12/24/2020 ISSUE 52

NAACP, School Board agree on
progress reports. P12
Vero Council split on
stormwater utility. P9

Village Beach Market looks
to January reopening. P12

MY VERO For breaking news visit

BY RAY MCNULTY DeSantis: CDC
vaccine priority
He doesn’t call. He doesn’t makes no sense
text. Is there a problem?
ACTUAL LETTER RECEIVED AT THE VERO BEACH POST OFFICE BY LISA ZAHNER
I frankly don’t know what’s Staff Writer
going on with our soon-to-be Kids still send letters (with no emojis) to Santa
sheriff, Eric Flowers – because, With the first shipments of
well, he no longer seems to be BY SAMANTHA ROHLFING BAITA the way of the 6-cent first- to respond on Santa’s behalf the Pfizer-BioNTech and Mod-
speaking to me. Staff Writer class stamp? to kids’ pleas. erna vaccines now in hand
to help protect front-line
Actually, he’s not speaking to Do children still hand- Here in Indian River Coun- Whether the letters are ad- healthcare workers and long-
anyone at Vero Beach 32963, write and mail old-fash- ty, the answer is, “Yes, they still dressed to Santa Claus at The term care residents against
Vero News or our veronews. ioned letters to Santa Claus? send letters.” North Pole or the post office’s COVID-19, public health offi-
com website, and hasn’t been Or in the texting era, has official address for Santa cials turned their attention to
for some time. He doesn’t return that beloved tradition gone In fact, enough flow in at 123 Elf Road, North Pole the next big question: When
phone calls or messages left on each year that the post office can seniors, including many
his voicemail. He doesn’t accept here has two “elves” on staff CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 residents of Vero’s barrier is-
texts. He did not respond to an land, get vaccinated?
email I sent last week.
The CDC came up with a
This is strange behavior, complex answer to the priori-
considering he is the Sheriff’s tization question last weekend,
Office public information offi- but Gov. Ron DeSantis didn’t
cer, whose job is to talk to the like it. So Florida may go its own
news media and provide in- way, boosting seniors ahead of
formation about local law-en- younger people in high-risk
forcement matters and other jobs in the vaccination queue.
goings-on within the county’s
largest police force. CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Surge in COVID-19
cases sees pandemic
Piper’s high-end total here top 6,000
aircraft sales strong;
no pandemic layoffs BY LISA ZAHNER
Staff Writer
BY RAY MCNULTY
Staff Writer The dreaded post-Thanks-
giving surge in COVID-19 in-
More than nine months into fections finally arrived here this
the ongoing coronavirus pan- week, setting several local re-
demic, Piper Aircraft’s work- cords for the pandemic includ-
force at the company’s Vero ing 30 new cases on the barrier
Beach headquarters is down island and the total for Indian
only slightly from the start of River County since the start of
2020 – and there have been no the pandemic topping 6,000.
layoffs.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

December 24, 2020 Volume 13, Issue 52 Newsstand Price $1.00 Boat Parade
still makes
News 1-12 Editorial 32 People 13-26 TO ADVERTISE CALL a splash. P14
Arts 41-46 Games 35-37 Pets 64 772-559-4187
Books 34 Health 47-53 Real Estate 65-76
Calendar 62-63 Insight 27-40 Style 54-57 FOR CIRCULATION
Dining 58-61 CALL 772-226-7925

© 2020 Vero Beach 32963 Media LLC. All rights reserved.

2 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

My Vero might want you to believe. We’re the We do what we do because we that when our public officials don’t
enemy of bad people who do bad take pride in our profession and care talk to us, they’re not talking to you.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 things. We’re the enemy of lies and de- deeply about our community. For us,
ceit and corruption. covering the news you need and mak- That means they can attempt to op-
This is also a really bad way for a ing sure our local public officials con- erate under a cloak of secrecy, share
sheriff-elect to start a new administra- We’re the allies of truth and trans- duct governmental business openly only the information they deem nec-
tion, which Flowers will do on Jan. 5. parency. and honestly is as much a calling as essary and hide what they don’t want
a job. you to know – at least until watchdog
Everyone in the county should be Trust me when I tell you – and, af- reporters and other civic-minded
concerned, even worried, about a new ter nearly 19 years as a columnist and The troubling aspects of what Flow- residents start filing public records re-
sheriff shutting out local news outlets reporter in this market, you know you ers has been doing, however, go be- quests.
– particularly the community’s most- can – nobody in our operation is doing yond the difficulties his communica-
read newspaper, the island weekly this for fame or fortune. tions blackout has caused us. We can Still, public officials who want to
that most holds our city and county and will continue to work around this control the flow of information and re-
officials accountable. Most of my colleagues are career obstacle, utilize other sources and re- sist being held accountable can make
journalists with serious credentials port news about the Sheriff’s Office. the news-gathering process unneces-
We’re not the enemy of the people, and long past any need to make names sarily challenging.
regardless of what some politicians for themselves with gotcha-type sto- But it’s important our readers know
ries. In many communities, tweets and
Facebook posts have replaced press
conferences, allowing governmental
agencies to bypass the news media
and avoid public questioning and any
immediate scrutiny of their words and
deeds.

Such tactics are more difficult for
county commissions, city councils
and school boards, because they’re re-
quired by law to hold public meetings.
Law enforcement agencies, however,
have no such obligation.

Don’t be surprised, then, to see Flow-
ers and his as-yet-unannounced com-
mand staff try to strictly control any
news and information that comes out
of the Sheriff’s Office through the cre-
ation of an agency-run, news-produc-
tion division.

My sources at the Sheriff’s Office, in
fact, say he already has begun hiring.

If this new entity is designed to help
the local media by providing more
information than we’ve been getting,
then Flowers is to be commended for
wanting to run an open and trans-
parent agency that publicly admits
wrongdoing and doesn’t fear scrutiny
or even criticism.

But if Flowers tries to use such an
operation to circumvent the local me-
dia, hide wrongdoing and avoid scru-
tiny by spinning the news in his favor,
then we’re going to be confronted with
an even more alarming problem.

No news is bad. Fake news is worse.
Of course, I’d like to look beyond
these past months and give Flowers
the benefit of the doubt as he replac-
es Sheriff Deryl Loar, who is now in
the final days of his third four-year
term.
I can only hope that Flowers, as he
embarks on the next phase of his law-
enforcement career, sets aside any ill
feelings from his campaign, and that
he possesses the maturity and wisdom
to start with a clean slate.
Not everyone at Sheriff’s Office vot-
ed for him in the August primary. Not
everyone in the community endorsed
his candidacy. Not everyone in the lo-
cal news media was a cheerleader.
Some of us reported news stories
and authored columns offering opin-
ions that he, for whatever reasons,

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 3

didn’t like. I wrote some of them. It Democrats and voters with no party I’ve called and left messages. He sending him a text message asking
wasn’t personal. affiliation, and he enjoyed strong sup- doesn’t call back. I’ve tried to com- why his PIO won’t take or return our
port from the local Republican estab- municate through intermediaries. He calls. He didn’t respond, either.
Longtime readers of this column lishment. hasn’t responded. Last week, my email
know I’ve written numerous stories went unanswered. Clearly, there’s something going on,
and columns about the Sheriff’s Office As it played out, what I wrote proved but I can’t tell you what it is – because
and, at times, Flowers. The news sto- to be true as Flowers easily won the And it’s not just me: Flowers hasn’t Flowers won’t tell me. All I know is that
ries were always fair and objective. The primary and then trounced Cooney in returned calls from anyone at this this is no way for a new sheriff to start
columns reflected opinions that were November to win election as the coun- newspaper since the summer. his administration.
based on my reporting and knowledge ty’s 11th sheriff.
of the issue or situation. So before writing this column, I He should know better.
But I haven’t spoken to him since. reached out to Loar last weekend,
Indeed, until this past summer, l en- You should demand better. 
joyed what I believed was a good, pro-
fessional and even amicable working
relationship with Flowers, with whom
I often interacted during my first six
years at this newspaper.

I’d call him. We’d talk. If he didn’t an-
swer, I’d leave a message and he’d call
back.

Most of the stories and columns I
wrote pertaining to Flowers were, I’d
venture to say, more positive in tone
and topic – but only because that’s
where my reporting took me.

Indeed, I was the first local colum-
nist to suggest he someday would be
our sheriff.

But I also was the only local colum-
nist to question his involvement in
former School Board member Tiffany
Justice’s foolish and failed crusade to
criminally pursue a school district em-
ployee who had posted inappropriate
remarks on Twitter.

Even then, though, we continued to
talk.

As recently as January, I wrote a col-
umn about the Sheriff’s Office being
flooded with public records requests
that appeared to be targeting Flowers
in an attempt to derail his campaign.

Some readers thought the column
was too sympathetic toward Flowers –
so much so that a few wondered if he
had asked me to be his PIO, which he
hadn’t.

Then, just days before the August
primary, I wrote a column saying that
no candidate in any of the local rac-
es had benefited more than Flowers
from the ongoing coronavirus pan-
demic.

I wrote that his high-profile position
as the Sheriff’s Office’s PIO gave him
far more notoriety and visibility than
his political opponents, who were
hampered in campaigning during a
pandemic that prevented candidates
from making public appearances and
interacting personally with voters.

I wrote that the pandemic allowed
Flowers to run as the de facto in-
cumbent without being forced to
publicly defend the Sheriff’s Office’s
policies and conduct under Loar, or
explain what he would’ve done dif-
ferently, even if it meant criticizing
his boss.

Finally, I wrote that Deborah
Cooney’s entrance into the race also
helped Flowers, because it closed the
Republican primary to nearly 65,000

4 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

No Piper pandemic layoffs M600/SLS (safety, luxury and support) airplanes the school had purchased be- en trainer that offers the advanced
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 model, which now offers Garmin’s Au- cause Florida was a hot zone. Instead, systems and performance that flight
toland technology. Piper arranged to fly the trainer aircraft schools and airline programs of all siz-
According to Jackie Carlon, Piper’s to Indiana, with an M600 following to
senior director of marketing and com- “We’ve seen a significant demand return the local pilots to Vero Beach. es desire.” 
munications, the company currently for the M600 during the pandemic,
employs 940 people, down from be- and we’ve been selling them at a rapid “We delivered the planes to Indiana Letters to Santa
tween 980 and 1,000 in January. pace,” Carlon said. “We’ve already sold and never left the airport [there],” Car- CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
the bulk of our M600s for the year, and lon said. “We dropped off the planes,
“I don’t know of any manufacturer the M500 and M350 are almost sold then flew our people back on the M600.” 88888, the letters mailed in Vero Beach
that hasn’t been impacted by the pan- out. That’s very pleasant news. all end up at the downtown post office,
demic, but we’ve been doing OK,” In addition to Purdue, Piper deliv- where Postal Elves Jacklyn Lisotte and
Carlon said last week. “All of the work- “When the pandemic first hit, we ered trainer aircraft to Auburn, West- Jackie Roberts carefully craft, decorate
force reductions we’ve seen this year didn’t know how bad it would get or ern Michigan, North Dakota, Middle and mail responses to waiting children.
have been through attrition. We’ve ac- how long it would last, because we had Georgia State and Spartan College of
tually filled openings when and where never been through anything like this Aeronautics in Oklahoma, as well as Based on Vero Beach 32963’s Yule-
they’ve been needed.” before,” she added. “So we took steps ATP Flight School in Jacksonville. tide investigation, letters to Santa from
to reduce our risks by adjusting our local children contain a mixture of
Carlon said the company’s leader- production schedule.” But it’s the surge in sales of its M- funny, straight-forward, heartwarm-
ship has successfully navigated the Class aircraft – particularly the M600, ing and heart-breaking requests.
COVID-19 turbulence by continuously If a purchase contract wasn’t final- equipped with a Garmin system can
monitoring the global aircraft sales ized, work was postponed. Aircraft are land a plane without pilot assistance – They ranged this year from a crayon
market and making adjustments to Pip- built to order. that has the Piper brass excited. scrawled plea for the return of a miss-
er’s production and delivery schedule. ing Elf on the Shelf from a child who
The greater challenge was deliver- “We’re ending the year very strong, feared Christmas would be canceled
Although Piper reduced its produc- ing during a pandemic new trainer air- and we’re very excited about the de- if the elf did not reappear, to a multi-
tion schedule by 17 percent – the com- craft to the flight schools that bought mand for our M-Class aircraft,” Carlon page, single-spaced, neatly numbered
pany built 290 airplanes in 2019 and them. Last summer, in fact, Piper re- said. “We’ve already started to build line-item “Christmas Wish List,” in-
only 240 this year – most of the cuts cruited instructor pilots from its Vero planes for 2021, and we’re anticipating cluding description, brand and price
were in the less-expensive trainer air- Beach Regional Airport neighbor, the same level of sales as this year. of each item the child was hoping for.
craft lines, she said. Flight Safety, to make a delivery to Pur-
due University in Indiana. “It’ll be interesting to see how buy- Lisotte, who is customer services
Those reductions have been at least ers react after the vaccines are avail- manager at the downtown branch, has
partially offset by a strong demand for “We’ve been able to get the aircraft able,” she added. “We expect demand been a Postal Elf for several years, tak-
Piper’s luxurious M-Class line of sin- out,” Carlon said, “but there were to grow midway through the year, and ing the precious letters home where
gle-engine, turbo-prop aircraft, par- times it was like playing hopscotch to we could see increases in the third and she spends “hours and hours” deco-
ticularly the wildly popular, six-seat get them there.” fourth quarters, but we have no prec- rating the response letters and enve-
edent for a pandemic like this. lopes with holiday embellishments.
Carlon said Purdue would not send
pilots here last summer to pick up the “We’re using the 2008 recession as a If a letter includes a message to
guide, but who knows?” Santa from the child, in addition to the
wish list itself, Lisotte will pen a cus-
Just last week, Piper announced tomized reply, and she spends hours
that the newest addition to its single- making sure Santa’s response is ex-
engine trainer-class aircraft line had actly right.
received FAA certification.
“It’s sometimes hard,” Lisotte said, “to
The value-priced Pilot 100, selling figure out what to say,” that will work
at under $300,000 and equipped with for the child, while not creating unin-
digital autopilot, joins the Archer TX, tended problems for the parent – such
Archer DX, Arrow and Seminole as as promising a gift that might or might
part of Piper’s trainer series. not appear on Christmas morning.

