Gainswave Therapy in Loxahatchee Grove, FL

The Loxahatchee Groves Town Council released the developers of Groves Town Center from a nearly 20-year-old restrictive covenant Tuesday, Aug. 15, agreeing with town staff and the developer that the project’s 23-acre existing conservation easement satisfies the earlier agreement with Palm Beach County.

Also that evening, the council held an informal workshop session with Diane Jenkins of Jenkins Realty, representing Groves Town Center, during which Jenkins updated the council on several businesses she is in negotiations with regarding the nearly 90-acre site, including a top-branded hotel, a small animal veterinarian and a Florida company looking to develop indoor pickleball courts.

During the regular meeting, the council approved the termination of the 2005 restrictive covenant, which predates the town’s incorporation. The covenant transferred to the town upon incorporation.

The town held a restrictive covenant over 3.1 acres within the Groves Town Center property for quality native vegetation. It was originally granted by Sundar Heeraman, previous owner of the property, to Palm Beach County in 2005. At that time, Heeraman was using the land for agricultural purposes and promised that should that use ever end, to either set aside the 3.1 acres or make a cash payment to the county’s natural areas endowment fund.

Since that time, the land was purchased by Solar Sportsystems, developer of Groves Town Center, and merged with the surrounding land. In 2020, the current landowners recorded a restrictive covenant and conservation easement covering approximately 23 acres, including a large part of the former Heeraman property.

“The property owners of Groves Town Center have requested that the town recognize that the requirement to set aside 3.1 acres of native habitat has been satisfied by the granting of the limited access conservation easement in 2020,” Town Attorney Elizabeth Lenihan explained.

Last month, the council was asked to drop the earlier restrictive covenant, but the representative at that meeting did not have maps showing the location and other background details. At the Aug. 15 meeting, Jenkins had more specific maps available.

“We knew this was there,” Jenkins said. “It was discussed with ERM [Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management], and it was understood that this was going to be part of our conservation easement. We all thought this was a non-issue because it was taken care of years ago.”

However, it came up when one potential buyer asked that title for the property be cleared of the old restrictive covenant.

“There was never a question that we would be preserving 3.1 acres,” Jenkins said. “We knew on this property, there would be a lot more to preserve than that.”

During public comment, resident Nina Corning brought more details she found regarding the original agreement and suggested that the developers should add an additional 3.1 acres of preserved native vegetation.

However, in the end, the council agreed unanimously that the current, 23-acre preserve satisfies the old agreement.

Before the meeting, the council held a “developer concept review” workshop on the Groves Town Center site, which is located at the northeast corner of Southern Blvd. and B Road.

Jenkins’ last presentation before the council was on eliminating the adult living facility (ALF) planned for the site and replacing it with a non-branded “boutique hotel.” While the council preferred a hotel to the ALF, the term “boutique hotel” was confusing.

“Because of the feedback that I received, we went back into the marketplace and found a different developer for a hotel,” Jenkins said. “We do now have somebody with a branded hotel, one of the very top names. Those plans are being finalized now.”

While plans for the hotel will likely be submitted soon, there will be master plan issues and zoning issues to work through. There is also a small animal veterinarian clinic coming into the western part of Pod E, which is located north of the existing Aldi store.

“We have had another interesting group approach us and request the opportunity to join us in Loxahatchee Groves,” Jenkins continued. “That group is called the Pickleball Club, with pickleball being the fastest-growing sport in America.”

The company builds indoor pickleball facilities, along with some non-lit outdoor pickleball and bocce courts. The group, based in Sarasota, already has six locations with approximately 20 planned across Florida. It is a club concept with a membership fee.

The site possible location for the pickleball group is not yet decided and depends upon where the hotel ends up, and how much of the space is left.

During public comment, resident Pat Johnson was not excited about the pickleball idea. “This seems to be an attempt to make us more into Wellington,” she said. “This is not something for our community.”

The council, however, expressed more interest in the idea.

“Thank you for coming and bringing us something different,” Councilwoman Phillis Maniglia said.

“It’s a new sport, but I don’t see it going away anytime soon,” Vice Mayor Robert Shorr added.

However, Shorr, along with Councilwoman Marge Herzog, said that the look of the facility would need to fit in with the town’s Rural Vista guidelines and not resemble a big warehouse, like the company’s other locations.

