News Briefs

+ Key’s paving project almost complete
A paving contractor hired by the Florida Department of Transportation started applying permanent striping to the Sarasota County portion of Gulf of Mexico Drive Monday.

The work will be performed from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. through Friday.

Weather permitting, the striping operation is anticipated to last approximately two weeks.

The striping operation is the last part of a paving project that removed old asphalt and resurfaced the roadway. The project is expected to be officially complete in March.

For more information, contact public information officer Darren Alfonso at 813-767-9532.

+ Two pension meetings scheduled for March
The Town Commission canceled its Tuesday, Feb. 22 pension workshop because presenters and some commissioners were unable to attend. The meeting has been rescheduled for 1 p.m. Monday, March 7.

A Longboat Key Public Interest Committee pension forum is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 9, at Longboat Island Chapel, 6200 Gulf of Mexico Drive.

+ Sarasota-Havana Regatta postponed
Sarasota Yacht Club Charitable Foundation officials decided Feb. 15 to postpone the Sarasota-Havana Regatta because they didn’t receive permission from the Office of Foreign Asset Control of the U.S. Treasury Department by the Feb. 15 deadline that race organizers had set.

But organizers still have hope that 2011 could be the year that they set sail to Cuba and are leaving plans for another regatta open for modification should the foundation receive approval by mid-March.

According to Vincent Di Pano, Sarasota-Havana Race Committee chairman, the foundation will support a race conducted by the Bone Island Regatta, which will begin May 18, at Sarasota Yacht Club. If the foundation receives approval by next month, it will hold a regatta in which participants will race from Key West to Havana upon completion of the Bone Island Regatta.

+ Early voting will begin the second week of March
Early voting for all Longboat Key registered voters for the March 15 municipal election will take place March 7 through March 13, at Town Hall, 501 Bay Isles Road.

Voting hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.

For more information, contact the town clerk at 316-1999.

Meetings & agendas
Town Commission Regular Meeting — 1 p.m. Monday, March 7.
Zoning Board of Adjustment Regular Meeting — 9:30 a.m. Thursday, March 10.
Code Enforcement Board Regular Meeting — 10 a.m. Monday, March 14.
Planning and Zoning Board Regular Meeting — 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 15.

All meetings take place at Town Hall, 501 Bay Isles Road.