Sarasota/Siesta Key Observer 5.19.22

SARASOTA/SIESTA KEY

Observer

Mooney moment.

PAGE 8B

YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.

FREE • THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

VOLUME 18, NO. 25

YOUR TOWN

Now boarding: more flights As SRQ builds its list of destinations, new gates are planned for 2024. SEE PAGE 3A

File photo

A farewell to Father Fausto You might have heard the news: After more than 30 years at St. Martha Catholic Church, Father Fausto Stampiglia is calling it a career.

It gives us no pleasure to report this, but the longtime fixture of Sarasota’s religious community officially retired on May 14. He’s 86.

Stampiglia has connected with countless members of his flock — to say nothing of the generations of children that have come out of St. Martha Catholic School over the years — and Bishop of the Diocese of Venice Frank Dewane wished him a healthy and happy retirement.

Wish him the same good fortune if you run into him; we certainly will.

A day of mirthful music

Be Fabulous arts and music festival lives up to its name.

SEE PAGE 7B

Courtesy photo

Skateboard celebration The Ilardi twins are well known in Sarasota communities, and rightfully so: Jake Ilardi has been skating in the area for years and most recently showcased his skills at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

His brother, Nate, has put his skills into a video and production company that’s done work with the Women’s National Basketball Academy and IMG Academy. Jake even went so far as to raise $15,000 for a new skate ramp in Payne Park.

The brothers were recognized May 16 when Mayor Erik Arroyo proclaimed May 16 “Jake and Nate Ilardi Day.”

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Harry Sayer

Laylah Cortijo, Ginelle Swan and Yan Zheng enjoy the music and arts performances at last Sunday’s event in the Rosemary District.

A+E Artist sees the light.

SEE PAGE 1B

Height boost a ‘poison pill’ in proposal Commissioners remove proposal for more stories in land-use plan.

SEE PAGE 4A

Source: Mote Marine Laboratory Eric Garwood

SARASOTA OBSERVER

WEEK OF MAY 19, 2022

TABS

W HAT ’S HAPPENING

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THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

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Allegiant sets SRQ service to Twin Cities

“We’ve heard people talk about living with their families, living at home with their parents, because they can’t afford housing.”

Allegiant Air is adding to its list of destinations from Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport this week with word that it’s launching service to Minneapolis-St. Paul in October.

The twice-weekly route makes its first trip on Oct. 6, and the airline rolled out introductory $49 eachway fares. In addition to the new route to the upper Midwest from SRQ, the airline also announced the fall debut of flights from OrlandoSanford and Fort Lauderdale to Akron, Ohio — a route already served from Sarasota.

“We look forward to connecting vacationers from Minnesota and Ohio to popular coastal destinations in Florida,” said Drew Wells, Allegiant’s senior vice president of revenue and planning. “Allegiant is dedicated to providing the most-affordable, accessible flights, without the hassle of layovers or connections.”

In conjunction with the release of the new Allegiant flight, SRQ posted a new chart listing its destination tally at 53 and airline tally at 11, though some aren’t available yearround, such as Air Canada service to Toronto.

Allegiant now has 30 destinations from SRQ, the most locally.

Vice Mayor Kyle Battie. Read more on page 6A

BY THE NUMBERS 5

Additional gates expected to be under construction this fall at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.

PAGE 3A

18

Number of floors allowed in the city’s bayfront district.

PAGE 4A

2ND

Finish at the state high school track meet for Sarasota High’s Alec Miller in the 1,600 meters.

PAGE 15A

16

Percentage of property value rise in Sarasota County, based on an early estimate by the tax appraiser’s office.

Harry Sayer

Hundreds marched through the Rosemary District on May 14.

SEE YOUROBSERVER.COM

CALENDAR

n Sarasota Parks, Rec and

Environmental Protection Board regular meeting — 5 p.m. Thursday, May 19, City Commission chambers, City Hall, 1565 First St. n Sarasota County Commission budget workshop — 9 a.m.

Wednesday, May 25, Third Floor Think Tank, County Administration Building, 1660 Ringling Blvd.

Marchers speak up on Roe Suzanne Weinstein and her friends remember life before the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 that ruled abortion was constitutionally protected.

“People who had to terminate a pregnancy had to go underground,” she said. “Sometimes they weren’t safe environments.”

Upon hearing of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would strike down the ruling, Weinstein felt the need to have her voice heard.

Weinstein and hundreds of

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others demonstrated on May 14 in the city’s Rosemary District.

The march was organized

by Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida and Women’s Voices of Southwest Florida and held in conjunction with other marches across the country.

It was a moment that Deborah Hamm came prepared for by bringing a massive sign she held while walking at the front of the march. The Sarasota psychiatrist started in general med school and delivered several babies

while studying at Baylor. She said she heard stories from women in need — the idea that could return, she said.

“I’ve been devastated,” Hamm said. “I think a lot of young women don’t know what it used to be like.”

As for what’s next, 27-year-old Destani Irland said old-fashioned letter writing might be the best thing.

“It’s (almost) a trivial thing to say. It seems obvious, but it’s what needs to happen,” Irland said.

Sarasota in top 10 list of best locations U.S. News & World Report recently included Sarasota in its 10 Best Places to Live in the U.S. The city was ranked ninth in the United States and No. 1 in Florida, based on quality of life, job market, value and desirability.

“People who choose Sarasota as their home are generally called by its unique charm,” the report reads.

“One of the city’s up-and-coming neighborhoods is the Rosemary District, where eclectic murals decorate storefronts and modern condominiums and hotels sit near casual breakfast cafes.”

Sarasota was also listed in several other top 10 lists by U.S. News & World Report, ranking No. 1 among Best Places to Retire, No. 3 among Fastest-Growing Places and No. 7 on the list of Safest Places to Live.

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3A

A rendering of the exterior of the planned Concourse B at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, which will offer ground-level boarding of aircraft.

Parking additions and new gates are coming soon, as SRQ continues climbing with rapid growth.

Courtesy renderings

ANDREW WARFIELD STAFF WRITER

T

he Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport needs more gates, and it needs them yesterday.

More passenger capacity is coming, but it won’t be available until 2024. In airport expansion terms, that’s supersonic speed.

Already one of the nation’s fastest-growing airports in terms of passenger count prior to 2020, pandemic-fueled interest in visiting and relocating to the Sarasota-Bradenton area has brought explosive passenger growth year over year to SRQ as more airlines and more flights pack the airport’s 13 gates served by a single concourse.

With an eye toward growth and the need to better serve customers, the airport will by fall embark on a $72 million design-build project to add a ground-based boarding facility capable of serving upward of 2.5 million passengers a year through five new gates. Combined with the current 13 gates, SRQ’s capacity will be about 5 million annual travelers.

If that number sounds outlandish, consider the airport in 2021 had more than 3.1 million passengers, 1.2 million more than in 2019.

“We’re growing so fast we need more gates, and the fastest way to do that is ground-based because you don’t have to build air bridges and you don’t have to go two stories,” said SRQ President and CEO Rick Piccolo. “It’s also not as expensive. We’re looking for fast and cost-effective, while at the same time making sure that we have something that looks as nice as the rest of the airport.”

Ground-based boarding brings passengers directly outside to the tarmac, where they board and disembark aircraft via ramps or stairs, similar to operations in Punta Gorda and St. Pete-Clearwater.

The new facility will be labeled Concourse A, and the existing facility Concourse B. The expansion will include four dedicated TSA lines.

SRQ has five TSA checkpoints for Concourse B with room — and the need — for one more.

“We’re asking for a sixth piece of

The passenger terminal expansion at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport will be a $72. million investment that will serve upward of 2.5 million more passengers annually.

equipment,” Piccolo said. “All of the pre-work is done, so TSA could drop a machine in there within two days.”

The new boarding area will be built behind the ticketing area. While that is being built, the Sarasota Bradenton Airport Authority is planning for the next expansion — an elevated concourse to connect the two, designed to include four more traditional gates and an 11th TSA checkpoint with it.

There is no timetable for that project, but when it does happen Piccolo said SRQ will will have a capacity of about 7 million passengers a year.

FAST OUT OF THE GATE

MAINTAINING THE MOMENTUM

there’s a weather incident and the next day the gate isn’t available.

They don’t have enough certainty to keep that service.

“You can lose service, and we want to make sure that we not only prepare for what we have now, but for future growth. Also, we’ve prided ourselves over the years with the level of service and the convenience of the airport and we want to maintain that.”

Growth at SRQ is largely credited to the arrival of Allegiant in 2018, which contributed to a 44% increase in 2019. That made it the fastestgrowing airport, percentage-wise, in the country. The first three months of 2020 brought 43% growth yearover-year, before the airlines all but shut down at the onset of COVID-19.

By the end of the year, SRQ was among the least-impacted airports.

“In 2020 while other airports were down, 50%, 60% or 70%, we were down 33%, so we were recovering faster than anyone,” Piccolo said.

In 2021, passenger count was also 70% higher than the airport’s prepandemic levels when it was already the fastest-growing in the country.

The 2021 growth was in part fueled by the launch of service by Southwest Airlines in February.

The momentum is showing no sign of slowing. So far in 2022, passengers are up another 71% over last year.

“I think we could do a little bit more with what we have,” Piccolo said. “Part of that depends on the airlines because they are continuing to expand here and voicing that they want to do more service here.”

Now that the Sarasota-Bradenton area has captured the attention of the traveling public, expanding capacity at SRQ is vital, Piccolo said, to maintaining that momentum. Airlines want to bring more flights, and gate capacity is crucial to scheduling.

“Let’s say we do at least 3.5 million passengers this year. You can stuff 4 million people into Terminal B, but that pretty much puts a cap on things and airlines won’t be able to add more service,” Piccolo said. “Then the issue for the airlines is it becomes too difficult from the standpoint of one day the gate is available, then

BEFORE The current passenger terminal at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport.

Concourse B is to the right.

AFTER A rendering of the passenger terminal at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport with the new Concourse B included.

The Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport not only experienced a comparatively low decline in passenger count during the pandemic year of 2020, but it has also recovered quickly and is among the nation’s fastest-growing airports. Here is how SRQ compares with a select group of airports across the state.

Sarasota Bradenton International (13 gates)

2019 1,966,950

2021 3,163,543

CHANGE +37.8%

Pensacola International (12 gates)

2,236,847

2,324,044

+3.5%

Southwest Florida International (28 gates)

10,225,180

10,322,434

+0.9%

St. Pete-Clearwater International (13 gates)

2,288,692

2,036,251

-11%

7,186,639

5,125,486

-29%

Jacksonville International (20 gates)

PARKING IS NEXT

More passengers, though, bring another set of challenges in and around the terminal. Prior to construction of Concourse A, SRQ is already short on concessions, parking and car rental service capacity.

The expansion project includes building “bump-outs” in Concourse B for more concessions. Passengers now have few options — suitable for 1.5 million passengers but not 3.5 million — past security. There are two full-service dining establishments, Gulf Breeze and Kona Bar, along with a Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, a grab-and-go kiosk and a news shop with grab-and-go items.

“We need more space just to serve the customers we have and give them a more pleasant experience,” Piccolo said. “We need more seating areas for departures, and concessions are a real challenge right now because we just don’t have enough space.”

Or enough parking.

At 2,100 spaces in a surface lot, SRQ parked 4,500 cars per day during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays last year. In addition to operating a temporary remote lot, the airport used auxiliary tarmac space to park 500 cars behind a temporary security fence.

That isn’t an option this year. That area is the construction site for Concourse A. Design work is underway for a permanent 1,400-space remote parking lot, a project that will help the airport to address yet another growth challenge, car rental service.

On the drawing board is a $30 million “quick-turnaround” facility, which will be paid for by car rental agencies. The binary solution to ground transportation problems will also take about two years to complete.

The airport expansion project will be funded in part by federal grants of $4.6 million per year for each of the next five years. SRQ is an independent special district governed by a six-member authority made up of three each from Sarasota and Manatee counties, Authority members are appointed by the governor’s office.

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Comprehensive plan changes move ahead for downtown but without the option of adding attainable housing through the use of taller buildings.

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ackling the elusive issue of attainable workforce housing in downtown Sarasota is a tall order, but for now at least, one tool that might be unavailable for developers and city planners is an incentive for taller building heights permitted to include residential opportunities among the hundreds of existing and permitted milliondollar-plus condominiums.

Sarasota City commissioners spent five hours this week listening to staff, members of the public and themselves discuss an 18-point proposed comprehensive plan amendment to allow increased density in downtown and the urban edge to entice developers to include attainable housing in their plans.

Among those points were two new items added just before the meeting: a proposal to allow an additional one to five stories to buildings in downtown and one to two stories on the urban edge. Contrary to considerable public outcry regarding building height, the 18-story cap on the bayfront remains intact. The increased building heights would allow for greater density only if that density is reserved for attainable housing.

Attainable housing is defined as rental housing for those who earn less than 120% of the median area income. In data presented to city leaders, that figure locally is about $100,000 for a family of four.

Ultimately, a version of the ordinance was approved 4-1, with Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch dis-

File photo

Hagen Brody voted in the majority to allow increased density in downtown and adjacent if attainable housing was part of the plan.

“For me, density is the necessary condition here. … The height issue I just think is a poison pill. We’ve already seen it.”

— Commissioner Hagen Brody

senting, that carved out the building height provisions. A second motion to authorize staff to hold public engagement sessions regarding the building height controversy, which could be later amended into the ordinance, was unanimously approved.

The approval was not an implementation of the ordinance but instead authorized sending it to Tallahassee for state-level review.

Official approval of any state-level modifications and more rounds of public engagement are still to follow.

A second point of contention surrounded administrative approval of the higher-density projects rather than going through the public process for review.

“I think that staff is fully capable

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THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

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THE PROPOSALS

Densities permitted in the draft future land use revisions to the Sarasota Comprehensive Plan.

Urban Neighborhood: Residential base density of 12 units per acre. Additional residential density might be allowed within a “missing middle” overlay district when attainable housing is provided and limited amounts of non-residential uses.

Urban Edge: Residential base density of 25 units per acre.

Additional residential density might be allowed when attainable housing is provided. Residential uses up to 100 units per acre within and on individual projects in accordance with the Rosemary Residential Overlay District and non-residential lodging, office, commercial and artisan uses.

Eric Garwood

In the downtown core, 50 residential units an acre are allowed by right.

of interpreting the zoning code after much citizen input and making those decisions as to either whether it fits the zoning code or it doesn’t,” said Commissioner Hagen Brody. “For me, density is the necessary condition here. … The height issue I just think is a poison pill. We’ve already seen it. The messaging is going to get hijacked, the narrative is going to get hijacked, and it has the potential to kill this whole proposal.

“If we’re going to do a height increase, then we have to have more of a conversation about it, and the public has to be totally, fully aware of what’s happening.”

That summarized the essence of Brody’s successful motion to sever the building height issue, which followed Commissioner Liz Alpert’s motion to transmit the ordinance in its entirety, which failed by a 3-2 vote with only Alpert and Arroyo in support.

A DECADES-OLD PROBLEM

Alpert’s position was to keep the process moving forward, unsuccessfully attempting to assure Ahearn-Koch and others that adequate opportunities to involve the public still remained. Ahearn-Koch countered that once the ordinance

has the state’s blessing — in whatever form it comes back — modifying the details becomes more difficult.

Brody insisted the height issue and the lack of public understanding of it could stop the entire attainable housing effort in its tracks.

“Ninety-nine percent of the emails we got were against height, specifically,” Brody said. “I know that there’s been misinformation put out there on the issue, but that’s just the reality we’re dealing with, and so I think that staff needs to do the workshop that apparently was missed, and we’ll deal with it another time.”

