You probably would not allow your dentist to prepare your taxes, nor would you encourage you CPA to perform a root canal on a sore tooth.

It’s always interesting to me when we see someone get new windows and doors installed by a “handyman” or a “framer.” While both a good handyman and skilled framer are worth the weight in gold, it’s only true when they are working within their area of expertise.

The fenestration industry (fancy name for the window and door industry) has seen more product changes in the past 10 years than in the past 50 years. New building codes were introduced when Hurricane Andrew devastated South Florida. Mother Nature’s message was reinforced with multiple hurricanes crisscrossing Florida just a few years ago.

Here is what we learned: When the windows and doors failed, the entire structure was likely to fail next. All windows and doors in coastal environments had to be totally redesigned and pass very strenuous tests to prove they could withstand hurricane force winds and flying debris.

To accomplish this, all window manufacturers now use impact-rated glass (similar technology to car windshields) that is basically super glued to a reinforced window or doorframe. The product is then tested by installing the window in a test chamber that can simulate very high winds and a torrential down pour of rain. Then, the window is shot with a 2×4 shot out of an air cannon and put back in the test chamber for more wind and rain.

I assure the test is not easy to pass. What some people miss is that the installation of the window in the test chamber must be replicated in a home to produce the same positive results. Every product comes with very specific installation details. All products have a specific anchoring system that is required, specific types of caulking required and many require special flashing materials to be used. If any corners are cut, the product will likely not pass the test for which it was designed.

The old days of leaning a window in the opening, maybe shooting a little caulk behind it and nailing it in are long gone…that is if the end user wants the product to produce the same results for which it was tested.

The bottom line: consumers must select their installer as carefully as they select their window manufacturer. It’s always an advantage to hire a contractor that is a “specialist” at his trade. We recommend hiring a contractor that sells, installs and services the products he is promoting. If he professes to be an expert window and door installer and a big list of other tasks, be cautious.

And of course, ask for local references. Longevity in a small market is easy to confirm with a few phone calls.

Greer Island could erode away if groins are moved to the south.

According to a report by the town’s engineering firm Coastal Planning and Engineering (CPE), if the proposed groins at the north end of Longboat Key are placed beginning at the 360 North Condominiums, and not north of Greer Island, the erosion at Greer Island would be so severe that the small island could eventually be lost.

For this reason, CPE does not recommend moving the groins south toward 360 North as requested by the Town Commission in November 2011. Manatee County Commissioner Joe McClash agrees.

“In reviewing the recent study for the pass, I cannot support the recommendations of destroying the recreational areas (Greer Island) that many people now enjoy. It also would take away the natural beauty myself and others have pledged to protect.”

The original request by town commissioners to have no groins placed on Greer Island was to avoid involving Manatee County, which owns Greer Island, in case they did not grant permission for the construction.

CPE’s official recommendation is to leave the first of the groins on Greer Island.

“The Recommended Inlet Management Plan for Longboat Pass includes a new terminal groin on the north end of Longboat Key, which would be constructed on property owned by Manatee County. If the terminal groin were moved to the 360 North Condominium property, the area between the structure and Longboat Pass would be subject to higher erosion rates and increased shoreline retreat that would occur as the inlet channel moved closer to Longboat Key. The channel migration pattern could potentially increase the maintenance dredging requirement in the Authorized Channel of Longboat Pass.

“Moving the location of the terminal groin south to the 360 North property would result in increased erosion of Greer Island and would not meet one of the goals of the Inlet Management Study, which was to preserve Greer Island. It is likely that FDEP would not be as favorable to the southerly-located groin. For these reasons we do not recommend pursuing this alternative,” according to the CPE report.

The erosion

Longboat Pass is an inlet that separates Anna Maria Island from Longboat Key and connects Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. According to the CPE report, both Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key have shorelines that are classified by the FDEP as critically eroded. The area from Greer Island to Palmetto Avenue on Longboat Key has experienced some of the highest erosion rates on Longboat Key, losing 35 to 131 cubic yards/foot between July 2006 and October 2010, according to CPE.

