Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/235968
Sarasota News Leader January 3, 2014 it "will not be financially participating," in the words of Commissioner Shannon Snyder. Commissioner Willie Shaw is in the minority. An 11-person advisory committee empaneled by the City and County commissions is evaluating the CRA, charged with recommending whether the CRA should continue past its planned 30-year existence. This year, the district has raised $6,981,172, reflecting the difference in the property tax revenue generated by the base year, 1986, and current revenue from the same area, with property values having risen. On April 16, members of the Downtown Improvement District (DID) board debate what they should do about the color-changing lights in Five Points Park. In the two years since those lights were installed, tree growth and squirrels have damaged the system. DID Operations Manager John Moran says it could cost $35,000 to $40,000 a year to repair the lights and keep them functioning. The warranty ends in less than a year, he adds. The system cost $81,000 to install, but the warranty does not cover the types of problems city staff has identified with the lights. A new report issued by the Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness shows a 65 percent increase in Sarasota and Manatee counties' homeless population since 2011 — including an 11-fold increase in the number of homeless children. Those numbers sound shocking, but the spike is due at least in part to shifting definitions of homelessness, as well as more refined survey techniques, according to Partnership Executive Director Leslie Page 38 Loveless. Overall, the Partnership's 2011 "Homeless Census" showed 1,242 homeless, while this year's "Point-in-Time Count" identified 2,054 homeless. The number of homeless kids grew from 44 to 444 — a figure Loveless calls "heartbreaking." To plug another budget hole, the Sarasota County School Board agrees it has no choice but to cut media specialists' positions in district middle and high schools next year. Those specialists will be replaced by paraprofessional aides at a savings of $595,086, according to budget projections. In a joint meeting on April 16, the Sarasota and Manatee county commissions agree to explore regional coordination of a bus rapid transit system, and they approve an interlocal agreement to look into collaborating on hiring a private firm to operate their existing bus systems. Manatee County's public safety radio communications director explains to the Sarasota and Manatee county commissions that most of the problems U.S. metropolitan areas have encountered with a new type of emergency communications equipment, called a "P25 system," have resulted from insufficient investment in the equipment. Sarasota County Fire Chief and Emergency Services Director Mike Tobias says at the outset of an April 16 presentation that all the stakeholders in the two counties are meeting every two weeks "and making sure everybody has a chance to be heard." One subcommittee, Tobias adds,