The Key West City Commission, along with Mayor Teri Johnston, honored one of the island’s local heroes by proclaiming Oct. 1 as Roosevelt Sands Jr. Day.
The towering Spanish lime tree with a trunk as wide as a sequoia and the enormous banyan tree were there that night in 1936, the only remaining witnesses to the
Key West Mayor Teri Johnston will propose increasing the size of the cityâs housing authority board from five to seven commissioners within the next month, a move the current authority chairman wants to stop.
The expansion of the Housing Authority of Key West board, the first in its 83-year history, is aimed at bringing a more specialized knowledge onto the authority board. It is also an effort to increase transparency on a board where three of its five members have been in place for decades. Commissioner Roosevelt Sands Jr. has been on the board the longest, appointed in 1970 and serving 56 years. Chairman Frank Toppino has been on the board for 30 years, appointed in 1991. Vice Chairman Robert Dean has served twice for a total of 44 years. And commissioners John Parks and Annette Mobley were appointed in 2003 and 2018, respectively.