We got football…

We got opening day Little League this Saturday…

We got no hurricanes…

But we still got fire ants (dang, they are the bane of existence!)

Let’s go Parrish, Florida!

Enjoy the newsletter.

Two weeks ago we printed "opening this September."

The ribbon was cut Monday, September 14, and the page that said "Coming Soon" now says 7 to 5.

Read this part twice, because it's the part that matters on a Saturday with a sick kid.

This is a doctor's office with a lab and a scanner attached.

It is not an emergency room and it is not an urgent care.

The ER is the other new building, at Harrison Ranch and 301, and that one had its ribbon cutting this morning and still isn't open to patients.

So north Manatee got two new medical buildings in two weeks, and they do completely different jobs.

This one is for the physical you've been putting off, the mammogram, the MRI your doctor ordered that used to mean a drive to Bradenton.

Our take: the imaging is the win for Parrish, because a 7 a.m. MRI slot ten minutes from home beats a 7 a.m. MRI slot forty minutes from home every time.

What we couldn't confirm: whether the primary-care practice is taking new patients yet, and which insurance they take.

Call before you count on it.

The hospital next door, 154 rooms, is still slated for 2028.

Location and hours: BayCare HealthHub Manatee · What's inside: Business Observer, Sept 15

Commissioners told staff in July they wanted at least a year to write rules for these things before anyone files one.

Palmetto passed its own one-year pause on September 14.

Why a Parrish family should care: the big empty parcels with power and water nearby are on our side of the river, along 301 and Moccasin Wallow and out toward SR-62.

A pause means nobody drops a windowless building the size of a Walmart next to a subdivision before the county decides how loud, how much water, and how close.

The vote happens after this issue lands, so we'll print the result next week.

Same agenda, if you're watching: a simulated-gambling ordinance, two rural-land easements, and a report on the Duette Preserve hunt program.

Story: Pulse of Manatee · Agendas and the stream: Manatee County meeting agendas

The Palmetto shelter is moving. The county's own page for the Palmetto Animal Shelter on 25th St W now says "We are moving!" and that dog adoptions have gone to the Bishop shelter on 21st Ave W in Bradenton, by appointment. Cats are still at Cat Town on 6th Ave E, walk in. Details and the dog who's waited longest are down in Pet of the Week. Palmetto Animal Shelter page

The fertilizer ban ends Wednesday, September 30. Since June 1 you haven't been allowed to put nitrogen or phosphorus on the lawn in Manatee County. Starting October 1 you can, as long as the bag is at least 50 percent slow-release nitrogen. Phosphorus stays banned all year unless a soil test says you need it. County fertilizer ordinance

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In-town is thin until October 2, so this week is one Parrish night worth circling, two Bradenton errands worth doing, and one free field trip.

Parrish Playworks brings its Chuckleheads improv team back to Parrish Community Park, 7550 Fort Hamer Rd, at 6:30 p.m.

Free, all ages, food trucks on site, and you bring your own chairs.

It's improv, so volunteers from the crowd get on stage, and a kid who raises a hand gets a better story than a kid who watches.

This is the second of two fall shows; the first was September 4.

Our take: this is the best free Friday night in Parrish proper this fall, and it's a week and a half out, so put it on the fridge now.

Details: Pulse of Manatee · The park: Parrish Community Park

Manatee County EMS is checking car seats Thursday, September 24, 3 to 7 p.m., and Saturday, September 26, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Public Safety Center, 2101 47th Terrace E, Bradenton, about 25 minutes.

Certified techs, free, and Saturday is walk-up.

Most seats we've seen in a Parrish school pickup line are either too loose or a size behind.

Twenty minutes fixes that.

Details: Pulse of Manatee weekly calendar

Bat City Comic Professionals, 915 Manatee Ave E, Bradenton, turns four and runs Local Comic Shop Day from 11 to 4, about 25 minutes.

Free, with a life-size community comic to draw on, crafts, a kids' scavenger hunt, free food, and a sale.

It's a few blocks down Manatee Ave from the historical park below, so do both.

Details: Pulse of Manatee weekly calendar

First tent-camping weekend of the season at Rye Preserve, $20 a night plus tax, cash or check only, register at the ranger station 3 to 7 p.m., first come first served. Same Friday as the improv, so pick one. Rye Preserve

1404 Manatee Ave E, Bradenton, and you enter the lot from 14th St E. (941) 749-7165.

About 25 minutes: 301 south over the river, then I-75 or 301 into the east side of downtown Bradenton.

Free, donations welcome.

Open Monday through Friday 9 to 4, plus the second and fourth Saturdays of the month, 9 to 4.

