April 21, 2021 BY RUSTY PRAY, Wellen Park Journal Correspondent
One day in the not-too-distant future, Wellen Park will offer a downtown to residents and visitors, a welcoming, walkable destination that will have something special for everyone.
The face of Downtown Wellen will be a two story mixed-use building that includes retail and restaurants on the first floor and office space on the second. Construction is expected to start this summer and be completed in 2022.
The character of the 32,500-square-foot building will help define Wellen Park’s downtown for years.
“The mixed-use building will become a signature backdrop for Downtown Wellen’s outdoor spaces, defining it as an active and thriving lifestyle destination,” says Alan Wold, a member of the design team at the New Orleans architectural firm of Trapolin-Peer.
Mr. Wold says planners had in mind using the facility as a “destination building — something recognizable that people can orient themselves to when they’re in Downtown Wellen.
Renderings suggest a structure that fits into the laid-back Southwest Florida style: low cut, Spanish influence, pastels. The design includes covered walkways, three restaurants, patio dining and other amenities.
“A core aspect of the design is its connection to the outdoor spaces the building occupies,” Mr. Wold says, adding the restaurants will have outdoor seating and café seating as well. And most of the parking will be in the rear of the building in order to enhance the pedestrian experience.
The building’s second floor, accessible via stairways and an elevator, thoughtfully divides multiple office spaces, each with expansive outdoor terraces overlooking the grand lawn and the lake, and a glass corridor that connects the buildings.
A possible outcome is the building will attract customers that will come for the retail, or to enjoy the shade and courtyard spaces, but stay or return for the businesses above.
The Downtown Wellen building will give Trapolin-Peer another foothold in Southwest Florida.
“It’s beautiful,” says Peter Trapolin, who founded the firm in 1981. “We’ve done work in Florida before, but this is our first building in the Southwest Florida area. We’re excited to be here.”
The design took several months to complete. “It wasn’t as though we arrived at this design at our first pass,” Mr. Wold says. “We went through many different schemes … the word we kept using was ‘transitional style.’
“We weren’t looking for something either strictly traditional or ultra-modern.”
The process did not follow the path of conference-room brainstorming and PowerPoint presentations. That was because of the lockdown that came along with COVID-19.
“We started this design process as lockdown started,” Mr. Wold recalls. “We were all working remotely. There were emails, photos, sketches, conference calls. It was a very different way to work.
“As architects, typically we prefer to be together to design. But we all think this worked out really well.”
A diver indicate he's doing OK as he and another diver descend to Green Banana-about 400 feet down and 50 miles west of Venice-essentially a cave at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. PROVIDED BY FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY
About 50 miles west of Venice, a team from four organizations worked to send scientists down hundreds of feet below the surface to explore a blue hole called Green Banana.
Little was known about the blue holes, but more is being learned now.
The week-long expedition in September has already provided information that has changed some initial thoughts.
It was led by Mote Marine Laboratory scientist Emily Hall with assistance from Jim Culter along with teams from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology and the U.S. Geological Survey.
FAU supplied some of the “citizen scientist” deep sea divers, including Marty Watson, lead diver on the expedition.
“I’ve developed a reputation in the diving community of being one of the deepest divers ever — that’s still alive,” Watson said. “I’ve been well-known to do a lot of salvage stuff at very deep depths. I’ve had the ability to do the projects that people thought couldn’t be done.”
He did an “exploratory” dive a few days before the expedition began — having a team member a few hundred feet above him as he did a looksee into Green Banana. And there were a few surprises at about 415 feet down in the back of the cave.
“Lots of fishing lines and lures,” he said.
He’s not sure how they got there — just that they were momentarily problematic and unexpected.
He explored the area and looked around the cavern.
“The visibility was really bad — the best, 10 feet,” he said. “It’s less stressful when you’re alone in harsh conditions. It’s easier to be alone in some cases.”
Watson and David DeBerard returned a few days later to establish the 600-pound benthic lander that took samples and other scientific readings from Green Banana.
And they weren’t the only living thing near the cave.
