School opens with high hopes

HOLMES BEACH – The staff was ready, classrooms were squeaky clean and the quiet calm that prevailed in Anna Maria Elementary School for the past two months was broken Monday morning as the kids returned to school.

Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer joined officer Brian Copeman, the school’s resource officer, in front of the school. He had additional signage at the school crossing and extra officers were on duty. More...

Anna Maria Island: Filled to the gills?

HOLMES BEACH – Anna Maria Island has exceeded its capacity for absorbing tourists, Island leaders told the Manatee County Tourist Development Council on Monday.

The county’s success in marketing the Island worldwide as a tourist resort has started a vicious cycle fed by greed, Anna Maria Mayor SueLynn told the council – more visitors, who generate more resort tax, which the county spends on more marketing, attracting more visitors, who create a demand for rental units, causing residents to sell their homes and move off the Island, their homes replaced by rental units, whose owners demand more visitors. More...

City to keep deputies

ANNA MARIA – Faced with being phased out by a cheaper bid from Holmes Beach, the head of the city’s Manatee County Sheriff’s Office substation, Sgt. Paul Davis, figuratively “landed the plane in the Hudson River” Wednesday evening as he saved the day for the deputies. The city commission agreed to keep the Sheriff’s Office coverage and reject the Holmes Beach offer.

Commissioner Gene Aubry, who brought up the idea to ask for a bid from Holmes Beach during budget talks, said it was all about the money – a bid from Holmes Beach that was $130,000 cheaper than the price the Sheriff’s Office presented to the commission for the next fiscal year. That’s when Davis came to the dais to answer questions. More...

Tree house petition to go forward

HOLMES BEACH – Although it was declared insufficient by the city attorney, commissioners agreed to allow the initiative petition regarding the tree house to proceed

After the city maintained that the structure is illegal, tree house owners Lynn Tran and Richard Hazen, 103 29th Street found a provision in the city’s charter in which allowed them to file an initiative petition to propose an ordinance approving the structure. More...

Holmes Beach to establish a domestic partner registry

HOLMES BEACH – Commissioners instructed City Attorney Patricia Petruff to draft an ordinance establishing a domestic partner registry in the city.

Ken Shelin and Grace Carlson, of Sarasota, made a presentation about the program and said it has been adopted in many cities and counties statewide, including Sarasota, St. Pete, Orlando, Clearwater, Tampa and Venice. More...

City to amend parking rules

HOLMES BEACH – Police Chief Bill Tokajer has recommended amending the parking regulations as follows:

• No parking on the sidewalk, on a crosswalk or on a bicycle path;
• No parking facing the wrong direction – every vehicle stopped or parked upon a two-way roadway shall be so stopped or parked with the right-hand wheels parallel to and within 12 inches of the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway;
• No parking within 30 feet of a stop sign, within15 feet of a fire hydrant or within 20 feet of a crosswalk; More...

Watch out for sea stingers

A number of swimmers had bad days at the beach recently as the result of jellyfish and stingrays.

On Wednesday, Aug. 14, lifeguards had to warn swimmers at the public beaches of an approaching group of jellyfish, according to lifeguard Colin Schmidt.

“They are always in the Gulf, but the tide was strong and it brought them in,” he said. “We had five people stung by jellyfish at Coquina Beach and one at Manatee County Public Beach.” More...

Board divided on Mainsail

HOLMES BEACH – When Commissioner Marvin Grossman asked if the city could tell the Mainsail Development Company to take the city to court if they can’t agree on a development plan, Chair Jean Peelen reacted quickly.

“You can always be willing to be sued,” she responded, causing laughter from the audience, but added, “This is a process. I don’t think we should give up on the process and say, ‘Come and get us.’” More...

Bye bye, reef

Just for the record, there’s no question that we need the beach renourishment that’s planned to begin shortly to make room for the profusion of new visitors who daily discover Anna Maria Island.

Also for the record, Charlie Hunsicker is the Elvis Presley, the Patrick Swayze, the Bruce Lee and the Laird Hamilton of government natural resources administrators, singing, dancing, fighting and conquering the ocean to get us the sand to make our beach wider. More...

Sixth Annual Scallop Search this weekend

Sarasota Bay Watch is hosting its signature event, the Sixth Annual Sarasota Bay Scallop Search, Aug. 17 at the Mar Vista Dockside restaurant on Longboat Key.

The search follows on the heels of their annual Scallopalooza fund raiser at the Sarasota Yacht Club that this year broke all records, amassing over $30,000 to fund scallop restoration in Sarasota Bay. The search accomplishes two important goals of the group by helping scientists to monitor the abundance of scallops in bay waters and by raising public awareness of the importance of water quality and habitat. More...

Property defects must be disclosed

“Honesty in state, as well as individuals, will ever be found the soundest policy.” This is a quote from George Washington that when applied to the selling of real estate becomes one of the more import aspects of these transactions.

In Florida, sellers of residential property are obligated to disclose any known material facts or defects in the property. The seller must disclose any environmental hazards like the presence of radon gas or lead-based paint, shared walls or fences, easements and room additions or repairs not made with proper permits. The seller must also disclose any significant malfunctions or a defect in the existing home’s major systems. More...

Find it all at Anna Maria General Store & Deli

TV Westerns all had one thing in common – the general store where town folk came to purchase their supplies, rock on the front porch and catch up on local gossip. The north end of Anna Maria Island also has a general store pretty similar to the ones of old except for one thing, its painted purple and green and looks liked it just jumped off the pages of Coastal Living.

Like so many Anna Maria transplants, Brian Seymour discovered the island while visiting friends in 2009 when he was still living in Virginia. After working for Marriott Resorts for 20 years starting in the food and beverage area and moving up to assistant general manager, he was ready to trade in the stress of the corporate world for the lifestyle that a Florida barrier island offered. More...

Health and wealth

My father and mother are 89 and 84, respectively. Dad’s never spent a night in the hospital in his life, even though he was wounded a couple times in a minor way during World War II. He was born at home, and his tonsils were removed on the kitchen table sometime during the Great Depression. Mom had heart surgery, certainly extending her life. Despite the other aches, pains, and inconveniences of getting older, they are a great illustration of the relationship of health and wealth.

On an individual basis there are exceptions, but across the population we are tending to live longer due to advances in healthcare, more knowledge about diet and staying physically fit. While it is a great goal to live a long, happy and healthy life, there is a stress created by living longer. The stress is on your retirement income plan. More...

Beach Bistro and Eat Here are champions

The Sun sports game of the week was the Anna Maria Island Community Center’s youth, 11-14-year-old, indoor soccer championship between the Eat Here team and the Island Dental Spa team.

Eat Here came out fired up for the championship game and scored right away. Twenty seconds into the contest, Carter Reemelin found the ball on the left side and his shot was deflected into the back of the net for the early Eat Here lead 1-0. More...

Two stories in 12 hours

What a week! Actually,12 hours of last week were as intense as it can get.

As a former TV reporter, I can tell you it’s not uncommon for big news stories to be covered by multiple media outlets. And as important as I thought it was that a vegan could place seventh in the age group in the 1500 meters at the recent National Senior Games, I was hoping that it might get a little mention somewhere. But I was shocked to get two stories within 12 hours of each other! A great thing worth of only positive energy. More...