Parading on AMI. 12
Tracking turtles. 22
Pier plank preview. 21 Astheworldterns check out Jawsome week. 6
AMITW July 7: 394 nests, 505 false crawls, 9 hatched nests and about 172 hatchlings to the sea.
JULY 10, 2019 FREE
VOLUME 27, NO. 37
Hepatitis A case prompts vaccinations. 3 Depositions conclude in BB Sunshine lawsuit. 4
Meetings
On the government calendar. 4
Op-Ed
The Islander editorial, reader opinion. 6
10-20 YEARS AGO
From the archives. 7
The Best News on Anna Maria Island Since 1992
www.islander.org
Fireworks, fun, games fill Fourth of July Right, Jack Elka captures fireworks on the beach on July 4. Below, Kain Galambos, left, 7, and Wesley Shorten, 6, slip and slide July 1 at the Center of Anna Maria Island’s Summer My Way camp. Islander Photo: Courtesy Ashley Friszman. For more fun and fireworks, see pages 12-13.
HB nixes splash pad. 8 HB city engineer updates capital improvement plans. 8
Save a date. 10
Happenings
Coquina Beach tree removal on temporary hold, outcry rises
Community activities, announcements. 11 Judge fines owner for at-risk vessel. 14
Streetlife. 15 AMI streetmap. 16-17
Gathering. 18
Obituaries. 18 FISH passes $119K budget. 19 HB website returns online. 20 First hatchlings emerge, some disorient, some die. 22 Scientists study belts, rings. 23 Soccer goes indoors. 24 Be prepared to fish. 25
ISL BIZ July brings heat, new faces. 26 CLASSIFIEDS. 28 NYT crossword. 31
Top Notch Week 3
‘The opportunist’
Cynthia Herrick, of Severn, Maryland, wins the third week of The Islander’s Top Notch contest with this photograph she took near Bean Point in Anna Maria. She titled the image, “The Opportunist,” Herrick won an Islander “More-thana-mullet wrapper” T-shirt and entry into the finals, which offer one grand prize of $100 from The Islander and an assortment of gift certificates from participating advertisers. The next deadline is noon, Friday, July 12. Photographers can find rules and deadlines online at islander.org.
By Ryan Paice Islander Reporter Time is running out to save 97 Australian pine trees marked for removal at Coquina Beach in Bradenton Beach. Manatee County commissioners voted 4-2 June 19 to remove and replace the trees at Coquina, a public beach the county manages and maintains, to make way for the first phase of a parking lot improvement project
at the south end and on an access road. With six trees chopped down already, the county is set to remove 103 Australian pine trees in total — more than 10% of the 991 Australian pines at Coquina — for phase one. Another 129 trees are planned for removal in phase two. For now, the 97 marked trees remain standing while the county works to provide the city of Bradenton Beach with its finalized landscape plans for replacement trees. City commissioners had directed building official Steve Gilbert to request a tree replacement plan from the county and issue a stop-work order on the project if the county failed to comply. City commissioners also ordered Gilbert to investigate whether the city could revise or revoke the construction permit for the project. Gilbert wrote in a July 3 email to The Islander that the county provided the city with a draft landscape plan June 28 showing the replacement of 103 Australian pines with 83 green buttonwood trees, 10 gumbo limbo trees and 10 shady lady black olive trees. The county plans to plant the trees in the grassy area near the playground and between the access road and parking. Bradenton Beach’s land development code requires the replacement trees, which can be any species but palms, have a minimum diameter of one-and-a-half-inch caliper and a 10-foot height when planted. PLEASE SEE TReeS, PAGE 2