The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 13 No. 34 - June 12, 2013

headlines

The first six months

Many of you have asked how things are going at city hall. Here is a list of what we have put in place or accomplished since November of last year.

Building and Public Works departments

We hired a new head of building and public works, Mr. Tom O’Brien. O’Brien brings to the building and public works area years of experience in the local area with positions of managing departments at Manatee County, being a magistrate, as well as a lifelong career as an architect. Our previous department head resigned and the building inspector had been fired shortly before I took office. We have tightened up the building codes and added ordinances to foster the type of buildings that will fit more into the character of the Island impacting what we heard from many of the constituents who were concerned about the Island losing its old Florida character. To affect these changes we instituted a moratorium with a maximum six-month time frame. It was finished approximately two months early.

We also have made major improvements in the uniform handling of construction by eliminating exceptions and loose interpretation of the codes, making a level playing field for all contractors. Susan Lonzo, Susan Corsi, and David Greene have been working very well as a team with O’Brien rounding out a very strong building department.  Robin Kinkopf has recently been added to the team to help with both building issues and code enforcement.

Public works is now meeting on a regular basis and has a formal checklist of projects and responsibilities being overseen by O”Brien.  Gary Blunden and his public works team continue doing an excellent job in the public works area. 

Administration We have process flowed all departments to analyze how paper flows through the operation and what can be done to improve each department’s efficiency. This work continues to go on, and we expect to have many improvements in all areas of city hall as we go forward.

We revitalized an FDOT grant from 2008 that was scheduled to expire in July 2013. FDOT contacted us soon after I took office to alert us the potential loss of this grant, and we responded immediately to finalize an agreement with them over a few meetings. The value of the grant is just over $500,000. We also contracted with Mary Buonagura as our human resources manager to help with the job descriptions, reviews, process flow, grant writing and a variety of other needs that we have to make city hall run more smoothly.

Stacey Johnston and Lori Kee continue to do an excellent job at their roles and are working well with Buonagura on continuous improvement in all administrative areas. Under Buonagura’s direction, we have revised job descriptions for all employees. Some had no descriptions some were in need of updating.

We are rewriting the employee handbook to add important state and federal updates. We have reinstated grievance procedures and also established employee recognition programs. We instituted a written annual review process for all employees. Our first review will be toward the end of the fiscal year or end of this calendar year.

We have a new updated policy manual in the works for all employees.

Financial We are under budget for all departments year to date even with the legal predicament that we inherited with regard to city problems in the building department i.e. Mainsail, 27th. St. lawsuit and other unexpected issues with which we had to deal.

We instituted a monthly profit and loss review with all department heads so as to know how they are doing in their respective areas of responsibility budget wise. According to many department heads, they had never reviewed the budget in their respective areas for the past 15 to 20 years. Lori Hill, treasurer, is working well with all the department heads to review the budgets with them monthly as well as working toward putting our new fiscal budget together for next year.

Police and Code Enforcement

We recently hired a new Police Chief William Tokajer. Tokajer comes with many years of experience as a manager, self-starter and leader. I think in the very short time we have had him in office, we have already seen the fruits of his efforts. Tokajer has promoted from within two sergeants to better cover our day and night shift schedules with regard to supervision. He has changed the hours or shifts to 12 hours for better coverage as well.

Our code enforcement officer, David Forbes, was to report to the police department under Tokajer, but will be leaving us to take care of some family issues in Ohio.  He will be on a leave of absence for approximately three months, and his position will be filled with a contract employee due to the needs of the department. This position has a dotted line responsibility to the building department and works closely with O’Brien and Greene when the code issues deal with building.

Other We ended the legal dispute regarding 27th. Street with our sister city, Bradenton Beach, and the Sandpiper. 

Our next six months

We will be finalizing our overall vision for the city. We will be focusing on what we call city center.  One of the visions for the city is to make the downtown area a more pedestrian and bike friendly area with a better traffic flow that lends itself to being safer and easier for our visitors and locals to shop our retails outlets, restaurants and other facilities. We will coordinate our efforts with local businesses, the Chamber and our citizens.

We have already started by adding more crosswalks, pedestrian signage and making the town safer and more pedestrian and bike friendly. In tandem with the city center effort, we will be working on some beautification and branding efforts for the city to coincide with our vision.

