Flagler County Sheriff’s Correction Deputy Paul Luciano was 60. Volusia County Circuit Judge Steven Henderson was 49. Both were still in their prime, at work as professionals and at home as family men. Neither fit the profile of Covid casualties, at least not of previous covid waves. Henderson died of the disease on Thursday at a hospital in Volusia County. Luciano died the same day at AdventHealth Palm Coast.
Flagler
Judge Rules DeSantis Had No Authority to Ban School Mask Mandates or Punish School Boards That Adopt Masking
Judge John Cooper of the 2nd Judicial Circuit Court of Florida ruled today that Gov. Ron DeSantis had no legal authority under the recently-enacted Parental Bill of Rights to prohibit local school boards from adopting mask mandates that did not include opt-out provisions. The judge found DeSantis’s order “capricious” and not based in evidence, but rather based on an incomplete reading of the Bill of Rights.
Flagler Schools Covid Cases in 3 Weeks Exceed All of Last Year’s; County Shatters Weekly Record; Florida Adds 1,727 Deaths
The county recorded 936 confirmed cases of covid in the week ending today, breaking last week’s record by over 200 cases. The health department is unable to conduct systematic contact tracing because it’s overwhelmed by the numbers. As of Thursday, 155 Flagler County residents had died of covid since the beginning of the pandemic, 41 of them in the last four weeks.
In Maskless Flagler, We’re All Covid’s Sitting Ducks
Flagler County is in the worst public health crisis it has known in its history, with at least 10 covid deaths a week as many school infections in 3 weeks as all of last year combined, yet the debate remains immobilized by a war on masks that defies science and daily grim realities.
Carla Cline’s New Project: Raise 1,000 Local Restaurant Gift Cards of $20 for Hospital’s Overworked Health Care Staff
Carla Cline, the Flagler Beach philanthropist, is raising a thousand $20 restaurant gift-cards to distribute to health care workers at every level at AdventHealth Palm Coast (and beyond) in an effort to counter the indifference and “nonsense” that has overwhelmed the public debate about the pandemic.
Florida House Rep. Sabatini Threatens Flagler School Board of Legal Action in Letter Laced in Fabrications Over Covid Rules
Florida House Rep. Anthony Sabatini wrote a letter to Flagler Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt and the school board today falsely claiming Indian Trails Middle School students are “being deprived of their right to a public school education,” and building on fabrications about the illegal quarantining of a child at Indian Trails Middle School that began pinballing around local social media pages last week.
8 Days After Revealing Daughter’s Infection, Commissioner Joe Mullins Says He Has Covid–Again
Mullins revealed that he is a so-called breakthrough infection–getting infected with covid despite having been vaccinated in March and April. He boasted of changing his car’s tire just before getting monoclonal therapy treatment.
Flagler Beach Appoints Committee to Rethink July 4 Fireworks While Aiming for a Show on New Year’s Eve Too
Five residents and the mayor make up the committee that will study the continued feasibility of July 4 fireworks, while the city will ask the county’s tourism bureau for twin allocations of $25,000 next year, to pay for both July 4 and New Year’s Eve fireworks.
Flagler’s Legislative Delegation Meeting Set for Oct. 1
The purpose of the meeting is to elect a Chair and Vice Chair of the Flagler County Delegation and take public testimony on legislative issues, appropriations and local bills.
In a Victory for Public Beach Access, Federal Court Rules in Favor of ‘Customary Use’ of Sands on Private Portions
Flagler County in 2018 passed an ordinance similar to the town ordinance the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld today. The court’s decision backed the county over property owners who argued a 2018 Florida law gave them the right to exclude beach-goers from the dry portions of privately owned beach.
School Board Members Term Janet McDonald on ‘Witch Hunt’ and ‘Dangerous’ as She Guns for Board Attorney in Wake of Tuesday Tumult
School Board member Janet McDonald called for what would have been an unlawful, closed-door meeting to review the school board attorney’s contract, then called for any special meeting to review last Tuesday’s meeting, when the chamber had to be cleared because of the crowd’s rule-breaking. Two board members–Colleen Conklin and Cheryl Massaro–responded with withering criticism of their colleague.
Covid Deaths in Flagler Reach 140, an Increase of 26 in 3 Weeks; 90 Hospitalized in Palm Coast, ‘All ICUs at Capacity’
Local infections and hospitalizations for covid continue to break records. Data is emerging that points to vaccines losing their efficacy over time, underscoring the push for booster shots in a significant shift from earlier guidance. The reason: the delta variant of the coronavirus, far more infectiously virulent, has radically changed the landscape, making so-called “breakthrough” infections of the vaccinated more common than originally thought and forcing public health agencies to adjust.
