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hree Manatee Memorial physicians, Dr. Stacey South, gynecologic oncologist; Dr. Stelios Rekkas, general surgeon and bariatrics; and Dr. Jose Erbella, general surgeon and breast, have been recognized as master surgeons by the Surgical Review Corporation.
This accreditation not only confirms expertise in their field but their ongoing commitment to quality improvement and delivery of safe and effective patient care. Many hours of demanding work were devoted to this accomplishment, and it required a collaborative effort of their clinical team members, administration and leadership.
Surgical Review Corporation is a nonprofit, patient safety organization that accredits the top facilities, surgeons and medical professionals worldwide that meet its proven standards.
Later this morning the Sarasota City Commissioners are set to discuss an initiative that would help local workers with affordable housing downtown.
City manager Marlon Brown is proposing that the city buy land off first street and build two, twelve story towers. This would provide housing for nearly 400 people who can’t afford to live in the downtown area, such as teachers and paramedics.
This would be a first of its kind for the city. The towers would be built using donations and bonds. The renters would be chosen through an application process and if it all goes through it would be mid to late 2025 before the towers are complete.
Thanasi Kokkinakis joined forces with fellow Australian Nick Kyrgios in 2022 for the most memorable moment of his tennis career. The duo captured the Australian Open doubles title, despite entering the tournament a wild car and ranked No. 434.
Now, the two Aussies have something else in common.
Kokkinakis delivered a convincing 6-3, 1-6, 6-0 victory over Belgium’s Zizou Burgs on a picturesque Sunday afternoon at Payne Park Tennis Center in downtown Sarasota to win the singles championship of the 2024 Elizabeth Moore Sarasota Open.
Kyrgios claimed the singles crown at the 2014 Sarasota Open.
More: Sarasota Open tennis tournament at Payne Park ends Sunday
“I guess Nick and I will have something new to chat about,” a relieved Kokkinakis said following the match.
The 6-foot-4, 28-year-old entered the ATP Challenger Tour event with the added pressure of knowing that if he won at Sarasota, he would be guaranteed a spot in the main draw of this year’s French Open by cracking the top 100 rankings. He entered the tournament with a world ranking of No. 101 and was seeded No. 3.
“This is my springboard to the French Open,” Kokkinakis said. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel any pressure out there.
Sheldon Rhoden didn’t have much stage experience when he first played Marvin Gaye in a 2011 show at the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe. Over the years, the soul singer has become a part of him and audiences keep asking for more.
Rhoden returns to the world of the Motown legend who died at age 44 in 1984 for his fourth run of the original revue “Marvin Gaye: Prince of Soul,” which closes the current WBTT season.
“Sheldon never fails to do an incredible job in this role,” WBTT founder and artistic director Nate Jacobs said. “The combination of his charisma and talent and Marvin Gaye’s music have made this show our most-requested, with highly successful runs.”
Jacobs, who created the show and is directing the production once again, said the latest version will feature a couple of new songs and cast members, along with new costumes, sets and staging.’
“Patrons will enjoy a more vibrant and polished show than previous productions,” he said.
The show traces Gaye’s life growing up as the rebellious son of a strict preacher father, and how he channels his love for singing into a major career with Motown Records, leading him to troubling relationships and problems with drugs.
The production features such hits as “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “How Sweet It Is,” “Pride and Joy,” “What’s Goin On,” “Sexual Healing” and “Let’s Get it On.”
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‘Marvin Gaye: Prince of Soul’
Created and directed by Nate Jacobs. Runs April 17-May 26, Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, 1012 N. Orange Ave., Sarasota. Tickets are $50, $20 for students and active military. 941-361-1505; https://westcoastblacktheatre.org
By the end of April, a key downtown Sarasota intersection will be closed for approximately nine months as construction is scheduled to begin on a new roundabout at Ringling Boulevard and Pine Place.
The city’s contractor has received a notice to proceed on the project to replace the awkwardly angled intersection with a single-lane roundabout.
The project will include drainage and utility adjustments, utility pole replacements, irrigation, paver crosswalks and a new shelter for Sarasota County’s Breeze transit.