We will pursue conversations and ideas with our two sister cities to try to find more ways to work together. Ideas like signage and branding of the Island together ways to deal with the congestion. We will evaluate more sustainable methods of using electricity, and power in our city hall and other ancillary buildings i.e. solar, LED lightning.

We will try to devise ways of getting more people to the Island to visit without their cars that carry so many of our tourists here, i.e. boat taxi, better and more use of the trolley, thereby dealing with our congestion problems. We will investigate ways to get people to move to the Island instead off the Island, as the trend has been for the past 10 years. This also means efforts to try to get some companies that could generate jobs without being tied to tourism locating here in paradise.

We will make more efforts to work with various non-profits to help generate funds for them via community activities in our common areas, such as the park next to city hall.

Petition circulating to keep tree house
Carol Whitmore

MAGGIE FIELD | SUN

Tree house co-owner Lynn Tran photographs the camera
crew from the Today Show last week. The segment
on the show was broadcast live to a national audience on
Thursday. Standing in the tree house is Today Show
correspondent Gabe Gutierrez.

 

HOLMES BEACH – Registered voters in the city soon will receive letters asking them to sign a petition creating a city ordinance to save the tree house at Angelino’s Sea Lodge, 103 29th St.

A provision of the city charter allows the public to petition for an initiative proceeding to create the ordinance, which proposes that the tree house be allowed to remain in place, with the provisions that it not be used for motel customers and that the city be held harmless for any liability associated with the structure.

If the commission denies the petition, it would go on an upcoming ballot for a citywide vote.

The issue was scheduled to come before the commission on Tuesday, June 11, after press time.

Tree house owners Richard Hazen and Lynn Tran are working to get 10 percent of the 3,211 qualified voters in the city – or 320 people – to sign to make it effective, Tran said.

“We are mailing out letters to all voters in Holmes Beach,” she said.

In part, the letter reads, “By signing the petition to approve the tree house ordinance, vou will help stop a prolonged conflict over a harmless tree house and avoid costly litigation to the city and all parties involved. At this point, it is not about who is right or wrong. It is not about blaming and debating over a long list of allegations in court or code board hearing. It is about finding a win-win solution and a happy ending for aIl. After aIl, the tree house is a fun and fond childhood dream for aIl who love a fairy tale story and something unusual and extraordinary.”

No permits

The couple has been fighting city code enforcement and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to keep the three-level tree house, which they built without permits last year.

Both a state and a city permit were required before building the structure, according to DEP’s Bureau of Beaches and Coastal Systems, which regulates coastal construction. Permits are required to protect sand dune systems, which prevent erosion, protect nearby structures and provide wildlife habitat.

Hazen maintains that former Holmes Beach building official Bob Shaffer told him he did not need a city permit for a tree house. The couple’s proposed ordinance contains the wording, “Whereas, after informing the building officials of their proposal, the owners were advised that no permits would be required by the city of Holmes Beach for the construction of said tree house...”

Shaffer said last week that Hazen called the city and asked whether the city had regulations for a tree house.

“I said no,” he said. “But his definition of a tree house is a far cry from mine. Next thing I knew it was a 400-square-foot structure.”

Had Hazen described the two-level structure with four support posts, two decks, windows and a roof, he would have had to supply engineering specifications for an accessory structure, a letter of no objection from the city and a DEP permit, Shaffer said.

According to a survey that the owners recently supplied to DEP, Shaffer said the tree house appears to be too close to the Erosion Control Line; the city requires a 50-foot setback.

DEP gave the couple a chance to submit an application for an after the fact permit after they responded to DEP’s order to tear down the tree house with a letter begging to keep the structure, but the state agency is still waiting to receive all the information it requested, and is still waiting for the full permit fee, according to DEP spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller.

The owners submitted $300, the fee for a minor structure, but DEP permit staff categorizes the tree house as a major structure, carrying a $1,000 fee, leaving a $700 balance due, she said.

Tran said she and Hazen are waiting for DEP to respond to the survey they sent.

Approval or denial of a DEP permit application is based upon a review of the potential impacts to the beach dune system, native salt resistant vegetation such as sea oats, and sea turtles, among other considerations, according to DEP.

While the beach around the tree is turtle habitat, the tree house does not impact the habitat, said Suzi Fox, director of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring.

The tree house has caught the attention of a national audience, including a feature on NBC’s Today Show.

