If you’ve driven by the Longboat Key Club’s Islandside Golf Course lately, you’ve probably noticed the mounds of dirt visible from Gulf of Mexico Drive.
According to Director of Agronomy John Reilly, the dirt is part of routine summer maintenance for the course, which includes regrassing and other renovations.
All of the work is an effort to make small, continuous upgrades to the course over time, Reilly said. Reilly also said his goal is for the course to have zero environmental footprint in the future. Some methods for doing so include harvesting shells for the course’s hard paths and repurposing soil that was left over from the St. Regis project.
Surprise meal
Maison Blanche chef Jose Martinez said the people of Longboat Key make the town.
Wanting to repay “the people of Longboat Key,” Martinez made a paella meal for the Longboat Key Fire Rescue on Aug. 25.
The Rotary Club of Longboat Key organized the surprise meal for the firefighters. Rotarian Nancy Rozance said that Martinez has helped feed first responders for years. She loves it when she can help bring joy and full stomachs to those who serve the island.
After speaking with firefighters after the meal, Rozance joked that the consensus was to make Martinez the full-time chef for the Fire Rescue.
“This was a welcoming surprise to the firefighters,” said Chief Paul Dezzi in an email.
“His thoughtfulness and culinary expertise made our day and could not have asked for a better meal.”
Space primed for commercial
Longboat Key’s weekly newspaper since
Photo by Olivia Raney
Image courtesy Lou Newman
In May, six cygnets hatched on Longboat Key. Of those, four have survived and are nearly ready to be moved to their own territories.
BY THE NUMBERS
n
n
“On the other side of the mountain, that’s for sure.”
Mark Ursini of Brista Homes talking about overcoming obstacles for the new Brista Commons project Read more on Page 3
ALido Shores homeowner was left with a mystery and a heavily damaged privacy wall Aug. 19 when she found that a truck had crashed into her property, Sarasota Police said.
The owner of the home, known as the Umbrella House, in the 1300 block of Westway Drive, told investigators she returned to her home at about 5:20 a.m. to find a Ford F-350 under the rubble of a portion of a concrete block wall behind her house, according to a police report.
The driver of the truck ap-
parently left the scene after the crash. The report says the truck was traveling northbound about 30 mph on John Ringling Parkway when it “failed to negotiate the right curve and traveled straight into the privacy wall,” the report states. Damage to the wall was estimated at $15,000. The truck sustained an estimated $30,000 damage.
Police found a U.S. Department of Transportation registration number on the truck assigned to TurboHaulers Inc., of Chicago, the report said.
About two hours after the crash, the owner of the truck, identified as Shakhriyor Kadirov, of Davie, called Sarasota Police, initially to report the truck as stolen, the report said.
When he was told the truck had been involved in a crash, Kadirov “no longer seemed to be concerned about reporting the vehicle as stolen,” the report concludes.
No arrests are expected. The property owner did not wish to press charges, a police spokeswoman said.
FPL outages not caused by project to bury utilities
Starting Tuesday, Aug. 20, Longboat Key experienced power outages that left about 4,000 residents without power at their peak.
According to a statement from the town that day, the outages were not related to the ongoing utilities undergrounding project.
Assistant to the Town Manager Susan Phillips said in the statement that, according to Florida Power & Light, the outages were caused by a failed main feeder in Sarasota.
On Aug. 23, FPL Spokesman Kamrel Eppinger confirmed that the outages were not related to the undergrounding project.
“We apologize for the inconvenience for customers who experienced outages this week. We worked safely and as quickly as possible to address these issues and restore electric service,” Eppinger’s statement said.
“We are also enhancing our inspection of the overhead power lines in this area. This includes drone flight assessments to help our engineers identify any further issues that can be corrected to minimize the potential for future disruptions.”
Commissioners honored at statewide conference
Three Longboat Key commissioners attended the Florida League of Cities’ annual conference in Hollywood, Florida, and were recognized for their recent efforts.
Commissioner-At-Large BJ Bishop and District 2 Commissioner Penny Gold were awarded Gold Certificates by the FLC University program. The Gold Certificate is the league’s highest award, and to obtain certificates, commissioners must participate in various training events throughout the year.
Bishop, Gold and Mayor Ken Schneier were also recognized as “Home Rule Heroes,” which they earned by their consistent efforts to reach out to legislative members and promote the importance of local voices making local decisions.
Matt Walsh
A truck was found by a Lido Shores homeowner after it crashed into her privacy wall. The driver apparently fled the scene, police say.
The Brista Commons commercial plaza could break ground in September and be open for business in 2025. It has two spots left to lease in the main building in addition to a larger outparcel available.
COMMERCIAL COMMONS COMING SOON
Plans for the new plaza include a furniture store with a 5,000-squarefoot showroom.
CARTER WEINHOFER STAFF WRITER
After three years of obstacles, Mark Ursini is getting ready to break ground on the Brista Commons project on Gulf of Mexico Drive.
Brista Commons will bring more than 14,000 square feet of new commercial space to Longboat Key and fill the vacant plot of land around the 3100 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive at its intersection with Buttonwood Drive. Ursini has more than half of the space leased and hopes that the other leases will be finalized once the project breaks ground.
This new commercial plaza will join a limited list of similar spaces on Longboat Key, including Whitney Plaza, The Centre Shops of Longboat Key and the Shoppes of Bay Isles.
According to the space’s promotional flyer, the plaza will feature contemporary architecture and state-of-the-art facilities. The flyer touts them as having a “prime location, prime exposure” and offers flexible lease options for medical, wellness or boutique stores.
The plaza’s anchor tenant will be a high-end independent furniture store called Couch. Couch will occupy four of the spaces in Brista Commons. It will include a nearly 5,000-square-foot showroom and a full range of design services, according to Ursini. Ursini said Couch’s owners are bringing 30 years of interior design experience to the new Longboat Key store and are looking forward to becoming a part of the island’s future.
There are two other spaces in the main Brista Commons building.
Ursini said those discussions are ongoing with possible tenants to get leases finalized in those two spaces.
One space is 1,500 square feet and the other is 1,266 square feet.
The lot also has an outparcel that is 3,422 square feet, which Ursini said could become a walk-in medical clinic.
Ursini said discussions are ongoing for lease of this space.
The spaces were priced at about $40 per square foot for the annual leases, according to Ursini. For the smallest available space at 1,266 square feet, the annual lease would be a little over $50,000.
The leases are also triple-net, which means tenants are responsible for paying for their own taxes, insurance and maintenance.
Ursini was happy to report that the building permits for Brista Commons were submitted to the town’s Planning, Zoning and Building Department on Aug. 22.
If the permits are received within the month, Ursini could break ground on the project in September, which puts the estimated completion date sometime in 2025.
IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Although the Brista Commons project is new, Ursini isn’t a stranger to the island.
Ursini is the founder and president of Brista Homes, a company that specializes in custom residential construction and luxury remodels. His wife, Gina, is also the lead broker of Brista Realty, which helps clients with the real estate side of the business. Between remodels and real estate, Ursini said about 80% of Brista’s projects are on Longboat Key. The company has built about a dozen homes in Country Club Shores and surrounding neighborhoods, as well as numerous condo remodels along Gulf of Mexico Drive.
With so much of their business on Longboat, Ursini said he saw a need for more good-quality commercial space. The vacant lot on the middle of the island was the perfect spot with good exposure, he said. It was a natural fit, then, to include a Brista Homes office in the plans for Brista Commons. The office will be on the south side of the plaza closest to Buttonwood Street.
Ursini said he and his wife have always wanted an office on Longboat, and both are excited to break ground on this new project.
NOT AN EASY ROAD
As Ursini puts it, the largest obstacles are behind him now.
“On the other side of the mountain, that’s for sure,” he said. Three years ago, Ursini sought to use part of his Longboat land for residential purposes. To do so, though, required a town referendum to let
residents decide whether the land could be rezoned to allow more residential density. The land was zoned as office institutional, and Ursini wanted 0.86 acres to increase in density from office institutional uses to residential uses. According to previous reporting, the land had been zoned for nonresidential uses since at least the 1960s.
In the Nov. 2, 2021, referendum, voters allowed Ursini to move forward with the plans to change the density required for the two residential lots. Sarasota residents voted 66.92% in favor and Manatee County residents voted 62.21% in favor.
Since then, the two lots have sold and one home is in the process of being built, according to Ursini. The homes were expected to have a value of $2 million to $2.5 million.
Next, after the referendum hurdle, it was onto Brista Commons.
Planning the 14,000-square-foot commercial property required a slew of approvals from agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Florida Department of Transportation.
It also required working with the town on drainage plans for the site, and more background work that all took place during the post-COVID-19 era.
Ursini said going through this process after the pandemic made things more challenging and things moved slower.
Ursini’s focus shifted to Brista Commons around 2022 after the approval of the residential properties. Two years later, Ursini and the Brista company are almost ready to break ground on the project.
Nearing the end of the obstacles, Ursini said the best part is “getting to this stage, realizing all the hard work that goes in that nobody sees, that we’re finally going to be breaking ground hopefully in the next 60 days. And then having our offices there in Longboat Key. I think it’s going to be great for my team and the future of the company. We’re really looking forward to it.”
Mark Ursini is excited to bring new commercial space and an office for his company to Longboat Key.
Courtesy images
North end community center delayed by FEMA regulations
Progress stalled throughout the summer on Manatee County’s project to build a learning center on Longboat Key.
CARTER WEINHOFER STAFF WRITER
Construction of Manatee County’s upcoming learning center on Longboat Key was delayed this summer, but the project manager hopes to get the project off the ground once permits are in hand.
The LBK North Learning Center is a project that will bring a Manatee County learning center and community space to Whitney Plaza on the island’s north end. Construction and operating expenses will all be covered by the county.
Project Manager Simona Brinkman was brought on board earlier this year and communicated early on with Longboat Key North, a coalition of 28 condominium and homeowners associations on the north end. The group was interested in the project for its ability to provide adult education, meeting space and art studio space for residents.
Around the start of June, permits were submitted to the town’s Planning, Zoning and Building Department. Brinkman said she learned from the town’s permit feedback that the building was subject to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “50% rule” (see box). This was not anticipated, according to Brinkman, and delayed the project until the team could prove that the cost of improvements was under 50% of the structure’s value.
To start, Brinkman said an outside appraiser was brought in to get a market value estimate for the building. The county holds the lease for the largest unit in Whitney Beach Plaza, which is 6,140 square feet. The plaza is owned by Porter Investment Holdings Inc.
The appraisal set the building’s value at $3 million.
Brinkman also received a guaranteed maximum price from the contractor. The construction cost is estimated to be about $1,492,000 to build out the space. According to Brinkman, minor changes had to be made and some things needed to be cut to make sure the construction cost was less than 50% of the building’s value.
This information gave the county all the background material necessary before going back to the town. Brinkman said all the corrections have been made and questions answered to avoid further delays.