“There’s hardly anything alive at that depth ... did see a shell crab at about 400 feet. He was walking around and having a good ole’ time,” Watson said, laughing as he recalled it.
Watson, 48, previously worked with Mote Marine and other groups in 2019 when they worked Amberjack Hole which is about 350 feet deep. He’s always onboard to go overboard for science, he said.
He got his first license as a teenager in 1991.
“And it never stopped. It was always a dream of mine to become another Jacques Cousteau.”
Stephannie Kettle, with Mote Marine, said a lot of information is being gleamed by scientists.
“They are still pouring through the samples,” she said.
Another exhibition is slated for May 2021, weather dependent.
But they are realizing a few things already. Blue holes are not all the same. They had anticipated the caves at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico would be similar in many ways.
“The makeup and some of the chemistry and water flow are definitely different,” she said.
Kettle said, with the many different groups and dealing with weather, it was “as smooth as something as big an undertaking as this is can be.”
“Everyone works together to accomplish these tasks during 12-hour days for five days in a row is really cool,” she said.
Mote Marine has started a blog at its website for people interested in learning about the exhibition and science from it, Kettle said. It’s at www.mote.org/deepthoughts.
Hall was the first scientist to write to the blog about the experience. She notes how she felt about the diving in her first blog.
“I really enjoy seeing the plans come together,” Hall writes online. “The diving is AMAZING!!! and I’ve gotten to meet some super cool citizen scientists (our dive team volunteers) throughout this process. Seeing the data and trying to tell a story is also very rewarding.”
For Watson, the reward is assisting.
“Anything I can do to help science, even as a volunteer, that’s what it’s about. That’s what we do. Anything to help research,” he said.
And its “definitely” never another day at the office, he said. But it went well.
“We did our job and gave (scientists) the opportunity to gather the data they needed to gather.”
He called exploration his “fuel.”
“I want to go to places where no one else can go and I like to support science,” Watson said. “To see what’s going on underneath the ocean floors — and I can get there. If I can help these people, I want to help them. And that’s my fuel.”
And he has his own theories on blue holes.
“I think there’s an aquifer below the Gulf of Mexico and below the Atlantic. ... We’ve proved that there’s a flow — below these. This isn’t just a pit. There is an aquifer. And it has to be tied to our drinking water.”
He thinks that’s important to know.
Watson is an expert in cave diving and has explored a variety of wrecks, including World War II German U-boats and 1800s shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico.
Exploration may be his fuel, but there is another thing going on when he’s places that no human has gone before.
“The things I’ve witnessed and got to see: It’s indescribable,” he said.
The Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Group. Its color was selected from the lining of a sea shell found on a Sarasota Beach.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY VAN WEZEL PERFORMING ARTS HALL
SARASOTA — The Van Wezel Foundation is launching a regional, communitywide survey to obtain feedback for the planning of a new Sarasota Performing Arts Center at the center of The Bay Park near downtown Sarasota.
The Sarasota Performing Arts Center is at the heart of the city of Sarasota’s master plan to develop the Sarasota Bayfront into a cultural and economic legacy for the region.
The regional survey spans from Tampa to Port Charlotte and is being conducted by Alexander Babbage, a national scientific-based research firm specializing in cultural destination studies. All participant data will remain anonymous. Visit MySarasotaPerforming ArtsCenter.org to take the survey.
The Van Wezel Foundation is leading the vision for the new performing arts center in a public-private partnership with the city of Sarasota. The goal for the Center is to operate 12 months out of the year and present relevant, world-class programming for all audiences.
Preliminary planning calls for a state-of-the-art 230,000-square-foot multi-purpose facility that provides programming all year long, and includes various performance and civic spaces:
• 2,250-seat main stage with universal accessibility
• 400-seat flexible performance space
• 10,000-square-foot education and lifelong learning center
• multiple outdoor public performance spaces
• state-of-the-art technology and design advances
As one of the first performing arts centers to be built post-pandemic in the country, the Sarasota Performing Arts Center will be a national model for architecture, patron health and safety, and coastal resilience, playing a meaningful role to further promote the Gulf Coast region as a preeminent cultural destination.
