This Week on the Island 06/22/2008

'This week on the Island' is written by Doug Bennett and is an update to friends about happenings in Key West last week. Everything is true except for those parts that are lies.----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The picture this week (click to enlarge) is 'Higgs Beach’. It belongs to the county but is in the Key West city limits. The city wants to take it from the county, but we the citizens passed a new law that does NOT allow the city to annex any new land without a vote from the citizens. The tables on the right are camp-out areas for the homeless. Key West would like to fence in the area and charge an admission to keep the homeless out.

The Weather: One of the things that I have never adjusted too is that our local weather station on TV is in Miami, 150 miles north. It is very hot there and rains a lot. So we watch the streets flooding in Miami while it is beautiful here.

The book this week was ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ by Anne Frank.

Juneteenth: http://www.juneteenth.com/ The celebration of the announcement of the end of slavery in the south.

The new courthouse building on the end of Fleming Street is almost ready to open. It was originally estimated to cost a little over $4 Million. The completion price is a little over $18 million. How would you love to have had that contract and retire on the profit after it was over?

A developer wants to build 46 work force housing apartments on the site of the old Plantains Restaurant on the end of Caroline Street. The city said it was only big enough for eight. More later.

The remodeled Rooftop Café on Front Street has reopened after the fire in February.

No Name Key has no electricity. They want it that way. It keeps developers out. If you need electricity you need a generator. The government has a big project to ‘sewer the Keys’. Now they are discussing how to get sewers on No Name without electricity.

The 12.5 mile ‘swim around Key West’ was held Friday with the winning time of almost 5 hours. (4:58:15).

The city demolished a house on Olivia Street to make room to enlarge the cemetery.

It looks like Monroe County will remain an ‘Area of Critical Concern’ to the state of Florida. To me this means that the state of Florida does not trust Monroe County and its buba system to control development without the state of Florida’s input.

Parrothead News: http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2008-06-17-parrotheads_N.htm?POE=click-refer

Key West, You have got to love it
'Living the life that others dream'
Doug Bennett
Lat 24.55967N, Long 81.80169W



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