Lynn Landry, Marathon City Council Member, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
For three years in a row, there has been no city tax increases for the residents of Marathon.
Landry said, “It was a great pleasure to do that three years in a row. We are running a little bit of a deficit budget, but if our historical data is correct, we’ll run far less than the actual budgeted number for the deficit, which is our traditional trend over the last four or five years, is we seem to come under budget. So that was a good one for the residents of the city of Marathon. We did wrap up a great Christmas and New Year. We did have Santa’s caravan again on Christmas Eve, which was a big success as always, so it was a great event.”
With the legislative session beginning in Tallahassee today, the property tax discussion will be a hot topic.
Landry said, “At the end of the day, it’s the voter’s choice there, but the legislature has to go through all the ones that have been presented and make sure what they want to actually put on the ballot, and then it’s left up to the voters to actually decide, whether they want to approve or not. But a 60% vote is a little bit tough in the state of Florida, it’s hard to get 60% of the majority a lot of times.”
The Marathon City Council will meet tonight where the group will talk about vacation rental fees.
Landry said, “We’ve got a little bit of a workup on them. It seems to be a proposed hefty increase. So we’re going to have a, probably a good, spirited debate on it and where we’re going with the vacation rental fees, and so that will probably take a little bit of time in the meeting tonight. Otherwise, we also are going to be talking about our Tiki behind city hall. They’re willing to propose some fees for use on that just to cover the cost of our staff to be out there to help maintain and to take care of things at that Tiki for events. So we’ll be discussing that. We’re doing an MLK proclamation tonight as well, for Martin Luther King.”
Employees of the city will also be recognized for their service, as well as swearing in new fire fighters.
Landry said, “We’re bringing in three new firefighters. I think they’ve been through all the training. This is just kind of a formal thing the council absolutely loves. We bring on new firefighters and staff to bring them out and recognize them and the jobs they do here in the city of Marathon. I think our fire rescue and our fire department is second to none, very well trained. And since we’re such a small department, everybody has to be cross trained on everything. So I give my hats off to the chief and to the operation line at the firehouse over there and the union for working with the city of Marathon and doing such a great job for us here in the city.”
The Quay is also seeing some forward momentum.
Landry said, “We’re having a contract going out tonight for the upland portion of the Quay to do all the Circle Drive and prepping it for the boat ramps, still waiting on the final permits to come out for the water portion to put the boat ramps in, but we’re going to get moving on that. That will be a great addition to the city.”
There will also be a discussion about the inclusion of new offshore oil and gas leasing off the coast of Florida.
Landry said, “I think every municipality in the county as well has adopted that, I think already, I think we might be one of the last to do it. But yes, this is a long standing commitment to that for the city of Marathon. January 31 as part of our community events committee, we’re doing a sauced and tossed barbecue contest on January 31 from three to six behind city hall at the Tiki. Please, if you have any barbecue experience or you want to get involved, just for fun, please, entries are due by January 16, and there will be awards, I think it’s $500 for first place in that event. So come out to that. And then in February, on the 25th from five to eight, we’re going to have another food truck jamboree, but this time it’s going to be at the Community Park, because I think the first time it was great behind city hall, but we might have been a little bit too small of a venue for it, because it was such a great success.”