City Commissioner Susan Chapman is under fire this week for sounding a siren about ambulances using Orange Avenue.
In an email last Friday with the subject line "Ambulance scofflaws," Chapman chided two specific ambulances driving to and from Sarasota Memorial Hospital for repeatedly using Orange Avenue to bypass the Lift Station 87 construction that has shut down a portion of Osprey Avenue. "Orange Avenue south of Mound is a residential street that restricts trucks," she wrote. "I think it is time for these vehicles to be ticketed."
Backlash to the email, which bounced around social media over the holiday weekend, was swift and fierce. Nearly a dozen people wrote angry, name-calling emails to Chapman after seeing those posts.