- April 18, 2024
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Miss a summer, miss a lot around here.
Sure, The North is probably a far-more palatable option for Florida's Days of Humidity, but by heading up Interstate 75, you literally turn your back on a cauldron of news that's still bubbling when you return.
If you fly between here and there, you might have noticed your cozy little neighborhood airport has grown up, even adding another airline in recent weeks. And with record-setting passenger traffic, it's pretty likely you noticed more airplanes, more people and a general sense of hubub.
A lot of the summer time news revolved around the beach, with red tide taking center stage. But the blooms we dealt with this season weren't as broad or as consistent. On Siesta, efforts are moving ahead to become an incorporated town. On St. Armands, guess what? Development is the focus of a lot of news.
So, as we are wont to do around here, we've packaged it all for you in our annual Welcome Back presentation, with the top 10 stories you might have missed, along with a selection of journalistic appetizers, tidbits that amused us to the point we thought we'd share.
We're glad you're back.
For a couple of days there in August, it seemed you really couldn’t get there from here. “There” was pretty much anything west of the bayfront and “here” was anywhere else in Sarasota.
To be honest, FDOT and city people warned us.
But once road builders actually reset the traffic patterns through the intersection of Gulfstream Avenue and U.S. 41 to accommodate the next phase of roundabout construction, chaos followed.
Heading north through the intersection? Nope.
Heading south through the intersection? Not as such.
Turning left into Golden Gate Point? Yeah, that’s a detour to Bird Key and back (then it became a right turn).
We called it a Shift Show on our editorial page.
Things have smoothed out over the ensuing weeks, largely because of eagle-eyed drivers going with the flow and accepting that driving on the left side of the highway is OK sometimes. Plus, we hear, a lot of people are just avoiding it all together.
Patience, though, will be what gets us through. There’s another year of this in some form or another until the $8.6 million roundabout project wraps up in late 2022.
Sarasota Bradenton International Airport is finished comparing this air-travel year to the COVID-19 truncated travel season of 2020 or even the year that came right before.
Passenger records fueled by a resurgence in flights – largely from Southwest and Allegiant – fell in August, making 2021 the busiest ever at SRQ.
In October, SRQ added its 11th airline with the announcement of Avelo launching service to New Haven, Connecticut in January.
Three years ago, the airport offered 12 nonstop destinations from six carriers. Now, 51 destinations are available.
Plans are in place to one day build five new gates and ver the next decade, the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority intends to add more commercial, hotel and office space to the property it owns in north Sarasota, particularly on land along University Parkway.
School leaders in August enacted a 90-day mandate for students, faculty and staff to wear masks, voting 3-2 to defy state regulations that sought to prohibit local officials from implementing such a measure.
The school district mandate included provisions for monitoring the local positivity rate of COVID-19 tests and ending the mandate if that fell below 8% for three consecutive days. It also allowed for medical exemptions and a return of the mandate if the positivity rate climbed back to 10% for three days in a row. At the time, the positivity rate in Sarasota County was 18.6%. These days, it’s around 2.6%.
So, in early October, the School Board rescinded the rule, reinstated field trips and campus visits and essentially returned as close to normal as conditions would permit.
In between, though, there were rows over public comments, doctors who filled out dozens of medical exemptions, rules to address who could provide exemption documentation and enough rancor for an entire year.
Organizers of Siesta Key’s push for incorporation delivered its feasibility study to the state right on time in September and fielded questions from the Florida legislators who would have to help move the local effort ahead.
On Sept. 30, during a meeting of the local legislative delegation, Save Siesta Key board member Harry Anand outlined the impetus for the group’s campaign. The group, which formed in March, hopes to get a question on the ballot asking Siesta Key residents whether they support creating a new town. For that to happen, state legislators must first authorize the referendum.
Rep. Will Robinson, a Republican whose District 71 includes the north end of Siesta Key, said he had concerns about the feasibility study Save Siesta Key submitted as part of its application. Robinson said he was hesitant to authorize another layer of government and taxation. Robinson said incorporation is a tool officials don’t frequently use in Florida, with only two municipalities added statewide since 2006.
Rep. Fiona McFarland, a Republican whose District 72 includes the rest of Siesta Key, asked whether incorporation was the best solution if Siesta residents were satisfied with most of the government services currently available to them.
“I’m wondering if there are other avenues to solve your concerns,” McFarland said.
Meanwhile, County Commissioners in the last few weeks have granted approvals for a pair of controversial hotel proposals to advance.
