Fifteen years ago, Billie Martini eyed Grassy Point Preserve from a boat with a vision for the future.
Years earlier, she recalled in an April 19 interview, “My husband and I would go out, whenever we had problems, we’d go out in our boat and we’d just drift over the shallows and look down through the water into that other world. And, you know, all of your problems just disappeared. You’d come back and you felt refreshed.”
Billie and Bob Martini were early settlers in Bradenton Beach, where they worked and volunteered to help make the city a better place.
But Billie Martini yearned for a place for others to relax in nature, with no concrete in sight.
“It has not been improved. It has not been destroyed. Grassy Point is what Anna Maria Island was,” Martini said.
The preserve re-opened to the public April 19 with a welcome by Holmes Beach Mayor Bob Johnson and a letter from Martini, who was unable to attend.
“We all know that we owe Grassy Point to Billie Martini and a few others,” said Holmes Beach resident Nancy Deal, who read the letter from Martini, a former Holmes Beach commissioner. Martini was first elected in 1993 and served four years as a city commissioner.
“What can we say except thank you to Billie Martini,” Johnson said. “I know that she is here with us in spirit.”
Johnson shared his ribbon-cutting duties with Commissioner Carol Soustek and thanked her for being involved in the project and serving as a liaison for the commission.
“This is quiet, simple, but intended to be a most sincere thank-you gathering from the city of Holmes Beach to all who have contributed to this activity here at Grassy Point and getting it into the shape it is today from what it was, so that it can be enjoyed by all,” Johnson said. “You are very special people who have done so much for so long and here we are.”
Johnson also recognized Commission Chair Judy Titsworth and thanked the employees in the public works department.
“It’s just fabulous the way you guys have persevered and stuck with this thing and made it happen,” Johnson said. “Having you as a part of this city is fabulous. Come on out some more. You’ll enjoy it out here.”
Guests, including Bradenton Beach Mayor Bill Shearon, Holmes Beach treasurer Lori Hill and Jay Leverone, scientist at the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, toured the 34-acre preserve, the largest city-owned park, by way of a shell trail and a new boardwalk over the wetlands and mangrove hammocks fronting Anna Maria Sound.
Partners from Manatee County, the University of Florida and Anna Maria Island Elementary School also attended.
“We had a bunch of second-graders out here not too long ago doing some planting,” Johnson said. “I think this is a great facility for education and learning about nature. It’s very important in our environment.”
Soustek said there is still work to be done in the preserve, including a boardwalk extension and an observation platform over the sound.
“To have it this far after so much time,” Soustek said. “I love it.”
The preserve was acquired in 2001 by the city with a $359,945.51 grant from Florida Communities Trust, the granting agency monitored by the state Department of Environmental Projection. The city also received grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Southwest Florida Water Management District, to remove exotic and invasive species of plants and trees. SBEP managed the grant projects.
Two vacant parcels, 3019 Ave. C and 3021 Ave. C, adjacent to the preserve, were purchased March 2 by the city for $330,000 each, according to the website for the Manatee County Property Appraiser. At their March 28 meeting, commissioners unanimously adopted an ordinance to acquire the lots from Clyde Dickey.
After the private opening, Leni Hagen, who lives on Avenue B and has been a resident of Holmes Beach since 2000, visited the park with her daughter, Rachel Neutzling, a Minnesota resident, to celebrate Rachel’s birthday.
“I respect this very much,” Hagen said. “The boardwalk and views are beautiful, well planned, respecting nature and seems like it has always been there.”