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Town manager recommends Colony demolition. PAGE 3A
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FREE • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2013
Heroes and villains called this Lido Shores mansion home. INSIDE
PUBLIC INTEREST
NIGHT OF LIGHTS
Santa Claus comes to St. Armands. PAGE 19A
by Kurt Schultheis and Robin Hartill | Observer Staff
ULI changes: in the shade or sunshine? The dust from the shake up of the town’s Urban Land Institute Implementation Advisory Committee hasn’t settled a week after the commission revamped the group.
Kelsey Grau
+ Resident keeps eye on the pie Inspired by her mother’s homemade banana cream pie, Bird Key resident Kim Manning had a sweet idea: key lime with a twist. Supported by her husband, John, and essentially anyone who ever tasted her tangy pie, Manning’s idea led to the opening of a new business, Goodly Delights Bakery in Sarasota. While the Key Lime Pie may be a favorite at this local establishment, there’s something for the chocolate lover, as well. Kim’s Chocolate Delight is a combination of dark, milk, and white chocolate with some peanut butter and Heath Bar brittle thrown in for good measure. The treats from Goodly Delights are featured at many Sarasota restaurants including Geckos Grill and Pub, Patrick’s 1481 and Caragiulos. Manning hopes they’ll be available in grocery stores soon. For your made-to-order pie, call the bakery at 3553600.
+ Show us your spirit this season Judgment days are upon us. This week, our reporters will make our final decisions on our favorite displays of holiday cheer for our “Spirit of the Season” contest. This year’s competition isn’t limited to lights. We’re searching for anything — indoor and outdoor decorations, costumes, Christmas sweaters and more — that embody the holiday spirit. Winners will receive a prize that Santa’s helpers will announce in next week’s issue of the Longboat Observer. Photo submissions are welcome. For suggestions, email Robin Hartill at rhartill@yourobserver.com.
Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Board Chairwoman B.J. Bishop learned she was no longer part of the Urban Land Institute Implementation Advisory Committee through a Longboat Observer story, and later, through an email Mayor Jim Brown sent through his personal account to her personal account Dec. 2.
The next day, Bishop forwarded Brown’s email to the town clerk’s office with an attachment that read: “In violation of Sunshine Law, this was sent to my personal account. Please advise your commission that town business cannot be sent there. I will not lose my personal equipment to such an error.”
1914-2013
Bishop also sent the following response to Brown that was also forwarded to Granger: “Jim: Please do town business on my town email only. A phone call telling me you were doing that and a call telling me of the action would have been appreciated. Finding out from the press was not pleasant, and it is certainly
not how I treated volunteers when serving as mayor of my city.” The email exchange stemmed from an item Brown added to the agenda at the Dec. 2 Longboat Key Town Commission regular meeting. He said he made a mis-
SEE ULI / PAGE 9A
by Robin Hartill | News Editor
A FINAL SALUTE
Marty Samowitz, 99, survived the Battle of Iwo Jima to become a businessman and philanthropist. He died Dec. 6.
M
arty Samowitz didn’t pay much attention when he saw five Marines and one Navy corpsman raise the U.S. flag over Mount Suribachi. It was Feb. 23, 1945 — the fourth day of the battle for the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. Troops had reached the top of the mountain, so they raised the flag in what seemed like an ordinary scene to Samowitz, who sat smoking with the Marines he served alongside. He didn’t know that the scene, captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, would go on to become what Samowitz later called “an iconic symbol of the worst war in history.” In February 2012, on the 67th anniversary of the battle’s beginning, Samowitz shared his stories from World War II with the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key. “We were just fooling around because we were happy to get to the top,” Samowitz said. Someone asked: “What did it feel like to walk to the top of Mount Suribachi?” That caught Samowitz’s attention. “Walk!?” he scoffed. “We crawled up on our elbows and knees.” Martin “Marty” Samowitz, a
File photo
Marty Samowitz, pictured in February, holds a photo of himself taken when he was a 27-year-old enlistee. Longboat Key resident and the oldest known Iwo Jima survivor, died Dec. 6. He was 99. “He packed so much life into those 99 years,” said Lynn Weddington Welly, who befriended Samowitz when her husband, Michael Welly, was general manager of the Longboat Key
Club. “It’s not just that he lived to be 99. It’s what he did in those years.” Born Oct. 28, 1914, in New York City, he was 27 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He enlisted a short time later with the Air Force and fought in the Pacific as part of
the 7th Fighter Command, 20th Air Force but volunteered to attach to a Marine unit in preparation for the battle of Iwo Jima. He was nearly a decade older than most of the Marines he fought with, most of whom
SEE SAMOWITZ / PAGE 2A
INDEX Briefs....................3A Classifieds......... 29A
Cops Corner....... 14A Crossword.......... 28A
Neighborhood.... 19A Opinion.................8A
Real Estate........ 26A Weather............. 28A
Vol. 36, No. 19 | Two sections YourObserver.com