Sarasota City Hall reopens after evacuation order

Staffers and visitors to Sarasota City Hall were allowed to reenter City Hall around 4 p.m. Tuesday following an evacuation order prompted by a suspicious envelope earlier in the afternoon.

Around 2:45 p.m., during City Commission discussion of an apartment proposal at the site of the former Sarasota Kennel Club, City Manager Marlon Brown interrupted a presentation and asked everyone to leave the building.

Second Street was closed from Orange Avenue to Lemon Avenue during the investigation that included a robot from the Sarasota Police's Explosive Materials Unit. 

A city police spokeswoman confirmed a suspicious package found near the Commission Chambers prompted the alert. A City Commission member said the package held a length of PVC pipe, capped at both ends, that rattled. Markings indicated it might have originated at a gun range.