We firmly imagine that native information ought to come from native sources – the individuals who dwell and breathe these tales in actual time with our communities. As we glance again on the headlines that caught probably the most consideration in 2024 – the joyful, the sad, the triumphant and the controversial – it’s our honor to current the annual Yr in Evaluation for Marathon.
January
Key Colony Seashore settled a highly-publicized lawsuit over development of a brand new Metropolis Corridor, repealing a earlier contract to construct a brand new $8.4 million constructing.
In the meantime, draft laws despatched from Marathon Metropolis Corridor posing as much as 8,000 potential constructing rights for the Keys drew the ire of residents and county leaders, earlier than town agreed to delay its ask for one yr.
On the opposite finish of city, a lodge redevelopment ordinance that some mentioned appeared to assist the upcoming Florida Keys Resort on Sombrero Boulevard met scrutiny from the Marathon Metropolis Council.

February
Citing her upcoming transfer to Marathon, former KCB commissioner Beth Ramsay-Vickrey turned the second fee member to resign in 4 months. She wasn’t alone, as a number of staff, together with Code Enforcement Officer Barry Goldman and Constructing Official Lenny Leggett, resigned later within the month. As town turned the web page to discovering methods to enhance its present constructing, KCB celebrated a long-awaited reopening of Metropolis Corridor.
In Marathon, a pivot by town council on the design of the Quay property so as to add a second boat ramp noticed wholesome debate and loads of neighborhood suggestions, and the council scaled again provisions permitting for large-scale redevelopment of lodge and motel rooms.

March
The month started on a darkish be aware, as former First Baptist Marathon pastor Monte Chitty was accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old woman after serving her alcohol. Chitty skipped his arraignment and fled the county, however was discovered 4 days later after approaching a church group in Texas.
A new Florida invoice banning homeless tenting thrust Marathon’s twentieth Avenue encampment into the highlight as leaders grappled with a everlasting resolution for town. And over in Key Colony Seashore, commissioner Doug Colonell was appointed to exchange Ramsay-Vickrey, ultimately securing re-election in November.


April
Well being care within the Center Keys took a leap ahead with the unveiling of Baptist Well being’s new Walsh Household Medical Arts Constructing on April 4. The Keys’ most beloved tree, Fred, turned a Hollywood star in Amazon Prime’s “Street Home” remake, and a redesigned skate park at Marathon Neighborhood Park, a years-long lightning rod of debate, took middle stage on the Marathon Metropolis Council’s month-to-month workshop.
After telling the Keys Weekly they “hope (we’re) utilizing the phrase allegedly, as a result of (they’re) harmless till confirmed responsible” once they had been launched from jail in late 2023, a Boot Key Harbor liveaboard couple who took half within the January 6 U.S. Capitol riots each pled responsible to their expenses on April 30. Bryan Bishop, who confronted felony expenses after spraying a chemical irritant within the face of a capitol police officer, was later sentenced to 45 months in jail.
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Could
Celebrations closed the tip of the varsity yr as Marathon bid farewell to the Class of 2024, together with 64 Take Inventory in Youngsters students who earned a mixed $1.6 million in Florida Pay as you go scholarships. Valedictorian Marquisha Abraham and salutatorian Cami Wrinn ended the yr on the high of their class.
On the mainland, the Marathon unified soccer group scored gold within the Particular Olympics Summer season Video games on the ESPN Broad World of Sports activities Complicated in Orlando. The group has been a game-changer for particular schooling gamers, whose classmates at Marathon Excessive have totally embraced and celebrated their accomplishments.
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June
As scrutiny across the Florida Keys Resort intensified, so did flooding issues on the neighboring Sombrero Boulevard. (Although town will NOT, as instructed by the Weekly’s annual April Idiot’s article, be changing the street right into a neighborhood lagoon.) A multimillion-dollar energetic pumping and drainage system is scheduled for set up in 2025.
A milestone settlement introduced years of authorized proceedings to a detailed in Marathon’s notorious “Boatworks” case, and over in KCB, the Key Colony Seashore Police Division turned the ultimate municipal drive within the Florida Keys to unionize.


