Kristen Livengood, Public Information Officer for Monroe County, joined KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
The Board of County Commissioners are meeting today and RL Colina will be made the fire chief of Monroe county.
Livengood said, “We’re going to be doing his pinning and swearing in this morning, so that should bring a packed house. I expect the entire BOCC board room at the Harvey Government Center to be pretty filled for that. That’s always a great little ceremony. They get pinned, sworn in, their families are there, and it’s just a really great time. Plus RL is really loved in the community and we’re glad to have him on board.”
The 2026 budget timeline has begun.
Livengood said, “We’re starting our budget timeline right now, so that’s going to be approved at this meeting, and then I’ll get that up on our calendar, on our website, and put that out in the air. But we do several meetings, in Key Largo, Key West and Marathon, make sure everybody has a chance to be able to come in and weigh in on the budget. It’s one of the most important things that the county is involved with every year, is budgeting, obviously and it is a very big budget. Last year was $715 million. It gives the opportunity for the public to come out. So we’ll publish that timeline today, if the commissioners approve it, and the staff already has been meeting with County Administrator, Christine Hurley and with our budget director, so we are moving forward with that.”
Transportation will also be discussed today.
Livengood said, “Our transit director, Richard Clark, he’s going to be giving a presentation on the county’s Freebee service and the results over the past six months, especially in the Key West area and then the commissioners are going to have a discussion regarding the service and whether or not to continue the service after this first year of implementation. Then also the Islamorada Freebee service, they’re going to discuss those results and whether the county wants to work with the village of Islamorada on transitioning management services over to the county.”
The comprehensive plan is also on the agenda.
Livengood said, “Our planning department is going to be discussing the potential of, I guess there was a meeting with the Florida Department of Transportation regarding the potential to expand US 1 bridges and highways to four lanes. The county commissioners are going to discuss whether staff should continue to proceed with amendments to the comprehensive plan, because right now there is a prohibition from expanding US 1 to four lanes on bridges and obviously roads. We’re going to see how the commissioners want to move forward with that and with the ROGO discussions going on and evacuation times, this should be a hearty discussion for sure.”
Trash cans will also be a topic.
Livengood said, “We were very busy this past year with the rollout of the new trash cans that I have to say, I absolutely love mine. There will be a department update on how the rollout went and how the community is receiving them and an update on the trash service as a whole.”