For two years Karen Rushing has pressed the Sarasota County Commission for new space to store the county’s voluminous and ever-expanding collection of legal documents. It will likely take two more years for that space to be occupied, but at least it’s officially underway.
The Clerk of Circuit Court and County Comptroller told the County Commission during the Fiscal Year 2025 budget process the current aging, severe weather vulnerable and too-small storage facility is no longer adequate for the volume being produced. So critical is the situation that boxes of records are are piled up at her offices in the Historic Courthouse.
Relief, though, is on the way. On Aug. 3, the Sarasota City Commission unanimously approved a right of way vacation at the terminus of Aspinwall Street and a rezoning of a portion of the site to allow the Swift Family Ltd. Partnership to combine two parcels to build a 27,000-square-foot office and warehouse building it will lease, with plans to sell the property to the county…