ANNA MARIA – Two Memorial Day weekend fishing tournaments based at Anna Maria’s Galati Yacht Sales have been indefinitely postponed due to oil from the Deepwater Horizon.

Organizers made the decision as oil, still gushing from the April 20 accident at the offshore rig, entered the Gulf of Mexico loop current, the fishing grounds for the tournaments.

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service has closed 19 percent, 45,728 square miles, of federal Gulf waters to fishing because of spreading oil, the latest section on May 18.

“In anticipation of further closures, and in the best interest of anglers, we will look at a later date,” said Tom Verdensky, president of the Old Salt Fishing Foundation and coordinator of the Loop All Release Billfish Tournament and the Mike Alstott Family Foundation Inshore/Offshore Shootout. Old Salt stands for Operation Loop Development – Suncoast Angler’s Loop Tournament, which began 32 years ago as a partnership between scientists and fishermen investigating the loop current.

The economic impact of the four-day event to Anna Maria Island is significant, organizers say. The contest had attracted recreational fishermen from the Bahamas, Illinois, Texas, Jacksonville and Pensacola, where fishing closures also canceled contests, with an estimated 90 inshore boats and 60 offshore boats entered in the Alstott division and 40 boats entered in the Loop division, Verdensky said. Entry fees range from $55 per angler to $2,000 per boat.

“These guys spent months preparing and thousands of dollars to get here, then spent money to enter the event,” he said, adding that All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg would have benefited from the Alstott division proceeds.

A dozen of the boats are from Galati Yacht, the host marina for the event, which had also planned Loop Fest 2010, a free event featuring three days of live music, food, kids’ games and a personal appearance by former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Mike Alstott.

The company spent more than $100,000 on the event, which also was postponed, Chris Galati said, adding that families that were planning to rent motels on the beach for the holiday weekend may change their plans.

Last year’s Loop tournament winner, Danny Veid, and his party of eight anglers already have decided to cancel their reservations at Mainsail Beach Inn in Anna Maria.

“I do like the oil rigs; you catch fish around them,” said the Tarpon Springs resident, who normally fishes off Louisiana in the summer. “But this is our worst nightmare.”

The group plans to go fishing instead in the Bahamas, which is in the path of the loop current, but quite a distance from where the oil is located.

The loop current is the Gulf segment of a larger current that starts as the Yucatan Current, which comes from the Caribbean Sea into the Gulf through the Yucatan Strait, then heads down through the Florida Strait as the Florida Current, then up the Atlantic coast as the Gulf Stream. The current is not stationary, and last weekend began moving north, away from Florida.

The oil may never make it to Anna Maria Island, because the current and the continental shelf may keep it 100 miles offshore, Galati said, adding, “Anna Maria Island won’t be dealing with this like Miami will.”

Manatee County tourism officials emphasize that local beaches are unaffected by the spill and are open for business.

HOLMES BEACH – It was a statement that many older readers have heard before.

“Our generation will have to change things,” said 14-year-old Mia Stryczny, a Manatee High School ninth-grader who was holding a sign in front of Kingfish Boat Ramp Saturday morning.

They were demonstrating to show their displeasure over the oil gushing from the bottom of the Gulf caused by an accident at a BP oil drilling platform nearly a month ago.

“We don’t believe BP is doing enough,” Stryczny said as a passing car sounded its horn. Some of the signs urged drivers to honk if they support their cause. Stryczny’s sign said, “Will Obama help?”

Manatee High School student Matt Danziger, 16, son of allergist and immunologist Dr. Roger Danziger, said BP must be held accountable for the disaster.

“I think there has to be something done for the conservation of the beaches affected by the oil spill,” Matt Danziger said. “BP is not doing enough and the government needs to make sure they do.”

Matt’s younger sister, Shayna, 14, said the incident in the Gulf shows that anti-drilling people were right.

“The Island has been against drilling all along,” she said. “I think the government needs to get involved, find a better solution and plug up the hole.”

Not all of the sign holders were high school students. One of them looked like he might have held up a sign or two during the Vietnam War. He goes by the name Butchie.

“It’s a good thing that these younger people put this together,” the Bradenton Beach resident said. “It’s nice to see them get involved.”

The signs also proposed people show their support by going on Facebook, inputting "save our beaches,” going to the picture of the sign that says Save our Beaches and joining.

