SAM Forum
SAM set up this Web Site to Listen and Hear
what our residents and visitors have to say.
We want to do everything possible to help address the many situations
that are difficult for each of us to handle alone.
Please take our polls, and write to us.
We are listening and you will be heard.
RESULTS OF "SAM'S POLLS" To Date :
BRIDGE:
NO HIGH LEVEL BRIDGE = 91 %
YES to HIGH LEVEL BRIDGE = 9 %
OIL DRILLING OFFSHORE
CLOSE TO ANNA MARIA
YES to Oil Drilling = 0 %
NO to Oil Drilling = 100 %
No Comments on our POLLS have been received !
SAM'S GUEST COLUMN
( This column is for concerned individuals to be heard )
Fact:
For over 20 years, F.D.O.T. has been trying to build high level fixed span bridges to Anna Maria Island. Many Islanders have feared this would ruin the small quaint charms of Anna Maria, which so many have come to enjoy.
Here is one of the many suggestions to the bridge solution on Anna Maria Island:
___________________________________________________________
FROM:
SAM Immediate Past Vice President ( & Past President):
Jim Kissick, Commander, United States Navy (retired),
has been one of those vocal opponents.
Mr. Kissick was born and raised in Manatee County, living here over 80 years. The only times he was away from the county for extended periods of time,was serving our country in the United States Navy from 1942 thru 1967. ****************************************************************************************
Please note: ( BRIDGE HEIGHTS )
Through out our Website, When SAM refers to a bridge as:
65' HIGH LEVEL FIXED SPAN BRIDGE , this is defined and categorized by F.D.O.T., as the vertical height clearance ( at the highest point) from the Bottom of the structural concrete beams to the water below, noted as MHW ( mean high water ).
Another interpretation of bridge height according to Mr. Kissick:
Webster's Dictionary: “height. the topmost point of anything”! FDOT Sec. in Tallahassee quoted to me: “We of FDOT adjudge bridge height as the height of the piling nearest the channel”. When the subject of wind effect on evacuations via high bridges evolved, FDOT invented the “65 foot high bridge”, with a roadbed height of nearly 80 feet.
Official NOAA data to me, as requested by an elected official, specifically states our low bridges will be subjected to 29% of the velocity of passing hurricanes. At 80 feet it is 59% of the velocity of passing hurricanes !
6 major meteorological companies concur!!
Letter by Jim Kissick ( resident Bradenton Beach ) :
“Another factor exists which is prominent in SAM’s agenda.
Since the late 1980s the seasonal traffic from Longboat and Coquina Beach has turned SR789 through Bradenton Beach into pure chaos. Also, it is mandated that the north half of Longboat and all of AMI must evacuate via the Cortez and Anna Maria spans.
In the early 1990s, a logical alternative was found. It involved our County Comp Plan, and much research by air, land, and sea.
The simple plan was the extension of 53 Ave. (SR 70), across an open field, across a low overpass near the Tidy Island gatehouse (.6 mile from the closest Tidy I. residence), along the sandbar on the island’s north side just below the tops of the mangroves (bed height – 18 feet), a slow 5 ½ degree left turn, across the bay and the ICWW to touch down 1,200 feet south of Leffis Key and 900 feet north of Longboat Pass Bridge.
At the second narrowest part of the Bay, and the only location where there is virtually no sea grass, it would make landfall where only one mangrove tree would be in its path.
( PLEASE SEE MAP AT BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE )
Much support surfaced for this very logical alternate, to the point FDOT and MPO held a “Charrette” (dubbed the “Charade” by locals). Although northbound traffic at the time was bumper-to-bumper many hours per day, and after allowing “pro” comments of about 5 minutes, and some 23 employee comments for hours, the Charrette decision was, “It is not necessary to consider the problem now, but we will reexamine it in 5 years”, which we are still waiting to expire!”
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Write to us at SAM
If you have a topic or dicussion to share with our readers, we will include any pictures or data that you believe will make a valid point.
We will put it on our pages !
email: amisaminc@gmail.com
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Below you will find a Map
which we was obtained thru Google Earth.
The illustration of the
Projected 53rd Avenue Extension below
was determined as the best path by F.D.O.T.
The information and proposed new extension displayed on the map below
was interpretted by Jim Kissick.
