bserver Merry Christmas!
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De-stress during the holidays with Pam Nadon’s movie picks. INSIDE
Downtown Sarasota Alliance members enjoy holiday party. PAGE 18A.
OUR TOWN
Thursday, DECEMBER 22, 2011
sticker shock
SCHOOLS Booker Middle School orchestra director receives surprise honor. PAGE 12A.
by Kurt Schultheis | City Editor
Project price tag: $14 million Main Street merchants continue to decry a streetscape project that would transform the downtown thoroughfare and create major construction for years.
Mallory Gnaegy
+ Girls Inc. serenades us! The girls of Girls Incorporated of Sarasota County stopped by The Observer Group office Monday to sing their favorite holiday tunes, such as “Frosty the Snowman” and “Jingle Bells.”
Main Street merchants have both sticker shock and construction shock over preliminary cost options for a Main Street project that could cost as much as $14 million and take years to complete. At a special Downtown Improvement District Board of Directors meeting Dec. 15, at City Hall, Kimley-Horn and Associates design officials presented their preliminary opinion of probable cost for a project that would
include bricking both Main Street and the sidewalks from Bayfront Drive to Orange Avenue in the historic district. It would cost the DID and taxpayers approximately $2.9 million to perform such work, which includes converting angled parking to parallel parking and refurbishing utilities underneath the road, from Bayfront Drive to the Five Points roundabout. Out of that project cost for that segment, it would cost $650,000 to brick
the street. When it was estimated that section could start construction in May 2013 and take at least nine months to complete, groans were heard from the five merchants in attendance at the meeting. James Derheim, owner of European Focus on Main Street, said he was disgusted with
SEE PROJECT / PAGE 2A
Hamptons homeowner wins lawsuit
Margaret Brading and Sue Ford
+ British Club celebrates X-Mas
After a two-year lawsuit, one resident of The Hamptons was granted the right to switch to electric-powered street lamps.
The Sarasota British Club held its annual Christmas dinner party Saturday, Dec. 17, at Heritage Oaks. This year, members invited the Welsh Society to join in the fun. There was music, dancing, raffles, good food and cheer. Recognition and thanks was given to the 2011 Board of Directors, and the new 2012 Board was welcomed.
Courtesy photo
Bea Dunayer with Jacob Baram
+ Temple gets into the Hanukkah spirit Temple Emanu-El Religious School caught the Hanukkah spirit Sunday, Dec. 11 at a school-wide campus celebration. Students in kindergarten through seventh grade learned the story of Hanukkah by visiting handson activity stations. A youth group visit to bring holiday cheer to the residents of Anchin Pavilion capped off the festivities.
OUR TOWN / PAGE 8A
WAITING IN THE WINGS Rachel S. O’Hara
Katherine Zimmerman, Ashlynn Rutherford and Anna Zimmerman wait for their turn to take the stage in Sarasota Ballet School’s “The Nutcracker Sweet” Saturday, Dec. 17, at the Glenridge Performing Arts Center. See more photos on page 15A.
It took two years and approximately $15,000 of his own money, but a Palmer Ranch homeowner won a Sarasota County Circuit Court lawsuit against his homeowners association in September. In September 2009, more than two-dozen homeowners in The Hamptons were threatened with a lawsuit and a possible lien on their homes if they went forward with switching the energy source for their front-yard street lamps. Each home in The Hamptons has a gas-powered lamp that burns 24 hours a day. Four residents, though, in September 2009, converted from gas to electric, and 24 others were planning to convert as well, after the homeowners association’s own Architectural Control Committee (ACC) approved the conversions in July and August 2009. The reasons they cited for wanting to convert had to do with cost savings and safety. The Hamptons Homeowners Association had budgeted more than $109,000 in 2009 to pay for natural gas to power the front-yard
SEE LAWSUIT / PAGE 2A
INDEX Briefs....................4A Classifieds......... 24A
Cops Corner....... 10A Crossword.......... 23A
Opinion.................6A Permits.............. 20A
Real Estate........ 20A Weather............. 23A
Vol. 8, No. 6 | Two sections YourObserver.com