July
As the topic of future plans for the Florida Keys Resort turned a serious political speaking level across the metropolis, proprietor Peter Rosasco pulled again the curtains on plans for his upcoming improvement, together with a accomplished golf course, aquatic driving vary, restaurant, pool and extra alongside a lodge and waterfront villas.
A controversial proper of approach abandonment that some locals mentioned was not correctly described led to a push for town council to put in a brand new kayak launch and protect waterfront entry for residents on 109th Avenue.
Over in Key Colony, following months of twin service by Mayor Joey Raspe as town’s interim Metropolis Administrator, the fee put in former Marathon councilman John Bartus within the reworked employees publish to exchange former administrator Dave Turner, who was fired in December 2023.

August
Although a collection of hats had been thrown in, and in the end withdrawn from, the ring, 5 candidates certified in August to run for Marathon Metropolis Council: Jody “Lynny” Del Gaizo, incumbent Kenny Matlock, Dustin Huff, Mark Senmartin and Ray Wooden. Although he ended the marketing campaign with the most important struggle chest, Huff later withdrew from the race in October citing household well being issues.
A tragic private watercraft accident claimed the lives of Jose Dominguez and his son Daniel after the pair slammed right into a Boot Key Harbor canal’s seawall on Aug. 14. And with additions to a rising record of indictments within the county’s Trauma Star drug theft case, former hearth rescue captain Andrea Thompson acquired an outcry of assist from Marathon locals with a slogan “Stand with Andrea.” Thompson was ultimately terminated in late September.

September
A city-wide go to from the FBI on Sept. 5 rocked Marathon because the company unsealed an indictment charging 27 defendants, together with Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority staff, business constitution boat operators and a former Metropolis of Marathon worker, with federal drug and firearm offenses in and across the Florida Keys and Miami-Dade County.
Town council renewed its debate over town’s twentieth Avenue encampment after neighborhood members petitioned the board to offer higher help for the road’s residents. And when it got here time to sharpen pencils for Marathon’s annual finances, raises for metropolis employees had been as soon as once more the recent matter of the month’s finances hearings. Council members confused the necessity for constant analysis procedures for workers shifting ahead, together with a primary construction to be adjusted with annual knowledge for future years’ raises, and managed to not increase property taxes for 2024-25.
Held for the primary time ever at Hawks Cay resort, the Weekly’s annual Better of Marathon Awards introduced the neighborhood collectively for an evening of celebration, laughs and roasts aplenty.
And in just below two years of development, Monroe County accomplished its model new Emergency Operations Middle, holding a grand opening on Sept. 23.
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October
At its October session, the Marathon Metropolis Council greenlit numerous new developments, together with a highly-scrutinized 20-home improvement with a meals truck ring and tiki bar between 61st and 62nd Avenue Gulf, together with a wholesome debate over a switch mechanism for inexpensive housing allocations from different Keys governments.
Candidates in native races squared off within the Weekly and Larger Marathon Chamber of Commerce’s candidate discussion board on Oct. 7, with harder-hitting questions addressing controversial features of metropolis council candidates’ campaigns.
November
Matlock and Del Gaizo noticed their marketing campaign efforts rewarded with wins by convincing margins on Nov. 5 and had been sworn in a single week later. Although initially scheduled to resolve Marathon’s request for constructing rights at its common November session, the Marathon Metropolis Council postponed the choice till December, electing to carry a particular workshop that stuffed the room to gauge resident enter.
Over at Marathon Excessive Faculty, Particular Olympics weightlifters Cindy Augustin and Alex Chavala returned to their classmates as champions on Nov. 12, contemporary off gold medal performances at Particular Olympics Florida’s state meet. Each Augustin and Chavala shall be thought-about for competitors within the June 2026 Particular Olympics nationwide meet on the College of Minnesota as representatives for Florida.


December
Following a Dec. 3 workshop, the Marathon Metropolis Council unanimously elected to maneuver ahead with a request to state officers for modifications in hurricane evacuation occasions that might enhance the variety of constructing rights all through the Florida Keys – a change from 24 to 26 hours, together with a brand new constructing proper per vacant buildable lot within the metropolis.
Amid a flurry of vacation occasions, two first-time happenings on the identical day look to have cemented their locations as annual highlights of the vacation season with an amazing neighborhood response to Pigeon Key’s Vacation Spectacular and the 7 Mile SantaCon.

