Her fellow commissioners offer full support for making formal request to the Legislature
The Sarasota County commissioners have agreed unanimously that they will pursue the naming of a segment of Fruitville Road in memory of the late political activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated during a Sept. 10 presentation at Utah Valley University.
Kirk co-founded the conservative organization Turning Point USA (TPUSA) in 2012 and was its executive director until his death, Wikipedia notes.
During the County Commission’s regular meeting on Oct. 8, in downtown Sarasota, Commissioner Teresa Mast proposed the recognition of Kirk to her colleagues.
Earlier that day, they unanimously voted to request that the Florida Legislature designate a portion of U.S. 41 in Osprey the Dickey Betts Memorial Highway, in recognition of the co-founder of the Allman Brothers Band, who was a long-time Osprey resident prior to his April 2024 death.
Mast referenced Kirk’s death by saying she wished circumstances had not led to her making her proposal that day.
She did not cite any specific section of Fruitville Road as the focus of her motion, but she represents District 1, which includes much of the road, which terminates in the far eastern part of the county.
Further, Mast pointed out that Kirk’s family has a residence in the county.
In May 2019, Sarasota County Property Appraiser Bill Furst’s records show, Kirk purchased a unit at the Longboat Key Club. Kirk worked with Rumble Chair and CEO Chris Pavlovski to find a Sarasota County home for Rumble after Pavlovski decided to relocate the company’s headquarters from Canada, the Observer newspapers reported. “Rumble, a video platform launched in 2013, moved its headquarters to Longboat Key in early 2023, bringing dozens of high-paying tech jobs to the south end of the island, a rarity on the Key,” Longboat Observer reporter S.T. Cardinal wrote in a Sept. 12 article about Kirk’s death.
Rumble was the focus of a March 2022 County Commission discussion, in regard to the company’s effort to win approval of a county Economic Development Incentive Grant “to offset costs associated with relocating employees for the Sarasota expansion,” as a Sarasota County staff memo explained.
During her Oct. 8 remarks, Mast added, “I’d like this county to continue to show the respect for what [Kirk’s] life stood for and what it will continue to stand for …”
Commissioner Ron Cutsinger seconded Mast’s Oct. 8 motion, and it passed 5-0.
As with the proposal for the Dickey Betts Memorial Highway, the county commissioners will have to approve a resolution to be sent to the Legislature, to formally request that part of Fruitville Road be designated the Charlie Kirk Memorial Road, as Mast suggested.