Mayor Erik Arroyo said there has been plenty of public input before and during Monday’s meeting, noting 52 speakers during public comment periods, and the time to move forward is now.

“We’ve been putting this off for about 20 years,” he said. “I remember when I was in high school, and even then they were saying we’re losing students. The principal at the time said it’s because they’re moving to Bradenton and North Port because the families just cannot afford to live in Sarasota.

“This is when I was in high school. … You know, this isn’t an us versus

them problem. It’s not one side of the room versus the other. It’s rather us as a community coming together trying to solve this. This is a community problem.”

Ahern-Koch was the only commissioner to oppose both Alpert and Brody’s motions for the same reasons: concerns the ordinance’s many nuances were not discussed during Monday’s meeting and lack of public knowledge on the proposed height allowances and blanket administrative approval of projects, among others. She further suggested inclusionary zoning will begin to address attainable housing sooner.

“I think that if we’re going to do this, we need to have a tool that is real and is something that we as a commission lead with the backing of the community,” she said. “It’s split. We don’t have the support we need from the entire community. Everybody wants to address affordable housing.

“Staff has said this is going to take years if not decades, so it’s not going to solve anything immediately. Inclusionary zoning, on the other hand, can be implemented pretty quickly.”

Downtown Core: Residential case density of 50 units per acre. Additional residential density might be allowed when attainable housing is provided and non-residential lodging, office, commercial and artisanal uses.

Downtown Bayfront: Residential base density of 50 units per acre. Additional residential might be allowed when attainable housing is provided, and non-residential lodging, office, commercial and artisanal uses.

Urban Mixed-Use: Residential base density of 25 units per acre for mixed-mixed-use corridors and 50 units per acre for mixed-use centers. Additional residential might be allowed when attainable housing is provided, and non-residential lodging, office, commercial and artisanal uses.

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Variety of factors drive rocketing rent

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Simply blaming landlords for higher living costs misses the mark. As demand continues to exceed supply and interest rates climb, cost to purchase or upgrade complexes rises, too.

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Belmont Associates, which owns multifamily and retail properties in West Palm Beach and Sarasota counties, said that from an investment standpoint, the Sarasota apartment market is among strongest in the nation.

“Sarasota has probably outpaced Palm Beach County, and Palm Beach County is really hot right now,” Rosinsky said. “I believe the Sarasota market is probably the strongest one in the country, certainly one of the strongest in Florida based on the comparison I have to the East Coast.”

Belmont Associates specializes in Class C apartments, those more than 20 years old and typically in areas where lower rents are the norm. Even there, Rosinsky said, market pressures are forcing rents upward as demand squeezes landlords having to invest more heavily in improvements to keep units occupied. Investors’ costs are also rising as interest rates rise and the cost to acquire the asset class in hot markets is at an all-time high.

“A year ago at this time, the rents were around $1,200 a month on average for my West Coast properties. Now, for renewals and new leases we’re at $2,000,” Rosinsky said. “I do expect there to be a slowdown at some point. This is not something that can last forever. There’s a tremendous demand and a shortage of multifamily, especially in the affordable housing category.”

As hot as the rental market is, the business of buying multifamily property is even hotter. Phil Ginexi, a partner with The Multifamily Firm, which brokers properties from Hernando County to Fort Myers, calls it “absolutely insane.”

“We’re seeing record sale prices on a per-unit basis and certainly on a compressed cap rate basis as well,” said Ginexi, who is based in Sarasota and markets properties south of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. “That’s pretty much been the story since midway through 2021. I think where

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partments are still in high demand across Florida as supply remains short, leaving renters searching for scarce opportunities amid escalating prices. Florida is one of six states to have seen rents increase by 20% to 25% since 2019, the highest in the nation, according to a report by multifamily investment software provider Stessa.

Nowhere is that more evident than in the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton metro, which has seen an increase in median rent of 16.9% over the past two years, according to the data.

The report says median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the region rose from $1,373 to $1,605 since 2019, a gain of 16.9%, ranking the market 25th among the nation’s midsize metropolitan statistical areas. Even so, the local region ranked behind four other similarsize Florida areas.

Cape Coral-Fort Myers is ranked 17th at 20.4% rent growth, Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 18th at 19.1%, Lakeland-Winter Haven 21st at 17.5% and Naples-Marco Island 24th at 17%.

Luxury apartment rents are well above $2,000 for one-bedroom units and more than $3,000 for two-bedroom units, but nowhere is the squeeze felt more than in what would previously have been classified as “affordable” apartments, the smaller complexes built in the 1960s to 1990s.

Mathieu Rosinsky, principal of

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Ringling at Indian Beach Apartments is among the Class C communities brokered by Phil Ginexi and The Apartment Firm.

it really started was when interest rates were starting to creep up. We heard a lot of rumbling about it, but it hasn’t taken an immediate effect on the market.

“I think it certainly will at some point, but supply is still pretty low in the rental market. I’m not really seeing any kind of decrease in buyers.”

Rosinsky said he regularly receives unsolicited inquiries from brokers and investors for his multiple Sarasota County properties, validating Ginexi’s point. Multifamily has long been a preferred commercial property asset class because of its perpetual customer base and virtually assured stable return on investment.

Until now, the typical multifamily buyer would acquire an existing property, invest in renovations and updates, hold it for four or five years, then sell it for a profit to an investor who would start the cycle over again.

Those days are gone, at least for now in desirable markets.

Like Belmont Associates, The Multifamily Firm specializes in Class C apartment complexes. Prior to 2020, Ginexi said prices for such properties generally were in the range of $150,000 a unit. Those have since exceeded $200,000 a unit, but some now — depending on location, condition and other factors — are cresting at $250,000 a unit.

That increased cost is passed on to the renter, who with few other options is willing to pay.

There might be some relief in sight, though. According to apartment guide website Apartmentlist.com, rents in the Sarasota-Bradenton area slipped 1.9% in April, compared with a 0.9% increase nationally.

Even at that, year-over-year rent growth in the metropolitan statistical area is 41.3%, compared with 4.4% at this time last year. Overall, rents are up 46.9% since March 2020.

Rosinsky said he hasn’t experienced any rent reductions. If rents did decline, Ginexi said, it could be a slight trend toward the pre-pandemic seasonal norms, observing fewer seasonal residents staying in the area past March than in the previous two years as restrictions are eased elsewhere.

The continued influx of new residents, Ginexi projects, will sustain multifamily investment for the time being.

“We’re in uncharted territory in valuing these properties because for so long you could push value based on your pro forma projections,” he said. “But if that starts to soften, you have to soften up your projections a little bit. I don’t really know what’s going to happen.

“We’re just trying to take it day by day, week by week and see what happens, but as long as people keep moving here and want to live here, I would say that it will stay healthy.”

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OPINION / OUR VIEW

SARASOTA/SIESTA KEY

The biggest economic crisis Florida’s $3.6 trillion property insurance market is in collapse. Whether Florida’s economy will be rescued will be a political duel: Gov. Ron DeSantis vs. Speaker Chris Sprowls and the state’s plaintiff attorneys.

S P E C I A L L E G I S L AT I V E P R E V I E W

MATT WALSH

“If they do little or nothing, Floridians will suffer even more than they are now.”

— Bob Ritchie Founder, CEO American Integrity Insurance Co.

“If Florida is hit with two Cat 4s, it will be the end of Florida.”

— Joseph Petrelli Founder, CEO / Demotech

F

lorida Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, calls this “the biggest economic challenge in the state’s history.”

It is. For sure.

Actually, it is more than that, more than the biggest challenge. It is also a crisis. You could accurately call it the biggest economic challenge and crisis in state history.

Florida’s property insurance market — if you can call it a “market” — is collapsing. “For all intents and purposes, it has essentially already happened,” Brandes contends.

“This is what a collapsed insurance market looks like.”

It has been a crisis — at a high, over-the-pot boil — for two years and a growing boil for the three years before that.

Everyone in and around the industry, including a few legislators intimately familiar with the industry, saw it coming. They warned about it with increasing emphasis in 2019 and 2020, urging legislative leaders and lawmakers to make needed reforms.

In particular, two senators, Brandes and Sen. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, an insurance agency owner, tried. Brandes has tried throughout his four-year term, urging the governor’s staff to act the past three years. In 2021, Boyd sponsored SB 76, proposing sweeping changes; this past session, he tried again with SB 1728.

And yet, in the two years of his speakership, Florida Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, singlehandedly has resisted and rejected every meaningful change that the Senate and House members have proposed. One insurance executive bluntly stated Sprowls “eviscerated” key provisions from SB 76.

And this past session, even knowing how bad the crisis was growing, the crisis worsened as a result of Sprowls doing nothing.

To wit: Much has been written about Florida having 79% of the damage-claim lawsuits nationally while having 9% of the damage claims, and that while insurers have paid out $15 billion to cover claims since 2013, 71% of that money has gone to plaintiff’s attorneys fees and only 8% to property owners.

Everyone involved, including Sprowls, has known this flood of lawsuits is the crux of the problem. And yet, in 2021 the number of damage-claim lawsuits filed topped a record 100,000, and so far in 2022, conditions are worsening.

Lawsuits rose 30% in January over January 2021 and 17% in February over February 2021.

But now, after having immersed himself in fighting COVID-19 and the culture wars the past two years and in early 2022, and after the failure of the Legislature to act this spring, Gov. Ron DeSantis realized the insurance crisis needed to be addressed — now. He knows his political future is at stake.

Beginning next Monday, May 23, the Legislature will convene in a

special session to begin trying to save an industry that is the backbone of Florida’s economy. Without affordable property insurance, it’s no exaggeration to say Florida real estate will collapse, and the Florida economy will go into another Great Recession — even worse if the unthinkable occurs: direct hurricane hits. There will be excruciating economic pain on top of the national inflation already ravaging average Floridians.

In this special report, our hope is to give you, our readers (and all Floridians) the perspective and information you need to call your legislator and demand action.

We will explain: n The gravity of the crisis n The why: Why the crisis exists; who and what caused it; what’s making it worse n How bad it really is n What is ahead for Floridians if it isn’t fixed n The politics influencing it all n What should happen in the special session n What is likely to happen.

THE GRAVITY OF THE CRISIS

“I have a bad feeling about 2022,” says Joseph Petrelli, CEO and founder of Demotech, the company that has been rating and evaluating the financial health of Florida’s property insurers since 1996.

“If two Category 4 hurricanes hit Florida this year, it’s the end of the world in Florida,” Petrelli says.

Petrelli is not just talking about the physical destruction that two major hurricanes would inflict on Florida. He’s referring as well to a catastrophic insurance and rebuilding aftermath.

If the Legislature fails to enact bold reforms to property insurance statutes in its special session next week, Petrelli sees three more catastrophes that would be as big or bigger than the property damage from two Category 4 hurricanes: n The number of damage-claim lawsuits in the two subsequent years would so overwhelm the state’s courts that “claims would not get settled,” Petrelli predicts.

They would become backlogged in the courts the way the foreclosure suits were backlogged for three years in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession. n The cost of materials and supplies to rebuild would skyrocket because of already existing shortages and backlogs. n Existing labor shortages would drag out repairs for years. “There’s nobody to fix things,” Petrelli says.

ASSESSMENTS & EXORBITANT RATES

Most Floridians likely are unaware they have a financial stake in Citizens Property Insurance Co., the state- and taxpayer-owned property insurer of last resort.

When Floridians are unable to find insurance from a private carrier, or if the cost of that insurance

is too high, they can find refuge in Citizens. Not only is Citizens there as a last resort, but its premiums also are the lowest in the state.

In today’s collapsing market, then, Citizens’ policyholder rolls are skyrocketing as most Florida insurance carriers are shedding policies and not renewing policies to try to stay solvent. Citizens is adding about 32,000 new policies a month to its insured rolls. Its growth is so fast it is on the verge of a 100% increase in policies from February 2021 to year-end 2022, from 552,000 to 1,064,000 policies.

This is bad news for Floridians.

As the state-owned insurer, Citizens in 2002 was granted the Legislature’s approval to impose assessments to cover its losses in the event of major catastrophes. If, say, a major hurricane hits South Florida, where 50% of Citizens’ policyholders live, and the damage is so great that Citizens exhausts its reserves, reinsurance and money from the Florida Catastrophe Fund, Citizens can impose surcharges on its policyholders and assessments on all insurance companies doing business in Florida.

And that means those insurers would pass on those assessments to their policyholders, on top of the already exorbitant insurance premiums policyholders are paying.

Although unlikely, Citizens has the legal authority to impose assessments of up to 45% of policyholders’ existing annual premiums.

In a presentation to the Citizens board last month, Barry Gilway, CEO of Citizens, showed the potential effects of 1 million-plus policyholders and two Category 4 storms.

If one storm took the pre-landfall potential path of Hurricane Irma in 2017 up the West Coast of Florida and the other took the actual path of the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926, the assessment on Floridians would total $14.5 billion.

The more policies Citizens takes on, the greater the potential assessments in the event of disasters. This points to another reason state lawmakers would want to adopt remedies to create an environment where private insurers can thrive and avoid taxing Floridians even more.

‘THIS IS A WHOLE NEW PACKAGE OF STUPID’

Policyholders are well aware of the 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% increases in their premiums, but if you owned and operated an insurance agency in Florida the past two years, it has been a living hell.

Michael Mailliard, owner of MIC Insurance on Longboat Key, says when he tells his clients about their rate increases, or worse, their policies not being renewed, the initial response typically is “WTF!?”

“I’m having to educate them on why they need to replace their roof when it has five years of life left on it,” he says. “I have to be a hard guy and persuade them to replace their roofs if they want to maintain their insurance.”

Mailliard says he knows of only

two carriers that will insure roofs up to 30 years. That’s what it used to be. Some are up to 20 years; some up to 15; some only up to 10; and some, he says, will insure only new roofs.

But even when he persuades clients to replace their roofs, to make matters worse, it’s now taking eight to 10 months for roof materials to show up.

“Nobody in anybody’s career in this business has seen anything like this,” Mailliard says “This is a whole new package of stupid.”

Multiply that by the 66,200 Floridians who work in Florida’s insurance agencies.

WHY THE CRISIS CAME ABOUT

It’s not any one thing; it’s a lot of things. But some things and some people are more responsible than others. Here are major contributors: THE FLORIDA SUPREME COURT’S 2017 JOYCE DECISION:

In 2017, the Florida Supreme Court rejected long-standing legal precedent and practices regarding the awarding of legal fees known as contingency fee multipliers.

Prior to the Joyce decision, the courts awarded multipliers of 1.5 to three times the fees on top of normally accepted contingency fees in “rare and exceptional” cases and when there was “competent, substantial evidence” justifying the multiplier.

In Joyce v. Federated National Insurance Co., the Charlie Cristappointed Supreme Court justices threw out rare and exceptional and ruled that fee multipliers could be applied in almost any case.

This has been the mother lode for plaintiff lawyers.

FLAWED INCENTIVES LAWMAKERS VOTED INTO STATE STATUTES:

In Universal Insurance Holding’s 10-Q report, the company’s management explains the consequences of Florida statutes that codify “one-way attorney fees” in property insurance cases: “The one-way right to attorneys’ fees essentially means that unless an insurer’s position is entirely upheld in litigation, the insurer must pay the plaintiff’s attorneys’ fees in addition to its own defense costs. This affects not only claims that are litigated to resolution, but also the settlement discussions that take place with nearly all litigated claims.

“The one-way right to attorney fees creates a nearly risk-free environment and incentive for attorneys to pursue litigation against insurers.”

The oft-repeated statistic explicitly illustrates how out of whack the incentives are: Florida has 79% of the national property damageclaim lawsuits but only 9% of the national damage claims.

PLAINTIFF LAWYERS EXPLOITING THE INCENTIVES

Guy Fraker, founder of Building

GRAVITY OF THE CRISIS: MOUNTING LOSSES, FEWER INSURERS Here’s a summary of the operating losses for the property insurers operating in Florida.

