Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/320652
Siesta Seen SIESTA SEEN A PROPERTY MANAGEMENT FIRM WILL BE SOUGHT TO HANDLE THE VILLAGE UPKEEP; CRAIG SIEGEL ENTERS NOT GUILTY PLEAS AND OFFERS NO COMMENTS AT A SPECIAL MAGISTRATE HEARING; AND THE LIDO BEACH PROJECT WILL BE THE FOCUS OF THE JUNE 5 SKA MEETING By Rachel Brown Hackney Editor Red sky on the evening of May 23 portended a good Memorial Day weekend on Siesta Key. Contributed photo by Peter van Roekens It should come as no surprise to Siesta Village business owners that the Siesta Key Village Maintenance Corp. is seeking a new company to handle the upkeep of the district the county paid to improve in 2008-09. Architect Mark Smith, who serves as the liaison between the Maintenance Corp. and Sarasota County, told me last week that Championship Landscape Maintenance Professionals Inc. of Fort Myers, which won the upkeep contract in 2012 on a bid of $97,417.70, has been notified its contract will not be renewed for a second time in August. "Things just weren't getting done," he said on May 22. "The level of service dropped." When the Village maintenance bids were opened in the summer of 2012, county staff reported being impressed with Championship's credentials. Among them was the fact that the firm handled the main- tenance at the Resort at Longboat Key Club.