The Flagler Beach City Commission has a new mayor in Patti King following a non-election that saw her seated without opposition as her predecessor, Susie Johnston, chose not to run. And in a snub to tradition he prompted, though it wasn’t intended to be on his behalf, Scott Spradley was elected chair, leaving Commissioner Rick Belhumeur dejected over being passed over.
Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local News
A $15,000 Plan to Transform the Foot of the Flagler Beach Bridge Into a Passive, Inviting Park
The Flagler Beach City Commission this evening is expected to approve a $15,000 plan transform a small area beneath the west side of the Flagler Beach bridge into a passive park with a proposed $7,500 grant from the Florida Inland Navigation District and an equal, matching amount from the city’s general fund. An obscure state land preservation agency owns a small portion of the same land, which may create a complication.
Flagler Beach’s Impact Fee Consultant Counters Home Builders Association’s Criticism Ahead of Commission Decision
L. Carson Bise, president of the consultancy Flagler Beach government hired to prepare a study proposing a 90 percent increase in the city’s impact fees levied on builders, on Wednesday responded point by point to questions and criticism of the study by the executive officer of the Flagler Home Builders Association, a day before the city commission is expected to vote on the proposal. Not all the responses appear entirely tenable.
BJ’s Wholesale Club in Palm Coast Will Be Company’s 38th Store in Florida
BJ’s Wholesale Club, a leading operator of membership warehouse clubs, announced today the five newest clubs coming to its footprint, including the Palm Coast location on State Road 100. The local 103,000 square foot store will be part of a shopping center that will include other businesses, including a Miller’s Ale House and four other satellite businesses.
Palm Coast Seeks Residents’ Input on City’s Vision for its Future as Imagine 2050 Plan Begins Phase 2
The draft Vision Statement and Guiding Principles are now available for review and feedback on the City of Palm Coast’s interactive website. The city invites residents to visit the website and share thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. Residents’ identities are not revealed–in other words, residents may share their thoughts anonymously.
Proposed 90% Increase in Flagler Beach Impact Fees Shadowed by Questions and a Looming Development
After hearing it first proposed last July and twice opting not to adopt it just yet since, the Flagler Beach City Commission will try again to approve a revised impact fee schedule that would raise water and sewer fees for the first time in 14 years and create new impact fees for parks, police, fire and the library system. But questions about the study rationalizing the new schedule, including from a city commissioner and from the Flagler County Home Builders Association, continue to shadow the proposal.
Aborting Former Commitment, School Board Votes 3-2 To End Belle Terre Swim Club’s Public Memberships By July
Three Flagler County School Board members–Christy Chong, Will Furry, Sally Hunt–voted Tuesday to close the Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club to the public, 28 years after it was gifted to the district, which has run it with public access to a swimming pool, tennis courts and a fitness gym. The facility has been a financial puzzle for the district for 10 years as well as a cherished institution for a loyal if diminished corps of members. The closure to the public will not end the facility’s financial deficits. It will only reduce them.
School Board’s Colleen Conklin Says County At One Time Paid Entire Cost of School Deputies
Speaking publicly for the first time about the revelation last month that county government was looking to pull back its share of funding for $1.4 million in “legacy” programs it helps pay for in the school district, including about $1 million for school resource deputies, Flagler County School Board member Colleen Conklin today asked for a public conversation, and said “disinformation” has obscured the fact that at one time, more than two decades ago, the county paid for the entirety of the bill.
Palm Coast Takes Stock of Its Capital Funds Ahead of Budgeting for Parks, Roads, Fire, Swales and Utilities
The Palm Coast City Council this morning got a glance at what the city’s own major capital or construction plans will look like over the next 10 years, where the money will come from, and what city projects may drive the spending. The review of the city’s Capital Improvement Plan, or CIP, combines the tedious with the essential, delineating the wishful from the possible.
Marcus Chamblin Trial in Circle K Murder Set for April 8 as Co-Defendant Derrius Bauer Waits Until September
The trial of Derrius Braxton Bauer on a first-degree murder charge in the shooting death of Deon O’Neal Jenkins at a Palm Coast Circle K station in 2019 has been pushed to September to first accommodate the trial of Bauer’s co-defendant, Marcus Chamblin, set for April 8. The Chamblin trial includes a potential list of over 120 witnesses, will stretch over two weeks, and will be one of the more complex local criminal trials in recent years.