“We are excited to add the Pilot 100 Roberts, who has been a Postal Elf
series to our training product line at a for the past four years, said “I enjoy
price point that provides optimal eco- replying to the letters immensely. It’s a
nomics for all operators,” Piper Presi- lot of fun.”
dent and CEO Simon Caldecott said.
Dear Santa missives typically begin
“During these uncertain times, our
team has continued to remain focused
and has worked diligently to bring to
market an aggressively priced, prov-

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 5

trickling in around late October, said Li- envelopes containing current Dear postmark stamp and ink pad; and a “I have some children that write want-
sotte, but, according to one postal car- Santa letters; letters from previous red metal “Letters to Santa” mailbox, ing just to talk to Santa in the middle of
rier, “most of them arrive last minute.” years; response stationary which in- which is set out on the counter inside summer,” said Roberts. “And I remem-
cludes a poem from Santa; all sorts of the post office during business hours. ber one child who didn’t want anything
Lisotte provided an inside glimpse decorating materials – colored markers for himself – he just wanted to make
of how Santa and his elves handle the and pencils, crayons, stickers, glitter; a Every year, along with the basic sure his mother had a good Christmas.”
influx, wheeling out a supply cart at very special “Santa’s Village North Pole” wish-list letters, there are letters that
the downtown location with manila stand out. CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

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6 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

Letters to Santa with paddle; various electronics; and moved by the spirit of the season can postal workers, public transit work-
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 “some little people toys for my little sis- adopt a child’s letter and respond with ers, grocery store workers and people
ter.” a message from Santa and a gift the involved in commercial food produc-
This year, a short, sweet letter labori- tion, would get the vaccine next.
ously printed in pencil contained this The frantic, crayoned letter from child asked for. 
wish list: “Dear Santa I want a Ninten- the little boy pleading for the return After that, people age 65 to 74, younger
do, I wish a black tiesuit and shoes and of Bella, his family’s Elf on the Shelf, Vaccine priority people with serious medical conditions
an i phone 10 PRO.” told Santa he feared “we won’t have CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 putting them at high risk, and a broad
Christmas without her. I have a gift for category of “essential workers,” includ-
One letter, asking for a replacement her also. Please, please, please Santa, A panel of doctors appointed by the ing police officers, utility workers, offi-
I-Pad, came with an impassioned note: Please send her back.” The letter was CDC to recommend population groups cers of the court, and those who work in
“I’m so, so sorry I lost my tablet. I’ve illustrated with broken hearts and sad- for a phased national vaccination de- public safety, transportation, construc-
looked everywhere so I hope you don’t face drawings. cided on Sunday that people age 75 and tion, food service and even the media.
think I’m earasposable. [sic]” older, and front-line essential workers
The Post Office’s Operation Santa such as teachers, corrections officers, Only after all those groups are vac-
Still other letters asked for: “toys for program includes an attractive, easy- cinated would shots be available to
Amelia”; a rock tumbler; a blue kayak to-navigate web portal at www.usp- the general public.
soperationsanta.com where anyone
DeSantis on Monday called the
CDC protocols “purely advisory” and
said he’d put out a formal statement
on Tuesday about the plan Florida in-
tends to follow. But he laid out his chief
objections to the CDC’s plan at a Key
Biscayne press conference while taking
questions from reporters.

“The problem with that, as I see it, is
that a 22-year-old food service worker
would get it before a 70-year-old grand-
mother,” DeSantis said. “I don’t think
that’s an appropriate calculation of
the real risk there. Our whole strategy
around COVID has recognized the dra-
matic risk discrepancy around age.”

DeSantis said Florida expects to re-
ceive more than 750,000 additional dos-
es of vaccine by the end of December. He
speculated that, if asked, young people
in the CDC’s next phase would gladly
give up their place in line to someone
the age of their parent or grandparent
who is more at risk of severe COVID-19
disease, hospitalization and death.

“We want to make sure we’re putting
our parents and grandparents first in
all of this,” he said.

Walgreens and CVS Pharmacy were
set to begin vaccinations in nursing
homes and long-term care facilities in
Vero and across the state after pilot pro-
grams in Broward and Pinellas coun-
ties last week. Florida Department of
Health “strike teams” have been tasked
with helping get to every nursing home
and assisted-living facility.

On top of the nearly 180,000 doses of
the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine received
last week in five major Florida Cities,
173 hospitals in Florida received a total
61,000 doses of Moderna on Monday,
with another 300,000 doses expected on
Tuesday, and 120,000 doses of the Pfizer-
BioNTech vaccine early this week.

Cleveland Clinic, which was on a
published state list to receive the Mod-
erna vaccine, received doses of the
Pfizer vaccine on Monday and began
vaccinating employees hours later.

Dr. Greg Rosencrance, Cleveland
Clinic Indian River Hospital president,
said on Monday that vaccination was
voluntary but strongly encouraged for
the hospital’s 2,100 caregivers, and would
be accomplished in a “phased approach.

“More than 100 caregivers at Cleve-

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 7

Cleveland Clinic Respiratory Therapist Chris Corbett state’s most vulnerable residents will High school and college-age people, Monday and the first 100 or so front-
getting the vaccine. PHOTO: CLEVELAND CLINIC INDIAN RIVER have some level of protection as they and those in the 55 to 64 age group, line healthcare workers were vaccinat-
wait for a second dose three to four continue to account for the most in- ed at Cleveland Clinic Indian River.
land Clinic Indian River Hospital have fections, according to state reports.
been identified for the first phase, which weeks later in January.  The timing of the vaccine rollout
emphasizes those job roles that interact The past week also saw four days couldn’t be better with several states
with COVID-19 patients or may poten- COVID-19 cases top 6,000 when the case positivity rate ranged be- in virtual lockdown, new travel bans
tially interact.” CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 tween 8.5 percent and 10 percent, which popping up all over the world and
is significantly higher than the typical news of a more virulent variant of the
A statement from Cleveland Clinic Countywide, there were 422 new daily rate over the past five months. virus circulating in Europe.
Indian River on Monday emphasized cases this past week, for an average of
that vaccination of the general public 60.3 cases per day, breaking the previ- Reports of six people who died of CO- A new home test kit has been approved
would not happen this month, or even ous record average of 55 cases per day VID-19 complications were released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administra-
in January. in July. We also had a one-day record of over the past seven days, bringing the tion, making it possible to self-test at
106 new cases reported last Friday, top- total dead here to 153, 78 of whom home and get timely results. Advances in
“COVID-19 vaccines may not be ping the previous worst day when 83 were residents of nursing homes and therapeutics seem to be announced on
widely available for the public until new cases were recorded, also in July. assisted-living facilities. a weekly basis, with help on the way to
several months into 2021. That means fight severe COVID-19 cases until mass
we must all continue taking important There was good news, though, as the vaccinations produce something ap-
precautions to help slow the spread first doses of the emergency-approved
of the virus. This includes wearing coronavirus vaccines arrived here on proaching herd immunity. 
a mask, frequent hand washing and
sanitizing, social distancing and limit- COVID-19 spreading faster in county public schools
ing gatherings,” the hospital said.
BY GEORGE ANDREASSI previous high of 23 during the week Nov. 10, when seven students and three
If the 1 million doses of vaccine ex- Staff Writer of Nov. 9 to Nov. 15, school district re- staff members tested positive for the
pected to hit Florida in December are cords show. virus, records show. That resulted in 96
all received and administered, the County public schools experienced students and one staff member quar-
their worst week of the school year for Dec. 14 was the worst day of the antining.
COVID-19 infections as 22 students and school year for COVID-19 as 11 stu-
three staff members tested positive. dents and two staff members tested Overall, a total of 130 students and
positive, while 66 students were di- 39 staff members have been diagnosed
The 25 cases during the week of Dec. rected to quarantine. with COVID-19 on 21 campuses since
14 to Dec. 20 were two more than the
The previous high was 10 cases on CONTINUED ON PAGE 10



Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 9

Vero Beach City Council sharply divided on stormwater tax

BY LISA ZAHNER stormwater projects via existing prop- The most recent $1.6 million storm- But the stormwater utility budget the
Staff Writer erty taxes, Vero has already achieved water utility budget the staff gave the staff created includes half the salaries
its year 2025 goals for reducing the two council bears this truth out. of 17 employees and one quarter of the
The Vero Beach City Council voted chemicals that feed destructive algae salaries of four more employees.
3-2 on Dec. 15 to take another step to- blooms and is on the verge of surpass- Conceptually, the stormwater utility
ward assessing a stormwater utility tax ing the state’s year 2030 goals. was supposed to pay only for materi- That’s what Brackett meant when he
next fall. als and equipment needed to install the said “we are kidding ourselves” to think
What Falls and other city staff aren’t swales, baffle boxes, pipes and other el- Vero can “waive” the stormwater fee
Those voting “yes” said they are not broadcasting is that the stormwater util- ements of the city’s drainage and filtra- during years when the city is caught up
obligated to actually charge the tax in ity is a way to shift millions of dollars of tion system. No employees were to be with no new big projects to be done.
2021, or to charge it every year if the current public works spending and put attached to the stormwater utility, and
money is not needed. But Mayor Rob- it under the umbrella of the new utility. no recurring costs were to be included. Without the tax, where would salaries
bie Brackett called them out on this
hogwash. for the 21 employees come from? 

“I think we’re kidding ourselves if we
say we’re not going to do this,” Brackett
said.“I think we’re kidding ourselves if we
say we’re going to waive it some years.”

Brackett solidly opposes imposing a
stormwater utility tax during the coro-
navirus pandemic when businesses

NEWS ANALYSIS

are struggling. He has challenged the
city staff to come up with innovative
solutions that do not burden the tax-
payer, instead of “just throwing money
at” the problem of stormwater runoff.

“I’ve talked to business owners and
they’re scared to death of this [tax],”
Brackett said.

Councilman Joe Graves, who previ-
ously voted in favor of the stormwater
utility, changed his vote last week after
being inundated by calls and emails
from Vero’s business owners and oth-
ers who oppose a new tax.

But Vice Mayor Rey Neville staunchly
supports the stormwater utility because
he said it spreads the cost of stormwater
projects more evenly than a property
tax on those who produce runoff.

Newly elected Councilwoman Honey
Minuse and Councilman Bob McCabe
also voted yes because they didn’t want
to lose the option to impose the fee in
2021 by missing a statutory deadline.
According to Finance Director Cindy
Lawson,Vero must notify the county tax
collector and property appraiser by Jan.
10 if it intends to include a stormwater
utility assessment on the next tax bills.

City Manager Monte Falls, the long-
time public works director promoted
to city manager after Jim O’Connor re-
tired, has pushed hard for this addition-
al source of funding to pay for projects
designed to keep stormwater runoff
from entering the Indian River Lagoon.

However, it’s not that the city hasn’t
spent substantial dollars on stormwa-
ter mitigation, or that Vero is failing to
meet state regulatory goals for reduc-
ing nitrogen and phosphorus in the
waterway. The opposite is true.

