City Council Member for the city of Marathon Robyn Still joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
City council made a decision on the BPAS situation recently.
Still said, “If anybody wants to look that up under city of Marathon’s website to read it in its entirety, the resolution number is 2024-125. There’s a lot of language in there, but it will kind of break it down to what we passed at our previous city council meeting. Basically this resolution was to be presented to the Board of County Commissioners, because they need to go to the state to ask for either ROGO, their language, or BPAS for us interchangeable for allocations for building to hopefully avoid taking cases down the road. In our resolution, we’re requesting that the hurricane evacuation time increase from 24 hours to 26 hours, and we feel that by doing that, that’s going to get us the building allocations that we would need to avoid those takings cases. Also in that resolution, a lot of people were very concerned about if we got building allocations, they were going to be automatically handed out, and Marathon would be flooded with just building and, obviously people are very concerned about infrastructure, but that is not the case. In this resolution, our city council unanimously voted, which is rare for council to everybody to agree, but we agreed that the allocations would be over a minimum 40 year period. So whatever we get, we’re saying that no less than 40 years to give those allocations out. I think that gives us time for infrastructure to keep up or even go beyond what would be needed for any new construction. Also, we said that we wanted to be deed restricted as affordable workforce housing for a minimum period of 99 years for some of those so, I know a lot of people were worried that these were going to be automatically turned into vacation rentals, but by doing that, that is going to ensure that a number of those will not be vacation rentals. They’re going to be workforce or affordable housing. So we’re trying to work hard to make sure that we address our concerns of our residents, and that we also protect our residents, including ourselves, from taking cases which could result in billions of dollars in judgments against the city, and then ultimately, it is the taxpayers that bear that burden. Right now, we are all struggling, and I just don’t want to see us have to pay more in taxes because of this.”
Increasing the evacuation time will increase the number of BPAS permits the city is entitled to.
Still confirmed, “That’s absolutely right and ultimately, it’s going to be up to the state to decide. The Board of County Commissioners has a meeting on Thursday. I believe it is at 10 o’clock. They’re going to be discussing this issue again. It is open to the public. I plan to attend, and I would just urge people to come attend that. We’re getting down to the wire, to where we have to go to the legislature and I mean, I keep emphasizing that it’s very, very important that our residents participate. I know everybody’s very, very busy, but this is our future. We just have to take the time and make the time to participate.”
Holiday celebrations are also going on.
Still said, “I was in Georgia last week. It was cold. I came home to warmth, and now it’s going to get cold again here. I brought it with me. Sorry! I believe our community parks is going to have an event on the 20th I think that’s Friday night. I’m looking forward to that. Go to their Facebook page. It’ll tell you all of the detail details, also the marquee that’s out in front of community park that is a wonderful spot to read of the upcoming events that are happening.”
The city of Marathon Fire Rescue Santa caravan is happening on Christmas Eve.
Still said, “That is so much fun. I get to ride on that every year and that is the most amazing thing to be with Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, to come through our city to see all the families and the kids that are out to see him and the fire department, the sheriff’s office, all of our partners are wonderful. I’m looking forward to that. I try to do an update on my Facebook page with where we are, sometimes we get a little behind schedule, to try to let people know. I mean, you have little kids, sometimes they need to get in bed so they can go to sleep because they’re excited and that’s usually taking longer on Christmas Eve, but I try to update where we are, so you kind of know that we’re still coming and I look forward to that. So I just urge everybody to go to the website, look at the stops and the schedule, and just come out. It’s fun for grown ups as well.”
The holiday Fun Fest is the December 20 from 6 to 8pm at Marathon Community Park.
Still added, “And aquarium encounters. Let’s not leave them out. They have one more chance to go see Santa and Mrs. Claus. That’s on December 18, from six to eight. I think it’s a night of arts, crafts, drinks and snacks at the café and they say holiday fun. I’m not sure if there’s an admission, but I know that that’s another chance to go see Santa Claus, if you missed out a lot of the other opportunities.”
For more information, click here: https://www.ci.marathon.fl.us/