Commissioners to discuss sandwich board signs

BY JOE HENDRICKS

SUN CORRESPONDENT | jhendricks@amisun.com

ANNA MARIA – The Anna Maria City Commission plans to discuss the enforcement and/or amendment of the city’s sign ordinance as it pertains to sandwich board signs later this month.

During the city commission’s Aug. 3 meeting, the commission agreed to revisit this topic during its Thursday, Aug. 24 meeting.

During the Aug. 3 meeting, Mayor Dan Murphy said he received an email complaint about the A-framed sandwich board signs located along Pine Avenue. Murphy was referencing the July 29 email he and the commissioners received from Judy Somers.

In her email, Somers wrote, “I thought the sandwich boards on Pine Avenue were supposed to disappear after the COVID restrictions? Then I was told they were still there because codes (code enforcement) didn’t have the manpower/ womanpower to enforce things, but they should be taken in each night. The sandwich boards are not removed at night. They’re not even piled about against the buildings. There are sandwich boards sitting right on top of the sidewalk 24 hours a day. People trip over them. They’re ugly and unnecessary. The sandwich boards keep proliferating. Is this something that’s just part of our lives here now?”

During Thursday’s meeting, of city commissioners prohib ited sandwich board signs and another group of commissioners later temporarily allowed them again in response to the City Pier being damaged during Hurricane Irma and later closed for reconstruction, and later in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Murphy said sandwich board signs benefit local businesses and he doesn’t want them to be illegal, but some additional commission discussion and decision-making is needed in regard to tightening up the existing sign regulations.

BARBARA MURPHY | SUBMITTED

AMI Historical Society Secretary Carolyn Orshak and Bill Romberger proudly display the wooden rocking chairs he refurbished for the museum.

Museum appreciates refurbished rockers

The Anna Maria Island Historical Society is grateful for the time Bill Romberger voluntarily spent refurbishing the four well-used and much-enjoyed rocking chairs that sit on the front porch of the AMI Historical Museum in Anna Maria. “They look brand new,” Historical Society board member Barbara Murphy said of the refurbished chairs. Romberger is a full-time Holmes Beach resident who works as a broker associate at Duncan Real Estate. He’s also an AMI Chamber of Commerce board member, heads the Suncoast Surfrider Foundation and volunteers at the new Mote Marine educational outreach center on the Anna Maria City Pier. “Even with all his other involvements, Bill still found time to volunteer his time and talent at the museum,” Murphy said.