Thursday, October 28, 2021

Come out to Bobby Jones Day on Saturday, November 13

On Saturday November 13, Conserve Bobby Jones Now is hosting Bobby Jones Day, supported by The City of Sarasota, The Sarasota Audubon Society, The Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast, and other organizations. (More on Partner organizations TBA). Beginning at 8:00 AM, join us for an Audubon Society guided bird walk. 

If that is too early, arrive prior to opening remarks between 8:15 and 8:30 AM and then follow marked hiking trails to find local experts giving short informational sessions about topics such as wetlands restoration plans, golf plans, the watershed, the birds and wildlife, connectivity to the Legacy Trail, the conservation easement, and habitat on the precious land we call Bobby Jones Golf and Nature Trails. 

The event will conclude at 10:30 AM. Located at 1000 Circus Blvd, Bobby Jones Golf and Nature Trails remains open to hiking while plans for golf restoration and wetland and watershed improvements are underway, as well as discussions of the preservation of Bobby Jones via a conservation easement. 

For more info 941-650-7807 Or email clearlycreative@aol.com








Sunday, October 10, 2021

Ayech on Piney Point

September 22, 2021

RE: Piney Point

Good day

This email is on behalf of two organizations and my family.

The Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida (ECOSWF) is an umbrella group composed of environmental organizations, historic preservation organizations and individuals.  Some of which are your constituent

ECOSWF has been involved in water use for the last 50 years.

ECOSWF has consistently opposed deep well injection.


Here are case studies:

  • For many years, Manatee County has had an Aquifer and Storage Recover (ASR) well near Manatee Reservoir.  The theory was excess water would be removed from the Reservoir and injected in the ground causing a “bubble” from which the injected water could be extracted for public supply.  We know the water retrieved from the ASR well was not the same water that was injected because the water quality was different.
  • The Peace River Regional Water Authority used deep well injection in their ASR program.  The result was the pyrites released arsenic into the area of injection because the water chemistry of surface water is not the same as ground water.  For years, the authority was not given permission to use the water from those wells for public supply.  Years of purging the well took place to remove reduce the arsenic levels to acceptable one.
  • The phosphate industry used to put “recharge” wells under their gypsum stacks.  The water would drain into the well and go into the aquifer.  The town of Mulberry actually heard the rumbling that accord as the acidic water ate away the limestone and bubbled up.  Tanker trucks of fuel oil were brought in and the fuel oil was dumped into the wells.  The result, when people on wells turned on their faucets, fuel oil came out.

There is also an argument espoused that says the injected water will not affect aquifers that are used by the public and agriculture.  The words FOR NOW should be inserted.

We used to have free flowing wells, but anthropogenic actions changed that.  So, we drilled our wells deeper.  With the existing growth in Florida, we DO NOT KNOW how deep we will eventually need to go.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District’s (SWFWMD) Southern Water Use Caution Area is declared because of saltwater moving into the coast from the Gulf and upconing of poorer mineralized water from the DEEPER AQUIFERS.

This shows movement of water inland and upward.

Although SWFWMD requires wells to be cased to the aquifer from which they are withdrawing, it is not enforced.  Both agriculture wells and the City of Sarasota’s Verna Wellfield are improperly constructed because they are not cased to the confining layer from which they withdraw.

The Miakka Community Club’s members rely solely on domestic wells now and into the future to meet their daily water needs.  There is a real potential for the movement of the injected water to contaminate the wells in the future.

My family relies on our domestic well.  I am on my third well because of the continued lowering of the water pressure/level.  Each well has had to go deeper and the water quality continues to decline with each new well and on a continuing daily basis.

THERE IS NO PROGRAM TO TEST DOMESTIC WELL WATER.  A domestic well only is tested for secondary drinking water standards and that is only when the well is drilled.

And it is important to remember, the existing rules and regulations state my well will not and cannot be impacted.  So much for the protection afforded by those regulations.

I am asking you on behalf of ECOSWF, Miakka Community Club and my family to NOT pursue deep injection.

Out of mind, out of sight is not a solution.  You are changing one problem for another.  One that will not easily be seen or detected.

Finally, I want to point out that in June of 2003, DEP was hoping to send water to the reclaimed water plants in Hillsborough and Manatee counties to the city of St. Petersburg and possibly to other phosphate plants that can use the water for continued fertilizer processing. (Herald Tribune, June 25, 2003).  What happened with that proposal?

Becky Ayech

ECOSWF President

Miakka Community Club President

Domestic well user.

Friday, October 8, 2021

Citizens for District Power to Board: Don't Make CRB Undo Charter Amendment

 To the Sarasota County Commission:

The people of Sarasota County have spoken again—County residents support electing Commissioners by Single-Member District (SMD). 


In 2018, 60% of county voters in all five Districts and across party lines endorsed SMD.  Now, on the 2021 Sarasota County Citizen Survey, residents support SMD for a second time.  (See Sarasota News Leader article below this message.)

Single-Member Districts is an established method of representation.  


Nineteen FL counties elect Commissioners by SMD, including Collier, Broward, and Escambia. The FL Legislature and US House of Representatives are elected by SMD. Nancy Detert, who now sits on the Board of Sarasota County Commissioners, previously was elected to the State Legislature through Single Member District Voting. In that office she represented the interests of both her local district and of all residents of Florida.


