Tuesday Briefing: New Precinct Chief, Palm Coast Data's Pink Success, Community Center Prized

palm coast community center award — The Palm Coast Community Center is among the winners of the 2018 Florida Recreation and Park Association Facility Showcase. The Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion, preservation, and advocacy of the Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Services profession, highlighting newly designed or renovated park or recreation facility spaces that serve communities across Florida. Each year, the FRPA Journal winter edition features these facilities as a sort of yearbook of the achievements made throughout the Sunshine State. The Palm Coast Community Center, which reopened last year following a major $8 million dollar renovation and expansion, was chosen to be showcased based on a number of factors–economic, environmental, communal. The city’s Parks & Recreation team completed an extensive application for the recognition. The showcase of all winners including Palm Coast can be viewed here. ‘The renovation and expansion of the Community Center has allowed us to reach a wider demographic, as well as increase our number of activities offered to our community,’ said Alex Boyer, director of Palm Coast Parks & Recreation. Community Center reopened last March with 21,000 square feet. Its size was tripled, and it was transformed it into a multi-generational facility offering many popular programs ranging from youth to seniors. ‘The ‘new’ Community Center is truly the heart of our community, providing residents so many opportunities to socialize, exercise, learn and meet their neighbors,’ said Palm Coast Mayor Milissa Holland. See a profile of the center here.

Today:: Partly cloudy in the morning then becoming mostly sunny. Highs in the lower 60s. North winds 5 to 10 mph. Tonight: Mostly clear. Lows in the lower 40s. North winds around 5 mph. Details here.
Today’s document from the National Archives and the Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Today’s tides: at the beaches, at the Intracoastal Waterway.
Drought Index: 85
The OED’s Word of the day: butterfingered, adj.
The Live Community Calendar
Today’s jail bookings.

Today’s Briefing: Quick Links

First Light
In Flagler and Palm Coast
Flagler Jail Bookings and Last 24 Hours of Incident Reports
Announcements
In State Government
In Coming Days in Flagler, Palm Coast and Beyond
Fact-Checking the Knaves
Palm Coast Construction and Development
Local Road and Interstate Construction
Cultural Coda

“I’d like to apologize to all the “banana republics” I’ve offended over the decades with snarky references to their dysfunction. This is karma: I now live in a nation where a petulant president has shut down much of the most powerful government in the world — so the White House isn’t even paying its water bills. The government has shut down before, under presidents of both parties. But this shutdown is particularly childish and unnecessary; to revise Churchill, rarely have so many suffered so much at the hands of so few.”

–From Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times column, “Trump’s Five Craziest Arguments About the Shutdown,” Jan. 12, 2019.

Previously:

In Flagler and Palm Coast:

Note: all government meetings noticed below are free and open to the public unless otherwise indicated. Many can be heard or seen live through each agency’s website.

The Sheriff’s daily incident reports and jail bookings are posted here.

The Palm Coast City Council meeting scheduled for today was cancelled due to council members traveling or being ill, thus making a quorum impossible. The council had been scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. at City Hall in Town Center. The council was to be presented with its new Palm Coast sheriff’s coordinator, David Williams, who is replacing Mark Carman, who is to be the chief of police in Crescent City. See the story here. Palm Coast Data’s team in the Pink Army run for breast cancer awareness was to be presented with a best-of-teams participation certificate. The council was also set to approve a development plan for a 233-unit apartment complex at Town Center.

The Flagler County School Board meets in workshop at 1 p.m. on the third floor of the Government Services Building, Bunnell, a closed-door expulsion hearing at 5 p.m., and in an open meeting at 6 p.m. in board chambers, same building. At the information workshop, the board will consider a proposal by FPL to take part in a proposal that FPL words this way: “SolarTogether, an FPL Shared Solar Program is an exciting new program that allows your company to participate directly in large-scale solar projects in Florida. As a participant, you will be able to offset up to 100% of your energy usage with solar and receive monthly bill credits on your FPL bill for a fixed subscription rate. The program will be filed with the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) in the first quarter of 2019. Based on preliminary feedback, we anticipate that this program will be very well received, and we’re providing you with the opportunity to pre-register starting Nov. 29, 2018, through Jan. 25, 2019. By pre-registering, you are reserving your spot in the program.” See FPL’s presentation here.

The Bunnell Planning and Zoning Board meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 201 West Moody Boulevard, Bunnell.

County Commissioner Joe Mullins holds a pair of town hall meetings with emergency management and fire rescue personnel, the first at 9 a.m. at Fire Station 51, 3055 County Road 13, the second at 6 p.m. at Hidden Trails Community Center, 6109 Mahogany Boulevard in the Mondex.

The Flagler County Library Board of Trustees meets at 4:30 p.m. at the Flagler County Library, 2500 Palm Coast Parkway NW, Palm Coast.

Flagler Beach’s Beach Management Plan Ad-Hoc Committee meets at 5 p.m. at City Hall.

The St. Johns River Water Management District Governing Board meets after holding committee meetings. Committees start at 10 a.m., with full board at 11 a.m., district headquarters, 4049 Reid St., Palatka.

