East County Observer 6.9.22

EAST COUNTY

Observer

Lakewood Ranch’s weekly newspaper since 1998

Top sports moments of 2021-22.

PAGE 13A

YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.

FREE • THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

VOLUME 24, NO. 29

YOUR TOWN

School overcrowding still an issue

Parrish Community High School, which draws East County students, gets $15 million addition ahead of schedule. SEE PAGE 3A

Courtesy photo

Longtime teacher rides into sunset Lisa Scherpf, a fourth grade teacher at Robert E. Willis Elementary School, always joked she would ride her horse into the sunset when she retired.

Her friend Julie Santello, a third grade teacher at Willis Elementary, decided to make the joke a reality May 27.

Santello, with the help of Scherpf’s daughters, Emily and Jessica, brought two of Scherpf’s horses to the school. When Scherpf saw her horses and daughters, she was shocked.

After 37 years in education, Scherpf hopped on her horse and rode around campus while fellow teachers and staff sang “Happy Trails” to celebrate her retirement.

“When I walked out there and saw my horses, I said, ‘Oh my gosh, this is going to be real,’” Scherpf said. “It showed me the staff, after all the years I put in at Willis, really knew what I was all about.”

A gift of life Firefighter proves depth of his courage in saving woman from submerged car.

SEE PAGE 8A

Courtesy photo

Christian Guest, firefighter Daniel Lane and Karen Guest enjoy a moment a month after Lane rescued Karen from a submerged car that went off S.R. 70.

Ian Swaby

Laughing lemurs spread the love The lively demeanor of the leaping, curious lemurs at Big Cat Habitat Gulf Coast Sanctuary transferred to the human visitors during the June 4 “Laughing with Lemurs” workout program.

The class, led by Beth Bongar of Laughing Diva, consisted of a series of yoga exercises that combined laughing and breathing, all alongside the ruffed lemurs, who climbed across the walls of their cage, onto attendees and into the center of the network of bungee cables that connected the visitors in a circle.

Sarasota sisters Christine and Susan Fazzino said the event was a satisfying way to spend time together after the recent loss of their father, Paul Fazzino.

“It was great to laugh — just feel joyful,” Christine said.

“It was very relaxing, invigorating,” Susan said. “It was nice to be around animals. They have special souls.”

Let’s get this party started Liz Ramos

Ryan Newhams accepts the Achievement Award from James Connor, the interim head of school. The award is chosen by the faculty for a student who shows tremendous growth and development during their time at The Out-of-Door Academy.

ODA graduates say the future is now during school’s ceremony.

SEE PAGE 1B

A+E

Musical blast from the past.

SEE PAGE 7B

2A

EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

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YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

Is indoor gym a slam dunk?

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ECONOMIC IMPACT OF LOCAL SPORTS LUNCHEON Where: Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club, 7650 Legacy Blvd., Lakewood Ranch When: 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, June 22 Presented by: Lakewood Ranch Community Activities Guest speakers: Elliott Falcione, executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau; Justin Kristich, tournament director for the LECOM Suncoast Classic; Stephen Rodriguez, CEO of Nathan Benderson Park Conservancy Cost: Members $35, nonmembers $45 (includes lunch) More information: LWRBA.org

AD UIHLEIN RO

County exec says Premier Park basketball events would generate huge economic impact.

IF YOU GO

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JAY HEATER MANAGING EDITOR

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When it comes to the fastestgrowing participation in sports and activities, ClubIndustry.com ranks “adventure racing” as No. 1, followed by mixed martial arts and lacrosse.

But if the focus shifts to the fastestgrowing sports in terms of drawing tourists, Elliott Falcione said studies

by IMG Academy have shown that it is an old standard that rules: Basketball.

Falcione, executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said basketball events are heavyweights when it comes to economic impact for an area. For example, six Louisville, Kentucky, youth basketball events in July 2021 at the Kentucky Exposition Center generated an estimated $33 million in economic impact. The Kentucky Exposition Center reported more than 28,000 athletes participated.

In Florida, where the hot summer months discourage tourists, Falcione said indoor basketball events can carry a huge impact. That could add to the estimated $256.1 million that sports-related visitors spent in Manatee County during 2021, according to statistics gathered by the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

On June 22, Falcione will be one of three headliners — Justin Kristich, tournament director for the LECOM Suncoast Classic, and Stephen Rodriguez, CEO of Nathan Benderson Park Conservancy, are the other two — discussing sports tourism during a Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance luncheon at the Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club.

Falcione, who manages the Premier Sports Campus as part of his

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Courtesy rendering

Although a final decision has yet to be made on an indoor gymnasium at Premier Park, this sketch by Manatee County shows that a gym could be placed next to the $13.6 million aquatics facility, which has been approved.

duties with the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he expects Manatee County will have an indoor basketball gym component as it continues to develop its park just north of Premier Sports Campus.

“We need an indoor component,” Falcione said of the county’s park.

“We had (similar) discussions about the pool: ‘Do you want to build just for the residents or do you want to build for both the residents and to generate dollars?’”

In the case of the $13.6 million aquatics complex, Manatee County is designing a competition pool for the park that will be able to host competitive meets on a regional scale or even bigger. Work on the aquatics facility is targeted for a May 2024 opening. Also under construction are a $17.7 million library that has a completion date of June 2023 and a $4.8 million pickleball/racketball complex that is expected to be finished in spring 2023.

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1 Library 2 Racket facility 3 Aquatics facility 4 Gymnasium 5 Parking

The indoor basketball facility, or multipurpose gym, is still only a discussion at this point, but Falcione said it would be a boon to the county to construct it.

Matt Porter, the county’s parks and recreation manager, said Manatee County has just one public indoor gym with more than one basketball court. The John Marble Park gym holds two full basketball courts.

“Our main focus is to get indoor gymnasiums,” Porter said of the parks department.

Porter emphasized that plans for a gymnasium are in their infancy and that others in county administration will make those calls along with the commissioners. He did say that generating economic dollars is about more than just how many basketball courts an indoor facility can offer.

He said the makeup of the park could be attractive to teams or programs that want to train in Florida.

“They might want the shallow

end of a pool for training or a weight room,” he said. “They might care whether there is housing close to the site. It’s all about being a wellrounded facility because they might want more than just one amenity.”

Discussions about a possible indoor gym at the new park also include whether the gym should be a basketball or multifunction facility.

If Manatee County needs some advice, it could talk to Rodriguez, who in May helped secure a commitment of $20 million from Sarasota County, pending a study, to help build a $40 million boathouse and indoor sports facility at Nathan Benderson Park.

For years, the Nathan Benderson Park Conservancy had been raising funds for a projected $10 million boathouse. Sarasota County has approved a plan to build a 100,000-square-foot gymnasium as the top floor of a two-story complex that will be a boathouse on the

first floor.

It was in reaction to a Sarasota strategic plan released Jan. 11 that told of the need for an indoor sports complex that would generate tourist economic impact by hosting national tournaments.

Besides basketball, Falcione will discuss other sports and recreational opportunities, such as cornhole.

“As silly as it sounds, Bradenton was listed No. 2 in the country for cornhole destinations,” he said. “No. 1 was Branson, Missouri, and No. 3 was Las Vegas.

“We have chatted with a cornhole group (the American Cornhole Organization) that hosted the World Cornhole Championships here (in 2021) about creating the largest cornhole tournament in the world at our 23 contiguous fields at Premier Sports Campus. They were intrigued with it, and that’s how we need to think about Lakewood Ranch. It would feed the hospitality industry.”

While pickleball is a fast-growing sport in terms of participation, Falcione said that doesn’t necessarily translate to tourist dollars. He said, like swimming, it is somewhat of a niche market, but he said the possibilities are being studied.

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EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

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3A

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

As growth continues in Lakewood Ranch, the school district is constructing an addition at Lakewood Ranch High and another at Parrish Community High.

Rendering courtesy of Hepner Architects and the School District of Manatee County

Growth

adds additional pressure ADDITIONS ON THE WAY PARRISH COMMUNITY HIGH n 25,000 square feet n 16 classrooms n $15 million project budget n 400 student stations n January 2024 expected completion LAKEWOOD RANCH HIGH n 22 classrooms n $13.2 million project budget n 500 student stations n Fall 2023 expected completion

School district construction plans accelerated by growth.

LIZ RAMOS STAFF WRITER

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nly three years since its opening, Parrish Community High School is close to capacity.

The school was built to serve the growing Parrish community while also alleviating stress on Lakewood Ranch High School by pulling away some East County students.

With the area’s population continuing to grow at a rapid pace, the School District of Manatee County has decided the need for an addition at Parrish Community High is greater than anticipated.

The school opened in August 2019 with 535 students enrolled in ninth and 10th grades. A grade level was added both of the next two years.

At the end of this school year, Joe Ranaldi, chief operations officer for the School District of Manatee County, said the school had 1,737 students enrolled, just 306 students shy of the school’s capacity of 2,043.

“We’re tracking the number of housing units and potential housing units,” Ranaldi said. “Districtwide, we’re looking at about almost 29,000 additional dwelling units, and we know that about half of that is coming from the eastern region. Keeping that in mind, with that number of students coming, at the high school level we could be looking at almost 1,000 high school students coming over the next five to seven years.”

A 16-classroom addition always was part of the plan for Parrish Community High School. A pad for the

BY THE NUMBERS

525

Students enrolled in ninth and 10th grades when Parrish Community High opened in 2019

1,737

Students enrolled in ninth through 12th grades at Parrish Community High in 2021-2022 school year

2,043

Parrish Community High

capacity

2,396

Lakewood Ranch High School enrollment for 20212022 school year

1,818 29,000

Lakewood Ranch High capacity

Additional dwelling units expected to be built across Manatee County, about half in eastern Manatee County

1,000

High school students expected to enroll in schools in eastern Manatee County over the next five years

addition was built along with the new school, but the district didn’t expect to have to construct the actual addition until at least six years after the school’s opening.

Ranaldi said Florida’s Department of Education doesn’t allow districts to build more than what’s needed, so at the time of planning for Parrish Community, they couldn’t build

Parrish resident Delores Gibbs talks to Robin Castle, a senior school secretary at Parrish Community High School, during the school’s opening celebration in 2019.

Just three years later, the school almost is at capacity.

File photos

Parrish Community High School is in need of an addition only three years after opening.

The school is about 300 students shy of capacity.

what now will be the addition. The School District of Manatee County began planning Parrish Community High School in 2017.

Now with the expeditious growth in Parrish and the greater Lakewood Ranch area, the district hopes the additions at Parrish Community and Lakewood Ranch high schools will accommodate the growth.

“Sometimes you can’t project how quickly the developers are going to be completing the dwelling units,” Ranaldi said. “We see at this point there will be the need for high school student stations in that area based on the speed the developments are happening and the number of developments.”

As the district saw more plans for developments, Ranaldi said officials knew they needed a new plan.

“We immediately began to look at options, and one of the most economic ways to gain capacity was to use the existing building pad that was planned in 2017,” he said.

Ranaldi said the gap in capacity of about 300 students at Parrish is enough to give the district the time needed to build the classroom addition without school overcrowding.

“We felt that the existing capacity of 300 would be taken up fairly quickly, and we needed to move forward, especially with construction cost escalation and all that,” he said.

“The sooner we can start construction, the better at this point.”

As the Parrish addition is being built, Ranaldi said the district will not need to put portables on campus to accommodate students.

Lakewood Ranch High School will have a 22-classroom addition that includes 20 classes and two science labs. Designs for the $13.2 million project were presented to the School Board of Manatee County in January.

The addition will allow the school to stop using the 20 portables located between Buildings 4 and 5 on the Lakewood Ranch High campus. The portables will not be removed from campus because to do so would cost

between $400,000 and $500,000.

Ranaldi said the district is not having discussions about rezoning as both Lakewood Ranch and Parrish’s attendance zones see more students.

As growth continues in eastern Manatee County, the district has land for a new high school, but it is not included in the district’s fiveyear capital plan.

“We might need the high school out there, but we feel the addition that we’re doing at Lakewood Ranch and the (Parrish) addition will at least get us through that five-year period,” Ranaldi said. “Then we’ll start seeing the new high school on our budget.”

The new high school would be located on 103 acres on the north side of 59th Avenue East in Lakewood Ranch, just west of Post Boulevard.

A new K-12 charter school could open spaces at high schools in the area as students choose to apply for and attend Lakewood Ranch Preparatory Academy.

Lakewood Ranch Preparatory Academy, located on an 18-acre site on White Eagle Boulevard, will open in August, enrolling students in kindergarten through sixth and ninth grades. The enrollment is about 740 students. The school received nearly 1,500 applications and has a waitlist for every grade.

The high school for Lakewood Ranch Prep will be constructed and open in August 2023 to bring the school’s total enrollment to 1,965 across all grades.

When the high school opens in 2023, it will serve ninth and 10th grades, while the elementary school serves kindergarten through seventh grade. Each year, the schools will add a grade level until Lakewood Ranch Preparatory Academy serves kindergarten through eighth grade and Lakewood Ranch Preparatory Academy High School serves ninth through 12th grades.

EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

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YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

Proposed agritourism changes get review Commissioners hesitant to impose regulations on events that could benefit farmers, ranchers.

IAN SWABY

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Although the Manatee County Planning Commission has said agritourism in the county needs to be clearly defined with some suggested restrictions, commissioners on June 2 sent the proposed changes back for more review.

During the meeting, Pat Tyjeski, a planner with S&ME, the firm contracted by the planning commission, described the purpose of suggested new regulations as protecting agricultural and agritourism activities from nuisance lawsuits.

Commissioners Vanessa Baugh and James Satcher said one likely reason behind the proposal was last November’s Sarasota Medieval Fair, which debuted in Myakka City.

In October, Sarasota Medieval Fair President Jeremy Croteau sent a letter to the East County Observer saying he never sought any favoritism from Manatee County and that he thought the state’s Right to Farm Act specified that no special permit was needed for a farm to host an agritourism event. Croteau purchased 47 acres on State Road 70 in September 2020 and named the property the Woods of Mallaranny.

However, the county had questioned whether Croteau actually was running a farm that qualified for an agritourism event. Croteau was required to apply for a special permit, which he eventually did.

The previous month, six Manatee County employees were placed on administrative leave in connection with an ongoing investigation led

by Manatee County Inspector Gen-

Ian Swaby

Kevin Hennessy, an attorney for Hunsader Farms and Mallaranny LLC, spoke against proposed regulations to agritourism.

eral Lori Stephens. The investigation was related to the county’s Code Enforcement Division. Stephens was investigating whether code enforcement officials ignored citizens’ complaints about construction that was taking place on the Woods of Mallaranny property.

Croteau always maintained that the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services had approved the medieval fair as an agritourism event. The county did not agree.

The Manatee County Planning Commission seeks to clearly define agritourism in the Land Development Code so that it requires a permitting process similar to that of other large gatherings.

“I understand that we want to try and regulate things so that it’s the best it can be, but I am concerned about the over-regulation and the bureaucracy that I’m seeing in this,”

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EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

Baugh said.

“Some agencies might wait until there’s an accident to put in a traffic light,” Tyjeski said. “We want to do this (define restrictions on agritourism) before it becomes a problem.

We want to do this so that staff has the tools to address what could happen in the future.”

Section 570.86 of the state statutes says agritourism refers to “any agricultural-related activity consistent with a bona fide farm, livestock operation, or ranch or in a working forest which allows members of the general public, for recreational, entertainment, or educational purposes, to view or enjoy activities, including farming, ranching, historical, cultural, civic, ceremonial, training and exhibition, or harvestyour-own activities and attractions.”

Tyjeski noted that section 570.85 states the definition “does not limit the powers and duties of a local government to address substantial offsite impacts.” He said therefore, since large events require special use permits to avoid damage to the surrounding area, the same should be required for agritourism operations.

