to help North Port and our surrounding communities recover from Hurricane Ian, the North Port Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting an U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Disaster Assistance Forum.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Children First, the exclusive provider of Head Start and Early Head Start services in Sarasota County, recently received nearly $50,000 in support for the community’s most vulnerable children, birth to age 5, and their families.
The agency received $15,000 from the Eluned & Edward Russell Charitable Foundation through the Community Foundation of Sarasota County for The Challenge for Changing Lives – Children First’s 60th anniversary challenge match campaign.
Grant funds that will also be matched by The Challenge include $15,000 from the Libertore Fund for Children, $5,000 from the Venice Golf & Country Club Foundation, $4,000 from Paycom for scholarship support, $4,700 from the Plantation Community Foundation, $2,000 from Synovus in support of the Families First Institute, and $2,000 from Car Credit of Tampa as their featured nonprofit for the month of April.
VENICE – Venice Regional Bayfront Health has contracted with Barry Seidel at American Property Group of Sarasota Inc. to sell 50-plus acres it owns at 2665 East Venice Avenue that had been eyed as a new hospital site.
The land is being listed at $12.99 million, and though it is currently zoned OPI, or office-professional and institutional, the new buyer will have to petition Sarasota County to change it back to residential zoning before development.
“I see it being rezoned again and probably to the delight of the neighborhood,” Seidel said.
When the Sarasota County Commission voted in January 2019 to change the zoning of the parcel in anticipation of Venice Regional building a 210-bed hospital, it did so with the caveat that if a hospital wasn’t built, it should revert to residential use.