LONGBOAT
Circling for art.
Observer
PAGE 14
Longboat Key’s weekly newspaper since 1978
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
FREE • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022
VOLUME 44, NO. 26
YOUR TOWN
A year like no other Longboat’s real estate market hit new heights in 2021. Is more to come? PAGE 3
BABY, IT’S File photo
We have concrete! The east sidewalk of Gulf of Mexico Drive in front of the Twin Shores Mobile Home Park is repaired. Frontier Communication’s contractor Lambert finished pouring new concrete last week near 1 Twin Shores Blvd. “We have concrete!” resident Dottye Van Iten said. The sidewalk has been closed since October 2021 for Frontier to repair copper telephone lines. Van Iten and her husband, Al, arrived in early January to Longboat Key, where they travel each winter from Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. They arrived to find an open excavation and asked the town and Frontier when the sidewalk would get repaired in front of their winter home. AVP Corporate Communications spokesperson Brigid Smith said Lambert experienced a concrete supply delay. “I sincerely apologize to the Van Itens for their inconvenience,” Smith wrote in an email.
COLD
OUTSIDE? Too chilly? Just right? Depends on whom you ask. PAGE 15
Nat Kaemmerer
Mary Ann and Kirt Bopp, of Missouri, still get their 5-mile walks in every day despite the cold. Kirt Bopp said he was really only bothered by the wind, but Mary Ann Bopp said she was cold on a recent chilly morning. Courtesy photo
Run by the sun The St. Petersburg Power and Sailboat Show is touted as the largest boat show held each year on the Gulf of Mexico. At the Jan. 20-23 event, Longboat Key-based boating store Ultra-Yacht introduced what founder Ed Kolodzieski said is the first all-electric Duffy Boat that features a solar-charging option. “A Duffy is an outstanding way to explore the natural beauty of Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway, bays, lakes and rivers while producing zero emissions,” Kolodzieski said. “It is great to relax and have fun at 5 mph without ever stopping for gas.” The Duffy Bayshore 18 can transport up to nine people and operate at cruising speed for up to 12 hours. The California-built boat is 18 feet long with a beam of 7 feet, 10 inches; it has a top speed of about 6 mph. Ultra-Yacht offered the Duffy Bayshore 18 at the show for $59,596.
Landmark restaurant sold to an old friend Cafe gets familiar new owner. SEE PAGE 2 Mark Bergin
John Horne and Ron Milton became friends in 2016. Horne takes over operations of Cafe L’Europe from Milton on Feb. 1.
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