ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Local observation and tourism statistics have long pointed to mid-March as the height of tourist season, but last week, April 3-9, brought what could be the largest crowds, longest restaurant wait times, heaviest traffic and most crowded beaches of the season.
While most college spring breaks wrap up by the end of March, many elementary, middle and high schools take spring break during the first two weeks of April, bringing families from around the country to the warm, sunny shores of AMI.
“We came down from Wisconsin for a week at our time-share in Holmes Beach, the kids are loving getting to play in the sun since it’s still freezing back home,” said Nate Chambers, who is visiting with his wife and three elementary school-age children. “We love it here, and know we are coming during a very busy time of year, but we honestly don’t care. This is still the most relaxing time we will have this year. We’d love to come in November when it’s quiet and much slower paced, but the kids are in school and it’s just not possible; it’s now or never.”
Multiple road construction projects also brought the Island to a virtual standstill during the first week of April. The road construction project at city center in Holmes Beach slowed travel in the already congested area to a crawl most of the week, and a paving project on April 7 made a one-mile drive take in excess of an hour as traffic was detoured through residential streets not equipped for the volume.
“Friday, April 7 was the first time since I have owned the company that I had to refuse service to the north end of the Island. It was a nightmare,” Monkey Bus owner Sally Dirbas said. “Who thought it was a good idea to basically shut down traffic on one of the busiest days of the year? This construction has already caused severe financial damage to local businesses, some of which didn’t survive it. Could they have not paused the construction and paving another week until the spring break is over? It’s been going on for months, we could live with it an extra couple of weeks to keep the Island moving.”
Holmes Beach wasn’t the only source of frustration as April began. On April 5, a section of northbound Gulf Drive around 12th Street was closed for paving. The project took most of the day with crews not re-opening the northbound lane until after 8 p.m. Due to having to alternate traffic north and south through the southbound lane, a one-mile trip in either direction averaged 30-45 minutes. Both of these projects, in addition to the normally heavy volume in the Coquina Beach area, meant that catching a trolley in a timely manner was a next-to-impossible task.
“They say the trolley comes by every 20 minutes or so, but we’ve been sitting here at the trolley stop for over 40 minutes and haven’t seen one pass in either direction,” said Kelly Pratt, who was waiting with her husband and two small children at the southbound 25th Street stop in Bradenton Beach. “Some people told my husband it’s not because of spring break, but rather a bunch of construction projects. Are they trying to run people off? Who’s in charge of this stuff and what were they thinking? We were here last year and it was busy, but this is insane.”
So which week of spring was the busiest this year? Due to a malfunction, the license plate readers that count vehicles coming and going through Holmes Beach have no data available for the week of April 3-9, leading to more speculation, since resort tax data and room occupancy data provided by Manatee County tourism officials will not be available for more than a month.
“Unfortunately, we had a plate reader down this week, so I don’t have accurate numbers for the first week of April,” Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer said. “In my opinion, it was just as busy or busier this week as any week in March.”
Tokajer’s thoughts were closely echoed by Bradenton Beach Police Lt. Lenard Diaz.
“Honestly, I’ve always thought the first week of April was the busiest of the spring season,” Diaz said. “I will say that our department hasn’t had any major problems related to spring break. Considering the large crowds, we don’t have anything serious to report that involved young people on spring break.”
Tokajer also said his department had not had any serious issues related to spring breakers this year. Both departments say crimes of opportunity, such as items stolen from the beach or unlocked cars, bicycle thefts and other non-violent crimes, tend to increase this time of year, but common sense, such as locking cars and not bringing valuables to the beach will prevent the great majority of these incidents.
