Letter to Sarasota County Neighborhood Services Re: Mowing

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Latest update:
At today's meeting at Frutiville Library, Spencer Anderson of Public Works stated that four of the five Lake Sarasota locations listed by Public Works were not relevant and would be removed from the list. (The four were: Luzon Way, Hand Road, Lago St. and Mauna Loa Blvd.) 
The fifth location is one bit of turf near the end of Jarvis Rd. at 6268 Molokai. The County had been paying a contractor to mow it, and will cease, if the Commission approves the plan. A public hearing is Aug. 24, and anyone may speak. If approved, the new plan with fewer rights of way mowed by county contractors (especially in Sarasota Springs) will begin Oct. 1.

Update: Some clarification this afteroon from Public Works:
The target for our effort is the small amount of space between private properties and their adjacent local or residential roadways.  I've attached a draft exhibit illustrating these areas. In general most residents already maintain these areas, as is done in Lake Sarasota, but we do have a wide distribution of individual properties which do not which has led to the County employing contractors to perform very inefficient mowing services at a reasonably high cost.  The County would continue to maintain all collectors and arterials, medians within roadways where they exist, and right-of-way adjacent to undeveloped properties.  There will also be a proposed exception provision for significantly unusual conditions within the right-of-way that may be considered unreasonable for the adjacent property owner to maintain. 
We were also told that the medians on Mauna Loa would continue to be maintained by the County. 

A further update in response to a few more questions, accompanied by a map file.
I've attached a file with maps of the roads within Lake Sarasota outlining specific areas currently maintained by the county's mowing contracts.  Aside from one small area of right-of-way along Jarvis Road (see note on map), I do not anticipate your community will see any change to the level of service currently provided as the areas we currently maintain are either 1) adjacent to County property (Lago and Hand), 2) undeveloped right-of-way (Jarvis and Luzon), 3) a median (Mauna Loa-South), or 4) does not fit to the intended purpose (Mauna Loa-North).  
Hopefully this information further assists with your questions.  Honestly, I appreciate the inquiry as it shows we need to further refine our draft list of assets (roads, ponds, etc.) potentially affected by the proposed change.  The current published list is an initial review of assets by name which appear to be subject to the proposed change.  Further review is needed to ensure none of the assets are simple areas we would continue to maintain as you have brought to our attention.  
Again, thank you for the dialogue and please let me know if I can be of further assistance.




 This morning we received last-minute notice via email from Sarasota County Neighborhood Services of a meeting to be held today. It seems the county will consider turning over mowing responsibilities to neighborhoods, as a cost-saving measure.

One news story, published today, is here.

We are seeking more information. Here's a letter we've just sent to Neighborhood Services:

Hello Miranda, Jane and Megan, 
Perhaps you've sent previous notices of meetings about making mowing the responsibility of communities. Today is the first we've heard about this, and the only meeting scheduled in North Sarasota takes place today, at Fruitville Library (see references below). 
Although your notice does not list potentially affected streets, we note that Mauna Loa Blvd. in Lake Sarasota is on the list published by Public Works. 
It's our sense that  
  1. The information is last-minute and incomplete, yet could affect the wallets of our homeowners. 
  2. We now must attend this meeting in order to understand what is being proposed.  
Perhaps you might offer some indication in advance of how this new arrangement would work. Would communities be required to find their own mowing contractors and make contracts? What about communities like ours that have no formal HOA? 
This is all rather sudden, and raises large questions that make it necessary to bring this to your attention. 
Please advise as we hope to get word to our community ASAP. 
Thank you.  

References: 
WTSP News Story
Mowing Notification with map
County Proposal - overview
Streets proposed for removal 


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