Vol 6 No. 44 - July 26, 2006
 Shards
to stay on beach
A
trail of unfinished projects
Mayoral
race to feature two candidates
No
new commission faces in Bradenton Beach races
Red
tide forum suggests optimism
Whose
beach is it, anyway?
Cities
confiscating items on the beach
Crash
closes Gulf Drive for 12 hours
Shards to stay
on beach
By Cindy Lane
sun staff writer
Fragments of rusty metal that are
still on the beach two months after the renourishment
pipes were removed may never be cleaned up.
Beach walkers often notice the coin-sized fragments
at the shoreline, which is state-owned up to a boundary
on the beach called the Erosion Control Line.
But the state has no plans to clean them up, according
to Florida Department of Environmental Protection
spokesperson Sarah Williams.
"The Army Corps of Engineers is the contracting
officer. They would work with the contractor to clean
it up," she said.
The corps has received no complaints about the fragments,
says Barry Vorse, spokesman for the Corps, which hired
Goodloe Marine as its beach renourishment contractor.
He sent Ron Rutger, of the Corps, to survey the beach,
and he quickly found a small handful of fragments.
But he said it was unlikely that the Corps would require
the contractor to remove the fragments because their
size and number appeared to be "within contract
specifications," he said, adding that the Corps
will decide soon whether to act.
If it organizes a cleanup, the area would be limited
roughly to the same area as the former location of
the pipes. That’s because east of the Erosion
Control Line, the beach is owned by private beachfront
property owners, who are responsible for cleaning
up anything on their own property, according to Manatee
County Conservation Lands Management Administrator
Charlie Hunsicker.
The county, which has an easement on the beach to
conduct beach renourishment projects, made sure the
contractor did a one-time cleanup of the area where
the rusty pipe had been, he says. Since then, metal
pieces have been washed in by the tide and uncovered
by the wind.
"Metal is litter," says Keep Manatee Beautiful’s
Ingrid McClellan. "It is debris left over from
a project. The county may hire contractors to do any
project – a road project or a beach renourishment
project – and the responsibility of the contractor
is to remove the debris that is the consequence of
the project. And it may take more than one time."
The cities of Holmes Beach, Anna Maria and Bradenton
Beach aren’t responsible for cleaning up the
fragments because they don’t own the beach, and
it wasn’t the cities that were responsible for
the beach renourishment project, city officials say.
"The county has an easement to use it, so it
seems it’s the county’s responsibility to
clean up what their contractor left," says Bill
Saunders, with the city of Holmes Beach, explaining
that an easement agreement was signed by all private
property owners on the beach allowing the county to
run its renourishment and cleanup equipment though
their private property.
On Manatee County’s two public beaches, Manatee
and Coquina, county beach cleaning machines will continue
to clean up as many of the fragments as possible.
The machines can pick up trash as small as a cigarette
butt, Hunsicker says.
And while the county cleanup crew will continue to
pick up dead fish during a red tide, even on sand
that is not owned by Manatee County, he says, they
won’t be scouring private sands for rusty metal.
That’s because dead fish are considered a health
hazard, and, tetanus notwithstanding, rusty metal
is not.
Although someone could conceivably be injured by the
fragments while walking or digging in the sand, the
county can’t stretch its concern for public safety
quite that far, or it would be obligated to pick up
every nail on the road from here to Parrish, he suggests.
However, the county does stretch its public safety
authority far enough to prohibit private beachfront
property owners from drinking alcohol, using glass
containers or walking their dogs on their own sandy
land, Saunders says.
The metal fragments eventually will deteriorate and
become part of the environment, Hunsicker says.
That’s not a good enough explanation, some say.
Volunteers with the Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch
pick up trash, including metal fragments, even though
the metal probably is not a threat to sea turtles,
coordinator Suzi Fox says, adding that she checked
into the problem when the beach pipes began to leach
rusty water into the sand and learned that the iron
was not a problem.
Still, the fragments are trash.
"I think we’ll be unearthing them for years,"
she says.
Volunteers with Keep Manatee Beautiful will continue
to clean them up at beach cleanups three times a year,
during the Florida Coastal Cleanup, the Great American
Cleanup and a third time of their own choosing, McClellan
says.
Some private property owners do a mini-cleanup when
they walk the beach. Some tourists do, too.
