hope this series will provide can further irritate the skin. It’s a
readers useful health information you pretty basic question, but one that
has been answered inconsistently by

Dr. Michael Wein.

PHOTO: LEAH DUBOIS

the medical community for decades. certified pediatric and adult aller-
New research presented in the An- gist with offices in both Vero Beach
and Port St. Lucie. He agrees with
nals of Allergy, Asthma and Immu- Dr. Cardona’s research, saying, “Al-
nology looks at past studies and pro- though clinical trials on bathing fre-
vides a definitive answer. According quency have shown mixed results,
to the authors, daily bathing is fine, the weight of the evidence suggests
as long as it's followed – immediately that soaking in a warm bath for 10 to
– by lots of moisturizer, a technique 20 minutes followed by the applica-
referred to as “soak and smear.” tion of a moisturizer is preferable to
infrequent bathing.”
Allergist Ivan D. Cardona, MD, is
the lead author of the paper. He says Eczema, also called atopic derma-
that a number of medical groups titis, is an itchy, red rash affecting
have commented on the role of bath- about 11 percent of U.S. children.
ing in eczema, but there hasn’t been While it can appear anywhere on the
general agreement on best practices. body, babies often have it on their
He says, “Because parents are con- face and scalp, while in older chil-
fused, and because they often take dren it most often appears on the
their questions to their allergist, we neck, wrists, ankles, and in areas that
wanted to examine the studies that bend, like the inner parts of elbows
have been published on the topic, and knees.
and see if there was agreement on
just how often children with eczema By all accounts, eczema is a misera-
should be bathed." ble condition. The rash is often pain-
ful, and its characteristic itch can be
Michael Wein, MD, is a board-

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 31

HEALTH

ciency in a protein called Filaggrin, skin requires hydration with daily There are many “triggers” that can
which is found in the outermost lay- baths, limited use of pH-balanced make eczema flare or worsen. Flare-
er of the skin, are at risk for develop- skin cleansers, a gentle pat-dry, ups can be caused by foods, cosmet-
ing eczema. This gene defect is also and an immediate application of a ics, soaps, wool, dust mites, mold,
believed to increase the risk of food moisturizer (the “smear” part of the pollen, dog or cat dander, a dry cli-
allergies. technique). mate, and other variables. Says Dr.
Wein: “People with eczema should
Some medical professionals think Mild cases of eczema can be avoid harsh cleansers, stay hydrated,
bathing less than once a day is a good treated with ointments and mois- and avoid wearing materials such as
practice for children with eczema, as turizers. For more severe cases, Dr. wool, which could irritate the skin.
it helps keep skin hydrated by avoid- Wein often recommends prescrip- An allergist can perform patch test-
ing constant evaporation of water tion medication, which can include ing to see if there are other types of
(which can be drying) and means topical steroids, antihistamines skin allergy.”
less use of the soaps which can ag- and calcineurin inhibitors (topical
gravate the condition. The research- medicines that correct the immune Dr. Wein’s Vero Beach office is lo-
ers came to a different conclusion; imbalance occurring in the skin at cated at 3375 20th Street; the phone
they believe the presence of very dry the site of the eczema). number is 772-299-7299. 

While the exact causes

of eczema are unknown,

up to 80 percent of

children with the

condition will develop

hay fever or asthma,

leading many doctors

to believe there is a link

between eczema and

allergic diseases.

severe; it can also cause blisters and
changes in skin color. Dr. Wein says
“eczema can be a very challenging
problem for parents, and if not treat-
ed appropriately it can cause a lot of
discomfort, interfere with sleep, and
lead to a very unhappy situation.”

While the exact causes of eczema
are unknown, up to 80 percent of
children with the condition will de-
velop hay fever or asthma, leading
many doctors to believe there is a link
between eczema and allergic diseas-
es. Dr. Wein says “I am quite certain
of this link. The scientific literature is
pretty solid on this fact.”

Among young children, there is
also an association between eczema
and food allergies, especially milk,
egg, peanut, wheat and soy. In fact,
nearly 40 percent of children with
moderate to severe eczema have food
allergies. Dr. Wein says “an allergist
can help identify which foods, if any,
to eliminate from your child’s diet,
and skin testing is the best approach
to guide treatment. Many parents
need guidance to help them appro-
priately modify the child's diet.”

There also may be a gene mutation
involved in eczema: Scientists have
found that people who have a defi-

32 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

HEALTH

Insurer flags 931 docs on
opioid-dispensing habits

BY LENNY BERNSTEIN from opioid medications that year.
Insurers routinely send physicians
Washington Post
data on the quality of care, which can
Many experts say the prescription include the number of prescriptions
painkiller epidemic started when phy- written, an Aetna spokesman said. But
sicians began over-prescribing power- generally they do not supply the refill-
ful opioid medications, a well-meaning to-prescription ratio, he said.
attempt to more aggressively treat pa-
tients' pain. With addiction to those Paz said that if the 931 doctors
pills at crisis levels, they argue, a good brought their refill rate in line with the
part of the solution would be for doc- average for all physicians who prescribe
tors to rein in use of the drugs. opioids, 1.4 million fewer pills would be
dispensed annually. The physicians re-
The giant health insurer Aetna is ceiving the letter had an average refill
now actively encouraging change. Us- rate of 4.5 for each prescription written;
ing the vast amount of data it collects the overall average was 0.3 refills per
from insurance claims by pharmacies, prescription.
it has begun contacting doctors whose
prescribing habits are far outside the A survey published in June in the
norm. journal JAMA Internal Medicine
showed that nearly 60 percent of Ameri-
"You have been identified as falling cans have leftover narcotics at home
within the top 1 percent of opioid pre- and 20 percent have shared them with
scribers within your specialty," Aetna someone.
wrote to 931 physicians across the
country last week. The not-so-subtle re- In March, the CDC issued new guide-
minder was aimed at doctors who refill lines for physicians who dispense opi-
opioid prescriptions at very high rates oids that encouraged them to maximize
compared to their peers. Only doctors the use of non-opioid therapies, set spe-
who prescribed the painkillers at least cific criteria for stopping or continuing
12 times were included in the data ex- the use of opioids and assess a medica-
amined, which represented more than tion's effectiveness in controlling pain
8.6 million claims. Physicians such as versus its potential harm before refill-
oncologists, who are likely to dispense ing a prescription at that dose.
large amounts of opioids as part of their
practices, were excluded. The Aetna data showed that family
medicine doctors (58 percent) and in-
Harold Paz, Aetna's chief medical of- ternists (31 percent) were by far the top
ficer, said his experience has convinced refill prescribers, trailed by obstetri-
him that the best way to change doc- cians (4 percent), surgeons (3 percent),
tors' behavior is to provide them with neurologists (2 percent) and rheuma-
the numbers. "By nature, doctors are tologists (2 percent). Pennsylvania,
data-driven," he said. "It's one of the where the opioid epidemic has hit hard,
skills required to get through medical was home to 136 "superprescribers,"
school and residency and training. It's followed by Missouri (87), Florida (78),
unemotional. North Carolina (52) and Utah (45).

