The Lake Sarasota Community Blog

Landscaping Bee Ridge proceed from West to East trees overhanging right of way will be trimmed back. Roundabout pattern in effect at Bent Tree, but still under construction. Iona reduced to one lane.

The bulk of the activity is now to the East of Lake Sarasota - towards Bent Tree and Iona Blvd, where a crew will be working June 11 to create the roundabout:

Exiting Bent Tree Traffic will have to turn East starting this week. The Mauna Loa intersection is almost fully complete, with two northbound lanes now open. Eastbound, there will still be only one lane open. Medians are in, final work remains to be done.

Road closings extended; new traffic pattern; Mauna Loa intersection scheduled for early Feb.

If you drive to the East end of Mauna Loa Blvd. and look across the boundary stream between Lake Sarasota and Bent Tree, you'll see some clearing and contouring of Bent Tree acreage bordering on the stream. What you're seeing is the relocation of a portion of Bent Tree's golf course to accommodate 78 new homes. The homes will be built back upon a new interior road, and will have a separate gated access point within Bent Tree. A portion of the golf course is being moved toward the stream. Presumably this means folks on the Lake Sarasota side will simply get a closer look at the skills of the players at the country club, not at backyards or a road. The homes are to be built by D.R. Horton , one of the largest home builders in the US. Horton also plans to build 89 Town Homes in the Bee Ridge Park of Commerce -- far to the rear of the property behind Racetrac at N. Mauna Loa. Entitled Baytown, the town homes will be attached homes starting at the mid $200s. TerraC...

The Sarasota County Commission on Tuesday, May 8, awarded contracts totaling nearly $1.8 million for construction of the Bee Ridge Road Force Main Replacement Project and the Pump Station No. 3 Improvement Project.  The Bee Ridge force main will be replaced from Bent Tree Boulevard to Iona Road under terms of the $966,709 contract awarded to General Consulting Services Inc. of Port Charlotte.  The current 18-inch force main along the Bee Ridge corridor has failed three times in six years. An independent laboratory analysis concluded the failures were a result of a manufacturing defect in the pipe. After the last failure in August 2011, the commission authorized staff to expedite the design and construction of this portion of the force main.  The new, 20-inch force main will be located so it does not interfere with the upcoming widening and road improvements of Bee Ridge Road from Mauna Loa Boulevard to Iona Road. Construction is expected to begin in May. Funding...

An unusual meeting took place in Lakeview Park on Friday, July 10. People from three communities and from the county met to discuss a longstanding problem regarding the lake and the canals in the park. The problem in a nutshell: According to longtime residents, the lake and canals used to be clear – you could see all the way to the bottom. There used to be lily pads in the lake, which nurtured fish. A pump used to circulate water from an aquifer through the canals and into the lake. Now there are no lily pads, the lake is low, dark and full of decomposing plantlife on its sandy bottom, fish are not plentiful, and the canals are stagnant and breed mosquitoes. Among the probable causes: Less rainfall has lowered the level of the lake. The pump that fed the lake from an aquifer has not operated in several years. There’s runoff from parking lots and schools – some of this might never have been monitored or approved by SWIFTMUD (are schools exempt?) The canals no longer move, so have become...