COW KEY BRIDGE A DISASTER IN THE MAKING

In 2020, the State is going to repair Cow Key Bridge. A disaster in the making. The repair will be several months of aggravation. Forget inconvenience. It will eat at most of us each day as we travel US 1 in and out of Key West.

There has to be a better way. I appreciate the State has already cut the repair time in half. Our local governmental leaders are thrilled.

Thrilled too early. Not enough yet done from the State’s end. Again, there has to be a better way.

I live on the golf course. Have been avoiding early morning and late afternoon trips in and out of Key West because of traffic. This morning, I had no choice. A stupidly planned 7 am meeting in town.

The traffic into Key West horrible! Sit and wait. Move slowly. Will be worse when we are down from 4 to 3 lanes during the repair period.

My return trip was at 8:30. No better. Definitely dangerous.

I was traveling north on US 1. My intention was to take the first left onto College Road at the light. Traffic backed up big time. Cars backed up into the passing lane half way onto the bridge.

I could see that US 1 beyond College Road was clear all the way up to McDonald. After checking behind for traffic, pulled out and traveled up the passing lane.

I was proud of myself. Had the problem licked. My celebration short lived.

I was heading to the second College Road entry to the north. No traffic light, however. Cars must wait till southbound traffic eases up and the turn can be made.

I was half on the grass and half in the passing lane for a distance longer than the first one earlier. I would estimate 20 cars.

It took forever to cross over. At least 20 minutes. Cars speeding southward. Traffic heavy.

This is an area where accidents will occur during the repair. To make the left onto College Road at 8:30, one has to determine he can make it and then shoot across the road. Neither comfortable nor safe.

I am not a voice in the wilderness. Cow Key Bridge is an item of concern and discussion among locals.

I repeat, there has to be a better way.

Watched Michigan/Duke yesterday. Another great game! Michigan won by a point 68-67. The game went back and forth down to the wire.

Today is April Fools’ Day. One children and adults alike enjoy.

The Key West Citizen for many years has run an April Fools section. Terrific!

About 25 years ago, it was a gotcha moment for me. I believed what I read, having forgotten it was April Fools’ Day.

The major front page article had to do with the City Commission having banned smoking on Key West Streets, beaches, and other open air public places. I spouted off to those with me, they can’t do this! It’s not legal!

Someone then pointed out to me what I was reading. The April Fools’ edition.

No April Fools’ Day section today. The Key West Citizen advises it is the result of changes having occurred recently at the newspaper. No time to get it out.

I suspect money is involved also. Newspapers have been experiencing hard times in recent years. Cash flow. Remember, the paper is no longer printed in Key West. Now, Miami. No longer a separate edition on saturday and another on sunday. One publication covering both days.

Responsibility lies with the times in which we live. The newspaper industry is taking a beating. Changing. Sad. I enjoy sitting back with a newspaper or book in my hands. Not on a screen.

Irma destroyed Key West’s fishing industry. The industry is returning, though slowly.

The spiny lobster season closed yesterday. Reportedly, a banner season. Keys’ gross $35 million. Key West generating 90 percent of the amount.

The Key West Garden Club is involved in all sort of matter horticulture.

This thursday at 1:30, John David will be speaking at the Club’s meeting at West Martello. The subject matter bee keeping.

So what’s the big deal with bee keeping?

West Virginia in days long gone by was involved in coal mining. A dying industry. Trump said he was going to bring it back. Didn’t think the problem through. Few industries are fueled/powered by coal these days.

Most West Virginia workers waited before Trump and since Trump’s election for the coal industry to turn around. Never will.

Some persons in West Virginia, whether political leaders or a group of interested citizens, thought it was time to retrain the unemployed working force.

I have been talking about retraining for years. In all businesses. Robots were and are arriving.

Though robots not the problem, the unemployment situation had to be resolved. Trump’s plan, whatever it may have been, was not working.

Which brings us back to bee keeping. West Virginia is blessed with a lot of useful bugs. For some hundred years, bee keeping has been a  budding business.  Overshadowed by coal for years. Now moving to the forefront.

Newly formed not for profits driving the move. They are retraining Appalachian coal miners who lost their jobs. To be bee keepers. At no cost to those being retrained. And at the end of the retraining, each “graduate” receives free the necessary equipment to begin their new profession.

The new bee keepers will obtain honey from the bees and thereafter sell the honey. That’s it. A bit dangerous. The bees and bee hives require constant attention.

Again, not for profit operated. No government involvement.

The Key West Garden Club’s lecture is timely.

We live in a time where our country is undergoing all kinds of problems, Finances, immigration, medical care, cost of college, infrastructure, etc. So too the rest of he world.

It was announced last week that the U.S. national debt had exceeded $22 trillion. The first time it crossed $22 trillion. Last year, it exceeded $21 trillion.

The increased debt and the swiftness of it indicates a continued deterioration of U.S. finances. Most economists belief the deterioration is unsustainable.

A reflection of the U.S.’s increasing debt is the interest the U.S. pays on the $22 trillion debt. One billion dollars a day!

Recession inevitable. The question not whether. Rather, when.

Enjoy your day!

 

8 comments on “COW KEY BRIDGE A DISASTER IN THE MAKING

  1. Saw this in the news today:”There is really nothing happening from a new coal power plant power point of view in the Americas,” Browning told Axios’ Amy Harder on the sidelines of the Bloomberg New Energy Finance conference last week in New York. “New coal-fired generation is really in decline and it’s a sectoral decline, not cyclical. It’s driven principally by climate change concerns and natural gas and renewables becoming more affordable.”

  2. Lou, when Obama was president you wrote about the debt being 18 trillion (November 2015). However, in your analysis at that time,, you said in practicality it was really 12 – 13 trillion. Still a huge number no doubt. Using your Obama calculation, what would be the “practical” amount of our current debt.

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