ST PETE BEACH
St. Pete Beach Recreation Dept. has Senior Trips Saturdays 8:30-4 pm this month for $15/person (plus lunch) to…March 7 – Tampa Bay Downs March 14 – Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
March 21 – The Florida Aquarium
March 28 – Brooker Creek Preserve
March 29 – Music in the Afternoon
April 11 – Underwater Egg Hunt & Chalk-Lit Fair
April 17 – Beach Goes Pops – TomKats Orchestra 6-9pm
April 18 – Beach Goes Rock – Horny Toads 4-6pm, Greg Billings 7-9pm
MADEIRA BEACH
Incumbent Commissioner Deby Weinstein will face a challenge from resident Helen Price in District 1. In District 2, incumbent Commissioner, and current Vice Mayor, Nancy Hodges won unopposed. Mayor Maggi Black has chosen not to seek re-election. John Hendricks and Gary Hughes are Mad Beach voter choices for the mayor’s job.
The Ninth Annual Great American Grunt Hunt Returns to Madeira Beach March 13-14. On Saturday, March 14th at 4pm, don’t miss the weigh-in and fish fry! For just $10 you get a heaping portion of freshly cleaned fish with fries and coleslaw prepared by Snappers Sea Grill. The Grunt Hunt is an easy, inexpensive and fun event that anyone from kids to grandparents can participate in and win. Contact Curt Preisser, City of Madeira Beach Public Information Officer at 727-391-9951 ext. 299 or cpreisser@madeirabeachfl.gov.
The Gulfcoast Rotary Club’s big fun and fundraiser with the City of Madeira Beach is the Spring Break Festival and Carnival held this year March 19-22nd at ROC Park in Mad Beach. With the proceeds they have built theMiracle League’s Field, contribute to All Children’s and Rotary Camp Florida.
Mad Burger Fest, Sunday, April 5th
Madeira beach’s first hamburger food festival and car show! Benefiting R.O.C. Park “Remember Our Children”
• Best Burger Contest
• Food trucks • Car Show
• Trophies / Awards
• Kids Zone • Vendors • Music
Contact Dona Crowley, LUXE Fashion Group, Event Design & Marketing, (813) 580-9000
Donacrowley@gmail.com
@DONACROWLEY
Movies on the Beach at Archibald Park
April 17 – The Wizard of Oz
May 15 – Splash
June 19 – Hook
July 17 – Summer Rental
August 21 – Rocky
September 18 – Back to the Future
Oct 2 – ET
ST PETERSBURG
Florida CraftArt presents: Contemporary Fiber in Florida March 13 – May 3, 2020 This juried exhibition at Florida CraftArt showcases innovative approaches to traditional fiber techniques, includes weaving, surface design, wearable art, basketry, beading and textile dyeing. It features 40 artists from around the state of Florida, from Tallahassee to Sunrise.
The opening reception and awards presentation are on March 13 from 5:30-7:30pm and the exhibit runs through May 3. This inventive show is curated by Cindy Bartosek, a West Palm Beach-based artist and educator. Ms. Bartosek specializes in tapestry weaving, botanical eco-printing, and photography, as well as photographic printing on fiber.
Creative Clay hosts a workshop with Missionary Mary Proctor March 14 from 3-5pm Create a mixed media/assemblage one-of-a-kind piece of artwork. Basic supplies, such as boards, glue and paints will be provided by Missionary Mary. You bring the fun stuff, like mementos, photos or copies of photos, grandma’s buttons, costume jewelry, keys, old letters, dried flowers, ribbon, wire, and anything else you love. Creative Clay also welcomes participants to peruse our Creative Thrift store, which has many fun items that can be used in the workshop as well. Mary Proctor’s artwork is included in permanent collections from St. Petersburg’s MFA and the Smithsonian Institution to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, New Orleans Museum of Art and the California African American Museum (Los Angeles). Mary has also participated in 13 of Creative Clay’s art and music festivals held each fall since 2007.
Contact jody@creativeclay.org 727-825-0515
facebook.com/events/200995787658107/
Florida Suncoast Tiny Home Festival, March 28-29, 10am-6pm at England Brothers Park, 5010 81st Ave N. in Pinellas Park. The festival, organized by LocalShops1, features the latest and greatest in tiny home living trends! In addition to the tiny structures, the festival brings a lineup of more than two dozen leading experts in the Tiny House movement. It is a kid and dog-friendly outdoor event!