“If they were to come here, they would need to follow the Rural Vista guidelines,” Jenkins agreed. “I give those to everybody, so they see those coming in.”

The overall project is broken into eight pods. Pods A and B are already under development. Pod A has the existing Aldi’s store, as well as the Wawa store under construction and a planned AutoZone store.

Pod B, fronting Southern, has an approved car wash site, as well as the Culver’s Restaurant, which is almost ready to open. Also on that site will be Heartland Dental with one spot still available.

Pod C, just behind the Aldi store, was approved earlier this year for a Palm Beach Orthopedic Institute medical office. Pod D, the final unsold area fronting Southern, is not on the market yet.

This leaves Pod E (fronting B Road), Pod F (an internal area closer to C Road) and Pod G (further north on the site), as well as the Town Commons area at the center of the property.

Jenkins discussed an idea presented previously of switching Pod G with the Town Commons site. Pod G was slated to be the ALF and is closer to residential areas, while the Town Commons site would be a better option for the hotel.

“If that switch is made, Town Commons would end up being bigger,” Jenkins noted.

For the hotel to replace the 120-bed ALF, it would require changes to the master plan. Once the hotel site is finalized, that would determine the location of Town Commons and other amenities, including where the pickleball project might go.

Councilwoman Marianne Miles and Mayor Laura Danowski said they were not opposed to the concepts presented.

“I would love to see the footprints for where these potential places would go,” Danowski said.

Jenkins said that would be the next step.

“It’s a process,” she explained. “We need to do site plans to get to the next phase, but I don’t want to have people spend money on site plans if we come in here and you don’t want it.”

To learn more about the project, visit www.grovestowncenter.com.

Wellington is pushing forward with its planned annexation of approximately 258 acres of property at the intersection of Southern Blvd. and Seminole Pratt Whitney Road. However, the plan has met with strong opposition from Palm Beach County and the Town of Loxahatchee Groves.

On Tuesday, Dec. 5, the Wellington Village Council approved the ballot language for the involuntary annexation process, setting up a March referendum of the approximately 30 resident electors in the area, known as the Sluggett property and Entrada Acres.

Meeting that same day, the Palm Beach County Commission voted to oppose the annexation, which could lead to a lawsuit to stop it, and the Loxahatchee Groves Town Council pondered the idea of a competing annexation action.

At Wellington’s meeting, Village Manager Jim Barnes explained that it will be the first of three meetings on the annexation. The only decision needed was approval of the ballot language to meet the deadline for the March ballot.

“There is a requirement that we go to the voters of the resident electors within the affected annexation area,” Barnes said, adding that due to the Dec. 15 deadline, the ballot language cannot change once approved.

Meanwhile, the first reading and second readings of the actual annexation ordinance will be in January and February.

Barnes told the council about his presentation earlier that day at the county meeting, including their vote to oppose the annexation.

“However, there is no required county approval for this as an involuntary annexation. They have an option as property owners to object,” Barnes said, noting that the county owns two retention ponds there. “They could go ahead at some point and approve legal action against the village.”

Should that happen, Barnes said, the county and the village would then go through an intergovernmental process for mediation prior to an actual lawsuit.

“We disagree with the county staff on their assessment of the statute as it applies to this annexation,” Barnes said, adding that he met with County Commissioner Sara Baxter, who indicated to him that she believes the land should instead become part of Loxahatchee Groves.

“The same regulatory constraints that they are applying to us, would apply to an annexation by Loxahatchee Groves,” Barnes said.

Village Attorney Laurie Cohen said that there is ambiguity in the state statute.

“We believe that the overall intent of that section does not require that the property already be developed as an urban area,” she said.

Barnes explained that the process emanated from a handful of property owners who approached Wellington with an interest to annex. That was initially limited to properties that had frontage on Southern Blvd. and Seminole Pratt Whitney Road. Once other property owners learned of the interest, they also approached the village.

Mayor Anne Gerwig favored moving forward with the referendum.

“This ballot language that will go out lets people decide,” she said. “If they decide no, then it is over. However, I find it offensive to have someone say, ‘Well, Wellington doesn’t need that, but Loxahatchee Groves needs that.’ Who decides this?”

