Voter will be deciding "Shall Key West take over the County Beach from Monroe County?" or wording to that effect. It's something that is long overdue (imho), even if we had to pay for it. But this time it's gonna be free. The County apparently doesn't want to pay for the maintenance and upkeep.
Ay, there's the rub! The give-away comes at a time when the local government's proverbial chickens are coming home to roost. Already opponents are squawking about the cost.
The beach has been problematic over the years, because of the congregation of dirtbags there. As everyone knows, they have ruined it, except for a few holidays when the public overwhelms them.
Sure, dirtbags have rights, too, and it's un-Christian (and some say unconstitutional) to run them off. But the public also has rights. After all, we are all paying for it, directly or indirectly.
Someone floated the idea of charging a nominal fee for the use of the tables, and it sounds like a good solution to the problem. It's also a good way to raise a small amount of revenue.
There are ways of financing this thing, even in the face of the coming shrinkage in the tax base. And since seem to be so many groups who consider themselves "green," it might be nice if a few volunteers came forward to help keep the place clean. Not unheard of, worth a try. It's about time Key West did something for residents and regular people.
An Update
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This is Bob's daughter, Susan. In case there are still some visitors
following his blog, I wanted to share the sad news that our Dad passed away
on April 1...
1 year ago
1 comment:
I gotta laugh at the way this turned out. Other communities seem to go all out to provide parks, recreation facilities, greenways, for their own people. Key West passes up a good opportunity to get this beach for free, cheered on by a chorus of well-to-do elitists.
For an intelligent summary of this issue, see www.kwna.org and click on the Higgs Beach story (about 1/2way down on the left).
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