Moving the proposed groins

During the November 3, 2011, workshop, the Longboat Key Town Commission asked CPE how the terminal groins could be constructed if Manatee County were unwilling to allow the structure on Greer Island. As a result of this question, CPE ran a new model if the proposed terminal groin on the north end of Longboat Key would be moved south, onto the 360 North condominium property within the town’s jurisdictional limits. This scenario, termed by CPE as the “Modified Terminal Groin Scenario,” was assessed to determine the changes to the beach profile as a result of relocating the proposed terminal groin.

Modeling results from moving the groin

According to the CPE report, the Modified Terminal Groin Scenario indicates that between 360 North Condominium and Beachwalk Condominium, more of the dredge spoil from Longboat Pass will remain on the beach than under the original Recommended Inlet Management Plan. However, beachfront erosion rates between the terminal groin and Longboat Pass would be higher than either the No Action Scenario or the Recommended Inlet Management Plan.

The potential for higher erosion rates on Greer Island, north of the relocated groin, is due to the partial blockage of northerly-directed sediment movement at the groin. According to CPE, this results in increased scouring along the northern end of Greer Island, bringing the inlet channel closer to the north end of Longboat Key. Since the channel moves south, the existing channel will fill in, which means that maintenance dredging of Longboat Pass will increase with the Modified Terminal Groin Scenario from the Recommended Inlet Management Plan.

Commissioner questions

Commissioner Jack Duncan has many questions regarding the CPE report, including why they did not wait for more conclusive data.

“They imply that because of the short period of time the groins have been in place if we wait until October we will get more conclusive data, then why not wait? Finally, they say that in the aggregate sand has actually increased for the area in question, if that’s the case then why not just move the sand (bulldoze it) from the accrete area to the eroded area?” said Duncan.

Commissioners will discuss the proposed groin solutions at a future commission meeting.

Today one in five American households is multi-generational. The only segment of the new house market that is growing is the “accordion” home designed to accommodate several generations of a family living together in one structure. Parents with children under 21 are not included when counting multi-generational households in America.

You and I were born into a unique period of world history where there was immense growth in the middle class, for a period of 60 years, based on the emergence of automated manufacturing and the revolution of “technology.” When I was a young child, plastic did not exist as a manufactured material. We have lived through an amazing period in human existence. Democracy and capitalism spread over the entire globe. Agricultural and medical science saved humanity from famine and disease while improving the human condition. Amazing times.

We are seeing, in this interminable national election cycle, the beginnings of a necessary reality adjustment in our country. We are beginning to accept the fact that blue-collar manufacturing jobs have been largely replaced by numerically controlled machines and robots. The factories that produce Apple products will install 1 million additional robots in the next three years. We are not the only society that is entering the new technology age.

The manufacturing jobs are gone and it wasn’t the result of “outsourcing.” The jobs were gone 40 years ago with the advent of the semiconductor and cheap computing. In the ’70s I started a company that automated several labor-intensive aspects of the gaming industry. My company would charge unconscionable prices for our ideas and products, only to see them pay for themselves in a few months of reduced labor costs. We, my company, were the suckers, not the casino managers, who were usually pretty sharp business people.

I think we are all beginning to recognize that an economic colossus, the size of the American industrial base, took decades to be seriously affected by the new technology age, which has replaced hands and sweat with robots and automated machines.

Plastic and engineered materials have largely replaced metal. The pencil has been replaced by the computer. Vastly improved modes of transportation have ushered in the age of distributed manufacturing and assembly. The Internet will soon marginalize national borders.

The manufacturing sector is not coming back. The brief period in history where a single society, representing less than 8 percent of the global population, was able to afford to consume 25 percent of the earth’s resources, both natural and produced, has ended. Humanity is moving on. We, as a society, will necessarily begin the painful process of downsizing. American consumption and consumerism will have to come into line with the other peoples on earth. Nationalism is perhaps the first thing that will have to disappear for all countries. Global economics are out in front in this area. When I was a child, Americans would chuckle at the “made in Japan” label on imported products. Now we cannot get foreign-made iPhones fast enough.

