John Bartus, city administrator for 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.
Presents in Paradise was amazing this year.
Bartus said, “We served well over 500 children this year from our local working families, and it’s just the need in our community is still great. It’s hard to imagine a lot of our working families being able to afford a Christmas at all. And that’s where Presents in Paradise comes in. There’s a lot of good local programs down here that help out around the holidays. We’re one of them, and we also are very much appreciative of all the other programs.”
Right around the holidays, Key Colony Beach had a ground breaking on City Hall.
Bartus said, “It is incredibly exciting. It was December 19, on a Friday, we had a really wonderful groundbreaking event. We were joined by Michelle Lincoln, the county mayor, and the Marathon mayor, who came and helped us celebrate. Along with our mayor, Freddie Foster and our commissioners and our staff, we had a wonderful event. A lot of residents came out, and a lot of interested locals were there in attendance, and it was a fantastic event. We had, of course, hard hats and shovels and a big pile of sand that everybody could turn some shovels if with, and it was just such a great event, and we appreciated the support from the community, and the construction is underway. Yesterday we had some fencing go up around the building, and there’s going to be some changes in parking at Key Colony City Hall. So we’re going to ask everybody to be patient with this as we go through the procedure, we go through what’s going to be coming up on over the next nine months, and we’re eager to work with our contractor to get all this done, and just be patient during the course of this, because parking has changed. We’re trying to accommodate everybody the best we can. We’ll also keep another enough of a lane open so the postal trucks can come in and drop off the mail. It’s kind of important.”
Snowbirds were welcomed back to Key Colony Beach with a party recently.
Bartus said, “It was a wonderful event hosted by the commission, the Key Colony Beach community association, of course, our wonderful Police Department. And it was this past Sunday over at Sunset Park. They had a big hot dog cookout at Sunset Park, and they had the 79th Street Band come in to play. They’re a fun band. They just do such a fantastic job. I think he had probably 600 people there, and it was a wonderful event, and was a great welcome back party for our residents and visitors alike, because we get a lot of visitors this time of year too.”
There will be another concert at Sunset Park on Sunday the 25th, too, where Bartus will sing.
Bartus said, “it is, like my favorite gig of the year, because it’s like a live concert situation. I feature a lot of my own songs, and it’s the kickoff event. The Key Colony Beach community association hosts concerts in the park on Sundays during season every year. And I’m the kickoff concert coming up on Sunday the 25th at four o’clock PM. And I use this concert every year to celebrate my anniversary of arrival from my first gig in the Keys when I was on the road back as a young man. And this year is 42 years. It was 1984 that I got down here and found out that, oh my gosh, I can get off the road. There’s no reason to leave. And here I’ve been ever since.”
The Key Colony Beach city commission will meet on January 22.
Bartus said, “This one is a fairly light agenda, we have a couple of ordinances. One of them is a comp plan amendment that we’re trying to get through and make sure that Florida Commerce is happy with that. Another has to do with setbacks, and we’re going to have a lot of staff reports and just try to keep everything moving along the way we should.”
Has the legislative session in Tallahassee brought any issues to Key Colony Beach?
Bartus said, “Property tax reform is the big bugaboo, I believe, coming up with this legislative session, this is something that could seriously hamper the ability of local governments to raise revenue. Usually more than 50% of the local government budget is public safety, police, fire, EMS, protection, those kind of things. And to reduce the ability of local governments to raise revenue without some other plan that’s going to replace that revenue is a really bad idea. It’s going to be tough. If the legislature comes up with something, it has to go to referendum. Who’s going to vote to make sure there’s more taxes? This is going to be a tough one. I hope the legislature comes to their senses about some of this stuff. Because of a lot of legislators, they came through city and county governments, and this is going to something that could really wreck that and our ability to raise funds. So we’re working with the Florida league of cities, and under the Florida Association of Counties is doing the same thing to try to make sure that whatever comes out of the legislative session this year isn’t too onerous. But we’re all waiting with bated breath. Florida Keys Day is coming up in Tallahassee on February 5. The mayor and I are going up there to try to do some influence and talking with our legislators and a lot of the staff, it’s up there in Tallahassee, to try to make sure that our interests are protected, and hopefully some grants and appropriations might come our way.”