BOCC Approves Naming Marathon Airport Customs Facility Wing After Dick Ramsay

MARTAHON – The Monroe County Board of County Commissioners approved naming the U.S. Customs facility wing at the Florida Keys Marathon International Airport in honor of the late Marathon community leader Dick Ramsay.

Ramsay, a resident of Marathon since the 1970s and the former mayor of the city, was a driving force behind the customs facility project.

“Over more than the last five years, Dick and I worked together to bring this project to the Middle Keys,” Monroe County Commissioner David Rice said at the Wednesday BOCC meeting that was attended by many members of Ramsay’s family. “For those of you who have not worked with the federal government before … you have no concept to the detail and endless work that is involved.”

Rice said he could not remember one meeting that Ramsay did not attend.

Both men are pilots and both thought a customs facility would be good for the economy of the Middle Keys. On April 20, their vision and dedication paid off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the $1.64 million, 4,200-square-foot, state-of-the art facility.

On June 2, Ramsay died.

“It doesn’t seem fair to me that after all those year of work, Dick never got to clear customs there,” Rice said. “But, I suppose, it only underlines the fact that he did it for his community and the Keys. … Dick just loved that airport.”

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