John Bartus, city administrator for Key Colony Beach, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city
Key Colony Beach was represented at Florida Keys Day in Tallahassee last week.
Bartus said, “We had meetings with different legislators and then in addition to a meeting with our own state senator and state representative, of course, the big issue for a lot of people, a lot of our local jurisdictions, is that whole ROGO/BPAS thing. Key Colony Beach, we don’t have a dog in that fight, because when the deal was made, Key Colony was a dredge and fill island. There really weren’t any environmentally sensitive parcels there. So for the most part, Key Colony, a very limited amount of development can occur on that island. So we were basically cut out of the whole ROGO/BPAS thing, and we’re allowed to basically do what we need to do with the properties we have. So we don’t have a dog in that fight, but we do have some other issues, of course, Stewardship money. That’s the $20 million pot every year. It was in the governor’s budget this year, which we were grateful for, and that’s going to be considered by the legislature. That goes for water quality improvement projects down here in the Keys. Every jurisdiction has those. For us, it’s like wastewater projects, stormwater projects, canal restoration projects, those kind of things are what the Stewardship Act goes to help fund, and every jurisdiction has got them. So we’re going to be hopefully developing a new MOU, memorandum of understanding with all the local governments and stakeholders down here, so we each get basically a share of the proceeds, and the funds will be available on a shovel ready, readiness to proceed basis, and that’s what we’re looking forward to getting back to that kind of arrangement. We still have projects that we applied for under the rules from last year, and hopefully there’s going to be something from the governor’s office that will allow us to compete for those. I think we have a $3 million dollar project and a $1 million project that we’ve got applied for, and we’re waiting to hear back from the governor’s office, as I suppose everybody is, from last year’s Stewardship funds too.”
Was there any hesitancy for providing Stewardship funds?
Bartus said, “I don’t necessarily see hesitancy there, for the simple reason that we’re such an environmentally sensitive area, and that is but a minor drop in the bucket compared to a lot of other funding concerns the legislature has to go through. As usual, when the legislature’s in session, everybody grab on to something and hold on. This year, the governor floated an interesting proposal about the elimination of property taxes, which is how all local governments are funded, but he also has said he will not sign any additional sales tax initiatives coming forward this year. So I’m not sure exactly what we’re talking about in terms of it’s like trying to get rid of the affordable care act without having another something in place to take its place and if he’s not going to sign any sales tax increases, I’m not sure how this works. So there’s a lot of local governments basically shaking their heads at this, wondering, hoping that nothing’s going to come out of this session. There’s other there’s other planned bills that have been filed that are assaults on local home rule and hopefully we won’t have to deal with some of those as well. It’s always an effort, a lobbying effort and the mayor and I are going back to Tallahassee next week to do some one on one lobbying, and our lobbyist is going to get us some meetings with some key people, including folks from the Department of Environmental Protection. They’re the ones we have our grant for for our heart storm hardening and new construction on our city hall project. That’s a big one right there for us. We’ve got an architect. We have approved conceptual drawings. The next step is actually getting bit of a plans that should be out by August. So we’re moving forward there, we should be able to have a bid ready to file for contractors and respondents with final bid drawings and documents, so we’ll be able to actually move forward on this. We’re looking at getting City Hall hopefully done by about it, like a year and four months, I think, is our time frame. We’ve got local funds and the DEP funds. We have nearly a $2.3 million grant from DEP for this project. So we’ve got funding there, and there’s probably going to be some local funds. We’ll be hopefully doing some creative fundraising here as well. So stay tuned.”
Key Colony Beach days earlier in the month was a big success.
Bartus said, “We couldn’t have asked for better weather. You’re talking about Chamber of Commerce weather. It was beautiful, sunshine, cool temperatures, and Key Colony Beach Day is always a fun day. It celebrates the incorporation of Key Colony Beach, which happened all the way back in 1957 which is hard to believe, and it’s a great day for the city. They have a parade. They have a lot of different vendors and booths, and, of course, everybody’s favorite, the Barracuda races. But it’s fun. The Rotary Club of Marathon serves beer and wine, and it’s just a fun day. They have a big silent auction. I think the Dolphin Research Center was the beneficiary of the silent auction this year, and all these things, including Key Colony Beach day, the St Patty’s Day Parade, the concerts in the park, the coconut crawl, all these are done through the Key Colony Beach Community Association, and it’s a group of people that really want to make sure that the residents and visitors of Key Colony Beach always have something to do during season and have themselves a great time.”
The City Commission will meet on Thursday.
Bartus said, “The new tennis courts have been constructed. They are phenomenal. They’re fantastic, getting a lot of use. There’s a new the expansion of the pickleball courts in Key Colony Beach, which is going on now, and that should be completed relatively soon. Pickleball has just taken right off, and Key Colony Beach is lucky to have a pickleball club that is really taking that sport, they manage the courts with an agreement with the city, and they do such a great job, they raised $200,000 to help fund the pickleball court expansion. They’re a great group to work with, and we appreciate them. We’re also going to be talking about trying to figure out how to get a basketball court back where the golf course is, where the green space is and we’re going to be having some discussions on that, as well as there’s a trail that runs starting at the top of Shelter Bay Drive, and goes all the way down Seventh Street and I’m applying for some grants for a fitness trail with some elements, different exercise elements, that would be different spots in that trail. Some that are ADA compatible, and can help people with mobility, different stages of mobility, to help get some exercise, get out in the fresh air, in the sunshine. So we’re looking for some grant funding for that to be able to put that together. I’ve already applied for one grant. The second one I’m applying for is happens before the end of the month, and then we just sit back and wait and see if we get those grants and move forward with that project, which I think would be a great addition to that park. We have a great group of volunteer committees and boards. These people all donate their time and their talents to helping to oversee these things. There’s a lot of community involvement and dedication to making that place as good a city as it can be, and that really is a testament to the residents of Key Colony.”