Sarasota News Leader

07/04/2014

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Siesta Seen SIESTA SEEN Do not call it the "Siesta trolley" anymore. The new Sarasota County Area Transit (SCAT) route that will be launched on July 12 to serve Siesta Key will be one of six "island buses," Kendra Keiderling, marketing and public out- reach coordinator for SCAT, told about 20 members of the Siesta Key Village Association (SKVA) during their regular meeting on July 1. "We're doing a huge media blitz," she said, to get the word out about Route 10, which will be intertwined with the existing Route 11, to make sure people wait no more than 20 min- utes for a bus to Siesta Key. The new service also will travel to Turtle Beach, as previously reported, but it will reach that destination every hour, Keiderling pointed out. While she did not know the background, she indicated that a trademark situation prevents SCAT from calling the new service a trol- ley. Nonetheless, six brand new SCAT buses that will serve Siesta, Longboat Key and St. Armands will be "wrapped" in an island- themed design, Keiderling continued. "It just helps the customers to easily recognize the buses." One of them was scheduled to be in the Suncoast Super Boat Grand Prix Festival Parade of Boats in downtown Sarasota on July 3, she noted. Additionally, SCAT has created radio com- mercials with the local band Next Level singing a revised version of the song I'll Take You There, substituting "We'll" for "I'll" to promote the new SCAT routes, including ser- vice starting on July 12 at Lakewood Ranch. "We want to make [advertising] catchy and really make people think about taking mass transit," she told the SKVA members. Memos also will be going out the local Chambers of Commerce, Keiderling said. Part of the effort is a rebranding of SCAT, Keiderling explained to me in early June. On July 1, she told the SKVA members that pan- els on the sides of other new 13 SCAT buses will have messages including "SCAT to the library," "SCAT to the airport" and "SCAT to the parks." SIESTA KEY VILLAGE ASSOCIATION MEMBERS URGE EXPANDED MARKETING OF THE NEW 'ISLAND BUS' SERVICE; THE OUTDOOR DISPLAY ISSUE WILL START ITS COUNTY CONSIDERATION PROCESS IN AUGUST; AND THE 2014 CRYSTAL CLASSIC DATES HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED By Rachel Brown Hackney Editor

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