This summer a vetern’s memorial was placed in about 40 feet of water 10 miles off Clearwater Beach at Veteran’s Reef. The life sized statues include service members from the air force, marines, navy, army, and the coast guard, all 5 branches of the military. Today you can take a boat out to the veteran’s reef located at Veterans Reef, (N 28° 03.000′) (W 83° 00.750′). There you can find the three barges, two plaques honoring veterans, and the Circle of Heroes memorial.
Category Archives: Community News
Honeymoon Island Beach Renourishment of November 2019
Honeymoon Island State Park is one of the most visited state parks in all of Florida. It generates more revenue than any other Florida state park on the beach. On any given weekend in the Spring and Summer you’ll find the beaches packed shoulder to shoulder with people basking in the warm air, playing in the water, and fishing. It’s a place that impacts many people’s lives through the enjoyment they derive from the activities surrounding this little piece of land.
According to park staff at Honeymoon Island State Park, the beaches have been approved Continue reading Honeymoon Island Beach Renourishment of November 2019
Voting is a Sham
If you voted today, you help perpetuate the US goverment lie that freedom does exist within the govermental monetary management sphere. You may be too young to know what I’m talking about. You may be too old to care. You might just be working constantly, and you’ve long ago accepted your lack of freedom. I didn’t vote today, because the small decisions you get to vote on only exist because the government wants them to exist. You’re just playing along with the rediculous lie about choice that we call voting. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the way things are, only, voting isn’t how decisions get made.
Is This Communism?
Here in Lansbrook in East Lake, Florida just East of Clearwater Beach. Something doesn’t look right. There’s a sidewalk trail around a lake that is claiming to be owned by Tarpon Lake Villages. That same trail looks like it’s a part of the East Lake Fire Station property. It looks like public and private property are no different in terms of where the money is coming from and being spent. Both properties are sitting right up against this private lake. What do you want to bed that when this was initially acquired it was a cooperative purchase. Both building seem to be on the same land cut out of a thick forest around a joint use waterfront lake view. It’s also the same sidewalk ouside the Lansbrook Golf Club and the YMCA. This stuff doesn’t look private to me. What we’re told, and what I see just doesn’t add up.
No Surfing Zone at Honeymoon Island
I spoke to the Honeymoon Island State Park park manager today, Mr. Peter Krulder. We spoke about surfing being banned at Honeymoon Island State Park. I formulated a series of questions to ask him on camera. Though he didn’t want to be on camera, he didn’t seem to mind when I said I would like to post his answers to the questions. Continue reading No Surfing Zone at Honeymoon Island
A Nasty Rumor About Honeymoon Island State Park Beaches
I heard a nasty little rumor about Honeymoon Island State Park. Management usually keeps things under wraps until there is no slowing down a project. I hope that if this is true, we’re able to prevent something reprehensible from happening.
What I heard was that the park is considering making Honeymoon Island like Clearwater Beach, a no hard board beach area. What has happened in Clearwater is, the city made the public beaches a zone where you can’t surf. I don’t know exactly what it would take to make that a reality at a state park. Whatever it is, we surfers should defend what’s our right. We’ve been surfing Honeymoon Island for more than 20 years, more than 15 years myself. Greg Rocktoff and Dave Adams have been surfing Honeymoon Island before it was a state park! This is what we do, we surf. The next closest beach that gets surf that’s accessible by car is Clearwater Beach, another 8 miles away. I truly hope they aren’t considering taking away one of the best things about Honeymoon! Honestly, I don’t even know how it’s legal that everything’s been outlawed on the public beaches in Clearwater. It’s like saying you can’t carry an umbrella while walking down the sidewalk. Sounds pretty rediculous, right? I don’t understand how they charge us money to use public parking lots. It doesn’t seem like things that are public are really all that public. And honestly, it begs the question, does the political party in control of something really make a difference when we consider what its future is? I’m going to give the park manager a call tomorrow to see if any of this is based in reality, and I’ll let you know.
Public and Private Beaches in Florida: Is it wet or dry?
A significant bill that changes what’s considered public beach and what’s considered private beach in the State of Florida recently was passed in the Florida House of Representatives. The beach that you may have, for many years, used like a public beach and considered public, and a beach that was in fact considered public according to “customary use” laws and policies, could be converted to private use starting on July 1, 2018.
The bill gives the property owners along the beach, who are thought by many to own the beach behind their property (obviously debatable), the rights that are usually entitled to property owners. This law gives property owners the right to uphold their own policies on their property, a right that can now be enforced, and not removed by local legislation. Property owners are now entitled to do what they please with their property. According to one person I spoke with today, property owners could essentially put up a fence around their piece of the beach, which in most cases goes down almost to the waters edge. Property lines for property on the beach go all the way down to what’s been called the high water line, or as a rule you could think the wet or dry sand. If it’s dry it’s probably private property assuming it’s in front of private property, but if it’s a wet part of sand along the water it’s probably public property.
Something many people are wondering is, what does this mean when the time comes to renourish the beaches. Will tax dollars be used to fund the renourishment of private beaches? I would certainly hope not. Oh wait just one second, that’s what’s about to happen. The Army Corp of Engineers awarded a 36 million dollar contract to a company to create private property in Pinellas County from Sand Key to Redington, for private property owners all along the coast. The renourishment project was expected to begin at the beginning of this month, April 1st.
Some other things to note are that many beaches that are highly commercialized are already highly regulated by hotels, condo, and simply the industry as if the previous policies didn’t matter. If you were to look at ariel images of the private properties you’d see places like hotels and condos have their own sets of rental umbrellas that go almost right up the the waters edge. That would only be possible if that was permitted or private land (private land in this case).
You have to be wondering how many of the condominiums, hotels, and homes along your favorite beach will be using this bill to enforce their private property rights, and I assure you, they are many. There may also be a limited amount of observable change, because highly commercialized areas want to maintain the inviting atmosphere of the beach. You might have considered the beaches of Clearwater Beach, Jacksonville Beach, or Miami Beach mostly public before, but in reality that just isn’t the case.
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