I do not know what will become of the blue-collar segment of our society. I do know there are millions of clever people looking for a way to get rich by inventing something or some computer program that reduces costs for someone. If I worked in a Chinese iPhone/iPad factory, I would be looking for something else to do real soon. There is a robot in his/her immediate future.

Japan entered the global manufacturing market in the late ’50s. American manufacturers underestimated the viability of a highly educated and organized industrial base. America lost market share and jobs. It took fewer than 35 years for Japan to enter permanent economic decline, as other countries entered the global marketplace, made possible by improved transportation technology including the jet plane. Now no one would dream of manufacturing something in Japan. It’s too expensive. There too the Japanese laborer has been replaced by the robotic assembly line. China may well pass through its period of manufacturing expansion in fewer than two decades. Already some U.S. manufactures are returning jobs to America, but not necessarily North America. Mexico may soon become the new China.

One in five U.S. households are multi-generational. This translates to a diminution of the American standard of living. We can elect whomever we want, but times have changed. There is no way to regain our golden age of the middle class. At least not as blue-collar workers.

We as a nation need to “get real.” We are just another society caught up in a world of too much violence (the result of too many people having too little), too many human beings, too much pollution, too little available water to support the global agricultural expansion that will be required to feed everyone and too much stuff. We need to start smelling the flowers instead of buying another flowerpot on the Internet.

How did the mantra of “cheap goods” ever become the sacrament of American society? Do we all need all the stuff we posses? Look up “hedonic assimilation” as it relates to happiness. Basically, we all quickly get use to our new stuff and need more and better stuff to get another consumption high. America, and much of the modern world, is on a never-ending consumer treadmill.

The working class will have to find something else to do, since there is no longer an expanding need for their services or efforts. How’s your robot today? Capitalism is based on an expanding market. Recent studies show Japan’s population decreasing 30 percent by 2050. As societies industrialize, their birthrates decline. Without 1 million illegals entering the United States each year, we also would have a declining population growth rate.

Excess insulin causes a range of maladies. People have the choice of managing their insulin or not. Those who do not keep their insulin in check will probably have a dumpy shaped body, emotionally feel mediocre and have a high likelihood of developing a variety of lifestyle ailments up to and including Metabolic Syndrome leading to diabetes, obesity, heart disease and cancer. Let’s face it. This is the state of the average person’s health in America with currently 200 million (67 percent) of Americans either overweight or obese. To obtain exceptional health things must be done differently.

Fortunately, knowledge is power. With knowledge people have the option to have a beautiful body, to feel good and to have a life without lifestyle disease. Lower the amount of carbohydrates eaten and blood glucose will decrease and consequently insulin levels. However it is not that simple.

A body needs carbohydrates, and if the amount of carbohydrates in a diet is lowered, then the amount of other macronutrients must increase. There are only three macronutrients that food consists of: fat, carbohydrates and protein. Thus, if the amount of carbohydrates is lowered, then either the amount of fat and/or the amount of protein must be increased. Too much protein or too much fat is harmful as well.

According to the new guidelines from the FDA, the optimal balance is 50 percent carbohydrates, 25 percent protein and 25 percent fat.

A more important issue related to carbohydrates is that different carbohydrates have different effects on blood glucose. Some carbohydrates have a high glycemic index while others have a more moderate glycemic index. Glycemic index is a measure of the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. During digestion, carbohydrate-containing foods metabolize into glucose, a single sugar molecule that serves as the primary fuel for tissues and cells. The heart, kidneys, brain and muscles cannot function properly without adequate intake of carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates with a high glycemic index are usually refined products and mostly white: white flour, sugar, white potatoes, corn, white rice, white bread and processed foods. These so-called high GI-carbohydrates result in glucose entering the bloodstream quickly and raising the blood glucose quickly. This produces an exaggerated insulin response.

Carbohydrates with a more moderate glycemic index result in glucose entering the bloodstream more slowly and raising blood glucose more slowly. This instead produces a moderate insulin response
.