Thanks to those who are stepping in to solve the problem
left by the Corps, while they decide if and when to
pick up the pieces.
Complaints about the metal fragments should be directed
to Frank Mohr, of the Army Corps of Engineers, at
(813) 840-0824.
A
trail of unfinished projects
By Tom Vaught
sun staff writer
The news last week that GSR Developers LLC had filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy leaves a string of projects
that are yet to be finished and only one project
completed, according to records at the Bradenton
Beach Building Department.
The only project finished and issued a certificate
of occupation was the Capri at 210 Gulf Drive and
that was not a GSR project, according to the records.
One of the principals of the company, Steve Noriega,
joined with Jerry Rogers to build the beachfront
property.
Other projects in Bradenton Beach include Hibiscus
I and II in the 100 block of Fifth St. S., Gardenia
I and II at 110 and 112 Seventh St. S., and Rosa
Del Mar at 2508, 2510, 2512 and 2516 Gulf Drive.
All of those projects were stopped by the building
department, according to Building Official Ed McAdam.
Rosa Del Mar, the two Gardenia buildings and Hibiscus
II lost their permits when Spectrum Construction
owner Paul Gallizzi, wrote the city and asked to
be removed as the permit holder.
"I had to pull the permit when the contractor
asked to be removed," McAdam said. "I
could not transfer it to anybody else."
The Hibiscus I, a condominium project on the Bay,
could be issued a certificate of occupancy if an
acceptable stormwater plan were submitted. McAdam
said he rejected the first three attempts.
The Rosa Del Mar, a condominium project on the beach,
is being penalized by the city for a code violation
because sand was piled along the sides and at the
rear of the lots toward the water. The city cited
GSR saying the bunkers represented a hazard to Gulf
Drive, a main evacuation route, and neighboring
properties in case a storm causes high waters to
wash ashore.
GSR filed a Writ of Certiorari to overturn the ruling
on July 5. McAdam said he would ask the city to
appoint safety officer John Cosby as emergency officer
and enable him to take proper action in case of
an approaching storm. In that case, the city would
likely hire someone to bulldoze the sand pile.
The lone project in Anna Maria was GRS’s largest
attempt. Villa Rosa was a single-family luxury home
project along a canal. One house was built, but
no certificate of occupancy was issued by the city.
GSR bought the canal-front property from the Lardas
family for $3.3 million and got a site plan approved
for 13 homes.
In addition, GSR owns two lots at the entrance to
the project. It marketed the project pricing the
homes at between $750,000 and $1.2 million.
There was some controversy over ownership of the
canal that abuts the property. GSR marketed the
homes as canal-front, but a check of the records
showed that the Lardas family did not convey ownership
on paper during the sale.
Homeowners on the other side of the canal started
to question their ownership and the city settled
by saying each property owner, including the GSR
lots, owns up to the midpoint of the canal.
The developers got a variance to bring in a portable
building to serve as a construction and sales office
at the entrance. When the first home was finished,
they were to move their sales office into the house
and remove the sales office but with the bankruptcy,
nothing is likely to happen soon.
Meanwhile, the portable building’s lot is becoming
overgrown with weeds.
In Holmes Beach, five projects have been stopped
due to the contractor requesting to be taken off
the job, which nullifies the permits. They are remodel
projects at 208 56th St. and 407 74th St. and new
single and multi-family homes at 311 61st St., 312
60th St. and 518 Key Royale Drive.
Phone calls to Noriega and a GSR attorney were not
returned.
�
Mayoral
race to feature two candidates
By Laurie Krosney
sun staff writer
ANNA MARIA – Voters this November will choose
between two candidates for mayor and three for two
seats on the commission.
Fran Barford, the current chair of the planning
and zoning board, will run against Tom Turner, a
former chair of the P&Z board,
Barford was formerly the mayor of Temple Terrace
and has a long record of service in city politics.
She had planned to run for commission, but when
incumbent Mayor SueLynn decided not to seek a third
term as mayor, Barford said she’d run.
"I think I have the experience to do the job
and to bring back a spirit of responsibility and
the understanding that our citizens are our customers
and they are our stockholders," she said.
Turner has been a full-time resident of the city
for the past 22 years. He’s been a property
owner for 35 years. Turner said he’d like to
see the city return to a position of fiscal responsibility.
