Don Horton, vice mayor of the village of Islamorada, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the village.
How is the budget going?
Horton said, “We had a busy budget workshop, several of them, and we’ve had a couple of committees, ad hoc committees, that were formed to talk about that, and after a lot of work and a lot of meetings and a lot of looking at our spending, I think we’ve achieved another year where our assessments will hold at 2.65. Certainly, we still need to vote on that as a final vote, twice in September, according to state law. So we’re heading in that direction right now, and I think we’re going to be able to get that approved. I’m looking forward to that.”
The State Attorney was looking into some complaints against some of the council members and some of the business being done, but the state’s attorney has cleared anybody from wrongdoing.
Horton said, “It’s really a shame that one council person would result a demagoguery in an attempt to advance his political career. I think it should be a requirement that somebody at least attend a year’s worth of council meeting before running for local office. This council member made accusations, obviously, to harm other council members and to make himself look good. But the entire investigation, it was stressful, it was lengthy, but I’m glad now that Dennis Ward and his team was thorough and impartial. His report stated, to paraphrase it, I think he said following a detailed and comprehensive investigation, Dennis Ward concluded that there was absolutely no violation of Sunshine Law in connection with our previous manager’s resignation. So a lot of time and a lot of effort, and quite honestly, it’s going to cost the taxpayers of Islamorada for this frivolous complaint, this complaint that was made, that was totally unfounded. It was just that somebody didn’t understand that a manager can resign when it comes time for his evaluations, when it comes time for his contract renewal, and that’s exactly what happened. So I don’t know exactly what the total is going to be, the village is responsible for paying, of course, when council members are exonerated from an investigation, the village taxpayers are on the hook for having to pay for the attorneys’ fees that are involved in that. So really a shame. It’s a waste of money. It was a waste of time, but the outcome was exactly as we expected, or I expected, and that was that there was absolutely no violation. It was just simply a process.”
Where do we stand with the Founders ballpark project with Coral Shores High School?
Horton said, “I think it was a seven one vote, the Park and Rec committee recommended that we allow the high school, the school board to put in the turf and not grass, realizing that grass requires a lot more care and a lot more expertise and water and pesticides and fertilizers and so many other things that are involved, where turf doesn’t require any of that. I think that it’s successful down in the Key West ball fields down there. I was just in North Carolina and saw it in a football field and a baseball field up there in a small town in the mountains of North Carolina. So it looks like that’s been approved, I think the council took the recommendation from the Park and Rec committee, and look, the school board is willing to put $5 to $6 million in improvements to Founders Park. And I just think that it’s silly to say no to that, but we’ll see how the rest of the council feels.”
The back country challenge is coming up on September 26 to 28.
Horton said, “This is our 25th year for the Key Largo Rotary Club to hold this awesome fishing event. We’ll be fishing for snook, trout and redfish. It’s truly a family fun event. On the 26th we have an anglers meeting and kickoff party in Key Largo there at 99.7 where we register all of our anglers and we serve them appetizers and a cash bar. They can immediately jump in their boat after that captain’s meeting and start fishing, and they can fish all the way up until about four o’clock on September 28. So, a lot of guys like to go out there and red fish and snook fish in the night time, or in the evening as the sun’s setting or first thing in the morning. So depending on how the weather works for them, they can fish the night of the 26th, the 27th all day long, and the 28th up until four o’clock, and then on Sunday, at 6:30 at the Tavernier Elks Club at 92600 Overseas Highway, the Conch House is going to cater. We’ll have a cash bar award ceremony that is just awesome. We’ll have first, second, third place for redfish, snook and trout. In the adult division, we also have several other categories. We’re very proud of this tournament. We’ve got some major sponsors. This is all done in memory of Wayne Hanson, so we love this tournament, and the community loves it. We have people come from out of town that fish this. So TDC helps us with some awesome funding, and it’s just a great event. If you have any registration questions, you can call Shelby Morris. She’s chairing the committee this year. She did last year, and did an awesome job on that, and her phone number is 305-393-3686, and then certainly, if there’s any questions about fishing or what the rules are, you could call Captain Kerry Wingo, Kerry works with us every year, and we couldn’t do this tournament without Kerry. His number is 305-394-1383. This scholarship that we do focuses on vocational technical scholarships for graduating seniors, interact scholarships for college bound seniors. We also award adult scholarships. So this is a well rounded tournament that raises money for vocational and technical scholarships. We’ve given out scholarships for nursing and teaching and cooking, EMT training and paramedic training and firefighter training, boat captain training, job certifications, police academies. It goes on and on, the focus that we have in here, was a missed spot, but we filled that gap, and they’re doing great work in the Key Largo Rotary Club.”
Take Stock in Children also sponsors the tournament.
Horton said, “The Take Stock program really incentivizes good behavior, crime, drug free. They meet with their mentors on a weekly basis. They’re all volunteer mentors, and they’re a key component to the program. They help the students, learn about life and studying and being a good person from people that care about our community and want to see our folks stay in our community and be good folks in our community. We’re so proud of this Take Stock in Children program.”
The aqueduct authority is doing an amazing job replacing water pipes.
Horton said, “The aqueduct is doing an awesome job with our water pipe installation, and they’re here at the 89 mile marker. I just want folks to be patient and work with the aqueduct as they’re working for us. They’re right here at my office right now, at the 89 mile marker, digging away. Worked through the night last night. I think they’re staying ahead of schedule. Pay attention to our council meetings. On the Tuesday meetings, we always have a report from the aqueduct. They come and tell us what they’ve already done, how they are as their schedule, what their next week or two in advance of where we’re at, so that we all kind of are kept up to speed with how they’re doing and what they’re doing, and they’re doing an awesome thing for us and we need to be patient with them and be patient with folks on the road.”