BRADENTON – Cortez Kitchen employee and Bradenton resident Shannon Breanne recently won the Suncoast Entertainment Karaoke Contest.
The seven-week contest took place at the Joyland Country Music Night Club in Bradenton.
The four weekly qualifying rounds began May 8, followed by two weeks of semi-finals on June 5 and June 12. The singing contest concluded with the finals on Wednesday, June 26.
Breanne sang in one qualifying round and one semifinal round on her way to the finals.
At the finals, she sang Aretha Franklin’s “A Natural Woman” and Alannah Myles’ “Black Velvet” to claim the top prize.
Lance Biddle led the proceedings and Carl Hunsinger, Kevin Kalley and Kari Rae judged the qualifying and semi-final rounds. Del Couch, Billy Rice and Kristen Lee then joined the judges’ panel to help evaluate the top 10 finalists.
Breanne’s victory earned her $1,200 cash, a Joyland black card, the opportunity to record with Couch – director of the Del Couch Music Education Foundation – and the opportunity to perform with the Daisy Dukes Band at one of their shows.
“It was a very exciting and nerve-wracking experience for me, as until recently I never sang in front of people,” Breanne said.
Breanne’s boyfriend, Adam Sears, accompanied her to the contests and assisted her in a variety of ways.
Tide Tables bartender Staci Wilkinson attended the finals and was among those providing Breanne with emotional support.
“It was a wonderful evening and another great example of watching our little community come together to support one another. We are so proud of her,” Wilkinson said of her friend’s prize-winning performance.
July 4 is Independence Day, representing this country’s desire to be independent of not only the British but also to be self-sufficient, able to make to our own decisions and to live in freedom. We’re a lucky people living in the United States and we’re also lucky to be living in Florida, especially if you own property here.
Manatee County real estate values and activity continue to grow practically every month, and May was no exception. These are the May sales statistics reported by the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee, which reflect the multiple listing services recorded sales numbers.
Single-family home sales in May compared to May of last year increased by 13.3%. The median sale price, half above and half below, increased by 4.9% to $319,995. This is the highest median price in 10 years. In addition, since December of 2017, the median sale price for single-family sales in Manatee County has been at or above $300,000 for 12 of those months.
The average sale price for single-family homes compared to May of last year was $388,672, down by 4%. The median time to sell was 97 days, down 1%, and the month’s supply of properties was down 11.6% to 3.8 months. As a side note for single-family properties, cash sales were up 10.8%.
Sarasota County’s numbers are also good for single-family sales. The median sale price for May compared to May of last year was $305,305, up 8.7%, and the average was $411,199, up 8%.
Condo sales in Manatee County were up 6.1% and the median sale price was up 14.3% to $210,000 compared to last May. The average for May was up 5.2% to $246,381, the median time to sell was up 15.1% to 107 days and the month’s supply was down 6.7% to 4.2 months. By comparison, Sarasota’s median condo sale price was $238,000, up 1.4%, and the average sale price was up 5.5% to $361,732.
These are fabulous numbers for both Manatee County and our close neighbor Sarasota County. It was reported that these are the highest post-recession sales numbers for single-family properties for both counties. It’s hard to imagine things getting much better, but it is expected they will, based on the stable interest rates below 4% and the fact that the Federal Reserve has indicated it could cut interest rates further in the months ahead.
The state of Florida is also experiencing upward mobility in the sales of both single-family homes and condo sales. Statewide in May compared to last May there were 9.6% more closed single-family homes with a median sale price of $266,000, up 4.3%. Condo sales in the state in May closed 1.6% more properties with a median sale price of $195,000 up 3.7%.
Nationally, existing single-family home sales increased by 2.5% in May as reported by the National Association of Realtors. It also points to falling mortgage interest rates being beneficial to the housing market and is optimistic that the spring selling season will give the somewhat sluggish national housing market a well-needed push.
The national median sale price for single-family homes was $277,700, up 4.8% for last year and the strongest monthly pace of growth since last August. The National Association of Realtors also reported that there have been 87 straight months of year-over-year gains in the national housing market.
So, enjoy your holiday and the good news about the real estate market. We are indeed lucky in so many ways. Happy Independence Day.
Did you know there is an entire segment of psychology devoted to color?
Color can dramatically affect moods according to experts in color psychology, so what effect does color have on the color of our homes? Apparently quite a bit.
Zillow, an online real estate database, did a 2018 paint color analysis revealing that colors can have a significant impact on a home’s sale price. The major and somewhat shocking discovery that came out of this analysis is that homes with black or charcoal gray front doors sell for $6,271 more. Interesting, but don’t tell that to the Chinese who consider red a lucky color frequently used on front doors. The Chinese study of Feng Sui teaches that good chi comes into a home through the front door, making lucky red front doors popular.
