BY LIZA STROUT - The 80-acre Wildflower Preserve used to be a golf course, but you would never know it without someone to point out the former fairways and greens. Years of growth have begun to reclaim the land, and the Lemon Bay Conservancy is there to lend a hand.

At a recent open house, volunteeer Phil Dakin escorted a group of interested visitors through the park. Thouroughbred Golf Carts provided a golf cart so that everyone could travel along the trails. The group saw butterflies, native plants, an area that has been planted specifically to attract the endangered gopher tortoise and one of the two orchid trees that grow inside the preserve.

Bonnie Sexton Townsend, 91, of Port Charlotte passed away on Tuesday, April 17, 2012.

She is survived by her four sons, William “Willy” (Cindy), Barry, Robert and Richard (Janet); as well as her grandchildren, Brandon (Kelsy), Grant, Barry Jr., Jade, Jena and Willy Girl; and lastly, her great-grandson, Braden.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 5, 2012, at the First Methodist Church of Punda Gorda, with a celebration of life to follow the service at the church.

She will be laid to rest beside her beloved husband, Richard, at Indian Springs Cemetery.

BY LIZA STROUT - Anita Cass is one half of a very successful team. She is the smiling face of the new pet supply and grooming shop here on the island, Woof Gang Bakery. The store, which caters mostly to dogs, is one of the newest businesses on the island.

Anita grew up in Naples, N.Y., the daughter of a dairy farmer and a homemaker. She spent her days riding horses, in the field and picking blueberries.

“I spent so much time picking berries in the summer heat,” she said. “To this day I won’t eat a blueberry. I just can’t do it.”

BY MARCY SHORTUSE - Saying “NO” to taxes was the message portrayed by more than 60 island residents to the Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority Board at their meeting on Wednesday, April 25, even though the results from the ad valorem tax survey sent out earlier this month were not as clearly defined.

Outspoken islanders who attended the meeting were firm in the fact that tolls, not a tax, should fund the project.