2021 Florida-based Insurers ($1,000,510) Citizens Property $80,128

Florida-based Insurers ($1,340,582) Citizens Property ($166,516)

Net Income ($000) 2020 2019 2018 ($806,097) ($326,096) ($123,927) $128,967 $86,329 ($151,350) Underwriting Gains/Losses ($000) ($1,486,952) ($662,350) ($372,443) ($98,327) ($97,059) ($280,699)

Underwriting losses occur when insurers pay out more in claims than they generate in premiums.

The snapshots above show how Florida’s insurance market has been heading toward collapse for five years.

More specifically, in 2021, out of 45 Florida insurers, 35 reported net losses, and 39 reported underwriting losses. What’s more, Standard & Poor’s rated seven of the 44 companies with its “outlook negative” rating, indicating those

companies would not likely be able to survive a major storm.

Should that occur, those companies would join six other Florida insurers that have gone into liquidation since 2019. Two insurers, Avatar Property & Casualty Co. and St. Johns Insurance Co. Inc., covering 197,000 policyholders, were ordered into liquidation in February and March.

2017 ($92,401) ($1,028,383)

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($365,801) ($1,164,965)

Source: Citizens Property Insurance

As the losses have persisted, Florida’s insurers have adopted a strategy of increasing rates and reducing their policy counts as a way of cutting future losses.

While these steps will help, the supply of insurers that can and are willing to underwrite Florida residences continues to shrink, which means rates will continue to rise 20%, 30% and 40%.

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Futures Advisory, has conducted extensive research the past three years on what he calls the state’s “litigation economy.” His research reveals 80 to 120 law firms, contractors and public adjusters working as teams, converting $4.8 billion a year in premiums paid by Floridians into their own revenue stream.

Says Bob Ritchie, CEO of American Integrity Insurance Co.: “This is a man-made crisis. Why in the world would we let 2% of the populace exploit the rest?”

UNSCRUPULOUS ROOFERS AND CONTRACTORS

The wife of a Sarasota insurance agency owner, who asked not to be identified, tells this story: While checking out at a gift shop, she struck up a conversation with the checkout associate. They began talking about their husbands’ jobs.

The checkout associate said she and her husband had recently moved to Florida. He’s a roofer.

The store associate said he interviewed at five roofing companies, and at each one, his interviewers asked if he would be willing to inflict damage on roofs when conducting inspections.

He said no. None of the firms would hire him.

This is not an isolated case, nor is it to say all contractors and roofers are unscrupulous and unethical.

But it’s real and another illustration of how incentives influence behavior and consequences.

As is, Florida’s building codes provide incentives for roofers to find and create damage. State codes require that if 25% of a roof is damaged in an event, the entire roof must be replaced.

USE OF AI AND SOCIAL MEDIA TO FUEL LAWSUITS

Like most businesses these days, plaintiff law firms, contractors and roofers focusing on propertydamage clams and roof replacement are becoming sophisticated users of geo-targeting and the use of key words on internet search engines to drive potential clients to them.

And it’s working. Once a law firm or a public adjuster secures a client who has roof damage, it’s easy to take his address and comb his neighborhood.

SARASOTA OBSERVER

Fraker contends the use of AI has become more sophisticated than that. His data “strongly suggests that specific insurers are targeted with an explicit purpose determined by an overall litigation growth strategy. The common attribute shared by all target insurers is premium growth and surplus volume by market share.” #1 REASON FOR THE WHY — SPEAKER CHRIS SPROWLS:

Every legislator in Tallahassee knows that current Speaker Chris Sprowls, a lawyer, has blocked meaningful insurance reform the past two years in ways that benefit the trial bar.

In 2020, he ordered the deletion of all proposed roof repair reforms the Senate passed in SB 76. In 2021, Sprowls did not even allow the House to consider another insurance reform bill the Senate approved, SB 1728.

Sprowls did not return phone calls or emails seeking his response and comment.

THE POLITICS OF THE SESSION

Often in the Legislature, to little surprise, what is or isn’t addressed has little to do with good public policy. What matters is how it affects politicians’ careers and re-election.

The special session next week is full of that political intrigue.

At the top: Gov. DeSantis has a lot of motivation to pursue meaningful insurance reform. One of the Democratic opponents to his re-election bid, former Gov. Charlie Crist is campaigning that the failure of DeSantis and the Republican Legislature is the reason the state’s insurance industry is collapsing.

Crafty politician that he is, Crist is telling listeners that under DeSantis insurance premiums have tripled from when he was governor — neglecting to tell voters, of course, how his policies chased the national insurance companies out of Florida and created an insurance crisis that planted the seeds for what exists today.

Meanwhile, in the Senate and House, President Wilton Simpson and Speaker Sprowls are at the end

15 MOST-ACTIVE FLORIDA ATTORNEYS

These Florida attorneys filed the most property insurance lawsuits in 2021.

Anthony Lopez Thomas Morgan Kenneth Robert Duboff Grant Krapf Robert Gonzalez Michelle C. Lopez Yitzhak Levin Andrew Vargas Kevin Weisser Leo A. Manzanilla Dean Makris Scott Gregory Millard Peter Mineo Jr. Jesus David Moises Clay Kuhn

Firm

Marin, Eljaik, Lopez, Martinez Morgan Law Group Duboff Law Krapf Law Group Gonzales & Assoc. Law Group Property Casualty Law Firm Levin Litigation Vargas Gonzalez Hevia Baldwin Weisser, Elazar & Kantor MSPG Law Group Makris & Mullinax Cohen Law Group Mineo Salcedo Law Moises/Gross PLLC Kuhn Raslavich PA

# of suits

2,742 1,308 1,228 1,091 809 799 691 630 666 627 600 594 567 547 537

Source: Building Futures Advisory

of their leadership terms. They no longer have carrots and sticks to force lawmakers to vote certain ways. They can no longer punish legislators who don’t go along with them or reward those who do.

DeSantis has this: He has yet to sign the state budget into law. If lawmakers go against him in the special session, he can veto the special projects and funding for their districts.

The legislative leaders who have ascending power are incoming Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, and Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast.

In the Senate, Simpson has given his confidence to Sen. Boyd to help craft whatever legislation comes before the Senate. In the House, Sprowls alone is in control of what the House will propose or consider.

Insurance executives and lawmakers we interviewed agree: If the special session is to result in meaningful, bold reforms, DeSantis will need to sway Sprowls to go along.

But Sprowls will be conflicted. He has been a friend of the trial bar, the largest campaign contributors in the state. The talk in Tallahassee is Sprowls is eyeing a run for attorney general. The question for Sprowls will be this: What’s more important … the millions of trial bar money to help his political ambitions or Floridians’ insurance premiums?

Politically, this special session will be a duel: DeSantis versus Sprowls and the plaintiff attorneys.

REFORMS THAT WOULD WORK

American Integrity’s Ritchie calls Florida’s insurance crisis a manmade crisis. It has little to do with natural disasters.

It’s obvious, then, the number one problem to solve is dramatically reduce fraudulent claims and lawsuits. “Shut the door on the core motivators for bad actors,” Fraker says.

Ritchie is advocating for two essential reforms — lawyer fees and how roof payouts are calculated.

He wants to revert to the contingency fee multiplier system for legal fees — “rare and exceptional” — that existed from 1992 until the Joyce decision in 2017. “That worked,” he says.

Another option others favor: Eliminate one-way attorney fees altogether, and instead adopt a system in which the state plays no role in attorney fees. Each side pays its own fees. As current law exists, plaintiff lawyers always win; they get paid by insurers whether they win or lose.

Roof reform: Ritchie advocates a set formula for valuing roofs that

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need repair.

Essentially, a meaningful reform would be to treat the insurance of roofs the way auto damage is treated. When you total your 2010 Ford, your insurer doesn’t give you a check to buy a new car; the check is for the depreciated value of the car, or actual cash value.

In Florida, the only state that does this, if 25% of your roof is damaged in an event, state building codes require the entire roof must be replaced. All other states put the threshold at 50%.

At the least, a simple and quick way to address the crisis would be for Sen. Boyd to re-introduce SB 1728, the bill Sprowls ignored.

That would be a big step toward the goal Brandes and Boyd have pursued for the past two years — a first step toward establishing a rational, stable, competitive property insurance market and, in the process, saving Florida’s economy.

WHAT IS LIKELY TO HAPPEN

As this went to press, neither the Senate nor House bills to be considered had been filed.

For nearly the past month, Gov. DeSantis, his staff, Sen. Jim Boyd and the staff of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee; Speaker Sprowls and his staff; and Rep. Jay Trumbull, R-Panama City, have been negotiating.

Prediction: Based on multiple interviews with lawmakers and insurance insiders, expectations are not high for dramatically positive reforms.

Ritchie is in that camp. “We’ll get through this crisis,” he says.

“But it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Earlier this week, Sen. Brandes, the lawmaker who triggered the special session and has devoted his four-year term to trying to create a stable property-insurance market, said he also had heard the bills likely to be submitted would be underwhelming.

“If that’s the case,” said Brandes, regarded as the Senate’s maverick of dissent, “I’ll be the first to stand up and say, ‘Why are we here?’”

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A detective from the other agency confirmed the driver’s report, and the license tag was removed from a crime-information database.

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CUTTING THE CORD 7:58 p.m., 1300 block of Boulevard of the Arts Suspicious activity: A resident called police to report a phone call she had received from a cable/ internet provider confirming an impending cut-off of service, an action the company representative said the caller to police requested.

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that service and service provided by other companies as well. The resident said she was concerned that appointments and other time-sensitive events might also be involved.

Police suggested she change her telephone number and forward the new contact information to service providers. She agreed and did not request further assistance.

SHATTERED 9:30 p.m., 1500 block of First Street Criminal mischief: A resident called police to report a shattered rear car window. The resident told the investigating officer that she had heard a loud noise from inside and went outside to investigate. Initially seeing nothing, she went back inside. The next morning, she discovered her sedan’s rear window shattered and a rock on the rear parcel shelf of the car. The officer photographed the car and took the rock into evidence.

No security cameras were known to have captured the incident. The resident said she would press charges in the event of an arrest.

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THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

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THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

Judy Carman, co-owner of Carman’s Shoes and Handbags, dies at 79 Carman remained dedicated to her family first and foremost.

NAT KAEMMERER STAFF WRITER

J

udy Carman wore many hats throughout her nearly 80 years: Mrs. Claus, Mable Ringling, the owner of Carman’s Shoes and Handbags, Bill’s better half. No matter the role, though, the most meaningful one was always with the ones she loved.

“They were very much about their family,” longtime associate Andrew Vac said of Judy and her husband of nearly 60 years, Bill. “They went everywhere together. You rarely saw one without the other. They were attached at the hip, and they were a very, very tightknit family.”

Carman died May 15 at age 79.

Before her death to cancer, she became a grandmother to baby Archer, born prematurely in April.

She never got to meet him.

“But there’s a miracle about that,” longtime friend Diana Corrigan said. “Archer’s due date was actually May 15. ... Although she never got a chance to hold him, she was all excited about being a grandma, and (son) Matt had taken a bunch of photos for her, and the last time I talked to her she was really excited because they were planning on coming this month, and it unfortunately just didn’t happen. She passed away on the day that Archer was supposed to be born, and Matt said that she said, ‘Well, I’m just going to be his guardian angel.’”

Carman was a fixture on St. Armands Circle as a business owner and member of the St. Armands Circle Association.

She played Mable Ringling in the 75th anniversary celebration of the Circle in 2001 and posed as a stand-in for Mrs. Claus during the

Christmas celebrations for several years. During the rest of the year, she worked in Carman’s Shoes and Handbags with her husband, whose parents established the store in the 1960s. Bill ran the store while Judy was raising their three sons, but she came to work once they were grown.

She worked in the handbags store upstairs until they retired in 2010.

“The store was a fixture, and they were part of the association and had all the knowledge,” Vac said. “They were both just a delight and wonderful people to have as friends. They were in the shoe business, so they sold shoes first, but it would come around to the latest gossip or what the news on the Circle was because they were in the thrust of it.”

And they were in the thrust of it together. The Carmans had been together since they were 13, got married when they were 19 and spent time together constantly, whether it was as a family or in the store. Longtime Circle Association members dropped in to see them from time to time.

“They are the easiest people in the world to talk to,” Corrigan said. “Judy was just so personable. Anybody that walked in the store, it was like they were a long-lost friend. She just treated everybody like she’d always known them. It was just a beautiful, family-run business. Their twin sons and even their youngest son all worked in the store, too, so everybody was there.

“Not only were they husband and wife and family, but they worked together in the store. They did everything together. They were best friends. They were truly soulmates.”

Corrigan said Carman was a grounded person whose strong faith kept her going. Her attitude was always positive, and her first thoughts were always for her family. When nurses asked her what she liked to do, she said she liked to cook for her family and take care of them.

“When they got the news at the end that there wasn’t anything that could be done, she said, ‘Well,

Courtesy photo

Bill and Judy Carman would have celebrated their 60th anniversary in July.

it wasn’t the news that we wanted to hear, but you know, we’re going to make the best of this,’” Corrigan said. “She told Bill, ‘Now you have to be both grandma and grandpa to Archer. I’m counting on you to do that.’ She had an amazing attitude and was an amazing person.”

“Judy was just so personable. Anybody that walked in the store, it was like they were a long-lost friend. She just treated everybody like she’d always known them. It was just a beautiful, family-run business ... .”

— Longtime friend Diana Corrigan

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THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

Ideas on the way for streetscape makeovers

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City plans a pair of sessions to outline proposals for portions of Boulevard of the Arts and 10th Street, with an eye on aesthetics and safety.

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fter a monthlong survey of residents and two-plus months of crunching the data, the public next week will get its first look at concepts for the construction of “complete streets” at 10th Street and Boulevard of the Arts.

The city of Sarasota will present the concepts for the two parallel streets during back-to-back open houses Monday, May 23, at the SRQ Media Studio in the City Hall Annex at 1565 First St. From 3-4:30 p.m., residents can view concepts of Boulevard of the Arts west of U.S. 41. That will be followed at 5:30 p.m. by a presentation of Boulevard of the Arts and 10th Street east of U.S. 41. The 10th Street project extends from U.S. 41 to Orange Avenue. The scope of work on Boulevard of the Arts extends from Sarasota Bay to just east of Orange Avenue.

A complete street is an agefriendly design that promotes safe, multimodal travel, whether walking, biking, riding transit or driving a vehicle. It is also intended to provide a sense of place. Each complete street is unique to its community and could include features such as enhanced sidewalks, street lighting, benches, street trees and landscaping, public art and more.

A public survey period held by the city Feb. 1-28 garnered the engagement of 1,084 residents offering input on the complete street projects.

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Priorities for the complete streets projects garnered from a monthlong public input process in February.

BOULEVARD OF THE ARTS n Incorporate street trees n Landscaping and green space n Design flexible spaces for pedestrian activity n Increase safety n Sidewalk cafe accommodations n Curbside parking n Benches n Street festivals 10TH STREET n Street trees, landscaping, green space n Balance support for local businesses and economic development n Address traffic flow to key destinations n Provide “gateway to The Bay Park” n Accommodate multimodal trips n Enhance safety n Pedestrian-focused lighting n Furniture

Among the proposals is a raised intersection at U.S. 41 and Boulevard of the Arts. A raised intersection is a flat, elevated area covering an entire intersection with ramps at all approaches.

A raised intersection design provides a slightly elevated crosswalk for greater visibility, reduces speed on the corridor from 40 to 30 mph, and includes technology that would allow for bike detection and signal modification during events.

