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FEBRUARY 2017 941.349.0194 | ISLAND VISITOR PUBLISHING, LLC
LMA BOARD ELECTIONS This year the presidents will vote to fill five of the nine board seats. There are currently six highly qualified candidates
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KID’S CORNER
Meet Grace Hollingsworth, 9, 3rd grader at Out-of-Door Academy
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Landings Shopping Plaza Sold Benderson Development Co. has purchased The Landings Shopping Center and has plans to revitalize the neighborhood retail hub that has struggled to maintain tenants in recent years. The property had gone into foreclosure last year. Mark Chait, the executive director of leasing for Manatee County-based Benderson, said the company purchased the property in an auction on Tuesday. Financial details such as the purchase price were not disclosed. Continued on page 21
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New owners build custom home and keep the tree swing Realtor predicts more new homes in the community By Roger Drouin During their search for a site on which to build a new home, Bob and Kay Goodman looked throughout several West of the Trail neighborhoods. Then their attention was drawn to a single-family home in The Landings. The large, corner lot afforded privacy and the lot size they were seeking. It was, however, a grand oak, complete with a charming swing that won them over. The Goodmans purchased the home, at 5169 Kestral Park Lane, in July, and are in the process of building a new home, to be constructed by John Cannon Homes, Inc., on the site. As of press time, the demolition of the existing home was nearly complete. Of course, they are keeping the large oak on the property. “It is probably a 100 years old,” notes Kay
Goodman. The Goodmans’ home is the second new home to replace an existing home in The Landings in two years. Tim Field, a realtor and brokerassociate at Michael Saunders Real Estate and the buyer’s agent for the Goodmans, believes that more such projects could be expected within The Landings — following a trend that is already visible in West-of-theTrail neighborhoods such as Hudson Bayou or Harbor Acres. “People don’t necessarily want to go to Lakewood Ranch,” Field says. “They want to be closer in [to Sarasota], and they want new.” In some ways— such as precise cost estimates—newer construction can be easier than a remodeling project, the realtor says. Continued on page 31
Through The Eyes of a Veteran Ed Brown was born in 1925 and raised in New York City. Upon graduating from Valley Forge Military Academy in 1944, he volunteered for induction into the U.S. Army and eventually was assigned to the 134th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division in the European Theater of Operations, initially to Patton’s Third Army. Following an abbreviated basic infantry training at Camp Croft, SC, on the day after his 19th birthday, Ed was rushed to Belgium as a much-needed replacement during the Battle of the Bulge. Because of combat injuries the young PFC was awarded two Purple Heart medals. His stories from that era show his extraordinary ability to cope with difficult situations. In February, 1945, Ed’s unit was part of a major night attack in Germany’s Rhineland. The key objective facing his
A large oak was one of the factors that won over the Goodmans, and the tree will remain on the property
By Diana Colson
squad of ten men lay across a mile-wide field of snow bisected by a rushing creek. The squad had been chosen to lead the company, and was provided with a hastily improvised foot bridge consisting of a long plank lashed to two empty oil drums. Following a massive artillery barrage designed to dislodge the enemy, the squad moved out into the freezing night fully aware of its mission’s importance. However, when they arrived at their bridge site and lowered the front barrel into the water, the force of the stream tore the bridge downstream out of the hands of the GI’s, rendering it useless. Still, their mission remained. Without a command or even a word, the men marched silently forward and crossed the creek up to their chests in icy water, rifles held high. Six or seven layers of cotton and wool winter uniforms simply absorbed the water with no opportunity to dry out.
Ed Brown Continued on page 26