Coastal Living, an online magazine, has their own opinion about the color of front doors on the coast and none of them are black, gray or red. Here is what Coastal Living recommends: seafoam, Dutch blue, raspberry, blue-green, yellow, Capri blue,
white, tangerine orange, blue-grey, salmon and aqua.
Zillow’s study also discovered that light blue bathrooms can bring in an additional $2,786 and that red kitchens can take $2,310 off a home’s sale price. In addition, Zillow’s analysis reported that houses painted yellow or any hue of yellow on the exterior sold for $3,408 less.
Do we believe any of this? Maybe some of it, but isn’t the best front door one that blends in with the rest of the property, is clean and doesn’t need painting? What we do believe is its time for another three-month report of properties selling over $1 million dollars on the Island and in Cortez. This time we’re looking at February, March and April with closed properties compiled from the Manatee County Property Appraisers Office and available properties from Realtor.com as of this writing.
There were two closed properties for these three months for $1 million or over in the village of Cortez. One closed for $1,200,000 and the other closed for $1,379,000. The previous three-month analysis had no closings in this price range.
The city of Anna Maria had 14 closings for $1 million or over. The largest closed sale was for $4,350,000 and the smallest was $1,050,000. The previous three-month analysis was also 14 closed properties. Aside from the $4 million dollar closing, all the other closings were under $2 million.
The combined cities of Bradenton Beach and Holmes Beach had a total of 19 closed properties over $1 million. The highest sale was for $2,450,000, the lowest was for $1 million and there were four $2 million or over sales. The previous three-month analysis had seven properties selling for $1 million or over.
Currently available as of this writing in Cortez there are five properties between $1,500,000, which is residential land, and $1,100,000. The last time there were six in this price range available.
The city of Anna Maria has 60 properties on the market over $1 million ranging from $5,500,000 to $1,049,000. There are four over $4 million, six over $3 million and 17 over $2 million. The last analysis for Anna Maria had 58 properties available.
Finally, Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach have a total of 68 properties $1 million or over, ranging from $6,200,000 to $1,025,000. There is one property listed over $5 million, three properties listed over $3 million and two properties listed over $2 million. The previous three months had 85 available properties.
I guess we should keep the color psychologists in business since they’ve gone to the trouble of telling us exactly what our mood should be based on color. According to them black represents unhappiness and red is excitement, but what do they know.
BRADENTON – West Manatee Fire Rescue commissioners held a public hearing May 21 to discuss the 2019-20 residential and commercial assessment rates. No members of the public offered comment, and commissioners approved a modest increase in rates with a four to one vote.
After being presented with five options ranging from a zero percent increase to a 2.5 percent increase, commissioners voted to adopt a 1.65 percent increase for residential properties and a 5 percent increase for commercial properties.
For residential property owners, the 1.65 increase equals a $3.09 increase in the base rate, increasing from $187.48 to $190.57. The rate per square foot, assessed on home square footage over 1,000 square feet, is being raised from $0.1106 to $0.1124. For a 2,000 square foot home, the total assessment is being raised from $298.08 to $303, a difference of $1.92.
Residential homes make up the majority of the properties in WMFR’s district, which stretches from the Gulf of Mexico on the west, Tampa Bay to the north, Longboat Key to the south and city of Bradenton to the east. The district includes unincorporated Manatee County, Palma Sola, Cortez, Bradenton Beach, Anna Maria and Holmes Beach.
For commercial properties, the increase is slightly higher to bring WMFR’s commercial rates closer to those assessed by other Manatee County fire districts. The base rate is increasing from $451.07 to $473.62 for commercial properties, an increase of $22.55. The per square foot rate for buildings over 1,000 square feet is $0.2051, a $0.0098 increase for square footage over 1,000 square feet. The increase equals a $32.32 total increase for 2,000 square foot commercial properties.
With the increase in assessment rates, WMFR’s projected assessment revenue for the 2019-20 fiscal year is $7,285,989, a $144,203 increase over the current fiscal year.
Commissioner Al Robinson, who voted against the rate increase, said, “I think it’s insignificant in a $7.3 million dollar budget. We don’t need a raise.”
Commissioner George Harris said he was comfortable raising the commercial rates to get the district more in line with the surrounding districts but was happy to only give residents a minimal increase. “It’s nice to give the residents a little break,” he said.
With the rate increases, WMFR’s projected total revenue for the 2019-20 fiscal year is $7,618,556. The new fiscal year begins on October 1.
CORTEZ – Fire & Stone Pizza owners Radka Watson and Peter Ross are working to address the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) and Manatee County Code Enforcement violations that led to the popular eatery’s recent temporary closure.
On May 14, the restaurant was closed by order of DBPR. According to the DBPR inspection report, raw sewage was observed on the ground of the establishment in a 5-foot by 6-foot by 15-foot hole dug at the east side of the building.