The couple continues to receive both letters of support and hate mail, including one racial slur, and recently was told by the city code enforcement office to stop raking the beach around the tree house, Hazen said, adding, “It seems they’re really stretching.”

Their attorney plans to file for a dismissal of the code enforcement hearing scheduled on Thursday, June 20, at 10 a.m., Tran said.

FDLE listens to mother about Morris’ death

BRADENTON BEACH – The Florida Department of Law Enforcement gave the mother of Sheena Morris an opportunity on Monday to tell them the results of her own investigation into her daughter’s death.

Morris was found dead in a Bradenton Beach motel room on New Year’s Day 2009. Bradenton Beach police determined that her death was a suicide. Osborn requested FDLE’s involvement, insisting that her daughter’s death was a murder and implicating her boyfriend, Joe Genoese.

She hired investigators and took her case to the Dr. Phil television program last year, where Genoese took a polygraph test.

“Your polygraph asked, ‘Did you kill Sheena?’ That answer was… deceptive,” Dr. Phil said on the show.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Genoese responded, denying involvement in her death.

“In eight months they (FDLE) have done what it took me four years to do,” Osborn said on Monday, adding that FDLE agents did not tell her whether any of her information she gave them during the five and a half hour interview was new to them.

“We feel really good about the meeting,” she said. “The case is in good hands.”

FDLE advised the Bradenton Beach Police Department (BBPD) of the meeting, but police did not attend – city police investigators already have spoken at length with Osborn and stand by their original conclusion of suicide, Police Chief Sam Speciale said.

BBPD remains the lead investigating agency on the case, he said, and is cooperating with FDLE as it retraces their work.

Residents get referendum briefing

HOLMES BEACH – A small group of voters gathered at city hall to listen to two officials make a pitch for the two referendum items on the July 18 ballot.

Manatee County Administrator Ed Hunzeker began the discussion telling voters why they should approve a half-cent sales tax hike, raising the tax from 6 1/2 percent to7 percent.

Hunzeker said if the sales tax increase is approved, it would take some of the load off homeowners and put it on everybody, including non-residents. He said the county needs to diversify its revenue streams so it would not have to rely on one big source, such as property taxes, which pay for 60 percent of the county’s operating expenses.

He said on the other hand, the county was headed for disaster because a fund set up when it sold Manatee Memorial Hospital wasbeing depleted. That fund helped pay for indigent health care, which the county is required to pay, and that expense would soon be added to those covered by property taxes, which would have resulted in a boost in a tax increase. Other expenses also are mounting.

“We spend around $24 million on inmate care, the Medicaid match and for uncompensated services hospitals pay when somebody can’t,” he said. “As it is, hospitals have to treat you, then they can ask for your name and if you have insurance,”

He said the county does not pay until the hospital exhausts its methods of collecting. He also said there is s difference in who gets indigent care.

“If you have an ailment or are unemployed, there are federal programs that can pay,” he said. “Those people we pay for are employed with no insurance – the working poor.”

He said another inherent problem the county has is the way it finances law enforcement. All county property taxpayers pay for the Sheriff’s Office, even those city dwellers who pay for local police as well. He would lower taxes in municipalities by not charging for sheriff’s coverage and raise the taxes slightly for residents in the unincorporated area in order to take up the slack.

Finally, he would start charging utilities franchise fees, which is something most counties in the state and cities in Manatee county already do.

If the tax passes, the county would have a millage rate of 4.7113 for city property owners and 6.0309 for property owners in unincorporated Manatee County. Translated that would be $471.13 per $100,000 of taxable value for municipal residents and $603.09 for property owners in unicorporated county. Property tax payers would still have to pay for schools, fire protection and other services.

“The results would be to solve the county health care problem, reduce property taxes and diversify our income, which would help raise the county’s credit rating,” Hunzeker said.

He then addressed concerns of the opposition.

“This sales tax can only go toward health care,” he said. “If Congress appropriates money for that care, we would rescind the tax.”

He pointed out the county levied a half-cent tax in the early 1990s to build a new jail, which the finished early and under budget and that increase was rescinded.

If the increase does not pass, the county would have to raise property taxes next year to pay for indigent health care.

Economic tax exemption

Sharon Hillstrom, executive director of the Manatee Economic Development Council, said her group is asking for voter permission to grant ad valorem tax exemptions to businesses to bring in jobs. This question also will be on the ballot.

“They would have to fall into targeted areas to diversity our economy,” she said. “We would make recommendations to the county commission and they would vote on it.”

