PelicanPress SIESTA KEY
AN OBSERVER NEWSPAPER
NEWS
Gulf Gate Library temporarily closes its doors. PAGE 3A
OUR TOWN + Residents take on fish clean-up Sandy Hook Residents Dave Patton, David Bergen and Bob Gallery picked up and buried almost 1,500 pounds of fish killed by red tide. The residents buried the fish 4 feet below the sand so that the raccoons would not get to them. “We were collecting 4-pound mullet,” Patton said. It took them almost to four hours to clean the 150-foot stretch of beach. Private beaches, like the one at Sandy Hook, are not cleaned by the county. “Somebody’s got to do it, so I started to and my neighbors helped,” Patton said.
FREE • Thursday, JANUARY 24, 2013
DIVERSIONS
NEIGHBORHOOD Watercolor group members inspire one another. PAGE 1B
Town Hall Lecture Series organizers give the scoop. INSIDE
sand savings
by Alex Mahadevan | News Editor
Sarasota eyes Big Pass for sand The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is analyzing the inlet as a sand source to renourish Lido Key. Big Pass, the inlet north of Siesta Key, has never been dredged. That could change if the city of Sarasota and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers choose the inlet as the sand source for the Lido Beach restoration. “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is trying to get a contractor out for core samples to see how feasible that would be,” said Sarasota County Coastal Resources Manager Laird Wreford during a Jan. 17 phone interview with the Pelican Press. Corps spokeswoman Amanda Ellison confirmed the federal agency is using computer modeling to determine if Big Pass is
a viable borrow source. Dredging is the act of removing sand from waterways so boaters can more easily navigate them or removing it from a specific location for use in beach nourishment. In this case, the main purpose of dredging would be to harvest sand to mitigate erosion damage on Lido, but dredging could also have a secondary effect of, at least temporarily, making the inlet more navigable. The U.S. Coast Guard doesn’t recognize the volatile Big Pass as a navigable waterway, because it so frequently shifts in different directions. Volunteers from the
Sarasota Yacht Club and Sarasota County Coastal Resources staff place markers so boaters can safely navigate the pass. The Corps could combine the borrow dredge with a navigational dredge to give boaters easier access through the inlet. A navigational dredge would target certain parts of the inlet to create an efficient channel for boaters. “It’s not rocket science,” said Cliff Truitt, whose firm, Coastal Technology Corp., analyzed Big Pass from 2007 through 2010. Estimates from the 2007 Siesta Key renourishment project revealed the county could have saved $10 million by harvesting Big Pass instead of performing a sand search and borrowing from a site 10 miles offshore.
SEE BIG PASS / PAGE 2A
+ Ospreys get a new home on Key The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation asked Florida Power & Light to move an osprey nest from an FPL pole. The nest sat on a pole on the corner of Midnight Pass Road and Beach Road on Siesta Key. Florida Power & Light safely moved the osprey nest Wednesday, Jan. 16, to a platform located approximately 100 feet from the pole.
+ Community chemical collection Siesta Key residents are encouraged to drop off household chemicals including aerosol cans, automotive products, paint, paint thinner and solvents, adhesives and glues, cleaners, pool chemicals, fertilizer, weed killer, insect killer, mercury, barbeque sized propane cylinders, household fire extinguishers, electronics, fluorescent bulbs, motor oil, and oil filters. Siesta Key Hardware, 215 Canal Road, is hosting the household chemical collection from 9 to 11 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12. Businesses and organizations interested in the collection should contact Oland Stokes at 6507143.
CRIMSON TIDE
by Alex Mahadevan | News Editor
Council urges continuation of beach cleaning The same day of a red tide fish kill, the Tourist Development Council recommends a two-year extension of tourist taxes for beach beautification. A sea of silver shimmered on the shores of Siesta Key beaches Jan. 17, after thousands of mullet washed ashore north Sarasota County beaches. The level of Karenia brevis, the bacteria that causes red tide, was more than 1 million per liter of seawater tested by the Florida Health Department Jan. 16, off the coast of Siesta. The Florida
Fish and Wildlife Commission considers that a high concentration level that kills fish and causes respiratory problems in humans. Mullet, which have a vegetarian diet, are eating the toxic algal bloom, which explains their significant presence among the dead fish, said Mote Marine Laboratory Senior Scientist Barbara Kirkpatrick.
The current bloom has lingered near the Collier County coast for at least four months. It drifted into South Sarasota County in October but was pushed offshore shortly after by northerly and northeasterly winds. Now, currents and wind patterns have elongated the red-
SEE RED TIDE / PAGE 2A
Alex Mahadevan
Fish washed continuously ashore Siesta Key beaches for a week starting Jan. 17.
INDEX Briefs....................4A Classifieds ........ 11B
Cops Corner....... 13A Crossword.......... 10B
Opinion .............. 8A Real Estate.......... 6B
Sports................ 16A Vol. 43, No. 26 | Three sections Weather............. 10B YourObserver.com