Hallandale Beach park to residents: Design Me!

Let your chalk do the talking.

Hallandale Beach officials want residents to share their vision for Sunrise Park by drawing their design ideas on four giant-sized boards.

The boards will be unveiled at a community meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Sunrise Park, 800 N.E. Fifth St.

City staff will take photos of the boards every day to preserve each idea. Once photographed and cataloged, the ideas will be erased to allow other residents to make suggestions.

The idea boards will be up for one month.

Hallandale Beach to honor Dr. Martin Luther King at park on Tuesday

Hallandale Beach will pay homage to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at 6 p.m. Tuesday with the formal opening of the historic wing of the Foster Park Community Center, 609 NW Sixth Ave.

The wing includes a micro-library with a focus on African-American and Caribbean cultures.

A time capsule filled with historic items will be kept in a vault at Foster Park. The capsule will be opened in 2023. A video of the community's history, as told through photos and by residents, will be unveiled on a television screen above the time capsule.

The free celebration will commemorate the 50th anniversary of King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

Refreshments will be served. 

Pain management goes high-tech to help patients avoid pills

In South Florida, pain management used to be synonymous with pain pills.

But in the age of the pill mill crackdown, with fewer doctors prescribing the meds, a growing number of legitimate pain sufferers are finding long-elusive relief with sophisticated, high-tech devices that soothe the hurt — with none of the complications or side effects of addictive drugs.

And the results are so effective, many no longer depend on medication to get them through the day, local doctors say.

"We are using some real state-of-the-art technology to help patients get off narcotics that are becoming increasingly hard to get," said Dr. Scott Berger, a board-certified pain medicine specialist in Boca Raton. "These are not only drug-free, non-addictive therapies, they're allowing us to treat some formerly difficult-to-treat problems."

The latest devices differ in their delivery but essentially do the same thing: send electrical signals to the brain that block the sensation of pain. Among them are: a spinal cord stimulator; the Electroanalgesic Delivery System; and pulse radiofrequency therapies.

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A bold new look for Lauderdale's skyline

A renowned Danish architect is about to give the city's growing skyline a cutting-edge twist with a statement-making design that officials hope draws more visitors, residents and attention to the downtown.

Commissioners early Wednesday approved the $150 million Marina Lofts apartment complex on the south side of the New River with its look straight from the imagination of Bjarke Ingels, who received the European Prize for Architecture in 2010 and the Wall Street Journal Innovator of the Year Award for 2011.

His design includes two buildings that are separated by a 30-foot-wide zig-zagging fissure, which makes them look like one building snapped in half, while a third building will have boats sailing through its center to access the project's marina.

"What we seek to do as a company is innovate, transform and inspire," developer Asi Cymbal said. "We believe that great cities have great architecture."

The apartment complex drew opposition from residents who said the project was too big for its location and those opposed to moving a majestic, six-story rain tree on the site. They fear the tree will not survive the transplant, despite assurances from tree-moving experts.

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Hallandale firefighters getting raises

Firefighters will earn 2.5 percent cost of living raises through September 2015 under a contract that won commission approval this week.

Some members of the rank and file who are not "topped out" will also receive step raises of 5 percent, city officials said.

The new contract also makes changes to the fire pension plan that are expected to save the city $940,000 over the three-year contract, city officials say.

The contract, approved unanimously on Wednesday, does not give cost-of-living raises this fiscal year or the previous year.

In March, commissioners approved a police contract that gave officers and sergeants cost of living raises ranging from 2 percent to 3 percent through September 2015 and two years of retroactive pay.

Original Arcticles from: http://www.sun-sentinel.com