The Lake Sarasota Community Blog

Extension open house offers tips for a sustainable holiday season Find out how to go green for the holidays and learn more about Sarasota County Extension. From 1-4 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 10, Extension agents will provide tips for a sustainable holiday season during the open house at the Extension office at Twin Lakes Park, 6700 Clark Road, Sarasota. Among the demonstrations planned are: (MORE) Phillippi Farmhouse Market celebrates grand re-opening Nov. 3 Phillippi Farmhouse Market opens its second season on Wednesday, Nov. 3, at Phillippi Estate Park, 5500 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota with a grand re-opening celebration from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. with music, speeches and product giveaways. The market specializes in fresh, local produce, including fruits, vegetables, cut flowers, herbs and organic and hydroponic produce. Prepared foods are available to eat at the market picnic-style or take home. There are also sustainable, specialty and Florida agriculturally related products.  (MORE) G...

Sustainability Open House Find out how to go green for the holidays. Plan to attend free classes and volunteer opportunities with Sarasota County Extension. Participate in how to care for holiday plants, create safe and sustainable home cleaning products and how to be energy efficient during the upcoming holiday season.   (MORE)   

Flu season is here…Your best defense against the flu is to get vaccinated -- Get your flu shot after you vote Outside the Sarasota Early Voting Location through Oct. 31 Sarasota  County Terrace Building 101 S. Washington Blvd. , Sarasota Weekdays : 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturdays : 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sundays : 1-5 p.m. Cost : $20-$35, depending on the provider Cash or check Seniors: Present your Medicare B card for a free vaccine. Vaccine Providers : A Familiar Face Home Health Services, Inc., Sarasota Health Care Services, Inc., Visiting Nurses Association (VNA), CVS and Walgreens Some providers may offer pneumonia and tetanus shots as well. Ask about their availability.

Floating wheelchairs to debut at Sarasota County beaches People who use wheelchairs and other assistive devices for mobility can now enjoy the waters at some of Sarasota County's award winning beaches. Sarasota County Parks and Recreation will debut its new floating wheelchairs at a press conference, 10 a.m., Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 at Siesta Beach Pavilion, 948 Beach Road, Siesta Key. The Mobi-Chair will be available free of charge at Siesta Beach, Lido Beach, Lido Beach, Nokomis Beach, Venice Beach and Manasota Beach. No advanced registration will be required to use the chairs.   (MORE) The first international street-painting festival in the United States comes to Sarasota   Never before has such talent in street-painting come together into one location in America, until now for the Sarasota Chalk Festival.  More than 250 street-painters from the United States, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands and Slovenia will work on their hands and knees for two days alo...

SARASOTA BECOMES FILM SET; TRAFFIC DELAYS EXPECTED Sarasota, FL: The City of Sarasota is coordinating with Sanborn Entertainment , a new Sarasota County based television production company, to facilitate filming a portion of a TV pilot over the weekend. Motorists and pedestrians should expect intermittent traffic delays from U.S. 41 and the John Ringling Causeway to the Bird Key/Coon Key Bridge. Message boards will be posted alerting drivers to the delays. "We're very excited the City of Sarasota was selected for this shoot," said Deputy City Manager Marlon Brown. "It will cause some brief driving inconveniences. But, we're working with the production crew to minimize traffic congestion, while ensuring they're able to film." Just three weeks ago, Sanborn Entertainment announced its collaboration with Sarasota County to bring a television production studio to the area along with 117 jobs over the next three years. To learn more about the economic d...

What: An important neighborhood meeting of the Fruitville 210 Alliance: Who:  District 2- Joe Barbetta (Republican) vs. Cathy Antunes (Independent-Challenger) District 4- Nora Patterson (Republican) vs. Mark Hawkins (Democrat-Challenger) Why: Candidate Debate for Sarasota County Commission Where: Sabal Palm Bank, 5101 Fruitville Road When: Tuesday, October 12th from 6:30-8 pm (if attending, PLEASE be on time) For those unable to attend, but who are interested in the issues, here is a live-blogged, rough trasncript of the debate. Mark Hawkins (above) makes a point during the debate as Cathy Antunes (facing) and Nora Patterson look on. Antunes speaks, Joe Barbetta to her right. 