“Per Manatee County Code Enforcement Officer Jorge Martelo, they required the operator to seal off all drains going out of the building, as the operator was pumping the sewage into a drainage ditch,” the DBPR report states.
The drainage ditch near the rear corner of the restaurant property connects to Sarasota Bay about 200 yards or so to the south.
The DBPR report says the situation has “caused a slick in Sarasota Bay,” but Ross disputes this claim.
Also listed in the report as a high priority violation is this: “Grease interceptor/trap removed, with grease and sewage overflowing onto the ground outside, to the east of the building. Rainwater has filled the area where the grease trap was located. Per owner, he is waiting on specifications from Manatee County before the grease trap can be replaced.”
The report also cites as violations dented cans of chickpeas, jalapeño slices and green olive slices, employees eating in a food preparation or other restricted areas, equipment in poor repair, floor tiles cracked, broken or in disrepair, an unused ice machine on premises near the walk-in cooler and sanitizing solution not at proper minimum strength.
Ross response
A recent visit to the Fire and Stone property revealed two large, white, plastic containers in the rear parking lot. Ross said he hopes to use these containers as temporary above-ground grease traps if the county will allow it. There are also several trenches dug along the east side of the building.
The Fire & Stone owners hope to use these storage tanks as temporary above-ground grease traps. – Joe Hendricks | Sun
“We were working with Manatee County and the Manatee County Building Department to resolve a structural issue with our grease trap. During that repair process, unfortunately, our grease trap collapsed,” Ross said when contacted Friday by phone.
“No sewage whatsoever was disposed into Sarasota Bay two weeks ago when they showed up. Manatee County had a complaint that raw sewage was being dumped into Sarasota Bay and it was causing a slick. A certified letter arrived from the Manatee County Environmental Department and that letter said there was a light sheen, which would indicate maybe a slight bit of oil on top of the water in the first 50 feet from our property and we had 10 days to fix it,” Ross said.
“Manatee County would not leave until we blocked all pipes that exited our building. I already voluntarily shut the business down and the cleanup was already happening. Being the diligent person she was, the inspector was told this had to be done according to Manatee County Code Enforcement Department,” Ross said.
When asked when he hopes to be open again, Ross said, “As soon as the Manatee County Building Official can give us a special exemption to use a temporary system – which is already located onsite – until a final system and long-term resolution can be installed underground or above-ground, whatever needs to be done to satisfy the county’s requirements.”
The fact that he’s the sole survivor of Cortez’s 67 World War II veterans is a mystery to Albert Few.
“I don’t know why that is,” he said. “I take good care of myself and the only things that are bad are my vision and my hearing.”
Few is going to celebrate his 98th birthday soon.
“The kids are going to come down from Jacksonville so I expect they’ll plan something,” he said.
Albert Few signed up for the military the day after Japanese planes bombed the American fleet in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941.
The Cortez memorial lists names of those who died during wartime. – Cindy Lane | Sun
“I was leaving home to go back to college with my friend when my mother told us to come back because she heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor on the radio,” he said. “I told my friend, ‘Clem, let’s sign up for the Air Force.’ They called it the Army Air Corps back then.”
Few said they took a year to train how to fly in combat. He ended up flying 83 missions in P-40s in North Africa and Sicily for about a year and he came home after the next year, joined the reserve and flew jets after the war.
From there, Few became an aerospace engineer and worked for NASA with rocket scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun after the former Nazi surrendered to American soldiers and joined the Allied war effort. In his 30-year career with NASA, he also worked on the Space Shuttle program.
As for a career as a commercial fisherman, “My dad was a fisherman and I went out with him a couple of times, but I wasn’t interested,” Few said. “If it didn’t have wings, I wasn’t interested in it.”
CORTEZ – Ryan Young and Mike Divietro won the inaugural Nancy Franklin Flippin’ Mullet Open golf tournament that raised more than $16,000 for The Blessing Bags Project that assists homeless children and adults.
Swordfish Grill managers Katrina “Kat” Cox and Greg Koeper organized the tournament in honor of former bar manager Nancy Franklin, who passed away last year after battling cancer.
The two-person, best ball scramble was played Saturday, May 18, at the Pinebrook Ironwood Golf Club in Bradenton. After being paired together because their partners canceled, Young and Divietro collectively shot a 54 on the par 61 course.
“We’re very happy to win this tournament. Nancy Franklin was one of my good friends, and everybody that put on this tournament did a phenomenal job. The course was in great shape, and we’re happy we played as well as we did,” Young said during the afterparty and awards ceremony at the Swordfish Grill and Flippin’ Mullet Sports Bar in Cortez.
“The tournament was excellent, it’s a fun course and everybody had a good time. We knew Nancy and I met her mom today,” Divietro said.
Jerry Gore and Jim Keck shot a 57 to finish second. JoAnn Nevin won the women’s longest drive and closest to the pin contests. Jeff Marx won the men’s closest to the pin contest and Bob LeBlanc won the men’s longest drive contest.
