Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/100825
Sarasota News Leader December 28, 2012 Page 75 NOV. 26 NOV. 27 The North Port City Commission slams the brakes on a process designed to solicit ideas to redevelop Warm Mineral Springs during an adversarial ��� and, at times, downright snide ��� public meeting. The commission gathered to consider going forward with an Invitation to Negotiate, which would allow private developers to put forward their ideas for how to redevelop Warm Mineral Springs, the 87-degree ���Fountain of Youth��� jointly purchased by North Port and Sarasota County in 2010. The Invitation to Negotiate process was set in motion in July during a joint city-county meeting, at which both commissions unanimously voted to begin soliciting long-term plans for the property. But that plan comes to a halt when the North Port commission ��� led by Mayor Linda Yates and two newly elected commissioners ��� shoots down a motion to approve the Invitation to Negotiate. Yates, who voted in favor of the Invitation to Negotiate in July, raises several concerns about the plan, from the makeup of the selection and negotiation teams that would evaluate the developers��� ideas to what she called a scarcity of scientific data. The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida holds a City Hall lawn press conference with chapter Legal Chairman Michael Barfield blasting the Sarasota Police Department for what he calls ���a culture of contempt and disrespect for the city���s homeless.��� Barfield works from a 98-page compendium of police text messages sent between cruisers. He has filed suit in federal court over the city���s treatment of the homeless. NOV. 28 It took only one crack in the dike to send a flood over the City Commission���s policy of uniform parking regulations for the entire city. That crack was created by St. Armands Key merchants. Their squeals of pain caused the commissioners to declare unconditional surrender on Nov. 19 and allow that shopping district to revert to age-old regulations. Now the city���s Parking Committee hears Parking Manager Mark Lyons say all eight of the city���s parking districts will soon be considered for individual regulations. The uniform policy is dead, dead, dead. % ���Never interrupt an enemy when he is making a mistake.��� ��� Napoleon Someone you know needs Planned Parenthood ��� Lifesaving cancer screenings ��� Parent & teen education ��� Annual GYN exams ��� Birth control Planned Parenthood Of Southwest And Central Florida ��� Sarasota 941-953-4060 ��� MyPlannedParenthood.org