This Schwinn S-25 was found by a Lake Sarasota resident - it might have been taken from a home in Lake Sarasota. If you know the owner, please call Mike at 809-3239.

October 14 will be an important meeting for LSCG: A rather full agenda includes planning upcoming events as well as regular features. 1. The Nov. 6 Fundraiser will require many helping hands - got some? 2. The Nov. 20 Community Yard Sale is coming - get on the map! 3. Citizens Patrol, Yard of the Month, Treasurer's report. 4. At the November meeting: Identity Theft Workshop. If you have absolutely no time, consider a small donation to our Fundraiser -- all the money collected goes to families in Lake Sarasota at the holidays. Snailmail us at: LSCG PO Box 21983 Sarasota, FL 34276

From Board President Bill Pitts: Residents of Lake Sarasota:    The Lake Sarasota Community Group is having a Christmas "Adopt a Family" fund raiser on November 6th, 2010.  The event is being staged to help support needy families in our community.  The event will be held at the pavilion at the park. We will have games for children, raffles, arts and crafts and prizes and food for sale.  All proceeds will go to help needy families in our own community.  WE NEED A LOT OF HELP!!!  Please volunteer to work for a couple of hours at the event.  It is for a very worthy cause and we're sure it will give you a great "warm and fuzzy" feeling when you help out. Please contact Ray or Connie Bresciani at 371-1180.  They will be coordinating volunteers and they are anxious to hear from you. Remember, it only takes a little from a lot of volunteers to get a lot accomplished and to make for a much better Christ...

A message from Sandy: Hello everyone! It's that time of year again...Garage Sale time!  The next community garage sale will be Saturday 11/20.  Please email me to be included in the garage sale map our volunteers hand out.  Please..please..please..if you intend to have a garage sale, let me know and don't just think..o..I'll just put a sign out the day of the sale.  Last time, only about 1/4 of you were on the map and that hinders how many people we can bring into the neighborhood (ergo..how much money you all make).  It's much more impressive to advertise we have 100 garage sales going on that day than it is to say we have only 20.  Again, we are asking for a small donation to cover our advertising costs.  If you can contribute, please do. Contact Sandy to get on the map:  sallen11@comcast.net

Save Nov. 6th - it's the first Saturday in November, when, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Lake Sarasota will hold a festival with a cause in Lakeview Park. This is the second year your community has decided to "Adopt a Family" for the holidays. Last year it made a tremendous difference for one Lake Sarasota family. This year, if we raise enough money, perhaps we can help two or even three families. We'll be selling raffle tickets, have music, some good food, and there'll be lot of stuff for kids to do. Every penny of the money raised will go to one or more families from our community. We'll be helped by staff at Lakeview School who know the community well. In other words, all we do is raise the money, and do the shopping and gift wrapping -- the school does the rest. How about it? Can you come out to the Pavilion by the Lake on Saturday, Nov. 6th , to play, to eat, to meet neighbors, and to help us meet our goal of raising $1,000 to brighten a few homes and he...

October is Greensways, Blueways and Trails Month The Friends of the Legacy Trail invite everyone to share the Legacy. All month long there will be events to enjoy. Bring your leashed dog, or your children for community get togethers, free snacks and water at stations along the Legacy Trail. Oct. 2 - assorted level bicycle rides Meet at Patriot's Park Click here for a full schedule of events. Sustainable Communities Workshop is scheduled Oct. 7 Sarasota County will hold its fifth annual Sustainable Communities Workshop from 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 7. The workshop will be at the Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida Event and Conference Center, 4740 Cattlemen Road, Sarasota. Registration is open to the public.   This year's theme for the popular, interactive workshop is "Bringing It Home." Expert speakers will cover resource conservation solutions for existing homes, sites and developments, and what can be done at the community, neighborhood and individual le...