CHECK OUT Boca Museum’s artifacts [11]
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[15]
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JUNE 2017
Golden Bell’s fashion show [27]
City, special district work toward ways to reopen, revamp Ocean Breeze course By: Marisa Herman Associate Editor New greens, sand traps and a 27-hole championship golf course are likely in the future for Boca Raton’s Ocean Breeze course. With help from the city of Boca Raton, the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park Districts has plans to purchase the more than 200-acre dormant course and restore it to a world class facility. The investment will be north of $24
million. “We can construct, with the cooperative effort, a world class golf facility for youth, collegiate and adult golf for people of all financial status, age and ability,” said district executive Art Koski at a joint meeting between the district and city council boards. “For beginners or for accomplished golfers this facility is for you.”
The plan is to restore the course into a public course with a clubhouse, pro shop, golf school and hotel on site. It will cost $24 million to purchase the course and will need millions to renovate it. To bring the course back, the city will likely become a lender to the district. City staff members are working on what the best approach to lend the money is. It will likely be in the form of a bond.
The idea is to have a hotelier pay the costs associate with the hotel and a golf school pay for the cost of its facility and needs, Koski said. The district would not have to raise the millage it charges folks who live in its district to purchase the course, he said. Despite not raising the tax rate it charges, some residents expressed concerns over the $24 million price tag of the deal. [CONT. PG 2]
Boca ‘storyteller’ Dick Schmidt releases second book; third in progress By: Dale King Contributing Writer Dick Schmidt of Boca Raton has a story to tell – again. A year ago, the local businessman, sports enthusiast, boater, pilot and philanthropist published his first book, “The Boy and
the Dolphin,” a novel about an orphaned 13-year-old who befriends a dolphin and finds a companion in the sociable aquatic creature.
year with his second book, another novel,
Moved by his literary muse, the newly established author came forward early this
terson, who, early in his retirement, discov-
this one a mystery thriller. Entitled “Memory Road,” it tells of a senior official with the Central Intelligence Agency, Stewart Masers he has Alzheimer’s disease.
“The CIA is nervous that at some stage, he might be compromised,” said the author. “He had been station chief in Brussels and ran operations in the Middle East before he retired.” He is placed in an assisted living facility by a government agency concerned with how his condition [CONT. PG 2]
WE GET HOMES Morgan Sheres Dick Schmidt signs his book, “Memory Road,” for Patricia Thomas. (Photo courtesy of Schmidt Family Foundation)
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