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There is a more news from the blackboard jungle wing of state mental – Florida Keys and beyond post today at goodmorningfloridakeys.com.
Meanwhile, down the Key West wing way …
Recently in The Key West Citizen:
Time to move forward on the waterfront park
It’s time to stop throwing around the mindless mantra “economic engine” for the Truman Waterfront. The marina was never intended to be the sole economic engine for that project. The economic benefit as outlined in the transfer agreement was intended to be for Bahama Village, the 6.2 acres that Commissioner Lopez keeps referring to.
The marina may have been an economic disaster if not successful, considering the state of our present city-owned marinas, which are not moneymakers. Logically, expending millions of dollars on a marina and retiring the debt could take decades, so how does that produce revenue for the city to build a park?
The mole cruise-ship income provides revenue. The TDC has funding available for the park. The infrastructure sales tax produces millions, some of which can be used. Instead of complaining about something that “might be,” let’s thank the Navy for giving us a $100 million piece of property for a park.
As the Spottswood group says, let’s move on and build a first class park for all. Let’s move forward aggressively and get the park done after all these years. As the Key West Citizen stated in their editorial “you snooze, you lose.” There will be a park at the waterfront and it will have a great view, even without a marina.
Bill Verge
Key West
Editor’s note: Mr. Verge is executive director of the USCGC Ingham Maritime Museum, which is moored at the Truman Waterfront
Bill Verge, along with Father Stephen Braddock, asked me to run for mayor of Key West in 2003, and paid the filing fee because I was broke and could not pay it. I was a client of and living in Florida Keys Outreach Coalition’s shelter on Patterson Avenue, in Key West. At that time, Bill was on the Key West Planning Board. Later, he became a City Commissioner.
Based on my recollection, and two later runs for mayor, and attending a lot of city commission meetings and reading a lot of articles in The Key West Citizen, Bill’s letter is factually accurate about Truman Waterfront.
However, I would add, that the Spottswoods built Beachside, at the key where US 1 meets Key West. I told the City Commission it was not a good idea.
As I recall, the plan was to sell the units as transient condo rentals. That didn’t pan out, and eventually Beachside became another hotel the city didn’t need, based on the cries from the city’s lodging industry about needing more tourists to fill empty rooms. I heard from someone who was in the know, that the Spottswoods eventually walked away from the note owed to the lending bank for the project, and stuck their “silent partner” Ed Knight with it.
That was known to the City Commission, when it allowed the Spottswoods to tie up the marina at Truman Waterfront for several years, while they tried to put together a mega-yacht marina there, using Tourist Development Council funds, and anyone else’s funds they could beg or borrow, without putting up their own funds, or going personally on the loans.
I thought it was a great blessing when the mega-yacht deal didn’t work out, and I thought it was a great blessing when the Navy recently took back the marina altogether; a blessing that saved the City gobs of money in a failed co-venture deal with the Spottswoods, who would get the marina for nothing, and then the City would be left holding the bag after the mega-yacht marina got built then beach-sided and the Spottswoods walked away, again.
Bahama Village not working out was a major disappointment, but perhaps another great disaster was avoided, given how that part of it ended up going, which was a minor disaster nonetheless.
The give away of even more Truman Waterfront land for an elders “assisted living” facility also didn’t work out, because no developer could be found who would do it so that it was affordable for Key West seniors who were not millionaires, even though the city was going to give the land for the deal and getting nothing back. There also was the reluctance of one developer to accept a 50-year free lease, instead of a 99-year lease, which coincided with it being learned that the developer had a serious skeleton or two in his good manners and honest dealings closet, which luckily came light and gave him good cause to tuck tail and flee under the guise of not being able to work out a viable business deal.
The real problem with the elder facility though, beside it being a cheap, in millionaire terms, waterfront retirement home, was it was known all along that there were not enough rich elders in Key West to fill the facility, and it was going to be marketed and units sold to people living up the Keys, and on the mainland, and in foreign countries; and all of that was going to be subsidized by the free land which belonged to the citizens of Key West, who would get nothing back for it. I kept saying the deal should not happen, if it was not restricted to Key West citizens, since it was Key West land, and for saying that, I was accused of hating old people.
I have to wonder what’s going to happen to the Mohawk, now that the Navy wants the marina for itself.
And, I have to wonder where Bill Verge got the notion that the City is making money off cruise ships docking on the Outer Mole. My understanding is, what part of the cruise ship passenger disembarking fees the City does get is spent on taking care of the Outer Mole, keeping it clean, keeping it repaired, etc.
