Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/92622
Sarasota News Leader THE SKVA DISCUSSION During the SKVA regular monthly meeting on the morning of Nov. 6, Siesta architect Mark Smith — who also is chairman of the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce — told the mem- bers he had met recently with staff of Kim- ley-Horn and Associates of Sarasota, the con- sulting firm hired by the county to work on the design of the beach improvements. He reminded everyone that he had been ask- ing for the past few months to take a look at the breakdown of costs according to the de- sign laid out for the County Commission in September 2011. Kimley-Horn staff finally had provided those numbers to him, Smith said, so he could re- view them from the standpoint of his exper- tise as an architect. Smith has been working with the Siesta Key Association and the Siesta Key Condominium Council as a representative in that process, he pointed out. "There are elements [of the plan] that, in my opinion, appear to be in line … and there's others that aren't," he said. In an interview with the News Leader after the meeting, Smith said the items that seemed most questionable were the estimates for both the pervious paving and impervious paving for the parking lots. The cost of redoing one lot had gone up 50 percent between the time the plan was at the 30-percent design phase and the more recent, 60-percent phase, while the other estimated cost had risen 61 percent. That extra expense totaled about $2.5 mil- lion, he told the News Leader, "so it's a sizable chunk of change." November 9, 2012 Page 21 Another item that had aroused his curiosity was an estimated cost of $91,000 for landscap- ing around the maintenance building on the site. "They want to put in mature trees," he said, adding that was understandable though not inexpensive. The civil engineering cost for the maintenance building was pegged at $436,000, he pointed out — another seemingly large expense. Smith explained to the SKVA members that the Kimley-Horn consultants had promised to get back to him with answers about his spe- cific questions. "This process, quite frankly, has been stalled," he added, "and it's been stalled on the staff level." Further, Smith said, he planned to tell the commissioners during a public session that "the problem I see as a professional is that the county hires consultants — architects and en- gineers — but [the commissioners] don't have them make [presentations on projects] to the Board of County Commissioners." Instead, he said, staff makes those presentations, which leads to misinterpretation and miscommuni- cation. If the consultants were allowed to make the presentations about projects, Smith said, the commissioners would be able to question them directly about their work. Noting that he hoped to have the answers back soon from Kimley-Horn, Smith added, "Hopefully, [the improvements] will happen in our lifetime."