"If you show them how they're doing, None of those doctors turned up on
they'll want to do better," he said. Aetna's list of doctors suspected of fraud
or abuse in opioid prescribing, Paz said.
At the same time, Paz cautioned,
Aetna can't – and shouldn't – assess Andrew Kolodny, executive director
a physician's clinical judgments with of the advocacy group Physicians for
each patient. There may be legitimate Responsible Opioid Prescribing, said
reasons for a high refill rate in some Aetna's experiment "sounds worth-
cases but not others. So Aetna is urging while" though probably less effective
physicians to check. than a similar message from a govern-
ment health department or law en-
"We're asking you to look at your forcement agency.
practice ... and identify if the way you're
prescribing narcotics is best practice," The same message should be sent
Paz said. "And if it's not, here's an op- to other "risky prescribers," such as
portunity to improve." physicians who authorize large dos-
es of opioids, Kolodny said. Insurers
In 2014, U.S. physicians wrote 240 could help more by requiring prior
million prescriptions for narcotic pain- authorization before a doctor can
killers, according to the Centers for order a narcotics refill, as BlueCross
Disease Control and Prevention. About BlueShield of Massachusetts now
2.1 million people are addicted to legal does for opioid painkiller prescrip-
narcotics, and 14,838 died of overdoses tions beyond 30 days, he said. 



34 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT COVER STORY

The Olympics are a torrent of names, umph and failure and clamor and dra- He’s already got a table outdoors at Olympics. For these two weeks, he is
stats, narratives, results, commercials, ma and Bob. an old-school Italian cafe where the the anchorman of Planet Earth.
montages and trivia about Kenyan waiters say “grazie.” He’s virtually the
runners and Italian fencers and Slova- Bob, at the center of it all. Bob: the only person there, facing Broadway, “I’m starting to get ‘I’ve been watch-
kian shot putters. It is overwhelming. steadying force, the moderator of may- wearing a navy cap embroidered with ing you all my life,’ ” Bob says over the
hem, the synthesizer of sensory over- “the Spirits of St. Louis,” the basketball horns and brakes on Broadway. “And
NBC televised about 172 hours dur- load. team that launched his career as a ra- it used to be I was the irreverent new-
ing the 1996 games in Atlanta. In Rio dio sportscaster in 1974, when he was comer.”
de Janeiro this month – if you count ev- What about Bob Costas? 22 – the nation’s youngest play-by-play
ery media platform – the total will be He’s here on the Upper West Side in announcer for a pro team. He’s aged, sure, and yet retains a
6,755 hours. mid-July, and the patio of this hip bistro freshness, like maybe he’s had –
is too crowded for him. He calls to say The former boy wonder, who once
That’s 281 days’ worth of stuff so. He sees his questioner scrunched looked like he was picking your daugh- “You know what the answer is?” Bob
crammed into about two weeks. And between Sunday brunchers and, you ter up for prom, is now a 64-year-old says. “Lighting. Okay? I’m sitting right
20 million people will tune in each know, we don’t need the noise and dis- poobah who’s anchoring his 11th here. I have wrinkles, okay? Lighting.
night to see glory and hope and tri- traction. Why don’t we eat next door? Thank you.”

Bob is so considerate of all angles, so

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 35

INSIGHT COVER STORY

“I don’t know that I’m on the 18th,
but I’m definitely on the back nine,” he
says of his career. “I’m around the 14th
or 15th hole. And I hope I’ve birdied a
few. Maybe I’ve bogeyed a few.”

When he was 10, Bob was his father’s
driveway correspondent in Commack,
N.Y., just off the Long Island Express-
way. He was dispatched to the family
car to fiddle with the radio dial, hunt-
ing for KDKA in Pittsburgh or WBAL in
Baltimore, listening for the scores to
games that his father had put money
on but couldn’t monitor from the tele-
vision set.

“When the rent is riding on whether
Whitey Ford can get Al Kaline out, or
Wilt Chamberlain can make two free
throws – that’s a little anxiety-pro-
voking,” says Bob, who reported the
scores to his father by recapping the
action with a flourish. An announcer
was born.

Then came Syracuse University and
St. Louis, where he maintained a resi-
dence until 2011, when he moved full
time to New York to be near his grown
children.

For a couple of decades, Bob oc-
cupied people’s living rooms: He did
play-by-play for the National Bas-
ketball Association and the National
Football League and the U.S. Open
and the Kentucky Derby and Major
League Baseball, he guested on “Lar-
ry King Live” and “Today,” practiced
longform broadcasting on network
news magazines and talk shows on
HBO – and he became synonymous

careful with every word, that he’d come with the Olympics, starting with his
across as calculating if he weren’t also first appearance in 1988 in Seoul.
blunt and talkative. A one-hour brunch
with him takes two hours. He chats “What I’ve learned through the years
with the vigor of someone who is put in is that the host of the Olympics needs
storage between each Olympiad with to be a good generalist,” he says. “So it’s
no one to talk to about sports and life. a waste of time to memorize every plat-
form diver from Lithuania. It’s a waste.
He orders an omelette with toma- Of. Time.”
toes, spinach and a little bit of mozza-
rella, and then salts the hell out of it. But if a Lithuanian platform diver
In person, there’s more Long Island in suddenly becomes a sensation, Bob
his voice. He is short. His teeth are as will seem like he has studied the Bal-
orderly as his sentences. tics all his life. Nimble researchers,
just off-screen, will make him seem
What about Bob, Bob? omniscient.

