City restores Links Plaza statue, removes trees downtown

When city senior planner Clifford Smith noticed a glaring absence at Links Plaza last month, he reached an unthinkable conclusion: Someone managed to steal a 600-pound bronze statue without anyone noticing.

Eventually — after alerting the police — he discovered the explanation behind the missing sculpture. The nearby World of Beer bar and restaurant, which just moved into the space behind Links Plaza at the southwest corner of Main Street and Links Avenue, relocated the golfer statue into a nearby parking lot to make room for its grand opening event.

Smith was concerned that the statue suffered some damage in the moving process, but after it was returned to its rightful resting spot, he found no issue with the artwork. That cleared the path for the city to resume the process that had brought Smith to Links Plaza in the first place: restoring the statue to its original condition.

Both the statue and Links Plaza are relatively new additions to the city of Sarasota. The city approved the project in 1998, and it was completed in 2001. Although it’s less than 15 years old, it’s representative of a history that dates back to the early 1900s.

The intersection of Main and Links is also the spot where John Hamilton Gillespie created the first golf course in Sarasota — and possibly the state, Smith said — in 1905. That’s why the city contracted with artist Jack Dowd to restore the sculpture, adding the head back to the golfer’s club and making other improvements.

“It’s important to the history of golf in this country,” Smith said. “It’s rather nice this sculpture is there on this spot to let people know.”

Tree Time

Although the restaurant just opened, the statue-moving incident was the second hiccup World of Beer had involving the public park space in its front yard.

In March, the city’s Parks, Recreation and Environmental Protection Board voted 3-2 to approve the removal of three black olive trees from Links Plaza. According to property owner Mindy Kauffman, the trees obscured the view of the business from Main Street.

Her solution, which the board narrowly approved, would replace the trees with colorful plants while three sabal palms would be added elsewhere in the plaza. Dean Lambert, owner of World of Beer, said Kauffman told him earlier tenants at the building struggled due to visibility issues.

Lambert said the business was happy with its new home, but he thought the removal of the trees was a positive for Links Plaza.

“I think it actually looks a lot cleaner,” Lambert said. “Those trees, some of them grow out like a nice shaded canopy, but some of them just grow wild.”

Make Like a Tree...

Two other downtown trees went missing recently, as the city cut down two trees in front of the future Taco Bus and Evie’s project in the 1500 block of Main Street.

Some residents have expressed concern about the missing green space in the city’s urban core, but staff maintains the removal was conducted with good intentions. The trees will be replaced soon, according to project manager Neil Gaines — but other trees in the area may suffer the same fate.

The city is currently studying all of the trees along Main Street between Lemon Avenue and Orange Avenue. The study will determine which trees create the greatest safety, property damage and drainage concerns for the city, ranked from worst to best.

The city has encountered problems with tree roots dislodging brick pavers along downtown sidewalks, which leads to other complications.

Gaines said a public meeting is planned to discuss mitigation strategies once the report is completed, which should happen before the end of the month. The reason the city removed the two trees in front of the Taco Bus project is because it coincided with work the developer was doing, and presented a narrow window for staff to proceed.

The city will be replacing the two trees in front of the Taco Bus project within the next few weeks. In the process, it will add silva cells, which should help stormwater management and prevent similar issues from arising with the tree roots, according to city spokeswoman Jan Thornburg.