Key West Mayor Dee Dee Henriquez joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
We have a potential tropical storm headed our way as well as the boat races.
Henriquez said, “Hopefully it’s going to move a little bit more to the left, and we’ll just have a little bit of winds, which I believe the boat races are accustomed to anyway, when they come down here during this time. So hopefully it’ll come through really fast and we can continue on.”
The Duvall Street project had a meeting recently.
Henriquez said, “We did have our fourth Duvall Street revitalization workshop at the Tropic theater. Big thank you to them for allowing us to use the theater. We had anywhere between 75 and 80 people in attendance and received a great presentation, but there is more work to be done. There was a lot of interaction and great questions from the audience. The key focus was definitely the flooding on both ends of Duvall Street, and they were talking about placing a pump station at Mallory Square. They gave a presentation and lot of slides to show if we had put planters here, this is what this would look like if we put benches. So it was just giving a different perspective of what it could look like, and I can tell you, the majority were definitely not in favor of planters because they would probably be used as garbage cans, and so they would probably be destroyed immediately. So I definitely know that they were not in favor of planters. They had concerns about parking, loading zone, bicycle safety, so it was just, it was a really great evening and like I said, great interaction, great questions, and this, I just love the communication back and forth.”
What’s the next step?
Henriquez said, “They gathered a lot of that information and they did have boards out there again to show like, did they want pavers? What type of benches would they like? Did what type of light post would they like out there? So they were gathering that information, they’ll put it all back together, and then we will do another presentation. Nothing’s final, and we still need to find the funding. So there was a lot of different options on funding, so the city will start looking at that. So it’s nothing that’s going to happen overnight, but at least it’s moving forward.”
The bond referendum is on the ballot tomorrow and is important.
Henriquez said, “As far as the bonds you’re able to vote for, 1, 2, 3, or all four of them, or none of them. So we’ll see what the voters want and see how that turns out, and then we’ll see how the city is going to move forward from there.”
How is the search for a city manager going?
Henriquez said, “We definitely have a date of November 12 that the commissioners and myself will be interviewing all day. So that’s definitely been confirmed. Then there’s going to be a city manager meet and greet that has been set up. And it will be at the Double Tree, November 12, from 6 to 8pm. It’ll give the community an opportunity to meet all the candidates as well.”
The Veteran’s Day parade is also coming up.
Henriquez said, “We will definitely have a parade for Veterans Day that starts at 4pm and so, yes, we’re very busy. We go from Veterans Day and then we’ll move right into the city parade. And so there’s just one thing going on after another.”
This evening there will be a discussion on art in Bahama Village.
Henriquez said, “This evening, the Bahama Village redevelopment committee will be reviewing the rankings of proposed art in public places for the new Douglas Gym Community Center, and they’ll also be hearing an update on the progress of the beautiful new center and on the Black History Museum, which is integrated into the Douglas Community Center. So that meeting will be very important for everybody to attend, and that starts at 5:30 this evening at City Hall.”