BY LIZA STROUT - Jim Grant grew up in a simple, uncomplicated town.

“Saginaw, Michigan was the kind of place where you didn’t have to lock the doors. My dad owned Grant’s Grocery, which my grandfather started,” Jim said.

Jim’s first job was at the family business.

Lawrence “Larry” Wechsler, a resident of New York City, Boca Grande and Millbrook, N.Y., died on Thursday, March 15, 2012.

BY MARCY SHORTUSE - When word got out that the Friends of the Boca Grande Community Center were thinking about dropping their after-school program and the Munchkins program, the reaction from the community was one of instant anger. Parents and island residents let that be known to Friends Executive Director Marta Howell on Tuesday, March 6.

She told the crowd at an impromptu meeting that Friends was no longer going to fund the programs.

On Tuesday morning the Boca Beacon office started getting phone calls about traffic on the Causeway backing up. Wayyy up.

Why do they call us? To find out what’s going on, of course. We were here, in the office.

We didn’t know. When we got a hold of Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority Executive Director Jim Cooper, he said he had just found out about it as well. A board member had contacted him about it, and he made sure that the utility company who decided it was perfectly all right to shut down the road without mentioning it to GIBA.

It wasn’t. And people weren’t happy.

At all.

From about 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., traffic was backed up, both ways, as workers tried to manipulate power lines and huge pieces of conduit. To add to motorist distress, there was a large amount of boats waiting at the bridge, so bridge openings were up.

“This is part of the whole utility coordination issue,” Cooper said. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t coordinated with me.”

It was a fluke, and not to be expected again in the near future.

GIBA will be doing a second survey at all three toll booths, beginning March 15 for one week.

Feel free to fill it out again, and try to win that 30-day toll pass.