"Over the past few years, I have seen spending
go out of control in many ways. The financial reserve
has been run down to the point where the city is
not financially stable," Turner remarked.
Turner said he also wants to be a part of the revision
of the city’s comprehensive plan.
The commission terms of incumbents Linda Cramer
and Duke Miller are up this year. Both have qualified
to seek re-election. They face a challenge from
JoAnn Mattick. The three will be in a race for two
commission seats.
"I want to represent our residents’ vision
for the future progress in our city," Cramer
said.
Mattick, who has run for election in the past and
who wrote a grant that netted the city more than
$100,000 from the DOT for beautification of pedestrian
areas, said she wants to work to make sure that
the codes are re-written to conform with the new
comp plan.
"We need to make them more easily comprehensible,"
Mattick said. "We need to re-write them so
the building department is more user-friendly."
Incumbent Duke Miller says he wants to have a hand
in the commission’s work on revision of the
comp plan.
"This work will direct our city for the next
10 to 15 years," he said. "It’s one
of the most important things we will do."
The election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 7.
No
new commission faces in Bradenton Beach races
By Tom
Vaught
sun staff writer
BRADENTON BEACH – Election qualifying came
and went last week with no new names to add to the
races in Bradenton Beach.
Bill Shearon, who announced early that he would
run for re-election to his fourth ward city commission
seat, will serve a second tour by virtue of the
fact that he is unopposed. Shearon served one of
his first two years as vice mayor and also serves
as city liaison to the team that is managing the
rehabilitation of the Bridge Street Pier.
In the second ward, Michael Pierce will replace
Lisa Marie Phillips, who decided not to run for
a second term.
Pierce has served on the city’s planning and
zoning committee, its ad hoc committee for the evaluation
and review of the comprehensive plan and land use
laws and the city’s visioning sessions. He
is a familiar face to city hall and also served
as chairman of the Anna Maria Elementary School’s
School Advisory Committee. Nobody stepped up last
week to challenge him.
Phillips was instrumental in getting the city designated
a Waterfront Florida neighborhood and helped organize
two annual Eco Expos that showcased environmentally
friendly landscaping, irrigation and other tips
for homeowners in the city. The expos also served
as a forum for environmental groups to have displays
to help educate residents.
Voters in Bradenton Beach face decisions on filling
a U.S. Congressional seat, re-electing a U.S. Senator
and replacing a county commissioner when they go
to the polls Nov. 7, but they won’t have to
cast votes for any city positions.
Red
tide forum suggests optimism
By Cindy Lane
sun staff writer
CITY ISLAND –
Researchers are developing new ideas that could
minimize the impact of red tide along the country’s
tourism-dependent beaches, according to scientists
attending a forum last week at Mote Marine Laboratory.
Nearly 70 researchers from Massachusetts to Mexico
to Walt Disney World met for four days to review
60 years of red tide research and discuss the direction
of future studies.
Red tide, caused by the organism Karenia brevis,
produces a poisonous neurotoxin that kills fish,
dolphins, manatees, sea turtles and sea birds. It
makes shellfish unsafe to eat and causes respiratory
problems in people, especially those with asthma.
In 2003, red tide had a $402 billion economic impact
on Florida, or 77 percent of the state’s total
economy, said Don Anderson, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institute in Massachusetts.
While the scientific community has been criticized
for focusing more on the causes and effects of red
tide rather than on cures, researchers discussed
potential new options at a forum on Thursday night,
held simultaneously at Mote, Florida Gulf Coast
University in Fort Myers and the U.S. Geological
Survey’s Center for Coastal and Watershed Studies
in St. Petersburg.
One theory suggests that adding fresh water to saltwater
may impact red tide’s ability to survive. Some
researchers disagreed, saying that red tide is a
highly adaptable organism that has learned to live
in low saline environments.
Public participants were concerned about the overall
impact on the ecosystem of changing salinity, mirroring
concerns about using clay to sink red tide cells
to the ocean’s floor, a technique widely used
in Asia, but still being studied in the U.S.
There’s not enough information about what clay
could do to bottom-dwelling life forms to safely
use it against red tide, public participant Patricia
Cummings said.