She said several requirements would be introduced in the interest of preventing offsite impacts. Operations drawing 1,000 people or more would mark the point at which a permit was required, which she said was already the case for events such as concerts and weddings.

Applicants would need to submit a conceptual plan confirming sufficient on-site parking, the absence of off-site parking and access for emergency vehicles. A paved road would be required alongside the event.

The proposal would have applied a definition of agritourism to properties in two classifications: – A, General Agriculture, and A-1, Suburban Agriculture.

Commissioners George Kruse, Baugh and Misty Servia said they were hesitant to make any amendments to the code, calling them either redundant or unnecessary, preferring to deal with possible future issues on an individual basis.

Kruse said complaints from the public would have already been received if such events were a problem. He also said there are other regulations that already deal with the placement of tents and buildings,

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THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

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“We want to do this (define restrictions on agritourism) before it becomes a problem. We want to do this so that staff has the tools to address what could happen in the future.”

— Pat Tyjeski, a planner with S&ME

Sarasota & Lakewood Ranch’s FAVORITE MED SPA

which would help manage oversized crowds at such events.

“We don’t need to reiterate it a second time for the zero times this has ever happened,” he said.

Baugh asked what degree of consideration was given to farmers in rural areas and their views on the topic. Tyjeski said the planning commission and S&ME had not spoken with farmers because the regulations were concerned with large operations, not small ones.

The only public comment came from Kevin Hennessy, an attorney for Hunsader Farms and Mallaranny LLC. He said events at Hunsader farms, such as the U-Pick, sometimes generate more than 1,000 people, and thus Hunsader Farms would have no means to determine which days it would be in violation.

“At 999 people, you don’t have to apply,” he said. “But then they count at the door, and they see two more come in, and now you’re in violation.

That’s craziness… .”

Commissioner James Satcher made a motion for a continuance that would send the item back to the planning commission for further review, which gained approval from the full board.

Satcher said when it comes to regulating offsite impacts, the county needs some authority so others can enjoy their land and people can drive safely down the road.

But he said that the county already has other rules in place to deal with those issues.

“I get frustrated if people are trying to take advantage of the system, but I’d rather deal with those cases on individual basis than make a blanket rule that ties the hands of a farmer trying to stay profitable for his family and for this nation,” Satcher said.

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YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

JAY HEATER

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70 MAKE WAY FOR SENIOR LIVING

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If SMR’s proposed changes are approved by the commission, Erickson Senior Living will construct facilities at locations marked by squares.

ly. Moreover, the specific demand for the proposed 1,200-unit senior living and retirement community has significantly increased for the greater Lakewood Ranch area as its population has grown and matured over the years.”

The request also asks to increase the maximum heights (five stories to six stories) on parcels I-2 and J-2, where two Erickson Senior Living buildings will be constructed.

Those parcels straddle Newhaven Boulevard just south of its intersection with Rangeland Parkway. Fugate said Erickson Senior Living is considering a skyway over Newhaven Boulevard to connect the buildings.

Erickson Senior Living will use 1,200 of the requested multifamily units on parcels I-2 and J-2.

Some of the multifamily units obtained in the swap will be allocated to parcel M (the former ice arena

RA

Switching 195,877 feet of retail space for 760 multifamily units. n Switching 150 hotel rooms for 199 multifamily units. n Switching 873,530 square feet of office space for 594 multifamily units. n Switching 23,345 square feet of office space for 67 single-family units.

Manatee County mailed the notice of potential changes to residents who live within the DRI and those adjacent to it on May 27. SMR followed with a mailer to explain the changes.

The mailer, prepared by Lakewood Ranch Development Vice President Suzanne Fugate, read in part, “As technology has advanced and more companies are allowing employees to work from home, which increased significantly during the COVID pandemic, there has been a significant decrease in demand for office and retail space. However, the demand for housing, including multi-family housing, continues to be in high demand in Manatee County, with the number of people moving to Manatee County continuing to increase yearn

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What: Manatee County Board of County Commissioners public hearing When: 9 a.m. June 16 Where: Patricia Glass Chambers, Manatee County Administrative Center, first floor, 1112 Manatee Ave., W., Bradenton

POTENTIAL CHANGES

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In December, Schroeder-Manatee Ranch CEO and President Rex Jensen predicted that one of the most important stories for Lakewood Ranch in 2022 would be the groundbreaking of Erickson Senior Living on Rangeland Parkway.

Jensen said he has been constantly asked by local residents about the chance of attracting such a facility so they would have options in case their parents had to move into an independent living facility.

That groundbreaking could take another step toward reality June 9 when the Manatee County Planning Commission considers a request to make land use changes for the Lakewood Centre Development of Regional Impact. The planning commission will then forward its recommendation to commissioners to be considered June 16. Both meetings have 9 a.m. starting times at the Manatee County Administrative Center in Bradenton.

The multifamily units needed for Erickson Senior Living are the major part of SMR’s request for land use changes that generally involve making way for more multifamily units in exchange for less retail and office space. The Lakewood Centre Development of Regional Impact is generally north of State Road 70 and south of State Road 64, and east of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and west of White Eagle Boulevard. It is approximately 1,593 acres.

The proposed land use exchanges are the following:

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What: Manatee County Planning Commission meeting When: 9 a.m. June 9 Where: Patricia Glass Chambers, Manatee County Administrative Center, first floor, 1112 Manatee Ave., W., Bradenton

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MANAGING EDITOR

IF YOU GO

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Lakewood Ranch developer asks county to swap retail, office space to make way for Erickson Senior Living.

MA L A C H I T

CH BLVD.

SMR requests land use changes

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EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

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If approved, the Lakewood Centre Development of Regional Impact will have 6,164 homes (4,428 multifamily, 1,736 single family),1,378,123 square feet of retail, 566,125 square feet of office space, 250,000 square feet of industrial and 150 hotel rooms at build-out.

The DRI originally was approved Aug. 5, 2008 and approved for 4,544 residences, 1,574,000 square feet of commercial space, 1,463,000 square feet of office space, 250,000 square feet of industrial space and 300 hotel rooms at build-out.

site) to serve as the second phase of the Ryan Co.’s apartment project.

This will be just north of Rangeland Parkway and just west of White Eagle Boulevard.

The 67 single-family units will take the place of 84 planned rental homes adjacent to Dr. Mona Jain Middle School on 44th Avenue East.

These will be townhomes.

If commissioners pass the request, it will help seal a deal that originally was made between Jensen and Erickson Senior Living in 2007.

Jensen had targeted the Catonsville, Maryland, company back then because he deemed it to be one of the nation’s best independent living companies. However, the downturn in the economy killed that deal.

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This advanced surgical as a General Surgeon at Wright-Patterson U.S. Air Force Medical gallbladder disease other than surgical removal. Many toserving the patient.

Center.technology Dr. Dexter helps comestotominimize our arearisk after as a Trauma and treatment options other than surgery have been tried.

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THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

EAST COUNTY

“He did not look at someone and say, ‘She’s dead.’ He didn’t walk away. ... And what he did was, he saved my life.”

— Karen Guest

“If we are to build a better world, we must remember that the guiding principle is this — a policy of freedom for the individual is the only truly progressive policy.”

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“Road to Serfdom,” 1944

ful Lane did not allow it to affect his course of action.

“He did not look at someone and say, ‘She’s dead,’” said Guest. “He didn’t walk away. He proceeded to do everything he had been taught to do, to bring someone back. And what he did was, he saved my life.”

Guest was taken to Lakewood Ranch Medical Center, then transferred to Sarasota Memorial Hospital. She had slammed her head during the crash.

PREPARE TO SAY GOODBYE

Photos by Ian Swaby

Daniel Lane received the Lifesaving Award from the East Manatee Fire Rescue in April.

‘He went above and beyond’ Myakka City woman says firefighter could have walked away from hopeless situation.

IAN SWABY STAFF WRITER

I

t was the greatest gift Myakka City’s Karen Guest had ever received, but she didn’t know the name of the giver.

She was unconscious Feb. 6 when East Manatee Fire Rescue firefighter Daniel Lane pulled her from her submerged car, which had veered off State Road 70 and lay upside down in the waters of a creek just east of Uihlein Road in Lakewood Ranch.

It was only after she found out Lane was going to be presented with East Manatee Fire Rescue’s Lifesaving Award that she learned the name of her rescuer.

Although still recovering from the accident that left her with a minor stroke, a hematoma and a damaged trachea, Guest went to the awards presentation April 18 at Station 1.

News of the ceremony came from friends of her son, Christian.

“That was how God answered prayers, because I had been saying, ‘How do we find the people that rescued me?” she said. “I wanted to at least tell them thank you and have a name. I am ever so grateful for Daniel Lane. He went above and beyond.”

Lane said since the meeting, the Guests have taken him into their family. “This is by far the mostimpactful thing that’s happened to me in my entire career, probably my entire life,” he said.

However, Lane said that he doesn’t attribute the award to his actions alone but to the entire team that arrived on the scene, with everything coordinated just right.

“I’ve analyzed this call thousands of times in my head, and everything went perfectly,” said the 39-year-old Lane, who has been with East Manatee Fire Rescue for 17 years.

“My tribe was excellent,” he said.

“I just happened to be the person who actually went in the car.”

of an upside-down, submerged car protruded from the water. Witnesses said the car had veered off the road attempting to avoid a deer, which Lane said had been struck anyway.

Lane said one witness had attempted to go into the car, a Pontiac 2002 Grand Prix, but was afraid of becoming trapped underneath it on the sloping river bottom on which it was located.

Lane said the driver of Engine 681, Mike Kish, quickly set up lighting for the scene and handed him a Halligan bar, a forceable entry tool. Lane used the bar to break a back window of the car, which was already filled with water.

He entered the murky water and swam in through the window, feeling his way through the dark interior. He said with the vehicle being upside-down, the experience was disorienting.

When Lane reached the front seat, he found Guest and carried her back through the car and onto the shore.

LIFESAVING EFFORTS

By the time Lane returned, firefighter Ben Guth had prepared medical equipment. Finding no pulse from Guest, they began performing CPR. Lane said that Guest was submerged in water between eight and 12 minutes. He said in similar situations, where a person’s heart fully stops, the chance of survival is low.

Guest, who is living with her best friend, Karen Davidson, in Sarasota as she recovers, said she was grate-

With Guest breathing only with the help of a ventilator, Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s staff told her family that they should be prepared to say goodbye because they did not detect any brain activity.

But her niece, Rachelle Eavis, said she was convinced Guest would survive. Guest said Eavis “rallied my children to pray and to have hope and to believe for a miracle.”

By 9 a.m. the next morning, Guest was moving and breathing. By 10:30 a.m., doctors had performed a CT scan and discovered that despite the minor stroke and hematoma, her brain activity was normal.

As Guest’s condition improved, it was difficult for her to remember what had taken place. In the days that followed, each morning the events had to be reexplained to her, and she compared the situation to the one portrayed in the movie “50 First Dates.”

Guest said her family still laughs about that comparison.

She said her memory has improved, and doctors expect her to make a complete recovery with time.

She has some memory loss, dizziness, vertigo and reduced physical strength. She received a tracheotomy and, for now, breathes through a valve due to a damaged trachea.

The accident has left her with other hardships. She said her car insurance, which was minimal, did not provide coverage for the onecar accident. She is without a job but plans to return to her work as a cook at Solomon’s Castle in Ona. But her life also has changed in another way: She has an ongoing friendship with the firefighters.

She gathers with them and estimates she has made them 15 dozen cookies.

“It’s just been an amazing ride,” Guest said.

She urges people, when they hear sirens from a fire truck, to think about the significance and how “what they (firefighters) do is put their lives on the line to save someone.”

While Lane said he is honored to receive an award, his true reward has been to meet Guest and her family.

He said it is rare for firefighters to meet people they have rescued.

“I like how I get to give back to the community, and when I leave, it’s going to be better than before I got there,” he said.

Guest is looking forward to trips to Montana to visit family and enjoying activities like whitewater rafting.

Most of all, she loves still being here to be with her family.

“That night, my family did not give up on me,” she said, calling them “pieces of my heart.”

A GROUP EFFORT

For Lane, the events of that night began in an unassuming manner.

Lane and his fellow firefighters were chatting together at Station 8, at the intersection of State Road 70 and Bourneside Boulevard. The subject turned to swimming, with Lane mentioning that he disliked springs because of the cold water.

When they received the call about 8 p.m., the firefighters rushed westward down S.R. 70, to its intersection with the creek. There, they found numerous witnesses standing in front of the creek, where the back tire

Publisher and President / Emily Walsh, EWalsh@YourObserver.com Associate Publisher — East County Observer / Lori Ruth, LRuth@YourObserver.com Executive Editor and COO / Kat Hughes, KHughes@YourObserver.com Managing Editor / Jay Heater, JHeater@YourObserver.com Sports Editor / Ryan Kohn, RKohn@YourObserver.com Staff Writers / Liz Ramos, LRamos@YourObserver.com; Ian Swaby, ISwaby@YourObserver.com Digital & Engagement Editor / Kaelyn Adix, KAdix@YourObserver.com Copy Editor / Shawn Candela, SCandela@YourObserver.com Editorial Designers / Melissa Leduc, MLeduc@YourObserver.com; José Valle, JValle@YourObserver.com A+E Editor / Spencer Fordin, SFordin@YourObserver.com Black Tie Editor / Harry Sayer, HSayer@YourObserver.com Director of Advertising / Jill Raleigh, JRaleigh@YourObserver.com Sales Manager / Penny Nowicki, PNowicki@YourObserver.com Regional Digital Director / Kathleen O’Hara, KOHara@YourObserver.com Senior Advertising Executive / Laura Ritter, LRitter@YourObserver.com Advertising Executives / Richeal Bair, RBair@YourObserver.com; Beth Jacobson, BJacobson@YourObserver.com; Jennifer Kane, JKane@YourObserver.com; Honesty Mantkowski, HMantkowski@YourObserver. com; Toni Perren, TPerren@YourObserver. com; Brenda White, BWhite@ YourObserver.com Classified Advertising Sales Executive / Lexi Huelsman, LHuelsman@ YourObserver.com Sales Operations Manager / Susan Leedom, SLeedom@YourObserver.com Sales Coordinator / Account Manager Lori Downey, LDowney@YourObserver.com Digital Fulfillment Specialist / Emma Burke, EBurke@YourObserver.com Tributes Coordinator / Kristen Boothroyd, Tributes@YourObserver.com Director of Marketing / Robin Lankton, RLankton@YourObserver.com Director of Creative Services / Caleb Stanton, CStanton@YourObserver.com Creative Services Administrator / Marjorie Holloway, MHolloway@ YourObserver.com Advertising Graphic Designers / Luis Trujillo, Taylor Poe, Louise Martin, Shawna Polana Digital Developer / Jason Camillo, JCamillo@YourObserver.com Director of Information Technology / Adam Quinlin, AQuinlin@YourObserver.com Chief Financial Officer / Laura Strickland, LStrickland@YourObserver.com Controller / Rafael Labrin, RLabrin@YourObserver.com Office and Accounting Coordinator / Donna Condon, DCondon@ YourObserver.com

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YourObserver.com Christian Guest and his mom, Karen, are grateful to East Manatee Fire Rescue Firefighter Daniel Lane for Karen’s rescue.

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EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

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THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

9A

JAY HEATER

Racking our brains to deliver the paper I

spend a lot of time at the office talking on the phone to concerned readers, but this was different.

Usually, I am discussing a story that someone didn’t like, or liked very much. It could be a chat about our Manatee County commissioners, a conversation about out-ofcontrol growth, or an exchange about traffic.

That would be most days.

This, however, took me by surprise. One after another a couple of weeks ago, callers were upset they couldn’t pick up the East County Observer at Publix.

What?

And the calls kept coming.

After the first few calls came into my office, I figured this was just a case of our readers snapping up the papers until they were all gone.