Blood Donations: The Big Red Bus will be at the following locations this week (schedule your donation by going to the website and entering a Palm Coast zip code, then locating one of the venues below):

Tuesday: Flagler Animal Hospital, 130 Old Kings Road South, Flagler Beach, from 10 a.m to 1 p.m.
Tuesday: Coastal Cloud, One Hammock Beach Parkway, Palm Coast, from 2 to 5 p.m.
Wednesday: Flagler County Public Transportation Department, 5400 State Road 100, Palm Coast, 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Wednesday: Aldi, 5095 State Road 100, Palm Coast, from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Saturday: Chick Fil A, 1000 Palm Coast Parkway, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Jail Bookings and Last 24 Hours' Incidents in Flagler, Palm Coast, Flagler Beach, Bunnell


Jail Bookings, June 19-22 Sheriff's night shift incident reports, June 21 Sheriff's day shift incident reports, June 21 Flagler Beach's night shift incident reports, June 21 Flagler Beach's day shift incident reports, June 21 Bunnell police's night shift incident reports, June 21 Bunnell police's day shift incident reports, June 21
Previous and archived reports

Sources: Flagler County Sheriff's Office, Flagler Beach Police Department, Bunnell Police Department. This is Flagler County's only comprehensive, one-stop compilation of all local law enforcement's daily day and night shift commanders' reports.

Announcements:

Flagler County Land Management on Thursday conducted its first prescribed fire of 2019 on an 11-acre section of Princess Place Preserve. Land Management assembled a team that also includes Flagler County Fire Rescue, Florida Park Service, and Florida Forest Service. “This is our first prescribed fire of the year and all of us working together, so we wanted to start small,” said Land Management Technician Mike Orlando, who was “burn boss” for this fire. Flagler County hired Orlando in April 2018 for his expertise as a Certified Burner Manager. He has worked about 500 prescribed fires in Florida. Fire is a natural and necessary component of wildfire mitigation and ecosystem maintenance within nearly all of Florida’s ecosystems, and vital to local Land Management duties as it maintains about 10,000 acres within Flagler. A successful prescribed fire, also referred to as a “controlled” fire, removes the hazardous level of fuel in a given area. Unplanned wildfires have a greater risk of being destructive, because the accumulation of vegetation serves as the fuel for these hotter, faster moving fires. Flagler County’s goal with prescribed fire in Princess Place Preserve is longleaf pine restoration. Longleaf pine already exists in the area of Thursday’s burn – which mimics the natural fires that have historically occurred every two to three years within longleaf pine ecosystems. A thriving ecosystem reduces the invasive species populations while enhancing other native plants and animals. “It’s all about the trees,” Orlando said. “Periodic fire supports a healthy forest, which has a diversity of plant and animal species.”

In Florida and in State Government:

Note: Some proceedings below can be followed live on the Florida Channel. Most legislative proceedings can be followed through the Senate or House websites.

INSURANCE ‘SUMMIT’ BEGINS: The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation will start a two-day insurance “summit,” with speakers including Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier and state Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg. (Tuesday, 9 a.m., Augustus B. Turnbull Florida State Conference Center, 555 West Pensacola St., Tallahassee.)

LAWMAKERS SEEK ARTS FUNDING: Orlando Democratic House members Carlos Guillermo Smith and Anna Eskamani will push for increased funding for arts and culture during a town-hall event. (Tuesday, 3 p.m. Orlando Repertory Theatre, 1001 E Princeton St., Orlando.)

PARK RESTORATION EFFORTS DISCUSSED: The Florida Department of Environmental Protection will hold a meeting about Hurricane Michael recovery efforts at T.H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park. (Tuesday, 5:30 p.m., Gulf Coast State College, Gulf/Franklin Campus, Building A, 3800 Garrison Ave., Port St. Joe.)

ST. JOHNS RIVER BRIDGE AT ISSUE: The Florida Department of Transportation will hold a meeting about proposed improvements to State Road 44, from west of County Road 42 in Lake County to east of Ed Stone Park in Volusia County, including a new bridge over the St. Johns River. (Tuesday, 5:30 p.m., Sanborn Activity and Event Center, 815 South Alabama Ave., DeLand.)

GULF RED SNAPPER AT ISSUE: The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will continue a series of meetings about state management of Gulf red snapper. The council is seeking input on a draft plan that would allow the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to set the recreational red snapper fishing season and, potentially, other management measures in state and federal waters off Florida. (Tuesday, 6 p.m., Harvey Government Center, 1200 Truman Ave., Key West.)

—-Compiled by the News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive

In Coming Days in Palm Coast, Flagler and the Occasional Beyond:

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A Twitter List by PierreTristam

Keep Up with Donald Trump’s attacks on the press through the ACLU’s running tab here.

Keep Up with mass shootings in a running database here.

Palm Coast Construction and Development Progress Reports

Here’s a summary of the latest city developments as of Jan. 11, 2019, with a link to the full week in review here.

Click to access palm-coast-week-in-review-jan-11-2019.pdf

Road and Interstate Construction: