Longboat Key's Year in Photos: 2021

We knew going in that 2021 was shaping up to be something else entirely.

Not normal. Maybe OK. But, we hoped, not 2020. Anything but that. 

On the plus side, COVID-19 vaccines were on the verge of mainstream as the new year dawned. But, as we soon learned, patience and a fair amount of technical expertise was required to get one. Uh, oh.

Spring and summer were pretty up and down, too. Our lives, our jobs, our indoor events started looking typical again. Yay.

Then along came Delta, which heretofore had really only been an airline and an Oldsmobile (OK, you petrol-heads: a Lancia, too). But as a COVID-19 variant, not great. 

Through it all, though, we kept reporting and photographing. And wouldn't you know it, we DID have a lot to smile about even through some frustratingly similar days to the previous year.

Here then is what we saw through our Nikons in 2021. 

January

No more 5:30 mornings

One of the last projects Deputy Chief Chris Krajic did for the town before retiring was arranging for the purchase of a new $850,000 fire truck. Talk about going out in style. Krajic, who had spent six years with the town's fire service, played a key role in working out what the truck should be able to do and working within the budget to make it happen. In his going away ceremony, he said the job of a firefighter often requires flexibility and he added he'll miss his co-workers most of all. Oh, and one other thing: "not having to get up at 5:30 a.m. every morning to come to work.”

Hitting the road

It's probably one of the most frequently moved houses in town, but one of the original Whitney Beach cottages likely has taken its last ride. Moving from the north end to the site of the Town Center Green in late January, the 300-square foot abode is in the process of becoming the Longboat Key Historical Society's museum. It rolled down Gulf of Mexico Drive in the wee hours, never moving more than 30 mph. Before the sun came up, it had already arrived. 

Permitted to park

Carla and Pete Rowan, long advocates for parking restrictions in the Longbeach Village enclave, received the first of the town's permits for street parking there. While not quite as exciting as 007's license, the Rowan's 001 permit was the first of a neighborhoodwide initiative to restrict parking to residents and their guests. Warnings were common for first offenders while the new system was enacted.

You never know what you'll find

On a damp, foggy morning, groups of volunteers with the Longboat Key Turtle Watch headed out for their first beach cleanup of the year. You know what they found? Face masks, bits of rope, gloves, beach toys, plenty of plastics and a creepy doll left behind by a beachgoer. 

February

"Pea soup fog"

Longboat Key police teamed up with Sarasota Police to rescue boaters whose vessel hit a sandbar in New Pass and began sinking. Complicating the rescue, and perhaps playing a role in the incident, was thick fog. “Considering the conditions in this particular rescue, the people were lucky with a great outcome,” said Longboat Key marine patrol officer Joshua Connor.

A new leader

After six years, a new leader is in charge of the Republican Club of Longboat Key. President Scott Gray took over for longtime leader Joe McElmeel. Gray took over the club, the area's largest such organization with 300 members. “We're a social club, and we get together and enjoy our social times, we have fun at our meetings, we have fun with the dinners, and it's important that we educate ourselves and we become responsible voters,” Gray said. “But we get to have fun doing it, and I think it's a very important goal.”

Getting together 

Members of Temple Beth Israel gathered for an outdoor lunch for single people of the temple  at Bayfront Park, their third such lunch since late 2020. The singles club brought their own lunches and took proper COVID-19 precautions to meet in the open safely. 

The sweet life 

Recent Longboaters Ronnie Shugar and Donda Mullis, now the owners of Sarasota-based care and beauty brand Raw Sugar, met and dated in their 20s. As savvy, scrappy and upwardly mobile businesspeople, they had their eyes on the prize — and back then, the prize was not each other.

March 

The fittest of them all

Zach Schield was not surprised to be named the fittest member of the Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department. The 33-year-old Longboat Key firefighter and paramedic said bragging rights were on the line for the department when members perform their annual agility test.

30,000 ribbons

Community members and families spread out along a swath of beach more than two football fields long. As one, they raised thick lines of plastic ribbons tied in every color of the rainbow as onlookers snapped photos and the ribbons snapped in the wind. In total, there were nearly 30,000 ribbons, one for every Floridian death due to complications of COVID-19. 

A year apart

Members of St. Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Church came together for the first time in about a year, enjoying their annual picnic on the church campus. The event featured food, fellowship and a ball drop in which a hovering helicopters dropped dozens of golf balls. Prizes were given out to the owners of the golf balls closest balls to the flag.

April

Ha! Fooled you 

Our own brand of April mirth had some of you thinking our April 1 edition contained nothing but real news (mission accomplished). The 2021 version included stories about town landmarks that offended the woke generation, an oh-so-pretentious artist who drew inspiration from Cops Corner, and a scientific report ranking Longboat Key's sewage high on the scale of affluent effluent. Mark your 2022 calendars, because we're already thinking of new ideas for this spring. 