Now the permits are under review again by the town’s Planning, Zoning and Building Department. According to Brinkman, construction is estimated to last about seven months,once the contractor has permits in hand.
That means construction could take until spring 2025, whereas original estimates before this delay had construction finishing at the end of this year.
PROJECT HISTORY
Talks about a Manatee County space on Longboat Key have been in the works for about three or four years, according to LBK North co-Chair Maureen Merrigan. Merrigan was also a former Longboat Key commissioner who was on the board when the discussions first arose.
Progress was slow for a couple of years, but then in July 2023, the town held a public input session to hear from residents about what they wanted from the space. Early ideas focused on crafting classes, community meeting space and adult education opportunities.
Manatee County entered into a lease in January for the space at 6810
Gulf of Mexico Drive. The lease payments are $11,256.67 a month, or about $135,080 for the first year.
Around that same time, the county also specified that programming for the space would be overseen by Manatee Technical College and, more specifically, Paul Gansemer, executive director for the Adult, Career and Technical Education department.
The county’s space will include multipurpose space, art studio space, computer space, meeting space and room for an office, reception area, lounge seating and storage.
With continued interest in the project, LBK North started a subcommittee called the North End Space Team, led by resident Jill Ball.
Ball and her committee began communicating with Brinkman and talking through ideas that focused on community, recreation and the arts.
“I would say the biggest voices,
WHAT IS FEMA’S 50% RULE?
The town of Longboat Key is a part of the National Flood Insurance Program and, by doing so, is subject to certain guidelines to receive discounts on flood insurance.
One of those guidelines is the “50% Rule” set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. When making improvements to structures, the building may need to be evaluated under the rule depending on the extent of the improvements.
Simply put, the rule prohibits building improvements that cost more than 50% of the building’s market value. Items included in the cost of improvements are everything from hardware, exterior wall finishes, HVAC equipment and kitchen appliances.
If the improvements cost more than 50%, then said improvements would be considered “substantial.” In that case, the building would need to be raised to meet elevation standards set by FEMA.
or the largest group, I would have to say right now is the arts,” Ball said in a previous article. “And I think that stems from the prior arts center that was in the Village. That was very well received and highly attended, and I think that the population of folks that are still here are excited to have an arts focus as a part of this learning center.”
Communications have been ongoing with Brinkman and the LBK North team, most recently with the construction updates. Future progress on the site is delayed until the town approves the building permits.
Town of Longboat Key ATTENTION VOLUNTEERS
Town of Longboat Key ATTENTION VOLUNTEERS
The Town of Longboat Key is accepting applications for appointment to the following boards:
Town of Longboat Key ATTENTION VOLUNTEERS
The Town of Longboat Key is accepting applications for appointment to the following boards:
Zoning Board of Adjustment Consolidated Retirement System Board of Trustees
The Town of Longboat Key is accepting applications for appointment to the following boards:
Zoning Board of Adjustment
Zoning Board of Adjustment
Consolidated Retirement System Board of Trustees
Consolidated Retirement System Board of Trustees
All applications must be submitted to the Office of the Town Clerk by 12:00 p.m. on September 13, 2024. All applicants must be registered voters of the Town of Longboat Key. Late applications will be held for one year for any future board or committee vacancies that may arise.
Town of Longboat Key ATTENTION VOLUNTEERS
All applications must be submitted to the Office of the Town Clerk by 12:00 p.m. on September 13, 2024. All applicants must be registered voters of the Town of Longboat Key. Late applications will be held for one year for any future board or committee vacancies that may arise.
All applications must be submitted to the Office of the Town Clerk by 12:00 p.m. on September 13, 2024. All applicants must be registered voters of the Town of Longboat Key. Late applications will be held for one year for any future board or committee vacancies that may arise.
The Town of Longboat Key is accepting applications for appointment to the following boards:
All members of the Zoning Board of Adjustment and the Consolidated Retirement System Board of Trustees are required to file a financial disclosure form within 30 days after appointment and annually thereafter for the duration of the appointment as required by Florida Statutes Chapter 112.
All members of the Zoning Board of Adjustment and the Consolidated Retirement System Board of Trustees are required to file a financial disclosure form within 30 days after appointment and annually thereafter for the duration of the appointment as required by Florida Statutes Chapter 112.
Zoning Board of Adjustment
Consolidated Retirement System Board of Trustees
All members of the Zoning Board of Adjustment and the Consolidated Retirement System Board of Trustees are required to file a financial disclosure form within 30 days after appointment and annually thereafter for the duration of the appointment as required by Florida Statutes Chapter 112.
The Town Commission may schedule a Meet and Greet with applicants at a later date. Please call the Office of the Town Clerk at 941-316-1999 to request an application or questions. Applications are also available online at: www.longboatkey.org. Completed applications may be submitted to:
All applications must be submitted to the Office of the Town Clerk by 12:00 p.m. on September 13, 2024. All applicants must be registered voters of the Town of Longboat Key. Late applications will be held for one year for any future board or committee vacancies that may arise.
The Town Commission may schedule a Meet and Greet with applicants at a later date. Please call the Office of the Town Clerk at 941-316-1999 to request an application or questions. Applications are also available online at: www.longboatkey.org. Completed applications may be submitted to: Town of Longboat Key – Office of the Town Clerk 501 Bay Isles Road Longboat Key FL 34228
Town of Longboat Key – Office of the Town Clerk 501 Bay Isles Road Longboat Key FL 34228
All members of the Zoning Board of Adjustment and the Consolidated Retirement System Board of Trustees are required to file a financial disclosure form within 30 days after appointment and annually thereafter for the duration of the appointment as required by Florida Statutes Chapter 112.
The Town Commission may schedule a Meet and Greet with applicants at a later date. Please call the Office of the Town Clerk at 941-316-1999 to request an application or questions. Applications are also available online at: www.longboatkey.org. Completed applications may be submitted to: Town of Longboat Key – Office of the Town Clerk 501 Bay Isles Road Longboat Key FL 34228
The Town Commission may schedule a Meet and Greet with applicants at a later date. Please call the Office of the Town Clerk at 941-316-1999 to request an application or questions. Applications are also available online at: www.longboatkey.org. Completed applications may be submitted to:
Stephanie Garcia, Administrative Assistant
Published: 08-28-2024, 09-04-2024
Town of Longboat Key – Office of the Town Clerk 501 Bay Isles Road Longboat Key FL 34228
Stephanie Garcia, Administrative Assistant
Published: 08-28-2024, 09-04-2024
Carter Weinhofer
The front entrance of Manatee County’s community center at Whitney Beach Plaza.
Lighting issues arise for St. Regis
According to town staff, the resort has received $6,850 in fines since May 10, and Mote Marine Laboratory reported three sea turtle hatchling disorientations.
SPECIFIC LANGUAGE
Sea turtle hatchlings are emerging all over Florida’s coast this summer but, on Longboat Key, lighting violations continue to cause issues for the animals.
The St. Regis Longboat Key, which celebrated a soft opening with an unveiling ceremony on Aug. 16, has had some difficulties throughout the summer with the town of Longboat Key’s sea turtle lighting ordinances.
According to Director of Planning, Zoning and Building Allen Parsons, the resort has received 15 citations since May 10, totaling $6,850 in fines.
As Parsons describes it, the violations have been “different lights on different nights.” Code Enforcement officers patrol Longboat’s beaches regularly and have noticed that the source of the St. Regis’s lighting issues has been inconsistent.
The issues are sometimes with hotel and condominium units, overhead pool lighting or lights on top of buildings that aren’t compliant with the town’s ordinances.
Throughout August, Vice President of Longboat Key Turtle Watch Cyndi Seamon communicated with town commissioners to raise concerns about the lighting violations, especially since the violations are continuing during a peak time of sea turtle hatching.
In the town’s code, Chapter 100: Marine Turtle Protection outlines the towns’ requirements for sea turtle-friendly lighting. For new development, it states that:
“Exterior artificial light fixtures shall be designed and positioned so that:
All sources of artificial light visible from the beach utilize turtle-friendly bulbs and turtlefriendly fixtures; and Areas seaward of the frontal dune, or the beach in areas where the frontal dune no longer exists, are not directly, indirectly, or cumulatively illuminated.”
The code also states:
“All sources of artificial light illuminating pools or spas and associated lighting shall be designed, positioned, shielded, and/or screened in such a manner that life/safety requirements, as applicable, are met and that such lighting does not directly, indirectly, or cumulatively illuminate the beach. Where life/safety requirements call for lighting to be provided, usage of turtle-friendly bulbs and turtle-friendly fixtures is encouraged.”
this summer. Staff with Parson’s department have reached out to St. Regis management, but Parsons said that management did not provide any insight into how compliance would be reached.
In a written statement to the Observer, the St. Regis management said that property staff are working with the town toward a solution.
“At The St. Regis Longboat Key Resort, we are dedicated to environmental conservation and protecting local wildlife, particularly sea turtles,” the statement said. “The hotel was constructed in compliance with state and federal lighting standards regulations, and we exceed standard code requirements. Our ownership, Unicorp National Developments, and our team are actively collaborating with the Longboat Key Authorities to address any lighting concerns and enhance our practices to eliminate any effect on nesting activities.”
This could mean the St. Regis faces a hearing with the town’s special magistrate in September if compliance isn’t reached by then. The hearing is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 11 and, according to Parsons, the special magistrate could levy fines of up to $500 per day.
If compliance isn’t reached after the special magistrate approach, Parsons said the property could face having a lien placed on it. There is also the potential for the fines to be elevated to the county court level, similar to what happened in 2019 with the Zota Beach Resort.
THE POWER OF LIGHT
dation, the FWC states.
If hatchlings become disoriented and end up further up the shore, they may exhaust the energy required for them to reach the sargassum belt in the open water. The hatchlings rely on getting to this seaweed clutter to provide protection and food during their early stages.
Depending on the severity of the disorientation and how much time has passed, hatchlings may be taken to Mote to regain strength before being returned to the ocean.
Sea turtle nesting season in Florida lasts from May 1 to Oct. 31, and the town’s sea turtle-related ordinances apply until Oct. 31. This includes having sea turtle-friendly lighting — or proper tint and shielding — and keeping beaches free of debris.
Longboat Key Turtle Watch also recently had a late-nester on the island — a green sea turtle, which is less common than the loggerhead sea turtle.
In her emails, Seamon shared that she heard from volunteers from Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium that hatchling disorientations happened at the St. Regis property. She also stressed that the town’s sea turtle ordinances are in effect until Oct. 31, and nests are continuing to emerge on the island.
Mote personnel confirmed that there have been three “large groups of disorientations” at the St. Regis
On Aug. 16, the town issued the St. Regis a “notice of violation,” a formal notice that elevates the code enforcement approach. It was issued, Parsons said, because multiple violations have occurred with no compliance, so the department is moving to a different enforcement pathway.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, disorientations occur when sea turtles become confused by artificial light when trying to make it back to the ocean. Although disorientations can affect both adult and hatchling sea turtles, disorientations can be especially detrimental to hatchlings.
