Our view

Last week’s Sarasota County Commission discussion about how to spend limited funds improving Blackburn Point Park was almost like watching charades — when the group is on the verge of guessing the answer but just can’t quite get there.

Commissioner Joe Barbetta knew the answer. Unfortunately, his colleagues apparently couldn’t see the same big picture Barbetta saw: rowing.

The back story is the county spent a boat-load — $16 million — to purchase the park site near the Casey Key swing bridge. The County Commission later awarded $4.7 million to improve the park in three phases, including improvements for a powerboat launch, followed by upgrading the central part of the park; followed lastly by adding restrooms, a storage facility, floating dock and a launch for rowing teams.

Barbetta urged his colleagues to scrap the powerboat launch. We loved his comment: “This would be the most expensive powerboat launch in the state of Florida … There’s no demand that I can see, and rowing has skyrocketed.”
Indeed.

Talk to coaches, parents and organizers of the Sarasota Crew and Sarasota Scullers, and they will tell you every competitive rowing coach in the country has Sarasota rowing on his and her radar screen. And as the date of the world championships of rowing grows ever nearer, the region eventually will become a headquarters for rowing teams.

But on top of that, and more important, competitive rowing is mushrooming in Sarasota County. More and more parents and young rowers are discovering the benefits and high quality of the nonprofit, competitive rowing organizations here. To wit: In the past five years, Sarasota Crew has grown from 70 to 290 participants.

Demand is surging. Yet there are not enough facilities to meet the demand.

Barbetta is right. Forget the powerboat launch at Blackburn Point Park.

What’s more, the increasing demand for rowing is sending a loud, clear and urgent message. As Barbetta recommended, the county should shift its resources and thinking. Sarasota County commissioners and administration, VisitSarasota officials and leaders of Sarasota Crew, Sarasota Scullers and Sarasota County Rowing Club should be collaborating on how to expand the local rowing programs. And one of the essential ingredients to that will be adequate access to water and the facilities to accommodate rowing equipment.

When we asked longtime Sarasota Crew board member John Leeming what he would do if money were no object, he didn’t hesitate: More access points on the Intracoastal Waterway; Blackburn Point Park; a dedicated five- to six-acre site; a site in North Port.

In business, when you find a successful niche, you make the most of it as quickly as you can. That opportunity exists with youth rowing. Do it now. Go full out.

+ Legacy of Mary Fran Carroll
Her name recognition would hardly register if you took a poll here. Oh, a lot of people knew her. But if you did a “man-on-the-street” poll on Main Street in Lakewood Ranch or Main Street in downtown Sarasota or Manatee Avenue in downtown Bradenton and asked, “Who was Mary Fran Carroll?” — you would get a lot of “I don’t know.”

But Mary Fran Carroll is and will forever be one of the most significant figures in the history of Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Carroll died Monday, March 24, at age 92, at her home at The Glenridge on Palmer Ranch. Officially, she was the former chairman of the board and CEO of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch from 1984 to 1997. But her mark in history is profound: She conceived, gave birth to and nurtured to life Lakewood Ranch. She pretty much repeated the job when she later chaired the Glenridge’s board — reviving the struggling project into a resounding success.

Rex Jensen, one of her successors, aptly called her “a force of nature.” She wasn’t a “grandstander,” or limelight seeker; she didn’t crave being the center of attention; in fact, she avoided it. In public settings, Carroll preferred to blend in, mind her own business. Until … you engaged her in conversation. And then the force of nature came to life.

Those who knew her can hear her big, happy laugh; see the broad, teethy smile lighting her face; and the simultaneous twinkle in her Irish blue eyes. Literally, they twinkled — with mischief.

She told you exactly what she thought, a two-sided instrument that could slice or pack a punch. Did she ever anger? John Clarke, her successor at SMR, chuckled out loud. That’s all he said, his way of saying what many who negotiated with her knew: She was tough, smart and wise.

Carroll reveled in story telling, especially regaling her audience with wry cracks about the local politicians. She was two steps ahead of all of them. Think about it: Who today could persuade the region’s county commissioners to allow the likes of a Lakewood Ranch?

Carroll loved to tell the story of her becoming a “rancher.” How this never-married banker from Chicago’s upper-crust Northern Trust Bank flew down for a visit to this 26,000-acre ranch in the God-forsaken, no-man’s-land of eastern Manatee County — wearing Espadrilles.

Even though it was 1984, Carroll became a rarity in these parts — a female CEO, and on top of that, a female CEO of a ranch the size of Disney World. Instead of operating theme parks, this Catholic city girl managed cowboys, cattle, citrus groves, sod and rock mining.

Carroll came to Schroeder-Manatee Ranch at the behest of one of the senior members of Milwaukee’s Uihlein family, descendants and owners of the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co., which from the 1850s to 1950s was the largest beer brewer in America.

One of her jobs, she often recounted, was to “teach the boys business.” Each of the many Uihlein families appointed one of their young heirs to the board of directors of the ranch. And they were green, Carroll said.

When she began hearing initial rumblings in Manatee County of building an international airport east of Interstate 75, Carroll went to the SMR board and said, “Boys, you need to decide what you’re going to do with your property or lose your options.”

Lakewood Ranch was born.

Carroll taught her charges a unique way of confronting business challenges. Insistent on integrity and doing things right, she often started discussions about business problems with this one question: “If money were no object, what would you to do solve your problem?” The answer became your road map. Figure out what you would do and how you would reach your optimal goal, then do the best you can to reach that with resources available.

This is why Lakewood Ranch is one of the best-looking and best-thriving and growing master-planned communities in America. It reflects what John Clarke calls Carroll’s “flair” — to do it right and do it boldly. It reflects her intellect and, to a degree, a special guile. As Clarke remembers, Carroll was especially good at building consensus among disparate groups. She did it, he said, “by knowing more about the subject than anyone else.”

To that end, her leadership led to extraordinary accomplishments — obtaining state and local approvals and public support for Lakewood Ranch; executing the master plan with high standards; and all the while holding multiple generations of Uihleins together to keep Schroeder-Manatee Ranch intact.

When you look at other big Florida ranching families — the Lykeses, the Ben Hill Griffins — they eventually split, divided by strife. That Schroeder-Manatee Ranch continues what Carroll started nearly a quarter-century ago is a remarkable testament to this “force of nature.” She taught those boys business, all right. She taught all of us that and much more.

“God, I have to be proud,” Carroll told the East County Observer reflecting on Lakewood Ranch. She deserved to be. She changed an entire region of Florida for the better.