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MAY 19, 2022

— Sarasota High’s Maddox Marchbank SEE PAGE 17A

STATING THEIR CASES

Photos by Ryan Kohn

Sarasota High junior Alec Miller finished second in the Class 4A boys 1,600-meter run at the FHSAA track and field championships.

‘Psyched’ for silver Alec Miller dropped approximately six seconds from his personal record on his way to a silver medal in the Class 4A 1,600-meter run.

RYAN KOHN SPORTS EDITOR

Success at the Florida High School Athletic Association track and field championships can come down to split-second decisions and micromovements that most fans would never notice.

Performing well in front of packed bleachers is hard. Winning is harder.

Sarasota High junior Alec Miller did not win the Class 4A boys 1,600-meter run at this year’s event, held May 11-14 at James G. Pressly Stadium in Gainesville, but he came close, and that was good enough to get Miller to smile wide on the podium.

Miller, who entered the event seeded first with a time of 4:19.86, ran in second place for the latter portion of the race and finished there as well (4:13.50). Miller tried to catch Hagerty High junior Brayden Seymour for first place, sprinting home on the final lap, but Seymour had built too big a lead over the course of the race and won by 1.74 seconds.

Still, Miller was happy.

“I was curious if I was going to be able to catch him (Seymour),” Miller said. “It didn’t happen, but I’m psyched I was able to drop six seconds (from his personal record) against a huge field like this. That was awesome.”

Miller said the pack of lead runners went out at a comfortable speed, and he was excited by attempting to keep pace with everyone. Going into the third of four 400-meter laps, Miller “kicked,” or started sprinting, and kept the pace the rest of the race while others fell off. The strategy allowed him to secure his silver medal.

Despite losing out on gold, Miller had nothing but positive things to say about his competition.

“He’s a phenomenal runner,” Miller said of Seymour. “He takes that (lead) quick. I knew it was going to be extremely difficult. Each lap I was thinking, ‘How much can I reel him in? How many more positions can I move up?’ That was the plan.”

It almost worked.

Sarasota High junior Tyler Boyer finished third in the Class 4A boys 110meter hurdles at the FHSAA track and field championships.

Miller’s success is a testament to how much a track and field athlete can improve. In 2021, Miller’s best time in the 1,600-meter run was 4:51.64, approximately 38.14 seconds slower than his time at the 2022 championships. He didn’t compete at the team’s district meet, let alone states.

“I’m still trying to process it all,” Miller said. “But I went into this meet hoping to earn a medal in general. Finishing second like I did is amazing.”

Miller was one of nearly 40 Sarasota-area athletes to attend the championships, whether in a starring role in a flashy event like Miller’s or as an alternate in a relay.

Miller competed in the 4x800 relay with his Sailor teammates; Sarasota finished 13th (8:06.67).

Of the remaining athletes, it was only Miller’s teammate Tyler Boyer who equaled Miller’s feat of finishing in the top three.

Boyer finished third in the Class 4A 110-meter hurdles (14.32 seconds), the event that is essentially a dead sprint with jumps. Boyer dropped 0.68 seconds from his qualifying time of 15 seconds, a significant amount in a short event like

n Sarasota High junior Alec Miller finished second in the Class 4A boys 1,600-meter run (4:13.50) n Sarasota High junior Tyler Boyer finished third in the Class 4A boys 110-meter hurdles (14.32 seconds) and fifth in the 300-meter hurdles (38.67 seconds) n Sarasota High junior Isabella Nebel finished fifth in the Class 4A girls 300meter hurdles (44.35 seconds) n Booker High sophomore Jakai Peterson finished sixth in the Class 2A girls long jump (5.48 meters) and 11th in the 400-meter dash (58.95 seconds) n The Cardinal Mooney High girls 4x400 relay team finished sixth (4:10.23) in Class 1A n Cardinal Mooney High sophomore Madeline Carson finished sixth in the Class 1A girls discus (32.87 meters) n Sarasota High senior T.J. McKay finished seventh in the Class 4A boys long jump (6.75 meters) and 16th in the 100-meter dash (10.99 seconds) n Cardinal Mooney High junior Cooper Flerlage finished eighth in the Class 1A boys discus (41.72 meters) n Sarasota High junior Caleb Bradley finished ninth in the Class 4A boys 300-meter hurdles (39.77 seconds), 12th in the 110-meter hurdles (15.18 seconds) and 18th in the 200-meter dash (22.45 seconds) n Riverview High sophomore Susan Lowther finished ninth in the Class 4A girls discus (36.90 meters) n The Booker High girls 4x100 relay team finished 10th (49.61 seconds) in Class 2A n Sarasota High junior Ella Menke finished 10th in the Class 4A girls 800meter run (2:19.84) n The Sarasota High girls 4x400 relay team finished 10th (3:59.65) in Class 4A n The Sarasota High girls 4x800 relay team finished 11th (9:50.40) in Class 4A n Riverview High sophomore Luis Castaneda finished 12th in the Class 4A boys discus (43.06 meters) n Cardinal Mooney High senior McKayla Cantrell finished 12th in the Class 2A discus (29.86 meters) and 18th in the shot put (9.23 meters) n The Sarasota High boys 4x800 relay team finished 13th (8:06.67) in Class 4A n Sarasota High junior William Hartvigsen finished 14th in the Class 4A boys 3,200-meter run (9:39.09) n Sarasota High senior Dalton Porter finished 14th in the Class 4A boys discus (41.34 meters) n Riverview High senior Riccardo Testini finished 17th in the Class 4A boys 1,600-meter run (4:41.37)

his. Boyer’s qualifying time seeded him seventh, so a third-palce finish was impressive, though not enough to catch Nease High senior Cyrus Ways, who won the event by more than a half-second (13.53 seconds).

In April, Boyer said his main goal was to get his time under 15 seconds.

He accomplished that mission.

Boyer also finished fifth in the 300-meter hurdles (38.67 seconds).

Sarasota also had the area’s top girls finisher. Sailors junior Isabella Nebel finished fifth in the girls 300-meter hurdles (44.35 seconds), though the scoreboard at James G. Pressly Stadium briefly showed Nebel finishing third before getting the official results. Nebel entered the event seeded fourth.

No other area school had an athlete or team of athletes finish higher than sixth. Booker High sophomore Jakai Peterson finished sixth in the Class 2A girls long jump (5.48 meters) after entering the event seeded fourth, and Cardinal Mooney High’s girls 4x400 relay team of senior Margaret Videnka, senior Hallie Monserez, junior Sally Koscho and senior Avery Beach finished sixth (4:10.23) in Class 1A after being seeded fifth.

Riverview High’s highest finisher was sophomore Susan Lowther, who finished ninth in the Class 4A girls discus (36.90 meters), a jump from her seeded position of 15th.

Rams sophomore boys discus athlete Luis Castaneda finished 12th (43.06 meters) after entering seeded seventh.

HIGH

SPORTS

“I want to develop full explosiveness rather than just power. I already have power.”

5

1

Former Riverview High softball player Devyn Flaherty, a junior infielder at Florida State, went 2-4 with two RBI and a stolen base May 14 in the Seminoles’ 8-6 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship game win over Clemson.

2

Marlon Williams was named the Cardinal Mooney High girls basketball coach on May 17.

Williams was previously an assistant coach and trainer with the Florida girls basketball AAU program.

3

Sarasota gymnast Garrett Schooley, who trains at EVO Athletics, finished seventh all-around in the 18-year-old age division at the Junior Elite Nationals, held May 11-14 in Mesa, Arizona. As a result, Schooley qualified for the U.S. Gymnastics Championships to be held Aug. 18-21 in Tampa.

4

Former Sarasota High track and field runner Ben Hartvigsen, a sophomore at Harvard, finished eighth in the men’s 10,000-meter run (29:37.33) at the Ivy League Outdoor Championships held May 7-8 at Yale.

5

Riverview High senior Austin Harford, a pitcher on the Rams’ baseball team, committed to Daytona State College on May 17.

MILESTONES PAGE 16A

16A

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THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

PROSE AND KOHN

RYAN KOHN

A sportwriter’s favorite moments O

n Monday night, I was hit with a feeling of confusion.

“What do I do now?”

It’s a familiar thought, one I usually have this time of year.

I have the thought because the high school sports season for Sarasotaarea schools is over, except for a handful of spring football games that don’t exactly count. Sometimes we have baseball or softball teams still playing at this point — like our East County publication does — but not this year. The track and field championships were the area’s last grasp at glory for the 2021-2022 school year. So now I don’t know what to do with my weeknights; if I’m not at a school for a 7 p.m. start of some kind, it feels wrong.

Longtime readers will know that the end of the athletics season brings with it a countdown of the top sports moments of the year.

That countdown is coming soon.

But first — as longtime readers will also know — I like to break down my favorite moments of the year.

These moments are not necessarily championships or other important wins, though they could be. They are simply a collection of moments that stood out to me.

I would be remiss to not start with the most-recent of these moments, as it was a type of moment I will no longer be able to experience. When I attended a Sarasota High baseball game against Braden River High in April, I did not think it would be the last time I got to cover Clyde Metcalf, who had been the team’s bench boss since 1982. Metcalf needs no introduction. He’s a legend. When I say I feel lucky to have been able to listen to him teach baseball to his teams for six seasons, I mean it. I won’t be able to do that anymore. Metcalf announced his retirement on May 11.

I’m something of a lapsed baseball fan. I grew up playing the game my entire childhood and, being from Maryland, I loved the Balti-

File photos

Above: Riverview High freshman Jamier Jones is one of the most-exciting basketball players in the country.

Right: Olivia Davis and the Cardinal Mooney girls basketball team created an electric atmosphere in 2021-2022.

more Orioles. As the Orioles have collapsed on the field in recent seasons, and I moved away from Maryland, getting to see fewer of their games, my care level for both the team and the sport started to wane.

Whenever I catch highlights of big hits or disgusting pitches online — Pitching Ninja is a great resource for this, apropos of nothing — I often have to look up the players involved because I don’t recognize their names right away.

But whenever I listened to Metcalf, my love of the game resurfaced. Like Metcalf, I love the fundamentals. If the pitchers throw strikes, and the defense behind them fields well, and the hitters can manufacture a handful of runs,

that’s a beautiful performance, and that’s how his teams played. I will miss listening to him chide his team for being afraid of choking up on the bat or chewing out, well, everyone at the field for not knowing the infield fly rule.

His retirement is well-deserved, and his replacement on the Sailors bench will have huge shoes to fill.

I loved so many things about this athletic year, but watching the Cardinal Mooney girls basketball team come so close to a state title for the second year in a row was enthralling. The program’s games have an electric atmosphere to them, and the girls on the team care so much about the game and one another. They play with tenacity.

It makes for a joy to watch, even when — as this year’s Class 3A championship game did — it ends in Mooney heartbreak. This week, the school named Monty Williams as the program’s coach after Rico Antonio stepped down following the season. Williams has a talented roster to work with, but more than the team’s record, I am interested in seeing if he can keep the same energy within the program.

As far as singular talents go, Riverview High freshman Jamier Jones is among the best I’ve seen. While there are things he needs to work on, like all inexperienced players, the Rams boys basketball player put on a show this season, posterizing opponents with highlight-reel

dunks and swatting their shots away like gnats on a summer day.

There’s a reason Jones, who is 6 foot 5 according to Rivals, was named the No. 7 player in ESPN’s initial Class of 2025 national rankings.

Getting to see a talent like this so early was a treat. Don’t miss out next year. Basketball fans are going to be hearing Jones’ name.

I also enjoyed chatting with the Sarasota boys and Riverview girls swim teams following their state championships. For what could be an individual-heavy sport, I am always blown away by how much swim teams value the “team” aspect. Chants, signs, routines: all the hallmarks of group bonding are there. I love that. I can’t prove it, but I believe that having tightknit teams like these does help in the individual races. When you compete for something bigger than yourself, you can accomplish so much. It’s an important lesson.

Goodness, I’m running out of space. Let’s speed run these last few things: Watching Riverview senior football linebacker Tyre Smith tackle people was a lot of fun (for me, not for the people he tackled); seeing the Booker High girls basketball team claw its way into the Class 4A final four with defense was inspiring; witnessing first-year Cardinal Mooney boys basketball Coach Vince Cherry get a bearhug from his mentor, B.J. Ivey, after the Cougars beat Ivey’s The Out-ofDoor Academy was heartwarming.

All in all, it was another stellar year on the beat.

Ryan Kohn is the sports editor for the Sarasota Observer. Contact him at RKohn@ YourObserver.com.

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SARASOTA OBSERVER

Maddox Marchbank is a junior offensive and defensive lineman on the Sarasota High football team. Sailors Coach Brody Wiseman said Marchbank has been impressive with his dedication this spring and is primed for a big fall season. The Sailors will play their spring jamboree against Riverview High, Manatee High and Clearwater High at 5:30 p.m May 27 at Sarasota High.

When did you start playing football?

I started playing when I was in third grade. A family friend got me into it and convinced me to play. I have not stopped since then. I’m in love with it.

What is the appeal to you?

It is a getaway from reality for me.

There are not many rules out here.

Any personal problems, any anger, you get to take them out on the field and leave them there. It’s also just a joy to be out there with your (football) family, your brothers, every day.

What is your best skill?

It is probably my athleticism for a big guy. I can move pretty well. I’m quick, and I am strong.

If you would like to make a recommendation for the Sarasota Observer’s Athlete of the Week feature, send it to Ryan Kohn at RKohn@ YourObserver.com.

What is your favorite memory?

To be honest, my favorite football memory hasn’t happened yet. I have one in mind, but I can’t share it yet.

I’m hoping to make it a memory next season.

What are your goals for the fall season?

I want the team to start coming together more than we have in the past. I don’t want us to bicker and argue if something goes wrong. I also want us to get out of the 6-4 (record) lock that we have been in recently. I want to do better than that and reach the playoffs with these teammates.

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ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

COLOR Christian Sampson’s unique creations require a glass of a different color.

SPENCER FORDIN A+E EDITOR

R

oom by room and light by light, young Christian Sampson found inspiration from an early job at the Ringling Museum.

A Bradenton native and former student at Ringling College of Art and Design, Sampson was charged with walking through the museum early in the morning and making sure the light bulbs worked.

If they didn’t, he replaced them.

But all the while, his artist’s eye was working on identifying contrasts.

Two decades later, the acrylic, film and glass installation artist has a piece titled “Vita in Motu” enshrined in Ringling’s permanent collection.

Sampson, based in Los Angeles, can’t help but think back to his time alone in the Ringling Museum and how it forged his future.

“I had the whole place to myself,” says Sampson, who visited his installation at Sarasota Art Museum in April. “I was studying painting at the time. I was noticing how different temperatures of bulbs affected the paints. They made blues different colors. They made reds warmer or cooler. I think that kind of influenced my work today: How you see color, how you see light, how paintings made by candlelight were lit by halogen bulbs at the time.

“That was really influential in my SEE COLOR, PAGE 2B

Photos by Spencer Fordin

Christian Sampson’s experiments with color and light have resulted in his largest work to date, “Vita in Motu.”

ON THE CUTTING EDGE

Depending on the time of day you visit, you can get a totally different experience based on the rotation of the sun and the angle at which it hits.

SARASOTA OBSERVER

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THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

Color

BREAKING THROUGH

FROM PAGE 1B

art making. I think it put me on the path to experimenting with light.”

Sampson, who has shown his work in Paris and all over New York, believes that growing up in Bradenton triggered his artistic appetites.

The Manatee High School graduate can recall coming to Sarasota to visit a magic shop on Tamiami Trail and spent a lot of time at Ringling Museum before he wound up working there.

The Sarasota Art Museum, which now houses his installation, was the site of rival Sarasota High when Sampson played high school baseball. This wasn’t just a great place to grow up, says Sampson, but also a geographic anomaly that compelled him to think about light and space as a youngster.