The Firing of Palm Coast City Manager Denise Bevan Is Indefensible
Setting aside fairly raised implications by two city council members of sunshine-law violations, there were inexcusable elements of brutality, arbitrariness, and sexism in the firing of Palm Coast City Manager Denise Bevan last week, none of which should be swept past by claims that it’s over and done with, that we should move on. Those claims only benefit the firing’s orchestrators and reward the ill manner of it all. They explain nothing. Explanations are due.
Michael Wells Sentenced to 21 Months in Prison for Standoff With Deputies and Domestic Violence
Michael Wells, the 57-year-old Palm Coast resident at the center of a two-hour standoff with police on Brunswick Lane that ended with several felony charges last September was sentenced today to 21 months in prison followed by 24 months on drug-offender probation.
Bunnell’s Chicken Pantry Is No More After 68 Years of Joyfully Frying Everything That Moves
After 68 years in business under more than half a dozen owners and in two locations, Bunnell’s Chicken Pantry is no more. Bunnell City Manager Alvin Jackson, whose office is across the way, said he’d been hearing of the business having financial difficulties before he saw the iconic red chicken on State Road 100 had been removed.
Joint Investigation Leads to Arrest of Antarius Henderson, 23, in Bunnell Shooting that Left 20 Year Old Critical
The shooting incident in Bunnell’s South Anderson Street involved three people firing some 30 or 31 shots (police recovered 31 shell casings): Henderson, the 19-year-old man he’d been fighting with, and a 17-year-old boy. Some of the residents around the scene of the shooting, including young children, hid in their bathrooms as bullets flew.
Palm Coast Approves Steps for Trio of Developments That Will Add 689 Homes in North and South of City
The Palm Coast City Council and its planning board between them approved different steps for a trio of developments in north and south Palm Coast that will add a combined 689 single-family homes to the city’s inventory. The approvals were for the final plat of Phase 2B of Sawmill Branch off U.S. 1, the final plat of Seminole Palms Phase 1 on the west side of Seminole Woods Boulevard, north of Grand Landings Parkway, and for the subdivision master plan of Sawmill Branch Phase 3.
Chamber Never Consulted Superintendent Before Snatching ‘State of Flagler Schools’ For Its Own, and Charging Money
The local chamber of commerce is hosting a $30-a-plate lunch on April 30 featuring School Superintendent LaShakia Moore and billed as “The State of Flagler Schools,” the title of an address the superintendent has traditionally delivered publicly, for free, once a year. The chamber never bothered to consult Moore about it or, as a courtesy, ask if it could appropriate the public event’s name—let alone for a pay-to-attend event. The Flagler Education Foundation, a co-sponsor, is not getting a share of the proceeds.
Old Kings Road at U.S. 1 Closes for Months for Roundabout Construction
Flagler County officials are alerting residents that Old Kings Road will be closed at U.S. 1 by the Florida Agricultural Museum beginning Monday for several months to accommodate road construction there. There is a marked detour at Matanzas Woods Parkway that motorists are instructed to use.
‘Promenade at Town Center’ Will Add 204 Apartments Atop Shops in First Development of Its Kind There
Palm Coast’s Town Center will finally get the kind of development that was meant to define it when it was conceived in 2003–a 17-acre project mixing commercial, retail and residential uses in a six-building complex totaling 233,000 square feet, called The Promenade at Town Center. It’ll be right in the center of it all: at the southwest corner of Bulldog Drive and Central Avenue, with 1,100 feet of frontage on Central–about three football fields’ length—and 350 feet on Bulldog.
60-Day Rabies Alert Issued for Parts of Palm Coast After Cat Tests Positive
The Florida Department of Health in Flagler County is issuing a rabies alert for parts of the county. This is in response to a cat that tested positive on March 15. So far this year, as of Wednesday, the Department of Health lists 1,565 cases of possible rabies exposure in Florida, including 136 cases in Broward County, 125 in Miami Dade and three in Flagler. Twenty-three people have died of rabies in the country since 2009.
