Kristen Livengood, Public Information Officer for Monroe County, joined KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
The Small County Coalition is meeting today and Monroe Mayor Pro Tem Michelle Lincoln is being sworn in as president of the Florida Association of Counties tomorrow.
Livengood said, “That’s huge, huge, huge for us in Monroe County, because this organization, the Florida Association of Counties, has been around for almost 100 years, and there’s 67 counties in the state of Florida, and this is the first time that Monroe County has had representation at this level. So really, really, really, big deal for the Florida Keys.”
This week is a celebration for the new president.
Livengood said, “But this week they really celebrate her, like it’s her theme. So obviously she’s got her purple color, of course. But then also it’s the bridges, and she’s able to pull in her theme that she wanted. Last year it was I think it was Okeechobee. It’s nice having our Florida Keys represented. What’s also great about it is that, because she is the president, she’s got a lot of extra perks. A student down in the Florida Keys got a $2,500 scholarship from the Florida Association of Counties. But one of the other big things that she gets to bring home as president is, every year they do, like a stuff the bus thing, where they pack 350 backpacks filled with, usually, like pencils and papers and things like that. But this year Michelle Lincoln called the United Way, and was like, hey, what do the students really need so that I can really push what we can pack these backpacks with and things like that. After discussions with United Way, they talked about the food insecurities that kids in Monroe County actually have, like when they get home, when they’re at school, obviously, they’ve got programs where they can get breakfast and lunch, but sometimes when they get home in the afternoons, they don’t have snacks or things like that over the weekend. So actually, when we are doing this stuff the bus campaign this afternoon, she has done it with non perishable food items for children. So on Monday, we’ll be bringing home 350 backpacks filled with food for kids, which is great that we partnered with a lot of the food pantries and in the Florida Keys to be able to get those to the kids over the summer. I think that that’s one of the really cool perks of her being president and that’s one of the things that the president gets to do while they’re up here and we’ve never got to do it before. So this is kind of a big deal for us.”
Cathy Crane has been promoted to community services director since Social Services has consolidated with Veterans Affairs.
Livengood said, “Cathy Crane, she’s been with the county, I believe, since 2018 and she’s really taken the Veterans Affairs Program and ran with it. I know many veterans who have had problems before in the past, and I’m like, call Cathy, call Cathy, call Cathy. She has gone above and beyond for them. So her being able to be in charge of both of the programs, I think that this is just going to be great. We’ll be getting a lot more word out about the social service programs and things that we have going on for our seniors and our disabled. We’ve got a lot of programs out there that we’ll be talking about more.”
Beat the Heat will be held at Bernstein Park at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
Livengood said, “If you’ve got any children, this is such a fun event. The firefighters come out and they bring out their big water hose, and you get to tour all the fire trucks and do all that stuff, and you get to run through their fire hose. It’s just a really cool event that they’ve been doing for years now and they do it up and down the Keys. But this is actually their last event this weekend, and it’s at Bernstein Park. It’s at 10 am, bring your bathing suits and your water shoes and a bottle of water, because it’s definitely very hot right now, and come out and meet the firefighters and get to see the fire trucks up close and personal and play in the water hose, like who else gets to do that? That’s super fun.”
Work on the budget is continuing.
Livengood said, “Our first workshop takes place on Tuesday, July 15. It’s our first special budget meeting, and that’s going to be at the Marathon Government Center at 3pm and there’s 25 departments at the county, and our County Administrator, Christine Hurley, she’s been very, very diligent, and meeting with every single department, and going line by line with each of our items, and saying, like, is this really needed? Do you really need this? What do you need? Okay, let’s change this. Let’s move this around. Let’s get rid of this and things like that. So it’s definitely going to be an interesting meeting and we’ve got a lot going on here at the county. We’ve got our own kind of DOGE going on.”
We are 25 days into hurricane season.
Livengood said, “Now is the time to make sure that you have a plan in place. Where would you evacuate to? It’s definitely better to have a friend’s couch to go to, or a friend’s house or a family member’s house or something like that, rather than staying at a shelter, if you’re able to do that, just being able to reach out to them, right now, and say, hey, if something were to happen, would it be cool if I come up and crash with you guys for a couple days? And is it okay if my dog’s allowed? So it’s a big deal to be able to just do at the beginning of hurricane season, just put those plans in place. Obviously, if you do need a shelter, we will have shelters available. Our shelters, all of our Monroe County shelters, are pet friendly if you need them, but they’re not fun, they’re not comfortable. You definitely would rather stay at a friend’s house. Also this is the time too, to make sure that your coconut palms are, are trimmed up and pruning your trees properly, because if you over prune them, they could potentially be opened up to diseases and fall over even worse in a hurricane if they’re over pruned. So if you’re interested in pruning your trees or anything like that, if you go to our website, you can see a lot of details on how to prune your trees properly. Right now is the quiet time. This is the time to take care of your coconut trees and trim your coconuts out of your tree and make sure you can find all the wing nuts for your shutters, so at the last minute, you’re not frantically trying to find everything in case there is something that happens.”
The commissioners are having a meeting with our County Administrator and assistant county administrator today.
Livengood said, “They actually got up at 7 am this morning and the commissioners and both of our assistant county administrators, then our County Administrator, and our legislative affairs director, they’re all up here as well. They had a small county coalition meeting this morning. They actually presented an award as being a great small county this morning, which is great, but they had to be at that meeting, though, at 7 am, so it’s going to be a very long day, especially because we have that big stuff the backpack event coming up this evening too. We’re bringing 350 backpacks home. So that’s a lot of logistics involved with that.”