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MONROE COUNTY
KEY WEST WEEKLY / MARCH 28, 2019
GUIDE TO FUTURE STRATEGIC PLAN APPROVED
JIM McCARTHY
jim@keysweekly.com
doption of the 2020 Monroe County Strategic Plan passed without objection or any lengthy discussion during the Board of County Commissioners’ March 21 meeting at the Murray Nelson Government & Cultural Center in Key Largo. Taking effect Oct. 1, 2019, the five-year plan will guide priorities and direction of county services through future annual budgets. The plan, based on priorities from the BOCC and the public, was created using 18 months of research and feedback from the community, collected before and after Hurricane Irma in 2017. “The 2020 Strategic Plan is a 30,000-foot view of the largest issues, biggest concerns and most daunting challenges facing our Keys community,” said Kimberly Matthews, Monroe County’s senior director of strategic planning. “The next step is to create programs, solutions and actions focused on the priorities and areas of concern that are detailed in this plan.” Results from a public survey showed affordable housing at the top of the list throughout the Keys, followed by growth control/lack of open space, U.S. 1 traffic and safety and water quality. The initial 2017 survey and Community Input sessions gathered 443 residential and 21 business responses. Hundreds of residents also provided feedback during 13 community input sessions. The 2018 process included: 23 interactive presentations with nearly 850 attendees, 826 (non-duplicated resident) responses to the online survey, meetings with 96 people, more than 41 individual or group stakeholder meetings, and six Facebook polls with more than 1,500 votes cast. “This detailed plan guides the future of Monroe County and it was an immense project that our Strategic Planner Kimberly Matthews worked very hard for more than a year,” said Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi. The complete 2020 Monroe County Strategic Plan, detailed areas of concern and priority, potential initiatives and next steps and more are at www.monroecounty-fl.gov/strategicplanning.
In other news: PAVING CR 905 IN KEY LARGO Monroe County commissioners approved an agreement with the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority for additional paving under FKAA’s CR 905 project in Key Largo, which involves replacement of a line to Ocean Reef. The county wanted additional paving to be added to the project to allow for the full width overlay of the road and bike lane. FKAA is currently under contract for the construction of this project and has provided the cost for the additional paving, which the county will be responsible for reimbursing. The county will reimburse FKAA for $995,324 for the work. Assistant County Administrator Kevin Wilson said the repaving is from U.S. 1 to the three-way stop heading up to Ocean Reef. NEW LIBRARY IN MARATHON Commissioners gave approval to award a contract to the highest-ranked respondent, PedroFalcon Construction, to build a new Monroe County Library in Marathon. The contract total cost is $7,016,385. Construction will be paid for through the one-cent infrastructure sales tax. On Feb. 20, the county opened sealed responses to the request for proposals for construction. On March 4, a ranking committee meeting resulted in the award. As part of the Monroe County emissions reduction goal of 40 percent below 2012 by 2030, an alternate item for a solar voltaic panel system
Top: Commissioners hear a presentation from Helene Wetherington, county disaster recovery director, during a March 21 meeting inside the Murray Nelson Government & Cultural Center in Key Largo.