LONGBOAT
Observer Longboat Key’s weekly newspaper since 1978
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 42, NO. 7
FREE
•
Treasures, not trash.
PAGE 14
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2019
Taking a step up
YOUR TOWN
Fire Department in the market for new aerial ladder truck. PAGE 3
Mayers leaving Key Club
ON CAMERA Documentary team talks to local leaders about oyster industry. PAGE 4
Resort’s GM becomes managing director at PGA National Resort and Spa in Palm Beach Gardens. ERIC GARWOOD MANAGING EDITOR
This week, Jeff Mayers has been doing what he’s been accustomed to for the past seven years on Longboat Key: tending to the day-to-day operation of the Longboat Key Club and Resort as general manager. On Friday, he will do much of the same, just in Palm Beach Gardens at PGA National Resort and Spa, a luxury resort with 339 hotel rooms, five golf courses and an annual PGA Tour event in February. Mayers, who arrived on Longboat Key as the resort’s general manager in late October 2012,
Officer makes a feathered rescue Officer Josh Connors came to the scene of an injured ibis along Gulf of Mexico Drive, where residents had called about a bird near the bike path that didn’t move when cyclists zoomed past. Connors gathered up the bird and took it to Save Our Seabirds, which said it had probably been clipped by a passing vehicle. The bird was diagnosed with a mild concussion and road rash but is now in good hands. Police officers will often respond to calls like this, Connors said. If local police can take care of an animal without getting the county’s animal control involved, it makes things simpler.
Town dives into Instagram
Eric Garwood
SEE MANAGER, PAGE 2
Courtesy photo
Josh Connors with the ibis
Josh McLawhron films Chucha Barber as she interviews Carol Whitmore for a documentary film.
Meeting in the middle
A+E
Local groups help Key Chorale celebrate 35 years. INSIDE Nat Kaemmerer
Jeffery Kin chats with Yasemin Chain at the joint Longboat Key-Lakewood Ranch booth.
Longboat chamber chats with colleagues from the east. PAGES 18
Instagram: It’s not just for Justin Bieber anymore. Not since Aug. 23, anyway. That’s the day the town of Longboat Key posted its first image on the photoand video-sharing app popular with more than 10 million “Beliebers” (and a few others). Well short of that record number of followers at 109, Longboat Key has of late been posting photos of events, sunsets and wildlife. Want to join in? Follow @TownOfLBK on Instagram.
Turtle Tracks LONGBOAT Sept. 15-20 2019 2018 Nests 0 0 False Crawls 0 0 Total as of Sept. 21 2019 2018 Nests 1,342 993 False Crawls 1,518 1,003 Source: Mote Marine Laboratory