Love in paradise: Keys locals have small-town dating challenges, but reason to hope
Feb. 11, 2021 edition
When Keys Weekly asked locals what the dating scene is like, they kept repeating a popular saying: “In the Keys you don’t lose your girl, you just lose your turn.”
In other words, it’s slim pickin’s out there.
But don’t worry, singles: There is hope. We all need to remember that we are fortunate to live in paradise.
Christopher Massicotte, 45, told us, “I met my fiance in a hotel bar in Orlando, on March 6, just before lockdown. He is a flight attendant for American and was on a layover, and I was there for work. I invited him to come visit, and he never left. Nine months later, we were engaged. I proposed to him at the Dry Tortugas. But if it wasn’t for Key West, we wouldn’t be together. Someone asked him if I’d said, ‘I live in Columbus, Ohio,’ would he have come to visit, and he said, ‘Probably not.’”
Schools Super: Social distancing ‘has become a problem’
April 29, 2021, edition
At the April 27 Monroe County School District board meeting, Superintendent Theresa Axford announced that more than 100 Key West High School students have been quarantined in just the fourth week of the school district’s reopening to five days of in-person instruction.
“The social distancing at 3 feet, which is what we’re able to do now with more students returned to school, has become a problem when there is a positive case and contact tracing goes on,” she told the assembled board members. “There are 126 students who are out at Key West High School right now, not because they are positive for COVID but because of contact tracing.”
Aug. 12, 2021 edition
The Aug. 10 school board meeting saw at least a half-dozen emotional public speakers expressing their opinion — both pro and con — about a mask mandate, as well as board members under pressure to explain their thought processes before they voted and an impassioned plea from well-known pediatrician Stan Zuba to “defy the governor.”
In the end, the board unanimously approved a mask mandate for anyone on school property. An opt-out option will be made available for parents who sign an official document, a disclaimer prepared by the legal department.
FWC will exterminate iguanas caught in the wild without microchips after October
May 20, 2021 edition
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) announced in February that residents who currently keep iguanas as pets have to microchip the animals, apply for permits and cage them during a scheduled grace period.
As of April 29, pet owners have 90 days to apply for a no-cost permit and identify their pets with a microchip, and they must meet new outdoor caging requirements by Oct. 26, 2021. If iguanas are found chipless in the wild after Oct. 26, the circumstances are dire.
Key West man changed his life in Monroe County’s jail rehab
July 8, 2021, edition
“It’s been a heck of a long journey for me, and thanks to this program I feel like I found a missing piece of the puzzle. I just celebrated 32 months clean. I just turned 57. Since I was 19 years old, I haven’t had this much sobriety in my life,” said a participant in JIP, Monroe County’s Jail In-House Drug Abuse Treatment Program.
In a grant application for the program, Monroe County staff said the county has “drug abuse rates higher than both the state and national averages.”
Remembering Mike: A man with a heart and a will to tackle various causes
Sept. 16, 2021 edition
Blown-out windows from Hurricane Irma didn’t stop Mike Forster from opening his cafe to feed the many who responded to the disaster. A complete closure of the Keys to visitors during the early stages of the COVID-19 affected businesses and paychecks, propelling the Mangrove Mike’s Cafe owner to step up and help out in a time of need.
Ask Forster’s close friends what made him special to a tight-knit Upper Keys community, and they’ll say it was his heart.
County Commissioner Mike Forster died from COVID-19 on Sept. 6, 2021.
November 18, 2021 edition
So residents should keep an eye out in 2022 — maybe Vince Vaughn will be ordering a brew next to you at your favorite watering hole.
Monroe County commissioner Eddie Martinez resigns one week after domestic violence arrest
Dec. 7, 2021 at keysweekly.com
County Commissioner Eddie Martinez resigned from the commission a week after he was arrested in Miami following a domestic dispute.
Commissioner Holly Raschein said she’s grateful to Commissioner Martinez for sparing Monroe County the turmoil and doing the right thing by resigning. “I hope this incident reminds us all that domestic violence and substance abuse remains an endemic problem in our community and that we must redouble our efforts to address it,” she said. “I wish Eddie and his family the best in finding peace in their lives.”
