Longboat Observer 11.24.22

A belated celebration

The Bank of America on Bay Isles Road on Longboat Key reopened June 27, but there weren’t enough residents around to properly celebrate. The business was also in the process of joining the Chamber of Commerce, branch manager Martin Duffy said.

The bank waited until Nov. 17 to roll out the red carpet, fill balloons and celebrate with customers.

“This is such a great opportunity for us to be able to connect with our community,” Consumer Executive Jeff Crabtree said. “So glad to be able to celebrate it together.”

While at the Longboat location since June, Melinda Burrow received a special mention because she’s been with the company for 34 years as of Monday.

Welcoming a new organist

David Stasney is the new director of music at All Angels by the Sea Episcopal Church.

He replaces Dale Hooey, who retired in May and served the church for 16 years.

Seemingly born for the job, Stasney has been a church organist since he was 10 years old. He’s also the former dean of the Sarasota/Manatee chapter of the American Guild of Organists, a role he filled for three years.

Stasney had been playing at a Presbyterian church in Sarasota but is quite pleased in his new role.

“This is the sweetest church on the planet; what a great congregation,” he said.

Longboat Key’s weekly newspaper since 1978

Lesley Dwyer

Lesley Dwyer

Lesley Dwyer

With a replica of Molly in her office, Jean Tarsy focuses on the good times she spent with her dog.

Lesley Dwyer

Kate Guerin takes a moment to smile on the skating rink at the St. Armands Circle Winter Spectacular.

Winter Spectacular kicks off in St. Armands. PAGE 5A

Commission extends virtual meeting allowance to P&Z

to decide on a case-by-case basis whether members must attend in person. The same case-by-case allowance does not exist for Planning and Zoning members.

LAUREN TRONSTAD STAFF WRITER

Members of the town’s Planning and Zoning Board will have the opportunity to participate in meetings virtually under a set of six specific circumstanc es after town commissioners this month adopted a resolution similar, but not identical, to one that governs their own virtual participation.

Town commissioners in 2021 updated language allowing the sev en elected officials to use interac tive media such as Zoom to take part in meetings and workshops when “extenuating circumstances” keep them from coming to Town Hall in person.

Since then, members of the Plan ning and Zoning Board began seek ing similar allowances, which led to discussion this fall to make such an arrangement possible.

The biggest differences between the Town Commission’s allow ances and the allowances approved 6-0 for the Planning and Zoning Commission lie in the conditions in which members, who are appointed by town commissioners, can appear electronically.

They are:

n Illness or disability

n Caring for a recovering or ill family member

n Attending an event on the town’s behalf

n Travel related to health reasons

n Family obligation and

n A declared local, state or national emergency.

Town commissioners also are able

Virtual meetings and work have become the new normal in many areas across the globe since the onset of the pandemic. However, govern ments have been shifting back to inperson attendance to foster robust discussion, respect for attendees and the requirement for a physical quorum.

“I have really struggled with this,” Commissioner BJ Bishop said. “One of the things we have learned through COVID is the quality of our meetings was far less successful in a Zoom environment and especially with planning and zoning issues when you are dealing with blueprints, dealing with questions from staff.”

She expressed that her concerns center on the fear that making any changes to town policies that largely lean toward in-person attendance could be a mistake. Other commis sioners joined Bishop with similar sentiments. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple com missioners often took part in virtual meetings with frequent instances of muted voices and difficulty in gain ing attention to speak.

Aside from the in-person con cerns, the town also had financial concerns. IT Department support of additional virtual participation is estimated to cost the town an additional $9,000 a year for outside resources, based on 48 hours of work to support meetings.

“I don’t think it would be a big burden on the town to accommo date this,” Commissioner Penny Gold said. “It makes sense to me. I think the Planning and Zoning Board should have access to this for per sonal emergencies.”

Gary Coffin, a member of the board, was present at the Nov. 7 meeting and answered questions

from commissioners regarding how often the program may need to be utilized.

“To do it over Zoom is not nearly as effective, but I would say three times over the course of all our meetings (someone had to miss), including comprehensive plan meetings,” he said. “It would still be nice to have that as an option, if needed.”

During the original conversation about virtual attendance at the com mission’s Oct. 17 meeting, commis sioners were also given the option to discuss the possibility of further altering their own virtual attendance policy.

Ultimately, they decided to leave it as is, citing advance knowledge of scheduled meetings that require attendance. Gold was the only mem ber to speak in favor of changing the policy for commissioners. She raised

the idea of allowing for any kind of travel to be considered a sufficient excuse in favor of gaining each mem ber’s perspective on an issue.

Individuals on trial for a crime are not allotted the right to attend vir tually since those testifying for or against their case expect the cour tesy of addressing the defendant directly. Much is the same in the way governing bodies are present before attendees as they come to meetings to speak and are expecting to be able to address commissioners directly.

“When there is someone standing at that podium, who believes they are speaking at a quasi-judicial or a legislative public hearing discussion, it is no different than being before a jury and a judge,” Bishop said. “They expect, and we should expect that we are eye to eye and face to face.”

Planning and Zoning Board members are now allowed to attend meetings virtually under limited ‘extraordinary circumstances.’

File photo

Only the commission and P&Z have been afforded the “extenu ating circumstance” benefit.

OTHER PICKLEBALL COURTS

The club already has four courts next to Marina Bay. Originally two tennis courts, those at the club were the first on the island. They were converted in 2019 to help meet the demand of the sport just beginning to gain popularity locally.

The club’s current courts are being redone, pushing players to public courts at Bayfront Park. Five pickleball courts were opened in Feb. 2020 at Bayfront Park. Three are pickleball-only. The remaining two can be used for tennis or pickleball.

Second erve

LAUREN TRONSTAD STAFF WRITER

Four new pickleball courts at Longboat Key Club are beginning the transition from vision to reality, but only after months of controversy, with more possible between now and final con sideration.

The Key Club’s new plans for the courts were unanimously approved to move forward by the town’s Plan ning and Zoning Board Nov. 15 fol lowing relocation of the site and a sound study.

The pickleball courts, proposed for 3000 Harbourside Drive, will be built south of the original site, replacing existing parking, which moves them farther from Wind ing Oaks. Neighbors there banded together last spring to cite noise and nighttime lighting concerns as rea sons for their objections.

“(The plan) is not meant to make anyone’s life miserable,” lawyer John Patterson said, representing the club. “The relocation of the site is responsive to both sound and light complaints.”

The sound study was conduct ed by Keane Acoustics as the club looked to compile data regarding the sound levels of the sport, which has an anecdotal reputation as a noisy endeavor.

The study results showed that even without sound-deadening materials planned for the courts, noise from the courts would not exceed ambi ent neighborhood noise.

“Even without the barrier, using (the town’s) sound ordinance as a guideline, the plan absolutely com plies,” Patterson said.

Public comment was less centered on objections and concerns with the placement of the new courts.

Residents in neighboring commu nities and members of the club spoke in support of the new plans as the sport continues to grow in popular ity on the barrier island.

Resident Kevin Mulkern’s state ment to the board centered on the community he has found through the sport since moving to the barrier island about three years ago.

“We need this space,” he said. “We need these courts. It’s not just the courts, but the community that goes with it.”

Neighbors closest to the property raised their own concerns of dimin ishing property values and remained unconvinced that the sound would not be an issue.

Paul Anisman, whose property is among the closest to the proposed courts, urged consideration of fur ther relocation after playing a sound recording of an experiment he did himself relating to the sound of pick leball.

“The problem is avoidable,” he said.

Phill and Fanny Younger, who have also live near the site, asked the applicant and the board to consider further alternatives for the loca tion of the courts, speaking in favor of moving them closer to the Har bourside marina to allow the water to isolate any noise associated with the sport that involves hard surfaced paddles and a hard plastic ball.

