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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.

Leathery crusaders in the LBC: It’s beginning to look a lot like ‘Batmas’

Written by Garland Pollard on . Posted in News.

It may not be Halloween yet, but any time of year is perfect to celebrate our friend, the bat.

Lemon Bay Conservancy (LBC) has just commissioned a bat nursery that they hope will bring over 300 bats to Cape Haze’s Lemon Bay Wildflower Preserve – all at the same bat time.Possibly on the same bat channel.

 “It is the beginning of our efforts to enter into bat conservation territory,” said Tonya Bramlage of the LBC, the group that installed the house at the Lemon Bay Wildflower Preserve.

OBITUARY: Lucy Hamilton

Written by Staff Report on . Posted in Obituaries.

Lucy Battel Hamilton died peacefully on July 19, 2023 at her summer home in Cooperstown, New York surrounded by her loving family.  Known to all as “Bunny,” she was born in Buffalo, N.Y. on November 13, 1933, the daughter of Lucy Mills Battel and John Lawrence Battel. After attending the Buffalo Seminary and Bennett College, […]

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.”

THIS DATE IN THE BOCA BEACON

Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Columns, Community History.

FIVE YEARS AGO Crowder Gulf, a name we know and love from Hurricane Ian cleanup, was on our beaches cleaning up dead fish from red tide. TEN YEARS AGO The first cars went over the new center bridge on August 1, 2013. The Boca Beacon published the first Gasparilla Gazette, newly purchased from the Breeze […]

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Commissioners approve creation of 23 community development positions, funds for families

Written by Boca Beacon Reader on . Posted in Letters to the Editor.

To the Editor:

The Lee Board of County Commissioners voted Tuesday to approve the immediate creation of 23 new positions within the Department of Community Development to address increasing building permit volumes.

Increased permitting volumes are projected to continue over the next several years as Lee County’s population continues to grow and as residents continue to rebuild following Hurricane Ian. From Oct. 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023, Staff accepted 72,516 permit applications, 45,411 of which were identified by the applicant as being hurricane-related. Staff issued 68,362 permits, 43,006 of which were identified by the applicant as being hurricane-related.

In the same period, 207,056 inspections were requested and 131,323 inspections were completed, of which 108,831 were hurricane-related.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Englewood yoga instructor enters final week of beach yoga challenge

Written by Boca Beacon Reader on . Posted in Letters to the Editor.

To the Editor:
Facing off against what has proven to be a mean season of hot summer days under a blistering Florida sun, on August 6 Kris Hleuka of Loving Light Yoga is set to complete a streak of 31 consecutive days leading fellow yoga enthusiasts in their regularly scheduled morning yoga practice on Englewood Beach. Pinch-hitting for Loving Light owners Lata and Robert Coykendall, who after 15 years of sponsoring Englewood’s Community Beach Yoga each and every day (holidays included) decided to actually take a vacation, Hleuka was asked to lead during what turned out to be a record-breaking heat wave.

Cutting the Gordian Knot that is the Boca Grande cell tower

Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in News.

Another chapter has been written in the ongoing “Gordian Knot” saga of the Boca Grande cell phone tower, as this week cell tower committee members have announced that Lee County has finally issued a demolition permit for the Bakery Building. 

At the same time, the committee has had contractors come out to look at the wall between the bakery and The Barnichol Hardware, to determine if it is possible to start construction on the new cell tower base while the building still stands.

It wasn’t days after Hurricane Ian hit the island hard on September 28, 2022 when cellular services started putting up COWs on the island. These Cells on Wheels were placed in the middle of town, as well as one at the north end. There are no COWs south of 1st Street. Even with the COWs, service has been unreliable for many for 10 months now, with some people – primarily on the south end of the island – having no service at all.

Islanders do what they do best when it comes to establishing emergency communications … they do it on their own

Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Community, News.

When the winds died down on September 29, about 12 hours after they began, there was a lot of work to be done on Gasparilla Island. There were people to check on, roads to assess and to clear, wires down to deal with and much more. Our island first responders have been through this before and can triage the situation to formulate a plan of action quickly … but there was one problem. 

There was no way to communicate. Telephone lines were down and our cell tower was destroyed.

What that toppled cellphone tower took away was much more than the ability to chat, surf the web and text. It took away the ability for first responders to interact with each other – agency to agency – to perform the work that is required after a storm of the magnitude of Ian. Much of it is life-saving work, and the inability to do it was deeply disturbing. To this day – 10 months later – there are people on this island who need the immediate ability to communicate to stay alive, and they do not have it.