Heard on the Neighborhood Circuit
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
Citizen Staff
Monroe County Commissioner George Neugent's proposal to enact a 1-cent sales tax for
sewer projects is gaining momentum.
On Thursday night, the Islamorada Village Council gave its support for Neugent to continue
researching the matter and to lobby the city of Key West and other cities for support.
"I think the idea is definitely intriguing," Islamorada Councilman Michael Reckwerdt said. "It
shows promise. I like it a whole lot more than dumping [the expense] on our property-tax
payers."
The City Council in Layton, which already is connected to a central sewer system, also
supports Neugent's plan.
"The city of Layton is environmentally aware," Mayor Norman Anderson said. "The only
way to get clean waters is to sewer the Keys. We are behind it and we support him. It's a
great idea."
The mayor of Key Colony Beach, which also has its own sewer system, told Neugent he
would bring it before his council and seemed optimistic that the group would support it,
Neugent said. The county commissioner now is working on getting his proposal before a
special meeting of the Marathon City Council on Tuesday.
Neugent plans to meet with Key West City Manager Jim Scholl on Wednesday to discuss the
proposal.
Shoppers in the Keys already pay 7.5 cents in sales tax — 6 cents in state tax and 1.5 cents
in local sales tax. Neugent, who first proposed his idea last summer, wants state Rep. Ron
Saunders to lobby fellow legislators for legislation that would enable the tax proposal to go
before Keys voters this fall.
Saunders has said the proposal might be premature — he is waiting to see how legislators
respond to his request that the state float a bond for Keys sewer projects. The Keys are
facing a state mandate that the county be connected to advanced wastewater treatment
systems by 2010.
State Rep. Stan Mayfield, chairman of the House Environment & Natural Resources
Council, has asked county government to serve as lead agency in coordinating Keys
wastewater projects as part of the $350 million bond proposal.
"It's certainly a positive to know the residents and elected officials are attentive to what
potentially could happen if Rep. Mayfield's bond issue does not go through," Neugent said.
"This would be Plan B. This will be voted on by the residents. This isn't something elected
officials are trying to cram down their throats."
Once upon a time there was a sleepy little fishing village in the Keys. Just a few mom-and-
pop motels, three or four local eateries, some quaint little Conch houses scattered around
the island, and the nearshore waters were pure and clean. Small but efficient campgrounds
and mobile home parks provided clean, comfortable and affordable living for the work
force, and the snowbirds.
In the summer months after the tourists had retreated back up north, the locals would kick
back and enjoy the fruits of their hard-earned winter earnings, resting up for the next
season and the rewards it would surely bring.
Then along came the mega-hotels, high-end resorts and marinas, fast-food restaurants, the
grocery store chains, department store chains, and along with all that, more people. More
people needed for the many jobs now available, more tourists sucked down to the Keys by
the TDC to support this influx of modernization, and more pressure heaped upon the
sewer system and the already too fragile eco-system. As a result, up went the cost of living
and down went the very qualities that made that little village unique to locals and visitors
alike.
The campgrounds and the mobile home parks had become about as rare as a Miami
Dolphin victory, and the work force had to scramble to find housing — and when they did
they had to work two or three jobs to afford it. (Maybe that was the idea behind it all.
Make them have to work two or three jobs, and we will only need a third of the normal
work force.)
Larger schools were being built, while student registration was declining, due to the fact
that the parents couldn't afford to live there, nor could the teachers. The developers
wanted to develop more and the local officials seemed powerless to stop them, or were
unwilling to do so. As a result, more condos, high-end resorts and marinas permeated the
area.
What once used to be that sleepy little fishing village has now become what it is today, and
yet they still continue to build, and spend thousands upon thousands to lure even more
tourists down to support the so-called progress that we didn't want or need in the first
place.
Of course this is only a fairy tale, but the moral of the story is, my friends, "You can only
put so much air in a balloon before it eventually blows."
Dave Scott, Marathon
12–7-07
