Tara Golf & Country Club hosts Candidate Night

Tara resident Barbara Ehnes is one step closer to making her choices for the general election after Candidate Night at the Tara Golf & Country Club on Oct. 18. 

While she didn’t reveal them, she said she found a connection with Bill Conerly, who is running for the District 72 seat in the Florida House of Representatives. Conerly is an engineer. Ehnes comes from a family of engineers.

“Engineers are not actors. They’re technical people,” she said. “He knows what he’s talking about. He’s not a showman.” 

Conerly’s opponent, Democrat Lesa Miller, wasn’t in attendance, but all the other local candidates that Tara residents can vote for Nov. 5 in the general election gave introductory speeches and participated in a Q&A. 

Republican Commissioner George Kruse is running against Democrat Sari Lindroos-Valimaki for the at-large District 7 seat, and Republican Dr. Bob McCann is running against Joseph Di Bartolomeo (No Party Affiliation) to represent East County in District 5.

Residents wrote in questions beforehand. The topics ranged from neighborhood-specific issues to countywide and statewide concerns. 

Within the Tara community, residents wanted to know what happens when their water contract with the county runs out in 2040. Groundwater is used to irrigate the golf course. 

Lindroos said she’d look into more innovative ways to irrigate. Kruse said the water will be there, but he can’t promise what it will cost.

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

“Whether it be reverse osmosis up at Buffalo Creek or possibly some desalination plants out by the port, we are looking at some solutions to keep this water internal to Manatee County,” Kruse said. “If we start paying Peace River Water Authority, it’s going to be a lot more expensive.”

In light of recent storms and flooding, stormwater management has been an issue of concern countywide. 

McCann said the county needs to clean out stormwater pipes and do more dredging. Di Bartolomeo said the county needs to collect stormwater fees and update its studies. 

“We have 5-to-7-year-old hydrology studies and FEMA maps that were used for the Comprehensive Plan,” Di Bartolomeo said. “I would have hydrology studies done in all of the areas that flooded with the tropical storm.”

Statewide, residents complained about the high cost of insurance and wanted to know what Conerly would do about it if elected. 

He said homeowners insurance was one of the most mentioned topics he’s encountered on the campaign trail. The litigious nature of the industry contributes to rising rates, and setting limits on those contributing factors could help bring the rates back down. 

He used an example of taking a claim to an insurance carrier, and it’s initially denied. In that case, the consumer is forced to take legal action. 

“If we had something that was almost like an oversight of the industry, where you can have a better regulation of the policy and the application of the rules associated with the payouts, I think that would be something beneficial,” Conerly said. 

Tara Preserve resident Judy Koegel said she reads four newspapers a day and found the evening's information to be very informative. 

“I thought everyone drilled down on the questions. They were very knowledgeable,” Koegel said. “I liked how everything was delineated to a point, where people answered the question and didn’t go scripting.”