- Named Best Florida Newspaper In Its Class -
VOL 24 No. 46
July 10, 2024
July Fourth parade a blast PHOTOS BY KRISTIN SWAIN | SUN
The Privateers' ship, Skullywag, had water cannons ready to blast hot paradegoers. Page 11.
Turtle nesting record broken More turtle nests have already been laid in two months than in the entire six-month record season on AMI. BY LESLIE LAKE SUN CORRESPONDENT | llake@amisun.com
ANNA MARIA ISLAND - A 42-year record for sea turtle nests was shattered on July 2 when Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring volunteers counted 2024's 546th nest, exceeding the 2019 record of 544 nests for the whole season. “We broke our all-time annual nest number count this week, and considering turtles should be nesting through late August/early September, we will be breaking it by quite a bit by the end of the nesting season,” Executive Director Kristen Mazzarella wrote in a July 5 email. “We are very excited about this.” The sea turtle nesting season extends from May 1 to Oct. 31, but began early.
Mazzarella said that Turtle Watch volunteers have been putting in extra hours on the beach and painting nest stakes to mark the new nests. “We are excited that so many sea turtles have decided to nest on Anna Maria,” she said. “We can thank the conservation efforts of patrollers that protected nests 25 years ago for producing the hatchlings that are coming ashore (as adults) to nest in such high numbers this year.” Loggerhead sea turtles take 25-35 years to reach maturity. Turtle Watch recorded the first nest hatch of this season on June 29 in Anna Maria, and, as of July 5, there have been seven nest hatches. “When they emerge from the sand, baby turtles (hatchlings) follow the brightest horizon to find their way to the water. Artificial lighting that can be seen from the beach can draw hatch-
SEE TURTLES, PAGE 8
Candidates Farrington, Satcher answer voter questions The winner of the Supervisor of Elections race will be determined by the Aug. 20 Republican primary election. BY JOE HENDRICKS SUN CORRESPONDENT | jhendricks@amisun.com
MANATEE COUNTY – Manatee County Supervisor of Elections candidates Scott Farrington and James Satcher squared off in a June 19 debate hosted by the Lakewood Ranch Republican Club. After the debate, both candidates issued debate-related campaign messages. In April, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Satcher to serve the remaining months of the four-year Supervisor of Elections term that Mike Bennett vacated when he retired in March. Satcher was serving as the
AMI COMMUNITY bids Mike LaPensee a fond farewell. 3 Page 21 Anna Maria Island, Florida
The Island’s award-winning weekly newspaper
District 1 county commissioner at the time. Farrington, then the Supervisor of Elections Chief of Staff, also sought the gubernatorial appointment and resigned from office the day it was awarded to Satcher. With no Democratic candidate entered in the race, the winner of the Aug. 20 Republican primary election will serve as Supervisor of Elections for the next four years. When non-party-affiliated candidate Thomas Dell joined the race as a write-in, the Supervisor of Elections primary race became closed to all but registered Republican voters. Because of Dell’s actions, Democrat and non-party-affiliated voters can’t vote in the closed primary. Dell also served as a primary-closing write-in candidate in 2020 and 2012.
SEE ELECTION, PAGE 16
TREEHOUSE FANS take last looks
before demolition. 4
HOLMES BEACH BUSINESSES
struggle through construction. 5
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