BRADENTON BEACH – Saturday night marked the ceremonial lighting of the Bridge Street Christmas tree, with former Bradenton Beach Mayor and City Commissioner Jack Clarke serving as the guest of honor.

The 14-foot Douglas fir that sits in the Bridge Street Market lot features a turquoise, lime green and white mermaid theme designed by Bridge Street Interiors/Mermaid Haven owner Debbie Myers and decorated by Myers and her husband, Matt.

“We’ve got over 1,000 feet of ribbon, 750 large bulbs and I made the mermaid. We’re doing a mermaid theme this year because we’ve got a new product in our store called Mermaid Life, and we have some live mermaids coming for our Christmas open house,” Myers said.

When Myer’s granddaughter, Paisley Snyder, was asked to evaluate her grandmother’s efforts, she said, “Good.”

A four-foot wooden base provides the tree with additional elevation, and the tree was once again donated by Island Time and Bridge Street Bistro owners Bill Herlihy, Keith Daum and John Hardesty.

When the early evening festivities began, Bridge Street Merchants Association President Angela Rodocker welcomed the crowd gathering along Bridge Street and said, “We’ve never had this many people at our tree lighting before.”

The Magic of Manatee Sweet Adelines women’s a cappella chorus then performed a series of holiday numbers that included “Jingle Bells” and “Away in the Manger.”

Before calling on Clarke, Rodocker asked Santa to step forward so the crowd could say hello.

Santa let out a hearty laugh and said, “Merry Christmas.”

When asked to deliver a message to the youngsters, Santa said, “Hopefully they all write a letter, and I’ll receive it at the North Pole so we can do something for them on Christmas morning.”

Rodocker invited Santa to pay a return visit during the Christmas on Bridge Street event taking place Saturday, Dec 19.

“I’ll try, but I’ve got a lot of work at the North Pole,” Santa answered.

Rodocker then introduced Clarke, who said, “It’s truly and honor and a privilege to be here tonight, to be invited by the Bridge Street Merchants to do the ceremonial lighting of the tree. What we see here is the result of a lot of long and hard work by all our local merchants. Momentum has been established and can only get bigger and better.”

The tree lights sparkled to life as Clarke said “I wish you all here tonight Merry Christmas and God bless America.”

Afterwards, the Sweet Adelines performed again, followed by a special outdoor screening of “Miracle On 34th Street.”

Outside the market lot, Bridge Street was illuminated from end to end by the holiday lights and decorations provided annually by the Bridge Street Merchants.

Citing “catastrophic changes” in the natural gas market, Port Dolphin Energy LLC has abandoned its plans to build both a liquid natural gas port in 100 feet of water 28 miles off Anna Maria Island and a 42-mile-long underwater pipeline to Port Manatee.

“Since the inception of Port Dolphin’s plan for the Deepwater Port, the natural gas industry has substantially changed,” lawyers for the subsidiary of Norway-based Höegh LNG wrote in a motion to vacate the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) certificate allowing the construction and operation of the onshore portion of the project.

“These changes resulted in the United States becoming an exporter rather than an importer of natural gas. As a result of these changes, Port Dolphin has been unsuccessful in its efforts to negotiate commercial contracts for the proposed Deepwater Port,” the motion states. “As a result of the catastrophic changes in circumstances, Port Dolphin is abandoning its plans for the Deepwater Port and all of the associated construction.”

The plans included building a submersible port, designed to be visible from the Island only while liquid natural gas (LNG) tankers made deliveries. The tankers would have converted LNG into vapor, then offloaded it into a pipeline built by Port Dolphin for distribution to Port Manatee, where the gas would have been delivered to energy suppliers that never materialized.

At the company’s request, FERC vacated Port Dolphin’s certificate, which had required completion of the pipeline and full operation by December 2011. Port Dolphin also has requested that the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) approve its request to surrender its deepwater port license, obtained in 2009.