Councilman John McGovern said that the future of development in the western communities is on the north side of Southern Blvd.

“If these folks want to come into the village, and all the development is on the north side of Southern, then we have some interest to protect our northern border and give ourselves a stake in this conversation,” he said.

Barnes said that the land is not in the future annexation area of either Wellington or Loxahatchee Groves.

Vice Mayor Michael Napoleone agreed that Wellington has a stake in what happens in the area.

“This is the back door to Wellington, for lack of a better term,” he said. “To the extent that we have the ability to control what happens there, I’m in favor of this as long as there is a net positive to us.”

Two members of the public spoke, one opposed and one in favor.

Nancy Gribble, president of the Fox Trail Property Owners’ Association, representing a rural residential community west of the subject parcels, took issue with the village’s feasibility study for “mischaracterizations.”

“Our community is very concerned about what you are doing to develop on the Sluggett property, which immediately abuts our community,” Gribble said. “We feel that is driving this whole annexation grab. I don’t know why Wellington wants to cross Southern Blvd. It has always been the natural boundary.”

Andres Reynolds, a property owner on Rembrandt Road, in the annexation area, supports the annexation. He said that his family has owned property there since the 1980s.

“If Wellington is interested, we are willing, and I hope you guys will fight for it,” Reynolds said.

Cohen was asked what would happen if the ballot language is approved, but the council does not approve the actual annexation ordinance. She explained that the wording will appear on the ballot, but if the ordinances are not approved by the council, the vote will be meaningless.

Councilman Michael Drahos made a motion to approve the ballot language, which passed unanimously.

The tenor of the discussion was much different earlier that day at the Palm Beach County Commission meeting, where county staff asked the board for direction on the annexation.

Principal Site Planner Khurshid Mohyuddin led a presentation on the topic. He explained that the county’s charter requires a supermajority vote of the county commissioners to approve voluntary annexations, but since Wellington’s is an involuntary annexation, that does not apply.

Two parcels in the annexation area, totaling 10 acres, are owned by the county and are used for stormwater retention. The current county zoning is rural residential over most of Entrada Acres and commercial on the Sluggett property, Mohyuddin said. Wellington would allow commercial on all the properties with frontage on Seminole Pratt and Southern, with medium-density residential on the rest.

Wellington has more than 50 percent of the land area providing consent and plans a referendum of electors to make the annexation effective. Mohyuddin summarized county staff concerns that the annexation land does not meet the definition of “contiguous” and the requirements for “urban purposes” set by state statutes. He added that Loxahatchee Groves has met with the county to object.

Commissioner Marci Woodward asked if Loxahatchee Groves has plans to annex the area, and Mohyuddin replied that there are no town plans to do so at this time.

Barnes addressed the commissioners at the meeting.

“We disagree with staff’s assessment of the annexation,” he said, explaining that the South Florida Water Management District’s stormwater treatment area makes the land contiguous to the village. “This annexation process puts the decision in the hands of the resident electors. They are the people who should decide.”

Goeff Sluggett spoke on behalf of his father, Richard Sluggett, who is the largest property owner in the area. “My father is totally in support of annexing into the Village of Wellington,” he said.

Loxahatchee Groves Vice Mayor Robert Shorr was sharply opposed and called it “a travesty.”

“I am here to emphasize the rural character of this area,” he said. “Aside from the Sluggett property, which the county already gave commercial zoning to years ago, the other 37 properties is Entrada Acres, which is a rural-designated community.”

He said that the proposed annexation is “not fair to the character of the neighborhood.”

“They chose the non-voluntary route because you can stop the voluntary route,” he said, adding that Wellington could convert that land into a million square feet of commercial and homes for up to 1,000 people at the maximum proposed land use of eight dwelling units per acre.

Shorr said that Loxahatchee Groves held up on annexing the area to allow the Indian Trail Improvement District time to go through its recently unsuccessful incorporation procedure, which included the area.

Jeff Kurtz, project coordinator for the Town of Loxahatchee Groves, noted that he was once village attorney in Wellington.

“Wellington has not shied away from telling us what they are going to do with this property,” Kurtz said. “They are talking about a million square feet of commercial. They are talking about housing at three to eight units per acre. This is for property that right now has 30 to 36 developable units out there.”

