The Sarasota County (Fla.) Emergency Management officials say they need more community uses for the hurricane shelter proposed by the Sarasota Memorial hospital to make it financially viable, according to an article North Port Sun website.
The plan is to construct a 35,000-square-foot evacuation center with a capacity to hold 1,000 evacuees during an emergency. The shelter would be on a new hospital campus in Venice.
The center could also be available as a regional and statewide asset to shelter neighboring communities.
But the limited uses decrease synergies potentially available to other county needs such as community use, sports and recreation, according to officials. This limits the availability of grant, legislative allocation and joint funding opportunities.