WHY?

The Longboat Key Club had to come before the town’s Planning and Zoning Board in mid-April because the proposal to build the courts is a deviation from the original planned-unit development, approved in 1975 and subsequently modified several times.

With Planning Board approval now secured, the Longboat Key Town Commission will consider the issue for the first time Dec. 5. If approved to move forward again, residents will have an additional opportunity to be heard on the matter.

PREVIOUS SITE PLAN

NEWLY PROPOSED PLAN

Additional elements of the plan include: n 51 trees would be preserved. n 40 trees would be relocated. n 66 trees would be removed.

n A landscaped buffer is planned to the west of the courts for sound and visual screening from Harbourside Drive.

n 16 lights, four per court, will be placed. They will be 20 feet tall, directed downward onto the court and turned off no later than 9 p.m. nightly in compliance with town code.

n The club’s plans include 116 park ing slots, though the town only requires 94.

Board members raised issues with the application’s plans for trees affected by construction. The town staff presentation indicated that the number of trees planned for removal would require the club to plant 116 trees. However, the club offered to pay into the town’s tree fund in lieu of planting.

A revised detailed site plan will be required with recommendations from the sound study before it is brought before P&Z commissioners.

“This is just an example of them doing what we asked them to do,” board member Gary Coffin said. “They went and got a sound test. They went and actually moved the courts on top of that. That’s respect able. In an effort to try and please everybody, which is impossible no matter what, I think this is a great effort.”

NEIGHBORLY OPINION

The new plans were not without dis approval, though. Residents, town staff and board commissioners alike were present at the meeting to hear public comments and board delib eration.

The entire issue was debated for just under three-and-a-half hours.

All seats were taken in the Town Hall chambers. Commissioners Mike Haycock and Debra Williams along with Mayor Ken Schneier were among audience members.

“I’m glad our board can serve as a sounding board for community com plaints,” board member Jay Plager said. “We have a broad responsibil ity to exercise judgment to whether a proposal like this is a good thing for the town and for the related commu nity, whether it meets all the techni cal requirements is something dif ferent.”

PREVIOUS PLANS PICKLED

The club’s original plan was to build the four courts adjacent to its Har bourside Tennis Gardens. Those plans were unanimously approved and set to move on to the Town Com mission on June 6.

Following the initial public hear ing in April, residents of the nearby Winding Oaks community raised objections about potential noise, and many complained they had not been notified of the meeting until after it had taken place.

The town began investigating mailings and learned the club’s rep resentative in the project met the town’s 14-day requirement, but the notices did not arrive in many cases until after the initial public meeting took place.

At the Planning and Zoning board’s May 17 meeting, attorney Edward Willner of the Sarasota firm of Lobeck and Hanson made a request for the matter to be heard again on behalf of Winding Oaks residents.

The original site was planned adja cent to the Tennis Garden’s courts in an area where trees now stand between the golf course and the ten nis facility. The courts were proposed to be no closer than 328 feet from the nearest Winding Oaks home, which is farther away than existing courts are from residential property along side the Moorings.

At the hearing for the new plan, residents of the Winding Oak neigh borhood spoke in favor of the new location and thanked the club for taking their concerns into account.

The rehearing was rescheduled multiple times in order for the club to complete plans and conduct the sound study before presenting final plans and reports to both the board and the public.

The Longboat Key Club gains initial approval for four pickleball courts after moving plan across the parking lot from the original site. But objections still remain.

File photos

The primary concern of opponents to the new courts is the sound of the sport.

The proposed courts plan to meet the growing popularity of the sport among the Key’s residents.

Proposed pickleball courts

Proposed pickleball courts project limits

Proposed pickleball courts Proposed pickleball courts project limits

Longboat elections: Who’s in? Who’s out? Who’s in the running?

Four candidates for three seats sets up first contested election in four years.

LAUREN TRONSTAD STAFF WRITER

The deadline for candidates to qualify for Longboat Key Town Commission elections passed at noon Monday with four people confirmed to run for three seats, setting up the town’s first con tested election in four years.

Election Day is March 14.

WHO’S IN?

Newcomer Deborah Murphy and incumbent Ken Schneier are running unopposed as commissioners-elect.

In District 5, the northernmost of the town’s five geographical dis tricts, Murphy is in line to take over in March for Maureen Merrigan, who also serves the town as vice mayor but did not seek reelection.

“Having grown up in a family where community service is part of our DNA, I welcome the opportunity to make a contribution in maintain ing the excellent quality of life Long boat Key residents expect,” Murphy wrote in an email.

She was one of the individuals whom Merrigan approached after announcing her decision to not seek reelection.

No one filed for District 3, which means Schneier will remain for a second term.

“I have really enjoyed my time on the commission and my time as mayor,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed every bit of it.”

His decision to submit his name for the role again came from the knowledge that Town Manager Tom Harmer would be vacating his role in the new year. Howard Tipton will take over the seat in January.

“It’s almost a duty on my part to stay involved as Howard comes into the role,” Schneier said.

He hopes to use the knowledge he has gained as mayor to aid in the transition.

WHO’S IN THE RUNNING?

Both Jeff Lenobel, son of former mayor Hal Lenobel, and Gary Cof fin, a member of the town’s Planning and Zoning Board, have qualified in District 1, the southernmost of the town’s five geographical districts, to take over the seat being vacated by Sherry Dominick, who chose not to seek a second term.

Coffin had previously decided to pull his name from candidates seek ing election, but after an article in the Longboat Observer that decision, Coffin said he was “pounced on” with calls from friends and neighbors urging him to recon sider.

“I feel like my time on the (Plan ning and Zoning Board) is critical to the knowledge I would need to serve on the commission,” he said.

Coffin was appointed to his seat on the board in December 2020. The board has a history on the barrier island for serving as a pipeline to a seat on the commission.

Lenobel said he had no comment on the contested election.

WHO’S OUT?

Sherry Dominick and Maureen Mer rigan decided against running for reelection, citing family and profes sional commitments.

Dominick was elected in 2020 when Randy Clair chose not to seek reelection. Family and professional commitments were at the forefront of her decision, she told fellow com missioners in Oct. She works as a Realtor with Michael Saunders & Co. on the south end of the Key.

Merrigan cited “increasing outof-state family commitments” as a primary reason for vacating the seat at the expiration of her term.

Merrigan was appointed to the seat left vacant by Ed Zunz when he moved out of District 5 to another home on Longboat Key. She then ran unopposed to fill the remainder of Zunz’s term, one year.

HOW WILL IT WORK?

Assuming the four who qualified stay the course, Murphy and Schnei er will be considered commission

ers-elect until they are sworn in on March 20, along with the winner of the contested race between Lenobel and Coffin.

Also, on that day, the newly seat ed Town Commission will choose a mayor and vice mayor from its ranks.

HOW HAS IT GONE BEFORE?

In the March 2022 elections, incum

bents Mike Haycock, BJ Bishop and Maureen Merrigan were declared commissioners-elect when no one else opted to file before the Nov. 15, 2021 deadline.

In 2019, candidate Randy Langley dropped out of the commission race in January, which made Haycock a commissioner-elect less than two months before the election. Town

code holds that if “less than 60 days remain before the date of the general town election, the remaining can didate shall be declared unopposed and no election for that office shall be required.’’

DEBORAH MURPHY: IN

GARY COFFIN: IN THE RUNNING

KEN SCHNEIER: IN

SHERRY DOMINICK: OUT

JEFF LENOBEL: IN THE RUNNING

MAUREEN MERRIGAN: OUT

Winter Spectacular wows St. Armands Circle visitors

Fans of all things festive enjoyed Friday night’s opening of the six-week Winter Spectacular in St. Armands Circle.