“This is the West Coast of Florida,” says Sampson. “Geographically, we’re on the East Coast, but we have the West Coast experience.

I live in L.A. now; when I went out to the West Coast, I was like, ‘This is very familiar.’ We have the sunset and the way the light plays off the water. There’s a history of artists from the West Coast experimenting with light and space, and I think I got that. Growing up here, we have those sunsets.

“I grew up on the water and was always on a boat. I first went to the Florida Keys when I was 5; going underwater and seeing color was like the most amazing thing ever.”

Now, for future generations of residents growing up in Sarasota and Bradenton, experiencing Sampson’s “Vita in Motu” installation will provide many of the same sensations. The installation, made of acrylics, glass and dichroic film, is on display on the third floor of the museum in the Jonathan McCague Arcade.

Depending on the time of day you visit, you can get a totally different experience based on the rotation of the sun and the angle at which it hits.

The exhibit has a feel like stained glass but is made of completely dif-

ferent materials. Sampson, who is married to painter Ariel Dill, uses cutting-edge dichroic glass formed in Germany as well as fused glass fabricated at Judson Studios, a venerable glass studio in Pasadena, California. Together, the elements form something novel.

“I sometimes think of it as film,” he says of his installation. “I use film gels; and the way things are projected, you could look at it as a small moving film with the projection. ‘Vita in Muto’ means life is in motion. It’s alluding to the way that it slowly moves, almost like projecting colors onto the sculptures and through the space. I studied film briefly, and when you think of it that way, I think it opens up a lot of interesting interpretation.”

You might be thinking that Sampson sketches things or paints the way he wants things to look before he visits an installation.

You’d be wrong.

He says that his style strongly favors chance; he wants to get into the space where his work will be displayed so he can gauge the way that light works there, but then he wants to figure it out as he goes.

When he visited Sarasota Art Museum and saw the space designated for “Vita in Motu,” it fired his imagination. He went home and began shaping pieces of the glass that he could move and adjust in different ways across the installation space.

Photos by Spencer Fordin

When Sampson visited the Sarasota Art Museum and saw the space designated for “Vita in Motu,” it fired his imagination.

Then the actual art happened in a way that guided his hand.

“The installation was over three days, so I could come at different points,” he says of interpreting the light. “And right away, there was a really strange moment. One of the forms came on the floor, and it was like the symbol for the museum. It was moving quickly; it was something where I was just helping to place but it knew what it was doing.”

Looking back on his career, Sampson singles out late former Ringling College professor Leslie Lerner as a massive influence on his life.

He says that though he doesn’t make art like Lerner did, he took cues from him in learning that the art world was a creative force to tap into as a guide for the rest of his life. Shortly after graduating from Ringling, Sampson moved to New York and started studying for a master’s in fine arts from Hunter College. He drove a box truck to keep his artistic dreams alive, and there were points where he worked for galleries and other artists.

It was a hustle, he says, to go from struggling artist to permanent collection.

“The thing about being an artist is you kind of have to work twice as hard,” he says. “You’ve got your studio practice, but you also have to make money for rent.

“I heard an artist say one time that artists are like pirates. They’re always looking for the next opportunity to create. When things happen big, they help each other. But there are times that are rough seas.”

The waves broke for Sampson in about 2010 or 2011, when he crossed paths with a kindred spirit.

Sampson says Pascal Rousseau, a France-based art historian and professor, helped break him into a bigger level by inviting him to show his work at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. All of a sudden, he had gone international.

“I was a struggling artist,” he says. “When he emailed me, I honestly thought it was spam. But it was an amazing experience to have someone recognize your work and email to say, ‘I’m curating this show. Would you like to be a part of it?’ And I was just like, ‘What?’”

A few years later, says Sampson, the same thing happened again.

But this time it was a meeting with Anne-Marie Russell, the former executive director of Sarasota Art Museum, that opened new doors. Russell had come out to visit his studio in New York because she had heard he was a Ringling student who was doing shows in Europe, and she came with an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Sampson would have a chance

to design a piece for his hometown museum’s opening.

Immediately, says Sampson, he was at home with Russell.

They understood each other.

They spoke the same artistic language, and they both couldn’t get their words out fast enough.

Soon, Sampson was visiting the space and figuring out exactly how the light would work.

“I tried to figure out how can I use the grid on the windows with the sun from the east,” he says.

“I started bringing little samples and playing with how the color would go through, how it would hit the objects. As soon as I had the samples in, I was so excited. I was seeing the reflections and the projections and all the stuff happening with the natural light. It all kind of melded into this thing that’s bigger than me. I’m just visiting it like I’m visiting an old friend.”

SELFIE MAGNET

Interestingly, over time the piece has drawn Sampson even closer to the community where he grew up. People don’t just visit “Vita in Motu” and keep it to themselves.

They take pictures and post them to social media.

It’s a phenomenon that has taken on a life of its own, says Sampson, and it enriches his life on a regular basis. The artist is now working on a large dichroic glass display for an elementary school in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and “Vita in Motu” is in some respects a prototype for his work going forward. He can only hope that his future installations inspire the same response.

“When the community began interacting with it and posting pictures, that’s something an artist can’t predict,” he says. “I had friends from high school that have come. Art teachers from Ringling emailed me how much they enjoyed the piece. Friends from New York who I haven’t seen since I moved to L.A. have sent me pictures.

“That was always cool; people would come in, and I’d get a picture of them at a certain point of the day. Maybe it was a cloudy day.

It could be a sunny day. But I was always getting these texts or posts from people.”

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OPENING RECEPTION FOR ‘HERE COMES THE SUN’ EXHIBITION When: 5-8 p.m. June 9 Where: 901B Apricot Ave. Tickets: Free Info: CreativeLiberties.net

Spencer Fordin

Barbara Gerdeman and Elizabeth Goodwill are taking dramatic license to get their Creative Liberties off the ground.

A safe space for artists Barbara Gerdeman and Elizabeth Goodwill want nothing more than to create art and help other artists achieve their goals.

SPENCER FORDIN A+E EDITOR

T

hey share a desk and work space. They finish each other’s sentences.

And they’re determined to do the hard work of not just creating art but helping other artists.

Barbara Gerdeman and Elizabeth Goodwill have known each other for years thanks to their shared tenure as summer art camp teachers at Art Center Sarasota. But now they’ve gone into business together and are taking dramatic license to create something entirely new.

The business, Creative Liberties, is both a brick-and-mortar opera-

tion and an aspirational concept to be something bigger. The artists are renting studio space to other artists and providing all kinds of assistance away from the canvas.

“We have that freedom to mold it,” says Goodwill. “That’s something I don’t think I’ve ever really had as a job: full directorial freedom where I can give it a shot and make it happen. We can experiment in our artwork; now we can experiment in our lives.”

Goodwill, who works in mixed media, sculpture and fiber art, and Gerdeman are doing all of the little things to get their business off the ground. They began in a different location but soon found a new home in the Limelight District on Apricot Avenue in Sarasota.

That’s when things really took off.

There are seven other studio artists and six featured artists working in the Creative Liberties art space.

Gerdeman says the studio has a waiting list of artists requesting space, and Creative Liberties has already built a wide and expansive list of events. All of that has developed organically, Gerdeman says.

“The kind of thing we were

starting with was an opportunity for artists to put their art on our website,” says Gerdeman. “Do you need help photographing your art?

Do you need help preparing for an exhibition? Do you need help reaching out to galleries or help promoting yourself? Those were our original services and tools we were offering.”

They’re not just building a space for creating art — they’re also helping one another sell their pieces to the public.

Creative Liberties is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Wednesday through Saturday, and any artist on hand can help you purchase the work of any artist who sells worth there.

There are also dedicated exhibitions and marketplace events at the studio. Goodwill says that many of their connections were formed at Art Center Sarasota, and working there really gave her a push to go out on her own. But now, as the studio prepares for the summer months, the partners in art are struck by how much they still have left to do.

“It’s great that summer is coming,” says Goodwill. “People were

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like, ‘Ugh, it’s going to get slower.’

We were like, ‘That’s great, but we’re not stopping.’ We’re going to continue to still do events. We’re not going to do outdoor events because it’s too hot, but we’ll still be doing inside events and encouraging our community that is still here. And our community that is not here, that’s what the website is about. We’re going to push a lot on the website this summer.”

Gerdeman, a photographer, painter and mixed-media artist, operated a succesful private muralpainting business for 20 years prior to operating Creative Liberties.

Her daughter, Ashley Harter, runs the Creative Liberties social media pages, making it a family business.

But it still isn’t necessarily a big moneymaker. Goodwill and Gerdeman are splitting the operating costs and are sanguine about the operation’s future prospects.

Every day is an art therapy session, they say, but they’re betting that Creative Liberties can be even more.

“We’re definitely not profiting,” says Gerdeman. “It’s a labor of love at this point. The money we’re bringing in through vendor fees for events and wall rentals and things like that are stuff that is currently going back into the business.

“Paying for advertising, doing all those things, updates and things that we’ve done to the building.

Everything that’s happened here, all the materials, has been out of our pocket. It’s all an investment at this point.”

It’s not just an investment in their business; it’s also an investment in people and an entire community.

The Bazaar on Apricot & Lime is just a few doors down, and Creative Liberties has piggybacked on the bazaar’s hours to encourage more walk-in traffic.

Creative Liberties is also part of the Sarasota Studio Artists Association, a group of artists that open their space to the public once a month. The best thing about opening their business, says Gerdeman, is the synergy with artists and neighbors.

“Right around the time we were moving in here and creating the studios, we met the president of the board of directors of the Park East neighborhood,” says Gerdeman.

“We told them about what we were doing and what the plan was, and it

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

was so exciting because it was right in line with what they want to see happen with the neighborhood.

“This neighborhood is predominantly a working-class neighborhood, and they’re working very hard to not push residents out but to bring this kind of element in.

It’s Rosemary without the gentrification. There’s no million-dollar condos or any of that stuff, but we’re bringing in exciting, healthy, family-friendly-type things into the neighborhood and preserving the homes for the people that live here.”

What’s growth look like for Creative Liberties?

Gerdeman and Goodwill say they don’t necessarily want to operate a bigger studio space; they want to reach more artists and continue being a bridge between creators and the consumer.

They want to expand their series of events, which includes artist exhibitions, markets and opportunities to come in and hang out with other creative people in a creative space.

Goodwill says that she and Gerdeman needed help from their partners to physically construct some of the art spaces in the studio, and so far it’s been a total team endeavor.

“The funny thing is that we both decided that this was going to be the year where we found our worklife balance and our art again. Then we were like, ‘Oh yeah, let’s take on a brick-and-mortar business,’” she jokes. “As much as I was wanting to focus on me and my art for this year, it’s also me focusing on my mental health. And this is helping me mentally and physically. I’m moving around more than I did before. I do not have a sit-down job anymore.”

At this point, Gerdeman and Goodwill are just thrilled to be operating their business.

Gerdeman says she’s been touched by the influx of customers who come into the studio and mention how upbeat and positive the space feels.

She couldn’t have asked for a better tribute, and she wants artists to know that she wants to help them no matter their background.

“Inclusivity is a big buzzword to us,” she says. “It’s really important to us that anybody who walks in the door, whether they’re an artist or a customer, that they feel welcome, and that they will find support here.

“We have artists who have displayed their work here who have never publicly shown their art before. We welcome artists of all ages, races, creeds and points of career, whether they’re just starting or they’ve been making art for 60 years.”

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THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

THIS WEEK THURSDAY

This beloved children’s classic has been adapted into a play performed in more than 200 theaters. Settle in as the Venice Theatre tells the story of a friendship that bridges the boundaries of the animal kingdom.

Runs through May 29.

NORTH COUNTY K-12 SPRING ART SHOW 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Art Center Sarasota, 707 N. Tamiami Trail Free Visit ArtSarasota.org Celebrate the skill of local student artists from 17 elementary, seven middle and six high schools throughout Sarasota County whose art will be on display at Art Center Sarasota through May 21. Prizes include a full year of tuition from State College of Florida and a pair of $10,000 scholarships from Ringling College of Art and Design.

FRIDAY SARASOTA SHRIMP & MUSIC FESTIVAL 4-10 p.m. at JD Hamel Park, 199 Bayfront Drive Free Visit ParagonFestivals.com.

Sure, you’ve been to music festivals and food festivals, but have you ever been to a shrimp and music festival?

The eighth-annual Sarasota Shrimp & Music Festival aims to give you all you can handle in smooth sounds and edible crustaceans, and festival attendees will have an opportunity to browse an arts-and-crafts marketplace in between bands. The festival will also run from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

‘THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS’ 7:30 p.m. at Jervey Theatre, 140 W. Tampa Ave. $12-$20 Visit VeniceTheatre.org.

HERMITAGE POET’S CORNER — DAMARIS B. HILL AND KIRYA TRABER 5 p.m. at Bookstore 1, 117 S. Pineapple Ave. $5. Registration required Visit HermitageArtistRetreat.org Listen in as two masters of the written word discuss their distinctive turns of phrase. DaMaris B. Hill, an associate professor of creative writing at the University of Kentucky, will share selections from “Breath Better Spent: Living Black Girlhood,” and playwright/poet Kirya Traber will tease her forthcoming novel and share works from her illustrious past. Traber’s debut novel will be published in 2023 by Dutton Children’s Books.

SATURDAY

WHOLE BAND QUATRO 8 p.m. at Fogartyville, 525 Kumquat Court $15 members, $18 non-members Visit WSLR.org/Fogartyville It might not be the Whole Band, but it’s the business end of it. The Whole Band Quatro, a four-part and slightly scaled-down version of the Whole Band, will showcase the collective’s original music. Singers Callie Chappell and Kevin Thompson will handle the vocals, supported by pedal steel player Dave Pearce and bassist J.P. Coley.

THE INVENTION OF SEEDS — ANNALISA DIAS 10:30 a.m. at Historic Asolo Theater, 5401 Bay Shore Road Free members, $5 non-members Visit Ringling.org Annalisa Dias, artist-in-residence, will bring you an informal reading of her new work, “The Invention of Seeds,” which traces a story from seeds, pollinators, soils and the scientists who study them. What separates humans from the foods we eat? Dias will attempt to answer that philosophical question on Saturday morning.

‘ALICE IN WONDERLAND’ 1 and 5:30 p.m. at Riverview High School, 1 Ram Way $20-$30; $10 children’s tickets Visit SarasotaBallet.org

IN STUDIO PERFORMANCE FEATURING SEA LEE 7 p.m. at Sarasota Contemporary Dance, 1400 Boulevard of the Arts $20 Visit SarasotaContemporaryDance. org

Student dancers from the Sarasota Ballet School and Dance – The Next Generation will bring you the classic story of “Alice in Wonderland” told through the prism of dance in two performances at Riverview High School.

Sea Lee will wow you with her technical skill and inventive choreography. Lee, who earned a master’s in fine arts and a fellowship from Hollins University/American Dance Festival, has been on the faculty at University of Tampa and St. Petersburg College. Lee’s performance is entitled “The Apple Show.”

SUNDAY HD AT THE OPERA HOUSE — RIGOLETTO 1:30 p.m. at Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave. $22 Visit SarasotaOpera.org Opera season is over in Sarasota, but you can still scratch your itch at the Opera House. The Royal

DON’T MISS NOCHEUNIDOS You’ve got your orchestra over here and your mariachi band over there.

Now smash them together.

UnidosNow is inviting the community to celebrate the organization’s 10th anniversary of advocating for a better future for the Latino population of Sarasota and Manatee counties.

The 72-piece Venice Symphony and Mariachi Cobre will take center stage, blending the sounds and traditions of two art forms that have stood the test of time and culture.

