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.
There are a number of projects under way in Key Colony Beach.
Bartus said, “Probably the important project at City Hall, where we’re actually starting this week on our pin pile and floor leveling project, and that’s to correct some deficiencies that have been going on in that building for a few years. A lot of it has to do with salt water intrusion and the foundation below. What we’re doing is tearing out a lot of the floor, putting in pin piles to reset the foundation, and then a floor leveling so that the floor is going to be nice and level and the foundation will be sturdy once again. From that we’re going to proceed on to a total flood proofing of the existing downstairs of the City Hall and the post office buildings. That’s going to happen next. Then we’re looking at a possible addition to the front of City Hall, where we will combine a second floor to the existing second floor and another first floor expansion. The commission is working incredibly well together. I think they’re a great group of people, and I’m proud working for them, and we’re moving forward to try to get City Hall put together, and we’re in a direction to be able to do that. We have a grant from the state for $2.3 million, and we’re going to be moving forward on that, and it’s going to cover our flood proofing and our additional construction, and we might have to spend a little additional but we got a nice chunk of money from the state for this project.”
Pickleball and tennis courts are also in the works.
Bartus said, “New tennis courts are under construction, and once the tennis courts are done, they’ll be putting in new pickleball courts. Pickleball is one of those things, it’s just sort of taken the country by storm, is probably one of the most popular expanded sports that I have seen over the last several years, and pickleball players are they’re going to be very happy with what’s going to happen in Key Colony Beach. Tennis players will be too.”
Are we looking at another potential tropical storm?
Bartus said, “The technical name for this storm right now is Invest 99L but it’ll probably become a tropical depression later today, maybe, and then they are projecting it to become Hurricane Sarah. Right now it’s sort of below Jamaica, but I’m watching the model runs on this thing, and it’s got tracks that take it basically into Central America or possibly the Yucatan around Cancun. Some of the model tracks are very eerily similar to Hurricane Wilma back in 2005, but right now, the model runs are very spread out. Initially, the loop going around Central America, Yucatan Peninsula, and then from there they do spread out. Some kind of take it up into the Panhandle. Some take it into the central Gulf Coast of Florida, and then some take it a lot closer to us. Right now, because it’s just an Invest, and it doesn’t have a closed circulation, it’s harder to do modeling on this with any accuracy, but at some point, they are going to probably come further into agreement. But it’s definitely something we need to watch. The fact is this late in November, having a system that does keep us very aware, and we do need to watch out for this and keep watching it and make preparations if necessary. I think they’re looking at anything closest to us, possibly a week from now.”
Key Colony Beach is always at the ready for any kind of emergency.
Bartus confirmed, “We are, and we just want to make sure that we get the message out there that we need to make sure that everybody does stay ready, be prepared, and follow the advice of county emergency management, the National Hurricane Center and the people that have your safety in mind.”
The first town hall meeting for Key Colony Beach will be on November 18.
Bartus said, “The commissioners will each pick a topic to discuss, and it’ll be more of an open format, with some questions back and forth from the citizens and the residents. The commission meeting will meet in full on the following Thursday, the 21st and then after that, hopefully these meetings don’t get derailed by a possible storm. So keep your keep your eyes and ears in the weather. That’s probably the best thing I can tell you to do right now. We have a great administrative staff. They’re great people to work with every day. This coming Sunday, the 17th, it’s our big annual fundraiser at the Marathon Elks Lodge. We’re going to have a big spaghetti dinner that the Elks Lodge does so well. We’ll have live music. We have a big silent auction. It’s going to be a huge event, and it’s going to be coming up this Sunday at four o’clock at the Marathon Elks Lodge.”
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