Mowing fiasco touches Siesta

For some Siesta Key residents, waiting for regular upkeep of Sarasota County owned land is like watching the grass grow — literally.

Siesta Key Association nominating committee Chair Bob Waechter last week reached out to Sarasota County Commissioner Nora Patterson about the unkempt grounds near the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office training facility on south Siesta, according to an email exchange obtained by the Pelican Press. That has been a common complaint across the entire county in the fallout of a failed mowing contract with Bloomings Landscape and Turf Management.

Dave Cash, operations and maintenance director with Sarasota County, said in another email the lot wasn’t part of the contentious contract, but resolved it the same way by sending county staff to pick up the slack. The lot, which was mowed last week, was overlooked because it had not been on the schedule of the contractor that oversees it, Waechter said in an email.

Bloomings, which won the mowing contract with a bid that was $650,000 lower than what Sarasota County earmarked, exposed some weakness in the lowest bidder aspect of Sarasota County’s procurement process.

The Siesta Village maintenance contract was recently awarded to Championship Landscape Maintenance Professionals for $97,417, which is half of what was budgeted.