George Garrett, city manager of the city of Marathon, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
Council meets tonight where the BPAS allocations is on the agenda.
Garrett said, “Of course, that’s a routine, biannual allocation of units, but we are just, notably, we are getting to the end of that. Of course, the county and other jurisdictions, the city of Marathon, have been wrestling with that issue and just talking to the public over the last, oh, six, eight months now, and we’ll see how that goes now, going into the legislative session. No conclusions yet, but keep your ears open, your eyes on the newspapers and so on, the media, as we really wrestle with what we’re going to do in the future. We still have this session’s allocations to give out, and after that, we’re kind of down to nothing.”
Marathon obtained early evacuation units.
Garett said, “We allocated them right off the bat, actually, back in 2018, did a little work to make them legally valid for a challenge, and we’re extending those that haven’t been built yet out for another six months. There’s a resolution on the agenda this time, and then sort of a big housing issue, or a large house issue, the council had asked us to develop an ordinance that would address the large houses that seem to be proliferating within the city and, I think, throughout the county, and how you deal with the infrastructure issues that those engender. We’re about ready to resurface the basketball courts at Community Park here in Marathon and put in some pickleball courts, and we’re going to resurface the tennis courts as well. So both grant funded, but something that I think everybody’s looking forward to, because those courts get used frequently.”
The first budget meeting will be September 17 at city hall.
Garrett said, “We’re doing really well. The tax rolls this year are up about 10% which is really good. It means we have a little bit more money to play with, but countering that, obviously, you’ve got all these increases in things like insurance costs and cost of other services. For instance, sheriff’s department has gone up 7%, I believe, and playing around with our budget a little bit and moving money around and taking advantage of the fact that we’ve got a high roll, we’ve managed to keep our budget this year, I think right now, it’s projected at 3.44% over actual cost to a taxpayer over last year, and that’s really pretty good. It’s not roll back, it’s not 0% but it’s 3.44 and I believe between now and when you see it next week on the 17th, we’ll probably have that down to about three 3%. What that gets us is no decrease in services, which I think is fantastic. We’re actually adding some services to parks and rec and the public works department, and that’ll allow us to begin to manage all of our rights of way throughout US 1, and to take over some of the services on our fields and things like that. So we’ll begin to do all our landscaping, and we’ll add to that landscaping along US 1, as opposed to having DOT doing it, which honestly means that we’re going to be out there constantly, just one end of the city to the other, and then start over again in the future. So that’s really good. We’ve also added some folks to the fire service, which costs us a lot of money. I mean, there’s no question about that. I know it’s one of the biggest portions of our budget. But the flip side of that, we have a service that’s here 24/7 and honestly, if you go to our station 15, half the time there’s only two people up there, and there really should be three to four so per shift. So we’ve added, I think, three people to that budget and taken away one, so we’ve got an addition of two. So for us to be at, I’m going to say 3% over what we would have spent last year, I think, is really outstanding.”
Insurance increases are also a struggle.
Garrett said, “We’ve had a great guy in the insurance side of things who, every year, goes to bat for us, and he goes out and gets the best deal he can. I know we started out in negotiations with our current health care provider, which is Florida Blue, and I think they started out at a 16% increase this year over last year, and he managed to whittle that down to a little over 5% so that’s, again, one of those places where we have to deal with that cost, but we’ve managed to get it down pretty well to create that 3% that I was talking about. We still, on top of that, have a 12 month reserve, which puts us in in good stead if we have an emergency, which I think is just great.”
Sombrero Boulevard also continues to have drainage issues.
Garrett said, “We have now got an application into the water management district. It’s been there for two or three weeks now. They’re reviewing that. We believe that that permit will happen very rapidly. What that will accomplish for us is the ability to drain that street very quickly, as opposed to the rate at which we’ve been draining it recently. That said, I think our interim solutions of being able to pump that water down, it typically happens within three, four, five hours at outside right now and I think that’s keeping the public, maybe not as happy as they would like to be with traveling that road, but certainly, I think we have heard far fewer complaints, I’m going to say, than we had in the past. I think we’re doing a pretty good job there, until we can get to fix through this permit. What comes along with that Sombrero Boulevard drainage issue is the issue of the berm and the golf course and some issues that the golf course itself has had. I want to highlight an issue there that came up at city council. We had a question about the Water Management District having stepped in on some concerns they had, and the city, of course, has had a stop work order on the on the project for a while. All of that right now for the city, surrounds a revision that the golf course is working on. We’re about ready to reissue that revision and let them go back to work. In the meantime, they have had a stop work order until those revisions are complete and that’s actually created hardship on the golf course, frankly. The complaint that we heard was that somehow the city had stepped in the way of the Water Management District. First of all, it couldn’t be further from the truth, actually and honestly, our stop work order absolutely stops things from happening any further until things are resolved, whereas the district honestly will allow work to continue while resolution to unsolved problems occurs. So, in fact, the city has a greater strength there. That said, in the midst of the stop work order on the golf course, we’ve been allowing all the issues that the Water Management District has had to be fixed, if you will, over the course of the last few weeks, so that we expect to be kind of all resolved very soon, and to see the golf course back underway and working, and that’s up to them. It’s their issue. It’s their project. But I guess what it gets down to is, in the coming two or three weeks, probably those that live out there and that pass by the golf course every day will probably see those guys go back to work again.”
Injection wells are another long-term project that’s continuing.
Garrett said, “We’ve had some items on the agenda at the last meeting, moving us down the track to completion of that project, and again, those were permit issues that we’re working on with the DEP. So for those who have not heard from us lately, understand that that project is moving forward. It’s in a permit phase right now. We’re working on the engineering for it. One of the big issues there, we have been working with the aqueduct authority to potentially put the deep well on their site up there. They had already gotten far enough along with the construction, in fact, permitting construction of what is a reuse facility up there, actually an RO plant. So we are not likely going to be able to use that facility unless we go out and actually permit stuff in the wetlands on adjacent portions of their property. So more than likely, we’re going to, contain the deep well to the city proper, and probably area six, where the city council actually approved it. But all of that said we’re moving forward and at this point are on schedule.”
There are two open seats on city council and five people running for those seats.
Garrett said, “The possibility exists that there’s five people running for two seats, so there’s going to be some winners and losers there. But frankly, the fact that five people stepped in to run is just the evidence of a good system where people are involved and paying attention. So good luck to all those candidates. I know that there will be a 911 ceremony here at the city’s station 14. I believe that’s at nine o’clock. I know there’s a flag ceremony for all of the flags presented out in front of Marathon High School, in fact, represent those people that passed away during the 911 disaster. So there will be an event there too, as well, tomorrow morning.”