PelicanPress SIESTA KEY
AN OBSERVER NEWSPAPER
Thursday, FEBRUARY 2, 2012
DIVERSIONS
NEWS
Chic Silber rummages through his Broadway toy box. INSIDE
Gov. Rick Scott reflects on his first year in office. PAGE 3A
OUR TOWN + Looking for love … on Siesta Key As Sarasota County Parks and Recreation plans its annual Valentine’s Day vow renewal on Siesta Public Beach, the Pelican Press is searching for couples willing to share stories about their long marriages, for example — 60 years?! — or unusual proposals. If you have a story you’d like to tell us, please call Managing Editor Rachel Hackney at 366-3468, Ext. 314, or email rhackney@yourobserver.com. Then make your plans to be on Siesta Public Beach, 948 Beach Road, at 6 p.m. Feb. 14. Advance registration is required by Feb. 11 by going online at www.parksonline.scgov. net or by calling 8617275. This cost is $5 per couple. “Every year this event gets bigger and bigger, and with Siesta Beach being named America’s No. 1 Beach in 2011, we are expecting a big turnout,” said Jennifer Groff, Sarasota County Parks and Recreation program coordinator, in a news release. “It’s the perfect way to spend Valentine’s Day. Sharing a gorgeous sunset on America’s best beach with the person most special in your life just makes for a memorable evening.” The vow renewals will be officiated by Judge Becky Titus. Following the ceremony, each couple will receive a commemorative certificate. For more information, contact the Sarasota County Call Center at 8615000 and ask about “Say I Do Again.”
Bedtime
DOUBLE-DIGIT INCREASES
ODA students don pajamas to savor stories. PAGE 1B
By Rachel Brown Hackney | Managing Editor
Booming Siesta season Businesses on the Key say the No. 1 beach ranking and warm weather are translating into a double-digit increase in seasonal tourist traffic.
The plea went out last week from Erin Duggan, communications director of the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau, during an informal gathering of tourist industry representatives: “Please let us know of any weeks
with available rooms!” “I am starting to get calls from people saying, ‘Is there any way you can help us find a place (to stay)?’” SCVB President Virginia Haley said Monday. “Everybody’s reservations look fantastic, (but)
Siesta is our hotbed.” Tess Herschman, visitor services manager at the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce, concurred: For the first week of April, especially, the chamber staff is running out of suggestions of
places for people to stay, because almost all the resorts and inns on the Key are booked. “I think it’s going to be really
SEE SEASON / PAGE 2A
Rachel S. O’Hara
Thanks to the No. 1 beach ranking and a warm winter so far, Siesta businesses are seeing up to a 20% increase in business over the 2010-11 season.
A REPRIEVE
By Rachel Brown Hackney | Managing Editor
VIP parking preserved for Fourth of July In response to worries about interference with the Siesta Chamber’s July Fourth VIP picnic, county staff is delaying the start of a stormwater project at the Siesta Public Beach.
Tell us your news If you have a tidbit you think would be interesting to pass along, please call Rachel Hackney at 3663468, Ext. 357, or email rhackney@yourobserver. com.
Sarasota County staff has worked with the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce to ensure the organization can utilize a grass field at Siesta Key Public Beach for July Fourth VIP picnic parking spaces, which the chamber sells to help pay for the traditional fireworks show. Curtis Smith, the Sarasota County Public Works Depart-
ment project manager overseeing the public-beach improvements, told the Pelican Press that work on a stormwater pond near that site would not interfere with the VIP event. “We have committed to the Chamber of Commerce that we will not start construction any earlier than July 7,” Smith said. Kevin Cooper, executive direc-
tor of the Siesta Chamber, had told members of the Siesta Key Association last month that he and his board members were worried about the fate of the annual July Fourth VIP picnic, because the sale of tickets — which include parking spaces on that grass field at the beach — has been a major means of paying the approximately $34,000 cost
of the fireworks. The 20-minute-long light show at the beach “is a breakeven event for us,” Cooper told the SKA members Jan. 5. People are willing to pay the $75 per person ticket price, he said, because they know they will have a
SEE PARKING / PAGE 7A
INDEX Briefs....................4A Classifieds ........ 10B
Cops Corner....... 13A Crossword............ 9B
Neighborhood...... 1B Opinion.................8A
Real Estate.......... 6B Vol. 42, No. 27 | Three sections YourObserver.com Weather............... 9B