Obtaining feedback from the community is an essential first step to advance the project forward.
“For more than 30 years, the Van Wezel Foundation has partnered with the city of Sarasota to enhance the quality of life for our community,” said Cheryl Mendelson, CEO of the Van Wezel Foundation. “With input from regional communities, we have a tremendous opportunity to make the Sarasota Performing Arts Center a place for ideas, a place for the arts, a place for you.
“The new performing arts center will serve as an iconic civic asset that meets the needs of everyone living in and visiting the entire Gulf Coast region.”
The 8-to-10-minute online survey will assist the foundation as it plans to develop the new mission-based performing arts center.
The SPAC community engagement initiative is being supported through a grant from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County and will be available to the public through Nov. 30.
OSPREY – Of the 23 Sarasota County Schools students who have been named National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists, 18 are students at Pine View School.
The Sarasota County Schools made the announcement of the National Merit Scholarship Corp. qualifications on Tuesday.
The academic competition takes place with students taking tests and other program requirements.
More than 1.5 million high school students entered the 2021 program, according to a news release from Sarasota County Schools.
"In September, these high scoring students are notified through their schools that they have qualified as either a Commended Student or Semifinalist," the news release said. "From the approximately 16,000 Semifinalists, about 15,000 are expected to advance to the Finalist level, and in February they will be notified of this designation."
The students in Sarasota County who were named National Merit semifinalists include:
https://tomahawktake.com/2020/08/24/august-24th-power-rankings-atlanta-braves-steady/ by James Kunkle August 25, 2020 As we said last week, for most teams including the Atlanta Braves, we are basically at the halfway point of the season. Most things are playing out like we suspected but as always, some surprises have emerged. The trade deadline is one week away and it’s now already time for teams to get ready for their postseason push. As always on Monday’s here though, it is time for our weekly power rankings. Where will the Atlanta Braves place this week?
30. Pittsburgh Pirates Despite a sweep of the Brewers over the weekend, the Pirates stay at the bottom of these rankings once again and are one of the few clear cut sellers before next week’s trading deadline. 29. Los Angeles Angels Things seem to be getting worse in Southern California for the Angels. I once again will let you know that we can make an offer for Mike Trout here for the Atlanta Braves. Surely, he will waive his no trade clause to get out of that dumpster fire. 28. Detroit Tigers One week after getting swept by the Cleveland Indians, the Detroit Tigers bounce back and take two out of three, the problem is their was another sweep by the White Sox in the middle of those two series. 27. Boston Red Sox If you had the Boston Red Sox being the first MLB team to reach the 20 loss plateau, you would be correct. The miserable 2020 season for them continues. 26. Kansas City Royals The Royals have some bats in the system but currently do not have much pitching besides Brad Keller who is still sporting a 0.00 ERA at this point of the season. 25. Seattle Mariners Those new alternate uniforms that the Mariners wear now look a lot like the Milwaukee Brewer classic retro style jerseys. It took me a few minutes to recognize who I was watching. 24. Texas Rangers The Rangers might be a very exciting team to watch over the next week as they have some players who could be of major value to other teams. Players like Lance Lynn, Todd Frazier, and even Mike Minor despite his struggles thus far. 23. Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are imploding quick like. It was not long ago they were sitting in first, but now they are only half a game out of last in the West and already 8 back of the Dodgers for first. 22. Arizona Diamondbacks Arizona was on a roll and looking to get right back in the playoff race but they closed last week with 5 straight in the loss column. Perhaps a series they are about to start with the Rockies will get them back on a winning streak? 21. Philadelphia Phillies Already having a awful bullpen, they made a trade with the Red Sox and the pitcher they acquired come right in Saturday and was hit hard against the Atlanta Braves. The Phillies were lucky to escape with 1 win in Atlanta. 20. Washington Nationals It’s been setback after setback for the defending champs….but it’s not like any of the Atlanta Braves fans are going to feel sorry for them. The latest injury is a season ending one to Stephen Strasburg. 19. San Francisco Giants Here we go again, the Giants are on a lengthy win streak right before the deadline and it will probably cause them to be staying pat at the deadline instead of a rebuild they should be well into by now. 18. Miami Marlins Give the Marlins some credit, as of today, they would still be in the playoffs. I do not think they will get in, but as many predicted, they have been better this year. 17. Cincinnati Reds I picked the wrong Reds pitcher for my preseason Cy Young award winner. I should have gone with Trevor Bauer who has to be the leading candidate for that award up until this point in the season. 16. Baltimore Orioles At the start of the year, I had the Orioles total win to be somewhere between 14 and 18. Yet, here we are at the near halfway point and they already have 14 wins.
