PHS alum gets commission from president

Palmetto High 2007 alum Adam Tanner graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy with a management degree and was commissioned as an officer by President Obama at the May 18 ceremony in New London, Conn.
Adam will serve aboard the Coast Guard cutter Dallas in beautiful Charleston, S.C.
Parents Charlie and Marcie are proud.

Big ups to Kia McDuffie who got her bachelors degree in nursing from SCF. What a role model for daughter Perryauna Youmans and nieces Kyla and Kayla McDuffie.

King Middle’s third annual Staff vs. Firefighters benefit basketball game for Manasota Operation Troop Support, founded by teacher Jim Comkowyzc, is 2:30 p.m. today.

MOTS grant funding has been exhausted but the work continues community donations.

National Guard veteran David Southgate, just back from his second tour in Iraq, will be at the game.

Call Linda Craig at 518-8971.



Kenny and John Lakin pause between pints at Durty Nelly's
during a golf holiday stopover in Shannon, Ireland



Jamie Schindewolf is 21, graduated cum laude from UF in just three years and will go to grad school at FSU in urban and regional planning. Props from parents Ray and Connie.

Fran and Guido Guayasamin brag about grandsons Alex and Sam O’Dell — both Saint Stephen’s students — for honors achieved on the national Latin exam.

Keyboards and More owner Sharon Schultz is 65 years young and her legion of family, co-workers and fans will celebrate with a 50’s/60’s party at the Moose Club.

Read more Friday in Vin's People on Bradenton.com.

School budget crisis could've been worse

Will I have a job?

It's the apprehensive question reverberating throughout parts of the Manatee School District family, a vibrant part of our community’s core and identity.

Such is the fallout from Monday night’s School Board meeting where Superintendent Tim McGonegal made his recommendations on budget cuts for the next school year.

School psychologists.

Secretaries.

Social workers.

They’re among the jobs vulnerable to McGonegal’s Plan A, $12 million in cuts that calls for eliminating 19 staff jobs but all those are now vacant positions. He’s also proposing furloughs for administrators, supervisors and managers, and outsourcing work that involves 50 jobs, almost all custodial.

In addition, principals would have to whack from $30,000 at elementary schools to $88,000 at high schools out of their own budgets.

That will not be easy.

McGonegal’s Plan B is for $16.9 million in cuts, addresses the school district’s mismanaged health care program and calls for deeper individual school budget reductions and additional furloughs.

It could’ve been worse.

A lot worse.
 
 
Read more in Wednesday's Mannix About Manatee on Bradenton.com.

Clean garage mission accomplished ... almost

It took three weekends, including some Saturdays and Sundays, but Sherri and I accomplished a feat that can be daunting to many couples and families.

Just the words strike fear:

CLEANING OUT THE GARAGE!

When my wife parked her SUV inside on Sunday afternoon after eight months on the driveway alongside my bucket-of-bolts, it felt like a triumphant moment, indeed.

Felt so good, Sherri put a picture of it on Facebook.

Her garage had been relatively uncluttered before we married 13 months ago and I moved in plastic bins and cardboard boxes of my "stuff."

Then my in-laws returned the family Sunfish they'd had for awhile, the boat took the SUV's place inside the garage and my things got moved into storage down the street.

That's the way it stayed until about a month ago when we decided to get busy.

Not only would we get the garage back, we'd save the monthly freight at storage, too.

Sure, there was the tedium of going through boxes, pitching this and saving that.

It's amazing how much stuff you considered invaluable a few years, but isn't so valuable now and gets tossed.

The real fun part was taking out a big cabinet along one wall that was probably had more things on top of it than were in the drawers.

Once we cleared it of everything, we removed the screws in the cabinet's walls, top and bottom and went to town with a sledgehammer.

Bing! Bang! Boom!

The only glitch occured when I struck a panel and a strip of wood flew off, knocked over a box of glass bowls we saved from our wedding reception, shattering one of them.

Since if came from the Dollar Store, Sherri wasn't upset.

Whew!

That was two weekends ago.

This past weekend, we moved the boat against the wall, installed ceiling hooks for our bikes --- with a big assist from my father-in-law, Jim Manring --- and stacked plastic bins of things I still have to sort through.

At last, the garage was clear for Sherri's SUV.

What a feeling.

Now she wants me to do the same with our walk-in closet.

