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EAST COUNTY
You. Your neighbors. Your neighborhood.
SPORTS
fundraiser
Lakewood Ranch Community Fund hosts 2012 gala.
weather
Braden River, Lakewood Ranch win district crowns. SEE PAGE 23
PAGES 20-21.
OUR TOWN
Thursday, APRIL 26, 2012
See this week’s weather photo contest winner. PAGE 28
By Pam Eubanks | News Editor destination beauty and the feet
Benderson announces anchors Benderson Development and Taubman Centers will bring Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s and Dillard’s to the East County.
Noel Pressler
+ East golfers fawn over fawn A baby fawn captured the attention of golfers at The River Club golf course April 19. The fawn rested all day beneath trees along a lake behind the golf club, before it disappeared around 4 p.m. Golfer Noel Pressler made sure to snap this cute picture with her phone. The fawn reappeared April 20, and wildlife rehabilitator Justin Matthews, of Justin Matthews Wildlife Rescue, took the young deer into his care. Based on the fawn’s condition, it has been abandoned by its mother, Matthews said. “She’s been separated (from her mother) for a while,” he said. “She’s skin and bones.” Once the fawn’s health improves sufficiently, Matthews said he would take it to a wildlife center in Venice for further care and rehabilitation.
+ LECOM, Bradenton celebrate physicians The Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Bradenton community this week are joining to celebrate osteopathic physicians nationwide. April 15-21 is National Osteopathic Medicine Week. The event corresponds with the founding date of the American Osteopathic Association, April 19, 1897. As part of the local recognition, Bradenton Mayor Wayne Poston recently presented an official proclamation to LECOM Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Robert George and members of the school’s Student Government Association. The proclamation recognizes the contributions of local osteopathic physicians and their commitment to improving the health of the community.
SARASOTA COUNTY — Benderson Development has partnered with Michigan-based Taubman Centers Inc. in the development of its high-end mall slated for the southwest intersection of University Parkway and Interstate 75 and announced three anchor tenants for the project.
The companies announced April 24 Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s and Dillard’s will anchor the 180,000-square-foot Mall at University Town Center, on which the partners expect to start construction later this year. A fourth
SEE MALL / PAGE 10
Courtesy rendering
water wager
By Pam Eubanks | News Editor
Irrigation fees to rise 50% Braden River Utilities, the entity that provides irrigation water to Lakewood Ranch, will be increasing its rates.
vices at Bayside’s main campus off State Road 64 actually live in Sarasota. The decision to launch a satellite campus, which will receive teachings from lead Pastor Randy Bezet via video streaming each
LAKEWOOD RANCH — Braden River Utilities, the entity that provides irrigation water to Lakewood Ranch, is moving forward with infrastructure improvements that will link its water supply to reclaimed water from the city of Sarasota. But, those improvements won’t come cheap. The improvements, as well as overall increases in operating costs, will result in a 50% rate increase for non-potable water, which will go from 60 cents per 1,000 gallons to 90 cents per 1,000 gallons, starting Oct. 1. Monthly user fees also will be increasing from $663.80 to $683.71. The rates have not changed
SEE EXPANSION / PAGE 10
SEE WATER / PAGE 10
MUMMY IN THE MAKING Jen Blanco
Four-year-old Donovan Olampo worked hard on his mummy mask during Family Weekend April 21, at Dream Oaks Camp. For more photos, see page 14.
expansion By Pam Eubanks | News Editor
Bayside to open third campus Bayside Community Church will open its East Sarasota site this September. MANATEE COUNTY — The East County’s largest church is getting ready to grow again. Bayside Community Church has announced it will launch an East Sarasota campus in September. “We’ve been working on this probably for over a year,” Associ-
ate Senior Pastor Alex Anderson. “Every time we get filled up, we try to find another way of emptying chairs so more people can come. We’d rather invest our money in people (rather than a bigger building), so we do other campuses.” Anderson said more than 500 families who currently attend ser-
INDEX Black Tie...............20 Briefs......................4
Classifieds ...........29 Cops Corner............7
Crossword.............28 Neighborhood.......12
Opinion...................8 Weather................28
Vol. 13, No. 17 | One section YourObserver.com