During the permitting process, officials from Manatee County and the town of Longboat Key expressed concern that the proposed pipeline would make underwater sand resources unavailable for beach renourishment on Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key. The proposed underwater pipeline path, originally slated to traverse the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve, was later relocated to a site where it would have crossed beach renourishment sand reserves, making them inaccessible.

An agreement among Port Dolphin, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission required Port Dolphin to pay Manatee County and Longboat Key up to $5.5 million each to fund the removal of sand from the pipeline path prior to construction.

The project also drew sharp criticism from environmental groups including ManaSota-88, which charged that a two-volume environmental impact statement completed by the U.S. Coast Guard underestimated the project’s environmental impacts on wetlands, navigation, fisheries, sea turtles, migratory birds and marine mammals including dolphins, which would have experienced interference with their sonar navigation from the construction noise from Port Dolphin, according to the report.

The Coast Guard issued a 12-page correction on the report listing 10 errors, including the overestimation of submerged white sand available for beach renourishment.

Other environmental concerns voiced at public hearings included impacts on water quality from construction, impacts on water temperature from cooling water discharges and accidental LNG spills.

BRADENTON – Billy O’Connor, the man known for his pranks and sense of humor, died at 12:35 a.m. Nov. 27 in the hospital following a stroke.

O’Connor, who lived in Cortez, teamed with his identical twin brother, George, who lived on the Island, to start the O’Connor Bowling Challenge more than 20 years ago. George explained how that began.

“We decided to go bowling one day and we had so much fun, he suggested we hold a tournament and give the money we raised to The (Anna Maria Island Community) Center,” he said. “It drew hundreds of people off the Island and really became a fun way to raise money. It was his pride and joy.”

Peggi Davenport, co-owner of Duffy’s Tavern, remembers how Billy found something for her to do one year when she couldn’t bowl.

“I had a cut on my thumb and told him I couldn’t bowl,” she said. “He gave me a bunch of raffle tickets and told me to go down on the lanes and sell them,” she said. “It was fun teasing bowlers to get them to buy tickets.”

Billy lived a fun-loving life. He was married, but had no kids. George said his brother went out the way he wanted.

“He started having health problems, and I told him, ‘You need to take care of yourself,’” he said. “Billy told me he didn’t want to be a strain on anybody, and he wanted to go without prolonging it.”

George said he moved to the area from Buffalo, N.Y., 35 years ago and Billy moved here five years later. He said it was rough being a family man with kids and having an identical twin brother who was single and chased women.

“One woman came to me and said, ‘You should be ashamed of yourself cheating on your wife and driving a convertible when your wife is raising your kids,’” he said. “I told her I had an identical twin brother, but I don’t think she believed me.”

Davenport said Billy had a great personality.

“All he had to do was come into the room and laugh that laugh,” she said. “I remember one year he signed all of his Christmas cards, ‘Billy, your idol.’”

George remembered a joke he played on a boss of his when he worked as a bartender at Pete Reynard’s.

“There was a popcorn popper in the restaurant, and he popped all of the corn and put it into this guy’s boat,” he said. “Pretty soon the boat was full of seagulls who ate it and left droppings all over the boat.”

Joe Hutchinson, another friend, said he remembered Billy as a wonderful man.

As for George, he will remember the good times.

“I’m going to miss him so much,” he said. “There was a sign that an artist painted that said so much about how he lived. It said, ‘Being the life of the party is going to be the death of me.’”

HOLMES BEACH – City commissioners continued revising their vacation rental ordinance at last week’s City Commission work session by going through each section.

Human services Analyst Mary Buonagura asked why there are separate definitions of bedroom and sleeping room, and City Attorney Patricia Petruff said the definition of sleeping room contains the safety measures the owner must comply with such as having an emergency escape route and installing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Commissioners were asked to determine the date owners must submit an application for a vacation rental certificate, and Petruff suggested 45 to 60 days after the approval of the ordinance.

