Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/227385
Sarasota News Leader December 13, 2013 Page 46 part of it to a parking lot for "tin-can tourists" When the city's local option sales tax prowho drove their Model A Fords south, tow- duced windfall revenue in the early 2000s, the ing trailers they could city used some of that live in for the winter. money to create a masWith a 32-court covered facility, ter plan for the park, Major League Baseball Spring Training games you could stage district, state and and skateboarders were held in a nearby national tournaments. I can visualize the carved out a portion wood-frame stadium. best shuffleboard courts in the world here. of the site to call their own. After $6 milThe parking lot John Brown Chairman lion and a lot of work morphed into a Southwest Coast of Florida by Duane Mountain community of not-soShuffleboard Association and his Public Works mobile homes that became a neighborDepartment, the first hood in its own right. Eventually, the city phase of Payne Park was opened to the pubbanned any new mobile homes and let attri- lic. The park was the capstone of Mountain's tion take its toll. The last few holdouts were long career with the city. given a severance package, and the land again The windfall revenues are long gone, and the became vacant. subsequent phases of development have the Virginia Hoffman voices worry that the political will is not sufficient to create more amenities in the park. Photo by Stan Zimmerman