Manatee County is stepping in to run a beach market through the visitors bureau.
An Aug. 1 letter from Jacob Erickson, county purchasing official, to Ambrose Services Inc. terminated the agreement for concession services between the county and Ambrose Services, which has operated the market for more than nine years.
The market sets up weekly November-July along the multiuse trail at Coquina Beach in Bradenton Beach under the management of Nancy Ambrose, who previously operated a market for the merchants association on Bridge Street in Bradenton Beach.
Ambrose posted the termination letter Aug. 3 on Facebook and wrote, “I was completely SHOCKED when I received the coldest termination, without cause letter out of the blue yesterday.”
“It feels like a real slap in the face,” Ambrose told The Islander Aug. 3. “Basically, the county is stealing a business that a Manatee County corporation started.”
County information outreach manager Bill Logan told The Islander Aug. 3, “There is no official comment on the decision to take over the market and why. It was a contractual matter.”
County records show Ambrose and the county created an amended franchise agreement in December 2020. The agreement included a lease for property along the trail with annual rate increases up to 2024.
Ambrose acknowledged the parties could terminate the agreement for any reason.
“Do I think that how they went about it was good? No, it was very underhanded but, they had the right to do that,” she said.
Ambrose said she contacted County Commissioner Carol Whitmore to inquire about the termination. Whitmore lives on the island and, as an at-large commissioner, represents constituents countywide.
Shortly after that conversation, Ambrose said she received a copy of an Aug. 2 email from Logan that contained statements from county administrator Scott Hopes and Commission Chair Kevin Van Ostenbridge, whose district includes the island.
“This is a county asset,” Hopes stated in his email. “Bringing the market under the guidance and coordination of our convention and visitors bureau will ensure it continues to engage some of our area’s premier artisans while allowing visitors outstanding buying opportunities.”
Van Ostenbridge stated, “With this new set-up, Manatee County taxpayers will no longer be subsidizing the beach market. I look forward to the (Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau) helping to enhance and make the market even better than ever.”
Ambrose said the market received no taxpayer funds or county subsidies.
“No money has come in — any way shape or form — to the beach market. That statement by Kevin Van Ostenbridge is totally a lie,” she said.
Ambrose also shared with The Islander an Aug. 3 email from Clerk of Court Angel Colonneso that reads, in part, “In short, there were no subsidies paid by the county funding the Beach Market. … In scanning those, nothing stands out in the ledger.”
Why terminate the contract? The Islander asked.
Ambrose said Hopes, administrator since April 1, 2021, might not have known about the market prior to this spring.
“He, for some reason, I guess, didn’t know there was a market there,” Ambrose said. “We’d been there for nine years.”
Ambrose stated in an Aug. 3 phone call with The Islander that Hopes and other county staff visited the market April 15, the week before Easter.
She wrote that Hopes became visibly agitated while navigating the trail in an LSV, yelling at musicians and throwing a market sign into a dune.
Hopes wrote an email in May, after the market visit, to county parks and natural resources director Charlie Hunsicker, “Charlie, I need an explanation and a revenue report!!!!”
In the Hopes-Hunsicker exchange, Hunsicker explained the franchise agreement for the market and Hopes responded, “It appears that well over a 1,000+ feet on both sides of the trail and the trail itself are occupied and the picnic tables are blocked end-to-end by vendors. What are we charging for use of this space and how much revenue is the County receiving per day for use of this activity?”
The Islander reached out to Hunsicker Aug. 6 at a county-hosted event for comment on the market and Hunsicker responded, “No comment.”
Ambrose said she hopes the market will flourish.
“My concern is for the vendors and how this will play out but, I hope that it’s very successful for everyone going forward,” she said.
Vendor Donna Clarke, commenting on the market’s Facebook page, wrote in part, “No one has ever run a market as well as Nancy. After all her hard work, what a horrible way to let her go.”
Ambrose was recognized by the newspaper in 2000 for initiating the Holmes Beach Butterfly Park. She was employed as a sales representative by The Islander June 2003-June 2007, prior to her 2017 arrest for scheming to defraud and soliciting as a charity without authority related to donations and fundraising events — including managing arts and crafts shows with contracted vendors — for the butterfly park.
Fraud charges against Ambrose were dismissed based on a pretrial agreement with the 12th Circuit State Attorney in January 2018 that included forfeiture of a charity bank account she controlled after confirmed payments to the city to restore the park, $17,017.88, and payments totaling $74,468.74 to the North American Butterfly Association. Ambrose also was required not to act as a fiduciary for any charity, and to step down from any board or charity advisory position.
Ambrose declined to comment Aug. 6 to The Islander about her past legal troubles.
The county requires application for a special event permit be from a nonprofit organization or an organization that partners with a nonprofit, which also requires an explanation and partnership details to receive approval for use of public facilities.
Organizer: New market could emerge
Nancy Ambrose suggested planning is underway for a new market — at another location.
Ambrose, in an Aug. 7 post on her Facebook account, invited people to “follow what is happening with a new market location for Nancy and some of your favorite Beach Market vendors that will be on a day that there is not a Beach Market, to give vendors more of a chance to make a living and be ready to help those that may not have a market home in the fall.”
On the new “Where is the Market” Facebook page, a post read, “Working on some ideas at some great locations for a market — very excited!!!”
Manatee County has indicated that the market at Coquina Beach will be operated by the BACVB.