Key West Mayor Dee Dee Henriquez joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
There are a number of Veterans Day celebrations going on today.
Henriquez said, “First of all, I’d like to wish a happy Veterans Day to all of your listeners out there today, and there will be a Veterans Day ceremony at the Veterans Memorial Garden at Bay View Park starting at 11pm which I will be participating in and then there will be a Veterans Day Parade starting at 4pm today. So Duvall Street will be closed from South Street to Green Street. The parade will begin from Virginia and Duvall and it will end at Green and Duvall Street.”
The city commission will meet this Thursday.
Henriquez said it is “starting at 9am. It looks like it’s going to be a busy day, but not a crazy day. So I’m looking forward to that as well. I know one of the items that was discussed last month, and it’s going to be discussed again, is changing the commission meeting from the second Thursday of the month to the first Tuesday of the month, and this should avoid any conflicts with other community meetings. Actually, it’s always been on a Tuesday, and so Commissioner Lee is trying to change it back to the first Tuesday of the month.”
The process of finding a new city manager is moving forward.
Henriquez said, “I’m very excited to report that tomorrow, all of the commissioners and myself will be interviewing five applicants. So we’re starting the interview process tomorrow, November 12, starting at 8:30 tomorrow morning, and I believe the last one, the last interview, is going to be at 4pm and then we’re also having a meet and greet for the candidates tomorrow from 6 to 8pm at the DoubleTree, and that will give the public an opportunity to meet and speak with the five candidates that we will be interviewing tomorrow. I’m looking forward to this process, and my goal is to have a decision at the December commission meeting. So that would be my goal, to have it as an agenda item for December, and hopefully we’ll be able to come up with and select a new city manager.”
Aaron Castillo will be taking a seat on the dais as well.
Henriquez said, “They won’t get sworn in until November 18, because it’s going to take our supervisor of elections a little bit longer to certify the election roll because it was such a big election. So the he will be able to get sworn in on November 18.”
What about the referendums on the ballot?
Henriquez said, “We had four bond referendums out there, and I said, well, if any of them will pass, it will probably be the law enforcement and safety, but I was very surprised all four of them passed. It just gives us another opportunity to be able to pay for something if we need it. We don’t have to spend all of the money, any of the money, or none at all, but it’s there in the event that we need it.”
The referendums included Parks and Rec cultural facilities projects, which passed 57% to 42%; transportation and roadway projects passed 62% to 37%; infrastructure adaptation for weather and flood mitigation passed 68% to 31%; and police and fire projects passed 60% to 39%.
Henriquez said, “So the voters spoke, and it’s out there in the event that the city needs it.”
The Duval Street project is also moving forward.
Henriquez said, “We had a meeting a couple weeks ago at the Tropic Cinema, and we had a presentation and it was a very informed presentation. Nothing is set in stone. It was just out there to inform everyone in the city, and that’s a project that’s going to be a working project as we move forward.”
The boat races over the weekend were fun.
Henriquez said, “It’s a wonderful, wonderful event. It brings a lot of money into our city and I know personally at our store, we were very busy as well.”