No Truth To Name Change Rumors In Middle Keys

Rumors raced around the Middle Keys this week that Marathon was changing the city’s name to The Greater Marathon Chamber of Commerce City, Inc. A Blue Paper investigation revealed that, evidence to the contrary, the city would remain as Marathon despite heavy influence by the Chamber.

Nor would Marathon now be called Schmittville or Ramsayburg. Both rumors have been adamantly denied by sources close to the city council. And any change of the city’s name to Bull, well you know…is definitely, as the media loves to say, a non-starter.

Another rumor implied that Greater Marathon Chamber of Commerce City, Inc. would purchase The Marathon Weekly newspaper and change its name to Marathon Pravda. The Blue Paper is still checking on that story.

Supporters of the name change were excited when they heard that Vice Mayor Chris Bull floated what he’s calling a new idea to create some private/public partnerships encouraging businesses to spruce up the city’s street presence. Apparently unaware that this very idea had been put forward several years ago by the Chamber itself and then even earlier by a group headed by local attorney Frank Greenman. That plan even has a spiffy PowerPoint presentation.

Greenman’s proposal to make Marathon look more like Boca Raton can be reviewed by anyone who is interested as it sits on a shelf somewhere in city hall, collecting dust.

The Chamber plan was never fully implemented because some of the city businesses who had applied for grants didn’t end up using them. Under the plan, the Chamber gave $1,000 grants to ten applicants to improve their store fronts. Three of those awardees never did anything at all and may never have actually received money. Another grant recipient, Dolphin Research Center, did repaint the dolphin statue in front, a project apparently deemed worthy by the city, er Chamber even though it’s out on Grassy Key. Tropical Furniture store received a grant to erect a flag pole. True. And Dennis Kulig planned to install a fountain in front of his pool installation business. There were four others who received grants.

At that time former Keynoter publisher Wayne Markham hired a local photographer to shoot pictures of the changes that the ten businesses had made but pulled the plug when he discovered that not much had happened.

According to The Marathon Weekly, which may become Marathon Pravda, Bull proposes:

“• Façade beautification grants much like what the Marathon Chamber of Commerce does now, but on a bigger scale. Businesses could apply for the grants that would also require them to invest in the project.

• Bull proposes a “free permit month” where application fees would be waived so businesses could save that cost when performing façade renovations. He said this could be done during a slow summer month.

• He would also like to research grants that would allow businesses, especially on the west end of town, to neaten up parking lots and possibly add pervious pavers to tackle flooding.”

Those kinds of pavers, which are very appropriate to the Keys, are quite expensive to purchase and install.

Of course Bull would not actually be researching those grants himself but would place the burden on a staff – he named Debbie London and Nancy Nuner — with already a great deal on its plate. Bull never commented on whether it’s appropriate for the city to research grants to be awarded to private businesses.

Since stores and restaurants in Marathon continue to put sandwich boards in front of their businesses in ever-increasing numbers despite the best efforts of the Florida Department of Transportation’s to get them to stop, it seems unlikely that they’ll go along with completely redoing their facades, free permit or no.

Community Image Advisory Board (CIAB) member and avid supporter of the Chamber, Josh Mothner, threw caution to the winds and said to the Weekly that, “any plan to improve Marathon’s look is a good one.”

He went on to say that:

“I like the idea of incentivizing the private sector. And if it’s local government that is doing the incentivizing, that’s a great partnership.”

Those who thought that the city was changing its name to The Greater Marathon Chamber of Commerce City, Inc. might wonder what differences there are between the two entities anyway.

The CIAB will be aided in this effort by the presence of Willie Gonzalez of Gonzalez Brothers Landscaping. He was just appointed by Mayor Dick Ramsay to that group, ignoring that Gonzalez Brothers do all the landscaping work for the city. Ramsay’s choice also brushes aside the fact that Louis Gonzalez sits on the Parks and Recreation Board, giving the brothers a strong say in matters relating to city contracts.

Maybe putting city contractors on city boards is what Bull means by a public/private partnership.

Of course Bull has shared his new plan with the Marathon Chamber of Commerce.

In a bold and insightful statement Marathon Chamber of Commerce CEO Daniel Samess said, in the same article, that,

“Businesses primarily make up our Marathon corridor and are excited to get our hands into such a program that affects and involves them. The aspect of the plan that we like best is the façade grants. Working with the city, the chamber could potentially grow and expand this program to have an even greater, more impactful outcome.”

Bull implied that the Chamber had already been working to help businesses improve their facades so it isn’t clear what Samess meant about potentially growing and expanding this type of construction.

Observers would hope that the outcome might be more “impactful” than the last two attempts. Changing the city’s name could give the effort a much greater chance of success and enable Marathon to cement what would possibly become the first municipal private/private partnership.

The Blue Paper will continue to monitor developments on the name change concept and will keep our readers informed.