5 Things You Need To Know Today: January 4

1.The City Council meets this morning at 8:30 a.m. in a worksession. The City council will review its goals and accomplishments for 2011.

2. It took a year and more than 20 volunteers to create sea creatures and coral through crochet, offering an immersive underwater experience to visitors at the opening of the Artificial Crochet Coral Reef Exhibit at Robinson Preserve Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.

3. The Manatee County Extension Service offers a free landscape and irrigation evaluation to all Manatee County residents. The service can help homeowners better conserve outdoor water use by retrofitting an irrigation system to increase efficiency and lower monthly water costs. Evaluations are done at 9 a.m. weekdays. Saturday appointmenta are available. It is necessary for the property owner to be with the team during the one to two hour evaluation. The team looks closely at the zone-by-zone spray patterns and makes recommendations to improve the efficiency of the system to match the requirements of the existing plants.

4. Registration has begun for youth basketball leagues in the county. is putting together Spring Youth Basketball Leagues for children 5- to 17-years-old. The county will host a three week camp beginning Feb. 6.  Team practices are tentatively scheduled to begin March 5 and games will begin March 17.  All dates are subject to change. The registration fee is $65 per child and includes a team jersey. Registration will be held from now until Jan. 31 at the G.T. Bray Park Recreation Center, 5502 33^rd Avenue Drive West. Off-Site Registration will take place Jan. 14 and 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Dick’s Sporting Goods, 4108 14^th Street West.  For more information contact Ashley D’Arpino at 941-742-5923 ext. 6062.

5. The South Florida Museum hosts its monthly Family Night from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. A mermaid film will be screened in the planetarium at 4:15 p.m. and movie goes can meet a mermaid after the show.