Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/132206
Sarasota News Leader May 24, 2013 Page 30 No government building should be built on a major highway or prime piece of property that we own. It's just a waste. Joe Barbetta Commissioner Sarasota County the taller structure. Extra soil analysis would be required to see if the site could support an eight-story building if the board opted for that site plan, he noted. His experience, Gable continued, also led him to assert, "It is more expensive the higher you go." During discussion of the motion, Barbetta pointed out that a stormwater analysis also would be necessary for the surface parking lot that would have to serve the three-story structure. Commissioner Joe Barbetta. File photo She then pointed out, "It's up to the commis"I think the numbers aren't going to mean sion whether they want the information or anything when we get them," he added of the not." analysis Robinson and Patterson wanted. THE OPTIONS "The information might lead me to join your During the March meeting with Sheriff Knight cause on this," Robinson told him. and members of his staff, Spitler pointed out Patterson added that she felt a "ballpark figure not only that the Sheriff's Office facilities are is pretty helpful." spread across the county, but also that eviBarbetta argued that they had no way of dence and investigations are threatened by the knowing how much ad valorem tax revenue inadequacies of some of those locations. One the county could realize over the next 20 years prime example he noted was the exposure of if it sold the two Cattlemen parcels. Only with the sheriff's fleet to the weather. Among those that potential income factored in, he said, $7.3 million in assets, Spitler said, are specialized units, such as the one used in response would the analysis make sense. to bomb threats. If the cost of the two structures "came out pretty close," Patterson told him, "you'd prob- When Gable made his May 21 presentation to ably win the day." the commission, he said staff used a 2.5-mile