Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/235968
Sarasota News Leader January 3, 2014 Page 26 asks County Administrator Randall Reid to On March 6, the County Commission votes 3-1 put renewed effort into checking out the feasi- — with Chairwoman Carolyn Mason absent bility of a less expensive option: chickee huts. — to approve a contract to allow the construction of a new restroom facility on South Barbetta raises the point again during the Lido Beach, but the board members make it commission's March 5 regular meeting in plain to staff members that they want a more Venice. Referring to chickees, he says, "They economical way to manage such projects. can be put up very inexpensively, and the per- More than anything else, Commissioners Joe mitting's not a problem." A chickee, Barbetta Barbetta and Nora Patterson take issue with points out, "is Florida-friendly [and] there's how staff has been billing internal costs for nothing that says the bus shelters have to time it spends on projects. Barbetta points be the … Plexiglas steel-frame shelters that out that almost $280,000 — or about 37 perthey are." By law, a Miccosukee or Seminole cent —of the $1.3 million total cost of the Indian contractor can erect the open-air Lido project reflects time billed for the Public chickees, which are exempt from local build- Works Department employees working on it, ing regulations. They are considered historic plus the expense of an outside construction structures. Barbetta pegs the cost per chickee management firm to oversee construction. shelter in the range of $3,500 to $5,000, "built Commissioner Christine Robinson is in the minority on the vote. and installed." An aerial view shows where the new South Lido Beach restroom facilities will be located. Image courtesy Sarasota County