Search results for

Lee County Government is coordinating with its partnering entities this weekend to activate its Cold Weather Outreach Plan.Severe Weather Outreach Teams are mobilized to specific locations when inland temperatures are projected to drop to 40 degrees or lower for an extended period. Charlotte and Sarasota also plan shelter activity.

Sarasota County will get a new $210,094,000 allocation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery to assist with recovery and mitigation efforts from Hurricanes Idalia, Helene and Milton and Tropical Storm Debby.The county created the Resilient SRQ program in 2023 to support Hurricane Ian recovery from the prior allocation of $201,535,000 in CDBG-DR funding. It assists the community in rebuilding homes, repairing infrastructure and addressing unmet needs from Hurricane Ian.

Sarasota County administrators are stiff-arming recommendations from a stormwater consultant and plan to push another rate hike on residents despite a new audit showing the utility could have more than $70 million over the next five years without raising rates.Just two years after a substantial increase in stormwater environmental utility rates, Sarasota County staff is once again asking taxpayers to open their wallets to bolster water quality and flood protections ahead of future storms. The proposed tax increase comes as county leaders scramble to fill gaps in the stormwater system that last year left thousands of homes flooded in unsuspecting neighborhoods miles from the coast.A joint investigation by the Florida Trident and Suncoast Searchlight into the failures found the county ignored sediment buildup in Phillippi Creek, left key stormwater positions sitting vacant while work orders piled up and overlooked glaring system vulnerabilities noted by consultants years earlier. All contributed to a stormwater utility operating in disarray.

Some homeowners in Sarasota County might have to purchase flood insurance for the first time or pay to elevate their property sometime next year. County…

Disaster Unemployment Assistance is now available to businesses and residents in Sarasota County whose employment or self-employment was lost or interrupted as a direct result of Hurricane Debby and are not eligible for regular state or federal Reemployment Assistance benefits.The benefits, announced by FloridaCommerce, are for eligible Floridians whose employment or self-employment was lost or interrupted as a direct result of Hurricane Debby are encouraged to submit a claim at FloridaJobs.org.

Toward the end of last year, the Camp Fire ravaged Paradise, California. The wildfire took dozens of lives and some people are still missing. A few months…

A group of 32 community partners in Sarasota County are teaming up to strengthen prenatal care and early childhood development services in the…

The Sarasota County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday morning to stop work on a proposed agreement with Hi Hat Ranch, directing staff to cease further drafts of any agreement. The project will not move forward until a public workshop is scheduled within six months.The decision follows a Florida Trident investigative report published just a day earlier, which raised concerns about the deal’s financial impact — requiring taxpayers to cover half of a $28 million road-widening project for a segment of Bee Ridge Road between Bent Tree Boulevard to Lorraine Road.

After Sarasota County staff was preparing to deny a permit to remove protected mangroves from publicly owned shoreline along Lemon Bay in December 2023, Commissioner Ron Cutsinger pushed to have the county abandon that same land next to property he owned and a nearby parcel he later purchased, newly obtained public records show. The public land — conveyed to the county in 1998 as part of a preservation gift — later disappeared from the Property Appraiser’s public map after a meeting prompted by Cutsinger.

First-year teachers across the district could lose their jobs next school year as Sarasota County Schools plans to cut 180 instructional staff positions in response to funding shortfalls.