But Anderson argued that ocean floors would be impacted
by red tide with or without the use of clay, as
proven by last year’s dead zone that developed
in the Gulf of Mexico.
Scientists pointed out that inadequate information
also exists about what effect eliminating red tide
would have on the ecosystem. For example, it does
some good things in the environment, such as producing
carbon necessary for the food chain, said Gabriel
Vargo, of the University of South Florida in St.
Petersburg.
The question is not how to eliminate it, but how
to control or manage its effects, said Mario Sengco,
of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
in Maryland.
One way is to reduce nutrient runoff, said public
participant Don Cheney, of the Healthy Gulf Coalition.
Scientists agreed that reducing fertilizer runoff,
which contains plant nutrients, is a sound practice,
although they cited an absence of evidence that
nutrients are a major cause of red tide.
One of the largest nutrients for red tide is something
it produces itself – dead fish, according to
research at the University of South Florida, Anderson
said. Other possible causes include minerals in
dust storms originating in the Sahara desert and
naturally occurring nutrients in the ocean floor.
"We don’t have the critical knowledge
at this point to know how blooms actually begin,"
Sengco said, adding, "It’s probably a
good idea to start controlling pollution."
Red tide can adapt to a low nutrient environment,
and there’s no way to know whether removing
only one nutrient, fertilizer runoff, would kill
it, Vargo said.
"But the more you minimize nutrient input,
the better off you’re going to be."
Whose
beach is it, anyway?
By
Cindy Lane
sun staff writer
There’s a dog owner in Holmes Beach who wants
to know why she can’t walk her golden retrievers
on the beach she owns. An Anna Maria man wants to
know why he can’t replicate a Corona commercial
on his private beach and drink alcohol from a glass
bottle. A Bradenton Beach man wonders why he can’t
sunbathe in a T-back swimsuit on his private sand.
It seems obvious, says Bill Saunders with the city
of Holmes Beach, that private beachfront property
owners should be able to walk their dogs, drink
alcohol, use glasses instead of plastic cups and
do other things that the county prohibits on its
two public beaches as long as they do it on their
own land.
How can Manatee County regulate such activities
on private beachfront property, when it won’t
even clean up metal fragments left there from its
beach renourishment project?
The county can regulate activities on private beachfront
property that it ignores on private mainland property
because of its police powers, Manatee County beach
administrator Charlie Hunsicker says.
Counties and cities are authorized by the Florida
Constitution and the Legislature to use their police
powers to regulate conduct on private property if
it affects the health, safety and welfare of adjacent
properties and the public at large, he says.
And unlike most activities in mainland yards, things
done in sandy yards along the coastline can affect
the rest of the beach, so the state has retained
authority for local governments to regulate those
activities, he says.
In addition, the county can use private beach property
for beach renourishment projects under its easement.
The upland edge of the easement is delineated by
the 5.0 contour line, which shifts with the wind
and renourishment projects, but remains between
the Erosion Control Line and yet another line, the
Coastal Construction Control Line, west of which
builders have to abide by more stringent rules because
of the proximity to the Gulf.
"The Legislature has primacy over coastal construction
affecting the viability of beaches and erosion and
accretion dynamics," Hunsicker says.
In addition, state and federal regulations of private
beachfront property are layered on top of local
government regulations to aid sea turtle nesting
six months out of the year.
The bottom line of all the lines and all the laws
is that beachfront property owners don’t have
the same private property rights as other property
owners.
But then, other property owners don’t get to
watch dolphins jumping in their backyard swimming
pools.
Cities
confiscating items on the beach
By Tom Vaught
sun staff writer
BRADENTON BEACH –
A tent on the beach caused a false crawl recently,
and it may have been the straw that broke the camel’s
back.
According to Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch Director
Suzi Fox, tracks in the sand showed where a mother
sea turtle had crawled onto the beach and run into
one of the tent’s supporting rods. The tracks
showed where she turned around and went back into
the Gulf of Mexico.
Bradenton Beach Code Enforcement Technician Gail
Garneau, who was called to the scene, documented
the event with her camera and confiscated the tent.
Garneau said from now on, the city would take possession
of items left on the beach after dark and store
them. Owners of the equipment would pay $35, plus
$15 for staff time, to get them back.
