Timeline for pier project. 4 AsTheWorldTerns get crabby on the beach. 6
Demolished, forgotten. 8
Marine research at AME. 24 APRIL 11, 2018 FREE
VOLUME 26, NO. 24
Autopsy awaited in anchorage death. 3
Meetings
On the government calendar. 4
Op-Ed
The Islander editorial, reader letters. 6
10-20 YEARS AGO
From the archives. 7
Happenings
Community announcements, activities. 10-11
Make plans, save a date. 12-13 FISH leadership remains intact. 15 KMB calls for crackdown on causeway. 16 Holmes Beach committee preps dog park presentation. 18 Two cities tango with FPL. 19 Holmes Beach planners share vision. 21
Streetlife.
22
Farewell feathered friends. 25 Key Royale men’s golf champ crowned. 26
Inconsistent weather proves consistent on water. 27
PropertyWatch. 28
ISL BIZ
From rebranding to retirement. 30 CLASSIFIEDS. 32
The Best News on Anna Maria Island Since 1992
www.islander.org
New line in sand alters little for AMI beachgoers
By Sandy Ambrogi Islander Reporter Careful where you put the blanket on the sand after July 1, you might be trespassing. HB631 probably doesn’t mean much to many people, but its consequences may. It’s the number of the bill gov. Rick Scott signed into law March 30. The Possession of Real Property Act becomes effective July 1. The law states that beachfront property owners may declare as private the portion of their property on the sand to the mean high-tide line. But it may not signal the end for most beachgoers on Anna Maria Island. Charlie Hunsicker, director of Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources, says the law changes very little on the island. Erosion Control Lines — ECLs — will control where the new law is enforced. In 1992, the three island jurisdictions established a “permanent” ECL. The island ECL does not meander with the tide, it runs with the land for beach improvements. According to Hunsicker, this law established that anywhere beach renourishment has occurred on the island, the beach becomes public domain. It supersedes the
Beachfront properties stretch up the coastline on Anna Maria Island, where a mix of public accesses and private paths lead to the waterfront. After July 1, some property owners will be able to prohibit people from their beachfront, landward of the mean tide line. Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill into law March 30. Islander Photo: Jack Elka Possession of Real Property Act. A challenge in 2010 led to the u.S. Supreme Court ruling that if taxpayer money is used to maintain sand on a beach, that sand is public. “Where renourishment has occurred, the beach is public domain. The law does not apply, that’s it,” Hunsicker said in a phone interview April 6.
BB dock contractor pushes job to June
By ChrisAnn Silver Esformes Islander Reporter There’s a big boating holiday on the horizon. But people planning to berth their boats Memorial Day weekend at the Historic Bridge Street Pier may be disappointed. The new floating dock at the pier, a replacement for a storm-damaged dock, was approved by the Bradenton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency in March 2017 but a year has passed and the dock is still awaited. The floating dock allows boaters to easily unload passengers no matter the tide — high or low — to access the tall deck of the pier. The latest schedule provided by contractor Technomarine of West Palm Beach to the city April 5 provides for completion of the dock June 29. This is the fourth schedule provided by Technomarine since the March 2017 approval. Additionally, the contractor submitted
photos of boxes with shipping labels indicating they are dock parts sent from Ronautica Marinas of Spain. The foreign manufacturer PLEASE SEE BB dOCK PAgE 5
“That’s a lot of Anna Maria Island. In the places where it hasn’t been done, the jury is still out on where those property rights fall,” Hunsicker continued. On the beach Robert Smith, a visitor from California, didn’t know about the new law as he tied up a hammock at a beachfront rental at 2905 PLEASE SEE BeaCH PAgE 2
Former AMI chamber president jailed
By Kathy Prucnell Islander Reporter Holmes Beach police arrested a former president of the Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce for alleged child abuse. Deb Wing, 53, of Holmes Beach, was arrested at 11:56 p.m. April 4 following an argument in which she’d slapped a family member in the arm Wing and leg “so much” that Wing had to be restrained by another person, according to the reports from two HBPD officers. A witness told police the argument took place while the family member was in bed at the Harrington House Bed and Breakfast A photograph provided April 5 by Techno- Inn, 5626 gulf Drive, Holmes Beach. marine to the CRA shows boxes the comPolice suggested a third-degree felony pany alleges contain parts from a manufac- charge of child abuse, although formal turer in Spain for the floating dock. PLEASE SEE Jailed PAgE 3