Longboat Key News and Sarasota City News encourages Letters to the Editor on timely issues. Please email to: letters@lbknews.com or mail to PO Box 8001, Longboat Key, FL 34228. We also print letters sent to Town Hall that address Longboat Key issues. We reserve the right to edit.
Lighting
To: Longboat Key Human Resources Assistant Lori Gubernat
Thank you for the invite to take more pictures, but Mr. Drake was gracious enough to let us take photos from inside and outside his home. Based on the site inspection, which included multiple vantage points and locations, the investigation is being closed with a finding of no violation due to the very limited location in which the commercial property’s lighting is visible. The commercial property has complied with the Special Magistrate’s Correction Order with the installation of shields and upon inspection they all appear level and in proper working order.
Bryan Wisnom
Code Enforcement Officer Planning, Zoning & Building Dept.
Town of Longboat Key
Lighting
To: Longboat Key Commission
These photos were taken just this morning around 6:45 a.m. from our kitchen and dining room…I am asking you to please have the lights covered better than they currently are.
Michael and Amy Drake
Longboat Key
Infrastructure
To: Longboat Key Commissioner BJ Bishop
I just left you a voicemail. When you have a moment today, please call me to discuss your email. The outage was not related to the underground infrastructure, and I’m happy to discuss it further with you in more depth so you feel prepared to answer any questions or concerns you receive from your constituents.
Devaney Iglesias
Longboat Key
Infrastructure
To: Devaney Iglesias
Not sure you received my email from Tuesday. I am continuing to receive phone calls and comments at Pilates and Tennis about the massive power outage on August 20. I am being questioned on the $28 million expense of undergrounding and this failure on a sunny afternoon — I need a why to provide to our residents.
The other issue that came up is more information being provided by FPL about the outage would have eliminated the hundreds of calls that were received at Town Hall.
Look forward to hearing from you.
BJ Bishop
Commissioner
Longboat Key
Greenfields Outdoor Fitness
To: Longboat Key Commissioner B.J. Bishop
Thanks for stopping by the Greenfields booth at the FLC conference last week, it was a pleasure meeting you. I’d be glad to assist with adding fitness equipment to the City of Longboat key. Did you have a specific park in mind?
As you may know, we offer custom gym design as a free service – this is a great way to help others catch your vision for an outdoor fitness area! Please take a look at the example I’ve attached.
Here is a link to our Florida project portfolio that I’d like to share with you: Florida Project Portfolio – Greenfields Outdoor Fitness
Here is a quick recap about Greenfields Outdoor Fitness:
We offer various equipment options to create inclusive, multigenerational, and multifunctional fitness opportunities for all communities.
Our complete product line can be found on our website at greenfieldsfitness.com.
We have several cooperative purchasing contracts to help make the purchasing process easier.
I am excited to hear from you. Thank you!
Edward Escamilla
Project Manager
Greenfields Outdoor Fitness
Greenfields Outdoor Fitness
To: Longboat Key Public Works Director Isaac Brownman
Not that we are doing anything more at Bayfront but this equipment was impressive.
BJ Bishop
Commissioner
Town of Longboat Key
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Sarasota Bay update
To: Longboat Key Commission
Over the past two weeks, we’ve been giving you regular updates on the health of the lower portion of Sarasota Bay, to document its response to the passage of Tropical Storm Debby. We’ve focused our efforts on the lower bay, because it is viewed as being more susceptible to impacts from such storms. For example, the lower bay has a much higher watershed-to-open water ratio than the upper bay, which means more stormwater runoff drains into each acre of the lower bay. In fact, the watershed-to-open water ratio of those portions of Sarasota Bay south of Siesta Drive is about ten times higher than the ratio for the upper bay. Also, the lower bay, particularly Little Sarasota Bay, has much longer residence times, than the upper bay. For example, about 60 to 80% of the water in the upper bay is exchanged with the Gulf of Mexico over 10 days, while in Litle Sarasota Bay, there is only about a 27% water exchange over the same 10-day period. Assuming the lower rate in the upper bay (60% over 10 days) that would mean that after 20 days, we’d expect 76% of the water to be exchanged with the Gulf of Mexico, while in Little Sarasota Bay, it would take more than a month to have a similar amount of water exchange (see Table 3 of Chapter 5 in SBEP’s “Framework for Action” – Sarasota Bay FFA).
But thanks to our friends at the Gulf Shellfish Institute, specifically Dr. Stephen Hesterberg, we have data on the amount of phytoplankton (expressed in units of chlorophyll-a) from a regularly sampled location around Longbar Point, in the upper bay. The data, provided earlier today – portray a different pattern than what some might have anticipated –
On this graph, the dots represent the average value for two depths at each of three locations in the upper bay, inside of Longboat Pass. The red line represents the chlorophyll-a value in the Numeric Nutrient Concentration (NNC) criteria that were developed by the SBEP in 2013, and then reviewed and adopted by FDEP and approved by EPA.
Two events are included along the timeline. The first is the huge rain event of June 11th, when we had the most intense hour of rainfall recorded in over 50 years – Director’s Note: And, a setback… (sarasotabay.org). The data show a fairly substantial and immediate increase in the amount of phytoplankton in the bay after that event, The data also show that phytoplankton levels incre