As tournament play ended, Koeper said, “Everyone had a blast. It gives me chills.”
While making his way to the after-party, Swordfish Grill General Manager Bob Slicker said,
“It’s no surprise the tournament was a success because Kat and Greg were involved, and their love for Nancy showed through. It was sold out, and he had more sponsors than we could have hoped for. “On the third hole, people got to golf against me and Kat, and they gave extra money to do that. This tournament truly emphasizes Nancy’s heart. Everyone was happy to be here because of Nancy and The Blessing Bags Project, and we’ll do it again next year,” Slicker said.
Cox said she never organized a golf tournament before. “Everything came together, and it ran very smooth. Everybody said how much fun they had, and almost every golfer contributed above and beyond their entry fee. Before any 50-50 or raffle tickets were sold we raised over $12,000 with the sponsorships and entry fees. That’s pretty amazing – and all in Nancy Franklin’s name,” Cox said.
Gratitude expressed
During the after-party, Blessing Bags Project President Betsy Plante expressed her gratitude for the fundraising efforts. The organization serves the Bradenton-Sarasota area by providing homeless adults with bags filled with personal hygiene products and other necessities.
“We have special bags that we use for our children. They’re cloth bags that are hand-sewn by different organizations all over the country. Seabreeze Mobile Estates in Bradenton just did one hundred bags for us for Easter. In every child’s bag, we try to include an activity book, crayons, a toothbrush, toothpaste, hygiene products and a healthy snack. And every children’s bag gets a Beanie Baby tied to the bag so they have something to hug,” Plante said.
Slicker served as master of ceremonies for the after-party fundraising activities and awards ceremony. He thanked U.S. Foods and other unnamed vendors for providing the golfers with an excellent lunch buffet. He thanked the Pinebrook Ironwood Golf Club for allowing $60 of each $80 entry fee to benefit The Blessing Bags Project.
When thanking the tournament volunteers, Slicker noted Alyssa O’Brien and Jessica Williamson raised $265 selling Jell-O shots at the sixth hole. Franklin’s friend, Nora Davis, sold the Basket of Cheer and 50-50 tickets that contributed significantly to the fundraising efforts. And with Slicker serving as auctioneer, the live auction raised more than $1,000. As karma would have it, O’Brien won the cooler filled with liquor and beer. She also won the $550 50-50 drawing and donated $100 of her winnings to The Blessing Bags Project.
Nancy Franklin’s husband, Brian, and her mom, Sharon Boden, attended the after-party.
“Nancy was always charitable, and she loved The Blessing Bags Project. It’s a special day to have this many friends from Cortez, the Island and west Bradenton come out to honor Nancy’s legacy,” Brian Franklin said.
“I think this is beautiful. Nancy was always giving. When she was in kindergarten, she gave away all her books,” Boden said. As the party ended, Slicker addressed the crowd one last time. “Thank you so much for what you did today. On behalf of Nancy Franklin and your big hearts the real winner here today is The Blessing Bags Project.”
The Anna Maria Island Sun was a sponsor of this event.
CORTEZ – The Flippin’ Mullet Sports Bar at the Swordfish Grill in Cortez is hosting the inaugural Nancy Franklin Flippin’ Mullet Open Charity Golf Tournament on Saturday, May 18.
The tournament will be held at the Pinebrook Ironwood Golf Club in Bradenton and will tee off at 8:30 a.m.
The Anna Maria Island Sun is the tournament’s media sponsor.
The tournament is a tribute to former Swordfish Grill bar manager Nancy Franklin, who passed away on April 15, 2018, following a short battle with cancer.
“She was our bar manager, but she was a lifelong friend of ours,” said Swordfish Grill General Manager Bob Slicker.
Proceeds from the tournament held in Franklin’s honor and enduring memory will benefit The Blessing Bags Project that provides bags filled with comfort items, quilts, supplies and other items needed and desired by homeless and housing-challenged youngsters.
“Nancy was a big proponent of The Blessing Bags Project and she helped create the Flippin’ Mullet Sports Bar,” Slicker said.
The entry fee for the two-person, best ball scramble is $80 per golfer and includes 18 holes of golf, cart fee, a goody bag and lunch at the Flippin’ Mullet Sports Bar after-party. Nongolfers can also attend the lunch and after-party for $25.
Limited to 100 golfers, the tournament will include a longest drive contest, a closest to the pin contest and the opportunity for golfers to win a new car by shooting a hole in one at a designated hole.
The after-party will include raffles, a silent auction and other fundraising activities. Hole sponsors and raffle and silent auction donors are still being sought.
