The Tampa Bay Estuary has 40,294 acres of seagrass, exceeding by 2,000 acres the goal set by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program 20 years ago to restore seagrass to near-1950s levels, according to the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s 2014 seagrass survey.

The survey also showed an increase of more than 5,650 acres between 2012 and 2014.

“This is a remarkable achievement, made even more so when you consider that the bay region has grown by more than 1 million people in the last 15 years,” said Holly Greening, director of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, in a press release. “This kind of environmental recovery is a living testament to the collective efforts of all of us working together – the cities and counties, the private sector and the citizens who treasure the bay.”

Private sector industries joined in the Tampa Bay Nitrogen Management Consortium with local governments, community groups and citizens to implement more than $500 million in nutrient reduction projects throughout the watershed over the past two decades. The result is a nitrogen load less than half of what it was 30 years ago, and bay water clarity levels similar to 1950s levels, Greening said, adding that with growth accelerating, “it will be a challenge to sustain this momentum and these types of gains in the coming years.”

“This type of growth and recovery is virtually unheard of in major metropolitan coastal areas around the country, and we have it, right here in Tampa and Sarasota bays,” Charlie Hunsicker, director of the Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Department, wrote county commissioners last week in an e-mail. “Like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, a healthy bay seagrass population portends successful treatment strategies for wastewater, stormwater and atmospheric sources of nitrogen and other nutrients and pollutants.”

Data for the survey was collected by scientists with SWFWMD’s Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) Program, which records seagrass coverage in the bay every two years using aerial photographs and ground-level observations.

Seagrass is a critical barometer of the bay’s health because it requires relatively clean water to flourish. Seagrass beds shelter and support juvenile fish, shrimp, crabs, marine worms and other bay creatures. Spotted sea trout, sea horses and bay scallops are among the most well-known residents of the seagrass beds.

 

HOLMES BEACH – City commissioners discussed various ideas to limit the construction of homes with four or more bedroom/sleeping rooms, which are currently the subject of a moratorium.

At a recent meeting they had discussed two options – to limit vacation rentals to three bedrooms and one sleeping room or four bedrooms and one sleeping room.

Chair Judy Titsworth said she had spoken to a builder who said builders that he checked with “were all fine with a three bedroom max on each side for a duplex and four bedroom max for a single family home.”

Both Commissioner Carol Soustek and Marvin Grossman said they would like more input from builders. “These builders are Island people and they do build resort houses,” Titsworth noted. “It is their bread and butter, but they also have to live here.”

Commissioner Jean Peelen said there are two approaches to the issue – limit the number of people who can stay in a rental house, which she felt was “an enforcement nightmare,” or limit the total number of rooms allowed in a rental house, which “will limit the number of people who can stay there.”

A combination

If the city limits the number of rooms, “will people have great big rooms with lots of beds?” Titsworth asked. “We could look at the size of bedrooms. Do we need to look at LAR (living area ratio)?

“It’s a combination of looking at the size of rooms, the number of rooms and the size of the whole house,” Peelen said. “We have eight bedroom houses that fit LAR.”

“They fit LAR because we didn’t expect them to shrink the size of all the other rooms,” Titsworth pointed out.

City Attorney Patricia Petruff agreed that a combination is a good approach, but added that the prospect of having a “great room that takes up an entire floor” is a concern.

However, she pointed out, “If we told people that they could build to a certain square footage under LAR as long as they comply with all of our codes and ordinances, I’m struggling with the idea that we’re going to tell them where the solid walls will be.”

Building Official Jim McGuinness suggested adding to the vacation rental ordinance a definition of bedroom that includes the words “physically separable from the main area of the home.”

Grossman said he is concerned about the future of the Island and pointed out, “We live in a residential community that welcomes visitors. These six- to eight-bedroom homes are not what a family would buy. We want to make sure the houses are livable for the people who want to live here.”

Mayor Bob Johnson said he would take the suggestions and comments to staff members, who are working on a recommendation.

BRADENTON BEACH –Leading up to Tuesday’s recall election, many questions were raised about campaign signs.

In order to fully comply with campaign rules, Vice Mayor Jack Clarke amended his signs by placing stickers on them that added his birth name, John, and the missing word ‘for.’

Some of Mayor Bill Shearon’s signs were amended to include the word ‘re-elect’ instead of ‘elect.’

Questions also were raised about signs in public rights of way, which is illegal; signs on property belonging to private business owners, which is legal; and a Shearon sign placed at the Annie Silver Community Center that was removed because non-profit organizations are prohibited from endorsing political candidates.

