"These projects will allow us to continue improving the recreational spaces and amenities that make Key Colony Beach such a special place to live and visit," Mayor Freddie Foster said in the City of Key Colony Beach's September 29 announcement that the Monroe County Tourist Development Council had approved all six of the city's capital project requests.
The city owns the courts, the parks and the canal-side spots. Most of what happens in them between November and April is organized by volunteers. A pickleball club runs the morning courts. The Key Colony Beach Community Association hosts the party that opens the season. The Key Colony Beach Fishing & Boating Club plans the December parade, a New Year's Eve party and a February clambake. A city Beautification Committee adds a winter cookout. The $494,550 the TDC just approved goes to the restrooms, trail, courts and park structures those groups depend on.
The Courts Change Hands on November 1
Pickleball is the first sign the season has started. From May 1 through October 31, the Key Colony Beach courts are open to anyone. Starting November 1, the KCB Pickleball Club manages them from 7 to 11 a.m. every day through April 30. During those hours you need a membership or a visitor pass to play.
Here's how the club's season pricing works:
- Resident or property owner membership: $50 for one adult, $80 for two adults, $150 for a family of up to six immediate family members. Eligibility covers owners and full-time residents of Key Colony Beach and Marathon proper, MM 47 to MM 60.
- Visitor passes: $10 for a single day, sold only at the courts between 7 and 11 a.m. A seven-day pass is $50 and a 30-day pass is $150.
- What members get: organized club play every morning, balls supplied from November through April, accidental medical insurance, social events and tournaments, and lesson opportunities.
Every member also owes the club three volunteer hours per person each season. That requirement shows how the arrangement works. The club runs organized play every morning through the season, and its members donate the hours that make that schedule possible. One of the six newly funded city projects is $80,500 for restroom improvements at the pickleball courts.
Golf Keeps a Weekly Schedule Too
The city's nine-hole par-3 course on 8th Street works on a schedule of its own. It's open to the public from 7:30 a.m. until dusk. Nine holes cost $15, each extra nine costs $8, and club rentals and pull carts are $5 each. The pro shop is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Wednesdays, when it opens at 10.
The leagues set the course's weekly schedule. According to the city's recreation page, the women's league plays Wednesday mornings with an 8:30 shotgun start, and players should arrive by 8. Mixed and men's drop-in groups tee off Tuesdays and Fridays at 1 p.m., with arrival by 12:45. Golf also shows up on the Recreation Committee's agenda as one of several standing member reports, along with tennis, basketball, little libraries and a combined bocce, horseshoe, shuffleboard and cornhole report.
Who Runs What, From November to April
Once the courts and leagues are going, the event calendar starts. Nearly every date below is run by one of the town's volunteer groups:
| Date | Event | Organizer | Where and what |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov. 19, 5–9 p.m. | Welcome Back Party | KCBCA | Key Colony Inn Restaurant & Lounge, hamburgers, hot dogs, music by Rick and Dayna |
| Dec. 13 | Christmas Boat Parade | Fishing & Boating Club with KCBCA | Causeway/7th Street Canal to the 10th/11th Street Canal |
| Dec. 31, 7 p.m. to around midnight | New Year's Eve Party | Fishing & Boating Club | Marble Hall, BYOB and snacks, ice provided |
| Feb. 15, noon–4:30 p.m. | February Clambake | Fishing & Boating Club | 7th Street Park |
| Feb. 27, 4–6 p.m. | Hot Dogs in the Hut | Beautification Committee | City calendar listing |
| March 7, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. | Barracuda Races at KCB Days | Fishing & Boating Club | Marble Hall/Post Office parking lot |
Tickets for the Welcome Back Party are $30 for KCBCA members and $35 for everyone else, so membership saves you $5. The party falls on the Thursday before Thanksgiving, and last year's was on November 20, 2025. Rick and Dayna are also tentatively listed for the Fishing & Boating Club's New Year's Eve party, so the same duo could open and close the holiday stretch.