Bob is not omniscient. But he is
a quick study and a sports encyclo-
pedia. He is also a bit rebellious, self-
deprecating and obnoxiously unflap-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 38

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38 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 INSIGHT COVER STORY Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35 incredible retention of facts, of times
of day, of moments when it all fell
pable. At the Belmont Stakes in 2011, apart, moments when it all coalesced.”
someone threw a can of beer at him,
and he caught it one-handed, opened Bob is exacting, direct and doesn’t
it, chugged some, lobbed it back from suffer fools.
the victory stand, and proceeded with
his interview of the winning jockey and Might he also be a jerk?
trainer. “I’m pretty outspoken,” says his
friend, journalist Buzz Bissinger, “so if
“He’s got that assured – that sort of he was an a------, I’d tell you.”
slow walk,” says NBC’s Mary Carillo, Bob is not an a------. He’s more of a
whom Bob coaxed into taking a shot traffic cop who speaks with the voice
of vodka on live TV in Sochi. “He’s in of God. “Your eyes are kind of dart-
control.” They toasted his severe eye ing from thing to thing,” he says of his
infection, which had dominated the Olympics role, “trying to make sure you
Olympic news cycle. understand where Simone Biles is in
her ¬rotation.”
“Tomorrow morning I’ll be lying on It’s tempting to call Bob the Dick
a curb in Minsk!” quipped Bob, eyes Clark of the Olympics – a mannequin
ablaze with germs, as he stamped his wheeled out for an occasion that he
glass down, and Carillo couldn’t con- now embodies – but that would insult
tain her incredulous laughter. his journalistic credentials.
Bob pushed for coverage of human-
“He’s keenly aware of whatever sub-
ject matter is in front of him,” Carillo
continues by phone, “and he’s got this

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 39

INSIGHT COVER STORY

rights abuses in Beijing against NBC’s massacre in 2012. athlon gold medal – hard-earned and and the ¬murder-suicide involving
then-owner General Electric, which When Ukrainians reached the po- deeply satisfying as it is – can put out Kansas City linebacker Jovan Belcher –
does plenty of business in China. the fires in Kiev.” which triggered sharp blowback from
dium at the Sochi games in 2014, fans who wanted Bob to call the action
He shamed the International Olym- Bob brought up Russian President During NFL half-time commentar- on the field, not off it.
pic Committee, on air, for refusing to Vladi¬mir Putin’s imperialism: “No ies, Bob has opined on concussions,
grant Israel a moment of silence on amount of Olympic glory can mask the Washington Redskins name, and “They should’ve either given me
the 40th anniversary of the Munich those realities any more than a bi- the intersection between gun culture
CONTINUED ON PAGE 40

40 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 INSIGHT COVER STORY Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 39 from 1988 to 1993, was a playground
for a generalist. Bob interviewed the
more time or deferred it by a week,” likes of Martin Scorsese, Paul Mc-
says Bob, who considers his simplistic Cartney, Camille Paglia, Dan Rath-
commentary on guns to be the one big er and Van Halen, but he was at his
bogey of his career. “Generally I have best, according to Cornblatt, oppo-
two minutes. . . . Here I had a minute. site “Zorba the Greek” actor Anthony
And it would’ve been better to leave it Quinn in 1991.
alone rather than go into it for a min-
ute.” Bob knew that Quinn, then 76, had
never spoken publicly about his son,
Bob can turn an interview into an who had drowned 50 years earlier at
inquisition. He skewered Penn State the age of 2. Bob did not ask Quinn
assistant coach Jerry Sandusky in 2011 about it directly, but with Olympian
(“Are you a pedophile? Are you sexu- finesse, he got his answer anyway.
ally attracted to underage boys?”) and
nearly questioned his way to a physical “There’s a scene in ‘Zorba’ where
confrontation with wrestling impresa- he’s lying on his back,” Bob said to
rio Vince McMahon in 2001 (“Do you Quinn, “and looks up at the British
think in some way this type of pro- guy, who he’s trying to teach the gift of
gramming contributes to . . . the incivil- life to – the gift of living life – and he
ity and coarseness that’s generally out says: ‘When my son Dimitri died and
there in the culture now?”). everyone was crying, I danced.’ ”

Bruce Cornblatt produced the Mc- Quinn, realizing what Bob was
Mahon segment, for HBO’s “On the doing, blinked and inhaled, folded
Record With Bob Costas,” and was

nerve-racked as McMahon, riled up, his arms, looked at the ground. Bob
inched closer and closer to Bob, who pressed on, delicately.
was as stoic as ever.
“ ‘And they thought I was mad,’ ”
“Everything about television for Bob he continued, quoting Zorba. “ ‘They
– no matter what he’s doing – slows said: Zorba’s mad. But it was only when
down,” says Cornblatt, now a senior I danced that the pain stopped.’ Is that
producer at the MLB Network, where true, for you, in life?”
Bob is a host and announcer. “Great
athletes have that happen too: [Time] Quinn, tears in his eyes, had been
just slows down,” which allows Bob to disarmed by a perfectly worded and
be agile and reflexive. executed question.

“Later With Bob Costas,” a late- “You’ve been very nice,” Quinn said.
night show that Bob hosted on NBC “So I’ll confess to you that I live with the
pain of having lost a son. And there’s no
greater pain in the world. And you nev-
er get over it. And to me, he’s not gone.
I imagine him living in San Francisco,
being a very successful architect. And I
just never accepted death.”

A good journalist can go his whole
life without summoning such a quote.

The ability to do so rests in a word
that Bob keeps using during this two-
hour brunch. He uses it when describ-
ing what he loves about St. Louis. He
uses it while lamenting the polarized,
post-factual world of politics and me-
dia, in which everything is noise, in
which profound truths can be over-
taken by a pink-eye meme. He uses the
word to address a question about un-
fulfilled aspirations. The word is “tex-
ture.”

“To me, what you hope for is tex-
ture,” he says of his work. “Just take
baseball. If someone says ‘Bob’s view
of baseball is nostalgic,’ that’s a portion
of the truth. If they say, ‘Well I thought

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 41

INSIGHT COVER STORY

he liked baseball, but he’s always talk- fore Rio in an undisclosed location, sanitation and security and embattled to every Olympics until 2032, when
ing about the economic disparities or studying for the Olympics, making Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff – all Bob himself will be 80 years old.
steroids’ – well, that’s part of it, too. You sure he knows names, years, weights, so he can deliver that texture he prizes
can draw a stick figure. Or you can try distances, personal records, intimate in this glossy, harebrained world. Bob says: “I hope I’m alive and co-
to paint a picture that has some shad- backstories. He makes sure he knows herent in 2032.” He pauses for the wail
ings, that has some texture to it.” about the geography of Rio, the struc- Jim McKay, who covered 12 Olym- of an ambulance to pass on Broadway.
ture of its government, its struggle with pics for ABC, was doing spots from the “So that I can enjoy watching someone
And so Bob spends the weeks be- Games into his 80s. NBC has the rights else host it.” 

