Election Supervisors Square Off, Code Enforcement Board Enforces

fyo — The Flagler Youth Orchestra in an appearance at the Flagler County School board Tuesday evening, in a panoramic image taken by the district’s Jason Wheeler. Click on the image for larger view.

Today: Mostly cloudy. Showers likely and isolated thunderstorms in the morning…then chance of showers and isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the lower 80s. West winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70 percent. Tonight: Cooler. Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers in the evening…then mostly clear after midnight. Lows in the upper 50s. West winds 10 to 15 mph. Details here.
Today’s fire danger is moderate. Flagler County’s Drought Index is at 335.
Today’s tides: at the beaches, at the Intracoastal Waterway.
Today’s document from the National Archives.
The OED’s Word of the Day: muggins, n..
The Live Community Calendar
Today’s jail bookings.

Today’s Briefing: Quick Links

First Light
In Flagler and Palm Coast
Local News Recap
Flagler Jail Bookings and Sheriff’s Crime Reports
In State Government
In Coming Days in Flagler and Palm Coast
The Day’s Best Reads
Fact-Checking the Knaves
Summer Camps for Children
Palm Coast Construction and Development Progress Reports
Local Road and Interstate Construction
Cultural Coda

“Few great thoughts or turmoils were breeding in this region. It was a pleasant land of drowsy mind and idle eye–I could feel it.”

–Theodore Dreiser on returning to Indiana in “A Hoosier Holiday” (1945).

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.

This is teacher appreciation week.

The Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board meets at 10 a.m. at City Hall in Town Center. The agenda is here.

♦ May 4: The Flagler County Republican Club meets from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Palm Coast Community Center, 305 Palm Coast Pkwy NE, featuring the Flagler County Supervisor of Elections Forum, with the three candidates for office–incumbent Kaiti Lenhart and challengers Kimble Medley and Abra Seay–participating in a timed question and answer session. Open to all registered Republicans and their guests of whatever party or no-party affiliation. For more information, email Wes Priest here.

Local News Recap:

Updated jail bookings and day and night shift incident summary reports are available here.

Flagler School District Seeks to Be 1st in Florida To Use Concussion-Alert Football Helmets In an effort to enhance protection of student athletes at Flagler Palm Coast High School and Matanzas High School, the district today presented a plan to the school board that would replace current football helmets with a new technology that arms helmets with sensors and enables coaches and trainers to know in real time who is getting hit in the head and with what severity. That sort of data, coaches hope, will help add a layer of protection for students by more quickly and empirically alerting trainers when an athletes must be checked out and tested for a concussion.

Flagler County Quietly Scraps Plan for 3 New Emergency Communications Towers, For Now: Eight months after proposing to piggyback its emergency communications system for free on three new towers to be privately built in three key spots, the Flagler County administration has quietly been forced to drop the entire plan as the company, Jacksonville-based NexTower, pulled out of the deal.

Florida’s Death Penalty Alive and Willed as Guzman Is Sentenced to Die For 3rd Time in Daytona: A jury in Daytona Beach today voted 11-1 to recommend death for James “Chico” Guzman in the hacking to death of David Colvin, 48, at a motel on Ridgewood Avenue on Aug. 10, 1991.

County Floats Consolidation of Fire Services And Finally Agree to Meet With Palm Coast: It was not an easy-going meeting. Right from the start of this afternoon’s 90-minute Flagler County Commission workshop addressing ambulance service in Palm Coast—which the county provides—county commissioners, the county administrator and the county fire chief were questioning why they were having to go through today’s exercise to start with.

In Florida and in State Government:

Note: Most proceedings below can be followed live on the Florida Channel.

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam is expected to be among the speakers during the Palm Beach International Agricultural Summit, hosted by the Florida Chamber Foundation and the Economic Council of Palm Beach County. (All day event, Palm Beach County Convention Center, 650 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach.)

The Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments in four cases, including a dispute between State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance and a major Jacksonville hospital about information related to the hospital’s reimbursement rates. State Farm went to court against Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, now known as UF Health Jacksonville, in a dispute dealing with personal-injury protection auto-insurance claims and the hospital’s contracts with health insurers for other types of care. State Farm is seeking copies of the hospital’s contracts to determine if amounts billed by the hospital for auto-insurance injury claims were reasonable. An appeals court sided with the hospital, which argues it shouldn’t have to turn over the contracts. (9 a.m., Florida Supreme Court, 500 South Duval St., Tallahassee.)

The Florida Children and Youth Cabinet will meet in Sarasota. (9 a.m., State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, Lakewood Ranch Campus, 7131 Professional Parkway East, Sarasota.)

