- April 18, 2024
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You good?
Pardon the informality, but we just had to ask.
While you were gone these past few months in New York, Michigan, Wisconsin and other points north, the folks holding down Fort Longboat have seen and experienced a lot.
First of all, it was really hot and it rained, like, every day.
OK, maybe not the sexiest of headlines, but c’mon, it was and it did. But nearly every day ended with a one-of-a-kind sunset, so that was kind of nice.
Then there were the weeks and weeks of dealing with the effects of COVID-19. And while the physical symptoms of those who were unlucky enough to be directly affected were no laughing matter, everyone's lives changed.
We learned to Zoom (some of us better than others), we found ways to enjoy ourselves without access to parks, tennis courts, friends and other amenities. And on it goes.
So, as we get ready to brief you on the news you might have missed, we felt we had to ask.
Because even if you were smiling, it’s hard to tell behind that mask.
You good?
1. Come sail away, come sail away
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip.
That started from a tropic port, aboard this tiny ship.
Didn’t you love the days when TV theme songs not only delivered a synopsis of the sitcom you were about to watch but also news from Longboat Key, 56 years in the future?
Mark Sternal, who lives at the Mark I condos, had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy a 1969 Morgan sailboat for a few thousand dollars in September, only to end up with a shipwreck on the beach.
He and a roommate set sail with the boat from Punta Gorda with the goal of bringing it home after buying it for $3,000. He's a certified sailor but just ran into some bad luck along the way north.
Mechanical troubles and rough seas began piling up, and they eventually tried to anchor in the gulf off Longboat. The anchor slipped and the boat was beached. No one was hurt.
Expensive attempts to refloat the boat damaged the hull and now Sternal faces misdemeanor charges connected to the now-derelict vessel. Police have been called several times to investigate reports of trespassers on the boat.
It was still there this week, but state authorities will likely remove it soon.
Not even The Professor could figure out a solution.
2. Parking was no day at the beach
Probably the most attention-grabbing aspect of the town’s response to COVID-19 was found at the 12 public parking sites alongside the gulf beaches. Initially in concert with surrounding communities, the town in March cut vehicle access to them as a means of discouraging large public gatherings.
The beach itself, though, remained open to those who could reach it in other ways, which triggered a cat and mouse game of illegal parking and police enforcement. Swaths of public parking along Broadway Street was barricaded. Condo owners kept watch for private-property parking scofflaws. In early June, though, parking was restored.
But, as the July 4 weekend approached, informed by a rush to the beach by crowds over the Fathers Day weekend, the town again closed the parking slots, which seemed to upset plenty of people who don’t live here.
The parking areas reopened again Oct. 1.
3. It’s the law
With hardly a breath of dissent (I'm here all week, tip your wait staff), the town passed its own version of a mask mandate in early July. It was pretty simple: wear one inside or out if you couldn’t be more than six feet away from others. Even in common spaces of private areas, like businesses, hotels or condos. Sarasota and Manatee County did the same, though Sarasota County didn’t. Town leaders renewed it just before Labor Day and were scheduled to consider another renewal in early November.
State data shows about 50 cases of COVID-19 overall in the Longboat ZIP code, with no real way of knowing how many more cases were reported by people who don’t call the island home.
4. Sewage spill prompts concerns
Though the exact figure will likely never be known for sure, millions of gallons of raw sewage spilled in June from an underground break in the town’s only link to a mainland treatment facility.
Though it would be a lot of fun to crack wise over the town’s affluent effluent (see?), there was genuine concern for the health of Sarasota Bay, which seems to be on the receiving end of this kind of thing more and more. A town contractor hired to conduct a series of water tests in the bay found little out of the ordinary in the weeks that followed the spill.
State regulators and town officials are now in the middle of figuring out what the town’s responsibility will be in the spill. Also, meanwhile, work is moving ahead on replacing the pipeline. In fact, that work was already underway before the break.
5. Moving toward St. Regis
Years of litigation over the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort property came to a close without a trial in May when two longtime adversaries agreed to terms on the sale of dozens of former units.
On April 23, Unicorp National Developments CEO Chuck Whittall and unit owner Andy Adams closed the sale of 75 of the once-iconic resorts former units.
The deal, worth about $15 million, detoured a summer civil trial (one that could have conceivably been held over Zoom) to determine how sales would have been handled.
