SARASOTA
Health Matters OCTOBER 2018
Observer
Observer YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 14, NO. 47
FREE
File photo
A fighter for the less fortunate
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Free parking: Is time up? City deadlocked on ways to shift gears on department deficit. SEE PAGE 3A
Fit for family
Mommy and me classes provide opportunities to exercise, bond and make friends. PAGE 2
INSIDE GROUNDED ATHLETES
Change your terrain to train better.
PAGE 6
SMART TREATS
Replace the sweets on Halloween.
PAGE 10
KEEP IT SIMPLE
Want to stay fit? Do what you enjoy.
PAGE 12
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2018
YOUR TOWN
Courtesy photo
The singing sanitation worker No matter what he’s doing, Leon Pitts is singing. Pitts is a sanitation worker by day and a singer at night. The 37-year-old performer has been performing with the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe for nearly two decades but has recently started a job with the city of Sarasota as a sanitation worker. His truck is his audio booth, where he sings his favorite Motown and rhythm and blues hits. “Music is healing,” said Pitts. “It’s a way to get through hard times and makes you look at the different things people have gone through.”
WITCHING HOUR Spooky event keeps kids smiling. SEE PAGE 1B
Vengroff championed affordable housing in the Sarasota region. MARK GORDON BUSINESS OBSERVER
W
hen Mark Vengroff was 15, in the mid-1990s, he bought his dad, Harvey Vengroff, a pair of wacky and wildly colorful Jams shorts for his birthday. The elder Vengroff wore the shorts — with a Big Dog T-shirt — to a scheduled court hearing in Sarasota the next day, regarding one of Harvey Vengroff’s many real estate properties. “The judge asked my dad, ‘Do you think you are respecting the court with that outfit?,” said Mark Vengroff. “He told the judge, ‘My son bought me these shorts for my birthday yesterday. I would be disrespecting him if I didn’t wear them.’”
Courtesy photo
Sean Martin with his father, William.
A helping hand
SEE VENGROFF, PAGE 16A
BLACK
TIE
Key to the Cure. INSIDE Shane Donglasan
Joanell Greubel and Faith McDonough attended this year’s Howl-O-Ween Movie Night Spooktacular on Oct. 13 at Ed Smith Stadium.
Mote, county want deal Sarasota leaders say they’re working to make proposed aquarium at Benderson Park a reality. SEE PAGE 9A
After Hurricane Michael devastated Sean Martin’s hometown of Lynn Haven, he had to do something to help. The Siesta Key resident put out a call for donations to family, friends and some clients. The donations quickly filled up his office. Barry’s Trailer donated a 14-foot trailer to deliver the supplies to Bay County. As Martin received more donations from the community, he also had to rent a 26foot U-Haul. Martin, along with two other drivers, Ken Garron and Robert Sherman, drove to the Panama City area last weekend. “We want to thank everyone who pitched in one way or the other,” Martin said. “At the end of the day, it’s about helping each other. I was blown away by people’s generosity.”