Kristen Livengood, Public Information Officer for Monroe County, joined KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
A coastal flood advisory has been extended until 5 a.m. tomorrow.
Livengood said, “I live near the water, and I’m actually in a house that I grew up in, and so I’ve seen the king tides ever since I was a little kid. I’m telling you, this morning, when I woke up and there was seaweed on top of the dock that I have never seen seaweed on top of before, unless there’s been, like, a hurricane or things like that, I was just like, oh, man, it was very high tide. It is like king king tides right now for sure. Especially in the Upper Keys right now, they are expecting some flooding, especially in those low lying areas and places like that, one to two inches. They could be expecting some rain, so just try to stay out of any of those puddles, especially with your cars. It could be salt water and you don’t want to mess up your cars and get salt water in your under carriage. If you have to go through puddles, try to rinse off with fresh water.”
The ribbon cutting for the Marathon airport happened on Monday.
Livengood said, “It was really great. They got to go out on the runway and cut the ribbon for the reopening of the runway. They actually moved the airport runway over 25 feet, and that was to make room for a taxiway and now that they have this taxiway available, it’s now up to code, I guess, with FAA, so that they could potentially bring in commercial airlines if they need to if any commercial airlines are interested in coming in. People are always like, when are they coming in? When are they coming in? I get that question all the time. But the airlines have to be interested in coming in as well, so, but at least now if they are interested, the runway is available. When I was growing up, we were able to, I know, like, even when I was in college, there was a commercial airline, because I used to take it from Tampa into Marathon, especially during busy weekends for, like, Fantasy Fest weekend. My parents would be like, don’t be on the road this weekend, and they’d fly me in for the weekend. But it was very inexpensive too. I think it’s the affordability of it bringing airlines in to make it worth it for people to be able to fly out. It is nice going out of the Key West airport. I’ve been stuck in downpours when it’s been raining, having to run through that airport when it was raining. I know people love the nostalgia of being able to walk across the runway, to get on their flights. But, man, I’ve been stuck in some downpours, getting up to the airline, being soaking wet, getting on the cold plane. And it’s no fun sitting on a plane wet.”
The next county commission meeting will be October 15.
Livengood said, “Orr meeting is going to be at the Marathon Government Center at 9am. We’ll have our presentation of awards. We’re actually swearing in nine new firefighters and EMTs, so that will be exciting. We’re going to be declaring November as the College of the Florida Keys Month. So that will be fun. Our agenda is up on the website. So anybody in the community can pull up the agenda and see what’s on it. There will be a presentation from Pigeon Key. They’re going to be giving their annual progress report and that’s time approximate of 9:45, also the Monroe County 2026 legislative agenda is on our agenda for this meeting as well. So you can see like what our priorities are for our state legislative agenda. So that’s pretty exciting. Also tonight, as well as on the October 15 meeting, there’s a presentation for the Florida Department of Transportation’s tentative five year work program. They are doing that presentation tonight. You can watch it either on MCTV, which is channel 67 on Comcast, or 99 on AT&T. You can also watch it on our website, or if you have our app, our MCTV app, or on Roku, or Apple, or any of those things, if you search Monroe County television, you can pull it up, I believe it’s at six o’clock. If you go to our website, it’s on our calendar as well for that five year work plan, for the FDOT five year work plan, but then you can see all the projects that are going on along US 1. I know a lot of people are always interested on what’s going on along US 1. So you can watch that, either tonight or they’re also beginning a presentation at the BOCC meeting on October 15 as well. So those are just some of the things that will be going on. If any of your listeners are ever interested in how the meetings go, or interested in any of that, I would love for them to reach out to me, because I’ve had some people reach out and be like, hey, how does this work? I’m interested in this, I’m always like, excited to talk about that when it comes to that. So if anybody’s ever interested in learning, like how to read the agenda, or how the meetings go, or what the consent agenda is like, or how the commissioners do the consent agenda, or things like that, they’re more than welcome to reach out to me, and I’d love to talk about it.”
The Tourist Development Council is also on the agenda.
Livengood said, “This is the time of year that this particular agenda is filled with all of those projects. It’s filled with coral reef projects. I think there’s a few dolphin research projects, and anything that is tourism driven and helps the ecology. I mean, I believe that it’s on there. It’s just completely packed with all these great, great projects that are filled right here in the Keys, and not only bring tourism, but also help our ecology, and that’s one of the things that our tourism dollars pay for, and something that we all love down here, that not only do our tourists, our visitors, enjoy, but we enjoy too.”
Transportation is another issue in the county.
Livengood said, “Our Monroe County Community Services Department, our social services department, we actually have had a transportation disadvantage program, and that helped us with moving people to their doctor’s appointments and getting people to the grocery store. My mom actually used it for quite some time to go to dialysis appointments. She had to go to dialysis from Marathon to Key West three days a week. So she was able to use this program for that, and it is now moved over to the Guidance Care Center. So anyone who is a Monroe County resident, who is a senior, who’s 60 years or older, or an adult resident with a disability, or who has limited income or needs help with essential or priority transportation and the essential or priority transportation include medical or health and appointments or trips to meal sites or to a public assistance or for grocery shopping or even trips for employment or other approved programs, they can actually get a ride with the Guidance Care Center on their busses. And these busses go all the way through Monroe County. So if you live in Marathon and have an appointment in Key West, or live in Key Largo and need to go grocery shopping in Islamorada, or have an appointment in Islamorada or need to go to the meal site in Tavernier, these busses can help pick you up and take you to there. I know a lot of people have called, especially with Conch Connect, they were like, how am I supposed to get to my appointment now? The Guidance Care Center does have this bus system that is available to pick you up, and they pick you up at your door and take you to your appointment, so it’s door to door. So you can actually call Monroe County Social Services at 305-292-4408 and they will make a referral to you over to the Guidance Care Center. You can make an appointment with them right there. If you go to the website and go to our social services page, I have the information there for them as well. But any of our adult senior citizens, or any residents who are , transportation disadvantaged, they can use this service to be able to get to any of their essential or priority health appointments or medical appointments, or assistance, public assistance, grocery shopping, things like that. So this is available to them, and it’s a great service, and I just trying to push out that this is available, and want to make sure that the community knows that it’s out there.”
Homecoming in Marathon is this weekend.
Livengood said, “The parade is at 1pm today. So I actually sent out a little thing to my senior management team to let their staff know, all of our Monroe County staff, if anyone is traveling today at 1pm through Marathon, that northbound traffic might be a little delayed because the parade is happening at 1pm today, and it’s real fun. I was lucky enough when I was a kid to be able to be in the parade, and you get to throw the candy. Not only that, I got the candy thrown to me when I was a kid too. The parade will be happening, and all the kids come out, so be extra careful around that time, and because there’ll be a bunch of little kids standing near the road, not very close to the road, but near the road. And the parade will be going by, and they throw candy to all the little kids. It’s very fun. But obviously, traffic will be a little delayed during that time along US 1.”