A Sarasota Fairgrounds project to replace aging, hurricane-damaged agricultural facilities appears set to secure $5 million as lawmakers sort through local budget requests during the Special Session.
The House and the Senate for now have agreed to an appropriations request for a Sarasota County Agricultural Fair Association multipurpose facility backed by Republican Sen. Joe Gruters and Republican Rep. James Buchanan.
The funds would help build a 49,500-square-foot facility at the Sarasota County Fairgrounds, replacing agricultural buildings first built in 1950. According to appropriations request documents, those facilities have been “piecemealed together over 75 years and damaged by Hurricane Milton.”
Sarasota County has included the project on its legislative priority list for years.
The new facility would support youth agriculture and year-round events in addition to use during hurricane recovery efforts.
Florida Power & Light (FPL), the National Guard and local governmental agencies use the fairgrounds as a staging site during natural disasters, and the new facility would provide secure space to store equipment and position manpower before a storm, then house and feed workers during recovery.
The project already received $2.5 million in the current fiscal year, and documents list another $1 million from other sources, but no additional funding requests are expected in future years.
House documents show that the city of Sarasota passed a resolution supporting the facility and FPL has written a letter of support.
Budget conference negotiations remain ongoing, and funding requests must still survive final negotiations and the Governor’s veto before becoming guaranteed.
