John Bartus, city administrator for Key Colony Beach, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
Looking at the bids for architectural services for city hall will begin today.
Bartus said, “We’re going to go through the four different bids we received, and we’re looking forward to putting together the architect that we’re going to recommend to the City Commission, and then moving that process forward. A lot of these bids have some timelines in them to get us through the design phase, the talking with all the stakeholders, coming up with the design, and then going through the next phases of getting city hall built. It’s going to be amazing. Part of that is already underway. We’re in the middle of the pin piles and floor leveling for part of the existing building, and that’s underway right now, and that should be done here fairly soon. Then we move forward with the expansion of City Hall, and getting some designs for that, so we have plan moving forward, and then the construction will start as soon as we can possibly do it. This city is ready, and we’re all anxious, especially those of us in the administrative staff and the police department, to get out of the trailers we’ve been in.”
Key Colony Beach did receive some grants to help with this whole process.
Bartus said, “We have a hardening grant, a facility hardening grant from the state of Florida in the amount of $2.28 million and we have some money of our own. But this is going to enable us to not just build this addition and renovate what’s there, but also to storm harden both the rest of marble hall and the post office, so we’ll be able to make sure those are better equipped to handle the next big storm that comes down the line.”
The pickleball courts are also being expanded.
Bartus said, “One of the things we had done was expanding the pickleball courts and redoing the tennis courts. Tennis courts are going into the old area where the basketball courts were. There’s going to be brand new tennis courts. They’ve actually just started paving those yesterday, and then the pickleball courts are going to be starting up here very soon as well. So we’re racing through this project as fast as we can, because we know there’s a lot of wonderful people that enjoy both tennis and pickleball, and again, bringing the tennis people and the pickleball people together to come together, and move forward with this project, which has, again, been a long time coming, but we’re really so happy to see that one, the end date is coming up really close in both of those. We’re just in the middle of making sure that everything keeps running properly. Got some projects going over in the wastewater plant. We’re looking forward to competing for the Florida Keys water quality improvement program that was authorized about 25 years ago in Congress got another $100 million authorization, and we’re really looking forward to competing for a share of that, because we have, like any government down here, we’ve got a lot of projects going on, from storm water projects, continued wastewater projects and looking at some possible canal restoration projects as well, things that would qualify for what we would consider our share of the $100 million authorization. Again, understanding that an authorization is not an appropriation, and also with the understanding that it’ll probably be about 3 to 5 million a year, tops that Congress would ever appropriate under this act.”
Presents in Paradise is underway.
Bartus said, “The North Pole is very active right now, as you can imagine, but there’s a lot of gifts being sorted and being prepared for distribution to the kids, and certainly the kids in need in this county. So that’s going on right now. The distribution will come up a little later, but the easiest way, if you would like to help, is text the word presents to 44321, and that’ll take you to a donation site that you’ll be able to make a donation. It’s the easiest way to do it.”
Michael Stapleford of KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM noted, “I want to publicly thank you and your wife for the pivotal role that you two have held in Presents in Paradise for these many years. The two of you dedicate so much time and energy to this year round. I certainly want to thank you for that, because it’s really indescribable to see and to well, to describe the impact that this program has on families and children, in particular in our county.”
Bartus said, “It’s really wonderful, and it’s great to be able to help and knowing that we’re making Christmas possible for a lot of local working families who are just barely getting by and paying rent, groceries and things like that, and a lot of this we couldn’t do without our incredible staff of we call them our elves, because they come out and they just do so many good things. We’re looking, possibly working to get some grants. We want to keep the space that we’re running, but right now is the North Pole and taking a look at doing a year round clothing program, which would be something that would be fantastic. We certainly appreciate all the support we’ve gotten throughout the years from the people in Monroe County, and that’s helped us really do what we can do. Without the people of the Keys, and without the support of our elves, we couldn’t do it. So thanks to everybody for helping out.”
For more information on Presents in Paradise, click here: https://www.presents-in-paradise.com/