Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/170820
Sarasota News Leader September 13, 2013 The multiple events generated more than a quarter of a million dollars in state sales tax and local resort taxes. The total estimated financial impact on the community was $17 million, an 18.8 percent increase from last year. More than 40,000 people witnessed the races in person, either from Lido Beach or in boats on the water, according to the agenda material. As an aside, one of Nicandri's prepared slides indicates not a single person from Sarasota attended any of the Grand Prix events. It says 65 percent of the participants were from other parts of Florida, 23 percent were from other states and 12 percent were from foreign countries. With luck, the numbers on the third aquatic presentation do reflect reality. It is Phase Two of the city's effort to create a 109-slip mooring facility in the old downtown anchorage. The commission will be asked to approve the selection of Dock and Marine Construction to install 64 moorings and test additional ones in the bay bottom for $336,400. Page 53 igation District (which is paying for the vast majority of the work) will allow the contractor to go ahead and put in place 29 of the 39 anchors that were proposed for Phase Three of the project. The plan calls for the Phase Three installation to be finished next year, with a $200,000 grant coming from the navigation district. LOOKING TO PINELLAS FOR HOPE The issue of homelessness continues to percolate for the City Commission. After finishing a discussion of the State Street parking garage, the commissioners will share their thoughts and observations after visiting a full-service homeless shelter run by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. It is being held up as a regional model by Dr. Robert Marbut, an expert hired by Sarasota County and its municipalities. The shelter is called Pinellas Safe Harbor, and it relocates the homeless far away from downtown St. Petersburg. City Commissioner Susan Chapman wrote up Phase Two calls for adding 35 anchors, but "field notes" after her tour of the facility on the funding from the West Coast Inland Nav- Sept. 6. She concluded, "Pinellas Safe Har- The city has been making steady progress with its bayfront mooring field. Photo by Norman Schimmel