It's a collection of real old-Florida buildings moved onto one shaded block: a cracker house, a one-room church, a courthouse, a schoolhouse, and the brick Wiggins Store where you pick up the paper tour brochure.

The rule that matters, in their own words: the gates close promptly at 4, and a car left inside stays inside until the next open day.

Saturday, September 26, is a fourth Saturday, so it should be open.

Call first, because the Saturday list on their website hasn't been updated since August.

Our take: this is the free, shaded, mostly-indoors pick for a rainy-season afternoon, and a seven-year-old will spend more time in the schoolhouse than you expect.

Hours and rules: Plan Your Visit

Rocky Bluff, 6750 US-301 N in Ellenton, about 10 minutes: 40 Carrots Partners in Play is Fridays at 12:30, Family Story Time Tuesdays at 10:15, Baby Story Time Thursdays at 10:15.

Braden River, 4915 53rd Ave E in Bradenton, about 25: 40 Carrots is Fridays at 10:15, first 10 families.

Heads up: Braden River's October 3 Mr. Stevey show is listed as cancelled on the library calendar, so don't plan the morning around it.

Both calendars: Manatee Library events

12350 US-301 N, Parrish. (941) 776-1658.

Monday through Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., closed Sunday, per their directory listings.

About five minutes south of the Moccasin Wallow light, on the old strip of 301 between Parrish General Supply and PJ's Sandwich Shop.

It's an independent garage: routine maintenance, brakes, tires, electrical, the check-engine light.

The reviews run 4.7 stars across 46 of them, and the thing people keep writing is some version of "they told me what it didn't need."

Here's the thing to know before you need it: they don't have a working website.

The address that used to be theirs is a parked domain somebody is trying to sell, so don't Google your way in; call.

Our take: every new rooftop in Parrish came with two cars, and the independent garage on the old strip is the number to have in your phone before the light comes on, not after.

If you've used them, reply and tell us the repair and whether they earned the 4.7.

Listing: Parrish Garage in the PABA business directory

If you've lived here a year, you know Parrish as the town that's being built.

It's actually the town that was built once, emptied out, and got bulldozed for the road you drive to Publix.

The railroad came through in 1902, and John Parrish, son of the man the town is named for, gave the land for the depot and the water tank.

The depot changed everything, because oranges, grapefruit, and tomatoes could get on a train instead of a wagon.

By the 1910s and 1920s, according to the Parrish Arts Council's history, the village had four packinghouses, a bank, a mercantile store, a restaurant, a blacksmith, an ice cream shop, a barbershop with a pool hall, a boarding house, a doctor's office, several grocery stores, and a skating rink somebody ran out of a house.

Everybody came "Uptown" on the weekend to see everybody else.

Uptown was 301.

Then the Depression hit, the packinghouses slowed, and by the late 1930s people were leaving to find work in the cities.

The bank became a meat market.

By 1939 the town was down to 721 people.

The last blow wasn't economic.

In 1957 US-301 was widened, and the town buildings that stood in the way were torn down for the highway.

That's why there's no "old downtown" for the new Town Center to imitate: the old downtown is under the northbound lanes.

Our take: the next time somebody at a hearing says Parrish never had a walkable main street, it did, and the highway got built over it.

Sources: Parrish Arts Council, History of Parrish · ParrishFlorida.com history

Spayed female, brown and white mixed breed, 2 years old, about 45 pounds. ID A138592, kennel G3.

She came in August 19, which makes her the longest-waiting adoptable dog on the county's list this morning: 34 days.

Here's the number that should bother you a little.

The county waives the adoption fee on any animal that's been there more than 60 days.

For Londy that's October 18.

Somebody should get her before the county has to give her away.

Forty-five pounds is the right size for a Parrish house: big enough to walk the neighborhood, small enough for the back seat of a Camry.

The fee is $50, or $25 today, because every Tuesday is Half-Price Tuesday, and this issue lands on one.

Veterans, active military, and first responders adopt free with ID.

Every fee covers the spay, first shots, deworming, and microchip; the $20 county license is on top.

Where she is, and this changed: dog adoptions are now at the Bishop Animal Shelter, 5718 21st Ave W, Bradenton, about 30 minutes, by appointment, Monday through Saturday 12 to 5 and Sunday 12 to 4.

Appointments happen in the staff trailer past the Medical Intake Center; the old Palmetto building on 25th St W is not the stop anymore.

Email [email protected] with her ID to make sure she's still there before you drive.

See her: Londy on 24Petconnect · Appointments and fees: Adopt a Pet, Manatee County

Two new medical buildings, one open and one not, and the only thing anybody in the pickup line asked me was which one takes a strep test on a Saturday.

Until next week — stay gritty, stay healthy, and keep Parrish strong. — Greg.