SARASOTA/SIESTA KEY
Observer
Scare tactics. PAGE 24
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
FREE • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2023
VOLUME 19, NO. 47
YOUR TOWN
New developments for SRQ? Airport nears decision that would allow commercial development to take off. SEE PAGE 5
Ian Swaby
Carey Chaney and Brad Freeman
An instrument for all seasons After Brad Freeman took up the ukulele about a year ago, he started playing with different groups. One is the Sarasota Strummers in his home of Siesta Key, but he also plays in sessions of “Playing the Ukulele for Fun and ... Fun!” at Betty J. Johnson Library. “It’s just fun to play with other people,” he said during the session on Oct. 17. Class instructor Carey Chaney calls the ukulele an ideal instrument for novelty songs, easy on the fingers and also highly portable. “You can take it just about anywhere you want,” he said. Although many members in the class bring their own ukuleles, the library also offers several of its own, as well. Hosted twice a month at the library, the class — for adults and seniors — teaches a vocabulary of chords, as well as how to move fluidly from one chord to the next.
HOT STUFF
Sarasota County firefighters brought style and spice to the 23rd annual Morton’s Chili Cook-Off. SEE PAGE 26
Courtesy image
Debbie Trice
Still foolin’
At a recent Sarasota City Commission meeting, Commissioner Debbie Trice reported that during a meeting with members of the Central Cocoanut Neighborhood Association, a resident brought up an article about the Seminole tribe claiming land beneath the Van Wezel and planning to convert it into a casino, and asked Trice about it. “I said that doesn’t make sense. Surely that’s not right,” Trice said. “Oh no, it was in the Observer. It’s credible,” was the response. Incredible. A Google search by Trice turned up the story, which was published in the Observer’s 2023 April Fool’s edition, which Trice forwarded to another Central Cocoanut resident, asking that it be explained to the resident that it was a joke. “The person I emailed it to had read the article and believed it also,” Trice said. “So I’m warning you, if somebody comes up with something off the wall that was in the Observer, it might have been from an April Fool’s issue months ago.”
Carter Weinhofer
Blaze Belligan, with Sarasota County Fire Station 11, preps sample cups of sweet chili.
A+E
Vision of the future
Halloween eye candy. INSIDE Image courtesy of Augmedics
A surgical procedure seen through Augmedics’ xvision headset, which provides a view of the spine without exposing it.
SMH surgeons are using augmented reality to reduce complications and recovery time for patients. SEE PAGE 6