Shirley Matthews and Stephen Barnes are new to Longboat Key from Hawaii and wanted to get in the Christmas spirit, so Matthews arrived wearing an elf sweater dress and light-up glasses. Her outfit summed up the energy of opening night. Not all the spectacular has to offer was on display yet. The virtual sleigh ride with Santa was still en route, along with the Elfie Selfie station, Letters to Santa mailbox and a “Disney-grade” snow machine that launches 75 feet.

There was still plenty to enjoy. The carousel and a ride-on train were in constant motion. First-time skaters were hitting the synthetic ice rink, and foam filled the air from the temporary snow machine. Not nearly Disney-grade, the bubbly snow caused audible delight in children and adults alike each time it turned on.

For the tourists, the holiday stop was a

happy surprise after dinner in the circle. Three generations of Fletchers were visiting from Orlando.

“This is awesome,” Susan Fletcher said, “We were so excited to see this for the grandkids.”

Locals agreed. Melody Kroth had little ones in ballet class and needed something to do with her teenagers. And Sam Wade saw the event on Facebook.

“I thought, what are we going to do Friday night?” Wade said. “They love the carousel. We went on three times.”

Most evenings feature live entertainment from local school children and area arts organizations. Movies play on Tuesday nights at 6 p.m. The website includes a complete list of performances.

The Winter Spectacular will be in the circle until Jan. 3 and is a cashless event. It’s easiest to book online at WinterOnTheCircle.com before going, but there are tablets and staff members at the entrance to help with purchases.

—LESLEY DWYER

Nicole, Natalie and Anthony Lamberti

train ride around St. Armands Circle Park.

Anna Gorelova and Chloe Perez enjoy the carousel during a visit from New York.

Paul

Shirley Matthews and Stephen Barnes are new to Longboat Key and excited about the Winter Spectacular in St. Ar mands Circle.

Photos by Lesley Dwyer

Survey says: Questions about storm evacuation

Commissioners work to determine best wording on key questions for citizens.

LAUREN TRONSTAD STAFF WRITER

As the town works to finalize the wording of questions for its annual citizen survey, the topic of hurricanes and evacu ation orders is front and center.

For 2023, the Town Commission recently worked through specifics on asking residents their thoughts on leaving the island for September’s threat from Hurricane Ian or decid ing to shelter in place.

A question presented by Director of Support Services Carolyn Brown asked residents what may lead them to not evacuate in the future or what kept them from evacuating for Hur ricane Ian. The question reads: Which of the following factors might cause you to not evacuate in the case of a major hurricane?

Commissioners’ primary con cern was with the list of potential responses. They expressed worry that such a list might provide resi dents with reasons to “shelter in place” that might not have been con sidered previously.

“If you’re trying to not have people do things, then don’t give them a way to rationalize it,” Vice Mayor Mau reen Merrigan said. “(The question) is giving me a whole list of reasons why maybe I shouldn’t evacuate.”

The survey is anticipated to be sent out to residents Jan. 10. Comple tion of surveys is expected to take between 16 and 20 weeks.

The town remains contracted with the John Scott Dailey Florida Insti tute of Government at the University of South Florida. Seeking knowledge of resident satisfaction costs the town about $23,000 annually.

According to a staff memo to the

commission, the survey provides the opportunity to ask respondents to rank how satisfied they are with town services and the importance of the town working on specific issues.

The town has also included topical questions of policy along with recur ring questions about town services and performance designed to estab lish baselines for managers to review.

The most recent survey garnered responses from 1,441 residents with 99% of responses rating the overall quality of life on the Key as “excel lent or good.” According to the final report, the town mailed 8,562 invita tions to complete the survey.

The 2022 survey garnered about a 16.8% response rate, which remains constant with previous years where about 17% of residents opted to respond.

New policy and exploratory ques tions proposed for the 2023 survey include use of emergency person nel, social media following, hurri cane preparedness and the amount of time in a year a resident actually lives on the Key.

Staff will take commission feed back into account when finalizing the survey.

The 2023 annual citizen satisfaction survey will ask residents how likely they are to evacuate in the event of a major hurricane.

File photo

THE BEDROCKS OF AMERICA

Thanksgiving is much more than remembering the Pilgrims’ and Native Americans’ first feast and being thankful for what we have. It reminds us why the Pilgrims came to America: for the freedom to worship.

What drove the Pilgrims to America

The roots of Thanksgiving Day go far deeper than the story of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony in 1621. Yes, they were thankful to God for their bountiful harvest and their newfound Native American friends.

23, 2017.

Kirsten Hazelton, a secondgrade teacher at Southside Elementary School in Sarasota, gave her students an assignment for Veterans Day. One of those students, Rhys Parry, 7, wrote a letter to his uncle, a captain in the Marine Corps Raiders, its special forces division.

Parry thanked his uncle for serving. And by way of every child’s uncanny ability to state simple, direct truths and profound common sense, young Parry wrote:

“Freedom is the best thing in the world.”

If only every American took that to heart. Especially today. What a tragedy that so many don’t appreciate that truth. They take their freedom for granted, oblivious to this extraordinary gift.

So be thankful today. Block out the noise, the national politics, the cultural strife and the depravity that has consumed us. As you gather with family and friends for your traditional Thanksgiving feast, we take this space this week to urge our readers to take stock, at least for a few minutes.

If you think deeply enough about the meaning of Thanksgiving, there is so much more to this day than being thankful for the bounty on our tables. So much more to Thanksgiving than the story of the Plymouth Colony Pilgrims celebrating the harvest with the Wampanoag Native Americans in 1621, or thanking God for the end of the drought in 1622.

To a great extent, the first Thanksgivings were the celebratory culminations of the miraculous journey of a small band of Europeans in search of a place to be free — to escape persecution and be free to practice their religion and their way of life.

That was their raison d’être — freedom of religion. And today, you can say that principle is the fundamental rock, the bedrock, the perpetual birthstone of America.

And yet, here we are, 400 years later, continuing to fight for that right and principle. And if you think about that, consider also what it will require to preserve that right — and the other rights granted to us in the Constitution.

Take inspiration from the courage of the Pilgrims and how they persevered through the long, harrowing journey from England to Holland to Plymouth Rock. Freedom will always be a difficult journey.

We’ve made a tradition each year of retelling the story and roots of Thanksgiving because the story of the Pilgrims helps reset our compass. It reminds us how we came to be — the New Hope in the New World. It reminds us of why we came to be. It reminds us of the price our ancestors paid to be free and to be free to worship as they wished. It reminds us to be thankful for all the blessings we have. And it reminds us that Rhys Parry is right: “Freedom is the best thing in the world.”

Happy Thanksgiving.

But if you can imagine yourself in the shoes of any of the original 102 Pilgrims who sailed from Leiden, Holland, for America, a land unknown, and who survived that tumultuous journey, followed by two years of near starvation, your gratitude simply for being alive would put a whole new perspective on Thanksgiving. It was far more than being thankful for a big fall harvest and feast.

Seldom, if ever, do we focus in our history texts on the details that compelled the Pilgrims — also known as separatists, Puritans and Calvinists — to set sail. The textbooks typically mention they fled religious persecution. But especially today, in this world of widespread and horrific religious persecutions, it’s instructive to remember the details of why the Pilgrims mustered the courage to cross the Unknown Ocean for freedom: for religious freedom.

In his 500-page account of Plymouth Plantation, Gov. William Bradford wrote how his fellow Calvinists in England became “hunted and persecuted on every side, so as their former afflictions were but as flea-bitings in comparison of these which now came upon them.

“For some were taken and clapped up in prison; others had their houses beset and watched night and day, and hardly escaped their hands; and most were fain to flee and leave their houses and habitations, and the means of their livelihood,” Bradford wrote.