Golfers can register by contacting Swordfish Grill manager Katrina “Kat” Cox via email at swordfishkat@gmail.com, by phone at 941-525-0673 or in person at the Swordfish Grill and Flippin’ Mullet Sports Bar, 4628 119th St. W., Cortez. Golfers can also contact Swordfish Grill manager Greg Koeper in person or by calling 941-447-5287.
Hole sponsors and raffle/silent auction donors can use the same information to contact Cox and Koeper.
CORTEZ – Members of the crew of Coast Guard Station Cortez gave Florida Maritime Museum visitors an overview last week of the history and mission of the service and what they and their shipmates do each day.
The museum is hosting an exhibit, “Always Ready: United States Coast Guard in Florida,” through May 26.
A model of a 41-foot utility boat at U.S. Coast Guard Station Cortez by Charles H. Smith. – Cindy Lane | Sun
The Coast Guard’s predecessor organization was formed in 1789 to tend lighthouses; the Coast Guard was established a year later with missions including tariff enforcement, smuggling interdiction, coastline chart making and quarantine enforcement, said Petty Officer Charles Richter, Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class.
The U.S. Coast Guard Station Cortez was established in 1974 in the 1890s Albion Inn in the Cortez fishing village. In 1992, its present facility was built across the street from the inn (which was later moved) and can withstand winds up to 105 mph and an 8-foot storm surge. 35 crew members are stationed in Cortez. Their jurisdiction extends from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to Gasparilla Island.
The modern Coast Guard was created in 1915, serving in World War I, then enforcing Prohibition beginning in 1919. In World War II the service was involved in Pearl Harbor, D-Day and other major battles, producing a Medal of Honor recipient, Douglas Munro, who saved 500 Marines, he said.
In 1957, a Coast Guard icebreaking cutter made the first northwest passage transit, Richter said. During the Vietnam War, patrol boats blocked enemy forces from receiving supplies.
In recent times, the Coast Guard has intercepted a floating 1959 Buick carrying Cuban refugees, as well as intercepting refugees from Haiti and Central America, Petty Officer Whitney Drake, Boatswain’s Mate 3rd Class, told the group.
The U.S. Coast Guard Station Cortez and the Humane Society of Manatee County will present the “Welcome Aboard!” dog adoption event on Saturday, April 27 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Florida Maritime Museum, 4415 119th St. W. in Cortez. Em“bark” on a new voyage by bringing home your newest adventure partner!
In 1973, the service performed its first counterdrug operation, has participated in chemical and oil cleanups, including the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon disasters, and responded to the Twin Towers on 9/11, she said.
Under the Department of Homeland Security since 2003, the Coast Guard’s missions include fisheries law enforcement, maintenance of aids to navigation, marine safety, port security, drug interdiction, search and rescue, defense readiness, migrant interdiction, marine environment protection, ice operations and law enforcement.
With 41,598 on active duty, the Coast Guard also has 7,997 reservists, 8,342 civilians and 31,419 auxiliary members.
The group learned that each day, on average, the Coast Guard:
Saves 10 lives
Performs four search and rescue operations
Saves $1.2 million in property
Seizes 874 pounds of cocaine and 214 pounds of marijuana
Intercepts 17 illegal immigrants
Escorts five high-capacity vessels such as cruise ships and ferries
Makes 24 security boardings for life jackets and other equipment
Screens 360 merchant vessels for drugs and human trafficking
Makes 14 fisheries conservation boardings
Services 82 buoys a day
Investigates 35 pollution incidents
Completes 26 safety inspections of foreign vessels
Museum visitors also saw a demonstration of personal safety items, including a ring buoy and EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons), which crew members encouraged boaters to carry, and learned about how to retain as much heat as possible if stranded in cold water by pulling legs and arms close to the body.
More information about Coast Guard operations in Florida is on display at the museum.
CORTEZ – Cortez may be the last fishing village in the state, and was certainly one of the first, settled in the 1880s by fishermen from Carteret County, North Carolina, Cortez native Allen Garner told a tour group on Saturday on Cortez Heritage Day.
About 15 people toured the village by bus, starting at the community’s second-oldest 1912 schoolhouse – now the Florida Maritime Museum – with stops including the old Cortez jail (now a homeowner’s laundry room), a home that was once the Cortez post office, a home with a foundation that was a former loading dock for an icehouse, and the village’s oldest 1890 schoolhouse, also a home.
The area, formerly known as Hunters Point, was misnamed “Cortez” by “someone who didn’t know their history,” said Garner, whose family has a long history in the village, beginning in 1902 (he holds Cortez P.O. Box 2). The name was intended to reflect the nearby landing of 16th-century Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in Bradenton, but 16th-century Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez accidentally wound up as the village’s namesake, he said.
Garner recounted how the Albion Inn, a hotel and store relocated to the Florida Maritime Museum property, was the only building in Cortez besides the museum that survived the hurricane of 1921, before storms were named.