Baxter was critical of the proposal. “I don’t think what they want to do fits the area,” she said, making a motion to oppose the annexation.

Mayor Maria Sachs agreed. “This sounds like a nice little rural enclave that we should maintain as it is,” she said.

Assistant County Administrator Patrick Rutter said the county’s opposition would start with a mediation process but could lead to a county lawsuit against the village.

“Should the village approve its final ordinance, we would challenge it through an intergovernmental dispute process,” he said.

Baxter made a motion to oppose the annexation, which passed 5-1 with Commissioner Michael Barnett dissenting and Commissioner Mack Bernard absent.

At the same time that Wellington was voting on the ballot language, Baxter attended the Loxahatchee Groves Town Council meeting to discuss the annexation issue.

“We at the county are going to try to oppose the annexation,” Baxter said.

She suggested that Loxahatchee Groves also attempt an involuntary annexation of the residential portion of Entrada Acres and put that on the ballot as well, to let the residents of the area decide if they want to be in Loxahatchee Groves or Wellington.

“I don’t know how expedient you can be, but it may be a way for you to give the voters the option of where they would want to go,” Baxter said.

She suggested that the council call as many special meetings as necessary to make it happen.

Town Attorney Elizabeth Lenihan explained the steps necessary to put the item on the ballot and was concerned there would not be enough time to get it done by the March deadlines.

Councilwoman Marianne Miles noted that the town discussed annexing this area several years ago and did not pursue it.

“At one point, as a council, we said we were going to be proactive, not reactive,” Miles said. “Now here we are again with our hands and feet in the fire, trying to recover what we should have gone after in the first place.”

On Monday, May 9, Frank Smith of Loxahatchee Groves celebrated a very important milestone with friends, family and phone calls.

Frank, father to two, grandfather to seven and great-grandfather to 16, celebrated his 100th birthday, a milestone reached by only a tiny percentage of people.

“It was my birthday; it was another day,” Frank said. “My granddaughter was over here, her husband and her two sons. Earlier today, I had some other friends here. So, all day long we had visitors.”

Frank had lunch with his visitors as they reminisced about the past.

“As far as I was concerned, it was another day, another birthday. We all got together,” the newly minted centenarian said. “We don’t make a big fuss about things, just go along as it is, day by day, and enjoy or accept whatever’s going on.”

Reaching 100, to Frank, isn’t the accomplishment — his family is.

“I’m 100 years old — that’s it,” Frank said. “I have 16 great-grandchildren.”

Frank and his late wife Lucille married on Feb. 27, 1943, and they celebrated many anniversaries together before she passed away in March 2014. The two left a large and growing legacy. Their late daughter Diana Berezo (1950-2021) and son Ron Smith made sure they had plenty of grandchildren, and consequently, great-grandchildren to dote on.

“We were married for about three weeks, and the U.S. Army sent me over to the Pacific for two and a half years, so I didn’t see my bride for two and a half years,” Frank recalled. “When I came back, we started our family: Ron, my son, and Diana, my daughter. Between those two, as they got married, we developed seven grandchildren.”

Frank and Lucille’s family is their greatest legacy, said Karl Smith, one of Frank’s grandchildren. That family now spans from Florida to North Carolina and Virginia, and from Ohio to Texas.

“The cool thing about him is, he had an eighth-grade education, and then he worked in restaurants basically from the time he was 12 or 13 years old, up until he went to enlist in the military, and he went and fought in World War II,” Karl said. “He was in the air wing.”

Karl added that his grandparents met while Frank was in basic training. Frank was 21 when he enlisted into the U.S. Army in 1942.

“I spent six years in the army,” Frank recalled. “Two and a half years I spent in the Aleutian Islands.”

After the war, the couple lived in Washington, D.C., then North Miami, before coming to Loxahatchee Groves in 1984, where Frank has lived ever since.

“We’re just plain-living people here,” Frank said. “It’s quiet.”

The quiet Loxahatchee Groves life has served Frank and his family well.

“My brother and I were both born and raised out there,” Karl said. “We were in the Town-Crier several times growing up. My grandparents were in there a couple times. When they had their 50th anniversary, the Town-Crier did a little thing on it. They were also in one of the first volunteer groups to open up Palms West Hospital.”

