Tuesday Briefing: FPC Band in Concert, Flagler Auditorium in Review, Florida Lawmakers Ride Refugee Crisis

Today: high in low 80s, low in low 70s. Details here.
Today’s fire danger is moderate. Flagler County’s Drought Index is at 303.
Today’s tides: at the beaches, at the Intracoastal Waterway.
Today’s document from the National Archives.
The OED’s Word of the Day: samfie, n..
The Live Community Calendar
Today’s jail bookings.

Today’s Briefing: Quick Links

• In Flagler and Palm Coast
• Local News Recap
• In State Government
• In Coming Days in Flagler and Palm Coast
• PR Releases
• In the Press, In the News
• Fact-Checking the Knaves
• Palm Coast Construction and Development Progress Reports
• Local Road and Interstate Construction
• Cultural Coda

In Flagler and Palm Coast:

Note: all government meetings noticed below are free and open to the public unless otherwise indicated. Many can be heard or seen live through each agency’s website.

The Palm Coast City Council meets at 9 a.m. at City Hall on Lake Avenue in Town Center. The meeting includes the council’s annual reorganization, when members vote their new vice-mayor and select committee appointments. The agenda includes a long list of routine matters. It’s here.

The Flagler County School Board meets in workshop at 4:30 p.m. and in a business meeting at 6 p.m., both at the Government Services Building in Bunnell. The workshop, in the third-floor training room, will include a discussion of the Make-It-Take-It program that former school board member Jim Guines instituted more than a decade ago to enable poorer students to have access to computers. The program will see a revamp, now that all students are granted access to their own computers. The workshop will also include a joint session with the Flagler Auditorium Governing Board and a review of the auditorium’s finances and mission. The 6 p.m. meeting, in board chambers on the first floor, is a light agenda in comparison.

The NAACP meeting will be held tonight, a week earlier this month, at 6 p.m., at the African American Cultural Society, 4422 U.S. 1 North, Palm Coast. The meeting is held earlier to accommodate the Thanksgiving holiday. For further details, contact the NAACP at 386-446-7822.

Food Truck Tuesday in Central Park, Palm Coast, 5 to 8 p.m.

The Flagler Palm Coast High School Band is in concert, under the direction of John Seth, at the Flagler Auditorium at 7 p.m. The band’s 2005 members achieved Straight Superiors in all categories on Halloween in Lake City, the 13th straight years of overall superiors. Seth is assisted by Susan Morden, along with Starlets directors Lauren Albert and Ruth Albert. Drum Majors this year are Daria Saponara, Brittney Williams, and Lauren Perrotta. Watch the video of the band’s performance in Lake City:

Local News Recap:

Jim Guines, Smokin’ Shock to the System and Now 83, Will Be Celebrated Sunday: A profile of the long-time Flagler County School Board member, who served on the board from 1996 to 2007 and was behind the county’s African-American mentor Program, the Make-It-Take-It computer program and other initiatives. A Dr. Jim Guines Appreciation Event is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 22, at 3 p.m. at the Flagler Palm Coast High School Cafeteria. There is a $25 registration, with net proceeds going to the Jim and Laverne Guines Scholarship Fund. For more information, please call Dr. Barbara C. Holley at (386) 283-4083. If you cannot attend, consider a contribution to the Guines Scholarship Fund of any amount.

Setting Special Meeting, Bunnell May Haggle Over Next Manager’s Pay and Qualifications: The Bunnell City Commission will meet in special session Wednesday to clarify the job description of the next city manager, including the candidate’s education and pay, and whether to appoint an interim manager in the meantime.

Forensics search might be needed to recover lost Sheriff’s Office files: “And getting the files back and the system up and running to expectations won’t be cheap. It could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” the News-Journal reports. “That’s what Flagler County Administrator Craig Coffey told commissioners Monday night.” (Story paywall-protected.)

Matanzas High Student Faces Felony After Accusation of Hitting Dean of Students: Charmia Jackson, of Buttonwood Lane in Palm Coast, was booked at the Flagler County jail on a charge of battery on a public or private education employee, a third degree felony, after surveillance video showed her allegedly hitting Jodi Mulvihill, the dean of students in back of her head with a closed fist, though Jackson was apparently aiming for another student, not for the dean. The incident took place in the dean’s office, where the two fighting students had been referred.

Flagler Beach considers proposal for new monument at Veterans Park: The monument of black granite would be dedicated to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries, the Observer reports.

In State Government:

Note: Most proceedings below can be followed live on the Florida Channel.

Lawmakers discuss illegal immigration: Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, Sen. Travis Hutson, R-Elkton, Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha, Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, will hold a news conference to discuss bills related to illegal immigration. (8:30 a.m., outside the Senate, fourth floor, the Capitol.)

Medical marijuana: House and Senate panels will consider proposals that would allow terminally ill patients to obtain medical marijuana to help cope with pain. The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee will consider HB 307, sponsored by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, and Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Plantation. The Senate Health Policy Committee will take up SB 460, sponsored Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island. The bills piggyback on a law passed earlier this year that allows terminally ill patients to gain access to experimental drugs that have not been approved for general use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (House Criminal Justice, 9 a.m., 404 House Office Building. Senate Health Policy, 1 p.m., 412 Knott Building, the Capitol.)

The Senate Criminal Justice will hold confirmation hearings for Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Rick Swearingen and Juvenile Justice Secretary Christy Daly. (10 a.m.)

Confederate statue: The Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee will take up a bill (SB 310), filed by Sen. John Legg, R-Trinity, that would replace the bronze statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith at the U. S. Capitol. A federal law allows each state to provide two statues of deceased prominent citizens to be placed in the National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. Florida is represented by statues of Smith and former Apalachicola resident John Gorrie, who is considered the father of air conditioning. (1 p.m.)

