bserver O EAST COUNTY FREE • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2013
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
NEWS
Lakewood Ranch Community Fund doles out grants. PAGE 14A
Gullet teacher Jennifer Santora walks with her daughter, Isabella.
Golfers to vie for third state championship.
East County rallies against breast cancer. PAGE 1B
sweet home
OUR TOWN
Harriet Sokmensuer
SPORTS
COMMUNITY
PAGE 15A
20
by Josh Siegel | Staff Writer
YEARS STRONG
Rosedale Golf & Country Club community opened 20 years ago; its original homeowners commend its steady character as it continues to grow.
+ Walk this way Students, parents and teachers of Gullett Elementary walked to school Wednesday, Oct. 9, to celebrate Walk to School Day. Students began their walk from the pavilion in Central Park and finished with a high-five from school mascot, Chompy the alligator. Walk to School Day is part of the national organization Walk and Bike to School, which promotes health and safety training for students.
Photos by Josh Siegel
Nancy and Thomas Kramlick and Edie and Karl Bender have lived on their cul-de-sac for 20 years. They and two other couples — the Barkers and the Johnsons — are nicknamed the Over the Hill Gang.
+ Wrappers, movers ready Adopt A Family Manatee is readying for Christmas. The organization needs volunteers to help set up as it moves into its warehouse Oct. 25 and Oct. 28. Strong arms and backs are needed to help unload furniture and equipment. Spanish translators are needed Nov. 4 through Nov. 15. An informational meeting will be held at 1 p.m. Nov. 1, at the Sarasota Bradenton Commerce Center, located at 7345 16th St. E., Suite 101, Sarasota. For information or to help, please contact adoptafamily@ymail.com or call 7484424.
SEE OUR TOWN / PAGE 11A
EAST COUNTY — They have been called the Over the Hill Gang, but these original homeowners feel like they did 20 years ago; they still feel at home as the community they live in changes. “A lot has changed, but nothing has changed,” said Nancy Kramlick, who has lived in the Rosedale Golf & Country Club with her husband, Thomas, and near her close friends, Karl and Edie Bender, since 1993. “Twenty years in, the community has the same feeling, and we have the same feeling about it.” The Rosedale Golf & Country Club turns 20 this month, and, as the Kramlicks and Benders sit on a curb on their cul-de-sac street, they see the same people. In its 20 years of life, 20 couples have lived here the entire time,
most of them on this street, 54th Avenue East — in the “estate homes,” as they call them. But, they’re more homey than grandiose. Malcolm and Harriet Rouse, who are not part of the Over the Hill Gang, are in their own league, having built three homes here in 20 years at Rosedale. From their stoop on the curb, the foursome thinks back from then to now. They see the same lush trees that greet people as they drive through Rosedale’s 24/7-manned gatehouse. They remember the wild pigs and the pig roasts they used to have before Rosedale staff members stopped them.
BY THE NUMBERS of homes 3 number built in Rosedale
by Malcolm and Harriet Rouse, a couple who has lived in the community all 20 years number of homes up for resale number of new home sales in Rosedale Links so far number of couples who have lived in Rosedale all 20 years total number of homes
12 32 20
660
PARTNERSHIP
by Josh Siegel | Staff Writer
USF assumes Viking space The school will use the space on Lakewood Ranch Main Street to teach students and the general public. LAKEWOOD RANCH — In a partnership that boosts the visibility of both sides, the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee has signed a lease to occupy the former Viking Space on Lakewood Ranch Main Street. USF Sarasota-Manatee, which signed the lease Oct. 17, will use the space to hold classes for students enrolled in the school’s College of Hospitality and Technology Leadership — and to host classes for the general public. “We like that there will be a connection between Lakewood Ranch and a major university,” said Julia DeCastro, director of leasing for Lakewood Ranch Commercial Realty. “It will bring people to the Ranch who aren’t normally here.” The school does not have a culinary school, but it has been looking for a steady place to teach students the art of the kitchen. For the last two years, students have taken cooking classes at Manatee Technical Institute; before that, they worked out of the Publix Aprons Cooking School on University Parkway. Dr. Cihan Cobanoglu, dean of the College of Hospitality and Technology Leadership, said enrollment in the school has increased from 87 three years ago to more than 200 today. Cobanoglu said the school would like to ultimately build a kitchen on its own property, but, in the interim, the old Viking space could bring outside
SEE VIKING / PAGE 8A
SEE ROSEDALE / PAGE 8A
INDEX Briefs....................6A Classifieds ........ 17B
Cops Corner..........9A Crossword.......... 16B
Neighborhood...... 1B Real Estate........ 12B
Sports................ 15A Weather............. 16B
Vol. 14, No. 29 | Two sections YourObserver.com