- April 18, 2026
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Outside of Manatee County’s new garbage collection system, few other issues spark debate in Lakewood Ranch quite like roundabouts and Lorraine Road.
Both topics were brought up for discussion at the Lakewood Ranch Republican Club’s latest luncheon April 15 at the Lakewood Ranch Country Club.
The club welcomed all four candidates vying for the Republican nomination for Manatee County's District 6 commission seat in the Aug. 18 primary election.
District 6 is an at-large seat that represents the entire county. It’s the only commission seat for which Lakewood Ranch residents can cast a vote during this year's election.
The Republican candidates for District 6 are Tony Barrett, John Calovich, Ed Ference and Tara Poulton. Club president Bruce Stamm served as the moderator.
Here’s a look at where each candidate stands on some of the most hotly debated topics in Lakewood Ranch and Manatee County since the 2024 election.
Campaign contributions were highlighted during the 2024 election after certain commissioners and candidates were accused of being “puppets for special interests.”
So Stamm asked the candidates who their major donors are and if they’ve accepted campaign contributions from any of the following:
Ference answered first that all his donors have either been friends or supporters that he’s met along the campaign trail with one caveat — engineers.
He explained that those engineers are friends and former coworkers from his time working at Manatee County Utilities. All four engineers that are listed on the Supervisor of Elections website as campaign contributors either did or still do work for Manatee County.
Poulton said her donors are made up of family, friends, residents and small business owners. She hasn’t accepted money from developers and doesn’t intend to, however, Calovich called her out on accepting a check from the law firm of Grimes Galvano, PL, a firm that regularly represents developers in Manatee County.
“I did receive $1,000 from the law firm from Bill Galvano,” Poulton said. “He’s been a longtime friend, and I’ve known him for years.”
Poulton also accepted $400 from Fawley Bryant Architecture, the firm that designed the town center at Waterside Place. But overall, she's received over $19,000 in contributions.
As for Calovich, he said he will not take "one single dime from any builder, any PAC or any attorney at all." He added that he would publicly give back any such contribution if one is received.
Calovich is largely self-funding his campaign, having contributed $20,000 of his overall $22,071.77 in monetary contributions.
Barrett said he’s not taken any money from builders or engineers. His campaign records confirm that to be true and show about a quarter of his contributions came from real estate agents, as he is also a real estate agent.
Only one of the four candidates, Calovich, is against roundabouts. The overall consensus among the other three candidates is that roundabouts keep traffic moving and save lives.
“I worked in emergency services (as a firefighter and paramedic),” Barrett said. “I’ve seen fatality crashes at traffic lights many, many times. I’ve never seen a fatality traffic accident at a roundabout.”
Calovich argued that people stop in roundabouts and cause even more accidents than before the roundabout was installed.
“And they’re about $6 million to build,” he said. “My other problem is what do we do if we have a hurricane out in Lakewood Ranch, and it really affects us. How are you going to evacuate everybody trying to get around a roundabout to get to Interstate 75 to get out? It’s not going to happen, so people are going to have a lot of people losing their lives because of it.”
According to the Federal Highway Administration, “Roundabouts can reduce fatal and serious injuries by up to 82% at intersections” and improve traffic flow.
Lorraine Road is by far the most complained-about road in the Lakewood Ranch area, and the answers varied as to how each candidate, if elected, would deal with the road’s widening project that was deferred by Manatee County.
Barrett and Poulton both noted that they would be serving the entire county if elected to the District 6 seat, so Lorraine Road is one of many roads they’d have to consider improving.
Barrett pinpointed the Fort Hamer bridge as another important thoroughfare that’s in need of additional lanes. Poulton said the focus should be on getting the traffic lights working properly so they improve the traffic flow on Lorraine Road.
Ference said he’d look toward long-term planning to find a solution and re-evaluate projects like the $10 million parking lot that’s being proposed with a private ice rink at Premier Sports Campus North to see if those funds can be allocated toward roads instead.
Calovich was the only candidate who definitively placed Lorraine Road among his top priorities.
“The first thing I’m going to do is make sure we start it,” he said. “If we don’t have all the funds for it, we’re going to start sections at a time to get it done, but you are going to see results on Day 1. And I encourage you, if you haven’t driven in the traffic, give it a shot. You’ll hate it.”
