John Bartus, city administrator for Key Colony Beach, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
The contract for construction on City Hall has been awarded.
Bartus said, “We finalized our our contract with Pedro Falcone contractors. They’re going to be the general contractor on the City Hall project. They did Marathon City Hall. They were involved in the Monroe County Emergency Operations Center building. They know what they’re doing, and we’re very pleased that they’re the contractor that’s going to be working with us. This week, they received their notice to proceed, the contracts signed and ready to go. This morning, we’re having a pre construction meeting over at City Hall to get the ball rolling. So by September of next year, they have to have us in substantial completion. There will be things to do after that, the punch list, the final things, but the substantial completion next September, and by this time next year, I’m really looking forward to having our administrative offices and our police offices in our new city hall. I can’t wait. It’s been, I know, for a lot of people in Key Colony, to quote Jerry Garcia, what a long, strange trip it’s been.”
A boat parade is coming up on December 14.
Bartus said, “It’s going to be fantastic. I’m actually going to be in the boat parade this year. I don’t know if I should give this away, but what the heck I’m going to be Santa Claus.”
Presents in Paradise is also underway.
Bartus said, “All of the elves have been together over the last week and a half, doing what we call the sort and the bagging, making sure that all the kids who are in the program get exactly what they’re looking for, and so every child has got their own list, and they’re all going to have their individual gifts put together, and mostly put together in these big black contractor bags. So when the parents come to pick them up, if the kids are with them, they don’t know what’s in it, but then the parents can take those big black contractor backs home, and then they can have Christmas in their own tradition, in their own way they celebrate. And the kids will have a Christmas. It’s not just toys and things like that. We try to give a whole lot of STEM stuff away, educational things, books, if kids want books, bicycles, but we’d also do a lot of things like clothing and bedding and hygiene items, things like that, that will really just help a family get through, especially when you’ve got parents working, and sometimes it’s a single parent household, and it’s really hard for a local working person to make a living and try to make ends meet, much less try to afford Christmas, and that’s what Presents in Paradise is all about. The easiest way to help out, if you can, is to text the word presents to 44321, and that’ll set you up with a donation site that you can help out. I would like to thank all the people who do donate and support our cause, and the people on our board of directors and our volunteers for helping out our big sort. I mean, the big distribution is actually coming up Saturday morning, and that’ll be coming up out of the Marathon Rec Center, and that’s full. If you’re going to be going to the Marathon boat parade at Boot Key harbor at Dockside, we will be selling some Roger Haynes does T shirts, and the proceeds from the sales of the t shirt for the Boot Key harbor boat parade go towards Presents in Paradise.”
The annual Home for the Holidays show at the Marathon Community Theater is coming up.
Bartus said, “It’s coming up this Friday and Saturday evenings. I believe showtime is at seven. Obviously I love Christmas. And as an honor for me to be able to participate in this so I’m going to be assisting with four numbers there, the show opener, then the person who I’ve been a mentor for the Take Stock in Children program, he and I are going to do a duet of that Bing Crosby David Bowie song, Peace on Earth, Little Drummer Boy, and I’ve got a special solo number coming up later in the program. And then I’m also going to be playing guitar behind three of our recent high school graduates who are getting together to sing a song and they’re going to be singing a song. We had our dress rehearsal last night. There are some cool things happening in this Christmas program, so it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a blast. If we could be more like we try to be in the holiday season year round, this world would be a whole lot better place.”