The Friday night event will be held at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, but there will also be a Saturday afternoon encore performance at the Venice Performing Arts Center.

IF YOU GO When: 7:30 p.m. May 20; 2:30 p.m. May 21 Where: Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail and Venice Performing Arts Center, 1 Indian Ave., Venice Tickets: $30-$120 Info: UnidosNow.org/Nocheunidos

Opera House in London will present the three-act Verdi masterpiece “Rigoletto,” and you can take it all in without flying across the Atlantic.

“Rigoletto” is just the first act of the Sarasota Opera’s HD at the Opera House series, which runs through August.

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‘2 HOT 2 TANGO’ It’s red-hot intimate dance with the delicate intonations of a piano and bandoneón duo.

Ben Bogart and Winnie Cheung will provide a soundtrack of the most familiar tunes from the history of Argentina’s tango composers, and World Tango Champion Fernanda Ghi and her partner Silvio Grand will move cheek to cheek.

Ghi, founder of an eponymously named dance company, was nominated for a Tony Award for her work in the 1998 production of “Forever Tango” and has been one of the world’s foremost ambassadors of the dance for more than 20 years.

2 Hot 2 Tango will perform for one night only at the Historic Asolo Theater.

Photos: Daniel Perales

IF YOU GO When: 3 p.m. May 22 Where: Historic Asolo Theater, 5401 Bay Shore Road Tickets: $25-$45 Visit: ArtistSeriesConcerts.org

THE STUDIOS @ SAM Let’s Make Some Art! pianist John O’Leary and drummer Mark Feinman, has performed at international festivals in Spain and Italy, and they’ll bring their chemistry and skill to the John C. Court Cabaret for one night.

Kalle Toivio will bring his worldclass skill on the organ to bear in a performance at St. Boniface Church. Toivio, director of music at the Church of Notre Dame NYC, has earned many distinctions for his exemplary playing, including first prize at the American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation in 2018.

WEDNESDAY

MONDAY LA LUCHA TRIO MONDAY NIGHT JAZZ CABARET 7:30 p.m. at FST’s John C. Court Cabaret, 1265 First St. $35-$39 Visit JazzClubSarasota.org.

SarasotaArtMuseum.org/studios-at-sam Photo: Ryan Gamma

Photo: Matt Holler

OPENING RECEPTION: DRITA DAWN 5-8 p.m. at Creative Liberties, 901-B Apricot Ave. Free Visit CreativeLiberties.net

Photo: Rich Schineller

Creative Liberties bills itself as a group of artists in the business of helping other artists, and they’ll give features artist Drita Dawn a helping hand at a reception on Wednesday.

Dawn, an abstract artist, will exhibit some of her works at the Creative Liberties studio and be on hand to the meet the public and answer questions about her process.

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THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

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he Asolo Repertory Theatre made merry during its yearly celebration at The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota on April 30.

The 2022 Annual Gala transformed the Ritz ballroom into a homage to Sherwood Forest, the setting of Robin Hood’s adventures. Guests arrived dressed as fantasy figures, the Merry Men, Robin Hood himself and more. The event benefited the theater’s 2021-22 season.

Guests mingled before heading into the ballroom to hear from Asolo Rep staff and representatives and enjoy dinner. The night ended with music and dancing.

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G E O R G E T O W N

f 20 2

MAY 19, 2022

YOUR NEIGHBORS

Above: Rachel Norway and Jasper LeFranc brought Lucky to the festival.

Left: Shannon Fortner leads MeteorEyes in rocking.

Photos by Harry Sayer

Eduardo Anaya waves flags in support of the festival.

Cultivating community Fabulous Arts Foundation music fest draws crowds at Rosemary District.

Marko Perkins and Alli Chapin spin and put on a show.

HARRY SAYER STAFF WRITER

S

hannon Fortner is busy about town, typically putting on events.

An annual endeavor that’s been near and dear to her heart is the Fabulous Arts Foundation’s Be Fabulous arts and music festival, a daylong program of LGBTQ music in the Rosemary District.

The event has evolved — it was known as the Harvey Milk Festival for years and braved a pandemic-inspired online offering — but remains a good amount of work. She credits being able to get the word out about the festival’s rebrand as a reason for good turnout.

All the same, there’s an energy that can’t be replicated when LGBTQ performers play throughout the day.

“Emotions have been running high, especially when you’re a music space for queer and trans folks,” said Fortner, the foundation’s founder and executive director. “It’s a beautiful and intense time. … A lot of

people are still coming out or finding themselves and trying to find their community. It’s been important for us to continue that work.”

The event’s latest offering took place on May 14 with nine artists putting on hourlong sets that went well into the night.

David Warren Curran, who plays drums alongside Fortner in their rock band MeteorEyes, notices that energy when they play at the festival. Curran had an injury this year and had to sit out their annual performance but paid attention to the crowd. He notes that MeteorEyes, which he’s been part of with Fortner for more than a decade, typically plays at nightclubs. It’s a nice change of pace to be playing in front of LGBTQ families and children of their own.

“We get to perform in an atmosphere that’s 100% love and acceptance and equality,” he said.

Nik Docherty, who composes the

“It’s a beautiful and intense time. … A lot of people are still coming out or finding themselves and trying to find their community. It’s been important for us to continue that work.”

— Shannon Fortner

two-member Hover Car grunge rock band with Alton Plemmons, is used to playing shows in clubs and DIY house parties in Tampa and St. Petersburg. Docherty wants the band’s music to evoke a feeling and passion in the audience.

Docherty, who is nonbinary and uses the pronouns they/them, said

the band has been working through its transitions while members push themselves as artists.

Playing a show that championed their identity, though, proved to be more overwhelming than Docherty expected.

The musician had to fight back tears almost as soon as arriving.

“As a trans and nonbinary person, existing on a daily basis is sometimes part of the struggle,” Docherty said.

“I’m a pretty confident person. I don’t mind walking out the house looking however I want to look … but a lot of nonbinary people don’t have that privilege. Being out there with so many like-minded individuals and feeling that pride and that queer energy was very overwhelming.”

Alexander Eli, who goes by the moniker Daddy when on stage, made his way to Sarasota from Jacksonville to end the night’s lineup with original music with samples, guitar and vocals. A 36-year-old trans man, Eli said he medically transitioned early in the pandemic and has been playing solo gigs since. Having the chance to play at pride-friendly venues and shows is something he tries not to take for granted.

“We’re out here at a block party with a queer festival; this wasn’t how it always could be,” Eli said. “The equality we’ve always been fighting for, we’re starting to get that taste. …

Once you taste freedom, you’re never going to go back.”

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THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

Above: Ashton Newsome Left: Salutatorian Peter Etz addresses the crowd.

Photos by Harry Sayer

Alexander Kaiser-Andrade, Laurent Barbier and Tyler Calka

GRADUATION 2022:

CARDINAL MOONEY HIGH

M

ore than 100 Cardinal Mooney High School seniors graduated at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on May 13.

Proud parents filled the arts hall to hear from Assistant Principal Stefan Gates, class president Jenna Santiago, salutatorian Peter Etz and valedictorian Hallie Monserez.

Miss Florida 2021 and Cardinal Mooney graduate Leah Roddenberry delivered the commencement address.

The room filled with applause and cheers when the students received their diplomas from Principal Ben Hopper.

Above: Principal Ben Hopper welcomes graduates to receive their diploma.

Left: Kate Sundberg

— HARRY SAYER

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THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

SARASOTA 1423 Hillview Drive 6 Beds 7/2 Baths 11,588 Sq. Ft. Linda Driggs & Kim Ogilvie 941-374-2920 A4525534 $21,600,000

SARASOTA 3300 Old Oak Drive 4 Beds 4/3 Baths 6,428 Sq. Ft. Barbara May & Fred Sassen 404-822-9264 A4520464 $8,495,000

SIESTA KEY 7108 Midnight Pass Road 6 Beds 5 Baths 4,697 Sq. Ft. Stephen Weeks & Jeff Hinrichs 941-504-3689 A4523915 $4,950,000

MANASOTA KEY 802 N Manasota Key Road 4 Beds 4 Baths 3,786 Sq. Ft. Maryann Casey 941-468-3741 D6125235 $4,750,000

LONGBOAT KEY 540 Harbor Cove Circle 3 Beds 2/1 Baths 2,081 Sq. Ft. Julie Klick & Beverly St Hilaire 941-780-6001 A4534178 $3,600,000

SARASOTA 1771 Ringling Boulevard PH302 3 Beds 3/1 Baths 2,873 Sq. Ft. Michael Moulton 941-928-3559 A4532280 $3,200,000

SARASOTA 1547 Sandpiper Lane 3 Beds 3/1 Baths 3,136 Sq. Ft. Michael Hays 941-376-1826 A4531554 $2,699,000

SARASOTA 650 Golden Gate Point 302 2 Beds 2/1 Baths 1,949 Sq. Ft. Dana Westmark 941-356-5091 A4531159 $2,600,000

SARASOTA 7612 Donald Ross Road W 5 Beds 4/1 Baths 3,973 Sq. Ft. Jackee Schulz 941-320-4991 A4530347 $2,550,000

BIRD KEY 628 N Owl Drive 3 Beds 2 Baths 2,534 Sq. Ft. Kathy Valente & Gregory Zies, LLC 941-685-6767 A4526783 $2,495,000

SARASOTA 1350 Main Street 1410 2 Beds 2/1 Baths 2,288 Sq. Ft. Bibi-Ann Allard PA 941-685-0422 A4534087 $2,285,000

SARASOTA 1704 Arlington Street 3 Beds 3 Baths 2,545 Sq. Ft. Barbara May & Fred Sassen 404-822-9264 A4529406 $2,100,000

UNIVERSITY PARK 8171 Abingdon Court 2 Beds 2/2 Baths 2,609 Sq. Ft. Rachel Benderson 941-376-0218 A4525357 $1,650,000

SIESTA KEY 814 Paradise Way 4 Beds 2 Baths 1,996 Sq. Ft. Stacy Liljeberg & John Garmong 941-544-6103 A4534252 $1,575,000

SARASOTA 8149 Grande Shores Drive 3 Beds 2/1 Baths 3,214 Sq. Ft. Drew Russell 941-993-3739 A4529184 $1,445,000

SIESTA KEY 19 Whispering Sands Drive 102 2 Beds 2 Baths 1,464 Sq. Ft. Mary Jo Violett 941-928-8474 A4533091 $1,395,000

SARASOTA 1646 7th Street 3 Beds 3 Baths 2,340 Sq. Ft. Valarie Wadsworth 941-780-3858 A4528362 $1,369,000

SARASOTA 1694 Floyd Street 2 Beds 2 Baths 1,988 Sq. Ft. Julia Mcclung 941-356-6499 A4533919 $1,350,000

SARASOTA 1350 Main Street 1010 2 Beds 2 Baths 1,336 Sq. Ft. Marybeth Flynn 941-704-1477 A4533180 $1,200,000

NOKOMIS 516 Tamiami Trail S 302 3 Beds 3/1 Baths 2,158 Sq. Ft. Camille Buck 941-894-4771 A4527984 $1,100,000

SARASOTA 4889 Carrington Circle 3 Beds 3/1 Baths 3,358 Sq. Ft. Lee Byron & Sue Keal 941-350-5542 A4534618 $979,000

SARASOTA 628 42nd Street 3 Beds 2 Baths 2,506 Sq. Ft. Francoise Borel 941-228-3768 A4534123 $949,000

SARASOTA 2110 Benjamin Franklin Drive 104 2 Beds 2 Baths 1,248 Sq. Ft. Drew Russell 941-993-3739 A4532913 $915,000

VENICE 23732 Waverly Circle 3 Beds 3 Baths 2,194 Sq. Ft. Joanne Hammar 941-204-1094 N6121093 $850,000

SARASOTA 8555 Park Shore Lane 3 Beds 2 Baths 2,380 Sq. Ft. Judy Nimz 941-374-0196 A4532950 $825,000

ST. ARMANDS KEY 66 N Washington Drive 4 Beds 3/1 Baths 4,983 Sq. Ft. Kristina Waskom 941-266-8658 A4519666 $10,900,000

SIESTA KEY 7722 Sanderling Road 2 Beds 3 Baths 2,580 Sq. Ft. Brian Loebker 941-735-4393 A4527041 $9,000,000

LONGBOAT KEY 2161 Gulf Of Mexico Drive PH3 4 Beds 4/1 Baths 6,002 Sq. Ft. Jenifer Schwell 941-780-0968 A4534425 $8,950,000

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SARASOTA OBSERVER

Casey Key property sells for $5.7 million

Other top sales by area

A

SARASOTA

GOLDEN GATE POINT James Earl Sanders Jr. and Karen Warren Sanders, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, sold their home at 621 Golden Gate Point to LV7 GGP Development LLC for $3.6 million.

Built in 1947, it has six bedrooms, three baths and 3,433 square feet of living area.

VUE Michael Faber and Rose Ann Faber, trustees, of Sarasota, sold the Unit 1207 condominium at 1155 N. Gulfstream Ave. to Stephen Gerard Williams and Melody Lynn Williams, of Sarasota, for $2.9 million.

Built in 2017, it has two bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths and 1,580 square feet of living area. It sold for $2.2 million in 2021.

Paul and Regina Rogalski, of Sarasota, sold their Unit 1407 condominium at 1155 N. Gulfstream Ave. to Thomas and Lisa Thayer, of Bryson City, North Carolina, for $2.2 million. Built in 2017, it has two bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths and 1,580 square feet of living area.

It sold for $1.38 million in 2018.

THE CONDOMINIUM ON THE BAY Lotti Luscher, of Jonschwil, Switzerland, sold her Unit 1905 condominium at 888 Blvd. of the Arts to Sarasota Bay Properties LLC for $1,995,000. Built in 1982, it has two bedrooms, two baths and 1,729 square feet of living area. It sold for $875,000 in 2019.

Eric and Chelsey Curran, of Murrieta, California, sold their Unit 17 condominium at 932 Blvd. of the Arts to Robert and Wendy Sherry, of Simsbury, California, for $1.75

REAL ESTATE

MAY 2-6

RESEARCH EDITOR

SARASOTA: $4.25 MILLION

Sapphire Shores Francine Webb, trustee, sold the home at 320 S. Shore Drive to Jeniece Berman, of Sarasota, for $4.25 million. Built in 1966, it has three bedrooms, three baths, a pool and 2,978 square feet of living area. It sold for $2,085,000 in 2020.

SIESTA KEY: $2.65 MILLION Courtesy Ryan Gamma Photography

This home at 503 Casey Key Road was built in 1957. It has three bedrooms, four baths, a pool and 3,358 square feet of living area.

million. Built in 1982, it has three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths and 2,037 square feet of living area.

It sold for $520,000 in 2012.

BAY PLAZA Mary Jo Reston, of Sarasota, sold her Unit 1004 condominium at 1255 N. Gulfstream Ave. to Joni Lee Youngwirth, trustee, of Sarasota, for $1.8 million. Built in 1982, it has two bedrooms, two baths and 1,822 square feet of living area. It sold for $1,065,000 in 2014.

John Kraft, trustee, of Cincinnati, sold the Unit 503 condominium at 1255 N. Gulfstream Ave. to Todd Jick and Wendy Ehrlich, of New York City, for $1.4 million. Built in 1982, it has two bedrooms, two baths and 1,565 square feet of living area. It sold for $1.1 million in February.

bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, a pool and 3,229 square feet of living area. It sold for $850,000 in 2008.

POMS PARK Robert Petrillo and Danilo ZunigaPedrianes, of Sarasota, sold their home at 2261 Novus St. to Steven Melchiorre, of Sarasota, for $1,499,000. Built in 2018, it has three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, a pool and 2,494 square feet of living area. It sold for $590,000 in 2018.