Easter time

Easter service returned to churches, though there were far fewer people in the pews than on a normal Easter and many worshippers still attended only via Zoom or livestreams. Church leaders everywhere have had to get a crash course in IT and video over the past year, and Longboat Key leaders don’t expect that to go away anytime soon. Services on Longboat Key were blended this year, as they have been since churches reopened their doors during the pandemic. Still, there were plenty of opportunities for kids to search for Easter eggs.

A muddy mess at times

The town's dog park within Bayfront Park is popular. Really popular. So much so that the dogs who come to visit wore down the grass last winter to the point of making the place, at times, a mess. One dog, Farrah Fawcett, had to wear a pink raincoat to avoid getting her fur filthy. So, the town stepped in and closed the park for a while and planted new sod, with a plan moving forward to regularly keep tabs on the grass/dirt ration. 

Learning about the Earth

Presenters set up tables in the Friendship Garden at Longboat Island Chapel for the Earth Day Walks and Talks. Speakers throughout the garden ensured no one missed out on a talk if they were taking time to explore the plants labeled by the Manatee River Garden Club. At one point during the day, a volunteer counted more than 100 cars in the chapel’s parking lot. 

May 

Power to the people

That hum you hear more and more on the island is the sound of an electric car revolution. The buzz you hear involves discussions on how to charge them. Town leaders rejected a proposal from Florida Power and Light to install charging stations around town, saying it was akin to public subsidies for gas stations. Condominium dwellers say they are particularly behind the eight-ball because they are not always able to install home-based charging systems like their single-family home living neighbors can. 

Top pro 

Bird Key Yacht Club tennis pro Jackie Bohannon, 37, was named Tennis Channel's winner of the nationwide America's Top Coach contest. Bohannon gave lessons at Longboat Key Club for 17 years. Since starting at the Bird Key Yacht Club in July 2020, she’s begun giving organized lessons, put together player groups, organized competitive and relaxed tennis events and even racquet stringing. 

Music to their ears

The sounds of the great pipe organs of church halls past can now be heard in All Angels by the Sea Episcopal Church, thanks to an upgrade in the electronic organ at the altar. The church had an electronic organ, but after 26 years it wore out. The one the church now is made by Allen Organ to replicate the sounds of the great pipe organs of yesteryear. It’s a huge update in organ technology, and Hooey said the All Angels organ was the first of its kind that was shipped out. 

Adding fire station greenery

Members of the Longboat Key Garden Club used their outdoors expertise to add a little color to the nearly finished firehouse on the south end of town, digging, planting, watering and more. “Government buildings are typically austere, but not in the town of Longboat Key,” Garden Club President Susan Phillips said. 

June 

Circular sounds 

A dozen musicians scattered throughout St. Armands Circle made up the summer's first installation of Songs of the Circle, a weekly event that featured outdoor musicians adding a musical backdrop to the shopping district. The series continued through September. 

Weeeee!

For $12.9 million, you can buy a beachfront waterslide on Longboat Key . . .  and the 10,000-square foot, five-bedroom home that goes with it. The home at 3105 Gulf of Mexico Drive was listed with Joel Schemmel of Premier Sotheby’s International Realty’s Downtown Sarasota office. With the usual batch of luxury features befitting a home priced near the top of the Sarasota-Bradenton market, this home stands out with its slide extending from a third-story rooftop deck down to main-level beachfront pool.

Men catch a fish

A group of four men caught a massive tarpon in the Gulf of Mexico off the beach in Longboat Key near the Positano condominiums. It took Clark Wright and his charter of three men about 45 minutes to reel in the fish, which weighed about 150 pounds.

Hail to the Chief

Longboat Key has ties to a top-of-his-class boxer. He’s a great athlete, works well on a schedule, is good with the other kids in his training facility and loves to jump. And actually, he’s a working dog named Maximus Commander in Chief (“Chief” for short) who won his breed category at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Longboat Key residents Ann and Steve Anderson are his owners, a couple who have long been in the business of dog shows. Chief is the latest in a line of seven generations of Rummer Run Boxers they’ve bred since the 1970s. 

July

For the love of chickens

Lark Rippy and her mom started the process of asking their Longbeach Village neighbors about what they think about the possibility of raising a small flock of hens in their backyard. Together, they’ve put together an informal poll to get neighbors’ input. 

Red, white and blue 

After it was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, pent-up demand for Freedom Fest brought hundreds to Bay Isles Road for the short parade and festival on the morning of Fourth of July. The Hot Diggity Dog! parade and contest, hosted as always by the Rotary Club of Longboat Key, had 33 patriotic pups walking Bay Isles Road — a parade record.

Elsa, schmelsa

It's been said there is no such thing as a weak hurricane, but c'mon. Hurricane Elsa's passage offshore west Florida had some who experienced serious damage the year before concerned. In the end, the island escaped pretty much unharmed, except for sea turtle eggs and some minor beach erosion. 

Old is new again 

They're not alone. On an island with hardly a vacant lot or open space, demolition is almost always a consideration for new home. Kathryn and Ron Lee fell in love with the canalfront view a Halyard Lane property provided, even though there was already a house on it. So, they did what an increasing number of residents are doing. They demolished the structure and built their own. 

