Newsletter 92

NEWS FROM THE SUNCOAST

RED TIDE M.I.A. OFFSHORE

Red Tide blooms in Sarasota and Manatee counties have dispersed, at least for now. While statewide concentrations of red tide have gone down, there are still pockets of the toxic algae in Southwest Florida waters. Water samples taken by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission showed bloom conditions remained offshore from Monroe County, where medium levels of the red tide organism, Karenia brevis, were detected. Background concentrations were found in water samples taken offshore from Hillsborough, Lee and Collier counties. To read more on this story, courtesy of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, please click here: No red tide!

RED TIDE SUMMIT EYED IN SRQ

A water quality summit hosted by the county to address problems plaguing area waterways could happen as soon as April. The Sarasota County Commission recently directed its staff to begin planning a summit on water quality following the apparent dissipation of the longest local red tide outbreak in recorded history. The summit, which will address efforts the county and surrounding jurisdictions have made to create clean water, as well as ongoing efforts to reduce water pollution and toxic red tide, will take approximately 90 days to organize. County staffers are considering holding the event, expected to be attended by 500 to 700 attendees, at a large venue such as Robarts Arena or Sarasota Municipal Auditorium. Click here if you want to read more: Water quality summit

SARASOTA BAY WATCH PLACES CLAMS IN RESTORATION EFFORT

Sarasota Bay Watch capped a two-year clam restoration effort recently. Board members placed 7,000 pounds of clams – or about 52,000 clams – at two sites in Manatee County. This brings the total number of clams to just more than 250,000. Sarasota Bay Watch has a second round of about 750,000 clams – growing under the watchful eye of Curt Hemmel, owner of Bay Shellfish hatchery. Please follow the jump for more on this story: Clams for restoration

SARASOTA CONSIDERS PLASTIC STRAW BAN

Sarasota might just become the latest jurisdiction in a growing list of cities spanning the state to ban single-use plastic straws and polystyrene. The Sarasota County Commission is considering banning single-use plastic straws citywide and polystyrene, more commonly known by its brand name Styrofoam, in public places, such as city buildings, events, sidewalks and on properties in which private entities lease space from the city. The move follows similar bans in St. Petersburg, Sanibel, Fort Myers, Hollywood, Surfside, Coral Gables and Miami Beach. There’s more on this story here: Plastic straw ban

WATERFRONT SALES ELUDED THE RED

You’d think the awful stench of red tide would have killed sales of waterfront homes. Not so much. An informed survey or some real estate professionals who specialize in expensive places on the sand and nearby shows other headwinds were worse and red tide appears to be a blip. Nasty blooms of toxic algae disappeared off our shores recently. Yes, those concentrations of the red tide organism sucked the life out of tourism, but a casual vacation is quite different from a residential commitment. The consensus opinion is that red tide is just a fact of life that comes around once in a while. Click here for more: Waterfront sales strong

SARASOTA NAMED A TOP PLACE TO RETIRE

A website dedicated to helping baby boomers find the best places to live after they retire has ranked Sarasota #2 out of the top 10 in the U.S. The 10 "Best of the Best" Places To Retire for 2019 from topretirements.com said that only Asheville, North Carolina was preferable to Sarasota. "Sarasota has a great downtown with many interesting neighborhoods. An impressive array of cultural facilities is available in Sarasota. Barrier Islands like Siesta offer great beaches and developments where retirees can put their feet up." If you’d like to learn more, click here: SRQ Top Place To Retire

MOTE A STEP CLOSER TO NEW AQUARIUM

Mote Marine Laboratory’s plan to build a $130 million multilevel aquarium, just west of Interstate 75 progressed recently with a key vote by the Sarasota County Commission. The commission unanimously approved an overall agreement with the laboratory, allowing Mote to begin due diligence on nearly 12 acres of county-owned land at Nathan Benderson Park, where the marine research giant plans to construct a state-of-the-art aquarium. There’s more here: Mote New Aquarium

PAID PARKING BEGINS ON ST. ARMANDS

The St. Armands parking garage opened to the public last week with nearly 500 public parking spaces, launching a paid parking program at St. Armands Circle to boost parking availability and reduce street congestion. The four-level garage includes 484 parking spaces, 5 electric vehicle charging stations including one DC fast charger, bicycle storage and repair station and public restrooms. Forty pay stations and six traditional single-head parking meters are installed around St. Armands Circle for on-street parking and parking in the Fillmore Lot, at South Adams Drive and Monroe Drive. Nearly 200 on-street parking spaces will remain free within a short walking distance to shops and restaurants. Click on the link for more: St. Armands Parking