For homeowners and renters on the beach, this is
the time of the year to make sure everything you
own is off the sand, according to Fox.
"Turtles will nest right next to a building,"
she said. "They’ll nest in sea oats, anywhere
there is sand."
Fox said turtles don’t know the difference
between state owned beach, which is where the renourished
sand is located, and privately owned beach, which
abuts that sand. They only know that sand is the
only place where they can dig a hole and deposit
their eggs so that they can develop and hatch later.
She said lawn furniture and temporary structures,
such as tents, can be a hazard to the mother turtles,
that sometimes become snagged in them. She said
they also pose a hazard during stormy weather.
"During a storm when the wind blows, people
living or renting face the possibility of a tent
pole going through their picture window," she
said. "Those items can also get buried in the
sand during an intense thunderstorm."
Fox said those items are also a hazard to people
walking the beach at night and Turtle Watch volunteers
who get out on the beach shortly before sunrise.
In Anna Maria, code enforcement officer Gerry Rathvon
goes out after dark looking for items that could
be hazardous to turtles.
"If they’re out there anytime between
sunset and sunrise, I tag them and explain on the
tag in why they are in violation," she said.
"Then I go back the next night and if they’re
still there, I would take them off the beach."
The equipment ends up at public works behind lock
and key and people have to come to city hall to
get it back, Rathvon said. For now, they don’t
have to pay a fine because there is no fine in the
city’s ordinance.
Fox said it is important to educate everybody about
those hazards and people who make money renting
beachfront property to tourists should put literature
in those units to inform tourists who might not
be familiar with sea turtle nesting.
"Some property owners write up their own literature,
or we have some they can get and distribute,"
she said.
For more information, call her at 778-5638 or on
her cell phone at 232-1405.
Crash
closes Gulf Drive for 12 hours
By Tom Vaught
sun staff writer
BRADENTON BEACH – An alleged drunk driver crashed
into a concrete power pole just before 3 a.m. on
Tuesday, July 18, at the 1300 block of Gulf Drive
South causing motorists to take a longer route to
get between Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island for
nearly 12 hours.
According to a Longboat Key police report, it all
began when a Longboat Key police captain pulled
out onto Gulf of Mexico Drive around 2:54 a.m. He
observed a 2005 Toyota Camry pull up behind him,
just feet from his rear bumper. The captain said
the driver, 18-year-old Robert M. Walsh of Bradenton,
was weaving within his lane of traffic before he
passed the captain, forcing him onto the side of
the road. He said Walsh’s car accelerated to
between 85 and 100 miles per hour as it approached
the Longboat Pass Bridge. The captain stayed behind
Walsh at a slower speed and called police headquarters
to get a uniformed officer on the scene.
The captain reported when Walsh got to south Bradenton
Beach, his car left the road and ran into a guide
wire and an electrical pole, snapping it off toward
the top. It was left dangling by the wires.
The report said Walsh tried to drive off and ran
off the road again. This time his vehicle was disabled
by the damage from the crash. He got out of the
car and started to walk away as the captain approached.
The captain got out of his car and directed Walsh
to stay near the front of it. He reportedly asked
what he had hit and appeared to be disoriented and
confused. He also smelled of alcohol.
Longboat Key officer Doug Coffman arrived at the
scene and reported that Walsh refused medical attention.
He also reported smelling alcohol on Walsh. Another
officer took Walsh to the Longboat Key Police Station
for a breath test, which gave an errant reading
and he was asked to submit to a urine test, which
he did. He was then taken to Holmes Beach for another
alcohol test, which showed negative results.
He was charged with reckless driving and driving
under the influence and transported to the Manatee
County Jail. At the jail, deputies found a small
amount of marijuana and he was further charged with
introducing contraband to the jail. Bradenton Beach
police also charged Walsh with reckless driving.
Meanwhile, Bradenton Beach police were called into
duty to detour traffic after Florida Power and Light
officials determined it was unsafe for traffic to
travel under the dangling wires. FPL spokesman Mel
Klein said the power pole carried a main feeder
line, which cut the power to 3,000 customers in
the area.
People traveling between Bradenton Beach and Longboat
Key were told to turn around and exit both Islands
to the mainland where they were told to use U.S.
41 to get to their destinations. Traffic between
the two islands was reopened Tuesday afternoon.
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