Treasure Island officials hope upcoming events will help heal after back-to-back hurricanes
The Brief
Treasure Island events canceled due to the hurricanes have been rescheduled for early 2025. The profits will be funneled back into the community.
The events include the Sand & Kites & Coastal Delights festival and the county's annual Chili Cook-Off.
Community leaders hope the events will mark a return to normalcy for residents as they continue to recover from the storms.
TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. - As more and more businesses at the beaches reopen after the hurricanes, those communities are starting to hold events to bring people back to the area.
Treasure Island recently announced the Back to the Beach: Sand & Kites & Coastal Delights festival, which will take place on March 8th and 9th from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.
Dig deeper
The annual Treasure Island Fire Rescue Chili Cook-Off is also coming up on Feb. 21 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
READ: MacDill airman killed by hit-and-run suspect before I-275 shooting with Tampa police
Tickets are $10, and it will be held on the fifth floor of City Hall. Anyone can enter their chili into the competition.
Why you should care
Money from that event will go to the Treasure Island Fire Association to help the fire department, which, along with the police department, was displaced, and their stations were destroyed by the hurricanes.
Officials say that while they hope the events bring some sense of normalcy back, they know many residents' lives are still anything but normal.
"I know some people are worried about their homes, especially when they're still not in them, bringing people in, visitors into the island when they can't even access their homes," Beisel said. "But we've got a police department that's been here protecting the island since the storms. They're going to continue to do that. And we want people to know we can do two things at once."
READ: Undocumented immigration bill has Florida's governor, agriculture commissioner and legislation at odds
Beisel continued, saying, "The first priority is our residents. That is our number one priority, and we are working hard to get them back in their homes, and we're doing everything we can."
"Most businesses that can, they're starting to reopen, and that's what we like to see and to help these businesses survive, we need people here in Treasure Island. We know people are still hurting," Beisel said. "We know people are still out of their homes. We know people are still waiting on permits, but we still need to bring people into the island to support some of these businesses, to support our community, and to help get this recovery going quicker and faster."
Big picture view
As far as permits go, the city starts a new permitting process on Monday. Beisel said you'll walk out with a permit the same day you walk in to apply for one.
"When they come in to apply for a permit, they're going to deal with each part of that permit process, whether it's a building official fire, a general contractor, floodplain management," Beisel said. "We're going to get all the information they need that day when they come in, instead of having them fill out the application, then leaving and then finding out there's some missing information, they go home, we have to bring them back in, or we had to contact them and play that back and forth game."
Follow FOX 13 on YouTube
"That delays the process. We want them to come in, and when they leave City Hall, we want to make sure they have all the information they need, Beisel said. "Hopefully, they'll have that permit in hand."
Three more floodplain managers from the state are also helping with the permitting process.
Mayor John Doctor also recently wrote a letter to President Donald Trump asking for disaster relief help, citing FEMA's bureaucracy as an obstacle.
The Source
FOX 13's Kailey Tracy collected the information in this story.
STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA:
Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV
Download FOX Local mobile app: Apple | Android
Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines
Download the SkyTower Radar app
Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Buzz Feed
2 days ago
- Buzz Feed
Anthony Ramos Calls Out Madonna's Actions During Hamilton
Don't ask Madonna what happens in the stage show Hamilton. In a new interview, original cast member Anthony Ramos appeared on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, where he was asked who the most "terrifying celebrity" in the audience was during his run as John Laurens in Hamilton. Anthony cited a 2015 incident in response. 'The most terrifying was Madonna with her iPad in her face. She was like this the whole time,' Anthony said, mimicking looking down at a screen. He added, 'I was like, 'Damn, shorty. If you're not enjoying it that much, you know the door is right there. You don't have to stay here.'' The moment occurred during the show's Off-Broadway run at The Public Theater. Interestingly, at the time Lin-Manuel Miranda tweeted-and-deleted, "Tonight was the first time I asked stage management NOT to allow a celebrity (who was texting all through Act 2) backstage #noselfieforyou." A rep for Madonna subsequently denied the speculation. However, Jonathan Groff was later asked if he was disappointed that Madonna wasn't allowed backstage, to which he said, "No. Because that bitch was on her phone. You couldn't miss it from the stage. It was a black void of the audience in front of us and her face there perfectly lit by the light of her iPhone through three-quarters of the show." There we have it: The rehashing of a decade-old Broadway beef.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Kites Director Walter Thompson-Hernandez on Violence the Poetry in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro
In the favelas of major Brazilian cities like Rio de Janeiro, it's common to see colorful kites punctuating the skies. The informal settlements, or slums, have become synonymous with their kites and kite festivals, where residents use bamboo and paper to keep the traditional activity alive. That image was a memorable one for filmmaker Walter Thompson-Hernandez, who was struck by the juxtaposition of the innocent activity with the police brutality happening in the same areas. It was enough to inspire him to craft the Tribeca entry Kites, which made its world premiere during the festival. 'I knew there was a story here, a film that speaks to the complexity of how heartbreaking but how beautiful life can be,' he tells MovieMaker. 'On one hand, there's kite flying and how earnest and how pure that is. On the other, there's death and police violence. For me, Kites is a long visual poem that isn't rooted in traditional acts. It's vignettes about three or four different people who live in this community.' Kites took five years to make. Thompson-Hernandez put together $100,000 and convinced a group of friends in Brazil to star. He had another friend do the music, and used a constantly evolving outline to follow the characters in the most natural ways possible. There was no script and plenty of improvisation, and what emerged were themes of life, love and duality. We spoke with Thompson-Hernandez about his unique process for this film, shooting in Brazil, and the importance of representing these characters and real-life favelas internationally. Amber Dowling: Did this process take longer than you potentially anticipated because of how you shot it and put it together? Walter Thompson-Hernandez: It took as long as I think it was supposed to have taken. We took six different trips to Brazil and each time we stayed for five or six days. After the third trip, I thought we were done. But then I would go to edit and find more beats and more discovery. Eventually, I realized there could be a really beautiful component of protection if we saw these guardian angels in heaven. So it just continued to grow in a way that feels beautiful and interesting and provocative. Amber Dowling: The scenes of angels and magical realism tie your vignettes together. Tell me more about threading them into the film. Walter Thompson-Hernandez: They arose from conversations with my friends who had relatives and people they knew who were victims of police violence. It led to these deep, late night conversations about what protection looks like and what safety looks like and what God looks like in spirituality. I came to the conclusion that so many of us believe in protection and have a guardian angel of sorts. Well, what would it look like if our protective angel smoked cigarettes in heaven or got their hair braided by an angel friend? It's just so ridiculous, but also so beautiful and so honest, like the movie. It's imperfect and it's beautiful and it's unpolished, and it just feels like a really honest, longer poem. Amber Dowling: For a film that took half a decade to make, your friends don't seem to age onscreen. Did you use any tricks? Walter Thompson-Hernandez: No, it's funny, because the actors look so great. The children, though, their voices really evolved over five years. Sometimes I'd go back to Brazil and someone's voice was a little deeper. Or their personalities had evolved. We never knew what kind of child we would get. Amber Dowling: What does it mean for you to bring this film out of Brazil? Walter Thompson-Hernandez: I have so much fondness for the work that my friends did. They're all first-time