Cortez native and local historian and author Dr. Mary Fulford Green, 93, dressed as her grandmother, Sally Adams Fulford, the first bride in Cortez, told visitors at the Cortez Cultural Center about other difficulties villagers have faced, such as keeping boatbuilder Chris Craft and condo developers from building in Cortez, and saving the Cortez Trailer Park from redevelopment.
She recounted Cortezians’ successful efforts in 1995 to fight a new, higher Cortez Bridge, using the argument that federal funds cannot be used to build a bridge if it will impact a federal historic district; Green was instrumental in getting federal historic district status for Cortez. However, the bridge fight was lost last year when a new, 65-foot-tall bridge was approved by the state Department of Transportation.
1995 was a tough year in Cortez, not just because of the bridge battle, but because Floridians voted for a statewide ban on gill nets used by Cortez mullet fishermen, Garner said. Voters were misled into thinking the nets created “bycatch” – unintended catch of dolphins, sea turtles and other species – by recreational fishermen who had launched the effort to ban the nets, he said, adding that the gill nets actually targeted mature mullet effectively, letting juvenile fish swim through.
Partly as a result of such regulations, local fish are more costly than those processed in other countries, Garner said.
“Regulations cause us more problems than red tide,” he said.
Fishermen use purse seine nets now, he said, and traps to catch blue crab and stone crab, pointing out a historic net camp preserved in Sarasota Bay by villagers and once used to dry and store cotton and linen nets.
Visitors saw the Cortez Fishermen’s Memorial, commemorating the village’s veterans in U.S. wars, including 67 who served in World War II, and local fishermen lost at sea, including Cortez crew members of the Andrea Gail, whose story was told in the film, “The Perfect Storm.”
They also watched as people forged metal knife blades by hand, one of the Folk School classes offered by the Florida Maritime Museum.
After the tour, the Cortez Village Historical Society welcomed everyone for an early St. Patrick’s Day celebration with corned beef and cabbage with live, local music by Cortez fisherman Soupy Davis and his band to close Heritage Day 2019.
Cortez native Mary Fulford Green told a tour group about the many challenges Cortez has faced over the last two centuries in its struggle to stay a fishing village. - Cindy Lane | Sun
Mary Fulford Green dressed as her grandmother, Sally Adams Fulford, the first bride in Cortez. - Cindy Lane | Sun
A brown pelican paddles in Sarasota Bay off the Cortez Bait and Seafood working dock. - Cindy Lane | Sun
Metal blades are hammered like horseshoes. - Cindy Lane | Sun
The forge heats the metal blades that were shaped today on Cortez Heritage Day. - Cindy Lane | Sun
The handmade blades are sharpened on a wheel. - Cindy Lane | Sun
The old Cortez jail is now used a laundry room, but still has bars inside separating the two former cells. - Cindy Lane | Sun
Cortez native Allen Garner led a group of 15 people through the historic fishing village of Cortez today to celebrate Cortez Heritage Day - Cindy Lane | Sun
Cortez fishermen's memorial - Cindy Lane | Sun
Cortez native Allen Garner led a tour group on Cortez Heritage Day. - Cindy Lane | Sun
PALMETTO – Pearl Homes president Marshall Gobuty recently gave The Sun a tour of the new research and design center in Palmetto that now houses the model home for the Pearl Homes at Hunters Point development.
The ultra-energy-efficient Hunters Point community will be built on Gobuty’s 18.7-acre property in Cortez, near the Buttonwood Inlet RV Park. The cutting-edge community will feature 86 small but luxurious net-zero energy homes designed to produce more solar power than they need.
The Pearl Homes will look like this when built in Cortez later this year. – Pearl Homes | Submitted
When entering the Palmetto warehouse, one is struck by how large the finished home looks in comparison to the conceptual drawings presented to Manatee County commissioners in 2017.
Due to the warehouse’s space limitations, the model home does not sit atop the two-car garage and storage area that will serve as the foundation for the elevated homes.
With approximately 480 square feet of air-conditioned interior living space, the Pearl Home offers nearly 3,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor usable space that also includes a wrap-around porch and a rooftop sky deck that runs the length of the house.
The sky deck runs the entire length of the Pearl Homes to be built at Hunters Point. – Joe Hendricks | Sun
The kitchen/living room area includes a pull-out table that seats 12. The guest bedroom features a Murphy bed that doubles as a desk. The bathroom includes a shower and an automatically activated heated toilet seat. The master bedroom includes a queen-sized bed.
Built atop a ground-level garage that will feature an ample storage area, each Pearl Home will come equipped with solar panels, sonnen solar batteries, Google Home smart technology, smart TVs, space-saving appliances, furniture and more.
The Pearl Home kitchen features space-saving appliances. – Pearl Homes | Submitted
“When you buy one of these homes, it comes with everything. All you’re going to have to do is move in,” Gobuty said.
Buyers will also have the option to include a swimming pool built by Agnelli Pools and/or an elevator that goes from the garage to the sky deck.