Under the current system of funding

10 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

COVID-19 in schools and 41 were directed to quarantine.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 Overall, 20 students at the school have
been diagnosed with COVID-19 and
the school year started Aug. 24. Anoth- 198 quarantined since Aug. 24.
er 1,344 students and 30 staff members
have been directed to quarantine. Six Sebastian River Middle students
tested positive for the virus last week
The number of COVID-19 cases in and 24 were directed to quarantine.
the school district more than tripled Overall, 12 students and four staff mem-
in the second quarter, which ended bers at the school have been diagnosed
Dec. 18, compared to the first quarter, with COVID-19 and 71 quarantined.
which ended Oct. 25.
But the pandemic calmed down at
A total of 33 students and six staff Vero Beach High School and the Fresh-
members were diagnosed with COV- man Learning Center with just three
ID-19 between Aug. 24 and Oct. 25, re- students testing positive for the virus.
cords show, while a total of 93 students
and 33 staff members tested positive Overall, 31 VBHS students and sev-
for the virus during the second quarter. en staff members have tested positive
for COVID-19. Another 335 students
Sebastian River High and Middle and three staff members have been di-
schools were hit particularly hard by rected to quarantine.
COVID-19 between Dec. 14 to Dec. 20.
Vero Beach High dropped out of the
Six Sebastian River High students top 10 high schools in Florida for total
tested positive for the virus last week number of COVID-19 cases during the

week of Dec. 6 to Dec. 12. 

VERO BEACH, SHORES BEGIN INCURRING
MAJOR LEGAL FEES IN UTILITY DISPUTE

BY LISA ZAHNER club communities and golf courses.
Cloud has worked for Vero before,
Staff Writer
in conjunction with GAI Consultants,
The Town of Indian River Shores on various utility matters. Readers
served Vero Mayor Robbie Brackett might also recognize Cloud’s name as
with a breach of contract lawsuit last being an attorney representing sev-
week after months of talks between eral Florida Municipal Power Agency
Town Manager Joe Griffin and City member cities over the span of Vero’s
Manager Monte Falls about utility decade-long effort to sell Vero electric
rates proved fruitless. Now, both sides to Florida Power & Light.
will begin incurring major legal fees.
The Shores’ lawsuit sat idle after be-
Indian River Shores has paid nearly ing filed in September, but now that it
$12,000 so far to local firm Vocelle and has been served, Turner told Vero city
Berg, but as Vero water-sewer utility officials not to talk about the active
ratepayers, Shores residents will pay litigation with anyone.
not only for their own attorney, but for
part of the cost of Vero’s attorney, too. The Shores town council has met in
executive session to strategize about
Vero’s interests are being represent- the lawsuit, and Vero will meet in ex-
ed by Thomas Cloud, who heads up ecutive session on Jan. 15 with Cloud.
the Utilities Division for Gray Robin- Since Jan. 15 is more than 20 days out
son, one of the state’s biggest law firms. from service of the summons and Vero
is supposed to respond to the Shores
According to each law firm’s engage- within 20 days, Vero City Attorney
ment letters, the Shores is paying Paul John Turner said on Monday “we’ll ask
Berg $350 per hour and Vero is paying for an extension if we have to.”
Cloud at least $250 per hour plus ex-
penses. Chapter 164 of Florida Statutes Flor-
ida Statutes mandates that under most
The crux of the lawsuit is the rateVero circumstances when one municipality
charges per 1,000 gallons of reuse irriga- sues another municipality, the parties
tion water, and whether or not Vero was must go through pre-trial mediation
obligated to reduce that rate from 67 in an effort to resolve the conflict and
cents to 21 cents in January 2019 when save the taxpayers the expense of a
Indian River County reduced its rate. protracted trial.

The October 2012 water-sewer fran- Indian River Shores’ Town Attorney
chise agreement between Vero and Chester Clem and Berg did not respond
the Shores states that rates for Shores when asked if this suit falls under the
customers shall be tied to Indian River state mandate for mediation, but Turner
County Utilities rates. said “the requirements under Chapter
164 don’t apply if mediation is covered in
Depending on consumption, the rate
differential amounts to $300,000 and a contract, as is the case here.” 
$400,000 per year to Shores residents,

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12 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

Village Beach Market, hit by more delays,
now hoping for mid-January reopening

BY RAY MCNULTY continued to slow the pace of permit-
Staff Writer ting, construction and equipment de-
liveries needed to complete the job.
Island residents won’t be shopping
at the Village Beach Market until mid- “We’re probably 90 percent of the
January, if not later. way there, but the contractors and sub-
contractors say they can’t finish sooner
Store owner Jason Keen said the sec- because of the holiday schedule,” Keen
ond phase of a $2.5 million remodel- said. “We’re also still waiting for some
ing project, which began in August equipment to arrive – shelving, refrig-
and was expected to be completed by eration, air conditioning and multiple
early October, has been bogged down pieces that still haven’t come in.
by coronavirus-related construction
and equipment-delivery delays. “Some of the equipment we did get
either wasn’t the right piece or was
Those delays prompted several em- damaged.”
ployees to seek other jobs and, two
weeks ago, forced Keen to lay off 40 Since the store closed for renova-
percent of what was left of his staff. He tions in August, it has operated an on-
said he hopes to keep his remaining 20 site food truck that offers what Keen
employees on the payroll, so they can described as a “limited menu of signa-
help restock the store and prepare for a ture items from our deli.” Those sales,
grand reopening. however, account for only 5 percent of
the market’s usual business.
“I didn’t want to lay anyone off, and
I hated having to do it right before the “We’ve already missed Thanksgiv-
holidays, but we were anticipating a ing, and we’re going to miss Christmas
six-week delay and now it’s going to be and New Year’s,” he added. “Those are
at least 12 weeks,” Keen said. busy times for us, so not being open
hurts. We can’t afford to miss any more
Keen said the first six-week delay of the season.
pushed his reopening date to Dec.
12, which would’ve allowed the store “We’re expecting to reopen in mid-
to resume business in time for the January, but I don’t want to give you a
holidays. But the COVID-19 pandemic date because we’ve been disappointed

a couple of times already.” 

NAACP, School Board agree on more meetings
and progress reports in desegregation case

BY GEORGE ANDREASSI on resolving the desegregation case, to
Staff Writer discuss how to work together in 2021.

The Indian River County NAACP The School Board and NAACP
and the School Board agreed to meet leaders agreed the December report
more often and collaborate on court- should include an update on the dis-
ordered progress reports in an effort trict’s efforts to recruit and retain Afri-
to improve the academic performance can-American teachers.
of African-American students and re-
solve a 53-year-old federal desegrega- The report will also list steps the
tion order. school district has undertaken to im-
prove the academic performance of
But the quarterly report being sub- African-American students, but it
mitted to U.S. District Judge Kathleen won’t include data that would indicate
Williams won’t include key test scores whether the efforts have improved re-
and disciplinary data from the end of sults.
last school year and the beginning of
this school year because the COVID-19 The School Board and NAACP lead-
pandemic disrupted traditional in- ers also agreed to meet again on Jan.
class teaching. 26 to review the annual report pro-
posed by the district’s Equity Com-
The deadline for the report was mittee, which consists of two NAACP
pushed back to December from Sep- leaders and two school officials.
tember because of the pandemic.
“We have some agreement,” said
NAACP leaders met last Tuesday School Board Chairman Brian Bare-
with the School Board, which features foot. “I think we’ve made a lot of prog-
two new members who campaigned ress. We will get started in the New Year

on a new path.” 

DOWNSIZED CHRISTMAS BOAT PARADE
STILL MAKES A SPLASH

14 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Downsized Christmas Boat Parade still makes a splash

Bernie and Carol Coffin. PHOTOS: BRENDA AHEARN IRCSO Marine Patrol Deputies Luke Keppel and Brian Aguiar. PHOTOS CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
Bob and Wendy Johnson.

BY MARY SCHENKEL tion stepped in to sponsor the gaily emcee Vince DeTurris. Cove seawall, where boaters and
Staff Writer lit tree. “It’s difficult to have this type of viewers called out holiday greetings
to one another.
Like many events this year, the George Bryant, parade chairman, an event and maintain distances,
recent 2020 Moorings Christmas said there were 14 boats in the pa- as we’re trying to do in the Yacht Deputies Luke Kepper and Brian
Lighted Boat Parade was a scaled- rade, one having dropped out due Club. This is just what you have to Aguiar of the Indian River Coun-
down but no less festive version of to a possible coronavirus exposure. live with, given the situation,” said ty Sheriff’s Marine Patrol kept a
the four decade-plus tradition. The There was no choir this year and Bryant, adding wistfully, “Maybe watchful eye on the festively deco-
parade was hosted by the Moorings while many remained in or near next year there won’t be so much of rated craft, which were adorned
Yacht Club, Moorings Realty Sales their cars, chairs were made avail- a problem.” with everything from lighted dol-
Company and Moorings of Vero able for people to safely distance phins to Santa and his friends, and
Property Owners Association. Ad- themselves along the seawall. DeTurris provided a running even a colorful holiday dragon.
ditionally, when they learned there commentary as the holiday armada
wouldn’t otherwise be a Christmas “Usually we get 350 people here, of yachts, pontoon boats and fish- “What we’re trying to achieve is
tree, the Wheels & Keels Founda- but it looks like we’ve got about 60 ing boats, guided by a United States community involvement,” said Bry-
or 70 right now, so we’re happy with Coast Guard cutter, made its way to ant. “This is a major feature of the
that; that’s a good showing,” said the viewing area along the Cutlass Moorings; it always has been.” 



16 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

PHOTOS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 Ursula and John Fletcher.
Barbara and George Bryant with Marcia DuRie.

Chris and Cheryl Johns.

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 17

PEOPLE

‘Book Club’ author: No question, reading’s the answer

BY MARY SCHENKEL
Staff Writer

“What are you reading?” The ques- Author Will Schwalbe. Kent Jones, Lorna Stengel, Chad Leonard, Jessica Schmitt, Christine Steinkrauss and JoAnn Hitt. PHOTO: KAILA JONES
tion was posed by Will Schwalbe,
author of “The End of Your Life Book two readers, two seekers, two learn- question: “Ask people what they’re Additionally, 10 became U.S. citi-
Club” and “Books for Living,” at a ers engaged in the same pursuit. And reading; it leads to great things.” zens.
Virtual Author Series fundraiser to that for me is one of the most power-
benefit Literacy Services of Indian ful things about reading, about liter- The accomplishments of the 235 “Literacy is a matter of public health
River County. The event highlighted acy, about the gift that you’re giving Literacy Services students last year and contributes to the strength of a
the power of books and the mission to people.” included improved reading and com- community,” said Schmitt. “We in-
of the nonprofit to offer adults the ul- munication skills, better employ- vite you to learn more and consider
timate gift – literacy. He also spoke of a grandmother ment opportunities and enhanced becoming a tutor.”
and grandson who formed a new re- engagement in their children’s edu-
Supporters of Literacy Services lationship when she joined him in cations. For more information, visit litera-
have seen time and again that reading reading and discussing “The Hunger cyservices.org. 
can change people’s lives for the bet- Games.”
ter. Prior to the chat with Schwalbe,
Jessica Schmitt, executive director, When asked what makes a good
shared a success story video about book club, Schwalbe replied, “For me,
Literacy Services alumna Maria Guti- it’s a matter of getting together and
errez, who obtained her citizenship, using books as jumping off points; as
a bachelor’s and a master’s in social ways of getting to know each other
work at UCF, and has passed that gift more and talking about things that
of literacy to her children. are important.”

“Speaking of gifts, I’m excited to Schwalbe stressed that people
have Will Schwalbe here with us to- should “read without prejudice,”
night,” said Schmitt, sharing that it meaning to read books that don’t
was Schwalbe’s care for an African necessarily interest you as well as
Violet that had piqued her interest. those that do.
“I sent him an email inviting him
to Vero Beach and sharing that my “Read books that challenge your
mother had an African Violet given to opinions,” said Schwalbe, adding
her the day I was born that was still likewise to seek out people with dif-
alive. If you have read ‘The End of ferent opinions. “One of the terrible
Your Life Book Club,’ you’ll also know things about the Internet is that there
that Will’s mother had an affinity for are algorithms that just feed you
Vero Beach and thus started a virtual more of what you’ve read before; it
friendship.” sends you down a narrow tunnel.”