Even though we deliver hundreds of our newspapers to different Publix stores, they tend to disappear quickly. I needed to get some more papers out there.

But the calls kept coming, and about having no papers at different Publix locations.

I started to wonder whether we featured an amazing coupon: three burgers for the price of one? That tends to make newspapers disappear quickly. Was there a controversial story? “SMR buys Sarasota.”

That would make ’em’ disappear.

Then we were given notice. Publix had made a corporate decision not to distribute free newspapers from racks in its stores anymore.

Yikes.

Publix has been a wonderful partner for years in providing space for the Observer in the front of its stores. I would always enjoy watching shoppers walking out the door with their groceries, before doing a double take as they passed the rack that contained the East County Observer. Whether it was a photo

Jay Heater

Many businesses, such as Wawa, have racks inside offering the East County Observer.

on the front page or a headline, they would lean over, grab it and toss the paper into their cart. When you are an editor, that kind of stuff makes your day.

I always had hoped the stores and customers saw this space as a customer service. The many callers I spoke with confirmed that they thought it, indeed, was. Those callers have been relaying that fact to their favorite grocery store.

Certainly, Publix has every right to do what it wants with its space.

Here at the East County Observer, we appreciate the consideration afforded us in the past. We would love to be back on racks by the front doors, but perhaps that is not possible.

Publix representatives have said they will continue to pass out the East County Observer to those who ask for it. A store employee will go behind the customer service counter to get a newspaper for those who ask. We will deliver as many newspapers to Publix as the stores are willing to hand out. It’s just going to be an adjustment because shoppers will need to ask for a paper since they aren’t going to see it as they go out the door.

When you ask for an East County Observer, you might mention to Publix if you liked it the way it used to be offered, in a rack by the door.

Meanwhile, we want our readers to know we are considering many options in terms of making it easy

for them to find our newspaper.

This will come in different forms, such as asking businesses if they would be willing to stock our newspapers on a rack that would make it easy for our readers to find.

Some businesses, such as Wawa, already make our newspaper available, but perhaps it will be a matter of delivering more issues to them.

Gas, a cup of coffee or a breakfast burrito and the East County Observer. Hopefully you think that is a nice way to start the day.

Many businesses already stock the East County Observer, and you can find a list and location map at YourObserver.com. Just go to our site, scroll down to the bottom and click on “rack locations.” You will

find a map with the locations listed.

In the case of the East County Observer, just click on the little yellow balloon, and it will tell you the business name and address.

Of course, we deliver thousands of East County Observers right to your driveway all over East County.

In communities that might not allow free deliveries, we often have a common site, such as a clubhouse, where we drop off our newspapers.

If you don’t see our newspaper in your community, check with your HOA and say you want it. We will work with any community in our circulation area. If you want more information, call 366-3468 or email DCondon@YourObserver.com.

We continue to enhance our online coverage, and that includes a digital version of our complete newspaper, page by page. And stay tuned for our new and improved e-Newspaper app, coming out in August.

Making sure you get to read the East County Observer is our utmost priority, so please continue to let us know how we are doing.

While I am mostly concentrating on editorial content, I am always willing to discuss the paper with you and how to get it into your hands. My office number is 7555357, ext. 206.

And if you don’t want to talk delivery, we can go back to chatting about the news.

Jay Heater is the managing editor for the East County Observer. Contact him at JHeater@ YourObserver.com.

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Cheryl McGrew still remembers her first day at Gilbert W. McNeal Elementary School in 2003.

At the time, she was a teacher.

The new school had just opened its doors. McGrew remembered meeting students and their families throughout the summer at Green-

brook Park, a short walk from the elementary school, to pick the school colors of green and purple and the school’s mascot, the wildcat.

“It was a very exciting part of my life,” she said. “I feel fulfilled by being able to open a school. It was like a shiny new penny. It was brand new, big, we had plenty of room. It was just gorgeous. The families were so excited. I have all the yearbooks from the beginning of McNeal to today.”

McGrew’s educational career came full circle May 27 as she retired as principal of McNeal Elementary School after 34 years in education.

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Years in School District of Manatee County: 31 Years in education: 34 Family: Husband, Greg; son, Grant; daughter, Jacqueline Figueroa; son-inlaw, Drew Figueroa; and two grandchildren, Grayson and Jameson Figueroa Favorite subject: Reading Favorite animal: Dog Favorite grade to teach: Fourth grade Fun fact: She adopted a French bulldog named Gunner

now used in every elementary school throughout the School District of Manatee County. McNeal and Freedom elementary schools were the first in the county to have the STEM labs that are now common in elementary schools.

McGrew said she traveled the country to places with large STEMintegrated schools so she could learn more about STEM education.

With the support of the district and students’ families, McGrew’s vision for STEM education in Manatee County became a reality.

“They got behind it, and they could see my vision for what our students needed,” she said. “I was kind of one of those people that I just love math and science, learning about technology and learning how to code even back then when I didn’t have the background.

“But the kids sure did know how to do it, and they embraced it. It’s fun to see the vision fulfilled.”

McGrew’s favorite memory is the first year McNeal had its STEM lab.

She said the students learned about catapults and trebuchets, how they worked, what the difference was between them and more.

One of the school’s business partners donated dozens of tomatoes, so during a field day at the school, McGrew spent the time with students flinging tomatoes across the field using a 6-foot trebuchet, a type of catapult. “(Their reactions) were pure joy because there’s nothing like loading a tomato, especially if you’re 5 to 10 years old, and letting that drop weight go and seeing that big arm swinging and the tomato fly,” McGrew said.

“They were purely excited to see it come into action because we’d drawn about it, and we’d learned about the vocabulary. They understood the mechanics of it, and then to actually go out and pull that string and have that bar move was pretty cool.”

She remembered the Wildcat shirts that year sported a trebuchet launching tomatoes.

McGrew will miss all the opportunities she had to be a part of her students’ lives, whether it was watching them take the class pet home for the weekend, seeing children lose their first tooth or seeing a student have that a-ha moment in class when they understood a lesson.

She loved collaborating with other teachers like Katie Fradley, who is now an assistant principal at Ballard Elementary School. Together, Fradley and McGrew, or “McFrad,” had representatives from Florida Studio Theatre come to the Braden River Elementary School, where they were teaching at the time, to teach their students how to write a play.

“We got the bright idea to do a McFrad Florida Studio,” McGrew said. “All of our children who wrote plays were able to perform their plays for their families. It was such a fun night because it was student led. They were so cute. It was neat to watch their writing come to life.”

The McFrad team also had a starry night event in which McGrew and Fradley brought telescopes into class and had their students research planets and stars.

On a night when the sky was clear, the classes used the telescopes to see the craters of the moon, Saturn’s rings and the stars.

“It was a neat evening,” McGrew said. “For our little kids to actually see the moon and to understand this is what we’re talking about and see Saturn’s rings was pretty cool.”

In her retirement, McGrew plans to visit family in Indiana, see Mount Rushmore and eventually see the Northern Lights.

Her desire to give back to the community will continue, she said, because she plans to volunteer at her church and for organizations around Lakewood Ranch.

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THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

Agriculture camp plants seeds of learning Little Ranchers gives students opportunities to learn about animals, plants and the environment while building friendships.

LIZ RAMOS STAFF WRITER

Kinley Kirker, a rising sixth grader, was busy collecting insects at Lakewood Ranch High School.

She taped each one to a piece of paper to study as part of the plant science curriculum during the Future Farmers of America’s Little Ranchers summer camp May 31 to June 3.

When Kirker came across a spider, none of the campers wanted to tape it to their papers, so Kirker asked her camp counselor Noah Rueping, a rising junior, for help.

He was busy at the time, so he told her to put it down, and he would take care of it in a moment. Kirker left the spider on his chair and told Rueping where he could find it.

“Like 10 minutes later, he sat on his chair, and I think he forgot we put the spider on his chair,” Kirker said. “He got it all over his butt. We all started laughing.”

Little Ranchers not only was an opportunity to learn about animals, plants, insects and the environment, but also a time to make friends.

“I was nervous to come here, but I liked it because I have my counselors and Kinley (as friends),” said Ryleigh Fangue, a rising third grader.

Counselors had fun getting to know the campers and introducing them to new experiences, such as holding a chicken, petting and feeding a cow and fishing.

“It’s good to see the smiles on the kids’ faces when you’re going through the games,” said Garrett Day, a rising senior at Lakewood Ranch High and camp counselor.

Day and Max Mangus, a recent Lakewood Ranch High graduate, loved seeing campers’ reactions when they caught a fish.

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Courtesy photo

“We did it in a primitive style, so we used sticks, cane poles and live worms,” Day said. “You saw their faces light up.”

On the last day of camp, the campers competed in a wild relay race.

Members of each team had to waddle with a balloon between their legs. hop in a feed sack, balance an egg on a spoon, jump on a pool noodle horse (galloping around three posts), and link arms to dash to a finish line.

Above: Ava Clementi, a rising fourth grade, cheers for Nahla Vlasak, a rising fifth grader, as she tackles the egg-carrying portion of the relay race.

Left: Bailee Sharp, a rising third grader, enjoys participating in Little Ranchers for the second year in a row.

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12A

JUNE 9, 2022

SPORTS HIGH

1

5

1

Lakewood Ranch High senior Grace Hogie was named MVP of the West team at the Florida Athletic Coaches Association All-Star Senior Classic held June 4 in Lakeland. Hogie went 4-6 with a two-run homer.

Local talent shines Perseverance, state titles highlight 2021-2022 high school sports season.

RYAN KOHN SPORTS EDITOR

2

Florida State sophomore James Rivera, a Lakewood Ranch High graduate, ran the third leg of the Seminole men’s 4x400 meter relay at the NCAA East Preliminary meet on May 28. Rivera and his running mates finished ninth in 3:05.33, qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Championships, to be held June 8-11 in Eugene, Oregon.

3

Marie Diamond (39) won the Nine Hole Women’s Golf Association low individual net event held June 2 on Palm Aire Country Club’s Lakes course.

4

Barbara Romig (17) won the Nine Hole Ladies Golf Association “Even Steven” event (individual low net) held June 2 at University Park Country Club.

5

Braden River High named Greg Creek as its baseball coach May 28, replacing Zack Solly, who stepped down after two seasons. Creek played in the Atlanta Braves organization for six years and has spent the last 12 years working as a private instructor and running the local Mayhem travel team.

The 2021-2022 East County high school sports season included state titles, records and some of the mosttalented athletes in Florida.

In other words, it was a typical season for the area.

Here are the top 10 moments of the East County high school sports season.

1

Lakewood Ranch wins backto-back softball titles The theme of Lakewood Ranch High softball’s 2022 season was R.E.B.A., which stood for “run everything back again.”

That is exactly what the Mustangs did. A year after going 30-2 on their way to a Florida High School Athletic Association state championship, culminating in a 14-4 win over Park Vista High in the title game, the Mustangs repeated the feat. The 2022 Mustangs also went 30-2 and used the championship game, held May 28 at Legends Way Ball Fields in Clermont, to get revenge on Lake Brantley High for handing them their two regular season losses.

Lakewood Ranch beat the Patriots 8-2 in the title game. The Mustangs knocked around Lake Brantley senior pitcher Hannah Marien, who entered the game with a 0.14 ERA. They collected eight runs off of Marien in five innings. Of the Mustangs’ 10 hits, six went for extra bases. They were led by senior Grace Hogie, who hit two triples, and junior Addyson Bruneman, who hit a triple and a double and collected three RBIs. Mustangs sophomore pitcher Ella Dodge held the Patriots in check, pitching a complete game, allowing two runs on five hits and four walks.

“It is fun to have what we have here with this program,” Mustangs Head Coach T.J. Goelz said. “These kids understand there is a way we do things here, and they have bought in.

They get used to winning, and they don’t accept anything else.”

2 COLD CLIMATE, HOT BAT PAGE 14A

ODA senior captures track and field gold medal The Out-of-Door Academy senior Tristan McWilliam was not the favorite to win the boys 1,600-meter run at the 2022 FHSAA Class 1A Track and Field Championships, held May 14 at James G. Pressly Stadium in Gainesville.

But he did.

The senior won the gold medal in the 1,600 in 4:17.97, out-kicking Cambridge Christian junior Braxton Legg by 0.48 seconds. The time was a personal best and an ODA record for McWilliam.

“That moment of crossing the finish line was pure relief,” McWilliam said. “I was expecting to finish second or third because everyone had better PRs than me. But I am certainly happy with it.”

McWilliam said he stayed near the front of the pack in the 1,600 before turning things up a level with two laps to go. Once there were 150 meters left, McWilliam said, he knew he had it won.

3

Mustang ends career with silver lining Lakewood Ranch High senior Grace Marston ended her high school running career with a silver medal in the girls 3,200-meter run at the FHSAA Class 4A on May 14, finishing in 11:03.58.

Marston led for seven of the race’s eight laps but was overtaken

by Coral Park High senior Penelope Sosa on the final lap. Sosa finished in 10:59.28. Marston said she did not expect to be in front of the pack for so much of the race, but the race’s initial slower pace gave her the opportunity to try to steal the race. It almost worked.

Despite the final lap, Marston, who will attend and run for Georgia Tech, said she was proud of the effort she gave and happy with the result.

4

ODA baseball reaches state semifinal Like the Lakewood Ranch High softball team, The Out-of-Door Academy baseball team was looking to repeat as state champions in 2022.

Unlike the Mustangs, the Thunder were working many new players into the lineup and pitching staff. As a result, the Thunder (20-9) played up and down to start the year,

3

File photos

but settled into a groove before making another deep postseason run.

ODA beat Seffner Christian 5-4 in nine innings at home May 17 to advance to the FHSAA state semifinals. Junior Jack Hobson hit two home runs and pitched the final three and 2/3 innings, allowing no earned runs (one total run). In the ninth inning, junior Luca Marino hit a walk-off single, scoring senior Logan Tribble from second base.

The Thunder lost 5-2 to North Florida Christian in the semifinals May 23.

Above left: Lakewood Ranch High’s softball team captured its second-straight state title on May 28.

Above right: Lakewood Ranch senior Grace Marston (right) finished second in the girls 3,200-meter run at the FHSAA Class 4A state track and field championships (11:03.58).

5

Lakewood Ranch soccer reaches regional finals After another strong regular season, the Lakewood Ranch boys soccer team (18-2-1) fell short chasing a state championship.

The Mustangs trotted their way into the Class 7A regional finals thanks to a 1-0 win over local rival Riverview High (12-2-4). Senior Drew Clark scored the game’s lone goal on an assist from senior Sam Leavy. The Mustangs’ suffocating defense did the rest; the Rams managed just three shots, and two shots on goal, which senior goaltender Josh McManis stopped.

The Mustangs fell 3-1 to Plant High in overtime in the regional finals.

SEE TOP 10, PAGE 15A

5

Lakewood Ranch senior captain Drew Clark (24) celebrates with Christian Hernandez.

Clark scored the lone goal in the Mustang boys soccer team’s 1-0 win over Riverview High in the regional semifinals.

14A

EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

|

YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

PROSE AND KOHN

RYAN KOHN

Colgate keeps former Mustang smiling S

Photo courtesy Colgate Athletics

Former Lakewood Ranch High softball player Jillian Herbst, a freshman at Colgate, was named the 2022 Patriot League Rookie of the Year.

ation All-Northeast Second Team.

“Receiving those awards, it was a sign that my hard work is paying off, and I’m being rewarded for it,” Herbst said. “I know that I’m doing all of this for a reason now. Like, I’m good at this.”

Herbst is a slap hitter, which means she’s a lefty who focuses on making contact. Left-handed slap hitters get a moving start in the batter’s box, taking a few steps toward first base as they swing in order to get an advantage running to first.

Think of how Ichiro Suzuki used to hit for the Seattle Mariners and you’ll have the basic idea, only slap hitters take it even farther.

