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Local Issues 2006
 

Quarries near Sarasota,expose one of the world's most spectacular fossil accumulations. The fossil-rich sediments range in age from 1 to 5 million years and contain the abundant remains of mollusks, whales, birds, corals, barnacles, and sharks.

Since when is it legal or ethical to double bill expenses or use staff time
for personal use by government employees? And when is it appropriate to only give a two week suspension for illegal activity such as those verified? Yet city administrator John McNees only meted out a two week suspension for John Wilkes, Van Wezel Director. And why didn't the Sarasota City Commission pick up on the improprieties and the smack on the hand consequences? If McNees two week suspension of Wilkes should have been to terminate him how did this series of impropriety activity drag on for so long without any appropriate consequencs? Wilkes should have been fired on the first go around and McNees should have been called on his decision and maybe fired himself. Since when is it legal or condoned  to steal city resources?

A Sarasota County sewer line overflows into the street and then the Ellgraw Bayou the day after 4" of rain fell in the area. The County took over sewer operations over the last decade from private enterprise.

Van Wezel Deputy Director, Casey Humpert, turns herself in on fraud and forgery charges. She faces up to 20 years if convicted. Her boss John Wilkes was given a slap on the hand for taking city gas for personal use.

Christine Jennings campaign shows her leading 48 to 38 over opponent Vern Buchanan. The survey polled more Republicans then Democrats. Jennings is a Democrat.

* Sarasota City Manager suspends Van Wezel Director, Wilkes, for two weeks without pay for stealing city gas for personal trips.

The Golden Apple Theatre will fold from its current location from pressure for new projects to be built. In the background you can see a new condo going up.

* Heard on the Street: Sarasota County schools recently issued a new policy whereby no backpacks will be allowed at school sporting events such as football games. They cited the reason being the 'worlds current security concerns'. One report has it that a local Sarasota gang would use backpacks to
bring in knives to school games and stab people. One gang reported on the State of Florida web site for Sarasota is the '8 Ball Posse'. OurTown50 reported gang graffiti on public buildings in Sarasota months ago and pointed it out to Sarasota County Commissioners and Sheriff Balkwill.

* Sarasota County issues alert for off colored water coming from Manatee County. OurTown50 uncovered this issue 3 years ago and pointed out to county officials.

New TV, Internet, and phone service is coming to your area. Verizon contractors work in Gulf Gate Woods to put in new fios lines. You will soon have a choice between Comcast and Verizon TV and Internet. At last!

   Sarasota County Administrator, Jim Ley, in tough spot as his realtor wife tries to sell wetland for a client to the county.

Tax payer dollars down the river? Sarasota County has embarked on a commendable decades overdue process of purchasing land for preservation and recreation. One piece of land they are considering now is mostly wetlands. The purchase price is $3.1 million. If it is wetlands and no one can build on it why buy this land?

" Bills give billboards advantage" or so writes the SHT newspaper in an article that tells how a new law would ban planting of trees in front of billboards. The article doesn't say how the SHT is the only daily newspaper in town and also runs a TV station in the same market nor how they ban competitors from advertising.
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* City of Venice now regrets giving unbridled rights to Sharky's restaurant with no compensation to the city.

 I-75 was closed , northbound and southbound, Monday around 3PM near Gibsonton due to brush fires. Homes nearby were also being evacuated. Up to 400 acres was expected to burn before it is extinguished.

Sarasota County hired a lawyer to represent it against a suit that could cost the county $2 million or more. The county is accused of violating the U.S. Fair Housing Act by restricting zoning for a group of homes for the mentally challenged.

Sarasota hopes to get more people using buses after they increased the service routes.

* Sarasota County to be one of the first to start generating public solar power. The electricity will be generated at Rothenbach Park – about 250 kilowatts, or enough energy to power 44 homes. It will be feed into the FPL grid. FPL said the new solar facility will be the largest solar array in Florida and one of the largest in the southeast. The 1,200 photovoltaic solar panels are each about 31 inches wide and 63 inches long. The entire facility is to be more than 28,000 square feet, or about half the size of a football field.

* Van Wezel makes pitch to Sarasota County to ask them to fund a study. The study asks area artists if we need a new taxpayer funded $150 million performing hall. Commissioners say they want to know what the public thinks not just the artists whose lives depend on Van Wezel.

Empty land along U.S. 41 by the new Wal-Mart, in Osprey, are rapidly being developed.

* Jack Gurney in the PP tells how Sarasota County administrator Jim Ley and City of Sarasota Mike McNees developed a $150 plan to rebuild Ed Smith stadium without seeking public input or their bosses approval. Watch for Commentary.

* Florida sitting with $3.2 billion in extra tax revenue. Gov Bush wants to give half of it back.

Pollen, pollen everywhere, piles of it in the trees and on the ground. This has been the worst pollen season locally.

Jet Blue serves Tampa and Fort Myers. Sarasota - Bradenton airport hope to land Jet Blue in the next year. Photo @ Tampa airport.

