John Bartus, administrator for the city of 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 city hall reconstruction is continuing to move forward.
Bartus said, “Friday, we have a special call City Commission meeting to discuss the finer details of the contract, pretty much get those worked out and basically get that contract signed, give the contractor notice to proceed. We’re excited. We’re going to have work starting on this building before the end of the year. And that makes me very, very happy. We’d like to thank our contractor, Pedro Falcon, they were the lowest, responsive and responsible bidder. We also want to thank our architect, architectural firm, CPH, they were instrumental in working with staff and commission to come up with our architectural plans for this and get it out to bid. We’re looking very forward. The contract specifies a nine month construction window, so this time next year, I hope we are sitting in our brand new city hall. That’d be very, very, very nice to have to be able to do that and get our administrative and police officers out of the trailers.”
The regularly scheduled city commission meeting will be on November 20.
Bartus said, “We’ll just be putting together a lot of just doing some of our regular business. The cool thing about Key Colony right now is this is the time of year when a lot of our snowbirds and our winter residents come back and the city starts coming back to life. Our committees are starting to do a lot of things, like our Recreation Committee, our Beautification Committee, these groups do a lot of stuff to help make Key Colony and keep it a beautiful and wonderful place. We just had a Beautification Committee meeting this past week, and they’re already planning on their different work parties for the rest of the season so they can get out there and keep Key Colony beautiful. Our Christmas decorations will probably be going up on our light poles, I’m imagining probably around Thanksgiving or slightly afterwards, and then we’ll be ready for the holidays.”
Key Colony Beach celebrated Veterans Day yesterday.
Bartus said, “My sister was Army. She served over in Iraq, and my dad was Air Force. The people that put their lives on the line to be able to protect and defend our freedoms, we owe them everything, and so I definitely salute veterans for doing that. We had a great thing every year over at Stanley Switlik School, they do what they call red, white and blue day, and this is celebration of veterans, and it’s in advance of Veterans Day right around the same time as Veterans Day every year. And for the past several years, they’ve asked me to come over and sing God Bless the USA for them. It is such a wonderful thing, because they have all these kids from all the different grades, and all waving American flags. It is really beautiful.”
The city business continues to move forward.
Bartus said, “I’ve got a great commission and an absolutely wonderful staff I’m working with every day. It makes it really fun and exciting and to go to work, and there’s a lot of challenges involved too, but that’s part of the process. That’s part of what you sign up for. So I’m enjoying the job very much.”
Presents in Paradise is a nonprofit group that looks to help families around the holidays.
Bartus said, “This is an organization I think my wife founded some 23 years ago, and we’ve grown every year. Last year, we helped over 800 kids and their families, some of our lower income working families who have a hard time making ends meet at all and Christmas, you put that expense on these families, it’s really tough, so that’s why we do Presents in Paradise every year, to help those families and make Christmas possible. Again, it works with the traditions each family has. We’re not trying to say how you do this. We just supply what the kids want, and the parents are able to distribute them to the kids in the way they would normally do Christmas. I would love to see some of the faces on the kids when they get to open their presents, but sometimes when the parents come by to pick up the presents, and they’re usually all in big contractor, plastic bags that nobody can see what’s inside, but our board members and volunteers all dress up as elves. And it’s really cool, because the kids will have big eyes and just like, oh, wow. And that helps get the whole family in the holiday spirit too, I think.”
Everything is volunteer.
Bartus said, “We don’t have any paid positions and we have a great board of directors. So my wife was the founder and president for a long time. We get, indeed, a new president this year, Ken Wolf, over at Baptist Fisherman’s Hospital. He’s taken over as president, and he’s got some great ideas, and this is going to be his first Christmas. He’s volunteered with the board before, so he has an idea of what we’re getting ourselves into here, but it’s going to be the sort and going through inventory and finding what we need and looking at some wish lists and seeing what we need to still order. We’re going to be going through that this weekend and then I believe our actual distribution is going to be December 13 this year.”
Is there a way to suggest families in need?
Bartus said, “Usually, that’s done through the school system. The administrators and the staff over there have a really good idea which kid is really in need, and they’re encouraged to apply.”
Anyone who would like to help by donating would be welcome.
Bartus said, “If you would like to donate, the easiest way to do that is, text the word presents to 44321. If you would like to volunteer, it’s [email protected] and I’ll go ahead and still give my cell phone number out. It’s 305-731-1177, and send me a text if you would like to volunteer, and I’ll put you together with the people who can help make that happen. We’re just trying to make sure that any kid doesn’t get left behind at Christmas.”
For more information on Presents in Paradise, click here: https://www.presents-in-paradise.com/