Republicans view state House District 72 as one of the rare pickup opportunities in the Florida Legislature during a cycle when the party plays defense up and down the ballot. But first, the party must select a nominee. Sarasota Charter Review member Donna Barcomb, Naval reservist Fiona McFarland and attorney Jason Miller all face off in the Aug. 18 Republican primary, and have already turned the contest into a marquis match.

Barcomb, who previously served on the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board, has run on a record of long ties to the community. Public education and water quality provide essential planks to her platform, and she hopes to see continued investment in Everglades restoration, natural waterways filtration and research into mitigating red tide. While the revenue loss associated with the COVID-19 pandemic may mean tight budgeting next year, Barcomb said there’s compelling reasons to fight for this region. “Being intimately knowledgeable about your community provides great knowledge to the residents,” she said. “I will do everything I can to continue to provide services and revenue to our community.”

For McFarland, she wants to follow in the footsteps of Gov. Ron DeSantis when it comes to ushering in the next generation of Republican leadership for Florida. “It strikes me as refreshing and different from what we have seen in Washington, D.C.,” she said. McFarland believes her naval background better prepares her for the rapidly changing situating facing lawmakers as the pandemic continues. The COVID-19 crisis shows that more important than any particular agenda item, the key attribute for lawmakers in the immediate future will be the ability to adapt and toss out preconceived expectations of what lies ahead. “Our leaders have had to assess the situation and quickly find a solution,” she said.

Miller, who also ran for this seat in 2018, said his entire candidacy reshaped as the pandemic unfolded. He no longer solicits outside donations, for one. “I don’t want to take any spare change from District 72 just to do a flyer,” he said. The husband to a school teacher, he’s concerned campus faculty are now being asked to take risks associated with a school opening. It startled him a Manatee school, Samoset Elementary, sent teachers home after one day of work because a staff member tested positive for COVID-19. But he also thinks the state desire to have schools open is a critical if aspirational goal. “I understand why we need the economy opening up,” he said, “but we have to somehow make it a managed risk.”

Miller has stayed out of the fray of negative mailers now marring dialogue in House District 72, for which he’s grateful. He’s focused on social media campaigning, convening with voters from his couch over Facebook. He’s still got a list of infrastructure, water quality and education priorities listed on his website, but acknowledges none of it matters until the pandemic gets under control.

McFarland, who has been hit for a lack of experience and for being a newcomer to the district, said she views her youth as an investment in the future, for the Republican party as well as the region. She expects dealing with the pandemic to be a defining challenge for her generation of leadership, and said it’s critical leaders take the 40-year view on moving the community into the future without its core assets being compromised irreparably now.

Barcomb maintains its critical Sarasota be represented by someone who knows the area's greatest needs, whether that’s workforce housing or school funding. She agreed with DeSantis and the Senate last Session that the Sadowski Trust needed full funded to ensure housing resources, and wants to take the same priorities to the House. “We shouldn’t call it affordable housing,” she said. “I’m very committed to developing workforce housing in Sarasota. 

Pictured: Fiona McFarland (top left), Donna Barcomb (top right), Jason Miller (bottom)

Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class Derek Bilobram, from Sarasota, Fla. (right) and Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Benjamin Williams, from Murfreesboro, Tenn., man a .50-caliber machine gun aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93). Chung-Hoon is underway in the Pacific conducting routine operations. 

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Devin M. Langer

Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Ron Turner is reminding voters that early voting for the August 18 primary election begins Saturday, August 8th and continues through Sunday, August 16th at five locations listed here: 

• Supervisor of Elections office: Terrace Building, 2001 Adams Lane, Sarasota 34237
• Supervisor of Elections office: R.L. Anderson Administration Building, 4000 Tamiami Trail S, Venice 34293
• Supervisor of Elections office: Biscayne Plaza, 13640 Tamiami Trail, North Port 34287
• Sarasota Square Mall: 8201 S Tamiami Trail, Sarasota 34238
• North Sarasota Library: 2801 Newtown Boulevard, Sarasota 34234

Voters may vote at any of these sites during the hours of 8:30am to 4:30pm, daily, inclusive of weekends. “Early voting, like election day voting, provides an in-person voting experience that many voters like, but allows a person to choose one of several convenient locations throughout the county,” Turner said. 

Click here for more information.

The City of Sarasota’s Historic Preservation Board was honored Tuesday with a Commission Excellence Award from the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions (NAPC). Selected from a large pool of nominations from across the country, these national awards recognize and honor outstanding efforts and achievements by local preservation, historic district, and landmark commissions and boards of architectural review. Sarasota earned the award in the category of Best Practices in Identification/Registration for an ambitious citywide survey of historic resources completed last year. The project documented more than 11,000 historic homes, businesses and churches in Sarasota and lays the groundwork for future preservation planning as well as a range of public education initiatives for residents and visitors alike. “It was a major effort by the City and a team of historic resource professionals to survey and catalog all of the significant structures built in the city in 1970 or earlier,” said Senior Planner Dr. Clifford Smith. “Collecting all of this information provides a tremendous resource for our community and will help to further preserve our rich history.” 

Asolo Rep is pleased to announce new online theatre classes this fall offering a broad spectrum of theatre education opportunities for ages 11 through adult. The programs include the launch of Asolo Rep Young Artist Academy, Young Artist Homeschool Classes, Adult Online Theatre Classes. Beginning in September and running through the fall, the classes will be conducted on Zoom in small, interactive groups led by Asolo Rep Education & Engagement teaching artists. Registration opens August 10; class sizes are limited. 

education@asolo.org

Click here for more information.

