The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 9 No. 37 - June 3, 2009

headlines

Beach Inn, Tidemark in foreclosure
Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

SUN PHOTO/CHANTELLE LEWIN Foreclosure proceedings on the
Beach Inn in Holmes Beach began on April 30.

HOLMES BEACH – The saga of the Tidemark and the Beach Inn developments, owned by Reliance Realty Partners, continues with another twist – both are in foreclosure, but there is a potential buyer.

On April 30, Mercantile Bank began foreclosure proceedings on the Beach Inn and on May 8, Freedom Holdings began foreclosure proceedings on Tidemark. However, Mainsail Development International, of Tampa, has made an offer on the properties.

"I was the original partner in the Beach Inn property," explained Sean Murphy, owner of the Beach Bistro. "The Connecticut partners of Reliance have failed in their commitments to me.

"There is an offer on the table from Mainsail to purchase both properties. Mainsail appears to be a responsible developer."

Holmes Beach Public Works Supervisor Joe Duennes said representatives of Mainsail approached him two weeks ago.

"I met with the president and vice president of Mainsail, a real estate agent and two contractors," Duennes said. "They said they wanted to use the existing site plan and foundation with some modifications.

"I told them until I study it more and know what they want to do, I can’t make the call. I told them to put together a scenario of their game plan and bring it to me."

Lance McNeill and Ken Dardis, of Reliance, did not return phone calls regarding comments for this story. However, Mainsail President Joe Collier did respond, confirming that his company has made an offer on the property. Further details were not available.

The Tidemark Beach and Marina Residence Club included the proposed Tidemark residences and the marina at 5325 Marina Drive and the Beach Inn at 101 66th Street. The combined projects, valued at $85 million, were to include 14 beach residences and 16 marina residences plus a 62-slip marina with boats and fishing guides and a 24-unit lodge with an 80- to 100-seat restaurant and lounge.

Reliance also owns a building on the Tidemark site containing the Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce and several business. However, this property was not listed in court records as part of the foreclosure proceedings.

In September, a grand opening planned for the Beach Inn was canceled due to Hurricane Ike. The two completed buildings there include two- and three-bedroom units, which are being sold as fractional ownership, a form of real estate in which the buyer purchases a fraction of ownership.

A third building on the street side was to include a beach club with an adult game room with computer stations, couches and pool tables and an exercise room and one or two residences.

The project was initiated eight years ago by developer Nick Easterling, and the city commission approved the plans in June 2001. However, the project hit a snag when Easterling filed for bankruptcy in 2004.

The following year, Reliance Realty Partners joined the project and the bankruptcy was resolved. In May 2007 Reliance bought out Easterling.

City may ban sex offenders

ANNA MARIA —Anna Maria is considering drafting an ordinance that would prohibit sexual predators and sexual offenders from living with in its city limits.

Commissioner Chuck Webb would like the city to take a look at the issue, he announced at the May 28 meeting.

"I’ve been studying sexual predator Web sites and have been to workshops," he told his fellow commissioners. "Some communities have them in place, and I’ve been watching to see if there are any legal challenges. So far I haven’t seen any."

Webb, who formerly served as a Broward County attorney, noted that such an ordinance was adopted there some time ago.

"I plan to talk to them to see how their ordinance is working," he said.

Designing and adopting an ordinance was something Webb talked about when he was running for his city commission seat last year. Now he thinks its time.

"We have a lot of children here, and I’ve heard of children being approached on the beach," he said during his campaign.

A weekend search of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement sexual predator and offender list revealed that there are four sexual offenders living on or near the Island, with several more living in northwest Bradenton. There is one in Bradenton Beach, one in Holmes Beach, one in Cortez and one on Longboat Key. There are 24 additional individuals who are listed as transients, but who may be in or near the area, according to the FDLE website.

Predator vs. offender

Sexual predator status is considered more serious than that of sexual offender, according to the FDLE. The predator classification is applied when the individual has been convicted of an offense that may result in the death penalty, life in prison or a first-degree felony sexual offense. The offenses may include kidnapping of a minor, false imprisonment, luring or enticing a child, sexual battery, selling or buying of minors for purposes of prostitution or pornography and other similar offenses. The designation usually comes when the crime has been accompanied by violence.