Sally Hunt Is Right: Security Isn’t What It Should Be in Flagler’s Biggest Public Building
Flagler County School Board member Sally Hunt is right when she deems certain public meetings less than secure. The county and the school board need to to take their own and the public’s safety more seriously in the Government Services Building–the county seat–not with harebrained ideas like locking public meetings’ doors, but with reasonable, inexpensive and unintrusive measures such as metal detectors that are becoming standard in public buildings.
A Hunter In Bunnell Is Mistaken For a Wild Turkey and Shot In Front of His Young Sons
Frank Coleman Whiddon, a 37-year-old Pierson resident, was turkey-hunting with his two sons–one of whom was celebrating his 12th birthday– right at sunup Sunday morning in the woods near Bunnell when he was himself mistaken for a turkey by another hunter and shot.
Sheriff, Palm Coast and County Examine How to Share Burden of Adding 3 Dozen Deputies Over Next 3 Years
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office has a current deficit of 37 road deputies, according to an analysis produced for the Sheriff’s Office, Palm Coast and the county. The analysis is intended to yield an objective, permanent method of paying for law enforcement based on calls for service. The analysis was the centerpiece of a joint meeting today of the two governments and the Sheriff’s Office as they devise ways to share the burden of law enforcement funding.
Out of Her Control: Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin Explains Why He Fired City Manager Denise Bevan
In a 40-minute interview Tuesday afternoon, Alfin explained what led him to make his motion, threading a needle between lavish praise for Bevan in one sentence and sharp criticism of city management in the next, while explicitly conceding that Bevan may have been the victim of political circumstances. Bevan, in sum, paid a paid a price for election-year political currents she was not in control of.
Eric Cooley Wins 3rd Term on Flagler Beach Commission in Subdued Election as Trump Takes Presidential Primary
Incumbent Flagler Beach City Commissioner Eric Cooley won his third three-year term today in a subdued municipal election framed by the Republican presidential primary, which former president Donald Trump–the only candidate not to have suspended his or her campaign–unsurprisingly won.
2 Fellow-Council Members Sharply Criticize Ed Danko for Leaving Meeting to Campaign After Firing City Manager
Palm Coast City Council members Theresa Pontieri and Nick Klufas, who were on the losing end of a 3-2 vote that fired City Manager Denise Bevan this morning, were sharply critical of Vice Mayor Ed Danko, who left the meeting immediately after the firing to campaign at the public library. Both council members hinted that Danko had shown up to the meeting only to cast the firing vote, and that he therefore knew about the vote ahead of time–what would amount to a sunshine law violation.
Palm Coast City Manager Denise Bevan Unceremoniously Fired Without Cause in 3-2 Vote on Mayor’s Motion
In a stunning move, Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin this morning motioned to fire City Manager Denise Bevan, without cause. The motion carried, 3-2, with Alfin and Council members Ed Danko and Cathy Heighter in the majority.
Ex-Marine Offended By Jesus Joke Repeatedly Stabs One Man and Pummels Another at Palm Harbor Pkwy. Circle K
Hunter Detherow, a 22-year-old former U.S. Marine, is at the Flagler County jail on $300,000 bond following accusations that he repeatedly stabbed one man and beat up another after a discussion on religion took a bad turn at the Circle K at Palm Harbor near midnight Sunday.
Admitting to Role in Killing Him, Tyrese Patterson Called 16-Year-Old Noah Smith His ‘Dog’ and ‘Best Friend’
Circuit Judge Terence Perkins has denied a motion by 22-year-old Tyrese Patterson’s attorney to exclude a long confession from his upcoming trial on a charge of murdering 16-year-old Noah Smith in a crossfire in Bunnell two years ago. That confession includes details about what led up to the killing, and how Patterson described his relationship with Smith as “best friends” who hung out together frequently. Startlingly, he also said the killing had not changed him.
Superintendent ‘Would Be Surprised or Shocked’ By County’s Move Away from School Deputy Support
Dampening the county’s hopes to reduce the $1 million it contributes to the School Board to pay for sheriff’s deputies in every school–and more in other “legacy” contributions, as the county calls them–Flagler Schools Superintendent LaShakia Moore says she does not see how the community would accept a retreat from the combined commitment by the School Board and the County Commission.
Florida Spring Break: Come for the Sunshine, Stay for the Measles.