“Literacy is one of the causes that A voracious reader, Schwalbe said
is nearest to my heart, so I’m thrilled that books are his escape, his solace.
to be amongst people who feel the “When I’m really in a book, I just shut
same,” said Schwalbe, whose book everything out.”
suggestions will provide readers with
hours of escapism. When asked his five favorite books,
Schwalbe said one is “The Impor-
A Q&A led by Schmitt touched on a tance of Living” by Lin YuTang.
variety of topics, including, of course,
“What are you reading?” “The answer to the other four might
surprise you, and you might think
His answer? “Shuggie Bain,” which it’s a bit of a copout, but they would
won author Douglas Stuart the Book- be four books I haven’t read. As long
er Prize, alternating with Willa Cath- as there are books on the shelf that I
er short stories. He admitted that haven’t read, there’s something to get
during the pandemic he corrected excited about and look forward to.”
some of his “reading deficiencies”
with books such as “Anna Karenina,” At the end of his talk, Schwalbe
which got him through the difficult gave another plug for his favorite
first weeks of quarantine.

“The End of Your Life Book Club”
shares the meaningful two-person
book club Schwalbe formed with his
mother after her pancreatic cancer
diagnosis. He said a powerful con-
cept that emerged was providing a
template to talk about important, yet
difficult things through the books’
characters.

“It allowed us to meet each other as

18 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Digital party was ‘Nutcracker’ backers’ cup of tea

BY MARY SCHENKEL Ben Earman and Peggy Hewett. PHOTOS CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
Staff Writer
PHOTOS: KAILA JONES
The annual Tea Up for the Nutcrack-
er fundraiser to benefit Ballet Vero dance artists, and also through our ed- BVB website, included mini-interviews
Beach took on quite a different look ucation and community engagement with some of the numerous people in-
this year. Thanks to the pandemic, it initiatives.” volved, such as Ken Gruden, execu-
was offered as a Digital Preview Party tive director of the Indian River Land
highlighted by a delightful behind-the- Acknowledging that 2020 had been a Trust, BVB board member Kelly Ward,
scenes documentary about the filming “very rough and strange year,” Schnell and Emily Luongo, assistant techni-
of Nutcracker on the Indian River. thanked his board, volunteers and do- cal director at Riverside Theatre, who
nors for their continued support, not- against all odds constructed a 40-foot
Faced with the prospect of not being ing later that a Nutcracker Partners square sprung floor for the dancers.
able to produce an in-person produc- Campaign outpaced their goal.
tion of their remarkable Nutcracker on Many of the dancers spoke of their
the Indian River, BVB took on the her- “The fact that you all have made the personal experiences, commenting on
culean task of building a dance floor commitment to step up and say that some of the difficult weather-related
and filming the production on the In- the arts matter, even in these challeng- challenges, but most of all sharing the
dian River Land Trust’s newly acquired ing times, really has kept me, our danc- ultimate joy of being able to perform
Hoffmann property – quite literally on ers and our sister company going dur- in such a gorgeous setting as one with
the Indian River Lagoon. ing this time,” said Schnell. “We just nature.
don’t sit still at Ballet Vero Beach, and
“Our mission at Ballet Vero Beach is that’s only because of you all and your “It was an amazing experience,” said
to promote the art of dance as a uni- support.” Eppink, echoing the sentiments of ev-
versal language in our community eryone involved.
and beyond,” said Adam Schnell, BVB The digital version of the Tea Up
artistic director and CEO. “We do that fundraiser was a multi-part affair that Thanks to generous donors, the Nut-
with performances by our resident included a jewelry piece raffle donated cracker on the Indian River film will be
company, the presentation of other by Leigh Jewelers, a curated online shown free on the BVB website from
reputable national and international auction, and a swag bag of goodies. 7:30 p.m. Dec. 23 through Jan. 6. It will
also be broadcast Dec. 22 on South
CHEERS TO THE NEW YEAR! Viewers were also treated to a pre- Florida PBS.
Thank God it’s Here! view of one of the pieces in the Pro-
gram 1 January production, Chamber BVB is “cautiously optimistic” about
From our families to yours, Merry Christmas Music: Sweeping Dance. It was a play- returning to the Vero Beach High
from your friends at Warren Capital! ful work called “While There’s Still Mu- School PAC with Program 1, Chamber
sic,” choreographed by ballet master Music: Sweeping Dance, taking place
Alexander S. Batt, Barbara E. Magee, Charlene Padgett Tucker Camilo A. Rodriguez, and danced by (with full safety protocols) at 7:30 p.m.
Sue M.Tompkins and Thomas J. Rollando Rodriguez, and resident professionals Jan. 15; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Jan. 16; and
Katherine Eppink and Anders South- 2 p.m. (Family Friendly Performance)
Investment Management • Trust & Estate Services • Financial Strategies erland. All three are also featured Nut- Jan. 17. BVB will also offer a filmed dig-
772.494.7660 l 3055 Cardinal Dr, Suite 305, Vero Beach, FL 32963 cracker dancers. ital option.

www.warrencapitalmanagement.com The wonderful documentary, which For tickets or more information visit
they plan to eventually post on the balletverobeach.org. 
Investment products and services are offered through Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC (WFAFN),
Member SIPC. Warren Capital Management is a separate entity from WFAFN.



20 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

PHOTOS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18
Stacey Lewis and Kelly Ward.

Gina Marie Saxton as Marie and Camilo A. Rodriguez as Uncle Drosselmeyer in Nutcracker on the Indian River.

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 21

PEOPLE

Camilo A. Rodriguez, Katherine Eppink and Anders Southerland rehearse “While There’s Still Music,” for the January production of Chamber Music: Sweeping Dance.

22 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Awesome Aerial Antics delivers on ‘Christmas Wish List’

Centerstage Performing Arts School students and instructors. Mia Valencia. PHOTOS: KAILA JONES

Taryn Ayson. Macee Holshouser. Kennedy Torrent and Saniah Smith.

BY STEPHANIE LaBAFF ing their “most wanted Christmas The resulting performances cre- round programs at the Centerstage
Staff Writer wish.” No dreams of “sugar plums” ated by this group of talented young- Acrobatic Complex, a 4,500-square-
here, these students act out visions sters and dedicated instructors were foot gymnastics facility managed
The 26th annual Aerial Antics hol- of rocket ships, a visit with Santa in truly a gift, crafted from hard work by the City of Vero Beach.
iday performance – Christmas Wish the North Pole, and travel to other and determination.
List – has tumbled onto the world faraway places, through impressive “Our program is unique because
wide web this year rather than tak- dances and acrobatics. Each performance group was it’s non-competitive. We’re focused
ing place on stage at the Vero Beach filmed individually, and with a little on being positive and uplifting the
High School Performing Arts Center, Adapting to coronavirus health technical magic, the independent children’s self-esteem. They don’t
as it has in Christmases past. and safety protocols, the students acts were woven into a virtual story- have to be perfect. We just want
worked in family groups to create ac- book, with segments of the script ac- them to learn. It’s a positive envi-
Produced by the City of Vero robatic and dance routines, as well companying the routines. ronment instead of the pressure of
Beach Recreation Department, the as mesmerizing feats on aerial silks, competition,” explained Howard.
holiday performance showcases bringing to life a cast of seasonal fa- “The Christmas show is always fun She added that students obtain an
more than 160 gymnasts and danc- vorites, including snowflakes, snow- because it’s so family-friendly. It gets education in the performing arts
ers, ages 3 to 25, who participate in men and dancing Santas. everyone in the mood for the holi- that they might not otherwise have
the Leisure Square Gymnastics and days and puts them in the spirit. It’s a access to.
Performing Arts Programs. “Children are missing out on happy time of year, and as long as we
their childhood right now. We want can help provide that, we’ll continue So, warm up some cider and get
This year’s theme centered around to make things as normal as we pos- to do so,” added Howard. ready for a Christmas Wish List,
an assignment given to the students sibly can while keeping them safe,” which can be viewed on the City of
at the Centerstage Performing Arts said Patty Howard, Recreation De- The holiday program was de- Vero Beach Recreation Department
School, who were tasked with writ- partment assistant director. signed to showcase the skills website at covb.org. 
learned by students during the year-

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 23

PEOPLE

Macee Holshouser, Kennedy Torrent and Deja Miller.

Angie Holshouser, Patty Howard, Deja Miller, Liz Matthews and Julie Payne.

24 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

Can’t mask the enthusiasm at Sebastian Christmas Parade

Bruce and Heather Gongloff with Ravelle Gongloff. PHOTOS: KAILA JONES

Nick Holpfer with Nicholas and Isabella.

Eric and Jan Krumreich with Beau.

BY STEPHANIE LaBAFF Area Veterans Honor Guard pa-
Staff Writer raded past, leading the charge to-
ward better days. The Sebastian Po-
Santa spread a little Christmas lice Department and Indian River
magic during the annual City of Se- County Sheriff’s Office traded in
bastian Christmas Parade, where their walking shoes this year and
families gathered in clusters along instead showcased various official
Indian River Drive from Main Street modes of transport, from a Humvee
to Riverview Park. This year, in ad- and a golf cart to an airboat and an
dition to festive holiday garb, blink- AT V.
ing lights and an assortment of ugly
Christmas sweaters, parade-goers Light draped motorcycles, bi-
had some fun with colorful holiday cycles, antique cars, Sea Scouts
masks. aboard a skiff, local dignitaries, golf
carts decked from tip to stern, and
While the parade had notably the Indian River Shores firetruck
fewer floats and participants, what were amongst those spreading holi-
it lacked in length, the participants day cheer as they traveled the pa-
more than made up for in holiday rade route.
spirit.
Familiar characters interacted
Spectators rose as the Sebastian with the crowd, dancing to holiday

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 25

PEOPLE

Mackenzie and Bridget Giovanniello. Loren Gatlin and Jazlyn Gatlin with Nicki Maslin and Olivia Maslin. Anna, Kylie, Emmy and Katie Carrmax.

PHOTOS CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

music and handing out peppermint
candies. Elves, Olaf from “Frozen,”
the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who from
“How the Grinch Stole Christmas”
paraded past. Even the Griswold
family from “National Lampoon’s
Christmas Vacation” helped build
anticipation as everyone waited for
the guests of honor – Santa and Mrs.
Claus – who closed the parade as
they ‘flew’ by in a sleigh pulled by
eight reindeer. 

26 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

PEOPLE

PHOTOS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25

Jebb and Pat Pittillo. Bailey Jackson, Dawn Buckingham and Jacob Jaramillo. Sonny Grossi and Kassie Filewich. Steven Toolan and Gabriela Tremblay.





Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 29

Is the fun permanently gone from INSIGHT COVER STORY
shopping?
Workers are seen in the nearly triple the closures last year, ac-
Welcome to pandemic shopping Amazon.co.uk warehouse cording to Coresight Research, which
2020, where consumers constrained in Milton Keynes, north of also expects a quarter of America’s
by health concerns and state and local London. 1,000 malls to close in the next three
restrictions on face-to-face commerce to five years.
have turned most shopping into a The COVID-19
sterile contactless experience. pandemic has Mall stalwarts like J.C. Penney, Nei-
made 2020 man Marcus, and Brooks Brothers
We’re still buying stuff, and when it an inflection have all filed for bankruptcy.
comes to office chairs and web cam- point in the
eras, we’re buying more than ever. rise of online The silver lining to all this disrup-
shopping at tion is that consumers and retailers
But this year’s festive shopping sea- the expense of have been jolted out of their old hab-
son will probably not be a “Miracle on physical stores, its, forcing them to experiment with
34th Street” for most brick-and-mortar a shift on par new ways of shopping.
retailers as the biggest gains will go to with the post-
online platforms like Amazon, whose war boom in Some of these changes will perma-
revenues are already up by more than shopping nently transform the way we shop,
a third this year. malls. much as the advent of department
stores did around the time of the Civil
While Black Friday online sales War, the adoption of indoor shopping
surged by nearly a quarter compared to malls after World War II, and the birth
2019, traffic at physical stores plunged of e-commerce in the 1990s.
by more than half, according to sepa-
rate surveys. The difference is that most of those
transformations en-
The near-term outlook for physical hanced, or at least
stores is dire: As many as 25,000 could preserved, the social
close this year in the United States,
aspect of shopping. In
the present era of change,
that social aspect has all
but evaporated.
Everyone agrees that on-
line shopping will get bigger,
more efficient, and more stream-
lined, and that the ease of ordering
from home will be irresistible.
But the future of the physical shop,
from the big-box outlet near the in-
terstate to the independent store on
Main Street, is less clear.
Will shopping still be something
that we do together, a form of leisure
and entertainment? Will it ever be-
come fun again?
As a Wall Street retail analyst, Greg
Melich spends a lot of time figuring
out how and where U.S. consumers are
spending their dollars. He’s tracked the
meteoric growth in digital commerce
during the pandemic. Take Walmart,
the nation’s biggest retailer: Online
sales rose 79% in the third quarter.
Still, Melich reckons that shopping
as entertainment will be back, be-
cause most of us want to go back to
shopping in person when it feels safe
to do so again. “I’m not a believer that
all retail goes online. ... People are so-
cial animals,” he says.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