Herbst said her biggest challenge in the transition to college softball

was the sheer workload. There is more of everything, Herbst said.

More time in the weight room, more homework, more practice time and more pressure. It was an adjustment, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle.

She had a nice head start because of the high school and travel programs where her skills were fostered. Herbst played for Coach T.J. Goelz at Lakewood Ranch, which just won back-to-back Florida High School Athlete Association state titles, and on his Tampa Mustangs T.J. travel team, which annually competes for national titles.

“The speed (of Goelz’s practices) is the same as it is here,” Herbst said. “Everything is fast-paced. He

runs a tight ship. He also taught me to always compete for my position.

I was not a starter as a freshman at Lakewood Ranch. I had to prove myself in practice, and eventually I earned a lineup spot right before the postseason. I knew I had to have the same attitude here.”

The lineup spot came quicker at Colgate. Herbst said she did not enter the season with any expectations. She was focused on improving her approach at the plate and always “barreling” the ball. If she did that, she said, the results would come. She was also focused on having fun. Herbst said college athletics can become too much to take if you’re not enjoying yourself.

Luckily for Herbst, her team-

mates are a fun-loving group and have provided strong leadership.

“I found my people,” Herbst said.

Colgate’s season went by in a flash, Herbst said, but one moment managed to stand out. On the team’s weeklong road trip to play teams in Alabama, Herbst hit her first collegiate home run March 17 against Samford. Not only that, but Herbst’s father, Richard, was in attendance. Colgate lost the game 4-3, but that was secondary to Herbst sharing such a moment with her father, she said.

As a team, Colgate did not have a stellar year. The Raiders went 20-28 and bowed out in the second round of the Patriot League tournament. But having Herbst at the top of their lineup provides hope for 2023. Herbst said she is taking a few weeks off from on-field drills to rest her body, but once she returns to on-field drills, Herbst said she plans on improving her conditioning and strength to increase her extra-base hits.

She will also be enjoying herself.

It might be snowy in Hamilton, but Herbst feels right at home.

“A lot of high school players are scared to leave home or leave Florida,” Herbst said. “I get that. It can be intimidating. Being in that area (Lakewood Ranch), your world is small. Leaving Florida has opened up my world a lot. Plus, home is only a plane ride away. I would tell everyone to not let distance affect your decision. Follow where your heart tells you to go because it is probably right.”

Ryan Kohn is the sports editor for the East County Observer. Contact him at RKohn@ YourObserver.com.

75 70

380125-1

he didn’t even get a full day off.

Colgate freshman and softball player Jillian Herbst, a Lakewood Ranch High alumna, had never experienced a snowstorm before and was somewhat looking forward to it during her first year at the upstate New York university.

In Hamilton, New York, where Colgate is located, snow arrives in droves each winter. According to Best Places, Hamilton averages 86 inches of the stuff each year. Coming from Lakewood Ranch, Herbst could be forgiven for thinking she would get a few snow days so she wouldn’t have to go to class.

But no. Herbst said during the winter’s first big storm — and all subsequent storms — Colgate canceled classes only in the morning, not the afternoon. By then, she said, snow plows had cleared the roads and everyone got safely to class.

She did get to go sledding with her teammates, though, which she said was a blast. Her Colgate team parka kept her warm, as did her snow boots, some of the first purchases she made upon arrival.

“It was an easier transition than I thought it would be,” Herbst said. “I thought I would be freezing all the time, but it isn’t so bad. I got used to it.”

If the parka and snow boots didn’t keep her warm, her softball bat would have. Herbst, who hit .438 during her Lakewood Ranch career, instantly became one of Colgate’s best players when she stepped on campus. She led the Raiders with a .365 average from the leadoff spot with nine doubles, four triples and two home runs. She had a team-high .509 slugging percentage with 20 RBIs and also played multiple positions.

Her performance earned her the Patriot League Rookie of the Year award and a spot on the league’s all-conference first team and the National Fastpitch Coaches Associ-

EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

BUSY BEE TUTORING

TOP 10, FROM PAGE 13A

6

Saint Stephen’s senior sets scoring record Saint Stephen’s Episcopal senior Jamie Springstead, who lives in Lakewood Ranch, broke the school’s basketball career scoring record Jan. 6 in a 59-29 home win over Patel High.

Springstead entered the game with 1,357 points, four points off the record set by Mack Barnes, a 1981 graduate.

Springstead scored 14 points against Patel to break the record.

Springstead finished her Falcons career with 1,605 points.

7

15A

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ODA girls lacrosse makes regional semifinals The Out-of-Door Academy girls lacrosse team made a big leap from 2021 to 2022, going 15-2 and reaching the FHSAA Class 1A regional semifinals.

The Thunder (15-2) beat Barron Collier High (11-7) 18-5 on April 19 to do it. Senior Dani Taraska led the Thunder with five goals, while senior Megan Dowdell, sophomore Aubrey Robbins and sophomore Emma Arrigo added four each.

ODA lost 7-6 to Saint Stephen’s Episcopal (14-3) in the regional semifinals.

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File photo

Braden River senior Nehemiah Jenkins ran for 165 yards and a touchdown in the Pirates’ 30-16 win over Countryside High.

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Braden River volleyball captures district title Braden River High’s volleyball team hadn’t won a district title since 2010 as it headed into the 2021-2022 season.

The drought ended Oct. 21 when the Pirates (21-8) swept Bloomingdale High 3-0 in their district championship game. Pirates sophomore Aryanna Spainhower led the team with 12 kills.

Braden River beat Fort Myers High (12-16) 3-1 in the next round before losing 3-0 to Riverdale High (24-7) on Nov. 3.

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8

Braden River football perseveres for 9-2 season For much of the 2021 season, the Braden River High football team had a wide receiver playing quarterback, a defensive back sharing time at running back and a host of other athletes playing out of position.

Pirates Head Coach Curt Bradley and his staff made it work.

The Pirates went 9-2 and peaked with a 30-16 road win over Countryside High (5-4) in the FHSAA Class 6A regional quarterfinals Nov. 12. Senior Nehemiah Jenkins highlighted the win with 162 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries.

Braden River lost 49-9 to eventual state champion Jesuit High in the next round.

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

8

379225-1

Lakewood Ranch wrestler medals despite injury Mustangs senior Ranson Coons, a 182-pound wrestler, earned a third-place medal at the Florida High School Athletic Association State Wrestling Championships held March 3-5 at Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee.

Coons competed in the tournament despite a shoulder injury suffered at the school’s district tournament two weeks earlier. The injury left him unable to lift his left arm above his shoulder.

After losing his first match of the tournament, Coons won five straight matches to take third place, including an 18-2 win over Newsome High senior Peyton Turner, the wrestler who was facing him when he was injured two weeks earlier.

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16A

EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

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THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

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YOUR NEIGHBORS TIP OF THE HAT TO GRADUATES

C

eline DeAngelo, a senior at the Out-of-Door Academy, decided to decorate her graduation cap to show which university she plans to attend.

She went to Michaels, picked up supplies, and within an hour and a half had a giant ‘E’ sparkling on her cap for Elon University.

“I thought it turned out pretty good,” DeAngelo said.

DeAngelo enjoyed her final big high school moment June 4, and like many of her classmates is already thinking about college.

“It’s kind of crazy,” DeAngelo said. “I’ve been at ODA since third grade. To see everyone graduating and where they’ll go to school is exciting.”

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“It’s amazing,” Newcome said.

“These past four years flew by.”

“At the same time, it doesn’t feel real,” Kidd said.

As graduates crossed the stage to accept their diplomas, families sat in the crowd cheering, sometimes blowing airhorns or popping confetti as they heard their graduate’s name called.

Crystal Lahners and her family had giant cutouts of her daughter, Ella, to cheer with when she accepted her diploma.

Crystal Lahners wanted to make Ella’s graduation special because her father, William, died before he could see her graduate.

“We’re so proud of her and excited for her future,” Crystal Lahners said.

Margey Bonacuse held up cutouts of her granddaughter Austin Bonacuse during the ceremony.

Margey Bonacuse said Austin Bonacuse is the first of her grandchildren to graduate from high school.

“It was so awesome,” Margey Bonacuse said. “It was such a nice ceremony. We’re so proud of her.”

Most families had their cameras ready. Rick Lamb followed his son Ashton with his phone camera as he crossed the stage. Then it was time for more outside with his brother, Alex, and mom, Carrie.

“It’s amazing to see my brother graduate,” Alex Lamb said.

ODA faculty, staff and board of trustees members were allowed to hand family members their diplomas for the first time.

Tammy Karp, a member of the board of trustees, was all smiles as she handed her niece Claire Karp Hauser her diploma.

“That was such an honor,” Karp said.

Photos by Liz Ramos

ODA graduates wait to walk to the stage and accept their high school diplomas.

— LIZ RAMOS

Left: Aidan Murphy looks at his diploma as more graduates’ names are called.

Above: James Carrión accepts his diploma from James Connor, the interim head of the school.

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Above: Cate Paxton, Ella Lahners and Alexandra Morgan show off their decorated caps after the ceremony.

Right: ODA seniors Aaliyaa Genat and Anthony Gaukhman make hearts with their hands as they enjoy their graduation ceremony.

2B

EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

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YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

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he cafeteria and stage at Gilbert W. McNeal Elementary School went dark.

Suddenly, red, blue and green lights beamed from the stage.

Students in third through fifth grade erupted in applause as they saw “Star Wars” come to life on stage during a performance from fifth graders Gus Walsh, Lukas Nantes, Keagen Terry, Jeffrey Davis, Preston Fulmer and Jude Arbanis.

A battle of good versus evil took place on stage as the students portrayed “Star Wars” characters including Kylo Ren, Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Mandalorian, Count Dooku, Luke Skywalker and Darth Maul during McNeal Elementary’s annual fifth grade talent show May 26.

“I remember watching the talent show when I was younger and wanting to do it,” Isabella Lawton said. “Now we’re getting to do it.”

Lawton performed an original dance to Katy Perry’s “Firework” with friends Stella Guido and Cora Kovatch.

— LIZ RAMOS

Fifth grader Isabella Lawton dances to Katy Perry’s “Firework.” Lawton said she and her friends chose the song because it was upbeat and celebrates the end of the school year and the start of a new chapter.

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Fifth graders Jeffrey Davis, Lukas Nantes, Preston Fulmer, Keagen Terry, Gus Walsh and Jude Arbanis perform one of the most popular acts of the talent show. Students chanted “Star Wars” as the boys exited the stage.

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EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

FRIDAY, JUNE 10-SATURDAY, JUNE 11

MUSIC AT THE PLAZA Runs from 6-9 p.m. at Waterside Place, 1561 Lakefront Drive, Lakewood Ranch. Live music from Sarasota musician Dean Johansson on Friday and singer/songwriter Taylor Opie on Saturday can be enjoyed by those who visit Waterside Place to enjoy sunset views of Kingfisher Lake, have fun at the hub’s small parks or dine at various restaurants.

For information, go to MyLWR.com.

THURSDAY, JUNE 9 THROUGH SUNDAY, JUNE 12

YOUTH ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS Begins at 8 a.m. daily at Nathan Benderson Park, 5851 Nathan Benderson Circle, Sarasota. The annual Youth Rowing Championships regatta features more than 2,000 rowers racing for medals in 32 events, including rowers from local clubs like Sarasota Crew and Sarasota Scullers. General admission tickets cost $89 and cover all four days of the event. Tickets can be purchased at HappsNow.com/team/USRowing.

For more information on the event, visit USRowing.org or NathanBendersonPark.org.

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DAD’S DAY BLOCK PARTY Runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Mall at UTC, 140 University Town Center Drive, Sarasota. The Mall at UTC hosts the annual Dad’s Dad Block Party featuring burgers, beer and fun events. For more information, go to MallatUTC.com.

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FARMERS MARKET Runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Lakefront Drive in Waterside Place at Lakewood Ranch. Vendors will be offering seafood, eggs, meats, dairy products, pastas, bakery goods, jams and pickles, among other items. Other features are children’s activities and live music. For more information, go to MyLWR.com.

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SUNDAY, JUNE 12

YOGA IN THE PARK Begins at 9 a.m. at Waterside Place Park, 7500 Island Cove Terrace, Lakewood Ranch. Lakewood Ranch Community Activities offers yoga that is free to residents and $10 for nonresidents. For more information, go to MyLWR.com.

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ROBOBOAT 2022 FINALS Begins at 1 p.m. at Nathan Benderson Park, 5851 Nathan Benderson Circle, Sarasota. Roboboat is an annual international competition between high school and college teams to design, build and test an autonomous surface vehicle (robotic boats) on the water. The boats will be put through a competition testing them in coastal surveillance, port security and other types of oceanographic operations. For more information, visit Roboboat.org.

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JOB FAIR Runs from 4-8 p.m. June 9 and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 10 at the Grand Court at the Mall at UTC, 140 University Town Center Drive, Sarasota.

The Mall at UTC is hosting a twoday job fair for those who want to explore full- and part-time positions at the mall. For more information, go to MallatUTC.com.

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

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THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

BRADENTON 20706 79th Avenue E 4 Beds 4/1 Baths 5,077 Sq. Ft. Chris Baylis 941-735-4713 A4531620 $3,650,000

MYAKKA CITY 25008 67th Avenue E 4 Beds 3/1 Baths 3,510 Sq. Ft. Chris Baylis 941-735-4713 A4534475 $1,700,000

UNIVERSITY PARK 8171 Abingdon Court 2 Beds 2/2 Baths 2,609 Sq. Ft. Rachel Benderson 941-376-0218 A4525357 $1,650,000

LAKEWOOD RANCH 7410 Mizner Reserve Court 3 Beds 3/1 Baths 3,648 Sq. Ft. Tina Ciaccio 941-685-8420 A4534317 $1,590,000

BRADENTON 13707 Palazzo Terrace 4 Beds 3/1 Baths 2,726 Sq. Ft. Stacy Haas 941-587-4359 A4535668 $1,575,000

BRADENTON 115 65th Street Court Nw 5 Beds 3 Baths 2,968 Sq. Ft. Patty Brooks 941-545-1194 A4534150 $1,500,000

PARRISH 16003 39th Glen E 4 Beds 3 Baths 3,225 Sq. Ft. Laura Navratil & Mary Pat Pihl 941-806-7436 A4532572 $1,295,000

BRADENTON 2112 51st Street W 4 Beds 3 Baths 3,805 Sq. Ft. Jodene Moneuse 941-302-4913 A4529879 $998,000

LAKEWOOD RANCH 7184 Whitemarsh Circle 3 Beds 3 Baths 2,544 Sq. Ft. Kati K Connell 314-616-1860 A4535544 $899,999

LAKEWOOD RANCH 10302 Tamo Shanter Place 3 Beds 3 Baths 2,412 Sq. Ft. Victoria Turner 662-614-2783 A4534997 $875,000

SARASOTA 1752 Sugarberry Trail 4 Beds 3 Baths 2,314 Sq. Ft. Drew Russell 941-993-3739 A4532704 $760,000

BRADENTON 2301 64th Street W 4 Beds 3/1 Baths 2,477 Sq. Ft. Fran DeDona & Pam Goodwin 941-812-5023 A4535719 $750,000

BRADENTON 13805 18th Place E 3 Beds 2/1 Baths 3,155 Sq. Ft. Nicole Ryskamp 941-807-1766 A4532960 $749,000

BRADENTON 3701 54th Drive W 101 3 Beds 3 Baths 1,439 Sq. Ft. Adam Cuffaro 941-812-0791 A4534190 $699,000

BRADENTON 15642 Sacile Lane 2 Beds 2 Baths 1,533 Sq. Ft. Barbara A Milian, PA 941-504-0660 A4535785 $629,000

LAKEWOOD RANCH 6113 35th Court E 4 Beds 2/1 Baths 2,697 Sq. Ft. Jefferson Payne 857-350-0089 A4533196 $600,000

