bserver O EAST COUNTY FREE • Thursday, APRIL 25, 2013
You. Your neighbors. Your neighborhood.
NEIGHBORHOOD
SPORTS
Out-of-Door Academy Relay for Life raises more than $56,000. PAGE 1B
OUR TOWN + LWR teen shares prized project with White House Lakewood Ranch and Outof-Door Academy senior Brittany Wenger got to share her awardwinning science project with the White House File photo April 21. Wenger joined 100 students from more than 40 states at the 2013 White House Science Fair, emceed by Barack Obama. Wenger shared her project, called Global Neural Network Cloud Service for Breast Cancer, an artificial intelligence computer program that provides a lessinvasive method to detect breast cancer, with “Bill Nye the Science Guy” host Bill Nye, Mars Curiosity rover flight director Bobak Ferdowsi and “Big Bang Theory” co-creator Bill Prady, among others.
Mills creates plan to fix budget The plan Manatee Schools Superintendent Rick Mills created establishes clear timelines and deadlines and holds specific administrators accountable to lead each task to completion. EAST COUNTY — True to the form shown in his first five weeks on the job, Manatee Schools Superintendent Rick Mills posted a detailed, data-driven and aggressive action plan to fix the broken budget process to the district’s website. The 20-page plan has been
posted since April 12, and calls for the reinstitution of a formerly disassembled sales tax accountability committee. The committee, a team of 10 the school board will nominate, serves as a support team to fix problems such as the misuse of construction funds related to the
SEE OUR TOWN / PAGE 4A
district’s new Manatee Technical Institute campus and sales tax revenue. In his step-by-step plan, Mills holds specific administrators accountable to lead specific tasks and provides firm deadlines for each to meet. The plan addresses the lat-
est external audit of Manatee County finances, conducted by Mauldin and Jenkins, which revealed its findings to the school board in a workshop earlier this month. Mauldin and Jenkins, following a similar audit looking into the $3.4 million deficit from 2011-12 by global consulting firm Navigant, found the district mishandled state and federal
SEE BUDGET / PAGE 8A
shotgun golf by Josh Siegel | Staff writer Ancient Oak Gun Club, the 24-station sporting clay course, opens April 28, after a tumultuous approval process. LAKEWOOD RANCH alk — or cart — the lush grounds of the Ancient Oak Gun Club, the new 24-station sporting clays course in Lakewood Ranch, and the place feels more like a subdued golf course than a rapid-fire shoot- Two automatic, batterying ground. powered clay machines Stations, split up eject clay disks at difin two courses, sepa- ferent angles, speeds, rated by 80 yards each, heights, zigs and zags look more like covered for shooters to break. wooden huts under which golfers take breaks as they sip water. Shooters can ride golf carts to get from station to station. Each station throws a different presentation, and every week brings a new course layout, like changing the hole location on greens. A scorekeeper, kind of like a caddie, tracks shots on a scorecard. There are birds out here, too. Shooters must break two types of clay pigeons with their shotguns. Often called “golf with a shotgun in the woods,” Lakewood Ranch can get their first taste at sporting clays April 28, with the opening of the Ancient Oak Gun Club, built on 78 acres zoned for agricultural use, three-quarters of a mile south of State Road 64 East, off Uihlein Road. The course, a Schroeder-Manatee Ranch (SMR) project, endured a tumultuous approval process prompted by concerns from officials and parents
W
Photos by Josh Siegel
Ancient Oak Gun Club’s Ed Fallon demonstrates how to shoot on one of two courses. The courses contain shooting stations separated by 80 yards.
SPORTING CHANCE
+ ‘Paws’ for a donation Every year Hornback Chiropractic and Wellness, P.A., selects a charity during each quarter to which to donate funds collected from its Gifts of Health promotion. This quarter it donated $447 to Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue/Lexi’s Paw Pals. The Lexi’s Paw Pals program encourages community youth to participate and volunteer at the animal shelter. For more information about the Lexi’s Paw Pal, program visit honoranimalrescue.org. Hornback’s current quarterly charity is Manatee County Sheriff’s Explorers Post No. 61.
Traffic signals a concern at Edgewater. PAGE 5A
aggressive action by Josh Siegel | Staff writer
Courtesy photo
John Cortese, Dr. Heather Crawford, Dari Oglesby and Emma (an Honor Rescue dog the Crawford family adopted in February).
Girls softball teams capture district titles. PAGE 15A
NEWS
SEE CLAYS / PAGE 8A
Watch Ed Fallon give an inside look of Ancient Oak Gun Club in a video at yourobserver.com
INDEX Business............ 11B Calendar............ 14A
Classifieds ........ 13B Cops Corner....... 10A
Crossword.......... 12B Real Estate.......... 8B
Sports................ 15A Weather............. 12B
Vol. 14, No. 17 | Two sections YourObserver.com