bserver O EAST COUNTY FREE • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2013
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
ANNIVERSARY
The East County Observer celebrates 15 years of stories. PAGES 12-13A
Lakewood golf coach Dave Frantz ends coaching career. PAGE 19A
Learn who won this year’s ‘It’s Read Everywhere’ photo contest. PAGE 1B
PERMANENT PLACE
OUR TOWN
SPORTS
WORLD TRAVEL
by Josh Siegel | Staff Writer
by Josh Siegel | Staff Writer
+ Observer welcomes intern There’s a new face in the East County. The East County Observer recently welcomed Amanda Sebastiano to its team, as an intern. Sebastiano graduated from the University of South Florida in 2010, before moving to North Carolina, where she worked for a tri-weekly newspaper in the rural town of Lincolnton. While in college, Sebastiano interned with the East County Observer’s sister publications, the Longboat Observer and Sarasota Observer. Please be sure to say “Hello!” if you see her out.
Church finds home
+ Tabernacle School celebrates veterans Students at The Tabernacle Christian School paid a special tribute to military veterans Nov. 11, as they enjoyed a special Veterans Day service. The afternoon’s keynote speaker was Goodwill Manasota’s Director of Veteran Services Christopher Davis, a 14-year Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan.
+ VFW raises funds for Community Haven East County-based Community Haven for Adults and Children with Disabilities received $11,500 for programming, thanks to VFW Post 3233. One-hundred percent of proceeds from the post’s third annual golf tournament, held at the Rolling Green Golf Club, went to the charity.
never broken
Photos by Josh Siegel
The Rev. Elizabeth Deibert finally received the keys to her church’s new home, pictured behind her, Nov. 7. The property has lush green space and a pond.
After eight years of uncertainty, Peace Presbyterian Church will occupy a permanent space, thanks to approval from the Manatee County Board of County Commissioners. EAST COUNTY — Every Monday, the morning after they worshipped in a Realtors’ association office, Jim and Sherry Robinson returned to do janitorial duties. They would leave the place tidier than they found it, sweeping the floors and cleaning the toilets. On Sundays, before services, they shifted 180 chairs into an arrangement that could serve the audience. They opened two sets of bifold doors, turning three rooms into one, to make it look and feel like a congregation and not
an ordinary workplace. Elizabeth Deibert, the organizing pastor for Peace Presbyterian Church, hoped people would come to the services, even though the church could only advertise with signage outside the building during weekends. Now, after eight years of uncertainty, the Robinsons and Deibert finally feel at home. At its land-use meeting Nov. 7, the Manatee County Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the church’s general development plan to take over an unoccu-
pied 15,054-square-foot office building at 12705 State Road 64 E. The Peace Presbyterian Church’s Board of Elders closed on the church’s new home, which it purchased for $975,000, later that day. The plan, which covers 24 acres in total, also calls for the church to build a new 210-seat sanctuary. Since 2010, Peace has met in a wing of the Manatee Association of Realtors’ building, in Lakewood Ranch.
SEE CHURCH / PAGE 14A
Owner sells Broken Egg For Bob Kirscher, the time was now to sell the Broken Egg, including its popular location in LWR. LAKEWOOD RANCH — For Bob Kirscher, selling the Broken Egg doesn’t feel like a break up. Rather, it represents an expansion of the brand he helped establish — with the affable voice of friend, fan and promoter Dick Vitale. Kirscher, 63, the longtime owner of the Broken Egg in Lakewood Ranch, and also, locations on Siesta Key and Clark Road in Sarasota County, with business partner Dr. Joe Gaeta, has sold the business. Kirscher sold the Siesta Key and Lakewood Ranch locations of the restaurant to Destin, Fla.-based Another Broken Egg of America Inc., and the Clark Road location to longtime Managing Partner Dawn Hair. “For me to make a change, it’s time,” Kirscher said during a phone call from Minnesota,
SEE EGG / PAGE 8A
Josh Siegel
Dick Vitale, the Hall of Fame sportscaster and Lakewood Ranch resident, sits at this table outside the restaurant every morning.
INDEX Calendar............ 16A Classifieds ........ 17B
Cops Corner....... 15A Crossword.......... 16B
Neighborhood...... 1B Real Estate........ 12B
Sports................ 19A Weather............. 16B
Vol. 14, No. 32 | Two sections YourObserver.com