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 new city hall is under construction.
Bartus said, “The front part of the building, the part that needs to go has been demolished, and they’re working on doing what they can, shoring up what the different things they need to do. And then the expansion construction is going to start on that. We’re currently still able to use Marble Hall for meetings, and we’ll do that as long as we possibly can, but it’s definitely a construction zone right now. We’re moving forward, and I’m just really happy to see this project underway, looking hopefully by, once substantial completion happens, the end of this year, we’re looking at hopefully getting into City Hall and being able to move in and just establish our new offices there. And we can’t wait. Staff can’t wait. Those of us in the administration, the building department, who are over in the trailer can’t wait. I know the police department who’s in the trailer can’t wait. So we’re more than ready for this.”
A city commission meeting coming up on March 19.
Bartus said, “We had some bids out, and we’re going to be discussing those. And the commission is going to have the option to award a few bids, the pickleball shade sales, basketball half court and a paver project for the retention pond up in the corner of Eighth Street and Shelter Bay drive. We’ve taken an old muddy facility, and it’s now this beautiful pond with fountains, and even at night time, it can light up multi colors, and it’s a really cool thing, and it’s also part of the Key Colony Beach’s storm water retention program. So it serves a very valuable purpose, as well as providing a little bit more beauty than we had there before.”
This is the 50th anniversary of the Marathon Seafood Festival.
Bartus said, “I’m again on the overall Seafood Festival Committee, putting the event on. And there’s a lot of people that have been doing this for a long time, and it’s a fairly well oiled machine at this point. Of course, the world’s best seafood is going to be in there thanks to our commercial fishermen. The event is put on by the Organized Fisherman of Florida Marathon chapter, as well as the Greater Marathon Chamber of Commerce. A lot of the money that comes out of that festival goes towards scholarships for local local kids, from both the Chamber and the organized fishermen.”
Key Colony Beach Days was held recently.
Bartus said, “That was on Sunday March 1. What a fantastic event that was. One of the big highlights of that day is the parade that goes down Ocean Boulevard. The City of Marathon provided fire trucks and things like that. Local dignitaries were out there, and there were some really nice cars hauling around some of the people. And then the Mahi Shriners came down. The Marathon Shriners are part of that group. And they came down with their little funny cars, and one guy with a smaller car, wandering in and out, doing a little version of stunt driving. Throughout the course of their little part in the parade, everybody was throwing candy to the kids. And it was wonderful, a great event. We raised some money for our club that’s going to scholarships. And it was just a great event for the community that the Key Colony Beach Community Association puts on that event, as well as a lot of other great things throughout Key Colony Beach, including the concerts in the park every Sunday during season and so many other wonderful things, the Coconut Crawl. They provide a lot of events. And Key Colony Beach is a wonderful community. The audience, the citizen participation in that community is stellar. People involved. They are really part of that community, and they really want to make the community the best it can be.”
Officials continue to watch what’s going on in Tallahassee.
Bartus said, “Thank you to our State Representative Jim Mooney and our state Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez. They’re tireless advocates for those of us down here who are trying to work and make our local governments run, and they do a great job for us. We’re watching whatever potential property tax reform might come out of Tallahassee this year that will have to go on to a ballot and that will directly affect the ability of local governments to raise funds. And so we’ll see what does come out of that. The Senate has not considered one property tax reform bill yet. The House has got one they’ve sort of shepherded through, but as both houses have to agree on the exact language, then they have to pass it by a three fifths vote in each house, and then it will go directly onto the ballot. The governor cannot veto or otherwise change this, so he’s going to get whatever input he has in the legislative crafting process to get what language he wants in there. So we’re watching that one very closely. We’re also watching other local bills like Stewardship and some appropriations requests that we have some money that comes out of Tallahassee, because we’re certainly a donor community in terms of things like sales taxes and things to Tallahassee. So they get enough money out of us, it’s time to get some back to us. This is what we all do every year. If I’m saying a prayer to the gods of legislature, it would be this one simple thing, please fix Citizens property insurance, and that’s not on the agenda at all this year.”