Public-private partnership looks to to clean up “worse areas” in Key West

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

Buoyed by the success of a street sign repainting project led by volunteers and assisted by city staff, Key West Mayor Teri Johnston has created a Mayor’s Beautification Committee to identify 10 “hot spots” around town that need cleaning, landscaping or other types of improvement.

About 25 members of the committee took a trolley ride around the city Aug. 15 to look at several of the locations they had identified as needing the most help. Committee members will now pick their top three projects to prioritize a list of locations that will be the first to be tackled by a private-public partnership between residents, the business committee and city staff.

“We all have to take responsibility when it comes to how our town is maintained,” said Kim Romano, executive assistant to Mayor Johnston and city commissioners, who helped organize the trolley tour. “We need help from citizens. And we hope the businesses will help out for projects along Duval Street.”

Some of the areas that committee members asked to be considered are no surprise, including Mallory Square and the Triangle entrance into Key West, both looking unkept and unwelcoming. But there is a plethora of other suggestions, as well, such as landscaping the median along Flagler Avenue, power-washing sidewalks on Duval Street, picking up garbage around the pedestrian bridge across the 9th Street canal, excessive signage around town, and reducing the 491 newspaper stands currently on Duval.

“The police told us people are using them as coolers. They put ice and beer in them at night. Isn’t that ridiculous,” Romano said.

The Beautification Committee came out of an idea presented to Johnston by former Fantasy Fest King Stephen Sunday, who led a similar public-private partnership in Palm Beach, Fla. Sunday is the chairman of the new committee and was on the trolley tour. So were several City Hall staffers, including Assistant City Manager Greg Veliz. Johnston said the goal is to create a “better, cleaner community.”

“I have a list of about 30 projects. But it shouldn’t be me that decides. It should be the community,” she said, adding, “People really do want to contribute. They want to help.”

The next step will be for the Beautification Committee to prioritize the multiple “hot spot” suggestions, including planning and possible sources for funding. The city will contribute what it can in terms of money and staff but Johnston is also hoping for grants and contributions from local business owners. George Fernandez, a committee member and chief operating officer of the Key West Butterfly & Nature Conservatory, said he is willing to pitch in and that he and other business owners need to take responsibility. His top three priorities are sprucing up the Triangle, including installing a “welcome message” for people driving onto the island; adding more landscaping to Mallory Square; and planting salt-tolerant foliage on both sides of the street surrounding the Southernmost Point buoy.

“Let’s look at the issue of maintenance. You can do these beautiful gardens and beautiful spaces but you have to maintain them,” Fernandez said. “It’s for us to do the job. We can’t continue to throw this back in [the city’s] lap. They have limitations.”

Romano agreed.

“The complaint we hear is, ‘we pay taxes. Why isn’t the city doing this?’ But there’s just never enough staff to do everything that has to be done. They can’t be everywhere all the time. It has to be a public-private partnership,” she said.

“It’s our chance to shine,” Fernandez said. “Let’s not drop the ball.”

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