Diabetes and Neuropathy Treatment in Sarasota, FL

After days of thunderstorms and tornadoes across North Florida the last few days it was Central Florida's turn Wednesday morning. A line of thunderstorms dumped rain across the state from Sarasota to Daytona Beach overnight Tuesday into the early hours, and a tornado watch was issued for 19 counties.

The tornado watch is in effect until 11 a.m. as "a few strong to severe storms" moved through the area Tuesday night.

Over a thousand residents lost power Wednesday morning but as of 7:09 a.m., there were just 60 customers without power in Manatee County.

Most of the power outages in the state Wednesday morning are in Leon County where three tornadoes devastated the area last Friday and more storms hit Monday, and in Volusia County.

Power outage map for Sarasota, Manatee County

If your power is out

You can report power outages at FPL online or call 1-866-263-9186 immediately to report a dangerous condition such as a downed power line.

Staying cool without power in Florida

Power outages are annoying and inconvenient in the best of times, but Florida is experiencing hot and sunny May days with temps in Tallahassee expected to get near 84 degrees Monday. If your power is still out, you need to take care of yourself.

The most important thing is to keep yourself cool. The signs of heat stroke aren't as obvious as other dangers, which is one reason some studies have said approximately 1,300 Americans die every year from extreme heat.

After the power comes back on

Finally! But to stay safe, do these things:

Contributing: Cheryl McCloud, USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida

The Sarasota Bradenton International Airport is pushing back against a decision by the Federal Aviation Administration that nixed the sale of airport property to New College of Florida.

Airport officials claim the FAA erred last month when the administration rejected a $11.5 million sale of 30.94 acres of land to New College with claims that the authority was unaware that airport land was leased by the college, that the land could be necessary for future airport use, that the land valuation was subpar, that zoning for the property does not allow for college dormitories, and that the college's current lease does not meet FAA requirements.

The college already leases most of that land from the airport under a 99-year land lease that was signed before the FAA existed. New College pays $108,072 per year for 34.8 acres, and its lease ends on October 2057, but college officials insist the sale is a critical step in securing funding for the college to secure long-term plans that include building upgrades and new facilities.

In case you missed it:FAA rejects a major land deal between New College of Florida and Sarasota Airport

More:Why the FAA rejected the New College of Florida and Sarasota Bradenton Airport land swap

Previously:Officials detail plans for major land swap between New College and SRQ airport

Airport CEO Fredrick Piccolo rebutted the FAA's denial of the land sale with a 99-page response that included copies of claims raised by the FAA, 60 pages of records disproving many of them, with line item responses to each claim. He asked that the FAA reverse its decision and allow the land sale to proceed.

"These findings are without sound basis and materially incorrect on numerous facts, therefore the release should be approved by FAA and proceed," Piccolo wrote.

Was the FAA aware that New College leased land from SRQ Airport?

As a part of its April response to SRQ's land sale proposal, the FAA claimed the land was leased to New College without the administration's consent.

Piccolo's response includes numerous historical documents to the contrary. Historical records show that FAA representatives were present at public meetings in the 1960s on the lease agreement, news articles that show the FAA reviewed college plans, and multiple letters.

Does the SRQ Airport need land leased to New College for growth?

The FAA questioned whether the SRQ airport needs the land proposed for sale to New College for future expansion plans, and claims the airport's FAA-approved layout plan and master plan are outdated even though they were approved in 2021 because the data could be at least six years old.

Piccolo indicated that the airport has commissioned an new layout plan for the FAA that would depict plans for a future 32-gate terminal and show that the expansion would not be affected by sale of the land to New College.

Was the appraisal of SRQ airport land subpar?

The FAA claims the land in question received a subpar appraisal that evaluated only 8.85 acres out of the 30.94 acres of airport property slated for sale to New College.

Piccolo asserts that the airport submitted documents from two appraisers, one commissioned by New College of Florida and another commissioned by the SRQ airport. He indicated that the appraisals were over $4 million apart. Still, the airport has commissioned a new appraisal of the property that will be supplied to the FAA once it is completed.

Does zoning allow New College to build dormitories?

The FAA indicated that a portion of the airport property where the PEI dormitory is located is zoned as Medical, Charitable and Institutional and does not allow for residential space. It also indicates that FAA guidance requires airport property to be zoned as airport or light industrial to remain consistent with federal grant assurances.

