The City of Marathon will have a workshop tonight to talk about the ALICE report

Marathon Mayor Robyn Still joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.

The city has a workshop coming up tonight.

Still said, “I’m looking forward to that. I think people should tune in. If you can’t come, we’re going to be talking about the ALICE report. United Way, does a study every few years, and it talks about individuals in our communities, and ALICE stands for asset limited income constrained employed. Basically what that means is they’re looking at people and families who have jobs but their assets are limited. They don’t get paid a lot. We know what our cost of living here is, and these are our families that are one emergency away from not having money, not being able to pay their bills, not being able to buy food. It could be your car broke down. It could be you have to have a new tire on your vehicle. It could be that you get sick, or your child gets sick, and you’re out of work and there’s no money there to have a safety net, so we’re talking about those individuals, and how many of those are in our community. I saw this report, my goodness, it was several years ago, and it was so eye opening, and it really hits home. So I would suggest that everybody, if you can’t watch, watch the recorded, or I’m sure we’ll probably post that report on our Facebook page. I’ll post it on mine, but you can also go to the United Way and find it. The latest report was in 2021 and it looked at about 36,000 households. They talked about the median household income and it’s very eye opening.”

The workshop will be held at 5:30 tonight.

Still said, “There’s not a good or easy answer. Everybody knows what it costs to live here and how much it costs to buy groceries, from groceries to gas to insurance if you own your home to rent.”

ROGOs will certainly affect the cost of living, depending upon how many building units are available.

Still said, “We have not had any further discussions. The county has had some workshops themselves. I think they have some coming up. I would urge everybody to go to the Board of County Commissioners website to see when some of these workshops are coming up. We’re kind of letting them take the lead on that, because this is a Keys wide issue. They are talking to the municipalities. They’re coming to us as well. So we’re all working together. We are going to have to go to the legislature and ask for how many of those allocations we’re going to want, and we are asking for community input on that. So please. I know that people are talking about it, but this is the time to do more than talk amongst your neighbors. This is the time to go to those meetings and let your opinions be known. We need to know what our residents want, and we need an open dialog and open communication to know that regardless of the number of allocations that we ask for and get, we’re not giving them all out at the same time. This will be spread out over a 25, 30 year period, that number is to be determined, but it’s not all being given out automatically. We have to make sure infrastructure is in place to handle any allocations that we do give out, but we face a real threat of takings cases, and our taxpayers are already burdened, and I can’t imagine what that would do to us if we actually have to bear the burden of paying for takings cases. Basically, for listeners who might not understand what that means is, if you own a piece of land that has never had a home on it, and you want to build a home, we may have to tell you that we can’t give you a building right. So we are basically taking away, and I’m not an attorney, but my view is taking away your right to build, and people are going to get upset about that, and rightfully so, and they’re going to sue for that right and there will be financial damages that are going to be given and shared with the municipalities and the county and potentially the state.”

There are a number of events coming up in Marathon.

Still said, “Going into the Halloween season, we have a lot of events. On Friday night, there are a couple different events happening. It depends on what your pleasure is. First, there is at the high school here in Marathon is senior night. There’s also a football game. They’re going to honor all the athletes who are seniors in all of the sports. I understand that starts about 6:45pm, so come out and see that. Also Presents in Paradise, a wonderful organization. I’m on their board that helps provide presents to children and families here in Monroe County is having a fundraiser. They call it Boo Bash. It’s at Havana Jacks. So that’s a fun event as well. The Dolphin Research Center, which is absolutely amazing, is having a national first responders date on October 28 from 9 to 2:30 and it’s free for your first responder. I think you have to bring your ID for that and up to four guests. So that would be a wonderful event. Let’s hope for beautiful weather for that. In Community Park, we’re having trunk or treat on October 30. That’s 5pm to 7pm. This Saturday, the Florida Keys Hope Walk, used to be known as the Strides Walk for breast cancer. Now they’re doing a walk for all versions of cancer. That’s Saturday. It was rescheduled from a couple weeks ago when we had some pretty ugly weather. It’s October 26, Saturday, from 8am to 12pm. That’s at Crane Point Hammock. So come out and enjoy that, and let’s support that wonderful event. I don’t think there’s a family that can say that they’ve not been touched by cancer in some way, whether it’s a family member or a friend or a neighbor. So now they’ve transitioned from just breast cancer to all forms of cancer. So that, and obviously all the wonderful events that we have constantly going on at Community Park. You could go to their Facebook page, and they actually have a weekly calendar. There are way too many events for me to list. I don’t think we have enough time. I didn’t realize how much they did until I look at those calendars.”

The next Marathon City Council meeting will be on November 12.

Still reminded, “Early voting started yesterday. Vote, vote, vote, please go out and vote. That’s going to be very important. That’s who decides who your city council members are. We have two seats that are open. A lot of people think, you have one vote. You vote for one person. Well, for city council, because we have two seats available, you vote for the top two people that you would like to see on your city council. So you vote for two people, not one. That’s very, very important because of the four people who are running for city council in Marathon, the top two vote getters will be your next city council members. So it’s very important that you vote for two people. If you’re unsure of who you want to vote for, I urge everybody to watch the forums, look at the Keys Weekly. They’ve asked the candidates questions. The candidates have answered some of those questions, and those answers are in print, or reach out to the candidates to learn who they are and learn a little bit about them. All of them, I’m sure, are going to be very receptive to sitting down and talking to you, so you have the opportunity to get to know them and then vote for two and of course, we have other important elections, and those candidates on a local level, at least, all of them, I found, to be very receptive to questions. I just urge you to get to know them and then make the choice for you.”