Briefs 7.29.10

+ Key Club prepares litigation defense
The Longboat Key Club and Resort has hired Tallahassee-based attorney Chris Bentley as its special counsel for the Islandside Property Owners Coalition’s petition challenge to recent code changes adopted by the Town Commission.

Bentley is an expert in administrative law and will work with club attorney Jim Syprett, who is in charge of the club’s overall litigation defense regarding the $400 million Islandside renovation-and-expansion project.

IPOC attorney Michael Furen filed an administrative appeal with the state’s Department of Community Affairs Wednesday, July 14, challenging seven code changes submitted by the club.

Meanwhile, Furen said IPOC has until Aug. 9 to file a legal challenge for the project’s approval in Sarasota County Clerk of the Circuit Court.

Key Club General Manager Michael Welly said the club is prepared for any legal challenge while it currently undergoes a refinancing of the existing club facilities “to test the water” for financing the Islandside project.

+ Motorcyclist resists arrest
While driving to work in his personal vehicle at 7 a.m. Monday, July 19, Longboat Key patrol officer Jeff Morningstar was tailgated by a motorcycle driver who later passed him and another car at an estimated 80 miles per hour on Gulf of Mexico Drive.

Morningstar followed the man into the Avenue of the Flowers parking lot and asked him several times for his driver’s license. The man refused, saying he didn’t have to provide it because Morningstar was off duty.

Morningstar returned to the scene in full uniform to arrest the grocery-store employee for driving with a suspended driver’s license and to impound his motorcycle.

The man resisted arrest, and Morningstar used his taser on the man and called for backup to help arrest the motorcyclist for multiple driving suspensions, careless driving and resisting arrest.

NUMBERS IN THE NEWS
13 —  The number of potential investors a U.S. bankruptcy trustee for the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort has identified.
150 — The number of feet tall a proposed cell tower on the Longboat Island Chapel property would be.
$2,000 — The amount of money the “Good Old-Fashioned Fish Fry” raised July 24 for the Save Our Seabirds facility.