Mayor of the Marathon, Robyn Still, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
With the election wrapping up, it’s important to come together.
Still said, “There was obviously a lot of controversy and a lot of differing opinions, but regardless of who you supported in any election, be it nationally or locally, we are a wonderful country and we’re a wonderful nation, and we need to remember that, and we need to pull together and be that wonderful nation.”
Locally, Lynny Del Gaizo and Kenny Matlock will be on the Marathon council after the election.
Still said, “I want to thank all four candidates. They all ran very respectful, very professional campaigns. I’m just very thankful for that. That says a lot. It’s awfully hard to put yourself out there and know that you’re going to face criticisms and know that you won’t have certain people supporting you, and they may say things and it’s really hard not to say something back, but these four folks that ran were amazing, and I’m looking forward to moving forward with city council, with Kenny. Obviously, I’ve worked with him in the past, and I’m looking forward to working with Lynny. Everybody’s interested in keeping Marathon great and keeping that level of service for our residents, and giving them what our residents deserve. So I’m looking forward to that. So that being said on Tuesday night, the 12th we have our city council meeting. It’s at 5:30 and the first thing that we will actually do on our agenda is there’s a resolution to approve the election results. I don’t see any reason why that wouldn’t pass. Then we go straight into swearing in the newly elected council members, and as soon as they’re seated, we’ll say goodbye to Louis Gonzalez, who has done remarkable work for our city. I’m sad to see him go. He’s a personal friend also. Then amongst the city council members, there’ll be a nomination for a new mayor and a new vice mayor, so I’m looking forward to that, to see who that’ll be. Obviously, we can’t discuss it until we’re on the dais at the city council meeting. So I’m looking forward to that and just seeing what this council is going to do working together moving forward.”
Development was a big issue during the campaign.
Still said, “It is the topic on everybody’s mind, especially with the county facing the challenge of ROGOs and the challenge of having to go to the state legislature and asking for more ROGOS or BPAS, depending on where you are, allocations, that is a hot topic. Obviously, affordable housing, workforce housing, those are hot topics. Those are concerning topics. They are problems that we have had for a long time that have just seemed to get gotten gradually worse. So that was a topic for our candidates and obviously your city council members as well. I ask our residents if you have concerns, if you’ve not participated in the Board of County Commissioners surveys, they’re having a couple Town Hall workshops that are coming up. It is so important that our residents participate, because a county as a whole, we’re going to have to go to the legislature, and we’re going to have to ask them for allocations, and we need to know what the residents think, what they want.”
Veteran’s Day is also coming up.
Still said, “I can’t believe it’s November already, and there are lots of holiday celebrations that are going to be occurring. One of my favorites Christmas Eve, the Santa caravan that comes through the city of Marathon. Santa Claus is participating, our fire department, which is amazing, participates our Sheriff’s Office. Just a great community event and it comes to your neighborhood, usually. We make a lot of stops that’ll be posted once that schedule is kind of firmed up. So it would be on our Facebook page, and we’ll be doing live streams, and there will be postings. We try to keep the times we say we’re going to come through your neighborhood. Try to keep it as close as we can. Sometimes it’s hard for Santa Claus get away from some kids when we have a big turnout in certain places.”
A meeting to discuss ROGOs will be held at the Marathon Government Center tomorrow.
Still said, “Please, please, please, if you can, reach out to your council members, please know that no matter what allocations, if we were to receive some, they’re not all given out at one time. That is something that’s going to be spaced out. I think that’s a misunderstanding that people are having. Then they’re saying, Marathon’s asking for X number. Where are we going to put these? We don’t have infrastructure to support it, just because we work to get them, if we do, they’re not all being handed out immediately. We’re going to make sure infrastructure is in place. This is going to be something that’s going to be spaced out over 20, 30 years, depending what that decision is made. So I just want people to know that that number looks scary, it looks stressful, but it is not being given out just all at once.”