Robyn Still, member of Marathon City Council, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
A splash pad is coming to Marathon.
Still said, “What I’ve heard is that we are possibly going to be seeing the contract for the splash pad (at the next council meeting), which would come to Community Park. We signed the contract on the skate park last meeting. So that is going to be coming sooner than rather than later. I know it’s been a long delay on that. We’re really excited to see that moving forward, but the splash pad, we’re really excited about a splash pad, and I think that’s it. We’re probably going to see the contract for that. So I’m looking forward to seeing that move forward. I think that’ll be great for our kids. Behind city hall, we’re going to have additional pickleball courts.”
A new fishing tournament is coming up to benefit the fire boat fund as well.
Still said, “That tournament is definitely coming. It’s coming this fall. It’s going to be in November. I don’t want to say the date right now, until that definitely gets hammered down. Artwork is in progress. So once that gets taken care of that’s going to start going out to the public so you can see some advertisement. But I just want a heads up for everybody. That tournament is brand new, and it’s thanks to the Tourist Development Council gave grant money to the Benevolent to put on that tournament. One of the main trophies will be for Wahoo. There’s also going to be, I believe tuna is going to be in there. But an interesting thing is an award is going to be given, a trophy is going to be given for the most trash collected. So if our tournament participants are out there fishing and they see trash floating, and they retrieve that and bring it in, whoever does clean up the ocean the most during that tournament is going to win an award also. It’s going to be great and this tournament is absolutely going to benefit outfitting that fire boat. It’s very important here. As everybody knows, we’re surrounded by water, and our fire department is amazing, and a lot of times they do some water rescues, and that fire boat is critical to that. Also you’ve got to think we have a lot of people who live on their boats, and if those boats were to have a fire, we need to be able to get to them. That fire boat will absolutely give us that opportunity. It costs a lot of money to equip these things, and this tournament is going to be a way to help kind of fund that. We’ll have a website. We’ll be able to give that to you when that gets up and set up, and people will be able to find out more information and find out how to sign up or what they could do to help.”
The Marathon Council awarded grants to a number of nonprofits recently.
Still said, “We gave $150,000 at our workshop last week to Marathon based nonprofits. That money is going straight into our Marathon community, and it’s going to help people that that need our help. I believe that these nonprofits are the best way to help because they have the resources that as a city we don’t have. The people who are in need, know these agencies, and they know where to go, and we felt the best way we can help some of our residents that are in need would be to give grants, and these grants are going to summer camps for kids, they’re going to food, they’re going to shelter, just a lot of different things benefiting our residents.”
A workshop to address hurricane preparedness is coming up.
Still said, “That workshop is the third Tuesday in June, June 24. I suggested that we do that workshop on hurricane prep, since hurricane season seems to get here a lot quicker than it should. But I suggested that we have John Rizzo from the National Weather Service come tell us about tracking hurricanes, tell us about the categories of storms, how they determine that, and give us some advice on what to do. Our emergency operations center, they’re going to be there with some personnel to talk about hurricane prep, talk about what they do there. Our fire chief will be there as well to talk about what happens in the event of an evacuation. They’ll be talking about what our fire department is going to be doing, what our emergency personnel can and can’t do during the event of an evacuation order and a hurricane, and just generally, information for our residents about what needs to happen and what is happening in the city if we have a storm, whether there’s an evacuation order or not. Basically tell people, make a plan and here are some of the things that you need to plan to have. You need to have enough water for however many days we may be without electricity. We may be without water also.”
The pumps on Sombrero Boulevard have been hard at work with the recent rains.
Still said, “That seems to be going along according to schedule. I just ask that people who live there, who also have to travel through there, just have patience. Progress isn’t perfect, but progress is progress, and at the end of the day, at the end of the job, I’m hoping that this is going to solve a lot of those flooding issues that have been prevalent and been horrible out there. So just bear with us. That work is in progress, and it’s one of the quicker projects that have actually gotten underway and gotten started. Normally, the speed of government is very slow, unfortunately. There’s a lot of steps that you just can’t start something and do it. There are a whole lot of steps involved that are frustrating, but this is one of the quicker projects that have gotten off the ground and moving so just please bear with us. There is progress being made. It’s not overnight, but it is moving towards the right direction.”
Tallahassee is working on a state budget.
Still said, “What we also have to think about is our budget as a city and as a county also depends on state budget and federal budget, so we’re having to watch closely to see what happens. We’re approaching budget season as well, so we’re having to watch very closely to see what some of that funding is going to be and to make some decisions on what we need to do if that funding is not what we expect or is lower than we expect. We hope everything is going to be okay, but we’re having to begin to start thinking about it, or I am, we’ve not talked about budget yet, but we are coming really close to the time that we’re going to begin that. I’m sure my other fellow council members are starting to in their mind, start thinking some things out, if this happens, then what will we do? But we’re just all keeping a watchful eye on it to see what happens.”