SARASOTA
Health Matters FEBRUARY 2020
Observer YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
RENOVATE YOUR LIFE Spring cleaning doesn’t need to be just for your house. It’s important to revamp yourself, too. PAGE 2
INSIDE
PRACTICING EVERYDAY SKILLS
SMH upgrades rehab facility.
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VOLUME 16, NO. 13
FREE
YOUR TOWN
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EAST COUNTY
Observer
TECH USE
Minimize your kids’ screen time for their health.
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PICTURE OF HEALTH
Small changes can make a big difference.
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2020
Banding together Citizens set out to push affordable housing causes. PAGE 3A
WINGS OF LOVE Whitney Elfstrom
Main Street brightens up
No, you didn’t imagine a rainbow-painted crosswalk in the 1500 block of Main Street. It was there, trust us, for around six days. Finished Feb. 14, the paint had started to rub off by early this week. City spokesman Jason Bartolone said the city discovered a water leak below the pavement that might have contributed to the peeling paint. Workers dug up a portion of the crosswalk to fix it and repaved the void with fresh — but very uncolorful — asphalt. Bartolone said the crosswalk will return to its multicolored status when work is completed.
Whitney Elfstrom
Chip and Pat Mack share a kiss before the Say ‘I Do’ Again ceremony on Siesta Beach on Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s tradition of saying ‘I do’ all over again continues on Siesta Key. SEE PAGE 1B
Whitney Elfstrom
A sweet surprise
A Sarasota woman served up a bit of a sweet mystery for the Sarasota Police Department. Without identifying herself, she sent 200 boxes of toffee from Michigan’s Bell Stone Toffee to show her appreciation of the department’s work, said Genevieve Judge, a spokeswoman for SPD. Enough sweet treats were ordered for each employee to have his or her own box of toffee, Judge said. Although some of the officers wanted to crack the case of the surprise toffee, the gifter wished remain anonymous.
BLACK
Leaders go for more parkland
TIE
Vote sets course for Bobby Jones’ future. SEE PAGE 4A
File photo
The proposal approved by the Sarasota City Commission provides for 130 acres of parkland, 18 holes of regulation golf, a nine-hole short course and practice facilities.
Philanthropy spurs this hoedown. INSIDE