AM mayor details plans for city centennial celebration

By ryan Paice islander reporter

Anna Maria’s 100-year anniversary is just around the corner.

And city officials are ready to celebrate.

Mayor Dan Murphy said April 13 that plans for the city’s Memorial Day and Centennial Celebration were “coming together nicely.”

Anna Maria was the first of the island’s three cities to incorporate— doing so in 1923.

The cities of Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach were incorporated in 1950 and 1953, respectively.

Murphy said the festivities would begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 31, at City Pier Park, 103 N. Bay Blvd., with the city’s annual Memorial Day Patriotic Symphony Salute.

The Memorial Day program will honor fallen veterans, attending veterans, active service members and their spouses or significant others, with an orchestra performing patriotic music and the theme songs of each branch of the United States military.

Murphy said the program will run for about 45 minutes.

Afterward, the event will morph into a Centennial Celebration, featuring a cake-cutting and music that was popular during the time of the city’s incorporation.

Longtime islander Tom Aposporos will act as master of ceremonies for the event and discuss the city’s creation and its first mayor, Mitch Davis.

Murphy said he also asked the Anna Maria Island Historical Society to come up with interesting facts about the city’s history to present during the event.

“I’m looking forward to what they come up with,” he said.

Murphy said the city will create a commemorative flag for the event and place it on every other light post along Gulf Drive and Pine Avenue, alternating posts with American flags.

He added that the city may offer some of the commemorative flags for sale to the public.

Murphy has previously said the city would create commemorative coins to hand out at the event.

Commissioner Deanie Sebring, a member of the Anna Maria Island Garden Club, said the club members want to donate a bench with a plaque commemorating the centennial.

Sebring said the bench could be placed near the flagpole at City Pier Park, where the garden club contributed to the recent addition of two wind sculptures as a part of an effort to beautify the island.

“We thought that would be kind of a nice touch,” she said.

There was no public comment.

Palma Sola highway committee drops bathroom plans

By ryan Paice islander reporter

A couple of portable toilets might solve the Palma Sola Scenic Highway Committee’s gripes about restrooms on the causeway.

Manatee County parks and recreation department grounds maintenance supervisor Liza Click told committee members April 12 that she would inquire about the potential addition of one or two port-a-potties at the causeway’s boat ramp.

The toilet addition may be an easy solution to an issue the committee has wrestled with in past months: there are no restrooms on the south side of the causeway.

Committee members initially sought to add a crosswalk and lower the speed limit to 30 mph on Manatee Avenue so people on the south side could safely cross to the bathrooms on the north side.

However, after the Florida Department of Transportation expressed concern about both suggestions, the committee pivoted and pursued the addition of permanent restrooms on the south side.

Committee Chair Craig Keys said a committee member would need to address Bradenton’s city coun- cil to make such a request, since the city has jurisdiction over the land.

Committee vice chair Ingrid McClellan said two permanent restrooms for the causeway — a 1-mile stretch of road — may be unnecessary. She said she supported the addition of a crosswalk like the committee initially proposed, but no longer supported adding another permanent restroom.

She instead proposed adding one or two portable toilets to the causeway boat ramp to provide people at the ramp and on the south side with restroom access.

Click said she did not know why the county didn’t have portable toilets at the boat ramp already and would ask about adding toilets there.

She said the issue with portable toilets was the cost of regular cleaning, as well as overuse.

Click said the county received several complaints about the overuse of a portable toilet at the Kingfish Boat Ramp in Holmes Beach before it added a second port-a-potty, so they might want to add a pair of them right off the bat.

The scenic highway committee will meet next at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 9, at the Bradenton public works building, 1411 Ninth St. W.

Battery fire extinguished in Anna Maria

By ryan Paice

islander reporter

A typically quiet Sunday afternoon ended with a bang April 16 in Anna Maria.

West Manatee Fire Rescue fire Marshal Rodney Kwiatkowski told The Islander that firefighters had extinguished a battery fire in the garage at 316 Hammock Circle, Anna Maria.

Kwiatkowski said Mayor Dan Murphy, who lives nearby, first reported hearing explosions around 4:56 p.m. coming from inside the home, owned by John and Ann Hackinson.

Firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke coming from the two-car garage.

After securing the perimeter, firefighters entered the property to find multiple lithium-ion batteries had exploded while charging in the garage, resulting in a “white glowing” fire that was extinguished with water.

Firefighters also rescued a dog from a kennel that was in the house during the incident.

“The crews did an amazing job,” Kwiatkowski said. “It’s a good outcome. Nobody was hurt.”

While old and/or damaged batteries can be prone to fires or explosions, Hackinson told Kwiatkowski the batteries had been recently purchased, so one or more may have been defective.

“Even brand-new batteries can have a defect of some type straight from the manufacturer,” Kwiatkowski said.

Kwiatkowski did not provide an estimated cost of damage to the property but said it had been contained to the garage and a golf cart that was parked inside might be a total loss.

Murphy wrote in an April 16 text message to The Islander that he was happy the Hackinsons and their dog were unscathed.

“I heard several small explosions and ran over to their house. I thought John might be inside,” Murphy wrote. “My wife Barb called the Hackinsons’ cellphone

Murphy April 13 discusses the city’s plans for a Memorial DayCentennial Celebration in May to honor the 100-year anniversary of the city’s creation in 1923.

AM mayor announces new deputy clerk

The city of Anna Maria has a new addition to its administrative staff.

Mayor Dan Murphy announced April 13 at a city meeting that the city had hired West Palm Beach resident Fransheska Berrios as a deputy clerk.

The role has remained open since Debbie Haynes retired in December 2021.

Berrios will be leaving a position as deputy/utility clerk for the town of Mangonia Park, a post she has held since January 2013.

She graduated Nassau Community College in New York with a degree in business law. She also has a legal administrative assistant/secretary degree.

Murphy said he believes the city has found a “jewel” and was most impressed with Berrios’ people skills, which he said were a necessity for the role.

He said Berrios was set to move and begin work for the city in the first week of May.

Berrios, who attended the meeting via speakerphone, said she was “very pleased” to accept the position and was looking forward to the move and contributing to the city.

— ryan Paice

and, as it turned out, they were on the beach… much to the deputies and my relief!”

“We are so thankful nobody was injured!” he added.