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EAST COUNTY Thursday, APRIL 14, 2011
You. Your neighbors. Your neighborhood.
HANDY MEN
BLACK TIE
PAGE 3A.
Lakewood Ranch Community Fund hosts 2011 gala. PAGE 12-13A.
Gene Witt fathers complete renovation on teachers lounge.
OUR TOWN
school of rock!
Florida bands rock Ranch High. PAGE 1B.
development
beauty and the feet
By Pam Eubanks | News Editor
County approves Pat Neal project
+ Harlem Wizards to visit East County Woodland — The Community Church is bringing some basketball magic to the East County. The church, along with Braden River High School’s girls basketball team, is sponsoring a show by The Harlem Wizards at 7 p.m., April 15, at Braden River, 6545 53rd Ave. E. Advance tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for children, students and seniors. Prices rise to $12 and $10 at the door. Proceeds will benefit Woodland’s mission trips and the girls basketball team. For more information, visit gowoodland.com/ wizards.
Neal Communities’ Woodbrook is a 213home project near The Cascades. The county commission also approved an addition to Rosedale.
AGAINST ALL ODDS
By Pam Eubanks | News Editor Pam Eubanks
Michele Sutherland
+ School presents ‘Snow White’
Ballerinas brought a Disney classic to the East County during the School of Russian Ballet’s recent production of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” at Braden River High School. International guest artists Sergiy Mykhaylov, Maksim Maksimov Spasov and Katerina Fedotova joined the students in the production. The school is under the artistic direction of Mykhaylov and Darya Fedotova. Choreography was by Vadim Fedotov. For more information about the school, visit www.schoolofrussianballet.com.
SEE OUR TOWN / PAGE 2A
Leonardo Leal-Geurrero will visit Harvard this weekend. “Even when I didn’t have a house to live (in) or have a home, education was where I got my strength from,” Leonardo says. “It was my motivator.”
Tale of Triumph When Leonardo Leal-Guerrero immigrated from Mexico in 2005, he knew no English. He then bounced from home to home — sometimes staying with neighbors when he had nowhere else to go. Now, the Braden River senior knows his future — Harvard or Stanford. BRADEN RIVER — Footsteps echo off the white tiles and bare walls in the tiny duplex 18-yearold Leonardo Leal-Guerrero is calling home these days. There’s not a piece of furniture in sight. It’s almost as if no one lives here at all.
The Braden River High School senior’s bedroom offers slightly more furnishings — a closet, a dresser and a bed covered with sheets and an unzipped sleeping bag for a comforter. Noticeably absent are the usual teenage possessions — posters, DVDs, a
music collection. After bouncing from home to home and enrolling in three different high schools in as many years, Leonardo has perfected the art of leaving quickly.
MANATEE COUNTY — On a vacant parcel across from The Cascades community, developer Pat Neal has begun work on his newest community — Woodbrook. Manatee County commissioners on April 7 unanimously approved a preliminary site plan for Woodbrook, a 213-home project slated for 95 acres at the southeast corner of Lockwood Ridge Road and Honore Avenue. The project also includes 28,800 square feet for commercial space, with opportunities for retail stores, restaurants, professional or medical office and personal services uses such as a hair salon. “There’s definitely demand for a kids school, nursery school or preschool,” said project developer Pat Neal, owner of Neal Communities. “We’re trying to get a Starbucks, too.” Manatee County District 4 Commissioner Robin DiSabatino, a resident of the Cascades community, said she shared the project plan with residents several months ago, at their request, and residents were pleased the project now will not include any drivethru fast-food restaurants. “They are very supportive,” DiSabatino said of residents. “I thought it was a very nice plan.” Groundwork for the project commenced last month after the developer earned
SEE TRIUMPH / PAGE 9A
SEE WOODBROOK / PAGE 2A
Calendar.............. 6B Weather............. 10B
Vol. 11, No. 15 | Two sections www.YourObserver.com
INDEX Black Tie............ 12A Classifieds ........ 11B
Cops Corner..........5A Crossword.......... 10B
Opinion.................6A Real Estate.......... 8B