Too many dunderheads are buying what dangerous anti-vaxxers like Ron DeSantis and his pet quack Joseph Ladapo are selling, so the measles virus is roaring back in Florida as the governor basks in a series of retro-reactionary new laws, from the end of the DEI movement in state universities to the ban on local governments’ attempts to treat their workers humanely in the face of climate change–a pair of words disallowed in the governor’s administration.
Shooting in Bunnell Leaves a 20-Year-Old Man in Critical Condition
A 20-year-old man is in critical condition after suffering gunshot wounds in Bunnell late Saturday night, according to Bunnell Police Chief Dave Brannon.
Paul Renner Vaunts His Tenure as Speaker and the Millions He Steered to Flagler, But Evades Saying What’s Next
House Speaker Paul Renner, the Republican who has represented Palm Coast at the Legislature for the last eight years, spoke for the first time at length about the record $150 million in appropriations he helped steer toward Flagler County while boasting of a successful session that increased money “across the board” for roads, schools, health care and green spaces. But he remained mum about his future as his term-limited tenure ends this year.
Flagler Beach Commission Authorizes Up to $22 Million in Loans for Pier Demolition and Reconstruction
The Flagler Beach City Commission Thursday unanimously approved a measure authorizing the city administration to temporarily borrow money internally for pier demolition, design and reconstruction costs now estimated to be $18 million. The debt would be repaid by a tax-exempt financing note, itself to be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars.
City Rep Theatre’s ‘Vinegar Tom’ Explores the Psychology of Witch-Finding
“ ‘Vinegar Tom’ uses the hunt for witches in the 17th century as a tool to investigate the subjugation of women in a male-dominated society,” says City Rep director John Sbordone. “The lessons of the past are reflected in many aspects of our own society.”
Census Bureau: Flagler County’s Population Was 131,500 Last July, an Increase of 16,000 in Three Years
Flagler County is again among the faster-growing counties in the nation, but not among the fastest. The county added 16,000 residents between 2020 and 2023, a 14 percent increase beginning to resemble the population surge of the early 2000s that was halted by the housing crash. Put another way: the county has grown by a population equivalent to more than three times the size of Flagler Beach in that brief span. Just since 2010, the county has grown by 40,000 people.
Houston Had a Problem. Flagler Sheriff’s Deputies Solved It: Suspected Armed Robber Arrested in Palm Coast
Asdrubal Rios Rodriguez, 35, was arrested amid a swarm of deputies, Glocks and rifles drawn, Tuesday on Palm Coast Parkway after authorities received an advisory from Houston police that the Tahoe Rodriguez was driving was connected with an armed robbery at a jewelry store. Some $79,000 in cash and several pieces of gold jewelry were found in the Tahoe.
After Torrent of Drainage Complaints, Only 2 Have Applied for Palm Coast’s New Advisory Committee So Far
Considering the throngs of complaints about drainage problems caused by new construction and the way they upended city priorities, it would not have been unreasonable for the council to expect that there’d be a flood of applicants to serve on the newly created Residential Drainage Citizens Advisory Committee meant to explore solutions. Three weeks into the application process, it hasn’t happened yet. Only two people have applied.
Wrongfully Arrested Migrant To Be Freed on Immigration Bond as Civil Rights Suit Is Filed Against St. Johns Sheriff
Virgilio Aguilar Mendez, the Guatemalan migrant who had been wrongfully arrested outside his motel in St. Johns County last May and charged with manslaughter after the sudden death by heart attack of his arresting deputy, is to be released from federal custody on an immigration bond this week. On Tuesday, one of his attorneys filed an amended federal lawsuit accusing St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick of violating Mendez’s civil rights.
Thieving Trio Leads Cops on Chase From Target Shopping Center Before Crashing into Retention Pond
A thieving trio wanted on numerous warrants from other counties or on probation allegedly got away with $1,837 worth of merchandise from two Palm Coast businesses before leading police on a chase along State Road 100 and crashing into a retention pond near the intersection with I-95 Tuesday afternoon.
Imagine 2050: Residents Fear Small-Town Tranquility Is History as City Plans for Its Long-Term Future
Preserve the city’s greenery, temper growth, manage roads, bring in more businesses and arts and culture choices: those are some of the major themes gathered from thousands of interactions with Palm Coast residents and synthesized for the Palm Coast City Council today as it heard a mid-point update in its year-long rewrite of the city’s Comprehensive Plan, the long-term blueprint for growth and how the city imagines itself at half century.
