LONGBOAT
Observer Longboat Key’s weekly newspaper since 1978
Rotary Club to the rescue. PAGE 20
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 42, NO. 49
FREE
Unmasking questions
Enforcement issues surface a week into mandatory mask rule. SEE PAGE 3
HEAT OF SUMMER
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THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2020
YOUR TOWN
Nat Kaemmerer
Bill Wartinbee
It didn’t grow on him
Snowbirds, staying put in pandemic, make the most out of situation. PAGE 16
We’ve all discovered new things about ourselves during quarantine. Bill Wartinbee discovered he might be Santa’s twin. The normally clean-cut Longboat Key resident let his daily shave fall by the wayside “in the middle of March when the world fell apart,” he said. A bushy white beard, which made its debut on a Christ Church Zoom Bible study, has occupied his face for months. Despite being a time-saver, it won’t be there much longer now. It’s just not him. Santa — and thick beards — don’t thrive in the south Florida heat.
Cygnet scare
Nat Kaemmerer
Karen and Duane Compton are getting used to the Florida summer.
The $1 record GMD home sets area sales record — but not by much. SEE PAGE 7 Courtesy photo
The home at 6021 Gulf of Mexico Drive sold last week for $13,000,001.
A+E
The big (art) show PAGE 15
The lone cygnet of Longboat Key has been returned to its parents after a brush with conjunctivitis — but only for now. When swan keeper David Novak took the little bird to the vet for diagnosis and medication, he decided to get an X-ray done too. It revealed a fish hook stuck in the cygnet’s belly, but as of now, the bird isn’t strong enough to survive surgery. Novak has released the budding bird back to its parents in hopes that it will be strong enough to withstand surgery in August.
Turtle Tracks LONGBOAT July 5-11 2020 Nests 117 False Crawls 104
2019 126 81
Total as of July 11 2020 2019 Nests 954 1,162 False Crawls 1,162 1,392 Source: Mote Marine Laboratory