I read through Monroe County’s Pavement Analysis Report dated February 3, 2014.  It actually looks like they made an honest effort to evaluate the roads using relevant and objective criteria.  If they actually organize the project in accordance with the findings of the report, the roads in the unincorporated area might be repaired in a fair, reasonable, cost-effective manner.  Is this a sign of intelligent life?

Now here comes the inevitable “buzz kill”.  The Sanitary Wastewater Master Plan was also a good, solid, thorough report.  It was a very useful guidance document for those entities who chose to use it as such.  Unfortunately, in spite of this well done (and expensive) report the county’s wastewater projects went downhill pretty quickly.  Maybe if the public is watching, especially the Key Largo public, the county will be more inclined to keep the road improvement project on course.  Based on their track record, the county does not have the financial self-discipline to stay within budget on any large capital improvement project.  As soon as they get in over their heads they will make up the difference by cutting projects in Key Largo.  The end result is that Key Largo citizens will once again be paying the county for services, it does NOT receive.

Let’s dig into Appendix B of the report.  The table below compares the amount to be spent on paving in each wastewater service area.  About $11 million will be spent in the Cudjoe Regional area, and $5.2 million will be spent in the Key Largo area.  As a sanity check, there are about 1 million linear feet of roads in the Cudjoe Regional area and 670,500 in Key Largo.  The spending ratio looks roughly correct.

Another question is how long will Key Largo have to wait compared to other areas?  This measure actually looks okay, too.  According to the report, the paving project will take five years.  About half of the Key Largo paving projects will be completed in Years 1 and 2 – similar to the Cudjoe Regional area.

If the county sticks to their plan, it looks like Key Largo will get a fair shake on the paving projects.  It’ll be great if it actually happens.