To read the papers, the sewer issues in Marathon look pretty grim. The city has selected a new in-house attorney who seems very qualified. The list of candidates for city manager has been narrowed down to five. Again all seem experienced and well qualified. Whoever the new city manager is, he or she will need to have a strong background in utility management. I went to FDEP’s Oculus database in an attempt to figure out what’s going on with Marathon’s wastewater system. Continue reading
RESTORE Act Multi-Year Implementation Plan
Heads up. Monroe County has posted its Multi-Year Implementation Plan as required to receive RESTORE Act money. This is money that is available from fines paid by BP as a result of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. The document is up until August 31 for public review and comment.
I’ll be taking a close look. Hope you will, too.
Posted in BOCC, Bubba System, Canal Restoration, Monroe County
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Acevedo – More From the Public
There are a couple more letters from the public about the Acevedo situation.
Here’s one from Kay Thacker, who asks:
Why would Monroe County School Board members even consider Randy Acevedo for this position as an assistant football coach at Key West High School to our vulnerable students, especially after he looked the other way while his wife virtually looted the school system, even stealing the cookie money raised by the children?
Am I Hallucinating Or Is the Paving Project Still Looking Good?
I was checking out the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) agenda for today’s meeting. I was pleasantly surprised. There are two items for a paving project in Key Largo. It looks like Monroe County may actually be following its paving plan, which seems to be fair, objective and properly done. If so, this is quite a departure from the old way which made a complete disaster of the wastewater projects. I won’t get my hopes up just yet. There are just too many unresolved problems from the wastewater fiasco and Key Largo is still suffering the effects of that. Even so, the paving project is looking good so far.
Here are links to the items:
Item C33 – Lake Surprise Estates Roadway and Drainage, $2.7 million.
Item C34 – Construction and Inspection Services for Lake Surprise Estates, $264,322.
There’s not enough information included in the back-up documentation to see how the bid price compares with the project estimate. I’ll see what I can find out.
Bottom line: If the county can get paving right, they can get the wastewater project right. It’s not too late to repair some of the damage.
Posted in BOCC, Bubba System, Key Largo's contribution, Monroe County, Paving
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The Blue Paper – Acevedo and FKAA
In my post about Acevedo, I said:
I’m in no position to judge if this was the bubba system at work or if he was truly the most qualified applicant.
Subsequent to that I ran across this story in The Blue Paper. Definitely worth a read.
Posted in Bubba System, FKAA
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Real Poop Reads the Papers and Chuckles
Update: Oh noooo! The outstanding YouTube video I originally linked to is gone. Drat. It was one of the funniest things on the internet. Ah well. I’m on the hunt for a decent substitute.
John Prosser’s letter to the editor was also published on KeysNet.com, and there are some interesting comments. There’s one comment about substituting incinolets for the central sewer system. An incinolet burns the waste right there in the toilet. It’s typically used in very remote areas. My family owns an isolated property in Canada, and we actually considered buying an incinolet until we came across this hilarious YouTube video. Watch all the way to the end. Then imagine 8,000 or so incinolets burning poop every day throughout the Lower Keys.
Real Poop Reads the Papers – Acevedo
I’m pretty well caught up on my Keys news after a week or two off. This editorial about Randy Acevedo on KeysNet.com is the last one I wanted to discuss. I like it because it’s a little more nuanced than the usual discussion of the topic. Comments seem to fall into two camps. The “move on, he’s paid his debt to society” camp and the “he should never show his face in the Keys ever again” camp. Continue reading
Posted in Bubba System, FKAA, School District
Tagged Florida Keys, Monroe County, schools
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Real Poop Reads the Papers – Key Largo Fish Kill
Still catching up on my reading. I saw this one on KeysNet.com: Key Largo Canals Suffering a Fish Kill. Continue reading
Posted in Wastewater
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Real Poop Reads the Papers – Cudjoe Regional
I’ve been out running around, having fun the past week or so. I haven’t been paying much attention to newspapers. I’m back today, catching up.
The first one is a letter about the sad, pitiful state of the Cudjoe Regional wastewater project – $190 million worth of drama. Continue reading
Posted in Cudjoe Regional, FKAA, Wastewater
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Real Poop Look Ahead – The Future of Key Largo
I started this blog because I love Key Largo. The wastewater funding disparity really opened my eyes to how things work in Monroe County. Generally, Key Largo is under-served across the board – animal shelters, parks and more. The wastewater project just happens to have the highest price tag. The saddest part is that the county has the resources to provide services in a fair and reasonable way. They simply choose not to. They don’t have the financial discipline to keep their spending under control and Key Largo pays the price for that. Continue reading
The Real Poop 