Rights-Of-Way Ban on Realtor or Any Signs Will Remain as Palm Coast Moves to Adopt New Ordinance
Nine years after its attorney said it would have to change its sign ordinance to comply with a new Supreme Court ruling, the Palm Coast City Council appears ready to adopt those new rules and maintain a long-standing ban on Realtor or other signs in rights-of-way, except for government signs.
State Road 100 Repaving from Bunnell to Old Kings Road Begins April 1
Flagler County officials advise residents that the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) road resurfacing project for State Road 100 – East Moody Boulevard – will begin April 1. The project area runs from North Palmetto Street in Bunnell to Old Kings Road in Palm Coast.
Legal Or Not, Only Immigrants Can Save America
The United States avoided a recession largely because of a surge in immigration, and its economic output is expected to be $7 trillion higher over the next 10 years largely because of immigration–legal or not: the Congressional Budget Office doesn’t distinguish between the two. As native-born fertility declines and Americans age, the country cannot afford to close its borders. Those immigrants at the border aren’t an invasion. They’re not a crisis. They’re a lifeline: theirs and ours.
47-Year-Old Woman Dies, Man Critical in Single-Vehicle Crash on I-95 Near Old Dixie Highway
A 47-year-old woman lost her life when the vehicle she was riding in struck and flipped over the guardrail on I-95 north of Old Dixie Highway late Saturday night. The driver, a 47-year-old man from Hastings, was in critical condition.
Flagler County’s Unemployment, at 4.1%, Registers Second-Highest Total of Unemployed in Over 2 Years
Flagler County’s unemployment rate again crossed the 4 percent threshold, for the fourth time in six months, registering at a not-seasonally adjusted 4.1 percent in January, up from 3.7 percent in December and 3.6 percent a year ago. The more telling average of the last 12 months was 3.7 percent, compared to 3.3 percent for the previous 12 months, underscoring a small but perceptive trend upward.
To An Increasingly Hysterical Right, Women and Their Bodies Are a Danger To the Republic
What’s America’s biggest problem? Not catastrophic climate change; not income inequality; not systemic racism. It’s women. OK, also communists. They’re everywhere, but the Florida Legislature means to nip that in the bud. But even the threat of a worker’s revolt pales in comparison to the Woman Problem. To the increasingly hysterical Right, women — and their unruly bodies — are a danger to the Republic.
Flagler County and Cities Net Record $151 Million of Half Billion Requested as Budget Heads to DeSantis
The budget includes $151 million in appropriations for Flagler County, Palm Coast, Flagler Beach and Bunnell, a record besting last year’s haul by about $45 million. Palm Coast’s future, western expansion drew $80 million for the loop road the city is planning, but existing residents’ needs for a better Old Kings Road were stiffed. Flagler County is facing a funding cliff next year as Paul Renner and Travis Hutson will be gone.
Five 11-Year-Old Indian Trails Students and Community Problem Solvers Experience Alzheimer’s ‘Through Their Eyes’
Five Indian Trails Middle School sixth graders–Anabella Glasco, Anthony Demaio, Katelyn Castello, MacKenzie MacDonald and Priya Vargas–put themselves through experiences replicating Alzheimer’s disease and interviewed dementia patients as they developed a Community Problem Solvers project called “Through Their Eyes.” The team, one of several from Flagler County, is showcasing its project in state competition this weekend in Orlando.
‘Reading Is My Passion’ Sums Up Read Across Flagler Literacy Celebration Bookmarked by Media Specialists
Read Across Flagler Literacy Night at Palm Coast’s Town Center was as much a celebration of reading as it was of the school district’s media specialists who, pound for pound, have been the single-most besieged group of professionals in the district in the last couple of years of book bans, disrespect and ignorant rhetoric from the very school board members who should be championing them.
Renner Power: Lawmakers Curb Local Regulations of Vacation Rentals, But Protect Flagler’s Ordinance With Carve-Out
The bill would preempt regulation of vacation rentals to the state while allowing local governments to have short-term rental registration programs that meet certain parameters. The bill would “grandfather” in regulations adopted by counties before 2016. During floor debate Thursday, Senate sponsor Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, said the exception applies to Flagler County — home to House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast — and Broward County.