Commissioner Marvin Grossman asked whether pools should be inspected more than once a year if the use is great.

“It could be burdensome,” Petruff replied. ‘It may be going to too far.”

Petruff asked why the owner or vacation rental agent must keep a contemporaneous log of pool inspections. Police Chief Bill Tokajer it just means they must show proof that it was inspected.

Parking problem

Chair Judy Titsworth questioned the provision that vacation rental occupants are prohibited from parking in the right of way, and Tokajer said it is unenforceable.

“Are we going have to go up to every car that’s parked near a rental and run the tags and try to find out who’s the owner and if they are a guest?” he asked. “It’s over reaching.”

Commissioners took out that language and added that vacation rental occupants are required to park on the vacation rental property.

Buonagura asked commissioners how to enforce a provision requiring vacation rental occupants to obtain a temporary use permit for weddings, wedding receptions, live music venues and gatherings with more than 30 guests or “similar activities disruptive to the residential character of the neighborhood.”

“The noise ordinance should govern what’s going on,” she said.

Titsworth said it is “overstepping,” and Tokajer said the police department has had no problem with such gatherings. The language was removed.

During a discussion of fees such as for application or re-inspection, some felt that they should remove some categories such as the change of authorized agent fee and the non-conforming status determination fee.

However, Petruff objected and said the non-conforming status fee “is a big deal. We should not do it for free.

“We have a lot of situations where people have made interior renovations without a permit that our city doesn’t know about or will not know about until it becomes an issue, and that’s where this comes into play.”

Regarding the change of agent fee, she said that some people change agents three or four times in a year.

Commissioners asked staff to review the fee section.

Violations and penalties

Petruff said she plans to rewrite the section on violations and penalties, and Buonagura asked Code Enforcement Officer John Thomas what is an irreversible violation. Thomas said an oil spill, destroying mangroves or seagrapes or other serious acts.

Mayor Bob Johnson pointed out, “We’re talking about violating this ordinance, not code enforcement and policing the city. We already have regulations for that.”

The mayor questioned sections regarding legal non-conformities and converting legal non-conforming residences to vacation rental units, and asked. “What are we trying to do? How do these sections relate to the nature of a vacation rental certificate?

“If I have a non-conforming house and I don’t have enough parking, I should be able to convert that and rent it,” Petruff replied. “The burden is on that person to prove that they are a legal non-conformity. Right now we don’t have a mechanism to allow that to happen.”

Other changes made by commissioners:

• Clarified that hard-wired smoke detectors are required for new construction only;

• Removed a requirement that a pool fence must be constructed of vinyl acoustical material;

• Agreed to look at the language in Anna Maria’s sign ordinance regarding the placement of rental signs with the possibility of adding it to the city’s sign ordinance.

 

PALMA SOLA CAUSEWAY – Joe and Becky Ketarkus and their 10 adopted children arrived in Manatee County by Ford Transit van, the only vehicle large enough to hold them all. They were there to fulfill their daughter’s dream, thanks to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Four-year-old Tess Ketarkus has survived several operations for congenital heart disease and she faces more. But there is confidence that her story will have an ending as happy as their trek to the Palma Sola Causeway on Thanksgiving morning.

“When the Make-a-Wish people asked Tess what she wanted to do, she said she wanted to stay at the beach and ride a horse,” Joe Ketarkus said. “They sent the request to the Make-a-Wish branch in Sarasota.”

“We chose Anna Maria Island because of its beautiful beaches and the existence of this business (Beachhorses.com) that allows people to ride horses on the beach,” said Sarasota Make-a-Wish representative Rebecca Blitz. “We found a place that made unicorn horns and decided to let her ride a horse first and surprise her with the unicorn later.”

In fact, they found a pony that also sported a unicorn horn and when Tess returned from her horseback ride with her parents and siblings, they took her off the horse and called her over to where the unicorns were.

