From the archives: 2010: Colony checkout time

The Colony Beach & Tennis Resort’s final guests checked out Aug. 15, 2010.

The closure occurred after U.S. Bankruptcy Judge K. Rodney May ruled to convert the Colony’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization with its unit owners to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. (U.S. District Judge William Merryday later overturned those rulings.)

But, before the resort closed, longtime Colony guests gathered for one last hurrah. They brought Colony memories and memorabilia, including old photos, newspaper articles and a “Vote for Murf!” button from owner Dr. Murray “Murf” Klauber’s tongue-and-cheek campaign for the Longboat Key Town Commission.

They ended the night by singing “Auld Lang Syne.”

The resort remains closed three years later as the legal battles surrounding the property continue.

+ Miss Cleo tries to collect
Had Miss Cleo truly been psychic, she would have known that a Longboat Key woman whom she billed for two calls totaling $673.65 had died one year earlier, and that the woman’s phone had been disconnected shortly after her death.

But the woman’s son received a letter from the psychic hotline’s collection agency, according to the Aug. 16, 2001, issue of the Longboat Observer.

“In my world, responsibility and values are an important part of spiritual growth. And taking care of past debts is an important part of that process,” Miss Cleo’s collection agency wrote.

A billing agent told the Longboat Observer that someone very much alive made the calls from the woman’s number. But the woman’s son believed the wording on the notice was meant to dupe the elderly into paying the bill.