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Top Stories this week on Anna Maria Island: Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010
Left: A front-end loader moves sand on the beach where authorities searched for evidence in the Sabine Musil-Buehler case. Right: Manatee County Sheriff’s Office investigators put up crime-scene tape on the beach in Anna Maria.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal has ordered that the recall election of Anna Maria Commissioner Harry Stoltzfus be confirmed by the city’s canvassing board.
Voters had their say Sept. 7 in the special election to recall Anna Maria Commissioner Harry Stoltzfus, but the results were only announced Monday, Sept. 13. Anna Maria voters chose 362 to 331 votes to remove Stoltzfus from office.
On the choice of who should serve his remaining term, Gene Aubry won the balloting with 363 votes to 333 votes for Stoltzfus.
By 10 a.m. Monday, all involved parties in the special election had filed either motions or responses demanding the immediate release of the voting results from the Sept. 7 election on the recall of Anna Maria Commissioner Harry Stoltzfus.
At 1:52 p.m., the notice came from the Second District Court of Appeal that “all ballots, including absentee ballots, cast in the recall election of Sept. 7, shall be unsealed and open for public inspection.”
Anna Maria taxpayers appear pleased with the city’s proposed $2.1 million budget for 2010-11, and with the city commission’s decision to retain the current 1.7882 ad valorem tax rate.
Only one member of the public, planning and zoning board member and mayoral candidate Sandy Mattick, showed up for the Sept. 8 hearing on the 2010-11 budget.
The first Holmes Beach hearing on the proposed 2010-11 budget was to be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14, at Holmes Beach City Hall, 5801 Marina Drive.
Mayor Rich Bohnenberger called the budget, in which there is no proposed tax increase and a 9.64 percent reduction in tax revenue to the city, “lean and mean.”
Bradenton Beach commissioners voted last week to move forward with a $2.66 million spending plan for 2010-11 and likely will adopt the budget this week.
The commission, meeting Sept. 7 at city hall, 107 Gulf Drive N., also unanimously adopted a resolution setting the proposed millage rate — the rate used to collect property taxes for the city — at 2.1539 mills.
The disappearance of a former Anna Maria Island woman nearly a year ago is now being investigated as a homicide.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department began searching for ex-islander Dawn Marie Viens, 37, of Lomita, Calif., after she was reported missing Oct. 18, 2009.
The case, for close to a year, has been pursued as a missing person investigation by a detective in that division of the department.
Top Top Notch: Waves, camera, action
Chris Pate of Holmes Beach won the grand prize in The islander's annual Top Notch contest with his photograph of a wave-skater at White Avenue beach. Pate won $100 from the newspaper, plus gifts from islander advertisers, including a $50 gift certificate from the Chiles Restaurants Group, a $50 certificate for Hair's to You Salon, a $25 certificate from Mister Roberts Resortwear, a $10 certificate for Minnie's Beach Cafe and the framing of the winning photo by Karly Carlson Custom Framing. The weekly winners received islander "more-than-a-mullet wrapper" T-shirts and front-page placement of their photos. Next week, The islander's honorable mentions in the popular contest.
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