30 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 29 INSIGHT COVER STORY

The challenge for retailers is to under- The sun sets over cars in the parking lot of Walmart’s Intelligent Retail “China is now into the new normal,
stand what kinds of communal shop- Lab in Levittown, New York. The facility is the only Walmart AI lab location as it were, the first country in the re-
ping experiences will attract consumers covery phase of COVID, and it serves
in the future. Some are doubling down of its kind. Walmart’s e-commerce sales rose 79% in the third quarter. as a signpost to the rest of the world,”
on online and hybrid options, knowing says Kanaiya Parekh, a Hong Kong-
that even after the pandemic recedes An Amazon employee based retail expert for Bain & Co.
there will be some who prefer to shop demonstrates how to scan
that way. a smartphone code to use Several retail trends in China are rec-
at an Amazon Go Grocery ognizable to U.S. retailers: the move
“It’s easier for me to click a few but- store in Seattle. from in-store to online sales; growth
tons on my phone and get something in spending on health and wellness,
in two days than to take an Uber to the A grocery picker works in everything from fresh fruit to sporting
store,” says Grace Kim, a sophomore at a Peapod grocery distribu- goods; and what Parekh calls a flight to
Eastman School of Music in Rochester, tion center in Jersey City, value.
New York. Even buying clothes online New Jersey. Peapod offers
has become easier, she says, because grocery delivery services, Globally, luxury brand sales are
sites like Boohoo help customers an- which many consumers down this year. In China they continue
swer questions about specific brands’ have turned to amid the to grow, but cheaper local brands are
sizes that fit them, the curvature of pandemic. growing even faster.
their hips and belly, and their prefer-
ences in loose vs. tight-fitting clothes. A woman walks through an Chinese online retailers led by behe-
Amazon Go Grocery store moth Alibaba are also trying to make
Kim still likes shopping in person. in Seattle. Amazon has internet shopping fun by livestream-
But in the future, “it would be less fre- opened several conve- ing celebrities selling goods.
quent.” nience stores using an app
and cashierless technology. Last year on Nov. 11 – China’s so-
On a recent evening, retail consul- called Singles Day for online shopping
tant David Bishop placed an online “I try really hard not to buy from tor. For hints of what the future may – retailers sold about $60 billion worth
order for curbside pickup at a Target Amazon, because I feel that it’s really hold, retail experts say, look to China. of goods, says Parekh. That’s more than
store near Chicago. Curbside pickup, hurting our small communities,” says Amazon sells in an entire month. And
once a niche offering, has become a Betsy Morris, a retired baby boomer That’s partly because Chinese con- livestream sales accounted for 7% of the
way of life for many pandemic shop- in Huntington Beach, California. “I al- sumers have embraced digital com- total. This year on Singles Day, which ac-
pers wary of exposure to the coronavi- ways look locally first and if I can’t find merce more quickly than Americans tually stretched over several days, sales
rus inside stores. it, I’ll go to Amazon.” have, leapfrogging the mall era to shop doubled to $120 billion and livestream-
on their smartphones. China was also ing made up 10% of the total.
When Bishop’s notification came Just as the pandemic is global, so too the first to experience the coronavirus
that his order was ready, he clicked on are the trends at work in the retail sec- and among the first to emerge from it. Livestream companies featured per-
an app saying he was on his way and sonalities such as Li Jiaqi, China’s “King
drove to the store. He parked, and a of Lipstick,” and even retired U.S. bas-
minute later his order of nearly two ketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson,
dozen grocery items had been brought who sold hemp- and cannabidiol-
out to his car. “So it’s almost, like, mag- based creams on Alibaba’s Tmall plat-
ical,” he says. form.

To pull off curbside “magic,” Tar- As in China, U.S. retailers are trying
get and other retailers are investing to make the online experience easier,
heavily in sophisticated geolocation more efficient, and less intimidating,
and other technology that lets staffers including for personalized items, such
know when the customer’s car is head- as clothing and groceries. Still, many
ing to the store, when it enters the consumers report that the fun is still
parking lot, and when it’s approaching missing.
the pickup area.
One of the myths in retail is that be-
Going a step further, Amazon has pio- cause younger customers are comfort-
neered cashierless stores, selling meals able with digital technologies, they’re
and snack food in cities like Seattle, Chi- less interested in shopping in person.
cago, New York, and San Francisco. In fact, researchers have found that by
a wide margin both millennials and
When shoppers take an item off the the generation born after 1995 prefer
shelf, the system of cameras and sen- brick-and-mortar shopping to buying
sors automatically charges it to their online.
Amazon account. If they put it back
on the shelf, the system credits their It’s perhaps the melding of physi-
account. Once the system scans the cal and online shopping – the hybrid
Amazon app on the shoppers’ phone, or multichannel category – that could
there’s nothing else to scan: no special spur some of the biggest retail innova-
grocery carts or checkout lines before tions over the next few years.
they leave the store.
For most of history, people could only
Of course, such technologies involve shop one way: in a physical location.
huge investments by multinational
corporations, which raise privacy and Now in the pandemic era, retail-
competitive issues. ers like Target are working on mak-
ing ordering online and picking up at
Some shoppers are also wary of Am- the store a seamless process. And that
azon’s growing clout. A recent survey could be just the start. Other hybrid
of shoppers found that a third believe models will emerge, especially as re-
the company uses questionable prac- tailers wring delays out of the system,
tices, though nearly all respondents says Kirthi Kalyanam, executive direc-
agreed that the company puts its con- tor of the Retail Management Institute
sumers first. at Santa Clara University in California.

Amazon, which already provides

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 31

INSIGHT COVER STORY

free two-day delivery to Prime mem- And in China, several delivery com- sona in a physical space: Think Apple “Fast forward three or four years,
bers, now offers one-day delivery na- panies are also moving to 30-minute stores or Lululemon. you’re going to have ... five, six different
tionwide for a fee and same-day de- delivery for online orders, says Parekh. big, familiar ways of shopping,” says
livery on select items in several cities. And consumers will have multiple Kalyanam. “Shopping as fun will come
Its Amazon Fresh grocery service lets Stores will increasingly become plac- ways to buy their goods. Stores might back, and bricks-and-mortar will be
shoppers pick a two- to three-hour es to showcase products rather than to not even carry inventory, but promise stronger than ever before for shopping
time slot for delivery. stock inventory, says Kalyanam. Online to deliver your purchase from a nearby as fun.” 
retailers will re-create their online per- warehouse in a half-hour.

32 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT OPINION

When Chinese hackers breached ment. Russian agents compromised elect Joe Biden must assume that any- emphasizes keeping adversaries off
the U.S. Office of Personnel Manage- an entire supply chain, and thus, po- thing he reads about the attack is being balance by penetrating and, occasion-
ment in 2014, scooping up the sensi- tentially, many of the entities that rely read by Russia, and assume that any ally, disrupting their networks. The
tive personal data of Americans hold- on that chain. The breach reportedly communication could be falsified. premium on doing so just got higher.
ing government security clearances, affected hundreds of government and
the consensus among experts was that private networks, including those of Simply assessing, let alone repair- In the wake of this attack, the U.S.
the intrusion was extremely damag- the National Nuclear Security Admin- ing, the damage will be a monumental must find subtle ways of showing that
ing, but not out of bounds. istration (which manages America’s undertaking. Yet there are also three it can achieve equivalent or greater
nuclear weapons stockpile) and other larger strategic implications. breaches of Russian networks.
“This is not ‘shame on China,’ ” ex- key federal institutions.
plained Michael Hayden, the former First, don’t fall asleep on Russia, even Doing so is not costless, because it
head of the National Security Agency. As former Homeland Security Ad- as the Chinese threat attracts the ma- requires revealing where America’s of-
“This is ‘shame on us’ for not protect- viser Tom Bossert wrote in the New York jority of America’s geopolitical atten- fensive cyberwarriors are lurking. But
ing that kind of information.” Times, “It will take years to know for cer- tion. Putin’s Russia may be a declining, sometimes it is necessary to show one’s
tain which networks the Russians con- economically moribund power. But hand, or just a couple of cards in it, to
It would be a grave mistake to respond trol and which ones they just occupy.” Washington downplays the Russian achieve the desired psychological effect.
to a more recent – and more spectacu- challenge at its peril.
lar – alleged hack by Russian agents in This relates to a second notewor- The U.S., preferably in concert with
the same way. The so-called SolarWinds thy feature of the hack. Espionage is Second, effective cyberstrategy must allies, might also impose targeted fi-
breach represents a step up in cyberes- often intended not simply to harvest blend unilateral and multilateral mea- nancial and diplomatic sanctions, less
pionage, exposing a new degree of dem- information but also to sow vulner- sures. It seems likely that many other for the tangible pain they inflict than
ocratic vulnerability and authoritarian ability. When Beijing gained access to countries were victimized by the So- to demonstrate that America retains
ambition. millions of security clearance records, larWinds hack. The U.S. must therefore the right to respond to major cyberb-
it may also have gained access to pow- work more closely with other advanced reaches with whatever tools it deems
According to public reporting, Rus- erful weapons of blackmail. The Solar- democracies to strengthen shared appropriate. Such a response would
sian hackers with ties to the Kremlin Winds episode creates much deeper warning networks, coordinate damage raise tensions in the short term. Over
inserted malicious code into software and broader vulnerabilities, across civil assessments, and impose sharp costs time, however, it might promote a sort
made by the U.S. tech firm SolarWinds. society and government, than anything on malign actors. of mutual restraint.
Corrupted updates were then down- the U.S. has experienced before.
loaded by private companies and gov- Third, those responses cannot be These bargains can be struck: Dur-
ernment agencies, giving Russian intel- While Russia’s intent in penetrat- solely defensive. SolarWinds high- ing the Cold War, Moscow and Wash-
ligence a backdoor into their networks. ing these networks remains unclear, lights the basic offense-defense asym- ington reached a tacit agreement not
Vladimir Putin’s government now has metry in cyberspace: A clever attack to shoot down each other’s spy satel-
Such “supply-chain” attacks are not the ability to gum up the works of de- will require remediation efforts cost- lites, once it was clear that each side
unprecedented: In 2018, there were partments and agencies from the De- ing orders of magnitude more than the could respond in kind, and that nei-
reports (denied by all parties) that partment of Homeland Security to the attack itself. Moreover, the relatively ther side would benefit from unre-
Chinese hackers had used a hardware Department of Energy. It could delete open nature of the democratic inter- strained competition. Now as in the
supply-chain attack to compromise a sensitive data in public or private-sec- net, and the fact that responsibility past, achieving eventual de-escalation
variety of sensitive networks. But this tor networks, or use them to launder for cybersecurity is diffused among so will first require making clear that es-
approach is what makes the Russian disinformation through seemingly many public and private actors, cre- calation will not pay. 
gambit so concerning. reputable sources. ates vectors of vulnerability that will
always tempt authoritarian regimes. This column by Hal Brands first ap-
Moscow didn’t simply attack a single, The potential for mischief is breath- peared on Bloomberg. It does not nec-
lucrative target – as Beijing did in pen- taking: As Bossert writes, President- U.S. Cyber Command has been pur- essarily reflect the views of Vero Beach
etrating Office of Personnel Manage- suing a “defend forward” posture that 32963.

During the coronavirus crisis, our Pelican Plaza office is closed to visitors. We appreciate your understanding.

