Tourism jumps 9.3 percent

BRADENTON – Tourism was up 9.3 percent in 2012 over 2011, with 537,908 visitors to Manatee County, the Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) learned on Monday.

Tourist spending was up 12.5 percent, reaching $364 million in the county and creating a total economic impact of $575 million, according to Walter Klages, the county’s tourism consultant. More...

Cortez festival this weekend

CORTEZ – The 31st Annual Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival this weekend is all about fishing, and making sure there will be “Better Fish to Fry” – the festival’s 2013 theme – long into the future.

The village’s past dates back to the 1880s when fishing families from Carteret County, N.C., settled the area. Cortez has continued as a working commercial fishing village until today, however, in 1995, a state constitutional amendment was passed that banned gill nets, causing a 60-80 percent decline in fishing and whittling five fish houses down to the two that remain. More...

Bridge Street project preliminarily denied

BRADENTON BEACH – Citing parking concerns, the Planning and Zoning Board voted 4-0 not to recommend to the city commission a redevelopment project proposed by Michael Hynds at 119 Bridge Street.

Hynds proposed the two-story restaurant and complex at the board’s Tuesday, Feb. 5 meeting, detailing plans for a second floor, 60-seat restaurant and bar serving lunch and dinner and up to 10 small retail spaces geared towards start-up businesses. More...

Complaints prompt police search

HOLMES BEACH – The police are looking for real estate salesman Michael Carlton, owner of Coastline Accommodations, after receiving another complaint from a prospective renter that he did not deliver on promised services. More...

Viens sentencing delayed

Former Holmes Beach restaurant owner David Viens’ sentencing for the murder of his wife, Dawn, has been delayed again. He was set to be sentenced in November, but he fired his attorney and asked for a delay, which was granted until Feb. 1. His sentencing was again delayed and will be on March 22. More...

Commission agrees on moratorium

ANNA MARIA – The city commission wants a moratorium on building permits for structures higher than 27 feet while it works to reverse the trend of tearing down homes and replacing them with huge multi-bedroom structures best used for rentals in residential neighborhoods.

However, they don’t agree on whom to let in before they close the barn door. More...

Board talks waterfront uses

ANNA MARIA – While trying to save residential neighborhoods from out-of-scale rental houses, the city also wants to define uses for waterfront property around the piers and Galati Marina.

The city recently annexed the land around the Anna Maria City Pier, the Rod and Reel Pier and Galati Marina and is proposing a Historic Pier Land Use Category for the piers and a Marine Land Use Category for the Galati Marina land. The Planning and Zoning Board (P&Z) considered the land uses allowed in the new categories. More...

Dog park dominates beautification meeting

HOLMES BEACH – Once again, to the dismay of board members, the focus of the Parks and Beautification Advisory Board meeting last week was on the dog park.

Chair Melissa Snyder said one problem is the lack of signage detailing the park’s rules and regulations.

“We definitely have issues over there,” she said. “We have had one person bring their dog in and attack dogs on two occasions. More...

A lot of Locks of Love

HOLMES BEACH – Twelve years old is a complicated age for a girl, but there is one young lady who knows what she wants and that is to help people less fortunate than she.

Roselyn Ward came to Salon Salon Thursday, Feb. 7, for her first haircut ever. Aside from an amateur trimming from her four-year-old sister when she was one year old, her hair had grown to nearly four feet long, and she wanted Salon Salon owner Nikita Fosmore to cut it and save the hair for Locks of Love, an organization that takes hair and makes it into wigs for cancer patients. More...

Exploring Florida’s Hidden Treasures

Boaters and anglers living on Anna Maria Island and in the West Central Florida region have a wonderful variety of natural habitats to explore. Whether by foot, power boat or paddle, the Gulf, bays and backwaters provide an almost limitless variety of opportunities.

Recently, I was invited by AMI Outfitters owner Steve Traves to explore a remote and mysterious body of water in Tampa Bay called Moses Hole. The 31-acre destination is located in lower Tampa Bay about two miles northeast of the Skyway Bridge. More...

It's a sellers market

There’s a rumor going around on Anna Maria and like most rumors, no knows for sure where it started or if it’s true. Whether it’s true or not, just the rumor is exciting for anyone interested in Island real estate.

A seller’s market is defined as a market in which goods are scarce, buyers have a limited range of choice and prices are high. Well, except for the fact that Island prices may not be as high as they once were, it looks like we’re in a seller’s market, according to those in the know. More...

Rental and retail in one spot

Remember the classic 1942 movie. "The Man Who Came To Dinner," about a dinner guest who never left? If you’ve lived in Florida for a number of years, chances are you’ve had your share of house guests and the stress that comes along with trying to accommodate them. Well now you can chill out, enjoy your houseguests and let someone else have the stress.

ABC Rentals in Holmes Beach has been in the business of providing rental items since November of 2002. Starting in Sarasota, Bob and Lynn Shaffer expanded their business to Holmes Beach and currently deliver all kinds of rental items from Venice to the north end of Anna Maria and east past I-75. More...

Investors coming back to equities

Measuring investor psychology is never an exact science. Monitoring the decision process of humans is as much art as science, and it cannot be exactly quantified like the physical forces of nature (gravity, friction, temperature, etc.). However, some useful generalizations can be made by monitoring the reaction or behavior of us humans over time in particular situations.

In the world of investing, we call the study of these reactions investor sentiment, meaning the attempt to measure the degree of optimism or pessimism of the average individual investor. This measurement is usually best accomplished by monitoring the actions of investors, how they are making decisions for their money, rather than listening to what they say they are doing or intend to do. More...

Comeback win for Island Real Estate

The Sun sports game of the week was an Anna Maria Island Community Center adult co-ed volleyball matchup between Island Real Estate and Tyler’s Ice Cream.

Going into the match, Tyler’s Ice Cream was in a tie for first place and Island Real Estate was in sole possession of second place and only two games out of first. To keep pace, Island Real Estate needed a big win. More...

Thoughts on bariatric surgery

There are runners faster and younger than me. There always will be. Yesterday marked a milestone at the St. Stephens Falcon 5K in Bradenton. I placed in my 45th 5K race or longer since 2006. I placed first in my new age group, 60-64. I love my new age group. Definately much easier to place in it.

But I also saw I saw a different kind of first at the race. An award was given to the oldest male and female runner. I wasn’t that far off. I’m happy to say I did not get it. Several of the other racers in or near my age group set around while we waited for awards and commiserated how few of us there were. More...