LBK Newsflash: Court: Colony Lender can continue collecting, $23 million Colony bankruptcy auction in ‘short order’, Longboat pursues Town Center and burying power lines, Siesta sand skirmish is a taste of the new reality, Mote Marine releases snook into Sarasota Bay, On Patrol, LBK Letters & new Op-Ed.

Court: Colony Lender can continue collecting, $23 million auction pending

U.S Bankruptcy Judge Rodney May did not approve on Thursday afternoon a request by the Colony Association of Unit Owners to stop Colony Lender’s demand of more than $5 million in rent interest and taxes from each and every unit owner at the resort, which has been closed since August 2010. Judge May heard the motion filed by the Association less than 48 hours after the motion was filed in which the Association asked the judge to find Colony Lender in contempt of court and to award the Association damages and punitive damages and sanctions.

Longboat Key Town Manager Dave Bullock returned from summer vacation this past week and has several Key issues to report. The Town held interviews on Thursday and the evaluation committee chose Tindale-Oliver & Associates as the top choice as a planning consultant to design scenarios for a future Longboat Key Town Center.

Battling eroding beaches is obviously not indigenous to Longboat Key.

Right now, anyone following Sarasota County news knows that Lido Key and Siesta Key residents are at odds over the Army Corps of Engineering proposal to remove 1.3 million cubic yards of sand from Big Pass, which separates Lido and Siesta Keys, and place the sand on the severely eroded South Lido shoreline.

Siesta residents have organized and say that the plan could impact one of the region’s greatest assets – the Siesta public beach – and its shoreline in general.

On Aug. 15, scientists with Mote Marine Laboratory and Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission released hatchery-reared juvenile snook into the wild as part of an ongoing program designed to find the most effective methods to replenish and enhance wild snook populations.