Sexual offender designation is applied to people who have been convicted of committing, attempting, soliciting or conspiring to commit any of the above crimes or similar crimes.

Sexual predators and offenders are required to register their addresses with FDLE and local law enforcement and are required to notify authorities of any change of address.

The courts establish both classifications.

The ordinance Webb is proposing would prohibit sexual predators and/or offenders from living within the corporate boundaries of the city of Anna Maria.

Commissioners agreed to discuss the issue in an upcoming work session.

The FDLE maintains a Web site listing sexual predators and offenders in the state. Type "FDLE sexual predator and offender" into your search engine. There’s a button on the top right that takes you to the list of offenders. Type in your address and zip code, select the radius from your address you’re interested in seeing. You can pull up a map showing the location of convicted offenders and predators, or you can look at a list with photos and addresses of offenders.

Lines drawn in underwater sand

The average beachgoer who sets up a chair and an umbrella on Anna Maria Island or Longboat Key has no idea what lies beneath.

Clean, white sand doesn’t just get washed up onto the beach by Mother Nature. It takes barges, dredges, pipes, bulldozers, permits, and money – lots of money.

It takes exploration, too: Geological surveys, marine life surveys, plant life surveys, tidal surveys, depth surveys, archeological resource surveys, and money – lots of money.

Then there are the engineering consultants, the permitting agencies, the governmental bodies, the lawyers, and money – lots more money – all spent to prevent the beaches from eroding and taking the tourism industry with them.

In the case of Port Dolphin, clean, white sand also could mean money lost for avoiding it and money gained for plowing through it.

With so much money at stake, it’s clear why so many lines have been drawn in the underwater sand off Anna Maria Island by Port Dolphin, the town of Longboat Key and Manatee County.

Port proposal refined

Port Dolphin, a subsidiary of a Norwegian shipping firm, is applying to the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) and the U.S. Coast Guard for the first of several necessary permits to build a floating liquid natural gas port 28 miles off Anna Maria Island. The Houston-based company plans to build two submersible mooring buoys about three miles apart where tankers would convert their cargoes of liquefied natural gas into vaporized natural gas, then pump it through an underwater pipeline to Port Manatee to supply electric companies.

Port Dolphin adjusted its first pipeline route in 2007 because the Florida Department of Environmental Protection was concerned that its path would destroy marine life in the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve in Tampa Bay.

Anna Maria Island, Longboat Key and Manatee County officials expressed concern about the second route because of its potential impact on underwater sources of sand currently mined and used to renourish Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island beaches.

Manatee County and Longboat Key officials estimated that the second proposed pipeline route would have cost the county between $38-53 million over the next 40 years to find sand, or around $1 million per year, and cost Longboat Key an estimated $4 million.

The route also was heavily criticized for potential environmental impacts on marine life.

Port Dolphin responded in December 2008 with a third route addressing potential sand sources, engineering and construction constraints, hard bottom features, live bottom habitats and archaeological and other mapped environmental features. The latest route affects about 1.4 percent of already identified beach-compatible sand deposits and avoids all permitted sand resources, according to the company.

Over the past two weeks, Longboat Key officials approached the three Anna Maria Island city commissions for support in objecting to this route. Officials are supportive, but some have expressed skepticism about their power to persuade Port Dolphin to adopt a fourth pipeline route, based on the company’s response so far.

"We already rerouted at the request of Longboat Key and Manatee County," said Port Dolphin spokesman Harry Costello, of the Tampa public relations firm Hill and Knowlton. "Port Dolphin has made a very large investment in rerouting as it is."

A flood of paperwork

Last week, a torrent of reports, letters and memos about the pipeline route from Port Dolphin, two opposing engineering firms, two opposing Washington D.C. law firms, the Longboat Key mayor and the Manatee County beach renourishment director flew across Web mail, Web sites and fax machines.

At the center of the flurry is a report by Jacksonville-based Taylor Engineering, hired by Port Dolphin as an "independent consultant," a designation scoffed at by Longboat Key and Manatee County officials, to assess sand quality within 30 miles of its proposed pipeline route.

The company initially had offered to allow Manatee County and Longboat Key officials to have a say in choosing the consultant and its scope of work.

"That never happened," Longboat Key Town Manager Bruce St. Denis said. "They came to us with the ‘independent third party review’ already done. It’s not independent. We didn’t even know the criteria they gave them."

