Anna Maria Mayor Mark Short reported in a Feb. 13 email to The Islander some of the events from a commission meeting that day at city hall.
Of particular note, Duncan Real Estate was recognized as business organization of the year for the city and former Mayor Dan Murphy was recognized as citizen of the year. Murphy was presented a U.S. flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol Dec. 20, 2024, the date of his 80th birthday.
New vacation rental registration fees were approved by the commission to go into effect with the annual registration renewals that begin later this month.
Short noted a shade sail installation at the playground at City Pier Park on Pine Avenue at North Bay Boulevard is progressing and will be completed in a couple of weeks. “The shade sail over the playground will keep things a bit cooler for the kids,” he said.
Short also reported that road repairs and repaving are substantially complete.
He said FEMA spent two days in the city earlier in February inspecting the city pier, the first step for the city to request federal funding to help rebuild the pier.
And Short commented on the city’s FEMA damage report: Approximately 1,200 properties incurred damage from the 2024 hurricanes and, based on the FEMA damage assessment forms that were prepared, the estimate of the damages to structures is approximately $70 million.
Short said the Elevate Florida program is “live.” The state program provides property owners funding to raise their structures off the ground, adding that property owners apply through the Elevate Florida website at floridadisaster.org.
Also, Short wrote, “I shared with the commission my response to (state) Representative (Will) Robinson and Senator (Jim) Boyd on their request of the Island mayors to address synergy and cost-saving ideas by Feb. 13. This request was part of the delivery of the OPPAGA report, which was received in early January.”
Of note in the letter to the legislators, he said the city is in “early discussions” with Manatee County on an inter-local agreement for human resource support, which currently is performed in-house, and information technology support, currently provided by a third party.
“We believe financial savings can be realized by the city with such an arrangement with Manatee County and the county would benefit from the revenue stream it would receive from the city,” Short wrote.
Short’s letter can be read at islander.org.
-— Bonner Joy