Generally, the golf courses in this area do…

Our Town Commission is about to meet to take up suggested clarifications to the town zoning code. These changes or clarifications are as suggested by the local Longboat Key Club and its cadre of attorneys.

I have been questioned, who am I? I believe my readers deserve to know the answer to that question. My name is Dan Dowd. I am not Al Green. I am not Matt Walsh. I am not Steve Reid. I am not Hal Lenobel or Bob Siekmann. I am Dan Dowd. Is that my real name? Yes, that is my real name for the sake of this column. I happen to like the name Dan Dowd.

In the opening scenes of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Scrooge is asked to contribute to a fund to provide “necessities” for the poor who otherwise might die. Scrooge replies that they should die then, thereby decreasing the world’s surplus population. He is not, we immediately conclude, a nice man. Scrooge was converted by three ghosts who reintroduced him to a love of mankind by making him face the question of just who might heaven consider surplus.

It was the late, great humorist, Will Rogers, who famously postulated that “I belong to no organized Party: I am a Democrat.” Were he alive today, Rogers would undoubtedly transfer his description to the Republican Party

Bradenton Opera Guild Treasurer Joe Varady presents a check for $5,000 at the April meeting of the guild to Susan Danis, executive director of Sarasota Opera for their very successful Youth Opera program.

British Petroleum, BP, has notified Lee Fox, Executive Director of Save Our Seabirds of Sarasota, Florida, to be on standby to coordinate the Oiled Wildlife Response Team for the Florida Gulf Coast. Lee Fox authored the “Oiled Wildlife Preparedness Program” manual, which was used in the Tampa Bay oil spill in August 1993 where she organized the response team.

With Colony President and CEO Dr. Murray ‘Murf’ Klauber seeking more time to reorganize under chapter 11, the decision by Judge May on Monday to make a ruling in three weeks was a slight victory.

With the Longboat Key Club’s requested zoning changes heading to a Town Commission first reading on Monday at 9 a.m., Longboat Key News asked Islandside Coalition President Bob White his latest take on the process and the proposal.

Town Manager Bruce St. Denis says it’s purely a policy decision that the Town Commission must make: either cut services or raise the tax rate. The town manager plans on getting an answer next Wednesday at a special budget workshop to be held at 2 p.m. in Town Hall.