No, Indian Trails Middle Isn’t Requiring Vaccines, Detaining or Banning Students, But Falsehoods Go Viral Anyway
The case of a parent’s reaction to her son at Indian Trails Middle School being required to quarantine for at least four days illustrates how easily inaccurate information is misused to politically tendentious ends–it’s led to a call for a showdown before the school board this evening–or inflated into non-existent problems or false claims.
County’s Budget Agreement Nets Sheriff 10 of 15 Requested Deputies and $400,000 Mobile Command Vehicle
The Flagler County Commission this afternoon agreed to lower the county’s property tax by a symbolic decimal point next year, though county revenue will still grow by nearly $6 million and the sheriff will get an additional $2.2 million, ensuring the addition of 10 new deputies and a $400,000 mobile command center.
21 Flagler Residents Have Died of Covid in Last 2 Weeks, 1,600 Deaths in Florida, But State Is Masking the Figures
Flagler’s death count was released only after a public record request. The state Health Department is masking death counts for the state as a whole, just as it has been fudging vaccination figures to make them seem higher than they are, just as it has eliminated daily reports of case counts, whether for the state or the counties, in an apparent effort to downplay the intensity of the crisis.
Flagler Mosquito District Will Expand in Plantation Bay and Palm Coast But Scraps Plans to Cover the Whole County
The East Flagler Mosquito Control District voted this morning to expand its spraying boundaries slightly west and south to include an area of U.S. 1 and all of Plantation Bay. But the district abandoned further plans to phase-in spraying of the entire county, opting instead to revert to a 2003 agreement with the county to continue spraying West only on an as-needed basis.
Free Computer Classes and Mobile Technology Classes Offered at Flagler County Public Library
Flagler County Public Library continues to help residents connect globally by offering a variety of free mobile technology and computer classes focused on teaching and improving the skills necessary to stay in touch remotely.
Why We Must Fund Public Safety: The Sheriff’s Office’s Response
Flagler County Sheriff Chief of Staff Mark Strobridge responds to Thursday’s “Overfunding Police” column, citing misinterpretations of a UNF study on which the sheriff is basing a request for 25 additional deputies from Palm Coast and Flagler County.
AdventHealth Physician Sounds Alert to Increase of Children in Hospital for Covid, Renewing Call for School Masks
AdventHealth Palm Coast had 82 patients admitted with covid, while the AdventHealth Central Florida division was reporting 12 children admitted as evidence continues to pile up: vaccines are an overwhelming buffer against hospitalizations, and masks are an effective buffer against infections, including in schools.
Palm Coast and Flagler at Risk of Overfunding Police
Policing in Flagler has never been at risk of “defunding,” nor have relations between police and the community lacked for cohesion and respect. But Sheriff Staly’s request for 25 additional deputies from Palm Coast and the county overplay a hand, while both governments are teetering on going along with what would be overfunding police, at the expense of other needs.
Opponents Call Approval of ‘Marinas’ Along Scenic A1A an Orwellian Ploy to Let Massive Boat-Storage Facility Rise
The Flagler County Planning Board on Tuesday determined that marinas are an allowable use in the Scenic A1A corridor. But Hammock residents say it’s an Orwellian word game intended to clear the way for a 240-dry-boat storage facility called Hammock Harbour, whose development was twice rebuffed by courts.
Man Who Killed Flagler Sheriff’s Deputy Chuck Sease in 2003 Wants Clemency, Half-Way of 35-Year Prison Sentence
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly and State Attorney R.J. Larizza have written the state clemency board stern letters opposing any commutation of sentence for Bruce Grove, the now-46-year-old former Palm Coast resident serving 35 years in prison for the killing of Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy Charles “Chuck” Sease in 2003 as Grove was eluding other deputies in a chase.
Again Indifferent to Process, Colleagues Dismiss Andy Dance’s Concern About County Commission’s Lack of Transparency
County Commissioner Andy Dance is concerned about the commission’s habit–unique among local governments–of holding special meetings and votes immediately after workshops, a habit that lacks transparency. As they have when he’s raised procedural issues before, Dance’s colleagues shrugged off the concern.
Flagler Commissioners Want to Cut Tax Rate, Give Sheriff 15 Deputies And Force Staff to Cut $2 Million in County Services
A majority of Flagler county commissioners ignored their administrator’s and finance director’s numbers and proposals today and told their staff to find ways to cut $2 million from the county’s own budget while ensuring that the sheriff and other constitutional officers, such as the clerk of court and supervisor of elections, get all the budget increases they’re asking for.
Contradictory State Rule Upends Flagler Schools’ Plans for Rapid Testing of Teachers and Students
Plans by Flagler schools and the Health Department to minimize quarantines through rapid testing were upended by an emergency rule issued by the state on Friday. The rule appears to pre-empt the right of local authorities to use rapid testing for at least four days, and up to seven days, during which individuals must quarantine regardless.
