Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/247585
Sarasota News Leader January 24, 2014 Page 36 Moreover, Harmer said, the county's governmental relations staff would work closely with the School Board and North Port city leaders regarding the effort to obtain legislative support. "Realistically, we do have to examine the funding closely," County Commissioner Nora Patterson pointed out. "This may be a project you can't break ground on as soon as you acquire the property." Patterson also noted that the expense of operating the new library would be another factor for County Commission consideration. She estimated that cost at $1 million per year. While Blucher said he appreciated Patterson's fiscal caution, "I think we all understand we're in a very fragile recovery, and I think part of that recovery is what we're talking about today." County Commissioner Joe Barbetta urged Marsh to have the site selection committee take a close look at property owned by the City of North Port and the county, to determine whether one of those parcels would be acceptable. "That would obviously save some money and expedite the process if we looked at our own land first." A map shows part of the area between Price Boulevard and Interstate 75 in North Port. Image from Google Maps "It would not be a turn-key project," Bowden noted. OTHER WORDS OF SUPPORT Mayor Jim Brown of Longboat Key, Vice Mayor Emilio Carlesimo of Venice, Vice Mayor Willie Shaw of Sarasota and Sarasota City Commissioner Suzanne Atwell all voiced Marsh replied that North Port property had support for a North Port SCTI with a new been reviewed, with one possible location library. "I don't see how you can't do this," found, but he would work with Herrli, the Brown pointed out. county's land acquisition manager, to take a North Port, he added, "[is] where the people closer look at county sites. are going to come from that are going to fill When Blucher asked if the district had devised the jobs in this county." a construction estimate, Marsh told him it did not have a figure "at this point." Staff is "very "I am fully committed to this project," School close, I think, to getting to what that total Board Chairwoman Jane Goodwin said. "I would be …" Marsh added that tentative plan think it's the most exciting thing that we could possibly do in the school district." % calls for the SCTI to be built in phases.