Boca's city manager quit after thirteen months, a night of amateur bands turned into a record $235,000 for local schools, and one council seat is going dark until March.

Let's get into it.

The city said on Friday that city manager Mark Sohaney is leaving to take a job serving the military community, thirteen months after he started.

The council now has to name interim leadership and decide how to pick a permanent replacement, and it has set no timeline for either.

He is a retired U.S. Navy captain with nearly four decades behind him, and he commanded Naval Air Station Key West and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam before Boca. Mayor Andy Thomson said he "cares deeply about the people who work for this City."

Thirteen months in, and the top job at city hall is open again.

Source: Boca Post

The final number from this year's Golden Bell Battle of the Bands is in, and it is a record $235,000 for local public schools.

The money goes to the Golden Bell Education Foundation, which runs a grant program for Boca Raton public schools and the Young Entrepreneurs Academy.

Season 8 put four bands of local professionals on stage at the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, most of them with little or no musical training, coached into it by School of Rock Boca Raton. Tickets ran $75.

Your accountant can play. Who knew.

Source: TAPinto Boca Raton

Councilwoman Yvette Drucker leaves the dais on November 10, and the council decided this week not to appoint anybody to hold it until the March election.

That leaves four members voting on everything for four months, with nobody to break a tie.

Mayor Andy Thomson wanted a caretaker who was not running in March. Councilwoman Michelle Grau said she would rather "leave the seat vacant and allow the voters to decide." Four candidates have filed for the seat: Mike Liebelson, Rachael Paul, Earl Starkoff and Lisa Mulhall.

Bring your own majority.

Source: Boca Daily News

The city hauls out a computerized 16 inch Meade and an 8 inch Celestron in the lot behind the Explorium at Sugar Sand Park, points them at the moon, and lets anyone who turns up look through them. Eyes to the Skies runs a handful of times a year and this is October's.

You get a 16 inch telescope aimed at the moon and the star clusters behind it, and it costs nothing to stand in line for it.

It runs 8:00pm to 9:30pm, it's free, nothing to reserve, and the telescope stays out at least an hour past the start. If the sky closes in they move everyone inside and run an inflatable planetarium instead.

Sugar Sand Park, 300 S Military Trail, Boca Raton.

Go at eight. The moon does the rest.

Macaroni Monday covers the entire macaroni section of Mia Rosebud's dinner menu, which is six handmade pastas, including the linguine and clams and Nonna's eight finger cavatelli with broccoli rabe.

The lounge runs its aperitivo list from four until close on the same night, so you can eat at the bar and still call it dinner. Kitchen hours are 4:00pm to 9:30pm and it's dine in.

Mia Rosebud, 150 E Palmetto Park Rd, Boca Raton. 561-462-3000.

Go early. The lounge fills first.

The new west Boca Crema Gourmet cuts its ribbon on Thursday, with complimentary bites, refreshments and merchandise giveaways. The chamber has it on the calendar for 10:00am to 2:00pm.

Crema Gourmet West Boca, 3011 W Yamato Rd Ste A20, Boca Raton.

Not today. Put it in your phone for Thursday.

Arun's Indian Kitchen took the Boca Raton Observer Readers' Choice award for Indian this year, decided by more than fifty five thousand votes across the city. Indian food has never had a box in here before.

One kitchen runs two menus, so the tikka masala and a taco masala come off the same pass.

Readers keep coming back to the same plates: the saag paneer, the chicken tikka masala and the garlic naan. It's open 11:30am to 10pm Tuesday through Saturday, and until 9:00pm on Sunday.

Arun's Indian Kitchen & Taco Masala, 1930 NE 5th Ave, Boca Raton. 561-672-7138.

Order extra naan. You'll want it.

The Hana hydrotherapy room at The Maui Spa is one circuit you work through at your own pace: cold plunge, steam sauna, infrared sauna, Swiss showers and a deluge shower. Bathing suits on, it is a shared room.

The deluge shower moves thirty gallons a minute, and the plunge is kept cold and ready rather than filled when you ask for it.

It is $35 added to any booked service and $50 on its own when they have the room free. They hold a 4.2 across 102 reviews on Tripadvisor and have been in the same building since 2007. Members get one Hana a month included.

The Maui Spa and Wellness Center, 2100 NW Boca Raton Blvd, Boca Raton. 561-395-7733.

They are closed Mondays. Call today and take it tomorrow.

POSH Fit is a women only strength room in west Boca. Claudia Stefano Maicon owns it, and she built it after two decades in finance rather than coming up through the fitness industry.

Classes cap at eighteen with one or two coaches on the floor, so somebody is actually watching what your hips are doing.

It holds a 5.0 from more than a thousand outside class ratings. Monday is Booty Lab, the progressive overload day, and it runs at 5:45am, 7:00am, 8:30am, 9:45am, 12:15pm and 6:00pm. A seven day pass is $25 and you book in their app.

POSH Fit Boca, 5030 Champion Blvd Ste F3, Boca Raton. 561-328-0020.

Take the six o'clock. Monday is legs.

La Lu Thrift Boutique in west Boca takes donations rather than consignment, which is why the floor is never the same twice. Vintage and designer clothing, jewelry, shoes, bags, art and furniture, all of it secondhand.

Thousands of items come in every day, and their own advice is to go on a weekday morning, when the shelves are full and the room is empty.

They name Chanel, Hermès and Escada among what has come through, alongside fur and shearling coats, sequined vintage tops and costume jewelry. Fair warning from their reviewers: this is priced as a luxury resale room, not a bargain bin. Gold is handled by appointment, so call ahead for that. Open 9:30am to 4:00pm.

La Lu Thrift Boutique, 6018 SW 18th St Ste C-5, Boca Raton. 561-218-4283.

Go in the morning. Ask what came in overnight.

New here. Once in a while we are going to put a beauty thing in this spot that I actually use myself. Nobody pays for it and it only runs when something earns it.

I put this on before coffee and it was still there after breakfast. The mug stayed clean. That's the whole review.

It goes on wet, dries flat in about a minute, and then it stays put through a hot drink and a meal.

It's the Sephora Collection Cream Lip Stain 10HR in 01 Always Red. The doe foot applicator gives you a clean edge, so you can skip the liner.

Cream Lip Stain 10HR in 01 Always Red, Sephora Collection. At Sephora.

Put it on before you leave. Then forget about it.

A-Maculate is Bernadete Freedman's company and she has been cleaning Boca houses and condos since 2007.

If a room isn't right, they come back the same day or the next one and clean it again at no charge.

Expertise.com put them on its 2026 list of the best house cleaners in Boca, and they carry a 5.0 on Google, Facebook and Yelp. They run 8:00am to 6:00pm Monday through Saturday and take recurring cleans, move in and move out, and post renovation.

A-Maculate Cleaning Service, 2200 N Federal Hwy Ste 227, Boca Raton. 561-705-7259.

Book the move out one. That's your deposit back.

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Eat first, then go outside. The whole pasta list downtown is one flat price until half nine, and the telescopes come out at eight and stay out an hour past that, so you can do both tonight without rushing either one.

The thing to steal out of this issue is the Hana room. Plunge, steam, infrared and a shower that comes down like weather, for the price of a tip on a massage. Book it on your way out of the telescope line.

The Good in Boca Team