42 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT EDITORIAL

An overdue reminder of what Russia is doing in Ukraine

Donald Trump’s assertion On Aug. 2, authorities re- ing inside Ukraine; in the past, distinct institutions.” They Russians hold many key lead-
last week that Russia “is not ported that 30 tanks, 11 ar- estimates by NATO and other transmit orders from Moscow ership positions, such as bat-
going to go into Ukraine” re- mored vehicles and six Grad outside observers have ranged and control all government as talion commander and deputy
minded us that very little re- rocket systems had been from several thousand to 10,000. well as military operations. chief of staff.
porting has been done in re- shipped in during the previous
cent months about the state of week. This despite repeated Veteran analyst Paul Goble Ukrainian military intelli- Not surprisingly, the Rus-
the conflict in the eastern prov- Russian commitments to pull of the Jamestown Foundation gence has identified and pub- sian intervention in Ukraine
inces of Donetsk and Luhansk, all such weapons back from reported recently that “cura- licly named dozens of Russian resembles its operation in Syr-
which were first invaded by the front lines and place them tors” dispatched by Vladi¬mir officers posted to the region. ia in several key ways. Mr. Pu-
Russian forces in early 2014. under monitoring. Putin’s regime “are attached One who was captured on tin has employed subterfuge,
to military units, political or- July 11, a platoon commander deception and lies to cloud the
That’s unfortunate, because It’s not clear how many Rus- ganizations, newspapers and named Alexey Sedikov, said in operations and their aims.
while the West’s attention has sian personnel are now operat- radio stations, as well as other a video posted to YouTube that
been otherwise occupied this In negotiations and con-
summer, Russia and its prox- ferences with Western diplo-
ies have steadily escalated the mats, his aides have repeat-
fighting. edly agreed to plans to end the
fighting, while on the ground
According to the United Na- Russian forces have contin-
tions, 20 civilians were killed ued to shell and bomb.
and 122 injured in June and
July, more than double the av- The Obama administration’s
erage monthly toll of the pre- reaction to all this has become
vious nine months. painfully familiar. Secretary
of State John F. Kerry brokers
The Ukrainian army, for its plans for cease-fires; when
part, reported at least 13 sol- they are broken by Russia, he
diers killed in July. Most of the expresses outrage – then re-
deaths came in shelling attacks turns to Moscow to strike an-
by heavy weapons, including other deal.
artillery and Grad rockets, that
were expressly prohibited by President Obama contin-
the two peace agreements Rus- ues to insist, as he did this past
sia and Ukraine made. Apart week, that the way to end the
from brief periods, the Russian conflicts is to work with Russia.
side has never fully observed
the cease-fire, according to re- The possibility that Mr. Putin
ports by international monitors. has no interest in and no inten-
tion of seriously cooperating
Meanwhile, military sup- with the United States in either
plies continue to pour across Ukraine or Syria is one that Mr.
Ukraine’s eastern border, parts Obama evidently finds it incon-
of which Russia exclusively con- venient to contemplate. Sadly,
trols. According to statements Mr. Trump is not the only one
by Ukrainian officials, at least who denies the obvious. 
19 trains carrying military hard-
ware crossed the border in July. The above editorial ap-
peared first in The Washington
Post

SLEEPLESS IN … PART II spent in REM (dream) sleep lengthens, time in stage 3 non-REM (deep
sleep) shortens.
What Happens When You Sleep?
HOW MUCH SLEEP DO YOU NEED?
One-third of your life is spent sleeping. While you might think it’s a Sleep needs vary from person to person. Most adults need at least
time when your brain shuts off and your body simply rests, there’s a seven to eight hours of sleep each night. When healthy adults are
lot more going on. Vital tasks are being carried out. Your brain is hard given unlimited opportunity to sleep, they sleep on average between
at work forming pathways to help you learn and create memories and eight and eight-and-a-half hours a night.
new insights. Your body is busy growing, repairing and restoring cells.
As people get older, the pattern of sleep changes, especially the
TWO TYPES OF SLEEP amount of time spent in deep sleep. If your sleep is frequently inter-
The two basic types of sleep are rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and rupted or cut short, you may not be getting enough of both non-REM
non-REM sleep. Sleep begins with non-REM sleep. sleep and REM sleep. You need both to sustain physical, mental and
emotional health.
 Non-REM Sleep
The three stages of non-REM sleep are: According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources,
o Stage 1 You sleep lightly and awaken easily by noises or other
disturbances. Eyes move slowly, muscles relax. Heart sleep needs change throughout the life cycle:
and breathing rates begin to slow.
o Stage 2 About half your night is spent in non-REM stage 2 Newborns………………………... Between 16 and 18 hours a day
sleep. Brain waves slow down with occasional bursts
of rapid waves. Preschool children……………. 11 to 12 hours per day
o Stage 3 “Deep sleep,” essential to making you feel rested and
energetic during the day, occurs. Brain waves become School age children………….. At least 10 hours each night
even slower and the brain produces extremely slow
waves, called Delta waves, almost exclusively. Teenagers………………………… Between 9 and 10 hours, although most
 REM Sleep
REM sleep begins about an hour to an hour-and-a-half after falling get 7 to 7.5 hours of sleep due to early
asleep. Eyes move rapidly in different directions behind closed eyelids.
Breathing becomes more rapid, irregular and shallow. Heart rate and morning start times at many high schools
blood pressure increase. The brain may revisit scenes from the day
and mix them randomly. REM sleep stimulates the brain to learn and Adults………………………………. 7 to 9 hours each night
make memories. Dreaming typically occurs during REM sleep.
Seniors…………………………….. Most need 7 to 8 hours a night
Sleep stages repeat themselves continuously while you sleep. As time
WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT SLEEP?
For more information, visit:
National Center on Sleep Disorders Research
www.nhlbi.nih.gov/sleep
American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM)
www.aasmnet.org

