BY MARCY SHORTUSE - The hot topic of how to pay for Boca Grande’s new bridges drew a crowd of more than 80 people to the Boca Community Center Auditorium on Valentine’s Day, but many audience members left the meeting with just as many questions as they had when the walked in the door.

At the onset of the meeting new chairmen were elected. David Hayes was named as the new chairman of the board, while Ginger Watkins will serve as the new vice-chair. Peter Strong will serve as chairman of the engineering committee, and Pete Saeger will head up the referendum committee.

OK, it wasn’t really the Eagle module that landed, but Cdr. Neil Armstrong did stop by The Island School on Wednesday, Feb. 15 to answer some of the kids’ questions about what it was like to be the first man to land on the moon.

“Was it hot up there?” “How did you sleep?” and “Did you step in any craters?” were some of the thoughts the students had. Armstrong explained how cramped the Apollo 11 was to sleep in, and how hard it is to walk in a spacesuit.         

Acclaimed biographer Sally Bedell Smith will speak on Tuesday, Feb. 28 on her latest book, "Elizabeth the Queen, the Life of a Modern Monarch," Now over a month on the New York Times bestseller list.

Fox News journalist Brit Hume will introduce the author at the Boca Grande Community Center Auditorium at 3 p.m.

STAFF REPORT - The Lee County Sheriff’s Office has determined that the driver in the fatal pedestrian accident that occurred on February 6 near 7th Street and Gasparilla Road was not at fault.
Eberhard Maczynski, 81, of Ontario, Canada died when he walked out into traffic. Authorities confirmed that Maczynski walked into the road and into the path of North Port resident Terry Ogle’s truck, and there was nothing Ogle could have done to prevent Maczynski’s death.