Kristen Livengood, Public Information Officer for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys this morning on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
The Monroe County Board of County Commissioners meeting will be held tomorrow at 9 a.m. in Marathon. Citizens are welcome to attend in person or there are a variety of methods to watch the meeting online.
The agenda is pretty lengthy.
Livengood said, “One of the things that are happening will be a presentation by the Fair Insurance Rates of Monroe, which is also known as FIRM.”
The group will discuss wind and flood insurance issues that affect Monroe County. The county commissioners will provide some funding for FIRM to continue their mission.
An update on the hurricane evacuation clearance time modeling will also be heard.
Livengood said, “It’s important because the Florida Keys are designated as an area of critical state concern. That’s what controls basically our growth. That’s based on the Keys carrying capacity. The caring capacity is the lowest time required to safely evacuate the Florida Keys in the event of a hurricane. That is given by the state and it’s a 24-hour evacuation model.”
The model is redone each census year.
Livengood said, “We’re really interested in what the state comes back and says that we can do.”
Dark Sky Week will be designated from April 15 to 22.
Livengood explained, “The Florida Keys are a great place because we don’t have city lights and things like that to watch the stars for stargazing. That’s just going to say consider turning off your outside lights in the evenings for that week. Every year we have some serious stargazers come into town.”
The legislative session in Tallahassee is well over the halfway point – there are two weeks left – and Monroe County has some priorities for funding.
Livengood said, “As of right now, things are looking good, especially for our stewardship funding and they’re on both of the appropriate requests and everything is looking good for those on both the House and the Senate side. We are also looking at getting a portion of $10 million for artificial reefs. That would be good.”
The occupational licensing is also an issue at the state level that professionals in Monroe County are keeping an eye on.
Livengood said, “It was introduced last year that path that basically said if you do not have a state license, then you can’t do the work that you do. So this affects everyone. Everyone’s having to go get these general contractors licenses if they don’t have a special license for that. We’ve just been working on trying to get the wording changed for that so that the little guys aren’t getting left in the dust.”
Hurricane season is upon us.
Livengood said, “It’s coming up quickly. I put out on our Emergency Management Facebook page yesterday that GasBuddy app. It’s a great app for people to download. It’s great for hurricane season because it really gives you a heads-up on who has gas and who doesn’t.”
The 200th anniversary celebrations continue with a variety of events in the coming months as well.
For tomorrow’s BOCC agenda, click here: http://monroecountyfl.iqm2.com/Citizens/Detail_Meeting.aspx?ID=1173