Week in review: Our water at risk + another COVID school year + Servia says dirty trick is 'hate crime' + county fires Coquina Beach organizer + vaccinegate witness 'let go'

Manatee County government launches hostile takeover of beach market, commissioner campaigns get nastier and another pandemic school year is about to start. And did you hear about the manatee that chased an alligator at Myakka River State Park? (There’s video below!)

But first this …

Our water, our lives

God has blessed us here in Manatee County with a perfect location on the water, whether you’re on the banks of the Manatee and Braden rivers or on the beaches of Anna Maria Island. Our location, location, location on the water is essential to our identity.

In recent years, we have had an identity crisis, from the red tide disaster of 2018, to another red tide attack last year brought on by the long-ignored mess at Piney Point, to assorted dumps of raw sewage into the Manatee River and to last week’s health advisory that we stay high and dry while on some of the most popular beaches on Anna Maria Island because the crap was too high in the Gulf of Mexico.

Clearly, we are not treating our water, our most precious resource, the most important part of our identity as community, like our success as a place to live and to have fun, like our future, like our lives, depend on it.