BRADENTON 2525 Avolet Court 3 Beds 2/1 Baths 1,926 Sq. Ft. Carroll Couri 813-727-1630 A4532679 $599,999

BRADENTON 15737 High Bell Place 5 Beds 2/1 Baths 2,868 Sq. Ft. Stacy Hanan 941-266-0529 A4533236 $599,000

BRADENTON 11523 Rolling Green Drive 3 Beds 2/1 Baths 1,807 Sq. Ft. Sandi Dietrich 941-704-0697 A4531465 $550,000

LAKEWOOD RANCH 4419 Murfield Drive E 3 Beds 2 Baths 1,560 Sq. Ft. Sergei Sokolov 941-323-2585 A4534173 $522,600

SARASOTA 4975 79th Avenue Drive E 3 Beds 2/1 Baths 1,910 Sq. Ft. Amy Carrington 941-720-2538 A4536369 $500,000

PALMETTO 130 Riviera Dunes Way 406 2 Beds 2 Baths 1,750 Sq. Ft. Gloria Totti-Cervoni 941-544-7746 A4536127 $495,000

LAKEWOOD RANCH 7187 Boca Grove Place 203 2 Beds 2 Baths 1,431 Sq. Ft. Douglas Parks 941-400-9087 A4534349 $380,000

BRADENTON 4115 53rd Street W 2 Beds 1 Baths 828 Sq. Ft. Deborah Nelson 941-266-5900 A4536416 $350,000

SARASOTA 5350 Hyland Hills Avenue 2513 2 Beds 2 Baths 1,324 Sq. Ft. Anja Deichmann 941-284-7987 A4530313 $311,000

TERRA CEIA 109 Michiana Drive 2 Beds 2/1 Baths 1,818 Sq. Ft. Debbie Vogler 941-705-3328 A4527498 $1,999,000

BRADENTON 575 Fore Drive 3 Beds 3 Baths 3,085 Sq. Ft. Sandi Dietrich & Denise Gagne 941-704-0697 A4535890 $1,980,570

LAKEWOOD RANCH 17012 Verona Place 3 Beds 3/1 Baths 2,629 Sq. Ft. Deborah Angelo O'Mara 941-730-0777 A4535097 $1,950,000

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4B

YourObserver.com

EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

REAL ESTATE

Waterside home tops sales at $2.2 million

|

RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS

MAY 23-27

ADAM HUGHES RESEARCH EDITOR

A

LAKE CLUB

Scott and Tammy White, of West Palm Beach, sold their home at 8312 Catamaran Circle to Daniel Han, of Lakewood Ranch, for $2,175,000.

Built in 2013, it has four bedrooms, four baths, a pool and 3,574 square feet of living area.

GREENBROOK

Fabio and Alessandra Vasconcellos and Fabio Vasconcellos Jr., of Sarasota, sold their home at 13215 Brown Thrasher Pike to Ryan Sims, of Ontario, Canada, for $1.35 million. Built in 2005, it has three bedrooms, four baths, a pool and 3,921 square feet of living area. It sold for $530,000 in 2018.

Christopher and Leann Tana, of Jacksonville, sold their home at 13402 Brown Thrasher Pike to Yamil and Suzanne Kouri, of Lexington, Massachusetts, for $1,210,000.

Built in 2005, it has four bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, a pool and 3,105 square feet of living area. It sold for $460,000 in 2014.

RIVERDALE REVISED

Bay to Gulf Holdings LLC sold the home at 4752 Compass Drive to Brian and Melissa Jack, of Bradenton, for $1,175,000. Built in 2000, it has three bedrooms, two-and-ahalf baths, a pool and 3,346 square feet of living area. It sold for $1.05 million in 2006.

WINDWARD

Michael John Merrill and Maryi Alexandra Ramos, of Sarasota, sold their home at 2677 Butterfly Jasmine Trail to Mark and Lori Saucier, of Sarasota, for $1,087,500. Built in 2021, it has three bedrooms, three baths and 2,455 square feet of living area. It sold for $622,200 in 2021.

COUNTRY CLUB EAST

Kim and Gregory Peterson, of Loudon, Tennessee, sold their home at 7709 Cavendish Cove to Richard and Jolie Nowicki, of Bradenton, for $1.06 million. Built in 2017, it has three bedrooms, three baths and 2,903 square feet of living area.

EATON PLACE

Allen and Shelley Kronick, of Mayfield Village, Ohio, sold their home at 7370 Eaton Court to Mary Hart, of Sarasota, for $1,009,000. Built in 1995, it has three bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,752 square feet of living area. It sold for $590,000 in 2013.

WINDING RIVER

Hoi Thanh Huynh, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, sold the home at 909 143rd St. to Andrew and Kerry Underwood, of Carmel, Indiana, for $990,000. Built in 2016, it has three bedrooms, four-and-a-half baths, a pool and 3,325 square feet of living area. It sold for $548,000 in 2020.

COUNTRY CLUB

Dennis and Rachael Baker, of Belleville, Wisconsin, sold their home at 12318 Thornhill Court to Paul and Betsy Brunswick, of Lakewood Ranch, for $960,000. Built in 2008, it has three bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 2,564 square feet of living area. It sold for $535,000 in 2011.

Joseph and Judith Amato, of Bradenton, sold their home at 7241

Liz Ramos

This Greenbrook home at 13402 Brown Thrasher Pike sold for $1,210,000. It has four bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, a pool and 3,105 square feet of living area.

Lake Forest Glen to Jeffrey and Laura Schrett, of Lakewood Ranch, for $945,000. Built in 2007, it has three bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 2,292 square feet of living area.

It sold for $475,000 in 2009.

William Dulany Hill and Fredrika Hill sold their home at 12334 Thornhill Court to Morgan and Diandra Wood, of Lakewood, Ranch, for $825,000. Built in 2010, it has three bedrooms, two baths and 2,558 square feet of living area.

It sold for $495,000 in 2014.

RYE WILDERNESS ESTATES

Mikhail and Tatiana Alperovitch, of Sarasota, sold their home at 17005 First Ave. E. to George and Sharon Gianacakos, of Bradenton, for $960,000. Built in 2012, it has three bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 3,416 square feet of living area. It sold for $408,400 in 2012.

three baths, a pool and 2,996 square feet of living area. It sold for $460,000 in 2013.

COUNTRY CREEK

William and Joy McMillan, of Morton, Mississippi, sold their home at 15128 Third Drive E. to Jennifer Benoit and Robert Plocica, of Staten Island, New York, for $720,000.

Built in 2001, it has three bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,726 square feet of living area. It sold for $326,000 in 2014.

BRADEN OAKS

Elaine Neuenschwander, of Lavonia, Georgia, sold her home at 3315 62nd St. E. to Matthew and Caroline O’Connor, of Bradenton, for $675,000. Built in 1987, it has three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths and 2,973 square feet of living area.

INDIGO

Cindy Lou Koziatek, of Corning, New York, sold the home at 4027 Celestial Blue Court to Michael and Judy Norris, of Bradenton, for $675,000. Built in 2016, it has two bedrooms, two baths and 1,829 square feet of living area. It sold for $403,000 in 2016.

GREENFIELD PLANTATION

Douglas and Melissa Lyddon, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, sold their home at 783 Planters Manor Way to Joseph and Eleanor Hawkins, of Bradenton, for $657,500. Built in 2000, it has three bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 2,317 square feet of living area. It sold for $370,000 in 2018.

SEE REAL ESTATE, PAGE 6B

GREYHAWK LANDING

Timothy and Melissa Mariano, of Bradenton, sold their home at 335 Petrel Trail to Kenneth Jack Ruhl and Jill Susan Ruhl, of Nicholasville, Kentucky, for $920,000. Built in 2004, it has four bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 3,369 square feet of living area. It sold for $559,900 in 2019.

In with the new NOW UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Annie and Harold Potts, of Parrish, sold their home at 284 Dahlia Court to Rodney and Tricia Piepho, of Bradenton, for $700,000. Built in 2004, it has four bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,194 square feet of living area. It sold for $359,900 in 2016.

Longboat Key

Rinat Khaybullin and Svetlana Kuznetsova, of Bradenton, sold their home at 271 Petrel Trail to ISP Group Inc. for $655,000. Built in 2005, it has six bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 3,933 square feet of living area. It sold for $685,000 in 2006.

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WATERLEFE

Jeffrey Scott Repenning and Cynthia Faye Repenning, of Bradenton, sold their home at 10609 Conch Shell Terrace to David and Teresa Wilson, of Gardiner, Maine, for $910,000. Built in 2000, it has four bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,631 square feet of living area. It sold for $410,000 in 2015.

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ROSEDALE

James and Tammy Sego, of Bradenton, sold their home at 5204 88th St. E. to Jean Meyer and Mark Rogers, of Bradenton, for $850,000.

Built in 1996, it has three bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,601 square feet of living area. It sold for $750,000 in 2021.

Downtown Sarasota

LAKEWOOD NATIONAL

Edward and Donna Braud sold their home at 5823 Cessna Run to Van and Candice Gearhart, of Bradenton, for $849,900. Built in 2017, it has two bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 1,870 square feet of living area. It sold for $439,000 in 2017.

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STONEYBROOK AT HERITAGE HARBOUR

Savitaben and Ranchhodbhai sold their home at 7742 Camden Harbour Drive to Troy Shane Lucero, of Aurora, Colorado, for $830,000.

Built in 2004, it has four bedrooms,

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home in Lakehouse Cove at Waterside topped all transactions in this week’s real estate. Michael and Barbara Downes, of Georgetown, Texas, sold their home at 804 Crosswind Ave. to Paul and Sarah Lushin, of Carmel, Indiana, for $2.2 million. Built in 2018, it has three bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 3,217 square feet of living area. It sold for $982,000 in 2018.

MichaelSaunders.com/New-Homes | 844.591.4333 | Sarasota, Florida Prices as of February 2022.

Licensed Real Estate Broker

5B

EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

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YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

Real estate

LYMPHEDEMA

WATER OAK

FROM PAGE 5B

AND VEIN DISEASE

CARLYLE AT THE VILLAGES OF PALM AIRE

Suzanne Eyler, of Bradenton, sold the home at 5241 Creekside Trail to Anthony and Charmaine Filipponi, of Sarasota, for $660,000. Built in 2000, it has four bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,527 square feet of living area. It sold for $239,700 in 2000.

ARBOR LAKES

Donald and Ralph Russell, of Vista, California, sold their home at 6960 Stetson St. Circle to Arkadiusz and Edyta Kupla, of Arlington Heights, Illinois, for $651,000. Built in 1993, it has three bedrooms, two baths and 1,944 square feet of living area.

It sold for $240,100 in 2013.

ELWOOD PARK

Sheleen Olson, trustee, of Bradenton, sold the home at 4312 34th Ave. E. to Gary and Delena Guerin, of Ellenton, for $650,000. Built in 1974, it has three bedrooms, two baths and 1,685 square feet of living area.

By: Adam Phillips, D.O. What is Lymphedema?

The lymphatic system protects the body against harmful bacteria and transports fluid from body tissues into the vascular system. Lymph vessels are thin walled to absorb fluid, bacteria, and protein for transport to the lymph nodes which eliminate waste and bacteria.

Together, lymph vessels and nodes help maintain a healthy fluid balance.

HARBORAGE ON BRADEN RIVER

Cori Repp and Aaron Apostolico, of Lakewood Ranch, sold their home at 5514 Duval St. to William and Mary Fitzpatrick, of Bradenton, for $650,000. Built in 2004, it has three bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 2,108 square feet of living area.

It sold for $511,000 in March.

MAGNOLIA MANOR

Warren Case and Barbara Case, trustees, sold the home at 2104 67th St. Court E. to Tammy and Craig Verfaillie, of Seattle, for $650,000.

Built in 1967, it has two bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 2,106 square feet of living area. It sold for $339,000 in 2004.

BLOCKAGE OF THE LYMPHATIC VESSELS LEADS TO FLUID RETENTION

Over time this swelling can cause thickening of the skin and recurrent skin infections (cellulitis). It is a permanent condition which worsens over time if not properly treated. There is no cure, but symptoms can be managed which improve the quality of life.

Lymphedema occurs when there is impairment of the lymphatic system, which disrupts normal fluid transport. If the lymphatic system is overwhelmed, damaged, or blocked, chronic swelling can occur.

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HAMPTON GREEN

Hasmukh and Hansa Shah, trustees, of Baltimore, Maryland, sold their home at 6409 Addington Place to Lawrence Shanker and Marcia Salkin, of Sarasota, for $615,000.

Built in 1992, it has three bedrooms, two baths, and 1,707 square feet of living area. It sold for $345,000 in 2015.

SUMMERFIELD

Lawrence and Linda Cleary, of Bradenton, and Jay and Julie Cleary, of Barrington, New Hampshire, sold their home at 11875 Hollyhock Drive to Robert Bonamici and Sonia Saeidi, of Bradenton, for $615,000.

Built in 1998, it has three bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 2,015 square feet of living area. It sold for $495,000 in 2021.

Delarey Venter and Adisa Mrkaljevic, of Sarasota, sold their home at 6718 64th Terrace E. to Justin Paules, of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, for $615,000. Built in 2003, it has three bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 2,073 square feet of living area. It sold for $470,000 in 2021.

ROSEDALE HIGHLANDS

Carol Ropson sold their home at 5227 97th St. E. to Michele and Peter Wirtz, of Bradenton, for $580,000. Built in 2004, it has two bedrooms, two baths and 1,923 square feet of living area. It sold for $252,000 in 2009.

MIRABELLA AT VILLAGE GREEN

Gilbert and Peggy Anthony, of Bradenton, sold their home at 6913 Vista Bella Drive to Donald Deam and Jeanne Deam, trustees, of Bradenton, for $545,000. Built in 2016, it has two bedrooms, two baths and 1,525 square feet of living area. It sold for $360,000 in 2019.

OAKBROOKE AT RIVER CLUB NORTH

Cynthia Felice Zanne, trustee, of Lakewood Ranch, sold the home at 6752 Hickory Hammock Circle to Susan Hoffman, of Bradenton, for $545,000. Built in 1995, it has three bedrooms, two baths and 1,792 square feet of living area. It sold for $285,000 in 2016.

SABAL HARBOUR

Frederick and Donna Ebeling, of University Park, sold their home at 4610 Turtle Bay Terrace to Bethanie Long, of Bradenton, for $525,000.

Built in 2002, it has four bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 1,685 square feet of living area. It sold for $212,000 in 2003.

COACH HOMES AT TIDEWATER PRESERVE

Kurt and Rebecca Austerman, of Bradenton, sold their Unit 911 condominium at 957 Tidewater Shores Loop to Don Michael Ellenwood, of Bradenton, for $520,000. Built in 2020, it has three bedrooms, two baths and 1,769 square feet of living area. It sold for $260,000 in 2020.

BACCIANO AT ESPLANADE

Stephen Lee Tufts and Renee Lynn Tufts, of Lake Suzy, sold their Unit 202 condominium at 12710 Sorrento Way to Sharon Ruvane, of Farmington, Connecicut, for $505,000.

Built in 2018, it has two bedrooms, two baths and 1,528 square feet of living area. It sold for $229,400 in 2018.

ONLINE See more transactions at YourObserver.com

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ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

Homeward bound Jnana Wilson Cooper isn’t just a founding member of the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe; she’s more like family.

Photos courtesy of Sorcha Augustine

Jnana Wilson Cooper, shown at the WBTT 20th Anniversary Celebration in 2019, is excited to come home.

SPENCER FORDIN A+E EDITOR

H

e was always there as a presence in her life, perhaps even before she was born.

And to hear Jnana Wilson Cooper tell it, Nate Jacobs knew her before she knew herself. Now, 35 years after she was a student in his kindergarten class and 20-plus years after she became a founding member of the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, Cooper is coming home to perform for the first time in the Donelly Theatre, the stage her talent helped build.

