Englewood Edge - Englewood Florida's own online daily newspaper

Helicopter searched for, found missing boy

Friday, September 3rd, 2010 by Nancy Guenther Chapman

A Char­lotte County Sheriff’s Office heli­copter seen cir­cling near Pine Street around 2:15 p.m. was search­ing for a miss­ing 13-year-old boy, accord­ing to a Char­lotte County Sheriff’s spokesman. The boy is schooled at his Ebro Road home, but his father could not locate him.

The CCSO heli­copter was assisted by deputies in patrol cars and a K9. The boy was spot­ted at the Lemon Bay Motel. The man­ager was hold­ing the boy at the Got­tfried Creek Bridge. CCSO K9 and road patrol units were with the boy at 2:16pm.

Ebro Road is near the inter­sec­tion of Gulf­stream and Spin­naker Boulevards.

Skidmore pulls support for beach concession trailer

Friday, September 3rd, 2010 by Mark Chapman ,
with photos by Nancy Guenther Chapman

UPDATE 12:25 a.m. Sept.4,

The rally planned for 11 a.m. at Engle­wood Beach is still on. Com­mis­sioner Robert Skid­more plans to attend.

Char­lotte County Com­mis­sion Vice Chair­man Robert Skid­more told Engle­wood Edge this morn­ing that he was pulling his sup­port for a beach con­ces­sion trailer that had been pro­posed and voted on by the commission.

Skid­more  announced his deci­sion at 9 a.m. on WENG radio.

Sharky’s of Venice had sub­mit­ting the win­ning bid among four pro­pos­als to sell food, bev­er­ages, sun­dries and gift items on the  beach.  Only one of the four bids came from an Englewood-based business.

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Water District to wait on sewer line decision until after election

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 by Mark Chapman ,
with photos by Nancy Guenther Chapman (file photo)

EWD Admin­is­tra­tor Mike Ray

Engle­wood Water Dis­trict cus­tomers who live in the north Engle­wood area des­ig­nated V9-A still don’t have any answers as to when they can expect sewer lines to be run after today’s meeting.

What was obvi­ous, though, is that things are mov­ing in the direc­tion of installing the lines some­time in 2012.

“I think the board is def­i­nitely OK with it,” EWD Admin­is­tra­tor Mike Ray said after the meet­ing. “We’re going to look at dif­fer­ent fund­ing options and sched­ul­ing, but I think we’re still on track” for early 2012. Ray said the Board of Super­vi­sors expressed a desire to wait until after the Novem­ber elec­tions, when two seats are up for grabs, before mak­ing a firm deci­sion. If new mem­bers come on the board, any deci­sion made now could be reversed.

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Charlotte Co. lists holiday closings

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 by Mark Chapman

Char­lotte County Gov­ern­ment offices and facil­i­ties will fol­low these sched­ules on Mon­day, Sept. 6 in obser­vance of the Labor holiday:

All Char­lotte County Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness Offices, includ­ing Mur­dock Admin­is­tra­tion Cen­ter — Closed

Char­lotte Har­bor Vis­i­tor & Con­ven­tion Bureau Offices – Closed. Vis­i­tors with ques­tions on things to do can call 1.800.652.6090

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Opinions, grievances aired at skate park meeting

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 by Nancy Guenther Chapman ,
with photos by Nancy Guenther Chapman

Dom­inck Antini, 15, rollerblades Wednes­day at the J.M. Berlin Rotary Skate Park Wednesday.

Collin Knight, a 17-year-old from Venice, took the day off from work to attend a meet­ing in Oys­ter Creek Park Wednesday.

Tom Knox, a senior cit­i­zen, came because he lives nearby. He rode a bicy­cle to get there.

Tracy Con­nelly came because she won’t let her 13-year-old son, Sean, go to the J.M. Berlin Rotary Skate Park any­more — not since he said the older kids were sell­ing drugs there.

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Charlotte Co. Community Services gets a new home

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 by Mark Chapman

The Com­mu­nity Ser­vices Admin­is­tra­tive Office is relo­cat­ing Tuesday.

The office, cur­rently in the Char­lotte Sports Park com­plex, will reopen after the week­end at the Mid County Regional Library, 2050 For­rest Nel­son Blvd., Port Char­lotte.  The entrance to the admin­is­tra­tive office is on the For­rest Nel­son side of the library.

Full post avail­able to non-subscribers.

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Hero mechanic pulls child, dad from water-logged SUV after accident

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 by Nancy Guenther Chapman ,
with photos by Nancy Guenther Chapman

Chaz Mur­ray pulled a man and his young daugh­ter from the water after their SUV hit the bus he was dri­ving and lunged into the canal.

Chaz Mur­ray knew he had been rear-ended, but he couldn’t see a vehi­cle behind him.

Mur­ray, an Afghanistan war vet­eran who lives in Riverview, is a mechanic for Sara­sota County Area Tran­sit. He came to Engle­wood to retrieve a bus that needed repair. He wound up wad­ing into a water reten­tion canal to pull a tod­dler out of a smashed Ford SUV, along with her father, Brian T. Festa, 38, of Englewood.

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Residents discuss objections to overlay code modifications in civil meeting

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 by Nancy Guenther Chapman ,
with photos by Nancy Guenther Chapman

Char­lotte County Com­mis­sion Vice Cha­ri­man Robert Skid­more addresses about 100 peo­ple at a meet­ing Mon­day night at the Tringali Center.

UPDATE: Adds infor­ma­tion about pub­lic hear­ings being postponed.

Rita Mur­ray had a ques­tion for the crowd gath­ered Mon­day evening at the Tringali Cen­ter: “How many of you object to pile drivers?”

There were more than 100 peo­ple present, and most of them raised a hand.

Pile dri­vers, height restric­tions and unwield­i­ness of the doc­u­ment that describes the reg­u­la­tions about those issues were major top­ics at the meet­ing to dis­cuss Char­lotte County’s Man­a­sota and Sand­piper Key Over­lay Code.

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