Islamorada: Beneath the Surface
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News from the Islamorada Community Alliance
September 1, 2025
Sue Miller, Editor
Our Website: ISLAMORADA.ORG
Past newsletters: Newsletters
Here’s what we’re covering
Calendar
From the Desk of ICA President Tom Raffanello
Labor Day at the Monument
Florida Doge and our Budget
Wastewater rate mess
Village owned real estate ideas
Traffic: 2025 LOS study; 4-laning
Library being refreshed - get a supply of books first
Quote
Calendar of Village Meetings - Dates in blue are links to public notice with zoom link
Sep 4: 5:30 PM Budget Hearing #1 Community Center
Sep 8: 3 PM Workforce Housing Committee, 3rd Floor
Sep 9: 5:30 PM Council Meeting Community Center
Sep 11: 5:30 PM Land Use Council Meeting Community Center
Sep 12-13: 9 - 12 Hazardous Waste Drop Off Founder South Entrance
Sep 15: 5:30 PM LPA, Community Center
Sep 16: 5:30 PM Budget Hearing #2, Community Center
Sep 17: 10 AM, Historical Preservation Commission, 3rd Floor
From the Desk of Tom Raffanello, President of the Islamorada Community Alliance: In a continuing effort to inform and educate the residents of current events, mandates and issues that affect the lives of residents and our unique environment, I submit the following:
The Islamorada Community is much more than a place—it is built out of the feelings and relationships that are so vital to our well-being.
Let’s talk about community change. It’s inevitable! Sometimes it improves a community and sometimes destroys it.
Community change can refer to a number of types of changes:
Social changes: sense of community and identity with our village and its unique characteristics
Positive Physical changes: enhancing housing, land use, facilities, recreational “green,” space and infrastructure
Political changes: responsible, public servants focused on improving participation and representation in local government. This can also be negatively affected by self-serving political persons with agendas.
Economic change - more businesses, more employment, more profits.
Our elected officials do not seem totally focused on improving our village. Village council should enhance our sense of community, recognize our infrastructure limits, and improve public participation in decisions.
Too often decisions made reflect a “Chamber of Commerce” mentality (#4) – improve the business community and their profitability. Our residential communities are not a priority. Profitability of the local investors and developers has usurped the pledge to keep residents and our environment as the priority.
In the end it is the local residential property owners that will be paying a bulk of added costs for bad decisions. This trend must stop! Community Change! Let’s always work to make changes that will make us a better place to live…. Not a place that sends more of our residents packing up and moving out!
Crooked Palms Cabana: scam! Why do we put conditions on properties and discard them a year later. On September 11, there is a public hearing to eliminate numerous conditions placed on the Crooked Palm Cabana.
When that business was approved in a 3-2 vote of council after 17 months of meetings, workshops, and negotiations, there were voluntary conditions agreed to by all parties, including the owner, not just imposed by the Village Council. Now the owner claims that anticipated problems have not occurred, instead the business has proven to be a benefit to the community. (how?)
They want important restrictions eliminated. Logically, conditions should remain in place. The establishment has not lived up to expectations as far as profitability, so the hours have been cut down due to lack of activity. Perhaps there have been no problems because there are strict conditions and neighbors are watching.
When the Village Council approves conditions, especially voluntary conditions, (as well as deed restrictions and limitations when approving zoning changes)… they most often are meant as a means to protect our community and our environment. They need to be long term.
Consideration of changes should only be reviewed under special circumstances, not lack of profitability or desire to sell a property. Community planning is long term. Something our residents and future residents know they can count on. It should not be the purview of a “favorable council” to change the core of a community, especially with a simple majority of three votes.
Serious decisions like these should require four, if not a unanimous vote by council. Long term should mean long term, not disrupted by a letter to the planning department.
I do not see any legitimate way this gets the support of the Village Planning officials. They have the same mandate to prioritize residents and the environment’s uniqueness. This is Islamorada, not Miami. Start acting like it or we’ll lose it.
Reply to: ICA.in.Keys@gmail.com
Labor Day at the Hurricane Monument 90 Year Later
And the rain arrived right at the start of the program to remind everyone that weather happens here!
But nothing could dampen the spirits of those who attended this special community event put on by the Matecumbe Historical Trust annually. Umbrellas went up and the sound system was moved out of the rain, but no one left, anxious to be a part of the day, remembering the tragedy that changed life in Islamorada 90 years ago.
In 1937 the Hurricane Monument was dedicated as a memorial to 423 people who lost their lives in the devastating 1935 hurricane; 259 were World War I veterans in the Keys working on extending U.S. One. A majority of the other 164 were Islamorada residents.
For the 90th anniversary of the storm, visitors were asked to brave the rain to help spread 423 flowers on the crypt where the remains of many who lost their lives in the 1935 storm are buried.
Wooden cut-out plaques were distributed as a memento of this historic event, 90 years ago. Thank you Barbara Edgar and the Matecumbe Historical Trust.
Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) May Need to Visit Islamorada
Blaise Ingoglia
FLORIDA CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER BLAISE INGOGLIA: “When budgets go up over 4-5 years between 60-120%, I have issues with wasteful spending. I have issues with government spending on things that should not be spent on, and then continually asking the taxpayers for more, more, more. The taxpayers have had ENOUGH, and so have I.”
