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.
Construction is continuing on City Hall.
Bartus said, “Our main contractor is doing a good job. We’re looking at a substantial completion date by sometime in October, and the building is really coming together now. The bones are really shaping up. We got a new roof over most of the existing structure that was deemed necessary to preserve Marble Hall and the post office, and it’s really starting to look like a new building, and we’re excited. I know that I probably speak for a lot of us in the administrative and the police departments who are ready to inhabit a new office building and a new city hall, plus I know that the community will be really interested and excited to see a new marble hall and the post office and have them all storm-hardened and flood-proofed as well.”
Two sea turtle nests were found in the city recently. We are in nesting season.
Bartus said, “We were excited to find the nests. The emails started coming in with photos, and there’s a lot of great turtle volunteers looking out for that on the beach all the time, and to see two new nests is pretty exciting.”
With the property tax reform headed for the November ballot, is the city worried?
Bartus said, “There are some concerns. The mayor and commissioners and I will probably discuss a bit of that at the upcoming commission meeting next Thursday. Some of the issues, I mean, is the property tax relief part of it sounds very enticing and for a lot of cities down in the Keys, it’s not the hugest part of our ad valorem taxes, but what the most onerous part of this whole thing is the categorization of which core services that ad valorem taxes can fund, things that the ad valorem taxes cannot fund are things like parks and rec, libraries, any social services, a lot of our public works services. These will not be able to be funded through your property taxes, and so you’ll see a lot of local governments probably adding a whole lot more user fees for services that we don’t have, that don’t happen right now, and I hate to think of going into the Marathon library and being charged an admission fee, but that’s something that could absolutely happen. Parks and Recreation, the services that the city provides for everyone, including our visitors, are now going to have to probably come with user fees, maybe parking charges, things like that. We don’t know what this is all going to entail just now, but we will find out, unfortunately, if this goes through. And the other thing that you really want to worry about, in terms of what happens, the homesteader properties are going to be fine, but local governments might be forced to up millage rates, raise millage rates on those taxes for commercial property owners and for renters, and if you’re renting and you’re trying to live as affordably as possible down here, the cost of that extra tax burden is not going to be absorbed by your landlord. They’re going to pass it on, and so if you rent property, you have commercial property, these things are going to come back to say maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all. If you’re involved in municipal and county government, it’s probably a good bet that you’re looking at this with a lot of concern. The biggest impact is going to be not being able to use those ad valorem taxes for things that we’ve historically used them for, what every local government in the state has used them for, for the last however many years we’ve been dealing with property taxes.”
The celebration of America’s 250th anniversary on July 4 will be amazing.
Bartus said, “We are looking forward to that. The city has become resplendent. We’ve got some nice red, white, and blue banners up around the city. There is one property up on Clara Boulevard that is gone all out. It’s one of the half duplexes up there. There’s flags, there’s bunting, there’s banners, and there is a very patriotic person living in that house. It really looks good. It’s just nice to see all the red, white, and blue. The 4th is a huge, huge day for the community, and Key Colony is certainly welcome to come out to Marathon’s July 4, and it’s a great day. The Marathon Rotary Club sells burgers and dogs, and all the funds we raise go towards scholarships and the other good works that Marathon Rotary does. This past year, Rotary has delivered some – I think we donated some $47,000 in scholarships. We have the best small town fireworks display in the world, as far as I’m concerned.”
The city commission meeting will be held next Thursday.
Bartus said, “We’re in the middle of going for hopefully a nice relationship with the county and the other municipalities and stakeholders working on an interlocal agreement for distribution of Stewardship funds that are coming out this year in the state, and I believe it hasn’t been vetoed yet, but the stewardship money, $20 million is coming to the Keys, and we’re very grateful for our legislators who keep supporting that and keep helping us down here pay a lot of these huge infrastructure bills on projects that not just for us but for our local environment and the millions of visitors that come to the Keys every year.”