Hillstrom pointed out one advantage of diversifying the economy.

“A lot of us have kids who move away when they can because there are no jobs,” Hillstrom said. “This would give them opportunities to stay.”

She said the goals of the tax exemptions include attracting talented workers to the force and encouraging existing businesses to expand and create more jobs.

Hillstrom pointed out one example, a company called Air Products that makes large heat exchangers was looking for a place to relocate.

“They needed welders so we took them to Manatee Technical Institute and showed them the program there to train welders,” she said. “That sealed the deal.”

Hillstrom said experience has shown that when they bring in a new employer through tax incentives, the benefits from new jobs and the tax income from that outweighs the loss of ad valorem taxes.

 

Pier partially closed after Andrea
Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

CINDY LANE | SUN
This boat was one of two that Tropical Storm Andrea
pulled loose from its moorings and tossed into the
Bridge Street Pier in Bradenton Beach on Thursday.

BRADENTON BEACH – The eastern half of the Bridge Street Pier, already scheduled for repairs this summer, will temporarily be closed after Tropical Storm Andrea did further damage last week.

Two boats crashed into the pier during the storm, striking protective pilings beside the newly-repaired floating dock on the south side of the pier, then hitting the midsection of the main pier, where one struck the railings supporting the cupola, which will now be removed ahead of schedule due to instability, Police Chief Sam Speciale said.

One boat owner was located and moved his boat, but public works staff had to lash down the other boat in the middle of the storm to prevent further damage to the pier.

A number of pilings are in poor condition, according to Public Works Director Tom Woodard.

The city has been working on plans to repair the pier and will issue a request for proposals this month, pending approval of the plans by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Building Official Steve Gilbert said.

The storm was a good test for the floating dock, which seems to have withstood the storm well, and is still open, Woodard said.

Part of the sign at the former Rotten Ralph’s Restaurant blew down during the storm, but city crews checked the roof and interior and found no further damage, he said.

FISH raises concerns about Long Bar Pointe

CORTEZ – The Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage (FISH) board of directors welcomed back a familiar face when Chips Shore returned to the non-profit board during the June 3 meeting.

Shore, the Manatee County Clerk of the Court and Comptroller, resigned from the FISH board in January, due in part to his unhappiness with the way FISH Secretary Joe Kane “editorialized” meeting minutes pertaining to the county having to charge a fee for use of the Maritime Museum parking area during the Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival.

Shore also found Kane’s in-meeting demeanor to be too confrontational and had indicated that he would not serve on the same board as Kane.

When Kane failed to win reelection in April, the newly configured board, at the May meeting, unanimously agreed to send Shore a formal letter asking him to return.

Upon his return, Shore also agreed to serve as FISH secretary, a position the board was unable to fill at its May meeting, when no board member volunteered.

Non-board member Cathy Slusser, director of historical resources for the Clerk of the Circuit Court, will assist Shore in his secretarial duties. Slusser is also actively involved with the Manatee County Historical Commission.

When Shore’s return was approved by the seven members present, he took his seat at the conference table and said, “It’s good to be back.”

FISH Treasurer Jane von Hahmann said Shore’s return was a “huge relief.” Board member Plum Taylor agreed, saying, “It’s about time.”

Before reappointing Shore, the board accepted the resignation of recently elected board member Ryan Murphy. Murphy, the leading vote-getter in the April member election, did not attend the May meeting and resigned from the board a few days later after accepting an archeologist’s position with Sarasota County.

Long Bar Pointe concerns

During board member comments, von Hahmann, a former Manatee County commissioner, said FISH received a $58 donation in return for the use of FISH-owned Fishermen’s Hall the previous week, when a group of citizens spent two hours discussing their concerns about the proposed Long Bar Pointe development and their desire to address county commissioners at the June 6 commission meeting.

According to von Hahmann, the coastal development proposed by Larry Lieberman and Carlos Beruff calls for 1,086 single-family homes, 2,531 multi-family units (condos) and a 300 room hotel to be built on 463 acres of waterfront property known as the old Manatee Fruit Farm, west of the 75th Street roundabout.

Von Hahmann said her greatest concern was a proposed 300-birth deep water marina built to accommodate vessels up to 100 ft. long. If approved, the development would result in the destruction of more than 40 acres of environmentally sensitive mangrove forest and 40 to 60 acres of sea grass – an area von Hahmann later described as a “water nursery for everything from crabs to small fish” when asked about development’s potential impact on the Cortez fishing industry.