Sarasota has wrestled with plans for a new convention center, baseball stadium, and fair grounds. At the core of all these plans lies how will these facilities be self funding without taxpayer support.

Roads like this on Beneva take their toll on the front end of your car. They do act as natural speed bumps though.

Once there was a golf course of sprawling green and then there was none. Forest Green Golf Course soon to be a new development.

Some homeowners still think the market is hot and are trying to sell their house by themselves. The number of homes for sale has doubled and this for sale by owner has been on the market for six months. 

* Sarasota as the "meanest city" draws over 25,000 pages on Google search. It obviously drew much attention nationally and globally. The city received the designation after it refused to rescind its homeless ordinance.

They are getting ready to wow you with a remodeling at Westfield Sarasota Square Mall.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus wants to bring it back home to Sarasota and invites discussion with Sarasota on how to best accommodate their needs. The City of Sarasota wanted to put clown statues around Sarasota. Maybe the circus will rent them real clowns?

Update: Missing girl phones her parents on Monday that she is well. Detectives believe she is in Mexico with a 20 year old man.

This 12 year old girl was reported missing last Wednesday evening. People with information about Mayra's whereabouts can call Detective Ralph Ortiz at 316-1201 or Crime Stoppers at 366-8477.

Bumper to bumper traffic in Lakewood Ranch is a daily occurrence and the area isn't fully built out as yet. What were the planners thinking?

* Wholesale tomato prices soar 400% but Burger King serves fish sandwich with a tomato on it. Or go pic your own vegetables http://hunsaderfarms.com locally.

Last year at this time there was a glut of tomatoes.

The Sarasota Quay used to rock day and night with dancing,  barbeque and lots of people. It is basically vacant now but there are plans to make it vibrant again with a hotel and restaurants.

Local homeowners complain about having to pay for water and sewer hookups. You have to pay the piper sooner or later. These homeowners paid less for their homes years ago and paid less taxes because their value was lower without county sewer and water. That was their choice then. Now they have to pay the piper. They could have chosen to buy a home connected to sewer and water when construction costs were less. They chose not to.

* Sarasota County adds bus schedules online at www.scgov.net two weeks after OurTown50.com asks why they are not posted there. Congrats. It's only a 35 minute ride to downtown Sarasota. Grab a bus:)

* Airport officials at Sarasota - Bradenton Airport hope either Delta doesn't go bankrupt or SouthWest Airlines takes them over and serves the airport. Delta represents almost 50% of the airports revenue.

* Sarasota County schools look to tax referendum to support two new technical training campuses. Parents to be educated on how college is not the cure all for jobs and that 75% of new jobs will be technical.

Investors who thought buying homes were the quick way to riches are finding them hard to sell when they want to recoup their paper riches. Home above is an investor rental home that was trashed by the renters.

* School head, Norris, says he needs at least 15 new top level positions to help make school system work well.

These days homes are either for rent or sales by flippers who jumped in after the dance had ended.

* Florida Gulf drilling debate gets readied in the Senate by a majority vote. The Senate will be looking at a 235 mile limit while the House looks at a 50 mile limit.

* Florida has six MSAs in the top 25 nationally as ranked by the percentage of households with $1 million or more in investable assets:

    - Naples-Marco Island, FL - 8.6%
    - Vero Beach, FL - 7.2%
    - Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice, FL - 6.7%
    - Punta Gorda, FL - 6.3%
    - Palm Coast, FL - 6.1%
    - Port St. Lucie-Fort Pierce, FL - 6.0%

* Lakewood Ranch gains entree into developing 5,000 new homes in Sarasota County east of I-75, once a protected haven.

* Sarasota Bradenton home median sales price drops 3% to $327,000  and Naples by 8%  in June. Florida's median sales price is $258,000.

Developers have second thoughts about building out 11 new condo projects given the slowdown in the real estate market Sarasota.

53 tons of dead fish from a Mote Marine fire has Mote stumped on what to do with the dead fish.

* Jet Blue to enter Sarasota market with a daily flight to JFK. JetBlue is offering promotional fares of $79 each way. Tickets must be bought by July 18 and used by Oct. 31. Service will start September 21st.

* Sarasota County Commissioners to look at taking over private condo beaches along the gulf front. As well as all other beaches that have private property fronting the gulf.

Gang graffiti??? on a vacant building on S. Tamiami Trail in Sarasota mars the landscape. The graffiti has become a real problem in Bradenton.

The gang art is painted over after OurTown50 reports it to Sarasota County Commissioners and Sheriff Balkwill.

* Lakewood Ranch proposes increasing new residential units by around 60%.

 A developer wants to build $600,000 homes on the Gulf Gate Golf course, but surrounding homes are selling for less than $400,000.

Sarasota Airport may show 10" of rain this year but the brown grass and the OurTown 50 weather station only shows less than an inch of rain this year. We have around an 11" deficit so far this year. Summer rains will not start until June.