Hatchlings use light patterns to navigate toward the gulf, and artificial light up the beach can cause them to become confused. When they lose their way, the hatchlings can become tired, dehydrated and more susceptible to pre-
Mote and Longboat Key Turtle Watch emphasized the importance of adhering to the lighting ordinances and keeping beaches dark for hatchlings as they continue to emerge throughout the remainder of the sea turtle nesting season.
Courtesy image
The St. Regis Longboat Key at night on Aug. 14.
7 Steps to Successful Financial Planning for Retirement
How to work effectively with your financial advisor
Planning for retirement is crucial for your financial well-being. By following these seven steps with a financial advisor, you can create a robust plan for a confident retirement.
1. Vision: Define your retirement vision with your advisor. Consider how you want to spend your golden years. Be honest about your dreams and goals.
Stay motivated by focusing on your retirement dreams.
This vision sets the foundation for your entire retirement plan.
2. Blueprint: Share your values and financial concerns with your advisor. They’ll examine your current finances and understand your relationship with money. This information helps create a blueprint tailored to your retirement needs.
3. Strategy: Your advisor will craft a retirement strategy based on your blueprint. They’ll consider factors like risk tolerance and time until retirement. A good strategy covers investing, income streams, risk management, and healthcare planning.
4. Plan: Your advisor will present their findings and suggestions, possibly using charts or projections. Review your current financial state and test various scenarios. Refine the plan together until it aligns with your goals.
5. Action: Implement your plan with your advisor’s guidance. This may involve adjusting investments, maximizing your retirement contributions, or updating insurance. You’ll need
to take action, too, like following through on savings commitments. Stay motivated by focusing on your retirement dreams.
6. Progress: Meet your advisor at least annually to check progress. Use these check-ins to make adjustments and inform your advisor about significant life changes. They’ll ensure you’re on track, suggesting tweaks if needed.
7. Updates: Maintain regular communication with your advisor, especially as you approach retirement. As life changes, your plan should evolve. If your goals shift or you face challenges, your advisor can adjust your plan accordingly.
By following these steps with a financial advisor, you’ll create a flexible retirement plan that can adapt to life’s changes. Remember, while your advisor provides expertise, your input and commitment are crucial. With a solid plan, you can approach retirement confidently, knowing you’re prepared to enjoy the lifestyle you’ve always wanted.
JL Bainbridge is an independent Sarasota-based family wealth management firm. For 43 years, they have been helping clients manage and control their financial well-being before and throughout retirement.
To learn more about JL Bainbridge, call (941) 356-3435 or visit jlbainbridge.com. You can also download a printable PDF of JL Bainbridge’s yourFuturesm Financial Planning Process at jlbainbridge.com/yourfuture.
(941) 365-3435 jlbainbridge.com
Bainbridge & Company, Inc.
Disclosure: This information is for educational and informative purposes and should not be considered a recommendation. Investment advisory services are only available to those who become our clients through a written agreement. J.L. Bainbridge & Co., Inc., (JL Bainbridge) is a registered investment adviser. JL Bainbridge is not a broker dealer and does not offer tax or legal advice. Please consult your tax or legal advisor for assistance regarding your individual situation. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. For more information on our firm and our investment advisor representatives, please review our Form ADV, Privacy Notice, and Form CRS at jlbainbridge.com and reference the SEC website for more information on the firm and its advisors: https://adviserinfo. sec.gov/firm/summary/108058. Identifying the SEC as our regulator does not imply any level of skill or training.
Observer for sale at Publix
After a two-year hiatus, you can pick up your favorite edition of the Observer for $1.
OBSERVER STAFF
In 2022, Publix instituted a corporate policy ceasing distribution of all free publications within its stores, which made a significant impact on the Observer’s circulation and delivery to the communities and neighborhoods we serve. On July 2, Publix announced the implementation of a scan-based trading program as its approved method of distribution for newspapers inside Publix stores.
Observer Media Group was approved as a newspaper supplier to provide its publications — Longboat, Sarasota and East County Observers — for sale within its stores.
Now, you can purchase your local edition for $1. The Observer will be located on the newspaper rack, which varies by store location, but is typically near the customer service desk or checkout lines. Each copy will have a barcode at the bottom left corner of the front page that can be scanned in the self-checkout line or by a cashier.
The retail price of $1 covers the cost of print and delivery and Publix’s share of the distribution. The Observer will remain a free publication at other commercial and rack locations, through home delivery to specific ZIP codes and on YourObserver.com. To locate a free distribution site, visit YourObserver.com/ Rack-Locations. The $1 price can be considered a convenience fee for adding back the additional distribution locations within Publix.
“Being able to distribute the Observer at Publix will make it easier for our readers to pick up the paper as part of their weekly routine,” says Emily Walsh, president of Observer Media Group. “We’re happy Publix is committed to the newspaper indus-
PUBLIX LOCATIONS
525 Bay Isles Parkway
Observer
5391 Fruitville Road
5804 Bee Ridge Road
3825 S. Osprey Ave.
6543 S. Tamiami Trail
8300 Bee Ridge Road
2031 Bay St.
3690 Bee Ridge Road
4840 S. Tamiami Trail
8405 Honore Ave., Unit 1
1940 Lakewood Ranch Blvd.
1350 S. Tamiami Trail
try by ensuring its customers have access to local news and information that is essential for making strong communities.”
Zach Prinzi, Publix’s periodical buyer, said in a memo to all newspaper publishers, “We are committed to the newspaper business and the scan-based trading program we have created. Our goal is to grow and continue sales of newspapers.”
Beginning Thursday, Aug. 29, you can find the Longboat and East County Observers in Publix locations on Thursdays and the Sarasota Observer on Fridays.
Backlash and affirmation
Negative campaigning backfired in the Manatee primary, while Sarasota voters showed rejection of two incumbents and affirmation for two others.
And so the pendulum is swinging — from the right to the left, closer to the center, albeit still distant enough from crossing the Maginot line to the progressive left.
You can say that for Sarasota and Manatee counties after the Aug. 20 primary elections.
But there was much more behind the results than just an ideological shift. The dynamics in each county were different.
MANATEE
Perhaps most decisively and for sure, in Manatee, voters said they had enough of the sleazy, negative campaign flyers and advertisements and, by extension, enough of the candidates who associated themselves with such tactics.
Seven of the 10 candidates whom political consultant Anthony Pedicini represented in Manatee and Sarasota lost.
Negative advertising moves the needle, all right.
It’s certainly accurate to say Pedicini’s dirt-stained mailers — or perhaps just whole negative tone of his candidates’ campaigns — fueled the rejection of his and the developer-backed candidates.
But voters also had plenty of other reasons to motivate them to oust incumbents Kevin Van Ostenbridge and Ray Turner.
Voters apparently were still fuming over the vote to reduce the county’s wetland barriers.
And clearly, based on the vote counts, there also was the perception — albeit not true — that the incumbent commissioners these past four years were taking orders from homebuilders and campaign funders, Carlos Beruff, owner of Medallion Homes, and Pat Neal, owner of Neal Communities.
In truth, all the clacking in both counties about the developers causing “overdevelopment” also is not true. But good luck trying to make that case.
Altogether, the root of the chief motivator for the Manatee County Commission election results was
Van Ostenbridge — specifically, his behavior over the past four years.
Voters clearly refused to tolerate another term of his open disdain and disrespect for residents during commission meetings.
And by extension, there was guilt by association. Voters dumped any candidate associated with Van Ostenbridge, the majority on the commission, developer campaign funding and/or Pedicini.
All that boosted to primary victories Republicans Carol Felts, Tal Siddique, Robert McCann and the reelection of George Kruse.
The guilt by association also sank the candidacy of James Satcher, the former county commissioner whom Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed to supervisor of elections.
Manatee Republicans apparently didn’t care a lick that DeSantis appointed Satcher to be supervisor a few months before the primary.
Satcher had three strikes going against him. The first: the $800,000 he requested and obtained in a surprise request from the County Commission for so-called system upgrades, some of which could not be used in the primary. Two: He was a client of Pedicini. Three: He was unqualified for the job compared to his opponent Scott Farrington.
Voters saw through it all. Farrington won 59% of the vote; Satcher, 41%.
We won’t know for two years whether the 2024 primary results will bring a permanent shift in the tone of campaigns in Manatee. But this year’s primary results surely sent a strong message.
SARASOTA
Altogether, you can sum up the voting results in Sarasota County as a bit of a dichotomy — the backlash and an affirmation of approval.
The backlash came against two incumbents — one on the school board, and one on the County Commission. The affirmation came in the primaries for four Sarasota County Hospital Board seats.
COUNTY COMMISSION
Like Manatee voters, Sarasota County voters also endured nasty and ugly campaigns — in particular the two primaries for the District 1 and District 3 County Commission seats.
Much to the expressed surprise, disappointment and disgust of many longtime Sarasota County politicos, County Commission candidates Teresa Mast and incumbent Neil Rainford hired Pedicini to bring his brand of campaigning across the county line.
HOW TURNOUT COST ROSE
In turn, that fueled a retaliatory campaign of similar untruths and half-truths from the campaign and PACs of former Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight.
It’s difficult to conclude how much of an effect the negative campaigns had on the results.
In Mast’s case, in spite of her negative mailers against opponent Alexandra Coe and the fact she had the backing of developers, Mast won 55% of the vote. Presumably that can be attributed to experiences that make her qualified for the job — a longtime business owner, former member of the county planning commission and 10 years as a business relations coordinator for the county.
The uglier campaign was that between Knight and Rainford. There is no benefit to recounting any of their low points, other than to say to the candidates: You only hurt yourselves. The effect of the ugliness is the candidates damage and lower their character and integrity in the eyes of voters.
When the votes were counted, though, Knight overwhelmed Rainford with 60% of the vote, a margin that can be attributed to Knight being the hometown Venice favorite and popular former sheriff.
Rainford, meanwhile, suffered the backlash. He was seen as an outsider who recently moved into the district for political reasons; as a developer-backed toady; and as a protégé of sorts of Commissioner Mike Moran, who has offended swaths of voters over the past two years. As the saying goes, perception becomes reality.
SCHOOL BOARD
This was the other backlash race — and an upset.
Incumbent and School Board Chair Karen Rose lost to first-time candidate Liz Barker. Barker’s margin of victory was 2,995 votes out of 100,553, or 3%.
Although regarded as nonpartisan, this contest was partisan: Rose, the conservative Republican, and Barker, the liberal Democrat. Informed voters knew this.
So in a county where Republicans outnumber Democrats nearly 2-1, Rose should have been considered a numerical favorite.
But as it turned out, you can say low Republican turnout cost Rose the election.
Look at the numbers in the above
box. Let’s assume Barker won all 42% of the registered Democrats who voted. That would be 35,977 votes. But her total was 51,774.