Gobuty anticipates the research and design center opening to potential buyers in mid-March. Presales have not started yet, but more than 300 people have expressed initial interest in the Pearl Homes – and some have offered to pay for their homes sight-unseen.
The bedroom features a queen-sized bed. – Pearl Homes | Submitted
Built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, a Hunters Point Pearl Home built onsite on an inland lot will cost about $400,000. Gobuty said a canal-front home with a dock might cost about $100,000 more, but that price point is still being determined.
Gobuty said some builders told him his prices are too low.
Marshal Gobuty sees Hunters Point as his legacy project. – Pearl Homes | Submitted
“I don’t know if they’re too low, but I want the project to work. This is not a normal, standard home. This is the most sustainable smart home that’s ever been built,” he said.
“At this stage of my life, it’s not about money,” the 57-year-old said, referring to Hunters Point as a legacy project that his kids and grandkids can be proud of.
Gobuty anticipates construction beginning in July and the new homes being occupied in early 2020. He believes many owners will use their homes as vacation rentals, at least some of the time.
The first phase of construction will not include the guest lodge included in the original plans presented to county commissioners. This is because the Florida Department of Transportation may need that part of the Hunters Point property for stormwater retention when a new fixed-span Cortez Bridge is built in the next decade or so.
Gobuty said the Hunters Point amenities will include a bistro and bar operated by Cortez businesswoman Karen Bell, a gym, a dog park and a designated dock slip for water taxi service to and from Anna Maria Island. His team is also researching the possible communal use of Tesla electric automobiles, which depends on whether liability concerns can be addressed.
The guest bedroom/den includes a Murphy bed that transforms into a desk. – Pearl Homes | Submitted
“Sustainability isn’t just an energy-efficient home. It’s a community of sustainability, which means less traffic, less gas and less emissions. If we have two cars in every garage we’re not doing our job,” Gobuty said.
Solar-powered ambitions
Gary Carmack serves as Pearl Homes’ energy development expert. He said the model home now on display is powered by 16 solar panels placed atop the warehouse roof. This replicates the solar panels to be placed atop the porch overhangs for the Hunters Point homes.
Pearl Homes’ energy expert Gary Carmack explained how the sonnen batteries store solar energy. – Joe Hendricks | Sun
Carmack said the sonnen battery can store enough electricity to power the home for two days. If more is needed during extended periods of rain or cloudy skies, electricity can be pulled from Florida Power & Light’s power grid.
“The very last thing it wants to do is take from the grid,” Carmack said.
Gobuty, the founder and former owner of the Arizona Jean Company, previously helped friends and associates design their homes, but his LEED Platinum Certified Mirabella community in west Bradenton was his first major housing development.
Pearl Homes will also soon be building the 720-unit lease-only Pearl Homes at OurLives community in Ellenton. Gobuty said the OurLives community will provide sustainable apartment-style living that costs $1,000 a month for a one-bedroom unit, $1,450 for two-bedrooms and $1,750 for three bedrooms.
“Sustainability shouldn’t just be for the wealthy,” he said.
“The Pearl Home can also be in a more affordable community and the concept is the same,” Carmack added.
In the future, Gobuty envisions net-zero energy Pearl Homes being delivered or built anywhere in the country.
“It could be anywhere because with the solar you do not need infrastructure,” he said.
He also hopes his efforts inspire more developers and builders to focus on green technology and sustainability.
On behalf of the board of directors of the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage (FISH) and the Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival committee we want to say thank you to the AMI Sun for your continued support and sponsorship of our festival.
This year and for the past 37 years, the FISH Festival has provided the funds needed for FISH to purchase the 98-plus acre FISH Preserve and to fund its ongoing restoration. The FISH Preserve will, within the next 12-15 years, be the only undisturbed parcel of land on North Sarasota Bay. Our annual festival has allowed us to purchase the old Church of Christ, now Fishermen’s Hall, and the Cortez Firehouse. These places represent the commercial industry, culture and environment on which this village was established more than 130 years ago. A strong and proud history that continues to struggle in the “Changing Tides” of time. You (the AMI SUN) are essential to our success – we simply couldn’t do it without your support, and we thank you for your many years of loyal participation.
CORTEZ – Local musician Eric Von has a new CD, released the first day of the Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival on Saturday and coming out on iTunes and other digital platforms on March 15.
Broken Hearted, his third album, features his latest music video, Still in Love With You. He’s planning a summer 2019 tour with the Eric Von Band.
One of the eight acts that entertained crowds at the festival, the singer/songwriter was born and raised in Cortez and has been performing since age 14. He has opened for Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Jake Owen, Aaron Tippin, Casey James and John Anderson.
Von is based in Florida and plays regularly at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville at Universal City Walk in Orlando.
