Five Manatee County stories to catch up on. What you need to know

From debates over the county administrator’s contract to the arrival of a major golf championship, here’s a roundup of Wednesday’s Manatee County headlines.

Here are key takeaways:

• County administrator contract debate: Manatee County commissioners are negotiating a new contract for County Administrator Charlie Bishop that would start at $255,000, with debates over emergency overtime pay, removal terms and whether the deal should have a definite end date. His current contract expires in August.
• Bishop’s salary in context: Some residents called Bishop “overpaid,” but data shows Bishop’s salary is lower than the average for Florida county administrators in similarly sized counties.
• Life sentence in sexual battery case: A Manatee County judge sentenced 44-year-old Martir Isaias Ventura-Fuentes to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting a girl in her bedroom the day after Christmas in 2022, with DNA evidence strongly matching the defendant.
• Construction workers injured in work zone crash: Two Bradenton construction workers were seriously injured early Wednesday when a Tampa man driving a GMC Yukon crashed into their Ford F-550 work truck in an active Hillsborough County construction zone, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The driver was cited for careless driving, troopers say.
• Senior PGA Championship tees off: The Concession Golf Club in East Manatee opens play Thursday for the Senior PGA Championship, with an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 fans expected and roughly 30 acres of palmettos cleared to make the course more spectator-friendly. The club signed a three-year deal to host the tournament through 2028.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.