“To see it now and remember where we’ve come from? It’s kind of mind-blowing,” says Cooper, who will perform her special concert on June 13. “It was Nate’s vision, and we went along with his vision.

“But I don’t think that we knew that it would turn out to be this big and this awesome when we first started.”

Cooper, who last performed with the WBTT at their 20th anniversary show in 2019, can’t help but take a mental journey through the years when asked about Jacobs. Her parents knew him from church, and she wound up knowing him as a kindergarten student at the Westcoast School for Human Development.

Jacobs was fresh out of college at that point and says he was still figuring out how to chart his own career.

The future theater founder was working at the school founded by his mentors, Henry Porter and Cynthia Porter, and moonlighting as an actor at the Asolo Repertory Theatre.

Each and every day, he began finding his own talent while nurturing the talent of his students.

“I came in to teach art, and I stayed longer and longer,” says Jacobs. “I did one year and said, ‘I’ll stay another year.’ It ended up being 12 years. And

while I was there, that school provided an incubator for me to discover the gift I had with young people. For me, it was like a sixth sense.

“I saw it as clear as day: That one should be singing, and that one right there has the ability to dance. I was just like the guru pulling out the talent out of these kids. It was amazing to the church and the church members and the parents of these kids. So that’s where the orbit of me founding this theater company began, because all of them were still children.”

Jacobs began thriving as an actor and was so taken with the abilities of his students that he looked for new ways to showcase his talent. He started wondering why there was no local community theater seeking to develop the talents of young African American children. And that’s when it hit him: If it was going to happen, he’d have to build it himself.

“I was doing this thing with kids of color in the school, but I didn’t see that anywhere else in the city. That began to bother me,” says Jacobs. “I began to ask questions to the theater community of Sarasota, and they were looking at me like I was from Oz. You know the sitcom ‘Mork and Mindy?’ I was Mork.”

Cooper, for her part, was growing up and thinking about the next steps of her life. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be a performer at first and was studying at Manatee Community College to figure out what would come next. Jacobs, at first, asked her if she’d be willing to help with administrative tasks at the office.

She was only too happy to help.

But then fate intervened.

A PUSH IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Jacobs, who incorporated the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe in 1999, got an opportunity to stage his first shows in Sarasota at TheatreWorks.

But he was short-staffed and needed

IF YOU GO UNBREAKABLE: AN EVENING WITH JNANA WILSON COOPER When: 7:30 p.m. June 13 Where: Donelly Theatre (1012 N. Orange Ave.) Tickets: $35 adults, $15 students and active military Info: WestcoastBlackTheatre.org

performers he could trust to nail their roles no questions asked. Jacobs says that when he held his first auditions, nobody showed up for two hours.

Then came Teresa Stanley, whom he had worked with at the school since she was about 12 years old.

The next person to come in, Tsadok Porter, was the daughter of his mentors.

“It was the three of us and a musician and a friend of mine in the studio, and I thought, ‘OK, I need a few more people to do what I’m trying to do,’” he says.

“I got on the phone and called Jnana, and she said to me, ‘I don’t sing like those other girls.’ She was still a beginning singer, but she always did my narration work because she was so good at expressing words.

“I actually kind of forcefully told her to come over. She and another girl, Apphia Campbell; I said, ‘Girl, come over here to this studio. You can do everything I want you to do.’ Jnana came because she respected me and trusted me, not because she wanted to at that moment.”

Henry Porter II became the final founding member of the company, SEE WILSON, PAGE 8B

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THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

Wilson FROM PAGE 7B

and the troupe’s first play was “The Cotton Club Cabaret,” part musical revue and part history lesson of the Harlem Renaissance.

Cooper realized she wanted to be a performer, full stop.

“You grow up and you’re finding yourself. That’s where I was,” she says of her mindset before that first play changed her perspective.

“I knew who I was the whole time.

What am I finding, trying to be all deep? Young people try to be extra.

It wasn’t even that deep at all. It was there the whole time.”

And if you ask Jacobs, the rest was predestined or divinely ordered.

Jnana Wilson Cooper became one of the rocks on which he built his theater company, and for more than a decade, she was ever-present as the WBTT found its legs.

Cooper’s siblings, Earley Dean and Kristin Wilson, also performed for WBTT, and Dean is still active with the troupe.

But the success of the company was never a foregone conclusion, says Jacobs. There were many years when they had to fight to make their voices heard.

Though the early years were difficult, says Jacobs, one thing was constant: Cooper wasn’t just an outstanding performer; she was a fierce advocate for everything WBTT aspired to be.

“She protected what she did,” says Jacobs. “There was a lot of pushback to a black theater organization introducing itself to Sarasota. We weren’t embraced with welcoming arms like we are now. We were not the popular WBTT, but Jnana was one of those young people who is resilient. She endured sometimes hearing people being nasty and disrespectful to me.

“She endured the ups and downs and the in-betweens and rehearsing in closets. She was the one that stood with me during those eras and always brought excellence to the stage whenever she performed. And I said to her, ‘I will never forget you.’”

Cooper, meanwhile, was growing up and falling in love. She married her husband, an engineer, and

Nate Jacobs, Jnana Wilson, Teresa Stanley and Tsadok Porter in the WBTT’s Cotton Club Cabaret show in 2000.

Courtesy photos

Jnana Wilson Cooper is coming back to where it all began.

ultimately left Sarasota to move to Michigan in 2013. Cooper stresses that she was not ending her performing career; she was just pausing it to raise her children. Now, her first-born daughter, Gabriella, is 10, and her second child, Elisha, is 6.

She’s not sure if either one has been bitten with the performance bug, but she says she can see the faint ember of their talents if they choose to pursue it.

Cooper, coming home for her onenight performance, says it will be humbling to look out into the audience and see faces that she’s literally seen since she’s a child.

“It will be an honor,” Cooper says.

“It will be a time to let them know that things that were sown into me did not go to bad soil. It’s humbling to know that people still remember me and still want to see me. It blows your mind because you think these people forgot about me. Out of sight, out of mind. But no, I made an impact.”

Not only did she make an impact, she also built bonds that will last a lifetime. Jacobs says Cooper is like a daughter to him, and Cooper says she’s eternally grateful to have met him as a child.

A few months ago, she says, she was sent a link to a New York Times article featuring Jacobs and WBTT, and she was just thrilled to be part of

Jnana Wilson, Tsadok Porter and Teresa Stanley in 2007’s WBTT production of “Dreamgirls.”

the journey.

“You made it, Nate!” she says. “It’s weird that we call him Nate because forever he was Mr. Jacobs. He moved from our teacher to friend. It was so exciting to read.

“He still mentioned us; that’s what I love about him. There are so many things, but I appreciate him for never

allowing people to forget who helped him. ‘You see me a lot, and I’m the face of the company, but it was a lot of people who helped me to get here.’

He never forgets about the six of us.”

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The play you see in previews might not be the play you see on opening night.

Douglas Carter Beane, the playwright behind “Hood,” says that despite putting years into penning the script, the play is still a work in progress all the way until the first curtain.

“The fact that we’re not down there in Florida at this particular moment screaming in hallways and shoving new pages under people’s faces is a sign that things are going very well,” says Beane of the creative process before previews begin.

Interestingly, he says, the most collaborative part of the theater-making process is the time between previews and the opening curtain. “Hood” will be in previews June 3-10, and the actual production will run June 11-26.

In those first performances, Beane will be watching for audience reaction when making his edits.

“When a writer does his work in the preview process, it’s the first time it’s seen by an audience that dictates what the show is going to be,” he says. “Something that you think is hilariously funny and just leaves people staring at it incomprehensively, then you know to cut it. Something that may seem slightly funny turns out to be a bigger laugh.

“If people are very moved by something, that can reshape the scene. So with (Director Mark Brokaw’s) guidance and the choreographer’s guidance and our musical director’s guidance, we’ll all be working on that together. This is total collaboration time.”

Lewis Flinn, Beane’s husband and the lyricist and composer behind “Hood,” has a much more poetic way of describing the creative process during previews.

“Our job is to build the boat,” says Flinn. “Then, it’s Mark’s and the cast’s job to make it sail. And then producers decide the path it’s on. But right now we’re just focused on building the boat and to make sure it’s not leaking.”

Beane, without missing a beat, adds, “Or the rats aren’t jumping off.”

Photo courtesy of Sophia Marquart

Anthony Chatmon II and Billie Aken-Tyers rehearse to bring “Hood” to the stage.

Timely & timeless Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn, the married couple behind Asolo Rep’s ‘Hood,’ chat about their creative process and collaborative partnership.

SPENCER FORDIN A+E EDITOR

T

he material has been marinating for 1,000 years. You know it even if you don’t know it.

And that’s where the challenge comes in for the creative team behind “Hood.” Douglas Carter Beane, the playwright behind the Asolo Repertory Theatre production, is attempting to bring the story of Robin Hood into the current day.

His husband, Lewis Flinn, has the task of writing original songs that will only burnish the existing legend.

“Hood” last saw the stage in Dallas in 2017, but it’s been tweaked a bit in the intervening years. The script is a living and evolving creature, says Beane, who recently joined Flinn and the Observer on a call to discuss the upcoming production.

“If you’re really good at what you do, it can be timely and it can be timeless,” says Beane, a five-time Tony Award nominee. “The stories we’re basing this show on have been around since the 1100s. They were ballads. There was no one author; there are several different people who would make up these stories. I would say, except for one throughline of our show, every one of them was one of those original stories.”

“Hood” has had a long gestational cycle since being created at

the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. It had iterations at the Royal Academy of Music in London and a Shakespeare Festival in Scranton, Pennsylvania, before having its run at the Dallas Theater Center. But then came a turbulent political time in the United States, and then came the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inevitably, some of the play had to change. Beane says that before the pandemic, the play might have come to the stage pretty much the way it had been written. But Flinn was able to use the time between productions to make the play more musical, adding flourishes that just weren’t possible the first time around.

“When we were writing at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, it’s not a musical program,” says Flinn. “So none of the actors were singers at all. None wanted to be.

None pretended to be. The challenge was to write songs that non-singers could sing and still sound good. Even though it’s since gone on to professional productions, and I’ve put a lot of arrangements into it, it has a score that is, in my mind, sort of for the everyman singalong.”

Flinn allows that there are no “Sondheimian intervals” in the music, but he says the songs have influences ranging from Celtic sources to Kurt Weill, folk rock and soul. And that’s part of the charm of the material, Beane says: It can adapt itself to a number of tones.

Beane says he was encouraged to write “Hood” after reading bedtime stories to his children; they loved the tales of Robin Hood even though they were a thousand years removed from when they were created.

That’s because the stories have an elemental structure to them that people instinctively appreciate.

“They are first and foremost sto-

IF YOU GO

‘HOOD’ When: Previews June 3-10; June 11-26 Where: Asolo Repertory Theatre, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail Tickets: $33-$93 Info: AsoloRep.org

ries of of a hero. But they have a lightness and humor to them that I respond to,” says Beane. “A friend of mine who’s a writer said, ‘Robin Hood is always laughing. When you think of Robin, he’s always standing on a log and laughing.’ I said, ‘Yeah, he’s a fun guy.’ That image was obviously an influence. But the stories are fun stories, and somehow they’re in our brains, even if we don’t remember ever seeing them.”

Beane mentions the Errol Flynn and animated Disney versions of Robin Hood that have become ubiquitous in pop culture, and he says there are moments in the legend we all recognize instinctually.

There’s Robin donning a disguise to enter an archery competition, and there’s the moment Robin meets Little John on a bridge. The art comes in taking those moments and still saying something original.

Beane and Flinn met while working on “Music From a Sparkling Planet,” which was directed by “Hood” Director Mark Brokaw and had its theatrical run in 2002.

“I would say that actually we met as collaborators,” says Beane.

“I had written a play. Mark Brokaw was directing that play, and he hired Lewis Flinn to bring music into the play. I initially was very upset because I had selected some bound music for the show. But when I heard

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

Lewis’s music, I remember I started to cry because I thought it was so beautiful.”

“It’s been 20 years of tears ever since,” jokes Flinn.

The pair have collaborated with Brokaw several times; Brokaw, for instance, directed Beane’s wildly successful adaptation of “Cinderella.” Together, Beane and Flinn have created “Lysistrata Jones,” and Flinn contributed music to Beane’s “The Little Dog Laughed.” They’ve also worked together on things that haven’t yet seen the light of day.

“We have an easy rapport. We get along,” says Beane. “We have very similar tastes in theater. Rarely do we leave a show that we didn’t write, and he says, ‘Oh, I loved that,’ and I say, ‘Oh, I hated it.’ Usually, we have a very similar aesthetic.”

How do they work together?

Are you picturing the married playwright and lyricist sitting side by side at a keyboard and carrying out their tasks?

That’s not really the way it works.

“We don’t sit in the same room, creatively,” says Flinn. “We do when we want to review or discuss something. But a lot of time, it’s separate.

And you have to be careful; I’ll be working, but Doug may have moved on to a different project.

“I’ll be on this and want to bring it up, so I just have to say, ‘OK, I need to schedule a time to discuss this tomorrow at 11 a.m.’”

Flinn often works in a studio across the street from their apartment.

“I’ll be working on something else or maybe watching television,” says Beane. “Then a little bling will show up on my phone, and he’ll send me an email on the draft of a song. And that’s always like a nice little bonus treat. If I’m in a restaurant, I get to just run into a bathroom and play it.”

The pair has been working on this play since the Obama Administration, but they’ve taken time out in that span to work on other projects.

Beane singled out one cast member, Billie Aken-Tyers, who has been a part of the project since the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Aken-Tyers began as an assistant director on “Hood” but stepped in and played a role when an actor took ill. Now she’s a permanent member of the cast.

Beane and Flinn say that the cast of “Hood” is an instant community, a family that has worked to bring the story to life over a number of years.

The show has evolved with the times they live in, but neither Beane nor Flinn wants to get ahead of themselves and predict what happens to “Hood” after Sarasota.

“Honestly, we’re not thinking beyond this opening,” says Beane.

“The minute you start putting stars in your eyes like, ‘This will go into the Majestic Theatre and kick out “Phantom of the Opera,”’ you’re dead because then you’re not doing the work.”

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OUR PICK

CHUANG PLAYS CHOPIN We’ve got some alliteration in this event on the Sarasota Music Festival docket. Pianist Ya-Fei Chuang, a festival alumna, will take center stage on Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor.

The Festival Orchestra, led by conductor Yaniv Dinur, will play Jessie Montgomery’s “Starburst” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 to complete the program.

IF YOU GO When: 7:30 p.m.

Where: Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave. Tickets: $29-$65 Info: Visit SarasotaOrchestra.org.

THIS WEEK THURSDAY

DARKNESS TO LIGHT 4:30 p.m. at Holley Hall, 709 N. Tamiami Trail $29-$40 Visit SarasotaOrchestra.org The Calidore String Quartet is the guest of honor at this, the opening event of the Sarasota Music Festival.

The quartet, which consists of violinists Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan, viola player Jeremy Berry and cellist Estelle Choi, was formed at The Colburn School in Los Angeles in 2010. Other standout musicians are pianist and festival music director Jeffrey Kahane, clarinetist Franklin Cohen and flutist Carol Wincenc.

TEN-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL 8 p.m. at The Cook Theatre, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail $28 Visit TheatreOdyssey.org.

How do you like your drama? Theatre Odyssey will present the best quick-and-dirty plays from artists throughout Florida over four days at the Cook Theatre. None of these plays run more than 10 minutes, but they’re full realized works that fast forward to the denouement. Former drama teacher Connie Schindewolf, a Bradenton resident, has won best play at this festival twice and returns with a work entitled “Ancestry” for this year’s festival. Runs through June 12.

