CONSERVATION EXPERT TO SPEAK AT PALM BEACH ZOO ON FLORIDA PANTHER HABITAT CONSERVATION AND CONNECTIVITY

 Conservation biologist Richard A. Hilsenbeck, Ph.D., says that “Panthers depend for their lives on the same basic natural resources that sustain our own livelihoods,….conserving lands for the Florida panther is important for protecting our own best interest.”  He further says that, “This is because having large natural areas and working lands, like cattle ranches, stay in productive agriculture is not only important for our food prosecution, but also vitally important to protecting the water supplies of Florida’s citizens.”

 

 

Dr. Hilsenbeck will be speaking on Thursday, June 12, and after guests have enjoyed cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and Zoo animal views from 6-6:30 pm. he will present the third Conservation Leadership Lecture of 2014.

 

 

Dr. Hilsenbeck, currently Director of Conservation Projects for the TNC Florida Chapter, has had 35+ years of experience in conservation biology, including about 23 years with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and is considered an expert in conservation easements, ecological assessments and descriptive ecology of Florida’s natural communities.

He has had statewide responsibilities for project initiation, design and implementation and has authored or co-authored 60+ projects, many focused on conservation of Florida’s ranch and timberlands, including Preservation 2000, Save Our Rivers and Florida Forever.   His is the primary responsibility within TNC for land acquisition issues, successfully guiding scores of projects through the State of Florida’s initial land acquisition process.  Thirty plus peer-reviewed articles of his have been published in scientific journals,  he has written chapters in several books and many technical reports, provided to private, state and federal agencies.

Seating is limited; tickets are $20 per person.  You can purchase tickets online at www.palmbeachzoo.org or call 561-547-WILD, ext 285.

Photo below of my own active, tame, smart Bengal cat, Purrfect Posh, descended from a baby leopard:

If you are interested in rescuing a Bengal cat, email me at marilynfjacobs@gmail.comand I will give you some resources



BIG TIME DONATION FROM KRAVISES WILL MOVE CANCER RESEARCH FORWARD

Through the generosity of the Marie-Josee and Henry R. Kravis Foundation, who are contributing $100MM to Memorial Sloan Kettering, the Center for Molecular Oncology will move forward more quickly on its goal to expand gene coverage above the currently 341 known cancer-causing genes  and monitor therapy at the molecular level.   

They want to discover why tumors spread and if the patients were predisposed to cancer, determine what mutations are driving growth of the tumors.  The gift will create a precision oncology center which will bear the names of Henry and Marie-Josee Kravis.  The center states that cancer is a disease of the genome and they need to integrate vast amounts of molecular discoveries and analyze patients’ DNA and tumors to develop tumor-specific treatments.

Six gene-sequencing machines are being installed to analyze tumors.

Mrs. Kravis is Chairperson of the Sloan Kettering Institute, the research arm, and has been on their Boards of Overseers and Managers since October 2000.  Mr. Kravis is a private-equity investor.  Mr. Kravis told the Wall Street Journal, “I like to do things that are transformative and more importantly make a difference.”  

 Kravis gifted the Columbia Business School with $100MM in 2010 to fund a new building that will be completed this year and will bear his name.

HOA TRANSFER FEES - HOTLY DEBATED ISSUE

As of 2012, according to the Community Associations Institute (CAI), there were 323,600 association-governed communities in the U.S. with just under 26 million housing units and 63.4 million residents.  Averaging $100 to $500, transfer fees are generally used by communities for replenishing capital reserves, improvements to infrastructure and sometimes to fund environmental conservation activities; in other words to benefit the community.  A CAI member survey showed that 72% of HOAs charge transfer fees when units are sold, mostly flat fees but sometimes a small percentage of the sale.

In 2012 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac adopted guidelines that banned private-purpose investor-benefit transfer fees from eligibility for conventional financing.  Lawyers for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) warned FHA that under current “free assumability” regulations, they cannot insure mortgages on properties with “restrictions on conveyance”, encumbrances on the title that could hamper transfers, including fees paid at sale of units in HOA communities.  Most existing HOA transfer levies may become obstacles to those who want to use Federal Housing Authority (FHA) loans and seniors who apply for an FHA-insured reverse mortgage.  Groups have appealed to the FHA to mirror Fannie’s and Freddie’s current guidelines and prohibit only those fees that will not benefit the homeowner and association where they reside. 

