The city's new budget year starts this morning with the tax rate exactly where it was, your tap water keeps a chlorine edge until the eleventh, and the one firehouse that used to go dark overnight now has a crew and an ambulance of its own.

Let's get into it.

The city's 2026-27 budget takes effect today, $283.9 million going out against $285.6 million coming in, with the property tax rate parked at 3.6476 mills.

A home assessed at $450,000 owes the city about $1,648 for the year.

The rate held. Your assessment is a separate conversation.

Source: Boca Daily News

Utility Services swapped chloramine for free chlorine on Sunday, Sept. 27 and keeps it there until Sunday, Oct. 11.

A slight chlorine taste or odor is expected the whole two weeks, and the city says the water is safe to drink.

Your filter is fine. Your iced coffee is on its own.

Source: BocaNewsNow

Station 8 has been the only Boca firehouse not staffed around the clock, and the new budget puts 12 firefighters and four lieutenants in it out of a $2,561,500 line, plus a rescue truck of its own.

The Fire-Rescue fee on your bill goes from $155 to $224.

That is what a faster ambulance costs you.

Source: Boca Daily News

Thursday, 6 to 9pm. Walking in is free, the shuttle is free, and the Samantha Russell Band plays live.

Local artisans, food trucks and a mobile bar under the palms, with the lights coming on as it gets dark. The city runs this one itself, so it is not a pop up that quietly does not happen.

Sanborn Square, 72 N Federal Hwy.

Thursday, 6pm, at home. The Bulls' girls take on Westminster Academy.

High school volleyball is the best hour of sport nobody tells you about, and the gym is loud by the second set. The date and the time are on the Bulls' schedule.

West Boca Raton Community High School, 12811 Glades Rd.

South Florida is in town, 7pm, and every FAU soccer match is free to get into.

A thousand seats, close enough to hear the back four arguing. The date is on the Owls' own schedule, and FAU prints the free admission on its ticket page.

FAU Soccer Stadium, 777 Glades Rd.

The Bandeja Paisa is steak, chorizo, chicharrón, rice, beans, sweet plantain, avocado, an arepa and a fried egg, and it all arrives at once. El Balcón de las Américas has been running a full Colombian kitchen out in the far southwest corner, with a bakery and a coffee bar built into it and the doors open at 7:30am.

Bandeja Paisa $21.45. Ajiaco Completo $19.95. Kitchen runs to 9pm.

El Balcón de las Américas, 9964 Sandalfoot Blvd.

Every branch prices its own menu, so check this one and not the other.

Spa Palmera at The Boca Raton is a Forbes Five-Star spa, and you do not need a room or a treatment to get in. Dusk access starts at 4pm and buys you the ritual baths, the pool, the sauna, the steam rooms and the loungers until they close at 7:30pm.

Dusk access, 4pm to close, is $75 Monday through Thursday. All day is $130.

Spa Palmera at The Boca Raton, 501 E Camino Real.

The ritual bath area is 18 and over, so this one is yours alone.

Burn Boot Camp runs 45 minute camps on a floating floor with a named trainer on every slot, and the day's protocol goes up in advance. Thursday is metabolic conditioning with a call out finisher, so you know what you are walking into before you put your shoes on.

Four weeks is $69 for first timers. Childwatch is included, 8 weeks to 13 years, on the 8:30, 9:30, 4:45 and 5:45 camps.

Burn Boot Camp West Boca, 11411 W Palmetto Park Rd.

New members get asked to arrive fifteen minutes early. Do that bit.

GoYummy is a wall of lösgodis bins, the Swedish pick and mix format that is perfectly ordinary in Stockholm and basically nowhere here. They say the Boca shop is the largest Swedish candy store in the country, and the Malaco Diamond Rings are the bin to commit to.

Diamond Rings $4.95. The Best of the Best Mix is $19.95, already built for you.

GoYummy, 8214 Glades Rd.

They ship without cold packs, so in a Florida October you go and get it yourself.

Jumptwist Ninja runs an Adult Ninja class for 16 and up on the full obstacle rig, warped wall and all, and their own FAQ is blunt that no experience is required. The class splits by level, from people who have never hung off a bar to people training for American Ninja Warrior.

The first class is free, there is no membership, and a college ID takes 20% off.

Jumptwist Ninja, 518 NW 77th St.

Shirts and sneakers, nothing loose, and they want you there thirty minutes early to warm up.

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The Owls play South Florida at seven and nobody takes your money at the gate. Before that, the Bulls are home to Westminster Academy at six, and downtown hands its square over to local makers, food trucks and a live band from six as well. Any one of them is a whole evening.

The rest is here because it earns the drive. A Colombian plate with a fried egg sitting on the steak, a Five-Star spa that lets you walk in at four without booking a thing, a camp that tells you the workout before you agree to it, a wall of Swedish candy bins, and an obstacle course that will humble you in about ninety seconds. Pick one and go.

The Good in Boca Team