JAZZ THURSDAYS AT SAM: DARCIE ALLEN AND THE FIVE POINTS QUINTET 5:30-8 p.m. at Sarasota Art Museum, 1001 S. Tamiami Trail $20 guests, Free for museum members Visit JazzClubSarasota.org.

Local vocalist Darcie Allen is fronting an all-star band that took its name from a famous Sarasota intersection. Allen will be supported by Marc Mannino, Pete Carney, Bob Lunergan and Peter Innocenti, who’ll play a selection of jazz songs in a contemporary format. The beautiful Marcy and Michael Klein Plaza will serve as backdrop for the show, and the museum’s galleries, bistro and shop will remain open for the duration of the concert.

DEAN NAPOLITANO 7 p.m. at McCurdy’s Comedy Theater, 1923 Ringling Blvd. $25 Visit McCurdysComedy.com.

Come down for some comedy Napolitano style. Napolitano, a native of Long Island, New York, has done the hard work of building a name for himself by relentlessly touring comedy clubs in Florida and around the country. Nothing is sacred for Napolitano, and he’ll joke about anything and everything that will bring a laugh from the audience.

OPENING RECEPTION: HERE COMES THE SUN 5-8 p.m. at Creative Liberties, 901B Apricot Ave. Free Visit CreativeLiberties.net

FRIDAY IN-STUDIO PERFORMANCE FEATURING LISA DEL ROSARIO 7 p.m. at SCD Home Studio, 1400 Boulevard of the Arts $20 Visit SarasotaContemporaryDance. org.

www.manasotaonline.com

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‘ATHENA’ BY GRACIE GARDNER 7:30 p.m. at Urbanite Theatre, 1487 Second St. $20-$36 Visit UrbaniteTheatre.com.

You’ve seen rival dramas in just about every sport, but have you tried fencing? This play, written by Gracie Gardner and directed by Summer Wallace, centers on a pair of aspiring fencers who compete against each other and practice together, but do they really like each other? June 10 is the opening night, and it will run through July 10.

REUNION 7:30 p.m. at Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave. $29-$50 Visit SarasotaOrchestra.org.

This Sarasota Music Festival event will reunite faculty members and fellows to make beautiful music. Faculty violinist James Dunham will lead a group of string fellows in Bach’s famous Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, and the woodwind fellows will perform on Carl Nielsen’s Wind Quintet.

The fellows will also play Florence Price and Dvořák in this show.

You can feel good about Hood. This musical adaptation of the timeless Robin Hood tales has been reworked substantially since its last theatrical run in Dallas in 2017. The musical comes from the real-life partnership of playwright Douglas Carter Beane, a five-time Tony nominee, and his husband, lyricist Lewis Flinn. Runs through June 26.

HD AT THE OPERA HOUSE: ‘ROMEO AND JULIET’ 1:30 p.m. at Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave. $22 Visit SarasotaOpera.org.

Get your popcorn and settle in for a classic of ballet cinema. Shakespeare’s timeless romance is set to music by Sergey Prokofiev and choreographer Kenneth MacMillan, and the music is played by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Dancers Marcelino Sambe and Anna-Rose O’Sullivan hit their marks in this eternal production.

RISING STARS 1 2:30 p.m. at Holley Hall, 709 N. Tamiami Trail $15-$22 Visit SarasotaOrchestra.org.

Come hear fellows work together on ensembles that play many of the giants of the classical genre. Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert will all be on the bill for this festival event, which will run 90 minutes with an intermission.

RING OF FIRE 7 p.m. at Gompertz Theatre, 1265 First St. $45 Visit FloridaStudioTheatre.org.

Love is a burning thing, and it makes a fiery ring. Scott Moreau stars as Johnny Cash in this show, which will take you on a tour through the beloved artist’s canon. The show, created by Richard Maltby Jr. and conceived by William Meade, made an outsized impact on Broadway before touring Sarasota. Runs through June 19.

Will your interest retire you?

NEXT TO NORMAL 7:30 p.m. at Rise Above Performing Arts Center, 3501 S. Tamiami Trail $17-$27 Visit RiseAboveArts.com This show has made its mark on the American theater, taking home three Tony Awards in 2009. It’s a complex family drama set to music,

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‘HOOD’ 8 p.m. at Mertz Theatre, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail $30-$76 Visit AsoloRep.org.

SUNDAY

Lisa del Rosario, a Texas-based ballet instructor, will be performing for one night only at Sarasota Contemporary Dance’s home studio. There will be a virtual showing of the event at 7 p.m. Saturday.

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SATURDAY

Come meet the artists who are helping artists. Elizabeth Goodwill and Barbara Gerdeman started Creative Liberties with the hope of providing studio space and assistance in staging exhibitions for less-experienced artists, and Here Comes the Sun will give patrons a chance to peruse and purchase art from local artisans in a variety of mediums.

Will your interest retire you?

SMITTEN WITH KITTENS

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DON’T MISS SUMMER CIRCUS SPECTACULAR Sarasota, a circus city, is bracing for the summer spectacular, which will bring the art of circus to the Historic Asolo Theater.

The event, a partnership between the Circus Arts Conservatory and The Ringling, welcomes a number of phenomenally talented artists to Sarasota from June 10 to Aug. 13.

Heidi Herriott, a third-generation circus performer, will serve as master of ceremonies, and the acts will include an aerial duo, a hand balancing team and a hand balance/contortion act.

Abreham Mola, a skilled acrobat and juggler, will perform on the rolla bolla, and Chris Allison, a graduate of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus Clown College, will provide comic relief.

IF YOU GO When: 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 2 and 5 p.m. Saturday Where: Historic Asolo Theater, 5401 Bay Shore Road Tickets: $18; children over 12 $12; children 12 and under free Info: Ringling.org

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

It’s the debut of Florida Studio Theatre’s Summer Cabaret show, which will run through Aug. 7. This production, based on the classic music of Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, has successfully toured the country and performed in more than 150 cities. The musical arrangements are done by Jared Mancuso and Nick Gallardo.

Is it standup comedy or a musical revue? Maybe it’s both? Michael Mack brings his off-color song parodies to this show, which also thrives on audience participation. Runs through June 19.

MICHAEL MACK AND THE FACES OF ROCK 7 p.m. at McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre, 1923 Ringling Blvd. $25 Visit McCurdysComedy.com.

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ROCK & ROLL REIGNITED WITH NOT FADE AWAY 8 p.m. at FST’s Court Cabaret, 1265 First St. $36 Visit FloridaStudioTheatre.org.

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Stressless® Flora

12B

WEATHER

EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

|

YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

NATURE’S BEAUTY WITH

FORECAST THURSDAY, JUNE 9 High: 85 Low: 78 Chance of rain: 15%

FRIDAY, JUNE 10 High: 85 Low: 79 Chance of rain: 5224%

SUNRISE / SUNSET Sunrise Sunset Thursday, June 9

6:34a

8:24p

Friday, June 10

6:34a

8:25p

Saturday, June 11

6:34a

8:25p

Sunday, June 12

6:34a

8:25p

Monday, June 13

6:34a

8:26p

Tuesday, June 14

6:34a

8:26p

Wednesday, June 15

6:35a

8:26p

MOON PHASES

SATURDAY, JUNE 11 High: 84 Low: 78 Chance of rain: 44%

SUNDAY, JUNE 12 High: 85 Low: 78 Chance of rain: 52%

June 14 Full

June 20 Last

June 28 New

July 6 First

RAINFALL Monday, May 30

0

Tuesday, May 31

0.79

Wednesday, June 1

1.16

Thursday, June 2

0

Friday, June 3

0.15

Saturday, June 4

0.13 0

Sunday, June 5

Bruce Silverman took this photo of a pineapple plant in Rosedale in East County.

*Rainfall totals from Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport

Submit your photos at YourObserver.com/Weather. All submissions will be entered for the 2022-23 Weather and Nature photo contest. In February 2023, you will vote for your favorite photo, and the submission with the most votes will win a $500 gift card.

YEAR TO DATE: 2022 10.17 in.

2021 9.76 in.

MONTH TO DATE: 2022 1.44 in.

2021 0.65 in.

The Observer’s

Weather ENTER: &Nature

Sponsored by

YourObserver.com/contests KITCHEN | CABINETRY OUTDOOR PAVERS

383363-1

2022-23 PHOTO CONTEST

A REFLECTION OF NATURE’S BEAUTY

celebrity cipher

58 Part of BDSM 59 Vladimir who helped overthrow a 13-Down 60 End of Wikipedia’s URL DOWN 62 Gum or a paper clip, to 1 Skyrocket MacGyver 2 BBs and such 63 Lifesaving skill, briefly 3 Wet sponge’s spot?

64 Greek H 4 Burn treatment 65 Energy 5 Gibberish 66 Mobile device with a 6 Alert about a missing Super Retina display person, say (Abbr.)

67 Angola’s capital 7 Toxin in Victorian 68 Oscar winner Meryl wallpaper 72 Books that let you fol8 Lineups of songs to low Rte. 66 perform 73 Soda container 9 Zilch 74 Where to go after leav10 Iowa city ing home?

11 City west of Tesla Giga 75 Captain who fought Nevada Khan 12 Summer setting in 76 Site for film lovers NOLA 78 Blue-green 13 Former Russian ruler 80 Skills, slangily 14 Natural flavors, surpris- 81 Neighbor of China ingly 82 Understood by few 15 Head honcho 84 1977 Paul Davis hit with 16 Pilots’ zones the words “When I look in 17 Main M.D. your eyes” 19 CNN doctor Sanjay 85 Grand ___ (wine desig20 Humiliate nation) ©2022 Universal Uclick 25 Cuttlefish’s pouch, e.g. 89 Piece of a certain metal 92 ***”Conan” channel, 59 Textile machine (Last two letters) ACROSS 27 DNA strands, footprints, gate once (Last two letters) 28 “Old-fashioned” way to 61 *Observation about 1 Plastic wrap brand etc.

90 Dream sleep initials 93 *Jumping-in line observation make money 6 Some batteries 29 Irish actor Stephen 93 Drink that “platter” sur30 Three letters in “lullaby” 69 Guest columnist’s essay 96 Whole bunch 9 One might seize dope 30 Raison d’___ rounds, aptly 97 Tough H.S. courses 70 Mesh material 31 Water source 13 “Toodles!”

32 ___ party (sleepover) 94 Thrown for a loop 98 Precise type of clock 71 ___ your foot down 32 *Tip for a waiter?

17 Grapefruit cousin 33 Director Judd 95 Bark sharply 99 Chances to hit 72 Willing to do 18 ***Tailgated on campus, 40 ___ pickle (stuck) 34 Sweet’N Low alternative 100 Beyond dry 101 Bold and shameless 75 Children 41 “Top Chef” garments say (Note this answer’s 35 Charged particles 101 Champagne descriptor 104 **Get down on one 77 Pal, in Paris 42 Perform onstage first two letters) 36 Suffix with “differ” 102 Repetitive learning knee 78 In that place, to a whaler 43 Not just like?

20 “Same here!”

37 Four-leaf clover, for the method 110 Begin 79 Garden bed filler 44 Carpet cleaner, for short 21 Began airing clover plant 103 Swear to 111 Book after Psalms ... or, 80 It’s hot in the tropics 22 ***Above-average pupil 45 Took a short trip 38 Two-word confession 105 High woodwind read as one, two or three 83 “That was good!”

47 Pixies (First two letters) 39 Deteriorates 106 Okra parts 86 ***Credit card fig. (Last parts (as indicated by the 23 ***Celeb’s image prob- 49 TV star Leakes 46 Had the courage 107 “Garfield” dog stars), this puzzle’s theme two letters) 50 Off-roaders, briefly lem (Last two letters) 48 **Take a knee, maybe 108 Homes for many fish 113 Homes 87 Feature of Ghana, but 51 Sound booster 24 **Declare 49 Pixar clownfish 109 Corner computer key 114 Borden cow not Germany?

54 Purges (of) 26 “Old” city in a Tex-Mex 52 Club ___ resort 111 Faux ___ 115 Robocall setting 88 Madam’s counterpart 55 Tablelands brand name 53 Energy 112 Sneaky 116 Heavenly signs?

91 Starbucks size above 56 Me, in Montreal 27 ***Dominican people 55 Swarm around 117 Pomegranate tidbit Tall 57 Arboreal snake now called the Kalinago 57 Rock ___ boat

“S ZOGT NTRXNBTU ... RE ZEBEN RZT GOISOBR CTB FZE USTU. ... TGTNJ COB FZE VTR PEER EB ECOZO DTOLZ ... FOV O ZTNE.”

– ECON B. DNOUITJ

“A’W JADF G WFVX GP GV FHTFVKABF IFKPGXIGVP; CYX RGV JYYD GP WF, SXP CYX RGV’P GMMYIL WF.” – GVVG DYXIVADYBG

“WMSRUZNU ML X CMI HDSCRUB. OSS BXZF NTMRKDUZ XDU KFMZI. OSS BXZF NTMRKDUZ. AU BYLO KS LSBUOTMZI.” – IXCDMURRU IMGGSDKL © 2022 NEA, Inc.

Puzzle Three Clue: H equals P

118 Slow-cooked meal 119 Holler 120 Affirmatives

By Luis Campos Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present.

Each letter in the cipher stands for another.

Puzzle Two Clue: T equals P

THREE-WAY SWITCH by Michael Schlossberg. Edited by David Steinberg

Puzzle One Clue: L equals C

crossword

sudoku Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains every digit from 1 to 9 inclusively.

©2022 Andrews McMeel Syndicate

6-9-22

YourObserver.com

EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

|

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

13B

Summer kickoff

T

Third grade teacher Jeanne Rogers pitches against the fifth graders.

— LIZ RAMOS

Fifth grader Levi Munoz does his best to get around fourth grade teacher Matt McElhiney to get to third base. McElhiney eventually tagged out Munoz.

Teachers and staff celebrate their victory over the fifth grade class.

Levi Munoz launches the ball as third grade teacher Chuck Rogalia watches.

Made for where you live. Here!

Fifth graders Noah Siffermann and Nathan Dolan chant, “Let’s go, fifth grade, let’s go.”

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

RED PAGES redpages@yourobserver.com • yourobserver.com/redpages

Sporting Goods

STORAGE FACILITY Boat/ RV/ Trailer. Secure facility, low monthly rentals, Clark Rd area.

941809-3660, 941-809-3662.

DEADLINES: Classifieds - Monday at Noon Service Directory - Friday at 3PM • PAYMENT: Cash, Check or Credit Card The East County Observer reserves the right to classify and edit copy, or to reject or cancel an advertisement at any time. Corrections after first insertion only. *All ads are subject to the approval of the Publisher. *It is the responsibility of the party placing any ad for publication in the East County Observer to meet all applicable legal requirements in connection with the ad such as compliance with towncodes in first obtaining an occupational license for business, permitted home occupation, or residential rental property Notice: All real estate advertised herein is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act, which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination. All persons are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised are available on an equal opportunity basis..

Items Under $200 BEAUTIFUL WOOD dining table, 6 chairs, 2 leaves, and pads.

Excellent - $100. Brown leather couch, loveseat & footstool. Great $50. CASH ONLY (941)-780-3123 BEIGE SOFA, small, circular, custom made. Like new, $50 OBO. Toaster oven, excellent condition, for countertop. $60.

941-400-4808

ADVERTISE YOUR MERCHANDISE with the total value of all items $200 or less in this section for FREE! Limit 1 ad per month,15 words or less. Price must be included next to each item. No commercial advertising.

Ad runs 2 consecutive weeks in 1 Observer.

Call 941-955-4888 Or Email ad to: classified@yourobserver.com (Please provide your name and address) Or Online at: www.yourobserver.com Or mail to: The Observer Group 1970 Main St. - 3rd Floor Sarasota, Fl 34236

SELL YOUR STUFF HERE! GLASS-TOP COFFEE table, excellent- $10. Blonde wood desk & file cabinet, excellent-$30. Black wood desk, worn-$5. Beige fabric couch & chair, great-$20 . Wood TV cabinet, great-$20.

