John Bartus, city administrator for Key Colony Beach, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
The new City Hall project is still under way.
Bartus said it’s “a combination of hardening the existing building and building a storm ready certified addition that is built up to current standards that will also house our police department, our emergency operations center and this is going to be a fantastic building when it’s all said and done. We got the 30% conceptual drawings approved. I just saw a copy of the new 60% conceptual drawings. The Commission will be looking to approve those here very soon. We are on schedule. The architectural firm, they are doing a fantastic job with this, working with every commissioner on their demands. They’ve worked with staff. They’re moving forward. They’re meeting pretty much every demand that we’ve got and they’re turning those demands into reality on paper, at least. We’re looking at probably August, to be able to have construction ready documents to go out to bid. We will have an exercise room there and that’s going to be something I believe will be very popular with, not just, staff and our police force, but also, residents as well. It’s not going to be like going to one of our major gyms that we have in Marathon, but it’s going to be a nice little facility that people will be able to do a workout and get it in. It’s going to be a fantastic, fantastic place for our city, and we’re looking very forward to keeping the progress going on this.”
Most of the project was funded by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Bartus said, “We do have a $2.28 million grant from the Florida DEP. It’s for storm hardening and new construction. Now, we’re probably going to go out of pocket a bit on this ourselves, because we’re looking at some extra costs on this that the grant may not cover.”
The city commission will have a town hall meeting and a city commission meeting next week.
Bartus said, “One of the things we’ll be discussing in our town hall meeting is a concept from one of our commissioners and we’re going to be looking at possibility of doing some of those the brick pavers, like the city of Marathon has at Rotary Park, that have the different engravings that people can buy a brick and they can make themselves an immortal part of the new city hall project. So we’re looking at that and the possibility of going forward with one of these projects to help offset some of the costs of outfitting City Hall. I think that’s going to be a very worthwhile thing to do, plus it will give our residents and people who want to be part of this a chance to leave a legacy at City Hall. We’ll be discussing that Monday morning at the town hall meeting.”
Privatizing the golf course or keeping it city operated will also be discussed.
Bartus said, “I guess there are probably pros and cons on each side, but in the end, I do trust the commission is going to make the right decision for the city and the golf course. The golf course is still a really cool thing. I can’t tell you how many times in my younger days I went out there, I played that thing almost every day, sometimes, and that’s when I got, as good as I could at my short game was playing on that par three, which is a really challenging course.”
What is the current status of the golf course?
Bartus said, “The golf course is currently, it’s sort of rented out to a person that handles the bookings, just basically runs the course. That’s what the Commission will be discussing again on Monday morning.”
Key Colony Beach is always looking to improve the quality of life for its residents.
Bartus said, “We are still looking at different options for our parks, just trying to get some more grant funding for different projects. One of the things we’re looking at, too, I’ve applied for two different grants for what we’re calling a fitness trail. It would be around the north side of the park, starting around Eighth Street and then going up Shelter Bay Drive and then down to Seventh Street to near the Bocce courts. But we’re looking at putting in like these fitness stations. There’s a company called Life Trail that builds these things, and they’re designed for adults of varying degrees of mobility and physical activity. So this would be a way to get people of all ages and all abilities out on a little walk, that they could go and do these different exercises at these different fitness stations. I think it’s something that would help the community out there as well.”
Stewardship funds from last year are coming through.
Bartus said, “We applied last year for some Stewardship funds before the deadline, and finally came out through the governor’s office, they had made their decision. A lot of jurisdictions got some money this year, which was good to see, and Key Colony Beach, we got a million dollars for our UV tank replacement, which was something I thought was fantastic, well deserved, and we certainly will put that money to good use.”
There will also be a special call meeting before the town hall meeting next week.
Bartus said, “It’s about the Baptist Fisherman’s MSTU continuing the municipal services taxing unit. The county’s asked the two municipalities involved, Marathon and Key Colony Beach for their input on this. So the commission will deliberate that if they want to go with the current MSTU, if they ask the county to modify the millage rate so it maximizes out at the $15 million cap for Baptist or if they want to opt out. So that’s going to be the decisions that the Commission will be deciding this coming Monday morning at 9:30. The county is the one that wrote the enabling legislation for this and the county is the one that levies the tax. They’re looking for input from Marathon and Key Colony Beach. The commitment was for $15 million to be capped at that. So this year, if they keep it at the current millage rate that it’s been for the years of the tax, they’ll exceed that $15 million figure. I don’t think anybody wants that. I have had discussions with Baptist officials. They don’t want that. They want to end it at the 15 million and cut the thing off, sunset the tax. That’s what I think is probably the best approach. But again, that’s the Commission’s decision, and they’ll deliberate that coming up Monday morning. The county collects the tax and they distribute it. They’re trying to avoid a scenario, I believe, where they collect more than 15 million and then they have to figure out how they we get a refund.”
Is Key Colony Beach watching anything from Tallahassee?
Bartus said, “We’re still looking at next year’s Stewardship money. It’s another $20 million, I believe that is in all the budgets so far coming forward. That’s good. We’re looking at water quality improvement projects, storm water, wastewater upgrades, canal restoration, road resiliency. We’re looking at a bunch of different projects, and we put together a wish list for us. So basically it’s our 10 year wish list, and we’re able to give that to our state Senator, state Representative and had great meetings with both of those, and had a wonderful meeting with the deputy secretary for the Department of Environmental Protection. We were able to convey a lot of our needs. Key Colony Beach, they put in sewers, I believe, was the late 1970s and they made an advanced wastewater treatment. They met those standards. I believe, I want to say back in it was the early 2000s so Key Colony Beach did this basically with not a lot of the state funding that came through with federal water quality, Florida Keys Water Quality Improvement Program, and a lot of the other state revolving funds. Key Colony did a lot of this stuff on its own, and now the system’s aging, and we need some repair, some tender loving care on some of the stuff that we’re working on as we speak. But this is our time, I believe, for us to be able to negotiate ourselves some money from the state and eventually the feds, when they get around to actually funding the Florida Keys Water Quality Improvement Program. I hear that this year there are no earmarks. There’s going to be no funding for that coming down at all. So we’ll find out.”