Page 42 - Upper Keys News Today

The Community Foundation of the Florida Keys is awarding grants totaling $215,266 to 35 local nonprofits for community collaborative projects that will directly benefit residents from Key Largo to Key West. Due to the generosity of donors and fund holders, the foundation has increased the amount of funding and number of projects supported from previous years through its annual grant program. More than a third of the recipients are new to the annual grant program this year. The 2021 “Moving...

Cheers: To the return of the magnificent fireworks display on the Fourth of July at Higgs Beach. After being canceled last year because of COVD-19 precautions, it was a pleasure to be able to watch the show in person, as well as being able to take in the celebration from almost any location on the island. Jeers: To Tropical Storm Elsa, whose driving rains and near-hurricane force winds made a mess of Key West. However, we’re glad to have been spared a direct hit, as the storm shifted late ...

On the upstairs floor of the Keys History and Discovery Center in Islamorada is a room available by appointment only to scholars and researchers. The items that occupy the Jerry Wilkinson Research Library vary widely, from cannonballs and ballast stones found in centuries-old shipwrecks to blueprints of the original Overseas Highway. The nonprofit museum’s curator, Brad Bertelli, a local author and historian, has amassed this collection of items over years of donations and searching throug...

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers charged a Miami man with various lobster fishery violations after he was caught with lobsters and a spearing device on Sunday. FWC investigators Chris Mattson and Billy Thompson were in plain clothes and on an unmarked vessel when they noticed Armando Ludena Espinosa, of Miami, in the water bayside of Robbie’s Marina in Islamorada. They noticed another individual bring him a gig stick and he began to dive under the water. After abo...

Miami-Dade and Broward counties were out of the cone of concern for major impacts from Elsa, while a tropical storm warning remained in effect for the Florida Keys from Craig Key west to the Dry Tortugas, along with much of Floridas west coast from Flamingo to the Ochlockonee River. Gov. Ron DeSantis gave the update regarding the storm and the decision to demolish the remaining tower from the site of the June 24th tragedy. A tropical storm watch was in effect for west of the Ochlocknee R...

A 20-year-old Homestead, Florida man arrested last week in the Upper Keys for stealing a car was back in jail Saturday for stealing another car in Key West. Jose Carlos Blanquicett now faces two charges of grand theft of a motor vehicle in addition to larceny, burglary and fleeing and eluding. He also faces some marijuana charges from the first arrest on Thursday, according to a news release from Monroe County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Adam Linhardt. Blanquicett was released from jail at ...

For nearly 40 years, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Lee Ann Holroyd has carved out her path to success in a male-dominated field. She has served in many roles and faced many challenges in her long history as a deputy. Capt. Holroyd was the first female detective lieutenant and commander of Special Operations Division. Capt. Holroyd is one of the highest-ranking women in the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and on is part of its command staff. Capt. Holoyd, who earned a bachelorâ�...

Tropical Storm Elsa began to pull away from the Lower Keys on Tuesday afternoon and headed up the West Coast of Florida, where it is scheduled to make landfall north of Tampa as a Category 1 hurricane on Wednesday morning.  The storm did bring gusts of 70 mph wind gusts in Key West and and 30-mph wind gusts in Marathon, according to the National Weather Service. As of Tuesday morning, the Lower Keys was experiencing about 2 to 3 inches of rain, with the possibility of 8 inches of rain by the...

Sea levels are rising in the Florida Keys and that will continue and most likely accelerate in the coming decades, scientists say. Expensive mitigation measures will have to be implemented to stave off flooding but complete submersion of the island change is not a definite conclusion, though that depends greatly on worldwide cooperation to move away from fossil fuels. The Monroe County Commission met recently to hear from scientists and engineers on what to expect in terms of where and when ris...

ELSAS TOP WINDS remain at 65 miles per hour. THE STORM IS MOVING NW at 15 and is expected to lose some strength as it cuts across Central Cuba. A tropical storm warning remains posted from Craig Key into the lower Keys, with tropical storm watches for the Upper Keys as well as the west coast of Florida from Flamingo to the Anclote River, and a storm surge warning from Bonita Beach to the Suwannee River. Breaking down what forecasters are expecting in different regions: Tropical storm conditi...