Key West Mayor Dee Dee Henriquez joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
The commission meeting last week was a long one.
Henriquez said, “We did speak about the water quality with Stantec Consulting Services. Sadly, the motion did fail, but there was a lot of discussion in reference to task zero, which task zero was not on the original RFP, there was task one through six. So there was lots of discussion. Stantec was awarded the bid back in October and the amount of 125,811 and with that option, it was additional bi weekly sampling the dog beach and the rest beach, and the amount of 5700 totaling 130 little over $131,000 and it did not include the ship channel or the Key West Harbor mooring areas. So there was a lot of conversation because the equipment was going to cost, 46,000 and task zero was 62,000 which totaled a little over 115,000, which would have made the RFP $247,000, so that change order was a concern. These other tasks, one through four have not been brought before us. These are estimated costs, so we don’t know exactly what this is going to cost the taxpayers. And is water quality very, very, very important? Absolutely. Do we need to get water quality testing, absolutely? But when is the total amount of money going to end? The original RFP was 125,000, now we’re at 247,000 and the original RFP with Mote was under 100,000 and it did have harbor testing. So we have spoken with the city attorney, and she’s going to get back to us, and we’ll see how all this works out.”
The City Commission voted in favor of taking over Higgs Beach Monroe County.
Heinriquez said, “I am very excited about that. The Commission did approve Higgs Beach by a super majority vote of 5-2 and by taking over Higgs Beach, the city, not the county, decides on the property and how it’s managed, what improvements are going to be prioritized. For example, during COVID, the city was closed down, and the Higgs Beach was still open because it was owned by the county. It wasn’t owned by the city, and we didn’t have control. So this is a wonderful piece of property, and it should belong to the city, not to the county, and I look forward to having many and multiple improvements in the near future.”
How is the state budget going?
Henriquez said, “Our city manager in his report, did give us information, in reference to Tallahassee, that if the budget goes through, that we will be receiving $13 million for ‘28/’29 for the fire department, and 4 million for Harris Street. So those bridges that we continue to do between the state and the city, it’s been very rewarding, and hopefully we’ll see a lot of this money start coming in. And then the commission also awarded the RFP to Tropical Shell and Gift for the cable huts, the Hospitality House and 402 Wall Street. So I’m looking forward to start seeing some work out there at Mallory Square. There was an envelope, and it said, Mayor of Key West open this envelope on April 6, 2026 to find directions for unearthing the time capsule buried on April 6, 1976 and it says, please keep this envelope in a vault or other secure place until said date. So our clerk did find this envelope, and it’s from Mason School. We are going to dig up this fifth year time capsule. So I’m looking forward to seeing what’s going to be inside there. On Wednesday, we have the Bight board meeting that starts at 4pm in the chambers. Thursday, just so everybody knows, the city of Key West is having a planned phone system outage, so they’re switching out the phones, and it’s scheduled maintenance, and it’s from 9am to 12pm. City phones may be unavailable or may experience some disruption. 911 will not be affected. So if you’re trying to reach us and nobody’s answering or you get disconnected, it’s only because we’re having some scheduled maintenance. Please email us during that time. We’ll get back to you, but hopefully it’ll be up sooner than later, and then also on, I forgot to say Tuesday, the hospital board meeting tomorrow, starting at 2:30 just for everybody to know, at the Double Tree, they are going to be going over that RFP so that’s very important. It’s open to the public, so everybody should attend. And then Thursday, we have our Early Bird cleanup, and it’s hosted by the Key West Women’s Club, located at 319 Duval Street, and that’s going to start at 8am so they usually have a really good turnout, and they have really good food too. I would just continue to say, stay informed and participate in all of the meetings. And if you have any questions or comments, please give me a call or even come out to our open hours.”