News Briefs

+ Longboat receives water award from U.S. EPA
The town of Longboat Key was awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 4 2010 Consumer Confidence Excellence Award for the island’s water system supply.

The award was based, in part, on the town’s easy-read drinking water consumer confidence quality reports mailed out annually and compiled by Public Works Office Manager Donna Spencer.

“We feel this is a great honor and look forward to continuing the high level of service and notification to our customers,” wrote town engineer Anne Ross in a July 14 memo to Town Manager Bruce St. Denis.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection selected the town’s 2010 report to represent the state in an Environmental Protection Agency award program.

Communities in the running for the award in District 4 also included Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.

+ DeLynn collection earns ASM accreditation
The Ruth DeLynn Cetacean Osteological Collection at Mote Marine Laboratory recently earned accreditation by the American Society of Mammalogists.

The exhibit is named for Longboat Key resident and Mote adjunct scientist Ruth DeLynn, who stored the collection of bones in Mote’s attic for 24 years before it received a new home at Mote’s Ann and Alfred Goldstein Marine Mammal Research and Rehabilitation Center in October 2007.

ASM promotes a greater understanding of the role of mammals in the natural world and published a Western Hemisphere director of mammal specimen collections that meet its standards for upkeep, organization, data records, accessibility and more.

The ASM described the DeLynn collection, which includes 650 bone specimens from 17 species of dolphins and whales, as “unsurpassed” in scientific value.

+ Corrections
In the Publix story in the July 14 issue, it should have stated that the standalone, 4,000-square-foot office/retail building will be located on the southeastern side of the property near Bay Isles Parkway.
Also, Freedman Consulting & Development LLC is based in Sarasota.

And Howard Rooks is a Sarasota and Longboat Key commercial and residential real-estate investor and broker.

Meetings & Agendas

• Code Enforcement Board Meeting — 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 8
• Town Commission Special Meeting — Noon Wednesday, Aug. 10
• Planning Zoning and Building Special Comprehensive Meeting — 9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 16

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