bserver O Happy New Year!
EAST COUNTY FREE • THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 2014
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
SPECIAL
SEASON
SPORTS
Look inside for SEASON magazine, your quarterly guide to arts events.
Reflect on the top teams, moments and athletes of 2013. PAGES 15-18
THE OBSERVER’S GUIDE TO THE ARTS AND SOCIETY | WINTER 2014
OUR TOWN
OCCASIONS East County residents celebrate. PAGE 28
election time by Josh Siegel | Staff Writer
Lennar turns over HOA Heritage Harbour’s developer will give residents complete control of the homeowners association starting Jan. 2, more than a decade after the community opened.
+ Make the Observer a world traveler, too
EAST COUNTY — As Stoneybrook residents prepare to finally control their community, homeowners vow to put aside their differences for the betterment of the community.
But, more than a decade of developer control, and the circumstances surrounding it, have created deep-seated animosity that is showing itself with the turnover date fast approaching.
On Jan. 2, Lennar, the developer of Heritage Harbour, will formally resign from the homeowners association board; an election that day will determine a new resident-controlled board.
Are you planning a trip in the new year? Make sure to take your East County Observer along! Upload a photo or video of you holding a copy of the Observer, and you will be entered into our 2014 “It’s Read Everywhere” photo contest, sponsored by SRQ Airport. Four lucky winners will receive two airline travel tickets each. To upload your photos, visit YourObserver.com, and click on the “Contests” tab in the upper right-hand corner. Happy travels!
+ Ranch youth earns scholarship GreyHawk Landing resident Joseph Schneider, a junior at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School, has been named the first-place winner in the Voice of Democracy Essay Contest hosted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Schneider’s essay won the award for the local VFW Post 10141 from a pool of more than 200 applicants. Schneider received the award during a special presentation Dec. 17 at the post.
HOA / PAGE 11
RACE PACE
by Pam Eubanks | Managing Editor
Pro racers test out the local track
Pro stock drivers Allen Johnson and Jeg Coughlin prepare for the racing season at Bradenton Motorsports.
+ Share your best holiday moments Did you make photoworthy memories as you welcomed 2014? Send us your pictures! We will run a photo collage of New Year’s celebrations in our Jan. 9 issue, so send any pictures you snapped, as well as a description — time, date, place and names of individuals photographed — to peubanks@yourobserver. com. Please include “holiday photo” in the subject line.
Lennar must turn over all assets and pay its outstanding bills by that date, as well. Faced with the task of managing the community’s assets, such as the Stoneybrook recreation center, basketball and tennis courts and pool, candidates for the new board are trying to present a united front.
EAST COUNTY — On a cool, sunny day at Bradenton Motorsports Park, a cloud of smoke fills the air as a racecar engine revs and sends the vehicle’s wheels spinning wildly in place. Pro stock car racers, including Allen Johnson and Jeg Coughlin, make regular visits to the track, located off State Road 64 next to DeSoto Speedway, during their offseason, from now through April. The visits are crucial to racers’ performances in the coming months because they use the facility as a testing ground for new equipment — motors, tires and other parts — and technology. In a racing class in which hundredths of a second — or even thousandths of a second — can mean the difference between first and second place, testing the viscosity of oil, the rubber of tires and other components of racing is critical for a driver’s success. “Fine-tuning what you have is (critical),” said Coughlin, who has posted 71 career wins. “Once we start our season, we
Year
The inPictures
THE BEST IMAGES FROM 2013 PAGES 3 THROUGH 10
MOTORSPORTS / PAGE 11
INDEX Classifieds ...................... 29 Cops Corner..................... 20
Crossword........................ 28 Neighborhood.................. 19
Real Estate...................... 26 Sports.............................. 15
Vol. 14, No. 39 | Two sections YourObserver.com