The Flagler Youth Orchestra's Strings Around the World Concert

maggie snively flagler youth orchestra — That’s just one of the five ensembles of the Flagler Youth Orchestra that will be performing in the Strings Around the World concert at the Flagler Auditorium tonight at 7 p.m. Above, Maggie Snively is conducting the Overture Orchestra. (© FlaglerLive)

Weekend: Partly cloudy. Highs in the mid 70s inland…in the lower 70s coast. West winds 5 mph shifting to the east in the afternoon. Tonight: Partly cloudy. Lows in the lower 50s. Southeast winds 5 mph shifting to the west after midnight. Details here.
Today’s fire danger is moderate. Flagler County’s Drought Index is at 67.
Today’s tides: at the beaches, at the Intracoastal Waterway.
Today’s document from the National Archives.
The OED’s Word of the Day: Mammon, n..
The Live Community Calendar
Today’s jail bookings.

Today’s Briefing: Quick Links

In Flagler and Palm Coast
Local News Recap
Flagler Jail Bookings and Sheriff’s Crime Reports
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.

In Court: Circuit Judge Mathhew Foxman holds felony arraignments in more than three dozen cases at 8:30 a.m. in Courtroom 401.

Flagler Youth Orchestra‘s Strings Around the World Concert, 7 p.m. at the Flagler Auditorium. This is the 32nd concert of the FYO at the auditorium. The orchestra’s five ensembles, totaling some 350 musicians, will perform music from Australia, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Finland, among others, in one of the year’s three major concerts. Tickets usually sell out: call the Auditorium box office at 437-7547 or get there early. Adult tickets, $6 and children 17 and under are $1.

Local News Recap:

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

Ex-Flagler Sheriff’s Deputy Patrick Pielarz Was Fired for “Arrogance” Before Arrest on Strangulation Charge: A review of documents relating to his dismissal point to a pattern of arrogance and abuse of authority that persisted even his supervisors repeatedly counseled him.

William Lavender, 92, Dies in Wreck as Car Crashes Into McDonald’s on Belle Terre: Three patrons at the restaurants sustained “very minor injuries,” according to the Florida Highway Patrol, from flying glass caused by the impact. Other than in the immediate aftermath of the wreck, the restaurant did not cease operations and was doing brisk business in later afternoon, having boarded up the damaged glass facade when the FHP investigation at the scene was over.

Driver’s Licenses for Undocumented Immigrants: Flagler Sheriff Says Yes, But Local Opinion Is Divided: The trend toward licenses for immigrants has been picking up speed in the last several years, and the list of states that have passed laws allowing it rebuff any attempt at categorization. Florida is not on that list.

Flagler’s Aveo Pandering: The Artful Way To Do a Groundbreaking, and the Bogus Way: The problem was Aveo making bogus claims before it was time to make any claims at all, and county government, or at least portions of it, chucking off caution and controls and replacing responsibility with pandering to land a non-existent deal for the sake of a few headlines.

Samaritan Ministries celebrates 15 years of service: The Flagler County organization that cares for abused and homeless women and children celebrated a decade and a half in business Sunday, News 13 reports.

Palm Coast Concedes: Keeping Golf Course At Taxpayers’ Expense No Longer Tenable: the city has reached the point where it’s realized that keeping things as they are is no longer tenable, no matter how the operation is sliced—as an “amenity,” as a business or as a trickle-down, stabilizing benefit to the surrounding neighborhood. The Palm Coast City Council’s realization, albeit slow and reluctant, is following the same path as its realization that its red-light camera program, which the council so cherished for so many years, was more harmful than beneficial to the city. As with red-light cameras, the city is positioning itself not to sever the program outright, but to gradually pull away by minimizing its own exposure.

In State Government:

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

Everglades: The Senate General Government Appropriations Subcommittee will take up a bill (SB 1168), filed by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, that would direct money toward Everglades and Lake Okeechobee projects. The proposal is known as “Legacy Florida.” (11:30 a.m.)

Abortion clinic regulations: The Senate Fiscal Policy Committee is scheduled to consider numerous issues, including a proposal (SB 1722), filed by Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, that would tighten regulations on abortion clinics. (1 p.m.)

Medical pot: The Senate Rules Committee will take up a bill (SB 460), filed by Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, that would allow people with terminal illnesses to have access to medical marijuana. The bill also could make changes to a 2014 law that allowed non-euphoric cannabis for some patients, such as children with severe forms of epilepsy. (1 p.m.)

Sun Trail: The Florida Department of Transportation will hold a meeting to gather public input about the SUN Trail Network, a project that Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, has backed to provide a trail for pedestrians and bicyclists. (6 p.m., FDOT Gainesville Operations Center auditorium, 5301 N.E. 39th Ave., Gainesville.)

–Compiled by the News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive

In Coming Days in Palm Coast and Flagler:

Click on the links for more details:

March 2: Grand opening of the Florida Hospital Centra Care urgent care facility, a 5,000 sq. ft. operation at 1270 Palm Coast Pkwy NW, with on-site labs and other immediate healthcare services such as X-rays, EKG, stitches, physicals, blood pressure testing, immunizations, and more. 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tours and light lunch.