From the H-T archive:New College of Florida closes Pei dorms for mold, sends students to 4-star bayfront hotel

Piccolo responded to that claim indicating that the City of Sarasota zoning code specifically allows colleges in the zoning district, as well as student housing and health and sports facilities as accessory uses. He added that the New College lease was signed before the FAA existed, that it received FAA approval before the administration's regulations were created in 1973, replaced in 1989 and replaced again in 2009.

"The uses, including dormitory facilities, were approved by the FAA as evidenced by the 1960's official Federal Aviation Agency documents," Piccolo wrote. "To reverse that finding would constitute a taking of monumental proportions."

Does the New College 99-year lease meet FAA requirements?

The FAA indicated that the 99-year lease held by New College exceeds the administration's 25-year limit, and indicated that any lease that exceeds 50 years requires FAA approval. The administration also requires land to be leased or sold at fair market value, and indicated the New College lease rate of $108,072 per year could place the airport in conflict with federal grant assurances.

Piccolo re-iterated that that New College lease was executed in 1957, before the FAA and any of its regulations existed including those approved in 1982 that govern grant assurances. He indicated that the lease did receive FAA approval in the 1960s without objection to the length or terms of the lease.

"Even if it were true, it would appear to be in no one's interest to maintain the status quo," Piccolo wrote. "The submarket lease should be terminated, and the property should be sold tot he college for current fair market value."

Does the land sale benefit the airport?

The FAA also claims that New College is not paying fair market value for the leased land, creating a conflict with grant assurances for the airport. The lease also does not provide for re-appraisal or rate escalations, "which may constitute ongoing unlawful airport revenue diversion."

Piccolo asserts that the New College lease cannot be unilaterally changed nor terminated by law as assumed by the FAA in its calculations, and that it is the FAA's denial of the land sale that would force the airport to continue to lose revenue for 31 more years then bear the price of demolishing New College buildings.

At noon on Tuesday, Hob Nob Drive In was packed.

People were lined up outside the restaurant’s open walls, waiting to order a burger, or maybe a beer, and watch the traffic on U.S. 301 flow in and out of downtown Sarasota.

But today there was a sense of urgency.

The rumors, on Facebook and Reddit, had started a day earlier — The Hob Nob, a mixture of kitsch and the common man since 1957 — was closing.

Elizabeth Henson was standing in line with her daughter, Danielle Winkler.

“My first reaction was ‘No!” Henson said, adding she had been a patron of the Hob Nob for 30 years.

“All of my children and grandchildren have come here,” she said. “My grandson from Tampa was devastated,’ when he heard the news. No more root beer shakes.”

But whether the drive-in is closing or even when it may close, remains a mystery, at least to customers. When a patron at a table asked a woman they identified as the general manager if they were closing, she only replied, “I’m not sure,” and smiled.

Other servers were cagey as well. “I don’t know,” was their standard reply.

Calls to one of the owners, Cary Spicuzza, went unanswered.

Mary Kay Ryan, and her brother, Eddie Ryan, had been sitting at a table for a couple of hours.

“We got in the car and came here this morning,” she said. After going home, she said they had to come back, “in case it was true.”

Ryan said she had been coming to Hob Nob “since I was born. We always used to sit at the counter with my dad."

“Our parents used to bring us here after church in the '60s,” Eddie Ryan said.

“It’s sad,” said Ed Cheetham, a professor at Ringling College of Art and Design. “I would bring visiting artists here for lunch, to give them a taste of Sarasota.”

Cheetham said he wished the city could do something to take care of it, ”as a landmark.”

The lines to order continued until 1 p.m., when they ran out of burgers.

By 1:30, the manager announced, “We’re closed” to about 15 people waiting in line.

One patron, who the servers knew by name, asked them if they would be open Wednesday.

“We’ll be open,” the manager replied. “I’ll be waiting for you.”

This article originally appeared on sister site YourObserver.com.

A wide range of acts will entertain over a six-day fest.

May 14, 2024

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and the Squeaky Wheel Fringe Festival gets a second season June 4-9 at Sarasota’s Cook Theatre, bringing audiences a six-day, 20-plus performance event featuring local, national and international artists.