The party's venue is The Inn at Key Colony at 700 W. Ocean Drive. According to Keys Weekly in November 2025, new owner Jim Figueroa brought the restaurant back. Its menu is Italian and steakhouse, with house pastas, prime steaks, branzino and Sunday gravy. The Inn's back patio has also been the City Commission's temporary meeting place, according to the commission's September 17 agenda.
The Fishing & Boating Club calendar also lists events that are open to members or still being planned. The club meets at Marble Hall on Nov. 6 and Dec. 4, with doors at 5:30 and meetings at 6. It also lists a La Niña gifts event for the underprivileged on Dec. 18, a Grinch movie for 80 kids on Dec. 26, a full moon raft-up at Shelter Bay by Vaca Cut on March 22 with a party boat for members without a boat, and an end-of-season dinner on April 3.
The Boat Parade Is the Season's Biggest Night
The December 13 parade is where the clubs work together most visibly. The Fishing & Boating Club co-sponsors it, and the Key Colony Beach Community Association hosts the awards ceremony and dinner for captains and crews afterward. To enter a boat, contact Steve DeCrow at (518) 859-5662 or [email protected].
The two published schedules don't quite match. The city calendar lists the parade from 5 to 9 p.m. The club calendar lists "Dusk – 6:00." Early December sunsets come early, so plan to be at the water before 6 and confirm the start time with the organizers as the date gets close.
For viewing, earlier coverage offers some history. When Keys Weekly previewed the 2018 parade, it pointed spectators to Sadowski Causeway at MM 53.5 and to the dock behind City Hall and the post office, and said the public was welcome. In 2022, Keys Weekly reported nearly 20 boats on the 7th Street canal and Sadowski Causeway, from a kayak to cabin cruisers and pontoons. The kayak is a good reminder that entries don't have to be big boats.
The City's New Money Goes to the Same Places
Compare the TDC approval with the club calendar and they line up closely. Here are the six projects approved on September 29:
- Fitness trail improvements, $104,300
- Basketball court improvements, $85,250
- 7th Street restroom improvements, $80,500
- Pickleball restroom improvements, $80,500
- City Hall electronic sign, $75,000
- Sunset Park gazebo, $69,000
The 7th Street restroom serves the park where the Clambake is held, along with the bocce and shuffleboard courts the city lists right next to it. The pickleball restroom serves courts the club books every morning for six months. The new gazebo will go in Sunset Park at West Ocean Drive and 12th Street. The city calls it a passive-use park with one of its little libraries, and it can be reserved for weddings and memorials. In January the park hosted a free cookout and concert with three hours of live music by the 79th Street Band. Keys Weekly reported that the city, the Beautification Committee and the Fishing & Boating Club backed it together.
The fitness trail money will improve routes many people already walk. The city marks walking and jogging loops of 0.4, 0.5 and 0.8 miles on a board in front of City Hall, running along Sadowski Causeway, East Ocean Drive and West Ocean Drive. The basketball funding follows a half-court project the City Commission discussed and approved in March.
None of this construction is on this season's calendar yet. The city's release says the projects still have to finish the funding and agreement process, and the agreements go to the county for final approval before work starts. No start dates have been published.
The Recreation Committee's Park Wish List
The Recreation Committee's October 8 agenda shows what's next, and again it centers on the parks the clubs use. Members were scheduled to review a straw vote on sunshades for 7th Street Park and to discuss two applications for 2027–2028 Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program grants: $112,500 for 7th Street Park and $50,000 for 1st Street Park. The agenda also included committee support for the Beautification Committee's February event. The city describes both parks as having playgrounds with swings, play structures, shaded tiki huts and picnic tables.
The committee meets next on November 12 at 10 a.m., both in person and on Zoom. That's a week before the Welcome Back Party and about two weeks into the pickleball club's season.
If you're coming back for the season and want your Key Colony Beach home opened, aired out and ready before November 1, or you'd like help managing it while you're away between the parade and the Clambake, Keys Ocean Realty handles that kind of property care for owners across the Middle Keys. Schedule a Consultation and we'll set it up around your calendar.