A glycemic index of more than 70 is considered high, a glycemic index between 56 and 69 is considered medium and a glycemic index 55 and less is considered low:

The following are some high glycemic index carbohydrates:

• White Rice about 87 GI

• White Bread about 75 GI

• White Potatoes about 89 GI

• Bagel: 72 GI

The following are some low glycemic index carbohydrates:

• Apple ‍about 40 GI

• Asparagus about 15 GI

• Broccoli about 15 GI

• Green Beans about 15 GI

• Sweet Potatoes: 46 GI

• Whole wheat bread (with bran): 45 GI

• Quinoa: 35 GI

• Nuts and seeds: 15GI

Source: Database of Foods’ Glycemic Indexes (www.glycemicindex.com)

A common mistake that people make is eating a lot of carbohydrates that have high glycemic indexes. As I mentioned earlier bodies need carbohydrates. However, they do not need high glycemic index carbohydrates. It is a particularly bad idea to eat high glycemic carbohydrates as part of every meal, which is unfortunately what has become the norm in America. Eggs and hash browns with OJ, steak and potatoes or fries, sandwiches, chicken and white rice are all common meals.

The combination of eating diets that are both high percentage carbohydrates and diets in which those carbohydrates have a high glycemic index can be disastrous for many people’s health. Without limiting the amount of high GI carbohydrates, people will have a very difficult time maintaining a healthy weight. The human body is an awesome, resilient machine, but there is a limit on the amount of abuse one can withstand.

Dominique Kohlenberger has a Masters Degree in Physical Therapy, is a Certified Health Coach and the owner of Healthy Longevity on Longboat Key. Email questions to dkohlenberger@lbknews.com.

2012 will see a few rule changes, which have been agreed upon by the USGA and the R&A. Two significant changes are among those that will appear in the Rules book.

Rule 13-4, “Ball in Hazard: Prohibited Actions:” Exception 2 to the rule has been amended to permit a player to smooth sand or soil in a hazard at any time, including before playing from that hazard. This assumes that such action is done solely to care for the course. The change will allow a player or caddie retrieving a rake to smooth footprints before the player makes a stroke from the bunker, thus saving time and encouraging good etiquette.

Rule 18-2b, “Ball Moving After Address:” An exception has been added to exonerate the player from penalty if “it is known or virtually certain that he did not cause the ball to move,” such as with a gust of wind. The ball must be played from its new position. In the past, a player was penalized one stroke and the ball had to be returned to its original position. There could be confusion, though. According to the USGA explanation, “if a player’s ball moves after address on a windless day, he will be subject to penalty under Rule 18-2b.”

Two real situations at the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic preceded the changes. This spring at the New Orleans event, Webb Simpson was challenging for his first tour title. Standing on the 15th green Sunday, he held a one-stroke lead. As he prepared to tap in a one-foot par putt, his ball moved. Simpson was penalized one stroke and ultimately lost a sudden death playoff to Bubba Watson.

Simpson, pointing to wind and firm, crusty greens, said he had been victimized by a “bad rule.”

“I’m obviously happy that it is being changed,” Simpson said of Rule 18-2b. “It’s a rule that 100 percent of PGA Tour players would agree should be changed.

In the 2008 Zurich Classic, Stewart Cink was disqualified as a consequence of Rule 13-4. Cink, with his ball resting on grass, had to stand in a fairway bunker to hit the shot. The ball flew into a greenside bunker. Meanwhile his caddie raked the fairway bunker. Under the old rule, that should have been a two-stroke penalty — for testing the surface of one bunker while his ball was in another bunker — although Cink didn’t know it. He signed his scorecard without the penalty. Later he was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. The outcry from players and fans was enormous.

Other rule changes are:

• “Searching for Ball:” A player can search for his ball anywhere on the course when it may be covered by sand and to clarify that there is no penalty if the ball is moved in these circumstances. However, if a ball in a hazard is moved when covered by loose impediments (leaves), there is a penalty of one stroke.

