28-01-2025
Manatee County family hoping to save Cortez Village bait shop from demolition after hurricane damage
The Brief
The hurricanes have put the future of Manatee County's bait and tackle shop, which has been in the community for decades, in jeopardy.
Manatee County has taken control of the property.
Many, including the owner of the business and his family, are organizing a group to keep the business in the community in the future.
CORTEZ, Fla. - A Manatee County family hopes to save a long-standing Cortez Village bait shop from demolition after it received extensive damage from the hurricanes.
Annie's Bait & Tackle has been a community staple since 1957. Bruce Shearer has owned it since 1996.
What they're saying
"This is how I ran the place, 'it doesn't matter if you've got $5 or $50 million, if you can afford that beer, you're equal. That's it," Shearer said.
His daughter Anna Gaffey said it was beloved.
"We were a full-service bait and tackle shop, frozen and live every day. We had a full kitchen, bar, and fuel station. We had a lot of dockside parking [and] patio seating," Gaffey said.
Many knew Annie's as a slice of Olde Florida on the Anna Maria sound.
"We had signs everywhere. We had Christmas lights as our lighting. There was no AC. It was strictly fans and the sea breeze," Gaffey said.
The backstory
Last Fall, as Manatee County was in the process of acquiring the property and its docks, Hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated the area.
"The first storm, we had a piece of dock come through, and it took out some siding. We had some flooding, about 30 inches of water come in," Gaffey said. "Then Milton came through with all of that strong wind because we lost all of that base [and] the windows blew out."
Manatee County has since successfully acquired the property. But Shearer's and Gaffey's fate is in limbo.
"We've offered to repair the building ourselves and give it the love that it needs to get it back up and running," Gaffey said. "We don't want to do anything until we can get a lease. We don't want to put the money into it for them to say, 'Okay, you can leave now.'"
What's next
Gaffey is working to gather a group to attend Tuesday morning's Manatee County Commission meeting to voice their concerns during public comment.
"I just want to tell them how much Annie's means to the people and the community here in Manatee County," Gaffey said. "It's been a staple for so many years, and a lot of people rely on us for a lot of different things."
The other side
FOX 13 reached out to each Manatee County commissioner for a comment.
District 3 Commissioner Tal Siddique shared this statement:
"At a previous county commission meeting I mentioned the need to keep Annie's in its current form on the county property even though the prior owner had terminated all leases. Since then, I was informed that we cannot save the building in its current form due to the extent of the damages. FEMA regulations require the building be up to code in a floodplain, which the current structure will not be.
It hurts to say that, since my family have been going to Annie's for decades. I am committed to incorporating a bait and tackle shop into the new design and public workshops to identify what the community wants to see. I expect to see a new ferry stop to address traffic along the Cortez corridor from developments including SeaFlower and Aqua by the Bay."
For more information about Annie's Bait & Tackle, click here.
The Source
FOX 13's Jennifer Kveglis collected the information in this story.
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