Wisteria question won't be on ballots

BY MANDY BOLEN

Citizen Staff

The question of whether the city of Key West should annex Wisteria Island, which sits officially uninhabited in Key West Harbor, will not appear on the city's Oct. 2 election ballot.

City commissioners on Tuesday shot down the proposal that would have taken a poll of voters in a non-binding referendum.

Commissioners Bill Verge, Clayton Lopez and Mark Rossi supported the referendum, with Rossi willing to make the ballot question more specific by asking voters if they wanted the city to buy the privately owned island and turn it into a park.

But Mayor Morgan McPherson spoke against the referendum, pointing out that there are processes in place for such annexation decisions to be made, and they all include public hearings so elected officials hear from the citizenry. He also said any such question should be more specific in asking what the public wants to see happen on the island.

The lack of specificity also troubled Commissioner Dan Kolhage, who has said he would support the referendum if it was "clearly written."

"I think it's vague, there's not nearly enough information and I think we're turning this into a political issue that doesn't need to be a political issue," Kolhage said before voting against the referendum.

Commissioner Jose Menendez also voted against the referendum, citing the island's cleanliness, or lack thereof.

"I can't think of voting today, one way or the other, until that place is clean," he said before voting against the ballot measure.

Several residents spoke in favor of the referendum, while three asked why the city would waste its time asking the question now that the developers requesting the annexation have withdrawn their request.

"But I don't see this as a dead issue, with the request being withdrawn," said Will Thompson. "I believe it is only a sleeping issue."

In other city activity, commissioners approved the construction of a $7.9 million garbage transfer station on Rockland Key despite urging from Last Stand environmental group that the city investigate building another waste-to-energy plant rather than paying for trucks to haul the city's garbage to the mainland for disposal.

"I think this transfer station is the first step," Verge said. "Let's get this part done and then we can look to waste-to-energy or look to gasification, but those things come with a hefty price tag."

Kolhage opposed the transfer station, saying, "I can't consciously spend $8 million without long-term thinking. Let's have a little forethought, make one decision and do it right."

He was willing to continue the discussion about a new waste-to-energy plant.

mbolen@keysnews.com