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Profile Kelly Emery

■ BY SUE ERWIN Kelly Emery is a great person to know when you need to cool down, especially during the steamy days of September in Southwest Florida. Kelly is the change-out coordinator at Grande Aire in Boca Grande. If your air conditioning unit breaks and you call for help, your name and paperwork will most likely […]

Profile Mitch Smith

■ BY SUE ERWIN Mitch Smith recalls spending the summer months of his youth at day camp at the Boca Grande Community Center. His father, Myron, worked for a cleaning business on the island for many years. His mother, Janice, worked as a teacher in Charlotte County for many years and now works for the Department of […]

Never forget that Texas could have been us

■ BY MARCY SHORTUSE This week many of us watched in horror as Hurricane Harvey turned into a nasty houseguest who wouldn’t leave and left thousands of people in Texas and Louisiana homeless, displaced and, in some circumstances, dead. It was an unprecedented storm in the fact it stalled out over land and dropped enough […]

Make Boca Grande quiet again … redux

To the Editor: Thanks for all the verbal support received concerning leafblower noise and health hazards. Remember … if daily and weekly leafblowing were done every other day and week, noise and pollution would be reduced by 50 percent immediately! Speaking of pollution, here are some “fun” facts: All four-stroke engines fire ALL of their […]

A smooth surface: GICIA bike path resurfacing has begun

■ SUBMITTED BY THE GICIA – It has been more than 30 years since the Gasparilla Island Conservation and Improvement Association (GICIA) bike path was constructed and opened to the public. In that time, with the community’s generous support, GICIA has continued to beautify the 35 acres of property that creates the gateway to Boca Grande. […]

The Gasparilla Island Act: Part II Building in Boca, and a war of words over the island’s future

■ BY SUSAN HANAFEE Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles about the forces that have shaped development in Boca Grande and on Gasparilla Island. As the tarpon season is getting underway in 1975, a station wagon backs into a gas pump at Millers Marina, rupturing a 5,000-gallon tank. The resulting […]

PROFILE: Karen Kelly

■ BY SUE ERWIN – Known for her smiling face and pleasant manner, Karen Kelley wears many hats at The Island School, where she has been employed since the school started back in 1999. Karen worked in the office that first school year, eventually leading her to other positions as a paraprofessional, creative arts and drama teacher, as […]