An advisory group of retired city managers has recommended a short-list of seven candidates for Flagler Beach city manager, but city commissioners are free to decide for themselves who they will choose to interview when they discuss the pool of 57 candidates Thursday evening. The candidate will replace the late Larry Newsom.
Backgrounders
Flagler’s Cold-Weather Homeless Shelter, In New Home, Opens for 15 Guests With a Few Dollars’ Help from Local Governments
Flagler County’s only cold-weather shelter for the homeless moved from its old location after 12 years to Church on the Rock on U.S. 1, where it operated for the first time this year, on Monday and Tuesday nights, with security, privacy from formerly resentful neighbors, and elbow room to spare.
Flagler Sees Highest 2-Week Tally Yet as Covid Hits School, County and City Leaders and Passes 1 Million Mark in State
Leaders in Palm Coast, the Flagler County Fire Department and the district’s largest school are battling Covid-19 in a two-week stretch that’s also seen the highest number of infections in schools, where the plan is to continue the option of remote learning past Christmas.
The Strange Case of Cornelius Baker’s Dangling Fate on Death Row, 13 Years After a Bunnell Murder
Conflicting Supreme Court cases gave convicted murdered Cornelius Baker hope that he could get a new sentencing trial and escape the death penalty, as have two previous Flagler death row inmates. But the conflicting cases, again reflecting the contradictions of Florida’s capital punishment laws, now leave his fate in an absurd twilight zone.
Oral Arguments on Alachua’s Mask Mandate Evoke Hijabs, Nazis, KKK, Crime and, Finally, Public Health
Oral arguments about Alachua County’s mask mandate before a three-judge panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeal Monday was a spectacle of audacious leaps and strange analogies that nevertheless illustrated the sharp and far from resolved divide between mask proponents and anti-maskers, including on the judicial bench.
Powered by Vacation Rentals, Flagler’s Tourism Revenue Is Up Significantly as State’s Drops 30%
Flagler County’s tourism-tax revenue has gone up three successive months between July and September, substantially so in August and September, in contrast with statewide tourism revenue, which plummeted 30 percent in the third quarter. Vacation rentals, the beach, and vacationers traveling shorter distances account for the county’s success.
Flagler Public Health Director Echoes Strong CDC Directives Against Travel at Thanksgiving as Covid Surges
Bob Snyder, who heads the Flagler health department, has been warning for weeks that the combination of holiday gatherings, cooler weather and more indoor activities would result in quicker spread of the disease at a time when community spread is already out of control in much of the country and not exactly under control in Flagler.
Belle Terre Elementary Briefly Under Code Blue Alert for Bomb Threat This Morning
Belle Terre Elementary was placed under a “Code Blue” alert early this morning when a parent found a note in the parent’s child’s backpack mentioning a bomb. The parent found the note at the child’s home.
FPC Principal Tom Russell Reveals Covid Diagnosis as Cases Rise and State Extends Remote School Option To June
Russell’s revelation occurs as cases in Flagler and in Florida are rising sharply and the surge cascading over much of the nation, now reaching catastrophic proportions in many states, is beginning to ripple in Florida, where the state agreed to extend remote-learning options in all schools through June.
Palm Coast Fire Department Revives Its Junior Firefighter Program to Prepare Young Recruits for a Career
The program is not in competition with the Fire Academy at Flagler Palm Coast High School, but rather a complement to it: students enrolled in the academy are welcome to apply to be in the fire department’s program as it would provide the natural steps in the progression toward becoming a firefighter.