Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/239386
I believe most of us on staff would concede we were a little rusty this week after taking off time for the holidays — but rusty only in the sense of minor matters, such as mistyped words. I can assure you we all were happy to be back on the hunt for good stories. And certainly the good stories were waiting for us. Two of our top articles this week are updates on issues that have simmered for some time. County Editor Roger Drouin and City Editor Stan Zimmerman collaborated on a look at where things stand between the City and County commissions regarding the vacant site of the former city Police Department headquarters; a 2003 Memorandum of Understanding between the boards over that property remains a point of contention. This week, I learned that warning flags were waved about the new Bob's Boathouse long before it opened. I had so many documents about this ongoing saga scattered on my computer desktop at one point this week that I could barely see the other items for them. Siesta Key news flourished this week, too, including a rumor about weddings being prohibited on Siesta Public Beach in 2015. Fortunately, county staff was very helpful to me in sorting fact from fiction. On the lighter side, correspondent Barbara Dondero has crafted a lovely story about a new Chalk Festival, and Staff Photographer Norman Schimmel — with the help of Production Manager Cleve Posey — has put together a wonderful look at the extraordinarily talented students of the Sailor Circus Academy. Welcome to a new year of local news! Editor and Publisher