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EAST COUNTY
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FREE THURSDAY, JULY 22, 2021
VOLUME 23, NO. 36
Better Ranch road ahead
YOUR TOWN
Brendan Lavell
Business gem reopens Nearly five years after their Lakewood Ranch jewelry store was burglarized, essentially destroying their business, co-owners Ardene Chodosh and Murray Margolis (above) reopened The Family Jeweler in June. The new store will specialize in jewelry repair and is located on East County’s Lockwood Ridge Road. Chodosh and Margolis, who have worked locally for nearly 20 years, said they plan to hold a grand opening celebration on Labor Day weekend. “Our customers stuck with us,” Margolis said. “We’ve always had a great reputation. People trust us.”
Manatee County has several projects to improve Lorraine Road.
BUG OUT
BRENDAN LAVELL STAFF WRITER
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The Manatee County Mosquito Control District increases its mosquito attack. SEE PAGE 3 Liz Ramos
Max Dersch, the entomology manager for the Manatee County Mosquito Control District, analyzes mosquitoes. Over the night of July 13, a trap at Lake Manatee collected about 1,100 mosquitoes.
Chief reflections
Courtesy photo
Artistic touch
Lakewood Ranch’s Kinleigh Vance (above) brought the ocean to Lena Road in East County on July 15 when she painted a sea turtle on a canvas during Let’s Create Art’s summer camp. Vance, 6, used ink and acrylic paint to create her own multicolored tie-dye sea turtle. Earlier in the week, Vance also painted a wave in her own style.
Courtesy of Myakka City Fire Department
Myakka City Fire Department Chief Danny Cacchiotti, pictured in 2009, has been the department’s fire chief for 16 years.
Myakka City Fire Control District chief looks back on his 26-year career. SEE PAGE 8
hen driving the roads of Lakewood Ranch, a 3-mile stretch of Lorraine Road between State Road 70 and State Road 64 sticks out like a sore thumb, according to Ogden Clark III, the strategic affairs manager for the Manatee County Public Works Department. “You could argue that it’s been broken for a while,” Clark said. “Even as a two-lane road, it’s a substandard road.” The widening of Lorraine Road from two lanes to four — which was not previously on the county’s fiveyear CIP — could start by October 2024, according to the proposed CIP for the 2022 fiscal year, which must be reviewed and approved by comSEE LORRAINE ROAD, PAGE 2
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Gallery offers brush with fame. SEE PAGE 18