SMD is in the Sarasota County Charter based on the 2018 voter mandate. SMD is not on a “trial run” and should not be under review or on a path to repeal. Three of five County Districts elected Commissioners by SMD last November. Two Districts (about 40% of county residents) will elect Commissioners by SMD in 2022.    


As a growing community, each District has unique issues.  Sarasota County should provide opportunities that promote public dialogue by holding District-level town hall meetings and offering other resources to facilitate communication.  


Please withdraw your request for the Charter Review Board to review SMD on October 20, 2021.


Please share the status of the CRB request for review of SMD.  


Citizens for District Power (CDP)

Bill Zoller

Pat Rounds

Tom Matrullo

Glenna Blomquist

Adrien Lucas

Susan Schoettle


==================================

Plurality of county residents responding to 2021 Citizen Opinion Survey
expresses support for Single-Member Districts voting method for County Commission seats 

Only 26% of respondents disagree with change 

This graphic shows the breakdown of responses to the survey question about Single-Member Districts. Image courtesy Sarasota County.


About 40% of the 1,250 respondents to Sarasota County’s 2021 Citizen Opinion Survey expressed support for the Single-Member Districts voting method that citizens approved during the November 2018 General Election, Joshua Scacco, a professor at the University of South Florida, told the County Commission this week.

Using a scale of 1 to 5, Scacco added, that meant the support reflected a score of about 3.3.

Only 26% of the respondents disagreed with the change, he said.

A team with the University of South Florida’s Institute of Government handles the survey each year. Its partner is HCP Associates of Tampa.

In May, Commissioner Nancy Detert stressed to County Administrator Jonathan Lewis that she wanted a question on the 2021 survey about Single-Member Districts. She and her colleagues over the past year have contended that the people who approved the Sarasota County Charter amendment in 2018 did not understand it.

That amendment restricts voters in a district to voting just for County Commission candidates who live in the same district. Previously, commission races were contested countywide.

During a Sept. 28 exchange with Scacco, at the conclusion of the presentation of the survey results, Detert alluded to two speakers who criticized the board members earlier that morning for requesting that the question be on the survey.

                            Joshua Scacco. Image courtesy University of South Florida

“Did anyone in the general public complain that you asked certain questions?” Detert asked Scacco.

A professional call center handles the actual survey after the USF/HCP team has developed the questions, he replied. “We would have to go back to the transcripts of that particular question to get an idea.” Scacco added, “I wouldn’t expect that there would be much there.” Nonetheless, he told Detert that he would make certain to include the information in a final report on the survey, which the team would deliver next month. (See the related article in this issue.)

Pat Rounds addresses the commissioners on Sept. 28. News Leader image

During the Open to the Public period for comments at the start of the Sept. 28 board meeting, Pat Rounds of Sarasota, a member of a group called Citizens for District Power, reminded the commissioners that 60% of the citizens who participated in the November 2018 referendum on Single-Member Districts approved it.

Rounds contended that the commissioners began “sowing seeds of doubt” about the voting system “immediately after the first three districts elected commissioners by Single-Member Districts [in November 2020].”

Rounds also pointed out, “One of you even likened Single-Member Districts to a question about septic tanks [also requested for inclusion in the 2021 survey], calling [the voting system] ‘sludge.’” Rounds was referencing a comment Detert made during the May discussion.

“The people of Sarasota County have now told you twice that they want direct representation and accountability for county commissioners,” Rounds continued. “Will you finally listen?”

Noting that they also had asked the county’s elected Charter Review Board members to undertake an analysis of the effects of Single-Member Districts, Rounds urged the commissioners, “Please stop any review of Single-Member Districts as a step on the path to justify a repeal effort. Each district should experience Single-Member Districts for at least a full term before any ‘review’ is even considered. Do you agree?”

As usual with Open to the Public comments, no commissioner engaged Rounds in discussion.

The second speaker, Tom Matrullo of Sarasota, also pointed to the commissioners’ comments about voters having been confused. “Your new survey resoundingly shows the opposite,” he said. “Sarasotans want and need Single-Member Districts voting.” He further referenced the fact that survey respondents in 2020 reported their top stressor was population growth and new development and that that remained the primary issue of concern this year.

“Around the county,” Matrullo continued, ”people are anxious, upset and even enraged at how oversized developments receive blanket approval despite the reasoned objections of those whose homes, neighborhoods and lifestyles are impacted.”

He added, “Development issues usually affect people within a single district.” He noted the controversy on Siesta Key regarding proposals for four hotel projects with room counts ranging from 100 to 170, for an example. “The mega hotels on Siesta Key have little direct impact on the people of Old Miakka,” Matrullo said, “and threats to the rural life of Old Miakka do not impinge on folks in Wellen Park.”

Old Miakka is located in the far eastern portion of the county; Wellen Park is near Venice.

A graphic shows the Old Miakka Planning Area, outlined in blue, as presented in a county neighborhood plan completed in 2006. Image courtesy Sarasota County

“The county currently has no satellite offices, online facilities or public town halls,” he stressed, through which the board members could engage the public in discussion about issues at the district level. “District dialogue must become a priority.”

After the presentation of the survey results, Commissioner Christian Ziegler proved to be the only board member who did voice continuing anger over Single-Member Districts.

“It’s going to be tough to change my mind on just how bad of a form of government that is,” Ziegler said. “I think people want to vote for all the commissioners. … But it’s tough to get that thought out, you know, in a survey … unless you have a conversation with people. This doesn’t change my mind on Single-Member Districts.”