–Compiled by the News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive

In Coming Days in Palm Coast and Flagler:

Click on the links for more details:

♦ May 5: The Flagler Chamber of Commerce’s Common Ground Breakfast features Dr. Mark Martindale, University of Florida biology professor and director for the Whitney Laboratory of Marine Bioscience. He will talk about “the Benefits of Having a Marine Laboratory and Higher Education in Your Backyard.” Hilton Garden Inn, 7:45 to 9:30 a.m. Cost for Chamber members is $20 with advance registration or $30 the day of the event. Guests may attend for $30 with advance registration or $40 the day of the event. Reservations are due May 2 by 5 p.m. To register, email Jaclyn here.
♦ May 5: Bunnell holds its annual Day of Prayer celebration. members of the local pastoral community will be joining together in this ecumenical event at the Edward Johnson Park, 401 East Court Street (behind the Flagler Playhouse). Following the presentation of colors by a local honor guard, there will be live inspirational music and prayers given by guest pastors from the local community. The Master of Ceremonies will be Bishop Phillip King and the Keynote Speaker will be Pastor Kevin Laurent from First Baptist Church of Palm Coast. Clerics of all faiths have been invited. For more information, contact City Commissioner John Rogers, who chairs the program, at 931-1410 or Dan Davis, city manager, at 437-7500 Ext. 2303.
♦ May 5: The Palm Coast utility and public works union meets with Palm Coast’s management team in another bargaining session over a contract. The meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. in the community wing at City Hall. It is open to the public.

♦ May 6-8: “Sex, Drugs, Rock n Roll,” the Eric Bogosian play, is staged at City Repertory Theatre in Palm Coast, 160 Cypress Point Parkway in Palm Coast. Praised as both a writer and a performer, Bogosian originally wrote SDR&R as one of his half-dozen acclaimed one-man shows, and performed the show successfully off-Broadway in 1990. The New York Times called it his “funniest and scariest” work yet. As you might expect from City’s Producer-Director John Sbordone, who rarely does what you expect, the City production splits the show among 5 performers: Jonathan Haglund, Ron Long, Jim Fellows, Evelyn Lynn, and Sbordone himself. This company of artists become an angry lawyer, an in-recovery rock star, a high-powered businessman, and more, each character in some way related to one or more of the title vices. Performed at City Repertory on Friday and Saturday, May 6 and 7 at 7:30 p.m. and at 2 p.m. on Sunday May 8. This is the last show of the season for CRT. Tickets are $20. Book easily here.
♦ May 6: Pastor Charles Silano of Open Door Ministries and Grace Tabernacle Ministries, and a former convict, is the keynote speaker at the 25th graduation ceremony of Flagler County Drug Court at 3 p.m. in Courtroom 101 at the county courthouse.
♦ May 7: Arbor Day in Palm Coast’s Central Park. The Arbor Day 5K Root Run/Walk, begins at 8 a.m. Register here. At the main event, themed “Feed a Mouth, Get a Tree, Grow a Community,” attendees can exchange canned food or pet food items for a free three-gallon native hardwood tree (one tree per household, while quantities last). The Native Butterfly Release will be at 11 a.m. at center stage. Other fun activities are planned for all ages. A free paper-shredding service, so bring your old documents for professional shredding! Plan to take advantage of this hands-free, uncomplicated process as totes will be wheeled to your car to help unload your paper and bring it to a chute that dumps all of it into a shredder. Free admission and parking. Contact Palm Coast Urban Forester Carol Mini at 386/986-3722 for more information.
♦ May 10: Pegine Echevarria, a motivational speaker, headlines the Flagler Chamber of Commerce’s “Fearless and Focused Women in Business” lunch at the Hilton Garden Inn, 55 Town Center Parkway in Palm Coast. Echevarria, according to a chamber release, “is CEO of Team Pegine, a think tank, training and consulting, event management firm that specializes in leadership, team building, inclusion engagement and situational training.” The chamber took over the lunch series that was previously hosted by Palm Coast’s Business Assistance Center. Registration 11:30 to 11:45 a.m., $35 for chamber members with advance registration and payment, $40 the day of the event. Guests: $40 with advance registration and payment, $45 the day of the event. Reservations are due by May 5 by 5 p.m. Please call to reserve your seat or with questions, 386/437.0106.
♦ May 11: The Public Safety Coordinating Council meets at 8:45 a.m. at the Emergency Operations Center in Bunnell. The meeting will feature a discussion on the decriminalization of pot, with potential guests including the mayors, police chiefs and city managers from around the county.
♦ May 11: Palm Coast City Manager Jim Landon is the guest speaker at the free Lunch N’ Lecture at the Palm Coast Community Center, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The presentation, “Preparing for the Future, Improving our Past,” will include plenty of time for questions, so take the time to pre-register by calling the Parks and Recreation Department at 386-986-2323. Attendance includes a free lunch, if you reserve in advance. (space is limited).
♦ June 4: Flagler County’s Democratic Executive Committee holds a potluck picnic at Hershel King Park at 1000 Grady Prather Jr. Cove in Palm Coast starting at noon, with honorary guest James Canfield, first mayor of Palm Coast. Plenty of children’s activities, a dunk tank, ice cream truck, and a chance to meet Democratic candidates. Free admission includes hot dogs, baked beans and coleslaw.
♦ June 7: A 1:30 p.m. hearing is scheduled in the case of Anna Pehota, accused of second-degree murder in the shooting death of her husband on Sept. 23, 2015, in the Hammock. Her trial was scheduled for April 18, but her attorney, Ray Warren, was granted a delay so he could explore Pehota’s memory issues, which could play a deciding role in the handling of her case. The results of that inquiry are to be the subject of this hearing.

