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DRUMROLL, The newest FSU/Asolo PLEASE
TO INFINITY... AND BEYOND
Infinity condo will build on new Key inventory. 3A
OUR TOWN + Fall back an hour Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 a.m. Nov. 2, so turn back those clocks before bedtime Saturday night. Longboat Key Fire Rescue encourages residents to use the extra hour to change and test smoke alarm batteries as part of the Change Your Clock, Change Your Battery program.
Conservatory company is ready to take the stage. INSIDE
confirmed candidate
Jack Daly to seek District 4 seat The planning board vice chairman seeks the seat that outgoing Mayor Jim Brown will leave after serving six years next spring. Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Board Vice Chairman Jack Daly will seek the District 4 seat on the Longboat Key Town Commission. Town Clerk Trish Granger notified Daly in an email Friday that he qualified to run for the seat in the town’s March 10, 2015 general municipal election. At press time, Daly was the only
candidate who has qualified for the District 4 seat. Mayor Jim Brown, who has held the District 4 seat for more than five-and-a-half years and will term-limit out of office in 2015, told the Longboat Observer in September that he hoped Daly would consider a run. “I think he’d be a good commissioner, and he’s taken an interest
in the town,” Brown said at the time. Daly, 78, said he spoke to several individuals before deciding to run. “Jim Brown was influential, I’ll tell you that, as were several other commissioners,” he said. Originally from Norwich,
SEE DALY / PAGE 2A
Jack Daly
Robin Hartill
by Robin Hartill | Managing Editor
TOWN DEVELOPS EBOLA PROTOCOL
Courtesy
Code Enforcement Officer Chris Elbon and Keep Manatee Beautiful Executive Director Ingrid McClellan
+ Longboat Key keeps it clean We’re still reeling from Longboat Key’s exclusion from Movoto’s “10 Sexiest Small Cities in America,” which named Sarasota and Bradenton the first and third sexiest small cities, respectively. But Longboat Key recently earned a distinction that softened the blow: We’re one of the cleanest cities in Manatee County. That’s right, our Code Enforcement beat out other municipalities for litter law enforcement and won a Keep Manatee Beautiful Public Service Award. The cities of Bradenton Beach, Holmes Beach and Anna Maria also received awards; Palmetto and Bradenton did not. Keep Manatee Beautiful Executive Director Ingrid McClellan presented Code Enforcement Officer Chris Elbon with a plaque Oct. 23.
Longboat Key’s most famous guitarist Joe Perry has a new book, “Rocks: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith.” The Aerosmith guitarist is a part-time Sanctuary resident — but his 14-stop book tour that he completed Oct. 20 didn’t include any Florida stops. We encourage Perry to walk this way for a book-signing.
Al Hixon jazzes up Arts Center. PAGE 15A
by Robin Hartill | Managing Editor
RESPONSE RX
+ Joe Perry still rockin’ in new book
FREE • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2014
Longboat Key is thousands of miles away from the center of the Ebola outbreak — but the town’s first responders are prepared, just in case.
Kristen Herhold
Firefighter/ paramedic Jose Rivera
“Is the town prepared for Ebola?” Longboat Key Fire Rescue Chief Paul Dezzi has gotten the question from concerned citizens in recent weeks. His answer: “We’re as ready as we can be.” Town Manager Dave Bullock announced at the end of the Longboat Key Town Commission’s Oct. 20 regular workshop that its police and firefighter/paramedics are fully integrated with the county health departments’ protocols for handling suspected Ebola patients. Commissioner Lynn Larson asked Bullock if the town bought hazmat suits that cover the necks, referring to the protocol breach that allegedly occurred at Texas Presbyterian Hospital, where nurses treated
an Ebola patient in protective clothing that left their necks exposed. (The answer: Yes.) “It’s a low probability that we would be faced with it, but we have to prepare because we have so many international residents and people who travel,” Larson told the Longboat Observer. According to Dezzi, each fire and emergency medical services department in Florida must implement an infection control protocol for dealing with a suspected Ebola case. Because Longboat Key Fire Rescue handles both fire and EMS calls, it was required to develop its protocol with its medical director, Dr. Steven Newman. The town has purchased 40 hazmat suits at a cost of $30 each and four respirators that hook into air masks at $900 apiece to use if firefighter/ paramedics believe a patient may have the virus. But the most important step in the protocol begins
before firefighter/paramedics arrive at the scene. “The dispatch center is the first line for us,” Dezzi said. “A lot of our patients have flu or cold symptoms, so if you call 911, there’s a CDC (Center for Disease Control) protocol in place where the dispatcher asks you if you have been traveling to a list of countries.” If the patient has traveled to an affected country in West Africa, the dispatcher asks other questions, including whether the patient has a fever, and transmits that information to first responders. Firefighter/paramedics would then use universal precautions, including wearing protective gear. They would also notify hospitals and local health agencies. The department would limit exposure, possibly sending just one or two firefighter/paramedics to treat the patient. “It’s a common sense approach to this,” Dezzi said.
SEE EBOLA / PAGE 2A
INDEX Building Permits...23A Calendar...............20A
Classifieds......... 25A Cops Corner....... 10A
Crossword.......... 24A Neighborhood.... 15A
Real Estate........ 22A Weather............. 24A
Vol. 37, No. 13 | Two sections YourObserver.com