Community discusses county issues at workshop

Sarasota County Openly Plans for Excellence, an organization that facilitates community discussion based on local demographics, held its fifth installation of the SCOPE “community workshop road show” Tuesday.

About 30 residents and community leaders attended the workshop at Gulf Gate Public Library, which focused on face-to-face communication.

John McCarthy, SCOPE’s executive director, and several SCOPE staff members presented the most recent demographics and statistics on Sarasota County to give the audience a perspective on what Sarasota County is today. It included information about race, employment, median income and population growth.

After the presentation, participants broke out into small groups to discuss what they thought were the most important issues related to the demographics.

Kevin Connelly, president of Apollo Sunguard Shade Innovators and board member of Sarasota Manatee Manufacturers Association, is most concerned with the lack of manufacturing jobs in Sarasota County.

“In Sarasota County, zoning is changed to squeeze out light industrial,” Connelly said. “Once you build residential, it’s a one-time shot.”

Residential development is not a good economic development, he said. Citing John M. Keynes, a noted economist, creating manufacturing jobs helps to create other jobs, but creating retail service jobs does not increase the job market elsewhere.

Some residents in Sarasota have supported zoning changes to avoid having an industrial park in their back yard, but Connelly said it’s an education process to help people understand what an industrial park looks like today.

“These are not smokestack industries,” he said, adding that Sun Hydraulics, a firm located just north of the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, produces hydraulic parts, but the facilities and site design are reminiscent of a college campus.

“Once you build residential, it’s a one-time shot,” - Kevin Connelly, Sarasota Manatee Manufacturers Association board member.

Sarasota County’s death rate is higher than its birth rate; the growth the county has experienced comes from people moving into the area. Barbara Langston, the president of the Amaryllis Park Neighborhood Association and a City Council of Neighborhood Associations member, said reaching out and educating students at a young age is the key to retaining them in the community and helping them be drug-free and out of trouble.

“It has to start as a community conversation,” she said. “We have to get serious and involved, even if you don’t have kids.”

Langston said she thought neighborhood associations needed to take a more active role with young people and parents within the community to ensure they are aware of what their kids are involved in.

SCOPE is hosting a final workshop in March.

IF YOU GO:

What: SCOPE Community Report Card Road Show workshop

When: 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 18.

Where: Fruitville Library, 100 Coburn Road, Sarasota.