"Taylor is doing what it’s assigned to do," agreed Charlie Hunsicker, director of the Manatee County Natural Resources Department in charge of beach renourishment. "They’re only being asked to look at Port Dolphin’s corridor, not all options."

The Taylor report concludes that sand surrounding 93 percent of the route is not white enough or fine enough to be used on local beaches, and that the pipeline would impact about 711,000 cubic yards of beach quality sand.

Another Port Dolphin report, a "white paper" released last month, further defends its proposed pipeline route, dismissing local government suggestions that it should tie into the existing Gulfstream Natural Gas System pipeline.

Port Dolphin officials have said that their business plan is to compete, not co-locate, with Gulfstream.

A separate pipeline would have the capacity to supply seven times more natural gas than would be possible by connecting to the Gulfstream pipeline, which already is heavily used, according to the report.

In addition, the two systems are incompatible, since vessels designed to carry Port Dolphin’s natural gas are unable to pump it into the Gulfstream pipeline at Gulfstream’s maximum allowable operating pressure, the report states.

The report concludes that its proposed pipeline route fairly balances sand issues against national security, energy sufficiency and environmental quality concerns.

The Taylor report, coupled with Port Dolphin’s past refusal to share what it has called confidential data with the town on its underwater geological surveys, has forced the town to respond through the formal permitting process, St. Denis said.

Fourth route proposed

Longboat Key has responded to the two Port Dolphin reports with a suggestion for yet another pipeline route.

"We’re not talking about a major reroute," St. Denis said. "Their economic benefit will still be realized if they move the pipe, and our opposition goes away."

A report by Coastal Planning and Engineering, a consultant for both Longboat Key and Manatee County, charges that Port Dolphin’s Taylor report understates the volume of impacted beach-compatible sand resources by a factor of four to minimize the perceived impact of the pipeline.

Port Dolphin’s white paper, meanwhile, makes the point a different way by exaggerating the volume of potential sand that would not be impacted by the company’s proposed pipeline route, according to Coastal.

In the Taylor report, Coastal asserts, Port Dolphin has left out an area called "F2," which potentially contains a large quantity of usable sand.

Longboat Key’s suggested route, near the already-impacted Gulfstream pipeline corridor to the north of Port Dolphin’s revised route, would avoid all of the sand resources in the Taylor report, and also would avoid the F2 area that was not in the report, according to Coastal.

"We have the support of the three (Anna Maria) Island cities and the (Manatee) County Commission and the (Longboat Key) Town Commission" to place the pipeline near the Gulfstream corridor, St. Denis said.

The town’s Washington, D.C. law firm, Patton Boggs, wrote MARAD and the U.S. Coast Guard urging them to require Port Dolphin to choose the fourth route as a condition of approving their port permit.

Alleging that Port Dolphin has known for a year that its proposed pipeline route would cut through the F2 area, the law firm called Port Dolphin’s actions a "pattern of deception," and formally objected to its preferred route.

"Port Dolphin has done its utmost to hold the town at arm’s length while trying to lay the groundwork for approval of the pipeline location without having to (a) examine the true impacts of the proposed route on mineable beach sand, including in area F2, or (b) study the alternative low-impact route proposed by Longboat Key. Enough is enough, and MARAD should now direct Port Dolphin to relocate the pipeline to the low-impact corridor."

Sacrificing the F2 area would cost Longboat Key significantly more money to locate new sand sources, and would fuel conflicts over sand among Longboat and Manatee and Pinellas counties, which also are searching for sand, the firm wrote.

Longboat Key spent $500,000 last year and will spend $500,000 this year to find and permit sand sources, St. Denis said.

The town also has spent more than $250,000 on legal analysis and engineering studies to find a reasonable compromise to allow Port Dolphin’s project to move forward while protecting the region’s sand sources, Longboat Key Mayor Lee Rothenberg wrote Manatee County Chair Gwen Brown on May 28, expressing thanks for the county’s support.

County changing course?

But Manatee County may be changing course, according to Hunsicker.

"We’re starting to realize that the agencies that will be making the decisions are not the Manatee County board of commissioners," he said, explaining that the sand resources are in state waters, not under the county’s jurisdiction.

