The Lake Sarasota Community Blog

Santa will arrive in Lake Sarasota on a firetruck on Sunday, Dec. 23rd, around 2 p.m. The truck will proceed through the neighborhood slowly, and Santa will wave and have candy canes. Here's the route - note he begins at Mauna Loa and Bee Ridge, heads down Mauna Loa, up Bershire, back across to Lanai, then to Jarvis Rd., Lago Way, then the High School: Santa should be arriving at the high school sometime around 2:40 p.m. He'll meet and greet kids for the next half hour or so. And don't forget! Caroling begins at 5 p.m.

SCOPE is a local group - the name stands for Sarasota County Openly Plans for Excellence. They want us to Save the Date in 2008: People Are Talking - About Youth & Diversity: Sunday, January 27 Winter Forum on Aging: Friday February 22 Summit for Environmental Action: Friday February 29

Media contact: Tel 941.861.8606 Fax 941.861.8609 (SARASOTA, FL,) –The voter registration deadline is approaching for the Presidential Preference Primary Election, which will be held on Tuesday, January 29, 2008. Citizens must be registered by Monday, December 31, 2007, to be eligible to vote in this election. Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent recommends that voters verify their registration information. A voter who has moved, had a name change, or needs to update a signature since the last election may submit a Florida Voter Registration Application to update his or her record. For more information call the supervisor of elections at 861-8600 or write to Supervisor of Elections, PO Box 4194, Sarasota, FL 34230-4194. To register to vote, one must submit a completed Florida Voter Registration Application Form. Florida Voter Registration Application forms are available at supervisor of elections offices, city halls, county libraries, county offices, social service ag...

At the December meeting, plans were made for holiday festivities, beautification, traffic calming, and citizens patrol. 1. Holiday: Sunday, December 23, 2 p.m. Plans call for Santa to ride through Lake Sarasota on a fire engine from the 17th St. Fire station. From 2 p.m. to roughly 3 p.m., Santa will be distributing candy canes (or small bottles of vodka) so make sure all Santa fans are out looking for him. Here's the route: Beginning at Bee Ridge and Mauna Loa, and proceeding to make a loop consisting of: Berkshire -> Brentford -> Marlboro -> Friendship -> Lanai -> Jarvis Click below for larger map or click here . 2. CAROLING: The same day, Sunday, Dec. 23rd, at 5 p.m., carolers will gather near the start of Mauna Loa (near where the community sign is located). There will be sheet music. Bring holiday attire, candles. There will be sheet music. The Carolers will probably proceed down Mauna Loa. Anyone is free to join at any point for as long as they wish. 3. Beauti...

For Lake Sarasota residents on Lago and Jarvis: The water line construction contract with Frederick Derr was approved this morning. The pre-construction meeting will be held next week sometime. The contractor plans to begin right after the New Year. County Utility and Public Works representatives will be at our next meeting at Sarasota Baptist, 6:30 pm January 8. The contractor will be there as well to answer questions. Please come to that meeting.

(This is excerpted from a report presented to the Sarasota Board of County Commissioners in 2007) In 2006, Lake Sarasota, a neighborhood of 1,600 homes, was approached by Sarasota County. Debbie Marks of Sarasota’s Neighborhood Services, as it was then called, got out the word that there was help available if residents of Lake Sarasota wished to try to build neighborhood identity and a community group to address local issues.   Several residents responded and began to meet. Several themes emerged: identity, neighborhood beautification, community events, security and traffic calming.   Over the course of the next 16 months, Ms. Marks gave support, guidance, and served as a liaison as a core group of residents began work on these issues. The “core group” consisted of about a dozen active members who worked tirelessly, often getting out at the crack of dawn on weekends to clean up, to plant, to move bricks and mulch. A brief list of initiatives and actions that have taken pl...

Several items of potential interest to Lake Sarasota residents are on the Tuesday, Dec. 11th County Commission Agenda: 20. PUBLIC WORKS To approve a Contract with Frederick Derr and Company, Inc., for construction services of the Lakeview Elementary School Area Sidewalk Project and the Jarvis Road Water Main Extension Projec t, in the amount of $1,622,104.68. 21. PUBLIC WORKS To approve the use of contingency funds for improvements to sidewalks, as follows: C. Webber Street, Phase II, Improvement Project, Lakeview Elementary School Improvement Project , CIP 85786, Shamrock Drive Improvement Project, CIP 95793, and North Sarasota Improvement Project, CIP 85785, in the amount not to exceed the Project's contingency. 43. PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT SERVICES A. Public hearing continued from August 29, 2007, to consider proposed Ordinance No. 2007-072, Palmer Place Development of Critical Concern (DOCC), a petition by Kemmons Wilson, Inc., to construct 1,488 mixed residential dwelling uni...

The last General meeting of the Lake Sarasota Community Group of the year is this Tuesday, Dec. 11, at 7 p.m. at Sarasota Baptist Church. Among the agenda items: Seasonal activities - we're working on either a hayride, or caroling, or both, for either Saturday, Dec. 22 or Sunday, Dec. 23 - come help us figure it out! Anybody have a hay wagon to lend? Any more ideas? Contact Sandy if you do. Are you concerned about taxes? Property appraisals? Foreclosures? Short sales? The Jan. 29th vote on some of these matters? We are too. We want to inform ourselves, and we're doing some planning. Also, we'll start thinking about community events for the spring - yard sales, etc. George Morgan needs someone to help schedule Citizen Patrols. Contact him (377-4437 or email) if you have a little time to make some phone calls. Plus, get updates on Traffic calming efforts. The water line project on Jarvis/Lago (special meeting on that Jan. 8, 6:30 p.m., Sarasota Baptist). Want to stay curr...

If you have a stake or an interest in the water lines that will soon be installed along Jarvis Rd., Lago Way and Lago Rd., make a note to meet the contractor on Jan. 8, 2008. Representatives of the county's public works, utilities, and the contractor, Derr Excavating, will be at Sarasota Baptist, in our regular Lake Sarasota Community Group meeting room at 6:30 p.m. A regular general meeting will follow at 7 p.m. This is your chance to ask questions about costs, timing, sidewalks, and all else. Try to attend, and if you live in the impacted area, please make sure your neighbors know. The fee schedule is below - click on it to enlarge: Also: Low income financing might be available. For general info, or more info about low income financing, call Linda Larsen, 861-0662. For questions about the impact of the project on the neighborhood, call Rodney Jones, 861-0506 . He will be the county's onsite representative once the project has begun. For information about the installation of ...

. . . decorating the entrance signs: they can be difficult to photograph, but we have ocular proof: Thanks to Tisha for the photos and to Dawn and all else for the work.

If you've not been over to Lakeview Park recently, you have a surprise in store. Over the past few weeks, the Corrections Dept. crew has been out pretty much every day removing 10 years' worth of invasive undergrowth that was choking the canals and making it difficult to see the lakes, let alone play disk golf. They even dredged the canals to give the water space to move. Clean sight-lines now look across opened-up vistas that offer a whole new perspective on the park. For one thing, I'll bet you didn't know that one of the small ponds (along the Lago Road side) has two small islands -- I asked one person who's been coming to the park nearly every day for years, and she said it was a revelation to her. One odd thing: there are piles of dead wood that have been collected and placed at the base of some trees, many of which themselves are dead. I wondered why this wood hadn't been removed by the crew, which did a great job of removing tons of brush, weeds and inv...