Florida could be one of the
largest producers of ethanol (gasoline) using its vast open spaces to grow sugar cane that can be produced to make ethanol gasoline. With over 454,000 acres  already devoted to growing sugar cane Florida could follow Brazil that produces 40% of it's own ethanol from sugar cane. Brazil is also on track to become 100% ethanol sufficient by increasing their sugar cane production. So could Florida. Learn about Florida sugar cane. http://www.assct.org/florida
/flenviron.htm or get the big picture at http://money.cnn.com
/magazines
/fortune/fortune_archive
/2006/02
/06/8367959/index.htm

New Diocese of Venice Bishop will be Monsignor Frank J. Dewane, 56. He will work with Bishop Nevins until 2007 when Nevins retires.

A dry creek bed and a exposed irrigation line in Sarasota show just how dry it has been.

If the lack of rain continues the ducks will have to head north to find water.

* George O'Neil, a Sarasota resident for over 30 years, was arrested on fraud charges that claimed he helped to bilk the elderly out of $2 million dollars through a non-profit agency he ran. He is a pillar in the local Catholic church and supported many youth groups over the years.

* Sarasota school district will demolish Riverview H.S. and build a new one that may approach $100 million? While selling naming rights to the new school?

Traffic backs up and blocks an intersection on Clark Road.

 Venice City Manager recommends the first woman Police Chief, Julie Williams.

School tax signs go up all over Sarasota to help keep funding that runs out if not renewed by taxpayers.

Mennonites decide to ride their bikes on the sidewalk after a Mennonite woman was killed crossing Bahia Vista.

New condos spring up along I-75.

* Manatee County takes limiting number of homes built proposal off the table.

* Sarasota County schools supt. continues to push for new technical high school. Cost $79 million to $114 million.

* Sheriff Balkwill comes up with Dangerous Dogs program to track them on his web site.

* The top places to retire? Florida takes 8 spots out of the top 50 with Melbourne, Boca Raton, Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Naples, Ocala, Sarasota and St. Petersburg.

The new Ringling bridge as it is being constructed in the foreground, the old bridge in the background. Boat owners want to know what underwater objects in this area are damaging their boats. 

Sarasota Fair Grounds oh fair grounds what shall thee be? They want to build a $40 publicly funded new facility and the County says not with our money?

New lights on U.S. 41 make it look like a freeway. They must be 100 feet tall. Uggg.

Local teachers being asked to teach 30 extra minutes a day next year if bond measure passes doesn't thrill all the teachers all the time.

With 7 hurricanes in two years some Florida residents are angry with FPL. Some had to live without electricity for 3 weeks or more. Hurricanes aren't new FPL should have been putting new power lines underground for decades.

* Attorney's for Dr. Michael Rosin the Sarasota dermatologist accused of intentionally misdiagnosing patients with skin cancer have tried to move his trial back four times this year. He is charged with over $3 million in fraudulent Medicare charges. The trial will start Monday.

* Ft. Myers-Cape Coral area shows highest 2005 home appreciation at 44%. Sarasota hit a 32% appreciation for 2005. Median sales price in Sarasota County $322,700 for 2005. The number of homes listed in Lakewood Ranch went from 80 to 300 flooding the market.

* Holy moly where is all of the money going to come from to build $2 billion dollars of new roads for Sarasota County? Some may come from road impact fees that the county raised by 15% Wednesday.

This open land is next to Wal-Mart on Cattleman Road. The cattle grazing will soon disappear.

* Local community will be invited to service for local Army helicopter pilot, Kyle Jackson, killed in Iraq on Friday.

A local group wants to pay $600,000 for the sailor kissing the nurse statue in Sarasota. Why can't they hire Ringling Art students to do the same statue for much less.

* Company loans two red light cameras to Sarasota County. The County will use the data from the cameras to lobby for legalizing handing out tickets using red light cameras. The two cameras will be set up at two different locations in Sarasota. A red light camera sits at a birds eye view of red light runners. Around 1,000 people a year are killed by red light runners.

Gulf Gate Golf course has been around for around 35 years. Will it fall victim to developer condos or homes. A lady in her 80's owned it and ran it for 30 odd years. Another lady bought it and wants to sell it to developers. Photo: Google satellite at 3800 feet.

* Online shopping dollars up 30% from last years Christmas season for a total of around $3 billion dollars.. Around 2 million shoppers per minute shop online. Higher gas prices helping to spur online shopping.
www.pricegrabber.com
www.overstock.com
www.pricewatch.com

* Home sales and  price declines  October, 2005 numbers compared to the November, 2005 median sales price data shows the following decreases in price:

Fort Myers-Cape Coral, from $322,000 down to $295,400
Lakeland-Winter Haven, from $173,500 down to $166,900
Melbourne-Palm Bay, from $238,200 down to $231,400
Naples (Marco Island NA), from $495,500 to $479,800
Pensacola, from $175,500 to $168,000

The number of homes sold year-over-year in November was also down in some markets. Fort Lauderdale sales were down 21%, Fort Walton Beach off 18%. Miami down 25%. Ocala down 13%. Punta Gorda was off 15% and Sarasota-Bradenton sales finished down 39% from the same month last year.