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From everyday smartphones to smart TVs and smart cars, technological advancements keep developing to improve our daily lives.
The medical field is not left out with the invention of the 'Smart Knee' which is one of the latest innovations in orthopedic surgery that has arrived at at least one hospital in the Sarasota area.
The technology is giving one Sarasota veteran a new lease on his active life.
"I was in the infantry, the airborne infantry, and the straight leg infantry, and the mechanized infantry. So that means you have to be a leader of men and they have to follow you," James Myers, a veteran from Lakewood Ranch, said.
For the 68-year-old Army veteran who just recently had a knee replacement, life looks very different now after he spent what he described as 21 grueling years in the US Army.
"We did plenty of road marches, 25 miles with heavy backpacks on your back. You would jump out of planes, jump out of helicopters," Myers said.
Even after leaving the force and going into civilian life working with the U.S. government, he remained active and indulged in various athletics and recreation. But one of his worst fears happened while on a visit to Alaska with his wife last summer.
"We were hiking up and my knee popped. Coming home, I just really felt the pain in my knees and I told my wife I needed to see a doctor," Myers said.
Seeking help and treatment for his injury, Myers was connected with Dr. John Thomas, an orthopedic surgeon at HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors Hospital.
Instead of a standard knee replacement surgery, Dr. Thomas replaced Myers with a device now called the "Smart Knee."
"We call it the Smart implant, the implant is very small 30 mm and we're working on making one even smaller," Dr. Thomas said.
Just as they did in 2022, Sarasota-based philanthropists Joe and Mary Kay Henson have pledged to donate $100 to every nonprofit that will take part in the Giving Challenge 2024, the Community Foundation of Sarasota County’s 24-hour online giving event happening from noon to noon April 9-10.
Donating $100 to all 728 participating nonprofit organizations will leverage the generous 1:1 match on all donations from $25-$100 that The Patterson Foundation is again contributing. This means that the Hensons’ donation of $72,800 will become $145,600.
The couple hopes to inspire giving by others who have the means to take full advantage of The Patterson Foundation’s match, which is unlimited. In 2022, the Hensons donated $100 to all 667 participating nonprofits, turning a $66,700 donation into $133,400. That year’s Giving Challenge raised $16.2 million in 24 hours, showcasing the generosity of our community and its enthusiastic support of the nonprofit sector. More than $6 million of those dollars were provided by The Patterson Foundation’s match.
Dollars raised during the Giving Challenge are unrestricted, so the organizations themselves can put them to best use. In 2022, organizations each raised an average of $14,356, which, for many, offered new possibilities for pursuing their missions, expanding their reach, and enhancing their potential. Those interested in contributing on April 9-10, 2024, can visit www.givingchallenge.org to take part and search for causes to support.
Target to build large-format store near Lakewood Ranch
The retailer has filed for a permit with Manatee County to build a new store, nearly 25,000 square feet larger than its average store, at Marketplace at Heritage Harbour off I-75.
Target plans to build a nearly 150,000-square-foot store in east Manatee County next to an existing Costco on Lighthouse Road.
The store will be in the Marketplace at Heritage Harbour shopping center just off of Interstate 75 and State Road 64, about a mile from Lakewood Ranch.
The new location will be part of the Minneapolis retailer's two-year old plan to build bigger stores in order to carry more merchandise and give locations space for its same-day order fulfillment digital strategy.
While the chain is not commenting on the location, a building permit application was filed in January with Manatee County for construction of the 149,214-square-foot store at 725 Lighthouse Drive.
According to online county records, the building permit application is being processed with several conditions remaining to be met. There was no immediate timetable available for when a decision will be made.
The application was submitted by TH Harbour LLLP, which has a Piscataway, New Jersey principal address that, according to state corporation records, matches Edgewood Properties, one of Marketplace’s developers.
A marketing flyer and concept plan for the development includes a space next to the Costco store. The text on the flyer designates that space, in all capital letters, as “Lease pending big box user 148,782 sf.”
It could cost as much as $350 million to secure the water needed to meet the demand Sarasota County Utilities wants to be able to satisfy over the next 20 years.
That’s the county’s potential share of the expansion of the Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority, which provides about half the county’s potable water currently — 15 million gallons per day, Utilities Director Brooke Bailey told the County Commission Tuesday.
The Authority serves DeSoto, Charlotte and Sarasota counties and North Port.
It’s already planning to increase production by about 25 million gallons per day by 2044, of which 12 million is to go to Sarasota County. But because Charlotte County and North Port haven’t yet sought an allocation of the increased capacity, more — an additional 5 mgd — may be available.
The Authority is pursuing two expansion projects, and both are necessary, Bailey said. The issue is which to prioritize.