After a year of this and meeting in secret to practice their worship of God, they saw “they could no longer continue in this condition,” and “resolved to get over into Holland.”

The people of Amsterdam, they had heard, accepted the free practice of religion.

MISERY WORSE THAN DEATH

But sailing 200 miles to the Netherlands was no small matter. It was a monumental ordeal. Bradford describes the fear many of the separatists had of leaving England, as bad as it was, as “a misery worse than death.”

“But these things did not dismay them — for their desires were set on the ways of God and to enjoy his

ordinances,” Bradford wrote.

The trip to Holland was horrible for many. Chartered ship operators, once at sea with the separatists, robbed them, ransacked their belongings, molested many of the women and then sailed back into the original port and turned over the separatists to local authorities, who then imprisoned them.

Amazingly, the separatists didn’t give up. “Some few shrunk at these first conflicts and sharp beginnings,” Bradford wrote, “yet many more came on with fresh courage and greatly animated others. And in the end, notwithstanding all these storms of opposition, they all got over at length.”

For 12 years, the Calvinist-separatist-Pilgrims lived and practiced their religion in freedom and peace in Leiden, an area within Holland where many of them became weavers.

And then the trouble began again.

Bradford wrote of “Arminians, who greatly molested the whole state” and university professors and other preachers who began to slander the Pilgrims’ religious practices.

The tormenting rose to such a level that Bradford said some of his neighbors preferred being in prison in England than “this liberty in Holland, with these afflictions.”

Distressed by the increasing abuse, the separatists’ elders began to look ahead. They believed within a few years they “were fearful either to be entrapped or surrounded by their enemies” and unable to flee.

What’s more, they worried about their children. It was common for children to labor long hours in the

mills, “their bodies bowed under the weight.” Many children also were falling to the temptations of youthful “licentiousness” and being drawn into “extravagant and dangerous courses,” Bradford wrote. Parents saw “their posterity would be in danger to degenerate and be corrupted.”

At the same time, many of the separatists looked outward and spoke among their neighbors of “advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world,” Bradford wrote.

DIFFICULT, BUT NOT INVINCIBLE All three of these influences — persecution, the well-being of their families’ future generations and spreading God’s word — combined to motivate the Pilgrims to seek a new beginning. As they discussed their options, Bradford wrote, “It was answered. … The difficulties were many, but not invincible.”

So they set sail to a land unknown. Bradford wrote of “winds so fierce and the seas so high” and the Mayflower “shroudly shaken” and leaky, raising the constant fear the ship would sink and that they would perish at sea.

When they finally stepped on land in the Cape Cod harbor, Bradford wrote, the Pilgrims “fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof.”

Freedom and freedom of religion — these are the bedrocks of America.

— MW

“If

Friedrich Hayek “Road to Serfdom,” 1944

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Wisdom on liberty, then and now

“Someone once said: It isn’t that Christianity has been tried and found wanting; it has been tried and found difficult — and abandoned.

“Perhaps the same running away from righteousness is responsible for freedom’s plight for, plainly, the American people are becoming more and more afraid of and are running away from — abandoning — their very own freedom revolution.”

— Leonard Read

“Anything That’s Peaceful” 1964

“The United States is the highest achievement of the millennia of Western civilization’s struggle toward individualism and its last, precarious remnant.

“With the obliteration of the United States — i.e. of capitalism — there will be nothing left to deal with on the face of the globe but collectivized tribes.”

— Ayn Rand “Requiem for Man,” 1967

“The right to life is the source of all rights — and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible.

“Since man has to sustain his life by his own effort, the man who has

no right to the product of his effort has no means to sustain his life. The man who produces while others dispose of his product is a slave.”

— Ayn Rand

“Man’s Rights,” 1964

“Liberty looks upon religion as its companion in its struggles and triumphs, as the cradle of its young life, as the divine source of its claims. It considers religion as the guardian of morality, morality as the guarantee of law and the security that freedom will last.

— Alexis de Tocqueville

“Democracy in America,” 1831

“The reduction of the citizen to an object of propaganda, private and public, is one of the greatest dangers to democracy.

“The reiteration of slogans, the distortion of the news, the great storm of propaganda that beats upon the citizen 24 hours a day all his life long mean either that democracy must fall prey to the loudest and most persistent propagandists or that the people must save themselves by strengthening their minds so that they can appraise the issues for themselves.”

— Robert M. Hutchins

“The Great Conversation,” 1951 “Equality before the law and material equality are therefore not only different but are in conflict with each other; we can achieve either the one or the other, but not both at the same time.

“The equality before the law that freedom requires leads to material inequality. Though where the state must use coercion for other reasons, it should treat all people alike. The desire of making people more alike in their condition cannot be accepted in a free society as justification for further and discriminatory coercion.”

— Friedrich Hayek

“Constitution of Liberty, 1960

“Socialism will reduce your freedom. Higher taxes mean that you have less control over your spending.

“… Free markets are the source of most of our freedom; government generally restricts freedom, and socialism increases the power of government.

“Finally, whenever socialism has been tried, it has failed.”

— Paul H. Rubin

“A Student’s Guide to Socialism; How It Will Trash Your Lives,” 2021

Observer Media Group Inc. is locally owned. Publisher of the Longboat Observer, East County Observer, Sarasota/Siesta Key Observer, Palm Coast Observer, Ormond Beach Observer, West Orange Times & Observer, Southwest Orange Observer, Business Observer, Jacksonville Daily Record, LWR Life Magazine, Baldwin Park Living Magazine and Season Magazine

1970 Main St. Sarasota, FL 34236 941-366-3468

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.”

CEO / Matt Walsh Vice President / Lisa Walsh Chairman Emeritus / David Beliles

MATT WALSH

Editor’s note: These two editorials originally appeared Nov.

British artist Bernard Gribble’s painting of the Pilgrims boarding the Mayflower

MONDAY, NOV. 14

STUCK

10:59 a.m., 400 block of L’Ambiance Drive

Rescue assist: Police and fire personnel came to a condominium community on a report of a stuck elevator with riders inside. No injuries were reported and the fire department was able to rescue the people.

Abandoned vehicle/boat: While on marine patrol, an officer spotted a grey and white dinghy floating in the current alongside Jewfish Key. The officer surmised the little boat must have come loose in the winds of Hurricane Ian and drifted off. He returned it to the dinghy dock at the Linley Street boat ramp.

SATURDAY, NOV. 12

ON ITS OWN, PART II 8 a.m., near Ringling Bridge

Assist other agencies: Sarasota Police, Longboat Key Police and the U.S. Coast Guard were called to the scene of a drifting sailboat and possibly a person in the water. Once officers arrived, they quickly determined the boat was a derelict that had broken from its anchor. Also, no one was in danger or even in the water. Longboat’s officer remained to help until no longer required.

MUSIC, A MEAL AND

COMPLAINT

A

9:46 a.m., 6900 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive

Noise complaint: Outdoor music at a restaurant rose to the level of prompting a call to police but not to the level of breaking any laws, an officer determined. Nevertheless, the manager of the restaurant agreed to turn down the volume once the of ficer explained the nature of original caller’s noise complaint.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION 5:37 p.m., 500 block of Harbor Point Road

visitor in the form of a large turtle prompted a resident to call police for help. The aquatic intruder took up a position on the front porch of the caller, and because it was a turtle, it was in no position to make a quick getaway. The responding officer lifted it and moved it to the back yard near the water.

SEEKING CANINE SOLITUDE 5:28 p.m., North Shore Road

Dog on the beach: An out-of-town dog owner, who conceded she knew it was against town rules, brought her dog to the north-end beach because, as she told an officer, her dog doesn’t like other dogs. The officer, who was responding to a called-in complaint, issued the dog owner a civil code citation.