In 2007, he was named the Colgate Country Showdown Winner for the state of Florida. In 2008, he was named the winner of Kenny Chesney’s “Next Big Star” contest for the Tampa area.
CORTEZ – Junior Guthrie’s net camp is safe – for now.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) won a summary judgment against Raymond Guthrie Jr. in 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Bradenton this month to force him to demolish the 1200-square-foot structure that he built in May 2017 on submerged land in Sarasota Bay.
Guthrie claims he was entitled to rebuild the net camp on the submerged land, south of the fishing village of Cortez, because his family of commercial fishermen had maintained a series of net camps there to mend, clean and store fishing gear for several generations.
The DEP claims he built the structure illegally without a permit on state-owned submerged lands.
The Guthrie net camp in Sarasota Bay off Cortez in February 2019. – Cindy Lane | Sun
But while DEP won a victory, the case is not over – Judge Edward Nicholas stayed the demolition order and fines until a lawsuit filed last year by A.P. Bell Fish Co. is concluded.
A.P. Bell President Karen Bell claims that the structure and the submerged land belong to her company, a fish house on land north of Guthrie’s structure, basing her claim on the 1921 Butler Act, which awards title of submerged lands to adjacent waterfront property owners who made permanent improvements on the submerged lands.
The law was repealed in the 1950s but continues to affect title to submerged lands that were improved with structures prior to its repeal.
DEP maintains that the Butler Act does not apply to the case because it requires the structure built over the submerged land to have been continuously connected to the upland property, and that the Guthrie family’s structures were freestanding.
Net camps used by commercial fishermen in other Florida counties, including Charlotte, Lee and Pasco, have been legally rebuilt under the Florida Forever Act, Bell said, adding that she has asked state Sen. Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton) to take legislative action to preserve Guthrie’s structure.
There has never been a more important time for residents of our Gulf coast region to understand the importance of the resource that brought us to the area and that fuels both our passion and our economy. This March, we’ll have the opportunity to learn about the history of our coast, the forces that shaped it and the threats that have transformed it from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jack Davis.
Jack Davis’s new novel, “The Gulf, The Making of An American Sea” is the grand, sweeping history of the whole Gulf of Mexico that can give insight into the need to protect the natural bounty we are surrounded by. Davis, a history professor at the University of Florida, won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 2018 and will be on hand at The Seafood Shack on Thursday, March 14 at 6 p.m. for a Fishing for Our Future fundraising event for the Florida Maritime Museum in Cortez.
Participants at the Seafood Shack fundraising event will get a chance to meet the Pulitzer Prize-winning author while supporting the Florida Maritime Museum in Cortez. – Submitted
The dinner and author talk are a tremendous opportunity to learn from and ask questions of one of the most engaging authors I’ve read in many years. As I mentioned in a book review in a prior column, I have been captivated with the beauty and the fish that surround us and reading “Gulf” has expanded my vision of the coastal resources we are blessed with and given me the insight to see it with new eyes. For me reading “The Gulf” shined a brighter light on what we have, what we’ve lost and the importance of protecting it.
From the geological beginnings to the present day, we learn the history of the nearly 8 million acres and the native Americans that first inhabited it, followed by the Spanish explorers, the French, British and Cubans. The descriptions of the vast schools of fish and flocks of birds that would blacken the sky hint at the incredible diversity and density of marine life and wildlife that once inhabited the Gulf and its estuaries.
Davis recounts how the tarpon, not warm weather and white sand beaches, brought the first tourists to Florida. The great silver fish was the impetus that introduced wealthy adventurers, artists and, indirectly, a wave of tourists to the Gulf coast. The influx of humans into the Gulf region in the 1800s began a period of intense exploitation that continues to this day.
Davis recounts records of armed passenger tourists on the Ocklawaha River that shot birds and wildlife indiscriminately for sport. At the same time, the plume trade was responsible for the killing of huge numbers of birds Gulf-wide. During this same period, the harvesting of eggs from seabird nests exacerbated the decline of the once-vast flocks of birds. Davis paints a picture with words that makes it hard to overstate the effects of this dark period. Fortunately, the resulting outcry from conservationists and birders resulted in the creation of 51 bird sanctuaries and the founding of the National Audubon Society. Passage Key at the mouth of Tampa Bay is one of those sanctuaries.
As the history of the Gulf unfolded, the exploitation moved from birds to oil and then chemicals that devastated the coastal estuaries of Louisiana and Mississippi. Davis recounts the effects of pulp mills, oil spills and hurricanes before the rush of development that resulted in massive dredge and fill operations. “The Gulf” serves as a cautionary tale of the importance of protecting, preserving and enhancing the place we call home. The opportunity to meet Davis in person is one not to be missed.
For sponsorship and ticket information, visit The Florida Maritime Museum online. Ticket prices start at $45 and all proceeds up to $34,000 will be matched and benefit The Florida Maritime Museum.
