Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/147897
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING The Sarasota Orchestra stays so busy, the only period repairs can be undertaken at its performance hall are in August. Image courtesy of Sarasota Orchestra THE CITY COMMISSION AND SARASOTA ORCHESTRA SMOOTH OUT DETAILS FOR REPAIRS TO THE BEATRICE FRIEDMAN SYMPHONY CENTER By Stan Zimmerman City Editor It was a meeting that should never have happened. An unready Sarasota Orchestra — caught in a time-bind of its own making — created the need for a special meeting of the City Commission this week so it could ask for exemptions to local and state regulations governing its need to maintain its building on city land. access — was the last note for this confused cantata. THE ONE-MONTH WINDOW The Sarasota Orchestra comprises a hard-working crowd. It runs a steady 11-month season, not only with concerts and music festivals but also with educational programs and outreach and cooperative projects with other When the dust had settled — after some artistic organizations. Only in August can the last-minute footwork involving a letter of musicians relax. credit and a general contractor — the need for the special meeting was "moot," as City And that is also the only time of the year when Manager Tom Barwin put it. The solitary sig- major maintenance can be performed on the nature required on a permit — from a general orchestra's hall, the Beatrice Friedman Symcontractor to whom the orchestra already had phony Center. But for the past six years, the