Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/97647
WHO SHOULD PAY? The rebuilding of Booker High School on North Orange Avenue is scheduled to be completed in 2013. Photo by Norman Schimmel SARASOTA COUNTY COMMISSIONERS QUESTION WHETHER THE SCHOOL BOARD HAS APPLIED FOR STATE FUNDS TO MAKE THE REBUILT BOOKER HIGH SUITABLE AS A HURRICANE SHELTER By Rachel Brown Hackney Editor After one commissioner questioned whether Sarasota County School officials had applied for state funding for the project, and no answer was available, the County Commission voted unanimously to wait until next week to decide on paying for modifications to make the rebuilt Booker High School suitable as a hurricane shelter. scheduled for the commission's Dec. 11 meeting in Sarasota. Scott Lempe, the school district's chief operating officer, told The Sarasota News Leader Dec. 6 he understood staff from the county's Emergency Management Department would take the lead in a presentation tentatively "Don't get me wrong," Barbetta said. "I applaud the fact we're trying to do hurricane shelters, as many as possible, wherever." Although the $1,004,822 hurricane shelter funding item was on the commission's consent agenda for the Dec. 4 regular meeting in Venice, Barbetta pulled the item and referred to a new state statute that went into effect in January. However, he added, "It clearly says [in the new statute] it's the obligation of the schools"