Tess’s eyes widened and she looked at her parents as if she couldn’t believe it. They let her pet the pony before putting her on the larger unicorn named Cloud.

Off they went with Tess on her magical steed. She rode past the onlookers and when someone asked how she liked it, she gave a thumbs-up. She also raised her arm in the air as she rode, posing for the cameras.

Joe Ketarkus said the experience was pretty awesome.

“We’re really been blessed from the doctors and staff at the hospital to everyone we’ve met here and on the Island,” he said. “We had a nice stay on the Island for a week.”

Becky Ketarkus spoke about their huge family.

“We have 10 children; four from the United States, and three each from Ghana, in West Africa, and China,” she said. “When we return home, we’re going adopt another child from China.”

Get on board for the 12th Annual Cortez Yacht Club Lighted Boat Parade, which will sparkle down the Intracoastal Waterway on Saturday, Dec. 19.

Cash prizes will be awarded for the best decorated boat in each category, and the best overall boat will win a $500 grand prize. All boats are welcome to participate in the fun.

The parade will leave from the Seafood Shack in Cortez at 6:30 p.m. Spectators can enjoy the show from the Seafood Shack, the Cortez bridge, the Bridge Street Pier in Bradenton Beach and Coquina Bayside Park.

The entry fee is a toy donation to Toys for Tots. To register, fill out the form in this week’s Sun. The skipper’s meeting is Thursday, Dec. 17, at 7 p.m., at the Seafood Shack.

The event is organized by the Cortez Yacht Club and sponsored by The Anna Maria Island Sun, Gulf Auto Clinic and the Bridge Street Merchants' Association.

HOLMES BEACH – After considerable discussion, city commissioners agreed not to allow any exceptions to the draft ordinance banning pools in front yards.

The issue arose when the building department received an application for one in Seaside Gardens. Residents there signed a petition opposing front yard pools in their neighborhood.

In November, commissioners agreed that they do not want to allow it, but asked the City Planner Bill Brisson to explore the possibility of a special exception.

In last week’s work session, Brisson said he added a section outlining exceptions. He said there is no exception if someone is building a new home, but only for existing homes.

“How do you want to allow this relief to be approved?” he asked. “A special exception, where the commission has written process; or administratively, where you set conditions? These are the details you need to discuss tonight and give me direction.”

“The threshold question is do you wish to have an exception and under what circumstances?” City Attorney Patricia Petruff added. “There are opportunities to reach out to people who truly have a hardship.

“A variance is supposed to be a difficult thing to obtain. A residential lot on three streets could possibly have a hardship (that could qualify for a variance).”

Corner lots

Petruff said that in the past, the city commission changed the code to allow a homeowner on a corner lot to declare which street would be the considered the front yard and which would be considered the side yard.

“However this city commission put it back to where it was (so that both streets are considered front yards),” she said and added that any house built between those code changes is a legal non-conforming structure and the ability to expand it is extremely limited.

Chair Judy Titsworth said she is concerned about homeowners who designed the home to accommodate a pool and “now they have two front yards.”

Commissioner Marvin Grossman said they should not allow them because “they would have to add so many exceptions.”

“It opens up a basket of worms,” Commissioner Carol Soustek declared. “Exceptions put too much burden on the city. I don’t see neighbors wanting a pool right next to their front room.”

Commissioner Pat Morton agreed with Grossman and Soustek, but Titsworth disagreed,

“I don’t see it as a problem,” Titsworth said. “We’re trying to micromanage. Even Longboat Key allows it. I think it can be done tastefully. We could regulate the screening and the size.”

Building Official Jim McGuinness pointed out that currently pools are prohibited in required front yards (the setback) but not in front yards. He asked what to do with the applications he has for front yard pools.

Petruff said all are prohibited by the pool moratorium.

Although the consensus was not to allow front yard pools, Titsworth asked commissioners to reconsider corner lots.

