Fort Myers Beach News - Island Sand Paper -Top Story Archives

10/26/2012 at 6:15am

A Conversation with
Our New Councilman

Residents attending the next Town Council meeting will see a new face up on the dais. Mango Street Inn owner Dan Andre was sworn in last week to fill the empty seat left when Larry Kiker stepped down to run for county commission. Andre, an island resident for five years, was chosen from 11 applicants by the council to fill a seat until the March election, at which point he will have to compete for the seat with anyone else who wants to run. We sat down with Andre this week to find out why he wanted to be on Town Council and what he would like to accomplish in the coming months.

"For years, my wife Tree and I vacationed in southwest Florida,” he said. "It was always our dream to live on the beach and run a bed and breakfast, and we were blessed to realize our dream almost five years ago when we found a rather undesirable property and had a vision. After many months of hard work we turned that property into the Mango Street Inn.”

Issue 610

10/18/2012 at 12:46pm

Legends of the Beach:
Father Richard Raney

Father Richard Raney, the beloved and respected chaplain for the sisters cloistered at the San Damiano Monastery on the grounds of the Church of the Ascension, has come a long way from his modest beginnings in Peoria, Illinois.

One day, a first-grader on his way to school, Raney heard the newsboys on every street corner hollering, 'Extra! Extra! The Kaiser has surrendered!' "We didn't have a radio in those days, so we didn't know about it until the paper came out.” When he got to school, he walked in and announced to the teacher and his classmates that the Kaiser had surrendered. His teacher took him around to all the classes and had him make the same announcement. "I got a big hand every time!” Raney recalls with amusement.

Issue 609

10/11/2012 at 5:18pm

LPA Nominates Mound House
for National Register

The October meeting of the Local Planning Agency and Historic Preservation Board addressed a nomination of the Mound House to the National Register of Historic Places. The LPA also held a Public Hearing for a Special Exception Request for the Smok'in Oyster Brewery and postponed discussion of the "Big M” roof sign as a historic sign and a sign variance hearing for Moss Marine.