Karl and his brother Klay, who works as a football coach, both played high school and college football. Klay graduated from Royal Palm Beach High School in 1999, in its first graduating class.

Even into his 70s, Frank would go out and throw the football around with them, his grandson recalled. “He liked golf and football,” Karl said.

And Frank always stayed interested, even though as a child he was smaller, and not allowed to play. Frank is 5-foot-8, while most of the family is over 6 feet tall.

“My grandparents traveled up until their late 80s, and they’d travel by car,” Karl said, including going to see Karl and Klay playing college football in Chicago. “They’d sit there and freeze, and watch us play.”

To commemorate Frank’s 100th birthday, Karl wanted to share a story with the community. A story of a small child taking a long train ride.

In 1928, when Frank was just six years old, he took a train from Texas to the northeast to join his father, who was a chef who worked in the hotel industry.

“They put a boy on a train, with three porters, one woman and two men. They were the greatest people I ever met in my life,” he said. “Good people.”

Frank had a ticket attached to him, like luggage, with his name and his final destination. To this day, he still has the train ticket from his multi-day adventure.

“My father said, ‘You become a cook and a chef, and you’ll never have to worry about a job.’ And he was right,” Frank said. “As long as I stayed in the restaurant/hotel business… everything was fine, even up to this day.”

Frank later spent 30 years at Sears Roebuck, starting as a salesperson and retiring as management.

“I take every day as it comes along, no big deal. I have a lot of good friends here, and Florida is a great state. Every state I’ve been to has been great — Pennsylvania, New York, Missouri, Florida. One of my favorites was Texas, of course,” Frank said. “It’s just another day for me.”

Though Frank didn’t ask for a big fuss for his 100th birthday, he received countless birthday cards and “thank you for your service” cards, as well as many phone calls to commemorate the occasion.

As the Village of Wellington pursues what could be its first annexation on the north side of Southern Blvd., Town of Loxahatchee Groves officials are concerned about how it could harm the rural lifestyle of residents who live on the western edge of their rural community.

At issue is approximately 250 acres of land at the northeast and northwest corners of Southern Blvd. and Seminole Pratt Whitney Road known as the Sluggett property and Entrada Acres.

The Sluggett land, on the northwest corner, is the largest single parcel at 65 acres. Entrada Acres is a collection of 37 parcels in a grid pattern at the northeast corner.

While Wellington has discussed the annexation with many of the property owners involved, the annexation application will be village initiated, according to Wellington’s Planning, Zoning & Building Director Tim Stillings.

“It is not something the property owners are submitting,” Stillings said. “We do have several letters of consent from a few of the property owners.”

While Wellington will need to work with Palm Beach County on issues surrounding the annexation, it does not need to specifically get approval from the Palm Beach County Commission to move forward since it will be an involuntary annexation, Stillings said.

“Our understanding is that the county charter refers to voluntary annexations only, so we do not believe that the county commission needs to vote to approve the annexation,” he said.

If all goes according to plan, the Wellington Village Council will approve the annexation in December, which will set up an annexation referendum of electors in the area to be annexed, which the village hopes to accomplish concurrent with the March municipal election.

Given the small number of electors, coupled with the number of parcels that are not in residential use, Stillings said that the village will also need to show annexation consent from at least 50 percent of the area’s acreage. However, according to maps supplied by Stillings, that part of the process is already well underway.

Wellington has already garnered support from 20 of the 38 parcels (53 percent), representing 149.6 acres (64 percent) and support from 16 out of 32 total property owners (50 percent), according to the maps.

While the Sluggett property has long been considered likely for future commercial use, the village also intends to propose a future land use map designation of commercial on 12 other parcels that front on either Southern or Seminole Pratt. The interior parcels will remain residential.

“We’re in the process of drafting the feasibility study for the annexation, as required by statute,” Stillings said.

Not surprisingly, the possible annexation has raised concerns in Loxahatchee Groves, which lies immediately east of Entrada Acres.

At the Tuesday, Oct. 3 meeting of the Loxahatchee Groves Town Council, the council heard a report from consultant Patricia Behn on issues surrounding the annexation.

