Christine Hurley, county administrator for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
The county is always ready to handle anything, even in the face of a possible Tropical Storm Rafael.
Hurley said, “It’s a very heavy burden, actually, to watch your community have impacts and be devastated by natural disasters. But I will say that I think this is number three or four since September 12, when I took the helm, and Shannon (Weiner) has done an excellent job briefing me and as well as National Weather Service, you just cannot imagine how fortunate we are to have them down in Key West to help us predict impacts, because that is what it’s about.”
There have been coordinated calls in the county about the storm.
Hurley said, “We will likely have another one today, around one o’clock and then probably 5:30. We were making sure the impacts wouldn’t hit during voting. Today’s voting day, and they’ve got to count everything, and they need these hours to do that work. So it is looking like the good news is that the winds will not impact us during that time period. However, we all have to get ready. It does look like, what we think is going to happen, some surge on the Atlantic side, especially in Key West, and then higher winds in the Lower Keys. It all really depends on what the school board does for whether or not we will close down operations on Wednesday to keep people off the roads. The busses, they can’t travel if there’s going to be sustained winds over 35 miles an hour. So that’s always a driver in our decision making.”
Election signs will be recycled for free at Rockland Waste Management transfer station, Long Key transfer station and Key Largo transfer station between November 11 and the 15th, from 8am to 3pm.
Hurley said, “Our Recycling Coordinator, she is to me, breaking records. She is organizing so many special events where people can bring stuff. The tire events she’s holding are really impressive, and it cleans people’s yards up, gets rid of mosquito risk and gets rid of things that they normally can’t get rid of. So she’s doing great. We’re very proud of her work.”
There are also ROGO workshops coming up.
Hurley said, “We had one last night in Key West. I think it was well attended, based on what staff is telling me. Then we have two more coming up Wednesday night is at the Murray Nelson Center in Key Largo, and then Thursday night is at Marathon Government Center. Both start at 5pm and this is kind of the last outreach publicly we will be doing before we work with our commissioners to make a final recommendation on the number of allocations they want to request. The planning department is leading those, Emily Schemper, our planning director and her team, and it’s really at this point all about policy, what exists in the current comprehensive plan for growth management and other things such as, should we widen roads? As well as things we can do to increase safety for evacuation. So they’re going to be taking public input, talking to people about what their opinions are, and then we will report all of that to the commission at a special meeting November 20, which will completely be dedicated to the ROGO situation. That day, will also have a presentation by John Rizzo from the National Weather Service, because it really boils down to keeping our community safe, allowing a small amount of growth to maintain people’s ability to obtain permits. So we don’t face as everybody’s been talking about takings liability, and then how do we serve those additional people with the infrastructure we provide? So we’ve got a lot to do. The final recommendation from our board will be expected to be made at another special meeting, December 19. So that’s a laid out timeline for how this is going to unravel. In January, committee meetings start up at the state level. Session starts at the beginning of March, and if we ask for any more units than 220, it’s likely a statutory change will need to be made in the maximum amount of hours it takes to evacuate permanent residents. So that’s where we’re at, and it’s exciting. It’s been great to see the public participate so heavily through this past year, through surveys and outreach. I love when the public process works, and when you watch the commissioners listen to the public, change the method or assumptions, or take input and ask staff to revise things based on the input to come up with the best recommendation they can.”
A long range transportation workshop is coming up this Thursday.
Hurley said, “So much is happening with transportation finally, especially since that is one of the top three issues that our county believes needs solved based on our strategic plan, and Richard (Clark, transportation director) has been super involved in Conch Connect, the experiment we’re trying in the Lower Keys. Very successful. At the November 19 meeting, Richard will be presenting to our board the 183 transportation Master Plan recommendations that was made by Commissioner Rice’s committee made up of a representative from each city and Rice as the county representative. They worked on the master plan with AECOM, a private consultant, Richard will present the current situation with those recommendations. We’re very, very, very proud to say most of them are either in the FDOT work plan or in some sort of process to get those improvements started. Then Michelle Lincoln is heading up with a group statewide, the 2055 Florida transportation plan, and they’re having a workshop Thursday from 10am to 12pm at the Marathon Government Center, where she will present kind of an overview of all the things Monroe County has going on in the transportation world, to help inform FDOT on priorities for our county, and to talk about how those integrate with our region. So I know it seems far away, 2055, but long range plans in transportation are very important because it takes years to design these types of improvements and then get them funded with construction money. One of the biggest challenges the county faces is bridges and bridge maintenance and replacement, so that will be a big part of the discussion moving forward. I think we’re going to have some critical decision points to be made soon, because Commissioner Rice is focused on whether FDOT should plan for four lane bridges instead of some of them that are two lane. That’s a big decision in our county. It’s right now not allowed in our comp plan to have four lanes, but they could recommend amending that so that these bridges when they get rebuilt, might have a larger capacity. So we’re kind of all waiting to see what comes out of all these discussions. But look forward in December, December 11, to FDOT presenting their five year work print plan, and that’s when we know what projects in our county are funded.”
Veterans Day is also coming up.
Hurley said, “Our director of veterans, Cathy Crane, really brings the spirit to those events. It’s very important to honor those veterans and the services that they’ve provided to our country.”