If you read last week’s edition, you will remember that we wrote a story with information garnered primarily from someone who was claiming that the Florida Public Service Commission had denied a need for Little Gasparilla residents (and other barrier island residents) to find a different way to get rid of their sewage and wastewater. You read that Charlotte County Commissioners who had been 100 percent for the plan to find a solution were puzzled when the barrier islands were denied this option by the PSC. You also read that there were numerous septic systems at island homes that were a hazard, as they were entirely submerged during certain high tides … and some that were completely submerged at almost every high tide.

The cost of living in a very desirable area just caught up with a lot of people in Lee County, and whether or not you have a homestead exemption, it still feels like a pretty good bite out of anyone’s budget.
For some people, it was an almost 20 percent bite this year.

“Our owner, Jazare Alvarez, came in to purchase some goods the former owner had on sale, and just fell in love with the place,” reported the new store’s District Manager, Kaydance Owens. Jazare (pronounced Jah zear’) has been grooming dogs since she was 12 and working at it on her own since she was 14, Kaydance said. 

Adult manatees are typically 9- to 10-feet long from snout to tail and weigh around 1,000 pounds. Manatees have two forelimb flippers that they use for steering movements and to hold vegetation while eating. A large, round, flattened paddle-shaped tail is used for swimming. They are quite agile, and able to swim upside down, roll or move vertically in the water. They frequent back bay estuaries and shallow coastal zones and spend up to eight hours a day grazing on seagrasses. This includes the back bay waters of Cayo Costa and Gasparilla Islands as well as our beaches, where in the summertime, mating herds have been observed.