Friday, November 13, 2009

Ten years ago, voters from the Seven Mile Bridge to Mile Marker 60 made a choice, with more than 65 percent voting in favor of becoming the city of Marathon.

While some in the community may continue to debate the merits of municipal government versus the costs, that choice a decade ago appears to have paid off in a number of ways.

The city is well ahead of many of its neighbors in both incorporated and unincorporated areas in building wastewater treatment and collection systems. Marathon was ground zero for some of the county's worst pollution hot spots with hundreds of cesspools leaching waste into canals and Boot Key Harbor. The city's determination to move forward will pay off in the future, both monetarily and environmentally.

The success in addressing the city wastewater problem is the result of another facet of incorporation -- local government's attention is focused on issues specific to the Marathon community. Residents in unincorporated Monroe County compete with other areas to get their community's concerns heard.

Another arguable benefit is ensuring that local tax dollars are put to work in the community. Prior to incorporation, residents in Marathon (and other unincorporated communities) often lamented that a disproportionate amount of their tax dollars was flowing into Key West. Today, residents may disagree with the way the city spends its money, but at least the dollars are going into local projects. (Consider how residents in unincorporated Key Largo must feel about their local government spending $3 million of public money earmarked for their wastewater projects to purchase a small, decrepit restaurant on Stock Island.)

Among those local projects are a first-class community park (part of it inherited from the county), one of the better beaches in the Keys and a municipal marina that holds much potential.

Marathon's elected government also has put its county and municipal counterparts to shame by reining in its spending -- thus reducing taxes -- during difficult economic times. And it has done so without a noticeable sacrifice of services.

The past decade has not been without its challenges, and city government has not been without its missteps. In the early years, it was jokingly observed that the City Council's greatest accomplishment was making the County Commission look good by comparison.

And as with other Keys communities, when the economy -- and land values -- were booming, Marathon faced immense pressure from ambitious developers seeking concessions, exceptions and "flexibility" when it came to development regulations. Stalled projects throughout the city are unfortunate reminders of numerous dashed dreams of riches. Even so, city officials arguably behaved better in this realm than their counterparts in county government.

The bottom line is that this Middle Keys city has demonstrated that municipal government, with an engaged public, can be responsive to public needs, frugal with taxpayers' dollars, and -- despite the local political skirmishes that inevitably arise in any community -- can responsibly address major challenges as well or better than its peers elsewhere in the Keys.

On Nov. 21, Marathon residents will gather in their community park to celebrate the city's 10th anniversary. They can celebrate their self-determination with pride, as it is largely their public participation that has made their city work. We congratulate Marathon residents and elected officials. Theirs is a welcome story in a time when confidence in any government is an iffy situation.

-- The Citizen