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Sarasota News Leader January 4, 2013 Page 77 Siesta Seen ALCOHOL ON THE BEACH Lourdes Ramirez, the Siesta resident who has her own Siesta Key Community website ���and also is president of the Sarasota County Council of Neighborhood Associations ��� recently asked a good question about some signage at the public beach concession. to be certain that only beer and wine legally could be sold at the concession. Patterson passed along that question to Carolyn Brown, general manager of the county���s Parks and Recreation Department. Sure enough, Brown responded, ���Only beer and wine are sold at the Siesta Beach concession. Anyone may bring any beverage to Siesta In late December, she emailed Patterson with Beach as long as it is not in a glass container.��� a photo showing an advertisement for margaritas and pina coladas at the beach. She wanted My curiosity was still aroused at that point. What was in those ���margaritas��� and ���pina coladas���? Although Brown was on vacation for the holidays, she responded quickly to my query: ���We checked and it is more akin to a wine cooler. We asked the concessionaire to remove the signs as they are misleading.��� THE BEST BEACH Speaking of county email exchanges: County Administrator Randall Reid sent a note on Dec. 28 to Virginia Haley, president of Visit Sarasota County, about an article he had seen in USA Today. Reid directed her to a website for the paper, where people could vote on the best beach town in Florida. Lourdes Ramirez took this photo last month of an advertisement for alcoholic beverages at Siesta Key Public Beach. Image courtesy Sarasota County In a blog posted the same day, Laura Bly had written that in light of the ���thousands of snowbirds pointing their convertibles south to the Sunshine State for a dose of winter warmth,��� the paper���s staff had asked Dr. Beach ��� Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman of Florida International University ��� to name ���10 Florida destinations that combine sand, surf and a welcoming sense of community.���