In Brief

+ Grant saves law- enforcement jobs

The Sarasota Police Department and Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office learned Tuesday that they each received grant money from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The police department was awarded $2.2 million, and the sheriff’s office received $363,476.

The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant is meant to hire or retain officers during the economic downturn.

“This is great news,” said City Manager Bob Bartolotta. “It will go a long way with our budget.”

The police department presented its 2010 budget last week, and it was counting on the grant to help reduce the budget by $2.1 million.

For the sheriff’s office, the grant will allow it to hire two new deputies.

+ ‘Most expensive listing’ sells on Key
The Casey Key estate that had been the most expensive home listing ever in Sarasota County at $20.03 million has sold for a total of $10.8 million.

The “Sugar Bay” estate at 1538 N. Casey Key Road was originally listed for sale in March 2007. It consisted of four homes on about four acres, which are just three properties away from the northern tip of Casey Key.

The estate was broken up into two sections less than a year later. The first part was sold for $4.6 million in February 2008 to Haji Tehrani and Sherry Hocking, of Granger, Ind. The second part sold July 27 to a private trust for $6.2 million, through Signature Sotheby’s International Realty.

The main home on that property is 7,000 square feet and is made of fossilized coral. The original owner bought a stone quarry in Mexico to mine the materials to build the home.