Key West Mayor Teri Johnston joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
A groundbreaking for the Douglas gym extension in Bahama Village will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, September 8.
Johnston said, “We’d love the public to join us. If you know the Douglas Gym, you’ll know that that’s the home of the Bahama Village music program. So please join us for that, because it’s a major accomplishment. City Manager Al Childress and I visited St. Augustine a couple of weeks ago to take a look at their amphitheater. The reason we went up there is that they’re amphitheater generates about $45 million back into their community every year and they’re a community of about 16,000 people. So we wanted to see what ideas that maybe we could pick up on in order to increase the input and the contributions that our amphitheater is making to our community. So we’ve got some great ideas that we brought back that we’re going to be instituting, hopefully.”
This Sunday, August 27, will be Key West Day at the Miami Marlins and City Manager Al Childress will throw out the first pitch.
Johnston said, “Also over the weekend we had a fire and Bagatelle Restaurant on Duvall Street. It was an electrical fire. The restaurant was closed for about 30 minutes and our fire department took care of that handily. We also had a tree down at 3514 Duck Avenue, which impacted some electrical lines which was taken care of very quickly. Our directors are continuing to work on our legislative priorities and we’re going to review those with our lobbyists in September.”
The heat continues to blanket the area with advisories from time to time.
Johnston said, “They are very, very serious. We’ve now published a brochure in three different languages in order to alert all of our residents on the symptoms of heat exhaustion and also heat stroke. Our Community Services Department is going around town making sure that all of our water fountains and hydration stations are working. Our city employees that are working outside, we’re providing them with hydration pops and electrolyte drinks. This is serious. We’ve had a number of heat related incidences and we want to make sure that people are taking these seriously.”
The budget process continues in the city.
Johnston said, “On September 7, that will be our second pass and the public is invited. There will be meeting at nine o’clock in the morning. This week is Women’s Equality Day. Don’t want to miss that and there is on August 24 at the Tropic Cinema, at 5:30 we’re going to have a celebration for that headed up by NOW. We’re working on ADA compliant sidewalks on Francis and James. South Roosevelt Boulevard we’re continuing with construction. Our police department is continuing to work on E-bikes and bicycles and scooters and golf carts to make them safer. In the period between August 7 and August 14, they had 230 stops to remind people of safety measures of how they can traverse the narrow streets and narrow sidewalks is the city of Key West safer.”
The next city commission meeting will be on September 14.
Johnston said, “We’ve got lots of things going. The departments are working full speed. Our City Manager Al Childress provides the entire city commission with about a 17 to 20 page report every week, updating us on the progress of every single department, the progress on every single one of our projects, and any incidences that we’ve had in the city of Key West. So we are well informed. And that helps us to keep our residents informed.”
City staff is also working well into the future.
Johnston said, “We just got an update that the marina is filled for the boat races already in November and staff is already working on some New Year’s Eve events, if you can believe that. So there’s lots of things that continue to happen in the city of Key West and lots of progress. I’m really proud of our small island.”