Rotonda group seeks scholarship applicants

Story by Mark Chapman on February 22nd, 2012 at 2:37 am

The Rotonda West Woman’s Club is accept­ing appli­ca­tions through March 31 for three con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion schol­ar­ships of $1,000 each.

Appli­cants should be peo­ple from the Engle­wood area who have had an inter­rup­tion in their edu­ca­tion and are pur­su­ing advanced edu­ca­tion in a col­lege or voca­tional school.

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Chopper called for Englewood rollover

Story by Mark Chapman on February 21st, 2012 at 2:56 am

A Med­Star heli­copter was called to air­lift a vic­tim of a single-car rollover cash Mon­day in Engle­wood, accord­ing to a witness.

The crash hap­pened at about 4:20 p.m. at Willm­ing­ton Boule­vard and Pin­nell Street. The vic­tim had to be extri­cated from the car,which was up against a tree. A Med­flite chop­per was called to air­lift the vic­tim. No other infor­ma­tion was imme­di­ately available.

Playwrights bring Biblical musical to Englewood

Story by Mark Chapman on February 19th, 2012 at 10:40 pm,
with photos by courtesy EUMC

John Thomas, left, and Tommy Oaks bring their musi­cal, “Star Queen” to Engle­wood United Methodist Church on March 14.

An orig­i­nal musi­cal enact­ment of Bib­li­cal Queen Esther’s story, “Star Queen,” will be pre­sented from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Wednes­day, March 14, in the sanc­tu­ary of Engle­woood United Methodist Church, 700 E. Dear­born Street. The play, to be per­formed by its cre­ators, Tommy and John Thomas (J.T.) Oaks, is part of the Engle­wood United Methodist Church Music Min­istry Con­cert Series.

J.T. Oaks was inspired to write the music, lyrics and dia­logue for “Star Queen” by his preacher father, Tommy. Tommy and J.T. col­lab­o­rated in writ­ing the book of the show, as they have on more than a dozen other musi­cal the­ater pieces.

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1,260 pounds of trash picked up at rail trestle

Story by Mark Chapman on February 18th, 2012 at 5:03 pm,
with photos by Photos by Tara Musselman

Char­lotte County Jail inmates pitched in Thurs­day to help clean up the area around the old rail­road tres­tle in Placida.

The Char­lotte County Sheriff’s Office, in a joint ven­ture Thurs­day, picked up 1,260 pounds of trash dur­ing a cleanup of the old rail­road tres­tle in Placida. The rail­road ended in Boca Grande.

Those par­tic­i­pat­ing were all mem­bers of the CCSO Marine Unit, sev­eral mem­bers of the CCSO Vol­un­teer Ser­vice Marine Unit, Offi­cer J. Hoover of FWC, Joe Dim­ina of Char­lotte County Envi­ron­men­tal Ser­vices, CCSO Envi­ron­men­tal Deputy First Class Phil Traniello, Char­lotte County Parks and Recre­ation, Project Man­ager Tara Mus­sel­man and Andy Stevens, and five inmates from the Char­lotte County Jail trustee worker program.

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Englewood victims airlifted in 2 accidents

Story by Mark Chapman on February 15th, 2012 at 4:26 pm,
with photos by courtesy CCSO Dep. Ryan White

One per­son was air­lifted to Lee Memo­r­ial Hos­pi­tal Wednes­day after this crash at Placida and Gas­par­illa Pines roads.

Two peo­ple were air­lifted to regional trauma cen­ters Wednes­day after­noon fol­low­ing sep­a­rate acci­dents in Engle­wood, accord­ing to the Char­lotte County Sheriff’s Office.

One of the vic­tims was involved in a Moped crash while not wear­ing a hel­met around 2 p.m. at South McCall and Beach roads.  The Med­Star chop­per land­ing zone was set up at at Mer­chants Crossing.

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Ainger kids present quilt to veteran

Story by Mark Chapman on February 15th, 2012 at 2:18 am,
with photos by L.A. Ainger

L.A. Ainger stu­dents pre­sented a quilt Tues­day to Iraq vet­eran Chuck Christof­fer­son, along with his wife and seventh-grade son, Noah.

Sub­mit­ted by L.A. Ainger

Chuck Christof­fer­son served a tour of duty in Iraq. After he came home, he was work­ing con­struc­tion on I-75 when a pickup truck crashed through the bar­ri­cades. Christof­fer­son  pushed his boss away, but the pickup went across both of Chistofferson’s legs. He is now on a long road to recov­ery and hopes to be walk­ing again in about a year.

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Englewood school bus driver OK after crash

Story by Mark Chapman on February 13th, 2012 at 5:34 pm

An Engle­wood res­i­dent dri­ving a school bus in Sara­sota and her 12 pas­sen­gers were unin­jured Mon­day when her bus was struck from behind by a car.

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