Employee of Simply Trees in Venice takes business owner’s place on Sarasota Tree Advisory Council

Carol Delehanty to serve on advisory board through January 2025

The Sarasota County Commission unanimously has appointed the office manager of a professional tree care firm in Venice to fill out an unexpired term on the Sarasota Tree Advisory Council (STAC).

In fact, the new member — Carol Delehanty of Simply Trees LLC — will take the place of the owner of that business, Amber Delehanty, as noted in agenda documents for the commission’s Oct. 26 meeting.

Amber Delehanty resigned her seat on the STAC in June, a county staff memo explains. Thanks to the commission vote, Carol Delehanty will serve on the county advisory board through January 2025, based on information in the staff memo.

The Sarasota Tree Advisory Council’s purpose is to recommend “street and neighborhood planting projects and priorities; assist the county in updating and revising a consolidated tree list; assist in the dissemination of public information. Review and recommend revisions to the Sarasota County Code of Ordinances relating to trees and nominate new canopy roads for BCC consideration. Provide recommendations and perform other duties consistent with the terms of the governing resolution,” the county website explains.

The board has nine seats, the website adds. The strong preference for anyone seeking a term on the STAC is that the individual have a background in “landscape architecture, arboriculture, horticulture, tree management, land development or similar related field,” the county website points out.

STAC attendance records in the backup agenda materials show that Amber Delehanty was absent from only one meeting in both 2020 and 2021 and that she attended 100% of the sessions this year until she resigned from her seat.

Carol Delehanty submitted her application to staff on Feb. 15, as did another candidate for the unexpired term, Joseph Vibonese of Nokomis, who also works for Simply Trees as its general manager and “technical climber,” the company website notes.

A third person — Marc Gau of Sarasota — submitted his STAC application to staff on April 13, a chart showed.

In her application, Carol Delehanty wrote that she has been employed by Simply Trees for six years. She majored in environmental engineering in college, the document said.

In his application, Vibonese pointed to the fact that he is a certified arborist, and he indicated that he worked with Amber Delehanty to build Simply Trees “from ground up.”

Gau wrote in his application that he is a contractor who works on municipal drinking water and wastewater projects as an employee of EWT Holdings, which does business as Evoqua Water Technologies LLC. Its offices are located on Tallevast Road in Sarasota.

The reason he noted that he wanted to serve on the STAC, Gau wrote, was to “retain the greenspace while sharing concern [about] the growing environmental impact we are having on our beautiful Sarasota County as it continues to populate.”

He added that he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in business/finance and an MBA in information technology.