John Bartus, city administrator for Key Colony Beach, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM yesterday morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
The new city hall project is moving forward.
Bartus said, “Last month, we got our 100% drawings and got those approved through our architect, got the bid packages put out. Those bids are now live on demand star, which is the service we use to publicize our bids throughout the industry, and we have two different bids going on. There’s one that’s going to be an early bid that will be done before the main project starts, and we’re just going to be addressing some spalling. There’s a columns and bids concrete project that’s going to go forward fairly quickly. And then the big one is out, and that’s the whole city hall storm hardening and reconstruction of an addition and the rehabilitation of the existing building, and that project is out for bid as well. We’ve had a lot of interest in contractors for both of these projects, and we’re looking forward to hopefully getting some really good bids in on this and moving forward. So it’s sort of exciting times in Key Colony Beach. A lot of people have worked for a lot of years to get to where we’ve gotten right now. And the current commission, I’m going to hand it to them, we’ve got a really good commission, working hard on this. They have provided us really good direction, and staff has done a great job. And our architectural firm, CPH, I can’t say enough about them as well. We’re working because we’re trying to get this job closed out. We have until June 30 of next year to submit all the funds in for the grant that we have for this project. We’re hoping for construction to start, possibly, if the contractor can mobilize quickly before this year is out. It’s been a long time coming. People are involved, and that’s always a good thing. We want to make sure the citizens stay involved in their local government. It’s local governments that affects everybody’s life the most.”
A budget meeting will happen today.
Bartus said, “We do encourage people to come out and talk to their commissioners about this. The budget hearing, by state law, they require budget hearings to happen at 5:05 in the afternoon. So there’s going to be the first one that’s going to be 5:05 Thursday, and then next Thursday we have a regular commission meeting in the morning, and then at 5:05, next Thursday, we’ll have our second budget hearing, which will wrap everything up.”
How is the budget looking?
Bartus said, “There is a slight millage rate increase on this. And again, if you have a homestead home, it doesn’t affect you that much. The state law limits how much your property taxes can go up during a given year. So there’s a slight increase. It’s not that heavy. But for local governments, the cost of doing business every year does not go down. Inflation hits us just as much as it hits everybody’s personal pocketbooks too. I do want to commend our staff, our department heads, for bringing in and working with our finance director and our commission on trying to come in and bring in a very responsible budget this year. I know for a fact that the attitude over there is to be incredibly responsible stewards of our local tax dollars, and that’s something that I’ve been involved in in government since we first started the city of Marathon a quarter century ago.”
There are many ways to participate in the meetings.
Bartus said, “If you decide to participate, there’s a way to do so and again, every one of our city meetings is on Zoom, from our recreation committees, our planning and zoning boards, utility board, Beautification Committee. All these things are always broadcast on Zoom. You can always tune in there, and we do, especially when you have a decent Snowbird population, it gives people a chance, even if they’re not local, if they’re not in town, they can still come and participate in the meetings. And they do, and it’s a good thing.”
People can meet the police officers for the City of Key Colony Beach on September 28.
Bartus said, “Tomorrow is 9/11 and I am so grateful for the fact that we have people, our first responders, and this just this goes out for everybody, county wide, statewide and nationwide, as far as I’m concerned, the people that go out there and put their lives in the line, to do that job, to be the ones to go in when everybody else is rushing out, we saw that spirit really hit home for a lot of us on 9/11 and every day from local law enforcement, where they have to go into a domestic situation, they have to answer the call for an automobile accident or something even worse, these people go out there and do this, and they deserve our gratitude and our respect.”