Robyn Still, member of Marathon City Council, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
20th Street has been in the news a lot recently because of the encampment of homeless people there. The city of Marathon does not own that plot of land – it’s actually FDOT property.
Still said, “We understand what those business owners are saying. I own a business that is right down from 20th Street. I’m not on 20th street, so I can’t 100% understand, but I can understand because I am just down from there, and I do experience some of the issues at my business that those folks are experiencing, but because the city does not own that, there was limited things that we could do, and quite frankly, if we had owned it, people say a homeless shelter or something like Kots in Key West. You’ve got to look at your zoning. First of all, we know how difficult it is to get workforce or affordable housing in our community. Second, where would we find a property? And then third, the cost to our taxpayers, because once you open a facility like that, you have to maintain that facility forever more is my understanding. I’m not an attorney, but that’s my understanding. But I’m glad that FDOT said that they own it and they’re going to take responsibility. There is, I call it an act of eviction, happening right now when I drove into work. The sheriff’s office is down on 20th Street right now. I’ve seen people leaving 20th Street, it looked like they have belongings packed up. So that is happening. My worry is, where will these individuals go?”
Residents in the area had been threatening a lawsuit for a while.
Still said, “I 100% understand their concerns. My worry now is, where will they end up, and the city and the sheriff’s office, basically, are going to end up having to handle these issues one at a time, and sometimes it might not be a quick handling of it. I think you can give a trespass warning to an individual, but if that individual leaves and doesn’t come back, and the next individual comes, then it starts, my understanding is it would start that all over again. It has to be to that individual, and they’re going to be on the sides of the street. I mean, when we had the bus stop out in front of Kmart, I think we all waw that, the tiki hut bus stop was beautiful. It was well intentioned. I liked the look of it, but unfortunately, it became a shelter, not for people riding the bus. So my worry is a lot of the locations that prior to them migrating to 20th Street, that some of our unhoused went to, the foliage, the mangroves, those lands have been cleared, so those places are gone, so I’m just worried about where they’re going to end up does that pose what kind of risk to our residents, to our visitors? Our sheriff’s office does an absolutely wonderful job, but they need to be doing other things in our community other than just that. There are important calls, patrolling our communities, answering calls for service that is going to take them away from it. So it’s going to be a community wide problem that is just not going away. It’s just going to relocate.”
There were probably a few dozen people that encamped on 20th Street.
Still said, “I think, and don’t hold me to the actual number, but I want to say I saw a number 35 to 40, perhaps. I think that was a number that I kept seeing and hearing. I could be wrong about that, but every time I would drive by and I would, of course, you’re going to look that direction, it looks like there was a number of them. You don’t know where the folks are going to go, and some of the facilities that that would be a potential place, well, they have some rules and some regulations that some of these people may not be willing to follow, so they’re not going to be a candidate for that either. It’s a serious problem, and there’s not a good answer to it.”
What about the ROGO situation?
Still said, “We’re standing by our resolution as a city and a city council, we’re not changing from that, and we are going to leave it in the hands of, I guess, as everybody refers to it, Tallahassee. We’re still working on that. We’re working with everybody, and we’re just waiting to see. I know that bills need to be drafted, and I think because of the weather in Tallahassee, the deadline might be today. The deadline had passed, but that deadline had been extended because of the snow in Tallahassee, but I think there may be something drafted to address what we’ve asked for in our ordinances. We’re just kind of waiting to see. I think what everybody needs to realize at the end of the day, everybody has good intentions for the Florida Keys, sometimes we just have different ideas and different directions, not wrong, just different. Everybody’s got a different idea of what’s going to work best, and we need to all realize that even if we don’t agree, everybody’s looking at it as what they think is going to be best for the Keys, not worse. So I try to focus if we don’t necessarily agree on approaches to things that the other side is well intentioned and it’s just different than what I think.”
The Marathon Elks Lodge is holding their second annual Casino Night fundraiser on February 8. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., games start at 6:30. Tickets are $35 and include food, entertainment and $20 in playing chips.
Still said, “They have a lot going on at the Elks Lodge. My husband’s a member. I’ve not joined, but I get to participate with some things through him. They have more stuff than you would ever realize going on there. So check it out. It will be a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to that.”
Aquarium Encounters, or Groundconch Day will be Sunday.
Still said, “So come out to aquarium encounters to see if the conch sees its shadow and if we’ll have six more weeks of winter. That is Sunday morning. It’s free. It’s 7 am to 8:30. There’s live music, mimosas, free snacks and coffee. I’ve done that the last several years, that’s a pretty cool little event. So I just urge people to come out to that and start gearing up. Next month is the Marathon Seafood Festival and of course, today’s the Farmers Market at San Pablo. So go see the folks out there. I won’t get I’m working, so I can’t go, but I usually love to go, because they have some awesome vendors, and they have my favorite cheese there.”