Concerns were also raised about additional traffic congestion on Cortez Road should Long Bar Pointe be approved.

On Thursday June 6, county commissioners postponed the Long Bar Pointe discussion to Aug. 6 and adjourned their afternoon meeting early because of Tropical Storm Andrea.

Other Business

During the June meeting, West Manatee Rotary Club member Bill Diamond presented FISH with a $1,500 check on behalf of Bonefish Grill in Bradenton. The money was raised during the Rotary-sponsored Taste of Manatee event.

Turner Maritime Challenge of Cortez Director Sean Wardell reported that the FISH-affiliated Sea Scout troop toured Sarasota Bay aboard the commercial fishing boat Smiley on Saturday, May 18, and is planning a sailboat expedition on Saturday, June 8.

The Sea Scouts invite the community to assist with a FISH Preserve clean up taking place Saturday, July 13, from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. For more information, call 941-792-8200.

Mary Fulford Green reported that volunteers will be needed for the continued efforts to relocate and restore the Monroe Cottage that will serve as a family life museum while also paying tribute to Cortez war veterans. For more information, contact Green at 941-795-7121.

Tears and smiles on the last day of school

Tom vaught | sun

Teacher’s aide Dawn Kuhn shares hug with a couple of
fifth-graders as they leave AME for the last time as students.

Bittersweet, especially for fifth-graders as the clock ran out on the school year.

Principal David Marshall had the fifth-graders come downstairs from their classrooms first to say goodbye, as this would be their final moments as elementary school students.

There were tears and hugs as they said goodbye to their teachers, school nurse Vicki Dunning, Debbie Gomes and Amy Slicker at the front desk, Principal Marshall and fellow students. As the school buses rolled up, they opened the front doors and passed into summer vacation and new schools next year.

Some of the kids wept, and ome of the parents also shed tears as they picked up their youngsters.

In the cafeteria, Ellen Trudelle was putting away the trays and dishes and preparing the lunchroom for a couple of months of rest. She is saying goodbye after 28 years working in the kitchen. She also worked at Rotten Ralphs and said she would likely return to work at Ralph’s, the new restaurant being opened by Dave Russell after Rotten Ralph’s at the Bridge Street Pier closed.

“I’ll miss the kids, the staff and all the parents and teachers,” she said. “I’ll even miss doing the dishes.”

After the ups and downs of the budget crisis this year, the district’s top FCAT scoring elementary school’s teachers were looking forward to the summer recess, although for some, it would be their last assignment at the little school by the bay due to the teacher cuts.

PTO meets

After the dust settled, members of the PTO gathered at the auditorium to vote on reallocating $17,420 that had been raised through their Winter Fling fund-raiser.

While the school asked for $5,500 to maintain the landscaping, they stuck with their original allocation of $3,750.

“During the summer, Tom Harrison (husband of guidance counselor Cindi Harrison) maintains the landscaping and the gardens,” said PTO Past President Monica Simpson. “We might have to see if a local garden club or other organization would like to chip in.”

“A lot of what he does is make the front of the campus look good,” Marshall added. “He mows every four days during the summer and keeps the weeds in check.”

The PTO doubled its allocation of $750 for maintaining the fish tank in the reception area of the school. They pay a company to come in weekly to clean the tank and make sure the fish are OK.

Marshal said they might look for an underwriter to donate the money in return for sign recognition at the tank.

Another adjustment was to lower their $5,000 for grade-level textbooks to $1,000.

“The district said it would pay for them,” Marshall said.

They raised the $600 donation for science kits to $880, which was an adjustment to match the need, and then there was a new category called shortfall in district allocations and amounting to $2,000. Cindi Harrison has agreed to switch from fulltime to part time so the school could keep fulltime media specialist Lynne McDonough, who faced going part time under the district’s budget cuts.

“A fulltime teacher works 37 1/2 hours under their union contract and that means Cindi would work 15 1/2 hours, but she needs to work 20 hours to maintain her benefits,” Marshall told the PTO. We might need this money to help pay for her benefits.”

The final item was also a new category, $1,000 for Choice promotional materials as the PTO is going to distribute flyers and door hangers to charter schools and homes in west Bradenton, advertising the school to parents who would want their kids to attend AME.

The PTO members present voted unanimously to adopt the reallocations.

