Mermaid Banned; More Beach Visitors?

Keeping up with all the cool, fun, quirky and just plain important things happening in the Pinellas beach communities and throughout Tampa Bay is no easy feat.

Have no fear! Pinellas Beaches Patch is here to help.

Here are a few things we thought you might like to know about, read about or better yet talk about:

More Crowded Beaches?

According to this story from Pinellas Beaches Patch, visits to Pinellas County were up 1.4 percent from January to May compared to the same time period last year, and similar numbers were forecasted for the fall. Have you noticed it's more crowded on the beaches this year?

Bayway Closed Wednesday

Heads up: From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, the eastbound section of the Pinellas Bayway Bridge will be closed for construction. 

Patch Gives Back

Give 5 is Patch’s ongoing volunteering initiative and a part of Patch's mission to give back to communities in a variety of ways.

You can’t truly serve a community unless you provide the help it needs most, which is why giving back is so important to us. We do it as part of our coverage — in a dedicated space that lets local charities and volunteers find each other — and with “Give 5,” through which we donate free advertising space to charitable organizations and contribute our own time as volunteers.

Patch Editors from many of our 23 sites will be participating in a Give 5 event on Tuesday, and you just might see us in action. We are partnering with Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful to help give some TLC to an area of Tampa Bay that needs it. If you're driving along Hillsborough Avenue and George Road in Tampa on Tuesday afternoon and evening, you just might spot us cleaning up the side of the road in our green Patch T-shirts. 

Be sure to give us a honk or a wave! 

It's Hot, Hot, Hot

It's looking like the rain will stay away for the most part today, and the heat isn't going anywhere. High temperatures are forecasted to be around 90 degrees with about only a 20 percent chance of thunderstorms for much of the Tampa Bay area, according to the National Weather Service.

Mermaid Ban in Florida?

Well, sort of. Bloomingdale-Riverview Patch has the story of a woman whose colorful mermaid tail has been banned from the community pools in FishHawk Ranch. Check out this fish tale and see the "mermaid of FishHawk" in action.