Keep the trolley free campaign

Fingers crossed on this one. According to the Anna Maria Sun newspaper, the proposal floated by the business community in Anna Maria may yet see the light of day.
The Sun reports: The Anna Maria Island business community may get one year to prove that it can raise enough money to keep the free trolley from becoming the $1-a-day trolley, and community leaders are confident they can do it.
County Administrator Ed Hunzeker recommended Thursday night that Manatee County commissioners consider the Save Our Trolley plan as an alternative to his original county budget-cutting proposal, a $1-a-day trolley fee.
Save Our Trolley, a cooperative effort among businesses, residents, tourists and governments, would raise funds with a two-day festival patterned after the Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival, said David Teitelbaum, Island hotelier, vice chairman of the Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) and an Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce director.

All power to your elbows guys, we have to do whatever it takes to keep the trolley running free.

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Sand of time finally runs out

The best things come to those who wait. And for the residents of the bay side of North Shore Drive the wait has been longer than most.
Eight years after North Shore resident Joan Dickinson first lobbied for beach renourishment in 2001 after a storm took what little beach was left at her residence and flooded her yard and house, Catherine Florko of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection informed Mayor Fran Barford that the shoreline between Bean Point and the Rod & Reel Pier is now considered “critical shoreline,” rather than “critical inlet shoreline” as the DEP had previously designated the area.
The new designation means that area is now considered a “critically eroded beach” and eligible for state and federal funding in the next beach renourishment cycle. Under the previous designation, residents in the affected zone could only expect city or county aid for renourishment, or pay for such an effort out of their own pockets.
It came as welcome news to one North Shore Drive resident in particular. “It’s been a long time coming. After all these years. I really have to thank Mayor Barford for her help. She tried everything to get us some relief and this avenue worked,” Dickinson said.

July 4 will go with a bang

Anna Maria Island residents will once again be able to fill their boots with July 4 firework displays, with not one, not two, but three shows being given the green light by city officials.
Last year celebrations were scaled back to one show from two to help law enforcement personnel bring illegal fireworks use under control. But the Chiles Restaurant Group has been allowed to stage displays at all three of its outlets on the island. We are lucky!
The first display is on July 3 with an Independence Eve celebration at the BeachHouse Restaurant, 200 Gulf Drive N., Bradenton Beach.
The fireworks will begin just after 9pm and will be fired from a barge in the Gulf of Mexico in full view of the crowds on the beach. Should be a spectacular way to cap off another sunset.
The other two displays will take place on July 4, one at the Sandbar Restaurant, 100 Spring Ave., Anna Maria and the other at the MarVista Restaurant, 760 Broadway St., Longboat Key.
The Sandbar display will again begin just after 9pm with the fireworks sent up from the beach, while the MarVista display also will take place shortly after dark. The fireworks there will be fired from a barge so you might be able to catch both if you stand in the right place.
The local July 4 holiday celebration also will feature the traditional Anna Maria Island Privateers parade, which will run the length of the island, from Coquina Beach in the south to the Anna Maria City Pier, starting at 10am. Get out on the street, throw them some money and you might just get something in return (as well as that warm, fuzzy feeling you get after donating to a good cause).

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Book, walk and talk

If you're staying on the island this week why not pop along to the Potluck and Nature Book Discussion being held at Leffis Key.
The Manatee-Sarasota Sierra Club invites the public to a discussion of the book 'Paving Paradise' by Craig Pittman at 4pm on June 14, followed by a potluck dinner and nature walk around Leffis Key.
Bring a potluck dish to serve eight people, your table setting, plus water and bug repellent to the covered picnic table next to the children’s playground on the east side of the road just north of the Anna Maria-Longboat Key bridge.
Reservations are required by June 12, which is tomorrow, so you better get going. For more information call Mary on 752-3200.

Grand old lady of the sea

Dolphins and Anna Maria Island go together like beer and football. They are always to be seen frolicking around in the waters surrounding our beautiful island.
Scientists are also very interested in them and a number have been tagged over the years to track their movements and try to learn a little bit more about them.
And according to a recent story in Naples News, one of them provided almost 40 years of help with their research before it washed up on a shore near to Anna Maria Island.
It says: 'A female wild dolphin monitored for 38 years by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program based at Mote Marine Laboratory died May 22, leaving behind two documented generations of offspring to continue her legacy.
Waterfront residents found the 46-year-old dolphin — known as "FB5" by program scientists — on a sandbar near Longboat Key. Mote staff recovered the dolphin, which had succumbed to illnesses and injuries that plagued her for months.
A necropsy, or animal autopsy, showed that FB5 had lost more than 100 pounds since her health was last assessed in 2001. She had developed non-healing skin lesions and suffered from organ failure, shark bites and a stingray barb in her lung. Examining her made for a bittersweet evening.
"We will all miss this old girl," said Dr. Randall Wells, Senior Scientist and manager of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, a partnership between the Chicago Zoological Society and Mote and the world's longest-running study of a wild dolphin population.
In March 1971, Wells and his colleagues tagged FB5 — in fact, she was one of the first dolphins tagged for identification by the group, which began monitoring Sarasota Bay's dolphins in 1970. Data gathered by Program researchers serves to inform marine mammal policy, research, conservation and education. By studying five generations of Sarasota Bay's 160 or so year-round resident dolphins — including FB5's calves and grandcalves — Program scientists continue nearly four decades of learning about these amazing marine mammals.'
You can learn more about the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program at www.mote.org
Read the whole article here

Eat and be merry

Eating is important in Florida - which is hardly surprising given the amount of restaurants and the abundance of wonderful raw ingredients.
There is an amazing variety of restaurants on the island representing every type of food. If you like moderate priced seafood and want to sit on the beach at sunset, then the Sandbar or the Beach House are recommended. The Sun House Restaurant and Bar is just across the street from the Gulf and features “Floribbean Cuisine” which is the fusion of American cooking traditions with Caribbean and Latin American ingredients.
If you want to sit on the bay front, the Waterfront Restaurant at the Bay View Plaza is for you. For wonderful funky fun, take a chance and go to Mr. Bone's in Holmes Beach where you choose your beer from a coffin in the reception area. If it's just a sandwich you crave, then Rudy's in Anna Maria might be perfect (better yet, take it 'to go' and have a picnic on the beach just 1 block away).
Anna Maria has it all, from the famous Duffy's burgers to the ultra elegant meals served at the award winning Beach Bistro, and even Rotten Ralph's at the historic pier in Bradenton Beach, where you can pull up to the dock in your boat and place your order.

Whatever you want, Anna Maria Island has it all. For the best in vacation rentals visit www.annamaria.com to see how affordable real luxury can be.

We're resting easy again

Anna Maria residents are resting easier tonight after Manatee County Sheriff's Office investigators arrested two suspected burglars.
Officers hope the arrests will put an end to a recent rash of break-ins in Anna Maria that has city officials and residents worried. Manatee sheriff's spokesman Dave Bristow said detectives believe two 18-year-old men arrested in the process of breaking into a well-known Anna Maria restaurant Tuesday may have been hitting homes and businesses across all of Anna Maria Island.
Authorities arrested John O'Keefe and Patrick Banker after a short chase when the men fled from the restaurant in the 100 block of South Bay Boulevard.
The Bradenton Herald reports that Bristow said the teens are suspects in at least six other other burglaries in Anna Maria and elsewhere in Manatee County. Bristow said Banker has been cooperative with detectives and has agreed to take deputies on a tour of places the pair has hit.
Bristow said city police departments on Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key are also looking into whether the pair committed burglaries.
Well done officers, we thank you for making our homes and businesses safe once again.