City Walk, the beleaguered strip mall and home to Palm Coast city offices, will change its name to get away from Universal’s trademark strips in Orlando and Hollywood.
Don’t Fall For It: The “Obama Mom” College Grant Scam
Obama mom ads are everywhere. But there’s no such thing as an Obama grant for moms, who are eligible for Pell Grants, student loans and other aid like anybody else.
Coming Soon: A Rickshaw Service for Flagler Beach
It’s zero emission. It’s available in many big cities. And it’ll be offered in Flagler Beach in August.
Palm Coast Goals: No Tax Hike, 8-10% Cuts, 10-15 Jobs Gone; City Hall Plans Unscathed
The Palm Coast City Council wants to keep property taxes the same, compensating for revenue with fees, fines, loans and reserves, and still build a new city hall.
Ormond’s River Grille Owner Closer to Taking Over Flagler Beach’s Pier Restaurant
The iconic Pier Restaurant’s lease is up in two years. The city owns it. The city will negotiate with a new owner immediately, to the displeasure of locally owned Flagler Fish Company.
Battling Referendums: School Tax Will Compete With Building Tax in November
In the wost of times, voters will be asked to approve a tax levy to continue existing funding on top of a new tax favored by the chamber of commerce for building commercial properties.
Move Over, Delbrugge: How Janet Valentine Shifted the School Board on a Tax Levy
New School Superintendent Janet Valentine quietly showed her political and parliamentary skills when she turned the board from opposing to approving a school tax referendum.
About That Shooting at Sheriff’s Capt. Mark Carman’s Palm Coast House
In an incident never publicly reported, Jane Carman, the Palm Coast Sheriff’s Captain’s wife, fired two shots at their home while intoxicated and turned on a patrol car’s sirens.
Palm Coast Arts Foundation’s Methods Assailed Again–Unjustly, Its President Says
“They didn’t come up with any substantial numbers, or at least verifiable numbers,” a tourist council member said of the Palm Coast Arts Foundation’s plans for a banquet center.
This Week in Orlando: Culture Worth The Miles
The British Invasion’s Peter Blair Denis Bernard Noone, Henry James’ “Washington Square” on stage, Ntozake Shange, play, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide,” violinists Olga Feroni, and Julia Gessinger in “Strings of Passion,” and much more.
Palm Coast Data Parent Revenue Drops 21% in 2010, Accelerating to 24% in Last 3 Months
Palm Coast Data, largest of its parent companies’ operations, lost close to $24 million in revenue this year.
Tennis Tourney, Hispanic Festival and Maya Conference Cleared for Tax Subsidies
The $20,500 in bed-tax dollars will help the three organizations publicize their events in coming months.
A Suspicious Death in Bunnell, A Suicide at European Village
The father of three young boy is found dead in his bed after two days, and a 31-year-old woman hangs herself at European Village.
“It Stinks That Flagler County Is Losing You”: School Board Bids Delbrugge Farewell
In an emotional half hour that mixed bawdy humor with Hallmark-quality sorrow, the School Board said goodbye to Superintendent Bill Delbrugge Tuesday evening.
This Week’s Crime Reports
A flat-screen TV robbery that mostly ended on the cutting room floor, several stolen items from unlocked cars, and more.
Florida Leads States’ Failures in Reporting Problem Caregivers
Florida leads the nation in ignoring federal database reporting of health professionals who have been disciplined on the job, undermining background and safety checks on frontline caregivers.
Beat Shuffle at the News-Journal
The paper is making fewer changes than meet the eye while continuing to attempt to do a little more with far less.
School Tax Rising for Second Year, Compensating for Crashing Property Values
The tax rate remains a third below where it stood in the mid-1990s, even though property values have fallen by a third just in the past three years.
Dirt-Bikes Crashing Around Bunnell Send 3 to Hospitals, Including an 11 Year Old
An 11 year old, a 16 year old and a 19 year old ended a late night of speeding around Bunnell on two dirt-bikes with broken limbs.
Black Community Will Protest Against Ceding Carver Gym Either to Bunnell or to Other Clubs
It’s no longer merely about keeping Carver Gym open, but about keeping it in the hands of the community it serves, and out of the hands of Bunnell and the Boys and Girls Club.
On Again: Sheriff Agrees to Terms for Moving to Old Courthouse; $6 Million, Anyone?
The county readies to spend $143,00 for design work that would ease the sheriff’s way to the old courthouse, but the move is still short $6 million.
Flagler Beach Wrangle: Commissioner Settle Demands Apology. Mealy’s Reply: Hell No.
The “fragmented” city commission Jane Mealy referred to last week is becoming more so as a fellow-commissioner calls out Mealy through a letter to the mayor.
Take the Tour of Your Newest School: Buddy Taylor Middle Is Reborn Yet Again
The $13.2 million renovation is complete, and the county’s second-oldest school looks and feels new again. A photo gallery.
Photo Gallery: The Renovated Buddy Taylor Middle School
A photo gallery featuring some 30 images of the renovated school and its surrounding grounds.
Food Safety Inspections End At Florida Hospitals, Child Cares and Nursing Homes
A new law designed to diminish duplication of services ends them instead, as food-preparation for children, the sick and the elderly will go mostly uninspected from now on.
Chalking Up Crime-Fighting to Sidewalk Art
Sidewalk chalk artists are summoned to the campus of Flagler Palm Coast High School the evening of Aug. 3 for a contest and much more.