© 2020 Vero Beach 32963 Media, all rights reserved As we look toward the new year, let’s check our  Depression and sadness  Keep a positive attitude.
stress level and look for ways to create more calm  Feeling overwhelmed To help your behavior:
for ourselves and those we love.  Inability to focus; lack of motivation  Learn to manage your time more effectively.
Affecting your behavior:  Spend time enjoying hobbies and interests.
STRESS  Angry outbursts  Seek out social support. Spend enough time
 Drug or alcohol abuse with those you love, even if it’s only on the
When you face continuous challenge after chal-  Exercising less often phone or over the computer – for now.
lenge without relaxation or relief between trials,  Overeating or undereating  Set limits appropriately and say no to requests
stress-related tensions build up that can affect  Social withdrawal that would create excessive stress in your life.
your body, thoughts and behavior. Good stress  Tobacco use If you need help, seek treatment with a physician,
(“eustress”), like getting a new job, taking on more psychiatrist, psychologist or other mental health
responsibility or waiting to open presents, and TIPS TO LOWER STRESS professional trained in stress management or bio-
negative stress (“distress”) are both a natural part feedback techniques. As part of current social dis-
of living. But this has been an especially challenging Check off all you are currently doing or plan to start. tancing recommendations, many are offering care
year – physically and emotionally. To help your body: in their office following CDC guidelines. Some also
Take the self-test below to see if and how stress  Eat well balanced, healthy meals. offer virtual “office visits” over the phone or us-
might be affecting your body, mood and behavior.  Exercise regularly. A fit body strengthens the ing a telemedicine service or Zoom, etc., via the
ability to fight stress. computer.
SELF-STRESS TEST  Don't use alcohol, drugs, tobacco or compulsive
behaviors to manage stress. They exacerbate DO FOR OTHERS
Check off all that pertain to you. stress and damage the body.
Affecting your body:  Go to bed and wake up at the same time every When a person gives to others, his or her brain
 Chest pain day; get enough rest and sleep. Your body needs secretes “feel good” chemicals such as serotonin
 Fatigue time to recover from stressful events. (a mood-mediating chemical), dopamine (a feel-
 Headache  Learn and practice relaxation techniques; try good chemical) and oxytocin (a compassion and
 Muscle tension or pain meditation, prayer, tai-chi and/or yoga. bonding chemical). Giving stimulates the meso-
 Sleep problems To help your mood: limbic pathway – the reward center of the brain –
 Upset stomach  Accept that there are things beyond your control releasing endorphins and creating what is known
Affecting your mood: that you can’t change by worrying. as the “helper’s high.” 
 Anger or irritability  Be assertive rather than aggressive. Assert Your comments and suggestions for future topics
 Anxiety your beliefs, feelings and opinions without are always welcome. Email us at editor@32963staff.
becoming angry, defensive or passive. com.

34 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT BOOKS

When people we love die young, it be- author “laughed more while his late teens, he had written half a doz-
comes difficult to think of them without an overlay of writing this book than any of en operas, two of which are still part of
sorrow. If we are fortunate, we learn eventually to re- my others, much of the time the extended repertory. Before he was
member our lost for who they were in life, rather than at things Mozart himself had 30, he had perfected the string quartet,
through the pain of their departure. But that can take a written.” dedicating some of these compositions
long time – and, in the case of Mozart, audiences have All prodigies learn by imitation, but Mo- to his mentor Franz Joseph Haydn, who
been captivated for centuries by the sentimental trag- zart’s absorption was so immediate and inexplicable recognized that the young man had al-
edy of a doomed wunderkind, betrayed by life, mis- that his father made a note of the date. Led to the key- ready surpassed him. And then there are
understood by his contemporaries and laid in what is board on the evening of Jan. 24, 1761, three days be- the symphonies and the concertos and
invariably described as a “pauper’s grave.” fore he turned 5, he astonished his family by playing – never to be forgotten – those astonish-
a piece that his older sister had been working on for ing late operas, as different as can be but
Jan Swafford makes it clear in the introduction to days. Within half an hour, he played the piece again, immediately recognizable as creations
his admirable “Mozart: The Reign of Love” that things and by then he had it memorized. Before he was 7, he that could only be by Mozart.
weren’t all so bad for the composer. “I believe the only played for royalty in Munich, Prague and Vienna; he
profound tragedy in Mozart’s life was his early death, wrote his first symphony at the age of 8. Of the conclusion of “Le Nozze di Fi-
when he was on the verge of a new plateau in his art The central figure in Swafford’s book is Mozart, of garo,” perfect even within a plethora
and, incidentally, on the verge of real prosperity,” he course, but the author is a skilled enough storyteller of perfection, Swafford writes: “In the
observes. Swafford, a composer who has written biog- to create the world he lived in. For those of us given to end there is only love. As it always did
raphies of Ives, Beethoven and Brahms, calls Mozart looking back on other times as tidy, aristocratic and in the end for Mozart, love reigns, a love
“the sanest, most gregarious, least self-flagellating” of pretty much everything that the 21st century isn’t, of hearts and minds and bodies.” (Mo-
his subjects, fundamentally a happy man. Swafford offers a sharp corrective: “All cities stank in zart “never forgot the beds and the bodies, for all the
those days, the leavings of thousands of horses and trouble they cause,” the author adds wryly.)
And a funny one, too, as shown through his corre- tens of thousands of dogs in the walled confines mak- Swafford sums it up: “In all its dimensions from
spondence, from which Swafford quotes generously. ing for a penetrating fetor. A visitor wrote that every inspired libretto to inspired score, in the harmony of
Victorians of all eras have been shocked by Mozart’s street had its distinctive smell and they were all bad. character and action and musical realization, in its
letters, and many were suppressed or censored until Added to this was the misery of dust that billowed broad comedy and its bitter human wisdom, ‘Figaro’
recently. And yet they are prose marvels that could everywhere all the time, a compound of dirt and the is as close to perfect as Mozart ever came, which is to
have come from Henry Fielding; Swafford calls them dessicated filth of horses and dogs that got into your say as close as opera ever came.”
“effervescent, hilarious, sometimes so obscene that clothes, your house, your eyes, your mouth, some- This is an excellent book on Mozart for both mu-
they could clear your sinuses.” Small wonder that the times your very soul.” sicians and the general reader. The story is told in a
And yet Mozart prospered within this world, cre- lively, knowing style, without written-out musical
ating music of ever-blossoming grace and elegance: examples but shot through with unfailingly erudite
Indeed, it is partially his own work that inspires our and impassioned discussion of the composer’s work.
rose-colored vision of his era. By the time he was in Only toward the end do we feel the huge absence that
would be left by Mozart’s death – and Swafford’s evo-
cation of the moment the composer knew he was dy-
ing is appropriately terrifying.
And yes, Mozart was indeed interred in what
was called a “common grave,” but that was in ac-
cordance with the Viennese custom of the time.
Nobody seems to have followed the cortège to
the burial, which was outside the walls of the city
(also by custom) – three long miles away on rough
roads to St. Marx Cemetery. But Mozart’s sublimity
was already recognized and his music was playing,
through Vienna and then Europe and then through-
out the world, where we may hope, even in such
troubled times, that it will always be playing. 

MOZART

THE REIGN OF LOVE

BY JAN SWAFFORD | HARPER. 810 PP. $45.
REVIEW BY TIM PAGE, THE WASHINGTON POST

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 35

INSIGHT BRIDGE

THOSE POINTS CAN POINT THE WAY WEST NORTH EAST
853 10 9 7 4 2
By Phillip Alder - Bridge Columnist J72 K83 Q 10 9 6 4
AKQ J65 10 9 8 2
Galileo said, “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to ?643 K J 10 ?75
discover them.”
SOUTH
That tends to be the case at the bridge table. If you make a mistake, afterward you can AKQJ6
usually work out why you should have found the right bid or play. A5
743
This week’s column points in one direction. Even if I do not spell it out, you will soon A92
see the point. In this deal, for example, how should South plan the play in four spades?
West takes the first three tricks with his high diamonds, then carefully shifts to a trump. Dealer: West; Vulnerable: Both

There was a good case for South’s rebidding three no-trump. If he had, North would The Bidding:
have had a close decision. His 4-3-3-3 distribution would have suggested going with
no-trump, but the known nine-card fit would have indicated sticking with the trump suit. SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST OPENING
Here, of course, three no-trump is fine because the defenders cannot take the first five Pass Pass Pass
tricks in diamonds. 1 Spades Pass 2 Spades Pass LEAD:
4 Spades Pass Pass Pass A Diamonds
In four spades, South has the same nine winners as in no-trump: five spades, two hearts
and two clubs. To make his contract, he needs to work out which opponent holds the
club queen. After drawing trumps, declarer should play three rounds of hearts, ruffing
the last in his hand. What has he learned?

South now knows that West started with the heart jack and top three diamonds, a total
of 10 high-card points. If he had the club queen, he surely would have opened the
bidding as dealer. East must have the club queen.

36 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT GAMES

SOLUTIONS TO PREVIOUS ISSUE (DECEMBER 17) ON PAGE 63

ACROSS DOWN
1 Star (3) 1 Progeny (4)
3 Towering (4) 2 Midday (4)
5 Sweetened rolls (4) 3 Teetotalism (10)
8 Huge (8) 4 Hardy’s sidekick (6)
10 Italian volcano (4) 6 Innate (8)
11 Commotion (3) 7 Collect discarded items(8)
13 Awaken (5) 9 Disgraced president (5)
14 Low female voice (9) 12 Fragile pot (anag.) (10)
16 Indivisible (3) 14 Sieve (8)
17 Crone (3) 15 Young bird (8)
19 Love tenet (anag.)(9) 18 Map collection (5)
21 Caper (5) 20 Bravery (6)
22 Chatter (3) 22 Knack (4)
24 Trickle slowly (4) 23 Male deer (4)
25 Singer (8)
The Telegraph 26 Anger (4)
27 Authentic (4)
28 Pull at (3)

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

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 37

INSIGHT GAMES

ACROSS 94 Part of a South American 38 Two-word denial The Washington Post
capital 39 Wheedle
1 Panel that condemned the 40 To be, in Toulon TOULOUSE-LY TRANSLATED By Merl Reagle
Hollywood Ten: abbr. 96 Cpl., for one 41 Home on Pork Avenue?
97 Infamous Judean 42 Digits
5 “___ Nightingale” 43 Amass, as debts
8 Henry VIII’s hopes governor 44 Filleted
12 Frat party need 98 Boeing 747, 48 He goes to blazes
16 Father of twins, 49 Native (to)
en français? 51 Hambletonian horse
en français? 103 Fell 52 Divine Comedy verse form,
18 Major opening? 104 Matty of baseball
19 Big sleeps 105 Green veggie terza ___
20 “The western novel is here to 106 Peace org. based in Ethiopia 53 Synapse sites
107 Without 57 “Whether ___
stay,” 111 Played the lead in “Oh,
en français? nobler ...”
22 Intro to saurus Sigmund!”, 59 Central points
23 ___ carte en français? 61 Like the Piper
24 Lab run No. 2 116 Type of dress 62 Palindromic “battlers”
25 Christmas without 118 Expire 65 Wizard of Oz shout
Ebenezer, en français? 119 Astronomy Muse 68 Set of circumstances
27 Narcissist’s obsession 120 “This team’s tackling ability 69 Director Howard
29 “The jaw-bone of an ___” stinks,” 70 ___ Domingo
(Judges 15:16) en français? 71 Word origins
30 Boy toy 124 Recipient 76 Seven, in Sèvres
32 Country club purchases 125 Light tan 77 Referee’s ruling
33 Giant author’s first name 126 Frankenstein, 78 Eye part
35 Golfer’s goal, en français? en français? 79 singer k.d.
41 Country singer George 127 Hit with a rolled-up paper 80 Deal (with)
44 Prohibit 128 Like some milk 82 To have or to hold
45 Earth prefix 129 Before, for starters 84 Compass pt.
46 Horn sound 130 Regulated region 87 British rule in India
47 Inspect a police
department, DOWN (backwards, a vessel)
en français? 89 Shoulder ornament
50 Kama ___ 1 A non-native, 90 An element
54 Black stuff in Hawaii 91 Lodge members
55 Kimono money 93 Classic cop show
56 Focused 2 The ___ Suspects 95 Shock
58 Auto race that’s rigged, 3 Modifying wd. 99 Role played by Michael and
en français? 4 Head cheese?
60 Has din-din 5 Nun with a Nobel Jude
63 Stimpy’s pal 6 Unseats 100 A Doll’s House heroine
64 Mickey’s channel, 7 Pole between Pirellis 101 Twosome
in TV listings 8 Fort in the news, 1861 102 Latin hymn
66 Melville opus 9 Palindromic gold 103 Seat on Seabiscuit
67 Slice of cake that a dieter 10 Ohio-class Trident, briefly 106 ___ the other
doesn’t eat, 11 Gilbert of Roseanne 108 Campaign guy?
en français? 12 Gift for a mechanic 109 Girl who cries Uncle
72 H.S. hurdle 13 It means “all” 110 Withered
73 PC’s memory 14 Way in 111 Foam
74 Not long. 15 Starting 112 In ___ (like ducks?)
75 Occupies a beanbag 16 School orgs. 113 Zola novel
77 Root through one’s purse, en 17 Comedian who literally kicks a 114 March time
français? 115 Liner level
81 Early Christian edict, the ___ bucket in It’s A Mad, Mad, 117 Invitation letters
Creed Mad, Mad World 121 Payday, usu.
83 Affirmative 19 Fish basket 122 Tangier hat
85 Palindromic actress 21 Suspiciously 123 Sky light?
86 Mèrida mister 22 Songwriter Jacques
88 Opposed to part-time help, en 26 Canonized femme: abbr.
français? 28 One of the great motivators
92 Offer (a hand) 31 Terminal choice: abbr.
34 Sufficed
35 Sidekick
36 Movie ratings
37 Blow, in Bordeaux

The Telegraph





40 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

INSIGHT BACK PAGE

She’s alarmed by hubby’s lack of concern over her illness

BY CAROLYN HAX to (tele-)therapy, with him or solo – because this ap-
Washington Post pears beyond fixing, which leaves you with accepting.

