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Thursday Briefing: Tourist Council Rediscovers Ethics, Newsom Begins in Flagler Beach, Relay For Life

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revels ethics tourist development council
Barbara Revels, the new chairman of the Tourist Development Council, raised questions about the ethics of certain board members’ votes on the TDC after her first meeting. At her second meeting today, the board will hear a presentation on ethics and the Sunshine law. (c FlaglerLive)(

Today: Sunny, high in the mid-60s, lows in upper 50s. Details here.
Today’s fire danger is moderate. Flagler County’s Drought Index is at 378.
Today’s tides: at the beaches, at the Intracoastal Waterway.
Today’s document from the National Archives.
The OED’s Word of the Day: abatis, n..
The Live Community Calendar
Today’s jail bookings.

Today’s Briefing: Quick Links

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 Flagler County Tourist Development Board meets at 10 a.m. at the Government Services Building in Bunnell. Its members will hear a refresher on following the state’s Sunshine law properly, and will also hear about conflicts of interests: some of its members have previously voted on recommending substantial allocations of money to events their own businesses will benefit from. To that end, some of the items the board havs previously voted on will be brought up again for “supplemental” votes–that is, cleaner votes to ensure that the previous conflicts are not memorialized. The board will then hear the usual pitches for subsidies for events around the county, including a $27,000 public subsidy for the Florida Sports Foundation Annual Summit at trhe Hammock Beach Resort in May. The full agenda and back-up materials are here.

The Flagler Beach City Commission meets for the first time with Larry Newsom sitting in the city manager’s chair, starting at 5:30 p.m. at Flagler Beach City Hall. Commissioners will present life-saving medals to first responders, including Flagler Beach firefighters Dusty Snyder, involved in the rescue of a driver from a retention pond off of I-95 on Jan. 2. Commissioners will also consider approving a “polar plunge” event in February to benefit the Special Olympics, among other items.

Grandparents As Parents: A seminar at the Government Services Building, Rooms 3A and B, 5:30 p.m.

Relay For Life New Year Kickoff Party: Want to fight cancer? Come meet new friends and learn about participating in Relay For Life Flagler. Everyone is invited. Enjoy food, raffles, music and fun times. Rymfire Elementary School, 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Local News Recap:

Updated jail bookings and day and night shift incident summary reports are available here.

Flagler Film Festival, Drawing on Works Near and Far, Flicks On For 3rd Year Friday: The festival, which runs Friday Jan. 15 through Sunday Jan. 17 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Palm Coast, will feature 47 films from Florida, California, New York and other states, as well as movies from Spain, Australia, Canada and a co-production from Uganda, Britain and the United States.

Kim Weeks (No, Not That One) Is Flagler’s Teacher of the Year, DeAndre Harris Takes Employee Honor: Kim Weeks, a media specialist at Old Kings Elementary School for 11 years (no relation to the other Kim Weeks), was named Teacher of the Year. DeAndre Harris, a paraprofessional at Indian Trails Middle School where he works with Exceptional Student Education (ESE) classes, is this year’s Support Employee of the Year.

Family has Michelle O’Connell’s body exhumed; private investigator says evidence found: The remains of Michelle O’Connell, a St. Johns County woman who died from a gunshot wound in 2010, were exhumed Monday for an autopsy at the request of her family, the St. Augustine Record reports. “O’Connell died in September 2010 in St. Johns County, where her boyfriend, Jeremy Banks, was a sheriff’s deputy. The gun used was Banks’ department-issued handgun.” The body was exhumed at about 10:30 a.m. Monday, examined, and reburied in early afternoon. “They did find something new,” Clu Wright, a Keystone Heights-based private investigator said, but details of what was found won’t be revealed until a full report is released, he said. (Story paywall-protected)

Florida House Wants to Prohibit Immigrants’ “Sanctuary” Communities: The House Civil Justice Subcommittee voted 9-4 to back a measure (HB 675) by Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha, that in part would define and prohibit sanctuary communities. Later, the House Justice Appropriations Subcommittee voted 8-3 to support a proposal (HB 9) by Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, that would make it a felony for people who defy deportation orders.

In State Government:

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

The House is scheduled to hold a floor session at 4 p.m.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce will continue its “Capitol Days” gathering with speakers including state Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and state Rep. Jay Trumbull, R-Panama City. (8 a.m., Florida State University Turnbull Conference Center, 555 West Pensacola St., Tallahassee.)

The Florida Supreme Court is scheduled to release its weekly opinions at 11 a.m.

–Compiled by the News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive

In Coming Days in Palm Coast and Flagler:

Click on the links for more details:

PR Releases:

Click on the link for more details.