Behn is a consultant with PB Maps and Data, but previously worked as Palm Beach County’s planning director, where she was the go-to person on county annexation issues for 18 years.

“This is to give an update on what is going on with the potential annexation of the 249 acres directly to the west of Loxahatchee Groves,” Town Manager Francine Ramaglia said in her introduction of Behn.

Behn broke down the 38 parcels by current use. A total of seven are single-family residential parcels with two in equestrian use. There are 16 agricultural parcels, along with two that are county owned with large drainage lakes. There are three institutional parcels, primarily churches, and eight vacant parcels, all according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office.

It is currently unincorporated land within the county’s rural tier, with most parcels zoned for rural residential use at one unit per five acres. Some parcels are listed as commercial low.

“The intent of the county’s comp plan is not to have much development in this area,” Behn said, adding that commercial use by Wellington’s standards would provide for much more intense use than the county’s rural tier standards.

As Stillings noted, Behn agreed that the county’s charter amendment only protects unincorporated areas from voluntary annexations without county approval through a supermajority vote on the county commission. “This particular annexation, however, is proposed as an involuntary annexation,” she said.

Behn said that to proceed with an involuntary annexation with a referendum, the village would need to file an urban services report with the county. Once the village files the preliminary annexation ordinance, then challenges can be filed to it within 30 days, she added.

If the majority of the parcels don’t have electors, then the majority of parcels must consent to annexation. “There’s a lot of boxes they need to check before they are able to finalize the annexation,” Behn said.

She suggested that the council could take three courses of action. First, the council could decide not to take any action. Next, it could continue monitoring the situation and engaging with the county and other jurisdictions in discussions. Finally, it could provide a letter of objection focused on the protection of rural lands and rural lifestyles.

Ramaglia said that there is not currently an official application for the annexation and that everything is currently in draft form.

“We have not pursued or had any conversations with the property owners regarding annexation,” she said. “We are bringing this to the council is with respect to protecting the rural lifestyle.”

If the town was going to send a letter of objection, Vice Mayor Robert Shorr asked who it would be sent to.

Behn said that a letter of concern would go to the annexing municipality, or alternatively, to the county.

Ramaglia recommended the county. “The county is the entity with standing,” she said. “As a neighboring community, we can’t do much more than issue an intergovernmental type of objection.”

Ramaglia added that an annexation of rural land adjacent to Loxahatchee Groves is a potential threat to the lifestyle of town residents.

“Our reason for incorporation was to protect urban encroachment on rural communities,” she said. “This being right next to us warrants the conversation on protecting the rural lifestyle.”

Ramaglia said that she expects the annexation to move forward.

“It is set for a Dec. 5 meeting,” she said. “If we wish to weigh-in with the county, we would want to do that sooner rather than later.”

Ramaglia added that the town could take action to mitigate it now with a specific focus not on the Sluggett property, but on Entrada Acres.

“If we care to state a position at this point in time, it gives the Village of Wellington and the county the ability to work on changes that might better serve both communities,” she said.

Ramaglia noted that some of the property owners spoke to the town previously, but Wellington offers greater development potential.

Shorr was very concerned about the additional commercial property being proposed.

“Even if we were to annex this area, there is no one on this board who would take property out of an agricultural residential situation and build on it,” he said.

The council’s decision was to continue monitoring the situation and have town staff draft a letter of objection to be discussed at the next council meeting. Meanwhile, Ramaglia plans to meet with several representatives of the property owners and Wellington officials on the topic.

LOXAHATCHEE GROVES — It took two rounds of voting, but Loxahatchee Groves has a new town manager.

The Town Council’s decision in a special meeting Tuesday night sets the stage for a drastic change in how it operates, shifting from a contracted management company to in-house employees.

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The council voted 4-1 with Councilman David DeMarois dissenting to approve a contract with longtime local official Jamie Titcomb, who will take the town’s reins March 18.

The council then voted 4-1, with DeMarois again dissenting, to terminate current Town Manager Bill Underwood’s contract also effective March 18.

It was only on the second round of voting that council members reached the four-vote threshold necessary to terminate Underwood’s contract. Vice Mayor Todd McLendon initially joined DeMarois in voting against the measures, but voted in favor in a revote after his fellow councilmembers agreed to a change in Titcomb’s contract that reimburses him for mileage, instead of giving him a flat $500-per-month vehicle allowance.

