Lee County Parks & Recreation and the Friends of Boca Grande Community Center will be hosting the last youth-fishing tournament of the season.  

The tournament will be held on Saturday, May 5 from 9 to 11 a.m.  

The tournament is free for boys and girls aged 15 and under.

This is a catch-and-release tournament. Bait will be provided by Boca Grande Marina ­– no lures allowed).  

Children must be supervised by a parent or guardian.

Registration is not necessary. Just be at the Boca Grande Fishing Pier at the north end of the island, ready to fish by 9 a.m. Prizes and awards will be given out.  

For more information, contact Joe at 964-2564.

Royal Palm Players
2012 Anna Awards Winners:

Director of the Year  - Michele Strauss

Stage Manager of the Year - Marcia Spencer

All Time Favorite - Male - Charlie Tyler

All Time Favorite - Female - Michele Strauss

BY LIZA STROUT - When Joyce Howe first came to Gasparilla Island in 1978, the Boca Grande Club was barely an idea.

“There were a couple of years in Cincinnati where we had a lot of snow, and it gets very dreary along the Ohio River” said Joyce. “We were looking for somewhere to go to escape for a while, and our neighbor’s mother suggested Boca Grande.”

BY MARCY SHORTUSE - A slightly lower millage rate for iguana trapping is a bonus that taxpayers might be facing in the new fiscal year, but the program will still essentially be run the same way it has for the last few years.

With trapper George Cera at the helm, the cost of the program in the new fiscal year will be $95,200. The millage rate will tentatively decrease from .307 to .289, by approximately 6%.

That number, however, depends on property values in the future.