To keep Longboat Key a quality community requires the residents’ involvement. The town has been blessed with volunteers who have been hugely successful in their business life and who have offered their services gratis to help make the town what it is today.

It seems that every time I open my e-mail, I read of another cry of frustration from Brad Saivetz with his continuing so far one-way conversation with the Town Commission and Planning Director Monica Simpson. His pleas are so compelling and his arguments are so on point that as a sometime writer, they make me envious

I started this mini-series a few weeks ago with a short exposé of our town manager’s potentially reduced security level. That was meant as a fun piece, believe it or not. It actually was pro-town manager in the new reality around here

All correspondence, meetings and exchanges that involve the Longboat Key Town Commission are subject to the Florida Sunshine Law. This act requires that all of the above must be not only available but also published for the edification of the general public.

In my last Report, I discussed a letter that Brad Saivetz, a longtime observer and critic of local affairs, wrote to the Town Commission questioning the wisdom of accepting the position taken by the town on the need of a referendum to expand the density on Islandside

Almost simultaneously with the announcement of the plans for the Longboat Key Club & Resort, there was a chorus of voices demanding that the charter provision on density be applied and the requested density be subjected to a referendum

Town Planning and Zoning Board member Bradford Saivetz informed the town this week that he will not return to his Planning and Zoning Board seat after he finishes this term. This is in conjunction with Town Commissioner Robert Siekmann’s resignation this week from his commission seat

We are lucky. Most of us are considered pretty clever, too. After all, we slugged it out back there in the real world and managed to acquire enough consumer credits to be able to retire on this lovely barrier island of ours. We chose to live on this barrier island

At its last formal meeting, the Longboat Key Town Commission finally chose among various beach renourishment proposals. They have forwarded to a March 15 referendum a request for authorization of bonds in the amount of $16 million, to supply sand for the North End, as well as other “hot spots” in danger of causing serious erosion

Longboat Key’s future. In many ways, the words are both a beginning and an end. Like Longboat Key literally, our community is an island apart. For years we were perceived as an insular wealthy community with overwrought strict codes, an anti-development attitude and a complete desire to control every aspect of public life.