Lynn Landry, Mayor of the City of Marathon, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
There is a benefit coming up for the wrestling team on Sunday.
Landry said, “Mid Keys Booster Club. We do a lot of fundraising for high school, middle school athletics and other events in the community. We’re sponsoring a spaghetti dinner at the Elks on the 16th from 4pm to 7pm to benefit the new wrestling team at Marathon High School. I think we’re going to have some silent auction items as well. So it should be a really nice night to come out and enjoy some food and maybe get some good deals on some say that auction items.”
The city of Marathon hasn’t had a tax increase in three years.
Landry said, “We have a very good reserve in the city of Marathon. We decided that 12 months is our place to be at reserves. We were over that. So this year we’ve run a little bit of a deficit budget to burn some of that reserve off so that we could hold the line on taxes in the city. We also did one thing. We brought the 300 affordables back to the city of Marathon, 191 of those have been built into renting. That was something that we lost from Governor Scott through the court system. But we were able to have it put back in legislation through Senator Rodriguez and Representative Mooney to get those back. There was 1,300 total for all the county, but 300 of those came to the city of Marathon. We we focused on transparency by hiring Carlos Garcia, our new PIO, and we recently just renewed a contract for him for a year to help with transparency and getting good quality information out to the public in a timely manner. We also brought in a new fire chief little over a year now. The fire department is fully staffed for the first time in about seven years, so it’s a great thing, which kind of leads into some appropriations we received from the state last year. We’ve ordered a new fire rescue boat, which is partially funded by state funds, and that will be housed at the Seven Mile Marina. Those contracts have been out, and I believe they’re working on those currently to replace all the docks at Seven Mile Marina, and eventually we’ll be doing the rehab of the building. One of the big things I’m really proud of is we’re actually going full bore ahead on the skate park at the City Park. It’s going well. They poured bunch of concrete last week, and then the final designs for the splash pad, are following that. So we should have that in construction shortly after the skate park.”
The County Commissioners will potentially be handing out some ROGO units to Marathon and Key Largo.
Landry said, “We actually approved 19 early evacuation units to come into the city from the county last meeting. The county has a piece of property, it used to be where they housed their fire services in the city of Marathon. They are going to transfer the units in. They’re going to build 19 units on that property, which they own, and it’s going to be funded by TDC dollars, which was something that we got a carve out from the legislature from funds that were collected over and beyond what we used in TDC. So it’s the trifecta for affordable housing in the city of Marathon, and it will be for tourist related industry workers only as affordable housing. One of the great things I think is going to happen here in the next year or so in the city of Marathon.”
What’s coming up for projects in Marathon?
Landry said, “I think we’re going to continue moving some of our capital improvements forward. One of the big things we’re dealing with right now is a deep well. On the 18th we’re having a little bit later of a meeting than normal. Since we had the election in the city of Marathon, we’re going to be welcoming Debbie Struyf as a new council member, and member Still and myself will be resworn in for the Council for the next three years. So we’re going to be looking at the deep well. We approved the process for the finance director and the city manager, George Garrett, to enter into a loan with state FRS low interest loans for our deep well. There’s a contract on the agenda for the 18th for an $8.6 million loan through this department state revolving funds for clean water in the state of Florida. So we’re getting that moving. There’s also another contract on here for some underground piping connecting our plants. We have to connect all five plants in order to run the water out to Coco plum, where our deep well is going to be housed. It’s been a pleasure and honor to serve as mayor this past year, and on the 18th we will probably be selecting a new mayor. So we do it in one year increments. On every November, we choose a new mayor and a new vice mayor. I’m just looking forward to the next three years, and we start on the 18th and getting back to work for the city of Marathon and trying to do the best we can and do some good stuff here in the city.”