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EAST COUNTY
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FREE • THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2015
Health Matters Observer
EAST COUNTY
JANUARY 2015
HEALTH MATTERS
NEWS
The 99th annual Manatee County Fair begins. PAGE 2A
Healthy New Ye ar Learn how to set and keep health goals in 2015. PAGES 2-3
FIT TOGETHER
Group fitness offers motivation, fun in new year.
PAGES 4-5
OUR TOWN
SAVOR IT
HEAD TO TOE
PAGE 11
PAGE 10
Three ways to make a new favorite: winter squash.
DIVERSIONS
Hermitage Artist A new year, a new Retreat continues you for 2015. to grow as an artistic haven. INSIDE INSIDE
Learn how foods affect each part of your body.
UPDATE by Pam Eubanks | Senior Editor
Gross maintains innocence After discovering last week that there’s a warrant out for his arrest, Thomas Gross says he did not kill his mother.
+ Surprise shower When Susan Courter walked into the Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch meeting Jan. 8, at Rosedale Golf & Country Club, she had a momentary loss of words. Club members threw her a surprise baby shower for baby No. 2, a boy due Jan. 26. Courter rounded the corner to see a table full of pastel-colored bags and packages, as well as a blue “A,B,C” baby shower cake, which members enjoyed at the end of the meeting. “Thank you so much. You guys are like second family to me and made me feel so welcome since I joined the club,” Courter told the group after the initial shock wore off.
Randy Bezet
+ Now open The Rev. Randy Bezet, Bayside Community Church’s senior pastor, welcomed members to the church’s expanded East Bradenton campus during special grand opening services Jan. 10 and Jan. 11. Located at 15800 E S.R. 64 E., Bradenton, the East Bradenton campus opened its new 73,000-square-foot auditorium after about one year of construction. Saturday’s service even included a post-service after-party with a D.J., bounce houses and more.
LAKEWOOD RANCH — With a warrant out for his arrest for the murder of Lakewood Ranch resident Ina Gross, her son, Thomas Gross, maintains his innocence. Thomas Gross is accused of killing his mother Jan. 9, 2012, in her home, while visiting from Israel. The state attorney’s office issued a warrant for Thomas Gross’ arrest July 3, but the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office never publicized it with the hope that Thomas Gross wouldn’t learn of the warrant before the extradition process had started to return him to the U.S. However, Thomas Gross recently learned about the warrant from news reports. “I didn’t do it, nor was I in any way, shape or form involved,” Gross said in a phone interview with the East County Observer Tuesday.
property planning
The Sheriff’s Office named Thomas Gross a “person of interest” early in the investigation but did not formally name him a suspect until the arrest warrant was issued. Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Dave Bristow confirmed the warrant existed and the arrest warrant was signed, but declined further comment. According to original Sheriff’s Office reports, Thomas Gross found Ina Gross dead at 5:37 a.m. Jan. 9, 2012 in her garage in the Riverwalk Hammock community. There were no signs of forced entry. Thomas Gross says he called 911 and attempted CPR after finding her body. He says detectives allege he couldn’t have performed
SEE GROSS / PAGE 8A
Ina Gross, left, was found dead in her Ranch home Jan. 9, 2012. She’s pictured with her late husband, Samuel.
by Kurt Schultheis | Managing Editor
Fire district grapples with growth East Manatee Fire Rescue’s biggest problem is making sure fire trucks fit in communities. EAST MANATEE — Thirty-six years ago, what’s now the East Manatee Fire Rescue District formed when a group of volunteer firemen agreed to protect a growing area near the Braden River. Those unpaid firefighters, dubbed “The Tin Orphans,” had one truck, one makeshift fire station with a tin roof and handme-down supplies and equipment. They responded to mostly brush fires on farmland. Fast forward to today, and EMFR has six fire stations, two more in the works and a dozen or more residential streets added to it maps annually. And along with that growth has come a whole new set of problems. The latest? District officials are working with developers who want to make new streets smaller as fire trucks only get bigger. East Manatee County Fire Rescue Chief Byron Teates, Deputy Chief of Administration Lee Whitehurst and Deputy Chief/ Fire Marshal George Ellington deal with the back and forth from developers and their plans. “The problem has been and
FIVE-YEAR PLAN FOR FUTURE FACILITIES
Kurt Schultheis
East Manatee Fire Rescue Deputy Chief/Fire Marshal George Ellington, Deputy Chief of Administration Lee Whitehurst and Fire Rescue Chief Byron Teates try to pinpoint and manage East County's growth. always will be about access,” Whitehurst said. “The size of the average fire truck continues to grow while the size of your average home lot, street width and cul-de-sac length is shrinking. We need to be able to respond
to a call and have enough room to turn around and go back the other way.” And fire truck length is a major issue on which fire officials are
• FY 2014-15 — Plan and design the replacement of Station 2 for $100,000. Demolish and construct new Station 2 for $1.5 million. Plan, design and build a training town on Station 2 site for $250,000. Project will be complete by Sept. 30, 2015. • FY 2015-16 — Nothing planned. • FY 2016-17 — Nothing planned. • FY 2017-18 — Plan and design Station 7 for $300,000. • FY 2018-19 — Construct 7,000 square-foot Station 7 for estimated $1.75 million cost.
SEE FIRE / PAGE 8A
INDEX Building Permits...23A Classifieds......... 25A
Cops Corner....... 10A Crossword.......... 24A
Neighborhood.... 17A Real Estate........ 22A
Sports................ 14A Weather............. 24A
Vol. 17, No. 9 | Three sections YourObserver.com