Squeaky Wheel founder and board member Megan Radish has a background in theater, spending eight years on the road regionally as a theater technician, props artist and stage manager. But she’d never seen a fringe festival until about a decade ago. Her first reaction was, “What is this?” she says. Her second was, “I wanted to see more of it.”

Fringe fests have sprung up around the world, with the biggest and most established scene in Edinburgh, Scotland, where the fest can be weeks long and present hundreds of acts in multiple venues. But whether big or small, like Squeaky Wheel, the intent is to offer works that are, per Radish, “100 percent uncensored, with artists getting an opportunity to do things that move them. Everything we do is original. The artists write, they cast, do the sets, props, everything. Some people make their career going from festival to festival.”

Squeaky Wheel’s promotional materials say the fest provides “an inclusive and accepting artistic environment that is unafraid to be loud, push boundaries, and to challenge artists and audiences alike.” The result is a smorgasbord in its variety, with 100 percent of the base ticket price for each show going back to the artist. (The fest does add a small fee to the ticket price online to support itself.)

If you’ve seen shows like HBO’s Fleabag or the stage musical Six, you’ve seen shows that started in fringe at Edinburgh. Radish says the fledgling Squeaky Wheel fest is “kind of a rare breed in fringes, in that we are adjudicated. We put out a call for applicants and then have a team of local artists look at all the applications and arrange our festival. Most fringes are based on the lottery method; you just pull names out of a hat. Since we are newer and getting to know the audience and they are getting to know fringe, we thought adjudication was the way to go.” She adds that about 450 people showed up for performances in the first season last year.

The material is all over the board—a blend of dance, spoken word, plays, musicals, improv, etc. One of this year’s performances, I’m Fine, is a dance theater piece from Sarasota-based Moving Ethos.

“We thought the fringe festival would be a perfect place for it,” says the company’s artistic director and co-founder, Leah Verier-Dunn. She’s the director-choreographer of I’m Fine, which she’s been working on with collaborators for quite some time. She says the piece is loosely focused on ideas of grief and how everyone seems to process that differently.

“The initial seed started many years ago when my brother passed away suddenly from cancer,” she explains. “I started to feel very curious about grief processes. And then we went into Covid, a massive worldwide shutdown, and I was curious to watch how people dealt with this really hard thing. There’s a lot of avoidance, pretending, putting on a face, where it seems the only way to survive is to say, ‘I’m fine’ and just keep going.”

There are lots of other shows on the fringe schedule, including The Lonely Death of L. Harris, an improv piece from New York; Ed’s Shed, a mashup of puppetry, poetry, standup and more from Tarpon Springs; My Year of Saying No, a one-woman play from Palm Harbor; and Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me But Banjos Saved My Life, a one-man musical show from Vancouver, British Columbia. Some audience members will see multiple shows over the festival run; others may pop in for just one or two depending on their likes.

Tickets are available now online at squeakywheeltheatre.org., where you can also find the full lineup of shows.

If you’re new to Sarasota, you can be forgiven for assuming Jeffery Kin is running for political office. Kin seems to attend every premiere, community event and fundraiser, not just in Sarasota, but up and down Florida’s Gulf Coast.

The erstwhile actor is indefatigable. What’s more, he’s relentlessly cheerful.

After someone recently tried to rain on his parade, Kin announced on Facebook that one of his favorite songs is “Don’t Steal My Sunshine,” and linked to a video of the 1990s ditty by the Canadian indie rock band Len.

No one could ever take away the bright light emanating from Kin, though a recent bout of food poisoning knocked him off his game for about a day.

That may not sound like a very long time. But in the world of Jeffery Kin, a day is jam-packed full of business meetings and social engagements from morning until night.

What is Kin up to anyway? It’s no secret Kin is executive director and CEO of Sarasota Rising, an “arts initiative” he founded in 2021 after resigning as artistic director of The Players Centre for Performing Arts, the community theater now known as The Sarasota Players.

Armed with funding from private donors, Visit Sarasota and the Sarasota Downtown Improvement District, as well as the participation of area cultural organizations, Kin is committed to launching an arts festival this November, a time described as “shoulder season” on Sarasota Rising’s website. That’s when season is getting started but is not yet in full swing.

What has been dubbed the Living Arts Festival is scheduled for Nov. 10-17 in a number of locations, not just in Sarasota, but in places like Venice and even as far as Englewood. “I’m taking a broad view of our brand, the Cultural Coast,” Kin says.

