Federal funding budgeted for a homeless shelter will instead fund an effort by the City of Sarasota to launch permanent supportive housing for the homeless, following a vote by Sarasota City Commissioners on Monday. Officials stressed that the shift in funding was more an effort to fight time than to continue conflict with the county over a controversial solution to the transient issue.

The divide among city commissioners, in fact, was on whether the funding should be redirected for public housing or for the redesign of a Newtown park. The board voted 3-2 to fund only housing, with Mayor Willie Shaw and Vice Mayor Suzanne Atwell casting dissenting votes. “Parks are proven economic drivers,” Atwell said. “Of course we want that money to go into housing but so much of that is up in the air.” She and Shaw supported funding design improvements to Fredd “Glossie” Atkins Park. The roughly $289,000 in question comes from Community Development Block Grants budgeted in 2013 which staff fears could be lost if the funds are not spent.

The vote comes just as the city and county commissions in Sarasota prepare for a joint meeting on the homeless issue. The city reaffirmed it was opposed to building a come-as-you-are shelter in city limits and will focus on implementing a Housing First program, one aimed at getting homeless into housing. “We on this commission made it clear we are not going to stand for it being in North Sarasota, and we are policy makers,” said Commissioner Susan Chapman. But she stressed the move shouldn’t be seen as defunding homeless efforts, part of why she did not want money redirected toward a park. “Taking money away from the homeless especially when we haven’t addressed chronic homeless persons, and we’re being sued, we need to think about keeping that amount of money for a pilot program for permanent supportive housing.”

Shaw noted that there still may be a county-backed shelter in Newtown whether in city limits or not. “Presently, the conversation is the shelter will be north of Myrtle, in that area,” he said. “Whatever we do will involve Newtown. It may not yet have been brought to your attention but it has been brought to mine that I won’t like where this conversation goes.”

Atwell said she actually remained supportive of a shelter in concept, but wouldn’t risk the grant funding while details still get hashed out. “We need to get moving on these monies,” she said. 

Editor's Note: A version of this article was originally published in SRQ Daily without proper source attribution. Copy has been corrected with the proper attribution below.

According to Lynn La at CNET: "AT&T has finally rolled out its native Wi-Fi calling feature on certain smartphones, after the Federal Communications Commission granted the wireless carrier's waiver request for the feature. Starting Oct. 8, AT&T customers with the latest phones, the Apple iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, as well last year's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, can make and receive calls using a Wi-Fi network as long as the handsets are also running Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 9.

Wi-Fi calling can be useful whenever users find themselves in an area with weak or no carrier coverage. By using a local Wi-Fi network, such as the one set up at your house or available in a public space like a cafe or library, you can still make calls without a cellular connection. And because the feature is baked into the devices themselves, you and the person you are calling won't have to download a third-party app or service.

Out of the four major U.S. carriers, AT&T is now the third to roll out Wi-Fi calling, following T-Mobile and Sprint. AT&T hoped to launch the Wi-Fi calling feature last month when Apple first released iOS 9. Last week, the carrier accused the FCC of dragging its feet on approving the waiver it needed to offer the feature. The FCC, which denies the claim it was slow to OK the request, granted the waiver Tuesday.

In addition to T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T, a number of Wi-Fi only carriers default to Wi-Fi first before connecting to a cellular network. These include Republic Wireless, Scratch Wireless and Google's nascent Project Fi, which launched in April and is compatible with the Google Nexus 6P, 5X and 6."

Here's what you need to do to begin using AT&T Wi-Fi calling on iOS 9:

• Launch the settings app
• Scroll down and select Phone from the list of options. (You can also search the Settings app for Wi-Fi Calling if you so desire.)
• Select Wi-Fi calling from the top of the list.
• Slide the Wi-Fi calling switch to the On position.

Also from CNET: "The next few screens will require you to confirm you want to enable Wi-Fi calling, as well as opt-in to the service. The biggest warning is in regard to emergency services. You'll also be asked to verify the address where you plan on primary using Wi-Fi calling, again, for emergency purposes. If the service isn't available for your device yet, you'll receive an error page explaining as much but not until you're done with the setup process, which is odd.

After activating Wi-Fi calling on my iPhone this morning, it took about an hour for the "Wi-Fi" indicator to show up next to the carrier name atop my device.

As for placing or receiving a call over Wi-Fi, you don't have to do anything different. Your iPhone will handle it for you; just pick up the phone and dial."

Pedro Pérez is a founding partner of Nuevo Advertising Group, and an Adjunct Professor of Global Brand Strategies at Ringling College of Art + Design. For over 17 years Pedro has offered clients his knowledge and expertise. Pedro has always demonstrated a keen analytical sense combined with a good dose of common sense in crafting digital + online marketing strategies as part of an integrated marketing plan. 

Tim Martin joined The Ranch Land Partners as director, Land Development, a new position in the organization. In this role, he will direct the planning, design/permitting and construction of residential and commercial sections of land in The West Villages. He will work closely with design engineers, site construction companies and environmental advisors.Martin is well acquainted with the Gulf Coast area, due to his  prior role from 1999-2009 as president of LWR Development, the master developer of Lakewood Ranch. There, he developed land for more than 6,000 housing units and more than 3 million square feet of retail, office and industrial buildings. 

Shaun P. Merriman, president and CEO of Gateway Bank of Southwest Florida, announced the bank has promoted Jordan Hallam to group vice president and director of Business Banking. Hallam joined Gateway Bank in August 2011 as vice president/commercial loan officer and is responsible for growing the Bank’s commercial loan production, in particular Small Business Administration loans.   

Gateway Bank of Southwest Florida

The Sarasota Music Half Marathon selected Ryan McCarthy as the new event director for the event, which is preparing for its second year. The marathon is scheduled for February 7. McCarthy, a 31-year-old Sarasota native, comes on-board after serving as the digital marketing and press coordinator for the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall.   

Sarasota Music Half Marathon