In the Press, In the News:

  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 Dec. 15:

Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church and School, 1 percent done: Located at 5625 North US Highway 1, the school received a Development Order for a new 13,794 sq. ft. early learning center to be located on the south side of their 8.6-acre site. The architecture of the new one-story building will be very similar to the existing church and school facilities that are located just north of the proposed new building.

Holland Park, 48 percent done: Grading and installation of perimeter sidewalk continues. Electrical conduits being installed to new restroom. Restroom plot has been cleared and graded. Water service has been installed at restroom site. Surveying for basketball court and roadway has begun..

County’s I-95 Interchange Matanzas Woods Reclaim Water, 76 percent done: Retention ponds are being excavated and fill continues for the ramps. (Not in the Dec. 15 update.)

Palm Harbor Parkway Roadway Extension, 38 percent done: The headwall for the double barrel stormwater pipe has been installed and tied in. The water main and reuse main have been extended towards Forest Grove Drive waiting on the
closure of the road next week to make the road crossing.

Colechester Bridge, 93 percent done: Seawall has been completed on the east side, slope pavement has begun.

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. (Not in the Dec. 4 update.)

Old Kings Road Force Main 83 percent done:: Contractor has completed the Force main up to the pig launch points and restored the site and trail. The area for the pig flush was completed and flushing has started. (Not in the Dec. 15 update.)

Road and Interstate Construction:

Matanzas Woods Parkway to close temporarily Jan. 16 and 17: Florida Power & Light has requested a temporary closure of Matanzas Woods Parkway to install new street lights. The roadway will be closed between Bird of Paradise Drive and Old Kings Road at Matanzas High School from the hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on January 16 and 17 – a Saturday and Sunday – to provide ample time for the installation. “FP&L requested the road closure so they can complete this portion of the work,” said County Engineer Faith Alkhatib. “It is scheduled for a time when school is not in session.” Road work for the Interstate 95 interchange at Matanzas Woods Parkway will cause intermittent lane closures as the ramp construction is not slated for completion until April 2016. Project details are available and regularly updated at matanzas95interchange.com. Links are available on the Flagler County website flaglercounty.org.

Forest Grove Drive connection to Palm Harbor Parkway to be closed starting Dec. 18: Effective Friday, Dec. 18, the City of Palm Coast will be closing the Forest Grove Drive connection to Palm Harbor Parkway. This road closure is required as part of construction operations for the Palm Harbor Parkway extension, which is currently under construction. Palm Harbor is being realigned and extended to connect directly with Matanzas Woods Parkway where it intersects with Old Kings Road. Message boards will be placed to advise motorists and other travelers of the upcoming change, and a public meeting has already been held for residents living in that area. Both the Palm Harbor extension and a separate extension of Old Kings Road are being built in preparation for the new Interstate 95 interchange to open next June at Matanzas Woods Parkway. As part of the projects, traffic patterns around Matanzas High School will be changing. One goal is to turn Forest Grove Drive back into a residential street as it was originally intended to be. The upcoming road closure of the Forest Grove Drive connection to Palm Harbor Parkway is part of that project. Forest Grove will be turned into a cul de sac on that end. Once the separate Old Kings Road extension is completed, in June 2016, the Forest Grove Drive access to the high school will be closed because it will no longer be needed. Instead, motorists and other travelers will get to Matanzas High School via the new signalized intersection at Matanzas Woods, Palm Harbor and Old Kings. For more information, please contact Palm Coast Communications Manager Cindi Lane at 386-986-3708 or clane@palmcoastgov.com.

Cultural Coda:

Federico Torroba’s Sonatina, Andrés Segovia, performing

See Also:

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Derrick R says

    22K tax dollars to fund a event on private property that the general taxpayers can not use? That should scream oversight and a no vote.

  2. confidential says

    Those 22K tax dollars are originated and paid into TDC from the tourist bed tax collected by the same local hotels that get the benefit paid back helping promote an event held on their facilities. I see few going to Hammock Beach Resort, so I figure that they are one of the largest contributors with the bed tax to TDC.
    The TDC funds are to be use only to promote tourism thru advertisement, events including sports events if they bring tourist/visitors that use the hotels, restaurants and shop while here. I believe(not 100% sure) also can be used for capital projects and or repairs of tourist attractions facilities as well. Outside tourism, can’t be use for anything local just to benefit local residents…Is the Florida law and reason is because we live in a tourism industry state which I consider one of the magnets I moved here. Better to have tourism industry than and oil refinery nearby right? What about taking one those Flagler County Citizens Academy courses to learn among other things, how TDC works?

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