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Smiling faces, a common sight on the parade route.Englewood Edge was number 19 in the parade. By the time we came along these cute kids on Old Englewood Road already had souveniers and bags to put them in.The "missus," Lee Ann Struckman, rode in the back seat.Dennis Halpin, right, graciously offered Englewood Edge the use of his car for a morning. Lee Ann Struckman chose to ride in the back.The front window of the Model T is opened with knobs on either side. The person in the passenger seat is expected to operate the windshield washers by hand.Old Fart's family was sitting toward the end of the parade route.Dennis Halpin, left, talks about his car Monday morning while waiting for the parade to get going.Nancy Chapman had never gone for a ride in an antique car before. It was interesting.Dennis Halpin drives his 1927 Model T in the Pioneer Days parade Monday.The control panel of the Model T.Spectators on Old Englewood Road.A member of the Suncoast Worship Center hands out free bottles of water.Spectators on Old Englewood Road.Children react to the sight of a Model T.An Old Englewood Road crowd.Richard Blanchard, a psychic and a director at the Lemon Bay Playhouse, politely waves hello to the passing Model T.Spectators in front of the Eagles club. The float made by the club won best in show.Spectators in front of the Eagles.Spectators on Old Englewood Road.Sue and Rich Freeman, on Old Englewood Road.The knob on the hood is a special accessory to the Model T. It is a water temperature gauge, something Henry Ford didn't think of.Teenagers from the Suncoast Worship Center hand out water bottles. I gratefully accepted.Kids watch the parade.The Toyota pulls away.Two parade spectators.The woman at right wanted to know how old the Model T is. It's one of the last ones that was made, in February 1927.The view from the Model T as it heads up West Dearborn Street.Father and son: both of these men are named Don Platt.In front of Pioneer Park.Spectators on West Dearborn Street.The view from a Model T as it gets close to the end of the parade route Monday.The end of the parade route, almost.A few waves and smiling faces.The end of the parade route, almost.The end of the parade route, almost.The parade route turns to meet its end at Englewood Elementary School.The end of the parade route, almost.These people staked out a place on Elm Street.Dennis Halpin's 1927 Model T, almost ready for the parade Monday morning.

Story by Nancy Guenther Chapman, with photos by Nancy Guenther Chapman

Our Main Story

September 9th, 2010 at 1:29 am

Den­nis Halpin, right, gra­ciously offered Engle­wood Edge the use of his car for a morn­ing. Lee Ann Struck­man chose to ride in the back.

So, Mon­day morn­ing I was rid­ing down the road with a guy who kept telling me all the dif­fer­ent rea­sons his car might break down.

And, at the time, peo­ple were gawk­ing! It was as if they had come to watch as the axle fell out and I went tum­bling onto the road.

No, really, rid­ing in the Pio­neer Days parade was fun.

I’ve been in parades before. I think I was part of the vol­un­teer fire depart­ment con­tin­gent at some point in my child­hood; or I bet­ter have been. My grand­fa­ther helped start the darned thing, my father was in it and we all had to lis­ten to the dang scan­ner all night. Con­tinue read­ing this story…

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News

Conservancy buys Wildflower Golf Course

Story by Nancy Guenther Chapman on September 8th, 2010 at 6:29 pm

Brazil­ian Pep­pers sur­round one of the few pieces of evi­dence that there was ever a golf course on the cor­ner of Gas­par­illa Pines Boule­vard and Placida Road. The Lemon Bay Con­ser­vancy plans to turn the 80-acre prop­erty into a park.

The spec­u­la­tion and the wait­ing are over — the for­mer Wild­flower Golf Course is now the prop­erty of the Lemon Bay Conservancy.

The Conservancy’s pres­i­dent, Jim Cooper, and vice-president,  Jim Wade, signed the clos­ing doc­u­ments Wednes­day, final­iz­ing the pur­chase of the 80-acre par­cel along Placida Road in Cape Haze, accord­ing to a press release.

The pur­chase price is approx­i­mately $750,000. The Con­ser­vancy has gone into debt to buy the land.

