Gauff, Pegula to team up for USA

City part of international event with local players set to compete

By Brian Biggane

Five years after turning professional, Coco Gauff plans to play her first significant hometown tennis event when the Delray Beach Tennis Center hosts a Billie Jean King Cup qualifier April 14-15.

The matches between the U.S. team and Austria are a big catch for Delray Beach. What would be bigger — much bigger — is for the center to land the 12-nation finals, scheduled for November.

Formerly known as the Fed Cup, the largest women’s team event in the world annually plays a

See TENNIS on page 24

Boca Raton

Ocean Ridge

Town aims to clarify beach access

By Joe Capozzi

Town commissioners, responding to complaints about blight and intimidation, will consider a new ordinance regulating the placement of “No Trespassing” and “Private Beach” signs on the beach in Ocean Ridge.

The decision to consider the sign rules emerged from a broader, ongoing dispute over public access rights on the town’s beachfront — for years a controversial topic in Ocean Ridge and many other coastal communities across Florida.

The Ocean Ridge debate has gotten particularly nasty over the past several months, pitting neighbors against neighbors, with accusations flying like blasts of sand.

Caught in the middle is Mayor Susan Hurlburt, who lives in Turtle Beach of Ocean Ridge, a 26-unit condominium community on the battle’s front line — a roughly 300foot stretch of beach between Tropical and Hersey drives. Hurlburt is seeking another three-year term as commissioner on March 14, and the dispute has become cannon fodder for her political opponents, including two commissioners who have endorsed a challenger and who support public access

See SIGNS on page 16