Can't you feel Guv's love for Floridians?

Rick Scott’s concerns for us fellow Floridians warms the cockles of my heart.

You could feel the Guv’s love this week.

Couldn’t you?

On Wednesday Scott, headlining the annual Governor’s Hurricane Conference, urged us to be vigilant and prepared for storms before hurricane season which starts June 1.

Don’t wait until the “Cone of Death” targets, say, Anna Maria Island.

Thanls, Guv.

Speaking in Fort Lauderdale, Scott trumpeted the new director of the Division of Emergency Management, and said his appointee has the organizational know-how to “ ... safeguard our state’s economy and the people of our state.”

See, Scott is looking out for our welfare.

He’s got our backs.


Read more in Sunday's Mannix About Manatee on Bradenton.com.

Vote Bradenton onto Best of the Road

Vote for Bradenton!
Our town is up for “Most Friendly” and “Most Beautiful” in Rand McNally’s Best of the Road contest which ends today.
This is an opportunity to put B’town on the map in the 2013 Atlas and be included in a summer Road Rally trip publicized by USA Today.
Click on this link:
www.bestoftheroad.com/town.o?destinationId=3615.

Paul Chambliss gets his business management degree from Eckerd College Sunday. Props from wife Betty, daughters Carlee Colonneso, Dreama Wren and Sarah Parrish, mom Jean and brother John.

The MHS Sugar ‘Canes host their 31st annual Spring Show 7:30 p.m. Saturday at SCF’s Neel Performing Arts Center.
Joining director Lori O’Leary’s dance team will be the Mr. Sugar ‘Canes, MHS Drum Line, Manatee Ballroom Club, hip hop groups from Sarabay Dance Studio and hip hop artist Chris Chawi.
For tickets $5 in advance, $8 at the door see any Sugar ‘Cane or e-mail olearyl@manateeschools.net.

Emma Grace Harrigan, 4 going on 24, is graduating from Thompson VPK, and aunt Brittney Christie got her AA from SCF and is headed for MTI’s nursing program.
Mom Susan wonders where the years went.

The Our Lady Queen of Martyrs youth group car wash is 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. Proceeds go toward their trip to Spain for a worldwide youth rally and meet the Pope.
Will Pastor Joe Connolly do the BBQ?

Read more in Friday's Vin's People on Bradenton.com.

A compelling contrast at McKechnie Field

There was an interesting contrast at McKechnie Field Monday evening.

Well before the Bradenton Marauders played the Clearwater Threshers, the Manatee High School baseball team was gathering for a pregame ceremony.

Coach Dwayne Strong's Hurricanes were bound for the Class 5A Final Four at Port St. Lucie this weekend and the Marauders wanted to send them off with a gift and their best wishes.

For these kids, it was like going to the World Series.

Which is what a certain player sitting alone, meditating in the visitor's dugout knew something about.

It was Chase Utley, the Philadelphia Phillies' All-Star second baseman.

Patellar tendinitis in a knee had wiped out Utley's regular spring training.

So, with the knee rehabbed back into playing condition at last, Utley was working on getting his game back in shape playing with the Threshers, Philadelphia's FSL ballclub.

All teenagers, the Hurricanes carried themselves with youthful confidence as they took the field for the presentation.

Across the diamond, Utley, now 32, had to be contemplating the remaining years of a stellar career, built on a hard-nosed, grinding style of play that had taken a toll on his body.

Manatee's players each received Pirate travel bags and posed for pictures, then left the field to the crowd's applause.

The state tournament beckoned.

Over in the visitors' dugout, Chase Utley awaited his turn at-bat as the game began.

The Phillie veteran's comeback continued.

Publix policy change panics Coupon Queen

My wife was in a state of semi-panic.

For once it had absolutely nothing to do with something I said or did.

It was a story in Friday morning’s Bradenton Herald that rendered her speechless at breakfast.

Publix is changing its coupon policy.

Uh, oh.

Sherri is the Coupon Queen.

A term of endearment, of course.

But she is all business when it comes to collecting coupons so we can save a few bucks here and there.

You never saw someone cut up the ad sections in Sunday’s paper -- or any publication with ads -- like she can.

When Sherri wields a pair of scissors, I stay out of her way.

This is a woman on a mission.
 
 
Read more in Sunday's Mannix About Manatee on Bradenton.com.