ANNA MARIA — Embattled City Commissioner Harry Stoltzfus has taken the fight against the committee working to recall him to the circuit court.

Attorney Richard Harrison, who represents Stoltzfus, filed a lawsuit in circuit court asking that the petition be declared invalid.

He’s asked for an accelerated ruling on the petition since his client has only until May 28 to prepare a 200-word statement in his own defense.

The Manatee County Supervisor of Elections certified the petition to recall Stoltzfus.

City Clerk Alice Baird got word of the certification on Friday, May 14. She immediately served Stoltzfus with a copy of the certification document, as required by state statute.

Under normal circumstances, Stoltzfus would have five days to write his defensive statement.

“That defensive statement, if he chooses to write it, will be attached to the original recall petition,” Baird said.

“I am to present that to the chairman of the recall committee. At that point, they have to get the signatures of at least 15 percent of the registered voters.”

The recall committee then has 60 days to obtain the signatures of 15 percent, or 205 of the 1,368 registered voters in the city.

Recall committee chair Bob Carter said Monday said his group did everything by the book.

“We have followed the law and the supervisor of elections has approved the petition moving it to the next phase,” Carter said. “We will proceed in accordance with the law and expect to have a successful recall in spite of clever legal maneuvering.”

But Harrison writes in his complaint against the petition that the charges made by the recall committee are “so vague and ambiguous that it does not furnish plaintiff (Stoltzfus) fair, reasonable and adequate notice of the charges alleged as grounds for recall, such that he is unable to frame an appropriate defensive statement.”

The lawsuit names Carter, Baird and Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Bob Sweat as defendants.

No one knows just when a ruling might come.

In the first round, which was just certified, the recall committee needed the signatures of 10 percent, or 137 of the registered voters. They actually gathered 247 signatures of which 214 were verified by the supervisor of elections – 11 more than they needed.

If the petition is allowed to go forward and if the next round is certified it would result in a recall election “no sooner than 30 days after a five-day notification period.”

City Clerk Alice Baird said she hasn’t been told what she should do while waiting for a ruling from the Circuit Court.

Stoltzfus is also facing complaints lodged against him with the Florida Commission on Ethics.

Filed by Anna Maria property owner John Cagnina, the complaint reads, in part:

“Stoltzfus conspired with others to deceive citizens and bring financial harm to the City of Anna Maria by encouraging potentially harmful and expensive legal action against the city while hiding his own involvement.”

Legal Consultant Michael Barfield, working on behalf of Pine Avenue Restoration, LLLC, made a public records request of Stoltzfus, which resulted in the release of more than a thousand e-mails sent to or received by the commissioner.

In one e-mail exchange, Stoltzfus offers to help finance a lawsuit against the city filed on behalf of William and Barbara Nally as long as his name could be kept out of it. Members of the recall committee, as well as Cagnina, have said this exchange was one of the onerous and troubling to them.

Harrison’s complaint says that the charge “fails to allege how Stoltzfus supposedly ‘conspired’ and with whom, how citizens were allegedly deceived and about what, how the unspecified ‘legal action’ would result in ‘financial harm’ to the City or how ‘expensive’ such undescribed legal action might be.”

Harrison goes on to say that that claim of the legal action by the recall committee is a statement of opinion and not an allegation of fact.

Stoltzfus and his attorney maintain that he has done nothing wrong. There has not yet been a ruling from any court or the Ethics Commission finding the commissioner guilty of any of the charges.

The lawsuit names Carter, Baird and Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Bob Sweat as defendants.

No one knows just when a ruling might come.

In the first round, which was just certified, the recall

committee needed the signatures of 10 percent, or 137 of the registered voters. They actually gathered 247 signatures of which 214 were verified by the supervisor of elections – 11 more than they needed.

If the petition is allowed to go forward and if the next round is certified it would result in a recall election “no sooner than 30 days after a five-day notification period.”

Baird said she hasn’t been told what she should do while waiting for a ruling from the Circuit Court.

Stoltzfus is also facing complaints lodged against him with the Florida Commission on Ethics.

Filed by Anna Maria property owner John Cagnina, the complaint reads, in part:

“Stoltzfus conspired with others to deceive citizens and bring financial harm to the City of Anna Maria by encouraging potentially harmful and expensive legal action against the city while hiding his own involvement.”

Legal Consultant Michael Barfield, working on behalf of Pine Avenue Restoration, LLLC, made a public records request of Stoltzfus, which resulted in the release of more than a thousand e-mails sent to or received by the commissioner.

