Boynton officials vote to save and move the historic Harvey Oyer sign
Plus rising demand at The Soup Kitchen and a public scoring session for home repair contractors.
An estimated $132,000 is what it will take to save and move Hurricane Alley's Harvey Oyer sign, a nod to Boynton's fishing heritage, as downtown gets rebuilt.
City officials didn't split on this one. Their vote last week was unanimous: Hurricane Alley's Harvey Oyer sign will be preserved and moved instead of being lost to downtown redevelopment, which had put its future in doubt. The job is estimated at $132,000, and developers are covering $40,000 of it. The sign nods to Boynton's fishing past and old Florida character. For longtime residents, it ties today's city to the waterfront community that was here well before the cranes and luxury apartments. That change is already underway. Ocean One, an eight-story project bringing 371 luxury rentals to Federal Highway, marked its official groundbreaking that same Tuesday. The new location, the timing of the move and who pays the balance beyond the developers' share have not been detailed.
Boynton Beach High opens enrollment for the district's only choice Sports Academy
"What we wanted to do was teach them that sports are more than just being an athlete," Principal Dr. Moody Fuller said of the school's new Sports Academy. It's the only choice sports academy in the county school district, and it begins in fall 2027. The idea grew out of a look at what students cared about, and sports kept coming up. Fuller's list of six pathways runs from performance and nutrition to e-sports, broadcasting and sports medical science, with turf management coming soon. The campus is getting an upgrade too. The football field is getting new turf, and the school is adding a weight room and a training room. Fuller expects to break ground on a stadium this spring and said the school is "looking at the weight room as soon as possible." Families weighing high schools for fall 2027 can enroll now.
Demand at The Soup Kitchen is up about 25% as costs squeeze families
"They're telling us that the gas prices are killing them," says Marlene Mejia, who runs The Soup Kitchen as CEO and executive director. Add medication and end-of-month bills, and plenty of households come up short. Her estimate of the jump in need is about 25%. Many of the people coming in have jobs, cars and sometimes a house or apartment, and the math still doesn't work by month's end. Yolanda Marcellus, one of dozens waiting in a long line, said: "They have good food every day." Volunteers like Mary Webb help the kitchen hand out hundreds of pounds of food daily. "You just feel good helping out other people and it comes back to you," Webb said. The kitchen's phone number is 561-732-7595, and its address is 8655 W. Boynton Beach Blvd.
A city committee will score 11 contractors vying for a home repair vendor pool
- When
- Friday, Oct. 16 · 10 a.m.
- Where
- City Hall Room 115
Boynton is lining up a pre-approved pool of contractors for residential home repairs, and the next step happens in public. A city evaluation committee will review each firm's package and rate it against request for qualifications 26-094Q on Friday, Oct. 16, at 10 a.m. in Room 115 at City Hall. Anyone can attend, and the session will be recorded. For now, the RFQ is under a "Cone of Silence": vendors aren't supposed to talk with city staff about it, and questions go only through the city's procurement contact.