July 11 – The Marathon City Council will meet tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. at 9805 Overseas Highway where the millage rate will be discussed.
John Bartus, Mayor of Marathon, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5 FM to talk about the City Council meeting in Marathon.
Bartus said, “Probably the most important item is going to be setting our tentative millage rate and this will happen before our actually scheduled budget hearings which will also happen before the fiscal year. When we do that, we have to do is set our tentative millage rate and that’s the rate that cannot go higher. We’re talking with our finance director. We’re looking at setting the tentative millage rate at the exact same rate that it currently is because we would not want to raise that millage rate and we’re also going to look for any deductions or cost savings to the budget process and when that happens, we might be able to knock that millage rate down a couple of pegs. That’s how it works with governments. You set your maximum and you find ways to try to reduce that as much as you can through the course of the budget process.”
Rising energy and gas costs make things tricky, but the Marathon Council will certainly try to keep residents in mind.
Bartus said, “Property values have increased, so that’s where your additional revenue would come in. So we’re looking at trying to be responsible stewards with the taxpayer’s money, which is our number one concern, but also making sure that we do collect enough to provide the services that our residents and our business owners need, which is the other thing we’re really charged with doing and making sure we do that in a responsible manner as well.”
After a lengthy discussion at a recent council meeting, the bridge jump at the Boot Key Harbor Bridge was passed.
Bartus explained, “We set some very stringent conditions. You’ve got to meet that, you’ve got to do that, you’ve got to make sure FWC is on board, the coast guard is on board, making sure that all the emergency personnel and all the people are contracted with and are on standby. The met every one of those conditions. We’re very pleased this is going to go off.”
The company is the Gymkhana and Hoonigans. They have a huge following on YouTube. They stage pretty incredible jumps. They’re going to jump the missing drawbridge stand. A helicopter will hover underneath the drawbridge stand.
Bartus said, “It’s going to be pretty exciting. One of the good things we found out about this is because they have an engineer that went out there and did a report and our engineer went out there and took a look at the bridge with their engineer and come to find out the concrete structure of that bridge is in much better shape than even our engineer believed it was in. It’s not in any danger of collapsing into the sea any time soon, so we’re very gratified about that as well.”
This weekend will be the Second Annual Florida Keys Brew BQ. Click here for more information: https://floridakeysmarathon.com/event/florida-keys-brewbq/
For tomorrow’s Marathon City Council agenda, click here: https://www.ci.marathon.fl.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/city_council/meeting/32104/00_agenda_7.12.22.pdf