Bradenton Times News Articles

At Monday night's meeting, commissioners voted to purchase and install 3,200 AMR (Automatic Meter Readers) at resident and business locations around the city at a total cost that will not exceed $1,460,000.

It's a busy week for local governments. The Palmetto City Council kicks things off with a meeting Monday night. The Manatee County Commission will hold a workshop with the Children Advisory Board Tuesday, then get back together for a land use meeting on Thursday. The Bradenton City Council will workshop Wednesday morning.

At Wednesday night's meeting, Bradenton City Council members approved development of a 24-hour gas station that would aid the beleaguered finances of a church on state road 64, while giving several concerns to residents of neighboring subdivision Braden River Lakes. Residents in attendance opposed development of the store, saying additional traffic to the intersection of their neighborhood's only entrance would bring them inconvenience and add major safety issues for their community.

Manatee County Area Transit (MCAT) will host a public charrette April 2 to gather public input that will help shape how bus service meets community needs over the next 10 years. The charrette will take place on Tuesday, April 2 from 2-4 p.m. in the Fountain Room at 1002 Manatee Avenue West, the former Merrill Lynch building next to the County Administration Building. The process is a part of a major update to MCAT’s 10 year plan which is updated every 5 years. MCAT’s new Downtown Station provides easy public transit access to the meeting site via routes 2,3,4,9 and 99. The charrette will be a structured exercise designed to bring together the skill set of the community to create better solutions that reflect the diverse values of Manatee County citizens. 

Fears of a coup over the backyards of Manatee County residents were relaxed Tuesday when members of CLUCK convinced a majority of the BOCC that allowing backyard chicken coops was really no threat to the town. With a slim vote of 4-to-3, commissioners will now ask staff to prepare an ordinance that will allow residents to keep chickens in their backyard.

At Wednesday night's meeting, the Bradenton City Council unanimously voted to approve the construction of a gas station at the intersection of the only entrance to a major subdivision, much to the chagrin its residents. In other business, council members approved an ordinance that targets hazardous dumping by illicit drug labs, and another on private road construction. Councilman Harold Byrd was absent from the meeting.

The Manatee County Commission voted 4-3 to instruct staff to draft a new ordinance that would change the date of the previously approved Health Care Sales Tax Referendum from June to August of this year. Three of the commissioners preferred waiting until August of 2014, when the county would be spared the considerable expense of conducting a special election, arguing that it would also give citizens more time to understand what is being proposed.

Manatee County Government’s website has been named a Sunny Award winner by Sunshine Review, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to government transparency. The award honors the most transparent government websites in the nation. The award coincides with Sunshine Week, a period nationally recognized by hundreds of media and civic organizations, that celebrates the efforts of activists and the strides taken towards open government.

At Tuesday's BOCC meeting, commissioners voted to draw up a new ordinance that will move the referendum date for the half cent sales tax to fund indigent health care to August. In other business, Commissioners also voted to have staff construct an ordinance that will allow a backyard chicken program and received a presentation from the Urban Land Institute, who examined the county's How Will We Grow plan.

Metropolitan Planning Organization engineers see University Parkway and I-75 as a diamond in the rough. At Monday's meeting, they laid out what would be a complete reconfiguration of how traffic travels through one of the busiest intersections in Manatee County. The engineers say its design is for comfort, not speed, and that with the new design will come a safer intersection. Sounds good, but any celebration may be a little premature, because as of now, the money for such a project does not exist.