Christine Hurley, County Administrator for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
Florida Keys Day was yesterday in Tallahassee.
Hurley said, “We’re headed back today. I’m thankful for that. It’s been quite chilly. One of our days was rainy and chilly, so that was a bummer, but we overall had, I think, a successful week. We focused very much on water quality and environmental type efforts that we’re always focused on. We annually seek $20 million for water quality projects that is shared throughout all the jurisdictions in the Keys cities and county based on the merits of the actual project and what they can do for water quality. So that was a big thing we talked about. We thanked a lot of different agency folks for our past awards. This last year, from the previous year’s $20 million our county secured $7 million for three different canal restoration projects. So we were very thankful for that. Unfortunately, last year, the state did not budget a lot of money in Florida Forever, and that is the source that the county has been very successful in utilizing to purchase land and our goal is to purchase as much land as we can to offset potential development rights and for conservation and affordable housing. So we’ve got a lot of different things we focus on, but this year, because that happened last year, we are asking for an appropriation of 2.5 million that we could use not only for conservation and affordable housing and retirement of development rights, but we’re a little bit focused on purchasing the privately owned land on and around the NAS Key West Navy base. Something a little bit new. We’ve tried it before. We hadn’t been successful in some of the programs they had, and you have to really work closely with your base on this. But we’ve just gone ahead and said, hey, can you set aside 2.5 million for this? And we will work on that effort as well as our normal acquisition efforts.”
What would be the purpose of that acquisition on Boca Chica?
Hurley said, “Probably over a decade ago, we had, I’ll say, quite courageous communication with our base. They really, really want you to eliminate conflicts to their mission. The jets are very noisy, and the more development you put around a base, the more incompatibility you create. So if we focus on purchasing lands around the base, we will be accomplishing two things, retirement of development rights and eliminate potential conflicts with the Navy operations.”
Were Monroe County officials effective in trying to impress upon legislators how important the Florida Keys are as an area of critical concern?
Hurley said, “I really do think we were successful. The thing is, we come up so often now that most of the lawmakers and the agency staff know us really well and they support our mission. We’re lucky. Everyone loves the Keys, right? So we really feel good about the $20 million for Stewardship. The budgets are not in sync or issued completely yet, but we are hopeful that our appropriation request will also be looked at positively. I think between the regular Florida Keys Day items and our own initiated meetings, I probably had about 13 different locations I could have gone to yesterday. They overlapped, so I had to pick and choose. I will mention one of the regular Keys Days items was a talk by Blaise Ingoglia. He’s a candidate right now for CFO. He’s in that position, and he’s been leading the DOGE effort around the state, and it was really good that we got to talk to him. There are bills proposed that would make this a permanent, ongoing effort, and we got to really face to face talk to him about how Monroe County is different than some of the other communities. For example, they’re measuring what you should spend based on permanent population, and while our permanent population is around 80,000, you know how many visitors we serve, so we can’t really be measured in their same formulas because of that. And he agreed, which I was so happy to hear. And he also recognizes our property values and the challenges we have with permitting and the environment. So I was very happy that we got to sit in on that meeting and have really good discussions with him.”
The Monroe County Board of County Commissioners did recently vote to eliminate the long standing 299 square foot limitation for enclosed storage space below elevated homes in unincorporated Monroe County. County code amendments took effect on February 4.
Hurley said, “What a long road that was. However, I’ve got to say, so proud of our staff for really working through the issues directly with FEMA. I’m very happy FEMA recognized that we changed our ways and became good players and enforcers of flood regulations. Just a reminder, the space can only be used for storage, but storage is better than no storage, so we’re very happy with that accomplishment.”
A free tire recycling event will happen this Saturday from 8am to noon at the transfer stations.
Hurley said, “I’m so proud of those folks. Melody is an amazing Recycling Coordinator, Cheryl Sullivan, our director of solid waste, they’re always looking for ways to find programs or find initiatives to encourage folks all around the Keys to comply, get rid of trash. This one, it has a dual purpose. It helps eliminate standing water where mosquitoes grow. So they’re amazing. They’re just really focused on keeping our place cleaned up, and we can’t be more thankful for that.”