15. Milwaukee Brewers If you truly want to make the postseason, you can not be sitting on the verge of .500 and go get swept by possibly the worst team in the league. For the Brewers sake, hopefully they wont look back and wish they would have won just one of those three games. 14. New York Mets All of a sudden, the New York Mets are playing good ball and are inserting themselves right in the picture. They obviously have 1 pitcher everyone would want to avoid come playoff time. 13. Toronto Blue Jays After spending much of the off season trying to beef up the rotation, the Blue Jays have been laced with injury after injury to the group. The latest being Matt Shoemaker heading to the injured list. 12. St. Louis Cardinals It will be very interesting to see how all of the double-headers that the Cardinals will presumably have to play down the stretch will wear them out or make them come even more together as a team. 11. Houston Astros Only 1 current player has an average of .300 or more on the Astros…and that’s Carlos Correa with a average right on the .300 nose. 10. Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs were on the losing side of the crosstown series with the White Sox over the weekend. The Cubs pitching could not slow down the White Sox offense at all. 9. Chicago White Sox Speaking of the White Sox, here they are. Jose Abreu was a man on a mission this weekend as he was just named the AL player of the week and rightfully so, as he had a 7 dingers on the week. My fantasy team was single handily smashed by that guy. 8. Cleveland Indians The Indians are once again right in the middle of the playoff hunt and are obviously one of the better teams in that league. They quietly have one of the more well rounded rosters in the entire game. 7. San Diego Padres The Padres just smashed the Texas Rangers last week as it seems they hit a grand slam every inning against the Rangers. And Fernando Tatis Jr….do not apologize for swinging and doing something you are great at. 6. Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves excel in the late innings of games over the past few years, and 2020 has been no different as they have already registered a few late inning miraculous wins this season including two last week.
5. New York Yankees The Yankees and the Atlanta Braves start a quick two game set Tuesday in Atlanta. Hopefully this series goes more the Braves way than the series in the Bronx did a few weeks ago. 4. Minnesota Twins The Twins offense jumps on opposing teams and in a hurry as they lead the Majors with 27 runs scored in the first inning. The pitching is doing it’s job and keeping those leads the majority of the times as well. 3. Tampa Bay Rays Red hot is what the Rays are as they are 13-2 over the teams last 15 games. If you did not believe they could win the World Series before…think again.
2. Oakland Athletics It seems a tad odd, but is it too early to talk about Oakland getting close to wrapping up the AL West already? They have a good size lead and could extend it even further with a good week as they play the Rangers and Astros this week. 1. Los Angeles Dodgers The Dodgers were the class of the field all along for the National League, and they have proven it thus far on the field as well. Despite a couple players starting slow, everyone is rolling now. So that is our rankings this week. Ali H. Johnston, MBA in Real Estate
Face coverings are now required for those visiting the Venice Farmers Market at City Hall on Saturdays. If customers do not have a face covering, cloth masks will be provided for them by the Market, while supplies last.
Farmers Market fruit July 2020 Market staff and vendors have gone to great lengths to create a CDC compliant and safe socially distanced outdoor shopping experience for our community. Please follow the posted signage.
The Market reopened on July 11, with all staff and vendors wearing masks and gloves and sanitizing stations available. Their plan has been approved by the City of Venice in order to comply with all federal, state and local guidelines for food and personal safety. Please visit the Market website, www.thevenicefarmersmarket.org, and select the FAQ tab to read about the new operating guidelines.
