Longboat Letters to the Editor week of October 30, 2026

To: Longboat Key Commission

I want to let you know about an upcoming staff transition at the SBEP. After five years of dedicated service as our Operations Manager, Heather Moody will be leaving the organization on November 30th. Throughout her time with the SBEP, Heather has played an essential role in ensuring our operations run efficiently and effectively. Her contributions have supported not only the organization but also our many partners throughout the watershed.

Heather has long expressed an interest in returning to conservation, and she has accepted an exciting position with The Nature Conservancy, where she will manage the 11,500-acre Disney Wilderness Preserve. This is a wonderful opportunity for her to reconnect with the type of work she is passionate about, and we are thrilled for her as she takes this next step in her career.

We thank Heather for her outstanding service to the SBEP and wish her every success in her new role. The SBEP will be advertising the Operations Manager position starting on Monday, November 2nd in the Careers page of our website. If you know of qualified candidates, please feel free to share the opportunity or circulate the announcement through your professional networks.

Ryan Gandy

Executive Director

Sarasota Bay Estuary Program

To: Sarasota Bay Estuary Program Executive Director Ryan Gandy

So sorry to hear about Heather leaving. I’m very excited for her and congratulate her on her new position. It sounds like a perfect match for her skill set. Please give her our best from all of us on Longboat Key, and thank her for her dedication throughout the years.

Gary Coffin

Commissioner

Town of Longboat Key

To: Longboat Key Commissioner Gary Coffin

She has been an essential part of our team and will be missed. I will relay your gratitude for her service and wishing her good luck in the new job. It is great to see staff grow and move on to new opportunities.

Ryan Gandy

Executive Director

Sarasota Bay Estuary Program

To: Sarasota Bay Estuary Executive Director Ryan Gandy

Thanks, Ryan please let me know if I can be of any assistance through the transition.

Gary Coffin

Commissioner

Town of Longboat Key

 

To: Longboat Key Commissioner Steve Branham

Hi Steve, Hope you are doing great. I don’t know if the town is aware of what’s happening on our sidewalks or not, but I wanted to make someone was aware.

With the new water piping in Country Club Shores, the contractor is continually running up and down the GOM sidewalk, taking bobcats with buckets full of soil and sod to their staging area on Channel dr. Attached are a few damage photos I grabbed this morning. You can also see in one of the attached photos the tire marks and dirt that shows this is how they are moving it. It’s destroying the concrete that was, apparently, never designed to take that much weight. Coupling that weight with all of the rain we had this month, has probably exasperated the problem. There are serious cracks and some with elevation changes. These pictures are just from a two-block stretch starting in front of Bay Harbour going north. I would suggest that the entire length of CCS be inspected, as well as the sidewalks in front of BH. Three of the photos are in the front of our complex.

As someone who has walked GOM almost daily for 5 years, I’m pretty familiar as to what the sidewalks have looked like over the years and it been nothing like this. Some cracks may look old but that’s just because dirt has settled into them.

Hopefully the town knew this was going to happen and has a plan for repairs as soon as the pipes are done. As a member of the Bay Harbour Board of Directors, I would appreciate any information the Town could give us on that. I have copied the BH president on this email.

As you know I broke my wrist falling on GOM years ago and I wouldn’t want to see it happen to anyone else. Thank you Steve. I know your attention to detail, so I’m sure you will pass this along to the appropriate department.

Kathleen D. Wingate

Broker Associate Premier Sotheby’s International Realty

 

To: George Landry

Thanks for making the Town aware, Kathleen. Safety and good repair are always concerns for the Town. George, please forward this to the appropriate staff for follow up regarding the project/repairs and response to Ms. Wingate and the HOA President.

Steve Branham

Commissioner

Town of Longboat Key

To: Longboat Key Mayor Debra Williams

Savannah asked me if we had access to older Commission Meetings for you. IBM hosts are videos under two channels. One channel is more recent (including our live streaming) and the other is older content. Here is the channel link but if you know the specific meeting, I can send you the direct link as well. You may have to click down below to continue loading them till you reach that date range.

Jason Keen

Chief Information Officer

Town of Longboat Key

To: Blythe Jeffers

You probably already know about this but just in case.

“More than $400,000 for Longboat Key to plan and design drainage improvements to reduce flooding risk in the Sleepy Lagoon neighborhood. This funding is part of more than $896 million that FEMA announced for more than 620 projects nationwide and is the latest example of the billions of dollars in disaster recovery provided by FEMA to support state and local communities as they work to rebuild from recent natural disasters.”

Sarah Karon

Commissioner

Town of Longboat Key

To: Longboat Key Commissioner Sarah Karon

Thank you Sarah. No, I was not aware so I appreciate the heads up. Are you free for coffee sometime in the next 2 weeks?

Blythe Jeffers

Longboat Key