SARASOTA
Observer YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 11, NO. 44
FREE
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INSIDE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2015
CRA: DOA after county meeting At a budget hearing last week, the County Commission decided to end the Downtown Community Redevelopment Area — a vote the city did not know was coming. SEE PAGE 14A ARTS+CULTURE
New facility highlights Salvation Army’s shifting focus
Asolo Repertory Theatre shakes up Shakespeare. INSIDE
The opening of the Salvation Army’s “Quality Life Center” is another step that signals the service provider’s increased emphasis on housing individuals.
YOUR TOWN
DAVID CONWAY NEWS EDITOR
Courtesy photo
Mary Ann O’Neil at the outdoor service in Philadelphia for Pope Francis.
HOLY BOOKS
It’s always sunny in Philadelphia — at least when Pope Francis is in town. Sarasota resident Mary Ann O’Neil never forgave herself for missing Pope John Paul II when he visited the U.S. in the 1980s. So her son, Scott O’Neil, got her tickets to see Pope Francis at the World Meeting of Families during his trip through the City of Brotherly Love. “There was not one person who wasn’t smiling and glad to be there,” Mary Ann O’Neil said. “Sometimes it took us two and half hours to get through a checkpoint, but we didn’t mind.” O’Neil brought her Bay Plaza neighborhood directory to receive papal blessings, as well as a copy of the Sarasota Observer. We feel blessed.
WHAT’S YOUR SIGN?
You voted for your favorite St. Armands Circle signs. We have the results. SEE PAGE 3A
Beginning Thursday, the Glasser/ Schoenbaum Human Services Center will become the site of the new homeless intake center for the Salvation Army. With this new facility, dubbed the Quality Life Center, comes a new program, designed to provide individuals with a series of choices as the service provider attempts to steer them toward housing as quickly as possible. Ethan Frizzell, the major in charge of the Salvation Army in Sarasota, explains that housing is becoming an increasing point of emphasis in the area, and the organization is adjusting in response to that demand. The new facility will offer those who arrive four weeks of service, free of cost. In the first week, individuals will review subjective quality of life choices — pertaining to physical, material, social and spiritual needs — with a case manager. This allows the Salvation Army to better tailor programming on a case-by-case basis if an individual seeks further assistance. “We’ll prescribe services that they can use based on their choices,” Frizzell said. “The reason we’re moving to that is because a SEE PAGE 6A