March 4: 15th Annual Flagler Reads Together Kickoff. The chosen book this year is “Grandma Gatewood’s Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail,” by Ben Montgomery. Montgomery will be present at the kickoff at 11 a.m. at the Flagler County Public Library, 2500 Palm Coast Parkway NW in Palm Coast.
March 5: Early Voting begins for the presidential primary election in Florida. Only Democrats and Republicans may cast ballots in their respective parties’ primaries. Independents and minor-party voters may not vote, Florida being a closed-primary state. Early voting runs through March 12 at the Supervisor of Elections’ office in Bunnell (at the Government Services Building), the Flagler County Public Library on Palm Coast Parkway, and at the Palm Coast Community Center. Every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Click here for early voting details.
March 4: Stayin’ Alive, the Bee Gees tribute band, returns to the Flagler Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $29 for adults, $18 for youth.
March 11: Flagler County Job Fair, at the Palm Coast campus of Daytona State College, 3000 Palm Coast Pkwy, SE Bldg 3. The job fair will offer businesses and job seekers opportunities to connect on March 11, 2016 from noon to 6 p.m.
March 15: Presidential Primary Election in Flagler and all of Florida, and Bunnell city election. Early voting
March 30-April 2: Florida Future Problem Solvers State Competition, to be attended by four to five Flagler County schools, at Doubletree Orlando Seaworld, 10100 International Drive, Orlando.
March 5: Christian Women’s Conference: “Unexpected Detours,” Featuring Carol Kent, an inspiring Christian speaker and best-selling author. First Baptist Church of Bunnell, 2301 Commerce Parkway, Bunnell. $25 to attend. Price includes lunch. Contact Marge Ankrom for information, 386-931-2784
April 2: Cheer at the Pier, a fund-raiser for the Flagler Beach Historical Museum, from 3 to 6 p.m. Call Virginia Giaramita for information at 386/299-8892.
April 15: The Florida Ethics Commission will take up an administrative law judge’s recommendation in the ethics case against Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre. 9 a.m.

PR Releases:

Click on the link for more details.

The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office received, for the first time in agency history, accreditation for its Communications Section on Feb. 25 at the Florida Telecommunications Commission’s (FLA-TAC) business meeting in St. Augustine. The process for this accreditation began in early 2015 during the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation’s (CFA) reaccreditation process. “The sheriff’s office maintains comparative compliance with CFA for identified FLA-TAC standards. It is the recommendation of the assessment team that the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Communications Center be reviewed for accredited status by FLA-TAC at its next meeting,” the assessor wrote. Of the 116 required standards established by FLA-TAC, the FCSO was required to meet 73 mandatory and non-mandatory standards, as the remaining 43 were met through comparative compliance extended following the FCSO being re-accredited by the Commission of Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation (CFA) in October 2015. Of the 73 standards, the FCSO met 72, as one standard was not applicable to the operation of the agency. “I am extremely proud of all who made this historic accreditation process a reality for not only the FCSO, but the community we serve. This is a report card of our performance, one where we received an A-plus,” said Sheriff Jim Manfre. As soon as all the construction projects are completed at the jail later this year, the sheriff’s office will seek, for the first time in agency history, accreditation for the jail from the Florida Corrections Accreditation Commission by 2017.

In the Press, In the News:

“Evicted,” like Katherine Boo’s “Behind the Beautiful Forevers,” sets a new standard for reporting on poverty. https://t.co/ZCxIZcjRtw

— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) February 28, 2016

One statistic that sums up Hollywood’s diversity problem https://t.co/BLfNWTAVJw

— Vox (@voxdotcom) February 29, 2016

Opinion: Jewish grief, Arab grief https://t.co/wkuK1Ppqcb pic.twitter.com/VUqvZRemfd

— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) February 29, 2016

Trump leading the Republican Party into a presidential election is an appalling prospect https://t.co/iqT3wj2AiC pic.twitter.com/OD6i8xH5sL

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) February 29, 2016

The author of the novel "The Revenant" has a day job that is seriously limiting his celebrity. https://t.co/NCUySVQvQw

— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) February 28, 2016

I look at these now and think, "Jesus, did we really put our mouths near this bacteria delivery system?" pic.twitter.com/Wg15zV7lZI

— The Rude Pundit (@rudepundit) February 28, 2016

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 Feb. 17:

Seminole Woods Multi Use Path design, 75 percent done: Survey continues, shot horizontal and vertical features for path design.

Holland Park, 54 percent done: Grading and installation of sidewalks continues. Restroom block cells poured and trusses installed. Installation of street and pathway light poles and fixtures.

County’s I-95 Interchange Matanzas Woods Reclaim Water, 83 percent done: Approximately 1,600 ft. of 16″ HDPE piping was air tested February 11, 2016. On February 12, 2016 the 16″ HDPE reuse main was installed under the southbound ramp.

Palm Harbor Parkway Roadway Extension, 50 percent done: Work continues on the stormwater structure at the intersection of Palm Harbor Parkway and Forest Grove.

Colechester Bridge, 94 percent done: Sea walls have been completed and forming of the western abutment 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. (Not in the Dec. 4 update.)

Old Kings Road Force Main 96 percent done:: February 11, 2016 night work with lane closure and tank trucking for the south end force main tie-in to the 12″ pipe from the South and the 12″ pipe from Town Center. The new
16″ force main and the 8″ old main were connected to the old Pump Station north of Lehigh Canal.

Island Walk Shopping Center Phase 2, 26 percent done: February 15, 2016 a 10″ core was made into the existing manhole for the sewer lateral for the 2 lots facing Palm Coast Parkway. (GoToby has a construction permitting progress report here.)

Road and Interstate Construction:

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 [email protected].