COVID recovery and a community health center topped the Key West City Commission discussions on Oct. 20.
Facilitator and mediator Elisa Levy presented the highlights of a recovery plan drafted by an 11-member COVID task force that considered both business and humanitarian impacts of the pandemic. The plan is a result of 20 roundtable discussions involving people from all areas of the community.
“We don’t have the luxury of time,” Levy reminded the commissioners, having thanked the city management for their eagerness and willingness to work toward solutions. “Unemployment has quadrupled since March and the chamber of commerce estimates that 3,000 workers could leave the Keys. As a comparison, 1,500 workers left after Hurricane Irma. And the need for food in our community has doubled.”
Levy pointed out that many businesses complained that the Tourist Development Council wasn’t marketing Key West as a safe destination, when in fact the agency had already been doing just that, Levy said, adding that an agreed-upon message for visitors states, “Glad you’re here. Play safe, mask up and enjoy Paradise.”
“So part of this was to increase the communication among businesses, the TDC and the city,” Levy said.
Business owners also repeatedly said they’d like the city to allow small, outdoor events. “So we’re now in the process of writing procedures and protocols for such events,” she said.
Space rental and parking assistance for the nightly Sunset Celebration is also being provided to help bring back one of the island’s most identifying attractions.
The business side of the pandemic was actually the easy part, Levy said. The humanitarian impacts shocked many members of the task force, particularly with regard to the number of Key West kids who don’t have enough food at home on weekends and holidays.
“The SOS mission food pantry is currently providing food to 13,000 people per month,” Levy said, which is up from about 6,000 per month prior to the pandemic. “And 52% of Key West students now qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches, which is based on household income. And food stamp requests have doubled in the past month because people are holding on by their fingertips.”
Kids in Key West need food on the weekends and holidays, the task force learned — and then came up with a plan.
Working with the school district as well as SOS, the city will establish a “backpack” program to send food home.
“There are 562 kids right here in Key West who don’t have enough food on weekends and holidays, and we’re going to fix that,” Levy said. “COVID brought all this to a head, but no one had the specific numbers about these issues before this. Now we have data that can prove the need.”
Housing security is also presenting more concern than ever, with residents worried about rent increases and evictions while considering leaving the Keys. Those concerns, in turn, worry business owners who already struggle to find and keep workers.
Levy ended her presentation with a bit of good news about CARES Act funding that’s being disbursed by Monroe County.
“The county granted Key West $315,000 for food assistance and $1 million for housing assistance,” she said, adding that multiple agencies are now working together to help the most people with the most dire needs.
“So what will change in the lives of our community members with this recovery plan?” Levy asked rhetorically before outlining four main goals: make tourists feel safe and welcome here; keep people in their homes; mitigate a mass exodus from the city; and ensure that no family lacks food.
The commission took no formal action on the COVID recovery plan.
CHI health center hits a delay:
Officials put the brakes on the new CHI community health center that’s planned for a section of the former, segregated Frederick Douglass School on Fort Street in Bahama Village. Despite support for the health center, Mayor Teri Johnston wanted to know how the city’s Historic Architectural Review Commission would have approved a complete replacement of a building that was deemed a “contributing,” or significant, structure as far back as the 1960s.
“You can’t get from a contributing structure to a brand new CHI building without a great deal of public input,” Johnston said when the commission was asked to approve a major development plan for the facility. “I’m concerned about that, quite frankly, and I’m concerned that our historic preservation officer isn’t here for this discussion. I’m uncomfortable enough with this to postpone the approval until we can hear from our historic preservation expert at our Nov. 4 meeting.”
The commission voted 3-2 to postpone the item, with Commissioners Clayton Lopez and Jimmy Weekley dissenting. Commissioners Billy Wardlow and Greg Davila were absent.
The city’s attempted ban of sunscreens containing octinoxate and oxybenzone, which are potentially harmful to the coral reef, got watered down by a new state law that prohibits such a ban.
The city’s ban ultimately passed in 2019 following contentious meetings that pitted protectors of the reef against dermatologists who said the ingredients are among the best for preventing skin cancer.
The state of Florida then passed a law that prevents cities and counties from regulating
sunscreen products, preempting the city’s ban, chief assistant city attorney Ron Ramsingh told the city commission.
Instead, the city voted unanimously and without discussion on Oct. 20 to ask retail outlets that sell sunscreen to “voluntarily place” a flyer at or near their sunscreen displays that warns customers about the dangers of sunscreen containing octinoxate and oxybenzone to the coral reef.