Regulations might be published in June.  States estimated to be hardest hit if this Transfer Fee HOA rule goes into effect include Florida, California and Arizona, which have all struggled with owner-unit default problems.  Some had to put off needed capital improvements.  Others use these funds for essential community services.

The CAI has put FHA on notice that if this transfer fee plan goes forward, they will have to go to Congress feeling that these restrictions for FHA financing will adversely affect many forthcoming homebuyers and will compromise the stability of many communities.

FAU'S NEW PHYSICIAN RESIDENCY PROGRAM BRINGS GOOD NEWS FOR OUR LOCAL MEDICAL CENTERS AND FOR FUTURE PATIENTS

With New York having 82 medical residents and Massachusetts having 84 per 100,000/population, Florida is hard at work to catch up, to fill the gap of shortages of residents with our FAU (Florida Atlantic University) playing a big part.  Florida had about 19 physicians in training per 100,000/population and placed 42nd in the United States. About 25% of Florida’s physicians are over age 65.

Three local community hospitals will be benefiting from the new Florida Atlantic University (FAU) physician residency program.  Recently there were 36 medical school graduates, who will be employed at Boca Regional Medical Center, Delray Medical Center and Bethesda West (near Boyton Beach), and these medical centers are becoming academic teaching hospitals.  About half of these grads will be at Boca Raton Regional. The new physicians will be using the FAU Medical Simulation Centers and Boca Raton and West Palm Beach to learn about high risk procedures, and connected to FAU’s Boca Raton campus through conferencing and virtual classrooms. 

While serving hospital patients, two new FAU outpatient clinics are coming to Boca Raton Regional and Bethesda West where these residents will provide primary care and conduct wellness programs in the communities.  Thirty-nine percent have roots in Florida.  They begin working on July 1. FAU’s College of Medicine’s program began in 2011 with 64 students, who will be eligible to be residents after next year’s graduation.  FAU’s goal is within three years to grow to 96 physicians in their new internal medicine residency and to 400 within five years, serving at the three hospitals above and adding St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach and the West Boca Medical Center.  The college medical association says that 47% of doctors set up practices where they complete their residency, making friends in the area, establishing roots, working with colleagues, buying a property and finding a partner.  Half the current graduates will be working at Boca Raton Regional.

Dr. David Bjorkman, Dean of the FAU College of Medicine says that FAU is awaiting approval from its accrediting body on a surgical residency and developing programs in emergency medicine, psychiatry, pediatrics and considering other programs.  Dr. Charles Posternack, Chief Medical Officer at Boca Raton Regional, said that “the physician trainees will being patient care to a new level…academic medical centers perform research that benefits patients locally and around the world, and become a magnet to physicians”. 

Boca Raton Regional has been aiming to transition into a teaching hospital for the past seven years and their working together with FAU has brought new and wonderful benefits to our area.

THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO

THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO

When asked to identify the base from which they flew, President Franklin Roosevelt replied, "Shangri-La." Recently, in Fort Walton Beach , Florida , the surviving Doolittle Raiders gathered publicly for the last time.  They were among the most universally admired and revered men in the United States. There were 80 Raiders who, in April of 1942, just four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, embarked on one of the most courageous and heart-stirring military operations in this nation's history. The mere mention of their unit's name, in those years, would bring tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.   After Japan 's sneak attack on Hawaii , with the United States still licking its wounds, something dramatic was needed to turn the war effort around.  Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough to Japan for the United States to retaliate, a daring plan was devised. Sixteen North American B-25s, twin-engine "Billy Mitchells," were modified so that they could take off from the deck of an aircraft carrier. This had never before been tried -- sending Army Air Corps medium bombers from the deck of a ship at sea. The 16 five-man crews, under the command of then Lt. Col. James Doolittle, (he retired as a brigadier general) who himself flew the lead plane off USS Hornet, knew that they would not be able to return to the carrier. They would have to hit Japan and then hope to make it to China for a safe landing.  On the day of the raid, the Japanese military caught wind of the plan. The Raiders were told that they would have to take off from much farther out in the Pacific Ocean (more than 600 miles) than they had counted on. They were told that because of this they would not have enough fuel to make it to safety. They went anyway.  They bombed Tokyo, then flew as far as they could. Four planes crash-landed in China ; 11 crews bailed out, and three Raiders died. Eight more were captured; three were executed.  Another died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp. One crew made it to Russia.  The Doolittle Raid sent a message from the United States to its enemies, and to the rest of the world: We will fight. And, no matter what it takes, we will win.  Of the 80 Raiders, 62 survived the war. They were celebrated as national heroes, models of bravery. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a motion picture based on the raid. "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo ," starring Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson, was a patriotic and emotional box-office hit, and the phrase became part of the national lexicon. In the movie-theater previews for the film, MGM proclaimed that it was presenting the story "with supreme pride." Beginning in 1946, the surviving Raiders have held a reunion each April, to commemorate the mission. The reunion is in a different city each year. In 1959, the city of Tucson, Arizona, as a gesture of respect and gratitude, presented the Doolittle Raiders with a set of 80 silver goblets. Each goblet was engraved with the name of a Raider.  Every year, a wooden display case bearing all 80 goblets is transported to the reunion city. Each time a Raider passes away, his goblet is turned upside down in the case at the next reunion, as his old friends bear solemn witness.  Also in the wooden case is a bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very Special cognac. The year is not happenstance: It was Jimmy Doolittle's birth year. There has always been a plan: When there are only two surviving Raiders, they would open the bottle, at last drink from it, and toast their comrades who preceded them in death.  As 2013 began, there were five living Raiders.  Then, in February, Tom Griffin passed away at age 96.  What a man he was. After bailing out of his plane over a mountainous Chinese forest, he became ill with malaria and almost died. When he recovered, he was sent to Europe to fly more combat missions. He was shot down, captured, and spent 22 months in a German prisoner of war camp.  Out of the original 80, only four Raiders remain: Dick Cole (Doolittle's co-pilot on the raid), Robert Hite, Edward Saylor, and David Thatcher. All are in their 90s. They have decided that there are too few of them for the public reunions to continue. The men have decided that after this final public reunion they will wait until a later date -- sometime this year -- to get together once more, informally and in absolute privacy. That is when they will open the bottle of brandy. The years are flowing by too swiftly now; they are not going to wait until there are only two of them. They will fill the four remaining upturned goblets, and raise them in a toast to those who are gone. I received this historic footnote in an email... source unknown... it is worth passing on to my Readership.  MARILYN

SERVICES FOR SENIORS - YOU MAY WANT TO KEEP THIS LIST

www.allianceforaging.org  Find answers about aging and eldercare services. Here is a good place to start

www.caremanager.org Can find you a geriatric care manager who can help find local resources for seniors.

www.nasmm.org  The National Association of Senior Move Managers can handle logistics when a senior wants to downsize – here you can find a Senior Move Manager.

www.naela.org can design a financial plan to take advantage of government assistance and handle estate planning.

www.palmbeachseniorplacement offers FREE service to help seniors find the best match for independent and assisted living facilities, including Alzheimer's/dementia care in Broward, Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie Counties.  We take you on tours, refer to resources for VA and Medicaid finnacing and more.  Contact Candy Cohn, 772-486-4914, candy@palmbeachseniorplacement.com

Readership: if you want to add another resource, it will be appreciated if you email marilynfjacobs@gmail.com.

SELLING YOUR HOME? HERE IS SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT...

FISCAL CONDITION OF THE 50 STATES

Note that Florida came in #6, near the 

top of the list for fiscal conditions 

for all 50 states.

NOW is the time to buy in Florida

before prices rise again

FLORIDA REAL ESTATE MARKET IS 

IN RECOVERY MODE....

HOW MUCH ARE HOME SALES UP?

Florida Realtors News reports single family 
home sale closings are up 8.6% compared to 
Dec 2012.  National Association of Realtors 
says prices and sales are strongest in 7 years.  

The number of listings is increasing. 
Statewide consecutive gains began 
over two years ago. 

Generally, properties are closing faster with 
median days on market 50 days for 
single family homes and 51 days 
for townhouses and condos.  
Translation: 50% of homes on the Florida 
market sell in less than two months.  

While inventories are rising, cash sales are 
declining and there are fewer 
distressed properties on the market.  
Investor activity is lower.

FABULOUS CENTRAL PARK TOWNHOME

This 1887 six-level Central Park West and 85^th Street NYC townhouse is unusual!  Originally listed last May for $37MM, price has since been lowered to $32.5MM.  There are 12,000 living sq ft.  