TUESDAY, NOV. 15

FACEBOOK FAIL 1:59 p.m., police headquarters

Found property: A woman came to the police department to drop off a purse she had found in October. The woman said she had initially written a notification about her discovery on a Facebook page frequented by Longboat Key residents and visitors, with no success. The purse contained typical purse contents with the notable exception of money, credit cards and identification. The police took the property for safe keeping.

GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNING 4:41 p.m., 5800 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive

the officer stopped and learned one of the vehicles, a rental, had broken down. The other vehicle, also a rental but one that was still working, carried additional family members of the visiting group. The driver of the broken rental said they had been there since 4 p.m. and that she had spoken with the company but was told there was no ETA on help. The driver again called the company and let the officer explain the hazards presented by two cars and people in chairs on the side of the road. The customer-service representative said the help request would be moved to the top of the wait list. The officer said he would check on the waiting party from time to time.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16

ILLEGAL? NOPE.

9:38 a.m., 5600 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive

Suspicious incident: A witness watching a large dump truck deposit a load of material in a commercial parking lot called police to report what initially appeared to be an illegal act in progress. Once police arrived and spoke to the truck operator, officers learned the operation was part of a bona fide request made by the property owner in preparation for a parking lot expansion.

SUSPECT ANSWERS TO THE

NAME “ROCKY”

10:47 a.m. 6100 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive

deleted the settings of her new iPhone back to its original state, rendering it unusable. The officer explained that 1) police officers can’t lend their personal cell phones to people and 2) she should visit an Apple service center for help in bringing her phone back to a useful life.

ON ITS OWN, PART I

2:25 p.m., Jewfish Key

Citizen assist: The owner of a home on the real estate market called police to report a domestic-model SUV with out-of-state plates parked in the driveway. The owner said he didn’t know who owned the vehicle but theorized the SUV might belong to the new owners of the property. The responding officer checked the ownership through the vehicle’s registration and confirmed the homeowner’s theory. The homeowner said he would contact the buyer’s Realtor and make arrangements for the SUV to be moved.

SUNDAY, NOV. 13

SHELL WE CALL THE POLICE? 1:48 p.m., 3400 block of Winding Oaks Drive

Animal complaint: An unwanted

Noise complaints: The sound of a pool pump running at night at an unoccupied home was enough to prompt a resident to flag down a police officer on patrol. The officer took a look at the pool equipment and determined it was operating normally without violating town noise regulations. A police department civilian employee was able to find contact information for the absent homeowners and left a message about the situation.

TOP OF THE LIST

9:39 p.m., 2000 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive

Citizen assist: An officer on patrol came across two vehicles on the side of the road, with people sitting in chairs nearby. His interest piqued,

Animal complaint: An aggressive raccoon accused by a homeowner of standing on its hind legs to look into his home could not be found by officers. The homeowner said the animal did not appear sick when it came to the front door and peered inside. Information on contacting Manatee County Animal Control was passed along.

THURSDAY, NOV. 17

SHUT IT DOWN

5:23 p.m., 700 block of St. Judes Drive N.

Noise complaint: The sound of a skid steer being operated in a backyard was enough to prompt a call to police. The responding officer spoke to the operator, who said he did not know about the town’s 5 p.m. cutoff and agreed to stop for the night.

Planning and Zoning Board colleagues pay tribute to Warnstedt

Former real estate broker who lived on Longboat Key for four years died in October.

LAUREN TRONSTAD STAFF WRITER

Michael Warnstedt, a mem ber of the seven-member Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Board since 2021, was honored by the board last week following his death Oct. 22.

The St. Petersburg native was 76.

Warnstedt lived in Longboat Key for about four years and worked as a commercial real estate broker for more than 40 years. He was sworn in to the volunteer position on the Planning and Zoning Board in April 2021.

At the start of the board’s Nov. 15 meeting, fellow board members reflected on time spent serving with him.

He was remembered for his knowl edge, care for the community and kindness inside and outside of the board’s meetings, which were more frequent during his tenure as they worked through each piece of the

IN MEMORIAM

In lieu of flowers, consider a donation to the Nature Coast Explorers Club or Pet Pal Animal Shelter in St. Petersburg.

town’s comprehensive plan.

“Michael was a great guy,” board member Gary Coffin said. “For twoand-a-half years, he sat next to me.”

Coffin remembered Warnstedt’s “level-headed, cool, calm” demean or.

He described him as someone who always waited to have all the knowl edge necessary before sharing his opinion or making a decision.

“All around, he was just the kind of neighbor you would want to have,” Coffin said.

Family present at the meeting were presented with a certificate recog nizing his time and effort spent serv ing the town on the board.

Most recently, he aided in ensur ing stormwater infrastructure was addressed in plans for the longvacant Mote property, which is slat ed to have a three-story, eight-unit

condominium building built on the land.

Warnstedt’s obituary posted on the Toale Brothers Funeral Home website described him as a loving life partner, father and grandfather. Before his career in real estate, he served in the United States Navy. He loved boating, aviation, reading maps and charts, meteorology and his family.

“He was a casual, confident and kind man who never met a stranger

and was loved and adored by those that knew him,” the obituary read. “... He experienced life to the fullest and was truly content at the time of his passing.”

His obituary cited a common phrase said when Warnstedt was vacationing with family and friends: “the only rule is there are no rules.”

Ronald Ginsberg was selected to fill his seat on the Planning and Zon ing Board at the Nov. 7 Town Com mission meeting.

EXCEPTIONAL

Michael Warnstedt was appointed to the Planning and Zoning Board in April 2021.

34228 info@FLVacationConnection.com FLVacationConnection.com

File photo

$10 million sale is tops for 2022 on bayfront

Bay Isles property among highest prices of the year in Longboat Key.

ERIC GARWOOD MANAGING EDITOR

Awaterfront home that sold this past week just around the corner from Sarasota Bay is one of the top sell ers on Longboat Key this year.

Bruce Myer, of Coldwell Banker Realty, represented Gary and Kim Warren in the sale of the property at 550 Harbor Point Road, behind the gates of the Bay Isles com munity. Steve Walter of Michael Saunders & Co. represented the buyers, which county records show were Bill and Beverly Thomas of Dallas-based Arrowhead Management Trust.

The 6,000-square-foot home sold for $10 million. Already in 2022, homes on Longboat have sold for $13.75 million, $11.5 million,

$10.4 million, but each of those was a gulffront property. This sale is the highest price in 2022 for a bayfront property and is among the highest prices ever attained in Bay Isles.

The third of an acre lot sits on a deep-water canal with 156 feet of water frontage and is easily accessible to Sarasota Bay. The backyard dock can accommodate a large vessel, and a pair of personal watercraft lifts are immediately adjacent. An open pool with hot tub connect with a summer kitchen for waterfront outdoor entertaining with views of Sarasota Bay to the east.

Inside, five bedrooms, five full baths and a half-bath are split between first and sec ond floors, with the ground-level bedroom potentially serving as a second master suite.

The kitchen is appointed with two refrig erators, double sinks, two islands and a Wolf gas cooktop. An in-kitchen dining area also offers water views.

The garage offers room for five vehicles, reached from Harbor Point Road via a paver driveway.

leads from the ground floor to the second story. Kitchen cabinetry is finished in white, with hardwood floors.

Photos courtesy of Bruce Meyer

A five-car garage is reached from Harbor Point Road on a paver driveway.

The property offers views and easy boating access to Sarasota Bay via a deep-water canal.

Robert Leo Greiwe

Robert Leo Greiwe, be loved husband of the late Kathleen (nee Hadley) Greiwe for 59 years.

