KEY LARGO, Fla. – Residents of the Stillwright community in Key Largo dressed in red as they addressed Monroe County commissioners Tuesday in a plea to protect not just their neighborhood, but also their livelihood.
The small community has endured a tumultuous fall tide season, seeing more than 45 straight days of road flooding in October.
As the water receded, commissioners and climate experts convened at the 11th Annual Southeast Florida Regional Climate Leadership Summit in Key West last week, where the long-term outlook took a dire tone.
During a presentation, Monroe County administrative officials highlighted residential areas along a three-mile stretch of road, including the Stillwright Community, that could cost the county up to $128 million to raise the roadways by roughly 2 feet by 2045.
“Does it make sense, for example, to spend $10, $12, $15 million dollars to upgrade a road for two or three homes,” Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi said following the summit. “Probably not.”
Residents decided to fight back, and Tuesday marked a small victory, as commissioners approved a measure to accelerate the timeline to complete a climate study by engineers by almost one year.
“The analysis will give us … the gameplan. What are the options to fix the problem,” Gastesi said.
Monroe County Mayor Heather Carruthers laid out the clear steps to move from study to execution.
“We have a couple of things we have to do," Carruthers said. "We have to identify the right engineering solution and identify the right funding source. I hope we can do that pretty quickly.”
Carruthers also said officials were also working with the Army Corps of Engineers to address concerns throughout all of Monroe County.