Meet the Founding Fathers
By Commissioner Danny Iglesias, Mayor Norman S. Edelcup, Irving Diamond and Irving Turetsky

On April 12, 1996, Dave Samson gathered 4 residents, a local businessman Norman Edelcup, an F.D.O.T Engineer, Danny Iglesias, and two civic activists, Irving Turetsky and Irving Diamond. The five went to a downtown law office to meet with attorney Gene Sterns at 10:30 a.m. In the history of what was to become Sunny Isles Beach, that morning was perhaps the most (or one of the most) historic days.

On that day, those five men took it upon themselves, under the leadership of Dave Samson, our first mayor, to start a revolution. Only this revolution, unlike the one started by our founding fathers in 1776 caused no bloodshed and no injuries; in fact not, not even a gun shot was fired. Can you think of what it was? Give up…it was the game plan to incorporate what is now Sunny Isles Beach. That historic day started it all.

On Tuesday April 12, 2005, four out of the five founding fathers met for breakfast at Denny’s to celebrate and reminisce what the meeting meant and how significant it became. “I remember driving down with Irving Turetsky and meeting Danny Iglesias in downtown,” Mayor Edelcup said. Former Commissioner Irving Turetsky and, current President of Concerned Citizens Irving Diamond, remember how it was, talking about joining forces with Aventura, “…but when they turned us down, we went on our own.”

“ Going on our own was the best move we made,” Commissioner Iglesias said. He added, “We cannot minimize the work so many people did behind the scenes such as, Bill Lone in the Resort Association, people in the condominiums such as, Roslyn Brezin in the Arlen House, Gerry Goodman in Winston Towers, and of course the very important Susan Fried, who formed the incorporation committee and its members.” As an aside and reinforcing the idea of active participation in government, Iglesias continued, “I remember my grandmother at the age of 86 becoming an American Citizen, just so she could vote for this election. God knows how long incorporation would have taken, or where would we have been today, had we five not taken it upon ourselves to start the process.”

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