News Briefs

+ $5.9 million Siesta sale highest for 2011
A Siesta Key home sold Friday, Jan. 14 for $5.9 million — the highest sale of the year. Built in 2009, the 7,931-square-foot, West Indies-inspired home at 625 Norsota Way includes deep-water harborage, a separate guest house and a skyline view of downtown Sarasota and the Ringing Bridge. The home was listed by Kim and Michael Ogilvie and co-listed with Michael Hays, all of Michael Saunders & Co. The Ogilvies also represented the buyer.

+ Commission OKs urban chicken keeping
City commissioners paved the way for residents to legally keep chickens in their yards.

They unanimously approved ubran chicken keeping with some restrictions, inlcuding:

• A maximum of four chickens can be kept in a yard.

• The animals have to be kept in an enclosed or fenced area at all times.

• Those enclosures cannot be kept in a front yard, and they can’t be closer than 10 feet to an adjacent property line.

Nearly 40 supporters and opponents of the measure signed up to speak before the commission.

Mayor Kelly Kirschner remarked that it was the most people speaking about a single issue since the debate over the Unconditional Surrender sculpture.

+ Johns arrested in prostitution sting
Indian Beach/Sapphire Shores residents fed up with prostitution in their neighborhoods urged the Sarasota Police Department to not only crackdown on the prostitutes, but also on the johns who solicit them.

Officers conducted an undercover sting Jan. 15 aimed specifically at the men trying to pick up prostitutes in that neighborhood and in Gillespie Park.

Eleven arrests were made. A twelfth suspect took off in his car and got away, but that man was identified and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

During the weekend undercover operation, officers from the department’s Street Crimes Unit, Narcotics Unit, Criminal Investigations Division and Uniform Services Division conducted stings at 42nd Street and North Tamiami Trail and Sixth Street and U.S. 301.

The 11 men were charged with 16 total crimes, including solicitation of prostitution, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving without a license. Ten vehicles the men were driving were seized. The owners of those vehicles face a $500 fine, plus towing and storage fees.

Arrested at 42nd Street were:
Steven Chorba, 53
Steven Hooper, 57
Thomas Jacques, 69
Francisco Ramirez, 42
Vincent Redding, 56
Arrested at Sixth Street were:
Pete Cristiani, 48
David Mendoza, 27
Donald Powell, 48
Eliseo Ortiz, 48
Harold Wilen, 65
Alfonzo Zozaya-Ramirez, 60