Botched SWAT Raids, County Fair Kick-Off, Auditorium's Tea

flagler county fair — The Flagler County Fair begins Wednesday and runs through Sunday, off Saw Grass Road. (© FlaglerLive)

Today: Partly cloudy. Highs in the mid 70s. East winds 10 to 15 mph. Tonight: Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers. Lows around 60. South winds 5 to 10 mph. Details here.
Today’s fire danger is moderate. Flagler County’s Drought Index is at 149.
Today’s tides: at the beaches, at the Intracoastal Waterway.
Today’s document from the National Archives.
The OED’s Word of the Day: olykoek, 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
The Day’s Best Reads
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 Code Enforcement Board meets at 10 a.m. at City Hall to review several dozen cases.

Tea At Tiffany’s is the theme this year for an afternoon tea benefiting Arts In Education at the Flagler Auditorium from 3 to 5:30 p.m. This event will take place center stage for all to experience what it’s like to look out at the auditorium from a performer’s vantage point. The food will be prepared by Palm Coast High School’s culinary students. Arts in Education helps support children in our community with scholarships, band camps, instruments needed, as well as other vital business skills. Ticket are $50 and can be purchased by clicking here. High tea attire is recommended.

April 6-10: Flagler County Fair: at the county fairgrounds, 150 Sawgrass Road, Bunnell. lots of rides, games, food, fun, shows, 4H and FFA exhibits, livestock shows and auction. Enter to win in the Home and Family Division (canning, baking, sewing, quilting) Art Division and Shoe Box Floats, and the Rock ‘n RibFest the last three days of the fair.

The Flagler County Republican Club hosts three speakers: U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, running for U.S. Senate (to replace Marco Rubio), State Sen. Travis Hutson and Rep. Representative Paul Renner, who are running for re-election. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Palm Coast Community Center, 305 Palm Coast Pkwy NE, Palm Coast. Registered Republicans, club members and their guests are invited to attend. A Q&A session will follow providing an opportunity for in-depth discussion. For more information, email Flagler County Republican Club President, Wes Priest, [email protected] or call 386-986-0317.

Moody Boat Launch to close April 6 through May 20 for improvements. Click for details.

Bombing Runs at Pinecastle Range in Ocala this Week: Navy training schedules indicate live and inert bombing will take place at the Pinecastle Range Complex in the Ocala National Forest every day from April 4 through April 10, as follows:

Monday, April 4: noon to 8 p.m.
Tuesday, April 5: noon to 8 p.m.
Wednesday, April 6: noon to 8 p.m.
Thursday, April 7: noon to 8 p.m.
Friday, April 8: noon to midnight.
Saturday, April 9: noon to midnight.
Sunday, April 10: noon to midnight.
Saturday: Noon to midnight.
Sunday: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The telephone number for noise complaints is 1-800-874-5059, Fleet Air Control and Surveillance Facility, Jacksonville. For additional information, call (904) 542-2415/5588. For more details about the bombing, go here.

Local News Recap:

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

In Major Shift, County Proposes Rebuilding Beach Without Federal Dollars For Now: County Administrator Craig Coffey, in what was billed as a mere update of the beach renourishment project, pitched a radically different approach to funding renourishment—not only to go ahead with the design and permitting of the project, but to proceed on the assumption that federal dollars may not be there, and to do so with a combination of state and local dollars: from the Department of Environmental protection, the state Department of Transportation, and Flagler County’s Tourist Development Council, which devotes a portion of the revenue from the local 4 percent sales tax supplement levied on hotels and other short-term rentals to beach projects.

County Commission Retreats From Joint Meeting With Palm Coast Council on EMS: The Flagler County Commission on Monday mostly retreated from its willingness to jointly meet with the Palm Coast City Council to discuss potential changes in ambulance service in the city. Commissioners are questioning whether anything is broken enough to be fixed, and now are adding another reason to warrant at least a postponement of such a meeting until November: the election will certainly turn over three seats on the council, and potentially three on the commission.

County Explores Big-Idea Energy Savings, But Through Long-Term Wedding With Contractor: Flagler County government is looking to go greener with its energy consumption—saving electricity where it can, reducing the wear and tear on its energy hogs such as chillers, and exploring new ways to generate power on site at certain times through its own generators. But some of those ideas may not be possible without wedding county government to a single private contractor for a decade and a half or more.