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

© 2015 Vero Beach 32963 Media, all rights reserved

44 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT BOOK REVIEW

Eowyn Ivey’s second novel, “To the Bright Edge Author Eowyn Ivey. is also interested in the inexplicable magic of the
of the World,” is a terrific example of why we love world — real or imagined – that hovers just be-
stories of man-against-nature. But it also aspires to It’s 1885, and Col. Allen Forrester has been yond our conscious perceptions. And so, while
be something more. It has the requisite cast of ex- asked to lead a small, motley crew of soldiers, she is certainly deft at conveying the “gray rivers
plorers attempting to survive in the uncharted and trappers and Native Americans up the uncharted that roar down from the glaciers, mountains &
inhospitable Alaskan wilderness in the late 19th Wolverine River and cross Alaska in the winter. spruce valleys,” she is equally at home dropping a
century, but it is also lush with magical realism. He is a newlywed, and his young wife, Sophie, will sea monster into those waters.
remain behind in Oregon.
In some ways, this is the perfect book for Ivey Among the principal characters in the novel is
to write after her lovely, moving and wonderful The novel is based loosely on an actual expedi- the quiet but interesting Nat’aaggi, another Na-
first novel, “The Snow Child,” which was a Pu- tion that year by Lt. Henry T. Allen. Ivey has built tive American woman who travels with Forrester’s
litzer Prize finalist. That book, a haunting re- her narrative around a combination of fictional men. She claims to have slashed her husband’s
imagining of a Russian fairy tale about a child- diary entries, mostly written by Col. Forrester and throat because it turned out that he was secretly
less couple and the inevitable heartbreak of the Sophie, but she also creates newspaper stories, a an otter – and an adulterous otter who had an ot-
little girl they build from snow, was also set in museum guidebook to the artifacts from the ex- ter wife.
Alaska, but it was – by design – more restrained pedition, and contemporary letters between one
and compact. “To the Bright Edge of the World” of Forrester’s descendants and a museum curator. Moreover, linking Allen’s and Sophie’s sagas is
has much more epic ambitions. In addition, there are period photographs, dia- that ultimate “harbinger of death,” a raven. But the
grams and excerpts from a book on obstetrics. bird is also an ancient Native American shaman
who is at once very evil and very helpful: “The Old
The story moves back and forth between the Man can change the weather, make people sick or
hardships of the expedition and the degradations cure them, as suits his mood. Years ago, they say,
Sophie must endure as a woman back home. For- he stole an Eyak’s wife & the husband shot him.
rester and his party face pretty much what you The Old Man just coughed up the bullet, spat it on
would expect in Alaska in the winter: cold and ice the ground, & went on unharmed.”
and starvation. Sophie must face down the busy-
bodies at the fort who are appalled at her desire to He seems to fly between the married couple,
understand the physiology of her pregnancy and perhaps even causing Sophie’s miscarriage early
her “unwholesome, even wicked” ambition to be into the novel and then birthing the baby from
a photographer. the roots of a tree in Alaska.

But it’s evident from Ivey’s two books that she Perhaps because of my preference for heart-
break and dread in fiction, on occasion I wished
that Sophie and Allen weren’t so relentlessly
good. The colonel is, mostly, patient, forward-
thinking and resourceful. Sophie is a plucky
feminist with a sense of humor. I craved a little
of the tension that marked the behavior of that
couple coping with the loss of a baby in Ivey’s
first novel. The new book could also be shorter; I
know from experience how often I have fallen in
love with my research and bogged down a nar-
rative.

Nevertheless, “To the Bright Edge of the World”
is a moving, surprising story. The Arctic Addict in
me is very grateful that Ivey wrote it. 

TO THE BRIGHT EDGE OF THE WORLD
By Eowyn Ivey

Little, Brown. 417 pp. $26
Review by Chris Bohjalian,

The Washington Post

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 45

INSIGHT BOOK REVIEW

In late 2002, the Naval Criminal Investigative essays in the New York Review of Books on Abu ended. But, as Danner explains, in the main they
Service uncovered evidence that detainees were Ghraib were among the first to reveal the bleak have not been. “Instead of returning them to the
being abused during interrogations at the Guan- reality and moral vacuum of the George W. Bush arsenal of emergency measures,” officials have le-
tanamo Bay Naval Base. Concerned about the administration’s torture policy. galized and regularized them. Instead of ending
lawlessness and the professional incompetence the state of exception, “the Obama administra-
of the interrogators, they sought out a senior at- In “Spiral,” Danner continues to render valu- tion normalized it.”
torney in the Defense Department’s office of gen- able service. He has three overarching objectives.
eral counsel. Nothing could be done, the attorney The first is to equip us with the analytical tools to The best evidence for this is the administra-
blandly informed them. “The decision has been control the war on terrorism and not to be con- tion’s failure to investigate or prosecute those
taken,” he said, “and, anyway, if the public were trolled by it. The second is not to allow the war to responsible for torture, even though President
to find out, no one would care.” lead us on a path contrary to our laws, values and Obama has said in reference to torture, “This is
founding principles. And the third is to help us not who we are.” Danner contends that by failing
Mark Danner is in the camp of those who do avoid the self-defeating policies that strengthen to hold ourselves accountable for torture and by
care. He has produced incisive journalism and the terrorist threat. repeatedly violating our founding principles, the
books over the past three decades exploring the real response is: Yes, it is. We are what we do.
moral dimension of war and foreign policy. His To assess where we are in the fight against ter-
rorism and to help inform the decisions that lie If this is how the war is redefining us contrary
ahead, Danner argues that it is first necessary to our principles, the war is also controlling us by
to look backward at the critical decisions made inducing us to act in ways that are contrary to our
in the early years of the Bush administration in strategic interest. The title “Spiral” is drawn from
response to 9/11. Those decisions coalesced into historian Michael Ignatieff’s observation that the
what Danner calls a “state of exception,” those terrorists’ strategy is to draw us into an “escala-
years “during which, in the name of security, tory spiral” that is controlled by the terrorists, not
some of our accustomed rights and freedoms are democratic governments. The terrorists’ outrages
circumscribed or set aside.” are not ends but means. The end is fear, and fear
produces reaction and overreaction, which in
This state of exception was created by several turn produce policies that are self-defeating.
policy decisions after 9/11, among them: to frame
the response to the al-Qaeda mass murders as a As Danner explains, Osama bin Laden’s objec-
war against terrorism (war had been a legal and tive was to lure the United States into a ground
policy designation reserved for conflicts between war in the Middle East that would catalyze a war
sovereign entities); to define the war as unbound- between Islam and the West. In Iraq, Abu Musab
ed in time and space; to decree that the terrorists al-Zarqawi’s strategy was to provoke the Shiites to
were outside the coverage of law; to turn law en- overreact against the Sunnis, thus forcing them
forcement and national security toward prevent- into the arms of al-Qaeda. Both partially suc-
ing attacks; to ground the legitimacy for these ceeded. Now al-Qaeda has morphed into al-Qae-
decisions and actions in the president’s always- daism, and has inspired the growth of the Islamic
expanding authority as commander in chief and State. Because of mistaken U.S. policies that have
then to shroud all of it in secrecy; and to have the contributed to the spiral, a terrorist group whose
war discussion increasingly define the political adherents on 9/11 could not have easily filled
struggle between the two parties. the stands of a medium-size basketball gym in a
small town has managed to metastasize. 
From these policies came tactics that became
the trademarks of this state of exception and that SPIRAL
we “still hear echoing like ghostly footfalls be- Trapped in the Forever War
hind the news,” Danner writes. He explores these
tactics: warrantless wiretapping, indefinite de- By Mark Danner
tention, targeted assassinations, enhanced in- Simon & Schuster.
terrogations. Many of these practices have been
modified, attenuated or, in the case of torture, 267 pp. $26
Review by Alberto Mora, The Washington Post

