Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/97647
Sarasota News Leader to handle the hurricane hardening of facilities. Moreover, he said, a Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO) Fund is available to help districts cover those costs. December 7, 2012 I just don't want us spending money we don't have to spend. … I want to make sure the Sarasota County school system is applying for those [state] funds. Page 40 The $58 million Booker rebuild is expected to be completed in 2013, Scott Ferguson, spokesman for the school district, told the News Leader. "I just don't want us spending money we Lempe told the News don't have to spend," Leader the district has Barbetta told Miller. "I had no money in its budget from that PECO fund in the past two want to make sure the Sarasota County school system is applying for those [state] funds. … years. Have we looked into the fact that they have He added that the district had applied for no exhausted all their funding sources before we state funding "relative to hurricane harden- volunteer money?" ing." "I don't have the answer to that," Miller reAnne M. Miller, the logistics chief in the coun- plied. ty's Emergency Management Office, point"I don't mind approving this," Barbetta said, ed out to the commission on Dec. 4 that the "but it's a million dollars. There are other School Board was required to pay only 50 things we could do with that money, [but], percent of the cost of the structural enhanceobviously, safety is most important." ments to enable the county to use the school "To reassure you," Miller told Barbetta, "what as a shelter. we're paying for is way above and beyond By law, she said, schools have to be able to what they are required to do." withstand wind of 139 mph. However, a shelter has to be able to withstand wind of 170 Commissioner Nora Patterson pointed out the mph, she noted. "So we're getting added ben- commission had meetings scheduled on both efit by putting our funding with their funding," Dec. 11 and Dec. 12 in Sarasota. Perhaps the decision could be delayed, she added. she added of the school district. Lempe concurred with Miller. A Florida school district has to build new structures that meet the state building code in terms of their ability to withstand hurricane winds. If a county wishes to use a new school as a shelter, he added, a county "will typically say, 'Here are the upgrades we will help you fund.'" Joe Barbetta Commissioner Sarasota County Mike Tobias, the county's chief of emergency services, stepped to the podium and told Barbetta, "We understand your concern, commissioner." He pointed out that state law requires all schools be built to certain standards for protection from hurricane damage but not for use