A glass and steel staircase looks like a stairway to the stars.

Included are an indoor 60’ lap fresh water pool and home gym.  It is one of very few townhouses still on the Park.

The townhome has 5 bedrooms, 6 full and 2 half baths, an elevator and finished lower level with the pool and gym.  The parlor floor and living area boast double-height ceilings and gallery sized walls.   

Natural light floods the great room from a dome-shaped skylight.  There are professional fitness/massage areas, 2 offices, bow-front window seat in the master suite with panoramic Park views.  

The chef’s kitchen is fit for grand dining, is next to the dining room and zen-bamboo garden for outdoor dining.

A theatre is included.

Interested?  Ask Marilyn for more details.

RECENTLY SOLD DELRAY BEACH HISTORIC HOME HAS BEAUTY, CHARM, AND WALK TWO HOUSES TO THE BEACH PATH

After 551 days on the market, this beautiful 1930 Delray Beach Bermuda-style home on Vista Delmar Drive, with pool in back, 4 bedrooms, 4 ½ baths, sold for $2,400,000.  

Main living areas have recently added hickory wood floors, exotic lush tropical gardens, a shady vine-cloaked pergola, a fragrant herb garden, beamed ceiling and wood burning fireplace.  

Rooms are spacious, French Doors abound thruout the house.  Two houses east is North Ocean Boulevard – cross over and take the short path to the beach and ocean.  This historic house is a dream come true!

NEW TOLL BROTHERS LUXURY HOMES COMMUNITY GOING UP IN NORTH BOCA RATON ON JOG ROAD, BELOW LINTON

South of Polo Club and Azura, we will soon see construction machinery and Toll Brothers crew starting to build a new gated community, Royal Palm Polo.  It is the first new single family luxury homes community to be built in this area in many years.  A model home is pictured above.

The Boca Raton City Council has given Toll Brothers the final approval to build 223 homes on 121.67 acres on the old polo grounds, single families, and a 5000 sq ft clubhouse with a resort-style pool, 6 tennis courts, state-of-the-art fitness center, spa and aqua lot.  Purchase of the land cost $83.5MM.

Description of homes, many with lake views, includes mahogany front doors and big back yards.  Plans are for each lot to be 90’wide and 140’ deep, and home will have 4 to 7 bedrooms and 3 or 5 car garages.  There will be seven home designs to choose from.  Features will include Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances, and optional elevator, 24” tiles in living areas, and there will be hundreds of design and structural options.

The Sales Office will open in spring.

Location is on Jog Road, north of Clint Moore Road. Just south of The Polo Club and Azura, a Toll Brothers property.

Homes will range from 4300 to 8500 sq ft and sell for $1.2MM to $2MM.  Th entrance and exit will be only off Jog Road.  A wall and landscaping will surround the property.

Voluntarily annexing the site which is mostly vacant right now, the city could receive as much as $1.1MM in revenue annually between property taxes, fire and other homeowner fees.   The future land use map was amended to designate the land for residential use, zone the land for single family residential and give tentative plat approval.

With mortgage rates still low, demand for new housing increasing, and improved consumer confidence amidst a shortage of existing homes, this new development appears to be a win/win.  Your editor, Realtor Marilyn Jacobs, can provide you with further information (561-638-9818).

WHERE DOES OUR COUNTY’S PROPERTY TAX MONEY COME FROM?

West Palm Beach has the highest 2013 tax bill, 69.7mm with Boca Raton next at $59.1MM), Delray Beach at $47.3MM and Palm Beach Gardens at $47MM.  Palm Beach’s property tax bill of $41MM makes it 5^th highest in the county.

Largest tax bill goes to Florida Power & Light ($76.3MM), the Breakers is one of the top 10 taxpayers with the highest tax bill on the island, and includes properties in West Palm Beach. 

Other high tax payers include Boca Raton Town Center’s trust, Bell South Communications, U.S. Sugar Corp and the owner of the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens, Comcast, Boca Raton Reosrt & Club, and Wellington Green mall owners.

·       686,556 property tax bills are mailed out by the tax collector

·       Total tax revenue is $3,025 BB.

Tax Collector is Anne Gannon, whose name you know if you pay property taxes.