Palm Coast’s Jerome Byron Malerba, 47, was sentenced to seven years in prison, two years on probation and a lifetime as a sex offender for luring and soliciting a girl starting when she was 13–when he offered her pot–and going on for 18 months. The judge used unusually strong language to describe Malerba as “creepy” and as a man who still blames the victim and covers himself in self-pity.
Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local News
Palm Coast’s $13.7 Million Southern Recreation Center: A Facility Designed for Way More than Pickleball and Tennis
Between its gathering and lounging areas, its food concessions, its trailhead, dog park, community garden and other amenities, the most important thing you should know about Palm Coast’s new Southern Recreation Center is that you don’t have to be a tennis player or a pickleball player to go there. That’s why the emphasis on that happily open-ended word: Recreation. You can fill in your own kind of fun. Here’s a tour.
DOA: Behind the County’s Clumsy Push to Defund School Deputies
Whichever way you look at it, the Flagler County Commission’s and its administrator’s letter to the school district calling for a plan to defund the county’s portion of money for school deputies was clumsy, terribly timed, and an unnecessary invitation to political grandstanding in an election year. Deputies aren’t going anywhere, nor is the county’s funding. But nor should this be another invitation for the School Board to consider harebrained ideas like arming staffers.
Mom Who Let Her 6-Year-Old Daughter Wander Onto CR 305 Is Sentenced to a Year in Prison
Circuit Judge Terence Perkins on Wednesday sentenced Sarah Anne Welker to a year in prison followed by four years on drug-offender probation. The 36-year-old mother left her 6-year-old daughter unsupervised for almost three hours until she wander unaccompanied on County Road 305, where she was seen flagging down passing cars for help. The sentence is to run concurrent to a case in Volusia County where she pleaded guilty to an identical charge in October and been placed on probation.
Vacation Rental Bill Scaling Back Local Control, Opposed by Flagler County Government, Heads to House Floor
The House Commerce Committee today approved a bill on a 10-4 vote pre-empting most vacation-rental authorities to the state. The bill heads to the House floor for a vote and reconciliation with the Senate’s version. It is the closest a pre-emption proposal has come to enactment in the dozen years that the vacation rental industry has pushed them.
Charles Kidd, Facing Murder Charge in Woodlands Killing, Was Suffering from Dementia and May Not Stand Trial
Charles Kidd, the 86-year-old former resident of Blare Drive in Palm Coast who shot and killed 36-year-old Mark Ruschmeier in August, was suffering from dementia severe enough at the time that two psychologists have concluded he is not competent to stand trial.
Three School Board Members Are Champing at the Bit to Close Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club to the Public
If they could have voted on it Tuesday, Flagler County School Board members Will Furry, Christy Chong and Sally Hunt would have closed the Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club to the public. They would have turned the 11-acre club gifted to the school board by ITT in 1996 into a facility for students and school programs only, with the exception of swimming pool rentals to other clubs or parties.
School Board and Parents Grapple with County’s ‘Blindsiding’ Call To Defund Its Portion of School Deputies
Flagler County School Board members and parents spoke of surprise, concern and “blindsiding,” in the words of the board’s chair, in reaction to a Feb. 13 letter from County Administrator Heidi Petito to the superintendent saying the county had reached “an important decision” to “gradually transfer the financial responsibility” for $1.4 million in “these legacy expenditures to the school district,” including the county’s more than $1 million commitment to school resource deputies.
Sally Hunt Is Again a No Show, Raising Questions Among Her School Board Colleagues and Her Seat
School Board member Sally Hunt’s “chronic” absences drew criticism from fellow-Board member Cheryl Massaro at today’s meeting, concerns about the functioning of a board that, without a majority, could see many of its actions fail (a 2-2 vote is equivalent to the death of a motion) and questions about Hunt’s seat when she resign, as she said she will.
Palm Coast Council Postpones Water Rate Increase in Face of Opposition, But Raises Utility Impact Fees on Builders
There will be no water and sewer rate increase in Palm Coast for now: the Palm Coast City Council today voted 4-1 to postpone a rate increase, while significantly raising “capacity,” or utility impact fees, the one-time levy on builders of new homes and businesses. That revenue is used to defray the cost of growth on the city’s utility infrastructure.