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VOL 17 No. 36
June 21, 2017
Big changes come to Center board The Center’s board of directors are experiencing a changing of the guard. BY KRISTIN SWAIN SUN STAFF WRITER | kswain@amisun.com
KRISTIN SWAIN | SUN
ANNA MARIA — The Center of Anna Maria Island is weathering more than a little upheaval on its board of directors. Board Chair Bill Shuman resigned as chair June 12, electing to remain on the board as a member. Center Executive Director Kristen Lessig said Shuman’s reasons for resigning were primarily his health due to the stress of the position and scrutiny from the community. “It weighs on him,” she said. The move placed Vice Chair Patty McBean as interim chair and caused a rift between board members, as she was usurped by newly minted board member David Zaccagnino in an emergency vote. Zaccagnino joined the Center board in April. Events began unraveling when an emergency meeting was called June 12, attended by 12 board members with four attending via telephone. The meeting was not open to the public.
The Center of Anna Maria Island has experienced a shakeup on its board of directors, opening a rift among members and prompting calls for a review of the nonprofit’s finances.
$11.6M tourism budget proposed
Rex Hagen remembered BY JOE HENDRICKS SUN CORRESPONDENT | jhendricks@amsun.com
BY CINDY LANE SUN STAFF WRITER | clane@amisun.com
The Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) proposes spending $11,675,206 to market Manatee County to tourists during 2018/2019. The county’s Tourist Development Council unanimously recommended the budget to the Manatee County Commission on Monday. Following a 61 percent increase in 2016/2017 from the previous two years, primarily to promote the 2017 World Rowing Championships, the proposed budget represents a 9 percent decrease from 2016/2017. The two-year budget breaks down to $5,876,473 for 2018 and $5,798,733 for 2019. A new budget item will pay for a new employee see tourism, page 12
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ANNA MARIA – Rex Hagen passed away Saturday morning at the age of 89, leaving behind a legacy of charitable efforts and good deeds. Hagen was The Sun’s person of the year for 2010. At that time, he and his late wife, Helen, who passed away in 2009, had donated more than $100,000 to the cities of Holmes Beach and Anna Maria and The Center through the Hagen Family Foundation he founded in 1986. The Hagens first came to the Island in the 1950s, when Rex was stationed at MacDill Air Force
Work gets under
way on new Margaritaville. 4
Anna Maria Island, Florida
see center, page13
base in Tampa. In 1957, Rex bought the Superior Sample Company in Ligonier, Ind., a family business that still manufac- Hagen tures fabric and apparel swatch cards. During the 1960s, the Hagen family often vacationed at Resort 66 in Holmes Beach. Rex and Helen later bought a condominium in the Nautilus complex and in the 1970s began wintering on the Island. In the mid-1980s, they built a home in Holmes Beach; and in 2002 they moved to Anna Maria. In Holmes Beach, they donated funds for boat ramp improve-
ments, palm trees, shuffleboard equipment, ballpark and soccer field improvements, a lightning warning system, Christmas lights, fencing, signage, landscaping and more. They also paid for the tot lot, and the restrooms by the skate park. Their support of The Center in Anna Maria included donations to build and maintain the tennis courts and support for children’s programs and services. The Hagens also supported their hometown of Ligonier, making donations for a skate park, playground equipment, park beautification, a soccer field and a riverwalk project. see rex, page 34
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