BRADENTON BEACH – It turns out the ethics complaints Bradenton resident Barbara Schelin attempted to file against Mayor Jack Clarke and City Attorney Ricinda Perry were dismissed upon receipt and never acted upon by the Florida Commission on Ethics.

On Sept. 14, Schelin sent numerous documents to the Commission on Ethics alleging Perry and Clarke, who was mayor at the time, violated state Sunshine Law by meeting privately with Anna Maria Oyster Bar owner John Horne when negotiating the terms of the commission-approved lease for three city-owned structures on the Historic Bridge Street Pier.

Schelin informed one media outlet of her intentions, but Clarke and Perry never received formal notification of the complaints, so the specific details remained a mystery to them, the city and the public.

Campaign material distributed by Bill Shearon and Janie Robertson in September and October referred to the alleged ethics complaints, but failed to mention they were submitted to the wrong agency and never deemed legitimate.

The alleged Sunshine violations were then referred to in the lawsuit filed Nov. 20 by Bradenton Beach Marina owners Allan and Michael Bazzy as part of their objections to the sublease agreements Horne entered into with the additional tenants who wish to occupy the two small commercial spaces next to the Oyster Bar restaurant.

Documents revealed

Last week, Commission on Ethics spokesperson Kerrie Stillman said Clarke and Perry never received copies of Schelin’s complaints because the agency never acted on them.

Stillman also provided copies of the documents Schelin submitted and the written response Executive Director Virlindia Doss sent to Schelin on Sept 17.

“I am returning your complaints against Bradenton Beach Mayor Jack Clarke and City Attorney Ricinda Perry, because the Commission on Ethics would not be able to take any action,” Doss’s letter began.

“You assert the mayor, assisted by the city attorney, violated open meetings laws by participating in lease negotiations outside the sunshine. The Commission on Ethics does not have any jurisdiction with respect to allegations of violation of open meetings laws. Those laws carry criminal penalties and are administered through law enforcement and the State Attorney’s offices,” Doss wrote.

“The only statute within the commission’s jurisdiction which could possibly be implicated by your allegations is section 112.313 (6), Florida Statutes: the misuse of office provision. In order to prove a violation, it must be shown that the official corruptly used or attempted to use his or her position or the resources thereof for personal benefit or the benefit of someone else. To be corrupt, an action must be undertaken with wrongful intent and for the purpose of obtaining a benefit which is inconsistent with the proper performance of the official’s public duties.

“Nothing in your material alleges any facts indicating that the mayor or city attorney benefitted as a result of this conduct, or that they had any motive to benefit another other person or entity. Without factual allegations respecting this element, no violation could be found, even if there was a violation of the open meetings laws or some other standard of conduct,” Doss concluded.

The documentation Schelin submitted included a copy of the minutes from the July 23 City Commission meeting, at which Horne and the Oyster Bar were unanimously selected to lease the city-owned restaurant space located on the Pier.

The motion made that day by Vice Mayor Ed Straight directed the mayor and city attorney to negotiate the terms of the lease and bring it back before the commission by Aug. 15.

Accused respond

After reviewing Schelin’s complaints for the first time, Perry said, “The Commission on Ethics correctly determined that Ms. Schelin’s complaint was improperly put before them and that it should be dismissed.”

Clarke said, “The allegations do not fall under the umbrella of responsibility of the Ethics Commission and are baseless on their face.”

Addressing Robertson’s involvement, Clarke said, “Enclosed in the paperwork submitted by Ms. Schelin are copies of handwritten correspondence and e-mails from former commissioner Janie Robertson in support of the unfounded and inappropriate application to the Ethics Commission. Even though this complaint was returned on Sept. 21 as not actionable, the complaint itself was promoted as fact throughout the recent election campaign. This was a successful attempt to further prejudice the electorate by a non-resident of the city so as to mislead the voters of Bradenton Beach, and public records show Ms. Schelin to be a campaign contributor to Mayor Shearon.”