Civil Municipal - April 2024

come to Marianna, once they come here fall in love with it and never want to leave.” Kay Dennis, Director of Municipal Development, continues, “It is heaven on earth. It is a beautiful environment. We have passive recreational opportunities all over the place, caves and trails. But the best thing about Marianna is the people. The people are wonderful here.” A RESILIENT COMMUNITY The city’s population of 6,000 may not accurately represent the broader community, as Roberts depicts, “Marianna has constricted city limits and most of all the growth that has taken place has been outside of the city limits. If you were to draw a circle around the center of Marianna and go out miles, you would find the population is around 20,000.” With State restrictions limiting the ability to bring additional areas into the city limits, Marianna has had to adapt, extending services into outlying areas. “People do like city services,” remarks the mayor.“We do furnish all the city services out on the interstate and some services out of the outlying area.We have a state-of-the-art sewer treatment service plant, and we have excess capacity. The county furnishes the infrastructure to get the sewage to us and then we treat it.” A DIVERSE EMPLOYMENT LANDSCAPE One notable entity unique to Marianna is a city- owned 180-bed nursing home which was opened in the 1960s and was previously called Marianna Convalescent Center. In 2017, a major addition to the building was added that houses a state-of-the- art physical therapy center. After the construction was completed the facility’s name was changed to Marianna Health and Rehab. This health facility has continued to benefit the community.“We have 100 city employees that do all the maintenance work and utilities, and the nursing home has 200 employees.That is a tremendous asset to the city,” Roberts says. “Marianna is a place that depends a great deal on federal and state employment.” He relays that the presence of a federal prison in the city, as well as 2 135 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 5, ISSUE 04 MARIANNA, FLORIDA