ESPLANADE BY SIESTA KEY James and Susan Fox, of Williamsville, New York, sold their home at 8137 Gabanna Drive to Yolemy Gonzalez, of Sarasota, for $1.05 million. Built in 2015, it has three bedrooms, three baths and 2,342 square feet of living area. It sold for $671,400 in 2015.

PLAT OF SARASOTA Gerald and Krisztina Gilmartin, of Sarasota, sold their home at 1830 Hawkins Court to Paul Nadjarian and Rachel Nadjarian, trustees, of Arlington, Virginia, for $1.62 million. Built in 2013, it has five bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, a pool and 2,977 square feet of living area. It sold for $800,000 in 2016.

Jesse Ryan Hart and Tanya Jean Hart, of Southwick, Massachusetts, sold their home at 1876 Hawkins Court to Kenneth Sklar and Claudia McBride, of Sarasota, for $1,193,500. Built in 2004, it has three bedrooms, twoand-a-half baths, a pool and 1,748 square feet of living area. It sold for $775,000 in 2021.

PHILLIPPI HI Jeffrey and Mary Beth Rubin, trustees, of Sarasota, sold the home at 4037 Redbird Circle to John and Catherine Cranor, of Sarasota, for $1.6 million. Built in 2003, it has three

Sandy Hook Richard Friedman and Marjorie Lueloff Friedman, trustees, of Sarasota, sold the home at 77 Sandy Hook Road N. to Daniel and Renae Shattuck, of Siesta Key, for $2.65 million. Built in 1966, it has two bedrooms, two-and-twohalf baths, a pool and 2,627 square feet of living area. It sold for $1.3 million in 2010.

11B

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS

ADAM HUGHES

home in Casey Key tops all transactions in this week’s real estate. David and Susan Macrae, trustees, of Nokomis, sold the home at 503 Casey Key Road to Richard and Delores Harris, of Powder Springs, Georgia, for $5.7 million.

Built in 1957, it has three bedrooms, four baths, a pool and 3,358 square feet of living area. It sold for $1,590,500 in 2010.

|

PALMER RANCH: $1 MILLION The Hamptons Mark Freeman, trustee, of N. Venice, sold the home at 7150 Wainscott Court to Sandra Glasson and Sandra Wasko, of Sarasota, for $1,052,000.

Built in 2000, it has three bedrooms, two baths, a pool and 2,381 square feet of living area. It sold for $281,100 in 2000.

OSPREY: $2.38 MILLION

Oaks II Yelena Brandon, of Nokomis, sold her home at 796 Lytham Circle to Jiechun Liu and Hongyu Tang, of Osprey, for $2.38 million. Built in 2000, it five four bedrooms, fourand-two-half baths, a pool and 4,639 square feet of living area. It sold for $990,000 in 2016.

ONLINE See more transactions at YourObserver.com

In with the new NOW UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Longboat Key

The Residences at the St. Regis | 941.213.3300 | From $2.4MM to $10.9MM | Call for appointment | SRResidencesLongboatKey.com NOW TAKING CONTRACTS

TOP BUILDING PERMITS These are the largest city of Sarasota and Sarasota County building permits issued for the week of May 2-6, in order of dollar amounts.

Downtown St. Petersburg

CITY OF SARASOTA Address

Permit

Applicant

Amount

988 Blvd. of the Arts #412

Remodel

W. Scott McAdam

$149,750

988 Blvd. of the Arts #609

Remodel

Janet Bilodeau

$117,880

1661 S. Jefferson Ave.

Pool/Spa/Deck

Douglas Brown

$96,000

1905 Datura St.

Solar System

Thomas Shane

$83,294

3224 S. East Ave.

Pool/Deck

Samuel Schmitt

$74,606

2438 Wisteria St.

Pool/Deck

David Esh

$61,200

834 Gillespie Ave.

Windows

Beverly Scott

$50,000

2251 Hyde Park St.

Pool

Suzanne Grant

$47,700

1332 Harbor Drive

Spa

John Schaub III

$42,000

2304 Temple St.

Pool Cage

Victoria Calore

$38,081

400 Central | 727.209.7848 | From the $1MM’s | Call for appointment. | Residences400central.com 2 UNITS LEFT

Downtown Sarasota

SARASOTA COUNTY Permit

Applicant

1727 N. Lake Shore Drive

Pavilion

Nathan Winget

$341,496

Amount

7890 Esperanza Circle

Windows/Doors

Brian Moran

$113,203

842 Mac Ewen Drive

Re-roof

John Pook

$90,000

1629 Caribbean Drive

Re-roof

Ali Al-Rawi

$67,300

3352 Tanglewood Drive

Repairs

Jason Moxley

$60,452

8155 Midnight Pass Road

Spa

Samuel Strickland

$58,796

2255 Grove St.

Pool

Stephen Vineski

$43,870

12406 Wood Fern Court

Pool

Robert Mazzone

$43,000

5770 Midnight Pass Road

Windows/Doors

Konrad Wilk

$42,159

#608

The Collection | 941.232.2868 | From the $2MM’s | Call for appointment. | thecollection1335.com

Sales galleries open and available for virtual or in-person presentations.

Virtual home tours | OnDemand local experts | Interactive site and floorplans

MichaelSaunders.com/New-Homes | 844.591.4333 | Sarasota, Florida Prices as of February 2022.

Source: Sarasota County, city of Sarasota

Licensed Real Estate Broker

373653-1

Address

12B

SARASOTA OBSERVER

|

YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

22 Sandy Cove #502 • Gulf front Private beach, Fishing pier & Kayak storage

• 3 en suite bedrooms, Elevator building

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• Panoramic views of Little • Private elevator, wood floors, Sarasota Bay, Siesta Key and the crown molding, 9’ ceilings & Gulf of Mexico utility room • High rise living in Sarasota’s • Under building parking and premier country club community climate controlled storage • Turn Key furnished 3BR 3 BA unit, • Enjoy on site community pool, 2,055 sq ft spa, fitness center and grill & the remarkable benefits of The Oaks Club

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cell: 201-233-1959 office: 941-349-2922 Jackie@JackieEberley.com Coldwell Banker Realty Owned and Operated by NRT,LLC

COMMUNITY

BEST BET

FRIDAY, MAY 20

NEIGHBORFEST: MUSIC ON THE LAWN 6 p.m. at Grace Community Church Bee Ridge Campus, 8000 Bee Ridge Road. Neighborfest promises live music, food trucks, inflatables and a 26-foot-high rock wall. Free. For information, go to GraceSarasota. com.

SATURDAY, MAY 21

3RD SATURDAY LIMELIGHT MARKET 10 a.m. at Bazaar on Apricot and Lime, 821 Apricot Ave. The monthly pop-up market will have vendors showcasing honey, pottery, terrariums and more. Free. For information, go to BazaaronApricotandLime.com.

FRIDAY, MAY 20

SARASOTA SEAFOOD & MUSIC FESTIVAL Runs through May 22 at J.D. Hamel Park, 199 Bayfront Drive. Seafood and tunes return to J.D. Hamel Park for a weekend of fun during this festival put together by Paragon Festivals and hosted by the Downtown Sarasota Enrichment Festival. Festival starts Friday at 4 p.m. Free. For information, go to ParagonFestivals.com

SARASOTA INTERNATIONAL DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL 7 a.m. at Nathan Benderson Park, 5851 Nathan Benderson Circle.

Established and entry-level dragon boat teams compete in sport and community divisions across Nathan Benderson Park during this lively day of racing. For information, email info@gwnevents.com.

SUNDAY, MAY 22

WOMEN OF SINAI MOVIES AND MORE 5 p.m. at Temple Sinai, 4631 S. Lockwood Ridge Road. The evening starts with a dessert reception in the Temple Sinai atrium. Then, a screening of “The Keeper” is followed by a discussion in the sanctuary. $18 donation suggested. For information, go to TempleSinai-Sarasota.org.

THE REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. SCHOLARSHIP AND AWARDS GALA 6 p.m. at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, 1534 Mound St. The Sarasota MLK Celebration Committee hosts this awards dinner in lieu of the commemorative breakfast canceled earlier in the year. $50. For information, call 780-4060.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 25

FRIENDS OF THE SELBY PUBLIC LIBRARY ANNUAL MEETING 2 p.m. at Selby Library, 1331 First St. Thriller/mystery author Don Bruns headlines this annual meeting at

Customized just for you1 you!

File photo

which he and the audience will discuss story structure and how to set up a story. Free. Call 861-1100.

THURSDAY, MAY 26

PASSPORT TO THE BAZAAR 5 p.m. at The Bazaar on Apricot and Lime, 821 Apricot Ave. The bazaar celebrates four years in operation with live music, a passport trip through vendor areas to win a Sarasota “Staycation” and other surprises. Free. Call 445-1938.

ARBORETUM TOUR 10 a.m. at Elling Eide Center, 8000 S. Tamiami Trail. Norman Burr leads a tour through the Elling Eide Center’s arboretum grounds and speaks about the variety of plants and how they evolved through the ages. $5.

Visit Ellingoeide.org.

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SARASOTA OBSERVER

|

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

13B

Great for Memorial Day Weekend

PET PICS

NEW EN GL AND SEAFOOD MARKET

Have photos of your four-legged family members? We want to see them! Share them at YourObserver.com/contests/petpics to be published online and for a chance to see them in print!

Order ahead for the weekend!

CLOSED MONDAY, MAY 30TH

LIVE Maine Lobster (Take ‘em live or we’ll steam for you!)

Haddock • Cod • Tuna • Salmon • Sword • Steamers Mussels • Scallops • Stuffies & More

Florida’s Fresh Catch—Grouper, Snapper, Shrimp

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Tues-Sat 11-6pm Sun 11-4pm | Closed Mon

Tour our beautiful campus

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Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center • Award-winning functional therapy garden • Elegant Dining • Speech Therapy • Occupational Therapy

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941.929.2700 JUST CHILLIN’: Lovie and Max are looking ready for summer in Sarasota.

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PENDING

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SIESTA KEY | $1.925M

SIESTA KEY | $1.475M

1280 HIDDEN HARBOR WAY | OFFERED AT $7.5M

405 BEACH RD | OFFERED AT $4.25M

SOLD

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14B

WEATHER

SARASOTA OBSERVER

|

YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

NATURE’S BEAUTY WITH

FORECAST

SUNRISE / SUNSET

THURSDAY, MAY 19

Submit your photos at YourObserver. com/Weather.

All submissions will be entered for the 2022-23 Weather and Nature photo contest. In February 2023, you will vote for your favorite photo, and the submission with the most votes will win a $500 gift card.

Sunrise Sunset

High: 86 Low: 73 Chance of rain: 12%

FRIDAY, MAY 20 High: 86 Low: 73 Chance of rain: 53%

Thursday, May 19

6:39a

8:13p

Friday, May 20

6:39a

8:14p

Saturday, May 21

6:38a

8:14p

Sunday, May 22

6:38a

8:15p

Monday, May 23

6:37a

8:16p

Tuesday, May 24

6:37a

8:16p

Wednesday, May 25

6:37a

8:17p

MOON PHASES

SATURDAY, MAY 21 High: 89 Low: 73 Chance of rain: 40%

June 14 Full

June 28 New

July 6 First

RAINFALL

SUNDAY, MAY 22 High: 90 Low: 73 Chance of rain: 33%

Steve Gordon captured this pair of owls at Myakka River State Park.

June 20 Last

Monday, May 9

0

Tuesday, May 10

0

Wednesday, May 11

0

Thursday, May 12

0

Friday, May 13

0

Saturday, May 14

0

Sunday, May 15

0

*Rainfall totals from Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport

YEAR TO DATE: 2022 6.82 in.

2021 8.89 in.

MONTH TO DATE: 2022 1.19 in.

2021 0.07 in.

MANASOTA FLOORING INC 941.493.7441 | www.manasotaonline.com

crossword

382261-1

941.748.4679 | Venice

celebrity cipher

BREAKING BREAD by David P. Williams. Edited by David Steinberg 110 Black-and-white cookies 111 Large group of troops (... first five) 113 Eurasian mountains 114 Sun Devils’ Arizona city 115 Ice skating jump 116 “The Taste of Country Cooking” chef Lewis 117 Dole (out) 118 Changes the color of 119 Neat 120 Like some fakes or lakes

46 Buddy 49 Narrow valley 50 Mathematician Terence 52 Shapeless shape 53 Like lightly cooked steak 54 Parroted 55 Long vehicle, for short 56 Unnamed writer (Abbr.)

57 Verbal nudge 59 Astronauts feel them 61 Comedian’s gimmick (Var.) 62 Nut to squirrel away 63 Ready to harvest DOWN 66 “You gave me no 1 Sometimes-blue birds choice!”

2 “There’s no stopping 67 Soda holder me!”

68 Inquires 3 Ball game in Las Vegas 71 Sorority invitation 4 Sphere 74 Young pooch 5 Bea of “The Golden Girls” 76 Tire filler 6 Steps for dinner or 78 Veiled criticism disaster 80 Rush 7 Oohs and ___ 81 Came into sight 8 Bikini part 82 Non-fiction?

9 Like a ghost town 84 Lift that isn’t a Lyft 10 First-class 85 Near disaster 11 Apple assistant 86 Jeong or Jennings on 12 Chain with quesaritos TV ©2022 Universal Uclick 13 Be patient 87 Pivotal point on a 87 One celebrating a win 55 Computer support, four in this one) ACROSS 14 “That clears things up” seesaw energetically (Last six maybe?

30 Admit wrongdoing 1 “___ Dreams of Sushi” 15 Campari cocktail 88 “Count me in!” letters + ...)

58 Against the law 32 Desert hill (2011 film) 16 Range of vision 89 Show contempt for 91 ___ and cheese 60 Bolshevik’s foe 33 Pampered one?

5 Iraqi, perhaps 20 Much of North Africa 90 Housefly larva 92 Fit for the task 64 Hit, as a double bass 34 Drama in Shibuya 9 Sleeveless garment 21 Stuff to mold 91 Oscar winner Sorvino 93 “Well, uh-uh” 35 Clever comeback (Last 65 What moles collect 13 Barolo or merlot 23 Handmade jewelry 95 “Bam” and “beep” 94 Performs like Nicki (Last two letters + ...) four letters + ...)

17 Spanish for “love” source 96 Over the moon 67 Chicken ___ (... first six) Minaj 37 Lead-in to “dynamic” 18 Tail end 28 Like 24-karat gold 97 “In conclusion ...”

95 SpongeBob’s channel 69 Dance to punk 38 Stereo alternative 19 Assumed name 29 “The Hot Zone” virus 98 Workplace inspection 70 N. Macedonia joined it (... first six) 21 Name that sounds like 39 Pseudo-cultured 31 Personal taste org.

99 5G predecessor in 2020 40 Unrefined resource “K.C.” 32 Blue tang in “Finding 100 Ball containers in 22 “Abso-freaking-lutely!” 41 “OK, but just this once” 71 Goes around for rounds 100 Strong desire Nemo” probability textbooks 101 Kind or type 72 Single or twin (Note the last three letters (... first four) 35 Peace’s opposite 101 Extent 102 Light beams 73 Available from a keg 43 Staggers in this answer + ...)

36 Rush of water 104 Thing proven by an 103 Ben & Jerry’s flavor for 75 Drops from the sky 45 Bawl 24 Around the time of 37 Athlete who shines exception Deadheads (Last 3 letters 77 Journeys 46 Opinion survey 25 Feudal lord 38 Humble 105 “Ratatouille” rat + ...)

79 “Obviously!”

26 NBC sketch show, briefly 47 Help 41 Charged particle 106 Long skirt 106 Crush, like potatoes 81 Trippy drug 48 Gung-ho 27 Not that!

