What's Open And Closed Around Sarasota On Columbus Day

SARASOTA, FL — Monday is Columbus Day and unlike Thanksgiving and July 4 it's not always clear what's open and closed around the Sarasota area.

It's a good bet that your favorite stores will be open with Columbus Day sales while some — but not all — banks will be closed. The same goes for government offices.

All Wells Fargo branches will be closed, according to a representative, but Chase branches will be open. Bank of America branches will also be closed.

Columbus Day is a federal holiday, not to mention a big boating holiday around Florida. That means you won't be getting any regular mail deliveries but you can expect to see a lot more boats on the water during the three-day holiday weekend. See also Top 10 Boat Names For 2019 Include 'SNL' Reference

"On Monday, we will deliver Priority Mail Express only," explained Debra J. Fetterly of the Postal Service. "Regular mail delivery will resume on Tuesday, Oct. 15."

SARASOTA

City offices will be operating on a regular schedule for Columbus Day, according to the city's Jason Bartolone.

SARASOTA COUNTY

County offices will be operating on a regular schedule as will the county library and county buses. Curbside solid waste collections will also operate on a regular schedule, according to Brianne Grant of the county.

MANATEE COUNTY

Manatee County government offices and services will operate on a regular schedule for the holiday, according to the county's Nicholas Azzara.

The Manatee County Central Library, which is typically open on Mondays, will be closed on Columbus Day. Other library branches are typically closed on Mondays and Columbus Day will be no exception.

BRADENTON

City offices are open on Columbus Day and there is no change to the solid waste schedule, according to the city's Jeannie Roberts.

LAKELAND

All city offices will be operating on a regular schedule, according to the city's Elizabeth Repass Hollida.

COLUMBUS DAY HISTORY

President Benjamin Harrison organized the first Columbus Day celebration in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus landing in the Americas. A little over 40 years later, in 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt made Columbus Day a national holiday.

In recent years, a collection of states and cities have chosen to replace Columbus Day with Indiginous Peoples’ Day, including: Minnesota, Vermont, San Francisco and Cincinnati.
A recent poll from College Pulse, a data and survey analytics company, found that 79 percent of 1,500 college students polled favored replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day 2019.

On average, 88 percent of the students who identified as Democrats supported the name change, and only 22 percent of Republicans polled were in favor of swapping the names.