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HelP earth day 2023 on aMi is all about the water

aMi cities unite on water quality campaign HB enters final phase of road work

By ryan Paice islander reporter

Anna Maria Island’s three cities are leading a combined effort to improve local water quality ahead of Earth Day.

Holmes Beach Mayor Judy

Earth Day 2023

Titsworth attended an April 12 city clean water meeting to announce the Islander 4 Clean Water campaign, an effort sponsored by all three island cities to promote awareness of water quality stewardship.

The campaign includes a 10-point checklist “challenge” consisting of ways people can better protect and improve local water quality.

Some points include:

• Reducing and/or eliminating the use of chemical fertilizers and single-use plastics;

• Conserving fresh water;

• Properly disposing hazardous waste;

• Landscaping with Florida-friendly plants.

The final point asks people to share the campaign online with others by challenging them to complete the checklist and posting videos of themselves taking a plunge in local waters to social media — also tagging the city — to further awareness.

People who complete the checklist challenge can submit their entry by email to deputyclerk@holmesbeachfl.org or at Holmes Beach City Hall, 5801 Marina Drive, to win a promotional item funded by donations to the campaign.

Titsworth said promotional items would include custom T-shirts, rain barrels, compost bins and native plants and they would be distributed after Earth Day, which is Saturday, April 22.

The mayor said an anonymous donor gave $10,000 to the cause.

Other people can help by sending donations to city hall.

Sponsorship includes four levels of benefits based on the amount donated — plankton, oyster, snook and manatee.

People who donate up to $250, or plankton, will be thanked on social media.

By ryan Paice islander reporter

The big picture is starting to come into focus for Holmes Beach on the city center improvement project.

The intersection of Gulf and Marina drives fully reopened and the traffic signal returned to operation the week beginning April 10 for the fi rst time since Sarasotabased C-Squared CGC began construction last September.

The $3,001,460.85 project involves improving drainage infrastructure and adding roadway markings, bicycle lanes, sidewalks, crosswalks, street lighting and landscaping from the intersection of Gulf and Marina drives to the 5600 block of Marina.

That section of Marina Drive was the first segment closed for construction.

There, C-Squared removed asphalt, installed or improved four stormwater drainage pipelines under the roadway, repaved and added new curbing and brick paver sidewalks.

The contractor reopened both lanes of Marina Drive last December but also closed Gulf Drive between its intersections with Marina Drive and Holmes Boulevard.

That section remained closed until April 11 while C-Squared replaced stormwater drainage pipelines along both the north and south sides, then repaved the roadway.

With the main intersection reopened,

Oysters — people who donate up to $1,000 — will be thanked and can have a small logo featured on the campaign’s web page at holmesbeachfl.org.

Snook, who donate up to $5,000, and manatees, who donate up to $10,000, will be thanked with space and logos on the web page.

Titsworth, an island native, said clean water is per-

Marylou Kelley, BB public works staffer, dies

A member of the Bradenton Beach public works team, Marylou Kelley, 62, of Holmes Beach, died April 10 in the home she shared with her companion of 19 years, William “Billy” Limberg.

According to an obituary, Ms. Kelley was born Aug. 27, 1960, in Grand Rapids, Michigan sonal to her, since she’s seen local sea life diminish over her lifetime. She said plentiful bay waters once held starfish, scallops and even horseshoe crabs but now are practically barren.

She was loved by many and will be greatly missed. A celebration of life will be 1-3 p.m. Saturday, April 29, at the Sports Lounge, 118 Bridge St., Bradenton Beach.

Ms. Kelley is survived by Billy; son Ian and partner Christy Tomlinson of Davenport; dad Bruce; granddaughters Allyson Williams, Darien, Chloe and Abigail Tomlinson of Florida and Chasity Tomlinson of Indiana; grandson Devin Tomlinson of Michigan; great-grandson Jensen Spelts of Indiana; siblings Jim and partner Connie, Judy and partner Eric Birdsall of Michigan, and Susan of Florida.

She said she hopes the campaign will inspire people to do what they can to improve local water quality.

“It’s gotten to the point now where everybody has to do something,” Titsworth said. “Every single person has to do their part.”

Sarasota Bay Estuary Program public outreach manager Megan Barry said many Floridians can relate to Titsworth’s experience and applauded the island cities’ campaign.