How much did the Islamorada Budget increase since 2021? If the proposed budget is approved by council at 2.65 mills, the General Fund expenditures will have increased by 56.6% since the 2020-2021 budget. The Total Village Expenditures for all funds will have increased by 82.8% (up from $35M to $65M).
Has there been much change in the services provided?
Cost of Village Personnel: The budget being proposed for Budget Hearing #1 includes significant changes in the cost of Islamorada’s staff.
Pay increases proposed based on Salary Study done earlier this year: $442,868
Health Insurance increase this year: $455,746 (up $1.428 million since 2022)
Overtime projected for coming year: $677,503
Total cost of personnel for coming year: $16,738,457
Who should pay? Wastewater service is an Enterprise Fund. That means that those properties receiving service are expected to pay for the capital cost and operation and maintenance of the system - based on their EDU count. Funds are not supposed to come from property tax revenues.
However, for at least the last five years, the Wastewater Enterprise Fund has operated at a significant deficit. No analysis of the fee structure has been done to date to correct the EDU counts and the fee structure. A quick look at the EDU list demonstrates many inconsistencies in the rates paid.
Should a 400 sq ft 1 bedroom cottage pay the same wastewater fee as a 6000 sq ft 5-bedroom vacation rental?
Should businesses be able to expand significantly, change uses, and not have their wastewater costs reviewed and adjusted?
Instead of adjusting wastewater fees and assuring the users are paying based on the volume of wastewater generated, property taxes have been used to bail out the wastewater fund shortfalls.
Typically there has been approximately a $2 million deficit every year - necessitating increases in property taxes. Not supposed to happen with a self-supporting enterprise fund.
This year over $4 million of Stewardship Funding has been moved to wastewater to avoid another huge deficit, and the budget still shows a projected wastewater deficit of $775,000. Until now Stewardship Funding has been allocated for canal restoration projects already planned and underway. And wastewater is supposed to be self-supporting?
Of course we need a wastewater system that is reliable. Let’s fix the leaks. And let’s fix the funding, rates and accounting as well.
Islamorada bought a church and two other properties: $8.5 M without a plan, just waiting for ideas.
Workshop: Discussion about Village properties, all purchased without a planned use. One of the properties… a church. The workshop was scheduled to see if members of the community had any ideas about possible uses for the prior Islamorada Community Church and several other costly properties owned by the Village, sitting unused.
Village Manager, Ron Saunders, suggested that in an effort to keep property taxes down and preserve critical fund balances that perhaps the church should be sold. Some in attendance, preferred improving efficiency and reducing Village operating costs as a more appropriate way to control property tax levels instead of the sale of valued real estate. “What will we sell next year?”
Purchased a year ago for $3.995,000, the church property was leased back to the church for the past year ($0 rent). The Village took official possession August 11.
The church property at MM82.8. is 110’ x 330’ on U.S. One, just south of Publix, 8/10 of an acre. The building is almost 16,000 sq ft with a sanctuary that can seat over 300. Originally built in 1972 as a movie theater, it was acquired by the church more than 20 years ago. In addition to the sanctuary, the building has classrooms and offices, previously part of a school operated by the church. Click here for photos from the appraisal done a year ago.
Another property discussed was the former Island Silver and Spice property that has been sitting vacant in the heart of Islamorada since being purchased by Islamorada December of 2021 for $2.75 million.
It was concluded that the third property, purchased in May, 2021, for $1.8M and referred to as the “Machado Property” should be used for affordable housing.
If you have ideas, the Village Manager is anxious to listen.
Why is this important? All three properties were purchased when there was the possibility the properties would be developed into high intensity uses unacceptable to the desires of the community. If we now sell the properties, to get top dollar, the future use, by a developer wanting lucrative profits, may well be unacceptable.
Traffic is on the Sep 10 County Commission Agenda
Traffic Study: The draft 2025 study will be discussed by the Commission Sep 10. There is concern that the travel times were measured by the County’s consultant after the “peak season” was over, which violates the County’s Comprehensive Plan and the approved guidelines.
The problem areas in the potentially flawed study remain traffic segments in Islamorada. Click here to see the list of traffic segments. Rankings below “C” means no additional trips in that segment can be added without disrupting acceptable traffic speeds.
The rating for Lower Matecumbe, Upper Matecumbe, and Windley Key are all ranked a “D.” Plantation Key has improved to a “C” in 2025, primarily because the construction related to the pipeline installation lowered the speed limit to 35 MPH.
In Monroe County, once a segment falls below a “C” no more construction can occur unless there is appropriate mitigation to reduce the deficiencies in that segment. Unlike the County, Islamorada does not stop construction when a segment is deficient.
If the overall Level of Service (LOS) for the entire 114 miles of US 1 falls below the LOS C Standard, then no additional land development will be allowed in the Florida Keys, unless mitigation measures are proposed to address the LOS deficiencies.
In 2019 and 2023 the overall LOS fell below the LOS C but the County simply did not approve the study so continued development was allowed.
4-Laning U.S. One, also on the Sep 10 County agenda
The Islamorada Community Alliance has joined nearly 2 dozen organizations throughout the Keys, objecting to this possible 4-laning. Click here to read the details as to the concerns.
Can you imagine converting Islamorada’s “Main Street” into a major 4-lane highway aimed at getting more folks through our community to points south.
The proposal to allow 4-laning the highway and to accept the 2025 US 1 Level of Service Study are to be heard back to back by the County Commission in Key Largo, Murray Nelson Government Center, beginning at 1:30 pm Sep 10.