Lynn Landry, Mayor of Marathon, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
A number of projects in Marathon have come to completion recently.
Landry said, “A few months back, we finished our basketball court resurfacing, our tennis court resurfacing, and we added permanent pickleball courts on that basketball court, or at least the painted lines. So we bounce around from basketball to pickleball. Just spoke with the Parks and Rec director, there was a little bit of money left over in the grant for that, so we’re able to and going to purchase, and it’s in the process of getting new basketball goals for that park there, which is really nice to hear. Our Sombrero Boulevard project is underway. Hasn’t really gotten kicked off fully yet. We’ve got a couple of things they’re taken care of, but I just wanted to remind everybody, please be patient. It’s probably going to be about a 12 month project, and it’s going to take some time to get through there as this project goes on.”
With the recent rain, there could be some flooding on Sombrero.
Landry said, “Public works, usually they watch the radar, and the pump is set up out there permanently right now that we’re doing for temporary pumping, and that should have been fired up as soon as the rain started yesterday or last night.”
The Marathon Council will meet tomorrow and Safe Streets for All is one presentation.
Landry said, “We’re developing a plan to try to make everything a little bit safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists. That’s through a grant that we have. They’re going to do a presentation for that tomorrow night as well, and then I think they’re coming to the workshop on the 27th to just get some public input from people. So we’re inviting everybody out to that to give us some ideas and help us move along with that project.”
Marathon will also be giving away grants.
Landry said, “The grants closed on May 9. We have $150,000 to give away, so that should be coming to us in the next few days. Then the council sits down, we go through it, we rate them, and we fund them, and then that will be announced as well on the 27th. I have a lot of hard decisions to make on council, but I want to tell you this is one of the hardest, to pare this down and to fund all the organizations that deserve it, and they’re very deserving organizations out there. It was nice at the workshop to listen to all of them and how they work together and what they do for our community. It’s something that, the city of Marathon just cannot do in our community and it’s so great to have all these organizations doing the great work that they do in Marathon and Monroe County.”
The agenda is pretty lengthy.
Landry said, “It take some time to get through all the department heads. They give us reports and go through it all, but I’ll tell you to do it and do it well, you have to read them all. You have to do your homework. Conversations with George and our attorney Steve, and sometimes with department heads to understand, kind of where we’re going and what we’re doing as a day to day operation city. But it’s fun. I’ve enjoyed it tremendously.”
Cutbacks from the state are always a concern.
Landry said, “We’re keeping an eye on the budget. Hopefully some of our funding that we get through the state, it was in place at the time, hopefully it will not get cut for us, but we’re going to keep an eye on that as well. BPAS/ROGO was also a big concern for us, that that was passed. Now we just have to wait until final decisions get made on that, and we’re going to continue to work with our lobbyist and with the state and our Rep and our Congresswoman to try to get some more affordable housing for the city of Marathon. That was one of our biggest things that we were looking at for this process, and right now it doesn’t appear to be any affordable housing coming to Marathon, so it’s hard to build it if you don’t have the allocations. We’re going to try to continue what we’re doing now. We give out about 10 a year, five each half of the year, two market rate, two owner occupied dwelling and one affordable each allocation period. But the biggest part of the legislation is they put one unit per lot, and with the way their LDRs are written in the city of Marathon, it will inhibit us from building duplexes and quad-plexes for affordable housing that we’re desperately in need of in the city.”
The state is also looking at possibly getting rid of tourist development taxes overall and disbanding the Tourist Development Councils as well.
Landry said, “It would be truly detrimental effect on everything. The TDC actually funds for projects through grants. We just built the tiki hut behind city hall that was funded through TDC grants. We have docks we’re repairing at Seven Mile Marina through a TDC funded grant. We’re building an information station at Sombrero Beach through a grant from TDC. So it’s amazing what all comes through the TDC. Everybody mentions Colorado and what happened when they cut their tourist development funding. I hope calmer heads will prevail and we’ll figure out another way to do this. But I don’t think cutting the TDC is the answer.”
The skate park will also be discussed tomorrow.
Landry said, “We actually have a contract on the agenda for our skate park here in the city of Marathon, hopefully we’ll approve that, and that thing’s going to get built. We’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. Then, more recently, we had a grant come from United Way of Collier in the Keys for 500,000 for a splash pad, and another 75,000 to complete the design process for the skate park. So a splash pad will be going in, hopefully by the end of the year as well, right next to that skate park. So I’m really looking forward to it. It’s all at the Community Park. It is the gem of Marathon. We’ve also got a bid out right now to re-sod our soccer fields there as well. They’re in pretty rough shape. They’re working right now tirelessly, trying to get all the irrigation fixed and all that under control, so when that bid comes through, they can move on that hopefully pretty soon, to get the soccer fields re-sodded this year as well. So a lot of good projects going on in the city. We are looking at approving a contract for safe boat, for a rescue and fire boat for the city of Marathon. The legislature funded part of that this past year, and we had a little bit of a deadline to try to get that thing, and I believe we’re going to hopefully approve that. I think that will be a tremendous asset to our fire rescue for the city of Marathon.”