The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 68

The Palm Beach Post 'Maestro' remembered with laughter, music, 3C Bird with West Nile found in Lake Clarke Shores, 3C SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2002 PaSmBeachPost.com Modem (officers aifoseoDces cpesfifcGiieG Ed Garcia says he's concerned about Joe Orr's leaves, but Art Johnson says Orr has personal commitments. said Orr's time off is because of personal commitments. But, Johnson said, he has spoken to Orr about resigning if his time out of the office becomes an issue. "Dr. Orr is a tremendous asset to the Palm Beach County School District" Johnson said.

"He is the father of the gifted program and of magnet programs. But if his personal commitments become an issue, we have discussed him resigning." Garcia said he is most con consultant's contract and his time off was not tracked. "Nothing against the guy, but I feel like, how can he do his job when he's on vacation so much?" Garcia said. "We're paying him a lot of money and issues are coming up and he's gone." Orr, who came out of retirement in 2001 to lead the academic side of the district, earns about $150,000 a year. He was on unpaid vacation leave Friday and couldn't be reached for comment Superintendent Art Johnson cerned about Orr's absences during crucial times for the district such as when the initial F-schools plan was written and presented to the school board.

"This is a big responsibility," Garcia said. Garcia and 16-year board member Bill Graham are competing in a November runoff election for the District 3 seat on the board after neither won 51 percent of the vote Tuesday. Graham confirmed Friday See ORR, 6C By KIMBERLY MILLER Palm Beach Post Staff Writer With the Palm Beach County School District struggling to bring up test scores at seven failing schools, one board member is concerned about the vacation time taken by the man in charge of academic improvement Board member Ed Garcia has asked to speak at Wednesday's board meeting about the absences of Chief Academic Officer Joe Orr. Orr has taken about four weeks of unpaid leave since he was hired as a full-time employee in May. Before May, Orr was on a FOUR WEEKS OFF: Joe Orr has taken four weeks of unpaid leave since May.

Christian groups teach lessons on waves, God lid frs V- As. Ml Mil "i w-f 1 3f JUL. Staff photos by DAVID SPENCER ALL AGES WELCOME: David Winters, 6, of Boynton Beach gets his first les- Ocean Cay Park in Jupiter. Kutenits, of Lake Worth, belongs to the Crosswaves son (he was standing a moment later) Saturday from instructor Pat Kutenits at surfing ministry, which gives free lessons that incorporate Christian messages. lney aim to surt the Lord 'A lot of kids won't go to church, but they'll come to something like MIKE McCLEARY Runs local chapter of Crosswaves Frank Cerabino We don't know what we're dealing with "Forget it, Jake it's Chinatown." That is the last line to the movie Chinatown, a film noir classic that starred Jack Nicholson as Jake Gittes, a private detective perpetually frustrated by situations more complex than he imagined.

Throughout the movie, which is set in Los Angeles, Gittes keeps making reference to the city's Chinatown neighborhood as a place that always stymied his sense of order. "You may think you know what you're dealing with but believe me, you don't," a mysterious character tells Gittes at one point in the movie. Gittes laughs. "It's what the DA used to tell me about Chinatown," Gittes says. I've been thinking about Chinatown since Tuesday, when the supposedly new-and-improved Florida election process turned into another mess.

We thought we knew what we were dealing with, but believe me, we didn't And is there any better line than "Forget it, Jake if Chinatown" to explain to the rest of the country what happened here? Layered with strange intrigue Florida, especially when it comes to elections, has become America's Chinatown. Strange things happen here. The simple becomes layered and textured with intrigue. Two years ago, we chalked up the problem to a lack of technology. So we spent millions of dollars on touch-screen voting machines, which led to premature assertions that we were being catapulted from the laughingstock to the envy of the nation when it came to voting.

But somehow, we ended up being the laughingstock again. Technology had not saved us from ourselves, i Someone from a CNN talk show called me after Tuesday's election, planning for a show on the theme "What's wrong with Florida?" Forget it, Tucker Carlson it's Chinatown. We thought the problem was inattentive voters. So we bought systems geared to make their task almost impossible to screw up. The touch-screen machines prevented voting for too many candidates in a race, and at the end of the process, the machines informed the voters of their selections, highlighting races in which they failed to cast a vote.

