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VOLUME 37, NO. 31
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THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015
Park estimate: $3.9 million
INSIDE SEASON magazine SPRING 2015
SEASON
Bayfront Park concept plans draw sticker shock from town manager. PAGE 6A
THE OBSERVER ’S GUIDE TO TH E ARTS AND SO CIETY
SiGNING OFF
HIS OWN
MUSIC DANCE THEATER ART BLACK TIE
TERMS
Your spring guide to arts and social events.
Jim Brown prepares to strike the gavel on his final days as mayor.
EUGENIE CLARK 1922-2015
PAGE 3A
Tak Konstantinou
Clark swam upstream in scientific community Eugenie Clark founded what is now Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium 60 years ago as a onewoman operation.
Peacocks ruffle feathers again KURT SCHULTHEIS
Eugenie “Genie” Clark needed help with the heavy gear when she made her second-to-last dive last year. It was her 92nd birthday, and she was battling lung cancer. She sat in a plastic chair in the waters of the Gulf of Aqaba while fellow divers helped her gear up. After she was underwater, she needed no assistance. “The minute she went into the water, she was as graceful as a ballerina,” said Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium President/CEO Michael Crosby, who
Longbeach Village resident James Braha has been charged with reducing the neighborhood’s growing peacock population since 2011. But the birds are no match for Braha or any other licensed trapper in the state. “The birds are pooping all over my driveway,” Braha said. “I’m supposed to be in charge of this problem and there’s nothing I can do. I yell at the peacocks and throw things at them but they don’t go away. They just multiply. There’s no way I would take this job again.” Braha estimates there are 85 to 100 peacocks in the Village. And
SEE CLARK PAGE 4A
SEE PEACOCKS PAGE 7A
MANAGING EDITOR
TIE
Have you heard the mating calls? The Village’s most notorious birds are growing their flock. OBSERVER STAFF
ROBIN HARTILL
BLACK
SARASOTA BALLET
Attendees celebrate the ballet’s 24th season.
INSIDE
EARLY VOTING BEGINS SEE PAGE 15A
2015 MUNICIPAL ELECTION