Power goes underground

Longboat Key started to remove overhead light poles in the Country Club Shores neighborhood as part of its townwide project to bury utilities on the island. The work marks the last portion of phase one of the project, which extends from the southern tip of the island north through the County Club Shores neighborhood.

Fins to the left, fins to the right 

As red tide in areas waters deepened, residents were shocked by what they found in backyard canals. Sharks. Lots of them. Scientists said the fish were flocking into canals to find higher concentrations of oxygen in the water. 

August

Manatee County helps with red tide surveillance

Drone pilots from Manatee County came to Longboat Key on several occasions to fly over the coastal waters to monitor the spread of red tide. Not only are the flying machines capable of spotting red tide concentrations, they also can detect concetrations of dead fish, and help direct cleanup efforts before they wash ashore. 

Beach, interrupted

Longboat Key beach enthusiasts have for years had the run of the town’s nearly 11 miles of Gulf of Mexico shoreline, which up until this summer included a 209-foot stretch of privately owned seawall on one of the town’s most iconic properties. But following repairs to the seawall following Hurricane Eta in 2020, the owners of the property known as Ohana at 6633 Gulf of Mexico Drive, posted signs that their property, which extends to the water's edge, was now off limits.

A new home

After years of work, the Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department has a new station to call home. Dozens of people and town leaders attended a grand opening for Fire Station 92 at 2162 Gulf of Mexico Drive.

September

An ongoing tradition 

On Sept. 11, American flags on Longboat Key flew at half-mast. But closer to the ground, 2,997 miniature American flags fluttered proudly in the breeze on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. It was the 19th time the Public Works Department put them up on behalf of the Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce.

Here, there and everywhere

When we asked Longboaters what they did for their summer vacations, we got a collection of travel photos from far and wide. Family photos, nature photos, exotic locations, amazing vistas. Still, Jack and Nancy Rozance's image tickled us the most, with the couple standing in separate hemispheres at the same time.

Grounded

A sailboat that ran aground on the north side of New Pass remained there for months as state and local authorities investigated. Nearby residents worried about the danger it posed. 

A new beach 

In the fall, the town wrapped it the beach renourishment project, spending about $36 million in the process. On the north end, bright white new sand gleams where a forest of driftwood once sat and new structures are in place to help keep it. On the south, sand dredged from New Pass widens the beach. And still to come this winter, a project to tighten the New Pass groins to keep sand from slipping through. 

October

Green again 

Longboat Key reopened the dog park at Bayfront Park that had been closed since mid-July for resodding. The plan is to budget for a similar resodding every three years. The park opened in 2017.

Blessed be the pets

All Angels by the Sea Episcopal Church took the time to celebrate all that pets provide at the church's third annual pet blessing. Father Dave Marshall started the church’s pet blessing tradition when he was installed as rector in 2019.  “We bless the humans every Sunday,” he said. “Why not bless the pets?” 

Popping the cork

On a day years in the making, ground was broken (both ceremonially and actually) for the $800 million Residences at the St. Regis Longboat Key Resort. Unicorp National Developments Inc. plans to build 69 condo units and 166 hotel units along with restaurants and other facilities, many of them open to the public. It's been nearly three years since the buildings and other structures of the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort were torn down on the land. 

Happy haunts

The scariest thing about Longboat Key during the Halloween season might be that temperatures are still above 80 degrees on any given day, but there are still some classically spirited decorations up and down the Key. We took a look. 

November

Tennis for fun

The second season of a local Special Olympics program to teach tennis began at the Public Tennis Center. The program started in Brandon in 2000 with one athlete. Now, more than 100 are involved and the program has merged with Special Olympics. Brenda Terihay started the Sarasota chapter on Longboat Key in early 2021. 

Bullock is top firefighter 

Firefighter-paramedic Chase Bullock said he was “stunned” to have won the department’s Employee of the Year award. Among  his outstanding actions the year before, Bullock helped find a missing Manatee County woman in June.

Celebrating veterans

Compared to the rest of the state Longboat Key has a relatively high percentage of veterans at 14.7% of the population. It only makes sense that several events on and around the Key were organized to celebrate those who have served in all of America’s military branches. From Plymouth Harbor to Longboat Island Chapel, the voices of veterans and the thank-yous of the community were heard loud and clear. 

December

Light 'em up

On its third year, the annual Light Up Longboat event is starting to branch out — from the cheerful offerings on hand to the expansion of the illuminated-for-the-holidays oak trees at Town Center Green. The third annual tree lighting saw its largest crowd ever. 

Officially named

Town leaders officially accepted a town family's pledge to donate up to $500,000 to build the centerpiece stage in the Town Center Green in exchange for naming it the Karon Family Pavilion. Sarah and Paul Karon said the proposal made them think back to their hometown bandshell that formed the heart of their community. 

(Reporting and photography by Mark Bergin, Nat Kaemmerer and Eric Garwood)