A phoenix-like Bull Creek Fish Camp at the end of County Road 2006 is a few weeks from completion, and a new restaurant will open there around Labor Day to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.
As team efforts go, this one goes beyond the clichés. The fish camp is again a county landmark thanks County Commissioner Leann Pennington, who refused to let stand the county’s plans never to build there again, to a long-shot grant secured by Flagler County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord, and thanks to county crews, who limited construction costs by keeping the project in-house.
Some 12 to 15 county General Services employees built the majority of the 5,000-square-foot building on an elevation of several feet of fill trucked in to prevent future flooding. The $1.5 million project was funded with a $1.2 million hurricane recovery grant through the state Department of Emergency Management, plus some general fund and park impact fee money.
The crews built new decks, railings and a new boat ramp and lined the elevated grounds with coquina revetments.
“I think it’s beautiful, considering we were going to get nothing back,” Commission Chair Leann Pennington said this morning during one of her frequent visits to the work site. “We were never going to build here again. To me it’s a blessing.”
Hurricane Nicole’s tropical storm lashings in November 2022 left the Bull Creek Fish Camp restaurant ruinously flooded, the deep waters in and around it indistinguishable from Dead Lake. The county declared the building a loss. Elegantly rustic though it still looked, the structure had aged faster than its 26 years. The last restaurant to try to make a go of it there had struggled.
The county announced in January 2023 that it would demolish the 2,500 square foot building. It had no plans for a rebuild. Pennington, who represents the west side of the county, was taken aback by the administration’s decision.
The following month Pennington, then barely a few weeks into her tenure on the commission, called for a replacement amenity. It didn’t have to be a restaurant. But she didn’t want the Bull Creek campground adjacent to what used to be the fish camp to have no amenity. The county, however, had no money.
In came Lord. He knew of the state Department of Emergency Management money. The state legislature had appropriated it to cover disaster costs after Hurricanes Ian and Nicole that were not covered by Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursements. Bull Creek was not eligible for FEMA grants because it sits in a flood plain, and what money the county would have received from FEMA would not have been enough. The county would have rebuilt Bull Creek at a loss.
When Lord inquired about using state grant money, the state told him to go for it. It was on a first-come, first-served basis. He hurried in an application. “I figured it was a long shot,” Lord said. He got the grant. “It was all these little bits and pieces that fell into line,” he said.
Monday evening, the County Commission is expected to approve a five-year lease with Jessica Norton-Henry and the mother-son team of Pamela White and Joshua White, who will run the Bull Creek Fish Camp restaurant. Rent will be $500 a month. Pennington doesn’t dispute that it’s low. But the county wants to be realistic about helping a business make it in what could be an unforgiving part of the county for a restaurant. “We want to make sure they’re successful,” the commissioner said.
“It was impossible to find people who wanted to commit to it without seeing it,” Pennington said, recalling that it had to be put out to bid twice before the Whites won the bid. “I know the restaurant struggled because it’s hard to get repetitive business. You need people coming every day.” The county will amplify signage at the intersection of County Road 2006 and County Road 205, and the county’s tourism bureau will be promoting the opening.
The new leaseholders live in the area, which will make it easier for them to run the business. Pennington held a town hall to get a better idea of what residents there wanted as an amenity. They asked for a restaurant that will offer breakfast, Southern food, and at least some low-cost options.
“It’s the number one issue people reach out to me out here, is when is Bull Creek going to open,” Pennington said. “People message me all the time. It’s got to be once, twice a week, some weeks it’s more. People thought it wasn’t coming back.”
It almost didn’t. And once construction began, crews felt like they were building on cursed ground as hitches, delays and difficulties piled up, Brad Cordero, chief of trades construction, said. The supply issues were especially pronounced, and getting fill to the site was a challenge. He credited the county crews–AC technicians Ryan Powell, head electricians Dylan Cash and Kevin Cole, Richard Cribbs and Scott Raymondi, among others–for the work.
Lord last visited the project a month ago. “It’s exciting to see it come to fruition,” he said. “We built back a historical facility in a way that’s now going to be a lot more resilient.”
The prefabricated building began with a prefabricated 960-square-foot kitchen. The building was assembled around it, with an indoor seating area of 2,500 square feet and an outdoor, screened-in area of 850 square feet, that one overlooking Dead Lake, with a western view that in the evening will be one of the county’s better spots for sunset gazing.
From top to bottom, the building is built for efficiency and resiliency, in accordance with the grant that funded it. Though a metal building, Cordero swears by its spray insulation. “It’s so well insulated, it doesn’t take much AC or heat,” he said. (The utilities will be the responsibility of the lease holders.) Below foot, the concrete slab is 6 inches thick, with double rebar a foot apart. The surroundings of the building will be shelled rather than paved, to allow for percolation.
“You can’t ask for a better restaurant, you couldn’t ask for a better kitchen building setup,” says Daniel Nicholas, assistant director of general services. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”
“Now we just need an outstanding operator to deliver,” Pennington said.
There is a risk that, because of the building’s location and past history, and no matter how dedicated the operator may be, the restaurant won’t make it. If so, the contingency is that the space will be converted into an event and community center.
“Worst case scenario,” Nichols said, “it’s the crown jewel of our community centers.”
David Sullivan says
Well done Leann and Flagler County Public Works crew. This new facility will bring lots of enjoyment and use to our citizens and visitors. Sometimes the “Government” does work. Good luck to those who will be operating the restaurant.