That means Barker won additional 15,797 votes from non-Party Affiliates and Republicans.
Now let’s assume the 48,779 votes that Rose won were all Republicans. Not likely, but assume it anyway. That total is less than the 35% Republican turnout. Had Rose won all of the Republican votes, that would have totaled 55,068, enough for victory.
But you can also say Rose lost 6,289 Republican voters to Barker.
Even more critical, Rose did not get votes from the 107,666 Republicans who did not vote.
Turnout matters — a lot.
No one knows whether those who did not vote sat out because they did not like Rose or just were not motivated. But if Republicans had turned out at the same percentage as Democrats (42%), that likely would have reelected Rose.
As for Tom Edwards and his winning 56% of the vote for reelection, the message here is also one of backlash and turnout. Edwards, a politico-philosophical liberal, successfully has portrayed Rose and board member Bridget Ziegler as political agitators, even though he engages in it aggressively as well. And yet, voters apparently perceived him as the apolitical victim trying to stand up to the other four conservative board members.
Voters don’t like one-sided governance, so Edwards easily retained his seat. He did that, mind you, with 19,031 votes coming from Republicans and NPAs.
BOARD
HOSPITAL
While Sarasota County voters recoiled against and rejected a couple incumbents, the sweep of the four Republican hospital board candidates was a resounding affirmation that Sarasota County residents are satisfied with the postCOVID steps the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare board and administration have taken on the subject of patients’ medical freedom.
The four winning Republicans — two incumbents and two endorsed and supported by the SMH Foundation, — won with percentages from 62% to 70% of the vote. Voters clearly understand that SMH is on a successful track and doesn’t need to be disrupted.
It’s ‘for the people’ populism vs. individual rights
Acommon theme among the Manatee County Commission candidates who won their primaries Aug. 20 was a populist tune — the standard election promise to be “for the people.”
Robert McCann, who defeated Ray Turner for the District 5 Manatee County Commission Republican nomination, said on election night, “We’re going to advocate for the people and what they want.”
The same night, incumbent County Commissioner George Kruse, who won the Republican nomination for District 7, said no matter who is elected in the November general election “there are no scenarios where the public side is not the majority.”
Populism is popular. Indeed, voters like to hear candidates and politicians promise with a shake of their fists they “will fight for the people.” For some, that talk can trigger those famous words from Abraham Lincoln: “Democracy is government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
Yeah!
That’s what we want — commissioners who will listen to us, the people, and tell that developer “no.” For the people!
While Lincoln defined democracy fairly accurately, he left unsaid what his words actually mean. In truth, democracy “by the people” is majority, mob rule. In a pure democracy, there is no limit placed on the power of the majority. The poor individual who disagrees with the majority becomes subservient, a slave — “slavery of a minority.” And as author Isabel Paterson so ably argued in “The God of the Machine,” “Democracy inevitably lapses into tyranny.”
Here is the point: As the primary election winners and the candidates on the general election ballot make their case, a fervent hope is they temper their populist “people” rhetoric and take to heart: n 1. The individual is supreme, not the collective.
In truth, there is no such thing as “the common good.” No one speaks to this better than the late Ayn Rand: “When ‘the common good’ of a society is regarded as something apart from and superior to the individual good of its members, it means that the good of some men takes precedence over the good of others, with those others consigned to the status of sacrificial animals.”
In her book, “The Virtues of Selfishness” (a concept most people would think is an impossibility), Rand points out that “society is only a number of individual men.” Or, as Paterson put it: “No group is as intelligent as an individual. No group, as a group, has any intelligence; all intelligence is in individuals.”
Rand further points out how history is littered with failed political systems where the good of society was placed above the individual and individual rights — Pharaoh of Egypt; the democracy of Athens; Emperors of Rome, monarchies of France; and “the gas chambers of Nazi Germany” and “the slaughterhouse of the Soviet Union.”
But when the Founding Fathers came along, they revolutionized the world by subordinating society to individuals and individual rights.
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution put limits on the power of the state, as Rand put it: “… as man’s protection against the brute force of the collective.”
“All previous systems,” she wrote, “held that man’s life belongs to society, that society can dispose of him in any way it pleases, and that
“If we are to build a better world, we must remember that the guiding principle is this — a policy of freedom for the individual is the only truly progressive policy.” Friedrich Hayek “Road to Serfdom,” 1944
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any freedom he enjoys is his only by the permission of society.
“The United States held that man’s life is his by right, that a right is the property of an individual, that society as such has no rights, and that the only moral purpose of government is the protection of individual rights.”
Thus, when elected officials cast their votes on legislation, their justification should not be on the argument of what is best for “the common good,” but rather on what is best and right for the individual. n 2. The people don’t bow to them. They are servants.
With the adoption of the Constitution, the Founding Fathers flipped the role of government from that of ruler to servant.
“The Bill of Rights was not directed against private citizens,” Rand wrote, “but against the government — as an explicit declaration that individual rights supersede any public or social power.”
— Matt Walsh
Observer Media Group Inc. is locally owned. Publisher of the Longboat Observer, East County Observer, Sarasota/Siesta Key Observer, West Orange Times & Observer, Southwest Orange Observer, Business Observer, Jacksonville Daily Record, Key Life Magazine, LWR Life Magazine, Baldwin Park Living Magazine and Season Magazine
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MATT WALSH
FRIDAY, AUG. 15
SURRENDERING THE SHIP
11:20 a.m., Longboat Pass Bridge
Abandoned Vehicle: A Longboat Key officer saw an abandoned sailboat that drifted into the Longboat Pass Bridge and was hitting the bridge because of waves. The officer then contacted the U.S. Coast Guard, which sent officers to move the vessel to a safe location further from the bridge. Upon further investigation, the responding Longboat PD officer was able to contact the vessel’s owner, who said he did not have enough money to have the vessel properly towed and secured. He said he contacted a salvage company to take ownership of the vessel later that day.
TUESDAY, AUG. 20
CAUSE OF POWER OUTAGE
FRUSTRATION
11:28 a.m., 3000 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive
Assist Other Agency: An officer was dispatched to the corner of Buttonwood Drive and GMD in reference to power lines arcing and starting a fire in the surrounding brush. When the officer arrived at the scene, there were no fires or wires arcing, but a powerline was down, and the Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department and Florida Power & Light were notified to respond. It was later discovered that the powerline took out power on the south end of Longboat Key and Lido Key. Once FPL arrived on the scene, the responding officer conducted traffic control.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 21
SUSPICIOUS CABLE WORKERS
11:35 a.m., 3400 block of Bayou
Sound Suspicious Person: A resident called for police assistance when she said she saw two men wearing bright shirts close to her backyard. She claimed they did not speak English, but they called their supervisor who said they were with a cable and construction company. The officer met with the supervisor when he arrived on site, and he validated their claim. The supervisor also advised the homeowner that the crew would need to return to inspect the work done on the cable box.
SATURDAY, AUG. 16 SERVICE DOG EXCEPTION
5:26 p.m., 1600 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive
Animal Problem: Dispatch sent an officer to investigate a report of a dog on the beach. When the officer located the dog and its owner, the owner said the dog was her registered service dog and insisted on showing the officer the dog’s paperwork. The officer thanked her for the information and then called the complainant, who said it was unacceptable to have a dog on the beach. the officer explained it was a service dog, the complainant became argumentative, according to the
EMERGENCY CONSTRUCTION OK’D
7:15 p.m., 500 block of Companion
Way
Noise Disturbance: A reported construction noise disturbance required police assistance. At the scene, the officer met with the site manager, who said the crew was completing emergency structural repairs to the back of the residence, which had been washed out from Hurricane Debby. The site manager showed the officer where the rain had caused dangerous erosion and structural issues that needed to be repaired as soon as possible to prevent the back of the residence from collapsing. After the officer confirmed that the resident had spoken with the town about the work already, the officer allowed the work to continue because of the circumstances.
THURSDAY, AUG. 22 BLAME THE PLUMBER
4:09 p.m., 500 block of Bayport Way Alarm: An officer was on his way to respond to a fire alarm, but before arrival, the Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department determined it was a false alarm tripped by a plumber.
How Longboat voted in the August primary
Results from both of the island’s precincts show that Longboat Key residents’ votes mirrored those of the counties at large.
CARTER WEINHOFER
STAFF WRITER
Results from the Aug. 20 primary election showed that although Longboat Key residents fell in line with the counties at-large on many races, Longboat Key voters favored many of the winners more strongly.
Because Longboat Key is split in half between Manatee and Sarasota counties, it has two voting precincts: one for each.
Overall, voter turnout was 33% for Longboat’s Manatee County residents and 34.2% for Sarasota County residents. Vote-by-mail was the preferred method for both counties, with 101 out of 194 votes being by mail in Manatee County and 1,116 out of 1,493 by mail in Sarasota County.
One race that was especially relevant for the Key’s Manatee County voters was the Republican race for Manatee County Commission District 3.
District 3 represents parts of Bradenton, Cortez, Anna Maria Island and north Longboat Key. The seat is currently occupied by Kevin Van Ostenbridge, who ran for an at-large commission seat in this year’s primary election.
With Van Ostenbridge out of the District 3 race, Tal Siddique opposed April Culbreath for the Republican nomination. Longboat Key voters fell more in favor of Siddique compared to the entire district.
According to the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections office, Siddique won 77.31% of Longboat’s votes and Culbreath had 22.69% of the votes. That’s equivalent to 92 votes for Siddique and 27 votes for Culbreath.
In the district overall, the race was closer, with Siddique beating Culbreath by a vote of 5,783 to 3,712, or 60.91% to 39.09%. Siddique will now face off against Democratic candidate Diana Shoemaker in the Nov. 5 general election.
Van Ostenbridge campaigned against incumbent George Kruse for the District 7 at-large seat on the Manatee County Commission
On Longboat Key, north-end residents favored Kruse by a large majority. Kruse gained 90.74% of the votes from Longboat’s precinct and Van Ostenbridge had 9.26% (588 votes to 60 votes).
Again, the race was closer at the county level, with Kruse winning with 58.48% of the votes. Van Ostenbrige garnered 41.52% of the votes.
On the other side of the island, Sarasota County residents of Longboat Key voted similarly to the county as a whole in races for School Board Districts 2 and 3.
Candidate for School Board District 2 Liz Barker won Longboat Key voters with 57.57% of the vote, and Barker won in the county overall with 51.49% of the votes.
Similarly, for School Board District 3, Tom Edwards won 61.47% of Longboat’s votes and 55.84% of the county’s votes.
There were also three open at-large seats for the Sarasota County Hospital Board. In these races, south Longboat Key residents were strongly in favor of the winning candidates.
For example, the Seat 1 position was a race between Sharon Wetzler DePeters and Tamzin A. Rosenwasser. DePeters won the seat with 66.69% of the county’s votes, but Longboat Key residents voted 80.47% in favor of DePeters.