Loving father of Kimberly (James) Gusweiler, Jeanene “Gigi” Robison, John (Rebecca) Greiwe, Barbara Greiwe, and Kathleen (Craig) Alexander. He was fondly known as Bo to 18 grandchil dren, and 13 great grandchil dren. Also survived by all his siblings, Richard (Rosemary) Greiwe, Madge (Edward) Alf, Clara Lee “Conky” Greiwe, and Elizabeth (Thomas) Beresford; and countless nieces, nephews and their spouses.

He passed away peacefully at the age of 90 on November 9, 2022. He was born on March 2, 1932 to the late Mary Elizabeth and Eugene Greiwe. He gradu ated from St. Xavier High School and the University of Cincinnati’s Design, Art and Architecture program. He was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. After college, he joined the family business of Greiwe Interiors.

He is the only person in the tristate area to receive all five ASID design awards from the American Society of Interior Designers. One was for the ‘Spirit of America’, an authentic 1850 steamboat replica. He was also instru mental in the design of the Great Seal of Ohio. He made lifelong friends with many of those who worked with him, and his clients.

When he wasn’t working, you could find him on the tennis court. At 75, he achieved a #1 ranking from the US Tennis Association for singles in the TriState area. He was an accomplished painter and had numerous art shows of his oil and watercolor paintings. He is the author of three books - 2 of family history, and one ornery autobiography of growing up in Cincinnati, “Life on Thin Ice”. Bob also enjoyed over 40 years in Longboat Key, FL with family and his friends sailing and playing tennis. There were also memorable vacations to Michigan at Portage and Boyne. Above all, Bob will be remembered for his storytelling and his sense of humor.

Services were held in Cincinnati, Ohio. Memorials may be directed to University of Cincinnati Foundation, Attn: Robert Greiwe Scholarship Fund, PO Box 19970,

Cincinnati, 45219 or St. Xavier High School, Attn: Robert and Kathleen Greiwe Scholarship Fund, 600 W. North Bend Road, Cincinnati, 45224. Condolences to rohdefuneral.com.

Amy Guest Parker 1919-2022

Memorialize your loved one with a lasting tribute in print and online, a permanent record of a legacy your family will always cherish.

Amy Guest Parker of Longboat Key Fl., 103, passed away on Novem ber 11, 2022. She was born on September 25, 1919 in Cleveland, Ohio and was predeceased by her husband Robert and her son Rob. She moved to Florida in 1959 and lived a long, wonderful life in both Largo and

Longboat Key. She is survived by her brother, Bobby, her daughters and their spouses, Pam (John) and Beth (Bob), 8 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and many caring friends at Twin Shores Resort and Marina. A future Cel ebration of Life will be announced.

392964-1

Submit your Loved One’s Obituary

Call Adella at 941-366-3468, ext. 346; tributes@yourobserver.com or ask your funeral director for assistance.

KIDS FROM 1 TO 92 (AND UP!)

Above all, Bob will be remembered for his storytelling and his sense of humor.

Reindeer games resume at Longboat Island Chapel

Hurricane Nicole forced a restart on preparations, but Christmas in the Garden starts Nov. 27 and runs through New Year’s Eve.

LESLEY DWYER STAFF WRITER

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Longboat Island Chapel, as members prepare and reprepare for Christmas in the Garden, starting Nov. 27.

Setup takes more than two weeks and was underway when Hurricane Nicole prompted an interruption of their work.

Last week, though, volunteers were on ladders hanging wreaths and wrapping ribbon around trees. But no one touched the lights because that is Rev. Brock Patterson’s job.

“It’s my therapy,” he said, and add ing he plans on stringing even more lights on the front of the chapel this year.

While the garden was filled with busy bees, the dining hall was filled with fun and games. The chapel’s consignment shop, The Lord’s Warehouse, was welcoming back volunteers and honoring Joyce and Bob Mazurek for going above and beyond.

“They work constantly at the warehouse; they’re there all the

CHRISTMAS IN THE GARDEN 2022

The chapel’s garden will be lit up nightly from Nov. 27 through Dec.

31. Businesses and families decorate trees for this free community event. There will be 24 this year, four from the chapel and the rest from donors. Guests can walk through any night between 5-9 p.m., but the chapel is providing live entertainment on the following nights:

n Nov. 27: Unchained by Pat & Mike

n Nov. 29: Youth jazz group and orchestra

n Dec. 1: Violinist Carlann Evans

n Dec. 6: Steel drummer John Patti

n Dec. 8: Sarasota Academy of Arts Choir

n Dec. 11: Pianist Jim Boltz

n Dec. 13: Boris and Sax

time,” Karen Pashkow said. The Mazureks also find higher prices for specialty donations such as jewelry, antiques and first edition books.

Pashkow said sometimes items turn up in donations that aren’t immediately identifiable.

So, for two years in a row, volun teers have collected odd, unidenti fied objects and turned them into a guessing game.

Pashkow spent hours on Google and Amazon identifying them. The thing that looks like a tiny TV anten na; it holds plastic baggies.

n Dec. 15: Sarasota Handbell Choir

n Dec. 19: Astralis Chamber Ensemble, flute and harp duo n Dec. 22: Christmas caroling and a visit from Santa and his Super Elf n Dec. 31 at 4:30 p.m.: The Romantics for Past, Present & Future

Photos by Lesley Dwyer

Iris White and Lesley Rife stand alongside the church’s patriotic tree.

Joyce and Bob Mazurek win the award for volunteers of the year.

POLK DRIVE - LIDO BEACH

YOUR NEIGHBORS

Turning grief into good

After losing her cocker spaniel Molly, Jean Tarsy wrote a book to help herself and others.

LESLEY DWYER STAFF WRITER

Ayear after her American cocker spaniel, Molly, died on what would have been her 13th birthday, Jean Tarsy made a decision.

“I have to sit down and get over this,” she said. “I have to work it out.”

So Tarsy wrote a second book about her favorite furry compan ion. In 2008, Molly was the subject of her first book, “Just Molly and Me and Nikki Make Three.” The second book is aptly titled, “I’m in Heaven” and was published in July.

While the first book was geared toward children in elementary and middle school, Tarsy says her second book is for animal lovers and anyone who has experienced loss, regardless of age.

The proceeds from both books benefit Tarsy’s favorite charities.

As a former interior designer with celebrity clients, she didn’t need the money, she said, but rather needed to heal and wanted to help others.

“I had a very, very tough time get ting over her,” Tarsy said. “I would sit there and cry that she’s not there in the chair. It was just awful.”

Well-meaning friends and fam ily suggested getting another dog, but it was too soon, and Tarsy had been diagnosed with asthma short ly before Molly died in 2019. In the midst of her grief, she tried to take a different perspective that maybe this was the time for her to rest.

Tarsy’s rest comes in the form of art. She’s an art lover and painter. Walking through her home feels like a mini museum tour. Not all, but much of the art is her own, includ ing a painting of Molly. There are reminders of Molly throughout the home including a shaggy replica that sits on Tarsy’s desk.

Tarsy and her husband originally bought a weekend condo on Long boat Key when they were still fulltime New Yorkers and owned a home on Long Island. They moved to Flor ida permanently over 20 years ago. They owned condos on Longboat for 17 years. But ultimately, the cou ple found they were “house people,” Tarsy said. Sick of the click clack of high heels over their heads, they

found a single-family home on Bird Key.

The first book contains an illustra tion of their backyard. Molly is sit ting in her favorite spot overlooking the bay. The books are compilations of true stories and real life characters. Her grandchildren and their animals appear, along with other furry and human family and friends.

When it came time to write the second, Tarsy set aside the grief and focused on the good times and where Molly is now, which makes the book’s message universal.

“It places something in your life that has left you, and after, you have a feeling of where this person or this thing has gone,” she said, “And if you believe in God, you know God takes care of it.”

When the sky is a deeper shade of blue or a light hits her just right, Tarsy gets teary-eyed knowing that both she and Molly have peace now. That knowing, along with fond memories, transformed her grief into gratitude.

