Raid on computer store results in pair’s gambling charges
opposition derailed the project.
“We’re not out to try to harm the agricultural community,” said Brian Terry, a planner with the Wantman Group who represents Horizon. “We didn’t have all of the information that we have today. We request the postponement because we recognize the issues we’re faced with. We need the extra time to work through this process.”
Commissioners, however, didn’t think additional time would solve the problem, given the number of vendors who buy produce from farmers in the area.
“There are so many of them,” Commissioner Hal Valeche told Terry. “You’re g o i n g t o h av e t h e s a me results.”
As commissioners made it clear they’d reject a postponement, County Mayor Paulette Burdick asked Terry if he wanted a short break so he could ask his client if they wanted to withdraw the application rather than have it rejected.
Rejection would mean a t wo-year wait before the application could be submitted again. If Horizon with- drew, it could attempt to get permission to build the facility in another location.
After a five-minute break, Terry told commissioners his client wanted to withdraw the application.
The commission’s unwillingness to approve Horizon’s request displeased Johnnie Easton, a former aide to McKinlay.
Before leaving her job and moving out of state, Easton had worked on the horse manure issue for 13 years.
The problem had always been a vexing one with no easy solution, she said.
The county’s equestrian industry, with its epicenter in Wellington, brings millions of dollars to the county. But the county has only limited means of disposing of the horse manure, and officials fear that some of it is being dumped illegally, threatening water supplies and potentially fouling agricultural lands.
Ho r i z o n s a i d i t c o u l d help solve part of the problem. The firm’s representatives said it could build a facility that would separate manure from horse bedding, which could be re-used while manure would be converted into other products.
County officials loved the idea, but communities, fearing unpleasant odors, were opposed to having such a facility in their area.
The county thought it had hit on a solution: the creation of a special zone in a farming area 8 miles west of Wellington and 8 miles east of Belle Glade where Horizon’s facility could be built.
While the location solved the problem of neighborhood opposition, another cropped up when companies told farmers they would not buy fruits and vegetables grown near a manure recycling facility.
Farmers are a potent politic al force in Palm Beach County, and when they complain, commissioners listen.
Easton, however, said the assumption that Horizon’s facility would despoil pristine agricultural lands is off base.
For one thing, those agricultural lands might not be so pristine now, she said, citing a review by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection of the Everglades Agricultural Area, the farming area where the Horizon facility was to be built.
“The fact of the matter is that the DEP has already declared a large area of the EAA as ‘impaired’ with fecal coliform,” Easton wrote in an email to The Palm Beach Post. “This area includes the West Palm Beach Canal, which runs through the heart of the EAA on the north side of SR 80 and flows directly into the C-51 and the Ocean Canal (which runs adjacent to the proposed Horizon site).”
In an email to the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, she suggested that canals in the EAA be tested for pollutants.
“If they are concerned about potential contamination from a recycling facility, they should be concerned about the waste disposal in and around the irrigation canals that the farmers use to irrigate their crops,” Easton wrote.
Easton’s st ance on the issue put her at odds with M c K i n l a y , w h o n o t e d Wednesday that her former aide does not speak for her office or the county.
Easton said she knows her continued work on the issue has annoyed some in the county, but she is speaking out bec ause she believes horse manure i s still not being properly di sposed of in the county. She said she has pictures that show manure that’s been dumped in the area.
“That’s unsubstantiated,” McKinlay said. “I don’t have any concrete evidence of any dumping in that area.” JUNO BEACH — The former owner and co-manager of a Juno Beach internet cafe have been arrested on gambling and other charges, two years after police raided the business and the operation shut down.
Cafe 777 on Donald Ross Road was advertised as an “all-in-one” computer store, providing copy, print and fax services to its customers. Its owner, Edmund John Salata, reportedly compared the business to Kinko’s, the now-closed chain of photocopying centers. However, police investigators observed computer desktops that were set up as gaming terminals, according to the arrest report.
The business also had postings advertising cash payouts to customers, the report said.
Town police took Salata, 57, and Joel Lynn Matthews, 44, into custody Monday on charges of unlawfully keeping a gambling house, promoting a lottery and possessing a slot machine. Matthews was Salata’s co -manager, according to court records.
Records show that Salata and Matthews both have homes in the Abacoa section of Jupiter. Salata also has a home in Treasure Island, a beachfront city in Pinellas County. Both were released on their own recognizance Monday.
Their arrests stem from an investigation that began in 2013. Authorities raided the business in April 2015, hauling away more than 60 computers.
Investigators examined a bank account belonging to Salata and Matthews. The account showed a total of nearly $300,000 in deposits from March 2014 to April 2015.
All of the deposits were for less than $10,000, appearing to evade the bank’s reporting requirements to federal regulators, authorities said.