The price tag on a complicated lift station project in Sarasota just jumped to $32 million, and a new schedule says it may be mid-2020 before the endeavor is complete. Engineers from McKim and Creed on Monday presented the most recent budget and schedule to the Sarasota City Commission. These updates come more than a decade after a major spill in Hudson Bayou in 2005, yet little progress has been made in that time, and neighbors have grown increasingly impatient. “We know it will get more expensive. Nothing ever gets cheaper,” Central Park resident David Coe told commissioners Monday night. “Just bite the bullet, finance it and get the thing moving.”

Construction of Lift Station 87, to be located at Luke Wood Park, has dragged on thanks to problems and disagreements with original engineers. Sarasota city officials are engaged right now in litigation with previous engineers from Aecom, some of whom sat in chambers during a special meeting on the lift station Monday. McKim and Creed recommend a higher cost but lower risk approach to the project. For example, Aecom recommended a clay microtunnel under Hudson Bayou Bridge that would run 8.5 feet underground, but to make sure the bridge does not collapse, McKim and Creed engineers say the microtunnel should be made of steel and go another eight feet deeper into the earth.

When the new lift station is operational, the city will decommission Lift Station 7, the aged facility on the other side of the bayou. A malfunction at LS7 caused a 550,000-gallon spill in February 2005. City officials say no other spills have happened at the station since then. City Commissioner Liz Alpert, who was sworn in last month, asked at one point if it would be better to just rebuild LS7 instead of going forward with LS87, but engineers said years of design workshops and long-range plans would be lost. "We have gone through a lengthy series of neighborhood workshops and have gotten input from neighbors," said Robert Garland, McKim and Creed Southeast regional manager. And because of limited space the lift station, located in the middle of a neighborhood, a rebuilt LS7 would have to stand at least 35 feet tall. 

Ultimately, all city commissioners signaled support for moving forward with LS87, but no specific direction was given at the meeting as conversation was starting to veer toward legal strategy involving the case with Aecom. The subject was tabled until a later date. 

The first commissioner for Major League Soccer has a new goal in his sites. Sarasota officials announced Doug Logan was hired as director of Special Initiatives on Chronic Homelessness. A resident of the Sarasota area since 1987, the retired sports executive said he looks forward to devoting his skills and energy toward improving the lives of others. “I have lived here and have witnessed the great debate for going on 28 years,” he said. “There has been a lot of talk and a lot of plans. I’m not here to create another plan or continue a dialogue. I’m here to put my shoulder behind the wheel and try and get something accomplished.”

The city earlier this year approved an eight-point plan proposed by City Manager Tom Barwin largely perceived as an alternative to a plan crafted by consultant Robert Marbut. The Marbut plan resulted from a joint effort by city and county officials to craft a solution to the long-time homelessness issues in the community, but a proposal within the Marbut plan for a come-as-you-are shelter in the city led to a public schism between city and county leaders. While Logan also showed little taste for a shelter (“I’m not a believer in taking pain and focusing it in one location”), he also suggested divisions between the county and city approaches to this problem were overblown. “A lot more unifies us than separates us, and the stuff that seems to separate us is at the edges,” he said.

Logan will take a leave of absence from a long-time teaching role at New York University to tackle the job with the city. In addition to running MLS from 1995 to 1999, Logan also founded the sports consulting firm Empresario. He later served as CEO of USA Track and Field from 2009 until 2010, but had a public falling out with that group. “I hope I’m not deluding anyone into thinking I left nothing but friends behind,” he said. With USA Track, his goal was to restructure the organization and help generate funding; he was terminated in 2010 and said the institutional problems there remain. But from his other work, he also has experiences he hopes will transfer well here. He notes that when he took over MLS, he reserved a spot on administration staff for a welfare mother, and one of his early hires rose to become office manager and continues the hiring practice to this day. He hopes that small-scale practice at empowering people prepared him for success in this public service mission. 

“My life has been blessed in many ways,” he said. “But I have always been observant and curious enough about seeing the stark and jarring contrasts of those significantly less fortunate, those who seemingly want for things I consider to be a necessity of the human condition… I’ve still got a relatively sharp mind and some passion, and I might be able to devote it to something completely different where I am needed.” 

Alyssa M. Nohren, a shareholder of the law firm of Icard, Merrill, Cullis, Timm, Furen and Ginsburg, has been featured in Florida Trend Magazine’s 2015 Florida Legal Elite report. The listing represents fewer than 2 percent of the active Florida Bar members who practice in the state. Nohren has been a member of Icard Merrill since 2006 and concentrates her practice primarily on real estate with an emphasis on residential and commercial real estate transactions, manufactured and mobile home law and real estate litigation.

Icard Merrill Attorneys and Counselors

Luxury real estate specialist Shayla Twit, of RE/MAX Alliance Group, will be a featured agent in the August 2015 issue of Top Agent magazine, which recognizes leading agents in the United States, Europe and Canada. Twit has been the recipient of the Five Star Best in Client Satisfaction Award every year since 2008 and has achieved the RE/MAX 100% Club and RE/MAX Alliance Group Gold Club awards. 

RE/MAX Alliance Group

Pat Robinson was named as deputy chief for the Sarasota Police Department.  A 15-year veteran of the Sarasota Police Department, Robinson has been serving as acting deputy chief since former Deputy Chief Stephen Moyer left in January 2015.  In the nationwide search, 94 people applied for the position and Deputy Chief Robinson was selected from four finalists. Robinson served as a police officer and supervisor in both the Patrol division and the Criminal Investigations division prior to being promoted into the supervisory ranks of the Sarasota Police Department.  Prior to being appointed the acting deputy chief, he served as commander of the Patrol division and oversaw the uniformed operations of the Police Department.  

Sarasota Police Department

Cat Depot announced the opening of the Rose Durham Cat Care Clinic on 17^th Street in Sarasota. The full-service clinic offers affordable veterinary care to the public and is open Monday through Saturday from 7:30am-4:30pm. Revenue raised from the clinic will help fund Cat Depot’s mission to save the lives of homeless cats. The medical team includes clinic veterinarian Dr. Eva Ojolick-Ryan, clinic veterinarian Dr. Rodrigo Rius and practice manager Deb DeVogt. A grand opening and ribbon cutting will be held on Wednesday from 4 to 6pm. The pubic can stop in for a tour and meet the veterinarians. 

Cat Depot