Local News
Community news from our local sources
FEMA funds arriving from 2017
$64 MILLION FINALLY COMING?: It seems Charlotte County is finally going to get about $64 million in FEMA funds - some of it that was set to arrive after Hurricane Irma nearly a decade ago.
EXPANDING: Longtime Englewood cemetery approved for growth, funeral home
VENICE — An Englewood cemetery is expanding its services and rebuilding from a hurricane, thanks to a unanimous vote of approval by the Sarasota County Commission on Tuesday.
Last days for Port Charlotte Library
PORT CHARLOTTE — The chance to check out books at the Port Charlotte Library on Aaron Street ended when doors closed Thursday.
Report: Sarasota County water meets all standards
VENICE — The 300,000 people who regularly hydrate with Sarasota County water imbibed a beverage last year that met all of the state's standards with no violations, according to the 2025 Consumer Confidence Report.
In any language: English speakers are tuning into World Cup broadcasts in Spanish
Ashleigh Hallam teaches English at her local library in Indiana. She's brushing up on her Spanish by watching the World Cup. Many English speakers in the U.S. are tuning into Spanish broadcasts, even if they don't understand the language. Census…
Coffee cart brews up downtown food truck expansion proposal
A coffee cart unwittingly operating illegally in the parking lot of a downtown business sparked a movement to craft a zoning text amendment to permit mobile food and beverage vendors to peddle their wares in the Downtown Bayfront zone district. Food trucks are permitted in every…
Sarasota County still awaits $225M in FEMA, state disaster funds
In 2016, Hurricane Hermine made the first Florida landfall in the Big Bend area since Hurricane Wilma 11 years earlier. It wasn’t a direct hit on the peninsula, it travelled up the center of the Gulf, but its impact left just more than $7 million in damage for Sarasota County…
City to repair damaged streetlights on Lido Key
The Sarasota City Commission, via consent agenda, authorized entering into a local agency program with the Florida Department of Transportation to repair lighting on Lido Key. FDOT is providing up to $600,037 for the project with a local match of $108,426. The project included…
Manatee teen charged in Sarasota homicide
A Manatee County teen faces a murder charge in connection with the discovery early July 7 of an 18-year-old man found wounded near 15th Street and Central Avenue, police said. William Rosencrantz, 17, was arrested in Manatee County on Wednesday, July 8, police said. He was…
Bring unwanted guns to Sarasota Police on Saturday
Unwanted firearms, pellet guns and BB guns will be accepted at Sarasota Police Department on Saturday, July 11 during the Done with the Gun turn-in event. From 1-5 p.m. at police headquarters, 2099 Adams Lane, officers will accept a variety of items including non-working…
Planning Board member reappointed, another named to fill vacant seat
Only minutes after Sarasota Planning Board Vice Chairman Douglas Christy delivered a brief annual report to the City Commission — one in which he lamented a sometimes one-week notice to review voluminous documents in advance of their meetings — one new member was appointed and a…