The deal also opened a straighter-than-ever path to the development of the land at 1620 Gulf of Mexico Drive into the proposed St. Regis Hotel and Residences. In September, that project’s real estate broker, Michael Saunders & Company, said more than half of the St. Regis condo units had been reserved with deposits. Whittall said groundbreaking on the 15 now-vacant acres is set for the second quarter of 2021.
Just up the road, the owners of Sun ‘n’ Sea Cottages sold their decades old vacation resort to developers of what is to be called Sage Longboat Key, a luxury condominium with 16 units, priced from $4 million. The four story complex will feature units in the 4,000 square foot range.
The 4.8 acre site just south of the Zota Beach Resort sold for $13.8 million.
6. Insert traffic joke here
No, that’s not a typographer’s mistake. It’s just that so many stories and tales of traffic woe zip across our news desk that it’s sometimes hard to differentiate them.
In the latest saga, town leaders and those of Sarasota seemed to be in agreement. Both groups rejected tenets of the Sarasota in Motion transportation master plan, saying it put too much emphasis on moving pedestrians and bicycles around without enough emphasis on, well, cars.
Also, still a big concern are the city’s plans to build more roundabouts. With construction nearing completion on U.S. 41 at Fruitville Road, Boulevard of the Arts and 10th Street, the big concern now turns to Gulfstream Avenue. Construction of that roundabout is expected after season ends in 2021.
7. You can look it up: size matters
Boy, did we learn a lot about lightning rods over the summer.
Not so much how they work, or other book-report kind of stuff, but who knew they came in so many sizes and bothered so many people?
For months, a resident of Country Club Shores sought permission from the town to add six-foot tall lightning rods to his home that was already scraping the 30-foot maximum height allowed. Neighbors cried foul, saying much shorter ones were just as effective and wouldn’t be as visually detrimental.
The town code lists also height exceptions for TV antennas and church spires. There is also a special exception process for elevator shafts above the maximum 30 feet.
“What we didn’t want to have happen is have somebody who had a one-story house suddenly putting up — which would be totally ridiculous — a 10-foot pole on top of it, which would really be A). Unnecessary and B). Unsightly,” At-Large Commissioner BJ Bishop said.
Lightning rods are not to exceed 6 feet on single-family or two-family homes, even if they are mounted to a rooftop already 30 feet high. The lightning rods on multi-family or commercial buildings are not to exceed 16 feet.
8. New police chief
If you go to the police department to say hey to your old pal, Chief Pete Cumming, well, you now have an opportunity to make a new friend.
Chief Kelli Smith assumed command of the town’s police department in October, following a retirement ceremony for Cumming to close out a 40-year career in law enforcement.
Smith comes most recently from the campus of Northern Arizona University, where she was chief of the police department. She’s also worked as a commander at the University of Central Florida in Orlando – both departments are larger in terms of sworn officers and civilian employees than Longboat’s department.
9. Not a new condo coming
If you’re just coming back to town and noticed that Fire Station 92 isn’t there anymore, please don’t think a new condo is coming, complete with “views of emerald-shaded fairways and greens, showcasing Longboat Key’s active-senior lifestyle.’’ (Sorry, a real-estate copy writer just grabbed my keyboard.)
And please don't think you're without fire-rescue coverage on the south side of the island.
Nope, by this time next year, a shining new Station 92 will be ready to serve. Until then, fire-rescue personnel are operating from a temporary base on site (For typically tony Longboaters, we call that a 'mobile home.')
Likewise, on the north end, Station 91 is undergoing an interior remodel to rival anything you’d see on HGTV.
10. See the green, be the green
It’s green, its about 5 acres and it's filled with nothing but possibilities.
The Town Center Green reached its first milestone over the summer as work crews filled, smoothed and sodded the open land between the Shoppes of Bay Isles and the Public Tennis Center. Some basic electrical work was also done.
What happens ultimately is still a far-off decision, but in the shorter term, plenty is clear.
Money for phase two is budgeted to add hard-surface walkways, a fixed location for a performance structure to support a portable stage, public restrooms, landscaping, locations for tents and space for food trucks.
Commissioners also have discussed siting one of the historic Whitney Beach cottages on the land as a permanent home for the Longboat Key Historic Society.
(From stories reported by Mark Bergin, Nat Kammerer and Eric Garwood)