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46 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT TRAVEL

Want frequent-flier programs regulated? Complain!

should be any new for tighter government controls on the major U.S. airlines earned an im-
frequent-flier programs are the ones pressive $11 billion from the sale of
regulation. For now, who haven’t taken the time to under- frequent-flier programs in 2015.
stand them.
the DOT is charting But instead of investigating the
But others are unhappy with their perceived unfairness of the pro-
a tentative course, programs and say that government grams, the DOT focused on one ques-
action is long overdue. “I am all for tion: Can you redeem your miles for
which includes regulation,” says Oscar Palma, an an award ticket? (An award ticket is
insurance consultant from Miami. a ticket redeemed with miles. It can
strengthening its He’s worried that, with recent air- also be called a “free” ticket, although
line mergers and program devalua- with all the fees, it’s not really free.)
enforcement and tions, he’ll be left with hundreds of
thousands of worthless miles that Based on that criterion, airline loy-
proposing new regu- will eventually expire. “I’m afraid alty programs passed the audit with
my points will be hijacked by my air- flying colors. The DOT evaluation
lations that would line,” he says. consisted of searching the American
Airlines and Delta Air Lines web-
make it easier to find His fears are well founded. Accord- sites to determine if award seats were
ing to the program terms, to which available in 60 of their domestic mar-
BY CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT out about program changes. But the you automatically agree when you kets. It found that 99 percent of flights
sign up for an account, the miles are had award seats available for the
Washington Post agency has yet to hear from millions not your property. Your membership dates selected, with 63 percent avail-
can be terminated at any time, for able at the lowest redemption levels.
The federal government is on the of passengers who are angered by the any reason, and the rules can change This essentially prompted a collec-
verge of regulating airline frequent- with no requirement of notification. tive shrug. “Airlines have wide lati-
flier programs. But how far it goes airlines’ recent program changes. If Even the most dedicated point col- tude with the terms and conditions
may depend on you. lectors often feel as if they’re chasing of their frequent flier programs,” the
or when it does, that could dramati- their tails. audit concluded.
Earlier this summer, the U.S. De-
partment of Transportation’s Of- cally change the agency’s direction. Even if you could freeze the current As if to underscore the point that
fice of Inspector General released a frequent-flier programs, prohibit- all is well in the frequent-flier world,
long-awaited audit report on airline Collecting points is one of the ing any new devaluations, critics say the DOT also noted that during a
loyalty programs. The investiga- they would still be profoundly unfair two-year period from 2012 to 2014,
tion, requested by Rep. Alan Grayson great American pastimes. An es- on several levels. In his letter to the it received only 76 complaints about
(D.-Fla.), concluded that the govern- DOT requesting an audit, Grayson frequent-flier terms and conditions.
ment has the authority to regulate timated 630 million members are denounced modern-day airline loy- Of those, just one rose to the level of
frequent-flier programs and called alty programs as an unregulated cur- possibly being an unfair or deceptive
on officials to create new disclosure enrolled in various airline loyalty rency. practice. But because the DOT didn’t
rules, which the DOT’s Office of Avia- ask the airlines for their responses to
tion Enforcement and Proceedings programs worldwide, with more “Airlines establish the rules, the the complaints – it simply forwarded
said it will do. terms, the value, expiration dates and them without comment – regulators
than 300 million members in the the sales pitches,” he wrote. Indeed, didn’t know the fate of any of these
The question is, will the new regu- loyalty program grievances.
lations go far enough to protect air United States. But many of the miles
travelers? That’s where you come in. “What’s interesting is that the
The agency wants your frequent-flier never are redeemed. New research DOT audit doesn’t find that airlines
program complaints. (You can send were deceptive in any way,” says Jim
them directly to the agency via its by Switchfly, a travel commerce and Hooven, vice president of operations
online form at Airconsumer.dot.gov.) at Clutch, a marketing technology
loyalty platform, suggests that trav- provider. “For consumers, part of
Travelers and industry experts are the problem with airline rewards
divided on the issue of whether there elers haven’t used 70 percent of their programs is that they are confusing
– the multiple tiers and layers add
miles – or about a trillion points – to the problem. These programs are
not straightforward and unless you
over the last five years. read the fine print, it is easy to be-
come confused.”
Some program members are as
The regulation question is similar
passionate about keeping the gov- to tarmac delays, an issue the de-
partment dealt with about a decade
ernment out of their points as they ago, department insiders say. It’s a
problem that affected only a frac-
are about collecting them. Regulat- tion of air travelers, but those few
passengers made a lot of noise until
ing the programs is “way beyond a regulations were passed that lim-
ited how long an aircraft could wait
bad idea,” says Judy Serie Nagy, a before taking off. If there’s a similar
outcry, the government is prepared
business manager from San Francis- to act more decisively.

co. Instead, she says airlines should It just needs to hear from you. 

self-regulate their rewards programs.