In its first year, the Living Arts Festival is being marketed to locals and residents of other parts of Florida, who, it is hoped, will come to Sarasota to enjoy the arts fest.

Sarasota has a good track record with festivals, including the Sarasota Music Festival and the Sarasota Film Festival. It also has an impressive roster of formidable cultural institutions, including the Sarasota Orchestra, the Sarasota Ballet, the Sarasota Opera and The Ringling Museum.

What it doesn’t have is an interdisciplinary arts festival along the lines of the successful Spoleto Festival USA, held each year in Charleston, South Carolina.

When it’s pointed out that Sarasota’s arts groups tend to be “siloed,” management jargon for when departments within the same organization don’t communicate with each other and pursue their own agendas, Kin replies, “Silos? I love that term. I’m a farm boy from Ohio.”

Kin doesn’t disagree that historically there hasn’t been a lot of coordination among Sarasota’s arts groups, but he says COVID changed that.

Working with the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County, then under the leadership of Jim Shirley, Sarasota’s arts groups began conferring with each other to adopt a uniform standard to protecting performers, audience members and others from contracting the disease.

“Every week, we’d have a Zoom call among arts groups leaders to talk about what was happening,” says Kin, who was on those calls as artistic director of The Players. “There really was a silver lining to the pandemic because it opened up channels of communication that still exist today.”

There are lots of silver linings in Kin’s playbook. When he learned that Selby Five Points Park was booked on the days the festival was eyeing it for an event, Kin switched to the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium lawn. This way, if it rains, the festival event can be moved inside. It’s also easier to park next to the auditorium than it is around Five Points.

Kin is still enlisting partners for the Living Arts Festival. Some of those who have committed aren’t the usual suspects. For instance, the Venice Symphony is on board. “We asked them and they said yes,” Kin says by way of explanation.

Because many of Sarasota’s arts organizations each have their own ticketing system, they will sell their tickets or wristbands to the events they stage as part of the Living Arts Festival and keep that ticket revenue, Kin says.

Kin is finding potential festival partners in unexpected places. At a recent breakfast meeting at Project Coffee in the Rosemary District, Kin met Elizabeth Doud, the Currie-Kohlmann Curator of Performance at The Ringling.

As fate would have it, Doud is kicking off her 2024-25 season, most of which takes place within the Historic Asolo Theater, with an outdoor Eco Fest. Some of those dates coincide with Kin’s Living Arts Festival.

Over coffee, Doud and Kin kicked around the idea of cross-pollination, especially since The Ringing’s Eco Fest will be free, to bring in younger and underserved audiences to what is being billed as a fun yet educational event.

“We’re doing it as a test to see who we can attract with a free event,” Doud says.

After a brief chat, Kin and Doud exchanged business cards and agreed to explore the possibility of having their respective festivals collaborate. Another meeting, another opportunity to put the Living Arts Festival on the map.

Moments earlier, Kin had run into Summer Dawn Wallace, artistic director of Urbanite Theatre, the edgy black-box venue located downtown. Kin wished Wallace luck in her training for two marathons later this year and they agreed to talk about Urbanite’s participation in the Living Arts Festival.

Just the previous day — or was it the day before that? — Kin had met with Kinsey Robb, executive director of Art Center Sarasota, which holds juried art shows and gives artists an opportunity to display and sell their works in its galleries. Kin wants the Living Arts Festival to include visual as well as performing arts.

Toward that end, he’s working to recycle some of the art shown in the Embracing Our Differences exhibition in Bayfront Park earlier this year.

Founded in 2004, Embracing Our Differences received more than 16,000 entries from 125 countries and 44 states in response to its 2024 call for artwork and quotations celebrating inclusion, kindness and respect.

If all goes according to Kin’s plan, some of the winning billboard-sized artwork from Embracing Our Differences will get an encore viewing in the Living Arts Festival.

It’s not a criticism to say Kin’s baby is a work in progress. But there are bound to be plenty of silver linings along the way as Kin and his team of mainly volunteers put the schedule together for the inaugural Living Arts Festival.

Some of those volunteers were with him at The Players and showed up for a meeting at Sarasota Rising’s Main Street offices last month bearing homemade chicken salad and baked goods.

There’s no denying Kin inspires loyalty among his followers, who are willing to go the distance for him.

So whatever you do, don’t try to steal his sunshine.