Mike Puto, known as Mr. Marathon, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning.
It’s been busy in Marathon.
Puto said, “There’s a lot of construction going on with the sewer system and that kind of stuff along the airport side. But the sheriff’s department has done a phenomenal job with traffic control. It was a circus there for a while, getting the cones up and everything else. And Derek Paul, who’s our chief of police, does a real good job and with his staff, staying on top of it and just trying, trying to do the best they can, to make it simple. I mean, it’s pretty tough out there when the cars all back up a little bit, but right now, they’re flowing pretty good. So we’re happy that that’s happening.”
The Seafood Festival was very successful.
Puto said, “When you look at all the places that when they first got started, all those years ago, it was over where Publix is now. We had the big parking lot there. And of course, at that time, the bank allowed everybody to participate. It was a different thing and basically, it’s expanded. Before they used to have, it was a Seafood Festival, and there were no vendors or anything per se, other than the commercial fishermen doing the seafood thing. And then now we’ve got there’s maybe, I think, 150 or 200 vendors that show up. And it’s a little bit of everything for everybody. With the first one, we were just helping out with OFF and it was strictly OFF at the time. It wasn’t a Chamber project. And now that they expanded and got more people to help out, it works out a little bit better. But back in the old days, when they first got started, I kind of think it was like 10 or $12 for the meal, for example. But you got a piece of fish, you got some shrimp, and you got some lobster. And there wasn’t, like, a big decision. You just went through the line and, boom, boom, boom. Now they had all sorts of stuff. The organized fishery get together and do a real good job with all the different types of food and as such. And of course, it’s just, it brings the people in, and then, of course, we had different bands that play all during the day, and that’s gotten bigger now. The biggest thing, of course, is weather. If it’s not too hot, then it’s pretty good.”
The Marathon football stadium is being named after Mike Puto.
He said, “It was a very humbling experience. And they’ve been working on this for a while. It just didn’t pop up overnight. But I’m finding out everybody participated. When we were at the board meeting for the school board, I’m going to say probably about, maybe it was a month and a half ago, we got called over, just to say hello. And it was sort of a surprising event, because how they kept it a secret, I don’t know, but at the meeting, the superintendent was doing his resolutions and that kind of stuff, and he made it a point to come up and say, well, I’ve got a final resolution here, number so, number so and so. And I see that Mr. Puto is in the audience. And he says, resolution so and so, naming the Marathon high school football complex area there the Michael H Puto stadium. And, boy, I about fell out of my chair. It was pretty awesome and very, very humbling. It was pretty neat. I love this place. It’s a great day to be alive.”