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FWC announces Boca Grande Pass gear restrictions, boundary shift

Recent changes to the buoys marking the Boca Grande Channel will affect tarpon anglers and others fishing in Boca Grande Pass during the months of April, May, and June. Because of natural shifts in the depth, location, and configuration of shoals bordering the channel, the U.S. Coast Guard recently moved several buoys that marked the […]

Rubio takes Boca Grande’s primary, Kasich second

■ BY MARCY SHORTUSE Marco Rubio may not have been terribly popular anywhere other than Miami in his home state of Florida, but he was pretty well loved in Boca Grande as well. The results are in from the Boca Grande primary election, held at Precinct 18 within the Boca Grande Community Center, and Rubio […]

Beloved bird lady says ‘good-bye’ to Boca Grande

■ BY SUE ERWIN Standing on the stage with E.T., the great horned owl by her side, wildlife rescuer Doris Mager informed the crowd that this would be her last year doing an educational program in Boca Grande. Mager has traveled to the island every spring for the past 35 years, her mission being to […]

Coast Guard rescues two St. Pete fishermen after boat sinks northwest of Boca Grande

■ STAFF REPORT The Coast Guard rescued two St. Petersburg fishermen after their 37-foot boat sank 52 miles northwest of Boca Grande, Florida, early Monday. At 2:27 a.m., watch standers from Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg received multiple Mayday calls via marine radio VHF-FM channel 16 from the captain of the commercial fishing boat, Ruby-D, […]

‘Hello, Dolly!’ coming to Boca Grande this week

BY BOOTS TOLSDORF – It occurs to me that everyone loves a musical. What is not to like? It’s a great marriage between story and song, where songs advance the plot, the plot deepens the characters, the characters fall in love, and all live happily ever after. Well, almost. West Side Story can make us […]

Saying good-bye to the old Boca Grande Swing

■ BY MARCY SHORTUSE – On Friday, Feb. 12 the last piece of steel was removed from the old swing bridge, and with it a significant piece of Gasparilla Island’s history turned into lore. According to Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority Executive Director Kathy Banson-Verrico they will still be breaking up concrete, taking out pilings and taking […]

Growing up in Boca Grande in days gone by: History Bytes ‘Our bikes didn’t need brakes, because there were no cars around to stop for’

■ BY SUE ERWIN – Rick Montgomery and Loretta Tucker-Atha spoke to a crowd at the Johann Fust Library on Wednesday morning about their childhood memories of growing up in Boca Grande in the late 1960s through the early 1990s. The event was part of the 2016 History Bytes series. The Montgomery family lived above The […]

EDITORIAL: Boca Grande’s Hope for Haitians reaches 200 homes

BY BEN SCOTT AND ANGEL ALOMA – Thirty-three families left homeless by the devastating 2010 earthquake have received homes in a new village in Gressier, Haiti. Built by Boca Grande’s Hope For Haitians Committee through the international and relief organization, Food For The Poor, the village is the committee’s fifth Friendship Village and marks the […]

Portion of Boca Grande fishing pier closed, deemed unsafe

BY MARCY SHORTUSE – The Boca Grande Fishing Pier at the north end of the island is partially closed, due to Charlotte County Parks and Natural Resources staff saying there is some potential for structural instability. As of Thursday afternoon, Feb. 4, only the last 36 feet of the pier have been walled off. Fishing […]