The big mistake

The most notable violation occurred last Tuesday and Wednesday, when Shearon supporter John Arcadi illegally parked his Cadillac Escalade truck at the intersection of Cortez Road and Gulf Drive with an oversized Shearon sign mounted in the back of the pick-up.

This violation of the city sign ordinance resulted in numerous complaints to the Bradenton Beach Police Department, and also put absentee property owners Melvin and Vera Miller unknowingly in non-compliance with city code.

“My phone blew up yesterday,” Police Chief Sam Speciale said during Thursday’s city commission/department head meeting, which occurred one day after the matter was resolved.

Speciale said the incident also generated significant attention on Facebook.

“In order to have a sign like that, the only permissible way to do it if is if the truck is in motion, but the truck was standing still,” Speciale said.

According to city ordinance, free standing vehicle and trailer signs are prohibited and only allowed on moving vehicles.

Speciale said code enforcement’s initial efforts to contact Arcadi by phone and a visit to his home were unsuccessful.

“The complaints kept coming in. so we called the owner of the property who told us no one had permission to put the vehicle there. They were only given permission to have political signs.”

Before the department head meeting, Speciale said Scenic Waves Committee co-chair Carl Parks was the person who contacted the Millers about placing campaign signs on their property. He also said two other Shearon supporters were observed a few days earlier trying to mount the sign atop wooden posts at that same location and told to stop.

As for how the matter was resolved, Speciale told commissioners, “At the end of the day there was a fluorescent orange sticker on it (the truck) stating that the owner of the property gave the city permission to remove the vehicle because that would bring the property back in compliance.”

By 7 p.m. Wednesday night, Arcadi’s truck and Shearon’s sign were gone.

“It wasn’t that it was a political sign on the truck. If it would have been a car wash sig it still would have been a violation, and we still would have done what we did,” Speciale explained.

Shearon’s only comment was, “It is what it is.”

In regard to unrelated complaints about campaign sign verbiage, Speciale said, “That is an election issue and a civil issue and goes to the elections office. That is not a code enforcement complaint.”

Politics at play?

During Thursday’s meeting, Commissioner Janie Robertson mentioned magnetic campaign signs used by Commissioner Jan Vosburgh last fall.

“What about political signs on the side of a car? Jan had signs on her car,” Robertson said.

“The ordinance exempts magnetic, vinyl or painted letters on the side of a vehicle,” said Building Official Steve Gilbert.

Vosburgh took offense to Robertson’s comment and reminded her that the complaints about her magnetic signs had no merit.

Robertson has endorsed Shearon in campaign literature distributed to city voters and at least one handwritten note from her described Clarke as “dangerous.”

Robertson lives across the street from where the non-compliant Shearon sign was placed and her lack of concern was questioned by one voter.

“The mayor must know this is a violation of our city sign ordinance,” Steve Schewe wrote in his Facebook post.

After mentioning a recent incident in which Robertson questioned non-compliant Bridge Street Market signs, Schewe wrote, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

His post concluded with the observation that Shearon’s illegal sign was removed after thousands of passing motorists already saw it.

Julia Rodriguez wrote, “His violation and disrespect has just sealed the deal on my vote.”

BRADENTON BEACH – According to campaign treasurer’s reports for the period of May 2 through May 14, Vice Mayor Jack Clarke received a total of $5,100 in campaign contributions and Mayor Bill Shearon received $5,050.

An additional in-kind contribution for sign mounting materials provided by Tjet Martin and valued at $40.51 brought the two candidate’s fund-raising totals to a virtual tie.

As of May 14, Shearon spent $4,461 in his efforts to retain the mayor’s seat he was elected to in November 2013, compared to the $3,909 Clarke spent in an effort to unseat Shearon and serve the remaining six months of his mayoral term.

During the most recent reporting period, Clarke received an additional $600 in the form of two contributions; one from the Drift In of Manatee County and another from city resident Steve Schewe.

The in-kind contribution Shearon received was the only donation he took in during the latest reporting period.

Most of Shearon’s money was raised during the reporting period of April 25 through May 1, when he received a total of $4,650 from John and LeeAnne Metz, Carl Parks, Marie Pracht, Heather, Richard and Kristine Bennett, Barbara Schelin, Bits of Beads Jewelry, Hillary Pacifici and Janet Thompson.

During that same period, Clarke received a total of $2,500 from the Bridge Tender Inn, The Fish Hole, Silver Surf Gulf Resort and Bridgewalk Partners LLC.

Final campaign reports will be submitted after the election cycle has concluded.

