SIESTA KEY
Observer Formerly the Pelican Press
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 46, NO. 13
FREE
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2015
Public art: Coming soon, to a roundabout near you At 20-foot-tall, multicolored sculpture approved for the intersection of Main Street and Orange Avenue is the first of several public art projects to come. PAGE 5A
BLACK
HOT STUFF
TIE
Let the social season begin. INSIDE
YOUR TOWN
Amanda Morales
Photo by Amanda Morales
Keith Lazarcheck and Mark Lucas represent Sarasota County Fire Station 11 at the 16th annual Morton’s Chili Cook Off Sunday in Southside Village. SEE MORE PHOTOS ON PAGE 1B
Is this ruining city sidewalks?
One man believes backflow preventers will overrun Sarasota thanks to city regulations, but staff calls them a crucial safety measure. DAVID CONWAY NEWS EDITOR
As Devin Rutkowski tells it, a scourge is taking over the sidewalks of the city, infecting vital areas such as St. Armands Circle and downtown Sarasota. The culprit? Backflow preventers, a device designed to avoid the pollution of the city’s water supply. Although the less perceptive might overlook the metallic pipes, Rutkowski has a grim prediction about the impact the city’s cur-
rent regulatory policy will have on its shopping districts. “We will be the laughing stock of the state of Florida,” Rutkowski said at the Oct. 13 St. Armands Business Improvement District meeting. “It defies logic.” During the past 10 days, Rutkowski has made similar appeals at City Commission, Downtown Improvement District and Historic Preservation Board meetings. Months of research have led him to the conclusion that, at best, the city’s backflow preventer rules are cluttering up commercial areas. From Jan. 1 to Sept. 29, the city sent 1,942 letters to water customers regarding backflow prevention. That includes more than 120 Main Street addresses within the downtown core, and another 20 in the commercial district of SEE BACKFLOW PAGE 6A
Noah Brasgalla with a pitcher of purple juice for his science fair project.
Young scientist offers tasty test Fifth grade student Noah Brasgalla needed test subjects for his science fair project. He decided the perfect place to taste test his hypothesis was Sunday afternoon’s Hudson Bayou neighborhood picnic. More than 100 guests were in attendance, giving the perfect platform to see if the color of a juice influences how people taste the flavor. Brasgalla filled three pitchers filled with the same flavor of juice — one dyed red, another purple and a third yellow. He asked each guest who walked up to his stand to try a cup of each and guess the flavor. Although he can't yet reveal the flavor because the experiment hasn’t been completed, here’s our guess: It rhymes with “Snapple.” SEE YOUR TOWN PAGE 12A