Emerald Harbour residents talk on the wild side

It isn’t quite lions and tigers and bears.

But Emerald Harbor has raccoons and poison ivy and Brazilian peppers (oh my).

Three Emerald Harbor residents spoke at the Monday, March 5, Longboat Key Town Commission meeting to ask the town to address issues in the neighborhood.

Emerald Harbor Association Vice President Bob Craft appeared before the commission primarily because he wanted to clarify the zoning of a 3.9-acre piece of town-owned land just south of the neighborhood (see sidebar). But Craft also had a related request:

“Please cut back your Brazilian peppers,” he said, addressing the town. “They’re choking out our palm trees and cedar trees.”

Emerald Harbor resident Pat Mankes was also fed up with the plot’s upkeep.

“There’s all kinds of dead trees in there,” she said. “There’s poison ivy. I’ve taken care of it, and I’ve gotten so much poison ivy, and I’m not doing it anymore.”

Mayor Jim Brown assured her that something would be done about the problem and that the town manager would look into it.

Mankes’ husband, Ed, called attention to a critter that has left major paw prints on the neighborhood: raccoons. Mankes said that approximately two years ago, his neighbor was bitten by a raccoon while he was walking his dog. Frequently, he said that neighbors are frightened to walk their dogs in the neighborhood, which often draws more raccoons than the rest of the island because of its proximity to three restaurants that have outdoor dumpsters.

Emerald Harbor resident Weldon Frost, who did not attend Monday’s meeting, brought the raccoon issue before the commission in November 2010. The commission’s reaction frustrated him at the time; commissioners’ joking suggestions included distribution of raccoon condoms, reading town ordinances to animals or bringing in bald eagles to “take care of the problem.”

According to an October 2010 email written by former Town Manager Bruce St. Denis in response to Frost’s concerns, animal control is the county’s role, rather than the town’s. St. Denis wrote that Manatee County doesn’t trap and/or relocate raccoons and that such animal complaint calls are referred to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, which usually doesn’t get involved unless an animal is injured.

Brown told Mankes that there wasn’t much the town could do about raccoons. But Mankes disagreed.
“If there were alligators walking around Longboat Key, I think the town would do something about it,” he said.

ZONING QUESTION
At Monday’s meeting, Emerald Harbor Association Vice President Bob Craft wanted the town to address the zoning of a 3.9-acre parcel of town-owned land that he confirmed was designated as open space before he bought his property. However, a town master plan classifies the space as residential.

“What you basically did is give me a 30-page written proof at taxpayer expense that basically proves I am right,” Craft said.

Town Attorney David Persson agreed to look into the issue.