LONGBOAT
Observer Longboat Key’s weekly newspaper since 1978
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 40, NO. 33
YOUR TOWN
Get ready to shop.
PAGE 2A FREE
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SUNDAY, APRIL 1, 2018
20,000 square feet Rec center redo goes big on ballroom space. SEE PAGE 3A
Adopt-a-Server plan needs help A coalition of Longboat Key businesses has launched an initiative they hope will contribute to a reduction in seasonal traffic jams and help their workforce find their way to work easier. The goal of Adopt-a-Server is simple: residents offer the use of their spare bedrooms or guest rooms for waitstaff, dishwashers and bus boys at area restaurants. “What’s number one on people’s list of concerns? Traffic,” said Hepp A. Guyoutt, a representative of the coalition. “What’s number two? Good table service. Adopt-a-Server helps both.” If you’d like to register your space, call 366-3468.
Town looking for a future-teller Town officials have released a request for a proposal for a “swami, soothsayer, medium or other accredited fortune teller or Magic 8-Ball operator” to aid in planning for recreational facilities. Caught off-guard by the sudden popularity of pickleball and forced into shortage of public courts, Town Commissioners on Thursday, March 29 approved the RFP to help look into the future. The town has never employed the use of such an expert.
Bridge toll now applies to boaters
Cross here, swans Donor helps webbed-footed friends. SEE PAGE 4A
SailPass tryout aims to keep car traffic flowing and mariners paying. ERIC GARWOOD MANAGING EDITOR
Eric Garwood
All ducks and geese need to do is bop the beak-level button to cross GMD safely.
The 30-foot Wellcraft loomed larger and larger as it rapidly approached the drawbridge at New Pass, altering its course slightly as it blasted through Sarasota Bay toward the Gulf of Mexico. Low enough to slip easily below the span between St. Armands Key and Longboat Key, the craft still slowed and fell in line behind two sailboats and a cabin cruiser bobbing slowly toward a uniformed man in a Florida Marine Patrol boat immediately in the bridge’s shadow. Welcome to the first day of Florida’s reverse-toll bridge weekends, the first of 12 such two-day stretches during which boat operators, not drivers, pay tolls to pass under the 4,000 state-maintained drawbridges in Florida. SEE TOLLS, PAGE 2A
Now, that’s entertainment
Hamilton: An American Musical
coming to Longboat Key Center for the Arts, Culture and Education
in 2020
Island will see stars when cultural center is finally ready for its close-up. SEE PAGE 3A
Katie Johns
A sign announcing the future “Hamilton” showing stands at the arts center site.