Florida Keys Day No Picnic For City Officials

 

By Pru Sowers

 

It wasn’t all fun, games and key lime pie for city officials at last week’s annual Florida Keys Day at the state capitol.

 

 

Mayor Craig Cates and City Manager Bob Vitas held three high-level meetings during the one-day event in Tallahassee on Tuesday where, according to Cates, they came away believing solid progress had been made on at least two issues: A possible new location for the Key West overnight homeless shelter and a new entrance for Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park.

 

 

City and county commissioners have been working together to find a new location for the Keys Overnight Temporary Shelter (KOTS), which provides a bed and shower for approximately 180 people a night. Homeowners at the nearby Sunset Marina previously won a lawsuit ordering the city to find a new site for the shelter, a move supported by Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay who has said he no longer wants to provide maintenance and security for the facility.

 

 

While a joint meeting between city and county commissioners two weeks ago focused on the former Easter Seals building on College Road as a possible new location, the existing Monroe Juvenile Detention Center building, also located on College Road, was discussed as well. However, county commissioners didn’t think that facility was a likely candidate.

 

 

Cates and Vitas met with Christy Daly, deputy secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, during Florida Keys Day to see if a case could be made at the state level for repurposing the building. Cates said the first impression was positive.

 

 

“They wanted to know the details of what we wanted to do. They’re going back to staff to see if it will be possible,” Cates said. “They’re going to get back to us on Friday.”

 

 

Cates and Vitas held two other meetings during Florida Keys Day, one a status update on the North Roosevelt Blvd. construction project with Florida State Secretary of Transportation Ananth Prasad, and another with officials from the state parks and recreation department about a new entrance to Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park. With the final design of the proposed development of the Truman Waterfront Park up for approval by city commissioners next week, city officials have been meeting with state parks officials about the impact on the project on Ft. Zachary Taylor’s current entrance.

 

 

Cates said both groups enthusiastically embraced a concept for a new park entrance that moves it down to the Mole and which would be accessed off of a planned new street roundabout. The current entrance road into the park would be eliminated, he said.

 

 

“We’ve been meeting for three years to coordinate this,” Cates said. “It’s all coming together.”

 

 

Approximately 150 Florida Keys legislators, officials and business owners attended Florida Keys Day, where they had a chance to meet state lawmakers and their staff, gathering information or lobbying for their particular cause at a series of meetings, which ended with a dinner reception where attendees were served a 1,000-pound key lime pie for dessert. Cates said he and Vitas were also there to support FIRM (Fair Insurance Rates for Monroe), the county advocacy group fighting against recent hikes in residential and commercial insurance rates.

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