Lottery terminals: The House Business & Professions Subcommittee will take up a bill (HB 415), filed by Rep. Holly Raschein, R-Key Largo, that would allow the sale of lottery tickets through terminals that would accept credit and debit cards. (1 p.m.)

The Florida Elections Commission is scheduled to meet. (8:30 a.m.)

The Florida Public Service Commission will consider a Duke Energy Florida financing plan related to work at the shuttered Crystal River nuclear-power plant. The plan includes using a bonding process known as “securitization” to finance costs. Lawmakers this spring passed a bill that allowed securitization. (9:30 a.m., Betty Easley Conference Center, 4075 Esplanade Way, Tallahassee.)

–Compiled by the News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive

In Coming Days in Palm Coast and Flagler:

Click on the links for more details:

• Nov. 24: Join Palm Coast United Methodist Church for a Thanksgiving meal and service with the Honorable Hubert L. Grimes. Free to all.
  

• Nov. 26: Thanksgiving Feet to Feast, 15K, 5K run and walk, at Indian Trails Middle School, 7:45 a.m.
  

• Nov. 30: 5th Annual Tree-Lighting Ceremony in Palm Coast’s Town Center, 6 p.m.

 

PR Releases:

Click on the link for more details.

Join Palm Coast United Methodist Church for meal, service with the Honorable Hubert L. Grimes
Flagler County Adult Care partners with TRAIL
Rotary Club of Flagler Beach Seeks Volunteers to Pack 10,000 meals again for Stop Hunger Now

Join Palm Coast United Methodist Church for a meal and service with the Honorable Hubert L. Grimes: There is no better way to ease into Thanksgiving then to share a meal and special service with Palm Coast United Methodist Church, followed by a special service with the Honorable Hubert L. Grimes, retired Seventh Judicial Circuit Judge. “Our church doors are open to everyone,” said Rev. Dr. Kevin M. James, Sr., senior pastor. “We welcome all, so please feel free to attend with your family, friends and neighbors.” A full Thanksgiving dinner will be served from 5 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, November 24 for members of the church and the community at large. The cost of the dinner is $5 per person, or $20 for families of four or more. Reservations are required and can be made by calling 386-445-1600, ask for Lee Thornton or Leanne Mannino. The special service begins at 6 p.m. Grimes, who broke racial barriers as the first African American County Judge of Volusia County in 1988 and the first Circuit Judge in the Seventh Judicial Circuit in 1999, will deliver the message. He has handled thousands upon thousands of cases during his 25-year career. During the last 14 years, Grimes has specialized in family law matters. He is well known for common-sense solutions he brought to the day-to-day problems he faced in his courtroom. Judge Grimes has written a book, “How to Keep Your Child from Going to Jail” to help parents overcome negative parent-child relationships and to steer children towards successful lives as contributing members of society. The service will include music and Holy Communion. There will be a free-will offering that will support the Children’s and Youth ministries. Reservations are not required to attend the special service. For more information, call 386-445-1600.

In the Press, In the News:

#PrayForParis: When empathy becomes a meme https://t.co/jIvstuub30 pic.twitter.com/rpzV0FeahL

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) November 16, 2015

Jeb Bush Says The Worst Thing A Bush Can Possibly Sayhttps://t.co/Y6Bau5P4gM pic.twitter.com/JCX7AMsLwA

— The National Memo (@NationalMemo) November 17, 2015

Cruz to introduce bill banning Muslim Syrian refugees from entering the US https://t.co/KPJ1VNH4Kk pic.twitter.com/2lzeQ1Rsw3

— The Hill (@thehill) November 17, 2015

How Americans get to work — and other data behind eco-friendly human behavior https://t.co/HcYCrHDLQp pic.twitter.com/Z4gV4145VE

— Pew Research Fact Tank (@FactTank) November 17, 2015

Charlie Sheen Reveals He Is HIV Positive https://t.co/fXBjwNkTpI

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) November 17, 2015

Fact-Checking the Knaves:

Palm Coast Construction and Development Progress Reports

The following is an update of ongoing construction and development projects in Palm Coast, through Nov. 5:

Palm Coast Parkway Six-Laning is 97 percent done: (Not updated this week.)

Holland Park, 37 percent done: Perimeter sidewalk continues to be formed and poured. The new 8″ water main was installed across Florida Park Drive and the water tap was made. Electrical trenching and conduit installation continues. 8″ water main and 2 hydrants being re-installed per plan. New irrigation system installation continues.

County’s I-95 Interchange Matanzas Woods Reclaim Water, 76 percent done: Retention ponds are being excavated and fill continues for the ramps.

Palm Harbor Parkway Roadway Extension, 32 percent done: The City Fiber Optic cable was removed to allow the demucking to continue north on Forest Grove. The Fiber Optic cable will be replaced when the new force main is installed. Installation of stormwater pipe continues.

Colechester Bridge, 90 percent done: Bridge Deck has been paved and striped and has been reopened. Pedestrian railings are installed, demolition of slope pavement continues. Directional bore of water main almost complete.

North Old Kings Road Extension to Matanzas Woods Parkway, 19 percent done: Asphalt was installed on the new section of roadway adjacent to the old roadway at the intersection of Old Kings Road and Forest Grove.

Island Walk Shopping Center Phase 1, 93 percent done: Water mains behind the Island Doctor and Bealls have been chlorinated for 2nd day bacteriological samples.

Old Kings Road Force Main 50 percent done:: Contractor is working on Force main at the entrance north of spray field.

Road and Interstate Construction:

• Palm Coast Parkway Project Website

• Florida Department of Transportation Road Project List

Cultural Coda: