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VOL 20 No. 9
December 11, 2019
Holiday fun fills AMI KRISTIN SWAIN | SUN
A busy holiday weekend greeted visitors to the Island Chamber’s tree-lighting ceremony Friday night, above left, followed by The Center’s Lester Family Fun Day on Saturday afternoon, above right, and Roser Church’s Bethlehem Walk on Sunday evening. More coverage of the season’s recent and upcoming festivities appear inside in this edition of The Sun on Pages 4, 5, 11 and 32.
Public input sought on museum changes BY CINDY LANE SUN STAFF WRITER | clane@amisun.com
CORTEZ – The Florida Maritime Museum is planning a redesign and is inviting public comment on its conceptual plan daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Saturday, Dec. 14, with a tour offered on Saturday at 10 a.m. The plan was designed by The Creative Pool, an exhibit design firm that has worked in Tarpon Springs, another maritime community, Florida Maritime Museum Supervisor Kristin Sweeting said. The Friends of the Florida Maritime Museum, the non-profit which supports
the museum, hired the company to produce the plan, which includes new exhibits on Florida’s working waterfront communities using Cortez “as a lens to tell those stories,” she said. “The goal is to add content but not take away Cortez.” Visitors to the museum at 4415 119th St. W. will notice that some changes already have been made, including the removal of the children’s play area named for longtime volunteer Sam Bell, which is now an exhibit featuring the U.S. Coast Guard. SEE MUSEUM, PAGE 35
Pines plague parking project BY CINDY LANE SUN STAFF WRITER | clane@amisun.com
BRADENTON BEACH – Controversy over Australian pine trees in the Coquina Beach parking lot may slow down or stop the second phase of a $6 million drainage project, county tourism officials learned on Monday. The county removed 103 of the non-native pines and replaced them with native species in phase one at the southern end of the parking area, scheduled to be completed by February or March, Mike Sturm, project manager at the Manatee County Public Works Department, told Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) members.
Another 126 pines will need to be removed at the northern end in phase two, he said. Spirited discussions at city and county meetings about removing the first batch of trees caused the project to fall three to four months behind, he said, adding that the city of Bradenton Beach required the county to replace the 103 pines with 103 native, salt-tolerant trees, mostly black olive, gumbo limbo and green buttonwood. The county exceeded the city’s height requirements, choosing trees 8-12 feet high, Sturm said. TDC Chair and Manatee County Commissioner Carol Whitmore was SEE PARKING, PAGE 33
INSIDE
CHRISTMAS
NEWS 4 CALENDAR 7 OUTDOORS 26-27 OBITUARIES 31 REAL ESTATE 36-40 SPORTS 42 CLASSIFIEDS 45-47
A MASTER artist captures
Pavlov entices with the rich flavors of the holiday season. Food & Wine. 28
historic Cortez on canvas. 14
Anna Maria Island, Florida
KYLE SHELL leaves behind a
legacy of love and music. 15
The Island’s award-winning weekly newspaper www.amisun.com