Flagler Beach commissioners want to crack down on contractors who are trashing the city, not respecting its rules or its residents, and leaving behind messes without being accountable. Commissioners are asking for stepped-up enforcement–either through a new ordinance or through the building official, who can issue stop-work orders if contractors continue to break rules.
“My concern,” Commissioner Rick Belhumeur said, is “how the contractors are treating us as a city, how they disrespect us by breaking our rules, parking where they’re not supposed to park, just leaving globs of asphalt over stamped crosswalks and freshly painted stop bars. I think we need to put our thumb on them a little more and make sure they clean up their messes, and that would include the asphalt on the roads and alleys that they’re destroying.”
Belhumeur–himself a builder and contractor, but a more conscientious one–was especially concerned about the pair of water main breaks that cut off water or reduced water pressure in swaths of the city last week. The breaks were caused by a contractor for Metronet, the highspeed internet company, as it was laying down cables along State Road 100. The punctures of city pipes occurred within 24 hours and 100 yards of each other.
Commissioner John Cunningham said one of the two water mains had not been “located” before they drilled, so it wasn’t the contractor’s fault. But the second one had been located. That means the contractor knowingly erred when it drilled into it. In the future, Cunningham wants the contractor to provide the city with locations of critical infrastructure before drilling.
Cooley agreed about the contractors. But it goes beyond the issues on State Road 100. “We are having a huge issue with contractors, for lack of a better term, just coming in and destroying public areas and leaving it, and there’s no enforcement, there’s no follow-up,” Cooley said. “There should be policies in place that contractors need to either sign or get followed up on. And then there should be repercussions when they’re not followed.”
Cooley singled out the future Margaritaville hotel construction by the Landmark Group. “This hotel right over here is not being a good neighbor,” he said last Thursday evening. “They had 2nd Street blocked all up today. And in addition to all their other blockages that they don’t talk about, don’t publish, and doing almost anything they want, with very little pushback from the city about: you’re not being a good neighbor.” For example, 2nd Street should not have been shut down and turned into a loading zone, he said.
Cooley called the hotel the “number one violator,” adding: “It’s okay to build your dreams, but it’s not okay to build your dreams where you’re going to put other people’s dreams out of business.”
He wanted the city administration to work with the city attorney to develop a policy to “do something to protect our city and our citizens from people that are just not playing nice when they’re here doing work.”
“It’s one of those things that shouldn’t be necessary, but it is,” Commissioner Scott Spradley said. He and other commissioners agreed with Cooley, so a policy or ordinance to that effect may be drafted, but not just yet: City Attorney Drew Smith said he’ll start with a discussion with the city’s building official, who could target contractors for corrective measures through building permits first. The building official has the authority to issue stop-work orders if contractors flout rules.
Along the same theme, the commission will be amending an ordinance to require trash receptacles outside of businesses that sell disposable products of wrapped food. They will be required to “have receptacles adequate to meet the demand” on their sidewalk, in Smith’s words. Code enforcement won’t be policing the size of receptacles. But “if we see full trash receptacles and trash on the ground, that’s going to be a really easy thing for code enforcement to see if they need to send a notice of violation, because they obviously don’t have enough trash receptacles for their need.”
The proposal was prompted by Daryl Reynolds, who runs the fledgling Keep Flagler Beautiful organization. He recently analyzed the extent of litter in the city. He says it’s increasing due to construction and visitors. “The amount of garbage cans available on the beach side of A1A has decreased over the years,” Reynolds said. “There used to be at least two per crossover. There’s a lot of them that only have one per crossover.” It’s better on the west side of A1A.
Cigarette litter has increased, especially around construction projects. He pointed out a lack of trash cans in front of certain businesses. He proposed requiring contractors to sign off on proper garbage disposal when they come into the city, or face fines, and to require businesses to provide garbage cans.
Cooley spoke of himself as “a business owner that ends up seeing his own trash on the beach. This is why I joined the Flagler Beach All Stars,” the non-profit that once a month organizes a beach clean-up, among other civic initiatives. Cooley owns the 7-11 just south of the pier, on State Road A1A. “I just couldn’t believe it. You walk out on the beach and then you see trash from your own business out on the beach, and it’s maddening.” He proposed tippy carts on the beach side, as opposed to trash cans with lids.
Mothersworry says
This is long over due! I’d invite the commissioner’s to sorta get out of downtown and really take a look at other parts of the city. Maybe take a drive to the area of the “seawall” on south A1A and the surrounding streets. At the intersection of Clubhouse Drive and S Central after running 50 or more cement trucks a day around the corners the two streets are a mess. There is also the area where the water main was broken and back filled with sand but not repaved. Further, there are always full dumpster’s uncovered with debris able to blow all over the neighborhoods.
Marty Reed says
Why not hold off the issuing occupancy permits until the contractor has everything cleaned up including repairing sidewalks & damaging street asphalt.