County staff explains that no final determination has been made about structure
The evening of Sept. 23, when the Sarasota County commissioners conducted their final hearing on the proposed 2026-27 fiscal year budget, all but two of the members of the public who showed up to offer comments focused on the potential demolition and replacement of the Blackburn Point Bridge in the Osprey/Nokomis area.
That hearing took place nine days after the Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation (SAHP) issued a press release with a copy of a report on a technical review of county materials about the bridge that it had received from Michigan-based Bach Ornamental & Structural Steel, “which specializes in historic bridge restoration,” as the release pointed out.
The Alliance had worked with county residents to seek Bach Ornamental’s analysis of Sarasota County Government “project documents, inspection materials, photographs, videos and cost estimates and assess whether rehabilitation is a viable alternative to replacement,” the release explained.
“ ‘The financial case is not close,’ ” Nels Raynor, president of Bach Ornamental & Structural Steel, said in the analysis,” as the news release pointed out. “ ‘The county’s own engineers acknowledge the bridge can be restored and rate it in fair condition,’ ” he continued in the release. “ ‘Rehabilitation is the fiscally conservative option, by a wide margin,’ ” Raynor added.
The release did acknowledge that Bach Steel had yet to conduct an on-site evaluation of the bridge, though it said such action had been scheduled for a later date.
The release added, “Sarasota County transportation staff and consultants cite the bridge’s condition, the difficulty of repairing the aging structure and public safety concerns, including the need for more space for pedestrians and cyclists, as reasons for recommending replacement. SAHP contends that rehabilitation of the existing bridge has not been adequately considered.”
The Alliance placed the structure on its 2025 list of Six to Save historic properties in Sarasota County. A news release about that list explained that the bridge “is listed in both the National Register of Historic Places and the Sarasota County Local Register. This Warren pony truss swing structure originally had to be opened via hand crank. It is the last remaining bridge built as part of the first infrastructure blitz by the newly formed Sarasota County during the 1920s land boom,” the list pointed out.
Sarasota County Government webpages with the heading Blackburn Point Bridge Project explain that that the county initiative is focused on “possible replacement alternatives for the [structure] on Blackburn Point Road over the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in Osprey … The project consists of two phases. Phase One involves a Project Development & Environment Study (PD&E), which includes environmental and engineering evaluations of alternatives. Phase Two focuses on preparing design documents for the construction of the chosen alternative.”
‘No final decision about the bridge has been made’
Over recent months, members of the public also have attended regular County Commission meetings to implore the board members to save the bridge.
During the Sept. 23 budget hearing, three people addressed the board before any votes were taken on the budget or millage rates. Another five appeared during the potion of the hearing devoted to the proposed ordinance calling for “updates to the Capital Improvements Element of the Comprehensive Plan” for the fiscal years of 2027 through 2031, as the agenda phrased it.
The financial details for specific county departments included in that ordinance noted that $3.7 million had been appropriated to date for “Blackburn Point Road Movable Bridge.” No new appropriation was provided through the 2031 fiscal year.
All of the speakers during the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) hearing — including a woman who not only made her own comments but offered a written statement from another woman — protested any county attempt to demolish the Blackburn Point Bridge.
This week, The Sarasota News Leader asked county staff about the status of plans for the bridge. In an Oct. 13 email, Public Information Officer Emily Blaine provided the following statement:
“At this stage, no final decision about the bridge has been made. Sarasota County is evaluating multiple options for the Blackburn Point Bridge, including a ‘no-build’ option that would retain the existing single-lane bridge with necessary repairs to maintain its operational status and structural integrity. Replacement alternatives under review include movable bridge options, such as a swing span bridge and a bascule span bridge [drawbridge]. The county has held three public meetings to inform the public about the study and gather input, with the most recent meeting held June 11, 2026. The topic is tentatively scheduled to come before the Sarasota County Commission for discussion in December 2026. Additional information about the study and bridge conditions is available at blackburnbridgeproject.com.”
The statement added, “Sarasota County recognizes that many in the community value Blackburn Point Bridge, which is nearly 100 years old, for its history and character. The goal of the study is to evaluate the bridge’s functional needs and understand how any future option could best serve the community while considering public safety, mobility, emergency access, quality of life for nearby residents and users, environmental considerations, and the bridge’s history, character and surrounding area.”
The statement also pointed out, “The Blackburn Point Bridge is an aging bridge that requires continued maintenance and evaluation to ensure it can safely and reliably serve the traveling public. To be clear, the county is evaluating all options for the bridge. No final recommendation or decision has been made.”
‘There is absolutely no reason to get rid of this piece of history’
The very first speaker during the CIP hearing was Curtis Albee Vannah of Nokomis.
“For those of you who know your Sarasota history,” he began, “the Albee family came here in 1920. Dr. Albee was my great uncle, and he was an orthopedic surgeon by trade. He came and opened the Florida Medical Center in Venice, and his entire success and fame in life” were linked to a procedure Albee developed “to repair broken bones in World War II soldiers that were injured.”