One project is surface water supply expansion, which involves a plant expansion and a new 9-billion-gallon reservoir. The project would add 24 mgd in production, though that’s with the plant operating at 100% capacity, which it can’t do on a daily basis, she said. The average additional production would be 18 mgd.
Project two includes a new reverse-osmosis treatment plant and 15 new groundwater wells. This project would bring on 12 mgd at maximum production, 8 mgd on average, Bailey said.
The estimated cost of the surface water expansion project is $504 million, but it already has about $133 million in grant funding in place. The price tag on the groundwater expansion project is $285 million, with no grant funding for it now, she said.
While the groundwater project is cheaper, it would only meet projected needs until 2033, she said. The surface water project, on the other hand, would cover the county until 2044 and give it excess capacity it could sell, she said.
That would be important, Bailey said, because the full cost of each project would fall on the county if the Authority’s other members don’t seek an allocation of the additional capacity to be created.
The commissioners quickly lined up behind Bailey’s recommendation to push participation in the surface water project.
“I can’t think of anything that’s more core than water supply,” Commissioner Ron Cutsinger said, adding that he’d rather be looking at who to sell to than who to buy from.
Former state GOP chairperson Christian Ziegler and his wife, Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler, have filed a lawsuit against two law enforcement agencies in Sarasota to stop the release of records related to a now-closed sexual battery and video voyeurism investigation.
The lawsuit, filed in Sarasota County Court on Monday against the Sarasota Police Department and the State Attorney’s Office for the 12th Judicial Circuit, seeks to prohibit the release of any more of the couple’s private communications that were obtained during the investigation. It also asks that all such communications be destroyed.
An attorney for the couple, Matthew Sarelson, argued in the lawsuit that the release of records stemmed from “an unsubstantiated police report” with the Sarasota Police Department.
In the court filing, the Zieglers seek to prevent the release of any of their text messages and other communications in the hands of law enforcement.
Sarelson wrote that only the communications between Ziegler and his accuser should be available to the public. He argued that private conversations between the married couple are privileged.
The lawsuit says that communications from Christian Ziegler’s cell phone, Google Drive and Instagram account do not qualify as public records and could cause “irreparable harm” to the couple if released.
“The cell phone and its contents are my personal property,” Christian Ziegler said in the legal filing. “The phone includes years of data, including communications with my wife and different attorneys I have retained over the years. The phone and its contents were not intended to be public.”
Bridget Ziegler, a conservative education activist who co-founded the conservative education group Moms for Liberty, gave a similar statement.
Sarasota’s state attorney declined to comment on the lawsuit and the Sarasota Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment on Tuesday by the time of publication. The Zieglers and Sarelson also did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Sarasota County School Board members have frequently mentioned how the housing market is making it increasingly tough for new teachers and staff members to find places to live.
At a workshop Tuesday morning, they explored possibilities for easing those housing problems.
One of those possibilities involves a 40-acre property the district owns on Indian Hills Boulevard off Center Road near Venice. The board was presented as a possible site for affordable single- and multi-family housing options with close proximities to Garden Elementary and Venice Middle School.
Board members seemed impressed with a plan by One Stop Housing to remedy the rising issue of affordable housing in Sarasota County. One Stop Housing is a private company that specializes in workforce rentals.
The business’s proposal focused on providing housing products for rent to school district employees struggling to find an affordable home.
OSH’s Mark Vengroff said “100% of everything we do is at 80% AMI (area median income) or less.”
Vengroff said the property would prioritize housing district employees by surveying teachers and staff to understand and meet the needs of the district, including a possible on-site day care and telehealth center.
The average rent in the county is $1,824 per month, 22% higher than the national average as of this month.
Chair Karen Rose noted retention rates for Sarasota County teachers has been a struggle in the past due to the rising cost of living.
“As a principal for 14 years, recruiting teachers was relatively feasible,” she said. “I could not keep at least 50% of them for more than two years unless they found a partner or roommate, so it’s definitely a challenge from a data standpoint.”
Vengroff added the proposal would require no additional expenses from SCS besides donation of the land to the development company, which gained the support of several board members, including Tom Edwards.
Vengroff noted his proposal for SCS included the preservation of wetlands located on half of the Indian Hills property by maximizing units on one parcel to avoid impact on environment.
Neal Communities, known as a local home builder, gave a workforce housing proposal for the Indian Hills property, with a focus on young consumers who “want to partake in the dream of homeownership.”
The plan would include the sale of the property from Neal Communities.
Pat Neal shared SCS would need to be responsible for educating the district’s employees through down payment assistance programs, including down payment grants as “the down payment is the primary struggle for the buyer.”
Board members shared their support for a rent-to-own path opportunity for district employees, with Bridget Ziegler raising the possibility of a childcare center similar to OSH’s proposal.