When opened by the end of January 2025, the roundabout will complete a chain of traffic circles along Ringling Boulevard including those at Palm Avenue, Pineapple Avenue and Orange Avenue.
What the second phase of Lofts on Lemon is not is another multimillion-dollar per unit condo tower.
What Lofts on Lemon II is, is 100 desperately needed attainable apartments on valuable downtown land close to working-class jobs, Sarasota Housing Authority President and CEO William Russell told Sarasota Planning Board members.
Before receiving unanimous approval of his appeal for adjustments to the project, Russell felt compelled to deliver an impassioned message as the Planning Board, as it has done during other recent public hearings, attempted to redesign the project at the dais, offering suggestions that would add time and money, both of which the SHA has in short supply.
The clock is ticking on potential funding sources that Russell said must be completed in order to build the 100-unit addition to the 128 apartments, which comprise the first phase that fronts Cohen Way. That sense of urgency was evident during the April 10 Planning Board meeting as the SHA sought approval for two significant adjustments denied by staff, both of them on the perimeter of the site and one of them not yet reviewed by staff.
Between denial of the adjustments and the Planning Board meeting, changes were made to widen the “pedestrian experience” along Lemon Avenue from 8 feet to 10.5 feet, still 18 inches shy of the 12 feet required by code. That caused some angst among Planning Board members as they wrestled with possible future implications of approving an adjustment modification not yet reviewed by staff.
The other adjustment is a 125-foot length of ground-level façade, the east-facing garage wall, devoid of architectural treatment. Code requires architectural features at increments no less than 80 feet in length.
That’s the extent of what SHA can offer, said Russell, project consultant Joel Freedman and Chris Gallagher of Hoyt Architects, and still include parking needed for the tenants. The building footprint was moved inward toward an existing surface parking lot, and going any farther will encroach on a complete row of spaces.
Lofts on Lemon II is planned as an eight-story building, including three levels of structured parking beneath. The 10.5 feet of pedestrian space was achieved by a plan to plant street trees eight feet from the street beneath grates flush to the sidewalk. Between the trees and the building is another 2.5 feet of sidewalk, effectively resulting in a fully traversable surface nearly the width the code require.
“We hear it often said that affordable housing is the most pressing problem our community faces, and it is extremely difficult to put a development like this together,” Russell said. “I’ve spent a ton of my time on this. Right now we have three deals that I'm trying to get closed that are not yet funded, Lofts on Lemon phase two included.”
Any delays, he added, would jeopardize the project.
Representing the planning staff, Acting Development Review Chief Planner Noah Fossick said project planners fell short in exploring options to mitigate parking issues. Among those is the option to build a fourth level of structured parking to compensate for a row of spaces that would be lost in order to move the building farther from the street to accommodate a code-compliant sidewalk.
During rebuttal, Russell said it’s not that simple, adding the city should be more accommodating for a non-profit working to address its affordable and attainable housing needs.
“To suggest we can just build another level of parking, which costs about $50,000 per space, when we already don't have enough funding to build 100 units of affordable housing on the site, the city should be bending over backwards to accommodate not just the housing authority but anyone who wants to build affordable housing in our community,” Russell said. “We're trying to do this in the downtown urban core. This is very valuable land and we are trying to maximize the site. We're trying to get as much from the building as we can and it just seems like we're being treated as a for-profit developer that's trying to maximize profit.”
The races for the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board this year have already become the most expensive ever. Three candidates posted fundraising of $15,000 or more for the partisan elections.
That takes place as a clear division becomes clear, particularly in the Republican Primary, between two slates of candidates.
On one side is an anti-privatization slate, where most of the financial support has surfaced to date. Incumbents Sharon Wetzler DePeters (seat 1) and Sarah Lodge (Central district) are part of that group, along with Mote Marine executive Kevin Cooper (seat 2) and Sarasota Memorial executive Pam Beitlich (seat 3).
Meanwhile, a medical freedom slate demanding major changes at the district, potentially including its privatization, is led by Mary Flynn O’Neill (seat 3), sister to former Donald Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn. O’Neill is running with a slate including, Dr. Tamzin Rosenwasser (seat 1), Kendra Becker-Musante (seat 2) and Tonya Parus (Central district). Another candidate, Dr. Stephen Guffanti (seat 2) has also spoken for medical freedom and accused Sarasota Memorial of once holding him in COVID isolation against his will.
