bserver O LONGBOAT
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
SAND SAVE A healthier beach is on . the horizon. PAGE 3A
OUR TOWN + Key gets high five from Krauthammer The night before he was scheduled to speak at the Ringling College Library Association Town Hall lecture, Fox News commentator and syndicated columnist Dr. Charles Krauthammer arrived late Monday night, Jan. 12, for his stay at the Inn on the Beach Resort at the Longboat Key Club. It was late and dark, and Krauthammer didn’t see much. But when he awakened that Tuesday morning and looked out his hotel window and saw the view, apparently he was awestruck. His assistant, Jason Smith, told Town Hall volunteers that when Krauthammer saw the view of the beach and Gulf of Mexico, he told Smith: “Top Five.” Smith said that was Krauthammer’s way of ranking Longboat Key in his top five places in the world he has stayed.
FREE • THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2015
DIVERSIONS
ART EXHIBIT
In its bid to survive, . Season of Sculpture. reinvents itself. . INSIDE
The Arts Center finds a temporary Habatat. . PAGE 3A
commercial vacancy
by Robin Hartill | Managing Editor
North-end gas station still running on empty Keller Williams will not open an office at the old Chevron, but a Bradenton businessman seeks goodwill for a drop-off center. How much goodwill does Longboat Key have? That’s open to debate, but when it comes to Goodwill — as in, a drop-off location — the answer is: It doesn’t have one. Bradenton businessman John
McKay, a former Republican state legislator, recently entered the 60-day due diligence period to purchase the former Longbeach Chevron station that’s been vacant since 2007 to build a Goodwill donation center.
McKay called the plan “very, very premature.” “We’re doing a lot of investigation, letting the architects and engineers see if it’s feasible to buy it,” he said. McKay said he has not yet met
File photo
The old gas station on the north end has been vacant since 2007. with town staff and does not know if the proposed use is allowable. “To say we’re in the early stages would be an understatement,” he said.
SEE PROPERTY / PAGE 2A
ROOT CAUSE
Kristen Herhold
+ OSU victory a gem for Holbrook Karen Holbrook wore red and black to the Jan. 14 Longboat Key Rotary Club meeting. That’s because the former Ohio State University president was still celebrating the Buckeyes’ National Team Championship victory. Her outfit was the same one she wore when the Buckeyes defeated the University of Miami Hurricanes in 2002. Her bracelet was made up of pendants that each represent a football national championship — but not all victories are represented. “This is all I could get on a bracelet,” Holbrook said.
OUR TOWN / PAGE 19A
Barbara Livingston and Kathy Gricius “autograph” the pitch apple tree at the Longboat Key Garden Club’s annual Florida Arbor Day celebration Jan. 15, at Bicentennial Park. The club donated a pitch apple tree to be planted on Gulf of Mexico Drive. For more photos, see page 19A.
RED TAPE by Robin Hartill | Managing Editor
‘The U.S. Constitution did not take this long to write’ Commissioners . expressed frustration at the slow pace of a Comp Plan and code rewrite.
The Constitutional Convention began May 25, 1787 and adjourned Sept. 17, 1787. That’s 116 days. The town has been mulling the need to rewrite its codes and Comprehensive Plan since at least Dec. 29, 2011, when Sara-
sota Judge Charles E. Roberts ruled that the town violated its zoning regulations and Comprehensive Plan when the Longboat Key Town Commission approved the Longboat Key Club & Resort’s $400 million expansion plan in 2010. That’s 1,118 days as of Jan.
20, when the Longboat Key Town Commission met for its regular workshop. “The U.S. Constitution did not take this long to write,” a frustrated Commissioner Lynn Larson said at Tuesday’s workshop. Although Roberts’ ruling provided an impetus for making changes, town residents and officials have discussed the need to update the Comp Plan and codes long before 2011. “We’ve been doing this since I
SEE COMP PLAN / PAGE 2A
INDEX Calendar.................7B Classifieds......... 13B
Cops Corner....... 16A Crossword.......... 12B
Neighborhood...... 1B Opinion.................8A
Real Estate........ 10B Weather............. 12B
Vol. 37, No. 25 | Three sections YourObserver.com