• Hole-in-one prizes for amateurs: The R&A has joined the USGA in exempting hole-in-one prizes from the limits for amateurs. This does not apply to long-drive or closest-to-the-pin prizes.

• Arriving late for a starting time: What was previously a local rule is now a fixed part of the rules. For a player staring late, but within five minutes of his starting time, the penalty will be reduced from disqualification to loss of hole in match play or two strokes in stroke play.

• • •

The following question came to me last week:

Last week, I made the greatest putt of my life. Almost. My 80-footer was tracking towards the flagstick, which my friend was tending. It was about to fall when my pal dropped his ball, which bounced off his shoe and knocked my miracle putt off course. He was apologetic and gave me the putt, but I’m not sure I earned it.

Your friend jumped the gun in giving you the putt. Since his error was accidental, Decision 19-5/1.7 states that you had the option of playing your ball where it stopped or replaying your lengthy putt.

The town of Longboat Key has officially ‘appealed the appeal’ of the Islandside development order in an effort to get the project back on track after it was derailed last December in circuit court.

Both the Key Club and the town agreed to file the appeal Jan. 30 to reverse the ruling by Circuit Court Judge Charles Roberts that halted plans for redevelopment at the Islandside property when he found in favor of the Islandside Property Owners Coalition.

The town is the appealing party, but the Key Club is paying the town’s legal fees in support of the effort.

Roberts in late December overturned the town of Longboat Key’s approval of a redevelopment plan that included a new hotel, a condo building, a spa and fitness center and meeting space, ruling that it violated zoning code. He found for the plaintiff on all seven counts and called the approval by the town a “miscarriage of justice.”

Despite the ruling, the Longboat Key Town Commission unanimously voted to appeal Roberts’ ruling last month to the Second District. IPOC President Bob White then asked the Town Commission to not appeal and continue down the path of conforming Longboat Key’s land use laws simply to stand by an “illegal and inappropriate approval.”

The commission has also agreed to “surgically” amend the town’s zoning code to resolve inconsistencies described in the ruling.

One of the areas of greatest concern to both the town and commission is that Judge Roberts said the proposed commercial and office uses were not allowed in the planned development. In short, an expansion of commercial activity or uses would not be allowed. That could have a ripple effect on the planned Publix approval, which also intensifies activity in a planned development site.

In the appeal, written by Carlton Fields Attorney Sylvia Walbolt, Walbolt argues that the court did not mention that the planning director and expert planning consultants opined that the town was in its authority to grant the development order. She added that the State Department of Community Affairs also interpreted the zoning code similarly with the town. She said the town amended its code to satisfy the DCA’s issues.

Walbolt says that the judge found the code “clear and unambiguous” in precluding the proposed redevelopment. She challenged that view by showing the other professional interpretations, which she says the judge ignored. She also cites a 1973 land-use case that says municipalities must be consistent in their application and intent of land-use law.

Part of the dilemma is then-Planning and Zoning Director Monica Simpson issued a letter during the proceedings that said she could not support approval of the revised Key Club application due to it appearing to violate the requirements of the zoning code.

Walbolt argues that Simpson was expressing planning concerns and was not in a position to make a definitive zoning compliance determination. Simpson, Walbolt says, made statements about the project being “perhaps too intense to be consistent…” with the land regulations.

Walbolt is arguing that Simpson was not making definitive zoning statements, but expressing planning concerns about the south end Islandside density and site. Walbolt says the judge seized on isolated statements at reaching his conclusion.

Walbolt also argues that the town must defer to the property owner/applicant if any element is vague or ambiguous. She also faults the judge for not considering the competent substantial evidence that the town and Key Club presented to support its assertions.

The Second District Court of Appeal will consider the matter. If the court overturns the lower court, the matter will be remanded with instructions to the lower court to essentially change its ruling in conformance with the higher court’s interpretation.

If the town loses, then the development order is officially dead.

