Ron Saunders, village manager of the village of Islamorada, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the village.
It’s important for municipalities to work together.
Saunders said, “I went to to the Marathon Chamber of Commerce installation banquet. Had a good chance to talk with the County Administrator, Christine Hurley, with the city manager of Marathon, George Garrett, county commissioner, Michelle Lincoln, so it’s always good to maintain contacts with other entities, because we all try to work together down here in the Keys. Sometimes it seems like we’re not working together, but I always try to have everybody on the same page, especially when it comes to Tallahassee. As a former state legislator, I know how important it is to speak with a single voice for the county. With the legislative session starting in January, I thought it was important for us to start communicating and to try to get a unified voice as far as issues that may be affecting the Keys. We are already working together on some things, and I look forward to cooperating with the city of Key West, the city of Marathon, Key Colony Beach, Layton and the county, as well as the the Key Largo Wastewater District and the aqueduct authority to all go up there and try to work together.”
What about the property tax cuts discussion?
Saunders said, “It would have effect on every local government around the state of Florida. Property taxes aren’t the only component of a budget, but it certainly is a large component, and generally speaking, it pretty much just compares to the budgets we all have for law enforcement and for Fire Rescue. If you eliminated or reduced property taxes the places that really impacts the budgets the most would be law enforcement and fire rescues. That’s certainly a concern for the public safety of our residents and visitors. I think that they’re looking at things. It will probably have to go on the ballot, a lot of these things require constitutional amendments. It’s going to be an education process. I do believe that every local government should be fiscally conservative. For example, here in the village of Islamorada, we did not raise our millage rate. We kept the same as the current year. Our new budget year started October 1. We’re about three weeks into it, but the millage rate, is the same as the past year, which was from October 1 through September 30. So we’re trying to be fiscally conservative here in Islamorada. I know the other entities in the Keys are trying to do so also, but you have to face increasing costs. We have, for example, pay raises built into our firefighters’ contract collective bargain agreement, the deputies that we employ here to the sheriff’s office, pay raises because of collective bargaining with their union. I think sometimes people are concerned about how budgets are increasing, but they have to understand that our costs are increasing, so it’s going to be hard to deal with providing necessary services if our funding sources are cut back, but we’re certainly try to tighten up our budget and be more efficient. So we’ll see what the legislature does. The good news is that there’s a select committee in the House, and our own state rep, Jim Mooney, is a member of that. So certainly Jim understands our needs down here. He is a former local elected official. He was on the Islamorada Council, and so he knows what it’s like to be in local government. So I think that’s an advantage to have Jim Mooney on that committee. We’re going to be keeping in touch with Jim.”
The seventh annual Trunk or Treat event will occur at Founders Park tomorrow night.
Saunders said, “Founders Park is one of the jewels in the village. We have a lot of participation. We had a Parks and Recreation Committee meeting last night that I attended, and we certainly want to make sure that the park is kept up in great condition, and we’re putting in some new play around equipment, we’re improving the beach there. We’re doing a lot of things there. Speaking of Founders Park, we still have an ongoing discussion about the baseball field, as many people know, about 20 years ago, the village entered into an agreement with the Monroe County School Board to have a baseball field for the Coral Shores High School baseball team here in the park, and it’s worked out pretty well. The school board has now approved a proposed plan to replace the natural grass with artificial turf, which has obviously been somewhat controversial. We are still in talking about that and putting in a concession stand with restrooms and press box there. The school board approved their plan on October 7. I had a baseball task force of five citizens. We met this past Monday to discuss that plan as well as necessary documents. It’s an ongoing discussion, and we’re certainly welcoming public input. We had an expert, a professor from the University of Florida, talk about the benefits of natural grass. We had a representative of one of the synthetic turf companies talk about artificial turf. In fact, they’re the company that actually did the ball field at Bayview Park in Key West which I’m familiar with. So he answered a lot of questions, and so we’re still looking at it, and still has to get final approval by the Village Council. But certainly the baseball field is a big topic of conversation up in this area.”
The comprehensive plan is what keeps all these projects moving.
Saunders said, “The previous village council approved a rewrite of the village’s comprehensive plan, which as been in effect for many years. A consulting company has been working on that. They have a preliminary draft, I understand, I haven’t seen it, and our staff will be reviewing that and making any recommendations for changes. But hopefully the next month or so, we will get the proposed draft of the comp plan, because that guides future development. It’s very important for the village’s future. So we’re certainly going to stay on top of the Comprehensive Plan, and hopefully get that submitted relatively soon. We also just received a plan from our consultants for the Founders Park for the future of that. They’ve been working on that for about a year. So we believe in proper planning, and so we certainly have a comp plan for development and a plan for the design plan for the Founders Park, and we’re working on some plans for the baseball field. So certainly we want a lot of public input, because that’s our future up here. We want to make sure that we do things the right way going forward.”
The near shore water regulation Citizens Advisory Committee is coming up next Tuesday. The Land Acquisition Advisory Committee will meet on November 5 and a regular village council meeting will be on November 10.
Saunders said, “We have a relatively small community, about little over 7,000 residents. We have a lot of visitors, obviously, but a lot of concern is because we’re a relatively new city, we were incorporated in 1997. Key West has been around for century. So basically, we want to make sure that we communicate with our citizens, that we are transparent and open. I do a newsletter every week and try to put topics of interest in that. I put in a citizens task force for the budget. That was very helpful when we did our budget. We have a citizens task force in the baseball field. There’s several standing committees, such as the Parks and Recreation Committee I attended last night. We have historic preservation, we have near shore water quality, affordable housing, so a lot of issues we’re working on, but it’s always great to get direct citizen input. So we make sure that the village council is going in the right direction. And it’s very helpful. We certainly welcome people’s participation.”
The aqueduct authority repair and replacement of transmission lines will be affecting Coral Shores High School and traffic.
Saunders said, “We’ve asked the aqueduct authority come to all of our council meetings every month to give an update. That’s worked very well. I think it’s important to let’s make sure people know what’s coming next and the aqueduct authority, number one has been great to work with. Number two has been very informative. Number three, basically, they’ve done a good job. It seems like they’re ahead of schedule, and there’s never a good time to replace the pipeline, because it’s going to disrupt traffic, no matter when it happens. But they’ve been pretty good about, for example, not doing it in the middle of Fantasy Fest holiday. They know when traffic is heavy down here, and they’ve been very good about working with us on that and also, obviously with the sheriff’s office. Rick Ramsay is a great friend of the village, and captain has done a great job up here. They coordinate very well on traffic issues too. So we have a good team working together. Once again, it’s never a good time to replace the pipeline, but when you get your fresh water from another county through one pipe, you want to make sure that pipe works well. That’s what the aqueduct is doing, and doing a good job.”
For more information, click here: https://www.islamorada.fl.us/