A majority of Flagler county commissioners ignored their administrator’s and finance director’s numbers and proposals today and told their staff to find ways to cut $2 million from the county’s own budget while ensuring that the sheriff and other constitutional officers, such as the clerk of court and supervisor of elections, get all the budget increases they’re asking for.
Flagler
Contradictory State Rule Upends Flagler Schools’ Plans for Rapid Testing of Teachers and Students
Plans by Flagler schools and the Health Department to minimize quarantines through rapid testing were upended by an emergency rule issued by the state on Friday. The rule appears to pre-empt the right of local authorities to use rapid testing for at least four days, and up to seven days, during which individuals must quarantine regardless.
Flagler Records 154 Covid Infections Today as AdventHealth Palm Coast’s In-Patients Soar to 86, Another Record
The 16-hospital AdventHealth network in Central Florida has 1,350 in-patients with covid, 400 more than it had during the highest previous peak of the pandemic last January. Patients who survive stay an average of 14 to 21 days at the hospital, averaging in age between 50 to 55–younger than in previous waves–but all ages have been seen in hospitals. Of the 1,350, some 350 are in ICU and on ventilators.
Expansion of Mosquito Spraying in Plantation Bay and Sawmill Creek Draws Mixed Reactions
A workshop intended to gauge public sentiment about modestly expanding the East Flagler Mosquito Control District to Plantation Bay and to a small area west of U.S. 1 drew just 10 people Wednesday evening, some fiercely opposed, some wager for the spraying.
In ‘Baffling’ Votes, County Commission Rejects More Probing Meeting Schedule It Had Adopted Just 3 Weeks Ago
Not big on hard work: County Commissioners Dave Sullivan, Joe Mullins, Donald O’Brien and Greg Hansen aren’t interested in pre-scheduled workshops to vet and discuss county business, as Palm Coast and the school board do, and as Commissioner Andy Dance was recommending. After agreeing to such a schedule just three weeks ago, the commission, with Dance in dissent, rejected it on Monday.
Flagler Health Department Chief Bob Snyder Reveals He Was a ‘Breakthrough’ Covid Case, But Vaccine Kept Symptoms Mild
Bob Snyder, the Flagler Health Department chief, had managed to make it through a year and a half of the pandemic’s most viral trenches unscathed, even when he was unvaccinated for two-thirds of that time.
Today, Snyder revealed he was among the “breakthrough” cases, contracting the delta variant recently despite his January vaccination. The infection barely sidelined him.
80 Hospitalized for Covid at AdventHealth Palm Coast as Infections in Flagler Continue to Soar: 900 in Last 7 Days
As many Flagler County residents got infected in the past seven days as did the total number of Flagler residents did in the first seven months of the pandemic last year, from January to Aug. 1, 2020. Two Flagler County commissioners today joined a very small number of elected officials who are asking residents explicitly to mask up and to get vaccinated, as the county’s vaccination rate remains below 50 percent.
Flagler Beach Mayor Suzie Johnston Is 1st County or City Elected Official To Call for Vaccines and Masks
The mayor was acting on her own, representing herself rather than the city of Flagler Beach. The statement was issued within hours of Gov. Ron DeSantis issuing an executive order banning masking requirements in public schools, and as he has continued to counter efforts by communities to institute more restrictive safety measures in the face of Florida’s (and Flagler’s ) unprecedented surge in covid cases.
‘Absolutely’: Health Chief Calls for Masks in Flagler Schools as AdventHealth Goes to Unprecedented ‘Black Status’
Flagler County Health Department Administrator Bob Snyder on Thursday said that whether vaccinated or not, students indoors should be wearing masks. Snyder’s unequivocal declaration stresses similar recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and physicians at AdventHealth.
Construction Begins on $9.5 Million Pedestrian Bridge over State Road 100, Linking Trail Network
Construction work for a long-anticipated pedestrian bridge crossing over State Road 100 began July 26. When completed, the bridge will link the Lehigh Trail, Old Kings Road sidewalk, conservation lands, and the Flagler County’s Bulow “Parcel D” property.