Contributing Columnist

burgum@lbknews.com

President Obama’s State of the Union Address was a bit of a disappointment at our house. It was a combination of failed programs and more debt. He laid out an array of plans that ignored political realities. Take his plea to end oil industry subsidies, if you recall, he couldn’t get that old bromide through a Congress with an overwhelming Democratic majority.

The confused thinking didn’t end there. He talked of an immigration overhaul that he couldn’t get past Democrats and tuition tax credits that failed even with many in his own party the last time around. Even worse, he talked of ending tax credits that encouraged companies to move jobs overseas — tax credits that don’t exist. He didn’t mention that we penalize companies who want to do business in the United States by imposing the highest corporate tax in the industrial world.

But, what he didn’t say was far more revealing about the State of the Nation than anything he said. Mr. Obama not only ignored the deficit but what passes for his energy policy received the barest of mentions.

How can a president who had just requested authority to raise the debt ceiling $1.2 trillion for a total of $16.4 trillion virtually ignore the deficit problem in the State of the Union address? There was a time when he did not ignore deficits. When the Senate was considering President Bush’s request to raise the debt ceiling $11.3 trillion, Sen. Obama said, “The problem is that the way Bush has done it in the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion from the first 42 presidents. No. 43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome. So we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back. $30,000 for every man woman and child. That’s irresponsible, that’s unpatriotic.”

Maybe the president should get a pass on this one. It’s a bit tricky trying to justify $5.1 trillion in deficit spending in three years when he earlier had said running up $4 trillion in eight years was unpatriotic.

He brushed by energy policy with a simple statement that, “I’ll not walk away from the promise of clean energy.” Gone from this State of the Union were the former promises of 5 million green jobs, a nation powered by the sun and wind, a nation free from the curse of demonic fossil fuels.

Had Mr. Obama talked about clean energy, he might have had to admit that the solar and wind energy projects were not smoking hot. He might even have had to admit they weren’t even smoking. He might even have been forced to tell us that the wind and solar industries were in the tank.

Just one week after the State of the Union speech, California-based Amonix announced it was laying off about 200 people from the 300 currently employed in its solar manufacturing plant in North Las Vegas. This loss of jobs announcement came on the heels of BP, famous for it’s “beyond petroleum” motto and a mishap in the Gulf two years ago, announcing it’s closing its solar operation at a cost of 1,750 jobs. Seems the sales just aren’t there.

Wind farms aren’t doing much better. Germany is moving away from its wind program because the indeterminate nature of the power supply is threatening to destabilize Germany’s electric grid. Denmark and Norway are scaling back wind farm development. They have found it is too expensive, the power is unreliable and the manufacturing jobs are most likely located in Asia.

Europe’s experience is not unique. Dr. Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace, has condemned wind farms and the wind industry in general. “The industry is a destroyer of wealth and negative to the economy,” he told a Canadian audience. Moore said there wouldn’t be wind farms without subsidies, “They are ridiculously expensive and don’t work half the time… And no matter how many are built, they won’t replace coal, gas or hydro or nuclear plants, because they are continuous and wind is not always reliable.”

The president did not feel it necessary to reiterate his preference for coal or natural gas-fueled vehicles — or electric-powered vehicles as he calls them. In last year’s State of the Union Address, the president set a national goal of having a million electric vehicles on the road in the United States by 2015 — a goal that would be achieved, Obama said, by taking money out of the oil industry and investing it in new technology.

More recently the president said, “In three years, our partnership with the private sector has already positioned America to be the world’s leading manufacturer of high-tech batteries.” Everyone took this to be a reference to a $118 million stimulus grant to develop electric-car batteries given to Ener1. Shortly after the president’s glowing report Ener1 filed for bankruptcy. The principal reason for Ener1’s troubles is that very few are buying the electric cars that Mr. Obama is so anxious to see on our highways. The Chevy Volt, for instance, was several thousand short of the 10,000 a year goal set by G.M. for 2011. All of them had to be recalled because of a fire hazard.

