bserver O EAST COUNTY FREE • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2013
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
ON PARADE
Old Braden River plays host to holiday parade. PAGE 13A
OUR TOWN
SPIN SENSATION
PROJECT HEART
East County pastor finds ‘fortune’ on television debut.
Manatee Schools pilot program for homeless youth. PAGE 6-7A
PAGE 1B
by Matt Walsh | Editor ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT HIGHER PURPOSE by Pam Eubanks | Managing Editor
leadership by Mark Gordon | Business Observer
+ Can collective Kindergarten children at Primrose of Lakewood Ranch saved their money from chores and went on a shopping spree Nov. 22, to Publix. There, children picked out food items can by can, paid for their goods and donated the food to the Mayors Feed the Hungry of Manatee County program.
Mark Wemple
Rick Mills became named superintendent of the Manatee County School District in March.
Battle Ready Pam Eubanks
+ Pies, please! Realtors with Michael Saunders & Co.’s Lakewood Ranch office offered a special slice of thanksgiving Nov. 27, in preparation for the Thanksgiving holiday. Diane Fogo-Harter, Catherine Lamphier, Sandra Maslen and Deborah O’Mara handed out 223 pies from Yoder’s Restaurant, in Sarasota, to clients. Pie varieties included double-crusted apple, pumpkin, pecan and Dutch apple.
+ Sweets for soldiers Students at Nolan Middle School made the holiday season extra sweet for area soldiers. The school hosted a candy drive in November, and collected more than 500 pounds of candy to deliver to MacDill Airforce Base, in Tampa. The candy is being used in care packages for military servicemen and women over the holidays.
Katherine Harris and Paul Blackketter, president of the Suncoast Aquatics Nature Center Associates, hope to raise $1 million from the private sector for the World Cup pentathlon finals in 2014.
A greater vision Thanks to community involvement, winning four pentathlon events adds to a strategy to become a world-class amateur sports venue. Sometimes, vision and strategy come to fruition through hedgehog-like perseverance. Sometimes, they converge through kismet. Landing four world-level pentathlon events in Sarasota-Bradenton over the next three years appears to be both. That is, perseverance and kismet for former Congresswoman Katherine Harris and Paul Blackketter, president of the Suncoast Aquatic Nature Center Associates, which operates the Nathan Benderson Park rowing center. Ten years ago, Blakketter rumbled into Baghdad with a platoon of his Army colleagues stationed in Ramadi to meet with headquarters brass. First Lt. Blackketter spotted a rare sight while standing in line in the mess hall: two attractive American women. Lo and behold, one of them turned out to be … Harris, his congresswoman. A decade later, early this September, Harris was on a mis-
THE PENTATHLON EVENTS What: Pentathletes achieve performance-related points in each discipline — fencing; 200-meter freestyle swimming; 12-obstacle, show-jumping equestrian contest; 3,000-meter run; and pistol shooting. • June 2014: World Cup finals, including 36 men and 36 women. • March 2015: World Championships, including individuals and relay teams from all over the world. • 2016: World Cup finals and U.S. Olympics trials.
sion of her own. She was visiting Randy Benderson, chief executive officer of Benderson Development, to drum up support for bidding on the world pentathlon championships. And who else was there? Blackketter. The rest, over the past three months, as they say, is history. Through a combination of
Harris’ friendships with senior world pentathlon officials; Blackketter’s military-like information gathering and presentation skills; and the Sarasota-Bradenton community’s increasing success hosting and winning
SEE PENTATHLON / PAGE 2A
Superintendent Rick Mills’ strategy to get ahead of the district’s financial trouble combines precision with collaboration. When Rick Mills was a commander in the U.S. Army, a subordinate once commented that it seemed like Mills rarely made a leadership mistake. The statement surprised Mills. And he knew it wasn’t true, especially in the military, where missteps were sometimes unavoidable. “I told him I had made a lot of decisions I didn’t like, but I rectified them,” Mills says. “If you feel like a decision you made wasn’t the best, you need to own it, address it and correct it. And the more difficult the decision, the more you have to own those and be accountable.” Mills, who has held leadership positions in both the military and public school districts in Chicago and Minneapolis, brought his management philosophy to Manatee County in March. That’s when he was named superintendent of the Manatee County School District amid a budget shortfall and a burgeoning morale crisis. In addition, two prominent athletic coaches are at the forefront of separate alleged ongoing criminal conduct cases. The $568.3 million, 5,000-employee school district is the largest employer, private or public,
SEE MILLS/ PAGE 8A
INDEX Calendar............ 16A Classifieds ........ 16B
Cops Corner....... 15A Crossword.......... 15B
Neighborhood...... 1B Real Estate........ 12B
Sports................ 19A Weather............. 15B
Vol. 14, No. 35 | Two sections YourObserver.com