The sand issue and the many environmental issues raised in the Coast Guard’s draft Environmental Impact Statement regarding fisheries, threatened species, pollution and other concerns are for state agencies and the governor to decide, he said.

"The pipeline has to thread the needle of the different resources that have to be protected," he said.

The flip side of the green issue also has to be considered – economics.

The potential economic impact at stake for Port Manatee and Manatee County if Port Dolphin’s pipeline project is built is significant, particularly in the current economic climate, Hunsicker said.

"We’re getting down to the nuts and bolts of whether we want the company’s business," he said. "It’s a business decision for the port."

In a May 28 memo to the Manatee County Commission, Hunsicker wrote that Port Dolphin will create 82 new local jobs during the 18-month construction of the pipeline, generate $5 million in short-term benefits for Port Manatee and have a $485 million economic impact over the life of the pipeline.

In light of the state Legislature’s consideration earlier this year of a shelved plan that would have allowed oil and gas drilling in the Gulf, a natural gas port does not seem as objectionable, he said, adding, "This isn’t a nuclear power plant that we’re trying to keep out of our neighborhood."

Meanwhile, Port Dolphin’s Washington D.C. law firm, Bruder Gentile and Marcoux, is urging MARAD to speed the permit process along by not requiring the Coast Guard to make a revised draft Environmental Impact Statement, which would subject the company’s newest proposed pipeline route to the same exhaustive environmental analysis as its previous route.

Port Dolphin’s port licensing application will require public hearings, expected to be scheduled later this year. Several subsequent state and federal permits also are required before the port could be built.

The Manatee County Commission was scheduled to discuss Port Dolphin in a workshop on Tuesday, June 2.

Life in the dead zone

It’s as if nothing had ever happened.

Almost.

The only way you can tell today that there was a catastrophic event in the Gulf of Mexico in August 2005 is to look at the sponges.

"You miss the big sponges, the barrel sponges and the sea fans," said Capt. Wayne Genthner of Wolfmouth Charters, who was among the first to identify the 2,500-square-mile "dead zone" about 10 miles offshore between Venice and Tarpon Springs.

"They take dozens of years to mature. We had 1- to 3-foot-high barrel sponges that were 40, 50 years old, but there’s hardly any now," said Genthner, who recently visited the area.

"It’s a pretty lively zone right now," he said, with large grouper, snapper and hogfish indicating that the food chain has been restored, since those fish eat crustaceans, stone crabs, sea urchins and shrimp.

Marine life vanished in the dead zone because oxygen disappeared from the water in the bottom six feet of the Gulf. Wrecks and rock formations that reach above that level still sport big sponges that survived the low oxygen environment, he said.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) in St. Petersburg attributes the event to a combination of two natural occurrences - a thermocline, in which warm water traps cold water at the Gulf bottom, and a red tide bloom.

Red tide is a concentration of single-celled plant-like organisms that produces toxins that can kill fish, birds, marine mammals and sea turtles. Airborne red tide can irritate the human respiratory system, and eating shellfish exposed to red tide can cause food poisoning.

Red tide connection

In August 2005, a red tide bloom was pushed to the sea floor by a thermocline, killing bottom-dwelling species, which decomposed, taking oxygen out of the water, scientists say.

Another natural occurrence triggered the end of the dead zone - Hurricane Katrina improved conditions by stirring up the water, mixing oxygenated water with water that had no oxygen.

On a global basis, dead zones are on the rise and are caused almost exclusively by nitrogen and phosphorus, said Dr. Nancy Rabalais, a researcher with the Louisiana University Marine Consortium, who recommends better management of nutrient runoff, including fertilizers and sewage.

The formation of dead zones has been exacerbated by fertilizer runoff, which causes an increase in organic matter, microbial activity and the consumption of dissolved oxygen in bottom waters, agreed Dr. Robert J. Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in his recent paper, "Spreading Dead Zones and Consequences for Marine Ecosystems."

Nutrient-rich runoff from lawns, golf courses and farms also are aggravating factors in red tide, according to Dr. Larry Brand, a marine biologist at the University of Miami.

Red tide has not plagued Florida’s Gulf coast for several years, and Genthner is optimistic that even when the next red tide occurs, it will not cause another dead zone.

"I don’t think we could duplicate that situation again because we don’t have the thermocline," he said.