General Admission, $15 for one day, $20 for both includes full access to the festival grounds, where guests will get to explore the Tiny Homes and speak directly with the homeowners and builders. Admission also includes access to all the presentations, with topics including zoning, building regulations, de-cluttering your home, living green and much more.
Florida Suncoast Tiny Home Festival, March 28-29, 10am-6pm at England Brothers Park, 5010 81st Ave N. Early Bird Tickets are $10 for one day, or $15 for the weekend.
Reflection of Mirror Lake to Rise
After selling his Tierra Verde home, longtime local Fred Hemmer and his wife moved into the Camden Pier District, an 18-story apartment building in Downtown St. Pete. And although they traded their waterfront home for a high-rise, they viewed the move as an upgrade, “Downtown has so much entertainment to offer,” Hemmer says, “We were tired of always driving downtown and figured, why not just move there?”
Now, Hemmer is looking to use his decades of experience in banking and real estate to further transform downtown St. Pete. A group of locals, led by Hemmer, are proposing an 18-story condominium tower for the northeast corner of 3rd Ave. N. and 8th St. N. The project, named Reflection, will be located a block from Mirror Lake and will offer 77 units in a modern building with a glass facade. The building was designed by SMP Architecture. Reflection will rise 200 feet over Mirror Lake with views of the Downtown St. Pete skyline.
Unlike other condominium buildings in downtown St. Pete, the top floor won’t contain penthouse units. Instead, drawing on his experience living at Camden Pier District, Hemmer’s plans call for a rooftop amenity deck featuring a resort style pool that will offer 360 degree views of the city.
Units at Reflection will range from 1,300-2,300 square feet with 1-3 bedrooms. Pricing is set to begin in the $600,000s, which is about 30% lower than Beach Drive prices, and will rise to around $1.3 million.
Albert Whitted Airport expansion could help fuel downtown boom located on 179 acres just south of downtown St. Petersburg, a new master plan is expected for Albert Whitted Airport by the end of 2020. A key focus of the plan likely will be a proposal to extend one of the runways further east into Tampa Bay, Rich Lesniak, airport manager, told a City Council committee.
Making that shift could allow the airport’s neighbor, University of South Florida St. Petersburg, and the hospitals and businesses west of USF, to build taller buildings and employ more people in those buildings. That could create a potential economic impact of close to $400 million, according to an economic analysis. It is a general aviation airport with two runways. About 180 aircraft are based at the airport and it averages about 90,000 takeoffs and landings per year.
The last master plan for Albert Whitted was completed in 2007, and the city has since wrapped up most of the projects in that plan. About 85 percent of the $18.5 million in capital improvements from the 2007 master plan were paid for with federal and state grants.
St. Pete’s future tallest building?
The New York-based Red Apple Group, can now submit a building permit application with design and construction plans to the city. The hotel, condominium and retail complex would sit on the 2.27-acreparcel south of Central Ave, between Fourth and Fifth Streets.
Included in the complex: 45 stories of condominiums, a 20-story hotel and an 842-space parking garage. The site would also include a six-story building with office and retail space. Obstacles remain, however. Corey Malyszka, an urban design and development coordinator with the city, said the developers had not, to his knowledge, gotten approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for their 515-foot tower.
With Albert Whitted Airport nearby, that’s a must. Council Member Gina Driscoll said she is concerned about how the site would interact with downtown traffic.
Body Electric gym in the Warehouse Arts District
The owners of The Body Electric Yoga Co. cut the ribbon Friday on their second site, The Body Electric Athletic Co.
The nearly 16,000-square-foot facility, at 655 31st St. S. in the Warehouse Arts District, was packed with people who turned out to see the three large studios, an open gym for members, a café and childcare facilities.
Charge of the Soul LLC, led by co-owners Katelyn Grady and Jenny Miller, paid $840,000 for the building in July 2019, and the company has put at least $650,000 in. Wannemacher Jensen Architects designed the project, which was financed by Bank OZK. Body Electric Athletic Co., 655 31St S., St. Petersburg
PINELLAS COUNTY
Free tire collection event to help reduce mosquito population. Residents can drop off tires at four locations on April 18. Pinellas County is hosting a FREE tire collection event on Saturday, April 18, 9am-1pm.
Tires are a common breeding location for mosquitoes. They can hold water, which provides mosquitoes with the perfect location to lay eggs and grow larvae.