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Underwood Management Services Group will continue to operate the town for 120 days.

“All the employees will be here for the four-month period,” said Perla Underwood, Bill’s wife who works for the management company.

“We’re professionals,” Bill Underwood said. “We’re not going to leave you hanging.”

Loxahatchee Groves is one of two municipalities in Florida — the other is Westlake — that contracts with an outside management company. Underwood Management employees handle nearly all of the town's business, except public works and some services contracted out separately.

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Underwood Management has come under fire from residents as road conditions deteriorated starting in late 2017 in what one official called “a perfect storm” following Hurricane Irma. With the town’s reserves spent on hurricane recovery, little was left to pay for needed repairs to aging dirt roads in dire need of new rock, officials said. Recent estimates put a multi-million dollar price tag on bringing all roads in the town — paved and dirt — up to snuff.

The town also must replace the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office after PBSO late last year said it would cancel its service contract with Loxahatchee Groves in October.

The council first voted Jan. 16 to consider hiring Titcomb. Originally, council members were set to discuss bids to hire a recruitment company to find a new manager.

But Councilwoman Anita Kane — who was appointed to the dais in December after Joyce Batcheler resigned – brought the option of hiring Titcomb to the table.

Titcomb has been town manager since 2015 for Ocean Ridge, where a special meeting was scheduled for Jan. 30 to accept his resignation and plan for a replacement.

“This is an interesting situation and I appreciate and thank all of you for being interested in me,” Titcomb told the council. He thanked Underwood said he “knows it’s not fun when there’s change in the air.” He also acknowledged the town’s laundry list of challenges, including roads in need of major upgrades and the looming end of the town’s contract with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in October.

“The town is at that crossroads where it’s looking to become a real small town with a real small town government,” Titcomb said.

In response to a question from Councilwoman Phillis Maniglia, Titcomb said he is aware of the town’s “deep list of needs.”

“You’re stepping into a place that has a lot of problems,” DeMarois said. “You have people who aren’t happy because they haven’t been addressed.”

Before Ocean Ridge, Titcomb was Melbourne town manager for about a year and a half. He was interim town manager and community redevelopment agency director for Lake Park for a year. Titcomb also served as village manager of North Palm Beach for seven months in 2011.

It was his time in North Palm that served as a sticking point for DeMarois early in the meeting as he questioned why the village terminated Titcomb’s contract without cause.

DeMarois referred to a 2012 Palm Beach Post article that says village leaders cited “concerns about Titcomb’s leadership and decision-making as well as low morale within the village.”

Titcomb said he could not address any issues directly because in leaving North Palm he signed a non-disclosure agreement.

“I hold people accountable and if I find ill-doings going on, I bring it to the light of day,” Titcomb said. “I’m not afraid to do that. … So when certain employees don’t like that, it’s usually because they’re on the wrong side of my sabre, if you will.”

DeMarois referred to another news article that questioned Titcomb’s budgeting abilities.

“I’ve been doing budgets for over 40 years,” he said. “I have yet to have a problem.”

In addition to asking questions, the council went through Titcomb’s proposed contract and made a number of changes, including to the time-off provision. McLendon suggested the new town manager position fall under the same leave policy followed by employees of the town’s water district. Titcomb agreed.

“I’d rather see you go by the same policy as them because you’ll be advocating for those people,” McLendon said.

Mayor Dave Browning, who retires this year, said he received calls from people on “a county or state level” praising Titcomb.

“I got a very good call from our previous county commissioner, Jess Santamaria,” Browning said. “Jess said that he couldn’t think of a better man for our town.”

Maniglia called the current management situation “an emergency.”

“It is time to do something now,” she said. “We have a lot of concerns here.”

Kane said she brought the option of Titcomb to the table because she heard from the Underwoods that they wanted out of their contract. “I want to help facilitate this as smoothly and professionally as we can,” she said.

McLendon agreed. “Bill wanted out of his contract,” he said. “And I don’t blame him. I don’t blame him for the attacks he’s gotten unwarranted.”

kwebb@pbpost.com

@kristinawebb