Hi, Carolyn: I’m married for 40 And accepting means finding other rewards and
other value in your marriage besides medical support.
years and I’ve had health issues,
Does that seem narrowly defined? I did it on pur-
most happening in the past five pose. You can set the scope of the problem as wide as
you want:
years. My husband is completely
Widest: He doesn’t care.
detached and uninterested. He nev- Narrower: He is not a caregiver.
Narrowest: He hears “doctor” and bolts like a roach
er follows up with test results, and in daylight.
Which one fits, and which can you live with?
he forgets appointments he promised to come with I also urge you to recast “dealing with everything
alone” as “dealing without him” – which is far less
me to, some pretty serious – I had lung cancer three dire.
It’s so unfortunate, and I understand your despair.
years ago. He’s never asked me, “So when’s your next None of my suggestions for working around him is
meant to deny how he’s failed you. But once you’ve
CAT scan?” or, if he knows I went for a scan, never fol- faced your disappointment, dwelling on it – and con-
tinuing to expect him to play a role he has repeatedly
lows up. proved he can’t play – only prolongs your suffering
and sets you both up to fail.
He had one heart issue six years ago and I was by his Accepting you can’t count on him frees you to plan
accordingly, to count on others. Take your cue from
side the entire time. the millions of over-65s who live alone and/or don’t
have caregiver-relatives (for whatever reason), and
Now that we’re in our 60s and things are starting to develop a personal support system. Talk to friends
about backstopping each other; meet with a geri-
happen health-wise, I need someone by my side who atric care manager; put in a call to a helpful person
from your cancer-care team. Check your insurance.
will take care of me, and I don’t see that ever happen- Call your local council on aging. Call it Plan Be. 

ing. I’m not sure what to do. Even when I decide to just

deal with everything alone, it’s just so hurtful and I that he’s terrified of illness in general and of losing you
in particular, and just freezes.
end up fighting with him about it.
The most useful explanation I can think of is that
Whenever I’ve asked him why he thinks he’s like he’s bad at this, and would be bad at it with anybody,
so it’s not as personal as it feels.
that, he just says, “I don’t know.” When I say, “Well, the
His “I don’t blame you” says he knows he’s wrong.
next time you get sick, I will not be there for you,” he It seems he’s not deliberately hurting you so much as
completely shutting down. (So maybe rethink your
says, “I don’t blame you.” tit-for-tat.)

How is that a marriage, especially approaching the If any of this helps you fathom his detachment, then
feel free to make it yours. Or bring the whole question
last years of our lives?

– S.

S.: The most forgiving explanation I can think of is

ARIA READY?
ANTICIPATION HIGH FOR
VERO BEACH OPERA SEASON

42 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™
Aria ready? Anticipation highARTS & THEATRE
for Vero Beach Opera season

Soprano Susan Neves at the
Vero Beach Opera “Holiday”

Parlor Concert.

PHOTOS BY BRENDA AHEARN

BY SAMANTHA ROHLFING BAITA | spectrum of performing arts genres
STAFF WRITER have found new and inventive ways to
share their talents, taking the adage
The performing arts in all its many of “the show must go on” to new lev-
forms has taken a huge hit during this els of creativity. The highly respected
time of COVID. But out of the ashes Vero Beach Opera is among them.
of the innumerable canceled regular
seasons has risen a Phoenix of de- Like other performing arts entities,
termination and invention. Artists Vero Beach Opera depends heavily
all around the world and across the on audience attendance for their fi-
nancial survival. However, myriad
pandemic guidelines have compelled

Richard Vogel, Susan Neves and Ian Campbell.

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 43

Ian Campbell opens the Vero Beach ARTS & THEATRE
Opera “Holiday” Parlor Concert.

Despite the unusual circumstanc-
es, the consensus among attendees
was a resounding “spectacular!”

A VBO favorite, Neves has per-
formed extensively in Europe, South
America and the U.S., including sev-
eral times in Vero Beach over the
years, most recently in last January’s
production of “Barber of Seville.”

A two-time Grammy Award-win-
ner and a native of New York City,
Levine is known for her intense and
impassioned performances; the San
Francisco Chronicle calls her “a pe-
tite powerhouse, with technique to

CONTINUED ON PAGE 44

‘We have several Met Opera artists THE LAUGHING DOG GALLERY | CELEBRATING
scheduled to perform in these Parlor Con-
certs, and I think our VBO membership
will be thrilled with their performances.’

– Joan Ortega-Cowan

the nonprofit group to modify its 2021 well as performers in the backstage AFTER
season in a fashion that will keep both area. This is a great challenge for our CHRISTMAS
performers and audiences safe. ‘La Bohème’ production in March.”
SALE!
The season has been reworked in a As a result, the VBO board of di-
way that will do just that, while also rectors made the difficult decision DECEMBER 28, 29 & 30
maintaining the professionally driv- to cancel the full-scale productions
en level of quality local opera aficio- at the PAC, and instead planned and 40% Off All Ornaments
nados have come to expect. scheduled four Parlor Concerts be-
tween December and March. While They Last
Since 2006, VBO performances
have taken place in Vero Beach High “Masks, social distancing and lim- 2910 CARDINAL DRIVE, VERO BEACH • 772-234-6711 • THELAUGHINGDOGGALLERY.COM
School’s excellent 1,040-seat Perform- ited seating will be necessary, and
ing Arts Center, fondly known as the doors will be open to the outside,”
PAC. Prior to that, VBO performances she confirms. “We have several Met
took place at St. Edward’s School’s Opera artists scheduled to perform
Waxlax Center for the Performing in these Parlor Concerts, and I think
Arts, and when Hurricanes Frances our VBO membership will be thrilled
and Jean damaged that building, the with their performances.”
VBO found a temporary home at the
Community Church of Vero Beach. The venue itself, an elegant private
residence in the gated island com-
When contemplating the 2021 sea- munity The Shores, was graciously
son, while also recognizing that the offered by a VBO patron for the Par-
raging pandemic was continuing to lor Concerts. The gorgeous home,
threaten and upend performing arts with its beautiful, wooded surround-
schedules across the country, Joan ings, possesses a spectacular inte-
Ortega-Cowan, VBO president and rior that even includes a magnificent
executive director, contacted PAC di- winding staircase, perfect for ‘Grand
rector Karen Wiggins. It had become Entrances.’
clear that coronavirus restrictions
and stringent guidelines had ren- At the well-attended first concert –
dered the wonderful venue impracti- “The Holiday Parlor Concert” – this
cal for the 2021 VBO season. past Sunday, a properly distanced,
masked and festively adorned audi-
“The PAC will only accommodate ence thrilled to an afternoon perfor-
450 (socially distanced) patrons, and mance by internationally acclaimed
masks must be worn at all times in- Metropolitan Opera dramatic sopra-
side the PAC,” says Ortega-Cowan. no Susan Neves, accompanied by her
“Onstage artists would need to be so- impressively credentialed conductor
cial distanced as best as possible, as and pianist Caren Levine.

44 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

Clockwise from top left: Robert and Maria Loewinger.Soprano Susan Neves doing a sound check before the start “Holiday” Parlor Concert. Sally and Dick Brickman. Paul and Sue Gauthier. Joseph and Carol Palowich.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 43 To the great delight of the audience board member Paul Gauthier, and tation-only competition of aspiring
this past Sunday, Neves’ husband Ian Ortega-Cowan presented Neves with young opera finalists and semi-final-
burn.” Levine, on the Met roster as Campbell, former San Diego Opera a Distinguished Achievement Award ists, with a panel of judges gleaned
assistant conductor since 2003, is CEO, even got into the act, reading the for her “outstanding operatic career.” from some of the opera world’s high-
also VBO’s music director and has classic “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa est echelons.
conducted several VBO productions, Claus.” Neves and Levine received The second in the Sunday Parlor
including “Madama Butterfly” and armfuls of fragrant roses from VBO series – the “Opera Showcase” con- Although the 2021 judges have
“Carmen.” cert – will take place Jan. 17. Per- not yet been finalized, legendary
forming will be Uruguayan couple, Met bass-baritone Justino Diaz (he
soprano Maria Antunez and tenor opened The Met at Lincoln Center
Martin Nusspaumer. with the stellar Leontyne Price in
“Anthony and Cleopatra” in 1966) was
Vero audiences first experienced slated to serve as president of the 2020
this exciting husband and wife duo competition’s jury, before the corona-
during the 2018 season’s brilliant pro- virus forced its cancellation.
duction of Puccini’s tragic opera fa-
vorite “Madama Butterfly.” Antunez And in 2019, Italian tenor Mar-
sang the title role, and Nusspaumer cello Giordani, whose prominent
was her love interest, Lt. Pinkerton. career at the Met included hundreds
of lead roles in many of opera’s
The Feb. 14 Parlor Concert, appro- most famous works, was scheduled
priately titled “The Love Concert,” to head the Rising Stars jury, but
will bring some fresh, uber-talented was forced to cancel for health rea-
new voices to the scene – members of sons. Tragically, Giordani, a dear,
the Florida Grand Opera Young Art- longtime friend of Joan and Román
ist Studio. Ortega-Cowan, died in Italy about
six months later following a heart
An always popular combo, “Broad- attack. He was only 56.
way Meets Opera” is the final Parlor
Concert of the season, featuring an- That year, another popular Met diva
other gifted pairing, soprano Katie and international favorite, dramatic
Horn-Pershall and baritone David soprano Deborah Voigt, stepped in
Pershall. The couple, who have staged for Giordani. Voigt has supported
“Broadway Meets Opera” to critical and performed for the VBO for sev-
acclaim, will perform much-loved eral years and remains on its advisory
arias and Broadway tunes, producing board.
a memorable afternoon of music, and
drawing the series to an upbeat close. With talent, determination, cre-
ativity and the astoundingly strong,
Another highly anticipated aspect unwavering community support for
of the VBO season is their “Rising the arts that has become a hallmark
Stars Vocal Competition.” of Vero Beach, the Vero Beach Opera
and the area’s many other cultural
Happily, according to Ortega-Cow- and artistic entities, will make it
an, “we are going to proceed with our through these crazy times stronger
2021 competition March 24 to 27, 2021 than ever.
at the PAC,” she says. “This will work,
as we usually have a small audience, For more information, visit vero-
and singers will not be backstage or beachopera.org. 
onstage all at once.”

Rising Stars is a three-day, invi-



46 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

ARTS & THEATRE

COMING UP! Don’t miss ELC’s far-out ‘Full Moon Therapy Walk’

BY PAM HARBAUGH for both body and mind. If you can’t 2 If you feel like you’re already be escorted to your seats right away.
Correspondent make it to the ELC’s magical moon- connected enough to nature, And there’s no intermission.” More-
light event, you can still make some over, only 400 tickets will be sold for
time to reconnect to nature. In addi- then maybe you’d prefer a great rock the 833-seat venue. So there should be
tion to this delightful experience, the plenty of room by your seat to jump to
1 Those looking for the perfect Environmental Learning Center is concert. You’re in luck, because there’s your feet and “rock on.” And that’s an
adieu to 2020 will find it at the a hub with terrific appeal. The Cen- urge you will feel because Classic Al-
ter comprises 64 acres on an Indian really no better cover band group out bums Live produces really great rock
River Lagoon island off the Wabasso concerts. You will be hard pressed to
Environmental Learning Center’s Bridge. There you can explore man- there than Classic Albums Live. And find a difference between their note-
grove trails, take pontoon tours, guid- by-note faithful recreation of the
“Full Moon Therapy Walk,” early eve- ed kayak adventures, enjoy campfire after a long pandemic hiatus, the or- greatest ’60s and ’70s rock bands that
cooking, learn about surviving in the ever lit your fire. Classic Albums Live
ning Wednesday, Dec. 30. The two- wilderness, get up close to creatures ganization comes back to town with uses professional studio musicians,
in the center’s Aquarium Experience, many of whom have played backup to
hour journey through a forest beneath and so much more. The Full Moon its recreation of Fleetwood Mac’s 1988 big names. You must wear a mask and
Forest Therapy Walk takes place from practice social distancing from those
a full moon is designed to “recharge, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. It costs $20 per “Greatest Hits” album, which includes not in your “pod.” Classic Albums
person to join it. Moreover, it asks par- Live performance of Fleetwood Mac’s
re-energize and reconnect you” to ticipants to practice social distancing favorites such as “Rhiannon,” “Don’t “Greatest Hits” begins 7 p.m. Wednes-
and to wear masks when a safe dis- day, Dec. 30 at the Emerson Center,
that which gives life in abundance tance cannot be maintained. Space Stop,” “You Make Loving Fun,” “Go which is at the Unitarian Universalist
is limited, so if you’re interested, best Fellowship of Vero Beach, 1590 27th
– Mother Nature. This is an outdoor sign up right now. The Environmental Your Own Way” and so much more. Ave., Vero Beach. Tickets are $40 to
Learning Center is at 255 Live Oak Dr., $95. Call 772-234-4412 or visit Music-
event for everyone. It’s an easy amble Vero Beach. Call 772-589-5050 or visit Bev Paris, one of the four producers WorksConcerts.com. For tickets, you
DiscoverELC.org. can call 800-595-4849. 
through the Center’s verdant Indian bringing the concert to Vero Beach,