In one e-mail exchange, Stoltzfus offers to help finance a lawsuit against the city filed on behalf of William and Barbara Nally as long as his name could be kept out of it. Members of the recall committee, as well as Cagnina, have said this exchange was one of the onerous and troubling to them.

Harrison’s complaint says that the charge “fails to allege how Stoltzfus supposedly ‘conspired’ and with whom, how citizens were allegedly deceived and about what, how the unspecified ‘legal action’ would result in ‘financial harm’ to the City or how ‘expensive’ such undescribed legal action might be.”

Harrison goes on to say that that claim of the legal action by the recall committee is a statement of opinion and not an allegation of fact.

Stoltzfus and his attorney maintain that he has done nothing wrong. There has not yet been a ruling from any court or the Ethics Commission finding the commissioner guilty of any of the charges.

CORTEZ – Commercial fishermen plan to meet with law firms this week to discuss possible litigation against BP over the oil spill resulting from the April 20 accident at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

They also are considering BP’s claims process as an alternative to litigation because law firms would charge one third of any recovery, according to Karen Bell, office manager at A.P. Bell Fish Co. in Cortez.

The meetings are Tuesday, May 25 at 7 p.m. and Thursday, May 27 at 7 p.m., both at the Florida Maritime Museum at Cortez, 4415 119th St. W.

“Fishermen stand to lose a substantial amount of income,” said attorney Lewis Hall, a shareholder with Sarasota law firm Williams Parker Harrison Dietz and Getzen, which is accepting and referring oil spill clients within a group of 12 firms from Texas to Florida.

The BP claims process, while potentially faster than litigation, does not take into account negligence on the part of the company and its potential co-defendants, who could be liable for punitive damages in a lawsuit, he said.

“Some have raised the question as to whether this was preventable and whether there was gross negligence on BP’s part. Their failsafes all failed,” Hall said. If punitive damages were awarded, “People are not going to walk away with multimillion dollars, but it’s possible that they might walk away with more than they lost.”

The law firm is not leaning towards a class action lawsuit because fishermen, hoteliers, marinas, restaurants and other impacted businesses are so different from each other, he said.

Whether BP and other companies associated with the rig – including Transocean Ltd., Halliburton, Anadarko Petroleum and Mitsui and Co. – will have enough money to pay all claims is unknown.

“They have $100 billion in assets. If they can contain it and find a solution, maybe they are good for it,” he said.

The law firm will charge a maximum of one third of the recovery as a fee, he said, adding that standard fees sometimes approach 45 percent if cases are appealed.

Proving a claim requires showing a cause and effect relationship between the oil spill and the lost revenue, he said. Some indications are whether industrywide bookings show a marked decrease during the oil spill time frame. Intervening factors such as hurricanes, red tide and the economy could be used as defenses to the claims.

Coastal businesses should be prepared to produce evidence when making claims for damages incurred as a result of the spill, according to the Florida Department of Financial Services.

Evidence could include previous earnings history such as room bookings or catch statistics, detailed records of lost revenues, such as cancelled reservations, and customer contact information and comments.

ANNA MARIA – As engineers and tourism officials entered the second month of battle against oil gushing from the Deepwater Horizon rig, the spill caused an occasional oily odor on Anna Maria Island beaches and the first local economic casualty of the disaster.

While oil seeped into the loop current last week, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service closed 19 percent of federal Gulf waters to fishing, causing the postponement of two Memorial Day weekend fishing tournaments based at Anna Maria’s Galati Yacht Sales.

At the same time, armed with $50 million in tourism marketing funds, the state’s tourism agency added real time webcams to its VISIT FLORIDA Web site to show that Florida is open for business, as did the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, promoting images of the Island’s spotless beaches on its Web site.

The Gulf closures caused Cortez commercial fishing boats to change locations to avoid off limits areas, but the oil has not yet affected the fish or fouled the boats, said Glen Brooks, president of the Gulf Fisherman’s Association.

However, fishermen are concerned that the oil will have a long-term impact on fisheries, including stone crabs, which made a poor showing this season. Stone crab production was down by half at A.P. Bell Fish Co. in Cortez, primarily due to an unusually long, cold winter.

Anticipating the worst, some fishermen are considering making claims under BP’s compensation program, or suing the company.