The other potential sites include Jackson County, Opa-locka, Seminole County, St. John’s County, and Eatonville, the oldest Black-incorporated municipality in Florida.
Eatonville is one of six sites being considered for Florida’s Black History Museum, after the township formally submitted its proposal for the project last week.
The Florida Museum of Black History Task Force said it has narrowed down finalists for the museum to include Eatonville.
Senator Geraldine Thompson is on the task force. She says the other potential sites include Jackson County, Opa-locka, Sarasota, Seminole County and St. John’s County.
“We will read them and rank them. And we're scheduled to meet on March 25. To narrow it down to maybe one, two or three, we're considering something like the Smithsonian model where there is a hub. And then there are affiliates so we're considering, possibly two affiliates, in addition to wherever the main museum will be located,” said Thompson.
Thompson said her dream with the museum is two-fold. She wants the museum to be a location that kids throughout the state can visit, similar to St. Augustine. And she wants it to be an accurate depiction of Black history.
“I envision something similar to the National African American History Museum in Washington, DC, that will attract tourists who are interested in understanding this part of our history, which has been obscured for many, many years. And so it's a combination of tourism and education that I'm hoping will materialize from the museum,” said Thompson.
When the world shut down in 2020, Tim and Heather Dull discovered pickleball.
It’s the fastest-growing sport in America, according to USA Pickleball.
And in the driveway of their Maryland home, the Dulls began playing during the COVID-19 global pandemic.
“Tim painted a blue court in our driveway and we got one of those portable nets,” Heather Dull said. “We were playing pretty much every day.”
The Dulls, who bought a house in Sarasota in 2021, also found Dill Dinkers, an indoor facility featuring several courts, in their hometown during the 2022 winter holiday season. The pickleball facility is entrenched in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast region.
Until now.
Indoor pickleball courts planned in Bradenton
The Dulls are franchising 10 Dill Dinkers locations throughout Florida’s west coast, including Bradenton, Sarasota, Venice and St. Petersburg.
The exact locations are not finalized yet, but the Dulls said they plan on opening the first location by the end of 2024 or early 2025.
“We are developing two indoor facilities in the broader Sarasota/Bradenton area of 9-12 courts each,” Heather Dull said. “We’re hopeful that it would be like a six- to 12-month kind of timeline and that’s kind of what we’re expecting. But obviously, things can change.”
Pickleball enthusiasts can reserve a court at Dill Dinkers, which features a variety of membership options. The court reservation system is something different than the first-come, first-serve model often found at public outdoor courts.
“There’s very few places, if at all, that you can reserve a court and go play and have that court for your time,” Tim Dull said. “And I think that’s one of the big features that makes us think this will be very popular down here.”
He said they are focused on getting pickleball players into Dill Dinkers to create a community aspect. There will be social areas and some vending machines, but players are encouraged to bring their own food and drinks, Tim said.
The Sarasota County School Board talked talk during Tuesday's workshop.
Public comment has been expansive, passionate and at times shut down by board members in recent months — especially after the ousting of a former superintendent and an ongoing controversy involving Board member Bridget Ziegler.
On Tuesday's agenda, public comment policy suggestions were given.
Four new versions of Policy 2.22 were presented to the board for recommendation by board attorney Patrick Duggan.
• Version 1 would add regulations on statutory authority for public comment, disruptions at meetings and accommodations items to strengthen policy and authority of the board.
• Version 2 would limit public comment speaking time by the number of speakers, with 1 to 25 speakers equaling 3 minutes each, 26-50 speakers equaling 2 minutes each and 51+ speakers equaling 1 minute each.
Public speaker time could be used for comment on agenda items or general business of the board or district.
• Version 3 would limit public comment speaking time to 90 minutes total, divided evenly among each speaker but not exceeding 3 minutes per speaker. Public speaking time could be used for comment on agenda items or general business of the board or district.
• Version 4 would split public comment into two portions, with agenda-related comments at the start of meeting and general comments at end of meeting.
It also mirrors Version 2's public speaking limit based on speaker numbers, noting speakers would only get one period to comment on agenda comments, regardless of how many agenda items they wish to speak on.
An individual speaker would be allowed to speak during both comment periods as long as they turn in a speaker card for each portion.
All four versions include Policy 2.22's regulations on statutory authority for public comment, disruptions at meetings and accommodations, Duggan said.
Board members were not quick to offer their opinions.
28th Annual Big Truck Day is April 27 at CoolToday Park!
Get ready to pull the levers and honk the horns! Join us for the 28th annual Big Truck Day at CoolToday Park, presented by #SRQCountyParks and the Atlanta Braves. Experience over 40 trucks up close, plus crafts, pedal cars and more!
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