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Weather: Mostly sunny. A chance of showers and thunderstorms in the morning, then showers and thunderstorms likely in the afternoon. Highs in the lower 90s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph with gusts up to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60 percent. Heat index values up to 108. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy. A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly in the evening. Lows in the mid 70s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Flagler Beach here.
- tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
The Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board meets at 10 a.m. every first Wednesday of the month at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For details about the city’s code enforcement regulations, go here.
Flagler County Special Magistrate Hearing scheduled at 1 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. The magistrate will review and rule on three code enforcement cases emanating from Daytona North, or the Mondex.
The Flagler Beach Parks Ad Hoc Committee meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 105 S 2nd St, Flagler Beach. The Committee’s six members, appointed by the City Commission, provide recommendations related to the maintenance of existing parks and equipment and recommendations for new or replacement equipment and other duties as assigned by the City Commission.
Rally for Reproductive Rights: Members and friends of the Atlantic Coast Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (www.au.org) will gather to rally for Women’s Reproductive Rights from 4 to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 3, at the northwest corner of Belle Terre and Pine Lake Parkways in Palm Coast. They protest Florida’s six-week abortion ban and urge voters to vote “Yes” on Florida Amendment 4, Right to Abortion Initiative. This event will last an hour and is open to the public; all are welcome. There is no charge. Participants are invited to bring US flags and their own signs promoting religious freedom, separation of church and state, and reproductive rights. For further information email [email protected] or call 804-914-4460.
Separation Chat, Open Discussion: The Atlantic Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State hosts an open, freewheeling discussion on the topic here in our community, around Florida and throughout the United States, noon to 1 p.m. at Pine Lakes Golf Club Clubhouse Pub & Grillroom (no purchase is necessary), 400 Pine Lakes Pkwy, Palm Coast (0.7 miles from Belle Terre Parkway). Call (386) 445-0852 for best directions. All are welcome! Everyone’s voice is important. For further information email [email protected] or call Merrill at 804-914-4460.
The Flagler Beach Library Book Club meets at 1 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
Bridge and Games at Flagler Woman’s Club, 1 to 4 p.m. at 1524 S Central Ave, Flagler Beach. The Flagler Woman’s Club invites you to come and play Bridge (Progressive and Non-Progressive) or other games. Please be sure to call Susanne at 386-503-1893 to reserve your spot.
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library: Do you enjoy Chess, trying out new moves, or even like some friendly competition? Come visit the Flagler County Public Library at the Teen Spot every Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. for Chess Club. Everyone is welcome, for beginners who want to learn how to play all the way to advanced players. For more information contact the Youth Service department 386-446-6763 ext. 3714 or email us at [email protected]
The Circle of Light Course in Miracles study group meets at a private residence in Palm Coast every Wednesday at 1:20 PM. There is a $2 love donation that goes to the store for the use of their room. If you have your own book, please bring it. All students of the Course are welcome. There is also an introductory group at 1:00 PM. The group is facilitated by Aynne McAvoy, who can be reached at [email protected] for location and information.
Patriotic Party In the Park: The City of Palm Coast invites residents to a Patriotic Party in the Park from 4 to 6 p.m. at James F. Holland Memorial Park for an evening of fun, food, and community spirit. The Patriotic Party in the Park promises fun for residents of all ages. Children can explore the playground and cool off in the splash pad, while adults unwind in the vibrant atmosphere. Mayor Alfin and members of the City Council will also be in attendance, offering residents the opportunity to have face-to-face discussions on matters that are important to them. Celebrate the holiday early with us and set the stage for an unforgettable Independence Day. Join us for an evening filled with community spirit, fun, and celebration at Holland Park in Palm Coast.
The Flagler County Republican Club holds its monthly meeting starting with a social hour at 5 and the business meeting at 6 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn, 55 Town Center Blvd., Palm Coast. The club is the social arm of the Republican Party of Flagler County, which represents over 40,000 registered Republicans. Meetings are open to Republicans only.
Notably: The Orlando Museum of Art is exhibiting the 2024 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art until Aug. 24. The prize, organized by the museum, brings “new recognition to the most progressive artists in the State. Each year OMA’s curatorial team surveys artists working throughout the State before inviting ten to participate. One artist will receive a $20,000 award.” The artists “are engaged in exploring significant ideas of art and culture in original and visually exciting ways.” A favorite: Sheila Goloborotko’s “Closed Books,” by Sheila Goloborotko, (the work pictured above), two cast iron books that say so little and so much. The “books” are about the size of books. You can imagine the contents. It’s like a mirror, textured enough to hint at matters greyly opaque. I love the suggestion, the heft, the closeness and isolation. You can feel the coldness and the intimacy, the distance and the affection, and the modesty of those lower-cased letters. You can also think: you and me are the same person, they are the divided self, the conscious and unconscious, the public and private, which suggests what Gunter Grass told Salman Rushdie once: he feels like Gunter is one person, Grass another. (See the quote below.) Here’s the artist’s website. “This multidisciplinary artist and master printmaker,” her bio states, “has exhibited installations, works on paper, sculpture, videos, and interactive projects in more than 200 exhibitions in museums and galleries on four continents, and yet has remained firmly committed to the community. Her printshops in Jacksonville, Florida and in rural Pennsylvania are sites of print and poetic activism, empowering first-time printmakers with hands-on workshops and developing the visions of mid-career artists with portfolio production and instruction.” A native of Brazil, she is an Associate Professor of Printmaking at the University of North Florida. “Goloborotko’s efforts serve as a bridge between individual mastery and community activism, exploring the shifting boundaries of the information age as it relates to multiples and Collective Consciousness.” I don’t know what that means. But that may be related to the closed books above. Here’s her studio. It’s worth the tour.
