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Longboat Observer 4.1.21

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LONGBOAT

Arresting artwork.

Observer Longboat Key’s weekly newspaper since 1978

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YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.

VOLUME 43, NO. 34

YOUR TOWN

FREE

THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2021

‘DIRT-CHEAP’ DEAL ON SAND

Manual Mondays bring quiet Stock up on work gloves and Ben Gay, Longboaters. Manual Mondays are here. Beginning April 5, weedtrimmers, leaf blowers, mowers and all other machinery that creates more than 50 decibels of sound while measured from 10 yards are off limits on the first day of the work week. The measure, while a compromise, was a victory for organizers of What’s All The Racket, a stateregistered political action committee pushing for a statewide ban on jet aircraft, Ford Mustangs driven by teens, all music recorded since 1972 and gasolinepowered lawn equipment. Although messages seeking comment were left by the Observer, a spokesperson has remained silent.

State rolls out the red carpet The governor’s office has directed a state agency to install carpeting on the length of Gulf of Mexico Drive’s sidewalk in a pilot program designed to add “a new level of safety and decor to Florida’s premier coastal highways.” The nearly 11-mile stretch of pavement would be outfitted with a new style of padded outdoor floor covering designed for “high traffic areas” and to reduce injuries by 60% in the case of falls. The town chose Toreador Crimson. Work is expected to begin by August.

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A quarter-scale test dune was created on Bradenton Beach to test the project feasibility.

BOGO purchase for beaches will lead to long-term supply, four-story dunes.

ERIC GARWOOD MANAGING EDITOR

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money-saving solution to keep town beaches well-stocked with sand for decades will add a towering new feature to the island’s Manatee County shoreline — dunes rivaling those found in the great deserts of the world. Beach renourishment work getting underway this spring encountered rock-bottom prices

for sand, largely driven by altered supply and demand forces of the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowing another renourishment project is likely every five to seven years in the future, the town made a deal to buy twice the sand now for essentially the same budgeted price. Once the previously planned work is completed, the surplus sand will be pumped and dumped east of the surfline, creating dunes 40 to 50 feet high from

around Beer Can Island south to a spot near Bayfront Park, gradually sloping to sea level once again near the county line. A quarter-scale test dune was created on Bradenton Beach to test the feasibility with favorable results. Long-range financial projections indicate the two-for-one purchase could save beachfront taxpayers in the neighborhood of SEE BIG SAND, PAGE 3A

Beer Can? Think again Social justice group demands Longboat rename ‘insensitive’ landmarks. SEE PAGE 3A

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Spill helps ecosystem File photo

No harm done to bay. In fact, quite the opposite. SEE PAGE 3A


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