Tiki Bar mobile kitchen shut down

HOLMES BEACH – When Nicole Heslop left the city commission work session on Dec. 12, she felt confident that things were working out for her business, Barefoot Tiki Bar and Café at 5704 Marina Drive.

Previously, Police Chief Bill Tokajer had questioned whether a mobile kitchen she had on the site was legal. However, that evening, commissioners told Heslop to file a site plan for the kitchen after the city attorney gave two options in the code under which it could be allowed. More...

Pier work not quite done

ANNA MARIA – One question on everybody’s mind is when will the Rod and Reel Pier restaurant reopen. Nobody seems to know, including restaurant manager Dave Cochran.

“We’re working on it, but I’m not sure when it will happen,” he said Monday morning as a storm blew into the area. “It won’t be next week, but maybe the week after.”

A fire damaged the restaurant on Sept. 30 that was started by heat transferring from the stove to wood panels. There were customers in the restaurant at the time smoke started billowing from under the walls and Manatee County Sheriff’s Deputy Gary Sellitto got everybody out. More...

Weather postpones renourishment; beach pipes draw complaints

HOLMES BEACH – The roar of the sanding coming onto the beach was silenced last weekend as the dredge was shut down in anticipation of rough seas.

Coastal Planning and Engineering spokesperson Michelle Pfeiffer wrote Saturday that they would shut down the dredging and towed the dredge to safety. More...

Boat owner inquires about ferry

ANNA MARIA – A charter boat owner wants to add Anna Maria Island to his schedule and to load and unload passengers near the city pier.

Mark Hubbard sent a letter to Anna Maria Mayor SueLynn saying instead of docking at the city pier, he would like to explore using the mouth of Lake LaVista, on a pile of rocks that he said could be capped by concrete so people could safely walk on it.

“The pier can be dangerous when the water gets rough,” Hubbard said. More...

Neighbors protest tree trimming

ANNA MARIA – Neighbors met on New Year’s Day to protest the trimming of a banyan tree on Dec. 31 on property owned by Steven Walker on Park Avenue.

Brent Whitehead, of Whitehead Construction, confirmed that Walker had the tree trimmed in preparation for selling the property and added, “It was three lots, but Mr. Walker had it converted to two, so we wouldn’t have to take down the tree. More...

Cell tower debate continues

BRADENTON BEACH – The proposed cell tower, originally approved by city commissioners in 2012, was the subject of two separate, but related, conversations during the first commission meeting of 2014.

At the Thursday, Jan. 2 meeting, Church Avenue resident Paul Georges presented the commission with a petition containing the signatures of 70 citizens who oppose the construction of a 150-foot communications tower on city-owned land. More...

Pier rest rooms more accessible by week’s end

BRADENTON BEACH – Friday afternoon, a conversation ensued inside the Banana Cabana restaurant regarding the status of the public rest rooms located on the Bradenton Beach City Pier and the increased presence of homeless visitors.

Patron Sean Kummerow and employee Tina Chambers bemoaned the fact that access to the rest rooms has been sporadic of late, especially later in the evening and early in the morning, when the rest rooms have been locked. More...

City clerk resigns

ANNA MARIA – City Clerk Alice Baird has turned in her resignation due to a health problem and asked for an audit by the city’s independent auditors “that is required due to the duties and responsibilities of my position as city clerk.”

Baird started in the Bradenton Beach City Clerk’s office as an assistant in 1984. She moved up the ranks to head clerk and then resigned to move out of the area in 1999. She came back and was hired by Anna Maria as city clerk in 2000. More...

Paddle up at Surfset

ANNA MARIA – There are no excuses now to dodge that recurring New Year’s resolution to find a truly new form of fun exercise.

If the thrill is gone from yoga and Pilates, how about trying it on a surfboard?

No, not in the 62 degree Gulf of Mexico in January, but at the Anna Maria Island Community Center on a Surfset board.

The short board rests on three rubber balls that mimic the feeling of surfing, but don’t be fooled – even if you surf, windsurf or paddleboard, it’s a challenge because the boards have more range of motion than a surfboard on the water. More...

Catch winter blues

When the weather gets cold, savvy local anglers get the winter blues. Bluefish that is, one of the hardest fighting fish that swims local waters. Bluefish are a pelagic species that are found worldwide in temperate and subtropical waters. They are a migratory species in the waters of the Atlantic coast and range from Florida to Massachusetts, leaving Florida’s east coast and migrating north during the spring and summer months. However, they are found in the Gulf year-round.

Bluefish are a more predictable catch locally during the winter months, which is perfect timing as many other species get harder to find and catch. Bluefish are a hard fighting and very aggressive fish that are perfect targets for anglers fishing both conventional and fly tackle. They will attack live bait, trolled plugs and spoons and Clouser flies, but they are especially fun to catch on top water plugs and top water (popper) flies. More...

Digital house hunting now the norm

Since 1975 American Express has used the slogan, “Don’t leave home without it,” referring to the importance of always having one of its credit cards with you. In the digital world we live, in don’t leave home without it now also means don’t leave home without your mobile device, especially if you’re looking for a home.

The world of real estate digital house hunting is no longer for the young and sophisticated techie; it’s now the norm. According to a collaborative study conducted by Google and the National Realtor Association, 90 percent of home buyers today start their home searches online. And according to Realtor.com more than half of all page views of listings nationwide occur through a mobile device in order to gather primary information when embarking on a house hunt. Of those mobile searches, more than twice as many listings are viewed via iPad and iPhone than Android devices. More...

Resolution time

2014 is here, and for the most part, we don’t need to be wishing the one just ending ‘good riddance’. 2013 dawned without much optimism shortly after a very contentious election period in late 2012, and it’s fair to say there was a fair amount of skepticism about the economy.

But, as usual, the financial markets did what it took to surprise us. U.S. stock prices lead the way with large gains of about 30 percent for the year. Government bond prices fell as interest rates on 10-year U.S. treasury bonds rose from about 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent, resulting in the first year of negative returns for this asset class since the year 2000. Commodities, particularly gold and silver, took it on the chin along with emerging markets stocks. More...

Football kickoff

The Anna Maria Island Community Center’s 2014 NFL Flag Football season officially kicks-off with the annual league fund-raising dinner, donated by the Beach Bistro & Eat Here, on Wednesday Jan. 8 at 6 p.m. For 21 consecutive years, the Beach Bistro has been donating and preparing the food for these sports fundraising events.

This event marks the beginning of every sports season and is important to the sports budget. It is a fun way to get together, and all the players get their uniforms. Everyone in the community is welcome to attend, and take-out is available. The cost is only $7 per person for a complete meal with drinks and children below age four are free with a paying adult. More...

A million reasons to live here

The best advice about trying to manage 30,000 social media followers and popular cookbooks is to multi-task. On a Meetup group, someone posted:

“What is life like for vegans in Sarasota/Bradenton? I was born in Florida and moved away. I want to move back, but I want to be near vegans and a progressive community. That seems to be hard to find in Florida. I’m curious about traffic, pollution, noise overcrowding, crime, whether the Gulf is swimmable, and quality of life for those who love the earth, swimming, bicycling, animals, nature.” More...