She thinks the only people calling

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 47

INSIGHT ON FAITH

Let’s pray, sing and speak about peace on earth

BY REV. DRS. CASEY AND BOB BAGGOTT
Columnists

Edward Hicks was a folk painter in in Iran, had just walked home from fueled their willingness to persevere, Amazingly, the bear was not threat-
early 19th century America. A devout their day’s work in the fields, when and the search party set off. ening either the searchers or the child.
Quaker, he was profoundly taken they discovered that their 16-month- In fact, she was curled protectively
with the hope for peace offered by old son was missing. They looked in They cast glances behind every around the little boy. Newspapers re-
the prophet Isaiah, whose dramatic his usual hiding places, under a pil- boulder, hoping to find the child. And ported that the bear had apparently
vision for a renewed world claimed: low and behind boxes, but he was at each cave opening, they peered in. fed the child and kept him warm, pro-
“The wolf shall also dwell with the nowhere to be found. They shouted The group proceeded quietly on their tecting him until the rescuers brought
lamb, and the leopard shall lie down for their neighbors, who turned out thorough search, but as the night pro- him safely home.
with the kid; and the calf and the to help in a frantic search of the area. gressed, hopes waned. Night turned to
young lion and the fatling together; But it quickly began to grow dark and day, and day to night, and three days The story leads us to believe that Isa-
and a little child shall lead them.” cold, and still the child was missing. passed. Finally, when hope was all but iah’s vision may not be as far-fetched as
(Isaiah 11:6) Hicks developed Isaiah’s gone, they heard a noise at the mouth it seems. If such a seeming anomaly is
vision in over 100 paintings through The child’s father then announced of a cave. Cautiously they looked into possible, if predators can become pro-
the course of his lifetime, all of which that he and the other men would the darkness, the air scented with a tectors, then maybe there is hope of a
he entitled, “Peaceable Kingdom.” search more widely. They headed fragrance they linked only with bears. peaceable kingdom on earth, after all.
into the surrounding rocky hills and But the noise they heard was from And perhaps if we were all as devoted
We thought of Hicks’ devotion to the caves to look for the boy. The attempt the boy. He was in there crying, alive. to envisioning it as the painter Hicks
idea of a peaceable kingdom recently seemed futile, if not foolish. How So the group carefully moved into was, we could speed its arrival. If we
when the scripture texts assigned for could a child, only 16 months old, the cave and spotted the dark, round can’t paint it, let’s speak about it, sing
our reading included his favorite: the have gone that far? But desperation shape of a thick-furred, she-bear. about it, pray for it. 
Isaiah prophecy of peace. Of course,
we seem far, far away from peace on
earth. And yet there are hints that what
we think impossible might yet occur.

In her book of essays entitled
“Small Wonder,” Barbara Kingsolver
tells of a surprising story reported
by Reuters News Service in 2001.
According to the story, a wife and
husband, nomads of the Lori tribe

48 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT PETS

Bonzo flips over Max’s water Frisbee feats

Hi Dog Buddies! that, Max flung himself in, too, and But I don’t wanna hurt Grand-
landed smack on top of that Frisbee.
This week I yapped with an ATHlete! I He grabbed it and Dog Paddled to ma’s feelings.”
mean, this fella should be in the Pooch- the side of the pool.
lympics Water Frisbee Flipping compe- “I getcha.”
tition. He’s a big, good-lookin’ Golden “Wookud DIS!” he said, through a
Retriever, ’bout my age, and he lives mouthful of Frisbee. He did this neat “When we drive over to St.
with his human Grandma and Grandpa maneuver where he sorta nudged
in Roseland. the Frisbee against the side of the Pete, we always stop halfway,
pool, pushed off and just sproinged
When me and my Assistant came outta the water, tossed his head and at MacDonald’s, for vanilla ice
to the door, there he was, all excited, flipped the Frisbee into the air.
full of energy, trotted right over for the cream cones. If I get done before
Wag-and-Sniff. “HEY! BONZ! (OK if I “I learned how to do this all by
call ya Bonz?) I’m Maxwell Woodall but myself!” he said with pride, as he Grandma and Grandma, which
everybody calls me Max. This is my paddled over to the Frisbee. “My
Grandma Donna and Grandpa Roy! mail-lady got me this special soft I ushully do, I get them to give
Come’on, follow ME!” Frisbee for Christmas.”
me theirs, too. They say, ‘Around
He led us back to his screened-in He flipped it a bunch more
pool, which was Totally Kool Kibbles. times, then got out of the water. here, it’s All About Max.’ But I
His Grandma grabbed another
“Nice place ya got!” Frisbee and tossed it in. Swoosh, also have responsibilities: When
“Thanks! I spend lotsa time here. So, Max launched himself into the
whaddya wanna know?” pool, grabbed both Frisbees and started we have guests, I make sure I’’m
“How you got your human family, flinging again. With both of ’em in his
hobbies, dog buddies, travel, stuff like mouth he looked totally hilarious, like wearing my scarf, to properly
that. I hear you’re a real athletic pooch.” he was wearing a big floppy hat with
“Yep! I was born in a litter of 15. My only his eyes and nose showing. greet them. If I don’t, I go get it.”
Dad Marly lived with my Grandma and
Grandpa’s daughter in St. Pete, and my “Wow!” I said. “That was GREAT! I “I also get the morning paper.
Mom, Mandy Mae, lived there, too. gotta learn that!”
Grandma and Grandpa had a No Dogs But I NEVER leave my yard. I don’t
rule, cuz they’d already had lotsa dogs, “It’s not that hard,” he said while his
and were taking a break. But when they Grandma hosed him down. “You just even go in the pool ’til Grandma
came to visit, there we were, 15 balls of gotta time your Leap with your Toss-
gold fluff. My sibs were tumbling all over and-Fling.” says it’s OK.”
the place, but I was splashin’ around in
our water dish with my paws, tryin’ to “Well, it’s impressive!” I told him. Max. PHOTO BY LEAH DUBOIS After sailing into the pool one fi-
swim, I guess. Anyway, Grandma and A guy came up to the back screen nal time, he climbed out, got hosed
Grandpa decided their No Dogs rule door. “Hey, Max! What’s up, Pup?”
was more of a guideline. So I got to go “Yo, Tyler, come’on in. This is The “I’ve known Diesel forever. He’s my down, executed a final Nose-to-
home with ’em! They were pretty easy to Bonz, he’s a famous newspaper colum-
train, too.” nist! He’s interviewing me! Bonz, THIS is step-brother, a super nice Pit-mix. Lives Tail Shake, then escorted us back into
Just then, Max’s Grandma picked up a my pool guy, Tyler.”
floppy green and pink Frisbee and flung “Nice to meetcha, Bonz,” Tyler said, in St. Pete. We visit up there a lot and, the house, where he flopped down onto
it into the pool. A nanosecond after in a friendly voice. “Yeah, we all work
for Max.” Dog, we have the BEST time. When two thick towels.
While Tyler and Max’s Grandma talk-
ed about pool stuff, Max told me about I hafta go home, we both get Totally “Ahhh, sweeeet!” he said. “Hey, Bonz,
his BFF, Diesel.
Bummed Out. He’s got a step-sis too, you gotta come back sometime. We can