Botox for Historic Holden House, Age 92
The $23,400 renovation will restore one of the county’s oldest buildings’ original color and windows and lend the Flagler historical society’s headquarters even more of a museum feel.
Sunshine Fusion: Florida Art, Music & History Merge in Landmark Symphonic Performance
Mark your calendars for this one: A uniquely Florida, uniquely artistic performance of “A Historic Portrait in Sound” combing painting, music and words Sept. 18-19 in DeLand.
Flagler and Volusia Unemployment Rising Again, Florida’s Dipping for 3rd Month
Flagler’s 15.4 percent unemployment rate makes it the second-worst in the state after Hendry County’s 16.1 percent.
Dan Warren, Conqueror of St. Augustine at Its Bleakest, Still Heroic After All These Years
Dan Warren, who took on and broke the KKK’s grip on St. Augustine in the pivotal summer of 1964, was in Flagler Beach for an evening of conscience-rousing Thursday.
Compact Shuffles Bad Nurses Like Parishes Shuffling Bad Priests
A 24-state nursing compact, which does not include Florida, enables nurses to evade their shady pasts merely by moving to a new job.
What Bunnell Could Learn from the County’s Courtesy Notices on Government Meetings
County government usually goes out of its way to comply with the spirit as well as the letter of the open-government law. It didn’t when it came to Bunnell’s meeting on Carver Gym.
Flagler Manatee Committee Report Concludes: Against Speed Zones. Just “Education.”
No surprise: a local committee stacked with boating advocates is recommending against most manatee-protecting speed-zone recommendations on the Intracoastal by a state conservation agency.
More Roll Than Smash in Early Morning Crash on U.S. 1 Near Matanzas Woods
A 62-year-old driver from Palm Coast and on her way to work in an SUV rolled once off US1 Thursday morning.
Sheriff’s Budget: Few New Deputies, No Raises, More Bottled Water and Drug Money
The 2011 budget, reflecting the enduring recession, is almost the same as it was this year, leaving the number of deputies on patrol virtually static.
Mandatory Mediation on Home Mortgage Foreclosures To Start in Flagler July 19
Mediation is designed to reduce the caseload on the court system and help people stay in their homes. Whether it actually works is open to question.
Beyond Sunshine: Maneuvers Over Carver Gym Reopen Wounds Flagler Claims to be Mending
Bunnell Commissioner Jenny Crain-Brady’s well-intentioned but half-secret meeting over Carver Gym undermined the very trust she claims to be building toward keeping the gym open.
Your Water Management District Tax Next Year: $42 (On Average, Anyway)
The tentative $247.4 million budget is 21 percent, or $65.8 million, less than the current fiscal year’s amended budget. Half the budget is made up of your property taxes.
Classic Landon: County on Notice that Palm Coast Will Annex Airport. County Begs to Differ.
Palm Coast made it seem as if bringing the National Guard to Flagler was mostly its doing. That would be news to the county government. But more is at stake between the two.
National Guard Targets Flagler, But Reserve Center Depends on Congressional Funding
The $21 million, 80,000-square-foot facility near the county airport isn’t likely to be built until 2014. It’ll house 21 soldiers.
This Week in Orlando: Culture Worth The Miles
Marc Cohn, Clyde Butcher, a theater festival, new ballet stars, Herman’s Hermits’ 60s, and much more.
Bunnell’s Crain-Brady Leads Half-Secretive Meeting of 4 Gov’t Agencies on Carver Gym
The meeting on July 8 was intentionally not noticed according to the Sunshine Law even though it was an essential part of the decision-making process on Carver Gym’s future.
Tennis Bracelet Stolen from Kay Jewelers on SR 100
The man wasn’t happy with a two-carat bracelet. He was shown a three-carat one. He liked it, and ran out of the store.
State’s Largest Districts Find “Significant Anomalies” in FCAT Results and Demand Halt to Grading
In the latest FCAT testing scandal this year, superintendents want FCAT tests investigated before high-stakes school grades are released.
Spy-and-Snap Red-Light Cameras Will Enrich Private Company At Palm Coast’s Expense
The traffic cameras generated $1.7 million for Palm Coast since 2008. Most of that money will now go to a private company and to Tallahassee, while the cameras keep snapping.
Florida Beaches Stay Open Despite Tar Balls and Sicknesses
Despite EPA warnings that some Florida beaches may be unsafe, people are taking to them–and getting sick.
Conservation in Contempt: How Palm Coast Opened the Way to Urbanizing Bulow Creek
Under the guise of having to rezone land it recently annexed, the Palm Coast City Council enabled the highest-density zoning possible in the sensitive Bulow Creek watershed.
Best of the Rest: July 11, 2010
Mark Twain’s latest, Harper Lee’s Mockingbird at 50, the problem with journalists, Florida’s war on the homeless, and more.
Flagler Beach Manager’s Job List at 83 Names; School District’s Mike Judd Withdraws His
Flagler Beach commissioners will begin paring down the list in August but are unlikely to have a new manager in place by Oct. 1.
Dysfunction in Flagler Beach: Jane Mealy Rails at a “Fragmented” and Meddling Commission
Mealy criticized fellow commissioner Steve Settle by name and alluded to Ron Vath in a wide-ranging indictment of micromanagement. Her two colleagues disagree, but welcome a future meeting on the matter.