Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/100060
GIVING UP Sarasota County Commissioner Christine Robinson/Photo by Norman Schimmel NORTH PORT WANTS OUT OF WARM MINERAL SPRINGS DEAL By Cooper Levey-Baker Associate Editor The North Port City Commission agenda simply called for a discussion about how to proceed in managing Warm Mineral Springs, the 87-degree ���Fountain of Youth��� the city coowns with the county, but one commissioner placed a very different motion was on the table. ���My motion is to sell the Warm Mineral Springs in its entirety to a private entity,��� North Port Commissioner Cheryl Cook announced just minutes into the commission���s Tuesday, Dec. 18, meeting. In less than two hours, that motion had been approved by a 3-2 majority, sending the county a clear signal that North Port has no desire to continue its joint management of the property. come to a meeting of the minds,��� she tells The Sarasota News Leader. Not so much. ���I believe that this is a project that is better left to the private sector,��� Cook said Dec. 18, adding the city should not be bound by commitments made by previous commissions. Both Cook and Commissioner Rhonda DiFranco are new to the board. ���There was an election,��� Cook said, ���and as far as I���m concerned, this is a new day.��� ���I also have to agree with Commissioner Cook that we were elected. We���re there to protect the concerns of the citizens out there that elected us,��� said DiFranco, seconding Cook���s Even North Port Mayor Linda Yates, who has motion and questioning the very constitutionbeen a constant critic of the process by which ality of plans to redevelop the property. the springs was acquired, was shocked. ���It did come to me as a surprise, because I really Vice Mayor Jim Blucher said he ���couldn���t disstill had some optimism that we possibly can agree more��� with the motion, adding the city