When Shearon ran against incumbent Mayor John Shaughnessy in 2013, he spent $1,800 on his campaign. He supplied $1,700 in loans to himself in addition to the non-monetary in-kind contributions received.

When Clarke ran unopposed for his commission seat in 2013, he spent a total of $100 on his campaign.

HOLMES BEACH – Commissioners approved on first reading last week an ordinance establishing a moratorium on building two swimming pools on residential lots of record.

Both residents and contractors have complained about the proposal for one pool per lot, and one resident asked commissioners to grandfather those who have already purchased property.

Commissioner Jean Peelen cautioned commissioners about negatively affecting long-time residents, and Commissioner Marvin Grossman agreed with Peelen and said, “I would like to hear from a lot more people.”

Chair Judy Titsworth said they have not made a decision on whether to allow one or two pools per lot, but they need time to discuss the options and make a decision.

Aaron Thomas, who identified himself as an attorney from Tampa at a previous meeting, but said he does not represent anyone in particular, warned commissioners of unintended consequences.

“Some developers will put in one massive pool,” he said. “If you put two rental families in a duplex with one massive pool having fun, it could create a party house.”

Swimming pool contractor Max Powers said, “The two pool thing is kind of ridiculous – one giant pool or two small pools? We live in an Island resort community and people want to have a swimming pool.”

Powers said he has plans for two pools at a duplex and one permit was approved before the moratorium. However, one was delayed due to a property vacation issue and waiting on a city response. He asked them to consider approving the second pool.

Another moratorium on swimming pools with less than 10-foot side and rear yard setbacks was approved in April.

The volunteers of the Cortez Village Historical Society are beginning the last phase of the work of the Cortez Cultural Center Project – choosing items for display and building cases and stands to put them on. The Center will feature our Cortez family life and the veterans who preserved it. Today, between Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, we begin to plan how we will honor the mothers of Cortez from 1888 until now. They have created the family lives of the villagers. Memorial Day will bring our thoughts to the 66 men and women who served our country in World War II.

In addition to these two days we will celebrate another day in May. This is the 100th anniversary of the birth of our village historian, Doris “Toodle” Adams Green. She spent hours and hours researching and writing our story for us in her book, “Fog Comin’ In.” We will celebrate her birthday on May 28. She has identified our mothers and our veterans.

We will feature the mothers who served the schools as they organized the Mother’s Club (1918 -1921) and the Cortez PTA; the mothers who taught the children’s Sunday school classes in the churches; the mothers who worked at the canning plant at Tropicana, the restaurants and as house cleaners, in the local laundry operated by Julia Taylor. Some took in washing or boarders. It was mothers who harvested the scallops during the summer and cut and packaged the mullet roe for export.

The mothers formed the Women’s Auxiliary to support the Cortez volunteer Fire Department from 1958 until 1994. We remember our mothers most who sewed our dresses, patched our pants, supervised our school work and fried fish six nights a week during the Great Depression. They raised the chickens, gathered the eggs and milked the cows. It was the mothers who worked at the post office and the grocery store and the offices of the wholesale fish companies. They worked on the fish docks in the absence of the men serving during the war. Truly we will be honoring mothers in our Cultural Center.

Doris identified the 66 men and women who served. We have only five surviving today. These are: Wyman Coarsey in Cortez; Albert G. Few, Bradenton, our fighter pilot who flew 83 missions; C.D. Adams in Sebastian, Fla.; Cleve Adams in California; and Virgil Mora in North Carolina. Cleve Adams was at Pearl Harbor and was asked to accompany home the body of Bridger Watson, the one man from Bradenton who died that dreadful Pearl Harbor Day.

On Memorial Day we give special thanks to those who died during the war. These are Warren Bell, Clayton Adams, J.M. Campbell, Leroy Wilson and W.H. “Sonny” Posey.

Two veterans, C.D. Adams and John Bender, were captured and held in a German prison camp for months. Virgil Mora was on a ship that was sunk. He was not injured. Neriah Taylor’s ship was partly destroyed, and he received a back injury.

My writing this brings to mind the expression, “It takes a village.” Cortez was such a village. I recall that the young boys collected rubber tires, even those that had been thrown overboard. We teen girls sold war bonds to all who had $1,000 to invest. Letters were written week by week. News was shared as to where our boys and girls were. News from radios and newspapers were shared by neighbors. Prayers went up asking God to bring them home safely. Food was rationed for us but there were no complaints. Money was sent to the troops. Boxes of cookies and hand-made sweaters were mailed.

Our Cortez Cultural Center exhibits will enable us to give credit to the mothers who created our family life and to the 66 men and women who preserved it for us by the sacrifices they made.