WORSHIP directory
2024 PRIMARY RESULTS
Carter Weinhofer
Republican Tal Siddique will go against Democrat Diana Shoemaker in the District 3 Manatee County Commission race.
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
After a two-year search, Sarasota Orchestra on Aug. 22 named Grammy Awardwinning conductor Giancarlo Guerrero the seventh music director in its 75-year history. Guerrero, music director of the Nashville Symphony, succeeds Bramwell Tovey, who died in July 2022.
Guerrero will serve as music director designate during the 202425 season as he completes his 16th season in Nashville before officially taking the baton at Sarasota Orchestra in its 2025-26 season.
“Giancarlo’s exceptional talent and esteemed reputation will significantly enhance our orchestra’s standing among the world’s most prestigious ensembles,” said Joseph McKenna, president and CEO of Sarasota Orchestra in a statement.
“His visionary leadership, coupled with a fervent commitment to community advocacy, will be critical in further establishing Sarasota as a thriving center for classical music excellence.”
In a Zoom interview, Guerrero said he fell in love with Sarasota when he came in January as a guest conductor for a Masterworks concert featuring Mahler’s “Titan” Symphony and Marimba Concerto by Grammy winner Kevin Puts, whom the maestro calls a friend.
“It was my first time visiting. I fell in love with the institution, with the city,” Guerrero said. “There was a spark, a great chemistry with the musicians. As a conductor, you can work so well with a great orchestra.
As we were rehearsing during the week, we reached greater and greater heights. It was music to my ears.”
Guerrero will replace guest conductor Rune Bergmann at Sarasota Orchestra’s Masterworks concert on Nov. 8-10 featuring the music of Tchaikovsky, Respighi and American composers Adolphus Hailstork and Jennifer Higdon.
Guerrero will return to the podium from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2 for a previously scheduled performance at a Masterworks program of Shostakovich and Arturo Márquez.
SIX GRAMMY AWARDS
During his tenure at the Nashville Symphony, Guerrero collaborated to premiere more than two dozen new works and release 21 commercial albums, harnessing the Schermerhorn Symphony Center’s acoustics.
Meet the maestro
“There was a spark, a great chemistry with the musicians. As a conductor, you can work so well with a great orchestra. As we were rehearsing during the week, we reached greater and greater heights. It was music to my ears.”
— Giancarlo Guerrero
The recordings received 13 Grammy nominations and six Grammy awards.
Together with composer Aaron Jay Kernis, Guerrero spearheaded the development of Nashville Symphony’s biannual Composer Lab & Workshop for young and emerging composers.
Guerrero recently completed a sixseason tenure as music director of the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic. With that orchestra, Guerrero recorded the Billboard chart-topping “Bomsori: Violin on Stage” on Deutsche Grammophon and albums of repertoire by Szymanowski, Brahms, Poulenc and Jongen.
Guerrero previously has served as principal guest conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, Miami Residency and the Gulbenkian Symphony in Lisbon, music director of the Eugene Symphony and associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra.
Guerrero joins the Sarasota Orchestra as it embarks on an ambitious plan to build a new music cen-
ter at 5701 Fruitville Road, near an entrance to Interstate 75. The stateof-the-art facility is expected to serve as a magnet for the next generation of music lovers and players with its location in the fast-growing eastern part of Sarasota County. Sarasota Orchestra’s current home is at 709 N. Tamiami Trail, where it rehearses and performs its Great Escapes concerts in Holley Hall. Its more formal Masterworks performances take place next door at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, a city-owned facility that also hosts touring Broadway productions and other popular entertainment.
When a long-running show like “Hamilton” or “The Lion King” come to the Van Wezel, that two- or three-week period is off limits for Sarasota Orchestra appearances. The Van Wezel also doesn’t have the acoustics that the orchestra’s new music center will provide.
IN THE INTERIM
The sudden death of Tovey, Sarasota Orchestra’s previous music director, in 2022, was heartbreaking for both the institution and its patrons. The much-beloved conductor’s tenure in Sarasota was cut short before it started. Tovey signed a five-year contract in August 2021.
As it searched for a new music director, the Sarasota Orchestra has relied on the talents and services of Creative Partner Peter Oundjian and Artistic Advisor David Alan Miller. Both have played major roles in planning programming, auditioning musicians and conducting.
Oundjian is a Canadian violinist and conductor who is former music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra while Miller has served as music director of the Albany Symphony since 1992. Sarasota Orchestra’s board of
MONICA ROMAN GAGNIER
Sarasota Orchestra names Giancarlo Guerrero as its seventh music director.
Courtesy image Nashville Symphony Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero will be the next music director of the Sarasota Orchestra.
For many future musicians and conductors, music is a family affair. Often a parent, grandparent or event an aunt or uncle will help to inspire a child’s love for music. But that wasn’t the case with Giancarlo Guerrero, the incoming music director of Sarasota Orchestra.
“There were no musicians in my family, but my dad used to say I liked to sing. He saw an ad in the newspaper for a youth symphony. It was free so he signed me up as something to do after school,” Guerrero recalls.
Born in Nicaragua in 1969, Guerrero fled the country’s civil war and immigrated with his family to Costa Rica. There he received his musical training as a member of Costa Rica Youth Symphony and the Costa Rican National Symphony Orchestra. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and a master’s degree from Northwestern University.
Although he is a conductor of classical music, Guerrero says he appreciates all genres. “When people ask me who my favorite composer is, I have a hard time answering. I love it all,” he says. “When people ask me what my favorite piece of music is, I always say it’s the one I’m rehearsing right now.”
Asked if his Latin background will result in greater outreach to Sarasota’s Hispanic community or a greater emphasis on the works of Spanish and Latin American composers, Guerrero said his job is to attract everyone in the community to the orchestra.
“Yes, it’s great to reach out to Latinos, but what about the Asian community, what about the Hawaiian community?” he says. “The Sarasota Orchestra is supposed to reach everyone.”
Guerrero says he and his family plan to keep their residence in Nashville while he wraps up his last year with the symphony there, but that he will spend a
directors voted unanimously to advance Guerrero as the organization’s artistic leader upon recommendation by a search committee chaired by Mark Pritchett, former CEO of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, that also included orchestra musicians, board and staff members.
“In the search committee’s work to identify our next music director, it was clear to us that Giancarlo’s time with the Nashville Symphony has been extraordinary,” said Daniel Jordan, Sarasota Orchestra concertmaster and search committee member. “When committee members visited Giancarlo and saw his performances, it was obvious he has the special ‘it’ factor that allows him to truly connect with audiences.”
The organization now known as Sarasota Orchestra was founded as the Florida West Coast Symphony, and held its first music performance in 1949. A decade later, its Youth Orchestra Program was founded through the sponsorship of the Symphony Women’s Association.
One of the most influential music directors in the Sarasota Orchestra’s history was Paul Wolfe, whose tenure ran from 1961-1996. In 1964,
Here’s the scoop on the best ice cream treats in town
lot of time in Sarasota getting to know patrons and donors in addition to his performances.
The conductor and his wife and two daughters also have a condo overlooking Biscayne Bay in Miami. “As a performer who is traveling around the world all the time, you want to be close to an airport offering enough flights so you make it to where you’re going in one trip,” Guerrero says. “Miami offers that.”
Where Guerrero and his wife buy their next residence depends on where his daughter, who is currently in college, decides to settle down, he says.
But there is no danger that Guerrero will be a commuting conductor who spends little time in Sarasota. He stresses that he plans to continue Sarasota Orchestra’s tradition of reaching out to community organizations and to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
“For a long time, some of the high artistic institutions have been derelict in reaching out to some audiences. Everybody needs to feel they belong,” he says.
That means going out in the community, he adds, “knocking on doors and giving talks at the Rotary Club.”
Wolfe organized the Sarasota Music Festival at New College. The music festival merged with the Florida West Coast Symphony in 1985 and has become an internationally recognized institution for training emerging musicians.
Besides Wolfe, other notable music directors in Sarasota Orchestra’s history include Anu Tali (2013-19) and Leif Bjaland (1997-2012).
In his first year of programming, which will be the 2025-26 season, Guerrero says he will depend on the expertise of McKenna, who has been with the orchestra for more than two decades, as well as Gordon Greenfield, chief marketing and communications officer. “Joe and Gordon know the tastes of the community, and I will work closely with them,” he says.
In addition to attending his Masterworks appearances during the 2024-25 season, Sarasota Orchestra patrons and supporters will have the chance to meet Guerrero at the orchestra’s dinner series and its annual brunch event in November, which will celebrate the Sarasota Youth Orchestra’s 65th anniversary.
Beat the heat with sundae bliss in Sarasota, Lakewood Ranch and Anna Maria Island.
EMMA BURKE JOLLY CONTRIBUTOR
Living in Florida during the summer months is like living in New England in winter. But instead of having snow days, we’re stuck inside soaking up as much air conditioning as our dry skin allows. Our vitamin D levels drop as we opt out of melting in the heat and humidity.
It’s weeks like these when I crave a Connecticut summer like the ones I had in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I played softball under the night lights by the beach. My dad, an assistant coach, fought with the umps about calls they made on the pitcher (me). Meanwhile, my mom sat in the stands with the other softball parents and cheered for me while ignoring the scenes made by said assistant coach.
Whether we won or lost, we would pack up the team cars and head to Mr. Frosty’s after the game for a double scoop of whatever flavor we fancied.
I can so clearly see my dad standing at the window, ordering his coffee ice cream, making some silly dad joke to the kids home from college working at the booth, smiling as he dug into his cup.
There was always a reason to get ice cream. Aced a test? Scoop for you. Didn’t get into the college you wanted? A double scoop is in order. The family dog’s birthday? Scoops all around, including one for the pup. My dad was always the first to suggest hopping into the car and indulging your sweet tooth.
With his birthday on Aug. 20 — the first without him — I wanted to raise a cone (a cup, sundae and a milkshake, too) to the man who knew how to chill out, scoop up complete happiness and find the best sweet treats in town.
Here, I serve up three tasty treats in honor of my dad (in addition to Kilwins, his favorite).
Cherry On Top: There are few places in our community that offer that sweet sensation of New England-style ice cream and by golly, Ms. Jolly (Burke) found it. Its delicious density is a taste of nostalgia for me. If you’re feeling rebellious, might I suggest the Boston Tea Party? With its unique vanillabased flavors swirled together,
this is wicked good, as they say up in Beantown. When it comes to unmatchable flavor, you won’t find it anywhere else. Earl Grey tea packs some serious flavor. Then the lemon and golden Oreos drive it home for a delicious scoop of cream.
Cone-Tastic: Choose from 36 ice cream flavors (or edible cookie dough and other baked goods), including Connecticut mocha chip, Rocky Rhode Island, Vermont maple walnut, New Hampshire coffee crunch. See, I wasn’t kidding about New England style. Or stick to flavors like buttah fingah, cookie monstah or Maine moose tracks to feel the way I did during those carefree New England summers of my younger days.
