See today’s related article, “Tone-Deaf Flagler County Wants Palm Coast and Other Cities to Support Sales Tax Increase.”
Flagler County government is facing an estimated $5.6 million deficit in the next five years in the required local match for nearly a dozen road projects the state Department of Transportation is financing. That’s in addition to a need for $2.6 million in annual dollars for maintenance of the county’s roads. The County Commission is planning to approve only $2 million next year.
Those projects include the construction of Commerce Boulevard from State Road 100 to U.S. 1 in Bunnell, of Old Haw Creek Road, and of Hargrove Grade, and the repaving of County Road 304, Rima Ridge and the eastern portion of Daytona North, among other projects.
An additional 22 projects are on a five-year plan that is entirely unfunded, among them the replacement of a bridge on County Road 304 that could cost between $15 and $20 million, according to County Engineer Faith al-Khatib. Road projects aren’t just repaving: they include drainage improvements and improved engineering, adding to the costs. Some seven roads include bridges that have to be replaced “at some point,” Petito said. She stressed that those bridges are not in danger of failing.
“These are all the different challenges that we have,” County Administrator Heidi Petito said, “not just as Flagler County as it is today but even moving forward because we don’t have a dedicated source of revenue for our roads.”
So like Palm Coast, which is facing a $52 million street bill over the next five years and a deficit of its own in that regard, the county administration is asking the County Commission to come up with a method for paying those bills. The preferred route is a new half-cent sales tax that would raise the county’s existing sales tax from 7 to 7.5 cents.
Ongoing road maintenance is financed by the county’s share of gas tax revenue. But that revenue has been falling. Development impact fees generate $500,000 or less a year for the county. That revenue cannot be used for ongoing maintenance, only for projects that increase traffic capacity–a widening project, for example, or a new road. The only project in the county that currently qualifies is Commerce Parkway in Bunnell.
The county’s consultant, Pavement Management Group, studied the county’s 94 miles of roads (compared to over 500 miles in Palm Coast), or 188 lane miles, since each road has at least two lanes. 149 of those miles are arterial and collector roads, and 39 miles are just neighborhood or local roads.
Of those, in 2021, just 30 lane miles were considered in excellent condition, and 119 were considered in very good or good condition. Some 25 miles were in fair condition, and nine miles were poor or worse.
Two years later, it’s a slightly different story: only 16 lane miles are in excellent condition (for example, the recently repaved Malacompra Road in the Hammock), though 121 miles are in very good or good condition. Fair conditions account for 38 miles, a significant increase over two years ago. Among them the much-traveled Avocado Boulevard in the Mondex, or Daytona North. Some 12 miles are poor or worse, like Rodeo Road in Rima Ridge.
These days the Florida Department of Transportation estimates that a mile of road costs $1.6 million to build from scratch. That’s not what the county is faced with. Rather, it is into pavement management: how to prolong a road surface through such things “microsurfacing” or sealing coats that don’t amount to full-blown repaving. That’s assuming the county develops a pavement management plan.
“Historically Flagler County has not had a defined pavement management plan to address the ongoing maintenance requirements or prolonging the life of our roadway assets,” Ryan Prevatt, the county’s public works’ road and bridge manager, said. “Moving forward with the creation of a pavement management plan, we aim to address this issue.” Put another way: the county would “fix these roads before they deteriorate and get to be millions of dollars per road,” County Administrator Heidi Petito said.
The county has 130 miles (260 lane miles) of unpaved roads. Those dirt roads, which would cost over $200 million to pave, would not be part of the new approach. Those would continue to be maintained by the state Department of Transportation or through the county’s capital improvement approach. None of those dirt roads are part of future developments that could assume the responsibility of development, Petito said.
The county currently relies exclusively on gas tax revenue to maintain roads. For public works’ road and bridge division, that’s the only revenue stream. “The gas tax has been dwindling over the last several years” Petito said. The $3.5 million revenue is split, with half going to stormwater projects. The county would like to shift stormwater needs away from gas tax revenue, freeing more money for streets–but requiring the county to come up with a new way to pay for stormwater. Cities do it through a separate fee. Those fees are increasing annually.
The county has been successful in landing extra state and federal dollars for bridges and roads. But that doesn’t mean the entire cost of those projects is covered by state or federal dollars. For example, the plan to turn Commerce Boulevard into a beltway linking State Road 100 with U.S. 1 around Bunnell (or through Bunnell, as that area of the city continues to grow) will cost $14.5 million. Most of that money has been secured. But the county must still fund $241,000.
The project to rebuild Old Haw Creek Road (County Road 304 to State Road 100) will cost $6.8 million, with the county having to come up with $1 million of that. “And then when you bid it out, likely it’ll come in a little bit higher than that,” Petito said, “so you might be facing a million and a half to $2 million on that project. And that’s just on Old Haw Creek.” The county has nearly a dozen such projects on the five-year plan developed by the state transportation department.
Over five years, the shortfall grows to $5.6 million. In 2024 alone, the projects slated for that year will be at least $3 million short. “Again, those numbers are all subject to change because we won’t have hard numbers until they actually go out for bid. So this is just an estimate, but we know we’re going to have an issue here,” Petito said.
That will take dedicate funding, the administrator told the county commission in a workshop on Monday. That led to the discussion about possibly raising the sales tax.
