Don Horton, member of the Islamorada Village Councill, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the village.
The budget for Islamorada has been finalized.
Horton said, “I think this year we had probably the most open and transparent budget cycle that the village has ever had in its 25 year history. I think that Ron Saunders has done a great job as bringing in some professionalism to our management style. He assigned a task force. So not only did Council go through several meetings, looking at our budget and seeing what needed, how we can fix things that transpired in the past, but we also had a task force of five citizens of Islamorada, each one looking at the budget in a different manner, all working professionals in Islamorada. I think that bringing the citizen ideas forward, along with all of the recommendations from Council, ended up being a very good and open, transparent budget cycle. So I’m really proud about that. We we had to make some very tough decisions. It was painful on us. It’s actually painful on some of the village staff, although we didn’t have to make near the cuts that the county had to make, we did have to take off of the books some open positions. We actually did have to cut a couple of positions. We had to defer some ordering of some additional equipment, most of it replacement or upgrade. I think we’ll be okay that way. We cut back on not for profit donations, and we also cut back on some of our money that the previous councils have spent on things like holiday decorations. I think austerity was the message that was sent this year. Hopefully we can revisit a lot of our village owned property and take a look at what the actual rationale behind past purchases of that property was, and do we really need to have some of these pieces of property that had been purchased with public funds? If the decision is that we don’t need that property, then certainly I think that we need to put that property up for sale and use that money in a better, more fiscally responsible manner.”
What about the ball field?
Horton said, “I guess it’s up to the council at this point. I think that again, we had our park and rec committee meet. Our park and recs committee recommended that we go with turf. I think that on the 7th the school board is going to meet and try to finalize a few things as it relates to that. Then it sounds like that’s going to be coming, the ball field improvement discussion, and hopefully decision will come in front of this council on the 9th. There has been more and more meetings and discussions, I guess you’d call it a task force that Saunders put together to have further discussion about turf versus grass. I think that everyone is passionate on both sides, one way or the other. As you as you go through and you look and you look all over the world, it seems that there’s been advancements and improvements on turf. It’s no longer that 1970s astro turf that’s out there. We just got back from Iceland. Every field in Iceland is turf, the schools and their teams are playing on that. So I guess we’ll just have to wait and see which way the council goes on on the 9th. But I think right now, it sounds to me like recommendation out of our park and recs committee is turf, and we’ll see where that goes.”
Stewardship funding is still coming through and canal restoration is continuing.
Horton said, “The village is planning on taking some of the Stewardship funding that we’re getting this year and continuing to do upgrades on our sewer system and our canal cleanup. We’re doing some awesome things in the canal system down in lower Matecumbe, actually doing some directional boring going underneath US 1, hooking up Oceanside canal off of Iroquois and Sunset and hooking that up to a canal system that’s adjacent to the Boy Scout camp, which will allow some additional flow from ocean side to the bay side that is going to continue to clean up our canals. I tell you, we’ve done awesome work on Plantation Key. Some of our canal systems that we’ve filled in and put in and injection wells and moving water around here on Plantation Key, we’re actually starting to see some nice improvements to those canals, some sea grass is growing. I think that they’ve even found a few starlet corals that are starting to come back into these canals. So we’re cleaning up the sins of the past. The folks that dug these canals back in the 50s and 60s just didn’t understand. They thought they were doing okay, digging them really, really deep. Well, when the inlets only four feet and the major part of the canal is 10, 12, 20 feet in some instances, the water just lays there. It gets stagnant. And the combination of being able to fill those canals into where they can flush, along with us being responsible and hooking up to a central sewage and not having septic tanks and advanced treatment systems, or whatever you want to call them, and having a central sewage system, I think that we’re seeing really good cleanup in our canals and and I think that’s just what we have to do, is be good stewards of where we live, responsible environmentally, and spend the time and spend the money to get ourselves cleaned up from things that folks just didn’t understand in the 50s and 60s when they were digging these canals.”
A memorial service just occurred for Joseph Hall, who passed away in a tragic incident near Sanford and that struck the Upper Keys community very hard.
And a stroke victim in the Upper Keys also found the community rallying around the family with prayers as well.
Horton said, “I was just informed that Casey Watkins, one of our locals here in Islamorada, attends all of the Chamber events. Casey’s been active in the political scene. He’s actually run for office. And Casey, I’m told, has suffered a fairly major stroke, and I just hope that we can cast out prayers and good thoughts to Casey and hope for a speedy recovery. It was quite a surprise to hear that. There is nobody more of a Panther fan than Casey. He absolutely loves his his hockey, and he loved watching the Panthers, and I love going to all of the chamber functions, and to be able to look at the pride in Casey when he talks about his Florida Panthers. If anybody out there does believe as I do and many of us do, I think that we need to certainly share our prayers and our thoughts with Casey and his significant other, Megan, so that we can get him through this troubled time.”
Ron Saunders, the village manager, is doing a great job.
Horton said, “I personally am extremely happy with the work that Ron is doing. He stepped right in and stepped right up, helping us make some difficult decisions during a budget cycle and difficult decisions as we move forward, helping us look back at the mistakes from the past and having a to look back, and at the same time, look forward as to where this village is going to head. I see nothing but positive daylight ahead of us, and I’m very happy with the work that Ron’s doing and I think that the majority of the community is. They feel included. They feel that the government is open and really happy with Ron.”