Marathon Council Member Lynn Landry joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
The Marathon City Council will meet tonight.
Landry said, “We’re going to do an achievement proclamation for Miss Justice Lee. She’s a senior at Marathon High School. She is the most decorated athlete in Marathon High School history. She’s won 13 total medals, she won four state titles, one in track and field, and three in weightlifting. So we’re going to do an achievement proclamation for her tonight, and also she is going to continue her career in education at FIU moving forward. So looking forward to that, and then recognizing Diane Clavier for 20 years experience as our clerk with the City of Marathon, and Jared Weaver and Maria Covelli, both with five years here at the City of Marathon. So that’s the fun stuff we get to do here in the city.”
The meeting is at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall.
Landry said, “There’s about seven items on there for a second public hearing. They’re basically cleanup ID items in our LDRs in our code of ordinances to change the Department of Commerce, or whatever they rebrand to in the future, to the land planning agency for the state of Florida, so we never have to change those again, no matter what they rebrand to. But every time they change, we need to change, because it has to be accurate in our ordinances there for that. So we have seven more of those items, which we pretty much read into the record and vote on them, because the only change is that highlight in those, so that’s kind of what’s going to take a little bit of time tonight, but we also have our covered fish cleaning tables coming back in front of us. We’ve done this once before. We sponsored it from the City of Marathon Department of Commerce, had a little bit of issue with it because of some state statutes on being more directive after so many years, after a major disaster, or anything that’s happened from us, like a declaration, or anything like that, for a storm. So, this, a couple of people in the city came back, and a couple residents sponsored that for the city. So, we’re going to hear it again. We’re going to send it back to Commerce, and I believe they will approve that to allow us to have covered fish cleaning stations on our docks here in the city of Marathon.”
How is the deep well project going?
Landry said, “We’ve had our lobbyist in DC since 2003 and he’s helped us secure $29,560,000 since 2003 primarily for our stormwater slash utilities for wastewater in the city of Marathon, so always trying to secure money for us federally, especially for that.”
Marathon is also looking to offer nonprofit grants.
Landry said, “It’ll be continuing through June 30. So, if you’re a nonprofit in the city of Marathon, and you’re doing some good work here, please apply. We have $100,000 it’s a little bit less than what we had last year, and we’re going to open up our workshop on the fourth Tuesday of the month, I don’t remember exactly what day that is, so you’ll be able to come out and present if you’ve applied or you receive money in the past to tell us what you’ve done with the money and what your organization does here in the city of Marathon to help us, because after that, then it’ll close June 30, we’ll actually score them as the council, they’ll rate them, and then they’ll apply money to how we rate those nonprofits, and then I think we will probably give those out in July at July’s meeting.”
Havana nights is an event on June 13.
Landry said, “It’s at Ocean Front Park here in the city of Marathon is behind City Hall at the Tiki. We’re going to have a classic car show, music, dominoes, dancing, and games. Should be an interesting evening. It’s from six to 10pm. One of those community events committees, I think Maria Covelli chairs that for us here in the city of Marathon. They have put on some great events over the past several months to the last year, from ice skating to roller skating under the tiki out here behind City Hall. So, hopefully that committee will continue to bring us some great events to bring this community together.”
The Quay boat ramp is closed.
Landry said, “We’re doing some dock repairs on that. We had some issues with some of that aging structure there, so they’re replacing all that. So, hopefully, it’ll be open in the next week or 10 days. It’s been closed for about a week already, so hopefully we’re going to get that repaired and get it back up to spec for us, so we can open that ramp back up.”
How is the search for a city manager going?
Landry said, “We have closed the portal now for applications. They’re in the process. There’s a committee that’s scoring all those for us based on a rubric that was developed by our HR department, so hopefully we’ll get an update on that tonight and how we’re going to handle the interview process and all that for the selection from the council perspective.”
The fire chief position is vacant as well.
Landry said, “It’s vacant right now, as far as I know. I know that Shana Rogers, who’s a long-term lieutenant, that’s been doing a lot of administrative work hand in hand with the chief, they’ve appointed her as the interim chief at this point. I’m not sure where that’s going at this point right now, but that’s what we have. So we have some stability in place there, but moving forward, I’m sure we’re going to be looking for a fire chief.”