actors, and they're really excited to watch this movie. It just feels really special. This is a story that is both rooted in the specificity of a place, of Rio, of a neighborhood there, but it also has an incredibly universal message. Of hope, of protection, of redemption. It asks this question about our deeds: How are they understood in the eyes of God and the eyes of each other? What does it look like for us to try to do well sometimes and hope for the best? Also Read: Nobu Documentary Director Matt Tyrnauer on Capturing the Beauty of a Food Revolution Amber Dowling: Your main character is a drug dealer but also the funder of a community kite festival. What messages were you going for with that duality? Walter Thompson-Hernandez: This movie is an incredibly existential film. We start the movie right in the middle of what I imagine is this existential crisis. Someone who was a drug dealer but also wants to do well and is kind. He has a mother and a family that he thinks he's doing right by. It's asking deep questions about life and our roles and what we do with our time on earth. Amber Dowling: How did you want to represent the kites themselves in the film? Walter Thompson-Hernandez: Every favela has a kind of annual kite festival that is probably one of the most important days of the year outside of Carnival. I wanted to structure that as the sort of endpoint. It was important to show that these favelas have this beautiful, multi-generational experience in a way that most neighborhoods in the US aren't as connected to each other in terms of generations. There are men and women and boys and girls who fly kites every day and really love kites. That's the most beautiful thing in terms of the importance of people like our main character in an underserved community. Amber Dowling: Why premiere at Tribeca, and what are your next goals for the film? Walter Thompson-Hernandez: It just feels like a city and a festival that is incredibly international. I've always been a fan of Tribeca, and it felt like the right place to have a world premiere. We're still waiting to hear back from a bunch of other festivals, but this was the first. There's already some interest for distribution, and we're hoping to make that happen. I hope people are drawn to the poetry of the movie. It's not a movie that is traditionally made or traditionally structured. If someone is hoping to find a clean and neat three-act structure, they're not going to find that here. It's a long visual poem that is slower in some moments, but there's an interesting moment towards the end where it brings everything together. I'm excited for the conversations that we can have. Main image: Kites, courtesy of Tribeca. Related Headlines Goldfinger: 12 Behind the Scenes Photos of James Bond at His Best 8 Horror Movie Remakes Nobody Really Needed 13 Slasher Movies to Watch for Friday the 13th
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Juneteenth celebrations planned statewide in Massachusetts. Here's where
Cities and towns across Massachusetts will hold events in honor of Juneteenth for the third year in a row. Former president Joe Biden deemed Juneteenth — also known in the past as Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day and Liberation Day — a state and federal holiday in 2021. The celebration commemorates the day in 1865 when the federal army reached Texas to ensure that enslaved people in the state were freed. Union Gen. Gordon Granger brought news of the end of the war and the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been signed more than two years earlier and could not be enforced in Confederate-controlled territory. He read a statement that all enslaved people were free on June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas. Here is a list of Juneteenth events happening this weekend. Greenfield Greenfield Juneteenth Celebration at Court Square from 2 until 7 p.m. on Saturday. Springfield 3rd annual Juneteenth Freedom Day concert with the Juneteenth Flag Raising at City Hall at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, followed by the Freedom Day concert at 3 p.m. at Symphony Hall. Boston Boston celebration at Franklin Park from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday Embrace Ideas Festival on Friday and Saturday Friday Films: 'I am Not Your Negro' from 2 to 4 p.m. at Parker Hill Juneteenth Open Mic and Arts Day on Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Boston Public Library, Roxbury Branch Library Pieces of Me: A Juneteenth Sewing Program from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the Boston Public Library, Jamaica Plain Branch The Food Group from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Boston Public Library, Brighton Branch Barnstable The town of Barnstable will hold a flag-raising ceremony and historical reenactment of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the JFK Hyannis Museum on Main Street in Hyannis. Fitchburg 3rd Annual Fitchburg Juneteenth Community Collaborative Event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Riverfront Park on Saturday Worcester 2025 Juneteenth Festival from noon until 8 p.m. at Institute Park Mass. beach closures on Thursday, June 19 Mass. weather: Temps to feel like 101 amid severe thunder, tornado risk With no new signs installed at North Pond Conservation Area, rules continue to be ignored WMass community summits seek to counter Trump attack on diversity, equity, inclusion Southwick Town Beach to open for season this Monday Read the original article on MassLive.
