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By Rachel Brown Hackney www.SarasotaNewsLeader Soon after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the City of Sarasota announced their plans for the dredging of Big Sarasota Pass to renourish a critically eroded area of South Lido Key Beach, Siesta residents began pointing to the proposed sand borrow areas and noting something distinctive about one […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney SarasotaNewsLeader.com Thanks to a unanimous vote, on Aug. 29, the Sarasota County Commission will hold a public hearing on a draft ordinance that could put two proposed Sarasota County Charter amendments on the ballot that relate to the commission’s May 2016 vacation of a 357-foot-long segment of North Beach Road. However, […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney A Siesta property owner has been imploring the Sarasota County Commission to take a definitive stand against the plans of the City of Sarasota and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to dredge Big Sarasota Pass to renourish about 1.6 miles of South Lido Key Beach. Michael Holderness, who owns […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney SarasotaNewsLeader.com As Save Our Siesta Sand 2 (SOSS2) Chair Peter van Roekens had vowed, the nonprofit is heading to federal court in an effort to stop the proposed dredging of Big Sarasota Pass to renourish about 1.6 miles of South Lido Key Beach. In an SOSS2 newsletter released to supporters on […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney The application for the proposed Siesta Promenade project on the northwest corner of the intersection of U.S. 41 and Stickney Point Road has been deemed sufficient, Sarasota County Planning and Development Services staff has announced. The formal review process of the request for a Critical Area Plan (CAP) designation and a […]
There were a total of 41 crimes reported on the Key between 6/20-7/17/18 6/20/18 Burglary – Attempt 7000 Block Point of Rocks Cir. A man returned home from out of town and observed a window screen out of one of the windows on the bottom floor of his residence. There were pry marks on the […]
Staff report A bit of better property value news With the release of the July 1 county ad valorem tax values — as required by the state each year — owners of property in the Siesta Key Village Public Improvement District ended up with a bit of a break. The preliminary figure the Sarasota County […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney On July 11, 2017, the Sarasota County Commission first expressed an interest in the potential for a paid parking program at Siesta Public Beach. Exactly one year later, Carolyn N. Brown, director of the county’s Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Department, appeared before the board for a review of the year-long […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney Concern arose recently that the Sarasota County plan to assume authority over Siesta Key roads in exchange for the Florida Department of Transportation’s taking ownership of River Road might take much longer than originally anticipated. However, county staff has affirmed that it is continuing to work on a timeline calling for […]
By Rachel Brown Hackney Siesta Village business owners were abuzz the Saturday after July Fourth, Siesta Sand learned, because of a rather unusual incident at Siesta Center. Just after 8 a.m. on July 7, according to three related Sheriff’s Office reports, deputies were called about “two suspicious suspects sleeping on a bench at 5053 Ocean […]