Written by Boca Beacon on . Posted in News.
Over the past week, the red tide organism Karenia brevis was detected in 86 samples collected from Florida’s Gulf Coast. Bloom concentrations (>100,000 cells/liter) were present in three samples: one from Sarasota County, one offshore of Lee County and one offshore of Collier County. In Southwest Florida over the past week, K. brevis was observed […]
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Boca Beacon Back Pages, Columns.
Boca Beacon backpages Aries: This is the week of self-realization, meaning you’ll realize how many chips you scarfed down during the Golden Girls marathon. Maybe the answer to what your pondering isn’t at the bottom of the chip back but in the words of the Ms. Petrillo herself – “To get back to my youth […]
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Community History.
The Whispering Bench has been demolished as of this morning at 10:45 a.m. People started making phone calls at about 7 a.m. this Saturday morning, April 22. “It’s gone,” they said. “They’re taking it away.” By 8 a.m. a crowd was forming at 161 Gilchrist Ave., watching heavy equipment take the Whispering Bench down, one […]
Written by Staff Report on . Posted in News, Police & Fire.
Since Hurricane Ian, the Boca Grande Fire Department has been working hard to update and finesse certain policies and procedures to optimize response to such natural disasters. One of those policies is the hurricane hang tag policy, which is still being worked on at this time.
It is imperative that you get hang tags prior to a storm and, preferably, prior to the beginning of storm season. Tags will not be issued just prior to a storm, as department workers will be busy preparing and doing other things.
Make sure all hang tags under your name are accounted for and in the right hands … and that includes tags that you might have asked for right after the storm that you haven’t picked up yet.
Written by Sheila Evans on . Posted in News.
Lexi was a vibrant, soft-ball-playing, teenager. No one suspected that the blurry vision and headaches she started experiencing around the first of March this year could be anything terribly serious. Teenagers always have something new going on with their bodies. But Briana wanted to be on the safe side and took her to Dr. Tad Kosanovich, at Englewood Eye Center, where Briana was working.
The optometrist discovered there was a serious problem and immediately referred the family to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, in St. Petersburg. There, doctors saw that a large tumor was present on the left side of Lexi’s brain. They acted quickly and operated, removing the entire tumor. With further examination, however, they found she still had cancer, and it was aggressive and was already at stage 4, meaning it had spread.
Written by Boca Beacon Reader on . Posted in Letters to the Editor.
To the Editor: Regarding 161/181 Gilchrist Avenue: As I said at the meeting, “When Mrs. Crowninshield’s hand-carved coral bench met its’ demise by a sledgehammer and was thrown in a dumpster, I feared this day would come,” the day when someone can come into the historic district with total disregard for the history, and for […]
Written by Boca Beacon Reader on . Posted in Letters to the Editor.
To the Editor: It was nice to know that five rows of legal representatives and assorted experts did not carry the day on April 12 when the Historic Preservation Board met to hear proposals making certain changes to 161/181 Gilchrist. Kudos to Sue Sligar, Tom Bowers and others who spoke passionately and eloquently against some […]
Written by Sheila Evans on . Posted in News, Profiles.
This week Mote Marine Laboratories wrapped up its 2023 Coffee with a Scientist series of presentations at the Boca Grande Community Center. The series took deep dives, so to speak, into some of the research going on by Mote scientists. Through this series, audiences have had the opportunity to hear from the scientists, themselves, about their work and its value to the betterment of the Gulf, and the rest of the world.
Written by Marcy Shortuse on . Posted in Featured News, Obituaries.
Elsie Bracken: 1933 – 2023 The one man who could tame Elsie Bracken, has done so. God took her on April 15, 2023, and probably had no idea what he was getting himself into. One perfect description was given by a friend of hers: “A jalapeno frosted in fondant.” If the word “feisty” belittles her, […]
Written by Staff Report on . Posted in Featured News, Obituaries.
Elsie Selden Bracken, 90, died April 15, 2023, peacefully at home in Boca Grande, FL. She was born in North Carolina. She lived in Sarasota and later moved to Boca Grande, in 1978. She was famous for her prowess fishing for tarpon catching record numbers with pictures of fish that were bigger than she […]