VOLUME
JULY 14, 2021 FREE
NO. 38
The Best News on Anna Maria Island Since 1992
Astheworldterns. 6
Q&A 071421
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AM closes in on funding Mote center. 3
Elsa: The hurricane that wasn’t By Amy V.T. Moriarty Islander Reporter
Elsa left Anna Maria Island mostly unscathed. New — also former — The fifth-named tropical storm of the commish seated in AM. 4 season, Elsa was the third to make landfall Meetings. 4 in the United States but not until it reached Taylor County in the northern Gulf Coast Baugh reaches settlement July 7. in records suit. 5 Elsa formed July 1 east of the Lesser law enforcement cracks Antilles as a tropical storm — the earliest down on road safety. 4 recorded fifth-named storm in the Atlantic Basin — and strengthened to hurricane Opinions. 6 status as it progressed northwest toward Hispaniola. Downgraded to a tropical storm after 10-20 YEARS AGO looking back. 7 sweeping across the Dominican Republic and Haiti, Elsa again was a category 1 hurCollapsed balcony prompts home closure. 8 ricane July 6 as it neared Florida’s southern Gulf Coast but then downgraded again to a Coquina parking lot projtropical storm overnight July 7 in the Gulf. ect lagging. 9 Islanders were ready with sandbags, generators, activities and libations to pass the time July 6-7. In Anna Maria, nearly 50 cubic yards Save the date. 10 of sand was used to fill about 2,700 bags, Enter your public works director Dean Jones said July best pics 8. to win Holmes Beach residents bagged about Top Notch. 11 40 cubic yards of sand, public works adminSeagrass fails. 12 istrator Matt McDonough told The Islander July 8. Gathering. 14 As the sun set July 6, cyclone and tornado warnings were issued for Manatee Obituaries. 14 Approaching 100 with finesse. 15
Cops&Courts. 16 Streetlife. 16 NESTING NOTES.
Storm loss to Elsa. 18
Going deep. 19 Sports. 20 Time to target mangrove snapper. 21
ISL BIZ: longevity and launches. 22
AMI TOURISM: 23 Turning up the heat.
PropertyWatch. 23 CLASSIFIEDS. 24 More Elsa pics. 26
NYT puzzle. 27
islander.org
Angie Blunt of Bradenton won the first week of The Islander’s 2021 Top Notch photo contest with this photograph of “Spunky Aunt Thelma” in the shallow shoreline break along the Gulf of Mexico in Holmes Beach. Blunt writes in her entry email, “She gave permission to state her age. She is one amazing lady.” For the record, Thelma Vance is 89. The photographer won an Islander “More-than-a-mullet wrapper” T-shirt and entry into the finals, which offers a grand prize of $100 from The Islander and gift certificates from Islander advertisers.
County by the National Weather Service. But Elsa merely waved as it passed along the coast in the Gulf of Mexico. At the height of the storm locally, the top wind speed at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport was recorded at 54 mph at 10:53 p.m. July 6. A speed within the parameters of a tropical storm and 20 mph below the speed required for hurricane classification. When the winds slowed and rain tapered off early July 7, some island roads were flooded, one tree was down at the entrance to the Martinique North condominiums in Holmes Beach and smaller branches and palm fronds were scattered across roads for public works crews to pick up. “We dodged a bullet on that one,” Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer told The Islander July 7. And people went about business as usual the day after, with some claiming Elsa wasn’t as bad as the thunderstorms that hit the island in the weeks prior. In Cortez, Richard Correa told The Islander, “There was no rocking motion. There was no roaring noise. It just rained.” “It was pretty busy this morning — you could hear the surf roaring over in Bradenton Beach,” said Correa, who lives on a 30-foot sailing scow in Sarasota Bay. In Bradenton Beach, police Lt. John Cosby told The Islander July 8 that a boat
Top Notch
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Week 1: Showing spunk
A family plays July 6 in Tampa Bay. Islander Photo: Amy V.T. Moriarty
Treehouse owners open door, HB agrees to mediate By Ryan Paice Islander Reporter
Two of the three parties in Holmes Beach’s long-running treehouse legal battle are ready to come to the table. Clearwater attorney Randol Mora, representing the city, wrote a letter June 21 to defendants Richard Hazen and Lynn TranHazen, owners of the property at 103 29th St., stating the municipality is open to their mediation request. The case began in 2011, when the property owners built the treehouse in an Australian pine tree beyond the erosion control line and without a permit on their beachfront property. The pair reside at the property and operate four adjacent vacation rental units as Angelinos Sea Lodge. The city found the structure in violation of the municipality’s land development code and moved for its removal in 2013, sparking litigation with the owners. The Hazens have been on the losing end of each ruling of several lawsuits and appeals over the years. As of June 24, three circuit court cases on the treehouse remained open, but Judge Charles Sniffen had yet to issue a ruling on the aforementioned case and hearings have yet to be scheduled for the other two. The U.S. Supreme Court has denied two petitions to review the Hazen’s treehouse failed cases. However, the property owners have accumulated more than $105,000 in code
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