Lots of great stuff in the Free Press and KeysNews today.

Sewer meeting tries to dispel tension.  Looks like the Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District Board is getting over “attorney-gate”.  Back to business.  Some discussion of the staffing issues.  I still think they’re cutting it very close, but not my decision to make.  At least the board has paid a bit of attention to the matter which, unlike the $850 attorney bill, is critical to the core business.

There were also a few letters in the Free Press.  Unfortunately, articles and letters that appear in the Free Press poof away when the new issue comes out the following week.  So I’m going to provide a link, but be aware it won’t be any good next week.

Wastewater commissioner Robby Majeska wrote a letter to address some concerns expressed by Carolyn Holmes .

Yes, it is true that Key Largo homeowners and businesses had to contribute more toward the building of our wastewater treatment than other areas in the Keys. That is because all other areas were heavily subsidized by Monroe County sales tax revenue. The Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District has no access to this pot of money. This money is distributed by Monroe County commissioners. So, even though we built a more cost-effective system, we had to borrow money to build it.

All true.  Not much to be done at this point, except to make a lot of noise.  It worked for Cudjoe Regional.  No reason it can’t work for Key Largo, too.

The KLWTD commissioners are constantly trying to pay down this $58 million debt. Any way we can save money is being put toward paying down this debt. If we can find a less expensive way to run part of our operations, isn’t that something we should look into?

Very true.  The District has pursued federal money and state money.  They secured an interlocal with Islamorada.  With the kind of money we’re talking about nothing can be off the table, including outsourcing to an operations company.  In my opinion, the ultimate goal should be providing financial relief to the ratepayers.  The debt has to be reduced so that can happen.

There’s my letter about Comm. Murphy’s comments.  Love the title they put on it, “Sewer assessment gobbledygook”.

And there’s a letter from N.J. Marinaro about help for transportation-disadvantaged people in the Keys.  This one, to me, really puts the whole problem into perspective.  The citizens of Key Largo have a county government that does not care about them.  As far as Monroe County is concerned, Key Largo is nothing more than an ATM machine.

I have to agree with some of the comments Robby Majeska made in last week’s Free Press. In the past year I have contacted Monroe County Commissioner Sylvia Murphy to get assistance for transportation-disadvantaged residents in the Keys. There is supposed to be a service but rules were changed. I contacted Murphy and the entire Monroe County Commission and got no response. It seems that this marginalized population is too small to help.

As a volunteer driver for the American Cancer Society and Good Health Clinic I have the opportunity to talk to people for whom transportation is truly a life or death issue. Many have stated they have contacted their representative and have had no support. I think Robby’s comments can actually apply to the entire county commission.

It fries my bacon that the county commissioners can’t even be bothered to respond to the constituents’ concerns.  I’m sad to say this is very typical.  It’s how they roll.  They ignored the animal shelter issue, too.

Kolhage is busy looking down on Key Largo from Mount Bernstein wondering why the peasants up there “need” a park.  According to Kolhage-logic, parks are only truly needed in the Lower Keys.

Carruthers is moving on to the next big project, light rail.  Busy, busy.  Spendy, spendy.  People to tax.  Money to spend.

Murphy…ugh…I regret writing those (sort of) nice things I said here.  What was I thinking?  Read this one instead.

Neugent and Rice are the least bad of the five, but that’s not saying much.

There’s an election coming in 2016.  Murphy, Kolhage and Carruthers are up.  Their actions show us who they really are.  And it’s not pretty.  Majeska has filed to run against Murphy.  Kolhage and Carruthers have no challengers yet.  It’s still very early though.  Citizens county-wide need fair-minded candidates who can spend smart.