Rich Davies, a Boca Grande homeowner, had the experience of a lifetime within the last few weeks. He is now the proud owner of a world record.

Davies caught a 1,289-pound blue marlin, otherwise known as “1289,” off the coast of Bermuda while on his boat Seafari.

Message boards are still heating up in reference to local anglers’ ongoing battle about how to catch a tarpon. While it has never taken much in the last 20-plus years to get an argument going in this venue, the protest on the beach during the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series championship served as a boiling point this year.

If you have your Google alerts set to “tarpon,” “Boca Grande” or “Gasparilla Island,” you will have found some interesting things in your inbox. From Florida Sportsman to all the local news channels and papers, everyone has weighed in with some sort of story, and many with some sort of slant, about the controversy.

Elizabeth C. Betsy Biddle, 83, of Ligonier, Pa. and Boca Grande, passed away late Saturday evening, June 23, 2012 at her Ligonier residence.

She was born October 3, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pa., daughter of the late William and Marion Clapp Collin. Betsy was a member of St. Michael's of the Valley Church in Rector, the Rolling Rock Club, and the Gasparilla Beach Club and St. Andrews Episcopal Church, both in Boca Grande.

She was well known as a faithful and caring volunteer for the Latrobe Area Hospital.

In addition to her parents she was also preceded in death by her beloved husband, Livingston L. Toby Biddle in 2009; one brother and three sisters.

Betsy is survived by three children; Page (Joel) Cook of Carbondale, Colo., Nick Biddle of Greensburg, and Collin (Ann) Biddle of Brooklyn, N.Y.; seven grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a sister, Helen Adams of Kennebunkport, ME.

Memorial contributions may be made in Betsy’s memory to St. Michael's of the Valley, P.O. Box 336, Ligonier, PA 15658.

To sign the online guest book or to send condolences to the family, please visit jpaulmccrackenfuneralchapel.com.

BY LIZA STROUT - The gap between hospitality manager at a major hotel and project manager for a construction company may seem like a wide one, but it is one that Dave Borza has bridged for most of his working life.

“My dad was a contractor, and I’ve tinkered around with construction and handyman jobs for most of my life,” Dave said. “My parents also owned three restaurants at one time, and I worked in them. My dad had a lot of projects that he worked on. There was the contracting business, the restaurants and a computer learning center.”