Full post avail­able to non-subscribers Con­tinue read­ing this story…

Community

Public meeting to discuss Weston’s rezoning on Manasota Key

Story by Nancy Guenther Chapman on September 8th, 2010 at 5:10 pm

The Build­ing and Growth Man­age­ment Depart­ment will be hold­ing a pub­lic infor­ma­tional meet­ing on the pro­posed rezon­ing of Weston’s Resort of Man­a­sota Key at 7 p.m. Mon­day, Sept. 13 at the Tringali Recre­ation Cen­ter, 3460 North Access Road. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Har­monie Devel­op­ment Group, LLC will be dis­cussing future plans for the con­tin­ued use of the prop­erty as a resort and answer­ing questions.

For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Rox­ann Read at roxann.read@charlottefl.com or 941.764.4928.

Community

Lemon Bay Playhouse offers children’s creative drama class

Story by Nancy Guenther Chapman on September 8th, 2010 at 3:51 pm

The Lemon Bay Play­house is offer­ing “a play­ful intro­duc­tion to per­form­ing” with cre­ative drama classes.

Sub­mit­ted by Mary Ellen Seyle, Lemon Bay Playhouse

The Lemon Bay Play­house is offer­ing a children’s the­atre work­shop on Sat­ur­days from Oct. 2 through Oct. 23. The grand finale will be a show­case per­for­mance by the new thes­pi­ans for their fam­ily and friends on Sun­day, Oct. 24.

Full post avail­able to non-subscribers

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Community

Help clean up Englewood Sept. 25

Story by Mark Chapman on September 8th, 2010 at 2:36 pm

Sub­mit­ted by Char­lotte Har­bor Envi­ron­men­tal Center

The Inter­na­tional Coastal Clean Up is sched­uled for 9 a.m. Sat­ur­day, Sept. 25. Inter­ested indi­vid­u­als and groups are encour­aged to par­tic­i­pate in this annual event at Cedar Point Envi­ron­men­tal Park, 2300 Placida Road.

Full post avail­able to non-subscribers

Con­tinue read­ing this story…

Community, Uncategorized

OEVA thinks ahead, to upcoming events

Story by Nancy Guenther Chapman on September 8th, 2010 at 1:09 am

Chil­dren col­lect candy at last year’s Safewalk.

Two things were on the agenda at last night’s meet­ing of the Old Engle­wood Vil­lage Association.

Elaine Miller and Dawn Kennedy wanted to stretch the hours of the annual Hal­loween Safe Walk by adding a cos­tume con­test before it starts. Janet Lan­dis wanted to dis­cuss the arrange­ments of the Win­ter Arts Fes­ti­val, which OEVA has taken over from the Engle­wood Rotary Club. Con­tinue read­ing this story…

Community

Ranch needs donation to cover need for Mercy

Story by Nancy Guenther Chapman on September 7th, 2010 at 11:16 pm,
with photos by Photos by Nancy Guenther Chapman unless noted otherwise.

Suzanne Park, left, leads the Bit of Hope Horse Ranch in Monday’s Pio­neer Days parade. Behind her is Alex Schlap­man, 11, on Mercy. Alex spends as much time as she can at the ranch.

The chil­dren from the Bit of Hope Ranch looked happy dur­ing Monday’s Pio­neer Days parade, but they have some­thing on their minds now.

Mercy, one of their beloved horses, is hav­ing surgery at noon today.

“All of our kids are very upset, say­ing their prayers and things like that,” said Sherri Obirek, one of the vol­un­teers who helps Suzanne Park keep her non-profit ranch going.

Full post avail­able to non-subscribers

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News

Sarasota deputies searching for bank robber

Story by Mark Chapman on September 7th, 2010 at 8:58 pm,
with photos by courtsey SCSO

Secu­rity cam­era photo of the sus­pected South Venice bank robber.

Sub­mit­ted by Sara­sota County Sheriff’s Office

The Sara­sota County Sheriff’s Office is inves­ti­gat­ing a bank rob­bery that occurred in Venice at the Wachovia Bank, 1301 S. U.S. 41 Bypass, just before 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The sus­pect implied he had a weapon, but none was seen. He is described as a white man, 40 to 50 years old, 5-foot-8, 150 pounds, with salt and pep­per hair and a scruffy beard. The sus­pect was last seen wear­ing a cam­ou­flage base­ball cap, red and white check­ered flan­nel shirt and tan pants.

Full post avail­able to non-subscribers.

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