Tires will be collected at the following locations:
Largo: Eagle Lake Park, 1800 Keene Road
Lealman: Lealman Exchange, 5175 45th St. N.
Palm Harbor: John Chesnut Sr. Park, 2200 East Lake Road S.
Seminole: Walsingham Park, 12615 102nd Ave. N.
Proof of residence in any Pinellas town or city qualifies too. No business drop-offs accepted. Residents may bring up to 12 tires of 36 inches or less in diameter with or without rims.
The collected tires will be processed through Pinellas County Solid Waste’s Waste-to-Energy facility, which generates enough electricity to power approximately 45,000 homes a day. Additionally, metal from the tires will be recovered from the processed ash and recycled.
For more information, residents may call Pinellas County Mosquito Control at (727) 464-7503 or visit www.pinellascounty.org/resident/mosquito_control.htm.
Sunstar First Care Ambulance Membership
Enroll today for ambulance coverage through March, 2021.There is still time for individuals and families to enroll in the Sunstar FirstCare Ambulance Membership program and receive medical transport cost coverage for more than a year.
The Sunstar First Care Ambulance Membership is a Pinellas County Government program that works to minimize out-of-pocket ambulance expenses. While the membership is not an insurance plan, having it can cover out-of-pocket expenses associated with copays or significantly reduce the cost of medically necessary transportation expenses for members without insurance.
The family membership covers individuals who reside in the same household related by blood, marriage or adoption. The average cost of a single transport is $746. Annual membership fees are $68 for a single membership and $103 for a family membership.
Congressman Charlie Crist (D-FL) announced a $210,000 grant to the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council to support the development of a comprehensive economic development strategy for the region. Administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, this funding will double the amount being invested by Tampa Bay counties, establishing an economic development strategy for the future that supports capital investment and job creation in the region.
This EDA grant supports the development and implementation of a comprehensive economic development strategy (CEDS) for the region served by the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, which comprises the counties of Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, and Pinellas. The CEDS process is designed to bring together the public and private sectors in the creation of an economic development roadmap to diversify and strengthen the
regional economy.
Crist also announced a $263,040 grant to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to be used for the restoration of seven threatened coral species. Allocated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), these funds will allow FWC to respond to the severe decline of corals in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The funds will be used to establish two permanent field-based coral nurseries and four pop-up nurseries, to transplant nursery-reared corals onto degraded reefs, and gene banking of genotypes of these corals.
TAMPA BAY & BEYOND
The Tampa Bay Vipers will play its home games at Raymond James Stadium, headquartered at Plant City Stadium where players will be housed and practices held. Tampa Bay joins Seattle, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. as the league’s inaugural cities. Teams will have 40-man active rosters and play a 10-week season. Vince McMahon said “the game will feature simplified rules for a faster pace of game that should complete in under three hours,” and will draw from former college and NFL players. On March 5, 2019, Marc Trestman was announced to be the head coach and general manager of the Tampa Bay XFL team.
Clyde Butcher, world renowned landscape photographer, especially of the Everglades in black & white, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the South Florida National Parks Trust (SFNPT) at their 5th Annual Wine & Wildlife at Naples Botanical Garden late last month. “The SFNPT is a special organization to our family and we have partnered with them for many years in support of the SWAMP program. SWAMP is an environmental education program that sends Collier County 6th graders into Big Cypress National Preserve on ranger-led field trips to see their backyard and become scientists for the day. I can’t think of a better organization to honor Clyde for his lifetime of conservation and educational work in support of Florida’s national parks,” said Clyde’s daughter Jackie Butcher Obendorf.
Top 15 Beaches In America
Florida is home to some of the most famous beaches in the world, according to a recent TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards selection. Here are the Top 15 beaches in America.
#1 – Clearwater Beach, Florida
#2 – Siesta Beach, Florida
#3 – Ka’anapali Beach, Maui, Hawaii
#4 – South Beach, Florida
#5 – Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, Oahu, Hawaii
#6 – Fort Lauderdale Beach, Florida
#7 – St. Pete Beach, Florida
#8 – Hollywood Beach, Florida
#9 – Santa Monica Beach, California
#10 – Lanikai Beach, Oahu, Hawaii
#11 – Panama City Beach, Florida
#12 – Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii
#13 – Kailua Beach Park, Oahu, Hawaii
#14 – Fort Myers Beach, Florida
#15 -Napili Beach, Maui, Hawaii