MAIN STREET CREAMERY
1359 Main St., Sarasota; 941-361-2046; TheMainStreetCreamery.com
Cherry On Top: With more than 30 flavors (and five dairy-free flavors) available on location, this is where dairy and dairy-free dreams are made. This downtown creamery serves up Yoder’s Southern Creamery, locally made in Sarasota, that you can churn (soft serve), shake (milkshake) or toast with a topper of marshmallow meringue. But the scoops that get me going are actually the dairy-free, with strawberry at the top of my list and the North American Ice Cream Association award-winning DF peanut butter and cookies a close second.
Cone-Tastic: If it’s evening, I’m getting waffles (in a cone or a bowl). Whatever time it is, this spot has something for every single ice-
screamer. If Dad were here, I’d give him a dish of Sarasota: one scoop of Siesta Sea Turtle (vanilla ice cream filled with brownies, pecans, chocolate flakes and an abundance of caramel swirls) plus another scoop of Key Lime pie, please (pint, $7.75).
Cherry On Top: A beachside bounty of ice cream is the perfect way to cure the summertime blues, if you experience them like me. Driving down the Gulf-side oasis of Bradenton Beach already warms the soul, but knowing the final destination involves ice cream is a sweet treat in itself. Then you enter this quaint shop and your choices are endless. Ever heard of ice cream nachos ($7.95)? Choose three flavors with three sauces, top with whip cream and scoop it all up with homemade waffle chips. Can’t choose? Scoop up a flavor flight ($9.99) with your choice of six flavors.
Cone-Tastic: I’m a milkshake girl, through and through. Feeling meh? Order a milkshake. Missing my dad? Milkshake time. Wrapped another Eating with Emma column? You guessed it! Milkshake is my reward. When you order an Island Scoops milkshake ($6.95), you can choose from any house or rotating flavor. I’ll take one pistachio for lunch, a toasted coconut for dinner and a classic mint chip for dessert.
Courtesy image
Giancarlo Guerrero, the incoming Sarasota Orchestra conductor, was born in Nicaragua and grew up in Costa Rica.
Courtesy image
LWR’s Wicked Awesome Ice Cream Emporium’s flavorful Boston Tea Party ice cream.
THIS WEEK
7
From Amsterdam,” “Road Dogs with Billy Gardell” and “Sullivan and Son” on TBS, Danny Bevins walks the line between the sacred and the profane. The son of a devoutly religious woman and a Green Beret, Bevins is irreverent, opinionated and loud. Runs through Sept. 1.
‘THE FOUR C NOTES’
8 p.m. at FST’s Goldstein Cabaret, 1239 N. Palm Ave.
$18-$42
Visit FloridaStudioTheatre.org.
DON’T MISS
CLYDE BUTCHER: NATURE
THROUGH THE LENS
If you haven’t seen the breathtaking exhibition of photographer Clyde Butcher at Historic Spanish Point, why not take a morning drive to the 30-acre compound overlooking Little Sarasota Bay? Dotted throughout the campus are large-scale prints of Butcher’s black-andwhite photographs of Florida’s flora and fauna. Open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Runs through Aug. 31.
IF YOU GO
When: 10 a.m., Thursday, Aug. 29
Where: at Selby Gardens
Historic Spanish Point campus, 401 N. Tamiami Trail, Nokomis
Tickets: $20
Info: Visit Selby.org.
For fans of Frank Valli and the Four Seasons, the doo-wop sound never goes out of style. With “The Four C Notes,” Florida Studio Theatre continues the tradition of presenting Four Seasons tribute shows inspired by “Jersey Boys” and starring performers from the Broadway smash hit’s touring production. Runs through Oct. 13.
FRIDAY
‘THE MUSIC OF LAUREL CANYON’
7:30 p.m. at FST’s Court Cabaret, 1265 First St.
$18-$42
Visit FloridaStudioTheatre.org.
If you know, you know. But not everyone knows about Laurel Canyon, the neighborhood above West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip that became home to folk musicians such as Joni Mitchell, Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and The Mamas and the Papas. Runs through Sept. 1.
SATURDAY
COMEDY LOTTERY
7:30 p.m. at FST’s Bowne’s Lab, 1265 First St.
$15-$18
Visit FloridaStudioTheatre.org.
Everyone’s a winner in this FST Improv show where audience members select the night’s lineup of games replete with scenes, sketches and songs designed to provoke laughter. Runs Saturdays through Sept. 28.
MONDAY, SEPT. 2
‘SKYWAY’ ART EXHIBITION
10 a.m. at The Ringling Museum of Art, 5401 Bayshore Road, and the Sarasota Art Museum, 1001 S. Tamiami Trail $30 at The Ringling (free Mondays); $15 at Sarasota Art Museum Visit SkywayTampaBay.com.
The triennial contemporary Florida art exhibition “Skyway” encompasses five museums in the Tampa Bay area. Even if you don’t have time to visit all five, check out The Ringling Museum of Art and the Sarasota Art Museum. The Ringling features the multimedia works of 13 artists, running the gamut from Caitlin Albritton’s whimsical jewelry to Kiko Kotani’s breathtaking crocheted installations. SAM’s juxtapositions of multimedia works speak to the important contributions of Florida immigrants including Havana native Tatiana Mesa Paján, Sue Havens,
originally from Rochester, New York, and Kirk Ke Wong, who was born in Shanghai. Runs through Jan. 25 at The Ringling and Oct. 27 at SAM.
WEDNESDAY
NEW EXHIBITIONS: PRECIOUS DARLING, TANNER SIMON AND BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF MANATEE COUNTY
10 a.m. at Art Center Sarasota, 707 N. Tamiami Trail Free Visit ArtCenterSarasota.org.
OUR PICK
‘THE MOUSETRAP’
Scott Keys directs the Venice Theatre’s production of Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery, which has been playing in London’s West End since its November 1952 opening. Runs through Sept. 15.
IF YOU GO When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30
Where: Pinkerton Theatre, 140 Tampa Ave. W., Venice
Tickets: $35 Info: Visit VeniceTheatre.org.
Art Center Sarasota’s latest round of exhibitions features artists Precious Darling, Tanner Simon and teens from the Boys & Girls Club of Manatee County. Darling’s show, “How He Sees Me,” uses black-and-white photography and sculpture to focus on the way women are viewed while Simon’s “Big Soup, Big Responsibility” explores the intersection of humor, seriousness and the absurd with large-scale paintings. All three exhibitions run through Sept. 28.
Image courtesy of Renee McVety
image
Beyond First Class™
‘It’s
like Christmas every day’
Urbanite’s Modern Works Festival sparks joy for Artistic Director Summer Dawn Wallace.
MONICA ROMAN GAGNIER
EDITOR
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
Summer Dawn Wallace has a small favor to ask.
If you’re telling someone about Sarasota’s Urbanite Theatre, please don’t use the word “edgy.”
“Edgy scares some people off,” says Wallace, Urbanite’s co-founder and artistic director. “Our plays would not be considered edgy in New York, Chicago or LA.”
OK. Then what’s the best way to describe the three plays that will be getting a stripped-down production in the black-box theater’s fifth annual Modern Works Festival?
Well, it so happens that all the plays featured in the festival, which runs Sept. 4-8, were written by female playwrights. But only one of them — “A Nice Motherly Person” by Lia Romeo — can truly be called a “woman’s play.”
The other two — “In the Mouth of the Beast” by Baylee Shlichtman and “I’m Saving You a Seat” by Sarah Elizabeth Grace — focus on daughter-father (or stepfather) relationships.
The works promise to be fresh, bold and sometimes raw. As was the case with Brenda Withers’ “Westminster,” which won last year’s Modern Works Festival and was part of Urbanite’s 2023-24 season, the plays are ready to break out and shake up audiences.
If you happen to be sitting in one of the 60 seats in Urbanite’s theater for the festival, be prepared to sit on the edge of said seat. There’s no danger of dozing off. When it comes to the five-day Modern Works Festival, Wallace says, “It’s like Christmas every day.” Seeing staged readings of new plays, mingling with patrons and fellow artists and attending panel discussions brings back the magic of opening up presents under the tree, she says.
Wallace’s excitement is palpable when she talks about this year’s keynote speaker — playwright Lauren Gunderson.
“Lauren Gunderson.” Wallace says the name a second time for emphasis during an interview at Kahwa Coffee, right around the corner from Urbanite in downtown Sarasota. It’s as if she can hardly believe it herself.
In case you aren’t familiar with Gunderson’s work, she has been one
of the most produced American playwrights in the last decade or so. She has also racked up a slew of awards, including the Lanford Wilson Award, the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award and the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ ATCA New Play Award.
The latter honor Gunderson won twice — once for “I and You” and again for “The Book of Will.”
Reading through the schedule of the Modern Works Festival, it looks like a multiday marathon, with anywhere from one to three plays being staged each day from Sept. 5-8. The festival will generate work for 35 artists during its run.
At the end, panelists, attendees and guest adjudicators will vote for their favorite new work and the winner will take home a prize of $3,200.
Although the Modern Works Festival serves as a pipeline for Urbanite’s productions, none of the participating playwrights is obligated to have their work premiere in Sarasota.
Nor is there a guarantee that Urbanite will produce any of the three finalist plays. “Everything is a consultation between Urbanite and the playwright,” Wallace explains.
Besides “Westminster,” another festival play that made its way to an
Urbanite run was “A Skeptic and a Bruja” by Rosa Fernandez, which had its world premiere in 2022.
Produced in collaboration with
freeFall Theatre of St. Petersburg, the play follows a woman who calls on expert help after encountering the paranormal in a home she hopes
IF YOU GO
Modern Works Festival
When: Sept. 4-8
Where: Urbanite Theatre, 1487 Second St.
Tickets: $45-$57
Info: Visit UrbaniteTheatre. com.
to transform into a bed and breakfast. From a playgoer’s perspective, the Modern Works Festival pass is a steal. It’s $57 to attend all the events, including a kickoff party on Sept. 4. For those under the age of 40, the pass is $45. There is a $2 convenience fee.
The Modern Works Festival formally kicks off Urbanite’s 11th season, which includes four fully staged productions. The first is Morgan Gould’s “Jennifer Who is Leaving,” which runs from Oct. 18 through Dec. 1.
The play exploring the toll of caregiving is set in a remote highway location of a Dunkin’ Donuts. (Yes, they changed their name to simply Dunkin’, but old habits die hard.)
Despite its relatively minimalist stage and sets, Urbanite isn’t afraid to experiment with special effects. In “Westminster,” the walls literally started to come tumbling down, while Terry Guest’s “Oak,” the last play of Urbanite’s 2023-24 season, featured rain storms and a spooky creek creature.
