Jupiter Archives - OnGardens

‘Building pressurization is unstable:’ FAU evacuates $35 million Jupiter building

Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute could be closed for six months; FAU offers no explanation for abrupt evacuation.

This story was written and reported by veteran Palm Beach County reporter Joel Engelhardt and FAU University Press Editor-in-Chief Jessica Abramsky.

A $35 million building that opened in January on the Abacoa Jupiter campus of Florida Atlantic University closed suddenly at the end of July and could remain closed for six months.

FAU officials are mum on the reason for the abrupt evacuation of the Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute just six months after officials proclaimed it a “beacon of hope” that “heralds a new era in neuroscience research, education and community engagement.”

Tax relief for some: Gardens council trims tax rate

Palm Beach Gardens residents with homestead protection will pay less, those without will pay more.

For city property owners with a homestead exemption, this year’s Palm Beach Gardens tax rate amounts to a tax cut.

For the rest, about 40 percent of city taxpayers, the rate set in September by the City Council means paying more in taxes to the city.

What to expect at Jupiter oceanfront park named for ex-Commissioner Karen Marcus

Plans call for picnic areas, walking trails and a scrub preserve but construction is years away.

EVERY OTHER WEEK or so, the driver of a brown Honda Pilot performs a peculiar ritual while motoring north along a certain stretch of U.S. 1 in Jupiter.

On cue, as the vehicle passes a metal blue sign with the words “Future Site of Karen Marcus Ocean Park Preserve,” the driver taps a friendly beep-beep of the horn.

“People in the cars next to me are all looking around like, ‘Who? What?’” says the driver, former Palm Beach County Commissioner Karen Marcus, for whom the 154-acre site is named.

“And if the grandkids are with me, they are absolutely mortified: ‘What are you doing?’ I tell them, ‘It’s my park!'”

It’s not a park yet, which is why Marcus performs another whimsical ritual, this one every other year or so in the days leading up to or following her birthday.

Read the rest of the story by Joe Capozzi at his website ByJoeCapozzi.com

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‘My peace has come, I will pass this way no more forever’

Oklahoma Seminoles in Jupiter retrace initial footsteps their ancestors took on the Trail of Tears.

DEEP INSIDE A lush South Florida hardwood hammock, leaders of the Great Seminole Nation of Oklahoma gathered Sunday morning for an emotional journey.

As some washed their heads in the smoke of burning sage, others wandered through a patch of cypress knees off the main trail at Jupiter’s Loxahatchee River Battlefield Park.

Standing at the edge of the Loxahatchee River, they soaked in the scenery, a view that must have been similar to what their ancestors saw 184 years ago when U.S. soldiers drove them off their homeland.

Minutes later, they bowed their heads in prayer and began walking through the mud and sawgrass, retracing the initial footsteps their ancestors took on the Trail of Tears.

“We know this is a hollow and sacred place amongst our people,” Chief Lewis Johnson said later to 100 people who gathered beneath the branches of a majestic oak after watching the Oklahoma Seminoles march along a roughly mile-long route.

“Even though this was a short walk for us,” he said, “we realize what took place upon these grounds.”

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Continue reading the rest of the story about their path in 1838 after the Battle of Loxahatchee and how Jupiter figures so deeply in their story.

ALSO BY JOE CAPOZZI:

Landmark event: Oklahoma Seminoles ready to connect with Florida ancestors’ spirits in historic visit to Jupiter

Outlaw’s glass eye among never-before-seen artifacts at new ‘Ashley Gang’ exhibit in Martin County

Forget Italy. You can see Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach

SHELL ON WHEELS: Florida Man shellacks classic car with seashells from the seashore

Pivot point: Vast change in store for north county medical care

Proposals for new hospitals face fewer hurdles, promise to reshape local health-care delivery.

Second of two parts

It’s called “cream-skimming” and it’s alive and well in north county.

The “cream” is the bumper crop of well-off, fully insured retirees who call north county home.

The “skimming” is how the high-end medical practices and hospitals drawn to the area are grabbing their piece of the lucrative pie.

The result is a potential tipping point in medical care, pressuring traditional hospitals to fend off competition for physicians, nurses and, most of all, patients.

The pieces are not in place yet but there’s a scramble for available land, physician groups and care centers that will shape north county’s medical delivery system for decades.

Exclusive: UF signs deal to take over Scripps Florida

University of Florida to pay $100 for all of Scripps Florida’s assets, including its three Jupiter buildings and 70 vacant acres in Alton.

First of two parts

Fifteen years ago, the state put up $310 million and Palm Beach County put up $269 million to bring The Scripps Research Institute to Abacoa.

Last month, Scripps agreed to hand it all over to the University of Florida for $100.

Census 2020: Watch the Gardens grow

Led by Palm Beach Gardens, north county cities grew 15% over 10 years; Hispanic population rises throughout Palm Beach County.

Palm Beach Gardens grew at a 22 percent clip over the past 10 years, the second-fastest rate of any city in Palm Beach County, census 2020 figures show.

Jupiter remains the most populous city in north county, at 61,047, but Palm Beach Gardens gained on it, drawing to within 2,000 at 59,182.

Over the past 20 years, the Gardens’ growth rate of 68.8 percent is third in the county trailing just Palm Springs and Royal Palm Beach, census records show. Jupiter grew seventh-fastest over that period at 55 percent.