Actually, I would like to hear the president explain just how the electric cars or hybrids are going to get all the electricity they need when his EPA is shutting down between 12 percent and 18 percent of our current generating capacity while ignoring the Federal Energy Administration’s projections that America will need to increase current generating capacity 40 percent by 2030 just to accommodate the additional population. One would believe we will require a good deal more electricity if everyone is plugging in their hybrids and Volts.

In short, we have an energy policy that works against itself. That is always difficult to talk about. And that is why sometimes you can divine more from what is not said than you can from what is.

Greer Island could erode away if groins are moved to the south.

According to a report by the town’s engineering firm Coastal Planning and Engineering (CPE), if the proposed groins at the north end of Longboat Key are placed beginning at the 360 North Condominiums, and not north of Greer Island, the erosion at Greer Island would be so severe that the small island could eventually be lost.

For this reason, CPE does not recommend moving the groins south toward 360 North as requested by the Town Commission in November 2011. Manatee County Commissioner Joe McClash agrees.

“In reviewing the recent study for the pass, I cannot support the recommendations of destroying the recreational areas (Greer Island) that many people now enjoy. It also would take away the natural beauty myself and others have pledged to protect.”

The original request by town commissioners to have no groins placed on Greer Island was to avoid involving Manatee County, which owns Greer Island, in case they did not grant permission for the construction.

CPE’s official recommendation is to leave the first of the groins on Greer Island.

“The Recommended Inlet Management Plan for Longboat Pass includes a new terminal groin on the north end of Longboat Key, which would be constructed on property owned by Manatee County. If the terminal groin were moved to the 360 North Condominium property, the area between the structure and Longboat Pass would be subject to higher erosion rates and increased shoreline retreat that would occur as the inlet channel moved closer to Longboat Key. The channel migration pattern could potentially increase the maintenance dredging requirement in the Authorized Channel of Longboat Pass.

“Moving the location of the terminal groin south to the 360 North property would result in increased erosion of Greer Island and would not meet one of the goals of the Inlet Management Study, which was to preserve Greer Island. It is likely that FDEP would not be as favorable to the southerly-located groin. For these reasons we do not recommend pursuing this alternative,” according to the CPE report.

The erosion

Longboat Pass is an inlet that separates Anna Maria Island from Longboat Key and connects Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. According to the CPE report, both Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key have shorelines that are classified by the FDEP as critically eroded. The area from Greer Island to Palmetto Avenue on Longboat Key has experienced some of the highest erosion rates on Longboat Key, losing 35 to 131 cubic yards/foot between July 2006 and October 2010, according to CPE.

Moving the proposed groins

During the November 3, 2011, workshop, the Longboat Key Town Commission asked CPE how the terminal groins could be constructed if Manatee County were unwilling to allow the structure on Greer Island. As a result of this question, CPE ran a new model if the proposed terminal groin on the north end of Longboat Key would be moved south, onto the 360 North condominium property within the town’s jurisdictional limits. This scenario, termed by CPE as the “Modified Terminal Groin Scenario,” was assessed to determine the changes to the beach profile as a result of relocating the proposed terminal groin.

Modeling results from moving the groin

According to the CPE report, the Modified Terminal Groin Scenario indicates that between 360 North Condominium and Beachwalk Condominium, more of the dredge spoil from Longboat Pass will remain on the beach than under the original Recommended Inlet Management Plan. However, beachfront erosion rates between the terminal groin and Longboat Pass would be higher than either the No Action Scenario or the Recommended Inlet Management Plan.

The potential for higher erosion rates on Greer Island, north of the relocated groin, is due to the partial blockage of northerly-directed sediment movement at the groin. According to CPE, this results in increased scouring along the northern end of Greer Island, bringing the inlet channel closer to the north end of Longboat Key. Since the channel moves south, the existing channel will fill in, which means that maintenance dredging of Longboat Pass will increase with the Modified Terminal Groin Scenario from the Recommended Inlet Management Plan.

Commissioner Jack Duncan has many questions regarding the CPE report, including why they did not wait for more conclusive data.