42 Musician Phair 108 Lose it 107 Hi-___ image 82 Shark part 50 Sunbathes 28 They’re often lit at 44 Stated 111 Baseball club 109 Stale episode garden parties (... the first 51 Black-and-white animal 83 Open, like an oyster 45 Salsa singer Cruz 112 Spearheaded

By Luis Campos Celebrity Cipher cryptograms are created from quotations by famous people, past and present.

Each letter in the cipher stands for another.

“Z KVVC VTVNULDV ZM JOA GVNV KLN X NVXMLD. ... Z XCFXUM AGLORGA SU NVXC PXCCZDR FXM AL GVCJ LAGVN JVLJCV.”

– IXDVA IXPBMLD

“AFOPTWN, R JTFP PA WRKN LNALSN NKNIUPXRFW PXNU JTFP TFB HAIN. R’SS JTOX PXNRI VTI ZAI PXNH AF PXN JTU AYP.”

– PINFP INCFAI

“DKSJ WURJ POTVIPSJBR WB PR JKB ZBFFAKUOBR. PT P RBB RUWBUOB JBYJPOH EVIPOH JKB RKUD, P DSFX UTT JKB RJSHB.”

– WPIPSW WSIHUFMBR

Puzzle Three Clue: Z equals C

941.355.8437 | Bradenton

Puzzle Two Clue: Z equals F

Sarasota

KARASTAN, MOHAWK, AIRO, SMARTSTRAND, ALL PET

Puzzle One Clue: T equals V

CARPET

© 2022 NEA, Inc.

sudoku Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains every digit from 1 to 9 inclusively.

©2022 Andrews McMeel Syndicate

5-19-22

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

RED PAGES INFORMATION & RATES: 941-955-4888

Vacation/ Seasonal Rentals

redpages@yourobserver.com •yourobserver.com/redpages DEADLINES: Classifieds - Tuesday at Noon

WEEKLY MONTHLY

Service Directory - Friday at 3PM • PAYMENT: Cash, Check or Credit Card

General Merchandise POOL TABLE- Olhausen 30th anniversary model. 1 inch 2 piece slate. New felt, cover, balls, sticks, rack and beautiful light.

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Pay top dollar. Text/call 941 548 6492 with photos.

SENIOR LOOKING to purchase precious metals, diamonds, time pieces, coins, jewelry, antique and estate jewelry, and collectors plates. Personal and confidential. Please call Marc: 941-321-0707.

5’ MIRROR, white wicker $60.

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NEW LAWNMOWER still in original box. $175.

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Announcements SUMMER KICK Off! Free Community Event May 28 - 10:00 am - 1:00 pm Bloodmobile, K9 Unit, Mounted Patrol, Bike Safety.

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auto

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STORAGE FACILITY Boat/ RV/ Trailer. Secure facility, low monthly rentals, Clark Rd area.

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WE BUY cars. top $$ paid for your vehicles.

Call Hawley Motors: 941-923-3421.

Between Houses or Condos Reservations 941-383-5577 wagnerlbkrentals@gmail.com Visa/MC 5360 Gulf of Mexico Dr., Suite 101 Longboat Key, FL 34228 Rental office 9a.m. - 5p.m.

M-F Ask about our special rates!

Homes for Sale LONGBOAT KEY Incredible views Private boat dock Pet friendly condo Owner/agent $650,000

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GARAGE SALE

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Painting

The Lake Club LWR 4 bed 4.5 bath Pool/Spa Dazzling with upgrades 2.5 Million Buy or Sell with Brooke O’Malley as your Realtor, and CLUB REALTY will Pay your title insurance.

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Adult Care Services

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This week’s Crossword answers

This week’s Celebrity Cipher answers

Puzzle One Solution: “I feel everyone is put here for a reason. ... I always thought my real calling was to help other people.”

Janet Jackson Puzzle Two Solution: “Onstage, I want to give people everything they want and more. I’ll wash their car for them on the way out.”

Trent Reznor Puzzle Three Solution: “What most infuriates me is the cellphones. If I see someone texting during the show, I walk off the stage.”

Miriam Margolyes

This week’s Sudoku answers

©2022 NEA, Inc.

ADVERTISE YOUR MERCHANDISE with the total value of all items $200 or less in this section for FREE! Limit 1 ad per month,15 words or less. Price must be included next to each item. No commercial advertising.

Ad runs 2 consecutive weeks in 1 Observer.

Call 941-955-4888 Or Email ad to: classified@yourobserver.com (Please provide your name and address) Or Online at: www.yourobserver.com Or mail to: The Observer Group 1970 Main St. - 3rd Floor Sarasota, Fl 34236

2BR/2BA DOWNTOWN Sarasota.

Elegantly Furnished condo for summer rental 2-4 month at gated downtown City Walk; photos and application download at City Walk. $3000/month includes utilities. Tenant gets internet if needed. Write owner @ eldowncoop@gmail.com

Business Opportunities

You’re only cheating yourself.

Items Under $200

YourObserver.com/RedPages

Condos/Apts. for Rent

jobs

POST YOUR AD WITH EASE

Beachfront, Bayfront and In

Wagner Realty

peekers’ place

stuff

SELL IT FAST HERE!

SEASONAL Rates

real estate

The Sarasota and Siesta Key Observer reserves the right to classify and edit copy, or to reject or cancel an advertisement at any time. Corrections after first insertion only. *All ads are subject to the approval of the Publisher. *It is the responsibility of the party placing any ad for publication in the Sarasota and Siesta Key Observer to meet all applicable legal requirements in connection with the ad such as compliance with towncodes in first obtaining an occupational license for business, permitted home occupation, or residential rental property.

Notice: All real estate advertised herein is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act, which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination. All persons are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised are available on an equal opportunity basis.

home services

Made for where you live. Here!

©2022 Universal Uclick

SEARCH the RED

PAGES

for GREAT DEALS To place an ad

Call 941-955-4888

YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

Aluminum

Computer

Handyman

STEVE PANEBIANCO

Pegatronics Computer Instruction and Repair It’s Easier Than You Think!

Hardware Repair Virus / Malware Cleanup Software & Printer Install New Computer Setups New Purchase Consults Seniors & Beginners

“Specializing inin6” Gutters” “Specializing 6” Seamless Seamless Gutters” Dustin Yoder

Dustin Owner Yoder/ Operator

24/7 SERVICE

YoderAluminum.com

Auto Service

Do You Have Neck or Low Back Pain?

Do You Want To Avoid Surgery?

SELL YOUR CAR!

Sliding Glass Door Repair

WE COME TO YOU

“FIX IT - DON’T REPLACE”

Give Us a Call - We Can Help

FREE CONSULTATION 941.358.2224 Recognized Among the Best Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression Physicians in America

FAST • EASY • SAFE

NEED HELP?

Furniture Repair

Find business and service professionals in the Red Pages.

To advertise: 941-955-4888

The Only Thing You Have To Lose ... Is The Pain!!

Furniture Sales & Repairs Cushions • Slings • Re-powdercoating

941-504-0903

Home Services

FREE PICKUP / DELIVERY • FREE ONSITE QUOTES

COMPUTER REPAIR SALES & SERVICE

Handyman

381026

New & Refurbished Computers Servicing PC & MAC on Site or In Shop Virus and Spyware Removal- Free Software We Make Windows 10 User-Friendly!

DON’T THROW YOUR COMPUTER OUT THE WINDOW – CALL LORITECH!

CONSTRUCTION HANDYMAN • Home Repairs & Maintenance • Interior & Exterior 941.504.2745 • Garage Floor Paint 941.400.1563 • Power Wash

Naji Aoun 381034

6968 Beneva Road 941-929-9095

www.SarasotaDiscCenter.com DrCifra@SarasotaDiscCenter.com

Patio Furniture Repairs.com

Computer

(Next to Beneva Flowers)

University Health Park 2415 University Parkway Bldg. 3, Suite 216 Sarasota, FL 34243

381324

381025

HoHoBuysCars.com

Board Certified in the specialty of non-surgical spinal decompression

DR. DAVID CIFRA, DC

381780

941.270.4400

5-Star Rated

ESTIMATES!

GET YOUR LIFE BACK!

Doors

New Deluxe Rollers Will Make Your Doors Roll Better Than Ever Call Mark 928-2263 proslidingglassdoorrepair.com

FREE

(941) 809-7311 Health

941-735-3362

381307

381029

Learn Computer Basics Phones/Tablet Help Apple & Microsoft Problems Solved On-Site and Off Much More! Call Today!

Pegatronics.com

941.650.9790 941.650.9790 YoderAluminum.com

Owner /Insured Operator Insured

Home RepaiR SeRvice • No JoB Too SmaLL • ScReeN RepaiRS • paiNTiNG/DRY WaLL • TiLe RepaiRS • & mUcH moRe! 381035

|

381313

SARASOTA OBSERVER

GladysKhabbaz@gmail.com 805 Molly Circle, Sarasota

Pinnacle Home Watch.com Stop Worrying About Your Home While Away Dave and Connie Grundy

CALL PINNACLE TODAY! 941-306-1999

RED PAGES Bring Results | 941-955-4888

Doors

381036

16B

PALMER RANCH HOMEWATCHERS® Watching your home while you’re away

DON’T let your PATIO DOORS be a DRAG or your WINDOWS be a PANE!!

Bob & Carol Guthrie 941.993.6613

www.PalmerRanchHomewatchers.com PalmerRanchHomewatchers@comcast.net

Window Repairs • Sliding Glass Door Repairs Sliding Glass Door Deadbolts

381786

Serving the Palmer Ranch Area Since 2007 Licensed & Insured

Kitchen/Bath Remodeling CALL BEFOREYOU YOU FALL CALL BEFORE FALL

GRAB BARS GRAB BARS

Call us today! 941.628.8579

COMPLETE INSTALLATION PACKAGE

www.ezslider.com

FREE IN-HOM ESTIMATEE S

INCLUDES22MOEN MOEN STAINLESS INCLUDES STAINLESS STEEL STEELANTI ANTISLIP SLIP CONCEALED PEEN CONCEALED SCREW GRAB BARS (16”BARS & 24”)(16” & 24”) SCREW GRAB

941.966.0333

Realtors

LIFETIME GUARANTEE • LICENSED • BONDED • INSURED COVERAGE AREA: RANCH TO S. VENICE COVERAGE AREA:LAKEWOOD PARRISH TO NORTHPORT

380532 364556

381325

249 235 235

$$

$

DRGRABBARS.COM

THE GRAB BAR GUY GLENN KROECKER

381326

954-1878 (cell) 780-3346 Licensed & Insured

SHOWER & BATH MAKEOVERS 381032

Cleaned - Regrouted - Caulked - Sealed

Call John 941.377.2940

Free Estimates • Sarasota Resident Since 1974

382212

www.showerandbathsarasota.com Find anything in the RED PAGES

941-955-4888

YourObserver.com

SARASOTA OBSERVER

Rescreening & Repairs

Movers

Licensed

Wizard Moving SRQ

Pet Services

Pet Care

by

Melanie Gates

941-923-8140

381037

381039

Specializing in Re-Roofing & Repairs

941-228-9850

• Drain & Sewer Cleaning • Backflows Installation • Natural Gas Installations - Appliance Hook ups • Power Flush & Comfort Height Toilets • All Water Heaters - Tankless - Gas - Solar • All Major Plumbing Fixtures Repaired or Replaced • Garbage Disposals • New Water & Sewer Services • Dishwashers Installed • Wells & Pump Repairs

Joe Murray, Owner

381038

Veteran Owned & Operated • Third Generation Master Plumber All Major Credit Cards Accepted Generalplumbingsarasota.com

38 Years Experience

All Work Guaranteed

Plumbing

Licensed & Insured State Lic CFC056748

140

$

SPECIAL 00 5

$

senior citizen discount. www.sunsetwindowcleaningsrq.com

Purified water window cleaning available!!

Fully Insured

State Licensed Contractor #CCC057066

381790

Kenneth Fuhlman Inc.

Call Tibor for FREE ESTIMATES | 941- 284 - 5880

RIGHT

Building & Roofing Contractor

ON TARGET

• Aluminum, Vinyl, & Wood Soffit & Fascia Repair & Installation • Roofing Repair & Installation • Metal Roofing & Tile Roof Repair Specialists

OBSERVER RED PAGES

Rescreening & Repairs

381311

• Pool Cage Restoration • Rescreening Specialists • Specialty Screens • Paint • Doors and more!

Satisfaction guarantee Satisfaction Guarantee Pool cage Restoration/ Rescreening specialists Manufacture and Workmanship Warranties

941-345-5264

25

ows

INCLUDING SCREENS, TRACKS, MIRRORS & FANS

Gulf Gate RoofinG inc.

Serving South Sarasota Only including: Palmer Ranch – Osprey – Nokomis

Form Serving Longboat Key Since 2005

STANDARD WINDOWS

CALL 941-955-4888

LEAKY ROOF?

(941) 966-2960

Complete Plumbing Services & Repairs Residential, New Construction and Commercial Serving the area since 1993 No Job Too BIG or Too SMALL. We DO IT ALL!

Showcase your products or services.

Lic./Ins.

& Pressure C Window lean t e s ing n s a S u n u n w r o i s n e k Wind S erly UP TO

Roofing

• Pet Sitting • Dog Walking • Over 24 years experience • Excellent references

General Plumbing Services Inc.

Res./Com.

BOOST YOUR BUSINESS

RED PAGES

381789

make your moving day a pleasure.

Windows

Insured

941-270-1561

For $135 per hour you get: A truck, 2 men with equipment, experience and a great attitude to

Licensed and insured #IMT708

“No Job Too Small”

382210

724-2945

Lic. & Ins.

specialty screens / screw replacement / paint Doors and more!

Manufacture and workmanship Warranties

(941) 345-5264

HEROES found here.

Relax. You’ve got better things to do.

Find a professional here in the Red Pages.

RED PAGES Made for where you live. Here!

Call 941-955-4888 or visit YourObserver.com/redpages

941-626-3194

Licensed & Insured CCC - 058059 CBC - 1253936

382209

373-9299

17B

Trees

Eldridge Re-Screen

Free Estimates Lawn & Landscape Maintenance 381788

3687676-01

Curt’s Lawn Service

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

Call 941-955-4888 to reserve your ad YourObserver.com/RedPages

381323

Lawn Care

|

SARASOTA OBSERVER

|

YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022

Featured Listings

Sandhill Preserve | Sarasota 5919 Snowy Egret Drive | $1,300,000 Dawn Bear | 941.468.7224

River Hall Country Club | Alva

Hansen | Sarasota

16118 Herons View Drive | $875,000

1411 Quail Drive | $1,799,000

Timothy O’Hara, Sr | 860.209.7043

Jennifer Thompson | 941.928.0790 Taylor Thompson | 941.928.2372

Casa Lana | Tampa

Villas At Bellagio Harbor Village | Osprey

411 S Westland Avenue #4 | $695,000

14021 Bellagio Way #302 | $1,300,000

Alyssa D. Frudakis | 941.961.0828

Dawn Bear | 941.468.7224

Featured William Raveis Luxury Properties

Palm Beach | Florida

Naples | Florida

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2490 Treasure Lane | $15,750,000

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Hobe Sound | Florida

Naples | Florida

119 Gomez Road | $11,500,000

818 Nelsons Walk | $24,750,000

Broad Avenue South Office | 239.307.4612

720 5th Ave South Office | 239.231.3380

#1 Family-Owned Real Estate Company in Florida and the Northeast Recognized in 2018 as the #1 Luxury Brokerage by Luxury Portfolio International

140 Offices 4,400+ Sales Associates $21 Billion in Annual Sales 8 States - CT, FL, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT

376722-1

18B