After more than a year of virtual performances or scaled down shows in outdoor locations, Sarasota-area arts organizations were ready to get back to normal.
But how, with COVID-19 still a concern?
A coalition of organizations, which make up the bulk of the arts scene in Sarasota, decided to together require a negative COVID-19 test will be required for anyone attending a performance. Alternatively, proof of full vaccination would also be accepted, getting around state regulations regarding vaccine mandates.
Among the groups: Asolo Repertory Theatre, Circus Arts Conservatory, Florida Studio Theatre, The Hermitage Artist Retreat, Sarasota Ballet, Sarasota Opera, Sarasota Orchestra, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, and Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe.
Protocols will be revisited and may be revised based on CDC guidance and the evolving circumstances of the pandemic, including use of additional screening protocols.
From a project featuring twists and turns to one that’s practically arrow-straight, we bring you the latest from Sarasota County’s Legacy Trail.
As you might have noticed on your tax bill, you’ve been paying for the $65 million extension for some time now. But, since July, they fruits of that tax money have been showing up. First, a segment of new trail from Bahia Vista Street to Proctor Road opened as a standalone section along former Seaboard Coastline railroad right of way. Then, more recently, the southern end of that segment was linked to the existing trail that runs from Palmer Ranch to Venice.
A one-way trip now measures 19.6 miles. And work is underway to link the new northern end to Payne Park and Downtown Sarasota.
Overpasses at Clark Road and Bee Ridge Road are planned but likely won’t be open until late 2024.
A decline by 18% over two years in Sarasota Bay seagrass might not sound immediately perilous until you realize the trend has been underway for more than a decade.
Preliminary results from the Southwest Florida Water Management District show an 18% decline in seagrass across Sarasota Bay, Roberts Bay and Little Sarasota Bay from 2018 to 2020. The decline equates to loss of 2,300 acres of seagrass.
“Having healthy seagrass is really important to our bay ecosystem because about 75% of marine life have some part of their life in seagrass, so this is not great,’’ Sarasota Baywatch Secretary John Ryan said back in May.
Numbers in the 1950s sat at about 10,246 acres and steadily built from there, but now the loss, which scientists say is largely due to red tide and Hurricane Irma, means the area basically has to start over.
Seagrass is major indicator of water quality because it is sensitive to alterations, particularly those stemming from nitrogen increases as a result of fertilizers, wastewater runoff and pet waste. Elevation in nutrients also stimulates algal blooms, which can reduce the light necessary to seagrass growth.
Hurricane (briefly) Elsa was the only tropical system Sarasota County concerned itself with this season, and even that turned out to deliver minimal impacts.
In early July, forecasters predicted the intensifying storm would pass close enough to the coastline on its way north to prompt alerts.
As the hurricane passed the coast of Sarasota County, the area received about 2 inches of rain. A wind gust of 54 mph was recorded at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport in a squall, though the highest sustained winds were charted at 35 mph.
Flooding was reported in the south end of Sarasota County, though no homes were impacted. No street closures were reported in the north end of the county.
Hurricane season lasts until the end of November, by the way.
Red tide along Lido and Siesta keys and in Sarasota Bay was a problem over the summer, but it was not a consistent, long-lasting issue.
The on-again-off-again bloom different from outbreaks in years past when the smell, breathing effects and dead fish lasted for weeks and weeks on end.
In July, county health officials issued a notice that each of Sarasota’s 16 public beaches tested positive for elevated levels of red tide, though initial reports of localized effects were received in April.
Health advisories were issued urging those with chronic conditions to stay away from the shore.
A storm passing far offshore was credited with breaking up some of the bloom, and in September, health officials reported every one of the county’s 16 beaches was free of red tide.
Of late, a return of westerly winds pushed some blooms back toward the shore, with a few reports of dead fish and odors. Last week, there were no reports of red tide effects anywhere in Manatee or Sarasota counties.
Ideas, concepts, proposals, words of support and criticisms have flown around St. Armands Circle of late. In the old days, we’d have said you could float a boat with all the colorful ink used to produce dramatic artists’ renditions of a mixed-use hub, with a hotel and grocery, just off the center of the shopping district.
Now, it’s all computer art, but the point is made.
On May 17, Gavin Meshad delivered a presentation to the City Commission on behalf of commercial development firm JWM Management outlining the concept on a 1.98-acre city-owned parking lot.
City Commissioners are still weighing the notion of selling the lot, keeping in mind that public parking is at a premium in St. Armands Circle.
(From original reporting by the Observer's David Conway, Brynn Mechem and Harry Sayer)
