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Celebrate National Golf Month by warming up and cooling down

Written by Boca Grande Health Clinic on . Posted in Health & Wellness, Sports & Outdoors.

Back in 1993, the Professional Golf Association deemed August National Golf Month. For the golf obsessed, this is a great excuse to get out and play a round with family and friends. The month-long celebration is a way to promote the game and introduce new people to the sport. 

Tiger Woods was 17 in 1993 and had won the last of his three straight U.S. junior amateur championships. For the majority of the golfing world and certainly for those in the mainstream, not much was known about this 17-year-old from California, but golf insiders thought he could be golf’s next great champion. Fast forward to April 1997. “Tiger Mania” was about to explode, and the “win for the ages” at The Masters cemented him as golf’s best player and changed how golf was perceived as a sport.

Hurricane Ian book features Boca Beacon article about Little Gasparilla Island

Written by Staff Report on . Posted in Community History.

Gulf Coast Writers Association Inc. (GWCA), Southwest Florida’s 28-year-old meeting ground for writers, editors and their associates, announced today that Leoma Lovegrove, internationally-known artist whose work is in the collections of the Carter and George W. Bush Presidential Libraries, has painted the artwork for the cover of “Storm Stories – Hurricane Ian,” its anthology of personal experiences during the storm as recounted by local residents and photographers. The book is planned for publication on September 1.

The Boca Beacon will be featured in the book, with a story that ran not long after the storm, called “This may be our slice of paradise, but putting it back together will be no piece of cake.”

Lee County puts $3.3 billion valuation on island real estate

Written by Garland Pollard on . Posted in Community.

This year, preliminary tax roll values show the Lee County real estate on Boca Grande as valued at just under $3.3 billion. The $3,292,284,149 valuation for the Boca Grande Fire District, up from $3,162,022,991 in 2022, is an increase of 4.12 percent, and contrasts with the Sanibel Fire District, which had valuations drop from about $6.5 billion in 2022 to $4.2 billion in 2023, a 34 percent decrease.
This is the first property assessment year since Hurricane Ian. It reflects the greater damage to Sanibel.

The smell of fresh office supplies and school uniforms fills the air as TIS is almost back in session

Written by Sheila Evans on . Posted in Education, News.

The Island School is at full capacity this year, as 60 students will start school on Thursday, Aug. 10. Head of School Christine Oliver is looking forward to a “normal” school year, free of pandemic or hurricane concerns. Classes will typically have 10 students in each grade level, with the “specials” teachers moving from class to class.

“I am pleased to announce that The Island School made impressive progress on our F.A.S.T. progress monitoring from PM1 to PM3 in both reading and math,” said Oliver. F.A.S.T. is the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking, instituted in 2022. The PM1 is testing done at the beginning of the school year, and PM3 is similar testing at the end of the year.

Fixing the island’s low points: High water worries continue on north, south end

Written by Garland Pollard on . Posted in Community, News.

Since Hurricane Ian, Boca Grande has seen a dry year. Of course, that could change at any time. 

After hurricanes or, really, any big rainstorm, there are a few areas of the island that flood – namely at the north end of the island along Gasparilla Road and on the southern end of the island, including Gulf Boulevard at the Gasparilla Island Light and the very south tip of the island.

Depending on the depth of the water, residents with taller SUVs and pickups can plow through the standing water, as they clear about over 10 inches. Cars today, however, can only clear about six inches.

PROFILE: WSEB radio and general manager Ken Lindow Jr.

Written by Garland Pollard on . Posted in Community History, Profiles.

In Cape Haze, just behind the Ace Hardware and Cool Pickle in Paradise restaurant, a 300-foot radio tower that most see, but few pay attention to, peeks out of the woods. 

The tower, with its blinking red light, is the broadcast point for 91.3 FM, WSEB. It is a small, independent Christian radio station that runs on a tiny budget but has considerable reach. 

WSEB’s signal reaches north up to Bradenton, east 10 miles outside of Arcadia, and south to the airport in Ft. Myers. Its signal also goes out across the Gulf of Mexico, reaching the very occasional boater or fisherman. Most often, boaters just use the blinking red light atop the tower as a guide.

“We’ve heard from fishermen that they use our tower for guidance,” said WSEB General Manager Ken Lindow, Jr. “Sometimes it’s a blessing to them.”