Flagler Records 154 Covid Infections Today as AdventHealth Palm Coast’s In-Patients Soar to 86, Another Record
The 16-hospital AdventHealth network in Central Florida has 1,350 in-patients with covid, 400 more than it had during the highest previous peak of the pandemic last January. Patients who survive stay an average of 14 to 21 days at the hospital, averaging in age between 50 to 55–younger than in previous waves–but all ages have been seen in hospitals. Of the 1,350, some 350 are in ICU and on ventilators.
Expansion of Mosquito Spraying in Plantation Bay and Sawmill Creek Draws Mixed Reactions
A workshop intended to gauge public sentiment about modestly expanding the East Flagler Mosquito Control District to Plantation Bay and to a small area west of U.S. 1 drew just 10 people Wednesday evening, some fiercely opposed, some wager for the spraying.
In ‘Baffling’ Votes, County Commission Rejects More Probing Meeting Schedule It Had Adopted Just 3 Weeks Ago
Not big on hard work: County Commissioners Dave Sullivan, Joe Mullins, Donald O’Brien and Greg Hansen aren’t interested in pre-scheduled workshops to vet and discuss county business, as Palm Coast and the school board do, and as Commissioner Andy Dance was recommending. After agreeing to such a schedule just three weeks ago, the commission, with Dance in dissent, rejected it on Monday.
Flagler Health Department Chief Bob Snyder Reveals He Was a ‘Breakthrough’ Covid Case, But Vaccine Kept Symptoms Mild
Bob Snyder, the Flagler Health Department chief, had managed to make it through a year and a half of the pandemic’s most viral trenches unscathed, even when he was unvaccinated for two-thirds of that time.
Today, Snyder revealed he was among the “breakthrough” cases, contracting the delta variant recently despite his January vaccination. The infection barely sidelined him.
80 Hospitalized for Covid at AdventHealth Palm Coast as Infections in Flagler Continue to Soar: 900 in Last 7 Days
As many Flagler County residents got infected in the past seven days as did the total number of Flagler residents did in the first seven months of the pandemic last year, from January to Aug. 1, 2020. Two Flagler County commissioners today joined a very small number of elected officials who are asking residents explicitly to mask up and to get vaccinated, as the county’s vaccination rate remains below 50 percent.
Flagler Beach Mayor Suzie Johnston Is 1st County or City Elected Official To Call for Vaccines and Masks
The mayor was acting on her own, representing herself rather than the city of Flagler Beach. The statement was issued within hours of Gov. Ron DeSantis issuing an executive order banning masking requirements in public schools, and as he has continued to counter efforts by communities to institute more restrictive safety measures in the face of Florida’s (and Flagler’s ) unprecedented surge in covid cases.
‘Absolutely’: Health Chief Calls for Masks in Flagler Schools as AdventHealth Goes to Unprecedented ‘Black Status’
Flagler County Health Department Administrator Bob Snyder on Thursday said that whether vaccinated or not, students indoors should be wearing masks. Snyder’s unequivocal declaration stresses similar recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and physicians at AdventHealth.
Construction Begins on $9.5 Million Pedestrian Bridge over State Road 100, Linking Trail Network
Construction work for a long-anticipated pedestrian bridge crossing over State Road 100 began July 26. When completed, the bridge will link the Lehigh Trail, Old Kings Road sidewalk, conservation lands, and the Flagler County’s Bulow “Parcel D” property.
Pre-Register for Free Virtual Skywarn Storm Spotter Class August 16
Kip Bricker, meteorologist with the National Weather Service, will teach the class. It will cover everything from cloud formations to thunderstorm development to visual predictions.
Covid Breaks Flagler Infection Records Daily, Filling Half Advent’s Beds; Community and Local Governments Are Indifferent
While the Flagler Health Department and AdventHealth Palm Coast are overrun with Covid cases and in-patients, local governments have gone silent, indifferent to the worst wave of the pandemic yet, making a mockery of their claim of a “partnership” with the Health Department or the hospital and amplifying community apathy that multiplies infections.
Flagler Airport Director Roy Sieger Named Chairman of Florida Airports Council
Flagler Executive Airport Director Roy Sieger has been installed as the chairman of the Florida Airports Council for the coming year, increasing his leadership role with the organization he has been a member of for 15 years.
Flagler Breaks Weekly Record with 400 Covid Infections, Florida Deaths on Rise Again
Flagler County recorded 400 covid infections in the week ending Friday, breaking the previous weekly record set in January, and filling hospital beds as never before during the pandemic. The week’s increase represents a 346 percent increase over averages two weeks ago.
