E
N 1 # AMERICA’S
PER A P WS
bserver LONGBOAT
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
NEWS Town prepares for another lean budget year. PAGE 3A
DIVERSIONS
FUNDRAISER Tennis event benefits wounded veterans. PAGE 1B
Classic cars and architecture blend perfectly in our Home of the Month. INSIDE
victory lap
OUR TOWN
FREE • THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014
by Robin Hartill | News Editor
New Colony extension: August 2016 + Resident receives U.S. citizenship For one Longboat Key resident, facing the American flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance held special meaning at the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key’s April 3 breakfast meeting. After the pledge, Kiwanis Club member and Observer Media Group CEO Matt Walsh announced that his son-in-law, Dex Honea, recently received his U.S. citizenship. Born in Thailand, Honea worked odd jobs to support himself and his passion for the arts in Canada. A former member of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in Canada, Honea moved to Florida, started a landscaping business and the former Fuel Café in Sarasota. Honea, who lives on the Key with his wife, Kate, is the director of education for the Sarasota Ballet.
SEE OT / PAGE 23A CAMPAIGN AGAINST SUMMER HUNGER Here are the week's donation totals for the Campaign Against Summer Hunger partnership between All Faiths Food Bank and the Gulf Coast Community Foundation. To donate, visit SkipALunch.org. Drop off non-perishable food items at Goodwills and fire stations in Sarasota County.
GOAL: $500,000 matching challenge
Various parties still face numerous hurdles in their efforts to revitalize the resort, but a ticking town clock is no longer one of them.
THE
FINISH LINE Robin Hartill
John Wallace buys a souvenir teaspoon in every country where he runs a marathon, which can be a challenge in developing countries. In five countries — Moldova, Albania, Cuba, Haiti and East Timor — he couldn’t find one, so he had the name of the country engraved on a plain teaspoon.
World record-holder John Wallace has two marathons left until he retires from the sport. But will his retirement last? John Wallace made a promise to himself as he approached mile No. 22 of the 1982 Silver State Marathon in Reno, Nev. “If I can get through this alive,” he said to himself, “I will never do anything like this again.” Wallace, a former Longboat Key resident who now lives in Sarasota right across the bridge from Siesta Key, kept going because his wife and children were waiting at the finish line. Two weeks later, he was training for his second marathon. Now, at 70, he has done what he vowed to never do again 370 times in a total of 120 countries, all 50 states (twice) and each of the 13 provinces of Canada. “It’s still addictive,” Wallace said. “Running like I do is absolutely an addiction. But it’s a good addiction.” It’s an addiction Wallace plans to kick, or at least curb, for now. He plans to run two more races before retiring for at least a year, but possibly for good. Wallace’s decision is due in part to a heart condition that is not life-threatening — but more importantly because he finds it frustrating that he is no longer competitive.
“If I were competitive, that would be one thing, but if you can’t compete, why put the stress on your heart?” he said. Before Wallace gives up the sport, he will run the Boston Marathon for the eighth time on April 21. It is his favorite race because, as the world’s oldest annual marathon, the race is filled with mystique and tradition. He watched as news of the bombing at last year’s Boston Marathon unfolded with a mix of sadness and relief — the latter because the marathon clock read 4:09:43 at the time of the first explosion. Wallace’s times were between 4:05 and 4:10 last year, so he imagines he would have been near the finish line at the time of the bombing. Since then, his times have slowed to just more than five hours. He initially planned to make the Boston Marathon his final race. Then, an American runner who lives in Kosovo offered to organize a race there, and Wallace could not pass up the opportunity. Until 2008, Wallace could say that he had run marathons in every country in Europe. Then, Kosovo declared independence
SEE WALLACE / PAGE 2A
“Running like I do is absolutely an addiction. But it’s a good addiction.” — John Wallace
BY THE NUMBERS
9,694
The number of miles Wallace has run during his 370 marathons.
$54,720 POUNDS OF FOOD COLLECTED: 53,526 GOAL: 600,000 POUNDS
120
The number of countries in which Wallace has run marathons.
450
The number of pairs of shoes Wallace estimates he has gone through since he began running marathons.
The Colony Beach & Tennis Resort Association doesn’t have to worry about losing 134 of the 237 tourism units that sit empty at 1620 Gulf of Mexico Drive. The Longboat Key Town Commission gave the association and other Colony parties until Aug. 1, 2016 to file a building permit at Town Hall that aims to restore the resort with its current number of tourism units. The commission, though, said it’s the town’s goal to change the density of the 18-acre site, through its ongoing process of revising its town codes and Comprehensive Plan. “This whole discussion supports memorializing the density in some form and get away from theses abandonments and extensions,” said Commissioner Terry Gans. “I would like to see tourism on that property.” The commission and association attorney Don Hemke agreed to a stipulation that the association construct a fence around the entire site that’s at least 6 feet tall and as high as 8 feet. Police Chief Pete Cumming made the recommendation, saying the fence and “no trespassing” signs “will keep people off the property and allow us to arrest people trying to access it.” The commission also agreed to keep a bond the town can draw from if the association fails to make repairs or handle code-related issues at the resort in a timely manner at $50,000. Commissioners and the association also agreed to remove a step that mandated the town hold a public hearing before Town Manager Dave Bullock could draw money from the bond. While Colony attorneys expressed optimism with the commission’s decision to grant the longer extension, they warned commissioners a revitalized Colony faces additional hurdles. “The legal restraints remain,” Hemke said. “Many dollars were spent in conjunction with a settlement proceeding that was unsuccessful and many other avenues are being discussed as we continue to seek a resolution.”
SEE COLONY / PAGE 17A
INDEX Calendar............ 22A Classifieds......... 17B
Cops Corner....... 11A Crossword.......... 16B
Neighborhood...... 1B Opinion.................8A
Real Estate........ 14B Weather............. 16B
Vol. 36, No. 36 | Three sections YourObserver.com