Before they broke up, Simpson tried to quell a rumor that she had heard.

“This is not an attempt to turn AME into a charter school,” she said. “Some people thought that was the purpose of this meeting.”

Simpson said they had discussed trying to raise funds to pay for teacher who face termination due to the drop in enrollment and the school district’s more conservative teacher to classroom size requirements.

“He said no, we could not do that but after we broke up, (Manatee School Superintendent) Rick Mills told the attorney to try to find a way to make that happen,” she said. “The only problem is he said we cannot pick which teacher to bring back. We would have to go through the hiring process and hire whoever looks the best.

Supreme Court reviewing Florida Forever

The Florida Supreme Court is expected to decide by September whether the proposed constitutional amendment funding Florida Forever satisfies legal requirements to bring it to a vote in November 2014.

The Florida Water and Land Conservation Amendment would set aside $5 billion to purchase and maintain conservation lands over the next 10 years, according to Florida’s Water and Land Legacy Campaign, which reached the required number of signatures – 10 percent of 683,149 – to trigger the review in April.

The funds would come from 33 percent of documentary stamp taxes collected on real estate transactions for 20 years and be used for the acquisition, management and restoration of conservation and recreation lands under the existing Florida Forever program.

Backed by more than 250 environmental groups in Florida, including the Manatee County Audubon Society, Surfrider Foundation and the League of Women Voters of Florida, the amendment targets wetlands, forests, fish and wildlife habitat, lands protecting water resources and drinking water sources, including the Everglades, rivers, lakes and streams, beaches and shores, outdoor recreational lands, working farms, ranches, historic sites and geologic sites for conservation.

“This campaign to protect Florida’s environmental legacy is gaining public support across the state and we are well on our way to getting this important measure on the ballot,” Will Abberger, the campaign’s chair, wrote in a press release. “This amendment will ensure state funds are dedicated to protecting the natural systems Floridians depend on for clean drinking water, unpolluted rivers, lakes and streams and the unspoiled natural beauty that makes our state unique.”

To request a petition to circulate supporting the proposed amendment, visit www.floridawaterlandlegacy.org.

AMICCO announces 2013-14 Season

The Anna Maria Island Concert Chorus & Orchestra (AMICCO), founded by Willem Bartelsman in the winter of 1992, announces its 21st season with four concerts from December through April at CrossPointe Fellowship, 8605 Gulf Drive, Holmes Beach at 2 p.m. This is a departure from past years in that the November concert is exchanged for a concert in January.

The annual holiday concert is Dec. 15 and includes Heinrich Schutz, “Historia der Geburt Jesu Christ, the story of the Nativity, and AMICCO’s time-honored tradition again brings George Frideric Handel’s Christmas portion of “Messiah,” for the holiday season.

The annual youth competition winner’s performance is always popular, and this year it continues when winner Raine Sagramsingh, trumpet, performs Haydn’s “Concerto in E-flat.”

Bach and Vivaldi selections scheduled for Jan. 26 include Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata #140, Wachet Auf “Sleepers Awake,” and Bach’s Concerto for two Violins also known as the Double Violin Concerto, perhaps one of the most famous works by Bach and considered among the best examples of the work of the late Baroque period. Antonio Vivaldi’s most familiar and popular piece of sacred music, “Gloria,” completes this beautiful program.

AMICCO once more brings opera to Anna Maria Island with its Feb. 23, 2014, performance of the most-performed opera worldwide, Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony #6, described by the Composer as "more the expression of feeling than painting" and excerpts from Joseph Haydn’s “Creation,” considered to be Haydn’s masterpiece, depicting and celebrating the creation of the world, will be performed March 23, 2014.

Join AMICCO for this exceptional season and experience Maestro Gershfeld’s expert interpretation of these wonderful symphonic pieces as he proudly ushers in the third decade.

The orchestra and chorus depends on gifts from donors, sponsors and on paid advertisements in the concert programs. Anyone wishing to make donations to the orchestra should mail their tax-deductible check made out to the Anna Maria Island Concert Chorus and Orchestra, P.O. Box 1213, Holmes Beach, FL 34218-1213. If you are interested in advertising in the concert programs, contact Nancy Ambrose at 941-799-2181 or 941-518-4431.

Tickets are $25 per person with season subscriptions for four concerts $80. You can order tickets online at www.amicco.org or by calling 941-795-2370.


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