New Assisted Living on Cypress Point, Fossils, Elections Recaps

starling assisted living facility — An architectural rendering of the Starling of Palm Coast Assisted Living Facility, planned for a parcel just west of City Market Place.

Today: Partly cloudy in the morning then clearing. Patchy fog in the morning. Highs in the mid 80s. West winds 5 to 10 mph. Tonight: Partly cloudy. Lows in the mid 60s. West winds 5 to 10 mph. Details here.
Today’s fire danger is moderate. Flagler County’s Drought Index is at 180.
Today’s tides: at the beaches, at the Intracoastal Waterway.
Today’s document from the National Archives.
The OED’s Word of the Day: auteur, n. and adj..
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
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.

No school: Flagler County schools are on spring break all week.

In Court: Hearing in the case of Valdemar Rivera, who is accused of raping his then-13-year-old step-daughter, before Circuit Judge Matthew Foxman, Courtroom 401, Flagler County Courthouse. His trial was due to start last Monday. The prosecution is seeking to admit certain utterances by the victim that the defense considers hearsay and inadmissible as so-called spontaneous, “excited utterances.” The issue revolves around what the victim told her best friend when she called her soon after the alleged incident, to report that her step-father had been allegedly attempting to rape her.

Lunch N Lecture Series: Stop by for a free lunch and an informative lecture to learn about Florida’s natural history and geology. Andrew Beall, a Senior Lecturer from the University of North Florida, will discuss Florida’s natural resources, fossils and a general history of our State. The event is free, but for the free lunch, registration was required 48 hours prior to the program. At the Palm Coast Community Center, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Palm Coast’s Planning and Land Development board meets at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall. The board will review a Technical Site Plan for Starling of Palm Coast Assisted Living Facility, a 65,497 square foot, 86-bed assisted living facility on a vacant 4.33-acre site at 144 Cypress Point Parkway, adjacent (to the west) of City Market Place. The project is considered a “Moderate” development, which requires review and approval by the Planning and Land Development Regulation Board.

Flagler County’s Contractor Review Board meets at 5 p.m. in board chambers at the Government Services Building. No agenda was posted.

Ribbon-cutting: Grand Opening of Realty Exchange’s nearly 7,000 square foot office in the new Island Walk shopping center. Stop by for light refreshments and appetizers. Ribbon cutting at 5 p.m.

Upcoming: Motown Madness: A March 26 fund-raiser for the G.W. Carver Community Center in Bunnell. See the flier below for details.

Local News Recap:

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

Bill Baxley and Elbert Tucker Win Big in Bunnell, Trump and Clinton Win Flagler and Florida: n Bunnell, the only local race on the ballot, incumbents Bill Baxley and Elbert Tucker won re-election handily–a rarity in Bunnell, where elections are often decided by a few votes–with Jan Reeger coming in a distant third with 22 percent of the vote. Baxley got 41 percent, Tucker, to whom running again was an afterthought, won with 37 percent. A total of 863 votes were cast.

ambulance service palm coast — One of the county’s four back-up ambulances, which Palm Coast says could be put in service at one of the city’s fire stations, along with another such back-up, to ‘double’ the number of ambulances serving the city. The county says Palm Coast already benefits from seven ambulances as it is. (© FlaglerLive)

Palm Coast Floats New Rescue System in Name Of “Efficiency,” But County Sees Many Flaws: For almost a year, Palm Coast—and particularly Mayor Jon Netts—has been on a mission to change the way ambulance services are provided in the city. The city has not put forth a plan to do just that. But it’ll go nowhere unless county government agrees. And county government, along with the firefighters’ unions of both city and county departments, are opposed.

One Arrested in Burger King Armed Robbery, 2 Arrested in U.S. 1 Carjacking: The Burger King robbery took place shortly after a Domino’s Pizza delivery driver was robbed at 10:30 that evening, about an hour before the Burger King robbery. The delivery driver was robbed behind the Flagler Plaza shopping center. Lanfair has not been charged with that robbery, but he’s being held without bail at the Flagler County jail. He does not have a previous arrest record in the county, according to clerk of courts records.

Bottle clubs banned in Palm Coast: “The Palm Coast City Council voted unanimously at its regular March 15 meeting to add the clubs — establishments where patrons bring their own booze and have it served back to them — to a list of banned land uses that includes hog farming, puppy mills and asphalt plants,” the Observer reports.

