LBK seeks help with pipeline

BRADENTON BEACH – The town manager of Longboat Key took the trip across the bridge to ask this city’s commissioners for help in rerouting a natural gas pipeline in the waters north of Anna Maria Island.

Bruce St. Denis asked city commissioners to write a letter to the U.S. Coast Guard and Florida Congressman Vern Buchannan supporting Longboat’s contention that the Port Dolphin gas pipeline would cut into the area where the best sand for renourishment is located. More...

German TV to feature Anna Maria Island

German television audiences will see 17 minutes of scenes from Anna Maria Island, Longboat Key and Bradenton on two travel programs in September.

Dodging unusual rains last week, a production crew filmed scenes for segments on the "100% Vacation" and "Travel Advice" programs that will feature the beaches, Snooty the manatee at the South Florida Museum in Bradenton, Prime Outlets in Ellenton and several hotels chosen by the crew, said Jessica Grace, of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. More...

Relief over burglary arrests

ANNA MARIA – The news that there were arrests following a two-month string of overnight burglaries on and near the Island travelled quickly on Tuesday, May 19. Victims expressed gratitude for the alert actions that resulted in the arrests while the suspects, John J. O’Keefe and Patrick Banker, were caught allegedly burglarizing The Waterfront Restaurant at 111 South Bay Blvd. for the second time.

"It was great, very exciting," said Waterfront owner Jason Suzor. "I got the call around 2 a.m. that they had just caught both of them. It good to have closure on the whole thing." More...

Fire board approves $5 increase

HOLMES BEACH – West Manatee fire commissioners last week approved an increase in the fire assessment of $5 for both residential and commercial properties, with no increase in the square footage rate or for vacant lots.

Fire Chief Andy Price told commissioners that he is proposing no increase in the operating budget, but a $5 increase for a capital budget for facilities improvements. Price said the district is applying for federal stimulus funds for improvements, but there is no guarantee it would receive the funds. More...

Mar Vista fireworks request scrutinized

ANNA MARIA – The Island’s Fireworks Task Force plans to send out its July 4 message that fireworks are illegal and will be confiscated to residents and visitors in a variety of ways.

Message boards will be parked along roadsides, flyers will be distributed to rental agents and public service announcements will be aired on government television stations. In addition, the information is posted on Island city and county Web sites. More...

Suspects to be arraigned separately

One of the two suspects in a string of burglaries has hired an attorney, pled not guilty and requested a jury trial according to court records.

Patrick Banker, 18, of Sarasota, was to be arraigned before judge Gilbert Smith, Jr., but his attorney, Varinia Van Ness, of Sarasota, filed to waive the arraignment when she asked for the jury trial. No date has yet been set. More...

Center finances continue to improve

ANNA MARIA – For the second month in a row, the Community Center got a brighter budget picture – revenues were up while expenses were down.

"As projected, thanks to a very successful Affair to Remember, we finally got over the top and made almost $79,000," Treasurer Bill Ford reported. "Now we’re over expenses $8,500 for the year, which is quite an accomplishment considering where we were a few months ago." More...

Historical Society introduces director to community

ANNA MARIA – AMI Historical Society members welcomed about 75 residents and elected officials to the native garden behind Belle Haven Cottage to meet their new director and congratulate their scholarship winners.

The Historical Society awarded $1,000 scholarships to three Island graduating seniors. Recipients were Jessica Pate, Nathan Hickerson and Severin Walstad. More...

Hurricane Survival Guide

Get ready for another exciting chapter

Summer brings hurricane season and here we are again, looking at predictions and preparing for the worst while we hope for the best.

Indeed, a hurricane can bring widespread destruction as Katrina did to New Orleans on August 29, 2005, but many would prefer those slow moving storms to tornadoes that can strike in the middle of the night without warning. More...

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Land of the silver mermaid

Part 2 of a 2 part series

It was in the mid to late 70s when the floodgates opened up in the area. It was a time when the world’s greatest fly anglers and guides made an annual May migration to Homosassa. Billy Pate, Joe Robinson, Al Pflueger, Captain Eddie Whiteman, Carl Navarre, John Emory, Captain Bill Curtis, Captain Dale Perez, Captain Steve Huff, Captain Jim Brewer, Tom Evans, Captain Cecil Keith Jr., baseball legend Ted Williams, Captain Nat Ragland and Captain Lee Baker were regulars. The fishing was so incredible that world records never made it to the IGFA record books because they were broken day after day. More...

Here we go ’round and ’round again

For most of the year, Floridians are a happy-go-lucky lot. During the winter months, we enjoy the best weather in the country. We going boating, fishing, biking and walking without even peaking out the front door to see what’s going on. But starting on June 1, the most blissful of us enter into a defensive mode when old man sunshine can be replaced by the hurricane hag before we know it. More...

Sun readers review Cordon Bleu memoir

The Sun Readers met recently to discuss "The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter and Tears in Paris at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School" by part-time Island resident Kathleen Flinn.

Flinn had turned 36 when she suddenly lost her mid-management corporate job in London. A friend, the man who later became her husband, challenged her to pursue her dream and take the course at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. More...

Making the stimulus work for you

Opinions about the recent federal action to spend money to provide a kick-in-the-pants to our economy are widely varied and definitely polarizing in conversation. It is not my objective to debate the merits or chances of success of any particular program here in The Sun with my 500 to 600 word allotment. I think a better use of this space is to cover some of the ways individual families and business owners can use the stimulus to their benefit, and, by extension, help the actions reach their desired effect. More...

Wet weather provides interesting week of games

Even though the Island experienced the most rain it had seen all year this past week, flag football games were still played in the soggy conditions. The rain made it difficult to pass and catch the ball, but players adjusted well and still managed to score points.

Only one game was cancelled due to heavy rain and lighting on Wednesday night, as this was a shortened week of games before the playoffs start this week. More...

Nesting season well under way

Almost every night now, a turtle or two lumbers out of the water and onto a stretch of beach on Anna Maria Island.

On the Island, it’s almost exclusively loggerheads that nest. There has only been one other species that nested here. That was a green turtle that nested in 2001.

Sea turtles lay their eggs on their natal beaches, meaning the beaches on which they were born, according to scientists. More...