Kristen Livengood, Public Information Officer for Monroe County, joined KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
Monroe County Commissioner and Mayor Pro Tem, Michelle Lincoln, has been elected chair of the South Florida Regional Planning Council.
Livengood said, “I was at that meeting yesterday, and it’s just really great to see how involved our leadership is down here in the Florida Keys statewide. It really brings some of the things that we need to draw attention to, our water quality and our environment and things like that, it’s really known on a statewide level, and that’s because our leadership, our commissioners down here, our municipal leaders, everybody is up in Tallahassee, or known across the state by everybody. Jim’s on the Defense League Task Force, and Holly sits on several boards at Tallahassee as well. It’s just a really great opportunity to make sure that all of our issues down here are taken care of, not to mention that they, focus too on, obviously, their number one priority is the Florida Keys. But they’re able to then talk about transportation issues in Miami and things like that, stuff that will affect us in the long run as well.”
The South Florida Regional Planning Council’s mission is to provide state and local policy makers with the information they need to build a better future for South Floridians.
Livengood said, “On that same note, we just had the Climate Summit in December, and that was a huge opportunity. That is the four, it’s Miami Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe County. We literally are the leaders in the climate change discussion, statewide and across the nation. I mean, we had worldwide, people there from Antarctica coming to chat with us. So, I mean, it’s a big deal. Just being on the level that we are down here, our small, little, tiny, 82,000 residents, Monroe County, we really are able to be out there on a statewide and nationwide level, even.”
The county’s Executive Administrator, Krystal Gomez, has been named Monroe County’s Employee of the Year.
Livengood said, “She is our senior staff, go-to person for just about everything. She also puts together our agendas and you’ve seen our agendas before, sometimes they’re 19 pages long. So that is not a small task. There’s 25 departments in the county, and she used to wrangle everybody up every month, to make sure that everything is in properly and so she was recognized. She’s just a wonderful person to be around. She’s always got a smile on her face and always happy to help and we were just really proud of her. We’d also like to recognize our quarter one employee of the quarter was Valeri Kolessar, and she works in emergency management. We had our quarter two employee with Julia Perez in facilities maintenance, and then our quarter three was Alary Luttazi and she’s also an emergency management and you know how busy emergency management was this past year with the grand opening of the Emergency Operations Center and all of the logistics that went behind getting that set up and put in there and everything. So that was a big undertaking the past year. So, two people from emergency management recognized was a great thing too.”
Looking ahead to 2025, the State of the County is underway right now.
Livengood said, “It’s a lot of fun. In it, the publication at the end is really great and Jim Scholl, his aide, Sue Burke, she’s absolutely amazing. She started reaching out to some of the chambers and rotaries to start scheduling our annual tour of the Florida Keys, where we go and visit everybody and give our little State of the County address, and hand out those books that are made, and just chat up everything that’s going on and the things that we accomplished in 2024 and then the things we’re looking forward to in 2025.”
There are positions open in the county right now.
Livengood said, “There’s a few job openings right now. We’re looking for another county attorney. We have a parks and beaches Operations Manager position open. There’s several other departments have openings as well. It’s on the front page of the website, if you go there, you can see all the details. You can see what the salary is, you can see what the job responsibilities are, and any of the things that you need to be able to apply for the job there. It’s all right there. It’s great working for the county, and we’ve got great leadership and great management. It’s been a joy the past six years that I’ve been there. So I am excited to be a part of the county, and I think that it’s a great opportunity for some people to get their foot in the door as well.”
Monroe County Solid Waste is hosting its quarterly household hazardous and electronic waste collections.
Livengood said, “I have all those on the calendar and on the website as well. They can drop them off at our transfer stations as well. It’s nice to have those drop off locations a little closer to home, so you don’t have to drive to Cudjoe. Speaking of accomplishments, the past year, solid waste had a lot of accomplishments bringing in the new trash cans. Then we also have that our Recycling Coordinator, Melody Tuschel, she is just a powerhouse in recycling. I know that she goes to all the chambers and rotaries as well. A lot of people are like, Monroe County doesn’t recycle. Well, we do. I’ve personally been up here in Miami to the recycling center and seen our trash trucks come in with all the recycling. So I know that we definitely do. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I see it on social media every once in a while where someone’s like, they don’t recycle. I see it all get thrown in the same truck or whatnot, and I’m like, no, we definitely do. I see it there. But what Melody does is she goes around and shows people how to recycle properly. You can’t throw the plastic bags that you get your groceries in, those can’t be recycled. They jam up the recycling machinery. You can’t recycle dirty cardboard from your pizza boxes and things like that, and Styrofoam is not recyclable. As much as you want to reuse, like your kids toys or the plastic chairs outside or things like that, those things aren’t recyclable either. So a lot of times, people might have that stuff in their recycle bin, and it will go into the trash so that that could be what people are seeing, but we definitely recycle down here, but it’s important to make sure that your recycling is being done properly.”
There were some additions in leadership recently in the county.
Livengood said, “The artificial reefs director, these are all huge things that have happened in the past couple years. The artificial reefs, I actually am going to be putting a press release out later today with the coordinates for the new artificial reef that was done off of Key West so that people can go enjoy it and go fishing or go explore it, snorkeling or diving. I think it’s in 40 feet of water, so it’s definitely something on a clear day that you could see snorkeling. But she went out there a couple days after placing the poles. They’re like, 40 foot poles and she went out there a couple days afterward, and there was already fish swimming around.”
The JOY Center will have a celebration coming up.
Livengood said, “JOY is our Just Older Youth. That’s what the JOY Center stands for, and our Plantation Key Center, parks and beaches runs that and welcoming the JOY Center to the Plantation Key Community Center. That’s in Tavernier. It’s taking place on Tuesday, February 4. It’s going to go from 11 to 2. There’s going to be food. There’s going to be food entertainment. The JOY Center is going to be doing some of their programming that they offer to everybody, and everybody’s welcome to go. It’s not just older youth there. Their big thing is that they’re just big kids, but they do the ukuleles. They have all these fun things they do, and it’s just going to be a great little celebration of our older youth as well as we want people to come see the community center as well on Plantation Key. So it’s a great spot to host some events. Everybody’s welcome, and that will be a lot of fun. So that’s on Tuesday, February 4, from 11 to 2.”
Severe Weather Week is something that Monroe County participates in every year.
Livengood said, “Every year we’ve got to do the tornado drills. That’s coming up during severe weather week, too. That takes place February 3 through 7. So that’s coming up pretty quickly and it talks about, like, basically, we just push out on our social media and our website and we’ll be posting that week for prep for hurricanes, for flooding, lightning, marine hazards, thunderstorms, tornadoes, wildfires and even recently, like with our cold weather spurts. You don’t think about it, but there’s a lot of things, even with cold weather, that we need to prepare for. You need to make sure that your portable heaters are safe to use and that you’re using them not near curtains, or that the plugs are not fried on them, and that they’re not set next to newspapers or things that could be flammable. There’s just a lot of little reminders that we’ll put out during that week. Tornado safety, we have to worry about that in the Keys. We do have water spouts and things like that and we just want to make sure that we talk about it throughout the year before things happen. So people might have in their heads, what they’re supposed to do, get to a safe spot, be inside. Don’t be near windows, things like that. Don’t be outside if there’s a lightning storm going on. We did have that wildfire in Big Pine a few years ago and just safety issues that come around those type of things.”
For more information, click here: https://www.monroecounty-fl.gov/