In State Government:

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

The Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments in four cases, including two major cases involving the workers-compensation insurance system and the state’s communications-services tax. Former Hialeah Hospital nurse Daniel Stahl is challenging the constitutionality of a key part of the workers-compensation system, while the other case focuses on the constitutionality of a higher tax rate for satellite-television companies than for cable TV providers. (9 a.m.)

The Florida Commission on Offender Review will consider numerous parole cases involving crimes committed in the 1970s and 1980s. (9 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:

♦ April 7: State Sen. Travis Hutson and Rep. Paul Renner will be guest speakers for the Common Ground breakfast to provide a recap of the recent legislative session and answer audience questions. The breakfast will take place at Grand Haven Golf Club, 500 Riverfront Drive in Palm Coast with registration from 7:30 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. The presentation begins at 8 a.m. Cost for Chamber members is $20 with advance registration and payment or $30 the day of the event. Guests may attend for $30 with advance registration and payment or $40 the day of the event. Questions: 437.0106. Common Ground replaces its “Think Flagler First” luncheons and “Eggs & Issues” breakfasts.
♦ April 7-10: Rock’n RibFest at the Flagler County Fair: The annual event, sponsored by Flagler Broadcasting (owner of WNZF and Beach 92), presents a weekend of music, food and fun. County Fairgrounds, 150 Sawgrass Road, Bunnell.
♦ April 12: The Flagler County Branch of the American Association of University Women will be observing Equal Pay Day, at 5 p.m. with an Unhappy Hour at Farley’s Irish Pub, 101 Palm Harbor Parkway (European Village). Equal Pay Day symbolizes the time in 2016 when the wages paid to American women catch up to the wages paid to men from the previous year. Join AAUW members wearing red and hoping for passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act this year. For information call 386/439-5003.
♦ 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 13: Community Alliance-Department of Children and Families meeting, 2:30 p.m., Government Services Building, 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.
♦ April 26: Sentencing of Waldemar Rivera at 1:30 p.m. in Courtroom 401, Flagler County Courthouse, before Judge Matthew Foxman. Rivera was found guilty on March 23 after a two-day trial of raping his then-13-year-old step-daughter two years ago. He faces up to 30 years in prison. He had declined a plea that would have netted him 10 years, and declined a judge’s advice, after the first day of trial, to consider taking a plea.

The Day’s Best Reads:

Check out our interactive map of botched SWAT and paramilitary police raids… https://t.co/M5HJ1489X2 (via @NPMRP) pic.twitter.com/jH3oZiZvsT

— Cato Institute (@CatoInstitute) April 5, 2016

Under 5 million emails, 2 million PDFs and over a million images. The #PanamaPapers revealed https://t.co/ok4JTSXRjV pic.twitter.com/WEqSm173ME

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) April 5, 2016

Mississippi gov. signs law allowing businesses to deny service to LGBT community https://t.co/HrZyIPptj2 | AP photo pic.twitter.com/DtkjI1mMyo

— POLITICO (@politico) April 5, 2016

N.C. just lost a sweet deal because it wants to boss you around in the bathroom https://t.co/CxXHNrdyAU https://t.co/DSgpFf6RI8

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) April 5, 2016

There are still 1,500 new coal plants being planned worldwide — enough to cook the planet https://t.co/6CGniw12bA pic.twitter.com/JSy1U8NutO

— Vox (@voxdotcom) April 5, 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 30:

Click to access developments-april-2015.pdf

Road and Interstate Construction:

Moody Boat Launch to close April 6 through May 20 for improvements: Flagler County’s Moody Boat Launch will be closed April 6 through May 20 for improvements. “The scheduled upgrade will enhance the launch’s usability in a number of ways,” said Heidi Petito, Director of General Services. “The new system provides for ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance, minimizes docking difficulties caused by fluctuating tides, and new lighting will promote boater safety and security.” The closure includes the Moody Boat Launch– located at 825 Moody Lane in Flagler Beach– the parking area, restroom, and dockage on the Matanzas River. It does not affect Betty Steflik Preserve and boardwalk. The scope of work includes dredging 1,650 yards of silt from the launch basin, thus improving navigability. The adjacent wooden docks will be replaced with an aluminum floating dock and gangway system. Additionally, the existing restroom will be replaced with an ADA compliant facility. Moody Boat Launch provides public access to the Intracoastal on the east shore, just south of SR100. The closest alternative boat launches are located at Herschel King Park on the west side of the river at 1000 Grady Prather Jr. Cove, Palm Coast, and Bing’s Landing on the east shore at 5862 N. Oceanshore Blvd. in Palm Coast.

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].