Holmes Beach will get some canals and channels deepened in the next round of budgeted dredging projects.
The Holmes Beach City Commissioners approved funding $270,000 in their last meeting for about a dozen locations to be dredged, under a multi-year State permit.
The project is set to begin at the end of the month. the contractor is Milmac Corp of Coral Springs, Fla.
The summer heat has begun and with it comes the occasional afternoon thunderstorm.
A grateful rain shower is dear and sometimes a downdraft of cooling air.
Whatever the day brings, the evening sunset is ever new with colors of a magnificent hue.
The alley ways reveal a wonderful reprise no matter what the forecast decrees.
Looks like a builder got caught up in the new Holmes Beach City permit approval process.
This house was red flagged 2 weeks ago after demolition work had begun. The notice states the reason to be ‘no permit’.
Two months ago the City of Holmes Beach reviewed its building code after discussion with FEMA rules on floodplain insurance.
Subsequently, a draft code was approved and went into effect, with a projection that new permits received by April 9th would be issued in 30 days.
However, demolition began on this property early April, with walls removed, roof peeled back, and interior gutted.
UPDATE: The Seafood Shack Restaurant is open. Hours are 11:30 a.m to 9:00 p.m. Telephone: 941-794-1235
The Seafood Shack Restaurant in Cortez has closed re-opened.
The waterfront restaurant has been in business for 38 years serving grouper sandwiches, clam chowder and burgers but succumbed to the combination of high taxes, high insurance, economic downturn, and an upcoming bridge repair.
The humpback bridge on 127th Street is closing for repairs and Seafood Shack owner, Ham Jones, said he faced bankruptcy trying to stay open with low patronage, or close and lay off staff. He kept open the possibility of reopening in November if the bridge repairs are completed by then, and if the Anna Maria Island bridge repair closures reroutes traffic to Cortez bridge as scheduled for October – November.
The official start to the Atlantic Hurricane Season is June 1st. Now is a good time to make preparations for an emergency evacuation and formulate your disaster plan.
The Colorado State University Tropical Meteorology Project has published its forecast for the Atlantic basin hurricane activity, based on 58 years of past data and predictive statistical analysis. Early season forecasts are for the following:
| Atlantic Hurricane Season | April 2008 forecast | 1950 – 2007 average |
| Named storms (>35mph) | 15 | 9.6 |
| Hurricanes (>72mph) | 8 | 5.9 |
| Major hurricanes (>111mph) | 4 | 2.3 |
| US landfall likelihood | 69% | 52% |
| Gulf Coast landfall | 44% | 30% |