Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/100060
HOW MUCH??? Even on a cloudy day in the late summer, Siesta Public Beach sees plenty of activity. Photo by Rachel Hackney COUNTY COMMISSIONER CONTINUES TO QUESTION COSTS FOR ITEMS IN SIESTA BEACH PARK PROJECT, INCLUDING $3,500 TRASH CANS By Rachel Brown Hackney Editor Just a day after the Sarasota County Commission voted to proceed with the final design and bidding out of the Siesta Public Beach Park improvements, one commissioner began questioning staff about the cost of specific items proposed for the project. ���Could you find out for me the cost each for the trash cans and what we normally pay for trash cans in a beach area?��� Commissioner Nora Patterson wrote the county���s Chief Engineer, James K. Harriott Jr., on Dec. 12. whether the $16.7 million price tag for the project was too high. Among the items Smith pointed to in that Dec. 10 letter to the commission were 13 trash/recycling receptacles costing $3,500 each and 24 chaise lounges costing $1,000 each. He had found them listed in the section of plans for the park���s East Playground Area, he wrote in his letter. Altogether, the construction estimate for that part of the improvements is $1,493,900, he pointed out. The trash Her question was following up on a list of bins and chaise lounges were among ���several items Siesta architect Mark Smith, chairman miscellaneous items listed on a cost estimate of the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce, had given to me that caught my attention,��� he addincluded in a Dec. 10 letter to the board. ed. At the behest of commissioners, Smith had met with representatives of the county���s architectural and engineering consultants working on the beach project ��� Sweet Sparkman Architects and Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. ��� to determine, based on his expertise, Smith drew chuckles from the audience in the Commission Chambers for the Dec. 11 Siesta Beach vote when he told the board, ���I understand that this is going to have to be like prison quality,��� referring to the construction, ���because when the sun goes down and the