I say again, Truman Waterfront is where they should put the new city hall, and let Key West citizens use the rest of the land to build community gardens and grow fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers there. Such a park would cost the City only the water used for irrigation. Such a city hall would cost what it is supposed to cost, and the down the road maintenance would be less, maybe a lot less, than a rebuilt very old school.
This ain’t entirely fool on Little Torch speculation. Consider Sunday’s Editorial in The Key West Citizen:
Don’t leave taxpayers with the ‘wish list’ tab
The city of Key West recently itemized five major construction projects that add up to about $100 million.
They include the Truman Waterfront Park, converting Glynn Archer Elementary School into City Hall, the restoration of Frederick Douglass Gym in Bahama Village, constructing a fire station on Angela Street and a new transportation center on Stock Island.
Other projects, either ongoing or listed on various “wish lists,” include but are not limited to a round-the-clock homeless shelter on Stock Island, various park projects including re-nourishment of Rest and Smathers beaches, installing a wireless network and video surveillance throughout the city, restoration of high-traffic tourist areas and a face-lift for the Historic Seaport harbor walk.
The city’s shopping list is long, but its credit card and bank accounts are a bit thin.
To date, just a fraction of the estimated $50 million needed to construct the Truman Waterfront Park has been set aside. City officials are also seeking sources to aid in funding the estimated $18 million to $21 million to convert Glynn Archer Elementary School into City Hall.
Funding, all or in part, has been identified for some of the smaller projects, such as the restoration of Frederick Douglass Gym, which is being bankrolled by $1 million from the sale of the Pier House property. Others, such as beach restoration, will be funded in part by Tourist Development Council funds.
Recognizing the financial magnitude and complexity of these projects, City Manager Bob Vitas is seeking to assign project managers to each. The goal for his approach is “don’t make mistakes along the way or spend money needlessly.”
That’s music to our ears. This approach, though an additional cost in itself, may turn out to be a wise investment and ultimately pay for itself. (Of course, that carries the caveat that the new “project managers” don’t become permanent positions after the projects are completed.)
One need not go any further than to review the missteps of the yet-to-be built new fire station on Angela Street.
Residents initially were told the fire station would cost $4 million; it has now grown closer to $6 million. They were also told that moving City Hall to the Glynn Archer building would provide at least 100 revenue-producing parking spaces on the Angela site — that number has dwindled to 70.
Let’s not forget, as a cost-saving measure, a new $18 million combination fire station/City Hall on Angela was scrapped to renovate Glynn Archer Elementary School, resulting in about $6 million to $10 million in added costs — not much of a cost-saving measure.
Vitas appears to understand something that has been almost a foreign language in past city budgets — ongoing maintenance costs of facilities and how to identify sources to pay for them.
For example, Vitas was quick to state that the recent loss of the envisioned marina, the economic engine of the Truman Waterfront Park, needs to be replaced by other revenue-generating sources.
He indicated revenue sources could include a waterfront restaurant, the amphitheater and the cruise ship dockage fees from the Outer Mole Pier. This, of course, assumes a favorable outcome of current Outer Mole lease negotiations with the Navy.
Vitas said sourcing the ongoing park’s maintenance funds is a delicate balancing act, and he is reluctant to recommend tapping into the city’s general fund to support it.
Only time will tell if he can corral all the moving pieces in this park’s puzzle so as to make a world-class facility that is as self-sustaining as possible.
This same approach of identifying and securing ongoing maintenance funds for all projects on the table is key to transparently projecting possible increases in ad valorem taxes.
New facilities, parks and so forth are great when planned and paid for in a transparent fashion with minimum strain on residents’ budgets.
The last thing residents need is a tax smack-down just as they are slowly recovering from the lingering effects of the Great Recession.
The city of Key West recently itemized five major construction projects that add up to about $100 million.
They include the Truman Waterfront Park, converting Glynn Archer Elementary School into City Hall, the restoration of Frederick Douglass Gym in Bahama Village, constructing a fire station on Angela Street and a new transportation center on Stock Island.
-The Citizen
Looks like plenty of fodder there for my pen, for years to come. Looks like a wing of the State Mental, don’t it? I’m still wondering if the Navy ever got rid off all those pockets of highly toxic wastes it buried on Truman Waterfront back a few decades.
Sloan Bashinsky
keysmyhome@hotmail.com