“Our water quality faces a lot more challenges than it historically has,” Barry told The Islander April 14. “Human activity and development put a lot of stress on our bay. … We all need to get involved and mitigate some of these activities that are causing stress.”

The SBEP is a cooperative partnership focused on improving the health of Sarasota Bay and promoting water stewardship.

Barry said the Islanders 4 Clean Water campaign might not address larger, systemic issues with water pollution but it is a good start to addressing issues.

“Promoting stewardship locally is going to have a direct local environmental impact. So I think that’s kind of why that local focus really does have a really deep return on investment,” Barry said. “You can see the changes so shortly after doing the right thing.”

While the campaign is the island’s first collaborative clean water initiative, all three island cities have separately approached the issue of water quality in some manner.

In Anna Maria, the city leased a T-end building on its city pier to the Mote Marine Laboratory to establish an educational outreach center.

Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy wrote in an April 13 email to The Islander that he believes the outreach center will “provide an educational platform for both public awareness of the issues we face with water quality as well as assisting in developing scientific solu- tions.”

The outreach center is set to open Friday, May 5. The city of Bradenton Beach seeded tens of thousands of clams in bay waters near the city pier, where the filter feeders help clean the water.

Holmes Beach created a clean water committee in 2021 to act as an advisory board to the city commission, with a focus on coordinating community activity, philanthropy and government action to improve water quality.

“As I see it, all three cities in our island community are taking steps to address the issue facing us regarding water quality,” Murphy wrote. “We believe our island community as a whole is in the forefront on this issue and providing leadership in finding solutions.”

Commercial fishing industry workers in Cortez share their perspectives in 5 new videos.

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Post invite riGHT: @visit_bradenton — the instagram account for the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau — invites users to share their images from the old jail at the Anna Maria island Historical Society grounds in Anna Maria. FAr riGHT: An instagram post for the North Shore Cafe in Anna Maria features the cafe’s resident pup — Skipper, who “naps on the job,” according to the post.

Visitors bureau: Strike a pose on AMI

Say, “Insta.”

The Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau — Manatee County’s booster club for tourism — compiled for visitors a list of “the eight most Instagrammable spots” in the area.

Five spots on AMI made the list of eight:

• North Shore Cafe, 304 Pine Ave., Anna Maria, which features a “Greetings from Anna Maria Island” mural by artist Robert Johnson.

• Bean Point beach in Anna Maria, with the Tampa Bay and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge “as the perfect backdrop for capturing the perfect shot.”

• Ginny’s and Jane E’s Cafe and Gift Store, 9807

Gulf Drive, Anna Maria, which boasts “colorful vintage décor,” an “eclectic atmosphere” and a bright primary-colored façade.

• The old Anna Maria city jail, 402 Pine Ave., Anna Maria, for shots inside and outside the cell with “no roof, no doors, no windows, no bars.”

• The clocktower at the Historic Bridge Street Pier, 200 Bridge St., Bradenton Beach, described as “one of Anna Maria Island’s most iconic spots.”

Also on the list: Whitney’s restaurant on Longboat Key; the railroad bridge at the Bradenton Riverwalk; the Village of the Arts district in Bradenton.

— lisa Neff

Design for Earth Day

Holmes Beach is taking entries for its first annual Earth Day poster contest, themed “Islanders 4 Clean Water,” for 2023.

The contest will feature two brackets of competition — one children and one for adults.

Earth Day 2023

There are no rules on how to make a poster for the contest, other than it must be original and 8.5-inches wide by 11-inches tall.

The criteria for selecting a winner includes five factors: artistic merit, message, uniqueness to AMI, originality and creativity.

The city will accept physical and digital entries, which can be delivered to the deputy clerk at city hall, 5801 Marina Drive, or pwadministrator@holmesbeachfl.org.

The city will announce the winners Saturday, April 22.

Q&a 041923

The Islander poll

Last week’s question

By lisa Neff

My usual way of reaching an island beach.

41%. Drive.

51%. Walk.

3%. Trolley.

5%. Bike.

This week’s question

The most important environmental priority for local governments should be …

A. Working for clean water.

B. Banning single-use plastics.

C. Hardening against sea level rise.

D. Limiting development.

E. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To answer the poll, go online to islander.org.