Urbanite’s second production of its upcoming season promises to take even greater risks. Leegrid Stevens’ “Spaceman,” about a female astronaut, will give audiences an “immersive” experience. It has the potential to be one of the most talked-about shows in town, Wallace says. It will run from Jan. 3 to Feb. 16. With its black-box interior, Urbanite is the perfect setting for plays that take place in confined spaces, such as living rooms or boxing rings. In Winter Miller’s “No One is Forgotten” (March 21 to April 29), audiences will be transported to a prison cell where two Americans — one a journalist and the other an aid worker — are incarcerated. While other arts organizations in town have recently been extending their seasons with events that run into June, Urbanite has made a tradition of it. This year’s entry in the late-season derby is Nia Akilah Robinson’s “From 145th to 98th Street.”
The play follows a couple’s struggles to keep their son and daughter on the right track after the family’s move to a “better” neighborhood.
Monica Roman Gagnier
Summer Dawn Wallace is artistic director of Urbanite Theatre.
Image courtesy of Sorcha Augustine
Deykyi Ronge and Alex Pelletier starred as two longtime friends in Brenda Withers’ ”Westminster,” the winner of the fourth Modern Works Festival that was produced during Urbanite Theatre’s 2023-24 season.
YOUR NEIGHBORS
SWAN SUCCESSION
After 17 years of being the swan keeper of Longboat Key, David Novak hopes to pass his knowledge, passion to a new caretaker on the island.
Turtles are always on the minds of Longboaters.
The Longboat Key Turtle Watch has dozens of volunteers.
Residents post photos of turtle nests on Longboat Key’s social media pages. The town of Longboat Key considers them when making decisions.
As important as turtles are, swan keeper David Novak noticed that it isn’t the same when it comes to the swans on the island.
“There really isn’t any attachment to the swans unless we get new cygnets,” said Novak. “People always think they are aggressive, but I have changed many minds after caring for them.”
THE GRACIE SWAN FOUNDATION:
If you are interested in helping David Novak, contributing or learning more, call 228-2903 or visit GracieSwan.org.
When Novak moved to Longboat Key, he didn’t know anything about taking care of animals. But when he noticed abnormalities in his neighbor’s swans, his interest piqued.
Now 17 years later, he is the resident swan keeper of the island having raised 35 swans and counting. But as more years go by, he realizes it is time to grow the community’s love for the swans and find a successor to take over.
NEIGHBORS HELP NEIGHBORS
Novak’s swan story began out of coincidence.
In 1995, Novak’s neighbor, Alan Stone, purchased two swans — George and Gracie — from a swan supplier in Lakeland and brought them to Longboat Key.
As the swan pair grew and started to breed, Novak noticed half of their baby swans, known as cygnets, couldn’t fly because of an abnormal ligament growing from their side. Novak started to tend to these swans to help out Stone because he couldn’t care for all of them by himself.
Through his research, Novak discovered that the bird feed Stone
had given the swans had caused this abnormality because it contained too much protein.
After experimenting and connecting with other swan enthusiasts, Novak learned the correct food pellets to feed them. He also transported the swans with the abnormality to Lakeland so they had a better chance of survival than on the Key.
Novak also noticed the hostility the swans had toward the golfers near their territory. When building his relationship with Gracie and George’s progeny, he knew that this hostility wasn’t the whole representation of what swans were like. From there, he made it his goal to tend to the swans and show their true nature to the residents.
Novak officially took over for Stone in 2007. Through much trial and error, Novak learned about swan nature, routine, diet and how to care for the animals. He made friends with swan keepers from Orlando and Lakeland and gauged them for advice from their years of experience.
Also, his gentle caretaking eased the swans’ hostility toward golfers. Novak said they were able to take down the “Beware of the Swans” on the golf course.
It is just one of Novak’s many deeds on behalf of the swans of Longboat Key.
Novak has purchased three swans to add to the population of the island from Knox Swan and Dog in Wisconsin, which has the largest flock of swans in the country.
The most recent pair of swans
Novak purchased cost $5,500, including shipping.
In 2014, Novak developed the Gracie Swan Foundation so Longboat residents can donate for the wellbeing of swans. He also petitioned the Longboat Key Club to add a patch of grass near the swans’ territory.
The grass now serves as a ramp for the swans to easily enter the water.
Novak said the price to care for the swans ranges from year to year.
The lowest he has spent a year was $2,500, with the highest being $8,000. Originally, he absorbed all the costs, but now generous swan enthusiasts donate to the foundation every year to cover expenses for the birds.
This all contributed to Novak’s vision of cultivating a healthy swan community on Longboat Key.
CYGNETS INTO ADULT SWANS
In May, six cignets hatched, being the first swans to be born on Longboat Key in four years. They are the offspring of swans Chuck and Lydia, which is one of the most unusual pairings Novak has seen.
Chuck was originally paired with another swan, Margie, who died after laying her eggs. Since Chuck lost his mate, he sought out another partner to breed with. Donald was paired with Lydia until the day Chuck came and chased Donald off his territory.
Donald became a loner swan after that while Chuck and Lydia mated
SEE SWANS, PAGE 18
PETRA RIVERA STAFF WRITER
Swan territories at the Longboat Key Club
Only four of Chuck’s and Lydia’s cygnets survived. Novak has made checking the swans a part of his daily routine, waking up early to search for them before work.
When new cygnets hatch, Novak will start to build their routine immediately. He will have the father lead them to water to eat. Around breeding season in December and January, he will change their diet to include more protein. Once the baby swans are in the water with their father, he will destroy their nest because the smell of eggs hatching makes their territory prone to predators.
As they grow, the cygnets learn the routine from their parents on where their territory is, what to eat and how to survive. Novak said the cygnets grow fast, and he can see a noticeable difference in their size every week. Once the cygnets have shown independence, Novak will lessen his visits to about once a week.
As it gets closer to breeding season, the father will start to kick the grown cygnets out because any adult male swans are threatening to his territory, even if it’s his own children. Novak will separate the cygnets from their parents before this happens.
He said that Chuck has been more attentive than other fathers he has seen. Once it hits December or January, the cycle will start again with breeding season. By then, Novak will have transported these new four cygnets to their new territories in the hopes of new baby swans.
NEXT IN LINE
After 17 years, Novak is looking to build a team of volunteers to take over for him and continue caring for the swans.
Over the next three years, Novak plans to use social media to inspire people to volunteer.
“My favorite part of all of this has to be that I am recognized by the swans,” said Novak. “They know me. It is very different when someone else is with me because they know it is someone new. But they come when I call them and know that I am taking good care of them. That part has been so rewarding.”
NAME GAME
The swans on Longboat are famous for their names and the unique backstories on which Novak bases them.
Swans don’t get named until Novak places them in their own territory. There are seven swan territories on the island, four being on the Harbourside golf course and three at the Islandside golf course at the Longboat Key Club. Novak said that he will place swans together in a territory depending on their gender for the best possible breeding opportunities.
Novak will take into account famous Longboat residents, happenings in his life, pop culture and current events. He also takes into consideration those who donate to the Gracie Swan Foundation.
“I never know what’s going on in my brain when I name them,” said Novak. “I don’t really plan these out. I will usually wait until the time comes and see what I can think of.”
Chuck and Margie were named after Longboat residents and philanthropists Charles and Margery Barancik, who died in a car crash in 2019. Lydia was named after the song by John Prine, “Donald and Lydia.” Other examples include Pippa, named for Kate Middleton’s sister, Tut for Novak’s uncle’s nickname and Chesty for a famous U.S. Marines reference.
New swan cygnets hatched on Longboat Key in May.
Image courtesy of Lou Newman
Longboat Key | Offered at $779,000 MLS# A4178487
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2067
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Summer Night Out
When booking her hair appointment at Design
2000 Salon, former Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce
President Gail Loefgren took into account the date of the August Summer Night Out.
“You can take the girl out of the chamber, but you can’t take the chamber out of the girl,” said Loefgren.
After getting her hair done, Loefgren joined the crowds perusing the businesses at Whitney Plaza. Loefgren loved seeing her chamber friends at Summer Night Out, including Brad Marner, Andrew Vac and Irina Bronstein.
Whitney Plaza businesses stayed open late Aug. 22, offering free samples and a place for residents to meet their neighbors during the off-season on Longboat. Cultivating this bond between new and longtime Longboaters is what Summer Night Out is all about.
Residents started at the north end of the plaza at Donuts By Design, mingled at Design 2000 while eating free pizza from Ventura’s Italian Kitchen and Wine Bar and enjoyed free champagne at Driftwood Beach Home and Garden.
New Longboat residents Lorraine and Tommy Rheinlander said Summer Night Out was a great testament to the strong community on Longboat Key.
“We love how involved everyone is here on the island and how welcoming they are,” said Tommy Rheinlander. “This night was a great way to support the small businesses and see what is out here.”
— PETRA RIVERA
Photos by Petra Rivera Tom Czarniecki and Virginia Luke Joyce Hecklau, Abbe Catapano, Tina Licciardi and Lisa Pupo
Steve and Nancy Snyder Heather Rippy and Joyce Hecklau
Lorraine and Tommy Rheinlander with Gary Hagen at Donuts By Design
The thrift store will be open 9 a.m. to noon at 6140 Gulf of Mexico Drive. Donations are accepted during business hours. Call 383-4738.
MONDAYS STRETCH AND STRENGTHEN
From 10-11 a.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. This class is mostly seated and great for all fitness levels. Focus is on strength training and flexibility for balance. Suzy Brenner leads the class. Fee is $15. Walk-ins welcome. Call 383-6493.
THINKING OUT LOUD
1-2:30 p.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. Retired lawyer Mike Karp will lead a lively discussion on current topics such as world affairs, national politics and local issues. Bring questions, thoughts and an open mind. Call 383-6493.
TUESDAYS
PILATES SCULPT
From 9-9:50 a.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. Pilates
Sculpt is a combination class mixing traditional Pilates exercises into a fun, challenging workout to upbeat music. It will make you sweat, encourage your body to burn calories, and make you stronger and more flexible. This class is for all levels. Cost is $15. Walk-ins welcome. Call 383-6493.
BEST BET
TUESDAY, SEPT. 3
POP-UP LIBRARY
10-11:30 a.m. at Town Hall, 501 Bay Isles Road. On the first and third Tuesday of each month in the back parking lot of Town Hall, the Library Pop-Up will be at Longboat Key with books for all ages. Swing by to sign up for a library card, and read a book by the beach. Call 861-5475.
QIGONG From 10-11 a.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. Qigong is a mind-body-spirit practice designed to improve mental and
The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. Debby Debile of Feel Good Yoga & Massage leads a gentle yoga class that can be done on a mat or in a chair. Cost is $15; free for members. Call 383-6493.
MAHJONG
From 1-3 p.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. Fun time for experienced players. To check availability at the tables, email Amy@TheParadiseCenter.org.
ROTARY CLUB
Meets at 5 p.m. on first and third Tuesdays in All Angels Parish Hall, 563 Bay Isles Road. To learn more, call Nancy Rozance at 203-6054066 or email Info@LongboatKeyRotary.org.
TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS
LONGBOAT LIBRARY
From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesday and Friday. 555 Bay Isles Road. Call 383-2011.
