Sarasota News Leader

03/07/2014

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Corps of Engineers' timeline for releasing its models and reports on the expected impact of dredging parts of Big Pass to provide sand for a 1.6-mile stretch of Lido Beach as part of a 50-year project to stabilize that shore in the city of Sarasota. Five Siesta Key organizations — from the res- idential to the business spectrum — already have voiced grave concerns about the impact on the pass and Siesta Key's beaches if the Corps can win approval from the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation — and funding from Congress — to undertake the project. SPARKING AN IDEA Rich Schineller, a Siesta resident and ardent opponent of the dredging proposal, recently was listening to a recording of Let it Be by his niece, Maria Lane Sulimirski, 22 — who sings professionally as Maria Lane — when he conceived of a decidedly creative way to draw attention to the Big Pass preservation effort, he told The Sarasota News Leader. "I thought about how apropos [the song] was to what we want [for the Pass]." As the owner of his own firm, Perception Management, Schineller works to help com- panies and organizations develop brand values and strengths for marketing purposes. This time, his "client" would be Big Pass. Producing a video about the waterway that could go viral would build more pressure to keep the dredges away, he reasoned. Schineller began marshaling resources and a production crew to make the idea a reality. First, local resident Jim Robison was happy to donate a non-working Hammond organ that could be towed out to the shoal for the shoot. Friends signed on to help with the technical Rich Schineller wades out to the shoal as Maria Lane waits by the piano stool and Jimmy Scott (second from right) and John Lichtenstein lift the organ from the paddleboards. Sarasota News Leader March 7, 2014 Page 12

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