STEVE REID
Editor & Publisher
sreid@lbknews.com
Forget the cliché: in today’s accelerated world, the new idiom is “What a difference a week makes.”
That certainly held true for Longboat Key Town Manager Howard Tipton who returned from a brief visit to South Africa with his wife, Marion, whom he married in 1985 in Cape of Good Hope.
Within a week, the St. Regis Hotel and Condominium opened marking the end of one singularly contentious era and the embodiment of the area’s real estate renaissance.
The counterpoint from a Town Manager’s point of view was yet another deluge of more than eight inches of rain that highlighted the flood prone vulnerabilities of our barrier island.
Longboat Key News spoke with Tipton upon his return about the issues facing Longboat now and in the very near future. Here’s what he had to say:
What areas on Longboat Key were most impacted by the recent rain?
Things generally went well. We had 12-13 inches on the island over three or four days in ground that was already somewhat saturated. We lost some sand on the beach, the Town’s largest investment, but some of the sand will wash back over the next few months. It is still in the near shore system. We also had damage to the Linley Street Boat Ramp. Ironically, we fared a heck of a lot better than inland communities where the water had nowhere to go. We are facing another 8-10 inches over the next week. FEMA personnel have come out to see if we could make a claim for some of the damages.
What is the Town