UBS announced today the promotion of Karmen Keup as Executive Director and Branch Manager of the Sarasota, Fort Myers and Bonita Springs branch offices within UBS Wealth Management USA. With 20 years of wealth management experience at UBS, Karmen has served in several key client-facing positions, including Financial Advisor and Assistant Market Head of UBS Private Wealth Management (PWM) in Long Island, New Jersey, Stamford, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. In this role, she was responsible for growing the satellite offices to best serve UBS’s ultra-high net worth clients. “Karmen is an outstanding leader in our industry, recognized for supporting her colleagues to best serve the needs of their clients," said Greg Kadet, Managing Director and Market Head of UBS's Greater Florida region. “We are proud to have Karmen lead our offices in Sarasota, Fort Myers and Bonita Springs, and wish her every success in her new role. 

Gulf Coast Community Foundation is now accepting applications for the first-ever entirely virtual Gulf Coast Board Institute. The deadline to apply for this high-level governance training series for nonprofit board members is August 23rd. The online application is available at GulfCoastCF.org. Through videoconferencing technology, the foundation will deliver the same board governance training it is known for, but make it accessible to participants from the safety of their own homes. The group selected for the Board Institute will participate in half-day training experiences on four consecutive Tuesdays from October 6th to 27th. Topics will include fundamentals of nonprofit board governance, financial and legal oversight responsibilities, and how to create a highly functioning and engaged board, with emphasis on navigating a virtual environment. 

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Joint replacement specialist and board-certified orthopedic surgeon Dr. David Cashen with Coastal Orthopedics, a full-service provider of comprehensive orthopedics, sports medicine, pain management and physical therapy services, recently received the Patients’ Choice Award from the Lakewood Ranch Medical Center. “I am honored to receive the first Patients’ Choice Award from Lakewood Ranch Medical Center,” said Dr. Cashen. “It has been a privilege to act as the medical director of the joint replacement program and to work alongside the caring staff on the orthopedics unit. I greatly appreciate the kind words of our patients.”  

“Lakewood Ranch Medical Center is honored to recognize Dr. David Cashen as our first provider chosen for the Patients’ Choice Award,” said Andy Guz, chief executive officer of Lakewood Ranch Medical Center. “Feedback from our patients is very important to us to maintain the highest quality of care.”

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The Brain Health Initiative (BHI) is pleased to announce that the Florida Survey Research Center (FSRC) at the University of Florida has been contracted to assist with the launch of the Brain Health Pilot study. BHI’s work with the FSRC represents one of many future opportunities to engage Florida-based expertise in the work of the BHI. FSRC will assist with study recruitment and community focus group moderation for the BHI Pilot study, launching this month. According to Dr. Michael Scicchitano, Director of the FSRC, the BHI’s work to better understand brain health and brain illness is critically important. He said FSRC welcomes the opportunity to help bring improved understanding about brain health to the Suncoast region and beyond. According to Dr. Erin Dunn, BHI Director of Research: “Our research team is so grateful to leverage the extensive skills and resources in the Florida community through its academic institutions, hospitals and health centers, community-based organizations, residents, and workforce. These collaborations are essential in making the mission of the BHI—to promote and protect brain health, optimize brain performance and fight brain illness across the lifespan—as successful as possible. Done right, we also see these partnerships as mutually beneficial, bidirectional opportunities to study and take action on brain health for all involved”. 

Click here for more information.

Cassia Kite soundstitches Mable's roses. 

Click here to read the full article from SRQ's Summer 2020 edition.

As part of Sarasota Bradenton International Airport’s “Fly Safe” program, SRQ has installed three non-contact thermal temperature screening kiosks. One in the ticket wing near the up escalator, the 2nd near the checkpoint screening area on the second floor and the 3rd to be utilized by all Airport Authority employees to ensure they are screened for elevated temperatures prior to starting their daily work shift. This product, the Duo series, is developed off military grade thermal sensing cameras and has been deployed for several years now across Asian and European airports. The technology is distributed across the world by Toronto based BeMotion Inc. It is designed to rapidly scan and detect individuals with body temperatures over 100.4 degrees or more, which is the current guideline for detecting fever set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Use of the temperature checking kiosk is voluntary. Signage at the kiosk will advise individuals with elevated body temperature that it is recommended that they should not travel and to seek further medical evaluation by a health care professional Airport President and CEO Rick Piccolo stated, “The daily temperature screening of our employees is another layer of safety protection for our passengers. The voluntary temperature kiosk for passengers provides an added self-screening service to the traveling public.”

The new thermal temperature check kiosk does not replace other safety measures that are already in place at SRQ to help protect the public. Some of these additional measures include increased cleaning by janitorial staff of all touchpoints, mandatory use of face masks by all employees, Plexiglas shields, and social distancing markers placed in all queuing lines. Signage and public address announcements are also used to remind individuals to follow CDC guidelines for preventing the spread of COVID-19. 

The community's top leaders joined today to announce a new Mask Up Manatee! coalition which is being formed to spread public health and COVID-related information to a broad network in Manatee County. "While the coalition has a central focus, we believe the thing that gives this effort its true strength is that is has the full endorsement and passionate commitment of all of the leaders and entities involved," said Superintendent Cynthia Saunders. "The purpose of the Mask Up Manatee! Coalition is to speak with one voice, one clear voice that is specific to and for Manatee County."