Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/92622
NO CHILD'S PLAY HERE Siesta Key's third annual Crystal Classic has 24 of the world's renowned master sand sculptors at work on the island's No. 1 beach — Rachel Brown Hackney It really is the stuff of dreams: Not only do you get to play in the sand, but you get to travel all over the world to do it and you earn accolades from thousands upon thousands of admirers for your efforts. How do you get to do this? You become a master sand sculptor. Twenty-four of those gifted artists will be in competition this weekend in Sarasota County for the third annual Siesta Key Master Sand Sculpting Competition on the public beach. They have been hard at work all week — except for a "rain delay" during thunder- storms on Tuesday. From countries as diverse as The Netherlands, Singapore, Germany, Canada, England, Portugal and the United States, they will vie for prize money and bragging rights for the best works of art created from that 99-percent quartz sand that makes Siesta the perfect location for such an event. (Full story here) GOING NOWHERE City finds engineering firm in default on effort to build micro-tunnel under Hudson Bayou for new lift station — Stan Zimmerman The "Mess at Mound" is a molar-grinding problem for neighbors living south of Hudson Bayou. Time and again, sewage spills into the bayou and immediately into the bay from City of Sarasota utility stations. After the neighbors found out the stations were squatting on non-city land, and they counted up the environmental fines and penalties the city was incurring as a result of its failing system, the political stars suddenly seemed to align for a multi-million dollar, "state-of-the art" lift station and innovative tunnel to be built under the bayou to move the effluent. Under the plan, Osprey Avenue would be closed (and later partially closed) at Mound Street while engineers constructed the station and punched the tunnel di- rectly under the bayou bridge. Four years after the engineering began, the project is a shambles. (Full story here) TOP STORIES AT A GLANCE