Still, he agrees that fertilizer use should be managed.

Last week, a water sample from Sarasota Bay tested by the FWRI contained background concentrations of red tide. None was detected in water samples collected in the Gulf of Mexico alongshore of Manatee, Charlotte, Lee, Collier or Pinellas counties, or offshore of Lee County.

Island cities support Longboat pipeline position

Holmes Beach and Anna Maria commissioners agreed to support a request by Longboat Key officials to move the location of the Port Dolphin pipeline so it doesn’t affect the town’s possible sand source for renourishment projects.

"Longboat Key does not oppose the project, but wants to protect its sand sources," Longboat Key Town Manager Bruce St. Denis explained to Holmes Beach commissioners at their May 26 meeting.

After pressure from Manatee County and Island officials, Port Dolphin officials changed the original underwater natural gas pipeline route to avoid existing borrow pits used by the county and Longboat Key. However, two other borrow areas under investigation by Longboat Key would be bisected by the pipeline.

"The town’s position is that this whole area should be avoided," St. Denis continued. "It appears that there’s enough sand for us to do four projects, which would take us out 25 years or so. We anticipate there’s 2.9 million cubic yards of sand."

He said the town has asked Port Dolphin officials to study the possibility of relocating the pipeline through an area of sand north of the areas under investigation that does not appear to contain beach compatible sand.

Holmes Beach

Commissioner David Zaccagnino asked the value of the sand. St. Denis said the 2.9 million cubic yards is worth $45 million.

"The Marine Administration and the Coast Guard are ready to issue a final environmental impact statement, which says they’re probably not going to listen to our arguments," St. Denis said.

"We think it’s important now for the local communities to go on the record in our support. We think the project is a good project, but stay out of the sand."

City Attorney Patricia Petruff pointed out that the draft letter submitted by St. Denis "presupposes a lot of information that we’re not privy to, a lot of facts that the city of Holmes Beach may not have knowledge about. I think the mayor should pare it down a little bit."

Zaccagnino asked that a sentence stating that the city supports the project also be removed.

Anna Maria

St. Dennis went over the same information at the Anna Maria City Commission’s May 28 meeting, and said it’s been frustrating to deal with Port Dolphin.

"I feel your pain," Mayor Fran Barford told him. "I know from Barrier Island Elected Officials meeting how difficult it is to get any information out of Port Dolphin."

Barford then asked Manatee County Commissioner John Chappie, who was attending the meeting, if the company had been more forthcoming with the county.

"Nobody’s sharing information with us, as far as I know either, and I’ve asked to be kept in the loop," Chappie replied.

When St. Dennis asked for a letter of support for Longboat Key’s position, Barford replied, "We will be glad to do that as soon as we are sure that it won’t impact us in any negative way in our renourishment projects."

St. Dennis then added that the location of the natural gas pipeline could also have implications for off shore drilling.

"We escaped a bullet this year, but as the drilling issue comes up, the location of the pipeline is going to have a huge impact," he said. "We want to keep it in as small and confined an area as possible, or we’ll have a network of pipes like they do off the coast of Texas."

County waits for city’s cell tower decision

BRADENTON BEACH – As the city works on a request by a company to build a cell phone tower near the public works building, Manatee County has sent a memo saying it doesn’t want to give the city mixed signals about what it wants to do.

The county originally proposed building a cell phone tower at the site of a new building for the county marine rescue unit, near the southern tip of the Island on the bayside. According to Manatee County Information Services Director Diane Frenz, they have already found another site to enhance emergency radio signals.

"We’re putting a tower for the 800 megahertz system in Perico," she said, "We were going to put a cell phone tower at the marine rescue building, but if the city of Bradenton Beach wants to have one instead, we won’t build ours."

Frenz and other county officials met with Bradenton Beach Mayor Mike Pierce, Police Chief Sam Speciale and Building Official Stephen Gilbert on May 21. In a memo to County Administrator Ed Hunzeker, she said that she felt the city was concerned that the county needed to have the cell tower at the marine rescue site. She said she would move forward with the tower at Perico at this point.

Meanwhile, the city’s Scenic Waves Committee meets in Monday, June 8, at 3 p.m. where the cell phone tower is on the agenda. At a meeting last month, Ridan Industries and Alpha Omega Communications proposed building a tower near the public works building.

