- Named Best Florida Newspaper In Its Class -
VOL 19 No. 11
December 26, 2018
Tiny tots time! TOM VAUGHT | SUN
Santa dresses and reindeer costumes and tiny tots with short attention spans made for an entertaining evening as The School for Constructive Play held its first holiday play, and it was a big hit. School owner Pam Bertrand said after the performance she would like to do it again next year. Full of cute kids and colorful costumes, the play was held at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, where the school is now located after its old building was sold.
Storm may have beaten back red tide BY CINDY LANE SUN STAFF WRITER | clane@amisun.com
ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Bad weather last week may have brought the Christmas gift that Floridians have been asking for – the beginning of the end of red tide. The bloom that began in southwest Florida in October 2017 and arrived in Anna Maria Island waters on Aug. 3 had been getting weaker before the storms arrived, NOAA oceanographer Rick Stumpf said. Concentrations of the toxic algae had disappeared or fallen to background or very low levels everywhere in the state
INSIDE NEWS 4 OPINION 6 STORM COVERAGE 10 FOOD & WINE 25 ENTERTAINMENT 27 RESTAURANTS 28-29 REAL ESTATE 30-35 CLASSIFIEDS 37-39
except for two sites in Manatee County as of Dec. 17, according to Friday’s update from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Since those samples were taken, heavy weather on Dec. 20-21 gave red tide cells a beating in the waves, likely dealing a serious blow to the 14-month bloom in southwest Florida waters, according to Stumpf. Red tide swims toward light and nutrients, and steady, rough weather can keep the cells from getting to their food and growing, he said. The same storm-tossed water causes SEE RED TIDE, PAGE 7
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Tree house case goes back to court The tree house case is going back to court with owners Lynn Tran and Richard Hazen hoping for a holiday miracle. BY KRISTIN SWAIN
SUN STAFF WRITER | kswain@amisun.com
HOLMES BEACH – Tree house owners Lynn Tran and Richard Hazen will be kicking off the new year in Manatee County Circuit Court as they try to save their beloved two-story tree house from the wrecking ball. Tran and Hazen filed for a temporary injunction Dec. 10 asking the court to prevent the city of Holmes Beach or the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from forcibly removing their tree house from its Australian pine perch in front
of their Angelinos Sea Lodge. In a summons received at Holmes Beach City Hall, the couple cited irreparable harm and loss of property value as reasons to allow the tree house to remain, saying that if the tree house was torn down there’s no way they could ever rebuild it, and there would be damage to the large pine tree or the tree would potentially be taken down with the tree house. They also asked for relief from the more than $65,000 in fines, growing at a rate of $50 a day for every day the tree house remains aloft, attributed to the code enforcement violation by the city. The tree house was built without a permit more than six years ago. Tran and Hazen say that they went SEE TREE HOUSE, PAGE 7
KINGFISH Boat Ramp project fast-tracked by county. 3 NEW revelations in Bradenton Beach
Sunshine Law violations suit. 13 The Island’s award-winning weekly newspaper www.amisun.com