Tuesday, February 7, 2017

[No More Community Hospital] Fishermen’s Community Hospital in Marathon sells out to Baptist Health South Florida on June 30. The nonprofit Middle Keys hospital, with 25 beds and 161 employees, this week signed an affiliation agreement with the South Florida healthcare giant that already operates Mariners Hospital in Tavernier, as well as six hospitals in Miami-Dade County and a host of outpatient medical centers throughout South Florida.

If you are looking for good tasting dark beers I recommend Sessions Black (Big Pine Winn Dixie in the not refrigerated beer isle) Link

What gives with the trucks and cars running around the airport with unlawful mufflers at all times of day or night? If you have to rev you drag racer motors please take it out of the hanger so the sound isn’t amplified 10 times over.

Control your barking and yelping dogs, the barking starts at daybreak and doesn’t end until after midnight. Have you ever heard about barking collars? Or simply telling your dogs to shut up?

On top of all of this, there are people actually living in the open hanger bay of one of the airport homes. The last thing we need to see is on our morning or evening walks are people walking around in the open hanger in their pajamas living in it like it was there bedroom. It’s just plan unsanitary and revolting. For god’s sake, people, have a little class and move out of the hanger and back to where you came from.

If this trend continues, property values around the airport are heading in one direction — down.

For Sale: Two (2) tickets to Travis Tritt concert on February 24, 2017 at Tennessee Williams Theatre. Orchestra Center G-114 and G-115. Paid $157.00 – will sell both tickets for $150.00 cash. Call 678-524-5142. This concert is almost sold out.

As a result, there is no District maintained mechanism for storing text messages that might be involved with District operations.  Consequently, Public Records Requests for text messages can be difficult, if not impossible, as it would require access to private accounts and foreknowledge of an exchange.

This is the reverse of the District maintained email system for which all of you have an account, though often laxly used.  All emails sent or received by you on your District account are stored by the District and available for Public Records Requests.

When I raised earlier the issue of using text messages to conduct District business, I was assured that that is never done.  When I asked about texting during Board meetings, visible on television, I was assured that such texting was in response to family members or to the public complaining about television reception, never District business.

Given the above, you can imagine my surprise this morning when I read in the Citizen a comment by Board member Andy Griffiths stating that he and other Board members had received a “heads-up” about the sexting issue at HOB from Superintendent Porter “via a group text message to board members.”  Such informational exchange certainly sounds to me like the conduct of District business via text messages.  That there is a “group text message” system further concerns me.

I hope that the decision to use a text message to communicate on such an important matter as opposed to the more commonly used email was not done to avoid creating an accessible public record.  I also hope that this is a singular act, not the latest in a series perhaps of text messages as a way to communicate without a record.

Because all of you were involved in sending or receiving the text message regarding sexting at HOB, I am making a formal Public Records Request for a copy of that text message as well as any response or follow-up that may have been sent to or by the superintendent or another Board member.  I am also requesting copies of any and all text messages exchanged by the superintendent with members of the Board or messages exchanged by Board members within that community since January 1, 2017

No matter what you think, this is not Photoshopped. It’s “alternative facts.”

When Joe Schmoe, the taxpayer, goes to this building department, the initial encounter starts the wheels of injustice. If the first person you met likes you or your project, things may go smoothly until you meet another department head or person and then if they like you or your project, it may continue to progress until reviews are done and changes are required. This is the place where it gets sticky. Many times, their required changes are not code but their own rules, it may be a big thing or it may be a small thing but if you resist then things start to go bad.

This can take many forms, they can lose your paperwork; they can ignore you for months, that is if you don’t know the county code; they can dig up a rule that no one has heard of; or their favorite is “that’s not code, that is our rule and if you want this approved, you will follow it.”; they can refuse to allow contractors or workers on your job; they can make it very difficult for contractors to get approved, to a point that they say they will never work in Monroe County again; they always find something in the paperwork that needs redone.

Remember, they make the rules as they go and why not, they have never been held accountable for anything. The Monroe County Building department is in such a state of confusion, they can’t keep help so the high turnover lends itself to the new guys’ rule which means more uncertainty.

The fact is that many contractors will not work in the county. If they do, they charge a premium to deal with county antics. The public knows that doing the right thing and getting permits for a project, most likely will cost you enormous amounts of time, money, frustration, sanity and in many cases the right to do what you are legally entitled to only to have Monroe County immerse you into a quagmire of bureaucracy, fake rules intended to deter your will or ability to proceed. The commissioners know of this problem but are impotent to correct the insanity.

Yes, the county makes the rules up every day which precludes equal treatment, continuity and efficiency for Monroe County workers and the public. I have experienced this first hand and for years I have discussed this with hundreds of other contractors and taxpayers. The current commission refuses to correct the insanity so far.