They also wonder what effect the oil might have on red tide. A water sample collected by state researchers alongshore of Sarasota County last week contained background concentrations of the organism, which can kill fish and make people sick. No red tide was found off Manatee County.

Mote Marine Laboratory scientists launched the first of three six-foot-long underwater robots, usually used to seek red tide, to patrol the Gulf of Mexico for oil last week. A fluorometer on board will measure the light emitted from the water, which will appear fluorescent in the presence of oil and chemical dispersants.

The dispersants break down the oil, which eventually forms into tar balls, several of which were discovered at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park in Key West last week. The U.S. Coast Guard determined that they were unrelated to the Deepwater Horizon.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered BP to reduce its use of dispersants due to their toxicity. According to the Material Safety Data Sheet for Corexit, the brand name of two dispersants used by BP, the chemicals may cause eye and skin irritation and are harmful when ingested or inhaled.

Dispersants contain surfactants that make the oil sink below the water’s surface, diluting, but not eliminating it.

In 1998, Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles and the state Cabinet decided against allowing a bitumen-and-surfactant mixture called Orimulsion to be imported from Venezuela through Tampa Bay to the FPL power plant in Parrish because of concerns that it would be impossible to remove from the water if a tanker or pipeline leaked it into the Gulf.

Manatee County Administrator Ed Hunzeker has replied to a letter from Stavros Tingirdes, attorney for Café on the Beach, regarding the county’s process in approving United Park Services as the concessionaire for Manatee Public Beach.

In his letter, Tingirdes maintained the following:

• He did not have an adequate opportunity to address statements in Hunzeker’s memo to county commissioners and those made at the commission meeting prior to their vote.

• The compensation offer made by the owners of UPS was not financially superior that made by the owners of Café principals, and they were not given the same opportunity to negotiate with the county.

• The Café’s capital improvement offer was not inferior to UPS’ offer.

• The board could reconsider its vote at its next meeting.

On May 19 Hunzeker replied that:

• The agenda materials were available online on May 5, six days prior to the meeting and that Tingirdes could have discussed his concerns with county officials or he could have made a written response to commissioners.

• Revenue projections show that UPS’ offer was higher and that “the final numbers included in the final agreement were the result of hard bargaining on the part of the county’s procurement staff and during the negotiation process.”

• UPS had more to suggest in capital improvements.

• The RFP stated, “The proposal will serve as a basis for negotiating an agreement” and that it has been executed and if the board voted to reconsider it, the county would be abrogating its agreement with UPS.

On May 21, Tingirdes replied that the board did not get all the facts and “that the commission’s approval of the purchasing department’s recommendation is not final until the time for a motion for reconsideration has passed.” He said that motion could be heard at the board’s next regular meeting on May 25.

Nearly 20 years ago, a younger Larry White took the reins of Manatee County’s tourism bureau from director Terri Kiel, who had been accused of fraud, and a younger Sun reporter, then a Bradenton Herald reporter, noticed a marked contrast.

While Kiel had been bright and chatty, White was calm and deliberate, a Walter Cronkite-type, with the newsman’s radio background and affinity for flight.

Earlier this month, at age 75, White parachuted from 10,000 feet onto Coquina Beach to celebrate National Tourism Week and Anna Maria Island’s clean beaches in the face of the worst oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico’s history.

Next month, he will retire as executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), leaving CVB executive manager Elliott Falcione, a 17-year veteran of the office, in charge of the shop.

Twenty years ago, Anna Maria Island’s international tourists were mostly from Canada; now they’re from Germany and the United Kingdom. Twenty years ago, few, if any, minority visitors and single women came to the Island; now, marketing campaigns are designed to attract urban black travelers and girlie getaway tourists. Twenty years ago, most visitors were retired and sedentary; now, they’re in their early 50s and active, seeking kayak, bicycle and boat rentals.

The tourist season has changed on White’s watch, too. The three-month winter high season is still the Island’s bread and butter, but other mini-seasons have developed, with careful marketing efforts, to bolster the economy during the rest of the year.

More is better in White’s world, and despite the squeeze locals feel during high season, the CVB has never been “too successful” in attracting more tourists to the Island, he said, since there has seldom, if ever, been a time when all the hotels are booked to capacity simultaneously.

More is better in the tourist business, not only for hoteliers, but for the increased tourist tax revenues they feed the CVB, which uses the funds to attract more visitors here.

When he came to Manatee County, the tourism marketing budget was $250,000, he said. Now it’s $2 million.