The voting public's affinity for ballot bungling had been practically neutralized. And it only cost millions of dollars to do it But that didn't zero-out the competence variable. We just shifted it I Computer technology merely puts the burden of competence on the Bal-kanized system of 67 different supervisors' of elections and their proxies the slave-wages crew of poll worker recruits responsible for making this technology work on the precinct level. Technophobia in the trenches And who are the poll workers? In many cases in South Florida, they're retirees who tend toward technophobia. Combine that with the apparent lack of training, organization, and prior planning in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, and you have another election that stretches for days, rather than hours.

If Florida weren't a tipping point in national elections, and if the elections here weren't so close, this would all be nothing more than an interesting footnote. But a lot is at stake with no room for even the smallest margin of error. It's no wonder both political parties have expressed interest in holding their national conventions in Florida in 2004. They want everyone here to pay attention. And they'll be looking at this November's general election to see whether Gov.

Jeb Bush can get things worked out before his own day of reckoning. Forget it Jeb it's Chinatown. CKCSSVVAVES' By MEGHAN MEYER Palm Beach Post Staff Writer JUPITER Some surfers pursue the perfect wave with a religious devotion. The ocean becomes their place of worship, where they commune with the water and sky early every morning. Now some religious groups have turned the table on this reverie, turning surfing into organized religion.

Christian surfing groups have sprouted across the world during the past fewyears. One of the larger organizations, Christian Surfers United States, grew from two chapters in 1996 to dozens in seven states today, including one in Vero Beach. Independent groups have cropped up too. One Palm Beach County group, Crosswaves, had its first meeting of the season this month near the Juno Beach 6 JV I pier. Holding a blue-trimmed yellow board as the waves crashed behind him, Delray Beach firefighter Mike McCleary had the rapt attention of a group of 15 children.

"These," he said, pointing to the board's edges, "are the rails. They guide you through the water. They're like the Holy Spirit, guiding you through life." A group of women practicing yoga See CROSSWAVES, 6C THE BOARD AND THE LORD: Mike McCleary, a Delray firefighter, describes a board's edges to beginners. They guide you through the water. They're like the Holy Spirit, guiding you through Old house nestles in among new neighbors The arrival of the 1924 stucco house prompts an El Cid block party.

Real town hall to replace one in a strip mall By RON HAYES Palm Beach Post Staff Writer GLEN RIDGE Life rolls along at 20 mph here, and that's how this tiny town's 294 residents like it For the first 40 years or so, the town council was elected in the mayor's garage and met in members' living rooms. Eight years ago, council members finally rented a cozy storefront office in a little strip mall out on Southern Bou-1 levard, also known as "The Glen Ridge Business District" Now 55 years after its incorpora- tion Glen Ridge will dedicate its I first honest-to-goodness town hall Fri-1 day afternoon at its annual picnic. "I'm going to have to lock my door to get any work done around here be- cause people are wandering in al-I ready," sighed Town Manager Lee Leff- ingwell, who remembers a time when she kept the town's building permits on I the back seat of her car, for lack of a filing cabinet "The residents are excit-; ed. They own it and they'll use it" As Leffingwell spoke Thursday morning, the slam of hammers and," snoring of saws overwhelmed a Bran-; See GLEN RIDGE, 5C! SHANNON O'BRIENStaft Photographer The Mediterranean-Revival house ends its journey from Stuart on Saturday, rolling gingerly from a barge to its West Palm Beach lot By ROBERT KING and SARAH EISENHAUER Palm Beach Post Staff Writers WEST PALM BEACH Armed with camcorders, folding chairs, a lemonade stand and a homemade historic display, hundreds of residents flocked to El Cid to watch their newest neighbor lumber ashore Saturday. The 1924 stucco, white-columned house settled into its new home at 2723 S.

Flagler Drive just after 4 p.m., lugged by a Mack truck and two front-end loaders as it was wheeled off a barge on the Intracoastal Waterway. That ended a journey that had begun Friday arched on steel ramps over the sea wall Workers still have to finish cleaning the site today, including using a crane to replant a royal palm that had to be moved out of the way Saturday. The Walkers intend to refurbish and expand the house and then put it on the market Debra Walker said they hope to get $2.5 million. "Maybe well buy it," said neighbor Janet Murphy, an architectural historian whose nearly 2-year-old daughter, See HOUSE, 5C morning, when workers floated the Mediterranean Revival-style home from Stuart in Martin County. "There's your house!" yelled Jill Brownie, wife of moving company proprietor Kim Brownie, to Debra Walker, wife of West Palm Beach developer Milford "Doc" Walker III.

"It's perfect," said a sunburned Doc Walker. He said he wasn't at all nervous as the 200-ton house, swaying slightly, crawled off the barge on 48 wheels and frankcerabinopbpost.com.