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EAST COUNTY
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
SPORTS
Ranch falls in regional semifinals.
INSIDE
SPOTLIGHT
PAGE 10-11.
PAGE 12-13.
Dragon Boat Linger Lodge Festival cruises hosts first into East County. bluegrass fest.
PAGE 23.
OUR TOWN
THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2011
INCORPORATION DEBATE By Pam Eubanks | News Editor
IN MEMORIAM
BEAUTY AND THE FEET
By Pam Eubanks | News Editor
Family launches scholarship program
+ Get your cameras ready! Lakewood Ranch-based Sanborn Studios has joined forces with the Guerilla Film Competition to find the “best of the best” of YouTube video stars. The 48-hour Guerrilla Film Competition challenges online amateurs to write, shoot and edit a short film in just two days, this year beginning on May 13. Each film will promote a sponsor, product, message or cause and be judged by industry experts. Winning films move on to collect prizes, with top honors earning $5,000. Sanborn will be flying in a representative from the winning team for a getaway weekend in Sarasota and a pitch meeting with studio executives. The team’s film also will be screened during Sanborn’s Movieville International Film Festival in mid-June.
+ Bobcats spotted in Lakewood Ranch Lakewood Ranch resident Sean Abrams caught these bobcats on camera near the Highfield section of the Country Club of Lakewood Ranch last week. “I snapped these photos of two bobcats that were either fighting or courting — I couldn’t tell,” Abrams says. “They were ‘talking’ to each other quite a bit which caused a group of nearby deer to stamp and chuff … which caused me to peek outside with my camera.” Recently, we’ve received quite a few wildlife photos from readers. Let us know if you’d like to see more shots
SEE OUR TOWN / PAGE 2
Incorporation proponent Keith Davey, with Tom Thomaides, said incorporating would create a long-term plan for the community.
Bob Hendel of the anti-incorporation group, the Friends of Lakewood Ranch, said incorporation would take away local control.
TAKING LAKEWOOD RANCH — The two groups promoting and opposing the incorporation of Lakewood Ranch faced off for the first time during the East County Observer’s Lakewood Ranch Incorporation Debate May 9 at The Polo Grill and Bar Fête Ballroom. More than 330 people packed into the ballroom as Tom Thomaides and Keith Davey, of the Lakewood Ranch Incorporation Study Committee, and Gary Berns and Bob Hendel, of the Friends of Lakewood Ranch, defended their respective positions and tried to poke holes in their oppositions’ arguments. The East County Observer’s Editorials Page Editor Rod Thomson served as moderator. In his opening statements, Hendel cited his top 10 reasons for opposing incorporation, including the loss of local control, no savings on taxes and a significant risk taxes will increase, among other concerns. “We are against this city, at this time, under this charter,” he said. Thomaides, however, called incorporation “a practical step in a normal evolution” and noted the study committee is the only side of the debate “who began with an open mind” and was willing to
SIDES Pro- and anti-incorporation groups faced off Monday for the first Lakewood Ranch Incorporation Debate hosted by the East County Observer.
Photos by Pam Eubanks
More than 300 Lakewood Ranch residents crowded into the twoSEE DEBATE / PAGE 2 hour, standing-room only event at The Polo Grill’s Fête Ballroom.
Download a complete mp3 file of Monday’s debate on YourObserver.com.
The Taylor Emmons Scholarship Fund eventually will pay for four students to attend ODA. LAKEWOOD RANCH — Not a day goes by that Mike Emmons doesn’t think about his son, Taylor, a 19-year-old baseball star who graduated from The Outof-Door Academy in 2009. And each morning, as Mike Emmons looks in the mirror, he can’t help but wonder what his son would want him to do following the accident that took Taylor’s life in December 2010. “I know he would want me to do something for the kids,” Mike Emmons said. “That’s what motivates me to do it. I know he would be very proud.” Mike and his wife, Katie, have launched the Taylor Emmons Scholarship Fund to provide schooling opportunities at ODA’s Upper School for students who otherwise would not be able to afford it. The cost to attend ODA’s Upper School hovers around $17,000 annually. “The objective here is for a student who has proven they’re a good student and wants to (come here to be able to),” Mike Emmons said. “This school is about preparing kids to go to college. Taylor loved it here. We think the world of this school. “Our goal is to have a student receive a scholarship every year,” he said. “At any one time, there would be four students attending (on it).” The family already has raised $70,000 from donations made in Taylor’s honor follow-
SEE EMMONS / PAGE 8
INDEX Classifieds ...........28 Cops Corner............5
Crossword.............27 Opinion...................6
Real Estate...........20 Neighborhood.......10
Sports...................23 Weather................27
Vol. 12, No. 19 | One section YourObserver.com