News Briefs

+ Committee to review town center proposals
The town received 11 proposals in response to a request for proposals for town center concepts and an overlay zoning district.

A selection committee will review proposals submitted by four firms at a meeting beginning 9 a.m. Aug. 21, at Longboat Key Town Hall, 501 Bay Isles Road.

Presenting firms are Cooper Carry, Hoyt Architects, Keith & Schnars PA and Tindale-Oliver & Associates Inc.

The meeting will be open to the public, however, the public will not be permitted to make comments or question committee members.

An Urban Land Institute (ULI) panel recommended the town build a town center in the Bay Isles Road area last October.

In November, the town hired Sarasota architect Gary Hoyt, who designed the new Longboat Key Publix, to make up two sets of town center renderings.

The town purchased a 2.8-acre parcel of land near Publix for $1.5 million in March to jumpstart the town center concept.

+ Katharine the shark heads east toward Daytona Beach
Katharine, the great white shark who was reportedly swimming toward the Sarasota area earlier this month, was pinged Monday to the east of Daytona Beach.

Mote Marine Laboratory scientists tagged the young female shark aboard the M/V OCEARCH in August 2013 as part of “Expedition Cape Cod” off of Cape Cod, Mass. The 14-foot, 2,300-pound shark was named Katharine in honor of Katharine Lee Bates, a Cape Cod native and songwriter who is best known for her poem and song “America the Beautiful.”

Since August, Katharine has traveled from Cape Cod past the southern tip of the Florida peninsula, then began swimming west in the Gulf of Mexico toward Texas before changing her path and swimming east toward Sarasota. However, in the past two weeks, Katharine changed her path and went to the Florida Keys before heading into the Atlantic Ocean.

Track Katharine’s movements at Ocearch.com for real-time updates.

Meetings & agendas
Police Officers’ Retirement System Board Meeting — 8 a.m. Wednesday, Aug 20

General Employees’ Retirement System Board Meeting — 10:30 a.m. Wed., Aug. 20

Firefighters’ Retirement System Board Meeting — 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug 27

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