(CASH ONLY) 941-780-3123 HIGH-TOP TABLE & 4 Chairs 42" square, Dark brown wood w/ laminate top $135. (941) 350-1527 INSANT POT used twice $50.

KitchenAid 12 cup food processor $50. (678)371-4534

BURNISHED-RED MIRROR 36”X46” $85. 2 framed oriental green, matted prints. $99.

Roomba, 5 virtual walls, $14.

(941)758-4646

PAINTING- FRAMED/OIL on canvas “coquina beach surf fisherman". $125. Vintage Toy - 15" tall battery operated walking/action Robot. $50.

941-776-0034

DYNA-GLO CHARCOAL Grill, Like new. Cover included. $200 (941) 504-6791

TONNEAU COVER Tonno Pro 6'4" Ford, chevy, dodge, Tri Fold $60 (941) 462-5599

Boat Slips for Rent/Sale BOAT STORAGE Slip For Rent Fits boat 8'6" wide, 8'6" tall and 31'6" long. Boat House on Longboat Key. (Dry Dock Restaurant). Text or call: 404-918-3811

SELL IT FAST HERE!

Beach’ N Rides Electric Bike Shop eBike Sales and Rentals Ride easy on an eBike with as much exercise or assistance as you want. Leave traffic and parking problems behind!

13 models available.

Daily and weekly rentals available We also repair other Brands Open 10 to 5 daily except Sundays and holidays 12208 Cortez Road, Cortez, FL

YourObserver.com/RedPages

HOME GENERATOR 22KW Generac, 2 year old, never run, stored inside, excellent condition. $5,000 (941)780-0593

Merchandise Wanted BUYING BASEBALL card collections! Looking to free up space and make $$? Need to sell sports cards? Collector looking to expand collection.

Pay top dollar. Text/call 941 548 6492 with photos.

SENIOR LOOKING to purchase precious metals, diamonds, time pieces, coins, jewelry, antique and estate jewelry, and collectors plates. Personal and confidential. Please call Marc: 941-321-0707.

GARAGE SALE Advertise as low as $17.50 per week!

941-955-4888

Use the RED PAGES to clean out your garage CALL 941-955-4888

POST YOUR AD WITH EASE General Merchandise

WE BUY cars. top $$ paid for your vehicles.

Call Hawley Motors: 941-923-3421.

941-251-7916, Ext 1

auto

stuff

Items Under $200

Autos Wanted

Autos Wanted CASH FOR YOUR CAR We come to you!

Ho Ho Buys cars.

941-270-4400.

jobs

INFORMATION & RATES: 941-955-4888

real estate

Photos by Liz Ramos

ara Elementary School fifth graders sat on the field with their spirits high.

“Let’s go, fifth grade, let’s go,” they chanted.

Fifth grade teacher Lynn Wolfe urged the students in other grades to chant, “Go, teachers, go.”

The chanting was part of the fifth graders’ annual kickball game against the staff May 25.

“I was nervous, but as I got the hang of it, it was pretty fun,” fifth grader Metias Vasquez said.

The staff eventually won 11-8.

The kickball game is one of the fifth graders’ final activities before moving to middle school.

For Barbara Siffermann, the school’s music teacher, it was a bittersweet victory, as her sons, Austin and Noah, were on the opposing team.

“But it is music to my ears to win against my boys,” Siffermann said with a laugh.

Condos/Apts. for Rent LUXURIOUS CONDO on Anna Maria Island For Rent - Upgraded granite/strainless kitchen.

Incredible water views through floor length windows. Waterfront patio, luxury furnishings, 2BD/2BR, king bed. Pool, tennis, walk to the beach. Private carport.

Monthly rent July-December.

Owner/renter. Flexible terms.

570-239-0431 marketreps@aol.com

FIND BUYERS AND SELLERS HERE! 941-955-4888 YourObserver.com/RedPages

Homes for Sale Help Wanted

LONGBOAT KEY Incredible views Private boat dock Pet friendly condo Owner/agent $650,000

BOAT DECK Hands for Cruising West Coast of Florida. Please have experience with Anchoring, placement of Fenders, Navigational signage, minor cooking and cleaning. Email resume to Charles at: ECEONLBK@msn.com or call 303-944-8300

The Lake Club LWR 4 bed 4.5 bath Pool/Spa Dazzling with upgrades 2.5 Million

RETIRED PERSON to help with paperwork, driving my car, some handy work. Non-smoker, Monday-Friday 12:30-4:30. 3 months $20/hr, after $25/hr.

Call 1 PM -10 PM 941-373-1919

Buy or Sell with Brooke O’Malley as your Realtor, and CLUB REALTY will Pay your title insurance.

Call 941-726-2677.

EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

home services

14B

Adult Care Services PERSONAL CARE GIVER- Private care: Meal preparation, errands, shopping, and more.

Affordable hourly rates, available weekdays, weekends, and holidays.

Minimal shift 5 hours can also provide overnight care.

Temporary or long term care.

Over 10+ years experience.

References available. No new faces, one consistent caregiver.

COVID Negative.

Call Kati: 941-536-7706.

|

YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

Pressure Cleaning

Auto Transport SHIP YOUR car, truck or SUV anywhere in the United States.

Great rates, fast quotes. Call Hawley Motors: 941-923-3421.

Neighborhood

joe the POWER WASHER LLC. Local resident since 1980.

941-993-4447

Cleaning

heroes found here.

RED PAGES AD RATES

BRAZILIAN CLEANING Service

by Maria. Residential. Meticulous Cleaning. Excellent References.

Free Estimates. Reliable. Lic./Ins. 941-400-3342. www.braziliancleaningbymk.com

Relax. You’ve got better things to do. Find a professional here in the Observer Red Pages.

Closer is better.

First 15 words .................. $ 17.50 per week Each add’l word ........50¢

CLAUDIA C. Cleaning Services.

Experienced, dependable, and ready to begin!

Residential.

Excellent references.

941-773-6895.

15% DISCOUNT FOR 4-WEEK RUN Color background: $ 5 per week Ad border: as low as $3 per week

Painting CARLO DATTILO Painting Licensed & insured. Interior/ Exterior painting including drywall repair and retexturing.

Wallpaper installation & removal, pressure washing. Residential & commercial, condos. Honest & reliable.

Free estimates. 941-744-1020.

35+ years experience.

PLACE YOUR AD: Call: 941-955-4888 Email: RedPages@ YourObserver.com Online: YourObserver.com /RedPages

REAL LOCAL STUFF HERE! YourObserver.com/RedPages

941-955-4888

Pressure Cleaning

YourObserver.com/RedPages

FINDFIND BUYERS & SELLERS HERE! BUYERS

CLEAN BAY Pressure Washing and Window Cleaning. 20 years experience. Licensed and insured.

Family owned. 941-685-5597

& SELLERS HERE!

Aluminum

Beauty

Doors

Sliding Glass Door Repair 383272

SERVING YOU IN THE COMFORT OF YOUR HOME

AMANDA 424-333-0713 | rockstarmobilehair@gmail.com

382460

YoderAluminum.com

www.rockstarmobilehairsalon.com Find anything in the RED PAGES

Auto Service

SELL YOUR CAR!

Christo’s Clock Repair

WE COME TO YOU

“IF IT DOESN’T TIC, TOC TO ME.”

5-Star Rated

CALL FOR AN APPOINTMENT

382767

CREATE BUZZ!

4630 5TH ST W BRADENTON

382453

HoHoBuysCars.com

Gulf Coast Estate Auctions

Clock Repair

FAST • EASY • SAFE

941.270.4400

Estate Sales

941-955-4888

941-773-0875 • 941-932-5505

Don Christo, Sr., Horologist

Advertise your business in the Red Pages.

Call 941-955-4888

Specializing in Estate Sales, Downsizing, Liquidations

Now Booking Lakewood Ranch, Bradenton, Sarasota

gulfcoastestateauctions.com Free Consultations 941-274-6537

Furniture Repair

Patio Furniture Repairs.com Furniture Sales & Repairs Cushions • Slings • Re-powdercoating

941-504-0903

383273

941.650.9790 941.650.9790 YoderAluminum.com

Owner /Insured Operator Insured

382582

Dustin Owner Yoder/ Operator

FREE PICKUP / DELIVERY • FREE ONSITE QUOTES

Health

Doors

DON’T let your PATIO DOORS be a DRAG or your WINDOWS be a PANE!!

Window Repairs • Sliding Glass Door Repairs Sliding Glass Door Deadbolts

Call us today! 941.628.8579 www.ezslider.com

FREE IN-HOM ESTIMATEE S

GET YOUR LIFE BACK! Do You Have Neck or Low Back Pain?

Do You Want To Avoid Surgery?

Give Us a Call - We Can Help

FREE CONSULTATION 941.358.2224 Recognized Among the Best Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression Physicians in America Board Certified in the specialty of non-surgical spinal decompression

DR. DAVID CIFRA, DC University Health Park 2415 University Parkway Bldg. 3, Suite 216 Sarasota, FL 34243

www.SarasotaDiscCenter.com DrCifra@SarasotaDiscCenter.com

The Only Thing You Have To Lose ... Is The Pain!!

RED PAGES. MADE FOR WHERE YOU LIVE. HERE! TO ADVERTISE CALL 941-955-4888 OR VISIT YOUROBSERVER.COM/REDPAGES

382755

Dustin Yoder

382764

New Deluxe Rollers Will Make Your Doors Roll Better Than Ever Call Mark 928-2263 proslidingglassdoorrepair.com

382754

“FIX IT - DON’T REPLACE”

“Specializing inin6” Gutters” “Specializing 6” Seamless Seamless Gutters”

YourObserver.com

EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

Painting

Homes - Driveways - Sidewalks - Tile & Shingle Roofs - Pool Cages & Decks

941-705-5468

Commercial

382768

FREE ESTIMATES - Call Joel, Owner 30 Years Exp. Cell 619-405-7650 Home/Office 941-758-4840

382456

Take a simple test to see if your vent is clogged. Unhook your dryer vent & compare drying time.

Residential

• Pool Cage Restoration • Rescreening Specialists • Specialty Screens • Paint • Doors and more!

Satisfaction guarantee Satisfaction Guarantee Pool cage Restoration/ Rescreening specialists Manufacture and Workmanship Warranties

Complete Interior & Exterior Painting

Are You Having Dryer Difficulties?

941-345-5264

specialty screens / screw replacement / paint Doors and more!

Personal Services

Specializing in Cleaning Exterior Home, Windows, Roofs, Solar Panels, Driveways, Sidewalks, Garbage Cans and Gutters. Paver Sanding and Sealing.

15B

Rescreening & Repairs

UNIQUE PAINTING & PRESSURE WASHING SERVICES • Dryer hot but clothes still wet after (1) drying cycle?

• Dryer gets hot to the touch or doesn’t heat up at all?

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

382762

Home Services

|

Screening

Manufacture and workmanship Warranties

(941) 345-5264

FULLY INSURED

382760

RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL

382208

383274

Call or text: 941-900-8111 | Email: Newparrishfl@gmail.com

Find anything in the RED PAGES | 941-955-4888

Plumbing

Mark’s Plumbing Service

ED’S RAIN MAKER IRRIGATION

383276

Power Washing

CALL BEFOREYOU YOU FALL CALL BEFORE FALL

GRAB BARS GRAB BARS

$100 COUPON $100 COUPON

FREE INSTANT ESTIMATES when you Call RICK for SCHEDULING

Roofing

senior citizen discount. www.sunsetwindowcleaningsrq.com

www.bissonroofing.com

Kenneth Fuhlman Inc. Building & Roofing Contractor

• Aluminum, Vinyl, & Wood Soffit & Fascia Repair & Installation • Roofing Repair & Installation • Metal Roofing & Tile Roof Repair Specialists

941-626-3194

Licensed & Insured CCC - 058059 CBC - 1253936

©2022 Universal Uclick

Rescreening & Repairs

Licensed & Insured

SHOWER & BATH MAKEOVERS Cleaned - Regrouted - Caulked - Sealed

Call John 941.377.2940

383277

Free Estimates • Sarasota Resident Since 1974

www.showerandbathsarasota.com Landscaping & Lawn

No Job is too Small!

Design • Garden Beds Landscape • Courtyards Clean-Up • Makeovers Weeds • Trimming

Allison J. Abizaid, M.A.

Personal Gardening Services | Designer

Eldridge Re-Screen Licensed

“No Job Too Small”

This week’s Celebrity Cipher answers Puzzle One Solution: “I have returned ... to honor the valiant men who died. ... Every man who set foot on Omaha Beach ... was a hero.”

Omar N. Bradley Puzzle Two Solution: “I’m like a menu at an expensive restaurant; you can look at me, but you can’t afford me.”

Anna Kournikova Puzzle Three Solution: “Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children.

We must do something.”

Gabrielle Giffords

This week’s Sudoku answers

Insured

941-270-1561

382210

GARDENS BY ALLISON

You’re only cheating yourself.

382766 364556

Owner Supervises Every Job

382771

RC0067420 • Lic. & Ins.

peekers’ place

382765

5

$

Purified water window cleaning available!!

954-1878 (cell) 780-3346

382472

SPECIAL 00 This week’s Crossword answers

GLENN KROECKER

382770

INCLUDING SCREENS, TRACKS, MIRRORS & FANS

Specializing in Reroofs and Repairs FREE Estimates • 30 Years Experience

THE GRAB BAR GUY

941.400.0431

140

$

Call Tibor for FREE ESTIMATES | 941- 284 - 5880

DRGRABBARS.COM

gbyallison@yahoo.com gardensbyallison.com

STANDARD WINDOWS

941 - 748 - 7400

INCLUDES22MOEN MOEN STAINLESS INCLUDES STAINLESS STEEL STEELANTI ANTISLIP SLIP CONCEALED PEEN CONCEALED SCREW GRAB BARS (16”BARS & 24”)(16” & 24”) SCREW GRAB

LIFETIME GUARANTEE • LICENSED • BONDED • INSURED COVERAGE AREA: RANCH TO S. VENICE COVERAGE AREA:LAKEWOOD PARRISH TO NORTHPORT

25

UP TO

ows

Bisson Roofing Inc.

COMPLETE INSTALLATION PACKAGE

941.966.0333

House Washing, Roofs, Screen Cages, Pavers, Driveways and Walkways.

941-CLEAN IT 2 5 3 - 2 6 4 8

382660

383275

CJ COOLEY OWNER/OPERATOR

WE ARE THE SOFT WASH PRESSURE WASHING PROS

PRESSURE WASHING

382209

382769

CustomGraniteServicesLLC@gmail.com

SOFT WASH

$100 COUPON

941-400-4912

$100 COUPON

$100 COUPON $100 COUPON

Custom Granite Services, llc

$100 COUPON

$100 COUPON $100 COUPON

Kitchen/Bath Remodeling

249 235 235

Form Serving Longboat Key Since 2005

941-920-8221

$100 COUPON

Lic./Ins.

& Pressure C Window lean t e s ing n s a S u n u n w r o i s n e k Wind S erly

RELIABLE • INSURED

Servicing LWR, Parrish and NE Bradenton

$$

Res./Com.

Small plumbing repairs. Replace toilets, faucets, water filters, water softeners and repair leaks.

IRRIGATION (941) 725-8100 REPAIR edsrainmakerirrigation@gmail.com MAINTENANCE Insured

$

Windows

©2022 NEA, Inc.

382763

Irrigation

EAST COUNTY OBSERVER

|

YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022

Congratulations to the Class of 2022 100% ACCEPTANCE RATE

81

GRADUATES

11,051 CUMULATIVE SERVICE HOURS

941-203-3640 | www.ODA.edu Siesta Key Campus: Pre-K-Grade 5 | Uihlein Campus at Lakewood Ranch: Grades 6-12 | Sarasota, FL 370418-1

16B