In State Government:

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

The Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Board of Governors meets at 9 a.m., Sheraton Orlando North, 600 North Lake Destiny Dr., Maitland.

The Florida Citrus Commission meets in Polk County. (9 a.m., Florida Department of Citrus, 605 East Main St., Bartow.)

–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 18: Flagler Reads Together featured event: The documentary “Trail Magic: The Grandma Gatewood Story,” will be shown at the Flagler County Library at 2 p.m., in the library meeting room. Flagler Reads Together’s focus this year is ‘Grandma Gatewood’s Walk,’ the biography of Emma Gatewood who, in 1955, was the first woman to hike the entirety of the Appalachian Trail solo. She was 67. See below for more details.
♦ March 24: Eggs & Issues Breakfast featuring County Administrator Craig Coffey and three county department heads involved in economic development: Airport Director Roy Sieger, Economic Development Director Helga van Eckert, and Tourism Director Matt Dunn. The breakfast is sponsored by the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce. The cost is $20 in advance, $25 at the door. 7:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m., Grand Haven Golf Club, 500 Riverfront Dr., Palm Coast. Seating is limited; reservations are requested by March 21. For reservations, email Jaclyn Miklos or call 386/206-0953.
♦ March 26: Motown Madness, a fund-raiser concert for Carver Gym and the George Washington Carver Foundation,, featuring the band Traces of Gold. Tickets are $50, includes dinner and music, 6 to 10 p.m. at the the G.W. Carver Community Center, 201 East Draine Street, Bunnell. Tickets and information: Cheryl Massaro, 386-437-7540, extension 5101. See the flier below.
♦ March 29: Museum curator Christina Katsolis, photographer A.J. Neste and architect Sean Palmer speak to students at Flagler Palm Coast High School starting at 11:50 a.m. at the Flagler Auditorium as part of Art Works, a Flagler County Art League-sponsored program for high school students interested in a career in the arts. The art league worked with the art department faculty to bring this new program to FPC students to learn about a variety of careers from artists, all former FPC students, who have turned their love of the arts into successful careers. Following formal presentations by each artist, students will have the opportunity to meet with the artists in small groups. Parents, city and county government leaders and school board members have been invited to attend the program.
♦ 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.
♦ April 1: The Friends of the Library of Flagler County celebrate the annual April Poetry Month by acknowledging the 2016 presidential election year. Poems by presidents or about presidents of the United States, from Washington to Obama, will be presented at 1 p.m. in the Doug Cisney Room and appropriate refreshments–that is, alas, no booze, no matter how drunk Nixon could get–will be provided by the Hospitality Staff of the Friends.
♦ 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 12: Anjali Anabel Tomerlin, a third grader at Imagine School at Town Center in Palm Coast who’s written and illustrated her first book, will hold a book-signing at the Flagler Beach Public library from 4 to 6 p.m.
♦ April 13: Public Safety Coordinating Council meeting at 8:45 a.m., Emergency Operations Center, Bunnell.
♦ 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.
♦ April 16: Flagler Beach will hold a victims’ rights memorial at sunrise. The memorial ceremony honors victims and their advocates. It will be held at the end of the iconic pier. Please contact Victim Advocate Donna Kearney with any questions about the memorial at 517-2020.

In the Press, In the News:

Are we headed for a contested political convention? Here's a history of past ones https://t.co/FQ26QndrRF pic.twitter.com/HNhKsZGutO

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) March 16, 2016

Students are being rejected from the polls because of North Carolina’s voter ID law https://t.co/e3vETC0Gf4 pic.twitter.com/KpMOmzwnCj

— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) March 15, 2016

Again, I don't think candidates are ever owed good coverage. I just thought these Times edits were really petty. https://t.co/F8LM7Kbtkb

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 15, 2016

https://twitter.com/conradhackett/status/709866345400115200

Does translation matter? To whom? Can the reading public tell the difference between good and bad translators? https://t.co/FLg6rD4clN

— The New York Review of Books (@nybooks) March 15, 2016

Fact-Checking the Knaves:

Palm Coast Construction and Development Progress Reports

The following is an update of ongoing permitting, construction and development projects in Palm Coast, through March 9:

Click to access permits-construction-march-11-2016.pdf

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].