Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsey joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM yesterday morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
Traffic was certainly busy for the Gigantic Nautical Market over the weekend.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It’s a difficult assignment, for sure, but we’ve done it so many years. We’ve got it pretty honed in. Most of our listeners who were up that way saw that traffic really was barely backed up. Flow was very good, considering how it’s been in the past. We’ve got it down now to two static checkpoints where we’re crossing people in packs and one or two locations, versus just wherever they cross. We’re trying to keep traffic flowing, and we did a pretty good job. I think I was there myself on Saturday, in the morning, half a day, and I saw traffic moving really well. I got reports over the weekend, as I was always checking in the status of backlogs, and we never really saw major backlogs, which is good. It was a huge event. Great turnout. What a great event. It was just jam packed. The weather was beautiful. The sun was out. Nice breeze was really comfortable. So I think it was a successful event for Upper Keys Rotary Club. The sheriff’s office made sure that things were safe and secure. We had, obviously no one injured, no crashes at that location, which is what our goal is. I think we only have one call for service with police services later on in the day, on Sunday, a very intoxicated male. He was extremely drunk, was yelling and screaming and was just going crazy. We had to actually bring in our friends at Fire Rescue, he could barely stand up. So eventually we gave service to him. We eventually found a family member who could bring him home, I think a son or nephew that brought him back home. So excessive day drinking was the biggest thing we had to deal with, for the most, part of public safety. I think, overall, a very successful event.”
The kids fishing tournament with the Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce also occurred.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Our community always comes together for these events. So many people involved Lower Keys Rotary, Chamber, sheriff’s office, Publix, Dunkin Donuts, you name it. So people providing all the food out there, rods and reels and gifts and bikes for kids who win these tournaments. It only happens because everyone coming together. Can’t name them all. There’s so many people who just made this happen. But every year we do this in conjunction with this kids fishing tournament. It’s always a big turnout. I think we had like 260 people come out to fish on the bridge. Every child who comes out, gets a fishing rod and reel. Most of these young kids have never fished. Their parents don’t have a boat. They’ve never owned a rod. So this is our first chance to really fish out there. We’re not catching big, huge fish as we know. They’re snapper and grunts and different stuff coming off that bridge. But boy, they see the look on these kids facing and reeling in this small, little snapper, first fish they ever caught ispretty exciting. All the baits provided, we’ve got food, we’ve got drinks, we’ve got snacks for the kids. All you need to do is just show up to have a great time. It’s a great time to see the families out there with these kids, a little family outing. The kids are just again so happy running up and down the bridge and fishing and doing different stuff. So we’re glad to be part of that. I’ll bring a lot of extra troops out to make sure they’re safe, because we still have to have their bridge open for one lane of traffic, for people to get to and from their homes. So we have to make sure that we’ve got a lot of security teams on both sides of the bridge and then on top of the bridge, make sure it’s safe and secure. We’ve never had anybody get injured, which is our goal and objective, and we’re going to make sure it continues that way. But I generally bring out about 10 officers. We’ve got to make sure we’re again, something that magnitude, with traffic still flowing, that it’s a safe, secure, orderly event for everybody involved. Kids run out of nowhere. You’ve got to be really careful. I’m just so happy to be there, and I make a point to be there every year with my troops, to show support, but also to just see the looks on these kids face and just relishing the joy they’re having. It’s a special day.”
The crashing of the 911 system really showed how important that number is.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This is life saving. This is so critical. I got the call about the 911 system crashing. It crashed because of AT&T was doing some upgrades, and I think Key West Police Departments and radios, other 911 system. Ultimately it crashed the entire system from Key West up north to throughout the county. So I talked to Chief Brandenburg about it on Friday as well as my team members. We put up immediate press release out trying to get you and our friends in the media to put the message out for public service announcements about, hey, the system’s down. But what the alternate means is to have a number to call in case you need help from us. Police, Fire, rescue services all come through the 911 and we can’t afford to have people that don’t have access to emergency services right away. So it was very concerning because that’s all people know these days, is 911, and how do we get that message out to so many people in such a short period of time? Was really difficult and challenging, but it was all hands on deck between our friends in Key West Police, MCSO, AT&T, our other providers to try to figure this out as quickly we can get the system back up and running and ensure that we have no delays, but also that no one’s impacted in a negative manner. So I think to work out relatively successful, but it shows that some things are out of your control sometimes.”