The city commission agreed to have the city attorney look at the proposal and instruct the commission on what it should do. The proposal called for a 150-foot long unipole that would carry communications for four to six cell phone service providers. The city would lease the land to Ridan, which would pay $24,000 per year rent plus all construction and maintenance.

If the process goes as planned, Ridan and Alpha-Omega predict the tower would be up and running around April 2010 at the earliest.

New charge filed against suspect

Manatee County has filed a 15th charge against one of the two 18-year-old Sarasota residents arrested on May 19 for allegedly robbing the Waterfront restaurant.

Patrick Banker was charged on Wednesday, May 27, with breaking into the Waterfront restaurant, in Anna Maria, on May 1.

Banker already faces charges of burglary, grant theft and petit theft for a string of overnight break-ins in businesses on Anna Maria Island, Longboat Key and in west Bradenton.

Banker has hired an attorney, Varinia Van Ness, of Sarasota, and pled not-guilty of the charges. When he was caught by authorities early in the morning on May 19 in Anna Mari, he allegedly confessed and implicated John J. O’Keefe, who was caught with him.

O’Keefe, who denied any involvement in the burglaries, has been assigned a public defender, David Ehlers, and has pled not guilt to the nine charges he faces, according to court records. His case will be held in the courtroom of circuit judge Diana Moreland. Banker’s case will go before judge Gilbert Smith.

Both suspects remain behind bars, unable to come up with the bond of $5,000 for each charge they face.

Saltwater shoreline fishing license required Aug. 1
Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

SUN PHOTO/CINDY LANE A British visitor
shows off the catch he hooked in the
shallows of the Gulf of Mexico in
Bradenton Beach last week. Beginning Aug. 1,
saltwater anglers who fish from the beach
or bay shorelines, bridges, piers or docks
will be required to have saltwater shoreline
fishing licenses.

Saltwater anglers who fish from shorelines, bridges, piers or docks will have to buy a $7.50 annual license ($9 with a service fee) by Aug. 1 under a new Florida law approved by Gov. Charlie Crist last week.

The requirement, which applies to anglers fishing in saltwater from land or structures attached to land, extends licensing requirements to everyone in the state unless they are specifically exempted, said Lee Schlesinger, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

If anglers are not exempted, purchasing a $17 resident recreational saltwater fishing license may be a better choice, he said, because it covers the new requirements in addition to fishing from a boat.

The license is a response to a federal requirement that the service improve its survey methods in monitoring federal fisheries, said Gordon Colvin, who heads the National Saltwater Angler Registry Program.

"In Florida, people who fish in saltwater from shore were not being counted," he said, and their impact on fisheries is unknown.

The two methods currently used are random telephone surveys of people, whether they fish or not, asking how many fishing trips they took in the past two months, and personal interviews of anglers at parks, boat ramps and other sites, asking how many fish were caught during the trip.

The new license will enable the service to begin contacting cell phone numbers instead of the land line numbers contacted now, he said. Mail surveys also are being considered.

Compliance with surveys will be voluntary, and refusal to participate will not jeopardize the fishing license, he said.

Unless shoreline anglers have the new state licenses, they will soon be required to enroll in the National Fishery Registry at an annual fee estimated between $15 and $25, with proceeds going to federal coffers.

Fees from the new state saltwater shoreline license are expected to raise between $1.8 and $2.9 million annually, according to the FWC, and will stay in the state, funding FWC programs for law enforcement, research, conservation and management.

You do not need the new saltwater shoreline fishing license if you:

•have a resident recreational saltwater fishing license.;
• are fishing from a pier that has a blanket license;
• are 65 or over and are a Florida resident;
• are under 16 years of age from any state;
• are a Florida resident and a member of the U.S. Armed Forces not stationed in Florida and are here on leave for 30 days or less, upon submission of orders
• are fishing in your home county with a pole or line not equipped with a line retrieval device; •are eligible for food stamps, temporary cash assistance or Medicaid through by the state Department of Children and Family Services upon presentation of ID and benefit card.

The licenses are expected to be available by July 15 at tax collectors’ offices, licensing agents such as bait and tackle shops and Wal-Mart, or at 888-347-4356 and www.myfwc.com.


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