River Lagoon campus. You’ll engage says the organization has been work-

with all your senses and delight in ing hard to make sure patrons will feel

the silvery show the full moon paints safe and comfortable attending the

on the leaves and branches. While concerts, which were suspended in

this may sound very different to you, March because of the pandemic. Now,

it’s actually inspired by the Japanese though, she said, people are eager for

practice known as “Shinrin-Yoku,” the concerts to resume. “There was a

which translates in English as “forest real outcry from the community for

bathing.” It originated in Japan in the these concerts,” she said. “So we’ve

early 1980s and is regarded as “eco- taken everybody’s concerns into con-

therapy,” which surmises that recon- sideration. We won’t have anything in

necting with nature is therapeutic the lobby, so when you arrive, you will

DOC UPBEAT ABOUT NEW TESTING
FOR CARDIAC AMYLOIDOSIS

48 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

HEALTH

Doc upbeat about new testing for cardiac amyloidosis

BY KERRY FIRTH
Correspondent

Cardiac amyloidosis has been Dr. Vikranth Gongidi. ened heart tissue. According to Dr. myopathy. Since the chest can’t ex-
around for a long time, but until re- Gongidi, the extra protein builds up pand and the heart has nowhere to
cently it was rarely diagnosed, and PHOTOS: KAILA JONES and makes the heart muscle thick go, it can’t pump out enough blood,
if it was, there was no proven treat- and beefy, a condition called cardio- resulting in the shortness of breath.
ment for the condition. mimicking those of heart failure, in-
cluding shortness of breath, fatigue,
Dr. Vikranth Gongidi, DO, an in- swelling of the legs, heart palpita-
vasive cardiologist affiliated with tions, lightheadedness and thick-
Cleveland Clinic’s Indian River
Hospital, is one of the relatively
few cardiologists who has success-
fully diagnosed and treated cardiac
amyloidosis. “Basically, the body is
making too much amyloid, a pro-
tein made in the liver, and in cer-
tain individuals it gets deposited
in different organs including the
heart, kidney and brain. When this
happens, it separates the tissue and
the tissue doesn’t work properly,”
explained Dr. Gongidi. “It’s similar
to Alzheimer’s or Dementia of the
brain, when there is extra protein
being deposited where it’s not sup-
posed to be and the body isn’t able
to clear it out.”

Patients experience symptoms

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Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 49

HEALTH

In the past doctors believed it was di myopathy or a weakening of the heart abnormalities. Some showed cardiography (TEE), Transthoracic
just a part of the aging process or a heart muscle, which in turn causes inflammation and scarring of the Echocardiography (TTE) Stress
byproduct of high blood pressure. congestive heart failure. It can also heart, as if they had a heart attack. Echocardiography and Vascular Im-
cause blood clots in the lungs, kid- aging. He is a graduate of the Uni-
Now, with proper testing, a defini- neys and systemically, which puts a “We honestly don’t know what to versity of North Carolina, Chapel
tive diagnosis of cardiac amyloido- strain on the heart and inhibits its make of it because typically when Hill, and completed his internal
sis can be confirmed, and medica- ability to pump properly. we see scar tissue of the heart, it’s medicine internship and residency
tion can be prescribed to arrest its from a prior heart attack and it can at Botsford Hospital in Farmington
progress. “There was a trial that looked at lead to arrhythmia later in life. We Hill, Michigan. His cardiology fel-
54 young athletes at West Virginia simply don’t know all there is to lowship was completed at the Uni-
“When a patient comes to me with University who had tested posi- know about COVID. You may have versity of Medicine and Dentistry of
very thick heart muscle, I diagnose tive for COVID,” recalled Dr. Gon- recovered from it now, but five years New Jersey in Stratford, New Jersey.
the problem using an echocardio- gidi. “Some of them had shortness from now there may be long-lasting
gram of the left ventricle,” said Dr. of breath and fever, others were effects. The best thing you can do is He is a member of the Indian River
Gongidi. “If the echocardiogram asymptomatic. About a month af- wear a mask and socially distance.” Medical Center Cardiology Practice
shows severe hypertrophy, I order ter their positive test, researchers with offices in Sebastian and Vero
blood tests and, in the hospital, did a cardiac MRI and one third of Dr. Gongidi specializes in Di- Beach. To schedule an appointment
we’ll do a special test called a PYP those patients showed evidence of agnostic Catheterization, Nuclear call 772-388-5402. 
scan, similar to an MRI which pro- Cardiology, Transesophageal Echo-
duces a nuclear scan of the heart. If
the tests confirm the diagnosis, we
can start the patient on medication
to treat the condition.”

Cleveland Clinic Indian River
Hospital has had the special test-
ing available for about nine months
and the new medication, recently
approved by the FDA after exten-
sive studies and trials, has been
available for about six months. The
medication, known as Pafamidis or
Vyndamax, stabilizes the proteins
made in the liver so they don’t mis-
fold and get deposited in the heart.
The advanced testing is paramount
in the diagnosis of cardiac amyloi-
dosis and new medication provides
a promise of managing the disease.

“Because of the new testing, we
now have a treatment,” continued
Dr. Gongidi. “Not many cardiolo-
gists are looking for it, and because
it’s a rare disease it requires test-
ing to diagnose. It’s most prevalent
in older adults, with 20 percent of
the population between the ages of
80-90 being affected, and was often
brushed off as a natural part of ag-
ing. Fortunately, we can now test,
diagnose and treat the condition.
The treatment is so new that we
don’t have long-term statistics on
whether it can actually reverse the
condition [instead of just keeping
it from getting worse], but there is
hope and more research will go into
it.”

“The most common heart condi-
tion I see is coronary of the arteries
resulting in blockage of the heart,”
said Dr. Gongidi. “Hypertension su-
persedes all of it. The one thing I al-
ways advise for my patients to do is
to stay active. Go for a walk. A 30-40
minute cardiovascular walk every
day will lower your blood pressure,
keep your body weight in check and
relieve stress. You don’t need to be
part of gym because you can literal-
ly walk anywhere, socially distance
easily and you can do it at any age.”

When asked if COVID-19 has any
effect on the heart, he said that in
some cases COVID-19 is causing car-

50 Vero Beach 32963 / December 24, 2020 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™

HEALTH

Aaron’s Hearing Care Center High-intensity interval
training can burn off belly fat
As you reconnect with others, trust your hearing
to an audiologist with 30+ years of experience

Aaron Liebman, Au. D. Hopefully, all of you are doing well as we BY PAM MOORE can increase inflammation in vari-
Doctor of Audiology take the necessary precautions to reduce ous organ systems. Such inflamma-
the spread of Covid-19 (coronavirus). We The Washington Post tion is associated with chronic con-
Why wouldn’t you want to be fit are committed to keeping our patients, any ditions, such as insulin resistance,
with your hearing aid from the visitors to our offices and our staff healthy Whether you consider a six-pack a higher glucose levels, diabetes, heart
only audiologist-owned hearing and safe. goal or a beverage is beside the point disease and fatty liver disease.
aid office in Indian River At all times we’re careful to maintain clean- when it comes to extra fat at your
County? According to Aaron liness in our offices in Vero Beach. We take waistline. Abdominal adiposity – ex- Your waistline measurement is
Liebman, Au.D., Doctor of extra steps and follow guidelines to further cess stomach fat – is associated with generally an accurate predictor of
Audiology, “both Audiologists protect everyone. increased mortality risk, regardless excess visceral fat and the health
and hearing aid salesmen of body mass index. risks associated with it. According
are licensed by the state. But, We have instituted a deep cleaning policy to Srinath, who is board certified in
typically, the salesman has no and our staff disinfects all surfaces that are But although the exercise commu- endocrinology and obesity, women
formal education in hearing, touched throughout the day. We’re read- nity has long known that it’s impos- whose waists measure 35 inches or
while the audiologist has gone ing up to date recommendations as they sible to “spot train” to reduce inches more and men whose waists mea-
to college and obtained a degree become available while discussing and im- anywhere on your body, some train- sure 40 inches or more are at in-
in the field”. plementing best hygiene practices to ensure ers have been touting high-intensity creased risk of conditions including
your safety. interval training (HIIT) as the best heart disease, diabetes, hyperten-
What this means to you – way to target stomach fat. sion, hyperlipidemia and obstructive
as a patient – is that Liebman than I thought possible.” sleep apnea.
will not only fit you with “Aaron is a very caring man, The workout, which includes short
a hearing aid, he’ll use patient and works very hard to bursts of intense work followed by But although a larger waist cir-
alternative methods of testing do the best for your problems. short rest periods (think 30 seconds cumference and excess visceral fat
for accuracy, so you receive I would highly recommend on, 30 seconds off), can take as little generally “go hand in hand,” Holland
the proper instrument. He’ll him.” These are just three as 20 minutes. Before you start alter- says, this isn’t always the case. Ac-
provide all-around service and of the glowing testimonials nating burpees and jumping jacks cording to Evan Jay, a physician as-
counseling so its full potential delivered by local people who with recovery intervals, however, sistant and athletic trainer at Rede-
will be clear. And, perhaps most are “graduates” of Liebman at let’s look more closely at that claim. fine Healthcare in New Jersey, some
importantly, he’ll consider you Aaron’s Hearing Aid Center. thin people who don’t appear to car-
as an individual…including To understand HIIT’s role in health ry extra weight in their abdomen do
the affordability of the product Dr. Liebman moved to Florida and longevity, you need to first un- have visceral fat. Meanwhile, there
he’ll be recommending. in 2001. He is originally from derstand that all fat is not created are people with larger waistlines
This type of kid glove treatment Albany, N.Y. area where both he equal. who don’t have excess visceral fat.
may have contributed to a and his father were audiologists.
finding quoted on the AARP He has found the residents Two types of belly fat, subcutane- The only way to know for sure what
website that states ‘people fitted of Vero Beach and the rest ous fat and visceral fat, accumulate kind of fat you’re carrying in your
for hearing aids by audiologists of Indian River County to be in your abdomen, but they look and stomach is through imaging, which,
are 13 times more likely to receptive and loyal once they act very differently. Subcutaneous Srinath says, isn’t typically done in
be satisfied than people who are exposed to his caring and fat is stored just underneath the skin, clinical practice. Instead, in addition
made their purchase through a concern for them. says Tom Holland, a Connecticut- to looking at waist circumference,
hearing aid salesman’. So, if the concept of having your based exercise physiologist and fit- your healthcare provider will note
hearing aid fitted by someone ness consultant. clinical markers indicative of viscer-
Dr. Liebman’s satisfied clients who offers more than 30+ al adiposity, Jay says. These include
have willingly put their praises years of experience, who offers It’s visceral fat, however, that you low HDL cholesterol, high triglycer-
into print. no-fee consultations, who will should be concerned about. Nestled ides, high blood pressure and high
“Everything I needed to know return your phone calls, who deeper in your abdomen, adjacent fasting blood glucose, all of which
was talked about up front in a will supply free batteries for the to your organs, it’s “almost like an are associated with excess visceral
very professional way.” “Aaron life of your hearing instrument, endocrine organ” that poses serious fat.
has done more for my hearing and who will provide quarterly health risks, Holland says.
clean up and adjustments Can HIIT reduce stomach fat? The
attractive to you, there’s only Unlike subcutaneous belly fat, answer is yes, according to a 2018 me-
one local audiologist to seek visceral fat is “metabolically ac- ta-analysis, which looked at 39 stud-
out: Dr. Aaron Liebman, tive,” says endocrinologist Reshmi ies involving 617 subjects. “HIIT sig-
owner of Aarons Hearing Care, Srinath, director of the Weight and nificantly reduced total, abdominal,
the ONLY AUDIOLOGIST Metabolism Management Program
OWNED hearing aid office in at Mount Sinai Hospital. It produces
Indian River County. molecules known as adipokines that

For more information call
(772) 562-5100 in Vero Beach.