“They imply that because of the short period of time the groins have been in place if we wait until October we will get more conclusive data, then why not wait? Finally, they say that in the aggregate sand has actually increased for the area in question, if that’s the case then why not just move the sand (bulldoze it) from the accrete area to the eroded area?” said Duncan.

Commissioners will discuss the proposed groin solutions at a future commission meeting.

Community center: The $10 million speculative adventure being proposed by Mayor Jim Brown is encountering a fair amount of community opposition, despite claims by the mayor that “the community is behind” his project. Several taxpayers have pointed out that in these difficult economic times, the town needs to be fiscally responsible. The commission should propose a public fundraising option to build a community center rather than proceed with using taxpayer funds.

There is no defensible reason not to follow the successful private fundraising efforts used to create the Anna Maria Island Community Center and Christ Church here on Longboat Key. We are in more difficult economic times than we were when the proposal to build a community center was rejected by a referendum several years ago. The community may once again reject the efforts of our activist mayor and his efforts to spend much-needed public funds on this multi-million-dollar project. We need to pay down debt, not create more public debt. I wonder what Mayor Brown thinks has changed?

Commercial real estate: The current activist commission is strongly advocating that the town radically change our building codes and Comprehensive Plan, to the extent that the commercially zoned land at the north and south ends of the island will become too juicy to be ignored by developers. We are making it easy for developers to build whatever they please, regardless of the ambiance or desires of the resident taxpayers. The commission is planning to give developers public streets too, as we did at the Conrad Beach development, a project that is still unfinished after more than a decade.

What the commission is ignoring are all the taxpayers who live at the north and south ends. Does the commission actually believe that legislating a seven-story condo-tel at Whitney beach Plaza will do anything but adversely affect the north end ambiance? Based on what empirical evidence? Have they asked the local residents what they want, instead of assuming what some developer would want? Handpicking a group of like-minded business people and residents to carry out some sort of phony study does not constitute anything but a violation of the public trust. The commission should be ashamed of itself.

It may be time to consider reigning in the practice of the commission of using appointed, unofficial committees to formulate, and supposedly validate, radical departures from existing town policies. Essentially this is stealth government and should be unacceptable in any community.

Granted the residents of Longboat Key have exactly the government they were too uninvolved to elect. An appointed government has no incentive to be responsive to the people. In our particular case, Longboat voters and residents are so uninvolved in their own local destinies, that the current people in power are relatively sure that their regime will last for decades of appointment after appointment to the Town Commission and the Planning and Zoning Board. I believe that most residents have abandoned any interest in local politics. Perhaps what is happening is a natural process that occurs when the residents reach a certain age demographic and are only seasonal residents.

Increasingly, spending $18,000 on a local election, with the major newspaper, the real estate community, the Chamber of Commerce, PIC and the Garden Club behind the incumbent pro-business candidate, each for their own political ends, is a waste of taxpayer money. The development and business interests now own Longboat Key. The voters of the island appear not to care anymore and have abdicated their rightful role as an electorate. Instead, a few powerful special interest groups effectively control who gets to be on the commission and the Planning and Zoning Board. They even decide who is today’s town manager.

Most residents don’t know what is really going on in town government. And many residents who vote get their information from a pro-business newspaper and PIC, a sham community organization. Uninterested ignorance prevails, while taxpayers passively accept a stalled real estate market, crippled by the uncertainty of the future of commercial tourism on the island. No one wants to invest in property that may be rendered worthless in a few years as a result of actions being undertaken by the current, predominantly appointed, activist town government.

I am sympathetic with the plight of our new town manager, who daily must live or die by a political sword in the hands of self-anointed, appointed, professed pro-development activists, who control both the Town Commission and the Planning and Zoning Board. These appointees can have the town manager’s head on any given day, as they have recently demonstrated, appointing four town managers in a month’s time. A town manager can only be effective when allowed to function as a sort of technocrat. As far as I can see we no longer have a stable, powerful town manager. That position has been superseded by a self-appointed, political, fairly radical clique within our community.

Ask yourself if your life and financial situation on Longboat Key is better or worse than when the current pro-business commission came into power two years ago.