Maybe the Oceanside scandal will make heads roll or it will be business as usual. I wish The Blue Paper would reach out to folks that have endured my experience and start a movement to drain the swamp. Folks like me will contribute but like me, will want anonymity because of the over-reaching, unbridled power of the Monroe County Building Department to stop you in your tracks.

HELP! You only know this travesty if you try to work with the county and you don’t have a bond or a friend or project that is liked by Monroe Building department. It should be noted that a powerful attorney helps change their attitude also.

Bum Farto was the drug smuggling Key West Fire Chief. If you’re a newbie, find an old picture of Jimmy Buffett at one of his concerts wearing his “Where is Bum Farto?” t-shirt

(Ed: If they advertise on bigpinekey.com [for the price of a pizza and coke] I could make them a professional online survey at no extra charge.)

Applicants must have stable employment or other source of income, have an acceptable credit history, and have a household income that ensures that no more than 30% of earnings will be utilized to pay for housing costs, including taxes, mortgage, and insurance. Applicants must be US Citizens or Permanent Residents, must invest 350 hours of “sweat equity” volunteer labor, must attend educational homeownership classes, and must reside in Monroe County for 12 months prior to applying. There is a $10 non-refundable application fee. Applications are also available at the administrative office at 6631 Maloney Avenue on Stock Island. Contact Program Coordinator Susan Kent at 305-294-9006 for additional information. Link

Found car keys on Watson Boulevard Sunday morning. Call Brian, 305-393-7209

The funniest Super Bowl ads of all time. The best of the best because we said so. Video

Marathon Community Theatre

Staged in the 1940s, “Last Train to Nibroc” takes place on a cross-country train carrying the bodies of two great American writers, Nathanael West an F. Scott Fitzgerald.  A young woman planning to be a missionary shares her seat with a charming young flyer while they talk about their dreams of bright futures.  The story is a funny and touching portrait of two people searching for happiness.

The reading is directed by Diane Dashevsky and produced by Suzanne Terpos. Tickets can be purchased online at or at the box office at 5101 Overseas Highway in Marathon, or by calling 305-743-0994. Price is not included at the direction of the theatre.  Prices vary according to where they are purchased and whether you are a member or not.  Approximate cost is $12.

Ronnie Spector will be at Little Palm Island on March 9 for the Sandbar Sessions. Although she’s probably a hundred years old, she has a terrific voice. Call 800-get-lost

If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of & remember to be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
Take one day at a time. Today, after all, is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
~Coconuts Bar & Package Store

The operators still appear to have no meaningful control over chlorine residual, which varied from a low of 1.40 ppm to a high of 8.25 ppm! That is probably a poor plant design issue rather than inept operation. Wild chlorine swings have been the norm to date. This plant uses chlorine gas. When DEP questioned the wisdom of that dangerous design, the engineers claimed there was no liquid chlorine available in the Keys. This in spite of the fact that all the other plants use liquid chlorine and it is stocked on Big Pine for immediate delivery. DEP ignored the obvious lie of FKAA’s engineer.

That high chlorine day is almost 3 times a swimming pool’s maximum recommended chlorine residual. The minimum WW effluent requirement is 0.5 ppm and the usual target is 1.0. At 8.25, this is a quite toxic effluent. You would not want to be watering your plants or doing much of anything else with this supposed “reclaimed water.” Maybe burning mold off the house siding with a gas mask to protect yourself. This effluent comes up in nearshore waters and in the Cudjoe wildlife refuge, as determined by 2015 injection well testing.

The Cudjoe plant used to have an A licensed lead operator. He appears to have vanished, and been replaced with a B level lead. The two C level operators run the usual day and night shifts.

SammySam the DirecTV man is playing back up percussion with the Ray West Band this coming Saturday, February 11th from 7 to 11P.M. at the Looe Key Tiki bar.

[Political Super Bowl Ad] Here is the complete 6 minute “84 Lumber” Super Bowl commercial that was edited by Fox TV. Video

Doctors find cockroach living on woman’s skull. That makes the Keys disease look good. Link

Handicapped parking permits should be checked out by the cops to make sure the driver is the one qualified to display that blue tag and park in those spots. Anyone using the tag illegally and not disabled should lose their license!

I just saw that the Muslim terrorist yelling “Allah Akbar” and banishing a machete at the Louvre who was shot by French soldiers is recovering in a hospital. Those soldiers should quit drinking all that wine and go back to the rifle range and practice their marksmanship. Any US Marine would have killed him with one round! Look at some results from Marine riflemen: Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray, Charles J Whitman to name a few. Never underestimate the effectiveness of a Marine with his rifle.