Bunnell Commission Draws 7 Applicants for 2 Vacant Seats, But One Withdraws as County Invokes ‘Conflict’ Policy
The applicants for the two vacant seats on the Bunnell City Commission include two former commissioners, a planning board member, a former candidate for the commission and code enforcement board member, and an employee of county government’s emergency management division. The commission makes the appointments Monday.
Record Covid Surge in Flagler and at Hospital as Variant Slams Unvaccinated, Cleaving Community in 2 Camps
Palm Coast hospitalizations for covid broke a record Tuesday, with 32 people hospitalized (six in intensive care), and broke the record again yesterday, with 37, all among the unvaccinated, while Flagler County is recording an average of 52 new infections a day, with schools reopening in three weeks.
Flagler’s Unemployment Rate Jumps a Full Percentage Point, to 6%, as Florida’s Only Ticks Up by Decimal
Flagler County’s unemployment rate jumped by a full percentage point in June, to 6 percent, from a revised 5 percent in May, reaching its highest level since August 2020. The rise appears to be a direct result of an economy unable to keep up with the return of people to the workforce.
End of an Era: Flagler Beach Might Let Palm Coast Take Over July 4 Fireworks and Shift Its Own to New Year’s Eve
The Flagler Beach City Commission has agreed to an explosive idea–explosive in the best sense and, potentially, in the worst sense: ending the July 4 fireworks, the single-most recognizable and beloved tradition associated with Flagler Beach. Instead, the city will shift its fireworks to New Year’s Eve as a way of helping business in slow winter months.
Citing History, Gov. DeSantis Urges Cuban Military to Overthrow Its Government
Gov. Ron DeSantis told young members of Cuba’s military to “live in the history books” by overthrowing their nation’s communist leadership, as he pushed President Joe Biden to bring Wi-Fi access back to people protesting on the island nation.
Delta Variant Attacks Vaccineless in Flagler and Florida as Covid Cases and Hospitalizations Shape into 4th Wave
Covid-19’s extremely infectious Delta variant is zeroing in on those without vaccines, who make up the entirety of the 430 hospitalizations in Central Florida’s AdventHealth hospitals alone. The proportion of those vaccinated in Flagler and Florida remains below 50 percent.
Supervisor of Elections Kaiti Lenhart Issues Statement on Election Security
Flagler County Elections Supervisor Kaiti Lenhart issued the following statement this morning, in light of the ongoing special election for Palm Coast mayor, which culminates with in-person voting on July 27. Mail balloting has been ongoing, and early voting begins Saturday and runs until July 24.
Their Boat Sank in Minutes 10 Miles Offshore of Flagler Beach: How 4 Men and 2 Boys Kept Their Cool Until Rescued
A group of six Palm Coast boaters off on a snapper fishing trip Saturday (July 10) rapidly sank two hours into their trip, 10 miles offshore. Quick action, level heads and a series of fortunate events led to their rescue by another fishing boat, then the Coast Guard. here’s their story.
Flagler Free Clinic Receives $75,000 Donation, Largest-Ever Gift, as AdventHealth Auxiliary Sunsets
The non-profit Flagler Free Clinic has been providing poorer residents free healthcare since 2005. Friday the clinic received its biggest donation ever, from the AdventHealth Palm Coast Auxiliary.
Flagler Beach Mayor Throws Marker Against Supporting Organizations Appearing on Joe Mullins Infomercial
Flagler Beach Mayor Suzie Johnston, with fellow-commissioners’ support, severed her support for the Family Life Center, the shelter for abused people, after the center’s director appeared on Joe Mullins’s partisan infomercial on WNZF, what Johnston described as crossing a line. Mullins recently had slurred Flagler Beach commissioners as “cowards” and has been in an open feud with Commission Chairman Eric Cooley.
County and Whispering Meadows Ranch Draft Roadmap to Move Equine Therapy Non-Profit to Fairgrounds
Whispering meadows Ranch and county government are on the verge of an agreement that would set the path for a long-term partnership, leasing land to the ranch at the county fairgrounds and ending the controversy, prompted by a few neighbors, that has surrounded the ranch’s operations in recent months on John Anderson Highway.
Despite Covid, Property Values Jump by 10% in Palm Coast, 9% Countywide, With Revenue Windfall from New Construction
New construction alone means an additional $1.2 million in revenue for Palm Coast, despite the Year of Covid. That will be compounded by millions of new dollars in government coffers drawn from the federal government’s stimulus. The two combined means that tax increases are very unlikely, and tax decreases possible.
Joe Mullins’s Defamatory Attack on Eric Cooley
Ostensibly proposing a discussion about sexual predators and domestic violence abusers, Joe Mullins in a Facebook posting about his radio infomercial features a screenshot of Bill Cosby over one article, and the image of Flagler Beach City Commissioner Eric Cooley over another, implying an equivalence.