Born to an artist father, Tarsy painted in her free time from a young age but never wrote anything outside of school papers. She credits her writing career to retirement.

“When you retire and don’t have your business on your mind, you have a clear mind. You think things are funny, and you can laugh about them,” she said. “Being your mind is clear, you can develop these things and think about them.”

Tarsy’s books are available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. In January, she’ll be signing copies at the two local B&N stores in Sarasota and University Town Center.

Photos by Lesley Dwyer

Tarsy’s writing reflects her love for Molly.

Jean Tarsy in her back yard on Bird Key.

Jean Tarsy’s two books written about her beloved cocker spaniel Molly.

The Molly replica was a gift from a friend.

“It places something in your life that has left you, and after, you have a feeling of where this person or this thing has gone.”

— Jean Tarsy

SUNDAY, NOV. 27

CHRISTMAS IN THE GARDEN

OPENING NIGHT

5-9 p.m. at the Longboat Island Chapel, 6200 Gulf of Mexico Drive. See the chapel garden transformed into a winter wonderland. Visitors are welcome to walk through nightly until Dec. 31. The garden is open to the public at no charge. Call 3836491 for information.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 30

FOOD AND TOY DRIVE

9-10:30 a.m. at Christ Church, 6400 Gulf of Mexico Drive. Church members will be outside collecting food, toiletries, toys and bikes for Our Daily Bread of Bradenton. Call 383-1731 for information.

RECURRING EVENTS

WINTER SPECTACULAR

From 4-9 p.m. and from noon-9 p.m. on holiday weeks and weekends in St. Armands Circle. See the Circle transformed into a winter wonderland until Jan. 3. Wristbands for attractions cost $10.

MONDAYS

GENTLE CHAIR YOGA

From 9-10 a.m. at the Education Center at Temple Beth Israel, 567 Bay Isles Road. Improve flexibility, strength and overall physical functioning while seated in a chair. Begins Nov. 7 and ends Dec. 19, students can join at any time on a prorated basis. Fee is $70 for members and $80; for nonmembers. Call 383-8222.

STRETCH & STRENGTHEN

From 10-11 a.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. Focus is on strength training and flexibility for balance. Suzy Brenner leads the class. Fee is $10. Walk-ins welcome. Call 383-6493.

THINKING OUT LOUD: TIMELY

KARP

TOPICS WITH MIKE

From 1-2:30 p.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. Topics will include U.S. and world current affairs, popular culture and topics relevant to seniors. Cost is $10. Walk-ins welcome. Call 383-6493.

MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS

LORD’S WAREHOUSE THRIFT STORE

The thrift store will be open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 6140 Gulf of Mexico Drive. Donations are accepted during business hours. Call 383-4738.

TUESDAYS

QIGONG FOR HEALTH & VITALITY

From 9-10 a.m. at the Education Center at Temple Beth Israel, 567 Bay Isles Road. Improve balance and flexibility, plus loosen joints and relax. Begins Nov. 8 and ends Dec. 20, students can join at any time on a prorated basis. Fee is $70 for members; $80 for nonmembers. Call 383-8222.

QI GONG

From 10-11 a.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. Qi gong is a mind-body-spirit practice designed to improve mental and physical health. Class is outdoors, weather permitting. Cost is $10. Walk-ins welcome. Call 383-6493.

YOGA

From 11:15-12:15 p.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. Debbie Debile of Feel Good Yoga & Massage leads a gentle yoga class that can be done on a mat or in a chair. Cost is $10; free for members. Call 383-6493.

MAH JONGG

From 1-3 p.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. Fun time for experienced players. To check availability at the tables, email MaryAnnBrady@TheParadiseCenter.org.

ROTARY CLUB

Meets at 5 p.m. on first and third Tuesdays in All Angles Parish Hall, 563 Bay Isles Road. To learn more, call Nancy Rozance at 203-6054066 or email Info@LongboatKeyRotary.org.

TUESDAY AND THURSDAY BREATH BALANCE AND BLISS YOGA

From 10:30-11:30 a.m. at Bayfront Park Recreation Center, 4052 Gulf of Mexico Drive. Cost is $10 for members; $15 for nonmembers. Call 361-6411 ext. 2212.

TUESDAY AND FRIDAY

LONGBOAT LIBRARY

The Longboat Library is open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays at 555 Bay Isles Road. Call 383-2011 for information.

WEDNESDAYS

YOGA POTPOURRI

From 9-10 a.m. at the Education Center at Temple Beth Israel, 567 Bay Isles Road. A gentle, slow-paced blend of simple yoga postures focusing on balance, alignment, strength, breathwork, flexibility and relaxation. Begins Nov. 9 and ends Dec. 21, students can join at any time on a prorated basis. Fee is $70 for members; $80 for nonmembers. Call 383-8222.

BEGINNER TAI CHI

From 10-11 a.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. Class is outdoors, weather permitting. Cost is $10. Walk-ins welcome. Call 3836493.

THURSDAYS

KIWANIS

CLUB OF LONGBOAT KEY

At 8:30 a.m. at Lazy Lobster, 5350 Gulf of Mexico Drive. This service organization meets every first and third Thursday of the month for breakfast and a speaker. Breakfast is $10. Email Lynn Larson at LynnLarson@comcast.net to register.

SLOW FLOW YOGA

From 9-10 a.m. at the Education Center at Temple Beth Israel, 567 Bay Isles Road. Simple yoga routines incorporating a range of several hatha yoga styles. Improve spinal flexibility and core strength for all fitness levels. Begins Nov. 10 and ends Dec. 22, students can join at any time on a prorated basis. Fee is $70 for members; $80 for nonmembers. Call 383-8222.

ST. ARMANDS KEY LUTHERAN CHURCH BRIDGE CLUB

Every Thursday beginning at 1 p.m. at St. Armands Key Lutheran Church, 40 N. Adams Drive, join an ACBL-sanctioned game of contract bridge with a certified teacher. All skill levels. There is an $8 suggested donation. Refreshments will be provided. RSVP to 952-9251.

BEST BET

SATURDAY, NOV. 26

LIGHT UP LONGBOAT

5:30-7 p.m. at the Town Center Green, 600 Bay Isles Road. Snap a selfie with Santa and watch the town tree light up. Bring an unwrapped children’s toy worth $15 to receive a free raffle ticket. Call 383-2466 for information.

ZUMBA AND MAT PILATES FOR SENIORS

From 10-11 a.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. The class, designed for active seniors, starts with Zumba and shifts to all-level mat Pilates at 10:30 a.m. Come for 30 minutes or the full hour. Cost is $10. Walk-ins welcome. Call 3836493.

FRIDAYS QI GONG AND MEDITATION

From 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road, take qi gong and meditation with Sandi Love. Free for members; $10 for nonmembers. Call 383-6493.

Lawn

LESLEY DWYER STAFF WRITER

The Kiwanis Club Lawn Party is the biggest social event of the year on Longboat Key, and that makes it the biggest fundraiser, too.

In 2021, the annual event raised more than $90,000 for the Chil dren’s Guardian Fund. With a $15,000 match from the Doris M. Carter Family Foundation on raffle tickets, this year, it’s on track to raise even more, organizers said.

The event is planned from noon-2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3, at 1700 Ken Thompson Parkway on City Island, just over the New Pass bridge from Longboat Key. Admission tickets are $75 each. Food, wine and beer are planned from more than 25 area res taurants. Raffle tickets are $50 each, and admission for a table of $10 is $650.

The party is always a good time, but CGF Board President Cynthia Craig spoke at Thursday’s Kiwanis meeting to explain the good it does

Third

Fourth

for children.

She had a list of items the donation will pay for — running shoes, football cleats, after-school programs, sum mer camps, graduation costs and prom dresses.

