Monroe County Mayor Michelle Coldiron officially handed over her gavel to Commissioner David Rice at the Nov. 17 county board meeting, making him the new mayor. The gathering included a presentation about COVID-19 with positive news from the county’s Emergency Management division and the Florida Department of Health.
Also: Sustainability director Rhonda Haag announced a $2.7 billion plan from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to reduce the county’s coastal storm risk vulnerability.
Per a Monroe County press release, the commissioners choose the mayor designee based on a majority vote. A mayor pro tem is also designated to fill in when the mayor is unavailable. The board chose Commissioner Craig Cates to serve as mayor pro tem.
The mayor presides over the Board of County Commissioners meetings and serves as the Monroe County representative at ceremonial occasions. The mayor is also responsible for signing and co-signing documents with the County Clerk.
The board expressed its gratitude to Coldiron for her service.
“This year as our mayor, Michelle Coldiron has gone above and beyond to a point that I’m certainly going to be an anti-climax,” said Rice. “Because she’s everywhere, all the time, over and over, whether it’s going to Tallahassee or driving to Miami for meetings. … I’ve never seen anybody work as hard as Michelle.”
“I’ve learned a lot from you, and I’m proud to serve with you,” Commissioner Eddie Martinez said to Coldiron.
The news was bright from Bob Eadie of the Florida Department of Health and Shannon Weiner of Monroe County Emergency Management regarding COVID-19. The amount of new infection in the county is considered to be low. Weiner said the seven-day average for daily positive new cases is 11.
Eadie also pointed out an emerging opinion about COVID-19: It’s here to stay, and we just have to learn how to manage it.
He said, “For our residents, there’s a high degree of immunity because of our vaccinations and because of natural immunity developed from natural infections. I think the opinion is coming our way scientifically, too, that trying to get to zero COVID cases is not going to be very successful. There are countries who are really trying it, like China. It’s just very hard to do. And I doubt we’d be able to do that here. And the reason being is there’s still active spots of infection here. … It seems like COVID is going to be endemic rather than pandemic. It’ll be endemic, and it’ll be throughout the world. And we’ll learn to live with it and figure out how to do that.”
Haag presented the proposed federal plan to reduce the area’s vulnerability to coastal storms. In September, the Department of the Army authorized the Florida Keys Coastal Storm Risk Management Project, which was subsequently submitted to Congress. The next step is for Congress to make a Recommended Plan. If this plan is authorized and funds are appropriated, the federal government would pay for 65% of the total project cost. The county and the municipalities would be responsible for 35%, which could come from residential, local and state funds.
The proposed numbers: federal funding would be $1,802,033,000, while $970,326,000 would have to be contributed by the county, municipalities and the state. In total, the USACE project would cost $2.7 billion, if approved.
The next steps? Haag said it needs Congressional authorization for construction, then project appropriations. Possible projects include: six retaining walls along the shoreline of U.S. 1, residential home elevations, commercial property floodproofing and critical infrastructure floodproofing.
There was no formal action, but the board indicated Haag should continue to pursue the next steps in the USACE project.
