Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/92622
Sarasota News Leader November 9, 2012 Lambie assured the commissioners the grant funds would be used as a capital investment in the property, not for staff or operations. "As our revenue ramps up, so will our ability to hire staff," he added. In response to questions from Patterson about the lease, Lambie pointed out, "It expects us not to come back to you for more assistance." The county had agreed to pay $6,000 for over- head in the current fis- cal year, he added. "Af- ter that," he said, "it's ours." A Nov. 6 memo to the County Commission from Lewis points out that the Florida House, located at 4454 Be- neva Road in Sarasota, "was established in 1992 for the purpose of developing a learning center demonstrating water conservation. The mission statement of the Florida House Insti- tute is to facilitate continuous improvement to your home, your neighborhood, and our community by cooperative partnership and collaboration." The memo continues, "Through broad collab- oration, the Florida House became the first 'Green Building' open to the public in the Unit- ed States, and provided opportunities for ed- ucating and creating new markets for energy and water conservation, recycling. It was also the first demonstration of the Florida Yard … [to] help residents create a Florida landscape with minimal negative environmental impact." Page 47 The original facility drew 10,000 visitors a year, Lambie pointed out, and was "better known around the country than it is here." During his presentation, Lambie noted that the commission gave the Florida House its new five-year lease in July. Within three days of that action, he said, the Florida House board members had won funding support from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation and they had begun working on strategic planning. relatively safe bet, especially compared to some of the other ventures that we embark on. I look at this one as being a Jon Thaxton Commissioner Sarasota County NEW STRATEGIES The board had developed a three-pronged ap- proach to enable the Florida House to gener- ate enough revenue on its own. First, he said, the board wanted to build upon the facility's past by putting a new focus on retrofitting buildings. A Kellogg Foundation study, he noted, had found that $650 billion "was a rough [estimate] for improvements that would pay for themselves nationally" through retrofitting. The retrofitting demonstration goal is part of an effort to help people understand "they can make their buildings better as they perform general maintenance," he pointed out. Second, the board members wanted to remod- el the Florida House to create neutral public area where meetings could be live-streamed, "The difficulty in cre- ating a self-sustaining entity has been hold- ing the Florida House basically in limbo the last four years," he said.