The Market’s summer vendors are offering amazing produce, fresh baked goods including breads, pies, bagels and pretzels, wild caught seafood, Florida grown mushrooms, boutique cheeses, locally roasted coffee, kettle corn, hand crafted soap, essential oils, nursery plants, and fresh cut flowers. In addition, your favorite local artists will be attending the market offering award-winning photography, unique clay art and jewelry, hand designed clothing for children and adults, and much more.
During the construction of the new Fire Station 1 and expansion of Venice City Hall, the Farmers Market has relocated out of the parking lot but is still operating at City Hall. The Market will set up on W. Venice Avenue between Harbor Drive and Avenue des Parques, located between City Hall and the Hecksher Park tennis courts. Summer hours are from 8 a.m. to noon. Only service animals will be allowed during current COVID-19 rules.
VENICE — Three nonprofits are teaming up to help with “provide needed educational resources for South County students and families who have been impacted by the current pandemic and economic crisis.”
According to a news release from United Way South Sarasota County along with American University Women and Laurel Civic Association, the groups will help Laurel Civic Association clients.
The students involved will have “backpacks full of school supplies” that will be distributed at Laurel Civic Association Monday.
Volunteers with the Venice Branch of the American University Women and United Way will “organize and package school supply items and new back packs.”
The items are bought through United Way South Sarasota County’s COVID-19 Relief & Recovery Fund partners, which, according to the news release, includes Publix, Walmart, Four Thought Private Wealth (Venice), Lions Club of Venice, Sertoma Club of Venice and Wells Fargo.
Also assisting are Giraffe Packaging and Moving of Bradenton and Nick’s Landscaping, assisting with transporting supplies, the news release states.
“We are excited to be putting aspects of our new Modern United Way Blueprint into tangible projects where we do what United Way does best, which is plug into a community, identify a need or gap, and bring together resources, funding, and/or collaboration with businesses and non-profits whose mission and/or philanthropic goals align with that need and make it an impactful reality,“ United Way South Sarasota County President & CEO Barbara Cruz said. “Our generous COVID-19 Relief & Recovery Funding partners made it possible for us to purchase quality items for this project, and having truly invested partners like AAUW alongside Laurel Civic Association makes this a successful project for our families and individuals in need here in South County.”
The United Way of South Sarasota County said the needs remain great in the area and donations are needed and pushed into the community. Financial donations to the COVID-19 Recovery & Relief Fund can be completed by visiting www.uwssc.com, calling 941-484-4811 or texting UWSSC to 243725.
The Recovery & Relief Fund “provides financial assistance to families and individuals in South County in need of: rental assistance, child care, prescriptions and other eligible expenses,” the release said. “Any donation large or small will have an immense impact in the lives of so many.”
SARASOTA — Primary Election Day is Tuesday, Aug. 18, for Florida voters. Polls are open that day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Vote-by-mail ballots must be returned to your supervisor of elections office by 7 p.m. that evening.
The Gondolier reached out to Supervisor of Elections Ron Turner to ask a few questions for the upcoming election.
Do you still need poll workers?
The Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections employs approximately 1,000 workers for early voting, and at the polls on election day. In the recent March election, approximately 30% of poll workers opted not to work.
We have experienced a number of poll workers who are still unable to work for the coming August primary election. We are doing our best to fill poll worker positions. However, it is likely that some election day polling places will change due to poll worker staffing issues or locations being unable to accommodate us.
Is voting by mail safe?
Vote-by-mail began in Florida in 2002 as no-excuse absentee voting. Since that time, vote-by-mail also called absentee has been available for all registered voters in the state. The name absentee was changed to vote-by-mail by the Florida Legislature in 2016.
Can a voter track their ballot?
Yes. Vote-by-mail ballots are tracked on our website from the time your request is processed until your voted ballot is received back in the elections office and tabulated. A voter’s record is updated when the ballot is received in the election’s office to prevent a voter from voting twice in an election. Upon receipt, voters’ signatures on the certificate (return) envelopes are compared to signatures on file.
When does early voting start?
Early voting for the Aug. 18 Primary Election will run Saturday, Aug. 8, through Sunday, Aug. 16. For more information, call 941-861-8606 or visit www.sarasotavotes.com.
