Gallup polling reveals that only 28% of Americans trust newspapers, TV, or radio media sites to report news fairly and impartially. This is a down from 72% in the late 1990s.

Many blame the bias of journalists embracing their own political mindset and contorting them to fit the issues of the day.

This enhances their perceived power and political influence.

Advertising dollars have decreased as readership and/or viewership decreases.

The consequence of shrinking revenues, is to reduce news media’s emphasis and  investment in investigative journalism.

 Why risk loss of additional advertising dollars for fear of offending powerful people?

The end result – among others -is a poorly informed public.

Online media sources have proliferated and have had great success in filling the void.

The Islamorada Community Alliance has sought to bring our residents the truth and the facts.

We endeavor to provide local residents with information about our community that impacts our quality of life, preservation of our native ecosystems, land development, our often bloated budget, critical oversight, and governance in general. 

It is all about transparency and having easier access to the facts. 

  

Too often we find the facts are only accessible via a public record request. 

1-What are the facts about the Islamorada Post Office? 

Shouldn’t there be more transparency when it comes to a Federal service so vitally important to many local residents of Islamorada?

Our local government should be able to get this information and tell us exactly where the closure (if there is going to be one) stands.

It’s not difficult.

2- The $9 million canal restoration/culvert project on Lower Matecumbe. 

Struggling for months now, a loud, sloppy work area has been endured by residents.

They have lost their treasured bike path to flooding, staging of equipment, and apparent lack of a coordinated plan.

And now the project has stopped before completion.

What is up? What is the status of payments to the contractor, grants approved? What comes next?

This area is scheduled for bike path improvements and for a new water pipeline.

Timelines? Specifics?  

3-Personnel costs

Florida Statute 166.241 states:

“Each municipality shall prepare aquarterly summary of compensation for all employees funded with appropriations from the municipality. The summary must include job titles, names, and salaries for each employee. The summary must be posted on the municipality’s official website.”

In past years, the Islamorada budget process included a detailed list of Village employees by title, base salary along with the total anticipated cost of each employee. 

No such list was provided this year. We don’t understand why.

In a Village of 7000 residents, we have 133 employees, with personnel costs of about $15 million per year. 

We are told that the salary level of our employees is on average 13% below the level of comparable positions in other communities in the area.

We want to pay people fairly. Show us the studies and comparisons.

I would like to conclude by asking why council members, some of whom have spent considerable time on council and/or been involved in its inner workings, do not keep the Village residents better informed. We would expect the aforementioned issues to be dealt with in a more transparent manner.

It shouldn’t be that hard.

Tom

We understand the members of Council have received their agenda books for the hearing, but to date no agenda with the proposed 2026-2027 budget has been made available to the public. We are pleased that in today’s Village newsletter Village Manager Saunders is suggesting potential reductions in the 2026-2027 budget are still possible: “Our staff is continuing to work on cutting budgeted costs and increasing revenues to lessen the impact on taxpayers, and we welcome any suggestions from the public. Please email any budget ideas to me at village.manager@islamorada.fl.us.”

MM74: Culvert Project location Major Canal Restoration Glitch Last October the Village put out an RFP looking for a contractor to put culverts under 4 side streets and U.S. One at the south end of Lower Matecumbe. Purpose: to connect deadend canals and create better water flow, improving water quality. Click Here to read about the culvert project in the Feb 9, 2026 newsletter.

Village contract engineers, WSP, who had done the preliminary feasibility, design and permitting, projected a total cost for construction at $4,748,631.  The #1 proposal from Adventure Environmental was $5.2 million but after being selected, determined they could not do the project at the price quoted.  The #2 proposal, from LPS Contracting, was approved April of 2025 at a cost of $8,991,020: $4,242,389 above the engineers’ projected cost. Grants have been obtained for the work. In Nov 2025, work began. The 4’x 4’ square concrete culverts under the four bayside streets were installed using open trenching.  The plan for the culvert under U.S. One was to use “jack and bore technology” with a 4’ diameter round culvert inserted 295’ under US One from the bayside canal near Palm Ave to the waterway on the oceanside. LPS reportedly informed the Village that they cannot do the US One culvert and wanted to subcontract the work but would require an additional $1 million.  The work has taken significantly longer than the time frame in the contract, with staging across private residential property owned by the Sea Base. The Village has reportedly decided to abort the remaining project under U.S. One. Questions remain as to how that impacts the contract with LPS and the Village grants that are paying for the culvert project.  Will the project eventually be completed? We have received documentation of payments to LPS of $5,870,321 through 4/30/2026.

Latest in the Status of the Islamorada Post Office: Last week we encouraged readers to sign a petition to keep the Islamorada Post Office up and running as rumors continued about a permanent closure.

The concern demonstrated by the petition effort clearly showed that Islamorada residents are adamant about keeping the Post Office in the Village.

It has been reported that the post office is not going to move, suggesting a lease  has been negotiated.

According to the public record, the current owner of the post office property first signed a 10-year lease with the postal service back in 1999 for $53,592/year.  Lease rates have escalated dramatically since then.  It is not known whether the cost was an issue causing a delay in recent negotiations.

The post office’s value is measured in what it provides - service, connection, and community support - not in its bottom line.

Since the 1960s, over 8,000 post offices have permanently closed across the United States. Of the nearly 40,000 post offices that have existed, only 67% remain operational, while roughly a third have shut down permanently.

Closures often result from reduced demand, and they vary significantly by state, with Florida having the highest population-to-post office ratio, serving over 51,000 people per office on average, significantly more than Islamorada’s post office serves via the 33036 zip code.

Many people asked why would Islamorada close and not Layton.The post offices in Layton and Key Largo appear to be the only post offices in Monroe County that are actually owned by the U S Postal Service.

at a council meeting a few months ago, Manager Saunders indicated that the Village was researching ways to help with the sargassum weed concerns.

Tomorrow Key West is holding a workshop with numerous experts, hopeful of alleviating the problem in the future.  Perhaps Islamorada can take advantage of their research. Click here for article.

We goofed last newsletter: In the story …  “McClatchy Guts Newsrooms; impact in Keys uncertain.” We reported that McClatchy, owner of the Miami Herald, owns the Free Press and Keys Citizen.  WRONG.  McClatchy does not own, and has never owned, the Free Press and/or Keys Citizen. They have been owned by Adams MultiMedia since 2018. McClatchy used to own the Keynoter and Reporter. 

There is no evidence that Adams MultiMedia is scaling back newspaper funding — in fact, the company appears to be making an effort to preserve and strengthen local journalism, not reduce it.

In the story about John Quick’s new contract last week, we reported that for Cost Recovery, if a member of the public applies for a service for which the Village staff needs legal assistance, now Weiss Serota will charge a fee of $650/hour that will be paid by the applicant, not the Village.  We questioned whether this fee was changed as part of the new legal fee structure for Weiss Serota.

Quick responded at the Aug 8 Council meeting that the $650/hour was not part of the new fee structure. Rather, he stated the Council approved this fee last year. We requested the documentation via a public record request. No documentation was found by the Village.  A change from $250/hour for all services to $650/hour paid by applicants is significant. Mr. Quick has not yet responded to our request for clarification.

We give thanks to all the folks who have worked tirelessly to protect our amazing environment that is enjoyed by so many residents and visitors in the Keys.