HOLMES BEACH – About two dozen people came out on March 20 to meet with Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse, bringing their questions for the candidate, who is seeking re-election in November.
Kruse held a town hall meeting at the Island Branch Library where he answered every question posed, discussing everything from parking and traffic to the possible consolidation of the three Anna Maria Island cities.
On the subject of traffic and making the Island trolley service more efficient during peak times, Kruse said that if there’s traffic, the trolley is stuck in it the same as any other motor vehicle. He did say that he would look into the possibility of adding additional trolleys during peak times, such as over holiday weekends and spring break to help reduce the amount of time spent waiting for transportation that may be too full to accept more riders.
When the new Cortez and Manatee bridges are built, Kruse said he hopes that there will be an express lane – a third lane for emergency and transit vehicles.
“You’re not going to reduce the want of people to go to the beach, you have to get them out of their cars,” he said, adding that with the current situation, one lane in each direction, people won’t want to sit on a bus in traffic instead of in their vehicles. The way around that would be to have a dedicated express lane for those people to bypass congestion on the way to the beach. Kruse said he’s spoken with Florida Department of Transportation representatives about including an express lane in the design for the new bridges but hasn’t received a definitive answer.
When it came to talking about a parking garage and the availability of beach parking on the Island, Kruse said he doesn’t currently see the benefit in building a parking garage at the county-owned Manatee Beach. With paid beach parking now existing in Bradenton Beach and Anna Maria, he added that he believes it’s just a matter of time before Holmes Beach city leaders will have to reconsider their stance on paid parking.
Currently, Holmes Beach is the only Island city that does not allow paid parking. Speaking up during the discussion, Mayor Judy Titsworth said that she’s not in favor of charging for beach parking and will avoid it in Holmes Beach for as long as possible. She said she feels the beach should be free for everyone to access, not limited to those willing to pay to park to access the sand.
Though the city has an updated parking map on its website, the map does not show parking space availability in real time. Titsworth said that to install the sensors and develop the corresponding applications for use would cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” funds that the city doesn’t have to commit to the project. To complete the project, she said the parking would have to be paid parking, going against what she believes is in the best interests of the city.
When the conversation turned to the state study concerning consolidation of the three Island cities, Kruse said he’s unsure that anything will come out of it, but he thinks what would be in the best interests of the residents would be to leave the three cities as-is with the possibility of consolidating some services to save taxpayer money.
An ongoing Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) study was begun at the request of the Manatee County state legislative delegation and against the wishes of city leaders in the three cities. While city leaders said they would support the study for the purposes of potentially saving taxpayer funds, they don’t support the other three possibilities – consolidation of the three cities into one, or elimination of the three city governments and annexation of Anna Maria Island into unincorporated Manatee County or the city of Bradenton.
Kruse added that he can’t truly guess what state leaders plan to do with the results of the OPPAGA study because there’s no precedent for the state eliminating a municipality without cause, such as the municipality being financially insolvent, which is not the case in any of the three Island cities.
To hear what Kruse had to say about these issues and more, visit The Sun’s Facebook page to watch the town hall discussion in its entirety.