2023 07 17 BOCC Workshop A
Terry.melton says
Buy the cops more Harleys & mustangs instead of appropriately funding what needs funding. Or tack a franchise fee on the taxpayers electric bills to fund your dysfunctional illiteracy. Palm Coast, liars & thieves. Dopes. What about toll booths on belle Terre?
The truth says
Ask Rick Staly where it all went lol
The truth says
Or better yet… maybe they can get some money by scraping some of the metal they used to build the pedestrian bridge. This county couldn’t manage money if there life depended upon it.
pete says
STOP SPENDING MONEY START SAVING MONEY WHEN it’s not yours It’s easy to spend it. The whole bunch needs to go.
Tony Mack says
Since the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed, Florida is set to receive over $6.2 billion for transportation to invest in roads, bridges, public transit, ports and airports and over $275 million for clean water. So, where’s the money? Florida enacted its FY 2023 budget in June 2021. The enacted budget included $109.9 billion in total spending and $41.8 billion in general fund spending. Under the American Rescue Plan, Florida will receive $8.8 billion in direct state fiscal aid and $5.7 billion in local government aid from the federal government.
So, where is the money?
The dude says
Flying immigrants from other states to other states via private jet ain’t gonna pay for itself you know…
Laurel says
Growth is a bitch, isn’t it? Thanks to those of you who pushes growth so hard. Y’all are doing it just for us locals, right?
Land of no turn signals says says
Where does all that money go? Add a road repair fee on the impact fee’s and stop killing the already residents.
Doug says
It’s called being “fiscally responsible,” and Flagler County has never been. This is just an example of wasteful spending and not doing your due diligence before spending money on two buildings that never should have been purchased in the first place. I have zero sympathy for whomever is writing the checks at the Flagler County Governmental Building.
Fernando Melendez says
I know of one building, what’s the other one?
Common sense says
Could have used all that taxpayers money they wasted on that eyesore and driving hazard they built over hwy 100
T says
People running palm coast is cons just like who’s running fl fix the roads and not spend 50000 on signs and dumb crap
Celia Pugliese says
Now the roads pavement deficit proves that we could not afford that new millionaire jail!! Much less we can afford the new 33 million library and tourist welcome center no matter what commissioner Sullivan trying to impose on us all. The half penny tax was and should always be for our roads as unfortunately neither cities or county have the proper line item for our services that should be “roads maintenance”. Also the impact fees are too low and do not pay for the needed new roads to contain all the traffic created by this approved growth. A new Wawa to be approved in Palm Coast Parkway East when 2 other gas stations in the same block while the parkway pavement there is already eroded. They need instead to place this Wawa on A1A as none there and also a 5G cell tower in Camino del Mar to match it!
They keep building castles to themselves with our hard earned taxes failing to provide the services our taxes are supposed to be used first of all for “Our Services First”, then other luxuries if funds left over. Corruption in favor of developers benefit6s is obvious all around us while depleting our taxpayers pockets. They are having us pay for growth and forcing out to share our decaying infrastructure with their approved growth.
Laurel says
Celia: I agree with all you said…except…we don’t need a WaWa on A1A! Nope.
Shark says
Start trimming the budgets of all of the departments beginning with whoever is in charge of pissing away millions on plants It’s ridiculous to have workers pulling weeds and replacing plants killed by the herbicides they use. Take a ride down Belle Terre and see the mess created by a landscape architect who is clueless !!!,
Denali says
And what exactly do flowers in the City of Palm Coast have to do with the condition of roadways maintained by the county? Please make an effort to keep the units of local government separated.
Shark says
The money being pissed away on them could go to fixing the roads !!!
Laurel says
Shark: Here’s the kicker about government budgets: They have to spend all of last year’s budget, even on crap, just to get rid of it because what they don’t spend, they lose what they don’t spend! I’m not joking, that’s how it’s done. They are not encouraged to plan a budget as needed, fluctuating each year, no. Don’t spend it? Lose it. Really stupid, but they all do it.
Tony says
The deputies are supposed to be patrolling streets in our town and every time I travel on I95 I see them running radar and stopping cars. In the meantime all you see is cars blowing red lights and not stopping for stop signs and right turns on red. I’ve lived here for twenty five years and never saw one on my street, Last year I saw a fire truck with four firemen. They came to change someone’s smoke detectors.
Deborah Coffey says
Republican governance at its finest! LOL
Joey G says
Yea those assholes are due for another raise. They love giving themself and there buddys raises they really do think they are doing a great job. Just like the school board members these people should not be in the position they are in.
blerbfamilyfive says
There was a time when Flagler County Engineering reviewed and identified roads within the county before Palm Coast came into existence for a paving/striping program. The county engineer and assistant county engineer went around the county and came up with a list of those roads that needed paving and striping or those just needing striping. This was done every year until there was no money so the roads went to crap unless funding was secured from another source.
Bruno says
The sad thing is as long as they are republicans the majority of voters in Palm Coast will elect them!!!!
Atwp says
Do impact fees still exist? Correct me, I thought the impact fees were used to help improve road condition. With all of this construction will the new home owners move here and don’t pay their share? What about the infrastructure money, do we have it yet? Did Desantis turn it down because Biden is a good Democratic President? I understand Desantis turned down millions for energy. The way the comments sound a lot of Republicans will be booted out of Flagler County next year. That is a dream of mine. I do see more tax increases soon. Do y’all see the same thing? Elect Republicans, get increased taxes and huge huge waste. Look at the recent past of this city and county and state. Waste by the Republican Party.