“We provide clothing for a new school year. Often, this is the first time the children have new clothing of their own,” Craig said. “We pro vide all of these and a wide variety of other things which we expect chil

change.

COVID-19

Academic support has been CGF’s

main focus over the past three years. Two programs have been filling in the gaps. One provides laptops, and the other, one-on-one tutoring. CGF serves about 1,200 area children, and each request is personalized through the child’s guardian ad litem.

dren in stable family environments to have, but which the children we serve do not have.”

The children CGF serves are in foster care. They experience fre quent disruptions in their education and homes when their placements

The intangible gift is mak ing them feel normal and loved.

hit these children hard, not because they got sick, but because so many didn’t have access to computers for remote learning.

File photo

Chris Sachs, Michael Garey, Cynthia Craig, Nancy Rozance and Jack Rozance

Longboat to light the night

The fourth annual Light up Longboat is being held at the Town Center Green at 600 Bay Isles Road.

LESLEY DWYER STAFF WRITER

Get ready to Light up Longboat.

The fourth annual holiday lights event and toy drive is being held from 5:30-7 p.m. Nov. 26 at the Town Center Green on Bay Isles Road. The lights turn on at 6:30 p.m.

“The event is a lot of fun and a wonderful event that celebrates the start of the holiday season,” Cham ber of Commerce President Gail Loefgren said. “It is also a great opportunity for us to showcase our nonprofit members who support the community.”

Along with the town of Longboat Key, the nonprofits participating this year are The Paradise Center, Save Our Seabirds, Longboat Key Turtle Watch, Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, Longboat Key Garden Club, Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club and the Players Centre for Perform

ing Arts.

Mike Sales will play holiday music, and Santa Claus will be taking selfies with the crowd. Normally, about 250 residents attend the free community event.

The Rotary Club of Longboat Key is hosting the toy drive. Attendees are encouraged to bring unwrapped toys valued at $15 to receive a raffle ticket for a $50 gift certificate to the Lazy Lobster.

Typically, the toys are collected for children of migrant workers in Arca dia, but this year, there is a bigger need in North Port and Englewood. The club is not leaving Arcadia out, but it is prioritizing the homeless victims of Hurricane Ian first.

“We’ll work it all out. We just need the gifts,” Rotary member Nancy Rozance said.

About 45 gifts were collected at last year’s drive, but the need is greater this year. Rotary holds a wrap party the Tuesday after Thanksgiv ing. Club members have to ensure the toys are brand new.

“If the biggest problem is that I have to buy more wrapping paper, then God bless America,” Rozance said.

File photo

Kathy Garcia, Susan Phillips and Linda Ulrich represented the Longboat Key Garden Club at a past Light up Longboat event.

Designed by the highly renowned DSDG Architects,

N

Drive, The Pirate House is an influence of the modern Miami Beach Art Deco movement, a trend-inspiring design that is first of its kind on Lido Key. This contemporary masterpiece, with expansive beach views from all angles, is mere steps to the white sands of Lido Key Beach, with

views of the crystal clear turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Sip and shop raises $9,000 for area birds

Beyond their rescue work, Save Our Seabirds permanently houses more than 120 birds.

DWYER STAFF WRITER

Local artists brought their best avi an art to the Sarasota Garden Club on Sunday for Save Our Seabirds’ first Art in the Garden event. Gunilla Imshaug was one of 12 art

ists to donate 50% of the day’s sales to the bird sanctuary.

Located on City Island, SOS vol unteers respond to more than 5,000 calls for birds in distress each year. They also house over 120 birds of varying species from parrots to peli cans.

The sold-out event raised more than $9,000 and welcomed over 150 guests to sip and shop. Artists had exhibits set up throughout the gar den and guests were served cocktails and appetizers while shopping for photographs and paintings of local birds.

LESLEY

Courtesy photo Gunilla Imshaug is one of 12 artists exhibiting at Art in the Garden.

Pirate House on the block

AMANDA POSTMA BUSINESS OBSERVER

Shiver me timbers! A $10 million house on Lido Key known by neigh bors as The Pirate House for its pirate statue on the patio has gone to auc tion.

DeCaro Auctions International is auctioning off the house at 15 N. Polk Drive, which is also known by locals as the Cactus House for the number of cacti on the property. The resi dence resembles the modern Miami Beach Art Deco movement, accord ing to a statement.

The five-bedroom, five-anda-half-bathroom home features a custom kitchen, Wolf appliances and a quartzite island with a water fall edge. An elevator and custom staircase both lead to a rooftop deck on the fourth level complete with a whirlpool.

A 12-car garage on the lower level comes with a 10,000-pound car lift and can be accessed through five garage doors.

“This property offers a year-round luxury lifestyle in paradise,” Daniel DeCaro, founder and president, says

in a release. “With the neighboring Gulf of Mexico’s white sugar beach es, shopping and dining on famous St. Armands Circle, arts and culture, and minutes to the Sarasota-Bra denton International Airport, this is an opportunity not to be missed.”

TOP BUILDING PERMITS

$17.5 MILLION n 1423/1435 Hillview Drive, Sarasota (2022)

$16.5 MILLION n 1900 Casey Key Road, Nokomis (2021) n 845 Longboat Club Road (2020)

$16 MILLION n 100 Beach Ave., Anna Maria (2022)

$15.5 MILLION n 1309 Vista Drive, Sarasota (2022)

$14 MILLION n 7712, 7711 and 7660 Sanderling Road, Siesta Key (2021)

$13.75 MILLION n 3303 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key (2022)

$13.25 MILLION n 1452 Hillview Drive, Sarasota (2021)

n 4651 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key (2020)

$13 MILLION +$1 n 6021 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key (2020)

$13 MILLION n 1067 Westway Drive, Lido Key (2006)

$12.5 MILLION n 825 Longboat Club Road (2011)

$12 MILLION n 1500 Hillview Drive, Sarasota (2022)

n 4100 Flamingo Ave., Siesta Key (2021)

n 4300 Higel Ave., Siesta Key (2021)

n 3021 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota (2012)

$11.85 MILLION 7712 Sanderling Road, Siesta Key (2014)

$11.5 MILLION n 3105 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key (2022)

n 1313 Westway Drive, Sarasota (2022)

$11.4 MILLION n 6633 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key (2019)

$11 MILLION n 139 S. Washington Drive, Lido Key (2020)

The $10 million Lido residence will be featured at a live auction in December.

Courtesy

FORECAST

FRIDAY, NOV. 25

High: 77 Low: 68

Chance of rain: 35%

SATURDAY, NOV. 26

High: 73 Low: 64

Chance of rain: 20%

SUNDAY, NOV. 27

High: 70 Low: 59

Chance of rain: 24%

TIDES

Sunrise Sunset

Thursday, Nov. 24 6:58a 5:36p

Friday, Nov. 25 6:59a 5:35p

Saturday, Nov. 26 6:59a 5:35p

Sunday, Nov. 27 7:00a 5:35p

Monday, Nov. 28 7:01a 5:35p

Tuesday, Nov. 29 7:02a 5:35p

Wednesday, Nov. 30 7:02a 5:35p

MOON PHASES

Nov.

Thursday, Nov. 24 1:47p 10:58p 6:56a 5:12p

Friday, Nov. 25 3:08p 11:39p 7:47a 5:18p

Saturday, Nov. 26 8:43a

Sunday, Nov. 27 12:27a 9:44a

Monday, Nov. 28 1:22a 10:48a

Tuesday, Nov. 29 2:29a 7:46p 11:51a 10:17p

Wednesday, Nov. 30 4:01p 7:43p 12:49p

MEN IN BLACK by Morton J. Mendelson. Edited by Ross Trudeau

By Luis Campos

Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present. Each letter in the cipher stands for another.