In 1991, marketing efforts amounted to a tri-fold brochure, a billboard north of Daytona Beach on Interstate 95 and a photo composite advertisement. Now a glossy visitor guide is available in print and online, where visitors can click to compare hotels and make reservations. The bureau, once in a tiny Tourist Information Center that served orange juice off Interstate 75, now maintains offices in the Manatee Convention and Civic Center, London and Berlin.

And nobody talks about spring break.

It took one sunrise at the Anna Maria Pier to convince White to take the job and one promise to the Manatee County Commission to seal the deal: never, never, never would he sell Anna Maria Island as a spring break destination. His years as tourism director in Panama City Beach, part of the Panhandle’s famed redneck Riviera, taught him that students jumping from hotel balconies into pools was no way to run a tourist destination.

Spending tourism marketing dollars on events that attract primarily local residents, such as the Pittsburgh Pirates, is another of his pet peeves. He was not optimistic about chipping in with Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota on its Ringling International Arts Festival set for October until a spinoff festival was developed for Manatee County, Festival sARTee (Sarasota/Art/Manatee). Now the two historically adversarial counties may begin to overcome their age-old grudge over the naming of the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport and work together on tourism marketing, he said.

White is leaving at a critical time, as the oil spill spreads in the Gulf of Mexico.

But while the CVB has emergency funds to rehabilitate the destination in the eyes of travelers should a hurricane, red tide, oil spill or other disaster strike, he would not divert the marketing funds to install booms to protect the Island even if he could.

“When the first yellow boom is laid down and a tourist sees it, it’s all over,” he said.

White tried to retire once before, but it lasted only three months, after playing daily golf and realizing one morning that he had to play again.

This time around, the former radio host, jazz drummer and Monet connoisseur has a different idea - after years of traveling to exotic places on business, White plans to return and actually see the sights, becoming, finally, a tourist himself.

No doubt, there will be room in his suitcase for a few Manatee visitor guides.

ANNA MARIA — No one is quite sure how many meetings the city has had on parking over the past eight months. They only know there have been many. Very many.

With precious little progress being made, city officials had yet another meeting recently trying to agree on parking regulations for the residential/office/retail district.

“We just keep going around and around and around in circles, and we never get anywhere,” City Commissioner Dale Woodland said to widespread agreement at the May 13 gathering.

At a previous discussion session, there was some agreement on a plan put forward by City Commissioner John Quam and architect Gene Aubry.

The Quam/Aubry plan considered Pine Avenue as a whole, with parallel parking along the length and angled parking on some of the side streets.

After that meeting, Quam, City Planner Alan Garrett and Public Works Director George McKay measured out both sides of Pine Avenue and assessed the number of parking spaces that would be possible.

“The right of way is 50 feet wide,” Quam said. “There’s 25 feet of pavement. The right of way is between 6.5 and 7.5 feet off the edge of the pavement.”

Quam said they measured 165 potential parking spaces if each property had a driveway.

He said that was 37 spaces more than are currently available for parallel parking on that street.

The latest discussions stemmed from complaints about cars pulling across the sidewalk to enter and exit head-on parking spaces. This situation, critics contend, puts bicyclists and pedestrians at risk.

A safety committee determined there was no current safety risk, but the effort to find a better parking solution persisted.

“If we mandate that all parking has to be on-site with driveways and spaces for turning, we’ll end up with a series of strip centers and no green space,” said Commissioner Chuck Webb. “I don’t think we want that.”

Frank Pytel, a member of the planning and zoning board, disagreed.

“But we can’t give up the right of way. That’s public property, and I’m worried that once you give that up, it’ll set a precedent,” he said.

“Don’t kill me, but I say put it on the property, and if that means the buildings have to be smaller, so be it. I know that’s not a popular position,” said Margaret Jenkins, another P&Z member.

A third board member, Sandy Mattick, said the chance to envision Pine Avenue as an entire entity was not something to pass up.

“We have an opportunity here that will not come again once this is all developed,” she noted.

In the end, the panel asked for drawings showing how the parking might be handled on each particular type of lot.

“I think we each have a different idea of what we’re talking about,” Woodland said, “and we need to all be on the same page.”

Woodland also asked if Dan Burden, who is considered an expert on walkable communities, could be asked to attend the next meeting.

That next discussion has been scheduled for June 3 at 6 p.m.