The year 2020 brought many challenges to the Anna Maria Island community, mixed in with several high points that proved this past calendar year wasn’t all bad.
In Holmes Beach, the year kicked off with the opening of the new dog park, which had been in the works for several years. The city took home a few Bert Harris case wins and city leaders were back in court with the treehouse owners. The city’s highly anticipated Community Skate Park opened to the public in February. At the same time, commissioners were discussing lighted signs in the mixed hotel/residential A-1 district on Gulf Drive, still an ongoing discussion, and the Holmes Beach special magistrate hearings were getting into a monthly groove examining code compliance cases. Horseback riding on the causeway was still being discussed as a potential problem at the local and Manatee County level.
Looking back, the first two months of 2020 seem like a simpler time that took place a long time ago.
The Island first began to feel the effects of the dawning COVID-19 pandemic in March, which saw events such as the St. Patrick’s Day Parade canceled, church services moving online, local government meetings canceled or moved to Zoom and masks on nearly every face you met.
As a community, Holmes Beach went through temporary business closures, temporary loss of beach access parking, the institution of a permit parking program and a grocery and toilet paper shortage that caught nearly everyone by surprise. Also, as a community, people rose to meet the strange new challenges brought by 2020.
Restaurants had to close their doors, but they opened to sell takeout dishes and some were able to provide groceries to residents. Locals banded together to help provide financial support to ailing businesses. Community members came together in 2020 to help support each other, whether it was through wearing a mask and keeping socially distant, buying gift certificates for local businesses to provide financial support, or donating to local food banks to help families in need.
Vacationers were able to return to the Island in the summer, restaurants opened their doors to limited capacity, beach parking reopened with new parking restrictions in Holmes Beach and residents and students prepared to go back to school at Anna Maria Elementary School for a new kind of school year. At the end of the calendar year, the Island school had only one reported case of COVID-19 on the campus.
The new normal began with masks required indoors and social distancing required pretty much everywhere, though stores, restaurants, fitness centers, The Center of Anna Maria Island, the Island Branch Library, some local churches and Holmes Beach City Hall were able to reopen with limited capacity.
Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth was re-elected to a second two-year term without competition for her seat at city hall. Commissioner Kim Rash was re-elected for a second two-year term in November along with Commissioner Jayne Christenson who beat out long-time Commissioner Pat Morton to win her first term on the dais.
Commissioners ended the calendar year by approving regulations for three-wheeled mini cars, disallowing any additional businesses from opening in the city and regulating where they can be driven.
Improvements at the city field complex, including the new bocce ball, pickleball and shuffleboard courts were completed, along with the installation of a new playground and lighting at the skate park.
Over at West Manatee Fire Rescue, Commissioner Randy Cooper announced that he would not seek re-election. After four candidates qualified, Commissioner Robert Bennett came out victorious in the November election, earning a four-year term on the fire district’s board along with Commissioner Larry Jennis who had no challengers for his seat and was automatically re-elected to another term.
The walls began going up at the district’s new administration building on a lot located behind the Fountain Court Shopping Center in Bradenton in December. The building is expected to be completed and ready for move-in by district employees in mid-2021.
WMFR leadership also continued assisting firefighters in earning a certification as a paramedic, helping to extend the reach of the district’s non-transport advanced lifesaving program.
The Center of Anna Maria Island had a year of ups and downs with many annual events, including the Tour of Homes and Lester Family Fun Day canceled, however, the nonprofit’s Go Green campaign continued full steam ahead, helping to bring attention to issues affecting local waters and sea life, such as red tide. Working with Ocean Habitats Inc., The Center’s leaders helped install hundreds of mini reefs underneath docks around the Island to provide a safe nursery for sea life which in turn helps filter the water. Through cost-cutting and generous fundraising contributions from the community, Executive Director Chris Culhane said he expects the nonprofit to finish the calendar year on good financial footing.