WEDNESDAYS
BEGINNER TAI CHI
From 10-11 a.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. Class is outdoors, weather permitting. Cost is $15. Walk-ins welcome. Call 383-6493.
MARIACHI MUSIC
From 5:30-8:30 p.m. at La Villa Mexican Grill, 5610 Gulf of Mexico Drive. Enjoy dinner and a serenade by Mariachi Contemporaneo. Call 383-8033.
THURSDAYS ZUMBA & TONING
9:45-10:30 a.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. Taught by Reena Malik, this class begins with 30 minutes of zumba and finishes with mat Pilates for flexibility and strengthening core muscles. Come for 30 or 60 minutes. Free for members; $15 for nonmembers.
KIWANIS CLUB OF LONGBOAT KEY At 8:30 a.m. at Lazy Lobster, 5350 Gulf of Mexico Drive. This service organization meets every first and third Thursday of the month for breakfast and a speaker. Breakfast is $15. Email Lynn Larson at LynnLarson@comcast.net to register.
FRIDAYS
INTERMEDIATE TAI CHI
From 10-11 a.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road. Reuben Fernandez teaches Chen style class. Outside if weather permitting. Free for members; $15 for others. Walk-ins welcome. Call 383-6493.
QIGONG AND MEDITATION
From 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at The Paradise Center, 546 Bay Isles Road, take qigong and meditation with Sandi Love. Free for members; $15 for others. Call 383-6493.
File image
Alyssa Rockey, outreach services supervisor, and Katie Dow, manager of programs and partnerships, man the Pop-Up Library.
Magical summer music
axine and Paul Groen were dedicated members of the choir when Director of Music Robert Romanski started at Christ Church of Longboat Key.
When meeting Romanski, the Groens couldn’t stop talking about their son’s musical talent and gave him a CD with a sampling. Even though Romanski has heard this from many parents, he took it.
One day when he was driving home from Christ Church, Romanski played the CD. He said he had to pull over to the side of the road because of how emotional the music made him. Romanski then decided that the Groen’s son (who also happens to be a world-renowned opera vocalist Gerrit Paul Groen), was one of the best performers he had ever heard.
Years later, Gerrit visited Christ Church to sing for his parents and their fellow congregants. Gerrit sang in Christ Church’s Summer Music Magic recital the afternoon of Aug. 25.
With a degree from the Manhattan School of Music, he has performed on and off Broadway and with the New York Opera. Now residing in London, Gerrit has sung worldwide at places such as the Royal Opera House, the Royal Ballet and the Sydney Opera House. Gerrit also brought his accompanist, Julia Chou, with whom he’s worked for about 20 years.
Gerrit said it is always an honor to perform at Christ Church as a way to provide the congregation with unique music and connect it to their worship.
Gerrit performed a variety of music with themes of worship and faith. He sang songs on the Psalms and Bible verses in German. He then ended the recital with classic worship songs that the congregation knew.
“As a church that prioritizes worship through music, we always have great concerts in the winter,” said Romanski. “We wanted to do something during the summer for the full-timers, and this was more than we could have asked for. He is truly one of the greatest performers, and I know everyone was moved while listening to him.”
— PETRA RIVERA
Photos by Petra Rivera
Gerrit Paul Groen sang for Christ Church on Aug. 25.
Gerrit Paul Groen received a standing ovation from Christ Church members at the Summer Music Magic recital.
The Rev. Julia Piemont, Maxine Groen, Gerrit Paul Groen, Paul Groen and Julia Chou at the Summer Music Magic Recital at Christ Church.
Jerry Fox, Kirt Bopp and Joyce Fox attend the Summer Music Magic Recital at Christ Church.
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3 Beds 2 Baths 1,764 Sq. Ft. 1 Block to Anna Maria Island Beach Contact: Janette Schafer 954-298-7791 John Schafer 954-298-6229
Bayfront 1.06 Acres
5 Beds 5 Baths 6,000 Sq. Ft. Rooftop Terrace and Private Beach Contact: Tracey Stetler 941-266-9001
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4 Beds 5.5 Baths 4,000 Sq. Ft. Rooftop Terrace and Private Beach Contact: Steven Moore 401-767-7180
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Tracey Stetler
Steven Moore
Patrick DiPinto
Rene DiPinto
Nicholle DiPinto McKiernan
A home on Bird Key tops the week’s sales at $1.68 million
ADAM
HUGHES RESEARCH EDITOR
Ahome on Bird Key tops all transactions in this week’s real estate. Joan Morgan, of Sarasota, sold her home at 425 Partridge Circle to Carol Jeanette Edgar, trustee, of Sarasota, for $1.68 million. Built in 1961, it has two bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,308 square feet of living area. It sold for $255,000 in 1994.
CLUB LONGBOAT BEACH AND TENNIS
Carrie Hart and Gregory Hart, trustees, of Winnetka, Illinois, sold the Unit 535 condominium at 5055 Gulf of Mexico Drive to Why Not LBK LLC for $1.65 million. Built in 1973, it has two bedrooms, two baths and 1,484 square feet of living area. It sold for $751,000 in 2017.
HIDEAWAY BAY
Robert and Eileen Boehm, of Bradenton, sold their home at 720 Hideaway Bay Drive to Richard and Sarah Ayotte, of Longboat Key, for $1.4 million. Built in 1990, it has three bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,983 square feet of living area. It sold for $530,000 in 1999.
LONGBOAT SHORES
Jay and Lisa Cheek, of Bradenton, sold their home at 614 Buttonwood Drive to Deb Lennon and Thomas Nill, of Kennebunkport, Maine, for $1,225,000. Built in 1961, it has three bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 2,132 square feet of living area. It sold for $500,000 in 2018.
LA PLAYA
Yvonne Deleener, of Belgium, sold her Unit 101 condominium at 4425 Gulf of Mexico Drive to GCMB
RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS AUG. 12-16
Corp. for $985,000. Built in 1974, it has two bedrooms, one bath and 1,008 square feet of living area. It sold for $132,500 in 2002.
BEACHPLACE
Norma Friedman, trustee, of Sarasota, sold the Unit 101 condominium at 1085 Gulf of Mexico Drive to Aaron Germundsen and Jennifer Thomas, of St. Petersburg, for $680,000. Built in 1981, it has two bedrooms, two baths and 1,172 square feet of living area. It sold for $200,000 in 1995.
TOP BUILDING PERMITS
largest building permits issued by the Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Department for the week of Aug.16-22 in order of dollar amounts.
Images courtesy of Lisa Garcia
Joan Morgan, of Sarasota, sold her home at 425 Partridge Circle to Carol Jeanette Edgar, trustee, of Sarasota, for $1.68 million.
Ron Tirapelli
PETRA
RIVERA STAFF WRITER
Ron Tirapelli’s high school tennis teacher in Michigan didn’t know how to play tennis.
“He was just a teacher,” said Tirapelli. “He would take us to play at tournaments because we needed a chaperone. We really taught ourselves.”
Now at 83 years old, Tirapelli has won numerous tennis tournaments around the world and participated in three tennis world championships. Even through this, he will still say that his favorite tournament took place in high school.
Those high school years encouraged him to play tennis throughout his career in the U.S. Army, college and his adult life.
Even though he never had a professional career like he wished, Tirapelli was able to pass down his athleticism to his family. He won 15 doubles tournaments with his daughter Natalie, who now is a trainer for athletes.
With the popularity of tennis on the island, Tirapelli moved to the Key after playing in tournaments at the Longboat Key Public Tennis Center. He now plays there five days a week.
As doctors clear him of health complications that have prevented him from playing competitively for the past few years, Tirapelli has big aspirations for the rest of his tennis career.
What made you pick up a racket?
When I was 13 years old, my mother bought me a Mary Hardwick tennis racket, and I don’t even remember who she was. But I think other kids had rackets, so
we would go and practice because that is what we did for fun: play sports. I would even go by myself to the courts at 6 at night. I’d take the box of balls because the coach gave them all to me, and I would practice my serve until 9 or 10 p.m.
What benefits do you get from playing tennis?
The people you meet from around the world are amazing. I’ve got an Italian friend that I have played three times so far. He doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak much Italian, but we will always get together after matches. We have trouble understanding each other but it is still such a special friendship. I have friends in Australia and across Europe. I have also learned to travel the world, especially playing the world championships. I’ve been in the 80s and over category, but soon I will be in the 85 and over division, which is an advantage for me
because I will be on the younger side of it.
How competitive are you?
Competition is my whole drive. I call it the killer instinct. It’s the immense desire to win, which is my favorite part of playing tennis. Winning is amazing. It really builds you up, and that’ll last a lifetime.
Name one thing you do that wins matches.
You have to have a good serve. I’ve been told that my serve is one of the top in my division because of how I taught myself when I was younger. You really have to push yourself to get to that ball, and then you have to execute.
Give me the best experience you’ve ever had on the court. The one that comes to mind is my senior year in high school when we got to the finals. We played our sets and we tied. When we played
If you would like to make a recommendation for the Longboat Observer’s Athlete of the Week feature, send it to Petra Rivera at PRivera@ YourObserver.com.
into a tiebreaker, I remember coming to the net after I hit it. I just blocked the ball up over his head and landed it in. It helped us win the whole championship.
What is the funniest thing or most embarrassing moment you’ve had while playing?
One day, I was practicing at the public tennis center right when I moved here. For whatever reason, maybe I was thin, but I hit a ball deep in the baseline and my shorts fell off. There were ladies on the balcony, and I’m sure they didn’t see anything, but it was funny when it happened.
What is special about passing down your athleticism to your family?
It’s just fun being on the court with my daughters, especially Natalie. I know her game, and I know what she can do. I just open up and let her take what she needs to take. We communicate well, and it is just a great way to bond together. Her daughters have so much talent too. I’ve got high hopes for them.
What are your aspirations for tennis at this point in your career?
I am going to be playing the 85 and up division at the world championship in a couple of years, so I am hoping to get my body ready for that, especially with the doctors giving me the clear on most things. My hope is also to be inducted into the Upper Peninsula Hall of Fame. I would be the first tennis player they have if they thought I would qualify.
Petra Rivera
Longboater Ron Tirapelli shares about his life-long love for tennis and his goal of playing in the 85 and older division at the world championships.
NATURE’S BEAUTY WITH
Submit your photos at YourObserver.com/contests. All submissions will be entered for the 2024-25. Weather and Nature photo contest. In February 2025, you will vote for your favorite photo, and the submission with the most votes will win a $500 gift card.
“L EFAJE F OKS TNZ VRFSJE WFE OKSC LP XZYLJC FRR ANJ ALXJ, FPE L ANLPI NJ TFC MKCA F WFE OKS.” MJPPLBJU
SAY IT WITH A SONG by Shannon Rapp and Will Eisenberg, edited by Jeff Chen
By Luis Campos
Jenelle Alber took this photo of a perfect beach day on Whitney Beach.
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