Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Boca Beacon Back Pages.
Gasparilla Fishery in Placida was expected to open a new seafood restaurant. Plans called for the restaurant to be built on the west side of the current fishery building that had served as a seafood wholesale and retail operation since 1944.
Written by Boca Beacon Reader on . Posted in Editorial, Opinion.
Our current focus is in Charlotte County, Florida, near the tarpon fishing capital of the world – Boca Grande. A VI uses GIS mapping data layers for nursery habitat sites overlaid with data on things like current and potential development locations, freshwater flows, and whether land is publicly or privately owned to categorize areas as high, medium or low vulnerability. For example, a nursery site classified as “natural” that falls under an area that the Charlotte County deemed as likely to be developed would rank as “high” in the VI. Conversely, a degraded nursery habitat with low potential for restoration that falls under an area in the county that is at low risk for development would rank as “low” in the VI.
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in News.
According to the Federal Communications Commission, there are 82 affected area codes across the country that have had to be changed, as they all have one thing in common: Their area codes are all similar to or too close to “988,” which is now the established national number for the crisis line. The 82 affected area codes have one thing in common: using 988 as a local exchange, a term that describes the middle digits of a 10-digit phone number (for example: 123-988-1234). Four of those area codes are in Florida: 321, in Brevard County; 352, in north-central Florida; 941, which covers an area from Bradenton to North Port; and 561, in Palm Beach County.
Written by Boca Beacon Reader on . Posted in Community History.
It all started in the 1960s when my Granddaddy, Alfred Bavis Dixon, known by most folks as Alfred or A.B., bought a parcel of mostly submerged land from Bert Cole. Mr. Cole had purchased the deed from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers when the Corps was building the Intracoastal Waterway, which stretches from Massachusetts to Brownsville, Texas. The Corps approached upland and adjacent landowners and sold off parcels of submerged and partially submerged land in order to help fund the massive project. Granddaddy was a dreamer and doer, a visionary, no stranger to long hours of hard work, a man far ahead of his time. He went to the proper authorities and obtained permits to dredge and fill the parcel, and then he brought a dredge that he had built with his son Ormand to his new dream. He never asked for any special favors, no government grants, no subsidies. All he wanted was to be left alone with his task. He got as much fill as he could get when the big dredge came through digging the waterway, and he dredged up more when he built the basin and channel out into the bay. The first time I remember going to “The Point,” as we all called it, I was just a kid, and Grandaddy had the dredge set up digging the channel out to the bay. I must have been about 10 years old at the time, and it was a very exciting time for me. We were living in Virginia then, and I had never seen anything like that.
Written by Tonya Bramlage on . Posted in Columns, News.
This week on turtle patrol, a Boca Grande Sea Turtle Association patrol volunteer was stunned to discover a very unusual hatchling. On rare occasion, an anomaly such as this poses a unique challenge for the sea turtle permit holder. The permit holder is solely responsible for the livelihood of each and every sea turtle, from nesting adult females to unhatched incubating eggs. Hatchlings require careful treatment and monitoring. It is unlawful to interfere, disturb, transport, photograph, and handle sea turtle hatchlings without a permit.
Written by Sheila Evans on . Posted in Education, Profiles.
There is a special place in Susan McKenzie’s heart for second-graders. She loves teaching all elementary grades, but second-graders have a “special wonderment” about them. “There is an excitement to learn and the ability to stretch themselves. I love to watch them grow.” This is what second-graders bring to this teacher, and she is happy to be starting her connection with The Island School by teaching second grade. She will have 14 students in her class.
Written by Delores Savas on . Posted in Boca Beacon Back Pages, Columns, Opinion.
Like so many species on this list, which have been on this planet for eons, the endangered migratory monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) has an ancestry that dates back about two million years. Now this species is threatened by habitat destruction, increased use of herbicides and pesticides in homes and commercial agricultural sites, illegal logging of the forests where they spend the winters, and by other factors during their migration to and from wintering sites.
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Community History, News.
A wise local once told me something profound. When asked what we could do to help save a historic icon that was about to be sold he said, “What are you trying to save? It’s already been sold out. It could have been sold to someone who cared, but they didn’t buy it. And it’s not my job to subsidize their personal experience. They had their chance to make it what they wanted to, or to keep it the way it is, and they choose not to buy it. Now it’s someone else’s choice.”
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in News.
“I have lived here since I was 5, for 53 years of my life, in Lee County. I have never left here – I have raised my kids here and built my businesses here. I think this is paradise. Receiving the governor’s appointment only drives me more to keep the seat so I can continue to work to make Lee County a better place for generations to come.”
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in News.
All it takes is one homeowner or, in some cases, a corporation, to try to impose this regulation on beaches, and soon others follow suit. GIS maps can be misleading to potential property owners, as in many cases it shows the property line going out into the water. In Florida the law states that all beaches are public from the mean high-water line down to the water, and that used to be a cut-and-dried rule. But in 2018 former Governor Rick Scott created House Bill 631 (now Florida Statute 163.035), which is known as the “Establishment of Recreational Customary Use.” It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now it has proven to make a touchy situation even touchier in the fact it can be interpreted in many ways … including ways that benefit the property owner, not the public.