Survey Request: The River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO), which includes Palm Coast, is seeking input from residents of Palm Coast as it plans transportation improvements for the Metropolitan Planning Area (MPA) that includes Volusia County and portions of Flagler County. The TPO has launched a “Tell the TPO” campaign to survey people who live or work in Volusia and/or Flagler counties, as well as visitors. The 11-question survey can be accessed here. All responses received by May 31, 2016, will be placed in a drawing for a chance to win a free iPad Mini.

The Day’s Best Reads:

The nakedness of Cruz's vanity and his obvious ambition were always his biggest problems. https://t.co/lqM9no5fam pic.twitter.com/wIjWiyjcHb

— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) May 4, 2016

On #WPFD2016 PEN publishes Case List documenting decline in freedom of expression worldwide https://t.co/vdTTFxvZNA pic.twitter.com/pTL9FvFIpR

— PEN International (@pen_int) May 3, 2016

This man was exonerated yesterday for a 1964 murder in Brooklyn that he didn't commit. https://t.co/LyPx0PtZ7M pic.twitter.com/8WZYDQku2S

— The Marshall Project (@MarshallProj) May 3, 2016

https://twitter.com/EWDolan/status/727492937634828288

"I’d like to create a space for reflection that's rare in this society." – Dara Birnbaum https://t.co/t7WaDQw37I pic.twitter.com/sHgxZW17Mf

— Art in America (@ArtinAmerica) May 3, 2016

Fact-Checking the Knaves:

Palm Coast Construction and Development Progress Reports

The following is an update of ongoing permitting, construction and development projects in Palm Coast, through April 27:

Click to access progress-report-april21-27-2016.pdf

Summer Camps:

Florida Agricultural Museum Summer Camps: Become a junior farmer at the Florida Agricultural Museum this summer! Junior farmers will learn about farm life, forestry, and Florida history. Participate in arts & crafts, farm animal care, Florida fauna/flora education, fun and games. Sessions are all 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., $175 per session and are as follows:
1st) June 7-9
2nd) June 14-16
3rd) June 21-23
4th) June 28-30
5th) July 5-7
6th) July 12-14

Road and Interstate Construction:

Moody Boat Launch to close April 6 through May 20 for improvements: Flagler County’s Moody Boat Launch will be closed April 6 through May 20 for improvements. “The scheduled upgrade will enhance the launch’s usability in a number of ways,” said Heidi Petito, Director of General Services. “The new system provides for ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance, minimizes docking difficulties caused by fluctuating tides, and new lighting will promote boater safety and security.” The closure includes the Moody Boat Launch– located at 825 Moody Lane in Flagler Beach– the parking area, restroom, and dockage on the Matanzas River. It does not affect Betty Steflik Preserve and boardwalk. The scope of work includes dredging 1,650 yards of silt from the launch basin, thus improving navigability. The adjacent wooden docks will be replaced with an aluminum floating dock and gangway system. Additionally, the existing restroom will be replaced with an ADA compliant facility. Moody Boat Launch provides public access to the Intracoastal on the east shore, just south of SR100. The closest alternative boat launches are located at Herschel King Park on the west side of the river at 1000 Grady Prather Jr. Cove, Palm Coast, and Bing’s Landing on the east shore at 5862 N. Oceanshore Blvd. in Palm Coast.