Sammi, a Chow-mix. All my litter broth- play in the pool!”

ers and sisters also live up there, and Heading home, I was thinking about

we all get together for Family Reunions, my pool, trying to remember if I had

the humans, too. Dog! is that ever a fun one of those soft Frisbees somewhere I

time! The whole place is full of Goldys!” could practice with.

“Seriously Cool Dog Biscuits!” I said,

picturing a mob of pooches playin’ and Till next time,

yappin’ about their puppyhood. The Bonz
“I got pooch pals here, too,” Max con-

tinued. “There’s Petey and Sunny Days,

little bitty Poodles; and Bruiser, he’s Don’t Be Shy
Australian.”

“Travel much?”
“I love ridin’ in Grandpa’s truck!” We are always looking for pets with
He spoke softly. “I’m a Grandma’s Boy interesting stories.
most all the time, but when Grandpa To set up an interview, email
says, ‘Come ’on, Max, let’s get in the [email protected].
truck! ’ THEN, I’m a Grandpa’s Boy.

Different Causes of Hypothyroidism eye movements called nystagmus, decreased roidism involves supplementation with thyroid
sensation on the face, or walking funny and hormone. Patients typically respond very well
Many of us know of the middle-aged dog and metabolism to cause signs like hair coat, falling over can occur. The muscles and nerves to treatment. Yearly screening of middle aged
that has a sudden weight gain, loss of energy, decreased energy, appetite changes, and that supply them can also be affected and the dogs is recommended, especially in at-risk
or change in hair coat and since these signs are weight gain. Pets can also have signs that affect result is a shortened stride, weakness or pa- breeds like Labs and Golden Retrievers! Early
similar to those seen in humans, we associate the central nervous system, peripheral nervous ralysis, atrophy of muscles, and loss of muscle detection and treatment can avoid the more
these changes with hypothyroidism. There are system, and muscles. Neurologic signs can be tone, and decreased reflexes. Some of these severe neurologic signs in some cases!
other less common and more startling signs the only signs in some cases. Changes in cogni- signs can resemble strokes or seizures.
of hypothyroidism that can alarm owners and tive function, stupor, and even coma can result At Divine Animal Hospital, your pet’s health
lead to euthanasia. from this condition. If the cranial nerves are The good news about neurologic signs relat- and comfort is a priority! We take pride in thor-
affected, a head tilt, facial paralysis, abnormal ed to hypothyroidism is that they improve or ough physicals and preventative care! We want
Hypothyroidism affects the immune system resolve with treatment. Treatment of hypothy- to make sure your pets have long, healthy lives!

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 49

INSIGHT GAMES BRIDGE

HOW DOES ADVANCER UNCOVER THE MINOR? WEST NORTH EAST
J 10 8 5 Q 962
By Phillip Alder - Bridge Columnist 10 6 A8742 KQJ93
K92 10 6 5 3 AQJ4
Michael McClary said, “Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion 10 9 6 3 752 8
power is ancient. It’s called ‘rain.’”
SOUTH
The Michaels Cue-Bid is pretty ancient because Michael Michaels died in 1965. But it AK743
continues to shower good results on users. 5
87
If the opener bids one of a suit, and the next player overcalls two of that suit, over AKQJ4
one of a minor, he is showing at least 5-5 in the majors; and over a major, at least 5-5
in the other major and either minor. In this case, if the advancer (the Michaels Cue- Dealer: East; Vunerable: Both
Bidder’s partner) wishes to ask for the minor, he bids two no-trump. The intervenor
rebids at a minimum level unless he has a strong hand (typically 17 points or more), The Bidding:
when he jumps in his minor.
SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST OPENING
In this week’s deal, South leaps to four clubs. Then North scrapes up a raise with his 1 Hearts
two useful honor cards and ruffing value in spades. 2 Hearts Pass 2 NT Pass LEAD:
4 Clubs Pass 5 Clubs All Pass 10 Hearts
After West leads the heart 10, how should South plan the play?

As dummy’s trumps are so low, declarer should assume that spades are 4-3 and allow
for a 4-1 trump break. He wins with dummy’s heart ace, unblocks the spade queen,
plays a trump to his hand, ruffs a spade in the dummy, draws the remaining trumps,
and runs the spades. He loses only two diamond tricks.

Finally, what would it mean if North had bid three clubs, not two no-trump? In the old
days, that would have been natural, showing l-o-n-g clubs. But now, most experts
treat that bid as weak, asking partner to pass with clubs or rebid three diamonds.
Then, the two-no-trump inquiry promises some game interest.

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50 Vero Beach 32963 / August 11, 2016 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT GAMES & CO.

SOLUTIONS TO PREVIOUS ISSUE (AUGUST 4) ON PAGE 62

ACROSS DOWN
7 Illuminated (6) 1 Rut (6)
8 Remedy (6) 2 Leer (4)
9 Shot of medicine (4) 3 Bung (7)
10 Pickle (8) 4 Gem (5)
11 Small rounded stones (7) 5 Boring (8)
13 Regretful (5) 6 Precious metal (6)
15 Pinafore (5) 12 Type of vegetable (8)
17 Move backwards (7) 14 Salad plant (7)
20 Fondness (8) 16 Lyrical (6)
21 Small bouquet (4) 18 Method (6)
22 Shade of purple (6) 19 Delicious (5)
23 Alpine house (6) 21 Orchard fruit (4)

The Telegraph

How to do Sudoku:

Fill in the grid so the
numbers one through
nine appear just once
in every column, row
and three-by-three
square.

The Telegraph