If you were to find ten young adults who grew up in Boca Grande during the 2000s and ask them who the most influential people in their lives were, you can be guaranteed a good number of them would say the name DJ, or “Coach,” Keisling. DJ has been working at the Boca Grande Community Center’s events and summer camp for a very long time … time he has made good use of. The number of young lives he has positively impacted is countless. Not to mention, it just wouldn’t be a proper egg hunt without him there between hunts, throwing candy to the wind with joyous abandon, surrounded by hundreds of young children who look as though they might eat him for brunch if he didn’t step up the pace.
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.
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.
John Henry Eckenroad, III, 78, of Boca Grande, Florida passed away surrounded by his family on July 24, 2022.Born on August 14, 1943, John spent the first years of his life in Clarendon Hills, Illinois with his parents, Mary and John Jr. and his younger sister, Ann. John attended St. Procopius High School before the […]
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.
We are so excited to announce our new music series, “Rhythm & Boots,” featuring some of the top talent in the Country & Bluegrass scene. This concert series spans all of our venues, with two outdoor concerts at the Friends Pavilion, one in the Auditorium and the other in the intimate atmosphere of the Crowninshield Community House.
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.
“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.”
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.
Andy said the focus has changed somewhat in the last months. Initially, the emphasis was on vehicles, gas and safety equipment to help people evacuate. Today the evacuations have slowed significantly and the new emphasis is on restoring normalcy where they can. Housing is a major item. “We are working with a church in Kyiv to clear land and set up modular houses,” Andy reported. Each house can be put up for $1,900 to $2,000, and, when necessary, can house two families. “So a $4,000 donation from a church or group can make a real difference,” he said.