Vannah pointed out, “Prior to that time, they would just cut off the said limb that couldn’t be repaired.
“Dr. Albee,” he continued, “found a way to graft the bone from another part of the body into the broken arm or leg to repair and restore and rehabilitate the broken appendage. He became famous for this and then ended up developing quite a bit of land in Sarasota and Venice in the county.”
Vannah stressed to the commissioners that Albee’s “entire life was about repairing and restoring and rehabilitating what doesn’t have to be thrown away. And that really hits home for the bridge. There is absolutely no reason to get rid of this piece of history. It’s passed safety inspections. It’s a natural speed barrier on Blackburn Point Road.”
Vannah concluded his remarks thus: “Do the right thing. Don’t spend money on a project that doesn’t need to be done. Don’t fix things that are already working well. And that’s, that’s basically the sum of it.”
The next speaker, Laura Roush, explained that she and her husband live on Casey Key Road. “None of the people that I’ve spoken to want a new bridge,” she said. “They love the old bridge. They feel like it is safe. From what we have heard, it is safe currently.”
Roush added, “a lot of people I’ve spoken to actually worked 25 years ago to stop [demolition of the historic bridge]. And you guys — whoever was [on the commission] then — said, ‘Yes, we are going to restore the bridge,’ and it has lasted all this time. And I know that we have the technology and we have the resources to do that, which will definitely be significantly less than tearing it out and putting in a new bridge.”
She also talked about the potential that a new bridge would encourage even more people to drive the narrow Casey Key Road. “I wanna know where the traffic studies are to show that it’s safe to … make pedestrians and bicyclists go down roads with no bicycle lane and no sidewalks,” Roush said. “I’ve never seen anything like this, and I can tell you it’s not safe, and I’m surprised somebody hasn’t died at this point. I mean, it’s gonna happen.”
She further stressed, “So when we’re looking at spending all this money to put more people on this island where they don’t belong, we’re also gonna be looking at more lawsuits. We’re gonna be looking at people getting hurt.”
The third speaker during that hearing, Cathleen Nardi of Osprey, initially read a statement for Erica Davis, who could not be present that evening. Davis noted that she grew up on the north end of Casey Key and still lives there.
Referring to the potential replacement of the bridge, she wrote, “What exactly is motivating those in favor [of that]? I am genuinely concerned that it’s about further development, and that is a very deep concern to me.” Davis added, “The charm the bridge brings to our area cannot be matched. … Leave the bridge alone. Newer and bigger isn’t always better. In fact, these days it never is.”
Nardi herself talked of having spent a total of five hours at the bridge over the previous two weeks, asking drivers if they would be willing to sign a petition calling for the county to save the structure. “One hundred sixty of them did just that,” she pointed out. “Fewer than 10 people declined. What struck me was how quickly people understood what we were asking,” she said.
Yet another speaker, Tommye Whittaker of Venice, chastised the commissioners for the fact that county staff conducted community workshops on the future of the bridge during months when few or no “snowbirds” are present in the county.
“You don’t have a meeting in September and November,” she emphasized, “and you don’t have a meeting in June. You have it in January and February.”
Whittaker added, “So right there, you didn’t necessarily get all the information that you needed about the Blackburn Point Bridge and the new bridge.”
Referencing the earlier remarks by Nardi, whom she called a friend, Whittaker told the commissioners, “You didn’t get the whole story. You really haven’t.”
She further contended, “That ‘unsafe’ bridge has passed [an inspection] every year for the last 25 years. We have a 122 bridges in this area. Nine didn’t do so well. Blackburn Point Bridge always passes.”
Moreover, Whittaker pointed out, only three swing bridges remain in the entire state.
The overall budget and the millage rates
Although the bridge was the focus of much of the Sept. 23 hearing, the commissioners did unanimously approve the overall budget and millage rates for the 2027 fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1.
The total budget is $2,427,984,405, as noted in the formal resolution that the board members addressed.
The final, aggregate millage rate of 3.8545 mills marked a 0.04% increase, compared to what is called the “roll-back” rate of 3.8530 mills. The latter figure is the one the county would have used if it were to keep its property tax revenue stream at the same level as it was for the 2026 fiscal year.
One mil represents $1,000 of the value of a parcel.
The total countywide millage rate is 3.3833 mills, the formal resolution noted. That includes the general operating millage of 3.2317 mills, which represents a 0.3% increase, compared to the roll-back rate of 3.2219 mils.
Conversely, the 2027 Mosquito Control District millage rate for the 2027 fiscal year is 0.0490 mils, which marks a 5.59% decrease, compared to the roll-back rate of 0.0519 mils, the resolution said.
The debt service millage rate for the county’s Environmentally Sensitive Lands Protection Program (ESLPP) is 0.0653 mils for FY 2027, the resolution added. The debt service millage rate for the extension of The Legacy Trail for the 2027 fiscal year is 0.0373 mils.