—P.T.
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The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
For the full calendar, go here.
Many writers have been aware of a divide between their public and private selves. Long ago, in Berlin, I was having a coffee with Günter Grass at a café on Unter den Linden and he said, “Sometimes I feel that there are two people, Günter and Grass. Günter is the husband of my wife, the father of my children, the friend of my friends, and lives at my home. Grass is somewhere out there in the world, making noise, making trouble.” Then there is the famous text by Jorge Luis Borges “Borges and I,” in which he says: “The other one, the one called Borges, is the one things happen to…. I shall remain in Borges, not in myself (if it is true that I am someone), but I recognize myself less in his books than in many others or in the laborious strumming of a guitar…. I do not know which of us has written this page.” And in an extreme but related case, Graham Greene discovered that he had an alter ego, a false self moving through a social milieu not unlike his own, claiming to be the real Greene. He would receive messages from unknown women recounting their romantic encounters, and see newspaper photographs of the other Greene in places he hadn’t visited when the pictures were taken. Once, in Chile, he was accused of being the fake Graham Greene himself. They never met, the real one and the other, but, the story goes, Greene once arrived at a hotel to check in and discovered that the other Graham Greene had just checked out.
—From Salman Rusdie’s Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder (2024).
Ray W. says
I stumbled upon an interesting article today while randomly looking for more railroad information.
The author argued that due to the physics of transmission of electricity, energy losses (between 2 and 3% on average) naturally occur with our aging grid of high-tension power lines from distant power plants to cities. This fact, when coupled with the fact that our aging national grid is already at capacity, it might be economically feasible to mount energy-dense new-generation lithium-ion battery packs on long trains of rail cars and use this method to transport electricity via rail from a solar farm outside a city to a spur line within the city, where the train cars can be hooked into the local power distribution network, completely bypassing the aging and at-capacity high-tension transmission electrical grid.
Think of the collateral issues. I recognize that this is just a thought exercise. Perhaps it is pie-in-the-sky. But the option is being debated in the industry.
So, I began to look further. FP&L is building a 74.5 MWac (megawatt alternating current) solar plant between East Palatka and Bunnell; it is expected to open later this year.
I wondered whether a railroad line already exists in Flagler County and went to a site to look at a map of possible rail lines in Flagler County. I found an abandoned rail line that used to operate between Bunnell and East Palatka; it runs quite close to the location of the Tupelo Solar facility. According to maps of local biking and hiking trails, the abandoned track has not been converted to that use. That means rights of way were acquired long ago. Who owns the land now? Did a long-ago railroad go out of business. Did the county acquire the land when the business failed to pay land taxes on it?
If the rail option is economically feasible to transport some of the electricity from the Tupelo Solar facility to hook into the Bunnell local electrical infrastructure, perhaps it should be considered. Flagler County remains one of the faster growing population centers in the state. Electricity demand is going to continue to grow. If FP&L transmission lines are already at a maximum capacity, then either additional lines must be added or a different way to transport electricity must be used to meet future demand.
I say industry of any kind for the county carries economic benefits, which is something many in the county define as highly desirable. Even if only a few jobs were created in Flagler County, would they be high-paying technical and rail jobs? Every single one of these types of jobs counts. Could federal stimulus funds be applied for and channeled into the county to upgrade the rails? Does the county own the abandoned land? Would overall county GDP rise if a rail line were feasible? Would CSX be interested?
Pogo says
@Amps, Watts, and Votes — strike, Volts
Just tell them it’s for the new electric chair.
Laurel says
Ray W.: There is a property that runs from Highway 100 to Putnam County, which belongs to FPL used for their transmission lines. There is also, what looks like a road, that runs right along aside the FPL property. That belongs to a private family trust, and other parts of it belong to an LLC. Then there is also the FEC Railway, which runs north and south, and is still operating. Check out the Property Appraiser’s website, go to maps, add property lines, and it will tell you who owns what. You would be able to pick out the property in question better than I would since I am guessing.