Beitlich, now Sarasota Memorial’s executive director of Women and Children’s Services, has amassed the most in contributions. In the first quarter of the year, she raised $18,145. That’s more than anyone has spent to win a seat on the board (Britt Riner in 2020 spent $15,000 to win a seat 3 post).
“I can’t thank the people of this community enough for rallying behind my campaign to ensure every Sarasota County resident continues to receive the very best health care that they have come to expect from SMH,” she said in a statement.
Cooper, Vice President of Communications and Strategic Initiatives for Mote Marine Laboratory, has raised nearly as much, reporting $16,128. “It just goes to show how important access to quality medical care is to the residents of this community,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Lodge put in $15,000 out of pocket to defend her seat and DePeters reported $5,100 raised to do the same.
Rossenwasser has raised the most of the medical freedom candidates, about $700. O’Neill has collected $200 and Parus reported $170. Neither Becker-Musante nor Guffanti has reported any donation to date.
Looking beyond the primary, three Democrats have also filed for seats on the board. None is currently expected to face a primary. George Davis (seat 3) has been the most prolific fundraiser, reporting $3,375 in contributions, not as much as any of the anti-privatization Republicans but more than any medical freedom candidate. John Lutz (seat 2) has reported $100 in contributions. Alan Jerome Spitzer (seat 1) has reported no fundraising to date.
Del Webb's Sheree Parke stood with other members of the Lakewood Ranch Community Emergency Response Team handing out hurricane guides.
The Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance's Block Party and Club Day April 12 gave Lakewood Ranch CERT an opportunity to meet new residents or people considering a move to the area. They educated them not only about CERT but how to be prepared for hurricane season.
"We're all about educating our neighbors to make our communities safer," said Lorraine Lakes' Gary Cockfield, who also is a CERT board member.
It wasn't all serious business as the block party lived up to its billing. The band Hangtime entertained those who attended and plenty of activities were available for both kids and adults.
The Block Party and Club Day filled Main Street at Lakewood Ranch with dozens of local businesses and clubs to give people a glimpse at what is available in Lakewood Ranch.
The Office of Angelina "Angel" Colonneso, Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller, will hold its free biannual document shredding event on Saturday, April 20, from 9:00-11:00 a.m. at the Manatee County Fairgrounds.
At the Clerk's Community Shred Day, residents may shred up to two standard-sized bankers' boxes (measuring 12 inches by 10 inches by 15 inches) of personal documents. Accepted items include documents of any color or type of paper, plastic credit cards and IDs.
This event will also offer electronic recycling and hard drive destruction. Residents may recycle electronic devices such as computer monitors, towers/desktops, cell phones, tablets, laptops, printers, smartwatches, and CDs. Hard drives will be destroyed on-site.
Please note that binders, junk mail, magazines, newspapers, speakers, cable boxes, and TVs will not be accepted.
Paper clips, staples, rubber bands, labels, and file tabs do not need to be removed from documents. For the safety and efficiency of all event attendees, drop-offs are not permitted. Attendees are required to remain in their vehicles with their documents and electronics until a staff member or volunteer securely collects their items for shredding or recycling.
Vital Records Control, a professional shredding company certified by the National Association for Information Destruction (AAA Certified), will provide the shredding, electronic recycling, and hard drive destruction services for this event. Since 2018, the Clerk’s Office has proudly offered free document shredding services to all residents of Manatee County.
For more information and event details, please visit the Clerk’s website at:
Booker High School senior Cora Gerdes said it was a relief to finally have the Booker Visual & Performing Arts Center back in business.
Following the approval of renovations to the building in 2020, student performances were held in the school's cafeteria.
The new $28 million facility offered a stark contrast to that location, as attendees saw at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 11.Booker High School senior Cora Gerdes said it was a relief to finally have the Booker Visual & Performing Arts Center back in business.
The venue will serve the Booker High School Visual and Performing Arts magnet program, which is Sarasota's premier pre-professional arts education program.
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