Pelican Press 4/26

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PelicanPress SIESTA KEY

AN OBSERVER NEWSPAPER

Thursday, APRIL 26, 2012

IN FOCUS

DIVERSIONS

neighbor Meet Linda Wallin, ODA’s art teacher.

Ballet dancers try Siesta Key Chamber takes out new positions — care of business. as choreographers. PAGE 1B INSIDE

PAGE 11A

‘metropolitanism’

OUR TOWN

by Kurt Schultheis | City Editor

+ Out-of-Door’s savvy scientist wins fair Brittany Wenger, a junior at The Out-of-Door Academy, has come out of this year’s Sarasota Regional Science, Engineering & Technology Fair with a plethora of awards and honors. Wenger was the first overall winner at the fair, walking away with the Dr. Carl Luer Annual Award in Biological Sciences. She also won the Dart Foundation Award for Medicine & Health, the Intel Excellence in Computer Science Award, and more. She will represent Sarasota County in the International Science and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh for the third year.

By Kurt Schultheis | City Editor

Family will sue Sheriff’s Office

+ Riverview High will rock you! Have a love for Freddie Mercury? Still feel like a champ when you hear “We Are The Champions?” Get your Queen fix while listening to The Bohemian Rhapsody Orchestra starting 7 p.m. Thursday, April 26, at the Riverview Performing Arts Center. The Bohemian Rhapsody Orchestra will perform “Celebrating Queen,” featuring the best of the rock band. The Riverview High School Choir, which includes over 130 students, will join the orchestra for the finale, which will include the classic Queen anthem, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” “If you like to rock out to the music of Queen and help support a great choral program, buy a ticket,” said David Verdoni, Riverview High School’s choral director. The RHS choir program will receive a portion of the ticket sales. The concert is a one-time-only performance. Cost is $25. Tickets can be purchased at the school, from any RHS choir student, online at everybodysingsproject.org or at the door.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Diane Eduardo, sister of Donna Chen, said a forthcoming lawsuit against the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office is not about damages but rather accountability.

Rachel S. O’Hara

Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson visited the Sarasota Observer and Pelican Press office Monday to discuss how the city of Louisville and Jefferson County consolidated in 2000.

Merger Mayor Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson said combining city and county governments spurred private job growth. “Metropolitanism is where this country is,” says Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson. When it comes to attracting and adding new jobs, Abramson says, cities, counties and state governments are 19th century organizations trying to solve 21stcentury problems. Abramson spent four days in Sarasota this week, a guest of the Sarasota-based Argus Foundation. He visited with business owners and executives and municipal and county elected officials from Sarasota to North Port and spoke about how Jefferson County and Louisville, Ky. — the city for which he served as its elected mayor 15 years — consolidated into one entity in 2000. The consolidation saved tax-

payers millions of dollars and made local government more efficient, but, more important, Abramson said, it brought a metropolitan area of 750,000 together to move in one direction rather than have city and county governments fighting at cross purposes. And it created an atmosphere where political leaders began thinking and acting for regional economic growth, rather than for parochial interests. Abramson spoke Wednesday morning at an Argus-sponsored breakfast at the Sarasota Yacht Club before roughly 70 people. He told them about a consolidation process that first surfaced in 1947 and had three failed voter referenda before voters finally approved consolidation.

On Tuesday, he visited the Sarasota and Pelican Press office and explained how Louisville and Jefferson County came together and the benefits that followed. “In the past, our city and county blamed decisions made on each other,” Abramson said. “Now there’s more accountability and residents know and have more faith in their elected officials.” By combining the city and county governments to create a new metro government, Louisville instantly became one of the nation’s top 20 cities. The city’s population ballooned from 256,000 residents to 694,000

SEE ABRAMSON / 2A

In the past, our city and county blamed decisions made on each other. Now there’s more accountability and residents know and have more faith in their elected officials. — Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson

The family of Donna Chen, who was killed in early January on Siesta Key by an allegedly drunken driver, announced Wednesday it will notify the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office of its intent to file a lawsuit against the agency in an attempt to seek damages for negligent actions resulting in her death. The Sarasota-based Mallard Law Firm, which represents the Chen family, announced the decision Wednesday via a press release. “We believe the actions of the deputies were negligent and careless by directing these gentlemen to drive home under the influence, and, unfortunately, at the cost of my client’s life,” said lead attorney Damian Mallard. On Jan. 7, an allegedly drunken driver hit Donna Chen while she was jogging and dragged to her death. The driver was Blake Talman, according to a police report. Talman, along with two others, had earlier been confronted by police officers while drinking on the beach. Officers allegedly instructed the gentlemen to “go home or go to jail.” The release states the deputies created a “zone of risk of injury” by directing an obviously intoxicated Talman, who was holding car keys, to leave the beach or be arrested. The police report also states Talman failed to stop at an intersection, hit a vehicle and then fled the scene of that accident, where he lost control of the vehicle and struck Donna Chen.

SEE LAWSUIT / PAGE 9A

INDEX Briefs....................4A Classifieds ........ 11B

Cops Corner....... 10A Crossword.......... 10B

Neighborhood...... 1B Opinion .............. 8A

Sports.................. 6B Vol. 42, No. 40 | Three sections YourObserver.com Weather............. 10B


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