Hopper loads ... what exactly is a "hopper load"? Is it the amount Dennis Hopper smokes in a week? A style of painting conceived by Edward Hopper? (Pretend, for just a moment, you know who Edward Hopper was and his most famous work "Nighthawks"). Or is a "hopper load" just a clever way of saying "I have  several thousand large frogs in a container in my garage"? Good answers all, but you would be wrong, Alex Trebek. A hopper load is fourteen bulging lawn and leaf bags or fourteen 32-gallon garbage cans AND it is the amount of your yard waste and storm debris the Treasure Island Public Works people will haul away without any extra charge. They'll also haul away many other items  (sorry, but no frogs) for a nominal fee. Everything, and we mean everything, about yard waste bundles and appliance pickup is explained here in a brochure you can print out.

New John's Pass Bridge span set to open ... um, sometime real soon
From now on, if we don't know someone's name, like an official spokesperson or whatever, we shall call him Edward Hopper. Or Edwina Hopper. All indications are pointing towards a lane changeover for all traffic to the new southbound span of the John's Pass Bridge sometime during the week of September 15th. The exact date has shifted a couple of times, according to spokesperson Edwina Hopper. The John's Pass Bridge, linking Treasure Island to Madeira Beach, is a Florida Department of Transportation project and is not maintained or administered by the City of Treasure Island. The John's Pass Bridge Information Line is 727-343-3100.

"Spooktacular!" "Hayduke's Hayride!" "Family Festival Fun!"
The reviews are in - and this event hasn't even happened yet - because it's THAT good. Treasure Island's Halloween Spooktacular and Fall Festival is a frightening hayride through the Haunted Cemetery (even scarier is the somewhat Richard Nixonesque ghoul, pictured at left, convincingly played by Edward Hopper), refreshments, fortune tellers, costume contests, moonwalks and lots and lots of entertainers. The Spooktacular, bigger and better every year, is staged by Cathy Hayduke and the TI Recreation Department and runs from 6 to 9pm on Friday, October 24th at Treasure Bay Golf & Tennis, 10315 Paradise Boulevard.


Final millage rate is set this Wednesday
The last public hearing on the City of Treasure Island FY2009 budget begins at 6pm on September 17th. It is the first item on the meeting agenda. We'll have plenty of uncomfortable orange chairs set up, too.